Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Waiting for an invitation to make a framework to set up negotiations

Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat has not yet received an official invitation to Washington to meet with his Israeli counterpart, President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman said Monday.

"We are awaiting an invitation by Washington to both a Palestinian and an Israeli delegation to discuss the unresolved details," Nabil Abu Rdeina told Reuters.

When Erekat goes to the Washington, he will first set a framework for future negotiations, Abu Rdeina said.

"If agreement is reached on these details in line with the Palestinian demands, resuming negotiations will be announced," he added.

Did I nail it in this cartoon or what?

J-Street student trip pays respects to Arafat

A student took a J-Street sponsored tour of Jerusalem and Ramallah - and there was nothing remotely even-handed about it.

While the point of the article is about how her fellow college students were so lacking in critical thinking skills that they swallowed the lies they were given whole, one could not tell that this trip was organized by a supposedly Jewish, "pro-Israel/pro-peace" organization as opposed to an Arab propaganda outfit. And this J-Street trip winds up in a most sickening way:

We hopped on our charter bus and went to meet with a member of the PLO negotiating team on the well known Emek Refaim street in the German Colony. Not surprisingly, the man was filled with anger. He started off by saying how difficult it is to be a Palestinian in the German Colony seeing Israeli flags waving from houses that were once homes of Palestinians.

He then continued on for the next 40 minutes playing the blame game: “Why can’t there be peace? Because of Bibi. There are two things in this world that will never change – and that is Netanyahu and Allah.”

As he went on and on, I became lost in his web of contradictions and realized that this man has been in the peacemaking game too long. I found it odd that the students I was traveling with did not seem bothered by the bitterness of the PLO negotiator, nor did they mention how they wished we could have heard from an Israeli negotiator as well, which I believed would be beneficial to compare and contrast the two sides.

...Finally, we were on our way to Ramallah. I was searching for the images the media so often likes to portray – of a city destroyed by war, stricken with poverty. However, I noticed how modern and beautiful the city was, as we drove past sushi restaurants and five-star hotels. We went to the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and met with a man who was not of Israeli or Palestinian descent, but Asian. This man had no relation to Israel or Palestine – just your typical civil servant.

He spoke about human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories. He lamented over Israeli settlers cutting down trees of Arab farmers, vandalizing mosques and other actions of the sort. He completely glossed over the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel (because that isn’t a big deal, right?) and barely touched on the stone throwing by Palestinians at Israelis driving through the West Bank (which has killed many).

The fact that he bypassed these subjects so smoothly was the first thing that was of concern to me. The second thing of concern was that this man did not know a word of Arabic or Hebrew. I wondered, how is he supposed to gain a first-hand experience of the trials and tribulations of the West Bank, Gaza and Israel when he files reports from within his airconditioned building without speaking to anyone on the ground?

Probably the strangest part of the entire trip was going to the PLO headquarters to visit Yasser Arafat’s memorial. I felt we stood there for an uncomfortably long time. I did not want to be disrespectful, but I in no way wanted to be mistaken as honoring him. I felt chills as I stood at the monument of a man who was thought of as a hero by the suicide bombers who killed so many Israelis over the years.

Yes - J-Street takes students on a trip to pay homage to a terrorist with the blood of hundreds of Jews on his hands!

(h/t Lauri)

Jordanian MB leader says "Jews" behind Egyptian coup

Dr. Hammam Said, a leader of Jordan's Muslim brotherhood, said that Egypt's coup was planned by the Jews and Arab followers of Iran in order to stop the Arab Spring.

These sorts of articles are all over the place nowadays.

Over the weekend Arab media reported that interim Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was really Jewish, saying his mother was a Moroccan Jew who belonged to a Jewish defense organization called "HaMagen" from 1948 to 1950. Another recent article said that Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia colluded to bring Morsi down.

And these are in newspapers, not crazy forums or chat groups.

7/22 Links Part 2: Extremism Escalating in the WB, Mira Nair’s Hypocrisy, Israels Changing Demography

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Extremism Escalating in the West Bank

The anti-Jewish and anti-American tirade came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry resumed his efforts to force Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership to return to the negotiating table with Israel.
Even if Abbas agreed to return to the negotiating table, he would always be afraid of the extremists, who are expected to step up their attacks on him as the talks with Israel proceed.
Unlike Kerry, Abbas sees and hears the voices of the extremists at the Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic holy sites in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And this is precisely why Abbas will never agree to sign a peace deal with Israel: it would turn him into the biggest traitor in the the Palestinian and Islamic world.

US, Canada condemn ECOSOC anti-Israel resolution

Only the US and Canada opposed the resolution (43 yes, 2 no, 1 abstention-Haiti), which followed accusations from the Palestinian delegation of “racism and colonization,” and phrases such as “occupation is the ugliest form of racism and terrorism,” and “the State of Israel is a state of terror, settlers are terror, military are terror.” This was only matched by Syria which accused Israel of “stealing historical artifacts to lie about history” of the Golan and “imposing Hebrew on students.”
Another low point for the UN today.

The European Union: What Was Not Said

The EU might truly help the Palestinians by helping the development of the Palestinian economy, and the introduction of the rule of law, equal justice under law, transparent and accountable governance, a free press, and other human rights. Sadly, however, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that the EU is not so much interested in helping the Palestinians so much as in helping them to sabotage Jews.

Isi Leibler: Europe hypocritically lashes out against Israel

We must not concede to this malevolent new EU demand which, if played out further, would entail abandoning hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens. We must make every possible effort to prevent the EU from expanding this move toward broader sanctions. And we must make clear that while this discriminatory clause remains in effect, we can no longer consider the EU an honest broker or an intermediary in peace negotiations.
The European initiative is a wake-up call. While Israel has a powerful and resilient economy that can withstand trade restrictions, it cannot endure further isolation. We cannot write off Europe, but instead must exploit all our resources to shame the EU and more aggressively expose the double standards and bias it continues to employ against us.

Legal Experts to Tell Ashton: Cancel the EU Boycott

The appeal, which was declared on Saturday, is led by former Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker, who now serves as head of the International Action Division at the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel.
Other signatories include former Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and top jurists and international law experts Professor Eliav Shochetman and Professor Talia Einhorn, according to Israel Hayom.
The appeal, which the signatories plan to send to Ashton in the coming days, urges the European Commission to rescind its directive, arguing it is "based on misguided and legally flawed assumptions about the status of the Israeli settlements and the validity of the 1967 lines as Israel's borders.

Israel's fast evolving demography

Compared with the rapidly developing political and military situation in the Middle East, demographics change at a glacial pace. Yet demographic developments in Israel in recent years have been unfolding with unusual speed, and seem to be accelerating.
In the first 12 years of the current century the number of Arab births in Israel has almost completely flatlined at around 40,000 per annum. This despite the growing size of the Arab population, which means that the Arab birth rate – births relative to population size – has fallen. Over the same period, Jewish births have risen from 95,000 to 130,000. In the first four months of 2013, the most recent period for which data is available, Jewish births were up 38 percent during the same period for 2001, and Arab births down 6%.

Israelly Cool: Mira Nair’s Hypocrisy

Mira Nair, who apparently made some movies, said she is boycotting the Haifa Film festival because Israel is an apartheid state.
And who finances said film? The human rights bastion that is Qatar.
And what is the DFI? Just another racist oil-sheikh money laundering scheme. It may come as no surprise to you that although they claim that “Eligibility for DFI Grants has been extended to films from all nations“, Israel is not part of their world.

UK Clergyman Calls on Church to Repent for Past Anti-Semitism

An Anglican clergyman spoke on the church’s history of anti-Semitism and called on the institution to repent at the annual UK conference of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people.
“The Apostles would not recognize much in the church today. A Christianity divorced from its Jewish roots has always opened itself up to the demonic spirit of anti-Semitism,” said Rev. Simon Ponsonby, a theologian from St Aldate’s Church in Oxford, UK, according to the ASSIST News Service.

Natalie Portman heads to Israel to scout film locations

Hollywood megastar Natalie Portman is planning to visit Israel in the near future to scout locations for a new film. The film, based on the epic autobiographical novel "A Tale of Love and Darkness" by Israeli author Amos Oz, will be Portman's directorial debut. The actress will also star in the film.
According to sources, Portman's itinerary indicates that she will be landing in Israel this coming September.

From music student to infantryman

The 22-year-old soldier is part of the Givati Brigade, an amphibious combat unit. Currently based in the West Bank, he patrols and protects the borders and checkpoints. As a commander, he is responsible for the lives of 12 soldiers.
He had never thought he would be here.
After finishing high school in the suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland, Hoffman taught English in Beit Shemesh and studied at a Jerusalem yeshiva before returning to the US to attend New York University. He took classes in music business and formed the five-member Jewish rock band, JudaBlue.

Israel’s ‘museum-friendly’ app maker does the Guggenheim

Museums have benefited quietly but enormously from the smartphone revolution with apps guiding visitors through exhibits. These apps can save museums money and hassle by delivering information directly to visitors, enabling them to post fewer docents on the floor to answer questions.
Just as big a beneficiary has been an Israeli company called Espro Acoustiguide Group, a Kfar Saba-based company that supplies the technology for apps in use in hundreds of museums, national parks, zoos, and city tours around the world.

How to bolster ‘natural killer’ cells against flu

Our immune systems are equipped with “natural killer” (NK) cells that recognize and eliminate influenza-virus-infected cells in order to keep the virus from spreading.
If NK cells always worked perfectly, nobody would get sick with the flu. Obviously, something can go wrong because many people do get flu. Israeli doctoral student Yotam Bar-On tackled this mystery, and his findings could lead to a whole new way of treating this sometimes deadly viral infection.

A great CAMERA video:

King David's palace unearthed?

The media has had a lot of articles in the past couple of days about a major find that, some say, would have been one of King David's palaces in Khirbet Qeiyafa.

What's the actual evidence?

From Israel Antiquities Authority:

Two royal public buildings, the likes of which have not previously been found in the Kingdom of Judah of the tenth century BCE, were uncovered this past year by researchers of the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority at Khirbet Qeiyafa – a fortified city in Judah dating to the time of King David and identified with the biblical city of Shaarayim.

One of the buildings is identified by the researchers, Professor Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, as David’s palace, and the other structure served as an enormous royal storeroom.

Today (Thursday) the excavation, which was conducted over the past seven years, is drawing to a close. According to Professor Yossi Garfinkel and Sa'ar Ganor, “Khirbet Qeiyafa is the best example exposed to date of a fortified city from the time of King David. The southern part of a large palace that extended across an area of c. 1,000 sq m was revealed at the top of the city. The wall enclosing the palace is c. 30 m long and an impressive entrance is fixed it through which one descended to the southern gate of the city, opposite the Valley of Elah. Around the palace’s perimeter were rooms in which various installations were found – evidence of a metal industry, special pottery vessels and fragments of alabaster vessels that were imported from Egypt. The palace is located in the center of the site and controls all of the houses lower than it in the city. From here one has an excellent vantage looking out into the distance, from as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Hebron Mountains and Jerusalem in the east. This is an ideal location from which to send messages by means of fire signals. Unfortunately, much of this palace was destroyed c. 1,400 years later when a fortified farmhouse was built there in the Byzantine period”.

A pillared building c. 15 m long by 6 m wide was exposed in the north of the city, which was used as an administrative storeroom. According to the researchers, “It was in this building the kingdom stored taxes it received in the form of agricultural produce collected from the residents of the different villages in the Judean Shephelah. Hundreds of large store jars were found at the site whose handles were stamped with an official seal as was customary in the Kingdom of Judah for centuries”.

The palace and storerooms are evidence of state sponsored construction and an administrative organization during King David’s reign. “This is unequivocal evidence of a kingdom’s existence, which knew to establish administrative centers at strategic points”, the archaeologists say. “To date no palaces have been found that can clearly be ascribed to the early tenth century BCE as we can do now. Khirbet Qeiyafa was probably destroyed in one of the battles that were fought against the Philistines circa 980 BCE. The palace that is now being revealed and the fortified city that was uncovered in recent years are another tier in understanding the beginning of the Kingdom of Judah”.

AP adds:

Garfinkel said his team found cultic objects typically used by Judeans, the subjects of King David, and saw no trace of pig remains. Pork is forbidden under Jewish dietary laws. Clues like these, he said, were "unequivocal evidence" that David and his descendants had ruled at the site.

Critics said the site could have belonged to other kingdoms of the area. The consensus among most scholars is that no definitive physical proof of the existence of King David has been found.

Garfinkel believes King David lived permanently in Jerusalem in a yet-undiscovered site, only visiting Khirbet Qeiyafa or other palaces for short periods. He said the site's placement on a hill indicates that the ruler sought a secure site on high ground during a violent era of frequent conflicts between city-states.

"The time of David was the first time that a large portion of this area was united by one monarch," Garfinkel said. "It was not a peaceful era."

The archaeologists seem to have dated the structure quite precisely to the time of David's reign, which was from 1002–970 BCE, or shortly thereafter. They identified the seals in the storerooms as being from Judah. There is no evidence of non-kosher animal bones. (We know the Philistines raised and ate pig meat; there is disagreement among scholars whether Canaanites ate pork as well. They apparently ate donkey at times.) Also, there is evidence of some Hebrew writings at the site.

Definitively calling this "David's palace" seems a little premature to me, but Khirbet Qeiyafa seems to be very good proof of the early Judean kingdom.

"Khaybar" antisemitic miniseries available on US DISH TV (UPDATE x2 - No it's not)

Dish-TV, a US-based satellite TV service, offers the Dubai Satellite Channel:

This channel is showing the antisemitic miniseries, "Khaybar."

So incitement against Jews is not only available in the Arab world - which is bad enough - but also in the US, as well as Europe.

Not that "human rights organizations" care about the rights of Jews, as they have continuously refused to comment on this show.

Atlas Shrugs has information on how to complain to Dish-TV. So far they are simply saying that they are not responsible for the programming they play.

(h/t youandme2 and MEMRI)

UPDATE: This appears to be the proper online FCC form to complain. (h/t Dave4321)

UPDATE 2: It looks like Dish dropped Dubai Satellite Channel in May, before the series. MEMRI corrected it. (h/t Bob)

Felesteen, a Hamas newspaper, reports that the deputy head of the "political bureau" of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, is accusing Egypt of wanting to exercise sovereignty over the Gaza Strip as it had before 1967.

Reports from Gaza indicate that this morning, for the third time this month, Egyptian helicopters hovered over the sector, apparently during Egyptian army operations to destroy smuggling tunnels.

Israel has not interfered with Egyptian aircraft over Gaza.

Marzouk says that the helicopters show that Egypt wants to re-assert its rule over Gaza. This is, of course, nonsense - no one wants Gaza. Gazans would leave en masse if a single Arab country would welcome them as equal citizens. But that vaunted Arab hospitality and support for their Palestinian brethren only goes so far. (Even when Egypt controlled Gaza, they kept it as a sort of prison for all Palestinians who ended up in Egypt.)

Marzouk also reiterated that Hamas has no desire to attack Egypt, and that all the news reports about Hamas members being arrested or killed along with Sinai jihadists are lies.

7/22 Links Part 1: Great Expectations, PA Spokesmen Deny Talks, EU Finally Labels Hezbollah Terrorists

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Great expectations

Why should Israelis who have already paid the ultimate price be forced to undergo such an indignity? Has Abbas done anything constructive, such as prepare his people for painful concessions necessary to reach an agreement with Israel, to deserve such a gesture? Previous prisoner releases have failed to soften Palestinian stands. Most likely they have achieved the opposite, since Palestinians have learned it is possible to exact concessions from Israel without reciprocating.
Despite the dangers ahead, a comprehensive agreement between the sides is the only way to prevent the creation of a bi-national state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, and ensure that Israel remains both Jewish and democratic. It is also the only way for the Palestinians to achieve their national aspirations - one reached through dialogue, mutual concessions and goodwill, and not aggression and threats.
We offer full support to Kerry’s initiative and hope that a just agreement with the Palestinians will result in peace and security for both sides.

Both Abbas’s spokesmen say no deal yet to restart talks

Contradicting Secretary of State John Kerry, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement late Sunday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to send a delegate to Washington merely to continue lower-level preliminary talks with an Israeli counterpart about the terms for negotiations.
A second Abbas spokesman, Yasser Abed Rabbo, had made similar comments earlier Sunday. Abu Rudeineh and Abed Rabbo are the only Palestinian officials authorized to speak on the matter.

Israel, PA Accept Martin Indyk as Mediator in Negotiations

Indyk criticized President Barack Obama's Middle East policy in 2009. He said that Obama and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell have failed in the Middle East.
“It’s clear that things are not going as he planned,” Indyk said at an Omaha, Nebraska forum. He explained that President Obama counted on the support of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, who rebuffed the overtures for even a minor compromise regarding the 2002 Saudi initiative.
Indyk also failed the president and Mitchell for focusing on trying to freeze building for Jews in Judea and Samaria. The former ambassador said that they violated a basic rule in negotiations in the Middle East: don’t get bogged down in details.
“George Mitchell didn’t hear that sucking sound,” Indyk added.

Analysis: ‘Wanting it more than the parties themselves’
What if the type of Palestinian state that Netanyahu is willing to give is not the type of state Abbas can accept?

At 78-years-old, is he going to want to be the one to go down in Palestinian history as the leader to have closed the door on all the maximalist Palestinian aspirations, including the right of refugees and their descendants to return to pre-1967 Israel? And do his people – and Hamas is a big part of his people – want him to do so? Kerry is forcing the issue, dragging the sides back to the table kicking and screaming. For this he has already won many plaudits. But is what is good for Kerry and America’s standing in the region, necessarily good for Israel and the Palestinians?

Analysis: Arab world pessimistic on renewed peace talks

The Arab world – which is divided on almost any element including Shi’ites and Sunnis, radical and conservative Muslims, various states and tribes – appear to unite in their pessimistic outlook of the planned, US-moderated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Yet some Arab newspapers, instead of focusing on this issue, have focused their commentary on other conflicts in the region.

Arab League Blames Israel Before Talks Even Start

Sabih added that the Arab League was monitoring Israel's stance so the talks were not simply "negotiations for the sake of negotiations, going round in a vicious circle".
"This could be the last chance to revive the stalled peace process," he noted.

Keeping BBC audience’s eyes on the ‘settlements’ ball

Some might say that “further complicated” is a bit of an understatement. The fact that the PA is not in control of part of the territory it will be negotiating about, and upon which it hopes to establish a state, is clearly a huge issue, as is the fact that the PA president’s legitimate mandate to sign anything on behalf of the Palestinian people expired years ago. Another glaring problem is that the PA clearly cannot claim to be able to give security guarantees on behalf of the range of terrorist organisations including Hamas, the PFLP, the DFLP and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad which are openly hostile to negotiations.

Indy’s political editor misrepresents David Ward’s vile Holocaust remarks

As the quote clearly indicates, Ward was castigating Jews as Jews for, a mere few years after liberation from the death camps in 1945, evidently not learning the correct moral lessons and thus beginning immediately to inflict atrocities on Palestinians.
Jews, ‘of all people’, an exasperated Ward was in effect exclaiming, had visited upon the Palestinians a level of cruelty and violence which arguably evoke the crimes committed against their co-religionists in the death camps throughout Europe – a “they of all people” argument which Howard Jacobson aptly characterized as leaving the Jewish people doubly damned: to the Holocaust itself and to elevated moral scrutiny as a result of it.

EU agrees to place Hezbollah military wing on terror list

Britain has sought to persuade the EU to put the Shiite Muslim group's military wing on the bloc's terrorism list since May, citing evidence that it was behind a bus bombing in Bulgaria last year which killed five Israelis and their driver.
Israel's Justice Minister welcomed the decision, saying "after years of deliberations and going back and forth on the matter, the argument that Hezbollah was a political movement and their attempt to whitewash their terrorist activity has failed."

PA Children Call for 'Liberation' of Palestine'

The video, which was recently recorded at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is a good example of the radical Islamic education given to children in the PA.
The video shows a boy about 12 years of age, standing next to two children aged 8-9. The 12-year-old received the honor of giving the sermon to the thousands of Muslim worshipers who were in attendance that day. He is seen wearing a Hizb ut-Tahrir scarf, and huge banners praising the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate can be viewed in the background.
The PA child attacks in his sermon the idea of a democratic regime, calls on Islamic nations to stand up to their values, and urges Muslim armies not to be negligent in their duty to free the Al-Aqsa Mosque while ignoring the positions of the United States.

Netanyahu: Morsi ouster shows weakness of Islamist movements

In rare remarks on Egypt's government crisis, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has suggested that the fall of the president, Mohamed Morsi, demonstrates the weaknesses of political Islamist movements.
"I believe that over the long haul these radical Islamic regimes are going to fail because they don't offer the adequate enfranchisement that you need to develop a country economically, politically and culturally," Netanyahu told the German weekly Welt am Sonntag.
He said he thought radical Islamism was wholly unsuited to dealing with a global economic and information revolution, and "goes right back to medievalism against the whole thrust of modernity, so over time it's bound to fail."

Syria accused of gassing Palestinian refugee camp

The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces said Sunday that the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus had been gassed by regime forces amid heavy fighting.
According to Israel Radio, at least 22 people were killed in the Sunday attack, the majority from inhalation of toxic gases, according to Palestinian sources cited in the report.

Red Crescent to make ‘halal’ drugs with Turkish blood

Akar told daily Hurriyet that the move could both eliminate dependence on drugs imports, as well as providing Muslim Turks with assurances that their medicine complies with their religious codes.
"For instance, if we are buying medicine from Britain, it is made out of the blood and plasma of the blood of the people of that country. We have different dietary habits from those countries. Being a Muslim nation, we do not eat pork. We don’t eat some of problematic foods, but these exist in the medicine that we import,” he said.

PA minister admits any agreement with Israel would be a scam

From Palestinian Media Watch:

PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash::
"We hate war. We don't want war. We don't want bloodshed, not for ourselves, nor for others. We want peace. We say this because our culture is founded on this, and because our religion is based on this. Yes, we want peace, but not any peace. We want a peace based on justice, therefore the Palestinian leadership and the PLO have not missed any opportunity for peace...

The Palestinian leadership's sense of responsibility towards its nation made it take political steps about 20 years ago (i.e., signing the Oslo Accords). Despite the controversy, despite much criticism and much opposition by some, it brought us to where we are today: We have a [Palestinian] Authority and the world recognizes the [Palestinian] state.

All this never would have happened through Hamas' impulsive adventure, but only through the wisdom of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it...

The hearts of the Prophet's companions burned with anger and fury. The Prophet said: 'I'm the Messenger of Allah and I will not disobey Him.' This is not disobedience, it is politics. This is crisis management, situation management, conflict management...

Allah called this treaty a clear victory...

Omar ibn Al-Khattab said: 'Messenger of Allah, is this a victory? Is this logical? Is this victory? We are giving up and going back, and not entering Mecca. Is that a victory?' The Prophet said: 'Yes, it is a victory.'

In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca. This is the example, this is the model."
[Official Palestinian Authority TV, July 19, 2013]

As PMW notes:

The Hudaybiyyah peace treaty was a 10-year truce that Muhammad, Islam's Prophet, made with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca. However, two years into the truce, Muhammad attacked and conquered Mecca. The PA Minister of Religious Affairs stressed in his Friday sermon that Muhammad’s agreeing to the Hudaybiyyah treaty was not "disobedience" to Allah, but was "politics" and "crisis management." The minister emphasized that in spite of the peace treaty, two years later Muhammad "conquered Mecca." He ended his comparison by expressing the view that the Hudaybiyyah agreement is not just past history, but that "this is the example and this is the model."

Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, there have been senior PA officials who have presented the peace process with Israel as a deceptive tactic that both facilitated the PA's five-year terror campaign against Israel (the Intifada), and which will weaken Israel through territorial compromise that will eventually lead to Israel's destruction.

Abbas threatens: "If we don't get what we want, all options are open"

Imagine the outcry that would follow if Bibi Netanyahu said that if the planned peace talks don't go well, "all options are on the table." It would be perceived as a threat - perhaps to annex the territories, perhaps to unilaterally annex parts, perhaps to occupy Area A. Either way, it would make headlines, confirming the idea of Israeli belligerency and intransigence.

Netanyahu never said that. But Mahmoud Abbas did.

Palestine Press Agency quotes Abbas as saying that if there is no progress in the peace talks, "all options are open."

A violent intifada?

Whatever he is threatening, it is clear that Abbas isn't serious about an agreement, because he also said that any agreement would be subject to a popular referendum before the PLO would move forward. given that the PA hasn't been able to hold real elections for about a decade now, this pretty much means that Abbas can hold out for whatever he demands because he knows that he can always blame the "people" he rules for any deals he doesn't want to sign.

ABC-Australia parrots a lie: "There are no birds in Gaza"

On Australian TV, there was an interview with Moira Kelly, a woman who is building a garden in Gaza, who makes the incredible claim that there are no birds in the sector (4:08):

Kelly: "And there are no birds in Gaza."
Hostess: "No birds at all."
Kelly: "There's no birds. This is a phenomenal little statistic in Gaza you don't realize."
Hostess: "Will the plants bring birds?"
Landscape designer Andrew Laidlaw: "Well, we hope they will...hopefully it will be a beginning."

The interview, when posted on the ABC website, is headlined "Peace garden to bring birds back to Gaza."

But as AIJAC shows, the claim that there are no birds at all in Gaza, this "phenomenal little statistic," is a ridiculousand easily disproven lie:

It is hard to imagine how ABC news staff could have not caught Kelly's blatant exaggeration and even felt free to put the ABC's imprimatur on the claim by including it in the story summary. Yet even the most cursory investigation would have confirmed that the Gaza Strip, like its neighbour Israel, is literally teeming with avian life.

Type "birds in Gaza Strip" into Google and the very second response you get, in terms of relevance (the first being a Wikipedia article) is a bird checklist by the World Bird Database which lists 171 species of birds in the Gaza Strip.

The third most relevant response is a scholarly paper from 2011 by Dr. Abdel Fattah N. Abd Rabou from the Department of Biology at the Islamic University of Gaza.

The paper, "Notes on Some Palestinian Bird Fauna Existing in the Zoological Gardens of the Gaza Strip" focuses mainly on birds in captivity in the Strip. However, the paper also includes a survey of the natural bird life in the area.

Writes Dr. Abd Rabou:

The Gaza Strip, which is located at the southern portion of the Palestine coast along the Mediterranean Sea, is blessed with a considerable number of bird fauna including terrestrial and aquatic forms. Dense concentration of birds occurs over the Gaza Strip during spring and autumn migration seasons [5, 6]. It is worth mentioning that wetlands, including the wetland ecosystem of Wadi Gaza, are considered as very productive ecosystems, having rich bird fauna. They provide bird fauna with all necessary requirements such as shelter, protection, food and breeding, resting and roosting places ... etc [7-13].

Here is a photo of Gaza birds taken last year:

Somehow this photographer managed to find several of the nonexistent birds.

AIJAC continues:

ABC goofed by giving Kelly a license to exaggerate claims about conditions in Gaza as a fundraising and propaganda tool. Even before the construction of this park, Gaza most certainly did, and continues to have, trees, bird life as well as green spaces (even some lavish ones, like the Dolphin Water Park and Resort which opened in April, compensating for another one which Hamas destroyed in 2010).

Kelly and the ABC effectively conspired to distort the reality on the ground in the interests of manufacturing sympathy for a doubtlessly worthwhile project. But when Australia's public broadcaster uncritically promotes such storytelling, it is acting counter to the principles of ethical journalism, and its own charter.

While this incident is, of course, peripheral to the more substantive issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for ABC's journalists and editors to "parrot" the bizarre notion that Gaza is devoid of birdlife without anyone along the way bothering to exercise the most basic level of fact-checking is indeed troubling.

It raises the question of what other fact-checking, if any, is employed by the ABC regarding news items originating in Palestinian controlled areas on more important subjects.

By the way, in Moira Kelly's website, we can read:

The delegation had also been invited to meet with Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and his team in his compound. Moira was one of the last Australians to have met with him before his death and found him to be a misunderstood man of great faith and great compassion, and above all, passionate about his people.

In other words, some people will believe anything as long as they really, really want to.

Nasrallah makes his case against EU blacklisting Hezbollah; insists Israel wants to invade Lebanon (update)

Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a little-noticed speech Friday night in which he not only asserted that Hezbollah is protecting Lebanon against Israel's unending expansionism, but also that the EU cannot separate Hizballah's "military wing" from the good people of Lebanon itself. This was a clear attempt to counter the possibility that the EU might declare Hezballah's military wing ("resistance") to be a terror organization today.

Sayyed Nasrallah wondered if someone believed that Lebanon was no longer exposed to Israel threats, stressing that if someone believed so, this would be a "misfortune", as Israel's greediness has no end.

His eminence reassured that whoever tried to break or isolate the resistance has failed in achieving that, because this resistance is not an organization or a party, but a public determination which is ready for sacrifices.

"The noble people in this country have invested in the resistance with their most precious and loved ones, with their children and blood, hence, this resistance is not a faction that you can siege or isolate," he added.

Hezbollah Secretary General stated that the resistance is capable of overcoming all the difficulties, as the enemy is reviewing all its plans and calculations after what happened in the last couple of months.

He indicated that "in any coming war, the enemy's eye will be on Galilee before Beirut… and from now on, no one can assault Lebanon without paying a price."

Sayyed Nasrallah considered that what the resistance has been exposed to was the result of its victories against the Zionist entity.

"The resistance, which triumphed in 1982, 2000, and 2006, was able to destroy the 'New Middle East' project. Hence, it was natural to be targeted. In addition to the military confrontation with the enemy, we were being targeted on the military, security, cultural, and social levels," he added, pointing out that "when the resistance does not get targeted, this means it is ineffective and the enemy does not fear it."

The Lebanese are increasingly sick of Hizballah in light of its dragging the nation into the Syrian mess, and this speech exposes far more about Nasrallahs' fears than about Israel's, by not even addressing Syria and acting like just another Arab despot - by blaming Israel for all problems.

One consequence of the recent upheavals in the Arab world is that the people are no longer buying it. Nasrallah won't be taken down by Israel, but by the Lebanese people he is pretending are on his side.

UPDATE: Despite these efforts, the EU is declaring Hizballah's "military wing" to be a terrorist group.

"Now or never" - for 40 years

The Telegraph's headline says "Now or never for a two-state solution."

Now, where have I heard that before?

1970: Rogers plan for 90 day truce between Israel and Egypt "the realization by the Soviet Union, the Arabs and the Israelis that the moment is very much one of 'now or never.'"
1978: "Mideast peace could be now or never"
1995: "If both sides really want a breakthrough - it's now or never . . " (Warren Christopher heading to Mideast)
1998: "Peace provess: It's now or never" (Thomas Friedman, NYT)
2000: Mubarak says Mideast peace must come "now or never"
2002: "Arafat needs to know: 'It's now or never'"
2007: "For them it's now or never. If they fail in Annapolis they will not find another break through in the Middle Eastern peace process."
2010: "Palestinian says it's now or never for two states"
2011: "Peace Now, or Never" (Ehud Olmert op-ed in NYT)

And some wisdom from Menachem Begin in 1979:

"I do not adopt the theory of 'now or never,'", Begin said. "we shall have to negotiate again, and I don't see any tragedy in it."

OIC head says Israel is the only beneficiary from Muslim problems

The always entertaining Iranian FARS news reports:

Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu underlined that continued instability and bloodshed in the region, particularly in the Muslim states, only serves the interests of the Zionists.

“The situation of Islamic world is highly worrying and no Muslim country in the region benefits from it. It is only the Zionist regime of Israel that benefits from it,” Ihsanoglu stressed in a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to the OIC Hamid Reza Dehqani on Saturday.

He stopped short of saying that Israel instigates all Muslim problems, but FARS fills in the blanks:

In relevant remarks in August 2012, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in a meeting with Indonesian Vice-President Boediono in Tehran warned of the plots hatched by certain powers to stir religious and sectarian strife in Muslim nations.

During the meeting held on the sidelines of the 16th heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) here in Tehran at the time, the Supreme Leader cautioned against the dangerous attempts made to sow discord and stir clashes between different religious sects in the Muslim nations, specially between the Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and said, "These actions are carried out through the support of certain powers and by means of their hirelings, whose instances can be seen in Afghanistan and Pakistan now."