Weekend links

By Ian, lots of links - many of which I could have made full posts from. Wish I had the time!

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Latma: Yair Lapid's amazing coalition and a bird's eye view of Israeli democracy [and welcome back Ronit! - EoZ]



IDF Blog: Seven Years Later: Gaza’s Reality Under Hamas

"Seven years have passed since Hamas won the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. They made a lot of big commitments, and promised the people of Gaza a better life. Today, seven years after Hamas proudly presented its platform, is a good time to stop and check: Did Hamas live up to its own standards?"

How the Palestinian Authority Tried to Scare Israeli Voters by Khaled Abu Toameh

"It does not matter who is in power in Israel: no Palestinian leader has a mandate to make any concessions to Israel, let alone sign a peace treaty. Abbas knows this very well and that is why he will keep coming up with excuses to avoid signing a peace treaty, regardless of who is in control of the Israeli government."

Stand With Us: Palestinian ‘Non-Violent’ Demonstrations and a 6th Broken Camera

"I had been in Seattle and the U.S. only a few days when I heard that Palestinian Iyad Burnat, brother of the filmmaker of the Oscar-nominated feature documentary, “5 Broken Cameras,” would be speaking about the “non-violent” nature of Palestinian demonstrations. I knew I had to attend the event.
I had met Iyad five years earlier when I was a young Israeli soldier, an 18-year-old who had just started my service in the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF]. The IDF knew there would be a demonstration against Israel’s security fence near Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. The IDF wanted someone who spoke Arabic to mediate between the demonstrators and the IDF soldiers and minimize the chances of any physical altercations. Since I speak Arabic, I was chosen for this task.
As soon as I arrived at the Palestinian town, I encountered Iyad Burnat who was leading the demonstration. I tried to speak with him again and again, and ask him to stop what was becoming a violent riot. I told him there are other ways to protest and that talking with each other would work better than clashing with the IDF. In response, he shoved me to the ground and the crowd cheered. Soon after, the Palestinian demonstrators began hurling rocks and stones. One broke the jaw of a friend of mine, a fellow IDF soldier. He was forced to stay in the hospital for three weeks until he recovered."

No to Politicization of UCSF (University of California, San Francisco)

"Life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72 in 2000 and rose further to 74 in Gaza and 75 in the West Bank in 2011, outpacing most surrounding countries. Furthermore, despite the ongoing enmity of Hamas and other extremist Palestinian groups, Israel continues to share its medical expertise with Palestinians. For example, in 2011, Israel gave medical care to over 100,000 Palestinians, while 2,000 Palestinian doctors attended conferences in Israel, and 100 Palestinian doctors chose to do their internships in Israel."
"Sadly, Ms. Gaber is attempting to win support for the extremist, self-destructive policies that have plagued the Palestinians and prevented peace. UCSF students and faculty should not be diverted by such partisan conflicts but rather should fulfill their important mission of constructive action to advance health care and research that will benefit humanity."

Barak: Israel ‘learned a lesson’ from global failure to stop Assad
Our friends tell us, ‘Don’t worry,’ promise support in times of crisis, says defense minister, but events in Syria show there are no guarantees of international action

Terrorists’ New Tactic: Hit Israelis, Jews Overseas
Terrorists fail to cause death in Israel, switch to attacking Jews and Israelis worldwide with attacks in Bulgaria, India, and elsewhere.

"The Shin Bet’s 2012 report on terror had a highly positive finding: no Israelis were murdered in terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria for the first time since 1993. However, the report found that terrorists have not stopped murdering Israelis, but rather, have switched their focus to less heavily-guarded Israelis abroad."

BBC quotes Holocaust-denying terrorist-run website

"The Hamas-run website ‘Filastin’ has, as may be expected, supported terrorism against Israeli civilians and published commentary condemning a visit by a PA official to Auschwitz in 2012 which included the statement:
“What is the wisdom in such a simple step that supports the Jews and their crimes?… Neither the Jews nor we believe that Hitler killed six millions Jews,”Does the BBC really think that it contributes anything to its audiences’ understanding of the Middle East by reproducing opinions from terror-supporting antisemitic outlets alongside those from legitimate members of the media?
And perhaps – with Holocaust Memorial Day approaching – BBC Monitoring and the Editor of the BBC News website could find the time to explain to their licence fee-paying funders why they consider the promotion of material from a Holocaust-denying website appropriate."

3,000 Gaza teens graduate Hamas terror school

Islamist PM hails first products of high school course as ‘generation that will liberate the land’"More than 3,000 Palestinian teenagers on Thursday graduated from the ruling Hamas terror group’s first high school military training program in the Gaza Strip, displaying mock weapons, crawling commando-style on the ground and taking up fighting positions for thousands of cheering supporters."

Jihadist group delivers chilling threat to France

"Speaking to French weekly Paris Match, the spokesman for the cell known as "Those Who Sign In Blood", which is headed by notorious Mokhtar Belmokhtar said "French crusaders, Zionist Jews and their minions, will pay for their aggression against Muslims in northern Mali."In a warning deliberately aimed to stir up fear in France, the spokesman, who called himself Joulaybib, said there would be repeats of recent terror attacks carried out on French soil by self-proclaimed Islamist extremists.
“I hope France realizes that there will be dozens of Merahs and Kelkals," Joulaybib said."

Beyond “Apes and Pigs”: Ten Morsi Quotes That Tell All

"Morsi’s “descendants of apes and pigs” quote “comes as no surprise, but fits into a long record of his own and of Muslim Brotherhood statements,” Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes told JNS org.
Below, JNS org reviews that record with a compilation of 10 statements Morsi made between January 2010 and November 2012."

Satire: Exclusive Apology Letter from President Morsi

"I would like to clear the air immediately and make it understood — in no uncertain terms — that some of my best friends are apes and pigs. It is most regrettable that this has happened between two nations who have been operating under a peace agreement for over thirty years (especially because I thought I had changed my video’s settings to “private”.)"

EgyptAir reviews ‘hot’ in-flight movies after Islamist complaint

"Egypt’s national airline said on Thursday it will analyze its onboard movies to make sure they respect “Egyptian values and customs,” following a complaint by a Muslim Brotherhood member who took offence at a film screened during one of its flights."

The failed Israel boycott

"Norway has never bought so many goods from Israel as in the last year; in spite of boycotts. No one from the Socialist party or the PalCom wanted to comment upon this on yesterday-while friends of Israel were euphoric.
“These figures show the lack of success when it comes to boycotting Israeli goods”, says Ola H. Grytten, a professor of economy, to Dagen."

French Court Rules Twitter Must Hand Over Data Identifying Authors of Racist and Anti-Semitic Tweets in France

“It is a major precedent and breakthrough in the attempt to balance privacy online with the need to combat hate speech,” Sacha Reingewirtz, vice president of the Union of French Jewish Students, told JTA."

TAU Research Team Discovers New Treatment for Stroke
Researchers Tel Aviv University have found a new treatment for stroke and other brain damage that can help even months after the event.

“The findings of Efrati’s study, published in PloS ONE, showed significantly increased neuronal activity after a group of affected patients received two months of hyperbaric treatment, compared to a group that received none, he said.
The study “opens the gate into a new territory of treatment,” said Efrati. “It is now understood that many brain disorders are related to inefficient energy supply to the brain. HBOT treatment could right such metabolic abnormalities before the onset of full dementia, where there is still potential for recovery.”

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I'm sorry. Egyptians are just nuts.

Even the opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood are crazy anti-semites.

In 2011, a major library/document archive in Cairo was burned down during the protests. The Institut d’Egypte was founded by Napoleon in 1789.

Now, one of the opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood is claiming that the MB as behind the fire.

The reason?

Because the Muslim Brotherhood loves the Jews!

Yes, the same MB that spouts anti-semitic rhetoric is also a lover of Jews, if you are a crazy Egyptian opponent of the Ikhwan.

Dr. Tharwat Kherpauy (notice how they are always doctors?) said that the MB burned the building down because it had records of the Jews of Egypt willingly selling their land, houses and companies to Egyptians for pennies on the dollar before they left - again, voluntarily - their homeland in the 1950s and 1960s.

Now that the records are gone, the MB is allowing their Jewish friends to flock back to Egypt and claim that their property was stolen, not sold! And the poor honest Egyptians will have no defense, because the records that would prove them wrong are up in smoke!

The logical gaps in this theory are large enough to sail an aircraft carrier through. But that doesn't stop the opponents of the Brotherhood from saying them, publicly, without embarrassment.

And notice the common denominator: in Egypt, if you want to discredit your opponents, you simply claim that they love the Jews.

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Juan Cole making up facts again

Here's another example of how a third-rate academic acts.

In the middle of a typical anti-Israel posting that makes the usual, tedious and idiotic arguments one would expect from Mondoweiss (NEWS FLASH: Non-citizens who do not live in Israel cannot vote in Israel! This is awful!) he throws in his famous pseudo-facts that have no basis except his own fevered imagination.

For example, Cole claims that most haredim support Netanyahu. Who knew? I would have thought UTJ/Degel HaTorah, which gained seven Knesset seats, but what do I know?

Or this gem:

It should be noted that the Israeli right wing plays dirty tricks on the Israeli left and liberals, smearing them as traitors and harassing them (many of the nearly 1 million Israelis living outside Israel were leftists unwilling to live under Likud harassment. Such treatment of these Israelis acts as a form of voter suppression.

(Yes, this academic forgot to close the parentheses.)

Many of the million Israelis outside Israel fled because of Likud harassment? You mean they didn't move abroad for economic or family reasons, but to escape the horrid police state that Bibi built?

If that's the case, then of course the Israeli right must be dead-set against allowing non-resident Israelis to vote.

Except for this:

The inability of Israelis overseas to vote is an issue for the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, which has tabled a bill to change the electoral law. "(In an) era of globalisation, when many citizens reside outside their country on the time of the election day, we must allow them to participate in the elections," the party says.

Wow, it almost sounds like Cole's ultra-right fascist party is more democratic than many European democracies!

Once again, Juan Cole is proven to just make things up.

You know, the sort of thing that would get most academics fired.

(h/t Dan)

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A small detail about an "eyewitness" to an IDF shooting

On Wednesday, Ha'aretz reported:

Military police investigators are looking into the circumstances of the shooting death Wednesday of a 21-year-old Bethlehem woman, Lubnah Hanash. The IDF Spokesman declined to say whether Hanash, who is the first woman killed by IDF fire in the West Bank since April 2007, had been targeted in the shooting.

The IDF confirmed the incident, saying an initial investigation revealed that an army squad was ambushed by firebombs and rocks on Highway 60 near the Al-Aroub refugee camp and opened fire, fearing for their lives. Hanash was allegedly killed by an Israel Defense Forces officer at about 2 P.M. on a stretch of Route 60 in the West Bank between Bethlehem and Hebron.

According to a deputy commander of the Judea regional brigade, Shahar Matana, the incident occurred when he and another IDF officer were on their way from Jerusalem to Hebron. Matana said a group of young people threw Molotov cocktails at him from the side of the highway near the Al-Aroub refugee camp. The two officers left their car and one of them allegedly opened fire while the other gave chase after the young people.

Hanash, a university student from a refugee camp in Bethlehem, was critically injured and died in surgery at a Hebron hospital. Another young woman was also shot and lightly wounded in the incident. The two were on their way from a college near the highway and apparently planned to catch a bus home.

An eyewitness who lives near the highway told Haaretz that he had been at home when he heard shooting and went outside, where he saw the two officers, neither of whom was wearing a flak jacket or helmet. The witness, who reported that he did not see Hanash being shot, said one of the soldiers fired his weapon while the other gave chase.

Ma'an interviewed the injured woman, who insisted that there were no rocks, no firebombs, and nobody else around:

"I saw an Israeli soldier on the main road firing gunshots haphazardly, so I put my left hand on Lubna's back, and grabbed her to try and run backward. A gunshot hit my hand, and I shouted as I ran.

"I thought Lubna was running behind me until I reached the security guards of Al-Arrub College who took me to a clinic in the camp before an ambulance arrived and took me to hospital."

This, says Suad Jaara, 28, is what she witnessed Wednesday afternoon when Israeli officers near al-Arrub refugee camp shot her and her friend Lubna al-Hanash. Lubna, 22, died hours later.

Speaking to Ma'an, Jaara said Thursday that she and Lubna were walking on the campus of Al-Arrub College about 100 meters from the main road when they came under fire.

"An Israeli soldier was shooting from his rifle while a white car was parked on the roadside. There was nobody in the area except Lubna and I. He was a criminal ... yes, a criminal who opened fired at us in cold blood killing Lubna and injuring me.”

Jaara's testimony contradicts claims by the Israeli army’s chief of central command on Channel 10 Wednesday evening that the woman was trying to hurl a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli vehicle.

An army spokeswoman also told Ma'an on Wednesday that "soldiers were attacked by Palestinians who hurled multiple firebombs at them while they were traveling near al-Arrub. Soldiers returned fire and the circumstances of the incident are currently being reviewed."

But Jaara says she and her late friend were the only ones in the area, walking around and enjoying the scenery.

So who is more believable?

The last part of the Ma'an article gives us a clue:

Jaara is an employee at the Ministry of Prisoners Affairs. Her brother Jihad was a gunman in Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades in the Bethlehem area. He was deported to Ireland after the Nativity Church siege in 2002.

But someone whose family has known terrorists and who works for one of the most anti-Israel organizations in the territories wouldn't lie, would she?

(Kudos to Ma'an for at least mentioning that, albeit in the last paragraph.)

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Hamas formally teaching kids to be terrorists

From JPost:

Hamas plans to establish a military academy in the Gaza Strip to train and educate schoolchildren.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced on Thursday that the military academy, the first of its kind in the Gaza Strip, would prepare the children for the “phase of liberating Palestine.”

He said that children in grades 7-9 could join the school and graduate with a diploma or a BA in military affairs.

Haniyeh made this announcement during a ceremony in the Gaza Strip marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad. More than 10,000 schoolchildren attended the ceremony, which included a “military parade” by some of the teenagers.

The prime minister said he has instructed the Hamas-run Education Ministry to draw up plans for the establishment of the military academy. Haniyeh said that the new academy would educate and prepare children for the establishment of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.”

The Hamas-run Palestine Times reported this.

Here's a photo of the "military parade" with armed teenagers:

This photo with Haniyeh was taken at the same ceremony:

Last month, senior Hamas commander Zaher Jabarin said in a video interview published later on the IDF blog that Hamas labors “day and night” in educating Palestinian children in Gaza to become suicide bombers.

I wish to talk about our choice, the choice of resistance. There was training of the divine generation, the true generation of martyrdom-seekers, through which we can participate in the battle. First, before anything else, before any Jihadi action, before the transfer of weapons, money, etc., and everything required for action, first and foremost is the individual person. The Islamic Movement [Hamas] took care of the education of this youngster who will participate in this battle, and afterwards we found out, as we always say, that the martyrdom-seekers stood in line, moreover, the thought among themselves who will be first to perform the suicide operation or Jihad operation. There was a quarrel between these Jihad warriors. We labored day and night to build the person, who will participate in this battle, and indeed, after 26 years, today the results are clear and visible to the entire world, that Hamas indeed has succeeded to build in this period of 26 years, what others wouldn’t have succeeded to build in centuries, such a person and such a resistance.

The Palestinian youngsters, the resistance and Jihad warriors, fight and quarrel over performing a courageous suicide operation. No doubt when Rabin said he has no solution for this weapon (suicide bombings), it’s because you want to kill this man, but he himself is essentially coming to die, so how can you scare him and how do you want to deal with this weapon? There is no treatment, and you cannot find a treatment for this weapon. With God’s grace, Hamas originated the use of this weapon.

We in Hamas are now convinced that our leaders are preparing for the battle of liberation, not resistance. We will remain “The Islamic Resistance Movement” — Hamas — but we now have the concept of liberation, and we are preparing for the battle of liberation and entering Jerusalem, God willing. I am convinced that you will interview me — if Allah wished that we stay alive — from the courts of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem. The Palestinian people and the Arab people are now convinced that Israel will be defeated, and indeed it will be defeated, and we will succeed to liberate our country. We are now preparing for the battle of liberation, and not just the resistance as we have done in the past.

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Major explosion reported at Fordow underground Iranian nuclear facility (UPDATE)

From Reza Kahlili at WND:

An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime.

The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. A further enrichment to weapons grade would take only weeks, experts say.

...According to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow, an explosion on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Tehran time rocked the site, which is buried deep under a mountain and immune not only to airstrikes but to most bunker-buster bombs. The report of the blast came via Hamidreza Zakeri, formerly with the Islamic regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security,

The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, the source said. As of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel.

The site, about 300 feet under a mountain, had two elevators which now are out of commission. One elevator descended about 240 feet and was used to reach centrifuge chambers. The other went to the bottom to carry heavy equipment and transfer uranium hexafluoride. One emergency staircase reaches the bottom of the site and another one was not complete. The source said the emergency exit southwest of the site is unreachable.

The regime believes the blast was sabotage and the explosives could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site, the source said. The explosion occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them.

The information was passed on to U.S. officials but has not been verified or denied by the regime or other sources within the regime.

Fordow is the major known centrifuge facility in Iran, and it had recently doubled the number of centrifuges there.

So if true this is very, very big.

The problem is that there may be many secret facilities, not all of which are known by Western inteligence.

But Fordow was virtually impervious to an airstrike, so this reported sabotage was apparently more effective than anything that could have been done militarily.

(h/t Ellen)

UPDATE: I am told that Reza Kahlili does not have a great record for accuracy with a long history of making similarly stunning claims. I generally don't like to quote WND but this was so specific that I felt it was  better to get the story out there.

The IAEA inspects Fordow regularly, so within a few months we will know whether it mysteriously lost many of its centrifuges. But for now we should be skeptical until we hear something corroborating it - for example, that Iran closed off the area this week.

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Cisco buys yet another Israeli company

From YNet:

US multinational networking giant Cisco announced Wednesday its acquisition of Raanana-based startup company Intucell, a developer of mobile network management technologies, to the tune of $475 million.

This is an impressive price tag considering that only two years ago a meager $6 million were invested in the company.

This is almost getting boring. Cisco has bought lots of Israeli companies.

May 1988, Cisco bought ClassData for $50M
March 2000, Cisco bought Infogear for $300M
April 2000, Cisco bought PentaCom for $118M
Also April 2000 -  Seagull for $19M
June 2000 - HyNex $127M
March 2004 - RiverHead $39M
June 2004 - Actona $100M
August 2004 - P-Cube $200M
September 2005 - Sheer networks $97M
March 2012 - NDS $5B

That adds up to about $6.5 billion that Cisco has invested in Israeli companies.

So far.

To confuse the BDSers even more, Cisco is investing heavily in creating thousands of high-tech jobs for Israeli Arabs. Not only that, but in 2010 it received an ACE award from the US State Department for "helping to connect the Israeli and Palestinian economies and people, and engaging in several partnerships and initiatives to enhance technical capacity, connectivity, education, and opportunities for women and youth in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza."

Do you think the PA is boycotting Cisco?

(h/t George)

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The winner for the worst post-election analysis goes to...

Hamas!

The impact of the Palestinian victory over Israel in the latest assault on Gaza was evident in the outcome of Israel's election Tuesday, according to Hamas.

Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered losses because he failed to face the resistance in the mid-November deadly assault.

In terms of child development, Hamas appears to be in what Piaget calls the "preoperational stage" found in children aged 2-7:

Their thoughts and communications are typically egocentric (i.e. about themselves).
Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view. According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear and feel exactly the same as the child does. Piaget wanted to find out at what age children decenter - i.e. become no longer egocentric.

Then again, Western analysts often have the same problem to a certain degree, for example, projecting the importance of the moribund "peace process" onto Israelis.

(h/t JW)

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Thursday linkdump

From Ian:

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Israel’s UN envoy: If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in our living room

France’s foreign minister said this month that his country was fighting to prevent the creation of an Islamist terrorist enclave ‘at the doorstep of France and Europe.’ If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in Israel’s living room,” Ron Prosor said at the UN Security Council’s monthly open debate on the Middle East.
“Make no mistakes: France’s principled stand should be commended. We only ask that France and all the countries who are supporting its principled stand today, support Israel tomorrow when we fight Islamic terrorism on our borders.”

Turkey: Syrian bombardment of citizens a war crime
Foreign minister calls for greater access for aid groups, says he expects UN Security Council to step in, stop bloodshed

Denial still is a river in Egypt

"Denial, it turns out, really is a river in Egypt. I refer not to the world's longest waterway, but the world's largest outpouring of pious expressions of confidence in Egypt by American and European politicians. Infusions of real cash, to be sure, could delay Egypt's deterioration into a failed state, but not by long, because the country requires more than US$20 billion a year simply to meet its basic needs, and Western governments will not provide that much money."

The OIC Needs to Show It’s Serious About Human Rights

"You speak of human rights. Instead of standing behind the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, your organization has been pushing the United Nations to endorse a different document, the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights (CDHR). Article 22 states: ”Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contradictory to the principles of Sharia.” What happens those who do not believe in Sharia? The Universal Declaration takes for granted the equality of men and women. Article 6 of your document, however, says that a woman, although equal to a man in human dignity, “has her own rights to enjoy.” Those rights rights do not yet extend to driving a car in Saudi Arabia, or to girls seeking education in Afghanistan, or the right of a girl to avoid rape in the form of child marriage – a right that may disappear under the new Egyptian Sharia-based constitution."

‘Comment is Free’ contributor claims 1967 Six Day War was act of Israeli aggression

"Shehadeh didn’t waste any time contextualizing what he characterized as Palestinian indifference to the particular results of the Israeli election by evoking the political parallel of disenfranchised blacks under South African apartheid, and soon pivoted to the following additional fiction:
“Since the beginning of the occupation more than 44 years ago, no Israeli government has indicated willingness to accept that its status is that of an occupier of territory acquired through a belligerent war, and consequently been willing to withdraw from these areas and hand them over either to the surrounding Arab states or to a newly created sovereign, independent Palestinian state.”
The idea that Israel acquired territory in June 1967 though a “belligerent war” is a gross historical lie."

Promoting the BBC’s preferred Middle East narrative: how is it done?

"What we see here are two methods used by Davies to promote a specific agenda by framing a story in a particular manner. The first method is by use of carefully chosen language: terms such as “illegal under international law” and “occupied Palestinian Land” do not stand up to scrutiny, but when used frequently enough without presentation of the opposing point of view, they become accepted – though erroneous – terminology which steers audiences towards a preferred narrative."

Threat to Israel Explained on Capitol Hill
Over 80 Congressional staffers, diplomats and activists receive lesson on threats facing Israel.

"The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET, which is Hebrew for “truth), held a series of discussions on Capitol Hill Thursday, to a standing room only crowd of over 80 Congressional staffers, foreign diplomats and citizen activists, focused on the geopolitical and ideological threats facing the nation of Israel."

IDF jeep firebombed, troops' fire kills Palestinian
Jeep struck by Molotov cocktails in Al-Arroub near Bethlehem; 21-year-old woman killed by return fire in clashes.

Palestinians warn of recourse to the Hague over E1
Malki says PA may lodge complaint with ICC if Israel proceeds with plans to build housing on sensitive E1 corridor in West Bank.

Hamas plays hardball ahead of unity talks with Fatah
As rivals prepare for meeting next week, PA’s security coordination with Israel and the issue of ‘political arrests’ by Fatah are two of the thorniest issues

Christian Egyptian Convert and Her Children Sentenced to Prison

"An Egyptian woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison together with her seven children for converting to Christianity. Her supporters are now appealing to the U.S. government to stand up for religious minorities being persecuted in the Middle East."

Survey: 40% of France Holds Anti-Semitic Beliefs

Amid the rise in hate crimes in France, the World Zionist Organization calculated the level of anti-Semitism among French citizens
"The survey also found that 47% of the population believes that "French Jews are more loyal to Israel than the country where they live."

Muslims claim Jabba's Palace Lego toy is racist as it is 'based on iconic mosque in Istanbul'

Claims that Jabba's Palace set resembles Istanbul's Hagia Sophia mosque (originally an Orthodox Cathedral)
Describes Star Wars character Jabba the Hutt as resembling a 'terrorist'

19th Knesset Record-Breaker for Women, Religious MKs
Israel’s new parliament will see more female Knesset members time around than previously -- another record-breaker for this election.

Israeli promoter: Springsteen will perform here
Shuki Weiss tells 'Post' that logistics, not boycott, behind inability to bring the Boss to Israel thus far.

Israeli Daily Picture: Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees, Is Celebrated on
Saturday

One major activity of the JNF, or in Hebrew the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael, was the planting of trees on Jewish-owned land in Palestine. Many a Jewish home had the iconic JNF blue charity box, or pushke, in order to buy trees. In its history, the JNF is responsible for planting almost a quarter of a billion trees.
The photographers of the American Colony recorded the JNF's efforts.

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Also:

Remembering the Holocaust (The Asians)

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Unity! Hamas continues to arrest journalists and Fatah members

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas has arrested dozens of Fatah members in Gaza in the past day, endangering reconciliation efforts.

Moreover, Hamas continues to hold 6 journalists and is insisting that they go on trial.

Their crime? "Sabotaging the reconciliation!"

So people who report that Hamas is arresting Fatah members might be arrested for saying such a terrible thing.

Reporters Without Borders has nothing to say about this. But the International federation of Journalists did come out with a statement today:

According to the PJS, Hamas security operatives began arresting journalists, especially PJS members, on Sunday when they raided their homes rounding up six of them in two days. They include Abdul Karim Hajji, Hussein Abdel-Gawad Karsou' and Bassam Darwich who were arrested on Sunday followed by their colleagues Ashraf Abu Khasewan of Deir al-Balah and Mustafa Mekdad held since Monday evening.

Security forces also arrested family members of Jumua' Abu Shoumer, correspondent of al Hurrya radio in Gaza, to force him to turn himself in, added the PJS.

The Syndicate accused the Hamas authorities of working with pro-Hamas journalists to undermine its work on building unity among journalists in Gaza and strengthening their standing among their colleagues in the region, including within the Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ). The PJS, which took part in the recent FAJ Congress, believes that Hamas' recent actions belie an attempt to frustrate on-going efforts to achieve national unity which are expected to be concluded soon in the signing of a reconciliation pact and the forming of a national unity government.

Meanwhile, Hamas media reports that the PA is arresting Hamas members in hte West Bank as well.

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Abbas: "Frankly, yes, we are waging diplomatic war against Israel"

Mahmoud Abbas gave a wide-ranging speech on the occasion of the birthday of Mohammed today.

Abbas mentioned the occasional use by Israel's Foreign Ministry of the phrase "diplomatic terrorism" to describe some of the ways that the PA is trying to delegitimize Israel. He said, "I do not understand the meaning of this expression, but, frankly, yes we are waging diplomatic war against Israel for our rights to isolate Israel's policy in our land and delegitimize Israel on our land."

He also complained that Arab nations have never fulfilled their pledges given in years past of money to help "defend Jerusalem." he similarly complained about the many fatwas forbidding Muslims from around the world to visit Jerusalem while Israel controls the city.

Additionally, Abbas said "Today the world recognizes us; we are a state under occupation. All actions taken in our home since 1967 are invalid because the Fourth Geneva Convention says there is no right for a state that occupied another state to create a demographic change or to transfer its population to live in that state."

Of course, the Fourth Geneva Convention says nothing about demographics and was written to prohibit the forceful transfer of citizens to occupied territory; it does not address the voluntary movement of people to their traditional homeland in a disputed area.

Abbas also claimed that getting the UN resolution on non-member state status passed was extraordinarily difficult, although the voting hardly reflects that.

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Two months without a rocket

A couple of days ago, a little-noticed milestone was reached.

It has been over two months since the last rocket was launched from Gaza into Israel. (There was a rocket test-firing into the sea reported in November, two reported rocket tests this month, and two mortars shot into Israel in December.)

As far as I can tell, there has never been a two-month period without rockets into Israel since the first Qassam was shot into Israel in February 2002.

It sounds like Israel achieved a major goal of Pillar of Defense.

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Morsi: The Jewish media is to blame for outing him

I wish I came up with this cartoon before it was found out to be true:

Last week in Cairo, seven U.S. senators had a highly contentious meeting with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy during which the Muslim Brotherhood leader implied that he was the victim of an American media run by the Jews.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) led a delegation last week to Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Afghanistan that included Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Kirsten Gilibrand (D-NY). Their stop in Cairo included a 90-minute meeting with Morsy that devolved into an uncomfortable set of exchanges as the senators pressed the Egyptian president to explain his 2010 comments describing Jews as "bloodsuckers who attack Palestinians" as well as "the descendants of apes and pigs."

Inside the meeting, the discussion over Morsy's 2010 remarks was much more heated than either side publicly acknowledged afterwards, according to Coons. Addressing the comments was the first item on the senators' agenda, and the discussion did not go well, he told The Cable in an interview.

"We tried to give President Morsy an opportunity, now that he is the president, to put his comments in a different context because he was claiming that he was taken out of context. On their face they seemed to be very offensive and inappropriate," Coons said. "It was a difficult conversation."

Morsy told the senators that the values of Islam teach respect for Christianity and Judaism, and he asserted repeatedly that he had no negative views about Judaism or the Jewish people, but then followed with a diatribe about Israel and Zionist actions against Palestinians, especially in Gaza.

Then Morsy crossed a line and made a comment that made the senators physically recoil in their chairs in shock, Coons said.

"He was attempting to explain himself ... then he said, ‘Well, I think we all know that the media in the United States has made a big deal of this and we know the media of the United States is controlled by certain forces and they don't view me favorably,'" Coons said.

The Cable asked Coons if Morsy specifically named the Jews as the forces that control the American media. Coons said all the senators believed the implication was obvious.

"He did not say [the Jews], but I watched as the other senators physically recoiled, as did I," he said. "I thought it was impossible to draw any other conclusion."

"The meeting then took a very sharply negative turn for some time. It really threatened to cause the entire meeting to come apart so that we could not continue," Coons said.

Multiple senators impressed upon Morsy that if he was saying the criticisms of his comments were due to the Jews in the media, that statement was potentially even more offensive than his original comments from 2010.

"[Morsi] did not say the Jewish community was making a big deal of this, but he said something [to the effect] that the only conclusion you could read was that he was implying it," Coons said. "The conversation got so heated that eventually Senator McCain said to the group, ‘OK, we've pressed him as hard as we can while being in the boundaries of diplomacy,'" Coons said.

(h/t Yid With Lid)

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Arabs desecrate Joseph's Tomb again

Ma'ariv reports that Joseph's Tomb was desecrated with urine and apparent attempts to set it on fire:

More than 2,500 visitors came Wednesday night to Joseph's Tomb. A special tour was organized by the Samaria Regional Council and "Shechem Echad" and it was held with the approval and support of the IDF and the Israel Police.

Upon arrival of the first soldiers and worshipers there they observed that Palestinians had desecrated the tomb building and tried to set it on fire. According to the deputy head of the regional council Yossi Dagan, the entrance to the tomb was awash with urine, and wall and window of the building were filled with soot from Palestinian ignition attempts.

Shomron Regional Council officials immediately cleaned the grave and washed the entrance and within minutes visitors who came to pray there could enter.

Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said tonight "Only barbarians do these horrid things to desecreate this holy place."

According to Arutz-7, it was even worse:

Visitors to the Tomb of Yosef in Shechem were shocked to discover Wednesday night yet another instance of major Arab vandalism to the holy site. Arabs trashed furniture, destroyed books, and defaced the site with anti-Semitic graffiti, and there was evidence that they had tried to burn the structure down. In addition, human and animal waste was found all over the floor of the site.

Ma'an adds:

Kever Yosef in 2009

Witnesses told Ma'an that clashes erupted as local youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who fired tear gas and stun grenades.

The tomb has been desecrated numerous times, and several Jewish visitors to the site have been murdered over the years.

Under the Oslo Accords Interim Agreement, Jews should have free access to their holy places. Visiting once a month with armored buses in the middle of the night under heavy guard while the tomb is left open to desecration the rest of the time is not exactly "free access."

(h/t Kramerica, Ian)

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Iraqi news sites publish more pure Jew-hatred

I've noted that Iraqi news sites have been publishing increasing amounts of pure anti-semitism (one example was here.)

The hate continues on.

Kitabat has an article called "The Biblical roots of racist Zionism." It is a review for a book published in 2002 in Baghdad. Outside of finding an excuse to spout anti-semitic conspiracy theories, it is unclear why this review is being published now.

[The book] demonstrates that Jewish/Zionist violence and crimes committed against the Palestinian people is an extension and a repetition of what happened since before the Zionist entity existed. What is happening now is not a reaction to confront the Palestinian as Jews/Zionists claim as they brainwash world public opinion, Western particularly, but is an extension of the ethnic philosophy thast derives its origins from the Jewish faith, and not just from the philosophy of racism that prevailed in European thought during the imperialist 19th century.

The Old Testament or the Torah is written by rabbis during the first millennium BC and have nothing to do with the original Torah...tying together fables that have no archaeological basis...

They didn't only write the Torah as a reaction to the so-called Babylonian captivity. But they meant to implant in the Jews the spirit of intrusion, aggressiveness and violence, hatred and cruelty in dealing with others and not to give them mercy or pity, and other barbaric practices of killing, genocide, destruction and burning.

There is nothing more proof of this matter than the commandments the scribes wrote in the Old Testament, which states the need to transfer this barbaric heritage from generation to generation, as it says multiple times: "Let these words which I command you today be on your heart, and teach them to your children and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way and when you lie down and when you get up, and make them a sign on your hand and on headbands between your eyes and write them on the doors of your house and on thy gates."

The transplant and development of this fierce psychological aggression is instilled in the depths of the individual Israeli since childhood through religious education. They are not limited to people in the Zionist entity, but includes Jews living in the so-called diaspora.

The Torah has been planted in the depths of Jewish self, for centuries, this trend of bloody obscurantism and hatred of all others, their love of bloodshed and destruction and annihilation, and the right to extract the wealth and property of the gentiles as the wealth of the world are all belongs to them...

Apparently, the Iraqis aren't too concerned over the ban on "defamation of religion" that the Muslim world always claims it desires.

The West, as usual, is clueless that writings like this are being published every day in the nation that it liberated.

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