Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 05, 2013

Hamas admits it is in "financial distress"

In a major speech yesterday, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal admitted that Hamas is suffering from "financial distress" as a result of the "Arab Spring."

Speaking in Cairo, Meshal's words were understood to mean that Iranian financial support for the group has dried up after Hamas refused to support the Syrian regime and instead announced support for the Syrian people. (Hamas denied a separate story published by the Times of London that claimed that it was training Syrian rebels in building underground bunkers, saying ti is not interfering in Syrian affairs.)

He called on Arab nations to send money, saying they shouldn't do it as only aid but as a "partnership" - presumably to aid Hamas' efforts to destroy Israel. He seemed to be asking for money for weapons, saying "There is an international contest to deprive the Palestinian resistance of the weapon, and the international efforts of harm and prosecution have multiplied, and the our battle requires preparation and considerable money and effort." (I am not 100% certain of that translation.)

Earlier, Meshal emphasized that any unification agreement with Fatah would not come at the expense of Hamas' principles of never recognizing Israel and never giving up its weapons, and would only be based on what they have in common.

A Syrian regime newspaper attacked Meshal yesterday after he won his fifth term as Hamas' leader, saying that he has no reason to celebrate as all of "Palestine" is still occupied.

Egyptian actress and host discuss how Jews control America (video)

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian actress Lubna Abd Al-Aziz, which aired on Tahrir TV on March 15, 2013.

Lubna Abd Al-Aziz: The first time I went to America was as a student. Back then, the Jews suffered great oppression there.

Interviewer: Although today the Jews have complete control.

Lubna Abd Al-Aziz: They were not allowed to live in certain places, to enter certain clubs, or to work in certain jobs. They were not allowed into hotels. These days, when I go to America…

Interviewer: It is run by the Jews.

Lubna Abd Al-Aziz: Look what patience they had. For 50-60 years, following WWII, they endured it all, and they slowly worked, built, and made purchases, and they spread throughout the country until they just about own it.

Today, the Congress, the Senate, and every administration, whether Republican or Democrat, must stand to attention for them. If they are not happy with someone – that's it, he's gone.

Interviewer: The entire economy is Jewish.

Lubna Abd Al-Aziz: Both the economy and the media. It is Hollywood in the west and the economy and commerce in the east. All the big department stores are Jewish.

Interviewer: Marks and Spencer…

Lubna Abd Al-Aziz: They have got the country in their grip. It is said that every three or four Americans work for a Jew. They have taken control over the largest country in the world, after the terrible defeat they suffered in WWII, and everything that was done to them by Germany.

By the way, that interviewer is on my payroll. Poor Lubna, not realizing how she is being fooled.

People ask me if controlling the world is exhausting, but I gotta say - it's really a fun gig.

UNRWA shuts down in Gaza because of riots. The irony is lost on them.

From UNRWA:

Demonstrators today stormed the compound of the UNRWA Gaza Field Office in response to a programme cut necessitated by budget shortfalls. The incident is a dramatic and disturbing escalation in a series of demonstrations that have taken place over the past week.

Commenting on today’s escalation and demonstrators breaking into UNRWA’s compound, the Gaza Director stressed that the Agency “respect people's right to peaceful demonstration but what happened today was completely unacceptable: the situation could very easily have resulted in serious injuries to UNRWA staff and to the demonstrators. This escalation, apparently pre-planned, was unwarranted and unprecedented". "These demonstrations affect our ability to provide much needed service to the Palestine refugees in Gaza and—because they also targeted the Gaza headquarters building—our operations in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria."

Demonstrations during the past week had already forced UNRWA to close many of its facilities. With the situation further compounded by today's actions, all relief and distribution centers will consequently remain closed until guarantees are given by all relevant groups that UNRWA operations can continue unhindered. "This is a very regrettable situation for us to be in, as food distributions right now are taking place for some 25,000 refugees every day. But we cannot tolerate these ongoing threats to our staff: their safety is of crucial concern at the moment," added Turner. "Any other affected installations will also remain closed."

UNRWA calls on all the groups behind today's event to immediately stop inciting crowds at these demonstrations and to conduct themselves in a responsible manner.

For years, UNRWA condemned Israel for closing the crossings to Gaza in response to deadly rocket fire and other attacks. The idea that Israeli citizens have the right to safety and security did not cross their minds - to them, Israel providing services to Gazans was more important than the mere lives of Israelis.

But when their own facilities get violently attacked - and not with anything approaching deadly force, from what we can see - UNRWA immediately shuts down their own services to the very people they are tasked with helping, forever.

Just a little more UNRWA hypocrisy.

Egyptian op-ed: "Muslims will not win"

Mohammed Dweik, writing in liberal Egyptian party paper Al Wafd, decries how the Jews are better than Muslims at just about everything.

A terrifying statistic indicates that Jews alone received a quarter of the Nobel prizes since its founding in 1901. The number of Jews in the world does not exceed 14 million. Almost less than the population of the city of Cairo.

[The world] does not hear anything from us in the field of scientific research and in the production of knowledge. Statistics say that the patents issued by the entire Arab world (22 countries) of inventions are less than what is produced by a small European country like Finland.

The question must be asked widely: Why are Muslims no longer capable of creativity in philosophy, literature and art? Why are we no longer offering something new in the field of empirical experimental sciences? I'm talking about a billion and a half Muslims occupying 57 countries in the world. A huge figure representing a quarter of the world. Yet the number of Nobel prizes received by Muslims is only 9 before adding Tawakul Karman. Only two of them are in the sciences. While Jews, who represent only one country, whose numbers in the whole world are tiny, not more than 14 million, received 200 prizes! Over 50 prizes in physics and a similar number in medicine and physiology. Each Jew's accomplishments is the equivalent of 2,000 Muslims!

Shame on us. God will not forgive us for what we did with the minds of people ... The problem is that some people still believe that religion will be victorious if only we apply hijab for women or beards for men...

In Al-Anfal, Allah said to the believers that one fighter-believer can triumph over ten of his opponents, because faith is a work of force and determination. ... If we apply the equation contained in the Koran, we must have left the faith of Islam long ago, even if some women wear headscarves and men pray constantly.

...There is a saying: You may find a poor Jew, but you will not find an ignorant Jew.

...Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula in 1956 during the tripartite aggression against Egypt, and in 1967 occupied the Sinai again using the same strategy which was carried out in 56. They asked Moshe Dayan, wasn't he afraid the Egyptians had developed countermeasures? He answered lightly: Arab people do not read!! This is dagger stabbed through to the handle on our honor. And then turned the dagger blade into the wound so it won't heal.

The story begins when 197 Jews met in the Swiss city of Basel, led by the journalist Herzl in 1897 and they set a specific target: to create a Jewish homeland in 50 years. Exactly fifty years later in 1947 the UN decided to partition the land of Palestine to a Zionist state that suddenly arose out of nowhere. With hard work they achieved the idea in half a century. Although the founding father Herzl died in 1904, his work and the struggle persisted under the leadership of Chaim Weizmann, a Russian-born chemist, who was able to to devise industrial acetone, and during World War I he helped the British manufacture gunpowder guns in large quantities, because acetone is a major ingredient in it, making the British feel grateful to the man who made a scientifically invaluable discovery that impacted the fate of the war, and they began to support the ambitions of Zionism. So said Lord Balfour and the British Foreign Secretary months later: "We have embraced Zionism at the hands of acetone."

Nuclear power that changed the fate of the world ... but all of the work in the U.S. initiative named the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb and ensured victory for America against Japan, were done by Jewish physicists.

Victory [of the Jews] did not come as just a coincidence. Men of science are changing the world, as well as enlightened clerics .. The lovers and book of poetry, composers and novelists make glory of man. The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was pivotal to launch a call for the liberation of slaves, and the novel A Doll's House was the beginning of the liberation of women, the enlightened "liberation theology" in Latin America were the engines that have liberalized their homelands from slavery.

Where are the Muslims in all of this? Often they are zero. If you want to win, embrace science, write a poem or a novel that enraptures the world... The Nobel Prize bears the name of a Swedish man who invented dynamite, and called for peace since a century ago; why is there not a Muhammad Award as the messenger whose name should be synonymous with peace? Muslims must be alert to the purposes of their religion. And to be aware of the world as a whole. And to create an award that bears the name of our religion and the name of the Prophet: Mohammed - peace - unification.

We are a nation doomed to either forgetting or defeat.

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Jewish Leaders Applaud Hezbollah Terror Designation by France

“We welcome the French government’s decision to support the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization by the European Union. This follows the declaration by the Bulgarian government of Hezbollah’s responsibility for the attack in Burgas in July, 2012 and the conviction of a Hezbollah operative in Cyprus,” Richard Stone, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement.

How Canada should conduct its inquiry into the PA

This week, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird has announced that he will visit areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority to inquire as to how foreign aid funds are being spent, in order to determine whether Canada should renew foreign aid to the PA.
While it would seem natural for the foreign minister of a respected democracy to ask for an accounting of how foreign funds are being spent by a nascent entity, Canada is the first government to officially engage in an accountability process with the PA.

Arab MK Denounces 'Israeli Apartheid' During Toronto Lecture

MK Jamal Zahalka, elected to the Knesset, claimed there is no democracy in Israel and that Arabs are victims of Israel’s “apartheid” policy.
An elected Arab Knesset member who visited Toronto last week claimed that there is no democracy in Israel and that Arabs are victims of Israel’s “apartheid” policy.

BBC again blindly repeats PA accusations regarding dead prisoner

Were the BBC to investigate the background to the claims made in this and other cases, it would know that PA representatives have a history of accusing Israel of (among other things) stealing organs from dead terrorists, conducting experiments on prisoners which cause cancer, deliberately neglecting sick prisoners as part of a “policy of slow death” and intentionally killing sick prisoners.
That history of unfounded allegations should be ample reason for any self-respecting media organisation to thoroughly check any current accusations or claims before blindly repeating them – let alone a media organization committed to accuracy and impartiality in its reporting.

Abbas: Freeing Terrorists is Our Priority

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that the freeing of terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons was a "priority" for his leadership.
"The Palestinian leadership gives priority to the prisoners issue and ending their suffering," Abbas said in a speech to a meeting of his Fatah party in Ramallah, according to AFP.

Antisemitism at the UCU: David Hirsh responds to Tribunal ruling against Fraser

Astonishingly, not only did the Tribunal rule that these incidents did not represent antisemitism, but, in a close approximation of the Livingstone Formulation, outrageously accused Fraser and his 34 witnesses of trying to ‘intimidate’ and ‘silence’ critics of Israel with an invented accusation of antisemitism.
May the examples cited above, of the undeniable racism suffered by Jewish members of the UCU, serve to shame those who have been critical of Fraser and his supporters – some of whom have even suggested that the UK Jewish community should never have taken on the fight in the first place.

IDF Perfects Selective Hearing with Combat Earplugs

The devices reduce background noise and completely block anything louder than 80 decibels. They are tuned in to communications devices, allowing soldiers to continue to hear orders.

BDS Tries, But Can't Break Dead Sea Product Sales
The Dead Sea products business is alive and well, despite the best efforts of the BDS crowd

Undeterred, loyal fans of Dead Sea products, from America to Singapore and from Italy to South Korea turn to the Internet to find their favorite products. Arik Barel, CEO of Jerusalem-based Judaica Webstore, says that the harder the forces of BDS work, the more business gets sent his way. Whether it’s the publicity the products receive from the BDS movement or the desire to fight against the BDS movement itself, business just isn’t drying up for Dead Sea cosmetics.

BGU, University of Michigan partner to develop renewable energy technologies
Partnership aims to solve major challenges in advanced vehicle fuels, solar energy.

BGU has been at the forefront of the energy research for more than 30 years, BGU Vice President and Dean for Research and Development Moti Herskowitz said. The university previously has hosted a joint workshop with U-M on renewable energy with an emphasis on solar energy, liquid fuels and thermoelectricity.

Go the distance with Israel’s revolutionary MUV-e scooter

Commuters who face the daily grind of getting to work on time will be happy to hear about a new invention from Israel: an all-electric scooter called the MUV-e that helps people go the distance between the commuter bus, car park or train to the office and home again.
It was those last five miles commuting inside cities where he worked –– congested cities like Tel Aviv, Milan, Rome and Torino –– that put a strain on Amir Zaid when he was working for Fiat and Ferrari as an interior and 3D automobile designer.

UK's Stephen Hawking set to visit Israel in June

The British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, 71, will arrive in Israel this coming June to take part in the fifth President’s Conference, which features the tagline “Facing Tomorrow,” it was announced on Wednesday.

Amsterdam fined Jews for not paying taxes - while they were in concentration camps

From JTA:

The City of Amsterdam fined hundreds of Jewish Holocaust survivors for failing to pay taxes while they were in hiding or in concentration camps.

The affair was exposed in an article in Het Parool, a local daily, on March 30. Many of the houses in question were confiscated and used by members of the NSB Dutch Nazi party while the Jewish owners were in hiding or in camps.

The city went after survivors as late as 1947, the report said. Other Dutch municipalities waived such debts, Het Parool reported. The following year the city agreed to reimburse half of what it charged to some Jews who were taxed in absentia. The city’s archives contain 342 requests for reimbursement, Het Parool reported.

The documents about this taxation were discovered by Charlotte van den Berg, a 23-year-old university student. She said she found them bundled with an elastic band in the archive section of one of the city’s departments while conducting research on Jewish home owners.

The mayor of Amsterdam called this a serious matter and said "we will see how we can put right that which must be put right."

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Former German Defense Minister: Germany Must Have Israel's Back

Berlin should also start thinking about how to support Israel in the wake of potential air strikes on Iran. It is better to develop a plan now than to engage in hectic ad-hoc decision making once the crisis has erupted. Germany's first priority should be to offer Israel civil and military assistance to defend against potential counterattacks. This could be by offering medical equipment or reconnaissance specialists for weapons of mass destruction, or by shoring up the Bundeswehr's naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean. The deployment of Patriot antimissile batteries, though logistically challenging, should also be considered.
Even if Israel's actual needs are limited, offering quick, tangible support is a powerful show of solidarity and demonstrates that Israel is not facing this crisis alone.

Palestinians fire rocket, mortars into Israel

Gazan terrorists shot a rocket and three mortar shells at Israel early Thursday morning, marking a third straight day of projectile fire after several months of calm.
Initial reports indicated that the rocket landed in an open area in the Eshkol region, as did one of the mortar rounds. Two of the shells fired failed to cross the fence into Israel and landed in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Reports: Egypt Slams Hamas Over Rocket Attacks on Israel

Egypt has demanded explanations from Hamas as to how it is allowing terror groups to fire rockets into southern Israel, months after the truce that ended Operation Pillar of Defense last November.

BBC resumes ‘last-first’ reporting from Gaza area – and then changes tack

As we see, the BBC was back to its old habit of ‘last-first’ reporting, with the headlines on the Middle East home page and the article itself highlighting the last in a sequence of events and creating an impression of Israel as the initiator of violence and violator of the ceasefire. Only in the third paragraph of this seven paragraph article were readers given some sort of clue that there might have been prior incidents (not reported by the BBC at the time, incidentally) which prompted the event described in the headline.

Honest Reporting: CNN: Just a Steady Drip of Irksome Projectiles

Nothing that a little Valium can’t fix, right?
“The steady drip of projectiles has irked the Jewish state, which Tuesday conducted its first airstrikes into the Palestinian territory since the cease-fire that ended eight days of raging hostilities in November.

French court postpones verdict in al-Dura libel trial

The verdict in the libel case against French media analyst and critic Philippe Karsenty, sued by France 2 for accusing the network’s Jerusalem bureau chief Charles Enderlin of fabricating parts of a segment showing the reported death of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura from IDF fire in Gaza in September 2000, has been postponed to May 22.

MEMRI: Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments: The Muslims Will Kill the Jews on Judgment Day

Former Egyptian MB Member: The MB Is a Fascist Group that Wants to Take Over Egypt VIDEO

Egypt Denies Hamas Man Wanted Over Border Attack

An Egyptian intelligence officer on Wednesday denied media reports that a top Hamas military commander was wanted by Cairo in connection with the killing in August of 16 border guards.

Breaking the ‘Jew taboo’

The film took three years to make. Ramses has rightly been acclaimed for bravely tackling a ‘taboo’ subject: the Jews. So poisoned are Egyptians with anti-Jewish hatred that the word Jew is an insult and a provocation. Jews are malevolent, a curse, a cancer, the ‘enemies of Islam’. When informed that Leila Murad, one of Egypt’s most popular film stars in its 1930s heyday, was Jewish, one man in the film instantly loses his enthusiasm for her.

Yeshiva U law school to give award to Israel-hater Jimmy Carter (updated)

This is unbelievable: (Sent via email)

The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution is honored to present the
2013 International Advocate for Peace Award to

Jimmy Carter

39^th President of the United States
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
3:30 p.m.

Jacob Burns Moot Court Room

Reception to follow in the lobby
Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution is honored to present President Jimmy Carter with its annual International Advocate for Peace Award. President Carter will speak on "America as Global Mediator." Jimmy Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. During his time in office, he oversaw significant foreign policy accomplishments, including the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
In 1982, President Carter and his wife Rosalynn reinvented the American "post-presidency" by founding the Carter Center. Actively guided by President Carter, the nonpartisan and nonprofit Center addresses national and international issues of public policy. Specifically, the center works to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent disease and other afflictions. President Carter and the Carter Center have engaged in conflict mediation in countless areas around the world, including Ethiopia and Eritrea (1989), Bosnia (1994), the Great Lakes region of Africa (1995-96), Sudan and Uganda (1999), Venezuela (2002-2003), Nepal (2004-2008), and Ecuador and Colombia (2008).

President Carter's post-presidential peace-building efforts were recognized in 2002 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." He is the only American president to receive the Nobel Prize for work done primarily after his time in office.

I couldn't find any press releases but it was confirmed on some ancillary Cardozo sites. Here is the main site for the award, which does not yet mention this .

Perhaps Carter deserves an award for some of his work in Africa and South America, but it is unconscionable for a Jewish - and Zionist - school to honor someone who is so thoroughly anti-Israel and, arguably, anti-semitic.

Shall we go over Carter's ignominious record?

1987: Carter intervened to help a Nazi war criminal.

2006: Carter says that pressuring Hamas economically is immoral - but pressuring Israel economically is desirable.

2006: Jimmy predicts that Hamas will be a peaceful party and that they hadn't had any terror attacks on the previous 18 months, an out and out lie.

2007: Carter quotes a fake Nelson Mandela letter to"prove" Israel is an "apartheid state"

2008: Carter claims that Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death" and received fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.

2008: Jimmy entreats Europe to ignore the official US position on Gaza terrorists and embrace them instead.

2009: Carter says Gazans are "literally starving."

2009: Jimmy reportedly asks Hamas to "Help us to help Obama to overcome the Zionist lobby"

2009: Carter was revealed to have been against a separate Israel/Egypt peace agreement.

2010: Carter praised Palestinian Arab "democracy" but casts doubts on Israel's democracy

2012: Carter blames the Jews for the Christian exodus from Palestine."

2012: Liberal Jimmy Carter has no problem with Islamists in power in Egypt where they can implement misogynist and discriminatory laws according to their religious duties.

2012: Carter says that if Iran has one or two nuclear weapons, it is no big deal.

There's lots more, of course, but the idea that YU's Cardozo should honor Carter is simply sickening.

UPDATE: The contact email for the journal is eic@cardozojcr.com .

The editor-in-chief is here.

UPDATE 2: I found the original notice on Google's cache of the Cardozo site - but it is no longer there. Perhaps they came to their senses before I was sent this? Or were they trying to downplay it? (I just heard that the entire website was re-done, so that might explain it.)

Video: Hamas school principal strikes student with offensive hairstyle

According to the (anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency, this video shows the headmaster of the Khaled bin Walid School Secondary School for Boys in the Nuseirat camp in Gaza, Abdul Majeed Isa, slapping a student for having a Western-style haircut.

This past week Hamas announced that boys and girls will be separated in all Gaza schools from the age of nine and above - even in UNRWA and Christian schools. They also are forbidding male teachers in girls schools.

Hamas also announced a crackdown on certain Western-style trouser styles as well as offensive haircuts seen in the street, with some arrests reported.

PHOTOS: Moderate Palestinians regularly stone Israeli ambulances

The Muqata has the story:

In what has become a daily occurrence, Palestinians are routinely throwing rocks at Magen David Adom ambulances, smashing windshields and seriously endangering the MDA medical crews.

Despite that MDA ambulances and medics treat wounded without bias to race or religion, Palestinians target these life saving efforts, even when the wounded are Palestinians.

Over the past few days:
April 2, 2013, 17:15 - Palestinians stone MDA ambulance on the Jerusalem - Hevron highway #60, near the community of Karmei Zur.
April 3, 2013 15:43 - Palestinians stone MDA ambulance on Halhul bypass road, part of the Jerusalem - Hevron highway #60.
April 4, 2013 11:27 - Palestinians stone Neve Zuf community MDA ambulance near the Abud village on road 465.

The thing is that this is so expected, so routine, that even the Israeli media ignores the story. Yet in a sane world this would make world headlines, especially among Western nations that fund the people doing this at a higher rate per capita than any other people.

These are war crimes by any definition. But the PA and too much of the world, including so-called "progressives," glorify it as "resistance."

Of course, Amira Hass and Ha'aretz can feel proud for their contributions to making this all seem somehow a "right."

The inner syntax of Ha'aretz encouraging Arab terrorism

Amira Hass in Ha'aretz not only justifies Arab terror, but suggests that it be taught in Palestinian Arab schools!

Throwing stones is the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule. Throwing stones is an action as well as a metaphor of resistance. ...

Often hurling stones is borne of boredom, excessive hormones, mimicry, boastfulness and competition. But in the inner syntax of the relationship between the occupier and the occupied, stone-throwing is the adjective attached to the subject of “We’ve had enough of you, occupiers.”

Even if it is a right and duty, various forms of steadfastness and resisting the foreign regime, as well as its rules and limitations, should be taught and developed. Limitations could include the distinction between civilians and those who carry arms, between children and those in uniform, as well as the failures and narrowness of using weapons.

It would make sense for Palestinian schools to introduce basic classes in resistance...So why are such classes absent from the Palestinian curriculum? Part of the explanation lies with the opposition of the donor states and Israel’s punitive measures. But it is also due to inertia, laziness, flawed reasoning, misunderstanding and the personal gains of some parts of society. In fact the rationale for the existence of the Palestinian Authority engendered one basic rule in the last two decades − adaptation to the existing situation. Thus, a contradiction and a clash have been created between the inner syntax of the Palestinian Authority and that of the Palestinian people.

Thus, not only does this writer for Ha'aretz demonstrate support for terror, but she also is actively against the Palestinian Authority and, frankly, peace.

Not only that, but she writes this disgusting screed at the very same time that an Israeli court convicted a man
of murder - for throwing stones that caused the fatal car crash of Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan.

And at the very same time that Adele Biton is still fighting for her life after a rock was thrown through the windshield of her mother's car.

How is Ha'aretz' article anything less than incitement to murder?

Her own logic, sick as it is, would also allow Molotov cocktails, Katyusha rockets, and even suicide bombings, as long as they can be justified to support the "resistance." Only when they are judged counterproductive - because of the non-Ha'aretz media denouncing them as immoral - might she agree to draw a line.

Indeed, already the Palestinian Arab media has been copying this story on their websites. Including the website of the "moderate" Fatah terror group.

Ha'aretz is actively aiding and abetting the enemy.

Luckily, at least some people are considering legal action:

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel on Wednesday contacted Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, asking that he launch an investigation against Haaretz writer Amira Hass on suspicion of incitement.

The request was made after Hass, an Israeli radical leftist who lives in the PA city of Ramallah, wrote in a column on Wednesday, “Throwing stones is the right and the duty of anyone living under foreign rule.”

Yesha Council head Avi Ro'eh and Chairman Ron Shachner have already sent a letter to the Jerusalem Police, accusing the newspaper of incitement to violence.

Attorney Hila Cohen, writing on behalf of the Legal Forum, wrote in the letter to Weinstein that Hass’s comments were serious and constitute an incitement to violence and terrorism, while encouraging murderous terrorism.

"In determining that it is the right and duty of the Palestinians...she legitimizes the violent terrorist acts, encourages them and even incites them when she calls to expand them into other areas,” wrote Cohen.

The Legal Forum said that "throwing stones at Israelis should be called by its real name - an act of terrorism. Treating it any other way may cause an escalation in the phenomenon, which is supposedly justified.”

It is worth noting that the real "inner syntax" of stone throwing at Jews predates "occupation" by centuries:

In former times--and in remote places even today--it was common for Muslim schoolboys to stone Jews. When the Turks conquered Yemen in 1872, an envoy was sent from the Chief Rabbi of Istanbul to inquire what grievance the Yemenite Jews had against their neighbors. It is indicative that the first thing of which they complained was this molestation by the schoolboys. But when the Turkish Governor asked an assembly of notables to stop this nuisance,there arose an old doctor of Muslim law and explained that this stone-throwing at Jews was an age-old custom (in Arabic 'Ada) and therefore it was unlawful to forbid it.

Hass probably isn't aware of this, or she would have added that it is a venerable Arab tradition that must be preserved at all costs.

I really hope that she gets arrested and deported. Amira Hass deserves no less.

(h/t Eric, My Right Word, Daled Amos)

Pseudo-academics to hold "Right of Return" conference at Boston U

This weekend, a conference is being held at the Boston University Law School Auditorium advocating the Palestinian Arab "right to return" to destroy Israel demographically.

Of course, there is no such "right" and the papers being presented are a far cry from scholarly. I discussed this conference briefly in February.

The roster of speakers include Joseph Massad, who I have dismantled a few times, and Salman Abu Sitta, the author of the "Atlas of Palestine 1948" that Benny Morris comprehensively demolished.

I looked a little more at Abu Sitta and found this piece where he claims that some secret Red Cross documents prove Jews poisoned Arabs in Acre in 1948 with typhus:

Acre was to be the next Zionist target. The Zionists besieged the city from the land side, and started showering the population with a hail of mortar bombs day and night. Famous for its historical walls, Acre could stand the siege for a long time. The city water supply comes from a nearby village, Kabri, about 10kms to the north, through an aqueduct. The Zionists injected typhoid in the aqueduct at some intermediate point which passes through Zionist settlements. (see map)

The story can now be told, thanks to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) files which have now become available, 50 years after the event. A series of reports, under the reference G59/1/GC, G3/82, sent by ICRC delegate de Meuron from 6 May to about 19 May 1948 describe the conditions of the city population, struck by a sudden typhoid epidemic, and the efforts to combat it.

Of particular importance are the minutes of an emergency conference held at the Lebanese Red Cross Hospital in Acre on 6 May, to deal with the typhoid epidemic. The meeting was attended by: Brigadier Beveridge, Chief of British Medical Services and Colonel Bonnet of the British Army, Dr Maclean of the Medical Services, Mr de Meuron, ICRC delegate in addition to other officials of the city. The minutes stated that there are at least 70 known civilian casualties, others may not be reported. It was determined that the infection is "water borne", not due to crowded or unhygienic conditions as claimed by the Israelis. It was decided that a substitute water supply should now come from artesian wells or from the agricultural station, just north of Acre (see map), not from the aqueduct. Water chlorine solution was applied, inoculation of civil population started, movement of civil population was controlled (lest refugees heading north towards Lebanon will carry the typhoid epidemic with them, as intended by the Zionists).

In his other reports, de Meuron mentioned 55 casualties among British soldiers, who were spirited away to Port Said for hospitalisation. General Stockwell arranged for de Meuron to fly on a military plane to Jerusalem to fetch medicine. The British, who left Palestine in the hands of the Jews, did not want another embarrassing incident to delay their departure.

Brigadier Beveridge told de Meuron that this is "the first time this happened in Palestine". This belies the Israeli story, including that of the Israeli historian Benny Morris, that the epidemic is due to "unhygienic conditions" of the refugees. If that was so, how come there was an almost equal number of casualties among British soldiers? Why did such conditions not cause epidemic in such other concentrations of refugees, under far worse conditions, in Jaffa, Lydda, Nazareth and Gaza?

A quick look at the Palestine Post archives reveals that the epidemic was due to the chlorination in Acre having broken down the previous month, before the influx of refugees.

Now, why didn't other refugee populations come down with typhoid? Well, they did; this article is from August 1948:

And was this the first outbreak of typhoid in Palestine? Not even close; typhoid was common in the 1930s and 1940s. Here's just one of many articles about typhoid, this one in Haifa:

It takes literally minutes to expose Abu Sitta as a liar.

Which makes him a fitting speaker at a conference for a "right" that is as fake as his academic honesty is.

See also Richard Cravatt's analysis of this conference.

(h/t Dan)

Man injured in Mavi Marmara to donate compensation to terror groups

From Hurriyet Daily News:

One of the victims of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla has announced that he will .
donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad

Activist Mehmet Tunç said he would donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine himself, adding that he would not touch even “one Turkish Lira” of it at a press conference today.

Isn't that special?

Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

The blood-libel sisterhood

This is why Ashrawi must have realized that she was going to be in financial hot water if MIFTAH didn't issue an apology: "It has become clear to us after investigating this incident that the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member. The said staffer has been reprimanded and all our staff has been informed as to the disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews."
Now there's remorse for you — Palestinian-style, that is.

Israel: Marmara Apology Tied to Iran Nukes
Deputy Foreign Minister Elkin says restoring relations with Turkey is at top of government's agenda.

According to a report by defense analyst Anthony Cordesman, quoted by the Brookings Institution's Noah Shachtman in Wired Magazine last year, while a U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program would be launched primarily from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, an Israeli strike would require using a quarter of the Israel Air Force’s fighters. "The jets will have to hug the Syrian-Turkish border before flying over both Iraq and Iran. And that is not exactly friendly territory," wrote Shachtman.

'You Can Fool Some People Sometime': BS Gets BDS a Win at UC Riverside

As some of you might know, the student senate at UC Riverside voted on March 6 to divest from companies doing business in Israel. You'd think that the UCR students had risen up in outrage at supposed Israeli "apartheid". That is, after all, what "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) --sponsors of the divestment motion -- want you to think.
But don't be fooled. The UCR senate did not pass the divestment bill because UCR students agree with the SJP. The senate passed the divestment bill, quite simply, because it was swindled. Because the SJP orchestrated it so that opponents of the bill did not get their say.

Honest Reporting: The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel?

Yes, Israel, like all countries, has its unfortunate problems of racism. But the problems described by Australian feminist columnist Ruby Hamad don’t justify The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel. Hamad has a big-time problem with the Miss Israel crown going to 21 year-old Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw:
"It is a mistake to assume, when an individual belonging to a marginalised group manages to break through the barriers barring them to success, that suddenly these barriers no longer exist."
First of all, Hamad botched the facts on what she thinks is her strongest part of the condemnation:

BBC yet again promotes the notion of Israel as a racist society

But when an Ethiopian-born Israeli woman became Miss Israel and when an Arab-Israeli woman won the local version of ‘The Voice’ singing the same song as Alexandra Burke, the BBC found it insufficient to concentrate on their personal achievements alone.

CAMERA: Where is Amnesty Stat Gideon Levy Cites?

Not for the first time, Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy plays fast and loose with Palestinian casualty figures.
In his March 31 column, Gideon Levy attributes a Cast Lead Palestinian casualty figure to Amnesty International, though a thorough search of the organization's materials does not turn up any such figure.

2 rockets fired from Gaza explode in southern Israel

Projectiles hit near Sderot after overnight IAF strikes; defense minister in Jerusalem warns Israel won’t tolerate renewed missile fire

First time since Pillar of Defense: IAF carries out strikes in Gaza

Following two incidents of mortar fire from Gaza, Palestinian sources report that IAF carries out air strike against Gaza targets. Earlier, IDF tanks returned fire after mortar lands in Golan Heights

Israel hits Syrian outpost in response to cross-border fire

Army post at Tel Hazeka targeted by IDF tanks after patrol comes under attack by light arms and mortar lands in Golan; no injuries or damage on Israeli side

Galloway tweets Hamas some love
Why hasn't Khaled Meshal retweeted him yet?
Israel honored with tough-to-land medical conference invite

An Israeli delegation will be attending TedMed in DC, and a TedMed conference will be held in Israel – the first time this prestigious conference has been ‘exported’

IBM Research celebrates 40 years in Israel

IBM celebrated its hundredth birthday last year. And for 40 of those years, the international technology leader has maintained a research lab in Haifa, Israel, its largest one outside the United States.
While today it seems obvious that major corporations with heavy investments in R&D would want to have a division in Israel, in 1972, when IBM Research opened its Israel office, that was hardly the case. In fact, it was more a matter of IBM not wanting to lose one of its top scientists, Israeli-born Prof. Josef Raviv, who wanted to move back home.

Tale of the ‘50 Children’ to Debut This Holocaust Remembrance Day on HBO

Journalist Steven Pressman first learned of the 50 children rescued by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus in 2002 from his wife Liz Perle, the Krauses’ granddaughter, who had possession of a formerly hidden and unpublished manuscript written by Eleanor decades earlier.

Egyptian media, president upset at Jon Stewart

Egyptian newspaper Rassd shows a video clip of Jon Stewart talking about Egypt's problems today, saying that he is "insulting Morsi". Here it is, subtitled in Arabic, and it is pretty funny:

This clip is being embedded in many other Arab news sites, although they are not nearly as upset.

The good news is that the YouTube video is getting a lot of "thumbs up" from the Arab audience.

The video was posted by the US Embassy in Egypt, drawing a reprimand from Morsi:

Egypt's Presidency accused the US Embassy in Cairo of engaging in "negative political propaganda" after the embassy posted an episode of the Daily Show in which the show's host, well-known American comedian Jon Stewart, slammed President Mohamed Morsy and expressed solidarity with Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef, who presents an Egyptian show modeled on Stewart's.

"It's inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda," stated the official Twitter account of Egypt's presidency in reply to the US Embassy in Cairo.

(h/t Ian)