Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, May 05, 2013

"We have to reconquer the Negev"

An op-ed at JPost:

Last Thursday TV personality Avri Gilad went on a trip to the northern Negev with Regavim – an independent, professional research institute and policy planning think tank involved in protecting Israel’s national lands. So disturbed was he by what he saw on that trip that upon his return he immediately penned the following post on Facebook:

“I came back from a tour of the Negev conducted by Regavim. I’m appalled by what I’ve seen. There’s no more Negev.

The Beduin have taken it over completely by force....

By shameless criminal activity, with insolence met only by fear and submission, the Beduin have taken over the entire Negev.”

He noted that though he had visited Beersheva and Arad, he had never entered Beduin towns like Laqia, Hura or the others he saw on this trip. Gilad also wrote that the government of Israel has virtually agreed to give Beduin clans in the Negev over 60 percent of the state land they have illegally settled on. On top of this, former MK Benny Begin sweetened the deal recently, offering them more land and additional monetary compensation. Avri Gilad, in his post, called on the government “to stop the Begin plan immediately,” and said, “We have to re-conquer the Negev.”

He concluded by saying “we must have one law for everyone – both for a Jew who encloses his balcony [without authorization] and for a Beduin who uses a fence he stole from Omer to enclose five dunams [0.5 hectares] of land as his.”

Gilad’s post went viral, and when interviewed later on Army Radio, he stated over 450,000 people had seen it.

However, it didn’t take long for the many defenders of the Beduin’s supposed right to take whatever land they want to jump into action. These foreign-funded, radical left-wing NGOs have done a great job training the various Beduin tribes to always refuse the Israeli government’s every offer of compromise and hold out for 100 percent of their claims.

They came out swinging with an opinion piece published in a daily newspaper calling Avri Gilad a racist.

The author of this piece continued with what she called “facts”: “What is known as the Beduin diaspora are 35 unrecognized villages in the Northern Negev on an area between Beersheva, Yeruham, Arad and Dimona.” This, however, is the “big lie” – that only 35 “unrecognized villages” exist.

The author appears to have forgotten that nowadays programs like Google Earth exist (although a tour of the facts on the ground with Regavim is preferable) allowing all and sundry a close-up look at what is really happening to the area between Beersheva, Arad and Dimona. Fact: There are not 35 illegally built villages on state-owned land, but over 2,000 illegal settlements, spread out over 80,000 hectares (800,000 dunams). How do these NGOs imagine they can continue to hide the facts when the means of independent verification are so accessible? ...

But as much as these NGOs try to frame and fudge the public debate around the illegal villages of those 20% of Beduin who have grabbed state land and claim to have ancestral title to it, Regavim hopes for an equitable solution to the problem. Because of growing public awareness, the government program to overcome the lawlessness in the south is scheduled for renewed discussion.

The Negev problem is quite real, as I documented in February during my own trip with Regavim:

Regavim is hardly a racist organization - they stress that the Bedouin were treated unfairly for decades and want to solve the problem fairly. But as long as anti-Israel NGOs reflexively attack the Jewish state no matter what, calling anyone who shows both sides of the story "racist," the problem will only grow.

(h/t Y Medad)

Syria targets this morning were rockets for Hezbollah; Obama: "We coordinate closely with Israel"

From AFP:

Israel carried out a pre-dawn air strike near Damascus on Sunday, targeting Iranian missiles destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah in the second such raid on Syrian soil in three days, a senior Israeli source said.

"The target was Iranian missiles which were destined for Hezbollah," he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The attack targeted a facility just northwest of the Syrian capital, very close to the site of a similar attack late January which was implicitly confirmed by Israel, the source said.

He also confirmed Israel was behind an earlier strike on a target very close to Damascus airport which took place early on Friday, which also struck Iranian arms destined for the Lebanese Shiite movement.

"Any time Israel learns about the transfer of weapons from Syria to Lebanon, it will attack," he warned.

According to Syria's official SANA news agency, Sunday morning's attack targeted the Jamraya military research center near Damascus, in the Eastern Ghouta region.

Following the strike, the Israeli air force went on high alert, although the Jewish state was not anticipating a significant response from Damascus, the source said.

"The air force is now on high alert, the highest in recent years," he said.

The Tower adds:

Tonight’s air strikes in Syria targeted sensitive military facilities, including ones staffed by Iran Revolutionary Guard personnel, according to Western government sources who focus on the Middle East and who spoke to The Tower.

The US supports Israeli moves to defend itself, in this quote from President Obama:

What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. We coordinate closely with the Israelis recognizing they are very close to Syria, they are very close to Lebanon.

Moving on to less reliable sources, here's what Russia Today adds:

There have also been reports that the airstrikes targeted the 104th and 105th brigades of the Syrian Republican Guards, a source told RT Arabic.

Mount Qasioun and Damascus Airport are located in different parts of the city, so if both were targets of airstrikes, this would likely require a more complex coordinated attack.

....While no official casualty number has been made public, rumors on Syrian social media say that at least 300 soldiers stationed at Mount Qasioun have been killed and hundreds of others injured, Mawazini said. Many Syrians are calling for retaliation as the possibility of a full-scale war with Israel is speculated upon.

During the attack, one Israeli jet was reportedly shot down by Syria's Air Force, according to Hezbollah's Manar TV channel, citing security sources in Damascus. Two Israeli pilots of the downed IDF jet have been taken to a military area in Damascus under Assad’s control, according to reports in Lebanese and Syrian media.

I don't know who is bombing what in Syria, but the videos are impressive (updated)

On Friday night:

Hours after the first reports of an Israeli strike in Syria, details about the mysterious attack continue to emerge.

The New York Times reported Saturday that the airstrike was directed at a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles from Iran that Israel believed was intended for Hezbollah, according to American officials.

The missiles, known as Fateh-110s, had been sent to Syria by Iran and were being stored at an airport in Damascus when they were struck in the attack, one American official said.

According to the paper, Syrians with knowledge of security and military matters confirmed the strike, saying that Iran had sent arms and rockets to Damascus International Airport intending to resend them to Hezbollah.

Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have used Fateh-110 missiles against the Syrian opposition, and some American officials are unsure whether the new shipment was intended for use by Hezbollah or by the Assad government, which is believed to be running low on missiles.

One American official, said the warehouse that was struck in the Israeli attack was believed to be under the control of operatives from Hezbollah and Iran’s paramilitary Quds force.

Also Saturday, a source at a rebel intelligence unit in Damascus said that F-16 jets carried out three strikes on the road connecting Damascus and Beirut.

One of the strikes, he said, hit a site near the Syrian army's fourth armored division in the city of al-Saboura. According to foreign sources, the jets carried out the attacks from Lebanese airspace.

The rebel source said that the attack targeted a Hezbollah-bound anti-aircraft missile convoy but according to recent estimates they were surface-to-surface missiles.

Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli official told the Associated Press that the shipment was not of chemical arms, but of "game changing" weapons bound for Hezbollah.

Everything is speculation, of course, although the idea that the targets are advanced weapons intended for Hezbollah makes sense.

But the newest reported attacks seem different:

Israeli warplanes bombed the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday for the second time in two days, according to Syrian state media and reports from activists, signaling a sharp escalation in tensions between the neighboring countries that had already been exacerbated by the conflict raging in Syria.

Videos posted on the Internet by activists showed a huge fireball erupting on Mount Qassioun, a landmark hill overlooking the capital on which the Syrian government has concentrated much of the firepower it is using against rebel-controlled areas surrounding the city.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency said that a scientific research facility had been struck by an Israeli missile, and a banner displayed on state television said the attack was intended to relieve pressure on rebel forces in the embattled eastern suburbs. The banner was accompanied by martial music and footage of Syrian soldiers marching, descending from helicopters and firing rockets, indicating that Syria may not shrug off the assault, as it has with some Israeli strikes in the past.

A subsequent video suggested further strikes were taking place in the same location, though the number was unclear.

There was no immediate confirmation that the strikes were carried out by Israeli warplanes. Reuters news service reported that an Israeli military spokeswoman said, “We don’t respond to this kind of report.”

This sounds, and looks, like attacks on a weapons depot, not on weapons in transit.

And the explosion shown here is spectacular:

We don't even know that these are Israeli airstrikes - Syria TV is hardly a trustworthy source. But until now, Israel seemed to be targeting Hezbollah assets (or assets-to-be) while this last apparent attack looks a lot more like it is going after Syrian assets.

I'm no expert, but this looked more like a secondary explosion to me than a huge bomb dropped from an airstrike.

UPDATE: Again, take this with a grain of salt:

An Israeli warplane was shot down by Syrian air-defense units during a raid near Damascus early Sunday, Hezbollah's Manar television station reported, citing security sources in the Syrian capital.

There was no independent confirmation of the claim and Israel did not comment on the raid reports.

But then read this:

Breaking #sana tv crew caught painting an old mig fighter tail with israeli airforce markings near #damascus
— Free Syria Media Hub (@free_syria_news) May 5, 2013

(h/t Daled Amos, David G)

Saturday Links

From Ian:

UN scrambles to distance itself from terror tournament
The United Nations Development programme has insisted that "had no role" in a Palestinian tournament, despite organisers' claims

Despite claims by organisers that the UNDP was complicit in the sponsoring of the event, UNDP communications staff today informed The Commentator that, "The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had no role in the tournament, its naming or any other activity related to it. It was not informed about the activity in question."
However, despite the insistence, a UNDP logo was used at the event, which they say was "used without any prior authorization from UNDP".

Fayyad slams Palestinians’ history of ‘failed leadership’

“Our story is a story of failed leadership, from way early on,” Fayyad told the New York Times. “It is incredible that the fate of the Palestinian people has been in the hands of leaders so entirely casual, so guided by spur-of-the-moment decisions, without seriousness. We don’t strategize, we cut deals in a tactical way and we hold ourselves hostage to our own rhetoric.”

Fayyad denies giving interview in which he slammed Palestinian leadership

Former PA PM’s office says he didn’t speak to the New York Times; yes he did, says NYT’s Roger Cohen

Princeton University Must Fire Professor Richard Falk

It is disgraceful that many of America’s elite universities are awash with Anti-American and Anti-Israel propaganda, and Princeton University must immediately fire Richard Falk for blaming America for the terrorist attacks in Boston. There are clearly certain lines of acceptability which cannot be passed.

Douglass Murray: Why has Abdul Hakim Murad not been sacked by Cambridge University?

I know that complaining about such statements made by such a pasty-white convert only makes one a racist ‘Islamophobe.’ But oughtn’t one to be troubled by this? Were a Christian man called Timothy to have said such things he would almost certainly have been sacked by Cambridge University by now. Students, LGBT groups, unions – everyone wanting to make a stand against bigotry – would be screaming about this. But Timothy is so lucky. Because he became Abdul I think he’ll be just fine.

Honest Reporting Canada: After HRC Complaint, CBC Acknowledges Gaza “Art” Exhibit Criticized as Fraudulent

Other news outlets like Global News and the Daily Gleaner (article not online) provided a balanced perspective to the issue that acknowledged criticism that the exhibit was “propaganda” and “inauthentic” and that gave voice to concerns of the pro-Israel community.
Following our complaint, CBC Maritimes broadcast a follow up report by Melissa Oakley on April 25 which featured a contrarian point of view by pro-Israel support Israel Unger who criticized the exhibit for featuring fraudulent artwork and for the lack of balance of the exhibit; one that did not acknowledge the suffering of Israelis from thousands of rocket attacks.

Canada’s Israel Support Draws Ire From Arab Nations at UN

Qatar is working to gather votes from 115 countries to relocate the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which determines global rules for airplane transportation, from Montreal to the Middle East by 2016. In addition, Arab UN ambassadors met in New York on April 23 to discuss Palestinian issues, and discussed ways to rally support against the Canadian government among international organizations.

Is Assad winning in Syria?

Russia, Iran, its proxy Hezbollah and the Maliki government in Iraq are all playing a central role. The latest indications are that the US and the West still prefer to stay directly out of it, despite the obvious crossing of notional “red lines” regarding the use of chemical weapons.
It is thus likely that the Assad regime will be around for some time to come.

Iran’s American Prisoner

Patterns are not only evident in the Muslim world’s persecution of Christians, but in the Obama administration’s indifference. The U.S. State Department has excluded Abedini from its Iran Prisoners List—commensurate with the fact that it regularly whitewashes the sufferings of Christians under Islam, and even failed to cite Egypt and Pakistan as “nations of particular concern” despite the fact that Christians there are being hounded mercilessly, as documented in the book.

Report Shows Jews Biggest Target of Hate Speech in Turkey

Jews and Armenians are the most popular targets for hate speech in Turkish media with 25 percent of all cases, while Christians follow them at 18 percent, according to a study by the Hrant Dink Foundation.

The Israeli army’s most improbable Arab prosecutor

Lt. Arin Shaabi is a Christian, a Jew, an Arab, an Israeli. And in the military courts of the West Bank, she is fighting a rising tide of Palestinian nationalist crime

At a West Bank crossing point, Israeli students put the ‘right’ into human rights

A new volunteer group, emphatically not from the usual left of the political spectrum, is monitoring how the IDF operates the Qalandiya checkpoint en route to Jerusalem

High and mighty: a trip to the Israel Air Force Museum

From Avengers and Mirages and Spitfires to blind spots and crash landings, the aircraft on display tell the incredible tale of a young nation’s survival

Israeli team to bring hard-earned post-trauma expertise to Boston

A team from the Israel Trauma Coalition, an association of Israeli agencies specializing in post-trauma resilience, will be arriving in the Boston suburb of Watertown next week to help develop “a recovery process” for the local school system.

HBO unearth Holocaust rescue documentary

The documentary “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr and Mrs Kraus” may bear many of the same hallmarks as other heroic stories from the Holocaust – with impossible odds and gargantuan reserves of courage – but its message remains as relevant as ever.
It tells the story of an American couple who travelled to Vienna during the war to evacuate Jewish infants at risk of persecution, and then provide them with safe passage to the United States.
The film’s director, Steven Pressman, was determined to illuminate the horrors of war but equally, to show how such extreme situations can also bring out the best in humanity.

Another group of "Palestinians" who arrived in the 1800s

I was just glancing through The Survey of Western Palestine, written in 1878.

The first thing to notice is the title; Western Palestine is the parts that are west of the Jordan River, as opposed to Eastern Palestine, which had its own survey. I have yet to find a single Palestinian Arab willing to say that they claim Jordan as part of their ancestral land of Palestine. (Just as none of them claimed the West Bank or Gaza to be theirs before 1967. Funny how Arab claims always coincide with Jewish control.)

We see that Jews were immigrating in droves:

But - so were Arabs. Here is a description of new building in mostly Arab towns, saying where one group came from explicitly:

This might explain why so many Arab residents of Jaffa decided to flee to Egypt in 1948, as opposed to the east or to the north. They already came from there!

Not that this is any secret to the Arabs themselves. But they won't admit that in English.

Friday Links 2

From Ian:

LATMA: President Obama explains his red lines

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: A convenient untruth

Double-standards toward Israel won’t keep America safe from predations. They’ll only embolden the jihadists. Kerry would do well to learn and memorize Chaim Weizmann’s wake-up call to Anthony Eden after Kristallnacht:
“The fire from the synagogues may easily spread to Westminster Abbey…. It means the beginning of anarchy and the destruction of the basis of civilization. The powers which stand looking on, without taking measures to prevent the crime, will one day be themselves visited by severe punishment.”

The monotonous Middle East

There is not much left to the stale Middle East complaint from the 1960s that Western colonialism and imperialism sidetracked the region's own natural trajectory to democracy. After the derailed Arab Spring, the world accepted that the mess in the Middle East is not imported, but rather the result of homegrown tribalism, sexual apartheid, religious intolerance, anti-Semitism, illiteracy, statism and authoritarianism.
Revolutionary theocrats always seem to follow the ouster of fossilized thugs. "Reformers" who were "elected" after the fall of the Shah of Iran and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on spec conjured up the same old bogeymen as their predecessors, subverted the rule of law in the same old fashion, and wrecked the economy in the same old manner.

US report names ‘worst’ violators of religious freedom

The 15 countries are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam, all of which severely restrict independent religious activity and harass individuals and groups for religious activity or beliefs. These nations are classified as Tier 1 “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) in the report.
Despite its recent opening and political reforms, change in Burma have “yet to significantly improve the situation for freedom of religion and belief.” The report states that most violations occurred against minority Christian and Muslim adherents. China’s government is also cited for its ongoing severe abuses against its citizens’ freedom of thought.

Why do Jews and Israel so often feature at center of conspiracy theories?

Whether it’s the Boston Marathon bombings, the cold-blooded murder of 20 schoolchildren in Connecticut, or the definitive American tragedy of this generation, 9/11, one thing is certain — a cottage industry will arise claiming the event was perpetrated or staged by Jews or Israelis for some nefarious purpose.
A new study out this week — more than four months after a gunman massacred 20 children and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut — finds that one-quarter (25 percent) of Americans believe facts about the shooting are being hidden by the government or media and an additional 11% are unsure.

CIF Watch: Pallywood Light: Guardian video claiming to show ‘Jews attacking Palestinians’ fails to deliver

However, upon viewing the one minute and six second Guardian video, we couldn’t help but notice the absence of any clips actually showing ‘Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians’, despite text on the bottom of the screen at various moments stating that such attacks were taking place. Part 2

The curious CV of a former BBC Arabic journalist

But the more interesting part of Ali Hashem’s CV comes before he joined the BBC, when he worked for the Hizballah TV station Al Manar – the self-proclaimed “station of the resistance” – which was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity by the United States in 2004. Al Manar was also banned by France on the grounds of its incitement of racial hatred, as well as by Germany and other countries.

Two TV Stations in US Broadcast Hamas and Hezbollah Incitement

Two television stations, one in New Jersey and one in California, are broadcasting programs from the outlawed Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist organizations, encouraging American children to grow up into suicide bombers.
The New York-based Lawfare Project said the NileSat IPTV in New Jersey and ArabTV4ALL in California are transmitting broadcast from the Al Aqsa television network, which is linked with Hamas, and from the Al Manar satellite network, a mouthpiece for Hezbollah.

Faces of Israel: Mazal Elijah, Immigrant from Iraq

If an Arab barged into your home and demanded to marry your daughter, it was impossible to refuse him.
Mazal Elijah and her family had a very difficult life. As members of the Baghdad Jewish community, Mazal’s mother endured much suffering during what is known as the “Farhud Pogrom” or just “Farhud” in Baghdad, June 1941. Within 24 hours of the start of the pogrom, 250 people died. Mazal claimed that some Arabs were decent and tried to save Jews from the Farhud, yet other Arabs behaved horribly and sought to do the same to the Jews of Iraq as Hitler did to the Jews in Europe, yet they were fortunately stopped by the British. Thus, upon getting married around that period of time, her husband was drafted into the army, thus forcing her to move in with her parents so that she wouldn’t get killed. Eventually, he managed to escape from the army, yet for a while things were very uncertain.

The Maturation of Indo-Israeli Ties

The normalization of relations has not transformed India into an ally of Israel. Nor has it caused it to abandon its erstwhile positions vis-à-vis the Palestinians. But by gradually delinking the unending saga of the peace process from bilateral relations, New Delhi is moving toward a more mature understanding and closer friendship with Israel. Recognition by both countries of the limitations and potentials of the relations has enabled them to avoid pitfalls of grandiose visions. Israel is no longer India’s suitor; nor is it an ally. But both are emerging as a mature, dependable, and accommodating couple.

Disabled Gaza toddler lives at Israeli hospital

In his short life, Palestinian toddler Mohammed al-Farra has known just one home: the yellow-painted children’s ward in Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital.
Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease, Mohammed’s hands and feet were amputated because of complications from his condition, and the 3½-year-old carts about in a tiny red wheelchair. His parents abandoned him, and the Palestinian government won’t pay for his care, so he lives at the hospital with his grandfather.

The kibbutz was founded in September 1930 by 42 members of the Noar HaOved youth group, on lands purchased from the Arab village of Al-Na'ani. The name of the village and the kibbutz derives probably from the Biblical town of Na'amah (Joshua 15:41).

If anyone knows any of the individuals pictured here, please comment. The person who sent this to me, Josh K., would love to identify the people there.

Friday Links 1

From Ian:

UN sponsors "terrorist tournament"
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has sponsored an event named after a Palestinian terrorist who was responsible for the deaths of 125 people.

The event, a football tournament, was financially supported by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and sponsored by the United Nations agency. Palestinian news outlets reported, "The draw for the 19th Prince of Martyrs Khalil Al-Wazir Abu Jihad Football Tournament for youth born in 1996, took place in the Al-Ansar Club offices in Jerusalem. The tournament is organized by the Ansar Al-Quds Club, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme and funded by the Islamic Development Bank."

PMW: Abu Jihad glorified for planning "operations" that killed dozens of Israelis - on PA TV

Arab March to Jerusalem Planned in Cairo

A Global March to Jerusalem was planned last year as well. Counter-terror experts found that Iran was backing the event.
The march drew only a few thousand people, far from the two million supporters organizers had hoped for.

Analysis: Egypt, Iran in power struggle over Gaza

Egypt and Iran are locked in a power struggle over their influence and conflicting aims in the Gaza Strip, and Egypt appears to have the upper hand.
While Tehran is dissatisfied with the relative durability of the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, and is pushing Palestinian armed factions to violate the truce, Cairo is doing its utmost to reinforce the calm, which it views as serving Egypt’s national interest.

Iran Brings Back Stoning As “Islamic Punishment”

The controversial “Islamic Punishment” law that was rejected by the Guardians Council returned and eventually was passed last week. To the disappointment of human rights activists and the promises of some Majlis representatives, not only stoning is not negated in the law, it is in fact emphasized.

Kenya Finds Iranians Guilty of Plotting Attacks Against Israelis

Two Iranians were found guilty by a Kenyan court Thursday for possessing explosives allegedly for use in bomb attacks.

Erdogan: There's No Doubt Assad Used Chemical Weapons

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that there is no doubt that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has used chemical weapons against rebels.
Erdogan added that he would discuss the issue with U.S. President Barack Obama during his upcoming visit to Washington.

Federal Agents Raid Saudi Diplomatic Compound, Free Slaves

Saudi Arabia officially abolished slavery, but its labor practices are largely indistinguishable from slavery. High-ranking Saudis in America have been charged with slavery before.
But now a Saudi diplomatic compound in Virginia has run afoul of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Pakistanis remember bin Laden as 'Islamic hero'

Al-Qaida supporters gather in Pakistan, chanting, carrying photos of 9/11 mastermind bin Laden on 2nd anniversary of his death.

UK Political Candidate Making ‘Nazi Salute’ Claims He Was Just Reaching For Phone

However, to their detractors the group’s anti-EU drive comes not from economic sensibility but from nationalism, xenophobia, and even outright racism.
Case in point: this week 22-year-old UKIP candidate Alex Wood was suspended after a Facebook photo that appeared to show him making a “Nazi salute” was published by left wing tabloid the Daily Mirror.

Neo-Nazi trial highlights latent racism in Germany

Surviving member of National Socialist Underground to be tried for complicity in murder of 8 Turks and a Greek

Dutch Turk Volunteer Harassed for Opposing Holocaust Supporters

He said, “The Sahin Affair, even if it concerns a single victim, well illustrates three major negative aspects of contemporary Dutch society. The first issue is, as Sahin relates, the immoral attitudes held by significant parts of Dutch Turkish society. The second aspect is the failure of the Dutch major media which only started to give substantial publicity to the scandal of the young Hitler admirers on mainstream TV after several weeks had passed, when the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote a protest letter to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The third more recent failure is that of the Dutch police and prosecution. The net result of the death threats and hatred against Sahin coming out of the Turkish community is that one of the youths receives some superficial “educational training,” while the victim is warned that he will be brought before a court if he insults his aggressors again.

PHOTO: Gaza children playing "Martyrdom"

Hamas proudly tweeted this image showing Gaza children playing:

Like this our children play, they love Shahada "Martyrdom". twitter.com/AlqassamBrigad…
— Alqassam Brigades (@AlqassamBrigade) May 2, 2013

Gaza parents must be so proud that their children aspire to death!

The reactions from Muslims are positive as well., pushing back when others are horrified:

Then again, this does come in as handy practice for when they fake funerals as adults as well, as this 2006 video shows:

Egypt to Palestinian Syrian refugees: "Drop Dead"

More details on a story about anti-Palestinian Syrian discrimination in Arab countries I posted April 28:

Fatemah El-Taweel, 31, left war torn Syria where she was born and raised for Egypt. Yet when she attempted to send her three children to school here she met with an unexpected response.

“A Palestinian, and you want to enroll your children for education here?” asked an employee of the ministry of education whose shocked face made it clear he thought her request audacious.  “I told him yes, I do,” says Fatemah. “Just like Syrian refugees who are given these rights in Egypt.”

A presidential decree issued last September grants exceptional rights to Syrian refugees in Egypt, including access to government schools. It did not, however, make any mention of Palestinians who had fled Syria..

Under the threat of missiles, bombardment from tanks and trigger-happy snipers Fatemah’s family fled to Egypt last December. They have since been joined by 1,900 families, an estimated 10,000 Palestinians who moved from Syria to Egypt to escape the conflict.

None are given residency permits. The Palestinian embassy doesn’t follow their cases, monitor their arrival or seek to register them.

The luckiest receive short term tourist visas. Scores are turned away at Cairo airport. If they are between the age of 18 and 40 and traveling alone they are sent back to Damascus, returned to the life threatening situation they had sought to escape but faced with the added burden of the suspicion of the Syrian authorities towards asylum seekers rejected by Egypt. 

Denied refugee rights Syrian Palestinians must grapple with a bureaucracy that either doesn’t recognize them or lacks the flexibility to do so and negotiate a decades long mentality that considers them a threat to national security.  

Very few managed to flee with their savings. Most didn’t have time to take anything. Lacking any support in a country they barely know, they are left to battle for healthcare, education and housing. Those who did manage to bring money find it soon runs out.

The constant threat of deportation is unsettling. They face an uncertain future in the absence of any institutional support. 

“I'm fighting and struggling to be recognized as a refugee,” Abdeljabar Bilal, a 42-year-old Palestinian lawyer who moved to Cairo from Syria last October with his family, told Ahram. “I’m not a tourist.”

They are demanding equal status with Syrian refugees in Egypt, who not only have educational and health rights but the option of registration with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, which provides financial assistance, educational grants, food coupons, protection from deportation, health care and counseling. But this can only happen if Egypt – the host country – gives UNCHR permission to work with Syrian-Palestinians.

According to a UNHCR source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the commission has repeatedly applied for the necessary permission from the ministry of foreign affairs only to be turned down.

...In Egypt, unlike Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank where refugee camps were built especially for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA only operates a liaison office.

The level and the nature of relief provided by UNRWA elsewhere cannot be replicated in Egypt without a change in its mandate here. And that requires both Egypt’s approval and a vote by the UN General Assembly. Yet Cairo’s position is that only UNRWA, and not the UNHCR, is authorized to address the problems facing Palestinian refugees coming from Syria.

Officially, Egypt is maintaining its commitment to preserve Palestinian identity so long as there is Israeli occupation, preventing the “erosion” of that identity by refusing to allow the refugees to be registered by UNHCR which does not distinguish Palestinians from the rest of the world’s refugees.

The most significant difference between other refugees and Palestinians, as per UN resolution 194, is that descendants of Palestinians keep their refugee status, giving them the right to return to their homeland. [That is not in UNGA 194 - EoZ}

But technically, registering with UNHCR would not strip Palestinian refugees of their inalienable rights to their homeland. And given the limitations of what UNRWA’s liaison office can do in Egypt, temporary registration with UNHCR would offer the fastest and most practical, albeit partial, solution to the problems facing Syrian Palestinians in Egypt.

Critics argue that Egypt’s logic of preserving the Palestinian identity is being abused to justify political, racist and security motivated practices against refugees.

There is a lot more there, including the fact that Mahmoud Abbas is also ignoring the problem.

Outside of the UNHCR, I cannot find any mention of this severe discrimination in Egypt against Palestinian Arabs by any human rights organizations. (HRW did mention one specific case of two men being sent back to Syria in January, but is silent about Egypt's refusal to let UNHRC help the Palestinian Syrian refugees.) For some reason, Palestinian Arabs aren't nearly as important when they are being abused by other Arabs.

Report: Hamas stopping Salafi attacks to Israel

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas is stopping various Salafi groups from "revenge attacks" against Israel.

Hamas security forces have deployed throughout Salafi strongholds, mostly in eastern Rafah, to try to stop

rocket attacks.

Hamas is also said to have stopped a planned attack at the Kerem Shalom crossing, where most of Gaza's goods are brought in. Any such attack would have closed the crossing, perhaps for many days.

The report goes on to say that Hamas security has been evident in many other areas of Gaza that are popular for launching rockets, and that they are also stopping people from approaching the security fence around Gaza.

Yesterday, Hamas arrested six Salafis, claiming that they were stealing rockets from other groups and responsible for internal explosions.

Al Ayyam reports that Hamas warned the Salafist groups that they are not to shoot rockets towards Israel without a national concensus on the matter. The Salafists rejected that statement.

Two rockets were fired towards Israel yesterday, causing no damage.

Dear Imam: Help! My husband treats Jews and Christians with respect!

An Arab Israeli woman wrote a letter to the fatwa department of Islamweb yesterday, asking advice.

Her husband likes to befriend Christians, Jews and Druze, and bring them into the house. He also wants to teach his children about the differences between Islam and other beliefs, and for them to offer greetings to Christians and Jews on their holidays. Other things he does are even worse, like drinking alcohol with his non-Muslim friends and making fun of Islamists. She is afraid his actions will corrupt the children. What can she do?

The answer refers to many other previous fatwas from the site:

Christians and Jews cannot be considered believers. They are infidels, in every sense.
It is forbidden to greet them on their festivals (i.e., to say Merry Christmas.) If you ask, but they greet us during our festivals - shouldn't we reciprocate to show that Islam is tolerant? The answer is simple: Islam is the correct religion, they are kuffars, and tolerance does not extend that far.
Mocking Islamists or other Muslim religious leaders is a great sin. It is kufr even if it was only meant to be a joke.
It is better not to hire non-Muslims as employees, or to give charity to non-Muslims, and certainly not if you are at war with them. However, inviting the peaceful ones to partake in Ramadan breakfasts is OK because then you are showing them how wonderful Islam is and you might convert them.
Serving alcohol to non-believers is also forbidden even if you do not drink it yourself.
Even though he is your husband and you must obey him, it is forbidden to obey him in these matters.
If your husband does not repent, then you must ask him for a divorce and take full custody of the children.

And Allah knows best.

(UPDATE: It should be mentioned that some prominent clerics in Egypt also forbade greeting non-Muslims on their holidays, and they came under attack by many other Egyptians, including officials and other clerics.)

Who wants to work on an action-oriented resource list?

In response to my earlier post on how to complain to Google News when antisemitic articles (in the Arabic media, usually) get published, a couple of people asked me to create a resource page for things like this.

I think it is a great idea. I picture a page with specific information on how to contact people and organizations with suggestions, complaints or tips; giving out their Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, email addresses and phone numbers as appropriate. Also, specific links and instructions on how to flag offensive content in Facebook, YouTube and other social media, and tools to help generate letters to politicians and newspapers.

This page can easily get too big, so I want to prioritize contacts and links that are action-oriented.

Detail of the skeleton spreadsheet

I would rather crowdsource this than do it all myself. So if you want to be involved, I created a skeleton Google Docs spreadsheet. If you want to contribute and do some research, just email me your Google account/email address, or place it in the comments, and I will share it with you. When it gets fully populated, I will put it on as a page in this blog so you can always find the contact information you need!

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: No Sugarcoating BDS Ignorance

According to the paper, PAG’s promotional material claimed that Max Brenner supports Israel, the IDF, and the torture and genocide of Palestinians.
"But Mr Harrison appears in the video saying: “Max Brenner itself is a franchise. So financially speaking there isn’t really any connection between this Max Brenner store in particular and Israel. It’s become really a kind of cultural ambassador for Israel, this store . . ."
By that logic, other foreign companies with operations in Israel, like, Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and McDonalds, are also “ambassadors” for Israel on some level, if not financially supportive of the Zionist entity. Which begs the question: Can the BDS supporters wash off their Windows and Whoppers?

Unis tolerating intolerance

As a pluralistic democracy that provides for the security and well-being of Palestinians, Israel is not remotely comparable to apartheid South Africa. For decades Arabs have had greater democratic and human rights in Israel than in any Arab country. They make up about a sixth of Israel's population and Palestinian Muslims hold seats in the Knesset on a platform of creating a viable Palestinian state. Israel is not perfect and the Palestinian issue must be resolved. But demonising Israel and Jews is not only wrong because it is racist, it is also an incorrect and deceptive interpretation of reality. (PM) Julia Gillard is right to condemn the BDS campaign, now so marginalised it has been disowned even by the Greens. We are entitled to expect our universities to take a stronger stand both against racism and in favour of facts.

Stand With US: StandWithUS to counter anti-Israel posters in Metro-North with Pro-Israel posters May 13 until June 9

StandWithUs [SWU] is placing seven posters in 25 New York (Westchester) Metro-North locations from May 13 until June 9, 2013. The ads counter the misinformation in anti-Israel posters currently on display at these sites. This is the third time the non-profit Israel education organization has countered anti-Israel posters in New York’s metro system. In July-August 2012, SWU placed six different ads at 75 Metro-North locations, and in 2011 it posted a billboard on 25 New York subway platforms.

How UC Berkeley killed BDS

For years now, the BDS movement in the United States has failed to enact any boycott against, or divestment from, Israel. Not once has it harmed Israel’s pockets or stature. Not once has it benefitted Palestinians, let alone the cause of peace, because it rejects entirely the concept of peace between a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine. Two weeks ago, the student government of America’s most radical student body rejected it outright, explicitly and repeatedly. If it cannot succeed at Berkeley, how can it ever hope to succeed elsewhere? It cannot. Berkeley killed BDS.

Can You Be Sued for Boycotting Israeli Companies?

New York-based legal think tank The Lawfare Project and Israeli civil rights organization Shurat HaDin were among the first entities to recognize the applicability of section 296(13) to anti-Israel discriminatory business practices perpetrated by New York companies. In March 2012, human rights attorney and Lawfare Project Director Brooke Goldstein briefed the Brooklyn-based Park Slope Food Co-op on the potential legal implications of its proposed boycott of Israeli products, which contributed to the Co-op's overwhelming vote against enacting the boycott.

The closing of the academic mind in Ireland

When seen through the prism of what is taught in Israeli and in Palestinian schools, can anyone doubt that there is hypocrisy at play in Ireland? When the Irish Teachers Union picks out one set of teachers and loathes them above all others, when it simplifies politics and history to fit a biased ideology of victim and oppressor, or imposes a twisted view of good and evil on events that defy such categorization, academic thinking has been abandoned. As such, such actions should have no place in any academic union purporting to represent scholars and teachers.

Newseum and Freedom House Smear Israel

The report claims that the appearance on the scene of Israel Hayom, a relatively new Israeli newspaper, is a threat to press freedom because it is a success that has hurt the business prospects of its competitors. No, you didn’t misread that sentence. Freedom House is taking the position that the fact that Israel Hayom has claimed an impressive share of the hyper-competitive newspaper market is undermining the freedom of the press. The justification for this ridiculous claim is that Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul and well-known contributor to Republican candidates, has “subsidized” the paper and that its editorial line favors Prime Minister Netanyahu. The paper, which is distributed free of charge, is now the most-read paper in Israel, a state of affairs which Freedom House not unreasonably connects to the demise of Maariv, a longtime mainstay of the Hebrew daily press. But the question readers of this report have to ask is what in the name of Joseph Pulitzer does the ability of Adelson’s paper to succeed where many other print papers are failing have to do with freedom of the press?

A lesson from Martin Luther King

In his 1968 speech to the Rabbinical Assembly, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.” Less than two weeks after giving that speech, Dr. King was assassinated.
Unfortunately, since Dr. King’s passing, some high-profile African-American individuals have embraced anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Rather than building upon the strong ties forged between Jews and African-Americans during the struggle for civil rights, some African-American leaders have damaged both communities with their demagoguery.
This was not Dr. King’s dream.

Israeli translation tech promotes ‘understanding’

Before Google Translate, there was Babylon. Although the Israeli translation software and service has long been eclipsed in numbers of users by Google’s product — due, for the most part, to Google’s Internet ubiquity — Babylon is now getting its shot at mass web usage. The company has signed a four-year cooperation agreement with Yahoo to provide online translation services for web users and mobile devices. The two companies will share advertising revenue.

Buffett: Israel a Top Place for Ideas, Investments

“Israel needs to continue doing what it does,” Buffett said. “You are a nation of entrepreneurs with fantastic capabilities. You need to continue providing the best and most comfortable conditions for investors. This is the responsibility of the government, which ensures a positive climate for investors.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pays $2 billion for Iscar

American business magnate says Israel is the best place to invest outside the US.

Sephardi Stories, on the Record

Stanley Urman, executive vice-president of Justice for Jews From Arab Countries, says that just as Spielberg documented the stories of survivors in order to negate Holocaust revisionism, Sephardi Voices can ensure that nobody can deny the legacy of Jews from Arab lands. “Arabs say that Jews weren’t discriminated against in their countries and that they left from their own free will,” he said. “They try to expunge the legacy of Sephardi Jews from the history of the Middle East. Jews lived in the Middle East for over 2,500 years—1,000 years before the advent of Islam. Jews are the indigenous people of the Middle East, and their story must be told and recognized.”

Amnesty "human rights" group goes out if its way to mitigate a terror attack

From Amnesty:

The Israeli authorities must immediately remove a new outpost set up yesterday by Israeli settlers in the Nablus district of the occupied West Bank, Amnesty International said today.

The new outpost was set up following the killing of Evyatar Borovsky, a resident of the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, on Tuesday.

Borovsky, a civilian who was carrying a gun at the time of the attack, was stabbed and killed by a Palestinian man who was wounded and later arrested by Israeli forces.

By any definition, the murder of Evyatar Borovsky was a terror attack.

But look how Amnesty tries to mitigate it:

It was a "killing," not a murder
He lived in an "illegal settlement" - implying that he was somehow more deserving of death than someone else
He was "carrying a gun" - implying that he was a violent person, also more deserving of death than someone else

They also pointedly ignore that the attacker seized Borovsky's gun and shot at others. To Amnesty, this was not a terror attack - it was merely an incident and the evil Jewish settler got what was coming to him, although Amnesty likes to point out that "We deplore all deliberate attacks on civilians, including settlers. But..."

Wow - even settlers? Thanks, Amnesty, for being so generous!

Of course, Amnesty would not mention that this gun-toting illegal usurper of Palestinian land that no Arab ever lived on was a father of five, or a well-loved and respected member of his community, or an actor working to help people overcome emotional trauma. Those facts, you see, are irrelevant. No, the only extraneous facts they mention are those that make him vaguely evil.

No such biased language is associated with Evyatar's murderer.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)