Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Too funny: Arab accuses Jews of falsifying history

Jihad el-Khazen, writing in pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, publishes one of the best examples of Arab projection I've ever seen.

The title of his article? "Israel And The Falsification Of History."

Let's see who falsifies history.

El-Khazen starts off fuming at a full-page ad in the Financial Times on Monday by the European Jewish Congress:

The European Jewish Congress paid to run a full-page ad in the London-based The Financial Times, protesting against the European Union's recent decision to suspend funding for any Israel institutions working beyond the Green Line - ie in the West Bank.

The ad, which was titled "Last chance for Europe to place peace above politics," claimed that the position of the European Union is "ultimately detrimental to Europeans, Israelis, and Palestinians, and above all, serve [s] to minimize the chances for lasting peace. "

But this is all a lie that only a pro-Israeli organization is capable of.

Personally, I do not recognize any green or red lines, and all I know is that Palestine is the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. This land is entirely under occupation by the state of Israel. Also personally, I accepted with the Palestinians a state on 22 percent of their land, but the successive Israeli governments, including those that had war criminals and terrorists in their ranks, did not accept this.

While I oppose all war, and do not want any Palestinian or Jew to be harmed, I insist that peace is not possible with the current Israeli government, a fascist government leading the last apartheid state in the world, and a government that kills, destroys , and steals Palestinian homes every day. I challenge the European Jewish Congress to prove me wrong in the future.

OK, how many lies has el-Khazen given us so far?

He pretends that there was a nation called Palestine. He pretends that its historic borders happen to coincide with the borders of the British Mandate, with not a square inch on the other side of the Jordan. He pretends that Israel has no right to exist in any way, shape or form (a position he has made many times before.)

Now he gets to show his ignorance:

The second paragraph of the ad claimed that the EU does not implement the same funding policy on other countries, of which the ad named Turkey, Morocco, and China.

I don't know what the accusation against these countries is, but I know that the Turks or the Chinese do not live in a country to which they had immigrated, and which they then occupied by force of arms, dispossessing or murdering its native people . Furthermore, one mistake does not justify another, and if Turkey or China (Morocco took in the Jews of Spain and protected them after the fall of Andalusia, and alluding to it is ingratitude) has indeed made mistakes, then this does not justify the sins that Israel commits every day against the Palestinians.

He never heard of the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus or the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, but he is certain that they don't occupy anyone. And if they do, well, it is no big deal.

Nice!

But it gets better:

The Palestinians alone can claim the land as their own, and yet, they and I with them have accepted a state on less than a quarter of their land. Historically, Israel never existed in Palestine, not 3,000 years ago, and not 2,000 years ago, or at any other time. There are no Jewish antiquities in Palestine, and the prophets of the Torah never existed, and were 'invented' hundreds of years after the alleged era during which they lived. Moreover, Al-Haram Al-Sharif is not the so-called Temple Mount, which never existed, and there are no traces in the mosque complex of any First or Second Temple. To be sure, the Temple is just another myth of the Torah.

Ignorance is one thing, but taking such pride in one's ignorance is breathtaking. Does he think that the Kotel was built by a Muslim sultan? (One must also wonder if he believes that the prophets mentioned in the Koran existed - since most of them are also in the Torah.)

The ad then moves from outright lies to sheer obscenity, claiming that the EU is abrogating the Oslo Accords which stipulate "that the current status of the territories and its residents will not be changed ahead of final status negotiations, to which the parties have now recently returned, "and that" the territories, captured during a defensive war, from Jordan, itself an occupier, were never an independent sovereign entity. "

Every word and every sentence in the above is a lie. The Oslo Accords did not stipulate that territories and residents should remain unchanged for a thousand years, as the terrorist governments in Israel want. Furthermore, the Palestinians are the native inhabitants of the land, and each of them has a known name and comes from a known city, town, or village. Jordan and Palestine, meanwhile, are one and the same, and Jordan cannot be an occupier because the Jordanians are Arabs in their own land, and not European Ashkenazi Jews.

El-Khazen, of course, is the only liar here. The EJC correctly stated that during the Oslo process the status of the territories should not be unilaterally changed. Jordan was of course an occupier of the West Bank, and the idea that Arabs cannot occupy other Arab territory is a rule that Khazen just made up.

Khazen is a known entity, having spouted antisemitism for years in the pages of Al Hayat. But this article shows not only that he has no idea what he is talking about, but he tries to make up in stridency what he lacks in basic knowledge of history and religion.

What is sad is that there are apparently no Arabs in the world who are willing to call him on his idiocy, because while they might know he is an inveterate liar, his lies are politically correct in that universe. Instead of being disparaged as the joke he is, el-Khazen maintains a large readership and respect within the bubble of anti-intellectualism that is the Arab world, and no newspaper would dare contradict him by saying, for example, that there really was a Temple in Jerusalem.

That inability for Arabs to even consider thinking critically when Israel is involved is the real issue here. And that problem shows no sign of being solved any time soon.

9/18 Links Part 1: IMF Says PA Economy Not Sustainable, Russia and China Dispute UN Report

From Ian:

Israel removes last significant ban on Gaza imports

An Israeli source told The Times of Israel that 350 trucks carrying building materials will now be allowed to enter the Hamas-controlled territory every week, an increase of 250 truck loads, in a bid “to increase employment and strengthen the private sector in the Gaza Strip.”
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the change in Israeli policy followed talks with the Palestinians “in cooperation with the international community,” and had “no connection” to the peace negotiations underway between the sides.

Palestinian Govt Endangered By Economic and Political Double-Bind

The IMF specifically called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to cut the wages, pensions, and benefits of public employees.
The recommendation risks trapping the PA in a double-bind, forced to choose between floating the West Bank economy or sustaining the Palestinian government’s political institutions.
Building and sustaining the economy will require, per the IMF report, cuts in employee compensation. But PA government employees are already going on strike – 95% of them walked out this weekend – over insufficient compensation. Further cuts could endanger the viability of the Palestinian government.

Jerusalem police arrest Islamic Movement leaders for allegedly disturbing the peace

Jerusalem policemen were attacked this morning near the Temple Mount in the old city, by Palestinian stone throwers.
Three men were arrested as a result, including the two Islamic Movement leaders, while two policemen were injured after being hit by rocks.

Arab Youths Carrying Molotov Cocktails Arrested at Tapuach Jct

Israeli Border Police have arrested two Arab men at the Tapuach junction after being alerted by suspicious-looking bags the pair were carrying.
The two men, aged 18 and 20, both residents of the Raas el Ayn refugee camp near Shechem, arrived at the checkpoint at the junction on Tuesday afternoon carrying plastic bags.
After border police stationed at the junction approached the two to check the contents of the bags they discovered four Molotov cocktails ready for use.

Terror attack thwarted in West Bank

A terror attack was prevented Wednesday when Israeli security forces in the West Bank caught a Palestinian youth carrying a pistol and knife.
The suspect was arrested by police and Givati soldiers at the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. He tried reaching for an improvised knife hidden in his belt when security forces grabbed him.

UN Security Council faces reform calls following inaction on Syria

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Ban said he also endorsed reforming the Security Council, and that "almost all member states are in agreement that the Security Council should be reformed, but how to reform, how to change, the member states have not been able to agree."
"Sadly, the international community has not been able to help the Syrian people enjoy security and peace for the last two-and-a-half years," Ban said.
"The Security Council should be united at this time. The findings [in the UN chemical weapons report] by Dr. Selltröm and his team were indisputable and overwhelming."
Ban did walk back remarks that he made over the weekend in which he accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of crimes against humanity, maintaining that he was not assigning blame for the chemical weapons attacks.

Lebanese MP Echoes Claims Hezbollah Received Chemical Arms

A claim made Monday by Syrian National Coalition member Kamal al-Labwani, that Syria has transferred chemical weapons to Hezbollah, was echoed Tuesday by another politician.
MP Khaled el Daher, a member of Lebanon's Al Mustakbal party, asked the United Nations to send international inspectors to Lebanon, to inspect Hezbollah's weapons stores. He claims that he has “well founded” information, according to which Hezbollah recently received chemical weapons from Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.

UN Envoy: Golan Fighting Could Draw Israel into Syrian War

The Associated Press quoted the envoy, Robert Serry, as having told the Security Council the fighting could "jeopardize the ceasefire" between Israel and Syria that has been in place since 1974, monitored by UN peacekeepers.
Serry said that during "heavy clashes" last Thursday between Syrian troops and the opposition, five artillery shells and one tank shell landed on the Israeli side of the truce line.
He noted that the Israelis did not retaliate.

Syrian defector: I was told to use chemical weapons

In an interview with Abu Dhabi newspaper The National, Brigadier General Zaher Saket, a commander in the military’s 5th division who defected from President Bashar Assad’s army in March, claimed he had been instructed to attack rebels with poison gas on numerous occasions.
“I am a witness and received orders three times to use chemical gas last year,” Saket said.

Syria Hands Russia 'Proof' of Rebel Chemical Weapons Use

A Russian official has claimed to have received evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian rebels, and dismissed a UN report suggesting the Syrian regime used poison gas as unreliable.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also slammed a UN report on an August 21 chemical weapons attack in the Syrian capital Damascus, which killed over 1,000 people, as "politicized and one-sided." The report - which concluded that Sarin gas had been used in the attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb - did not explicitly apportion blame for the attack, but western leaders claimed it was proof that the Assad regime was indeed behind the deadly attack.

China: 'UN Report on Syria Not Impartial'

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing that Beijing would have a “serious look” at the report, but did not say whether China thought that government forces were responsible when asked.
“The relevant investigation should be carried out by the U.N. investigation team on an impartial, professional and independent basis,” he said.

MEMRI: In Egypt, Public Campaign Against Obama, U.S.; Calls For Intensified Cooperation With Russia, China

The Egyptian pro-regime and -army press published articles notable in their vilification of President Obama himself – insulting his mother, calling him mentally deficient and his administration "the Adolf Obama Reich," and even going so far as to offer a prayer that he would die in agony. Many articles contended that Obama and his administration supported terror by virtue of their support for the MB; columnists also opposed U.S. intervention in Egypt's internal affairs, and, in response to American threats to cut off aid, argued that Egypt was better off without it.

Egypt Freezes Brotherhood's Assets, Arrests its Spokesman

Among those facing sanctions are Brotherhood general guide Mohammad Badie, his two deputies Khairat al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi, as well as Salafist leader Hazem Abu Ismail and preacher Safwat Higazy, reported AFP.
Since August, Egypt's authorities have rounded up dozens of senior leaders of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, including Badie, who was caught in a building in Cairo’s Nasr City district near Rabaa El-Adaweya.
Last week, authorities began investigating former President Mohammed Morsi’s family wealth and assets, reported Al Arabiya.

Analysis: Following US-Russian agreement, Iran will aim for a deal of its own

Meanwhile, Iran’s new nuclear energy chief has pledged increased cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency ahead of upcoming talks later this month.
Even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that he believes in “heroic flexibility,” according to a report by the Iranian Fars News Agency on Tuesday.
“I agree with the issue that I called ‘heroic flexibility’ some years ago, since this move is highly good and necessary on certain occasions, but with commitment to one main condition,” he said. Khamenei added, “A technical wrestler also shows flexibility for technical reasons sometimes, but he would never forget who his rival is and what his main goal is.”
So it seems “tactical flexibility” means to serve the strategic goal of achieving nuclear weapons

Iran Denies Willingness to Make Nuclear Concession, Nixes Possibility of “Fresh Proposal”

Even if Iran did close Fordo, the country’s stockpile of low- and medium-enriched uranium and the 18,000 centrifuges installed at another enrichment plant near Natanz would allow it to make highly enriched fuel for nuclear weapons, said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
Yuval Steinitz – Israel’s Minister of Intelligence, International Relations, and Strategic Affairs – explained to Israeli Army Radio that “most of the centrifuges are not there; without Fordo they might be able to produce six, not seven, nuclear bombs.”
Iranian media is flatly denying the details of a Der Spiegel report published yesterday describing Iranian president Hassan Rouhani as ready to decommission the country’s uranium enrichment facility at Fordo in exchange for the West easing economic sanctions.

Startling Revelations From an Iranian Smuggling Case in Hamburg

I rarely attend trials, but this one is special. On July 24, 2013, the main hearing in the case of German businessman Rudolf M. and Iranian-Germans Gholamali K., Kianzad K., and Hamid Kh. opened at Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court. The defendants are charged with exporting 92 German-produced specialized valves for use in Iran’s Arak plutonium reactor and arranging the shipment of 856 nuclear-usable valves from India to Iran in 2010 and 2011.
The reasons why the UN Security Council has ordered Iran to halt the construction of the Arak reactor are compelling. If this nuclear plant comes online in 2014, as the Iranians anticipate, it could produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for two bombs a year. The smuggling of nuclear valves from Germany is therefore of exceptional significance and tops the latest UN list of reported alleged violations of the sanction regime against Iran.
Recently, an important detail of this smuggling operation was revealed on the German public television current affairs program, Fakt: “German officials clearly (knew) about this illegal trade since 2009 and did nothing about it for years.” How so? Did such an explosive shipment really take place before the very eyes of the German security services?

Human Rights Group Urges Facebook to Boycott Iranian Regime

The Israeli organization, which represents victims of terrorism in courtrooms around the world, sent a formal letter to Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, in an attempt to dissuade the multibillion dollar company from violating a U.S. law.
It was recently reported that 15 Iranian government ministers launched a new account on the popular social network even though Facebook is supposedly closed to the citizens of Iran. Ministers have made the new accounts by using proxy servers. The fact that Facebook is an American company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, makes it subject to U.S. laws.

Technical Glitch Momentarily Restores Social Media Access in Iran

A technical glitch briefly restored access to social media sites Twitter and Facebook Monday in Iran.
The social media sites have been blocked since 2009 after they were used to organize protests against the reigning regime.
Iranians reacted with cautious optimism when they realized the sites were accessible.
“If it is true, I think they have to register today in calendar as a day of Free Filtering,” user Abbas Farokhi told BBC Persian.

Thailand Jails Hezbollah Bomb Suspect

A 49 year-old Swedish national has been jailed over an alleged Hezbollah bomb plot in Thailand.
Atris Hussein was arrested in January after Israeli intelligence services tipped off their Thai counterparts over a planned terrorist attack during the New Year.
He was sentenced to four years for "illegal armament possession," but will only have to serve two years and eight months after the prosecution failed to convince judges of his connection to the Hezbollah terrorist group.
Instead, the conviction relates to Hussein's possession of 2,800 kilos (2.8 tons) of ammonium nitrate, which is used in the manufacturing of explosives, and the possession of which is banned in Thailand without a permit - which Hussein did not have.

Part Iran-Owned NYC 5th Avenue Office Tower Worth Up to $700 Million Cleared for Seizure by U.S. Government

A 36-story Manhattan office tower, partially-owned by a shell company controlled by Iran, has been cleared for forfeiture to the U.S. government by a federal judge, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. The building is expected to fetch between $500 million and $700 million, the New York Daily News said.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest made the forfeiture finding in a case first brought by the U.S. government in 2008, ruling that the building is subject to forfeiture because revenue from it was secretly funneled to a state-owned Iranian bank, in violation of a U.S. trade embargo.

Report: Hamas prevented Gazan students from going to Egypt

From the PA's official WAFA news agency, confirmed by Palestine Press Agency:

Hamas police Wednesday prevented Gaza students seeking to travel to Egypt through Rafah crossing to reach their colleges abroad from leaving the Strip, according to the students.

They said that around 200 students gathered at Rafah crossing after Egypt has decided to open it for a couple of days to allow students and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza.

However, Hamas members attacked the students with clubs and pushed them back with their jeeps to prevent them from leaving Gaza.

Students said that Hamas did this because they coordinated their travel with the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, as requested by the Egyptian authority to facilitate their travel.

The Palestinian embassy in Cairo had asked students who want to leave Gaza to attend colleges abroad to coordinate their travel through it due to the closure of the Rafah crossing since last week following an attack on Egyptian security personnel in Sinai.

Egypt agreed to open the crossing briefly on Wednesday and Thursday for special cases after President Mahmoud Abbas Monday called the head of the Egyptian intelligence, Mohammed Tohami, and requested that Egypt allows students, the sick and humanitarian cases to leave Gaza.

The siege of Gaza by Hamas continues!

Video of the Temple Mount this morning and musings on leftist racism

This video, from the Al Aqsa Foundation, shows Muslims throwing stones at Israeli soldiers (starting around 0:45) from inside their "third holiest shrine". The police do nothing at all until they are attacked.

Out of the dozens of videos I've seen made and edited by Arabs on the Temple Mount, I have yet to see a single provocative action by Israeli police or by Jewish visitors to the area. Not once. The violence is invariably started by Muslims.

The good news is that, assuming the scenes in the video are shown in order, that Jews managed to visit the Mount shortly thereafter (1:36) without further incident.

Only an antisemite can view this video and conclude that the Jews are the provocateurs, the violators of the sanctity of the Mount, while the Muslims are reacting normally.

I can't stop thinking about the stupid Guardian article by Giles Frasier I noted yesterday where this supposedly liberal priest, who should be sensitive to freedom of religion, claims that the Jews walking peacefully in the area are the ones who are provoking "unimaginable violence."

Like many European liberals, he is a racist.

To him, violence is expected of Muslims when they don't get 100% of their demands. That's just the way they are. It is genetic, according to the subtext of articles and arguments like that. Enlightened Westerners and Jews are the ones who must modify their behavior to accommodate inherent Muslim insanity.

The idea of denouncing the Muslims is simply unacceptable, for the same reasons one doesn't denounce the mentally handicapped. Because that is how they are.

This racism is not anomalous, but mainstream.

A sane viewing of this video would consider the Israeli police heroes for allowing Jews to visit their holiest spot unmolested, for consistently trying to uphold their freedoms and for not giving in to Muslim blackmail and threats of violence. This is the proper response - and it works.

Is there are real difference between Jews wanting to assert their right to visit and pray at their holiest site, and blacks in the 1960s wanting to assert their right to go to formerly segregated schools? In both cases law enforcement must help assure that no harm comes to them and that the rioters do not gain a victory by succeeding in their own racist agendas. Yet Giles Fraser identifies with, and supports, the Muslim rioters - not out of conviction, but simply because he thinks it's the most expeditious way to mute Islamist hate. And he is exactly wrong.

This leftist racism is not only morally wrong, but it also encourages Muslims to continue to act like spoiled children. Without the world denouncing unprovoked Muslim violence, without any consequences, the Muslims who riot and those who incite them to violence have no incentive to change. On the contrary, accidental racists like Fraser are giving Muslims carte blanche to continue to riot at the slightest discomfort. The fruits of this mindset can be seen in European cities as well as in Jerusalem.

One day, when they are on the receiving end of a hail of rocks from their Muslim neighbors that they pretend to be defending, maybe some of these leftist racists will see the light.

Others will just keep on blaming Jews and the "settler mentality" for all the problems.

Now the Jews are "tampering with roofs." Will the depravity never end?

From Jordan Times:

Jordan on Tuesday sent a letter to the Israeli government voicing its condemnation of the recent seizure of shop rooftops in Jerusalem by a company developing the Old City.

In the letter, delivered through Israeli ambassador in Jordan, the Kingdom requested the Israeli government to “take all the necessary measures to prevent the tampering of Islamic waqfs [religious endowment] in Jerusalem”, according to Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani.

He added that Jordan also demanded the Israeli side to prevent the company in question and other similar entities, including the Israeli municipality, from making any changes to Jerusalem’s Old City that would alter its Arab and Islamic identity, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Momani noted that the letter deemed any Israeli attempt to tamper with any Islamic sites in Jerusalem as “an infringement against Article 9 of the 1994 Jordanian-Israeli Peace Treaty”, Petra said.

The Jordanian government received a tip that the Jerusalem Development Company had notified Jerusalem traders on the need to “renovate their shops’ roofs” in preparation for a huge project the company is planning to establish on these roofs, according to Petra.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour tasked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with sending a memo to the Israeli government, expressing the Kingdom’s position and reminding the Israeli side of its international obligations.

Now, I have no idea what sort of development can be done on top of Arab roofs, although I do know that the Jewish Quarter in the Old City extends directly above the Arab souk.

Did Israel agree not to let any Jews develop parts of the Old City in its peace treaty with Jordan?

Let's look at Article 9, as seen on the Jordanian King Hussein website:

Article 9 - Places of Historical and Religious Significance and Interfaith Relations
1. Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.
2. In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
3. The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

There is nothing there about rooftops or about non-religious buildings in Jerusalem.

It sounds like Jordan is claiming that practically all Arab areas of the Old City are part of the Islamic Waqf, and therefore are holy. But that's not the definition of "holy places" - if it was, then every square centimeter of the Old City is considered a Jewish holy place far more than an Islamic holy place.

Essentially, Israel's peace partner Jordan is trying to twist their agreement to stop Israel from doing anything at all in Jerusalem.

But maybe the Jews want the roofs, to, you know...

(h/t IranAware)

Jesus and international law

From Irene, who recently gave us a brilliant letter to Catherine Ashton, here is another:

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Città del Vaticano

Your Holiness:

Because we met some years ago when my Mercedes broke down in Assisi while you were visiting on pilgrimage, I feel emboldened to write directly to you. You may recall that I had just left my position as tenured Professor of Sharia Law and Bioethics at King Abdulaziz University Law School in Riyadh to become Senior Advisor in International Law for the European Union.

It was in the course of preparing a detailed analysis of the many legal issues related to the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, that it came to my attention that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be a grave violation of international law.

Although no mortal can truly foresee the time, the place, or the nature of the Second Coming, the sophisticated algorithms of modern prediction modeling software indicate that the Second Coming, like the First Coming, will be far more complex than the simple blaze of glory that some predict. Christ will most likely return to the places where He lived, worked, and preached, i.e., East Jerusalem and the West Bank (which was called Judea and Samaria until Abdullah, first king of the judenrein nation of Jordan, changed its name).

As you may recall, Abdullah successfully cleansed all Jews from those areas during the 1947-1949 Palestinian Arab and Arab League War, which attempted to annihilate the new state of Israel and expel any Jews not yet dead when the fighting stopped. The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, clarified Arab intent: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre that will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."

Ever since 1967, when Jews returned to live in the places from which they had been driven, such as Hebron, international law has strenuously prohibited Jews from living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

With respect to the rule of international law, Hebron is especially significant because that is where Arabs massacred the Jews in 1929. As you know, The Book of Genesis records Abraham’s purchase of land in Hebron and the subsequent burial there of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. Hebron is where David was anointed King, and it served as his capital until he relocated to East Jerusalem.

If the Prince of Peace returned to Jacob’s well in the West Bank and asked a Samaritan woman to draw water for him, this would constitute Jewish theft of Palestinian water, an international felony. Such action by Jesus would interfere disastrously with the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Even Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement, is opposed to the presence of Jews in the land on which Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, walked.

Jesus will surely attempt to return to Jerusalem’s oldest neighborhoods and to Temple Mount, where He last preached. If He retraced His footsteps on East Jerusalem's Via Dolorosa, this would be an impediment to world peace, as well as an affront to Palestinian sovereignty. In addition, it would violate the 1907 Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, numerous United Nations resolutions, and the fourth Geneva Convention.

Your Holiness, this calls for the same kind of religious courage and international acumen that you exhibited this May when you canonized the Martyrs of Otranto, the 800 Christians slaughtered in 1480 by Ottoman Turks, while remaining silent on the plight of Christians in Turkish occupied Northern Cyprus.

I look forward to your encyclical exhorting the faithful to pray for a postponement of the Second Coming, as least until the European Union and the United Nations have ethnically cleansed the area and Hamas has established sharia law.

I have the honor to profess myself with the most profound respect, your Holiness' most obedient and humble servant.

Yours profoundly,

حسین بن علی
Hussein bin Ali, GCB
Senior Advisor in International Human Rights Law for the European Union

cc: Lady Catherine Ashton

9/17 Links Part 2: The UNRWA Dilemma, Learning from Oslo, Palestinians - Deserving of a State?

From Ian:

The UNRWA Dilemma

The Palestinian people, according to a recent study by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, 25 times more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall plan after the Second World War.
Most of these funds, according to the study, reached the Palestinian people through The United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
UNRWA is the only UN refugee agency dedicated to a single group of people, and the only agency that designates individuals as original refugees if they have lived in areas effected by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, for a minimum of only two years, before being displaced. UNRWA is also the only UN agency that designates the descendants of the original refugees as refugees as well – even though 90% of UNRWA-designated refugees have never actually been displaced.

Palestinians: Deserving of a State?

There are currently twenty-one Arabic countries, all in various states of dysfunction. Iraq, wracked by internecine warfare, is swiftly unraveling with 1,000 of its citizens murdered in sectarian conflict just in the past month. Syria, whose leader recently used Sarin to gas his own people, has long since ceased to be a country, having fractured along ethno-religious lines. And Egypt, always regarded as the premiere Arab state, is just barely functioning and teetering on the brink full-fledged civil war. The rest of the Arab world is in no better shape and there appears to be no end in sight to Arab internal conflict and its brutal consequences.
If past performance is any indicator, the Palestinian state, should it ever come to fruition will almost certainly end up like the rest of the Arab lot and devolve into a stateless, lawless region marked by extremism, violence and terror. Such an entity will pose a direct challenge to regional stability. Indeed, the clan-based ethno and religious schisms that currently exist within Palestinian society are not new and date back to the 1930s and 40s when the Husseini and Nashashibi clans violently battled each other for Palestinian leadership roles. (h/t NormanF)

JPost Editorial: Learning from Oslo

Kerry seems to be devoting too much of his effort to talks and not enough to changing realities on the ground. And this is unfortunate, since the simple truth is that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other PA leaders lack the will and/or the ability to negotiate a final-status peace agreement with Israel.
Instead, much more American energy must be invested in the more modest goal of building a viable Palestinian state that is capable of living in peace alongside Israel.
That means insisting that PA-sponsored media and schools put an end to incitement against Israel.
It also means improving Palestinians’ day-to-day living conditions. The building of Rawabi, the first new Palestinian city, should be seen as a positive development.

Legal Experts Call on Kerry to Hold Palestinians Accountable

Hundreds of legal experts from the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel urged U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) exercise proper conduct in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations, Israel Hayom reported.
In a letter sent to Kerry on Saturday, the legal experts called on the secretary of state to enforce the rules and behavior stipulated and agreed upon in the preliminary negotiations, and to have the Palestinians stop detrimental behavior, including economic sanctions, boycotts, and acts of incitement.

Israel-PA Negotiations Continue Amid Jordan Valley Controversy

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority continued in Jerusalem on Monday, amid a familiar pattern of Israeli and American silence and PA leaks.
Israeli sources refused to confirm the meetings, in line with an agreement by the involved parties - Israel, the US and the PA - to refrain from public comments on the talks until real progress had been made. However, a Palestinian Authority officials leaked news of the latest meeting between the sides to AFP.
But while Israeli officials have remain tight-lipped about the talks, PA officials have made several leaks to the press.

IDF pulls soldiers out of communities bordering Gaza, Lebanon and Syria

In the past, the IDF's Southern Command placed soldiers at the entrance to nine towns and villages near the Gaza and Egypt borders, while the Northern Command secured 13 frontier communities in this way.
Evaluations carried out at IDF headquarters concluded that enhanced border security measures, such as electronic sensors, patrols, and lookout posts, combined with additional components, meant that the practice of placing soldiers inside the communities is no longer necessary.
"We know where the threats come from, what routes threats could take, and we understand these measures are no longer needed," the source said. "The need to defend from inside communities seems less relevant," he stated.

Israeli academic sues British labor union for racism and discrimination

The Israeli expert, who lives in Tel Aviv, had been due to lead a session for managers and union officials at the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust last May when he received an email stating that Unison had to his presence and its members would boycott the event, apparently because the invitation to an Israeli academic was in conflict with Unison policy. Although the health union has a long-standing boycott of goods produced in Israel settlements in the West Bank, lawyers for the academic told 'The Independent' that they could find no lawful justification for an apparent ban on Israeli citizens. (h/t Daphne Anson)

Israel dismisses letter in favor of EU settlement guidelines

Israel dismissed on Monday a letter by former European leaders calling on the EU to stick by its settlement guidelines.
As far as Jerusalem is concerned, the words of biased former officials are no longer significant.
“The people who signed the letter are no longer relevant and do not have control or say in the EU decision-making process,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “This reflects their own biased positions and does not surprise us.
Secretary of State John Kerry has made it clear that these guidelines are not productive for the peace process or the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian discussions which have been held recently.”

The Media is Still Obsessed With Israel

What Middle East story does the New York Times, the newspaper of record in the United States, deem so important that it devotes most of the front page of its 12-page SundayReview section this week, including eye-catching art work, and the bulk of two inside pages?
Is it about Syria?
After all, the U.S. Administration’s surprise decision to turn to diplomacy and partner with Moscow to forge a deal on the Syrian chemical-weapons arsenal is one of the biggest geopolitical developments in recent history.

The Economist’s extraordinarily misleading 12 words on why Hamas hates Israel

Yet Israelis still loathe Hamas, which carried out scores of suicide-bombings against Israelis in the early 2000s. Hamas, meanwhile, reviles Israel for its assaults on Gaza and its leaders.
That’s why Hamas hates Israel?!
Well, for starters, Hamas’s obsessive hatred, which manifests itself in explicit calls by their leaders to commit genocide against the Jews, likely has something to do with their founding charter, published in 1988. The document cites the wisdom of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion‘ to “prove” that Jews are trying to take over the world, and asserts its theological commitment to destroying the Jewish state – regardless of where its borders are drawn – through a long-term strategy of violent jihad.

Jewish teenagers attacked at Paris sports court

According to France’s Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, several teenagers “of African and North African origins” attacked the group of Jewish 13-year-olds from the Ner HaThorah Jewish school on Thursday. There were no serious injuries.
The attackers asked the Jews to stop “occupying the area,” the report said, called them “dirty Jews” and said “Hitler didn’t finish the job.”

Netanyahu Launches New 'Begin Virtual Exhibit'

On Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a virtual exhibit to mark the centenary of the birth of Israel's sixth prime minister, Menachem Begin. Begin is now the first Israeli personality to be remembered in a joint initiative between the Google Cultural Institute and museums and cultural institutions around the world.

Curiyo promises more information, less annoyingly

Dynamic contextual advertising and linking on websites is a big business today, but many of these services leave much to be desired, according to information guru Bob Rosenschein. “I don’t want to knock anyone, but many of these link services are very annoying,” he told The Times of Israel. “I wanted to develop something that would be much easier on the eye, and much easier for users to digest — a service with as good a user interface and experience as possible.”
It’s for that reason he established Curiyo, a new browser add-on “that allows users to get more information about just about anything on the web, using dynamic contextual technology they can live with,” he said.

Israeli Agricultural Technology to Gain Greater Access to India Farmers Through Centers of Excellence; 8 to Open in 2013, 29 by 2015

Ushpiz said Israel, which is known for its expertise in the dairy industry, is keen to collaborate with the Indian dairy sector to boost milk production.
“We are interested in dairy sector. We have expertise in raising milk productivity in extreme temperatures and limited water resources,” the ambassador was quoted as saying.
Although India is the world’s largest milk producer, the per capita milk output is the lowest in the world. An Israeli cow yields an average 12,000 liters of milk per year, four times greater than the 3,000 liters reported in India.

Israeli Tech Company Matomy Reportedly Plans 2014 London IPO at $400-$500 Million Valuation

Digital advertising technology company Matomy Media Group Inc. plans a 2014 initial public offering in London at a valuation of between $400 and $500 million, Israel’s Globes business daily reported, citing unnamed sources.
Matomy was founded in 2006 by CEO Ofer Druker, Adi Orzel and Kfir Moyal. In 2010, Ilan Shiloach, chairman of the Israeli arm of international advertising giant McCann Erickson and his partner Nir Tarlovsky made a strategic investment in Matomy as part of their move into Internet advertising. In 2009, Shiloach and Tarlovsky founded TheTime technology incubator to nurture new media start-ups, and Matomy is based in the same building, in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Hahayil.

Etrog-runners held at Ben Gurion

As many Israelis spend the days before the Sukkot festival browsing outdoor markets for the Four Species, Israeli customs authorities find themselves battling smugglers trying to sneak citrons into the country.
Over the past two weeks alone, four passengers have been caught in three separate incidents, trying to smuggle about 400 citrons, or etrogs, into the country without paying customs tariffs, the ultra-Orthodox website KikarHashabbat reported.

Simon Schama - The Story Of The Jews Part 3

Egyptian forces kill two Palestinian Arabs on boat fleeing to Sweden

Arabic media is reporting that a group of Syrian refugees, attempting to sail a ship to Sweden for asylum, were fired upon by the Egyptian navy. Two were killed, both of Palestinian ancestry.

The boat was leaving from Alexandria with more than 200 people aboard.

This is supposed to be video of the boat.

The two dead were a 35 year old man and a 61 year old woman.

Sources say that the Egyptians were firing randomly at the boat at dawn today.

As of this writing, some 15 hours later, still no reports about this murder of Palestinian Arab civilians in English. But the IDF killing a terrorist during a firefight has already been featured in wire service and major news media articles.

Double standards, anyone?

If the land isn't controlled by Jews, the Palestinian Arabs aren't interested in it

I have noted in the past that the 1964 PLO Charter specifically excludes the West Bank, Gaza and a couple of other areas from the land it wanted to rule over.

Why? Because those areas were already controlled by Arabs, so Palestinian "nationalism" did not apply.

The Palestinian Arab national movement has, from its start, been geared towards denying Jews a state, and not towards building a Palestinian Arab state. This simple fact has eluded generations of politicians, pundits and pseudo-peacemakers.

More evidence comes from the latest accusation that the PLO has hurled at Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mahmoud Habash, Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, revealed the existence of a deal between President Mohamed Morsi and Hamas to give up her part of the Sinai in order to expand the [Gaza Strip] sector and the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza.

The accusation is, of course, fiction. It is merely part of the war of words between Fatah and Hamas. But the fact that a PLO official is making such an accusation is important.

Why should the PLO be against expanding Gaza into the Sinai?

It is crowded. It is tiny. It will never expand into Israel. So if Morsi is willing to give land for a Palestinian Arab state for free, why is this a terrible idea? The illusionary plan was not a land swap, it didn't involve Israel gaining anything - it was a gift. And the PLO would be dead-set against it.

Even if you argue that it would have allowed a separate Hamastan, separated from Fatahstan, why would that be different from the situation today? Both Hamas and Fatah will continue to pretend to talk about "unity" and practically no one would recognize Gaza as a state.

To the PLO, free land is anathema - if that land is not controlled by Jews.

Which proves, yet again, that the PLO has little interest in the welfare of its people, but simply uses them as pawns - just as all Arab leaders do. Their very existence as a people has only one purpose - to destroy Israel.

But the idea that anyone could be so cynical and callous towards their own people is incomprehensible to the West, no matter how much evidence there is. It is much easier to accept fantasies of "Palestinian nationalism "and their ancient desire for a home that never existed than to face the truth that an entire people was created to deny the Jewish right to self-determination.

It's been over a year since I last reported on the perennial stories, often in Ma'an, of "Jewish settlers" releasing wild boars to wreak havoc on Palestinian Arab farmers.

But the boars are back!

Palestinian farmers in Salfit on Tuesday accused settlers of releasing wild boars onto their land to damage their crops.

Wild boars damaged a number of plum trees, fig trees, vineyards and other agricultural crops, farmers in the Wadi Shaer area of Salfit told Ma'an.

Farmers accuse settlers of deliberately releasing the boars onto their land.

Residents and local officials in the area have for several years complained that settlers release boars, which have caused injuries and destroy land in the rural communities.

This time, instead of reporting it as actual fact as it used to, Ma'an quotes a seeming authoritative source:

The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem says that while Israel claims it cannot control the wild boar population in the area, and the purposeful release of pigs cannot be confirmed, Israel's separation wall has pushed the animals to search for new habitats.

However, as I have documented, the ARIJ has directly blamed the boars on Jews in the past - by quoting Ma'an!

Since the boars are indigenous to the region, and they attack Jewish farms as well, the idea that the security barrier keeps them concentrated on only the eastern side is equally ludicrous. But, hey - this is Ma'an.

Its not like anyone important parrots the absurd accusations, right?

9/17 Links Part 1: Bibi's Red Line, UN Confirms Sarin, Iranian Pres. 'it's all a Zionist Plot'

From Ian:

Analysis: Obama's Learning Curve Meets Bibi's Red Line

With Obama's policies in Egypt and Syria exploding in his face, his Cairo Speech dreams of a new Middle East devolving into an Islamist chaos, and Iranian “engagement” taking the form of threats against his family, Obama may also be more aware, somewhere deep inside his political persona, of the seriousness of the threats Israel faces. Possibly, his original antipathy for Israel and Netanyahu may have been tempered by the reality of living in the White House for almost five years.
The upcoming UNGA is a moment of great historic drama. Binyamin Netanyahu can be expected to be in top form. All of his warnings over the years have materialized. The danger of WMDs in the hands of rogue states have been demonstrated for the world to see, in Youtube videos of dead children lying in rows. Last year – the feeling was that while Netanyahu drew his red line, Obama had probably flipped the channel on his TV set. This year, however, Obama has also drawn a red line, and has had to try to defend it.
Perhaps, at last, Netanyahu's red line has met Obama's foreign policy learning curve, in which case there is room for very cautious optimism. This time, perhaps, the meeting between the two leaders will not involve snubs and public rebukes, but take place in an atmosphere that is conducive to understandings that can truly deter Iran and Russia from continuing their game of nuclear chicken with the US and Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh: King Abdullah Says No To Hamas

Jordan's King Abdullah has turned down a request from Hamas to re-open its offices in his country, according to informed sources in Amman.
The sources said that Qatar, one of the few Arab countries that continue to support Hamas, recently asked King Abdullah to allow Hamas to resume its activities in the kingdom.
The Jordanians banned Hamas in 1999 and stripped some of the Islamist movement's leaders, including Khaled Mashal, of their Jordanian citizenship.

One dead, dozens wounded in overnight clashes in Jenin

A wanted terrorist was killed and dozens were injured in clashes that erupted in the West Bank town of Jenin overnight Tuesday after an attempt to arrest the man was met with violent resistance, the IDF said Tuesday.
The soldiers encountered “a violent riot” as “Palestinians hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and improvised grenades at security forces who responded with riot dispersal means… Feeling an imminent threat to their lives, the soldiers returned fire toward the lower extremities of main instigators,” the IDF said.

Russia training Palestinian women to be paratroopers

The Palestinian Authority revealed on Monday that Russia has been training Palestinian women as paratroopers.
The PA security forces published a number of photos showing the women by trained by Russian experts.
This is the first time that Palestinian women are trained as paratroopers.
The PA does not have any planes or helicopters.

Ninety-Five Percent of Palestinian Government Workers Stage Strike

Palestinian media is reporting that a massive government strike which occurred yesterday may escalate and expand in the coming weeks. Yesterday 95% of Palestinian government workers launched a one-day strike, after their union chief called on them to do so.
The union is promising that next week it’ll be a two-day strike.

Isi Leibler: Putin’s Russia now a force in the Middle East

With the passage of days, weeks and months, interest in controlling his stockpiles will wane and the possibility of taking action will be effectively forestalled.
There will be no consequences to Assad’s actions, since Russia endorsed and the US capitulated to his demand that an agreement eschew any mention of reverting to military action should he renege on the deal.
In orchestrating his maneuvers in Syria, Putin has demonstrated not only his support of Syria and Iran, but his ability to stand up and deliver on behalf of his allies. Putin achieved regional hegemony through Russia’s alliance with a broad Shi’ite arc that encompasses Iran, Syria and Lebanon, and is likely to include Iraq.

Elliott Abrams: The Syria deal

Nevertheless the deal with Russia does not punish Syrian President Bashar Assad or strike a blow at the regime; it merely says "don't do it again." So the lesson for dictators who commit atrocities is that you can use chemical weapons 10 or 15 times, and then you may be asked to give them up. Period. It's like telling an ax murderer that his punishment is to give up his ax -- or to promise to give up the ax and promise that he has no more axes hidden anywhere else.
The Syrian regime, and Iran, and Hezbollah, and Russia, seem very pleased with this diplomatic achievement. But why should we be?

UN report cites ‘convincing’ evidence sarin used in Syria

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented the UN inspectors’ report to a closed meeting of the UN Security Council before its release.
“This is a war crime and a grave violation of … international law,” Ban told the council in remarks distributed to the press. “The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves. … The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.”

Cameron: I wanted to act in Syria because of the lessons of the Holocaust

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who two weeks ago lost a vote in Parliament calling for military intervention in Syria, said he had wanted to act because of the lessons of the Holocaust.
“The horror of the Holocaust is unique but the lessons we learn from it are absolutely applicable right across our society at home and abroad. In particular, the lesson of not standing by,” he told 500 guests at an appeal dinner marking the 25th anniversary of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) Monday night.

Four Reasons the Syria Deal Could Fall Apart

The framework agreement contains a series of deadlines and requirements that could slip in the face of a government that has long been secretive about its arsenal and resistant to international inspections. Complicating the picture is the 2 1/2-year-old civil war, which will make it difficult, if not impossible, for international inspectors to do their work.
Here are some of the deadlines laid out in the framework agreement Saturday between Messrs. Kerry and Lavrov and what could go wrong with them:

Assad’s biological weapons absent from US-Russia deal

There is “not a word” about biological weapons in the agreement that US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, Channel 10 news said.
Assad has two biological weapons bases, one of them subterranean and a second in a coastal location, producing anthrax and other agents, the report said

Turkish warplanes shoot down Syrian helicopter

Turkey scrambled two F-16 jets along the border between its southern Hatay province and Syria after warning the Mi-17 helicopter it was approaching Turkish airspace shortly before 14:30 (1130 GMT), the military said in a statement.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said a warplane shot down the helicopter after it ventured up to 2 km into Turkey near the border town of Yayladagi. "It was repeatedly warned by our air defense elements," he said.

Report: Half of Syria's Hospitals Destroyed or Damaged

According to a report by The Telegraph, an open letter published by the world's leading general medical journal, The Lancet, claimed Syrian rebels are largely to blame for the disintegration of the country's medical infrastructure.
"Systematic assaults on medical professionals, facilities and patients are breaking Syria's health-care system and making it nearly impossible for civilians to receive essential medical services," the letter said.

Study: Syria rebellion ‘dominated’ by al-Qaida and Islamic jihadists

The Telegraph received an advance copy of defense consultancy IHS Jane’s new report, which is due to be published later this week. It estimates that around 100,000 fighters are currently battling the Assad regime in Syria, but that they have splintered into as many as 1,000 separate factions.
One in ten rebels, including thousands of foreigners, have aligned themselves with powerful international terrorist groups, most linked directly to al-Qaida.
Around 30,000 to 35,000 more agree with that worldview, but focus largely on establishing an Islamic caliphate in Syria instead of actively seeking ways to spread the conflict beyond its borders.

Meet the ‘moderate’ Syrian sheikh young think tanker wants us to adopt

The State Department-funded Syrian Emergency Task Force and Elizabeth O’Bagy backed an anti-Semitic, anti-Shiite imam for presidency of the Syrian rebels.
O’Bagy ran into trouble earlier this month after The Daily Caller revealed her dual role as a pundit urging war on the Assad regime in Syria and a paid contractor for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a pro-rebel front group. But while she still held a position at a connected Washington, DC think tank, O’Bagy strongly supported the anti-Semitic, anti-Shiite Sheikh Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib for a leadership position in an imaginary conquered Syria.

Netanyahu to meet Obama, urge more pressure on Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington DC later this month, ahead of his scheduled address at the UN General Assembly in New York, and will urge a stepping up of pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear drive.
“In a week and a half, I will go to the United Nations General Assembly, and before that I will meet with President Obama. I intend to focus on stopping Iranian nuclear program. Really stopping the nuclear program,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Report: Iran set to shut down nuclear site in deal with West

Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, is willing to shut down a key nuclear site believed to be central in the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment program in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions that have crippled the country’s financial sector, according to a report which appeared in the prestigious German weekly Der Spiegel.
According to intelligence sources who spoke with the newspaper, Rouhani is willing to allow Western inspectors to oversee the removal of centrifuges from the secretive Fordo plant. Rouhani may even announce the offer and delve further into details during his appearance before the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month.

Iranian President: “Clear to All of Us” That Western Moves Against Syria Part of Globe-Spanning Pro-Israel Conspiracy

Today he explained, according to Iranian and Western media sources, that Iran’s interests in Syria are grounded in the fact that it is at the center of a global conspiracy to boost Zionist control. Iran’s state-controlled Fars news agency described Rouhani’s speech, which was given to what the outlet describes as “ranking commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)”:

Egyptian Military Storms Islamist Held Village

Egyptian security forces stormed Delga, an Islamist-controlled village in central Egypt that had been the scene of some of the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt.
According to reports, Egyptian soldiers and police entered Delga in the Minya province just after dawn, firing tear gas and searching for suspects,AFP reported. Security forces had arrested 56 terrorists by Monday afternoon.

Egypt Air Force Jets in Northern Sinai

Egyptian Air Force jets were seen circling Tuesday in the skies of northern Sinai, over the area of Sheikh Zwaid, according to Voice of Israel public radio. Sounds of explosions were heard as the Egyptian military continued its anti-terrorist operations against Islamist militias.
Egyptian military jets are not allowed in Sinai according to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979. However, Israel has allowed the Egyptian military to operate in northern Sinai recently, in order to root out the terrorist infrastructure that had formed there.

Egypt to Re-open Rafiah for Special Cases, Say PA Sources

The Egyptians notified the PA that the crossing would operate four hours a day to allow patients and students to leave. The move came in response to a request by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the sources said.
The Rafiah crossing has been closed for security reasons ever since the Egyptian army started a crackdown against terrorists in the Sinai peninsula.
Ma’an reported that Abbas on Monday telephoned the chief of the Egyptian intelligence, Maj-Gen. Muhammad Tuhami, and requested that the crossing be opened to allow students and humanitarian cases to leave Gaza.

Muslims now get up to 19,884 women in Paradise

Or, how to discard your wife for a series of beautiful virgins:

Following are excerpts from a lecture delivered by Saudi cleric Muhammad Ali Shanqiti, which was posted on the Internet on March 23, 2013.

Muhammad Ali Shanqiti: Every Muslim man gets at least two black-eyed virgins in Paradise. Each virgin comes with 70 servants girls. You are permitted [to have sex] with the virgins as well as the servant girls. For every woman from this world who enters Paradise, you get 70 black-eyed virgins.

There are four types of women in Paradise. First, there are the women of this world who enter Paradise. Each one comes with 70 black-eyed virgins. The second type of woman in Paradise is the black-eyed virgin. Each comes with 70 servant girls. These servant girls are the third type. Sorry, there are only three types of women in Paradise.
[…]
If you get married in this world, then [in Paradise], you get your wife from this world, along with 70 black-eyed virgins with whom you are allowed to have sex, and each of these 70 virgins comes with 70 servant girls.

So how many women do you get? That's the minimum.

Now, let's assume that you are married to four wives, each of whom comes with 70 black-eyed virgins, and each virgin comes with 70 servant girls… How many does it come to? God help you.
[…]
Your reunion [with your wife] lasts for 70 earthly years. When the 70 years are about to come to an end, another black-eyed virgin calls to you from above: "Oh servant of Allah, don't we get a piece of you?"

You turn to her, and you see that she is more beautiful than the woman you are with. You ask her: "Who are you?" and she says: "I'm your virgin in Paradise. Allah told you about me, saying: 'There is more of them with Us'. I am one of the 'more'."

You leave that one and move on to the next. God help you…

You spend 70 years or so with her, and along comes the third, saying: "Oh servant of Allah, don't we get a piece of you?" You look at her, and she is even more beautiful than the one you are with.
[…]

Allah didn't think this one out all the way, though.

70 virgins x 70 servant girls for each wife comes out to 4900 servants, 70 virgins and one wife, or 4971 women total including the wife. Multiply by four wives to get 19,884 women. (MEMRI calculated wrong, forgetting to include the virgins. I'm not sure if the servant girls are virgins - they might be heavenly sluts.)

Anyway, at 70 years per woman, that is 1,391,880 years of sex.

This sounds like a lot, but we are talking eternity here, folks. Compared to "forever," a mere 1.3 million years is next to nothing. For 99.999999999999999999...% of eternity, poor Muslim men will have no one to nail under the benevolent eyes of Allah.

Will Allah allow the servant girls to attend to multiple men? That hardly sounds Islamic.

It must be that Allah, who knows best, is only telling Muslim men that they will have all these black-eyed virgins, but in fact he is sending them right to Hell to avoid the problems in the future when the women run out. I mean, Allah is not going to be happy with all the shoe-throwing and rioting that happens after 1.3 million years.

The story of the virgins and servants is meant to fool Muslim men. That's the only way this can work if Allah has infinite intelligence.

Muslims throw shoes, expel Fatah leader from Al Aqsa Mosque (video)

Today, Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad tried to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque - along with a Jordanian minister who was visiting.

However, he was treated as if he was a Jew.

Muslim worshipers and others pelted him with their shoes and expelled him from the area:

The protesters complained that he, and Fatah, was collaborating with Israel. Also they were said to be angry at an interview he made a few weeks ago where he said he would like to enter Gaza on back of an Egyptian tank.

I imagine that in the future, when Fatah officials visit the Temple Mount, they will need to bring security guards - just like the Jews. Or, if you follow the logic of certain Guardian writers, they should be forbidden from ever entering the Al Aqsa Mosque because it upsets other Muslims.

What this also teaches us is that the leaders of the Al Aqsa mosque are extremists. Even though they live on the West Bank. Shocking, I know, but the EU hasn't yet figured that out.

From Amnesty International:

Pakistani schoolgirl and education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai and American singer, human rights and social justice activist Harry Belafonte were today jointly announced as the recipients of Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2013.

...Roger Waters will make the presentation to Harry Belafonte accompanied by a special guest.

Yes, when Amnesty wanted to choose someone to present its highest honor, they chose someone who demonizes Jews and Israel.

Besides including the symbol of Judaism on an inflatable pig at numerous concerts, Waters recently specified how someone he disagreed with was Jewish, as if that is all that is needed to explain her odious (to him) actions.

Waters also consistently calls for the boycott of the only country in the region to respect basic human rights. For Palestinians. (As I've documented numerous times, the human rights record towards Palestinian by Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria are particularly odious.)

This is the person that Amnesty chooses to present a humanitarian award.

Belafonte definitely deserves to receive humanitarian awards. But he should refuse to accept any from Waters. You can tell him that on his Facebook page.

(h/t Yael)

Guardian columnist falls for the Muslim Diplomacy of Fear

The Guardian last Friday had a Comment Is Free piece by one Giles Fraser, where he warned of the dire consequences of allowing Jews to visit their holiest site:

An Israeli claim to Temple Mount would trigger unimaginable violence

The settler mentality is now increasingly focusing on what is politically the most explosive site on the planet

The orthodox position has long been that the Temple can only be rebuilt and sacrifices resumed when the Jewish messiah returns. There have been a few dissenting voices to this consensus – most notably, Maimonides – but since the foundation of the state of Israel, the idea of Jews returning to Temple Mount prior to the arrival of the messiah has been the obsession of a tiny minority. And mostly, like Sharon, driven by secular political rather that theological concerns. But as Israel continues its shift to the right, these dangerous voices are now entering the political mainstream. Back in March, the housing and construction minister Uri Ariel, who advocates the rebuilding of the Temple, visited the site as a "tourist". In April, Knesset member Miri Regev emphasised: "I do not understand why a Jew is not allowed to pray in the most sacred place for him – the Temple Mount." Religious services minister, Naftali Bennett, has announced he will work for legislation guaranteeing Jewish access. And the notoriously hardline Likud politician, settler and Knesset member Moshe Feiglin – who believes Israel ought to annex all of the West Bank and Gaza – stepped up the pressure on Binyamin Netanyahu in a speech in New York last week, calling on him to restore Jewish sovereignty over the site.

It would be hard to overstate how dangerous an idea this is. The vast majority of orthodox rabbis have reiterated their opposition to it. But the settler mentality is now increasingly focusing on what is politically the most explosive site on the planet. If they succeed, a billion Muslims worldwide would go ballistic.

Fraser is wrong on a number of levels.

While the haredi world is generally against visiting the Temple Mount, the consensus among modern Orthodox Jews is that (with proper preparation and caveats) it is certainly permissible to visit the site, as long as one stays away from areas that the actual Temple and the Holy of Holies was. It is certain that, for example, the Herodian extensions on the southern part of the Mount - including where the Al Aqsa Mosque was built - are nowhere near the Temple site.

He also seems unaware that Jews are visiting the Temple Mount virtually every day. Usually less than a hundred a day, but still a core of people visiting and some even praying - and the Muslims know it, document it, write lots of articles condemning it and sometimes they even start throwing stones and Molotov cocktails because of it.

But nothing apocalyptic has happened. The Jews return, and in general outside of grumbling nothing bad happens.

Equating those who want to visit the Temple Mount with a "settler mentality" is also condescending, to say the least. My visit to the Temple Mount earlier this year was because I wanted to have a rare opportunity to see Judaism's holiest spot for myself. Certainly, those who assert their rights to live in the land of their forefathers are more likely to be the types who want to assert their rights to visit their holiest place. Why are people who strive for their own human rights be considered inherently bad?

I doubt that Fraser is Jewish, but he seems to be strangely obsessed with the halachic ban on Jews ascending to the Mount. But shouldn't that be a right that Jews have - to decide to visit or not to visit based on their own beliefs and the evolving halachic thinking on the topic? The decision of whether Jews should be allowed access to their holiest site should not be left to Fraser or the Muslims or the EU or the UN, but based on simple fairness and freedom of religion. Isn't that what liberals believe?

Look at how Fraser describes what would happen if Jews would visit and pray at the Mount: "a billion Muslims worldwide would go ballistic." No, they won't. They will threaten to go ballistic, but the proper response to that is for Jews to assert their rights. Giving in to threats is not a strategy - it is surrender.

Fraser also seems unaware that the Muslims who threaten violence if Jews should be given more access also are against all non-Muslim visitors, of which there are thousands every month.Should those tourists also be banned because of Muslim threats? If the Guardian wants to pay for Fraser to report from the Temple Mount, will he take the principled position that he might anger Muslims and therefore refuse?

Finally, the best argument against Fraser's thesis comes from Muslims themselves. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry Monday made yet another condemnation of Jews visiting the Temple Mount, and warned about a supposed mass rally of Jews throughout Jerusalem during the upcoming Sukkot holiday. But one statement that the Ministry made was telling.

It said that the absence of Muslim reaction to Jews visiting the Mount has emboldened the Jews to continue to do so.

In other words, Jews have been visiting the Mount for years now. Little bad has happened. Now, Muslims are upset at themselves for not reacting strongly enough! Their actions have been nowhere near their fiery and inflammatory rhetoric.

Muslims have used threats of massive violence for over a century to force Westerners to cower in fear. Sometimes, they actually kill a few people. But their actions are rarely anywhere close to their rhetoric. Not once has there been a popular Muslim war against a Western nation based on perceived insults to Islam. But such a war has been threatened countless times.

Finally, I wonder what Fraser thought when the Mohammed cartoons were published. After all, the Muslims threatened mass violence, and several people were killed. Did he demand then that the Western freedoms of expression be curtailed in the face of Muslim threats? Thousand of Muslims indeed "went ballistic."

Luckily, Denmark in general supported freedom of expression then, and the furious Muslim reaction calmed down in only a few days. This was the proper reaction.

Shouldn't Muslim threats to Jewish freedom of religion - even if it is only a minority of Jews who feel they must ascend to their holiest site - be treated the exact same way?

Or are Jewish religious rights somehow inferior to the rights of Danish cartoonists?