Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

08/18 Links Pt1: Fatah asks Iran to fund war against Israel; Iran: We Approve Nuke Inspectors

From Ian:

All Nuke Inspectors Require Approval From Iran’s Intelligence Agency

A senior Iranian official declared on Monday that international nuclear inspectors would only be permitted into the country once they receive approval from the Islamic Republic’s Intelligence Ministry, putting another roadblock between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran’s contested nuclear sites.
Sayyed Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and one of the top negotiators in talks that led to the recently inked nuclear deal, told the country’s state-controlled press that Iran’s intelligence apparatus must approve of any inspector who is issued a visa to enter Iran.
This requirement could complicate efforts to prove to the world that Iran is being fully transparent and that nuclear inspectors inside the country are neutral.
Iran has already stated that no American inspector would be permitted into the country under the deal. The accord also grants Iran a 24-day notice period before inspectors enter any site suspected of being used for nuclear weapons work.
“Any individual, out of IAEA’s Inspection group, who is not approved by the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot enter the country as the agency’s inspector,” Araqchi was quoted as telling the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA), a government news outlet, according to a translation performed by the CIA’s Open Source Center (OSC).
This type of screening is fully permitted under the nuclear accord, Araqchi said.

Iran Threatened ‘Harm’ to Top Nuke Inspector to Prevent Disclosure of Secret Deal

Iranian leaders prevented a top International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official from disclosing to U.S. officials the nature of secret side deals with the Islamic Republic by threatening harm to him, according to regional reports.
Yukiya Amano, IAEA director general, purportedly remained silent about the nature of certain side deals during briefings with top U.S. officials because he feared such disclosures would lead to retaliation by Iran, according to the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI).
Amano was in Washington recently to brief members of Congress and others about the recently inked nuclear accord. However, he did not discuss the nature of side deals with Iran that the United States is not permitted to know about.
Iran apparently threatened Amano in a letter meant to ensure he did not reveal specific information about the nature of nuclear inspections going forward, according to Iranian AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.
This disclosure has only boosted suspicions among some that the Iranians are willing and able to intimidate the top nuclear watchdog and potentially undermine the verification regime that Obama administration officials have dubbed a key component of the nuclear accord.

PMW: Fatah`s military wing asks Iran for money for terror war against Israel

Iranian TV (Al-Alam) interviewed fighters from the Gaza branch of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, while standing inside an attack tunnel claimed to be 3.5 km long, and opening inside Israel. The purpose of the tunnel is to facilitate larger scale terror attacks from Gaza into Israel.
The announcement that Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, internationally recognized as a terror organization, is asking for money from Iran comes at the same time that the PA has announced that Mahmoud Abbas will be vising Iran. As Palestinian Media Watch reported yesterday, senior PLO official Abbas Zaki, said that strengthening ties with Iran is "an inevitable step if we [the Palestinians] want to confront the Israeli occupation."
The following is the transcript of the interview from Fatah's attack- tunnel in the Gaza Strip, that was broadcast on Iranian Al-Alam TV:
Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fighter: "There will now be a qualitative change in the unit named after Martyrdom-seeker Nabil Mas'oud in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, by using attack tunnels against the Zionist entity. We will now go through one of those tunnels to see what the [Al-Aqsa] Martyrs' Brigades is preparing for this occupation (i.e., Israel)..."
Iranian Al-Alam TV narrator: "Here is the first tunnel... When we met the Ribat [Islamic] fighters in this tunnel, they said that the weapons in their hands and their preparations for confrontation with the Israeli enemy are what give them reason to live."
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fighter: "This tunnel is approximately 3.5 km long and crosses the border between the Gaza Strip and the Zionist enemy. There are tunnels inside [Gaza] through which Jihad fighters pass during war... We spend all our time trying to get money to fulfill our duty concerning our occupied lands and liberate them from the Zionist entity. This is why we are asking [for money]... especially [from] Iran, which is a known long-time supporter of the resistance and the Palestinian cause..."
Iranian Al-Alam TV reporter: "The book of resistance is still open... and its last line will not be written until Palestine is liberated."
[Al-Alam TV (Iran) news report, posted on Wattan TV (independent Palestinian channel), June 29, 2015]

Shocking New Iranian Video Imagines Islamic Takeover of Jerusalem, Destruction of Israel (VIDEO)

A newly revealed video produced under the auspices of the Iranian regime in early August threatens and visualizes the destruction of Israel at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian Middle East proxies, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported on Monday.
The animated video, produced by the Islamic Revolution Design House, depicts soldiers preparing for battle. One dons the IRGC insignia on his left arm, another the emblem of the Iran-backed Iraqi Shia Badr Organization. Yet a third dons a headband bearing the Lebanese Hezbollah logo, and a fourth is seen clad in Hamas’ characteristic balaclava and the Qassam Brigades green headband.
Each brandishes a weapon, a helmet and a keffiyeh. They are shown poised on a hill overlooking the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, prepared for battle.
The video then pans out showing an ever-growing number of soldiers, presumably all members of Iran’s loyal proxies, like the fighters portrayed at the beginning of the footage.
The clip then transitions to a black screen with Persian script that says “Israel must be obliterated,” or literally, “erased from the annals of history,” a command first issued by Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomeini and famously repeated by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as leaders of Iran’s proxies such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Gisha NGO takes graph that makes Israel look good off their homepage

Gisha is an NGO I've mentioned before that pretends to be supporting freedom of movement for people in Gaza, but which nearly always lets Hamas off the hook for blocking that same freedom of movement that they say Israel is stopping.

Yesterday, I happened to use a Gisha graph to illustrate the difference between how Israel has been improving freedom of movement to and from Gaza compared to Egypt.

Versions of this graph had been featured on Gisha's homepage for over two years.

Here's what their page looked like on Sunday:

The day that I used their own graph to show how Israel is helping Palestinian freedom of movement - something Gisha is loathe to admit - they changed their homepage to eliminate that chart:

As soon as I used their own chart to prove something contradicting their entire purpose - which is to demonize Israel - they removed it from their main page.

I'm sure it is just a coincidence.

As my readers know, I have spent a lot of time over the past month showing how Amnesty International is flatly lying about hundreds of people killed in last summer's Gaza war by claiming that they are civilian when they were not.

And I showed that Amnesty has refused to correct their claims even when I showed them in no uncertain terms.

Now, Amnesty's site says:

Before any statement, publication or report is issued, its text is closely reviewed to ensure it is factually accurate, politically impartial and consistent with Amnesty International's mission. When Amnesty International deals with allegations rather than undisputed facts, it makes this clear in its findings and may call for an investigation. If Amnesty International makes a mistake, it issues a correction.

Every single phrase here has been proven a lie, and you can follow the links to see the proof. It is indisputable. Amnesty's literature and its Gaza Platform tool is filled with lies and bias, they know it, and they have chosen to let the lies stand rather than correct them and apologize.

I think I have shown that Amnesty is aware of my research. Dozens of tweets and hundreds of retweets to different Amnesty accounts have not all been missed. They have been read, as all tweets to Amnesty are read.

And Amnesty chooses to sweep its lies under the rug.

This is an organization that claims it is dedicated to truth and accuracy. This is an organization that claims that it is dedicated to impartiality.

But not a single Amnesty employee has denounced these outrages that go against everything Amnesty claims to stand for.

Not one Amnesty employee has had the moral courage to stand up and say, "This is not what my organization is about. If we screwed up, we should own up to it. If our employees are found to be biased, they should be removed as soon as possible. If we know that we lied, it is our responsibility to correct ourselves and to apologize to our donors and those who rely on us for accuracy and fairness."

Not one "courageous" Amnesty researcher is willing to "speak truth to power" and denounce the clear hypocrisy of Amnesty.

One would hope that the leaders of such an organization would he horrified by what I have shown. But the impression that one gets is that they look upon me not as a whistle-blower who is pointing out where they have covered up lies, but as an irritant who must be ignored - and they hope to God that no major media outlet will pick up on my research. They don't want to improve their organization as one would hope any competent leader would; they only want to protect it from people like me.

Ironically, when the truth comes out - and it inevitably will - Amnesty will lose everything. But its leaders act like despots trying to protect their power base rather than as humanitarians dedicated to improving the world.

Clearly, Amnesty's leaders are part of the problem.

What does it say about a human rights organization when not one of its employees is willing to stand up for their own principles? What does it say when its leaders would rather cover up evidence of Amnesty's bias rather than root it out?

It shows that Amnesty has no principles at all.

Perhaps Amnesty does good work in other parts of the world. But by condoning and even highlighting the lies that I've shown, Amnesty has destroyed its credibility on every subject..

Their leaders' selfishness now will end up hurting them far worse later.

Israeli site 0404 reports that last night, Arab terrorists attacked Jerusalem bus line 270 with a Molotov cocktail, rocks - and glass bottles filled with paint.

The firebomb did not explode, but the paint bottles did.

There has been an increase in such attacks lately, meant to hit windshields of cars and buses in order to force drivers to lose control and crash.

Paint ball guns cannot be far behind.

There were also four additional firebomb attacks and nine rock-throwing attacks overnight, according to the article.

The same site reports that a rocket was shot from Gaza last night as well, but it fell short in Gaza. Gaza's IS claimed responsibility.

The Gaza NGO Safety Office reports that it was really 4 rockets shot that all fell short.

These are some of the stories that simply do not make it into the news until people get killed.

08/17 Links Pt2: IDF plans for possible Syria operation; Why is there LGBT silence on Iran?

From Ian:

IDF plans for possible Syria operation as jihadist, Hezbollah threats mount

The Israeli military is preparing for a possible ground operation on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights in the event of sustained rocket strikes or coordinated terror attacks against Israel either by Sunni jihadists or Hezbollah operatives.
The number of Islamists flooding into the area close to the border with Israel has the IDF on high alert, Channel 2 reported Sunday, adding that the military held a large-scale drill last week simulating a possible advance into Syria and the evacuation of Israeli civilians from border communities.
According to a Channel 10 report Sunday, the drill included preparation for a scenario in which Islamist forces launch a sophisticated, multi-pronged attack on Israeli troops, similar to attacks against Egyptian security forces in Sinai in recent months.
The IDF is also planning for a possible Hezbollah offensive directed by Iran, with an IDF source saying that hundreds of Hezbollah members are present in the Golan, and that Tehran has been behind several recent attacks against Israel. Israeli officials have routinely raised concerns over the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters using positions in the Syrian Golan, partially held by rebel forces, to attack Israel.
“It’s clear that Iran is behind all of the terror attacks here [in the Golan] in the past two years,” the IDF officer said Sunday during a briefing with reporters. “The Iranians are using the border – they establish units – whether it’s [Jihad] Mughniyeh, [Samir] Kuntar, and more – to carry out [the attacks].”

Iran׳s Al Quds Force builds forward command near Israeli border, but war isn't on the horizon

On Sunday the IDF gave Israeli military reporters a tour in the area of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights and later there was a briefing with senior commanders in the Northern Command. As is usually the case with such briefings, facts and assessments were presented. They were rather routine. There certainly was not anything dramatic in the IDF's comments that suggested a change, an increased state of preparedness or higher level of alert.
But to drive 200 km. from Tel Aviv in each direction and to go a whole day without filing news? No way. So after the tour and the briefings, journalists were filmed in a fighting stance with the northern Golan Heights border fence in the background, delivering reports on an IDF plan for a ground attack in Syria.
Indeed, this possibility was also brought up, but it was a marginal piece in a presentation of a number of hypothetical scenarios.
Imagine the response from media, politicians or the public if the chief of staff or another senior army official would say that the IDF has no plan and is not prepared for the worst case scenario. Of course the IDF prepares for every possibility, even the most difficult. This is the role of the commanders: to prepare the IDF for every situation, scenario or eventuality.
However, the few sentences uttered by the officers giving the briefing about the possibility of the IDF taking control of territory in Syria, and even conquering a village or two on the border, were on the margins of what was said. These sentences were intended to explain that this is only one scenario that was practiced in a wide-ranging exercise that was carried out recently by the IDF's 210th Regional Bashan Division to prepare for a situation in which one of the terror groups, like the Nusra Front or Islamic State would try to break through the Golan border to attack IDF soldiers in the way that the Sinai Province of the Islamic State (formerly known as Ansar Bayit al-Maqdes) are doing against the Egyptian army.

Video: IDF Kills Iran-Sponsored Golan Terrorists

The IDF published video Sunday of an incident from last month in which it eliminated terrorists who infiltrated the northern Israeli Golan Heights from Syria. The terrorists, who set off on their mission from the village of Hadr in Syria, intended to plant powerful bombs and set them off against the IDF.
A senior military source in the Northern Command said that Iran was involved in all the recent terror attacks in the Golan. “The Iranians are behind all of the attacks and attempted attacks,” he said. “In the internecine fighting between them, [the battling forces in Syria] are also using chemical weapons, and we take this into account.”
“When one gazes deep into Syria from the peak of the Hermon,” the officer added, “one does not see a Syrian state anymore. Assad's grip on the ground is gradually weakening, and yet, there are still many forces loyal to the regime, including 180,000 in the regular army, and another 60,000 defending communities, 15,000 militiamen and about 5,000 Hezbollah men.”
"All these have turned Syria into a terror arena and the IDF treats it as such. The IDF understands that any small terror attack can cause the relatively quiet situation to deteriorate into war, and that is why scenarios are constantly being drilled.”

Egypt opens Rafah for a few days. Erez gets no headlines.

AP reports:

Egypt has opened its border with the Gaza Strip for the first time in two months.

The Rafah border crossing opened Monday for four days, allowing Palestinians to travel in both directions. Crossing director Khaled al-Shaer says some 20,000 people have applied to exit. Gazans seeking medical care and students are among those expected to cross.

Rafah is Gaza's only gateway to the outside world with no Israeli control. Egypt has kept it mostly closed since the militant Hamas group seized control of the coastal strip in 2007. The closure worsened after Egypt's military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member, in 2013. Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood.

The crossing has been opened for a total of just 15 days this year.

Here is a graph, from the Gisha NGO, showing how many people have been able to cross Rafah in recent months:

For comparison, here is Gisha's chart of only exits through the Erez crossing to Israel - the real number of crossings would be roughly double:

Notice the largest category of people allowed to exit - merchants. A class of people who are simply not allowed through the Rafah border to Egypt.

Who is treating Gaza like a prison - Israelis who are allowing thousands of people to leave every week, or Egypt which goes months without allowing a single person to cross?

In related news, Israel's generosity in allowing materials into Gaza doesn't go unpunished. As TOI reports:

Israeli authorities intercepted a shipment of fiberglass incoming from Egypt earlier this month they say was intended for use by terror groups in the Gaza Strip to build rockets, officials said Monday.

Tax workers at the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel became suspicious of the shipment, which was ordered by a Gaza-based importer and labeled as containing clothes and materials.

After opening the shipment for a closer look, tax officials discovered the rolls of fiberglass hidden inside.

“Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are taking advantage of every means possible in their attempts to rebuild,” the Shin Bet said in the statement. “Even smuggling basic materials for the terror industry by hiding them in humanitarian equipment.”

The tax authority said that last week it also stopped a shipment of fiberglass at the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza that was labeled as containing school equipment.

Wikipedia says in its entry on Al Azhar University in Egypt that "Jewish philosopher Maimonides delivered lectures on medicine and astronomy there during the time of Saladin."

The source given is volume 13 of the Muqarnas journal. It is not available online for free, but it can be found is in this article by Nasser Rabbat.

I cannot find any Jewish sources for this assertion. I did find it mentioned in passing in this Arabic article. (People also claim that Maimonides lectured at the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco.)

Does anyone know the source for this? It doesn't seem to be too far-fetched but it could easily be a Muslim legend.

08/17 Links Pt1: Boycott of US Jew Matisyahu proves BDS is anti-Semitic; The J Street paradox

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: The New Racists: Jew Hate

If you had thought that the only qualification needed is to excel at your chosen art form and then see if you can gather audiences, you were wrong. That is not enough anymore -- certainly not if you are Jewish.
The treatment of the reggae star Matisyahu is something new. For Matisyahu is not an Israeli -- he is an American. For a while, only Israeli Jews were made pariahs among the nations because of an unresolved border dispute involving their country. Now it is Jews born anywhere else in the world who can be targeted in the same way. They are singling out Jews -- Jews and only Jews.
Habima performers were insulted and vilified while on stage at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, trying to perform "The Merchant of Venice." None of the protesters seemed to see the irony of vilifying Jews on stage during that of all plays.
Spain has its own border issues. Perhaps Spanish performers should henceforth be quizzed about their political attitudes before they are allowed to perform abroad? Maybe the rest of the world should demand that all artists from Spain sign a statement or make a video supporting Catalan independence if they are to be allowed to perform in public?
Only one country and one geopolitical question is addressed in this way. Turkish artists are nowhere in the world asked to condemn their country's illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus -- an occupation, lasting more than four decades, of half an EU member state.
Their singling out of Jews, wherever they are from, makes their racist motivation abundantly clear. If the Rototom Sunsplash festival wants to take part in this racist BDS fever then it is them -- and not Jews -- whom the world must make into pariahs.

Foreign Ministry: Spanish festival's boycott of US Jew Matisyahu proves BDS is anti-Semitic

If you plan on going to the Sunsplash Rototom Reggae Festival in Spain this week, you better not speak the language of the Hebrewman. If you do, they might kick you out.
The festival’s cancellation of a scheduled August 22 appearance by Jewish-American reggae artist Matisyahu – under pressure from Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists – unmasks the anti-Semitic nature of that movement, a Foreign Ministry representative said Sunday.
“We always said that BDS was not connected to the Palestinian issue or the settlements but was nothing more than Jew hatred,” spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.
“And this demonstrates that.”
Matisyahu, Nahshon stressed, is not Israeli.

WJC President Condemns Cancellation of Matisyahu Concert

World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder on Sunday expressed “outrage” and “utter bewilderment” at news that a music festival in Spain had disinvited American Jewish musician Matisyahu for failing to sign a pro-Palestinian declaration.
“This is a clear instance of anti-Semitism, and nothing else,” Lauder said in a statement, urging Spanish authorities “to condemn this sad incident and to take appropriate action those responsible for it.”
“Matisyahu is an American Jew. More importantly, like everybody else in a free and democratic society, he not only has a right to express his views – whether you agree with them or not — but he also has every right not to have the repugnant views of the festival organizers imposed on him. He is a musician who has been denied the opportunity to play his planned gig at a European reggae festival purely because he is Jewish and because he refuses to side with the vicious and bigoted BDS movement,” Lauder said.
“And to the people of Spain, I say this: Being a ‘Zionist’ and supporting Israel has nothing to do with supporting apartheid. Rather, it is about supporting democracy, the rule of law, freedom, openness and diversity,” he continued.
“The Rototom Sunsplash festival benefits from financial support from public authorities. I very much hope that they will convey a clear message to the organizers that either they re-invite Matisyahu and apologize for their outrageous behavior, or they pay back that financial aid, because anti-Semitism and racism must not be rewarded by public support – not in Spain, and not anywhere else,” added Lauder.

Another small victory

I have previously mentioned Ghassan Daghlas, the person paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lies about Jewish settlers.

I counted over 200 times that Daghlas was quoted by the Ma'an news agency alone, without the slightest effort to verify his absurd, and often debunked, claims.

I often commented on Ma'an about how his claims are never accompanied with any actual evidence, no photos or videos corroborating them.

Today, Ma'an wrote about another absurd claim from Daghlas - but with a difference:

NABLUS (Ma’an) -- An Israeli settler on Sunday reportedly ran over a Palestinian teen in Yatma village in southern Nablus, a local monitor of settlement activity told Ma'an.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, said that an Israeli settler ran over Muhammad Mustafa Najjar, 19, and then fled the scene.
Daghlas added that the teen, who was moderately injured, was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

For the first time that I've ever seen in Ma'an, a claim by Ghassan Daghlas is not accepted as absolute fact, but is now "alleged."

And as usual, the facts don't support the allegations. As David Ha'Ivri wrote in the comments:

The report is a bit strange. The main road has not been through Yitma in years. Would be odd to see Jewish drivers driving on the roads in Yitma.

Clearly an Arab ran over the teen and an opportunity was seized to blame the eternal bogeymen, the "settlers."

We'll see if this is just an anomaly or if Ma'an is actually ever so slightly raising its journalistic standards.

From Times of London (paywalled):

A senior employee of Amnesty International has undeclared private links to men alleged to be key players in a secretive network of global Islamists, The Times can reveal.

The charity was unaware that the husband of its director of faith and human rights featured in documents released after a criminal trial at which connections were revealed between British supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab Islamists accused of plotting to overthrow a Gulf state.

Yasmin Hussein was also linked to a Yorkshire-based aid agency that was banned by Israel for its alleged funding of Hamas terrorism; and criticised by colleagues for holding a private meeting with a Muslim Brotherhood government official during an Amnesty mission to Egypt, and staying overnight at his family’s home.

Ms Hussein, 51, was until recently the charity’s head of international advocacy and among its leading voices at the UN, where the organisation seeks to operate a strict policy of not siding with any government or political party.

Amnesty staff are asked to declare any links that may generate a real or perceived conflict of interest with its independence and impartiality.

The Brotherhood is banned as a terrorist organisation in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but not in Britain. An inquiry into its role and influence in this country was ordered by David Cameron last year. The findings have yet to be published.

Ms Hussein, who is understood to receive a salary of more than £90,000, told The Times that she had “never had any association whatsoever with . . . the Muslim Brotherhood”.

Her husband, Wael Musabbeh, was one of several alleged British Islamists, none of them defendants, named in documents released after a 2013 trial in the UAE that led to the jailing of more than 60 Emirati citizens who were tried for conspiracy and sedition.

Mr Musabbeh, 54, and a Bradford community trust of which both he and Ms Hussein were directors, were said by the authorities to be part of a complex financial and ideological network in which the UK and Ireland served as important hubs, linking the Brotherhood to its group in UAE.

Amnesty, which challenged the fairness of the trial, said it knew in 2013 of documents alleging links between the defendants and British individuals and organisations, including Mr Musabbeh and the Bradford trust, but did not realise there was any connection to Ms Hussein, to whom he has been married for 20 years, because it did not know until recently that he was her husband.

Mr Musabbeh said he had no connection to the Brotherhood, was not an Islamist and was unaware of having played any role in the UAE case.

In a separate incident in 2012, Amnesty staff alerted senior management after Ms Hussein held a private meeting in Egypt with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood government, shared an evening meal with his family and stayed overnight in their home.

Ms Hussein said she was not aware that any concerns were raised about her unofficial meeting with Adly al-Qazzaz, a ministerial education adviser who was blamed by a teachers’ union for instigating the “Brotherhoodisation” of Egypt’s education system.

The charity said it “examined and robustly interrogated concerns raised by colleagues”. Ms Hussein was subsequently told that her overnight stay with the al-Qazzaz family was inappropriate. She accepted that and promised that it would not happen again.

A long-serving employee said the charity had strict rules on overseas trips, adding: “For an Amnesty delegate to accept an invitation to stay at the residence of a government official is a serious breach of protocol.”

Mr al-Qazzaz’s son, Khaled al-Qazzaz, was the Brotherhood’s presidential secretary for foreign affairs. His daughter, Mona al-Qazzaz, was the official spokeswoman for the movement in the UK. Father and son were arrested in a crackdown that followed the toppling of the Islamist government in July 2013.

Ms Hussein said she had no knowledge of the senior Brotherhood positions held by members of the al-Qazzaz family. She was “a committed human rights activist”, was not an Islamist and was “vehemently opposed” to the raising of funds “by any organisation that supports terrorism”.

She said that her meeting with Mr al-Qazzaz had been a private one. She was studying for a doctorate and wanted to speak with a government education official “to encourage the synergies between human rights and educational planning”. Difficulties in booking a hotel led her to accept the room.

Amnesty said that, with the exception of the overnight stay, it “found no evidence to suggest any inappropriate links between Ms Hussein and the al-Qazzaz family”.

The charity said that Ms Hussein denied being a supporter of the Brotherhood and has told Amnesty that “any connections are purely circumstantial”. It said it did not believe that any of her alleged connections with Islamists represented a conflict of interest.

It added: “Amnesty International does, however, take very seriously any allegations that would call into question our impartiality and is therefore investigating the issues raised.”

That last part is hilarious. Amnesty's employees in the Middle East are hired because of their bias against Israel, not in spite of it.

For example, I reported that Amnesty campaigner Saleh Hijazi's Facebook profile picture was a photo of Leila Khaled, a PFLP terrorist and airline hijacker, while in 2012, his profile picture was a photo of Khader Adnan, a leader of the Islamic Jihad terror organization. In addition, NGO Monitor reports, while studying at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Hijazi wrote his thesis on "Yasser Arafat: A Palestinian Prophet in the Formation of Palestinian National Identity." Amnesty doesn't seem too concerned.

Deborah Hyams, another Amnesty researcher responsible for reports on Israel, has had her bias against Israel documented:

In 2001, Hyams volunteered as a “human shield” in Beit Jala (near Bethlehem), to deter Israeli military responses to recurrent gunfire and mortars targeting Jewish civilians in Jerusalem.

Hyams employs demonizing language regarding Israel: In 2008, she was signatory to a letterclaiming Israel is “a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land.” Hyams also statedin 2002 that “[some] of Israel’s actions, all the way back to 1948, could be called ‘ethnic cleansing’.”

In a 2002 Washington Jewish Week article, "Hyams said that while she does not condone suicide bombings, she personally believes they 'are in response to the occupation.'" In another instance she defended violence stating "occupation is violence...and the consequence of this action must result in violence [against Israelis]."

Hyams has worked for some of the most radical political advocacy NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Alternative Information Center (AIC),Jews for Justice in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), Rachel Corrie Foundation, and Ma’an Network. Any of these affiliations should have been a red flag for Amnesty.

The idea that Amnesty takes the appearance of bias seriously, at least in the Middle East region, is a joke.

And which is worse - having a spouse with links that indicate bias, or direct evidence of bias from the employees' own statements?

(h/t Margie)

Bigot Chris Gunness assumes that Palestinians will start intifada if UNRWA schools are shut down

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's spokesperson, tweeted these on Friday:

The article he is referring to is here.

Gunness, trying to cajole the world into giving more and more funds to his agency, is using the threat that if the UNRWA schools don't start on time, then we can expect violence from the students - just as, he quotes an "expert," the deadly riots of 1936-9 and the First Intifada started with school (and other) strikes.

Think about that. The biggest supposed booster for Palestinian "refugee" rights believes that it is natural for Palestinian students to react to being idle with violence.

In 2007, tens of thousands of Israeli high school students were out of the classroom for two months during a prolonged teachers' strike.. Yet for some reason there were no riots, no increased violent crime statistics, no wild attacks on Arabs by the suddenly idle Israeli youth.

Yet Chris Gunness expects his UNRWA students - students that he brags learn concepts of human rights, respect and dignity - to turn violent if their school year is delayed. In fact, he expects it so much that he is threatening the world with the specter of Palestinian violence if they don't pay up!

Isn't that about as bigoted as can be? Isn't there something wrong when the people who supposedly are defending the Palestinians assuming that they are naturally violent people - more violent than any other society faced with delays of the school year?

I pointed it out to him, even though he blocks me on Twitter:

So @ChrisGunness' opinion of Palestinians is that they cannot stop themselves from being violent if they are idle. Sounds vaguely bigoted.
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) August 16, 2015

He apparently got the message. Gunness then removed.his tweet (cached here.)

Without apology, of course.

Gunness has been exposed as a person who believes, and banks on, the idea that Palestinians.are naturally immoral people.

He's not alone. This is the bigoted conceit of many so-called "progressives" who defend and justify Palestinian Arab terror and violence. It is never their responsibility - it is always a "natural response" to perceived provocations.

There is a further irony: There is little reason to associate the violent riots of 1936-39 and 1987-91 with school strikes to begin with. In 1936 there was a general Arab strike that was accompanied by deadly attacks on Jews, and the schools were affected by the general strike, but they were hardly the vanguard for the violence. In 1987 I see no specific mention of school strikes at the start of the intifada but even if they occurred they were not the leading issue for the outbreak of violence.

In other words, Gunness is exaggerating any propensity to violence by Palestinian Arab youth - youth who are in his own UNRWA schools.

Which makes him even more bigoted!

Elder gets results!

Earlier, I reported that MSN.com republished a virulently antisemitic article from Arab News. (Cached copy here.)

Soon after my post was published, the article was taken down.

I don't know if it was from people sending Microsoft the message or from my comment on the article.

But according to this cached copy from Bing, my comment was up for at least 10 hours, so chances are that you guys let Microsoft know and they acted in a hurry.

Every once in a while, a tiny victory against the tidal wave of lies and hate.

Palestinian Nurses for Terror

I came upon this photo:

The source was a Palestinian nursing message board, palnurse.com.

Looking a bit further at this site, one sees normal chats appropriate for nurses, asking advice from colleagues.

And also a healthy dose of terror support and anti-semitism.

This entry quotes Hitler approvingly on his opinion of Jews.

This thread is about "the wickedness of the Jews."

This one claims that Hamas pulled a fast one on the Jews by giving them a fake Gilad Shalit.

This one proudly points to videos of Jews running away from rocket attacks.

And this one details all the terrible attributes of Jews (thievery, murder, corruption, cowardice, hating Muslims, and so forth) and the nurses respond consistently with "Allah bless you" for such a wonderful post.

The contrast between how Israeli doctors treat all patients with respect and how Palestinian medical workers boast of their Jew-hatred cannot be clearer.

There is another entry about the wickedness of the Jews, using a fairly funny joke to supposedly illustrate it.

It seems the Church decided to make some cash by selling off guaranteed portions in Heaven. People paid exorbitant amounts to get their portions, especially if they had not led the most exemplary of lives.

A Jew approached the church officials and asked how much it would cost to buy Hell? The church thought he was crazy, but obliged him and sold Hell for a high price.

The Jew then showed his deed to Hell to all the people, who then said that if Jews owned all of the portions of Hell, then why should they have to pay so much to get into Heaven - they would get there by default! As a result the entire market for Heaven crashed.

The church, alarmed, was forced to buy back Hell from the Jew for many times the selling cost.

Yes, to Arabs, this joke is evidence of Jewish evil.

MSN publishes "Jews own and control the media" story

Here's the beginning of an article/letter in Arab News (English):

Extremist Jewish settlers murdered an 18-month-old Palestinian baby. The atrocity was hardly reported in the western media, which is owned and controlled by the Jews.

Just imagine had some Palestinians killed an Israeli baby, the Jewish media would have made it world’s top news headlines screaming for days how the “Islamist” terrorists forced Israel to rightly up the security and how it is important for Israel to have nukes. It would have led to an outcry in the UN by the trio world powers — the US, Britain and France.

Subsequently, the country would have used the death of the baby to carry out a collective punishment on the Palestinians.

The murder of the Palestinian baby, or for that matter massacres, are nothing new. The settlers and the Zionists have been programmed this way.

Palestinian babies were also murdered in 1948, when Menachem Begin first led the Jewish Stern and Lehi gangs into Der Yassin, a Palestinian village, where they murdered over 600 innocent, unarmed Palestinian, men, women, children and babies.

The same antisemitic "story" was picked up and published by - MSN.com.

I understand that stories get syndicated, but one would think that there would be some editorial control over which stories get chosen and which ignored.

This "story" was also picked up by Middle East/North Africa Financial Network.

08/16 Links: Matisyahu didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition; Arab Bank settles with victims of Hamas

From Ian:

Spanish fest cancels Matisyahu gig over refusal to endorse Palestinian state

The Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival called off the formerly Hasidic rapper’s August 22 show, with organizers saying Matisyahu had refused to comply with their demand to pen a statement or a video message backing “the Palestinians’ right to a state.”
Festival organizers were driven by intense pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the reports said. Artists scheduled to perform at the event threatened to cancel their appearances if Matisyahu were to perform because he was “seen to represent Israel.”
The organizers gave Matisyahu an ultimatum, telling him if he would “sign such a declaration [publicly affirming his support for the Palestinians, he] can perform,” according to Spanish daily, El Pais.
Although not Israeli, Matisyahu has visited and performed in the Jewish state multiple times.
In a statement on Facebook, Rototom organizers said that the move was linked to “the festival’s sensitivity to Palestine, its people and the occupation of its territory by Israel.”
The front page of the Valencia-based festival’s website features a two-and-a-half hour video on pro-Palestinian activists holding Palestinian flags and decrying Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Local BDS activists welcomed the move after accusing the Jewish rapper of being a “Zionist” and “defending a state that practices apartheid and ethnic cleansing” on a link posted on his Facebook page. (h/t Yenta Press)

Arab Bank reaches settlement with US victims of Hamas attacks in Israel

Jordan’s Arab Bank settled a case with hundreds of plaintiffs that could be worth billions of dollars, ending the most dramatic terrorism finance case against a major bank in US history.
The settlement was confirmed Friday by Michael Elsner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, and a spokesman for Arab Bank. Terms were not disclosed.
It comes nearly a year after the US New York jury found the $46 billion bank liable; four months after the bank lost a shot at a retrial; days before a damages trial was set to start; and 14 years after some of the terrorist attacks in question took place.
The highly public trial lasted five weeks and revisited some of Hamas’s worst attacks, including the August 2001 Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed or wounded 130, and a range of 24 other terrorist attacks during the second intifada.
A total of 297 plaintiffs who were injured or are family members of those murdered in the attacks that took place from 1998-2004, which were financed via Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s al-Shahid Foundation, sued the bank in 2004 for allowing itself to be used as a conduit for the terrorism funds.
The 10-year history of intense legal battles, included trying to get the bank’s “secret” client documents located in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestinian areas.
The US Supreme Court already had weighed in once pretrial and could have been asked to weigh in again post-trial, while the US State, Justice and Treasury departments fought over whether the US government should accede to Jordan’s requests to intervene in the case.
Jordan had claimed that Arab Bank, by far the country’s largest, was so crucial to the country’s economy that a multi-billion dollar judgment could lead to economic and political instability and devastation, possibly damaging crucial US-Jordan counter-terrorism cooperation.

David Horovitz: Obama’s Iran deal: A fight to a very bitter end

July 14, the day the P5+1 powers announced they’d finalized an agreement with Iran aimed at curbing its rogue nuclear program, may well turn out to have been the deal’s finest day. In the month since then, opponents of the accord have seen their prospect of blocking it in Congress rise from slim to, well, not quite so slim. Here are 12 insights into what began to a significant extent as a battle between President Barack Obama, chief advocate of the “best” and only deal, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leading opponent of the “stunning historic mistake,” and has now become a struggle between the president and an anguished chunk of his own Democratic Party’s legislators.
1. Flaws in the deal. What is most helping the deal’s opponents is elements of the deal itself. As American legislators have familiarized themselves with the small print, some have taken on board opponents’ protestations that the accord legitimizes Iran as a nuclear threshold state; that the inspection process of suspect sites is unworkable; that Iran is given leave to continue its R&D so that it can speedily break out to the bomb come the day; that the sanctions relief is premature and would be irreversible; and that the deal provides Iran with vast amounts of money that it will surely use to wreak more havoc in the region and sponsor terrorism worldwide.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz actually volunteered this last concern in a webcast with American Jews Thursday that had been intended to alleviate opposition. “We are concerned about some possible escalation in their support for terrorism, meddling in the region in terms of stability,” Moniz said, unprompted. “Obviously Hezbollah terrorism is an example.”