Al Jazeera insults Arafat; PalArabs seethe

From YNet:

Palestinian riot police prevented dozens of angry protestors from breaking into a building where the offices of Al Jazeera TV channel are located in the center of Ramallah.

The Fatah Youth movement called for a demonstration against Al Jazeera after a guest attacked the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Ibrahim Hammami, a pro-Islamist writer and head of the Palestinian Affair Center said that Abu Ammar, another name Arafat is known by, is a traitor. Arafat, who died in 2004, is still seen a symbol for the Palestinian people.

Two days before the show, on the 20th anniversary of signing the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamami wrote on his Facebook page that Arafat accomplished the Israeli dream 20 years ago.

A few days before that, Al Jazeera published a documentary called “The Price of Oslo,” unveiling what they called new historical information showing that the PLO recognized Israel and turned its back on the “revolution.”

At the demonstration, protestors held signs and pictures of the late Arafat, while chanting slogans.
“Yasser Arafat is a red line,” said employee Nibras Hussein, after she was not allowed to leave her job to partake in the demonstration. “Most people are working at this time. I am sure much more people wanted to protest Arafat’s insult but can’t leave their jobs.”

In front of the building, more protesters came to participate in the demonstration. Amna Mustafa was one of them: “I came to say I reject the Zionist-American conspiracy that is being waged through Al Jazeera channel by insulting and distorting the national figures and symbols,” Mustafa, a 33-year-old protester, said.

See how peaceful he is?

Notice the nature of the insult - not that Arafat was a terrorist, but that he was too peaceful! This is what gets the Palestinian Arabs upset. Similarly, Al Jazeera coverage of the Oslo anniversary concentrated on how the PA was too conciliatory towards Israel.

You will not have to look hard to find Israelis or Jews willing to call Sharon or Begin or Shamir "terrorists." But you will never find any Arab in an Arab country who would publicly say the same about Arafat. Both the insults and the defenses in the Arab world consistently come from the perspective that "my side is more anti-Israel, more intransigent, than your side is."

Arafat's family is threatening to sue Al Jazeera unless Hamami apologizes.

(h/t EBoZ)

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9/12 Links Part 1: Worshipers attacked at Joseph's Tomb, UN Watch Slams UN on Syria

From Ian:

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Hinting at dismay with Obama, PM says Israel can rely only on itself

In remarks whose content and timing implied criticism of President Barack Obama’s handling of the Syrian chemical weapons crisis, and a concern that Israel could not depend on the US to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday declared that nations that use weapons of mass destruction must pay a price, and said that his own actions as leader of the Jewish state revolved around the conviction that ultimately Israel had no one to rely on but itself when facing enemy threats.
Speaking at an Israeli Navy graduation ceremony, Netanyahu cited a 2,000-year-old saying by the Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” And he said this rule “is more relevant than ever these days in guiding me, in my key actions as prime minister.” Its practical application, he said, “is that Israel will always be able to protect itself, and will protect itself, with its own forces, against all threats.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: Analysis: PA campaigns against Jews at Temple Mount

What is the PA trying to achieve through this campaign? First, the PA leadership is trying to show Palestinians and all Muslims that it is keen on defending Islamic holy sites against Israeli “conspiracies” at a time when the Arab and Islamic countries are doing nothing.
Second, the PA is probably trying to divert attention from its controversial decision to resume the peace talks with Israel. The PA has come under heavy criticism for dropping its preconditions for returning to the negotiations, including a full cessation of settlement construction.
Third, the campaign is designed to depict Israel as a country that has no respect for other people’s religion and holy sites. This would make it easier for the PA to demand control not only over the Temple Mount, but also over east Jerusalem, under the pretext that Israel is violating international laws and conventions in the city.

Arab Rioters Open Fire on Jewish Worshippers at Joseph's Tomb

A large contingent of worshipers who visited the Tomb of Joseph (Kever Yosef) in Shechem Wednesday night were attacked by gangs of Arabs, who threw rocks and bricks at them.
The worshipers were accompanied by a large number of IDF soldiers. The Arabs attacked the soldiers with rocks as well. Troops used anti-riot techniques to quell the mob.
At one point, one of the attackers opened fire at soldiers with an automatic weapon. Troops and civilians took cover, and soldiers fired back in the direction of the gunfire, hitting the terrorist who had opened fire on them and injuring him seriously. He was taken to a hospital in an Israeli city for treatment.

Joseph Tomb Attacks Spark Renewed Calls for Israeli Sovereignty

Ben-Dahan’s plea was echoed by other MKs and local leaders at the site. “It’s outrageous that Jews who come to pray at the tomb of the righteous Joseph have to sneak in like thieves in the night, just because the Israeli government is afraid to exercise its sovereignty under the Oslo Accords,” said Gershon Mesika, head of the Samaria Regional Council.

IDF Blog: Terror Attacks & Attempts You Never Heard About: Jan-Sept 2013

The Israel Defense Forces deals with terror on a daily basis. This year, an Israeli civilian was murdered as a result of terror, and many more were injured in attacks ranging from stabbings to rockets. There were over 20 attempts to hit Israeli civilians with rocket fire alone. These attacks seem small, and don’t normally make it to the news headlines. But they effect Israeli civilians every day. The IDF will continue to do everything in our power to prevent them.

Hevron Hills: Arab Gang Caught with Firebombs in Hand

Soldiers caught four young terrorists on Wednesday night, just moments before they could attack Israelis on a nearby highway.
The dramatic capture took place in the Hevron Hills in the Judea region, south of Jerusalem.
Soldiers with the Kfir Brigade noticed four suspicious figures hiding near a heavily used junction. They approached the four, who attempted to escape into the nearby Arab town of Kfar Awa. The soldiers were faster, and managed to apprehend them.

Terrorism Disguised as Charity

The Jerusalem District Court convicted three men today (Wednesday) for running a Hamas terrorist network in Israel's capital city, under the guise of charity work.
The men, Yaaqub Abu Asab, Kifah Sarhan and Ahmed Ali'an, are accused of managing Hamas' "Advisory Council" in Jerusalem, and were tasked with a diverse range of activities aimed at boosting Hamas' presence in the Jerusalem area and expanding its membership base, including propaganda, social welfare and religious services.

Fatah Activists Demonstrate Against Al Jazeera Over Arafat Slur

The protesters had to be physically prevented from storming the building by Palestinian Authority (PA) police, and were forced to make do with hurling epithets including allegations that the Qatari-based network was pursuing a "Zionist" agenda.
The activists were incensed by remarks made by a certain Ibrahim Hamami during a heated debate broadcast by the network, in which he branded former Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat a "traitor," due to having signed the Oslo Agreements in 1994, and thus implicitly agreed to a compromise with Israel.

IDF Discovers Bomb, Rifles at Gaza Checkpoint

The Israel Defense Force’s “Taoz” Battalion on Tuesday uncovered a bomb and a cache of rifles and cartridges in separate inspections at a Gaza border control checkpoint, Israel’s Channel 2 reported, citing the battalion commander Lt. Col. Amir Zuber.
In the morning, the battalion uncovered a bomb placed on an agricultural gate, and, in the evening, two “Carl Gustav” rifles and cartridges in a vehicle at the checkpoint.

US is ‘floundering’ over Syria, says ex-Mossad chief

Shabtai Shavit, who served at the helm of Israel’s overseas intelligence service from 1989 to 1996, accused the administration of President Barack Obama of “floundering” over Syria. He noted witheringly that the US had “balked” at firing “half a dozen Tomahawk missiles” at the Syrian regime in the wake of the August 21 alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad, that the US says killed 1,429 Syrians.
Replacing the Assad regime was a clear Israeli interest, he said, as it would significantly weaken Hezbollah, leaving Israel to confront Iran without its regional proxy.
Israel’s biggest gain in any action involving Syria would be to break the “axis of evil” between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah, Shavit added in the rare interview Wednesday, on the sidelines of the World Summit on Counter Terrorism at Herzliya’s International Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) which he chairs.

Israeli President Peres: ‘Assad Cannot be Trusted’ to Honor Agreement on Chemical Weapons

Speaking at the Israeli Navy graduation ceremony Wednesday, Peres said, “Assad cannot be trusted to honor the agreement” but expressed optimism that Washington and Moscow could impose conditions on the Syrian president that would force him to give up his chemical weapons.
“I know both President Obama and President Putin and I am convinced that if an agreement is reached it will be reliable, explicit and significant. The agreement must ensure that Assad has no chemical weapons,” he said.

Leaked UN Inspectors' Report: Attack Looks Like Assad's Work

Excerpts of a report by international inspectors on Syria's chemical weapons use was leaked Thursday, and claims that the government of Bashar al-Assad was almost certainly responsible for the deaths of some 1,400 people in an August 21 chemical attack on a Syrian suburb.
The UN inspectors were sent to the country to assess the Syrian chemical weapons program, and were not expected to lay blame on any specific party for the attack. Western observers said that if the leak was accurate, it showed how overwhelmingly involved Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was in the attack.

UN Watch Slams UN ‘Apathy, Banality’ on Syria

The UN Watch watchdog group has slammed the United Nations for its “apathy” in the face of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
UN watch executive-director Hillel Neuer slammed the Human Rights Council in a meeting this week.
“Three weeks have passed since Syria gassed to death hundreds of its own men, women, and children — and still the council closes its eyes, refusing our call for an emergency session,” he accused.
“Madam President, why is this monstrous crime being treated here with such apathy, banality and triteness? Where is this council’s moral outrage? Where is its sense of urgency?” he demanded.

UN Watch: UN Rights Council Ignores Syria Poison Gas Attack, Slams Israel


Iran is Using Syria as a Testing Ground

To be sure, the security problem posed by jihadis is no laughing matter. As they continue to raid weapons storehouses once owned by the Syrian army, Israel must think ahead about a scenario involving a raid by al-Qaeda on a chemical weapons facility controlled by the Assad regime.
A reality in which al-Qaeda is armed with chemical weapons can never be accepted.
But right now, Iran is just a few months away from a working nuclear weapon, should it decide to obtain one. Its ally in Damascus massacred more than 1,400 civilians with sarin gas, and its ally in Lebanon stockpiles more rockets and missiles than any arsenal in the hands of most modern militaries.
For all of these reasons, a failure to deter the Iran-Syria-Hezballoh axis now could result in a future security deterioration, the outcome of which would be more extensive than any immediate threat posed by jihadis in Syria.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt's War On Hamas

Until recently, Hamas leaders were careful not to engage in a direct confrontation with the new rulers of Egypt. But in recent days several Hamas officials are beginning to regard Egypt's security measures as an act of war against the Gaza Strip.
For now, the Egyptians do not want to admit that they are at war with Hamas, preferring instead to describe their measures as part of a campaign against terror. Hamas, for its part, has internalized the fact that it is at war with Egypt.
Hamas, as it is being pushed to the wall and increasingly isolated, faces two options: either to initiate a new confrontation with Israel to create Arab and Islamic pressure on Egypt to halt its war, or to confront the Egyptian army in a direct military engagement by joining forces with the jihadis in Sinai.

Hamas seeks to lower tension with Egypt

The Hamas Islamist group ruling Gaza sought to ease tensions with Cairo on Wednesday by ordering Muslim preachers to mute their criticism of the Egyptian government over what some of the clerics have called its war on Islam.
"Preachers should avoid speaking of the internal affairs of Egypt and focus on our Palestinian national issues and our struggle for the liberation of our land and the freedom of our prisoners (held by Israel)," said Ismail Rudwan, the Hamas-appointed religious affairs minister in Gaza.

Eye on Sinai

The sad fact of Egyptian reality is that Sinai is only nominally Egyptian and Cairo’s rule barely extends to it.
It was always nearly extraterritorial, an anarchic expanse whose Beduin tribes feel exempt from the jurisdiction of any central government. Their insubordination went chronically unchecked, under all Egyptian regimes. Any attempt to control them was met by violence.
Sinai’s disorderly domains irresistibly beckon jihadist militias including al-Qaida and its allies, to say nothing of Hamas across the line in Gaza. Egypt’s internal strife had opened new vistas for the forces of obdurate Islam and enhanced existing ones. Foreign firebrands, whose strings are pulled from Gazan control centers, flock in.

86 hotels closed in the Red Sea due to tourism recession

Five hotels were shut down in Hurghada, and four others in Marsa Alam and Safaga on Tuesday, bringing the total number of hotels that have been closed in the Red Sea Governorate, due to the tourism recession, to 86 hotels out of 248 hotels.
As for the hotels that managed to stay open, the occupancy level has declined to 24 percent, making use of the domestic tourism, as well as the Czech Republic, whose administration decided to end its travel ban to Egypt.
Some Russian tourists have also been keen on visiting Egypt, via Ukraine, despite the official ban imposed by their country.

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Bizarre Israeli ruling that PA does not practice incitement (UPDATE)

From Ma'an:

A Tel Aviv district court has rejected legal claims against Palestinian officials accusing them of incitement against Israel which led to “terrorist” attacks against Israel and Israelis.

Judge Dalia Gannot strictly rejected the testimony of the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli media watchdog group which monitors Palestinian media outlets and publishes reports about incitement against Israel.

Marcus was summoned as an expert witness by the complainant, an Israeli family whose son was killed in a shooting about 10 years earlier. But the judge deemed Marcus an “incompetent” witness.

The family’s attorney accused senior Palestinian officials including President Mahmoud Abbas of incitement against Israel which encouraged Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis, one of which led to the killing of a member of the family. The attorney claimed in his pleading that senior PA officials were indirectly responsible for the killing.

Lawyer Joseph Arnone, who represented the PA, argued that the challenge was completely false as the incitement theory was based on quotes taken from unofficial and unpopular news outlets.

In her decision, the Israeli judge said that “there were remarks reflecting incitement against Israel and the Jews in Palestinian media, but there was no evidence of deliberate incitement.”

The witness, Itamar Marcus, presented to the judge reports he and his watchdog group translated from Palestinian media outlets as well as video footage. He argued that through his work running a media watchdog he reached the a conclusion that “the PA follows an explicit policy of incitement against Israel and the Jews.”

However, the judge decided that the evidence Marcus gave could not prove his claims about incitement.

The judge argued that Marcus quoted newspapers such as al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Ayyam and al-Quds as well as the Voice of Palestine radio station, but he ignored very popular Palestinian news outlets.

When she asked him about al-Fajr newspaper, Marcus said he was not familiar with that paper. The judge also highlighted that a majority of the newspaper quotes were taken from al-Hayat al-Jadida which is among the least popular Palestinian newspapers, while only very few quotes were taken from the most popular newspaper al-Quds.

Asked to explain, Marcus said he did not care how popular his sources were as long as these sources represented the PA.

“I don’t care if only 8,000 people read al-Hayat al-Jadida, all I care about is the messages this paper disseminates,” the lawyer quoted him as saying.

The judge noted that Marcus ignored the more popular Palestinian news outlets, and thus his theory of incitement was unacceptable. She wondered why he did not use any quotes from major Arab channels such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyya which are very popular in the Palestinian territories.

The judge concluded that the complainant could not prove incitement by PA officials. “If that was true, the PA would have used the most popular news outlets to disseminate its messages to as many Palestinians as possible,” she noted.

She noted that there was still “disgusting” incitement in some Palestinian outlets.

The judge also pointed out that the complainant presented only 76 news reports and articles documented in 15 years from 1995 to 2010. This is very few, the judge said, given the large number of news reports published in 15 years. She added that many of the reports reflected the writers’ own opinions.

“There is no doubt some Palestinian news outlets incite against Israel and the Jews, but it is clear this is not an official policy of the PA,” the judge concluded.

Based on this article, it is the judge who is incompetent, not Itamar Marcus.

First of all, her thesis is ridiculous. The PA has an official newspaper, Al Hayat al Jadida. If it is publishing incitement, which the judge agreed it did, then that incitement is essentially incitement from the PA itself. The same goes for the official PA TV station. To say that the relative lack of incitement at Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab newspaper, or Al-Quds, which is not an official PA paper, as evidence that the PA does not practice incitement is nonsensical. The PA cannot dictate the contents of Al Jazeera; it does dictate the contents of Al Hayat al Jadida and PA TV.

Secondly, the judge asks about al Fajr. Al Fajr is not listed in any list of Palestinian Arab media I am aware of. It used to be the official PLO newspaper. As far as I can tell, it has not been published since 1993. It doesn't have any online presence nor does it have a Wikipedia entry. If Judge Gannot is trying to use that as evidence that Marcus is incompetent, she ended up proving that her criticism of Marcus is based on her own ignorance.

Thirdly, it is obvious that the report that PMW submitted was only a small sample of the examples of incitement that Marcus and his team have documented. Their website is an encyclopedia of Palestinian Arab hate, although it is not only exposing PA incitement but Hamas and unofficial media incitement as well. The TV archives they have are more than enough to show that the PA endorses terror today.

In short, this ruling reveals more about how Israel allows activist judges to go way beyond their normal mandate to do or say whatever they want, without regard to facts or even the law. I would agree that it is (and should be) a tough case to prove legally that  incitement in the media is responsible for terror, but from this article it is obvious that Judge Dalia Gannot made up her mind before evaluating the evidence.

Gannot is the one who should be investigated - for slander, incompetence and bias.

UPDATE: Commenter Yenta Press sends the link to the actual ruling (Hebrew.)

It isn't as bad as Ma'an states - the judge clearly ruled that the PA incites to violence and she is very disturbed by some of the evidence Itamar Marcus showed. However, she said that there is no evidence that PA incitement resulted in that specific terror attack.

UPDATE 2: I am told that the family plans to appeal, based partially on the same arguments I used here.

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Egypt besieges Gaza; NGO blames Israel

Yesterday I reported that private Gaza buyers were planning to purchase fuel from Israeli companies because of the Egyptian siege on Gaza that shut down almost all smuggling tunnels.

COGAT tells me that Gazans already started buying fuel from Israel in August, for the first time in a year:

Indeed, the private sector in Gaza in fact started to buy petrol from Israel with the closing of the tunnels. The quantities are listed below.

Normally, Hamas prefers to smuggle fuel to the Gaza Strip via the illegal tunnels from Egypt. Transferring fuel from Israel happens only in exceptional cases, for the obvious reason that it's more expensive. Before June 2013, we rarely saw fuels coming through Kerem Shalom, only when there was something that was preventing them from going through the tunnels.

Between March and July of 2012, 2,261,323 liters of diesel and 678,684 liters of gasoline were transferred for the private sector. After that period, Hamas went back to smuggling the fuels through the tunnels.

Starting June 2013, the private sector began purchasing fuel from Israel and transferring it via Kerem Shalom again. During the last month (since the beginning of August) 3,802,971 liters of gasoline and 263,014 liters of diesel were transferred for the private sector, in addition to the fuel transferred for the use of the international organizations operating in the Gaza Strip.

The fuel bought from Israel is used freely in Gaza- It may be used for the power plant, as well as other purposes. This is an internal Palestinian matter, we only coordinate the transfer of fuels - not the price or the quantity. They can decide when and what to purchase, and from whom.

I also asked how much electricity and water Gaza buys from Israel:

As for the electricity and water provided by Israel to Gaza- it's paid for by the PA, as determined in the Oslo Accords. Israel transfers 5MCM of water to Gaza yearly and 125 MegaWatts via 10 electrical lines daily.

Meanwhile, over 750 people crossed over the Erez crossing from Gaza into Israel last week, the week of Rosh Hashanah, while Egypt continued to only allow a trickle of people to cross the Rafah crossing. Egypt once again closed Rafah completely yesterday after the latest jihadist attack in the Sinai.

There really is a siege of Gaza - and it isn't by Israel.

Al Ahram gives details:

Thousands of Palestinians that need to travel for health, education and other reasons are still stuck at Rafah Crossing, waiting their turn to go through.

Gaza needs 400,000 litres of fuel every day. Most of the supply used to come from Egypt, through the tunnels. Egyptian gasoline was sold at 3.6 shekels (about $1) per litre compared to 7.1 shekels for Israeli gasoline. Egyptian diesel oil cost 3.6 shekels per litre, compared to 6.5 shekels for the Israeli equivalent.

The Palestinian Authority imports fuel from Israel in accordance with the 1994 Paris Agreement, but since Hamas took power in 2007, Gaza mainly relied on smuggled fuel from Egypt.

Mahmoud Abdallah, who owns a gas station in Gaza, says that Egyptian fuel is no longer available. He sells Israeli fuel instead, but says drivers cannot afford it because of its high price. Even businesses buy it only when they have no other choice.

In Rafah, hundreds of travellers are waiting their turn to cross into Egypt. According to the Gaza government, nearly 10,000 are waiting for permission to pass the border.
Rafah Crossing operates six days a week, four hours per day — down from nine hours per day in the past.

Permission is only granted to foreigners, people with exit visas, and patients going for treatment abroad.

Even though the Kerem Shalom crossing is not operating at capacity because there simply isn't enough of a demand for goods at normal market prices, "humanitarian" NGOs continue to primarily blame Israel for Gaza's troubles. The Euro-Mid Observer in a report on Gaza this month almost completely blames Israel for the Gaza problems, with four of its five demands given to Israel and no blame at all given to Egypt.

Ironically, this report downplays any security concerns that Israel has for selling dual-use items to Gaza but doesn't have a word to say about Egypt's security concerns that have caused it to all but shut down Rafah altogether as well as the tunnels.

Which tells you all you need to know about the objectivity of "human rights" NGOs.

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Search and replace "Jews" with "Zionists". Presto!

This is a 1962 British Nazi flyer that was sent to me by a reader:

Of course, it is way out of date. We need to update it to fit right in with the times:

Ah, much better! The new, improved version can be proudly distributed on any modern campus without anyone blinking an eye!

(h/t Judy)

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Arabs kill Arabs, and it's all the Jews' fault

Al Ahram reports:

Six soldiers were killed on Wednesday morning in a double suicide car bomb attack at a military intelligence headquarters and a nearby military checkpoint in the northern Sinai town of Rafah.

Earlier reports by state news agency MENA and Egyptian state TV said eleven people were killed, but this was later denied by a military source.

Ten solidiers and seven civilians were also wounded in the "treacherous blast targeting security forces," army spokesperson Ahmed Ali said.

After the initial blast, which shattered the main gate of the military facility and ripped through parts of its railings, unknown assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the building, state TV said.

A second suicide car bomb hit a nearby army checkpoint minutes after the first attack.

Al Moslim reports that a group called "Supporters of Jerusalem" ("Ansar al Bayt Al Maqdis") has taken credit for the attacks. They say that they attacked because there is an "all-out war on Islam" in Egypt, spearheaded by "secularists and atheists and hypocrites and the Crusaders [Christians]" in Egypt, joined with the Jews and the West.

They also say that the army has been attacking Islamists in the Sinai by falsely claiming that they are terrorists and criminals, when the truth is that the army's real goal is "securing the border region with the Zionist side, and making a buffer zone to protect Jews from any threats from militants in the Sinai, and prevent any strikes of the Mujahideen against the Jews."

By the logic of Arabs, Islamists and Western proponents of "realpolitik," Arabs killing Arabs because of Jews is a good reason for Israel to be dismantled.

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9/11 Links Part 2: Remembering 9/11, The Abuse of the Media by Palestinian Propaganda

From Ian:

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Manufacturing and Exploiting Compassion: Abuse of the Media by Palestinian Propaganda

Blaise Pascal once observed that “people…arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof, but on the basis of what they find attractive.” Today this is confirmed by science, and it explains why Palestinians have won the media war.
In 2011 – an age of abundant and verifiable information – opinion polls found that as many as 40-60 percent of Europeans believed that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.” That so many Westerners baselessly accuse Israel of genocide is all the more baffling when one considers that it is Israel that is regularly threatened with annihilation. Those poll results are not peculiar to Europe: similar worrying trends have been noted among American youth, liberals, and minorities. Israel, a liberal democracy caught between tyrannies and sectarian violence, is increasingly perceived as uniquely evil. Tired refrains can no longer obfuscate the truth: the success of the Palestinians in generating such widespread hostility towards Israel has been earned, and in fact can be scientifically explained.

Arab Intellectual Calls For Theological-Cognitive Revolution To Extricate Arab World From Backwardness, Crises, And Internecine Warfare

Hashem Saleh, an Arab intellectual of Syrian origin who currently resides in Morocco, wrote in his August 10, 2013 column in the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that in order to extricate itself from crises, backwardness and internecine warfare, the Arab and Muslim world must undergo a theological-cognitive revolution. He explained that it must discard the approach of rejecting the other and embrace a more tolerant and enlightened approach – like the revolution experienced by Europe three centuries ago. Saleh adds that since we are in the era of an information revolution and globalization, this process can take place more quickly than it did in Europe, and could take as little as three decades.

The World From Here: Defeating ‘cocktail terrorism’

In short, the “cocktail terror” strategy has been to attack Israel from the outside using classic terror tactics while at the same time attempting to unravel Israel’s legitimacy, its public’s trust and morale from the inside. The EU’s bifurcated treatment of Hezbollah as a military and political organization poses similar challenges. Fatah-Palestinian Authority-sponsored incitement to murder Jews while mobilizing lower-level terror – “popular protest” violence – has successfully challenged Israel’s legitimacy in international circles.
Shifting international perceptions of legitimacy of Hamas, Hezbollah and other Fatah-associated groups influence IDF strategy and tactics in counter-terror campaigns. This became clear in the IDF’s softer approach in the Mavi Marmara pro- Hamas flotilla following the IDF’s Cast Lead operation resulting in the UN Goldstone Report. The legitimacy war opposite semi-terror, semi-government groups is a zero sum game. The more they are perceived as legitimate, the more complicated it is for Israel to defend itself against them. In short, like the law of “communicating vessels,” Israel’s military legitimacy depends on the levels of its political and diplomatic legitimacy. This is true both domestically and internationally.

JPost Editorial: Remembering 9/11

The ability of the West to truly influence the Middle East is limited. Totalitarian Islamist regimes and organizations – including al-Qaida – have proven to be remarkably resilient. Hopes that the Arab spring would lead to a more democratic Middle East have yet to materialize.
Instead, democratic election gave rise – temporarily in Egypt’s case – to Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated governments.
And this geopolitical reality – as we mark the 12th anniversary of 9/11 – presents serious challenges, not only for Israel, but for the rest of the freedom-loving world.

Remembering Tech Titan Danny Lewin, the Fighting Genius on Flight 11

The first victim of the 9/11 attacks was a veteran of an elite IDF unit, as well as an innovative Internet entrepreneur
By most accounts, Danny Lewin was the first victim of 9/11. Seated in seat 9B aboard American Airlines flight 11, he saw Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari, sitting just in front of him, rise and make their way to the cockpit. According to calls from flight attendants to air traffic officials, later documented in the 9/11 Commission’s report, Lewin wasted no time in acting. Having served as an officer in Sayeret Matkal, the Israel Defense Forces’ top unit, he moved to tackle the terrorists. The man in 10B, Satam al-Suqami, moved, too, producing a knife and slitting Lewin’s throat. Less than 30 minutes later, at 8:46 a.m., the plane crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
Elsewhere, in America and all over the world, people desperate for accurate information turned to the Internet for news. Straining under the overwhelming demand of tens of millions of simultaneous requests, the web’s biggest news sites threatened to collapse. Very few did, thanks in large part to the technology that Lewin himself had developed years earlier: Although only 31 at the time of his murder, he was the co-founder of Akamai, a pioneering technology company whose content routing solutions enable the seamless flow of nearly 20 percent of the web’s traffic.

What a Real Peace Process Would Look Like

Ordinary Palestinians feel they’ve gotten nothing from the peace process, and they’re right. That, however, is because the PA deliberately chose to give them nothing. It never used its massive infusions of aid to build, say, better housing for Palestinian refugees living in squalid West Bank camps; on the contrary, it publicly vowed that even if a Palestinian state someday arises, the refugees won’t be given citizenship. Nor did it use foreign aid to upgrade its hospitals: Patients who need state-of-the-art treatment are still routinely sent to Israel. It refuses to cooperate with Israel on mundane issues like sewage treatment that would improve Palestinian lives, and allows anti-normalization thugs from the ruling Fatah party to drive away Israeli businesses that would provide Palestinians with jobs. In short, rather than trying to help its people, the PA has done everything possible to keep them in a state of perpetual misery.

Where Are the Borders?

Palestinian Authority officials, evidently terrified that talks with Israel might actually lead somewhere, have predictably placed yet another obstacle on the way. They are now claiming that they received a guarantee from Secretary of State Kerry that negotiations over a two-state solution would be based on the 1949 Armistice lines, before they were obliterated during the Six-Day War. Even such a promise, if it exists, would be all but worthless. It blatantly contradicts United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, ratified five months after the war, which set the parameters for future negotiations and agreements between Israel, Arab states, and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Terrorism in Judea and Samaria Becoming More Sophisticated

Commander of the Binyamin Regional Brigade Colonel Yossi Pinto said at an annual review of incidents in the sector that Israeli forces are not facing a rise in terror overall in Judea and Samaria but rather a rise in the sophistication of terrorist infrastructure and planning. These changes demand a high-level of intelligence gathering from security forces.

The Guardian falsely characterizes First Intifada as a “largely unarmed rebellion”

Of course, as anyone familiar with the uprising (from 1987 to around 1991) would know, characterizing it as an “unarmed rebellion” is extraordinarily misleading, as the intifada was violent from the start. Whilst most people remember images of rock throwing Palestinian youths, in fact more than 3,600 Molotov cocktail attacks, 100 hand grenade attacks and 600 assaults with firearms were carried out during that time – violence directed at soldiers and civilians alike.
During this period, over 200 Israelis were killed by such terror attacks, and more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and 1,700 Israeli soldiers were injured.

"A Conference That Features Fringe Conspiracy Theorists & Ideologues": Australian National University Slammed For Hosting Anti-Israel Event

The report quotes Peter Wertheim, executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, thus:
"A conference that features fringe conspiracy theorists and ideologues and omits recognised scholars in the field has no academic credibility.
It is appalling that one of our top universities, the ANU, seems no longer to understand the difference between genuine scholarship and political advocacy."

Center-Right victory in Norway elections expected to improve country’s tone toward Israel

In 2008, when Myrland’s organization asked Solberg to write a greeting in a book it had published in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday, she wrote, “Culturally, historically and politically, there is no land in the Middle East that is closer to Norway than Israel.”
Myrland said that all of the likely parties in the new coalition have said they would review Norway’s non-critical economic support of the Palestinian Authority. Norway is one of the PA’s biggest donors, giving some $52 million annually.
“Even the Conservative party has been strongly critical of the former government for giving money to the PA to pay salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli jails,” he said.

New Olympic chief heads Arab-German trade group set up to boycott Israel

Thomas Bach, a German who was elected Tuesday for an initial eight-year term at an IOC session in Buenos Aires, is chairman of Ghorfa, the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was set up in the 1970s by Arab countries to boycott trade with Israel.
“It betrays the principles of sportsmanship and fair play for the IOC to be headed by someone who actively participates in ongoing Israel boycott campaign measures,” said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee Berlin Ramer Institute.

Obama Appoints Zogby to Commission on Religious Freedom

Zogby was also a featured writer for the Arab Voice at the time that paper was excerpting the notorious anti-Semitic forgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Zogby responds at the base of the article, which is followed by a follow-up article casting doubt on parts of his explanations). He accused Israel of waging a “Holocaust” against the Palestinians. More recently, he embraced political polemics if not conspiracies regarding the Iraq war. And most recently, Zogby accused Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of being an “Israel firster,” an anti-Semitic trope.

Spanish festival bans musician for attending pro-Israel event

The organizers of the Festa Major Alternativa told Eric Herrera that he could not play with his band, Amusic Skazz Band, on August 29 after photos surfaced of him attending an event marking Israel’s 65th anniversary in Barcelona earlier this year, band members told the news site Dialogo Libre.
The band canceled its performance in Manreza, where anti-Israel activists reportedly handed out posters of Herrera posing next to the Israeli flag at the celebration. The same photos were circulated among some festival goers ahead of the event.

World’s First ‘No Blood’ Glucose Monitor for Diabetics; Developed by Israeli Start-Up Cnoga Medical

Israel’s Cnoga Medical Ltd. has developed a blood glucose monitor for diabetics that uses optical censors to measure change in skin color instead of a pin prick to take a physical sample of blood.
This “non-invasive” device is now available in Europe, and will likely require a clinical trial in the U.S. before being sold officially to diabetics, although the device’s technology has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other applications, CEO Dr. Yosef Segman told Israel’s Globes business daily.

Israel Chemicals teams with Vietnamese Co.

Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese chemicals company Duc Giang to jointly mine phosphates and build phosphates processing plants for the local and Southeast Asia markets.
Israel Chemicals says that the agreement is part of its Next Step Forward strategy, and is part of its plan to expand and diversify its mining sources outside of Israel, broaden its global phosphate operations, and provide a growth engine for its primary markets

Ormat completes 100MW New Zealand geothermal power station

Ormat Industries Ltd. (TASE: ORMT) unit Ormat Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ORA) today announced that it has completed the 100-megawatt Ngatamariki geothermal power plant in New Zealand under the $142 million Supply and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts signed with Mighty River Power Ltd. in June 2011. The plant is the largest singular binary power plant in the world, and was built in 24 months.
The Ormat Energy Converters are directly fed by a high temperature (193 degrees Celsius) geothermal fluid. Until now, on such resources, only steam turbines or Geothermal Combined Cycle plants were used. In this configuration, 100% of the exploited geothermal fluid is reinjected with zero water consumption and low emissions, minimizing the impact on the environment with no depletion of the underground reservoir.

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Video: US ambassador to Israel on satirical Israeli show

This is pretty funny:



Shapiro's Hebrew is impressive as well.

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Once again, Palestinian Arab support for terrorism is the highest in the world

Pew Research just released their latest Global Attitudes report on how the Muslim world views extremist groups and terrorism.

Once again, Palestinian Arab Muslims are found to support terrorism and have a higher regard for terrorist than any other group. By far.

PalArabs show more than twice the support compared to any other Sunni population surveyed!

Here is how they compare to other groups over the past 11 years:

Similarly, Palestinian Arab Muslims rank highest  - by a significant margin - in their support for Al Qaeda:

Palestinian Arab support for Hezbollah is also the highest, along with Lebanese Muslims. (If you factor in Christians, clearly the Palestinian Arab numbers would be even higher than Lebanese.)

Even the Taliban get more support from Palestinian Arabs than any other Muslim group!

These results have been consistent for years. But they make no dent in the brains of enlightened Westerners who really, truly believe that Palestinian Arabs are moderate, that they want peace, and that they do not support terror.

Mere facts and figures cannot displace the enormous amount of emotional investment in the false religion of the "peace process" - which necessarily requires a belief in the fairy tale that the Palestinian Arab side loves peace.

The truth cannot be discarded when it is inconvenient, but that has been exactly the attitude of the West regarding Palestinian Arabs for some forty years now.

(h/t Ian)

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"Million Muslim March" in DC attracts less than a dozen

From Fox DC:

Only a handful of people have turned out for what some have billed the 'Million Muslim March' on the National Mall.

FOX 5’s Paul Wagner took this picture which shows only a few people in attendance.

According to Iran's PressTV, which covered the march's announcement in January, the sponsor is AMPAC, the American Muslim Political Action Committee. The march was intended to "challenge AIPAC’s stranglehold on American political life."

The founder of AMPAC is a Muslim 9/11 "truther" named M.D. Rabbi(!) Alam, who wanted to use the occasion to call for an independent inquiry into the events of 9/11.

(h/t Michelle)

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9/11 Links Part 1: Dennis Ross and Thomas Sowell on Syria, Jordanian MP Debates with an AK

From Ian:

---

Dennis Ross: Blocking action on Syria makes an attack on Iran more likely

Still, for the opponents of authorization, these arguments are portrayed as abstractions. Only threats that are immediate and directly affect us should produce U.S. military strikes. Leaving aside the argument that when the threats become immediate, we will be far more likely to have to use our military in a bigger way and under worse conditions, there is another argument to consider: should opponents block authorization and should the president then feel he cannot employ military strikes against Syria, this will almost certainly guarantee that there will be no diplomatic outcome to our conflict with Iran over its nuclear weapons.
I say this for two reasons. First, Iran’s President Rouhani, who continues to send signals that he wants to make a deal on the nuclear program, will inevitably be weakened once it becomes clear that the U.S. cannot use force against Syria. At that point, paradoxically, the hard-liners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and around the Supreme Leader will be able to claim that there is only an economic cost to pursuing nuclear weapons but no military danger. Their argument will be: Once Iran has nuclear weapons, it will build its leverage in the region; its deterrent will be enhanced; and, most importantly, the rest of the world will see that sanctions have failed, and that it is time to come to terms with Iran.

Thomas Sowell: Syria and Obama

Whatever the Obama rhetoric, the reality is that his policies in Egypt and Libya have led to replacing stable regimes, at peace with Israel and the West, and tolerant of their own Christian minorities, with chaotic regimes in which fanatical anti-Western terrorists have played a large and growing role, with hostility to Israel and murderous attacks on Christians in their own country.
Barack Obama will try to salvage his policy and his presidency with a speech to the nation. Rhetoric is his strong suit. The big question is: How many Americans have learned to distinguish between his soaring words and his sorry record? Matters of life and death can hinge on the answer to that question.

Noah Beck: Russia helps Obama dodge the Syrian bullet

Any diplomatic initiative on Syria coming from Russia, whose UN votes have perpetuated Assad's killing machine for over two years, should be viewed with extreme suspicion. Nevertheless, the latest Russian proposal merits serious consideration.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's proposal, which exploited an offhand remark by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, calls for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal in exchange for a cancellation of the U.S. military action against Syria being debated by Congress.
Russian national interests underlie this proposal: helping Russia's last Mideast client state to survive, reinforcing the image of Russia as a Mideast power broker, and diminishing the perception that Russia supports chemical weapons use.

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: America’s isolationism and its implications for Israel

Israel stands in a difficult position in the midst of the tension. Understandably, it is unwilling to side either with the murderous Assad or the monstrous al-Qaida terrorists now dominant among the Syrian rebels. There is little doubt that we would wish a plague on both their houses.
But Israel recognizes that if, after Obama’s repeated promise to act if Assad crossed the “red lines” and employed chemical weapons, Congress rejects his request for a military response, the weakened president would suffer further humiliation, highlighting US impotence and strengthening the isolationist trends that have already dramatically impacted on American public opinion.
This would have severe negative ramifications on Israel and the entire region and, above all, embolden the Iranians towards attaining their nuclear objective.

Privately, UN talks begin on Syria chemical arms

The plan for Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons, initiated by Russia, appeared to ease the crisis over looming Western strikes against Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus, only to open up new potential for impasse as Moscow rejected US and French demands for a binding UN resolution with “very severe consequences” for non-compliance.

Syrian FM: "We'll Even Sign the Int'l Ban on Chemical Weapons"

Walid Muallem was speaking in an interview with Lebanon based Al-Maydeen TV.
"We fully support Russia's initiative concerning chemical weapons in Syria, and we are ready to cooperate. As a part of the plan, we intend to join the Chemical Weapons Convention," Muallem said.
In a turn around to the political momentum building towards a possible military strike, Muallem gave the nod to the Russian brokered deal earlier today calling for Syria to turn over its full arsenal of chemical weaponry to the international community.

Syria and Russia Fail Lie Detector Test

Vladimir Putin and Bassar al-Assad’s proven inability to tell the truth has been their best tactic to outsmart Obama, who has allowed himself to be cornered into using reason to defeat a lie.
After weeks of insisting that the Assad regime has no chemical weapons, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Tuesday that it would cease production of chemical weapons and disclose the locations of its stockpiles to the United Nations and to Russia.
That was the first admission that Assad has chemical weapons, a fact which has been obvious to France, Britain, the United States and certainly to Syrian victims of chemical war.

Minister urges UN to stop making speeches and act on Syria

In a rare recent public comment from an Israeli minister on international policy in Syria, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday called on the United Nations to intervene in the war-torn country, and to avoid relying on speeches and rhetoric.
“The UN, whose motto from day one has been ‘never again,’ must intervene,” said Livni, speaking at a convention of the Israel Bar Association in Herzliya. “It’s not enough to make moving speeches. It must fight for the values with deeds as well. The events in Syria must be destroyed while they’re still small.”

Report: Russia to supply S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran

The newspaper reported on Wednesday that the Russian government will revive the transfer three years after it canceled the original transaction.
According to Kommersant, the Kremlin agreed to Tehran’s request to complete the transaction, which will net the Russian treasury $800 million.

Assad Celebrates Birthday as Rebels Rue 'Dirty' Chemical Deal

Bashar al Assad marked his 48th birthday Wednesday, gifted with the momentum gathering behind a Russian-brokered deal that could prevent a U.S.-led strike on his regime.
Despite the fact that over 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the country's civil war, with two million having fled and a further four million citizens displaced inside the country, the Russian plan that would see Assad cede his chemical weapons arsenal to the international community, looks set to lengthen Assad's grip over the country.

MEMRI: The Syrian Crisis As Reflected In Cartoons In The Arab Media

Numerous cartoons have been published recently in the Arab media in response to the escalation of the Syrian crisis following Bashar Assad's reported chemical attack near Damascus on August 21, 2013, and to the U.S.'s preparations for a possible military attack in Syria in reaction to this chemical attack. Many of the cartoons criticize the U.S., especially President Obama himself, for defining the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" but hesitating to respond now that this red line has been crossed. Others criticize the U.N., depicting it as weak and powerless to deal with the crisis or as turning a blind eye to Assad's use of chemical weapons. Still others express opposition to a U.S. attack in Syria, saying that it would destroy Syria and harm its people, and even spark war throughout the world. Some cartoons also criticize Assad's cruelty and predict that he will respond to a U.S. attack by retaliating against his own people.

Obama on Syria Retaliation: Israel ‘Can Defend Itself,’ Has ‘Unshakable’ U.S. Support

“Neither [President Bashar] Assad nor his allies have any interest in escalation that would lead to his demise,” Obama said. “And our ally Israel can defend itself with overwhelming force, as well as the unshakable support of the United States of America.”
Obama said that failing to respond to Syria’s use of chemical weapons against civilians “would weaken prohibitions against other weapons of mass destruction and embolden Assad’s ally, Iran, which must decide whether to ignore international law by building a nuclear weapon or to take a more peaceful path.”

Syrian oppositionist quietly aims for normalization with Israel

A Europe-based Syrian opposition political activist who took part in the early stages of the uprising against the Syrian government told The Jerusalem Post he would like the Syrian and Israeli people to become partners, develop business connections and visit each other’s countries.
The activist, who goes by the pseudonym Amin Muhammad, is working on forming a liberal Syrian party that would be pro-West and seek the normalization of relations with Israel. Muhammad is in contact with Israeli politicians. The only one he agreed to name was Labor MK Isaac Herzog, who had helped arrange this interview.

Israeli NGO brings food, medicine, post trauma care to Syrians

An Israeli NGO working under the radar has sent 70 tons of sanitation items, 670 tons of food, 300,000 dry meals, 20 tons of medications and post trauma care specialists to Syrian refugees since the start of the bloody civil war.
The NGO does not identify its members and is only known as IL4Syrians.
“The harsh reality in which the organization is operating is on behalf of the victims of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s atrocities, which demands us to carry out our activities below the radar and hide our identities. This is in order to protect the lives of team members and local contacts, and to ensure the flow of victims’ needs, such as food, medicine, and basic supplies,” a statement on the website reads.

Youngest Syrian Victim Treated in Israeli Hospital Released

The child, a two-and-half-year-old boy who was suffering from shrapnel wounds to his head, was brought with his injured mother to Ziv Medical Center on Wednesday for emergency treatment. The two were injured by a missile explosion across from their home in Syria, which left shrapnel pieces and burns on the upper part sof their bodies.

U.S. Eases Sanctions on Iran

The U.S. Treasury announced Tuesday that it would permit private organizations to support humanitarian program in Iran, and sports groups to hold exchanges with the country.
Opening up a window of cooperation in its tight sanctions crackdown on Iran, the Treasury issued "general licenses", or permits, for the two areas of activity. It said this would "encourage humanitarian and goodwill services between the Iranian and American people."

‘Russia to sell Iran anti-aircraft system, nuclear reactor’

After calling off a transfer of five S-300 missile batteries to Iran three years ago, Russia is now interested in renewing the agreement and in setting up a civilian nuclear reactor for its long-time ally as part of a deal worth $800 million, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Wednesday.
The two countries initially signed the S-300 missile system deal in 2007, but it was called off three years later as part of UN Security Council sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The cancellation of the agreement led to tensions between the two countries, including a $4 billion Iranian lawsuit against
Russia.

Iran’s Rouhani: Time running out to resolve nuclear disagreements

Speaking during a live interview on Iranian state television, Rouhani stressed that the Islamic Republic would not be open for dialogue with the West indefinitely, but stated that he is “ready for a win-win game,” and indicated that the nuclear dispute could be resolved peacefully if the parties involved took action as soon as possible.
“The world must know completely that this period of time for resolving the nuclear issue will not be unlimited,” the Iranian president said. “We have a specified period of time.”

6 killed as bombs hit Egyptian security HQ in Rafah

A pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden cars into military targets in Egypt’s volatile Sinai on Wednesday, killing at least six soldiers and wounding 17 people, security officials and a military spokesman said.
One of the two bombings in the town of Rafah brought down a two-story building housing the local branch of military intelligence, while the other struck an army checkpoint.

82 Jordanian deputies call on leaders to visit Jerusalem

In the appeal, addressed to the speaker of parliament, the deputies argue that avoiding the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem has placed the Palestinian people “under total isolation.”
“[This boycott] helps the occupier tighten his stranglehold on the Palestinian people… allowing him to continue his barbaric practices and Zionist arrogance immune from the Arab and Islamic world,” read the statement.

Jordanian MP Fires AK-47 During Parliament Session

According to news reports, MP Talal Al Sharif opened fire using an AK-47 on his colleague MP Qusai Dmeisi during a Foreign Affairs Council meeting inside of the House of Representatives, which is located in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
It remains unknown as to why Sharif opened fire, but no casualties have been reported.

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The most disgusting 9/11 article you'll read this year

Al Arabiya, the relatively moderate pan-Arab publication, has a truly sickening article that indicates that even today - 12  years after 9/11 - Arabs simply cannot distinguish between terrorists and heroes.

‘Live free or die’: has Hollywood made suicide bombers heroes post-9/11?

Think Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Christian Bale, then think of 9/11. No? Haven’t drawn any parallels yet? Then there’s one recurring theme in the film industry you may have missed out on.

In the 12 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks against the U.S., movie directors have zeroed in on the concept of suicide bombings.

But while we’ve seen the Arabs and Asians in their terrorist garb wreaking havoc on Western interests, there’s also been another type of suicide bomber depicted on the silver screen – and it’s not the “evil” kind.

“We’ve seen several different trends. One of them is the suicide bomber as the apocalyptic kind, wanting the downfall of America. But the other is a heroic figure, a self-sacrificing individual,” Haroon Moghul, an author and a fellow at the center of national security at the New York-based Fordham Law School, told Al Arabiya English on Tuesday, ahead of the 12th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

“I think the fact that no one talks about this, and yet it’s so prominent in many different movies, is interesting.”

So, what kinds of films feature these self-sacrificing suicide bombers, which appear to be celebrated within the narrative?

Tom Cruise is perhaps one of the latest culprits of the seeming trend, starring as an action hero in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Oblivion (2013). Cruise plays Jack Harper, who ends up believing the only way he can save humanity is by sacrificing himself.

It’s not a new theme, but Moghul believes such storylines have been churned out by Hollywood left, right and center post-9/11.

“We use art subconsciously as a way to work out so many things going on around us. We have been at war since 9/11. For a lot of Americans, and a lot of the audiences who we would assume are now younger, this is all they really know of American politics, history and global affairs,” says Moghul.

“On a rhetorical level, we talk about good and evil, but I think what we’re really talking about is questions over what kind of violence is permissible and what isn’t. Inseparable from that is the question; what is it permissible to give your life for?”

Hollywood has certainly given an assortment of examples.

One was a sacrificial death in sci-fi flick Pacific Rim (2013), which was described as “Christ-like” by critics.

The hero “dives into the belly of the beast, he goes through the dimension of this dark underworld and then he pops up in a sort of resurrection scene,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Coalition and Editor-in-Chief of Movieguide, in an interview with U.S.-based The Christian Post in July.

In ever the macho show of bravery, the hero ejects his copilot, and romantic interest, so she can survive, and goes on to destroy villainous aliens. The sacrifice is similar to the seeming death of Iron Man in “The Avengers” (2012).

Suicide bomber?

...In the latest installment of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the audience is led to believe that the caped crusader dies to protect Gotham City. Again, martyrdom finds its way into silver screen narratives. But, in a twist of fate that only Hollywood could conjure up, Batman survives due to a painfully obvious software glitch in the character’s vehicle.

Only after 26 paragraphs does an ultra-left author say she is slightly uncomfortable with the comparison:

But, likening the self-sacrifice seen in recent Hollywood flicks to the terrorist suicide bombings seen in “real world” attacks is not a comparison without flaws.

“I’m not entirely certain that the self-sacrifice of the heroes in those films is directly analogous to a suicide bombing,” says [U.S.-based author and graphic novelist Willow] Wilson.

“In the cases that have been mentioned, the ‘threat’ is very immediate and external, it’s more like the hero is throwing himself on a bomb rather than setting the bomb off.”

Wilson notes that in the case of the Dark Knight Rises, for example, Batman takes a bomb way out to where it won’t hurt anybody and in doing so, sacrifices his own life.

“Now we’ve been in two horribly long wars and we went into war under false pretenses; the threats we thought existed were exaggerated, or in some cases falsified, and so I almost wonder if it’s an attempt to justify our reaction to a suicide bombing rather than the suicide bombing itself,” adds Wilson.

Still, she believes that the common thread of self-sacrifice in film since 9/11 cannot go by unnoticed.

Al Arabiya, and in particular Haroon Moghul (also a HuffPo columnist besides being a fellow at the center of national security at Fordham), simply cannot understand how heroes who sacrifice themselves are any different from suicide bombers.

In Al Arabiya's view, Daniel M. Lewin - who was murdered on American Airlines Flight 11 as he tried to foil the hijacking of the plane that destroyed the North Tower of the World Trade Center - is exactly the same as his murderers. The heroic passengers of United Flight 93 who sacrificed themselves to avoid having that flight crash into another building in Washington are themselves "suicide bombers," just like the hijackers, according to this nauseating logic.

If the editors at a modern, moderate, well-written Gulf Arab news source cannot distinguish between suicide terrorism and heroism, then one has to wonder if anyone in the Muslim world gets it 12 years later.

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Looks like Gaza will start importing petroleum from Israel

The most obvious effect on the Egyptian crackdown on smuggling tunnels to Gaza has been the shortage of petroleum.

Egypt's destruction of the tunnels has brought Gaza transportation almost to a standstill, and there are a number of stories in Arabic media about how difficult it is for Gazans to get to work or school.

According to some reports, Gaza fuel buyers are negotiating with the PA to work out a deal to pay Israel for petroleum that can be imported into the sector. Israel used to sell fuel to Gaza but Hamas stopped that practice and instead relied on smuggled (and subsidized) Egyptian fuel.

That way, Hamas could control the fuel by controlling the tunnel trade, and it could tax the fuel at will.

Israeli fuel is at market prices so it will be more difficult for Hamas to make money from the imports.

A couple of years ago, Hamas converted the power plant in Gaza to run on ordinary smuggled petroleum rather than the special fuel it was using to stop its dependence on Israeli-sourced fuel. I have not yet read about widespread power outages, although I have seen threats that it would run out of fuel very soon. It is unclear how Gaza's power plant continues to operate.

Israel has no restrictions on exporting fuel to Gaza. The only restrictions have been put in place by Hamas. In the past, Hamas staged "blackouts" for the media when in fact it could have gotten fuel from Israel, albeit at market prices.

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Hamas' "moderation" in interview gets jeers from Arab media

You know how Arab leaders speak completely differently to Western reporters and to their own people? We've seen it hundreds of times. The relatively few times their duplicity gets revealed in Western media, there is a small kerfuffle and then things quickly go back to normal.

Well, there is a flip side. How to die-hard Jew-haters respond when a Hamas leader speaks in peaceful terms to a Western reporter - and the interview gets translated to Arabic?

The result tells us a lot about the Middle East.

Arab newspaper Vetogate is now publicizing an interview, seemingly from 2009, with Hamas "political wing" leader Ismail Haniyeh. The reporter asks Haniyeh what he would do if his child would announce that he wants to be a suicide bomber, and Haniyeh tries to brush off the question by claiming (incredibly) that Hamas doesn't support suicide bombing.



His faux-humanitarian responses might work for wishful-thinking Westerners, but Vetogate is reporting it as saying "Haniyeh values the blood of Jews - and won't allow his sons to go on martyrdom operations."

So just like it is newsworthy when Arab leaders are discovered to be more violent than they pretend to be in the West, it is newsworthy for Arab media to notice that violent Arabs pretend to be less violent than they really are.

Because it makes them look soft.

The point isn't that Haniyeh is a hypocrite who takes advantage of Western gullibility - that is a given. The point is that even pretending to be a moderate makes one lose credibility in much of the Arab world.

Not that this is new. Fatah has often lampooned Hamas for not being as tough has they pretend to be - attacking them from the more extreme position.

This is how the Arab world works - rarely can one find an Arab media outlet that argues that a group is too harsh in its position on Jews or Israel. I don't recall ever seeing that - not in an op-ed, not in a comment, nothing. The groupthink in the Arab world is uniformly set up that everyone tries to outdo the next in their hate of Jews and Israel.

But Western politicians and journalists simply cannot see it.

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The importance of framing when talking about Israel (David Olesker)

In my Hasbara 2.0 (and other) lectures, I discuss the importance of using the proper framework when discussing Israel and the Arab world.

My favorite example of how the wrong framework inevitably puts Israel on the defensive is an "even-handed" history textbook that gives equal weight to both the Palestinian Arab and Israeli narratives on both sides of the page. However, it starts history in 1917, with the Balfour Declaration. Using that as a framework inevitably makes it look like Jews are the invaders of Israel and Arabs are the natives - turning history n its head and  giving Israel, and only Israel,  the burden of justifying its existence ab initio.

Here, David Olesker has a great article about framing the argument from a slightly different perspective, but one that is no less important:

Supporters of Israel are often puzzled why facts that seem so significant to them are ignored or dismissed by others. We can understand how an ideological opponent of Israel can ignore inconvenient truths, but how can otherwise neutral people be so (apparently) blind? Must we believe that they are guilty of the same malice and mendacity so often displayed by opponents of Jewish rights? Is the new antisemitism really so prevalent?

The answer to these questions lay in the persuasion technique of conceptual framing. If you can understand it then you will possess the key to being persuasive about Israel.

A key principle of persuasion is known as the conceptual frame. What is it? To answer that question, let’s ask another one: Do you have a brother? If so, let’s ask a question about him – don’t worry, it’s a simple question, and you can (in fact you must) answer it yes or no. Here is the question: Is your brother out of prison yet?

Did you answer yes or no? If you responded either way, you fell for what logicians call the Fallacy of the Complex Question. Answering the question according to the “rules” means that you accepted the assumption that the question is based on–in this case, that your brother is a criminal. Of course, you could decline to answer yes or no and instead address the assumption. With such a transparent example it’s easy to see that you should shout out, “My brother is not, and never has been, a criminal!” But if you don’t do that, then you’ve let the questioner define the parameters of the discussion; you’ve let the questioner define a frame that includes only what he claims is relevant and excludes everything else.

The most extreme detractors of the Jewish state assert that the key to understanding the region (and perhaps the whole world) is to understand that “Israel is the problem.” Like the classical antisemite, the ideological enemy of Israel sees Jews and Israel behind everything that is wrong in the world (from 9/11[1] to shark attacks[2]!). Most reasonable people who are generally supportive of Israel’s rights can’t easily be seduced by the conceptual frame that defines a world where “Israel is the problem.” However, they can fall prey to its less extreme form of the frame, which can be summed up as “Israel is the issue.”

Those who have fallen for this scam often betray themselves unconsciously in language. The “Middle-East conflict” (as if there were only one) always seems to have Israel at its center. More thoughtful interlocutors, when challenged on this simple point, will usually admit that of course there are many other conflicts “but that’s what people call it and don’t get hung up on semantics.” (Tell them that they shouldn’t be anti-semantic.)

If Israel is the issue, then all problems can ultimately be resolved only by actions on Israel’s part . So factors such as widespread dictatorship and abuse of human rights in Arab states are ignored because they are outside the conceptual frame. Even when other factors demand attention, such as the carnage (and even cannibalism)[3] in Syria or upheaval in Egypt, they remain outside the overarching frame that Israel is the “root cause” of the conflict.

Read the whole thing.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

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