Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 24, 2013

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Summer's here, so it is time for my quarterly request for donations. I know everyone's been looking forward to this....

So, what has been accomplished at EoZ in the past three months?

I have been keeping a tally of every time the blog is mentioned in the news (anything indexed in Google News plus a few other sites that are clearly news outlets.)

During the quarter I've been mentioned or linked to in the media over 70 times! Here's the list along with the stories that I had helped put on the map in just the past three months:.

3/22 Legal Insurrection (Obama in Israel)

3/22 Propagandist (Turkey antipathy to Israel)

3/27 CAMERA (Honor killing)

3/28 Algemeiner (Miftah)

3/29 Legal Insurrection (Miftah)

3/31 Algemeiner (Miftah)

4/1 PowerLine (Miftah)

4/1 The Tower (Miftah)

4/1 Die Achse des Guten (Miftah)

4/1 Washington Free Beacon (Miftah)

4/1 Maariv (General reference to EoZ as a watchdog)

4/2 Washington Free Beacon (Miftah)

4/3 Legal Insurrection (Miftah)

4/3 Arutz-7 (Miftah)

4/4 Mida (Amira Hass)

4/3 JTA (Miftah)

4/5 Maariv (Pals highest foreign aid per capita)

4/5 Algemeiner (Arab spring hurting Hamas financially)

4/6 02elf Düsseldorf Abendblatt (Miftah)

4/7 Times of Israel (Miftah)

4/8 Algemeiner (Egyptian girl in IDF)

4/8 Algemeiner (link to list of Carter problems)

4/8 Jewish Press (Cardozo giving Carter honor, link)

4/8 American Thinker (Cardozo giving Carter honor)

4/10 Jewish Press (Roger Waters at 92Y)

4/11 Honest Reporting (Turkey Islamists)

4/11 JPost (Miftah)

4/12 TheBlaze (Ukraine anti-semitism)

4/12 FrontPage Mag (stone-throwing at Jews in history)

4/12 FrontPage Mag (Turkey Islamists)

4/12 Algemeiner (Palestine Museum)

4/13 Kyiv Post (Ukraine anti-semitism)

4/16 Algemeiner (SA concert disrupted)

4/17 Algemeiner (Hamas shuts down fishing)

4/18 Daily Maverick (SA concert disrupted)

4/19 Arutz-7 (Hamas shuts down fishing)

4/22 Presspectiva (Pravda saying Israel infects prisoners)

5/1 Algemeiner (Egyptian paper blood libel)

5/1 The Tower (Mishrawi case)

5/2 The Commentator (Egyptian paper blood libel)

5/3 Jerusalem Post (Church of Scotland)

5/3 The Tower (old post about Hamas military training for kids)

5/4 FrontPage Mag (Muslims stealing land from Xtians in Jlem, link)

5/4 FrontPage Mag (Iranians in Bangkok pleading innocent, link)

5/5 Algemeiner (reprint post on Economist)

5/9 Algemeiner (reprint post on HR groups)

5/13 Honest Reporting (Stephen Hawking)

5/13 FrontPage Mag (reprint post on liberal Israeli)

5/17 CAMERA (Economist WB lies)

5/19 Mida (Jordanians sexually harassing PalArab kids, link)

5/19 Legal Insurrection (Joseph Massad)

5/21 FrontPage Mag (Gaza women prisons)

5/21 Arutz-7 (Belz synagogue video, link)

5/21 Algemeiner (reprint post on Alice Walker’s reptilian overlords)

5/23 Algemeiner (Egypt cuts subsidies to Jews)

5/26 JPost (Radical Pals post and infographic)

5/26 FrontPage Mag (Alice Walker)

5/28 FrontPage Mag (Knesset bill to outlaw Mohammed toons)

5/31 Algemeiner (Jaffa graves, reprint post)

6/3 Algemeiner (Abbas conspiracy theory)

6/4 FrontPage Mag (Iranian stoning adulterers link, EoZ idea)

6/6 Algemeiner (Hamas split)

6/9 TheBlaze (Paris terrorist art)

6/11 Algemeiner (Reprint of Economist mistakes part 2)

6/11 Algemeiner (Arabs upset over German soccer T-shirts)

6/14 Legal Insurrection (Hello Martyr)

6/17 Vice (link, Turkish pepper spray)

6/17 HonestReporting (link, Turkish pepper spray)

6/17 Commentary (Khaybar)

6/20 Algemeiner (Jews control money, media, women)
6/20 The Blaze (Khaybar)

(During the quarter I also was the first to report on the Jimmy Carter speech at Cardozo, which was picked up by mainstream media worldwide but usually without credit to me.)

I think that any reporter would be ecstatic to have accomplished this much in such a short time.

This is more than just a blog. EoZ is increasing its influence and helping to get stories out of the blogosphere and into the mainstream. We are doing the job of reporters, editors, researchers, publishers, graphic artists, designers, and essayists.

You can help be a partner in this important work. Click here to donate (or use the buttons in the upper right corner to donate or create a monthly subscription) via PayPal. Alternatively, you can send me an Amazon gift card.

Thanks again for your support, for the many compliments you have given me, for spreading my posts via Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, for giving me news tips and for being so supportive and generous.

Turkish media is reporting that a journalist named Fatih Tezcan is claiming that the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, didn't die from cirrhosis of the liver as has been assumed - but, according to a supposed new autopsy, he was poisoned.

Tezcan is convinced that the only way Ataturk could have been poisoned was through his alleged involvement with Freemasons, who every conspiracy theorist knows is really a Jewish organization.

The motive? Why, because Ataturk was against the establishment of Israel! So the Mossad - before there was a Mossad - decided to get rid of him, because Turkey's opposition to a Jewish state was really, really important in 1938 to Jews.

While the Turkish media reporting this craziness is careful to say "The Israel lobby" killed Ataturk, the Arab media is saying in a more straightforward manner that it was the Jews.

Lebanese singer shows Netanyahu in her shoe in music video

An excerpt from an upcoming music video by Lebanese singer Manar:

El Fagr reports that this image of Netanyahu in Manar's super-high heels has sparked "outrage from Jews" but was "of course welcomed by Arabs."

Of course, there hasn't been any outrage, and the clip was uploaded 2 weeks ago. So it looks more like a publicity stunt before the release of the full music video.

Rockets from Gaza resume - from Islamic Jihad upset at Hamas

From YNet:

Four rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council late Sunday night. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets and two hit open areas. No injuries or damage were reported.

Another two rockets were launched at the Bnei Shimon Regional Council. Both exploded in open areas and no injuries or damage were reported.

In response to the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft attacked in Gaza overnight, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon ordered the closure of the border crossings between Israel and the Hamas-ruled territory. The IDF estimates Islamic Jihad was behind the rocket fire.

Following a meeting with top Southern Command officials and the head of IDF intelligence, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz instructed the army to launch airstrikes against four terror targets in central and south Gaza. The targets, including a rocket-launching pad and a weapons cache, belong to Islamic Jihad. The terror group apparently launched the rocket attack as an act of defiance against Gaza's rulers. However, the army is not ruling out the possibility that extremist Salafists were behind the attack.

Tensions between Islamic Jihad and Hamas have been mounting following the recent death of an Islamic Jihad terrorist at the hands of Hamas' security forces during clashes. Islamic Jihad announced it was severing ties with Hamas for the time being.

"We're pretty shocked at the whole thing," said Sigal Moran, head of the Bnei Shimon Regional Council. "I still hope it was a mistake and not the beginning of another era of emergency routine."

Islamic Jihad didn't take responsibility for the rockets, but it sure looks like they are behind them.

In their statement on Israel's retaliation, they say that Israel never stopped its aggression, and that Israel is responsible for everything that happens in Gaza - including any friction between PIJ and Hamas, since Israel is the only beneficiary to internal disputes. The statement added that Israels response proves that Israel is the main enemy Gazans should be concerned with, echoing their statement yesterday after Hamas killed their member.

Their coverage does not admit that Gaza rockets were shot first.

So it seems likely that PIJ wanted to force an Israeli reaction to embarrass Hamas into stopping their policing of Gaza terror groups.

By the way, a low level war has erupted in Lebanon (video)

Clashes broke out in in Abra, east of the southern Lebanon city of Sidon on Sunday, claiming the lives of at least five army soldiers and stoking fears that violence triggered by the war in Syria will increasingly engulf its smaller neighbor.

Two gunmen loyal to an anti-Hezbollah sheikh were also killed in the clashes , security sources said, in an act the Army deemed as a cold-blooded attack on the military which called for an “iron fist” approach to deter further aggression.
The army said the fighting began when supporters of Shiekh Ahmed Assir, an outspoken Sidon cleric, launched a surprise attack on one of its checkpoints in the Abra neighborhood of the city, 25 miles south of the capital. Lebanese television said that the army had earlier arrested several of his supporters.

“What happened today in Sidon went beyond all expectations,” the army said in a statement. “The army was targeted in a cold blooded and deliberate attack.”

Assir, known for his tirades against Iran-backed Hezbollah’s influence over the Lebanese state and army, posted a video online Sunday calling for Sunni soldiers to defect from the army, which he lambasted as “Iranian and Shiite”.

“To all our partisans, we are being attacked by the Lebanese Army, which is Iranian and Shiite,” Assir said in the video. He claimed the Army belonged to the “shabiha [thugs]” of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his ally, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Amal Movement.

Here is some of Sunday afternoon's fighting in Sidon:

Also in Lebanon:

Initial investigations have determined that the only forces that possess 122mm Grad rockets that were discovered in Ballouneh in Lebanon’s Kesrouan region on Friday are Hezbullah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command PFLP-GC informed sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) according to a report by An Nahar newspaper.
Both Hezbollah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) are staunch allies of the Syrian regime of president Bashar Al Assad

An Nahar reported that the investigations are currently focusing on how the rockets and their launch pads were placed in the region and what their target was.

Sources told the daily that the incident was aimed at intimidation and creating confusion in Lebanon.

This is in addition to the fighting that has been going on for months in Tripoli between Shiites and Sunnis, and the rockets that have been fired from Syria towards Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, or Syrian Army forays into Sunni areas of Lebanon.

You just know the Zionists are behind it. After all, if you ask the Shiites, they would tell you the Sunnis are Zionist, and if you ask the Sunnis, they would insist the Shiites are Zionist (or, sometimes, even Jews.)

They can't both be wrong!

Salafists lynch Shiites in Egypt, drag leader's body through the street (video)

From Al Ahram:

An angry mob led by Salafist sheikhs torched and attacked houses of Shias in the small village of Zawyat Abu Muslam in Giza governorate Sunday afternoon, killing four citizens including a prominent shia figure.

Not less than 3000 angry locals attacked houses of Shias in the village Sunday afternoon after weeks of incitement by Salafist preachers, according to eyewitnesses.

Five houses were set on fire during the attack. Police are evacuating the rest of Shiite homes in the village.

"For three weeks the Salafist sheikhs in the village have been attacking the Shias and accusing them of being infidels and spreading debauchery," Hazem Barakat, an eyewitness and photojournalist, told Ahram Online.

Barakat, who reported the incident live on Twitter, took photos and videos showing one of the Shias began dragged in the street after being beaten. "I saw several Shias stabbed several times while they were being dragged in some sort of public lynching," said Barakat.

At least four have been killed according to the head of the Giza security directorate. According to eyewitnesses, there are not less than 30 badly injured Shias who have been transferred to hospital.

The death toll included 66-year-old Hassan Shehata, a prominent Shia figure who was jailed twice under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for "contempt of religion."

The police force came late according to eyewitnesses and did nothing to stop the attack and public lynching. "They were just watching the public lynching like anyone else and did not stop anything," said Barakat.

The Shiites and Sunnis are on the verge of civil war in Lebanon and Egypt and already there to an extent in Syria.

If only those damn Israelis would stop building houses for their families in Judea and Samaria, there would be peace.

Syria rips off Israeli hasbara cartoon

Seen on Twitter:

The (almost certainly) original:

(I have seen a Pakistani version against India, but the Israeli one seems to pre-date it; the arm patch looks much more natural in the Israeli one. It seems likely, however, that the Syrians ripped off the Pakistani rip-off; the Pakistani version had writing on the helmet that was poorly covered over in the Syrian version.)

This has also been a recurring cartoon theme for years in Israel; for example, this:

The irony of Syria, a state that has supported terror since the 1950s, complaining about terrorists hiding behind babies is almost too obvious to mention.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv, Phillip Smyth)

Influential Egyptian sheikh says Jews control the media - in Egypt

Mohamed Mukhtar al-Mahdi, a professor at Al Azhar University in Cairo and head of at least one Islamic group, has claimed that Egypt's media is being run by Jews.

He said that the Egyptian media is the main reason for Egypt's political problems. His explanation is that the Egyptian media has become recently fallen into the hands of the Jews, and its slander and lies are part of the of the Zionist plan to demolish the country, as well as turn people against Islam.

Here is al-Mahdi with one of his fans:

UNRWA cannot fathom why Israelis don't want to be murdered

UNRWA published a story and video on its website about how they help a Gaza man survive after the evil Israelis took his job away with their awful blockade of Gaza:

When Iyad Farahat was 7 years old, his father died. Like many Palestine refugee children growing up in difficult circumstances, he was soon forced to leave school. At 19, Iyad entered the textile industry, and quickly opened a small sewing factory in Rafah. By 1996, at 32, he was able to move his business to the Karni Industrial Zone in northern Gaza, where he had 50 sewing machines and around 60 employees.

For over ten years, the business was successful. He cultivated a strong relationship with a partner in Israel, who worked with him to export textiles to Israel and the United States. Iyad and his wife, Aida, raised three boys, and used their success to help their community. Iyad joined the Sultan Club, which supports youth sport programmes and activities.

Blockade brings misery

In 2004, however, everything began to change. Restrictions on export from Gaza increased; movement within the Strip became more difficult because of checkpoints established around Israeli settlements. When his partner in Israel went bankrupt because of delays and penalties incurred on contracts, Iyad struggled to pay his workers; soon, he was bouncing checks.

By 2006, with the blockade on Gaza in full effect and export stopped completely, he was forced to liquidate his assets to pay his employees.

How dare the Israelis close the crossings that Farahat relied on for his livelihood!

It isn't as if there were any terror attacks at the Karni Industrial Zone and crossing, right?

Apr 15, 2003 - Zachar Rahamin Hanukayev, 39, of Sderot and Ahmed Salah Kara, 20, of Shuafat in northern Jerusalem were killed and four Israelis were wounded when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at the Karni industrial zone crossing in the Gaza Strip. The gunman was killed by security personnel. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mar 14, 2004 - Ten people were killed and 16 wounded in a double suicide bombing at Ashdod Port. The terrorists infiltrated into Israel from the Gaza Strip via the Karni Crossing while hidden in a double cell wall installed in a cargo container departing the Gaza Strip to Israel. Hamas and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 7, 2004 - St.-Sgt. Nadav Kudinsky, 20, of Kiryat Gat of the Oketz canine unit was killed by a bomb, along with his dog, when a booby-trapped chicken coup exploded northwest of the Karni Corssing in the Gaza Strip. Four soldiers were wounded in the exchange of fire while evacuating him. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Jan 13, 2005 - Six Israeli civilians were murdered and five Israeli civilians were wounded in a combined terrorist attack carried out in the compound of the Karni Crossing. Three terrorists infiltrated into the compound via a hole which was created in a wall after the terrorists activated an explosive device which was placed next to a door at the Palestinian side of the crossing. The civilians were killed as result of the explosion, and after the terrorists hurled grenades and opened fire at the civilians working at Karni. Hamas and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed joint responsiblity for the attack.

Apr 26, 2006 - An attempted bombing attack on the Karni crossing was carried out by the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip under the direction of Hamas.

May 5, 2008 - Two mortar bombs land on the Karni Crossing and one on the Erez Crossing

Did UNRWA ever, even once, condemn Hamas or Fatah for their terror attacks that caused Israel to close the Erez and Karni industrial zones and crossings to save lives?

No*. To this UN agency, only Israel is wrong. To this UN agency, Israeli lives are worthless and Palestinian Arab convenience is far more important.

Context? Background? The worthless, morally depraved UNRWA only cares about such things when it helps make Israel look bad.

*I found a single passing condemnation of "rockets" buried inside a UNRWA document, and one or two quotes on the UNRWA website of the UN secretary general condemning rocket attacks in general, but no condemnations that mention any actual terror groups by name.

6/23 Links: The Apartheid Lie, Contrarian Finkelstein, Morsi’s Jailbreak and Erdogan's Conspiracy

From Ian:

The Apartheid Lie + EoZ Posters

People continue to accuse Israel of being an Apartheid State. I think people use the term without really knowing what “apartheid” means. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation used in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. This was an official policy that declared blacks second class citizens in every aspect of life. Blacks couldn’t vote or hold political office. They couldn’t marry whites and they couldn’t use the same public restrooms as whites. These are just a few examples.
Let’s take a look at Israel… Arabs in Israel can vote, they can hold political office, they work in professions alongside other Israelis, they can own businesses, they can be judges, lawyers, doctors, ambassadors… Does this sound like apartheid to you? The accusation is absurd, and I think everyone that has been to Israel can agree on that. (h/t Gnomercy9)

National service in Arab sector up 76% over past year

A ceremony was held on Tuesday at the Haifa Cinematheque to recognize the record-high 3,000 Arabs volunteering in the national service program this year.
This represents an increase of 76 percent over last year, when 1,700 participated.

Norman Finkelstein Throws Wrench In Anti-Israel Movement’s Claim To A Rights-Based Agenda

Members of the audience reacted hostilely to Finkelstein’s presentation, talking and shouting over him and even yelling at him during the question and answer period. While he spoke, two of the other panelists – Lamis Deek, a founder of Al-Awda; and Sherry Wolf, an avid BDS activist – who both later expressed support for a one-state solution, frequently rolled their eyes and put their heads down, displaying visible discomfort with his positions.
At one point, Deek and Finkelstein engaged in a hostile back-and-forth exchange. After acknowledging that she could never “recognize the right of the entity known as Israel” to exist, Finkelstein challenged Deek’s use of the term “entity,” stating, “Israel is a state. It has the same rights and the same obligations as the 190 other states.” Deek countered that she has “no obligation to operate strictly under the auspices or within the framework of international law despite the fact that Professor Finkelstein or other professors would like me to do so because they don’t make that requirement of the Israeli entity.”

Australia: Young Greens NSW Facebook poll questions Israel’s right to exist

But Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim said although Greens policy accepts Israel’s right to exist, “they continue to be embarrassed by extremists in their own ranks, including some of their MPs, who are fixated on singling out Israel, among all the nations of the world, as a target of hatred and demonisation”.
“Regardless of their personal views, their activities and rhetoric have time and again been magnets for gross expressions of anti-Semitism, both online and in public forums,” he said. “The Greens as a party have a choice to make … They can speak and act as a party with mainstream voter appeal, or they can pander to the radical fringe of politics. With a federal election fast approaching, they can no longer do both.”

IDF spokesman posts Facebook tirade against critical NGO

Barak Raz, spokesman for the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division — the unit responsible for most military activities in the West Bank — used Facebook and Twitter to launch a bitter and emotional attack on Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence for what he said was deliberately seeking to smear the IDF rather than genuinely trying to prevent abuses by the army.

MKs: Stop Terrorist Release as ‘Good-Will Gesture’

The Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset, which reconvened less than two weeks ago, has sprung into action with a new proposal aimed at ending the phenomenon of prime ministers releasing terrorists from prison as a “good-will gesture.”
The proposed law would strip the president, who signs off on prisoner pardons, of the right to release prisoners jailed for offenses motivated by nationalism.

Abbas accepts Palestinian Authority PM Hamdallah's resignation

A PA source said that Hamdallah, whom Abbas appointed on June 2, quickly found himself in the same situation as his predecessor Salam Fayyad.
“Hamdallah discovered that the Palestinian Authority president wants him to serve as a yes-man with no powers,” the source explained. “Abbas wanted a prime minister who would play no role and only carry out orders from the president’s office.”

Fatah member: Haifa, Jaffa are Palestinian

Haifa, Jaffa and Acre are Palestinian cities and will remain so, Tawfik Tirawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, was quoted Saturday as saying.
Tirawi, who previously served as commander of the Palestinian Authority General Intelligence Service in the West Bank, said that the Palestinians have struggled since the Balfour Declaration and would pursue their struggle “until we achieve our national goals – the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. We will pass this goal from one generation to another.”

Hamas executes two ‘collaborators’ with Israel

The Hamas government in Gaza executed two men on Saturday it accused of collaborating with Israel, the Hamas Interior Ministry announced.
The two men were killed by hanging in accordance “with what Palestinian law stipulates,” the ministry was quoted by AFP as saying.

Melanie Phillips: How ignorant Britain sneers and sniggers at the threat from Iran

For a distressing snapshot of how Britain is steadily sliding into irrelevance and indeed civilisational defeat, take a look at this week’s edition of BBC TV’s Question Time where I was on the panel. My statement that Iran currently posed the greatest threat to the UK and the west provoked a display of truly shocking ignorance amongst the political class, as well as venomous imbecility and resistance to truth-telling amongst the public.

VIDEO: Melanie Phillips on Syria and Iran (BBC QT June 20th 2013)

Druze leaders ask Israel to take in Syrian brethren

In a further sign of the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria, leaders of the Druze community on the Golan Heights have asked Israel to take in their coreligionists living across the border in the war-torn country.
The request came in a letter handed to Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Harel Locker at a meeting with Druze leaders on the Golan Heights Thursday. The letter included an unprecedented request for Israel to take in Druze students who had left the Golan and settled in Syria, Maariv reported.

Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah conspired in Morsi’s jailbreak

An Egyptian court on Sunday said Muslim Brotherhood members conspired with Hamas, Hezbollah and local militants to storm a prison in 2011 and free 34 Brotherhood leaders, including the future President Mohammed Morsi.
The court statement read by judge Khaled Mahgoub named two members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood — Ibrahim Haggag and Sayed Ayad — to be among the alleged conspirators in the attack on Wadi el-Natroun prison on Jan. 29, 2011.

Erdogan: Turkey, Brazil hit by same conspiracy

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has blamed a wave of anti-government protests in Turkey on a foreign-led plot to destabilize his government, suggested Saturday that protest-hit Brazil was the victim of the same alleged conspiracy.
Erdogan was addressing tens of thousands of his supporters in the Black Sea coastal city of Samsun, the latest stop in a series of rallies he has called to shore up his political support.

EMC buys Israeli storage startup ScaleIO for $200m

EMC, one of the world’s leading data storage providers, has reportedly bought Israeli startup ScaleIO for US$ 200 million. Numerous media reports say the American company targeted the Israeli company’s ECS software, which offers a way to scale network storage ability.
ScaleIO is known for its software that can change an application server to a virtual storage area network. According to the company, the ECS software “uses application hosts’ local disks to realize a virtual SAN that is comparable to or better than external SAN storage, but at a fraction of the cost and complexity.”

Israel's Blue I Water Technologies offers clean water solutions to China

In China, boiled or bottled water is suggested for drinking, and tap water may only be used to clean. The boiling of water is a cumbersome process and bottled water is expensive; hence, neither of the solutions is feasible.
An Israel-based company, Blue I Water Technologies, has presented a solution – Prizma. The device can be used in both household and industrial settings. It can identify, quantify and analyze chemical components of water and measure contents such as chlorine, pH and conductivity in water. This device, therefore, enables users to adjust and clean water for different uses, including drinking.(h/t Zvi)

Georgia’s PM: My dream is for Israel as a strategic partner

Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili will visit Israel next week. Before his arrival, he invited the ‘Post’ to Tbilisi for an interview in which he explained why Israel matters to his country, and why Georgia should matter to Israel.(h/t Zvi)

Plus:

Melanie Phillips gets booed and taunted by BBC audience and panelists for daring to say that Iran is a threat (h/t O)

Also, Dore Gold on Israel and a changing Middle East:

(h/t Jacques Y)

Hamas kills Islamic Jihad leader!

Big trouble brewing in Gaza....

Al Quds Brigades of the Islamic Jihad has held Hamas Police in Gaza responsible for the death of a key Islamic Jihad field leader, Raed Qasim Jundiyah, who sustained serious head injuries when he clashed with Hamas police after they arrived at his residence in eastern Gaza to arrest him.

The Islamic Jihad said in a statement that Palestinian factions in Gaza have their own way of tackling the issues of the resistance groups and that there have been known channels to address disputes.

It accused Hamas of never adhering to those channels and regulations and of acting on its own which caused the death of Jundiyah, who is also one of Israel’s most wanted figures.
Islamic Jihad said that Jundiyah had been transferring arms from one place to another as the location of the arms has been known to some individuals who he believed may misuse them, but the Hamas authorities acted without coordination with the faction’s armed wing.

“Hamas police has ignored customary practice and regulations and took the issue into their own hands despite the fact that the issue was almost over and never needed police interference in the first place,” said the Islamic Jihad.

“Hamas police forces should not have directly approached Jundiyah’s home to arrest him especially given the fact that Jundiyah was accused by Hamas of conducting a resistance mission [against Israel],” said the Islamic Jihad.

Hamas, on the other hand, announced it had nothing to do with Jundiyah’s death and that he should have surrendered to the police authorities when they asked him to turn himself in.
“These claims that Hamas is not fully responsible for Jundiyah’s death cannot be accepted, since he has been a key target for Israel which had repeatedly tried to assassinate him,” said the Islamic Jihad.

A senior Islamic Jihad official in the West Bank said that the armed wing and the cadre have been instructed to show the highest level of restraint and discipline so that the crisis can be tackled by the Islamic Jihad leadership with its Hamas counterpart.

In Islamic Jihad's statement declaring Jundiyah a "martyr," they say:

In spite of this great loss of losing great martyr Raed Jundiyah, we emphasize that our only choice is to resist the central enemy to the nation, namely the Zionist enemy and those who stand behind him from the forces of injustice and arrogance, and the compass our weapon will not change its destination at all whatever the sacrifices. However this does not mean that we stand idly by in front of those trying to assault us, confiscate our weapons, or prevent us from doing our part of jihad in the defense of our people and our land.

It would be terrible, just terrible, if Islamic Jihad and Hamas start fighting over this little incident.

A Ma'an op-ed celebrates the new Arab Idol, Palestinian Mohammed Assaf, who wore a keffiyeh as he won the prize.

The author, Firas Attieh Tirawi, refers to Assaf as a "hero" and compares him to other "Palestinian heroes," such as Yasser Arafat, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad and Abdul Qader Husseini, Faisal Husseini and Ahmed Shuqairi and Fathi Shikaki (founder of Islamic Jihad) and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Ahmed Yassin (co-founders of Hamas), Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP), and George Habash (PFLP).

The article also refers to Assaf's singing of "returning" to Palestine from the river to the sea, expelling Jews from Haifa and Acre and Jaffa as well as Jerusalem.

Meanwhile UNRWA appointed Assaf - the singer who competed based on songs advocating the destruction of Israel - to be its first "Ambassador."

The first Palestinian to win Arab Idol, Assaf was born to Palestine refugee parents in Libya. He returned to the Gaza Strip with his family at age 4 and was raised largely in the refugee camp in Khan Younis. He has described himself as a “son of Palestine” and a “son of UNRWA”: his mother is an UNRWA teacher, and he himself was educated in UNRWA schools.

Which means that he has no reason to have refugee status - his family moved quite freely to the territory of "Palestine" which is where he grew up.

UNRWA, of course, agrees with Assaf that the Jewish state must be destroyed with the "return" of millions of fake refugees like Assaf's family. And the UNRWA schools of Gaza that Assaf grew up on have been documented to teach about the glories of jihad and martyrdom.

Video: Palestinians in Syria fighting on Assad's side

From CNN:

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

Jon Stewart in Egypt causes controversy for the dumbest reason possible (video)

Jon Stewart, during his working summer vacation, visited his friend and fellow TV satirist Bassem Youssef in Egypt.

So what could be the problem?

Egyptian paper Al Mesryoon complained about this appearance, because of a comment he makes early on about not working. He says "As you know my people like to wander the desert, that's what I'm doing now...it's been two weeks, I've got 38 years and 50 weeks left."

Al Mesryoon, hilariously, says that Stewart was making fun of ...the Koran!

You see, the Koran says that the Jews wandered 40 years in the desert because of their sins. How dare Jon Stewart mock the Koran! And to add insult to injury (a topic covered in the interview,) Stewart makes fun of Cairo traffic!

You just can't make this stuff up.