Monday, November 11, 2013

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: No illusions concerning the Obama administration
Israel is heading for what could be its most severe confrontation with the United States, despite reassuring words from the Obama administration to the contrary.
President Barack Obama’s policies have led to a US retreat at all levels in the global arena, particularly in the Middle East where his disastrous policy of “engaging” with rogue states coincided with alienating, even abandoning, traditional US allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
His administration has also totally failed to mitigate the rampant bloodshed, with hundreds of civilians being killed daily in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world.
JPost Ed: Bad deal
Iran has not, apparently, agreed to significantly reduce the number of centrifuges in operation – including its newer IR-2 centrifuges – that make nuclear breakout a real possibility.
Nor does it seem that Iran has agreed to stop construction of its Arak plutonium reactor, a project with no civilian use that, if completed, would be nearly impossible to attack, since doing so could ignite the plutonium. It has not even agreed, apparently, to significantly reduce the amount of 20-percent enriched plutonium in its possession.
And transparency, perhaps the most crucial element in any agreement, is severely lacking. All promises made by Iran must be verifiable. Sites such as Parchin, near Tehran, where Iran is thought to have conducted nuclear arms experiments, must be opened to inspectors.
Top American Jewish Leaders Slam Kerry, Obama Admin. Over Iran, Peace Talks Comments
“When a Secretary of State talks about starting a third Intifada, especially amid rising violence, it could have the effect, directly or indirectly of lighting the fuse,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, responding to Kerry’s remarks, in an interview with The Algemeiner.
“The danger here is that you legitimate an escalation by saying that ‘because there is no progress it can start an Intifada.’ There are elements there that will use this to legitimize what they are doing,” Hoenlein said. “We had a situation in the past where comments by American leaders and others set the standard for what Palestinian leaders say and do.”
Netanyahu pleads for ‘a Palestinian Ben-Gurion’
In an address marking the 40th anniversary of the death of David Ben-Gurion, delivered at the first prime minister’s home kibbutz, Sde Boker, in the Negev, Netanyahu said Israel was committed to an end-of-conflict agreement with the Palestinians — “two states for two peoples” — and was ready to make compromises to that ends. He said he longed for the emergence of a Palestinian leader who would give “a Birzeit speech” — an address, in Arabic, at the West Bank university, to parallel his own landmark two-state speech delivered at Bar Ilan University in 2009.
Netanyahu: I Won't be Silenced on Israel's Security
Speaking at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Netanyahu warned once again that the deal being made with Iran was dangerous. He also took a shot at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who had hinted in an interview earlier that Netanyahu was not aware of the terms of the proposed deal.
Netanyahu responded to Kerry by saying, “I'm continuously updated in detail.”
“For decades we have been struggling mightily against a regime that calls for our destruction and it pursues nuclear weapons in order to achieve our destruction,” said Netanyahu.
The West, he added, “put together a sanctions regime that has brought Iran to its knees, crippling sanctions. The purpose of those sanctions was to get Iran to dismantle – dismantle – its nuclear enrichment capabilities, which are used for atomic bombs and its heavy water plutonium reactor, which is used for atomic bombs.
Israeli protesters condemn Kerry’s remarks over 3rd intifada at US Consulate
Dozens of protesters gathered to condemn US Secretary of State John Kerry Sunday at Jerusalem’s US Consulate for remarks he made Thursday about the prospect of a third intifada due to Israeli intransigence, which they said resulted in the Friday firebombing of a car in Judea.
Bayit Yehudi MK to Kerry: You are not an 'honest broker' to Israeli-Palestinian talks
The Bayit Yehudi MK thanked Kerry in her letter, saying his words "finally and most strikingly revealed the extent to which you cannot serve as an honest broker."
"Whose side are you on, Mr. Secretary? On the side of terrorists who are waging an Intifada against women and children? Or on the side of the soldiers who are saving human lives?" she asked.
Dani Dayan: Kerry to Blame if Peace Talks Fail
“I was surprised to some degree by Kerry pressing the side that has just made concessions – Israel having just released prisoners – instead of addressing Palestinian intransigencies. But American foreign policy has been so misguided for the past month in the Middle East, that nothing can surprise me anymore,” Dayan told Tazpit News Agency.
Islamists Threaten: Al Aqsa is 'a Volcano'
Sheikh Kamal al-Hatib, Deputy Head of the movement headed by radical preacher Raed Salah, said that this is “a great danger,” and that political and technical preparations have already been readied. Now, he claims – all that is need is “a halakhic [Jewish legal] decree” in order to go ahead with implementation of the plan.
This is the last step before Jews declare that work has begun on building the Third Temple,
he claimed.
Hatib said “The Palestinian people will rise up to defend Al Aqsa as it did after Ariel Sharon tried to defile it in 2000.” He called the Al Aqsa Mosque “the mouth of a volcano” that is “about to explode.”
Hamas arrests Fatah members ahead of Arafat anniversary
For its part, Hamas accused Fatah of refusing to cooperate on a joint commemoration of Arafat’s death. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri wrote on his Facebook page that Fatah was insisting “it should be only a Fatah ceremony.”
Tensions between the two factions are not uncommon on the anniversary of Arafat’s death. Hamas banned celebrations in Gaza after its security forces killed several people when clashes broke out at a memorial rally in 2007.
Why did France toss a wrench in the Iran nuclear talks?
France blocked an agreement on Sunday to curb Iran’s nuclear program because, to cite French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, it did not want to be part of a con game that would allow Tehran to continue with its illicit atomic program.
France’s resistance to a perceived woefully inadequate deal prompted surprise among Iran observers and pure rage from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who described Paris on his Twitter feed as “openly hostile” toward Iran and “inept.” Al Jazeera reported that “diplomats at the talks said the last-minute objections [from France] came as a surprise and complicated the chances of agreement.”
US official: Differences with Israel on Iran only ‘tactical’
Briefing Israeli journalists in a Jerusalem hotel, the American official said that even after limited sanctions relief in the framework of an interim deal, as proposed by the West, Iran’s economy would continue to deteriorate. The official also said it wasn’t the French but the Iranians who had rejected a temporary deal Saturday in Geneva, contrary to previous reports.
Netanyahu on Iran: Worth Paying Attention When Arabs and Israelis Speak in One Voice
“You know when you have the Arabs and Israelis speaking in one voice, it doesn’t happen very often, I think it is worth paying attention to,” Netanyahu said.
As a conclusion to the current round of talks drew near, Netanyahu praised world leaders earlier on Sunday for not rushing to achieve a bad deal.
Shapiro: US won't let Iran get nuclear weapons, nor sign a bad deal
He said that the US would not "squander" the leverage yielded by the crippling economic sanctions on Iran, seen as key to Tehran's decision attend talks with world powers held earlier this week in Geneva. Echoing comments made by Secretary of State John Kerry when he met with Prime MInister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem last week, Shapiro said that no deal on Iran's atomic program would be better than a bad deal. The US, he added, would not agree to a bad deal.
Iran, UN agree on inspection at plutonium plant
The so-called “roadmap” described by Iran’s state TV would give the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency access to a key uranium mine and the site of a planned heavy water reactor, which uses a different type of coolant than regular water and produces a greater amount of plutonium byproduct than conventional reactors.
During the weekend talks in Geneva between Iran and six world powers, France insisted that more controls were needed on the planned reactor in the central city of Arak.
Iranian deputy minister shot dead in Tehran
Safdar Rahmat Abadi, Iran’s deputy industries minister, was reportedly shot in his head and chest while sitting in his personal vehicle on the capital’s Golbarg Street.
Police officers at the site claimed Abadi had been talking to the gunmen prior to his assassination, and that the bullets were most likely fired from inside the vehicle, the report said.
Iran announces new air defense missile system amid nuclear talks
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced that the Islamic Republic has successfully developed a new air defense system capable of destroying modern fighter jets and drones, Iranian Fars News agency reported on Saturday.
Report: Pyongyang Developing EMP Bomb
EMP weapons are detonated at high altitudes to damage computers and other electronic equipment across a very large territory, effectively sending the affected area into the Stone Age without directly killing anyone.
Arutz Sheva analyst Mark Langfan, who has been warning of the EMP threat for a long time, notes that North Korea and Iran have long been cooperating in the nuclear field, and that technology that reaches Pyongyang can be assumed to have reached Iran as well.
Irwin Cotler: Testing Hassan Rouhani’s commitment to human rights
Indeed, when the US negotiated an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union in 1975, it did not turn a blind eye to the USSR’s human rights abuses; instead, the Helsinki Final Act linked the security, economics, and human rights “baskets,” with human rights emerging as the most transformative of the three. Negotiations with Iran should replicate this approach.
What follows is an inventory of serious human rights abuses in Iran, and a corresponding set of queries that will serve as a litmus test for the authenticity of Rouhani’s commitment to justice and human rights for the Iranian people.
Saeed Abedini, DC’s other Iran issue, comes to the fore
Saeed Abedini may not be a household name in Israel, or even in most American homes, but for some members of Congress and his fervent supporters, he is a cause célèbre – a Jonathan Pollard or a Gilad Shalit. With talks between Iran and the P5+1 nations bringing the two sides closer to a deal over Iran’s nuclear program, the Iranian-American pastor from Boise, Idaho, is the other Iran issue – the one that is no nearer to resolution than before the talks began.
Syrian opposition agrees to attend Geneva conference
The peace conference was scheduled for, later this month but it remained unclear whether it would take place due to the ambivalence of the Syrian opposition, which set preconditions for its participation.
In a statement released Monday, the group indicated the conference must result in a political transition, a condition that must be assured before the conference begins. Guarantees that aid agencies have access besieged areas, and that prisoners be released were also on the list of conditions.
Syrian Jihadists Ban Singing and Dancing at Weddings
Al-Qaeda’s main branch in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has raided a wedding party in the suburb of Aleppo and ordered that music and singing be stopped, Al Arabiya reports, citing the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
“One leader of the Islamic State warned residents that if a music band is invited to a wedding again, the person responsible will be arrested because this is immoral,” the newspaper reported, citing an internet page belonging to Syrian activists.
  • Monday, November 11, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
From MEMRI.

This indicates that Queen Rania is wiser than every Arab leader combined.




Following are excerpts from an interview with Queen of Jordan Rania Abdallah, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on October 28, 2013:

Queen Rania Abdallah: When we talk about the youth, I believe that part of the reason for their frustration, which may have led to some of the revolutions we witness in the Arab world, is that Arab youth today live in two different worlds – the real world and the virtual world. The Internet has broadened the horizons of our youth, has opened up the world to them and has raised the level of their expectations.

Today, when our youth sit in front of the computer, they enter the virtual world. In that world, they develop a certain personality and identity for themselves, they communicate with others, they express themselves freely and comfortably. They influence the opinions of others, they see how others live their lives, and what choices are available to them. When they leave their computers, they return to the real world, and they see that nobody cares about what they have to say, that they enjoy no freedom, have no real choices, and that their hands are tied. So they have a sense of sorrow and disappointment.

These feelings lead to frustration, which, at times, leads to violence. So our priority should be to bridge the gap between the two worlds, in order to make an easy transition between the two. How can we do this? By providing our youth with skills, capabilities, and tools that will give them greater opportunities. In my opinion, providing a choice is the basis for freedom and independence. That way, we can provide people with greater room for participation, in order to change the reality around them.

[...]

When we talk about mutual agreement, we are talking about a dialogue that brings together all parties. Dialogue should be conducted in a calm, constructive, and objective manner. It should involve negotiations, which include concessions by all parties. Democracy gives rise to the legitimacy of the ballot, but this legitimacy is not absolute. After rising to power, one needs to gain the legitimacy of accomplishments, which is the most important. The transitional stage that we are witnessing today in the Arab world may be just a point in history. But building a deeply-rooted and viable democracy, which is firmly planted in our heritage, our history, our principles and our values – this will take generations. It must take its time.

[...]

I am no expert in politics, but I know one thing: The polarization, growing tension, and incitement prevailing in the Arab world do not benefit anybody, but harm everybody. We are not in some zero-sum game, in which there is a winner and a loser. From the situation we are in today, either we will all emerge as winners, or else we will all drown together. Nobody will win at the expense of others.

In my view, the greatest threat facing the Arab world today is that of being torn apart from within, through disintegration into secondary identities. Many people say that what is happening in the Arab world today is the result of an external conspiracy. [The idea that Jews are conspiring to split the Arab world is a popular one in the Arabic media - EoZ]
[...]

The stereotypical image of Islam prevailing today is, I'm sad to say, that it is a religion of hatred and violence and that all the Muslims are terrorists. This is a serious problem, which we must not ignore. It breeds fear and suspicion of the Muslims, and also encourages prejudice and bias toward them. We must take this seriously because this image is as far from the truth as can be.

For the millions of Muslims worldwide, Islam is a religion of humanitarian values and of the principles of goodness. We need to try to highlight this image of Islam. Whenever we hear about or see someone we love being hurt, we rush to his defense. So what about our religion – a religion that is a part of our identity, or our very being, of our moral values, of the way we interacts with one another? It is the religion on which we grew up and on which we raise our children. Does it not deserve our defense?

[...]

Without a doubt, there is ignorance regarding Islam, and there are affronts. But when we talk about affronts, we should be honest with ourselves, and look at what is happening in various places in the world, where the affronts and violence are perpetrated in the name of Islam.

Unfortunately, this violence strengthens the stereotypical image of Islam. Islam, along with all the monotheistic religions, is built upon compassion.

[...]

The religious discourse that we hear so loud today has fallen hostage to fatwas of takfir, of fanaticism, and of ideological closed-mindedness, as well as to calls for extremism, for hatred, and for sectarian strife. What ever happened to the language of compassion? With the discourse, we harm ourselves much more than the West harms us. We must return to the essence of our religion. We must speak loud and clear in defending our religion. When we see people distorting the image of our religion...

A few months ago, for example, we saw a man who calls himself a Muslim killing an innocent man in Britain, grabbing his decapitated head, and saying: "This is for the nation." What nation?!

We must renounce things like that. We must denounce this loudly, not cautiously. We should do so not in order to improve our image in the West, but because we owe this to our religion.
Queen Rania should immediately be appointed the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Oh, I forgot...she's a woman.

(h/t Yoel)
  • Monday, November 11, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday, Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Jerusalem. It is a bit long but worth reading, especially when things are getting even more interesting than usual in that part of the world:




I want to start with the most important thing: the most important thing is to assure the security and the future of the Jewish state, the one and only Jewish State of Israel. For decades we have been struggling mightily against a regime that calls for our destruction and it pursues nuclear weapons in order to achieve our destruction. Other's destruction too, but first ours. It is a vital interest for other countries – the United States, the Europeans, many others, the Arabs, in my opinion the Chinese and the Russians as well – but for us it's a matter of our existence. And the international community has placed demands on Iran to cease and desist the building of capabilities to produce atomic bombs that will threaten us and threaten the peace of the world. They put together a sanctions regime that has brought Iran to its knees, crippling sanctions. The purpose of those sanctions was to get Iran to dismantle – dismantle – its nuclear enrichment capabilities, which are used for atomic bombs and its heavy water plutonium reactor, which is used for atomic bombs.

This is what the sanctions are for. They're not for preventing civilian nuclear energy or medical isotopes. I suppose Iran is building those ICBMs in order to launch medical isotopes to the Iranian patients orbiting the Earth. It is to prevent fissile material – that's the material that you put inside an atomic bomb – that's what those sanctions were about. To dismantle the centrifuge installations, underground military installations, centrifuge halls, and the plutonium reactor.

Now there's a deal. Why the Iranians came to deal is obvious: because the sanctions are biting, biting their economy, crippling that regime. So they came to the table because they have to. And what is being offered now, and I'm continuously updated in detail. I know whereof I speak. What is being proposed now is a deal in which Iran retains all of that capacity. Not one centrifuge is dismantled. Not one. Iran gets to keep tons of low enriched uranium and they can take these centrifuges, which are not dismantled, in the halls, underground, which are not dismantled – using advanced centrifuges that they've already installed, some of them, that are not dismantled – and they can rush within a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, that's all, and create at the time of their choosing, the fissile material for a bomb.

Iran does not give up anything of that. It makes a minor concession that is meaningless in today's technology and in their current capacities. In other words, none of the demands of the Security Council resolutions, which the P5+1 powers passed are met. None of them! But what is given to them is the beginning of the rollback of sanctions. This means that the sanctions that took years to put in place are beginning to rollback with several billions of dollars of assets that are freed up; the automotive industry contracts that is central to Iran's economy freed up; petrochemical industry freed up; matters that involved gold and even petroleum revenues freed up some.

There are people here who deal in the marketplace. The price of anything is determined by future expectations. The pressure on Iran today is based on future expectations. That's the pressure that's built up in Iran. That's the pressure in the international community. But when you start letting up sanctions, rolling back sanctions, you are signaling in Iran that it's reversed. For the first time, you go down. And people understand it's over.

This is the deal that is proposed now. Iran does not roll back its nuclear weapons-making capacities at all, but the P5+1 are rolling back sanctions. That's a bad deal. It's a dangerous deal because it keeps Iran as a nuclear threshold nation and it may very well bring about a situation where the sanctions are dissolved or collapsed. It's a bad and dangerous deal that deals with the thing that affects our survival. And when it comes to the question of Jewish survival and the survival of the Jewish state, I will not be silenced, ever. Not on my watch.

When the Jewish people were silent on matters relating to our survival, you know what happened. This is different. We are the Jewish state. We are charged with defending ourselves and we are charged with speaking up. And it is time now to speak up – all of us. All of us have to stand up now and be counted.
I can think of nothing that is as important and as crucial. We shall continue to work with the rest of the world, and it's good that we have now a few days because this is not only in the interest of Israel; this is in the interest of the entire world. Yes, we speak up, but I think there are other nations in this region and perhaps beyond who can now unite and say: we do not want a nuclear Iran and we stand together to make sure that Iran dismantles its enrichment capacities, its heavy water plutonium reactor, all the things that they need to make nuclear weapons. They're not entitled to it and it is possible right now, given the precariousness and vulnerability of the Iranian economy, to press forward the demand for Iran to dismantle its nuclear bomb-making capacity. That's what I expect from every one of you, and I know it's achievable. And it's important.

I know that there have been many times that we have stood together. You have stood together with us. I have to stand more comfortably. Well, I have a list of all the people who are here and I want to acknowledge all of you, my dear friends. First of all, my friend of many, many decades, Michael Siegal. Michael, you're a true champion of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
And Dede Feinberg and Jerry Silverman and Michael & Susie Gelman and Ronny Douek and recently elected Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat, doing a great job. Well, one mayor deserves another, Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, welcome.

Well now, I know something about Philadelphia. It's the City of Brotherly Love. We're all brothers and sisters here in a common cause, so welcome back to Jerusalem all of you.

Every five years, the Jewish Federations convene the General Assembly here in Israel. Well, that's a fact. You've come here in good times, and you've come here in difficult times. You have come here when we have have faced violence and terrorism. You kept on coming and so I am very glad to welcome you here. And you demonstrate by doing this to the entire world that there is a vibrant, united Jewish world, and that is exemplified first by the tremendous bond between Israel and the Jewish communities of the United States and Canada. You are our partners. You are our brothers and sisters, and we are one big Jewish family. And like all families, we have to face challenges together. That's what families do.

I mentioned Iran, and I mentioned those ICBMs. What is Iran targeting when it's building those ICBMs? Not us. They already have rockets to reach us and missiles. They need those ICBMs to reach North America. It'll take them a few years – not many by the way. And they could be nuclear tipped ICBMs. That's the plan coming to a theater near you. Do you want that? I don't hear you. Well, do something about it. We are. This is the greatest threat. I began with it, I continue with it. Iran must end enrichment at all levels, because they don't need it. They must take out from their territory all the fissile material. They must stop the construction of the heavy water reactor in Arak. And Iran must dismantle the considerable military nuclear infrastructure, including the underground facilities and the advanced centrifuges.

It's not my position. This has been the position of the international community. I stress it again. So here's what you see over time: what you see is as you go from 2005, 2004, Iran is steadily building its nuclear weapons capability and the international community is steadily diminishing and reducing its demands. It's almost a perfect scissor's movement. That's the bad news. The good news is that parallel to the increase in Iranian capabilities, just to give you an idea, they had I think in 2005 around 170 centrifuges. You know how many they have today? About 18,000. That's not 100% increase – it's a hundred fold increase. This in the face of all international resolutions. That's not surprising because this is a regime that, in the face of all international resolutions, murders tens of thousands of innocent people, including children, in Syria. It participates, its keeps Assad going. There is no Assad regime; there's an Iranian-propped Assad regime. It's a regime that practices terror as we speak on five continents; a regime that supplies Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah with endless rockets to fire on Israeli civilians; a regime that remains committed to our destruction and subverts just about every single country in the Middle East, and let me tell you, beyond the Middle East. It's a regime that tries to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington and sends its killers either directly or through its proxy, Hezbollah, to Bangkok, to Nigeria, to Bulgaria, everywhere. This regime cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. It's a historically pivot.

So the good news is that the international community did do something powerful and the powerful thing was to get those sanctions that followed Iran's building of its capabilities and now, when Iran is on the ropes, now when Iran has to come to negotiate, now when Iran understands that if they don't make a real compromise, they'll get more sanctions – now you let it out? Now you say, well, if we don't acquiesce to their demands, they'll continue? They can't continue because their economy will collapse. And even if they do, they'll maintain their capabilities now? I always said that the combination of crippling sanctions and a military option – that has the power to stop Iran and everything I see tells me that. I think it's important to have steady nerves and a firm purpose and stop this program. We can do it.

In any case, you know that the idea of the Jewish state and the purpose of the Jewish state is to enable Jews to defend themselves. This is something that we could not do before we had the Jewish state. But we can do it now and we shall always, always defend ourselves and defend our state.

I heard the learned commentaries of experts who explained to us that Israel cannot defend itself. They must know something I don't know. This is our purpose. This is our goal. This is our way of assuring our destiny. And we have not come nearly four millennia in our odyssey over time, from the time that Abraham set foot in this country to the present, to have the likes of the ayatollahs threaten our life. We will always defend ourselves and our state.

We also want to see peace with our Palestinian neighbors. I want to see peace with our Palestinian neighbors. I am ready for a historic compromise. We need to end this conflict once and for all, and to end it, there's a simple principle. That principle is: two nation-states, two states for two peoples. Not one state for one people, the Palestinians, and then another state for two peoples. No. Two states for two peoples, which means that if the Palestinians expect us to recognize the Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, they must recognize the Jewish state for the Jewish people.

Now, you've got to ask yourself a simple question: not why am I raising this obvious, simple, basic demand; but why have they persisted in refusing to accept it? Why? Why do they refuse to accept the simple principle of a Jewish state? Now, I'm not asking it for them to affirm our identity. I don't need that. I know our history, believe me; I know our attachment to this land; I know our own nationhood. I'm asking it because I want them to give up any demands, any national demands, any claims on the Jewish state. That's what peace is about. It's not to make a Palestinian state from which they continue the conflict to try to dissolve the Jewish state, either through the "right of return" or through irredentist claims on our territory in the Negev and the Galilee or anywhere else. It's to finally come to grips with something they have refused to come to grips with for close to a century – that the Jewish state is here by right, that is has a right to be here. And they must recognize that right and teach their children to recognize that right and to accept it.

I think this conflict began in 1921. My grandfather came here in 1920 in Jaffa, got off the boat to a little boat and then in a dinghy came to Jaffa port; went from there to the Jewish immigration office in Jaffa. In 1921, a mob attacked this immigration house because the Palestinian Arabs were opposed to any Jewish immigration at all. This was followed in 1929 by the massacre of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron. Horrible, disembowelment of children, beheading of babies, horrible. And that was followed by system attacks on the Jewish community from 1936 to 1939. And that was followed by systemic efforts by the Palestinian leadership, led by the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, during the war years in Berlin with Hitler to advocate the Final Solution. Don't expel the Jews, he said, destroy them. And that was followed finally after the tragedy that befell our people, with a declaration and a resolution by the United Nations for two states – a Jewish state. They didn't say a Palestinian state, by the way. They said an Arab state, but that's all right. We accepted and they refused. And then from 1947 until 1967, system attacks on us, an attempt to snuff out the life of the Jewish state by three Arab countries and several Arab armies in May of 1967 that we foiled in the great victory of the Six Day War.

So from 1921 to 1967, nearly half a century – 46 years – there were systemic attacks on the very nature of a Jewish state. Not on settlements – there weren't any. Not on our presence in the territories – we weren't there. What was this conflict about? Not on the absence of a Palestinian state. They rejected it; we accepted it. This conflict was not about settlements, about territories, even though these issues will have to be resolved. It wasn't even about a Palestinian state. It was and still is about the Jewish state. They have to recognize the Jewish state.

And you know, afterwards, when we left Gaza, every square inch of it, and they kept on firing rockets at us, and we asked them: why are you firing rockets at us? Is it to liberate Judea and Samaria, the West Bank? They said, yeah, sure, but that too. We said, what do you mean, that too? They said, well, it's to liberate Palestine – Ashkelon (they call it Majda), Ashdod, Beer Sheva, Jaffa. So that's the bad guys, the guys who are lobbing the rockets on us. What about the other part of Palestinian society, those who don't engage in terror (and it's good they don't engage in terror)? I ask them, so will you recognize the Jewish state? We recognize the Israeli people, we recognize the State of Israel. No, no, no, that's not what I asked. Will you recognize the state of the Jewish people? You have a state. Palestinians can go there if they choose. We have a state. Jews can come here – a Jewish state – if they choose. Do you recognize that? No. Do you recognize that you won't have any national claims wherever the border is drawn? No answer.

This conflict is about the Jewish state. Have I made that point, you think, subtly enough? You get it. Alright. So now let's ask the second question. Because, you know, since 1921 until today it's almost a century of unremitting incitement and an education of hatred. Now, I don't mean in Hamas or Islamic Jihad. I mean in the Palestinian Authority: textbooks, schools, kindergartens. I showed John Kerry a teacher teaching young kids – four year olds, five year olds. What will you be? Shaheedim, martyrs (that's suicide bombers)? And what will you struggle for? Palestine? What is Palestine? From Kiryat Shmona to Umm-Rash-Rash (that's Eilat). From the river to the sea.

That's what they teach. In their textbooks, Israel disappears. It completely disappears. In their state-controlled media – what a wonderful term – in their state-controlled media, they control everything. That's what they put forward. We had a wonderful initiative that President Peres and I put forward to bring the Barcelona team, the soccer team, to Israel to play with the Palestinians and then to play with Israel, combined Jewish-Arab games in Israel. In the Palestinian territory, they played in Hebron. When they came to President Peres a day later, there was a song in Hebrew, in Arabic, we talked of peace, we talked of two states for two peoples, we had an exhibition game – Jewish children, Arab children from Israel… that was Israel. A day earlier – I found out that a day later but a day earlier in Hebron, in the soccer stadium, the Palestinian football federations, an official arm and an official spokesman and he said to the Barca team: welcome to Palestine. Palestine is from the river to the sea, from Lebanon to the Red Sea, from Eilat to Rosh Hanikra, the Arab name for Rosh Hanikra.

There is a century of this. The minimum thing that we can demand, aside from demanding the end of incitement, but to get a deal is that the official position of the Palestinian leadership recognize the Jewish state. That's a minimum, but I don't delude myself. This will be a long process. But it must begin with that. Otherwise, what are we saying? That this plan to dissolve Israel in stages will continue? Of course not. But we also have to recognize that it may not take root. It may not. We have at best a cold peace. I hope for a warm one. By the way, a cold peace is better than a hot war. But a warm peace is better than a cold peace. I hope for a warm peace, beginning with that recognition of the Jewish state and the abandonment of the "right of return" and all those other fantasies that are still harbored in Palestinian culture.

But we have to know that even if the Palestinian leadership puts an end to 90 years of rejection, and even if they recognize the Jewish state, we know that in this volatile and violent region, that can be reversed. We know that in our region, there can be no durable peace that is not based on security. A peace agreement that is not based on absolute, robust security arrangements for Israel, by Israel, will not stand the test of time. We want a peace that endures. We need a peace based on security. That's the other fundament. We need security to defend the peace. But we also need security to defend Israel in case the peace unravels. And in our region, peace has a tendency to unravel now and then, if you haven't watched around us. You have.

Now for this genuine peace of a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state, for this peace I am willing to make difficult decisions. I am willing to be both creative and flexible. But I cannot compromise and will not compromise on the safety and security of the one and only Jewish state. And the Palestinians, of course, will have to compromise too. They'll have to compromise and accept the legitimacy and necessity of robust security arrangements that ensure that Israel's security border does not begin four miles from Ben-Gurion airport and a few hundred meters from this hall.

You know, Israel is the most challenged country on Earth. There is no other country, no other power, that is challenged for its very survival as we are, and we are one of the smallest countries on Earth. We need to have very robust security arrangements, and these are the two essential foundations for a secure peace – mutual recognition of two nation-states and robust security arrangements. This is what we need – we need many other things, believe me, many other things. For example, we have this minor attachment – well, I'm joking – we have this small… no, we have this huge, historic attachment to our capital, Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. It's always been our capital; it always will be our undivided capital.

But I don't want to do the negotiations here. I do want to say that I hope that this current round of talks will lead to peace. I hope the other side, like me, is ready to make tough decisions for peace. I stood at Bar Ilan University – it's a religious university – and I expressed my willingness to recognize a Palestinian nation-state alongside their recognition of a Jewish nation-state. That wasn't easy. In my previous government, I agreed to an unprecedented freeze on construction in the settlements. Believe me, that wasn't easy. But there is something even harder, maybe the toughest decision I made. I agreed to the release of terrorist prisoners. They served 20 years. They killed a lot of people. I've made difficult choices to try to advance the peace, but it must be a two way street. It cannot be that the Palestinians are forever pampered by the international community; that their incitement goes by without a tick; that their refusal to recognize a Jewish state goes by without a bat of an eyelash; that their inefficacy in fighting terrorism is accepted or lionized as a great capacity. It's time that the international community, certainly the serious members of the international community, understand this is a two-way street because peace is not a one-way street and it won't be. To stick, it's going to be very tough, not only for Israel. Everybody says that. It's going to be very tough for the Palestinian leadership. It must be, otherwise it's not a genuine peace. And we don't want a fake peace. We've had enough.

So the question is, will they rise up to it? I don't know. It's in their interest. I hope that they stand up, not only for themselves – and I think they would if they accepted what I'm saying, but they would ensure a future for their children and for their grandchildren and for future generations. But they must be able to give the Beir Zeit speech. They must be able to give the Beir Zeit speech. A Palestinian leader must do what Anwar Sadat did. He said, it's over, it's gone. No more war. No more bloodshed. But he was speaking for Egypt. A Palestinian leader must stand and say, I accept the Jewish state. That's a simple litmus test of seriousness.

We have another kind of peace that we have to foster and continuously promote – it's our internal peace. We call it shalom bayit, peace in our house. That's always guided me as Prime Minister. I always said I have to keep the peace of the Jewish people. I am the Prime Minister of Israel, Israel is the Jewish state. I have to worry about the inclusion of Jews from every part of the Jewish world.

The Kotel is in Israel, but the Kotel belongs to all the Jewish people. And I have been working with you – not merely for you, with you – because I think we have to consult together and reach solutions together. I asked Natan Sharansky, a great Jewish leader, to bring the Jewish people a solution, to bring me a solution, and I think he has. I asked my Cabinet Secretary, Avichai Mandelblit, a very able, very able public servant, to help along with that. We have now a solution; it reflects my desire to have a solution for all of you, by all of you, with all of you. And I am convinced that we can soon have this solution in place.

We have also been working closely to have young Jews from North America and from around the world, come to Israel. When I was Prime Minister the first time – this is my third term. In my first term, people came to me, Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman, came to me with a revolutionary idea of having Taglit. They said they're putting up the money, but they said, you know, there's one small factor: you have to put up money too. And when we spoke about it with the Cabinet and with others, they said, what? Israel will pay money? You remember this, Natan. Israel will pay money to bring American kids here? And I said, yeah, it's our future, and yes, we're going to do it. And we'll put our money where our mouth is. And we did 15, 16 years ago. And we've done it since. It's been a tremendous success – Taglit, Masa, Hefzibah. We're committed to this.

Now, as you know, we have a new initiative, a broad and deep initiative to unite the Jewish people, to initiate programs to help reach the inner cords of identity of the Jewish people around the world. We know we're challenged by the internet age. We know that it fragments people. We cannot change that; we don't intend to change that; we don't intend to go against the internet. We intend to use the internet. We're not going to go into horse and buggies. We understand it's a new age. In fact, Israel is leading technologically this tremendous development. But we also know it challenges our unity. We also know that the forces of assimilation and intermarriage are there. We also read these recent polls. We understand: we have a challenge. You understand, together, that we have a challenge. And we have sponsored this initiative to work together, think this through together, and then put forward programs to help solidify the core of the conviction and identity that is so central to securing our future.

When I think of the challenges that the Jewish people have undergone, challenges that no nation has undergone, no people have undergone, and we've been able to overcome them over nearly 4,000 years – challenges to our physical survival, challenges to our spiritual survival and cohesion. I know that we have that inner strength to guarantee the Jewish future. I know it and you know it; and together we're going to achieve exactly that – to defend and secure the Jewish people and the one and only Jewish state. I say that here in our eternal capital, Jerusalem, and I know, I know that you stand with me.

Thank you very much, all of you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.


(h/t Brian of London, Yoel)

  • Monday, November 11, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
From WAFA:
The newly appointed British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Hugh Robertson, Wednesday called at the conclusion of a visit to occupied Palestinian territories for avoiding what he described as provocative actions in holy places.

Robertson, who has visited Jerusalem’s Old City including al-Haram al-Sharif, the site of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, said that discussing the situation of Jerusalem’s holy sites with President Mahmoud Abbas, “We agreed that, given the particular sensitivities, provocative actions in these holy sites pose a risk to the peace process and must be avoided.”

Palestinians have warned that continued Israeli efforts to change the status quo in al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest Muslim site, by dividing it between Muslims and Jews and the ongoing provocative tours by Jewish fanatics of the mosque yards could leave a dangerous impact on life in the city.
The quotes are confirmed by the FCO website. (h/t Ian)

So, Mr. Robertson, can you define what is considered "provocative"?

Because Jews who visit the Temple Mount have been quiet and respectful, even when they decide to pray there. The Muslims, however, have on many occasions thrown stones and chairs and chanted insults at the peaceful Jews. They have rioted when they think that too many Jews have ascended to Judaism's holiest spot.

So please explain to the world, Mr. Robertson, when Jews are walking quietly on their holiest site - forced to be protected by Israeli guards because of the risk of wild Muslim rioters tearing them limb from limb - are the Jews the ones who are acting "provocatively"? Or, perhaps, sometimes, the Muslim rioters are?

Given that you seem to have made this statement at the behest of the Palestinian Arabs, it sure sounds like you are saying that  Jews by their very presence are acting provocatively on the Temple Mount, and therefore must be banned. Is that what you are saying?

Do you agree with the PA that these Jews are acting provocatively?


Do you agree with the PA that these women chanting threats to Jews on the Temple Mount, threatening them with war,  are behaving properly?



Do you agree with the PA that these Jews are acting provocatively and must be banned?



Do you agree with the PA that these people stepping on Stars of David are acting properly and their rights are being trampled upon by Jews on the Temple Mount?


Beyond that, are you saying that Jews should be banned from praying on the Temple Mount, which would violate a number of basic human rights principles?

If that is indeed what you are saying, and it sure sounds like you are, it shows far more about the British Foreign Office than you might have intended to reveal.

Is there any reporter out there who can ask these very simple questions to the esteemed Mr. Robertson?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Al Arabiya reports:

Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah was the subject of mocking at a Lebanese television program this week, raising anger among his supporters who protested against the show.

His supporters took to the streets on Friday, burning tires and blocking roads in several parts of Lebanon.

It wasn’t the first time Nasrallah was mocked in Basmat Watan, a slapstick program aired by LBC TV.

In 2006 Nasrallah’s character appeared in the program and the result was a similar one; people protesting and burning tires in the streets.

This week’s program poked jokes at Hezbollah's role in Syria, with Nasrallah's character lamenting what he said was a late intervention.

"Our weapons should have included planes and submarines," he said.
Here's the skit in Arabic:

  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Most sources say that there are around 100 Jews left in Egypt.

But an interview with the new leader of Egypt's Jewish community, the rabidly anti-Zionist Magda Haroun, indicates that things are much worse than that.

According to Dostour, Haroun says that there are now "nearly 20" Jews left in all of Egypt.

Haroun was attending a press conference to ensure that Egypt's latest constitution provides rights for minorities, saying that "even if there is only one Jew in Egypt they deserve their rights."

It is easy to provide rights to people after they have been ethnically cleansed.

Here are the numbers of Jews left in Arab countries, from a number of sources.

Country
1948 Jewish population
Current Jewish population
Algeria
140,000
0
Bahrain
600
37 (2011)
Egypt
80,000
19 (2013)
Iraq
140,000
8 (2008)
Lebanon
5000
20 (2003)
Libya
38,000
0
Morocco
300,000
2,500 (see comments)
Syria
40,000
50 (2013) (16 - see comments)
Tunisia
105,000
1500 (see comments)
Yemen
80,000
350 (100 - see comments)
Jordan
0
0
  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
It's been a few years since I did my last Beatles trivia question (which was "How many Beatles songs have the lyrics "yeah, yeah, yeah" - I thought of 5, my niece came up with #6, see here for the answers).

Since Sunday is a light blog day, here's a new one:

What do these Beatles songs have in common?
  • Can't Buy Me Love
  • A Hard Day's Night
  • Hey Jude
  • Got to Get You Into My Life
  • Savoy Truffle
  • Here Comes the Sun
  • Something
I believe that this list is complete, meaning that every other song does not have the attribute I am thinking of.

Bizarre hint: "It's Only Love" is not on this list, although some mistakenly think it should be.

It is fun to try to find trivia questions where Google is next to useless :)

Answer tomorrow unless someone figures it out first.

UPDATE: Answer here.

  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
This is too funny:
The closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip has delayed the launch of Gaza Ark, an improvised cargo ship built by Gaza fishermen set to sail to Europe in protest against the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Member of the Gaza Strip association of fishermen Mahfouth Kabariti said Sunday that the Gaza Ark was supposed to set sail by the end of 2013, but as a result of the closure of Rafah crossing, the launch has been delayed to spring 2014.

He noted that in order to be seaworthy, the Gaza Ark still needed international standard navigation equipment that could only be brought into Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
Hey, maybe they can try to sail to Egypt and pick up the supplies that way!

Oh, wait, Egypt shoots at Gaza boats. Because they sometimes have terrorists.

So the people who want to publicly protest Israel's border restrictions on Gaza are thwarted by Egypt's border restrictions on Gaza.

Yet, for some reason, there is no international cry blaming Egypt for having more draconian policies towards Gaza than Israel does.

By the way, the Rafah crossing was closed today for the third day in a row. The "Free Gaza" movement is curiously silent.

(h/t PTWatch)

From Ian:

Understanding global anti-Semitism
As our global age is political in that people now understand that virtually all spheres of life are governed or profoundly influenced by politics. So too today’s anti-Semitism, which before was mainly cultural or socially oriented, has now adopted a political cast.
Hence anti-Semitic governments, through the UN and as a matter of domestic and foreign policy, promote anti-Semitism, and indeed have forged something against Israel that exists against no other country: an international eliminationist political alliance.
Finally, because nothing incites anti-Semites more than the specter of Jews being powerful, and because the global world is a world organized by the international state system, global anti-Semites relentlessly focus their ire and efforts on deprecating, demonizing and delegitimizing Israel. Many though certainly not all of them want to destroy the country.
Such is the logic of today’s globally oriented global anti-Semitism.
Europe marks 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht with new calls for boycotts
Having concluded that by and large, the European political class has long abandoned Israel, it would be nice to state that this is not the case for European civil society. Romantic perceptions would have it that, at the very least, ordinary European citizens would be on the right side of history. Sadly this is not the case. In parallel with their political leaders, much of European civil society, consisting of trade unions, academia, churches and other non-governmental organisations, has stepped up its dipomatic war against Israel and is pressing for more sanctions and boycotts. When the World Council of Churches met recently for its annual meeting in Geneva, there was little concern for its persecuted Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East; but there were four workshops on the issue of – you guessed it – the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The problems in Europe in 2013 are the same as in 1938. When the boycotts and singling out of the Jewish people began, the good people chose to look the other way. It is now high time to look in the right direction.
Gantz: ‘We will never again be helpless against our enemies’
Speaking at the Berlin- Grunewald station’s Track 17 memorial, used by the Nazis as a major deportation site to send Jews to concentration camps during the Second World War, Gantz said. “The State of Israel in 2013 is strong. The Jewish nation-state is a democratic and advanced country with a powerful military that deters [its enemies]. Today too, we are required to deal with hostile states and organizations that seek to harm us, but unlike the past, we face our enemies from a position of strength – stronger than ever before.”
Israel’s chief rabbi remembers Kristallnacht in Berlin
Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi marked the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht with a visit to a Jewish kindergarten in Berlin.
“Connecting Jews in Germany to their roots is the worthiest retort to the darkness that prevailed here 75 years ago,” Rabbi David Lau said during his first official visit to Berlin, where he went to the Chabad-run Judische Traditionsschule Talmud-Thora kindergarten.
Christianity is based on love; but sometimes hate prevails
It has always been puzzling why the WCC, and similar mainstream organizations purporting to pursue peace continue to use extravagant, biased rhetoric and misleading historical statements in their approach to the controversial issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict. That rhetoric degrades rather than attempts to repair relations between the competing parties.
It also refuses to acknowledge the historical consequences, in territory and refugees, of the Arab invasion of the State of Israel after its establishment on May 14, 1948.
The PIEF claims to be a forum intended to rally churches and groups to "end the illegal occupation of Palestine in accordance with UN resolutions" and to press for a "just peace in Palestine-Israel." However, the real nature of its objective is clear from its approval of the Kairos Palestine Document.
NGO Monitor Awarded the 2013 Begin Prize
The prestigious Begin Prize, in recognition of "their strong stance in the defense of Israel and the Jewish people," will be awarded to NGO Monitor on December 4, 2013. Founded in 2002 by Professor Gerald Steinberg and the Wechsler Family Foundation, NGO Monitor is an independent research institute based in Jerusalem and the primary source of expertise on activities and funding of political non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. NGO Monitor was nominated by 2010 Begin Prize recipient Prof. Alan Dershowitz and Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky, among others.
Lessons on hypocrisy from Syria
The fighting in Syria once again proves the sad old adage that human rights organizations and their advocates in the mainstream Western media are essentially anti-Israel. There is no other way to explain the fact that all these high-and-mighty moralizers are ignoring the frightening plight of Palestinians and Christians in the Syrian civil war.
You see, there is no anti-Israel angle to the story of Palestinian or Christian suffering in Syria. That suffering can’t really be blamed on the Jews. So nobody cares.
First robbed of their books, now robbed of their history
Pleading in the New York Times for the archive not to be sent back to Iraq, Cynthia Kaplan Shamash begins by describing the 1941 Farhud, ‘the forgotten pogrom of the Holocaust’. The murder of over a hundred Jews, seven years before the establishment of Israel, caused Iraqi Jews to conclude that they had no future in the country.
Cynthia’s family, however, stayed in Iraq on until the 1970s. She was eight years old when an officer accused her of being a spy. Her doll was taken apart to see if it contained a bugging device. She still has the doll. In their desperation to escape Iraq’s anti-Jewish human rights abuses, the family had to leave behind almost all their other possessions. The archive represents essential ‘lost luggage’: it reconnects them with the life they left behind.
Controversy surrounding Iraqi Jewish Archive ignored in BBC feature
Jane O’Brien’s article is both interesting and informative – in so far as it goes. Curiously, it avoids any mention of vital aspects of the story including the controversy surrounding the subject of the proposed hand-over of the restored archive to Iraq, making do with one short sentence on that subject.
Readers remain entirely unaware that Iraqi Jewish organisations are opposed to the documents being sent to a country where almost no Jews remain or of the fact that such a move would mean that Jewish scholars and the descendants of Iraqi Jewry would have no further access to the archive.
Terrorist’s Facebook Profile Exposes Recent Stabbing Attempt as Suicide Attack
A terrorist’s Facebook profile reveals the truth behind his attack against Israeli soldiers last Thursday. His suicidal Facebook messages suggest that he acted like many terrorists before him – attempting to end his own life and murder IDF soldiers in the process.
PA Digging for Oil in Judea and Samaria
On Saturday Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mohammed Mustafa, said that the PA is in the final stages of preparation before advertising bids internationally to drill for oil in Judea and Samaria.
The drilling is planned for the area around Rantis, according to an interview for Palestinian TV by the Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. He claims Israel produces 800 barrels of oil per day from the region.
The Palestinian Tamarrud Protest Movement Aims To Bring Down The Hamas Government In Gaza
Recently, the Gaza-based Palestinian Tamarrud movement has been waging a campaign on social networks to bring down the Hamas government in Gaza. The movement's activity is mainly in Gaza, but it also has members in the West bank and among the Palestinian diaspora. The spokesmen of the 90,000-strong movement say that it is apolitical and that its members do not belong to any Palestinian faction. However, several characteristics of the movement clearly show a connection to Fatah – including the involvement of Fatah members in its activity; its setting of its official founding date and the date its activity begins as November 11, 2013, which is the ninth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death; and the similarity of its messages to those of Fatah.
Egypt ‘skeptical’ about Israeli-Palestinian peace deal
In an interview with AFP Saturday, Fahmy said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “essentially accepted a historic compromise between the Palestinians and the Israelis and is simply asking for a contiguous state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
“We are worried, I would even add to it, to a degree skeptical, but committed to trying to help as much as we can,” Fahmy said, adding “settlement activity … is expanding and also going to the heart of the West Bank.”
Netanyahu lauds delay in Iran nuclear talks
“Over the weekend I spoke with President Barack Obama, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with French President Francois Hollande, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron,” Netanyahu related.
“I told them that, based on information Israel has received, the deal taking shape is bad and dangerous. Not just for us, but for them as well. I suggested they wait and think carefully, and it’s good that they decided to do so. We will do everything in our power to convince these powers and these leaders to avoid a bad deal.”
The devil is in the nuclear details
There are four possible deals that may be reached during the next round of talks in Geneva, following the narrow failure of the attempt to reach an agreement on Sunday morning. Amos Yadlin, a former IDF military intelligence chief who heads the INSS think tank, labeled them in an October article in the Wall Street Journal as such: Ideal, reasonable, bad and in phases.
US has ‘folded’ on Iran, Israeli political sources charge
Senior political sources said that the deal that has been sitting on the negotiations table since the weekend is “very bad.” It calls on Iran to stop enriching uranium to the 20 percent level, but allows them to continue enriching uranium to 3.5% at all of its enrichment sites. In addition it fails to place a limitation on the number of centrifuges in Tehran’s possession, estimated to number 19,000.
Rouhani: Enrichment is our Red Line
Iran’s president described the right to enrich uranium as the country’s “red line” Sunday, as Tehran and the groups of six major world powers concluded negotiations in Geneva, reported the official Press TV.
Addressing Iranian lawmakers in Majlis, Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic “will not bow to threats by any power.”
Iran state TV calls France ‘Israel’s representatives at the talks’
“While the French people want an improvement in the relations between Paris and Tehran, unfortunately the French government has preferred the Zionist regime’s views to its people’s demand,” he added.
“We hope that the French foreign minister casts a logical look at the negotiations,” Hosseini said.
Norway Coalition Government Weighs Ending Arms Ban to Israel to Increase Exports
Norway’s new coalition government is weighing a decision to lift a 2002 ban on selling arms to Israel, Israel’s Globes business daily reported on Friday, citing an interview with Norwegian MP Jorund Rytmanin in Defense News.
The ban was supported by the previous Socialist regime of Jens Stoltenberg that governed from 2005 until last month.
Cloud gives Google another reason to like Israel
There are a lot of reasons for Google to like Israel. With two major R&D facilities, Google Israel has been behind many important innovations for the company – including the technology behind Google products like Search Live Results, Person Finder, Google Suggest, Youtube Annotations, and more. It’s fair to say that Google just wouldn’t be the same without its two major Israeli research centers.
There’s another reason for the company to like Israel, said Dan Powers, Director of the Google Cloud Platform. “Israel is one of the fastest growing markets for cloud technology,” Powers said. Unlike the situation in other countries, “Israeli companies are not afraid of the cloud, and they realize that this is the best way to go globally quickly.”
  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Alan Baker, Attorney, Ambassador (ret’)
P.O.B. 182, Har Adar, Israel 90836
Tel: +972-54-3322643


The Hon. James Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State,
The State Department,
Washington D.C.

November 8, 2013


Dear Secretary Kerry,

After listening to you declare repeatedly over the past weeks that "Israel's settlements are illegitimate", I respectfully wish to state, unequivocally, that you are mistaken and ill advised, both in law and in fact. 

Pursuant to the "Oslo Accords", and specifically the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement (1995), the "issue of settlements" is one of subjects to be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations. President Bill Clinton on behalf of the US, is signatory as witness to that agreement, together with the leaders of the EU, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Norway. 

Your statements serve to not only to prejudge this negotiating issue, but also to undermine the integrity of that agreement, as well as the very negotiations that you so enthusiastically advocate.

Your determination that Israel's settlements are illegitimate cannot be legally substantiated. The oft-quoted prohibition on transferring population into occupied territory (Art. 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention) was, according to the International Committee Red Cross's own official commentary of that convention, drafted in 1949 to prevent the forced, mass transfer of populations carried out by the Nazis in the Second World War. It was never intended to apply to Israel's settlement activity. Attempts by the international community to attribute this article to Israel emanate from clear partisan motives, with which you, and the US are now identifying.

The formal applicability of that convention to the disputed territories cannot be claimed since they were not occupied from a prior, legitimate sovereign power. 

The territories cannot be defined as "Palestinian territories" or, as you yourself frequently state, as "Palestine". No such entity exists, and the whole purpose of the permanent status negotiation is to determine, by agreement, the status of the territory, to which Israel has a legitimate claim, backed by international legal and historic rights. How can you presume to undermine this negotiation?

There is no requirement in any of the signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians that Israel cease, or freeze settlement activity. The opposite is in fact the case. The above-noted 1995 interim agreement enables each party to plan, zone and build in the areas under its respective control. 

Israel's settlement policy neither prejudices the outcome of the negotiations nor does it involve displacement of local Palestinian residents from their private property.  Israel is indeed duly committed to negotiate the issue of settlements, and thus there is no room for any predetermination by you intended to prejudge the outcome of that negotiation.

By your repeating this ill-advised determination that Israel's settlements are illegitimate, and by your threatening Israel with a "third Palestinian intifada" and international isolation and delegitimization, you are in fact buying into, and even fueling the Palestinian propaganda narrative, and exerting unfair pressure on Israel. This is equally the case with your insistence on a false and unrealistic time limit to the negotiation. 

As such you are taking sides, thereby prejudicing your own personal credibility, as well as that of the US.

With a view to restoring your own and the US's credibility, and to come with clean hands to the negotiation, you are respectfully requested to publicly and formally retract your determination as to the illegitimate nature of Israel's settlements and to cease your pressure on Israel.

Respectfully,






Alan Baker, Attorney, Ambassador (ret'),
Former legal counsel of Israel's Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
Former ambassador of Israel to Canada,
Director, Institute for Contemporary Affairs, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 
Director, International Action Division, The Legal Forum for Israel 

Copy:
H.E. Daniel B. Shapiro, US Ambassador to Israel,

71 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv, Israel 63903


(h/t Jan)


  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press Agency discusses the now week-old Gaza blackout.

It quotes Popular Struggle Front member Mahmoud Azzak as saying "The Hamas movement rejects up to now the obligation to pay what is needed for the price of industrial diesel needed to run the power plant, saying that Hamas does not pay one shekel for the electricity that feeds the Gaza Strip from Israel and Egypt."

Israel provides the bulk of Gaza's electricity, 120 MW. Egypt provides about 22 MW and the Gaza power plant, when operational, provides 60 MW. The PA pays Israel for the electricity, effectively indirectly funding the Hamas terror group with Western funds.

Hamas wants that same deal for fuel imported from Israel - it wants the PA to pay for the entire amount (or at least to not charge tax) so Hamas can stay in power for a while longer.

Meanwhile, Hamas is holding Gazans hostage, preferring to keep them cold and dark rather than pay whatever it takes to give them power. It would rather use them to pressure the PA to provide fuel at a discount.

When Hamas was smuggling fuel from Egypt, it taxed Gazans heavily to use it.

Tomorrow are the planned anti-Hamas protests in Gaza. It will be worth following.





  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Al Masry al Youm reports that a Kuwaiti karate competitor has forfeited his match, and a chance for a bronze medal, rather than compete against an Israeli today.

The World Junior Karate and Cadet Championships are being held in Guadalajara, Spain, this year.

The Secretary General of the Karate Union in Kuwait said that players were explicitly told not to play any Israeli competitors.

It remains to be seen if the World Karate Federation will punish the Kuwaiti team for violating the spirit of competition the way the International Tennis Federation recently punished Tunisia.

  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
You know how Israel haters say that Israel building a fence to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks is a "land-grab"?

They usually say that Israel would be perfectly allowed to build such a fence on the Green Line itself, but not to protect Israelis in who live across it even in areas that would never be part of "Palestine."

Well, it turns out that the Green Line is not so sacred to them when they don't like it.

Ma'an reports:

Battir is a Palestinian village southwest of Jerusalem famous for maintaining a Roman-era terraced irrigation system in continuous use for nearly 2000 years. The Hejaz Railway, an Ottoman-built track originally running from Damascus to Medina, winds through the valley intersecting the village.

Israeli authorities subsequently drew the Green Line along the tracks of the Hejaz Railway, tearing apart the village and leaving 30 percent of Battir's land on the Israeli side of the Green Line. [Jordan and the UN had a bit to do with drawing the Green Line. - EoZ]

However, after 1948 Battir residents struck a deal with Israeli authorities, allowing them to cultivate their lands over the Green Line in exchange for protecting the railway. This deal held even after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Israeli authorities are currently planning to build the separation wall through the village, effectively confiscating 30 percent of the lands and cutting across the village's ancient terraces.
This means that Israel is planning to build the barrier on the Green Line itself, exactly what its critics say they want - when it suits them. If a State of Palestine is created along the Green Line as the Arabs insist it must be according to international law, this is what would happen to Bittar anyway - which, incidentally, is the ancient Jewish village of Betar. 

The fact is that the Green Line split a number of Arab villages. During the 2008 negotiations, the Israeli side suggested that splitting Arab towns along the Green Line - Beit Safafa, Barta’a, Baqa al-Sharqiyeh, Baqa al-Gharbiyyeh - is unacceptable and suggested that they get incorporated into the Palestinian Arab side as part of a land swap. Al Jazeera slammed the suggestion because Arab Israelis would become citizens of the PA! To them, the Green Line must split the villages when Israel suggests otherwise.

And then Israel would be blamed for that, just as this Ma'an article blames Israel and Israel only for drawing the Green Line to begin with!

To the Israel haters, the  Green Line a sacred boundary only when it can be used to hurt Israel, even at the expense of "Palestine."

  • Sunday, November 10, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Al Ahram:
Israel has returned a collection of stolen antiquities to Egypt after they were found on sale at an auction hall in Jerusalem.

The antiquities ministry said the collection contains 90 ancient Egyptian artefacts, including clay vessels, vases, ushabti figurines and stelae.

Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online on Saturday the auction hall was exhibiting 110 artefacts but only 90 were recovered by the Israeli authorities. The remaining 20 were sold.

The minister said Egypt had asked the Israeli authorities to take legal procedures against the auctioneers and to trace the sold objects. They are willing to do this, he added.

Ali Ahmed, director-general of the Repatriation of Antiquities Department at the ministry, said the objects were first noticed during a routine internet search of international auction halls.

The recovery process began in September when Ibrahim sent an urgent letter to the foreign ministry asking them to act in collaboration with the Egyptian embassy in Jerusalem to stop the sale of 110 artefacts at the Eweda auction hall in Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities discovered the objects were stolen and had been illegally smuggled out of Egypt when the owner of the auction hall was unable to prove his ownership of the objects.
Can you imagine what would happen if the roles were reversed?

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