10/07 Links Part 1: Fatah praises terrorist shooter of 9 year-old, 51 Dead In Egypt

From Ian:

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PMW: Fatah praises terrorist shooter of 9 year-old

After a nine-year-old girl was shot in the Israeli town of Psagot in the West Bank yesterday, the administrator of an official Fatah Facebook page praised the terrorist shooter. He related the attack to a sniper attack that killed an Israeli soldier in Hebron two weeks ago. Writing on behalf of Fatah, the page administrator praised "the sniper of Palestine" who began his work in Hebron (the shooting of the soldier), passed through El-Bireh (the shooting of the girl), and - according to the Fatah Facebook page administrator - will continue in more places in the future: (h/t Yenta Press)

Terror victim's father says two centimeters saved his daughter's life

The life of Noam, 9, was saved because the bullet that hit her on Saturday night didn't move two centimeters to the left or the right, her father Yisrael Glick told reporters as he described the terror attack in his Psagot settlement home.
"It was a miracle," he said as he stood on Sunday morning in the hallway outside the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in the Sha'are Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, where his daughter is being treated.

MK Chetboun: Releasing Terrorists Encourages Terrorism

Chetboun, who is currently serving on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, met with the town's officials and visited the family. The MK was also given a briefing by military and police officials. This was followed by a meeting with the head of the Binyamin Council, Avi Roeh, along with Binyamin Brigade Commander Lt-Col. Yossi Pinto.
“Terrorism is rearing its head, and it is impossible not to see this in the context of the two previous shootings in the past few weeks,” Chetboun said, referring to the shootings of two IDF soldiers by Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorists in recent weeks.

Fatah Official: Israel is to Blame for Psagot Attack

Speaking to Kol Yisrael radio, Jibril Rajoub was asked if he condemns the attack, to which he responded, “Listen, listen, I condemn everything that causes damage. I condemn it and I condemn those responsible for it. And those responsible for it are the Government of Israel and the prime minister of Israel.”
Rajoub went on to say that the Israeli government was responsible for the attack, in which nine-year-old girl Noam Glick was wounded, because it “incites and provokes by building settlements.”

BBC Watch: Nine year-old wounded in attack in Psagot: BBC silent

The day after the incident, October 6th, a message praising the attacker was posted on an official Fatah Facebook account. Despite the fact that the head of Fatah is also the president of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the same PLO which is currently conducting negotiations with Israel, the BBC apparently does not find this story newsworthy.

CIF Watch: Is the Guardian unmoved by the recent terror attack on a 9-year-old Israeli girl?

Thus far, the Guardian has not devoted any coverage to the attack on Noam.
Their dearth of coverage regarding the attempted murder of a little Israeli girl stands in contrast to their coverage, in July, of a 5-year-old Palestinian boy who was briefly detained by Israeli troops after throwing rocks at cars near Hebron. Here’s a snapshot of the Guardian video report on the incident:

Erekat protests Czech president’s call to move country’s embassy to Jerusalem

Czech President Milos Zeman’s proposal to move the Czech Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem prompted Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator in the peace talks with Israel, to send a letter of protest to Prague stating that such a move would undermine the peace process.
Zeman publicly voiced his views on the subject at the opening of the annual Days for Israel forum in Hradec Kralove in East Bohemia last week.
According to the Czech news agency CTK, Erekat has asked the Arab League and other Arab organizations to call extraordinary meetings at the ministerial level to support the Palestinian stance.

Hamas to PA: Stop Talking to Israel

Hamas on Sunday called on the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, to stop peace talks with Israel. Instead, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, the PA should work for national unity.
Abu Zuhri said that the remarks made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his speech at the Bar-Ilan University, according to which negotiations with the PA are fruitless so long as the PA refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, require the PA to renounce the dialogue with Israel, implement the terms of the reconciliation plan between Hamas and Fatah and formulate a strategy agreed to deal with the “Zionist stubbornness and crimes,” as he put it.

Death Toll in Egypt's Bloody Sunday Stands at 51

More than 246 people were wounded during the day as Egyptian security forces clashed with supporters of ousted former President Mohammed Morsi.
Supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement were protesting in several cities to show their displeasure of the military’s overthrow of the former president. The demonstrations took place as thousands took to the streets on the 40th anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel - known as the "Yom Kippur War" by Israelis, and the "October War" by Arabs.

The Muslim Brotherhood has not yet had the last word

Over the past few months, the Muslim Brotherhood’s brand of political Islam has suffered several blows. First, it lost power in Egypt. Second, the movement’s popularity in Jordan has weakened if not been put down by the Hashemite monarchy. Third, Muslim Brothers in the Syrian opposition have lost their standing to a stronger al-Qaeda. Fourth, Hamas is also losing its standing in Gaza in light of the tension with the current Egyptian regime. Fifth, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ally of the Brothers, is facing a popular protest, while another ally, North Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir, has also seen violent demonstrations against his rule in the country.
And yet the Muslim Brotherhood is far from finished. Sunday underlined that.

Gunmen kill 6 Egyptian troops near Ismailia

Suspected militants killed six Egyptian soldiers near the Suez Canal and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a state satellite station in Cairo on Monday, suggesting an Islamist insurgency was picking up pace three months after an army takeover.

Huge explosion hits security HQ in Sinai

A massive explosion, possibly from a car bomb, hit the security headquarters in a southern Sinai town, killing three people and wounding 48, Egyptian officials said Monday.
The attack came hours after six Egyptian soldiers were killed by gunmen in an attack near the Suez canal. It was not immediately known if the incidents were linked.
Also Monday, at least two rocket-propelled grenades slammed into a compound housing the country’s main satellite earth station in a southern Cairo suburb, security officials said.

Israel's Final Warning on Iran

The coming weeks probably represent the last opportunity for Iran and the international community to reach an enforceable deal that will dismantle Tehran's nuclear weapons program, before Israel concludes that time has run out, that Iran has gotten too close to creating its first atomic bombs, and that the time for a military strike has arrived.
Despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's well-planned and deceptive charm offensive at the United Nations last week, so far not a single uranium-enriching centrifuge has stopped spinning in the underground nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom. The heavy water plutonium facility at Arak is moving forward, and Iran has already amassed enough low-enriched uranium for the production of seven to nine atomic bombs.

What Would Be a Good Deal on Iran's Nuclear Programme?

There needs to be intrusive inspections, including to all sites which are suspected by the IAEA of being related to weaponisation research, such as Parchin, which the IAEA has been demanding access to for years.
The plutonium track needs to be solved. Once the Arak heavy water reactor (which is capable of producing weapons grade plutonium) becomes hot it will be impossible to stop it. Israel took out the Iraqi reactor at Osirak in 1981 before it went hot, and according to media reports, did the same with a Syrian reactor in 2007, so the situation is very dangerous.
There needs to be a strict timeframe. It would be best if during talks the Iranians freeze their programme, so the clock is stopped. If the Iranians insist on continuing their programme, there must be a very limited timeframe, otherwise they are just buying time until they reach a critical breakout capacity.
The heaviest sanctions should be left in place until it is clear the Iranians are serious.
If the major sanctions are lifted and then they fail to fulfill their obligations, it will be very difficult to regain the momentum and build up the pressure again.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Says U.S. is ‘Untrustworthy, Self-Important and Breaks its Promises’

Iran’s Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, said he was “pessimistic about the U.S. government,” describing the administration of President Barack Obama as “untrustworthy, self-important and breaks its promises,” according to the UK Telegraph on Sunday.

As US touts thaw in Iran relations, Iranians spit on Obama image, prepare for ‘Death to America’ day

And while the Obama administration and U.S. media have generally portrayed the phone call and Twitter exchange between Obama and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani as evidence of warming relations, in September the website of the Quds cyber officers posted an image of Obama, wearing a Nazi field marshal’s uniform, surrendering with his hands on his head. The caption reads, “In the not too distant future…. One [Gen. Qasem] Soleimani is enough for all the enemies of this country.”

Kerry: WMD destruction a ‘credit to the Assad regime’

Kerry, speaking at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said the Assad regime deserves credit for its speedy compliance thus far with the UN Security Council resolution calling for the elimination of the weapons. However, Kerry stressed that Assad is not off the hook yet and needs to continue to comply with UN demands.
“I think it’s extremely significant that yesterday, Sunday, within a week of the [UN] resolution being passed, some chemical weapons were being destroyed,” Kerry said at a press conference Monday in Bali.

Forget Chemical Weapons. Assad Regime Uses Starvation as Tactic Against Rebels

With the threat of using chemical weapons now off the table, the Syrian regime has apparently turned to even more punitive actions to force rebellious citizens into submission: blockade-induced starvation. For months now the government of President Bashar Assad has encircled the rebel-aligned suburbs south and east of the capital Damascus, cutting off road access, telephone connections, water and electricity. But in the wake of the Aug. 21 chemical-weapon attack on the area, which rebels and the West blame on the regime, the government tightened the blockade even further, increasing fears that mass starvation might lead to even more deaths than the estimated 400 to 1,400 victims of the chemical attacks. Already six have died from malnutrition, according to activists, and as winter approaches, conditions are likely to worsen. One rebel brigade has dedicated its forces to breaking the siege in Moadhamiya, a town about 10 km from Damascus that has been under siege for more than six months.

Erdogan Embraces “Separate but Equal”

In the most recent German elections, Cemile Giousouf, a 35-year old daughter of a Turkish immigrant, was elected to the Bundestag as a member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. That is good news. For too long, Europe has been a pot in which little has melted.
Alas, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan now seeks to keep it that way. He has now demanded that European countries teach the children of the Turkish Diaspora in Turkish, rather than the language of the land

Saudi Poet: I Would Pray for Hitler's Soul

In a diatribe against the Russians for supporting Bashar al-Assad's regime, Saudi cleric and poet Muhammad Al-Farraj praised Adolf Hitler for “barbecuing the Russians and the Jews through and through with gasoline.”

Saudi Cleric and Poet Muhammad Al-Farraj Lauds Hitler for "Barbecuing" Russians and Jews

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News quiz

In which Middle Eastern country did a suicide bomber blow himself up in a playground yesterday, killing 13 children?

Which Middle Eastern country is building a 2-meter high wall along its border with Syria to stop refugees from crossing the border?

Which country reacted furiously to an Al Qaeda video threatening it, jailing a journalist who posted a link?

In which US Middle Eastern ally were 53 people killed yesterday by police?

In which Middle Eastern country was a German embassy security official killed this weekend? Hint: In the same country, a UNICEF official was kidnapped.

In which Middle Eastern country were 8 killed by mortar fire yesterday in a Christian neighborhood in its capital?

Which Middle Eastern conflict was recently singled out as "the main issue" in the Middle East by the French foreign minister?

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Arab Christian describes Muslim bigotry, reveals more than he intends

I've given Ray Hanania both criticism and praise for his positions as an American of Palestinian origin. We exchanged insults over his support for Helen Thomas' bigotry. Even today he plays fast and loose with the facts. But this piece in Saudi Gazette is worth reading because it is a rare Arab critique of Muslim anti-Christian attitudes:

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightwing anti-peace Zionist, met with a Christian Orthodox priest from Nazareth, Father Gabriel Nadaf, to discuss ways Christian Arabs could become more a part of Israel. The meeting enraged Muslim activists who denounced Father Nadaf as a “Christian Zionist,” and as a “Jew.”

I understand what Father Nadaf is doing. He recognizes that Christian Arabs live in a precarious world with Muslims. They believe that just maybe, Israel might be a better protector of Christian Arab interests. Christian Arabs are denounced for even raising this issue in public. We’re not allowed to talk about it. It’s haram! It’s a sin. But to Christian Arabs, it is real.

In truth, the relationship between Christian Arabs and Muslim extremists is worsening. But the real problem is that mainstream Muslims are doing nothing to confront these fanatics, and in fact they even refuse to see it as a problem that needs to be addressed. But the hatred by Muslim extremists against Christian Arabs is growing. It’s getting worse and many Christian Arabs believe that maybe Israel cares about us more.

This problem has to be viewed in a different, more complex context. The Arab-Israeli conflict is not a simple issue of two sides hating each other. Christians are in the middle. On the one hand, Muslims claim we are “brothers” in arms against Israel. But what happens to us when Israel is gone? Will Muslims respect us or, will Muslims merely resort to confronting us next.

There is an old Arab saying that I grew up with as a child that goes: “On Saturday the Jews. On Sunday the Christians.” We all know what that means. Once Israel is out of the way, Christian Arabs will be next.

...Their voices of rage and hatred should be confronted not by their Christian Arab targets but by the mainstream Muslim community. I shouldn’t be the one confronting him. Mainstream Muslims should be confronting these wild voices of hateful insanity.

It’s incidents like these that have many Christians today concerned about the real long-term goals of Muslims. Are Christian Arabs equal or are we just a short-term opportunity to be abandoned once Israel is destroyed by them.

This piece is notable for a different reason than the obvious of exposing Muslim bigotry in a Saudi publication.

Hanania takes it as a given that Muslim Arabs' major goal is destroying Israel, a viewpoint that he says he doesn't share. Yet even he says "when Israel is gone," not "if." To Arabs, moderate and extremist, Christian and Muslim, Israel is still considered a temporary blight on Arab land that cannot possibly survive; and as long as this attitude remains then real peace is impossible. This simple fact also undercuts Hanania's own thesis in the previous absurd piece I linked to - it is Israel's strategic strength that keeps things peaceful, not a "balance of power." See this previous post about how there really is no such thing as an Arab peacenik.

Christians can breathe relatively easy as long as Israel exists to act as a lightning rod for Arab hate.  Too bad most Western observers don't realize what is self-evident to all Arabs.

As far as I can tell, this piece was not translated into Arabic anywhere, so the people who need to read it never will.

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"Boycott Israel" - the music video

Very nice job:



However, I would have concentrated more on Western nations - how Canada and Australia treated natives, how European nations acted in Africa and elsewhere, how Switzerland and France take away rights from Muslims, and so forth. Israel's human rights record compares very well with everyone, not just Third World nations.

(h/t Leeor)

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Bibi's Bar Ilan speech (video, text)

It starts at about 51:00 of this video:



JPost synopsizes:

There will be no peace with the Palestinians until they recognize the Jewish right to a homeland in Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday night at Bar-Ilan University.

“A necessary condition to getting a true solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian] conflict was and remains clear as the sun: ending the refusal to recognize the right of the Jews to a homeland of their own in the land of their fathers,” he said. “That is the most important key to solving the conflict.”

Netanyahu’s words came at the start of a conference marking 20 years since the founding of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, the site of Netanyahu’s famous “Bar-Ilan speech” from four years ago where he stated his willingness for a two-state solution.

Those who anticipated that he might use the same venue to again break new ground on the Palestinian issue were disappointed.

Rather then present a “vision” speech of where he thought the negotiations with the Palestinians were headed, Netanyahu used the opportunity to emphasize that a Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people was a necessary condition to any agreement.

Since the first Arab attack on a home housing Jewish immigrants in Jaffa in 1921, the root of the conflict has not been the “occupation,” the “territories” or the settlements, but rather an Arab refusal to recognize the Jews’ right to a sovereign state in their historic homeland, he said.

Netanyahu said that the Arab revolutions of the past two years – which he called the most significant events in the region in 20 years – have laid to rest the “sacred cow” that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the heart of the instability in the Middle East.

Today, he said, it is “tough to say this without sounding absurd.”

It is now also the time, he said, to kill the “sacred cow” that the “occupation” was the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu spent a number of minutes during his address, which lasted some 30 minutes, discussing the links of the head of the Palestinian national movement in the pre-state days – Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini – with the Nazis. He reminded his listeners that the mufti visited Adolf Hitler in 1941 and promised his aid in getting Muslims to enlist in the SS in the Balkan states, and in the Nazi propaganda efforts.

Husseini, he said, is still an admired figure among Palestinians.

“That is what needs to be uprooted,” he said.

Netanyahu brought up the mufti, however, more to refute comments Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made in New York two weeks ago than to slam the current Palestinian leadership.

During a television interview, Rouhani acknowledged Nazi crimes against Jews, though he would not use the word “Holocaust.”

Netanyahu pointed out that Rouhani then quickly pointed out that it was forbidden to let the Zionists exploit the Nazi crimes to oppress the Palestinians.

“Despite what Iranian representatives and others say,” the prime minister said, “Zionist leaders did not use the Holocaust to destroy the Palestinian national movement.

The opposite is true. The leader of the Palestinian movement at that time, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, is the one who preached and worked to carry out the Holocaust to destroy the Zionist movement.

“And it almost worked,” Netanyahu said. “European Jewry was destroyed, with the help of the mufti, but Zionism was not destroyed; Israel was established.”

The goal of Iran today was to control the Middle East and beyond, and to “destroy the State of Israel. That is not speculation, that is the goal,” he said.

Repeating arguments he made last week at the UN, Netanyahu dismissed the notion that Iran was merely seeking nuclear energy for peaceful means, saying that countries that want to harness nuclear energy for civilian needs do not insist on enriching uranium and building plutonium reactors, elements not needed for civilian nuclear purposes but only to build nuclear weapons.

“The international community’s position toward Iran needs to be: We are willing to come to a diplomatic solution – but only one that will dismantle from Iran its capabilities to develop nuclear weapons. That means no centrifuges for enriching uranium and no plutonium reactor,” he said.

(h/t Josh K)

UPDATE: Algemeiner had the transcript:

“I recently read a hundred-page book by a wonderful American historian who passed away nearly 50 years ago. His name was Will Durant and he wrote many books. He wrote an eleven volume history of civilization, but at the end of his life, he wrote a hundred-page book, The Lessons of History. You should read it. Every line is carved from the stone of truth, and I will give you the bad news and the good news. The bad news is that when you finish reading this book, you understand that in history, greater numbers rule. They matter. But here is the good news. On page 17, if I am not mistaken, he mentions that there may be exceptions to this rule and that through the unification of a cultural force, that’s what he called it, the odds could be overcome. He gives the State of Israel as an example of such an exception. I think that we have proven in the 65 years of Israel’s existence that we are exceptional, but we must continue to be so, also by preserving our spiritual foundations. Two weeks ago, archaeologists found a gold medallion near the Western Wall. The archaeologists dated it to the beginning of the seventh century and there is a menorah on the medallion – our national symbol. On one side, a Torah scroll and on the other a shofar. The entire Torah on one medallion and of course, this was after 2,000 years of Jewish existence in the Land of Israel. This existence has lasted for nearly 4,000 years. Apparently there is something special about this exception of ours, in our unique combination of our past heritage and the way that we look to the future with our full force and talents and I would even say genius. There is no doubt that this university is part of our national and international effort to preserve our heritage and of course combine it with the future.

I thank you for your invitation to speak here, on the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Begin-Sadat Center. Many things have happened to us during those years. On the political front, we signed a peace agreement with Jordan. During all that time, exactly 20 years, we have been conducting negotiations with the Palestinians, trying to achieve a peace agreement, and despite ups and downs during these two decades, we managed to maintain the peace accords with Egypt. This is not insignificant. However, without a doubt, the most significant developments in the Middle East during this entire period are those of the past few years, and they overshadow all the rest when taking a broad view. Two of these developments include the historic unrest taking place in the Arab world – unrest that is at its height and far from over if such a thing can actually end; and of course Iran’s ongoing efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Iran’s goal is to take over the entire Middle East and beyond, and to destroy the State of Israel. This is not speculation; this is their goal.

Israel and the United States agree that Iran must be prevented from arming itself with nuclear weapons. Just days ago, the Iranian president said at the UN that Iran is only interested in civilian nuclear power. That’s what he said.

I do not believe him, but anyone interested in examining his statement should ask the Iranian regime one simple question – if you only want peaceful nuclear energy, why do you insist on centrifuges to enrich uranium and on plutonium reactors? Neither of these things is necessary to produce peaceful nuclear energy. There is no need for them; however they are the essential components for producing fissile material for nuclear weapons. This must be understood – they are not needed at all for peaceful purposes. Seventeen countries, including some of the leading countries in the world – Canada, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Indonesia with a quarter of a million people – and many others produce nuclear energy without centrifuges, without plutonium reactors.

Only someone who wants to produce fissile material for nuclear bombs insists on these components – not only insists, but is willing to inflict great suffering on his people because this insistence involves sanctions and dictates by the Security Council. Why do they do this? Perhaps they are lacking energy resources? They have gas and oil. I mention natural gas on purpose because it is immediately available for industry and for everything else. The have so many resources that they can provide for the needs of considerable areas of the world for many years with what they have, certainly for the needs of their own country. Therefore, the international community should take the following position vis-à-vis Iran – we are ready to reach a diplomatic resolution, but only one that dismantles Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. In other words, no centrifuges or enriched uranium, no plutonium reactor. As long as Iran does not dismantle its centrifuges and plutonium reactors, the sanctions must not be eased at all. On the contrary, they should be increased. The truth is simple, it is clear, it cuts like a razor through the fog they are trying to create. If their intentions are peaceful, they will agree. If they are not peaceful, they will not agree. But perhaps the formula should be put simply as follows: they dismantle, they receive; they don’t dismantle, they don’t receive. And this is a difficult struggle because it is human nature to hope, to believe, to try – we are willing to try but not to conduct an open experiment without criteria and certainly not without a realistic and clear-sighted view.

Parallel with the attempt to stop Iran’s nuclear armament and preserve the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, we are interested in bringing the conflict with the Palestinians to an end. Achieving a genuine and secure peace, with real security and not just on paper but on the ground – for us, our children, our grandchildren – this is the greatest wish of all citizens of Israel. In order to bring about an end to the conflict, the root of the conflict must be understood.

I bring this up because, in my opinion, in all the discussions regarding the conflict with the Palestinians, at least one thing has been achieved and that is that whoever believed that it was the core of the conflict in the Middle East – well, now it is difficult to say such a thing without sounding absurd. It is not the core of the conflict – not what is happening in Libya or Tunisia or Algeria or Egypt or Yemen or Syria or Iraq and so on and so forth. But for years they told us that the core of the conflict in the Middle East was the Palestinian matter and… how shall I put this? That sacred cow is one of the victims of the Arab revolution.

However, there is a second sacred cow in equal measure. When people are asked what the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is – since if you want to provide a solution or fix a certain problem, first you must correctly diagnose the illness. Well, when asked what the root of the conflict is, people usually have an answer at the ready: the occupation, the territories, the settlements and so on – it is all the same. Israel “taking control of the territories”, the area of Judea and Samaria after the Six Day War, the settlements – this is what sustains the conflict, this is what created the conflict for the most part. And I ask, is it really?

In my opinion, if one must choose a process by which the conflict started in actual fact, I would set the date at 1921 on the day on which the Palestinian Arabs attacked the immigration hostel in Jaffa.

Many Jews were killed in this attack, including the well-known writer Y.H. Brenner. This attack was directed against Jewish immigration. My grandfather arrived in Jaffa, at that same hostel, the year before, as did many others. Clearly this attack was not about territory or settlements; it was against Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. Later there were more attacks: In 1929, the ancient Jewish community in Hebron was brutally slaughtered. It had existed there nearly uninterrupted for close to 4,000 years. After that, there were attacks in ’36, in ’39 – what they called unrest. These were repeated and methodical attacks against the Jewish community in Israel. Later on there was the Partition Plan of 1947, wherein it was proposed that there be an Arab state – they didn’t say Palestinian state, but rather Arab state – and a Jewish state. The Jews agreed, the Arabs refused. Because the matter was not at that time, nor is it today, the question of a Palestinian state, but rather was and remains, unfortunately, the Jewish state. And even before 1967, for 19 years, they had us in a chokehold; there was a stranglehold around us with the sole goal of uprooting us, of extinguishing our lives. What was that about? There were no territories then either. There was no occupation, unless Tel Aviv is occupied and Jaffa is occupied. There were no settlements for 46 years, from 1921 to 1967, nearly half a century. We were excoriated by the Arab public unrelated to settlements, unrelated to what is presented as the historic heart of the struggle. I say these things because I can – well, so it ended there, but later everything changed. Later on, events developed as they developed. We withdrew from Gaza, every last centimeter. We uprooted communities and the attacks against us continued – approximately 10,000 missiles were fired at us from Gazan territory, from territories from which we withdrew. And when we ask those who launch the missiles and those who stand behind them: why do you fire at Jews? They say: in order to free Palestine. And what is Palestine? Judea and Samaria? No. Of course, they are part of it, but they say: Beer Sheva and Ashkelon, Majdal and Acre and Jaffa. Fine, those who say such things belong to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but the more moderate elements in Judea and Samaria, the Palestinian Authority – it is true that they do not engage in terror and this is an important distinction. They do not engage in terror, but when they are asked to say: Well, do you recognize? Not in Judea and Samaria, not in the West Bank, but are you ready finally to recognize the Jewish state? They answer: We are prepared to recognize the Israeli people; we are ready to recognize Israel. I say, that is not the question I am asking: are you prepared to recognize the Jewish state, the nation state of the Jewish people? And the answer so far has been no. Why not?

During my speech here four years ago, I said that the solution is a demilitarized Palestinian state. The reason for demilitarization is clear to everyone in light of our experience – true and ongoing demilitarization with very clear security arrangements and no international forces. But a Jewish state – recognize the Jewish state. Why are you not willing to recognize the Jewish state? We are willing to recognize your nation state, and that is at great cost – it involves territories, our ancestral lands, which is not insignificant. And I say this as well – this is a very difficult thing. But you need to make a series of concessions too and the first concession is to give up your dream of the right of return. We will not be satisfied with recognition of the Israeli people or of some kind of binational state which will later be flooded by refugees. This is the nation state of the Jewish people. If they want, Jews immigrate to this country. Palestinian Arabs, if they want, will go there. Recognize the Jewish state. As long as you refuse to do so, there will never be peace. Recognize our right to live here in our own sovereign state, our nation state – only then will peace be possible.

I emphasize this here – this is an essential condition. There are other conditions important for concluding the negotiations – not for conducting negotiations, but for concluding them, but I mention this because the political process with the Palestinians involves resolving complicated problems. It will be deemed successful only if it is built on the foundations of truth, the truth of the present and historic truth and unfortunately, the truth that is under constant attack from our enemies and opponents. They try to undermine the ancient connection of our people with the Land of Israel and obfuscate the basic facts of the conflict between us and the Palestinians in the 20th century.

For example, several days ago, I heard Iran’s representative half-heartedly comment on the Nazi crimes – it is difficult for them to say Holocaust – but immediately he added vigorously that one shouldn’t allow the Zionists to take advantage of the Nazi crimes, i.e. the Holocaust, in order to harm the Palestinians. Iran’s representatives repeat time and again the familiar trope that the Holocaust occurred without any connection to the Palestinian question and only later the Zionist leaders came along and made use of the Holocaust to repress the Palestinians. Well, what are the facts? The undisputed leader of the Palestinian national movement in the first half of the 20th century was Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. The Mufti was the living sprit behind those same attacks I described, from 1921 in Jaffa through the Second World War. All this is known, but here are some facts about the Mufti’s activities that are less well known:

On November 28, 1941, the Mufti flew to Berlin and met with Hitler. He expressed to Hitler his readiness to cooperate with Germany in any way. And he did so – both by recruiting Muslim fighters to join the ranks of the S.S. in the Balkans and by broadcasting propaganda for the Nazis.

Here is a typical example of the propaganda broadcast by the Mufti in 1942. I quote, “If England is defeated and its allies overwhelmed, it will provide a final solution to the Jewish question, which in our mind is the greatest danger”. Between 1942 and 1944, he worked from his base in Berlin and tried to prevent Jews from being saved – in Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia – countries which, despite being enslaved to Hitler, allowed the Jews to escape to the Land of Israel and other places. The Mufti protested to the Nazis that they hadn’t provided enough resources to prevent the escape of the refugee Jews from the Balkans. In his testimony at the Nuremberg Trials on August 6, 1947, the German commander Wilhelm Melchers said, “The Mufti made his protests known everywhere, in the Bureau of the Foreign Minister and the State Minister and in other headquarters of the S.S.” On May 13, 1943, for example, the Mufti submitted a letter to the Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop in which he objected to the understandings Germany made which allowed for the deportation of 4,000 Jewish children from Bulgaria. He asked to see, “everyone,” and I quote, “everyone wiped out”.

Eichmann’s deputy, Dieter Wisliceny, provided the following chilling testimony at Nuremberg: “The Mufti played a role in the decision to destroy the Jews of Europe. The importance of his role cannot be ignored. The Mufti repeatedly proposed to the authorities with whom he was in contact, first and foremost Hitler, Ribbentrop and Himmler, to destroy the European Jews. He saw in that an appropriate solution to the Palestinian question”. Wisliceny even provided hearsay evidence that the Mufti was directly involved in the Final Solution. “The Mufti was one of the initiators of the methodical destruction of the Jews of Europe and was a partner and consultant to Eichmann and Hitler on how to execute the plan. He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and constantly pushed him to speed up the destruction. With my own ears,” he said, “I heard him say that he visited the gas chambers of Auschwitz anonymously in the company of Eichmann”.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As opposed to the things being said by Iran’s representatives and others, the Zionist leaders did not use the Holocaust to destroy the Palestinian national movement. On the contrary, the most senior Palestinian leader at the time, the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini preached and acted to implement the Holocaust in order to destroy the Zionist movement. It almost worked. European Jewry was indeed wiped out, in part because of the Mufti’s efforts, but Zionism was not wiped out and the State of Israel was established.

I mention these things here because these roots, this poisonous tumor, must be uprooted. The Mufti is still an admired figure in the Palestinian national movement. Go look at websites, go to schools, look at schoolbooks. This is the tumor that must be removed, this is the root of the conflict, this is what keeps it alive and the root of the conflict was and remains that which has been repeated for over 90 years – the profound objection by the hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own country in the Land of Israel. In order for the current process to be significant, in order for it to have a real chance for success, it is essential that we finally hear from the Palestinian leadership that it recognizes the right of the Jewish people to its own country, the State of Israel. I very much hope that it will happen so that we can move toward a real resolution of the conflict.

There are many other subjects that we will of course have to resolve during the negotiations. First and foremost, there must be a real and sustainable solution to Israel’s security needs in the unstable and dangerous region in which live, because even if we do achieve this recognition, after years of incitement that still continues, we have no assurance that this recognition will filter down into all levels of Palestinian society and that is why we need very solid security arrangements, so that we will be able to defend the peace and defend ourselves if the peace is violated. This is a realistic and responsible approach, one that is ready to move forward but not blindly.

This reminds me of another issue. I think an essential condition for reaching a genuine resolution clearly was and remains the reversal of the refusal to recognize the right of the Jews to a nation state of their own in the land of their ancestors and this too is the most important key to resolving the conflict, recognition of this right.

I believe in the power of the people of Israel and I believe in the power of the State of Israel. What we have accomplished over the last 65 years is indeed wondrous. Today we mark 40 years since the Yom Kippur War. In the ensuing 40 years, the population of Israel has increased two-and-a-half fold. Israel’s GNP has increased 25 times. That is like taking 25 economies of the State of Israel and placing them side by side. We can mark achievements in all fields – in immigrant absorption, immigration, technology, freeing up the economy, developing the Negev and the Galilee, in the cyber city we are building in Beer Sheva, in the biotech city which will be established now in Safed, which is rising before our very eyes.

These are tremendous things. We did not wait for our neighbors in order to develop our country. We continue to do so. There is a connection between the two things – as long as we continue to grow our power, as long as we fortify our country, as long as we build our economy, as long as we strengthen our society, as long as we are strong – there is a chance that this change will also occur among our neighbors. We cannot give up on this – it is essential for safeguarding our future and ensuring our safety.

Thank you.”

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The latest Zio-Bio-weapon: Settler Feces!

Hilarity from Palestine National News:

Israel Uses Settler Feces as Bio-Warfare

ISRAELI SOLDIERS USE FECES TO ATTACK HUNDREDS OF VILLAGERS AND PEACEFUL PROTESTERS OUTSIDE THE WEST BANK VILLAGE OF NABI SALEH.

Muki Najaer / PNN Exclusive

Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) uses feces of Israeli residents and settlers as a form of bio-warfare against Palestinian farmers in the villages of Wadi Fuqeen and Nahaleen. Additionally, the Israeli army has developed a large vehicle for spraying sewage waste and feces at Palestinian protestors and homes, reportedly, in the towns of Abu Dis, Aizariah, Bil’in and Nabi Saleh.

Spraying sewage waste has become so common a weapon used by the Israeli Army that the combination of sewage water, feces, and human urine has been named “skunk”. B'Tselem reports that ‘skunk’ and the vehicle used to disperse it, have been added to Israel's armory for crowd control.

On 3 June of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) js present in sewage samples collected from Israel. Additionally, human feces contain endless forms of bacterial and biological contaminants. Given this information, the intentional use of sewage waste against Palestinians qualifies as bio-warfare.

...Locals in the village of Abu Dis reported on September 25 that Israeli Occupation Force officials drove a large vehicle containing feces around main streets, and sprayed the sewage water ‘everywhere’ and on everything.

Locals reported, “It entered the houses and the kids’ rooms – and it didn’t clear like teargas does. It hung around in the fabric inside houses and made everyone fear for their health.” They added, “Rumors of possible viruses are going around.”

A similar story of intentional sewage spraying is reported to have occurred in the nearby town of Aizariah on September 20. In March of this year, Middle East Monitor reported that Israeli forces sprayed Palestinian homes in the village of Nabi Saleh as a punishment for organizing weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall.

The IOF is increasing its use of feces as a weapon of bio-warfare, annexation, and occupation.

The only true fact here is that the IDF uses a foul-smelling, but completely safe, liquid called "skunk" for riot control. Of course, it contains no feces, "settler" or otherwise. Details here.

(h/t Aryeh M)

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Bibi's speech was great, but just imagine...

...if Bibi had taken out an iPad and shown the General Assembly this video:



From Times of Israel:

In a video clip now gaining fresh attention as the international community seeks to assess his credibility, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani bragged on Iranian state television just four months ago that he and the regime utterly flouted a 2003 agreement with the IAEA in which it promised to suspend all uranium enrichment and certain other nuclear activities.

Rouhani, who was being interviewed by Iran’s state IRIB TV (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) on May 27, less than three weeks before he won the June 14 presidential elections, was provoked by the interviewer’s assertion that, as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in 2003-5, “everything was suspended” on the nuclear program under his watch.

Smiling but evidently highly irritated by the suggestion, Rouhani called it “a lie” that only “the illiterate” would believe, and said that “whoever is talking to you in your earpiece” was feeding false information. He proceeded to detail how Iran, in fact, had flagrantly breached the October 2003 “Tehran Declaration,” which he said “was supposed to outline how everything should be suspended.”

Although Iran issued a joint statement with visiting EU ministers in October 2003 setting out its pledged obligations under the Tehran Declaration, in practice, Rouhani said in the interview, “We did not let that happen!”

The interview, conducted by Hassan Abedini, was one in a series of shows in which the presidential candidates were questioned by the widely watched channel. The TV station is closely controlled by loyalists of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Rouhani clearly felt the imperative to underline that he was no Western pushover.

Far from honoring the commitment, in which Iran said “it has decided voluntarily to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities,” Rouhani told the interviewer that all Iran did was merely suspend “ten centrifuges” in the Natanz enrichment facility. “And not a total suspension. Just reduced the yield.”

Unimpressed, interviewer Abedini asserted that work had been suspended at the UCF — the Uranium Enrichment Facility at Isfahan. Quite the contrary, Rouhani countered, detailing the completion of various phases of work at Isfahan under his watch in 2004 and 2005. He went on to state proudly that the Iranian heavy water reactor at Arak was also developed under his watch, in 2004.

“Do you know when we developed yellowcake? Winter 2004,” Rouhani went on. “Do you know when the number of centrifuges reached 3,000? Winter 2004.”

Incredulous at the notion that Iran had bowed to international pressure and halted nuclear activities in that period, Rouhani asked the interviewer, “We halted the nuclear program? We were the ones to complete it! We completed the technology.”

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Arabs are finding Jews everywhere!

An activist in Qena is calling for the Egyptian army to release records of how many Jewish converts to Islam joined the Egyptian army in the 1950s.

According to Zidane Alguenaúa, many Jews converted to Islam to join the army while the rest of Egypt's Jews were fleeing in the 1950s. Jews hadn't been allowed into the army even under King Farouk. Alguenua argues that a significant number of Egyptian military leaders are actually secret Jews and Zionist, who are attempting to fulfill Biblical prophecy by expanding Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.

This is hardly the only rumor going around of ties from Egyptians to Jews.

Recently, the rumor that General Al Sisi is Jewish has expanded to indicate a whole bunch of connections between Sisi and a host of Zionists. The rumors were concentrated in the Arabic press (and were briefly mentioned in Wikipedia!) but the best English version comes from the fevered imagination of Kevin Barrett, a favorite columnist in Iran's PressTV, writing in Veterans Today:

Al-Sisi is almost certainly a Mossad agent. That means al-Sisi’s Egypt is not just a brutal, banana-republic-style dictatorship. It is Israeli-occupied territory: The newest and largest province of ever-expanding Greater Israel.

Al-Sisi’s uncle, Uri Sibagh (sometimes spelled as Sabbagh) served in the Jewish Defense League (Hamagein) from 1948 to 1950, made his aliyah to Israel, and became a bigwig in Ben Gurion’s political party, serving as the secretary of the Israeli Labor Party in Beersheba from 1968 to 1981. Uri’s sister – al-Sisi’s mother – presumably emigrated to Egypt on a mission from the Mossad. That mission culminated when the Mossad overthrew President Morsi and installed its agent al-Sisi in the coup d’état of July 3rd, 2013.

The implication: Al-Sisi has been a lifelong Mossad agent. His mission: infiltrate the highest levels of power in an Arab Muslim country.

Barrett somehow missed that Uri Sebag was also a Knesset member!

Lest you think that only Egyptian army bigwigs are Zionist stooges, Egyptians are noticing that the Muslim Brotherhood is expecting to riot during the Yom Kippur War celebrations tomorrow - which means, they say, the the Brotherhood is also on the Jews' side!

Now, that's the way to take over a country - take over both the government and the opposition! There's a yiddishe kop for you.

(h/t Matan)

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10/06 Links: 9 Year Old Girl Shot By Terrorist, US Special Forces Raid Libya and Somalia

From Ian:

---

Nine-Year-Old Girl Shot in Terror Attack

A nine-year-old girl was seriously wounded in the neck Saturday evening in a shooting attack by one or more terrorists at Psagot, in the Binyamin region.
Magen David Adom paramedics were giving the girl first aid as IDF forces began combing the area. She was then evacuated to Shaarei Tzedek hospital with what was initially described as "a serious injury to her upper body." She was reportedly conscious.
Yoni Hacohen, a paramedic, told Arutz Sheva that she had been hit by a bullet that went clear through her neck.

Netanyahu: Palestinian incitement responsible for Psagot shooting

In remarks made at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, the premier called the incident "a heinous attack."
"This past year has been the quietest in over a decade, but lately we have noticed an increase in the number of terrorist attacks," Netanyahu said, pointing an accusatory finger at the Palestinian Authority.
"I must say that the Palestinian Authority cannot shirk its responsibility for these kinds of incidents as long as incitement there continues," the premier said. "The murderers must understand that this won't help them."

MKs: Abbas Talking Peace,but Allowing Terror

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz warned that the attack does not bode well for diplomatic talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“There’s an anomalous situation here where on the one hand, Abu Mazen [Abbas] talks about the diplomatic process, and on the other hand, groups that are affiliated with Fatah carry out terrorist attacks in Israel and Abu Mazen does nothing to prevent it,” he said.

US captures al-Qaida leader in Libya wanted for '98 US embassy bombings

US forces launched raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday following the deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall last month, capturing a top al-Qaida figure wanted for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, a US official said.
Senior al-Qaida figure Anas al Liby was seized in the raid in Libya, but no militant was captured in the raid on the Somali town of Barawe, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Alleged Iranian spy indicted by Israeli prosecutors

The indictment stated that over the course of 2012, Mansouri, 55 and with dual Iranian and Belgian citizenship, was recruited by Iran with the purpose of carrying out terror operations in Israel.
Mansouri had visited Israel three times in order to establish fictitious corporations in Israel to serve as cover for creating a terrorist infrastructure, which would include at least one more Iranian agent who was expected to come to Israel in the future, said the indictment.

MEMRI: Hamas Official Calls To Launch Rockets On Jerusalem In Response To Jews Praying In Al-Aqsa Courtyard

Following recent visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, especially during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the head of the Hamas Refugee Affairs Department, Dr. 'Issam 'Adwan, published an article on a Hamas-affiliated website in which he urged his movement to launch rockets at Jewish targets in Jerusalem. He wrote that Jews praying in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa was an even worse act than their conquering or demolishing it, and therefore the response must be harsh. He urged Palestinians to prepare themselves and the Islamic nation for a victory battle over Al-Aqsa.

Police Bust Israeli-Arab Weapons Ring, 18 Arrests

Sixteen of those arrested are men in their 20s, and an additional two are minors, police said. Additional arrests are expected.
The suspects are accused of having smuggled weapons into Israel from Palestinian Authority-controlled territories in Judea and Samaria (Shomron). Kfar Kassem is a short distance from several PA-controlled Arab towns in Samaria.

155,312 Tons of Goods were Transferred from Israel to Gaza in
September

5,549 trucks carrying 155,312 tons of goods entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing in September. Among the goods were construction materials, medical equipment, food and livestock.

Egypt Releases 2 Canadians Detained Amid Cairo Clashes

Canada's Foreign Affairs department said late Saturday that two Canadians held without charges for the past several weeks in Egypt have been released from prison, the Associated Press reports.
Lynne Yelich, a Canadian minister of consular affairs, said Canada welcomes the decision to release John Greyson, a filmmaker and professor, and Dr. Tarek Loubani, a physician.

Egypt remembers Yom Kippur 1973

“Egypt braces to cross ‘October 6,’” reads the headline of independent Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, in an apparent allusion to the army’s October 6, 1973, crossing of the Suez Canal that marked the start of the war.
“The army vowed to continue sacrificing for the nation, while the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood planned to spoil the joy of Egyptians in their victory by taking to Tahrir Square and organizing processions against the armed forces in Cairo and the provinces,” reads the report.

PM to cabinet: Israel not opposed to diplomacy with Iran

Israel is not against diplomacy with Iran, but rather wants to ensure that negotiations with Iran will lead it to a halt of uranium enrichment, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet Sunday.
Netanyahu, in his first meeting with his cabinet since meting US President Barack Obama in Washington and saying a day later at the UN General Assembly last week that Israel would "stand alone" against Iran if need be, said he had a long, in-depth conversation with Obama about Iran and that they agree to the need to halt Iran's uranium enrichment.

New York Times Indicts Israeli Leader For Speech Exposing Iran

The New York Times editorial on the subject once again revealed the editors' consistently negative stance toward the Jewish state and its leader.
The Israeli leader's speech was labeled “aggressive,” “combative,” and “sarcastic.” Netanyahu, they wrote, “seems eager for a fight.”
The editorial warned the Israeli leader “and his supporters in Congress” that being “blinded by excessive distrust,” “exaggerat[ing] the threat” posed by Iran, trying to “block President Obama” and “sabotag[ing] the best chance to establish a new relationship” with Iran “could be disastrous.”

Obama: Iran still at least a year from a bomb

Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, acknowledged that American estimates are “more conservative” than those of the Israelis.
Obama also said the world must “test” whether Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is serious about resolving its nuclear dispute diplomatically.

Obama Insulted the Iranian People, Says Iran's Foreign Minister

Speaking to CNN, Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Obama should not have told Netanyahu that the military option to deal with Iran’s nuclear program remains on the table.
“I was rather disappointed that President Obama used language that was insulting to the Iranian people,” Zarif said in the interview, which will air Sunday and parts of which were released Saturday.

Iran arrests four men accused of trying to sabotage nuclear production site

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said officials had monitored and then arrested a "number of saboteurs" before they could carry out their plan.
"Four of these individuals were caught red-handed and their interrogations are ongoing," he said, according to the Mehr news agency on Sunday. He did not identify which nuclear site they were planning to
damage or when those detained were arrested.

‘Iran Forced Hezbollah to Fight in Syria’

Sheikh Subhi Al-Tufaili, a former secretary-general of Hezbollah, told the Lebanese TV channel Al-Mustaqbal, “Generally speaking, Hezbollah is firmly opposed to the war, but a decisive Iranian decision [forced] it to participate in it.”
Tufaili’s revelation was included in a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on growing criticism of Hezbollah from within.

‘Hezbollah’s long-range missiles can carry chemical weapons’

Hezbollah is in possession of long-range missiles capable of carrying a chemical warhead, a Lebanese parliamentarian said according to a report Sunday.
Khaled Zaher, from the anti-Hezbollah al-Mustaqbal party, told the Saudi al-Watan newspaper that Syrian President Bashar Assad had transferred significant amounts of weaponry to Hezbollah, including the missiles. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps supervised the transfer of the weapons and helped build and design the launching pads in Lebanon, he said.

Report: Germany gave Syria ingredients for deadly gas in 2011

The chemicals involved – sodium fluoride, hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydrogen fluoride – can be used to manufacture sarin, the deadly nerve gas used during the August 21 attack on the edge of Damascus, which killed more than 1,400 people, according to the US government.

Arid State of Nevada Seeks Help From Israeli Agricultural Experts

In a campaign to revitalize its barren terrain, Nevada is hoping to share best practices on water and crops with Israel.
The desert-heavy U.S. state’s governor, Brian Sandoval, is planning a trip to Israel’s Negev in October to learn more about indoor farming, and how using Israeli technology could rejuvenate Nevada’s lackluster farming industry.

From Uganda to Iron Dome: A Soldier’s Motivation to Protect Her Country

It was a historical night for the 150 soldiers who stood under the stars in the Old City of Jerusalem. Standing at the Kotel — called the Western Wall in English — the soldiers were swearing their allegiance to protect the people and the State of Israel. Many of the new IDF recruits, who serve as soldiers in the Air Defense Command, protect Israel’s civilians against attacks by operating the Iron Dome missile defense system.
One soldier in the unit, Pvt. Or Meidan, stands out amongst the new recruits. In 2011, Pvt. Meidan immigrated to Israel from Uganda with her family. “We were living at a kibbutz, Yad Mordechi, during operation Pillar of Defense,” she recalls of her first days in the country. “Rockets were flying near us every day from the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip.”

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75 years ago: 19 Jews, including 10 children, murdered in Tiberias

There was a terror attack yesterday in Psagot, where a nine year old girl was stabbed by an infiltator - and it looks like her scream might have saved her entire family.

But slaughtering entire families is not that unusual for Arabs.

From AP, October 3, 1938:

Here are details on the victims from the Palestine Post:

This is what an Arab-majority single state solution would look like. (Except in the case the Arab police would probably join in.)

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Egyptian media celebrating 1973 "victory" over "the Jews." Not Israel - "the Jews."

Today is the 40th anniversary of Egypt's surprise attack on Yom Kippur, 1973, and Egypt is celebrating.

But if you look at Egyptian media in Arabic, very often it says that this "victory" was over "the Jews" - not over Israel, or over Zionists.

While many of the articles only talk about the "glorious victory," without naming over whom, when the enemy is named, more often than not, they are called "the Jews."

This interview with an Egyptian general in El Balad  is peppered with referencs to "the Jews."

Vetogate, while discussing Muslim Brotherhood threats against the celebrations, notes that  it is a happy day because "this is a black day in the history of the Jews."

This interview with Sadat's sister at Al Mogaz mostly refers merely to "the enemy" but has a reference to the victory over "the Jews." Nothing about Zionists or Israel.

Al Masry al Youm incidentally talks bout the "victory over the Jews."

By the way, here is how Time magazine reported the end of the war that the Egyptians are wildly celebrating:

From a purely military viewpoint it was already clear that the Israelis had come breathtakingly close to a victory that would have matched their swift triumph in the Six-Day War. Despite the important advantages possessed this time by the refurbished Arab armies—the element of surprise, the early losses they inflicted, their easy penetration of the Bar-Lev Line along the east bank of the Suez Canal and Israeli bastions in the Golan Heights—the Israelis managed in scarcely more than two weeks to reverse the tide of battle and push the battlefronts into Syria and Egypt. At week's end the Israelis claimed that they had captured most of the city of Suez; their armies had fought to within 30 miles of Damascus and about 45 miles of Cairo.

Although the details were still obscured by censorship, the bridgehead made by an Israeli armored force across the southern sector of the canal may rank as the most brilliant military feat in the country's short but tempestuous history. In the end, Egypt may well have agreed to a ceasefire because it realized that to continue fighting would lead to another disaster.

Enlarging their bridgehead on the west bank of the Suez Canal (TIME, Oct. 29), Israeli forces last week proceeded to neutralize, both militarily and politically, the dug-in Egyptian forces on the east bank. With at least 20,000 men and 500 tanks at their disposal on the southern portion of the west bank, the Israelis cut the vital highway between Suez and Cairo, encircled and later captured most of the city of Suez and pushed on to the port of Adabiya. In the process, they trapped the Egyptian Third Army, which was still in position on the east bank of the canal.

The Egyptian public hardly realized what had happened. At the week's beginning, a mood of euphoria still persisted in Cairo. Many Egyptians initially resented the declaration of a ceasefire because they believed that it was cheating Egypt out of a clear-cut victory. In any case, full-scale fighting broke out again almost immediately. In the 24 hours that followed the ceasefire, the Israelis drastically improved their position on the west bank. They destroyed large numbers of missile and artillery sites and, most important, they isolated the Third Army, cutting it off from food for its 20,000 men and fuel for its 400 tanks. Time after time, the Egyptians fought ferociously to free themselves but failed.

By [Wednesday morning,] the Egyptian government fully realized to what extent it had blundered in underestimating the seriousness of the Israeli bridgehead on the west bank. But it was too late to change the course of battle; the Egyptian Third Army was, as Moshe Dayan put it, "technically blocked." In a particularly stinging gesture to the Egyptians, the Israelis announced that they would supply blood plasma to the Third Army, since the Egyptian government was incapable of doing so. The Israelis added that the encircled Arabs were in no immediate danger of dying from thirst or hunger.

... But already, hundreds of thirsty and hungry Egyptian soldiers were walking out of the harsh, blazing desert with their hands up and handkerchiefs waving. From their east-bank positions, the nearest fresh water was 100 miles away; the water conduit from the west was held by the Israelis, who seemed determined to supply them with water only in exchange for surrender. At best, the ones who held out could probably expect to go through what Gamal Abdel Nasser, as a young major, was forced to do in 1949: to await an armistice, after which, by joint agreement, they can walk through Israeli lines to safety.

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PalArabs again claim religious Jews cut down olive trees - on Shabbat

From Ma'an:

Extremist Jewish settlers chopped down more than 100 olive trees Saturday morning in Deir Sharaf village south of Nablus, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that settlers from Shave Shomron settlement stormed olive fields in the al-Ghazan neighborhood of Deir Sharaf and destroyed more than 100 trees. He highlighted that the attack came a few days before the olive harvest.

Shavei Shomron is a religious Zionist community, and the idea that they would cut down olive trees on Shabbat is ludicrous.

In these times when essentially everyone has a camera and even video camera on their mobile phones, why do we never see video of these olive trees being chopped down? It takes quite a while to cut down a single tree, let alone a hundred - Mr. Daghlas could have gotten thirty reporters there before they were done.

Then again, when the media uncritically parrots obvious lies, what incentive does any Arab have to tell the truth?

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The editorial malpractice of Roger Cohen

In what is perhaps his most remarkable feat, Roger Cohen's latest op-ed for the New York Times - where he critiques Binyamin Netanyahu's speech to the UN last week - gets everything wrong.

Even more remarkably, his main arguments are refuted by the contents of the speech itself. Which means that either Cohen didn't listen to or read the speech itself, or he consciously chose to lie about it.

Op-ed writers of course have more latitude than reporters do, but that latitude does not extend to simply making up facts.

Here we go:

Never has it been more difficult for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to convince the world that, as he put it in 2006: “It’s 1938. Iran is Germany.” He tried again at the United Nations this week. In a speech that strained for effect, he likened Iran to a 20th-century “radical regime” of “awesome power.” That would be the Third Reich.

Netanyahu:

The last century has taught us that when a radical regime with global ambitions gets awesome power, sooner or later, its appetite for aggression knows no bounds. That's the central lesson of the 20th century. Now, we cannot forget it.

Does Cohen disagree that Iran is a radical regime or does he disagree that that its acquisition of nuclear arms would give it "awesome power"?  Does he disagree that a nuclear-armed Iran would irrevocably alter the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East? Both of those facts are incontrovertible.

By any sane measure, Bibi is right and Cohen is wrong.

Among those who question this approach is David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee. Referring to the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, he wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz that, “Simply implying, for instance, that anyone who sits down with Rouhani is a modern-day Neville Chamberlain or Édouard Daladier won’t do the trick. To the contrary, it will only give offense and alienate.”

When Netanyahu’s staunchest supporters — the leaders of the American Jewish community — question his approach to Iran, the Israeli prime minister needs to stop calling Rouhani “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” his favored epithet, and start worrying about crying wolf.

At no point in Bibi's speech did he even imply that the world shouldn't talk with Iran. Here is exactly what he said:

So here's what the international community must do. First, keep up the sanctions. If Iran advances its nuclear weapons program during negotiations, strengthen the sanctions.

Second, don't agree to a partial deal. A partial deal would lift international sanctions that have taken years to put in place in exchange for cosmetic concessions that will take only weeks for Iran to reverse. Third, lift the sanctions only when Iran fully dismantles its nuclear weapons program.

My friends,
The international community has Iran on the ropes. If you want to knockout Iran's nuclear weapons program peacefully, don't let up the pressure. Keep it up.

We all want to give diplomacy with Iran a chance to succeed. But when it comes to Iran, the greater the pressure, the greater the chance.

It is Cohen's fantasy that Bibi called for no talks with Iran. Cohen is wrong.

Now, what about David Harris? Did he find Bibi's speech to be problematic, as Cohen implies?

Harris' article was written on September 27. Bibi's speech was October 1.He wasn't condemning Bibi's speech, he was saying his worries about Bibi's possible approach.

Hours after Bibi spoke, Harris enthusiastically praised Bibi's speech, days before Cohen's piece:

AJC Executive Director David Harris praised the Israeli leader’s speech.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered today a compelling clarion call for the entire world about Iran,” said Harris. “The stakes are very high, with no room for wishful or illusory thinking about Iran’s intentions. No one seeks confrontation for confrontation’s sake. But until the Iranian regime comes clean on its nuclear program and fully cooperates with the international community, maximum pressure is absolutely necessary. History’s lessons on this score could not be clearer.”

Cohen could have looked up Harris' comments before he wrote his column. Instead, he chose to misrepresent Harris' opinion written before the speech as if he was critiquing the speech. For this reason alone, Cohen should be fired.

Bibi and Harris are right, Cohen is wrong.

It is not just that the world has now heard from Netanyahu of the imminent danger of a nuclear-armed Iran for a very long time.

In Roger Cohen's world, apparently, getting sick of someone's warning about a threat than could affect literally billions of people gets old after a while. Best to ignore it. Cohen is wrong.

 It is not just that Israel has set countless “red lines” that proved permeable. 

Doing a New York Times search for the words "red line," "Netanyahu" "Iran" and "nuclear" finds nothing before Bibi's speech exactly one year ago. There has only been one red line. This speech showed that the entire reason Iran has not crossed the only red line Israel has set is because of sanctions. There have been no permeable "red lines." Cohen is lying.

 It is not just that the Islamic Republic has been an island of stability compared to its neighbors Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Ruthless dictatorships with strong leaders are generally stable. Syria and Egypt were stable for decades before their respective revolutions. Does that make them desirable? Cohen is wrong.

It is not just that, as Rouhani’s election shows, Iran is no Nazi-like totalitarian state with a single authority but an authoritarian regime subject to liberalizing and repressive waves.

Bibi answered the ridiculous claim that Rouhani's election proves liberalism in the very speech Cohen is attacking:

Presidents of Iran have come and gone. Some presidents were considered moderates, others hardliners. But they've all served that same unforgiving creed, that same unforgetting regime – that creed that is espoused and enforced by the real power in Iran, the dictator known in Iran as the Supreme Leader, first Ayatollah Khomeini and now Ayatollah Khamenei. President Rouhani, like the presidents who came before him is a loyal servant of the regime. He was one of only six candidates the regime permitted to run for office. Nearly 700 other candidates were rejected.

All major decisions in Iran are made by Khamanei. The president reports to the "Supreme Leader." Cohen knows this, and yet he chooses to ignore it. Cohen is wrong.

No, Netanyahu’s credibility issue is rooted in the distorted priorities evident in a speech that was Iran-heavy and Palestine-lite. The real challenge to Israel as a Jewish and democratic nation is the failure to achieve a two-state peace with the Palestinians and the prolongation of a West Bank occupation that leaves Israel overseeing millions of disenfranchised Palestinians. ...Iran has long been an effective distraction from the core dilemma of the Jewish state: Palestine. But global impatience with this diversionary strategy is running high.

But Israel, even with the Palestinian issue, is also an "island of stability compared to its neighbors" Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Isn't that important in Cohen's worldview? It sure seemed that way only one paragraph ago.

Additionally, the world is quite  impatient with Palestinian Arabs who have been given every chance for peace since Oslo. Arabs are far more interested in Iran than in their Palestinian brethren. Cohen's idea that the Palestinian Arab issue is more important to Israel's future than Iran is fantasy. In other words, Cohen is wrong.

Iran has much to answer for. Rouhani’s “Iran poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region” is a preposterous statement. It has hidden aspects of its enrichment program. It has taken American and Israeli lives and attacked U.S. interests, through the Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah and other arms of its security apparatus. It has placed odious Israel hatred and America-as-Satan at the core of its revolutionary ideology. President Obama is right to demand transparent, verifiable action for any deal.

What Iran has not done is make a bomb or even, in the view of Western intelligence services, decide to do so.

Here is a time-worn method where columnists pretend to briefly acknowledge another side to the story while sweeping it under the rug. But Bibi's speech gave in great detail the evidence that Iran is hell-bent on creating a military nuclear device as well as how Rouhani bragged about hiding the nuclear program from the West. While Iran may not have greenlighted the building of an actual nuclear device, it is clearly doing everything that would be necessary to build one quickly should it decide to. As David Albright of ISIS testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week:

If Iran decided to produce nuclear explosive materials today, it could use its gas centrifuge program to produce weapon-grade uranium (WGU). However, Iran’s fear of military strikes likely deters it at this time from producing WGU or nuclear weapons. However, if its centrifuge plants expand as currently planned, by the middle of 2014 these plants could have enough centrifuges to allow Iran to break out so quickly, namely rapidly produce WGU from its stocks of low enriched uranium, that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would likely not detect this breakout until after Iran had produced enough WGU for one or two nuclear weapons. ISIS calls this a “critical capability.”

If the Arak reactor operates, Iran could also create a plutonium pathway to nuclear weapons. This reactor can produce enough plutonium each year for one or two nuclear 2 weapons, heightening concerns that Iran aims to build nuclear weapons. Its operation would needlessly complicate negotiations and increase the risk of military strikes.

If Iran creates the ability to build a bomb in two weeks (the time between IAEA inspections,) the fact that it has not made a decision to build one becomes moot. At that point, nothing can be done to stop it. Cohen's bizarre idea that the two can be decoupled is fantasy, not fact. Cohen is wrong.

(There is plenty of other evidence that Iran's nuclear program is military, but that is outside the scope of this post.)

It is not in Israel’s interest to be a spoiler. Limited, highly monitored Iranian enrichment — accepted in principle by Obama but rejected by Netanyahu — is a far better outcome for Israel than going to war with Tehran. But, of course, any deal with Iran would also have to involve a change in the Iranian-American relationship. Israel does not believe that is in its interest, hence some of the bluster.

So, according to Cohen, Israel is more afraid of warm US-Iran relations than of being blown up. This is projection on Cohen's part, as this op-ed proves that it is Cohen who cares more about appearances than truth, and is more prone to make decisions based on bias than on facts. Cohen is wrong.

In this essay, Cohen is criticizing a speech that was never made and he cannot counter a single point - not one - that was actually in the speech. Which is why he resorts to lies.

In any sane world, Cohen should be ashamed to go out in public after writing such a thoroughly embarrassing article. In any sane world, the Times would let him go because of the danger Cohen's columns bring to its own rapidly sinking reputation.

This piece is not just wrong-headed. It is not just showing that Cohen's opinions are wrong. No, this essay shows that Roger Cohen is guilty of editorial malpractice; he is someone who consciously and willingly ignores facts and makes up his own just to support an unsupportable thesis. A doctor or lawyer or teacher who acted this unprofessionally would be unceremoniously fired after a performance like this. Op-ed writers can and should push their opinions, but they should not have the right to make up their own facts.

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10/05 Links: Bibi - Peace Talks Are Going Nowhere, UNESCO Passes 6 Anti-Israel Resolutions

From Ian:

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Netanyahu: The Peace Talks Are Going Nowhere

According to a report on Friday in the Maariv daily newspaper, Netanyahu made the comments in closed meetings with the heads of American Jewish organizations.
Netanyahu reportedly repeated his position and that he is ready for a historic compromise with the Palestinian Authority, but added that "the problem was, and still is, their refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
The Prime Minister, according to Maariv, also said that the Palestinian Authority’s ongoing incitement against Israel was another significant obstacle to the possibility of reaching an agreement.

IDF Officers: Rising Arab Violence in Jenin, Qalandiya, Balata, Hebron

Israel Defense Forces officers said three recent incidents of Arab unrest that had to be quelled by soldiers indicate an uptick in violence, mainly from the Jenin refugee camp, Qalandiya, Balata and Hebron, Israel’s Ma’ariv daily reported.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in the activity level of resistance forces in the villages and in the camps,” Lt. Col. Itamar Kohl, deputy commander of the Binyamin Brigade, told Ma’ariv. “The more time we remain in the field, the greater the likelihood of a popular local demonstration, what I call ‘temporary’ disturbance, unplanned without a specific focus that is known in advance.”

PA forces raid Jenin refugee camp, arrest Islamic Jihad members

According to reports, some 200 forces descended on the camp and blocked the exits, searching homes, including that of Bassem Al-Saadi, the head of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. The raid was reported to be one of the Palestinian Authority’s biggest security operations in recent years, and highly unusual in terms of scale and area of operation.

UNESCO passes six resolutions condemning Israel

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed six anti-Israel resolutions at the meeting of its executive committee in Paris on Friday, Israel Radio reported.
The organization condemned Israel for not fulfilling an agreement from April to allow a UNESCO delegation to inspect preservation and conservation work at 18 sites in the Old City – six synagogues, six mosques and six churches – in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to postpone five anti-Israel resolutions pending before UNESCO’s board meeting that month.
Israel canceled the UNESCO contingent's visit at the last minute in May, saying that the Palestinians had "politicized" the delegation.

Liberman on Iran: ‘Better to be alone and stay alive’

Former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, who currently heads the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Saturday that there’s not even a “quarter of a sign” that Iran has slowed its drive to acquire nuclear weapons.
“All international intelligence agencies are aware that nothing has changed,” he was quoted by Israel Radio saying.
“Israel is prepared to deal with the Iranian problem. Even if we stand alone. It’s better to be alone and stay alive rather than toe the line and go up in flames,” he added.

Top 5 Dumbest Roger Cohen Lines (This Week)

Cohen’s latest entry is about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to convince the world that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is the smiling face of a bad regime constitute a diversionary tactic to avoid making peace with the Palestinians. It’s not a new charge and there are plenty of people who’d agree that more could be done to enable the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. The problem here is that Cohen doesn’t seem to think Iran is a threat. And it’s very strange to watch his mind work across the page. Here are five examples of some head-scratchers.

In Depth: Iranian espionage plot uncovered by Shin Bet shows a new level of sophistication

This time, it appears that the recruitment and running of the agent was carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's special operations unit (Quds Force), rather than by the Iranian intelligence agency.
Among other things, the role of the Quds Force is to execute terror attacks against Israel and additional targets in the West and in the Middle East. The significance of this is that Mansouri was not sent to Israel to spy and collect intelligence like his predecessors, but rather to establish an infrastructure to carry out terror attacks within Israel.

Slamming US and Israel, Khamenei raps aspects of Rouhani’s NY visit

Slamming the US as arrogant, dishonest, untrustworthy, and controlled by Zionists, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that “some” aspects of President Hassan Rouhani’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month were “not proper.”
“We support the diplomatic initiative of the government and attach importance to its activities in this trip,” Khamenei said, but he added that ”some of what happened in the New York trip was not proper” — an apparent reference to Rouhani’s historic phone conversation with US President Barack Obama.

Rouhani calls for 'time-bound' talks on nuclear program

Hassan Rouhani, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, called for "time-bound" talks on its nuclear program with the West while harshly criticizing US interference in the Middle East in his first speech to the United Nations on Tuesday afternoon.
The speech was a resounding defense of the governing model of the Islamic Republic and a forceful rebuke of its detractors, with many veiled references to the "mistaken" policies of the United States, which has sanctioned Iran punishingly for continuing to develop a nuclear program.

US was so sure it was striking Syria it made ‘warning calls’ to Israel’s leaders

The phone calls, Israel’s Channel 2 news revealed Friday, were made shortly after Secretary of State John Kerry on August 31 had accused Bashar Assad’s regime of an August 21 chemical weapons attack that killed 1,429 Syrians. Israel’s leaders were told explicitly that the US would be taking punitive military action against the Assad regime within 24-48 hours.
The calls were made in accordance with the US promise to give Israel a warning ahead of such an attack, so that it could take steps to defend itself against any potential Syrian retaliation that might target the Jewish state.

Syria’s chemical weapons nexus

The bottom line is that even if Russia and Iran did not provide the sarin gas to Syria, their delivery systems are responsible for making it into an operational WMD.
The main achievement of the UN report on the August 21 chemical weapons attacks in Syria is not its indisputable conclusion that sarin nerve gas was used “on a relatively large scale.” It is the affirmation in a UN document of the de facto existence of a chemical weapons nexus comprising Syria, Russia and Iran, whose purpose is to support President Bashar Assad’s regime as the linchpin of regional resistance to the US and Israel.

Egypt: At Least 5 Dead in Cairo Clashes

At least five people were killed in Cairo on Friday, as thousands of supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi took to the streets nationwide, clashing with security forces.
Supporters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, who have been protesting to re-install the ousted , clashed with police on the road leading to the pyramids in the suburb of Giza, reported Al Arabiya.

For Egypt’s crippled Muslim Brotherhood, protests part of survival strategy under crackdown

The Brotherhood’s long-term aim is to preserve the tight-knit, largely secretive structure of cadres, businesses and charities that made it a wealthy political powerhouse. Eventually, many Brotherhood members believe, the interim government will have to back down to ensure stability as it tackles Egypt’s multiple woes, particularly the struggling economy.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood vilifies the military

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has sharply criticized the military for ousting the country's Islamist president, comparing its rule to that of Adolf Hitler or Roman emperor Nero.
Thursday's criticism appears designed to whip up support for the Brotherhood and its planned rally on Sunday against the military and its popularly-backed July 3 coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, a longtime leader of the group.

Fox International, Warner Bros Acquire Israeli TV Shows ‘False Flag’, ‘Girlfriends’ For U.S. Market

After the success of Showtime Network’s “Homeland,” based on Israeli series “Hatufim,” two more Israeli television programs have been acquired to be reproduced for U.S. audiences, Israel’s Globes business daily reported.
Globes said “Shkufim,” False Flags, and “Haverot,” Girlfriends, were bought by Fox International and Warner Brothers Studios, respectively.

Israeli Scientists Unveil Advances in Aerospace Medicine

A helmet allowing ground control to take over an aircraft should the pilot lose consciousness, an unmanned aerial vehicle evacuating wounded soldiers under fire without endangering lives, and a robotic dog that would assist combat soldiers with moving equipment and evacuating the wounded are among the innovations to be presented during the 61st annual International Congress of Aviation and Space Medicine at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem on Sunday.

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