Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 10, 2013

10/10 Links Pt1: Wishful thinking is not a strategy, Fatah Still Refuses to Recognize Jewish State

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: New Extremist Foxes Welcomed into U.S. Chicken Coop

And say hello again to two of the most appallingly over-promoted and sinister figures involved with the current U.S. government: Mohamed Elibiary and Dalia Mogahed.
Of course, you may not want to: as the terror goes on worldwide, and the situation around the globe slips continuously in the Islamists' general direction, there is a growing and terrific ennui among much of the West. Among much of the Western world, terrorists' marauding is another case of, "Oh, just that Islamism again." You say a person is not good? Well, we can't be bothered to find out. The very condition that so few people can raise themselves to be bothered is part of the problem: "The trouble with all the nice people I knew in Germany," the British author Stephen Spender wrote in his Berlin diary in the 1930s, "is that they were either tired or weak."
Thankfully there are a number of people who can still rouse themselves to point out how outrageous Western governments' hiring policies are these days -- as when Mohamed Elibiary was promoted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Council. Yet despite these heroic individuals pointing out Elibiary's track record of support for Islamists worldwide, the appointment held -- and so it was that the U.S. government welcomed another fox into its chicken coop.

Wishful thinking is not a strategy

A fundamental principle of foreign policy is that if you will an end, you must will the means to that end. To achieve a "big turn in foreign policy" requires more than wishful thinking, it requires a strategy. In this case, it might begin with the recognition that, throughout recorded history, there have been nations committed to acquiring power over others. Iran today is self-evidently such a nation. Is there a way to persuade Iran's rulers to constrain their ambitions?
Those who study Iran disagree on many points, but there is broad consensus on this: Consistent with Khomeini's teaching and practice, the regime has no higher priority than its own survival -- because without revolutionary leaders no "revolutionary dreams" can be realized.

Poll: Majority of Israelis believe US projecting weakness on Syria, Iran

Asked whether the US was projecting weakness on Iran, affirmative answers were given by 60% of Israelis, including 64% of Jewish respondents and 40% of Arab respondents. Only 22% of Israelis said the US was projecting power, including 20% of the Jewish respondents and 31% of the Arab respondents.
When asked the same question about Syria, the results were similar. Sixty three percent of Israelis said the US was projecting weakness. Among Jews, 66% answered affirmatively and 49% of Arab respondents said yes. Twenty three percent said the US was projecting power, including 22% of Jewish respondents and 28% of the Arabs surveyed.

IDF strikes Syrian target in response to shelling

The IDF fired a Tammuz missile Wednesday at a Syrian target across the northern border, in response to mortar shells from Syrian territory landing near an army position in the Golan Heights and injuring two soldiers.
According to the IDF, the target in Syria took a direct hit. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the Syrian side.

Knesset Members Thwart Anti-Israel Move at Geneva Meeting

Members of Knesset Meir Sheetrit (Hatnuah) and Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) were able to thwart an anti-Israel initiative promoted by Palestinian representatives at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva this week.
The Palestinians tried to insert an “emergency motion” into the agenda that called for all parliaments to boycott Israel and condemned settlement construction, Israel Hayom reported.

Shock in Samaria: Israeli Leftists at Anti-Semitic Rally

Israeli leaders in Samaria were horrified to learn this week that Israeli leftists with the Yesh Din organization took part in an Arab celebration on the ruins of the Jewish community of Homesh.
During the celebration Jewish symbols at the site were replaced with PLO flags, and a banner was waved that depicted a man in religious Jewish garb with a spear through his mouth.

BBC Watch: Makeover by BBC’s Knell produces ‘conservative’ northern Islamic Movement

Knell’s efforts to persuade readers that the northern Islamic branch has a policy of confining itself to “the struggle for Palestinian independence at home” also seem distinctly bizarre in the context of the recent demonstrations the movement held in support of its parent movement in Egypt.
But it is Knell’s euphemistic description of the Islamic Movement as “conservative” and her failure to inform readers of its ideology, its activities and its Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood links which stand out most in this article. Her ‘makeover’ actively prevents BBC audiences from gaining any information or insight which might “[e]nhance UK audiences’ awareness and understanding of international issues” as defined in the BBC’s ‘Public Purposes’.

Fatah Spokesman Reiterates Refusal to Recognize Israel as Jewish State

The Sharjah-based Al Khaleej newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas reiterated its rejection of the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any peace deal must include the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by the Palestinian Authority.
“This is the language of acquiescence and we won’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf was quoted as saying. “Let Israel go to the United Nations and demand changing its name into the Jewish state.” If the objective behind Netanyahu’s speech is to ask the Palestinians to give up their rights, he added, “then we all refuse to give up our rights.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: PLO official: Palestinians 'seriously considering' declaring failure of peace talks

Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that this was one of the scenarios that were discussed during the last meeting of the Palestinian leadership.
Amireh accused Israel of seeking to “win time” and blame the Palestinians for the failure of the US-sponsored talks.

Mashaal: Stop Peace Talks, Start Armed Struggle

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has called for an end to Palestinian Authority peace talks with Israel and for an armed struggle to “liberate Jerusalem”.
The Maariv daily newspaper quoted on Wednesday the comments that Mashaal made during a visit to Turkey.
"Hamas's military power is the only way to liberate Jerusalem," the head of the group’s political bureau was quoted as having said.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas calls for meeting with Fatah to counter Israel’s ‘schemes’ on Jerusalem

Mashaal said in his speech that no Palestinian or Arab or Muslim leader is authorized or has a mandate to sign an agreement that “harms” Jerusalem and the holy sites.
“Protecting Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque against Judaization, demolition and division should be a shared national goal,” he said.
Mashaal called for a decisive Palestinian, Arab and Islamic stance toward Jerusalem that rejects any concessions in the city.

We Gave Iran an Antique as a Token of Goodwill. Only Problem? It’s Fake

Not only is it a fake, it’s a bad fake. The saga of the griffin, from its production to its much-touted return to Iranian President Rouhani during his recent visit to New York, demonstrates how fakers of ancient art fool the gullible wealthy with the connivance of museums and scholars. More profoundly, it shows how ancient (or not so ancient) artifacts are made to carry cultural and diplomatic weight, in this case for a deeply problematic opening in relations between the United States and Iran.

Iranian Speaker: We Have a Surplus of Uranium

Iran's parliament denied on Wednesday remarks made by its speaker, according to which the country has a surplus of enriched uranium and plans to use this as a bargaining tool at nuclear talks.
The speaker, Ali Larijani, told The Associated Press in an interview the surplus uranium would be discussed with Western powers in the context of whether Iran will halt its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent.

US cuts hundreds of millions in aid to Egypt

While the State Department did not provide a dollar amount of what was being withheld, most of it is linked to military aid. In all, the US provides $1.5 billion in aid each year to Egypt.
Officials said the aid being withheld included 10 Apache helicopters at a cost of more than $500 million, M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The US also is withholding $260 million in cash assistance to the government until “credible progress” is made toward an inclusive government set up through free and fair elections. The US had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and canceled biennial US-Egyptian military exercises.

Egypt: US Aid Threats Won't Stop Us from 'Fighting Terror'

Egypt, government officials said Thursday, will “not be pressured” by the United States into changing its policies on how to deal with Islamist radicals. “Egypt will not submit to American pressure,” a government spokesperson said in the wake of an announcement by Washington that it would withhold some military assistance.

JPost Editorial: Egypt, US aid and Israel

Hundreds of billions of dollars have not cinched for the US the loyalty of Nouri al-Maliki’s regime in Iraq or Hamid Karzai’s regime in Afghanistan.
Money and aid and networking, it appears, do not buy influence.
Therefore, Israel should not be overly concerned with the prospect of the US cutting aid to Egypt.
As long as Cairo has an interest in maintaining good relations with Israel it will do so, regardless of US aid. If on the other hand for whatever reason Egypt’s leaders cease to see peace as important, the $1.5b. in aid will do little to stop the slide.

‘Arab Spring’ to Cost $800 Billion

The Arab Spring will cost Arab countries roughly $800 million, according to a report by Dubai-based economists with the banking giant HSBC.
Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria, where the Arab Spring uprisings led to leaders’ depositions or civil war, were, unsurprisingly, among the hardest-hit countries. Jordan, Lebanon and Bahrain were also estimated to have suffered serious financial losses due to political turmoil.

Libyan prime minister released after brief abduction

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan was freed from captivity just hours after gunmen abducted him Thursday at dawn from the hotel where he resides in the capital, Tripoli, according to the state news agency.
The brazen abduction — apparently in retaliation for the US special forces’ raid over the weekend that seized a Libyan al-Qaida suspect from the streets of Tripoli — reflected the deep chaos and lawlessness gripping Libya.

Crazed antisemitic rant on Kuwait TV

Everywhere you look, there are Joooooz!

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti scholar Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna, which aired on Al-Rai TV on September 30, 2013:

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: First of all, as a Muslim, I believe that [the Jews] are evil. It is not that evil is in their genes, but their cultural education is based upon the Talmud, which derides the goyim, or "the others." For them, even God is racist. Yahweh is the god of the Israelites alone. The word Elohim is barely mentioned, and Yahweh belongs to the Jews alone. Racism became part and parcel of this religion, or this people. The Jews became a separate people with its own religion. Incidentally, it is the only religion that does not proselytize.

Interviewer: Because they consider all the others to be Gentiles...

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Right, they think the others will defile them if they join their religion. I am not saying that the Jews have evil in their genes. But it is remarkable that at least a quarter of the stories in the Koran are about the Israelites, or the Jews. Everything Allah warned us about through the story of Moses – how they slayed the prophets, and so on...

Interviewer: All contemporary studies deal with religious Jews, and not with the secular Jews who assimilated in Europe.

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: What is remarkable is that, secular or not, the Jews are racist. The founders of the so-called "Israel" – Weizmann and Ben-Gurion – were atheists. But if they had truly dissociated themselves from the religion, how come they were the most zealous about gathering the Jews, under Zionism? If you are truly an atheist, you should assimilate in your country – in Poland, Russia, or America. After all, religion does not interest you... The most zealous Jews are the atheists. This proves that it is a lie that they are atheist, even if they say they are.

Interviewer: As you said, even if they are secular, their racism and their upbringing shape their view of people.

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: I have written extensively about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and about the writings of the late Dr. Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Massiri. I have seen the evidence provided by those who deny that The Protocols is genuine, and those who affirm that it is. If you compare the evidence of the deniers, like Dr. Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Massiri, with the evidence of the affirmers, the latter is stronger.

What is incredible is that those who deride the affirmers for believing that everything is a conspiracy and that the Jews are behind everything are themselves accusing Czarist Russia's secret services of a conspiracy.

Interviewer: They accuse the Russians of forging that book.

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: That's right.

[...]

I'm not saying that evil is in their genes. Allah created them with the same disposition as any other human being. However, the education that they impart to their children – based upon the Talmudic notions of contempt for others, killing others, practicing usury, and considering themselves superior – is what turned them into a people with hatred for the others.

[...]

You could say that the Jews are a group with a certain function. That is why then ran secret organizations and secret parties, and why they practiced prostitution, usury, and so on.

Interviewer: It is said that they are a closed group, forced to sink so low in Europe.

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Take a look at the Armenians. They do not have organized prostitution. How come they did not form secret parties, like the Freemasons or the Illuminati?

Interviewer: Even though the Armenians were a persecuted minority...

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: The Armenians were not persecuted by the Ottomans. That's a lie. On the contrary, it was the Armenians who persecuted the Muslims of the Ottoman state. We should be talking about the Armenian massacre of the Muslims, not vide versa. I could talk for an entire show about that, backing it up with documents, and with the testimony of people sent by the League of Nations.

[...]

Who is not familiar with Charlie Chaplin? Mamduh 'Udwan mentions in his book that Charlie Chaplin is a Jew.

Interviewer: The book is titled The Judaization of Knowledge.

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Yes. Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest actress in the history of France and Europe, was Jewish. Why is Madame Curie from Poland more famous than her husband? She became famous because she was Jewish, while her husband, who invented radium and uranium with her, was not. But Madam Curie, who was Jewish, became famous.

Interviewer: Philosopher Abd Al-Rahman Badawi in Vol. 3 of his encyclopedia of philosophy, sharply criticized Einstein, saying that the Jews had turned him into a legend. True, he was a scientist, but there was also an accumulated legacy.

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Take, for example, Oppenheimer, who invented the nuclear bomb. A Bengali Muslim invented it along with him, but he didn't become famous. Everybody knows Oppenheimer as the "Father of the Nuclear Bomb."

When you check the writings of writers and journalists, you always see the Jews, because the media is controlled by Jewish companies, such as Rupert Murdoch, the owner of CNN. He is a Jew. Even Reuters... Do you know what Reuters'' full name was? Israel Reuters. That is Reuters – the most famous news agency in the world.

Interviewer: Do you think that Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, was being unfair to the Jews when he wrote, in an entire chapter: "Wherever they are, the Jews are loyal only to their own groups, and they segregate themselves from the country where they live"?

Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: That's true.

[...]

Off-the-wall crazy and obsessed with Jews.

But he doesn't think that Jewish traits are inherited. That makes him a moderate!

Jews visiting the Temple Mount this morning

Today, Jordan called on Israel to prevent Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount..

The Minister of State for Media Affairs and government spokesman Mohammad Al-Momani said that "the insistence of the Israeli occupation authorities to allow Jewish extremists to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a stirring of religious conflict and a flagrant challenge to the feelings of all Muslims."

He called for Israel to "prevent the entry of Jewish extremists to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to avoid provoking violence."

Momani also called on "the great powers and international organizations to move to take a firm stance against the schemes and practices of the Israeli occupation against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy places."

"Israel's practices towards the holy places is rejected and condemned and contrary to international conventions and treaties," he added, saying calling for "Israel to stop its continuous violations of the holy city."

I have yet to find a single "human rights" organization that is willing to say that Jews have the right to peacefully visit their own holy places. HRW, Amnesty, Oxfam - nothing.

They talk about freedom of religion, but that doesn't seem to apply to everyone.

Probably because they don't want to be firebombed by the peaceful people who demand that Jewish holy places be Judenrein.

Meanwhile, the official news agency of Israel's "peace partner" complained that "Israeli fanatics along with members of the ruling Likud party Thursday carried out several provocative tours of Al-Aqsa Mosque, an Islamic holy place in Jerusalem’s Old City."

Video allegedly of Hezbollah killing wounded Syrians sparking outrage

From the Daily Star Lebanon:

A YouTube video purporting to show Hezbollah fighters shooting to death several wounded Syrians has sparked outrage on social media sites.

A spokesman said Hezbollah was preparing to issue a response to the video, but it had yet to do so when The Daily Star went to press.

The video, which is 1 minute and 40 seconds long, shows several men dressed in camouflage fatigues and sporting yellow ribbons on their shoulders. After they pull what appear to be several severely wounded men out of a van, they shoot them to death at point blank range. Some of the fighters use foul language as they execute the men, who are dressed in civilian clothing.

Speaking with a Lebanese accent, their commander then scolds his fighters for their comments, reminding them that their actions are religiously sanctioned and that they are killing the men “for the sake of God.”

The Daily Star was unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the video.

Opposition sources were divided over whether the incident took place recently in rural Damascus, or immediately after the fall of the town of Qusair in Homs province in June.

Here it is (warning: graphic)

Arab boys still desecrating Temple Mount with soccer games

Last month I noted that Israel's Public Security Minister had promised to have the police enforce a ban on Arabs playing soccer on Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount.

I guess it was too good to be true, as this new short video shows:

Remember: Jews respectfully walking around their holiest place is "desecration" and "incitement." Arabs playing soccer, throwing stones and firebombs are fine.

These are the rules that the world somehow swallows without question.

(h/t YMedad)

Latest member of the Zionist Attack Zoo: Rock hyraxes!

The Gulf News has the details:

A small mammal at risk of extinction might seem an unusual source of stress for humans, but an influx of rock hyrax on Palestinian farms near the Israeli segregation wall is creating an added burden for famers in the area.

The uncharacteristically wide and dense spread of this omnivorous animal has caused farmers heavy losses as the animals eat all available vegetation.

Palestinian farmers have alleged that Israeli colonists have released a large numbers of rock hyrax behind the Israeli wall with the aim of harming Palestinian land.

The affected farmers claim it has taken them great efforts to learn the animal’s name and that they have been unable to handle the influx.

Hassan Zaid, a Palestinian farmer, said that the animal locally named “Al Wabar Al Sakhri” eats both green and dried grass and trees leaving the farmers with serious losses.

“The animal does not leave anything thing behind and our lands have been destroyed.”

Zaid said that the animal lives between rocks and has taken to using holes in the Palestinian side of the Israeli wall as shelter.

That last part may be true; rock hyraxes like to live in small holes or cracks of walls and cliffs. It even says so in Proverbs 30:26: The rock-badgers are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the crags

Gulf News didn't bother to see if the animal (which does not appear to be endangered) is bothering Jews as well. Not surprisingly, it is:

Israel's hyraxes are cute, furry and have a characteristic chirping song. But they are becoming a serious pest.

The animals, also known as rock rabbits, have moved into residential areas of Galilee and have been destroying people's gardens.

Scientists have now discovered why: hyraxes love to make their homes in the debris from building sites.

Researchers from the University of Haifa published these findings in the journal Wildlife Research.

"They're coming into the villages and eating everything they can find," said Mr Kershenbaum.

To find out more about their behaviour, he and his colleagues observed the movements of groups of the animals. They also attached radio collars to a group of hyraxes in order to track and follow them.

"It turns out that it's the piles of boulders [created by clearing sites for building] that attract the hyraxes," said Mr Kershenbaum.

They make their homes in the underground caverns and crevices created by these man-made rubble piles.

Once on the topic, Gulf News must mention the Zionist pigs as well:

Palestinians, farmers and officials have also been accusing the Israelis, mainly the colonists, of releasing a large number of wild pigs into the Palestinian territories to destroy the farms.

The release of those animals has caused the deaths of at least three Palestinian farmers and injury to several others after wild pigs attacked people in their farms. The wild pigs also cause major destruction of cultivated lands.

(h/t the fantastic Hadar Sela of BBCWatch)

10/09 Links Part 2: Prosor - Where Is the Flotilla for Syria?, 2 Israeli Prof. Share Nobel for Chemistry

From Ian:

Ron Prosor: Where Is the Flotilla for Syria?

Today much of the international human-rights arena resembles a masquerade ball, where the most extreme views can be easily masked beneath the empty utterance of words like "democracy" and "human rights." Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, the leader of the Scandinavian ship to Gaza, was recently suspended from the Swiss World Peace Academy for a series of anti-Semitic rants. He recommended that all university students read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the infamous piece of 19th-century propaganda used in Nazi classrooms.
Far from criticizing the tyrants of the Middle East, the flotilla crowd often joins hands with them. Just this May, the British activist group Viva Palestina enjoyed the hospitality of Bashar Assad, making a pit stop in Syria on its way to trying to enter Gaza. Around the same time that Assad's thugs were gearing up for their massacre of children in Houla, members of Viva Palestina were proudly tweeting their whereabouts and posting photos on Facebook of themselves next to the regime's representatives.
Instead of dancing with dictators and tangoing with tyrants, what if the flotilla crowd actually set sail in the direction where aid is so desperately needed?

Prosor: Appointing Iran to UN disarmament c'tee like making drug lord CEO of pharmaceutical company

Prosor compared Iran serving on the UN’s leading disarmament committee to “appointing a drug lord CEO of a pharmaceutical company.”
The envoy argued that “Iran’s appointment erodes the UN’s legitimacy and its ability to promote arms control and disarmament as well as, preserve global peace and security.” He added, that “rather than provide a global stage for Iran’s defiance and deception, the UN should shine a spotlight on the regime’s ongoing pursuit of nuclear weapons and its support for terrorism across the globe.”

Iran & Hezbollah: Axis of Terror

IDF Blog: Hackers Beware - The IDF’s Digital Battleground

Since 1948, the IDF has fought on three battlegrounds: land, sea and air. Now, in 2013, cyberspace has become the newest battlefield as hackers try to hurt Israel virtually.
A revolution is taking place in the IDF, but it’s probably not one you’ve heard about in the news. The IDF is transforming into a military that is prepared to defend itself from enemies on the newest battlefield: cyberspace. The IDF’s Teleprocessing Corps is at the center of this revolution, fortifying the military’s cyber defense against the threats of enemy hackers, while developing technologies that will make it easier to defend the country on the ground.

The Cyber-War Against Iran Is a Real War, and a Rehearsal for Future Conflicts

The United States and Israel are taking advantage of the newly globalized system that ties together all the world’s economies as well as its production of knowledge, a system whose commanding heights—banking, the Internet, and information technology—the United States and its allies now dominate. While some have seen the information war between the West and Iran as a prelude to a shooting war with bombs, air raids, naval maneuvers, and possibly large troop movements, the reality is that, taken all together, these campaigns are warfare.

David Mamet Tells the Left to Go Screw

David Mamet is right to reject the western-left, because the western-left is no friend to the Jewish people and has betrayed its own values.
If the western-left ever actually stood for social justice and human rights, it does so no longer.
Until we wrap our brains around this particular fact, we will have nothing to say, just as most progressive-left Jews who favor Israel basically have nothing to say.
They are mutes who shrug their shoulders, hold up their palms, and wish for the best – that is, when they are not attacking “right-wing” Jews, also known as those of us willing to stand the hell up.

Solution to BDS Movement May Come from China

“While academics around the world are attempting to damage Israel’s economy with calls for boycotts and divestment, it is the Chinese who see the inherent value in Israeli ingenuity, innovation and education,” Carice Witte, executive director of Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership (SIGNAL), an institute working to advance Israel-China relations, told JNS.org.
“Economic stability is one of China’s main goals. They view this collaboration as an investment in their own future,” Witte said.

The intolerant crusade against circumcision

I am not sure what my father would make of the current intolerant crusade against circumcision. It is difficult to make sense of the strong views held by campaigners and policymakers who seek to criminalise and pathologise the circumcision of Jewish and Muslim boys. Last Tuesday, a resolution passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemned male circumcision as a ‘violation of the physical integrity of children’. Unlike Antiochus IV, these parliamentarians did not use the narrative of a civilisational mission against barbarism to justify their assault on people’s way of life; instead they used the apparently neutral language of health and child protection to legitimise their crusade. The Council’s resolution called on governments to ‘clearly define the medical, sanitary and other conditions to be ensured for practices such as the non-medically justified circumcision of young boys’.

Eldad: Circumcision – That’s the Threat

"The Council of Europe has found at last the greatest threat to kids in the world,” Eldad said declared. “No, it’s not Assad and his chemical weapons. It’s not Khamenei and his nuclear weapons. They are already considered to be ‘the good guys’ and must’ve already been invited for a party at Catherine Ashton’s place.”
“It’s not even settlements this week,” he continued. “Now what is in their sites – unabashedly – are the foreskins of the Jews in Europe, who insist on circumcising their sons.”

When it comes to criticizing Netanyahu, hard to tell Iran and NY Times apart

A reading of the speech shows that it was quite skilled. Netanyahu explained how Iran is ruled by a regime that is currently destabilizing the Middle East and exporting terror globally. He also explained how, in the past, Iran used the illusion of moderation and negotiations to advance its nuclear program. (This is something that then candidate Hassan Rouhani boasted about in a recently reported video.)
But Netanyahu wasn’t arguing to attack Iran. He was arguing to keep sanctions in place, and strengthen them if necessary, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. (In fact the public statements of the Obama administration don’t sound that different from what Netanyahu said about sanctions.) The threat of military force was meant as a last resort.

Guardian publishes letter by Jenny Tonge on the issue of antisemitism

Tonge has clearly demonstrated a malign obsession with Jews and the alleged power of the ‘Israel lobby’, and the decision by the Guardian to provide her a forum to weigh on the extremely serious issue anti-Jewish racism is, in a word, “deplorable”.

BBC repeats misrepresentation of Bar Noar shooting

Unfortunately, as can be seen in this version of the filmed programme (also available on iPlayer for a limited period of time for those in the UK), the Bar Noar shootings are still being misrepresented as an anti-gay hate crime and the political associations of Professor Aeyal Gross are still not being made clear to BBC audiences, in clear breach of editorial guidelines.

BBC parrots Ha’aretz editorial bemoaning demise of Israeli democracy

Obviously not, so consider this line (which, like much of the rest of the piece, appears to have been taken from an AP article by Tia Goldenberg) from an October 4th report titled “Jerusalem court rejects Israel nationality petition” which appeared on the Middle East page of the BBC News website:
“Jewish religious holidays are also national holidays in Israel.”
That, of course, is an undisputed fact and indeed one would not expect otherwise in the world’s only Jewish state, just as one would not expect Christian festivals not to be national holidays in predominantly Christian countries or Islamic festivals not to be national holidays in mainly Muslim states.

Report: Ukrainian police tortured, urinated on Jewish man

Investigators in Lviv are looking into claims that two policemen assaulted and urinated on a Jewish man as part of an anti-Semitic attack, Ukrainian media reported.
The alleged victim, Dmitry Flekman, 28, told the Ukrainian newspaper Segondiya that two men, who identified themselves as police but did not give their names, assaulted him in the western Ukrainian city on Oct. 1 inside a police station and tried to extort money from him.

Israel Approves High-Speed Train Route to Eilat

An Israeli government committee has approved plans for Israel’s most expensive transportation project ever, a high-speed rail line from central Israel to southern port city of Eilat on the Red Sea.
The 217-mile track to Eilat will run along the eastern flank of the Negev, allowing it to avoid rocket fire from Gaza or the Sinai. The train is expected to reach speeds up to 155 miles per hour, which will cut travel down to two hours from the four-to-five-hour trip by car or bus. An estimated 5 million passengers a year are expected to ride the train, Haaretz reported.

Israelis Develop New Pesticide From Strawberry Leaves

Yissum Research Development Company, Hebrew University’s Technology Transfer Arm, and Israeli crop-protection company Makhteshim Agan partnered to develop and market a non-toxic and environmentally-friendly bio-control method for protecting plants based on a yeast isolated from strawberry leaves.

US TV Stars Meet Terror Victims, Dexter’s CS Lee Says Israel Inspiring

The first visit of C.S. Lee – popularly known as Vince Masuka from the American TV show Dexter – to Israel, was an inspiring one for the Korean-American actor. In an exclusive interview, Lee told Tazpit News Agency that there were many moving points during the trip to the Holy Land. “The visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial was particularly special,” recalled Lee during his last evening in the country.

Magen David Adom Raises $3.8 Million at Star-Studded LA Event

American Friends of Magen David Adom said the Oct. 6 event produced the highest amount it has ever raised for MDA, an organization that is mandated by the Israeli government but not funded by it, instead relying on private donors.
Funds raised at the gala—which included performances by comedian Jackie Mason and singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka, and expressions of support for MDA by celebrities such as former Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams—will benefit emergency medical services and the building of a new National Blood Center in Israel.

3 Jewish professors — two of them Israeli — share 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry

Kibbutz-born Arieh Warshel fought in ’67 and ’73 wars; Pretoria-born Michael Levitt taught at the Weizmann Institute for most of the 1980s, took Israeli citizenship; Martin Karplus fled as a child to the US from Nazi-occupied Austria. Prestigious prize awarded ‘for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems’

Two rockets shot from Gaza last night

YNet reports:

A rocket fired from Gaza landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council overnight. A Color Red siren sounded and a blast was heard. No injuries or damage reported

The Gaza NGO Safety Office site reports that terrorists actually fired two rockets, but one of them fell short in Gaza.

Even though there is a "cease fire," rocket attacks like this are barely reported even in Israeli media, and certainly not noticed by the international media.

To NPR, Egypt's 1973 attack was just diplomacy and "nuanced"

War (against Israel) is peace - if you listen to NPR:

SIEGEL: Each side calls the war by the holiday it fell on in 1973. To Arabs, it was the Ramadan War. To Israelis, it was Yom Kippur War. Both Egypt and Israel suffered heavy casualties and both achieved battlefield victories. And the result was sufficiently ambiguous. Neither side had suffered a humiliating defeat that a few years later, Egypt and Israel could make peace, and Egypt could regain the Sinai Peninsula.

With 40 years of hindsight and research, our sense of the October 1973 war continues to evolve. And today, we're going to hear an Israeli perspective. Ehud Yaari is a commentator for Israel's Channel Two television. He's also a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington. And he joins us from Jerusalem. And, first, Ehud Yaari, how do recently declassified documents alter your view of what happened in the Yom Kippur War?

EHUD YAARI: Well, I think we have a series of documents published and some still to be published, especially from Dr. Henry Kissinger's personal archive, which shed light on the fact that the Egyptians were trying to get the Israelis to move toward some sort of an arrangement over the reopening of the Suez Canal. The Israeli government, at the time led by Mrs. Golda Meir, was preoccupied by the coming elections in Israel, and President Sadat of Egypt felt that he couldn't afford to wait and launched the war.

Basically, the situation was that there was an Egyptian offer on the table. There was a recommendation by Dr. Kissinger to go for it. There was an Israeli response that let's wait after - until after the elections, and Sadat felt that he could not afford to wait that long.

SIEGEL: But you're describing a war that seems, with hindsight, more of an avoidable war than it might have seemed at the time.

YAARI: Absolutely. President Sadat launched the war together with Hafez Assad, the president of Syria at the time, in order to break the diplomatic deadlock, not in order to capture the Sinai Peninsula or invade Israel itself. He saw the war as a tool of diplomacy rather than as an ending itself. And indeed, it took four years between the launching of the October war '73 and Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem in November '77. That was his intention from the start. I'm telling you this as the proud man who had the privilege of being the first Israeli passport allowed into Egypt. That was the story. He launched the war in order to get a peace process going.

...SIEGEL: Of course, one observation that's been made over the years is that President Sadat's motives, Egypt's motives in going to war in 1973 were sufficiently nuanced or sophisticated that they weren't understood well by Israeli intelligence.

15,000 killed - but it was for a good purpose! It was for peace!

Those Israelis were too stupid to recognize the "nuance" of their sons were being killed by the hundreds.

And this was the "Israeli" perspective. Today, NPR will bring us Egypt's perspective!

(I'm sure that Yaari said more than just the two minutes heard here, but NPR cherry picked his comments to make Egypt as blameless as possible for starting a war.)

One set of documents that has received next to no attention from these self-styled "experts" were recently released by Israel's National Archives. As Times of Israel described it:

Several months before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, then-Israeli prime minister Golda Meir used West German diplomatic channels to offer Egypt most of the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace, according to documents released Sunday by the state archives.

During a series of meetings with West German chancellor Willy Brandt, who was making a historic visit to Israel in early June 1973, Meir offered ”to meet with them (the Egyptians) for the first personal contact, anywhere, any time and at any level” and asked Brandt to convey to the Egyptians her desire to meet as well as Israel’s willingness to cede most of the Sinai in a peace treaty with Egypt.

Israel captured the peninsula from Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War. According to the records, Meir was not willing to return completely to the 1967 lines in the event of a handover.

“He can tell Sadat that he, Brandt, is convinced that we truly want peace. That we don’t want all of Sinai, or half of Sinai, or the major part of Sinai. Brandt can make it clear to Sadat that we do not request that he begin negotiations in public, and that we are prepared to begin secret negotiations, etc.,” Meir said in a later meeting.

West German diplomatic personnel later met in Cairo with Hafiz Ismail, a close adviser to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, and relayed the Israeli proposal, which Ismail reportedly rejected bluntly.

As long as Israel was not willing to return completely to the 1967 lines, there was no point in negotiations, he reportedly said, adding that there would be no “talks about talks.” Ismail, during the meeting, held forth about world indifference to the situation in the Arab world and said that ”from now on, the Arabs’ fate is in their own hands.”

At NPR, Israeli diplomatic efforts for peace are ignored but a sneak attack that killed thousands is praised - as being necessary for "peace."

And to push this decidedly illiberal narrative, NPR just uses the oldest trick in the book - to find an Israeli that seems to blame Israel for Egypt's decision to start a war.

In retrospect, it is obvious that Egypt would not have accepted any peace offer from Israel, because the point of the war wasn't "peace." As with so much else in the Arab world, the driving motivation was honor. Egypt needed to feel like a victor before it could discuss any negotiations. This is clear from the statement made by Egypt's president Adly Mansour on the anniversary:

I talk to you today on the occasion marking the 40th anniversary of the great victory. That day has been and will remain a landmark sign for the dignity of Egypt and the whole Arab nation. It is the day of October 6th, 1973.

These great days come to remind us that October 6th was not only a watershed day in the Egyptian and Arab modern history but also a crowning for the path of struggle and a pride for our achievement together people and State on which the great Egyptian people rejected to bargain over their homeland or dignity even if they would sacrifice their own daily source of living or their blood.

The values of October 6th remind us of the march of struggle through which we restored our usurped soil when we devoted all ourselves to the nation and shouldered our responsibility at a time when all personal aspirations were melted down into one aspiration and one dream for one homeland.

...The October victory has created a new reality and opened the road to peace after it managed to turn over the pages of defeat and setback and after it restored to Egypt its dignity and to the Egyptian military institution its pride.

You don't need to be an "expert" to understand this. You don't need secret archives or records to figure it out. Egypt says it explicitly.

(h/t Irene)

Last summer, the French Consulate in Jerusalem held an event to mark the publication of a book.

On the occasion of the recent publication of the book Leila Khaled, an icon of Palestinian liberation, the author Sarah Irving and researcher Diana Butto, we will draw a portrait of this extraordinary woman.

Khaled is of course a notorious PFLP terrorist, involved in two airplane hijackings and hijack attempts. Now, apparently, the French consider her a heroine.

More details at JSSNews (French).

10/09 Links Part 1: Terrorist Shooting Victim Heads Home, Guardianistas Vote Rouhani for Nobel

From Ian:

Psagot Victim Heads Home

Four days after a terrorist shot her in the neck at close range, nine-year-old Noam Glick has returned home.
Her friends from Psagot met her with flowers and balloons.
Noam suffered serious injuries in the shooting, which took place as she played on the balcony of her family’s home in Psagot, north of Jerusalem. However, after an emergency surgery, her condition was upgraded to “good,” and she has made a speedy recovery.

IDF Officials Pay Visit to Nine-Year-Old Terror Victim

The IDF's Head of Central Command, Nitzan Alon, and the head of the Binyamin Brigade, Yosef Pinto, paid a visit to the Glick family of the Binyamin community of Psagot.

JPost Editorial: Omitting the flag

Lustick and other experts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict see Israelis, even those who immigrated to Israel from Muslim countries in the region, as a “European fragment society” no different from the British in India or Kenya, the Belgians in the Congo, the Afrikaners in South Africa.
As long as the Palestinians view Zionists as just another colonialist white settler movement, there is little chance of reaching a two-state solution in which both sides recognize the legitimacy of the other to live here in peace and security.
The omission of the Israeli flag this week in the Mukata is just a symptom of a much deeper problem.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Is Abbas Losing Control Over Fatah?

The latest dispute began when bodyguards escorting Jibril Rajoub, a former security commander, beat Fatah legislator Jamal Abu al-Rub.
The incident took place during a heated debate over the responsibility of Fatah thugs and gunmen for scenes of anarchy and lawlessness in Jenin.
Abu al-Rub, who is a Fatah leader from Jenin, is nicknamed "Hitler" because of his ruthless and violent attacks on Palestinians suspected of "collaboration" with Israel.
After al-Rub was beaten, Fatah gunmen issued a leaflet warning Rajoub against entering Jenin. Now Abbas is busy trying to achieve a sulha [reconciliation] between the two senior Fatah leaders-warlords.

Make Barghouti your deputy, Fatah leaders urge Abbas

The issue of succession — Abbas is 78 years old — was raised at the end of September during a meeting in Ramallah of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and the party’s Central Committee, the two most influential bodies in the hierarchy of Fatah, Abbas’s dominant faction of the PLO.
At the meeting, committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, an adviser to Abbas, took the floor to propose that Abbas appoint a vice president, and recommended Fatah Tanzim leader Barghouti (who was once a political rival of Tirawi’s) as the man for the job. Tirawi argued that Barghouti’s appointment would pave the way for his release from Israeli incarceration.

Abbas’ Idea for Israeli Security: No IDF Arrests of Terrorists

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has vowed that a new Arab state within Israel’s borders will keep Israel secure, demands that the IDF stop entering Arab-controlled cities.
Israeli soldiers do not visit Shechem and Jenin to buy cheap vegetables. They enter to arrest terrorists, while the PA security forces give out parking tickets, try to catch criminals and occasionally search for rival terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The Palestinian Authority almost never arrests terrorists belonging to the ”military branch” of the ruling Fatah party.

Top PLO official dubs Netanyahu ‘number one extremist’

Speaking to Palestinian radio on Monday, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the PLO and one of only two Palestinian officials authorized to comment on negotiations with Israel, predicted that the recently revived talks would collapse due to Netanyahu’s entrenched positions.
“Netanyahu is the number one extremist in Israel. He hides behind [Economics Minister Naftali] Bennett and [former foreign minister Avigdor] Liberman. He is the symbol of extremism and resorts to a policy that seeks no solution,” Abed Rabbo said, adding that the Palestinian leadership refuses to recognize “historic Palestine” as the “homeland of the Jewish people.”

PMW: Fatah: Suicide bombers are “Palestine’s illustrious women”

Two female suicide bombers who together killed 3 and wounded more than 130 are being presented by Fatah as great role models worthy of admiration.
Recently, the administrator of one of Fatah's official Facebook pages posted a picture of terrorist Wafa Idris with the words, "Palestine's illustrious women."
A few days later, the same Fatah page glorified female suicide bomber Zainab Abu Salem as "the 18 year-old heroic female Martyrdom-seeker."

Arch-terrorist Ahmed Yassin is "exalted Palestinian figure" - PA Minister of Religious Affairs

Isolated Hamas faces money crisis in Gaza Strip

Hamas is struggling to meet its payroll in the Gaza Strip, where income from taxes has been badly hit since neighboring Egypt started destroying a network of tunnels used to smuggle food, fuel and weapons into the Islamist-run enclave.
The crisis means that Gaza's thousands of civil servants may not receive their full salaries in time for an important Muslim holiday next week.

Turkish PM Erdogan hosts increasingly isolated Hamas leader Mashaal in Ankara

Increasingly isolated since the loss of a key ally in deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal traveled Tuesday to one of the few world leaders still willing to embrace him: Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
One Israeli official said that Hamas today was experiencing “a period of unprecedented isolation” because of its terrorism and extremism.

Erdan: Hezbollah Has 200,000 New Rockets, and the Same Goal

Israel’s enemies are taking a new approach to warfare, and Israel must be ready, Minister of Home Front Defense Gilad Erdan said Tuesday, speaking at a conference at Bar Ilan University.
“Our enemies have abandoned the idea of conquering territory in the land of Israel. What remains is their desire to defeat Israel by threatening the homefront,” he explained.

US official: Washington plans to halt military aid to Egypt

A US official on Tuesday said the United States was leaning toward withholding most military aid to Egypt except to promote counterterrorism, security in the Sinai Peninsula and other such priorities.
The official said US President Barack Obama had not made a final decision on the issue, which has vexed US officials as they balance a desire to be seen promoting democracy and rights with a desire to keep up some cooperation with Egypt's military.
The White House denied that any change had been made in its policy on aid to Egypt.

Jonathan Kay: Canadian activists are finally learning that Israel isn’t the Middle East’s true villain

Egyptian military authorities have been co-operating with Israel in controlling the flow of weapons and militants to and from Gaza for years. But till now, Western pro-Palestinian activists generally have preferred to play down this fact. The case against Israel works best when it is presented as a simple morality play about indigenous Arabs battling neo-colonialist Jews. And so the fact that many Arab leaders in the region (including not only those in Egypt, but also Lebanon and Jordan) share Israel’s fear of Palestinian militancy is seen as an embarrassment to the conceit of anti-Zionist solidarity.

Canada’s ‘Gay Batman and Robin’ Freed From Egyptian Prison

So Greyson and Loubani ponced off to Egypt to “raise awareness” about something or other, when they were captured in possession of two hobby-sized helicopters fitted with GoPro cameras.
Almost like, you know, spy drones or something.
The pair insisted these devices were actually going to be used for, in their own words, “the testing of the transportation of medical samples.”
Uh huh.
The two were duly tossed into a Cairo prison. They went on a juice fast hunger strike. Gullible liberals back home campaigned for their return.

Netanyahu’s silent Middle East majority

While optimistic western elites bristle at Netanyahu’s rejection of Rouhani’s “smile and conquer diplomacy,” The Middle East’s silent Sunni majority backs Netanyahu’s “distrust, dismantle, and verify” approach towards neighboring Iranian regime’s nuclear program and race for regional supremacy.
Led by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and supported by the region’s many minorities including Kurds, Christians, Druse, Sufis, Baluchees and others, several hundred million Sunnis across the Middle East are quietly banking on Netanyahu’s making good on his declaration before the UN General Assembly that, “Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons,” and “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

Britain working to reopen embassy in Iran

The British embassy in Tehran was closed in late 2011 after a mob overran the building as tensions over a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities ran high. Iran also closed its embassy in London. Relations have remained tense since then, but the recent election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has raised hopes of a thaw between Iran and the West — and of a possible nuclear deal.

Iran rejects US precondition for participating in Syria peace conference

The US State Department said on Monday Washington would be more open to Iran taking part in a "Geneva 2" conference seeking an end to the war if Iran publicly supported a 2012 statement calling for a transitional authority to rule Syria.
But Iran rejected any conditions being placed on it to participate in diplomatic efforts on Syria, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday evening.

Guardian poll - Nobel Prize for Rouhani

Online readers of the Guardian newspaper have voted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as most deserving to be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. In a poll posted Monday, the Islamic Republic leader had by Tuesday night raked in 69 percent of the online voters, more than four times the number of votes raked in by the second most popular nominee, Pakistani political and social activist Malala Yousafza.

Kenya identifies mall attackers, including American

A spokesman for the Kenya Defense Forces has identified four terrorists who took part in the deadly Nairobi mall attack last month.
They are: Khattab al-Kene, an American Somali; Abu Baara al-Sudani, from Sudan; Omar Nabhan, from Kenya; and a man identified only as Umayr.
It was not clear what Khattab al-Kene's name may have been in the United States.

‘Revealing’ outfit gets Turkish TV host fired

AKP party spokesman Huseyin Celik criticized Gözde Kansu’s outfit, saying “We don’t intervene against anyone, but this is too much. It is unacceptable,” the Hurriyet Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Since the Islamist AKP came to power in the general elections in 2002, it has been working to slowly Islamize Turkey. But now that the party is more firmly in power, it has become more aggressive in enforcing its views on the public.

UN can't tell difference between peace activists and Arabs who want Israel destroyed

The UN is holding a "Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East." As you can imagine, the seminar has nothing to do with peace in Egypt, Syria, Iraq or Lebanon.

The panel speaking today at the seminar "Youth activism, digital journalism and social media in the Middle East" reveals quite a bit about what the UN considers to be "peace."

Youth activism continues to be a driving force behind movements for peace, justice and democracy in Israel and Palestine, and across the Middle East. This panel will discuss how the acceleration in digital technologies and social media is affecting youth activism, and how the use of social media by youth activists has helped and/or hindered their causes.
Moderator: Mr. Ahmed Shihab Eldin, Producer and host, Huffington Post Live
Mr. Ahmad Alhendawi, United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth
Ms. Rana Nazzal Hamadeh, Youth activist, Palestine
Ms. Sahar Vardi, Peace activist, Israel
Mr. Gökhan Yücel, Digital diplomacy expert and Lecturer at the Leadership, Politics and Diplomacy School of Bahçeşehir University

The Israeli representative, Sahar Vardi, is a far-left activist who refused to serve in the IDF and who participates in weekly anti-Israel protests. It seems clear that she really wants peace between Jews and Arabs, however misguided her viewpoint.

Contrast this with the Palestinian Arab representative, Rana Nazzal Hamadeh. She has this quote on her Twitter profile:

From you steel & fire, from us flesh, from you another tank, from us stones. So leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds- M Darwish

Does a demand that all Jews be ethnically cleansed from the area sound peaceful to you?

Can you imagine a Jew who says anything close to that ("leave our country, our land...") being invited to speak at any UN-sponsored conference, ever?

The fact is that any Jew who would speak like this would be considered an intolerant far-right bigot and would not be accepted in polite society. A Palestinian Arab who says this is honored as a leader on peace and justice.

There is a serious problem here.

The people who should properly protest this are the liberals. Hamadeh's attitude is the exact opposite of liberalism. But the acceptance and tacit encouragement of Arab violence is so ingrained in the "enlightened" Western world that nobody bats an eyelash.

(I tweeted Vardi asking if she agreed with Hamadeh's quote, but didn't receive a response yet.)

(h/t PMB)

Why Iran's reported offer to stop uranium enrichment at 20% is a joke

YNet reports:

Iran is preparing a package which could revitalize long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear program, but which falls short of a complete shutdown of uranium enrichment, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the Iranian proposals include an offer to stop enriching uranium to levels of 20% purity – a demand which Tehran has rejected in the past.

In return Iran will request that the US and European Union begin scaling back sanctions that have left it largely frozen out of the international financial system and isolated its oil industry.

Would a plan to limit uranium enrichment to 20% be adequate?

No - it would be a joke.

This is not only my opinion or even only Israel's opinion. ISIS, the independent scientific think-tank that has been closely following the Iranian nuclear program for years, explains why enough of a stockpile of 20% enriched uranium is effectively giving Iran the bomb.. Here is what they wrote last March:

We estimate that Iran, on its current trajectory, will by mid-2014 be able to dash to fissile material in one to two weeks unless its production of 20%-enriched uranium is curtailed. If the number or efficiency of Iran’s centrifuges unexpectedly increases, or if Tehran has a secret operational enrichment site, Tehran could reach critical capability before mid-2014. ...

At nuclear talks in Kazakhstan in February, Western negotiators reportedly focused on persuading Iran to curtail its production of 20%-enriched uranium and to export some of its existing stock. These goals are important but insufficient. As Iran increases the quality and quantity of its spinning centrifuges to the point of critical capability, a moratorium on 20%-enriched uranium will matter less and less. It will become easier for Tehran—after using some pretext to renege on a 20% moratorium—to rapidly make up for lost time in accumulating enough 20% enriched uranium that, if further enriched to weapons-grade (or about 90% enriched), would be enough for a bomb. Once Tehran had enough 20% material for a bomb, it could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for that bomb in a week or two.

...Currently, the IAEA inspects two Iranian enrichment facilities on average once a week, and a third facility every two weeks on average. With this rate of inspections, Iran would need to produce 25 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium (enough for one bomb) from its stockpiles of lower enriched uranium in less than one week. The window might be widened to two or three weeks if Tehran blocked one or two inspections on the pretext of an “accident” or a “protest.”

In short, when the amount of time to enrich enough 20% uranium to 25 kg of weapons-grade uranium 90% becomes less than two weeks, under the current inspection regime, then Iran for all intents and purposes can build a bomb whenever they want without fear of being caught.

This is assuming the IAEA is even aware of all Iranian centrifuge facilities. There is evidence that Iran may have started building at least one such secret facility in 2011, and all its other centrifuge facilities were built in secret without informing the IAEA ahead of time. This shrinks the two week window even further.

Even placing IAEA inspectors on site permanently might not be enough, as they could be used as hostages to dissuade any military option to stop enrichment.

In other words, this is the time to keep the pressure on Iran to destroy existing stockpiles of 20% enriched uranium, not to allow it.

But as the WSJ article points out:

By falling short of a complete shutdown of enrichment, the anticipated Iranian offer could divide the U.S. from its closest Middle East allies, particularly Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have cautioned the White House against moving too quickly to improve ties with Tehran, according to American and Mideast officials.

And that is the entire point.

The hypocrisy of the ICRC and the definition of "occupation" (updated - ICRC responds) (x2+)

A couple of years ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross put a bunch of international law scholar in a room and they all discussed "Occupation and Other Forms of Administration of Foreign Territory."

One very interesting part of the resulting publication is that the experts didn't only discuss what factors make a territory legally occupied, but also what factors are necessary to end occupation.

While there was rarely consensus across the board, some parts of the discussions are most enlightening.

As far as the definition of occupation is concerned, there was near unanimity that it has three components:

The experts discussed the cumulative constitutive elements of the notion of effective control over a foreign territory, which underpins the definition of occupation set out in Article 42 of the Hague Regulations of 1907.

The presence of foreign forces: this criterion was considered to be the only way to establish and exert firm control over a foreign territory. It was identified as a prerequisite for the establishment of an occupation, notably because it makes the link between the notion of effective control and the ability to fulfil the obligations incumbent upon the occupying power. It was also agreed that occupation could not be established or maintained solely through the exercise of power from beyond the boundaries of the occupied
territory; a certain number of foreign “boots on the ground” were required.

The exercise of authority over the occupied territory: the experts agreed that, once enemy foreign forces were present, it was their ability to exert authority in the foreign territory that mattered, not the actual and concrete exercise of such authority. Using a test based on the ability to exert authority would prevent any attempt by the occupant to evade its duties under occupation law by deliberately not exercising authority or by installing a puppet government. It was also agreed that occupation law did not require authority to be exercised exclusively by the occupying power. It allows for authority to be shared by the occupant and the occupied government, provided the former continues to bear ultimate
and overall responsibility for the occupied territory.

The non-consensual nature of belligerent occupation: absence of consent from the State whose territory is subject to the foreign forces’ presence was identified as a precondition for the existence of a state of belligerent occupation. For occupation law to be inapplicable, this consent should be genuine, valid and explicit. The experts felt that because occupation law does not provide for any criteria for evaluating it, consent should be interpreted in the light of current public international law. Eventually, the existence
of a presumption of absence of consent when foreign forces intervened in a failed State was approved.

These are pretty much what every serious legal scholar agrees are the criteria for occupation.

What about the end of occupation? At what point is occupation over?

A large majority of the experts expressed the view that the criteria for establishing the end of an occupation should mirror the ones used to determine its beginning. In other words, the criteria should be the same as those for the beginning of occupation but in the reverse order. Therefore, the physical presence of foreign forces, their ability to exert their authority over the territory concerned and the continuing absence of the territorial authorities’ consent to the foreign forces’ presence would be the preconditions that would have to be cumulatively fulfilled in order to conclude that the occupation had not ended. Should one of those criteria be unmet, it would result in the termination of the state of occupation. The concept of ‘classic’ occupation was the basis of the discussions on the criteria for determining the existence of a state of occupation, in particular its termination, for the purposes of IHL.

The reason is pretty clear:

...some of the experts emphasized the point that an occupation could not be said to exist when the foreign forces had withdrawn completely from the territory concerned. According to them, one could not then support the continued application of occupation law and claim that the foreign forces still bore responsibilities under this body of law, because those troops would not be in a position to fulfil the related obligations. This would totally contradict the principle of effectiveness that pervades IHL, occupation law in particular. The absence of foreign troops should not serve only as an indicator for assessing the end of occupation but should be maintained as a prerequisite for determining the end of occupation as well.24 A participant pointed out that one should not build arguments for artificially maintaining the framework of occupation law, especially when this might require the foreign forces to re-invade an area they had left. In other words, it was underscored that occupation law could never oblige foreign forces to re-occupy territory from which they had completely withdrawn.

Being humanitarians, some were uncomfortable with the idea that a foreign army can just choose to leave and leave the territory to fend for itself. They came up with the concept of "residual responsibilities":

One expert added that once foreign troops had left a territory they had been occupying, the occupation law framework vanished and new legal bases should be elaborated for the residual responsibilities that could still be borne by the former occupant.

Indeed, some participants argued that the remaining aspects of occupation (i.e. the competences retained by the former occupying power) would continue to be governed by occupation law even if effective control had been concretely relinquished....

On the other hand:

Two experts nonetheless contested the view that occupation law could provide an adequate legal basis for those residual responsibilities. They drew attention to the fact that occupation law norms were calibrated to take effect only when a certain amount of control had been established over a given foreign territory; this point would be reached only when the criteria identified in the previous working sessions had been met. Therefore, these experts argued, it would not be wise to detach the application of occupation law from the concept of effective control for the purposes of IHL.

The residual responsibilities exercised by the former occupying power should be governed by other bodies of law, such as human rights law or even residual IHL, since occupation law would no longer be applicable. In this regard, one expert warned against the danger of cramming everything into occupation law and underlined the necessity of not stretching this corpus juris beyond its breaking point, as that would ultimately challenge the principle of effectivity on which occupation law was premised. This would particularly be the case if one were to attempt to impose obligations under occupation law on foreign forces that were not in a position to respect them, insofar as this body of law’s positive obligations, to be implemented effectively, usually required the presence of ‘boots on the ground.’

No counter-argument is offered.

Later on, referring to Gaza specifically, the report concludes* (see update 2, it was not a conclusion but part of an appendix:)

...the specific proposition that the rules relating to occupation continued in the situation after September 2005 would appear difficult to sustain granted the traditional rules about occupation with their strong emphasis on the factual basis of a continuing presence on the ground.

In other words, there is near-total consensus view among international legal scholars surveyed in this ICRC document that Gaza cannot possibly be considered occupied by Israel in a legal sense (although the report was careful to state that conclusions like this should not be drawn about specific situations like Gaza, see update 2 below. I am basing this statement on the arguments of occupation given in the document. I would guess that the reason that the ICRC made that disclaimer is specifically for cases like Gaza where they want to make their own legal decisions independent of what international law actually says.)

However, in the ICRC's latest annual report, they write:

[The ICRC] responded rapidly to the needs of people affected by emergencies, including towards year-end in the DRC, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (Gaza Strip) and the Philippines.

Just like the UN, the ICRC knows the definition of occupation does not in any way apply to Gaza - yet they still call Gaza occupied!

In the case of the ICRC, it is worse. Because the ICRC acts like it is the ultimate authority on international humanitarian law, so when it says Gaza is occupied - against the legal reasoning of the experts it consulted* - it has gravitas. There is essentially no sane legal argument that Gaza should still be considered occupied (see here for answers to the most significant arguments not addressed in the ICRC document.)

The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the ICRC is just as political an organization as the UN is, and it will toe the politically correct line of saying Gaza is occupied even when it knows quite well otherwise. As is so often the case, there is one rule for Israel and one for the rest of the world - even among those who pretend to be the most unbiased observers.

(This ICRC hypocrisy was noted in this short but essential paper by Robbie Sabel at JCPA; I just followed his footnotes to verify that the ICRC indeed comes up with one conclusion and then ignores it when it comes to Israel.)

UPDATE: Juan-Pedro Schaerer, ICRC Head of Delegation Israel and the Occupied Territories, responds in the comments:

While this article provides a summary of an important expert's workshop, the author ignores essential facts used by the ICRC when applying of the Law of Occupation to Gaza.

The ICRC closely monitors developments in the Gaza Strip, since facts on the ground are crucial to determining whether the elements of effective control required for occupation continue to be met. While it cannot be said that the Gaza Strip is a "classic" situation of occupation, Israel has not entirely relinquished its effective control over the Strip. This control includes amongst other the almost total control over the borders of the Gaza Strip (except for the border with Egypt), the control over the airspace and the entire coast line, the control over who can move out of the Gaza Strip, the control of the population register, control over all the items that can be imported and exported from the Strip and the control over a no-go zone along the Gaza fence inside the Gaza Strip. These facts and others allow ICRC to determine that Israel exercises effective control and therefore remains bound by the law of occupation in the case of Gaza.

This article ignores such essential facts and concludes in a facile way that the ICRC is hypocritical, biased and politically-motivated. The ICRC has no doubt that much of the hardship caused to the 1.7 million people living in Gaza would be reduced if international humanitarian law was fully understood and respected. ICRC works in a neutral and impartial way to promote a better understanding of international humanitarian law, and to alleviate the suffering caused by those who fail to respect it.

Schaerer Juan Pedro
ICRC Head of Delegation Israel and the Occupied Territories

I responded:

Thanks for your response.

According to the consensus of the report, as well every single other legal analysis I have ever seen (from Amnesty, for example) the notion of effective control means "boots on the ground." The ICRC report allows "indirect effective control" if there is a local militia that answers to the occupant. That's it.

If your argument is that control over airspace, coast and (most) of the borders, etc. constitutes "effective control," then the ICRC is truly pursuing a sui generis definition that applies to Israel, and only Israel. (As the EJIL article I referenced concluded, you can say that the situation is a siege - something that the border with Egypt completely contradicts - but in no way is it an occupation.) Israel couldn't fire a garbageman in Gaza if it wanted, let alone install a new government.

I am not arguing that Israel has no responsibilities under IHL to help the civilians of Gaza. The Israel Supreme Court decision Jaber al-Basyuni Ahmad et al. v. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence makes it clear that it does, under LOAC for example. But if the ICRC is defining Gaza as "occupied," and your response proves that it does (I admit I was hoping that it was a mistake,) then you are proving that the ICRC has a different standard for its definition of occupation only in respect to Israel.

I believe that your response proves my point.

UPDATE 2+ (Things in italics in this update were written Saturday night): Mondoweiss' Phan Nguyen writes a lengthy post criticizing this article. Time constraints do not allow me to fully address all the points right now.

I will admit that the wording I used that the ICRC report "concludes" that occupation relies on "boots on the ground" was incorrect; it was an appendix by Professor Adam Roberts. However, contrary to what the Mondoweiss author writes (saying my interpretation is "perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of EOZ quoting Roberts") Roberts makes crystal clear that he is saying that the idea of Gaza being considered occupied after Israel's withdrawal is problematic. Here's the entire paragraph:

Whatever one’s view of the main substantive part of the Supreme Court’s verdict in this case, the specific proposition that the rules relating to occupation continued in the situation after September 2005 (which was only one plank of the petitioners’ case) would appear difficult to sustain granted the traditional rules about occupation with their strong emphasis on the factual basis of a continuing presence on the ground.

I have no clue how the Ngyuyen can read this the opposite way. Perhaps he is the one with the reading comprehension problem, but readers can make up your own minds.

I don't think I characterized the report as being reflective of the ICRC's official views, as Nguyen says. I read the report as being an attempt to determine the laws of occupation, period. (*There was one line I did characterize the report as "ICRC's own legal reasoning" and that was indeed wrong. I placed an asterisk there before Shabbat intending to admit that in this update, but in the rush I forgot. I was most certainly not trying to erase any evidence; I know enough about the Internet to know about cached copies. Sheesh.) I found it hypocritical that the ICRC in practice behaves opposite what most of the experts it gathered say, that there are three criteria to determine occupation and (most of them) agreeing that the same three criteria determine the end of one.

I plan to go into more detail on the sui generis part of the ICRC's thinking based on the second report that was referenced by Schaerer, by Ferraro, in the comments of this post but not in the post itself. I think that Ferraro, an ICRC legal adviser, was bending over backwards to figure out a way to make Israel appear to be occupying Gaza even though most of his paper would seem to argue the opposite; in addition he brings no sources at all to prove his very novel theory.

It is true that sometimes the boundaries of law must be determined by sui generis cases. But the law must be interpreted dispassionately and not to come to a predetermined conclusion based on how the lawyer feels about the specific case. The arguments about control of borders, airspace, etc. being "effective control" are not merely stretching the boundary a little - they are moving it to places that no objective legal scholar would ever countenance. "Boots on the ground" has been one of the definitions of occupation accepted by all since the 19th century, to throw that away without any solid legal reasoning indicates that the legal arguments are meant to come to a specific conclusion, which is really a travesty of the law.

And this is what the ICRC is doing. More details next week.

My critic doesn't want to get into that argument, of how the law cannot be changed that drastically especially by parties who have an interest in changing it, instead concentrating on minor mistakes I made. In retrospect the term "hypocrisy" was perhaps too harsh but I will return to that in a followup post.

UPDATE 3: Followup post here demolishing Schaerer's comments.

Iran still not blaming Israel for murder of cyber-warfare expert

From Fox News:

When a key Iranian scientist was gunned down last week, many observers figured Israeli spy agency Mossad had struck again. But new signs point to deadly intrigue within the rogue nation’s fractious leadership.

In the days since the body of Mojtaba Ahmadi, who worked on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ secretive cyberwarfare unit, turned up in a wooded area north of Tehran, the mystery behind his death has only deepened. As with five previous hits on top scientists, witnesses reported black-clad gunmen seen speeding away on motorcycles. But this time, the regime did not immediately point the finger at Israel. In fact, it hasn’t pointed the finger anywhere – despite an exiled group’s claim of responsibility.

“In the wake of a horrific incident involving one of the IRGC officials... the matter is being investigated and the main reason of the event and the motive of the attacker has not been specified,” read a statement from Revolutionary Guards to the state-controlled Sepah News.

The IRGC specifically ruled out an assassination, curious in light of witnesses who said Ahmadi was shot twice in the chest at close range in a nation where gun crime is virtually nonexistent. The murky circumstances, uncharacteristically deliberative approach of the IRGC and new President Hassan Rouhani’s recent overtures to the West have prompted speculation.

Since 2007, five Iranian nuclear scientists, as well as the nation’s ballistic missile program director, have been assassinated in attacks the regime routinely blamed on Israel. Typically, Israel has declined to comment on the assassinations, other than to convey off the record to reporters that it was not dismayed by such developments. But Yaakov Peri, former chief of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, and a current cabinet minister, told Israel Radio Ahmadi’s murder has the hallmarks of an “internal dispute.”

“The fact that a cyber commander or this or that scientist was wiped out or killed in this or that assassination does not necessarily mean that Israel’s hand is in the matter,” Peri said.

Other regime watchers have noted that Ahmadi’s team launched a cyber attack at the U.S. Navy that coincided with Rouhani’s trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, a move that some saw as aimed at undermining Rouhani, a self-styled moderate. Ahmadi’s death may have been Rouhani loyalists sending a message to hard-liners within the nation’s complex leadership matrix.

Interesting, isn't it?