Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

10/16 Links Part 1: Second Tunnel Found and Destroyed, Hamas Invites Syrian Pals to Gaza

From Ian:

IDF finds, blows up explosives-laden tunnel from Gaza

The IDF on Tuesday discovered and detonated a Hamas-built tunnel running east from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The tunnel was a recently discovered part of an excavation that was first revealed in November 2012, and contained several barrels of explosives. This is the second terror tunnel to be found in as many weeks.
“Earlier this morning IDF forces detonated a tunnel exposed shortly before Operation Pillar of Defense in order to sabotage yet another terror infrastructure of Hamas,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said in a statement.

How Hamas dug its Gaza ‘terror tunnel,’ and how the IDF found it

All told, some 3,400 cubic meters of soil were excavated from the earth in carving the tunnel, the geologist estimated. A mountain of earth that size, even if carted away daily on trucks, leaves a traceable signature and is one way in which the IDF is able to spot the hallmarks of a tunnel. Other ways, according to an academic tunnel-detection expert, include devices that measure sub-surface sound, the strength and direction of a magnetic field, and the propagation or spread of radio and light waves.
The seismic method is the most intuitive and monitors the tremors created by people moving and digging underground. The downside of this method, the expert said, is that many actions create tremors, and in an agricultural area, where there is ample foot and vehicle traffic, the seismic method can often sound a false alarm.

Officials: Hamas Tunnel Part of Kindergarten Terror Attack Plot

Hamas has used more primitive tunnels in the past to conduct operations on Israeli soil, most notably the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, which was followed by Israel’s 2006 Operation Summer Rains. Security officials estimate that this tunnel – which IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai described as “one of the most advanced terror tunnels to be uncovered in recent years” – was intended to facilitate an attack on the nearby kindergarten."

Cement to Gaza Used for Tunnels Instead of Schools and Houses

On September 26, Electronic Intifada published in its "human rights" section another of its endless depictions of Gazan deprivation caused by Israel's allegedly cruel policy of denying construction materials, mainly cement. The article states:

With the severe shortage of building supplies in Gaza, for example, construction has stopped on 13 government schools and tendering postponed on 26 others, the UN agency OCHA reported.
Rehabilitation of the 76 kindergartens that were damaged during Israel’s November 2012 attacks on Gaza was also likely to be delayed or postponed, and the construction of a new building at Al-Aqsa University has stopped, OCHA added...“There are hundreds of construction projects pending in Gaza,” including many badly needed housing projects...
Now we know the real reason why the cement was so desperately needed.

How much does terrorism cost the Palestinian economy?

To get a sense of how extraordinarily misleading this is, imagine a media report about the injurious effects of economic sanctions on Iran which didn’t even mention that the sanctions were enacted to influence Tehran into complying with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt its nuclear weapons development.
Similarly, Chalabi – as with most Guardian Left narratives about the economic toll of Israeli defensive measures on the Palestinian economy – is conflating cause with effect. It ignores the fact that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was prompted by thousands of rockets targeting Israeli civilians, and that the security fence was constructed in response to waves of deadly suicide bombings in the early 2000s which targeted cafes, markets, bus stops and other public areas where families and children congregate.

Guardian quickly changes its mind, decides Israel is NOT ‘choking Gaza’

The original title was classic Guardian, conveying an anti-Israel message not supported by the subsequent text. Indeed, we were prepared to focus on the extraordinary misleading title (and complain to Guardian editors) when, roughly an hour later, editors revised it on their own, omitting the word “Israel.”
Despite the fact that Egypt’s increased restrictions on Palestinians in Gaza is the focus of the story – in contrast with Israel’s eased restrictions – here is the original title per a cached page (before it was changed at the Guardian’s site).

Hamas tells Palestinians fleeing Syria to come to Gaza

The call, which was made by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, came after the Libyan coast guard opened fire at a boat carrying 374 Palestinian refugees from Syria.
Initial reports had suggested that nearly half of the refugees that had drowned died after the boat sank off Maltese waters.

Defense industry braces for U.S. halt in Egypt aid

The defense industry has remained tight-lipped about how Washington’s suspension of military assistance to Egypt might affect its production lines.
Three main players gave terse answers when asked about the Obama administration’s decision to “hold” deliveries of big-ticket weapons to Cairo in a bid to punish Egypt for last summer’s political crackdown — without breaking off the relationship altogether.

Egyptian FM: Cairo-Washington relations in turmoil

Nabil Fahmy told state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that Egypt had been dependent on US aid for too long but Washington was wrong to assume the Cairo government would always follow its line.
"We are now in a delicate state reflecting the turmoil in the relationship and anyone who says otherwise is not speaking honestly," he said in comments published on Wednesday.

Egypt May Look to Russia To Counter US Aid Reduction

While the Israeli government has refused to directly comment on the US move, Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Ardenne said in an interview with public radio that he was bothered by how such a decision could be interpreted in Egypt and by how it may affect relations with Israel. Former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, “What’s strange in that move is that the Americans are effectively, albeit unintentionally, working against their own interests.”
Reuters news agency quoted an Israeli official as saying, “We are worried that if aid is stopped, the Egyptian people will press their government to abandon the treaty.” Another Israeli official was worried that Egypt may turn toward Russia.

Opinion: Hezbollah, why so silent?

Why hasn’t Hezbollah denied the authenticity of the video—uploaded onto YouTube—allegedly showing Hezbollah fighters executing gravely wounded Syrians in Al-Qusayr?… The video… clearly depicted Hezbollah fighters killing helpless wounded Syrians, as their commander had urged them. Some fighters were reluctant about killing the wounded so their commander told them to execute them as stated by the “religious order.”…
Some were sure that the party would immediately declare that those involved were not Hezbollah fighters and that the circulated images do not represent the party’s ethics…
Hours and days passed by and the party did not comment on the video.
Hezbollah’s video proves once again that the party’s involvement in Syria has trapped it into a tornado-like conflict that is unlike any other war. The party is now part of a machine that oppresses the Syrian people, its members are now classified as war criminals who should be prosecuted. This is now a crystal clear fact for the Arab and international community.

Irwin Cotler: Testing Iran’s Nuclear Charm Offensive

Given the Iranian track record of using negotiations as a delay tactic while uranium continues to be enriched and the centrifuges continue to spin, only Iran’s verifiable abandonment of its nuclear weapons pursuits – based on the above undertakings – should result in the easing of international sanctions. Negotiations must not serve as cover for denial, deception, and delay; rather, they must lead to full Iranian compliance with the regime’s international obligations, an outcome that would greatly advance the cause of international peace and security, and that would greatly benefit the Iranian people themselves.

Iran’s plan: Isolate US in P5+1 talks to gain advantage

The document describes the “short-medium-term operational strategy” for nuclear talks and says that as part of the strategy, Iran will “change the global security environment” by “breaking the coordination of major powers and neutralizing the Zionist-American efforts to build an international consensus against Iran.” The strategy specifically hopes to “neutralize the leverage of America and the Zionist regime with countries and multilateral institutions vis-a-vis Iran.”

Sending message ‘near and far,’ air force conducts massive drill

The Israeli Air Force conducted an unusually large exercise over the northern border and the Mediterranean Sea overnight. Military sources confirmed the exercise Tuesday morning.
“Recently, changes have taken place across the region,” a national security official told the Walla news site. “The IDF is deployed both near and far for these changes, and last night’s exercise was meant to signal the IDF’s serious intentions to deal with these problems and thwart them.”

On the eve of Iran talks, Mideast allies bewildered by US policy

On Sunday, the Saudi-owned newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat published an editorial calling for Iran to be barred from enriching uranium altogether. Numerous WikiLeaks documents dealing with the Gulf States suggest that, with all due respect to the Palestinian question, what truly keeps Arab rulers awake at night is the fear that Iran will acquire a nuclear weapon, and will undermine their rule with terror attacks and orchestrated demonstrations. “Cut off the head of the snake,” as Saudi King Abdullah reportedly put it.
These are not paranoid visions or the brainchild of Netanyahu. These are real concerns of past and present American allies in the region, who gaze with wonder and bewilderment upon Washington’s foreign policy and struggle to understand why the US president rushes to telephone the president of Iran while almost simultaneously announcing that military aid to Egypt will be frozen.

France Covers Obama's Middle East Retreat

In an interview with the Associated Press on Oct. 4, Barack Obama depicted Iran as a country living with sanctions "put in place because Iran had not been following international guidelines, and had behaved in ways that made a lot of people feel they were pursuing a nuclear weapon."
For French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, that was a pastels-and-wispy-brushstrokes rendering of reality. Two days later, in an interview with Europe 1 radio, Mr. Fabius drew a darker, edgier picture. "As we speak," he said, Iran keeps the centrifuges turning that are needed to make enriched uranium for nuclear bombs. But Iran is also pursuing a second, separate track toward atomic weapons with the construction, at Arak, of a heavy-water reactor producing plutonium.

Libya's Grand Mufti Wants to Veil Female Teachers

A new fatwa by Libya’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, saying that all women teachers must veil their faces when instructing males who have reached puberty has prompted the anger of liberal activists, who fear this is the start of widespread educational gender segregation.
Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadik Al-Ghariani made the fatwa following a request from the Ministry of Education for advice on the issue as some schools had started to order women teachers to cover up.

Britain’s stated aim of getting Turkey to join the EU is mad

Of course now, whenever I raise the subject with people from government, I get told, sotto voce, that ‘it’s not going to happen’. Which makes you wonder about the coherence of a foreign policy where the stated and actual aims of government are so very much at odds. The trouble about Britain being so publicly and passionately in favour of Turkey in the EU is that eventually it may get what it wished for. The consequences for immigration, for social cohesiveness, for community relations, here and still more in Germany, really don’t bear thinking about.

NATO Defense Official: Turkey Plan to Purchase Chinese Weapons System Would Implant “Virus” Into NATO Command and Control System

The deal would see Turkey purchase missile defense assets from the China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC), a company that among other things is currently under U.S. sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The systems would require integration with Turkey’s existing NATO assets, which would among other things require the Chinese systems to communicate with – and draw information from – NATO assets. Per an article published this morning by Turkey’s Hurriyet daily, Western defense officials are beside themselves with disbelief:

China's Mideast clout growing amid Turkey missile deal

China's likely sale of sophisticated missiles to Turkey over the objections of its NATO allies might have angered Washington and other capitals, but it should not have been a surprise.
Even as the US has spent billions of dollars and lost hundreds of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, Beijing has been quietly upping its presence in the Middle East.
Militarily, the US - which maintains a permanent aircraft carrier presence near the Gulf as well as dozens of other warships and major bases in Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - is by far the dominant regional power.

"Arab countries have spent nearly a century developing themselves and have so little to show for it"

One in a while, an Arab columnist looks at things clearly. From Rami Khoury of the Lebanon Daily Star:

An article and map in The New York Times’ Sunday edition two weeks ago examined the possibility that current upheavals may cause some Arab states to break up into smaller units. Written by the veteran foreign correspondent Robin Wright, the article created lively discussion among Middle East-focused circles in the United States, and in the Middle East it sparked wild speculation that it evidenced a new plan by Western powers, Israelis and others of evil intent to further partition large Arab countries into many smaller, weaker ones. The title of the article, “How 5 Countries Could Become 14,” naturally fed such speculation, as did the immediate linkage in millions of Arab minds of how British and French colonial officials in 1916-1918 partitioned the former Ottoman lands of the Levant into a series of new countries called Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel, while their colonial handiwork had also created new entities that ultimately became independent countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and others.

[...]
I understand the harsh reactions by Arabs who fear another possible redrawing of our map by foreign hands, but I fear that this is not really the bad news of the day; the really bad news is the state of existing Arab countries, and how most of them have done such a terrible job of managing the societies that they inherited after 1920.

The horror map is not the one published in the NYT two weeks ago; it is the existing map and condition of the Arab countries that have spent nearly a century developing themselves and have so little to show for it.

Not a single credible Arab democracy. Not a single Arab land where the consent of the governed actually matters. Not a single Arab society where individual men and women are allowed to use all their God-given human faculties of creativity, ingenuity, individuality, debate, free expression, autonomous analysis and full productivity. Not a single Arab society that can claim to have achieved a reasonably sustainable level of social and economic development, let alone anything approaching equitable development or social justice. Not a single Arab country that has protected and preserved its natural resources, especially arable land and renewable fresh water resources. Not a single Arab country that has allowed its massive, ruling military-security-intelligence sectors to come under any sort of civilian oversight. Not a single Arab country that has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign arms and other imports and found itself able to ensure the security of its own land and people. And not a single Arab country that has developed an education system that harnesses and honors the immense wealth and power of millions of its own young Arab minds, rather than corralling those minds into intellectual sheep pens where the mind’s free choice is inoperative, and life only comprises following orders.

This perverse reality of Arab statehood and independence – not any possible future map – is the ugly reality that should anger us, even shame us. We have endured this for over four generations now, unsurprisingly bringing us to the point today where every single Arab country, without exception, experiences open revolt of its citizens for freedom, dignity and democracy of some sort, demands for real constitutional reforms, or expressions of grievances via social media by citizens in some wealthy oil-producing states who are afraid to speak out because they will go to jail for tweeting their most human sentiments or aspirations.

There is not much to be proud of in the modern era of Arab statehood, and much to fix and rebuild along more rational, humane lines. I don’t much care about lines on a map. I do care about the trajectories of our own national management experiences, which have been mostly disappointing, and in some cases profoundly derelict.

When Westerners say things like this out loud - all of which are obvious to everyone - they are accused of Islamophobia or racism.

There is one nation in the Middle East would be more than happy to work with every Arab country to improve their economies, their educational systems, and their environmental issues. But the same mindset that keeps Arabs from reaching their potential within their countries is the one that stops Arabs from being interested in real peace with the country that has the desire and means to help them improve and grow.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

A website called Stop910.com, which claims to be "an association of western intelligence organizations established to fight the threat of terror" and specifically gathers information about Hizballah, claims to have new information about one of Hizballah's founders Moustafa Amin Bader El-Din.

The site is registered in Belgium and its servers are in Slovakia. The idea that it is run by western intelligence organizations seems far-fetched. It asks the public to (securely) submit information about Hizballah operatives. While it seems a little sketchy, the information it claims it found about Bader El-Din is making some waves in Israeli and Arab websites.

Moustafa Amin Bader El-Din, born in 1961, heads Hezbollah's security apparatus. Bader El-Din, who now lives in Haret Hreik, Beirut, was one of the founding fathers of Hezbollah, and has filled a series of military and security positions in the organization. He was appointed to his current position following the death of his brother-in-law, Imad Mughniya, in February 2008.

Bader El-Din is a dominant figure in Hezbollah. He is one of Secretary General Nasrallah's closest associates, has close connections with the leadership of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and is heavily involved in Hezbollah's decision-making process across the board, but especially when it comes to its terror policy at home and abroad. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigating the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri in 2005 named Bader El-Din as the senior defendant in the assassination, concluding that he had commanded the operational forces.

Bader El-Din is responsible for Hezbollah's ESO – Unit 910. The unit mounted the attack on the bus of tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July 2012, which claimed six lives. This attack followed a series of attempts the unit made under Bader El-Din's leadership to attack various targets all over the world over the past few years. Bader El-Din's career in Hezbollah began in the early 1980s, and he has since participated in many horrific attacks against various targets throughout the world. In 1983, for example, he played a part in the attacks on U.S. and French forces operating in Beirut, which claimed the lives of hundreds of victims.

Bader El-Din was also involved in establishing a terror cell that operated in Kuwait, for which he was arrested and sentenced to death. Following his arrest, Hezbollah's ESO began mounting attacks in Kuwait and abroad, in the hope of achieving his release. These included hijacks of Kuwaiti and Western airplanes, and abductions of Western citizens in Beirut. Bader El-Din escaped from prison during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and returned to Lebanon. He is considered to be lacking in interpersonal skills, and his acrimonious relationships with his subordinates and ties with his colleagues in the Hezbollah leadership are fraught with suspicion. The death of Mughniya in 2008 raised Bader El- Din's status in Hezbollah, and to some extent fueled the hostility that had developed between Bader El-Din and his colleagues in Hezbollah over the years.

Bader El-Din's behavior is highly secretive. He is guarded heavily around the clock, and goes to great lengths to avoid being photographed. Until now, the most up-to-date photograph published of Bader El-Din dates back to the 1990s.

Besides his position in Hezbollah, Bader El-Din also does a great deal of business in Lebanon and abroad, and is considered an affluent property owner.

This description is mostly the same as can be found in Wikipedia, with a few more details, but the photos do seem to be new.

Hamas accuses Egypt of firing at Gazans over the border

The Hamas newspaper Palestine Times reports:

The Egyptian army at dawn on Wednesday opened fire on the Palestinian side, directly near the border in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. According to security sources speaking to Palestine Times, the Egyptian army fired directly on a number of citizens without injury.

The Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today, which normally has the most unbiased coverage of the Gaza Strip, has nothing on this story.

Hamas has been waging a rhetorical campaign against the Egyptian army, and according to the army, a military campaign as well, which Hamas strenuously denies.

It is nearly impossible to find out the truth of what is really going on, except that the Egyptian military government really, really hates Hamas, and the feeling is mutual.

Dozens of Gazans injured as they torture, slaughter cattle for Eid (video)

Palestine Today reports that 125 Gazans were injured, one seriously, as people tried to slaughter cows and bulls in the streets of Gaza for the Eid al Adha holiday.

Videos show that the people are torturing and taunting the animals in the streets, and the beasts are responding the only way they can.

Watching these videos, you can't help but to root for the animals. (The four-legged animals, that is.)

Meanwhile, so many people slaughtered cattle in the already overcrowded streets of Gaza that people were complaining that it is a health issue, as the slaughterers were leaving blood and bones and animal skins on the street. The carcasses were attracting dogs and mosquitoes.

The Hamas government did nothing to regulate or control this mass slaughter. While Gaza has five official slaughterhouses where people could go for a nominal fee, the waiting list was hours long so many Gazans decided they would prefer to slaughter animals on the street.

Israel allowed over 2000 calves to be shipped into Gaza over the past two weeks.

50 years ago, before "occupation," Israel engaged in "X-washing"

We have ridiculed the concept, that has gained currency in recent years, that every humanitarian thing Israel does is really meant to hide its many crimes of "occupation."

I guess when Israel helped out other nations before 1967, they were engaging in pre-emptive "X-washing".

October 9, 1963 - Germwashing:

An El Al Boeing airliner left Israel today bearing a shipment of antibiotics as an Israeli contribution to the victims of Hurricane Flora in the Caribbean area.

October 15 - Agri-washing:

Two new farming villages will be set up in the Central African Republic with Israel aid in line with a decision arrived at in talks between Agriculture Minister Moshe Dayan and President David Dacko at Bangui, Ministry officials reported today.

Israeli officials now touring the Central African Republic were told that at one of the cooperative villages established with Israel aid, crop output increased by 700 per cent over the local average.

October 25 - Irrigation-washing:

MEXICO CITY - Thirty-three Mexicans, including six irrigation experts and 27 young farmers, left for Israel today to begin special training courses.

The experts were chosen by the Ministry of Agriculture for training in Israel that would aid them in improving the Ministry’s agricultural projects in this country. The 27 farmers, going to Israel under the Israeli Government’s auspices, with the joint sponsorship of the Organization of American States, will spend three months studying agronomy in Israel.

In 1963, Israel hardly had the powerhouse economy it enjoys today. But even when it was a mere 15 years old, Israel would go out of its way to help other countries in need.

10/15 Links Pt2: The Truth About Palestinian Rock Throwing, Interview with Khaled Abu Toameh

From Ian:

New website exposes The Truth About Palestinian Rock Throwing

These actions often are deliberate provocations set up by media and activists who side with the Palestinians, in which a phalanx of photographers and videographers waits to catch an Israeli soldier responding to a provocation. The use of children as provocateurs is a common tactic — nothing plays better in the media than the image of an Israeli soldier confronting a child.
But those children often are engaged in violent behavior, particularly rock throwing. A “rock” can shatter a skull, or in where thrown at a moving vehicle, can cause a serious accident.
To the media, rock throwing is no big deal. Because the media has not been on the receiving end.
The Truth About Palestinian Rock Throwing

Interview: Khaled Abu Toameh

Q. What happened to the moderate Palestinian center?
A. Palestinians have been so radicalized that you will find very few Palestinians who will openly talk about making any significant compromise with Israel. No P.A. leader would dare to sign any agreement with Israel for fear of being condemned as a traitor. Israel has been delegitimized in the eyes of most Palestinians and this is the result of decades of indoctrination and incitement against Israel. This is true throughout the entire Arab world.
Ironically, this incitement intensified after the peace process began. The Palestine Liberation Organization leadership used the media, the mosques and every available podium to delegitimize and discredit Israel in the eyes of the Palestinians. By doing so, the P.L.O. has actually shot itself in the foot. P.A. leaders know that they have radicalized their people to the point where there are people who don’t want to hear about peace with Israel at all. I believe this is why [Mahmoud] Abbas will not sign any agreement with Israel. He simply doesn’t want to go down in history as a traitor. (h/t IsraellyCool)

Will Israel’s Left Destroy Israel?

From one angle, Israel has emerged out of the shadows of the left. Under conservative governments, it has modernized and innovated. The Israel of the startup probably would not exist if the kibbutz was still a viable proposition. From another angle, Israel is a conservative country in the grip of an unelected left.
The peace process, a desperate attempt by the Labor Party to become relevant again, is headed into its third decade. The casualties of the endless Peace War and the expansion of the enemy’s capabilities to the point that Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have been shelled are all terrible, but they are not the real threat.

Allen on Israel critics who just dislike Jews

Asked whether it’s harder these days to be a Jew in the US, Allen responded with an immediate, “No, I don’t think so.” He added wryly that “by the low standards of tolerance for Jews all over the world, America’s been a very tolerant country.”
He went on to say, however, that “I do feel there are many people that disguise their negative feelings toward Jews, disguise it as anti-Israel criticism, political criticism, when in fact what they really mean is that they don’t like Jews.” (h/t Predictor92)

Brother of Crown Heights Riot Victim Blasts Sharpton, Obama: 'I'm Waiting for My Invitation to the White House'

On Monday, Breitbart News spoke with Norman Rosenbaum, brother of Yankel Rosenbaum, the Orthodox Jewish victim of a violent mob at the 1991 Crown Heights, who was killed within days of Al Sharpton stating, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” After Rosenbaum’s death, Sharpton led a march through Crown Heights, at which protesters changed “No Justice, No Peace,” and later said in a speech with regard to a 7-year-old black child killed in an accident, “All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise, no meetings, no coffee klatch, no skinnin' and grinnin'."

Kerry Praises “Multi-Faith Model” of Muslim Country that Banned Bibles

It’s good to know that Secretary of State John Kerry’s ideal multi-faith model is a country that seized 20,000 Christian bibles, banned Ahmadis from praying and destroys a Hindu temple every 3 weeks.
Let’s hope his boss doesn’t intend to introduce this multi-faith model in the United States.

Former navy chief on Heathrow delay: I was not interrogated

A former Israeli Navy commander was briefly delayed by authorities and questioned at London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday.
Rear-Admiral (ret.) Eliezer “Chiney” Marom was taken aside by British authorities after landing in London, following which he called the Israeli Justice Ministry. Marom was then released in short order.
“It was very short and not a big deal,” Maron told Channel 2 TV.
“It was little more than five minutes. I wasn’t in a side room or anything. I was in the main immigration hall. They asked me a few questions, and checked my passport.”

Argentina, Italy Refuse to Bury Nazi War Criminal

Efraim Zuroff, who heads The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, told La Stampa that Priebke should be returned to the place of his birth, Germany, which has the “best laws” to avoid the funeral becoming a neo-Nazi rally. “The best thing would be to send the body back to Germany for it to be incinerated,” Zuroff said.
“That would be the most efficient way to leave no trace of a Nazi criminal like Priebke,” he said. “Hitler’s body was also burnt and that was the best solution because it allowed the destruction of everything Nazism represented,” he said.

Terror Arrests in Britain Prevented 'Kenya-Like' Attack

Metropolitan Police did not identify the suspects or say what, if any, charges, they may face. The men were all British nationals between the ages of 25 and 29, with roots in Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and Azerbaijan.

A day as a Jew in Malmö

Problems certainly endure. A school teacher told me some parents pulled their children out of her school once they discovered she was Jewish and she quit working in Malmö as a result.
Meanwhile, the sole Jewish kindergarten is protected with bullet-proof doors after the bomb attack last year. When the children go out on field trips wearing their high visibility vests the name of the Jewish preschool isn't written on the vests for fear of potential attacks.

The top 12 most amazing Israeli medical advances

Israeli ingenuity is responsible for some of the world’s most amazing medical advances.
Whether they’re futuristic, such as Given Imaging’s PillCam capsule endoscopy or Itamar Medical’s fingertip monitors for sleep disorders and cardiac issues — or cleverly simple, such as First Care Products’ Emergency Bandage – blue-and-white inventions are changing the face of healthcare in hospitals, doctors’ offices, homes and even battlefields worldwide.
“It’s almost a cliché to say Israel is an excellent place for medical innovation,” says Eran Perry, managing director at Israel Health Care Ventures (IHCV), one of the largest venture capital funds in the country.

Sealantis ‘glue’ seals the deal for surgeons

Time isn’t just money in the operating room –– it can also mean the difference between lost or saved blood, and in some cases life or death.
Even with less complicated laparoscopic surgery, there is still the issue of how to seal interior incisions well so that more invasive open surgery can be avoided.
Seal-V, an Israeli adhesive positioned as a vascular “glue,” is coming to the rescue. This novel sealant, inspired by algae and developed by the company Sealantis, could be a game-changing tool for any kind of surgery, says Dr. Zeev Loberman, who heads the vascular surgery department in Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa.

‘Rising Star’ in a Scandinavian sky

“Rising Star” will be produced in Scandinavia for Nordisk Film TV, which covers Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Tuesday’s deal marks the fourth international sale for the crooning competition, which was snapped up by companies in France, Russia and Germany last week at MIPCOM, the annual entertainment and TV market held in Cannes.

Israel Corp's Qoros sedan wins Euro NCAP safety standard

Qoros Auto Company Ltd., the joint venture of Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) and China's Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. has become the first Chinese carmaker to win a five-star score from Euro NCAP for its Qoros Sedan 3. The car exceeded the minimum levels required for the safety of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.

IDF soldiers perform national anthem in sign language

Like all soldiers who finish their basic training, the 150 graduates of the Ofek special training course for volunteer soldiers performed Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva” — but this time with a twist.
They did it in sign language.
Yahala Lachmish, the reservist soldier called up to sign for the ceremony, told The Times of Israel that the idea came from the soldiers themselves, only a small minority of whom are deaf.

Jewish Hero of Sobibor Death Camp Revolt to be Honored

Russia was set to mark Monday the 70th anniversary of a revolt at the Sobibor death camp led by a Red Army officer, the biggest and most successful prisoner escape under the Nazi regime.
Ahead of the anniversary, President Vladimir Putin ordered the defense ministry to come up with a plan to "immortalise the memory of heroes who raised a revolt" at the extermination camp in occupied Poland on October 14, 1943.

94 Maidens author, Rhonda Fink-Whitman interviews Pennsylvania public school graduates currently enrolled at four different PA universities to see what they know about the Holocaust, WWII, and Genocide in general. A real eye opener!

Repubblica reports on a remarkable find made last month by a Gaza fisherman named Mounir. Caught in his fishing net was a life-size, gold colored statue of Apollo, that had been buried in the sand for some 2500 years.

His first concern was whether it was made out of pure gold that he could sell. Since one cannot secretly carry around a huge statue in Gaza, Mounir did the next best thing: he cut off the statue's finger, to be able to show it to experts to see what it was made out of.

Unfortunately for Mounir, it was bronze.

This is Gaza, however, and Hamas security is everywhere. Within hours of his showing the severed finger to dealers, he was arrested and the statue was seized.

But now Hamas has a dilemma.

Islam forbids making a human form in a statue. Worse yet, Apollo is not wearing clothing.

The article implies that Hamas has sold antiquities to the black market in the past. This statue would be worth a fortune, and Hamas is in bad financial shape now. The statue could make a dent in Hamas' budget.

According to the article, Hamas is now negotiating with black market dealers, and the statue could fetch as much as $20-40 million.

Even without the finger.

(h/t DM)

UPDATE: See here.

Muslims, Israeli police upset over Israeli flag on Temple Mount

From Ma'an:

A group of Israeli right-wingers raised the Israeli flag while touring the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Monday, locals said.

Witnesses said that a group of 14 Israeli rightists pulled out an Israeli flag while touring the religious site and began dancing and singing.

The men were removed from the area by Israeli police and arrested.

Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, the director of Islamic endowment, said that he asked Israeli police to close the compound to visitors following the incident, and not to allow Israeli extremists to enter the area.

This story is true. Here's the video of Jews briefly praying and one of them unfurling a flag Monday:

Scandalous! How can such a holy place be used for political purposes?

How dare anyone wave flags on this sacred spot?

And, especially, how can anyone even consider displaying the hated Star of David in the Muslim's third holiest place?

(All photos from a pro-Morsi rally organized by Hamas on August 16 on the Temple Mount.)

(h/t Jewish Press)

10/15 Links Pt1: Terror Tunnels Undermine NGO Gaza Campaigns, PA TV Praises Female Terrorist

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Terror Tunnels Undermine NGO Gaza Campaigns

Since the discovery of these tunnels, however, no NGOs issued condemnations of Hamas or called for them to stop their attacks on Israeli civilians. Instead, they resumed the false claims of collective punishment. Gisha, for instance, alleged that Israel’s “decision to stop the transfer of construction materials was a response to the discovery of a tunnel…raises the specter of a punitive act.” HRW’s Ken Roth re-tweeted a tweet by Juan Cole, “Israelis again impose Collective punishment on Palestinians of Gaza.”
The NGOs responses continue to demonstrate their immoral advocacy. Instead of focusing on Israel, these NGOs should denounce Palestinian terrorism and the diversion of supplies for vital civilian projects to terrorist objectives.

IDF conducts controlled explosion of Hamas tunnel from Gaza to Israel

The tunnel was found by the IDF before Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, and does not represent a new finding, a senior army source stressed.
"The tunnel was blown up to destroy an additional Hamas terrorist infrastructure," the IDF said in a statement. "The IDF will continue to operate as is necessary to protect the residents of Israel," it added.

BBC not sure cross-border tunnel intended for terror?

On countless occasions BBC audiences have repeatedly read or heard permutations of the following message, with the implication being that Israeli concerns regarding the misuse of construction materials entering Gaza are in fact much ado about nothing.

Palestinians pay dearly for Hamas ‘resistance tunnels’

Further, per the post by Akus, you can conclude from the enormous resources (in time, money and manpower) that went into the Gaza terror tunnels that the rosy scenarios for peace and prosperity in another independent Palestinian polity are, at best, quite questionable.
When pro-Israel commentators criticize the Palestinian culture of incitement and terror, they aren’t engaging in ‘Zionist talking points’ but, rather, are expressing sincere concerns that the greatest peace treaty ever written can’t engender a Palestinian culture of peace, education and self-sufficiency. Though most Israelis support in principle ‘two states for two peoples’, Israelis accurately extrapolate from the consequences of recent territorial concessions that withdrawing from land alone won’t necessarily bring peace if Palestinian leaders don’t cease in inculcating their citizenry with the values of belligerence, hate and violence.

PM: No accord without Palestinians recognizing Jewish Israel

In a bitter passage of a lengthy address at the opening of the 19th Knesset’s winter session, Netanyahu said Israel did not need that recognition from the Palestinians. Rather, he said, the Palestinians had to come to terms with Israel’s Jewish legitimacy and abandon their “nationalistic demands” on Israel.
Specifically, he said, the Palestinians would have to “abandon the demand for what is called ‘the right of return’” for millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel, otherwise there could be no “end of conflict” accord. Without this shift, and without the abandoning of “other nationalistic demands on the land and sovereignty of Israel,” he said, there simply could be no genuine peace.

The Hatred that the New York Times Dares Not Report

The New York Times on Sunday featured an article, Behind Flurry of Killing, Potency of Hate, which focuses on how dehumanizing an enemy makes it easier to kill. The article focuses on a convicted, jailed and released IRA terrorist and how he could be conditioned to kill.
The article also mentions how Nazis could be brought to slaughter Jews (and describes the murderers in oddly sympathetic terms!). But it left out the most systematic delegitimization campaign going on now: the one by Palestinians that targets Israel.

Guardian misleads in tale of ‘heroic’ Palestinian sperm smuggling

It not only took Sherwood eight paragraphs before briefly noting (in roughly ten words out of an 875 word story) that Tamer al-Za’anin is a convicted terrorist, but she characteristically downplayed his terrorist record.
According to Israeli court records (Hebrew), al-Za’anin not only belonged to a terror organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but volunteered for their military wing (Al-Quds Brigades), a group which has carried out numerous attacks against Israelis, including deadly suicide bombings. Further, court records show that he was imprisoned after pleading guilty to four counts of being an accessory to attempted murder, a plea bargain in which he admitted his active participation within terror cells that on one occasion laid an explosive (IED) and fired two missiles at an IDF vehicle, and on three other occasions fired rockets at civilians in Sderot.

PA TV: Murderer of two is “the great female fighter, who shines”

Official Palestinian Authority TV interviewed and honored a female terrorist who killed two Israelis, calling her "the great female fighter, who shines" and "a giant of the struggle."
The terrorist, Aisha Odeh, murdered two Israelis in 1969, by placing two bombs in a supermarket in Jerusalem. She was sentenced to two life sentences but was released in a prisoner exchange in 1979.

Song misrepresents Israel as "Palestine" - PA show about Palestinians in Denmark

No new findings over Arafat's death: official

Tawfi Al-Tirawi, head of a Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, told Xinhua that the journal "brought nothing new," noting it based its study on a 2012 investigative report by the pan-Arab news network Al-Jazeera.
"There are no leaks from the results and we are still waiting for the official test findings," said Al-Tirawi, adding there is no official time set for receiving the results.

Netanyahu makes a case for a preemptive strike

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a thinly veiled defense of a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran during a Knesset commemoration Tuesday of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.
In a speech to MKs about the war, in which Israel was surprised by a coordinated Arab invasion on the northern and southern fronts, Netanyahu explained that IDF soldiers who fought in the bitter battles of that war “saved us from paying the price of complacency.”
“In the end we won a great victory, but the lessons of the war have stayed with us these 40 years,” Netanyahu said.

Israeli PM Netanyahu Says Relaxing Pressure on Iran Now Would be ‘Historic Mistake’

“There can be no giving in at this time and the pressure must be continued. It must be remembered that it is international pressure which has led to internal change in Iran, which has led the Iranians to any concessions at all and to the negotiating table, and which can bring them to make tangible concessions on their military nuclear program,” Netanyahu said. “I will tell you something that goes against the accepted view – easing the pressure will not strengthen moderate trends in Iran. On the contrary, it will strengthen the uncompromising views of the real ruler of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei, and will be seen as a significant victory by him.”

Report: US mulls letting Iran keep uranium enrichment facilities in nuclear deal

The Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US official as saying that Washington was willing to talk to Iran "about what President Obama said in his address at the UN General Assembly, and that is that he respects the rights of the Iranian people to access a peaceful nuclear program." The official stated that what this entails is exactly the matter that is up for discussion.
Israel's security cabinet released a statement prior to the start of talks on Tuesday, saying that Jerusalem "does not oppose Iran having a peaceful nuclear energy program. But as has been demonstrated in many countries, from Canada to Indonesia, peaceful programs do not require uranium enrichment or plutonium production. Iran's nuclear weapons program does."

UN Watch: UN hide carving of naked man ahead of Iran nuclear talks, “kowtowing to fundamentalist regime”

“This is a very dangerous and slippery slope,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based watchdog group. Today the UN is covering up the artistic heritage of its most famous building, Geneva’s historic Palais des Nations, to appease the intolerance of a fundamentalist regime that subjugates women, executes gays, and persecutes Bahais; what will the UN hide tomorrow?”,

Assad: Nobel Peace Prize ‘should have been mine’

The Syrian president had local reporters in stitches on Monday, after one asked a question about the recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). “The prize should have been mine,” Assad “quipped,” according to the Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper.
The ironic wisecrack shows Assad is careful to maintain a sense of perspective, and not take the deaths of at least 115,000 fellow Syrians too seriously. Other knee-slappers by the president include his claim that “we don’t kill our own people.”

Assad: Hamas Has Betrayed Us Repeatedly, But…

Estrangement between Hamas and the Syrian regime ensued. Assad holds that Hamas ultimately decided to abandon resistance and to fully merge with the Muslim Brotherhood. He adds, “This was not the first time they had betrayed us. It happened before in 2007 and 2009. Their history is one of treachery and betrayal.” Assad then wished “someone would persuade them to return to being a resistance movement,” but says that he doubts this will happen. “Hamas has sided against Syria from day one. They have made their choice,” he adds.

Islamist militants destroy Sufi shrine in eastern Syria: activists

A Sufi Muslim shrine was blown up in eastern Syria on Sunday, opposition activists said, blaming al Qaeda-affiliated militants who have joined in the increasingly sectarian civil war.
Militants placed explosives at the shrine of Sheikh Eissa Abdelqader al-Rifaiy in the rebel-held town of Busaira, 45 km (30 miles) east of the provincial capital of Deir al-Zor, and detonated them on Sunday morning, they said.

Bomb found in Lebanon's Hezbollah stronghold on eve of Muslim holiday

Lebanese security forces defused a car bomb on Monday in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the Shi'ite Muslim militia group Hezbollah.
The discovery of a bomb happened on the first night of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha and two months after a car bomb killed 20 people in the area, and looked like the latest sign of growing sectarian tensions in Lebanon exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria.

Amnesty International: Egyptian Christians Not Protected by Authorities

“It is deeply disturbing that the Christian community across Egypt was singled out for revenge attacks over the events in Cairo by some supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa said in a statement.
The report details how Egyptian security forces failed to prevent angry mobs from attacking Christian churches, schools, homes and charities in the days following the August 14 raid. At least four Christians were also killed in the sectarian violence.

Egypt Closes Rafah Crossing for Muslim Festival

Egypt has announced that its border crossing with the Gaza Strip will be closed for the week because of the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha, but gave no specific reason for the measure, state news agency MENA reported.

Egypt’s Al Ahram Group Displays Hate Literature at Frankfurt Book Fair

Egypt’s Al Ahram Publishing Center was the highest profile purveyor of hate literature at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest, which has been inspected annually by Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
In a statement, SWC said its dubious “Worst Offender 2013” prize was awarded to Egypt, led by Al Ahram (Hall 5.0 D132), which also publishes the widely-read Egyptian daily, and The Arab Publishers Association (Hall 50 E109.)

How Palestinian Hate Prevents Peace (Yuval Steinitz), plus commentary

About once a month, the New York Times "balances" its usual 9 or 10 anti-Israel op-eds with one that is pro-Israel. Here's this month's token piece:

On Sept. 26, the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, told the United Nations General Assembly that the Palestinians “keep reaching out to the Israelis saying: let us work to make the culture of peace reign.” Honorable sentiments, to be sure, but sadly not free of hypocrisy.

Just after returning from his U.N. speech, Mr. Abbas cleared time to host the celebrated Egyptian poet Hisham al-Gakh, author of a famous hit proclaiming that “our enemy is the fork-tailed Zionist devil.” That evening, Mr. al-Gakh had an opportunity to recite his “lovely” song upon receiving an award from the Palestinian minister of culture.

And in July, the program “Palestine This Morning” featured two sisters reciting a poem referring to “sons of Zion” and “barbaric monkeys” and “wretched pigs.”

These are but a few of the thousands of examples of Palestinian incitement against the Jewish state and the Jewish people. There are even numerous instances of the glorification of Hitler on the Facebook pages of some government-supported Palestinian schools and in children’s publications funded by the Palestinian Authority. Such messages, propagated daily in P.A. media and classrooms, are internalized by the population at large — and children in particular.

Two decades ago, I was a chartered member of Israel’s Peace Now movement and an unabashed supporter of the peace process. Since then, I — and many Israelis like me — have become deeply skeptical about Palestinians’ real intentions. And it’s not only because of the terrorist attacks which have emanated from areas handed over to Palestinian control, but also because of the repeated Palestinian calls for Israel’s destruction. Jewish history has taught us the hard way never to underestimate the power of hatred.

The Palestinian Authority’s television and radio stations, public schools, summer camps, children’s magazines and Web sites are being used to drive home four core messages. First, that the existence of a Jewish state (regardless of its borders) is illegitimate because there is no Jewish people and no Jewish history in this piece of land. Second, that Jews and Zionists are horrible creatures that corrupt those in their vicinity. Third, that Palestinians must continue to struggle until the inevitable replacement of Israel by an Arab-Palestinian state. And fourth, that all forms of resistance are honorable and valid, even if some forms of violence are not always expedient.

Instead of being schooled in the “culture of peace,” the next generation of Palestinians is being relentlessly fed a rhetorical diet that includes the idolization of terrorists, the demonization of Jews and the conviction that sooner or later Israel should cease to exist.

Even after Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement of the resumption of peace talks, incitement remains prevalent. For example, P.A. television coverage of a “peace visit” to the West Bank’s Hebron district by the famed FC Barcelona soccer team took the trouble to remind viewers that Palestine extends “from Eilat to Rosh Hanikra” — that is, not just the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the entire land of Israel. This remark was followed by a song performed by Muhammad Assaf, the winner of the popular TV show “Arab Idol.” The lyrics envisioned the “liberation” of Israeli cities such as Haifa, Tiberias and Safed.

The fact that this anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic indoctrination persists, despite the much-touted relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, constitutes a huge obstacle on the road to peace. It should have disappeared 20 years ago, as a result of a clear Palestinian commitment to end all forms of incitement included in the Oslo Accords. And until it ends, the current round of talks cannot hope to reach a successful outcome.

Progress toward a peace agreement requires that both Palestinians and Israelis foster an environment conducive to productive dialogue. Israel’s anguished decision on July 28 to release over 100 convicted terrorists, as well as to help the Palestinian economy, were a courageous attempt to build trust and improve the atmosphere surrounding the negotiations, and I supported it.

Palestinian leaders must now reciprocate by immediately and fully halting their encouragement and sponsorship of hatred.

If they do not, attempts at renewed diplomacy are doomed to fail, Israelis will become more skeptical about the peace process, and we in the Israeli government will have greater difficulty taking the additional confidence-building steps that we have been considering. Indeed, with each passing day, my colleagues and I will find it more and more problematic to authorize any further release of prisoners.

If Israelis are ever to believe that peace with Palestinians has a chance, the first step Mr. Abbas must take is to swiftly terminate the campaign to delegitimize the Jewish people and its state.

The usual response by the Israel-haters to facts like these is that there is anti-Arab incitement in Israeli media as well, and they can find some cherry-picked examples to make it look like both sides are equally guilty.

However, they - as well as Steinitz, media watchdogs like Palestinian Media Watch and others - are ignoring a key part of the core problem.

It isn't only that there is daily incitement in the PA media. It is that there is an utter absence of contrary views, not only in PalArab media but in Arabic language media altogether.

It is more difficult to report on something's absence than its presence, but from years of searching through Arabic media, the number of articles that contradict the idea that Jews are devils, or that peace with Israel is desirable, or that Jews have a historic connection to the land, are virtually nonexistent.

Sometimes there will be an article that acknowledges Jews' scientific accomplishments, usually to contrast with Arab backwardness. Sometimes there might be a nostalgic article about the vanished Jewish community of Egypt, for example. But never have I seen an Arabic article that supports full peace with Israel that includes normalization. Never have I seen an article calling on the PA to make compromises for the sake of peace. Never have I seen an article that says that Talmud is anything but a Jewish supremacist tract. Never have I seen an article that admits that Jews have emotional and historic ties to Jerusalem or to Israel altogether. Never have I seen an article that condemns the PA's making terrorists into heroes. Never (except for very rarely in Lebanon) have I seen any Arabic paper call for the naturalization of Palestinians that were born in their countries. In fact, rarely have I even seen a user comment published that would say any of these things.

The Arab world's media has lots of opinions on different topics. They are not all government sponsored any more. But whether the newspaper is pro-Islamist or pro-secular, the idea of real peace with Israel or Jewish history in the Middle East is simply not to be found. It is a classic example of Orwell's groupthink - not only is the idea of true peace impossible to find, it is unthinkable.

Incitement is very bad, and often leads to violence. But the absence of a contrary viewpoint is even worse.

There is nothing to blunt the hate. There is no marketplace of ideas when it comes to Israel and Jewish nationalism. That is the real story here, and it is one that no one is reporting.

Egypt killing civilians, destroying houses. Media ignores it.

Did you hear any stories last month about a video showing the burnt bodies of four babies reportedly killed by Egyptian missiles and tank shells in their homes south of Sheikh Zuwaid, Sinai? (WARNING: Graphic)

It was reported by an obscure Egyptian news agency on September 15, and the story died there.

An Egyptian blogger visited the town and his report confirms that it certainly appeared that the reports of seven civilians killed , including the four children, was legitimate.

Ten days later, Al Monitor had a story about the fear of Sinai residents, taking care to make it look like any civilian deaths were either by Islamists or were innocent mistakes:

“We are not upset with the army, but it sometimes fires randomly killing a lot of people,” said a woman in her 50s, carrying a child. Indeed, one of the residents of Sheikh Zuwaid , who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that his 70-year-old father was shot by internal security forces snipers as he was heading to the pharmacy at 4:30 p.m. Given his old age, the man did not hear the warning of officers and received a bullet in the head.

Now, Al Masry al Youm does some real reporting from the areas that the Egyptian army established a news blackout:

Women cry and howl, and their children gaze with distant looks in their eyes as they clutch their mothers’ arms, telling journalist Mouna Elzamlout about the military strike in Mahdeya, a small village in North Sinai.

Elzamlout, managing editor of Wust el-Balad el-Ikhbary, a small news outlet working out of North Sinai, finds a sobbing woman at a loss for words. The woman reveals her elderly mother could not leave the house in time before the army obliterated the house. “They attacked with more than thirty tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters over them. They open fired and used missiles. They left nothing. Nothing is left at our place,” the woman cries.

In a 19 September press conference, the official army spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohamed Ali vowed the armed forces would continue its Sinai operation until all terrorists and outlaws were cleared. The military offensive on the village of Mahdeya is purportedly part of this campaign to root out terrorists taking refuge in the area.

When Elzamlout first heard of the military strike in Mahdeya, she grabbed her camera, jumped in her car and went to survey the damage. Elzamlout told Egypt Independent she found the villagers gathered in an open area, with all their houses destroyed and burned. “There was no other place for them to stand. Some cars were burned and animals as well,” she said.

Elzamlout then uploaded the videos to YouTube to show proof of the damage done. “I won’t be able to build another home for ten years,” sobbed another woman in one of Elzamlout’s videos as she shows Elzamlout her burned out garage. “We are poor people... I swear we are kind people!”

A man standing in front of his destroyed home, summed up the raid on the village to Elzamlout. “They put us all together over here, ” he said, pointing to an open field. “And they burned all the houses with helicopters and tanks. Then they drank their tea and left.”

The man tells Elzamlout that none of the villagers in the operation were arrested. “They just blew it up and left,” he said, exasperated.

As children play with what appear to be tank bullet casings below him, the man shows Elzamlout his brother’s house next door, which was burnt out, then counts up the houses destroyed as Elzamlout pans the camera to see. “Ten, including my mom’s house,” he concludes. “We are Egyptian citizens, we are not terrorists!”

Elzamlout also found villagers who claimed their houses were looted by soldiers and the gold was missing. One woman claimed 140 grams of gold was taken from her. The man also said gold jewelry was missing. “They didn’t even leave us clothes to wear,” he said.

Elzamlout points out this incident is just a small example of a wider problem with the armed forces campaign in Sinai. She also spoke to residents of el-Gouna and el-Moqata’ who told her the military has burned down many houses. “They said the security forces are burning every house that looks like a hut and they don't know it’s a house. They call them headquarters of terrorism,” she said.

Ibrahim Menai, head of the Sinai Tribes Union and one of the most powerful tribal figures in Sinai, told Egypt Independent that civilians die every day at the hands of the police and military. “I’m talking about the innocent, the unarmed,” he added.

Menai described an attack near his home a few weeks ago where he claims 50 people died, eight of them children. In Mahdeya village, he says about 60 houses burned down, and in El-Moqataa village, about 40 houses. In the villages of Toma and Helu combined, Menai says around 80 houses burned. “Two-hundred ten houses have been destroyed in an area of 10 by 10 kilometers squared,” he claims.

Unfortunately, due to the media blackout in Sinai, verifying Menai’s claims are particularly difficult. The Egyptian army has been restricting the entrance of journalists into Sinai as they continue their ongoing anti-terrorism campaign in the region. Giving an accurate account of events becomes especially difficult when both sides tell vastly different versions of the same story.

The military has refused to mention civilian deaths during their Sinai operations, only distinguishing between deaths in the armed forces and the deaths of militants or Palestinians. Col. Ali, the military spokesman, said in the 19 September press conference that military deaths had reached 125, while militant deaths 134, since January 2011.

Egypt Independent spoke to an informed source within the army, who denied any civilian deaths had occurred, and only those who had been killed at the hands of the army were those of the terrorists. “The troops are well trained and they know where they're going,” he said.

The Egyptian army also claimed that the video above was really from Syria. I have no way of confirming that:

A public outcry in Sinai was raised when a YouTube video, posted by Rasad news showed a group of four dead children, supposedly killed during a raid of Sheikh Zuwayid, a village in North Sinai, carried out on 13 September. In the video, a man holds up the body of a dead little girl, blaming General Abdel Fatah el-Sisi for her death.

A Sinai-based Islamist group called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, who claimed credit for the assassination attempt of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and other recent attacks on the Egyptian military, posted a statement on jihadist forums, posted two days after the military raid, denouncing what they say was the killing of seven civilians, among them four children. It said the children, aged one to seven years-old, died from “tank bombardment.”

The statement, which listed the names of those allegedly killed, said a widowed mother and another woman also died in the military assault. The militant group added that a 23-year-old man was run over by an armored vehicle in front of his family in another incident that day, and warned retaliation for the “blood of innocent Muslims”.

The army official addressed the YouTube video, which had been widely circulated on Facebook, saying it was merely a propagandist response to Col. Ahmed Ali’s press conference. “There were some rumors of pictures circulating of children killed about four or five together,” he explained. “We found out that these pictures are from Syria. They’re not from here. They posted the video three days after the end of the operation. If there were an attack and children were killed, would you wait three days to show the video or would you post it the next day or the same day at night?”

Despite reservations about the military strategy, both Menai and Elzamlout said the people of Sinai in general support operations to arrest criminals and bring safety the Sinai region. Menai emphasized that after the killing of members of the army and police by militants, the armed forces should pursue the perpetrators. “The Bedouins naturally love justice and what’s right,” he declared. “We in Sinai condemn terrorism. If it comes from far away, or from groups, or from the government, we don’t like it. We are against terrorism everywhere.”

...“The Egyptian military follows a policy of scorched Earth,” Menai said, referring to the burning of houses and mass arrests. “It’s about disciplinary campaigns. Why do you punish the unarmed man in his house? This does not work. You create every day 100 terrorists. And if you kill people, you will create many terrorists. ”

The informed military source denied any issues with the operations regarding wrongful arrests of civilians or burning of homes, stressing that the military is merely clearing out terrorist nests. “There’s nothing hard about it. [The army] receives information about some terrorist groups in Sinai through military intelligence and state security. Then they reach their places and arrest them in their homes. They go to the terrorist hot beds and clear them,” he explained.

The situation has been further complicated by the arrest of one of more than one journalist in the Sinai, including Al-Masry Al-Youm reporter, Ahmed Abu Draa, who was known for his award-winning reporting in the Sinai, under the army’s charge of “spreading false news” and being within a prohibited military zone without a permit.

It is true that both sides in Egypt habitually lie to the media. Lurid rumors are all over the place from both sides.

But the media - and human rights organizations - certainly don't seem to be bothered enough to try to find the truth.

It isn't as though they reporters are that far away. They seem to find time to file multiple reports about a neighboring country that legally dismantles homes.

Russian news agency Interfax reports:

The head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA) Vladimir Uiba believes that the cause of death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could not be polonium poisoning.

"He could not have been poisoned with polonium. Russian experts conducting a study said traces of this substance were not found," - said Uiba to "Interfax" on Tuesday.

He added that experts FMBA conducted a detailed examination of the remains of Arafat. However, they regularly inform the Russian Foreign Ministry on the progress of investigations.

However, the article continues:

On Monday, October 14, the newspaper "Kommersant" quoted sources reported that an official investigation into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has already completed and led to conclusions: Palestinian leader was poisoned with polonium.

It appears that the Lancet article I noted yesterday had been completely misrepresented by Al Jazeera as if it was a confirmation by independent scientists that Arafat had been poisoned, when it was in fact a paper written by the same people that Al Jazeera hired to begin with the test his clothing.

News outlets ran with the false Al Jazeera version of events as if there were new revelations, but there weren't.

Jordanian columnist reminds readers on Eid that Jews are the devil

During the annual Hajj pilgrimage, Muslims throw a series of small stones towards three pillars (later replaced with walls) to symbolize the stoning of the Devil, done according to Muslim tradition by Abraham.

Rashid Hassan, writing in Jordan's Addustour, wants to make sure that his readers know exactly who the devil is.

The pilgrim returns from the blessed land, from his pilgrimage, cleansed from sin, and he returns to his country as his mother bore him, to keep this purity. This will only be achieved by addressing the devil and all that symbolized by the evils and sins ... This is a message to the Muslims in general.

...The Zionist occupation embodies the ugliest image of the devil. [The ritual] imposes on Muslims all over the world to address him, and the clarion call to liberate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, the first kiblah and third of the Two Holy Mosques, the place of the Ascension of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Jews are killers of prophets, who are working day and night to change the heart of this Arab city, to transform it into a Jewish city...

In this context, we wonder - Why didn't the Arab states implement the resolutions of Arab summits to support of Jerusalem and its people? The pledges to fund it remain unpaid, reminding us about those wealthy Jews are financed the establishment of colonies in Palestine such as Rothschild in the late nineteenth century, and now the Russian Jewish billionaire Moskowitz who funded the establishment of colonies in Arab Jerusalem and its area, to separate it from its Arab surroundings. There are now twelve of these colonies, surrounding [Jerusalem] like a bracelet.

...The cause of all tragedies, past and present, are the bullying enemies of the nation, in the forefront the Zionist enemy, who works on the Judaization of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa throwing out all laws and international norms, and which prompted the African nations to divert the Nile waters and cause our brothers to die of thirst.

In a nutshell, the blessed pilgrimage reminds us and calls on us to respond firmly to the devil, which is embodied in all the sins and evils; greed and corruption, injustice and tyranny, and embodied in the Zionist occupation and Arab differences that are behind the Arab bloodshed and foreign intervention.

See also yesterday's post where Iran's Supreme Leader makes a similar point in his annual Hajj address. But he says "Zionists" instead of Jews, the mark of a true moderate.

Iran's Supreme Leader: Zionists are behind all intra-Muslim problems

The Hajj message of Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei says that every single problem in the Muslim world is caused by Zionists and the West. Not a single Muslim is guilty of any crimes, terrorism, civil war, chemical weapons usage, infighting or anything else unseemly - it is all controlled by the expansive network of Zionists and their allies.

I particularly like how he positions the Syrian regime as a Muslim nation when it has been largely secular and anti-Islamist.

...The existence of civil wars, religious and denominational prejudices and political instabilities, the prevalence of cruel terrorism, the emergence of extreme groups and orientations- which like savage tribes in history, cut open the chests of human beings and rip their hearts out with their teeth- the emergence of armed mercenaries who kill women and children, cut off the heads of men and rape women and who do such horrible and disgusting crimes in the name of religion are all the products of the satanic and arrogant plots of foreign intelligence services and their regional agents.

Such plots are implemented in countries in which the ground is prepared before-hand and as a result, they create a disastrous situation for these nations and peoples. In such conditions, it is clear that one cannot expect Muslim nations to remedy their material and spiritual shortcomings and to achieve security, welfare, scientific progress and international dignity which are the results of achieving awakening and finding one's true identity.

These disastrous conditions can abort the progress of Islamic Awakening, destroy the mental awareness which has been created in the world of Islam, drag Muslims- once more- towards stagnation, isolation and decline and consign to oblivion important and fundamental issues such as the liberation of Palestine and other Muslim nations from the transgressions of the USA and Zionism.

The most important cure for this situation can be summarized in two key phrases, both of which are among the clearest lessons of hajj:

First: unity and brotherhood of Muslims under the flag of monotheism.

Second: knowing the enemy and confronting his plans and methods.

Strengthening the spirit of brotherhood and cooperation is a great lesson of hajj. During hajj, even quarrelling and arguing with others is forbidden. During hajj, wearing the same clothes, following the same practices, making the same moves and behaving in a kind way,all mean equality and brotherhood for all those who believe in and rely on monotheism.

This means that Islam strongly rejects any idea and belief which views a number of Muslims and believers in Ka'bah and monotheism as people who are outside the circle of Islam. These orientations which are based on takfirism, which have become playthings in the hands of the treacherous Zionist politicians and their western supporters- commit serious crimes and shed the blood of Muslims and innocent people, and the people who claim to be religious, who call themselves clerics and who fuel the fire of fitna between Shia and Sunni and other denominations- should know that the hajj pilgrimage will thwart their claims.

I, like many Islamic scholars and sympathetic personalities in the Islamic Ummah, announce that any statement or action which fuels the fire of discord among Muslims, any insult to the sacred beliefs of each one of the Muslim denominations and any act of takfirism against Islamic denominations equals serving the camp of atheism and polytheism and betraying Islam. All of these things are haraam.

Knowing the enemy and its methods is the second important factor. First, we should not forget about the existence of a spiteful enemy. Performing the ritual of the stoning of the jamarat during hajj is a symbolic sign of this awareness. Second, we should not make a mistake in knowing the main enemy, who in the present time is global arrogance and the criminal Zionist network.

Third, we should properly identify the methods of this hostile enemy which is creating discord among Muslims, promoting moral and political corruption, threatening and tempting outstanding personalities, exerting economic pressures on all nations and arousing doubts about Islamic beliefs. Moreover, we should identify their agents and those who are, knowingly or ignorantly, dependent on them.

Arrogant governments, headed by the USA, conceal their true character with the help of comprehensive and advanced propaganda tools. By claiming that they support human rights and democracy, they deceive public opinion in different countries. They speak about the rights of all nations while each day Muslim nations feel- with their bodies and souls- the fire of discord more than the past.

For decades, the oppressed Palestinian nation has been receiving strikes as a result of the crimes of the Zionist regime and its supporters. In the countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, terrorism - which originates from the policies of global arrogance and its agents in the region - has ruined the lives of the people.

Syria has come under the attack of arrogant powers and their regional agents because of supporting anti-Zionist orientations and it has experienced a bloody civil war. In Bahrain and Myanmar, Muslims have been ignored and their enemies are supported. Other nations are threatened by the USA and its allies with military attacks, economic sanctions and different acts of sabotage. Taking a general look at all these countries can reveal to all people throughout the world the true face of these leaders of global arrogance.
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I ask Allah the Exalted to bestow peace on Muslims and to foil the plots of the enemies. ...

More in an upcoming post about how the symbolic "stoning of the devil" during Hajj has now become a symbolic "stoning of Zionists."