Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, November 14, 2013

11/14 Links Pt1: Eden Atias vs Lee Rigby, If this is peace, what is war? Kerry to Congress- Ignore Israel

From Ian:

The stabbing murder of an Israeli soldier by a Palestinian terrorist on a bus in Afula on Wednesday was not the result of an "atmosphere." To the best of my knowledge, an atmosphere has never killed anyone. Inhumane, savage murderers kill people. Placing the blame for the attack on an atmosphere shows disrespect for human life and a lack of understanding of the role that murder plays in the Palestinian ethos.
This ethos is based on spilling the blood of innocent people as a means of achieving nationalistic and territorial goals. The Palestinians are no different than their brethren in Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan, countries that massacre their own people without mercy.

Thousands of mourners attend funeral of slain IDF soldier

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral Wednesday night of murdered soldier Private Eden Atias who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian teen in Afula earlier in the day.
The 18-year-old Atias was laid to rest at 11 p.m. Wednesday at the military cemetery in Upper Nazareth.

'I Pointed My Weapon and Ordered Him to Surrender'

As an officer who commands soldiers just like Atias, Meimon says the tragedy really hit home. Nevertheless, he has no doubt that, despite the recent spike in terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, the security forces are in control of the situation.
"I share the suffering of the family, and feel their pain," he said. "As an IDF commander I am confident that we are doing our best to protect the lives of the citizens of this country."

Media response to soldier stabbing shames us

When one of our own, off-duty, British soldiers died by a knife-attack on the streets of London, the world’s media focused on the terrorist incident. And rightly so. While the response of some politicians and journalists may have been farouche on the Islam question, at least it can be said that the global media, and not just our own, reacted with the relevant outrage at the incident in question.

Over 42% of BBC report on murdered Israeli soldier devoted to Israeli building tenders

The BBC’s report is 236 words long. One hundred and thirty-five of those words relate to the terror attack itself, although of course as can be expected, the writer refrains from using the term ‘terror’. A further one hundred and one words – 42.7% of the report – are devoted to the subjects of what the BBC describes (for the second time in days) as “faltering peace talks” and building tenders.

Hamas Spokesman Celebrates the Murder of an IDF Soldier

“Congratulations to the Palestinian West Bank hero who killed an Israeli soldier in Afula this morning,” Hamas spokesman Fawzy Barhoom wrote on his Facebook page.
“This is a heroic act of resistance showing that all methods of oppression and terror have not and will not succeed in stopping our people from carrying out jihad and resistance. We call on our people and the Palestinian youth to take part in the movement of the resistance, no matter the sacrifice.”

Report: Palestinian Authority Negotiators Quit Peace Talks

The Palestinian Authority team tasked with negotiating peace with Israel has resigned its role, apparently because of newly announced West Bank settlement plans, international media reported on Wednesday.
In an interview with Egyptian CBC television, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suggested the negotiations would continue.

Noah Beck: Can Israel Survive Obama?

In the spring of 2012, when I wrote ”The Last Israelis,” I thought that the pessimistic premise of my cautionary tale on Iranian nukes was grounded in realism. I had imagined a U.S. president who passively and impotently reacted to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, leaving it to tiny Israel to deal with the threat. But something far worse is happening: the Obama Administration is actively making it harder for Israel to neutralize Iran’s nukes, and more likely that Iran will develop a nuclear arsenal.

Soldiers come under mortar fire from Gaza

Palestinians fired two mortar shells at IDF soldiers who were patrolling along the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning.
There were no reports of injuries to the soldiers or damage caused in the attack.

PMW: Palestinian football teams named after terrorists

Two different Palestinian football tournaments recently included teams named after terrorists. Four teams were named after terrorists who were behind some of the most lethal attacks murdering Israeli civilians.
Although these were not official Palestinian Authority tournaments, the fact that the Palestinian organizers chose to name teams after these terrorists testifies to the success of the PA policy to present terrorist killers as role models for Palestinians.

Kerry Wants Congress to Ignore Israel; It May Ignore Him Instead

“It was fairly anti-Israeli,” Kirk said to reporters after the briefing. “I was supposed to disbelieve everything the Israelis had just told me, and I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good intelligence service.” He said the Israelis had told him that the “total changes proposed set back the program by 24 days.”
A Senate aide familiar with the meeting said that “every time anybody would say anything about ‘what would the Israelis say,’ they’d get cut off and Kerry would say, ‘You have to ignore what they’re telling you, stop listening to the Israelis on this.’”

JPost Ed: Keeping Israel in the loop

Implicit in this pronouncement, Israel is not entitled to voice any reservations and misgivings about whatever transaction is being negotiated in Geneva until it is a done deal or, in the language spoken locally, a fait accompli. Surely Kerry must realize that by then – by the time exceedingly vulnerable Israel is faced with a fait accompli – it would be too late to preempt or mitigate the ill-effects of any agreement, even if it’s very bad, even if it’s the worst possible.

Paris and Washington call on Iran to accept nuclear deal

US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday called on Iran to accept a proposed interim deal that would freeze Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief.
According to France’s ambassador in Israel, the P5+1 world powers adopted the French position on a possible agreement with Tehran, which required more far-reaching concession by the Iranians.

‘Netanyahu open to interim Iran deal — if the terms are right’

Israel is willing in principle to consider an interim agreement with Iran — but only if it entails a complete cessation of uranium enrichment by the Iranians, an Israeli government official said Wednesday. In exchange, the international community could offer not to add additional sanctions, he said.
“We’re not a priori opposed to an interim deal. I heard [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] say that many times,” the official told The Times of Israel, insisting on anonymity. However, he added, in any such deal, Tehran would not be allowed to continue enriching any uranium, not even to a low degree, and would receive in return a suspension of further sanctions, while all existing sanctions would remain in place.

Most Israelis distrust US on Iran, poll finds

A full 55 percent of Israeli Jews felt that the US cannot be relied upon to safeguard Israel’s security during the Iranian talks, with 31% saying the Americans could be trusted on the issue and 14% stating that they did not have an opinion on the matter, according to the poll, which was commissioned by Israel Radio and conducted among a representative sample of Jewish Israeli adults by the Rafi Smith Institute.
A clear majority of both self-identified right-wing and left-wing respondents said the US could’t be relied upon when it came to Iran, a result that the institute described as “significant” and displayed the public’s general feeling that the Obama administration was “not pro-Israel.”

Algemeiner Editor Dovid Efune: Keep Pushing Sanctions Until Iran Folds VIDEO

Sanctions on Iran should be escalated until the country volunteers to halt its nuclear program, Algemeiner Editor Dovid Efune said Friday, speaking on Real News TV.
“Keep pushing the sanctions further and further [...] until Iran comes and says we are going to stop on our own,” he said.

Obama formally extends US-Iran ‘emergency’

President Barack Obama formally reminded Congress this week that relations between the United States and Iran are not normal.
“Our relations with Iran have not yet returned to normal,” the US president wrote bluntly in a short letter, extending an executive order signed in 1979 that classifies the relationship as “in emergency” for yet another year.

Guardian evokes caricature of powerful Jewish state manipulating Western leaders

These passages of course strongly suggest that US congressional leaders take their marching orders from Jerusalem and that the French government’s position was not motivated by what it saw as its own national interests but, rather, as a result of the influence of the Israeli prime minister.
However, the deal was fatally flawed, according to many experts, due in part because it would have fallen short of the requirements in six resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council over the years which called on Iran to suspend ALL uranium enrichment – resolutions passed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, rendering them binding under international law.

MEMRI: Head of Iranian Think-Tank Advising Khamenei: The Jews Want Nuclear Bomb to Kill Muslims and Achieve World Domination VIDEO

Therefore, all the Muslims must be killed because they do not accept Jewish supremacy. They must all be killed. Let me tell you something... In this world, who is in need of an atomic bomb? Who would benefit from an atomic bomb? The only ones who need an atomic bomb in order to become global are the Jews. We Muslims number 1.4 billion people. No Muslim accepts Jewish supremacy.

With Help From Tehran and Moscow, and Inaction by the U.S., Assad Is Poised To Stay

The efficient division of labor between Russian arms provision and diplomatic support and Iranian financial assistance, strategic advice, and training and provision of fighters enabled Assad to halt and turn back the rebel advances of late 2012. But Assad may well have paid a price for this assistance: Arguably, he is no longer the undisputed master even of the 40 percent or so of the country that remains under government control. Some reports have suggested that Qassem Suleimani of the Iranian Quds Force is the real “director” of the regime’s war in Syria today, not Bashar Assad.

Satellite pics from day of Syria strike show advanced Russian arms

Taken at 10 a.m., roughly nine hours before the strike, the photos show two possible targets: an upgraded and deployed battery of S-125 missiles and six very large trailers that could carry missiles. The photos were first published by intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon along with a co-authored accompanying article in Israel Defense magazine.
The S-125 battery, the photos revealed, had been upgraded to a point that it posed a serious threat to Israeli or US aircraft and could, like the US-made Patriot systems, destroy incoming cruise missiles. (h/t Yoel)

Saudis bemoan soaring labour costs after migrant exodus

Nearly a million migrants — Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis among them — took advantage of the amnesty to leave the country.
Another roughly four million regularised their situation by finding employers to sponsor them but in so doing virtually emptied the market of cheap freelance labour.

MEMRI: Kuwaiti Cleric: The World Cup Is Jewish Conspiracy to Distract Muslim Youth, in Keeping with "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" VIDEO

The Jews, the Christians, and their hypocritical, mercenary lackeys have invested great efforts in cutting the nation off from its glorious history. They want Muslim youths to fumble about in the darkness of Western culture, which is promoted by the sinful media.

A Fauxtography Story (updated)

This morning, in a reprehensible attack, an Arab home near Ramallah was burned down:

A Palestinian home was set on fire Wednesday night in the village of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank, in a suspected "price tag" attack. Five Palestinians residing there suffered from smoke inhalation.

“Regards from Eden, Revenge” was sprayed on one of the walls of the house, indicating that the act may have been carried out to avenge the murder of Private Eden Attias, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian teen on a bus earlier Wednesday.

Here is one photo of the burned out home from photojournalist Mahmoud Illean on the public news service Demotix:

The focus of the photo is, obviously, the basketball.

The only problem is that the basketball was placed there by a photographer!

Haaretz reporter Chaim Levinson took his own photo of the ball and wrote on his Facebook page, "See the ball in the burnt room? It wasn't really there. A Palestinian photographer brought it in from the outside to improve the photo."

Roy Sharon of Israel's Channel 10 tweeted the same thing. He wrote that if you see any photos of an orange ball in today's news coverage, you should know that it was placed there by the MBC (Saudi) channel photographer.

Now that we know that this photo was staged, we can look with a more critical eye at some of the other photos taken at the time.

Here is the grief-stricken grandfather probably being told where to walk with his cute daughter, the basketball in the background:

The ball is there, but it seems to have moved.

But this photo wasn't quite good enough, so the photographer needed a better one, possibly with the father but keeping the same cute girl:

They are looking at what appears to be a stuffed penguin, that is helpfully standing up in the damage. But the penguin wasn't there in the previous photo, and is not visible (at least not standing) in the other photos of the same room.

Here are the same two people, waiting around while photographers do their thing:

We've suspected the purposeful placement of toys in photos in the past, but we have never had witnesses before.

And if the photographers that took the photos were not the same ones as those who placed the objects, that doesn't make them any less deceptive if they know that the props they are photographing are staged.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

UPDATE: Ian forwards an almost unbelievable clip from 1990 British comedy "Drop the Dead Donkey":

If Iran is only interested in a civilian nuclear program, it doesn't need centrifuges

From Israel's Minister of Intelligence,Yuval Steinitz, at Financial Times (behind paywall):

The simple, logical answer to the Iran nuclear conundrum
As negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme make faltering progress towards an interim agreement – minor gestures from Tehran in return for a partial relaxation of sanctions – it is essential to have a concrete idea of the goal of the overall diplomatic process. At first glance, reaching a comprehensive agreement might seem exceedingly complicated. Yet if we narrow our focus to the official, public statements of both sides, there is a simple, logical solution.

According to the public statements of Iranian leaders in the past decade, what Tehran really wants is “civilian nuclear energy”. What the rest of the world wants, meanwhile, is the confidence that Iran will not possess the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Conveniently, these two demands can be reconciled by the following formula: nuclear electricity, yes; uranium enrichment, no. Iran could be permitted to operate a civilian nuclear reactor for the production of electricity and medical purposes, but it should agree to buy its nuclear fuel rods elsewhere. This would create a win-win situation.

Why should Iran reject such an apparently satisfactory solution – one that could bring a quick end to the sanctions regime and immediate relief to its economy? Tehran argues that “uranium enrichment” has become part of its “national identity” and it would wound Iranian pride if it were forced to buy fuel rods abroad. Tehran also claims all signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty possess an inherent right to enrich, which cannot be disputed.

Both arguments are an insult to human intelligence. Acquiescence would result in an unreliable deal. In fact, there are 25 countries around the world that operate purely civilian nuclear programmes, and about 80 per cent of them import nuclear fuel rods. Has this wounded the national pride of Sweden, Spain, Mexico or South Africa?

Iran’s “legitimate right” to enrich is similarly preposterous. For starters, there is no such automatic privilege; rather, permission to enrich is conditional on International Atomic Energy Agency approval which, in turn, depends on meeting stringent requirements over a meaningful period. Second, the UN Security Council has already passed a series of binding resolutions contravening any Iranian right to enrich uranium.

Finally, and most important, even if we were to assume all countries, including Iran, are entitled to enrich, it would be eminently legitimate for the international community to demand that Tehran concede such a right. It would be perfectly reasonable to expect that the Iran of 2013, like Libya in 2003, would concede this “legitimate right” in return for rescuing its economy and placating the entire world.

Precisely because there is no valid justification for international consent to Iranian enrichment facilities as well as a plutonium reactor, any compromise on this crucial point will be interpreted as consent for its development of at least a partial military nuclear capability. This will inevitably sustain regional fears and suspicions, and conceivably spark new military nuclear programmes in several neighbouring countries. Such an accord will also complicate the inspection of Iranian nuclear facilities and obscure the red lines that, when violated, will compel the international community to resume economic sanctions or to consider military action.

In the same way, the forthcoming interim agreement is wrong – not just because easing the pressure now will make it harder to reach a satisfactory agreement in the future but also because it allows Iran to gain legitimacy for being a threshold nuclear country. Iran became a threshold state a year ago when it acquired the capability to produce a nuclear bomb within a year, but this was clearly considered illegitimate in the eyes of the international community and stood in clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions. An agreement that will enable Iran to retain its breakout capabilities – this time under an international agreement that provides it with legitimacy – will make it very hard to reach a different end state in the final agreement.

There is only one logical solution that is profoundly simple: yes to nuclear energy; no to uranium enrichment. Any alternative deal would be evidently illogical, and thus incalculably dangerous.

The unstated corollary is that Iran's refusal to budge on this fundamental issue proves that its public statements that it is only interested in nuclear energy is a lie.

The idea that the West must compromise with Iran because it insists on retaining its enrichment capability is completely nonsensical. Iran's insistence on maintaining its centrifuges is proof positive that Iran has the desire to do something beyond a civilian energy program and is therefore a reason to redouble sanctions, not to ease them.

Diplomats sometimes miss the forest for the trees. Their desire for a deal sometimes obscures the reason for the talks to begin with. This seems to be a perfect example of that shortsightedness.

From Now Lebanon:

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday rejected withdrawing his Shiite party’s fighters from Syria in exchange for joining a new cabinet in Lebanon amid a deepening political deadlock in the country.

“Those talking about our withdrawal from Syria as a term for the formation of a government are proposing an impossible condition,” he said in a speech delivered in person in Beirut’s Dahiyeh on the occasion of the Shiite mourning day of Ashura.

“We are not in a position to bargain Syria for a government.”

The pro-Western March 14 alliance’s largest party—the Future Movement—has repeatedly voiced its refusal to join a government along with Hezbollah as long as the party continues to provide military support to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

The Hezbollah chief also said that his party’s presence in the fighting in Syria aimed to “defend Lebanon, the Palestinian cause, and Syria, which defends the resistance.”

Here are the relevant quotes from the Hizballah mouthpiece Al Manar:

"First, we reassure our adherence to the resistance, its capabilities, and weapons, as a main path for protecting our country, its goods and wealth. Some in Lebanon talk to us about the French resistance which submitted its arms, neglecting the fact that this took place after the threat was over. However, the resistance in Lebanon liberated the land but the enemy still exists and is still threatening, spying, and preparing for wars; so are we required to empty the battlefield for this enemy? As long as the reason for resistance is present, the resistance will continue to confront this Israeli threat,” his eminence said.

“Second, we should remind the entire Arab nation of the central cause which is Palestine, as we must not abandon this cause no matter what the situations were, and Muslims must all stand by the Palestinian people so that they liberate their land and sanctities,” Sayyed Nasrallah added, stressing that despite all the crises facing our country or the region, Palestine should always be the central cause.

Third, his eminence reassured his “rejection to any kind of division, and emphasized the importance of holding on to the unity of every land and country and finding political solutions to internal crises through dialogue.”

I don't need to point out Nasrallah's hypocrisy here, and it is just as obvious to the Lebanese who are trapped under his effective control of the country.

In a separate speech, Nasrallah said Israel wants to go to war with Iran and he slammed Arab countries for their pro-Israel stance:

“What is the alternative to a deal with Iran and the countries of the world,” he asked. “The alternative is war in the region.”

And he pointed the finger at Israel, accusing it of being in league with Arab countries.

“Israel does not want any accord that would avert war in the region. It is regrettable that some Arab countries take the Israeli side in its murderous choices.

“It is regrettable that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is the spokesman for some Arab countries.”

This was an apparent reference to Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who are strong backers of the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with whom Iran and Hezbollah are allied.

From AP:

A year after a bruising Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, southern Israel has sprung back to life, and the frequent rocket fire that once plagued the region has nearly stopped. But it's Hamas, not the Israelis who are celebrating.

Maybe because Israelis don't celebrate wars, including those they won, while the Arab honor/shame mentality forces them to celebrate wars that they lost?

By any objective measure Israel won the mini-war in Gaza last year. The point was to stop rocket fire and, for the most part, that goal was met. Gaza terrorists fired over 150 projectiles towards Israel in the last two weeks of October last year - and about 50 in 2013 altogether.

AP had a golden opportunity to explain Arab culture here, and dropped the ball.

Interior Minister Fathi Hamad, who commands Hamas' security forces in Gaza, called on Arabs in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Israel to unite in a holy war to “uproot the Jews” from Israel.

“A third intifada is approaching,” he said, using the term for past Palestinian uprisings against Israel. “Liberation is coming and victory is coming.”

This quote is confirmed by Arab sources.

Apologists for Hamas, from "Students for Justice in Palestine" to Richard Falk to Jimmy Carter, never seem to find a way to condemn its explicit Jew-hatred.

Mideast Place Names and Their Translations (cartoon)

I actually saw this on an antisemitic blog among lots of reprehensible cartoons. I don't think the blogger quite got the joke.

It originated at a wonderful blog called Diversity Lane that is unfortunately no longer active. But the cartoonist there is awesome. Check this out:

From the #BDSFail Desk (Zvi)

From Zvi:

BDS continues to fail daily. In this edition, BDS fails miserably in Mexico, at CERN, in Cyprus, in Poland, in Germany and in Tanzania. And it might even fail humiliatingly in Norway in the near future; we shall see.

Israel guest of honor at Mexican book fair (Haaretz)

The book fair, known as the FIL (from its Spanish name, Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara), is a major showcase for the literature and culture of the world's Spanish speakers. It's the biggest event of its kind in Latin America, with 1,900 publishers representing 42 countries and thousands more exhibitors.In recent years the fair, which runs through December 8, has attracted an average of 600,000 visitors.Starting in 1993, the fair's organizers have each year honored a different city, state country or culture; honorees have included Quebec (2003), Catalonian culture (2004), Los Angeles (2009) and Germany (2011). Now it's Israel's turn. In addition to the events at the fair itself - including an Israeli film festival, an Israeli culinary fair and a headline event in the main auditorium each evening - Israel-related events will be held throughout the city for the duration of the festival.In explaining their decision to honor Israel this year, the fair's organizers cited Israel's "dynamic and solid" publishing industry, which releases around 7,000 titles in Hebrew each year.

Israel joins CERN (jpost)

Israel will become a full member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), following the passage of a Knesset bill Monday night giving Israeli researchers at CERN the same rights as diplomats.

Cyprus and Israel sign standardization deal (Cyprus Mail)

German trade union leader opposes WB boycott (Times of Israel)

“As long as I am head of this organization, there will never be a resolution that says ‘Don’t buy from Jews,’ ” said Sommer, 61, chair of the Federation of German Trade Unions, accepting the Arno Lustiger Award at the third annual German-Israel Congress on Sunday.

Poland, Israel sign scientific cooperation agreement (jpost)

Dar es Salam Water and Sewerage Co. signs deal with Israeli water company to curb water losses (The Guardian via IPPMedia)

Norway coalition partner seeks to end arms export ban to Israel (defensenews.com)

The right-wing Høyre Party heads the administration, but the Progress Party (FrP), the conservative Høyre’s junior coalition partner, is pushing to remove Norway’s munitions/weapons ban on Israel as part of a broader policy to support the arms export industry.Høyre has yet to confirm if it is willing to contemplate lifting the ban, having won the recent parliamentary elections on a trade and foreign policy framework that includes fresh measures to expand Norway’s arms exports, but which made no mention of easing arms export restrictions on Israel.

Other News Items

Israel finds germ-killing protein, could yield new antibiotics (haaretz)

A group of Israeli researchers has succeeded in isolating a protein that kills bacteria, in what is a first step toward developing a substitute for antibiotics. The substance isolated by a Tel Aviv University team prevents bacteria from dividing, thus destroying them and combatting infections. “In the future, a new antibiotic can be produced from this protein,” according to the researchers who published their findings on Monday in the journal, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

Ahmed Tibi demands that Israel protect Israeli Arabs in Ukraine (jpost)

I'm moderately surprised that Tibi spoke up, but of course he's using it to create an issue with Israeli Jews - claiming that Israeli media, which have in fact published multiple stories about this, are somehow ignoring it because it is about Arabs. Of course, the Israeli Arabs who were interviewed the other day said that both they and Israeli Jews in the area felt threatened. So Tibi and company are basically squeezing multiple hysterical lies into one accusation. They don't keep their lies entirely coordinated, either... .

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein responded that he had contacted the Ukrainian government and was promised that the heads of the national and Odessa district police were investigating the matter.

Israel quietly treats Syria war victims (FT)

Freely visible earlier, but now behind a paywall

11/13 Links Pt2: Kristallnacht as a political instrument, Updates on IDF's Philippine Rescue Mission

From Ian:

Kristallnacht as a political instrument

This year, as has often occurred in the past, some Kristallnacht memorial meetings in Europe were abused as political instruments rather than serving to memorialize Jewish victims.
Memorial-day manipulation in Germany goes back many years. In 1969 on the date marking Kristallnacht, an anarchist-leftist group painted graffiti on Jewish memorials stating, “Shalom and Napalm” or “El Fatah.” Additionally, a firebomb was thrown at the Jewish community center in Berlin. The leftist groups’ common perception was that “Jews who were expelled by fascism became fascists themselves, who in collaboration with American capitalism, want to annihilate the Palestinian people.”

Dialogue junkie priest dons a Palestinian scarf for the Kristallnacht memorial, can’t fathom the fury he raised

Sometimes you simply don’t know if you should cry or laugh. Or just cringe… Apparently this is what happens to the brain of people who have sniffed too much of the dialogue glue…

UN Watch: Black Day for Human Rights: Worst Abusers Sweep Top UN Rights Posts -- France 24

What the Falk is King’s College London doing inviting a 9/11 truther?

In a rather quiet corner of the Strand lies King’s College London’s (KCL) rather elegant baroque style campus. On Monday, this beautiful complex was host to a rather ugly personality. Richard Falk, a notable member of the United Nations’ Human Rights’ Council and Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, was invited by the University itself to give a lecture on ‘state crime.’
It was compulsory for certain undergraduate law students, and while advertised as a leading international jurist, Falk is nothing more than a rabid conspiracy theorist.

Al Jazeera delivered Arafat’s gym bag to Swiss scientists

As well as the polonium naturally produced by Arafat’s body, much of the evidence used by the Swiss scientists was from Arafat’s clothes as found in a gym bag.
And how did that gym bag get to Switzerland? Al Jazeera explains:

Suha Arafat stated that the bag was kept in safely custody for the past eight years, primarily with her lawyer and in a safe room on the fourth floor of a building in Paris. She did not elaborate on the precise address. She stated that it was kept there until it was retrieved in late January 2012 for Clayton Swisher to deliver to the Swiss laboratory.

Satire: George Galloway “reveals” who really killed Yasser Arafat

DISCLAIMER: Before the lawyers get their ledgers out, let’s be very clear… this is obviously a parody. In no way does this website of any of its staff, authors, or owners believe that George Galloway was responsible for the murder of Yasser Arafat. The video below is strictly satire.
Now that that’s taken care of… watch this hilarious video of the anti-Israel Member of Parliament George Galloway reveal who “really” killed Yasser Arafat…

CIF Watch: Jewish Daily Forward ‘Top 50′ list includes “journalist” who promotes antisemitism

As we’ve demonstrated continually, it is not at all an exaggeration to characterize Greenwald’s hostility to Israel (and the U.S.) as similar to the hate rhetoric of Islamist extremists – a fact which may in part explain Greenwald’s defense of Hamas, Hezbollah and even, on at least one occasion, an American Al Qaeda operative.
Additionally, to get a sense of The Jewish Daily Forward’s ideological airbrush of Greenwald – employing the Guardian tactic of characterizing commentators who engage in antisemitism as merely “critical of Israel” – here is a collection passages from his columns which ‘deal with Jews in a critical way‘.

Another thinly-veiled BBC accusation of war crimes

Finally, Abualouf presents a thinly veiled insinuation of a war crime having been carried out by Israel by using third party characterisations of the partial blockade as ‘collective punishment’. Naturally, he refrains from naming the “human rights groups” he ostensibly cites or from informing BBC audiences of the political motivations behind those unproven accusations.

Why we need to talk about the BBC’s promotion of Middle East conspiracy theories

Members of the media in general would do well at this point to devote some thought to the subject of the trickle-down effects of irresponsible, inaccurate coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict as a catalyst for increased antisemitism both in Europe and beyond.
But another of the BBC’s public purposes – going under the title of “sustaining citizenship and civil society” – obliges BBC management in particular to consider this subject very seriously, with its recent amplification of Arafat-related conspiracy theories (by no means limited to the programme in which David Aaronovitch took part) being a good place to start.

Biggest children’s book publisher erases Israel from map

“Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt,” part of the popular Geronimo Stilton children’s series translated from Italian and published by Scholastic in 2012, tells the story of a group of investigative journalists involved in a treasure hunt in Egypt.
The story commences with a map of modern Egypt and its neighboring countries. While Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia appear clearly on the map, the territory of Israel is completely covered by Jordan, painted red. A line indicating the Israeli border with the Sinai Peninsula does appear in the book.

Man with knife arrested at Israeli embassy in Brussels

The man, a Belgian converted to Islam and who appeared to be mentally unstable, was stopped by security agents and later turned to the Belgian police for questioning.
A second man, of Iranian citizenship, was also arrested when he appeared to be monitoring activities around the embassy building located in Uccle, a Brussels municipality.

Fourth man arrested in suspected Sydney anti-Semitic attack

The 26-year-old appeared in court on Tuesday and was denied bail after being arrested the previous day. Among the charges are possessing a knife in a public place and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He and three others are accused verbally abusing and physically beating four members of the Behar family and Shlomo Ben-Haiem, the educational emissary for the Jewish National Fund, on October 25.

Argentine Official Charged After Praising Hitler

The lead spokesman for the mayor of Argentina’s capital is facing criminal charges after saying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "was a spectacular guy," a court source told AFP Tuesday.
The man, Ecuadoran-born Jaime Duran Barba, has been charged by federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan with voicing approval of a criminal act, the source told the news agency.

Philippine envoy thanks Israeli government, NGOs as aid and assistance continues

Philippine Ambassador to Israel Generoso D.G. Calonge expressed appreciation on Tuesday for the assistance Israel has offered to his storm-ravaged country, saying it made him “so happy.”
“I can’t describe the feeling right now... that my host country cares about our stricken people,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “I hope the people of Israel will maintain their attitude of people who are stricken with this crisis and who are on the losing end of natural disasters.”

Live Updates: #IDFinPhilippines Rescue Mission

In the wake of the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the IDF is carrying out “Operation Islands of Hope”: A 150 member is set to leave for the Philippines today, November 13, 2013, in order to provide search & rescue, and medical services.
This post will provide updates as they become available. All times are Israeli time (GMT +2). Times are approximate.
For live tweets of Operation Islands of Hope, see: https://twitter.com/IDFrescue

Ban to become first UN chief to visit Auschwitz

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky announced that Ban will visit the camp on Monday “to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and to stress the importance of the UN’s work for genocide prevention, tolerance and peace.”

DC intersection renamed for Bulgarian who saved Jews

A street intersection outside the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington was renamed Tuesday in honor of a lawmaker from that country who is credited with helping spare the lives of tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
The intersection in the city’s Dupont Circle neighborhood will now be known as Dimitar Peshev Plaza, a recognition approved by the D.C. Council following a campaign by Peshev’s supporters.

Israel May Become First Non-European Member of CERN Nuclear Research Facility

Located on the Swiss-French border, CERN is most famous for its 27-kilometer Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator, which scientists used to discover the famous Higgs Boson or “God particle” last year.
CERN’s governing council of 20 European nations will vote on Israel’s membership when it meets Dec. 12.

Israelis set Guinness record for donating hair to cancer patients

Zichron Menachem- the Israeli association for the support of children with cancer and their families – set a Guinness World Record for donating the most hair to cancer victims in a single day drive. Some 250 women – some of them cancer survivors – cut 53.1 kilograms (117 lbs) of their locks for wigs for cancer patients. The previous record was 48.7 kilograms (107 pounds).

Start-Up Nation: Israeli Hi-Tech Exits at $4 Billion So Far in 2013

The year 2013 has proven to be lucrative so far for high-tech and life sciences companies in Israel. According to Globes, 20 such companies at varying degrees of maturity have been sold for a total of $4 billion thus far.
Just as surprising, 2013 is not even a record year; 2006 holds that distinction, with $10.1 billion in exits. This year’s biggest winner was traffic app Waze, which sold to Google for nearly $1 billion.

StandWithUs Accomplishments

When are illegal settlements legal?

There are two kinds of settlements in Judea and Samaria: the ones that are legal under Israeli law, and the ones that are not.

The illegal settlements, often called "outposts" because they are often tiny, are, under international law - legal!

Let me explain.

The entire reason any settlements are considered "illegal" under international law is because of a tortured reading of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, Article 49, paragraph 6:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

The argument that Jewish settlements are illegal comes from bizarre idea that people who choose voluntarily to live there are somehow being "transferred" by Israel. The arguments for that are very strained, to say the least. They are usually centered on how Israel supports the settlements it considers legal by building infrastructure or otherwise making life there any easier for its citizens, as if that fits the definition of "transfer."

But the people who choose to break Israeli law and build their own illegal settlements cannot by any stretch of interpreting Geneva be considered to be "transferred" - their decision to move is purely voluntary and not encouraged at all by the Israeli government.

Which means that these outposts that are illegal under Israeli law are legal under international law - no matter how you try to misinterpret Geneva Art. 49!

(This is all moot, despite all the NGOs that say that settlements violate Geneva. For an in-depth look at Article 49 and why it clearly doesn't apply to Jewish settlements, see here for the travaux préparatoires.)

Does the Jordan-Israel peace agreement give Jordan custodianship of the Temple Mount?

Jordanian newspapers today are reporting that Jordanian officials confirm that Jews have no right to pray on the Temple Mount, according to the Israel-Jordan peace treaty signed in 1994.

They were responding to members of Knesset who said that the treaty did not require any Jordanian approval for Jews to pray there.

Who is right?

Here is the text of the relevant article of the treaty, from Jordan's King Hussein website:

Article 9 - Places of Historical and Religious Significance and Interfaith Relations

1. Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.

2. In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.

3. The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

Paragraph 1 makes it clear that nothing can prohibit Jews from visiting the Temple Mount, just as Muslims or Christians cannot be banned from the area either.

Paragraph 2 has two parts. The first is clearly not prescriptive; it is simply a statement that Israel "respects" Jordan's "special role" without saying what that role is. It does not give Jordan any power to create rules.

The second part is almost prescriptive but not quite; it uses the word "will" instead of the stronger "shall." It also doesn't define what it means to give "high priority" to Jordan's "historic role." If Israel is the party assigning priorities to Jordan's role, that means that Israel can override them. Most importantly, however, is that this sentence only refers to the time of permanent status negotiations (implying that Jordan will be a party to the talks) but it does not say that Jordan's role, whatever that is, is permanent.

Paragraph 3 explicitly calls for freedom of religious worship. This indicates that not only is Israel permitted to allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount and perhaps to allow them to pray, as the previous two paragraphs implied, but it enshrines the freedom for Jews to pray on their holiest site is. Banning such prayer would be a violation not only of human rights law but of this treaty itself.

The peace agreement certainly does not give Jordan any custodianship or powers over the Temple Mount. The best that can be said is that it demands Israel take Jordan's opinion into account, but Jordan has no veto power over how the holy sites are governed. Moreover, the third paragraph shows that freedom of worship is a critical principle to be upheld by both parties, which would naturally include freedom for Jews to worship.

In short, the Jordanians who claim that the treaty gives them the right to ban Jewish worship are not being truthful.

11/13 Links Pt1: Israeli Soldier Murdered on a Bus by an Arab, Bomb cost Iran $170B, Vive la France

From Ian:

Soldier, 19, stabbed to death in his sleep by Palestinian on bus

An Israeli soldier died after he was stabbed multiple times in the neck Wednesday morning by a Palestinian youth on a bus at the central bus station in Afula.
The soldier, 19-year-old Eden Atias of Nazareth Illit, was evacuated to the city’s Haemek Hospital. Doctors operated on him in an attempt to stabilize his condition but he succumbed to his injuries a few hours later.
Eyewitnesses said Atias was sleeping in his seat on the bus when he was attacked.

Likud hardliners call to stop peace talks after suspected terror attack

"The talks are deluding both the Israeli public and the Arabs," Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said. "We must stop this predictable crash course immediately."
Danon also called to stop the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely said "the Palestinian Authority's well-oiled incitement system continues to claim victims."
"[PA President] Mahmoud Abbas has a tactic of indirectly harming Israel. Jews aren't killed by PA officials but by the 'Palestinian street,' which is fed each day by anti-Israel propaganda. We cannot continue talking peace while the PA is talking terror," Hotovely added.

Alan Baker: Kerry is mistaken on settlements

In fact, the express purpose of the permanent status negotiation continues to be to determine, by agreement, the status of the territory, to which Israel has a longstanding legitimate claim, backed by international legal and historic rights.
Notably, Israel is the only country in the 193 member UN General Assembly whose rights to sovereignty in the territory west of the Jordan river were twice affirmed last century, first as part of the Mandate for Palestine by the League of Nations and then by its successor organization, the United Nations, via its founding charter.

Secretary of fate

The second critical point related to Kerry’s comments concerns the low esteem in which he holds the Palestinians.
He did not suggest that failed peace talks might lead to Gandhi-like civil disobedience or mass fasting in protest; no, he suggested the one thing he associates with Palestinians: violence.
Secretary Kerry, like a dozen or so of his predecessors, will fail unless he holds the Palestinians to accepted international norms of behavior and treats Israel as an ally and not as a member of his protection racket. He might take some time to also explain to the Palestinian people that if they want an internationally recognized state, then violence against civilian targets is “illegitimate” and will not be tolerated.

Report: Netanyahu Played Arab Incitement Footage for Kerry (VIDEO)

The footage was from a classroom in Balata, near Nablus, and showed the teacher indoctrinating the students on “martyrdom” and echoing the claim that all of Israel belongs to Arabs. “Palestine is an Arab land from the River to the Sea,” she is seen saying. The phrase was repeated by the schoolchildren.

Aiming to calm critics, Netanyahu cancels massive settlement plan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered plans for new settlement construction pulled back late Tuesday, saying the move to push forward tens of thousands of new units over the Green Line was a “meaningless step” that would create pointless tension with the international community.

Netanyahu: Gaza war caused 98% drop in rocket fire

In addition, Netanyahu said, Hamas was still stockpiling weapons and storing them in civilian areas.
“Hamas is manufacturing and storing missiles and rockets that are concentrated in residential buildings and aimed at Israeli citizens,” he said. “Israel will continue to strictly uphold international law, but will not sit on its hands while terrorists perpetrate two war crimes at the same time: They are prepared to fire at Israeli cities and are hiding behind civilians in the Gaza Strip. It is our full legal and moral right to direct fire that is as accurate as possible at those who fire indiscriminately at our people. The responsibility for any collateral damage that is liable to be caused to the residents of Gaza lies squarely on Hamas’s shoulders.”

Mufti: Jerusalem is 'Islamic'

He accuses Israel of trying to take over the mosque.
"The radical settlers continue the daily damage to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Hussein wrote in a statement. “They burst into the territory of the Al Aqsa Mosque and pray in it.
"The city of Al Quds [Jerusalem – DH] has an Islamic character and the occupation will not be able to take away its character and identity, even if it continues commiting crimes and forging the facts.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority police arrest Bethlehem journalist George Canawati

Palestinian Authority police on Sunday arrested Bethlehem journalist and broadcaster George Canawati on suspicion of “slander” and “insults.”
Canawati, director of Radio Bethlehem 2000, appeared on Monday in court with a black eye and torn shirt. He announced that he had gone on a hunger-strike in protest against his arrest and beating.
He complained that PA policemen physically assaulted him before and during his interrogation.

Single-minded Islamic Jihad grows in Gaza's shadows

Hamas, with robust political and military wings, rules the Gaza Strip and is clearly the senior Islamist party. Islamic Jihad has no ambition to govern, but it is quietly putting on muscle and has become the go-to group for both Iran and Syria.
This makes it increasingly dangerous for Israel and a possible threat for Hamas on the Palestinian militant landscape - although the group's exclusive focus on fighting the Jewish state means it is not challenging Hamas for control of Gaza.

Missing Peace: Experts: Netanyahu is right on Iran

History is a great teacher, but not everyone pays attention. In “The Guns at Last Light,” Rick Atkinson’s chronicle of World War II, the author recalls President Franklin Roosevelt’s view of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin following their meeting at Yalta in February 1945: “‘Stalin doesn’t want anything other than security for his country,’ the president said. ‘He won’t try to annex anything and will work for a world of democracy and peace.’”
Winston Churchill similarly misjudged Stalin, writes Atkinson, telling his war cabinet, “‘Stalin I’m sure means well to the world and Poland. … He will not embark on bad adventures.’ He added, ‘I don’t think I’m wrong about Stalin,’ whom he had called ‘that great and good man.’”
Times and dictators change, but human nature remains the same. Roosevelt and Churchill were wrong about Stalin and the Obama administration is wrong
about Iran.

Alan Dershowitz: Nuclear Peace With Iran In Our Time Is This Our Chamberlain Moment?

This is the time when the entire pro-Israel community must stand together in opposition to the deal being offered the Iranians—a deal which is bad for the United States, for the West, and for Israel. The Israeli people seem united in opposition to this bad deal. The American Congress is doubtful about the deal. This is not a liberal/conservative issue. Liberals who view military action as a last resort should oppose this deal, and conservatives who fear a nuclear Iran above all else should oppose this deal. Indeed all reasonable, thinking people should understand that weakening the sanctions against Iran without demanding that they dismantle their nuclear weapons program is a prescription for disaster. Have we learned nothing from North Korea and Neville Chamberlain?

Daniel Pipes: The silver lining of Obama's weak America

That the socialist French government of François Hollande just blocked a bad deal with Tehran, emerging as the hero of the Geneva negotiations, is on one level a huge surprise. But it also follows logically from the passivity of the Obama administration.
American foreign policy is in unprecedented free-fall, with a feckless and distracted White House barely paying attention to the outside world, and when it does, acting in an inconsistent, weak, and fantastical manner. If one were to discern something so grand as an Obama Doctrine, it would read: "Snub friends, coddle opponents, devalue American interests, seek consensus, and act unpredictably."

Zero Hour: Israel Must Choose Between Attack and Enslavement

Regarding the legality of such an attack, if there is an imminent threat against another state, then a preemptive strike is technically lawful under the UN Charter.
Israel, like any other nation, is under no legal obligation to sit back passively and quietly await annihilation at the hands of a country that remains determined to destroy it.
Should Israel strike at Iran, the world will undoubtedly howl. Let it: this too shall pass. Guided by the rightness of its cause, Israel will be acting for the advancement of shared regional and global interests, which happen to dovetail with its own.

Netanyahu: Iran Being Given Legitimacy to Become Nuclear

"Israel prefers the diplomatic option over any other option. But we want a genuine diplomatic solution that dismantles Iran's military nuclear capabilities,” Netanyahu said in remarks at the Bloomberg Fuel Choices Summit.
“The proposal that was put on the table, the details of which we are familiar with, is a bad deal. It leaves Iran with nuclear capabilities for military objectives, and provides it with a significant easing of sanctions. The additional danger is that it gives Iran legitimacy to be a nuclear threshold state. That goes against the interest of the international community,” he stressed.

Iran's nuclear drive has cost $170 billion, say Israeli sources

Of the $170 billion price tag, $40 billion was "invested over the past 20 years in the construction and operation of nuclear infrastructure," the sources told AFP.
They said Iran had "lost $130 billion because of sanctions put in place since 2012," including $105 million linked to the oil sector and $25 billion to banking, trade and industry, development and investment.

Vive la France!

The P5+1 talks brought us perilously close to accepting a very bad deal. There was one nation, however, that refused, France. French Ambassador Laurent Fabius told French journalists, "We will not be part of a fool's deal."
Nature abhors a vacuum and France has swept in to fill the vacuum in moral leadership. Viva la France!

Obama uses nonexistent fatwa as basis for Iran talks

In September, the U.S. president told the U.N. that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons," but it turns out no such edict exists. In 2012 Khamenei specifically said it was premature to rule on the matter.

How al-Qaida split the Syrian opposition

The Syrian-based branch, ISIS, unlike its main al-Qaida-linked rival, al-Nusra Front, is mainly comprised of non-Syrians and instead of fighting the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad directly, has focused its efforts on taking over areas already controlled by the multitude of rebel factions in the northern and eastern parts of Syria near Iraq and along the Turkish border.

IAF Syria Strike 'Hit Russian S-125 Missiles'

Satellite photos of the site, on Syria's northern Mediterranean coastline, prove that the alleged IAF strike targeted S-125s that were in the process of being upgraded from a less sophisticated system. The photos were taken a few hours before the site was hit, by a firm providing satellite services to the US defense system.

Russia negotiates its biggest arms deal with Egypt since the Cold War after Barack Obama cuts defence aid

Egypt is seeking as much as US$2 billion in Russian weaponry, including MiG-29 fighter planes, air-defence systems and anti-tank missiles, said Ruslan Pukhov, a member of the Russian Defence Ministry’s advisory board and head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow.

"Vegan-washing" and the fanaticism of the far-Left

+972 has an unintentionally hypocritical article about tensions within Israel's vegan community.

A fanatic animal-rights activist named Gary Yourofsky is planning to speak about his passion in Ariel, which is of course in the "territories." +972 finds this hard to believe, because it is such a left-wing topic; how could he even think about speaking in a city that is deemed illegal by the international community?

His answer shocked the +972-niks:

“Since the ‘international community’ is comprised of violent, bloodthirsty thugs who terrorize billions of innocent animals every second of every minute of every hour of every day, the ‘international community’ can go to HELL,” he wrote back.

Responding to the core question of the Palestinian struggle and the call to boycott Israeli academia and the settlements, Yourofsky said he sees no point in caring about any human beings so long as animals that are being regularly slaughtered. “When people start eating sliced up Jew flesh, or seared Palestinian children in between two slices of bread with onions, pickles and mustard, then I’ll be concerned about the Middle East situation.”

The +972 author, Haggai Matar, tries to wrap his head around such thinking, and finally gets an answer. Another animal rights activist explains that Yourofsky is a "single issue activist" who is focused on animal rights above all. He is, simply, a fanatic. Some people can be so obsessed with a single topic that they can be understood, even if their resulting actions are unforgivable.

Matar then quotes far left anti-Zionist Aeyal Gross, in Haaretz (Hebrew), where he notes that recently Bibi Netanyahu made statements supporting animal rights during a cabinet meeting. It wasn't a policy statement, it wasn't a public speech, it was just a conversation during a meeting.

Gross is incensed at how such a disgusting person as Netanyahu could possibly advocate a liberal position on anything. It is like Gross, a "part vegetarian part vegan," is sickened that he could have anything in common with the prime minister of Israel.

So Aeyal Gross, who had previously railed against Israel's officially gay-friendly public stance, called this "vegan-washing" as a successor to the ridiculous term "pinkwashing."

What Haggai Matar is completely blind to is that while he is condescending towards single-issue activists for animal rights, he doesn't realize that his article, +972 magazine and his entire far-Left community is focused on a single issue as well: the evil of Israel, especially the"occupation."

To these fanatics - and they are no less fanatic than Gary Yourofsky - there is only one issue, Israel's supposedly horrible treatment of non-Jews. When they hear about Yourofsky speaking in Ariel, the first question they ask is "what about the occupation?" When they hear that a politician they don't like advocates a liberal position, they ask "what about the occupation?" When they see Israel sending aid to Haiti or the Phillipines, they ask "what about the occupation?"

To these far Left fanatics, the "occupation" and the fact of Israel's unique evil trumps all else. They see everything Israel does, whether it is a music festival or archaeology or scientific achievements or medical breakthroughs, as simply either proof of oppressing Palestinian Arabs or a scheme to distract the world from Israel's oppression of Palestinian Arabs. The only thing good about Israel, to these haters, is that there are so many people there that loathe Israel.

Like Yourofsky, they simply cannot hold two ideas in their heads at once. Because, to fanatics, the world can only be divided into those who see the world exactly their way and those who don't. There is no grey, no middle ground, nothing even orthogonal to their pet topic. Nothing else exists.

That's pretty much the definition of "fanatic."

(See also here and here for previous examples of this obsession among the anti-Zionist Israelis.)

(h/t Ruchie)

Gazans celebrate "victory" in Pillar of Defense anniversary

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the start of Operation Pillar of Defense, which Islamic Jihad called "Operation Blue Sky," and the group marked its "victory" with one of its ubiquitous parades through the streets of Gaza:

And, of course, the wookie:

John Kerry wrote letter supporting anti-Israel extremists in 2009 (update x2)

From Arutz-7:

John Kerry provided a signed letter of support to an extremely radical group of leftists and anti-Israel activists who were organizing a march on Gaza in 2009, revales Maariv's Ben-Dror Yemini. Members of the group eventually wound up on the 2010 Gaza flotilla that included the Mavi Marmara, on whose deck a bloody confrontation between Turkish terrorists and the IDF ended with 9 dead terrorists.

Yemini says that the Gaza Freedom March organizers included Ali Abunima and Omar Barghouti, leaders of the Israel boycott campaign, musician Roger Waters, and members of Code Pink, which he describes as a radical feminist anti-Israeli group. One of the Code Pink activists was Jody Evans, who had worked as a fundraiser in Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

As they prepared to begin their journey to Gaza, members of the radical group tried to get support from leading US officials. One official who agreed to do this was then-Senator Kerry, who served as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee at the time.

In the letter he provided, Kerry expresses his “strong support” for the “humanitarian” delegation and asks that “every courtesy” be given them. Yemini adds that Abunima and Evans showed the letter to Egyptian officials, who decided to prevent them from going on to Gaza anyway. Evans and fellow Code Pink activists eventually boarded the Free Gaza Flotilla.

Kerry should have known better, opines Yemini, after members of Code Pink met with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2008. He asks, “How is it that a senior senator gave legitimacy to a group that was characterized by support for Hamas, support for Ahmadinejad, and deep hostility toward Israel and the US?”

Here is the letter where John Kerry refers to these anti-Israel agitators as "humanitarian" :

Code Pink, in its announcement asking for support for the Gaza Freedom March, said that the US was complicit in Israel's "crimes."

The anti-Israel agitators did not make it to Gaza. Egypt wouldn't let them go, despite Kerry's letter. They pretended they were martyrs themselves, some starting a hunger strike. Adam Shapiro (of Mondoweiss) noticed some nascent anti-Egypt protests in Cairo and had the audacity to believe that his group was responsible for that. Anti-Zionist Hedy Epstein, always trotted out because she is a pseudo-"Holocaust survivor," said "We're in a desperate situation here" - because her suitcase of crayons and paper would not make it into Gaza. The entire trip was an exercise in narcissism and slamming Israel, not about helping a single human being.

Yet John Kerry, in his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, writing about this group of self-centered haters, said that "my staff has met with members of the group, and is impressed with their ability, dedication and commitment to the peace process."

(ht Ilya)

UPDATE: I didn't realize that this was reported back in 2010. Of course, at that time Kerry wasn't the Secretary of State. (h/t Bob K)

UPDATE 2: The State Department says that the implication here is wrong.

The letter from Sen. Kerry regarding the humanitarian mission in Israel and the Palestinian territories was a form letter that was auto-penned, a standard constituent mail that congressional members send out as common practice. The Massachusetts Senate office receives hundreds of requests each year for letters like this for constituents traveling to other countries.
Sen. Kerry never saw it, nor did senior staff see it. It was put together by his Boston office and would also not have involved senior staff members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Moreover, the text of the letter has nothing to do with the flotilla incident or even Gaza.
It focuses purely on a humanitarian mission in Israel and the Palestinian territories in support of the peace process. Kerry’s staff would have provided the letter so that Massachusetts residents could receive meetings while they were in Israel and the Palestinian territories. That is all. And if it was used for anything else it was under false pretenses.
The two flotilla participants who the article says used the letter are both non-residents of Massachusetts. The letter specifically alludes to a Massachusetts delegation. Ali Abunimah lives in Chicago, Jodie Evans lives in California. None of these people had contact with Sen. Kerry’s office and if these people were carrying the letter, it was under false pretenses that are not the responsibility of Kerry’s senate office.

(h/t Bob K)

Kurds declare autonomous government in Syria

From Al Arabiya:

Following a series of military gains, Syrian Kurds in the northeast of the country announced on Tuesday the formation of a transitional autonomous government.

The latest declaration comes amid a general strengthening of Kurdish rights in neighboring Turkey, and increasing moves towards independence by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain the kind of autonomy enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq.

The announcement was made after talks in the mostly-Kurdish town of Qamishli, and comes after Kurdish leaders announced plans to create the temporary government in July.

The transitional autonomous government involves the division of Syria’s Kurdish region into three areas, each with its own local assembly, as well as representatives to a regional executive body, AFP reported.

Tuesday’s statement detailed the “formation of a transitional civil administration for the area of Western Kurdistan-Syria.”
...
Kurdish regions of northern Syria have been administered by local Kurdish councils since forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad withdrew in the middle of 2012.

The redeployment was seen as a tactical move by the regime, one which freed up forces to battle rebels elsewhere, and encouraged the Kurds to avoid allying with the opposition.

More recently, Kurds have battled with jihadist groups keen to secure a wider corridor between Syria and Iraq to ensure more regular supplies and reinforcements.

Last month Kurdish forces seized control of a crucial border point with Iraq.

Fighting between the Kurdish militiamen and jihadists ostensibly battling to topple Assad has added another level of complexity to the civil war, which has claimed an estimated 120,000 lives since 2011.

Kurds represent about 15 percent of the Syrian population, and are mostly concentrated in the northern part of the country.

This is big.

And it can get even bigger if the Syrian Kurds decide to unite with the Iraqi Kurds, who also have an autonomous government. (Turkey's and Iran's Kurds are not in as good a position to make a bid for self-rule.)