6/19 Links Part 1: Totten on Rouhani, the Shi'ite 'full moon', Sex Jihad in Syria and The Standing Man

From Ian:

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Michael Totten: Iran's New President is Lipstick on a Pig

So what do we have here in Iran? A man who barely won fifty percent of the vote in a rigged electoral system, who supports vicious repression of Iranian democracy activists as well as international terrorist organizations, who opposes Middle East peace, and who freely admits to deceiving Western diplomats about his country’s nuclear program to buy time.
There is nothing encouraging here whatsoever, so don’t be a sucker.

Hidden Report Reveals How Iran Dodges Nuclear Watchdogs

Iran continues to evade U.N. sanctions on its nuclear program by changing its supply routes, erecting new front companies, and shopping the world for lower grade parts not explicitly prohibited by the U.N. Security Council, but still capable of contributing to the assembly of a nuclear power reactor. That's according to a "confidential" unpublished report by a U.N. Security Council panel monitoring sanctions on Iran, exclusively published by Turtle Bay.

Russia says Iran ready to stop 20-percent enrichment

Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday that Iran was willing to halt its 20-percent enrichment of uranium, which has been a key concession sought in international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

Quartet's Tony Blair: Nuclear Iran Worse Than Military Option

Quartet envoy Tony Blair told Presidential Conference participants Wednesday that facing the prospect of a military confrontation with Tehran is a better option than having to grapple with a nuclear Iran.
The former British prime minister said in his address to the conference participants in the fifth annual gathering in Jerusalem, "We should be determined to overcome the threat from Iran.

Book on President-Elect’s Tragedy Scandalizes Tehran

In 1992, when Rouhani was studying for his second degree (MPhil) at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, his son committed suicide. Rouhani was then 44 years old. Though he went on with his studies and life, completing his PhD at the university in 1999, his friends admit that he has never fully recovered for the tragic loss.
In his essay and subsequently in a broadcast by the Europe-based Radio Farda titled “In Search of Lost Children,” Nourizadeh published the strongly worded suicide note of the younger Rouhani. It was a Persian version of J’accuse aimed at the leading elite of the Islamic republic.

AIPAC urges caution on Rohani

In a memo to supporters, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee expressed deep suspicion of Iran's newly elected president, Hasan Rowhani, saying that he "has signaled no willingness to halt Iran's illicit nuclear program."

Richard Millett: British Labour MP: “No justice in Israeli legal system. Palestinian children found guilty on flimsy evidence.”

The report also criticises Israel’s welfare treatment of Palestinian child suspects. However, the evidence relied on by the nine lawyer committee is both mainly anonymous AND provided by organisations traditionally hostile to Israel like Breaking The Silence, Btselem and Defence for Children International Palestine, to name but a few.

Guardian’s David Hearst participates in discussion on the power of the Israel lobby

The meeting, on 12 June 2013, used a book by British Islamist, Ibrahim Hewitt, as the basis for discussion about the media’s approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The discussion, between Hewitt, ex-BBC Middle East correspondent Tim Llewellyn, and Guardian foreign leader writer David Hearst, was chaired by Mark McDonald, a founder of Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.

Saudi role in Syria driven by fear of Shi'ite 'full moon'

Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief, Prince Muqrin, once told American diplomats the Middle East's so-called Shi'ite Crescent where the Muslim sect holds sway was "becoming a full moon" as Iranian influence spread.

Kerry’s Syria attack plan said grounded by Pentagon

According to the report, during a meeting with high-ranking US Army officials, the secretary of state specifically demanded that the US Air Force target fields that were allegedly used to launch chemical weapons raids against rebel forces in the war-torn country.

'Exercise Eager Lion' War Games Active in Jordanian Desert

The 12-day war games, slated to end Thursday, was explained by a statement on the website of the U.S. Armed Forces Central Command as an opportunity to "promote cooperation and interoperability among participants," but appears clearly intended to send a warning to Jordan’s northern neighbor, Syria.

Report: French military training Syrian rebels

French military officials are training rebels fighting to bring down the Assad regime in the current Syrian conflict, according to a report by Army Radio.
The army-run radio station reported that French officers stationed in Jordan and Turkey are currently training the rebels in warfare tactics and weapons usage. Army Radio quoted "experts with access to the information" in their report.

Assad says Europe will 'pay price' if it arms rebels: newspaper

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned Europe in a German newspaper interview that it will "pay the price" if it follows Washington's lead and delivers arms to rebel forces, saying such a move would spread terrorism to the continent.
"If the Europeans deliver weapons, the backyard of Europe will become terrorist and Europe will pay the price for it," he said in an interview published on Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's website on Monday.

Syrian pound tumbles as US plans to arm rebels

Many exchange shops closed in Damascus on Tuesday, fearing more chaos a day after the Syrian currency plunged to a new record low, reflecting growing fears in the capital following a U.S. decision to arm rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The 'Sex Jihad'

News emerged a few weeks ago in Arabic media that yet another fatwa had called on practicing Muslim women to travel to Syria and offer their sexual services to the jihadis fighting to overthrow the secularist Assad government and install Islamic law. Reports attribute the fatwa to Saudi sheikh Muhammad al-'Arifi, who, along with other Muslim clerics earlier permitted jihadis to rape Syrian women.

Mohamed ElBaradei: Morsi Threatened to ‘Burn the Country’ if I Became Prime Minister

Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday that President Mohamed Morsi threatened to “burn the country” if he became prime minister.

Tayyip Erdoğan, "God's Gift to Turkey"

There is no doubt that the Almighty has bestowed upon the world a special gift.
We have ex-Libyan leader Colonel Mohammed Gaddafi's word for that: in November 2010 the Turkish prime minister was awarded with the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights for "distinguished service to humanity."
During the award ceremony Prime Minister Erdoğan declared that Islamophobia was a crime against humanity and that Muslims come from a tradition that also regards anti-Semitism as a crime against humanity. At a meeting of the Alliance of Civilizations in March, however, he added Zionism to the list, together with fascism.

'Standing man' inspires Turkish protesters in Istanbul

A Turkish protester dubbed the "standing man" has led a vigil on Istanbul's Taksim Square days after the authorities evicted demonstrators.
Performance artist Erdem Gunduz stood silently for eight hours, facing a portrait of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern, secular Turkey.

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Antisemitic "Khaybar" (video) to be followed with anti-Israel film.

MEMRI has some excerpts of the upcoming Ramadan antisemitic "Khaybar" miniseries showing Jews being deceitful, bloodthirsty and cowardly:.



Echo Media, the production company behind "Khaybar," has announced that it is ready to start work on its next film.

Just as Khaybar uses a historical incident to push its explicitly antisemitic agenda, this film - entitled "Enough Humiliation" - uses the Arab uprisings as the hook to call for the destruction of Israel and the "liberation" of Jerusalem from Jewish control.

Echo Media head Mohsen Ali says that the film is meant to unite Arabs on the "issue of Jerusalem and the stolen land of Palestine." He added that he believes that the film will be an important milestone for the company as it capitalizes on the presumed success of the Khaybar miniseries.

Note that the name "Enough Humiliation" refers not to "the territories" but to the existence of Israel itself.

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Human rights organizations have continued to ignore calls to denounce and condemn this mass incitement against Jews that will be seen and enjoyed by hundreds of millions.

My petition to HRW and Amnesty had reached over 1000 signatures. Every signature generates another email to those groups.

(If anyone wants to publicly deliver the petitions to Amnesty and HRW offices in their country, let me know so we can write a press release. Both have offices in midtown Manhattan but I can't publicly deliver them - any volunteers?)

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Rohani's playbook is clear: Fool the West while buying time

Here's an interesting snippet from a New York Times report, February 8. 2004:

In part because of their desire to avoid another confrontation in the Middle East, Britain, France and Germany won American approval in October for a diplomatic initiative in which Iran agreed to suspend its enrichment activities at Natanz, which it maintains is a peaceful facility, and to accept additional inspection protocols.

Some American officials fear that compliance with that pledge may be slipping, and that, in any case, a confrontation over Natanz is virtually certain. ''The European deal may have postponed the reckoning, but unless the Iranians give up their program, it's not going to avoid the reckoning,'' said a senior American official.

Even many Europeans say they are not sure of Iran's intentions. A senior European envoy said that after a meeting recently with the leader of Iran's national security agency, Hassan Rohani, it was not clear whether Iran truly intended to end its weapon program or was simply playing for time.

''We are very suspicious of their intentions,'' he said, adding that it was often hard to tell even in meetings who was a reformer and who was a hard-line cleric.

Today, the Western media and even most politicians have almost unanimously declared this same Hassan Rohani to be a reformer, a moderate, someone the West can do business with!

On what do they base this? Well, on nothing, except that Rohani isn't as bombastic as Ahmadinejad.

Yoel noticed something notable in Rohani's press conference on Monday, that was not reported anywhere.

This "moderate reformer" stated that "If sanctions have any benefits, they will only benefit Israel. It has no benefits for others. We will make the enemy [Israel] understand that it has no option but to bow its head in front of the great Iranian nation and not wave its ax [at it]."

Are these the words of a moderate?

As TOI notes:

According to Ze’ev Maghen, an Iran scholar at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University and Jerusalem’s Shalem College, Rowhani is himself convinced of the necessity of an advanced nuclear weapons program, and interested in using soft language merely as a stalling tactic in best Iranian negotiating tradition.

“Rowhani is a dyed-in-the-wool Khomeinist and part of the consensus on Iranian nuclear energy, which is a code word for nuclear weapons,” Maghen told The Times of Israel on Monday. And “he is no friendlier on Israel than [outgoing President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. The only difference between the two is one of style.”

A few months after the 2004 NYT article above, Rohani made a speech where he said:

If one day we are able to complete the fuel cycle and the world sees that it has no choice -- that we do possess the technology -- then the situation will be different. The world did not want Pakistan to have an atomic bomb or Brazil to have the fuel cycle, but Pakistan built its bomb and Brazil has its fuel cycle, and the world started to work with them. Our problem is that we have not achieved either one, but we are standing at the threshold.

Rohani has a track record of putting a smiling face on Iran's buying time to build a nuclear weapon. Now he has the best platform possible to do so.

And the Iranian regime is playing the Western world like a flute.

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Gazans demand mobile provider to allow them free votes for Arab Idol

The conclusion of Arab Idol is coming up, and Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf has reached the finals.

Gazans naturally want to vote for their native son, but they don't want to pay the mobile text messaging fees associated with it.

So they are protesting the mobile service provider!

Some claim that their text messages in support of Assaf are not getting delivered.

Naturally, a conspiracy theory is growing, that some unnamed Arab businessmen are colluding against Assaf's victory,  for reasons that are unclear.

Meanwhile, PA president Mahmoud Abbas is not above personal lobbying of the judges in the program:

“I no longer know what to say,” Lebanese singer Raghib Allama, a member of the jury, told Assaf.”But I can sum it up like this—your voice is measured by a gold balance.”

Allama, one of the most popular singers in the Middle East, told Assaf that on his way to the studio for the Arab Idol programme on that day, he was called by President Abbas.

“President Abbas commended all the singers, the jury and MBC for this achievement….he asked me to look after you,” Allama told Assaf.

Wealthy Palestinian Arab businessmen are also stuffing the ballot boxes, with billionaire Munib Masri saying that everyone should get out the vote and saying that "dozens of businessmen have purchased and sent thousands of messages in support of the artist."

The finals are set for next week.

While Assaf is undeniably handsome and has a good voice, part of his appeal is also that he has sung songs that deny the existence of Israel.

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EU audit finds €1 billion aid to Egypt is wasted

From FT.com:

The €1bn in EU aid supplied to Egypt over the past seven years has done little to achieve its stated aims of improving democracy and human rights in the country, according to a damning assessment by the bloc’s spending watchdog.

The European court of auditors found that the new Egyptian government that swept to power in the wake of popular uprisings in 2011 had – if anything – demonstrated even less interest than its predecessor in EU-sponsored programmes to foster civil society and protect the rights of women and minorities.

It also warned that Brussels was unable to track about 60 per cent of the aid money after it was transferred to Egyptian government coffers, raising concerns about widespread fraud and mismanagement.

“They do not fulfil the conditions at all – and nevertheless, the money is given,” said Karel Pinxten, the court of auditors official who oversaw the review, and is urging the EU to overhaul the policy.

The report suggests that the EU continues to fumble a decades-old effort to craft an effective policy to improve governance and generate economic growth in a vital region on its southern doorstep.
The most recent incarnation of the bloc’s so-called “neighbourhood policy” was unveiled in 2004 with the philosophy that Brussels would give more aid money to governments that delivered on reform and withhold it from those that did not.

The initiative gained greater urgency after the wave of popular uprisings that rocked north Africa and the Middle East two years ago, turning out authoritarian governments and opening the way for a new approach by the EU.

As the largest country in the Arab world and one of the EU’s biggest recipients of foreign aid, Egypt has been a particular priority. The EU has allocated about €1bn to Cairo between 2007 and 2013 – the period covered by the audit.

Yet the court of auditors found that the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, and the European external action service, its diplomatic service, “have not been able to manage EU support to improve governance in Egypt effectively,” according to a copy obtained by the Financial Times.

“The commission took quite a few initiatives. But taking initiatives is one thing – getting results is something else,” Mr Pinxten said.

He also noted the resistance to programmes to stamp out corruption and protect human rights shown by Hosni Mubarak, the long-time Egyptian ruler, as well as the current Islamist government led by Mohamed Morsi.

“It’s quite clear under the period of Mubarak but also now under Morsi, from the Egyptian side, there was not a high degree of willingness to go along with the commission. And that’s an understatement,” Mr Pinxten said.

A formal reply by the commission generally accepted the report’s findings but said it did not “take sufficiently into consideration the local political context” and argued more time was needed to see results.

Nonetheless, it acknowledged “an increased aversion towards civil society and human rights more broadly” in Egypt since the 2011 uprising.

The report is likely to spur a fresh debate about the merits of EU foreign aid – particularly at a time of budget cuts in Europe.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European parliament, said the report showed the EU human rights policy to be “a joke” and demanded that the bloc be more forceful about suspending aid.

Aid by the US to Egypt dwarfs that from the EU. And the US is not obligated to send one cent! JPost noted last week:

At Friday’s State Department daily press briefing one reporter asked, “How much is the US obligated to provide to Egypt under the Camp David Accords?” Nothing at all, the spokesman responded a day later, obviously after consultation with Foggy Bottom policy makers.

“The United States is not obligated to provide assistance to Egypt. We provide assistance because it serves U.S. national interests in a crucial and volatile region.”

During his most recent trip to Cairo, Secretary of Sate John Kerry pledged another $250 million. In response to a reporter’s question, the department spokesman said it was all for economic stabilization and development and none was for military assistance.

So who lobbies for continued US aid to Egypt?

In part, Israel.

In prior years when Congress tried to link aid to Egypt to democratic reform and respect for human rights, some of the loudest objections came from the Israeli embassy in Washington, whose diplomats scurried to Capitol Hill to explain how vital that aid was to maintaining their peace treaty.

They weren’t overly concerned about Cairo’s abysmal human rights record, though they did want Washington to press for an end to anti-Israeli incitement in the Egyptian media.

US aid to Egypt is far more expansive than that from the EU, but it seems clear that much the money being sent by USAID is being wasted.

Two years ago, Egypt claimed to have rejected USAID money exactly because of the strings attached - that they require human rights and democracy to flourish. But they seem to still accept it, as nothing on the USAID site mentions any problem.

Perhaps the reason is that the Muslim Brotherhood considers all the Western money flowing indirectly into its coffers to be a jizya tax on the West.

Just last month, John Kerry pushed through an extension on military aid to Egypt with seemingly no conditions:

Discreetly, the US State Department renewed military aid to Egypt last month. The announcement was made only 7 June. The administration of Barack Obama avoided a public debate that would be embarrassing on the latter's support for the new political regime in Egypt, run by the Muslim Brotherhood.

US Secretary of State John Kerry used the exemption granted him by law to extend military assistance, despite the concerns of Washington on the new Egyptian regime's policy towards the establishment of a true democracy and respect of fundamental freedoms and human rights in Egypt.

On 9 May, Kerry sent Congress a memo informing it of his decision to extend $1.3 billion of annual military aid to Egypt, citing the need to protect the essential interests of the United States in the Middle East, namely the passage of warships in the Suez Canal, necessary to protect the oil-rich Gulf region against threats from Iran, the protection of the borders with Israel from infiltration by Islamic militants and weaponry, which enhances the security of the former against the threats of Islamic extremists in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.

At any rate, the EU audit proves that any Western money being sent as an incentive to improve human rights and democracy in Egypt is being thoroughly wasted. Just as importantly, it proves that the West is reluctant to reign in aid even when it is shown to be a waste - it is harder to stop a program than to start it. (Think about UNRWA, over sixty years after it was supposed to have disappeared.)

Will the EU do a similar audit on money sent to the PLO, directly and through NGOs?

(h/t Elliott E)

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Barbra Streisand sings to Shimon Peres (video)

I'm not a big fan of hers, but people say Barbra Streisand's performance at the star-studded 90th birthday show for Shimon Peres was amazing:



UPDATE: Found a better video with not only "Avinu Malkeinu" but also "People."

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6/18 Links Part 2: Quakers BDS Camp, IRS vs. Pro-Israel Groups and Oil for Peace

From Ian:

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Pacifists at War

With their passion for peace, it may seem curious that leaders of the American Friends Service Committee, the organized political voice of the Quakers, would have dined with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad in New York five years ago. Then, last year, the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation divested from Hewlett-Packard for providing technology consulting to the Israeli Navy. The AFSC website provides helpful hints for educating Americans about “Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation” and organizing lobbying efforts “to end/condition US military aid to Israel.” All else failing, they must be sure to boycott SodaStream refills, “which are manufactured within an Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territory” and even have the chutzpah to bear the label “Made in Israel.”
None of that sounds like fun, so the AFSC is inviting college students with suitably anti-Israel credentials to participate in a five-day summer training institute in pastoral upstate New York. There they will participate in an “intensive program” focusing on “what is happening in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,” the better to develop Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions programs on their campuses.

The IRS vs. Pro-Israel Groups

Applications of pro-Israel groups for tax-exempt status are routinely routed to an antiterrorism unit within the Internal Revenue Service for additional screening, according to the testimony of a Cincinnati-based IRS agent.
Asked whether Jewish or pro-Israel applications are treated differently from other applications, Gary Muthert told House Oversight Committee investigators that they are considered “specialty cases” and that “probably” all are sent to an IRS unit that examines groups for potential terrorist ties.

CAMERA: Misinforming Students on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The word terrorism first appears in the timeline under the year 1988, when "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemns all forms of terrorism and recognizes the state of Israel." The perpetrators of the Munich massacre are "Palestinian gunmen" and those who carried out the Entebbe hijacking are just "Palestinians."
The Oslo Accords, students are told, meant that "the two sides were no longer claiming that the other did not have the right to exist as a state of peoples on that land." Yet students are not informed about the Fatah Party Congress in 2009 where participants cheered as Palestinian Authority officials vowed to never recognize the Jewish State and reaffirmed their commitment to armed struggle. In addition, the messages emanating from Palestinian media, mosques and officials exhorting the public to oppose coexistence and to destroy Israel are ignored.

Women Plan March to Arab Town, ‘Enough Rock Terror’

The women will march under the banner, “Women Against Rocks.” Organizers noted that despite the slogan, men and children are invited, as well.
Marchers intend to enter Azoun itself. “We will let the Arabs know that there will be a response to rock terror, and we will make it clear to the IDF that the time has come to end this phenomenon,” they declared.

Terrorist Earns Hebrew U. Doctorate, Refuses to Shake Hands

A terrorist who served two prison terms for involvement in terrorism, including a plot to carry out a suicide bombing, has been awarded his doctorate in chemistry from Hebrew University, Maariv reports.
The terrorist is an Israeli citizen and a resident of eastern Jerusalem.
During the graduation ceremony in Hebrew University’s Har Hatzofim campus he refused to shake hands with Hebrew University President Professor Menachem Ben-Sasson. His name was read aloud at the ceremony and he was applauded by the crowd.

Kim Jong-un endorses Mein Kampf as guidebook for economic growth

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un handed copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf to a host of the country's top officials last January. The website New Focus International reported the controversial volume was printed especially in the format of a “hundred-copy book,” meaning a limited edition of banned books that have been published in secret for the consumption of members of the country's elite.

MEMRI: The AMIA Bombing Affair: Joint Investigative Committee Agreement Not Ratified By Iran

Following the signing of the MOU, a disagreement emerged between the two countries over the issue of whether Argentinean investigators would be allowed to interrogate the Iranian officials linked to the affair. While the Argentinean parliament did ratify the MOU, the Iranian Majlis began studying it at the end of February 2013, but to date still has not ratified it despite pressure from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. In statements, Majlis representatives and media circles warned against any move that could harm Iranian sovereignty.

Cisco CEO John Chambers in Israel again

Ahead of the visit, he said, "Israel is a global leader in innovation, and Cisco is proud of its longstanding commitment to the country. As we strengthen our partnership with Israel, I believe that together, we can promote change in the country and encourage sustainable growth and productivity, which will influence the region and all of Israel's people."

Israel Aerospace Industries signs foreign deals worth $100m

Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) has signed new foreign contracts worth $100 million. The contracts include a $30 million contract to upgrade a special mission aircraft with the company's ELL-8232 electronic support measure/electronic intelligence (ESM/ELINT) system for tactical and strategic missions; two contracts to supply maritime patrol radar, worth $32 million; and communication intelligence systems.

Hava Nagila, Gangnam style

Now “Gangnam Style” fever has reached the local stage. The Embassy of the Republic of Korea, in cooperation with the country’s tourism and foreign ministries, held a “Gangnam Style” contest in Herzliya in which 12 Israeli teens competed, and 17-year-old Eva Kamun came out on top with her “Hava Nagila” performance.

Israeli college’s Clashers app brings music lovers together

It’s not every school that gets invited to the Microsoft Research Design Expo — in fact, only nine schools get invited, and this year, the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) is one of them. MSR Design Expo is one of the most exclusive computer design events in the world, so schools that get invited want to show off their best technology.

Bras, bees, and ‘oil for peace’ at Israeli agricultural event

International cooperation and advances in food production and agriculture not only have the potential to solve food shortages, they also have the potential to foster peace. Among the products available at the event was one called “Olives for Peace,” an organic olive oil package being marketed jointly by an Israeli farmer and a Palestinian farmer. Doron Akiva, an olive oil producer in Ezuz in southern Israel, has teamed up with Palestinian farmer Mohammad Joudeh of the village of Azzun, near Kalkilyeh in central Samaria.
The product consists of one package containing two separate bottles of olive oil produced by each farmer. “We don’t want to talk peace,” Doron said, “we want to make peace.” Olives for Peace may or may not achieve that goal, but if the show’s many attendees taking samples are any indication, the company has definitely mastered olive oil.

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PalArab doctors attend Israeli medical expo

I guess they are not part of the "civil society" that is supposedly boycotting Israel.

Persons with a medical background from all over the world, and those interested in state of the art medical technological innovations, gathered this week in the colorful and impressive esthetically designed exhibition hall. Most of the participants were exhibiting advanced instrumentation that assists in innovative treatment methods, and what they all had in common was that they had come to update themselves on the most recent innovations which would constitute for all of them, a medical breakthrough in the not too distant future.

Among the many visitors who came from Japan, Germany, France, the USA, were also Palestinian medical personnel from Judea and Samaria who had been specially invited by the Civil Administration with the object of familiarizing themselves with the technological innovations in the medical field, to form an impression of the worldwide capabilities of the advanced equipment and also to try and bring the medical "spearhead" to the territories of Judea and Samaria. The Health Coordinator in the Civil Administration, Dalia Bassa said that "We invited the Palestinian medical people so that they could get exposure to a level of advanced medicine worldwide and would be able, as the need arises, to introduce the advanced instrumentation into the Palestinian market - into their clinics and hospitals, and thus enhance the medical treatment being provided currently to the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria".

Israel believes that exhibitions and gatherings of this nature, will substantially strengthen the cooperation in the health sphere between the Israeli and Palestinian Health Ministries and therefore supports initiatives of this kind.

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Sunnis and Shiites are fighting - in Australia!

Wow:





And this:

A secretive and radical program operating inside an Islamic book store in western Sydney is encouraging young Muslims to get involved in Syria's conflict, a 7.30 investigation has revealed.

The bloody conflict in Syria has become a magnet and a new training ground for militants around the world, including Australians.

ASIO has estimated around 100 Australians could be currently fighting in Syria, and four Australians have so far died in the conflict.

Since it opened just over a year ago, the Al Risalah bookstore has gained a reputation as a centre of Islamic extremism.

7.30 has been investigating Al Risalah's activities and the people behind it, identifying four key sheikhs.

All are radical, and all are encouraging Australians to get involved in the Syrian crisis.

The most famous of the sheikhs is Abu Suhaib, known to authorities as Bilal Khazal.

Khazal is a former baggage handler for Qantas, trained at a military camp in Afghanistan, and was a confidant of Osama bin Laden.

(h/t Yoel)

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6/18 Links Part 1: Khamenei Wins Again, Fiji to the Golan and Turkey Rounds up the Usual Suspects.

From Ian:

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And the Winner is... Iran's Nuclear Program

Making Rouhani the president was a brilliant strategic move for Khamene'i -- not just to pacify the West, by also to pacify the Iranian people, who want nothing more than Iran to be accepted as a normal country and regain the international standing it had before the Islamic revolution.
Rouhani's more religiously "moderate" rhetoric led the Iranian people to believe he would be able to negotiate Iran out of the catastrophic economic reality they face. So the "reformers" pin their hopes on him, instead of going out into the streets and demonstrating against him and the regime, as they did after Iran's previous presidential "election."

Who Is Hassan Rouhani?

As a negotiator, Rohani is triumphantly duplicitous, known to lull his non-Iranian counterparts into a false sense of calm. Despite all the talk that, during his term as a nuclear negotiator, Iran appeared more cooperative with the international community, Rohani bragged about how he had tricked the West. In April of 2006 during a speech at the Assembly of Clerics, Rouhani was caught on tape, boasting that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake -- a key stage in the nuclear fuel process -- at its Isfahan plant, but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot. "From the outset," he said, "the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them!'"

New Iran Prez: Our Economic Problems All Israel's Fault

Hassan Rohani, Iran's new President, is being termed a “moderate” in Western media, but it appears that his moderation stops when it comes to Israel. In his first speech as Iran's new leader, Rohani quickly launched into a diatribe against Israel, blaming the Jewish state for Iran's economic problems.

'Iran's nuclear aims advancing despite sanctions'

Iran is making "steady progress" in expanding its nuclear program despite international sanctions that do not seem to be slowing it down, the UN nuclear agency chief told Reuters on Monday.

CIF Watch: Glenn Greenwald - Hamas and Hezbollah are NOT terrorist movements

We reported recently that Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald has been speaking at the annual Marxist-Leninist conference, and we posted a few clips of his 2011 appearance at the conference, held in Chicago. During his talk (titled ‘Civil Liberties under Obama’), the CiF columnist defended American al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki, and downplayed the “scope” of the 9/11 attacks – which he suggested were much more limited (in the scale of violence) than what the U.S. has perpetrated in the Arab world.

Groundwork and maintenance on BBC’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’

Knell employs the same policy of omission of context in her story of Gazans “playing football on a field partly obliterated by an Israeli air strike” – without clarifying whether that same football field was one of those used to launch missiles at Israeli civilians. Her tales of “classic cars repaired for everyday use” and “Gazans resorting to donkeys when their cars ran out of fuel” naturally omit any mention of the latest craze for brand new Chinese cars in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas deploys 600-strong force to prevent rocket fire at Israel

Hamas has deployed a 600-man military force in the Gaza Strip that operates 24 hours a day in order to prevent rocket fire at Israel, a senior Arab source told The Times of Israel on Monday.
Since Egypt — with the election a year ago of President Mohammed Morsi – stepped up its involvement in Gaza and began to pressure Hamas to not allow rocket fire, the Islamic organization has diligently worked to keep the peace in Gaza, even when that came at the price of confrontations with smaller Islamic groups such as the extremist Salafists, the source said.

Islamist students vow to fight PA crackdown in West Bank

A group of Hamas-affiliated students living in the West Bank has launched a campaign calling for civil disobedience against harassment by Palestinian Authority security forces.
Titled “It Makes No Difference To Me,” and organized by the Union of Islamic Students in the West Bank, the campaign aims to fight what members say is a PA crackdown on Hamas activists across the West Bank, including repeated summonses for investigations in PA security headquarters.

Morsi Appoints Member of Terrorist Group Governor of Province They Terrorized

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi recently appointed 17 new local governors this weekend, seven of them from his party, and one from a decidedly problematic one: The new governor of Luxor belongs to the political wing of Gamaa al-Islamiyya, which is not only a terrorist group but the organization that perpetrated one of the worst terrorist attacks in Egyptian history in Luxor, where they slaughtered four Egyptians and 58 foreign tourists in 1997.

Sinai on High Alert, Al Qaeda Sets Up Base

The Egyptian government has declared a high alert in the Sinai Peninsula following a high level of Al Qaeda terrorist activity in the region.
The terrorists have set up a military base in central Sinai, Egyptian security officials told the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency on Monday.

Report: Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah’s Brother Killed in Syria Fighting

The brother of Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed recently in a fierce battle in the Syrian city of Qusair, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Monday.
According to the report, Nasrallah attended the funeral of his brother, Khader, in the village of Kfar Kana in south Lebanon on Sunday.

Hamas to Hizbullah: Leave Syria, Fight Israel Instead

Hamas expressed sympathy for the suffering and bloodshed in Syria, and affirmed the Syrian people's right to freedom.
"The Syrian people have the right to realize their rights and aspirations for freedom and dignity. This people have always been supportive to resistance and resistance fighters," Hamas said, according to Ma’an.

Fiji Troops Replace Austria in Golan Heights UN Force

A force of 170 soldiers from Fiji will replace Austrian troops in the United Nations peacekeeping force monitoring the Golan Heights buffer zone.
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has been stationed on the Israel-Syrian border since the ceasefire declared following the 1973 war.

France, Belgium, Saudis Send Weapons to Syrian Rebels

Reports on Monday said that Syrian rebels have already begun receiving weapons from various sources, as they attempted to wrest control of the country from the control of President Bashar al-Assad. While a debate is taking place in the U.S., Britain, and other countries about helping the rebels with arms, the reports said that rebels have already gotten advanced weapons with the assistance of Saudi Arabia, Belgium, and France.

Middle East state reportedly sends rebels antitank missiles

An unnamed Middle Eastern state has supplied Syrian rebels with 250 sophisticated Soviet-made anti-tank missiles, most of which were given to radical Islamist militias fighting President Bashar Assad, according to a report published in London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.
According to the report, the unidentified state made its first delivery of 9M113 Konkurs missiles to the rebels a week ago via Turkey. The Konkurs antitank missile has a maximum range of four kilometers and a hit probability of 90 percent. Egypt, Iran and Turkey are the only known operators of the missile system in the Middle East.

Turkish police arrest dozens in raids on homes, newspapers

Turkish news media reported Tuesday that police are carrying out raids and detaining people suspected of involvement in violence against police during a wave of anti-government protests.
According to Hurriyet Daily News, “anti-terror security teams” arrested several people in their homes as part of the latest government crackdown against dissenters. Nearly 200 people were detained by police on Tuesday, according to estimates by Hurriyet. Today’s Zaman quoted Interior Minister Muammer Güler saying 25 people were arrested in Ankara and 62 in Istanbul.

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Michigan governor in Israel to boost ties

Michigan, of course, is the home to the United States' largest Arab and Muslim communities.

From MLive:

Gov. Rick Snyder met with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government and business leaders as he toured the Middle Eastern country during an investment mission.

The Republican governor is interested in Israel's budding startup businesses, particularly in automotive, defense, water technology and research.

He was last in Israel 14 years ago as a venture capitalist.

“I had a chance to see the start of high-tech boom in Israel and that’s great to see,” Snyder said in a phone call from Israel. “This is really a startup nation. They’ve done a great job of being entrepreneurial, innovative, and that’s a major part of their economy now and the good part is we can learn from that.”

He signed a letter of intent with the country to work together on industrial research and development, and create the framework for future cooperation between Michigan and Israeli companies.

Snyder has met or plans to meet with people from a few different industries, including:

Automotive: He met with several automotive company representatives and visited the General Motors Advanced Technical Center Israel in Herzliya. There are Israeli companies that offer smart vehicle technology, such as collision avoidance systems, he said.

“There's a lot of young companies here in Israel that are looking for ways to work with (original equipment manufacturers), tier one suppliers on how their technology might be helpful,” Snyder said.

Water: He met with water industry officials in Israel to discuss ways they're using water more efficiently and reducing the electrical cost of providing water. For example, they use software to monitor water use.

Education: Snyder on Tuesday plans to learn about a program started by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit in Israel to help immigrants with illiteracy problems get up to speed and into the school system quickly. He also plans to talk with university officials about opportunities for technology transfer collaborations. He said the University of Michigan already works with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center on disease research.

I didn't even know GM has a facility in Israel.

(h/t Dan)

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Mass anti-government protests planned for June 30 in Egypt

From Al Monitor:

Less than two weeks before June 30, the day of expected massive protests calling for the ouster of Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, both the Ministry of Interior and the military are left with difficult options as expectations of widespread, bloody confrontations continue to rise.

Retired police Col. Khaled Okasha, a security analyst and main witness in the trial involving Morsi’s jailbreak during the January 25 protests, believes the Ministry of Interior “is going through the most complicated, confusing and mysterious time in its recent history.”

On June 12, a day before Okasha’s talk with Al-Monitor, Egypt’s Interior Minister Gen. Mohamed Ibrahim announced that “police forces are legally committed to securing the June 30 protests, keen on the safety of every citizen regardless of their political allegiances.”

The statement contradicted the minister’s statement two days earlier [June 10]: “You will not see a single police officer in protest areas to let peaceful protesters express their opinions freely.”

The abrupt and unexplained reversal of Ibrahim’s statements clearly reflected how indecisive the country’s security apparatus is.

“We cannot understand who takes such decisions and on what basis. But the minister of interior is similar to the president who appointed him to politicize the ministry in the first place and recreate an ironfisted apparatus that will serve the administration and defend its policies and interests regardless of how right or wrong they are,” said Okasha.

Al Arabiya:

The opposition-backed campaign dubbed Tamarod, Arabic for rebellion, has called for a demonstration outside the presidential palace against Mursi on June 30.

Tamarod says it has gathered millions of signatures to a petition demanding that Mursi step down to pave the way for an early presidential election.

In a reaction, Islamist parties said they plan to organize a “million-man march” in front of Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque next Friday, to counter Tamarod’s protest at the end of the month.

The markets are taking notice:

Trading in Egypt’s benchmark stock index, the world’s worst performer in June, tumbled to the lowest level by value in five years, on concern anti-government protests will bring the nation to a “tipping point.”

Shares of about 70 million Egyptian pounds ($10 million) were traded yesterday, the lowest since Bloomberg started tracking the data in August 2008. About 85 million pounds changed hands so far today, compared with a 12-month average of about 400 million pounds.

Egypt’s stocks have slumped 15 percent in June, the most among 94 gauges tracked by Bloomberg, amid growing polarization between supporters and opponents of the North African country’s Islamist government. Both sides are calling for nationwide demonstrations on June 30, the one-year anniversary of President Mohamed Mursi taking office.

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While his country burns, Erdogan meets with Hamas leaders

A head of state has priorities, after all.

From Turkish Radio and Television English:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will hold a key meeting today for the Middle East peace.

Prior to his Gaza visit, Premier Erdoğan will meet Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Ankara.

The meeting bears critical importance in terms of the Middle East peace and reconciliation efforts between Palestinians.

Palestinian Head of State Mahmoud Abbas appointed academic and independent politician Rami Hamdallah as the new prime minister, causing discontent on the side of Hamas.

Hamas claimed Hamdallah's appointment is illegal.

Erdogan's visit to Gaza was originally scheduled for the end of May, then pushed back to sometime this month.

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The PLO admits it hasn't made any concessions since 1988 and doesn't plan any

I found this in a paper at the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department site, in a paper where they try to spin their reasons for avoiding negotiating with Israel:

What are the Palestinians offering from their side?

The Palestinians have made numerous concessions and good will gestures. Although the two-state solution is common discourse today, it must be remembered that this solution is based on the Palestinian historic compromise of 1988, whereby the PLO accepted a state on a mere 22% of historical Palestine, for the sake of peace. During the past twenty-plus years of peace process, the Palestinians have entered all negotiations in good faith and have acted in accordance with agreements made. Palestine has also joined other countries in the region in establishing the Arab Peace Initiative, which extends the offer of normalized relations for Israel with 57 Arab and Islamic countries following Israel’s full withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue in accordance with UNGA Resolution 194.

Which means that they are offering - nothing. And they are trying to pretend that this intransigence of the past 25 years is somehow proof of their flexibility and willingness to work for peace!

Keep in mind that their continuous mention of UNGA 194 means that they never have, and never will, accept the concept of a Jewish state, and they insist even today that Israel must be flooded with millions of Arabs - turning it into an Arab state - as a prerequisite to "peace".

It is beyond me how Western diplomats can read this position paper, written in plain English, and still claim that Israel is the intransigent party.

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Moshe Arens on the "demographic threat"

In Ha'aretz:

Many of the important decisions taken in the life of individuals or nations are not based on objective probabilities attached to future events. That information is usually nonexistent, and we may have recourse to game theoretic considerations or intuition in making decisions. When probabilities are introduced, they generally are on pretty shaky ground.

That is the case with the demographic projections that are promoted by those urging an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Here we are advised by some that we should be prepared to cut out parts of the Land of Israel − Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland − based on certain demographic prognostications indicating that in time the Jewish population would constitute a minority in the State of Israel unless this decision was taken now.

The Danish-Jewish physicist Niels Bohr famously said that prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. That is certainly true in this case. Most past demographic forecasts in Israel have turned out to be wrong.

If this was no more than an academic exercise, there would be nothing to get excited about; the forecasts could be published in an academic journal and we could revisit the data in another 10 or 20 years. But those using these demographic forecasts hold them as a Damocles sword above our heads, insisting that we take a decision now and abandon Judea and Samaria, a decision that would be irreversible.

Yet it might turn out in the years to come that their forecasts were off by 10, 20, maybe 30 percent. Hurry, they shout, there’s no time to lose − the window of opportunity is closing. They are not talking about a mastectomy, they are talking about cutting the heart out of the Land of Israel.

Not very good advice.

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