Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Overnight open thread

I was way for Shabbat and came back to way too many emails, let alone news stories. So I'm not going to even bother looking at more until Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, post anything interesting here.

Egypt's Defense Minister implicitly threatens Israel's air force

On Friday, Egypt's defense minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi wrote on his Facebook page that he has instructed his army to immediately shoot down any military aircraft that crosses the Egyptian border.

أصدرت التعليمات بمهاجمة كل طائرة حربية تخترق الحدود المصرية والإسقاط الفورى لها

He of course wrote this while Israel was operating against rocket launchers and terrorists next door in Gaza.

(h/t אורי פלג)

Iron Dome in action (video)

On Saturday, Iron Dome intercepted several rockets aimed at Ashkelon, and people have been videotaping it. Here's one video (the flash is when the Grad gets intercepted):

A number of Israelis have posted YouTube videos showing Iron Dome intercepting rockets. This link should take you to the most recent videos.

Hamas in 2007: "There is no justification for targeting civilians."

In light of Hamas' bragging that it shot a laser-guided anti-tank missile at a marked, yellow school bus, that had been filled with children minutes earlier, it is worth looking at this statement made by their English-language spokesman, Abu Obaida, in December 2007:

There is no justification for targeting civilians. It is against Islam to deliberately kill unarmed civilians during jihad. In addition, our doctrine is to target the enemies army, security services, and support apparatus. But it is known that Zionist society is a militarized society. Service in the army is mandatory; and reserve duty continues past the age of 40. Our determined stance is that unarmed persons on both sides of the conflict should be left out of the fighting. However, we will not accept giving the enemy a free hand against our civilians.

And their response to the Goldstone report included this howler:

The Hamas government wrote that it "regrets any harm that may have befallen any Israeli civilian."

Isn't that special?

Israel haters at Columbia call my posters "racist"

An article in the Columbia Spectator references Columbia Hillel's response to "Israel Apartheid Week" - and the anti-Israel authors take aim to two of my posters that Hillel apparently displayed:

Last month, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (C-SJP) sponsored Israeli Apartheid Week. In response, Hillel groups organized a campaign titled “Separating Fact From Apartheid.” To achieve this end, Hillel employed racist tactics to put a convivial face to Israel’s military and colonial occupation of Palestinian land....

To illustrate Israel’s “diversity,” Hillel set up a display of large poster boards of Israel’s token successful minorities.

The authors are deliberately misrepresenting Hillel's point. It isn't that Israel is diverse - which it is - but that Israel is not an apartheid state, as the authors contend. There is a big difference between the existence of discrimination, which happens everywhere, and the disgusting charge of apartheid, as the haters who wrote this piece are espousing.

The first board featured Rana Raslan, who in 1999 became the first Arab to win a Miss Israel contest. Three years later, Raslan was quoted as saying, “Till today, I am treated like trash at the airport. I haven’t visited Israel for three months because of what I had gone through during security checks. I was asked questions in a vulgar manner, held for hours. They also searched me; I have no problem being treated like any other civilian, but there is a way to do so, with delicacy.”

The point, of course, is that these racist Israelis had no problem choosing one of those supposedly despised Arabs to represent their country to the world. Obviously if she is being treated badly at airports there is a problem, but it is not apartheid!

Another poster featured Salim Joubran, a lawyer born in Haifa, who was elected in 2004 to become the first Arab to hold a permanent appointment as a Supreme Court Justice. A piece published in Spectator by LionPAC’s director of public relations, Jonathan Huberman, claimed that having a Palestinian-Israeli on Israel’s Supreme Court is evidence that Israel is “a democratic, multi-ethnic country that upholds equal rights for all of its citizens.” Huberman believes that the appointment of the first and only permanent Palestinian Israeli judge to Israel’s Supreme Court in its 56 years of existence is evidence of its “equal rights” and “democratic” nature. According to Sikkuy’s data, at the end of 2008 only 42 of 589 judges in Israel were Arabs—seven percent of the judiciary. A 2008 report about fair representation of the Arab population in the civil service, which was published by the Civil Service Commission in June of this year, indicates that of 3,763 employees in the courts administration, only 119 are Arabs—3.16 percent of all employees. Palestinian citizens of Israel constitute nearly 20 percent of the overall population.

So the authors are trying to argue that somehow Israel is an apartheid state because Arabs are not yet represented proportionately as judges. By that standard, the Palestinian Authority (and every government on the planet) are demonstrably sexist because women do not take up 50% of their governmental positions. I think short people are also underrepresented in democracies. And South Africa is still an apartheid state because the number of black graduates of university are far less than their proportional numbers.

If Israel is an apartheid state, name one state that isn't. If you cannot do that, then your label of "apartheid" is merely a smear meant to slander an entire nation. It also brings up the obvious question of why Israel is being singled out when its record on inclusiveness is demonstrably better than even many European countries. There isn't a ban on minarets in Israel!

It is always fun to see graduate students engage in such puerile arguments. But that is what happens when hate trumps intelligence.

I added a comment to the piece:

Thanks for a great laugh. I didn't know until now that pointing out that Israel has Arabs in respected positions in the army, judiciary, entertainment and politics is "racist." Columbia must be proud that two of its students are so adept at newspeak.

Thank you also for mentioning two of the "Apartheid?" posters that I created. For those who want to see more of my supposedly racist posters, they are here.)

(h/t Jim)

Muslim Brotherhood has already won

Reports in the Arabic press are quoting Al Hayat as saying that Mahmoud Abbas will meet with the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, today in Egypt.

Whether MB wins the next Egyptian elections or not, they have already gained the perception of being the most important political player in Cairo, and that very perception is likely to have long-term consequences.

Fatah is anxious to come to terms with Hamas in a unification deal, because if they remain divided in September then the much-heralded attempt to get the UN to recognize "Palestine" would be much more difficult.

Hamas is in the driver's seat. Not only does Fatah need unification more than Hamas, but Hamas no longer feels as politically isolated as before Egypt's revolution. First of all, political parties across the board in Egypt are publicly declaring their support for Gaza and implicit support of Hamas. More importantly, though, is that the MB and Hamas are cousins if not brothers, and Hamas' stock has risen just by association with the Egyptian Islamists.

Abbas' reported visit with the Brotherhood must be seen in this context. They will now be a major player in Palestinian Arab politics, while they were marginal before.

The Egyptian uprising therefore is causing Fatah to harden its positions with respect to negotiating with Israel and espousing a peaceful solution. Whether it likes it or not, Fatah is more dependent on Islamists than ever before in order to continue on as the supposed leader of Palestinian Arabs.

While there are indications that the MB is politically fractured, all of its factions are uncompromising towards Israel and do not support Camp David, let alone Oslo. Moreover, the gulf between Sunni and Shi'a is not as huge as some believe, and Tehran is salivating at the prospect of more Islamist influence in Egypt - and Hamas may serve as the bridge to help push that along.

The full ramifications of the rise of the MB are hard to predict. Probably they will start to strategize with their offshoots in other Arab countries, using lessons learned in Egypt to maximize the chances of success elsewhere. Jordan and Syria are key countries not only because of their already existing MB branches but also because if they fall, Israel would be surrounded by enemies who are not only politically but also ideologically and religiously opposed to Israel's existence. Fatah doesn't stand a chance of remaining nominally pro-Western, and Iran's influence will explode throughout the region. Conversely, Iran's political isolation will disappear.

Without seeing any organized, viable, liberal alternative to the MB in the Muslim world, things are looking bleak indeed for the West, and very good for Iran.

Media cuts NATO slack for killing wrong people

For the third time, NATO bombed the wrong side in Libya yesterday, killing rebels.

Yet the media is bending over backwards to minimize NATO's blame. We are seeing stories that would never be printed when Israel makes much less deadly mistakes, under much more difficult circumstances, against an enemy that is aiming at them.

From the Washington Post last Saturday:

The strike, which killed 13 rebels and injured seven, illustrated the hazards of conducting an aerial bombing campaign against a fluid and fast moving front line. Several cars and an ambulance were also incinerated, and opposition leaders said rebels may have been responsible for the bombing because they had fired their guns into the air in celebration.

Does that explain why an ambulance was destroyed?

From The Daily Mail, today:

Libyan rebels turned their fury on Nato yesterday after at least 13 fighters were killed and dozens wounded in an airstrike.

Rebel commanders said tanks and military hardware captured from Colonel Gaddafi’s forces had been attacked in daylight with missiles despite being marked on the top in yellow as requested by Nato.

Four missiles hit the 30-vehicle convoy, which included a bus packed with fighters, on the outskirts of the eastern oil port of Brega, according to one rebel commander.

An ambulance was one of the vehicles hit and three volunteer medical students were among the dead. Doctors said many rebels suffered terrible burns in the attack.

‘Why is Nato dropping bombs east of Brega when Gaddafi’s forces are to the west?’ asked Omar Mohammed.

Despite the presence of forward air controllers guiding missiles to their targets with lasers and pinpoint technology, the apparent blunder illustrated the difficulties Nato forces face.

Again, clearly marked vehicles - including ambulances - yet the media says that this merely illustrates how difficult war is. But when Israel is doing the shooting - immediately after rocket fire on Israeli civilians, towards enemies who are mere meters away from civliians - no one cuts them any slack.

Even worse:

The deputy commander of NATO operations in Libya acknowledged Friday that NATO warplanes may have mistakenly bombed rebel forces Thursday near Brega, killing at least five people and generating angry complaints from rebel leaders.

But Rear Adm. Russell Harding, in a briefing from his Naples headquarters, declined to apologize for the lethal mistake. Instead, he sought to shift the blame to rebel commanders, who he said had deployed captured Libyan army tanks for the first time, unbeknown to NATO pilots flying bombing raids high over the area.

“I’m not apologizing,” Harding said in remarks streamed over the Internet by NATO. “The situation on the ground, as I said, was very confused and remains very confused. And up to yesterday, we had no information that the [rebel] forces were using tanks.”

NATO is not even apologizing - and they are blaming the victims?

War is difficult. I am not blaming NATO for mistakes made (well, not too much - I still don't understand the ambulances and yellow-topped vehicles.) However, I am pointing out that these mistakes are being soft-pedaled by the same media that will never do the same for Israel. Nor will the media point out that the IDF's job is far, far more difficult than NATO's.

HRW's and Amnesty's reports should be interesting. So far, nothing from them, not even on Amnesty's blog.

One other story in the Palestinian Arabic press is worth citing, although I don't know how accurate it is:

According to Palestinian sources, on Thursday evening, a Palestinian and his wife were killed in bombing by coalition forces on the international area of Benghazi in Libya.

The Jarghoun family in Khan Younis said that that a family member named Issam Moussa Jarghoun (26) and his wife, Rim (25) were killed following the bombing by the international coalition forces of convoys of Arab citizens who are trying to leave Libya towards Egypt to return to their places of origin.

The Western media is not mentioning any civilian casualties in the convoys. But now that a Palestinian Arab is killed, surely the Arab world will show their anger.

Or is that only when they are killed by a very specific group?

Was a truck filled with weapons also struck in Sudan?

From the Sudan Tribune:

Sudan denied that any foreigner was in the car and said that the names of the two people killed were Eissa Ahmed Hadab from Al-Amrar tribe and his personal driver Ahmed Gibreel. The foreign ministry said the Hyundai Sonata car was recently purchased by Hadab from another Sudanese citizen living in Khartoum.

Jibril was a businessmen from an Egyptian-Sudanese tribe in Red Sea state who had lived in Egypt for many years before returning to Sudan in 2009, a political activist in the region told Agence France Presse (AFP). Hadab, the car’s driver, was a fisherman and also from eastern Sudan, the activist added.

Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment on the allegations by Sudan but he complained nevertheless that the Jewish state unfairly gets the blame for many incidents that occur around the world.

“Some see Israel’s hand in anything that happens, and it is not always true,” Netanyahu said during a press conference in Berlin, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

However, Israeli intelligence sources told AFP on Thursday that a truck carrying weapons, which was being escorted by the car, had been hit in the strike. Photos from the scene only showed the car and no mention was made of a separate truck.

Hmmm.

CNN idiots: "It was not immediately known if the bus was targeted"

CNN's story on yesterday's terror attack on a school bus seems to go out of its way to downplay the seriousness of the episode.

Written already after Hamas accepted responsibility, it says:

The school bus was traveling in southern Israel near the Gaza border when it was hit by a type of anti-tank missile known as a Kornet, said Israeli military spokesman Capt. Barak Raz. The Kornet is a Russian-made anti-tank guided missile system that is thought to have a maximum range of 5 1/2 kilometers (3 1/2 miles).

...

It was not immediately known if the bus was targeted, but [IDF spokesperson] Leibovitch said it looked like "a direct hit."

The Kornet is a laser-guided anti-missile system. It is not a Qassam. The people operating it know precisely what they are aiming at. The Hamas website admits that they targeted the "Zionist bus." It was clearly marked as a school bus. It was colored the distinct yellow of all Israeli school buses. Undoubtedly Hamas was hoping that the bus was filed with schoolchildren, and a few minutes beforehand, it was.

Hamas was deliberately targeting scores of children with a laser-guided missile that simply would not miss. But CNN feels it important to say that "it was not immediately known if the bus was targeted." Yes, it is absolutely known at the time CNN filed the story. The entire purpose of that sentence is to cast doubt on Hamas' bloodlust.

And CNN even quotes an IDF source as saying that Hamas wanted to target the rescuers as well:

There was an attempt to fire a second missile after emergency personnel had responded to the scene, the official said. For reasons unknown to the IDF, the second launch failed.

This is a major escalation on the part of Hamas - a well-planned and deliberate attempt at mass murder. You would have to read CNN's story twice before even beginning to understand what should have been made clear in the first paragraph.

Nice shooting!

From JPost:

Friday morning, two Palestinians were killed as a result of an Israeli air-strike on a terrorist cell in the Gazan village Haza'ae, near Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources reported. According to their claims, an Israeli aircraft struck a group of civilians, killing two Hamas members.

Wow, the IDF is even better than I thought, to be able to kill only two Hamas members in a crowd of "civilians"!

In case you are wondering on the identity of the two dead terrorists, the Al Qassam website identifies them as Abdullah Qarra and Moataz Abu Jamea.

Oh, and they admit that they were in a "group of resistance fighters." Just in case you had any lingering doubts about how easily Gaza officials lie.

Here they are, ladies: The Domes of the Rock

The Daily Show on Wednesday had a hilarious bit about women creating their own country - and religion - in the Middle East.

In light of the Muslim world being upset over the photo of two British women in front of the Temple Mount, I bring you the women's holy place:

The entire, politically incorrect sketch:

The Daily Show - Libya Majora
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Latest stupid PalArab/leftist rumor: "Operation Scorching Summer"

Over the past few hours, lots of Palestinian and leftist sites have been repeating a rumor that looks like this:

Israel have just announced that "Operation Scorching Summer" will resume tonight. The UN have evacuted all their staff, and 1.5 million people are preparing for another massacre.

It seems to have started on a Facebook page called "Breaking News Gaza" and it got copied all over the place. The most prominent website behind it seems to be "Occupied Palestine", claiming it was on Israel's Channel 2.

Of course, this is completely ridiculous.

If you actually need proof that it is not true, meaning if you actually believe that the IDF announces its attacks on TV a day ahead of time, just look at the website that is dedicated to the safety of NGOs in Gaza. If the UN was evacuating, they would be telling all their people.

Of course, they are not.

But just for fun, Google it or search Twitter. See how unbelievably gullible the Israel haters are, and how easily rumors can spread among the idiots who hate Israel. Not to mention how litte regard they have for the truth to begin with.

Or, if you want, make up a scary graphic so they can make themselves look even dumber when they start spreading it:

(h/t Cesar)

Egyptians mull stopping US aid

Today on Radio Ahram, the subject was whether Egypt should stop accepting the $2 billion it received annually from the US. That aid had been meant to keep Egypt friendly to the US and to keep its part of the peace agreement with Israel.

The comments on the web are generally in favor of stopping the aid, and stopping agreements with Israel such as the natural gas deal.

One commenter says, not unreasonably, that if Egypt recovers the money that was stolen by the Mubarak regime every year, that could offset US aid. Of course, this presupposes that the new regime in Egypt won't be as corrupt as the last one.

Now, the better question is should Israel wean itself from US aid, and therefore US pressure?

Hamas takes credit for bombing schoolbus

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades English webpage says:

Gaza-Ezzedeen Al Qassam Briades (E.Q.B) the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas declared in a military communiqué released on Thursday April 7, 201l the full responsibility for the operation of targeting Israeli bus traveling in the nearby Israeli settlement of Kfar Sa’ad east of Gaza Strip.

The operation left two Israeli settlers injured, one of them was in a critical condition and evacuated by the Israeli medical crews to Soroka hospital.

They include a few photos of the bombed bus.

Unlike previous communiques, Hamas is not even claiming that this was a military target.

The Arabic version of the communique said they attacked "infidel Zionist usurpers."

Hamas brags that it targets civilians. Which means, according to the bizarre logic of "human rights groups," there is no need to write reports and issue lots of press releases condemning them.

Western media doesn't mention Rio terrorist was a Muslim (updated)

From AP, a story that you can find all over in English:

A gunman opened fire at a public elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed at least 11 students before killing himself.

Earlier, police said at least 13 people died in the shooting, but Rio state Health Secretary Sergio Cortes said 10 girls and one boy were killed, along with the gunman. The ages of the children were not immediately known.

Officials said the 23-year-old gunman was a former student at the Tasso da Silveira school, located in a working-class neighborhood in western Rio. A motive was not immediately known, but authorities said the man left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

I had to go to Al Arabiya to find out that he was a convert to Islam, that the letter said that Islam was the true religion and that the letter glorified terrorism and suicide bombings.

Brazilian media is frightened of a growing Islamist movement associated with Al Qaeda that is operation in South America, according to Al Arabiya.

Whether Islam had anything to do with his actions remains to be seen. It seems, though, that the English-language media has already decided that his fascination with Islamist terror is not an important detail to mention in the thousands of stories already published on the incident.

UPDATE: Serjew comments:

I´ve just seen a part of the letter left by the murderer, and it´s not clear from it that he was muslim. Though that part mentions his desire of a burial with some islamic traits, it later says he expects to be resurrected by the coming of Jesus.

So, till now, it just seems he was a religious fundamentalist nut, maybe evangelical, maybe not.

Al Arabiya is pretty clear that he was a convert, but he might not have quite gotten the concept....

UPDATE 2: Renguinho adds:

I'm Brazilian and I've been following this story the whole day (though not quite closely). It seems the bits of info that the shooter was HIV-positive and Muslim were rumours (the first was said by a politician, a "vice-mayor"). I've read the whole letter and it doesn't mention anything Islamic. (The obsession with cleaning and purity etc. cannot be attributed to Islamism on his part, since he mentions Jesus later on).

However, ..his sister told the media that he was "obsessed with Muslim things" (that was what the media was reporting, that she said that). If he was "obsessed" or something like that with some religion, no common person would say, out of the blue, that it was with Muslim religion if that person didn't hear/see for certain that it was Muslim - they'd say "church", "evangelical" etc. (in Brazil). I mean, that is very specific and the general common Brazilian person don't even know what "Muslim" or Islam is. And she said, together with that mention of Islam, that he'd grown a long beard the last time she saw him.

Beats me.

Explosion near Chabad House in Santa Monica (updated)

From LA Times blog:

A device believed to be a pipe bomb exploded about 6:45 a.m. Thursday in the parking lot of a Jewish temple in Santa Monica, authorities said.

No details were available regarding injuries or damage.

The incident occurred at a synagogue near 17th Street and Broadway in Santa Monica. Police evacuated a four-block area and were investigating the possibility of a hate crime.

[Updated at 9:50 a.m.: Multiple sources familiar with the investigation said the device exploded just north of the temple. Authorities were trying to determine whether the temple in the 1400 block of 17th Street, Chabad House of Santa Monica, was specifically targeted.

There were no reports of injuries.

The FBI, Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad and Santa Monica Police were all on scene.]

UPDATE:

An explosion that sent an object hurtling onto the roof of a home near a Jewish school and prayer house on Thursday was an accident — not a bomb, police said.

Sgt. Jay Trisler said a mechanical failure caused a pressure buildup resulting in the blast at about 6:45 a.m. Thursday.

(h/t Dusty)

UPDATE: It was a bomb, and it looks like it was set off by a Jew. More at YWN.

US embassy convoy attacked in southern Lebanon

From iLoubnan:

US embassy officials visiting south Lebanon Thursday were attacked, but unhurt, by residents accusing them of being "Israeli conspirators," in the second such incident in a week, an AFP correspondent said.

Around 60 supporters of leftist groups gathered outside a government office in the port city of Sidon and pelted an embassy convoy with stones as it drove by, with some shouting "Americans, Israeli conspirators, in our government offices."

On Saturday, Lebanese youths threw stones and bottles at a US embassy group that was visiting Sidon.

Lebanese security forces accompanying the Americans intervened, but stones continued to be thrown, breaking car windows. The army then arrived and arrested three of the attackers. Again, there were no injuries.

South Lebanon is the heartland of the country's Shiite Hezbollah militia, and saw heavy fighting in the short but sharp summer war of 2006 between the group and Israeli forces.

On Monday, the United States warned its citizens against traveling to Lebanon "due to current safety and security concerns."

Report: Syria grants citizenship to Kurds

From Now Lebanon:

President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday granted citizenship to Syria's Kurds, the majority in the northeast who have been denied nationality for nearly half a century, said SANA state news agency.

"President Assad issued a decree granting Arab Syrian citizenship to people registered as foreigners in the [governorate of Hassake]," said the news agency.

The measure, which would benefit about 300,000 Kurds, comes a week after Assad tasked a committee with "resolving the problem of the 1962 census in the governorate of Hassake."

Kurds in Syria’s northeast took to the streets last Friday for the first time since pro-reform protests erupted in mid-March, calling for the right to citizenship and "freedom as well," Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa told AFP.

This is interesting, as apparently Assad really doesn't want to have the Kurds pressuring him on top of the other protesters.

Of course, Palestinians in Syria have no chance of becoming citizens, and if they start protesting Assad will happily, but quietly, slaughter them.

Israel deploys Iron Dome for Ashkelon

Various tweets and reports are coming in saying that Iron Dome successfully intercepted two Grad missiles aimed at Ashkelon.

Tweets say that this is being reported by Fox News and Reuters. JPost here.

Full Ha'aretz report.

As many as 50 rockets have been shot from Gaza to Israel today.