Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

12/11 Links Pt1: Kerry's Jordan Valley Plan 'A Death-Trap', AQ Cleric: don't follow Mandela

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: Obama’s Munich reverberates, but Israel is no Czechoslovakia

The overview of recent events should nevertheless be viewed in perspective. While it is reasonable to suggest that the US and its allies are repeating the scenario of appeasement policies undertaken by Chamberlain, Israel today is not Czechoslovakia of 1938. It is not a vassal state and will not allow itself to be sacrificed in order to placate the successors of Nazism.
The IDF today is the most powerful military force in the region, capable of deterring an onslaught by all its adversaries combined. Its neighbors Egypt and Syria are beset by internal problems and the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations are mired in their own crises. In relation to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states will quietly be supportive of Israel.

Analyst: Kerry's Jordan Valley Arrangements 'A Death-Trap'

Arutz Sheva analyst Mark Langfan has warned that US Secretary of State John Kerry's "security arrangement" proposals for Israel are an updated version of the 1967 "Allon Plan," and place the country in strategic danger.
In the arrangements Kerry has reportedly proposed in ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israel would for 10 years partially retain the 15 kilometer (9 mile) wide strip of the Jordan Valley as a security zone.
The arrangements have been reportedly rejected by both sides; PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas opposed the plans for allowing Jews to remain in the area. Kerry's pressure on the PA to accept the plans by postponing terrorist prisoner releases led a senior PLO official to say Kerry's proposals for the Jordan Valley will lead to "total failure," after which Kerry announced he would return to Israel on Wednesday.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians to raise prisoner release issue with international forums

The government repeated its demand that the EU Parliament dispatch a commission of inquiry to look into the conditions of the Palestinian prisoners.
The new decision came following reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry has threatened to delay the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The prisoners were supposed to be released later this month as part of a US-brokered agreement to persuade the PA leadership to agree to the resumption of peace talks with Israel.

Facebook Campaign: Where Are Pollard's Human Rights?

Ahead of Tuesday's International Human Rights Day, a Facebook post surfaced Monday on the Hebrew-language "Free Jonathan Pollard" page reminding readers around the world to act for the Israeli prisoners' release.
The poster (below) reads: "Where is Justice and Human Rights for Jonathan Pollard?" and compares the case with that of Iranian agent Motjaba Atarodi. Atarodi was detained in the US on allegations of acquiring knowledge and technology for Iran's nuclear program, but was released after just two years - as a humanitarian gesture to the Iranians.

Getting less out of the Red-Dead Sea deal

The Palestinians, whose sole contribution to the deal is to sign it, receive an addition 20 million cubic meters of water from the Kinneret (currently they receive 52 million).
Basically the story in a nutshell is that the Kinneret, which already suffers from low water levels, will be drained further to increase the PA and Jordan’s haul of Israeli water by 60%, so that the Jordanians can get a desalination plant in Akaba and Israel can then share some water from that plant and some water will be dumped into the Dead Sea, which benefits both Jordan and Israel.

Palestinian People Who Came Into Existence 50 Years Ago Plan Mural of Their 3,500 Year History

But the Canaanites were at least a people. Which is more than can be said for the Palestinians, which is, in the most optimistic pro-Palestinian take, is still a reference to another non-Arabic people.
The Palestinian Arabs claiming to be Canaanites is like Elizabeth Warren claiming to be Native American. It’s worse, because the Arab conquests took place at a much later date.
We’re talking about a bunch of invaders who started flocking to the area in Roman and Post-Roman times, a process that accelerated with the Mohammedan conquests, claiming to be an ancient people who were long extinct by the time they got there.(h/t NormanF)

Palestinians see worrisome trend in rise of 'honor killings'

Her murder brought to 27 the number of women slain in similar circumstances in Palestinian-run areas this year, according to rights groups - more than twice last year's victims.
The rise has led Palestinians to question hidebound laws they say are lax on killers, as well as a reluctance to name and shame in the media and society, which may contribute to a feeling of impunity among perpetrators.
"It feels like something that belongs to another time," said one young man in Aqqaba who refused to give his name, the first hints of a beard on his chin. "But, it's standard."

Canada: Palestinian Refugees - Fleeing Hamas

Three Palestinian residents of Ramallah, Mohammad Adawi and his two sons Naser and Nasim, arrived in Canada in 2010 requesting refugee status. According to Adawi, he was forced to flee Samaria following death threats from armed members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The three recently applied for a judicial review of a 2012 decision that refused them refugee status and claimed their story was likely fabricated, reports Shalom Toronto. The federal courts involved in the review cancelled the earlier decision and opened a new hearing of their case.

Analysis: Iran's warning to Congress

Speaking directly to US lawmakers and the American president, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued a warning on Monday that the deal that world powers cut with Iran over its nuclear program last month would be “entirely dead” if Congress passed additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“We do not like to negotiate under duress,” the top Iranian diplomat said in an interview with TIME magazine. “And if Congress adopts sanctions, it shows lack of seriousness and a lack of desire to achieve a resolution on the part of the United States.”

No deal with Iran

It has failed to ratify and implement the Additional Protocol to the Safeguards' Agreement — additional verification and transparency procedures that would enable the international community to exert a higher level of scrutiny over the country's nuclear activities. Given Iran's past violations, only enhanced verification can re-establish trust over time. Iranian demurral strengthens legitimate suspicions about its noncompliance.
Finally, Iran refuses to apply the modified Code 3.1 of the Subsidiary Arrangements to IAEA Safeguards' Agreements. This norm, which the IAEA considers applicable to Iran, requires all NPT signatories to notify the IAEA of any new nuclear facility before building work begins. Iran has repeatedly violated this rule.
All its enrichment activities are thus in violation of the NPT, regardless of whether it has a right, in theory, to enrich uranium.

Alan Dershowitz Now Doubts Obama’s Promise to Prevent Iran From Gaining Nuclear Weapons

Speaking on the sidelines of Israel’s Globes 2013 Israel Business Conference, Dershowitz said, ”Obama promised me in a personal conversation that Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon on his watch, and I believed him. Nonetheless, I am not sure that he can keep this. Therefore, Israel cannot outsource its security.”
In an interview with Israeli television presenter Ya’akov Eilon, Dershowitz said, “There is the potential for disaster in the deal with Iran; too much was given for too little in return. The White House told me that this is not true. I was told that it will be possible to reapply the sanctions by the U.S. alone. I am afraid of the music not the lyrics. Iran hears this as the end of the sanctions regime in exchange for which they have to give up nothing. If this ends by stopping the nuclear development, I’ll applaud Obama.

John Bolton: Verification is the Elephant in the Room in the Iranian Nuke Deal

In fact, it is the utter absence of provision for stepped-up verification of undeclared Iranian sites that shows how deficient the joint plan is on verification. Amano’s Nov. 14 report to the IAEA board of governors makes plain that Iran continues to stall — as it has for well over two years — on providing information about its program’s military dimensions. Tehran continues blocking any access to the Parchin military base, where Iran has long worked on the weaponization aspects of nuclear weapons, particularly the shaping of high explosives to compress plutonium or enriched uranium into the critical mass necessary for an atomic explosion.
Obama’s joint plan is absolutely silent on verification at Parchin, other military and undeclared facilities and Iran’s active and growing ballistic-missile program. Indeed, like the entire agreement, the verification provisions rest entirely from Iran’s contention that its program is peaceful; only those aspects that Iran is prepared to open to IAEA inspection will be inspected. The real elephant in the room is simply ignored.
The Geneva deal is flawed throughout, and its flimsy verification provisions are not even its most grievous defects. The next time Obama quotes Ronald Reagan saying “trust but verify,” remember that Reagan actually meant what he said.

Iran dismisses Peres's offer to meet with Rouhani

The Iranian foreign ministry has dismissed President Shimon Peres's offer to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, AFP reported Tuesday.
Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, said her country would never recognize the Jewish state or change its stance, and claimed Peres's offer was aimed at easing Israeli isolation in the world.

Iran military chief says Rouhani government 'infected by Western doctrine'

The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard force has criticized the government, saying it was under the influence of Western ideas and fundamental change was needed.
Major General Mohammad Jafari's comments are some of the sharpest to be made by a senior official in public since moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani took office as president in August pledging to improve Iran's relations with regional countries and the West.

Iran Unveils New Air Defense Radar System, Space Rocket

The announcements come as fruit of a sovereign weapons development program built upon what it had received in defense support from the U.S. from 1925 to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah. Its primary suppliers at the time included the United States, Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Italy, Israel, and the Soviet Union.
But the post-1979 embargo coupled with advanced needs for the Iran-Iraq war led to the domestic development program, with newer technology based on reverse engineering what it was able to buy from the Soviet Union, North Korea, Brazil, and China to meet its short term military requirements.

Syrian Opposition Marks 1,000 Days of Civil War, Says One Person Killed Every 11 Minutes

To date, the civil strife has resulted in the death of at least 128,000 Syrians, with more than 2 million citizens being injured. In addition, 16,000 Syrian civilians detained by the regime are currently listed as missing.
A report published by the United Nations Refugee Agency asserts that out of 2.2 million war refugees from Syria who are registered with UNHCR, 52 percent are children. Nearly 90 percent of the refugees have fled to neighboring countries, including Lebanon (385,000), Jordan (291,000) and Turkey (294,000).

Egyptian Author Attributes Involvement in Anti-Egyptian Subversive Schemes to Comedian Jon Stewart

His spiritual father is Jon Stewart, who is a Jewish-American author, journalist, producer, and media personality. Jon Stewart's ideology is based on Brzezinski's ideas. He is implementing Brzezinski's theory on the American people and media.
If you recall, when Jon Stewart visited here in Egypt, he was a guest on Bassem Youssef's show. Note what Jon Stewart said as a joke. He said: "I am sorry I am late. I wandered in the desert, but now I've found my homeland." That's what he said word for word – a Jew who wandered in the desert, but, thank God, found his homeland. This man says, in the heart of Egypt and on an Egyptian media outlet, that Egypt belongs to them, that it is his homeland."

OIC Blames Free Speech for "Islamophobia" in West

The report concludes with the transcript of a speech by OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in which he thanks American and European political leaders for their help in advancing his efforts to restrict free speech in the West.
"The Istanbul Process initiated with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton to build further on the consensus building that went into Resolution 16/18 must be carried forward. While the resolution forms a triumph of multilateralism, Istanbul Process must also be seen as a poster child of OIC-US-EU cooperation… I appreciate that this Process has come to be recognized as the way forward by all stakeholders… We need to build on it," Ihsanoglu said.

Al Qaeda Theorist Tells Islamists Not to Emulate Mandela

The cleric, Eyad Qunaibi, is western-educated and regarded by U.S. officials as a prominent jihadist ideologue who supports the al Nusra Front, the main al Qaeda rebel group in Syria.
Qunaibi warned Muslims against viewing Mandela as a model, according to a partial translation of a 10-minute video posted to YouTube Saturday.
Qunaibi also criticized Arab news media for giving extensive coverage to Mandela, who died Nov. 5,

Gulf states discussing union

From the Times of Oman on Monday:

Gulf Arab states will hold a summit this week to discuss a proposal to form an EU-like union.

A proposal to develop the Gulf Cooperation Council into a fully-fledged union has proven divisive, with Oman saying it would leave the GCC if the idea is approved.

"The summit is held amid extremely sensitive and delicate situations that require member states to study the consequences for the GCC," Secretary-General Abdullatif Al Zayani said ahead of the two-day summit, which opens tomorrow in Kuwait.

The summit comes a week after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited four GCC states to reassure them over the interim nuclear agreement.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Sabah, whose country is hosting the summit, said on Friday that the conflict in Syria will be high on the agenda. The Gulf leaders are also expected to discuss Egypt.

Saudi Arabia in 2011 proposed creating a Gulf union, though it never spelled out what that would entail. Bahrain was an early supporter of the idea. Kuwait and Qatar have since come around to the proposal, while the UAE has not yet adopted a firm position.

Oman's Foreign Minister Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah on Saturday expressed his views on the idea. "We will not prevent a union, but if it happens we will not be part of it... we will simply withdraw" from the new body, he had said.

The summit began on Tuesday, as the Kuwait News Agency reported:

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Arab Gulf leaders have voiced desire for further integration with the objective of enhancing their unity in the face of regional and international challenges.

His Highness the Amir, addressing the 34th Summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Tuesday, called for integration to honoring aspirations of the Gulf people.

"We managed to prove to the whole world that the blessed march of GCC cooperation council, with all its indications, is capable of steadfastness and communication for serving the peoples of the council," His Highness the Amir said.

He emphasized that circumstances surrounding the region and developments taking place around the globe required more consultation and coordination.

"A closer look at the surrounding circumstances, both regionally and Internationally, clearly assures the importance of our meeting today, and the need to consultation, and exchange of views, concerning such circumstances, and their consequences upon our area, in a manner that fosters our solidarity, and enhances the steadfastness of our unity. Our meeting reflects our sublimity, and our cooperation reflects our power," said His Highness the Amir.

In fact, in the closing statement of the summit it was announced that the GCC approved the formation a unified military command structure.

Everyone knows that the idea is a response to the possibility of a nuclear Iran, but no one is saying it explicitly. The idea of an apparent US desire for a rapprochement with Iran, which even seems to be extending to Hezbollah, is clearly driving the Gulf nations to rely less on empty promises from Washington.

EU notices that it is paying tens of thousands of Gazans NOT to work

The European Court of Auditors report on their direct financial report to the PA has been released.

It downplays some of the findings that were leaked earlier of billions of euros being wasted.

The report concentrates on the EU contribution towards PA salaries.

One section does address the fact that the PA continues to pay employees in Gaza who do nothing since Hamas took over, a situation we have discussed for years.

54. However, the audit found indications that in Gaza a considerable number of civil servants were receiving salaries, partly funded by Pegase DFS, because they were eligible for support by virtue of being on the PA payroll but who were not going to work due to the political situation in Gaza (see paragraph 6). Out of 10 Gaza beneficiaries selected by the audit for interviews, three stated that they were not working, while one was absent. The audit also found that the State Audit and Administra-tive Control Bureau was obliged, in accordance with PA regulations, to pay salaries for its 90 staff members in Gaza, all of whom are unable to work. These findings are consistent with estimates based on data from interviews provided in a 2010 evaluation of Pegase contracted by the Commission which indicated that 22% and 24 % respectively of the staff employed by the PA Ministries of Health and Education in Gaza were not working at the time.

55. The Commission and the EEAS, while aware of this problem, have not taken adequate steps to address it and were unable to provide clear information on the extent of this practice. Given the amount of money which the EU is providing through Pegase DFS, it would have been ex-pected that they could obtain such information from the PA. The audits contracted by the Commission were not designed to find out whether personnel being paid by Pegase DFS were actually working, only that they were eligible for funding.

56. Despite the importance of this issue, there was no transparent reference to Pegase DFS being used to pay non-performing workers in any of the Commission's financing documentation for the annual programmes.

57. The audit also found that Gaza beneficiaries of the Pegase DFS CSP com-ponent have to rely on PA contact persons in their workplaces to com-municate with the PA on changes in their situation affecting pay and allowances. However, these contact persons in some cases cannot oper-ate openly towards the Hamas-led administration.The informal nature of these communication channels between Gaza civil servants and the PA in Ramallah makes the payroll system prone to corruption by actors at all levels. The EEAS and the Commission have not addressed these risks.

Not addressed is how much of the "salaries" being paid by the EU's Pegase program go towards employing terrorists or paying the families of terrorists.

Financial Times and AP picked up on this part of the report:

Ingeborg Grässle, a member of the European Parliament’s budget control committee, said she found it “unbearable” that the EU paid staff “who in fact don’t even go to work”. “That was not what we agreed on and it leads to nothing,” she added.

The auditors said the EU pays one-fifth of the salaries of the Palestinian Authority's 170,000 civil servants, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. European auditor Hans Gustaf Wessberg said spot checks found that in one office, out of 125 employees, 90 weren't working.

Last I checked there were over 80,000 PA employees in Gaza. The report admitted that there is no way to know how many are actually working.

Will anything change as a result of this audit? Probably not. More than half of the PA budget goes to Gaza, making it easier for Hamas to buy weapons and build terror tunnels. But cutting that money would cause one of those dreaded humanitarian crises, so the dysfunctional indirect support of Islamist terror will continue - and the West will continue to pay the price, in both meanings of the phrase.

The PA and Fatah leaders have already said that they will ignore any recommendations to cut salaries or to stop paying Gaza workers, even those who do nothing.

Hey. he's a "doctor" - he must be smart!

The head of Egypt's Liberal Party, Dr. Medhat Najib, is upset at Time magazine.

Time had a reader poll for "person of the year." Egyptians stuffed the ballot boxes to vote for Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and he won. Popular pro-Sisi Egyptian newspapers ran daily stories urging readers to vote.

Time doesn't choose the person of the year based on votes, though. Its editors choose who will be named the biggest newsmaker.

Yesterday, Time revealed its Top Ten list of candidates for Person of the Year - and Sisi is not on the list.

Najib is furious, saying that time violated all professional rules by not including Sisi. Moreover, he says, Time is owned by a Jew (I couldn't figure out the name, something like Jules Meyer - of course, Time is a publicly traded company and has no single "owner").

He said that Time's snub "reveals the dirty war waged by the Western media against Egypt... This is not new for the Western media, which is controlled by Jews and Zionists, to stand against al-Sisi."

It's artificial earthquake time!

Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in Gaza, Ismail Radwan, says that the Israelis are going to cause an artificial earthquake to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and to build a new Solomon's Temple in its place.

Really, the Palestinian Arabs need to come up with something new to accuse Israel of.

They have warned us about this impending earthquake in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and an Egyptian "researcher" made a similar claim earlier this year.

I really don't know what is taking those Jews so long. After all, they already tested the technology in 1927, when the Al Aqsa mosque was damaged but, alas, not destroyed. By now I'm sure the technology has been perfected.

Peace Now doesn't have a very "big tent" for those who disagree

From Einat Wilf's Facebook page:

Several weeks ago I was approached by Peace Now to speak at their annual conference on a panel discussing whether international pressure on Israel is necessary to promote peace. I was specifically told that my point of view (which opposes such pressure and certainly the domestic efforts to invite it) would be very appreciated in this discussion.

Yesterday, I received a call from the head of Peace Now disinviting me. Even though Yariv Oppenheimer noted that he personally did not want to disinvite me, he was outnumbered within his own organization. The reason, he explained, was due to the fact I am a member of the International Advisory Council of NGO Monitor (along with other “human rights offenders” such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel and Alan Dershowitz). Putting aside the way in which dogmatic thinking seems to blind people to the importance of good manners, and the inability of those who preach tolerance to hear a point of view that is not their own, I am issuing the following response:

"If the Israeli Left has no place for those who support a two-state solution and who also wage battle against those who seek to delegitimize Israel, it will not return to lead the country. Leadership is not built through self-flagellation. Defending Israel and Zionism can and should be part of supporting peace and a two state solution. Israel is under attack for its very legitimacy and the human-rights discourse serves various groups to undermine the foundational idea of Zionism that the Jewish People have a right to a sovereign state in their ancestral homeland. If people, whose work for human rights is indisputable such as Elie Wiesel and Alan Dershowitz, find it proper to fight against the demonization of Israel, then I am proud to wage this battle with them."

As you can see, Einat Wilf is not a right winger. She entered Knesset as part of the Labor party and moved to Ehud Barak's Independence party. And the supposedly liberal Peace Now cannot countenance the fact that she is on the advisory board of NGO Monitor!

I'm waiting to hear the groundswell of outrage from members of the Left who are aghast that their "big tent" doesn't include pro-peace but unapologetically Zionist liberals.

This episode proves quite easily that groups like Peace Now are a lot less tolerant then they pretend to be. And that they are not as comfortable with the idea of a proudly Jewish state as they claim. They embrace the narrative of Israel's enemies and marginalize people like Wilf, which speaks volumes to how "Zionist" they are.

(h/t PMB)

12/10 Links Pt2: Why anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic, CBS orders 'The Dovekeepers’ series.

From Ian:

Why anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic

The proposition that anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic does not mean that anti-Zionists necessarily hold classically anti-Semitic beliefs: anti-Zionism is a variant of anti-Semitism, even if it sometimes also manifests itself as a cover for a more traditional variety of anti-Semitism. Many anti-Zionists are probably sincere, therefore, when they deny accusations of anti-Semitism. That is irrelevant, however, because their agenda can be anti-Semitic in deed if not in intent. The bearer of prejudiced views may still be prejudiced even while ignorant of the nature of his offence: one need not be a wife-beater to be a misogynist, if one also believes that a woman’s place is in the home.
Once one accepts that anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic, the world presents itself as a much darker and more sinister place. It means that people to whom we were previously willing to give the benefit of the doubt should now be taken to task. It requires the sober realisation that colleagues whose anti-Israel prejudice we could previously isolate as a merely political difference, are part of a malicious historical trend of treating Jews as politically inferior, whether they know it or not. (h/t NormanF)

A Disingenuous Defense of Hate Speech

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the disturbing decision of the influential New America Foundation to host and promote Max Blumenthal’s new book calling for Israel’s destruction. As I wrote then, and in a previous post noting the civil war that has broken out on the left about it, any discussion of this piece of trash need not detain us long. It is an ignorant piece of agitprop the purpose of which is to depict the State of Israel as comparable to Nazi Germany....
That issue has now been addressed by the group’s founding director James Fallows, who not only defended the book and its author but seemed to think my piece and another that inspired it by historian Ron Radosh was a campaign aimed at suppressing free speech. This is nonsense. As Radosh has noted in a response, no one is stopping Blumenthal from writing a book and speaking about it. But we do have a right to ask why the New America Foundation thinks it is worthy of being given their imprimatur. The problem with engaging Fallows’s argument is that he is being completely disingenuous. In order to defend Blumenthal and his book he has to completely misrepresent it and the discussion that he says is worth having about it. (h/t NormanF)

Eugene Kontorovich: New EU/Morocco fisheries deal and its implications for Israel

The positions adopted by the EU in its negotiations with Israel over grants and product labeling are inconsistent with those it has taken at the same time in its dealings with Morocco. While the EU does not recognize Israel’s control over the territories, and opposes it, the same is true of its policy toward Morocco in Western Sahara. Yet this policy does not require, nor does international law, the punitive measures adopted toward Israel.
In particular, the EU has used entirely fabricated international law claims in its dealing with Israel, claims contradicted by its own practice and official legal advice.

Dutch FM: Europe judges Israel by a different standard than other Middle East countries

Europe judges Israel by a different standard than other countries in the region because it is seen as a “European country” that should be judged by European standards, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said Monday.
“There is no way we can disentangle the destiny of Europe from that of Israel, and we better face that fact,” said Timmermans during a lecture at Beit Hatfutsot, sponsored by the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, which operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress.
Timmermans said that it was hard for some in Europe to deal with a strong Israel. “It is easy to be Israel’s friend as an underdog,” he said, adding that was something “cultural, part of our heritage.”

UK trade agency discourages business with settlements

It was “more than strange” that a UK government agency last week issued a report assessing overseas business risks associated with dealings with Israel that discouraged British firms from doing business with West Bank settlements, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The agency, UK Trade and Investment, warned businesses of the “clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements,” which are “illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible.”

Elliott Abrams: Obama: Silent on Ukraine

Where is U.S. President Barack Obama? Rice last week repeatedly assured us of the administration's commitment to human rights ("advancing democracy and respect for human rights is central to our foreign policy. It's what our history and our values demand, but it's also profoundly in our interests") but neither she nor the president nor the secretary of state has said much about the extraordinary events in Kiev. It's time for them -- personally, not through nameless spokesmen -- to offer at least moral support to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians out in the streets, and to denounce the suppression of dissent by the Yanukovych government. It is not in the interest of the United States for Ukraine to fall back into the Russian orbit -- nor for our top officials to remain indifferent and near silent in the face of the largest manifestation of a demand for freedom to occur in years in Europe.

The dark side of Roger Waters

Waters has been calling for a boycott of Israel for years already. He turns to various artists who are planning to perform here and urges them not to come, not to lend legitimacy to our existence. It is likely that he expresses himself to them in the same biting and hurtful manner as he does in the quotes above, a contribution to the brainwashing of those who do not know the truth.
If Waters was loyal to the facts, then, in contrast to the complex music he has written, he would refrain from objective superficiality. For the sake of his own self-respect, he would admit that apartheid does not exist in a country where Arabs have equal rights (and obligations). An Arab can stroll through any mall he wants, receive treatment at any hospital and work everywhere.

What Boycott? Major Musicians Rock Israel

Speculation about whether or not stars will cancel, or the latest commentary from Roger Waters (formerly of Pink Floyd and now a boycott spokesman) can give the impression that musicians teeter on the verge of agreeing with BDS. But BDS does not argue particular policies; they advocate for the elimination of the Jewish state, demanding all of Israel for Palestine.
Some with this view send death threats, like Islamist cleric Omar Bakri who broadcast before Paul McCartney’s concert, “If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel.”
In Tel Aviv, Sir Paul told the press, “My little bit is to try to bring people together through music…It seems to me that most of the people are quite moderate and would like a solution…They want the governments to decide quite quickly on two states, on two nations rather than this conflict.”

Chris McGreal story on Mandela omits his (discredited) Guardian ‘expose’ on SA nukes

The anti-Zionist malice of Guardian “journalist” Chris McGreal has been the subject of many posts at this blog. Indeed, the error-prone propagandist – who seriously fancies the idea that Israeli snipers target Palestinian children, and is characteristically obsessed with the power of the Israel lobby – has achieved the rare status as one of the few Guardian reporters singled out by the Community Security Trust in their annual report on antisemitic discourse.
Though McGreal has been keeping away from his Israel obsession of late – and only sparsely reporting for the paper – he took time out of his busy schedule re-Tweeting Glenn Greenwald and Michael Moore to pen a ‘Comment is Free’ piece titled ‘Mandela: never forget how the free world’s leaders learned to change their tune‘.

Human Rights, anti-Israel campaigners and the BBC

One simple litmus test for ‘pro-Palestinian’ organisations is the examination of their activity in the field of women’s rights. Do they speak out on subjects such as enforced dress codes and ‘modesty’ patrols, inheritance and child custody laws, domestic violence and lenient sentences for so-called ‘honour’ killings? Do they promote women’s education and financial independence? Or do they – as is now sadly so often the case in the ‘liberal’ West – regard issues such as polygamy, gender segregation, forced marriage and female genital mutilation as part of the untouchable ‘culture’ of a patriarchal society which their own cultural relativism prevents them from criticizing?

Bulk of a BBC report is a B’Tselem press release

No attempt is made in this article to provide audiences with information regarding the political views, aims and sources of funding which stand behind B’Tselem’s campaigning and hence audiences are once again rendered unable to form their own opinions regarding the reliability and impartiality of claims made by that organisation.
The repeated practice of failing to disclose the political motivations behind NGOs promoted and quoted by the BBC continues to do serious damage to the BBC’s reputation for impartiality in its Middle East reporting.

CBS orders miniseries based on ‘The Dovekeepers’

The makers of “The Bible” on TV are going back again in time for a CBS miniseries.
The network announced that it will air a four-hour miniseries based on the historical novel “The Dovekeepers,” sometime in 2015. Actress Roma Downey and her husband, veteran television producer Mark Burnett, will make it. The couple scored a major hit with their miniseries “The Bible” on the History channel earlier this year.
The novel is about four women who work to save 900 Jews being attacked by Romans in a fortress in Masada.

Dutch company buys into Channel 2 concessionaire

Endemol, a Dutch company owned by Italian media conglomerate Mediaset, produced a number of successful reality programs and created the “Big Brother” format.
The company signed a deal last Thursday in which it paid NIS 100 million ($28.56 million) for one-third of Reshet’s stock.
This is not Endemol’s first major purchase in the Israeli market. In April, it purchased a controlling share in Kuperman Productions, which it relaunched as Endemol Israel.

US to add $173 million for Israel missile defense

Funding for several Israeli defense systems will be affected by the legislation.
Israel employs a layered defense system, with Iron Dome covering rocket launches from four to 70 kilometers away and Arrow 2 addressing threats from 300 to 1700 kilometers away. Neither the mid-range David’s Sling, which was successfully tested in November, nor the long-range Arrow 3, are operational yet.

Israel’s virus-killer Vecoy gets an outer-space research prize

The Israeli company Vecoy Nanomedicine became a media sensation last year after ISRAEL21c covered the company’s virus “decoy” designed to outwit the world’s worst viral enemies before they do any damage.
The biomed technology platform tricks a virus into committing suicide, a tactic which could eventually neutralize viral threats like Ebola, hepatitis, HIV and scary chemical and biological warfare.
Now, researchers from the American space and startup community have taken notice. In an upcoming space mission, the Vecoy platform will be tested to see how it works in zero gravity.

Israeli chemists to receive Nobel prize in Stockholm

The two Israeli scientists and their Jewish American colleague who were named as winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry are set to receive their awards at the Stockholm City Hall on Tuesday. The Israeli laureates join 10 other Israeli Nobel Prize winners.
Professor Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California and Professor Michael Levitt of Stanford University, who worked together at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, were set to receive the award along with Professor Martin Karplus of Harvard University and the University of Strasbourg.

Israel Daily Picture: The Church of Ireland's Library Uncovered a Photographic Treasure 115 Years Old

In 2011, Rev. Stephen White brought to Dublin several old cardboard boxes found in the old Church of Ireland Killaloe deanery in Limerick. He brought them to Dr. Susan Hood, the archivist for the Church of Ireland's Representative Church Body Library.
Last year, Dr. Hood and BBC undertook an investigation into discovering the name of hitherto anonymous photographer. They were able to identify him as David Brown, a soap manufacturer from Donaghmore who was also an amateur photographer. In 1897 he joined a pilgrimage led by his brother in law, a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland.

A whopping Palestinian Arab lie gets even bigger!

I have noted in the past an absurd statistic, given by some Palestinian Arab NGOs like Addameer and repeated by the UN and others like The Lancet and Jimmy Carter.

They claimed that over 650,000 - and then 750,000 - and then 800,000 and even 900,000 Palestinian Arabs have been jailed by Israel since 1967.

I've proven that these statistics were complete fiction. Every Israeli arrest is documented by PCHR, and they average about 25 arrests a week, which would make at most 1300 a year - but for these numbers to be increasing as fast as they claim in recent years, there would need to be over 50,000 people not just arrested but jailed every year!

(There are about 5000 Palestinian Arabs in Israeli jails, a number that has been pretty consistent for the past couple of years.)

Now, Mustafa Barghouti in Irish Times beats everyone else in his ability to lie:

Now there is almost no Palestinian family that did not have someone in jail. More than 44 per cent of Palestinian adults have been to jail in one way or another.

This means that even if every prisoner has only been jailed just once in his or her life, based on the current population in the territories, 1,060,000 people have been jailed! (There are about 2.4 million Palestinian Arab adults in the territories.)

Of course, Irish Times doesn't bother to check his very specific sounding statistic. (Liars like to use very specific numbers to make them sound more authentic.) Just like Time magazine, the Goldstone Report, and countless others have cited the inflated and patently absurd statistics as truth, no one even considers that when intelligent looking Palestinian Arabs say something with a straight face, they might be lying.

Barghouti is lying. The Irish Times is gullible.

And so is the rest of the world.

(h/t Adam)

UN appeared to use pro-Palestinian litmus test in screening applicants

From UN Watch:

The following written exercise, which was revealed to UN Watch and is published for the first time today, was administered two years ago by the United Nations to applicants seeking a position with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). How many applicants were screened by this exam — and whether it remains in use — is unknown. Concerning such exams, OHCHR on Monday informed UN Watch in an emailed statement that it is “quite impossible to find out which ones have been used when, or by whom, or for what specific purpose.”

WRITTEN EXERCISE

The Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Adequate Housing, on the Rights to Water and Sanitation and on the Right to Food have been sending allegation letters to Israel raising concerns about the demolition of houses, water tanks and agricultural structures in the West Bank throughout 2011. NGOs and UN actors are encouraging them to issue a press release on their concerns. At the same time, the Palestinian request for recognition of statehood is being discussed at the Security Council and General Assembly.

1. Please choose either exercise 1.a. or exercise 1.b. [maximum 700 words]:

1.a. Please draft a briefing note for the Chief of the Special Procedures Branch, who would like to advise the three mandate holders on the pros and cons of issuing such a press release and its timing.

OR

1.b. Please draft speaking notes for one of the three mandate holders (your choice) to be used if a journalist wishes to follow up with a telephone interview.

2. Please draft a concept note (substance, format, possible participants and audience, steps needed, etc) for the organization of a side event on this topic, to be held during the presentation of special procedure reports to the General Assembly, which could be shared with States that may wish to sponsor such an event. [maximum 1,500 words]

This is thoroughly unsurprising. Can you imagine the chances for a pro-Israel candidate to get a job at the OHCHR?

No doubt the UN cannot even conceive that there is any problem here. Israel's guilt is unassailable; who could possibly argue? If you do, then the UN would consider you to be just as unstable as someone insisting that the sky is green.

How HRW and Amnesty have failed women in the Middle East (NGO Monitor)

NGO Monitor has just released a very impressive report, titled "Second Class Rights: How Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch Fail Women in the Middle East."

Here are some excerpts from its executive summary and introduction:

Given the importance of women’s rights and their contribution to the development of society, the promotion of liberal democracy, and the strengthening of other human rights, they should be a primary focus of the most prominent human rights NGOs, specifically Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW). And as noted above, given that women’s rights are the least protected within MENA countries, it would seem to follow that these organizations should direct significant resources and sustained campaigning toward promoting women’s rights within the MENA region.

As NGOs with huge budgets rivaling those of multinational corporations, and with tremendous influence among policy makers and in UN frameworks, Amnesty and HRW have a distinct advantage in championing women’s rights. Research and advocacy by these organizations can give women’s issues international prominence. Conversely, violations ignored by Amnesty and HRW may lead the media, academics, and policy makers to conclude that these problems are not serious enough to warrant attention.

Despite the advantages of being well-funded, highly organized, and powerful actors, campaigning on women’s rights in the MENA region leading up to the Arab Spring was not a priority for Amnesty and HRW. While these NGOs project an image of prioritizing women’s rights, both quantitative and qualitative analyses of their activities demonstrate that this is not, in fact, an accurate assessment. Amnesty’s and HRW’s campaigning was sporadic and impressionistic, without sustained advocacy, and not aimed at achieving concrete objectives.

Instead, these groups chose to focus on issues related to criminal detention, armed conflict, and counter-terrorism. Often, the NGO agenda appeared to be driven by media interest and prominent world events, or as a foil to U.S. policy.

Because of the core agenda drivers for these NGOs, there was relatively little campaigning on women’s issues in the MENA region from 1990 through 2011. There was no reporting at all for some MENA countries; in other instances, the minimal reporting soft-peddled abuses by repressive governments. As a result, these NGOs were ill-prepared to deal with the Arab Spring upheavals.

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, sustained campaigning by these NGOs has been all the more important given the ascendancy of Islamist parties and the backlash against women throughout the region. There is a sense of urgency among women activists for the need to “create a strong body to lobby and advocate for rights” in order to prevent further deterioration. This period of tremendous uncertainty, however, has not seen Amnesty and HRW step in to fill the vacuum.

...With regards to Amnesty, for example, external consultants hired by the NGO to evaluate its women’s rights program found that “there is little evidence that Amnesty International was able to use its ‘might’ (name and reputation, resources, research and campaign work) to ‘change the global conversation’, ”12 and further concluded that “Women’s rights are not yet part of Amnesty International’s DNA.”13 The evaluators noted many problems, including that new campaigns “lack any explicit analysis of or com- mitment to women’s rights, despite a commitment to gender being explicit in [Amnesty’s strategic plan],”14 “Some staff do not see the need to learn about or work on women’s rights; it is still seen as optional,”15 and “with the ending of [the Violence Against Women (VAW) program] the number of staff employed to work on VAW and women’s rights has declined.”16 The main recommendation in the evaluation was that “a clear plan for ensuring that Amnesty International takes women’s rights seriously is needed urgently.”17

For HRW, no case better illustrates the NGOs soft-peddling approach on women’s issues in the MENA region than its activities relating to Saudi Arabia. HRW acknowledges that the situation for women in Saudi Arabia is untenable.18 Yet, despite this recognition, the organization has undertaken little substantive and sustained campaigning on the fundamental issues relating to women in the Kingdom. Instead, it has chosen to focus on relatively minor concerns that may garner media attention, but have had little to no impact on eliminating systemic abuse.

HRW’s reporting on Saudi Arabia has also included analyses of whether its repressive guardianship system is required under Islamic law – a discussion that would be unthinkable, for instance, in HRW reports on gay rights and abortion in Catholic countries. Moreover, HRW’s reporting on Saudi Arabia is hesitant and often lacks the language of demand, certainty, urgency, and immediacy, and offers praise for the most minor and illusory of rights reforms. In contrast to recommendations in reports on the U.S., Israel, and other countries, there is no call for external intervention by other nations and international institutions, no demand for the establishment of international investigations or fact-finding inquiries, no call for the imposition of international sanctions and embargoes, and no demand for international prosecutions or other hard-hitting measures.

This approach has also been coupled with offensive statements by HRW’s leadership such as Executive Director Ken Roth who has written “Of new #Saudi reforms for women municipal voting, Olympics a greater work role, even if segregated, will matter most.” It is inconceivable that Roth would have made similar statements relating to African-Americans or other minority groups.

The most troubling aspect of HRW’s soft approach is that it appears to coincide with a new strategy by the organization to intensify fundraising from Gulf elites. This financing plan raises numerous ques- tions regarding the impact of such funding on HRW’s priorities and agenda setting, as well as HRW’s commitment to moral and ethical principles.

...The research also demonstrates that Amnesty and HRW officials’ attitudes towards rights abuses against women in the Middle East is largely motivated by post-colonial ideology and a fear of being labeled “Western” or “Islamophobic.” The failure to report and the “soft-peddling” of abuses also appears to be driven by a desire not to be seen as supporting the policies of the U.S. government.

Additionally, in discussing abuses against women, Amnesty and HRW often employ language that is much softer than that used to describe alleged violations committed by Western countries, reflecting a tendency by these groups to opine on politics, promote specific regimes, and justify religious strictures. In many cases, as will be described in the report, rather than documenting and condemning offenses, Amnesty and HRW gave praise and encouragement to abusive regimes. In several instances, these NGOs marketed a façade of regime reforms that were mostly illusory, as in Saudi Arabia, and even false, as in the case of Libya. In other examples, and in contrast to the approach towards Western or non- Muslim countries, these NGOs relied on Islamic precepts for their analyses, rather than the standards established by international human rights law. And in still other cases, these organizations actively promoted those who oppose true political and social freedom for women such as Amnesty’s embrace of a Taliban supporter and HRW’s stance towards the Muslim Brotherhood. In essence, these organizations have chosen a “kid-gloves” approach to promote change in dictatorial societies rather than engaging in hard-hitting advocacy, tough “naming and shaming,” and application of universal, internationally-adopted human rights standards.

As will be shown in this report, HRW and Amnesty have allowed ideology and politics to prevail at the expense of true freedom for women. Doing so has compromised the role of these organizations as independent “non-governmental” actors that monitor and report on universal human rights. Had a different, more sustained, hardline approach been adopted or even just attempted by these organizations, perhaps women’s rights would be far more advanced in the MENA region, and the Arab Spring would have truly led to positive change for women.

12/10 Links Pt1: Obama’s four-state solution, Iran Executed 529 people in 2013, Hamas renews Iranian ties

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Obama’s four-state solution

First we had a two-state solution when Jordan, with its overwhelming Palestinian majority, was carved out of the Jewish territory.
For the past 20 years, we have been told that we need a three-state solution with another Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, we have had two Palestinian states – in Gaza and Jordan. And yet, the Gazans who we are told are motivated by nationalist aspirations have refused to declare an independent Palestinian state in Gaza. And now Obama is talking about a four-state solution – three Palestines and one rump Israel.
The Palestinians’ refusal to ever view the areas under their control as the focus of their nationalist aspirations indicates that there is something awry in the international community’s assumption that the Palestinians are motivated by nationalist aspirations.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Isn't Kerry Listening to What the Radicals Are Saying?

Hamas and its Palestinian allies will in any case never accept Israel's right to exist. So even if Abbas today gets 100% of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem to establish a Palestinian state, Hamas, which represents a substantial part of the Palestinian population, will continue to fight to "liberate the rest of Palestine."
As Zahar stated, "Our battle is not outside Palestine. Rather, it is inside Palestine. Our program is to liberate Palestine."
Kerry needs to listen to these voices and take them into account as he continues to talk about a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not enough to listen to what Abbas and chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat are telling him in English. Kerry needs to listen to what Hamas and other groups are saying in Arabic.

Palestinians reject US proposal for 10-year IDF presence in Jordan Valley

According to Kerry’s proposal, the Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley would include an “invisible” Israeli presence in the border crossings between the West Bank and Jordan and Israeli early warning stations on the eastward slopes of the West Bank highlands, the official said.
The 10-year period of Israeli military deployment would be used to train Palestinian forces to take over responsibility for the border, Kerry had said, according to Al-Ayyam.
On Sunday, Abbas met with the the American consul general in Jerusalem, Michael Ratney, and formally rejected the proposal, saying that the Palestinian position was “unequivocal”: no Israeli presence, though the Palestinians would tolerate a third-party military presence.

Guardian prejudice aside, Israel is helping Bedouins

Some of the usual suspects in the politically correct British company of Israel-bashers are at it again. This time, fifty public figures signed a letter in The Guardian on November 29, 2013 demanding that the British government protest what the letter called "forced displacement of Bedouin Palestinians" by Israel.
Not only should these automatic critics be ashamed of themselves for their insufferable ignorance and arrogance, but they are also espousing a politically reactionary, not progressive, point of view.
The letter was signed by "experts" on people, law, and conditions in the Negev in Israel, such as the actress Julie Christie, the film-makers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and members of Parliament, including Jeremy Corbyn and Lady Jenny Tonge.
Many of the signers have long exhibited their acute criticism or hostility on many occasions, having signed statements about alleged violations of something or other by Israel. It is less clear their "expertise" extends to mastery of the intricacies of Ottoman Land Law in the Middle East.

'This is Attempted Murder'

The incident occurred at about 7:00 pm, on the Egged Ta'avurah line. Rabbi Zev Shandalov, a Chicago native and Torah teacher, witnessed the attack.
"We were on the tunnel between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, when all of a sudden I heard a huge crash," he recounted. "A very large rock smashed through the exit door, right behind my head, just missing us."
Rabbi Shandalov emphasized that these were new buses; the line just switched from Egged, the mainstream branch of one of Israel's biggest public transportation providers, to the Egged Ta'avurah line for "peripheral" commutes. The glass shattered after being hit by an immense stone, weighing some 2-3 kilos, according to his estimation.
"One young girl on the bus was crying, because every time the driver went over a bump the glass would shatter a bit more and it sounded like we were being hit again," he continued. "I looked into the driver's rear-view mirror and he looked terrified, so I went up to him."

Romanticising rocks and stones: BBC on the first Intifada

The BBC’s romanticisation of stone-throwing through the use of language such as “unarmed”, “captured international attention” and “enduring picture” conceals the fact that stones and rocks are potentially weapons which can be lethal to human beings – whether soldiers or civilians. But that BBC backgrounder makes no mention whatsoever either of Israelis killed during the first Intifada or of the thousand or so Palestinians killed by other Palestinians during those years, stating:

“The Israeli Defence Forces responded and there was heavy loss of life among Palestinian civilians. More than 1,000 died in clashes which lasted until 1993.”
Of course the use of rocks and stones to attack Israelis did not stop twenty years ago with the end of the first Intifada and such attacks still occur on an alarmingly regular basis. But like much of the international media, the BBC is now in its third decade of ignoring and downplaying of the potentially lethal aspects of stone-throwing and misleadingly presenting such attacks to its audiences as romantic ‘non-violent’ protest.

Meet the Ramahis, Family of 'Peace'

Following accusations by Wajdi al-Ramahi that his 14-year-old son Wajih was the victim of a "cold-blooded murder" at the hands of Israeli "soldiers [who] wanted to pass the time and shot at him," Ha'aretz today publishes a more balanced report examining the contradictory claims regarding the boy's killing in the Jalazun refugee camp Saturday.
Wajdi's claims that the soldiers shot his son "as if he were a bird" hark back to Chris Hedges' 2001 debunked incendiary charge in Harper's that Israeli soldiers "entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport." It is Amira Hass, a longtime critic of Israel, who surprisingly brings more balance to the story today describing the conflicting accounts about Wajih's activities before his was killed ("Accounts of Palestinian teen's death differ"). While his friends claim he was playing soccer before his death, eyewitness describes groups of children throwing stones at soldiers.

Egyptian Army Kills Terrorist Behind Eilat Rocket Attack

Egyptian sources said Monday night that Egyptian Army soldiers had eliminated Ibrahim Abu Atiyeh, a terrorist belonging to the Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Beit al-Makdis terror group. Abu Atiyeh was a leader of the group, which has claimed responsibility for a recent rocket attack on Eilat in August. Abu Atiyeh was killed in a shootout with Egyptian soldiers in northern Sinai.

Iran’s Kayhan Newspaper Calls on Hezbollah to Kidnap, Murder IDF Soldiers

Iranian daily Kayhan called upon Lebanon’s Hezbollah to avenge the assassination of a senior official last week by carrying out a combined terror and kidnapping operation and murdering IDF soldiers, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
In an editorial, translated by MEMRI, Kayhan, which operates directly under the supervision of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, exhorted the Shiite political and terror organization that controls Southern Lebanon, to “carry out a surprise operation, in which it will kill a few soldiers from the Zionist regime’s armed forces and will take others captive.”

IDF Blog: Looking Hezbollah in the Eyes: Druze Soldiers Prepare for the Enemy

While Hezbollah enhances its attack capabilities, the IDF’s all-Druze battalion is preparing to counter a growing threat along the northern border. As they learn to battle Hezbollah terrorists – positioned just kilometers from Druze villages – the soldiers explain that they are just protecting home.
On the backdrop of Israel’s moutainous Galilee region, near the villages they call home, soldiers from the IDF’s Herev Battalion set out for an elite military exercise. As members of the IDF’s all-Druze battalion, they are some of the only IDF soldiers who carry out their missions in Arabic as well as Hebrew.

Hamas Announces Renewed Ties with Iran

Hamas has "resumed" relations with Iran after a temporary falling out over the Syrian conflict, according to AFP.
"Relations between Hamas and Iran have resumed," senior official Mahmud al-Zahar told reporters at a Monday news conference in Gaza.
Ties had been "affected by the Syria situation, and Hamas has withdrawn from Syria so that it can't be identified with this or that side," he said. "We've confirmed we are not interfering in the Syrian case, or in any other Arab country."

Report: Iran Has Executed 529 People in 2013

Iran has executed 529 people this year, including more 300 since President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in August, according to a tally compiled by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC).
The number of executions have significantly spiked since Rouhani took office, leading some to argue that this clashes with his image as a moderate reformer.
Iran now has the dubious honor of being the global leader per capita in executions, according to the IHRDC.

U.S. Seeks to Assure Allies of Limited Iran Relief, as Evidence Mounts of Sanctions-Busting Feeding Frenzy

Reuters has documented how Iran is preparing to reassert itself in oil markets, and former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz have assessed that “the threatened reimposition and strengthening of sanctions… risks losing its edge.” Lastweek the Wall Street Journal cataloged a range of companies that are preparing to reenter Iran’s market. The Journal noted that while sanctions relief was only granted to a few sectors of the economy, “a much wider set of European and US companies – from pharmaceutical firms and medical-equipment makers to food companies and traders – also stands to regain lost Iranian trade as soon as relief measures are formally adopted next month.” The Journal describes the relief as coming from “the fine print of the deal,” and particularly emphasized that renewed contacts would stem from the desire of “executives [to] re-establish ties in the Middle East’s largest consumer market.”

Pro-Israel groups change tactics on Iran deal

In a conference call last week, Howard Kohr, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s executive director, advised pro-Israel activists and leaders not to confront the Obama administration directly over the “difference of strategy” between the United States and Israel on Iran. Instead, Kohr said to focus on passing new sanctions as a means of shaping a final deal.

Poll: American People Disapprove of Nuclear Deal with Iran

The poll shows that a majority of the country believes that Iranian leaders are not serious about addressing concerns about their country’s nuclear program.
In the survey, taken Tuesday through Sunday, 32 percent approve of the agreement and 43 percent disapprove. One in four either refuse to answer or say they didn’t know enough to have an opinion.
By more than 2-1, 62-29 percent, those who have heard something about the accord say Iranian leaders aren’t serious about addressing international concerns about their country’s nuclear program.

Ya’alon: Iran Building Terror Infrastructure in Central and South America

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he believes Iran is building a terror infrastructure in Central and South America, using its embassies and local Shi’ite Muslim populations as bases.
“The Iranians use diplomatic mail [pouches] in order to transport bombs and weapons, and we know that there are states in South America, like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, where the Iranians have terror bases, both in the embassies and among the local Shi’ite Muslim populations,” Ya’alon said in a meeting with Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Perez, the Times of Israelreported.
Ya’alon believes these bases can be used to attack Jewish or Israeli interests in the region, or to stage attacks inside of the U.S. similar to the foiled 2011 attack on a Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC.

Why Is the Obama Administration Courting Hezbollah?

While the U.S. the Netherlands, Israel, and Canada consider Hezbollah to be a monolithic terrorist organization, Britain maintains an entirely fictional distinction between the ‘political’ and ‘military’ wings of Hezbollah. This notion enables its officials to talk to representatives of the ‘political’ wing.
In Abdul Hussein’s article, he notes that the British channel of communication has only recently been revived. He quotes a diplomatic source explaining that the dialogue is “designed to keep pace with the changes in the region and the world, and the potential return of Iran to the international community.”
Another Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Anbaa, also noted that “relations between Hezbollah and the U.S. are developing positively.” The paper cited Lebanese opposition sources in support of this assertion.

Egypt's Women: Covered-up or Locked-up

The ancient Egyptians created a sophisticated civilization, particularly regarding the status of women. On women's rights, ancient Egyptian society was considerably more liberal and progressive than Athens and Rome. Ancient Egypt's eight female pharaohs and a number of influential queens led the country as it achieved astonishing feats in a wide range of fields that include engineering, fashion and astronomy. From the archaeological evidence of the art on the ancient temples, at least in the realm of law, it appears Egyptian women had achieved equality with men. Women could own land, divorce their husbands and represent themselves in court. Women also played a central role in the how their society was governed.
Those days are long gone. In today's Egypt, women, even when they just walk on the street, every day endure violence, aggression, and sexual harassment. Women are often discouraged from seeking justice, both by officials, who want to protect Egypt's reputation and by their own relatives, who want to protect their family's honor.

Can Israel and Qatar learn to be friends again?

Qatar is the richest country in the world, per capita, and also one of the most perplexing. And its complexity is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in its relationship with the Jewish state.
Qatar ordered its Israeli consulate and trade mission shuttered in January 2009, at the height of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, but on a recent visit to the Gulf nation, several locals said that in Qatar, in the case of Israel as in all things, nothing is ever quite as it seems.
When they shuttered their Israeli mission in 2009, “the Qataris probably reluctantly followed through on what was an Arab League position,” says Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center and a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. “The Qataris still try to maintain relations with everyone in this region in that respect, even with the Israelis.”

Yesterday, a historic agreement:

Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have signed a water sharing pact aimed at one day replenishing the rapidly drying Dead Sea.

The agreement will build a pipeline to carry brine from a desalination plant at the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, while providing drinking water to the region.

The Dead Sea is dropping by as much as 1m (3.3ft) a year as the River Jordan is depleted for use in irrigation.

Such a project has been under discussion for years.

The agreement was signed on Monday at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington DC. The project is expected to cost $250m-$400m (£152m-£244m).

There is more that would benefit everybody:

Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians have agreed to a water-sharing pact that would see the construction of a desalination plant on the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea and bring "a long-awaited Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline one step closer to completion," according to Reuters.

The plant would be built on the Jordanian side of the Gulf and the resulting potable water would be shared between Jordan and Israel.

Alexander McPhail, the lead water and sanitation specialist in the World Bank's Water Practice division, tells The Jerusalem Post Monday that in return, "Israel will increase the annual releases of water from Lake Kinneret to Jordan and will also increase its sales of water to the Palestinian Authority."

"'It's like a swap,' McPhail told the Post, regarding the Israeli and Jordan portions of the agreement. 'Israel needs water in the south because they want to settle that part of their country. Jordan needs more water in the North.'"

Some Arabs who follow zero-sum thinking are upset, because to them, if Israel benefits, then it is bad - no matter who else benefits.

Islamic Jihad warned about the consequences of the agreement, "saying the move is a direct normalization with the Israeli occupation."

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, Daoud Shihab said, "This agreement gives a mandate to the Israeli occupation for looting our wealth and enhances their control on the ground."

He pointed out that this project was the dream of the founder of the Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl, pointing out that he mentioned in his book "The Promised Land" published in 1902 about the channel to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea. (Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea - close enough!)

He cautioned that this agreement confiscates water and political rights from Palestinians and Jordanians alike, thereby refuting statements made by the Minister of Water Resources of Jordan Hazem Nasser in which he emphasized that "the agreement does not carry political implications, but is purely humanitarian."

The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights has released a laughably biased and inaccurate report about the situation of women in Gaza.

As we have seen before, anti-Israel NGOs like to use any hook they can find to blame Israel and only Israel. The Goldstone Report said no less than eight times that Israel, by attacking Gaza in response to Hamas rockets, was violating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which is beyond absurd.

This report by Euro-Mid shows the same type of bias, specifically using the issue of women's rights - something Hamas is not exactly known for - as an excuse to condemn Israel.

Some lowlights:

Access to services in Gaza has been significantly curtailed by the 7 years long Israeli blockade. The ban on the private sector to import construction materials, medical equipment, and machinery impacts every aspect of life in Gaza, which is already highly affected by the frequent Israeli military operations.

There are no Israeli restrictions on medical equipment into Gaza outside of some paperwork. Even anti-Israel groups admit this. Euro-Mid is lying.

Frequent Israeli military attacks have left a large number of women in Gaza on their own to raise their families. Pal-Think for Strategic Studies estimates that in just the aftermath of the 23-day Israeli military operation called “Cast Lead” in 2008-2009, more than 800 new widows were created. These widows suffer from insecure incomes and constant feelings of threat and insecurity, high levels of anxiety and concern about lack of access to education and other services for them and their children.

Given that over 700 of those killed in Cast Lead were terrorists, this means that Euro-Mid is blaming Israel for defending itself because killing terrorists creates widows!

Such stresses increasingly contribute to tension within the family, with 90 per cent of the women describing the blockade and frequent Israeli military attacks as directly triggering higher levels of nervousness, tension and anxiety. A result of these growing tensions is a rise in the divorce rate (perceived as increasing by 24.6 per cent of the interviewees) and violence against women and girls. More than half (58.9 per cent) of the women in the study said they believe domestic violence is a growing problem in Gaza, and an even larger proportion (61.3 per cent) think their children are more at risk. An earlier survey (2011) by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics corroborated the women’s concerns. It found that approximately 37 per cent of Palestinian women in both the West Bank and Gaza had experienced physical or sexual abuse by their husbands in the previous 12 months. A larger 51 per cent in Gaza reported violence within the household directed against at least one member (including children).

Yes, when a Gaza man beats or sexually abuses his wife, he is blameless - it is all Israel's fault!

I'm surprised that Euro-Mid doesn't take this to the next logical step - since Israel's existence is an affront to the Arab world by existing and thriving, it is causing more rape and wife beatings than would occur if Israel would be destroyed. Maybe next year they can put this in their report. (Just give me a hat tip, okay?)

Pregnant women are particularly at risk. A report on the “Situation of and Assistance to Palestinian Women,” produced in December 2012 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Commission on the Status of Women, estimates that 45 per cent of pregnant women in the Gaza Strip suffer from anemia.

Additionally, a June 2012 joint report by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and Save the Children notes that anemia affects 36.8 percent of pregnant women in Gaza and that anemia can result in “poor pregnancy outcome, reduced work 9 productivity in adults,” and “contributes to 20 percent of all maternal deaths.”

And how does that compare to women throughout the world? Well, according to WHO, about 42% of pregnant women worldwide are anemic.

To prevent anemia, women should take pre-natal vitamins including iron. There are no restrictions on such vitamins in Gaza from Israel. But who gets blamed?

Of course, the report must mention the fuel shortages in Gaza:

The latest crisis in Gaza was triggered on June 30, when the Egyptian military halted all but a trickle of traffic into and out of Gaza, adding more agony to the already crippling blockade imposed by Israel since 2007. The Egyptian actions have created an acute shortage of fuel, construction materials and a variety of essential medicines within Gaza.

On November 1, Gaza’s power plant ran out of fuel, causing power outages averaging 16 hours a day, paralyzing all facets of daily life in the Gaza Strip from families maintaining their incomes to hospitals running properly.

Yet do the recommendations mention Egypt or Hamas or anything else to alleviate the problems in Gaza? Well, why should it?

The recommendation given:

The only answer to the suffering of the people of Gaza, including its neglected women, is for the international community to hold Israel accountable and force it to lift the blockade, allowing the Palestinian society to evolve and develop in a healthy way and grant Palestinians their right to gradually heal from this injustice.

This report, like many of the other reports by NGOs working in the Middle East, is little more than an excuse to blame Israel for everything (and to justify receiving grants from governments so "researchers" can keep churning out more biased reports like these.)

One more thing: this report does not mention Hamas or the PA once, even though their hate for each other are the major reason for any lack of medicines, medical equipment and fuel in Gaza today.

Al Masry al Youm reports that the Bahraini ambassador to France, Dr. Nasser Al Balooshi, has visited the French Holocaust memorial in Drancy.

This was the first diplomat from a Muslim country to visit that memorial, according to reports.

Balooshi was quoted there as saying "it is our duty to work together to combat all forms of intolerance and hatred."

He also laid a wreath at the site, which is where some 67,000 Jews - including 6,000 children - were detained before being sent to extermination camps during the Holocaust.

(h/t Bob Knot)

PLO upset at planned Israeli TV show for NBC

Last month:

Jerusalem is set to be the backdrop for “Dig,” an action adventure series co-written by “Homeland” and “Heroes” co-creators and executive producers, Gideon Raff and Tim Kring.

The six-episode event series marks the first project commitment by Jeff Wachtel in his new role as NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment‘s newly appointed president and chief content offer.

“Places in such constant turmoil like the Middle East resonate in other cultures,” Wachtel told the Journal. “There’s such a vibrant culture there that they’re throwing out into the world.”

“Dig,” slated to film entirely in Jerusalem and debut to U.S. audiences via USA Network, will follow a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent posted in the holy city who stumbles upon a potentially world-changing conspiracy 200 years in the making while investigating the murder of a female archaeologist.

“When we combine Hollywood’s creative potential with Jerusalem’s historic backdrop, it will result in the ability to connect hundreds of millions of viewers around the world to this unique and beautiful city. There is an undeniable inspiration and creative energy in Jerusalem, which is why it has become a center for international film production,” said Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, in a statement.

“This is not about budget,” added Wachtel, speaking about the reasons for shooting in the capital city. “The first reason is authenticity.”

The PLO is upset. Well, they always are, but over this, too.

Hanan Ashrawi is calling on NBC to drop the project, because, well, it may show Jerusalem as being somehow vaguely related to Judaism, which is of course an unpardonable crime. To them, Jerusalem may only be shown as a war-torn area where hook-nosed Jews are raping and slaughtering Arab babies with the very keys that symbolize that "Palestinians" lived there since the Pleistocene epoch. Anything less is a whitewash of Israeli crimes.

Ashrawi said that NBC should withdraw for "legal and ethical reasons."

Remember that Ashrawi's own organization described Jews as slaughtering non-Jewish children to drink their blood for Passover. (Their response insulting me for discovering their hate is still on their website.) Her organization has also praised terrorists and suicide bombers, attacked Judaism, and is against peaceful dialogue between Arabs and Jews.

She's so damned ethical!

Usually the PLO is much faster at whining about things like this. Back in the 1970s, every time a water boiler exploded in Israel the Ashrawi's PLO would take credit for another wonderful bombing. Must be the "occupation" that is slowing them down.