10/09 Links Part 1: Terrorist Shooting Victim Heads Home, Guardianistas Vote Rouhani for Nobel

From Ian:

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Psagot Victim Heads Home

Four days after a terrorist shot her in the neck at close range, nine-year-old Noam Glick has returned home.
Her friends from Psagot met her with flowers and balloons.
Noam suffered serious injuries in the shooting, which took place as she played on the balcony of her family’s home in Psagot, north of Jerusalem. However, after an emergency surgery, her condition was upgraded to “good,” and she has made a speedy recovery.

IDF Officials Pay Visit to Nine-Year-Old Terror Victim

The IDF's Head of Central Command, Nitzan Alon, and the head of the Binyamin Brigade, Yosef Pinto, paid a visit to the Glick family of the Binyamin community of Psagot.

JPost Editorial: Omitting the flag

Lustick and other experts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict see Israelis, even those who immigrated to Israel from Muslim countries in the region, as a “European fragment society” no different from the British in India or Kenya, the Belgians in the Congo, the Afrikaners in South Africa.
As long as the Palestinians view Zionists as just another colonialist white settler movement, there is little chance of reaching a two-state solution in which both sides recognize the legitimacy of the other to live here in peace and security.
The omission of the Israeli flag this week in the Mukata is just a symptom of a much deeper problem.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Is Abbas Losing Control Over Fatah?

The latest dispute began when bodyguards escorting Jibril Rajoub, a former security commander, beat Fatah legislator Jamal Abu al-Rub.
The incident took place during a heated debate over the responsibility of Fatah thugs and gunmen for scenes of anarchy and lawlessness in Jenin.
Abu al-Rub, who is a Fatah leader from Jenin, is nicknamed "Hitler" because of his ruthless and violent attacks on Palestinians suspected of "collaboration" with Israel.
After al-Rub was beaten, Fatah gunmen issued a leaflet warning Rajoub against entering Jenin. Now Abbas is busy trying to achieve a sulha [reconciliation] between the two senior Fatah leaders-warlords.

Make Barghouti your deputy, Fatah leaders urge Abbas

The issue of succession — Abbas is 78 years old — was raised at the end of September during a meeting in Ramallah of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and the party’s Central Committee, the two most influential bodies in the hierarchy of Fatah, Abbas’s dominant faction of the PLO.
At the meeting, committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, an adviser to Abbas, took the floor to propose that Abbas appoint a vice president, and recommended Fatah Tanzim leader Barghouti (who was once a political rival of Tirawi’s) as the man for the job. Tirawi argued that Barghouti’s appointment would pave the way for his release from Israeli incarceration.

Abbas’ Idea for Israeli Security: No IDF Arrests of Terrorists

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has vowed that a new Arab state within Israel’s borders will keep Israel secure, demands that the IDF stop entering Arab-controlled cities.
Israeli soldiers do not visit Shechem and Jenin to buy cheap vegetables. They enter to arrest terrorists, while the PA security forces give out parking tickets, try to catch criminals and occasionally search for rival terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The Palestinian Authority almost never arrests terrorists belonging to the ”military branch” of the ruling Fatah party.

Top PLO official dubs Netanyahu ‘number one extremist’

Speaking to Palestinian radio on Monday, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the PLO and one of only two Palestinian officials authorized to comment on negotiations with Israel, predicted that the recently revived talks would collapse due to Netanyahu’s entrenched positions.
“Netanyahu is the number one extremist in Israel. He hides behind [Economics Minister Naftali] Bennett and [former foreign minister Avigdor] Liberman. He is the symbol of extremism and resorts to a policy that seeks no solution,” Abed Rabbo said, adding that the Palestinian leadership refuses to recognize “historic Palestine” as the “homeland of the Jewish people.”

PMW: Fatah: Suicide bombers are “Palestine’s illustrious women”

Two female suicide bombers who together killed 3 and wounded more than 130 are being presented by Fatah as great role models worthy of admiration.
Recently, the administrator of one of Fatah's official Facebook pages posted a picture of terrorist Wafa Idris with the words, "Palestine's illustrious women."
A few days later, the same Fatah page glorified female suicide bomber Zainab Abu Salem as "the 18 year-old heroic female Martyrdom-seeker."

Arch-terrorist Ahmed Yassin is "exalted Palestinian figure" - PA Minister of Religious Affairs


Isolated Hamas faces money crisis in Gaza Strip

Hamas is struggling to meet its payroll in the Gaza Strip, where income from taxes has been badly hit since neighboring Egypt started destroying a network of tunnels used to smuggle food, fuel and weapons into the Islamist-run enclave.
The crisis means that Gaza's thousands of civil servants may not receive their full salaries in time for an important Muslim holiday next week.

Turkish PM Erdogan hosts increasingly isolated Hamas leader Mashaal in Ankara

Increasingly isolated since the loss of a key ally in deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal traveled Tuesday to one of the few world leaders still willing to embrace him: Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
One Israeli official said that Hamas today was experiencing “a period of unprecedented isolation” because of its terrorism and extremism.

Erdan: Hezbollah Has 200,000 New Rockets, and the Same Goal

Israel’s enemies are taking a new approach to warfare, and Israel must be ready, Minister of Home Front Defense Gilad Erdan said Tuesday, speaking at a conference at Bar Ilan University.
“Our enemies have abandoned the idea of conquering territory in the land of Israel. What remains is their desire to defeat Israel by threatening the homefront,” he explained.

US official: Washington plans to halt military aid to Egypt

A US official on Tuesday said the United States was leaning toward withholding most military aid to Egypt except to promote counterterrorism, security in the Sinai Peninsula and other such priorities.
The official said US President Barack Obama had not made a final decision on the issue, which has vexed US officials as they balance a desire to be seen promoting democracy and rights with a desire to keep up some cooperation with Egypt's military.
The White House denied that any change had been made in its policy on aid to Egypt.

Jonathan Kay: Canadian activists are finally learning that Israel isn’t the Middle East’s true villain

Egyptian military authorities have been co-operating with Israel in controlling the flow of weapons and militants to and from Gaza for years. But till now, Western pro-Palestinian activists generally have preferred to play down this fact. The case against Israel works best when it is presented as a simple morality play about indigenous Arabs battling neo-colonialist Jews. And so the fact that many Arab leaders in the region (including not only those in Egypt, but also Lebanon and Jordan) share Israel’s fear of Palestinian militancy is seen as an embarrassment to the conceit of anti-Zionist solidarity.

Canada’s ‘Gay Batman and Robin’ Freed From Egyptian Prison

So Greyson and Loubani ponced off to Egypt to “raise awareness” about something or other, when they were captured in possession of two hobby-sized helicopters fitted with GoPro cameras.
Almost like, you know, spy drones or something.
The pair insisted these devices were actually going to be used for, in their own words, “the testing of the transportation of medical samples.”
Uh huh.
The two were duly tossed into a Cairo prison. They went on a juice fast hunger strike. Gullible liberals back home campaigned for their return.

Netanyahu’s silent Middle East majority

While optimistic western elites bristle at Netanyahu’s rejection of Rouhani’s “smile and conquer diplomacy,” The Middle East’s silent Sunni majority backs Netanyahu’s “distrust, dismantle, and verify” approach towards neighboring Iranian regime’s nuclear program and race for regional supremacy.
Led by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and supported by the region’s many minorities including Kurds, Christians, Druse, Sufis, Baluchees and others, several hundred million Sunnis across the Middle East are quietly banking on Netanyahu’s making good on his declaration before the UN General Assembly that, “Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons,” and “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

Britain working to reopen embassy in Iran

The British embassy in Tehran was closed in late 2011 after a mob overran the building as tensions over a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities ran high. Iran also closed its embassy in London. Relations have remained tense since then, but the recent election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has raised hopes of a thaw between Iran and the West — and of a possible nuclear deal.

Iran rejects US precondition for participating in Syria peace conference

The US State Department said on Monday Washington would be more open to Iran taking part in a "Geneva 2" conference seeking an end to the war if Iran publicly supported a 2012 statement calling for a transitional authority to rule Syria.
But Iran rejected any conditions being placed on it to participate in diplomatic efforts on Syria, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday evening.

Guardian poll - Nobel Prize for Rouhani

Online readers of the Guardian newspaper have voted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as most deserving to be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. In a poll posted Monday, the Islamic Republic leader had by Tuesday night raked in 69 percent of the online voters, more than four times the number of votes raked in by the second most popular nominee, Pakistani political and social activist Malala Yousafza.

Kenya identifies mall attackers, including American

A spokesman for the Kenya Defense Forces has identified four terrorists who took part in the deadly Nairobi mall attack last month.
They are: Khattab al-Kene, an American Somali; Abu Baara al-Sudani, from Sudan; Omar Nabhan, from Kenya; and a man identified only as Umayr.
It was not clear what Khattab al-Kene's name may have been in the United States.

‘Revealing’ outfit gets Turkish TV host fired

AKP party spokesman Huseyin Celik criticized Gözde Kansu’s outfit, saying “We don’t intervene against anyone, but this is too much. It is unacceptable,” the Hurriyet Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Since the Islamist AKP came to power in the general elections in 2002, it has been working to slowly Islamize Turkey. But now that the party is more firmly in power, it has become more aggressive in enforcing its views on the public.

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UN can't tell difference between peace activists and Arabs who want Israel destroyed

The UN is holding a "Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East." As you can imagine, the seminar has nothing to do with peace in Egypt, Syria, Iraq or Lebanon.

The panel speaking today at the seminar "Youth activism, digital journalism and social media in the Middle East" reveals quite a bit about what the UN considers to be "peace."

Youth activism continues to be a driving force behind movements for peace, justice and democracy in Israel and Palestine, and across the Middle East. This panel will discuss how the acceleration in digital technologies and social media is affecting youth activism, and how the use of social media by youth activists has helped and/or hindered their causes.
Moderator: Mr. Ahmed Shihab Eldin, Producer and host, Huffington Post Live
Mr. Ahmad Alhendawi, United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth
Ms. Rana Nazzal Hamadeh, Youth activist, Palestine
Ms. Sahar Vardi, Peace activist, Israel
Mr. Gökhan Yücel, Digital diplomacy expert and Lecturer at the Leadership, Politics and Diplomacy School of Bahçeşehir University

The Israeli representative, Sahar Vardi, is a far-left activist who refused to serve in the IDF and who participates in weekly anti-Israel protests. It seems clear that she really wants peace between Jews and Arabs, however misguided her viewpoint.

Contrast this with the Palestinian Arab representative, Rana Nazzal Hamadeh. She has this quote on her Twitter profile:

From you steel & fire, from us flesh, from you another tank, from us stones. So leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds- M Darwish

Does a demand that all Jews be ethnically cleansed from the area sound peaceful to you?

Can you imagine a Jew who says anything close to that ("leave our country, our land...") being invited to speak at any UN-sponsored conference, ever?

The fact is that any Jew who would speak like this would be considered an intolerant far-right bigot and would not be accepted in polite society. A Palestinian Arab who says this is honored as a leader on peace and justice.

There is a serious problem here.

The people who should properly protest this are the liberals. Hamadeh's attitude is the exact opposite of liberalism. But the acceptance and tacit encouragement of Arab violence is so ingrained in the "enlightened" Western world that nobody bats an eyelash.

(I tweeted Vardi asking if she agreed with Hamadeh's quote, but didn't receive a response yet.)

(h/t PMB)

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Why Iran's reported offer to stop uranium enrichment at 20% is a joke

YNet reports:

Iran is preparing a package which could revitalize long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear program, but which falls short of a complete shutdown of uranium enrichment, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the Iranian proposals include an offer to stop enriching uranium to levels of 20% purity – a demand which Tehran has rejected in the past.

In return Iran will request that the US and European Union begin scaling back sanctions that have left it largely frozen out of the international financial system and isolated its oil industry.

Would a plan to limit uranium enrichment to 20% be adequate?

No - it would be a joke.

This is not only my opinion or even only Israel's opinion. ISIS, the independent scientific think-tank that has been closely following the Iranian nuclear program for years, explains why enough of a stockpile of 20% enriched uranium is effectively giving Iran the bomb.. Here is what they wrote last March:

We estimate that Iran, on its current trajectory, will by mid-2014 be able to dash to fissile material in one to two weeks unless its production of 20%-enriched uranium is curtailed. If the number or efficiency of Iran’s centrifuges unexpectedly increases, or if Tehran has a secret operational enrichment site, Tehran could reach critical capability before mid-2014. ...

At nuclear talks in Kazakhstan in February, Western negotiators reportedly focused on persuading Iran to curtail its production of 20%-enriched uranium and to export some of its existing stock. These goals are important but insufficient. As Iran increases the quality and quantity of its spinning centrifuges to the point of critical capability, a moratorium on 20%-enriched uranium will matter less and less. It will become easier for Tehran—after using some pretext to renege on a 20% moratorium—to rapidly make up for lost time in accumulating enough 20% enriched uranium that, if further enriched to weapons-grade (or about 90% enriched), would be enough for a bomb. Once Tehran had enough 20% material for a bomb, it could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for that bomb in a week or two.

...Currently, the IAEA inspects two Iranian enrichment facilities on average once a week, and a third facility every two weeks on average. With this rate of inspections, Iran would need to produce 25 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium (enough for one bomb) from its stockpiles of lower enriched uranium in less than one week. The window might be widened to two or three weeks if Tehran blocked one or two inspections on the pretext of an “accident” or a “protest.”

In short, when the amount of time to enrich enough 20% uranium to 25 kg of weapons-grade uranium 90% becomes less than two weeks, under the current inspection regime, then Iran for all intents and purposes can build a bomb whenever they want without fear of being caught.

This is assuming the IAEA is even aware of all Iranian centrifuge facilities. There is evidence that Iran may have started building at least one such secret facility in 2011, and all its other centrifuge facilities were built in secret without informing the IAEA ahead of time. This shrinks the two week window even further.

Even placing IAEA inspectors on site permanently might not be enough, as they could be used as hostages to dissuade any military option to stop enrichment.

In other words, this is the time to keep the pressure on Iran to destroy existing stockpiles of 20% enriched uranium, not to allow it.

But as the WSJ article points out:

By falling short of a complete shutdown of enrichment, the anticipated Iranian offer could divide the U.S. from its closest Middle East allies, particularly Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have cautioned the White House against moving too quickly to improve ties with Tehran, according to American and Mideast officials.

And that is the entire point.

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The hypocrisy of the ICRC and the definition of "occupation" (updated - ICRC responds) (x2+)

A couple of years ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross put a bunch of international law scholar in a room and they all discussed "Occupation and Other Forms of Administration of Foreign Territory."

One very interesting part of the resulting publication is that the experts didn't only discuss what factors make a territory legally occupied, but also what factors are necessary to end occupation.

While there was rarely consensus across the board, some parts of the discussions are most enlightening.

As far as the definition of occupation is concerned, there was near unanimity that it has three components:

The experts discussed the cumulative constitutive elements of the notion of effective control over a foreign territory, which underpins the definition of occupation set out in Article 42 of the Hague Regulations of 1907.

The presence of foreign forces: this criterion was considered to be the only way to establish and exert firm control over a foreign territory. It was identified as a prerequisite for the establishment of an occupation, notably because it makes the link between the notion of effective control and the ability to fulfil the obligations incumbent upon the occupying power. It was also agreed that occupation could not be established or maintained solely through the exercise of power from beyond the boundaries of the occupied
territory; a certain number of foreign “boots on the ground” were required.

The exercise of authority over the occupied territory: the experts agreed that, once enemy foreign forces were present, it was their ability to exert authority in the foreign territory that mattered, not the actual and concrete exercise of such authority. Using a test based on the ability to exert authority would prevent any attempt by the occupant to evade its duties under occupation law by deliberately not exercising authority or by installing a puppet government. It was also agreed that occupation law did not require authority to be exercised exclusively by the occupying power. It allows for authority to be shared by the occupant and the occupied government, provided the former continues to bear ultimate
and overall responsibility for the occupied territory.

The non-consensual nature of belligerent occupation: absence of consent from the State whose territory is subject to the foreign forces’ presence was identified as a precondition for the existence of a state of belligerent occupation. For occupation law to be inapplicable, this consent should be genuine, valid and explicit. The experts felt that because occupation law does not provide for any criteria for evaluating it, consent should be interpreted in the light of current public international law. Eventually, the existence
of a presumption of absence of consent when foreign forces intervened in a failed State was approved.

These are pretty much what every serious legal scholar agrees are the criteria for occupation.

What about the end of occupation? At what point is occupation over?

A large majority of the experts expressed the view that the criteria for establishing the end of an occupation should mirror the ones used to determine its beginning. In other words, the criteria should be the same as those for the beginning of occupation but in the reverse order. Therefore, the physical presence of foreign forces, their ability to exert their authority over the territory concerned and the continuing absence of the territorial authorities’ consent to the foreign forces’ presence would be the preconditions that would have to be cumulatively fulfilled in order to conclude that the occupation had not ended. Should one of those criteria be unmet, it would result in the termination of the state of occupation. The concept of ‘classic’ occupation was the basis of the discussions on the criteria for determining the existence of a state of occupation, in particular its termination, for the purposes of IHL.

The reason is pretty clear:

...some of the experts emphasized the point that an occupation could not be said to exist when the foreign forces had withdrawn completely from the territory concerned. According to them, one could not then support the continued application of occupation law and claim that the foreign forces still bore responsibilities under this body of law, because those troops would not be in a position to fulfil the related obligations. This would totally contradict the principle of effectiveness that pervades IHL, occupation law in particular. The absence of foreign troops should not serve only as an indicator for assessing the end of occupation but should be maintained as a prerequisite for determining the end of occupation as well.24 A participant pointed out that one should not build arguments for artificially maintaining the framework of occupation law, especially when this might require the foreign forces to re-invade an area they had left. In other words, it was underscored that occupation law could never oblige foreign forces to re-occupy territory from which they had completely withdrawn.

Being humanitarians, some were uncomfortable with the idea that a foreign army can just choose to leave and leave the territory to fend for itself. They came up with the concept of "residual responsibilities":

One expert added that once foreign troops had left a territory they had been occupying, the occupation law framework vanished and new legal bases should be elaborated for the residual responsibilities that could still be borne by the former occupant.

Indeed, some participants argued that the remaining aspects of occupation (i.e. the competences retained by the former occupying power) would continue to be governed by occupation law even if effective control had been concretely relinquished....

On the other hand:

Two experts nonetheless contested the view that occupation law could provide an adequate legal basis for those residual responsibilities. They drew attention to the fact that occupation law norms were calibrated to take effect only when a certain amount of control had been established over a given foreign territory; this point would be reached only when the criteria identified in the previous working sessions had been met. Therefore, these experts argued, it would not be wise to detach the application of occupation law from the concept of effective control for the purposes of IHL.

The residual responsibilities exercised by the former occupying power should be governed by other bodies of law, such as human rights law or even residual IHL, since occupation law would no longer be applicable. In this regard, one expert warned against the danger of cramming everything into occupation law and underlined the necessity of not stretching this corpus juris beyond its breaking point, as that would ultimately challenge the principle of effectivity on which occupation law was premised. This would particularly be the case if one were to attempt to impose obligations under occupation law on foreign forces that were not in a position to respect them, insofar as this body of law’s positive obligations, to be implemented effectively, usually required the presence of ‘boots on the ground.’

No counter-argument is offered.

Later on, referring to Gaza specifically, the report concludes* (see update 2, it was not a conclusion but part of an appendix:)

...the specific proposition that the rules relating to occupation continued in the situation after September 2005 would appear difficult to sustain granted the traditional rules about occupation with their strong emphasis on the factual basis of a continuing presence on the ground.

In other words, there is near-total consensus view among international legal scholars surveyed in this ICRC document that Gaza cannot possibly be considered occupied by Israel in a legal sense (although the report was careful to state that conclusions like this should not be drawn about specific situations like Gaza, see update 2 below. I am basing this statement on the arguments of occupation given in the document. I would guess that the reason that the ICRC made that disclaimer is specifically for cases like Gaza where they want to make their own legal decisions independent of what international law actually says.)

However, in the ICRC's latest annual report, they write:

[The ICRC] responded rapidly to the needs of people affected by emergencies, including towards year-end in the DRC, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (Gaza Strip) and the Philippines.

Just like the UN, the ICRC knows the definition of occupation does not in any way apply to Gaza - yet they still call Gaza occupied!

In the case of the ICRC, it is worse. Because the ICRC acts like it is the ultimate authority on international humanitarian law, so when it says Gaza is occupied - against the legal reasoning of the experts it consulted* - it has gravitas. There is essentially no sane legal argument that Gaza should still be considered occupied (see here for answers to the most significant arguments not addressed in the ICRC document.)

The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the ICRC is just as political an organization as the UN is, and it will toe the politically correct line of saying Gaza is occupied even when it knows quite well otherwise. As is so often the case, there is one rule for Israel and one for the rest of the world - even among those who pretend to be the most unbiased observers.


(This ICRC hypocrisy was noted in this short but essential paper by Robbie Sabel at JCPA; I just followed his footnotes to verify that the ICRC indeed comes up with one conclusion and then ignores it when it comes to Israel.)

UPDATE: Juan-Pedro Schaerer, ICRC Head of Delegation Israel and the Occupied Territories, responds in the comments:

While this article provides a summary of an important expert's workshop, the author ignores essential facts used by the ICRC when applying of the Law of Occupation to Gaza.

The ICRC closely monitors developments in the Gaza Strip, since facts on the ground are crucial to determining whether the elements of effective control required for occupation continue to be met. While it cannot be said that the Gaza Strip is a "classic" situation of occupation, Israel has not entirely relinquished its effective control over the Strip. This control includes amongst other the almost total control over the borders of the Gaza Strip (except for the border with Egypt), the control over the airspace and the entire coast line, the control over who can move out of the Gaza Strip, the control of the population register, control over all the items that can be imported and exported from the Strip and the control over a no-go zone along the Gaza fence inside the Gaza Strip. These facts and others allow ICRC to determine that Israel exercises effective control and therefore remains bound by the law of occupation in the case of Gaza.

This article ignores such essential facts and concludes in a facile way that the ICRC is hypocritical, biased and politically-motivated. The ICRC has no doubt that much of the hardship caused to the 1.7 million people living in Gaza would be reduced if international humanitarian law was fully understood and respected. ICRC works in a neutral and impartial way to promote a better understanding of international humanitarian law, and to alleviate the suffering caused by those who fail to respect it.

Schaerer Juan Pedro
ICRC Head of Delegation Israel and the Occupied Territories

I responded:

Thanks for your response.

According to the consensus of the report, as well every single other legal analysis I have ever seen (from Amnesty, for example) the notion of effective control means "boots on the ground." The ICRC report allows "indirect effective control" if there is a local militia that answers to the occupant. That's it.

If your argument is that control over airspace, coast and (most) of the borders, etc. constitutes "effective control," then the ICRC is truly pursuing a sui generis definition that applies to Israel, and only Israel. (As the EJIL article I referenced concluded, you can say that the situation is a siege - something that the border with Egypt completely contradicts - but in no way is it an occupation.) Israel couldn't fire a garbageman in Gaza if it wanted, let alone install a new government.

I am not arguing that Israel has no responsibilities under IHL to help the civilians of Gaza. The Israel Supreme Court decision Jaber al-Basyuni Ahmad et al. v. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence makes it clear that it does, under LOAC for example. But if the ICRC is defining Gaza as "occupied," and your response proves that it does (I admit I was hoping that it was a mistake,) then you are proving that the ICRC has a different standard for its definition of occupation only in respect to Israel.

I believe that your response proves my point.

UPDATE 2+ (Things in italics in this update were written Saturday night): Mondoweiss' Phan Nguyen writes a lengthy post criticizing this article. Time constraints do not allow me to fully address all the points right now.

I will admit that the wording I used that the ICRC report "concludes" that occupation relies on "boots on the ground" was incorrect; it was an appendix by Professor Adam Roberts. However, contrary to what the Mondoweiss author writes (saying my interpretation is "perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of EOZ quoting Roberts") Roberts makes crystal clear that he is saying that the idea of Gaza being considered occupied after Israel's withdrawal is problematic. Here's the entire paragraph:

Whatever one’s view of the main substantive part of the Supreme Court’s verdict in this case, the specific proposition that the rules relating to occupation continued in the situation after September 2005 (which was only one plank of the petitioners’ case) would appear difficult to sustain granted the traditional rules about occupation with their strong emphasis on the factual basis of a continuing presence on the ground.

I have no clue how the Ngyuyen can read this the opposite way. Perhaps he is the one with the reading comprehension problem, but readers can make up your own minds.

I don't think I characterized the report as being reflective of the ICRC's official views, as Nguyen says. I read the report as being an attempt to determine the laws of occupation, period. (*There was one line I did characterize the report as "ICRC's own legal reasoning" and that was indeed wrong. I placed an asterisk there before Shabbat intending to admit that in this update, but in the rush I forgot. I was most certainly not trying to erase any evidence; I know enough about the Internet to know about cached copies. Sheesh.) I found it hypocritical that the ICRC in practice behaves opposite what most of the experts it gathered say, that there are three criteria to determine occupation and (most of them) agreeing that the same three criteria determine the end of one.

I plan to go into more detail on the sui generis part of the ICRC's thinking based on the second report that was referenced by Schaerer, by Ferraro, in the comments of this post but not in the post itself. I think that Ferraro, an ICRC legal adviser, was bending over backwards to figure out a way to make Israel appear to be occupying Gaza even though most of his paper would seem to argue the opposite; in addition he brings no sources at all to prove his very novel theory.

It is true that sometimes the boundaries of law must be determined by sui generis cases.  But the law must be interpreted dispassionately and not to come to a predetermined conclusion based on how the lawyer feels about the specific case. The arguments about control of borders, airspace, etc. being "effective control" are not merely stretching the boundary a little - they are moving it to places that no objective legal scholar would ever countenance. "Boots on the ground" has been one of the definitions of occupation accepted by all since the 19th century, to throw that away without any solid legal reasoning indicates that the legal arguments are meant to come to a specific conclusion, which is really a travesty of the law.

And this is what the ICRC is doing. More details next week.

My critic doesn't want to get into that argument, of how the law cannot be changed that drastically especially by parties who have an interest in changing it, instead concentrating on minor mistakes I made. In retrospect the term "hypocrisy" was perhaps too harsh but I will return to that in a followup post.


UPDATE 3: Followup post here demolishing Schaerer's comments.

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Iran still not blaming Israel for murder of cyber-warfare expert

From Fox News:

When a key Iranian scientist was gunned down last week, many observers figured Israeli spy agency Mossad had struck again. But new signs point to deadly intrigue within the rogue nation’s fractious leadership.

In the days since the body of Mojtaba Ahmadi, who worked on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ secretive cyberwarfare unit, turned up in a wooded area north of Tehran, the mystery behind his death has only deepened. As with five previous hits on top scientists, witnesses reported black-clad gunmen seen speeding away on motorcycles. But this time, the regime did not immediately point the finger at Israel. In fact, it hasn’t pointed the finger anywhere – despite an exiled group’s claim of responsibility.

“In the wake of a horrific incident involving one of the IRGC officials... the matter is being investigated and the main reason of the event and the motive of the attacker has not been specified,” read a statement from Revolutionary Guards to the state-controlled Sepah News.

The IRGC specifically ruled out an assassination, curious in light of witnesses who said Ahmadi was shot twice in the chest at close range in a nation where gun crime is virtually nonexistent. The murky circumstances, uncharacteristically deliberative approach of the IRGC and new President Hassan Rouhani’s recent overtures to the West have prompted speculation.

Since 2007, five Iranian nuclear scientists, as well as the nation’s ballistic missile program director, have been assassinated in attacks the regime routinely blamed on Israel. Typically, Israel has declined to comment on the assassinations, other than to convey off the record to reporters that it was not dismayed by such developments. But Yaakov Peri, former chief of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, and a current cabinet minister, told Israel Radio Ahmadi’s murder has the hallmarks of an “internal dispute.”

“The fact that a cyber commander or this or that scientist was wiped out or killed in this or that assassination does not necessarily mean that Israel’s hand is in the matter,” Peri said.

Other regime watchers have noted that Ahmadi’s team launched a cyber attack at the U.S. Navy that coincided with Rouhani’s trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, a move that some saw as aimed at undermining Rouhani, a self-styled moderate. Ahmadi’s death may have been Rouhani loyalists sending a message to hard-liners within the nation’s complex leadership matrix.

Interesting, isn't it?

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10/08 Links Pt2: Jacobson ‘Anti-Semites shielded by Israel criticism’, T.A. Prof Awarded Nobel.

From Ian:

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Howard Jacobson: 'Jews Will Never Be Forgiven the Holocaust'

At the conclusion of Jacobson's speech, he said that "Jews are considered to have forgone their right to own even a part-share in defining anti-Semitism, or to judge the extent to which they are, or indeed ever were, its victims.
“Thus, has the shame of thinking anti-Semitic thoughts been lifted from the shoulders of liberals. Since there can be no such thing as anti-Semitism - Jews having stepped outside the circle of offence in which minorities can be considered to have been offended against - there is no charge of anti-Semitism to answer. The door is now wide open, for those who truly believe they have nothing in their hearts but love, to stroll guilelessly through to hate."

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: J Street is not a ‘pro-Israel’ organization

In the past, Labor leaders, including Yitzhak Rabin, considered it unconscionable for Jews living outside Israel to publicly meddle in issues impacting on Israeli security, the life-and-death consequences of which would be borne by neither them nor their children.
That such an erosion of the Zionist ethos was sanctioned during the term of office of a government purporting to represent the national camp reflects its dysfunctionality and failure to maintain collective responsibility.
With the current unprecedented global escalation of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism, we must divorce ourselves from the enemy within. There is plenty of room in the Jewish tent for legitimate dissent and freedom of expression. But “pro-Israel” Diaspora Jews are morally barred from intruding and in particular from lobbying governments to pressure Israel to take actions which impinge on its national security.

Allegations of Palestinian Scorched Earth Campaign After UNESCO Targets Israel

The same dynamic played out in the context of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Palestinians ascended to UNESCO in 2011 over U.S. objections. The U.S. reacted by freezing funding for UNESCO, financially crippling the organization and sending it into what its director general called its “worst ever financial situation.” Palestinian diplomats almost immediately moved to orient UNESCO in an anti-Israel direction, launching an initiative revolving around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem that also drew broad condemnation for politicization.
Fears that Palestinian officials would continue to politicize the once-credible United Nations organization deepened last Friday when UNESCO passed no less than six anti-Israel resolutions. Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s envoy to the body, called the resolutions part of UNESCO’s recent “obsession” with Israel.

Peres appeals European threat to circumcision

President Shimon Peres sent a personal appeal to the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, on Monday, asking him to intervene against a recent European ban on the practice of circumcision.
Peres called for a rethinking of a resolution passed by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at the beginning of the month that declared male ritual circumcision a “violation of the physical integrity of children.”

IDF chief says next war will feature array of threats

Israel’s wars of the future could include an al-Qaeda attack on the Golan Heights, rockets on Eilat and a Hamas assault on the Erez crossing with Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Tuesday.
“The morning of the war could open with a missile on the Kirya building [the Defense Ministry's HQ in Tel Aviv], with a cyber attack on banks, with a mass charge on a border town, or a tunnel packed with explosives that reaches a kindergarten,” Gantz told attendees at a conference at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center
“These organizations, like Hezbollah,” warned Gantz, “possess abilities that countries lack.”

Gül says Israel’s apology to Turkey ‘too late’

Gül, responding to a question by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily after a meeting of the İstanbul Forum last week, said: “In order to end this conflict and the difference of opinion between us, we had certain expectations of Israel. Israel responded to part of our expectations when it apologized. But this step was taken at a late stage; Israel apologized too late. Some of our expectations have not yet been met,” the daily reported Gül as saying.

Persecuting Christians? Or demonising Israel?

It continues to be a source of amazement that the mainstream Christian churches in the West and in the Middle East pay so little, if any, attention to the plight of Christians and the destruction of their churches in Arab and Muslim countries.
Rather, they prefer to focus on the "oppression of Palestinians" so completely that they are blind to the real tragedies. This myopic lack of perceptiveness has been typical of a significant part of the Anglican Church; the Presbyterian Church, USA; the National Council of Churches; the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation; the World Council of Churches; and some Christian NGOs whose shortsightedness is limited to divestment from Israel or condemnation of it.

Danish Jewry dwindling due in part to anti-Semitism

The Jewish Community in Denmark, or Mosaisk Troessamfund, currently has 1,899 members compared to 2,639 in 1997, Mosaisk President Finn Schwarz told the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in an interview published last week.
“For young people that are considering how to live their lives, it is of course tempting to choose to live in Israel or the United States, where to be Jewish is not considered something negative,” Schwartz is quoted as saying.

Israel and India, a Match Made in the U.S., Develop Their Own Military Romance

Last year, Israel topped the list of arms suppliers to India—just as India officially became the globe’s largest arms importer. And it’s not just missiles and drones: India has increasingly leaned on Tel Aviv for high-tech warfare, scooping up the Phalcon airborne radar and advanced electronic surveillance systems along with equipment to retrofit now-rickety Soviet-era weaponry. In New Delhi, Israel is seen not just as a ready and competent supplier, but as a kindred nation. “India and Israel both imagine themselves as democracies under siege,” said Bhairav Acharya, a legal analyst with the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore think tank. “Relationships are extremely one-sided and based almost solely on combat weapons.”

Bennett Says Israel’s Trade With India Could Double in Next 5 Years

The value of Israel’s trade with India could double in the next five years, Israel’s Economics Minister Naftali Bennett told reporters on Monday, according to the Economic Times.
Speaking on the sidelines of an economic conference in New Delhi, India, Bennett said, ”The bilateral trade (between India and Israel) is $5 billion, at present. I think it could easily be doubled in the next five years, if we take this FTA forward,” referring to the discussion of a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.

Greek Prime Minister Visits Israel

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited Israel on Monday with eight Cabinet ministers and 100 business leaders for a series of meetings with Israeli officials to discuss potential agreements for cooperation in security, energy, tourism and more.

Christians pray in Jerusalem for Israel and the Jews

They were cheering the Jews in the audience, singing in Hebrew, and proclaiming God’s love for the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
From Malaysia and the Philippines, the Netherlands and Ireland — even the West Bank — hundreds of Christian Zionists gathered in the Clal Building on Jaffa Road Sunday night. They had come for the 10th annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, broadcast around the world by God TV, which reaches 900 million homes, according to its founder.

Tel Aviv University professor shares Nobel Prize in physics

Physicists François Englert of Belgium and Peter Higgs of Britain won the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of the Higgs particle, it was announced on Tuesday.
Englert, 80, is a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University, among other appointments, and is a Holocaust survivor.

Israeli chips for the ‘Internet of everything’

Watch out, Qualcomm. An Israeli startup thinks it can make an end run around your core business of providing chipsets to smartphones. Altair Semiconductor, located in the Tel Aviv suburb of Hod HaSharon, aims to beat Qualcomm, as well as the other big semiconductor makers like Intel, Broadcom and Marvell, by eschewing the phone entirely and looking beyond to the “Internet of everything.”
That’s the Internet that very soon will be embedded in digital cameras, gaming devices, car entertainment systems, video surveillance, traffic control and all manner of sensors.

Israel Daily Picture: Where Were These People Marching 100 Years Ago in Jerusalem? To a Funeral, Apparently

As we post this feature, the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is taking place in Jerusalem with more than half a million mourners.
To mark the sad event, we are reposting a two year old feature. The pictures here were photographed more than 100 years ago in Jerusalem. What was the occasion?

Video of IDF Army Radio Announcing Start of 1973 War

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People excited about Thanksgivnukah

The mainstream media has finally noticed:

It's a turkey. It's a menorah. It's Thanksgivukkah!

An extremely rare convergence this year of Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah has created a frenzy of Talmudic proportions.

There's the number crunching: The last time it happened was 1888, or at least the last time since Thanksgiving was declared a federal holiday by President Lincoln, and the next time may have Jews lighting their candles from spaceships 79,043 years from now, by one calculation.

There's the commerce: A 9-year-old New York boy invented the "Menurkey" and raised more than $48,000 on Kickstarter for his already trademarked, Turkey-shaped menorah. Woodstock-inspired T-shirts have a turkey perched on the neck of a guitar and implore "8 Days of Light, Liberty & Latkes." The creators nabbed the trademark to "Thanksgivukkah."

(I refuse to spell it with two "k"s.)

That article included an image from a funny poster by ModernTribe.com:

So before someone else came up with this similar idea, I decided to do a little Photoshopping myself, although it is more subtle:

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Iranian MP warns foreign minister over saying "Israel"

From Trend.az:

Iranian MP, Mojtaba Rahmandoust has addressed a written notification to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif due to his repeatedly use of word "Israel", Mehr news agency reported.

According to the report, Rahmandoust has stated that Zarif should use phrase "Zionist regime" instead the Israel.
He underlined that "Israel is a fictitious word".

Iranian media and officials speak of Israel in the news and statements as "Zionist regime" and "Occupied Palestine".

Rahmandoust seems unaware that Supreme Leader and Grand Poobah Ayatollah Khamenei has used the word "Israel" in 29 separate articles on his English website.

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Saudi preacher who raped, tortured, murdered 5 year old daughter gets 8 years

From AFP:

A Saudi court sentenced a preacher convicted of raping his five-year-old daughter and torturing her to death to eight years in prison and 800 lashes, a lawyer said Tuesday.

In a case that drew widespread public condemnation in the kingdom and abroad, the court also ordered Fayhan al-Ghamdi to pay his ex-wife, the girl's mother, one million riyals in "blood money," lawyer Turki al-Rasheed told AFP.

Blood money is compensation for the next of kin under Islamic law.

The girl's mother had demanded 10 million riyals.

Ghamdi's second wife, accused of taking part in the crime, was sentenced to 10 months in prison and 150 lashes, said Rasheed, who is the lawyer of the girl's mother.

Ghamdi was convicted of "raping and killing his five-year-old daughter Lama," he added.

The girl was admitted to hospital on December 25, 2011 with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, extensive bruising and burns, activists said. She died several months later.

Ghamdi, a regular guest on Muslim television networks despite not being an authorized cleric in Saudi Arabia, had confessed to having used cables and a cane to inflict the injuries, human rights activists said earlier this year.

Randa al-Kaleeb, a social worker from the hospital where Lama was admitted, said the girl's back was broken and that she had been raped "everywhere".

Reportedly, Ghamdi had tortured and raped his daughter after he had doubted her virginity.

Oh, why didn't you say that he tortured and raped her repeatedly to maintain family honor? Now the sentence makes sense! Those slutty five year olds, turning on their fathers like that. How dare they!

In fact, this sentence is an improvement over what originally happened in this case.

Last February, Ghamdi was released from prison altogether because a judge figured the blood money was enough punishment for him. Apparently, an international outcry caused this re-sentencing.

This also shows the importance of shaming Arab countries into causing them to act like normal human beings, even if they fight it all the way.

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10/08 Links Pt1: 2 Pals arrested for Terror Attack on Girl, Abbas Again Fails to Condemn Terror Attacks

From Ian:

---

Two Palestinians held in connection to Psagot attack

The two men, who are related, live in the Palestinian town of el-Bireh, Israel Radio reported.
On Saturday night, an attacker, thought to be from el-Bireh, reportedly infiltrated Psagot and shot Noam Glick, 9, lightly wounding her.
Troops searched the area for the attacker after the incident, at one point entering el-Bireh, according to Palestinian media sources.

Terror Attack Leaves Psagot Residents Doubting Peace Process

It was a frightening Saturday night for the residents of Psagot, a community of 1,800 people located in Judea and Samaria, north of Jerusalem. A Palestinian terrorist broke into the community, firing from point-blank range at nine-year-old Noam Glick, who was playing on the balcony of her home. The girl was lightly wounded, and was hospitalized in Jerusalem.
“It was the first time that something like this happened in Psagot,” said Liat Ofer, a 26-year-old resident of the community, who teaches in Jerusalem.
Noam’s father, Yisrael Glick, told Israel’s Army Radio that Noam managed to get back into the house after she was shot. “Noam told us there was an Arab man out there. I realized that this was a security incident. It’s the scariest thing that can happen here – to have a terrorist enter your home,” he said.

Abbas Again Fails to Condemn Terror Attacks

Weeks after they were killed, Abbas discussed murders of IDF soldiers Gabriel (Gal) Kobi and Tomer Hazan, as well as the shooting of nine year old Noam Glick on Saturday night. Abbas has not condemned the murders and attacks, much less sought to capture the terrorists who committed them, as is his obligation under the Oslo Accords. He did say, however, that he condemned “violence on both sides,” adding that he believed Israel and the PA could achieve an agreement in a matter of months.
Abbas said that security cooperation between Israel and the PA was “good,” but added that IDF entries into areas under PA control was “damaging.”

Vehicle Attacked by Rocks on the Way to Funeral

A vehicle from central Israel was attacked by rock-throwing Arabs as it was making its way to the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Monday.
The attack took place in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Missing from Abbas meeting with MKs: Israeli flag, Palestinian journalists

Conspicuously absent from all these photographs, indeed absent from the entire room during the entire visit, was the Israeli flag. Not so much as a little one on the table. It made for quite a contrast to the scene on July 31, when members of Bar’s Knesset Caucus to Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict, hosting PA politicians in the Israeli parliament at a meeting attended by 33 MKs from parties representing 77 of the 120 MKs, held their talks with the Palestinian flag alongside Israel’s behind them — a much-headlined Knesset precedent.
Also largely absent from Monday’s meeting were Palestinian journalists. Labor invited a busload of Israeli reporters to document the initial, public section of the meeting, and several of Abbas’s advisers were present too. But while an aide to Abbas said that Palestinian journalists were present, and a solitary one was espied, they proved hard to find.

PMW: PA award to writer of poem that includes words "Zion is Satan"

Last week during a performance given in the PA, the Egyptian writer of the poem, Hesham El-Gakh, recited this and other poems, after which the PA Minister of Culture Anwar Abu Eisheh and PA District Governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam venerated him with a plaque of honor. The event was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV Live.
To warm up the audience, a young girl recited a small part of the same poem, the stanza including the words "my enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail":

UN: Four million Syrians to flee homes in 2014

More than two million Syrians have already fled the country, with the number of registered refugees expected to be 3.2 million by the end of 2013. And millions more are displaced within Syria’s borders.
The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and myriad opposition groups.

Erdogan calls Assad a ‘terrorist,’ blasts Kerry

“I don’t regard Bashar Assad as a politician anymore. He’s a terrorist carrying out state terrorism. A person who killed 110,000 of his people is a terrorist. There’s state terrorism — I’m speaking frankly,” Erdogan said at a press conference Sunday after a meeting with India’s president, Hurriyet reported. “I’m having difficulty understanding those in the Turkish media who defend this.”
Erdogan has been one of Assad’s harshest critics since Syria’s uprising erupted in March 2011. On Monday he also denounced US Secretary of State John Kerry for praising Syria’s compliance with the international community in relinquishing its chemical weapons.

Assad Places War Jets in Iran for Safety

Iran has given permission to Bashar Assad's regime to keep his war planes in their territory to protect them from possible attack, according to a report by the German newspaper, Der Spiegel.

Iran: Peace-Dripping Nuclear Lamb

Unfortunately, along the Potomac, there seem to be sick men as well, who mistakenly think the Iranians, after having spent so much on their nuclear bomb project -- and after suffering international economic sanctions, cyber attacks, and the loss of scientists under suspicious circumstances -- will actually give it up, rather than envisioning the Shi'ite apocalypse; the return of the Mahdi; control of Arab oil; occupying the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf; taking over the Middle East and after it, possibly world domination. The sick men of the Potomac seem mistakenly to think that the Iranians, captivated by Obama and possibly motivated by the Syrian fiasco, will suddenly decide they do not want a nuclear bomb or world domination, after all.
There are, along the Potomac, people who actually think that one bearded ayatollah at the United Nations means the Iranians have waived these desires. They ignore the worlds of the Ayatollah Khamenei, who defined statesmanship as fraud and deceit hidden in smiles, and then sent Rouhani off to negotiate with the West.
America is likely to get so caught up in words that it believes the legend it has created for itself.

Barry Rubin: Is Iran a Lunatic State or a Rational Actor?

So is Iran a lunatic state or a rational actor? A hell of a lot more rational than U.S. foreign policy is today, as apparently has been the Muslim Brotherhood's policy and trickery. After all, the UN just elected Iran as Rapporteur for the General Assembly's main committee on Disarmament & International Security without Tehran having to do anything. And Obama will blame Congress for diplomatic failure if it increases sanctions. In fact diplomats doubt Iran will actually do anything anyway.
That's not moderate but radical in a smart way.
More politely, Iran is a rational actor in terms of its own objectives. The issue is to understand what Iran wants. Policy is always best served by truth, and the truth is best told whether or not people like it. Iran is an aggressive, rational actor.

78 Congressmen Demand More Iran Sanctions

A bipartisan group of 78 U.S. Representatives told U.S. President Barack Obama that additional Iran sanctions are needed until the Islamic Republic “takes meaningful steps to stop and reverse its illicit nuclear activities.”
There is “no substantive evidence to suggest that Iran is slowing, or even considering slowing, its nuclear pursuit” since the election of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the legislators wrote in an Oct. 4 letter spearheaded by U.S. Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Luke Messer (R-IN). Obama and Rouhani recently spoke over the phone in the first direct contact between leaders of their respective countries since 1979.

Iran's FM Insists on 'Absolute Right' to Enrich Uranium

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted on Monday that his country has the "absolute right" to enrich uranium on its soil, the ISNA news agency reported.
"The mastery of civil nuclear technology, including the enrichment of uranium, on Iranian soil is the absolute right of Iran," Zarif said at a meeting in Tehran with the visiting Swiss deputy foreign minister, Yves Rossier, according to the AFP news agency.

Attacks surge in Egypt, a day after deadly clashes

A string of attacks killed nine members of Egypt’s security and military forces and hit the country’s main satellite communications station Monday, in an apparent retaliation by Islamic militants a day after more than 50 supporters of the ousted president were killed in clashes with police.
The attacks show a dangerous expansion of targets, including the first strike against civilian infrastructure in the heart of the capital. They also blur the lines between the wave of Islamist protests against the military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, and an insurgency that had been previously been largely confined to the northern Sinai Peninsula.

October 1973: Panorama and Myopia

In Cairo and Damascus, the October 1973 war with Israel is celebrated by museums of similar design and purpose. At the center of both attractions is a panorama (or cyclorama): a 360-degree depiction of the key battles of the war. The concept is to immerse the visitor in a "surround" view of a battle—in Egypt's case, the crossing of the Suez Canal, in Syria's, the battle for the Golan Heights—with visual and sound effects, stirring narration, and martial music. Both sites have adjacent grounds for the display of captured and destroyed Israeli hardware, alongside examples of the Soviet-made Egyptian and Syrian armament of the day. The construction of panoramas has become a North Korean specialty, and the Egyptian and Syrian panoramas are of North Korean design and execution.

Egypt's Al-Sissi: Morsi's Ousting Prevented a Civil War

Sissi, who also serves as Egypt’s Defense Minister, made the comments in an interview with the Arabic daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The comments were translated by Al Arabiya.
“The army’s move was dictated by the national interest and national security necessities and the anticipation that the country would reach a civil war within two months if the situation we were at continued,” he said.

Egypt's Brotherhood Challenges Verdict That Seized Group Funds

The lawsuit, which was filed by the group’s legal representative Othman El-Khateeb with the administrative court, also challenges the establishment of a panel to administer its frozen assets until an appeal has been heard on the ruling.

Egyptian Accused of Spying for Israel after Surfing on Israeli Websites


Taliban renews assault on Pakistani polio vaccination teams, killing two

Two people were killed and up to 20 more injured after Taliban militants used a bomb to target a team delivering polio vaccination drops to children in north-west Pakistan.
In the latest of a series of assaults on volunteers, nurses and police officers involved in efforts to confront the country’s polio problem, the bomb was set off outside a health clinic on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar. A police officer and a member of a local anti-Taliban group were killed.

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Saudis hire BDS target - for Hajj security!

One of the biggest targets of the BDS movement is a huge security conglomerate called G4S. We've discussed before how the pathetic boycotters pretended that the EU Parliament dropped G4S because of their efforts; as usual, they were lying.

Guess who Saudi Arabia hired to provide security for Hajj pilgrims?


From Al Akhbar:

This year, the mandatory Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj, will compound the Palestinians’ woes. Palestinian pilgrims will be greeted by a company that assists in their repression – and even torture – under the Israeli occupation regime. Indeed, hajj this year will be brought to you by none other than G4S.

This is not the first time that the Saudi government has hired the private security firm, which has recruited a staggering 700,000 to provide hajj-related services this year, according to exclusive information obtained by Al-Akhbar. Most of the leaked reports indicate that security for the hajj season since 2010 has been entrusted to al-Majal G4S, an affiliate of the parent company G4S.

Didn't the BDSers lobby Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to drop G4S? They know about the huge contracts given, since the G4S website shows that they operate in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Morocco.

The article says that BDS tried to complain, but Saudi Arabia obviously didn't give a damn:

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign has not been sitting idly by. In a press conference on Wednesday, October 2, the campaign sent a clear message to the Saudi government, urging it to terminate the contract with the company that happens to provide equipment and security services to protect Israeli settlements, occupation checkpoints, and police facilities. The private security contractor has also been implicated in enabling the torture of administrative detainees in Palestine, including children, according to BDS activist Zaid Shuaibi.

And Saudi Arabia isn't the only one to utterly ignore the European-based BDS movement:

Shuaibi, speaking to Al-Akhbar, said that the BDS campaign contacted the Palestinian Ministry of Economy, being the competent authority in the issue of boycotting settlements, such as the ones serviced by G4S. But according to Shuaibi, “The ministry did not bother to respond or take action to stop the abuse, even as the company violates Palestinian law by continuing to provide services to the settlements.”

Poor BDSers. Not only are Arab nations completely ignoring them, but they can't even get Palestinian Arab leaders to speak to them.

(h/t WarpedMirrorPMB)

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Gulf states to consider "clinical tests" to ban homosexual visa seekers

From Kuwait Times:

Gulf states plan to study a project which will identify homosexuals and transgender individuals through a ‘clinical test’ which will be added to the list of medical tests one has to undergo to obtain a visa. If individuals are revealed to be homosexual or transgender, they will be denied entry into the country, a local daily reported yesterday, quoting a senior official in Kuwait’s Ministry of Health.

“Homosexuals and ‘third-sex’ individuals can be detected through clinical tests during the routine medical examination for visa”, Public Health Department Director Dr Yousuf Mendakar said. ‘Third-sex’ is a common term used in Gulf states to refer to transsexuals or people with gender identity disorder. The senior official added that an individual who is identified as homosexual will have ‘unfit’ stamped on his medical report; a term often used for people who fail medical tests which will automatically disqualify their visa application.

Dr Mendakar’s statements did not specify the test or the people targeted in the new project. It was also unclear whether this excluded cross-dressers or included all homosexuals in general. He also did not explain how medical examiners intend to determine a visitor’s sexual orientation. “Expatriates undergo medical tests at local clinics, but the new procedure includes stricter measures to find out homosexuals and transgenders so that they are banned from entering Kuwait or any GCC state”, he added.

Dr Mendakar could not be reached immediately for further clarification. The new proposal will be discussed during a ‘Central Committee for Expatriate Labor Forces Program in the GCC’ meeting set to take place on November 11 in Oman, said Dr Mendakar. The meeting is expected to focus on regulations’ adjustments and the Kuwaiti official said that his proposal will be included in the list of amendments.

The elusive "G" chromosome!

Meanwhile, in "liberal" Lebanon, a documentary about gays was banned.

Lebanon has banned the screening of a film about homosexuality and another on short-term "pleasure marriages" practiced in some Muslim communities, in a blow to its reputation as a bastion of tolerance in a deeply conservative region.

The films, which had been due to be shown at the Beirut International Film Festival that opened last week, were blocked by a government censorship committee, festival organizers said.

Confirming the bans, an Interior Ministry spokesman cited a Lebanese news report which attributed the decision to "obscene scenes of kissing between gay men, philandering, naked men and sexual intercourse between men" in one film and "sex scenes that offend public opinion and obscene language" in the other.

Wow, it is almost as if you cannot find a tolerant, liberal state in the entire Middle East.

(h/t Ian)

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World Bank (accidentally) reveals how little the settlements matter to PA economy

The World Bank just came out with another voluminous report on the PA economy. This time, instead of painting an inaccurately rosy picture to encourage Abbas to declare statehood, as it did in 2010, it is concentrating on pressuring Israel to hand over most of Area C, coincidentally (?) a major European initiative.

Reading between the lines, however, reveals an interesting fact.

Here are the bullet items in its executive summary:

• Restrictions on economic activity in Area C of the West Bank have been particularly detrimental to the Palestinian economy.
• Mobilizing the Area C potential would help afaltering Palestinian economy.
• This slowdown has exposed the distorted nature of the economy and its artificial reliance on donor-financed consumption.
• Area C is key to future Palestinian economic development.
• This report examines the economic benefits of lifting the restrictions on movement and access as well as other administrative obstacles to Palestinian investment and economic activity in Area C.

One problem off the bat is that the World Bank ignores the obvious: for a small area like the PA, just like Israel or Singapore or Taiwan, it is necessary to move from a land-based economy towards one where physical area is not that important. So the World Bank notes disapprovingly that " The manufacturing sector, usually a key driver of export-led growth, has stagnated since 1994, its share in GDP falling from 19 percent to 10 percent by 2011." It then adds "Nor has manufacturing been replaced by high value-added service exports like Information Technology (IT) or tourism, as might have been expected." That is key - the Palestinian Arabs are better educated than their Arab neighbors and high tech would be a natural area for growth, as well as one that Israeli tech companies would love to be able to help. Checkpoints mean little as long as data can cross them. The most obvious area for growth has not been encouraged by the PA, and the World Bank - instead of pushing for that - instead politicizes the issue to blame Israel.

Indeed, Israel's manufacturing percentage of GDP (if I am reading this correctly) had dropped from over 20% to around 14% in the past 20 years. Agriculture is only 2.5% of the GDP. Like it or not, when your country is small, you don't whine about how little land you have - you make up for it in other areas.

The report makes a strong case, however, that as percentage of  its current GDP, access to Area C would be a big boon to the lackluster PA economy.

Here's the funny thing: The report specifically excludes all existing Jewish communities and their farms in its analysis!

In other words, it isn't the "settlements" that is hurting the PA economy - it is the PA's refusal to compromise. If they would have accepted the Clinton parameters in 2000, then all the benefits noted here would have been theirs for over a decade now. As long as they continue to insist on that extra 2% or 3% of land for their pride, they are immensely hurting their people.

Perhaps there are things Israel could do to help in the meanwhile without compromising security. I personally don't understand why the Israeli government is stingy with helping the PA build its 3G/4G mobile and ADSL telecom infrastructure, which I believe would help both sides.

But this report shows quite convincingly that the PA has shot itself in the foot time and time again by refusing to compromise for peace.

(h/t Ilya)

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Yet another Israeli TV show coming to the US

From Deadline.com:

CBS has given a put pilot commitment to a single-camera comedy executive produced by Greg Berlanti. The project, based on the Israeli series Haverot (Little Mom), will be written by Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky who last season adapted another Israeli comedy for CBS, Mother’s Day, which went to pilot starring Debra Messing. The new project revolves around three moms who live in a Brooklyn high-rise help each other stay sane (or try to) as they juggle their friendships, marriages and kids. ...The original series, produced by Yoav Gross Prods. for Channel 10 Israel and distributed globally by Dori Media, was created by Gross, Lital Schwartz, Shay Ben-Atar, and Liat Shavit.

Here's a trailer (with subtitles) for the Israeli version:



Another Israeli show  was picked up last week:

“Shkufim” )is based on the story of the assassination in Dubai of a senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Globes said. “It involves eight ordinary Israelis who wake up one morning and discover that their names, faces, and personal details have been splashed across the world’s media on suspicion of involvement in an international crime. What begins as an apparent case of mistaken identity, escalates into a psychological espionage drama,” the newspaper said. In the Fox series, to be called “False Flag”, the characters will be Americans, rather than Israelis.

Last week Variety discussed how Israeli shows are becoming smash hits on five continents.

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Today's PalArab lie: "Israel gives highest prison sentences on Earth"

From Ma'an:

Palestinian organization Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights revealed Wednesday that nine Palestinian prisoners currently being held in Israeli jails have the "longest sentences" of any imprisoned human being worldwide.

The organization's director, Fouad al-Khuffash, explained that "there is no other country on Earth that gives open-ended life sentences except the State of Israel, whose laws do not limit the number and length of life sentences given to Palestinian prisoners."

Al-Khuffash also listed the nine Palestinian prisoners with the longest prison sentences on Earth. Abdullah Ghaleb al-Barghouthy from Ramallah is currently holding the world's longest sentence. He was detained by Israeli forces on March 5, 2003 and was subsequently sentenced to 67 life sentences in prison.

Five minutes of web searching found:

Two Iranian conmen in 1969 when they were sentenced to 7,109 years in prison. One year for each of their transgressions.

The longest prison sentence ever handed down in US history is attributed to Dudley Wayne Kyzer. In 1981, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, he was found guilty for the murder of his wife. What lead the judge to sentence him to 10,000 years in prison? Apparently, the court decided that the brutality, with which he had slaughtered his spouse, more than merited such a long sentence.

The longest prison sentenced ever demanded by a court of law was given out in Spain, in 1972. Unlike other perpetrators on our list, who received sentences more befitting their crimes, the young Gabriel Grandos, age 22, was accused of fraud because of his failure to deliver a little over forty thousand letters. We understand that messing with the mail system is a serious offense, but a sentence amounting to nearly 400,000 years does seem a bit of an over-kill in this particular case.

It is also not unusual to give out consecutive life sentences for each murder one is responsible for. For example, Bobbie Joe Long of Florida was sentenced to 28 life sentences, 99 years sentence and 1 death sentence. He had raped more than 50 women and killed about half the number. In most cases they were raped before murder.

But killing 28 people is child's play compared to the list of terrorists in the Ahrar Center list, where the people responsible for killing as many as 67 people are reasonably expected to serve a life sentence for each life taken.

Unfortunately, people like Fouad al-Khuffash consider these monsters to be heroes. So who is more immoral - those who want to keep mass murderers in prison or those who want them freed and treated like heroes?

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Yesha artists website

The last time I was in Israel, I spoke with a nice couple in Eli who were behind the "Orange Pages," a virtual marketplace for goods from Judea and Samaria.

They just started an affiliated English site that sells works from artists who also live in Yesha. Check it out here, before your country declares it illegal. (Of course, that will make the artwork more valuable!)

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10/07 Links Part 2: Star of David Banned at Temple Mount, BDS - Same enemy, different dress

From Ian:

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Khaled Abu Toameh: As Peace Talks Continue, Palestinian Terror Groups Prepare for Jihad

So while the Palestinian Authority is continuing to talk peace with Israel, it is at the same time telling Palestinians that they should not expect anything to come out of the negotiations.
If the Palestinian Authority itself is declaring day and night that the talks with Israel are a waste of time, why shouldn't the terror groups prepare for war? And it is no surprise that a majority of Palestinians are convinced that a third intifada is on its way.

Star of David Not Allowed on Temple Mount

A volunteer with the Magen David Adom first aid service was forced on Sunday to remove his jacket with the organization’s emblem before he was allowed to enter the Temple Mount. The emblem of Magen David Adom is a red Star of David.
The volunteer, Yonatan Tal, recalled the incident in a conversation with Arutz Sheva.
"I went up to the Temple Mount as I usually do. The weather was cooler so I put on my jacket [with the Magen David Adom emblem],” said Tal, who pointed out that the compound had been packed with tourists. As his turn came to enter, recalled Tal, he was called aside by a police officer who ordered him to remove his jacket. When Tal asked why he had to remove his jacket in order to enter the Temple Mount, the officer argued that this was the procedure.

JPost Editorial: Inhospitable Europe

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a body composed of five left-wing political organization that include the Socialist Group, the Alliance of Liberal Democrats for Europe and the Group of the Unified European Left, has identified circumcision as a violation of male children’s “physical integrity.”
Luckily, PACE, which has called “to adopt specific legal provisions to ensure that certain operations and practices will not be carried out before a child is old enough to be consulted,” is powerless to make binding laws.

Same enemy, different dress

But there are some lovely moments. Last month a beautiful young man wearing a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) sweatshirt crossed over to us and said simply: “What’s your side?”
After listening in silence to my comrade Ben’s explanation, he returned to the BDS mob, pulled off his sweatshirt, dropped it at their astonished feet and crossed back to stand with us for a while before going on his way.
As for me, far from feeling that I’ve strayed a long way from my teenage beliefs, I just smile, wave my Israeli flag proudly and recall who I dedicated my first book to: Menachem Begin, when I was just 18 years old. I knew what I believed then, and I know what I believe now.
The enemy may dress differently, but in the faces of the BDS crowd, I see the same ignorance and evil as I saw in the faces of the National Front, all those years ago.

Hitler’s ally, Abbas’s hero, Netanyahu’s response

Nine months after the Abbas praise of the Mufti, on Oct. 6, 2013, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu chose the venue of a policy speech at Bar-Ilan University to respond to the adulation lauded on the Mufti by Abbas and by the official curriculum of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s Prime Minister quoted the protocols of the Hitler-Mufti pact, presented as evidence against the Mufti in the Nuremberg war crimes trials. The records of the meeting between Hitler and the Mufti explicitly state that Hitler would exterminate the Jews in Europe, while the Mufti would enlist Nazi aid to exterminate Jews in Palestine, so as to establish a “JudenRein” state of Palestine.
To that end, the Mufti ensconced himself in Hitler’s bunker, from where he recruited an Islamic unit of the Waffen SS, which actively engaged in the mass murder of Jews, while issuing Arabic language appeals on Nazi radio which incited Moslems to join the Nazi cause and to prepare for mass murder of Jews in Palestine.

Fighting for Israel on College Campuses

If HSJP (Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine) strove to convert students to their way of thinking, then they did the opposite of their goal: by lying, heckling, and bullying, they not only distanced me from their cause, but made me their staunch, determined, and active enemy. Now, I spend my days equipping college students with the facts.
The most important thing I have learned at CAMERA is to refuse to be meek and be quiet.
Israel supporters on campus and elsewhere must show the world that we will “not go gentle into that good night.”
As a wise colleague of mine once said, “The moment you allow a falsehood to go unchallenged, you legitimize the purveyors’ ridiculous claims. You allow them to win without even having to lift a finger.” HSJP taught me this truly valuable lesson: that those of us who care about truth — about Israel — should never let them win.

Northeastern University Finally Responds to ZOA Report of Anti-Semitism in the Classroom, But Takes No Action

Boston’s Northeastern University responded on Friday to allegations of rampant anti-Semitism from students by faculty on campus, after The Algemeiner pressed the school on why it hadn’t answered a formal letter from three months ago from the Zionist Organization of America, which helped the students make their case.
The 12-page report from the ZOA cataloged a litany of student horror stories, including intimidation, class harassment and teachers indoctrinating an alternative reality version of Middle East and Israeli history. The report focused on Professor of International Affairs Denis Sullivan, now Co-Director of Northeastern’s Middle East Center for Peace, Culture and Development, who did not respond to The Algemeiner’s requests for comment.

More evidence the Guardian got it wrong on Rouhani’s “Holocaust” remarks

The Guardian’s reliance on an evidently faulty translation is more than simply an innocent error, but is part of a larger pattern – which we’ve commented on previously – of engaging in selective reporting and omissions in order to advance the desired narrative of a new “moderate” Iranian president.
Evidence which makes a mockery of this narrative abound, and include Rouhani’s involvement in several deadly Iranian sponsored terrorist attacks against Jewish and American targets abroad, as well as his role in crushing pro-democracy movements at home.

Golden Dawn crackdown

The arrests of Golden Dawn members cannot be separated from the overall concern about anti-Jewish actions in Europe. Golden Dawn is a highly visible, nasty party, but the larger context is anti-Semitism that manifests itself not only on the Right, but also among the extreme Left and Islamists and in less pernicious but equally disturbing calls to ban circumcision and kosher slaughter.

Nairobi attack shakes sense of security for Kenya’s Jews

Albert Attias, the head of the Jewish community in the Kenyan capital and an Israeli military veteran, wanted to communicate with his wife by text message so she wouldn’t be overheard speaking Hebrew. Their Israeli connections were not something the couple were eager to advertise, even in normal circumstances.
“I was gravely concerned,” Albert Attias told JTA, recalling the first hours of the deadly attack and two-day siege carried out by Islamic militants at the upscale shopping plaza that began on Sept. 21. “I prayed she’d get out before dark because at night anything could happen.”

Man arrested for chanting ‘Yid’ at London soccer match

There was a heavy police presence at the West Ham United-Tottenham match as part of a crackdown on racism. Police threatened to take action against anyone who chanted the term for Jew, even if it was Tottenham supporters who use the term affectionately to deflect anti-Semitic abuse.
But the term, often used as a derogatory term for Jews, was sung with gusto by Tottenham fans and one was arrested at halftime for using it.

18 UK mosques 'agree to perform underage marriages'

Religious leaders appeared willing to agree to perform underage marriages at some mosques across the UK, an ITV Exposure investigation discovered.
Two undercover reporters called 56 mosques to ask whether they would perform the marriage of a 14-year-old girl.
Two-thirds of those contacted refused to perform the marriage but 18 of the respondents spoken to agreed.

Wearable ReWalk device finds an investor and strategic partner in Japanese robotics firm

A robotic exoskeleton that was demonstrated for President Obama earlier this year as one of Israel’s most cutting-edge inventions is getting a boost from a Japan-based robotics manufacturer.
Yaskawa Electric Corporation has invested in and formed a strategic partnership with ARGO Medical Technologies, which makes a device called ReWalk that enables individuals with lower limb disabilities such as paraplegia to walk.

Warren Buffet acquires Israeli electronics company Ray-Q

Electronic components company TTI Inc. an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of American billionaire Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, announced on Friday its acquisition of Israeli electronics company Ray-Q Interconnect.
"It's not often a company has the opportunity to add such longevity and superior technical value to their service offering. I am very pleased to be bringing the wiring and harness assembly expertise of Ray-Q to the TTI teams in Europe and Asia -- and to the benefit of our customers worldwide," TTI Europe and Asia President Gene Conahan said in a TTI press release.

Apple Pays About $40 Million to Acquire ‘Cue’ Start-Up Created by 21-Year-Old Israeli

Tech giant Apple, Inc. will pay some $40 million or more to acquire a start-up created by 21-year-old Israeli Daniel Gross, formerly of Jerusalem, and now living in California, tech media reported at the weekend.
Israel’s Calcalist website said Gross is a native of Katamon, Jerusalem, a yeshiva high school graduate and has been on pre-military leave. He planned to serve in the IDF after high school, but changed course after a small start-up he created generated interest in Silicon Valley.

40 Years Since the Yom Kippur War 1: The First Strike

40 years ago, during Yom Kippur, Israel faced one of the biggest challenges of its history. On October 6, hundreds of thousands of troops, thousands of tanks and fighter jets attacked simultaneously, surprising Israel at its northern and southern frontiers. Syria and Egypt were determined to get back what they had lost during the Six Day War. For the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, follow our series and learn about the major milestones of the conflict.

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