7/10 Links Part 2: FIFA President Shown How Hamas Uses Football Fields to Launch Missiles at Israel

From Ian:

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Netanyahu Shows FIFA President How Hamas Uses Football Fields to Launch Missiles at Israel

In response to comments Blatter made during his visit to Israel, the Prime Minister decided to show him concrete evidence of how football fields are used as bases by Hamas for launching rockets at civilian populations in Israel.
Netanyahu presented photographs showing missiles being launched at Israel from the heart of civilian populations in Gaza. The aerial shots from November 16, 2012 show Fajr-5 missile launch sites in the Gaza football stadium. A photograph of a building that was hit by missiles in Rishon Lezion and a video clip that was taken by civilians on March 10, 2012, which shows a football match between Be’er Sheva and Um Al-Fahm being suddenly halted due to rocket fire in the stadium area, was also shown.

Maccabi Tel Aviv Match Cancelled in Germany Amid Security Fears

Police in Austria this weekend cancelled a soccer match between Germany’s Energie Cottbus and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv due to security fears, Der Spiegel’s website reported Tuesday.
The decision was taken last Saturday when police in the Alpine town of Angerberg in the Tyrol region of Austria were tipped-off to the fact that dozens of far-right supporters of Cottbus, including members of Inferno, a fan club banned last month for showing “anti-Semitism signs,” planned to attend the match.

Why Did IDF Not Share Al-Dura Video?

Now he has revealed that just weeks after the alleged shooting, senior IDF officials met and watched the entire video, rather than the edited version presented by France’s Channel 2 that sparked the accusations against Israel.
"Despite the media reports based on edited and doctored video footage, we watched the original, and all sounds of IDF fire was muffled - far away in the background. When the barrage fired at al-Dura was fired, the audio was suddenly close by - in other words Arab gumen right beside the camera near al-Dura fired them, not the IDF,” he reported.

Terra Incognita: The racist romance of the Arab village

Outsiders taking credit for “saving” Arabs is simply a modern-day variation on the “white man’s burden”; only intervention by the West can save the East.
In some cases when Arabs don’t fit the narrative, their identities are even changed. A Palestinian woman from Azariya near Jerusalem whose Negev Beduin husband murdered her children was turned into an “abused Beduin mother” from the Negev by one Israeli NGO leader. Her identity was changed from modern urban woman to rural Beduin to fit a narrative.
The twin perception of the Arabs as parts of the landscape, rather than real, contemporary people, and the desire to communicate their views through third parties represent a racist assault on their humanity; a holdover from the 19th century.

Lawmakers urge Argentina to let AMIA lawyer speak at US hearing

Two US congressmen expressed concern over Argentina’s decision not to allow its prosecutor in the Buenos Aires Jewish center bombing to testify at a House hearing on Iran’s influence in South America.

Who said it: Julian Assange or David Icke?

Julian Assange and David Icke become more alike every day. Both are white-haired blokes with a messiah complex who love nothing more than wagging an erect index finger at the hidden conspiracies of evil men who control world affairs and stupid people’s minds. Can you tell Assange’s ravings from Icke’s bollocks? It’s time to find out. See if you can guess which of Britain’s two best-loved bonkers spectres said the following.

Israel Names Ron Dermer as New Ambassador to U.S.

Ron Dermer has been named to replace Michael Oren as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told The Algemeiner on Tuesday, confirming recent media speculation.
In an email to reporters Prime Minister Netanyahu added praise for Dermer. “Ron Dermer has all the qualities necessary to successfully fill this important post. I have known him for many years and I know that Ron will faithfully represent the State of Israel in the capital of our greatest ally – the USA. On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I wish him great success,” he said.

Israel, China Move Closer to Free Trade Agreement with Survey

Israel and China have moved closer to a bilateral free trade partnership, agreeing to hold a survey to quantify its impact as a first step, Israel’s Globes reported on Tuesday, citing sources in Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s delegation, currently on a trade mission in China.
Globes said that Israel had expressed interest in conducting such a survey over the past two years, but, unexpectedly today, Chinese leadership responded positively. The survey could take up to two years complete.
Bennett told Globes that trade between Israel and China totals about $8 billion annually.

Jordan Eyes Israel For Energy, As Egypt Gas Pipeline Attacked Again

Egypt traditionally provides energy to several of its neighbors, but the political and security environment in the country has traditional importers looking for other suppliers. Israel in particular is increasingly discussed as a future key source of natural gas to the Hashemite kingdom.

IBM buys Israeli cloud computing company

IBM on Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire CSL International, a leading provider of virtualization management technology headquartered in Herzliya Pituach • Financial terms are not disclosed, but market sources say IBM is paying about $20 million.

Consortium raises necessary financial guarantees for Israeli fibre-optic venture

A consortium led by Sweden’s ViaEuropa that won the right to build the superfast broadband network operating over infrastructure owned by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) has moved a step closer to making the project a reality. Haaretz reports that consortium has now raised the required capital, having obtained ILS100 million (USD27.3 million) in equity as well as an ILS200 million bank guarantee, with this being the amount required by the government from the consortium before the joint venture can get underway.(h/t Zvi)

Remains of a sphinx found in northern Israel

Ben-Tor and Zuckerman said that the sphinx likely came from the ancient city of Heliopolis (the Biblical “On”), north of today’s capital city of Cairo.
As no records exist of a connection between Egypt and what was then Canaan in the time of King Mycerinus, Ben-Tor and Zuckerman believe that the sphinx was probably brought to Hazor either during the period of the Hyksos, a Canaanite tribe that ruled Egypt around the 17th-16th centuries BCE, or between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE, when Canaan was under Egyptian rule.

Temple Mount: Oldest Ever Artifact Discovered in Jerusalem

Working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has unearthed the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city.
The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, a neckless ceramic jar found with six others at the Ophel excavation site. According to Dr. Mazar, the inscription, in the Canaanite language, is the only one of its kind discovered in Jerusalem and an important addition to the city’s history.
Dated to the tenth century BCE, the artifact predates by two hundred and fifty years the earliest known Hebrew inscription from Jerusalem, which is from the period of King Hezekiah at the end of the eighth century BCE.

Completing the 118-year-old puzzle of the Cairo genizah

Think of it as the world’s oldest and largest jigsaw puzzle: Images of about 200,000 fragments of ancient Jewish documents, held in 67 separate locations across the world, are being matched up digitally by a powerful computer network in the basement of Tel Aviv University.
At the rate of half a million comparisons per minute, the task ran from May 16 through the end of June.

Boy injured by rampaging hyenas brought to Israel for treatment

Abdul Razek, an eight-year-old from Ethiopia who was violently attacked by wild hyenas outside his home and could not receive the necessary medical care in his country, was brought on Monday to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya.
The government hospital’s director-general, Dr. Masad Barhoum, praised the collaboration of the United Jewish Communities, the Jewish Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee and the Foreign Ministry to make the effort successful. (h/t Zvi)

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Turkey takes up the Temple Mount dig conspiracy theory

From Yusuf Kanli at Hurriyet Daily News:

A close friend with very sensitive ears and an extremely analytical brain was expressing worries the other day. “What if something very, very unusual that may change the entire cultural-historical setup of the Middle East takes place?” he asked. I could not understand. “What?” I asked, expecting him to present me with a radically different Egypt analysis or say something on the Syria situation.
...

“What if all of a sudden the second holiest site of Islam, the al-Aqsa Mosque collapses into rubble?”

Silence. I could not understand what he was saying and definitely it was beyond my comprehension capability to accept any claim that Israel might undertake such a heinous, suicidal move.

My friend explained that under al-Aqsa, the Israelis have dug many tunnels over the past two decades or so, turning the area into something like a huge gruyere cheese. He said if more digging was done the whole mosque might implode down and vanish. Worse, Israel, my friend claimed, might explain to the world that the mosque collapsed by itself, it could not be blamed, it played no role in the collapse. As even at Camp David the Israelis were demanding sovereignty underneath al-Aqsa while giving sovereignty above ground to the Palestinians (the demand frequently cited as the prime reason of the collapse of Camp David peacemaking) would Israel allow reconstruction of al-Aqsa?

I was perplexed. My immediate reaction was “But if Israel takes such an odd move, Turkey, governed by the current political Islam team, could even declare war on Israel.” My friend smiled and fired back “No, nothing will be done. The international community would say whatever possible would be done and an international effort would soon get underway to rebuild al-Aqsa but as the Middle East nations will be busy with various forms of civil war, the Israelis will get away with what they have done and consolidate their claim on Jerusalem by getting rid of al-Aqsa as well.

It was a very extreme assumption or conspiracy theory from someone rather credible. Would I take it into consideration or just write it somewhere for future use? Better to share it and perhaps render more difficult such a grave development taking place. 

it took this long for the crazy Arab rumors of Jews digging under the Temple Mount to reach Turkish Islamist nutcases?

I've been reporting these stupid theories for at least six years, but I was curious for how long Muslims have been pushing this meme.

I found my answer here:

What a coincidence! The idea that Jews were digging to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque started right after Jews returned to the Old City after being ethnically cleansed by Arabs for 19 years!

It must be that the Jews started the digs 45 years ago, just waiting for the exact date that the Islamic and Arab worlds as well as the world at large would be too distracted to do anything about it! Then, at just the perfect time, the small detonations could occur.

Or perhaps Israel will unleash its artificial earthquake combined with a stone-melting chemical..

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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Did Israel bomb Latakia last week?

The Long War Journal has a wrap-up of events:

On July 5, a naval base belonging to the Syrian regime was reportedly struck near the port city of Latakia. Contradictory reports quickly emerged as some suggested that the explosion at the base was the result of strikes by opposition rockets, while others said it was caused by missiles from foreign aircraft.

Hezbollah's Al Manar claimed that the explosions were the result of stray mortars from local clashes, according to Ynet News. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was unclear who caused the explosions, according to Agence France Presse. A Syrian official purportedly told state media that al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists using European weaponry conducted the attack.

A source told the pro-Assad outlet Al Akhbar that three missiles were fired at the base, which caused the explosions and led to the death of at least one soldier. The report further alleged that the rockets may have been fired near the coast, if not from the sea itself.

Reuters today quoted Qassem Saadeddine, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, as saying foreign elements were behind the attack on Latakia. "This attack was either by air raid or long-range missiles fired from boats in the Mediterranean," Saadeddine stated. Saadeddine also said that the attack targeted "newly supplied Yakhont missiles," according to Reuters.

On May 16, the New York Times reported that Russia had provided Syria with newer versions of the Yakhont "outfitted with an advanced radar that makes them more effective." Syria received its first supply of Yakhont missiles from Russia in 2011, the Times stated. The day before the Times report on the Yakhont missiles, the paper quoted an Israeli official as saying that Israel was prepared to carry out additional strikes in Syria if necessary.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon today denied that Israel was responsible for the incident in Latakia, according to Ynet News. "We haven't intervened in the Syrian bloodshed in a long time .... We've drawn our red lines and we keep to them," he said.

Michael Weiss at Now Lebanon adds:

Regime media have kept silent about what happened beyond saying that a “series of explosions” were reported at the site. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, meanwhile, citing a “military source,” claimed that the explosions were caused by rockets or missiles launched from a different army base; this one close to a village some 20 kilometers north of Latakia.

One Syrian war expert told me that the reported blast seemed “too small” to be another Israeli raid, and anyway, the Salafist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has been pounding Latakia for quite some time. Many rebels outside of the SMC’s office, which thinks “everything is Israel,” tend to believe that militants from this outfit were in fact responsible, though the source added that this could just be idle boasting.

If Israel took the trouble to powder a consignment of SA-17 surface-to-air missiles, as it did last January in its first sortie in Syria since the conflict began, then it would certainly take the trouble to eliminate a warehouse full of Yakhonts, which would pose a clear threat to the Israeli navy and the transport of oil and gas tankers in the Mediterranean. The New York Times reported in May that a new consignment of these supersonic “ship killer” missiles, which can travel as far as 300 kilometers and evade air-defense and electronic countermeasures, had already been delivered to Syria. And The Wall Street Journal cited Israeli and Western intelligence officials who believed at the time that these missiles could easily be transferred to Hezbollah “within days.” Note that this was before Assad’s army, joined by irregular sectarian militias led by Hezbollah, retook Qusayr from the rebels, a strategically vital gateway in the Syria-Lebanon supply corridor. 

Circumstantial evidence but it sure seems more than possible that this was an IDF operation.

(h/t Capt Bill)

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7/10 Links Part 1: Pals Protest ‘normalization’ with Israel and the Egyptian Money Trail

From Ian:

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Palestinian groups decry meeting between PLO, Israel as ‘normalization’

Fatah and other Palestinian factions on Tuesday condemned a meeting that took place in Ramallah earlier this week between PLO representatives and Israeli politicians.
The Israeli delegation to the meeting – which was organized by the Geneva Initiative group – included members of the Likud and Shas, rabbis, political consultants and municipal council members.
During their visit to Ramallah, the Israelis met with PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo, top Fatah official Nabil Sha’ath, PLO Executive Committee member Mohamed Masri, and Ashraf al-Ajrami, a former minister for prisoner affairs in the Palestinian Authority.

Remains of Grad Missile Found Near Eilat

Israeli security forces located on Tuesday evening the remains of a Grad missile that was fired towards the city of Eilat last week.
The rocket remains were located north of the city, and it is believed that the rocket was fired by Sinai-based terrorists towards the tourist city last Thursday night.

IDF Nabs Arabs With 'Terror Weapons'

In a security incident Tuesday, IDF soldiers seized weapons and guns from Palestinian Authority Arabs. The guns may have been used in terror attacks, IDF soldiers said, and an investigation is underway in both incidents.
In the incident, a taxi driven by a PA Arab was stopped at a checkpoint by Border Guard officers. Inside the taxi, that was stopped at the Ein Yabrud checkpoint in Samaria on Road 60, was a computer laptop case that turned out to contain a loaded machine gun.

Egyptian political crisis stirs wider Mideast debate

The subtext was clear: Egypt’s upheavals will ultimately test the definitions of the Arab Spring and views on its role as a breeding ground for democracy in the region.
For nations such as Saudi Arabia, which have used all their resources to quell the calls for reform, nothing could be more soothing than having the Arab Spring’s democratic credentials thrown into doubt. They may now increasingly point to Egypt as a cautionary tale about the aspirations of democracy to both validate their hold on power and further tighten crackdowns on perceived dissent.

Islamist groups: Egypt’s crackdown vindicates use of violence as political tool

The Egyptian army’s escalating crackdown on supporters of the country’s ousted Muslim Brotherhood government is being seized on by many radical Islamists as proof that violence, not democracy, is the only solution to the region’s problems.
In the days since Egypt’s military toppled the country’s first freely elected government, jihadist groups in the region and elsewhere have rushed to assert the futility of elections and Western-style democracy, in statements and in chat forums on jihadi Web sites.

Egypt Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie arrest ordered

Spokesman Gehad el-Haddad told the Reuters news agency that the charges against Mr Badie, known as the General Guide, and other senior leaders, including were "nothing more than an attempt by the police state to dismantle the Rabaa protest".

Brotherhood posts old photos of Syrian children as victims of Egypt’s army

The Facebook page of Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) - the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood - has posted old photos of children killed in Syria as photos of children killed on Monday.

Egypt places entry restrictions on Syrians

Egypt restricted the ability of Syrians to enter the country on Monday, with officials citing reports that a large number of Syrians were backing the Muslim Brotherhood, which is engaged in a bloody standoff over the military’s ouster of Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi.
The decision dealt a blow to Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group that is leading the fight against President Bashar Assad from its headquarters in Cairo.

Masked gunmen open fire at Port Said church

Masked gunmen opened fire at Mar Mina Church in Port Said's al-Manakh early Tuesday and managed to get away, according to state-run news agency MENA. No casualties were reported.
Army and police squads arrived at the scene of the attack and efforts are being undertaken to identify the perpetrators.
This is the third such attack in 24 hours. Yesterday, unknown attackers assaulted Port Said's western seaport and the province's traffic police department.

Israel urges US not to freeze Egypt aid: report

Israel has urged Washington not to suspend its annual $1.3 billion in aid to Cairo in the wake of the ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi by the military, press reports said on Tuesday.
Under US law, all military and economic aid must be suspended to any country where the government is overthrown by the military, although Washington has not yet determined whether it considers the June 30 removal of Morsi was actually a coup - a claim made by the Muslim Brotherhood, to which the ousted president belongs.

UAE, Saudi Arabia throw Egypt a financial lifeline

The first good news for Egypt in the post-Muslim Brotherhood era came on Tuesday from unsurprising sources — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While most Arab and Western countries, led by the US, are still struggling with how to react to the new regime in Cairo (the Obama administration put it well when it admitted that it had yet to decide on whether it was calling last week’s incidents a coup), Saudi Arabia and the UAE became the first countries to stand alongside the military and the new regime in Cairo after Mohammed Morsi’s ouster.

Secret document appears to show Qatar payoffs to key Morsi cronies

The brazen abuses of the democratic mandate Morsi received just over a year earlier prompted tens of millions of people to take to the streets in protest, and, ultimately, Egypt’s powerful armed forces to step in, he said.
But the secret payments flowing in from Qatar as Egypt’s economy crumbled may be related to huge loans the country made to Egypt that were criticized by economists as not being in Egypt’s best interests. Instead of using the funds to restructure debt, the Morsi government simply added to Egypt’s debt burden at interest rates that benefited Qatar, critics said at the time.

Syrian Rebels Claim Responsibility for Beirut Blast

In an Arabic statement issued on Facebook Tuesday, the group lashed out at the Lebanese state, which it said actively assists Hizbullah. It claimed the bombing was a response to Hizbullah participation in the Syrian regime's ongoing offensive against the city of Homs - a strategically important position and a hub of rebel activity.

Former Lebanese PM Hariri Blames Israel for Beirut Car Bomb

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri blamed Israel on Tuesday for the “terrorist explosion” that rocked a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, Lebanon’s Daily Star reported.
“[The blast] requires the highest level of awareness and vigilance in the face of dangers that surround the country and the entire region, especially while facing attempts by the Israeli enemy to push [Lebanon] to strife by organizing terrorist attacks, as happened today,” Hariri said in a statement.

Turkey police resort to violent means to end Istanbul protest

Turkish riot police on Monday fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to block demonstrators from entering a small Istanbul park, the birthplace of deadly unrest that engulfed the country last month.
Police moved after Turkish authorities reopened Gezi Park to public use earlier in the day.

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#BDSFail Roundup (Zvi) (updated)

From Zvi:

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#BDSFail

#BDSFail: Swedish led group raises capital for super-fast Internet network in Israel

Consortium raises NIS 100 million in capital and NIS 200 million in bank guarantees needed for the joint venture, which will enable Internet speeds of one gigabit per second - 100 times more than what is available now.

#BDSFail: China seeking technological edge in Israel

"Three years ago there was no activity whatsoever, and this year there will be more activity than with countries such as the United States, Italy and Germany. Not a week goes by that I don't host a Chinese delegation," Hasson says.

"In Israel, the Chinese are looking for technology and don't care much how they get it. They want to invest, buy the technology and collaborate …. We're not a threat to the Chinese and make a natural partner. The Chinese are aware of the Israeli story and hold our abilities and culture in tremendous esteem," he adds.

#BDSFail: Israel a destination for Chinese tourists

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Chinese visitors to Israel increased by 27 percent during the first five months of 2013 versus the same period last year. In 2012, more than 20,000 visitors from China arrived in Israel.

#BDSFail: Michigan's Governor Snyder and Bibi Netanyahu

the two men locked into a detailed exchange when the topic of cyber-security came up. Snyder talked about using a “cyber-range” to let hackers attack your systems to find out where weaknesses are.Netanyahu grabbed a piece of paper, jotted down some notes, “and the whole tone of the conversation changed,” Kinsler said. They talked about the economy, about approaches to governing — Snyder handed Netanyahu one of his cards with his 10 priorities for reinventing Michigan and talked about working in dog years.“It was just the two of them connecting,” as if others weren’t in the room, Kinsler said.“It was pretty amazing,” Finney agreed.

[EoZ]: Also:

Department store Hamashbir 365 Holdings Ltd. (TASE:MSAH) is teaming with e-commerce giant eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), in its first collaboration with an Israeli retailer. Hamashbir will set up a website by the end of the year with eBay, for the sale of Hamashbir products, from perfumes and cosmetics through household goods, to online shoppers worldwide. This is Hamashbir's first online venture.

And:

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) today announced it is acquiring Herzliya-based CSL International, which provides virtualization management technology for IBM's zEnterprise system. Financial terms were not disclosed but market sources believe IBM is paying about $10 million. The Israeli company has eight employees.

This is IBM's twelfth acquisition in Israel.

Plus:

Fox-Weizel Ltd. (TASE: FOX) will launch the US label The Children's Place in Israel in March 2014, it said at an analysts conference on Sunday. Altogether, Fox plans to expand its stores by 52% from the 293 stores at the end of 2012 to 447 stores by the end of 2015.

[Zvi] I have been posting a lot of #BDSFail's recently [in the comments at EoZ]- and explicitly labeling them as such - to give everyone a sense at how absolutely, miserably, pathetically BDS is failing every single day. The Bigotry and Double Standards "movement" uses underhanded tactics, procedural tricks, Saturday votes, non-democratic means, lies, prejudice, intimidation, threats and distortions, and still struggles frantically to get an extreme-left union or a left-elitist food coop to stop buying from Israel. It takes them weeks or months to make this happen.

Meanwhile, hundreds of presidents, governors, mayors, CEOs, students, innovators and tourists visit Israel, work together with Israeli counterparts for the common good, buy Israeli products, benefit from Israeli experience, use Israeli technology, receive advanced medical treatment in Israel and ultimately live better lives because of Israel.

BDS's biggest triumphs are shouting down the piano concert of a man who lives in Berlin, destroying democratic process in British academic unions, making up fake victories and picketing Australian-owned chocolate shops.

Every single week, BDS fails.

Every single week, BDS falls further and further behind.

UPDATE: Today is apparently BDS' 8th anniversary, so I made a condolence card:

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Turkey sending aid to families of terrorists

Palestinian Arabic  and Turkish  media is reporting that Turkey is planning to send aid to the families of Palestinian Arab prisoners, which include hundreds of convicted terrorists.

As part of an aid package for both the PA and Hamas, Turkey announced a package to the families of the terrorists, including direct aid and providing them with sewing machines for the wives and daughters.

Turkey also plans initiatives to increase ties between Turkish towns and Palestinian Arab areas. It will launch a cultural festival and offer scholarships.

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Muslim girls pretend to be Jewish boys in a summer play on Temple Mount

Arutz-7 yesterday reported that for the past month the Temple Mount was a type of "theme park" for Muslim kids to play games and otherwise treat the holy site callously.

The Al Aqsa Foundation site shows photos of some of the events which attracted hundreds of kids.

There were a number of talent show type acts:

Here we see an acrobatic exhibition:

According to the site, the kids also put on a play called "Muslim and Jew" that shows the "bitter reality" of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem.

Here is a photo of that play, where apparently they chose Muslim girls to portray religious Jewish boys:

But it isn't only the Islamists from the Al Aqsa Foundation who demonize ordinary religious Jews. Ma'an has an English headline today saying "Extremist Israelis enter Al-Aqsa Mosque compound." In even the liberal Arab press, any Jew who wants to visit the holiest Jewish site is by definition an extremist.

Dozens of extremist Israelis on Wednesday entered the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, escorted by Israeli police, a Palestinian official said.

Around 100 Israelis entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate, said Azzam al-Khatib, director-general of the PA Ministry of Endowment.

Al-Khatib said Israeli police had rejected a request to stop the visits during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Wednesday.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an he was not aware of the request. Rosenfeld said Jewish and Christian visitors regularly enter the compound in coordinated visits.

Witnesses told Ma'an that the Israeli visitors tried to enter the Dome of the Rock, which is not an agreed part of their tour.

Muslim worshipers and Islamic students chanted Allahu Akbar to express their rejection to the visitors, witnesses said.

The group, accompanied by rabbis, left the compound through the Chain Gate chanting anti-Arab slogans, they added.

It is highly unlikely that religious Jews would attempt to enter the Dome of the Rock, and equally unlikely that they would chant "anti-Arab slogans." Every move that they do is videoed and photographed by the Al Aqsa Foundation and if anything liek this happened, there would be proof.

However, there is abundant evidence that Palestinian Arab "eyewitnesses" routinely lie to the media.

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PA says Jews are stealing "rich soil"

They aren't happy enough with stealing land - now they are stealing dirt, too!

From the official PA WAFA news agency:

Israelis from the settlement of Susiya stole rich soil from Palestinian land and took it to their settlement, a local activist said Wednesday.

Rateb Jbour, from the Committee against the Wall and Settlements, told WAFA that the settlers razed a large area of privately owned agricultural land near the settlement and stole the fertile soil.

He said this act has destroyed the farm land.

I wonder how many trucks and how much time it takes to steal enough soil to destroy a farm.

From this source, we can see that one acre of topsoil weighs a million pounds (450,000 kg.) It would take 40 dump trucks to move only that amount. A single truck could take only about a 10x10 meter square of soil.

I have no idea how long it takes to fill a dump truck with soil, but you would need some heavy equipment to do it in a reasonable timeframe.

Yet, as usual, there are no photos of this extensive operation to steal - soil.

But you know those Jews will do anything to torture their neighbors, no matter how expensive,  time consuming and pointless it is.

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Wiesenthal Center condemns "Khaybar"; chides HRW, Amnesty

From The Algemeiner:

Actors from an anti-Semitic miniseries set to air this month in the Arab world have further confirmed their show’s hateful message in a series of interviews compiled by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

MEMRI released video Tuesday of the stars of “Khaybar,” set to air in Egypt this month, that captures them making inflammatory and anti-Semitic remarks. One actor says that all Jews think about “is making money.” Another says that Jews “have no moral values,” while another explains that the purpose of the show is to portray Jews as the enemy of Islam.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner that the mainstream appeal is deeply unsettling and that it proves that “Jew has become a dirty word in the world.”

“The fact that we now have the proliferation–and if you will the fine-tuning–of this kind of hateful imagery on satellite TV and on the internet is devastating. To undo that kind of hatred will take at least a generation. And the spillover is dramatic,” he said.

“We’re not talking about rabble rousers in the streets. This is a sophisticated production that will have commercials attached to it and it shows its becoming embedded in their cultures,” he added.

One of the show’s writers, Yusri al-Jindy, attempted further to validate the corrosive intent of the series, saying in an interview in June with Al-Masry Al-Youm , an Egypt-based daily news­paper, that it is meant  “to expose the naked truth about the Jews and stress that they can­not be trusted.”

Anonymous blogger Elder of Ziyon has written extensively about the program and has even spearheaded a petition against it. In an email to The Algemeiner he slammed the international community for its silence on the issue.

“The video shows clearly that the series is not meant to be a historical drama, but a thin excuse to incite Arabs and Muslims against Jews. The screenwriter says so and the actors know it. This is a violation of international law, as specified in The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rightswhich states that ‘Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.’”

Last month he oversaw the delivery of the petition to the New York City headquarters of both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Thus far he says that both organizations have failed to respond to his overtures.

“It is outrageous that such blatant incitement stirs so little interest from human rights organizations. This is not just a speech, or a newspaper article, or a book – this is a highly anticipated media event. The hype in the Arabic media resembles the week before Iron Man 3 was released in the US. In only the past week, Al Jazeera has written three different articles about Khaybar.”

Cooper similarly criticized both organizations for not vocally condemning the show.

“We can come with the ‘J’accuse’ for two reasons. If they would say something it might have some impact in our own society, and secondly it would send a signal to civil societies in the Arab countries.”

Neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty International had responded to detailed requests from The Algemeiner for comment as of this writing.

Ramadan is starting. According to this Arab movie site, Khaybar will start airing on July 15 - the night of Tisha B'Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year that commemorates many tragedies.

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Did a shul invite a PLO representative to speak? (UPDATE: Yes)

Raya.ps (and Maan) reports:

The President of the General Commission of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington, Ambassador [sic] Maen Areikat, met with American Jewish figures representing the Orthodox Jewish community in New York City, at the invitation of the founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, Rabbi Marc Schneier.

Ambassador Areikat delivered a speech on the situation in Palestine and the role that could be played by the American Jewish community to achieve a just peace, which preserves the rights of all parties in the region.

He spoke about many issues related to the Jewish state, including incitement, and security guarantees, refugees, and the situation in the region.

The meeting comes within the framework of regular meetings which Areikat holds with representatives of the American Jewish community, emphasizing the importance of such activities to promote dialogue and understanding with this important community. More than 250 people in Westhampton Beach synagogue attended.

Rabbi Marc Schneier is indeed the founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue, which is Orthodox.

But I couldn't find anything about this event in either the FFEU or Hampton Synagogue Facebook pages or websites.

I have no problem with closer Jewish/Muslim relations; the two communities have many interests in common and should work together.

But I have a big problem with inviting the PLO into a synagogue in the interests of "understanding."

Areikat has hired a PR firm that specializes in repressive Arab regimes to push the message of a kinder, gentler PLO. This was after he made the mistake of telling the truth, saying explicitly that Palestine would be Judenrein:

So, you think it would be necessary to first transfer and remove every Jew—

Absolutely. No, I’m not saying to transfer every Jew, I’m saying transfer Jews who, after an agreement with Israel, fall under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state.

Any Jew who is inside the borders of Palestine will have to leave?

Absolutely. I think this is a very necessary step, before we can allow the two states to somehow develop their separate national identities, and then maybe open up the doors for all kinds of cultural, social, political, economic exchanges, that freedom of movement of both citizens of Israelis and Palestinians from one area to another. You know you have to think of the day after.

The idea that a synagogue would give an open platform to someone who happily espouses ethnic cleansing of Jews, not to mention a representative of a government that honors the worst terrorist murderers and their acts, is sickening.

UPDATE: Daled Amos found a flyer that included this talk. It was during a Shabbat dinner, so we won't have a video.

Even balancing it with Prosor (who is excellent) does not justify doing this.

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7/09 Links Part 2: Is The Waqf turning the Temple Mount into a Theme Park?, Supporting Jordan

From Ian:

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Ben Cohen: U.S. and Israel Must Push for Stability in Jordan

Jordan, then, is an emerging front in the epic struggle between Sunni and Shi’a Islam that has engulfed the Middle East. But rather than despair at the raucous unpredictability of the region, American policymakers should feel a certain relief that there is one tangible goal to pursue, in the shape of keeping Jordan alive and intact.
After all, this is one matter upon which both Israel and the Palestinian Authority can agree. More importantly, Jordan at present is neither a prisoner of the Shi’a mullahs nor of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, and there is a pressing need—perhaps now more than ever, given the grim outlook for Egypt and Syria—to keep it that way.

El Baradei hardly Israel's dream candidate for Egypt PM

“His record as head of the IAEA is one of reverberating failures,” one diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post in December 2008, just prior to when ElBaradei stepped down. The official said that ElBaradei would be judged by the fact that during his tenure, Syria, Libya, North Korea and Iran all developed nuclear programs. “The IAEA failed in all four cases,” the official said.

Has the Temple Mount become a Theme Park?

The Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest location, has turned into a theme park for Muslim children in the course of the last month, according to Jewish activists.
Temple Mount organizations are outraged at the "desecration" of Judaism's holiest site, as Muslim authorities encourage ball games, among others, and oversized dolls, on what is considered hallow ground by both Jews and Muslims.

Who has the ear of ‘senior BBC executives’?

So what does Hugh Lanning get up to when he is not brandishing a pantomime key and keffiyah in Downing Street or exchanging small talk with senior Hamas operatives in Gaza? Well, chats with “senior BBC executives” about their corporation’s ‘pro-Israel bias’, apparently.
Of course one presumes that – in the interests of transparency – the BBC will take care to inform those licence fee-payers with somewhat less of an open channel to BBC senior management about the outcome of its tête-à-tête with a representative of supporters and enablers of a terrorist organization designated by the British government.

In defence of the Histadrut: a response to Gary Spedding

Every last thing about Gary Spedding’s argument in favour of boycotting Histadrut, Israel’s free and democratic Israeli trade union movement, is wrong. Speeding does not so much put a left foot forward as trip over his own feet.
Oh, and when Spedding says “the Histadrut fails to represent [Palestinian Arabs], especially in the occupied Territories” he trips over his own feet one more time. In fact, The Histadrut does not organise Palestinian workers in the West Bank by agreement between the two federations.
Nonetheless, in October 2007 the Histadrut’s campaign to apply Israeli labor laws to Palestinian workers who work in the settlements was successful. As a direct result of the Histadrut petition to the Courts, Israeli employers in West Bank settlements must now provide improved work benefits according to (much better) Israeli, rather than Jordanian law. (h/t Yerushalimey)

Observer contributor fails to mention terrorist career of Palestinian ‘novelist’ Ghassan Kanafani

Additionally, as CAMERA noted, Kanafani was reportedly the right hand man to PFLP’s leader George Habash, and even helped plan – along with members of the Japanese Red Army – the Lod Airport Massacre in May 1972 in which 26 people were killed.
We can likely assume that if the Observer culture contributor knew that the Mossad allegedly assassinated Kanafani, he also was at least minimally aware of his terror affiliations.
In a manner similar to Harriet Sherwood’s characterizations of Islamic Jihad terrorists Khader Adnan and Mahmoud Sarsak respectively as a “baker” and “football player”, Al-Qattan’s focus on Kanafani’s literary prowess serves to evoke sympathy for the man – a Palestinian who, during his life, demonstrated a clear disregard for the humanity of Israelis.

In the Knesset: Ex-Terrorist Threatens War

Speaking in the Knesset as a guest of left-wing MKs, a former terrorist threatened Israel with “a very crude war” with many casualties if there is no “diplomatic process.”
Ashraf al-Ajrami, formerly Minister for Prisonersin the Palestinian Authoriy (PA), was the guest of Labor party MK Moshe Mizrachi. Al Ajrami served 12 years in Israeli jails for terrorist activity.

A ‘Good News Bad News’ Picture

In typical Israeli inventiveness, “rock-proof windows” were developed, extra-strong or specially coated or plastic car/bus windows became the government supported norm in Judea and Samaria. To this day, because the Arab terrorists upgraded their attacks with armed weapons, bulletproof buses and even cars became the norm. School and public buses are still bulletproof in many areas. And our bus fares have been halved officially to encourage people to take buses rather than unprotected or less protected private vehicles. Then we had some blessed years of quiet on the roads, and again people felt safe in regular vehicles, those without special protective windows.

Delaware governor: Israel a beacon of stability

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Markell said during his visit to the country this week, he aims to explore ways for Israel and Delaware to strengthen ties and forge new relationships with Israeli business leaders looking to expand their operations to the US.
“We’re really trying to focus in on opportunities to create more partnerships between Delaware and the evolving and emerging hi-tech economy of Israel,” he said. “In the midst of a volatile region, Israel has been this incredible beacon of stability, which is truly remarkable and impressive.”

Coming soon! The British Elvis

“I’m thrilled about the turnout because I was dubious, since it’s been a long time since I’ve had a hit in Israel,” said Richard. “One show would have been fine, and two is great. But even if was a half-filled arena, we would still go out and put on a great show.”
And for Americans, even if it means having to sit through “Summer Holiday,” the show will likely be an eye opener, the final proof that Richard is truly one of the rock era’s greatest entertainers.

New Christian Arab party seeks to change face of Israeli society

"The New Alliance" supports national service, including in the military, and recognizes Israel as the home of the Jewish people "We are completely Israeli, and then comes religion," says party founder Bashara Shlayan of Nazareth.

American Lois Gunden named Righteous Gentile

Lois Gunden, an American Mennonite who helped save Jewish children in France during the Holocaust, was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial made the announcement on Monday. Gunden becomes the fourth American to be named a Righteous Gentile.

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Hamas TV network yanked off Egyptian satellite, and may have lost Iranian funding

In the wake of the recent events in Egypt, the interim government has taken a number of Islamist stations off of the Nilesat satellite - including Hamas' Al Quds TV.

They are telling their customers to continue to watch them through Arabsat, which reportedly broadcasts it  with much worse video quality.

But that's not Hamas TV's only problem. According to M.E. Transparent, the Al Quds TV channel was funded via Iran, and Iran has cut off funding, endangering the entire station.

The channel is based out of Beirut with offices in Gaza, the West Bank and (maybe) Damascus.

Hamas has another channel, Al Aqsa TV. According to its website it is also transmitted on Nilesat, but I couldn't find it there, so it might have been pulled as well. .

(h/t Ian)

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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.

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

From Ian:

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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.

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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:

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