Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 02, 2012

PA facing "worst financial crisis yet" - Arabs ignore it while Israel tries to help!

From AFP:

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank is facing its “worst financial crisis” since its 1994 establishment, the Palestinian labor minister told AFP on Sunday.

Ahmed Majdalani warned that a shortfall in the delivery of aid from Arab donor nations means the PA will be unable to pay employees their July salaries or pay off debts it owes to private businesses across the West Bank.

“It is the worst financial crisis experienced by the Palestinian Authority since its founding,” he told AFP.

“What is available to the Palestinian Authority at the moment in terms of funds is not enough to pay government employee salaries this month, with Ramadan approaching,” he said.

“It is not sufficient to pay the bills that the Palestinian Authority owes to private companies.”

The Palestinian Authority has frequently warned it faces a massive financial shortfall that threatens its ability to pay thousands of government employees on time, or even at all.

A delay in salary payments would be particularly sensitive this month, as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins in mid-July. Muslims often break their daily fast at large communal meals, stocking up ahead of time on plenty of food.

Last July, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said the government would pay workers half-salaries because it faced a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars.

He attended a special meeting of the Arab League to urge Arab donor nations to make good on aid pledges.

Arab nations have been reneging on promised aid to the Palestinian Arabs for years.

What is fascinating is that while their Arab "brethren" have treated the Palestinians like dirt, Israel went to the International Monetary Fund in order to take out a billion dollar loan on the PA's behalf - and to guarantee it for them!

Israel sought a $1 billion IMF bridging loan for the Palestinian Authority earlier this year, but was turned down, an Israeli newspaper said Monday in a report confirmed to AFP by a senior Israeli official.

Haaretz reported that Israel's central bank chief Stanley Fischer approached the International Monetary Fund for the money after discussing the Palestinian Authority's financial crisis with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.

Sometime after the IMF's annual conference in mid-April, Fischer asked the body for the loan, which Israel would have taken on the Palestinians' behalf.

Israel would then have transferred the money to the Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by president Mahmud Abbas, which would have repaid the money to the Israeli government.

Israel would have remained responsible for repaying the loan to the IMF, under the deal, but the institution eventually declined to make the loan available.

Haaretz said it turned the proposal down because it feared setting a precedent of making IMF money available to non-state entities, like the Palestinian Authority, which as a non-state cannot directly request or receive IMF funding.

A senior Israeli official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed that the details contained in the Haaretz report were accurate.

Israel is willing to go into debt to help the Palestinian Arab leaders while their fellow Arabs promise lots and deliver little.

One aspect of this story that no one talks about, of course, is who exactly is getting paid a salary by the PA.

Some $5 million a month is spent on the terrorists in Israeli prison themselves. Arab car thieves don't get this stipend - only terrorists.

And in 2005, it was estimated that some 10% of the PA budget went towards terrorists and their families.

Moreover, over 60% of the PA budget goes towards Gaza, much of it in salaries for PA workers who aren't working in a vain hope that maybe the PA will one day return to power there. Some 80,000 people in Gaza are being paid to stay home, and the PA has spent over $7 billion on Gaza since Hamas took over.

So the financial crisis can be solved fairly easily, if the PA only paid people who really work and forced Hamas to spend its own money governing Gaza rather than indirectly funding Hamas purchase of weapons.

Muslims desecrating the Foundation Stone in broad daylight (updated)

In the Israel HaYom article I quoted yesterday about the mikveh (Jewish ritual bath) that had been discovered under the Al Aqsa Mosque in 1927 and hushed up, there was this paragraph:

This week, a rare photograph was taken on the Temple Mount. Taken inside the Dome of the Rock, it shows construction materials and rebar placed on the Foundation Stone, the place where the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant are believed to have been. While there does not appear to be any archaeological damage, this state of affairs is an expression of the weakness of the Antiquities Authority in the place that is the most important to the Jewish people. This weakness takes the form of the authority’s complete dependence on the police and also of the contempt that the Muslims show toward Jewish archaeological remnants on the Temple Mount.

This is what the Foundation Stone normally looks like:

Here are the photographs of this desecration, from Makor Rishon last Friday:

The article mentions that traditionally the Muslims treated the Stone with much respect, only washing it once a year and then burying the dirt. Now that has changed; in order to beautify the Dome they are willing to use the Foundation Stone as a mere support for the scaffolding.

The article chronicles the authors going from one Israeli authority to the next asking about whether this work is being supervised or even is known about, and the answer is uniformly - no. Obviously the rabbinic leaders had not been informed that the Stone was being used as a support in order to beautify the dome - why should Muslims show even a pretense of respect the most holy Jewish site in the world? Neither had the police, or the Israel Antiquities Authority, even as everyone assured the reporters that everything is fine and being taken care of.

Moreover, every move to beautify the golden dome is generally political, in order to increase its allure to Muslims who all but ignored it even during Jordanian rule. Since 1967, of course, it has become a symbol and its picture is all over the Arab and Islamist media.

(h/t Danny)

UPDATE: Another picture from the Aqsa Heritage Foundation site:

UPDATE 2: My Right Word has been all over this.

UPDATE 3: Here's what it looked like a century ago:

PA police beat anti-peace protesters

For the second day, there were protests in Ramallah against the very thought of Mahmoud Abbas meeting with a Jewish Israeli leader to discuss re-starting peace talks.

And just like yesterday, the PA police turned violent:

Palestinian protesters said security forces used brutal force Sunday during the second demonstration in as many days protesting Palestinian Authority policy.

Police attacked protesters with batons, beating and injuring at least seven people. Another seven protesters were taken to a police station along with at least two journalists, a Ma'an correspondent said.

Protesters shouted against police brutality, and the police responded by beating them. Journalists were also attacked for the second day in a row, the correspondent reported.

The reporter said Reuters photographer Saed al-Hawari was attacked and photographer Ahmad Musleh was arrested. A camera belonging to journalist Ahmad Ouda was confiscated.

Another Palestinian journalist told Ma'an that a police officer tried to hit his camera, and when he defended himself, grabbed him by the neck. While the police officer was removed by colleagues, he warned the journalist: "I will see you another day."

"It was more crazy than yesterday, you can't imagine -- they hit girls and were laughing like they don't care about Palestinians," the journalist said.

Near the headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, a violent clash broke out as police tried to prevent protesters from crossing a line of security forces, the correspondent reported.

A spokesman for the Palestinian security services said 10 people were hospitalized, and several arrested, without providing the number of detentions.

Adnan Dmeiri said fighting only broke out when protesters tried to reach the presidential headquarters, which police are required to stop as protesting there is forbidden.

He said police were investigating who was behind the protest, saying the "agendas of those unknown movements are to create chaos and harm security and attack Palestinian police."

Here's video of the clashes:

Tweeters are quick to blame - America! They are pointing out that the PA security forces were trained by the US. To them, Abbas is an American/Zionist stooge.

Keep in mind that the protest was originally against even discussing restarting peace talks with Israel before it grew into an anti-police violence protest. These are not Hamas fanatics, but the "liberal secular Arabs" that the West loves to love.

There has never been a Palestinian Arab anti-terrorism rally like this. Or a Palestinian equivalent of "Peace Now" rally.

If this is the start of a "Palestinian spring" - and it very well may be, because of the ham-handedness of the PA police - you can expect the trajectory to be much like Egypt's. The ultimate winner would be the Islamists who are staying on the sidelines, waiting for an opportunity to swoop in, expand the protests and ultimately co-opt them.

Sunday links

From Ian:

This is why Israel profiles behaviour.
Vietnamese immigrant charged with helping al-Qaida in Yemen

"Minh Quang Pham was arrested in Britain. He is accused of traveling to Yemen to train with members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP."

Russia helped Syria shoot down Turkish plane, UK newspaper claims

"London’s Sunday Times reports that Russian technicians helped make split-second decision to fire at jet as a warning to NATO"

PA envoy Holocaust was ‘greatest crime in history'

"Abdel Shafi’s comments about the Holocaust are unusual for a PA official, especially in light of a doctoral thesis written by PA President Mahmoud Abbas at a Russian university in the 1980s in which he described the Holocaust as a “Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed.”

Will this be reported in the Arabic press?

Israeli Ice Cream Shop Serves Hummus Ice Cream

"Ice cream maker Boris Schwartz said the flavor has the familiar taste of hummus but that "it is a little sweeter than usual."
"It is a little strange, not for everyone, it's for people who like special things," said Schwartz.

Saudi women drove cars; one might go to Olympics

From UPI:

Saudi Arabian women drove cars to mark the one-year anniversary of a campaign to end the ban on women getting behind the wheel, officials said.

"What's happening today is not a protest," said Aziza al-Yousef, who took a 15-minute drive Friday. "We want to remember the day and the issue."

Earlier this week, members of the women's group demanding the right to drive called off a protest scheduled for Friday, saying they didn't believe Saudi Arabia was ready for a protest, Bikyamasr.com reported.

The women also sent King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz a petition urging him to lift the ban on women driving.

"Our initiative is not aimed at violating laws," said a letter to the king from Manal al-Sharif and Najla Hariri, 45. The petition asks for "the possibility for women to get a driving license in nearby countries and allowing them to start driving."

The LA Times has an interview with the leader of the movement.

Meanwhile, it looks like the Saudis will send a woman to compete in the Olympics:

Saudi Arabia, in a sudden turnabout has lifted its ban on women athletes competing in international tournaments little more than a week after the death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, an opponent of women’s participation in global sports events.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the reversal that was announced in a statement by the Saudi embassy in London. A Saudi women equestrian is expected to be the conservative kingdom’s only female athlete likely to qualify for next month’s London Olympics. The kingdom does not encourage women’s sports, offer girls physical education in public schools or include women in its national sports plan.

The embassy statement followed months of sea-saw [sic] pronouncements on whether women would be allowed to compete in London, topped in April by a statement by Prince Nayef categorically ruling out. Prince Nayef, largely viewed as a conservative hardliner with close ties to Saudi Arabia’s religious leadership was succeeded as crown prince by Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz who is believed to be more liberal.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is looking forward to full participation” in the Olympic Games. “The Saudi Olympic Committee will oversee participation of female competitors who qualify,” the Saudi embassy in London said.

If indeed implemented it would mark the first time that Saudi women are allowed to officially participate in an international sports tournament and would mean that the kingdom no longer is the only country in the world that refuses to allow women to compete on a global scale.

Gunshots fired at Manchester yeshiva

From TheJC:

A gunman has targeted a Yeshiva in Manchester firing shots at the building before escaping in a car.

No one was injured in the attack. Early reports say the incident targeted the Shaarei Torah Yeshiva in the mainly Jewish area of Broughton Park at around 2am last night.

Two cars were reportedly driving erratically around the yeshiva, the largest of its kind in Manchester and a large multi-storey building prominent for its Hebrew writing fronting its street entrance.

Some of the talmudic college's 170, mainly teenage, students came outside the building to discover the source of the disturbance when a flash was seen and a shot heard coming from the window of one of the cars. At least one bullet casing was discovered by students on road shortly after the cars sped off.

Police are currently on the scene, after having arrived moments after the incident, and have cordoned off the road immediately outside the college. Forensic teams are expected to be investigating the scene for clues as to who was responsible.

Most of the college's students are residential, and it is understood the scene inside the building is calm.

There happens to be a trial going on in Manchester of a couple who planned to bomb the Jewish community there:

A married couple inspired by al-Qaeda to blow up Jews in Manchester had planned a terror attack from their wedding day, a court has heard. Antisemitic Islamic hate speeches and videos of beheadings were found in their home.

Oldham hairdresser Shasta Khan denies charges of planning to acquire substances to produce a home-made bomb, relating to a period beginning August 10 2010, the day the pair were married at a small Islamic ceremony at Mrs Khan's parents' house. They had met through an Islamic marriage website.

Husband Mohammed Sajid Khan has already pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism and three counts of possessing terrorist material at an earlier trial.
Yesterday prosecution lawyers said that the couple could have been days from producing explosives and were following al-Qaeda instructions to make a home-made pipe bomb.

...The potential Jewish targets for the couple's alleged bomb were also partially disclosed. Mrs Khan told police that she had driven her husband to a Prestwich synagogue, and twice they had sat in its car park watching Jewish people enter, while her husband said a Koranic-inspired verse calling Jews “dirty” and said “we must kill them all”.

The couple had repeatedly driven past synagogues on Shabbat on Northumberland Street, in the heart of Salford's strictly Orthodox community.

The Jewish Agency in Prestwich was a favourite destination on the couple's Tom Tom navigation device, with its website bookmarked on their home computer, alongside that of the UJIA.

Turning to forensic evidence of the couple's two computers, Miss Cheema said that their small terraced house contained a “huge amount” of proscribed terrorist material.

Mrs Khan had watched Jihadi videos of gruesome beheadings and cars exploding, on a “nightly” basis with her husband, Sajid Khan, as she massaged his feet.

See how loving they are?

Elder "Zionist Games 2012" T-shirt sighting

Sent to me from Kim Milrell on Twitter:

You can still get my Zionist Games 2012 T-Shirt (and other items) from my Printfection store!

(If you don't get the joke, I need to properly thank Iran for giving me the idea.)

Another potential natural gas find off Israel's coast

From Globes:

Isramco Ltd. today announced that "substantial signs of petroleum (natural gas) have been found at the Shimshon 1 exploratory well."

Last week, "Globes" reported that drilling at the Shimshon well had reached the target strata and that initial tests had found signs of natural gas.

Today, Isramco said that the well reached the target strata at 3,302 meters in 1,103 meters of water. The target strata have a net thickness of 19 meters. All the well's partners have decided to go ahead with production tests, which are due to begin in a few days, and will take 35 days. The production tests will include gas flow at different rates from the target strata and measuring the well pressure and composition of the natural gas.

The estimated cost of the production tests and preparation work of the well for future production, assuming there is a gas discovery, is $33.7 million, of which Isramco's share is $13 million.

Drilling of the Shimshon 1 well began in April. The Shimshon prospect has an estimated 2.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas with a probability of success of 20%. The size of the reservoir is less than a quarter of the Tamar discovery.

If Shimshon is found to be commercial, it will be Israel's first large natural gas offshore discovery in which Noble Energy Inc. and Delek Group Ltd. are not partners. Isramco and its affiliates own 60% of Shimshon and well operator ATP Oil & Gas Corporation (Nasdaq: ATPG) owns 40%.

Besides the obvious importance of making Israel more energy-independent and a potential exporter of fuel, having competition in the natural gas space reduces the chances of corruption by a monopoly.

Morsi - and a lot of Egyptians - want '93 WTC terrorist released

From the NYT:

President-elect Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood pre-empted the military’s choreographed swearing-in ceremony by taking an oath of office a day early on Friday, in a televised speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Tahrir Square.

But a promise Mr. Morsi made as part of his speech may provoke Washington: to work for the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian-born militant Islamist convicted after the 1993 World Trade Center attack of plotting to bomb several New York City landmarks.

Mr. Morsi referred briefly to Mr. Abdel Rahman in an almost offhand aside in the context of a vow to free Egyptian civilians imprisoned here after military trials under the rule of the generals. “I see signs for Omar Abdel Rahman and detainees’ pictures,” he said. “It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free, including Omar Abdel Rahman.”

An "almost offhand aside?" No, not quite.

Rahman's son told Al Masry Al Youm that Morsi personally promised him that he would lobby for Rahman's release in an upcoming meeting with Hillary Clinton, so this wasn't an off-the-cuff remark as the Times seems to imply.

It is not only Morsi who wants to see the "blind sheikh" freed. There are large banners in Cairo calling for his release, and many people have rallied for it:

A massive banner some four meters wide and tall sits atop a traffic light near the American Embassy in Cairo. On it is a man, wearing sunglasses and his beard hang down from an aging face. The “Blind Sheikh”, or Omar Abdel Rahman, has a group of followers in his native Egypt who have been pushing for his release since the revolution ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

They sit sprawled out on a side street leading to the American Embassy. The group of some 20 protesters are demanding the release of blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who has remained in American jail since being convicted of being the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center attack.

“He is innocent and we demand him be allowed to return to Egypt and live out his life,” said a family supporter late last year, who like Rahman, is also an American citizen and asked that his name not be revealed. He plans to travel to the US in the new year.

“We are here to show America that they cannot create charges and then put a man, who is not healthy and who is old, in solitary confinement,” he told Bikyamasr.com.

Here are some other photos of pro-Rahman rallies in Egypt:

This paragraph from the NYT is also unintentionally illuminating::

A Brotherhood spokesman said later that Mr. Morsi intended to ask federal officials in the United States to have Mr. Abdel Rahman extradited to Egypt on humanitarian grounds. He was not seeking to have Mr. Abdel Rahman’s convictions overturned or calling him a political prisoner.

Given that Morsi supposedly officially quit the Muslim Brotherhood after winning the election on Sunday, isn't it interesting that a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman is speaking for him on Friday?

Second Temple mikveh was discovered on Temple Mount in 1927 - and hushed up

From Israel HaYom:

In 1927, an earthquake struck Jerusalem, killing 130 people, wounding 450 and destroying or heavily damaging about 300 buildings, including Al-Aqsa mosque. The Muslim waqf, led by Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, began restoring the mosque. Robert Hamilton, the director of the antiquities department during the Mandatory period in pre-state Israel, spotted an opportunity in the midst of disaster.

7th century BCE finding from Temple Mount project, saying "From Gibeon to the King"

Hamilton took advantage of this unexpected window of opportunity to reach an agreement with the waqf that would allow archaeological investigation on the Temple Mount, for the first time ever, in the area where the mosque had collapsed. Hamilton documented the reconstruction work done by the waqf, photographed, sketched, excavated, analyzed and wrote about a series of findings, some of them surprising.

But this unprecedented cooperation between the British archaeologist and the Muslim clerics was not without a price. In the book that Hamilton later published, he makes no mention of any findings that the Muslims would have found inconvenient. It was no coincidence that these findings came from two historical periods that preceded the Muslim period in Jerusalem: the Second Temple era and the Byzantine era. These findings were hidden deep in the Mandatory archives department (which today is part of the Antiquities Authority archives in the Rockefeller Museum). These days they are finally coming to light.

...Beneath the floor of Al-Aqsa mosque, which had collapsed in the earthquake, Hamilton discovered the remains of a Jewish mikveh [ritual pool used for purification] that dated back to the Second Temple era.

Apparently, Jews immersed in this mikveh before entering the Temple grounds.

This article is a little maddening.

It describes the latest findings from the Temple Mount sifting project that is going through tons of debris that was criminally destroyed by the Waqf on the Temple Mount, and adds details I was not aware of, like:

...[P]iles of earth remain on the Temple Mount. In an extraordinary move, the High Court of Justice has ruled that the waqf is forbidden to move them.

“We are willing to allow the waqf to remove the earth from there under certain conditions that will allow us to carry out a better archaeological examination of it, or if they allow us to sift it there. Meanwhile, the waqf refuses to allow either option. Not only that, but it is deliberately mixing this earth with modern-day trash and construction debris in order to reduce our ability to get something out of it in the future,” he says.

But outside some Byzantine-era mosaics, the other findings that Robert Hamilton made, and presumably photos, are not delved into.

If they are at the Rockefeller Museum, and they have not been yet publicized - why not?

(h/t Yoel)

Links by Ian

George Washington letter to American Jews going on display

"Letter is widely regarded as the first US president’s most eloquent statement on religious liberty"
"May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in the land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants. While everyone shall sit safely under his own vine and fig-tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."

The Full Letter – PDF format

The New York Times: Clueless in Jerusalem

"Papers like the New York Times, which propogate the Palestinian Authority's false narrative to Western audiences, only prolong the Palestinian people's suffering at the hands of their failed leaders"

NY mayor opposes Morsi call to free 1993 World Trade Center bomb plotter

"Bloomberg against any effort to ‘undermine’ Omar Abdel-Rahman serving a life sentence "

UNSC publishes report on Iran arms trade with Syria

"Panel submits report to Iran sanctions committee, says Syria main destination for illicit Iranian arms transfers. "

Egypt seizes weapons headed to Gaza from Libya

"According to the report, Ibrahim said at a press conference that the shipment included 138 rockets and some seven thousand rounds of ammunition."

Assad lets Kurdish PKK rebels operate against Turkey from inside Syria

"The two countries nearly went to war over the PKK in the late ’90s. Now, with border tensions rising, Assad is risking confrontation again" (with the caveat that information about Syria can rarely be positively confirmed)

43 Jewish graves desecrated in Vienna

"Police investigating anti-Semitic vandalism in city’s main cemetery"

Jewish leaders mock Hungarian far-right politician who reveals Jewish origins

"We can but offer our sympathies in light of the terrible discovery"

Gunter Grass told to stay away from Polish synagogue

"He was in our synagogue once, five years ago, and I think that would be enough"

Lessons from the weekend protest you won't read about

Over the weekend, some 10,000 people protested over social issues in Tel Aviv. Unlike the violent protests the week before, where riots broke out and banks were broken into, this one was largely peaceful and as far as I can tell, no one was arrested

There was another, much smaller protest over the weekend that reveals a lot more about the Israeli/Arab conflict, however. And if it was covered at all by world media, it was barely a footnote.

From Ma'an:

Dozens of young Palestinians clashed with PA security forces in Ramallah on Saturday at a protest against the leadership's scheduling of a meeting with Israeli vice premier Shaul Mofaz.

The youth gathered in central Ramallah and tried to march on the headquarters of the leadership, the Muqataa, where they were blocked by riot police and some plain clothes agents.

"They beat them badly," a witness who asked not to be identified told Ma'an, adding that three people were taken to hospital but the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear. They were identified as journalist Muhammad Jaradat, Hassan Faraj and Waed Barghouti.

So at a much smaller protest with only dozens of people, we have six arrests and some serious beatings, including that of a journalist.

And their protest wasn't for social justice or for Palestinian Arab unity or anything like that. It was a protest against even talking with any Israeli.

And here's the kicker: It worked.

President Mahmoud Abbas was slated to meet Mofaz in Ramallah on Sunday, but officials announced Saturday the summit had been postponed indefinitely.

A senior Fatah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Ma'an the meeting was postponed for several reasons including public opposition under the current circumstances.

Imagine a world where Palestinian Arabs would protest to make peace with Israel. Has that ever happened, even once, in history?

It will never happen. Because only one side has shown any real interest in any sort of real peace, the kind where both sides compromise to reach a permanent solution. And the other side has been raised to believe that if they just wait long enough, they'll get everything they demand no matter what, so there is no reason to compromise, ever.

The American Girl in the Bunker (Tablet)

From Talia Lefkowitz in Tablet:

[...]I am a volunteer IDF soldier from New York City serving in an elite paratroopers unit. I am the only girl in a unit with 85 combat soldiers. Over the past year, we have served all over the country. Now we are based on the border of Gaza and Sinai, and things have started to get hairy.

The rocket attacks always stop at some point. I know there will eventually be a temporary ceasefire, and life on base will go back to normal. I’m surprised, frankly, that the current attacks even made it onto Facebook, because outside of Israel, no one seems to think they’re newsworthy, much less an act of war. No big deal, right?

It doesn’t feel that way inside the bunker. When you are on the other end of these rockets—hearing their high-pitched squeal as they fly past, feeling the room shake as they hit ground, and smelling the acrid smoke plumes that rise from the craters—it feels like war.

Our rooms on the base are similar to a caravan. The walls are thin, and the ceiling is just weak metal. Our beds are made of thin pieces of steel, and the mattress is a smelly egg-crate that has probably been slept on for over 20 years. When soldiers are not on missions, they are doing exactly what the movies portray: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, lifting dumbbells, making coffee on a little gas stove. Three days ago we were just minding our business when we heard a huge explosion that literally shook the ground. I know the floor moved because our coffee spilled.

I didn’t think it could be a rocket or bomb because the warning siren, the tzeva adom, had not sounded. We all ran out to see what the noise was all about, and in the distance, maybe 2 kilometers away, we could see the telltale plume of smoke.

Seconds later, the siren rang and we all ran to the nearest shelter. The shelter is windowless. The room is built to hold 30 people, but somehow we managed to squeeze 70 inside.

[...]
Hours go by without a rocket, and I start to relax. Maybe it’s over. The media, even the Israeli newspapers, are saying that it is no big deal. I start to believe them. But then another bomb hits without warning, and this one falls just feet from us. It’s like an earthquake. The room sways, and I fall out of my bed. The next few minutes seem to move in slow motion. Screaming, frenzy, smoke. Everyone running. Hands covering their ears. Wiping their eyes. Holding tissues over their mouths and noses.

As I run, trying to get to safety, I flash back to my family’s apartment in Manhattan, or to the house in which I grew up in Maryland. It’s inconceivable to me that something like this could happen there. There would be shock, outrage, even international condemnation. Or maybe such a massive American response that the rocket attacks would finally stop—forever. Instead, I am sure tomorrow’s Facebook page will be filled with more criticism of Israel and more justification for the attacks.

I am a New York City girl who came to Israel to defend the Jewish state. I am proud of my service and of all the remarkable young men I have met who risk their lives every day to keep this country safe. I am the girl in the bunker, and I can tell you that these rocket attacks are a big deal.

The myth of "Jewish only roads" (Presspectiva/CAMERA)

From CAMERA:

Yishai Goldflam, editor-in-chief of Presspectiva, CAMERA's Hebrew Web site, published an Op-Ed column in Ha'aretz, faulting that paper and other Israeli media for spreading the falsehood that Israel maintains "Jewish-only" roads in the West Bank. This is significant, especially since the fiction of "Jewish-only" roads features prominently in "Israel apartheid" mythology and is frequently cited by anti-Israel and pro-BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) agitators.

Here's the English translation:

Do there exist roads in Judea and Samaria that are designated for "Jews only"? Are Christians and Muslims really prohibited from traveling on roads across the Green Line? This charge, which is often voiced in these parts, including in this newspaper, provokes condemnation of Israel's alleged racism-- and is simply untrue. There appears to be a terminology confusion that produces a factual error that harms legitimate discussion and criticism of Israeli actions.

Here are the facts: the state did, indeed, impose restrictions on certain roads in Judea and Samaria several years ago and did not allow Palestinians to travel on them, especially after the eruption of the second intifada. But most of the restrictions were already removed in 2009. Today, most West Bank roads are open to the majority of the Palestinian population. And even at the time those roads were restricted for Israeli use, they were never restricted to Israeli Jews alone. The roads were open to all Israeli citizens -- Muslims, Christians, Druze and Circassians. There was never a religious or ethnic-based separation on the roads of Judea and Samaria.

Actually this fact is crystal clear to anyone who has ever been to the area. Only someone who has never traveled in territory over the Green Line could possibly believe the claim that there exist roads for only Jews. Today, one can see license plates of Palestinians from Jenin to Hebron, on bypass roads that were allegedly built for Jews only, for example, the Qalqilya bypass, the southern Nablus bypass, and the Ramallah bypass roads, as well as on main roads like Route 505 leading to Ariel -- a road that was labeled at least twice in this paper "an apartheid road for Jews only."

The Associated Press published a correction in January 2010 stating, "These roads are open to all Israeli citizens, including Arabs, foreigners and tourists." Similar corrections were published on CNN, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. But the journalistic responsibility and professionalism demonstrated by the world's leading media outlets apparently made no impression on the Israeli media, which even today continues to air this false charge.

Beyond the error itself, the claim of "Jews-only" roads impairs reasonable discussion about Israeli actions. While it is possible to debate and criticize the (real) restrictions imposed on Palestinians (all Palestinians, not just Muslims) on some West Bank roads during a specific time period, Israel and her supporters are forced to address the bogus claim of ethnic-religious separation on these roads.

Raising this claim, particularly in the Israeli media, grants it validity. Anti-Israel activists, too ignorant and lazy to substantiate their own charges, wave around "facts" they find in Israeli newspapers that supposedly "prove" the racism of the State of Israel and justify their own attacks on her. It's hardly surprising this mendacious claim has become a major weapon in the attempt to brand Israel an "apartheid state." Thus, irresponsible journalists and publicists contribute to the distortion of the domestic and international discussion about Israel.

Many media outlets in the world have already acknowledged their mistake and corrected it. Is the Israeli media capable of meeting the accepted standards of journalistic integrity?

Weekend links

From Ian:

New (mini-)Latma
The Israeli Left reaches breaking point with Hamas

Caroline Glick
About those Jews.

"So it works out that Iran's vice president really hates Jews. In fact, he hates Jews so much that even The New York Times reported it. On Tuesday, the Times published an account of Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi's speech before a UN forum on fighting drug addiction in Tehran"

The Future Leaders of Palestinians Terrorists by Hisham Jarallah

"In Palestinian society, it is much more important if one graduates from an Israeli prison than from a university in the U.S. or Europe. Economic prosperity and the peace process with Israel are not going to convince most Palestinians to vote for people like Fayyad or Abbas."

US bars business with four in Hezbollah laundering link

"The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday banned Americans from doing business with three Lebanese-Venezuelans and a Lebanese man it accused of helping to launder drug money to the benefit of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group."

A Deception Named UNRWA Ben Dror Yamini

"The chain of absurd and deception has to end. There is a need for universal definitions and norms. The anti-Israel camp claims again and again that Israel must obey international norms. A wonderful and just demand. That is exactly what should also happen on the subject of the refugees. The same definitions of “who is a refugee” and the same treatment which helps the real needy and does not eternalize them as “refugees”. That would be the international community’s biggest contribution to encouraging peace."

BBC exposes its Mid-East bias?

"We may never know what conclusions Malcolm Balen reached over the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. But Mortimer's latest report on its coverage of the "Arab Spring" may shed some light."

Egyptian oil minister who signed deal with Israel sentenced to 15 years in jail