Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 14, 2012

Egyptian minister wants to ensure Sinai land cannot be sold to Jews

Shorouk News reports that Egypt's Minister of Agriculture, Mohammad Reza Ismail, is starting a program where Sinai Bedouin can purchase land for cultivating crops.

But there is a caveat: they are not allowed to sell their land to non-Egyptians.

And the reason?

"So that [the land] is not to be found in the hands of the Jews."

Just some of your run-of-the-mill Arab anti-semitism. Nothing to see here.

Listen to Grandpa, Andy Ling (video)

Cute video series from Jewlarious, starring Elliott Gould:

DoZ and her husband never heard of Elliott Gould. I had to say "the old guy with the big glasses in Ocean's Eleven." Sigh.

For "Nakba Day" - an e-book that tells the truth (updated)

This booklet, from Im Tirtzu, debunks the many "Nakba" myths that have become embedded into the standard narrative of the founding of Israel.

My only quibbles from a quick read-through:

The booklet quotes Efraim Karsh liberally but says that there were only 560,000 Arabs who left Israel in 1948. Karsh's number is between 583,000-609,000 Arab refugees.

The last chapter's title implies that all Palestinian Arabs were pro-Nazi, although it only talks (accurately) about the Mufti of Jerusalem. My research indicates that most PalArabs were ambiguous, not really supporting either side, although some clearly did. Also they happily used ex-Nazis to help them in 1948.

(UPDATE: Commenter BHCh points out that Benny Morris' "1948" book points out that in a 1941 poll commissioned by the American consulate in Jerusalem found that 88% of Arabs in Palestine supported Nazi Germany, as opposed to only 9% for Great Britain.)

But in general this is a very good reference to show people the truth about the "Nakba."

(h/t Yoel)

Evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons program mounting

From JPost:

Iran is accelerating its nuclear weapons program, according to a report Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) Iranian opposition group compiled and The Jerusalem Post obtained on Friday.

The report first appeared in the Die Welt German daily, and Brussels-based Iran expert Emanuele Ottolenghi, who provided it to the Post, was asked by the paper to verify its contents.

The report and various additional charts outline the different offices involved in Iran’s weapons program and identify some 60 directors and experts working in various parts of SPND and 11 additional institutions and companies affiliated with the program.

The SPND headquarters is based in Mojdeh, a military facility near Tehran. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, whom western intelligence agencies have identified as the man responsible for the nuclear weapons program, heads the facility. He is under United Nations sanctions.

MEK also identified a facility called the “Center for Explosives, Blast Research and Technologies” – known by its Persian acronym METFAZ – which is based in a five-story nondescript office building in Tehran’s Pars neighborhood.

Scientists there are responsible for building high-explosives for nuclear detonators and conducting tests at the Parchin site, a facility long suspected of being connected to nuclear activity which Iran has refused to open to UN inspectors.

SPND, according to the report, is comprised of seven sub-divisions: 1) a division that works on the main element for the bomb, including the enriched uranium; 2) a division that shapes and molds the material needed to build a warhead; 3) a division that produces metals required for a nuclear warhead; 4) a division that produces high-explosive material used to cause a nuclear detonation; 5) a division which conducts research on advanced chemical materials; 6) a division that conducts electronic calculations required for building a nuclear warhead; 7) and a division which is responsible for laser activities needed for a nuclear weapon.

“The information sharply contradicts the assessment by some that Iran has not yet made the decision to go forward with the weapons program, as well as the observation by others who suggest that the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has forbidden the development of a nuclear bomb, because it would be a ‘sin’ to do so,” the report said.

The report claims that the Fordow uranium enrichment facility built in a mountain near the city of Qom was built under the personal supervision of Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi. It said that experts who work at another facility involved in the weapons program are in direct contact with the Fordow site and supervise activities there.

“This makes increasingly clear the objectives with which the Fordow site was built,” the report said.

MEK, which is a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has long been suspected of working closely with the Mossad and the CIA. In 2002, for example, the NCRI revealed the existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility which until then had not been known to the world.

Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the MEK report could be a “game changer” in Western perceptions of Iran’s nuclear program.

“Until now, intelligence agencies and policymakers surmised that Iran sought civil nuclear energy but kept the option open for nuclear weapons, while pending a decision from its religious leaders,” he explained.

“These documents support the opposite conclusions – namely that Iran’s program was always military and its civil nuclear component was just a façade. Iran decided long ago to make nuclear weapons – the only question is when.”

And from AP:

A drawing based on information from inside an Iranian military site shows an explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that U.N. inspectors suspect Tehran has conducted there. Iran denies such testing and has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a chamber.

The computer-generated drawing was provided to The Associated Press by an official of a country tracking Iran's nuclear program who said it proves the structure exists, despite Tehran's refusal to acknowledge it.

That official said the image is based on information from a person who had seen the chamber at the Parchin military site, adding that going into detail would endanger the life of that informant. The official comes from an IAEA member country that is severely critical of Iran's assertions that its nuclear activities are peaceful and asserts they are a springboard for making atomic arms.

A former senior IAEA official said he believes the drawing is accurate. Olli Heinonen, until last year the U.N. nuclear agency's deputy director general in charge of the Iran file, said it was "very similar" to a photo he recently saw that he believes to be the pressure chamber the IAEA suspects is at Parchin.

He said even the colors of the computer-generated drawing matched that of the photo he had but declined to go into the origins of the photo to protect his source.

And from ISIS:

ISIS has acquired commercial satellite imagery of the Parchin site in Iran showing new activity that substantiates the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) stated concern regarding recent “activity” at the site. The new activity seen in the satellite image occurred outside a building suspected to contain an explosive chamber used to carry out nuclear weapons related experiments (see figure 1). The April 9, 2012 satellite image shows items lined up outside the building. It is not clear what these items are. The image also shows what appears to be a stream of water that emanates from or near the building. Based on new information that the IAEA received, the Agency asked Iran to visit this building at the Parchin site, but Iran has not allowed a visit. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano noted recently that the IAEA has “information that some activity is ongoing” at the Parchin site 1. When asked if he was concerned that these activities could be associated with cleansing the site, Amano replied, “That possibility is not excluded…We cannot say for sure because we are not there.” The items visible outside the building could be associated with the removal of equipment from the building or with cleansing it. The stream of water that appears to emanate from the building raises concerns that Iran may have been washing inside the building, or perhaps washing the items outside the building. Satellite images of the building from recent months do not show any similar activity at the site—indicating that such activity is not a regular occurrence at this building (see figures 2 and 3).

Iran should immediately allow IAEA inspectors into the Parchin site and allow access to this specific building. It should also explain the purpose of the activities seen at the building in this recent satellite image.

But some anti-Israel idiots will keep claiming that Israel's concern over Iran is really to deflect world attention from Israel's primary purpose, which is of course to persecute poor Palestinian Arabs.

(h/t Yoel, Petra)

Lies, damned lies and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics came out with its annual "nakba" report where it tries to twist numbers to make Israel look as bad as possible.

Just a quick glance through it shows a number of lies as well as more evidence that the PA has no real interest in peace.

For example:

Nakba in literary terms means a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake, volcano, or hurricane. However, the Nakba in Palestine describes a process of ethnic cleansing in which an unarmed nation has been destroyed and its population displaced to be replaced systematically by another nation. Unlike a natural catastrophe, the Palestinian Nakba was the result of a man-made military plan with the agreement of other states, leading to a major tragedy for the Palestinian people.

Who started the war again? Oh, yeah, the "unarmed nation" of Arabs in Palestine who immediately started killing Jewish civilians after the UN partition resolution. They were then joined by their compatriots from neighboring Arab states.

If they would have accepted partition, they would have had a state 64 years ago. Instead they decided to kill the Jews. Bad decisions have consequence - unless yo are Palestinian Arab, in which case your bad decisions must be the fault of the Jews.

In 1948, 1.4 million Palestinians lived in 1,300 Palestinian towns and villages. More than 800,000 of the population were driven out of their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neighboring Arab countries, and other countries of the world.

The number is closer to 600,000. But what's wrong with inflating it by 33%? It's not as if the PCBS really cares about accurate statistics, is it?

According to documentary evidence, the Israelis controlled 774 towns and villages and destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages during the Nakba. The atrocities of Israeli forces also included more than 70 massacres in which 15,000 Palestinians were killed.

This paragraph is still referring to the "nakba" - and nowhere near 15,000 Palestinian Arabs were killed then. It was probably closer to a thousand. The total number of Palestinian Arabs killed in 64 years by Israel is about 15,000.

Statistical data also show that refugees constitute 44.1% of the total Palestinian population in the Palestinian Territory.

If they are on their territory, how can they be refugees from their territory? Just one of the many anomalous definitions that apply to Palestinian Arabs only.

Population Density: Gaza Strip the most crowded place in the world
The population density in the Palestinian Territory at the end of 2011 was 703 individuals per square kilometer (km2): 462 individuals/km2 in the West Bank and 4,429 individuals/km2 in Gaza Strip. In Israel, the population density of Arabs and Jews in 2011 was 362 individuals per km2.

Except for Macau, Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong and Gibraltar. The first two have population densities quadruple that of Gaza.

Historical Palestine: Israel controls more than 85% of its land
At the end of 2011, there were 11.7 million people living in the historical land of Palestine with a land area of 27,000 km2. Jews constitute around 52% of the total population and utilize more than 85% of the total area of land. Arabs comprise 48% of the total population and utilize less than 15% of the land. A Palestinian therefore has less than a quarter of the area of land available to an Israeli.

I don't know if these numbers are correct (how do they characterize Israeli Arabs, for example First they say "Jews" and then "Israelis.") However, "historic Palestine" is one of those Palestinian Arab myths they love to throw around. It is an artificial construct created by the British after World War One, and in reality there was something called Eastern Palestine before then - in a land now known as Jordan. And it was larger than western Palestine, what the Palestinian Arabs now call - "Palestine."

Why did they give up their claim to more than half of their historic area? Because Jews didn't control any of it!

The number of martyrs killed in the al Aqsa Intifada between September 29th, 2000 and December 31st, 2011 was 7,460, up from 7,235 at the end of 2009.

Notice that the official Palestinian Arab position is that suicide bombers are "martyrs." Notice also that they are claiming that the second intifada is still going on.

You can learn a lot from reading reports from the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. But not al lof it was what they wanted to try to teach you.

Purpose of J-Street is not to reflect US Jewish opinion, but to change it (updated)

I received this video from ProIsrael Media showing Carinne Luck, Vice President of Field and Campaigns for J-Street, speaking at what appears to be an internal meeting.

In it, she seems to admit that most of J-Street's support comes from outside the Jewish community. Moreover, she contradicts J-Street's claims to represent the majority opinion of American Jews; and she states that J-Street's goal, following the demands of left-leaning politicians and the Obama administration, is to "move" the American Jewish community towards the left, so this is "primarily" what the organization does.

I do not have access to the entire video so I cannot verify 100% that these quotes are in context, but if accurate it looks pretty damning for the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" J-Street.

UPDATE: The video was taken down by YouTube but I got the entire video, without edits. Here it is - you can make up your own minds as to whether the statements were in context of not.

Here's a partial transcript:

Man: We have some support and interest in the Jewish community. We get much more support outside the traditional Jewish community. We know that for political reasons we have to be sensitive to the composition of the leadership. Can you address this very uncomfortable question?
Luck: Is this Jewish/non-Jewish? Is that the question you were going to ask?
Man: Yes.
Luck: Our theory of change and the one we've been told as what people on the Hill and in the administration, what they are looking to from us. It is very specific. And we are a primarily Jewish but not exclusively Jewish organization and they want us to see us primarily moving Jews. American Jews. And so that is where the bulk of our resources go...
I think for us building power is "how do we build power in our own community?"...Even in our small Jewish community they are still looking to us to give them cover....
But that is why for our leadership, you know we want our leadership to be comfortable going in and meeting with someone saying "as an American Jew I do this" and if that's inauthentic, you know, I mean look I would never tell someone to lie. If they choose to that's their business....
And I do know there is this feeling like "but there's all these people that are supportive". Certainly there is nothing wrong with getting them to be part of our numbers. Like we do not say we are an exclusively Jewish organization and if they want to sign up to our list, that's great.

(h/t Daled Amos)

Reminder: Panel discussion in NYC next week

Just a reminder that I will be part of a panel discussion next week in New York.

You ought to show up.

Not only because it is a rare opportunity to meet me (or someone who does a convincing impression of me.)

Not only because you can meet some serious heavyweights of the pro-Israel media.

You ought to come because, seriously, where in Manhattan can you get a kosher dinner for only $18?

You can RSVP here.

Leading Egyptian candidate: Israel "racist", OBL killing "state terrorism"

From Naharnet:

A leading Islamist candidate in Egypt's presidential election has branded Israel a "racist state" and said a shared 1979 peace treaty was "a national security threat" that should be revised.

Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh also denounced al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden's assassination by U.S. special forces as an act of "state terrorism," in a late Saturday Egyptian television interview.

Abul Fotouh, a front runner in the May 23-24 election according to polls, had earlier described Israel as an "enemy" in a televised debate with his main contender, former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

In Saturday's interview with the private Egyptian CBC satellite station, he said he had opposed the treaty since its implementation. "I still view the peace treaty as a national security threat to Egypt, and it must be revised."

"It is a treaty that forbids Egypt from exercising full sovereignty in the Sinai and allows Israelis to enter Sinai without visas, while they need visas for Cairo," he said.

The treaty, in which Israel withdrew from the Sinai after capturing it in a 1967 war, does not allow Egypt a military presence in parts of the peninsula.

Abul Fotouh said Israel was "a racist state with 200 nuclear warheads" that continued to pose a threat to Egypt.

A moderate Islamist with support from both hardline fundamentalists and liberals, Abul Fotouh refused to describe Bin Laden as a terrorist, saying the term was used by the United States to "hit Muslim interests."

But he said the killing of the Saudi militant was an "act of state terrorism," and Bin Laden had deserved a fair trial, although he disagreed with Bin Laden's use of violence.

Fotouh has gotten endorsements from both the Salafi al-Nour party and from Wael Ghonim, the Google employee who was one of the early leaders of the revolution. In a recent poll he was slightly in the lead.

The thing is, compared to other candidates, Fotouh probably is moderate. You just have to move the goalposts a bit when talking about Arabs being "moderate" because it means something much different when applied to Arabs than to Westerners.

Gazans threaten Red Cross and UN. World yawns.

From WAFA:

A number of Palestinian activists Sunday demonstrated in front of a number of international organizations’ offices in Gaza to protest their silence regarding the striking Palestinian prisoners.

The activists demonstrated in front of offices of the Red Cross office and United Nations and blocked staff from entering for several hours, as well as lifted banners calling to end the prisoners’ sufferings and denouncing the international silence.

The activists issued a statement in which they threatened to escalate measures against these organizations if they do not take immediate action to support the prisoners.

Ma'an adds:

"Since international organizations remain silent towards Israeli procedures against Palestinian prisoners, they are responsible for their lives, just as the occupying state," youth activist Hani Abu Mustafa said at a press conference near the ICRC offices.

If any of the 2,000 Palestinians on hunger-strike dies, Abu Mustafa warned "the consequences will be disastrous for both the occupying state and the international organizations operating in Gaza Strip."

Here we have a direct threat against not only the UN but also the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Did the ICRC condemn the forced closing of their offices and the threat to their employees' lives? Not quite:

In return, the ICRC said that it understands and supports the demands of the prisoners. "We check the prisoners regularly and ask the Israeli authorities to take all the needed procedures to protect them and improve the circumstances of their detention," said Ayman Shahabi, spokesman for the ICRC.

To Abbas, NGOs aren't for human rights - they're for bashing Israel

In the latest Crisis Group Middle East Report N°122, 7 May 2012, "The Emperor Has No Clothes: Palestinians and the End of the Peace Process," there is a most interesting footnote number 169:

A U.S. official commented that Abbas had inquired into the activities of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, two organisations Egypt’s military authorities accused of seeking to interfere in domestic politics. According to him, “Abbas asked, ‘What are these NGOs doing here? Are they trying to overthrow me?’” Crisis Group interview, Washington DC, March 2012. A presidential adviser expressed similar concern: “My worry is that NGOs can be easily used against the PA, rather than against Israel. They talk a lot about human rights in the PA, less about occupation”. Crisis Group interview, Ramallah, April 2012.

According to these two quotes, Abbas sees NGOs as having only a single purpose - to demonize Israel. They have nothing to do with human rights or improving people's lives - they are simply political tools to be used as he wishes.

And for the vast majority of them, he gets his wishes. They spend much more time on Israel than on his own corrupt dictatorship.

So when a couple of NGOs break the formula, Abbas is incensed at how they could dare to actually do anything against his interests!

Another part of the same footnote is also notable, and shows that Abbas is more on the side of the Arab dictators than the protesters of the Arab Spring:

A senior PLO official said that Abbas “believes that the Arab Spring is bad for Palestine and for the region”. Crisis Group interview, Ramallah, November 2011.

Despite how the West pretends to love him, Abbas' words and actions show that he is much more like Mubarak and Assad than those who are fighting against the Arab despots.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv - Israel Research Fellow at NGO Monitor)

Israel Inside: How a Small Nation Makes a Big Difference (video)

From Jerusalem Online U:

You have to type in your email to see this. But you can then be entered into a raffle for a free trip to Israel.

It was screened on some PBS stations last year.

Moroccan Islamists disapproved of her short dress, so they beat and stripped her

From Bikya Masr:

Women’s rights in Morocco have come under the spotlight recently after a young woman was assaulted in a Rabat market by people she called “Salafists,” or ultra-conservative Islamists. She said she was accosted by the men because of the short dress she was wearing.

Other witnesses were reported by the Magharebia news portal as saying the girl was attacked with stones and beaten after the assailants said the dress was “too revealing.”

Human rights and women’s organizations issued statements denouncing the assault on the Moroccan girl, during which she was stripped of her clothes entirely, reports indicated.

Young Moroccan men and women turned to Facebook and online groups to call for protection of individual freedoms in Morocco, including the group “Débardeur and I am fine.”

“Though this incident appeared in the media and gained wider attention, that does not mean it is not repeated on an almost regular or semi-daily basis in all the alleys and streets of our cities. It may not end in stripping the girl of her clothing, but the verbal and physical harassment that women may experience is sometimes more heinous and horrible,” said Nora Al-Fuari, an activist journalist at the Al-Sabah daily and a member of the Facebook group.

I don't quite get how stripping a girl is more modest than her wearing a dress, nor how beating a girl is less offensive than her wearing a skirt that reveals her shins.

Nasrallah, obeying his Iranian masters, threatens Israel

From Reuters:

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said his group was capable of striking any target in Israel, saying "the days when we fled and they did not are over."

"Today we are not only able to hit Tel Aviv as a city but, God willing, we are able to hit specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address.

"For every building destroyed in Dahiya, a building will be destroyed in Tel Aviv," he said, referring to Hezbollah's stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut.

"The days when we were afraid and they were not are over," he said. "And we say to them: The time has come when we will remain and you will be the ones who disappear."

As usual, the fearless Nasrallah made this speech via video from an undisclosed underground location.

Why aren't hunger strikers demanding an end to torture in Israeli prisons?

Given that the list of demands of the hunger strikers covers everything from increased canteen use to restoration of education in Israeli universities, isn't it strange that they aren't mentioning torture at all?

They are demanding things like more fruits and vegetables and access to more cable channels. But not a word about supposed Israeli torture.

The reason is obvious - there isn't any torture in Israeli prisons, despite the bleatings of the anti-Zionist crowd.

(h/t Margie)

CAIR lawyer: Bugs Bunny part of US-funded anti-Islamic plot

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an April 25, 2012 interview with Palestinian-American lawyer Lamis Deek, which aired on Egyptian ON TV, a station launched in 2009 by Coptic communications tycoon Naguib Sawiris. In the interview, Deek, who according to her website is a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claimed that the world media and press, and even cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, were perpetuating racist anti-Islamic notions. She also accused the U.S. Department of Defense of financing anti-Islamic propaganda films.

Lamis Deek: "People interested in attacking the Arab and Muslim communities, and the people who sympathize with the Arabs... I am not talking only about the U.S., but elsewhere as well. They got an opportunity for coordination. I'm talking about the corporations involved in national security and wars, along with Zionist and Israeli institutions, and people who generally believe... I'm talking about Zionist Christians, who believe in the annihilation and demonization of the Muslims. I also mean the racists in general, who are still afraid of what happened in 9/11.

"So all these things - the industry, along with the Zionists and your run-of-the-mill racists who don't know any better, and who get their information only from the media and the press... I'm not talking only about the news, but also about the cartoons on which we were raised, even before 9/11.

"In Bugs Bunny, which we used to watch, they would sometimes bring a character pretending to be an Arab Muslim Sultan. He has a potbelly, and he spends most of his time sitting around and eating, indulging in women day and night, and killing people.

"This is the general notion, but the use they make of it has become more targeted. The film we just watched... The Department of Defense finances such films in order to increase suspicion towards our community in America and abroad."

Interviewer: "The Department of Defense?!"

Lamis Deek: "Yes, it has happened. The DoD has financed films, showing soldiers in Afghanistan killing some Muslims, and the spectators give them a standing ovation. This happens all the time. This is the goal of the film..."

Here's a classic Bugs Bunny film that has Arab characters.

Israel creating butterfly-sized UAV

From Israel HaYom:

At first, it seems like something “Q" developed for British superspy James Bond. The artificial butterfly is handheld and is capable of a vertical takeoff, just like a helicopter. Returning to the Bond movie, we will replace the two main characters: "Q" now becomes the IAI and "007" now becomes a Golani Brigade officer. True, the movie may not be a blockbuster, but no one will want to be the target of this metallic bug.

This butterfly does more than just fly around in the air. Just like any self-respecting UAV, it can also take color images and relay them back to ground control in real time. If you ever imagined what it would be like to be a fly on the wall at a critical moment, this butterfly can fulfill your dream. To explain how it works, Dubi Binyamini, head of IAI's mini-robotics department, takes out a helmet with a visor that looks like something from a science fiction movie and says, "When you put this on you are actually inside the butterfly's cockpit. You see what the butterfly sees. You can fly at any altitude and distance and see everything in real time."

"The butterfly's advantage is its ability to fly in an enclosed environment. There is no other aerial vehicle that can do that today," Binaymini said. "The enclosed structure may be an airport terminal or an indoor train station. You can follow a suspect around without them aware of the fact that you are observing everything they do."

Binyamini mentions airport terminals, but in fact his butterfly can function just as well in forests and jungles. This is important because in locations like southern Lebanon, there are quite a few forests with which Israeli soldiers have unfortunately had to become familiar over the years. Aerial vehicles in use today can fly over the forests, but they don't have the ability to observe the goings-on within them. Hezbollah ambush forces can elude UAVs easily, because UAV cameras cannot "see" past the tops of the trees. If the butterfly meets its planned specifications, it will be able to fly among the trees and plants of a forest.

They are even talking about weaponizing it.

(h/t Elder of Lobby)

UNRWA changes its statement on hunger strikers

UNRWA posted the following on Thursday, according to Electronic Intifada which has screenshots:

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, expressed his grave concern about the current medical and health conditions of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

The Commissioner-General appealed to the Israeli government to find an acceptable solution, noting that the hunger strikers’ demands are generally related to the basic rights of prisoners, as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions.

Filippo Grandi reiterated the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or be set free, noting that two of the administrative detainees are in serious condition after more than 74 days, and are in imminent danger of death.

Then the statement was taken down, and this replaced it:

The statement on prisoners on hunger strike has been removed because it contained some inaccuracies, which are being checked.

Now it reads:

The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, is following with increasing concern the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, in particular, those held as administrative detainees. He echoes the calls of the Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, and Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, to reach a solution without delay.

The major difference, besides a softening of the rhetoric ("thousands of Palestinian political prisoners" changed to "Palestinian prisoners," "grave concern" into "increasing concern") is that UNRWA's original statement implies - incorrectly - that Israel's treatment of the prisoners does not adhere to the Geneva Conventions, and the updated statement no longer mentions Geneva. It also took out the part demanding that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or freed. (Of course, Western countries like the US and UK also use administrative detention.)

It is interesting that UNRWA corrected its mistake/slander for once.

(h/t MostlyKosher)

Friday Links (Ian, plus)

Amnesty International and Muslim Discrimination in Europe

Amnesty International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks. Nowhere does it call on Muslims to accept responsibility – not only for problems brought about by the refusal of many of them to accept the values of the majority, but also for their efforts to displace these values with their own.

A BCF Update on the Canadian Mosque that teaches hate

The real Palestinian refugee problem - Clifford D. May

Al-Qaeda Ladies' Choir Struts Its Stuff in Rebel Syria

Syrian protesters: "Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin"

Jihad comes to Egypt – Raymond Ibrahim.

Also, see Challah Hu Akbar on reports that Hamas has a force to stop rocket fire, and Hamas' denial.

Palestinian Arabs are buying mobile homes and setting them up as illegal outposts in Judea and Samaria in Area C, banking on Israel not doing anything about it.

Toameh goes into detail on the hypocrisy of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate outlawinmembers who talk to Israeli journalists.

The Nation has an absurd article implying that Israel targets Palestinian Arab soccer players, teams and stadiums. I don't have time to properly fisk it all, but one of the "soccer players" that the author says Israel targeted was this guy, a member of the Al Qassam Brigades. But he might have also played, so that makes him a soccer martyr. (h/t @YehudaSchlussel)

Latest Latma

I like this one.

Junk science claims birth defects in Gaza from white phosphorus

There is a new study out that claims a high correlation between birth defects in Gaza and exposure to white phosphorus:

According to a new scientific study there is "a strong correlation of birth defects newborns and parent's exposure to attacks with white phosphorus": at the registation at birth 27% of parents with birth defect children declared exposure to white phosphorus while only 1.7% of parents with normal children made the same declaration.

The report entitled "Birth Defects in Gaza: Prevalence, Types, Familiarity and Correlation with Environmental Factors", published today by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, was carried out by a team of Palestinian and Italian researchers at the Al Shifa hospital, where 28% of total births in Gaza Strip occur.

And if you read the study itself, it is filled with all kinds of statistics and verbiage that makes it sounds really, really scientific.

But there is a huge flaw in the methodology that invalidates the entire study: it relies almost completely on a survey of the parents to determine whether they were exposed, or think they were exposed, to WP.

Since the parents were surely aware if their kids were born with defects, they naturally would want to blame external factors for their situation.

While the authors - most of whom are Palestinian Arab - said that they verified exposure to WP by using UN maps of the area, they only verified it for the parents who reported exposure, not for all the parents. And nowhere do they describe their methodology of determining how "close" the parents were to the alleged WP locations - within ten meters or within the same square kilometer? It is basic science that if you don't determine these parameters before you do the research, then you are painting the bulls-eye after shooting the arrow. In other words, it is possible that they fudged the statistics (consciously or not) to make it appear that the parents of BD children had more exposure to WP sites than parents of healthy babies.

Which was, coincidentally, the exact finding they were looking for when they embarked on this entire project.

There are also some likely statistical issues. Out of a study of 2,933 total births, 44 were found to have birth defects; out of those, only 12 were reported to have been exposed to WP. The entire study is based on these 12. Combined with the bias in the questionnaire, this makes the study pretty meaningless.

(While the authors admit that 40% of the parents who had children with BD were first cousins, they said that this was the rate among all parents in Gaza.)

Also, the births in the study were for children conceived over a year after the Gaza war, not for patients who were pregnant during the war. So not only are they trying to say that WP causes birth defects, but that it continues to do so after weeks or months of exposure of the sites to the weather.

According to Medline, white phosphorus is not known to cause birth defects - and evidence that it causes birth defects over a year after parents' exposure is even more suspect.

It seems clear that this study was created and performed to come to a pre-determined conclusion. It is not science; it is anti-Israel advocacy pretending to be science.

For other anti-Israel junk science stories see here, here, here, and here.