Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 25, 2013

Amit Pesach video

"Anonymous" claims to have hacked Mossad. Um, not quite.

When HackRead reported, #OpIsrael: Mossad Website breached, Personal Details of over 30,000 Agents Leaked by Anonymous, my first thought was that I wished they didn’t just uncritically repeat claims.

Did they examine the database/spread sheets before repeating tweets and claims? I did a random check of the database, and frankly, I find it extremely unlikely that the hackers obtained any information on Mossad agents, much less all their agents as well as government officials and politicians.

The data seem to include the names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, ID numbers, and email addresses of approximately 35,000 individuals. Some of the individuals in the database have multiple entries. Many seem to be merchants or others with no connection to the government at all.

Maybe some of the data are from people applying to become part of Mossad, but even that is a stretch when you start Googling some of the individuals in the database.

Think what you want of Mossad’s actions, but they are not stupid. They’ve known that they are targets, and not just by Anonymous or hacker groups. Covert operatives’ names and contact details thrown into a large database connected to the Internet? Highly unlikely. So unless someone has some proof that this database really has data on Mossad agents, I remain skeptical, to say the least.

Times of Israel adds:

In an unsettling announcement, the hacker group known as Anonymous and affiliates proclaimed over the weekend that they had broken into the Mossad’s servers and stolen the names and personal details of top IDF officials, politicians and, especially, Mossad agents. But those claims are inflated, to say the least, according to

“Whatever they stole, it probably wasn’t secure details of top Israeli brass, either from the army or the Mossad,” Pavel told The Times of Israel.

Reports on several hacker websites said that Anonymous, along with the Turkish group The Red Hack and the Arab group Sector404, both of which are allied with Anonymous, managed to break into the Mossad’s public website and steal several Excel spreadsheets containing the details of over 34,000 “Mossad agents.” The files list names of the alleged agents, email addresses (private and work), home addresses and other identification information. The hack is just the first of a major new front in Anonymous’ ongoing #OpIsrael campaign, which aims to destroy Israel’s cyber-presence.

But whatever it was that the hackers thought they got, it wasn’t a list of Mossad agents, said Pavel. “There is no doubt that they got some identification information about Israelis, but the claims that they hacked the Mossad site and got a list of Mossad agents is most likely psychological warfare, and not a hack into an important database,” said Pavel.

Pavel downloaded and analyzed the files (they were posted for all to see on hacker sites), and found that the information didn’t match what one would expect to find in the personal dossier of spies. “Many of the records in those files appear two, three, and even five times, with the identical information repeated,” said Pavel.

In addition, said Pavel, “there are many records that list the names of businesses associated with the individual, including shoe manufacturers, food companies, auto supply stores, high schools, municipalities, synagogues, and even NGOs,” many of which work with Palestinians.

Besides all that, Pavel added, a good chunk of the names list home or business addresses in Arab communities in Israel, including Taybeh, Umm al-Fahm, Kafr Kassem, and others. “Whatever you want to say about any of the other inconsistencies, it’s extremely unlikely that thousands of Israeli Arabs are also Mossad agents,” he said.

I looked at the list of names and emails as well. It looks like several different low-level breaches stuck together, but it looks nothing like what a Mossad list would look like.

When you are a hacker and you pre-announce that you will hack into a high-profile target, your failure means that you will lie to try to maintain your reputation.

Pesach Shop video (Six13)

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Islamic Movement built many illegal buildings in the Negev - last week

PLS48.net has a large photo essay of Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of Israel's Islamic Movement who regularly tried to incite terrorism against Jews, being shown brand new buildings in the Negev and elsewhere in just in the past few days.

Most, if not all, of these buildings are illegal.

Apparently, the Islamists are trying to take advantage of Passover vacations by Israeli officials to put "facts on the ground" - especially mosques and schools.

Salah makes it clear that his intention is to cause the Muslim community to surround the Jews in Israel. He said:

When we build these mosques, we are demonstrating the fact that Allah wants the existence of these villages. Right on these places, by Allah, will continue to be strong. The injustice of the occupation is a disgrace to Allah. These mosques will become central to uniting the people of the Negev, with no exceptions, and bring the union between the Negev residents to those of the Galilee, the Triangle and the cities of humiliation, all uniting under the protection of Allah the Great....We are here to fulfill an ancient national commitment. Say to our brothers in the Negev we are with them in one body and one heart, with our money and our blood. We are brothers in this country, and we share common concerns. We came here to build houses and mosques to prove we were here on our land, and we live here in honor of Allah.

Mida magazine notes that this is an annual event, always happening around the time that Israeli inspectors are on Passover vacation.

I discussed the issue of illegal Bedouin Negev villages in this video I made last month.

For some reason, some illegal settlements don't get people too upset.

It only takes two words to see how imbecilic Max Blumenthal is

Max Blumenthal has been thoroughly discredited as a journalist and even as a reliable source of any facts many times before, just on this blog. It is utterly inconceivable that any serious news organization would consider him a serious writer when his hate completely overwhelms his ability to absorb basic facts.

As I noted earlier today, the winner of Israel's version of The Voice was an Arab Christian woman, Lina Makhoul.

Blumenthal's reaction on Twitter? "Tokenism works!"

Think about that for a second. Blumenthal is utterly convinced that the Israeli Jewish public is deeply racist against Arabs. Yet when they vote for a singing competition, they have no compunction voting for an Arab that they supposedly hate.

Blumenthal's explanation? That, while safely anonymous in their homes, the Israeli public decided en masse to vote for the Arab singer, not because she was the most talented but because they wanted a token Arab to win, so that people like him wouldn't consider them racist!

And, of course, their ruse failed, because Blumenthal is so smart as to know how the evil Israeli racist mind works, and he knows that they knew that they were only covering up for their racism by voting for the one singer they really despised!

Not only in the final round, but in all of the rounds beforehand!

Blumenthal doesn't just ignore Occam's Razor, he twists it into a Möbius strip in his ridiculous lie.

It is important to note that anti-Arab racism does exist in Israel. Even Makhoul noted that she heard some racist comments while she was in the competition. Yet racism exists everywhere. People who actually care about racism would celebrate Makhoul's victory; but haters like Max are upset, because it disproves their own justification for their own irrational, sickening hate.

Make no mistake: the insane misoziony that people like Blumenthal exhibit - the irrational, crazed hate of everything Israeli - is no less reprehensible than the racism some of them pretend to care so much about.

Sunday Links

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Advancing ‘leftist’ agenda, online mag +972 serves to strengthen Israel haters

For one Israeli, however, the news could not have been better. Noa Shaindlinger, who frequently appears in +972 magazine, wrote on her Facebook page, “We may have some good news later this morning (hint: IOF accident with casualties).” When a fellow activist criticized her joy over the pilots’ deaths, Shaindlinger shot back, “I will worry about nonsense like my ‘humanity’ afterwards, when the struggle will end successfully. Till then, I will be happy when my enemies fall.” Shaindlinger’s “enemies” are Israeli soldiers.

Riding the tiger
If Europe's leaders gambled that appeasement would buy them a measure of protection from the wrath of Hezbollah they may have tragically miscalculated

Detumescent Europeans have made a virtue of lowering their defences and exposing their vulnerabilities. But if they gambled that weakness would buy them friends and that appeasement would buy them a measure of protection from the wrath of Hezbollah they may have tragically miscalculated. For when European weakness confronts rampant Islamism, the consequence is likely to be bloody and painful.
Riding the tiger was the easy part; trying to dismount will be a far more perilous business.

IDF fires missile into Syria after more cross-border shooting
Syrian outpost completely destroyed, leaving two wounded; defense minister warns of no-tolerance approach to attacks

IDF soldiers on Sunday morning fired a Tammuz missile at a Syrian army position in Tel Fares, from which shots were fired both that day and the previous day across the border into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The missile destroyed the Syrian post and reportedly wounded two gunmen there.

IDF Soldiers Foil Infiltration in Beit El

IDF troops arrested two Palestinian Authority Arabs as they were approaching the town of Beit El in the Binyamin region.

Erdogan backtracks on understandings with Netanyahu

Day after Israeli PM’s apology phone call, Turkish leader says it’s not yet time to drop case against 4 IDF generals over Marmara deaths, won’t send new envoy yet, will visit Gaza

IDF commandos disappointed by apology to Turkey

‘I don’t feel we did anything wrong,’ says one soldier who took part in the flotilla raid; another blames government for abandoning fighters

MK Chetboun: Apology a Knife in Soldiers' Backs

Bayit Yehudi MK says Turkey apology sends a message to soldiers: "We don't have your backs."

Israel Expels Three Foreign Leftist Rioters

Israel expelled three foreign leftist activists who, along with Israeli leftists and PA Arabs, rioted near the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Honest Reporting Canada: CBC Falsely Claims Israelis Vandalized Obama Posters in Jerusalem

In actuality, these posters were defaced by Palestinians in Ramallah in the West Bank and were not defaced by Israelis in Jerusalem as CBC has falsely reported. The Times of Israel confirms the veracity on this matter showing what appears to be these exact posters existing in Ramallah in the West Bank:

CIF Watch: Guardian Mid-East editor legitimizes the political pornography of Ali Abunimah

Palestinians, however, observed Black, were not impressed. He noted that some Palestinians complained that Obama’s speech lacked depth or substance, before citing a critique by Ali Abunimah, the American born, Ivy League educated son of a Jordanian diplomat who founded ‘Electronic Intifada’ (EI) – and who, from his home in Chicago, engages in hate-filled ”commentary” about the Jewish state with abandon.

Egytian Muslims Accuse Priest of Using Black Magic on Muslim Girl

Hundreds of Muslims marched for the second day through the street of the Egyptian town of El-Wasta, 90 kilometers south of Cairo in Beni Suef Province, to protest the disappearance of a young Muslim girl, Rania Shazli, and accuse the priest of St. George's Church in Wasta of using black magic to lure her to Christianity.

Fierce clashes in Tripoli as Lebanon teeters

Fighters armed with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket propelled grenades clashed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli Saturday, as the army readied to quash spillover violence from neighboring Syria.
The fierce fighting in the city came a day after Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati stepped down over political infighting.

Scottish council boycotts 'apartheid Israel'

One of Scotland's smallest councils has taken the decision to boycott Israel, comparing the country to South Africa during its apartheid period, reports the Jewish Chronicle.

Wiesel joins judging panel for ‘Jewish Nobel’
Planned $1 million prize to go to Jewish professional who serves as role model for community

Peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel joined the judging panel for a $1 million award that has been called the “Jewish Nobel,” organizers announced Sunday.
The Genesis Prize is planned to be given annually to a professional who acts as a role model to Jews in their community. The first prize will be awarded in 2014.

The Israeli Palestinian Conflict: 10 Myths Preventing Peace

The resurgence of Hungarian antisemitism (Time)

From Time:

Budapest has Central Europe's largest population of Jews, an estimated 100,000, with dozens of synagogues, prayer houses, art galleries, wine bars and community centers. Yet thanks to a declining economy and growing anti-Semitism, more and more Jews are either leaving Hungary or considering it. The number of those who have actually emigrated is still relatively small--an estimated 1,000 over the past year, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, known as Mazsihisz--but in Facebook forums, at synagogues and over casual dinners at Jewish bistros, the question looms large. "You look around at your friends," says Dani, a 36-year-old architect who requested that his last name not be used, "and they're all asking, Is it time to go?"

They have reason to wonder. In June, Budapest's retired chief rabbi, Jozsef Schweitzer, was accosted by a man who said he "hates all Jews." In October two men attacked Jewish leader Andras Kerenyi, kicking him in the stomach and shouting obscenities at him. When Kerenyi's assailants were arrested, an online radio station praised the attack, calling it "a response to general Jewish terrorism." In December, Balazs Lenhardt, an independent Member of Parliament, burned an Israeli flag in front of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry during an anti-Zionist protest--one in which participants shouted, "To Auschwitz with you all." In the past several months, Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized, Holocaust monuments have been damaged, and swastikas have been painted on synagogue walls. On March 14, professors at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest found stickers affixed to their office door that read, "Jews! The university belongs to us, not you! Regards, the Hungarian students."

Isolated anti-Jewish events occur occasionally throughout Europe, but the frequency of these incidents in Hungary has accompanied a measurable darkening of public opinion. Andras Kovacs, a sociologist at Budapest's Central European University, found that from 1992 to 2006, levels of anti-Semitism in Hungary remained relatively stable. About 10% of adults qualified as fervent anti-Semites, another 15% had some anti-Semitic feelings, and 60% of the population was not anti-Semitic at all. But beginning in 2006, when Hungary's economy began to deteriorate and far-right parties began to rise, the intolerance started to intensify. By 2010 the percentage of those who qualified as fervent anti-Semites had risen to as high as 20%, and the percentage who said they held no anti-Jewish feelings had dropped to 50%.

...The standard bearer of the radical right is Jobbik, or the Movement for a Better Hungary. The party won 16.7% of the vote in the 2010 national election, making it the third largest in Hungary. Though its strong showing was widely attributed to its anti-Roma platform, Jobbik's members have made no secret of their anti-Jewish feelings. In one notorious incident in November, Jobbik MP Marton Gyongyosi--who has said he is concerned that Hungarian foreign policy unduly favors Israel--called for a survey of "how many people of Jewish origin there are in Hungary and in government who may represent a risk to national security."

As outrage grew over his call for what the media quickly deemed a "list"--a term especially radioactive in a country where community lists were used during World War II to deport Jews to concentration camps--Gyongyosi backtracked, claiming that he had meant that only dual-nationality Hungarian Israelis in government should be identified. Yet in an interview with TIME in early February, he characterized a 2007 speech by Shimon Peres--in which the Israeli President noted that empires today could be founded "without settling colonies" and jokingly remarked that his fellow citizens were "buying up Manhattan, Hungary, Romania and Poland"--as evidence of Israel's nefarious intentions. "[Peres] said that what you need to subjugate another people and colonize them is money and business," said Gyongyosi. "It's not conspiracy theory to say, I live in this country and I look around me and I see this kind of colonization."

...At the national level, Fidesz has taken serious steps to combat anti-Semitism," says Feldmajer. "But at the local level, the municipal level, there's often collaboration between Jobbik and Fidesz." Feldmajer claims there are "anti-Semitic voices within Fidesz" that are sometimes indistinguishable from those within Jobbik. One of the most inflammatory of those voices is Zsolt Bayer, a virulently anti-Roma tabloid journalist who was one of the ruling party's founders. After Andras Schiff, the famous London-based Hungarian pianist, wrote a letter to the Washington Post saying he would not return to Hungary because of its current political situation, Bayer wrote a newspaper column in which he referred to Schiff and a pair of foreign Jewish critics of the Hungarian government as "a stinking excrement called something like Cohen from somewhere in England." Bayer, who remains close to Fidesz leaders, maintains that he was criticizing them for their political beliefs, not their religion.

...And yet even people like Vero-Ban, who is married to Rabbi Tamas Vero and loves Budapest, is wondering whether it is time to leave. About two years ago, her husband took their two young daughters out shopping. As he knelt on the floor to help his girls try on shoes, a passerby spied the rabbi's kippah and began shouting slurs at him while onlookers did nothing. If the family hasn't emigrated yet, it's because Vero feels a responsibility to his community. Still, the question figured prominently in the rabbi's Rosh Hashanah sermon last year. "I wonder if we are brave enough to face the unknown now," Vero said. "Or if, in a few centuries, our descendants will ask, Why did the Jews not return to the Holy Land in the 21st century? Did they not learn from history?"

The number of Hungarian Jews who have immigrated to Israel is small--170 last year--and many leave for economic reasons as well as political. Unemployment is 11.2% in Hungary, and in 2012, its GDP contracted by 1.7%. But even those who can easily find a job are wondering where their line in the sand should be. Not long ago, Dani the architect and his wife Eszter were on a crowded city bus with a man who was yelling into his cell phone about a "'dirty Jew who wouldn't give me back my money.' The first time you hear something like that, you're really shocked," Eszter recalls. "The second time, you're just shocked. And the third time, it starts to seem normal." The two have seriously considered leaving--Dani has sent out his portfolio to a number of foreign companies--but so far, the desire to remain close to their family has kept them in Hungary. "I still believe those things can't happen again," Dani says, referring to the Holocaust. "But maybe we're kidding ourselves. You know the saying about how you cook a frog not by dropping him in boiling water--he jumps out--but by putting him in cold water and slowly turning up the heat? Maybe we're the frogs."

A Christian Arab from Acre on Saturday became the first Arab contestant to win the popular television talent show “The Voice.”

Lina Mahoul, 19, beat out Ophir Ben Shitrit, an Orthodox girl from Ashdod, to win the second season of the series.

Mahoul sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in the final episode of the program to clinch the win.

Saudi mufti declares jihad against - Twitter!

From Al Arabiya:

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti has criticized the social media website Twitter as a “council of clowns” and a place for those who “unleash unjust, incorrect and wrong tweets.”

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh made the statements during a speech to Saudi Arabia’s senior religious scholars on Friday, the Saudi-based al-Watan newspaper reported Saturday.

The Grand Mufti argued that most of young people are wasting their time on chatting and using the internet, especially Twitter.

Saudi Arabia has three million Twitter users, more than any country in the Middle East, with a growth rate of 300 percent year-on-year, according to a report by the Social Clinic, a Jeddah-based social media consultancy.

Who's the clown?

Last week I reported on the "Marmara 2" land convoy that was stuck at the Tunisia/Libyan border because some members had visa problems.

After losing a week, it looks like the convoy has made it to Egypt - but it has been delayed there for five days as well.

Moreover, reports say that the border police at the Salloum crossing between Libya and Egypt have been threatening and insulting the convoy's leaders, telling them to go back to Libya.

The Islamic world isn't welcoming this effort to supposedly give aid to Gaza.

Followup on South Africa hatefest at piano concert

The South Africa Jewish Report has an article by Yossi Reshef, the Israeli-born pianist whose concert was shut down by haters at Wits University earlier this month:

The sight before me on the evening of March 12, 2013 was one I will never forget. As I was trying to overcome the sound of noise, singing and vuvuzelas coming from the outside with Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata, I was already feeling quite ill from stress.

The moment the perpetrators broke in [to the hall] was somewhat of a relief; at that moment I could stop this fight knowing they had beaten me. Never before as an artist did I ever feel that I needed to fight evil and ignorance but here I was forced to confront a moment in my life where I had to face ugliness and chaos. The music stopped, chaos prevailed.

A classical pianist schedules performances months (sometimes years) in advance. This tour was planned a long time ago after months of hard work and preparation on both my side and that of the organisers.

The Israeli Embassy took no active part, but assistance was offered by Tararam, the South African/Israel Culture Fund, solely with my airfares. Anyone who knows the cost of coming to South Africa and the relatively low fees paid, would understand my gratitude when offered this assistance.

I also felt that it was important for me and for the organisers to show another side of Israel - that of culture - which is not often portrayed in the media. I was warned that there might be protests, but at no point was an “Israel Apartheid Week” (a ridiculous idea in itself, as Israel is one of the world’s finest
democracies) mentioned.

At no point was I ever asked by anyone to postpone or cancel my performances. This fact alone proves that my concerts were a mere platform on which this organised act of violence could occur.

I am a musician, not a politician. I am an Israeli (and a very proud one), but does this make me a representative of my country’s policies? The fact that in many places it is mentioned that I live in Germany (and I am very happily making music there) seems to have no relevance. Had I been living in Tel Aviv, would
that have justified any of these protests?

It is also quite obvious that the perpetrators are fully unaware of my activities which support dialogue and the peace process in the Middle East, among them my eight-year coaching of Israeli and Arab students (Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian and so on) in the “Playing for Peace” project organised by the Apple Hill Chamber Centre in New Hampshire, USA and my concerts with an Egyptian pianist as part of the European Mozart Academy.

However, this clearly made no difference to those bent on disrupting my performances simply because I originate from Israel.

My mission as I see it, is to deal with beauty. I spend most of my waking hours trying to decipher the meaning and content of the great masterpieces, their technical solutions, and their metaphysical realm.

Interrupting with the sound of vuvuzelas at the very end of a Beethoven sonata, one of humanity’s greatest treasures, is no less than a clash of cultures. The violence and hatred seen in the perpetrators’ eyes is something I will never forget.

I feel more hurt for the many people who came to the concert than for myself. An artist can earn no greater honour than the people who display their gratitude by coming to listen to him.

And for this, in fact I am thankful.

I am thankful for all the support I received during this tour, and I want to return to this beautiful country once again to play my music.

On my concert in Stellenbosch, three days later, heavy security was put outside the hall. The demonstrators were already confronted by some of the concert-goers and the concert took place without interruption. I feel there is still hope.

There are also come details on what happened outside the Wits concert:

I have never felt so ashamed to be a Witsie tonight. The artist/pianist who lives in Berlin and carries an Israeli passport, came to Wits as one of (the Department of Music’s) scheduled concerts to give a performance in the Atrium.

Our concert organiser, Prof Malcolm Nay, acted in good faith and was assured by the acting dean, that if there were to be protests, (and it was likely that there would be), the mob would be kept behind a barrier away from the guests and audience who had paid to come and hear an international pianist of repute.

Guests and the audience arriving for the concert, were manhandled, shoved by the student protesters and utterly traumatised - some were in tears and shaking.

What values do we espouse at Wits? We talk glibly about freedom to express oneself. A protest does not mean freedom to smash windows to get into the basement, nor does it mean breaking the door to the Atrium, so that a mob can break through into the hall where a civilised classical music concert was in progress.

The music department was assured that the public and the students at the concert would be protected. A group of wellmeaning but utterly helpless security guards could not control the mob.

Our music students were traumatised by the swearing, threats and intimidations in the Atrium when the mob burst in screaming and with vuvuzelas and went berserk.

Is this the kind of freedom for which Wits stands? Is this the kind of message that Wits sends out to the public - that if we don’t like something we are entitled to disrupt and destroy it? Of course the concert had to stop. This was not a political rally - it was a concert.

As much as the students had a right to a peaceful protest, so did the concert have a right to take place.

(h/t Israel Muse)

Analysis of the apology (Zvi) (update)

From Zvi:

Erdogan is a repulsive anti-Semite, and apologizing to him because soldiers defended their own lives against violent rioters masquerading as "activists" angers me.

But I don't think that Netanyahu would have done this for no reason, or just because he was pleased by Obama's visit.

The following is speculation.

I notice that the "reconciliation" happened very late in the visit, but that it was far from spontaneous; the diplomatic push began 2 weeks ago, purportedly triggered by a letter that 89 senators sent to Erdogan after his recent anti-Semitic rant:

On March 12, 89 members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter to Erdoğan and asked him to retract his words on Zionism, which he did not; he said he stood behind what he said but he had been misunderstood.

It seems that letter triggered the U.S. move, since the White House wanted to see its two main allies in the region work together once again as they did until the “one minute” incident in Davos in 2009.

Additional steps were taken in the background.

Turkey's foreign minister said:

I spoke with Kerry six times over the last week. We talked about the negotiations on the texts [of the apology]," he said. Davutoğlu noted that during the last week Turkey had only been in contact with U.S. officials, who mediated the final agreement before U.S. President Barack Obama's Israel visit. "We agreed that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu would call the Turkish prime minister accompanied by President Obama. Each word of the agreement has been studied. We worked on it until the morning and at noon we got a clearer picture."

Erdogan appears to have sought the approval of Hamas and Fatah before he accepted the call - which speaks volumes. Turks may well ask who is the final arbiter of Turkish foreign policy. But I won't go off on that tangent. Hurriyet:

Davutoğlu also said that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called both the Hamas prime minister of Gaza and the leader of the Palestinian Authority to get their approval before accepting Israel's formal apology for the Mavi Marmara raid. He explained that the conversations took place moments before Netanyahu's call. He added that Erdoğan also called Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. "The tripartite meeting started afterward. Netanyahu began, then passed the phone to Obama. [Other sources say that it was the other way around - Zvi] I did not count the minutes, but the call lasted between 20 and 30 minutes," Davutoğlu said.

The "reconciliation" was evidently an important objective of the visit, but this has not really been acknowledged. For most of the visit, the press babbled on about the Palestinians and all but ignored Israel-Turkish relations. Even afterward, Obama almost seems to be deemphasizing the Israeli-Turkish meeting, though he is clearly pleased with it.

Which leaves me thinking about Syria, and about Iran.

In Jordan, after leaving Israel, Obama said, "I am very concerned about Syria becoming an enclave for extremism because extremists thrive in chaos, they thrive in failed states, they thrive in power vacuums."

The situation in Syria is going critical. Israel, Jordan and Turkey are Syria's neighbors. Chemical weapons are being used by the regime, and maybe by some of the rebel groups. Did Obama tell Netanyahu that a new phase has arrived, and that the only way to prevent the spread of chemical weapons among al-Nusra (closely aligned with al Qaeda in Iraq), and throughout the failed Syrian state and the region, is for Israel to work together very closely with Turkey, at the highest levels? I don't know.

Netanyahu has always been a pragmatist. He has never been the strongest-willed leader, but he does try hard to save Israeli lives. I can easily imagine him agreeing to the lesser of two evils - a formula that includes an apology for any mistakes made, as long as the soldiers are protected from revenge harassment by the Turkish state - if it might achieve something that is far more important. I can easily imagine that with really solid US guarantees, he would have been willing to pick his battles and set aside the fight with Erdogan in order to save thousands of Israeli lives.

In Jordan, Obama also indicated that he would ask Congress to provide more budget support for the kingdom, which currently houses 460,000 Syrian refugees. This is consistent with a deep concern in Washington about the civil war raging in Syria, especially if one expects the situation to grow much worse before it improves.

After meeting with the Jordanians, John Kerry will return to Israel. But he won't return to Ramallah. The president's conversation with King Abdullah concerns Syria at least as much as it concerns the Palestinians, and probably much more.

At the same time, Turkey is reaching out to the Kurds, and Abdullah Ocalan has responded.

Things are shifting in the region, some of them below the radar, and I think that meltdown of Syria lies very close to the center.

And then there is Iran.

Turkey's subsequent behavior will tell us a lot about the strategic importance of this "reconciliation." If Erdogan demonstrably ends his attacks on Israel and actively promotes cooperation, then that will tell me that Turkey views reconciliation as strategically vital. If not, then Erdogan's regime views all of this as a "political football," all speculation aside.

Bülent Yildirim of the IHH claims that the trials of the Israeli soldiers in the ICC will go ahead; but this is apparently incorrect.

Sometimes, when the risk of fire is high, you need to establish firebreaks that can prevent a conflagration from getting out of control. Obama and Netanyahu both know this. Erdogan may be thinking along the same lines.

UPDATE: See also The Daily Beast. And Foreign Affairs.

Saturday Links

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: Bad Jews = Good story

Hypercritical news-purveyors need to own up that their heartstrings are never tugged by the indisputably intentional murders of Israeli babies like ten-months-old Shalhevet Pass or three-months-old Hadas Fogel (and way too many others).
Israeli babies whose lives were cut short by Arab rockets, by suicide bombers, by fire-bombers, by rock hurlers, by snipers who coolly pulled the trigger or – close-up and gruesomely personal – by knife-wielding butchers, didn’t inspire tearjerker coverage about their lost smiles or their family’s grief. Their images never dominated the front pages. At most they were described as generic “Israelis” or “settlers” but never as sympathy-stimulating real individuals, with specific ages, names and faces.

David Horovitz: Obama stirs young Israelis with the passionate speech of a left-wing Zionist

The core premise of the president’s address was that if Israel only pushes harder for reconciliation, regional hostility will gradually melt. Israelis are thoroughly divided on that, and he was at rhetorical best in trying to move them

Daphne Anson: "Yesterday, Mr President, You Promised Us We Are Not Alone; Don't Be Too Late": The Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv To Barack Obama (video)

US unblocks $500 million in aid to Palestinians
State Dept. announces move on the heels of Obama’s visit to Israel, West Bank; US president asks Abbas to avoid ICC, says report

In a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in Ramallah, however, Obama reportedly asked the Palestinian leader to refrain from turning to the International Criminal Court “for any reason,” including settlement expansion. The PA has consistently threatened to address its grievances against Israel at the Hague in recent months.

Jerusalem speech through lens of Arab media: 'Obama the sycophant'

Arab world has slightly different take on US President's Jerusalem speech, claiming he fawns over Israel and seeks to please Israeli leaders and public

Media Report Arab Heckler as Pro-Pollard Jew

When President Barack Obama was heckled during a speech to Israeli students in Jerusalem on Thursday, the U.S. media reported that the heckler was a student calling for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. On CNN, Wolf Blitzer even devoted an entire segment to the issue. However, Israeli media reported that the hecker was apparently an Israeli Arab student, shouting at Obama about the Palestinians rather than about Pollard.

Oppressed Palestinian People Too Busy Training Suicide Bombers to Train Musicians

It goes without saying that I blame Israel for this amazing musical rendition of the National Anthem. If only it wasn’t for the occupation, Abbas could have used all those billions of dollars in foreign aid to train a marching band above the level of your six-year old’s tin can orchestra.

Memri: Syrian Cleric on Hizbullah TV: I Support Blowing Up American and Israeli Targets around the World VIDEO

The systematic obliteration of Islam's cultural heritage

It's a sad reality that we can expect most Muslims to continue focusing on cartoons and YouTube videos whilst Islam's cultural heritage is systemically wiped out
A report by Jerome Taylor, that appeared in the Independent last Friday, stated:
The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of Mecca's millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades alone. Dozens of key historical sites dating back to the birth of Islam have already been lost and there is a scramble among archaeologists and academics to try and encourage the authorities to preserve what little remains.

Selective BBC reporting on hacking of its own Twitter account

In actual fact, some of the Tweets were considerably less benign than the BBC tries to make out in this article, with one making a Helen Thomas-style suggestion that residents of Haifa should “return to Poland” and another portraying a nuclear attack on Tel Aviv.

Palestinian Authority in freefall as Abbas claims he will "sack Fayyad"
Reports have claimed that even with Obama's ringing endorsement of Abbas and Fayyad, the former is due to sack the latter due to an ongoing dispute

Meanwhile, Fatah senior leader in the Gaza Strip, Amal Hamad, described salary cuts to Fatah members in Gaza as "a disaster" with "disastrous consequences for the citizens who live in an already deteriorated economic situation."
The Washington Free Beacon reports that Abbas reportedly stopped talking to Fayyad in April 2012 after Fayyad refused to deliver a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The PA’s major donors, chief among them the United States, have long made it clear that they do not want Abbas to push Fayyad out of the government.

6 children wounded in Gaza explosion

Cause of blast still unknown, witnesses claim they saw an object fall from the sky near a house in Rafah

Hamas files complaint with Cairo over fishing ban

Mujahideen Shura Council, al-Qaeda-linked group responsible for Thursday’s rocket barrage, says Hamas arrested two of its members

Lebanese PM resigns over dispute with Hezbollah
Resignation announced just three months before planned election; Mikati says move will "pull Lebanon out of an unknown tunnel."

Mikati resigned just two hours after a cabinet meeting in which Shi'ite group Hezbollah and its allies blocked the creation of a supervisory body for the parliamentary vote and opposed extending the term of a senior security official.
Major General Ashraf Rifi, head of Lebanon's internal security forces, is due to retire early next month. Rifi, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli, and is distrusted by Hezbollah.

New ADL ‘World Without Hate’ Video Imagines Daniel Pearl Still Alive and Reporting (VIDEO)

Passover-themed 50,000 domino structure (video)

From Israel21c:

The Passover story has been told in a myriad of media. Two young Israelis recently gave the holiday narrative a new rendition in the form of a 50,000-strong domino chain.

(h/t Ian)

Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

LATMA: Yonit Levy and an Israeli soldier responds to the world

Calling for Protests in Israel

If the President told young Palestinians in Ramallah to demand that the PA "take risks" in "voices louder than" the opposition, it is likely that the Fatah government of Mahmoud Abbas would fall to the more radical and more popular Hamas. After years of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic indoctrination in the schools and the general media, it is not realistic to believe that Palestinians desire what the President told Israelis to desire: "A future in which Jews, Muslims and Christians can all live in peace and greater prosperity in this Holy Land." And maybe that is why the President did not say it to the Palestinians.
President Obama, perhaps inadvertently, made the case for U.S.-Israel relations grounded in the most fundamental shared values. Israel -- like the United States -- is that rare country in which the government does not fear the protest of the people, and the people do not fear protesting.

Barry Rubin: As Obama Continues Visit, His Themes Are Confirmed

Other than wishful thinking, how does Obama think that Israel can make new big concessions and take risks in the face of radical Islamist regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, the Gaza Strip, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria? This is especially true when none of these regimes--except for Iran and to some extent the Hamas regime in Gaza—is strongly opposed by the current U.S. government?

Obama Compares Israeli-Palestinian Conflict To Disagreements Between U.S. And Canada…

Hmm, I’m having problems recalling the last time Canada fired rockets at America.

78 senators call on Obama to stand by Israel ahead of trip

More than three-fourths of the U.S. Senate have signed on to a letter urging President Obama to stand by Israel ahead of his first visit to that country as president.
The letter, spearheaded by the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), asks the president to sternly warn the Palestinians against using their new status as a United Nations observer state to take action against Israel.

Bennett on Obama’s speech: No Nation Is Occupier of its Homeland
"It's time for new, creative concepts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East."

Minister of Economy and Trade Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home), sounded a great deal less enthusiastic about the president’s speech, when he told Maariv: “Obama’s statement certainly came out of concern for Israel and out of true friendship, but we’ve seen only this morning the results of our previous withdrawal (from Gaza) in Sderot (where a missile landed on the backyard of a local home), as well as in thousands of victims over the years. It’s time for new, creative concepts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, including the idea that a nation isn’t the occupier of its own homeland.”

Obama heckler: His speech was extremist and Zionist

The Israeli-Arab student who shouted a pro-Palestinian slogan, interrupting US President Barack Obama's speech at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on Thursday, said Friday that he had done so because he found the speech to be "extremist and Zionist."
Speaking in an interview with Channel 10, Rabia Eid said that "Obama talked about a Jewish state, and that is unacceptable to me and to the Arabs of the world."

Special Feature: The Israeli Technologies Presented to Obama
Prime Minister Netanyahu showed US President Obama a series of technological products by Israel’s high-tech industries.

The products were chosen from among proposals presented by Israel’s universities in keeping with their degree of innovation, impact on humanity and presentability. The committee forwarded its recommendations to Gil Shefer, the head of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bureau.

US president meets Intel’s wannabe future head — an Israeli Arab, 26
On his Israel Museum visit, Obama impressed not only with the technology, but also with a program to help Arabs get hi-tech jobs

Harif was there representing Intel, as well as Maantech, the hi-tech “finishing school” for Israeli Arabs, which was developed to help them become more integrated into Israel’s hi-tech scene. Haruf told Obama all about Maantech, which helps train Israeli Arabs to interview, prepare resumes, and improve their Hebrew and English skills.

It's obvious, Cyprus should adopt the Israeli Shekel
It could be that when Syria and Lebanon settle down they too would be wise to adopt what could well become the main currency of the Eastern Med region. Think of the trade and political benefits all this would bring about

So, that's the euro and that's Cyprus. Oh, and the latest mad idea is that Russia could do the bailing out meaning that the whole house of cards is only remaining upright because it's being underwritten by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.
Now, here's an idea that is actually grounded in sanity. Cyprus should ditch the euro and adopt the Israeli Shekel. Think about it.
It's one of the best managed currencies in the world and is already used by default by 2 or 3 million Palestinians. Another 1 million Cypriots would not make much difference.

Exhibition Looks Back On Kubrick, Legendary Director Who ‘Knew He Looked Jewish’

The films of the late Kubrick, who died in 1999 at age 70, have served as an inspiration to other renowned Jewish directors such as Steven Spielberg and Woody Allen. “Stanley Kubrick,” an exhibition running through June 30 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), is the first retrospective of the filmmaker. Developed in collaboration with the Kubrick estate, the show is getting its North American premiere in California after previously being seen in Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam and Melbourne.

First rabbi to enter liberated Buchenwald dies
Herschel Schachter, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents, was 95

Rabbi Herschel Schachter, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has died.
Schachter, the first US Army chaplain to enter and participate in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp, died Thursday. He was 95.