NYT and the religion of linkage

The New York Times has a front page article today where it notes:

[W]ith so much of the Middle East still convulsing from the effects of the Arab Spring, Mr. Kerry’s efforts [on peacemaking] raise questions about the Obama administration’s priorities at a time of renewed regional unrest.

After the perfunctory quotes from people who note that focusing on Israel when the entire region is aflame is a bit silly, the Times goes back to its basic premise:

Former administration officials defend that conviction. Mr. Kerry’s focus, they say, makes sense precisely because of the chaos elsewhere. With little leverage over Egypt and deep reluctance about intervening in Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one place that the United States can still exert influence, and perhaps even produce a breakthrough.

“You don’t have instability between the Israelis and Palestinians right now,” said Dennis B. Ross, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama on the Middle East. “But if you don’t act, there’s a risk that the Palestinian Authority will collapse, leaving a vacuum. And if we know one thing about vacuums in the Middle East, they are never filled with good things.”

But the threat to Abbas comes from the very people who would ignore, and torpedo, any "peace" agreement that doesn't result in the destruction of Israel. Right now their complaints against Abbas are that he is collaborating with the hated Zionists; how exactly will an agreement mollify them?

Moreover, what guarantee is there that after his death the entire agreement wouldn't be abrogated? Or that Hamas wouldn't win the next election, as they did the last?

In short, what evidence is there that the Arabs want real peace?

The NYT's real cluelessness comes from this paragraph:

While resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the magic bullet for the region that some once thought, it still resonates widely, whether among the crowds in Tahrir Square or the militants of Hezbollah, who cite Israel in rallying around President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Ah. The fact that Hezbollah and Egyptian mobs want to destroy Israel is reason for Israel to give up vital land, natural resources and defensive depth.

Do they even read what they are writing? An agreement wouldn't calm these Israel haters - it would embolden them! Egypt has a peace agreement with Israel and there are still people on Tahrir Square insulting Morsi with poster showing him to be a "Zionist." How exactly has Camp David tempered their opinion of Israel?

The NYT has this insane idea that Israel-hatred, which is of course a result of and not a source of antisemitism, would be somehow reduced if there was a piece of paper. Yet the two most antisemitic nations on the planet are the ones that Israel has a peace agreement with. Jodi Rudoren's citing the hate against Israel in Tahrir Square as proof that a peace agreement is important is 180 degrees from the truth - it is proof that a peace agreement is worthless in reducing hate for Israel. Not to mention the pure insanity of mentioning Hizballah as supporting evidence - a group that would do everything is could to destroy any agreement.

The "peace process" has nothing to do with peace. Along with "linkage," it is an irrational, almost religious belief system, one that doesn't look even one day beyond the messianic goal of signing a piece of paper. But some, like the NYT, are so emotionally invested in the idea that they can twist any facts to support their belief system in "peace" and the utopian idea that it would cause people who rabidly hate Israel to change their own belief systems.

(h/t EBoZ)

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Turkey deputy PM: "Gezi protests orchestrated by the Jewish diaspora"

Good news, Israel! For once, you aren't being blamed for something happening in the Muslim world!

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Foreign powers and the Jewish diaspora have triggered the unrest in Turkey and worked effectively to boost it, Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said yesterday in the Central Anatolian province of Kırıkkale.

Atalay also said the international media had a big role in "the conspiracy" and had led the unrest “well.” “The ones trying to block the way of Great Turkey will not succeed,” he said.

“There are some circles that are jealous of Turkey’s growth. They are all uniting, on one side the Jewish diaspora. You saw the foreign media’s attitude during the Gezi Park incidents; they bought it and started broadcasting immediately, without doing an evaluation of the [case],” Atalay said.

The Gezi protests started May 31, triggered by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s plan to remove a unique green area, Gezi Park, next to the iconic Taksim Square to build a replica of Ottoman artillery barracks and mall.

A sit-in by peaceful protesters turned into mass protests across the country with nearly 2 million people in 79 of the 81 Turkish cities attending, according to Interior Ministry estimates.

The heavy crackdown by the police with tear gas, water cannons and violent tools drew reaction from local citizens and the world. In total, four people including a police officer and three protesters were killed and more than 7,000 people injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly blamed an “interest rate lobby” and the world media for boosting the protests.

In case you are wondering for a moment who the "interest rate lobby" and the "foreign media" is, columnist Emre Deliveli did the research:

I thought the government had forgotten about them, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brought up the mysterious interest rate lobby during his speech outside the airport upon his arrival from his North African Rainbow Tour .

“The interest rate lobby believes it can threaten Turkey with stock market speculation ,” Erdoğan said. He did not specify who the members of this lobby were, so I had to resort to pro-government newspapers. According to articles in a daily owned by the conglomerate where the PM’s son-in-law is CEO, the lobby is a coalition of Jewish financiers associated with both Opus Dei and Illuminati. It seems the two sworn enemies have put aside their differences to ruin Turkey.

They are supported by the foreign media. Attacking a Bloomberg journalist in 2011, the same paper implied that Bloomberg, owned by a Jew, served the finance sector, also run by Jews.

It is so refreshing to see overt antisemitism, not hiding behind the fig leaf of "anti-Zionism."

Keep in mind that every time the Turkish government makes statements like these it is meant to boost their popularity with the people and help them win the next election. Hating Jews is a theme that can unite Turkey.

I'm sure Human Rights Watch and Amnesty are noticing this as well and are prepared to issue a statement denouncing anti-Jewish incitement in Turkey any minute now...

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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UNRWA under the Knesset spotlight

From Israel Behind the News:

UNRWA, which serves half a million Palestinian pupils in UNRWA schools,now seeks new funding for UNRWA summer camps and for the new school year.

UNRWA received 1.2 billion dollars in donations last year from more than 20 western countries. 

The Center for Near East Policy Research, which has examined UNRWA policies over the past 24 years, asks donor nations to place conditions on the funding....because of the UNRWA curriculum.

The Center, directed by David Bedein, held an informal briefing for foreign diplomats and reporters at the Knesset on June 24^th on the subject of the UNRWA curriculum.

Dr. Arnon Groiss, a senior journalist and PHD in Islamic Studies, was the presenter. Dr. Groiss served as Director of Research for the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) between 2000 and 2010, during which time he translated textbooks from the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran.

At the briefing, attended by officials from Canada, Norway, Australia, Egypt, and Great Britain, together with senior officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the International Christian Embassy, Dr. Groiss presented the findings from his decade-long research in translating and analyzing Palestinian Authority schoolbooks used in UNRWA classrooms.

The event, hosted at the Bayit HaYehudi Conference Room, welcomed Ayelet Shaked, Knesset member of the party, which is part of the government coalition.

At the briefing, Shaked noted that many Knesset members feel that UNRWA policies present an obstacle to any peace building process in the region, and asked that donor nations carefully monitor the funds that they contribute to UNRWA schools, because these schools are the place where the next generation is being incited to continue the war against Israel.

....Dr. Groiss unmasked realities of UNRWA education when he shared recently published PA textbooks, now used in UNRWA schools in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

A short film was screened “INSIDE THE UNRWA CLASSROOM,”  produced by The Center for Near East Policy Research, reporting from UNRWA schools located in Jerusalem, Nablus, and Gaza

Dr. Groiss also presented inflammatory materials taken from the PA books and used by UNRWA, illustrating demonization of the other, non-recognition of the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel within any border, historically (Israelite period) or present-day 1948 borders, and indoctrination for the right of return, through violence and bloodshed.

Dr. Groiss emphasized that the concept presented in the PA textbooks is that the ‘Zionist entity’ has only greedy ambitions and none of the books show any fact-based historical identification of the Jews to Israel, either in the past or in the present.

According to PA history texts used by UNRWA, the characters of the Bible, including Holy Places mentioned there, are Palestinian, and only Palestinian.

In maps distributed in all UNRWA schools, there was no ‘Jewish’ Holy Temple and no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but rather, only a ‘temple’ with no attributes of Jewish-ness...Dr. Groiss showed how all Jewish holy sites are transformed in PA texts into Islamic holy sites.

Current maps taught in UNRWA schools also portray Jerusalem’s Old City show no “Jewish Quarter”.

All students from UNRWA schools are taught about the “Right of Return” as the only realistic option and human right.

Dr. Groiss read from a poem taught to fifth grade UNRWA students: ‘We Shall Return,’in which it teaches children to return “under the flag of glory, Jihad and struggle, with blood, sacrifice, fraternity and loyalty.’

Diplomats from the five nations represented at the briefing were attentive and open to Dr. Groiss’s report. They promised to bring these issues to the discussions of their respective governments..

Read the whole thing.

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Guess who uses the phrase "Judea and Samaria"?

From the Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of PALESTINE AND TRANS-JORDAN for the year 1938:

Jerusalem [is] situated in the midst of the hills of Judea, and the principal towns are Haifa, with its modern harbour, in the north at the entrance to the plain of Esdraelon; Jaffa, a second port which lies some 40 miles west- north-west of Jerusalem; Tel Aviv, which is contiguous to Jaffa; and Nablus, the ancient Sichem, in the hills of Samaria.

From UN document A/364, September 1947:

Apart from these inland plains in the north and portions of the desert area in the south, the interior of the country is very mountainous with the hills of Judea and Samaria in the centre and the hills of Galilee in the north....
The proposed Arab State will include Western Galilee, the hill country of Samaria and Judea with the exclusion of the City of Jerusalem, and the coastal plain from Isdud to the Egyptian frontier....

From UN A/RES/181(II) 29 November 1947:

The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River at the Wadi Malih south-east of Beisan and runs due west to meet the Beisan-Jericho road and then follows the western side of that road in a north-westerly direction to the junction of the boundaries of the sub-districts of Beisan, Nablus, and Jenin. From that point it follows the Nablus-Jenin sub-district boundary westwards for a distance of about three kilometres and then turns north-westwards, passing to the east of the built-up areas of the villages of Jalbun and Faqqu'a, to the boundary of the sub-districts of Jenin and Beisan at a point north-east of Nuris.....

These are all official documents in the UN archives.

In 1998, the PLO expressed its anger at the use of this ancient - and accurate - term:

It is shocking that the Foreign Minister, while speaking of the agreement, uses a phrase like "Judea and Samaria" to describe the West Bank, in flagrant violation of the Wye River Memorandum and other existing agreements between the two sides. The use of such a term is indicative of an expansionist ideology and policies.

The UN didn't start capitalizing "West Bank" as a place name until at least 1968.

UPDATE: My Right Word has more.

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7/01 Links Part 2: LATMA's Ronit Survives Rock Terror Attack, the Myth of ‘Palestinian Susiya’

From Ian:

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Latma Satire Star Survives Rock Terror Ambush

Ronit Avrahamof Shapira, known to many as Ronit the newscaster from Youtube political satire Latma, survived a road ambush by rock-throwing terrorists Sunday night. She was in the family car that was being driven by her husband, Eliezer (“Leizi”), and their small children.
Shapira told the tale on her Facebook page.
"The rock terror has reached us, the Shapira family, too. An Arab terrorist tried to murder us too, tonight.
"We were traveling in our car in Samaria, at 10:00 p.m. Leizi identifies rocks on the road, understands what is happening. He shouts to me, to protect our babies in the back seat, and as fast as the speed of light, a stone (Not just any stone. Think of a large rock, and now think bigger. Something the size of a nice grapefruit) smashes the window next to me.

Barry Rubin: As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel

Melchett concludes with a story about his father when they visited Babylon in the 1920s. In referring to the battle that was still being engaged in, the senior Mond said:
“You see, had it not been the case centuries ago, that some small proportion of our people were prepared to return to [the land of Israel], to be the Zionists of that day, we should all have perished in the civilizations that perished with Babylon. It is only because of those few who returned at that time, that you and I are able to stand here and look upon these ruins. And where are those that took us into captivity in Babylon?” (h/t Norman F)

The Saga of Ancient ‘Palestinian Susiya’ – The Town That Never Was

The Arab strategy: An Arab family erects a tent, illegally, near the archaeological site of the ancient town of Susiya. As time passes, the tent becomes a makeshift structure, which expands into several structures. With the support of extreme left-wing activists, the ‘ancient’ town of ‘Palestinian Susiya’ is invented, reported the Tazpit News Agency.
“This makes for a great human interest story, but for one setback – the ‘ancient Palestinian Susiya’ never existed. It shows up on no records,” Tazpit wrote.?

Claire Berlinski: The Gezi Diaries: Can We Still Call Turkey Civilized?

Some see it as a modern democracy with an Islamic tint, an improving, reforming country. But if you were in Istanbul during the last month and a half, you’d have seen something completely different: a violent, authoritarian, increasingly suppressive and brutal regime. Tales from the Dark Side, Turkish style.

Jordanians Protest Imports from Israel, But Amman May Import Gas

Jordanians in Amman have been protesting against imports from Israel, but may not be aware their government has quietly been discussing the option of taking on another new import as well: the purchase of Israeli natural gas.
Protesters in Jordan gathered in Amman’s central vegetable market on Saturday calling on the government to ban imports from Israel.
The Jordanian Higher Committee to Protect the Homeland and Resist Normalization had organized the demonstration, gathering activists and members of professional associations and political parties.

Jewish history, saved one frame at a time

When Barbra Streisand needed visual inspiration to create shtetl sets for “Yentl,” there was only one place she could call.
Since 1976, the National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF) has bridged the divide between a lost Yiddish world and contemporary Jewish filmmaking. In addition to restoring and distributing forgotten classics of Yiddish cinema, the center represents Jewish filmmakers in the US, Israel and elsewhere.

WATCH: The film that saved the wall

This film (nineteen minutes in) depicts the first-ever scenes of Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, according to the Spielberg Jewish Film Archive.
On July 1, 1930, three League of Nation’s commissioners watched the above footage. The evidence it presented acted to formally mark Jewish rights to the Western Wall, redrawing boundaries that had been maintained since Ottoman times and cementing the wall in its place as the epicenter of today’s conflict.
This historic and rare footage of Palestine depicts men and women at the Western Wall, the women covered in head-scarfs and long dresses, praying freely next to pious men - with no separator in between them.

Herzl’s ties to the red, white and blue

Wednesday, July 3, marks the 109th anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl. In the US the Yiddish newspapers’ headlines rang out in 1904: “Our Prince has Fallen.” In seven brief but intense years of activity, Herzl fashioned the building blocks upon which the Jewish state, Israel, became a reality.
Previously unknown in Jewish circles in Europe and America, until his first book, AltNeuland, “OldNew Land,” appeared in 1894, he went about weaving a coalition of secular and religious Jews together with noted world leaders and committed Christians so that his project, a homeland for the Jews, could get off the ground. In his feverish period of activity, he proved that “if you will it, it is no dream.”

Israel Daily Picture: The Amazing Portraits of Shlomo and Sonia Narinsky
Jewish Photographers Exiled by the Turks, Swept Up by the Nazis

Born in the Ukraine in 1885, Shlomo Narinsky studied art in Moscow, Paris and Berlin before moving to Palestine where he set up a studio.
In 1916, Shlomo and his wife were exiled to Egypt by the Turkish rulers.
They returned to the Land of Israel after the British captured the territory in 1918.

A vision for Eye from Zion

Founded in 2007, Eye from Zion provides free medical treatment to needy populations around the world, specifically oculoplastic, cataract and cross-eye corrective surgeries. To date, delegations have worked in Vietnam, Myanmar and Ethiopia. The organization’s mission is “to give the best medical aid, and at the same time, deliver a message of mutual humanitarian aid in the spirit and values of the State of Israel and of the Jewish Heritage.”

Claire visits robotic suit creators in Israel

PARAPLEGIC London Marathon hero Claire Lomas has travelled to Israel to visit the company that made her amazing feat possible.
The 32-year-old, who is paralysed from the chest down, was able to complete the London Marathon last year over a period of 16 days, thanks to a robotic ReWalk suit.
In February Claire, of Eye Kettleby, got to meet the suit’s inventor Amit Goffer and after explaining the difference it had made to her life, was invited to Israel to find out more about it.

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The Mediterranean Games just ended, although one Mediterranean country was excluded

The 17th Mediterranean Games in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin ended with a dazzling ceremony after the men’s and women’s singles badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, bocce, men’s and women’s handball final and women’s volleyball competitions.

If you look at the list of countries participating in the games, though, you see that one country which has a coast on the Mediterranean is not listed.

I reported in 2011 that after years of opposing it, the International Olympic Committee supported both Israel and the Palestinian Arab teams be allowed to participate in the 2013 games.

A final decision on the matter is expected to be made by an extraordinary session of the General Assembly of the Committee which will take place before June 30, 2012.

Somehow, between October 2011 and June 2012, the extraordinary session's focus changed from voting on allowing the teams to play in 2013 to the question of whether they can play in Spain in 2017. From what I can tell, the issue of 2013 was never discussed.

It looks like there was some backroom politics going on to avoid making the decision for the games scheduled in Turkey.

The president of the CIJM is named Amar Addadi. I'm sure that's not relevant at all. Nor the fact that the games were held in, um, Turkey. Pure coincidence, I'm sure.

Note that whatever happened to disallow Israel also stopped the Palestinian team from participating. Which just goes to show that the people who make decision like these hate Israel far more than they love "Palesitne."

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An assassination in the Sinai

From Al Masry al Youm:

Anonymous gunmen killed Brigadier General Mohamed Hani, an inspector for the Interior Ministry in North Sinai governorate, on Saturday afternoon, a statement for the ministry said.

Three gunmen in a four-wheel vehicle assailed the victim with a barrage of bullets from automatic machine guns, while he was inspecting checkpoints in Arish, the capital of Egypt's tumultuous North Sinai governorate.

Security forces have intensified their efforts to track down the perpetrators, the statement said.

A police captain was killed in an armed confrontation with outlaws in Arish earlier this month. Preliminary police reports said he may have been assassinated by jihadi gunmen operating in the lawless region.

In a followup story, Shorouk News quotes Hani's brother as saying that Hani "was always saying that the Jews, when they were in the Sinai, were more merciful than the jihadists."

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7/01 Links Part 1: Fools Rush In Where Statesmen Fear to Tread and Syrian Rebel Thanks Israel!

From Ian:

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Barry Rubin: Fools Rush In Where Statesmen Fear to Tread

What the heck is the U.S. line on Egypt? To support the elected repressive, anti-American, anti-Christian, antisemitic, anti-woman, anti-gay regime which cannot even decide on taking billions of dollars from international banks which would never be paid back?
Unhappiness is when you know that Iran’s regime is smarter than the U.S. government.
Maximum unhappiness means knowing that Iran's, the Muslim Brotherhood's, al-Qaida’s, and Turkey's leaders are smarter than America's.

David Horovitz: Why ‘a little more work’ won’t do it, Mr. Kerry

In a region where instability is now the norm pretty much everywhere bar Israel, and where Iran has thus far outmaneuvered the West as it speeds toward a nuclear weapons capability, this is a pretty discouraging time for a tiny country to be contemplating high-risk territorial compromise — especially when Hamas’s quickfire violent takeover from Fatah of Gaza in 2007 constituted a profoundly worrying precedent for what might occur were Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.
Kerry’s unfathomable enthusiasm notwithstanding, there are no short cuts. The only source of potentially justifiable optimism lies in a process of changed atmosphere and changed attitudes — a gradual process — in a Middle East, moreover, where Iran has been successfully faced down and relative moderates consequently emboldened.

Israeli official: Kerry disappointed in Abbas

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is disappointed in the conduct of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Sunday after Kerry departed Israel following his latest attempt to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Before taking off from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Kerry promised to return soon and announced that two of his aides would remain in Israel to work on bridging remaining differences that are preventing the resumption of negotiations.
A senior Israeli diplomatic official said that "most of the American pressure is directed at [Abbas] right now."

Kerry vs. Palestinian obstinacy

We are nowhere close to meaningful negotiations. There have been past cases in which a U.S. secretary of state came to the region and Israel agreed to give up, before negotiations, inalienable assets and this led to the hardening of the other side's positions. One should remember the willingness of the governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak to hand the Golan Heights over to the regime of Hafez Assad.
Israel's representatives and advocates around the world now have the chance to again show who the real obstacle to peace is. The reality, following the recent round of shuttle diplomacy, speaks for itself.

Honest Reporting: Get Your Head Around This

Writing about US Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest Middle East visit, Harriet Sherwood of The Guardian includes the following sentence:

Israel says it is willing to negotiate without preconditions, but has so far refused to meet Palestinian demands.

I’m still trying to get my head around this. Does it even make sense?

Guardian photo caption runs interference for ‘Hamas Jihad Camp’, again.

So, according to the Observer caption, Hamas-run camps merely reinforce “awareness of the conflict with Israel.” As such language would leave the impression that children are merely receiving educational instruction on the political dynamics of the “conflict”, here are some photos from the camps, which (as reported on multiple new sites), are clearly military in nature.

EU Slams Gaza for Executions of 'Collaborators'

The EU mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah on Sunday condemned the recent execution of two Palestinian Authority Arabs in Gaza by Hamas authorities, a statement quoted by the Ma’an news agency read.
"The de facto authorities in Gaza should refrain from carrying out any executions of prisoners and comply with the de facto moratorium on executions put in place by the Palestinian Authority, pending abolition of the death penalty in line with the global trend," the statement said, according to Ma’an.

Activists storm Muslim Brotherhood HQ as protests continue

Protesters stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group early Monday, in an attack that could spark more violence as demonstrators gear up for a second day of mass rallies aimed at forcing the Islamist leader from power.
Organizers of the protests, meanwhile, gave Morsi until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to step down and called on the police and the military to clearly state their support for what the protest movement called the popular will.

Turmoil grips Egypt as four ministers quit Morsi government

Youths hurl firebombs and rocks while storming building; 16 dead, nearly 800 hurt since anti-Morsi protests began; president refuses to bow to pressure for his resignation.

We have no beef with Israel, Syrian Islamist rebel group says

Earlier in June, an unnamed spokesperson for a Syrian rebel group operating near the Turkish border told Israel Radio that his group “hopes for peace and security with Israel after the downfall of the Assad regime,” but that it doesn’t want Israel to interfere in the revolution.
The best weapon Israel can grant the rebels is its recognition of the justness of their cause, the Syrian rebel told correspondent Eran Singer.
Horan, in his conversation with The Times of Israel, went so far as to offer rare praise for Israel’s efforts to provide medical assistance for Syrians injured near the border with Israel in clashes between Assad forces and rebels.

Saudi Arabia Jails Seven for Facebook Activism

The eastern sector has seen a number of demonstrations by minority Shi’ites over alleged government discrimination and negligence since the region-wide Arab Spring uprisings two years ago.
“Sending people off to years in prison for peaceful Facebook posts sends a strong message that there’s no safe way to speak out in Saudi Arabia, even on online social networks,” HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said in the statement.

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BREAKING: Egyptian army gives 48 hour ultimatum to Brotherhood, political forces

From Al Ahram:

The armed forces are giving all political forces 48 hours as a last chance to solve the ongoing problems, or else the armed forces will have to announce a new roadmap for the future, and will enforce certain measures with the help of all factions including the youth, without excluding anyone.

The statement was read out on Egyptian state TV.

Things are getting interesting.

BBC adds:

In his pre-recorded statement broadcast on state television on Monday evening, the head of the armed forces described the protests as an "unprecedented" expression of the popular will.

But Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the army would not get involved in politics or government.

I think they just did.

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The New Yorker can't distinguish between zombies and Arabs, between zombie walls and the Kotel

I would say that there is a decent correlation between zombies and terrorists. They both want to kill you in gruesome ways, and they are both the kinds of people, or former people, you want to keep as far away from you as possible.

But to The New Yorker reviewer Hendrik Hertzberg, World War Z is equating zombies - and Palestinian Arabs.  Even though the basic plot of the Jerusalem part of the movie shows the exact opposite.

What do the Israelis do? They build a wall. But they’re basically humane, civilized people, so in Jerusalem, where we join them, they keep a gate open to let in the as-yet-uninfected un-undead—Palestinian Arabs, by the look of them. All goes well until some Palestinians already in the city start singing too lustily, and the massed zombies, also seemingly Palestinian, decide that they want in, too. (Zombies are attracted by loud noises.) This leads to the most remarked-upon scene in the film, which takes place at what resembles the Western Wall. The scrambling West Bank zombies just keep coming, climbing on top of one another until they form a giant ex-human pyramid, a siege engine of the undead, stacking up and spilling over the barrier. We are left to infer that everything probably would have still been O.K. if only the gates had been kept shut.

In the movie, the Israelis distinguish between Palestinian Arabs and zombies. In real life, the Israelis distinguish between Palestinian Arabs and terrorists.

(I also understand that the singing in the movie that attracts the zombies is by both Jews and Arabs, although I haven't seen it. But when your ideological blinders are as rigid as Hendrik Hertzberg's, you cannot be bothered to notice such things.)

This liberal reviewer cannot tell the difference between Palestinians, zombies and terrorists! In his zeal to demonize Israel, he does the exact same thing he is unjustly accusing Israel of! (His line about keeping the gates shut seems to mean the movie is saying that Israel should not allow Arabs into Israel altogether, the exact opposite of the message that Israel distinguishes between good guys and bad guys, a skill that Hertzberg apparently cannot even fathom.)

Of course, he also has a hard time distinguishing between a defensive anti-zombie wall and one of the holiest sites in Judaism, so his ability to make fine distinctions seems to be defective altogether. Perhaps he thinks, like UNESCO, that the Kotel is a separation barrier meant to keep the Jewish quarter and other Jerusalem quarters separate.

Here's some help for you, Hendrick:

One more time:

Anti-zombie wall:

Holy site:

Still can't figure it out, Hendrick? Well, given how incredibly stupid your article is, I'm not too surprised.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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Kuwait MPs: "We would buy Israeli equipment and love them for it"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from interviews with Kuwaiti members of parliament, which aired on Al-Adala TV via the Internet on June 18-25, 2013:

MP Nabil Al-Fadhl: If the security of Kuwait requires the purchase of Israeli equipment, I will do so, and I will love the Israelis for it. It is permitted to deal with anyone for the sake of Kuwait's security.

Interviewer: Even with Israelis?

MP Nabil Al-Fadhl: I will buy it from whoever is selling.

Interviewer: But these are the Zionists...

MP Nabil Al-Fadhl: So what? We're talking about my country's security. How exactly did the Muslims benefit us, when our Arab neighbor [Iraq] invaded our country? I am willing to buy equipment from Israel to protect my country from its Arab and Muslim neighbor.

[...]
Hammad Al-Dosari: The shari'a permits us to have dealings with the Israelites. We follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad, who died while his shield was mortgaged with a Jew.

Interviewer: Some people have criticized you for saying this.

Hammad Al-Dosari: Because they are ignorant about the sharia. I tell you that the Prophet Muhammad had dealings [with the Jews]. You criticize me?! Go criticize the Prophet Muhammad. A Muslim does not talk. He obeys the instructions of the Prophet Muhammad.

[...]

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A divorce as a microcosm of Egypt

From Albawaba:

A 31-year-old Egyptian woman that works as an Arabic language teacher filed for divorce in Cairo, the Arabic news site 7th Day reports.

According to the publication, the duo had numerous disagreements over the course of eight months about President Mohamed Morsi. The arguments eventually led the 35-year-old husband to physically hit his wife, 7th Day reported.

All in all, the marriage lasted for 12 years, and the couple sought counselling from family members in an attempt to save the marriage.

The woman told the media that her husband is “stubborn and will not stop his support for Morsi.” The wife added that she cannot accept such a man to be her husband.

Meanwhile, the husband said the arguments were a frequent occurrence and that his wife is “insane for going to court.” He also said his wife makes negative comments on “every decision Morsi makes” and that she “only listens for bad news on channels that do not tell the truth.”

Splitting Egypt might end up being the only solution in the end as well.

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Good news/bad news from the UK Board of Deputies

From TheJC.com:

British shoppers will be encouraged to buy Israeli products next week as part of an initiative to counter boycott campaigns.

Dates, fruit, olives and wines are expected to be among the items that Israel supporters add to their shopping trolleys and baskets.

It is hoped that Buy Israeli Goods Week, starting on Monday, will nullify the efforts of anti-Israel activists who are expected to lobby Sainsbury’s next month in an attempt to see Israeli products removed from the chain’s stores.

The pro-Israel scheme — dubbed a “buycott” — has been co-ordinated by Stand With Us, the Zionist Federation, the Board of Deputies and the Fair Play Campaign Group.

Irene Naftalin, Stand With Us community director, said customers should tell supermarket staff “how much they value the opportunity to buy Israeli goods in their stores”.

ZF chairman Paul Charney said: “Sainsbury’s has so far resisted the boycotters’ call. We need to do everything possible to ensure this boycott attack fails completely.

This is a welcome move.

Unfortunately, I didn't see anything about this at the Board of Deputies of British Jews site, while I was looking but I did see that this organization had come out against Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer speaking in England!

It seems likely that their stance against Geller and Spencer, made before the Home Office decision, might have influenced it!

Here's what they wrote before the decision:

The Board of Deputies shares with the CST and American Jewish communal bodies including the Anti-Defamation League the very strong and longstanding concerns about the views of people like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who are planning to attend the Woolwich EDL march.

The Board’s Vice President Jonathan Arkush said: “Our community has no need of their presence here and they would be better advised to have nothing to do with the EDL.

“The Board considers their presence to be deeply unhelpful to community relations and would have no objection if they were not permitted to enter this country.”

After the decision, they reiterated their stance.

I agree wholeheartedly with Melanie Phillips, who wrote:

By banning from the country as extremists the American anti-jihadis Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, the Home Secretary Teresa May has not only made herself look ridiculous but has sent the enemies of the United Kingdom the message that they have it on the run.

I do not support the approach taken by either Geller or Spencer to the problem of Islamic extremism. Both have endorsed groups such as the EDL and others which at best do not deal with the thuggish elements in their ranks and at worst are truly racist or xenophobic.

The result has been a serious blow to the credibility of these two writers, with particular damage being done to Spencer whose scholarship in itself is scrupulous. It has also split the defence against Islamic extremism, and handed a potent propaganda weapon to those who seek falsely to portray as bigoted extremists all who are engaged in the defence of the west against the Islamic jihad.

Nevertheless, the decision to ban this duo from Britain is unjustified, oppressive and comes perilously close to lining up the British government alongside those who wish to silence defenders of the west against the jihad, making a total mockery of Britain’s understanding of just who presents a danger to the state.

Neither Geller nor Spencer remotely presents such a danger. They intended to come to Britain to join an EDL rally in Woolwich, in the wake of the barbaric murder there of Drummer Lee Rigby by two Islamists last month.

Personally, I believe the EDL is not a respectable platform to join. Whether or not its rally is itself a threat to public order is, however, another issue. As far as is known, it is not being banned. It is only Geller and Spencer who have been banned from the country on the grounds that their presence is ‘not conducive to the public good’. The implication is that they will incite violence or disorder. But all the two of them do is criticise Islam, condemn jihadis and warn against the west’s failure to take seriously their machinations.

One may think they go too far, that some of their views are unpleasant or offensive or wrong; but that is surely no reason to ban them from the country. What on earth have we come to, after all, when the British Home Secretary is banning people on the basis that they criticise Islam and warn against jihadi violence? Is this not exactly the menacing argument mounted by Islamic extremists, that any condemnation of Islamic extremism is to be banned as ‘Islamophobic’?

Moreover, from the text of the Home Secretary’s letter to Spencer, it would appear that the reason for the the ban is that the British government is now telling people that certain interpretations of Islam are to be proscribed, even if they may be true – a truly terrifying and totalitarian development, and an open assault upon freedom of thought and expression, not to mention religious scholarship.

And if the argument is that any criticism of Islam may incite violence against Muslims, then by the same token Mrs May should ban all criticism of Israel -- on the much firmer grounds that there is a clearly demonstrated correlation between hate campaigns against Israel and attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions. Of course, that would be unthinkable. So why the double standard?

Read the whole thing.

While the Home Secretary deserves to be ridiculed for this decision, the Board of Deputies of British Jews acted unconscionably in pro-actively standing against free speech that happens to be critical of Islam. Its like they are trying so hard to be seen as moderate that they cannot even find the backbone to stand up for what is right even when it might ruffle a few feathers.

(h/t O)

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The strange case of the Palestine Sunbird (updated)

Gulf News has an exclusive:

The Palestine Wildlife Society, a signatory of the International Convention for the Protection of Birds, has urged the Palestinian President and Prime Minister to approve and officially announce the Palestine Sunbird as the national bird of the state of Palestine after the failure of a major Israeli international campaign to change the name of the bird.

According to Ebrahim Fawzi Awdah, who heads the Awareness Department of the society, the organisation had caused the failure of a major Israeli campaign to change the name of the bird from the Palestine Sunbird to the Orange Bird. “The bird’s name contains the name of Palestine and that was the reason for it being the subject of a major Israeli campaign aiming to change the official bird’s name,” he told Gulf News.

“The Israeli campaign targeting this bird which holds the name of Palestine had reached all the world institutions and bodies.”

“Now we need for a Palestinian move to officially recognise the Palestine Sunbird as the national bird of Palestine,” he stressed.

He explained that the bird was registered with world bodies with this name and that Israel had not been able to change the name. “We have successfully halted the Israeli campaign and the bird’s name cannot be changed for the sake of an Israeli demand which is based on the Israeli hatred for the name of Palestine,” said Awdah.

He said Israel fights the Palestinians environmentally and in all aspects of life and the Israeli occupation handles the Palestinians brutally and aggressively. He highlighted the importance of the Palestinian presence on international bodies to confront the Israeli campaigns to fight the state of Palestine. “Israelis are the enemies of the Palestinian natural life and environment,” he said.

“The Israelis have not been able to accomplish their goal and change the bird’s name with the international institutions,” he said. “We cannot however claim that we have won the confrontation unless the Palestinian Presidency and premiership approve and announce the bird as the national bird of Palestine,” he said. “Only then we will be victorious in our environmental confrontation with the Israelis.

Awdah said the Israelis would not give up their attempts to change the bird’s name but that there will be no chance for them to win.

Funny. I cannot find a single article, or webpage, about this supposed huge Israeli campaign to change the name of the bird.

If it was such a major international campaign, wouldn't someone have written about it?

I am trying to imagine the conversation as "Israel" approaches a world bird body:

"Hey, could you change the name of the Palestine Sunbird to 'Orange Bird?'"
"Um, why do you want us to do that?"
"Because we hate the word Palestine so we want to erase it from the world's consciousness."
"You do realize that the bird is blue, right?"
"Oh, sure. We just want to show how powerful we Zionists are by not only changing the name of the bird, but changing its color too!"

As far as Israeli hating animal names with the word "Palestine" in them, a quick trip to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo finds that it lists in English the Palestine Gazelle and the Palestine Viper ("the most dangerous snake in Israel"). Why didn't they change the names there, where they have control over what to call these animals, if Israelis hate the word "Palestine" so much?

I suppose it is possible that some third grader wrote to some international organization, but I cannot find it plausible that there was any sort of Israeli campaign to change the name of the bird.

The projection given by Mr. Awdah in his description of Israelis is classic.

This great "victory" on the part of Palestine Wildlife Society seems to be on  par with the many BDS fake victories.

(h/t Ash)

UPDATE: The source for the rumor seems to be this - from Haaretz in 2007 (h/t Dorith)

The Palestine sunbird, a small songbird known in Hebrew as tzufit, was almost crowned the national bird, but its English name kept it out of the running.

So Israel's reluctance to name the tzufit its national bird has morphed into a crazed Zionist demand to rename the bird in English!

Now, just imagine if Israel did choose the tzufit - then the Arabs would be complaining that Israel is stealing their national heritage!

UPDATE 2: Correspondent  Stefano points me to the Encyclopedia of Life, which gives many names for this bird, indexed under "Northern Orange-tufted Sunbird."

He also notes that "there's absolutely no official body issuing a list of "official" English names for birds or any other animal or plant! There is indeed an "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature" and an "International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature" but if you just have a look at their wikipedia pages you'll see these rules apply only to the scientific, latinized, names and not to the "common" names. In fact the binomial name of the Palestine sunbird is Cinnyris osea, with no mention of Palestine in it, and no "need" to change if for some crazy reason you're bothered by this name.

Perhaps the best part of the Encyclopedia of Life entry is that the bird is given two names in Arabic, one trusted and the other untrusted. The untrusted name translates to "Palestine sunbird." The trusted name is (according to Google) "Arabic Tamir."

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Released prisoner sets himself on fire because his free terrorist benefits were late

From Ma'an:

A former prisoner sustained serious injuries Sunday after setting himself on fire in front of the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance to protest a delay in the receipt of benefits conferred to former prisoners, witnesses told Ma'an.

Wissam Bilal Khalil Marouf, 21, from the northern district of Tulkarem, suffered serious burns across his body, a medical report from the Palestine Medical Complex where he was treated read.

A medical source in Tulkarem said Marouf had been injured by Israeli forces, leaving him with a 30 percent mobility rate and speech difficulties.

Witnesses said people rushed to extinguish the fire.

Marouf was protesting the late payment of benefits to former prisoners in Israeli jails, and had brought his medical file with him as evidence for the ministry.

Paying welfare for prisoners and their families takes up 6% of the PA budget. And the money comes from - the West!

Just more evidence that Palestinian Arabs grow up believing they are entitled to free money and services forever. Going to Israeli prison is a guarantee for income the rest of your life - pretty good incentive to gravitate to terrorism.

When they don't get the amount they believe they deserve - whether it is from UNRWA, or the PA - they go crazy.

This is what happens when people cannot take responsibility for their own problems and raise their kids to blame Israel and the West for everything that goes wrong.

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