Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 25, 2013

Syrian war keeps expanding into Lebanon

Clashes between gunmen of rival Lebanese sects in the northern city of Tripoli have killed seven people since clashes flared earlier this week, security officials said Thursday.

The latest round of fighting that began four days ago in Lebanon’s second largest city has wounded another 50 people, officials said. That comes as disputes from neighboring Syria’s civil war frequently inflame sectarian grievances in Tripoli.

The clashes pit gunmen from two impoverished Tripoli neighborhoods against each other, areas that are home to opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Bab Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni Muslim, like Syria’s rebels. The other neighborhood, Jabal Mohsen, mostly has residents of Assad’s Alawite sect, a Shiite Islam offshoot.

The latest bout of fighting began building after Oct. 14, when a Lebanese military prosecutor pressed charges against earlier this month against seven men, at least one whom from Jabal Mohsen, for their involvement in twin bomb blasts near two Sunni mosques in Tripoli on Aug. 23 that killed 47 people.

Judging from the ICRC paper about the laws of occupation, I think a serious argument can be made that Lebanon is occupied, today, by Syria/Iran under international law.

The definition of occupation in that paper allowed occupation by proxy, if the group that runs the occupied territory is a puppet for the occupier. Since Syria did occupy Lebanon from 1976 to 2005, and now Hezbollah (which is an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards) effectively controls large parts of Lebanon as well as much of the government, that means that Lebanon is still occupied today, notwithstanding a few years when it was ostensibly free.

Syria of course does what Iran wants it to.

Hamas cell from Hebron planned to send bombs on small UAVs into Israel

Walla reports that the PA broke up a Hamas cell based out of Hebron that planned to launch terror attacks by outfitting remote control planes with bombs.

PA security forces arrested several Hamas university students in Hebron who were preparing to launch small bomb-equipped drones into Israel. Interrogation of the cell members revealed that they previously conducted several test flight tests with the UAVs.

Israeli security sources confirmed the report and noted that recent Palestinian security forces posted some impressive achievements in their struggle against the terrorist organizations in the West Bank.

Also yesterday:

A group of men in Qalandiya refugee camp blocked a main road Thursday to protest the Palestinian Authority's continued detention of a political prisoner, witnesses told Ma'an.

Locals said that the protesters shut down the camp's central street - one that connects Ramallah to cities in the southern West Bank - and additionally closed entrances to the camp, burnt tires and threw stones at passersby.

The men were protesting the Palestinian Authority's detention of Rabee' Hamad, a man who was released from Israeli prison 8 months ago, locals said.

The riots snarled traffic for miles on the main road between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Interview with a "sex jihadi" who got pregnant, is infected with AIDS

From Raymond Ibrahim:

The Arabic media has been full of interviews with some of the many Tunisian girls that went to Tunisian newspaper Al Sharaouk (“Sunrise) shed light on the horrific experiences of one of these girls.

Her name is Lamia, and she’s 19-years-old. While in Syria, she had sex with jihadis fighting to overthrow the secular Bashar Assad regime. Among other nationalities she recalls having slept with were Pakistanis, Afghanis, Libyans, Tunisians, Iraqis, Saudis, and Somalis, all in the context of the “sex jihad.”

Such a diverse array of jihadis is a reminder of the nature of the “rebellion”: it’s less about indigenous Syrians fighting for freedom and more about international jihadis fighting for Sharia.

According to Al Sharouk reporters, who went to interview Lamia at her home, the young woman began her story by saying that in 2011 she became religious, after watching an Islamic program; among other things, she took to wearing the hijab and came to believe that going out in public was a sin.

Then, “Lamia became convinced that a woman may participate in the jihad to eliminate the enemies of Islam by making her body recreational for the men after each and every raid, so that her body became their possession.”

Back in May, reports of women saying similar things began to appear. For instance, Masrawy published a video interview with one “Aisha,” another Tunisian girl who said she had met a Muslim woman who spoke of the importance of piety, including wearing the hijab and traveling to Syria to help the jihadis “fight and kill infidels” and make Allah’s word supreme, adding that “women who die would do so in the way of Allah and become martyrs and enter paradise.”

At any rate, by the time war broke out in Syria, Lamia’s mind was “dough for the cleric to mold any which way he wanted.” He proceeded to send her to Benghazi, Libya, and from there to Turkey, and then to Aleppo, Syria. There she found many women and young girls residing in an old hospital that had been turned into a campsite.

A man claiming to be the “emir” of the sexual campground met her saying his name was Abu Ayoub, the Tunisian. But, she said, the true leader was a Yemeni, who appeared leading a group of jihadis calling themselves “Omar’s Battalion” (likely named after the second caliph, whose reign saw the conquest of Syria). He was the first to take her.

Lamia confessed that she did not know how many men had sex with her and that all that she remembers is being abused, beaten, and forced to do things “that contradict all sense of human worth.” She also said that she met many Tunisian women including one who died while being tortured for trying to escape.

Finally, released back to Tunisia, Lamia has been to a doctor finding that she is five months pregnant. Both she and her unborn are carrying the aids virus.

I was skeptical when these stories first started to spread, and I don't know the reliability of Al Sharouk, but it does look like the phenomenon is real if perhaps not very widespread.

(h/t Josh K)

UPDATE 4/10/14: According to France24, there is still no credible proof of the phenomenon. (h/t Gidon)

10/24 Links Pt2: 30 Yrs After Beirut Bombing, Simon Cowell Sings Power Rangers for the IDF

From Ian:

Israel should worry about the Egypt peace treaty

Fourthly, it is said by many news outlets that Egypt is looking to Russia for arms after the US aid freeze; and this will put Egypt in the same triangle of Israel's enemies (i.e., Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah) that are supported by Russia.
Throughout history, military coups have not tended to lead to democracy. Furthermore, the current coup in Egypt will neither be able to control systemic risks nor to correct itself.
On this view, Israel should support the Egyptian moderates and peaceful protesters in their struggle against the current dictator regime in Egypt. Importantly, Israel should stand against stifling freedoms in Egypt and against the propect of a Syrian scenario in the country.

If it flogged criminals, would Israel get a Security Council seat?

Much has been said and written about Saudi Arabia’s bizarre rebuff of the UN Security Council. What went nearly unnoticed is the fact that Israel announced earlier this month that it is running for a Security Council seat (in 2019). This is Israel’s first attempt since its admission to the UN in 1949 to join the organization’s most powerful body. Unlike Saudi Arabia, however, Israel stands no chance of being accepted (and declining). The fact that Israel’s bid is hopeless provides an opportunity to understand what is wrong with the UN.

Daniel Pipes: Is Russia Becoming ‘Muslim Russia’?

The stabbing death on Oct. 10 of an ethnic Russian, Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, apparently by a Muslim from Azerbaijan, led to anti-migrant disturbances in Moscow, vandalism and assaults, and the arrest of 1,200, and brought a major tension in Russian life to the fore.
Not only do ethnic Muslims account for 21-23 million of Russia’s total population of 144 million, or 15 percent, but their proportion is fast growing. Alcoholism-plagued ethnic Russians are said to have European birth rates and African death rates, with the former just 1.4 per woman and the latter 60 years for men. In Moscow, ethnic Christian women have 1.1 child.

Protecting the world's monuments from the Taliban, nature by creating digital back-ups

Kacyra said the project was born out of the heartbreak of seeing the Taliban pulverize the Afghan Buddha statues in 2001, but Gustavo Araoz, a senior preservationist who's helping CyArk draw up a list of its next 400 sites, says similar destruction is playing out in slow motion across the globe.

BBC R4 gives a platform to terrorist Leila Khaled

The attempted hijacking of El Al flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York by Leila Khaled and Nicaraguan Patrick Arguello of the PFLP on September 6th 1970 lasted some three minutes and twenty seconds according to a reconstruction later carried out by the Israel Security Agency.
On October 21st 2013 BBC Radio 4 gave Leila Khaled a platform lasting almost the same length of time from which to promote her unchallenged narrative of the event in a fifteen-minute programme titled “Hijack!” which forms part of Fergal Keane’s series “Terror Through Time”, previously discussed on these pages.

Thirty Years After Beirut Bombing, Criticism of Iranian Defense Minister’s Role

Rouhani’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, is not just closely aligned with Hezbollah but was directly tied to the 1983 barracks bombing. Israeli Brigadier General Shimon Shapira has documented how Dehghan, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander in Lebanon, centralized Hezbollah’s command infrastructure and led the group out of the Imam Ali barracks. From there Iran “controlled Hizbullah’s military force and planned, along with Hizbullah, the terror attacks on the Beirut-based Multinational Force and against IDF forces in Lebanon.”
Shapira notes that the Iranian orders to strike the U.S. barracks were intercepted by the NSA and that “it is difficult to imagine that such a high-level directive to the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon would be transmitted without the knowledge of their commander, Hossein Dehghan.”

Leaks portray a torn White House through Syrian crisis

Jordan offered the United States the opportunity to use its land as a base for drone strikes against Syria on multiple occasions, according to an investigative report published on Wednesday.
The extensive account in The New York Times claims that US President Barack Obama repeatedly denied the offers, made as early as March during the president’s visit to the region, as well as various other lobbying efforts pursued by aides and foreign allies aimed at making Syria a priority of the White House.
Pressure increased from national security advisers and regional leaders alike as casualties mounted and momentum shifted in the months before a massive chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb in August.

Egypt says not interested in Israeli gas as plans LNG imports

"For importing the LNG we are working with companies, not with countries," Taher Abdel Rahim, chairman of state-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), told Reuters.
"Companies like BP, Shell, BG - those are the companies working on importing LNG," he added.
Egypt's LNG plan is likely to be more expensive than piping gas from Israel due to the cost of erecting the terminal and the higher prices LNG fetches in the global spot market.

Hungary launches blitz to fight anti-Semitic image

Armed with a powerful New York public relations outfit and a pledge to commemorate the mass deportation of Hungarian Jewry, the Hungarian government is preparing to challenge what it says is an inaccurate image of a country lax in confronting home-grown extremism.
Ferenc Kumin, an adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who handles international communications, reached out to JTA last week to counter what he says are unfair perceptions of his government’s treatment of Jews and other minorities.

Former anti-Semitic Hungarian politician embraces his Judaism

Csanad Szegedi, who once accused Jews of “buying up” the country, railed about the “Jewishness” of the political elite and claimed Jews were desecrating national symbols, has been studying with local Chabad rabbis, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported this week.
Szegedi, 31, said he is keeping Shabbat and trying to observe the laws of Kashrut. “I have discovered that I can reconcile my conservative viewpoints as Hungarian and as observant Jew,” he told Welt am Sonntag.

Turkish university to host Holocaust seminar

“This is an initial, although important, step given the significance of Turkish society in the Muslim world,” said Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev. “At Yad Vashem we are witnessing interest in the Holocaust that traverses countries, religion and language.”
The project comes amid reports that members of Turkey’s Jewish community are leaving the country due to growing anti-Semitism.

Ukraine court says seized Torahs belong to Jews

A Ukrainian court has ruled that hundreds of Torah scrolls that were seized by Soviet authorities nearly 100 years ago belong to the local Jewish community and not the state archives.
The landmark decision on Wednesday came at the end of a two-year legal battle that threatened to see the scrolls confiscated from the Jewish community shortly after they were returned. The Central Kiev Synagogue can now keep the religious scrolls and not surrender them to the state archive, which had claimed ownership of them, the court ruled Wednesday.

Google Modifies Autocomplete Function After it is Found to Offer Wildly Anti-Semitic Suggestions (UPDATE)

The Anti-Defamation League told The Algemeiner that they were told by Google late Tuesday that the company was “looking into the complaint.” By Wednesday afternoon the changes had been made.
“We were pleased that they had removed some of the most offensive auto-correct results,” said the ADL’s Deborah Lauter.

U.S. Dept of Defense Orders Israeli Made Stair-Climbing Micro-Robots

Israeli robot maker Roboteam Ltd. won a fast track deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply it with stair-climbing micro-robots, the Pentagon’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office said, U.S. defense magazine Defense News reported.
Roboteam’s Micro Tactical Ground Robot is being rapidly deployed to special operations forces, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other users in parallel to ongoing operational tests by the Pentagon. The Pentagon’s CTTSO, the authority managing the program on behalf of the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, said it has earmarked 100 robots for “priority fielding” to special ops forces and EOD war fighters, while another 35 are destined for domestic use by interagency tactical units.

Jews in Shanghai Exhibition in Chicago

An exhibition on the life of European Jewish refugees in Shanghai during World War II opened in Chicago on Monday, Xinhua reported. The exhibition, running from Monday to Friday, features more than 1,000 photos, 200 relics and 2,000 minutes of video interviews with Jewish refugees

.
New Orcam device turns the world into speech for the blind

Liat Negrin is happy to demonstrate a new Israeli technology that “sees” and reads for her. She is visually impaired with coloboma, a birth defect that affects one in 10,000 people globally.
Wearing an OrCam device clipped to her glasses, Negrin — who works for the company — can now do the smallest things that sighted people take for granted.

Low-key FIDF fundraiser still rakes in the dough

That’s right: Simon Cowell, critic extraordinaire, is officially a Zionist; and, on his way out of the gala, told me his plans to visit Israel later this year.
But the Cowell coup was hardly the evening’s redemptive triumph. Far be it from Haim Saban to get upstaged by tamping down. In the end, the host himself took to the podium to project his power and remind everyone that this festivity is really a fundraiser – $5.2 million in 2009, $9 million in 2010, $14 million in 2012 – and a whopping $20 million in 2013, a record-breaking sum. (h/t Kramerica)

Simon Cowell Sings 'Go Go Power Rangers'... For $1 MILLION (h/t Yoel)

Looks like the burqa doesn't do a good job protecting women

Some Muslims like to say that a woman must be covered up in order to keep her safe from unwanted men's sexual advances.

This video shows that it doesn't help.

The video was taken in Saudi Arabia, although the women are reportedly from Egypt and Sudan. it is causing quite a stir.

The best quote is this one:

Former judge and member of the Shura Council Mohammad al-Dahim told Al Arabiya that sexual harassment is not a phenomenon that occurs in Saudi Arabia, even if it appears so on social media.

Whew! That's a relief!

Today's #BDSFail roundup

A semi-regular feature from Zvi:

Another list of reminders of how utterly and completely BDS Fails, featuring Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the People's Republic of China, Texas, Nevada, Ontario, Turkish companies, Samsung and OrCam.

And that is just this week.

Texas, Nevada hope for increased water collaborations with Israel

Israel's Wix Reveals IPO Plans

The impact of even one of Israel's numerous IPOs vastly outweighs the impact of all of the idiotic food coop boycotts in the entire history of the BDS "movement."

Ontario minister to Israel: Together we should help water-scarce nations

9 Turkish companies participate in Israel water management conference

Nigeria and Israel have signed a bilateral airlines agreement

Only 3 other countries in the middle east have such agreements with Nigeria.

Israel seeking African Union observer status

The article is about Egypt trying to stop this, but also identifies Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya as enthusiastic promoters of Israel's bid. Israeli military sales to Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda are also mentioned.

Egypt's own membership in the AU was suspended due to the coup. Egyptian paranoia about Israeli influence in Africa is prompting Egypt to oppose Israel as an observer.

China, Israel have similar water problems, says visiting Chinese official

Samsung increases investments in Israel

... starting with Mantis Vision Inc., which develops a 3-D scanner designed for mobile device installation.

Samsung is expanding its seed accelerator.

Top Chinese politician tours Israeli tech startups

OrCam helps the blind to "see"

The annual pilgrimage of Jews to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in Damanhour, Egypt which was protected under Hosni Mubarak's rule, was canceled in 2012, as the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egyptian government decided that they couldn't protect Jewish visitors because, well, Egyptians hate Jews too much.

This year, the Brotherhood is no longer ruling. So will the pilgrimage resume?

According to this Egyptian paper, Israel formally requested that 150 Israeli Jews along with 17 rabbis be allowed to visit the tomb this year. The date would be around December 22.

Initial reaction in Egypt has been very negative.

The "Coalition of Young Journalists" issued a statement denouncing the idea, and they said that they would organize human shields to prevent any Israelis from coming near the shrine. Their spokesman, Mohamed Allam, described the visits as a "desecration" of the land of Egypt, "contrary to the teachings of religion and morals" which "violate sanctities in broad daylight."

What exactly do the Jews do at this ceremony? Glad you asked.

According to Allam, the Jewish men and women dance together while listening to jazz music.

Afterwards, the groups said, the tourists make lots of noise and would bring sheep and goats. They slaughter them from the top of the neck, "contrary to Islamic law." (Kosher slaughter is not done that way.)

But that's not all.

The meat is eaten together with "all kinds of imported wines next to a cocktail of cigarettes stuffed full of drugs."

The, naturally, the Jews turn off the lights and have an orgy, with sex and homosexuality being freely practiced in the tomb itself.

Wow. That could attract a whole new crowd!

Allam also said that Abuhatzeira wasn't even a religious figure, just an ordinary Egyptian man. So there is no reason to have the ceremony anyway, and the Egyptian government should stop entertaining the idea that this pilgrimage has any religious significance. He helpfully adds that when Jews were in Egypt in Pharaonic times, they really didn't add anything to Egyptian culture, just living in tents and herding sheep. I'm not sure if they listened to jazz.

I did a little searching and see that the same accusations, almost word for word, were used two years ago by this same spokesman but he didn't have a group to represent at the time. Good to know that the "Coalition of Young Journalists" in Egypt found Mohamed Allam to be worthy of speaking on their behalf.

The story has been reported in at least four Egyptian news outlets.

As always, a search to find if anyone in Egypt is making fun of Allam, or even disagreeing with his accusations, comes up empty. There are no consequences in the Arab world to spouting the most outrageous and insane stories about Jews, so they naturally get more lurid.

It will be interesting to see whether Egypt will allow the pilgrims, and, if so, what the Egyptian army does in December to protect the wild partying Jews.

10/24 Links Pt1: Totten - Saudi-American Rupture, Saudi Arabia Threatens Women Drivers

From Ian:

Michael Totten: The Saudi-American Rupture

All the existing Sunni Arab governments moved on from the Arab-Israeli conflict decades ago. Aside from the Palestinian Authority during the Second Intifada, only the Iranian regime and its network of allies and proxies—Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Hezbollah, and Hamas—have fought Israel at any time during the last thirty years or so. The only exception occurred when Saddam Hussein launched a couple of SCUD missiles at Tel Aviv during the first Persian Gulf War in an attempt to fracture the Arab-Western alliance against him.
The majority of Arab citizens would surely think my analysis is nonsense on stilts, but aside from the (non-Sunni) regime in Damascus, Arab governments are behaving precisely in line with it. They learned quite a while ago that it’s time to set the ridiculous Palestinian conflict aside and deal with real
threats for a change.

WSJ: Saudi Arabia Scaling Back U.S. Ties Due to Administration’s “Syria, Iran and Egypt Policies”

Saudi Arabia intends to scale back the degree to which it cooperates with the United States in arming and training Syrian rebels, a decision that comes amid what the Wall Street Journal describes as ”a growing dispute between the U.S. and one of its closest Arab allies over Syria, Iran and Egypt policies.”

In Washington in recent days, Saudi officials have privately complained to U.S. lawmakers that they increasingly feel cut out of U.S. decision-making on Syria and Iran. A senior American official described the king as “angry.” Another senior U.S. official added: “Our interests increasingly don’t align.”

Saudi Arabia, the UN and the OIC

A stated Islamist goal, to replace Western civilization's liberal democratic order with a Sharia-governed Ummah [community of Muslims], now seems to involve an effort to delegitimize Western international organizations, as seen this week by Saudi Arabia's refusing a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Saudi Arabia's refusal likely reflects its view of itself as helping to establish an alternative international order based on Sharia law. For Islamists, the United Nations, like all secular international organs, lacks legitimacy.

Saudi Arabia warns of shift away from U.S. over Syria, Iran

Upset at President Barack Obama's policies on Iran and Syria, members of Saudi Arabia's ruling family are threatening a rift with the United States that could take the alliance between Washington and the kingdom to its lowest point in years.
Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief is vowing that the kingdom will make a "major shift" in relations with the United States to protest perceived American inaction over Syria's civil war as well as recent U.S. overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday.

Iran through Saudi eyes

The Saudis have a point. Those words do not flow easily from my pen. For more than three decades, the Arab royals have spent billions of petrodollars promoting Wahhabism, a poisonously anti-Western interpretation of Islam, of which the most lethal expression is bin Ladenism.
But now the Saudis are angry with the Obama administration. The reasons include "inaction over Syria's civil war as well as recent U.S. overtures to Iran," a source "close to Saudi policy" told Reuters on Tuesday. "The shift away from the U.S. is a major one," the source said. "We are learning from our enemies now how to treat the United States," Saudi security analyst Mustafa Alani told The Wall Street Journal last month.

For Palestinians, the other enemy is their own leadership

Today, the international community, led by the United States, is yet again pushing the Palestinians and Israelis toward a two-state solution. And Washington still has not learned its lessons. The State Department continues to give short shrift to the internal challenges dogging the PA, which is widely seen by the Palestinian street as a seal of approval for the ongoing abuses.

Abbas calls on Europe to boycott settlement goods

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said European companies should boycott Israeli goods manufactured in Judea and Samaria.
"I call on European companies and foreign companies doing business in the settlements to put an end to their activities," Abbas was quoted as saying by AFP. "Such activities are a violation of international law."

PMW: PA-associated youth magazine glorifies death

The PA-associated educational youth magazine Zayzafuna, whose advisory board include PA Deputy Minister of Education Jihad Zakarneh and the Head of the Media Department of the PA Ministry of Education, Abd Al-Hakim Abu Jamous, has published for the third time a poem glorifying Martyrdom death for Allah - Shahada. It has been published in the issues of January 2012, June 2013, and September 2013. Twice it has been attributed to an 8th grade student and once, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch, to an 11 year-old in 5th grade.

BBC terms bus bomb planner claimed as a member by 2 terror groups ‘militant’

In addition to the PIJ statement claiming Assi as one of its members, Hamas also claimed him as a member of its ‘al Qassam’ brigades on its website.
Hamas also released a statement claiming responsibility for the November 21st 2102 terror attack on a bus in Tel Aviv.
So here’s a question: how many internationally recognized terror organisations have to claim a person as one of their members before the BBC will stop euphemistically describing him as a “militant”?

UN reports widespread human rights abuses in Iran

Ahmed Shaheed’s report condemned a rise in the number of jailed journalists in Iran over the past decade — including 23 since January — and other restrictions against freedom of expression, including the blocking of up to 5 million websites. He expressed alarm about a law being considered that would allow a custodian to marry his adopted child. And he said minority religious groups are subjected to discrimination in employment and education, and are often arbitrarily arrested and tortured.

Iran must prove nuclear program peaceful, Kerry says

Before they sat down, Kerry said Iran would have to prove to the world that its nuclear program was not military, seeking to allay Israeli fears ahead of the meeting.
“We will need to know that actions are being taken, which make it clear, undeniably clear, fail-safe to the world, that whatever program is pursued is indeed a peaceful program,” Kerry told reporters in a brief press statement at the start of the meeting, which was originally scheduled for seven hours.
“No deal is better than a bad deal,” he added, echoing a statement he made earlier this month.

PM reportedly unmoved by Kerry’s reassurances on Iran

Netanyahu and John Kerry held a marathon meeting Wednesday evening in Rome. Before the two sat down, Kerry, apparently seeking to allay Israeli fears,said Iran would have to prove to the world that its nuclear program was not military in nature.
The prime minister was apparently unpersuaded by Kerry’s attempts to assure him of Washington’s resolve to maintain a tough position versus Iran despite the recently reinvigorated diplomatic process, The New York Times reported.

Iranian student takes her foreign minister to task over nuke policy

A rare public exchange between an Iranian student and her foreign minister over Iran’s nuclear program recently offered a unique glimpse into mounting public frustration experienced by Iran’s middle class, impoverished by nuclear sanctions.
On October 18, the student posted an anonymous letter on the Facebook page of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif — which is followed by over half a million people — responding to an update he posted on nuclear talks underway between Iran and the West in Geneva. The letter, which asks bitterly why the government is so preoccupied with “this nuclear energy,” was first picked up by an Iranian blog and translated by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

Netanyahu to Kerry: Iran Shouldn’t Have Enrichment, Plutonium Heavy Water Capabilities

Netanyahu also suggested that the Iranian problem should be addressed similarly to how the U.S. dealt with the recent Syrian chemical weapons crisis.
“I think no deal is better than a bad deal. I think a partial deal that leaves Iran with these capabilities is a bad deal,” Netanyahu said. “You wisely insisted there wouldn’t be a partial deal with Syria. You were right. If Assad had said, you know, ‘I am ready to dismantle 90%, 50% or 80% of my chemical weapons capability,’ you would have refused and correctly so, and I think in the case of Iran, it is essential that it be made to live up to Security Council resolutions that demand an end to enrichment and enrichment capability and an end to plutonium heavy water capability toward fissile material for nuclear weapons.”

Where's the Coverage? Many Countries Have Nuclear Power but No Enrichment

There are many countries that have nuclear power that do not have the capability to enrich their own fuel. They buy it from abroad and that’s what Iran could do. And that’s what the media are neglecting to tell you.
There are over thirty countries around the world that have nuclear power programs but according to the World Nuclear Association, only eleven have the capacity to enrich their own fuel.

TIME Magazine Flacks for Iran

If Iran has “good” reasons not to trust America, then America has great reasons not to trust Iran. And the four above don’t even scratch the surface. The Iranian regime has been hiding, lying about and violating international law regarding its nuclear program for decades. That sounds like a pretty darn good reason not to trust the regime as negotiations resume next month in Geneva.
As to why TIME Magazine would act as the public relations arm of the Iranian regime, there doesn’t seem to be any good reason for that.

Washington Post Columnist Gets Iran Right

In the Oct. 17, 2013 print edition of The Washington Post, syndicated columnist Anne Applebaum (“A New Iran? Hardly.”) highlights the fundamental issue when it comes to negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programs.
“We [the United States] oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions for one reason: because we object to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a quasi-totalitarian state that since 1979 has been led by brutal, volatile men with no respect for the rule of law.” Exactly. And in their brutality and volatility, these quasi-totalitarian leaders have called for the destruction of Israel.

Saudi Arabia Threatens to Use Force Against Women Drivers

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has warned against “disturbing social peace” and has threatened to use force against a planned campaign by women to challenge a de facto ban on them driving, Al Arabiya reports.
“Regulations in Saudi Arabia prohibit any action that disturbs social peace and opens the door for sedition and responds to the illusions of prejudiced intruders with sick dreams,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Saudi Arabia slams Obama

From The Daily Mail:

Upset at President Barack Obama's policies on Iran and Syria, members of Saudi Arabia's ruling family are threatening a rift with the United States that could take the alliance between Washington and the kingdom to its lowest point in years.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief is vowing that the kingdom will make a 'major shift' in relations with the United States to protest perceived American inaction over Syria's civil war as well as recent U.S. overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan told European diplomats that the United States had failed to act effectively against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran, and had failed to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011, the source said.

The shift away from the U.S. is a major one,' the source close to Saudi policy said. 'Saudi doesn't want to find itself any longer in a situation where it is dependent.'

It was not immediately clear whether the reported statements by Prince Bandar, who was the Saudi ambassador to Washington for 22 years, had the full backing of King Abdullah.

The growing breach between the United States and Saudi Arabia was also on display in Washington, where another senior Saudi prince criticized Obama's Middle East policies, accusing him of 'dithering' on Syria and Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In unusually blunt public remarks, Prince Turki al-Faisal called Obama's policies in Syria 'lamentable' and ridiculed a U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate Assad's chemical weapons. He suggested it was a ruse to let Obama avoid military action in Syria.

'The current charade of international control over Bashar's chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious. And designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down (from military strikes), but also to help Assad to butcher his people,' said Prince Turki, a member of the Saudi royal family and former director of Saudi intelligence.

Saudi Arabia gave a clear sign of its displeasure over Obama's foreign policy last week when it rejected a coveted two-year term on the U.N. Security Council in a display of anger over the failure of the international community to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues.

Prince Turki indicated that Saudi Arabia will not reverse that decision, which he said was a result of the Security Council's failure to stop Assad and implement its own decision on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Now Lebanon adds:

But in the Middle East, hope was a far cry from the sentiment of many policy-makers in the region. Alarming reactions came from various Arab states, where the prospect of ending the 35-year-old hostility between the US and Iran is being interpreted as a major geostrategic shuffle in the world order. Saudi Arabia in particular refused to join the United Nations Security Council because it feels threatened by the US' recent diplomatic outreach to its adversarial neighbor, Iran.

According to Johnathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, US foreign policy in the Middle East is at a turning point. “The administration seems to be so eager of disengaging from the region that it overlooks threats. Sometimes it even acknowledges them but allows them to continue. This is not a good sign for any of America’s allies in the [Middle East].”

Schanzer added, “I’ve been jokingly calling [US] foreign policy the Bizzaro doctrine; it plays off like the Seinfeld comedy show where everything that you think is going to happen, goes the exact opposite way. If you look at US foreign policy now, Iran appears to be pleased, the Syrian government appears to be pleased, even Sudan seems somewhat pleased.”

For the past few years, the Middle East had two main rivalries. Saudi Arabia on the one side felt reassured by its security alliance with the US. Iran, on the other, always played its Lebanese card (Hezbollah), and it slowly slid into a partnership with Russia.

Today, it is the Syrian war where the struggle for regional power is unfolding. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries back the insurgency against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, while Iran and Russia support the regime. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have asked the US to support military intervention in Syria and to aid the rebels. Iran and Russia, by contrast, have been supplying Syrian government forces with weapons and training.

But as policy-makers in Riyadh realized the US might not back Saudi Arabia’s regional aspirations, tensions have reached new heights between the two longtime allies. “The way Syria has been handled by Washington was a source of frustration for Riyadh. They have been begging Washington for intervention. The fact that Obama changed his mind again and again has triggered a lack of confidence from Saudi Arabia,” Schanzer said.

“For now, Saudi Arabia doesn’t have other choices. They don’t have other alliances that they can rely on. But what worries me now is that the Saudi [leadership] might choose other foreign policy options that take place more in the shadows. They might support radical groups and this would mean the return of the Saudi Arabia of the 1980s-1990s,” he added.

US diplomacy in the Middle East has been staggeringly incompetent.

But notice that even now, with Saudi Arabia and Israel on the same side of the Iran debate, the kingdom can't resist pretending that the situation between Israel and the PLO is still a key component to the region. Arab regimes have known for years that they could get support for their positions by invoking Israel, and old habits die hard.

Swimming association FINA warns Qatar, UAE over "stupid" anti-Israel actions

A followup to this story, from AP:

Swimming’s governing body has formally warned officials in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for disrespecting Israeli swimmers at World Cup events.

FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the two organizing committees apologized for the “stupid” incidents in the past week.

Israel’s team protested when the country’s name and flag appeared to be censored in pre-race introductions and television broadcasts, Marculescu said.

The incidents raised questions about Qatar’s hosting the 2014 World Short-Course Championships in Doha. The governing body has rules prohibiting discrimination, including on grounds of religion or politics.

“Next year we have the world championships and these things will not happen anymore,“ Marculescu said in a telephone interview. “Every year we have events there and we never had things like this.”

Doha and Dubai are also scheduled to host further World Cup meetings ahead of the Dec. 3-7, 2014 worlds.

Marculescu said the problem was resolved during the events, held at Dubai last Thursday and Friday, and Doha on Sunday and Monday.

Israeli swimmer Amit Ivry won a medal at both meetings, though teammates noted that she seemed to be ignored by television cameras in some races.

Marculescu said local organizing committees were responsible for World Cup broadcasts. [which answers the question I had - EoZ]

“I think it was a good experience. No more is it going to happen,” the FINA official said, adding that medal ceremonies involving Ivry were conducted properly.

She won bronze in 100 meters breaststroke at Dubai, and took silver in 100 medley in Doha.

FINA seems to have been silent about the other flag controversy that Israellycool highlighted, where the Israeli flag outside the stadium was removed following complaints.

In 2009, Jimmy Carter wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post slamming Israel where he described a tunnel Hamas was building to kidnap Israelis was a "defensive tunnel."

Terrorists learn a lot from people like Carter.

Yesterday:

UN Under Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman said in a statement that digging underground tunnels from Gaza into Israel " is a violation to the ceasefire" agreement, brokered by Egypt in 2012 between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas' reaction? They just swiped Jimmy's argument. As a Hamas spokesman stated:

[The tunnel] is a way to protect the Palestinian people from attacks and crimes of the Israeli occupation. It does not make sense to deprive Palestinians from protecting themselves.

The resistance has realized that it has the right to find a way to protect and defend its people against the use of all weapons of death and destruction by the occupation.

Young Turkish Jews emigrating because of Erdogan

From Hurriyet Daily News:

The negative atmosphere and deteriorating relationship between Turkey and Israel is putting pressure on the small community of nearly 15,000 Jews in Turkey and prompting young Turkish Jews to emigrate from the country.

Anti-Semitism, triggered by harsh statements from the Turkish government, has led to the migration of hundreds of Jewish youngsters from Turkey to the U.S. or Europe, Nesim Güveniş, deputy chairman the Association of Turkish Jews in Israel, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Oct. 21.

This unease went before the Mavi Marmara incident, and was aggravated by the notorious “one minute” spat between the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos, according to Güveniş.

“Is [Israeli President Shimon] Peres a man that could be told ‘one minute’? He is known in the world as a man of peace,” Güveniş said, recalling the Davos debate in which Erdoğan accused Peres of "knowing well how to kill" before storming out of the venue.

Güveniş is one of the 80,000 Turkish Jews in Israel who migrated in 1981. His primary reason for migrating was his two children’s unease in the politically tense Turkey of the late 1970s.

“They didn’t want to go to university where leftists or other groups were putting pressure on them to take sides at school. They went to university in Israel and we also had to move again after a couple of years. The first two years in Israel were difficult, and we had to learn the language. But I don’t regret it,” he said.

Güveniş also expressed unease on the remarks of Turkish leaders against Jews, which he says does not contribute to perception of Turkish people. “Look the environment in Turkey at the moment. We are uncomfortable with being ‘othered’ ... I am more Turkish than many. But we couldn’t make them believe it,” he said.

Israeli businessman now hesitate to make new investments in Turkey due to the atmosphere of enmity, Güveniş also noted, contrasting the present day with the past, when Turkey had much stronger relations with Israel.

Haaretz' Rihanna #fail (UPDATE)

Nope, she didn't sing what Haaretz said she sang. By now everyone is talking about it. The Algemeiner did a nice round-up:

Music fans in attendance at a Rihanna concert in Israel Tuesday night say that a claim made by a journalist, writing for Israeli daily Haaretz, that the Barbadian singer offered a nod to “Palestine” as she sang, is bogus.

“In ‘Pour it Up’ instead of ‘All I see is signs / All I see is dollar signs,’ she subbed in ‘All I see is Palestine,’” wrote Amy Klein, in a report now mirrored by the Huffington Post, UPI, BuzzFeed, Radar Online and multiple Arab outlets.

“I was amazed when I read the Haaretz story as it didn’t tally with my experience at the concert,” attendee Michael Dickson, who is the Director of advocacy group StandWithUs’s Israel office, told The Algemeiner.

Writing for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, journalist Simone Wilson said that in a poll of about 10 of her friends who attended the concert, “all of them agreed that Rihanna never used the word ‘Palestine.’”

Jerusalem Post reporter Lahav Harkov was the first to challenge the report when she tweeted “If every newspaper in the country sent ppl to the @rihanna concert & only Haaretz heard a pro-Palestinian comment, it probably didn’t happen.”

In amateur footage of Rihanna singing “Pour it Up,” at the concert, published on YouTube, the word “Palestine” can’t be heard.

Rihanna expressed enthusiasm about her trip to Israel in the lead-up to her appearance via her social media accounts, tagging her posts “#Israel.”

Amanda Silverman, Rihanna’s publicist, did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.

The Haaretz newspaper has a history of running misleading reports and has been forced to issue embarrassing corrections in the past.
Footage of Rihanna singing ”Pour it Up,” at the concert can be viewed below at 06:00 approx:

Michael Dickson, who was interviewed above, wrote up his own post about it.

Isn't it interesting that the Ha'aretz reporter misheard the lyrics?

It seems like a pattern at that newspaper. Haaretz reports what it wants to believe instead of the truth a bit too often.

UPDATE: Haaretz issued a correction:

The original headline for this article has been changed (from “All Rihanna sees 'is Palestine,' but Israelis didn’t seem to care”) and a sentence was removed from the story ("Nor did they care when in “Pour it Up” instead of “All I see is signs / All I see is dollar signs,” she subbed in “All I see is Palestine,” or the fact that she just kept inserting calls of “Tel Aviv!” in every song – never once saying the word Israel.") Upon reviewing video footage of the show posted after publication, it is clear that the change in lyrics attributed to Rihanna was mistaken.

So far, HuffPo has not changed (now they have) its headline and RadarOnline has not corrected its story either.

10/23 Links Pt2: The ‘Zionist BDS’ Lie, Hollywood Insiders Counter Celebrity BDS, Rihanna in TA

From Ian:

‘Zionist BDS’ is a Lie

Peratis is not the only American Jew to have jumped into bed with the anti-Zionists. Some readers will have heard of, for example, MJ Rosenberg, a blogger who trades on the fact that he once worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Richard Silverstein, another blogger who fuses a kind of hippie Judaism with full-throated defenses of the Iranian regime.
It leads them in farcical directions. Rosenberg, the man who popularized the anti-Semitic term “Israel-Firster,” has been complaining of late about anti-Semitism in the pro-Palestinian movement, while Silverstein has gone in the other direction, berating, on his twitter feed, a woman from Gaza for not being sufficiently supportive of Hamas!
For those of us watching this public spectacle of neurosis masking as political analysis, it’s all weirdly amusing. But nothing is so exquisitely ludicrous as Peratis’s view that you can be a Zionist and support an anti-Semitic movement at the same time.

Hollywood Insiders Form Group To Counter Celebrity BDS Campaigns

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to isolate Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank, has often had trouble gaining traction on other fronts. But the performing arts have emerged as the one field in which calls to boycott the Jewish state have yielded some response. Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Annie Lennox and Stevie Wonder, among others, have responded to calls from grassroots activists by canceling dates in Israel or declining to play there, or at Israel-related events, even as other performers, including Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan and Madonna, have pointedly ignored such calls.
But lately, a group opposed to BDS has been taking a notably different approach. Unlike its opponents, who focus on building grassroots pressure by fans, from the bottom up, the Creative Community for Peace has assembled an impressive roster of top entertainment executives supportive of Israel who are seeking to influence artists from the top down to perform there.

Towards a new ‘liberation theology’: Will progressives ever learn to embrace Jewish success?

The stubborn reality of a Jewish state, which adopts a democratic, open and largely free-market economy, vaunting impressive human development figures, while poverty and civil strife plagues those who reject such a paradigm, poses a life-threatening challenge to the progressive worldview.
If the failure of the Arab Spring has taught has taught us anything, it’s that our initial faith that freedom and prosperity will inevitably be the reward once Arab peoples are free from despotism, or even “occupation”, is indeed misplaced. While groups suffering from tyranny and under-development in the Middle East and elsewhere should continue to strive for political freedom and independence, they must realize that while they look outward at obstacles to their liberation, they must also look inward and strive to transcend the culture of fear, authoritarianism and scapegoating into one of openness, initiative and responsibility.

ADL raps Qatari organizers of swim competition over Israeli flag flap

“While it is notable that Israeli swimmers competed in the Swimming World Cup, the Qatari organizers surrendered to complaints and effectively whitewashed Israeli symbols from the competition,” ADL chief Abe Foxman said. “As more and more Arab countries host international sporting events in which Israeli athletes compete, this is an unacceptable gesture.”
“International sporting federations, who have guidelines mandating that all qualifying athletes be permitted to compete, must also now ensure that host countries guarantee that all participants and national teams – regardless of their nationalities – be treated equally, and that their national origin be fully recognized,” Foxman said. “Organizers of international sporting events cannot permit public opinion to politicize competitions, nor sully competitors."

What’s hiding behind attacks on circumcision?

In this context, connections between attacks on Jewish rituals and various anti-Israel measures emerge. The European Union greatly distorts international law when it comes to Israel. This has been exposed in a recent letter to Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, signed by more than a thousand jurists from many countries.
Now that the climate of hatred is widespread in Europe, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel laws are pushed through far more easily in many places. Battling attacks on Jewish rituals without confronting the root problem head-on is a highly mistaken policy for the Israeli government to pursue.

Satire Gone Too Far? The Onion Hurls Slurs At Redskins Owner

A satirical publication is making real news with its take on the debate surrounding the Washington Redskins nickname.
An article posted to The Onion’s website on Monday featured anti-Semitic slurs and stereotypes aimed at Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who is Jewish.
Under the headline, “Redskins’ K— Owner Refuses To Change Team’s Offensive Name,” The Onion referred to Snyder as “hook-nosed” and “shifty-eyed.” The K-word was used three times, once in the headline and twice again in the story — and it wasn’t the only derogatory term used.

Finland Convicts Department Store Owner Kärkkäinen for Publishing Anti-Semitic Articles in Free Paper

A Finnish court convicted the high-profile owner of Helsinki’s Kärkkäinen department stores for publishing anti-Semitic articles in free paper Magneetti Media, which he also owns.
Juha Kärkkäinen was fined €45,000 for “inciting hatred against an ethnic group” and was ordered to take down the offensive articles from Magneetti Media’s website, according to Jewish human rights group Simon Wiesenthal Center, which alerted Finnish authorities, including the country’s president, to the hate literature being published by Kärkkäinen and assisted local organizations in filing the lawsuit.

Rihanna, perhaps the real mayor of Tel Aviv, entertains but doesn't sing

Maybe Rihanna should have run for mayor of Tel Aviv. This is only her second time performing in the White City, but she seemed to unite much of it, with an audience ranging from children to middle-aged couples, religious to secular, straight to gay.
Rihanna also shouted "Tel Aviv" about a dozen times, said she'd never forget the night, and did not stop flashing her megawatt grin for a moment, so she already sounds like she's a fan of the city. Plus, she couldn't be blamed for the low voter turnout, since she appeared on stage an hour late, minutes after the polls closed at 10 p.m.

MEMRI: Rihanna Photo Shoot In Courtyard Of UAE Mosque Sparks Media Uproar

On October 20, 2013, during a visit to Abu Dhabi as part of a concert tour in the UAE, the singer Rihanna sparked outrage by posing for photos in the courtyard of the emirate's Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Though she was dressed modestly and wearing a hijab, the mosque authorities ordered her to leave, deeming her conduct inappropriate to a holy site. The photos were posted on Rihanna's Instagram account.
The incident was widely reported in the Arab media and social networks. Twitter users even launched a "Rihanna Defiles the Sheikh Zayed Mosque" hashtag, which saw a remarkable amount of activity. Reports published in the Arab media likewise criticized Rihanna for this incident, and also for her immodest performance in her Abu Dhabi concert later that day.

US university to open ‘peace campus’ in Nazareth

The Nazareth municipality has already designated a plot for the new campus, an offshoot of Texas A&M University, which is expected to cost $70 million and be completed by October 2015. It is still unclear, however, which academic programs it will offer.
President Shimon Peres and Texas Governor Rick Perry were scheduled to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the creation of the campus on Wednesday morning.

The American Cartoonists Who Spoke Out Against Kristallnacht

Most American editorial cartoonists, like most Americans, exhibited little interest in the plight of Germany’s Jews. But there were exceptions. A handful of cartoonists used their platforms not only to express sympathy for the refugees but also to call for practical steps to help them.
Six days after Kristallnacht, Paul Cormack, staff cartoonist for the Christian Science Monitor, drew a cartoon titled “The Best Answer to Race Persecution.” It showed a large hand, labeled “Humanity,” handing a document titled “Assistance” to a crowd of Jewish refugees.

Reinventing wheels

For GM, much of the technology needed for the vehicle of the future is being developed at its Israel research and development facility.
“The technologies that will power autonomous vehicles including smart sensing, vision imaging, human machine interface, wifi and 4G/LTE communications, and much of that is being done at our Herzliya facility, in conjunction with GM’s other R&D facility in Silicon Valley,” said Gil Golan, director of GM’s Advanced Technical Center in Israel. “The industry is being driven by customer preference and demand, and in order to keep up, we need to develop these technologies and ensure we are meeting customer demand. To stay on top of the market you have to be versatile, and the Israel ATC helps the company to do that.”

Three Israeli TV formats headed to US screens

“We are delighted that the New York, Little Mom and Magic Malabi Express formats will be distributed to the US market. The shows have been wonderful additions to our catalogue having had great success in their domestic market, and they stand an excellent chance of replicating their success in the US. These formats can be easily adapted to other cultures across all continents, so we hope this international success can be extended in the future,” said Nadav Palti, President and CEO of Dori Media Group.
New York tells the story of the son of the head of a notorious crime family who rejects the subservience of badly exploited foreign workers and is determined to change it. In Israel, it was the most watched drama of all time on the ‘YES’ channel.

"Israeli missiles found in Syria" claims Iranian newspaper

From Al Alam (Iran):

Syrian army troops have confiscated a number of Israeli-made missiles, which were in the possession of foreign-backed militants.

According to Al-Alam reporter, the seizure was made near the village of al-Tabeh in the countryside of the southwestern city of Dara’a on Monday.

Despite the missile, the Syrian troops also seized a large amount of Israeli-made weapons and ammunition, including developed machine guns and wireless communication devices.

This is not the first time that government troops have made such a seizure.

Media sources have in the past showed arms with Hebrew inscriptions, which they said originated from Israel.

Here's the photo they claim shows Israeli weapons. No close-ups of Hebrew. Too bad!