Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 09, 2013

8/09 Links Part 2: Egypt Blockades Gaza Where Are the Flotillas?, Bizarre Egyptian Conspiracies

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt Blockades Gaza Where Are the Flotillas?

Since the beginning of the year, nearly 34,000 trucks carrying more than 950,000 tons of goods entered the Gaza Strip through Israel.
The Egyptians, like most Arabs, do not care about the Palestinians. They want the Palestinians to be Israel's problem and to continue relying on handouts from Western countries.
The Arabs do not care if the residents of the Gaza Strip starve to death as long as Israel will be blamed.

Egyptians close down Gaza crossing for holiday

Egyptian officials have closed Rafah several times over the last month as tensions between the Egyptian military and the Strip’s Hamas rulers, backed by the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, have come to a boil.
Cairo recently elected to sharply decrease the number of operating hours at the terminal, from nine to four, leading to a drop in the number of people crossing over from about 1,200 to 150 a day, according to MENA, citing Egyptian officials.

Sydney U. against BDS, but not taking any action against BDS professor

“The University of Sydney does not consider the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy appropriate and it is not University of Sydney policy,” Dean Duncan Ivison of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences said.
He was responding to inquiries on the recent lawsuit filed by the Shurat HaDin Legal Action Center against Prof. Jake Lynch.
At the same time, said Ivison, “we encourage academics to contribute to public debate and deliberations on issues spanning local, national and international boundaries within their area of expertise, in conformity with the law and the policies and obligations of the university. For this reason the university does not intend to take any specific further action on this matter.”

Activists to Disrupt Celebration at Israeli-Owned British Shop

Anti-Israel activists are threatening to disrupt the birthday celebration of an Israeli-owned shop in Britain, and local police are preparing themselves accordingly.
The Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday that Sussex police are preparing for potential trouble as hundreds of anti-Israel activists and members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) are expected to picket outside the Israeli-owned EcoStream store in Brighton.

Palestinian Leaders Use Photo Ops to Hide Their True Intentions

Furthermore, according to Palestinian Media Watch, during Barcelona’s visit, a sportscaster on Palestinian Authority television stated that “Today Barcelona comes to visit Palestine and nothing else. Only Palestine and its capital Jerusalem, Eilat, Rosh Hanikra, and all the Palestinian cities in the north, south, west, and east.”
Who are the dreamers and who are the realists?

Egyptian NGOs Condemn Anti-Christian Violence

The NGOs urged security officials for higher protection and intervention during future clashes between Islamist groups targeting Christian civilians.
In a recent case, in the village of Minya's Beni-Ahmed, sectarian violence broke out last Saturday as many Christian-owned properties were destroyed and homes were torched.

Former Muslim Brotherhood MP: The Holocaust – The Greatest Lie Of The Modern Age

In an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Musawwar, published March 6, 2013, former Egyptian Shura Council member and current Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member Fathi Shihab Al-Din called the Holocaust "the greatest lie of the modern age and the gravest incident of organized historical international blackmail." Stating that while the rumor of the Holocaust was started by the U.S. intelligence apparatuses in order to ruin the reputation of Germany and its allies in World War II, and also to serve as a pretext for dropping atomic bombs, the seeds of this lie, which he claims now prevents criticism of Israel, were sown by the Zionists many years previously. He added that they had spread this rumor using the global media.

Army, Brotherhood Conspiracy Theories Try to Win Egyptian Hearts

The army has not stood by and let the Brotherhood get all the headlines; they, too, have theories about the Islamists, and according to one curious theory, Morsi, in an attempt to alleviate Egypt's financial situation, tried to “sell” most of Sinai to President Barack H. Obama. Egypt was to receive $8 billion for the Sinai. The U.S. would have set up bases and helped itself to Sinai oil, while part of the area would have been set up as a state for PA Arabs. It was only the intervention of the army that prevented Morsi from going through with the plan.

Turkish president calls for Morsi's release, slams Egyptian 'coup'

Gul said Turkey had supported the 2011 uprising against strongman Hosni Mubarak and the election that brought Morsi to power.
"Unfortunately, the historic step towards democracy failed in less than two years. The coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was a clear derailment of the country's progress," he wrote.
His description of Morsi's overthrow as a coup is likely to rile the Egyptian military, who say they were enforcing the will of the people as manifested in huge demonstrations against his rule, and do not seek to exercise power.

Turkish pilots kidnapped in Beirut

Security officials say the two men, both Turkish nationals, were seized as they were traveling in a van with other crew members from the Beirut International Airport to a hotel early Friday.
The officials say six gunmen ambushed the car on an old airport road, snatched the two men from the vehicle and let the rest continue on. The incident occurred at about 3 a.m. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Amid the ‘deceptive quiet’ of the Lebanon border

He described the current situation as “a deceptive quiet” and said he had drilled into his soldiers the need to “go from 0-100 in a second,” assuring this reporter that, as opposed to the period before the Second Lebanon War, his men all understood that a conflict in this region could turn into war in an instant. “Our company’s motto is War Tomorrow,” he said. “That’s how we train them, so they are ready to make the mental switch, if necessary.”
For now, it would seem, it is not — with Hezbollah still deeply engaged in Syria — but the border region, which has produced little in the way of news in recent months, is far from peaceful.

Minister: Iran Nuclear Program Could be Destroyed in 'Hours'

The international community must make it clear to Iran that it has only two options: end its nuclear program voluntarily, or “see it destroyed with brute force,” Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz has said, speaking to the Washington Post.
Demolishing Iran’s nuclear program by force is entirely possible, he said, estimating that it would take “a few hours of airstrikes, no more.”
He was not overly concerned with the possibility that Iran could fire missiles on Israel in response to an international attack on its facilities. Such an attack would cause “very limited damage,” he said, explaining that Israel would be able to intercept most of the missiles.

Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi dices with death for a moustache in Pakistan

PAKISTANI businessman Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi has been kidnapped, threatened with death, forcibly displaced and lives apart from his family: all because of his enormous moustache.
Impeccably trimmed to 30 inches (76cm), Afridi spends 30 minutes a day washing, combing, oiling and twirling his facial hair into two arches that reach to his forehead, defying gravity.
"People give me a lot of respect. It's my identity," said the 48-year-old grandfather in the northwestern city of Peshawar, when asked why he was prepared to risk everything for his whiskers.

Even 8 year old Egyptian boys harass women during Eid

From Al Ahram:

The anti-sexual harassment campaign "I witnessed harassment" confirms several cases of sexual harassment over the holiday weekend these past two days - including perpetrators as young as 8 and 10 years old.

The campaign deployed more volunteers around downtown Cairo during Eid El-Fitr, the holiday that ends the Ramadan month of fasting, when sexual harassment is known to explode.

Reports described everything from verbal to physical assault and mob sexual attacks.

Volunteers raise passersby's awareness and intervene when they see harassment. The group says they increased volunteers around cinemas when films start playing, when crowds are larger in number and harassment cases likewise increase.

Sexual harassment has been a growing problem in Egypt. More than 99 percent of hundreds of women surveyed in seven of the country's 27 governorates reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment, ranging from minor harassment to rape, says the UN, Egypt's Demographic Centre and the National Planning Institute in a report in April.

Hey, if even 8 year old boys are harassing women, they must have a good reason. We should work to understand the root causes and eliminate them.

In other words, women should be banned from all public areas of Egypt, since the existence of women in public causes the men to act the way they do.

I mean, isn't that the logic that some people use concerning Arab and Islamic terrorism?

Report: IDF bombs kill 5 jihadists on Egyptian side of Rafah (UPDATE)

From JPost:

An Israeli Air Force drone reportedly struck a jihadist rocket launcher in the Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli-Egyptian border, killing at least five suspected terrorists who were planning to launch shoulder-fired missile at Israel, Egyptian military sources told Palestinian news agency Ma'an on Friday.

Ma'an reported that a large explosion was heard on Friday afternoon in Rafah, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

An IDF spokesman said the army does not comment on reports published in the foreign media.

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered to close the Eilat Airport for two hours.

On Friday, Ma'an quoted an Egyptian security source as saying the IDF's decision to close the air[port] was a precautionary measure taken by Israel based on Egyptian intelligence that terrorists in Sinai planned to target the Jewish state with missiles.

The IDF instructed the Israel Airports Authority to close down the airport in the southern city which borders Egypt due to a "security assessment." The IDF did not release any specific details on the security reasons which prompted the closure.

According to the Egyptian official cited by Ma'an, Salafi terrorists in Sinai planned to target Israel with shoulder-launched missiles with a range of 70 km, which would put them in well in range of the airspace over Eilat Airport.

Al Ahram adds that "sources say that the air attack was in coordination with the Egyptian authorities."

Al Arabiya is quoted as saying that the IDF aircraft/drones were in the skies for a while before the explosion, and that the jihadists intended to shoot rockets at Israel.

Arab critics of Egypt's interim government will have a field day with this, saying that this is proof that the Egyptian leaders are Zionist.

UPDATE: Egypt denies Israel was involved. Which it would do whether it happened or not.

8/09 Links Part 1: Tom Friedman's Incredible Blunders, An Interview with Irwin Cotler

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Judenfrei is fine and dandy

The fact that Abbas never neglects to emphasize that Israelis (which really means Jews) would be strictly banned from his state should signify how impossible any practicable and sincere peace is. Abbas, the world’s pampered darling, harbors no qualms about denying Israel any quid-pro-quo for what he demands of it.
Thus Abbas upbraids Netanyahu for “demanding recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. We have rejected, and will reject, this demand. We know what his intention is. He wants to undermine the Palestinian-Arab presence inside Israel and prevent the return of refugees.” In other words, rather than be accepted rightfully as a Jewish state, Israel is tolerated at most as a multinational temporary entity and candidate for impending Arabization. It wouldn’t be left in peace unless it submits meekly to said Arabization and the eradication of its Jewishness.

Canadian MP: Incitement is far worse than checkpoints

The last decade has witnessed the expanding delegitimization campaign against Israel in the field of international law. The interview with Professor Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of parliament for the Liberal party, was conducted against the backdrop of the renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the planned release of Palestinian prisoners -- subjects on which he has much to say.

After Egypt, Pointless to Negotiate With Iran

At this point, the only way Tehran will stop developing a nuclear weapon is if the regime is overthrown or if the U.S. or Israel take military action. But outside of empty rhetoric, Obama hasn’t given Tehran any reason to believe that he’s willing to use force.
If Obama would rather tolerate a nuclear Iran than support a military strike, he should say so. His current strategy seems to be to delay a decision until Tehran develops a bomb – at which point it will be too late to attack. This is bad policy. And it is unacceptable leadership.

Iran's Khamenei: Peace talks will force Palestinians to relinquish their rights

Khamenei said Friday that the renewed peace talks would "encourage the aggressors to increase their aggression and suppress the rightful resistance of the Palestinians," according to AFP.
The Iranian leader called on the Muslim world to be active in supporting the Palestinian cause and condemning Israel.
"The Muslim world must not back down from its support for Palestine, and it should condemn the oppressive action of fierce Zionist wolves and their international supporters," AFP quoted him as saying.

Israel and the Gulf states: It’s complicated

Perhaps ironically, the Arab Spring does not make easier for the Gulf states’ autocratic leaders to get closer to Israel again, experts say. For the first time in history, public opinion has become a determining factor of the Arab world’s political system, and the rulers in the Gulf will think twice before admitting any sort of engagement with the Zionist entity.
It’s not so much about the Gulf nations’ love for the Palestinians. “The leaders of the GCC states couldn’t care less about the 1967 borders,” said a Jerusalem source intimately familiar with GCC politics. “For all that matters to them, the Green Line could be somewhere between Ohio and Maryland. It is the conflict that bothers them, because it strengthens the radical forces in the region.”

The New York Times Tries to Smooth Over Tom Friedman's Incredible Blunders

On August 7, Times columnist Thomas Friedman argued that Israel needed to get on board with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's initiative to restart the peace process to head off increasing isolation of the Jewish state. To bolster his point he cited the alleged cancellation of a performance in Israel by Eric Burdon, former lead singer of the British rock group, the Animals. Friedman quotes the British newspaper, the Independent, as writing,
"but now Eric Burdon is not even turning up at all having deciding to withdraw from a planned concert in Israel."
Unfortunately, for Friedman, a week before his piece appeared, Burdon's performance in Israel took place without a hitch. Worse still, he didn't get the alleged quote from the Independent right.

Are Jews the most incompetent “ethnic cleansers” in the world?

Of course, debating the “question” of whether Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians seems at first glance to be as productive as ‘arguing’ whether or not Jews are trying to take over the world. However, unlike the latter charge, which, no matter how hateful and irrational, is not really quantifiable, the former malicious smear – reflecting the “Israel as the new Nazis“ narrative which Richard Landes argues indicates (among other pathologies) a desire to be freed from Holocaust guilt – can be easily refuted by a few population statistics.
"The Palestinian population in the West Bank increased from 462,000 in 1949 to more than 2.5 million today.
In Gaza, the population increased from 82,000 in 1949 to 1.7 million today."
Additionally, to add further context:
"The number of Arabs killed (since 1920) in Arab-Israeli wars is less than the number of Arabs killed by Arabs in Syria alone since 2011."

NYT reports on Syrian patients in Israel: BBC still mum

We have mentioned the resounding BBC silence on the subject of wounded Syrian nationals receiving medical care in Israel on numerous occasions.
If perhaps one had thought that the reason for that silence was a lack of access to the story for the foreign media (although the Israeli press has been covering it diligently), then a recent report in the New York Times indicates that this is clearly not the case.

Zanzibar acid attack: British teenagers were 'targeted' and had been attacked before

Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both aged 18, had argued with a local shopkeeper days before two men on a moped threw acid in their faces and Katie had separately been attacked for singing during Ramadan.
One friend suggested they might have been singled out because they are Jewish, and local police said they wanted to speak a radical Islamic preacher who they believe may have inspired the attack. (h/t Serious Black)

‘Warning over Sinai terrorists prompted Eilat airport closure’

A warning from a senior Egyptian official, that terrorists in the Sinai armed with missiles planned to target Israel, reportedly prompted the closure Thursday of the airport in Eilat.
The high-level Egyptian military official said Salafi groups had come into possession of missiles with a range of 70 kilometers and intended to target the airport in the Israeli Red Sea resort town and other Israeli targets, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported Friday.

Wiesenthal Center calls for boycott of ‘Hitler wine’

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging wine distributors to boycott Italian wine-makers Vina Lunardelli for selling a line of Nazi and fascist branded wines
The company has created a cult following featuring labels portraying Adolph Hitler over Nazi slogans, including “Mein Fuehrer,” “Sieg Heil,” and “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer.”

US auction house offers Schindler documents

An auction house is offering a collection of documents from Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Jewish workers at his factories during World War II, including a letter he signed that paved the way for the rescue chronicled in the 1993 movie “Schindler’s List.”
The letter, dated Aug. 22, 1944, describes permission to move his enamelware factory, workers included, out of Krakow, Poland, to Czechoslovakia, a move that historians say allowed him to save the workers.

Kahneman to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

US President Barack Obama awarded Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton psychologist known for his application of psychology to economic analysis, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The White House release Thursday naming Kahneman and other recipients notes that the Princeton University scholar, who shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002, escaped Nazi Europe and served in the Israeli army.

UNRWA dean of education posts Hitler quote on FB

Dr. Fares Haider is the Dean of Student Affairs for UNRWA in Jordan.

His Facebook pages are filled with pithy self-help advice and slogans, presumably meant for students.

Here is a poster he placed on his personal Facebook page:

The text says "'The two most important rules in order to be successful - the first: never give up. The second: remember the first rule'. Adolph Hitler"

He captioned it "Military rules for success ... good morning all."

(He got it from this strange Facebook page where they make posters out of quotes from everyone from Jefferson to Stalin to "Dr. Gregory House.")

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Lebanon barring Palestinians refugees from Syria

Once again, the Arab world shows its derision for their Palestinian brethren. And once again, the world ignores blatant discrimination against Palestinians - when done by Arabs.

From HRW:

The Lebanese government began on August 6, 2013, to bar Palestinians from entering the country from Syria. Refusing to allow asylum seekers to enter the country violates Lebanon’s international obligations.

Two Palestinians told Human Rights Watch that they were among about 200 Palestinian asylum seekers barred from crossing the border, after Lebanese General Security on August 6 abruptly changed its entry policies for Palestinians living in Syria.

The Palestinians stranded at Lebanon’s border include entire families, children, the elderly, and the sick. Some spent the night in the area between the two countries’ border posts, fearing for their safety if they returned to Syria, without shelter or bathroom facilities. Some have family members waiting for them in Lebanon. Others say they have no homes to return to in Syria as they have been destroyed during the war, or no money to return home, even if it were safe.

A Palestinian asylum seeker stuck at the border told Human Rights Watch that at approximately 6:45 p.m. on August 6, Lebanese border guards told him and other Palestinian asylum seekers waiting to enter that the guards had received a call from the Lebanese General Security office telling them not to allow any more Palestinians to enter the country. After this announcement, the only Palestinians allowed to enter Lebanon were Palestinians with Lebanese wives or mothers, or who had plane tickets to leave Beirut that day. General Security made no public announcement of the change in policy.

Lebanon is still allowing tens of thousands of Syrians to enter the country. It is only discriminating against Palestinians.

Jordan has a similar policy and Egypt also discriminates against Palestinian Syrians.

Blatant, explicit and rampant discrimination against Palestinian Arabs happens every day, and is indeed enshrined in the laws of every Arab country which does not allow them to become citizens while all other Arabs can.

Keep this in mind the next hundred times you hear Arabs say that the "Palestinian issue" is their number one priority, and the key to solving all the problems in the region. They don't mean that they care about Palestinians - it means that they regard the destruction of Israel is their number one priority, and the Palestinian Arabs are useful only as pawns in that goal.

In reality, the Arab world hates Palestinians nearly as much as they hate Jews.

But there are no "pro-Palestinian" groups that can be bothered to point that out.

Jordanian MP calls to kidnap Israelis; Israel protests; Jordan supports him

In early July, during a parliamentary debate, Jordanian MP Tareq Khoury called on Jordan to "kidnap members of the Israeli embassy in Amman or Israeli tourists visiting Jordan to get Israel to release Jordanian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails."

He said that such a move would be "an honorable precedent in the history of the Kingdom."

He added that the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel was a humiliation to Jordan because it doesn't protect Jordanian prisoners - which include mass murderer Abdallah Bargouthi.

Israel lodged a protest at these statements where a Jordanian MP demanded that Jordan violate international law and existing agreements with Israel.

Now Jordan responded - by telling Israel to shut up.

You see, Israel's protests are considered by Jordan to be an unacceptable infringement on its sovereignty. Furthermore, in the response it said that Jordan's constitution allows members of Parliament to say whatever they want.

They point out that the first article of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan demands "respect for Jordanian sovereignty and the political independence of Jordan."

I had no idea that Jordan's independence is so weak that merely protesting someone's words endangers Jordan's political independence.

By the way, Article 11 of the peace agreement mandates "To abstain from hostile or discriminatory propaganda against each other, and to take all possible legal and administrative measures to prevent the dissemination of such propaganda by any organization or individual present in the territory of either Party."

Abbas refusing to send leukemia medicine to Gaza

This story last month from PCHR seems to have slipped under the radar:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is gravely concerned over the lives of 36 patients, who suffer from Leukemia in the Gaza Strip, due to not receiving the necessary treatment they need for 8 months. PCHR is concerned these patients may have serious complications leading to death if they do not receive their treatment immediately. PCHR calls upon President Mahmoud Abbass to promptly intervene to save the lives of these patients and to instruct the Ministry of Health in Ramallah to supply the medicine needed for these patients as soon as possible.

According to PCHR's follow-up, the suffering of the patients of Leukemia, which is a serious cancerous disease that affects blood cells, started in December 2012 when the medicine (Glivec 400 mg tab) fully ran out in the blood section pharmacy at Shifa Hospital. As a result, the patients have not received their medical treatment since then. Doctors in charge stated that this medicine is the sole treatment for Leukemia patients and not receiving this treatment would cause complications and put the patients’ lives at risk. It should be noted that the medicine is only available through the Ministry of Health in Ramallah and cannot be found in medical warehouses or private pharmacies in the Gaza Strip to save the patients' lives.

As part of PCHR's follow-up of the patients' conditions, PCHR's Legal Aid Unit addressed the Ministry of Health in Ramallah on 16 April 2013 and explained the conditions of Leukemia patients in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the unit called upon the Minister of Health to urge the competent bodies to immediately send the medicine to the Gaza Strip patients. On 30 April 2013, the Pharmacy Department at the Ministry of Health in Ramallah responded that the medicine is available at the central wheelhouses in Ramallah and that coordination was being done to send it to the patients. However, the quantity of (Glivec 400 mg tab) that reached the pharmacy in June and for once was very limited. The quantity amounted to 210 tablets that can help treating 7 patients only for one month. However, patients in the Gaza Strip need approximately 1,600 tablets a month. Consequently, the Leukemia patients have been deprived of that medicine, which is the sole treatment for them, and not receiving it would cause serious health complications.

Israel has never withheld medicine from Gaza. But apparently Mahmoud Abbas does.

PCHR doesn't bother to mention that while both Abbas' PLO seems to have no problem getting money to pay terrorists in jail, and while Hamas manages to buy rockets and anti-tank missiles, neither of them can find the money needed to save Palestinian Arab lives.

Which pretty much tells you everything right there.

If an appeal for leukemia medicine for Gazans would be made in synagogues this coming Saturday, the meds would be there next week. Yet this was posted on PCHR in late July and there were almost no stories about it in the Arab media.

Somehow the Arab world doesn't seem to care about dying Palestinian Arabs if their deaths cannot be blamed on Jews.

Israel, Cyprus, Greece sign MOU on energy and water

A great followup to my earlier post on the political issues of Israel distributing natural gas:

CYPRUS, ISRAEL and Greece will sign a “historic” memorandum of understanding (MOU) on energy and water issues today, paving the way for the further strengthening of relations between the three countries.

Speaking after a meeting with Agriculture Minister Nicos Kouyialis in Nicosia on Wednesday, Israeli Minister of Energy and Water Resources Silvan Shalom described today’s signing of the memorandum between the three countries as a “historical moment”, as it was the first of its kind between the three countries.

On the initiative of Cypriot Energy and Trade Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis, Shalom and Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Yiannis Maniatis are in Nicosia to discuss issues concerning tripartite and regional cooperation in the energy sector, including protection of the environment from offshore hydrocarbon activities and connecting the electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus and Greece through submarine power cables.

The signing of the MOU on energy and water collaboration, due today, shows how far the three countries have come in terms of cooperation, said Shalom. Relations are better than ever, he said, adding that the MOU will enable the three countries to strengthen relations even further.

“The fact that we are here shows that we do not only work well on (issues concerning) water, but it’s also about geopolitics, strategy and political issues between the three countries,” he said.

Shalom and Kouyialis yesterday held a bilateral meeting to discuss water development, management and protection.

The Israeli minister hailed the meeting as an indication of the good relations enjoyed between Israel and Cyprus these days, adding, “I believe we can do more”.

He spoke of a “big change” in relations and the “good will between the two sides” to help one another.

Enhanced relations between the two countries was also a major theme of President Nicos Anastasiades’ speech at the opening of a fifth desalination plant, which Israeli companies had helped build, near Limassol last night.

Anastasiades said energy cooperation between Israel and Cyprus, given their common interests in the exploration and exploitation of significant natural resources, could “become the driving force for an enhanced partnership between our two countries”.

Given the government’s determination to move ahead with the construction of an LNG plant, he invited Israel “to seriously consider committing to exporting Israeli gas” from the Cypriot LNG facility.

“This is all the more pertinent if one takes into account that Cyprus is perhaps Israel’s most stable partner in the region. In addition, our proximity to the Suez Canal is an important factor favouring the creation of a regional energy hub in Cyprus for the transportation of natural gas from Eastern Mediterranean countries, not only to Europe, but also to the Far East,” said Anastasiades.

It's really funny how Iran pretends that Israel is the most isolated country in the world in light of deals like this.

(h/t Professor Pelotard)

8/08 Links Part 2: Turning the Negev into the 'Israeli Silicon Valley, Followup on anti-Israel "Donald Duck"

From Ian:

Why this Christian Supports Israel By: Gary Bauer

The people of Israel love what we Americans love and honor what we Americans honor. Israel is built on the rule of law. Its Declaration of Independence is modeled after ours. We are joined at the heart.
The only memorial in the Middle East to honor the three thousand innocent Americans brutally murdered on the morning of 9/11 is in Israel. As crowds in the West Bank and Gaza rushed into the streets to celebrate the murderous attack on America, Israelis mourned with us, lowered their flag as we lowered ours, and wept with us.

A three part series on BDS by Steve Apfel at The Commentator.

Israel boycotters: A Kabbalistic mission
Part 1. of a 3 part series on the whys and wherefores of Israel boycotters
Israel boycotters: La Trahison des clercs
Part 2. of a 3 part series on the whys and wherefores of Israel boycotters
Israel boycotters: The goose and the golden egg
Part 3. of a 3 part series on the whys and wherefores of Israel boycotters

CIF Watch: Irish Times report includes false claim about BDS impact on Jerusalem Light Rail

However, his claim that Veolia withdrew from the Jerusalem consortium appears to be flatly untrue. As a fact sheet on Veolia’s website, and even posts on pro-BDS sites such as ‘Who Profits?’ (a project of Coalition of Women for Peace) make clear, Veolia has NOT ended its involvement with the consortium.
Additionally, while the company has indicated its wish to eventually sell its 5% share, McDonald’s passage misleadingly implies that Veolia’s calculations are based on the political pressure by BDS activists, a charge flatly denied by the company and contradicted by a recent report in Globes, which included the following:

More BBC whitewashing of ‘Al Quds Day’

That rally was as usual organized by the Iranian regime-linked ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission’ – a registered charity whose chair, Massoud Shadjareh, has been quoted and promoted by the BBC on numerous occasions over the years. The event was also supported by various non-Shiia bodies and non-Muslim organisations such as the ‘Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign’, ‘Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods’ – one of the founders of which, Tony Greenstein, has appeared on BBC programmes – and the ‘Stop the War Coalition’ – members of which are also to be found not infrequently as guests of the BBC.
In contrast to the curious little local custom – odd, but harmless – which this BBC article tries to make Al Quds day out to be, it is in fact a well-organised, well-funded vehicle for promoting racist hatred and glorifying terrorism. BBC audiences are entitled to expect to read the truth about it rather than Ardalan’s insipid, almost anthropological, whitewash.

Israel: For now, no pacts with EU due to West Bank rules

The ministers “did not make a decision specific to Horizon 2020,” a government source told The Times of Israel on Thursday, “but they all agreed that the new EU guidelines are detrimental to the possible success of the peace talks with the Palestinians.”
The ministers also agreed that “Israel will be unable to sign additional agreements [with the EU] that include the stipulations the EU is demanding. The government of Israel will seek clarifications from the EU regarding the territorial clause,” the official said.

Major German daily publishes anti-Israeli cartoon

A major German newspaper on Wednesday published an anti-Israeli caricature likening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an evil character from an anti-Nazi song. The cartoon raised serious concerns among Jews in Germany and beyond, who have demanded that the paper apologize.
In Wednesday’s Stuttgarter Zeitung, Netanyahu is seen sitting on a park bench, pouring poison from a bottle labeled “settlement construction” over a piece of bread which he apparently intends to feed to a peace dove. The cartoon caption references a 1938 anti-Nazi song by the Jewish Austrian-American composer and performer Georg Kreisler called “Pigeon Poisoner.”

Obama asked to raise anti-Semitism with Greek PM

Elisa Massimino, the president and CEO of the US-based group, urged Obama in a two-page letter Tuesday to ask Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during their meeting on Thursday to “speak out more forcefully to counteract the negative anti-Semitic and xenophobic discourse.”
The letter specifically pointed to the political party Golden Dawn, which holds 7 percent of the seats in the Greek parliament, noting “its representatives use Nazi symbols, have praised German Nazi leaders in the past, and have engaged in blatantly xenophobic rhetoric.”

Disney Claims ‘Anti-Israel Donald Duck’ is ‘Not Currently Under Contract,’ No Comment on Future Employment

The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday tried to distance itself from an Egyptian voice over artist who calls himself the “official voice of Donald Duck in the Middle East” and who caused an online firestorm this week after he published anti-Israel and anti-Zionist remarks on Twitter.
Wael Mansour, whose Twitter tirade surprised Disney executives while the company, which owns the rights to Donald Duck, was preoccupied with presenting its third quarter results this week, is an outside subcontractor who has no affiliation with the parent company, a spokesman for Disney in Europe and the Middle East told The Algemeiner.

Despite losing wife to terror attack, Chabad envoy returns to India

Only nine months ago, during Operation Pillar of Defense, Rabbi Shmuel Scharf's wife, Mira, was killed when a Hamas rocket struck their home in Kiryat Malachi. Now, about a month before the Jewish High Holy Days commence, Shmuel is going back to India with his kids, where he will once again serve as the director of New Delhi's Chabad House.
Scharf, who was injured along with his children during the rocket attack, is moving to India against the advice of psychologists, who believe it would be premature to resume his activities as a Chabad emissary. But Scharf, having largely recuperated from the attack, says he must pick up from where he and his wife left off.

Israel’s Compugen inks $10 million Bayer deal

Tel Aviv-based Compugen, a drug discovery company focused on therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies to address unmet needs in immunology and oncology, is getting $10 million at the start of a major collaboration and license agreement with Bayer HealthCare.
Their joint preclinical research program aims to research, develop and commercialize antibody-based therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy against two novel “immune checkpoint regulators” discovered by Compugen.

AOL Pays $405 Million for Israeli-Founded Adap.tv

Adap.tv, which is now based in San Mateo, California, was founded by Israeli start-up veteran CEO Amir Ashkenazi, Dan Klein and CTO Teg Grenager in 2006, and its investors include Gemini Israel Ventures, as well as US funds Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners, Israeli’s Globes business newspaper reported.
Adap.tv will operate independently as part of AOL’s video department and it will be included in the overall solution packages offered by AOL Networks to its publisher and advertiser partners.

Netanyahu: Negev will become the Israeli Silicon Valley

According to the current timetable, the IDF's Communication Corps compound will be transferred from central Israel to the new Negev complex next year. The IDF's intelligence compound is set to move to the Negev in 2018, and with it 30,000 personnel of which 6,000 are career servicemen.
"The IDF's move to the Negev represents an unprecedented maneuver in its scope and economic, social and cultural impact. The completion of the maneuver will see the Negev turn into the 'Israeli Silicon Valley,'" Netanyahu said.

The political roadblocks of Israel exporting gas have little to do with Arab/Israel conflict

Reuters reports:

A group of energy companies that discovered large amounts of natural gas off Israel's Mediterranean coast said they were in talks to export the gas to Europe via a pipeline to Turkey.

They are also studying options to export gas to Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Avner Oil & Gas said on Tuesday.

"The partners are negotiating with various officials," Avner, one of the partners in the project, said.

A spokesman for Delek Group, the parent company for Avner and for Delek Drilling, said the group - led by Noble Energy - was already in advanced talks with companies in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority about buying Israeli gas and building pipelines.

As always, there are some hitches. World Bulletin reports:

An Egyptian energy official has dismissed reports saying that the country is in talks with Israeli energy companies for gas imports and possible pipeline projects.

On Tuesday, Avner Oil & Gas, leading a group of energy companies that discovered large amounts of natural gas off Israel's Mediterranean coast, said that they were in talks to export the gas to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. The talks, the company said, also covered the possibility of building pipelines to help export the gas to Europe.

However, Taher Abdel-Rahim, chairman of the Egyptian Gas Holding Company (EGAS), which runs Egypt's gas pipeline network, dismissed the claims.

"We have not made such negotiations and will not go into talks in the meantime with any international companies about such proposals," Abdel-Rahim said.

Abdel-Rahim said such deals cannot be completed without the knowledge of his company.

But the real issue isn't the Arab/Israeli conflict - so far I have not seen any pushback from Jordan or the PA about buying Israeli gas - but from political issues in other parts of the Mediterranean:

What form should those exports take? One early idea was a pipeline to Turkey. Great. Turkey is nearby; it’s a booming market that is expected to see demand grow from 43.5 bcm in 2012 to around 60 bcm in 2020; and it favors diversity of sources. Moreover, at present, its only completed agreement to cover the extra 16-17 bcm/y of gas it needs to import (and, since domestic production is minimal, its increase in demand is tantamount to an increase in imports), is for 6 bcm to come from Azerbaijan, starting in 2018-19.

But that’s a political minefield. The foreign ministry likes the idea because it would help improve ties with an important neighbor. But it still has no clear answer to the question as to whether maritime boundary issues first must be settled–or even a full solution of their 40-year Cyprus dispute.

The reason is that waters to the east of Cyprus (if not actually Lebanese or Syrian), may be Cypriot in international law, but in practice a good part of any route taken by a pipeline from Israel to Turkey to the east of Cyprus would have to pass through waters controlled not by the Government of Cyprus but by the self-proclaimed breakaway state which calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

As for a possible line to the west of Cyprus, that would need to pass through waters that are even more diplomatically murky. The problem here is that Greece, Turkey and Cyprus have yet to state, let alone agree, just what they consider their respective Exclusive Economic Zones to be in this area. Judging by maps produced by Turkish and Greek analysts, any formal claims would be fundamentally incompatible, with Turkey likely to argue that its EEZ would have a common boundary with Egypt’s EEZ; Cyprus would looking to support prospective Greek claims that Greece and Cyprus share a common EEZ boundary. Perhaps it is just as well that neither Athens nor Ankara seem to wish to oppress this point at present. After all , they’ve been arguing over their maritime boundaries in the Aegean for half a century, with no solution in sight.

Some Turkish sources have suggested the simplest solution would be to lay a subsea line from the Israeli and Cypriot fields to southern Cyprus, then run an overland pipe to northern Cyprus, followed by a subsea line across to Turkey. In terms of cost, and engineering, they are almost certainly right. It’s just that laying a pipe from southern Cyprus to the north is politically improbable, and perhaps impossible, in the absence of a solution to the underlying Cyprus problem.

As for various occasional suggestions that Cyprus and Israel might want to look at a pipeline to Greece, this not only poses similar problems, unless a route can be found through Egypt’s EEZ, but it’s also extremely complex, requiring state of the art technology to lay pipes at depths as great as 3000 metres. It thus can be ruled out on grounds of cost, unless, of course, Greece itself finds gas at some convenient intermediate location.

The writer concludes that the only way to make this work is to build a liquefied natural gas plant, one that Israel and Cyprus could both use. LNG can be shipped anywhere. But that has problems as well:

So it looks to be LNG. That’s certainly the goal of the memorandum of understanding signed with the government of Cyprus on June 26 by the Delek Group and Noble Energy, the companies currently developing the major offshore gasfields discovered so far in both Israeli and Cypriot waters. The MoU aims to put in place the basic terms of a formal agreement to develop a joint two-train LNG plant at Vasilikos on the southern coast of Cyprus, with operations to start in 2018-19.

Can Noble and its partners pull this off? No government has yet approved the construction of an LNG plant primarily designed to serve its own resources but to be located in another country. This may be the first time it happens. There are still options for Israel to go it alone, but that would require building an LNG plant in Israel itself, which, given its limited Mediterranean coastline, would be likely to cause serious environmental protests; or to develop floating LNG, already criticized for constituting an obvious target for missile attack from Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

Maybe it makes sense for Israel to build its own LNG plant just so it can not have to worry about any future political issues with Cyprus. It certainly would seem to be the most flexible solution giving Israel the most freedom to sell to whom it wants without worrying about the conduits being attacked.

Even so, it is funny to see that that from the perspective of building a pipeline from Israel to Turkey and Europe, the existing political minefield seems to be more intractable than any issues Israel has with its Arab neighbors!

Egyptian op-ed reminds readers that Jews are the real enemy

Al Mesryoon has an op-ed called "Have we forgotten the Zionist Snake?"

With all the turmoil in the Middle East, and especially how Egypt went from perceiving Hamas from being an ally to being an enemy, Egyptians need to remember who the real enemy is, according to Hisham al-Najjar.

He helpfully informs us that "The Zionist industry plots and feeds coups and wars and strife; and students of history know that they are responsible for most of the degradations in the world of pain and the killing of millions and unrest throughout the ages, which reached its peak in past four centuries."

You see, the French Revolution was started by Jews (here he discards the awkward "Zionist" label.) Same with the Russian Revolution.

Similarly, today "the Zionist snake" is presenting itself as a peace-loving friend of the Arab world while it schemes to destroy everything, and is hatching plots to incite hatred and cause strife and unrest and coups.

Everyone needs a gentle reminder of the big picture, and Jew-hatred is about as uncontroversial a position as one can take in Egypt nowadays.

8/08 Links Part 1: Oren Slams NYTs for Dehumanizing Israeli Victims, Bankrupting Hamas

From Ian:

Lionizing Palestinian Stone-Throwers

Only in passing, from an Israeli woman who lives nearby, did Rudoren note that “a man and his 1-year-old son” were killed in a stoning attack. Indeed, not two years ago, on the same Road 60 that bisects Beit Ommar, 24-year-old Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan, driving to meet his pregnant wife, were murdered by stones hurled by two Palestinians. Smashing the windshield (crushing Asher’s face and fracturing his skull), they caused the car to crash. One of the killers was sentenced to two life terms and an additional fifty-eight years in prison. So much for stoning assaults, which Rudoren referred to as “a rite of passage and an honored act of defiance” – and a “game.”
As for the settlements that the Times so loves to hate, the unique and distinguished history of Gush Etzion (the bloc of communities that surround Beit Ommar), should be noted (but wasn’t). Unlike the overwhelming majority of Jewish settlements, built in the years following the Six-Day War in the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, Gush Etzion has a longer history. First established in 1927 as a community of Yemenite immigrants and a sprinkling of ultra-Orthodox Jews, it was destroyed in the 1929 Arab riots, during which 67 Jews in the nearby ancient Jewish city of Hebron were brutally murdered.

Israel Ambassador Oren Slams New York Times Article on Palestinian Rock-Throwers; Says it ‘Dehumanized’ Israeli Victims

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, responded sharply to a New York Times article published Tuesday, that favorably depicted Palestinian Arab youths who throw stones at Israelis.
“While Palestinian protagonists are described in detail, their Israeli victims are largely dehumanized ‘settlers’ — no name, age or gender,” Oren writes in a letter- to-the-editor published by the paper.

Gaza Terrorists Fire Qassam at Southern Israel

Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a Qassam rocket towards the Eshkol Regional Council on Wednesday night.
The rocket exploded in an open region, causing no physical injuries or damages. Local residents said that the “Red Alert” warning siren had not gone off before the rocket exploded.

Jonathan Schanzer: Bankrupt Hamas

Since Morsi’s ouster, the military has been unleashed: It has arrested at least 29 Brotherhood financiers, including at least one significant contributor to Hamas’s coffers, according to a senior Israeli security official. It has also reportedly deployed 30,000 troops to the Sinai and purportedly destroyed roughly 800 of the 1,000 tunnels connecting Egypt to Gaza. Ala al-Rafati, the Hamas economy minister, recently told Reuters that these operations cost Hamas $230-million — about a tenth of Gaza’s GDP.
All of this presents U.S. Secretary of State Kerry with a rare opportunity to try to hasten the group’s financial demise. And it is in his interest to do so. The group, after all, carried out suicide bombings against Israeli civilian targets in the 1990s to torpedo the peace process. It’s a fair bet that Hamas will launch a new campaign of violence now that talks are ramping back up.

Letter Circulating in Congress Asks Qatar to Sever Hamas Ties

Qatar reportedly pledged more than $400 million to Hamas in October 2012 during a visit to Gaza by Qatar’s ruling emir at the time, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The U.S. House letter, which was organized by U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and John Barrow (D-GA) and had been circulating in the House since last month, said the Qatari government’s support of Hamas “empowers, legitimizes, and bolsters an organization committed to violence and hatred.”

Israel lets Arab Idol winner move to West Bank

Guy Inbar, an Israeli military spokesman, confirmed on Tuesday that Israel has granted West Bank residency to Assaf, his sister, brother-in-law and the couple’s three children. Inbar said Israel responded to a request by the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based self-rule government of President Mahmoud Abbas.
When Assaf won the Arab Idol contest in Beirut in June, the charismatic performer became a symbol of Palestinian pride, and Abbas embraced him as a national hero.
In contrast, the Islamic militant Hamas rulers of Gaza gave Assaf a cool reception when he briefly visited Gaza after his win. Hamas views contests such as Arab Idol as frivolous and opposes them on religious grounds.

Erekat to US Representative: PA curriculum not perfect, but working on teaching mutual respect

No group on earth has been subjected to more discrimination and hate than the Jews, and the US will not fund curriculum in the Palestinian Authority that does not teach tolerance and mutual respect, US Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said on Wednesday.
Hoyer, leading a massive delegation of 36 Democratic US congressman, said this issue was the first one he broached during a meeting Wednesday in Ramallah with PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Palestinians riot in Jenin after terror activist’s arrest

Dozens of Palestinians rioted in response to the IDF’s arrest Wednesday morning of an Islamic Jihad leader in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
At least 150 protesters threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and burning tires at the soldiers throughout the raid of the Palestinian activist’s home, an IDF spokeswoman told The Times of Israel. The IDF responded with riot-control munitions, including tear gas canisters, the spokeswoman said.

Egypt a Battleground for Hamas, Fatah Feuding

Egypt has emerged as a battlefield between the Hamas and Fatah terror groups in their ongoing struggle for control of the Palestinian Authority, according to a top Palestinian Authority academic.
Adnan Abu Amer, writing on the web site AlMonitor, addressed accusations by Hamas that top PA officials collaborated to blacken Hamas' reputation among Egypt's military leaders, saying that such reports were at least partially confirmed by documents seized by Hamas from a Fatah operative.

Egyptian crisis puts fearful Christians in a corner

It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting “Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians.” A half-dozen kids were spray-painting “Boycott the Christians” on walls, supervised by an adult.
While Islamists are on the defensive in Cairo following the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi, in Assiut and elsewhere in Egypt’s deep south they are waging a stepped-up hate campaign, claiming the country’s Christian minority somehow engineered Morsi’s downfall.

Islamists Raise Al Qaeda Flag Over Coptic Church in Egypt

According to Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based Coptic human rights organization that cited a local Egyptian report in Shorouk News, the Islamists chanted that Egypt should be an “Islamic [state] despite [the wishes of] secularists.” The church immediately closed its doors after the demonstration and prevented the entry or exit of its members.
Additionally, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters surrounded a church in the Egyptian city of Girga to denounce Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros and his support for the interim military-backed government.

Saudi Arabia tries to woo Russia away from Syria with arms deal

Saudi Arabia offered to buy billions of dollars worth of arms from Russia in return for a Moscow commitment to ease its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and to not block any future United Nations Security Council resolutions against the Damascus regime.
According to a Wednesday report from Reuters, based on several unnamed sources from across the Middle East, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan made the proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two met in Moscow last week.
Syrian opposition sources claim Bandar offered to buy $15 billion worth of weapons and also pledged to ensure that Gulf gas producers will not challenge Russia’s position as the leading gas supplier to Europe.

Satellite images show Aleppo devastation

Satellite images have laid bare the suffering inflicted on Syria’s largest city, a London-based rights group said Wednesday, cataloging hundreds of damaged or destroyed houses and more than 1,000 roadblocks.
Amnesty International said it had worked with the American Association for the Advancement of Science to analyze pictures of Aleppo taken by aerospace imagery providers DigitalGlobe and Astrium for signs of destruction in the metropolis, which has been the scene of months of vicious fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels fighting to topple him.

How the EU Empowers Hezbollah's "Military Wing"

By preserving contact with, and funding of, Hezbollah's "political wing," without substantial measures against its "military wing," the EU not only sanitizes and legitimizes Hezbollah's "political" leadership, but also also legitimizes the entire terror group as an important actor in both Lebanese politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Even the European media have been puzzled at the EU's decision to bolster one side of the terror group while symbolically -- though not practically -- punishing the other side. An editorial in The Times noted, "It is implausible to believe that Hezbollah's political organisation is sealed from its terrorist wing. These are one entity, not two. Hezbollah comprises a murder gang and a public relations front."

Analysts: New Iran Site May be Used to Test Ballistic Missiles

Iran has built a new rocket launch site which is likely to be used for testing ballistic missiles, military analysts publishing satellite images of the structure told the British Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
Pictures of the newly discovered site have been published weeks after the Iranian government said it was building new space launch bases for its domestic satellite program.

Iran Christian Sentenced To 10 Years Jail For Evangelical Activities

Mohammad-Hadi (Mostafa) Bordbar, a 27-year-old resident of the city of Rasht, was "tried by Judge Pir-Abbasi on the morning of June 9, 2013 in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran," amid a wider government crackdown on spreading Christianity in Iran said Mohabat News, an agency of Iranian Christian and activists.
Bordbar, who has been detained since December 27, 2012, received a five-year jail sentence for "membership of an anti-security organization" and an additional five years for "gathering with the intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security," according to published court documents.

The Turkish saga

The pugnacious Erdogan now aims to run for president, since he cannot continue for another term as prime minister. Accordingly, he aims to change the rules of the game and make the presidency more potent.
Those urban Turks who are relatively Europeanized have cause for concern.
As Peres opined all those years ago, the Middle East demolishes clichés. In this region liberal secularists put their trust in the military, whereas the forces of Islam are its hardly democratic adversaries. Chipping away at the military hierarchy – to say nothing of eliminating it – bolsters the fundamentalists and brings theocracy ever closer.
No alternative is democratic, but the West – Israel included – needs to decide with whom it would rather do business, or with whom it can do business.

Was the Lebanon incident injuring 4 IDF soldiers an ambush?

From AFP:

Two blasts that wounded four Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon were in fact an "ambush" set by Hezbollah, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday.

The explosions hit the patrol on Wednesday when the troops ventured 400 meters into south Lebanon, parts of which are controlled by the powerful Shiite movement.

"The enemy blundered when they violated the border with Lebanon, and fell into a trap that only the resistance could set," said the newspaper, which has links to Hezbollah.

"Only Hezbollah can make bombs that blow up Israelis" when they pass by, it said.

Hezbollah, which has close ties to Iran and the regime in Syria, is considered Israel's arch-foe, and the two fought a brief but bloody summer war in 2006.

"The Israeli unit fell into a well-set ambush and the enemy found itself faced with a difficult question: 'How did Hezbollah know we were there?'" the daily wrote.

"The ambush is a dangerous failure for the enemy because it shows that Hezbollah has an intelligence structure that allows it to know when a patrol arrives, its route and to set a trap for it," it added.

"That means the resistance is prepared for every eventuality, in case of confrontation on a wider scale or in case of a general conflict."

The Lebanese army said four Israeli soldiers were wounded by explosions 400 meters inside Lebanese territory.

Israel's military confirmed the toll without specifying what side of the border the soldiers were on as they were "carrying out nocturnal activities in the Lebanese border area when the explosion occurred".

The soldiers were members of an elite unit, Israeli public radio reported.

A UN officer in the area said the 10-strong Israeli unit withdrew taking their wounded with them, as troops on the Israeli side of the border fired flares to aid their exit.

The barbed wire marking the border had been cut, an AFP correspondent reported, and the two blasts occurred in a pine forest several hundred meters into Lebanon.

I read this as Hezbollah observed under what circumstances the IDF troops would enter Lebanon and it created those same circumstances to ambush them.

If so, even though troops were injured, the operation must be regarded as a failure, because the usual goal is to take soldiers hostage. Even if the goal was to start an incident to anger Lebanese citizens and redirect their anger from Hezbollah to Israel, it didn't work, based on what I am reading in Lebanese papers..

Lebanese media report that it was an ordinary mine explosion. If so, then perhaps Hezbollah is simply trying to take credit for dumb luck, although it seems unlikely the IDF would have soldiers walking in a minefield without adequate protection.

Soccer player stunt "like an Egyptian bomb in Tel Aviv"

From soccer site 101 Great Goals:

Last week, during Basel’s home match against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League, Basel’s star winger, Egyptian Mohamad Salah, went to great lengths to avoid shaking hands with his Israeli opponents.

Salah positioned a pair of boots on the side of the pitch and avoided the pre-match handshakes under the pretense of changing his orange Adidas footwear.

That incident went viral, and ahead of the return leg in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night there had been planty of chatter whether Salah would even be arriving in the Jewish land for political reasons.

In the end Salah did turn up in Israel, despite telling reporters before the match:

In my thoughts I am going to play in Palestine and not Israel, and I am also going to score and win there. The Zionist flag won’t be shown in the Champions League.

As it turned out, Salah’s pre-match predictions played out according to his word. The Egyptian scored Basel’s second goal in a thrilling 3-3 draw, which saw the Swiss club knock out Maccabi 4-3 on aggregate.

Salah’s behaviour before the match in Tel Aviv also drew plenty of attention as, once again, the Basel player fudged the pre-game handshake pomp.

Rather than shaking his opponents hands like normal, Salah devised a trick to get around the customarily duty as he gave a fist-bump to the Maccabi players as he walked down the line.

Many reports in the Arab world seem to be celebrating Salah’s innovative way of not shaking the Maccabi Tel Aviv player’s hands, however these days it could be argued that a fist-bump is a normal method of displaying a greeting in public.

Will UEFA investigate this shocking lack of sportsmanship from the Egyptian?

Egyptian newspaper El Fagr described what Saleh did in heroic terms, even though he was the first Egyptian player to appear in Israel in nearly twenty years.

The newspaper's choice of an analogy to describe this so-called heroism?

A terrorist attack.

The headline says "Egyptian 'bombs' in the middle of Tel Aviv cause devastation."

The accompanying photo shows an Israeli flag being burned.

The article says that Saleh's actions "succeeded in landing several blows, like Egyptian bombs destroying central Tel Aviv." It adds that his actions were "a horrible nightmare that destroyed the Zionists."

It also said that his playing, coming during Ramadan, reminded the Israelis of the Egyptian "defeat of the Zionists" in the Yom Kippur War, which also occurred during Ramadan.

Yes, "moderate" Egypt considers a soccer player's antics to be as great as a major terror attack in Tel Aviv. Which says quite a bit about Egypt.