Those pesky red lines (ElderToon)

The Arab world notices very quickly when the US makes a promise and then ignores it. And irrespective of the wisdom of making such statements to begin with, the loss of respect for the US has consequences for generations to come.

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How Technion dips an apple in honey (VIDEO)

I was hoping for something more robotic, but still cute:

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Turkish police beat, threaten to rape detainees

From Hurriyet Daily News, during the Gezi demonstrations, but I don't recall seeing it anywhere:

What you will read below is extremely disturbing. It is the firsthand impressions of a Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) University student who was detained by police in connection with the Gezi Park incidents in Istanbul.

The entry you will read below came through the Internet. It was on the Facebook page of the person narrating. It was also in Hürriyet columnist Yalçın Bayer’s web version of his column. It was sent to Yalçın Bayer by Professor Işık Aytaç, again from Bosphorus University, as the account of her student Erkan Yolalan, who shared his story on his Facebook page....

“Last night (June 3, 2013) around 9 p.m. I was detained in Beşiktaş, at traffic lights on Barbaros Avenue. I was not involved in any action like swearing or throwing stones. They took me in bending my arm the moment they saw me. Some friends of mine saw on TV how I was taken into custody. Then hell began.

“After crossing the lights in the direction of the seaside, while I was at the edge of the platform where the IETT bus stops are at the seaside, any policeman who was there and any riot police squad member (çevik kuvvet) who saw me started kicking and punching me. For about 100-150 meters, in other words, all the way to the Kadıköy ferry station, whoever was present there was kicking and punching. Insults and curses such as ‘Are you the ones to save this country, mother f***, sons of ****,’ never ended. I could not count how many people hit me before I reached the detention bus.

“Just as I was taken near the buses, a few policemen called from behind a bus, ‘Bring him here.’ They took me behind the bus and started kicking and punching me there. I learned later that because of the cameras they took me behind the bus to beat me.

“When I was inside the detention bus (İETT) the lights were out, and I heard a girl’s voice begging inside the bus: ‘I did not do anything, sir.’ I could not even see who was hitting me as I was taken inside the bus and after I was in the bus. The only thing I was able to do in the dark was to cover my head. Curses and insults continued. I sat. Everyone who was passing near me was hitting me. I got up and went to a corner. They wanted me to take a seat again. I told them everyone who passed by was hitting me when I was seated.

They again swore, slapped and punched me and made me sit.

“They were hitting the girl and throttling her. A civilian policeman whose name is İsmail said exactly this to the girl, ‘I will bend you over and f*** you right now.’ [He – Erkan Yolalan- later added that this policeman İsmail also said, “Now that it is dark and the lights are off I will ****”]

“And the response of the girl was heartbreaking. With a low voice, she could only say ‘Yes, sir.’

“And next, we, the three people present at the bus, were forced to shout: ‘I love the Turkish police. I love my country.’ They made us yell this again and again ordered us to make it ‘louder, louder.’ The insults and beating did not come to an end.

“The atmosphere seemed a bit calmer, but this time they brought another young person. The guy’s nose was broken. When I asked him why he didn’t protect his face, he told me ‘Two people held me by force and a third person punched my nose three times.’ From time to time there were others brought in.

“A young person named Mustafa from Bahçeşehir University was brought then. Twenty policemen from the riot squad had attacked him, and he looked too weak even to stand up. Slapping and punching him near the detention bus was not enough for them, they hit his head with a helmet. That was not enough either, they hit his head on the bus window. They took him inside the bus while continuously hitting him. His hands were cuffed from behind; his head was bleeding; they made him sit on the floor.
[...]

“Once we were at the police station, an army of lawyers was waiting for us. And the policemen now were talking to us on polite terms.

The columnist goes on to predict what will happen:

Note to international readers: Do you know what will happen? This person Erkan will be terrorized with scores of lawsuits filed against him by the policemen in question, all testifying that he attacked them first. The public prosecutor will process these cases much faster, even before the cases against them begin. Collecting the evidence will take ages. The guy and all the others on that detention bus and any others testifying for him will be found guilty and will be given jail sentences. Earmark this paragraph for future reference.

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8/21 Links Part 2: Best of Latma Pt 2, PA Claim US Guaranteed Preconditions, Warsaw Uprising in Color

From Ian:

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Latma: Best of the Tribal Update, part 2, with closing song


Palestinian and Israeli negotiators hold clandestine talks in Jerusalem

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief envoy to peace talks, met clandestinely Tuesday morning with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, Israeli officials said. A second meeting, which took place Tuesday evening at an undisclosed location in Jerusalem, included Washington’s point man Martin Indyk, the officials said.

US letter guaranteed our preconditions, PA negotiator says

The Palestinians would not have returned to the negotiating table with Israel were it not for an American letter of assurances guaranteeing their main negotiating preconditions, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday.
In a lengthy interview with Nazareth-based A-Shams radio, Erekat said that the US had assured Palestinians in writing that talks would recognize the pre-1967 lines as the basis of a Palestinian state; would deal with all core issues (Jerusalem, refugees, borders, security and water); would take place within a six- to nine-month timetable; and would not allow for any provisional or interim solutions before a final status agreement was signed. Erekat also said that an American-Israeli agreement existed regarding settlements, but did not elaborate on its contents.

Embracing the Costanza Doctrine

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. We have now had five years of an administration whose defective instincts have resulted in consistently flawed U.S. foreign policy behavior.
I do not believe we can afford another three more years of this. President Obama and his team need to develop a new approach for dealing with foreign policy matters.
My humble suggestion is as follows -- it is time for President Obama, and his administration, to adopt the Costanza Doctrine. It comes from the television comedy show Seinfeld. The salient principle of the Costanza Doctrine is the statement -- "(i)f every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right."

Video shows IDF under attack during Jenin arrest

The IDF published footage Tuesday of an alleged Palestinian terrorist’s arrest, which took place in the West Bank city of Jenin before dawn and resulted in the death of a 22-year-old demonstrator. The grainy video appears to show bullets being fired at the Israeli soldiers prior to the shooting of Muhammad Anis, providing support to the IDF’s claim that the soldiers were threatened and, consequently, returned fire.

SWC Blasts ‘Horrific Anti-Semitic Character’ Roger Waters as ‘Disconnected From Reality’ After BDS Call During Peace Talks

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, sharply criticized Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters Tuesday after Waters “doubled down” on his support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel with a new call for supporters to embrace a “cultural boycott of Israel.”

Tom Jones Urged to Cancel Concert in 'Apartheid' Israel

Welsh singer Tom Jones, who is set to perform in Tel Aviv in October, is facing, as many others have before him, a campaign by anti-Israel activists who are calling on him to cancel the concert.
According to Wales Online, a branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a group which accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing and war crimes, has posted an online petition calling for Jones to cancel his October 26th appearance in Tel Aviv’s Nokia Stadium.

Fatah continues to glorify Saddam Hussein

One of Fatah's official Facebook pages chose to glorify Saddam Hussein recently by posting the following picture with the caption: "How many people love this hero?"
The picture got 1,439 Facebook "likes" and 111 people wrote words of praise in the comments section.
This is not the first time that Saddam Hussein has been honored by Fatah. Earlier this year, Palestinian Media Watch documented that the same Fatah Facebook page posted two pictures of Saddam Hussein portraying him as a hero:

Kiwi Jews slam 'tasteless' Nazi memorabilia auction

The auction of pre-1945 German military and Nazi items were up for bidding on Wednesday at Hayward's Auction House, according to the report.
The selection includes belts, pins, helmets and Nazi flags, the latter two which were expected to rake in between $500 and $600 for the anonymous vendor.
According to the Otago Daily Times, Australasian Union of Jewish Students Dunedin branch president Ben Isaacs responded to news of the auction, saying that the sale of anything with a swastika is harmful to the memory of those who died as a result of Nazi persecution.

Photographer apologizes for nude Jewish cemetery shoot

Polish photographer Lukasz Szczygielski has apologized for conducting a photo shoot with a half-naked model at the Jewish cemetery in the southern Polish town of Checiny.
Szczygielski explained that he wanted to draw attention to the neglected cemetery. “I wanted to draw attention to the neglect of the place. The cemetery is forgotten, he told Gazeta Wyborcza.

‘Jerusalem’ rejected as baby name

The city of Brussels refused to register the name of a locally born Israeli baby because Jerusalem does not appear on a list of approved names for children born in the country.
Hagar and Alinadav Hyman, Israelis who have lived and worked in Brussels for the last three years, decided to name their first-born Alma Jerusalem.

Kurdish-Israelis Want Representation in Upcoming Conference

The Kurds are the largest indigenous Middle Eastern nation without a state. Their homeland, Kurdistan, is currently occupied by Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. However, recent years have seen progress in the Kurdish struggle for self-determination: Kurds in Iraq enjoy autonomy under the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Kurds in Syria have secured a degree of autonomy in Syria, and Kurds in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan are currently engaged in negotiations for greater rights.

Jordanian PM: Sell future desalinated water to Israel, purchase more Kinneret water

The Kingdom of Jordan intends to sell Israel water produced by a future Jordanian desalination plant, in return for the ability to purchase an increased amount of fresh water from Israel's Kinneret reservoir, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour declared on Monday.(h/t Zvi)

What Israeli drips did for the world

When the history of the decades-old Green Revolution in Asia and Africa is written, Israel’s Netafim — the company that brought drip irrigation to the world — will be prominently featured.
Now, a new Netafim website documents how the company helped create the revolution, which enabled countries like India to greatly expand their crop yields and better feed their burgeoning populations.

Tel Aviv monument to remember homosexuals persecuted by Nazis

Tel Aviv is going ahead with a plan to install a monument to the gay community persecuted by the Nazis, memorializing thousands of homosexual men who were murdered in death camps.
The memorial is designed to be a concrete triangular slab embossed with a smaller pink triangle, reminiscent of the symbol that the Nazis forced gay men to wear on their clothes.

New Book Profiles Jewish Nazi Hunter Who Aided Capture of Auschwitz Commander Rudolph Höss

A new book, recently published, profiles a little known yet instrumental figure in the capture of notorious Nazi, head of the Auschwitz concentration camp, commander Rudolph Höss, the UK’s Daily Mail reported.
Hanns Alexander was a German-born Jew who moved to the UK in 1936, served in the British Army in World War II and, unbeknownst to many until his death in 2006, when the details of his past were revealed in a eulogy, he worked as a translator for a team of Nazi hunters in 1945 that brought Höss to trial from which he ultimately received a death sentence for his crimes against humanity.

Warsaw Uprising brought to life in stunning color film

Rebels crouch behind barricades, dodging enemy fire. Rivers of fire belch from flamethrowers. Women and children dash across bombed-out ruins. Men pull a corpse out of rubble.
The scenes are as riveting as any Hollywood war movie. But they are snippets of historical footage from the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, enhanced by modern coloring and sound techniques — and turned into a film.
The only purely fictional elements are voiceovers presenting an imagined narrative that stitches together the footage: Two brothers scour the streets of the Polish city tasked with filming the 1944 rebellion of Warsaw residents against their Nazi occupiers, commenting on what they witness, from soup kitchens to scenes of destruction.

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Al Aqsa collapse! But only in English. (UPDATE)

From the English section of the Al-Ray News Agency:

Gaza, Alray - Al-Aqsa Foundation and Cultural Heritage Organization said that an area collapsed near the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem late Tuesday.

The collapse happened near the Bab as Silsila, on the western part of the mosque, according to an eyewitness.

"It is the second collapse near the western wall in 5 years," Cum'a Usayle, an eyewitness said.

Usayle told Anadolu Agency, "The collapse has caused a deep hole there. It is dangerous for the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It poses danger especially for children and women."

No security precautions around the area have been taken by Israeli officials so far. There is also no statement about the event.

Al-Aqsa Foundation and Cultural Heritage Organization accused Israel of paving the way for demolishing the Al-Aqsa Mosque by building new settlements and digging dozens of tunnels.

Unfortunately, no photos of this collapse. I'm always amazed that none of these "eyewitnesses" ever seem to have their phones with cameras on them to document these Zionist crimes.

But certainly the Al Aqsa Foundation web page will have this story, right? Well, no, it doesn't.

Surely the Arabic al-Ray site will have more details! Um, no, they don't.

Arabic Twitter users must be in an uproar, right? Well, outside of the "OccPal" account that took the information from Al Ray - nothing. (Turkish media is also picking it up.)

Just a single, seemingly fake story. One that very possibly will be on hundreds of websites by tomorrow.

Too bad!

UPDATE: Now there are photos are the Al Aqsa Foundation site. Here's the best one:

However, this hole is not on the Temple Mount, but in someone's house nearby (they say 20 meters from the Mount, near the Chain Gate) My understanding is that Israel has been digging on the southwest corner, nowhere near any houses and not near that gate, although the older revelations of existing tunnels do pass near that point.

See also My Right Word.

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Sudanese experts are unanimous :Everything is Israel's fault

It is remarkable how many academic conferences are held in places that have no reputation for anything academic.

Experts Say Events in Egypt Resultant from Western, Zionist Interventions
Khartoum - A number of political experts and analysts were unanimous in the opinion that is the result of western and Zionist interventions aiming to curb Islamic advancement in Arab countries.

Israel is involved in the changes that have taken place in Egypt recently so as to reinforce its interest in the Queens agreement which obliges Egyptian businessmen to commit to use 15% of Israeli crude in any Egyptian industrial project, said professor Hassan Makki, a Horn of Africa Affairs Expert, speaking at a forum titled "the Egyptian crisis and its developments" at the Epistemological Pillars Center.

He went on to say that Israel, for the previous reasons, worked to eliminate Islamic rule in Egypt, to protect its projects and interests. He affirmed that Israel's interventions have eroded Egypt's leading position which it enjoyed before the year 2000.

We all remember the "Queens Agreement" for Egypt to use all that Israeli crude oil, don't we? I mean, Israel has a well-known surplus of crude, and needs to dump it somewhere, so they forced Egypt to buy it. Don't you remember? Back in 19E7, or thereabouts. Hassan Makki is an expert, after all.

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August 1948: The Arab League starts to slide into Islamism

I just found this fascinating article from the Palestine Post, August 22, 1948:

Robert Martin, who had been in the Arab States since the outbreak of the Palestine war, went to Cyprus to file dispatches on the situation which the Syrian military censors refused to pass for transmission.

He summarizes his impressions as follows:

A tragically unexpected and potentially dangerous result of the conflict in Palestine is the increasing trend among the Arabs toward meek acceptance of nationalistic, totalitarian governments. 

The Arab League was formed in 1945 to protect the independence of all Arab countries...But critics of the League believe that it is tending to become Islamic rather than Arabic.

One minor point of evidence is that the former Lebanese Foreign Minister, Kamid Frangieh, a Maronite, had never been permitted to attend a League meeting. When the League's Military Committee assembles, the Lebanese Chief of Staff, Gen. Fuad Shehab, a Christian, is barred, and his place is filled by a Moslem officer of inferior rank.

Other critics believe that the League ismoving away from its former professed ideal of promoting regional unity and democracy, and has become fundamentally a bulwark against the West. If true, the League will become the spokesman of reaction rather than of progress.

In the eyes of some Arabs, the chief offenders are the youth groups, especially the Young Men's Moslem Association and the Moslem Brotherhood, whose leaders are in part graduates of Al Azhar University. Under their guidance, Islam is tending to become more and more a retreat into the past, breaking away from everything that is Western and progressive. They preach Moslem orthodoxy, and in their minds religion and politics are inextricably entwined. They have progressed beyond the mere acceptance of the constitutional provision that "the religion of the state is Islam" and now look to the State to bar all outside thought or culture.

Self--centered and feudalistic, this concept of Islam inevitably denies the oppressed people in the Arab States any improvement in their status. For these interpreters of the revived Islam are linked up with their landlords, who are the keystones in the feudalistic family, tribal and social system.

Martin's major mistake, of course, was to attribute this pivot towards Islamism as being a reaction to Israel. (Linkage has been around a long time!) After all, even he admits that the banning of Christians from meetings was happening from the beginning of the League, and the League's apparent first decision was to boycott Jewish products - not Zionist, but Jewish - back in 1945.

Even so, his description of radical Islam of 1948 is remarkably similar to what we are seeing in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world 65 years later.

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8/21 Links Part 1: MB Creed - "Begin on Saturday, Finish on Sunday", Large Chemical Attack in Syria

From Ian:

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"Begin on Saturday, Finish on Sunday"

The Islamists have now started on Sunday: the Christians are in their crosshairs, and when they have finished, the Islamists will return to Saturday and destroy the Jews. The Zionists in Israel understand the threats of radical Islam and its intentions for their country far better than the U.S. administration will ever be able to. The Jews do not fear to show their determination and willingness to fight a life-and-death battle for their continued existence; it is that determination which has made the Islamists avoid confronting them for the present and target the Christians instead.
What is unreal are the dictates America imposes on Israel, including the demand to release convicted murderers from jail and to reach an agreement with Mahmoud Abbas, who does not have the support of the Palestinian people. This approach will lead to a Hamas takeover of the West Bank and most likely then of Jordan; and it will destroy what is left of the Christian community in Bethlehem and east Jerusalem, whose members after the Oslo Accords and the withdrawal of Israel from the territories, were killed, raped and threatened into fleeing their homes.

Peace through martyrdom: Muslim Brotherhood leader poses as a liberal at ‘Comment is Free’

Whilst Muslim Brotherhood-led attacks on Egypt’s Christians, and the burning of churches, since the July coup alone makes a mockery of such claims, it’s interesting to note that back in 2010, as one of two members of Egypt’s delegation to the Gaza flotilla, Al-Baltaji was singing a different tune concerning peace, justice and the dignity of man.
Per MEMRI: "Al-Baltaji…said at a March 2010 conference, “A nation that excels at dying will be blessed by Allah with a life of dignity and with eternal paradise.” He also said that his movement “will never recognize Israel and will never abandon the resistance,” and that “resistance is the only road map that can save Jerusalem, restore the Arab honor, and prevent Palestine from becoming a second Andalusia."

MEMRI: Saudi Author: The Arabs Were Occupiers in Andalusia; We Should Reexamine our History Books


Al Jazeera America’s First Guest: Conspiracy Theorist Stephen Walt

Walt rose to prominence as co-author of a conspiracy book about Jewish manipulation of American foreign policy and has been referred to by prominent liberal journalist Jeffrey Goldberg as someone who “makes his living scapegoating Jews.”
AJA has boasted of the additional airtime it will provide guests such as Mr. Walt — AJA will not be “cluttering the news with commercials,” said one executive — so that they may explore current events in a nuanced, balanced fashion.
Walt concluded his interview by noting that the only reason the United States provides aid money to Egypt is to placate the Jewish state.

Al-Arabiya General Manager Slams Qatar For Its Pro-Mursi Position

In an August 18 article titled "Why Is The Gulf Divided Over Egypt?," 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, the general manager of Al-Arabiya TV and a columnist for the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, attacks Qatar for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which, he says, is pushing this country towards chaos and conflict. He points out that, in taking this position, Qatar has come out against all the other Gulf states – namely Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait – who realize that the Muslim Brotherhood poses a danger to Egypt and to the region at large.

Israel Security Official Meets Egyptian Counterparts in Cairo as Shin Bet Counts 15 Sinai Terror Groups, 4 Violent

Tuesday’s meeting reflects the deepening collaboration between the two security forces over common trouble in the Sinai, where Israel’s Shin Bet security service now counts 15 Salafist terror groups operating from the desert, with four seen as being especially violent, Israel’s Haaretz daily reported, citing unnamed sources at the security agency.

Court orders Mubarak freed

An Egyptian court ordered Wednesday the release of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, but it is not yet clear if the ailing ex-leader will walk free after over two years in detention, officials said.

U.S. Denies Aid to Egypt Was Cut Off

President Barack Obama is expected to hold a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss the issue, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
"That review has not concluded and ... published reports to the contrary that assistance to Egypt has been cut off are not accurate," Earnest told reporters in a briefing.

Egypt PM says country can live without US aid

If the US does cut the $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, the country could find other supporters, but it would be “a bad sign and will badly affect the military for some time,” Beblawi said, noting that in the past “Egypt went with the Russian military for support and we survived. So, there is no end to life. You can live with different circumstances.”

Saudis Warn the West: We Won’t Forget Your Stance on Egypt

In a blunt warning to countries critical of the Egyptian military crackdown and considering suspending aid, longstanding U.S. ally Saudi Arabia suggested that the decisions they make now will have long-term consequences for their relationships in the Arab and Muslim world.
Saudi Arabia has led the way in supporting the Egyptian military’s actions, first in removing the Muslim Brotherhood administration early last month and in its subsequent steps against supporters of the ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi.

Top Brotherhood officials nabbed in continuing crackdown

The arrested Islamists include a preacher known for his fiery sermons at Muslim Brotherhood gatherings who was reportedly caught as he tried to flee to neighboring Libya in disguise, and a spokesman for Brotherhood said to be on his way to catch a flight out of the country.

Cairo’s Jews support military’s campaign

Haroun, the president of the Egyptian Jewish community, doesn’t enjoy hearing anti-Semitic slurs on the street. She gets nervous when she hears Egyptians are burning the churches of Coptic Christians, a much larger religious minority than the country’s tiny Jewish community. She assumes that most of her compatriots have forgotten there are any Jews left in Egypt.

Egyptian Catholic Church Leader Says Country in a ‘War Against Terrorism’

The ongoing turmoil in Egypt “is not a political struggle, but a war against terrorism,” the head of the Catholic Church in Egypt, Bishop Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, Patriarch of Alexandria, said in a recent statement.
“With pain, but also with hope, the Catholic Church in Egypt is following what our country is experiencing: terrorist attacks, killings and the burning of churches, schools and state institutions,” Bishop Sidrak said.

PA nabs man for selling ‘Morsi perfume’

Bdair’s brother, Abdel Fattah, said that the security agents stormed the family’s shop in Tulkarem and confiscated all the Morsi perfume bottles, in addition to a computer. The shop specializes in selling locally made fragrances for men and women.
The PA leadership in the West Bank has come out in full support of the ouster of Morsi, hailing the Egyptian army for its crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters

Egypt: We're Losing Patience with Turkey

Egypt warned Turkey on Tuesday that it was losing its patience, after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of being behind the removal of former President Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian military.
The state news agency MENA quoted Egyptian ministers as having said that Erdogan's comments aimed to divide Egyptians.
"The cabinet stresses that Egypt's patience is wearing thin," the ministers were quoted as having said.
"Egypt does not share others' enmities, and is not about to go in search of a new identity. Its Arab and Islamic nature is obvious," they added.

U.S. Slams Erdogan's Allegations of Israel's Role Ousting Morsi

White House spokesman Josh Earnest also condemned Erdogan by saying the comments were "offensive and unsubstantiated and wrong."

Liberman says Turkish PM is successor to Nazi Goebbels

“Anyone who heard Erdogan’s words, which were full of hate and incitement, understands without any doubt that we are talking about the successor to Goebbels, and his plotting is in the same vein as the Dreyfus trial and the Elders of Zion,” Liberman said Wednesday, referring to two notorious instances of anti-Semitism.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Slams Hezbollah’s Nasrallah for Supporting ‘Murderous Campaign Against the Syrian People’

“After years of stifling repression and brutal oppression, the people of the Middle East said enough is enough. Millions have poured into the streets from Benghazi to Beirut and from Tehran to Tunis. They have raised their voices for liberty, for democracy, and for opportunity,” Ambassador Prosor said. “By far, the worst instance has been Bashar al-Assad’s murderous campaign against the Syrian people.”

Top Hezbollah Official: Israeli Cities to Be Attacked with Tens of Thousands of Missiles

Senior Hezbollah member Nabil Qaouk bragged today that the Iran-backed terror group is capable of saturation bombing Israeli population centers, bragging that Israeli cities were being targeted with tens of thousands of missiles.

Rebel forces report massive death toll after Syrian chemical attack

Syrian activists close to the country’s opposition claimed hundreds of people were killed in a devastating “poison gas” attack by regime forces outside Damascus Wednesday.
The attack came as UN chemical weapons inspectors were beginning a probe of chemical weapon use in sites around Syria.
There were several differing reports on the numbers of dead. A Free Syrian Army source told Al Arabiya the death toll stood at 1,188, while the Local Coordination Committees said some 785 people were killed. A nurse at an emergency clinic in Douma told Reuters the death toll was at 213, and the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 40 were confirmed dead and the death toll could reach over 200.

Syrian Palestinians pack Lebanon refugee camp

The Palestinians are a minority among the more than 600,000 Syrian refugees who have come to Lebanon. But their stateless status as lifelong refugees now forced to flee relatively secure lives in Syria has complicated the regional humanitarian crisis. The vast majority were born in Syria, descendants of parents and grandparents who left ancestral homes in what is now Israel.
Soon after arriving here, Rania and her family were joined by Rania's sister Riham and her husband, Ammar, who abandoned his lingerie shop on Damascus' Hamra Street.
While camp residents, including several relatives, have been welcoming, the Syrian Palestinians say the garbage-strewn squalor of this and other Palestinian camps in Lebanon has stunned them.

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Hamas says Gaza is a "prison" - and it aims to keep it that way

Hamas minister Ghazi Hammad said that the continued closing of the Rafah crossing has converted Gaza into "a big prison."

One suggestion that had been made to help out at Rafah was to let the PA take over the crossing, as it did before the Hamas coup in Gaza, and according to existing agreements between Israel, the PA and the EU who had observers at the crossing. There were even rumors that an agreement had been reached. But Hamas rejected the idea, saying that this would put Israel in control of the crossing, which is unacceptable.

There was another report that the PA and Israel agreed to further open up the Erez crossing for Gazans who have a good reason to leave; they would be bused to Jericho and from there travel to Jordan and anywhere else in the world they need to go. (This might be an alternative for this Minnesota family stranded in Gaza.)

But Hamas rejected that as well:

The Hamas government in Gaza on Wednesday voiced its rejection to use the Erez crossing with Israel as an alternative to the Rafah terminal with Egypt after the latter was shut down following a deadly attack.

"The Palestinians can never accept the Erez crossing, which is under Israel's security control, as an alternative to the Rafah crossing," Ghazi Hammad, Hamas deputy foreign minister told a news conference in Gaza.

So Hamas is complaining that Gaza is a prison, but anything that might actually help Gazans escape the "prison" is unacceptable to Hamas.

If Gaza is a prison, then Hamas is the warden.

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Arab media across the board falsely saying a Jew tried to burn Al Aqsa in 1969

Wikipedia summarizes the incident:

Denis Michael Rohan (born 1 July 1941 - died 1995) was an Australian citizen who gained worldwide infamy on 21 August 1969, when he attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on 23 August 1969. He was tried, found to be insane, and hospitalized in a mental institution. On 14 May 1974, he was later deported from Israel "on humanitarian grounds, for further psychiatric treatment near his family". He was subsequently transferred to the Callan Park Hospital in Australia. In 1995, he was reported to have died under psychiatric care.

Rohan, a Christian, stated that he considered himself "the Lord's emissary" and that he tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque acting upon divine instructions to enable the Jews of Israel to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount in accordance with the Book of Zechariah, thereby hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Today is the 44th anniversary of that event, and practically every single Arab media outlet is claiming that the arsonist was Jewish.

Of course sites that are filled with overt antisemitism, like Al Watan Voice, claim Rohan was Jewish. But Ma'an News - which pretends to hold to Western journalistic standards - says Rohan was a "Jewish extremist" (in Arabic.) Jordan's Al Ghad says he was Jewish.

Ma'an separately reports that the head of the Muslim-Christian Association in Jerusalem commemorated the anniversary and also said Rohan was Jewish.

The official Palestinian Arab news agency Wafa also claims Rohan  was Jewish. As does, naturally, Hamas' Felesteen newspaper.

Respected pan-Arab Al Arabiya claims Rohan was a "Jewish extremist" as well.

Hezbollah's Al Manar is slightly more careful, calling Rohan "Zionist." And Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today - one of the better Arabic sources of news, believe it or not - calls him an "Israeli extremist."

There are literally hundreds of articles in the Arabic media today making the claim that Rohan was Jewish (or Israeli.)

This is only a small indication that Arab media has no compunction about lying. This is something Westerners find hard to believe, but it is true, and it is something they need to understand. There are no consequences for the Arab media lying; no shame in it, no watchdog organizations in the Arab world that tries to correct errors and lies. The falsehoods are endemic.

Interestingly, I did a similar survey of Arabic media in 2007 on this anniversary. At the time, while some said he was Jewish, many only implied it, while others claimed Israel itself was behind the bombing.

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What kind of a person embraces the political advice of an old rockstar? (ElderToons)

Waters recently released another anti-Israel screed pleading with his fellow LSD-addled rock star friends to boycott Israel. 

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Bubala Please - Shabbat (Video)

Definitely one of the better episodes of this web series (NSFW for language, and its halacha leaves a bit to be desired...)

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8/20 Links Part 2: The Rot of Return, Why They Hate Israel and America, A Black Stain on Whitehall

From Ian:

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The Rot of Return

If you’re looking for intelligent discourse on the matter, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Reporter Ben Lynfield plugs maximalist Palestinian demands that are rotten to the core. This Monitor dispatch is a real disservice, for several reasons.
First of all, contrary to the conventional wisdom, there’s no legal basis for the so-called “right” of return.
Secondly, any responsible article about the “right” of return has to explain its consequences for Israel, not just bury a brief Mark Regev reaction at the bottom of the story. If the more than one million registered Palestinian refugees flooded what is today the state of Israel, it would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

‘World mum on PA incitement but slams Israel on construction’

“When Israel builds in areas which everyone understands will remain part of Israel in a final-status agreement, this is somehow perceived as a problem for peace. When Palestinians indoctrinate their people with hatred for Israel, and thereby directly undermine reconciliation, this is ignored.
“What is required of leadership at this time is to prepare the public for respect and reconciliation. But what we are seeing from the Palestinians is the opposite: continued demonization, stress on maximalist goals and that Israel is an illegitimate creation that will eventually disappear.”

In classified cyberwar against Iran, trail of Stuxnet leak leads to White House

The Obama administration provided a New York Times reporter exclusive access to a range of high-level national security officials for a book that divulged highly classified information on a U.S. cyberwar on Iran’s nuclear program, internal State Department emails show.
The information in the 2012 book by chief Washington correspondent David E. Sanger has been the subject of a yearlong Justice Department criminal investigation: The FBI is hunting for those who leaked details to Mr. Sanger about a U.S.-Israeli covert cyberoperation to infect Iran’s nuclear facilities with a debilitating computer worm known as Stuxnet.

Shmuley Boteach: Why They Hate Israel and America

It’s not that imams are preaching violence, although many unfortunately do. It’s rather that they preach victimhood. America is to blame for their problems. Israel is to blame for their suffering.
Where are the Islamic leaders and clerics who are prepared to say, “We are responsible for our own problems. We are taking a great world religion and turning it insular and away from secular knowledge rather than finding the balance between the holy and the mundane. We are not empowering women to be the equals of men in all spheres.”
“We Palestinians took the largest per capita foreign aid ever given to a people and we allowed corruption and hatred of Israel to squander the funds on bombs and bullets rather than building universities and schools. We elect leaders democratically who then, like Hamas, or Muhammad Morsi, precede to dismantle democratic institutions. We see the Jews as our enemies rather than using them as an example of what we ourselves should aspire to. They returned to their land after long ago being dispersed by foreign European powers and made the desert bloom. We can surely do the same.”

Black stain on Whitehall

While British Prime Minister David Cameron publicly calls the UK a 'strong friend of Israel' and bilateral ties in trade and technology are on the rise, diplomatic and the political relationships can be more strained.
This all comes down to one thing: the deeply entrenched scepticism that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) displays towards Israel. Israeli settlement activity has been singled out as the cause of aggression by some, but it is really only one small part of a wider problem that the FCO appears to have with Israel.

Guardian staffer ponders the “Evil Trinity” of Zionists, Neo-cons and Wahabists.

An Aug. 18 Guardian report titled ‘US has lost all credibility in the Middle East, says John McCain‘, elicited 156 reader comments, including one which noted the “sharp divide” in the U.S. between pragmatists and extremists – the latter consisting of the “Evil Trinity” of “the neocon-military-corporate complex in alliance with Saudi Wahhabism and Israeli Zionism.”
Not only was the comment not deleted by moderators but, as you can see by the orange icon on the right side of the graphic, it was actually recommended by the Guardian staff.

Indy’s Matt Hill engages in cynical smear about Netanyahu and the Rabin murder

Before even fisking Moreh’s accusation, it should be noted that Hill’s claim that Bibi “helped lead the incitement against Yitzhak Rabin” is evidently based solely on one opinion by one film director that “Netanyahu made a speech in which [a couple of] protesters carried a coffin [of Rabin]“. That’s it – one protest against the Oslo Peace Process in which a protester allegedly incited against the Prime Minister.
However, even this claim has been completely deconstructed by, among others, the popular blogger Elder of Ziyon. Here are the main points:

BBC’s Marcus invents a “cloudy understanding” about Israeli building

The notion that sectarian violence in Iraq (which last month saw the highest death toll since 2008) is in any way influenced by progress – or lack of it – in peace talks between Israel and Palestinian representatives is of course absurd. The idea that Bashar al Assad will retire to write his memoirs and play golf, that strife in Egypt will be eased or that Iran will stop persecuting Bahais if only Livni and Erekat manage to sign a piece of paper is downright comic. Western diplomats – perhaps hampered by the culturally dependent notion that if there is a problem, it must have a doable solution: a premise which does not always work in the Middle East – may indeed “believe” such fairy tales, but that is no reason to promote them to the BBC’s audiences.

Roger Waters: "One Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state ..."

The incorrigible Roger Waters [formerly] of the rock group Pink Floyd, seemingly needs no excuse to deride and demonise Israel.
But famous British violinist Nigel Kennedy's remarks at the Proms (described below) have been characterised by Waters as the "inspiration" for issuing a new open letter denouncing Israeli "apartheid" and calling on fellow musicians to boycott Israel (see here for details).
Note, in this extract, the reference to pro-Israel Baroness Deech's maiden name, just in case her Jewishness might not be at once apparent (incidentally, this distinguished lady's father, Josef Fraenkel, was a renowned Yiddishist and co author of Theodor Herzl, which appeared in 1943):

Israel Second Quarter Economic Growth Exceeds Expectations

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) announced that the Israeli economy grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent in the second fiscal quarter of 2013, beating economists’ expectations.
Economists had projected 3-percent growth in the second quarter for Israel. This compares with just 2.7-percent growth in the first quarter and 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 for the Israeli economy.

Israel Puts Focus on Latin American Trade

The new effort to increase Latin American trading, particularly with Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, will compliment Netanyahu’s simultaneous effort to increase economic ties with China and other East Asian countries. These four Latin American countries formed the free-trade Pacific Alliance last year and account for about 36 percent of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP). They all trade significantly with North America.
Currently in Latin America, Brazil is Israel’s main trading partner, taking in Israeli exports at about $1.1 billion per year and importing to Israel at about $400 million per year. In June, Israeli President Shimon Peres signed a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Evogene reports success in banana disease field trial

Plant genome company Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN) and banana biotechnology company Rahan Meristem (1998) Ltd. have successfully field tested banana varieties that are resistant tolerance to Black Sigatoka (also known as Black Leaf Streak Disease), the most damaging disease threatening commercial banana plantations.
Current methods to control Black Sigatoka include the use of fungicides, which can account for 30% of a grower’s production cost and adds 15-20% to bananas' retail price. In addition to this substantial cost, frequent use of fungicides has significant adverse environmental and health effects.

Elfi-Tech selected as finalist in $2.25m Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE

Israeli medical device startup Elfi-Tech has been chosen as one of 12 finalists in the $2.25 million Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE, a global competition aimed at revolutionizing digital healthcare. The contest is comprised of two competitions that are designed to accelerate the development of sensing technologies that capture meaningful data about a consumer’s health state, surrounding environment, and risk of developing a health condition.

Small, fast and not so demanding: breakthrough in memory technologies could bring faster computing, smaller memory devices and lower power consumption

Increasingly, memory devices are a bottleneck limiting performance. In order to achieve a substantial improvement in computation speed, scientists are racing to develop smaller and denser memory devices that operate with high speed and low power consumption.
Prof. Yossi Paltiel and research student Oren Ben-Dor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Harvey M. Krueger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, together with researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, have developed a simple magnetization progress that, by eliminating the need for permanent magnets in memory devices, opens the door to many technological applications.

Israel’s dive heaven on the Red Sea

“People come from all over Europe, from the US and Canada, and a lot of South Americans,” Koretz tells ISRAEL21c. “Most have dived all over the world.”
Almost every Eilat beach has diving equipment for hire. After all, diving represents 10 percent of the tourism income in Israel’s southernmost city, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
The coral reefs just off the coast are among the most heavily used in the world for recreational diving, with 250,000 to 300,000 dives per year.

A walk through the Baha’i Gardens on Mount Carmel

It costs nothing to take a tour of the 19 perfectly manicured, terraced Baha’i Gardens covering the slope of Mount Carmel in Haifa.
Besides being a UN World Heritage Site that attracts 750,000 visitors each year, the gardens and fountains are part of the Baha’i World Center, a religious shrine for the followers of a faith that teaches beauty in diversity.
That clearly goes for plants as well as people. Catch a glimpse of some of the 450 plant species here.

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Those oppressive checkpoints making Arab lives miserable - in Lebanon

From Now Lebanon:

Notwithstanding the dramatic Roueiss car bomb and the innocent victims it caused in Dahiyeh, what many Lebanese went through in the wake of the attacks on Thursday has caused much frustration. Convoys of cars going in and out of Dahiyeh waited for hours to pass through the many fixed and mobile roadblocks manned by Hezbollah.

Since the blast, Dahiyeh has come to resemble more of a military barracks. Some residents went as far as to dub it as a prison – where Hezbollah deployed its members – the majority of whom were young men barely beyond their teenage years. These members stopped cars and passerbys without any exception, searching each vehicle they regarded as suspicious and asking each driver for identification and the reasons for entering Dahiyeh.

Indeed, entering the Hezbollah-controlled Dahiyeh has become anything but an easy feat since Thursday’s attack. Employees, shop owners, and other citizens at large were impacted by the new roadblocks. Many individuals NOW spoke with were frustrated with the new security checkpoints in Dahiyeh even though they also appreciated that these measures would protect them from future attacks.

Ali H., a shop keeper in Dahiyeh, stressed the need for both Hezbollah and the Lebanese state to spare no effort in protecting residents from the threat of “terrorists and takfiris.” Ali insisted that protecting lives is more important than having roadblocks delay traffic for an hour or even less. He argued that some hope to provoke media clamor in order to use it against Hezbollah. However, Ali wishes that more advanced methods are adopted at the road blocks including the use of police dogs, which he says will alleviate the burden of these measures for the good of Dahiyeh’s residents and visitors.

At the same time, residents questioned the usefulness of such roadblocks given the operational methods of the youths manning each station. NOW saw no evidence of armed individuals at each of the checkpoints it passed, but it also saw that each officer donned Hezbollah’s yellow armband insignia.

While many argue that pre-emptive security measures are justified following the Bir al-Abed and Dahiyeh explosions, some politicians including MP Antoine Zahra say that only the Lebanese state and its security institutions should control the country’s checkpoints. “Auto-security [by Hezbollah] is the most dangerous phase a country could reach at the brink of collapse,” Zahra told the Orient radio station earlier today.

Other than Ali, the majority of Dahiyeh shop owners with who NOW spoke with complained about the security measures following Thursday’s blast. While most shopkeepers said they welcomed protection from future attacks or explosions, they also said they do not want Dahiyeh closed off from its own people. Many also complained that no clients visited their stores following the implementation of roadblocks, noting that many people visiting the Dahiyeh fear they will stand accused by entering it.

Another resident of Dahiyeh by the name of Ali G. told NOW that motorcycles had followed him and other residents around town – later requesting their names, where they came from, and where they were heading in Dahiyeh.

Walid Q., a resident of Dahiyeh, said that his car was searched and his seats were removed at one of Hezbollah’s roadblocks. Walid said that he was then forced to head to the nearest repair shop to have his car restored to its original state.

Can't wait for the UN and EU to condemn this use of roadblocks that is strangling the residents of the area.

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Lawsuits in Egypt to cut off electricity to Gaza - and to expel the US Ambassador

Today, an Egyptian court may decide whether the country should continue to provide electricity to Gaza.

The First Circuit Court of Administrative Justice of the Egyptian State Council, headed by Judge Abdul Majid , will rule today on a lawsuit filed by lawyer Reza Albarakaoy, which called for a court ruling to stop the Egyptian export of electricity to the Gaza Strip.

The lawsuit says that Egypt exports electricity to the Gaza Strip at a time when the Egyptians suffer from outages of electricity themselves, and disregards the needs of the Egyptian people themselves.

The suit adds that the production of electricity in Egypt is very expensive because it uses large quantities of Egyptian natural gas in the process of producing electricity, which requires the need to provide electricity to the Egyptian people, and take advantage of it rather than exported to the outside and the people in greatest need, in short supply.

Egypt provides about 28 MW of electricity to Gaza. Israel provides about 125 MW.

According to the web page of the law firm bringing the lawsuit, they also sued to close all Gaza smuggling tunnels, to stop Al Jazeera from broadcasting in Egypt, and to stop the sale of land in the Sinai - out of fear that Palestinian Arabs might buy it and use it as an "alternative homeland."

Another lawsuit being brought demands the expulsion of the US ambassador to Egypt for "violating Egyptian sovereignty through the provision of the U.S. Embassy financial and political support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi groups."

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