Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

The difference between peace and signing a paper

Yaacov Lozowick has written another brilliant essay at his almost-but-not-quite abandoned blog:

In recent months I've had the occasion privately to discuss the efforts to obtain peace with a number of unusually well-informed observers of the conflict. Each of them has been American, Jewish or not; each of them has impressive command of the details and minutiae of the historical chronology and familiarity with the important and secondary historical and contemporary actors. Unlike the vast majority of pundits, these fellows (they've all been men) know what they're talking about.

Yet I've found the exact same chasm between my understanding of how the story could unfold and theirs; it has become clear to me that this difference is itself interesting and significant. In a nutshell, the issue is about the finality of peace agreements.

American history is probably unusual, in that the United States has rarely experienced anything resembling permanent conflict. ...

You could forgive Americans for the idea that conflicts are fought resolved and ended, to be continued, at very worst, on non-military fields. Indeed, such historical optimism probably lies under the widespread receptivity to books such as Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Pinker, of course, doesn't limit himself to North American history. His theses is that humanity as a whole is weaning itself of violence on all levels, and the Long Peace of post-WW2 Europe and the New Peace of much of the rest of the world are permanent; the rest of humankind simply has to catch up and calm down.

A perceptive reading of Pinker, however, ought to remind us of the simple fact that throughout most of history, peace agreements at the ends of wars were temporary affairs. When one side destroyed the other, they could last for centuries; but when both sides remained standing, they often returned to battle sooner or later, in the same configuration or in a different one. The Bible aspires for "forty years of peace", which is a reasonable approximation of "permanent".

Pinker's conception rests on more than the statistical fact that since 1945 there have been (almost) no wars in Europe and that at the beginning of the 21st century there are fewer conflicts than usual worldwide. He shows how multiple things have changed, so that nowadays people don't regard war-making as an option for resolving conflicts.

But there-in lies the rub, as I pointed out when I recently reviewed his book. In order for a peace agreement to be the prelude to lasting peace, it must obviously be fair enough that all sides prefer it over the continuation of conflict, and more important, the vast majorities of the populations must cease to regard war as an option. These are two very different things.

My thesis here is that the people striving for peace between Israel and Arabs are working hard at attaining the first, while assuming that the second will necessarily follow. This assumption, however, makes sense only if something has changed in the character of the peoples involved. If Jews and Arabs (not only Palestinians) have together reached the same stage of history the nations of the Long Peace have reached, then indeed, a peace agreement between them is likely to usher in a permanent Middle East Peace.

Must I elaborate on how utterly silly that is, in 2013?

...[T]he peace makers need to be striving not for a magic combination of gestures and moves on the ground which will call forth a peace-signing ceremony on the lawn of the White House. They need to be creating a new reality. If all they achieve is the goal of an agreement without changing the essentials, they will have created an interlude in the conflict. At worst, they might even create the motivation for the next round.

I would add that even the well-funded NGOs that get tens of millions of dollars and euros to help Arabs with human rights and democratic processes are doing literally nothing towards the goal of teaching them how to live with Jews. So we see that even the organizations groomed to be the ones to set the stage for peace will defend antisemitism until threatened with losing their funding.

The idea that peace will automatically follow a "peace" of paper - one that gets signed only under great external pressure - is not only a pipe dream; it is manifestly stupid. And as Lozowick demonstrates, it is an illusion that even the most well informed Americans have.

7/09 Links Part 1: Beirut Explosion, AJ Staff Walkout Over MB Bias and 12y.o. Explains Egyptian Crisis

From Ian:

Barry Rubin: At last, The Secret of President Barack Obama’s Middle East Policy Revealed, No Kidding

Remember what the two NSC staffers said, in representing Obama policy because it deserves ti go down in history:
“Such a move [fighting the Islamists in Egypt would fail and probably prompt a shift to al-Qaeda type terrorist tactics by extremists in the Islamist movement in Egypt and elsewhere.”
The Obama administration, on the basis of the current CIA director John Brennan's Doctrine has given up the battle. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists are holding the United States for ransom. The demand for releasing (which means not attacking) the United States is the Middle East.

Nonie Darwish: The Problem at the Heart of Egypt's Revolutions

This latest revolution in Egypt, the second in the last two years, is a symptom of a deep-rooted problem at the heart of Islam itself: Egypt is on the verge of a civil war to bring a resolution to the never-ending tension between what Islam demands versus what the people really want.
This is the central problem in most Muslim countries: the difficult choice between a civilian, military "infidel" government, and a totalitarian Islamic theocracy. The problem is compounded when most Egyptians consider themselves both Muslim and lovers of democracy, but refuse to see that Islam and freedom cannot co-exist. How can Islam anywhere produce a democracy when freedom of speech and religion are outlawed, where there is no free and independent judiciary, and equal rights for women, minorities and non-Muslims are legally suppressed?

12-year-old explains Egyptian crisis in under 3 minutes

A video of a 12-year-old Egyptian boy named Ali Ahmed eloquently and passionately criticizing the last year of president Mohamed Morsi’s rule has become a YouTube sensation since going viral on Saturday.
Ahmed, demonstrating a grasp of the socioeconomic and political issues well beyond the level of an average 12-year-old, was interviewed by the El Wadi news organization while attending a demonstration last October organized in his words, to “help prevent Egypt from being a commodity owned by one person and to protest the confiscation of the constitution by a single party.”

Is Egypt on the brink of civil war?

Meanwhile, Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown, is set to begin Wednesday and this may come just in time for Islamists. Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, wrote in Commentary Monday that Egyptian authorities will face additional challenges because of the holiday.
First, the late-night festivities may become politicized, leading to “some middle-of-the-night clashes.”
Second, Islamists will step in to feed those who are short of food. This good will may be able to be translated into more protesters in the street.
And third, many Muslims who generally do not go to the mosque too often, may end up in one of the Islamist dominated mosques, further influencing them.

Gang-Raping Your Way to Democracy By Mark Steyn

As in the Congolese civil war, where both sides agreed that pygmies made excellent appetizers, in the Egyptian political stand-off, the young men of both pro- and anti-Morsi forces agree on little else except that the chicks are fair game. This ugly aspect has gone strikingly under-reported in America for over two years, ever since CBS chose to downplay the rape of its own correspondent.

Mass resignations at Al Jazeera over "biased" Egypt coverage

The 22 staff resigned on Monday over what they alleged was coverage that was out of sync with real events in Egypt, according to a report by the Gulf News website.
Anchor Karem Mahmoud announced that the staff resigned in protest against "biased coverage" of the recent events in Egypt. He explained that there was a lack of commitment and Al Jazeera professionalism in media coverage, stating, "the management in Doha provokes sedition among the Egyptian people and has an agenda against Egypt and other Arab countries.”
Mahmoud added that the management used to instruct each staff member to favour the Muslim Brotherhood.

Brotherhood Leader: Egyptian Army 'Worse Than the Jews'

Mahmoud Badia, a top Brotherhood leader, said that the Egyptian Army was clearly interested in instigating a Syria-style civil war in Egypt. The crime of the army in opening fire on innocent protesters was so severe, he said, “that even the Jews have never done to Egypt what the army did.”
The army, meanwhile, said that soldiers were set upon by a mob of Brotherhood members, who were aiming to murder them. In self-defense, the army said, soldiers opened fire, after repeatedly trying to use other methods to break up the riot and protect themselves.

Egypt closes Freedom and Justice Party HQ over weapons find

Police found "flammable liquid, knives and arms to be used against the June 30 protests," the official said, in reference to demonstrations that saw millions take to the streets to demand the resignation of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt And Hamas Part Company – OpEd

Just two days after the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, the new interim government in Egypt closed the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip indefinitely, and Nilesat – an Egyptian company that controls a number of Egyptian communications satellites – removed Hamas TV, Al-Quds, from the air.

Helpless Hamas Watches as Egypt Decimates Muslim Brotherhood

With that, there were reports Monday that dozens of Hamas terrorists had made it over the border into Sinai and taken up arms to fight Egyptian Army troops. Several of them are said to have participated in a Brotherhood attack on an Egyptian Army post in El-Arish, in which several Egyptian soldiers were killed. Egypt, meanwhile has closed up most of the smuggling tunnels between Sinai and Gaza. Reports said that since the weekend, over 50 of the tunnels have been sealed.

Powerful blast rocks Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut

A large explosion rocked a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah group south of the Lebanese capital Tuesday, setting several cars on fire, sending a thick plume of black smoke billowing into the sky and wounding at least 18 people, security officials said.
The powerful blast in a bustling commercial and residential neighborhood came as many Lebanese Shiites began observing the holy month of Ramadan, and is the worst explosion to hit the area in years — likely direct fallout of the civil war raging in neighboring Syria.

Syria is a ‘Ten-Year Issue’ Warns Top U.S. General

“It is related – not exclusively – but related to a competition at best, and a conflict at worse, between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and it’s been hijacked at some level on both sides by extremists – al Qaeda on one side and Lebanese Hezbollah and others on the other side,” said Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He added, “This is about a 10-year issue, and if we fail to think about it as a 10-year regional issue, we could make some mistakes.”

Pakistan beats its breast over bin Laden failure

Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was able to live in Pakistan undetected for nine years because of a breathtaking scale of negligence and incompetence at practically all levels of the Pakistani government, according to an official government report published by a TV channel on Monday.
The 336-page report was written by a commission tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the covert US raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011. The pan-Arab Al-Jazeera satellite channel published the report on its website after it was leaked to the station by unknown sources.

Tunisia actors may face 'indecency' charges: lawyer

A group of Salafists attacked them and when police intervened they detained the actors while letting the radical Islamist militants go, the lawyer added.
"The Salafists carry out attacks but actors are arrested," said an angry actress Leila Toubel who heads the support group for the 19.
Police said the performance was also a tribute to anti-Islamist MP Chokri Belaid, who was assassinated in February by suspected Salafists.

Fantastic Arabic poster (update)

Seen on Facebook, I added the translation underneath:

If you want more photos of the annual Rabin Square water war, see here and here.

(If you want to nitpick, the photo on the right is from the 2011 Water War.)

(h/t Dror and Ibn Boutros)

UPDATE: The original poster was created by Philippe Assouline:

Seen on Islamic Jihad's Facebook

From the Saraya Brigades (Islamic Jihad) Facebook page, some kids training to be terrorists:

And a loving mother helping her son put his Islamic Jihad headband on his ski mask:

Egypt's siege of Gaza continues

For the fifth consecutive day, Egypt is not allowing anyone into or out of Gaza.

Palestine Today reports that Egypt is also not allowing Gazans to fly into the Cairo airport, including pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia.

The World Bulletin has more:

Palestinians trying to return home to the Gaza Strip via Cairo airport are being deported by Egyptian authorities to the countries they flew in from, at their own expense, reported Electronic Intifada.

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which is a six hour drive from Cairo airport, has been closed indefinitely, ever since the Egyptian army overthrew elected President Muhammad Morsi on 3 July after days of street protests.

In recent days, militant groups in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula have repeatedly attacked Egyptian army posts and checkpoints.

Yousef M. Aljamal, a writer and occasional Electronic Intifada contributor, was among those deported. Aljamal was returning home to Gaza from New Zealand, where he participated in the recent Conference on Palestine in Auckland.

Aljamal tweeted about his deportation from Cairo, back to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, where he had stopped in order to obtain an Egyptian visa.

He reported seeing other Palestinians sent back to Algeria, Jordan, Tunisia and Canada, among other countries.

Ma'an adds:

Dozens of Palestinians are being held at Cairo International Airport after Egypt closed its border with the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians flying into Cairo airport have been forced to either return to the countries they flew in from, or wait in deportation rooms at the airport.

Passenger Ahmad al-Jamal was taken for medical treatment on Monday after going on hunger strike at the airport, other passengers said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians are stranded on the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing, waiting for the terminal to reopen.

Over 900 pilgrims are stuck in Saudi Arabia after performing the Umrah pilgrimage. They are not allowed to fly into Cairo as they will be stuck there until Egypt reopens the Rafah terminal.

Travelers said Egyptian airlines were refusing to let Palestinians board due as they would not be able to transit to Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel is sending 330 trucks of supplies to Gaza today.

Last week, 2,952 people crossed the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza. Over one third of them were merchants and businessmen, far more than medical patients.

"Khaybar" actors, writer describe its incitement against Jews (VIDEO) (updated with transcript)

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from statements made by actors in the anti-Semitic Arab TV series "Khaybar," which were aired on various Egyptian TV channels and posted on the Internet on March 14-17 and May 13, 2013.

Akhbar Al-Youm, posted March 14
Actor Ahmad Abd Al-Halim: I play one of the Jewish characters, who demonstrates the behavior of the Jewish human being. All he thinks about is accumulating money.
Actor Ahmad Maher: History has shown that the Jews are a people with no moral values, who do not honor their agreements.
Screenwriter Yusri Al-Gindi: This series is more historical and political than religious. We have a problem with these people. This problem has continued for a long time, and it still exists. This justifies addressing it all the time. The idea that we wish to convey is that these people have not changed one bit. Their conduct in Medina when the Prophet was trying to build his state there… He allowed them to live there as citizens and extended his hand in cooperation, but this was met by treachery and conspiracies. The only language they understood was the language of force, and hence, they were banished from the Arabian Peninsula.

Rotana Misriyya TV, posted March 17
Ahmad Maher: Al-Gindi created a historical document showing how these people are oppressors, who do not honor their agreements. History shows that they are the people who disputed Allah. They are the slayers of prophets.
Actor Farouq Flux: The “Khaybar” series takes place back in the early days of Islam. It shows the major role the Jews played in fighting Islam, and in the attempt to fight and deceive the Prophet Muhammad. This series shows the truth about the Jews, and about making agreements with them.
[…]

Dream 1 TV, May 13, 2013
Ahmad Maher: I play the character of Hareth Ibn Al-Awf. Through this character, we enter a Jewish home, and we learn how they raise their children, how they immerse their children in these odd modes of behavior, and how they teach them to live their lives in a vile, treacherous, depraved, and Machiavellian manner. They teach them that in order to achieve their aims, all means are justified and all values may be disregarded.
[…]
Actor Mustafa Hashish: I play one of the most prominent Jews, who hatches plots and schemes. He is, of course, very miserly-the purely typical Jew. He is called Abu Khallad. He is killed by his son. So this gives you an idea what the Jews are made of.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty have adamantly refused to condemn this miniseries even after numerous emails and tweets.

Sign the petition and join the Facebook campaign to condemn this imminent mass incitement against Jews that will be broadcast to hundreds of millions of Arabs in the next few days.

Keep in mind that it will not only be shown in the Arab world, but certainly copies will be distributed to Muslims in Europe and the Americas so they can learn to hate their Jewish neighbors as well.

Former Yemeni president: Local Muslim Brotherhood is Zionist

Elder's Rule of Arab Opposition: Your opponent is always a Zionist.

From National Yemen:

Saleh Accuses Muslim Ikhwan Of Loyalty To Zionists

Former president Ali Saleh has launched a severe attack against the Muslim Ikhwan of Yemen’s Islah party, accusing them of loyalty to Zionist entity. In a meeting with leaders of the GPC, Saleh said that the ousting Muslim Ikhwan was a logical result, as it is not easy for a group of religious leaders to rule countries after spending years preaching.

Q: Why won't Muslims draw an image of Allah?

A: Because

Apologies all around - for the potential offensiveness, for the bad pun, and for not translating it.

The pun seemed so obvious to me in retrospect so I did a quick look for it, and found this very funny cartoon:

(h/t Junior Elder)

Doesn't this sound like Israel is banning the movie?

You have to read the story to see what it means:

There is no shortage of coming attractions in the cinemas of Lebanon this summer. And there is something for everyone.

In the cool, dark, air-conditioned multiplexes of Beirut and beyond you will find posters advertising the super-hero status of The Wolverine alongside displays announcing the return of the Smurfs.

But there is one movie which is not coming soon - and is probably not coming at all.

There is to be no red-carpet, hometown premiere for the Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri's new offering The Attack - a tense and gripping drama set in the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Israel.

That is because the film was partly shot in Israel, with Israeli actors speaking in Hebrew and Arab actors in Arabic.

It gives the acting a gritty, authentic feel - and it also makes it a flagrant breach of a Lebanese law passed in 1955 which bans all contact with Israel and Israelis.

More about BBC coverage of this movie and its seeming embrace of the idea of Arab censorship was in the last linkdump.

(h/t Simon K)

7/08 Links Part 2: LATMA Needs Help, Britain’s Schindler and a Robot Wedding

From Ian:

Latma Issues Call for Help

Latma, the nationalist weekly video satire show, has run out of funds and will go offline at the end of the month, unless new donations make it possible to keep on producing the show.
Latma's chief screenwriter, Tal Gilad, published a Facebook status Sunday in which he denied the rumors that Channel 1 television is about to sign a contract with the show. "The bad guys are already celebrating," he wrote. The channel has been negotiating with Latma for two years, he said, but the negotiations are not serious.

Radical cleric charged with planning attacks against Israel, US

A Jordanian military prosecutor on Sunday filed charges against a radical Muslim preacher suspected of being a key al-Qaida operative in Europe, who had landed in Amman after being deported from Britain.
Abu Qatada, 53, was charged with conspiring to carry out attacks on Americans, Israelis and other Western targets.

Guardian’s former associate foreign editor: I know Abu Qatada – he’s no terrorist.

As we’ve argued previously, the most egregious problem at the Guardian is not, per se, explicitly Judeophobic commentary published by their contributors, but, rather, the insidious moral cover the media group often provides for the most extreme, reactionary Islamist anti-Semites in Europe and the Muslim world. Those unable to summon genuine outrage over an al-Qaeda supporter who sanctions the murder of innocent Jewish children in the name of Islam are – at the very least – morally guilty of abetting the most dangerous manifestations of Jew hatred around the world.

MK: Why is a Terrorist Being Allowed to Visit the Knesset?

In a special request to Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein, Bayit Yehudi MK Zvulun Kalfa requested that al-Ajrami be barred from the Knesset building.
In a 2009 interview on PA television, al-Ajrami praised arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat as the “master of the resistance to Israel,” and went on to praise several terror attacks against Israel, in which 17 Israelis were murdered.
“It is unthinkable that someone who praises murderers should visit the Knesset as an honored guest,” Kalfa wrote in his letter to Edelstein. “Please do not let al-Ajrami into Israel's lawmaking body,” he added.

IDF Blog: One Year Ago Today: Hezbollah Terror Plot Foiled in Cyprus

Exactly one year ago today, Hezbollah terrorist Hossam Yaakoub was arrested in Cyprus. Trained and financed by Hezbollah, Yaakoub gathered information about Israeli tourists as part of a planned terrorist attack in the country
By July of last year, 24-year-old Hossam Yaakoub had already emerged as an experienced agent for Hezbollah. Yaakoub served for several years as an active member of the terrorist organization, assisting its operations in France and Holland. In Cyprus, he closely tracked the activities of Israeli tourists, gathering information on their travel itineraries, transportation and lodging as part of a planned terror attack.

A Moment Reflection on the Anniversary of 7/7

In their memory and in honour of their being victims, part of a tragically long and growing list of victims of the process that the British media are by and large encouraging the British public to forget, here are the names of the fifty-two, sacrificed against their will by Islamists whose murderous achievements eight years ago today continue to be celebrated in the hate-filled circles which spawned and sent them.

Jewish life in Europe ‘dying a slow death’?

On the other hand, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the idea of 150 million European anti-Semites neither surprises nor shocks him.
“I think the statistics that are quoted are alarming; they’re not alarmist. They’re deeply troubling,” he said about Gerstenfeld’s thesis. “If we’re going to be honest with ourselves collectively, the statistics that are quoted are probably closer to the reality than many of us really want to admit.”

BBC’s ‘Talking Movies’ provides platform for BDS activist

It is difficult to imagine that the BBC would elect to describe a member of the EDL or BNP as an ‘English rights activist’ and even more doubtful that it would bother to run an interview with such a person in which he objected to, say, a mixed-race actor playing the part of an Englishman. But Andrew Kadi’s no less archaic and reactionary opinions are nevertheless given BBC airtime and notably, his actual activities are disguised behind the cuddly term “Palestinian rights activist”.

Muslim student in Germany destroys Israeli exhibit

A female Muslim student at the University of Duisburg-Essen ripped down parts of a graphic novel exhibit, which included the work of the internationally known Israeli artist Rutu Modan.
In a commentary in the left-liberal website Taz on Thursday, journalist Pascal Beucker attributed the June 24 attack on the exhibit “to an anti- Israel, if not anti-Semitic, motive.”
German media declined to name the Muslim student.

Alleged Canadian bomber made anti-Semitic statements

One of the suspects in the alleged plot to bomb the British Columbia Legislature had previously made anti-Semitic statements online.
John Stewart Nuttall, 38, wrote in March, “The Jews killed Jesus (they are proud of it),” the Canadian Jewish News reported.

Panama anti-Semitic remarks blasted by Jewish group

A Jewish human rights organization condemned Friday the increasing use of anti-Semitic rhetoric in Panama, specifically regarding the Central American country’s governor’s insult of a Jewish journalist, and a leading newspaper’s publication of a piece which evoked Holocaust imagery as well as Jewish stereotypes.

Israel to sign research accord with Canada

The Association of University Heads of Israel is expected to sign an agreement on Monday with The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada “to facilitate, promote and support international research collaboration between Israeli and Canadian universities.” (h/t Zvi)

Israel’s Mobileye Adds Investors in Potential IPO Prelude

Mobileye NV, a company whose Israeli-developed technology helps stop car accidents, added five investors, including U.S. global asset managers and a Chinese firm, in a $400 million sale of equity that is a step toward an initial public offering.
The transaction valued Amsterdam-based Mobileye at about $1.5 billion and is likely to close in August, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. It didn’t identify the new investors.(h/t Zvi)

Israeli High School Students Win Contest With Robot Wedding

A team of 9th-graders from a high school in Rehovot, Israel, won the RoboCup 2013 international robotics competition in Holland with their robotic re-enactment of a Jewish wedding, returning to Israel on Wednesday night with the first-place trophy.

A cinematic paean to Britain’s Schindler

Winton’s story was revealed in the 1980s thanks to the British “That’s Life” television program, which not only reported on what he had done, but also arranged for a surprise meeting between him and some of the people who owed their lives to him. The television show would never had been made had Winton’s wife not by chance found an old scrapbook containing documents and memorabilia pertaining to the rescue.
The story of this “British Schindler” has traveled far beyond the UK, thanks, in large part, to Slovak film director Matej Minac. He has made three films about Winton, with the latest, “Nicky’s Family,” set to be released in New York and Los Angeles on July 19. While Minac’s first Winton film, “All My Loved Ones” (1999) is a dramatic feature, this new film, like the Emmy Award-winning “Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good” (2002), is a documentary.

Children and half naked women storming Al Aqsa!

Oman Daily reports:

Consecutive sets of settlers yesterday stormed the al-Aqsa mosque, including women dressed in scandalous clothing and semi-naked, and practiced religious rituals opposite the Dome of the Rock....

Eyewitnesses said that the settlers organized a tour for their children in the courtyards of Al Aqsa yesterday. These scenes and incursions provoked the feelings of the worshipers who chanted in protest. The settler children who stormed the Haram heard explanations about the alleged temple...

Naturally, I had to research and find the photos of the scary storming children and half-naked women.

Look how these children defile the holy spot! I mean, how dare they go up to the Temple Mount and refuse to play soccer???

After the children left, some female tourist came by wearing shorts. This is apparently the half-naked woman we were warned about, and the Islamists of the Al Aqsa Foundation made sure that we had two pictures of her to be appropriately angered:

Lebanon accuses Israel of stealing gas it doesn't know it has

From Now Lebanon:

In what appears to be an attempt to pressure caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, caretaker Energy Minister Gebran Bassil on Friday warned that Israel could be stealing offshore oil and gas resources from Lebanese waters. He called for the caretaker government to immediately act on passing the decrees needed for Lebanon to begin its own exploration and potential development.

Bassil pointed to a 'new' Israeli discovery that he said was four kilometers from the countries’ disputed maritime border. Exploratory drilling in Israel’s Alon C block – conducted in late May – revealed that, indeed, there is natural gas in what is known as the Karish reserve.

According to a map from Israel’s Delek Energy, the reserve is around 20 kilometers south of the border Lebanon claims.

Bassil warned of a technique called horizontal drilling, where oil and gas companies drill a well beneath a rig and then turn their drilling equipment once under the sea to get extra quantities of oil and/or gas.

Just so you can see, the Karish reserve is fully within Israeli waters.

The article goes on:

Enzo Zappaterra, a geologist with PetroServe International, noted that it would not make sense for a company to employ horizontal drilling to blindly move from one reserve in search of another.

Drilling companies, he said, “are capable of anything, but it wouldn’t be a practice, just sending a probe up for nothing.”

Noble, it should be noted, has not bought access to seismic surveying of Lebanon’s waters and therefore likely has very poor knowledge of where Lebanese reserves are potentially located.

Without the slightest bit of evidence, Lebanon's energy minister is claiming that Israel is drilling horizontally over 20 kilometers, blind, to access Lebanese gas that no one knows is there.

In 2011, I discussed the legal issues around Israel and Lebanon sharing the same oil/gas field as far as who gets to benefit. The ironic conclusion is that if Lebanon wants any of the natural resources it may share with Israel, it needs to sign a treaty with Israel - or lose it, as otherwise Israel can just resort to taking everything it wants on its side of the border. Lebanon is still years away from pumping.

So given a choice of recognizing Israel and sharing in potentially billions of dollars, or choosing to shun Israel, Lebanon has made its position clear.

The first "Palestinian" tragedy

Al Quds al Arabi, the London-based Palestinian Arab newspaper, has an article about how the West and Israel has always colluded to always make Palestinian Arabs into victims. The author, Samir Jabbour, brings numerous examples of how the Palestinian Arab issue is "the largest humanitarian issue par excellence."

Since the First World War there has emerged the fragmentation and weakening of the Arab world, such as the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration, and the Palestinians pay the price. Instead of Palestine being a natural part of Syria, a major state that could be in a position to confront the Zionist entity, it was isolated from the motherland in order to weaken it.

Did you catch that? Jabbour admits that "Palestine" was never an independent entity and is naturally a part of Syria! The tragedy he is lamenting is the very same event that gave rise to the beginnings of Palestinian Arab nationalism - before 1920, practically the only nationalism any Arab spoke about was for Greater Syria, with nary a word for "Palestine."

Reading these words you can see that Palestinian Arab nationalism is an artificial construct, borne out of the desire to thwart Jewish nationalism and not at all to help Palestinian Arabs achieve their national aspirations. They didn't have any.

We all knew this, of course - the infamous antisemitic Mufti of Jerusalem only became a Palestinian Arab nationalist after Sykes-Picot - but it is interesting to note that even today's Arabs know this as well, even if they never will admit it in English.

7/08 Links Part 1: Will Hamas Be Next?, Ahmadinejad Proud Of Holocaust Denial and Turkey's Conspiracies.

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Will Hamas Be Next?

Unlike Egypt, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip do not have an army that could come to the rescue. Also, Fatah's supporters in the Gaza Strip do not have enough weapons to launch an Egyptian-style coup against Hamas.
Hamas, on the other hand, has a huge arsenal of weapons and thousands of militiamen who are quick to act against any individual or group who challenge its regime.
The Gaza Strip also does not have a credible, powerful, well-organized secular opposition that could rally thousands of Palestinians behind it.
Today, the only choice in the Gaza Strip is between Hamas and Fatah. The problem is that many Palestinians still do not see Fatah as a better alternative to Hamas.

Middle East experts find Kerry focus on Israeli-Palestinian peace ‘baffling’

What’s more, [Michael] Rubin said, with all the fires flaring around the world, it makes little sense that Kerry would devote so much time to a problem that isn’t currently in a position to be resolved.
“Egypt is imploding, and Turkey is going south fast. Antagonism between Europe and America is at an all-time high. China is bullying U.S. allies in southeast Asia. And what is Kerry doing? Off tilting at windmills,” he said.

Abbas: We're Not Making Any Concessions

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is often touted by the West as a “moderate peace partner”, has once again indicated that he is willing to resume negotiations with Israel - but not give up on even one of his never-ending preconditions.

Ahmadinejad says Holocaust denial was his major achievement

Outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a farewell ceremony Sunday that publicizing his Holocaust denial was a major achievement of his presidency.
“That was a taboo topic that no one in the West allowed to be heard,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech, according to the Iranian Fars news agency. “We put it forward at the global level. That broke the spine of the Western capitalist regime.”

Daphne Anson: The UK Zionist Federation Fights Against The Iranian Revolutionary Guard

The Zionist Federation in Britain has launched a petition targetting one of the world's principal terrorist groups:
"The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG), backed by the Iranian regime, have been key in providing fighters, weapons and training to the Assad regime and the Iranian proxy terrorist organisation Hezbollah. This has played a major role in the massacres Assad has carried out against his own people during a bloody civil war and has also led to Assad using groups like the IRG and Hezbollah to attack Israel

Jewish Group Protests Argentina-Iran 'Whitewash Agreement'

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is protesting a decision by the Argentinian prosecutor general to block the chief investigator who led the probe into the bombing of the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Center from testifying at a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. The hearing is scheduled to take place July 9, and is entitled “Iran’s Extending Influence in the Western Hemisphere”, reflecting American concerns over the Islamic Republic's role in international terrorism, among other things.

Analysis: For the Egyptian army, there’s no turning back

The army has been effectively – and brutally – dealing with the Islamists for years, and if anyone knows how to suppress them, it is the army and the country’s intelligence service.
The army knows that it must crack down hard on the organization in order to install a government more in line with its interests and those of the opposition protesters, while at the same time quelling any protests and violence from former president Mohamed Morsi’s supporters.

Muslim Brotherhood urges ‘uprising’ as dozens are killed

Amid fears of imminent civil war, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood called Monday for an “uprising” against the military and urged international intervention in Egypt to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.
The call to arms came hours after some 40 members of the Islamist group were killed in a clash with the Egyptian military, according to numbers released by the Egyptian Health Ministry. Hundreds more said to have been injured.

Gunmen slay soldier in northern Sinai

Gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian soldier near the northern Sinai city of el-Arish Sunday night, a day after a Coptic priest was gunned down in the same town by suspected Islamist militants.
An Egyptian police source told AFP that the attack took place at a military checkpoint just outside town. Mina Aboud Sharween, a Coptic priest, was shot dead in el-Arish on Saturday in the latest bout of violence in the lawless Sinai Peninsula, which borders southern Israel.

Fears for Egypt's Christians following Murder, Arson Attacks

Fears have been raised over the plight of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, after a series of attacks - including the assassination of a priest and an arson attack against a church - following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President, Mohammed Morsi.

Officials: Sinai Desert not Safe for Israelis

The National Anti-Terror Unit on Sunday issued a travel warning for Sinai, and warned Israelis still there to come home immediately. “Given the deteriorating security situation in Sinai, which includes numerous violent clashes between groups, along with intelligence we have received about possible terror attacks,” the warning strongly suggests that Israelis avoid Sinai altogether, including the popular resort of Taba on the border near Eilat.

Daniel Pipes: In Terms of Civilization, Turkey is Not Part of Europe

In other words, what counts is civilization, not waterways. Morocco and Turkey are both for many centuries part of Dar al-Islam, the Muslim world, Islamdom, call it what you will. Atatürk’s reforms, to be sure, made Turkey appear more European and less Islamic but they did not change the essence of the country’s culture, as has been increasingly evident during the past decade.
So, Schaeuble is right where it counts: Turkey is not part of Europe and should not become a full member of the European Union.

The Great Turkish Conspiracy

In addition, the Islamist daily Yeni Şafak has reported that the protests are an anti-Erdoğan plot concocted in February by the American Enterprise Institute and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
AKP deputies have submitted a resolution to Parliament, calling for an investigation into the Gezi Park protests. The Ankara Police Department has also submitted a summary of the proceedings of the events to the public prosecutors, in which it claimed that anti-government media networks, journalists, NGOs, supporter groups, artists and marginal groups have incited and guided the demonstrations, and for which it held foreign media outlets -- such as CNN, BBC and The Economist -- responsible.

Erdoğan’s Disdain Extends from Jews to Blacks

Every Tuesday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses his Justice and Development Party (AKP) cohorts. Speaking before a friendly audience, he often lets his guard down and lets the real Erdoğan shine through. Alas, increasingly it’s apparent that the real Erdoğan is not only an anti-Semite—ranting and raving about Jews or some amorphous “interest rate lobby”—but also a racist.
Criticizing Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the center-left and secular Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Erdoğan declared, “Kılıçdaroğlu is striving every bit he can to raise himself from the level of a black person to the level of a white man.” The Turkish word—Zenci—Erdoğan used is often used in a derogatory way.

Footage emerges showing assailants with machetes attacking protesters and bystanders in Istanbul

Amateur video footage showing unidentified people with machetes indiscriminately attacking protesters and bystanders running from the effects of tear gas has emerged, hours after the police intervention in protesters in Istanbul on July 6.

Israel uses balloons, radar to keep an eye on Gaza

From World Tribune:

Israel’s military has enhanced capabilities in monitoring the Gaza Strip.

The military’s Southern Command has improved training and equipment in maintaining surveillance on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The command has used its Nesher Battalion to collect combat intelligence from the 360-square kilometer strip.

“The Combat Intelligence Corps has significantly upgraded its detection systems in the past few years,” the military said.

On July 2, the military reported that Nesher integrated advanced intelligence collection assets that target the Gaza Strip. The assets were said to have included radar, remotely-operated weapons and balloons that reach an altitude 300 meters.

“These balloons have two missions,” deputy battalion commander Maj. Shai Barda said. “One is to assist the soldiers on the ground in monitoring every visible inch of the borders, and the second is to gather long-distance field intelligence that is requested from us.”

The enhancements were reported amid Hamas’ effort to rebuild its military. Officials said Hamas was focusing on the production of long-range rockets that could strike such Israeli cities as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In March 2013, Southern Command granted Nesher sole responsibility for identifying threats from the Gaza Strip. One of the battalion’s six companies was assigned the operation of the surveillance balloons.

“We see some kind of activity along the border every day,” Barda said.

“If there is an area that is not visible from the ground, these advanced surveillance balloons can go as high as 300 meters and cover any ground that may be difficult to observe from down below. Ninety-nine percent of the year, the balloons spend up in the air.”

There have been occasional stories about these balloons before - apparently they are tethered and don't directly enter Gaza airspace.

Still, I wonder what protection they have from being simply shot down.