Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 18, 2013

Egyptian army seizes military fabrics in Gaza tunnel; fears impersonation (update)

Every day the Egyptian media has a new story about how Hamas or Gazans cannot be trusted. Here's today's:

The military has started an investigation over fabric it says it seized in a tunnel to Gaza to find out why the fabric was smuggled, where it was being taken and how it would impact national security, a military source in North Sinai Governorate said.

A military spokesperson had said earlier Sunday that the Armed Forces seized fabric printed with patterns similar to security forces’ uniforms, warning people to be aware, in case the fabric is used to impersonate security personnel.

The military arrested two people present at the entrance of the tunnel, the North Sinai source told Al-Masry Al-Youm, adding that military intelligence officers formed the investigation team.

The source said preliminary investigations with the two suspects are under way at a military area in North Sinai. The military is also looking for five other Egyptian suspects, whom it said would be interrogated within hours.

The source said investigations could indicate whether Gazans were involved in Egypt’s ongoing security problems, as well as raise questions on whether Gazans were also involved in killing demonstrators during the 25 January revolution.

The announcement came after a military source told independent daily Al-Shorouk that the perpetrators of a deadly attack on a Rafah army camp last August, which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, included 40 Palestinian jihadis.

That story about the 40 jihadis was yesterday's anti-Gaza story in Egypt.

Yet even after Egypt's crackdown on the tunnels at the Gaza border, one still isn't seeing any demonstrations on college campuses or UN resolutions or "human rights" organization reports about the Egyptian "siege" of Gaza.

Funny, that.

Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh, alarmed at the deterioration in its relationship with Egypt, reportedly told an Egyptian Wafd party leader that "Egyptian blood is more valuable than Palestinian blood" in an attempt to calm the situation.

UPDATE: A Hamas spokesman said that the materials "could" have been used for children's clothing.

Taher al-Nounou, a spokesman for the Hamas government, said in an interview with Egypt’s al-Mihwar television, “This fabric could be used in children’s clothing, and you know children tend to wear such [military] clothing in festivities.”

Yeah, that's convincing.

Whose fault is the bad relations between Turkey and Israel?

JPost reports:

US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, last week, asking for help in restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Hurriyet daily reported on Saturday.

Turkey turned down the request citing bad relations between Ankara and Jerusalem and saying the responsibility to fix the murky relations between the two countries falls on Israel.

Relations between Jerusalem and what was once its only Muslim ally crumbled after Israel Navy commandos raided the Mavi Marmara ship in May 2010 to enforce a blockade of the Gaza Strip and killed nine Turks on board after they attacked the commandos.

Tom WC emailed me about this, noting that relations between Israel and Turkey had been deteriorating way before the Mavi Marmara incident.

His example was this story from October 2009:

Israel's foreign minister has ordered Turkey's ambassador to be summoned over a Turkish TV series that portrays Israeli soldiers killing children.

Avigdor Lieberman said the programme, whose first episode was broadcast on Tuesday, incited hatred against Israel.

In one clip screened on Israeli news channels, an Israeli soldier takes aim at a smiling young girl and kills her.

The complaint is the latest to strain the relationship between Turkey and Israel.

There were other signs that Turkey was straining relations with Israel before the flotilla. A November 2009 Wikileaks cable said:

The GOI [Government of Israel] raised the current direction the Government of Turkey has taken toward Syria and Iran -- and away from Israel. Israeli participants argued that Turkey has been supportive of Hamas in Gaza while pursuing a more "Islamic" direction with the goal of becoming a regional superpower. The GOI argued that the Turkish military is losing its ability to influence government decisions and strategic direction. After this past year, GOI participants said they have a "bad feeling" about Turkey. The GOI noted that the Israel Air Force (IAF) Commander in the past wanted to speak to the Turkish Air Force Commander, but his Turkish counterpart declined.

An earlier cable from October 2009:

While the Foreign Ministry and the Turkish General Staff agree with us that a strong Turkey-Israel relationship is essential for regional stability, PM Erdogan has sought to shore up his domestic right political flank at the expense of this relationship. His outburst at Davos was the first in a series of events the results of which we and his staff have sought to contain. The latest of these was Exercise Anatolian Eagle. Erdogan canceled Israel's participation hours before the exercise was to begin. With an Israeli strike - across Turkish airspace - against targets in Iran a possibility, Erdogan decided he could not afford the political risk of being accused of training the forces which would carry out such a raid. Through some remarkable work with Allies and with the inter-agency, we engineered a public "postponement" of the international portion of the exercise, but the relationship has begun to sour.

A Stratfor Wikileak confirms this as well:

Turkey planned on downgrading relations with Israel even before the May 2010 flotilla incident, documents published Wednesday by WikiLeaks suggest.

A leaked email from George Friedman, the head of US-based global security analysis company Stratfor, reveals that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger that at some point he would burn bridges with Israel in favor of a closer relationship with the Islamic world.

According to the Turkish newspaper Sunday Zaman, Friedman also wrote in the same email that Turkey does not get along with Israel and the United States. An attack by Israel on Iran would provide a good opportunity for Erdogan to finally cut Turkey’s ties with Israel and the US and to expand Turkey’s power, he further wrote.

The flotilla to Gaza — in which nine Turkish citizens aboard a ship heading to Gaza were killed after attacking the IDF commandos who intercepted it – was not the cause of Turkey’s new strategy but rather the opportunity Erdogan had been waiting for, Army Radio said.

The Mavi Marmara isn't the reason that Turkey is anti-Israel - it is the excuse.

Weekly EoZNews (paper.li)

I've been playing with this weekly auto-generated newspaper based only on my tweets. It looks cute, so I figured I'll put the embeddable version here and see if people like it. (The full size paper can be seen here.)

Here's the full-size edition, in a frame, for another view:

The most expensive, expansive anti-Israel initiative just ended - and no one noticed (update)

This weekend was the final session of the "Russell Tribunal on Palestine."

"Jury"

Founded four years ago, the "tribunal" was from the start meant to be a kangaroo court to damn Israel. Using rabid Israel-haters like Roger Waters, Cynthia McKinney, Ronnie Kasrils and a host of others to lend it legitimacy, it would hold sessions in different cities and pretend to call "witnesses" to be evaluated by "jurors" who were all in on the scam from the start.

It held its first session in Barcelona in 2010 and from there went to London, Cape Town and New York, each time receiving less and less coverage.

This weekend, the "tribunal" wrapped up its pre-determined findings in Brussels. What was supposed to be its crowning achievement ended with barely a whisper, as there has been literally no news coverage of its final weekend.

I tuned into their webcast this morning to see that the final session had less than three dozen viewers - worldwide.

Keep in mind that this effort at delegitimizing Israel has cost hundreds of thousands of euros. Their budget for the Cape Town session alone was €190,000, so almost certainly the entire sorry exercise cost close to a million euros, paid by far-left anti-Israel extremists.

For all that money, effort and attempts to recruit D-list celebrities, the only articles about the sessions themselves can be found in the echo chamber of the anti-Israel sites like Mondoweiss. Even 972mag and Electronic Intifada criticized the sessions, for differing reasons.

This weekend, the final session wasn't even mentioned by Mondoweiss either!

The Zionist community gets upset, and rightly so, at these constant attempts to delegitimize Israel. We are so often on the defensive that we don't always notice that the haters generally have very little support outside their own circles.

In this case, however, the "Russell Tribunal on Palestine" was by any yardstick an expensive, time consuming, epic failure.

UPDATE: AFP did decide to do a generic story. Its best quote comes at the end:

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP: "They can write what they like, they only represent themselves. It's a private body with no legal or political weight and has moral weight only among its members."

"It has no political or legal significance, it is an ideological and propaganda document that people write for their like-minded friends."

Real-life "Gharqad" trees protect Israelis near Gaza

In the Hamas Charter, it says:

The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim).

If Gharqad trees protect Jews, then maybe they are eucalyptus.

From Reuters:

One other case where eucalyptus trees protected Israel was the famous story of Eli Cohen, Israel's spy in Syria in the 1960s:

Eli's connections enabled him to be taken to the Golan Heights - a major strategic asset for Syria from 1948-67. As we saw, the Syrians continually harassed Israel's northern settlements from 1948-67. The Golan Heights defenses were top-secret and closed only to top military staff. "Nevertheless, Kamal Amin Ta'abet (Eli Cohen) succeeded in visiting each and every position. With senior staff officers acting as guides, Eli Cohen was provided an in-depth intelligence briefing of monumental proportions." They even photographed Eli on the Golan Heights, looking over into Israel, alongside the most high-ranking Syrian officers. He remembered and passed on to Israeli Intelligence the "positioning of every Syrian gun, trench, and machine-gun nest in each Golan Heights fortification; tank traps, designed to impede any Israeli attack, were also identified and memorized for future targeting." One of the more famous aspects of his spying regarded a trip he took to the Golan Heights. As the Syrian Army officer explained to Eli the fortifications the Syrian Army had built, Eli suggested that the Syrians plant trees there to deceive the Israelis into thinking it was unfortified, as well as to provide shade and beauty for the soldiers stationed there. The Syrian officer readily agreed - and Eli immediately passed the information onto Israel. Based on the eucalyptus trees, Israel knew exactly where the Syrian fortifications were.

(h/t Petra)

Sunday Links

From Ian:

Kissinger Sees Little Hope for Mideast Peace, Arab Spring

“To have a meaningful Palestinian-Israeli agreement, the Arab world has to be prepared to guarantee it and to accept it,” Kissinger said, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt doesn’t seem prepared to “accept genuine coexistence.”
Kissinger sees a contest in Egypt between the military and the Islamists. Those who have been sidelined include the “small group of Cairo-based intellectuals and professionals who know how to get people” to Tahrir Square, the site of mass demonstrations, “but don’t know what to do with them when they get them there.”

US asks Turkey for help with ME peace process

Kerry calls Turkish counterpart, asks for Ankara's help in restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace process; Ankara turns down request.

The Irrelevancy of the UN Correction

Journalists vied to paint a word picture of evil (Jewish) villain and innocent (Arab) victim. The Israelis had deliberately attacked Gaza, said the stories. They, the Jews, were targeting civilians. Anyone who surfed the “Net was treated to this story in one version or another, each more colorful and imaginary than the last.

BBC fails to report on Route 5 terror attack

Video footage filmed by another driver who was travelling on the same section of road just two minutes before the accident occurred and who was also subjected to stone-throwing shows the impact of such attacks.
The IDF later arrested ten people suspected of being responsible for the stone-throwing which caused the accident. As previously noted here, there has been a sharp rise in the number of terror attacks in recent weeks –in particular, stone and petrol bomb throwing attacks – with Israeli motorists often being the targets.

Iran is ‘dead scared of Israel,’ says ex-Mossad chief
Islamist regime ‘won’t make it’ to the bomb, Efraim Halevy tells UK Zionist Federation; former MI6 head compares Iran to ‘dangerous adolescent’

Addressing the same event, Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s MI6 secret intelligence service, described Iran as “a state with many flaws and weakness, and a political system that is very fragile. There is a way through this crisis,” he insisted.
Dearlove added: “Iran is equivalent to a dangerous adolescent, but one does not want that adolescent to have access to certain technologies and weapons. The route the international community is on is the best and most practical.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused of 'heresy'

A senior Iranian cleric has accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of "heresy" after saying Hugo Chavez would be resurrected with the 12th imam.

Syrian Army General and Son Defect to Jordan

Major-General Mohammed Ezz al-Din Khalouf, who headed the army branch dealing with supplies and fuel, announced his new status in a video statement over the weekend. Khalouf, dressed in civilian attire, was shown sitting next to his son, Captain Ezz al-Din Khalouf, who headed a reconnaissance unit. The two were sitting with an opposition fighter.

Irish Jews face uncertain future (as usual)
A community that produced a beloved Israeli president confronts dwindling numbers, but also a rich and largely peaceful history

Brest borrowed her Yahoo group’s new name from a 2003 documentary by Valerie Lapin Ganley, a Jewish woman from Pacifica, Calif., who discovered after marrying a non-Jewish Irish-American that she herself had Irish roots. The film, which still plays at festivals, “tells the untold story of how Irish Jews participated in the creation of both Israel and Ireland.”
The documentary includes amazing archival footage, especially from the Irish War of Independence between 1919 and 1922.

Irish minister to ‘Post’: Ireland not hostile

Jerusalem should distinguish between Irish NGOs, some of which are obsessively focused on Israel, and the Irish government that wants to deepen and extend ties with the Jewish state, Irish Justice, Equality and Defense Minister Alan Shatter told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Israeli who pioneered computer security wins top prize
The work done by the Weizmann Institute’s Shafi Goldwasser is a cornerstone of safe network interactions. For that, she and her American research partner are to win the prestigious Turing Award

In a world desperately searching for ways to increase computer security, the theories and studies of the Weizmann Institute’s Shafi Goldwasser, a pioneer in the field of cryptography, have become more relevant and appreciated than ever. So much so that Goldwasser, along with her research partner Prof. Silvio Micali of MIT, will receive the prestigious Turing Award, “for transformative work that laid the complexity-theoretic foundations for the science of cryptography, and in the process pioneered new methods for efficient verification of mathematical proofs in complexity theory,” the Weizmann Institute said.

Barbra Streisand to play two more gigs in Israel
Singer/actress to perform twice in Tel Aviv, as well as at an event marking Peres’s 90th birthday

Barbra Streisand will perform in Israel on June 15 and 16, as well as at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, the legendary Jewish-American singer and actress announced Saturday.
Earlier this week, Streisand announced that she would perform in Israel on June 18 at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, which will also honor his 90th birthday. On Saturday, it was announced that she had added two more gigs to her Israeli tour — at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.

The hypocrisy of "gay rights advocate" Sarah Schulman

I have written about Sarah Schulman before when she wrote a truly hateful NYT op-ed and elsewhere.

An article in Tablet by Sohrab Ahmari exposes her sheer hypocrisy:

I couldn’t help but raise my hand. “So is Hamas part of the ‘they?’” I asked.

Schulman answered: “Hamas—you know, every time I give one of these talks one guy asks about Hamas.” Then a flurry of protests: “I have never supported any political party! I don’t even support the Democratic Party!”

But of course I didn’t ask Schulman if she supports Hamas. “What I meant is: Is Hamas engaged in ‘systems of supremacy?’ Does Hamas fit into your definition of ‘they,’ of people who are implicated in ‘systems of supremacy?’ ”

“It depends?” Schulman responded, her tone seesawing between the declarative and interrogative modes. “You know, sometimes—I don’t know enough about Hamas to give you a complete, intelligent analysis of Hamas. But there are people who get into all kinds of movements because they have particular needs. And I don’t—let me say it this way: All over the world there is conflict between religion and politics. In the United States we are unable to separate religion and politics, and that’s true in Israel, it’s true in the Arab world, it’s true all over the world. Do I think that there should be religious governments? No, because I’m not in favor of that. I’m not a religious person, and I see it as a negative force in the world. But if people elect, democratically elect a religious government, that’s their government. That would be my answer.”

Here was the BDS movement in a nutshell. In a room filled with progressive activists, an American academic with unimpeachable progressive credentials claimed she didn’t know enough about Hamas to criticize its views on matters of gender and sexual orientation. She had heard somewhere that Hamas was “democratically elected”—apparently Schulman had missed the news about how, the last time Hamas seized power in Gaza, it was via defenestration—and that sufficed to render the group above judgment. Acknowledging the obvious about Hamas would have demoralized the BDS faithful gathered at the LGBT Center that night, and what sort of religious movement would want to do that?

Schulman, a supposed gay-rights activist, is actually claiming that anti-gay policies are beyond criticism when legislated by an elected government!

But in her mind the elected government of Israel, which protects gay rights, has no legitimacy.

How can any self-respecting gay-rights activist hold such absurdly illogical opinions?

Simple. Sarah Schulman is not a gay-right activist. She is a hater of Israel, and she tries to shoe-horn her hatred of the Jewish state in to a gay-rights agenda. The fact that her positions are thoroughly inconsistent with any sane gay-rights agenda doesn't matter since, to haters like Schulman, consistency and gay rights are far less important than destroying the state that provides safe refuge to the people of her ancestral religion.

The poster I made of Schulman has never been more appropriate.

Abbas says no difference between Hamas and Fatah

From an interview with Mahmoud Abbas at Russia Today:

RT: Today, the other part of the Palestinian resistance, Hamas, is increasingly leaning towards a political solution of the problem rather than a military one. Have you noticed the shift?

MA: Yes, we have. Moreover, that’s something we have agreed on. A number of Hamas members support this stance. That’s what we agreed on during our meeting in Cairo, and several months ago at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation we reaffirmed that the Palestinian people have the right to non-violent resistance. We are going back to the negotiating process. There is no disagreement on this between us and Hamas leaders, though some keep saying that they don’t consider a peaceful solution the only option and don’t rule out military struggle. But all this talk stopped at the Cairo meeting, which was sponsored by the US and Egypt. Now this is Hamas’s official stance. Pay no attention to the odd Hamas members that say different.

RT: Can these odd dissident voices affect the reconciliation process?

MA: No. This is an entirely different topic. We agreed on all the political aspects of the reconciliation. The main thing – and we have agreed on this – will be to set up an interim government with me as its head. So here’s the compromise: after Fayyad’s government stands down, which is what Hamas wanted, I will become the head of the new government, which Hamas has no objections to. They were the ones that insisted I lead the independent interim technocratic government. The next step will be to hold a general election. These are the two main steps of the reconciliation process, and they are being carried out simultaneously. That’s what we agreed on, but I do not know what prevents us from launching the process. That’s all I have to say on this issue.

RT: The EU is said to be considering a move to take Hamas off the list of terrorist organizations. Do you think that this may be an attempt to legitimize the Hamas-led government?

MA: I don’t think so. After the recent developments, the chances are quite high that the Hamas government may be recognized as legitimate. If Hamas is committed to the ceasefire and if it openly pledges to stick to the peaceful popular resistance, I don’t see much difference between their policy and ours. In this case, there is no need to label them as a terrorist organization.

RT: But you didn’t target Israel with rockets….

MA: Neither we nor Hamas did. Not any longer. After the Second Intifada, we decided to give up on armed resistance. And let me be totally frank with you: we don’t want to launch any armed resistance whatsoever. Hamas has said the same. Yes, there were clashes in the past, but they have stopped – and I’m grateful to Allah for that.

As is usual when Abbas opens his mouth, he is lying.

Hamas last shot rockets at Israel only a mere four months ago. And, incidentally, so did Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza.

So in that sense, Abbas is right - they are both the same in supporting terror attacks against civilians.

And those "odd Hamas members" that support terror? Well, it's only their official spokespeople. And to this day both Fatah and Hamas websites glorify "martyrdom" operations against Israeli civilians.

Abbas is really beneath contempt.

Another ordinary day in Egypt: Brotherhood beats up reporters

From Al Ahram:

Clashes at the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo's Moqattam district intensified late on Saturday, with a number of journalists reportedly assaulted by members of the Islamist group.

Violence first broke out earlier in the day after a meeting between Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

Dozens of protesters gathered at the Islamist group's HQ to condemn President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, and Badie, who many critics say is the actual ruler of the country.

The violence led to renewed accusations that the Muslim Brotherhood sends people to assault members of the opposition. The Islamist group faced similar accusations in late 2012 when its supporters and opponents clashed in front of the presidential palace in Cairo.

Activist Ahmed Doma, a staunch critic of the Morsi government, sustained injuries after he was beaten up by what he said was a Brotherhood “militia.”

Doma said the Brotherhood members were “aggressive” and indiscriminately beat protesters, including women, and journalists.

Egypt’s privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said its journalist, Mohamed Talaat, was assaulted by “young members of the Muslim Brotherhood” on Saturday.

He was attacked, the newspaper said, when he spoke with young people drawing anti-Brotherhood graffiti on the perimeter of the group’s headquarters.

Brotherhood members, according to the report, pushed him away, before verbally and physically assaulting him when he said he was a journalist.

Amr Hafez, a photographer from Al-Watan – another private daily – said he was injured when Brotherhood members attacked those drawing graffiti.

Hafez told ONTV that a Brotherhood member threw a chair at him.

Photographer Mohamed Nabil picked up a foot injury in a similar manner, Hafez said.

Meanwhile, those drawing graffiti were also attacked by the Brotherhood members.

Diaa Rashwan, newly elected head of the Journalists' Syndicate, was quoted by several media reports as saying the presidency must apologise for the assaults on journalists.

Conversely, senior Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said some journalists and photographers had been involved in “provocative” acts alongside protesters.

Despicable Hamas politician and mother of terrorists dead

Maryam Farhat, known as Umm Nidal, hasdied.

She was famous for being the mother of three terrorist "martyrs" - including one who killed five students at a school, after which she gave out chocolates to her friends - and for running in the PA elections as a Hamas candidate. She was even praised by "moderate" Sari Nussibeh.

Here is this sick woman being interviewed on Arab TV:

It would be a good idea for President Obama to watch this video before he goes to Israel, instead of reading the latest NYT piece - the second major article this weekend - about "settlements."

Here is the photo that Palestine Today uses of this Palestinian Arab heroine:

More friction between Egypt and Hamas

From Ma'an:

Seven Palestinians being detained in Egypt are due to be deported to the Gaza Strip on Friday, sources at Cairo International Airport said.

The unidentified Palestinians were detained at Cairo International Airport on Wednesday carrying maps of military buildings in Cairo, airport sources told Ma'an.

A security official said Thursday that the Palestinians had entered Egypt through tunnels from Gaza, and that they had visited Syria and received training in Iran.

Gazans spying on Egypt - after being trained in Iran?

There aren't enough details in this report, but the distrust that Egypt has for Hamas seems to be growing, despite Hamas' efforts to calm things down.

NYT writes another huge romantic story about Arab rioters

The New York Times on Friday published a very long piece by Ben Ehrenreich about Palestinian Arab rioters in Nabi Saleh (the home of "Shirley Temper.")

There's a lot to criticize in the story that romanticizes rioting - for example, the blunt characterization of neighboring Halamish as being built entirely on Palestinian Arab-own private land, which is simply not true - but I found this part especially tasteless:

“We see our stones as our message,” Bassem explained. The message they carried, he said, was “We don’t accept you.” While Bassem spoke admiringly of Mahatma Gandhi, he didn’t worry over whether stone-throwing counted as violence. The question annoyed him: Israel uses far greater and more lethal force on a regular basis, he pointed out, without being asked to clarify its attitude toward violence. If the loincloth functioned as the sign of Gandhi’s resistance, of India’s nakedness in front of British colonial might, Bassem said, “Our sign is the stone.” The weekly clashes with the I.D.F. were hence in part symbolic. The stones were not just flinty yellow rocks, but symbols of defiance, of a refusal to submit to occupation, regardless of the odds.

But Tamimi claims to be non-violent, and he claims that stone throwing is "non-violent." Israel never claimed that their response to violent rioters is Gandhi-like.

I wrote a comment; as of this writing is was not yet posted:

Too bad Mr. Ehrenreich didn't think of pushing back on Bassem Tamimi's irritation at justifying his idea that stone throwing is supposedly "non-violent."

Because today a three year old Israeli girl is in critical condition as a result of a stone-throwing attack.

Then again, that story cannot be found in the New York Times, so it must not be very important.

(h/t EBoZ)

Saturday Links

From Ian:

‘Human rights’ are a weapon in the political arsenal of Israel’s enemies By Anne Bayefsky

Today at the United Nations in New York City, the UN’s top women’s rights body, the Commission on the Status of Women, will wrap up its annual session by condemning only one state for violating the rights of women anywhere in the world. Not Syria, or China, or Saudi Arabia. But Israel, for violating the rights of Palestinian women.
Next week, the UN’s top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, will end its session by adopting six resolutions condemning human rights violations by one state alone. Israel. And one resolution each on human rights violations in seven of the other 192 UN countries combined.

Ban Ki-Moon is wrong about Israeli settlements
Settlements not illegal under international law

There he goes again. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon erroneously has asserted, for the fourth time in two years, that “all [Israeli] settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, is illegal under international law.”
The Washington Post headlined its Feb. 1 Associated Press dispatch “U.N. panel criticizes Israel on settlements; Report says ‘creeping annexation’ violates rights of Palestinians.” AP noted that Mr. Ban was “reiterating his often-stated view.” He sure was.

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: Out of the box, Obama
Before Obama begins coaxing us with honeyed blandishments, he must take a long, hard and unbiased look out of the box.

That makes it all the more morally imperative that Obama remove his ideological blinders – before he begins coaxing us with honeyed blandishments – and that he take a long, hard and unbiased look out of the box. If he doesn’t, then his inability to shake off his affinities, orientations and inclinations should not only perturb Israelis and Jews.
If he claims that his two-state compromise and conciliation agenda can remain realistically relevant in the face of all the frenzied martyr-worshipping Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Salafist and al-Qaida zealots baying for the blood of Jewish infidels, then contrary to his electioneering rhetoric, Obama is insincere.

From Churchill to Assad
Toward a new Middle East order?

In conclusion, Robert Kaplan is of the opinion that there is still no solution to the problem of how to divide the former Ottoman Empire. No one knows yet who will have the power to control which territories, or whether there will be new tribal and sectarian lines. The Middle East borders are (along with the African ones) the most distorted in the world and, to quote Ralph Peters, “the greatest taboo in striving to understand the region’s comprehensive failure isn’t Islam but the awful-but-sacrosanct international boundaries worshiped by our own diplomats.” Correcting borders to reflect the will of all the different peoples may be impossible, but the opposite would probably lead to more violence and bloodshed.

Egypt: Will the army step in?

There are those who believe that President Mursi is slowly turning into another Mubarak; relying increasingly on the Ministry of Interior and the discredited police force. Some believe he is not ruling but takes his marching orders from the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially the powerful Khairat Al Shatter. It is in fact difficult to defend the president because every decision that he had taken in recent months has backfired and provided further evidence that he lacked leadership qualities.
It is almost impossible to imagine a scenario where the president and the opposition could work out their differences. Both have become hostage to their public positions and no side is willing to take a step back. It is no wonder that more people are looking toward the army for salvation!

Davutoglu Invokes Ottomanism As a New Order for Mideast

It’s time for the Erdogan government to listen to the critics of its policies, and at the very least begin toning down these arrogant suggestions that Turkey be the core country for setting a new order for those once-Ottoman lands.
That said, it may already be too late for Turkey to take a new direction.

Interpol won’t lift warrants for 6 Iranians in AMIA bombing
Arrest orders to remain active despite Tehran’s participation in probe of 1994 terror attack

Interpol will not lift the arrest warrants for Iranians suspected of involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, despite Tehran’s supposed cooperation with Argentina in investigating the event.
Argentinian Foreign Minister Hector Timerman cited a letter from the international police organization during a news conference on Friday in explaining that the arrest warrants would remain active. Six Iranians are wanted by Interpol in connection with the bombing, including Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi.

French Jews slam TV portrayal of school killer
Watched by millions, Mohammed Merah doc omits family testimony about anti-Semitism and portrays terrorist as mental health victim

Pierre Besnainou, a former president of the European Jewish Congress and president of the FSJU social and cultural arm of the French Jewish community, said “the film demonstrates a total misconception of the true nature of jihadist indoctrination.” And the CRIF’s Prasquier said the Jewish community must fight the tendency to portray Merah in a sympathetic light.
“The shootings were first and foremost part of radical Islam and its dangers,” Prasquier said.

Man sentenced to 10 years for NYC synagogue bomb plot

And he said that Ferhani’s conduct was deplorable, noting that almost any civilized person would have reacted with anger and outrage, rather than sympathy, to a proposed plot to blow up a building.
In a statement following the sentencing, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Ferhani posed a real threat to New York City’s Jewish community, and heralded the work of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau in ensuring the imprisonment of a “dangerous man.”

New Numbers Show UK-Israel Trade is Booming

Trade between Britain and Israel is booming. Last year’s two-way trade reached more than £3.81 billion ($5.77 billion), as compared with the £3.7 billion ($5.66 billion) recorded the previous year and on track for UK Trade and Investment’s target of topping £4 billion (roughly $6 billion) by the middle of the decade. Israel remains the UK’s largest individual trading partner in the near East and North Africa.

Passover Items from the Holocaust Discovered at Concentration Camp Site

The Israel-based Shem Olam Holocaust and Faith Institute on Thursday showcased items that may have been used for Passover rituals at the Chelmno death camp in western Poland. The items were discovered during excavations of the site in pits containing prisoners’ belongings.

Prague Schoolchildren Push to Have World War II Hero Given Nobel Prize

Sir Winton visited Prague, then a part of Czechoslovakia, in 1938 shortly after Britain and France had agreed to give the Sudetenland – the largely German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia – to Hitler and Nazi Germany. Appalled by the condition of refugees there, and certain that matters could only get worse for them and the Jewish population, he began organizing the transport of children out of the country, mostly to new homes in Britain. Over the next nine months – even after Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939 – special trains left Prague for London, carrying a total of 669 children to safety.

Americans’ sympathy for Israel at 22-year high
Ahead of Obama’s visit, Gallup poll finds 64% of Americans sympathize more with Israel, just 12% with the Palestinians

Americans’ sympathy for Israel is at a 22-year high, according to Gallup figures released on Friday, just five days ahead of Barack Obama’s first visit to Israel as president.
In figures gleaned from the polling organization’s early February World Affairs poll, 64 percent of Americans say their sympathies “in the Middle East situation” – Gallup’s term for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace talks – lie more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. Just 12% favor the Palestinians.

Using robotic device, paraplegic Israeli finishes Tel Aviv race

"This was my dream, and it feels great to achieve it,"’ said Kaiuf, whose spine was wounded in a 1988 firefight in Lebanon.
Using the ReWalk device, Kaiuf, who has been training for weeks, finished with a time of 3 hours and 55 minutes, nearly an hour below his target time.
Next week, Kaiuf is expected to demonstrate the device to President Obama during the American leader's visit to Israel, which is to include an exhibit of Israeli technological advancements. (h/t Jewess)

EoZ getting some serious blog-lovin'

I just posted the video of Yossi Kuperwasser of Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry telling me that the ability to take dry facts and make them appealing to my audience is "some sort of a gift you were given."

The Algemeiner, in discussing the UN/BBC story I reported on last week, describes me as "eagle eyed anonymous super-blogger Elder of Ziyon."

Ben Dror Yemini, writing in Maariv and also discussing that story, says

In the last campaign of "Pillar of Defense," it was a Palestinian toddler, Omar, the son of BBC journalist Jihad al-Mishrawi, allegedly killed in an "Israeli bombing", who became a symbol of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian victimhood. And again "rights organizations" stood up to point their finger against Israel. Human Rights Watch (HRW) quickly wrote this up, supposedly after examination and collection of evidence, accusing Israel. There was only one website, Elder Of Ziyon, who mentioned that it's not only Israel bombing [Gaza.]. The site's claims were rejected outright, even by the BBC.

Now, a few months passed, and the UN report said this week that the baby and others who were killed in the same incident were hit by a rocket fired from Gaza itself. This was not the first time that the Elder Of Ziyon site revealed distortions. [As one of] those who debunk of lies, I take my hat off to this site. Now and then he leaves me out of a job.

If you agree that EoZ is doing valuable work, you can still send me donations...

Have a Shabbat Shalom!

EoZNews: Yossi Kuperwasser, part 2: Getting Israel's message out (video)

This is part 2 of my video interview with Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in the Prime Miister's office.

In part 1, Kuperwasser gave a passionate defense of the building of Jewish communities on the territories reclaimed in 1967. Here. he discusses the bizarre conclusions of the Goldstone Report and the victory of Goldstone's recanting it. Kuperwasser states that he would like to get other Jews who hold the wrong opinions about Israel, like Walt/Mearsheimer and Thomas Friedman, to admit that they have been wrong as well.

He then goes on to talk about what bloggers can do to help, and he says that if any of us are not getting the proper information from the government of Israel then we should contact him. He also notes that I specifically have the ability to take the dry facts that Israel releases and put it into historical or emotional context, and that is something that the government cannot do.