Overnight links

First, a great piece from Edgar Davidson:

In response to the Co-Op's well publicised decision to boycott all goods from 'illegal Israeli settlements' I withdrew all the money I had in a Britannia building society account (Britannia is part of the Co-Op) and wrote a letter explaining why.

From Ian:

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Sad news, Barry Rubin has lung cancer:
Why I've Always Written So Much With Such Intensity And why I won't stop now

"Nothing is stranger than having a normal life and then within a few hours knowing that it might end at almost any moment. That’s what happened to me when I was just diagnosed with what is called inoperable lung cancer. I am still waiting final results of the tests and the choice of therapies."

BDS Fail of the day: Lollapalooza festival to touch down in Israel

Tel Aviv becomes third international destination for legendary Chicago concert
"The Lollapalooza festival, helmed by former Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, who is Jewish, will be bringing together 50 bands for three days of shows to Tel Aviv next year, organizers said Saturday."

CIFWatch: Jewish Refugee Day

“Landmark news [last] week: Israel has approved a special memorial day to be set aside in the Jewish calendar to mark the exodus of Jews from Arab countries. On this Jewish Refugee Day, students will learn about the 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled from their native Arab countries since the establishment of the State of Israel. Here at Harif (the UK association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa), we have worked tirelessly with other organisations across the globe to lobby for this day.”

Israel thanks 'Nazi hunters' from Sun paper

“Several weeks after the capture of the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminal — who helped send 15,700 Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz — Israeli ambassador to Britain Daniel Taub met Saturday with two Sun reporters — Brian Flynn and Ryan Parry — who were behind the journalistic investigation that enabled Laszlo Csatary's arrest in Hungary last month.”

ADL: Anti-Semitism pervasive in TV programming during Ramadan

"The ADL cited several popular shows including Egypt’s “Firqat Naji Attalah,” which airs daily and chronicles the fictional adventures of Egyptian diplomats in Tel Aviv. In one episode, dealing with cheating Jewish bankers, one of the main Egyptian characters decides to rob a bank while dressed in Hassidic garb, and in another a character express delight whenever Hamas sends missiles into Israel.”

How Liberal Democrats who Support Israel Might Think about the Election by Alan M. Dershowitz

Reuters site hacked, fake interview with Syrian rebel leader posted

“One of the posts was an "interview" with the head of the Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Assad. Al-Assad allegedly said that his forces were pulling back from the northern province of Aleppo after repeated battles with the Syrian Army.
Another story alleged that rebels had obtained chemical weapons from Libya and were going to smuggle them into Syria.
The Free Syrian Army issued a statement saying that the interview with Riad al-Assad never took place and blamed President Bashar al-Assad's government for planting the story, according to Reuters.”

Syrian rebels say detained Iranians are Revolutionary Guards, not pilgrims

Opposition claims in video message that captives were on a reconnaissance mission
"A pan-Arab television station has aired a video purportedly showing Syrian rebels with a group of Iranians abducted a day earlier just outside Damascus."

Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood confirms it has battalions fighting Assad

Forces created three months ago are semi-independent but associated with the Free Syrian Army, spokesman says

Fighting in southeastern Turkey leaves 19 dead, report says

Fighting between Kurdish rebels and government troops in southeastern Turkey killed more than a dozen people over the weekend, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.

Indo-Israel FTA likely by mid-2013

Indo-Israeli Free Trade Agreement is likely to be completed by the second quarter of 2013, paving the way for doubling of bi-lateral trade between the two countries.

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Also, some Arab mansions in "apartheid" Israel:

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A tree falls on the Temple Mount. Must be the Jooz!

A palm tree collapsed in the courtyard of the Temple Mount on Sunday, near where the Al Aqsa Mosque currently is.

So of course the conspiracy theories started flying right away.

One thing they all have in common - it was the fault of the evil Jews.

Theory number 1 is the always popular idea that Jewish excavations under the mosque - which are wholly imaginary - have weakened the trees and caused this one to fall.

Theory number 2 is that Jewish "settlers" are spraying chemicals to kill the trees when they visit the Temple Mount.

Theory number 3 is that the Israelis have placed a camera on the Dome of the Rock and the trees were in the way, so they somehow knocked this one down.

The Al Aqsa Foundation concludes:

All this evidence suggests that occupation is the cause of such cases, and it remains for the competent Muslim Arab Palestinian engineers and agricultural engineers to examine such cases, in a professional and scientific manner, and come to their conclusion.

It is nice to know that they want to find competent authorities to confirm what they already know. Otherwise one might think they weren't being fair in their wild conspiracy theories.

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Hezbollah pretends to support free speech

From The Daily Star Lebanon:

Google and Apple’s online stores have stopped offering the Web application for Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s television station.

The applications, which allow users to live stream the Al-Manar channel, were removed from the Google Play and iTunes Web stores, technology news website C-Net first reported late Tuesday. iTunes removed the application over the weekend with Google Play following suit two days later.

Al-Manar is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States government for its ties to Hezbollah, which the U.S. also considers a terrorist group. Associating with either organization is cause for denial of entry to the United States, and financial support for Hezbollah can lead to criminal prosecution.

The U.S. first banned Al-Manar in 2004 for its “terrorism” ties. France banned the channel the same year for anti-Semitic speech.

Al Manar's response is priceless:

Anchor: Let's begin with the Israeli incitement against Al-Manar TV, which led to the removal of Al-Manar mobile apps by Apple and Google. Al-Manar TV emphasized that its news services would reach its viewers through other means.

The relevant unions and institutions in Lebanon condemned the immoral decision against Al-Manar.

Reporter: Al-Manar TV is once again targeted by America and Israel. The removal of the channel's mobile apps from the Google and Apple stores is a new attempt to curb Al-Manar's message of resistance.

[...]

Al-Manar TV Director-General Abdallah Qasir: This indicates that Al-Manar TV has the ability to cause great harm to Israel, and that Israel is extremely annoyed by Al-Manar becoming so widespread and by its great credibility. Israel cannot even bear to see the Al-Manar icon on smartphones.

Abd Al-Hadi Mahfouz, president of the Lebanese National Media Council: This move contradicts all laws pertaining to radio and television, to the exercising of media liberties, and to the right of citizens, Western and Arab alike, to information.

[...]

Abdallah Qasir: For whoever wants to download a new [app] icon, we will find new ways to allow the viewer to download this service, even if the [media] companies prevent this.

Abd Al-Hadi Mahfouz: The assault on Al-Manar TV constitutes an assault on Lebanese sovereignty. The Lebanese state, the Lebanese government, must take action.

Reporter: The head of the Lebanese IT Association, Rabi' Al-Ba'lbaki, warned against such measures against the Lebanese media. In a phone call with Al-Manar TV, he called to boycott the two companies, if they do not restore the service.

While the Hezbollah/Al Manar spokesman brags about how Al Manar is a "resistance" (i.e., terrorist) channel, the Lebanese media head talks about free speech.

Hezbollah does not have the best record on free speech - threatening reporters and barring them from places they don't want the media to see -  but I haven't heard anything from Mr. Mahfouz about that.

And you have got to love the head of the Lebanese IT association calling to boycott Apple and Google. I'm sure they are mighty frightened.

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NYT Israel op-ed index for July (David G) - 5 anti-Israel, one pro

From David G:

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New York Times Op-Ed Index for July, 2012  


A) What does Morsi mean for Israel - Thomas Friedman - July 3, 2012 

So Morsi is going to be under enormous pressure to follow the path of Turkey, not the Taliban. Will he? I have no idea. He should understand, though, that he holds a powerful card — one Israelis would greatly value: real peace with a Muslim Brotherhood-led Egypt, which could mean peace with the Muslim world and a true end to the conflict. Of course, that’s the longest of long shots. Would Morsi ever dangle that under certain terms? Again, I don’t know. I just know this: The Mubarak era is over — and with the conservative Muslim Brotherhood dominating Egypt and with conservative religious-nationalists dominating Israeli politics, both will either change their behaviors to make Camp David legitimate for both peoples or it will gradually become unsustainable. 

This is the final paragraph and the most chilling. Thirty years ago Israel sacrificed the strategic depth provided by the Sinai in return for peace with Egypt. Now Friedman's arguing that the deal (along with the substantial and concrete Israeli concession) will only be legitimate if Israel makes the concessions to the Palestinians demanded by the Muslim Brotherhood. So is there any peace deal that Israeli would make that Friedman would agree was not subject to revision at the request of Israel's partners? This is particularly pernicious coming from the same man who, ten years ago, promoted a "peace plan" endorsed by many Arab leaders now embattled, dead or deposed at the hands of their subjects. This is also no mistake, Friedman has made this argument a number of times over the past year and a half.


Anti-Israel - 1 / Pro-Israel - 0


B) Wrong Time for new Settlements - Editorial - July 10, 2012

Although nonbinding, the commission’s recommendations are bad law, bad policy and bad politics. Most of the world views the West Bank, which was taken by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war, as occupied territory and all Israeli construction there as a violation of international law. The world court ruled this way in 2004. The Fourth Geneva Convention bars occupying powers from settling their own populations in occupied lands. And United Nations Security Council resolution 242, a core of Middle East policy, calls for the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” 

The commissions to which the editorial refers, is the Levy commission, which issued a report ruling that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are legal. Legal expert, Prof. Avi Bell wrote about report (.pdf): 

Others have objected that the Levy report’s conclusions can be disputed by international jurists, including by a controversial and non-binding advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. It is true that like many legal controversies, the questions addressed by the Levy Commission are capable of being analyzed in a number of ways. The Levy Commission’s conclusions are logical applications of reasonable understandings of the rules in an area where no authoritative resolution of the dispute has yet been rendered.

In other words the New York Times was arguing against the report's conclusions because it doesn't like them, not because they were legally unsound.


Anti-Israel - 2 / Pro-Israel - 0 


C) Israel, when the lights go down - Jodi Rudoren - July 21, 2012

These two films, each portraying one of two key conflicts vexing Israeli society, were among 26 Israeli movies screened this month at the 29th annual Jerusalem Film Festival. Recently arrived to cover Israel and the Palestinian territories, I inhaled nine of the films — six documentaries and three features — over a week in hopes of gleaning some insights into the people, places and production values of my new beat. 

The new Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times, Jodi Rudoren wrote about her impressions of the recent Jerusalem film festival. I reproduced the above paragraph because of the words "conflicts vexing." This is often how American correspondents in Israel seem to view themselves. They are not reporters, but observers of great moral dilemmas (dilemmas where the Israelis more often than not make the wrong decision). Given the number of Israel correspondents who have gone on to write books, no doubt this is a good professional decision. But by focusing on the literary possibilities rather than the news, reporters usually fail to report accurately. (Rudoren here seems to admire "Five Broken Cameras" a movie about anti-Israel protests in Bil'in. Omitted from her report is any acknowledgment that the government, responding to the ruling of Israel's High Court of Justice rerouted the fence. The rerouting, following the dictates of court despite the possible security consequences, shows a lot more of Israel than these movies.) In general Rudoren seems to prefer ugly visions of Israel in the movies she saw - though she calls it "complexity" - which is not a good sign.


Anti-Israel - 3 / Pro-Israel - 0


D) Israel's embattled democracy - Editorial - July 21, 2012

There are other worrisome developments. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has expressed concern over “intensifying infringements on democratic freedoms.” In the past two years, activists say, more than 25 bills have been proposed or passed by the Parliament to limit freedom of speech and of the press; penalize, defund or investigate nongovernmental groups; restrict judicial independence; and trample minority rights. 

This editorial was written immediately after Kadima left the governing coalition and it lamented the party's "moderating force" on the "hard line" government. (It took two weeks for any opinion writer to acknowledge Kadima joining the government.) The truth is that Israel has a high court run largely by right thinking liberals (by New York Times standards) that has an outsize influence on government policy. Why should the editors trust the word of self-interested activists? Even the bills that passed were still subject to review. What ACRI considers limiting freedom, many others see as introducing greater transparency to groups who have operated with little or no oversight. This theme has been seen in a number of New York Times articles over the past year. It's interesting how many Israelis can write or talk openly about declining Israeli democracy and not fear being arrested. Democracy is a messy business, you don't always get the results you want. But that's not the same thing as having freedom limited.


Anti-Israel - 4 / Pro-Israel - 0 


E) Israel's Settlers are here to stay - Dani Dayan - July 25, 2012

Given the irreversibility of the huge Israeli civilian presence in Judea and Samaria and continuing Palestinian rejectionism, Western governments must reassess their approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They should acknowledge that no final-status solution is imminent. And consequently, instead of lamenting that the status quo is not sustainable, the international community should work together with the parties to improve it where possible and make it more viable. 

The international community's view of how to improve the situation is likely to differ significantly from Dayan's. But his analysis in this paragraph is correct. It is rather remarkable that the New York Times actually allowed this op-ed into print.


Anti-Israel - 4 / Pro-Israel - 1 


F) Mitt Romney stumps in Israel - Editorial - July 30, 2012

The real audience for Mr. Romney’s tough talk was American Jews and evangelical Christians, some of whom accompanied him on his trip. He is courting votes and making an aggressive pitch to donors, including Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate with the hard-line pro-Israel views who is spending more money than any other American — $100 million — to defeat Mr. Obama. 

There is real ugliness appearing in the opinion pages of the New York Times these days. So why hedge? Just say, "a rick American Jew is trying to buy the election to support Israel at America's expense." It didn't bother the New York Times when, four years ago, quite a few George Soros backed organizations worked hard to elect Barack Obama (and are still doing so.) Having too much influence is only a problem when it goes against the sensibilities of the editors of the New York Times.


Final Total: Anti-Israel - 5 / Pro-Israel - 1 


Methodology: The search index at the New York Times is going through some changes and makes it difficult to get a good search result. Instead I went through my local library and did a search in the Pro-Quest database for"Israel" in Editorial and Commentary documents for July, 2012 in the New York Times. (You will not be able to see the results unless you have a Pro-Quest account.) I only considered articles that were mostly about Israel. The impetus for this research was Clark Hoyt's The Danger of the One sided debate from 2007, in which he defended publishing an op-ed by a Hamas spokesman as necessary for balance.

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Today's examples of legendary Muslim tolerance towards Christians

From AP:

When the angry mob was rampaging through town, storming her home and those of other Christians, the 70-year-old woman hid in her cow pen, pushing a rock against the door. There she cowered for hours, at one point passing out from tear gas being fired by police that seeped in.

When Sameeha Wehba emerged just before dawn, she found she was the only Christian left in this small Egyptian village just south of Cairo.

Dahshour's entire Christian community — as many as 100 families some estimate — fled to nearby towns in the violence earlier this week. The flock's priest, cloaked in a white sheet to hide him, was taken out in a police van. At least 16 homes and properties of Christians were pillaged and some torched and a church damaged.

Al Arabiya:

As cities of Damascus and Aleppo entered into the confrontation where the Christians demographic weight is at its most, the number of Syrian Christian families displaced to Lebanon is increasing significantly.

Refugees have been distributed along the extended length of the coastline between Antelias and Byblos area where residents are predominantly Christian.

George fled with his family from Homs to Lebanon four days ago after the Syrian army destroyed their home as a result of a violent artillery bombardment, causing the death of his wife and his mother-in-law.

“We were displaced because the government forces have fired artillery at our home, as a result my wife and my mother were killed. I managed to save the rest of my family and we succeeded to flee Homs for Damascus in a six-day journey until we reached Lebanon,” George said.

“We decided to evacuate out of fear. We feared to face the same destiny of my mother and my grandmother. The rebels helped us to evacuate while the regime forces continued shelling displaced people,” George’s son, Nagib said.

JPost:

Saudi Arabia deported 35 Ethiopian Christians last week after incarcerating them for over seven months for praying in advance of the Christmas season in December 2011, according to Christian media outlets and NGOs.

International Christian Concern wrote on its website that “Saudi Arabia deported the last of the 35 Ethiopian Christians who were detained for holding an all-night prayer vigil.

Saudi security officials assaulted, harassed and pressured the Christians to convert to Islam during their incarceration.”

(h/t Yoel)

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Might want a paternity test on this

From Ma'an:

An increasing amount of prisoners serving long-term sentences are looking for new ways to have children from their prison cells, the Center for Prisoners Studies reported Saturday.

Incredibly, the center says prisoners who are married and jailed for long terms are now even attempting to smuggle sperm out in order for their wives to conceive children.

These attempts have usually failed due to logistical problems and the short life span of sperm not kept in the right temperature.

That could change in the coming days -- the wife of a prisoner has become pregnant, according to the center. She is expected to give birth soon, the group says.

I guess pretending that your child belongs to a prisoner is a lot less dangerous for the mother than the alternative...

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Nice shooting!

Once again, a man on a motorcycle in Gaza was killed by an Israeli missile.

And once again, he was no civilian.

From the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today:

According to our correspondent in the southern sector [of Gaza] a Zionist bombing suddenly targeted a motorcyclethat led to the martyrdom of 'Eid Okal Hijazi, 22, and wounding another who was taken to Abu Yousef Al Najjar Hospital, southern Gaza Strip.

It is worth mentioning that the martyr 'Eid Okal Hijazi is a resistance fighter in the Nasser Saladin Brigades, the military wing of the [Popular] Resistance Committee.

And we have pictures!

That's a mighty small crater. Which indicates that Israel has more regard for the lives of innocent Palestinian Arabs than Hamas does. 

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Blame everyone for PalArab misery except Arabs

Ma'an publishes an op-ed filled with rubbish by Osama Kashoo:

On June 21, 27 and 29, three asylum seeker vessels heading from the port of Pelabuhan Ratu on the south-eastern coast of Java, a popular embarkation point for Australia's coast, disappeared. The boats were overladen with men, women and children desperately seeking a new life when they sank.

Such tragedies are all too common in the world of people smuggling. But this horror has an extra dimension to it, as the majority of the missing passengers were Palestinian refugees. This has led to a cruel fiasco of disinterest from all the regional authorities, who, even 30 days after the disappearance have failed to send out any search party for the missing. The trail of disinterest spreads from the Australian government right the way to the Palestinian Authority itself.

Whilst other families of the missing have received some contact and support from the authorities, the Palestinian families, in Iraqi refugee camps, are still left without news of their relatives. 28 Palestinians were in the boats believed to have sunk between Indonesia and Australia.

First of all, only two boats sank; the third was rescued by Australian authorities in dangerous waters.

Secondly, I can find no source saying that any Palestinian Arabs were on the boats at all, let alone that they are the majority of those missing. Some 90-100 are thought dead in the sinkings, 28 is not the majority of 90, and that is a mighty specific number when no one knows their identities or even if they were on those specific boats.

Thirdly, it is Australian authorities who rescued the survivors; to say that there was no search party (or, as the article implies, that somehow Palestinian Arabs who are lost at sea were treated with more indifference than any of the other asylum-seekers) is absurd.

But the author needs to show how the world is indifferent to Palestinian Arabs, and he will twist whatever facts he can to do so:

For an entire month now, families of the Palestinian refugees from Iraq have been waiting for news of their family members still missing at sea. Their story is the tragedy of the ongoing Palestinian refuge issue itself. The grandparents of those missing were forced to flee their homes in the cities of Acre and Haifa in 1948 after the creation of Israel. After years of hardships, roaming from refugee camp to refugee camp in the Middle East, these families arrived, penniless and stateless, in Iraq.

In Iraq, poverty and war stayed with the refugee families until in utter despondency, their children and grandchildren once again set off escaping sectarian violence after the war on Iraq and got stuck in the middle of the sand for years on the Jordan-Iraq border. Some of them were dispatched to Brazil where they are now living in the jungle and the rest set out yet again for an unknown future towards Europe.

Israel didn't force Arabs out of Haifa, they left on their own or at the urging of their own leaders.

In Iraq, Palestinian Arabs were treated better than in most Arab countries, to the extent that they were favored under Saddam Hussein's regime. His fall led to their resentful Arab neighbors attacking and murdering them, forcing them to flee towards Syria.

But they were not allowed in, and they were stuck in squalid refugee camps administered by UNHRC which desperately tried to resettle them elsewhere. And every single Arab country refused to take them in.

Brazil was one country that did take in about 100 of them. They aren't in "the jungles of Brazil," they were settled in major cities with generous benefits and free housing.

This op-ed tries to make it sound like the Western indifference is responsible for Palestinian Arab refugee suffering, but only a little research shows that it is the Arab nations and Palestinian leadership who have actively opposed the Palestinian Arabs from becoming normal, happy citizens anywhere - including the West! The Palestinian Arabs who lived in Iraq are only the most obvious example, and yet this op-ed has nothing bad to say about the Arab nations who refused to accept even the relatively small number of PalArab refugees from Iraq.

Not only that, but the author is trying to make it sound like somehow Palestinian Arabs are being ignored, when in fact there is no refugee population - real or fake - who get even a fraction of the attention that Palestinian Arabs get  in the media, in the UN or even in the parliaments of Western democracies.

Op-eds must be fact-checked just like news stories are. In this case, Ma'an failed miserably.

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"Guests" must remain polite when they are being slaughtered

From Ma'an, a story that unintentionally highlights the everyday discrimination of Arabs towards their Palestinian "brethren" - and how Palestinian Arabs are willing to accept it silently:

Palestinians in Syria will remain neutral in the conflict, a Palestinian Authority official said Saturday, as refugees become increasingly caught up in the violence.

Rising numbers of Palestinians are leaving their homes because of the fighting and in the latest attack on Yarmouk refugee camp 20 people were killed and 65 injured.

However, the Palestinian Authority has reiterated that the Palestinians in Syria should remain neutral as they are "guests" and not Syrian citizens.

Is there any PalArab group who is demanding that Arabs in Syria who have lived there for generations be given the option of becoming citizens if they want?

Of course not! Because their entire existence is meant to pressure Israel, not to enjoy equal rights in the only country most of them have ever lived in!

So we have a bizarre situation where Palestinian Arabs are the "dhimmis" of Syria, second-class citizens that everyone pretends are happy with their situation. They are afraid to speak up because they might be targeted (and murdered) by their supposedly benevolent hosts if they do. They can't flee to Jordan because Jordan will send them - and only them - right back. So they shut up when they are murdered and try to become invisible in the country where they are celebrated as "guests."

They are "dhimmis" not only because the Arab world insists on treating them that way, but because their supposed "leaders" work to keep them that way.

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Yes! An Iranian won a bronze Zionist medal!

Last year I wrote:

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Remember in February and March when Iran complained that the London 2012 Olympics logo really spelled "Zion"? Here's how they broke that insidious Zionist code, in case you forgot:

Well, they now have a quandary.

Because the medals were revealed today, and they have that same super-evil-Illiminati-Freemason-Zionist symbol!

Iran has won medals in the last five summer Olympic games (weightlifting, wrestling and Taekwondo) so chances are one or more Iranians will be handed the hated symbol.

Will Iran ban its athletes from winning medals? Will they confiscate winning medals and melt them down, donating the proceeds to Hamas? Will they pretend that they didn't spend an entire month whining about the symbolism and grit their teeth if they win?  

I'm now rooting for Iran to win third place in some obscure sport, just to see how they deal with this. No matter how they handle it, it will be funny. 

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Well, I got my wish.

Here is Iranian Kianoush Rostami with his bronze medal - complete with the hated Zionist symbol -  in weightlifting in the 86kg category:

But AP has an even better photo of him juxtaposed with the Olympics logo, apparently after he lost in his attempt for the gold:

After Iran spent all that time last year saying the Olympics symbol is an evil Zionist plot, it is funny to see them now pretending that it is a wonderful honor to have a medal with that same symbol.

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Saturday night links

From Ian:

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Into the Fray: Fatuous, feckless Friedman

‘Robbed Cossack’: Hebrew idiom for a villain who complains about the wrongs (imaginary or not) done to him that he has done to others.
"Friedman’s bile and bias are evident in his attempt to belittle Israel’s technological achievements and entrepreneurial culture; and his chiding Romney for comparing it favorably with the Palestinian culture. Although he does acknowledge that “Israel today is an amazing beehive of innovation [and] something Jews should be proud of,” he attributes this – in the best “you didn’t get there on your own” tradition – in large measure to “an influx of Russian brainpower [and] massive US aid.”

Now Playing on PBS: Why America Should Support a Nuclear Iran

"Leave it to the taxpayer-supported Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to provide a forum for such a fatuous viewpoint. On July 9, the PBS “Newshour” program’s Judy Woodruff moderated a discussion with Mearsheimer and former Defense Department official Dov Zakheim over Waltz’s proposition.
Mearsheimer posited, “I think there’s no question that a nuclear-armed Iran would bring stability to the region, because nuclear weapons are weapons of peace.” He assured viewers, “They have hardly any offensive capability at all.” In that regard, Mearsheimer and Waltz point to the Soviet-American nuclear standoff. However, their superficial theorizing makes no distinction between Soviet ideology and the aggressively messianic beliefs of the Iranian regime."

Media Coverage of Israel is Simply Insane

"This media coverage that Israel is faced with cannot be perceived rationally, it is simply insane. Perhaps the Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky had the answer when he wrote “Instead of Excessive Apology” in 1911: “We constantly and very loudly apologize…. Instead of turning our backs to the accusers, as there is nothing to apologize for, and nobody to apologize to, we swear again and again that it is not our fault… Isn’t it long overdue to respond to all these and all future accusations, reproaches, suspicions, slanders and denunciations by simply folding our arms and loudly, clearly and calmly answer with the only argument that is understandable and accessible to this public: ‘Go to Hell’?”

Hamas freeing of al-Qaeda-linked terrorist may explain Sinai travel warning

"Al-Maqdisi, an Egyptian previously residing in Gaza whose real name is Hisham al-Saidni, is the head of Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, an Islamic extremist group that also is believed to have kidnapped, and killed, Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza in April 2011. The release of al-Maqdisi had been one of the conditions set forth by the terror group when it seized Arrigoni."

U.S. Extradition Request Denied for Daqduq

“Hezbollah terrorist mastermind and killer of American troops Ali Mussa Daqduq was in U.S. custody in Iraq and could have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay years ago.
Instead, the Obama administration decided to let an Iraqi court try him. In a development that should come as a shock to no one, Daqduq has been cleared of charges, and the latest U.S. extradition request has been denied. The Associated Press reports the unrepentant terror leader might be back out on the streets before the end of Ramadan”

Criticism In Iran Over Children Attending Public Executions

"Jafar Mohammadi, editor of the moderate conservative website Asr-e Iran, wrote in an article that the public's appetite for this activity was a sign of social sickness. He also warned that allowing children to watch executions could cause them irreparable damage, and urged the authorities to intervene to keep them away."

Prosor: 'Trio of terror' must be held accountable

Israel's ambassador to United Nations tells General Assembly that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah pose most immediate threat to international peace and security
"Prosor referred to Syrian President Bashar Assad's inclination to blame others for his own wrongdoing, saying "behind every rock and building in Syria, Assad sees not only Israelis, Brits, and Frenchmen – but also Saudis, Qataris, Kuwaitis, and Turks. He says that the slaughter in Syria is a Western and Arab Conspiracy — and has nothing to do with him personally."

The Popular Front Against Iran

“Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia’s rulers bury their differences to fight the Shiite enemy”
“In this alliance lies partial deliverance for Egypt from its heavy burdens. There is of course that older way—that volatile mix of anti-Americanism, authoritarianism, and escape from reason that wrecked the country and its place among the nations. The Egyptian state thus has a choice to make. It can take up anti-Zionism and jeopardize the peace with Israel secured for it by Anwar al-Sadat and maintained by Hosni Mubarak. Or it can awaken to the threat of Iran. An Egyptian alliance with Saudi Arabia is the beginning of wisdom—a necessary, though hardly sufficient, condition for Egypt finding a way out of
its crippling past.”

DCCC Apologizes to Adelson for “Untrue” Attacks
“A few weeks ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee accused top Republican donor Sheldon Adelson of personally approving and profiting off of prostitution at his Macau casinos. It wasn’t the smartest move, since their charge was based on unsubstantiated allegations from a disgruntled employer who’s been suing Adelson for years.”

Netanyahu Gave Romney Letter Calling for Pollard Release

Angola and Israel Advocate to Strengthen Cooperation

“On his part, the Angolan chancellor expressed the goal of his three-day visit to Jerusalem is to continue with the bilateral cooperation in health, agriculture, science and technology and the formation of Angolan experts.”

Why Raoul Wallenberg’s centennial matters

"The Swedish rescuer, born 100 years ago Saturday, was the ideal the Western world would like to have lived up to during those dreadful war years. More than an icon of the Holocaust, he exemplifies the standard of humane behavior to which the Western world aspires"

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Clown-washing

From the US Embassy in Israel:

The Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem was smiling and laughing as a colorful group of clowns, led by "Nurse Nice" (aka Hilary Chaplain), a medical clown from New York, walked through the corridors of the Pediatric Ward and entertained sick children in the dialysis room. With her visit supported by the U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv, Hilary gave several workshops to Israeli medical clowns and worked with the "Dream Doctor," the largest medical clowns' organization in the country, to apply new methods taught at the workshop. Ambassador Daniel Shapiro was the guest of honor at this special event and took an active role by talking to the children and dancing with the clowns. As one mother put it after seeing a real smile on her sick daughter's face: "It's about time she started laughing after such a long period of tears ..."

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EoZ gets results! FIAP giving ultimatum to UAE photo contest

After a number of EoZ readers complained to the president of the FIAP, Mr. Emile Wanderscheid, about the fact that Israelis cannot register for the Emirates Photo Competition, as reported here this morning, he responded:

Dear Photographer Friends,

After having received your E-mails re the Emirates Photography Competition I want to get this problem straight, to make you understand that it is inappropriate to blame FIAP in this context.

In fact when receiving the application for FIAP Patronage we could not realise that any problem could occur in the context you mention, as it was written in the regulation that "the salon will be open to all photographers from around the world".

Only when receiving your complaints we realised that some countries like Israel are missing in the listing of the countries.

As this is a clear discrimination and an infringement with the FIAP rules, the FIAP Patronage Service wrote two hours ago an E-mail to the organiser telling him that he is formally requested within 24 hours to add all the countries including Israel to the drop down country list or to delete this list completely from the online entry form.
In case of refusal, the FIAP Patronage will immediately withdrawn.

In hope that in this way the problem will be settled and I hope to receive no more complaint from other persons you are motivating to do so.

Kind regards; yours truly,

Emile WANDERSCHEID
President of FIAP

Thanks to all my readers who complained. (I like how Mr. Wanderscheid is begging for the emails to stop.)

We will see if the EPC does the right thing, and if not, whether FIAP will follow through...stay tuned.

(h/t Ronald, Jack)

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Friday links

From Ian:

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LATMA returns with full episodes: Jamil and Awad's summertime blues and Israel's unfair tax burden


Stand with Us The El Al Ambassadors Program



J’lem 'angry' at PA failure to reciprocate goodwill

"The Palestinian failure to respond positively to a series of recent Israeli goodwill gestures shows that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is “unable to enter into negotiations that will require concessions,” according to an internal government memo made known to The Jerusalem Post."

Capital, seat of government or a town in limbo: World still divided over an ‘undivided’ Jerusalem

“A statistics book by the UN, of all bodies, grants Israel the right to assert its capital claim, while leaving the Palestinians with Ramallah. It’s an anomaly that highlights an unrelenting dispute”

Caroline Glick Israel -- Obama's wedge issue

"It is hard to think of a milder criticism of Palestinian society than Romney's comparison of the Palestinian economy to the economies of Mexico and Ecuador. Romney could easily have gone much further without ever leaving the confines of received wisdom. For instance, he could have mentioned - as Obama did in his speech in Cairo in June 2009 - that Muslim societies under-invest in education relative to non-Muslim societies."

The French Railroad and the Holocaust Is a Public Company Private? by Michael Curtis

“In all these legal encounters, the SNCF has used contradictory, but successful, arguments. In the French case, it argues that the court has no jurisdiction over it because it was a private company. In the U.S., it argues that courts have no jurisdiction over it because it was not a private company but an arm of the French government.”

BDS enthusiast David Martin, MEP, and a Hamas-linked trip to Gaza

Muslim sprays tear gas into face of two women wearing the Star of David (German)

"On Monday evening two women who came to a waterpark in Stein were assaulted. A 23-year-old insulted them, sprayed them with tear gas and gave them the "Hitler salute" -- apparently because of a Star of David on a necklace of one woman...."

Al Qaeda trio' arrested in Spain with enough explosives to blow up a bus

The trio - two of whom had practiced flying light aircraft - may have been plotting attacks in Spain or elsewhere in Europe according to Spain's interior minister.
The three - a Russian, a Russian of Chechen descent, and a Turk, were arrested after being watched by Spanish authorities for 'some time'.

Photos from today’s Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade

Israel Daily Picture: The Hardships of Aliya (Immigration) to the Land of Israel in the 1930s

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Fascinating account of Israel's strike against Syria's nuclear facilities

Ha'aretz (Hebrew) is excerpting a piece from the new book by Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, whose English title is "Spies Against Armageddon." It sounds fascinating.

Here is an excerpt from the Haaretz article, auto-translated back to English:

Information about the Syrian nuclear program came to the Mossad by accident. A few years before, on Christmas Eve 2003, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced that he agreed to give up his plans to produce weapons of mass destruction. Israeli intelligence - the IDF Intelligence and the Mossad espionage agency - were stunned. They did not have a clue about the Libyan leader's intention , and they learned it from the media.

Dagan and research officers of the Mossad intelligence wing sank into a sad reverie. They asked themselves: "If we did not know about Khan's activities in Libya (Pakistani nuclear scientist, Abdul-Qadir Khan, was that brain behind the Libyan nuclear program), what else don't we know?" Consequently, in early 2004, the head of Military Intelligence demanded to examine every piece of information collected and stored in the last decade in connection with his actions, his conversations and Khan's trips in the Middle East.

Intelligence communities tend to store hundreds, if not thousands of bits of information, not always with the time and tools for humans to read or listen to them carefully. Information that is important can disappear because no one noticed it or people didn't understand its meaning. They found that Khan visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria. The evaluation was that because Saudi Arabia and Egypt are countries friendly to the U.S., they will not rush to accept the offers of Dr. Khan's services to purchase nuclear know-how. In any case, the Mossad assessed, even if they keep in touch with him, then the U.S. will know about it.

Therefore the Mossad decided to concentrate on Syria, a country hostile to Israel, who runs anti-American policy and that cooperates with Iran and supports Hezbollah. Bashar al - Assad, who took power after his father died in 2000, was inexperienced and may have been tempted to do reckless or adventurous acts.

A few months after the start of the initial examination, the spring of 2004, researchers returned to the Mossad's research division to their division head and told him that indeed there is something behind it, because as the intelligence division investigators pursuing the Mossad's issue, they found more and more suspicious and worrisome signs.

It turned out that Syria has increased three years prior to testing the secret dealings with North Korea. The Mossad had known about the cooperation between the two countries in the development of Scud missiles, but now there was also cooperation between them in the nuclear field.

I just ordered the book.

(h/t Yoel)

UPDATE: Challah Hu Akbar notes another book that covered this topic, excerpted in JPost a short while ago. Each has details the others don't have.

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