Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

4 more Pals killed in Syria - but by mentioning it I'm engaging in "Assad-washing"

Palestine Today reports four more Palestinian Arabs killed in Syria in the past couple of days.

But don't expect to find anything about this in the "pro-Palestinian" Electronic Intifada site.

In fact, if I dare to mention Palestinian Arabs being killed in Syria, I'm engaging in a horrible crime myself. One that the human rights defenders in EI call "Assad-washing."

Really!

Already last April, they were getting nervous that the tens of thousands being killed in Syria were taking world attention away from the Palestinian Arabs who are living in comparative safety. So Electronic Intifada wrote an op-ed saying that evil Zionists are using massacres in Syria to divert the world's attention from Palestinian Arabs in the territories getting what are, in comparison, papercuts.

The Israeli government and its supporters have long utilized a wide range of propaganda tools to sugarcoat Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians. In addition to pinkwashing (using Israel’s relative support of gay rights to sugarcoat the country’s apartheid nature) and greenwashing (perpetuating the perception that Israel has environmentally-friendly policies to do the same), Zionist advocates are now using a different method: Assadwashing.

So this is how the liberals at EI justify their relative silence when Palestinian Arabs - whom they pretend to love so much - are being slaughtered.

They don't want to be Assadwashers!

Keep in mind that since the Syrian revolution began, far more Palestinian Arabs have been killed in Syria than in Gaza and the West Bank combined. But keep that under your hat, because even mentioning Palestinian Arabs being killed by Syria is evidently a strict taboo among the "pro-Palestinian" crowd.

Stop the presses: Syrian sheikh declares honor killings wrong!

What does it say that when an ounce of sanity comes to the Muslim world - it is newsworthy?

Following are excerpts from an address by Syrian Sunni cleric Karim Rajeh, which aired on Al-Hiwar TV on January 27, 2013.

Karim Rajeh: It has come to my attention that some of those who claim to manifest manhood and honor, upon learning that one of their daughters has been raped by criminals and shabiha during this revolution, permit the killing of that daughter. They consider such killings to be a matter of honor, and they believe that if they allow these daughters to remain alive, they themselves will be left without honor.

I hereby issue a religious ruling, and declare, loud and clear, that anybody who does such a thing is himself without honor. He lacks reason, and is a fool, who understands nothing, while the girl is one of the more noble people – if not the most noble of all. She heroically defended her honor and her dignity, but the rapists were stronger than her. Then she returned, broken-spirited and in pain.

Will you reward her, oh honorable one, by killing her? You are a murderer, to whom the following words of Allah apply: “If a man intentionally kills a believer, his recompense is eternal Hellfire. Allah’s wrath and curse are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him.”

I urge young men to marry these girls, for they are honorable. There are no girls more honorable than them. These girls were unwillingly harmed. It was rape. The blame lies with those who gave the order and who carried it out. If they had even a shred of dignity, they would not have done such things.

Dear people, respect your daughters.

Arab media are quoting a Gulf News Bahrain article that claims to have uncovered a government letter proving that Qatar paid $250 million to Hamas - in order to protect Egyptian President Morsi.

According to the rumor, the letter is from Assistant Qatari Foreign Minister Ali Bin Fahad Alshahuati Hajri to Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, confirming the transfer of the qusrter billion dollars on the orders of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, to Khaled Meshaal by Qatar Central Bank, in order to "help empower the Egyptian president and preserve his life and the stability of the administration of the country for as long as possible."

A quick glance at even the poor quality of this "letter" indicates a bad cut and paste job of the text underneath a Qatari foreign ministry letterhead; the two parts are not even in alignment. Apparently someone created this on Facebook and it was picked up as news in many Arab media outlets.

The fact that it was spread so quickly indicates that there are many, many Arabs who are alarmed by Morsi's Islamism - and they believe that the easiest way to discredit him is to link him to Hamas!

So even though the rumor holds no water, the existence of the rumor does tell us a lot about what many Arabs - specifically Gulf Arabs - think about the Islamist takeover of Egypt, and especially that they have no love for Hamas, and for Qatar's recent financial and political support of Hamas.

Leaks indicate Burgas report will blame Hezbollah (updated)

From The Commentator:

Nearly seven months after the bus bombing in Bulgaria that killed six Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian government is set to announce that "all roads lead to Lebanon" in the strongest sign yet that Hezbollah was the key perpetrator behind the attack.

The Commentator has exclusively learned that today, the Bulgarian government will implicate, though likely not name the terrorist group Hezbollah in its report on the 2012 bus bombing that has been the subject of much speculation over the past six months.

The Commentator has learned that both the German and French governments have both piled pressure on the Bulgarians to "use nuanced language" in the report, for fear that Bulgaria may be the focus of future attacks if Hezbollah is openly named.

The Bulgarian government, it has been stated by leading sources, has been informed through ‘back channels’ that there will be serious repercussions from Hezbollah if it is to publically and overtly name the group. This information comes despite strong pressure from the US government to make clear that the bombing was indeed the work of the Lebanese terrorist outfit.

To date, Hezbollah in its entirety is not proscribed by the United Kingdom, nor by the European Union, a move that it still not thought to be forthcoming despite the latest revelations.

The report was signed off by Bulgaria's National Security Council last night and then sealed by the President. The timing of its official release is said to be "mid morning" GMT. Sources claim the report may also point to Iranian involvement in the attack, though it is unclear yet as to whether this is simply funding related or otherwise.

WSJ largely corroborates this:

Bulgaria's government is expected to release an investigative report this week blaming the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and its ally Iran for a terrorist bombing last summer that killed five Israeli tourists, said U.S. and Middle East officials briefed on the findings.

After the bombing, Israel charged that Hezbollah, on orders from Tehran, carried out the July 18 assault on Israeli vacationers as they boarded buses outside an airport in the Black Sea resort city of Burgas. A Bulgarian bus driver was also killed in the attack, the deadliest on Israelis abroad since 2004.

But the report by Bulgaria's government, which is seen as an independent actor on Mideast affairs, could lend weight to an Israeli push to get the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, said European officials. {EoZ: The Americans are pushing it too, as seen in the Commentator article.]

The U.S. and European governments also are expected to cite the study in their efforts to tighten economic sanctions against Iran, both because of its nuclear program and Tehran's alleged support of international terrorist groups.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov is scheduled to brief senior members of the Bulgarian government on the investigation's findings on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the ministry said. She declined to comment on the contents of the report.

A U.S. official said the White House will issue a statement following Bulgaria's release of the report.

The U.S. and Israel have accused Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of ordering a string of overseas terrorist attacks aimed at American and Israeli targets over the past two years, including in India, Thailand and Georgia.

Iran and Hezbollah have denied involvement in any of the international attacks. Tehran also has accused Israel of assassinating leading Iranian nuclear scientists, something the Jewish state has never confirmed nor denied.

Evidence of a Hezbollah-directed strike on EU territory could shift the perception of the Lebanese-Shiite group in Europe, which has resisted following Washington's decision to label it a terrorist organization.

If the Bulgarian report reaches a clear conclusion, a senior European diplomat said on Monday, "We will have to look very seriously at the options we have."

France and Germany evidently think that by not naming Hezbollah in the report, the Iran-backed terrorist organization will attack them last. The Commentator article seems to imply that Bulgaria was willing to be more forthcoming, even in the face of Hezbollah terror threats, than Germany and France.

It is proof positive, as if we needed any, that fear of terrorism is a large part of the decision making in European capitals - which explains, among other things, their reluctance to back Israel wholeheartedly in public and at the UN.

In other words, in much of the EU, terrorism simply works.

UPDATE: They did name Hezbollah:

Hezbollah bombed a bus filled with Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year, investigators said Tuesday, describing a sophisticated bombing carried out by a terrorist cell that included Canadian and Australian citizens.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, in the first major announcement in the investigation into the July 18 bombing that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver, said one of the suspects entered the country with a Canadian passport, and another with one from Australia.

“We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,” Tsvetanov said after a meeting of Bulgaria’s National Security Council. “We expect the government of Lebanon to assist in the further investigation.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Europol Director Rob Wainwright said the bomb was detonated remotely using a circuit board that a Europol expert has analyzed. Although it was initially believed to be a suicide bombing, Wainwright said investigators believe the bomber never intended to die.

Two counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses that were found near the bombing scene were traced back to Lebanon, where they were made, Wainwright said.

He said forensic evidence, intelligence sources and patterns in past attacks all point to Hezbollah’s involvement in the blast.

“The Bulgarian authorities are making quite a strong assumption that this is the work of Hezbollah,” Wainwright said. “From what I’ve seen of the case — from the very strong, obvious links to Lebanon, from the modus operandi of the terrorist attack and from other intelligence that we see — I think that is a reasonable assumption.”

Speaking of what Palestinian Arabs teach their children...

This cartoon was found in the (UNRWA) Amari camp child center Facebook page:

But don't call it hate. After all, he's flashing a peace sign, right?

Why the textbook study is fatally flawed - on both sides

I finally got a copy of the textbook study that has been all over the news, and figured out the problem.

The authors of the study are willing - actually, insisting - to sacrifice accuracy for political correctness.

Call me naive, but I think that schoolbooks should be, above all, accurate. While I have some quibbles with the accuracy of the Israeli textbook examples they bring to prove "negative descriptions of the other," most of them are correct. At least one of the Palestinian Arab textbooks they cite is ridiculously inaccurate, the others less so..

Let's look at them.

Here are the Israeli textbooks they mention as examples of negative descriptions of Palestinian Arabs:

“Since its establishment, the State of Israel sought to make peace with its neighbors, the Arab countries, through Israeli-Arab negotiations. Its efforts, however, have failed in the first thirty years of Israel’s existence, because of the refusal of Arab countries and nations to recognize the right of existence of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. In order to harm Israel, to weaken it and destroy it, the Arab countries have initiated terror attacks, infiltrations into the territory of the State of Israel and harming the civilian population. The Arab countries have accumulated weapons and ammunition and strengthened their armies to wage a total war against Israel” (State and state religious schools, Being Citizens in Israel- in a Jewish and Democratic State [ יהודית במדינה :בישראל אזרחים להיות ודמוקרטית], Grade 11, p.332, LP3275).

This is a very accurate description of the situation before the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. What purpose does it serve not to say that the Arab nations were hostile then, or not to say that they intended to destroy Israel? They said it explicitly, daily, in their newspapers and in the UN. To tone this down would not serve the students at all.

“Long ago, we were forbidden to leave the yard and especially not to go for walks. The Arabs would snipe on the roads. To bring the milk, two drivers would come in a convoy of trucks. But once the Arabs shot at the car bringing the milk and hit Uri the driver. Uri’s grave was dug at night since the kibbutz cemetery was too close to the Arab village, near the yard of Abu Salah. In the yard, Arab “gangs” were based who would go out from time to time to attack traffic on the roads” (State religious schools, Open the Gate: Anthology for 6th Grade.(Grade 6, p.305, LP1254 ,[פתחו את השער: מקראה לכיתה ו]

Assuming this is from a memoir and not made up, I see no problem with this as well. If it was made up I would have a problem with it.

“Ever since 1964, the year the PLO was founded, Palestinian terrorist gangs penetrated (to Israel)… The PLO took advantage of the military defeat of Arab countries to increase its terrorist activity against Israel” (State secular schools, National World - Building a State in the Middle East [ בונים - 'ב לאומי עולם התיכון במזרח מדינה], Grade 10, Part 2, p.186, LP1027).

I believe that it wasn't the PLO in a vacuum that took advantage of the defeat in 1967; I think it's rise afterwards was a fairly well designed plan to weaken Israel through terror and public opinion that was implemented not only by the PLO but by the Arabs and even the Eastern Bloc. But, again, this is not a gratuitous swipe at Arabs either.

“Israel is a young country and surrounded by enemies: Syria, Egypt, Jordan. And on every side […] enemy states are hatching plots that are only waiting for the right time to be carried out. Like a little lamb in a sea of seventy wolves is Israel among the Arab states, which, ever since she was established to this day have not come to terms with the fact of her existence even after they have threatened to destroy all the inhabitants…” (Ultra-Orthodox schools, Country and Its Inhabitants: Israel Studies [ישראל ארץ למודי :ויושביה ארץ], Grade 4, Part 3, 2008, p.118, LP1333).

The wording here is a little too emotional for my tastes, although not out of bounds for a fourth grade book. Nevertheless, surveys and the Arab media have pretty much proven this to be accurate as well, even for countries that Israel has a peace treaty with. Nonetheless, the description here should be toned down to at least speak about those treaties, and that Jordan and Egypt have largely kept them - those are important facts as well.

“The Arab states ogled the lands of Israel, claiming that Jewish Israel is a foreign plant in the very heart of the Arab states. The Palestinian pact states that they must wage holy war, Jihad, and liberate Israel-Palestine from the Jews. Not only do the states bordering on Israel work against her, but also all the other Arab states. In almost all the wars Israel has had with her neighbors, Iraqis have sent soldiers to fight Israel. Iraq has also helped the terrorists living in Lebanon. In the Gulf War, Iraq sent missiles at Israel. Even now, Iraq still utters threats to destroy Israel. It’s enough to glance at newspapers and see that Iran is constantly uttering threats against Israel. Syria is the harshest enemy Israel has on her borders. In Lebanon, the main problem is the terrorists who live there. A peace treaty has been signed with Egypt, and also Jordan. But the citizens of those ‘friendly’ states are hostile to Israel” (Ultra-Orthodox schools, The Near East [הקרוב המזרח], 1998, p. 39, LP49)

The first sentence is accurate. The second one only describes the Islamist terror groups, not the PLO. The rest of the paragraph is accurate as well.

So should Israeli schoolbooks twist the history of the country in order to make it more politically correct? That doesn't serve anyone. Obviously, the textbooks should not generalize to all Arabs ("Arabs hate us, Arabs are jealous of us" or the like.) But there is very little here that bothers me, and the fact that these are considered so awful by this committee is, to me, a bigger problem.

Now let's look at the Palestinian Arab textbooks that they say were guilty of the same crime:

“The conference reaffirmed again that the Zionist occupation and its usurpation of Palestine and its people's rights comprise the core of the conflict in the Middle East” (Palestinian schools, History of the Arabs and the World: in the Twentieth Century [العشرين القرن في والعالم العرب تاريخ], Grade 12, p.74, LP799).

If this is referring to an Arab League or similar conference that in fact made such a statement, I have no problem with this. It should be taught to the Israelis as well.

“Palestine's ancient history saw the entry of the children of Israel led by Joshua son of Nun in the 12th century BC, and they fought the Palestinian Canaanites. In the last third of the 11th century BC, Saul son of Kish (Talut) became leader of the children of Israel, and fought the Palestinians, who were led by Goliath, who were able to kill him and his sons. At the end of the 11th century BC, after his death, the prophet David son of Jesse became leader of the children of Israel, and continued fighting the Palestinians and the Canaanites, founding the kingdom on part of the Palestinians' land under his leadership...” (Palestinian schools, History of Palestine: Modern and Contemporary [ الحديث فلسطين تاريخوالمعاصر], Grade 11, Part 1, 2008, p.9, LP1004).

The idea that Canaanites were "Palestinian" is laughable, and this attempt to twist Biblical history into modern terms is reprehensible. Not so much because of the hate that underlies it, but because of the rewriting of history specifically to incite hate. That is a far cry from what we saw in the Israeli textbooks quoted.

“Britain sought the Jews' help to achieve their imperialist aspirations, and so the Jews began migrating to Palestine... but as calls intensified in Europe to settle the Jews in Palestine, some Jewish organizations began to appear in support of colonizing the Holy Land...” (Palestinian schools, History of Palestine: Modern and Contemporary [والمعاصر الحديث فلسطين تاريخ], Grade 11, Part 1, 2008, p. 58, LP1023).

This doesn't bother me so much either. Britain did support Zionists partly for imperialist reasons. Of course, the Jewish return to the land of Israel started way before the British Mandate. (h/t alexa44) What the textbook leaves out is that Zionism itself is not colonialist, but an expression of Jewish self-determination in the only Jewish homeland.

“The incident happened on a Friday, which is the day off from school. With the hum of bullets and the roar of artillery, life was raced into an ambulance stretcher…The enemy turned to the deserted houses, looting and carrying off all they could from the village that had become grave upon grave” (Palestinian schools, Our Beautiful Language [الجميلة لغتنا], Grade 7, Part 1, p.78, LP357).

I don't know what incident they are speaking of, so it is hard for me to flatly say this is false. If it is accurate, which I doubt, why not teach it - but if it is a lie, teaching it is criminal.

Telling each side's narrative is not so terrible. Teaching children lies - especially when the lies are meant to incite - is contemptible. The study needed to concentrate on the truth above all, and only then look at the wording. By doing it backwards and sacrificing truth on the altar of political correctness, they are doing no one any favors.

Monday links: UN hypocrisy, Iran forfeits to Israel in judo, Ukrainian MP insults Mila Kunis as a Jew

From Ian:

Candidly Speaking: Hypocrisy, deceit, evil at the UN By Isi Leibler
Israel is the first country to boycott the annual human rights review presented at the bogus United Nations Human Rights Council.

"The farcical assignation of rogue states to prominent roles at the UN has transformed this purported human rights organization into a sick joke. A representative of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya was elected president of the UN General Assembly in 2009; in 2011 Qatar was elected president and Iran became vice president; both North Korea, the notorious proliferator of nuclear arms, and Iraq chaired the UN Commission on Disarmament; Iran, notorious for stoning women, was appointed to the UN Commission on the Status of Women; in 2011, Bashar Assad’s Syria was elected to a UNESCO commission dealing with human rights and to this day Syria remains on the committee of UNESCO; Libya introduced a UN resolution to “end all forms of racial discrimination”; Iran called on the US to implement international humanitarian law; China demanded an end to “excessive force by law enforcement bodies.”

Bombing the Syrian Reactor: The Untold Story by Elliott Abrams

"Finally, this incident is a reminder that there is no substitute for military strength and the will to use it. Think of how much more dangerous to the entire region the Syrian civil war would be today if Assad had a nuclear reactor, and even perhaps nuclear weapons, in hand. Israel was right to bomb that reactor before construction was completed, and President Bush was right to support its decision to do so. Israel was also right in rejecting fears that the incident would lead to a larger war and in believing that it, and the United States, would be better off after this assertion of leadership and determination. That lesson must be on the minds of Israeli, and American, leaders in 2013."

Foreign States Meddling in Israel to Tune of 35M NIS Annually

Transparency Law reveals 13 political advocacy NGOs received foreign grants totaling 21.6M NIS in 2012.
"Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor released a report Sunday analyzing submissions made by NGOs to the Israeli registrar of non-profits in 2012, as legislated under the NGO Transparency law.
The reports for 2012 show that a total amount of 34,355,579 NIS annually was provided to 30 NGOs, from a number of foreign governments."

CIF Watch: Chas Freeman, “Fifth Columnists” and the ‘Guardian Left’

"Increasingly, many on the far left (certainly on the Guardian Left) explain, in a tone of exasperation, that they’re tired of false accusations of antisemitism which, they often add, make people less sensitive to “real” antisemitism. Yet, it seems, when confronted with a competition for their sympathy, foes of the Israel lobby (no matter how crude, unenlightened and Judeophobic their rhetoric) seem to win out over a historically oppressed Jewish minority every time.
A ‘left’ which can’t condemn, passionately and without qualifications, the hideous charge that American Jews are corrupting the body politic, and are working to undermine the nation, due to an unhealthy ethnic loyalty, are simply not worthy of the progressive mantle to which they so hubristically lay claim."

Sunday Times Prints Full Apology for ‘Blood Libel’ Cartoon

“The Times added: “The image we published of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, which appeared to show him reveling in the blood of Palestinians, crossed a line. The image would have been a mistake on any day but the fact that last Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day compounded the error.”

Iranian intel post in Syria reportedly among Israeli targets
Report claims listening station near border would be targeted in strike; Israel may be mulling creating buffer zone inside Syria

Israel Nabs Gold, Bronze at Judo Championships
Israel's judo team won 2 medals in the World Judo Championship games.

"Chen beat competitors from Russia, Armenia and Hungary to get to his medal, but was unable to progress further; he had been scheduled to fight against an Iranian judo expert, who refused to enter the ring when he found out he was scheduled to fight an Israeli. Similarly, Sasson's award was marred by a another Iranian's intransigent refusal to have anything to do with Israel; an Iranian who was set to receive a bronze chose to forgo the honor, rather than get on stage with an Israeli to get the prize."

UK firm framed in Syria chemical weapons plot

"Scotland Yard investigators suspect that Iran may be involved in attempt to hack British security company, fake scheme in which it was asked to deliver chemical weapons to Homs
Police in the United Kingdom suspect that Iran may be involved in an attempt to smear the West by hacking a British security company and faking a plot in which the firm was asked to deploy chemical weapons in Syria, the Sunday Times reports.
The company's computers were hacked about two weeks ago, and false emails created as part of the sophisticated cyber attack claimed the plot had been sanctioned by Washington and indicated a desire to frame Syrian President Bashar Assad. "

Erodgan: Israel Waging 'State Terrorism' in Syria
Turkish PM says Israeli air strike on Syria violates international law, ignores his own country's similar past actions.

Your defeat ... becomes our game," a new video for the Hamas media war

IDF nabs 25 in West Bank, including 20 Hamas members
Overnight raids seen as attempt to weaken the surging Islamist group

Shocking: Russia Today Presenter Abby Martin Accuses Israel of Using ‘Hitler’s Methods’

"Russia Today host Abby Martin got back on her high-horse recently, accusing Israel of using “Hitler’s methods” to maintain a “Jewish majority.” The host on the Russian state-funded channel adopted her inimitable posture of disbelief and outrage to brandish her accusations."

Chilling Video: Thousands of Neo-Nazis March Through Athens

Tens of thousands of neo-Nazis rallied in support of Greece's Golden Dawn party, in its largest demonstration of support

First They Came for Mila Kunis
Ukraine's Anti-Semitism

"One of the most recognizable figures of Ukrainian Jewish descent, the beautiful and talented actress Mila Kunis, recently was targeted by a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from the far-right Svoboda Party – known for regularly injecting anti-Semitism into its speeches and public pronouncements. He sneeringly proclaimed that she was "not Ukrainian but a zhydovka." Zhydovka is a hurtful slur for a Jew, and this was apparently a gutter effort to inject Jew-hatred into the acceptable bounds of mainstream Ukrainian discourse."

Israel Prevents Environmental Catastrophe in Samaria

"The Civil Authority and the IDF has cleared out 20,000 cubic tons of trash from an illegal Arab dump in Samaria, after ongoing appeals from an environmental organization. The Yarok Achshav (“Green Now”) group expressed its satisfaction at the resolution of the issue, preventing further damage to the environment by Arabs in the area."

Israel Daily Picture: On "Superbowl Sunday" We Present "Football" from the Holy
Land
American-style football with helmets and pads has only recently caught on in Israel. But "football" in Israel after 1948 and in British Mandate Palestine prior to 1948 is "soccer."

Also:

How water became a weapon in Arab-Israeli conflict (Jpost)

Israel responds to textbook report

From The Forward, and plenty of other places:

The question of Palestinian textbooks’ portrayal of Jews has been bitterly debated for years. More than a decade ago, the European Union considered halting aid to the Palestinian Authority based on its negative portrayals of Israelis in its textbooks.

As recently as last year, the Washington Jewish Week reported on a dispute over whether Palestinian textbooks call Israelis pigs and snakes. Over the past decade, the Israeli government, the State Department and independent groups have produced wildly varying reports on the contents of Palestinian textbooks.

The new study examined 94 books from Palestinian school systems in Gaza and the West Bank, and 74 books from the Israeli secular and religious school systems. There were just 20 instances of “extreme negative characterizations” of Palestinians in Israeli secular books and seven in Israeli ultra-Orthodox books, according to the study. One such example in an ultra-Orthodox book referred to a decimated Arab village, now the site of an Israeli settlement, as “a nest of murderers.”

Palestinian books had just six instances of these “extreme negative characterizations.” For instance, one book referred to an Israeli interrogation room as a “slaughterhouse.”

These characterizations, however, were extremely rare and statistically insignificant.

Until I see the actual report (not yet on the webpage of the organization that created it) or can see the actual textbooks I cannot say for certain that this report is wrong. I can say quite definitively that in the Palestinian Arab media, the idea of a peaceful two-state solution providing two states for two peoples is virtually nonexistent.

Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs came out with a response (not sure it is is online.) Here are some highlights:

The "Victims of Our Own Narratives" study on Israeli and Palestinian school books correctly recognizes that education towards a culture of peace, and the cessation of incitement, are critical elements in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace. However, the report is highly-problematic and strongly-misleading for five reasons:

1. The overall approach and tone of the study reflect an attempt to present an artificial and inaccurate picture of balance between the levels of incitement and peace culture development in Palestinian and Israeli textbooks. In reality, there can be no comparison between Israeli state textbooks, which, while not perfect, educate for peace, and Palestinian textbooks which are pervaded by incitement, delegitimization of Israel, and education for the continuation of conflict. While the actual findings of the study do indeed point to the very significant differences between official Israeli and Palestinian books, and the widespread incitement in the latter, in order to create the impression of balance the study understates and obscures its findings, presents results in a misleading manner, , provides excuses for the Palestinians, and couches its analysis in general terms which take as a given parallels and similarities between the educational systems.

2. The study omits important examples of incitement and delegitimization of Israelis and Jews in official PA textbooks, whether in an intentional attempt to blur the differences between the two educational systems or due to poor research. At the same time, it categorizes as negatives examples from Israeli textbooks which do not deserve to be described as such.

3. Its methodology is flawed in that it misses or obscures critical differences between Israeli and Palestinian texts. For example, if one examines the examples categorized as negative descriptions of the acts of the other, one finds that while the Israeli examples primarily refer to pogroms and terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jews, such as the 1941 Farhud pogrom in Iraq and PLO terrorist attacks, many of the Palestinian examples describe Zionism and the foundation/existence of Israel as essentially illegitimate and immoral. Inculcating the message that Israel's existence is essentially illegitimate makes any kind of progress towards an end of the conflict and lasting peace impossible. Similarly, the study finds that in both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks martyrdom through self-sacrifice is the third most common value attributed to the self-community. This obscures the fact that the Palestinian examples glorify martyrdom while perpetuating acts against Israelis, while the Israeli examples describe historical victims of such attacks (Joseph Trumpeldor's death at the Tel Hai fortress in 1920.)

4. The report provides a misleading picture regarding its sponsors. The report states that the study received funding from the US State Department, creating the impression of official US support for the study. While the project did receive a State Department grant in 2008, the US government had no involvement with the methodology or findings of the study and has not lent its support to the actual report. Additionally the authors of the report attempt to provide it with an aura of respectability and authority by noting that it was commissioned by the 'Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land'. This too is misleading as the Jewish representative on the Council, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, has retracted its support for the study. It should also be noted that the Palestinian representatives on the council, the PA Minister of Religious Affairs and the Chief Justice of the PA Sharia Courts, have themselves made publically-documented statements of incitement and delegitimization against Israel on a number of occasions, including denying the Jewish connection to the Western Wall. (see Appendix 1 for examples).

5. Perhaps most importantly- The study provides a highly-flawed and distorted depiction of the PA's systematic efforts to educate and indoctrinate Palestinian children to hate, violence and non-acceptance of Israel's existence. This is a result of the fact that the study focuses only on a very specific and limited component of those efforts. In addition to the material included in school books, official PA educational publications, matriculation exams, summer camps, children's media programs, cultural events and social media portals, all constitute key components of the PA system for inculcating messages which glorify terror, demonize Israelis and Jews, and teach that Israel's existence is illegitimate and transitory. Information regarding incitement in these other educational and youth-oriented arenas and platforms is readily available in the public domain. While the study's authors can perhaps justify these omissions by the narrow mandate given to the study, the inaccurate and misleading picture which results strongly compromises the study's utility as an investigation into the phenomenon of education for peace/conflict and its potential solutions.

Then they give specific examples:

The following examples of incitement are not included in the study. They are either from school textbooks which presumably were examined by the researches, who chose to omit the examples, from textbooks which were not examined by the researches due to their subject matter (e.g. mathematics or natural sciences ), or from other publications, outlets and platforms which make up key elements of the PA apparatus for educating and indoctrinating Palestinian youth.
It must be noted that the following examples constitute a very small sample of the hundreds of examples of official PA incitement.
1. The dispute with Israel is not over territory, but over the legitimacy of Israel's existence, let alone Israel's existence of a Jewish state.
i. “The Levant countries [Al-Sham] presently consist of the states of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.” [History of Ancient Civilizations textbook, Grade 5, (2012), p. 27]
ii. In a 2012 book for 3rd graders, a text referring to the Palestinian state is accompanied by a small map of the country in its entirety—including pre-1967 Israel—shown as one political unit covered by a pattern of the Palestinian flag. The text asks "An independent Palestinian state was declared in 1988. How many years have passed since the declaration of independence?" [Mathematics, Grade 3, Part 1 (2012(, p. 80.]

iii. PA textbooks falsify historical documents in order to erase and deny the Jewish connection to the land. The front cover of the National Education textbook for second grade portrays a British Mandate-era stamp in which the original Hebrew writing has been erased leaving only the Arabic.
Stamp as portrayed on front page (and again on page 7) of Grade 2 National Education textbook (part 1, 2009), and actual stamp:
iv. PA textbooks inculcate messages of non-acceptance of the other even when discussing seemingly innocuous topics. This education begins as early as first grade. In a first grade science textbook, a discussion of magnifying glasses includes the following image of a magnifying glass over a text reading "Palestine is Arabic." [Science, grade 1, Part 1, (2010), page 7]

Director of "The Gatekeepers" libels Bibi on CNN, blaming him for Rabin's death (Yoel)

From Yoel:

Dror Moreh is the director of The Gatekeepers, an Oscar nominee featuring 6 of Israel's Shabak chiefs.

The movie is getting a lot of buzz because it indicates that previous heads of the Shin Bet are admitting Israeli mistakes in the territories.

In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour Moreh had this to say:

AMANPOUR: You mentioned the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, who was the one who signed the Oslo Accords and who believed in a peace settlement. I notice in the film that you brought up footage of the rallies before the assassination. And you featured -- at least the rallies featured -- Benjamin Netanyahu.
What were you saying by putting that video in? And what was he saying then?

MOREH: Well, there was a lot of incitement towards Rabin as a prime minister then. And Benjamin Netanyahu took his big share in that. I mean, the demonstration where Netanyahu is headed and behind him there is the coffin of Rabin. And he saw that. I'm absolutely sure that he saw that. He wasn't naive.
And he was heading those -- some of the rallies were horrible. I mean, they called Rabin a Nazi collaborator. They called Rabin -- especially the extreme right wing in Israel, they basically -- I mean, Yigal Amir, the assassin, is in jail.
But I think much of the perpetrators, the people who sent him, the extreme right wing rabbis, those politicians who were there, are as much to blame as the one that pulled the trigger. He [Yigal Amir - Yoel] was their [the rabbis' and the politicians' - Yoel] messenger.

Moreh is simply recycling the Israeli Left's blood libel myth that Bibi was somehow responsible for Rabin's death. Everyone of these accusations - that Bibi incited against Rabin, that there was a coffin of Rabin, that the Right was responsible for the poster of Rabin in SS uniform - is a complete lie.

In this video, dated the 17th of April 1995, more than half a year before Rabin's assassination, Bibi is seen telling a crowed of Likud supporters, who are shouting "Rabin is a traitor", that Rabin is not a traitor. He repeats this several times. He also tells the crowed that Rabin is wrong, that he'll have to step aside and that "we're dealing with political rivals, not enemies. We're one and the same people."

More than a year before that, on the 4th of March 1994, there was a Right-wing rally in Ra'anana. The rally featured a coffin. Ever since that rally the Left has been claiming that the coffin was that of Rabin. Thus the Right was accused of wanting the death of Rabin and this incident was regarded as a milestone on the road to Rabin's murder. The Left relied on people's short memory, on their ignorance or on the fact that they weren't born yet or were very little back then. But thanks to the web we can now know if the coffin really symbolised the death of Rabin. In fact, one side of the coffin said "Rabin is burying us" (

''רבין קובר אותנו'')

, while the other side said "Rabin is bringing about the death of Zionism" ("רבין ממית [ה]ציונות"). (see comments)

These are harsh words but the coffin symbolised the death of Zionism not the death of Rabin. It should be remembered that this was during the Oslo Accords when buses and suicide bombers were blowing up people on the streets of Israel on a daily or weekly basis.

Here and here Shelly Yachimovitch (now the head of Labor but then a journalist) and Tommy Lapid (Ya'ir Lapid's father) are calling upon the Left to stop accusing the Likud and Bibi of inciting against Rabin or of being responsible for his murder.

This is not to say that there wasn't incitement against Rabin among the far Right. But there was, and still is, also incitement on the Left. I can provide many examples.

If the director is so dismissive of the truth when on CNN, how loose with the truth was he with how he edited the film?

UPDATE - see comments; Yoel clarifies and adds some information.

5 Palestinian Arabs killed, 12 injured. But it was in Syria, so no one cares

Yesterday 5 Palestinian Arabs were killed in Syria, and 12 more wounded.

Four were killed in the Yarmouk camp by Syrian shelling, and one more was killed by a sniper in the Adra camp.

"Pro-Palestinian" groups have not commented. Nor will they. Because Arabs killed by Arabs are a dog-bites-man story that can be buried or ignored, but those killed by Jews are a war crime and a propaganda bonanza.

Abbas: Solution can come this year - if the world forces Israel to surrender

"Moderate" PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas told a Russian news agency that a solution to the Israel/Palestinian Arab problem can come this year, as long as the world pressures Israel to capitulate to the maximal PLO demands.

"President" Abbas - whose term ended several years ago - said in an interview with the Tass news agency that "Palestine got recognition at the United Nations and therefore can settle all matters relating to settlement, Jerusalem and refugees during the current year; we are hoping to achieve Palestinian independence in 2013."

He stressed that the conflict can be resolved if the Israeli government is ready to solve it "on the basis of international legitimacy," which is the Palestinian Arab keyword for ignoring the wording of UNSC 242 and elevating UNGC 194 into importance and meanings it never had to force Israel to sccept millions of fake refugees.

abbas stressed the importance of international support, pointing out that Russia had always stood with the Palestinians. He added that the Palestinian Authority was seeking to obtain the support of the United States and other countries.

He said nothing about going back to the negotiating table with Israel, though. Instead, he reiterated his precondition added in 2008 that Israel must stop Israeli settlement activity, one that didn't exist since Oslo.

On unity with Hamas, Abbas announced that the internal Palestinian reconciliation with the terror group can be achieved in the coming months. No doubt he sees no problem with the international legitimacy of including terror groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in his government.

Morsi looking more like Mubarak; sends family on expensive vacation

From Al Arabiya:

Reports that Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi recently sent his family and friends on an expensive vacation that consisted of a private jet ride to the Red Sea resort town of Taba and the booking of 12 rooms at the Hilton has caused outrage in country, battered by an ongoing political and economic crisis.

Earlier this week, an official at the Taba resort told the Egyptian newspaper, Almasry Alyoum, that Mursi’s family arrived on Wednesday.

The official also said Mursi’s family reserved 12 rooms at the Hilton Hotel, which overlooks the Red Sea, and in addition to the Mursi clan wives of officials from the Freedom and Justice Party came to stay.

Egyptian screenwriter Wahed Hamed on Sunday spoke out against the alleged luxurious vacation.. Hamed, in remarks published in the Egyptian daily Al-Shrouq, asked who was paying the bill for the 12 reserved rooms.

“The country is poor, and the [rate of hunger] increases every day. Mursi’s [financial] resources do not allow these huge expenses. And since when has Mursi’s family traveled via a private jet?” he added.

Almasry Alyoum reported the president’s family, as well as the others who accompanied them, returned to Cairo on Saturday afternoon, on a private jet.

An official at the Smart Aviation Company said expenses for the flight per hour costs 6,000 U.S dollars. The official added that the total cost encompasses the time from when the jet was prepared for travel and until it lands at its destination.

Radwan Salam, head of the Smart Aviation Company, said he did not know who rented the jet which Mursi’s family boarded, Almasry Alyoum added.

During an interview with the channel An-Nahar on Saturday evening, Hamed, the Egyptian screen writers, acknowledged that Mursi’s wife, Najlaa Mahmoud, may have “nothing to do with politics.” But she “must look at the poor citizens.”

Reports on the alleged expenses of the vacation were also not well-received on the social networking website Twitter. One user tweeted: “I thank all the respectful citizens who paid the price for the Taba vacation.”

Another wrote: “All of this is from the citizens’ pockets.”

Iran's new jet really is "stealth" - it doesn't even exist!

From The Blaze:

Iran has unveiled a new domestically designed and manufactured fighter jet that it says has stealth capabilities, a claim that aviation experts are already questioning.

Iranian authorities rolled out a single-seat bomber, the Qaher F-313 (“Dominant”), on Saturday to much fanfare, including an appearance by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who assured the jet is for defensive purposes only, a claim reminiscent of Iranian assurances that its nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes.

The Tehran Times reports that Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi detailed some of the plane’s capabilities which he claims include:

• avoiding radar detection
• flying at low altitudes
• carrying advanced domestically-manufactured weapons
• taking off and landing on short runways
• able to combat other aircraft and targets on the ground

The Israeli paper Maariv interviewed aeronautical expert Tal Inbar who says the aircraft looked like a model made of fiberglass or cardboard. He said, “It’s not a plane, because that’s not how a real plane looks.”

“Iran doesn’t have the ability to build planes. Plain and simple,” Inbar added.

TOI adds:

Aviation guru David Cenciotti, a freelance reporter, remarked on his blog that the plane sported “implausible aerodynamics and Hollywood sheen” and was laughably small for a fighter jet. He noted that the cockpit was far too basic for a sophisticated aircraft, and appeared “similar to those equipping small private planes.”

“The nose section is so small almost no radar could fit in it,” he wrote. “The air intakes are extremely small, whereas the engine section lacks any kind of nozzle: engine afterburners could melt the entire jet.”

“It looks like this pilot is in a miniature plane” and it appeared “nothing more than a large mock-up model,” he argued.

Iran also broadcast video footage of the Qaher F-313 in flight, which Cenciotti said appeared to fly like a “radio-controlled scale model more than a modern fighter jet.” He also noted it was suspect that Tehran did not release takeoff and landing footage of its new aircraft.

Other aviation blogs were similarly skeptical.

An aircraft that doesn't exist? Now, that's what I call stealth!

Arab group calls Coke Super Bowl ad "racist"

From Reuters:

Arab-American groups have sharply criticized a Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad depicting an Arab walking through the desert with a camel, and one group said it would ask the beverage giant to change it before CBS airs the game on Sunday before an expected audience of more than 100 million U.S. viewers.

"Why is it that Arabs are always shown as either oil-rich sheiks, terrorists, or belly dancers?" said Warren David, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC.

Coca-Cola released an online teaser of the commercial last week, showing the Arab walking through a desert. He soon sees cowboys, Las Vegas showgirls and a motley crew fashioned after the marauders of the apocalyptic "Mad Max" film race by him to reach a gigantic bottle of Coke.

In its ad, Coke asks viewers to vote online on which characters should win the race. The online site does not allow a vote for the Arab character.

"The Coke commercial for the Super Bowl is racist, portraying Arabs as backward and foolish Camel Jockeys, and they have no chance to win in the world," Imam Ali Siddiqui, president of the Muslim Institute for Interfaith Studies, said in an email.

"What message is Coke sending with this?" asked Abed Ayoub, ADC's director of legal and policy affairs. "By not including the Arab in the race, it is clear that the Arab is held to a different standard when compared to the other characters in the commercial," he said.

CBS declined comment. Coca-Cola spokeswoman Lauren Thompson said Coke took a "cinematic" approach with the ad, employing the characters as a nod to movies of the past.

The Arab League boycotted Coke from 1968 to 1991, and some Arabs still boycott Coke.

A hat tip here to the first one to identify the classical piece in the first ten seconds of the commercial. And which movement.

UPDATE: AlexandreM gets it after some prodding - Scheherazade, by Rimsky Korsakov, second movement. Jody Goldberg identified the piece but not the movement.

Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, today expressed the hope that Syria will strike back at Israel after the apparent Israeli raid on one or two targets in Syria, presumed to be a chemical/biological weapons plant and a shipment of advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah.

Middle East Online, however, remembers that only last week Iran declared that any Israeli strike on Syria will be considered an attack against Iran and Iran would retaliate. That statement, the latest of a long line of similar declarations, was made by Ali Akbar Velayati, assistant to the Supreme Leader Khamanei. As the MEO headline says, Iran is telling Syria to go and fight while Iran is doing nothing.

This isn't stopping Iran from saying that the Syrian response is imminent, and "will put Israel in a coma." Tehran also announced that thousands of Israelis are preparing to leave the country in anticipation of the massive Syrian response.

It it too early to say that Iran is not preparing a response, but history shows that Tehran likes to do its dirty work through proxies like Hezbollah or by attacking Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide through its spy services.

One cannot also underestimate Muslim pride - Iran is undoubtedly not happy with being made fun of and of having its fellow Muslim countries see it as breaking its own promises.