Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 12, 2013

Nightmare on Schocken Street - Ha'aretz in serious trouble

Mida (Hebrew) has an extensive report on Ha'aretz' problems in the wake of the Amira Hass debacle.

The article talks about Ha'aretz' firing dozens of workers, dramatic cuts in wages, eliminating editorial meetings, the chief editor losing control of his writers, and above all the deterioration of journalistic norms in favor of pursuing sensationalism and radical propaganda.

Interviewing several former employees, Mida heard about the shocking loss of journalistic standards at the "New York Times of Israel." Even so, the Hass article is seen as crossing a red line, a new low for the paper.

Mida also goes over some of the embarrassing mistakes made over the past year, such as Gideon Levy's purposeful misinterpretation of a poll indicating Israel "apartheid" and Ha'aretz' scoop that the White House has a secured telephone line to Dennis Ross, a claim ridiculed by Jeffrey Goldberg.

Someone should translate this entire article.

Today's UN hypocrisy

Today Israel re-opened the Kerem Shalom crossing after closing it on Monday in response to rocket attacks.

On Wednesday, the UN criticized the closing:

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. James W. Rawley, expressed serious concern regarding the impact of these restrictions on the civilian population. "These measures are resulting in the depletion of stocks of essential supplies, including basic foodstuffs and cooking gas, and undermine the livelihoods and rights of many vulnerable Gazan families”, said Mr. Rawley. “If these restrictions continue, the effect upon the Gaza population will be serious".

Notice that the closure did not affect a single Gazan. The stockpiles of goods were somewhat depleted but they were adequate to ensure that Gazans still had their basic needs met as they have been.

Yet the UN itself last week stopped giving food and other services directly to Gazans in response to riots at UNRWA offices and distribution centers. If anyone was engaging in collective punishment, it was UNRWA.

But, hey, criticizing Israel is so much easier than justifying your own hypocrisy.

Your tax dollars at work: $20 million "Palestine Museum"

From Ma'an:

Palestinian officials on Thursday joined a ceremony to lay the cornerstone for a new museum of Palestinian culture, history and society in Birzeit near Ramallah.

Organizers said the museum would provide Palestinians with "a valuable source of information on Palestine and its history".

The museum is to be constructed in two phases, the first of which is slated for completion by the end of 2014. It is expected to cost some $20 million.

"The museum will not only be for Palestinians but will reach out to the whole world through an advanced digital network," project manager Omar al-Qattan said as ground was broken on the new venture.

"It will be more than a traditional building with archaeological relics. We are looking at an institution that will transcend all boundaries -- geographical and political," he added.

There is nothing wrong with building a museum, even if it supports a narrative that is at odds with history. (In video, they say that ancient Palestinian culture is "one of the most infuential [sic] cultures the world has ever seen." Well, yes, if you mean the culture of the Jews who lived in an area later called Palestine.)

In fact, "Palestinian culture" is mostly a fiction. There have been some specific examples of local culture - costumes in Bethlehem, soap in Nablus - that have been collected ex post facto into a collective "Palestinian" culture in order to further a national myth that is a mere decades old. It could hardly be described as influential on a world scale, or even in a pan-Arab scale. From the Arab perspective, remember, "Palestine" was really considered southern Syria up until the early 20th century.

Be that as it may, Palestinian Arabs have every right to build whatever they want. That is not the problem.

When museums are built in the rest of the world, they are funded by private donors and foundations, with perhaps the aid of local government. However, this museum in Bir Zeit - like most other Palestinian Arab initiatives - is using Western government funds.

The major funder is called "The Welfare Association." Despite its universal sounding name, it is dedicated solely to Palestinian Arab projects.

Its money comes from "the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, World Bank, EU, Islamic Development Bank, Arab Monetary Fund, Kuwait Fund, AGFUND, Ford Foundation, and the governments of Austria, Canada, France, Italy, and Switzerland, among others."

Apparently, the West has become so enamored with the Palestinian Arab cause that it believes that propagating the PalArab national myth is worth millions of Western dollars. Yet as we saw recently, the Palestinian Arabs knowingly push this myth not only to achieve a unity that has eluded Arab residents of Palestine for centuries, but also to actively battle against the undeniable facts of Jewish culture in the same land. (In this case, it looks more like they want to subsume Jewish culture rather than deny it altogether.)

It is highly questionable whether it is appropriate for the West to spend so much money and effort to build a national myth for a nation they want desperately to exist. (How much Western money is earmarked for Kurdish or Armenian culture?)

It far worse, however, when that same money is being used deliberately to erase or marginalize the culture of a real nation that has existed for thousands of years.

Wikileaks: an interview with a Black September leader

A couple of days ago, Wikileaks released 1.7 million diplomatic cables from 1973-76, and many others have been noting interesting ones. (See this excellent analysis by Lee Smith in Tablet.)

Here's one I found from March 1973:

1. US NEWSMAN HAS GIVEN EMBASSY ON CONFIDENTIAL BASIS TEXT PURPORTED BUT UNRELEASED INTERVIEW "SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY" WITH BSO MEMBER BY GERMAN TV NEWSMAN.

2. DURING INTERVIEW, BSO MEMBER STATES

(A) NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN AL FATAH AND BLACK SEPTEMBER,

(B) BSO RECEIVES $80-85 MILLION ANNUALLY FROM LIBYA ($30 MILLION), SAUDI ARABIA ($15 MILLION), GULF STATES ($10-12 MILLION), ALGERIA ($5 MILLION) AND PRIVATE SOURCES. STATED EGYPT AND SYRIA PAY NOTHING,

(C) ARAFAT RECEIVED $5 MILLION " BONUS" FROM LIBYA FOR MUNICH OPERATION AND HAS PRIVATE BANK ACCOUNT IN SWITZERLAND,

(D) 10-15 EUROPEANS INCLUDING GERMANS ARE PART OF BSO, AND

(E) BSO WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION COME FROM USSR, PRC, EGYPT, SYRIA AND ALGERIA.

Keep in mind that at this time, Arafat strenuously denied any connection between Fatah and Black September, which was responsible for a string of terror attacks (including killing Americans in Khartoum.)

The State Department knew very well that Arafat was lying. Even these cable show that clearly (here's one where Idi Amin stated that Arafat assured him that Black September would not disrupt an OAU meeting.)

Given all this, the interview sounds like the real deal.

An anti-Jewish political initiative disguised as a cultural festival

Ma'an (Arabic) reports on a spring festival scheduled to take place in in Ramadeen, near Hebron, to celebrate the culture of the Bedouins. It will showcase foods, costumes and customs of the Bedouin people.

The PA government is sponsoring this festival.

Why?

The article explains the reason specifically: not because there is any love of the Bedouin culture in Ramallah, but because this festival helps fight the idea that Jews have anything to do with the area.

The Hebron Governor said that the presence of participants from community and civil and international institutions sends a strong message to support the citizens in the face of occupation and make them feel more confident to fight and prevail over the Jews in asserting our cultural heritage. He added that these cultural festivals and heritage are meant to defeat the Jews' claim that this is their land and is part of the political battle being fought by the Palestinian people for freedom and independence, particularly in this location on the borders of the Green Line and near the settlements and the wall.

This is a purely political initiative is meant solely to delegitimize Jewish history, but it is disguised as a cultural festival!

They aren't even trying to hide their agenda.

The article goes on to say that this program is funded by a number of NGOs, including the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and Action Aid.

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Enough Said: The False Scholarship of Edward Said

Said rolled American racism and European colonialism into one mélange of white oppression of darker-skinned peoples. He was not the only thinker to have forged this amalgam, but his unique further contribution was to represent “Orientals” as the epitome of the dark-skinned; Muslims as the modal Orientals; Arabs as the essential Muslims; and, finally, Palestinians as the ultimate Arabs. Abracadabra—Israel was transformed from a redemptive refuge from two thousand years of persecution to the very embodiment of white supremacy.

WikiLeaks’ Insight Into Arafat The State Department cables show that the Palestinian leader was a key asset to the U.S. during the Kissinger years

It’s not clear if the Israelis entirely understood how close the Americans were to Arafat and his outfit. For instance, Israel long believed that Arafat’s intelligence chief Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the masterminds of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic games, was a CIA asset. The truth is that the so-called Red Prince meant much more to the U.S.-Arafat relationship, serving as one of their key intermediaries and a symbol of the nature of their relationship.

Wiesel: Ahmadinejad Should be Arrested and Indicted

Jewish author and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel has said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be arrested and indicted for intent to commit a crime against humanity.
In a recent interview with the German-based dpa, the 84-year-old Holocaust survivor said that the Iranian leader is serious when he says Israel should be wiped off the map.
“Ahmadinejad has two goals: one goal is to become nuclear and the second goal is to destroy the State of Israel. The fact is he means it,” Wiesel told dpa.

Ireland Pressed to Affirm Opposition to Israel Boycotts

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called on the government of Ireland to publicly reiterate its opposition to boycotts of Israel in response to the decision by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland to adopt an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

Hungarian far-rightists to stage ‘anti-Zionist’ revenge rally

A far-right Hungarian priest said an “anti-Zionist” demonstration will be held in Budapest on the first day of the World Jewish Congress’s General Assembly.

Poland Drops Probe Into Artist Who Used Shoah Victims' Ashes

Prosecutors decided not to charge him with stealing human remains or graves because the statute of limitations had expired, Beata Syk-Jankowska of the prosecutor's office in the eastern city of Lublin told AFP.

Police Apprehend Mezuzah Burning Suspect

According to the New York Times, Rubin Ublies was taken into custody Wednesday in connection with the burning of 11 mezuzahs inside an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish apartment complex in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Monday, which was Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Portuguese parliament to vote on citizenship for descendants of expelled Jews

Popular support for the motion stems from a desire to “make amends” for a dark historical chapter in Portugal – a country that Carp describes as being “virtually free of anti-Semitism.” Some also hope the law would attract investments by Jews seeking to settle in Portugal, one of the European Union’s most vulnerable economies.

Petition: Students Against Bigotry

Students and Alumni of North American Colleges call for an end to anti-Israel bullying and bigotry on campuses—and call for honest, constructive dialogue and actions
Video: Stop UCSB Divestment NOW!

Technion named 6th in world for entrepreneurship, innovation

The Technion was one of only two of the top 10 universities worldwide outside the US and Europe. (The other is the National University of Singapore.) The two top schools in the survey were MIT and Stanford University.
The survey also cited the Technion and Imperial College London among the “emerging giants whose reputation had grown considerably in recent years.”

Film documents US comics in Israel
Biannual tours of American comedians are a fish-out-of-water experience that ‘produces the best laughs’

“It’s sort of enough that every movie out of Israel is either negative or about the Israeli-Arab conflict,” said Liberman, a Los-Angeles-based comedian who brings American comedians to Israel twice a year (and who was interviewed by The Times of Israel at length in October). “We wanted to get one more movie out there that shows people having a good time, because that’s what I experience.”
“Caution: Comics Crossing” will offer an insider’s glance at the bi-annual Comedy for Koby tour, joining Liberman and his fellow comics as they tour Israel, discuss jokes, timing and the Israeli audience.

Hamas blames - who else? - Israel for Egyptian police massacre

From Egypt Independent:

Hamas has accused Israel of responsbility for the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers last August, and denied it gave the Egyptian authorities names of Palestinians involved in the incident.

Last month, the state-run Al-Ahram Al-Arabi magazine published a list of Hamas members it said were behind the attack.

“Investigation by us and the Egyptian authorities revealed that no Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or outside it were involved in the incident,” claimed Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau. “We do not rule out [the possibility] that Israel deployed jihadist groups in Sinai to carry out the operation.”

If Hamas was really innocent, they would just say that as far as they know some jihadist groups were responsible.

Conversely, if Hamas is guilty, they would reflexively make up a bizarre "Israel did it" theory to distract from having the spotlight on themselves as much as possible.

Miftah blood libel update

It has been over two weeks since Miftah published its blood libel in Arabic, and it still has refused to apologize in that same language to those who read it. Indeed, the Arabic readers can still read Miftah's attack on me, calling my reporting a "smear campaign" (even its English attack on me remains on its site, even after its belated English apology.)

Since then, the story continues on.

American Thinker mentioned it, noting that Miftah's founder Hanan Ashrawi was hardly as moderate as she represents herself to the West.

In spite of her self-portrait as a "moderate," Ashrawi has been an exponent of some of the main tenets of the familiar Palestinian narrative. She was the highly articulate official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process, 1991-1993. At the United Nations Durban I Conference on August 28, 2001 she said, "I represent a narrative of exclusion, denial, racism, and national victimization." She spoke of her heavy heart "leaving behind a nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, as the most intricate and pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism, and victimization." Israeli settlements, she declared, leads to "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank.

However, without mentioning me, it says:

The criticism of the article in Miftah and consequent reluctant "apology" by the website is significant. It illustrates that a rapid response by independent and courageous media to inaccurate statements and prejudiced accusations can and sometimes does result in rectifying them and shaming the accusers.

The Jerusalem Post belatedly reported on the issue today, concentrating on the NGOs that fund Miftah:

Writers for MIFTAH – a nonprofit founded in 1998 by Hanan Ashrawi, a vocal advocate for the Palestinian cause who is well regarded by Western officials – resurfaced a centuries-old smear over the Passover holiday on their Arabic website that accuses Jews of using Christian blood in the preparation of Passover matza.

Invocation of the blood libel shocked Jewish groups after it was picked up in English by a blog called the Elder of Ziyon.

The collective pressure from these groups over several days was apparently enough to force a retraction from MIFTAH – only after the nonprofit initially refused to apologize.

But the true shock has come from MIFTAH’s benefactors, who have struggled to distance their financial support over several years from the organization’s more extremist activities.

The governments of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and Norway, among other EU members, have provided funding for MIFTAH at least through 2011, according to NGO Monitor, which tracks the financing of major nongovernmental organizations.

And the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded through an act of US Congress, has provided MIFTAH with nearly $180,000 between 2007 and 2012.

“The whole funding process is very cloudy – it’s not very transparent at all,” said Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “The NED didn’t do their due diligence.

Hanan Ashrawi was able to sell [MIFTAH’s] activities as pro-peace and pro-civil society, and they didn’t look to see what kind of organization they’re running. It was probably based more than anything on personal connections, which is obviously a problem.”

Made aware of these concerns, the NED told The Jerusalem Post that its financial support for MIFTAH was directed toward its young leaders program, and was never directed toward its website operations.

NED’s spokesman noted that additional funding for MIFTAH was not granted this year by the NED board of directors.

But when asked how the NED tracked its funding as earmarked for youth programs, as opposed to its website operations, they had no additional comment.

(I do not understand why JPost uses all-caps for Miftah. It is not an English acronym.)

NGO Monitor revisited the issue today as well, adding the responses from three of the Miftah's funders: NED, UNESCO and Oxfam.

A couple of German media outlets also covered the story, concentrating on the funding of Miftah by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Heinrich Boell Stiftung German organizations.

So far, I have not seen any responses from them, nor from the governments of Ireland, Norway, Austria or any of the other funders of Miftah. You can see their email addresses and Twitter accounts at the end of http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-cant-hanan-ashrawis-miftah.htmlthis post.

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Why Salam Fayyad Stands No Chance against Fatah by Khaled Abu Toameh

The Fatah leaders are yearning for the days of Yasser Arafat, when they were able to steal international aid earmarked for helping Palestinians. The Palestinians' problem with Fayyad is that he did not sit even one day on an Israeli prison. For them, graduating from an Israeli prisons even more important that going to any university.

Efrat Protesters: Stop Arab Rock Throwing Now

Dozens of Efrat residents, along with activists from the Women in Green group, demonstrated Wednesday afternoon at the northern entrance to Efrat in Gush Etzion. The protest, part of the effort by Judea and Samaria residents to “take back the roads” and make them safe from terrorist rock-throwers and gunmen, was attended by dozens of people who have had enough of the ongoing attacks on drivers, a spokesperson for the protesters said.

CIF Watch: Harriet Sherwood refers to jailed Palestinians who Abbas wants released as “political prisoners”

Sherwood was, intentionally or otherwise, legitimizing the Palestinian narrative which glorifies terrorists and consistently characterizes even those prisoners convicted of the most gruesome crimes as ‘victims’ of Israeli oppression.

Donnison absolves Hamas of responsibility for hair cut crackdown

Donnison’s all too obvious attempt to absolve Hamas of responsibility for this latest bout of curtailment of basic personal freedoms in the Gaza Strip once again raises serious questions regarding his ability to report on the subject of that organisation and its actions impartially.

Poll: 90.9% of Palestinians Believe Hamas and Fatah Should Reach Reconciliation Deal

A new poll released by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center showed that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians (90.3%) believe that Hamas and Fatah should pursue national reconciliation even if this leads to the United States and Israel imposing sanctions on the Palestinian Arabs.

Hamas eyes bigger regional role

Re-elected last week, Mashaal will try to deepen ties with regional powers Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, which have already given money or political support to Hamas-run Gaza and could be conduits to the US and Europe, several leading Hamas figures said. Mashaal will also push for a power-sharing deal with his Western-backed Palestinian rival, President Mahmoud Abbas.

Egypt nabs 4 men smuggling arms and blueprints into Gaza

The suspects were captured near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and “were attempting to smuggle blueprints and designs for Egyptian police, army and intelligence facilities,” an Egyptian security official told Ma’an News on Wednesday evening. He added that the men had ”automatic weapons, ammunition, bombs, landmines, and anti-aircraft shells.”

Report: Egyptian Army Tortured, Killed Civilians During Uprising

Egypt's armed forces participated in forced disappearances, torture and killings across the country during the 2011 uprising which led to the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak, even as military leaders publicly declared their neutrality, according to a leaked presidential report on revolution-era crimes.

12 Hizbullah Members Killed Near Damascus

Twelve members of the Hizbullah terrorist group have been killed in an ambush near Damascus, Al Arabiya reported Tuesday, quoting sources close to the Lebanese movement.
More than 20 other Hizbullah members, part of a military brigade deployed in Syria to defend President Bashar al-Assad, were also wounded in the attack, the sources said.

We can’t designate Hezbollah a terror group, Cypriot minister says

Citing its friendship with Lebanon, Cyprus said it was unwilling to unilaterally declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization, despite the fact that a Limassol court sent a member of the Shiite group to prison for his role in a plot to kill Israelis two weeks ago.

Rich Gulf nations fail to honor pledges to help Syrian refugees!

We already knew, for years, Gulf Arab nations love to pledge hundreds of millions of petrodollars to help their Palestinian brethren - and often fail to pay up.

Now, the UN is saying that they are doing the same thing - to the real refugees in real danger from Syria:

Mr. Panos Moumtzis, Regional Refugee Coordinator for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said unfortunately, the dramatic deterioration of the situation inside Syria was continuing to have serious implications for the region. Three-quarters of those fleeing were women and children.

As of today, (9 April) the figures had reached 1.3 million refugees registered. This was a significant increase as 12 months ago, the figure was 30,000. The 1.3 million represented 120 per cent of the planning figure which was thought to be reached by June 2013.

Funding for operations currently sat at 31 per cent as UNHCR had requested $1 billion for the Regional Response Plan, though only received $300 million. This acute shortfall meant that a breaking point had been reached. The public services provided by host countries had been stretched to the maximum, or depleted, and they required support from the international community. In addition, the deterioration of the situation in Syria maintained the outflow of refugees, and without support, there were concerns for the regionalisation of the conflict.

...Answering questions, he said UNHCR was waiting for the materialisation of the bulk of the pledges made in Kuwait by the Gulf States (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates had each pledged $300 million for the humanitarian needs of refugees) and it was hoped these would arrive soon. The modality of the pledging process was that the money could be passed to United Nations agencies, though other pledges were made through national agencies. How exactly the aid was delivered was not the concern, it was more that the pressing needs of the refugees were met.

Yet again, the West is shown to care more about Arab lives than Arabs do!

I always maintained that the reason Gulf states wouldn't pay their pledges to the PA was because they were sick of the Palestinian issue, the infighting and the inability to compromise to make peace already with Israel.

This case is different. In this case, there is a real humanitarian crisis, not a manufactured one. There are real refugees, not descendants. Here we have a real need to help people who simply cannot help themselves, as opposed to Palestinian Arabs who simply whine that they deserve more and more.

But the rich oil states are not paying up even here.

It looks more like they are simply selfish jerks who like to talk big but run away when asked to make good on their promises.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

Israel saving lives in Syria

The first paragraphs of this story in GlobalPost are extremely misleading, implying that Israel is trying to take a piece of Syria:

Israeli military personnel are operating in non-combat capacity in an area across Israel's border with Syria, GlobalPost has learned.

This area may be in Syrian territory that, with the redeployment of regular Syrian army units to Damascus, has become a contested arena for various rebel groups.

Israel and Syria have been in a formal state of war since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. There are no diplomatic ties and no contacts, except through UN offices; it is illegal for Israelis to enter Syria, and Syrians entering Israel are considered enemy infiltrators.

UN peacekeeping forces have safeguarded a demilitarized zone along the generally quiet border since the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The last Israeli soldiers known to have been in Syria were returned to Israel in an exchange of POWs following the war.

Reports that Israelis may be operating, even in non-combat capacities, in an enemy state can be compared to information indicating that American military personnel are operating in North Korea — if North Korea lay on the American border, and if it was consumed by a civil war in which extremist elements were involved.

Say what?

What is really going on can only be discerned many paragraphs later:

Late last month, after 11 Syrian citizens were treated in Israeli hospitals, AFP reported that the Israeli army set up a field hospital on the Israeli-Syrian border to provide emergency care on-site. The army spokesman has refused to comment on the report.

Standing on the northern Golan Heights, a white tent-like structure is visible within Israeli lines, on the grounds of military base 105.

"I think behind the scenes there are steps being taken to prepare. We haven't set up a field hospital for thousands. But there is some preparation, more ambulances, more doctors, more medical equipment. We're ready. It's only logical," Ret. Col. Eshkol Shokron, who commanded the Golan Division until his retirement last August, told GlobalPost.

"It’s a terrible situation there. Injured people are dying in the field because of a lack of medical treatment. Sometimes they just bleed. If possible, caring for them on the border without bringing them into Israel is better. I think the army is doing things in the field."

When asked by GlobalPost if non-combat military personnel are operating across the Syrian border, Israeli Defense Forces spokesman, Capt. Eytan Buchman, did not deny the possibility.

In a written statement, he replied, "The IDF places a great deal of importance on the provision of humanitarian care when necessary. As such, we have provided initial medical assistance to a number of Syrians over the past few months. We cannot at this time comment on the process that takes place during such incidents. The IDF's primary goal is to provide for the safety and security of the State of Israel and its residents."

Whether there is an established base of medical operations on the border itself, or whether Israelis are operating just across the frontier, "the State of Israel doesn't need to take sides in the war," Shokron said.

He added that there is reluctance in Israel to address the matter head on because of concerns that wounded Syrians, both civilians and combatants, could flood the Israeli border.

"If we advertise that there's a hospital here, the whole world will come. If they understand there's an option here, and no one will shoot at them, that the army is moral and will take care of them, of course it is their best option."

Ret. Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, an expert on Israeli military strategy, says the significance of any Israeli presence across the Syrian lines would be tactical, not strategic, and that he doubts there exists a "permanent Israeli presence" across the border.

"It may mean there are ties or communication developing with some of the saner, more secular rebel groups," he said. "Dialogue like this is essential to cope with new security demands. Israelis may go in and out as the situation demands. But I'd say its farfetched to believe that any Israelis are sitting there in a permanent capacity."

In other words, the area near the border has become effectively a no-man's land and in the absence of any governance there, Israel is acting to secure its own border and to (secondarily) help provide medical care to those who need it.

The beginning of the report made it look more like a land grab. And no doubt Israel haters will interpret it that way as well.

There is another point that is important to stress - Israel does not want thousands of Syrians requesting asylum in Israel, for its own security purposes, so giving medical treatment to them in Syria itself provides the care they need without endangering Israel.

(h/t Zvi)

Turkish Marmara activist: "We asked for it"

From Hurriyet Daily News:

They never expected it. Neither did they really want it to come. But when Israel’s formal apology for the Mavi Marmara raid did arrive they were caught off guard. And when Erdoğan went ahead and accepted the apology they were deeply perturbed.

What made the matter even more disturbing for them was the fact that the Israeli apology was accepted only days after Erdoğan had equated Zionism with racism, saying it should be considered “a crime against humanity,” much to the joy of the Turkish members of the international Muslim Brotherhood.

As if this was not bad enough, one of the principle activists on the Mavi Marmara, the actor Sinan Albayrak, came out in remarks to daily Akşam after the Israel apology saying he wished the government had prevented them from trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade in the first place.

“What is the importance of the apology? ‘We killed nine people and are sorry’ – of course it sounds ridiculous. I say this is what the state should have done. If only it had prevented this at the start. But we asked for it. We went there ourselves.”

This is what Albayrak said. Confused as his remarks appear to be, they nevertheless express a regret that cannot have gone down well in Islamist circles. Especially the bit about “We asked for it.” Some are suggesting now that those who were on the Mavi Marmara when it was raided by Israeli commandoes should bring charges against the Turkish state, seeing as a prominent personality on the ship now says it could have prevented them from trying to breach the Israeli blockade.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

From Reuters/YNet:

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad offered his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas
on Wednesday following a rift between the two men over government policy, two sources told Reuters.

Sources close to Fayyad confirmed the report.

Abbas was due to return to the West Bank from Jordan on Thursday, and it was not immediately clear whether he would accept the resignation of the US-educated economist.

...Initially successful in revitalizing a sluggish Palestinian economy, Fayyad ran into trouble last year when Israel and the United States withheld vital funds to punish the Palestinians for seeking de facto statehood at the United Nations.

They said the unilateral move ran counter to previous accords and their financial penalties meant Palestinian public sector salaries went unpaid, stoking street protests.

Abbas's Fatah party accused Fayyad of failing to foresee the turmoil and the party's council issued an unprecedented rebuke last week, saying: "The policies of the current government are improvised and confused in many financial and economic issues."

Earlier this week I quoted Abbas as telling the Fatah revolutionary council that he was livid at Fayyad and that something would happen within three days.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday about the rumors of a division between Fayyad and Abbas, a senior diplomat in Jerusalem said Western aid donors would be very upset to see the respected prime minister leave his post.

"Fayyad's departure would have a serious impact on relations with the international community," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is hard to overstate how important Fayyad has been."

The diplomat added that Fayyad's institution-building drive in the West Bank had been "the single best thing" that had happened in the Palestinian territories in recent years, adding that the premier was also highly trusted by Israeli leaders.

Fayyad's close ties with the West have irritated senior Fatah officials, who have accused him of trying to build an unassailable powerbase, despite the fact that he had no significant political support amongst ordinary Palestinians.

This is well known. For years Fayyad - who has no constituency of his own and was never elected - has been praised endlessly by the West for his relative transparency and financial expertise, getting rid of much of the cronyism and corruption from the Arafat days.

Fatah, of course, hated him from the start because he was not a member of Fatah.

Also, unlike every other Palestinian Arab political leader, Fayyad has no ties to terrorism - something that also ensures his unpopularity.

Very few Western pundits ever noted the shakiness of Fayyad's term in office, and the folly of relying on such a man as a symbol of how the PA is getting its act together. On the contrary, people like Thomas Friedman assumed that Fayyad was a symbol of how great the PA was, rather an an anomaly that showed how utterly corrupt the rest of the PA is by contrast.

A great deal of the international legitimacy of the PA derives from a man who was chosen to be prime minister undemocratically, bypassing even the most basic of Palestinian Arab constitutional measures, by a president who has remained in office far beyond his term. Which is pretty much what you need to know about the legitimacy of the "State of Palestine."

No one showed up to protest Carter at Cardozo. No one.

Not one single protester showed up to Cardozo to express outrage that Jimmy Carter was receiving an award.

A few disappointed counter-protesters were there, however, with nothing to counter-protest:

There was a small crowd of reporters and curious students there as well.

Meanwhile, other Jewish organizations expressed their outrage. Too bad they couldn't actually send anyone there and get guaranteed publicity to focus on Carter's terrible record. Even YU's own Zionist clubs couldn't muster a contingent.

The alumni who promised to physically block Carter? Nowhere to be found.

This was most disappointing.

I haven't yet heard anything about the speech, or questions asked in the ceremony itself. But from everything I can see, Cardozo's dean arranged things to minimize the chances for anything embarrassing to happen from the very start, so I'm certain the questions asked were pre-screened to put a sunny face on the debacle.

By the way, there are 600,000 virtual slaves in the Middle East

Not that it is worth mentioning or anything, because they happen to be in societies that no one really expects any better from.

Millions of migrant workers flood to the Middle East from some of the world's poorest countries in search of paid work they won't find at home.

But for some, the journey doesn't end as they hope. Instead, they become victims of human trafficking, forced labor and sexual exploitation.

A report released Tuesday by the International Labor Organization paints a horrifying picture of migrant workers who find themselves trapped in appalling conditions without any way to get out.

"Our research team interviewed hundreds of workers and their experiences independent of country were very similar, actually," Beate Andrees, the report's author and head of the ILO's Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, told CNN.

"They were lured into jobs that either didn't exist or that were offered under conditions that were very different from what they were promised in the first place," she said.

Data is scarce, but the ILO estimates as many as 600,000 people may be victims of forced labor across the Middle East.

That equates to 3.4 in every 1,000 of the region's inhabitants being compelled to work against their free choice, the ILO said.

The study, titled "Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East," is based on more than 650 interviews done over a two-year period in Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because their isolation in private homes, without inspections, makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and forced labor, the ILO said.

Among the conditions they may face are: being denied proper time off; being confined to their place of work; being placed under surveillance; being made to live in degrading conditions, like sleeping in a kitchen or hallway; or having their identity papers confiscated or wages withheld so they can't leave.

In more extreme cases, they may be subject to physical and sexual violence.

A Filipina domestic worker in Lebanon told the ILO she was caught after trying to escape by climbing out over the balcony.

"My employer broke my elbow and then tied my hands behind my back. They left me one day long in my room and put a camera there. He threatened me: 'I'll accuse you of stealing money and ask for my money back, and they will throw you in jail!'" she is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, those who are coerced into sex work within the entertainment industry face a "real" risk of violence, detention or deportation, the report said.

"Owners and managers of entertainment establishments, and sex brokers (pimps), do not hesitate to use threats of denunciation to the authorities and family repudiation, and actual psychological, physical and sexual violence, to intimidate their victims," the report says.

"The impossibility of leaving the exploiter is entrenched by the fact that women known to have engaged in sex work have limited opportunities to secure income by other means."

The presence of migrant workers is also vital to the economies of many countries in the Middle East -- and in some, they outnumber the national workers substantially, the ILO points out.

In Qatar, an astonishing 94% of workers are migrants, while in Saudi Arabia that figure is over 50%, the report says. Migrants also make up a significant part of the workforce in Jordan and Lebanon.