Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 19, 2013

Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

LATMA: Obama's advisor on his post-American foreign policy and suicide bomber go on strike

Terror Never Left America’s Shores

Terror did not return to America at the Boston Marathon, because terror never left.
There have been more anti-US attacks and abortive attacks (not including Iraq and Afghanistan) in the last four years than in the previous seven years after 9-11.
This is not a statistic that is widely cited at government briefings, in the main news media nor on most college campuses, because our government, media and educational elites would like to pretend that the terror problem ended with Osama Bin-Laden.

National Tragedy Perverted to Promote Jewish Conspiracy Theories

“It is disturbing that once again extremists are taking advantage of a national tragedy to promote conspiracy theories rather than letting the hard and detailed work of the investigators take its course,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “America should come together in the aftermath of terrorism. We should not allow the extremists and bigots to divide us.”
Just minutes after the attack, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists took to the Internet and blamed Jews and Israel for the bombing, according to information compiled by ADL’s Center on Extremism.

King David Era Find ‘Buried’ by Authorities for Political Reasons
Soon the area will be handed over to the PA.

According to Makor Rishon, Antiquities’ director-general Shuka Dorfman and former chief of the central front Gen. Avi Mizrahi were called in to look at the find, a year and a half ago and decided together to silence the discovery.
The question is, based on their track record, how respectful would the future owners of the area, the PA, of a site that could prove beyond doubt that it used to belong to a Jewish empire – the very empire the PA officially says never existed.

How UNRWA Steals Money from Those Who Need It Most

But an even more basic reason for abolishing UNRWA is the harm it does to the world’s most vulnerable people–real refugees like the Syrians. Were the Palestinians handled by UNHCR like all other refugees are, UNHCR would have the budgetary flexibility to temporarily divert aid from the Palestinians, who need it far less, to people who need it more, like the Syrians today. Instead, it is forced to watch helplessly as Syrian refugees go roofless and hungry while $1 billion in aid is squandered on Palestinians with homes, jobs, and all the comforts of settled life.

Bad, Deceptive, Stupid

Grasping the true nature of BDS claims and countering them with well formed arguments is a lengthy process. BDS uses false premises to mischaracterize Israel in order to justify calling for sanctions against it, while ignoring that Israel is the Middle East’s only democracy that enshrines in law and enforces fully equal rights for its 1.6 million Arab citizens who form 20 percent of the population. Israel’s open and self-critical society, with its hundreds of human rights groups, attempts to uphold the highest international standards of conduct. Furthermore, Israel has sought peace with all its neighbors, particularly with the Palestinians. In 2000 and 2008, Israel made concrete proposals for a Palestinian state that would exist alongside it in security and mutual recognition. The Palestinians rejected those offers. BDS advocates intentionally ignore these historical facts.

UC Berkeley Votes in Favor of BDS

The Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) voted 11-9 to divest from companies affiliated with the IDF on Thursday, the Daily Californian reported.

Sydney University student council votes for BDS

Sydney University’s Andrew Potter said: “The vice-chancellor and the university welcome student debate and opinion but disagree with the SRC on this issue.”
Meanwhile, plans to open a Max Brenner chocolate shop at the University of New South Wales, also in Sydney, have been attacked by Students for Palestine, which launched a campaign this week against the Israeli-owned chain, The Australian newspaper reported

Irish official: Israel boycott passed without debate

Boycott was reportedly adopted without any debate or discussion. Only proposer, seconder discussed item on agenda before vote.

Nokia-Siemens puts all its new tech eggs in one basket

If you’ve ever thrown your smartphone down in frustration at how slow it is, hang in there. Nokia Siemens Networks understands where you’re coming from, and is working on ways to fix slow networks once and for all. The solutions it is implementing for its new effort — its Liquid Network architecture — are all going to be Israeli-developed.

Ghana Builds Preschools With an Israeli Touch

The MCI designation provides a framework, advice and connections but does not provide financial assistance—that is where Israel came into the picture. The head of MCI in West Africa, Abenaa Aboateng, met with MASHAV and came to the Golda Meir Training Center at Israel’s Mt. Carmel. After reviewing the program and visiting Israeli kindergartens, Aboateng invited MASHAV to partner in developing in the Kumasi Early Childhood Education project. The State of Israel agreed to participate and fund the training programs.

IDF’s Arizona Girl Receives ‘President’s Excellence Award’

Nira Lee grew up in Tempe, Arizona as a Zionist but firmly planted in the USA, until she saw the destruction following the Second Lebanon War during a visit to Israel. Now she is Lieutenant in the IDF.
After she received the President’s Citation of Excellence on Israel’s 65th Independence Day, she said, “It’s a huge honor for me to receive this award. Being a new immigrant, there are certainly times you feel you do not fit in, but the army is the epitome of how this country unites people.”

Boston suspect's interesting tweets - "Free Palestine"

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Twitter account doesn't seem to indicate too much extremism, but some of his tweets are interesting:

my bro left these christian missionaries second guessing their own religion
— Jahar (@J_tsar) August 10, 2012

I meet the most amazing people, spent the day with this Jamaican Muslim convert who shared his whole story with me, my religion is the truth
— Jahar (@J_tsar) December 31, 2012

I don't argue with fools who say islam is terrorism it's not worth a thing, let an idiot remain an idiot
— Jahar (@J_tsar) January 16, 2013

He retweeted:

I don't know of anything in this Dunya that could uplift & increase the good manners & behavior of a person the way Islam does.
— Islam (@IslamSpeaks) May 13, 2012

salat makes one strong #islam
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 12, 2012

Retweeted:

Do you ever wonder why so many rappers and brothers who get incarcerated go Muslim?
— Foxx (@PoeticJustice07) April 29, 2012

(h/t Judge Dan)

Salafist leader urges Egypt to allow him to fire rockets at "the Jews"

Salafi Sheikh Murgan Salem is refreshingly honest as to who his enemy is.

In the wake of the Salafist rocket attack on Eilat this week, Salem urged military leaders of Egypt to allow the jihadists to fire rockets into Israel and to support them, because it is an Islamic duty.

"We see the firing of rockets as a religious duty for all who are able, it is a jihad duty in the name of Allah; God Almighty ordered all of who are able to wage jihad against them as Allah says: 'Fight those who do not believe in Allah...' - The blood is boiling in the [Egyptian] soldiers, who have waited long enough for their leaders to allow them to launch rockets at the Jews...

"I think that the biggest danger is keeping the treaty and support for Israel, the Jewish entity, a cancer extending into the body of our nation established by the atheistic United Nations - Israel is not a state worthy of respect. For more than 30 years we have been subject to servility under the Jewish usurpers."

He also called to cancel the Camp David agreements between Israel and Egypt, saying that the Egyptian government that concluded the agreement was forged by infidels who had no authority to act on behalf of Egypt.

Just another day in Egypt.

Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel - The Happy Little Country

The Europeans prattle on about Israeli racism, and threaten to put yellow stars or some other nasty mark on Israeli goods. They ban Israeli books from their libraries in Scotland. They boycott Israeli universities, professors and students in England. In Italy they hold rallies for convicted mass murderer Marwan Barghouti at their national Senate. And in France they butcher Jewish children.
And then the likes of Catherine Ashton expect us to care what they think about us.

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: Amira, daughter of Rosa

The anti-Israel and pro-Arab line that Hass promotes appeals equally to anti-Israel forces on the international arena’s left and to rightist neo-Nazi outfits abroad. The rhetoric to which both supposed opposites resort when demonizing Israel is eerily similar. Hass delights them both.
She may pose as the embodiment of humane admonition and hector as the self-appointed voice of Israeli conscience. She may adopt the affectation of doing the moral thing in our name but the end result is immoral and indisputably at our expense.

For Palestinians, human rights begin at home

What is true for the rest of the world is also true for the Middle East and the Israeli-Arab conflict. If we want to promote peace and stability in the region, we need to pay more attention to the true benchmarks of democracy, rule of law and respect for basic human rights, and less on forming new states. To put it bluntly – creating a new repressive Islamic state in the region will do no good. So long as there is no real democratic reform in the Palestinian Authority, there will be no peace, nor will quality of life improve for the ordinary Palestinian.

Barry Rubin: Turkey’s Regime Fails Abroad; Is World Champion at Fundamental Transformation at Home

Erdogan's greatest achievement in terms of the international scene is that by his maneuvers and Obama's approval, he has made the world uninterested in the escalating repression in Turkey including ridiculous Stalinist-style show trials of dissidents. The latest event is the sentencing of an internationally famous Turkish concert pianist to ten months' imprisonment for tweets "insulting" Islam and a court decision claiming a 700-year-old church was illegally run as a state museum making possible its conversion into a mosque.
Thus, Erdogan has put together a winning combination: fake victories abroad; repression, seizing institutions, and mobilizing support through patriotism and Islam at home.

The Guardian refers to Palestinian terrorist Samer Issawi as a “political prisoner”.

Issawi – who was freed by Israel in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, but recently re-arrested for violating his release conditions - was originally sentenced to 26 years in prison for his involvement in a series of violent terror attacks, including indiscriminately firing an assault rifle at public buses, and manufacturing and distributing pipe bombs used in attacks on Israeli civilians.
A “political prisoner” is a person ‘imprisoned for their political beliefs or actions’.
No reasonable person can characterize Issawi’s crimes in a manner which fits that definition.
It is indeed that simple.

PA Arabs in Jerusalem to be 'Gifted' Israeli Citizenship
PA Arabs living in several Jerusalem neighborhoods on the Israeli side of the security fence are to be “gifted” with Israeli citizenship

According to the State Attorney, the facts of their residence and work situation would be sufficient to grant them rights identical to those of Israeli citizens in nearly every legal situation. As such, granting them citizenship would confer upon them not only the rights, but also the obligations, of Israeli citizenship, the State Attorney said.

Media Mum on Hamas's Razing Roman Temple

As Hamas destroys antiquities, Israeli media looks the other way.

France, UK say they have proof of use of chemical weapons by Assad forces

Britain and France have told the secretary-general they have reliable evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons near Aleppo, in Homs and possibly in Damascus, UN diplomats and officials say.

UN Watch: Syria accuses Israel of treating its wounded victims, in UN Security Council debate

And now Israel is blamed for treating the injured

Germans in Bremen, Stuttgart lash out at Israelis

The Israeli couple came to visit a “stumbling stone” memorial for five members of their family who were murdered by Nazis, the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
A dispute over the correct subway tickets and registration of the tickets with the transportation authorities resulted in one of the officials apparently praising the murder of the family’s members in the Holocaust.

Palestinians compete to become ‘President’ on new reality show

A cross between “The Apprentice” and “American Idol,” “The President” pits young Palestinians against one another in a battle for the coveted title of President of Palestine. Though the victor of course will not actually take the presidency, the winner will receive an as-yet-unannounced prize.

Abbas says unity coming "soon"

Any bets as to whether "soon" will be closer to one week, one month or one millennium?

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas pledged to launch talks “in the near future” on forming a national unity cabinet, following the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Abbas made the remarks late Thursday at a meeting of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was attended by Fayyad.

“We will hold consultations in the near future to form a government,” said Abbas, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

The president has been pressed by members of his Fatah party to form a national unity government that would guarantee Palestinian national reconciliation with the rival Hamas movement.

Fayyad, who resigned on Saturday, was a bone of contention between Fatah, which dominates the West Bank, and the Islamist Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

Hamas never recognized Fayyad's authority, continuing instead to recognize its own premier, Ismail Haniya.

“The president must hold consultations with Palestinian movements to form a national unity government and set a date for elections,” Azzam al-Ahmed, a Fatah leader, told official Voice of Palestine radio on Monday.

The statement also called for the formation “as soon as possible of a national unity government comprising independent figures” in line with a 2011 reconciliation pact.

Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement in Cairo in 2011, pledging to set up an interim consensus government of independents that would pave the way for legislative and presidential elections within 12 months.

But implementation of the accord has stalled over the make-up of the interim government.

The reason I haven't been posting any "unity" stories is because, like this one, they are fantasy. Even if something is cobbled together it wouldn't last long. Hamas isn't giving up its political power and military infrastructure in Gaza, and that is pretty much the deal-breaker there.

So the Boston terrorists were Muslim. Is anyone shocked?

Many people were fervently hoping that the Boston Marathon terrorists were not Muslim. Some actually hoped they would be white Americans, apparently afraid that if they were Muslim, it would stoke Islamophobia in America.

Just a reminder: A Gallup survey done a few years back, that was heavily spun to make it look like the vast majority of Muslims are moderate, in fact showed that 36.6% of Muslims worldwide thought that the 9/11 terror attacks were partially or wholly justified.

Which comes out to nearly half a billion Muslims who have no problem with terrorism against innocents.

Obviously, only a small percentage of those would actually perform terror acts. But that is a huge pool of potential jihadists. In fact, there are more Muslims who find justification for terror then there are people in South America.

Plus Canada.

Plus Australia.

That is a lot of people who want to cause harm to the West.

In this case, apparently, they were motivated enough to act on their jihadist terrorist indoctrination.

Naysayers like to say that most terror attacks on American soil since 9/11 were not performed by Muslims. David Sirota, linked to above, says that "FBI data show fewer terrorist plots involving Muslims than terrorist plots involving non-Muslims," although if you follow his links you see that the FBI said no such thing and the statistics come from the Muslim Public Affairs Council. But even if the numbers are accurate (and a glance at that report shows some spinning), that does not negate the huge number of Muslims who hate America, period. Most do not have easy access to the nation they hate so nothing will be done - but some will be motivated. Identifying that threat and being aware of it is not something to be ashamed of.

But, the argument goes, if Muslims are proven to have been behind the attack, then the US might decide to bomb a Muslim country in response. Um, why - because it happened after 9/11? Can you really generalize from that? Indeed, are people in Chechnya now building bomb shelters in fear that the US is going to attack?

These analysts think it is better policy for Americans to close their eyes to the dangers rather than be aware of them.

No one serious is saying that Muslims should be discriminated against in the US. But believing in radical interpretations of Islam is a factor in finding potential terror threats, as is an Internet history of researching explosives or of buying unusual amounts of fertilizer. The existence of non-Muslim terrorists doesn't mean that US law enforcement officials should discard anything they find that indicates radical Islam - it means that they need to add another category of potential murderers and treat people in any high risk radical demographic the same way.

The fact that these terrorists were Muslim is not something to celebrate. But it does prove that closing our eyes to the fact that hundreds of millions of people want us dead is not smart policy. Closing our eyes and hoping that the problem isn't with the millions of radical Muslims who want us dead is not very bright.

Pravda: Israel injecting PalArab prisoners with "viruses" before release

The latest blood libel, from Pravda:

A Palestinian released from Israeli jails, Rania Saqa, has brought to light that the Israeli regime injected detainees that are out of prisons with dangerous viruses.

Noting that Palestinian prisoners suffer from serious and chronic diseases such as bladder cancer and liver disorders, Rania has revealed that the Tel Aviv regime injects prisoners with dangerous viruses before releasing them.

The released prisoner has asked the many institutions and the international community to examine them carefully.

Most former inmates die after being released from Israeli jails.

Saqa Rania criticized the neglect of the Palestinian state to the situation in which the prisoners and their families find themselves and added that "the prisoners are subjected to the most cruel tortures."

A suspiciously large number of Palestinian prisoners are suffering from incurable diseases or permanent disabilities as a result of the critical situation in prisons that they suffer at the hands of Israeli regime.

Recently, the International Solidarity for Human Rights Institute warned that the Israeli regime uses and abuses Palestinian prisoners to test their new drugs, and this contradicts international medical and moral principles.

Currently, about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, are crowded in the jails of the regime in Tel Aviv. Most have not been tried and some have no formal charge against them, a strategy that the Israeli regime called "administrative detention."

As usual, not the slightest shred of evidence for sensationalist accusations. "Most former inmates die"? Well, maybe within 50 years they do.

El Saqa seems to be really unstable. She was interviewed in Hamas' Felesteen a couple of months ago. She

had been jailed for attempting to stab an Israeli officer at the Qalandiya checkpoint. Rania complained about her many illnesses after leaving prison including breast cancer, bladder cancer, hepatitis B, and multiple broken bones. She claims that she has been trying to get both the PA and Hamas to pay her medical bills but they have refused, and she tried to immolate herself to gain attention. She said that first she had medical negligence in Israeli prison, and then medical negligence by the PA and Hamas when she left.

In that article, she said nothing about being injected with viruses.

Similarly, in another interview for Al Quds, she said she needs cash to be treated in Italy but said nothing about Israel giving her these diseases.

Then, a few days ago, she suddenly announced she has money to travel to Italy for treatment, but not enough for living expenses. By then, her story about Israel injecting prisoners was starting to gel.

El Saqa has grasped the basic concept that if you want to get international media coverage - and money - blaming the PA is not going to get you anywhere. You have to blame Israel.

And, as we see, it works. Expect to see her absurd charges repeated, amplified and exaggerated in coming days.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv and O)

Palestinian Arab "leaders" again reject solving "refugee" issue

I had missed this story from last week. From the anti-Israel Middle East Monitor:

Israel's President Shimon Peres has said that Canada could play a significant role in the peace process, especially with regards to the Palestinian refugee issue. Mr Peres made his remarks after meeting Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird in Tel Aviv.

Ain Hilweh "refugee"camp - really, prison - in Lebanon

Peres pointed out that Canada has shown willingness in the past to absorb about 120,000 Palestinian refugees and grant them full Canadian citizenship so that they can live there forever. According to Peres this is an important offer as it would "save" the refugees from the "terrible suffering" they face in the refugee camps. As far as the Israeli president is concerned, "Instead of returning to what is now Israel, they can choose between compensation and migration to a country like Canada or moving within the borders of an independent state of Palestine."

Baird did not address the refugee issue openly, but Israeli sources confirmed that following Canada's offer to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in 2010 to allow Palestinians to migrate to the North American country, around 5,000 Palestinians holding travel documents issued by the UN agency had made the move. This was done ostensibly to reunite Palestinian families in the diaspora.

Then comes the blatant lies:

Commentators have warned that this does not make the refugee issue disappear; it merely switches it to another country as the Palestinians' right to return to their land is enshrined in international law. "Canada's offer would simply get Israel off the hook," said MEMO's senior editor Ibrahim Hewitt. "If Peres is serious about doing something to save refugees from such terrible conditions in the refugee camps, why doesn't he implement UN Resolution 194? After all, allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their land was one of the conditions of Israel's membership of the UN which has never been fulfilled."

There is no "right to return," in international law or otherwise, and that goes doubly so for descendants of refugees. UNGA 194 is not international law and its other paragraphs have been roundly ignored for over six decades.

The idea that Israel's admission to the UN was conditional on solving the refugee problem is another lie that Palestinian Arab leaders like to throw around.

Another major PalArab group, of course, rejects the idea that Palestinian Arabs should move out of camps and become full functioning citizens of a Western country:

Hamas movement renewed its affirmation that the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland from where they were forcibly evicted is a sacred right.

It said in a press release on Friday that no power on Earth could revoke that right, adding that the Palestinians were forced to live in other countries on temporary basis and would never relinquish the right of return.

Hamas was responding to statements attributed to Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird that his country was ready to absorb 120,000 Palestinian refugees where they would be granted Canadian citizenship and live there forever.

Hamas said that it absolutely rejects all solutions tabled by Israel and other international parties to dissolve the Palestinian refugees’ rights and asks all international parties to stop such “suspicious attempts” that only serve Israel and its schemes and deepen the Palestinian people’s suffering.

This has been true for years, and was especially evident when Western nations offered to relocate homeless Iraqis of Palestinian origin who were real refugees - and Arab leaders denounced the attempts to help these people out.

Naturally, the idea of making these people citizens in the Arab countries they were born in - which really does have a basis in international agreements - is utterly rejected by the Arab states as well as the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas.

So who cares about the descendants of Arab refugees from Palestine? Certainly not the Arabs.

(h/t YM)

New leader of dying Egyptian community is an anti-Zionist

On Thursday, Carmen Weinstein, the leader of the tiny remainder of a Jewish community in Egypt was buried in the dilapidated and damaged Jewish cemetery in Cairo:

After the service, Weinstein was buried in the Bassatine Jewish cemetery in a Cairo suburb. Her relatives said she wished to be buried alongside her parents, but sewage had flooded that part of the graveyard.

"Look at the humiliation and the filth in which we will be buried," said Haroun.

"But what to do? The area around should be developed, its residents must be allowed a decent life, so they preserve their surroundings," she said of the neighbouring slums.

Roger Bilboul, who came from France for the funeral, said he found the state of the graveyard "sad." "There was a metal door, it was stolen."

There are few gravestones left amid the rubbish. Most of the marble slabs have been stolen too.

The Haroun quoted is the new leader, Magda Haroun.

Egypt's small Jewish community will refuse Israeli offers of financial help for the

renovation of Egypt's ancient Jewish synagogues, Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported on Tuesday.

Magda Haroun, the new leader of Egypt's Jewish community, told Al-Ahram that she plans to contact UN heritage organisation UNESCO if she failed to find adequate funds for synagogue renovation.

Haroun stressed that Egypt's Jewish monuments belonged to Egypt's historical heritage, which extends over a very long period.

"Jewish temples are like the pyramids and the Sphinx," she said. "They are a part of Egypt's history that cannot be ignored."

"The sons of this community are Egyptians. We will live forever in Egypt because religion is for God and the nation is for everybody," Haroun said.

HuffPo notes that her father was an anti-Zionist:

Haroun said she considered herself Egyptian before Jewish, born and raised in the country.

Her father Chehata Haroun was a prominent Egyptian nationalist, one of the founders of the leftist Al Tagammu Party. He was known for his anti-Zionist politics and his defense of Egyptian Jews against accusations of having greater loyalty to Israel than to Egypt, at the peak of the Mideast wars.

Arabic media notes that her father actually volunteered to fight for Egypt in the Six Day War and wrote a famous letter asking to do so, and Magda says she wishes she could have joined him in fighting Israel (she was 13 at the time.) Chehata was also against the Camp David agreement to make peace with Israel.

When he died in 2001, his family refused to allow an Israeli rabbi to officiate at the funeral, and a rabbi from France was brought in instead.

Given this, it does not appear that Magda Haroun's anti-Zionism is an act.

‘Remove Israel from Existence’: 3 new clips from Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV

From the IDF Blog:

Gaza’s ‘Al-Aqsa’ television channel, which is affiliated with Hamas, continues to faithfully serve the fundamentalist line of its political masters. The channel frequently calls for the violent killing of Jews and for popular struggle against the ‘Zionist regime’, until it has been completely destroyed.

Check out these three clips, which nicely illustrate Hamas’ ongoing incitement against Israel:

Religious leader Wael Al-Zarad asks God to support global Jihad fighters in their attempts to “liberate Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Safed and Lod, Ramle, Jericho and all of our cities” from “this group of cancerous bacteria” [Israel].

In a Friday sermon from Gaza broadcast on March 1, the preacher calls on his congregation to “admit and proclaim to the entire world that what we truly seek is to remove the so-called “State of Israel” from existence”.

The anchor of an Al-Aqsa TV news show reports that Hamas has called for a terror attack on Jerusalem.

Hamas proves once again that its claims to legitimacy and moderation are false. Hamas’ true goal is to destroy the State of Israel.

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Munich, Israel, and Boston
How Israel prepares security for major sports events

Dr. Ganor says that the public awareness so prevalent here isn’t just a product of the long Intifada years, but of top-down education, of the sort he was exposed to in preschool. “It’s a process that takes time, but public awareness can and should be taught,” Dr. Ganor said. “Americans need it more than most people do, because they are more threatened than others but at the same time they’re also more complacent.” This is of particular importance because yesterday’s bombing seems to him to have been planned and carried out by a “lone wolf”, acting independently of a larger organization. In such cases, better intelligence – the secret to the vast majority of Israel’s counter-terrorism successes – would probably not have picked up on any early warning signals.

Analysis: Is Sinai Israel’s Achilles’ heel?

The al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists who targeted Eilat with rockets on Wednesday morning believe they have found Israel’s strategic Achilles’ heel.
Striking from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, they hope, rules out Israeli retaliation.
Jerusalem is highly reluctant to embark on any kind of counterterrorism operation on Egyptian territory, a fact readily exploited by Wednesday’s attackers.

Netanyahu: Syrian WMD a ‘worldwide’ terrorist threat

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has affirmed that Israel is prepared to conduct military action inside Syria to keep “game-changing” weapons out of terrorists’ hands. In an interview with the BBC in London Wednesday, Netanyahu also warned of a possible backlash if the international community decides to arm rebel groups.

Barry Rubin: Libya, a U.S. Client is a Mess Whose Anarchy Subverts the Region

This is a description of an anarchic mess. It is important for U.S. interests especially regarding Libya’s role as an arsenal for terrorist and insurgent groups. The trouble, however, is that the Obama Administration wants most of these arms to go to most of these groups. The other reason for Libya’s importance is that there is no progress being made on the Benghazi attacks on Americans. But perhaps the Obama Administration wants no progress on investigations of this incident.

Israeli NGO campaigns for Haniyeh, Abbas ICC trials

Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center said that the Palestinian Authority was recently recognized as a full state by the United Nations General Assembly and is now “threatening to bring soldiers and senior Israeli leaders to trial” before the ICC.
A Shurat HaDin press release also said that, “We at Shurat HaDin, know that the real victims are actually the harmed Israelis. Therefore, we are initiating a preemptive strike and collecting testimonies of every person who was physically or emotionally hurt by Palestinian terror.”

Parents Fight Textbook Trivializing Murder of Israeli Civilians

Williamson County, TN, resident Laurie Cardoza-Moore, mother of five and the head of an organization of pro-Israeli Christians, says she “appalled” to read in “The Cultural Landscape Curriculum – An Introduction to Human Geography” (list price a whopping $157.53) a social studies textbook her children study at the local high school the following, the following “dilemma”:
“If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism, or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?”

5 charged for plot to kill Jews praying at Temple Mount

The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office on Thursday submitted an indictment to the Jerusalem District Court against five east Jerusalem Palestinians for conspiring to carry out shooting and kidnapping attacks against Jews praying on the Temple Mount and security forces posted in east Jerusalem.

Israel ranks 2nd in worlds most educated countries

Israel ranked second in an international survey looking at the world’s Top 10 countries with the highest proportion of college-educated adult residents. Israel recorded 46 percent of its population completing a tertiary education, just five percent behind top-rated Canada.

Lewis Yelland Andrews, the Jews' forgotten friend

Andrews therefore became the Yishuv's trusted confidant in land affairs. He attained to this status after he helped the defenders of Hadera against the Arab attackers in 1920, and in 1929 rushed to rescue 20 Jewish families from Hadera and brought in a squad of Circassians armed with machine guns to break up a Bedouin mob that was threatening to attack the members of Beit Alfa (the chronicles of the Haganah describe Andrews' good deeds during that time at length). But Andrews neglected his own safety. (h/t Yoel)

Meyer Lansky, gangster - and Zionist

Ma'ariv has a lengthy article about legendary mobster Meyer Lansky, and how he helped Israel in its early days. Here is a condensed version and paraphrase of the article.

Lansky grew up on the Lower East Side in New York in the early 1900s. He made his fortune in the
bootlegging business with his friend "Bugsy" Siegel, made millions in gambling halls in Las Vegas and Cuba, had police and politicians in his pocket and is considered the biggest Jewish gangster in history. But also - Meyer Lansky was born in Grodno to a Jewish family before they emigrated to the United States, he fought valiantly against the US Nazi demonstrations before and during World War II, he helped the Americans to conquer Sicily, and he raised millions of dollars for establishment of Israel, but when he wanted to immigrate and receive citizenship in the early seventies he was expelled from the country in disgrace.

Lansky's family moved from Grodno (at the time, part of Russia) to the Lower East Side in New York City, a poor working-class neighborhood that absorbed many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Lansky left school at age 15 and by age 19 had already established the first gang along with his friend "Bugsy" Siegel. Lansky was the brain of the organization while Bugsy was the "muscle." "It's always better not to shoot, if it's possible," Lansky once said . "It is better to use common sense, and if that does not work, then move to threats. Violence is a bad substitute for logic."

An Israeli cousin of Lansky, who researched his life, says "Jewish gangsters in America evolved for two reasons. First, to protect the Jews. Jewish women on the Lower East Side could not walk alone on the street filled with Italians and Irish without being attacked and raped. Groups were established to protect the Jews in those cities and neighborhoods. The second reason was that the Jews ln America were poor. Some Jews got into the gangster life to make money and send their children to university. Unlike of Italian crime families, many of which remain active to this day, the entire Jewish involvement in the mob was over in one generation, and many of the children of that generation did not even know what their parents were involved. Some Jewish recipients of Nobel Prizes today are the childrenof the people associated in one way or another with the mafia."

By the late twenties, Bugsy and Meyer were collecting protection money from nightclubs, providing security services to the Italian mafia leaders, were involved in the activities of unions in New York and the occasional burglary and drug trafficking, while leaving behind a growing trail of bodies. This period also strengthened ties between the two and another childhood friend of Lansky, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Lansky and Siegel helped pave the way to Luciano to be named named "Capo di tutti capi" - boss of all bosses - through the elimination of other senior Italian Mafia figures. Then Luciano and Lansky built what was called the "National Crime Syndicate" - a national council of gangsters, where strategic decisions were made and disputes settled between families. Syndicate sat together leaders Irish Italian crime families and Jewish. While the Syndicate ended up murdering many people, Lansky was not believed to be involved in murders.

In the 1930s, as Prohibition was ending, Lansky branched out into gambling, using connections with Cuban officials to open up casinos there.

One day turned a Jewish judge and community leader Natan Perlman told Lansky he believed that Jews should demonstrate "a bit more militant" response at rallies that Nazis supporters held in New York. Lansky, becoming aware of the growing plight of his "European brothers," as he called them, was quick to respond to the request. Perlman threw only one constraint: no fatalities. Lansky sent some of his Syndicate friends along with other Jews to terrorize the Nazi party supporters throughout New York City. Flags were torn, skulls were cracked, but there were no fatalities.

After the US entered World War II, in 1943, Thomas Dewey and other US officials told Lansky the U.S. forces are about to conquer Sicily, birthplace of Lucky Luciano, who was then in prison. They asked him to see if Luciano could convince the Sicilians to cooperate with the occupying forces. Lansky visited the prison, and asked him the Mafia in Sicily will cooperate with the Americans. There were two armies invaded Sicily - the first British led by General Montgomery and an American second, under General Patton. The Sicilians supported the invasion, and in return Luciano was released from prison.

After the horrors of the Holocaust were apparent, Lansky felt the need to help his fellow Jews. In 1946, Lansky made a strategic decision: he and his friends throughout the United States must help bring the survivors from Europe to Palestine, and help establish the Jewish state. Lansky gave the order.

Lansky's cousin elaborates: "The goal was to help establish the Jewish state. It meant to buy the ships, help in gathering Jews from all over Europe, bringing them to Israel, to transfer funds to Israel, to arm the military. Whether it was buying Czech planes or training the paratroopers, all of it cost money - and Lansky collected all the money. It was Lansky's gift. He was a man of power and influence, and had the ability to help establish the Jewish state. He was in contact with many people and helped in collecting funds. It is important to emphasize that a lot of Jews not related to the mafia gave money, but those who controlled it, these were people who were close to the leadership of the syndicate."

Lansky's friends managed to get ships from Panama to ship weapons to Palestine, and Teddy Kollek - later mayor of Jerusalem - met with many of the mobster leaders who cooperated because of Lansky's interest. Even Bugsy Siegel, who was not interested in Judaism at all, responded when he heard that Jews were fighting.

In the fifties and sixties Lansky was convicted of gambling offenses and fined several thousand dollars and sentenced to probation, which did not stop him frm conducting business as usual, while the authorities turned a blind eye. Only towards the end of the sixties, and after he retired to Miami, did authorities try to convict him of charges of tax evasion. Then Lansky went to Israel, first as a tourist, and then when the interior minister refused to extend his visa, he requested to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. Israeli authorities thought otherwise. After a highly publicized trial, Chief Justice Shimon Agranat rejected Lansky's petition on the grounds that "Lansky's criminal past is a danger to public safety." Lansky was returned to the United States. He died in Miami in 1983.

This history is not well known, apparently because Israelis didn't want their early history to have any association with criminals. Indeed there are many anti-semitic websites that distort this history in order to make it appear that Jewish mobsters built Israel. But it is fascinating nonetheless.

(h/t Yoel)

So, what important things are being tackled by the UN today?

Every day at the UN is "Hate Israel" day, and today is no exception. Let's see:

VENEZUELA TO HOST SPECIAL MEETING OF COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, 17-18 APRIL

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in collaboration with and at the invitation of the Government of Venezuela, will convene a special meeting at the historic Yellow House in Caracas on 17-18 April 2013. In parallel, the Government of Venezuela will be inaugurating a Palestinian cultural week.

Ambassador Abdou Salam Diallo (Senegal), Chairman of the Committee, Riad Malki, Foreign Affairs Minister of the State of Palestine, and Elias Jaua Milano, Minister of the People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, will open the meeting. It is expected to address two main issues: the implications of the resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 29 November 2012 to grant the status of non-Member Observer State to Palestine in the United Nations; and initiatives to re-launch worldwide and regional solidarity with the Palestinian people and the State of Palestine.

It is expected that, at the closing of the meeting, the Committee will adopt a declaration in which support for the cause of the Palestinian people and for the State of Palestine will be reaffirmed. A press conference will be held on 18 April following the closing of the meeting.

I'm sure that the world is waiting for the declaration to be issued, any minute now from that world capital of human rights, Venezuela.

How about earlier in the week? (links show context that the UN doesn't deem important)

On the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoners Day, 17 April, the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People expresses its grave concern about the plight of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities.

It is estimated that over 750,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israel since the beginning of the occupation in 1967. At the end of February 2013, there were 4,700 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, 235 of them children and 10 of them women, as well as 169 administrative detainees that are imprisoned without charge or trial.
...

The conditions of detention of Palestinians in Israeli prisons continue to be a source of grave concern. Prisoners are thronged together in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities, denied access to health services, abused, beaten and humiliated by the guards, subjected to solitary confinement, with family visits severely restricted, all in contravention of provisions contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of protected persons. We are particularly alarmed by continued reports of torture and other forms of ill treatment.

The ongoing critical situation of Palestinian prisoners and detainees has led to raised tensions and is causing further instability in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

Looks like they are earning their paychecks, doesn't it?

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Why a Palestinian state needs Israel

The Palestinians, badly treated by the Arab world, must turn to Israel to build a lasting future. As a people, they simple have no friends in the Arab world. They are to some states pawns, to others parasites, and even the "untouchables" of the Arab world in some quarters.
Across the Middle East the so called 'refugees' are denied passports and citizenship by the countries they, their fathers, and their grandfathers were born in. The aim, aside from clear racism and lack of basic humanity, has remained the same since 1948 – the politicization of the Palestinians

PMW: Members of US Congress protest to Abbas about PA TV hate speech that PMW had exposed

Palestinian Media Watch recently exposed the PA TV broadcast of a girl reciting a poem that referred to Jews as "enemies of Allah, descendants of pigs." Three members of the US Congress, Doug Lamborn, Eliot L. Engel, and Trent Franks responded by writing a public letter to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Indy blogger Matt Hill engages in reckless smear about “forced sterilisation” in Israel

As Elder of Ziyon argued, though “some women may have misunderstood the use of the drug or the options they have for birth control”, there was never any plot by Israeli doctors to sterilize Ethiopian women.
Whilst other publications have engaged in sloppy reporting over the Ethiopian birth control story, Hill’s charge at the Indy leads the pack by engaging in a reckless, hysterical smear that has absolutely no basis in fact.

One-dimensional BBC reports on Fayyad resignation

Whilst BBC journalists debate whether Fayyad will stay or go and what effect that might have on the peace process, they – like many of Fayyad’s supporters in the West – apparently fail to realize that peace is about a lot more than one particular personality. Given the BBC’s default placing of blame for the failure of the peace process on a variety of exclusively Israeli causes (be they ‘settlements’ or the perceived disinterest of the Israeli government), it is hardly surprising that it fails to provide its audiences with comprehensive explanations of the long-existing fault lines within the PA which Fayyad’s resignation exposes. That leaves BBC audiences with a one-dimensional view of the peace process and the reasons for its failure to bear fruit.

Israeli Skunk Spray Effectively Dispersing Violent Arabs (2 Videos)

The “aromatic” spray is shot from a water cannon, soaking the target in gut wrenching, putrid smell. But, believe it or not, as smelly as it is, the Skunk is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and so harmless you can drink it without fear of harm. Except, according to reporters who caught a whiff of it, it kind of immediately makes you wretch.

Three men deported from Saudi for being 'too handsome'

I've checked and the following story does not trace back to The Onion. I can only assume therefore that it is based on truth. And when you learn that it comes out of Saudi Arabia, you will probably be inclined to believe it too.

Poland’s lawmakers honor Warsaw ghetto fighters

Poland’s lawmakers have paid homage to the victims and fighters of the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, days before the 70th anniversary of the ill-fated revolt.

Herzliya college opens Daniel Pearl journalism center

The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya launched the Daniel Pearl International Journalism Institute on Wednesday.
Pearl was on his way to an interview in Pakistan in 2002 when he was abducted and later beheaded. His last words were, “I am Jewish.”

Umoove operates your mobile through head movements alone

Newsgeek chose Israel’s Umoove as one of the three most promising Israeli startups for 2013.
What the Kinect motion-sensing device did for the Xbox game console, Israeli startup Umoove proposes to do for your mobile. You won’t have to move your whole body – only the parts from the chin up — to play games, scroll down a page or dial your mother.