9/04 Links Part 2: 9 Challenges for the IDF, Peter Beinart’s illiberal mission, PA Demands Gas Masks

From Ian:

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Areas of anxiety: 9 New Year challenges for the IDF

Israelis, facing external threats from every point of the compass, would like to believe that Obama is correct, notwithstanding his last-minute decision Saturday to delay a strike on neighboring Syria’s WMD-using President Bashar Assad.
But the IDF, however closely it coordinates with its American colleagues, functions on the assumption that its task is to protect Israel without outside assistance.
The IDF has never been stronger, its commanders say. But as they take stock this Rosh Hashanah, the challenges have rarely been as acute and varied, in a region that has seldom been so unstable. These are nine of the more immediate areas of concern.

Poll: Israeli Jews not worried by security situation

The US is expected to go to war as early as next week against Syria, which has vowed to “set Israel on fire” in retaliation. Lebanon could get embroiled, which could lead to Hezbollah unleashing its stockpile of 60,000 missiles and rockets. And an International Atomic Energy Association’s report last week indicated that Iran has escalated its nuclear program.
Nevertheless, only 16.4 percent of Israeli Jews believe their security situation will worsen in the new year of 5774 that starts on Wednesday evening, according to the Peace Index, an Israel Democracy Institute/Tel Aviv University poll released on Tuesday.
The surveyors found that 46.1% of Israeli Jews believe their security will remain the same, while 28.3% think it will improve.

Oren: US becoming more isolationist, but support for Israel higher than ever

During his term as Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren found himself faced with a rapidly changing America, a Middle East on fire, and an Israel that had to deftly navigate between the seismic changes taking place in both locations. But looking at the polls, which continuously show high support for Israel among Americans, Oren is satisfied, saying they show that support for Israel in American public opinion is "the highest it's ever been."
"At a time when the Middle East is turbulent, Israel is an island of stability," Oren says.

Bennett: International peace guarantees are meaningless

“When you see everything that’s going on around us, I can’t even comprehend signing an agreement that’s based on international guarantees, UN or other, and to trust anyone that is not the IDF, which is the only one that can protect us,” Bennett said in an interview with Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, published Wednesday.
Commenting on the ongoing Syrian civil war, Bennett assessed that the West seems disinclined to enter the conflict, and suggested that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan deterred US and European citizens from stomaching military action in the Middle East.

Senior PA official: Peace talks with Israel are going nowhere

In the most damning Palestinian assessment to date, Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the negotiations, which kicked off in late July after a three year hiatus, had made no progress.
"These negotiations are futile and won't lead to any results," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio.
"I don't expect any progress at all unless there is huge and powerful American pressure, such as the one we are seeing from America to deal with the Syrian issue," added Abed Rabbo, one of just two officials authorized by Abbas to discuss the talks.
An Israeli official in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the remarks, saying the two sides had agreed that only the United States should speak about the talks. "We are abiding by that agreement," the official said.

Saudi Arabia donating $200 million for Palestinian cities to prevent Judaization

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has decided to grant $200 million for the development of Palestinian cities, and for protecting their Arab and Islamic character against “Judaization.”
Municipal and Rural Affairs Minister Prince Mansour bin Miteb announced the news on Sunday while opening a conference of the Organization of Islamic Capitals and Cities in Saudi Arabia, Saudi newspaper Arab News reported on Monday.

Palestinian Authority Demands Israel Provide it with Gas Masks

A Palestinian Authority official has demanded that Israel provide civilians living in PA-controlled areas with gas masks in the event of a spillover of violence from Syria.
Israel has been distributing gas masks to its citizens over the last two weeks amid fears of reprisals against the Jewish state, following anticipated US military intervention in neighboring Syria.

Islamic Jihad Issues Call to Abduct IDF Soldiers

Hader Habib, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, called on fellow terrorists to abduct an IDF soldier, in a speech Sunday at a protest tent for identification with Palestinian Authority (PA) prisoners that was erected next to the Red Cross Headquarters in Gaza.
Hader called for the abduction of soldiers so that they can be exchanged for PA prisoners.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday in his speech at the Fatah convention that releasing Fatah Tanzim commander Marwan Barghouti, who was sentenced to five life sentences, and Ahmed Saadat, the PFLP commander who ordered the assassination of Minister Rechavam Ze'evi, as well as other senior terrorists, are on his political agenda.

Peter Beinart’s illiberal mission: To subvert Jewish & non-Jewish support for Israel

I can assure Beinart that the more American Jews get to know the truth – not the liberal-tinted glasses view, nor the propaganda view – they will be even more pro-Yesha, pro-Jewish retention of Judea and Samaria and more anti-Palestinianism.
They will learn of the “Temple Denial” phenomenon. They will become acquainted with the anti-Semitism at the root of Islamist ideology which drives (and, with the Grand Mufti El-Husseini’s pro-Nazism beginning in 1933, drove) their bloodthirsty opposition to Zionism. They will know that the dispute is not territorial nor where a boundary line will be drawn but it is existential. They will come to acknowledge the deeply rooted fanaticism and extremism that guides their anti-Zionism thinking and actions. They will recognize the lies and half-truths that form the basis of Palestinianism, the inventivity model of nationalism.
I publish their words. Many other bloggers and web sites do as well. With Google Translate, even the Arab-language sites are open to us all. There is no shortage of getting to know “the enemy”. In fact, we are commanded to, in a sense, to “know thy enemy” which, in Jewish thought was expressed in the Ethics of the Fathers, 2:14, by Rabbi Elazar who would say: ‘Be diligent in the study of Torah. Know what to answer a heretic’.

Legitimizing Israel's Destruction

What do a Norwegian government employee, a director of a "co-existence" program and several academics from the University of Exeter have in common? They are all happily colluding with a front group of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas.
On September 7, the Palestine Return Centre (PRC) will be hosting an "International Conference on the Oslo Accords," which it has planned with the support of the Exeter Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, part of the University of Exeter.
Intelligence agencies regard the PRC as one of the leading lobby groups in Britain for Hamas, and claim that three of the PRC's trustees are "Hamas activists who found refuge in Britain" during the 1990s. Hamas leaders also regularly address the PRC's conferences.
The London-based Palestine Return Centre (PRC), it turns out, was originally established on the basis of opposition to the Oslo peace process. The conference is therefore unlikely to reach any positive conclusions about the Oslo Accords, or to recommend its revival.

The Cold War’s Arab Spring: How the Soviets Created Today’s Middle East

Russian exile Pavel Stroilov argues just this in his forthcoming book, Behind the Desert Storm. “Not a word of it is true,” he writes. “It was the Soviet Empire—not the British Empire—that was responsible for the instability in the Middle East.”
Stroilov, a historian now living in London, fled Russia in 2003 after stealing 50,000 top-secret Kremlin documents from the Gorbachev Foundation archives, where he was working as a researcher. He was given access to the archive in 1999, but Gorbachev refused him permission to copy its most significant documents. Having observed the network administrator entering the password into the system, Stroilov reproduced the archive and sent it to secure locations around the world.

Why Literally Everyone in the World Hates the Jews, and What To Do About It

Two new scholarly books show how even the most neutral academic can feel bound to answer anti-Semites’ demonic vigor in kind
In many parts of the world, Jews are increasingly unwelcome in the 21st century. The number of countries in which wearing visibly Jewish clothing such as a kippa means risking physical violence has hit an all-time high. On both the individual and the national level, Jews are targeted with extraordinary ferocity: We hear Israelis (but no one else) being compared to Nazis; we are told that Jewish nationalism is oppressive and archaic; that Israel is a uniquely racist country; that Israel’s terrible misdeeds explain why people hate Jews. Instead of being seen as ordinary or all too human, Jews are seen as carriers of a uniquely transcendent evil. No other group of people on the planet is accused so much and of such fantastic wrongs. For a few decades after the Holocaust, it seemed that anti-Semitism might wane or even die out. That hope has now been defeated. Could anything we do or say stem the tide, or will Jew-hatred persist as long as there are Jews to hate?

Druze Village’s Character Shaped by Education, Sport, and Loyalty to Israel

The enclaves of one of Israel’s most loyal and ardently Zionist indigenous populations lie not far from the coastal city of Acre. This community is no historical remnant—it is a modern group of Israelis whose service and sacrifice for the Jewish state is legendary. Residents are lawyers and doctors, entrepreneurs and merchants, teachers and engineers, and political activists. The community’s young men serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with great honor, and its young women are beginning to enter national service.
That description applies not to one of Israel’s Jewish communities, but rather to the Druze village of Julis, one of the smallest of the Druze communities in northern Israel.

Recalling the 1943 Rosh Hashanah Holocaust Escape of Danish Jews

In the late summer of 1943, amid rising tensions between the occupation regime and the Danish government, the Nazis declared martial law and decided the time had come to deport Danish Jews to the death camps. But Georg Duckwitz, a German diplomat in Denmark, leaked the information to Danish friends. Duckwitz was later honored by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. As word of the Germans’ plans spread, the Danish public responded with a spontaneous nationwide grassroots effort to help the Jews.

Daphne Anson: Simon's Story Upsets The Israel Bashers

And what a wonderful series Schama's BBC2 documentary series "The Story of the Jews" promises to be, as the first episode, screened on 1st September, shows:
And a gang of well-known Israel-bashers (Sarah Colborne, Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Daud Abdullah, Middle East Monitor; Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine; Abe Hayeem, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine; Ismail Patel, Friends of Al Aqsa; Diana Neslen, Jews for Justice for Palestinians) have written an Open Letter of protest to the Controller of BBC2, Janice Hadlow, dated 3rd September, that says in part:
".... In an interview in the Radio Times (31 August-6 September), Schama describes himself as an ‘historian-Zionist’ and says he will be making ‘the moral case for Israel’ in the final episode of this five part series.
We find it alarming that the BBC is giving a platform to an openly pro-Israeli commentator to make the ‘moral case’ for Israel. Schama’s views will go unopposed, unchallenged and unanalysed. This is a far cry from the balanced and impartial broadcasting that the BBC claims to champion...."

15-year-old Syrian Girl Released from Ziv Medical Center

Israel Defense Forces transferred the young girl to Israel from a field hospital in Syria where she underwent surgery for abdominal wounds and shrapnel injuries on both of her legs. The Syrian medics decided to amputate one of her legs, while the Israeli medical team was able to save the girl’s other leg from being amputated.
"I wish the people of Israel a happy new year and wish that we will be able to meet again in a saner Middle East, as we are all human beings," said the victim’s mother, who accompanied her throughout the six weeks of her hospitalization.
Her mother then thanked the medical team for their devoted treatment and for saving her other leg from amputation. Additionally, she was grateful the Ziv Medical Center facilitated the donation of an artificial leg from a generous private donor.

Israel Daily Picture: New Year's Greeting to Our Jewish Readers

Israel Daily Picture normally focuses on pictures of the Holy Land in the Library of Congress archives' American Colony collection.
In honor of Rosh Hashanna, we present pictures of the holiday in New York City, taken in the early 1900s by George Bain and also housed in the Library of Congress archives.

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Rosh Hashanah video greeting reviews: Bibi, Peres, Obama, Cameron, IDF

Netanyahu seems uncharacteristically tired. He does a nice job talking about Israel's accomplishments, peace, Syria, and Iran.



Grade: B+

Peres' message is muddled. He implies Yom Kippur is before Rosh Hashanah and that Yom Kippur is meant to forget our mistakes. This is not a great greeting.



Grade: C-


President Obama's is pretty generic. He loses points for having a jarring edit in the middle.



Grade: B-

David Cameron's is only fair, with usual stuff about the peace process, but his ending about the British Jewish community is nice.



Grade: B

The IDF's message has stunning video clips and shows off the diversity of the army and navy. Pure hasbara - and that's a good thing.



Grade: A

(h/t Yerushalimey, Jean)

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Video of stone throwers on Temple Mount today

Here is how the official PA "news" agency WAFA reported the event:

Jewish fanatics who have declared openly their intention to turn al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City into a Jewish shrine Wednesday provoked Muslim worshippers at the mosque when they entered the walled compound in large numbers and under police protection, according to Muslim officials.

I count at least four lies in that one sentence alone.

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9/04 Links Part 1: Bibi - We Have an Iron Dome and an Iron Will, Shape-Shifting on Syria

From Ian:

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Shape-Shifting on Syria

In 2009, the current administration flattered and cajoled Bashar Assad, returning the U.S. Ambassador to Damascus and partially lifting sanctions on the regime (including on aircraft engines, which had major implications later as the war intensified). For the next two years, a stream of American politicos visited and chatted up Assad; this was the period of the famous "Rose in the Desert" paean to Asma Assad in Vogue magazine and dinner with the Kerrys. They called Bashar Assad a "reformer"and hoped for change.
There was no change, and in August 2011 the Administration demanded that Assad resign, shifting America's desired outcome from an "improved Assad" to "no Assad."

FLASHBACK: Harvard Group Honored Bashar al-Assad's Wife in 2011

According to The New York Times, the Harvard Arab Alumni Association (HAAA) honored Mrs. Assad at a dinner in Damascus two years ago.
Prior to the dinner the group posted this announcement on its website:
We are greatly honored to hold our Arab World Conference under the esteemed patronage of Her Excellency Mrs. Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria, and are privileged that Her Excellency will deliver the conference's keynote address. A thought-provoking, inspiring and tireless leader and advocate, the First Lady's address will certainly be the highlight of our event.

The Democrats’ ‘Smart Power’ Lies in Ruins

Democrats Suddenly Realize What They Miscalculated About the World: Everything
As we await Congress’s decision on authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Syria, Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign-policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.
Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be.

Barry Rubin: Turning Point: Obama and Israel, The Next Three Years

It is not every day that one can announce a shift in world history, but this day is today. And we are now in a new era in the Middle East and the world. This is not a joke--definitely not a joke--and as you will see, it is not an exaggeration.
Let me explain. For the last seven weeks I have been in the United States, mostly in Washington D.C. I have spoken and listened to many people. As a result, I am in a position to describe for you with a high degree of accuracy what the policy will be for the next 3.5 years, and perhaps for many more.
The administration has crossed a line to, in simple terms, backing the "'bad guys."

Syria Debate Shows America’s Moral Collapse

Why are we so determined to remain indifferent in the face of men, women and children convulsing to death from Sarin gas? I have no satisfactory answer, but during this period of the High Holy Days, we are obliged, in my view, to confront this question as we reflect on our moral health. After all, we Jews have spent the last seven decades asking whether more could have been done to avert the Holocaust. Could we not have bombed the railway lines to the concentration camps? Could we not have smuggled more weapons to resistance fighters, both Jewish and non-Jewish? Well, yes, we could have done much more, but we also could have done a lot less. Imagine if the current crop of politicians currently dominating the Syrian debate, from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to the leader of the British Labor Party, Ed Miliband, had been in office instead of Roosevelt and Churchill. (On second thought, don’t.)

Jewish Groups Support ‘Strong Response’ to Syria’s Use of Chemical Weapons

The umbrella organization representing more than 50 Jewish groups on Tuesday issued a statement saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his people requires a “strong response.”
Prior to the statement by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the White House held a conference call to brief Jewish leaders on the situation in Syria.
“The use of such indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction represents moral challenges that require a strong response,” the Conference of Presidents said.

Netanyahu: We Have an Iron Dome – and an Iron Will

“We need to see to [our] security. This is our first obligation, as well as mine as Prime Minister, and this is a challenge for us because the reality around is challenging,” Netanyahu began.
“In the end, our lives depend on an iron wall. We are building an iron wall, an Iron Dome, and we have an iron will,” he declared.
“These are the things that give us the strength to defend ourselves and also to tell those who would attack us: it is not worth your while. These are the fundamentals that protect the State of Israel. Everything else is happening here now.”

Peres: Assad will Disappear – One Way or the Other

However, he continued, intervention may not be the right path. "War is a very serious business and I would suggest to every leader to think as much as they can before rather than afterwards,” he said, adding, “I admire President Obama's attempt to examine every possibility to bring this horrible situation to an end.”
Peres echoed other Israeli leaders in saying that Israel has no plans to intervene in Syria, but is prepared for any attack. An attack is unlikely, he added, explaining, “If Syria attacks us we will overcome them and that is why I believe it won’t happen… We have one of the best security infrastructures and one of the best militaries in the modern world.”

Report: Syrian Forensic Chief Defects with Evidence of Chemical Weapon Use

The Syrian opposition has stated today (Tuesday) that Abdul Tawwab Shahrour, head of the forensic medicine committee in Aleppo, has defected to Turkey.
According to Syrian opposition representatives, Shahrour is in possession of evidence pointing to the use of chemical weapons by the Bashar al-Assad regime in an attack that occurred earlier this year. More than 20 people were killed in an attack at the Khan al-Assal district near Aleppo on March 19. The Assad regime has previously denied allegations that it used chemical weapons during the attack.
According to the Syrian opposition, Shahrour has both documents and eyewitness accounts proving the use of chemical weapons during the events and contradicting the Assad regime's version of the events, which he intends to reveal at a news conference.

Former Iranian President: Assad Attacked His Own People with Gas

“The Syrian people are experiencing harsh conditions. On the one hand, they are bombed with chemicals by their own government, and on the other hand, they can expect American bombs,” concluded the former Iranian president.
Not only has Iran defended Assad throughout the civil war in Syria, the Islamic Republic has provided him with military support during his fight against rebels trying to topple his regime.

Obama garners bipartisan support for Syria strike

Republican House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a White House meeting and told reporters: “This is something that the United States, as a country, needs to do. I’m going to support the president’s call for action. I believe that my colleagues should support this call for action.”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also said they will support Obama because the U.S. has a compelling national security interest to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Senate resolution sets deadline, bars ground forces in Syria

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft resolution that the Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Wednesday.
The measure would set a time limit of 60 days for any mission, and it says the president can extend that for 30 days more unless Congress has a vote of disapproval.
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the committee, and Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican, agreed on the measure late Tuesday. The White House had no immediate reaction to the draft resolution before Obama departed for Sweden and then Russia, to attend the G-20 summit.

U.S. Air Force Lacks Preparedness for Syria Strike

General Mark Welsh has said recent cutbacks to the U.S. Air Force have limited it's readiness to carry out a major offensive.
Welsh was quoted by the Journal of the U.S. Air Force on August 28.
Emphasizing cuts including the grounding of tactical combat squadrons earlier this year, Welsh said the Air Force would carry out any mission assigned to it but added, "We are not going to be as ready as we would like."

Iran will not tolerate fall of Assad, establishes joint ‘war room’ with Syria, Hezbollah

The trio aim to provide a coordinated response to any American aggression against Syria or Iran, which Mashregh News said would include counterattacking with missiles aimed at Israel and American assets in the region.
According to the Fars News Agency, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a warning recently during his recent meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The Islamic Republic will defend Syria,” FNA reported that message read, “because of its support for the resistance front against the Zionist regime [Israel], and is vehemently opposed to any intervention by foreign forces in Syrian internal affairs.”

‘The fire is approaching’: Syria and its allies threaten regional war

The Wall Street Journal reports that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia fighting side-by-side with Assad against the rebels, will strike back at American ships if an attack takes place.
“The resistance [Hezbollah] and the armed forces are now one body,” said a senior Syrian official on Monday. “In my assessment, Hezbollah will side with Syria in certain operations targeting warships in the Mediterranean.”
The threat is not an idle one. During the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, a land-based missile launched by Hezbollah struck an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast, killing four sailors and severely damaging the vessel.

Hamas dismisses talk of strike by Egypt against Gaza

Hamas officials on Tuesday urged Palestinians to ignore rumors to the effect that the Egyptian army is preparing a military offensive against the Gaza Strip.
“The talk about a possible Egyptian military operation in the Gaza Strip is baseless,” a Hamas official said. “We urge our people not to pay attention to the rumors flying around.”
A Palestinian journalist in Gaza City said that there was “increased talk” about a possible Egyptian military strike in the Gaza Strip.

Five Reporters Killed, 80 Detained Since Morsi's Ouster

Reporters Without Borders has issued a scathing report on the treatment of reporters in Egypt since the removal of President Mohamed Morsi in early July:
Since 3 July, a total of five journalists have been killed, 80 journalists have been arbitrarily detained (with seven still held) and at least 40 news providers have been physically attacked by the police or by pro-Morsi or pro-army demonstrators.

11 Brotherhood members sentenced to life in prison

A Suez military court has given 11 Muslim Brotherhood supporters life sentences relating to charges of violence following the dispersal of pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza last month.
The 11 defendants were given 25-year sentences.
Forty-five others were given five years each, while eight defendants were acquitted of charges of assualting army troops, burning military vehicles, throwing Molotov cocktails and attacking churches in Suez governorate.

Iran Is *Really* Good at Evading Sanctions

What is obvious is that sanctions have forced Iran’s efforts to go underground, adapt, and become more intricate as time goes by. Sanctions are successful in the specific sense that the more strict they become and consistently they are enforced, the harder it is for Iran to achieve its goals. It is not enough, however, to simply add companies to the sanctions list. Authorities must rigorously enforce sanctions by going after the individuals and companies who help evade them, seizing their assets, and even arresting and extraditing those involved. They must also constantly update their lists to reflect the ever-changing corporate structure of Iran’s overseas procurement networks.
Nothing is straightforward in these operations, except the Iranian leaders’ dedication to their goal of acquiring nuclear weapons. And whether sanctions will successfully deter them or it will require different measures to do so is still very much an open question.

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If Peter Beinart were around in 1929...

(A followup to my essay yesterday.)

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FIAT/IFTA-Dubai anti-Israel discrimination update

Here are a few updates on the FIAT/IFTA fiasco where the organization allowed Dubai to ban an Israeli nominee from the awards ceremony.

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The FIAT/IFTA website has added some information justifying their refusal to push back against the discrimination:

Everyone travelling to attend the FIAT/IFTA World Conference, no matter if the conference is held in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, Beijing or the United Arab Emirates, must make sure to get a valid visa before entering the country. This is the sole responsibility of the attendee of the conference, and FIAT/IFTA does not have any influence on diplomatic relations between the country of a visitor from anywhere in the World and the country in which the World Conference takes place.

Yes, they do. They have a lot of influence; by exercising the right to cancel the conference and to embarrass the host country into doing the right thing, just like tennis officials did in 2009 after Shahar Peer was denied a visa. Their pressure ensured that Israeli Andy Ram was able to play shortly thereafter:

Tennis governing officials warned that holding future tennis events in Dubai could be in doubt if the Emirates - which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel - continued to ban Israelis. The ATP, which runs next week's men's tournament, gave the UAE a Friday evening deadline to decide whether to grant Ram a visa.

"No player, who qualifies to play an ATP World Tour event, should be denied their right to compete on the basis of ethnicity, nationality or religion and we are happy that the Dubai Tennis Championships and the UAE have shown that they share that view," ATP president, Adam Helfant, said in a statement.

Also after Shahar Peer was denied a visa, the Women's Tennis Association threatened to no longer go to Dubai, and the Tennis Channel refused to broadcast the tournament.

That is what FIAT/IFTA should have done if it had any sense of morality.

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Algemeiner received an email from the Israeli nominee, Arik Bernstein, where he was taking the high road:

“I hope that this affair is finally coming to a satisfactory resolution. Meaning that our film ‘Israel: A Home Movie’ will be shown during the conference in Dubai. This for me was the most important element,” The filmmaker, Arik Bernstein, told The Algemeiner in an email.

The President of IFTA, Jan Müller, confirmed to The Algemeiner in an email that Bernstein would indeed not be attending the conference, but rejected any responsibility for his ban.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Bernstein, holding an Israeli passport, is not allowed to enter Dubai, due to political reasons. Neither IFTA, nor me as chairman and any other member of this federation of television archives. (sic) And neither the host of this conference, television company MBC, can be hold responsible for this sad issue,” he wrote.

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I also saw from private communication that at least one other nominee is not flying to Dubai for his own reasons, but he expressed disgust at the discrimination against the Israeli filmmaker.

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The Creative Community for Peace condemned FIAT/IFTA:

The recent decision by the organizers of the 'International Federation of Television Archives' competition to disqualify an Israeli film is a ridicule of artistic freedom and a clear case of institutionalized bigotry.

It is time to stop the politicization of art. "The festival organizers," says David Lonner, CCFP advisory member and CEO of Oasis Media Group, "substituted artistic and professional considerations with one-sided political ones." We, Creative Community For Peace, a coalition of entertainment industry executives [CCFP] and fans worldwide who have signed our petition [Petition], reject this injustice. We believe art and must be embraced as a tool to transcend political tensions.

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Brian of London wrote in the Times of Israel about the fiasco as well.

So here’s the deal. If you hold a major event in Dubai you, your sponsors and your other participants are excluding Israelis (and by Israelis we mostly mean Israeli Jews).If your organisation is based in Australia, as a forthcoming case may well prove, you might even be committing an actual crime!

(h/t David, Jonathan)

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Arabs throw stones at peaceful Jewish visitors to Temple Mount

Ma'an reports with characteristic bias:

Clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces after Jewish rightists entered the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Wednesday, locals said.

Local youths threw stones at a group of around 40 Israeli rightists who entered the compound, witnesses said.

Israeli forces responded by storming the mosque compound and spraying protestors with pepper spray, lightly injuring three women.

Arabic media has been warning for days that Jews will be visiting the Temple Mount today, Rosh Hashanah Eve. Of course, Jews visited yesterday as well, and the day before.

Sheikh Raed Salah had instigated a lot of the incitement and he was arrested a couple of days ago.

The Muslims tried to form a human shield to prevent Jews from entering via the Moroccan gate to visit Judaism's holiest spot.

Luckily, instead of barring the Jews from their ascent, the Israeli police instead closed the compound to the troublemakers:

Israeli police closed all gates leading to the mosque and prevented worshipers under 50 from entering. They also stopped dozens of buses in Jerusalem carrying Palestinian worshipers to the mosque and told them to turn around, Israeli media reported.

The area was reopened to all in the afternoon.

Here's a video of Muslim women chanting "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Mohammed will return"  on the Mount as Israeli police very respectfully move them along:



Here is a video from yesterday of a Muslim preacher, speaking English, where he tries to say that international law should leave the Mount (and indeed the entire Old City) Judenrein. He also says that since the existence of Jews in the area angers Muslims, they are threatening the peace. Which just goes to show how many Muslims will happily call to massacre Jews in Arabic but try to put on a peaceful face to the West.

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Even UNRWA's own photos show their tacit support of terrorists

 A couple of months ago, an excellent documentary  Camp Jihad, was released, which showed how UNRWA schools and camps are being anything but peaceful when they teach Palestinian Arab kids.



On August 22, UNRWA responded:

In recent days, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been attacked after an Israeli film-maker released a film, “Camp Jihad,” alleging that UNRWA promoted anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in its 'summer camps’. These false accusations have been repeated in various media outlets.

UNRWA has conducted a lengthy and detailed investigation into the film and we categorically reject the allegations it contains. The film is grossly misleading and we regret the damage it has caused to UNRWA and the United Nations.

What I find funny is that at the UNRWA website itself, it shows this photo (from a Syrian UNRWA camp:)

Whose picture is that stenciled on this UNRWA school? Why, none other than Yayha Ayyash, "The Engineer," the infamous bombmaker responsible for scores of murders.

This is a photo that UNRWA itself publishes on its own website.

Now, which sounds more believable - the idea that they condone terror or that they are against it?

(h/t Elihu)

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9/03 Links Part 2: Peace on paper is not peace on the ground, An open letter to the UNRWA

From Ian:

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Netanyahu: ‘While They Shoot at Each Other, We Build for Each Other’

“We have very great tasks in light of what is occurring throughout our region both near and far. While they shoot at each other, we build for each other,” the Prime Minister said.
“Our state is peaceful, certain of the strength of the IDF and sure in itself because it knows that it can defend itself. I will not allow anyone to harm the State of Israel. I ask you to go out and enjoy the holiday [Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year] and if someone thinks of harming the tranquility of the holiday, he knows what awaits him,” he said.

Netanyahu Lauds Israeli Secret Services

In a visit to the headquarters of the Shin Bet, which is headed by Yoram Cohen, Netanyahu thanked the agents for their tireless work in preventing terror attacks, singling out their latest achievement in apprehending a Ramallah-based Hamas cell that was planning to attack shoppers in Jerusalem's Mamilla mall.
"These accomplishments can be felt in the meaningful reduction of the number of deaths from terror in recent years,” he said. “No one can guarantee that this quiet will be maintained, but the Shin Bet and security services are prepared to continue to defend the citizens of Israel from every threat.”

Attempted terror attacks not news for the BBC

On the evening of Friday August 30th an explosive device was detonated near an Israeli army patrol jeep on the border with the Gaza Strip. No injuries were sustained.
On the morning of Monday September 2nd two more explosive devices were detonated near an IDF patrol along the same border, fortunately with no injuries caused.
On Sunday, September 1st the Israeli security services announced that a plan to carry out a terror attack in the Mamilla shopping mall in Jerusalem had been foiled.
None of the above is apparently considered newsworthy by the BBC.

'Pro-Palestinian' Campaign: Free Baby Adelle's Attackers

Pro-Palestinian organizations have launched a European advertising campaign calling for the release of five Arab youths who are suspected of throwing rocks at a car six months ago, causing grievous head injuries to Adelle Biton, a Jewish three-year-old.
In a large scale rally in London last Friday, protesters called for the release of the “the Hares boys,” as they are now known. The five youths are from the village of Hares in Samaria, near Ariel. The central message in rally was that the youths are being held “for no reason,” because of “an accident they had nothing to do with.”

An open letter to the UNRWA: I’m a Palestinian Refugee, Too

Dear UNRWA:
Congratulations! Whereas most other refugee services go out of business just a few years after any war, you’ve not only managed to keep your jobs but also to make your organization, your budget and your payroll grow exponentially for over 64 years. This is an astounding and unprecedented world record!
The key to your unparalleled success is also the reason for which I am writing to you. In virtually all other refugee cases, the goal of the altruistic assistance agencies was and is to help the persons displaced by war and violence to be absorbed into a new country. Why? To establish a new home, to get on with their lives, and to guarantee a brighter future for their children. What a stupid mistake!
Within only a few years, these agencies and NGOs resolve all the problems of resettling these refugees, thus putting themselves out of their tax-free jobs. What kind of business plan is that?!

Peace on paper is not peace on the ground

Despite a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan signed by the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein, this agreement has yet to be put in effect in the hearts of the people of the neighboring countries.
As a Jordanian, I was taught in school and at university that Israel is our first and last enemy. Why is this? People in Jordan (and almost all Arabs in the Middle East) think that Israel seeks to destroy them. It is common to hear conspiracy theories asserting that the decisions by governments of the United States, Russia and Europe that have adversely affected Arab countries can all be traced back to the Jews. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that if we stop Israel, or expel them from the Middle East, our situation will be better.

What More Must PA Do to Show Its Disinterest in Peace?

Under pressure from his own party’s opposition to “normalization” with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday canceled a meeting with Israeli Knesset members who had formed a caucus to support the recently revived peace talks. Normally, this would call the whole point of peace talks into question: Someone too scared of the anti-normalization thugs to host a meaningless gabfest with Israeli MKs isn’t likely to have the guts to sign a final-status agreement containing real Palestinian concessions. But in this case, anyone paying attention to Palestinian behavior since the talks began already knew they were nothing but a farce.
The following are just a few of the steps Palestinians have taken over the last month to prove their lack of desire for peace:

Bennett: Stop the 'Peace Cult'

“These days, we are discovering what a difficult neighborhood we are living in," Bennett said at the Bayit Yehudi party's ceremonial toast for the new Hebrew year (Rosh Hashana) in Modiin, which was held in the presence of Chief Rabbi David Lau, members of the party's Knesset faction, and 700 Bayit Yehudi delegates and candidates in municipal lists.
“There is one place that is an island of stability – the state of Israel in the Land of Israel. This is the only place where there is peace. I am amazed by the bottomless fanaticism with which followers of the 'religion of peace' want to give our enemies parts of the country," he said.

So who still thinks Israel is the root of Middle East problems?

This tribal and sectarian dispute, which has the potential to become the Muslim equivalent of the Thirty Years War, has about as much to do with Israel as did the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. And the peoples involved care very little, if at all, about the fate of the Palestinians – certainly much less than do Nigel Kennedy and Roger Waters.
Yet some western governments still fall for the bizarre idea that if the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians were to be sorted, then this would help to solve all the other conflicts in the region. Thus the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius declared last week, following a meeting with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: “The Israeli-Palestinian issue is …perhaps the central issue of the region.”

MEMRI: Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem, Head of Jewish Community in Yemen, Talks of Segregation and Persecution


Report: Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda Attempted to Infiltrate CIA

Approximately one in five "flagged" job applicants to the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ties to either Hamas, Hezbollah or Al Qaeda, according to a Washington Times report.
The report is based off of documents leaked by former NSA agent Edward Snowden.
These latest revelations indicate the high motivation among Islamist terrorists of various stripes to infiltrate US intelligence agencies.

Guardian columnist acknowledges Muslim Brotherhood’s antisemitism

Indeed, the Guardian’s coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt last year ignored the group’s long and well-documented antisemitic record (consistent with the paper’s tendency to obfuscate other groups’ extreme Judeophobia), all of which makes Giles Fraser’s recent ‘CiF’ column on the Brotherhood quite unique.
Though Fraser still advanced some characteristic moral apologetics for the group, he did nonetheless include the following:
”And, of course, I have no love in my heart for Islamist terrorism, nor the hateful antisemitism that is often present within the Muslim Brotherhood”

Guardian frames Egypt ‘Spy Stork’ row as sign of increased xenophobia under military regime

Whilst blaming the stork’s apprehension on the current mood of jingoism – in contrast, presumably, to the ‘enlightened internationalism‘ under the Muslim Brotherhood – is itself quite comical, those of us who’ve ‘covered’ previous instances of spy animals can refute the reporter’s thesis by noting other examples of Egyptian ‘xenophobia’.

Iran’s Press TV claims army of pro-Israel propagandists occupy BBC

So why exactly are all of the above (and quite a few more) in such a tizzy? Well the former head of the BBC News website’s Middle East desk Tarik Kafala recently moved on to become head of the BBC Arabic Service (mabrouk!) and his replacement is Raffi Berg.
Mr Berg has been working at the Middle East desk for some time and apparently during last November’s ‘Operation Pillar of Cloud’ he tried to ensure that his colleagues adhered to BBC standards of accuracy by writing the following e-mails:
“Please remember, Israel doesn’t maintain a blockade around Gaza. Egypt controls the southern border. Israel maintains a blockade around its borders with Gaza, as well as a naval blockade. It also controls Gaza’s airspace. We’ve mistakenly said “around Gaza” in a number of recent stories, which has generated complaints.”

BDS head draws fire after defending ‘Shoot the Jew’ chant

An anti-Israel rally at a South African University that saw protesters chanting “Shoot the Jew,” which was subsequently defended by the head of the country’s BDS movement, drew widespread condemnation.
Both backers and critics of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement in South Africa criticized the group’s leader for supporting activists at the Witwatersrand University rally who sang a modified version of the 1980s anti-apartheid song “Shoot the Boer,” the Mail and Guardian reported Monday.
Some members of the BDS movement, which supports a boycott of Israeli products as part of its pro-Palestinian stance, “made it clear they don’t think it’s a remotely acceptable slogan,” Prof. Steven Friedman, who teaches at both Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg — and who supports the boycott idea, in addition to calling for a one-state solution — told the news site.

Facebook Fails to Enforce ‘Community Standards’ for Vile Anti-Semitic Page

I was recently pointed in the direction of a Facebook page entitled The Untold History, run by a group out of Sweden that calls itself the European Knights Project, a partner of the Institute for Historical Review. On its masthead, it proclaims in all-caps that it is a “HISTORICAL SITE NON-POLITICAL,” but this is a sham. It is, in fact, a Holocaust denial site that not only presents bogus and falsified history, but also traffics in the vilest sort of anti-Semitism.

Solar Power is the Path to Israel’s Energy Future

The perpetuation of a world powered by oil is one of the most anti-Jewish actions imaginable. A world that resists transitioning quickly from oil to renewables is a world that feeds the Iranian nuclear program, promotes radical whabbiism in Saudi Arabia and around the world, accelerates extreme climate change, pollutes our air, distorts world policy against Israel, and sends American and other troops off to bloody and expensive wars in Iraq and elsewhere.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has challenged us all to imagine a world without oil and has set up within his office a special bureau investing in oil substitute strategies.

Is Shale the Key to Israel’s Energy Future?

One obvious question that remains is, if solar energy can be part of the solution for Israel’s own energy needs, why can’t Israel use solar—rather than develop its shale resources—to help the world reduce its dependence on oil? The reason that approach isn’t viable is that solar can be an alternative to fuels such as coal or natural gas only to the extent that it can replace those fossil fuels for producing electrical power. But because virtually no oil is used for producing electricity in the industrialized world, solar can do nothing to replace oil. In fact, rather than being used for generating electricity, more than 60 percent of oil used worldwide is consumed, instead, to produce liquid transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel), while most of the rest is used as a feedstock for manufacturing petrochemicals. So, to repeat the point: because solar cannot be used to fuel cars, trucks or buses or as the feedstock for plastics and fertilizer, it is pretty much useless when it comes to replacing oil.

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"May Allah help our hackers and mujahadeen"

This announcement of a cyberattack against Israel on 9/11 is actually pretty funny, although it is meant to be scary:




I'm still unclear on who the terrorists are, and who the Illuminati are. But maybe we'll find out.


(I think they are using the "Mike" voice on this AT&T voice synthesis demo, with a little reverb added for drama.)

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Coverage of Egyptian helicopter strike shows double standards

The Independent:

Egyptian helicopter gunships attack Sinai militants

Egyptian helicopter gunships have attacked militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula in a continuing effort to control the largely lawless region.

Bloomberg:

Egypt Forces Attack Sinai Militants

Egyptian helicopter gunships killed at least eight suspected militants in the restive north Sinai, while supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi geared up to rally against the government that replaced his.

AP:

Egyptian helicopters fire rockets at militants in Sinai, killing at least 8

Egyptian helicopter gunships fired rockets early Tuesday at militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least eight and injuring 15 others in an ongoing campaign to put down Islamic radicals who have escalated attacks in the largely lawless region, Egypt's official news agency said.

Notice that not one of these sources say "suspected militants" in the headline (Bloomberg does in the story.) None call them "extrajudicial killings" or "assassinations." Without any proof, it is assumed that Egypt's army is telling the truth, that the houses they hit had no civilians in them, and that everyone killed was an active militant.

It may be true, but when Israel does the exact same thing, the news sources first quote Hamas officials - often claiming that the victims were civilians - before putting scare quotes around Israel's description of the targets as "militants" or "terrorists."

No such skepticism here.

It is true that the jihadists don't have press spokesmen in suits who have cultivated relationships with Western reporters in the area - in fact, there are no Western reporters in the area who regularly interact with the Sinai jihadists and report on how wonderful and hospitable they are.

But that's the point, isn't it? Reporters are only skeptical when the claims don't jive with their own pre-existing biases. Those biases are directly reflected in the quality and objectivity of the coverage we read about.

To put it in terms that reporters themselves might understand: In 2001, George W. Bush first met Vladimir Putin and said "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul." It didn't take long for the media to ridicule Bush, correctly, for his naivete.

Yet that is exactly what many reporters do when they go to Gaza or the West Bank, when they eat meals with the people they are reporting on. They make judgments based on how friendly their hosts are and their reporting then reflects their own look deep into the souls of their subjects.

Sinai jihadists are not much different from Hamas jihadists. But they don't have media savvy like Hamas and Islamic Jihad now have.

Here are the facts: Egyptian helicopters shot at houses that Egypt suspects sheltered militants, killing several people. That's all we know. That's all that should be reported until it is confirmed or disproven.

It's not rocket science to differentiate between facts and assumptions. It is apparently beyond the ability of many journalists, however.

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9/03 Links Part 1: Murray - The Syrian paradox, Kissinger’s Good Option, Hezbollah Mobilizes Fighters

From Ian:

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Khaled Abu Toameh: Will Assad Unleash His Palestinian Terrorists Against U.S., Israel?

Informed sources told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the PFLP-GC has reached an agreement with the Syrian regime, Iran and Hizbullah to retaliate for a US-led military strike, and that Israel would be the first target of such retaliation.
Hussam Arafat, one of the leaders of the PFLP-GC, said that his group would not remain idle "while Syria is being slaughtered."
"Any Western aggression on Syria," he added, "would serve the interests of Israel and we will stand with Syria and join it in war."
Pro-Assad Palestinian terrorists based in refugee camps in Lebanon are also said to be preparing to "defend Syria against Western aggression." Many of these terrorists are affiliated with Syria's allies in Lebanon: the Shiite terror group, Hizbullah.
Earlier, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization also warned that its members would retaliate when and if Syria is attacked. The organization, based in Damascus, has a few thousand terrorists in Syria and Lebanon.

Palestinians in speeding truck penetrate airport security

Additional roadblocks were immediately deployed and, when the truck breached a second barrier — nearly hitting the guard stationed there — security personnel shot at the truck, eventually causing it to stop. The two Palestinian men were ordered out of the vehicle and arrested.
During an interrogation, the men, who hail from the West Bank cities of Jenin and Qalqilya, claimed that they were car thieves, and that they had just stolen the truck in the nearby town of Beit Dagan. They said that they entered the airport road by accident and panicked when they saw the Israeli security personnel.

As the US pledged $148 million to the PA, the PA pledged $15 million to released prisoners

The Palestinian Authority has announced that it plans to give 5,000 released security prisoners who served more than 5 years in Israeli prisons a Dignified Life Grant. The Head of the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, Abd Al-Nasser Farwaneh, said that the amount distributed would be "15 million American dollars." The PA's intention to use "American dollars" for released security prisoners, most of whom are convicted terrorists, was reported by the official PA daily the very same day that the US announced it was giving the PA "$148 million" - "American dollars" - for the PA's general budget.

Abbas on Syria: ‘We Will Never Support the Bombing of an Arab Country by a Foreign State’

“We don’t accept for any Arabic country to be attacked and we condemn the use of chemical weapons by any group. The solution to the Syrian crisis must be political and there is no military solution. We want a peaceful solution for Syria,” Abbas said in a speech to Fatah’s revolutionary council, according to Ma’an News Agency.
Asserting that the U.S. is likely to attack Syria, Abbas was unequivocal in stating the PA’s “position towards it is fixed, we are against a military attack.”

In turning to Congress on Syria, Obama overrules top advisers

People close to the deliberations say Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, national security adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power largely agreed about the need to use force to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad. While there were some differing views about the speed and the scope of an attack, there were no splintered factions the way there had been during first-term debates over taking action in Libya or launching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The advisers, two of whom are former senators, were also willing to proceed without congressional authorization. But on Friday night, after a week spent speeding toward military action, the president made a stunning turnabout and decided he wanted approval from lawmakers before carrying out an attack.

Israel ‘uneasy’ being painted by Obama as potential WMD victim

Israel is “discomfited that both Obama and Kerry mentioned Israel as a potential victim of Assad’s chemical weapons,” Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Monday night. "Israel," it quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials saying, “is not a victim. We don’t need America to take care of threats to Israel.”
Israel’s army, the sources said, was perfectly capable of protecting Israel from any dangers posed by Assad.

Israel shoots test missile over sea, raising alarms

Russia raised a brief alarm in the Middle East Tuesday after apparently detecting a joint Israel and US missile launch test in the Mediterranean.
Israel’s Defense Ministry confirmed that it carried out a successful trial involving a new type of Sparrow target missile, which was meant to test Israel’s missile tracking capabilities.

Douglas Murray: The Syrian paradox

The problem then is this. If any country carries out punitive strikes against the Assad regime they will undoubtedly and rightly be demonstrating the international community’s revulsion over the use of chemical weapons. But if the targets that are hit in the resulting strike are meaningful (government buildings, installations etc) then there is the risk that such an intervention could tip the balance in the Syrian civil war. If that balance is tipped and Assad is severely weakened or even falls as a result then whoever carried out the strikes will be at least partly responsible for what comes next. That is a responsibility which neither America, Britain, France nor any other Western power can handle and it is one which none of us wants.
So – and here is the imponderable – the only purpose of strikes must be to hit targets which are meaningless. As I say in today’s Spectator podcast that means something akin to President Clinton’s futile lobbing of missiles at an aspirin factory in Sudan as a response to the 1998 al-Qaeda embassy bombings in Africa.

Kissinger’s good option

Kissinger believes Syria should and will break up in some fashion — indeed, the independent-minded Kurds have already created a de facto state with a potent military, the Druze have their own militias and Assad’s ruling Alawites, in preparation for a retreat to their traditional homelands should they lose the civil war, have heavily fortified Alawite territory. This break up, sooner rather than later, is Kissinger’s preferred outcome yet the West is misguidedly acting to thwart it.

UK Government let British company export nerve gas chemicals to Syria

The Government was accused of “breathtaking laxity” in its arms controls last night after it emerged that officials authorised the export to Syria of two chemicals capable of being used to make a nerve agent such as sarin a year ago.
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will today be asked by MPs to explain why a British company was granted export licences for the dual-use substances for six months in 2012 while Syria’s civil war was raging and concern was rife that the regime could use chemical weapons on its own people. The disclosure of the licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride, which can both be used as precursor chemicals in the manufacture of nerve gas, came as the US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had evidence that sarin gas was used in last month’s atrocity in Damascus.

Syria tried to buy banned weapons material from Swiss

Since 1998, the government of Syria made 14 attempted purchases which were flagged and rejected by the Swiss export control watchdog, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
Among the items sought for purchase were a bioreactor, an industrial vacuum pump and valves, reported AFP. The State Secretariat’s spokeswoman, Marie Avet, said the 14 rejected deals were worth a total of 1.7 million Swiss francs ($1.7 million).

German Intelligence Concludes Assad is Behind Chemical Attack

The German intelligence agency (BND) has enough evidence in its possession to conclude that President Bashar Al-Assad ordered the suspected chemical attack in Syria on August 21, Russia Today (RT) reported Monday, citing a report in the German weekly Der Spiegel.

French PM Shares 'Proof' Assad behind Chemical Attack

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has shared intelligence with lawmakers he says proves the chemical attack on 21 August came from government forces.
The dossier shared with the French parliament today (Monday) reportedly includes satellite images showing a large offensive on the Damascus neighborhood of Ghouta coming from government controlled areas to the East and West of the area held by rebel forces.
The intelligence is said to span nine pages and concludes that “Unlike previous attacks that used small amounts of chemicals and were aimed at terrorizing people, this attack was tactical and aimed at regaining territory.”

Stream of refugees out of Syria passes 2 million mark, UN says

If the conflict continues 3.5 million people Syrian refugees are expected by the end of the year, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.
“At this particular moment it’s the highest number of displaced people anywhere in the world,” he told reporters in Geneva. “Syria has become the great tragedy of this century — a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.”

Report: Iran Thinks Israel is Close to Striking It

Iran believes that Israel is close to stiking its nuclear facilities, according to a report in Lebanese newspaper Al Jumhuriya, cited by Maariv/NRG. According to the report, a senior Iranian official recently visited Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his hideout in the Dahiya section section of Beirut to discuss this assessment.
A senior military source confirmed to the Lebanese newspaper that the meeting had, indeed, taken place, but said that it had not been held inside the Dahiya – a neighborhood controlled by Hezbollah – but outside it.
The senior source said that the Iranian official is a military officer and that the meeting was devoted to the military and logistical readiness of Hezbollah for a confrontation with Israel, which, he added, is just “a stone's throw away” from Lebanon.

Hezbollah said to mobilize troops ahead of possible showdown

Members of Hezbollah have “disappeared” from villages across Lebanon, AFP reported Tuesday, citing Lebanese media and witnesses. The report noted that Hezbollah fighters in strongholds along the coast, in the Bekaa valley, near the Syrian border and in southern Beirut had left town, with many turning off their cellphones to avoid being tracked.
While security measures remain in place, checkpoints around the terror group’s nerve center in the capital are now being manned by teenagers instead of regular Hezbollah fighters, the news agency said.

Three Men Charged in Lebanon for Firing Rockets Into Israel

Three men suspected of firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon last month were formally charged on Monday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Lebanese nationals Youssef Mohammed al-Fleity and Omar Abdul Mawla al-Atrash and a third, unnamed individual, with shooting the rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel.

Report: Hamas Members Arrested in Attack on Egyptian Police

Egyptian authorities reportedly have arrested 11 people suspected of killing 25 Egyptian police officers in an ambush last week. Five of the suspects are Hamas members, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
The arrests took place several days ago but were kept secret for security reasons, the newspaper reported. Three foreign nationals were among the suspects.
A Hamas spokesman denied the allegation, calling it part of an Egyptian campaign to delegitimize the group and justify Egypt’s recent closing of smuggling tunnels into Hamas-run Gaza.

Egypt army pummels Sinai militants, killing dozens

Egyptian helicopter gunships fired rockets early Tuesday at militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula, causing “dozens” of casualties, a security official said.
He said the two aircraft surprised militant gatherings in three houses in two locations, al-Muqataa and Touma, south of the town of Sheikh Zuweyid near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Attacks by Islamic militants surged in the lawless Sinai after the toppling of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi in a July 3 coup.

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Giora Eiland: Obama nixed Israeli plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities

Mida (Hebrew) has an interview with Major General Giora Eiland (ret.), Israel's former National Security Advisor.

According to Eiland, Bibi Netanyahu was ready to strike Iran's nuclear program, but pressure from the US nixed the plan. Eiland, who says this happened last year, believes that this was because Obama did not want to jeopardize his re-election campaign; according to Eiland it was right after Obama's disastrous first debate with Romney, which would mean October 2012.

Eiland points out that since last year, Iran has had time to get closer to the bomb, and things wouldbe more difficult nowadays. he believes that a strike last year would have crippled the program; whether that is still possible is much less clear nowadays.

The general added that the ideal scenario would be an American attack to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat, but given how the US is acting towards Syria, the idea that this would happen seems much more remote today.

While the world is riveted by the Syrian situation, Eiland says, the real drama is the countdown to Iran's nuclear weapons capacity.

(h/t Yoel)

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Peter Beinart's cocoon

In the New York Review of Books, Peter Beinart is upset that the organized American Jewish community doesn't invite Palestinian Arabs to speak at their events. He believes that American Jews don't give enough empathy to Palestinian Arabs.

For the most part, Palestinians do not speak in American synagogues or write in the Jewish press. The organization Birthright, which since 1999 has taken almost 350,000 young Diaspora Jews—mostly Americans—to visit Israel, does not venture to Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank. Of the more than two hundred advertised speakers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) 2013 Policy Conference, two were Palestinians. By American Jewish standards, that’s high. The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum earlier this year, which advertised sixty-four speakers, did not include a single Palestinian.

...Guidelines like Hillel’s—which codify the de facto restrictions that exist in many establishment American Jewish groups—make the organized American Jewish community a closed intellectual space, isolated from the experiences and perspectives of roughly half the people under Israeli control. And the result is that American Jewish leaders, even those who harbor no animosity toward Palestinians, know little about the reality of their lives.

Beinart grudgingly admits:

This lack of familiarity with Palestinian life also inclines many in the organized American Jewish world to assume that Palestinian anger toward Israel must be a product solely of Palestinian pathology. Rare is the American Jewish discussion of Israel that does not include some reference to the textbooks and television programs that “teach Palestinians to hate.” These charges have some merit. Palestinian schools and media do traffic in anti-Semitism and promote violence.

But:

Still, what’s often glaringly absent from the American Jewish discussion of Palestinian hatred is any recognition that some of it might stem not from what Palestinians read or hear about the Jewish state, but from the way they interact with it in their daily lives.

Beinart is at least as guilty of willful blindness as the American Jewish establishment he is insulting. His "Open Zion" site all but ignores the Palestinian Arab hate and antisemitism, just as he attempts to minimize it and contextualize it here as a natural result of things Israelis did. He says that most terror attacks are the result of anger at Israeli actions from the first intifada, without mentioning who started the first intifada. No doubt Israel's initial reaction was more severe than would be acceptable today, but at the time Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza would travel freely to pre-1967 Israel and Israelis would visit freely to Arab areas, without fear.

The restrictions that Beinart is so upset about today came because of Palestinian Arab terror, not the other way around.

Moreover, while Beinart talks about checkpoints that exist today, what does he think would happen if a two-state solution that he so passionately supports would occur? They wouldn't be checkpoints - there would be national borders. Try commuting to another country every day, let alone an enemy country, and see how painless it is.

American Jewish leaders have access to The New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian and, yes, Open Zion. Jewish Americans read Thomas Friedman and Roger Cohen. The idea that they somehow live in a pro-Likud bubble is ridiculous. They know far more about Palestinian Arab claims and grievances than readers of Open Zion know about the day to day incitement against Israel and Jews in Palestinian Arab lives - not just "textbooks and television programs" but virtually every newspaper, every school, every medium.

This is the stuff I expose along with MEMRI, Palestinian Media Watch and others.

Beinart would like to pretend that we cherry pick the worst examples. To an extent that is true. That's how the media works - to show the worst in order to illuminate the facts - something Beinart is doing in this very essay.

However, as someone who reads quite a bit of Arabic media daily, I can assure Beinart and my readers that the hate isn't an anomaly, while people like Salam Fayyad are the silent majority. No - within the "cocoon" of Palestinian Arab life, there is zero tolerance for any viewpoint that is the least bit conciliatory to real coexistence and peace. The hate is pervasive, not anomalous. Anyone who would speak to an American Jewish organization would, by that very fact, lose all legitimacy from their own people.

Beinart knows this, but he won't dare say it.

One need only look at this post from yesterday to see that this is true. Not only is there virtually no voice for true peace among Palestinian Arabs, but even the slightest attempts at coexistence are demonized and practitioners blacklisted.

How often does Open Zion report on this? For that matter, how much does the NYT, BBC and other mainstream media (the recent Forbes piece being a rare exception) report on this?

Where are the Palestinian Arab "Open Zions?" Where are the people who really want co-existence who can speak out without being tarred that worst of all insults - "collaborators"?  You will not find any Arab Beinarts writing for Palestinian Arabic media.

Beinart's own self-created cocoon where he pretends that most Palestinian Arabs want peace is even more bizarre. In his entire lengthy essay, he does not mention Islamic fundamentalism once. The reason is once again willful blindness - Beinart knows that there is no way that fundamentalist Muslims, represented by Hamas - winner in the last PA elections - would ever accept Israel's existence in any manner.

So Beinart chooses to ignore that problem and pretend that Salam Fayyad, an unelected former prime minister who barely scraped together 2.4% of the vote for his own party, is mainstream and Hamas is all but nonexistent.

Even though he admits that "Virtually every Palestinian I’ve ever met considers Zionism to be colonialist, imperialist, and racist. " Sure, let's invite them over to the Hadassah meeting so we can hear all about it!

That is willful blindness of a far worse kind than anything he can say about the American Jewish establishment.

The real cocoon is the one that looks at the Middle East and pretends that it is Jewish American leadership that is somehow more in denial than liberals like Beinart. The real cocoon is the place where the extent of Palestinian Arab intransigence and hate is downplayed and glossed over as simply a few TV programs and textbooks, with no mention of, say, Gaza being controlled by a separate party that considers all of Israel to be "occupied." The real cocoon is the place where, even in light of the Arab Spring, Muslim fundamentalism simply isn't worth mentioning as a problem.

Israel doesn't want to oppress anybody, but it has an obligation to protect its citizens - the supreme obligation of any nation. The line it needs to walk in order to do that is a thin and jagged one, and one that for the most part has been successful. Today there is less terror than ever before even as restrictions on Palestinian Arabs are being slowly lifted. This is what should be emphasized, highlighted and encouraged.

Beinart, though, is blind to the real facts - because he is the one who lives in a cocoon.

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Syrian refugees in Egypt being treated like garbage

From Al Ahram:

Some 88 Syrian refugees, including 25 children, are waiting to be deported to other countries after being detained in Alexandria.

The refugees detained are accused of attempting to emigrate illegally from Egypt. "They were deceived by someone in Alexandria who took money from them and convinced that they can emigrate from Egypt to Italy," said Safia Serry, an activist from Alexandria who is following the Syrian refugees file in the city.

...Serry adds that some of the Syrians detained in Alexandria received official refugee refugee IDs. "Many of those Syrian refugees got yellow IDs as refugees registered with UNHCR, while Palestinians who used to live in Syria and that came to Egypt as refugees got white IDs," Serry told Ahram Online.

"Things are harder for the Palestinians who do not have money as they have no passports, only limited travel documents," Serry said, adding that deported Palestinians have no option but to return to Syria.

Since 30 June, Syrian refugees have been facing accusations from media in Egypt of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, especially that some Syrian songs and chants, as well Syrian independence flags, were witnessed in the pro-Morsi Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in dispersed by force 14 August.

Several media figures like Youssef El-Hossainy and Mohamed El-Ghaity — as well as Tawfik Okasha, who asked viewers directly to attack Palestinians and Syrians in Egypt — have frequently attacked the Syrians on their TV shows, portraying them not only as supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, but as trying to destabilise the country and transfer the Syrian experience to Egypt.

Even among Egyptian political figures the die is cast against Syrian refugees. Mostafa El-Gundy, a leading member of the Constitution Party, called on the Egyptian people in July to kill any Syrian or Palestinian on the spot if caught at any major checkpoint after the ousting of Morsi. Rumours spread at the time of the Rabaa sit-in alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood were hiring Syrians to participate in their rallies and that Syrian women were offered as brides in Rabaa.

The media campaigns led to pronounced xenophobia in some areas in Egypt against Syrians. Some Syrian refugees have reported being attacked and harassed by angry citizens in Alexandria and 6th of October City. Some Syrian owned shops and small restaurants in 6th of October City area, where there is a large Syrian community since two years, have also been targeted.

Some Syrian families have been forced to leave apartments they rented as owners refuse to have Syrians as tenants after the media campaign, said Al-Atassi.

“Families are scared to send their children to buy anything from the street. They now fear to speak in Syrian accent for fear of being spotted and attacked in the street,” another Syrian activist in Egypt told Ahram Online, preferring to remain anonymous out of concerns for safety.

“I know a man who was attacked and stabbed by an angry mob just because he is Syrian. This man is a father who lost a child and a wife in the war and came to Egypt searching for safety for the rest of his family,” said the activist.

Must be the occupation, since everyone knows that is the source of all the problems in the Middle East.

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