Iran's Khamenei accuses West of attacking the Farsi language

From Ayatollah Khamenei's Twitter account:

#Farsi was once the language of #science frm Constantinople to India;It was the official #language in Ottoman capital for a long time. When #British 1st came to #India,1 of their 1st measures was to impede #Farsi; they stopped Farsi w/their own particular tricks and deceits. Some ppl use #foreign expressions & feel disgraced to use terms in their mother tongue; they feel mortified! They write their mother tongue in English letters! Why? Why should we perish our mother tongue with our own hands?

Poor Khamenei. If he would venture out to a Tehran shopping mall he would have an aneurysm.

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What are all the Prawer protesters doing about this?

From the Council on Foreign Relations in a backgrounder:

The peninsula's native Bedouins bear longstanding grievances stemming from economic deprivation and political alienation. Since 1979, tribal chiefs have been appointed by the region's governors, military officers chosen by the central government. But the capital's drive to centralize control was never fully realized.

Bedouins were excluded from tourism and energy development projects championed by Hosni Mubarak, experts say. The North was starved of investment while Mubarak sought to establish a Red Sea Riviera in the more sparsely populated South, particularly Sharm el-Sheikh, where he had his summer villa. Cairo encouraged labor migration to the Sinai from the Nile Valley, Pelham writes, offering these internal migrants preferential access to land, irrigation, and jobs, while denying native Bedouins such basic services and rights as running water and property registration. They were blocked from jobs with the police, army, and the peninsular peacekeeping force, the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO), which is one of the region's largest employers. In North Sinai, schools and hospitals were left unstaffed.

"The U.S. and Israel were telling Mubarak for years that neglect of the Sinai was going to come back to haunt them," says CFR Senior Fellow Steven Cook. High-profile bombings of resorts between 2004 and 2006, which had a combined death toll of about 130, as well as a spate of clashes between Bedouins and police, tourist kidnappings, and other smaller attacks occurred after two decades of what were seen as malign policies.

Under the three-decade–long emergency law that was in place until 2012, security forces under the Ministry of the Interior responded to the emerging terrorist threat with dragnet arrests, detaining and torturing thousands, human rights observers say. The indiscriminate state response fed a cycle of political violence and further alienated Sinai's Bedouins from Cairo.

The article goes on to say that because of their mistreatment, some Bedouin are turning to crime and how they partnered with Hamas in smuggling.

But for some reason, no one is protesting or writing articles about the Sinai Bedouin.

No, the only Bedouin the world pretends to care about are the ones who are a few kilometers away, over a border that the Bedouin themselves don't recognize.

Funny, that.

(h/t PMB)

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Going to Israel

I'm on my way to the Holy Land.

(Are we still allowed to call it that? It's not a violation of any British advertising laws or anything, is it?)

I think most of the snow will be melted by the time I get there, though...

A have a couple of posts queued for the trip , but even after I land, there will not be much time for blogging.  Maybe Ian can break up his excellent linkdumps into smaller chunks...

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Unraveling the story behind a 5th century Jewish tombstone

From NYT:

They figured out her first name, but not her father’s. They know where and when she died, but not her age or the cause of death. They could not tell whether she was married.

This is a detective story, but not the ripped-from-the-headlines kind. The woman died more than 1,600 years ago, in what is now Jordan. The detectives are a few students at Yeshiva University in Upper Manhattan and a professor who is sometimes called the Jewish Robert Langdon, referring to the fictional Harvard professor of iconology in the Dan Brown books and the movie “The Da Vinci Code.”

All they had to go on was the woman’s tombstone. And at first, they did not even have that, just photographs of it.

Here are the facts of the case:

In March 2012, the professor, Steven Fine, who is also the director of Yeshiva’s Center for Israel Studies, wrote an article for the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review about Jewish tombstones in the ancient city of Zoar, which most scholars say was on the Dead Sea. It was such an oasis, according to one account, that a sixth-century mapmaker drew a grove of palm trees as a symbol for it.

Dr. Fine soon heard from one of the magazine’s readers, the Rev. Carl Morgan of Woodland United Fellowship, a church in Woodland, Calif.

Pastor Morgan, who also has a doctorate in archaeology, emailed a tantalizing photograph: an image of a tombstone like the ones Dr. Fine had discussed in his article. Pastor Morgan said it was in the collection of the Woodland Museum of Biblical Archaeology, which occupies part of the church’s campus, about 20 miles from Sacramento. A private collector had given it to the museum, Pastor Morgan said.

“It had not been translated,” he recalled in a recent telephone interview. “I knew Dr. Fine could translate it.”

...From the beginning, the Yeshiva students were confident they could make sense of the Aramaic inscriptions; Talmudic Aramaic is virtually the same as the Aramaic on the tombstone. They also know Hebrew. Mr. Friedman said the first few words were straightforward, and Ellie Schwartz, a senior, recited them: “ ‘Here rests the soul of Sa’adah, daughter of something.’ We don’t know the ‘something.’ ”

Going by the format of other ancient tombstones, they felt certain the missing word was the name of the woman’s father and wondered if it was Phineas, but they said they could not be sure. “We have the P,” Dr. Fine said. “We thought there was an N, but we’re stuck because whatever it is, it’s been scratched away. You get to the point where ‘I can’t know’ may be the most learned answer you can give.”

If the father’s name was elusive, so was another basic fact about the woman, whose name means “divine help.”

“They don’t mention her age,” Mr. Friedman said. Dr. Fine said Christian tombstones from that area carried ages, but Jewish tombstones did not. That was simply the custom of the day, he said.

But the students could date the stone, based on the parallel dating systems inscribed on it. One referred to the Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. (That system was used by Jews in Greece until World War II, Dr. Fine said; the last place the system was used, he said, was Corfu, before the Nazis rounded up the Jews who lived there and sent them to Auschwitz.) The other system was based on the number seven. By comparing the two systems, they could say with certainty that she died 362 years after the destruction of the temple.

And then there were the symbols painted on the tombstone. Mr. Schwartz said the group assumed one was the Ten Commandments, because in the photographs from the museum, it looked like a tablet with writing on it. Dr. Fine knew better. “It’s an incense shovel,” he said — a symbol of ceremonies in a temple.

Yes, there were once Jews in Jordan. Not a single one today, though.

(h/t Ronald)

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12/15 Links: Why “Palestine” will not be an ‘Rainbow Nation’, Israeli/Chinese Car on Sale in EU

From Ian:

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Linkage, Ltd.

Obama believes that if the U.S. were to create a stable Middle East and forge a wide cross-Arab partnership of moderates -- which would supplant the dwindling U.S. presence -- the Palestinian issue must be addressed. Only by removing this stumbling block from the Arab world's agenda will key players such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt be able to increase their political and defense-related cooperation with Washington without undermining their stability.
But the linkage policy in this region has been a bitter disappointment. The American cold shoulder during the early Eisenhower years did not stop the USSR from setting foot in the region. The Baghdad Pact did not meet its objective and was never as big as it was supposed to be (see what happened to Egypt and Iraq). The economic incentives aimed at seducing the Soviets were an utter failure when it came to the East's activities in the Middle East and in Angola's civil war.
As for the Obama administration, even though Israel agreed to halt settlement construction in 2009 for a 10-month period, this did not help create the much-anticipated Sunni coalition. The legitimacy of the Sunni regimes in the area (and chiefly among them is Egypt) was eroded and ultimately imploded, but this was not a result of the impasse in the peace talks with the Palestinians. It was a consequence of the Arab Spring that reshuffled the deck.

The Spirit of Apartheid: Why “Palestine” will not be an ‘Rainbow Nation’

In contrast with South Africa, which – consistent with Mandela’s vision – largely embraces its mix of whites, blacks, coloured, Asian and Indian populations (as well as Jews, Christians, Muslims and African ethnic groups such as Xhosa and Zulu), the new state of Palestine will almost certainly be entirely Arab Muslim. There will of course be no Jews and (if trends throughout ‘Palestine’ and the Arab Middle East continue) almost no Christians.
All of this leads us to conclude that while Palestine will likely not become an apartheid state – as such state codified racism first requires the critical mass of racial diversity which they will not possess – it will become the kind of racial exclusivist state which Mandela and South Africa’s liberals found so abhorrent.

Temple Mount high

The real negligence on the Temple Mount is the unwillingness of the State of Israel to assert its full sovereignty there. Ever since Moshe Dayan squatted down with the Wakf on June 17, 1967, together with David Farhi, and symbolically returned the keys to the gates, the state has sensessly kowtowed to the most fanatical behavior.
Only in August 1967 did Dayan take the key to the Muhgrabi Gate back from Wakf head Hassan Tahboub, and military police were stationed at the entrance to the gate. Later, regular police assumed supervision.

Palestine – European Union Embroiled In Financial Scandal…writes David Singer

Spending hundreds of millions of dollars supposedly supporting the salaries of public servants that no longer occupy those positions and doing nothing to arrest this expenditure – although knowing it was happening – indicates an appalling standard of financial irresponsibility for which the EU has become famous.
This financial gravy train seems set to continue whilst:
1 Hamas and the PLO refuse to reconcile their differences
2 The PLO rejects any kind of settlement with Israel that entails Israel obtaining sovereignty in any part of the West Bank.
The European Union is on a treadmill from which it must now extricate itself.
The obvious solution is to make sure EU money gets to the most needy – not phantom employees who have been having a financial feast at European taxpayers expense.

In Sydney, A Motion Most Foul

This picture shows a grinning trio making a salute outside the Sydney Jewish Museum that is definitely not the Aussie Salute.
While the arm motion made by this trio is undoubtedly inexplicable to most onlookers it appears that it is, as the Times of Israel explains here, an abominable racist gesture that has recently caught on bigtime among Jew-haters in Europe. It is the "quenelle signal," we're told,
The photo that I've reproduced above is one of the truly shocking collection shown here which demonstrate the depths of depravity to which some people will sink in order to mock and vilify the Jews.

A cynical disqualification

The University of Haifa decided not to give an honorary doctorate to Nobel Prize winner Professor Robert Aumann. The reason: His right-wing views, which contradict the left-wing, pro-Palestinian spirit of the university. We recently learned that the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee will reportedly discuss the university's law clinics' practices of late, a third of which have focused on Palestinian rights, including the rights of Hamas terrorists serving prison sentences in Israel.
Aumann, a leading scholar of mathematics and game theory, does not need the University of Haifa's respect. His academic excellence does not require the university's affirmation, which is rather small by comparison. Every important international institution has opened its doors to him. Students the world over have flocked to Jerusalem to study under Aumann, learning the basic tenets of human logic.

USF professor Stephen Zunes Duped

Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is well known for his anti-Israel rhetoric.
You'd think the Chair of Middle East Studies in a large urban institution might have a working knowledge of the history, and geography of the region. After all, Prof. Zunes has traveled extensively in the area.
Yet Prof. Zunes recently posted this on his Facebook Page. Fail.
Umm, Stephen. One problem. Thats from Japan.
So there we have it - an " expert" in the Middle East mistakenly claimed photos from the Tobu World Square theme park in Japan (1/25 scale, incidentally!) were taken in Egypt

Fail: Palestine Online store celebrates British Colonialism

In their desperation to claim a cultural heritage, where none existed before, the Palestinian Online store is marketing jewelry created from "authentic" and "historic" British Mandate coins.
By selling the jewelry made with this coinage, the Palestine Online store is celebrating the British Mandate and the colonial history of the region, as well as the historical Jewish ties to this land. Nice.

British Pro-Jihad Islamist Anjem Choudary – Whose Network Is Regarded As 'Single Biggest Gateway To Terrorism'

In November 2013, the U.K. nonprofit group Hope Not Hate published extensive research revealing that British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary – head and co-founder of the banned extremist U.K. group Al-Muhajiroun, spokesman for the banned Islam4UK organization, and spiritual advisor to the banned U.K. Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades (MAC – has been encouraging young British Muslims to go to Syria to fight for Al-Qaeda. The report stated that the network of Al-Muhajiroun and its European partners has become the "single biggest gateway to terrorism in recent British history" and the largest in Europe that is recruiting foreign fighters to go to Syria. It also estimated that the network has sent 200-300 people to Syria.

‘Tis the season for the BBC to avoid adopting other people’s anti-Israel memes

One of the less attractive features of the Christmas season in recent years has been its exploitation by politically motivated NGOs as a spring-board for augmented delegitimisation of Israel, with a dominant feature of those opportunistic campaigns being the deliberate conflation of present day Palestinians with the characters depicted in the Christmas story. For example, in recent years some charities have been selling blatantly political Christmas cards which portray Joseph and Mary as Palestinians and one-sided inaccurate representations of the anti-terrorist fence feature widely in seasonal merchandise.

Knesset Weighs Bill that would Tax Anti-Zionism

An anti-leftist, anti-boycott bill which was discussed under the previous Knesset will come to the fore again Sunday, according to Maariv. The Knesset hearing will be headed by MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi/Jewish Home) and Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu).
The bill has sparked controversy for imposing a 45% tax on foreign donations to leftist groups. The goal of the bill is to "reduce the involvement of foreign entities within the affairs of the state of Israel."

After storm and heavy flooding, Gaza receives fuel

While the rival Palestinian government in the West Bank can ship fuel to Gaza through Israel, Gaza’s Hamas rulers have refused to accept the shipments, saying they cannot afford a new tax.
Palestinian border official Raed Fattouh said Sunday’s fuel shipment was paid for by Qatar.

Appeasing Nuclear Tyrannies Doesn’t Work

But just as the megalomania of the North Korean leadership always trumped any idea of their nation’s economic interests, the Iranian theocrats will always prioritize their vision of regional hegemony in which nukes will be complimented by their thriving side business funding international terrorism and their alliances with the Assad clan in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and perhaps a renewed friendship with Hamas in Gaza. And at the pinnacle of the Iranian system remains an autocratic cleric who dreams of destroying Israel and has no interest in détente with the West. Appeasing him and his minions is just as futile a task as Sherman’s previous efforts in North Korea.
Laugh all you want about the craziness in North Korea and pretend, if you can manage it, that their nuclear arsenal doesn’t pose a threat to the U.S. But the cost of playing the same game in Iran will be even higher. Appeasing or containing a nuclear tyranny run by hate-filled theocrats is as hopeless as was the attempt to do the same thing with one run by a Stalinist family gang. Though Obama, Kerry, and Sherman want the nuclear deals signed with North Korea to be thrown down the memory hole, they stand as an indictment against the administration’s current Iran policy.

Start-Up GreenSpense Wins Prestigious International Cleantech Awards

12 billion aerosol sprays, gels and foams are manufactured annually; over 500,000 tons of gas (used as a propellant in aerosols) contribute to the expensive packaging and environmental danger of today’s aerosol canisters. An Israeli company, GreenSpense, has developed an eco-friendly solution to the challenges and dangers presented by aerosol containers.
GreenSpense’s Eco-Sleeve does away with the need for gas and pressurized-metal-canisters, used for sprays, gels and foam products, which make aerosols polluting, dangerous and expensive to pack. Made from innovative material using nanotechnology, GreenSpense’s Eco-Sleeve unleashes design creativity in packaging shapes and materials, providing a huge marketing and ecological advantage to producers, while reducing packaging and product costs and eliminating the use of harmful gas.

Hadassah develops new test for ‘Breast Cancer Gene’

Israeli researchers, led by Dr. Asher Salmon, then Senior Oncologist at the Hadassah Medical Center, developed a blood test that reveals it is possible to predict the presence of harmful BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in otherwise healthy women using a novel technology called gene expression profiling. Women with a mutation in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have a significantly increased risk for developing breast or ovarian cancer. For many of those at risk, the disease may develop at an early age.

Israel Corp.'s Qoros opens first European car showroom

Car manufacturer Qoros Auto Co. Ltd., a joint venture controlled by Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) and China's Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. has officially opened its first showroom in Europe in the Slovakian capital Bratislava.
In the first stage Qoros will sell just one model - a sedan with a 1.6 turbo engine and the highest level of accessories. The price of the Qoros will be €20,960 but at a later stage a more basic model will sell for just €20,000.

Israel’s folding car of the future

If you’re looking for the future of urban transportation, take a peek inside a workshop near Rosh HaAyin, where a trio of engineers is readying Israel’s entry into the folding-car arena.
The City Transformer (www.citytransformer.com) quadricycle is designed as an electric two-seater that folds down with the press of a button from 1.6 meters to just one meter (3.2 feet) in width. Its 2.2-meter (7.2 feet) length matches the size of a motorcycle parking spot.
The entire vehicle will weigh about 400 kilograms (880 pounds), quite a difference from the 1,543-kilo Renault Fluence electric sedan that was sold in Israel through the now-defunct Better Place recharging network.

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Amnesty International proven to lie again

In November, I noted that Amnesty International claimed that Israel was restricting fuel into Gaza, and their spokesperson insisted that this was true - that Israel does not allow industrial diesel for the Gaza power plant to be exported.

I showed then that the claims were completely false.

But today Arab media proves it as well.

From Ma'an:

Israeli authorities started to pump industrial diesel donated by Qatar into the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, a Gaza official told Ma'an.

The move is part of a temporary agreement to ease the blockade following days of record flooding that has devastated large swathes of the besieged coastal enclave.

Raed Fattouh, president of a committee that coordinates the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip, told Ma'an that 450,000 liters of diesel donated by Qatar was being shipped to the coastal enclave via Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday.

On Friday, Qatari authorities announced that they would donate $10 million to Hamas authorities in Gaza in the wake of the humanitarian crisis caused by severe weather since Thursday.

The donation was given to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to purchase diesel fuel from Israel, and on Sunday the first shipment of diesel fuel began arriving to fuel Gaza's sole power plant.

Oh, and also:

Eight truckloads of strawberries, flowers and spices are expected to leave the Gaza Strip to European countries through the same crossing on Sunday, added Fattouh, as Gazans take advantage of the temporary ease on the Israeli blockade to ship exports.

In addition, 100 truckloads of goods for commercial use and for agriculture will be allowed into the Gaza Strip as well as limited sums of cement and gravel for internationally-funded projects.

Again, there have been no restrictions on strawberries, flowers or spices from Gaza; indeed Israel helps Gaza farmers with those exports.

But when you hate Israel, facts just get in the way.

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Gulf study warns of Israel's economic power

A new report from the University of Kuwait is warning that Israel intends to grow its economic power. The study is called "Israel seeks to dwarf its neighbors and the Gulf states."

The report says that Israel seeks to accumulate its wealth to compete with the Arabs and especially the Gulf oil states. Allegedly, this is meant to increase the immigration of Jews to enlarge the settlements.

The study also says that Israel desires to compete with the Gulf countries on energy production "to play a more important role in the region in the future desire to stay forever as the biggest military and economic power in the Middle East. "

The report seems most alarmed at Israel's foreign currency reserves which hit a record high of about $81 billion at the end of November, compared to only $25 billion in 2004. These reserves can accelerate the production of natural gas in the Mediterranean which will in turn add more to Israels currency reserves and economic might.

The $81 billion is higher than the foreign reserves of oil-rich Kuwait and the UAE combined.

Israel is working on activating an economic stimulus plan to attract larger foreign investments and is actively pursuing them.

The report is clearly concerned with the potential of Israel becoming an energy exporter with its massive natural gas reserves that are comparable to the oil reserves in the Gulf. By 2018, Israel is planning to transfer the government's share of the profits from the sale of gas to a sovereign wealth fund, to ensure that the new cash is available for generations to come.

Israel's growth is supported by its very high investments in the area of research and development by Development Program Israel. 4.5% of its GDP goes to research and development, which is the highest rate in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Israel's investments are focused on high-tech and high value-added jobs. For example, Israel dwarfs the Arab Middle East and the Gulf by its number of inventors. Israeli Arabs are also far more creative and inventive than their counterparts in the Middle East and are increasingly coming to the global marketplace of ideas and creativity. Israel itself compares with European countries on the level of production and export of inventions. The Arab states aren't even in the same league.

The report says that with increased wealth, Israel will attract more Jewish immigrants especially from Europe.

The natural gas will cause friction with Israel's neighbors as Israel will use its defense forces to protect the Mediterranean drilling operations and Jordan and Egypt will be torn between accepting Israeli gas and continuing their strategic security partnership with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

It is interesting that even this relatively sober study still assumes the zero-sum mentality of Arabs. It would ever occur to any Arab that Israel wants to grow its eeconomy because it would be good for Israel; they must position it as if Israel wants to destroy or marginalize the Arab economies. While this would not be a bad thing - oil fuels Arab terror, directly or indirectly - Israel never looks at the region as zero-sum but as a win-win. That's why it wants real peace with normalization - and the zero-sum mentality is a lot of the reason that Arabs resist peace with Israel in any significant way.

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Dam!

Ma'an "reported" on Friday:

The Gaza government's Disaster Response Committee announced late Friday that Israeli authorities had opened up dams just east of the Gaza Strip, flooding numerous residential areas in nearby villages within the coastal territory.

Committee chairman Yasser Shanti said in a press conference that Israeli authorities had opened up dams just to the east of the border with the Gaza Strip earlier in the day.

He warned that residential areas within the Gaza Valley would be flooding within the coming hours.

And look at that - they did get flooded, just as he predicted! The torrential rains had little to do with the Gazans being under up to 2 meters of water - it was all from Israel keeping huge amounts of water in storage in the Negev, just waiting for the right time to flood Gaza! (Which, coincidentally, happens during rainstorms.)

Iran's PressTV reported the dam story as well, as multiple Gazans told the tall tale:

Followers of this blog may remember that there was flooding in Gaza during a huge rainstorm in 2010, and they blamed Israel opening up a dam then as well.

I looked hard to find any dam between southern Israel (which is, of course, desert) and Gaza. Finally, I found it.

In 2001, a reservoir in Nahal Oz burst, and it did cause some flooding in Gaza. NGO Al Mezan said that the 2010 flooding was caused by the same "dam" that was opened by Israel in 2001, just to make Gazans' lives miserable.

And the "dam" story seemed to grow from there from a simple lie to a complex web of lies.

(h/t Asher)

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Gaza woes open the floodgate of anti-Israel lies

Ma'an writes:

The Gaza Strip has been without a functioning power plant since the beginning of November, when the plant ran out of diesel fuel as a result of the tightening of a seven-year-long blockade imposed on the territory by Israel with Egyptian support.

The plant didn't run out of fuel because of any Israeli blockade. It ran out because Hamas refused to pay the going rates according to existing agreements with the PA. They chose to let their people suffer instead.

The plant itself was only reopened last year after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in the 2006 assault on the Strip.

Ma'an has been writing this in other articles as well. It is completely false. The power plant has been running since December 2007.

In another Ma'an article:

UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said that large regions of the Gaza Strip are a "disaster area" and called on the world community to lift the Israeli blockade in order to allow recovery efforts to proceed, in a statement sent to Ma'an.

The Kerem Shalom crossing has never - not once - hit its capacity of allowing goods and aid into Gaza. Most days it is only at about half of what it can handle. If the closure was causing the problems in Gaza, wouldn't we be seeing Kerem Shalom over capacity?

Israel used to limit a lot of goods into Gaza. That ended over four years ago - since then, any goods that could not be used against Israel militarily have been allowed in. But anti-Israel organizations like UNRWA like to lie to pressure Israel.

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12/14 Links: Lawrence Summers: Academic boycott is “anti-Semitism in effect", UNSC Condemns Snowstorm

From Ian:

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Lawrence Summers: Academic boycott of Israel is “anti-Semitism in effect”
Here is the Summers interview with Charlie Rose specifically on the ASA boycott resolution (full interview here, segment starts at 35:00)):

This particular academic boycott is much worse, it is much worse because the idea that of all the countries in the world that might be thought to have human rights abuses, that might be thought to have inappropriate foreign policies, that might be thought to be doing things wrong, the idea that there’s only one that is worthy of boycott, and that is Israel, one of the very few countries whose neighbors regularly vow its annihilation, that that would be the one chosen, is I think beyond outrageous as a suggestion….
Charlie, I said some time ago with respect to a similar set of efforts, that I regarded them as being anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent. And I think that’s the right thing to say about singling out Israel.
If there was an academic boycott against a whole set of countries that stunted their populations in some way, I would oppose that because I think academic boycotts are abhorrent, but the choice of only Israel at a moment when Israel faces this kind of existential threat I think takes how wrong this is to a different level.
My hope would be that responsible university leaders will become very reluctant to see their universities’ funds used to finance faculty membership and faculty travel to an association that is showing itself not to be a scholarly association bur really more of a political tool.

Jerusalem snow: UN Security Council to convene emergency session (satire)

Speaking from Ramallah the Palestinian Authority's leading cleric Sheikh Mohammed Luni Jihad asserted that the Israelis created the snowstorm specifically to punish the Palestinians and in particular to destroy the Al Asqa Mosque. While some climate scientists have disputed certain aspects of the Sheikh's claim, there is universal agreement that this kind of freak snowstorm is due to man-made global warming which is caused mainly by the Zionist control of all the world's natural resources. Al Gore and David Cameron both confirmed that the 'science was settled' for this.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was quick to agree to the special security council session, stating that there was no greater tragedy in the world today than the sufferings of the Palestinians, and that the snowstorm was a 'disproportionate response' by the Israelis to recent 'minor' provocations. The latter reference was to the totally harmless past time of Arab youths in Jerusalem to stone Jewish women and children (which in some cases does not even lead to death or serious injury). US Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Israelis that if the snow storm was allowed to continue - and hence deprive the Palestinian youths of the opportunity to stone Jews - then he would personally support a third intifada. Fortunately the Arab youths have already found inventive ways to express their frustrations in the snow.

Caroline Glick: Pollard and an American Jewish renaissance

Pollard’s case is meaningful because it is hard.
It isn’t easy to defend Pollard. He betrayed the US government.
But the government’s disproportionate and unjust treatment of him owes entirely to the fact that he is an American Jew. Until he receives justice, no American Jew can be certain that his or her constitutional right to equal protection under the law will be respected. Defending Pollard means defending Jewish rights. And defending Jewish rights also involves communal identification in a deep and significant way.
..
Finally, Pollard’s case is a good case to take up as a communal cause because there is every reason to believe that such communal action can succeed. As Esther Pollard wrote in The Jerusalem Post this week, during the White House Hanukka party, Obama said that clemency for Pollard is “under consideration.”
Nothing breeds success like success. A successful American Jewish campaign to secure Pollard’s release could serve as a building block to a communal revitalization and renaissance. That is, the worst act of governmental discrimination carried out against the American Jewish community could serve as the basis for a renewal of the community at a key moment in its history.

The connection between Swedish aid and Palestinian media antisemitism

Why Sweden continues to provide aid to the MDC is still a mystery. In Sidas report for 2010- 2012 and many times before it is stressed that there is no impact on developing the free democratic media that Sweden wants to create in the PA and Gaza. Sida has even been advised to end the support to the MDC.
Sida claims it wants media to help building a democratic and peaceful society. However as long as the antisemitism and the glorification of terror exist in the Palestinian media, the media will always remain undemocratic and undeveloped and can not build a peaceful society.

Unsubstantiated BBC claim re-promoted in follow-up story

On December 4th the BBC News website published a follow-up to a story it featured last July concerning an Iraqi man who was marooned at Almaty airport after he tried to enter Kazakhstan without a visa.
The latest story links back to the original article by the BBC’s Central Asia correspondent Rayhan Demytrie in which the unsubstantiated and apparently gratuitous claim that “Israel won’t allow him to travel to the Palestinian territories” still appears.
In the follow-up story, Mohammed al Bahish’s Iraqi origins are completely erased and he is curiously portrayed solely as “Palestinian”.

Into The Fray: Wacko in Washington

Blueprint for a horrific future
There is much that has been left unsaid about the disastrous direction in which US foreign policy is headed. But even from the abbreviated critique that has been laid out above, one thing clearly emerges.
The agenda being aggressively advanced by Obama and Kerry is founded on myth and/or malice.
It is prolonging the conflict by propagating and perpetuating pernicious fictions and falsehoods.
History will prove it to be a blueprint for a horrific future – for Jews and Muslims alike.

PA Formally Refuses to Recognize Jewish State

Abbas' rejection of US Secretary of State John Kerry's proposals in Ramallah Thursday night came after similar remarks to a public radio station earlier in the night. The PA source confirmed Friday that Abbas "has rejected the ideas" presented by Kerry.
The source also revealed that Abbas had given Kerry a letter on "Palestinian red lines," which include his "refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state."

EU to Offer Massive Aid Package to Israel, Palestinians if Peace Deal Reached

The package—spearheaded by the foreign ministers of Germany, U.K., France, Spain, and Italy—is reportedly worth billions of euros and would include incentives such as increased access to the EU market, closer cultural and scientific ties, facilitation of trade and investment, promotion of business-to-business relations, enhanced political dialogue, and security cooperation, Haaretz reported.
But according to Maariv, the EU’s resolution on the package also called Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem an “obstacle to peace” and expressed “deep concern with regard to incitement, violent incidents in the occupied territories, house demolitions and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

French town honors killer of US, Israeli diplomats

A majority of aldermen in the city council of Bagnolet east of the French capital voted on Wednesday to make the Lebanese citizen Georges Ibrahim Abdallah an honorary resident, calling him a “communist activist” and “political prisoner” who “belongs to the resistance movement of Lebanon, his country,” French media reported Friday.
Abdallah, a founder of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction, was captured in 1984. A French court sentenced him in 1987 to life in prison for “complicity in the assassinations” in 1982 of Charles R. Ray, a US military attaché serving in Paris, and Yacov Bar-Simantov, a second counsellor at the Israeli embassy in Paris.

Israel-Bashers Let the Bedouin Rot

Let there be no mistake about the fact that Israel’s leftist foes don’t give a damn about the Bedouin. Bringing water, sewage, electricity and educational services to camps that can stretch out for miles in places throughout the desert is impossible. While most of the existing Bedouin towns can be left in place, the most far-flung need to be consolidated if the people who live there are not going to be left in shacks with no connections to the country’s first-world economy. Connecting them to the grid means some have to move.
Much like the descendants of the 1948 Palestinian refugees, the Bedouin only serve a purpose to Israel-bashers if they can be portrayed as victims of the Zionists. They don’t care that the main purpose of the Prawer-Begin plan was to help the Bedouin. Those who claim to demonstrate on their behalf have done nothing for either group. Indeed, the more miserable their existence, the better they like it. Any deprivation faced by this population is fine, so long as it serves to make the Israelis look like exploiters. The crocodile tears they shed for the Bedouin will be swiftly forgotten as they move on to other issues and Israelis who argued about it will similarly push them to the back of the national agenda.

Jury Withholds Winners of Badil’s “Al-Awada” Caricature Contest

Palestinian NGO Badil announced that the “jury decided to withhold” the winners of the “Best Caricature” category in this year’s “Al-Awada Awards” contest. In previous years, awards were given to blatantly antisemitic submissions.
On May 5, 2010, Badil awarded second place in the category and a $600 monetary prize to a blatantly antisemitic cartoon, featuring a grotesque caricature of a Jewish man standing over dying Arab child and holding a pitchfork dripping with blood. The man is standing on a platform inscribed with “1948” and the Star of David, labeling the establishment of Israel as murderous and evil.

Stand With US: Palestinian Leaders Glorify Violence


Raining on Hamas’s parade

It is hard to grasp the monumental change that Hamas has undergone since it celebrated its 25th anniversary a year ago. Then, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, came to the Gaza Strip in order to mark the “great victory” over Israel in Pillar of Defense. Almost a half a million people went out to greet him during the main ceremony.
But a lot has happened since then: Hamas’s Muslim Brotherhood allies were forced out of power, the Egyptian army managed to close most of the tunnels between the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, and Hamas was officially designated a terrorist organization by Egypt — at least according to the indictment against ousted Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi, whose trial begins soon. (The exact charge against Morsi is “cooperation with the terror organization Hamas.”)

Former U.S. Embassy In Iran Turned Into Anti-American Museum

The former U.S. embassy in Iran has been turned in an anti-American museum, CBS reported Friday.
The embassy, famously seized in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, is now known by hardliners as the “nest of spies.” A mural lining the staircase shows the shows the hardliners’ “deep-seated paranoia and animosity towards America,” said CBS correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.
But while hardliners still view the Unite States as their main enemy, Palmer says, millions want to move past the “clumsy anti-Americanism for a more constructive future.”

Iran arrests man accused of spying for Britain's MI6

Iranian intelligence authorities have arrested a man on charges of spying for Britain's MI6, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
The head of the Kerman region's revolutionary court, Dadkhoda Salari, told the agency the suspect made contact with British agents 11 times in recent months, inside and outside the country.
According to Salari, the suspect has admitted his guilt and he is currently on trial.

UK police arrest 3 soccer fans over anti-Semitic tweets

Police said two men, aged 22 and 24, were arrested Thursday in London and in Wiltshire, Reuters reported Friday. A third man, 48, man was arrested at his home in Canning Town in London last week on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
An investigation was triggered following a soccer match on Oct. 6 by complaints about tweets that referred to Hitler and the gas chambers in connection to a match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

Wiesenthal Center Calls for Najwa Karam to be Fired From ‘Arabs Got Talent’ Show

The call comes following the revelation on Thursday that entertainment mogul Simon Cowell’s Syco television empire which created and licenses the ‘Got Talent’ show format, is investigating comments made by Karam last year in which she praised Adolf Hitler.
“She should be fired and everyone in the Arab world should know why,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of SWC said. “Veneration of what the Nazis did is widespread in that part of the world. It is shorthand for hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Poland to honor partisan who warned about Holocaust

Poland’s parliament named 2014 the Year of Jan Karski, honoring the man who alerted the allies about the Holocaust.
Last week’s unanimous vote in the Sejm marked the centennial of Karski’s birth.
Karski, who is not Jewish, was born in Lodz in 1914 and was a courier for the Polish resistance during World War II.
He infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto and the Izbica transit camp and was among the first to relay first-hand news of the Holocaust to the West.

Israeli start-up seeks to end roaming charges

An Israeli startup is trying to combat a common fear for international travelers: getting socked with hundreds or thousands of dollars in unexpected roaming charges for using cellphones away from home.
Cell Buddy aims to turn any smartphone into a local one. Travelers can choose from an array of calling and data plans with carriers in dozens of countries. As a result, they pay local rates — not the pricey fees charged by their wireless carriers at home.

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"Arab governments gave more for Sandy relief than for Gaza floods"

Palestine Today has an angry article about how Arab governments have abandoned Gaza.

The author states that in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast of the US last year, Bahrain donated $5 million, Saudi Arabia $250 million, Kuwait $500m, Qatar and the UAE $100m each. (Most of these numbers seem to be somewhat true, although many were pledges and it is unclear if they were ever paid.)

According to the article, the Arab world has decided to abandon Gaza, mostly because of Hamas' Islamist roots and connections with the Muslim Brotherhood which Gulf states are afraid of in their own countries.

Yet there is still an irony there that Gulf states that have so much oil are not giving it to Gaza during the current crisis. The article, of course, doesn't note Hamas' role in the fuel shortages in Gaza, nor that Hamas reportedly refused a deal which would have brought Qatar oil to Gaza via Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel will transfer enough fuel to Gaza tomorrow to allow the power plant to re-open:

Following discussions between COGAT and the International aid agencies operating in Gaza, the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing will continue tomorrow. This includes 1.2 million liters of gas: 800,000 liters of diesel fuel for transportation, and 400,000 liters of diesel fuel for the Gaza power station, and another 200 tons of household gas. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories maintains ongoing coordination with the Palestinian Authority.

Last night #Israel facilitated access of special pumps to #Gaza in order to deal with flooding. pic.twitter.com/blsSpRSp7j
— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) December 14, 2013

Arab sources note that Kerem Shalom will be open for 12 hours a day this coming week to ensure that all the aid that is requested can get transferred.

Yes, Israel is helping Gaza more than the Arabs are. And everyone knows that the Arabs will not ever publicly thank Israel for this, they will not tone down their rhetoric, they will not move a millimeter from their position that Israel is hell bent on ethnically cleansing them.

Israel doesn't help Gazans because of PR. It doesn't help Gazans because of goodwill. It doesn't help Gazans because NGOs claim that Israel is still "occupying" Gaza. Israel helps Gazans because it is the right thing to do, and it does it despite the hate that Arabs have for Israel.

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12/13 Links Pt2: The legal case for Judea and Samaria, EU official defends paying Palestinians not to work

From Ian:

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The legal case for Judea and Samaria

If we were to make a gross generalization, the world has adopted the Palestinian narrative as it relates to the legal status of the territories. Even those who negotiate on behalf of the State of Israel, men and women who officially adhere to the party line that Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish civilization and peoplehood, is not occupied territory, have long ceased to make this statement publicly, just as they haven't even bothered to make use of a long list of legal and historical arguments that support this position.
While it may seem that this train has long left the station, we were surprised to suddenly learn that for months now a counterattack has been waged over "the historical, legal truth." This is a campaign that is being waged by hundreds of jurists from Israel and abroad who aren't making do with the usual "rights of our forefathers" or "Zionism" rejoinders which are now devoid of currency in the international arena and the High Court of Justice.

Why Israel is boycotted

The attempts to boycott Israel or mark its products, interfere in its ancient geography or mark it as racist, fascist or Nazi are the current political expression of Israel's ancient characterization as "a nation that dwells alone." The return to Zion is the Jewish nation's return to history, to life as a sovereign people in its ancient homeland. Calls for boycott were made even before the establishment of the state. While these calls came from the extremist factions at the time, they moved toward the center as the years went by, particularly after 1967. That was when we came back to the cradle of our nationhood, to the historical places most closely connected with our identity. Most important, we came back to Jerusalem, which is also linked with the identity of the world's nations. The fight against Israel -- which is a fight against history's law of the return to Zion -- is evidence of how hard it is for Israel's opponents to deal with the Jews' return to life after having been in a state of living death for so long. That is why we and our products are marked, why the badge of shame is being placed upon us once again, why we are being isolated and boycotted. This is our adversaries' way of saying: "You are not one of us."

EU shows it’s unhappy to fund divided, dysfunctional Palestinians

But stopping funding for Gaza may just be a prelude to much broader measures. European officials have been mulling the possibility of cutting funding to the PA altogether if talks between Israel and the Palestinians fail to bring about tangible results. This is a possibility not all officials like mentioning; some prefer to present the cup half full: Europe will significantly increase funding if talks succeed, one diplomat said.
A key word in the new European report is “conditionality.” Europe feels it has been doling out billions of euros in aid to the Palestinian Authority with no mechanism of checking its impact or benefit. That, it seems, is about to change; Europe will demand more accountability from the Palestinian Authority and stop treating the Fatah-Hamas schism as a temporary situation.

Idiotic EU official defends paying Palestinians not to work
The story was widely reported and brought the following letter to the editor of The Financial Times, from an EU official:

Sir, While I appreciate the welcome coverage given to the vital work being done by the EU in Palestine, your report “Brussels criticised for paying Gaza civil servants who no longer work” (December 11) is misleading. Indeed, it would have been useful to remind your readers that the existence of the Palestinian Authority, and its ability to provide basic services to its citizens, is a precondition for a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This has been the cornerstone of EU policy on the conflict, fully supported by all member states. In this context, the European Commission and the member states have considered it vital that the Palestinian Authority is able to support its workers in the West Bank and in Gaza as a key element of a future Palestinian state.

Jerusalem slams Dutch water company’s ‘self-righteous hypocrisy’

Israel on Thursday condemned the “self-righteous hypocrisy” of Dutch government-owned water company Vitens, after it emerged that the company still cooperates with the water authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, Vitens had announced it would cease working with Israel’s national water supplier Mekorot because it provides water to Jewish communities in the West Bank.
“This only confirms yet again that Vitens’ move regarding Mekorot is heavily tainted with self-righteous hypocrisy and has nothing to do with international law,” the spokesperson of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Yigal Palmor, told The Times of Israel Thursday. “Cowardly caving in to pressure by radicals and extremists will only encourage more iniquitous actions, and Vitens’s verbose moralizing will bring them more of this kind.”

Government shelves Prawer Plan on Bedouin settlement

The controversial Prawer Plan to solve the issue of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev will be scrapped, one of the bill’s chief architects announced Thursday.
Former minister Benny Begin, who worked on the bill with Ehud Prawer, head of policy planning in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, told reporters at a press conference that “the prime minister accepted my advice to delay bringing the Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev to a Knesset vote.”

Another missed opportunity

All of this would be acceptable if nixing the law actually served the interests of one side. But this is not the case. Most of the Bedouin who hope for economic and social advancement understand that Begin-Prawer's land settlement could have solved their problem. But in the Arab sector a pattern of behavior has been established where nothing reasonable or effective can be undertaken if it involves cooperating with Jews.

After CounterPunch Interview ADL Accuses Roger Waters of ‘Conspiratorial Anti-Semitism’

After formerly defending rock star Roger Waters from charges of anti-Semitism, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has concluded that the former Pink Floyd bassist is an anti-Semite.
The latest stance from the ADL follows the publication by CounterPunch magazine of an interview with Waters in which he compared Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, and referred to the “Jewish lobby” as the reason why so few celebrities have joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Roger Waters: The professional liar

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is the most prominent anti-Israel movement in the West. It is neither a peace movement nor an anti-occupation movement. It is a movement that supports the destruction of the State of Israel in order to establish a single state in its stead. The BDS movement’s leaders declare this openly and publicly. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame has in recent years become one of BDS’s most important and celebrated spokespeople. Waters gives frequent interviews to explain his position. It is important to pay attention to what he says in order to expose how this industry of lies works.

The anti-Semitic stench of Pink Floyd

I’ve read some heavy-duty attacks on Israel and Jews in my time, but they pale beside the anti-Semitic diatribe recently offered by Roger Waters, Pink Floyd’s co-founder and former front man. In an interview with CounterPunch online magazine, Waters experienced a Jew-hating colonic where he purged himself of all the racist refuse that had accumulated in his putrid system and clearly required release.

Good people opposing academic boycott of Israel

I don’t know what the outcome will be regarding the proposal by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academic institutions. The membership voting ends December 15.
While the proposal took pro-Israel and/or pro-Academic Freedom academics by surprise, it was years in the making by devoted the BDS activists who now run the ASA and some other academic associations.
The vote will not be the end. Pro-Israel and/or pro-Academic Freedom academics and groups will need to assess how to oppose the mob rule that increasingly determines the very thing that should not be subjected to mob rule, academic freedom.

American Studies Association purges their Facebook page of critical comments

If you visit the site today (at least as of this morning) you will see that it has been cleansed of every posting relevant to the boycott posted yesterday (December 11).
Under normal circumstances, I’d take solace in the notion of hypocrisy being the complement vice pays to virtue. But what are we to make of an organization that, in attempting to shut down inquiry with their Israeli colleagues is ready to first shut it down among its own members while simultaneously sending out e-mails urging people to participate in “discussion and healthy debate”?

The Disinformation Age

Around the time the Newseum announced it would put members of a designated terrorist organization on the Journalism Memorial Wall, we learned that Ahmed Haidar, an employee of al-Manar, was already there. It's unclear when he was so honored. What is clear is that the Newseum knows al-Manar is owned by Hezbollah -- and that both are designated terrorist entities.
As with the al-Aqsa employees, it is not certain that Haidar ever actually contributed to any journalistic products whatsoever. In its designation of al-Manar, the U.S. Treasury Department noted that some of those on the organization's payroll are "engaged in pre-operational surveillance for Hezballah operations under cover of employment by al-Manar."
In other words, "just because you carry a camera and a notebook doesn't make you a journalist."

A Tour of New York Times Editorializing

A brief CAMERA video documents a number of recent examples of anti-Israel editorializing in the supposedly impartial New York Times news pages.

Modern day Nazi salute sweeping Europe, expert warns

A neo-Nazi gesture, regarded by anti-Semitism researchers as a modern day Nazi salute, is rapidly spreading among anti-Semites in Europe and is being used by individuals to fly under the radar of strict anti-hate speech laws in parts of the continent.
The “quenellle” signal, extending one’s right hand toward the ground while the left hand grasps the shoulder, was devised by Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, a controversial French comedian who has been condemned in court several times for anti-Semitic remarks.

Simon Cowell’s Syco Investigating Lebanese ‘Arabs Got Talent’ Judge Who Admires Hitler’s ‘Persuasive’ Speeches

The Lebanese host of ‘Arabs Got Talent,’ an international franchise of Simon Cowell’s Syco television empire, is in hot water with the UK parent company for saying how much she admired the public speaking abilities of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in an interview on Lebanese MTV, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Thursday.
Lebanese singer Najwa Karam, who has sold 50 million records and was the Arab face of the L’Oreal cosmetics line until last year, when asked on the Arabic-language interview program ‘Talk of the Town,’ in an episode aired on June 28, 2012, if she could choose attributes from six famous men to create the “ideal man” the first idea to pop into Karam’s head was Hitler’s “persuasive” speaking ability.

Romanian FM: ‘Burn kike’ song merits prosecution

Romania’s foreign minister has called on his country’s judiciary to prosecute the parties responsible for the airing of a Christmas carol about burning Jews.
Titus Corlatean made the statement Thursday following international uproar over the public broadcasters TVR3’s television transmission last week of a song by the Dor Transilvan ensemble, which celebrated the Holocaust.

Pakistani Blogger Calls For Reform In Textbooks:

Recently, Pakistani blogger Bakhtawar Bilal Soofi examined the influence of school textbooks on young children in Pakistan and they subtle ways in which they come to imbue negative ideas about other religions and communities.[1]
Soofi, whose blog post titled "An Intolerant Educational System Made Me Indifferent To The Death Of Non-Muslims" was published on the website of The Express Tribune daily, suggested ways to inculcate pluralistic thinking among Pakistani youth.

IDF Blog: 5 Technologies that Keep the IDF on the Cutting Edge

Groundbreaking technologies are advancing the IDF’s capabilities and eliminating threats. With these advanced tools in the hands of its soldiers, the IDF protects the people of Israel.
In a major speech last October, IDF Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz described the wide-ranging threats facing Israel in the near future. According to the Chief of Staff, the IDF could be forced to contend with anything from missile strikes on military sites to large-scale battles and cyber attacks that would paralyze Israel’s infrastructure.

A Clean Tech Air Force By 2033: That’s the IAF’s Green Goal

In the past two years, the Israel Air Force has been undergoing a huge change for the greener, and is using clean technology from around the world to become a net-zero-energy air force by the year 2033.
With the dramatic increases in the prices of gas, water and electricity in the past few years, coupled with military budget cuts, the Israel Air Force has been doing everything possible to switch over to systems that will bring significant energy savings over the next few years and into the future.

States hope to repeat Mass.-Israel tech success

Overall, job growth at the Israeli companies grew five times faster than the state’s overall employment growth rate from 2010 to 2012. Over that period, revenue at Israeli-founded companies in the state grew three times faster than in the Massachusetts economy overall, with revenue growth double that of the state’s most important IT and professional services sectors, including life sciences, the study showed.
The data explains the rush of US states to set up deals with Israel, organizing partnerships with government and academic institutions. The study identified 16 governors and nine mayors who have conducted trade missions to Israel since 2010, all of them touting their state as the best destination for Israeli start-ups seeking to expand to the US.

Part 2: The Church of Ireland Library's 115-Year-Old Photographic Treasure

We present here Part 2 from the Church of Ireland Library's photographic collection of pictures taken by David Brown in 1897.

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IDF helping West Bank, Gaza Arabs during storm

From the IDF:

As a result of the weather and a request by representatives of the United Nations to the head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Eitan Dangot, the Kerem Shalom Border Crossing was opened specially this morning in order to transfer gas for home heating. Additionally, as the day goes on, four water pumps will be transferred to the Gaza Strip due to heavy flooding.

The additional activities at the Kerem Shalom Border Crossing, as well as the transfer of additional water pumps is being made possible by the COGAT, the Ministry of Defense and the company Mekorot, in coordination with UN agencies.

COGAT is in communications with the Palestinian Authority and the international community, updating them on the situation. The IDF emphasizes that Israel will do everything that is necessary to assist the civilian populations in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria, with an emphasis on providing electricity to the power plant in Gaza.

Furthermore, COGAT has opened a shared Israeli-Palestinian situation room with the goal of assisting civilians in distress in Judea and Samaria, with an emphasis on transportation and electricity.

Kerem Shalom is normally closed on Fridays.

The pumps for Gaza are being paid for by the PA.

The flooding in Gaza is serious:

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12/13 Links Pt1: The Neo-Mandate Solution, Palestinian refugees - a reality check

From Ian:

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Barry Rubin: Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Neo-Mandate Solution

For example, is the U.S. air force going to bomb a building in Gaza that is an open headquarter for Gaza rocket and terrorist attacks? Will it aggressively go after foreign fighters, even if those foreign fighters have attacked Americans? Will it send them to Guantanamo Bay? Will it respond to criticism in the UN? May I point out that U.S. counterterrorism policy has not been very aggressive of late.
Think about Benghazi.
The United States will then have two choices:
1. The U.S. helps Israel, albeit with constant opposition, and alienates the Arab and Iranian and Turkish world.
2. The United States will gradually get tired of the burden and walk away from it.
In other words, Israel would not benefit from what can only be called "ObamaStrategicCare."
If you like it, no matter what you've heard, you can keep your strategic patron or plan, you can keep your ally (Obama), and you'll save money. No one will be able to take that away from you. (h/t NormanF)

Israelis and Palestinians Don’t Share Kerry’s Optimism on Peace Talks

While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returned from his Middle East trip last week with an optimistic message, following his latest attempt to foster progress in Israel-Palestinian peace talks and the presentation of a security proposal to both sides, Israelis and Palestinians aren’t sharing his positive outlook.
From Dec. 4-6, Kerry accompanied in Jerusalem and Ramallah by retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen, the former U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Allen presented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with what Kerry and the State Department have carefully described as only “some thoughts” on the resolution of security issues that have been obstructing progress in negotiations.

Open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry

Dear Mr. Secretary of State,
We don’t know each other personally, but in my position as assistant to the IDF chief of General Staff, I have been closely following your every move. When you met, as a senator, with Bashar Assad in Damascus, I was flabbergasted when you proclaimed that this was a great opportunity to make peace with Syria’s modern and moderate leader.
Over the past few months, I’ve been listening very closely to your speeches and statements about events in the Middle East and what actions you think Israel should take. I would like to describe to you a slightly different reality, one which I’ve experienced through the various senior IDF positions I’ve held, through the military reserve duty which I still actively carry out and from living with my family in Beit Horon, a community situated between Jerusalem and Modi’in (you’d probably call it a West Bank settlement) where we have been living alongside Palestinian neighbors for many years.

Abbas Rejects Israeli Security Presence in the Jordan Valley

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said that if Israel insists on maintaining security presence in the Jordan Valley, there will not be a peace agreement.
Abbas added in the interview that all the Israeli “settlements” are located on “Palestinian land” and must be evicted in order for an agreement to be signed. He added that the PA leadership would agree to extend the current talks by one month, if serious progress is made during the nine-month period that was allocated by the Americans for the talks.

The Palestinian refugees -- a reality check

According to an August 1971 Ford Foundation report, by 1950 the majority of the Palestinian refugees began evacuating the camps and non-refugees moved in to benefit from UNRWA's services. For example, half of the population in the Jalazone refugee camp, near Ramallah, settled there after 1950.
A November 17, 2003 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office documented that less than 33% of registered Palestinian refugees live in refugee camps.

Palestinian teen killer of IDF soldier indicted

A 16-year-old Palestinian was indicted on Thursday for the stabbing death of IDF soldier Eden Atias a month ago.
Hussein Sharif Rawarda, a resident of the West Bank city of Jenin, stands accused of stabbing 19-year-old Atias multiple times in the neck on November 13. The attack took place on a bus in the northern town of Afula.

Baby Avigail's Attackers Charged

The indictment states that the seven youths attacked the car in which toddler Avigail Ben-Tzion was travelling, along with her mother and siblings, in a brutal attack on November 28.
Avigail suffered serious head injuries and was admitted to Jerusalem's Hadassa Ein Kerem hospital. She was discharged three days later after her condition improved, and is currently recovering at home.

Exclusive: Israeli, Palestinian officials to coordinate civilian emergency responses

Israeli and Palestinian officials held a meeting in Hebron this week, the first of its kind, to improve joint coordination in responding to civilian emergencies such as fires and accidents, and to figure out ways to protect the local environment together.
The understandings reached by the participants found expression already on Thursday, when two Palestinian bulldozers joined Israeli bulldozers in clearing routes 36 and 60 after a heavy snow storm blocked the two roads that serve Palestinian and Israeli drivers.

Palestinians slam Guatemalan president for visiting east Jerusalem

PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat expressed “strong dissatisfaction with the response given by the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry regarding complaints made by the State of Palestine on the issue,” according to a statement issued by the PLO.
“We will not accept any attempt to legitimize Israel’s occupation policies, particularly in East Jerusalem,” Erekat was quoted as saying.

Egypt destroys Hamas arms depots in Sinai

The weapons depots constituted the Islamist group’s logistic rear front, and the Egyptians reportedly also shut down arms workshops in Sheikh Zuweid which produced arms for Hamas.
Near those workshops, Hamas also operated firing ranges for testing rockets in the months before the Egyptian campaign, the officials said.

US Poll: 84% Think Iran Stalling to Build Nukes

Obama's move is in contradiction to the public will expressed in the poll, which revealed 77% of Americans support the ongoing 6 month negotiations "while imposing sanctions and increas[ing] financial pressure and sanctions." In fact, only 14% said they would vote for a senator that would reduce pressure on Iran during negotiations.
Furthermore, the poll discovered that there is deep-seated distrust over the intentions of the Iranian regime. Only 7% trust the Iranian claim that their nuclear program is peaceful.

US hits firms over Iran as sanctions debate goes on

The United States targeted more than two dozen companies and people on Thursday for evading sanctions against Iran, an effort by the Obama administration to show it will enforce existing law even as it presses Congress to hold off on additional measures while world powers pursue a comprehensive nuclear deal with Tehran.
The action freezes the US assets of firms in Panama, Singapore, Ukraine and elsewhere for maintaining covert business with Iran’s national tanker company. Other companies involved directly in the proliferation of material useful for weapons of mass destruction also were blacklisted from the US market. American citizens are banned from any transactions with the listed individuals and firms.

Iran halts nuclear talks for ‘consultations’

“The Iranian negotiators interrupted the talks with the P5+1 [Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany] for consultations in Tehran,” the Islamic Republic New Agency (IRNA) reported Friday.
AFP reported Friday that the decision to halt the talks came hours after Washington blacklisted a dozen overseas companies and individuals for evading US sanctions on Iran.

UN panel: Sanctions against Iran must be enforced despite Geneva deal

Australia's UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan told the 15-nation Security Council that a Nov. 24 interim deal between Iran and six world powers, which offers Iran limited sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, did not affect countries' legal obligations to implement UN measures.
"The Security Council measures ... remain in effect; and States have an obligation to implement them duly," Quinlan said in his latest 90-day report. "It is only by a Security Council decision that these measures can be modified or terminated, and, until then, member states are obligated to enforce them."

Iran Insists on Delivery of S-300 Defense System From Russia

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran will not drop its 2007 deal with Moscow to pay $800 million for the Russian-made S-300 air defense system missile shield, semi-official state news agency FARS reported on Thursday.
The deal was formally scrapped in 2010 by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, “who was unilaterally expanding on sanctions against Iran imposed by the UN Security Council,” in the words of FARS. Iran filed a $4 billion lawsuit against Russia in the international arbitration court in Geneva, which is still pending.

Wife of Pastor Imprisoned in Iran Says U.S. Government Abandoned Her Husband

Naghmeh Abedini told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that she was dismayed after learning that her husband’s imprisonment was not raised during the recent nuclear negotiations between Iran, the United States, and other world powers.
Saeed Abedini was detained last year for starting Christian house churches in Iran and was later sentenced to eight years in prison for “undermining the national security of Iran.”

Final UN report confirms chemical weapons used multiple times in Syria

Chemical weapons were likely used in five out of seven attacks investigated by UN experts in Syria, where a 2 1/2-year civil war has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the final report of a UN inquiry published on Thursday.
The UN investigators said the deadly nerve agent sarin was likely used in four of the incidents, in one case on a large scale.
The report noted that in several cases the victims included government soldiers and civilians, though it was not always possible to establish with certainty any direct links between the attacks, the victims and the alleged sites of the incidents.

Al Qaeda Pushes Kurdish Population Transfer in Syria

The Syrian human rights organization Al Masrad reports that Al Qaeda affiliated Da'ash (the Islamic state in Iraq in Syria) fighters are expelling Kurdish families from their homes in a number of north Syrian communities, settling families of the organization's fighters in their stead.
According to eye witnesses, Da'ash fighters gave the families short notice to abandon their homes, leaving many of them without a roof over their heads and in difficult conditions.

Sharia Law Less Prominent, But Still in Egypt’s Draft Constitution

The draft constitution eliminates the 2012 Muslim Brotherhood constitution’s Article 219, which defined aspects of Sharia law on which legislation could be based. Article 219 and other aspects of the 2012 constitution led many liberal and Christian leaders to boycott the Muslim Brotherhood government, culminating in popular protests and the military’s ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Nevertheless, remaining in the new draft constitution is Article 2, which states that the principles of Sharia “the main source of legislation.”

Massive Explosion Rocks Egyptian Police Camp

On Thursday an Egyptian security forces camp in Ismailiya, near the Sinai Peninsula, was targeted by a massive explosion, leaving at least 35 policemen injured. Officials told Al Jazeera the bombing was followed by gunshots.
Ismailiya and the surrounding Sinai areas have witnessed regular attacks on police and military. In October, another security headquarters was attacked in Ismailiya, leaving 5 soldiers dead.

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More Leftist intolerance: Haifa U refuses to give honorary doctorate to right wing Nobel laureate

Haaretz (Hebrew) reports that the University of Haifa considered, and rejected, giving an honorary doctorate to Professor Robert Aumann, who won the Nobel prize in economics in 2005.

The reason? Because his political views are too right-wing!

Aumann is a supporter of  the basic human rights of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria, and he is against dividing Jerusalem.

The committee discussing who to give honorary degrees to considered Aumann but rejected him because his political opinions "do not reflect the values ​​of the university."

This apparently puts him beyond the pale from the progressive Haifa University leadership who have no problem inviting anti-Israel activists to speak on campus. It has also granted honorary degrees to far left activists like Shulamit Aloni, who defended Jimmy Carter calling Israel an "apartheid" state. At the time the university praised her for having "values entrenched in the University of Haifa ethos."

The University has also banned playing Israel's national anthem at its law school graduation ceremony, presumably because it mentions that Israel is a Jewish state.

The "big tent" we hear so much about apparently only has a door open to the Left.

(h/t Steven Plaut)

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