Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, March 09, 2013

HRW equally guilty in blaming Israel for Mishrawi baby's death

Last week I revealed that the UN verified that, Omar Mishrawi, the 11-month old son of a BBC employee, was killed by a Hamas rocket during Operation Pillar of Defense. The BBC and other media outlets flatly blamed his death on Israel with no caveats.

The scoop has been tearing through cyberspace, with over 1000 Facebook "Likes" and well over a hundred retweets, many to the BBC demanding a retraction.

More problematic than even the BBC denial that this could have been a Hamas rocket is how Human Rights Watch reported the same incident, in lurid detail:

Israeli strikes on November 14 killed at least four Palestinian civilians, including a man in his 60s, a 20-year-old woman, a 7-year-old girl, an 18-month-old boy, and an 11-month-old boy, and severely wounded a girl, aged about 5, according to news reports and witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch. An 18-month old boy injured on November 14 died the following day, Palestinian media reported.

Abeer Ayyoub, a freelance journalist reporting from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told Human Rights Watch that she viewed the body of the 11-month-old, and that the 5-year-old girl was “totally burned with blood coming from her mouth.” Medical staff said the infant had been wounded in an Israeli strike.

BBC journalists tweeted that those killed in an Israeli airstrike included the sister-in-law and 11-month-old son of a BBC Arabic Service journalist, and that the journalist’s brother was seriously wounded. Palestinian media reported that Ranan Arafat, the 7-year-old girl, was killed in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City, and that the 11-month-old, Ahmed Masharawi, was killed by a tank shell at his family’s home in Shajai’ya.

Now we know that at least two of these victims were killed by Hamas (and a third died later) but HRW has not issued a correction. Nor has it issued any reports about Hamas endangering Gaza civilians with its own rockets. Even a month after the fighting, in HRW's perfunctory report condemning Hamas rocket attacks, there is no mention of Gazans killed by Hamas rockets or even of Hamas rockets falling short - even though by then these facts were well known. (They only say that the rockets being fired from civilian areas endanger civilians open to Israeli reprisals, not the direct danger from the rockets. Yet at that time it was already known that about a hundred rockets had fallen short in Gaza.)

Does HRW know the truth? There is evidence it does. When it released its February report/smear "Gaza Airstrikes Violated Laws of War" it did not mention either the Mishrawi case, or the other case of a known Hamas rocket that killed Gazans, the Sadallah incident. And the OCHA-OPT report at the end of November says:

[I]nformation collected by human rights organizations suggests that up to six Palestinian civilians, including one woman and three children, may have been killed by Palestinian rockets falling short within Gaza.

I don't know if HRW is one of these organizations, but the knowledge that some of the Gaza victims were actually killed by Hamas rockets was well-known by human right organizations during the fighting - and virtually unreported. it seems beyond belief that HRW, among the most prestigious human rights organizations, could have missed this information.

More likely, it simply ignored it, and never bothered correcting its earlier report.

It is bad enough for the media to get it wrong. But HRW still has some gravitas among certain people and their refusal to ever correct their mistakes, and their lack of transparency on how they generate their reports altogether, is far worse.

Arab world's "Perfect Mother" is the wife, mother of terrorists

From Al Monitor:

Aisha Abu Shannab, or Om Hassan, a woman in her 50s from the Gaza Strip, was awarded the Mother of the Year prize on Feb. 28. She received the honor from the Ex-Warriors Association, a local chapter affiliated with the Arab League.

Om Hassan is also the widow of late Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shannab...

"My husband Ismail left us for his final rest in 2003, and since then, I have been taking care of our seven children, including two little daughters. Besides being a widow and mother, I began taking care of this association since 2004,” she told Al-Monitor at the office of her non-profit organization in Gaza City, Lighting Candles.

"Abu Hassan (Ismail) was such a great husband and his greatness also showed in several life experiences, particularly when the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority would arrest him. Once I shouted some prayers against those who came to arrest him, but he responded by telling me: ‘Please do not pray against them, but rather pray for them, so that they could get better.’ He was such a great educator and a man of tolerance,” Om Hassan recalled.

She was once again struck with agony during Israel’s Cast Lead offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip in 2008-2009, when an Israeli airstrike targeting the Jawazzat police compound killed her eldest son, Hassan.

It was not the first time Om Hassan was tasked to care for her children alone. Ismail also served seven years in Israeli jails after being arrested in 1989 during the first intifada.

With Ismail behind bars, the family no longer received his salary from UNRWA, where he was employed. Om Hassan raised her children for those seven years on regular stipends by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which set aside funds for families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Here's what the Al Monitor article doesn't say:

Ismail Abu Shannab, her husband, was a top Hamas leader second only to Sheikh Yassin.

Her son was also a Hamas Al Qassam Brigades member, and apparently part of a music group meant to "be a blow in the heart of the enemy." Here's one of his promotional photos:

The "Perfect Mother," as her title is named in Arabic, also was interviewed by the Hamas "Palestine Times" where she says that an ideal mother should educate her sons on is "love of jihad and martyrdom".

So the "ideal mother" of the entire Arab world is an enthusiastic supporter of Islamist terror.

(h/t JW, Al Gharqad)

Saturday Links

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: Why it matters
Peace cannot begin to be made before the malignant characterization of Jewish statehood as a casus belli is recanted convincingly and comprehensively once and for all.

In other words, rather than be accepted as rightfully a Jewish state, Israel is regarded at most as a multinational temporary entity and a candidate for impending Arabization. It wouldn’t be left in peace unless it submits meekly to said Arabization and the eradication of its Jewishness.
This is a surefire recipe for perpetuating the conflict (albeit by mutating means) rather than ending it, as presumed pursuers of peace would ostensibly wish to do. The refusal to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state is tantamount to affirming an enduring Arab aspiration to obliterate the Jewish state, subsequent to an arrangement that would falsely parade as peace.

Barry Rubin: Good News; War Postponed: Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Angry at Hamas, Cuts Off Weapons

Something both positive and revealing has just happened and while it undermines one prediction of mine it reinforces another. I’m delighted to see it.
I predicted that since Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is a radical, Islamist group that wants to wipe Israel off the map and the ruling Hamas group in the Gaza Strip is part of the Muslim Brotherhood and is a radical Islamist group and wants to wipe Israel off the map that the Egyptian regime would cooperate with Hamas in fomenting terrorism against Israel and that the Egyptian government would facilitate the flow of arms, money and terrorists to the Gaza Strip for that purpose.

CIF Watch: Guardian & BBC got the death of Omar Misharawi wrong: But, nothing will change.

Sela, in her Nov. 25 post, argued that, “The tragic story of Omar Misharawi [was] used and abused to advance a very specific narrative of Israel as a killer of children.”
In short, when it comes to the activist media’s mad rush to judgement on every alleged Israeli sin, regardless of whether new facts contradicting the original conclusions are eventually revealed, nothing will be learned.

Hamas’s blockade on women’s rights in Gaza
Guardian contributors and editors are simply indefatigable in their efforts to run interference for the reactionary movement in control of 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Guardian reporters and contributors have implicitly blamed the Israeli blockade for spousal abuse in Gaza, and even on one Palestinian man’s suicide, so a recent first person account by Najah Ayash (titled ‘Life in Gaza on International Women’s Day‘) addressing her life as a women in Gaza, which completely ignored Hamas’s violation of women’s human rights, was not surprising.

Hamas’ Haniyeh Says Obama Visit a “Trap”

Haniyeh also urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to not fall prey to Obama during their visit, which is scheduled to take place while Obama is in the region, saying he should “not fall into the trap of Obama’s visit to the region and shut the door to reconciliation.”

Hamas: Obama Visit to Temple Mount - a Declaration of War
Hamas and Islamic Jihad say that a visit by Obama to the Temple Mount will be a declaration of war on the Islamic world.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups threatened on Friday that a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to the Temple Mount during his upcoming visit to Israel will be a declaration of war on the Arab and the Islamic world.

Palestinians throw petrol bombs at cops from inside Temple Mount mosque
Jerusalem police calls violence from within al-Aqsa ‘a new escalation’; nine officers and dozens of rioters lightly injured in riots

Israeli police entered Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound on Friday to disperse hundreds of Palestinians who, for the second Friday in succession, emerged from prayers to throw rocks at security forces near the entrance to the compound.
Rioters also threw two molotov cocktails at officers from inside the al-Aqsa Mosque, in what Jerusalem police chief Yossi Pariente said was “a new level of escalation.” Both petrol bombs exploded, and one of them set fire to the foot of an Israeli policeman, who quickly put out the blaze without serious injury.

Exclusive: Calling for Intifada on the Streets of Washington

Anti-Israel groups often use terms such as “justice” and “pro-peace” to hide their true agenda which, as the video shows, is really “intifada.” There is a new push to claim that a new "intifada" may be non-violent, but history suggests otherwise.
Israelis are all too familiar with the Palestinian calls for violence and death; the call for an “intifada” has now reached the streets of Washington, D.C. and is being openly celebrated.

Op-Ed: EXPOSÉ:Something is Rotten in a Denmark Unsafe for Jews
It’s just as unsafe in 2013 to be a Jew in Copenhagen as it is to be a Jew in an Arab country. In 2001, a poster in Arabic was pinned up on the notice board at a Copenhagen college. It promised a reward of $35,000 to anybody who would kill a Jew.

As my late friend Oriana Fallaci once wrote, “I find it shameful that in Denmark the youth flaunt the kaffiah as Mussolini’s avant garde flaunted the fascist badge”.
Anti-Semitism has become socially acceptable in Europe once again. Seventy years ago the Nazis had a word to say for it: “Salonfähig" (i.e.socially acceptable in polite society) . It is all in those two little dots of the German diaeresis . Scratch it and under the vowel you find the capital letter “J”. Jude. Jøde. Jew.

France posts documents from Dreyfus trial online
Notorious case proved pivotal in establishing political Zionism

The historical department of the French Ministry of Defense, SHD, placed online this week the entire military file that was used to convict Dreyfus of spying for Germany in 1894. The documents include items like investigative notes, witness statements, letters and documents stolen from foreign embassies.

Appeals court to reconsider Jerusalem passport case
Jewish groups press courts to hear petition of man determined to list country of birth as Israel

A U.S. court of appeals will again hear arguments on whether Americans born in Jerusalem can have “Israel” listed as their birthplace in their passports.
Nathan Lewin, the lawyer who last year won a Supreme Court decision requiring lower courts to resolve the issue, this week said that new hearings will begin on March 19 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Minister Kenney issues statement regarding 'Israel apartheid week'

“Operating under the guise of academic freedom, Israel Apartheid Week is a misleading attempt to delegitimize and demonize the only true liberal democracy in the Middle East. IAW’s organizers choose to promote inflammatory propaganda over civil and enlightening debate. Their approach is at odds with the Canadian values of tolerance and mutual respect, and prevents meaningful dialogue from taking place.
“As Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, I encourage Canadians to speak out against all forms of discrimination, intolerance and anti-Semitism.”

Miliband declares himself a Zionist in Q&A with UK Jews
Riding high in the polls, Labour leader says he may not agree with every Israeli policy, but he owes the Jewish state a ‘debt’

Asked whether he was a Zionist, Miliband responded, “Yes. I consider myself a supporter of Israel… It doesn’t mean I support everything Israel’s government does.”
Not only would he oppose boycotts of Israel, he was prepared to say so to trade union members who have been at the forefront of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in the UK, but who were also largely responsible for his election as Labour leader. Boycotts “are totally wrong,” Miliband said. “I have no tolerance for boycotts. I will say it to any trade union member who asks me. You don’t create a two-state solution with boycotts.”

Armless Combat Soldier Provides Inspirational Message

One of the participants at this year’s AIPAC policy conference was Izzy Ezagui, a 24-year-old combat reserves officer.
Ezagui lost his arm in a mortar shell explosion but continues to serve as a reservist in special forces for the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade.

EoZ Interview with editors of Mida (video)

After Mida wrote their great story on me, it is only fair for me to do the same.

Mida is a conservative leaning, but non-religious, magazine that came onto the Israeli scene late last year. It has already broken major stories and made some waves.

For a startup, they have a really beautiful office in Jerusalem, with a great view (not seen in this video unfortunately.) I'm very, very jealous.

Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

LATMA: The media's greatest detective, and Europe remains focused on what is truly important

AIPAC conference highlights Canada-Israel ties
Analysis: Canadian FM Baird earned accolades from experts on Israel, leading to a crystallization of Canadian-Israeli ties into a non-formal special relationship.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird electrified the massive pro-Israel crowd at this week’s AIPAC’s policy conference with his straight-talking affirmation of Israeli-Canadian shared values.
Known for his no-nonsense anti-terror policies toward Iranian- sponsored terrorism and its main proxy – the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah – Baird earned accolades from experts on Israel, leading to a crystallization of Canadian-Israeli ties into a non-formal special relationship.

Daphne Anson At UNSW, Will The Chocolatier Conquer Campus?

An article in University of New South Wales student newspaper Tharunka, with the heading "Hot Chocolate and War Crimes," reports that a Max Brenner franchise will in all likelihood soon be opening on campus:
"[T]he move to allow a Max Brenner store on campus comes after the chocolate shop was identified in the top three food and beverage outlet suggestions by students and staff in the 2011 Retail Survey conducted by UNSW.
The survey was completed by nearly 7000 students and staff, the most successful participation rate of any survey conducted by UNSW," the report notes.
However, the usual suspects are predictably unhappy:

Leviticus, the Video Game
A new iPhone game turns the Bible’s most detailed book into fast-paced, educational entertainment

Titled Leviticus!, the game, as its title suggests, is both irreverent and deeply faithful to the source text—all that business about doves and cows and purity is right there in the book. But whereas Leviticus is too thick with rules to make for a very compelling read, it’s perfect when played.

How do you say ‘Fire’ in Hebrew?
Some 500 immigrants serving in the IDF graduate a crash course in the national language

Almost 500 new immigrants enlisted in the IDF graduated from a special Hebrew course on Wednesday. Many of the soldiers who finished the course are set to join combat units, while the remainder will serve in various posts throughout the army.
Some 40 percent of the graduates, 190, are “lone soldiers” — a term applied to those in Israel without their families — who moved to Israel from 25 countries around the world. About 100 of those lone soldiers, who hail from locales as diverse as Cuba, Denmark and Azerbaijan, will head on to serve in combat units.

IDF Blog: Newly-Revealed Letter from David Ben-Gurion: Women Must Play Equal Part in the IDF

"The army is the supreme symbol of duty and as long as women are not equal to men in performing this duty, they have not yet obtained true equality. If the daughters of Israel are absent from the army, then the character of the Yishuv will be distorted.”
—David Ben-Gurion, first Israeli Prime Minister

IDF Most Female-Friendly Army on Earth

The IDF is the world’s most female-friendly army according to new numbers compiled by the Manpower Directorate.
34 percent of IDF soldiers are women – a figure unparalleled among other militaries. 57% of all officers are women, 28% of career officers are women, and 92% of all army positions are open to women.

Mixed-Gender Caracal Battalion Beret March

Watch the young men and women of the Caracal combat battalion march towards their coveted beret. This is their last step before joining the battalion as full-fledged combat soldiers.

Playboy goes to Gaza. Really.

This seems appropriate for International Women's Day.

Playboy has a report on how the Islamist surge in North Africa has affected sexual mores.

It provides a few insights into the underground club scene in Tunisia and elsewhere, but it ends in Gaza:

1.7 million people live under the rugged rule of Hamas, the Islamist movement that won power through a combination of ballots and bullets in 2006 and 2007. It has clung to power religiously ever since, and despite being pummeled by Israeli sieges, incursions and most recently a bombardment waged from land, sea and air, Hamas succeeded in forming and preserving the first Islamist government on the Mediterranean. Initially, God squads scoured the beaches, searching for female skin. Vigilantes interrupted lovers and hauled them into court. “When a man and a woman are together, their first thoughts are of fornication, so we have to take care,” explains a guard outside rows of beach chalets where, he claims, Hamas’s corrupt secular predecessors—Yasir Arafat’s security guards—had swapped wives by locking them in their chalets, dropping the keys in a bucket and playing lucky dip.

And yet once ensconced, the Islamists slowly relaxed. Despite the frowns of the religious affairs minister, Gaza clothes shops fill their windows with scarlet dresses and heart-shaped cushions to celebrate Valentine’s Day, or as Palestinians call it, the Love Fest. Gazans call Hamas women “two jays” because they wear jeans beneath their jilbabs. Long bereft of cinemas and bars, Gaza at night bubbles with the honks of wedding parties touring the streets; the beaches where a few Gaza girls once dared to wear bikinis are now lined with resorts that celebrate mass weddings. Most curious of all, I discovered that what claims to be the Mediterranean’s largest polygamous dating agency is government-subsidized—it sports a photograph on its walls of Gaza’s Islamist prime minister, Ismail Haniya, handing over a $100,000 check. The agency’s owner, Fahmi al-Atiri, cites Hamas’s stocky interior minister, who was reputed to have found at least one of his six wives through the agency (to keep within Islam’s statutory limits, he divorced two). Having put me in a sufficiently sympathetic frame of mind, al-Atiri gives me a guided tour of his “marriage-facilitation charity,” proudly plying me with albums of the women on offer. He suggests I assuage my wife’s doubts by letting her choose the second, in the name of equal opportunity. It had worked for him, he says, noting with relief that his wife had selected a pretty divorcée 12 years his junior.

Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Palestinians Plan "Warm" Welcome for Obama by Khaled Abu Toameh

One plan being discussed among Palestinian activists includes staging anti-US demonstrations in Palestinian cities, particularly outside the place Obama is scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Activists in Ramallah said they would try to block the roads leading to the location of the Obama-Abbas meeting to protest against US "bias in favor of Israel."
Some activists have even prepared American flags and portraits of Obama that would be set on fire in front of TV crews covering the visit.
Palestinian activists say they are also hoping to humiliate Obama when and if he decides to visit the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Many Palestinians have already called on Obama to refrain from visiting the holy site, especially if he would be escorted by Israeli policemen and security officials.

NYT OpEd: End the Arab Boycott of Israel By Ed Husain

I abandoned Muslim groupthink and went to Israel because there is a new momentum in the region. Egypt’s former grand mufti, Ali Gomaa, and the prominent scholar Habib Ali al-Jifri, broke ranks with Qaradawi and went to Jerusalem last April. They justified their visit on scriptural grounds, citing the Prophet Muhammad’s encouragement for believers to visit the Holy Land. Their trip was facilitated by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan, the principal religious adviser to King Abdullah II.
Muslim leaders in Jerusalem welcomed both men and Palestinian imams called for the end of the Arab boycott on Al Jazeera Arabic and other media outlets. This was a direct challenge to radicals like Qaradawi and his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo and the Islamist party Ennahda in Tunis. Why do they want to continue the boycott?

CIF Watch: The inevitable CiF essay using nixed Gaza marathon as fodder to demonize Israel

So, evidently, Ramdani’s primary concern is that Hamas made a tactical mistake by forcing the cancellation of a charity marathon (raising money for Gaza’s children) which would have had the effect of exposing Israeli oppression. Note also that Ramdani falsely characterizes Israel’s blockade as illegal when, in fact, the UN Palmer Report definitively concluded that the blockade was indeed legal under international law.
Further in the essay, Ramdani even manages to implicitly blame Israel for Hamas’s misogynistic and repressive policies against its own citizens.

Israel prepares for next war with Hezbollah
While tensions along Israel’s northern border run high, the army is down south, simulating battles with its Lebanese arch-foe

As the Syrian civil war intensifies, military planners are growing increasingly jittery that the fighting could spill over into Israel, potentially dragging the Islamic militant group that is allied with President Bashar Assad into the fray. After battling Hezbollah to a stalemate in 2006, the Israeli military says it has learned key lessons and is prepared to inflict heavy damage on the group if fighting begins again.

Company Whose Cranes Were Used for Public Hangings Withdraws From Iran

After the revelation that its cranes were being used for executions in Iran, Austrian company Palfinger has communicated to United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) that it is no longer doing business in the country.
In fact, the company hadn’t been doing business in Iran for some time. In a letter sent by Palfinger’s CEO, Herbert Ortner, to UANI in response to its February appeal that the company withdraw from Iran, Ortner made it clear that Palfinger had made attempts to cut ties with Iran since 2011.

Syria releases photos of alleged Israeli spy devices
Equipment designed to photograph, register and transfer data, state TV claims

Syrian state-run TV released pictures on Thursday of the Israeli espionage equipment Damascus claimed to have found on Wednesday.
Authorities near the country’s coast were said to have found Israeli devices designed to photograph, register and transfer data, according to a brief report in the regime-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Wiesenthal Centre Urges Investigation after Report Shows Anti-Semitic Hungarian Political Party Moves Closer to Iran

After a three-day visit to the country by officials, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging the Hungarian government–as well as the European Parliament– to investigate reports of a growing relationship between Iran and the anti-Semitic Jobbik Hungarian political party.
“Hungarian leaders we met confirmed that the Jobbik party and the Iranian regime share a hatred for Jews, Israel, the European Union and the United States,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper associate Dean and Dr. Shimon Samuels Director of International Relations of the Centre reported, adding that “a Socialist Party MP told them that Jobbik’s increasingly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel attacks can be linked in part to the growing connection.”

Ohio buys $42 million of Israel Bonds
CJN EXCLUSIVE: Treasurer Mandel makes largest such purchase in United States history

“We believe this is a sound investment for the taxpayers of Ohio and consistent with our strategy of investing in safe and strong securities,” Mandel said in a telephone interview March 4.

SingTel opens tech center in Israel
Singapore giant’s partnership with Amdocs to help local startups get footing in Asia market.

“We have been extremely satisfied with the wealth of talent in Israel. We experienced this through our recently acquired global mobile advertising company Amobee which has a technology center in Israel, as well as through our venture capital investments in two Israeli companies in the mobile Internet business. This has propelled us to open this new development center to scout for new growth engines for SingTel,” said Allen Lew, Chief Executive Officer of Group Digital L!fe, SingTel.

Source

For many Muslims, the "one state solution" is the Caliphate

Virtually wandering around some Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem on Google Street View, I came across this graffitum in Silwan/Kfar HaShiloach:

The flag is effectively the Saudi flag, with its Muslim declaration of faith.

Underneath, the Arabic writing says "We pray to Allah that next year's hajj will be under the shadow of the Caliphate."

The end game for Islamists isn't a one-state solution in "Palestine" - that is merely a stage, and they are happy to recruit people who pretend to love democracy and human rights and the rule of law to get to that stage. Their goal - as stated explicitly in the Hamas charter - is to establish a single Muslim state in the entire Middle East.

What believing Muslim would publicly disagree?

(h/t Al Gharqad for translation)

Jordanian newspaper wraps up series of antisemitic articles

Ad-Dustour "The Constitution," a major Jordanian newspaper publishing since 1967, has just finished a three-part series that is pure antisemitism.

The point of the series is to show that Zionism is simply an extension of traditional Jewish racism dating back to Biblical times.

Written by a "researcher in religious studies," the series seems almost entirely lifted off of neo-Nazi sites like Stormfront.

The author, Ahmed Ashkar, claims that there are six themes in Judaism that run through Zionism as well:

1. The divine promise and colonizing the country
2. Messianism
3. Expulsion and displacement and the destruction of villages and cities
4. The purity of Jewish race
5. Seizing the property and lives of the "goyim"
6. Religious-sanctioned violence

Part 3, just published, climaxes with a long series of fake Talmud quotes purportedly allowing Jews to kill and steal from non-Jews with impunity. (Answers to these can be found here.)

Again, Ad-Dustour is a respected, mainstream, independent Jordanian newspaper. Ashkar has been writing on this topic for years.

Needless to say, one would be hard-pressed to find a single word of protest against this series or indeed against any anti-semitic article in Arab media.

This is yet another example of how entrenched anti-semitism is in Arab society, even among "moderate" states. Samira Ibrahim is not the exception - she is the rule.

Samira Ibrahim responds to award being postponed with another anti-Jewish tweet

From the WaPo:

The Obama administration is postponing an award for an Egyptian activist who rallied worldwide attention against forced “virginity tests” on female protesters because of anti-American and anti-Semitic comments discovered on her Twitter account.

The State Department announced earlier this week that Samira Ibrahim would be among 10 recipients of the International Women of Courage award presented by Secretary of State John Kerry and first lady Michelle Obama on Friday.

But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the U.S. would hold off on awarding Ibrahim while officials investigate the tweets, which include support for attacks against U.S. diplomatic installations and praise for a terrorist assault against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria.

Ibrahim, who has already arrived in the U.S, says her account was hacked, though the comments stretch back several months.

The Weekly Standard broke the story, and detailed the offensive tweets:

On Twitter, Ibrahim is quite blunt regarding her views. On July 18 of last year, after five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed a suicide bombing attack, Ibrahim jubilantly tweeted: “An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”

Ibrahim frequently uses Twitter to air her anti-Semitic views. Last August 4, commenting on demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, she described the ruling Al Saud family as “dirtier than the Jews.” Seventeen days later she tweeted in reference to Adolf Hitler: “I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler.”

Ibrahim holds other repellent views as well. As a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, pulling down the American flag and raising the flag of Al Qaeda, Ibrahim wrote on twitter: “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.” Possibly fearing the consequences of her tweet, she deleted it a couple of hours later, but not before a screen shot was saved by an Egyptian activist.

Just today, apparently after having been warned that her vicious tweets might cause her trouble during her visit to the U.S., she has written on twitter: “My account has been previously stolen and any tweet on racism and hatred is not me.” However, in the past she never made any mention of her account being “stolen.” The record of her anti-Semitic tweets is still available online.

The idea that her Twitter account was hacked is, frankly, ludicrous.

Tonight, her first reaction to the award being postponed was this:

رفضت الاعتذار للوبى الصهيونى فى امريكا عن تصريحات سابقة معادية للصهيونية تحت ضغوط من الحكومة الامريكية فتم سحب الجائزة #سميرة_ابراهيم

I refuse to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America under pressure from the U.S. government for previous statements hostile to Zionism

Ah, you see, she's not anti-semitic! She is merely a victim of the Jewish - er, Zionist Lobby!

Seriously, anti-semitism in Egypt is so endemic, that this sort of thing is inevitable. But the West usually sweeps Arab anti-semitism under the rug, so the times that it gets mainstream exposure causes a collective gasp - and then gets ignored again until the next time.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Arab intellectuals or pundits to criticize Ibrahim in any Arabic-language media. On the contrary, the "Zionist Lobby" excuse is far more likely.

"Israel planning to demolish Al Aqsa before Obama visit"

The nutty rumors continue in the Arabic press.

This one, in both Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today and Hamas' Felesteen, says that "the occupation is accelerating efforts to demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque with U.S. blessing" before President Obama's planned visit to Israel on March 20.

Adnan Husseini, head of the Waqf, says that Israel plans to replace the mosque with the Third Temple. Moreover, he charges that there is a seven-step plan to destroy the mosque, and Israel has already implemented six of them, including clearing the Kotel plaza, building synagogues in the Old City and archaeological digs that are presumably meant to weaken the foundations of the mosque.

Of course, the idea that this is being planned is ludicrous.

But now that I had my tour of the area and see that the Al Aqsa Mosque is built completely on part of the Temple Mount that was expanded by Herod, and not near the "Holy of Holies," the idea of building a synagogue on one of the large open spaces on the southern part of the Mount doesn't bother me at all.

It is a sad fact that the idea of equal rights between Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount is considered a crazy radical right-wing idea.

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Jewish Harvard Students Receive Mock Eviction Notices
Jewish students at Harvard University receive mock eviction notices in light of “Israel Apartheid Week.”

In Harvard University’s latest attempt to promote the delegitimization of the state of Israel, Jewish students in freshman and upper class dormitories received mock eviction notices in light of “Israel Apartheid Week”, which is currently being organized on college and university campuses worldwide.
The campaign, organized by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, distributed notices at the beginning of March which read, “We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in the next three days”, a reference to the group’s views regarding Israel’s treatment of the Arab population.
The Anti Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage over the prestigious university’s latest attempts to daunt Jewish students and demonize the state of Israel saying, “This tactic is designed to silence and intimidate pro-Israel advocates at Harvard and campuses around the country.”

Former German FM: “The Bright Hope of a New Middle East Has Vanished”

Joschka Fischer writes: “Given Syria’s bloody civil war, the rise to power of Islamist forces through free elections, the ever-deepening political and economic crises in Egypt and Tunisia, increasing instability in Iraq, uncertainty about the future of Jordan and Lebanon, and the threat of war over Iran’s nuclear program, the bright hope of a new Middle East has vanished.”

Romanian historian publicly denies Holocaust
Vladimir Iliescu acknowledges ‘persecution’ took place in Romania, but says real atrocities took place elsewhere

Romania, an ally of Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944, had a Jewish population of about 757,000 before World War II, when “extreme anti-Semitic tendencies escalated,” according to Yad Vashem. The Israeli Holocaust museum’s website says that Romanian and German troops murdered 380,000-400,000 Jews in areas controlled by Romania during the rule of Ion Antonescu.
The Romanian Academy has issued a statement distancing itself from Iliescu’s statement, which it said was not planned.

Mother says Toulouse killer was ‘good and kind’
French TV airs controversial documentary on Mohammed Merah after unsuccessful attempt by victims’ family to quash film

Mohammed Merah’s mother said in a first interview with French media that she did not understand what made her son kill three French soldiers and four Jews in Toulouse last year.
“I don’t understand any of it, he was a good and kind kid,” Zoulika Aziri said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on France 3 TV. “Then he changed all at once, I don’t know why. He’s dead and took many people with him.” She said her son “never mentioned jihad.” Aziri also denied reports by other relatives that “there was talk of jihad” in the family.

With Chavez gone, where to for Venezuelan Jews?
Most of the community emigrated during the late president’s term. Now, the country’s problems are compounded by political turmoil

For now, it’s unclear whether or for how long the anti-Jewish atmosphere Chavez allowed to take root in Venezuela will survive him.
But after 14 years of policies that prompted more than half of Venezuela’s Jews to pick up and leave — and with Venezuela’s economic and security problems now compounded by political turmoil — it’s hard to imagine very many of the Jewish emigres are hurrying back.

In Poland, a ‘breakthrough’ on Holocaust compensation
Warsaw, for first time, said willing to seriously discuss restitution

An official Israeli delegation to Poland believes it achieved a “breakthrough” in talks with Warsaw about possible compensation for private assets that belonged to Jews before the Holocaust, The Times of Israel has learned.
The five-member delegation, which included a former Israeli minister and was accompanied by a senior Israeli diplomat stationed in Warsaw, failed to reach an agreement with the Polish government. However, the Israelis said the Poles for the first time signaled readiness to engage seriously in a discussion about compensation and agreed on the need for further bilateral consultations.

Two runners disappear in marathon mystery
The Ethiopian women began Friday’s race but did not reach the finish line, police say, and haven’t been seen since

He said police were looking for them in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and were considering various reasons for the disappearance. But it seemed likely the two runners used the sporting event as an opportunity to flee poverty in their home country and to stay in Israel, home to a large community of African migrants.

Qoros debuts new sedan with more in the pipeline

Qoros Auto Co Ltd, the new independent carmaker from China, made its public debut on Tuesday at the Geneva Motor Show by unveiling the first in a series of new models aimed at discerning young buyers in China and Europe.
The 50-50 joint venture established in 2007 by Chery Automobile, China's biggest automaker by sales, and Israel Corp, the largest holding company in its namesake country, is the only Chinese automaker at the show, after China's battery and car maker BYD Co Ltd exhibited its models at the event in 2010 and 2011.

Israeli Company Targeted by Boycotters Reports Huge Sales Increase

It has been a break out year for SodaStream, a fact that can be reflected in a 51% increase in full year revenue, to 436.3 million, reported by the company last month. The numbers were positive all-around in fact: fourth-quarter revenue increased 55% to $132.9 million, and the company sees 2013 revenue and adjusted net income improving by 25 percent, with half of the sales growth coming from the U.S.

Oren to Colbert: “No Country Has a Greater Interest Than Israel in Resolving the Iranian Nuclear Threat by Diplomatic Means”

Perhaps the most humorous moment came with the trademark Colbert non-sequitur moment when he asked out of the blue “So when are you going to bomb Iran?’ to which Oren replied, “No country has a greater interest than Israel in resolving the Iranian nuclear threat by diplomatic means.” Colbert responded that if Israel does decide to attack Iran that “the Colbert Nation is behind Israel on this one and if you do bomb Iran we are right behind you with just as many nuclear weapons as you admit to having.”

Also:
US postpones award to honor Egyptian woman activist in light of anti-US, anti-Semitic tweets (h/t O)

The Obama administration is postponing an award for an Egyptian activist who rallied worldwide attention against forced “virginity tests” on female protesters because of anti-American and anti-Semitic comments discovered on her Twitter account.

The State Department announced earlier this week that Samira Ibrahim would be among 10 recipients of the International Women of Courage award presented by Secretary of State John Kerry and first lady Michelle Obama on Friday.

But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the U.S. would hold off on awarding Ibrahim while officials investigate the tweets, which include support for attacks against U.S. diplomatic installations and praise for a terrorist assault against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria.

UN verifies that BBC reporter's son was killed by Hamas (updated)

The UN Human Rights Council released an advanced version of its report on Operation Pillar of Defense.

The report appears to be remarkably fair, especially for the notoriously anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council. When it discusses Gaza civilians that died, it is willing to entertain the possibility that there was a legitimate target in the area for most cases, something we had not seen before. It properly places caveats around its findings of alleged violations by Israel of international law:

In some cases, more information would be required to make a more specific assessment. Based on the information available to OHCHR, the IDF did not consistently uphold the basic principles of conduct of hostilities, namely, the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions. Further, the effectiveness, sufficiency and adequacy of precautions taken remains questionable in several cases.

No such doubt exists for Hamas' violations:

Palestinian armed groups continuously violated international humanitarian law, by launching indiscriminate attacks on Israel and by attacking civilians, thereby disregarding the principle of distinction. The armed groups failed to take all feasible precautions in attacks, in particular by launching rockets from populated areas, which put the population at grave risk. Furthermore, several Palestinians were killed by rockets launched by the armed groups that fell short and landed in the Gaza Strip...

This is pretty astonishing.

One example given is notable.

The report states is that Omar Mishrawi, the son of BBC reporter Jihad Mishrawi, was apparently killed by a Hamas rocket, as I reported at the time. (I was the first to have noticed this, to the best of my knowledge.)

The UNHRC report says:

On 14 November, a woman, her 11-month-old infant, and an 18-year-old adult in Al-Zaitoun were killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel.⁶⁹ In addition, OHCHR received reports related to an incident in which two civilians, including a child, were killed, and five persons, including three children, were injured, as a result of what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short and hit a house in Al-Quds Street, near Khilla Gas Station, Jabalya, on 16 November.

The first incident is the Mishrawi case; the second one is talking about Mahmoud Sadallah, which I also had reported at the time.

The footnote (69) says simply that the Misharawi case was monitored by the UN OHCHR, meaning that the UN itself investigated this case and believes that the attack came from a Hamas rocket, not Israel, contrary to how the BBC reported it (as well as the PCHR, HRW, the Daily Mail and pretty much everyone else.)

Remember, the BBC had a long follow-up report where Jon Donnison pretended to address the inconsistencies I had brought up, and he dismissed them with "Most likely is that Omar died in one of the twenty bombings that the Israeli military says made up its initial wave of attacks. Omar was not a terrorist."

While I would like to know the specific evidence that the OHCHR had that indicated that a Hamas rocket killed the baby Omar, the BBC's assumption that Israel must be guilty by default was clearly incorrect.

Will Jon Donnison and the BBC report this?

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

UPDATE: Some people are pointing out inconsistencies between the UN report and the Mishrawi case. The UN is wrong in saying that the child's mother died; it was actually his aunt (Jihad's sister in law.) And another relative died from injuries about ten days later as Ma'an reported. There were no incidences in Beit Zaytoun that day that were even close to this (according to PCHR), so this is the same incident.

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Barry Rubin: Who Is the "Imperialist Tool" in the Middle East?

Of course, the debate today is so structured as to leave out the fact that local countries can also be imperialistic in that they seek to take over the entire region or most of it. The modern history of the Middle East has been characterized by a battle between Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi imperialism seeking to gobble up Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians, the Gulf monarchies, and each other. Today, the nationalist motives have simply been replaced by an Islamist-driven drive to gain hegemony in the region with Iran and Turkey added to the mix. There's a long-term dream of reestablishing a caliphate. But the more realistic goal is that of old-fashioned imperialism, hegemony, and creating a sphere of influence for the country and regime involved.

Greece to probe threats to turn immigrants ‘into soap’
Greek police are investigating the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party after some of its members were filmed threatening to turn immigrants “into soap” and put them in “ovens.”

The investigation, announced Wednesday, was prompted by the broadcast Tuesday of a program on Britain’s Channel 4 News that followed Golden Dawn candidates during last year’s elections. In the program, one of the candidates, Alexandros Plomeratis, makes clear Holocaust references in threatening the many immigrants who live in Athens. “We are ready to turn on the ovens,” he says. “We will turn them into soap but we may get a rash.” Plomaritis, who was not elected to parliament, also threatened to “make lamps from their skins.”

Filipino peacekeepers nabbed by Syrian rebels near Israel border
Gunmen demand that regime remove all its soldiers from Syrian Golan Heights; accuse Assad, UN of ‘collaboration with Israel’

A video clip released by the rebels shows a number of gunmen standing alongside the UN vehicles, while their apparent leader announced his demands. Some of the United Nations employees can be seen inside the vehicles.
In a second video, the same rebel spokesman is seen accusing the UN, the Assad regime and Europe of “collaborating with Israel.”
“The Free Syrian army will remain here until we banish Bashar and his oppression,” one rebel is seen saying.

Norwegian MP concerned over Norway's "indirect" funding of Palestinian terrorism
A Norwegian MP has expressed his concern with Norway's "indirect" funding of Palestinian terrorism and called for a Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee

Gitmark went on to criticise former Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre -- for defending Norway's contributions to the PA's budget and stating that the PA payments were social welfare to the families and not salaries -- before calling for a Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee to look into the affair:

Palestinians will face ‘consequences’ if they pursue Israel at the ICC, says Baird

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has told a powerful pro-Israel lobby that Palestinians will feel “consequences” from Canada if they pursue the Jewish state at the International Criminal Court.
Baird issued the warning just as the federal government considers whether to end hundreds of millions of dollars in Canadian humanitarian aid to the Palestinians when it expires at the end of this month.

PA Moves Ahead with Plans to Register Sites with UNESCO
PA forms a committee to prepare applications to register sites on UNESCO's world heritage list, including the Dead Sea.

Each ministry has been asked to cooperate with the UNESCO committee, and will prepare the files, he said.
"For example, the Ministry of Culture will present the Palestinian narrative to register it as intangible cultural heritage," while a different department would be charged to register the Dead Sea as a body of water, he said.

Fatah assails Hamas misogyny in aborted marathon

Gaza rulers’ refusal to allow women to participate in UN-organized race is unjust and un-Palestinian, PM Fayyad charges

US envoy walks out of nuke talks over Iran remark

The US ambassador to the United Nations nuclear watchdog stormed out of an agency meeting on Wednesday in protest when Iran's representative accused Israel of "genocide," diplomats said
Officials from Canada and Australia also left the closed-door meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation governing board when Iran's Ali Asghar Soltanieh made his statement during a debate on Syria, they said.

'Shi'ite terror network targeting Israelis overseas'

Counterterrorism bureau warns ahead of Passover holiday that Iranian Quds Force, Hezbollah network plotting attacks.

Egyptian Court Orders Cancellation of Parliamentary Elections

Egypt's administrative court on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of controversial parliamentary elections scheduled for April 22, throwing the country deeper into political crisis.
AFP reported that President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood both issued statements saying they would respect the court's decision, although it was not immediately clear whether the president would appeal.

Brains Behind Israel’s Iron Dome ‘Not Putting All the Eggs in One System’

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted nearly 400 Gaza rockets last November alone, with an 85 percent success rate, amid the Israel Defense Forces’ Operation Pillar of Defense. But the brains behind the system isn’t resting on his laurels.
“I’m realistic, so I’m not putting all the eggs in one system, [even though] it had much success,” IDF Brig. Gen. Dr. Danny Gold, who had the initial idea for the Iron Dome, said in an interview with JNS.org at the 2013 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. “I did my job, I developed many other systems. So [the Iron Dome] helped Israel to probably prevent a massive ground operation and war, but it’s not alone.”