Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, December 04, 2014

Now you can make your own ISIS pancakes

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have released a new recipe on the internet for pancakes - with the stated intention of “extend[ing] the energy and power of the Mujahideen (fighters).”

The instructions were released by al-Zawra, an ISIS wing claims to “prepare sisters for the battlefield for jihadists” and uses social media to guide wives of ISIS militants in domestic work such as sewing and cooking, medical first aid, Islam, Sharia law and weaponry.

The recipe - which is accompanied by pictures - includes one egg, a cup of flour, four tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of oil, 4 teaspoons of salt and one cup of milk. According to the instructions, the pancakes should be served with honey and are suitable for breakfast and dinner.

The new recipe follows the publication of animated video cartoon last month, containing domestic tips for the wives of ISIS militants, including a recipe for ‘quick and simple’ date balls, are made by mixing dates, flour and butter together.

The recipe page seems to assume that the women reading it are illiterate or idiots, because it illustrates literally every step. Like take one egg:

And one cup of flour:

And so on.

Security company Cylance released a paper detailing "Operation Cleaver," a major, worldwide Iranian computer hacking operation. And although the scope of their discovery is massive, they believe that it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Since at least 2012, Iranian actors have directly attacked, established persistence in, and extracted highly sensitive materials from the networks of government agencies and major critical infrastructure companies in the following countries:

Canada, China, England, France, Germany, India, Israel, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

Iran is the new China. [in cyber warfare - EoZ]

Operation Cleaver has, over the past several years, conducted a significant global surveillance and infiltration campaign. To date it has successfully evaded detection by existing security technologies. The group is believed to work from Tehran, Iran, although auxiliary team members were identified in other locations including the Netherlands, Canada, and the UK. The group successfully leveraged both publicly available, and customized tools to attack and compromise targets around the globe. The targets include military, oil and gas, energy and utilities, transportation, airlines, airports, hospitals, telecommunications, technology, education, aerospace, Defense Industrial Base (DIB), chemical companies, and governments.

During intense intelligence gathering over the last 24 months, we observed the technical capabilities of the Operation Cleaver team rapidly evolve faster than any previously observed Iranian effort. As Iran’s cyber warfare capabilities continue to morph,2 the probability of an attack that could impact the physical world at a national or global level is rapidly increasing.

Their capabilities have advanced beyond simple website defacements, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and Hacking Exposed style techniques.

With minimal separation between private companies and the Iranian government, their modus operandi seems clear: blur the line between legitimate engineering companies and state sponsored cyber hacking teams to establish a foothold in the world’s critical infrastructure.

The targets included "Networks and systems targeted in critical industries like energy and utilities, oil and gas, and chemical companies; Assets (both cyber and physical) and logistics information were compromised at major airline operators, airports, and transportation companies; Various global telecommunications, technology, healthcare, aerospace, and defense companies; Confidential critical infrastructure documents were harvested from major educational institutions around the world."

Here are the specific industry targets for each country. Not surprisingly, the US is the major target of Iran's cyber-war.

And here's the scariest part - of what we know:

Perhaps the most bone-chilling evidence we collected in this campaign was the targeting and compromise of transportation networks and systems such as airlines and airports in South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The level of access seemed ubiquitous...Fully compromised VPN credentials meant their entire remote access infrastructure and supply chain was under the control of the Cleaver team, allowing permanent persistence under compromised credentials. They achieved complete access to airport gates and their security control systems, potentially allowing them to spoof gate credentials. They gained access to PayPal and Go Daddy credentials allowing them to make fraudulent purchases and allowed unfettered access to the victim’s domains. We were witnessed a shocking amount of access into the deepest parts of these companies and the airports in which they operate.

Could the airport information be merely to enhance espionage - or is it meant to support terror attacks?

What is crystal clear is that Iran is already at war with much of the world. The question is whether the world is prepared to react appropriately.

UPDATE: Bloomberg News suggests that one airport terror attack may have already used tis stolen data:

They also accessed details about computer systems at major Middle Eastern airports, including Pakistan’s Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, McClure said. Armed Taliban militants disguised as security staff workers stormed the airport in June, killing more than 30 people. The report doesn’t link that to the hack but McClure said some information stolen was related to a gate where the attack began.

Does anyone doubt that Iran would work together with major terror groups when it is convenient for them?

(h/t David G)

12/04 Links Pt1: Supermarket owner says he won’t let terror attackers win; Britain's Terror Addiction

From Ian:

UK: Britain's Terror Addiction

In Britain, declarations of disgust for specific acts of terrorism often seem designed merely to shroud tolerance for pro-terror views. The Guardian, for example, condemned the synagogue murders in Israel and described Hamas's celebrations of the attacks as "depressing"; but a mere four days before the terror attack, the newspaper published an opinion piece by Hamas official Ahmed Yousef, which set out to defend the Hamas charter, a document that explicitly calls for the eradication of not only Israelis but Jews.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Brahimi's PPDP has entertained members of the House of Lords; Interpal enjoys the support of parliamentary motions signed by dozens of British MPs and is painted as a victim of Islamophobia by prominent newspaper journalists; and the PFLP, addressing crowds of supporters in London, is considered a heroic bulwark against Western "imperialism."
Debates between politicians and commentators over the causes of radicalization and extremism in Britain invariably focus on how to tackle support for groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda. But why is it that Hamas and PFLP are deemed moderate, regardless of how many civilians they murder?
One enormous factor in the spread of Islamic extremism surely must be the networks of charities that seem to support Palestinian terrorist organizations – networks that include groups such as Interpal and the PPDP. Will these organizations ever be shut down?

Frenchman sentenced to 5 years for Israeli hit-and-run killing

Zeitouni’s parents flew to France to attend the trial and both burst out crying during the deliberations, Ynet reported. Friends of the young woman and supporters from the local Jewish community also went to the trial but were not let into the courtroom, according to the report.
“We have an opportunity to tell the world that justice can be served, and people cannot run away from it,” said Peled.
The victim’s family would have preferred the trial to have taken place in Israel, their lawyer said.
“But this is better than nothing and they have arrived with confidence,” added the lawyer, Gilles-William Goldnadel.
He described Robic as a “habitual road criminal” who showed “rare cowardice” in deciding to flee the scene.

Enough is enough

People died that day. They were people with families, histories and legacies. Yet for every story about their lives I have seen 20 about what someone else may think about them, about us, or whatever response we choose for the slaughter of our citizens in our streets. That is simply slave mentality.
We house our own killers, provide for our attackers, save the world, protect the weak and invent the uninventable, and we stand there begging for the world to see that hey, it's kind of hard to make peace with someone who insists on chopping us up, running us over, and bombing our citizens into permanent post-traumatic stress disorder.
Well, I'm done. Seriously. I will never again give that shpiel. I will not discuss what may or may not be necessary force or hand out cookies in the hope they may lay off. Nah.
Instead I will learn what I can about Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Zidan Saif and Rabbis Kalman Zeev Levine, Moshe Twersky, Aryeh Kupinsky and Avraham Goldberg, may God avenge their blood, and I will know their stories and pay respect to their lives. I will not give a pound of flesh to the wolves at our door and I will not, ever again, be a public relations machine for the deaf.
Enough.
Enough.
Enough.
We have survived too much to recommit to slavery. We have too much to lose to be locked up in this prison of our own making.
Enough.

Burqa-wearer stabs American nursery teacher to death in Abu Dhabi (update)

Random killings by Arabs aren't just happening in Israel.

From Al Arabiya:

Police in Abu Dhabi are investigating the death of an American teacher stabbed in a shopping center toilet by a suspect wearing a Muslim veil, official media reported Wednesday.

The motive for Monday's attack in Boutik Mall was unclear.

Witnesses said the 37-year-old American woman, who worked at a nursery school in Abu Dhabi, was stabbed by a person wearing a black robe, black gloves and a niqab -- a Muslim veil that conceals the face except for the eyes.

"The victim was stabbed with a sharp object following an argument in the ladies toilets," the head of Abu Dhabi's police criminal investigations department, Colonel Rashid Bourscheid, was quoted by The National daily as saying.

"Police are still trying to determine the reasons for the attack and the identity of the suspect, who fled the scene," he said.
...
The stabbing took place on the same day as a recording attributed to IS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urged Muslims to attack Westerners by any means, even if only to "spit on their faces".

Violent crime is relatively rare in Abu Dhabi although there have been attacks on foreigners elsewhere in the region.

In Saudi Arabia on Saturday, an assailant stabbed and wounded a Canadian while he shopped at a mall in Dhahran on the Gulf coast.

Last month a Danish national was shot and wounded in the Saudi capital Riyadh -- an attack that IS on Monday claimed was carried out by its supporters.

It sure sounds like the many attacks on random Israelis lately simply because they are Jewish. The burqa as a means to disguise the murderer is a nice touch, though, and it is even causing some Arab nations to question the wisdom of allowing so many people to walk around in disguise.

Once again, Palestinian Arabs re in the forefront of terror fashion and tactics. I think that we need more European countries rewarding them with symbolic recognition to make sure that they learn the lesson that they have no responsibilities whatsoever.

UPDATE: The stabber was caught, after she attempted to bomb the home of an Egyptian-American doctor.

The police say that she was targeting Americans.

(h/t Bob K)

UPDATE 2: My guess was right. ISIS is asking Muslims to do "lone burka" attacks against Westerners.

I quoted a devastating op-ed by Palestinian human rights leader Bassam Eid blasts UNRWA as working against Palestinians, not for them.

While Chris Gunness of UNRWA can try to ignore my many revelations about his organization, he cannot ignore Eid, who is the founder of the founder and director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group - and who was kicked out of B'Tselem because he wanted them to look at Palestinian human rights violations.

Gunness went into full meltdown mode on Twitter as he tries mightily to counter Eid's fully accurate piece.

@Jerusalem_Post which employs pro-Jewish terrorism journo has article accusing UNRWA of supporting Jihad.I was not asked for quote of course
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Ultra-right @Jerusalem_Post carries anti-UNRWA garbage boycotting me ie no quote. Ask @stevelinde y Boycott the JPost! Don't read their lies
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Since when do op-ed pieces require requesting quotes? Gunness is sounding more like a spoiled child than an official spokesperson.

Unbalanced journalism @Jerusalem_Post which carries rabid anti-UNRWA piece without quoting @ChrisGunness. Ask editor @stevelinde why. RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Gunness doesn't want to call attention to the author Bassam Eid, whose reputation is quite good. So instead he tries to divert by attacking the Jerusalem Post and its editor, hoping Eid's article can be tarnished that way.

@Jerusalem_Post with Jewish terror supporting staff accuses UNRWA of Jihadism. Utter rubbish which we reject. Shame on @stevelinde RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Really? Because I have proven it, using the actual words on UNRWA websites that support jihad and antisemitism - and I have asked Gunness to respond.

His response? To cover up the evidence and delete the websites.

What a hypocrite.

I passionately believe in freedom of the press but I am equally passionate about fair and balanced journalism, which I will always demand RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

It is an op-ed. The journalistic standards that op-eds have to abide by are not to lie. They do not have to be balanced. Gunness knows this, and he's the one lying.

Ask @Jerusalem_Post editor @stevelinde why his Diaspora Affairs Corr, depicted here http://t.co/LJbX7MQpMH supported Jewish terrorism RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Now Gunness is trying to attack the paper by claiming that it is pro-terror. The hypocrisy is stunning, not only because he is quoting a fringe website to try to associate the paper with terror.

The hypocrisy is because Gunness shows no such problem when his own staff explicitly supports terror. Not just one person, but many of the teachers who UNRWA trusts to teach their children. They supported the massacre of Jewish worshippers in Jerusalem as well as other terror attacks. They admiringly quote Hitler and support his goal of exterminating all Jews.

This isn't guilt by association as Gunness is trying to smear the Bassam Eid opinion piece with. These are actual UNRWA teachers openly espousing hate, and as we've shown, teaching it to the Palestinian children that UNRWA is supposedly supporting.

Gunness cannot bring himself to even mention Bassam Eid's name in his multi-tweet meltdown. Because he knows that Eid is speaking the truth.

After all, Eid grew up in a UNRWA camp and attended UNRWA schools himself!

Gunness also ignores 99% of the op-ed, focusing only on the "jihadism" charge - which is true nonetheless, as I've documented UNRWA websites with stories extolling children who go on jihad missions (after asking their parents - because they are moral). Another website had the phrase "God grant us martyrdom for the sake of Jihad" in another essay. There was a poem at another UNRWA school website about how Zionists "raped" Palestine and how they will return to Jaffa by force of arms, calling Palestine "the land of jihad and martyrdom."

All of this is documented in the copies I made of now-deleted UNRWA school websites.

Bassam Eid is telling the truth, and Chris Gunness is once again shown to be a liar, defending an organization that is a major cause of hate and incitement in the Middle East.

12/03 Links Pt2: Fact-Checking AP’s Denial of Censorship; ‘Palestine’: The Real Apartheid State

From Ian:

Fact-Checking AP’s Denial of Censorship

We’ll start with Lori Lowenthal-Marcus of The Jewish Press. She talked to veteran journalist Mark Lavie, one of Friedman’s colleagues in AP’s Jerusalem bureau.
Lavie corroborated Steinberg’s blacklisting.

The Jewish Press asked Lavie whether he knew if there was an AP ban on quoting Prof. Gerald Steinberg around the time of Operation Cast Lead.
Lavie said he did.
He said he knew there was such a ban because, when he put a quote from Steinberg in one of his articles sometime in 2009, the AP Jerusalem bureau chief made him remove it. That editor then told him that AP reporters “can’t interview Steinberg as an expert because he is identified with the right wing.”
It doesn’t get any more unequivocal than that.
Meanwhile, Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon was in touch with Colford about the articles where AP did quote Steinberg. Kredo writes:

Steinberg has further petitioned the AP to prove its claim that NGO Monitor was not banned during the 2008-2009 war in Gaza by providing a list of stories mentioning the group and the date they were published.
When asked about Steinberg’s request, the AP’s Colford provided to the Free Beacon six stories published since June 2009 that mention Steinberg and his organization.
Only one article is from the disputed time period, and its focus is on Hamas war crimes, not crimes regarding the Israeli side. The AP routinely publishes reports authored by NGOs critical of Israel.

AP Disses ‘Whistleblower’ But a New Whistle Blows

It began with a “tell-something” tale by a former reporter. But as with so many small tempests, the shrill response of the alleged victim has fanned the winds to tornado strength.
A former AP reporter, Matti Friedman, publicly detailed allegations of biased coverage of the Israel-Arab conflict and claimed that Gerald Steinberg, a non anti-Israel expert, was banned by the AP. Friedman was immediately and with great force contradicted by Paul Colford, AP’s director of media relations.
Colford claimed Friedman’s articles were filled with “distortions, half-truths and inaccuracies.” And he wrote, point blank, there was “no ban on AP’s use of Prof. Gerald Steinberg.”
So, it’s “he said – he said,” right? But as it turns out, we have a tie-breaker. A second former AP reporter explicitly confirmed to The Jewish Press that, despite Colford’s denial, there was indeed a ban in place in AP’s Jerusalem bureau on quoting Steinberg, and that he could state this with confidence. How? Because that ban was explained to him by the AP’s then Jerusalem bureau chief. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Labor Activists Exhort UC Berkeley Audience to Bring Down Israel

Hosted by UAW 2865, a union of over 13,000 student-workers across the University of California system, the union’s BDS Caucus brought in guest speakers to “discuss the role of organized labor in the Palestine solidarity movement.”
Panelist Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), dominated the conversation.
“I think you should boycott any Zionist institution, academic, organization, whether it be from 1967 occupied Palestine or 1948 occupied Palestine, because BDS really should be about shifting the cultural framework and shifting how we see Israel and isolating it and making it feel unwelcome anywhere and everywhere,” said Kiswani.
“Bringing down Israel will really benefit everyone in the world and everyone in society, particularly workers,” she said later.

Israel calls Iranian bid for post on key UN committee 'absurd'

Iran is seeking a senior post on a United Nations committee that decides accreditation of non-governmental organizations, a move that Israel on Tuesday compared to gangster Al Capone running the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Iran was elected to the 19-member committee in April for a four-year term from 2015. The United States and Israel are also members of the committee, which acts as a kind of gatekeeper for rights groups and other NGOs seeking access to U.N. headquarters to lobby and participate in meetings and other events.
When Iran was first elected to the committee, the United States sharply criticized it as a "troubling outcome" because of what it said was Tehran's poor human rights record. The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on Iran's bid to become vice chair of the committee.
In a letter obtained by Reuters, Iran presented its candidacy for vice chair of the committee, which will begin meeting in late January.
Israel, which views Iran and its nuclear program as an existential threat, was clearly displeased by the idea.
"Imagine if Iran ran this committee in the same way it runs its country -- human rights activists would be detained, journalists would be tortured, and anyone with a social media account would find himself arrested on fabricated charges," Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor told Reuters.

What's that pointy thing behind Batman?

Egyptians are sensitive to a lot of things, but one of the top ten is the myth that Jewish slaves built the Pyramids. (They didn't, almost all of the Pyramids predated the Hebrews by hundreds of years. Nothing in the Torah indicates that the Hebrews built pyramids, only the cities of Pithom and Ramses.)

In 1977, Menachem Begin falsely claimed that Hebrew slaves in Egypt built the Pyramids and Egyptians are still complaining about that today.

Now, according to Egyptian media reports ahead of the release of the new Hollywood biblical epic "Exodus: Gods and Kings," the film may indicate that Hebrew slaves built the Pyramids, and the Egyptians are fuming.

Ain Shams University will hold a symposium on the topic, including their professors of Hebrew and archaeology, "in response to Zionist claims about building pyramids...The seminar will include a presentation of the film "Exodus: Gods and Kings" by director Ridley Scott, which illustrates that Zionists built the Egyptian pyramids, confirming that it is not the first time that the Jews claimed to build the pyramids so the symposium will address the film and to clarify the facts. "

There is another controversy around the film:

Rupert Murdoch is responding to backlash that the cast of his new film "Exodus: Gods and Kings" is not diverse enough.

The media mogul took to Twitter to defend the decision to cast white actors in lead roles in the new Ridley Scott film from 20th Century Fox, which stars Christian Bale as Moses, Joel Edgerton as Rhamses, "Breaking Bad" actor Aaron Paul as Joshua, Sigourney Weaver as Tuya and John Turturro as Seti.

Murdoch, 83, tweeted: "Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are."

There was a huge kerfuffle with that comment and Murdoch's subsequent tweets trying, badly, to clarify.

What people don't remember is that many years ago, a major Hollywood studio decided to cast a black person as Anwar Sadat in a television movie, and Egypt was up in arms, as this 1984 story shows:

Egypt has banned all films produced or distributed by Columbia Pictures because of its objections to ''Sadat,'' a Columbia film about the life of Egypt's assassinated leader that appeared on American television.

Abdel Hamid Radwan, the Minister of Culture of Egypt, announced the decision last Thursday after he reviewed the film, which starred Louis Gossett Jr. as President Anwar el- Sadat. Mr. Radwan concluded that the 1983 film contained ''historical errors that distort the accomplishments of the Egyptian people,'' according to the Egyptian press accounts of his decision.

Objections to the film are complex. They range from resentment in some circles over the selection of a black to play Mr. Sadat, to often-cited objections concerning ''distortions'' of Egyptian leaders and life, to complaints of historical inaccuracies.

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Sadat appeared particularly sensitive about his dark complexion, which prompted jokes and ridicule. The portrayal of Mr. Sadat by a black has revived the issue of race in Egypt, where it is usually deeply submerged.

If this movie had cast a black character as Pharaoh, Egyptians would have freaked out because they don't want to be portrayed as black (unless they have matured a great deal in the past 30 years.) But with a white Pharaoh, white people who pretend to be indignant on behalf of the Egyptians are upset.

Rupert Murdoch (and Ridley scott) cannot win.

Then again, even though this movie looks like it is hardly based on the literal Biblical text, you can be sure that Muslims will be upset over not only its portrayal of prophets in physical form, but also form how it does not adhere to the Koranic version of the Exodus story.

Ynet To Limit Anti-Religious Articles To 8 Per Week (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, December 3 - The popular internet news site Ynet announced today that in the coming election season it would cap the number of articles bashing religion and religious people at a little more than one per day.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu dismissed two of his top cabinet members yesterday, and early elections are scheduled for March. The run-up to national elections invariably sees the news media engage in more incitement against the religious than usual, but Ynet management fears overkill, and will implement a policy of quotas until the elections are over. No more than 8 articles inciting hate for religious Jews will be published each week in the interim.

The limits will apply only to skewed coverage of actual news, but not to opinion or analysis. Thus, while barely-concealed hatred for religious Jews and religious rituals will be disbursed with a modicum of restraint, the publication will continue to feature columnists or outside opinion pieces brimming with anti-religious prejudice.

Balance is the principle, says Ynet CEO Api Koress. "Our readers have grown more sophisticated over the years, and can tell when we're trying too hard," he explains. "We'll still have our weekly column by Ruchama Weiss distorting the sources and engaging in naked polemic against the Rabbinic establishment and tradition - that's just basic Israeli journalism. But there will be less focus in news articles per se on ways to portray Haredim and other religious Jews as negatively as possible."

As an example, Koress cited a story last week about a man from the north of the country who was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children. "In the past, we would automatically mention the fact that the suspect was Haredi, or kippah-wearing, if that were the case, and if it were somebody with no obviously religious accessories or dress, we'd simply not say anything about that. Now we have to cut back on that, because the growing worldliness of the Ynet audience means there's less tolerance for overt hate of that sort in news."

Other Israeli publications are considering similar policies. "We've thought about it, but aren't sure yet what direction to go," said Shabtai Tzvi, President of NRG, which operates Maariv's website. "There's always a tradeoff between catering to what the public wants, which is to bash people who are different and whose adherence to tradition challenges the secular public's ethos of pursuing instant gratification and wantonness, and sending our reporters to cover other news that might be important." Tzvi declined to elaborate on what that other news might consist of.

Haaretz editors briefly experimented with a cap on anti-religious incitement earlier this year, and are still analyzing the results. "We have fewer qualms than the other major dailies about compromising journalistic integrity since we're an advocacy organization first and a news source maybe third or fourth," said publisher Aluf Benn. "We don't answer directly to market forces - our agenda is set primarily by the board of the New Israel Fund, which doesn't dictate policy week-by-week. It's much more general and gradual. We had the latitude to try limiting our anti-religious pieces to as few as 35 per week, but I can't see getting approval for anything less than that for an entire election campaign."

"That would just be too much to give up."

12/03 Links Pt1: ICRC: World holds Israel to legal double standard; Who needs Abbas' approval?

From Ian:

ICRC: World holds Israel to legal double standard

The head of the International Red Cross in Israel and the Palestinian areas said Tuesday that the world was holding Israel to a double standard when it came to war crimes allegations.
Jacques De Maio was one of a number of non-Israeli officials speaking at an Institute for National Security Studies conference on the law of armed conflict in urban areas.
“Why is there so much more focus on Israel than on Syria [and] other places where many more civilians are dying?” the ICRC official asked rhetorically, pointing out that “in other ongoing wars, more civilians die in one week than in Israeli wars in a full year.”
While De Maio made that argument without using the phrase “war crimes” to refer to the IDF’s actions in this summer’s Gaza operation, he added that both Israel and Hamas “violated international law” during the fighting.
He also defended his dialogue with the IDF and Israel regarding its actions and the law of armed conflict. He said there had even been a petition to cancel his speech at the conference so he would not appear to be endorsing the IDF’s conduct during the summer operation.
But De Maio said the dialogue was not endorsement, as “we don’t endorse Israel, and when we talk to Hamas, the Taliban and other terrorists, we don’t endorse them, either.”
The ICRC official said that “our goal is to influence those fighting to be more humanitarian.”

Israel Should Get Its Retaliation In First

To defend itself while also bolstering the long-term interest of other liberal democracies engaged in the struggle against transnational terrorism, Israel should undertake a preemptive strike, both in the legal arena and in the court of public opinion. The facts and the law are on Israel’s side.

In this hostile international environment, knowledgeable Israelis are concerned about the March 2015 publication of the Schabas report. Either from lack of familiarity with the international laws of war or out of misplaced sympathy for the conventional view, some intellectuals here, including law professors, are tempted to conclude that Israel has few legal responses. They seem to believe that Israel should contritely accept the UNHRC's factual findings, legal conclusions, and practical recommendations and concentrate on damage control.

There is no chance that Netanyahu's government will adopt that approach, nor should it. Whether it will launch an offensive against the UNHRC’s kangaroo court is another question.

Here are five defective claims likely to inform the Schabas commission, and outlines of the replies that Israel should be honing for a preemptive strike in advance of the commission's forthcoming report.

Livni: We must join world in fight against terrorism

Speaking at the same INSS conference, IDF Advocate-General Maj.- Gen. Danny Efroni said there was no precedent for the extent to which Hamas systematically endangered civilians directly and indirectly as human shields during Operation Protective Edge this summer.
Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 had a relatively extremely low civilian casualty toll, Efroni said, adding that he had warned in an article following the war that low casualties could not always be achieved because of Hamas’s tactics.
The IDF had to rework its tactics in real time due to Hamas tactics, even as Israel is at the forefront of Western nations in developing tools to comply with international law in urban environments, fighting against terrorists who intentionally endanger their own civilian populace, he said.
Efroni said that the army was internationally criticized – unfairly and for political reasons, in his opinion – for three aspects: the IDF’s striking of Hamas members’ private homes, the large cumulative number of civilian casualties, and the use of artillery in urban fighting.
Hamas members used their houses as command centers, in which they also gave orders regarding the firing of rockets at Israel, he said, adding that criticism of the IDF for hitting them would simply encourage Hamas to continue its illegal tactic.
Next, Efroni slammed the IDF’s critics for leaning hard on Israel, which at least tried to take precautions, as opposed to on Hamas, regarding the high civilian casualties.

Hamas takes credit for bringing down Israeli government!

The "Palestinian Mujahideen Movement," another name for Hamas, claims that Israel's call to hold early elections is proof of the effectiveness of the "resistance" in "confronting the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip for 51 days."

Hamas spokesman Salim Atallah issued a statement on Wednesday saying that "the overwhelming evidence that emerged after the end of the aggression on Gaza confirms that effective option in dealing with the enemy is resistance."

Yet more evidence that Palestinians have the emotional maturity of toddlers who are certain that the entire world revolves around them.

Gaza hospital cleaners have gone on strike this morning for at least the third time since September because they haven't been paid since the "unity" government was announced.

They struck for three days in September and three more days in November, and today started a new strike that is open-ended

The Gaza health ministry declared an emergency, because without these hospital workers they cannot schedule surgeries. It also affects the care of hundreds of people on dialysis, intensive care and pediatrics wards.

Even though this is a legitimate health crisis, the hundreds of reporters in and around Gaza are simply not interested in writing any articles about this for Western audiences.

During wartime, the news media are filled with human interest stories of ordinary Gazans facing trials and troubles. Injured patients are interviewed multiple times. Statistics are published and Gaza remains the top story for weeks.

But when Gaza hospital patients are in clear danger - a danger that can be solved with the help of a little publicity to urge funding for hospital workers instead of, say, the families of terrorists - the story is simply not covered by the huge press corps.

The bias is clear. A health crisis in Gaza is only important if there is a way to blame Jews. Otherwise, editors and reporters and management of news media outlets really don[t give a damn about the lives of Gazans.

In retrospect, this story proves that the tearjerker articles of the summer were not meant to get news consumers to care about Gazans. If the media cared about Gazans, this would be a story.

No, the stories of the summer were meant to get the world to hate Israel.

And no amount of justifications from news editors about their coverage can erase the simple fact that human interest stories of Palestinians are only important if somehow there is an Israeli angle. Corruption, infighting, incitement, and stories like these aren't interesting to the media if they cannot blame Israel.

(Previous "Is This Newsworthy" post)

Gaza cement being diverted to black market - and taxed by Hamas (update)

You know how all the cement that is being imported to Gaza is supposed to be used only for specific international projects? How the UN says it created a mechanism ensuring that the cement will not be diverted?

Yesterday, Gaza journalist Hazem Balousha tweeted this:

Yesterday, 600 tons of cement were sent into Gaza. Assuming that Balousha is telling the truth, here's where some of it ended up.

The other big news in the Palestinian Arab press is the Ministry of Finance in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, has started taxing every ton of cement a fee of 20 shekels. The PA denounced the move but there are reports that customs agents in Gaza are imposing the tax, and as a result the shipments of cement today have been suspended.

These articles also make clear that cement that is supposed to be earmarked for specific projects have already been diverted, as they talk about cement traders and private buyers who are selling and buying cement. The UN mechanism to control the distribution of cement is clearly failing.

And this almost certainly means that Hamas is using this new cement to rebuild its terror tunnels.

UPDATE: Hamas has apparently relented and stopped imposing the tax after complaints. But the undersecretary of finance said that there was a monopoly by a certain company to sell the cement and it adds its own fee of 150 shekels per ton, so why cry crocodile tears over the Hamas tax when this company makes more?

The Gaza Ministry of Housing is apparently in charge of which citizens can get the cement and construction materials, and they have published a list of nearly 6000 homeowners who qualify. This sure seems like a system that is ripe for corruption and diversion of the materials.

Playing soccer on the Temple Mount is OK. Complaining about it, though...

According to this Facebook post, a young Jewish man visiting the Temple Mount saw some Muslims respectfully using the holiest site on Earth as a soccer stadium. He asked the police to do something about it, since Israel's Supreme Court has said that such sports are limited to very specific places.

So the police jumped to action - and escorted the whiny Jew off of the Temple Mount.

Post by ‎ארנון סגל‎.

(h/t Bob Knot)

12/02 Links Pt2: Respected journalists expose bias against Israel; Jon Stewart’s Betrayal of Israel

From Ian:

Missing Peace: Respected journalists expose media bias against Israel

Let’s move to Abeer Ayyoub, who (NYT correspondent Judy) Rudoren also praised (in November 2012, during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza) as her “wonderful fixer/journalist.” At that time, Ayyoub was getting reporting credit on stories written by Rudoren, even as she (like Akram) served as a consultant at the Israel-viperous Human Rights Watch.
Ayyoub no longer reports for the Times, but earlier this year she stated publicly that she has been boycotting all Israeli products for three years, which would cover her period at the Times.
In a Facebook post on July 29th, Ayyoub parroted the Hamas line. She said she was asked in an interview “why Palestinians in Gaza are not feeling angry because of Hamas using the building materials for their tunnels and not for building houses and schools.” Her response was straight-up Hamas propaganda. “My answer was: why people in Israel [sic] won’t feel angry about Israeli government spending more money on enhancing its army instead of raising the level of education and health there? More importantly, why the U.S. wouldn’t save the money it supports the Israeli army with for sheltering its [America’s] thousands of homeless there in the U.S.” It went on like this. She never really answered the question, but it was plain: Hamas diverting cement from kindergartens to terror tunnels was fine with her.
It gets worse.
In a particularly vile Facebook post on August 3rd, she attacked “so-called journalists” who “posted stuff and gave interviews that they left because they were threatened by Hamas to be kicked outta [sic] country if they don’t report what Hamas wants.” While excoriating those brave journalists, she defended Hamas. But she went beyond that. Using the term “we,” she actually implied that she was complicit in the cover-up of Hamas launching sites: (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Blacklisting of pro-Israel watchdog organization NGO Monitor by the Associated Press

Long-time readers will recall that I’ve relied on NGO Monitor’s work in the past. Indeed, one of the most consequential “scoops” I’ve had as a blogger, that Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson fundraised among rich Saudi Arabians with a pledge to use the money to counter pro-Israel forces in the West, came from NGO Monitor. My blog post on this, reprinted at the Wall Street Journal’s website, set off a controversy about HRW’s anti-Israel bias that has yet to fully recede (and assuredly won’t until someone less maniacally anti-Israel than Whitson and her boss Kenneth Roth is in charge).
More generally, Steinberg and NGO Monitor are huge players in the debate over the role NGOs play in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and has been particularly effective in revealing how many NGOs in both Israel and the territories that are hostile to Israel’s existence receive the bulk of their funding from European governments, creating significant controversy in Israel and Europe. I’ve been following NGO Monitor for years, and have yet to see the organization tell any lies or make any significant errors, which is much more than one can say for, e.g., Human Rights Watch and other anti-Israel organizations routinely relied upon by the media as objective sources. I’ve also met Steinberg and worked with his staff; they are professional, dedicated, and, based on my conversations with them, quite moderate in terms of the Israeli political spectrum.
Given all this, it’s hard to come up with an innocent explanation for the AP banning its reporters from talking to Steinberg, assuming Friedman is correct. There are many possible non-innocent explanations, and none of them reflect well on the AP and how it covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jon Stewart’s Betrayal of Israel

As for Israel and Gaza, “Stewart”‘s position has crystallized long ago, and it is a one of studied moral equivalence. For each Palestinian atrocity (upon which “Stewart” usually glosses over anyway) he finds a reason to apportion equal blame to Israel, and since Israel is stronger and enjoys this “great American leeway,” Israel usually comes out as the guilty party.
“Stewart”‘s moral failure to condemn Hamas and defend Israel has nothing to do with his fickle Judaism and everything to do with his liberal dogma, which simply cannot stomach the fact that people in the Middle East can be guilty of anything. It is always the white man’s fault, and in this case – Israel’s. During one of his previous interviews, “Stewart” had no problem with his host Jonathan Dekel, another specimen of the same sort, denigrating Israeli democracy. Stewart never uttered a bad word about the Palestinians.
“Stewart” is correct on one thing. The Jews who “helped” the Nazis did so because, in their mortal peril, they’d abandoned their moral principles for the glimmer of hope of personal survival. “Stewart” – a pampered, self-centered, deluded king of his world – is nothing like those wretches in his attacks on the Jewish state and its defenders.
He is incomparably worse.