Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 17, 2015

04/17 Links Pt2: Gideon Levy Spreads His Anti-Israel Poison Abroad; Postcard from the past

From Ian:

Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the question of why the Allies did not bomb the death facilities remains • The tremendous frustration felt by prisoners, who watched helplessly as bombers flew over them again and again, remains unabated.
Alongside military and tactical considerations, there were also very deep political and moral trends that precluded the bombing of the camps. The failure to intervene was the result of a tragic confluence of factors ranging from a lack of understanding, bureaucratic opposition, problematic timing and tense political circumstances. There was also the fear of sacrificing "precious" lives (those of the pilots) in order to save Jewish victims, who were thought of as less important by war planners.
Had Allied POWs been among those imprisoned in Auschwitz, "I think that they would have devoted much more thought to bombing the camps," Werrell said.
The tremendous frustration felt by the camp inmates -- who watched helplessly as the bombers flew over them time and again without dropping any explosives on the factories of death -- remains unabated. That frustration was compounded by the knowledge that even after Allied commanders refused to allocate forces for rescue mission, pilots did fly sorties to provide supplies to the combatants of the Warsaw Uprising (even while taking casualties). There was also the bombing of a French prison, a direct hit that was ordered in the hope of preventing the execution of 13 partisan fighters.
When it came to Auschwitz, there were no pilots available.

Haaretz's Gideon Levy Spreads His Anti-Israel Poison Abroad

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has a minimal following in Israel. According to a recent Target Group Index (TGI) survey, Haaretz‘s readership amounted to only 5.8% of the news market. And even this minimal share is higher than it was last summer during the IDF's Operation Protective Edge to stop Hamas rocket fire. At that time, numbers were even lower due to a slew of cancellations that were prompted by columnist Gideon Levy's Op-Ed demonizing Israeli pilots for carrying out their military orders. Most Israelis recognize Haaretz for what it is, an ideological newspaper with a far-left editorial policy that appears more interested in advocacy than in objective news gathering.
Gideon Levy serves on Haaretz's editorial board, penning a weekly column, "Twilight Zone," as well as political editorials for the newspaper. He is known in Israel as an acrimonious, anti-Israel ideologue and activist, recently arrested for spitting and cursing at IDF soldiers, who often invents his own facts to support his radical agenda. His fan base consists primarily of fellow Israel haters and activists, while mainstream Israelis and journalists dismiss him as a dishonest propagandist.
Discredited by the mainstream in his own country, Levy has taken to spewing his vitriol and promoting boycotts against the Jewish state in foreign countries where he can try to influence uninitiated audiences with dishonest calumnies against Israel. He sells himself as a heroic truth-teller who has "made it his mission," as one recent Canadian interviewer described him, "to bear witness to Palestinian life in the occupied territories." Levy acknowledges his countrymen's disdain for him, but does not attribute this to his libelous fabrications. Rather, he tries to cultivate an image of himself as a whistle blower who has incurred the hatred of his countrymen for allegedly exposing the nasty truth about them. He is aided and abetted in this task by anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic organizations and foreign journalists all too ready to believe the worst about Israel and grant this dishonest ideologue the platform from which to disgorge propaganda against his country.

Verdict on judicial review of Southampton conference cancellation: The anti-Semites lose.

The conference organisers own barrister suggested that terrorists would not strike at the conference because it would be an ‘own goal’ ( at least it shows they are aware whose side they are on).
The conference organisers attempted to discredit Sussex Friends of Israel. Firstly by stating they are not a Jewish group (and therefore imply they could not be a target for a terror attack) and secondly by continually connecting them with the EDL as two groups ‘working together’. SFoI were the only referenced element of the Jewish protests. It was a dirty tactic they repeated several times
The conference organisers astonishingly commented that the attacks in Paris and Copenhagen were in no way related to Israel or Palestine. Whilst anti-Semitism predates Israel and exists away from it, I do not know of any sane person that does not believe there is a correlation between events in Israel and the amount of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe.
The conference organisers argument was known to be weak. They had been warned there was little chance of success. They were therefore ordered to pay partial defence costs.
The conference organisers were battered; there was no a single point they attempted to put across that was accepted.
In the end it was so one-sided I almost began to feel sorry for them (okay, not quite).

Arab paper does everything it can to downplay Holocaust

Arab newspaper Vetogate had a series of articles about Holocaust Remembrance Day.

One says that Palestinians were paying the price for a crime committed in Europe.

Another says that Israel uses the event to blackmail the world, that it is grossly exaggerated ,and anyway the Zionists cooperated with the Nazis.

A third says that while everyone remembers the alleged Holocaust, Jews did equally terrible things to the Palestinians, such as the Kafr Qasim massacre, Deir Yassin, Sabra and Shatila, the Gaza war and the Mavi Marmara.

Just for comparison's sake, more Jews were gassed on an average day in Auschwitz (about 6000) than Arabs killed in all those events combined, assuming the more reliable estimates of deaths at Sabra and Shatila (which wasn't done by Jews)to be several hundred.

Friday open thread

Since no one reads the blog on Friday afternoons anyway!

04/17 Links Pt1: A Hamas State of Palestine in Gaza (For Now); Hamas: It’s ‘our right’ to abduct Israelis

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas's Plan: A Hamas State of Palestine in Gaza (For Now)

Palestinian political analysts believe that it is only a matter of time before Hamas succeeds in fulfilling its scheme to turn the Gaza Strip into an independent state.
"The discussion is no longer whether there is a separationist plan for the Gaza Strip, but when and how it would be implemented," said Hassan Asfour, a former Palestinian Authority minister affiliated with Fatah. "It is the duty of the Palestinian Authority leadership to say what it intends to do to foil this plan."
Addressing the Palestinian Authority president, Asfour added: "Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, it is not enough to talk on television about [Hamas's] separation plan. Think of ways to thwart it. Otherwise, no one will say that Hamas 'hijacked' the Gaza Strip; instead everyone will be talking about how the Palestinian Authority leadership abandoned the Gaza Strip."
If and when Hamas carries out its plan and establishes its own sovereign state in the Gaza Strip, the international community, primarily the U.S. and EU, will have to come to terms with the fact that the two-state solution has finally been realized; the Palestinians ended up with two states of their own -- an Islamist emirate in the Gaza Strip and a PLO-controlled state in the West Bank.
The Americans and Europeans will also have to listen very carefully to what Hamas is saying: namely, that a Palestinian state in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, or any part of the Palestinian territories, would not end its struggle to destroy Israel and replace it with the State of Greater Palestine.

Melanie Phillips: Out of Obama’s frying-pan into Hillary’s fire?

During her nine years as a senator for New York state, which includes arguably the most Jewish city in the world outside Israel, she posed as a friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Yet this hardly matched her previous or subsequent attitudes.
In November 1999, on a visit to the Middle East while Bill Clinton was in the White House, Hillary publicly appeared with Yasser Arafat’s wife, Suha. Mrs. Arafat proceeded maliciously and falsely to accuse Israel of using poison gas against the Palestinians and contaminating with chemicals Palestinian water sources.
Having impassively listened to a simultaneous translation, Hillary gave the terrorist’s wife when she finished a hug and a kiss. After all hell subsequently broke loose, Hillary belatedly criticized all inflammatory rhetoric, dismissed the kiss as the Middle East equivalent of a handshake and claimed that the translation – which reporters who were also listening to it reproduced correctly – was “unclear” and “incomplete.”
There is much evidence of where her real sympathies lie. In his book American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power, Christopher Anderson wrote: “At a time when elements of the American Left embraced the Palestinian cause and condemned Israel, Hillary was telling friends that she was ‘sympathetic’ to the terrorist organization and admired its flamboyant leader, Yasser Arafat.”
Her hostility to Israel has been revealed in her own words and deeds. In her memoir Hard Choices, she accuses Israel of being an occupying force and claims that it denies “dignity and self-determination” to Palestinians in the West Bank. But these claims are malicious distortions employed by Israel’s enemies.

Inside Obama’s Meeting With Jewish Leaders

For 36 years now, Iranian officials have threatened to annihilate Israel. As Basij commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi said recently, “Destroying Israel is non-negotiable.” There may be different centers of power throughout the regime, as Iran experts posit, but everyone agrees with the Supreme Leader that Israel—the “Zionist cancer”—has got to go. Middle East experts and experienced Iran watchers in the West typically dismiss such threats as instrumental rhetoric intended to thrill local bigots and separate the Arab and Persian masses from their rulers. So why take such rhetoric seriously? The Iranians wouldn’t ever really use the bomb. In fact, they’re very clever, rational people.
Of course, if you’re a leader in the American Jewish community, you can’t help but hear Iran’s exterminationist rhetoric in a different frame. So maybe the legacy of Rabbi Stephen Wise was on the mind of American Jewish leaders Monday when President Barack Obama called them to a meeting at the White House. It being Holocaust Remembrance Week, who wants to be remembered as the contemporary version of Wise, who chose to protect his relationship with Roosevelt rather than criticize a president who did nothing to save European Jews from extermination?
“It was one of the tensest meetings I can ever remember,” said one participant who has been invited to many White House sit-downs over the years and requested anonymity. “The president spoke for 25 minutes, without notes,” he told me. “It was very impressive. Some people said very nice things, others expressed concerns, and talked about the role of Congress, and he talked about presidential prerogative, and cited other precedents for it. Lots of people challenged him very strongly, like about taking the threats of dictators seriously when Khamenei says death to America, death to Israel, death to the Jews. The president said he knows what the regime is, which is why he is trying to take away their weapons. He didn’t dismiss what the Iranians say, he just didn’t really address it.”

Muslim on Temple Mount really tries to disrupt Jewish tour guide (videos)

This is pretty funny.

It shows a deranged Muslim man trying mightily to shout over a calm Jewish tour guide who ignores him completely.

As he gets ignored, he starts grunting like an animal. He then walks around aimlessly while shouting, unsure if he wants to be filmed or not.

Meanwhile, while Jews aren't allowed to silently pray on the Temple Mount, Hamas terror rallies are perfectly acceptable, as this video from this morning shows:

People on Facebook call themselves "Death to Jews"

Earlier today there was a rumor, found out later to be false, that the Arab who murdered a Jewish man with his car yesterday had a Facebook page that gave, as his secondary name, "Death to Jews" - in Hebrew.

It was another Arab from Jerusalem:

(This page has since been taken down.)

One other person, a woman from Gaza, uses the same parenthetical name:

When you look in Arabic, you find a number of others (some of which seem to have changed recently):

This person is Italian, and there is nothing about Israel on his page. It seems he just wanted to tell the world he hated Jews but hide it from Facebook.

Most of the people who use "Death to the Jews" as their parenthetical name are, of course, Arab:

This one claims to have actually worked at Facebook.

This one is probably just anti-Zionist, right?

Here's a Facebook page called "Death to the Jews - We are all Palestine" hiding as a concert venue. I don't think he means those across the Green Line.

Other Facebookers try to show off their Jew-hatred in other languages:

Supposedly, Facebook recently tightened up its standards. But they don't seem to look very hard for some kinds of hate.

Fatah terrorists appropriate iconic Iwo Jima image

From the Fatah Facebook page,

This is, of course, appropriated from the famous iconic photo of US Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945, as this comparison of the mirror image of Fatah's poster with the original picture shows:

There is one change, though: US Marines are replaced with masked terrorists.

There is nothing that they won't steal and claim as their own.

IsraAID to Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam (video)

Cyclone-washing, as some Israel-haters would call this.

(h/t Irene)

04/16 Links Pt2: Israel comes to a standstill as sirens blare for Holocaust Remembrance Day

From Ian:

Israel comes to a standstill as sirens blare for Holocaust Remembrance Day

At 10 a.m. on Thursday morning, Israel came to a standstill as sirens blared throughout the country to commemorate the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi regime. During the two minute siren, traffic came to a standstill and people stopped working to remember the Holocaust.
The siren will be followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square attended by President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other senior governmental, military, and political figures.
Afterward, at the Hall of Remembrance, a ceremonial reading of the names of Holocaust victims will take place.
On Thursday, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog will speak at a memorial at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum.
Also Thursday, the Jewish National Fund and B’nai B’rith will hold a memorial at Jerusalem’s Martyrs’ Forest to posthumously honor a Greek rabbi who led partisans against the Nazis.

JPost Editorial Holocaust remembrance

Even those who were tiny babies then – hidden from the Nazi extermination apparatus that hunted diligently for every last Jew – are elderly today, 70 years after the Third Reich was vanquished.
Soon no one who was alive then will be around to help counter the lies of Holocaust-deniers or the deliberate trivialization and kitschy universalization of the lessons the Holocaust ought to impart to our nation of survivors.
The inexorable march of time is already leaving its stamp even on attitudes here, in Israel, including on Holocaust Remembrance Day. This morning, as we stand in silent vigil for the 6,000,000, there will be those among us tempted to ascribe it all to a one-off regime from long ago, not particularly relevant to today and now.
But, all around us, the hate still thrives and that there are no bounds to the lengths that haters will go to rationalize and justify it.
The falsehoods disseminated by the Nazis and their avid collaborators have been adapted to mutating historical agendas, but the grotesque displays of hypocrisy are no different. The Jewish state is as defamed and demonized as the so-called “Jewish race” had been in order to pave the way for industrialized genocide.
Like their predecessors, the Jewish state’s would-be annihilators posture as morally upright members of the international community and blame the victim for a monstrously magnified set of “unforgivable” sins.

March of the Living begins in Auschwitz

Thousands of young people from at least 45 countries participated in the March of the Living in Poland at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex of camps.
The 27th International March of the Living took place Thursday on Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Each country’s delegation was accompanied by a survivor to tell his or her personal story.
Yad Vashem chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, led the two-mile march from the Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau extermination camp. Lau told the participants how he survived the Holocaust, and he showed a Torah scroll that had survived and required extensive repair.
Survivor Sigmund Rolat recalled his Polish nanny, Elka, who remained with him in the Czestochowa ghetto in order to protect him.

Two tweets from Iran's Supreme Leader yesterday show that the US has lost its perch as being Great Satan to Israel's Little Satan.

If US officials act agnst Zionists' wishes,they threaten to make them resign or create scandal for them.That’s why they’re Zionists’ yes-men
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) April 15, 2015

US govt has entrusted its economic power & national status to Zionist capitalists’ network & it's them who decide for the US.11/27/14
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) April 15, 2015

Congratulations to Israel on this much deserved honor. Thanks also go to those "Zionist capitalists" for their integral role in controlling the US.

Drinks all around! (Oh, sorry...that's insensitive of me.)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust remembrance day. It’s a day to honor the Jews who fought their murderers and those who were unable to, and to note the dishonor of those who, while in no danger themselves, failed to act to protect their people.

It’s not enough to have a big emotional catharsis on Yom Hashoah, to cry about the children, mothers, fathers, poets, Torah sages and others who were murdered because of their Jewish blood.

It’s not enough for well-meaning Jewish organizations to put on plays and presentations to bring a sense of the Holocaust to safe and well-fed Jews who otherwise would have little understanding of it.

It’s not enough to present programs about lost shtetl life, Yiddish culture, Jewish food and hazzanut (I guarantee that NPR will broadcast segments full of pathos that will tear out the hearts of their listeners — before they cut to the news program in which they will misrepresent the efforts of today’s Jewish state to keep bloody history from repeating itself).

These things are perhaps necessary, but they are not sufficient. Especially for American Jews, who while refreshing their memories of what happened 75 years ago, need to ask themselves hard questions about how they are responding to what’s happening today. Here are two lessons from the Holocaust and their modern-day applications.

1. You can’t depend on other nations not to endanger themselves for your sake, or even to lift a finger. With a few exceptions (Denmark, Bulgaria) any place that fell under Nazi influence became a furnace for its Jews. Roosevelt didn’t want to be bothered, perhaps, or maybe he thought a few less Jews in the world wouldn’t be a big disaster. The British government made the conscious decision to prioritize the maintenance of colonial control over its route to India over the lives of the Jews that could have been saved had they been allowed to go to Palestine.

2. Listen to your enemies and take them seriously. The Iranian regime talks daily about destroying Israel. It is ‘non-negotiable’, according to an Iranian militia leader. Hamas agrees and so do the supposedly ‘moderate’ elements in Ramallah. Don’t kid yourself. They mean it, just as Hitler meant it.

Today there is a Jewish state, in which about half of the world’s Jews live. It may be the last recourse for European Jews when Europe becomes Eurabia. A few years ago, many would have said that I was being overly dramatic, but not today. But Israel faces growing military threats on every one of its borders, while the modern manifestation of traditional Jew-hatred, anti-Zionism, is tearing at it economically, socially, legally and diplomatically — perhaps not as concrete a threat as the Iranian bomb, but potentially as dangerous.

Do you, American Jew, care about those Israeli and European Jews? If so, you should be fighting your administration’s initiative to ally itself with the Iranian regime and to remove the obstacles to its acquiring nuclear weapons. At the same time, you should be standing up aggressively against the delegitimization and demonization of Israel in your media and universities. Otherwise, you are morally equivalent to those American Jews — including Jewish leaders — who preferred not to rock the boat while the Holocaust was burning in Europe.

Jews in the US have their vision obscured by the thick fog that inundates thinking about Israel, a fog that is pumped out as if by huge machines powered by massive amounts of money, petrodollars from Arab countries, cash from George Soros and his affiliated fund-raising organs (e.g., MoveOn.org), and even money donated to organizations like the New Israel Fund and J Street by naive Jews. The fog is one part Arab narrative, one part vicious lies about Israel’s actions and one part pure Jew-hatred.

Blow away the fog and you find that there really is no hard moral question about whether to support the ‘oppressive, racist apartheid state’ of Israel because it is none of those things. The truth is exactly the opposite: Israel faces hateful, racist, genocidal enemies.

Blow away the fog and look at your president. Look at those he surrounds himself with. Look at what he does, not what he says. You will see a man who is slandering Israel and its leaders, trying to weaken the state while empowering its enemies. America supports Israel, but the Obama Administration does not, and only the American people and its Congress can hold him back from doing even worse.

Let me close with one more point: don’t be smug in your safety, far from Hizballah’s missiles and the Iranian bomb, without a population of extremist Muslims to make your daily life hell, as is happening in Europe.

American Jews have had it very good since the end of WWII and especially since about 1960. That is unlikely to last. Antisemitic incidents are multiplying, and the university campuses are bubbling with Jew-hatred. Even your physical security is not guaranteed, with the infiltration of ISIS and Hizballah into your hemisphere.

There are signs of decay in your political institutions, your middle-class is under pressure, your family structure is cracking up, your government is becoming more authoritarian. All of these things are not good for the maintenance of a free, open, creative society that will also be tolerant of Jews.

Some day you, too may need a strong Israel to fight for your rights in the international arena. Don’t laugh — things change more rapidly than you may imagine. You may even need a refuge.

04/16 Links Pt1: Violence and terror is Fatah’s way; Iran "Deal": West's Surrender Triggering War

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah: Violence and terror is Fatah’s way

A recent post by Fatah on Facebook made it clear that fighting Israel militarily with weapons is still a central Fatah policy. A photo of Fatah members in military uniforms armed with automatic weapons, with the Palestinian flag in the background, featured the following text:
“My enemy, I swear you will not escape the people and the revolution”
[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," April 11, 2015]
The message that violence and terror is legitimate was also highlighted in a video posted on Fatah's Facebook page, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the launching of Fatah. The video commemorated five suicide bombings and a shooting attack against Israeli civilians, in which a total of 55 people were murdered. The video also honored suicide bombers and showed scenes from attacks blended with footage of Fatah terrorists firing rockets

Fatah glorifies terrorists and suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis

Iran "Deal": West's Surrender Triggering War

Not only have Western leaders given the Iranian regime the opportunity to acquire nuclear weapons; they have let Iran initiate and sanctify a nuclear arms race to destabilize an already volatile region. They have also given Iran the opportunity to get billions of dollars to accelerate its nuclear weapons programs – and they are negotiating to lift all sanctions either early or late so that Iran can get still more.
They also allowed Iran to keep four American hostages: Jason Rezaian, Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson, who has not been heard from for years and may be dead. The State Department has said that "their freedom should not be linked to negotiations," so their release was not even discussed. Their immediate release was the first matter that should have been discussed.
What Western leaders have deliberately ignored is the nature of the Iranian regime: Totalitarian regimes never abide by the agreements they sign. Islamists often refer to Muhammad's treaty of Hudaybiyyah. In 628, Muhammad agreed to a 10-year truce with the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. Two years later, when Muslim forces had gathered strength, Muhammad broke the treaty and marched into Mecca. Since then, in Islam, no treaty can be made for more than ten years, and even then, it is not a treaty, it is a truce -- to be broken again if Islam's side is strong.

At Memorial, Netanyahu Says Iran Nuke Deal Shows that Lesson of Holocaust Not Learned

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a speech delivered Wednesday evening at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum that the nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran showed that the West had not learned the lessons of the Holocaust, Ynet reported:
The Israeli prime minister used the opportunity to remind those watching of the role of democracies in stopping tyrannical regimes. “Leaders of the enlightened countries understood that it was a window of opportunity to establish a new world order based on protecting freedom, eradicating evil, and opposing tyranny. In a loud and clear voice, they pronounced the central lesson of the Second World War for democracies – we must not turn a blind eye to the expansionist intentions of tyrannical regimes. Appeasement of such regimes increases their propensity for aggression, and if this aggression is not curbed in time, humanity could endure much more difficult wars.”
“Many in the world declare that the lessons learned are also valid today. They declare ‘never again’. But as long as these words are not heeded in practice, they are meaningless,” said the prime minister. “I wish I could stand here and tell you the world truly learned from this incomprehensible tragedy. Just as the Nazis hoped to crush a civilization, so Iran strives to take over the region and from there spread onwards, with the stated intention of destroying the Jewish state.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin also appeared to refer to Iran in his speech at Yad Vashem.
“We will not belittle any threats. Nor belittle shameful statements calling for the extinction of the Jewish people. Yet, while we are prepared, we are not scared.”

Egypt's destruction of smuggling tunnels on the Gaza border is having an economic impact - on the price of guns and ammunition.

Firas Press reports that Gaza arms dealers are frustrated by Egypt's actions of destroying tunnels with either explosives or by flooding them with waste water.

Arms dealer "Abu Mohammed" said that arms smuggling operations have been suspended since mid-February and this has had an impact on the availability of weapons, missiles and ammunition which has led to higher prices in the market.

He said that the price of one bullet has gone from between 3-4 shekels up to 7- 9 shekels.

An Egyptian Kalashnikov rifle has gone from $900 up to $ 1,300, and Chinese Kalashnikovs from $1200 to $2000,and Russian versions are now going for $3000.

"The smuggling operations have ceased almost entirely; rarely does one succeed in smuggling very light weapons and ammunition here," he said.

The arms dealer added that the heavy and medium missile smuggling operations completely stopped since the last war on Gaza.

This is just more evidence of the dire economic situation in Gaza, Perhaps the UN and Oxfam can release reports about how much more difficult it is for Gaza terrorists to obtain their basic necessities, and how Israel must therefore lift its "blockade."

Wait - they are already demanding that!

I have always been skeptical of Egyptian claims that Gaza is the source of weapons, explosives and fighters in the jihadist terror in the Sinai. It never made sense that material that had to be smuggled into Gaza from Libya and the Sudan - through the Sinai - were being smuggled back. The jihadists can get weapons far more easily directly from the same sources Hamas was getting them from. The Egyptian government and army simply can't stand the Muslim Brotherhood aligned terror groups in Gaza and use the Sinai terror as their excuse to isolate the sector.

Haaretz columnists seem to be competing with each other as to who can write the most offensive pieces.

Today's entry comes from Ariel Rubinstein, where he enumerates twelve reasons why Israel should abolish Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It is a perfect example of how a brilliant person (Rubinstein is an expert on game theory and a winner of the Israel Prize on Economics) can also be very, very ignorant.

For example he starts off with "Holocaust Remembrance Day should be canceled, because the few who do have someone to remember will not forget those who died, and those who do not cannot truly remember."

In other words, national or institutional memory is meaningless. Why even teach history to begin with? Most of those things happened more than 50 years ago!

Rubiinstein seems to really hate religious Jews, and he wants to distance himself from those that were murdered by the Nazis as not being like him. He writes "anyone who genuinely wants to remember the destroyed Jewish study halls in Poland has no need to take part in the March of the Living at Auschwitz, they can see them in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim."

Jews in Europe also had libraries and shops and doctor's offices. But anyone can find those things today as well! Why bother to remember them? In fact, they had lives, too - which can presumably also be replicated.

"Holocaust Remembrance Day should be canceled, because a large proportion of the victims of the Holocaust were ultra-Orthodox Jews, and their followers in Israel and abroad do not accept the day as a fitting date to mark the destruction. It would be better to adopt the tradition and to append the lamentation for the Holocaust to the Tenth of Tevet or the Tisha B’Av fast days, on which in accordance with Jewish tradition all of the bitter tragedies of our people are mourned."

But all the other events that Tisha B'Av and 17 Tammuz and 0 Tevet and Tzom Gedalyah happened before anyone today was born! Why remember them when no one alive remembers them?

His most offensive reason, though, is this one:

Holocaust Remembrance Day should be canceled, because it is an unnecessary opportunity for an unapologetic peek at the pornography of death. Anyone who feels compelled to look at pictures of executions or a final glimpse of victims before they die are invited to watch the colorful videos of Islamic State.

What an obscene statement. ISIS wants people to view their videos for a specific reason: to cause fear and to gain recruits from sick people, today. Holocaust films are not meant to be titillating, If Rubinstein reacts to Holocaust films the same way he reacts to ISIS videos, then we have revealed exactly how sick he is.

It is no surprise that his last reason makes a comparison between Jews and Nazis, by saying "The danger of turning into beasts also looms over members of the chosen people."

What a disgusting man.

I wonder how game theory deals with players who are so filled with hate and spite that they cannot be considered rational.

Iran's parliament released its own "factsheet" incorporating the demands added by Ayatollah Khamenei in response to the Lausanne nuclear "framework" statement.

The full April 9 Khamenei speech slamming the US as a 'cheater and a liar' has been translated by MEMRI. Here are excerpts:

All the problems [will begin] when the details are discussed, because the opposite side is stubborn, breaks promises, behaves badly, and backstabs. It [i.e. the U.S.] could put our country, our nation, and our negotiating team under siege while the details are under deliberation.

As I have said, no agreement is better than a bad agreement, because there is honor in rejecting an agreement that seeks to trample Iran's national interests and destroy the honor of the nation – as opposed to [accepting] an agreement that humiliates the nation

The reason [for my concerns] is that the other side is a cheater and a liar; it breaks promises and contrary to the straight path. An example of such conduct by the opposite side [the U.S.] came during the recent talks [in Lausanne], when two hours after the talks ended, the White House published a declaration several pages long [i.e. the Fact Sheet] about the negotiations, most of which contradicted reality. Such a declaration cannot be written in two hours – this means that they had engaged in composing this slanderous, erroneous statement that contradicted the content of the negotiations at the very same time as they were negotiating with us.

Negotiations with the Americans revolve solely around the nuclear issue and none other. These talks are a test. If the opposite side [the U.S.] ceases its aberrant behavior, we can continue this experiment with other issues [as well] – but if the other side continues its aberrant behavior, this will reaffirm our past experience regarding distrust of America.

In my personal meetings on the nuclear issue with the [presidential and negotiations] officials, I insist that they perceive our current nuclear achievements as extremely important, and that they do not downplay them. The nuclear industry is vital to the state. Some intellectuals, who ask, 'Why do we need the nuclear industry?' are being deceitful. The state requires an advanced nuclear industry for energy, for producing radiological medicine, for desalinating seawater, and for agriculture. The most important aspect of the state's nuclear industry – that is, achieving this important industry – is the result of the talents of our young Iranians, and this is why we must continue [our] progress in the nuclear industry.

Criminal countries like America, who have already used a nuclear bomb, or France, which conducted dangerous nuclear testing, are accusing us of attempting to manufacture a nuclear bomb, while based on a religious fatwa and a basis of logic, the Islamic regime in Iran has never and will never aspire to a nuclear bomb, and considers it a headache.

Another request I made to the [presidential and negotiations] officials is to not trust the opposite side. Recently, one official explicitly said that we do not trust the opposite side. This is a good position. We cannot swallow the smiling deception of the opposite side, and we must not believe its promises. A good example of this is the position and speech given by the American president following the recent statement [to the media in Lausanne]."

Another of my demands to the [presidential and negotiations] officials is that a complete lifting of the sanctions must be carried out immediately and all at once on the same day the agreement [is reached]. This is very important. If the sanctions are meant to be lifted in a new process, then the basis of the negotiations will be meaningless, because the aim of the negotiations is to get the sanctions removed.

Another request I made to the [presidential and negotiations] officials concerns the oversight [of nuclear facilities]. We absolutely must not allow the pretext of oversight to enable them to penetrate our security and defensive zone. Even the state's military officials do not have the authority to permit foreigners access to this zone, or to halt our defensive advancement under the guise of oversight.

We must establish our defensive capabilities and the nation's iron fist on the military front, and these are indeed growing stronger every day. Furthermore, we must not allow the talks to damage support for our fighting brethren in various places in the region [i.e. resistance organizations such as Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis in Yemen, and more].

No form of special oversight which would make Iran a unique country with regard to oversight is acceptable. Oversight should be identical to the routine oversight that exists elsewhere and nothing more. Regarding the necessity of continuing the technical development of the nuclear program – scientific and technical advancement in various forms [i.e. research and development] should continue. The negotiating team might see the need to accept certain restrictions; I have no problem with this, but technical advancement should undoubtedly proceed at full force.

Here is the new "factsheet" released by the Iranian parliament's Nuclear Committee on Wednesday for revisions to the Lausanne statement based on Khamenei's demands:

Enrichment Program:

The period for the Join Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) should be limited to five years, in which about 10,000 active centrifuges operating at Natanz and Fordo now will continue nuclear fuel production by enriching uranium below the 5% grade.

The UF6 enriched reserves which are under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should be kept at Fordo nuclear plant and will be turned into nuclear fuel complex based on the existing capabilities.

During the five-year period, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to keep the excess centrifuges installed at Natanz and Fordo or will gradually dismantle them, and at the end of the 5-year period, it will replace all the existing centrifuges, including the active or inactive ones, with the new generation of (IR-N) centrifuge machines with the help of the new spaces and infrastructures which will have been already prepared and will use them without any limitation.

Justification:

Based on the Geneva agreement, the period for the final step should merely include a single period which has been considered as to be five years in the present factsheet. But in the Lausanne statement, different periods of 10, 20, 25 years and higher have been considered.

Given the Geneva agreement, the amount of enrichment should be specified based on the country's practical needs and the number of 10,000 centrifuges has also been specified on this basis.

The 5-year period in this factsheet has been has been specified with respect to the date when Iran's nuclear fuel contract with Russia for the Bushehr nuclear power plant will end; hence, the rules and limitations for the components of the enrichment cycle should be set in such a way that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be able to supply the fuel needed for the power plant after the end of the contract with Russia.

Operation of 10,000 centrifuges and developing and having a 10-ton enriched uranium stockpile will enable the Islamic Republic of Iran to supply the fuel needed for the Bushehr power plant in the year when the fuel supply contract with Russia (28-30 tons) ends.

Fordo installations:

Fordo nuclear facility will remain an enrichment and nuclear Research and Development (R&D) center. 4 enrichment cascades with 656 centrifuges will continue operation and production of fuel for purity levels lower than 5% by maintaining the current chain arrangements.

If the country would need 20%-degree (enriched) uranium, the nuclear fuel production line for purity levels lower than 5% will be altered to enrich uranium to the 20%-grade after connecting the centrifuge cascades to each other again.

Justification:

Based on the above, Fordo will remain an actual and active center, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain its capability to reverse its decision and restore the 20%-grade enrichment.

Research and Development (R&D):

In a bid to use R&D findings in the country's industrial-scale enrichment chain, R&D should be planned in a way that the necessary possibilities and infrastructures will be provided for replacing the first generation of centrifuges with the latest generation of centrifuge machines (IR-N) when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action comes to an end after 5 years.

The R&D program should undergo no limitation before it comes into use for industrial-scale operation.

Justification:

Accordingly, the advanced centrifuges will enter the chain of nuclear fuel production without any restriction at the end of the 5-year deal.

Arak Heavy Water Reactor:

Given the Group 5+1 countries' mere concern about the plutonium existing in the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of the Arak 40-MW heavy water reactor, the fuel used by the reactor will be sent abroad.

The G5+1 states will be committed to cooperate and take the necessary measures for relevant international licensing and permissions.

Justification:

Given the SNF export abroad, the insistence of the G5+1, specially the US, on redesigning the said reactor is merely a pretext and doesn’t have any scientific rationale.

What is more important than the heavy water nature of Arak reactor is the core of the reactor which is due to be taken out and then be redesigned and renovated. Such a move is irreversible in nature, and thus means crossing the specified redlines.

Supervision and Inspection:

Supervision and inspections of the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear program should be carried out within the framework of the the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards agreements.

Justification:

Once done, the principle stated by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution - that security and military sanctities and boundaries shouldn’t be violated and that the inspections should be carried out at conventional levels similar to all other countries - will be respected and materialized. Given the Islamic Republic of Iran's opposition to the world arrogance, endorsing and implementing the Additional Protocol will provide the world arrogance (a term normally used for the US and its western allies) with legal grounds to stage their preplanned plots against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sanctions:

Concurrently with the start of the JCPOA, all the US and EU sanctions will be terminated and Iran will start fulfilling its undertakings based on the verification of the IAEA.

The UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran will be annulled and all nuclear-related sanctions will be terminated and the Islamic Republic of Iran's case will be normalized.

The G5+1 countries, the EU and the UNSC will avoid imposition of new nuclear-related sanctions against Iran.

Justification:

By terminating all sanctions in a single step right at the start of the implementation of the final comprehensive agreement, the Supreme Leader's statement that termination of sanctions is part of the agreement and not its result will be materialized.

Based on the Geneva agreement, after the implementation of the JCPOA, all UNSC, US and EU sanctions should be terminated and no new (UNSC) resolution would be needed in this regard; Hence, terminating the UNSC sanctions will close the case and no new resolution which would pave the ground for new plots will be issued.

International cooperation:

The Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear cooperation with the world states, including the G5+1 members, in areas of building nuclear power plants, research reactors, nuclear fuel production, nuclear safety medicine and nuclear agriculture, etc. will be possible and will improve. Based on the JCPOA, Iran will be provided with access to the global market, trade and finance and technical know-how and energy.

Reversibility:

In case of the two sides' non-commitment to their undertakings, there will be a possibility for reversing all measures.

Justification:

Based on the aforementioned proposal, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be provided with reversible measures at the lowest level of damage and, therefore, the G5+1's commitment to its undertakings will be in fair balance (with those of Iran).

Duration of the JCPOA:

After the end of the five-year period and the JCPOA exercise, all restrictions will be lifted and based on the Geneva agreement, the case with the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear program will be similar to that of the other NPT member states.