Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, May 25, 2014

The Vatican de-Judaizes the Temple Mount as PalArabs politicize Pope visit

Irene, who has written for EoZ before, and who is Irish Catholic, writes:

IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?

The Pope’s Schedule from the official website of the Pilgrimage of His Holiness Francis in the Holy Land on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras (May 24 – 26, 2014)

Monday, May 26, 2014

8:15 VISIT TO THE GRAND MUFTI OF JERUSALEM in the building of the Great Council on the Esplanade of the Mosques. Discourse of the Holy Father

The "Esplanade of the Mosques" is the Temple Mount.

Shortly before the Romans came to haul him away, Jesus Christ predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed twice. After the Roman’s seized Jesus, Peter followed him at a distant to the high priest’s courtyard.

One of the high priest’s maids came along. Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it, saying,” I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. Then the cock crowed. [for the first time] (Mark 14:66-68)

So Pope Francis comes to Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior last preached. He goes to the Mount where both of the Jewish Temples once stood. The Temples that are mentioned many, many times in both the Old and New Testaments, places of enormous significance in Christian theology. It was a pilgrimage to the Temple that brought Jesus Christ to Jerusalem that fateful Passover.

“Temple Mount?” says the Pope. “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about. I am up here on the Esplanade of the Mosques, schmoozing with the Grand Mufti.”

Political correctness is one thing; denying that you are a follower of Jesus Christ is another. For the Pope, the world’s most conspicuous Christian, to deny the Temple is beneath contempt. What is next? Calling his pilgrimage to Jerusalem a visit to Al Quds?

Peter, in whose footsteps the Pope follows, had ample reason to fear for his own physical safety. What does Pope Francis fear?

That Muslims will notice that the Pope is Catholic?

Arabs are politicizing this trip to the hilt.

Jordanian papers made a big deal over the Pope visiting the Jordan River from the Jordanian side, claiming that this proves that this was the side Jesus used.

Honest Reporting notes that the PLO staged a photo-op of Francis in front of a mural of baby Jesus swathed in a Palestinian keffiyeh - an article of clothing that Palestinian Arabs openly admit is used symbolically to promote nationalism and "resistance."

Fox News reports:

Palestinian officials have hailed Francis' decision to arrive first in Bethlehem, rather than Tel Aviv, and to refer to the "state of Palestine." In its official program, the Vatican referred to Abbas as the president of the "state of Palestine," and his Bethlehem office as the "presidential palace."

"The fact that he is coming straight from Jordan to Bethlehem, without going through Israel," is a tacit recognition of a Palestinian state, said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian Christian who is a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The PLO managed to get the Pope to pray at the separation barrier along with graffiti that says "Pope we need to speak about justice. Bethlehem look like Warsaw Ghetto".

Ottawa City Hall featuring terrorists in "Palestinian art" exhibit

From Times of Israel:

The Israeli ambassador to Canada urged Jewish organizations in the country to push for the removal of an art exhibition on display in Ottawa City Hall because it “glorifies terrorism.” Rafael Barak claimed last week that the exhibition, which features the works of Palestinian artist Rehab Nazzal, incites violence and promotes the idea that Israel does not have a right to exist.

Nazzal’s exhibition, titled “Invisible,” comprises a number of videos and photos taken during confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinian prisoners at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, Haaretz reported. Barak said that one of the videos, “Target,” portrayed several Palestinian leaders who were behind a number of terrorist attacks against Israelis in the 1970s and ’80s. A note accompanying the work stated that the Palestinians featured in the film were artists, writers and activists who had been “assassinated by Israel.”

“It’s discouraging to see a culture that promotes terrorists as its leaders.”

Among the people featured in the exhibition are Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad), founder of the Black September organization, and Naji al-Ali, a famous Palestinian caricaturist. Both were murdered by rival Palestinian groups, not Israeli security forces. Other figures shown in the exhibition include Yasser Arafat’s deputy and the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s military wing, Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), and Dalal Mughrabi. Both al-Wazir and Mughrabi had taken part in the hijacking of an Israeli bus in 1978, which resulted in the deaths of 37 people. Al-Wazir was assassinated by Israeli commandos in his Tunis house in 1988, and Mughrabi was killed in a firefight with IDF soldiers following the bus hijacking.

EoZ reader Josh K. took footage of the video portion, as well as researched many of the people featured. The original is 90 seconds long with very shot glimpses of the terrorists. Here is an edited and slowed-down version of it along with the descriptions of the terrorists being highlighted.

The idea that a municipal government would feature such glorification of the most notorious terrorists and murderers in history is beyond disgusting.

Also telling is that Nazzal included a non-Palestinian who helped build Saddam Hussein's nuclear program, indicating that the artist knows very well what the purpose of that program was.

Ha'aretz' Barak Ravid, editorializing inside a "news" article, thinks that no one should complain about this:

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem often tries to combat attempts to boycott Israeli artists abroad based on political considerations. Last month I reported that a gallery in Scotland yielded to political pressure by anti-Israeli groups and cancelled its hosting of an exhibition by an Israeli artist which was sponsored by the Israeli embassy in London.

In the present case, even though the exhibition is controversial one could ask why the Israeli ambassador is mixing politics with art, which Israel strenuously objects to in cases in which attempted boycotts come up. In any case, the ambassador has undoubtedly given Rehab Nazzal the best public relations she could have hoped for.

Get it? Since the Israel haters successfully shut down Israeli art exhibitions, Israel should ignore terrorist-supporting art exhibits! Perfect logic in Ha'aretz' twisted self-hating mentality.

Well, no self-respecting Israel hater is going to boycott Ha'aretz, so Ravid is safe.

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

Two Palestinian militants were killed and two others were injured Saturday in an explosion at a military training site in the southern Gaza Strip, an official said.

Ashraf al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman, said two "unidentified citizens" were killed and two sustained serious injuries in an explosion in Khan Younis, without providing details about the cause of the explosion.

Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the men who died were affiliated to the faction's military wing, the al-Quds Brigades.

Islamic Jihad identified them as Ahmad Haidar Vhjan, 28, and Abdul Salam Yusuf Dahlan, 27.

I count 20 Palestinian Arabs killed by "work accidents" and rockets that have fallen short in 2014.

Perhaps one of the international organizations that the PLO had joined will be able to give advice on workplace safety for terrorists.

Synchronized video of Beitunia incident

I synchronized the gunshots from the CNN video to the CCTV videos of the Beitunia "Nakba Day" incident to show what happened from multiple angles.

Unlike the way CNN presented it, the gunshot at the beginning of their footage is the one that lines up with Nadim Nawarah falling down (opposite the direction of the shot.) The second shot seems to have come from the same position but I couldn't figure out which policeman shot it (you need to see the original CNN video to look more carefully) but the bystanders flinch at both the first and second shot. Also the ambulance scenes and shouting line up, so this video is the best way to try to piece together the facts on this specific shooting.

It is obvious, as we showed on Friday, that the shot that coincided with his fall came from a gun with a rubber bullet attachment.

This is best viewed full screen.

(All posts on this topic here.)

05/24 Links: Three Murdered at Jewish Museum in Brussels; Project ‘Torah on the Moon’ !

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: What Part of "NO"...?

At this point there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that dictator Abbas has no interest whatsoever in a negotiated conclusion of hostilities. We are constantly told that a subsection of the great Arab majority in the Middle East, the Palestinian-Arabs, are persecuted by the Jewish minority in that part of the world. And, yet, somehow that allegedly persecuted Arab subsection simply cannot bring itself to accept autonomy and peace for itself and its children.
Oh, well.
That being the case, Israel has every right to simply declare its final borders and remove the IDF to behind those borders.
Perhaps the single, foremost problem facing the Jewish people today is that of Arab-Muslim Supremacism in the Middle East. Given Israel's technological and military superiority over the impoverished and hostile Arab majority, Bennett is probably correct.
A unilateral disengagement will not, of course, end genocidal Arab-Muslim hostility toward the Jewish minority in the region, but it is certainly preferable to this endless process of begging the Palestinian-Arabs to accept Jewish autonomy on historically Jewish land. They have said "no" over and over and over again since at least since 1937, when they rejected the Peel Commission Report.
What part of "no" do we not understand?

Belgian PM condemns ‘abhorrent’ attack at Brussels Jewish Museum that kills 3

Belgium stands “united” against the “abhorrent” attack Saturday at the Brussels Jewish Museum that killed three people and critically injured one, Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said hours after the shooting.
“Our country and all Belgians, no matter their language, origins or [religious] convictions, are united in the face of this abhorrent attack on a Jewish cultural center,” said the Belgian leader, adding that “all efforts are in place” to identify and arrest those who committed the crime.
One man was in custody after the attack, according to Belgian authorities.
The murders Saturday afternoon were a result of “a climate of hate,” said Joel Rubinfeld, the head of the Belgian League against anti-Semitism.
Rubinfeld told AFP it clearly “is a terrorist act” as a man had been seen driving up and entering the museum before opening fire inside and running off.

‘I Just About Vomited’: Texas Man Says He’s Sickened After Hearing Chicago Arab & Muslim Community Praise His Brother’s Terrorist Killer

The brother of 21-year-old Eddie Joffe – one of the two victims of the bombing she took part in with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – lives in Houston and only last week learned she had been living in the U.S. for 20 years. Basil Joffe told the National Review that he was sickened to hear about the praise being heaped upon Odeh by her community.
His brother Eddie and his best friend Leon Kanner were stocking up on groceries for a hiking trip when a can of sweets rigged with dynamite detonated at the Jerusalem supermarket, killing both.
Basil Joffe told National Review that “the body was so badly burned and blackened from the explosion that they could barely recognize it” and that his parents never recovered until the day they died from the devastation of losing their son.
Joffe said “I just about vomited” after hearing the praise being poured on his brother’s killer, particularly the allegation that she’s an innocent victim of discrimination.
“How could they purport to prevent unfair discrimination and stereotyping when one of their [leaders] is a convicted terrorist, murdered people, and is unrepentant? It makes a hypocrisy, a mockery, of what they’re trying to accomplish,” Basil Joffe told National Review. (h/t Bob Knot)

Lots of good posts this week

In case you missed them...a lot of original stories, scoops, posters and analysis this week.

How a single settlement apartment can be counted EIGHT TIMES by the media Arab analyst realizes that Arabs didn't allow "Palestine" from 1948-67

How J-Street Lies
Excitement over "Nakba" football tournament
Palestinian Arabs once claimed to be...Amalekites!
PA police beat up - and then charge - BDS activists Pallywood again? IDF denies using live fire during "Nakba Day" demonstration (see comments) and followup CNN footage shows Israeli troops firing rubber bullets, not live fire, in Beitunia
US might turn a blind eye to Hamas in PA as Hamas says it strengthens "resistance"
Should Palestinian Arabs have free will? Their leaders don't think so
Introducing: Muslim Voice for Peace
New "Apartheid?" Poster: Jerusalem Light Rail
University divestment scorecard, 2014, shows BDS losing badly
Hizb ut-Tahrir holds rally on Temple Mount demanding Arab nations destroy Israel

05/23 Links Pt2: BDS to Boycott Soros over SodaStream; Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue to be rebuilt

From Ian:

BDS Movement to Boycott Billionaire George Soros for Investing in SodaStream

Yesterday the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement called for a boycott of billionaire investor and activist George Soros.
The statement appearing at the BDS Movement website began:
"The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society that is leading the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights, called today for a boycott of the Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Foundations due to the recently announced – first-quarter 2014 — investment by Soros in SodaStream stock and increased investment in Teva Pharmaceuticals, both Israeli companies that are deeply involved in violations of international law."

Top Chinese official: Arab boycott fears over

Official China is very impressed with Israel, officially. According to Yongjie Chen, deputy general secretary of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s ruling body, the Politburo, Israel is “the best place in the world for China to invest” to acquire the technology the country needs to solve its environmental and social problems.
If China was reluctant to fully embrace Israel in the past for fear of angering Arab countries, things have changed, said Chen. Speaking to the Times of Israel in an exclusive interview, Chen said that there had been a significant change in the Chinese approach to the Middle East in the past 10 years.
“It’s true that, in the past, the government favored the Arab side more, but in recent years the emphasis of the government has been on rapid technology development,” said Chen, “and that is why cooperation with Israel, which has that technology, is growing.” Chen could not promise that China would always vote Israel’s way on UN Security Council resolutions, “but you can see that, in recent years, we have conducted a much more positive political policy towards Israel.”

The numbers behind BBC promotion of the ‘Israel lobby’

Now a study on lobbying of the US government has been published which might be of help to members of the public making similar complaints in the future and, as Yair Rosenberg explains, the results are very interesting.
“If you estimated the amount of money a country spends on lobbying the United States based on critical media coverage of that lobbying, you’d probably put Israel at the top of the list. But a new study by the Sunlight Foundation reveals that not only isn’t Israel a big spender, it practically doesn’t even make the list. Of the 84 countries surveyed, Israel ranked 83rd, spending just $1,250 to lobby America in 2013. (The only country that ranked lower was Mali, which spent nothing at all.) By contrast, other key American allies unloaded massive sums to influence the U.S. government. Topping the list is the United Arab Emirates with $14.2 million. It is followed by Germany ($12 million), Canada ($11.2 million), and Saudi Arabia ($11.1 million).”
Readers may be interested to learn too that the eternally cash-strapped, donor supported Palestinian Authority spent $1,110,769.59 on lobbying the US via the PLO in 2013.

Direct incitement against Jews and demanding the destruction of the Jewish state - on Judaism's holiest spot.

I only found this story in one place, Wattan TV, but according to that article there was a massive rally on the Temple Mount today from Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist group that wants to reinstate the caliphate. In fact, this rally was meant to mark the 93rd anniversary of the caliphate being dismantled.

Thousands of members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir gathered in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque to participate in the appeal to "the Islamic nation and the Muslim armies in order to establish the caliphate and move armies to liberate Al-Aqsa Mosque and the rest of Palestine from Jewish occupation."

Crowds estimated in the thousands participated in response to an invitation from Hizb ut-Tahrir in Palestine in order to focus this appeal within its activities in all the cities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the 93rd anniversary of the demolition of the Islamic Caliphate, under the slogan "Al-Aqsa Mosque is crying out to the nation and their armies for the establishment of the Caliphate and the cleansing of the blessed land," The crowds chanted slogans and raised banners agitate the Nation of Islam and the Muslim armies for the victory of religion and the establishment of the Caliphate and the cleansing of the occupation of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Preachers spoke among the masses, who cheered during their appeal, for the crimes of the Jews towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque...The preacher appealed of the armies of Egypt, Pakistan and the countries of the Maghreb, Yemen, Turkey and the forces of the Levant, and all the Muslim armies, instigating them to the victory of religion and the establishment of a succession of Muslims to crawl toward the Al-Aqsa Mosque for cleansing and removal from the occupiers, usurpers of Palestine... calling to cleanse the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the abomination of Jews.

This Australian Hizb ut-Tahrir site mentions that this demonstration would happen this month.

I had no idea Hizb ut-Tahrir has such a large following among Palestinian Arabs. Since they aren't affiliated with any Hamas, Fatah or any other Palestinian Arab political movement, it may be that none of the partisam PalArab media bothered to cover this.

If this isn't proof that Israel is more permissive about access to holy places than Muslims are, I don't know what is.

University divestment scorecard, 2014, shows BDS losing badly

The Mike Report asked me if I had a scorecard of how resolutions to divest from Israel have been doing on university campuses this year. I knew that most had failed but I didn't have all the details, so I asked StandWithUs, who have been very involved in the issue, if they could help.

Their beautiful chart that they sent is too nice to keep to myself:

UCLA	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	February, 2014
Loyola University of Chicago	Divestment	Student Government	Passed, but vetoed	March, 2014
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	March, 2014
University of Michigan - Dearborn	Divestment	Student Government	Passed	March, 2014
Arizona State University	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated (tabled indefinitely)	March, 2014
University of New Mexico	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	April, 2014
Arizona State University, Downtown Campus	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	April, 2014
UC Santa Barbara	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	April, 2014
UC Riverside	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated in February, brought back and passed by one vote in April	February-April, 2014
Cornell University	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated - tabled indefinitely	April, 2014
San Diego State University	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	February-April, 2014
Wesleyan	Divestment	Student Government	Passed	May, 2014
University of New Mexico	Divestment	Graduate Student Senate	Passed, then rescinded	April-May, 2014
UC Davis	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	April-May, 2014
University of Washington	Divestment	Student Government	Defeated	May, 2014
DePaul University	Divestment	Referendum	TBD	April-May, 2014
UC Santa Cruz	Divestment	Student Government	TBD	May, 2014

This means nine times divestment failed, either by a direct vote or by a vote to table the motion indefinitely, which is effectively the same thing. Twice it passed only to become rescinded or vetoed.

It only passed for real three times out of fourteen.

So when I say that BDS on college campuses has run out of steam - this is what I mean.

My guess is that the Israel haters, consistently losing on campus, will next start to resorting to online polls in student newspapers to "prove" that they are still relevant.

H/t Mike Report and StandWithUs. Here's a cartoon in Mike Report than sums it up:

05/23 Links Pt1: Hamas: We'll Move Terrorism To WB; PA TV Teaches Kids The Way to ‘Jihad Street’

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas: We'll Use Unity Accord To Move Terrorism To West Bank

Hamas, on the other hand, considers the unity agreement with Fatah an opportunity to extend its control beyond the Gaza Strip and use the West Bank as a launching pad for more terror attacks against Israel.
The international community does not seem to be listening to what Hamas is saying.
Ignoring Hamas's declared intentions will pave the way for the movement to use the unity agreement to seize control over the Palestinian Authority and many parts of the West Bank. It will also facilitate Hamas's plans to launch terror attacks from the West Bank against Israel.
It now remains to be seen whether the U.S. Administration and EU governments, by blindly endorsing the new unity government, will help Hamas to achieve its goals.

Palestinian TV Teaches Kids The Way to ‘Jihad Street’

Every day, hundreds of millions of children in more than 120 countries settle in to watch their local versions of “Sesame Street” or similar shows inspired by the Muppet model. They learn to read, to write, to count. They learn about things like “sharing,” and “friendship,” and how to be kind to others. They learn what it is to love.
Except in Palestine, where the lessons from Hamas children’s television are aimed at something else: to kill.

Abdulateef Al-Mulhim – a voice to be heard

I only got to know Abdulateef a few days ago. And honestly, as one who prides myself to be on top of everything related to the Palestinian/Arab – Israeli conflict, shame on me. Abdulateef’s articles have been around for a few years and he’s one of the few voices of reason in the Arab world, one that is not insulated within a bubble of ignorance and hatred.
I would imagine that the same way I came across his article by chance, there might be others who have not heard of him, so I want to share his name and thoughts with the readers, so that you too, can enjoy his writings and spread the word about him.
The article that prompted me to contact and initiate a dialogue with him, was “May 15:Nakba or Defeat?” published May 14th at Arab News, a Saudi internet news outlet. Abdulateef is a retired Commodore in the Royal Saudi Navy and a journalist. After I exchanged a couple of emails with him, he directed me to additional articles of his, published in outlets including Jerusalem Post and Haaretz.

During his weekly general audience, Francis asked for prayers. "It will be a strictly religious trip," he said.

Not if the Israel haters in Middle East churches have anything to do with it.

From the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem site:

An interview with Bishop William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem, about the families who will have lunch with Pope Francis in Bethlehem after Mass in Manger Square.

1 – Why did the Pope choose to lunch with Christian families? What is his reason for doing so?
Pope Francis wants to spend a little time with the poor families in the Bethlehem and their children to listen to them, permitting them to feel his closeness and tenderness. He did not want to have lunch with the cardinals, bishops and politicians, but with poor families. It took time to understand the reasons for this gesture. It really makes the Pope admired: how Jesus wants to stay close to the poor.

2 – How were the families chosen who will share the meal?
The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, which oversaw the organization of the entire trip of the Holy Father appointed a committee for the task of choosing. The Committee established criteria for identifying “categories” of poverty. Each family was then selected to represent a certain category of need. The poor who have no daily bread or living on the street have not been selected.

Oh, okay. The pope asks to have lunch with the poor and the committee deliberately excludes the truly poor.

So who do they choose instead?

Our poor are those who suffer for humanitarian reasons, political and social. We contacted the parishes and consulted many people. Many lay people offered us names. We discussed together and finally arrived at a final list. Many would have liked to be selected, but it was not possible to please everyone. It was a tough choice!

3 – Can you give us some examples of families that you have chosen?
A family from Ikrit, a village in northern Galilee that was evacuated and razed in 1948 by the Israeli Army. Only the church was spared. Although there have been court decisions, Christian Arab inhabitants were never able to return to their village.

Another family from the group of 58 families who have land in Cremisan area of Beit Jala. According to the planned route of the separation wall built by Israel, the land will be on the other side of the wall and therefore inaccessible for the owners. There are ongoing negotiations with the legal authorities that we hope will have a positive outcome.

Also a family that represents those who struggle for a family reunion. One spouse living in Jerusalem, the other in the territories. Under Israeli law, it is difficult for the Palestinian spouse to obtain a permit for permanent residence in Jerusalem.

Another family has a son sentenced to life imprisonment, another a son exiled to Gaza for political reasons. Another one comes from the Gaza Strip, which is a big prison. These are the families selected for this occasion.

...5 – Pope Francis, where he visits, always wants to share a meal with simple people, the poor and marginalized. What are the lessons for the Church in Jerusalem?
This is a lesson for us bishops and priests. We need to get closer to the suffering people of God, and not live isolated in our homes. The Pope says we are always to go out, to go to the others, to go in search of the sheep and not wait until the sheep seeks the shepherd. This is a great example for us. The Pope will not see all the misery of the Holy Land. He only meets five families, and giving us a good boost, it inspires us to continue our mission.

Gee, what mission is that? Ignoring the homeless?

The pope asks for poor families to have lunch with, and the church leaders ignore his request and instead choose families that they can use as props to slam Jewish Israelis!

After all, it is not like the Pope will tell them to cut the crap. They know exactly what they are doing and they are using Francis as cynically as they are using the people they chose for the honor of meeting him.

(h/t Irene)

New "Apartheid?" Poster: Jerusalem Light Rail

This photo has been floating around social media. So I added it to my viral poster series.

(h/t Gabi Shainin who took the original photo., and Israel Muse who informed me of that fact.)

CNN footage shows Israeli troops firing rubber bullets, not live fire, in Beitunia

This is Israel's Channel 2 analyzing video released by CNN yesterday that appeared to show the Israel border police officer firing the gunshot that felled Nadim Nawarah at the "Nakba Day" protest in Beitunia.

While Nadim and the other youth have had funerals and Palestinian Arab medical reports indicating bullets that tore through their bodies, the CNN footage actually shows without a doubt that the border police bullet that was shot at the time Nawarah fell came from a gun equipped with the extension used to fire rubber bullets. (The bullet that Nawarah's father says he found in the backpack simply could not have killed him, as the expert in the video notes - a bullet that hits a target does not look like that.)

Here is what an M16 looks like.

Here it is with the attachment:

Here's the gun that fired the bullet at the time:

It is clear that this gun has the rubber bullet attachment.

Rubber coated bullets used in Israel are blunt cylinders. They cannot penetrate skin unless fired from very close range, although they could cause serious pain and injury. Even then - they wouldn't exit the body. They certainly could not go through Nadim's backpack the way it was described.

The CNN footage did not show what was happening around the corner from the building where Nawarah fell down, closer to the Israeli position, and from other footage we know that protesters were throwing and sling-shooting stones to the police from there (out of the view of the security camera footage.) We cannot tell where the police were firing towards.

Is it possible that Nawarah was hit by a misfired rubber bullet, or a ricochet? Did he fall as soon as he heard the shot? I dislike conspiracy theories on either side and the idea that the youths faked their falls to coincide with the shots and were then whisked away to replaced with similar dead bodies, or to be killed themselves as martyrs, seems far fetched. But no image or video released so far shows Israeli police using anything but tear gas and rubber bullet guns, and there is no way that the damage mentioned in the medical report matches what a rubber bullet could do. Also, there is no blood visible near the supposed wounds in any of the photos of the youths who were apparently killed.

My earlier post on the incident, along with the comments, is perhaps the single biggest repository of photo and video of the incident.

See also here.

(h/t CifWatch for the translation)

El-Al planes to be equipped with missile-destroying lasers

How cool is this? From Wired:

Israel is finally ready to combat shoulder-launched missiles and they’re going to do it with lasers.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that SkyShield, developed by Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, had successfully completed testing and is certified for commercial use to combat the threat of man-portable surface-to-air missile systems (MANPADS) by combining advanced laser detection and disruption technologies.

C-MUSIC, the commercial version of SkyShield, integrates laser technology with a thermal camera to deflect incoming threats by jamming. After detecting incoming missiles with an infrared sensor, it fires a laser that disrupts the missile’s navigation system, taking it off course and detonating the missile a safe distance from the aircraft.

“SkyShield has been validated under the most complex and sophisticated testing conditions ever conducted in Israel and is now ready to protect Israeli airlines,” said Israel Air Force Brig. Gen. Eitan Eshel, director of research and development at Israel’s Defense Ministry.

The technological advancement is a direct response to the 2002 attempt by terrorists in Mombasa, Kenya in which two surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli charter plane shortly after takeoff. The missiles missed their target and its more than 250 passengers, but the event prompted then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to call for an urgent defense response.

The system will first be implemented on all El Al airliners, but Elbit says it has contracts with several other countries around the world.

Will the BDSers boycott airliners that buy the system? I can imagine their lobbying that passenger lives aren't as important as those horrible houses Jews keep building.

I mentioned C-MUSIC last year, but hadn't seen this (somewhat dated) video before:

(h/t Ronald)

Whimsical, inexpensive Israeli household gadgets

I just found out about an innovative Israeli design company called Monkey Business, and their products will put a smile on your face.

For example, a mold to create sunny side eggs that look like this: