Gazans getting sick of Hamas

From Now Lebanon, which is becoming a better news source every day:

Ayman as-Sayyed is a 19 year-old Palestinian who lives in Gaza. He was arrested last week by the Hamas police who picked him up on the streets because they were bothered by his long hair. So they decided to cut it for him.
...
Such practices are the result of a mentality based on monopolizing power, which leads to confiscating other people’s freedoms and imposing certain values and modes of behavior on them, according to Palestinian writer Majed Kayyali, who writes “This is how totalitarian systems – especially ideological ones – work, using means of direct and symbolic violence to impose their authority.”

These renewed violations have been occurring sporadically in the Gaza Strip since 2007, the year Hamas took over the Gaza Strip as a result of internal Palestinian divisions. Palestinian writer and activist Mustapha Ibrahim says “When Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections, many Hamas officials promptly reassured people that they would not harm public and private freedoms and would commit to implementing the law. However, things were different on the field.”
...

Zeinab al-Ghoneimi, a women’s rights activist and director of the Council for Women’s Legal Research and Counseling in Gaza, comments: “Hamas wants to Islamize society, which is already Islamic and conservative in Gaza. In reality, male and female students are already separated as of Grade 3 in most schools, except for two or three of them. The prevailing culture here is for women to cover their hair. So what do these decisions mean?”

What is being imposed here, she argues, is a “political rather than ‘religious’ version of Islam.” Hamas is seeking to forcefully consecrate its presence by relying on religion, and to portray itself as the warrantor of ethics and values. “On the one hand, they want to show that their decisions are being heeded; that they set moral criteria and spread virtue as though people were all devoid of any morals. On the other hand, they are issuing these laws to hamper the work of any new government seeking to initiate change in the future. Furthermore, these practices instill fear and allow them to demonstrate their strength to people and portray themselves as absolute rulers.”

When human rights organizations protest against such unconstitutional laws, Hamas recants its decisions, “but not before having caused a stir among the people and allowing the movement to interfere with the details pertaining to people’s lives,” according to Zeinab al-Ghoneimi. This is exactly the feeling young Ayman as-Sayyed sought to convey to AP when he said that he is scared of the future and does not feel safe, as he can be insulted and arrested at any time for no reason whatsoever.

Both Ibrahim and Ghoneimi asserted that even when these decisions are officially revoked by the cabinet, some still prevent female attorneys from entering courthouses or assault people on the streets. The Hamas cabinet declines any responsibility in these cases, claiming that these are individual transgressions with which it has nothing to do.

Hamas’ monopoly over power, its use of violence, its interference in the private lives of citizens and its exclusion of all organizations – even allied ones – from the Gaza Strip have led to an outcry against the movement, which is losing support among the youth, according to Majed Kayyali. “This was manifested in the festival celebrating the launch of the Fatah Movement in Gaza in January 2013, knowing that Fatah had been banned in the Gaza Strip for the past six years. [The festival drew] a massive crowd and this was surprising not only for Hamas, which controls the Strip, but also for Fatah, which is in a state of organizational disrepair and is riddled with domestic conflicts. In this sense, an approximately one million-strong crowd on the Gaza square and surrounding streets voiced the complaints of Gaza’s Palestinians against Hamas violations. [Their participation] had more to do with opposing Hamas [practices] than with supporting Fatah.”
...
Zeinab al-Ghoneimi describes the situation in Gaza as depressing. People are expecting “a national reconciliation to occur and end the current division between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, rather than to be oppressed, intimidated, and insulted. Many university graduates are unemployed. Unemployment, self-imposed isolation, and the inability to move [freely] lead to problematic social behavior, the price of which is paid primarily by women. Hamas is not seeking to adopt policies that alleviate this situation. On the contrary, with every security tension or Israeli threat, criminals are released from prison and political detainees remain behind bars.”

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Some more stuff to read

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a great looking Hebrew article in Mida about how Ha'aretz has turned from an excellent paper into a terrible one. I hoped someone could translate it - and someone did. Read it all at TheTower.

UN Watch slams Richard Falk for again blaming America for "prompting" Islamic terror.

Ian noted this in his linkdump but it is an important story, from JPost:

Bulgarian police officers last summer arrested a Canadian citizen linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local Chabad center in the capital of Sofia, a well-placed and reliable local source told The Jerusalem Post last week, on condition of anonymity due to security reasons.

An Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s, holding a Canadian passport, traveled from Istanbul to Sofia several weeks after the bombing of the Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas in July 2012. She was arrested on her first day in Sofia after the Bulgarian police, on high alert, noticed she was monitoring the Chabad center.

But that wasn't the only terror plot around. Canada caught an Iranian-based Al Qaeda plot to derail a passenger train.

In a related note, Michael Totten thinks that this might be the beginning of the end for Hezbollah. (h/t WarpedMirrorPMB)

Barry Rubin shows his usual clear-headed thinking:

Now that the two (primary, at least) terrorists from the Boston Marathon attack have been killed or captured, we enter a new phase in which the dominant politically correct, factually incorrect forces try to explain away the attack.

Can this be done? Will they really try? Well, yes. True, as one of my correspondents remarked, it is much easier to obfuscate distant Benghazi than a total shutdown and horror in the middle of a major American city. Yet the spin-masters are already at work.

Finally, Five Minutes for Israel has a four part series destroying the BBC's official description of "Palestine":

Comes with the territory http://5mfi.com/comes-with-the-territory/ Overview

Facts with the territory http://5mfi.com/facts-with-the-territory/ Facts

The One-eyed is King http://5mfi.com/the-one-eyed-is-king/ Leaders

Massaging the media http://5mfi.com/massaging-the-media/ Media

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Monday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Israeli doctor treats Boston terrorist, victims; says 'I'm used to it'
Director of hospital where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated says 'Situation reminded me of terror attacks in Israel, but Americans not used to it'

"Unfortunately, I have had a lot of experience with these types of injuries after years of treating people injured in terror attacks in Israel," said the professor, who is a member of the board of Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, where he studied medicine and completed his residency.
"We have a few Israeli doctors in the emergency room, and the director of the ER is also Israeli. But most of the physicians at the hospital are not Israeli, and they functioned exceptionally well," Tabb added.

‘Most Israeli Jews would annex part of West Bank’

The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews support Israel extending its sovereignty over some or all of the West Bank, either unilaterally or as part of an agreement, according to an Ariel University poll published Sunday.
The survey, conducted by the Geocartography Institute on behalf of the Israeli university in the West Bank, found that 35 percent of respondents said the government should annex the entire West Bank, 24% said only the settlement blocs should be annexed, 20% answered that any annexation should only take place as part of an agreement with the Palestinians, and 12% said Israel doesn’t need to impose its sovereignty over any part of the West Bank. Nine percent had no answer.

Horse meat ok... Israeli produce not?

EU ministers have backed efforts to label Jewish West Bank produce, while neglecting the realities on the ground
As if Europe didn't have its hands full with food labeling and quality, it now has the gall to lecture Israel on produce from disputed territories. This is a development as troubling in its historical connotations as it is grounded in anti-Israel fallacies.

Iran agent monitoring Chabad arrested in Bulgaria

Bulgarian police officers last summer arrested a Canadian citizen linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local Chabad center in the capital of Sofia, a well-placed and reliable local source told The Jerusalem Post last week, on condition of anonymity due to security reasons.

Maryland governor praises Israel's counter-terrorism

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley commended Israel’s way of dealing with terrorist attacks as he addressed 30 visiting business and academic leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday night.
O’Malley, who is mentioned as a likely future Democratic candidate for US president, noted that the United States had improved in its efforts to tackle terror, due in part to what the country had learned from Israel, making reference to last week’s terrorist attack in Boston.

'Indo-Israel FTA likely to raise trade volume to $15 billion'

Trade and business between the two countries would skyrocket once FTA is put in place, he said, adding that there are immense potential for growth in areas like healthcare, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, irrigation, energy, particularly from renewable sources, aviation, IT and water management.
Referring to Odisha, Vilan said Israel is keen on expanding business and entering into joint ventures mainly in healthcare, agriculture and agri-related sectors like irrigation and water management.

IDF Blog: Earth Day Special: 7 IDF Green Innovations You’ve Never Heard Of

In honor of Earth Day 2013, here are seven examples of how the IDF has used its ability to innovate and its technological brainpower to find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental issues.

Israeli tech seeks to undo the damage of pesticides

But with technology developed at the Weizmann Institute, and commercialized by Israeli start-up Catalyst AgTech, we may be able to avoid finding out what those long-term consequences are. In what industry professionals have told him is a “game-changing technology,” Shalom Nachshon, CEO of Catalyst AgTech, is hopeful that the work his company is doing will rid the environment of chemicals and pesticides that otherwise could “hang around” in water and soil for hundreds, or even thousands, of years.

It’s Shalom, Glastonbury! Israeli bands in festival first

Three acts from Israel are due to play at Glastonbury this summer — marking the first appearances by performers from the country at the leading music festival.
Acollective, a seven-piece band performing punk, folk and electronic jazz; Saz, a Palestinian rapper who lives in Ramla and has been compared to Will Smith; and soul singer Ester Rada will all sing on the Silver Haze stage at the Somerset festival.

Samsung Korea VP Visits Yeshiva to Help Koreans Learn Talmud

Charlie Park, Vice President of Samsung Korea, visited an Israeli Yeshiva at Shalavim last week, accompanied by a South Korean camera crew, and met with the program directors and with students to document how students study Talmud at the Yeshiva.
The South Koreans have developed a fascination with the study of Talmud. The country’s ambassador to Israel, Ma Young-Sam, has told the “Culture Today” TV show that Talmud study is now a mandatory part of the country’s school curriculum.

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Jordanian paper mentions that Jews control all the banks and are behind all wars

Al Madenah News, a Jordanian newspaper, has a feature article on the Rothschild family.

Here it is:

The Rothschild family is "one of the families in the invisible government" and the oldest and largest Jewish Khazar family and are the owners of the world's central banks and the US Federal Reserve bank.

The Rothschild banking group played a major role in the financing of the two world wars as well as the financing of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust during World War II.

Rothschild owns 80% of the world's wealth and is responsible for creating all economic crises, as well as political crises across the world.

The Rothschild family has taken Palestine through the Balfour Declaration where Britain was saved from the First World War in exchange for granting Palestine.

Their control of the world allows their preparation to build the Temple of Solomon.

Some experts and scientists say that the Jews of the Khazars are Gog and Magog, and Allah knows best.

Just another day in the Arab media.

(Correction: I originally wrote this was an Egyptian paper. h/t @EmadPax.)

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Miftah attacks Judaism

In a highly offensive article on its website, the Western-funded Palestinian Arab NGO Miftah is not really certain that there were ever any Jewish Temples in Jerusalem and denies that Jews have any rights to pray or even visit their holiest site:

With each passing day, more and more right-wing extremist settlers and Israelis insist on entering the Aqsa Mosque Compound. They walk the grounds, try to conduct Jewish prayers and always do so under the protection of the Israeli army and police. Muslims meanwhile either bite the bullet and hope the unnatural visits end quickly or, more often than not, they protest....

The fact of the matter is that Israel’s official narrative – that this is the exact place where the second temple was built and where the third one will eventually be reconstructed, has become a given for so many. The premise is that Jews have every right to enter and pray in Al Aqsa because the temples came first and this is ostensibly the holiest site in Judaism. The thousands of years of history and religious significance for Muslims around the world are made completely irrelevant not to mention that the Israeli narrative can always trump anyone else’s, especially the Palestinians. The seemingly religious aspect of the argument is actually entirely political at its core.

I wasn't aware that a religion that is, according to its own calendar, 1,434 years old, has "thousands of years of history and religious significance." I also wasn't aware that the many Jewish sources about the religious importance of the Temple site that pre-date Islam are actually political. I guess because the rabbis really knew that some guy named Mohammed would say that he flew a winged horse to "the farthest mosque" which would be interpreted a century later as being the third holiest site in (Sunni) Islam.

Miftah dismisses thousands of years of Jewish practice, Jewish prayers, Jewish legal texts and the Torah itself - all of which predate Mohammed's birth. And it claims that the Jewish ties to the site are - get this - political!

Miftah, a supposedly progressive and liberal NGO,  is saying explicitly that Jews do not have the right to pray at their unquestioned holiest spot. But Muslims, who have stolen numerous Christian and Jewish holy places, should have complete and exclusive rights to places they usurped. Muslim rights to stolen holy sites, according to Miftah, are paramount; Jewish and Christian rights to these sites are non-existent.

It would be an understatement to call this article hypocritical.

Once again, Miftah's interest in the truth is nonexistent. Now we see that they publish screeds that are highly offensive to Judaism as well.

Let's make this clear:

• Questioning the Jewish right to even visit, let alone pray at, the holiest site in Judaism is unspeakably offensive. 
• Questioning well-established facts of Jewish history in order to push a much later claim on that spot is nothing less than an insult to Judaism and to generations of Jews who have cried over the destruction of the Temples. 
• To imply that Muslims playing soccer is a more appropriate use of the Temple Mount than Jews respectfully visiting is sickening. 
• To demand Muslim exclusivity over that site is bigotry, pure and simple.

The fact that these lies about Judaism and Jewish history are accepted as fact among many bigots does not make this any less reprehensible. Even worse is that this article explicitly supports religious discrimination.

A Western-funded NGO must be judged by the standards of the West and the standards of truth and accuracy and fairness it claims to adhere to itself, not the lowest common denominator in the Arab world.

Yet Miftah still get funded by clueless European NGOs.

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Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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PMW: Abbas honors murderer
Abbas and other senior PA officials honor prisoner Issa Abd Rabbo who murdered two students hiking near Jerusalem

Abbas' representative to murderer's mother: "The best of the Palestinian people's sons are in prison"
PA TV host to murderer's mother: "Your son is a fighter and a hero, and all prisoners are heroes"
In the past month, a number of senior Palestinian Authority officials including Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and PA TV, have all honored murderer Issa Abd Rabbo.

CIF Watch: The Guardian’s continuing obsession with Mordechai Vanunu

Naturally, Vanunu is something of a cause celeb at the Guardian, which has published no less than 75 separate pieces (reports and commentary) on the convicted Israeli felon, including an official editorial lauding him, entitled “In Praise of…Mordechai Vanunu“.

BBC’s Wyre Davies Tweeting for illegal building

The restaurant was constructed without planning permission or the appropriate building permits and hence was the subject of a demolition order issued in 2005 and carried out in May 2012. The restaurant was then rebuilt – also illegally without the necessary planning permission or building permits. The restaurant’s owner/constructor was given the opportunity to appear before the planning committee of the Civil Administration. A second demolition order was issued and that was carried out on April 18th 2013. The electricity line to which Davies refers was also illegally connected.

France set to blacklist Hezbollah, politician vows

France is willing to add Hezbollah to the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations if a Bulgarian investigation into a terror attack there confirms that the Shiite group was indeed responsible, a leading French politician said while on a visit to Israel.

US security committee: Hezbollah could be in US

There may be Hezbollah terrorists living in America, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the US House Committee on Homeland Security, said on Sunday.
He said he was worried over the freedom of movement of terrorists in the wake of the twin bombings in Boston last week.

‘Israeli drones given leave to fly over Jordan’

Jordan has allowed Israel to fly military drones over the country en route to Syria in order to monitor the situation there and, should the need arise, target chemical weapons caches in the civil war-torn country, the French daily Le Figaro reported Monday.
King Abdullah II made the decision during US President Barack Obama’s visit to the region in March, the report said.

The Siege of Egypt's St. Mark Cathedral An Insider's Account by Raymond Ibrahim

Even the Western mainstream media recently came around to affirming that Egyptian security forces were involved in the attack on the cathedral. And, true to Ramzi's prediction, the only people to be arrested in connection with this latest assault on Christianity were the Christians themselves.

Egypt claims to uncover Israeli spy ring in Sinai

A total of nine Egyptians and Palestinians reportedly arrested for gathering information on behalf of Israel in the Sinai Peninsula.
Meanwhile, a Salafi official in the Gaza Strip was quoted in the newspaper A-Sharq al-Awsat saying the purpose of last Wednesday's rocket fire from Sinai into the southern Israeli city of Eilat was to harm the Hamas government in Gaza and the Morsi government in Egypt, which he claimed conspire with Israel.

Arab League condemns loan of Balfour Declaration to Israel

The Arab League has condemned the decision of the British National Library to loan the original Balfour Declaration document to Israel so it can be put on display at Independence Hall (where David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948) in Tel Aviv.

Ikea pulls ad from Swedish anti-Semitic blog

Ikea has removed ads from a Swedish anti-Semitic blog and is investigating how its online advertisement banner came to be placed there.
“We have stopped all advertising for this package pending an investigation into what happened,” Sara Paulsson, a press officer for the Swedish home design and furniture giant told the local daily Aftonbladet on Saturday.

Record Turnout at Budapest Holocaust March Amid Rising Racism

A record 10,000 Hungarians took part Sunday in an annual march to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, amid recent reports of increasing racism and anti-Semitism in the country.
Over 10,000 people, more than double the usual turnout, participated in the "March for Life", according to an AFP count, alongside government and opposition members, and the ambassadors of Israel and the United States.

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How easy is it for Hamas to be taken off of Europe's terror list?

From Ma'an:

The Hamas movement has been holding a series of closed-door meetings in the Qatari capital of Doha to distribute positions on the new members of its politburo, says senior leader Ahmed Yousif.

The new Hamas politburo, added Yousif, is expected to focus on benefiting from the Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities in Europe to recruit support to Hamas in Europe, and try and take the movement’s name off terrorism lists.

“Hamas will focus on convincing European countries to take its name out of the terrorism list. Hamas is certain that the US will not agree to take its name off the list. However, European countries set only one condition to do that -- avoiding martyrdom attacks inside Israel, and Hamas hasn’t carried out any attack since 2004.”

I don't know if Hamas is telling the truth - groups who advocate genocide are often not the most trustworthy - but Hamas didn't make this idea up out of thin air. It seems likely that one or more sympathetic European diplomats gave Hamas this advice, and Hamas is heeding it.

This is very troubling. It means that some European diplomats, if not EU policymakers altogether,  believe that if a terror attack doesn't involve a suicide bomber - like at the Boston Marathon, say - then it isn't bad enough to blacklist the organization that brags about it.

European nations need to clarify their position on this issue, and writing to the Foreign Ministry offices of various EU member countries would be a good idea. Ask them these simple questions:

• How do you define terrorism?
• Does the EU consider the 2010 drive by shooting attack that killed Yitzhak and Talya Ames, Avishai Shindler and Kochava Chaim in 2010 to be a terror attack, or is it somehow OK because it happened outside the Green Line?
• Does the EU consider the anti-tank missile attack against an Israeli schoolbus that killed 16 year old Daniel Viflic to be terrorism, or is it somehow OK becuase it wasn't a suicide bomb?
• Does the EU consider Qassam and Grad rockets clearly aimed at civilians to be terrorism, or are they OK for some strange reason?

Whether or not Hamas is telling the truth, it is crucial to get the EU on the record as to their criteria to take Hamas off of the terror list.

(By the way, the most recent suicide bombing claimed by Hamas was in 2008, not 2004, when 73-year old Lyubov Razdolskaya was murdered.)

(h/t Mostly Kosher)

UPDATE: Last December:

An EU official denied claims made by Hamas Tuesday that Europe would remove the group from its list of terror organizations if it engaged in indirect talks with Israel, saying the organization had to meet the demands of the international community if it wished to be treated like a legitimate player.

Hamas must recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce terror and comply with all the agreements signed between Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority, the source told Israel Radio on Tuesday evening.

I'm not sure that this isn't apples and oranges. The demands to renounce terror, recognize Israel and comply with agreements are generally regarded as the formula to be treated as legitimate by the West, but the bar to get off of the terror list would be much lower. I can, unfortunately, see clueless European diplomats - always eager to find reasons to talk to everyone - come up with an absurd formula as listed above by Hamas to get it removed from that list.

After all, note how difficult it is to convince the EU to place Hezbollah on the terror list. They have been involved in numerous attacks and attempts at terror attacks in Europe itself and still the EU is skittish to place a political actor on the terror list. The same logic is behind EU readiness to turn a blind eye to some of Hamas' activities as long as it acts like a state actor.

It is still worthwhile to ask the specific question to EU diplomats as to what it takes to be removed from the terror list.

(h/t Israellycool)

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Kerry compares Boston bombing victims with Turkish attackers on Mavi Marmara

From The Washington Times:

Mr. Kerry said he understood the anger and frustration of those Turks who lost friends and

family in the raid. Mr. Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, said last week’s Boston Marathon bombings made him acutely aware of the emotions involved.

“We have just been through the week of Boston, and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence, when something that happens when you lose people that are near and dear to you,” he said. “It affects the community; it affects the country. But going forward, you know, we have to find the best way to bring people together and undo these tensions and undo these stereotypes and try to make peace.”

So people who attack soldiers with knives, chains and metal poles - as well as at least one gun - are just like innocent people watching a community sporting event and getting blown up?

This is beyond vile. The IHH attackers on the Mavi Marmara have much more in common with the terrorists in Boston than with the victims, and Kerry's statement is an insult to the dead and injured in Boston.

The daily State Department briefing today hopefully will have some pointed questions about this, and in a sane world, an apology would follow.

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Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev said "the Bible is a copy of the Koran"

AFP reports:

The deceased Boston bombing suspect recently described the Bible as a copy of the Koran during an argument about religion, a former neighbor claims. Al Ammon, whose apartment is in the same building in the Boston suburb of Watertown where Tamerlan Tsarnaev once lived, told CBS television's "60 Minutes" that the dispute between the two took place about three months ago.

"I remember the first thing I said to him was that it's always good to have an open mind towards other religions. And then he went into the Bible and the Koran," Ammon said in an excerpt of an interview set to air later Sunday.

"He was explaining how the Bible is actually a copy of the Koran and how it's used for the American government as an excuse to invade other countries." Christianity predates Islam by 600 years.

The apologists who are trying so hard to pretend that Islam was not part of the Tsarnaevs' calculus have to redouble their spinning efforts.

Perhaps the most ridiculous such argument was advanced by third-rate academic Juan Cole, who gave a list of "Top Ten Ways Islamic Law forbids Terrorism" even before anyone knew that the bombers were Muslim. I guess all the fatwas issued to mandate terror acts are not being issued by real Muslims, according to this self-proclaimed "expert."

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Kerry asks Erdogan not to go to Gaza - will his refusal be considered an insult? (UPDATE)

From the NYT:

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that he had urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to put off his visit to Gaza to avoid disrupting efforts to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We have expressed to the prime minister that we really think that it would be better delayed and that it shouldn’t take place at this point in time,” Mr. Kerry said in a news conference here.

“The timing of it is really critical with respect to the peace process that we’re trying to get off the ground,” Mr. Kerry said. “We would like to see the parties begin with as little outside distraction as possible.”

Now, if (and when) Erdogan ignores Kerry, will any of the US media describe it as a "slap in the face" to the US?

It seems that Kerry is already giving Erdogan an out, so as not to make it look like the US is, Allah forbid, demanding something from him. The New York Times didn't offer the entire quote:

“We have expressed to [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] that we really think that [the visit] would be better delayed and shouldn’t take place at this point for many different reasons. Of course the prime minister will make his own decision on that,” Kerry told reporters in Istanbul.

Kerry, already anticipating the refusal, made sure that the issue wouldn't be considered a sticking point.

Which means that the US knows quite well that the request would be spurned.

Which brings up the question - why make such a request to begin with when the only likely result is to make the US look weak?

UPDATE: No surprise - Erdogan is going to Gaza anyway.

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A belly dancer claims that she humiliated Jewish leaders with her beauty

There is a bizarre interview in El Bashayer Online (Egypt) with veteran Egyptian belly dancer Fifi Abdo.

She claims that she danced for the kings and presidents, and that she managed to beguile Begin. When he complimented her on her dancing she says "I hit former prime minister of Israel Menachem Begin on his brain when he came to woo me, and I demanded that he solve the Palestinian issue instead of extolling my beauty".

She said "I made the Jews drop to their knees begging me to dance for them, as a sort of humiliation - because of my strong love for the Palestinians and my belief in their just cause."

Um, yeah.

Here is what she looked like in better days, and now:

It seems likely that she is trying to spin the history of her career in light of the Islamist takeover of Egypt. After all, scenes like the beginning of this clip cannot endear her much to the Muslim Brotherhood:



(h/t Al Gharqad)

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Hezbollah's body count in Syria is rising

From Ya Libnan:

The funeral of four more Hezbollah members that were killed in Syria took place in Lebanon’s

Nabatiyeh on Tuesday, Now reported , adding that the bodies of more fighters were being prepared for burial.

The burial ceremony was accompanied by Resistance chants and heavy gunfire, NOW added.

NOW also reported that a large number of corpses of Hezbollah militants who died in combat in Syria are at the Sheikh Ragheb Harb Hospital Nabatiyeh’s Jeb Sheet and that the Shiite group is burying them in installments in order not to draw attention to the growing phenomenon of Hezbollah deaths in Syria.

NOW quoted the victims’ relatives as saying that some of the Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria were shot in the back of their head, implying that Syrian army troops who were unable to defect might have killed them.

Internally, Hezbollah is getting more strident in defending its actions in Syria:

During the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter who was killed in Syria, a prominent Hezbollah party official addressed the mourners amid their confusion about the deaths that their sons are being driven to.

The official defended Hezbollah's fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and described it as a duty more important than any other. He described it as a fighting for existence as they are defending places that are important to the Shiite sect and that it is a pre-emptive strike for battles that may target the sect if the Assad regime falls.

It is a battle for life or death. This is how it is presented.

It is the party's new rhetoric towards its audience. The party recruited its officials to adopt this rhetoric to address its people in towns and funerals of the party members killed in Syria..

What attracts attention is that their rhetoric no longer includes any equivocation or evasion about fighting in Syria like what first happened when the party got involved in battles there. The rhetoric has now transferred to a progressive phase of mobilization that is still far from the media.

But it is treading lightly in the rest of Lebanon, knowing that this position is very unpopular and could threaten its political power:

It is clear that Hezbollah is confronting challenges presented in its new task of fighting in Syria. The task goes unannounced in the party's rhetoric. However the silence surrounding it does not exempt the party's fighters from its repercussions. They are the silent funerals of young men from southern and Beqaa towns. The funeral procession passes through these towns quietly and are only attended by some family members and friends.

Hezbollah does not seem to have succeeded in marketing the idea that it is participating in Syria's fighting for the sake of defending religious sites. This formula narrows Hezbollah's margin of movement in Lebanon. It also makes it a guardian of religious sites after it expanded and became an authority that derives its power from what is bigger than its ritual community. Hezbollah's authority in Lebanon has a base where alliances with other sects (the Aounis) mix with the illusions of resistance. It also mixes with a base of customers, like businessmen.

Hezbollah has certainly felt that. Silent funerals indicate the party's incapability to publicize their fight. The absence of a story and where the fighters were “martyred" confirm this. The silence surrounding the story of participation in Syria trespasses Hezbollah towards wider political and media circles. Hezbollah in Lebanon controls the biggest number of media outlets, whether written or audio or visual ones. All of the latter has not participated in the funeral processions. Social media is the only means informing the Lebanese of the events in these southern and Beqaa towns. And people of these towns circulate very brief stories mixed with confusion and hesitation in estimating the cost and the price.

Indeed, Hezbollah's Al Manar has nary a word about martyrdom in Syria.

Clearly, Hezbollah is nervous about the events in Syria. It stands to lose its main weapons route and probably its most direct way of getting cash from its Iranian masters.  And the majority of Lebanese do not want to get involved militarily in Syria, which Hezbollah already is doing itself.

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Hamas confiscates fireworks smuggled into Gaza

Arab media is reporting that Hamas confiscated a large amount of fireworks were being sold in a Gaza City

shop.

Hamas officials said that these fireworks were illegally smuggled through tunnels and said that they operate continuously in pursuit of prohibited goods entering Gaza through the tunnels.

Yes, smuggled fireworks are considered dangerous contraband.

Smuggled Katyusha rockets, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, however - even when they go to non-Hamas terrorists -  are just fine.

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Sunday Links

From Ian:

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Elliott Abrams: Why Europe can't bring peace to the Middle East

This letter is a useful reminder of European attitudes, at least at the level of the Eminent: Blame Israel, treat the Palestinians as children, wring your hands over the terrible way the Americans conduct diplomacy. The Israelis will treat this letter with the derision it deserves, and the Palestinians will understand that because this kind of thing reduces European influence with Israel, the EU just can't deliver much. Indeed it cannot, and the bias, poor reasoning, and refusal to face facts in this letter all suggest that this won't be changing any time soon.

Blaming the victim for anti-Semitism

Of late we have witnessed a new methodology used to suppress those who speak out against anti- Semitism in academia. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a Hebrew lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, and Ronnie Fraser, a lecturer in mathematics in London, have respectively taken on their schools and unions with regard to how anti-Semitism has infected their organizations and caused an uncomfortable, even hostile, environment based on the politics of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Blazing Cat Fur: NBC, Juan Cole Both Cite Crazy Jihadi Web Site As Reliable Source For Info On Terrorist Tsarnaev Brothers

NBC and Juan Cole have each cited the KavKaz Center, a Chechen Jihadi web portal, in stories about the Tsarnaev bothers. NBC did so in a story which claims the Chechen jihadi insurgents disavow any links to the Tsarnaev's. Similarly Juan Cole, a notorious apologist for militant Islam, cites the center in a report also denying the Tsarnaev's connections to the Chechen Jihadis.

IDF produces film to counter allegations raised in documentary 'Jenin, Jenin'

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit is hard at work producing a film meant to counter allegations raised in the 2002 documentary film "Jenin, Jenin." The 2002 film was a Palestinian account of events during an April 2002 Israeli operation in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin, during Operation Defensive Shield.
The film currently in production aims to "tell the true story of the battle waged by the IDF."

UN Watch: Times of London: Hamas razes historic site for ‘terror training camp’

EU is asked to act as ancient ruins in the Gaza Strip proposed as World Heritage Site are bulldozed by militants, writes Sheera Frenkel

BBC’s Donnison promotes Bethlehem Marathon as non-political event

Donnison makes no attempt to verify the accuracy of the claim that the event (due to take place on April 21st) has “nothing to do with politics” for his readers. A quick perusal of the marathon’s website would have been enough to inform him of the fact that the reality is quite different.

Police: Muslim Women Arrested for Anti-Jewish Provocation

Several of the Muslim women who repeatedly attempted to physically block Jews from visiting the Temple Mount were arrested, police have said.
Police commander Avi Biton reported the arrests in a letter to Michael Puah, who had sent a letter of complaint over the women’s provocative actions.

Morsi says he won’t visit or warm ties with Israel

Egyptian leader dismisses talk of increased cooperation with Jerusalem, noting, ‘Even enemy states coordinate on security matters’

Why US-Israel mission to thwart Iran could mean a leading role for China on North Korea

Defense Secretary Hagel’s Mideast visit this week will focus on Iran and Syria, but those crises should also be viewed through the lens of Beijing and Pyongyang

‘Israel seeks Turkish airbase to enable Iran strike’

Netanyahu’s national security adviser travels to Ankara offering advanced defense technology in exchange for an airstrike launching platform, the Sunday Times reports

European Jewish Congress Welcomes Report that Says Greece Could Ban Neo-Nazi Political Party

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) welcomed Thursday a report by the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, which stated that Greece has the legal right to ban the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

Pope Francis visited Israel in 1973, just as Yom Kippur War broke out

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then in his mid-30s, spent six days confined to his Jerusalem hotel, studying the Letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

Ominous clouds hover once again over Europe

This speech was delivered on April 21, 2013, at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, marking the 68th anniversary of that concentration camp’s liberation.
We come here every year to assure the dead of Belsen that we have not abandoned them, that we will never abandon them. But equally important, we must recommit ourselves once again in this sacred place to do everything in our collective power not to allow the spiritual and ideological heirs of the National Socialist regime to arise anywhere in the world as a new scourge of humankind.

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Ramallah "Human Rights" NGO supports terror, has strange definition of "tolerance"

The Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies is yet another little-known NGOs that get funding from the West for their seemingly pro-democracy, pro-human rights agenda.

And looking at their English-language website you can see that they seem to prioritize the values of "tolerance". They even give out an annual Arab Tolerance Award.

The RCRHS Arabic website, however, has articles not translated into the English website.

One talks about a workshop held in January about the "dialectical relationship between resistance and negotiations." One of the speakers stated flatly that negotiations cannot provide the objectives that Palestinian Arabs want without keeping the option of terrorism ("armed resistance.") All forms of "resistance" are considered legitimate and the specific circumstances dictate which ones should be used at any time.

In other words, this "human rights' NGO cannot condemn terrorism, and in fact thinks that it has its place.

Another interesting document is a 300-page report on "Tolerance Values in Arab School Curriculums [sic]." It looks at school curricula in the Arab world, ostensibly to remark on how well they integrate values of tolerance.

Some of the report does that, for example about tolerance of the Christian minority in the Arab world (nothing about Jews, though.) But the reports also emphasize nationalism and patriotism, which are very different concepts, and  in some cases are antithetical to tolerance.

For example, on page 47, under the Palestinian Arab curricula, it says that the 8th grade curriculum is "introducing (the student) to the Palestinian cities, which are: Jerusalem... Akko... Tiberias... Ramle" - all cities in Israel.

On page 48, another of the values that the RCHRS highlights in the textbooks is "freedom," including romantic depictions of the intifadas and the importance of "resistance against the occupier."

On page 51, it describes the importance of tolerance in the Islamic Studies curriculum, and discusses "Teaching the student the importance of jihad for Allah's sake, for a noble goal, for defending religion, homeland, and holy places/sanctities..."

The section that critiques how the Palestinian Arab schools are teaching students does not mention any of these issues as being problematic.

According to NGO Monitor, RCRHS gets funding from the Government of Sweden, the British Government’s Department for International Development, the US-based National Endowment for Democracy, and other sources.


(h/t Al Gharqad)

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