Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 11, 2013

Friday links

From Ian:

Latma: Yuval Diskin tells all and the Left's game of trust

Jews from Arab lands: Turning back the wheels of history

"Until quite recently, the issue of Jews from Arab lands was all but absent from the public agenda and in the Israeli media. Few remember the terrible tragedies suffered by Jews in Arab countries — Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Their disaster has been nearly forgotten. It is not taught properly in schools, not discussed enough in the media, not commemorated by any official state mechanism and, until recently, was not mentioned in any international contexts.
Arab propaganda was able to conceal the population exchanges between Israel and Arab countries during the 1948 War of Independence from international discourse. Arab propaganda argues the validity of the right of return for Palestinians who fought against Israel, some of whom fled for their lives for fear of what might happen had they stayed. It has managed to instil in the public's perception, on a global level, that the Palestinian Nakba was the only tragedy that took place at the time of the state's establishment."

"Democracy is Forbidden in Islam" by Khaled Abu Toameh

"It now remains to be seen whether the Salafi Jihadists will resort to violence to prevent or foil the parliamentary election. Jordanian security officials have expressed deep concern over the radical movement's involvement in the civil war in Syria. Dozens of Jordanian Salafis have crossed the border to join various Islamist terror groups waging Jihad [holy war] against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's regime.
The Jordanians' biggest fear is that when the Salafis are done with Syria, they will intensify their efforts to turn the kingdom into an Islamic state."

PLO Office in DC Open Despite Legislation Deeming it Illegal
US State Dept. has decided to keep PLO office in Washington open for another six months, despite legislation deeming it illegal.

Terrorists Restocking Arsenal to Pre-Operation “Pillar of Defense” Levels, Officials Say

“Organizations in Gaza are working hard to restock their weapons arsenal through generous assistance from Iran,” a senior officer in the Southern Command told Channel 2 according to a translation.
“Through the tunnels of the Sinai border of Gaza come rockets, anti-tank missiles, mortars and everything you can think of. More than that they are trying to get new weapons in what they call the surprise of the next round. We’re talking about anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and long-range rockets.”

Heavy Rains Destroy Dozens of Smuggling Tunnels Along Egypt-Gaza Border

“The source said that the tunnels had collapsed after they were flooded, injuring dozens inside and damaging goods in transit.”
“According to the Egyptian Independent, the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights estimates that 197 people were killed from 2006 to 2011 in the tunnels, including 10 children.”

Route on Egypt border closed to civilian traffic
IDF chief of staff cites security reasons for closure as violence in the Sinai Peninsula intensifies

"The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday closed a stretch of Route 10, the highway running parallel to the Egyptian border, to civilian traffic.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz cited security concerns in arriving at the decision, which, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, will be in place for a year."

Tunisian Islamists Attack Offices of 'Zionist' Rights Group
A Tunisian NGO that campaigns against anti-Semitism accused a controversial militia close to ruling Islamists of attacking its office.

"A Tunisian non-governmental organization (NGO) that defends minorities and campaigns, among other issues, against anti-Semitism, has accused a controversial militia close to the ruling Islamists of attacking its offices."

Petition demands university breaks ties with Technion

"An online petition has been created demanding that the University of Sydney cuts ties with the Technion in Israel.
University-of-SydneyThe invitation to sign the petition has been made by “Ailin” and “Adam” on behalf of Students for Justice in Palestine (USyd) and contains the words ” Support Dr Jake Lynch’s Academic Boycott of Israel and End Collaboration with the criminal Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.”

Austrian court finds 3 guilty of glorifying Nazism
Website administrators sentenced to up to 9 years in prison

"An Austrian court has convicted a leading neo-Nazi and two accomplices of glorifying Nazism through a website and sentenced them to prison terms of up to nine years."

Czech ‘Joe Lieberman’ could be Europe’s first Jewish president
The son of an Auschwitz survivor, Jan Fischer compensates for his lack of charisma simply by being ‘ordinary’

Dutch city begins restoring ancient mikveh
Ritual bath disproves earlier theories that Jews only arrived in Holland after Spanish Inquisition

IDF Blog IDF Captain Saves Palestinians Trapped in Floodwater

"What made you want to risk your life in the middle of a storm?
Our role in the region is not easy. Believe me when I say that I understand we are in a complicated situation with the Palestinians. But at the end of the day, we’re all human beings. The commander of our regional brigade has repeatedly emphasized to those under his command that helping the Palestinian civilian population is a vital part of our role as IDF soldiers in the area.
I didn’t even think twice about it. People’s lives were in danger. I was ready to take the chance.
After this incident, my soldiers and I continued to rescue stranded Palestinians in the area throughout the night, but this story was undoubtedly the most memorable."

Also:
Israel’s jihad is mine (TOI h/t Josh)

The Next Chernobyl? (NYT, h/t Ian)

Why does the world go along with the Palestinians’ inventions of history? (Legal Insurrection, h/t Huffwatcher)

Take Iran to the ICC for war crimes against Israelis and Palestinians (Max Samarov)

Hamas accuses Israel of flooding Gaza - during winter storm

The Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas tweeted this on Thursday:

Alas, over a day later I cannot find the news story that documents this amazing event of Israel opening up a dam in the Negev to flood Gaza.

However, Gazans did accuse Israel of an identical crime - using the identical fictitious dam - exactly three years ago.

(I found one of the fake "dams" a short while later.)

Another moderate Fatah terror group forms

From YNet:

A group of Fatah gunmen from the Balata refugee in Nablus camp have announced the establishment of "the army of free fighters" on Wednesday.

The group members celebrated the occasion by holding a march at the camp during which they fired in the air.

Palestinian security forces have been engaged in a large-scale mission to confiscate illegal weapons in the Jenin and Balata refugee camps in recent months.

The raids often involved fire exchanges with the gunmen, some of whom are former members of Fatah's military wing the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

The gunmen now appear to be reasserting their authority in the West Bank. At a press conference the group said, "We call on President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) to form a commission of inquiry to investigate the security forces' operation that targeted hundreds of Fatah men in the West Bank."

They claimed that the arrests had humiliated them and left them with the choice of either living with dignity or dying with dignity.

The group stressed that they support Abbas as the Palestinian people's only president and will turn their weapons only against the enemies of the president and Fatah.

But in this video one of them says they are against Hamas and not against Israel.

Perhaps they just love to fire weapons.

(h/t CHA)

Jordan tells Syrian Palestinians to drop dead. No one cares.

From Times of Israel earlier this week:

Jordan has turned away dozens of Palestinian refugees on the Syrian border fleeing regime bombardment of the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus.

Palestinian refugees living in the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus have tried to enter Jordan through the Jaber border crossing after their camp was bombarded by Assad regime forces in previous weeks. They told Al-Jazeera earlier this week that while Palestinian refugees carrying Jordanian IDs were allowed to enter Jordan, children of Jordanian women who were not citizens are being refused.

Jordan has absorbed some 126,000 Syrian refugees, but Palestinians fleeing Syria are placed in a separate refugee camp at the Cyber City compound, under stricter conditions, and are banned from entering Jordanian cities. The Jordanian government fears that an influx of Palestinian refugees may tilt the demographic balance in Jordan even more towards the Palestinians, who are already believed to comprise a large majority of the population.

“Jordan is not obligated to pay a political price for the Syrian crisis,” Jordanian government spokesman Samih Maaytah told Al-Jazeera when asked why the Palestinians were not being let in.

UAE to build housing for Gaza terrorists

From Ma'an:

Gaza's housing minister said Thursday that the United Arab Emirates has donated $50 million to build a housing project for Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

The "prisoners city," which will be located in central Gaza, will be named after the UAE leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, minister of public works and housing Yousef Subhi Al-Ghariz said.

Why exactly should former prisoners - most of whom were convicted on terrorism charges - need special housing?

The fact that the "moderate" UAE is prioritizing this project in Gaza shows that the larger Arab world still supports and rewards terrorism.

UPDATE: Elder of Lobby half-jokes: "Having lived in Israeli prisons they got used to higher living standards than those available in Gaza."

More Palestinian Arab terror snow sculptures

Besides the Hamas rocket model built out of snow yesterday on the Temple Mount, here are some other Palestinian Arab snow sculptures:

Today's paranoid ramblings from a PressTV columnist

I enjoyed this one:

Prior to the establishment of what we know today as Israel, there were several attempts made to establish a homeland for Jewish people in other places throughout the world.

What appears to be the most successful attempt to establish the Jews in a homeland of their own is found approximately 5,000 miles east of Moscow close to the Chinese/Russian border in a town called Birobidzahn. Birobidzahn is the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR). This region was established by Joseph Stalin in 1928 as the first official Jewish homeland.

...According to the JAR official website, the Jewish settlers were given land, farm equipment and money donated by the various Jewish organizations and some sympathetic countries. This being the case, we are left to ask ourselves why an additional Jewish homeland was required and why in Palestine? Why weren’t the Jews who were evacuated from Germany and other parts of Europe after the Holocaust in Germany, not taken to their Jewish homeland in Russia, a homeland that by then was well established and at peace, the new settlers living peacefully among the people who were native to the region?

The answer is obvious. The Jewish homeland in Russia was not Zionist, it was Jewish.

What they apparently wanted was the land of Palestine, at least to start.

[Herzl] was looking for a base of operation from which a colony of militant extremist Zionist terrorists would be equipped with weapons by their Western sponsors.

In gratitude, these extremists would serve the British Crown and other Western powers as a military outpost. This outpost would serve as a launch pad for a series of wars and revolutions in the region that would culminate in the Zionist domination of the Muslim world. ...It was to conquer and to hold Jerusalem (al-Quds) and from Jerusalem (al-Quds) to dominate the entire Muslim world. It is quite possible that the grand Faustian deal struck between Herzl and the British Crown, resulting in the very unpopular Balfour Declaration was perhaps an agreement to allow Zionists to settle Palestine for that purpose.

Could it be that Herzl imagined that once Zionists had conquered Palestine, they would expand throughout the Muslim world through a series of revolutions? Is it possible that Herzl felt that anti-Semitism, would suffice to get Zionists into Palestine, but revolutions would be required for Zionism to spread and to dominate the Muslim world and to create Eretz Israel? Does this explain what we see today in Syria and the UK’s and France’s insistence that Israel be aided by NATO and the Western powers in its attempts at regime change and expansion into Syria? Does Herzl’s plan explain what happened in Libya and why Qaddafi was first driven from power and then seemingly killed?

There is little doubt that such ideas will be dismissed as mere conspiracy theory. Even so, we can say for certain, that no other theory suits so perfectly, the events in Palestine since 1948, including the 1967 war leading up to today’s headlines.

Why else could Jews have been interested in living in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel except to run roughshod over a billion Muslims? It all makes so much sense!

Hundreds of Muslims demonstrate in Egypt to retake Andalusia

From WebIslam (Spanish):

Hundreds of Egyptians demonstrated on Wednesday Jan. 2 in Safenex Square in Cairo to commemorate the 521st anniversary of the fall of Granada.

The demonstration was called by The Free Movement (Harakat Ahrar).

The protesters organized a human chain around the square and held signs that said: "Obligatory return","We have not forgotten Al Andalus" and "Of course we will return" ...

MEMRI has video:

Hey, in a decade they might get the UN to declare Andalusia to be "occupied Moorish territory" and in twenty years Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the enlightened Western media will agree.

Abbas' lie of the day: "Jews were not expelled from Egypt"

Mahmoud Abbas said in Cairo last night that Jews were not expelled from Egypt, but that they all left voluntarily.

As usual, he is lying.

From Wikipedia:

In the immediate aftermath of trilateral invasion during the Suez Crisis of 1956, on November 23 by Britain France and Israel, a proclamation was issued stating that 'all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state', and it promised that they would be soon expelled. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Israel, Europe, the United States and South America, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Some 1,000 more Jews were imprisoned. Similar measures were enacted against British and French nationals in retaliation for the invasion. In Joel Beinin's summary: "Between 1919 and 1956, the entire Egyptian Jewish community, like the Cicurel firm, was transformed from a national asset into a fifth column." ...

After the Six-Day War in 1967, more confiscations took place. Rami Mangoubi, who lived in Cairo at the time, states that nearly all Egyptian Jewish men between the ages of 17 and 60 were either thrown out of the country immediately, or taken to the detention centers of Abou Za'abal and Tura, where they were incarcerated and tortured for more than three years. The eventual result was the almost complete disappearance of the Jewish community in Egypt...

Thursday links

From Ian:

Elliott Abrams: The “State of Palestine” and the PLO Office in Washington

"In addition to the PLO’s historic baggage and its offensive Charter, a third reason to stop dealing with the PLO is that it is a non-democratic body. The PNA is theoretically a democratic one whose leadership is chosen through popular elections. Of course that’s highly theoretical, because the last national elections were held in 2006 and the terms of the entire parliament and of President Abbas expired long ago. Still, isn’t accepting the hypocrisy of the PNA about democracy preferable to honoring the unreformed, hopelessly compromised PLO, in whose Charter the word “democracy” does not even appear?"

[It is a good article about the contradictions between the functions of the PLO and the PA, but he doesn't mention that the PA answers to the nondemocratic PLO.- EoZ]

Will Jordan Be the First Arab Monarchy to Fall?

"...the monarchy red line will not last forever, and Washington will face a series of new strategic challenges when and if this threshold is crossed. The end of the monarchy in Jordan would constitute a particularly serious blow to U.S. interests. Should the regime fall, Washington would lose its best remaining Arab ally, and Israel would lose its last reliable peace partner."

As Fatah, Hamas meet, PM vows not to cede land
Netanyahu slams Abbas for meeting "terrorists trying to annihilate Israel," asserts Hamas would seize any territory Israel evacuates.

"We see the dangers clearly," Netanyahu said. "Today Abu Mazen (Abbas) is in Cairo together with the head of Hamas. They are looking into a possible unity deal between Fatah and the terrorists who have been trying to annihilate the state of Israel, and who have fired rockets at our cities."

Poll: Half of Israelis Say Ignore US Pressure, 67% Expect Peace Process Deadlock

"Additionally, according to the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University December 2012 Peace Index poll, two-thirds (67 percent) of Jewish Israelis agree that, no matter which parties prevail, the peace process with the Palestinians will remain at a standstill for reasons not connected to Israel."

Soldiers Nab Terrorists who Nearly Murdered Woman

"Security forces have arrested five young Palestinian Authority Arab men responsible for multiple terrorist attacks, including an attack on a female driver that left a 60-year-old woman fighting for her life.
The arrests were carried out in November, but were revealed only Wednesday with the removal of a gag order."

Douglas Murray: The Ralph Miliband lectures remind us how stupid ‘clever’ people can be

"But best of all is to recall the 2010 lecture given by LSE alumnus Saif Gaddafi. People really should watch Professor David Held’s introduction. I had forgotten how funny it is.
Whilst Ghaddafi Junior grins and waves away at lackeys in the audience, Professor Held says by way of introduction:
‘Saif is committed to resolving contentious international and domestic issues through dialogue, debate and peaceful negotiations.’ ‘Saif is committed to resolving contentious international and domestic issues through dialogue, debate and peaceful negotiations.’Obviously this was the year before Saif began massacring everybody and promised to ‘fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet’."

CIF Watch: Guardian’s anti-Zionist propagandist, Chris McGreal, responds to CiF Watch.

"In short, McGreal pieced together a few unrelated incidents of Palestinians killed or injured during a myriad of different circumstances over several years, omitted any evidence contradicting his desired narrative, and completely erased the context of Palestinian terrorism to impute unimaginable malevolence to Israeli soldiers.
As we wrote in our earlier post, what Chris McGreal engages in is not journalism. McGreal is an ideologue drawn to extreme left agitprop who trades in crude anti-Zionist propaganda."

UN group urges Cuba to release Alan Gross
Imprisonment watchdog calls jailed American’s 15-year sentence ‘arbitrary’

"The Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in an opinion released Tuesday to Gross’ lawyer that Cuba’s lack of an independent judiciary, the imprecise nature of the alleged crime and the failure to grant bail to Gross rendered his 15-year sentence “arbitrary.”

Egyptian minister said sacked for opposing Iranian influence
Ahmed Gamal El-Din’s reportedly criticized meeting between Morsi adviser and top Revolutionary Guard official

"The ouster of Egypt’s interior minister earlier this week was due to his opposition to a secret meeting between an adviser to President Mohammed Morsi and a high-ranking commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported Wednesday."

No penalties for hate crimes in Malmo, despite record attacks
Rising anti-Semitism in widely criticized Swedish city leads to zero indictments

"The local daily Sydsvenskan on Jan. 7 reported that in 2010 and 2011, the Swedish court system did not convict anyone of hate crimes despite a record-number of 480 complaints about such incidents reported in those years."

Vatican rejects sect leader’s calling Jews ‘enemies of the church’
Such a description is ‘impossible,’ says representative of Pope Benedict XVI

"Lombardi called Bishop Bernard Fellay’s remarks “meaningless” and “unacceptable.”
Lombardi was responding to comments made by Fellay, superior of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, during a Dec. 28 address at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in New Hamburg, Ontario."

Maserati, Lamborghini Withdraw Business From Iran

"Both Maserati and Lamborghini will no longer do business in Iran The Algemeiner has learned. The announcement comes following a campaign by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) aimed at pressuring the two car makers into halting their activities in the country."

Israel Daily Picture: It's Snowing in Jerusalem Today
-- A Reminder of Snows in Jerusalem almost 100 Years Ago
We present here old pictures of snow in Jerusalem from the Library of Congress collection.

Also:

"Beethoven was a Zionist": A Memoir From Israel on the Eve of its Creation

“Today I saw The Land for the first time, and it was beautiful.”

With those simple but moving words, veteran American Zionist activist Harold Manson began his remarkable diary of the visit he made to the Holy Land 65 years ago this month, shortly before the establishment of the State of Israel. It was a journey filled with surprises for Manson—but much of what he found could have been taken from our own headlines today.

“It seems that the sons of Allah are using the minaret of a mosque for sniping purposes,” he wrote. “They seldom hit anybody, but it’s damned irritating to know that Haganah retaliation would be denounced as an attack on a holy place and could precipitate ‘holy warfare’ [jihad].”

Abbas makes it clear: Destroying Israel more important than life itself

From Times of Israel /AP:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected an Israeli offer to allow Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria to enter the Palestinian territories on condition that they forgo their “right of return” to Israel proper, Abbas told the Egyptian press on Wednesday evening.

Following a meeting with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Abbas said that he had appealed to the UN to intercede on behalf of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and demand that Israel allow them to enter the West Bank and Gaza.

Abbas said Ban was told Israel “agreed to the return of those refugees to Gaza and the West Bank, but on condition that each refugee ... sign a statement that he doesn’t have the right of return (to Israel).”

“So we rejected that and said it’s better they die in Syria than give up their right of return,” Abbas told the group.

Western politicians and pundits always claim that "everybody knows" that the Palestinian Arabs will drop their demand for "return" in an eventual peace agreement and accept living in a state based on the 1949 armistice lines.

They have never said anything close to that.

Here we see the stark difference between how Jews acted in the 1940s and how Palestinian Arabs are acting today. At a time that millions of Jews were in dire danger, the highest priority of Zionists were to save them and to create a safe haven for Jews worldwide, even if they had to compromise on their historic lands and their very capital city to do so - and even compromising on promises directly made to the Zionists by the international community only a couple of decades before.

Palestinian Arab leaders, however, don't give a damn about their own people. To them, "Palestinians" exist for a single reason: to destroy the Jewish state. They are not even cannon fodder; they are PR fodder. Their people's continued misery is considered their greatest political asset, and that misery is sacrosanct.

This is why they fight tooth and nail against Palestinian Arabs being naturalized in Arab countries. This is why they fight to keep "refugee camps" open in perpetuity, even in territory they fully control. This is why they are upset when even tiny amounts of Palestinian Arabs move from environments of real deprivation to Western countries. This is why they demand UN resolutions against any attempts to build permanent housing for "refugees."

And this is why they choose to let Syrian Palestinians die rather than save them. Their value as symbols far outweighs the value of their very lives, according to the Palestinian Arab value system.

What reason can there be that a condition that will never, ever be implemented is more important than saving lives today? Because that condition reflects the very raison d'etre for Palestinian Arab nationalism itself - not to build a nation for a people, but to destroy another people's nation.

(Note also that Abbas is arrogantly making the decision to allow the Syrian Palestinians to die rather than forgo this false "principle" - but he doesn't give them the choice to make their own decisions. Which is what one would expect from a dictator.)

Is there a single human rights group that would dare condemn Abbas for his callous disregard of his purported people's lives?

(h/t Ian, Herb)

UPDATE: Here is my published comment on the Washington Post for this piece:

Is there any greater proof that Palestinian Arab leaders don't give a damn about their people?

Is there any greater proof that Mahmoud Abbas, by arrogantly making a decision dooming many people rather than letting them make their own choices, is acting with the same callousness as the dictator Assad?

Is there any greater proof that the Palestinian Arab leaders are more interested in destroying Israel via the false "right of return" than they are in building their own state?

Anyone who insists that Israel needs to make more concessions for peace needs to read - and re-read - this article to understand the realities of today's Middle East.

"Of course you are equal" Jordanian leader tells second-class Palestinian Arabs

From Ammon News:

Palestinian refugees are an important segment in Jordanian society and have equal rights and obligations, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said on Tuesday, calling on them to join forces with the state in the reform process and participate in upcoming parliamentary elections.

"We are all Jordanians under the constitution and our decisions and orientations should be united for the aspired reform and modernization process in our dear country," he told refugee camp leaders and embers of services committees.

If they are fully equal Jordanian citizens, then why are they considered "refugees"? Why do they still live in "refugee camps" over six decades after becoming citizens of Jordan? Why can they not be finally mainstreamed into Jordanian society as truly equal citizens?

And why are no Arabs, Palestinian or otherwise, even asking these questions?

Egyptian preacher advocates Islamic vice squad on TV

From Egypt Independent:

Many Egyptian viewers were horrified when preacher Hesham al-Ashry recently popped up on primetime television to say women must cover up for their own protection and advocated the introduction of religious police.

That an obscure preacher could get publicity for such views was seen as another example of the confused political scene in Egypt since the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak gave birth to a cacophony of feuding voices.

"I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can," Ashry told Al-Nahar TV channel last week.

Introducing a Saudi-style anti-vice police force to enforce Islamic law was "not a bad thing," he said, and added: "In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered."

Few take Ashry, who admits he flew to the US dreaming of a Western lifestyle and romance but instead found truth in preaching, seriously. But his views have stirred emotions.

With the economic downturn and rising food prices putting pressure on the government, moderate Muslims, Christians and others worry their newfound political freedom is at risk of being exploited by hardline Islamists bent on imposing their values on a society that has been traditionally moderate.

The article goes on to show that Al Azhar University leaders were against Ashry's ideas, but the fact that Al Azhar is now comparatively moderate tells you much about how Egypt has moved towards Islamist extremism.

What do you build with snow if you are a Palestinian Arab?

Why, you build a replica of a terror rocket meant to kill Jews - at Judaism's holiest spot!

Reuters now blames Israel for floods

I thought this would be in Arabic media first, but Reuters' Noah Browning ran with this ridiculous angle in its race to find new ways to blame Israel for anything and everything:

Heavy winter downpours have turned some Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank into a morass of filth and flooding as an Israeli barrier blocks the waters from draining away.

In Qalqilya, a town of 42,000 in the northern West Bank almost completely surrounded by the concrete wall, Khaled Kandeel and his family huddled by an open fire in a shed as trash-laden water swelled through his pear orchard.

"Before the wall, the water used to drain fine, and flowed down to the sea easily. They could just flip a switch and end our suffering, but they don't," Kandeel said, his breath steamy from the winter cold.

Israel started building the barrier, a mix of metal fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls, in 2002 in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.

Drainage channels run under the imposing ramparts but their automated metal gates are mostly closed and now clogged with refuse and stones that block the outflow of storm water.

The Israeli military, citing security reasons, generally bars locals from clearing the obstructions or digging their own channels close to the barrier.

Is this bolded text true? Who knows? Browning doesn't interview any Israeli officials for this story. (Of course, Israel is going to bar locals from digging tunnels near the barrier, but Browning tries to conflate the two to make Israel look especially evil.)

The water is filled with raw sewage, but this is Israel's fault as well, Browning informs his audience.

Later, after most people stop reading, Browning allows:

[I]n Hebron, whose old city is a flashpoint of conflict with Jewish settlers, rare coordination with the Israeli military allowed Palestinian officials to lift the concrete slabs which separate the ethnic enclaves to relieve flooding.

"We removed the concrete to prevent the passage of water to the old city souq, where flooding reached up to one meter," said Walid Abu Halawa of Hebron's construction commission.

Was there any attempt to work through channels in Qalqiya? Browning doesn't say.

Then again, he is probably working on his next article on how the separation barrier is being used by Israel to keep the wild pigs Jews breed to attack Arabs on the Arab side.

New York Times declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel!

Well, they said it in 1967 - before the Six Day War - in an editorial, no less:

Which just goes to show that facts that are evident to all can be eroded by years of propaganda.

Iraq News Agency spouting pure anti-semitism

I've been seeing more and more pure anti-semitic drivel from the Iraq News Agency lately, much of it reproduced elsewhere.

But this sentence is a classic distillation of hate, the type that is never reported in the West:

There is no harmful insect on the planet more dangerous than the Jews, and there is no incurable disease eating away at the human body is the worse than the Jews; and there is not any book since the inception of the world to warn nations and peoples of the psychological and intellectual epidemics of the Jews like the Koran.

Abbas Commemorates 'Martyrs,' Including Hajj Amin Al-Husseini

Guest post by Challah Hu Akbar, aka CHA or Challah

***

CHALLAH @ MEMRI

Mahmoud 'Abbas: "On the anniversary of Fatah, we renew the pledge to our fortunate martyrs. We pledge to continue on the path of the martyr brother Abu Ammar, and his comrades and brothers, the leaders from all the fighting factions – all the martyrs. "Let me mention the martyr Abu Jihad, Khalil Al-Wazir, the martyr Abu Iyad, Salah Khalaf, the martyr Abd Al-Fattah Hamoud, the martyr Abu Ali Iyad, the martyr Abu Sabri Saydam, the martyr Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar, the martyr Kamal Adwan, the martyr Kamal Nasser, the martyr Abu Al-Waleed Saad Sael, the martyr Faysal Al-Husseini, the martyr Abu Al-Hol, the martyr Abu Al-Mundhir, the martyr Khaled Al-Hassan, the martyr Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the martyr Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantissi, the martyr Ismail Abu Shanab, the martyr Fathi Shiqaqi, the martyr George Habash, the martyr Omar A-Qassem, the martyr Sakhr Habash, the martyr Suleiman Al-Najjar, the martyr Bashir Al-Barghouthi, the martyr Hani Al-Hassan, the martyr Abu Ali Mustafa, the martyr Abu Al-'Abbas, the martyr Samir Ghosheh, and today's martyr, the martyr of the Intifada, Abu Al-Abd Khattab. Allah's mercy upon them all. "In addition, there were tens of thousands of martyrs and heroes. Here we must remember the pioneers – the Grand Mufti of Palestine, Hajj Muhammad Amin Al-Husseini, as well as Ahmad Al-Shukeiri, the founder of the PLO, and Yahya Hamouda, the head of the PLO Executive Committee. Let us not forget the martyr Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, who sparked the 1936 revolution." [...]

Thank you

My shiva ended this morning, and I'm easing into getting back into the swing of things at work and for the blog. Things might remain slow on the blog for the next few days, though.

Thanks so much for the many messages of condolence sent to me, in the comments, email, Twitter and Facebook. I really do appreciate it.

Thanks also to Challah Hu Akbar for agreeing to pinch-hit for me. Please add his excellent blog to your bookmarks.

Special thanks to the two bloggers who attended the funeral in Israel, Aussie Dave of Israellycool and "Caleb ben Yefuneh" of Love of the Land.

While I generally do not talk about my personal life on my blog, I will make a brief exception here.

My father was a remarkable man. He was a Holocaust survivor who witnessed unspeakable horrors and the loss of family members when he was only a teenager. Yet he still managed to survive, marry a fellow survivor and raise a family in America, sacrificing much to allow his children to receive a Jewish education at a time that many of his fellow survivors abandoned Judaism altogether. He built a small business, literally starting it in our garage. He, and lehavdil bein chaim lechaim, my mother, tried very hard to ensure that their kids would be raised normally despite what they went through. As Dad stated on the videotape he made for the USC Shoah Foundation, he just wanted his children to be good Jews - and not to ever have to go through one percent of what he went through.

Is Iran After A Syrian Uranium Stockpile?

Guest post by Challah Hu Akbar, aka CHA or Challah

***

CHALLAH @ Ynet

Nuclear experts in the US and Middle East have raised concerns about the security of up to 50 metric tons of unenriched uranium in Syria, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. Such a stockpile could be a vital resource to building a nuclear bomb and could have disastrous implications if seized by Iran.

Not much is known about the Syrian nuclear program, and the country denied ever having had one. But intelligence data collected at the time indicated that President Bashar Assad regime’s was close to completing a nuclear reactor at Al-Kibar, in the east of the country, when it was reportedly destroyed by Israeli jets in September 2007.

Intelligence officials have long believed that the reactor was familiar in its design to the Yongbyon facility in North Korea, which aided Syria with its program. By comparing the two reactors, experts have concluded that Al-Kibar would have required about 50 tonnes of natural uranium fuel to become operational.

Government officials and nuclear experts have recently told the Financial Times that there were legitimate concerns about a uranium stockpile of such magnitude which may have remained in Syria. According to experts, such a stockpile would be enough to provide weapons grade fuel for five atomic devices.

… An IAEA inspection team visited the destroyed Al-Kibar site in May 2008 and only found traces of uranium, adding to the mystery of where the stockpile might be. According to the report, some government officials have expressed fears that Iran, which is closely allied to Syria and needs uranium for its nuclear program, might be trying to seize the uranium.

These concerns have been brought upon by signs of movement at what they allege is a secret uranium conversion facility that the Syrian regime built at the town of Marj al-Sultan near Damascus. “You could draw the conclusion that there may be something at this site that the Syrian authorities are keen to defend from opposition forces,” said Albright, an expert on the Iranian nuclear program. “It would be interesting to know what it is.”

While the officials were unable to unequivocally determine whether uranium was in fact stored at the site, they said that Syria is almost certainly in possession of the element urgently sought by Iran. "It would certainly be possible to transfer this from Syria to Iran by air,” one official said.