Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 24, 2013

Zvi's #BDSFail roundup

From Zvi:

Emina Ibrahim speech against BDS at British UNISON Union Conference

We should be supporting progressive forces in Israel, not boycotting them

She calls upon British trade unions to reengage with the Histadrut.

It is also an irony that the Histadrut is now being ignored when it has a history of achieving free democratic trade unionism and last year alone it negotiated a seven per cent pay rise for all public sector workers over two years. I repeat conference seven per cent! Not the derisory one per cent we have on the table. The Israeli trade unions have also managed to secure recognition and bargaining rights at IKEA and McDonald’s, notorious anti-trade union multinationals.We should be learning lessons – they have something to offer us and we have something to offer them. This must include playing a constructive and facilitative role in bringing together Palestinian and Israeli workers in the spirit of workers solidarity.Ibrahim is a devoted leftist and clearly not a supporter of the Israeli government. But she seems to be one of those devoted leftists who is at least - seemingly very rare, nowadays - free of anti-Semitism.We cannot continue to obstruct the ability of our fellow workers in the Middle East to work together toward a just and progressive peace in the region which ensures justice for Palestine and security for Israel.Our message from Unison Conference 2013 must be a message of hope, that we want them to and are willing to help them to work together. We must also send a message of support in their struggle on both sides for fair and just labour rights and ultimately a fair and just solution.

It's a shame that she doesn't know how corrupt and enslaved to kleptocratic/terrorist Fatah the Palestinian "labor" movement is. It's a shame that she doesn't get that "justice" for Palestinians, translated into the language of Palestinian society, means the genocidal obliteration of Jews.

But if she doesn't know as much as she probably should, at least her heart seems to be in a pretty good place. That is so rare, these days, among British leftists who talk about Israel.

#BDSFail:

French Green Party visits Israel

"Until recently it was common to obey the unwritten orders of pro-Palestinian groups and not talk to the Israeli side, but I think that's totally illogical," Place said. "The Israeli left is also very pleased with our visit."

(Their positions are still naive in various ways. I mostly posted this because of the statement by Mr. Place; in so few words, Mr. Place manages to speak volumes about what has been going on among leftists in the west).

#BDSFail:

Cyprus signs Liquified Natural Gas Plant Deal with Israel

Actually, with Israeli companies. Still #BDSFail.

#BDSFail:

Georgia PM dreams of strategic relationship with Israel

#BDSFail:

India Seeks Water Management Lessons From Israel

Last week, a delegation of 16 high-ranking Indian officials of the water authorities of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Goa and Haryana arrived in Israel for a seven-day visit.

#BDSFail:

Israel's Blue Water Technologies offers Clean Water Solutions to China

#BDSFail

Israel, Colombia sign free trade agreement

#BDSEchoesAntiSemitism

BDS is a recast version of the Arab Boycott of Israel, which itself is a recast version of the Nazi boycotts of the Jews.

Major antisemitic attack ignored by police in Belgium

From EJP:

Police in the Belgian town of Artselaar, near Antwerp, have ignored and minimized a grave anti-Semitic attack, said the lawyer of a Jewish women and her friend who last month were hospitalized after being brutally beaten by racist neighbors.

In a conversation with Jewish magazine Joods Actueel in Antwerp, lawyer Mischael Modrikamen called for an investigation by a parliament committee monitoring police activities and urged the Interior Minister to react to this incident.

Problems started after Ruth Sverdloff, a former Israeli tennis champion, and her Flemish girlfriend, Cindy Meul, took up residence in a building in Aartselaar beginning of May. The next day Ruth put a mezuzah (a parchment prayer tube affixed on the door of every Jewish home) to the door of the apartment.

From then on, they were constantly harassed by neighbors yelling every night. “They banged on the walls and shouted the most horrific anti-Semitic slogans," said Cindy Meul, like "stinking Jews", "we do not want Jews in this building" or "Jews should fuck off."

Police were called but nothing changed. "I had to send my daughter to her grandparents because the child was too scared to stay here any longer," said Ruth.

The situation escalated after two neighbors invaded the apartment on May 24 and beat Cindy Meul, [while yelling "We're here to finish what the Nazis started"] who at that time was alone at home, leaving her bleeding profusely.

The unfortunate woman was taken to hospital with a broken nose and several bruises. She was treated for two weeks.

According to Joods Actueel, the situation was really ‘’hallucinating’’ when it appeared that the police in Artselaar decided to dismiss the case as "unimportant."

‘’When the ambulance took Cindy Meul at hospital, she saw a policewoman laughing and chatting with the aggressors,” Modrikamen told the Jewish magazine.

When Ruth Sverdloff made her complaint to police, she was reportedly told by a police officer: "This is Flanders and you must speak Flemish," because she spoke English.

Only after Joods Actueel and the Israeli TV made the case public, the two victimes were questioned by police and a report was written, one month after the aggression.

(h/t Rudi)

6/24 Links Part 1: Diplomatic Chess with Iran, Russia Rearming Iran, Hezbollah in Germany.

From Ian:

Checkmate Iran

I have no doubt that The Black King (Ayatollah) will eventually place itself in a position of being Checkmated by White (Israel) because despite all the smoke and mirrors it is clear that President elect Rohani will not be able to enact nuclear reforms while still ensuring that he has the support of Iran’s supreme leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the ultimate decision maker who has adopted a consistently hard line on the nuclear issue. Israel can Checkmate Iran through accurate information and diplomacy. However it may also need to remove many Black pieces from the board in order to do so, analogous to limited military actions.

Isi Leibler: Tea-time in Tehran

The challenge facing the West is no less critical than the battles fought to prevent Nazism and communism from achieving global domination. Democracies led by the U.S. must devise a realistic strategy including the option of employing force, to deter terror and efforts to undermine our social and democratic order.
This is no time for "hoping for the best." It is a time for facing reality.

Report: Russia Offers Iran Alternative to S-300 Missile System

Russia is attempting to avoid a multi-billion dollar lawsuit from Iran over a failed deal to supply S-300 missile systems by offering an alternative defense system, the Russian Kommersant daily reported Saturday.
The newspaper, citing unnamed sources in the Russian arms trade industry, said the new offer on the table is for the Antei-2500, aka S-300VM. The missile defense system can simultaneously destroy up to 24 aircraft within a range of 200 kilometers or intercept up to 16 ballistic missiles.

Harriet Sherwood characterizes Hamas as a “conservative” group

Whilst in previous reports Sherwood has described Hamas a ”militant Islamic group” or an “Islamist group”, her recent work suggests movement towards such shameful moral inversions, by which Jews living on the ‘wrong’ side of the green line are “extremists”, while a radical Islamist movement whose leaders have openly called for genocide against Jews are merely “conservative”.
As we’ve noted on many occasions, one of the more disturbing elements of the Guardian Left ideology is this increasing tendency to grotesquely distort ordinary language in an attempt to shape political reality. It’s difficult to overstate the political toxicity of such activist journalism, which attempts to convince the public that a movement advancing a reactionary racist, violent ideology should arguably evoke greater moral sympathy than the Jews who represent the object of their malign fixation.

The Curious Case of the Israeli Ku Klux Klan Photo

With no accompanying caption, the most obvious conclusion that can be drawn by the average reader is some sort of connection between Israel and the racists of the Ku Klux Klan, something that could not be further from the truth.
When we traced the photo, the truth was surprising. Available from iStockphoto and Shutterstock image sites, the image was captioned:
Tel Aviv, Israel – December 9, 2011: Israeli activists dress as KKK members to satirize right-wing Israeli policies and politicians during in the annual human rights march in Tel Aviv.

BBC continues to ignore majority of attacks on Israeli civilians

Back in April the BBC claimed that attacks on civilians in Judea & Samaria “are rare”, later revising the statement to read “fatal attacks on settlers are rare”. We are all aware of the old journalistic adage “if it bleeds it leads”, but the BBC seems to have taken that several steps further by totally ignoring the vast majority of violent attacks directed at Israeli civilians.

Large Scale Swoop on Terrorists in Judea, Samaria

The operation involved about 200 Border Police under the command of Brig. Gen. Uzi Levi, and was fully coordinated with the IDF 's Judea and Samaria Division.
The police said that the suspects have already admitted to dozens of incidents in which they hurled rocks at security forces. In addition, the suspects have incriminated other people and more arrests can be expected.
The wave of arrests was mostly in response to an increase in the audacity of the terrorists, who began using improvised explosive charges and fire bombs against the security forces, said Brig. Gen. Levi.

In upside-down Gaza, rockets fired at Israel actually aim to hurt Hamas

The various Palestinian groups, including Islamic Jihad, didn’t even attempt to claim that the “Zionist enemy” was responsible for the current deterioration. The shooting is rooted in an internal Palestinian incident whose exact circumstances are unclear. What we do know is that a senior Islamic Jihad official was shot to death, apparently by Hamas policemen. The Jihad decided to “avenge” his death by attacking a very sensitive spot for Hamas these days — the ceasefire with Israel.

Israel hits Gaza targets in response to rocket fire

Two weapons storage facilities and a rocket-launching site in Gaza were targeted by the Israeli Air Force in the early hours of Monday morning, the IDF Spokesperson’s office said, after at least six rockets were launched from the Strip into southern Israel late Sunday night and early Monday.
“The IDF will not tolerate attempts to harm Israeli citizens, and our soldiers will continue to act against anyone who engages in terror against the State of Israel. The Hamas terror organization is held responsible,” the IDF said in a statement.

German mosque groups raising funds for Hezbollah

Hezbollah has long used German territory to raise funds for the families of suicide bombers involved in killing Israelis. A 2009 report from the European Foundation for Democracy titled “Hezbollah’s Fund-raising Organization in Germany” revealed that the Orphans Project Lebanon, based in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, is “the German branch of a Hezbollah suborganization” that “promotes suicide bombings” and aims to destroy Israel.

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)