Monday, October 21, 2013

From Ian:

Islam, Not Nazism, Motivated Hajj Amin el-Hussini, Part 1
During 1938, a booklet Muhammad Sabri edited, "Islam, Judentum, Bolschewismus (Islam, Jewry, Bolshevism)", was published in Berlin by Junker-Duennhaupt [Dünnhaupt]. Sabri’s booklet included Hajj Amin el-Husseini’s 1937 declaration—also deemed by some as a “fatwa” (an Islamic religious ruling)—appealing to the worldwide Muslim umma. El-Husseini’s declaration was extracted and reprinted, separately, by the Nazi regime as "Islam und Judentum (Islam and Jewry)", and distributed to Muslim SS units in Bosnia, Croatia, and the Soviet Union.
Islam, Not Nazism was the Mufti's Motivation: Part 2
The numerous salient examples of Islam’s canonical Jew-hatred punctuating Hajj Amin el-Husseini’s 1937 declaration validated Perlmann’s concise overarching assessment of these foundational Islamic sources, and their tragic application across space and time, into the modern era.
El-Husseini’s promulgation of jihad and canonical Islamic Jew-hatred in pursuit of the destruction of Palestinian Jewry, and later, the nascent Jewish State of Israel, has reverberated across the ensuing decades.
Douglas Murray Islamists Target Islamists
At the prompting of the chair, Ayaan Hirsi Ali mentioned something about the terrible threats to her life which have existed ever since she started to speak out against the fundamentalists in Islam. The audience were clearly reminded what a brave and extraordinary woman she was; you could feel them warming ever more to her. The other side must have sensed the same and in a fatal moment -- for their argument, that is -- one of them pointed out that they had al-Qaeda and other death threats on their heads too. Even though, strangely, the audience applauded, the other side, in revealing this truth, had fallen into a trap that no one had even intended to set. If everybody on each side of the debate -- those arguing Islam is indeed a religion of peace as well as those arguing that it is not -- had these death-threats hanging over them, then why were we even debating the matter? As I recall, once this was pointed out, a sort of collective groan of realization went up in the hall and the debate was over.
Turkey: A House Divided
However, there is, in the EU report, no mention of the campaign of vilification led by the Prime Minister against the protesters, or reprisals against public employees who supported or took part in the protests; also, measures taken to prevent the recurrence of mass protests, such as tightened security on university campuses, no education loans for students who take part in demonstrations and a ban on chanting political slogans at football matches.
Not only the demonstrators themselves have been targeted but also the international media, which Prime Minister Erdoğan has accused of being part of an international conspiracy to destabilize Turkey. The "interest rate lobby" and "the Jewish diaspora" have also been blamed.
Roger Cohen’s Times Tirades
Nowhere in Cohen’s analysis can one find mention of the recent wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks as a possible deterrent to peace. In late September two Israeli soldiers were murdered. Then an Israeli nine-year-old was shot in the neck outside her home in the settlement of Psagot. The Facebook page of Fatah, the organization chaired by Palestinian Authority President Abbas, praised the child’s attacker as “the sharpshooter of Palestine” who had also killed one of the Israeli soldiers in Hebron. The terrorist “left a manly signature . . . as he tells the tale of those who love the homeland.”
But Roger Cohen’s incessant harping on Netanyahu, and blithe avoidance of Palestinian terrorism, fits comfortably into New York Times policy: All the news hostile to Israel that fits we print.
Temple Mount Reopened to Jews and Arab Soccer Game Halted (Video)
In what is an unusual response, after the Jewish visitors complained to the police about the Arabs playing soccer on the Temple Mount, which is both illegal and disrespectful, the police actually confiscated the ball, and stopped the game. At best, the Arabs simply ignore the police, and at worst, the the police simply let the soccer games continue unabated, despite the court order forbidding this disrespect on the Judaism’s holiest site.
NGO Monitor: German Funding for Political Advocacy NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
In contrast to the moral objectives, the funding supports radical organizations that oppose peace, and promote demonization, biased boycott movements as part of political warfare, and in some cases blatant antisemitism. Millions of euros originating with German taxpayers are provided annually to these NGOs. Funding frameworks include powerful political foundations associated with German political parties, which often seek to impose their ideologies and objectives on Israelis and Palestinians, as well as direct funding from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and other branches.
Group Appeals University of California Ruling; Says ‘Discriminatory Double Standard’ Against Jewish Students is Anti-Semitic
She asked the board to weigh its “willingness to invoke federal law so forcefully and immediately to protect African American students at UC San Diego from a hostile environment with racial harassment allegations” with its “unwillingness to consider the longstanding, pervasive and well-documented harassment of Jewish students at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Cruz.”
She described the contrast as “a discriminatory double standard against Jewish students that is antisemitic in effect if not in intent,” and demanded that her claim be reopened for appeal.
Israel protests EU poster claiming ethnic cleansing of Bedouin
“Stop Prawer-Begin Plan, no ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouin” read the poster seen at a conference October 17 in Brussels organized by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the European Parliament’s second largest bloc, on the Bedouin Arab minority in Israel.
The Israeli ambassador to the European Union, David Walzer, termed the poster “unacceptable” in a letter he sent to the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, who is a member of the Socialists and Democrats group.
“Europeans and Israelis are fully aware of the possible consequences of the irresponsible use of such words,” Walzer wrote.
Israel to Modernize Allenby Terminal on Jordan Border to Expedite Exports
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet today approved a plan to modernize the Allenby Terminal on the country’s border with Jordan. The new infrastructure and a modern X-Ray machine will speed up the crossing process, the government said.
The new X-ray scanning system will be installed and operated at the border crossing by Israel. The machine, itself, was donated by the Dutch government following a survey of Palestinian businesses that identified upgrading the system as a way to expand exports to Jordan by a third.
For Syrian refugees in Jordan, aid from Israel comes in a whisper
The help that Israel can give these refugees, the IsraAid volunteers and the director of the international aid organization both say, trickles in bag by bag, donation by donation. And if Israel’s involvement in Jordan is going to change political perceptions, they add, it’s going to happen in the same slow way.
“It’s not like we come in here and go, ‘We’re from Israel!,’” says the director of the IsraAid’s partnering organization. “You keep your mouth shut and you do the work. And maybe they will ask some questions after the fact, because actions speak much louder than words.”
Italian Tenor Andrea Bocelli: Israel Left a Very Powerful Impression on Me
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, the best-selling classical musician of all time, said, writing in the Daily Mail on Sunday, that of all the stops in a long career of world tours, Israel was one of his favorites, .
“Places in the world I have especially enjoyed include Israel, which left a very powerful impression on me,” he wrote in the Mail ahead of the release this week of his latest album, “Love In Portofino.”
Israel’s Insuline, Johnson & Johnson to Test Market Device for Diabetics in Germany
Israeli medical device developer Insuline Medical Ltd. will test market a tool to improve the rate of insulin absorption for diabetics, through a marketing partnership with Johnson & Johnson unit LifeScan, Inc. that will start in Germany, Israel’s Globes business daily reported.
Nova Lumos Solar Lets People Pay With Phone and $20 Down
Nova Lumos, a new clean tech startup from Israel, has devised a mobile-based solar energy program for developing countries that produces clean electricity for less than it costs to purchase kerosene. What makes the project special, and really exciting, is that the company allows users to pay for it in some payments administered through the cell phone.
While1.5 billion people lack access to electricity, according to Nova Lumos, mobile phones have penetrated almost every corner of the globe. And in Africa especially, it has become common practice to conduct all kinds of business through cell phones.
Extinct tree grows anew from ancient jar of seeds unearthed by archaeologists
For thousands of years, Judean date palm trees were one of the most recognizable and welcome sights for people living in the Middle East -- widely cultivated throughout the region for their sweet fruit, and for the cool shade they offered from the blazing desert sun.
Microsoft moving to larger Haifa premises
Microsoft Israel already rents about 5,000 square meters of office space at Matam, and will move to the new premises when they are ready. The new eight-floor building will have 12,000 square meters of office space and 5,000 square meters of underground space. It is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014. PwC Israel Kesselman & Kesselman has also rented 1,500 square meters in the building.
US Holocaust Museum plans for a future without survivors
In part to expand its donor base, the museum launched a 20th anniversary campaign at the start of 2013. A key goal has been to develop plans for the years ahead, as the survivor population dwindles and the Holocaust recedes into history.
“The museum is set to double its collection during the next ten years,” Bloomfield said. “We’re building a new collection and conservation center, and strengthening our role as a global institution. The private support we get shows survivors that we are here to tell their story.”
Israel Daily Picture: The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 4
William Seward (Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state) wrote in 1871 that the population of the Old City was 16,000, comprised of 8,000 Jews, 4,000 Mohammedans, and 4,000 Christians.
Two major architectural changes in the Jaffa Gate in 1898 and 1908 help historians date the early photographs of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. The first was the breaching of the wall in 1898 to permit German Emperor Wilhelm II to ride into the Old City without dismounting and with his escort of carriages. To built the roadway, a moat -- visible in pre-1898 photos -- had to be filled in.
  • Monday, October 21, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Al Hayat reports that UNRWA is planning to cut the free food it provides to Gazans by about one third over the next six months, reducing the number of welfare recipients from 180,000 families (900,000 people) to 120,000 families.

The move is necessary, according to the report, because of UNRWA's budget crisis and the refusal of Arab countries to pay their pledges.

The report claims that UNRWA has already created lists of families that will not be getting food. The criteria include families that own cars,TVs, refrigerators and microwave ovens. Also in their calculations are whether there are other NGOs in the area that can fill the gap.

The cuts reportedly will come in two phases.

Rumors like this in the past have been vehemently denied by UNRWA, but even slight cuts in services inevitably result in riots.

UNRWA, of course, is an organization whose main purpose is to perpetuate the "refugee" problem rather than solve it. Since there is no mechanism in UNRWA for people to go off its rolls, the  organization will remain responsible for an ever-increasing number of people, forever. Yet its international funding will not grow forever, meaning that unless it changes its definition of "refugee" to be more in line with the standard definition used everywhere else in the world, and unless it resumes the efforts it used to exert in the 1950s to actually help these people integrate into their host countries rather than teach them dependency, the problem will only continue to get worse.

Maybe a first step would be for UNRWA to stop teaching generations of Palestinian Arabs that they will "return" to Israel, which is a major part of UNRWA's school curricula, which can be seen on the web today Telling them the truth can prepare the next generation for self-sufficiency and to shame the Arab world to accept them as citizens rather than discriminate against them.

Telling the truth is apparently also against UNRWA policy.

A couple of days ago, Ma'an had an interesting headline: "Israeli army sends Gazans threatening voice messages."

Was the IDF warning them of an imminent bombing campaign? Did it threaten them with shutting down imports and exports?

No, not quite. The "threatening messages" were nothing of the sort:

Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip received voice messages on their telephones from the Israeli army telling them not to go near any Hamas sites.

Mohammad Yousef, a resident of Gaza, said that he received a voice message from someone who identified themselves as being a member of the Israeli armed forces, warning him not to go near any Hamas sites.

The voice message said, "Hamas is digging terrorist tunnels instead of working on development and building hospitals and schools to serve the needs of its citizens. You should avoid such acts and report them to ensure your safety."
How do the terror organizations respond? Why, by trying to get Gazans to support tunnels to kidnap Israelis!

Palestine Today has a long feature interview with the mother of one of the terrorists who were killed during the Gilad Shalit kidnapping, and she says how much she longs for more such kidnappings so that terrorists in Israeli prison will be sent home.

Hamas itself admitted that it built the tunnels for kidnapping and Ismail Haniyeh said in his speech Saturday that such operations to free prisoners were a top priority for Hamas.

These competing messages provide an interesting contrast. Israel is assuming that Gazans are normal people who want to live their lives in dignity. Hamas and Islamic Jihad assume that Gazans are bloodthirsty terror supporters. Each is acting accordingly.

Which group is racist in their opinions of Gazans?

Of course, you don't have to be Gazan to automatically support Hamas building tunnels....
From Ian:

Former Shin Bet head warns of ‘Palestinian Spring’
Diskin also called for Israel’s neighbors to be given an active role in the negotiations with the Palestinians.
“We must bring in Egypt and Jordan to the early stages of the negotiation process. Their entrance into this story will give [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas legitimacy to make critical decisions.”
Desperate Hamas
On Saturday, Haniyeh called on Arabs and Muslims to prepare for what he referred to as “the great al-Aksa intifada” against Israel. Apparently speaking out of a sense of desperation, Haniyeh resorted to the tried and true tactic of Arab leaders of redirecting frustration at Israel.
Haniyeh blamed the Jewish state for taking advantage of the peace talks to Judaize Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque and warned that Israel would not be able to bear the “fire and rage” that could erupt as a result of its “crimes” against Jerusalem and the mosque.
As the government continues to work toward a negotiated peace agreement with the PA, we must also be wary of a Hamas that is becoming increasingly isolated and desperate and therefore increasingly more dangerous.
Even Weakened Hamas Retains Peace Veto
The bottom line is that for all of the ridicule now being heaped on Hamas’ boasting; it retains a veto over peace. That means even if Abbas and Fatah were to transcend their origins in terrorism, something that highly unlikely, the Islamist tyrants of Gaza are still capable of overturning any movement toward a solution. That’s why Israel would do well to ignore any American pressure to make concessions on borders, Jerusalem or refugees that would be pocketed by Abbas but never reciprocated. Nor, given the recent developments in the P5+1 negotiations, should the Israelis assume that they could trade a Palestinian state for an American guarantee against a nuclear Iran. So long as Hamas remains in power in Gaza, no matter how bankrupt or precarious they might be, they are the guarantee that peace is not in the offing.
Iran vs. the West: Endgame?
Iran continues to strive for a regional hegemonic status. It wants to supplant the United States and make the most of its own military power and geostrategic position, along with its oil and gas reserves and the economic opportunities these offer to both the West and the East. Iran was a partner to the chemical-weapons deal that was reached in Syria; the nuclear umbrella Iran aims to provide to its allies is supposed to compensate for the loss. Iran also wields influence in Bahrain, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, countries where the United States and the West have political, economic, and military assets. Iran anticipates that nuclear weapons will buy it the sort of immunity from attack that North Korea now enjoys. It also seeks long-term stability so that it can promote its revolutionary objectives abroad (particularly in Bahrain but also in other areas with a Shiite population) and assume its place in the regional and international power equation as the one who sets the agenda and influences the reshaping of the Middle East in a way that counters and curbs U.S. influence.
In sum, Iran, which has hoodwinked the international community, is preparing a further campaign as it draws toward the final stages of its nuclear program. It needs an abatement of pressure so that it can complete the military components while maintaining the regime’s stability and promising relief for the economy. Rouhani, who previously succeeded as a negotiator to buy Iran the time required to complete the nuclear fuel cycle, now needs to traverse the last mile to the bomb. As president of Iran, he stands resolute and strong before a divided region and international community.
‘Comment is Free’: The West’s militarism inspired by “blind support for Israel”
So, the West’s failure to pursue diplomacy in the Middle East (in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Libya), and their adoption instead of an ethos of “total destruction of the enemy” is based, in large measure, on “blind support for…Israel.”
According to these ‘CiF’ contributors, Israel and its blind supporters in the West are in the ‘Roman destruction of Carthage’ camp.
Up to 110,000 have been killed in Arab on Arab violence in Syria since 2011, thousands of Iraqis continue to die as the result of Islamist inspired terror attacks which continue to ravage the country, and ‘Comment is Free’ contributors look around the region and see the ideological footprint of Zionism.
Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann is a Marxist ideologue – whose ‘special advisors‘ as UN president included Noam Chomsky and Richard Falk – so the extreme nature of the commentary he co-authored is not surprising. However, the licensing of such hateful anti-Zionist agitprop by ‘Comment is Free’ editors again demonstrates how the Guardian continues to make mockery of their claim to represent ‘liberal’ values.
Palestinian pulls knife on bus, no injuries
A Palestinian man pulled a knife on a public bus outside Jerusalem Sunday night, threatening passengers before hopping off the bus and fleeing.
Terrified passengers scrambled for cover as the man ran down the length of a bus trying to stab fellow travelers.
There were no injuries in the incident, but one ultra-Orthodox man said the attacker sliced off one of his sidelocks.
Palestinian Attempts to Stab Israeli Civilian on Bus near Bethlehem


PMW: PA minister: Hamas founder Yassin is role model for children
A senior Palestinian Authority minister has presented arch-terrorist and founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, as a role model for Palestinians. In a Friday sermon recently broadcast on official PA TV, PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash stated that Yassin is an "exalted national Palestinian figure," an "icon," and that Palestinian children are taught about his "legacy, Jihad, actions, and morality."
Arab Journalists Demand that Hamas Stop Censoring Media
A group of journalists rallied in Ramallah on Sunday to launch a petition to reopen the Gaza bureaus of the Ma'an News Agency and the Al Arabiya network.
Ma’an reported that the petition states that the closure of the media offices violates Article 19 of the Palestinian Basic Law, which entitles the freedom of opinion, and Article 27, which allows anyone to operate a media outlet.
Hamas officially admits to digging tunnel under Israel-Gaza border
In a radio broadcast, Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, said its members “dug the tunnel, they were responsible for it.”
He referred to the underground structure as the “Khan Younis tunnel,” adding that it was dug for the purpose of forcing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners, as it did two years ago in the prisoner exchange deal for Gilad Shalit in which 1,027 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons.
Kibbutz Residents Say Living Near Hamas Tunnels on Gaza Border is Like ‘Russian Roulette’
Residents of southern Israel’s Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha compared living in the Western Negev, adjacent to Gaza and Khan Yunis, to “Russian roulette.” Life under regular falling shrapnel from Hamas rockets was recently made worse, they said, by the discovery revealed last week that they are living above a vast tunnel network dug out by the Gaza based terror group along the border.
PM: More than 100-fold increase in Iranian centrifuges since 2006
Iran has increased its number of centrifuges by over a hundredfold since 2006, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
"Last week saw the start of an additional round of talks between the major powers and Iran," Netanyahu said at Sunday's cabinet meeting. "We must not forget that the Iranian regime has systematically misled the international community. In 2006, Iran had 167 centrifuges. Today, despite all the bans and all the promises, they have over 18,000 centrifuges, i.e., the number of centrifuges has increased over a hundredfold during the talks in which they have been called upon to halt the production of centrifuges related to enrichment."
Signs of rift between Israel and US over Iran
Over the weekend, US officials said the White House was debating whether to offer Iran the chance to recoup billions of dollars in frozen assets if it scales back its nuclear program. The plan would stop short of lifting sanctions, but could nonetheless provide Iran some relief.
Missing Pace: Who is general al-Sisi and what will he do with Egypt
Egypt’s new de facto pharaoh, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, is a man of mystery. Is he an Islamist, or a nationalist? Is he a person of high principle, or a lowly opportunist? And in a land which has known five thousand years of mainly centralized, one-man rule, with limited experience of democracy, when have we seen his type before, and where will he lead the troubled, ancient nation now?
Egypt prime minister condemns attack on Copt wedding
Egypt’s interim prime minister condemned an attack outside a Cairo Coptic church that killed three people, including an 8-year-old girl, pledging police would do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a statement on Monday that the attack on Sunday night was a “callous and criminal act.”
He said such attacks will “not succeed in sowing divisions between the nation’s Muslims and Christians.”
Now we know why Netanyahu wouldn’t apologize for the Gaza flotilla raid
Ironically, we've now got another mystery: Why did the Turkish government out these Israeli spies? We can speculate -- revenge for the flotilla raid; to secure leverage with Israel or with Iran; perhaps simply a crude reminder that Turkish support for Israel doesn't come free -- but we don't really know. That unknowability is just part of how international relations works.
Did Saudi Arabia reject UN Security Council seat to uphold honor?
Brandon Friedman, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and a researcher at its Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, told the Post that he believes the Saudis are registering their dissatisfaction at the UN for not stopping the slaughter of Sunni Arabs in Syria. The Saudis see things through the prism of the US-Russian agreement of non-intervention, he said.
“It is hard to overstate how upset the Saudis were with that decision,” Friedman said.
The Saudis: brave and moral or manipulative and self-serving?
The Saudi regime prefers operating behind the scenes, wielding influence in secret, away from the public eye. That is where its strength lies. A seat on the Security Council will place Saudi Arabia in the spotlight, and this, too, goes against the grain of their preference for wielding influence without exposing themselves. They have everything, and they have much to lose. Membership in the Security Council will not enhance their reputation and will only create friction with the countries of the world, a friction with which they are uncomfortable given their traditional and sectarian world view.
The culture of the Middle East plays an important role in the international arena. It’s important to learn it.
Stoning is good for your soul, says Canadian cleric
The sheikh explained that a Muslim who is sentenced to death by stoning under Sharia law actually benefits from this gruesome punishment as her soul is being purified even as the stones rain down on her sinful head.
It would possibly be funny if it were in a Monty Python movie. Almost, but not quite. There is no joke to be had in a medieval form of punishment like stoning. Nor should it be condoned.
In New Video, Al-Shabab Justifies Woolwich Attack, Urges Muslims In West To 'Make Their Choice Today,'
On October 17, 2013, the Somali Al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen released an hour long video titled "Woolwich Attack: It's an Eye for an Eye." The video is about the May 22, 2013, Woolwich (London) attack in which British soldier Lee Rigby was murdered in daylight by two men. In the video, Al-Shabab portrays the attack as a logical response to the U.K.'s crimes against Muslims around the world. Al-Shabab urges Muslims living in the West to follow the footsteps of the Woolwich attack perpetrators, as well as the perpetrators of other attacks in the West, such as Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter; Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber; and Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the "Underwear Bomber."
  • Monday, October 21, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
I admit I am having problems parsing this article from Iran's Ahlul Bayt News Agency:
Ayatollah Sadr el Din Ghabanchi, Iraqi prayer leader in Najaf referred to the efforts of the Zionist regime to promote hostility between Islamic denominations with Shia Muslims stressing that regional allies of the Zionist regime have turned into enemies of Shia.
Zionists are promoting hostility between Sunnis and Shia, so therefore Shia is obligated to be hostile to Sunni. I think.
He warned against talks on prevention of Shia Islam in Algiers denouncing Salafi groups for the effort.
Salafi groups denouncing Shia groups are bad, but rules to stop Shia groups from denouncing Salafis are also bad.
Orator of Najaf city in Iraq added that Shia Islam, in the light of domestic crisis in the region has turned to the central issue when regional states, having accepted their failure against the Zionist regime, have risen against Shia Muslims.
It sounds like he is saying thatsince Sunni regimes have admitted defeat against Zionists, they have become pro-Zionist puppets.
Iraqi cleric added,” While efforts to spread intrigues among Muslims and fueling civil war continues in Islamic countries to secure interests of the Zionist regime, Israel is in in a situation of relative security.” And added,” This is while Zionist regime authorities announce Al Qaeda a minor threat but Shia Islam a major one.”

He said,” This is quite right because Al Qaeda is the brainchild of world arrogant powers and is supported by great powers of the world.”
I'm sure there is a logic there, but I think it ends at "Shia good. Everyone else bad. Unity good as long as it supports Shiites."
  • Monday, October 21, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Times of London:
Pregnant women in Syria are being picked off by snipers in a sickening war game in which their unborn babies appear to be used for target practice, according to a British surgeon.

David Nott, who has just spent five weeks volunteering in a Syrian hospital, said that he and his despairing colleagues started to notice a disturbing pattern among the women and children who were being shot as they ran the daily gauntlet across a divided zone to buy food and supplies in a major city.

"One day it would be shots to the groin. The next, it would only be the left chest. The day after, we would see no chest wounds; they were all neck [wounds]," he said in an interview with The Times. "From the first patients that came in in the morning, you could almost tell what you would see for the rest of the day. It was a game. We heard the snipers were winning packets of cigarettes for hitting the correct number of targets."

He said local rumours suggested that the snipers were mercenaries from China and Azerbaijan, working for the Assad regime. This cannot be verified.

Mr Nott has been volunteering as an emergency surgeon in war zones in countries such as Bosnia, Libya, Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past 20 years. However, he said that Syria was the only place in which he had witnessed civilians, and in particular pregnant women, being targeted.

On one day, more than half a dozen pregnant women were caught in sniper fire. On another day, two consecutive patients were heavily pregnant women. Both survived but their babies were dead on arrival.

In one case, a baby had a bullet in its brain. "The women were all shot through the uterus, so that must have been where they were aiming for. I can't even begin to tell you how awful it was. Usually, civilians are caught in the crossfire. This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this. This was deliberate. It was hell beyond hell."

Speaking between operations at his day job as a vascular surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Mr Nott estimated that up to 90 per cent of the people he treated were civilians. "I saw very few fighters." The surgeon, who also works at the Royal Marsden and St Mary's Hospital, London, spends at least a month a year volunteering in a conflict zone.


(h/t Yoel)
  • Monday, October 21, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
An Israeli TV reporter got into the Za'atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan and discovered that older Saudi men are taking advantage of girls as young as ten years old and their families.



The video shows a female "marriage broker" extolling the beauty of her virgin girls - the men only want virgins, and they want them young.

According to Palestine Press Agency's reporting of the story, for as little as $3000 the Saudis are "marrying" young girls, having their twisted ideas of "fun," and then divorcing the girls.

A 70 year old Saudi man married a 13 year old girl for a week. A ten year old girl complained on camera about marrying a 60 year old Saudi who beat her during their short "marriage."

The Za'atari camp has around 120,000residents, making it the fourth largest city in Jordan. Roughly half the residents are children.

The UNHCR head of the camp readily admits that the camp is filled with organized crime.

(h/t Yoel)

  • Monday, October 21, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Save a Child's Heart is one of those organizations whose very existence completely and thoroughly debunks the lies about Israel that haters make up and then parrot.

I didn't note this on the video, but keep in mind while you are watching it that the Wolfson Medical Center is not state of the art. It is actually pretty run down. It serves a poorer section of Israel around Holon. It didn't even have an MRI. Rooms were hurriedly converted to allow relatives of the children to stay overnight.

Yet even with all these limitations, the dedicated doctors and administration have built up an amazing organization that not only treats children from around the world for free (including from many Arab countries,) but also sends doctors all over the world to teach other doctors how to save lives.

It is remarkable.



By the way, SACH is one of the very few worthwhile causes in Israel that the EU Commission donates to.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

From the Times of Oman:
This week, a Jordanian band went on a tour that included the Golan Heights, Nazareth, Haifa, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. But the popular music group which is rated as one of the top five in the region faced a concerted social media and online attack as having participated in a politically unacceptable act.

The attack focused on the fact that the band members received visas from the Israeli embassy in Amman. They are accused of normalising with the Israelis. Entry into Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Nazareth or Haifa is not possible without a visa.

The permits issues by the Palestinian Authority in coordination with and after the approval of the Israelis are valid only in West Bank cities like Bethlehem and Ramallah.

The band, Autostrad, identifies itself as "an Ammani world, reggae, funk band from Jordan". Fronted by lead singer Yazan Alrousan, Autostrad was formed in 2007 with guitarist Hamza Arnaout, keyboardist Wisam Qatawneh, bassist Avo Demerjian, saxophonist Bashar Abdelghani and drummer Burhan Ali.

The online and social media campaign was launched by a number of young Jordanians and Palestinians, including some who are citizens of Israel.

In an article published on a number of progressive sites, the writer says the band is welcome to Palestine only after it is liberated. A hashtag with "come after it is liberated" also went viral as attacks against the music group mushroomed.

Autostrad members reject the accusation of normalisation and insist that they are visiting their country upon invitation from credible Palestinian organisations and will sing to Palestinians and Syrians living under Israeli rule.
It's not like Autostrad loves Israel. Quite the contrary:
Arnaout was quoted on a website that getting a visa was the only option available.

"We are Jordanians and Palestinians and this is the only way we have to enter our homeland Palestine and no one can stop us from doing our work."
But this is a big loss for the "Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel" which defined this trip as breaking their rules for normalization.

Even the author of the piece, Daoud Kuttab, criticized PACBI:
After 65 years of Nakbeh and 46 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights, having a group of unelected individuals decide who is a patriot and who is a traitor does not serve the overall cause.
Ray Hanania made a similar point in Saudi Gazette, slamming the haters:
The extremists, who are a minority faction in our Arab community, step in and bully the mainstream Arabs into silence. Arabs are afraid to stand up to the extremists who often direct their hate and anger against Arabs even more than they do against Israel. So the mainstream Arabs remain silent. It’s better to not say anything, the moderates mistakenly conclude, than to stand up to the fanatics.
This story completely flew under the radar, and it wasn't covered at all by Jordan's state media.

From Ammon News, October 9:

Last Thursday, October 3rd, at approximately 7:00 p.m., a conflict occurred in Gaza Camp, eight kilometers outside of Jerash, between several residents of the camp and the adjacent Al Hadada neighborhood to the west.

The tribal altercation between the two parties escalated into a full lockdown of the area by Jordanian police in order to control the combatants. Eyewitnesses reported that Jordanian residents of Al Hadada vacated the area, the violence shifted between Jordanian police forces and Palestinian residents of Gaza Camp.

Camp residents threw rocks at the police and demanded that they cease their occupation of the main street, to which the police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. A number of stores and cars were looted and burned as a result of the initial clash. Fighting continued between police and residents, with the Jordanian Police forces employing tear gas and rubber bullets both on the main street and within residential areas until 4:00 a.m.

The police presence intensified on Friday morning with the addition of armed trucks and armed personal carriers. Local businesses were not permitted to open, and checkpoints were set up at the camp entrances, where officers did not allow those without ID cards to enter the camp.

Skirmishes between anti-riots police and residents of Gaza Camp resumed again at 12:15 p.m., nearly twelve hours after the original conflict between residents of Al Hadada and Gaza Camp had ended. An eyewitness said that the afternoon prayer at Abu Bakir mosque was interrupted by tear gas, and worshippers were driven the main street. At several times, police entered the residential streets with tear gas launchers, riot shields, and rubber bullets, engaging those who refused to go indoors.

By 10:30 p.m. Friday evening, the fighting mostly ceased. Eyewitnesses reported that the police limited their presence to the easternmost section of the camp, but continued to arrest those found out on the streets.

Police cordoned Gaza Camp by this past weekend lasted approximately forty hours. No casualties were confirmed, but many residents were injured by the officers' fire. The tear gas also caused a significant amount of discomfort as it spread inside residential homes throughout the day and a half long conflict. Spent canisters of tear gas found in the camp indicate that they were deployed after their expiration date.

Fire and damage was also inflicted upon the infrastructure and properties within the camp.
“Police cars have returned to the camp every day this week,” a source within the camp stated today. “They are still arresting more people.”

While only 14 arrests have been confirmed, residents have claimed at least 20 have been detained, with some estimates as high as 100. The current charges include assault of police officers and the destruction of property.
Here's video:



Apparently, no "pro-Palestinian human rights" groups bothered to go to the camp to act as human shields against the Jordanian occupiers.

Residents of the Gaza/Jerash camp are not citizens of Jordan. Although they have lived within Jordan's borders for over 45 years, they cannot become citizens, they cannot freely travel, and they are not tried in civilian but in military court, from which nine of them were released today after being held for over two weeks in custody.

There are two separate double standards here, both on how Jordan treats its Palestinian Arabs who originated from Gaza as well as how Jordanian police are not criticized by groups that pretend to be pro-Palestinian for their riot control methods.

But, as Meryl Yourish likes to say, it is Israel Double Standard Time, which occurs every day of the week that ends in a "y."


  • Sunday, October 20, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Because they are in Lebanon.


From Now Lebanon:

A security forces unit is preparing to raid the Dbayeh Palestinian refugee camp and destroy around 20 illegal buildings, NOW learned on Saturday.

According to the report, the security forces are surrounding the camp with a number of bulldozers to destroy the two-story buildings.

Hamas’ representative in Lebanon Ali Baraka condemned the news, and warned that such a step could escalate the tension between security forces and the refugees in all camps in Lebanon.

“The camp’s residents called [Hamas] at midnight and asked for help,” Baraka told NOW.

“The Lebanese state does not ban buildings inside the camp. We can find two-story buildings in all camps, so why is the camp that is inhabited by Christian Palestinians targeted?”

Baraka also noted that the targeted buildings in the Dbayeh camp are located on land that belongs to the UNRWA.
From Ian:

JPost Edtorial: Tall tales
Fatah co-founder Farouk Kaddoumi – who brands the two-state solution “just a temporary phase” – showed Al Jazeera TV in 2009 what he insisted were protocols of a three-way collusion by Abbas, Arafat’s longtime sidekick Muhammad Dahlan and then-prime minister Ariel Sharon to assassinate Arafat.
Unfortunately such slander is not the exception. It is a Palestinian norm. Fantastic convolutions of cloak and dagger canards do not bolster the cause of peace. Falsehoods negate peace.
Where the culture of mendacity reigns, trustworthy accords cannot grow. That is why recurrent twists in the Arafat assassination tale matter.
The Saudis are sulking
Despite its candid anger, Saudi Arabia cannot forgo its military partnership with the U.S. After seeing how the U.S. recently froze military aid to Egypt, the Saudis realized that, with Obama in power, anything is possible. It is preferable for Saudi Arabia to not publicly confront the U.S. on the U.N. stage. Rather, it should do so indirectly. There is much more Saudi Arabia can do to thwart the Iranian nuclear project. It may be that Saudi Arabia's open refusal of a Security Council seat is masking other behind-the-scenes moves, such as building a discrete and unnatural coalition. It is best that such things are done as far away from the spotlight as possible.
France suggests reforming veto power on Security Council
In light of the Security Council’s stalemate on Syria — Russia and China have repeatedly blocked resolutions calling for the use of force against the Bashar Assad regime — France has suggested reforming the mighty veto power of the body’s five permanent members: the US, UK, France, Russia, and China.
The world from here: Why Jordan relies on Israel to secure the Jordan Valley
Both the king and his closest advisers are also keenly aware that in the event of an Israeli withdrawal, the Jordan Valley could easily be transformed into the “Philadelphi Corridor” of the West Bank.
With the West Bank under prospective Palestinian control, jihadi groups from Iraq and Syria would be attracted to cross into Jordan and then to Palestinian territory. A common Palestinian-Jordanian border would also likely increase Palestinian irredentism towards the East Bank, which has been a major Jordanian concern since “Black September” in 1970, when Syrian-backed Palestinian insurgents threatened the Hashemite Kingdom.
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Gaza Imports
CAMERA's Israel office has prompted a correction on an article in the Sept. 23 English print edition of Ha'aretz which had wrongly reported that Israel allowed concrete and steel to enter the Gaza Strip legally for the first time in six years.
Gili Cohen's inaccurate article, with the erroneous headline stating that "Cement enters Gaza Strip legally for first time in six years," appears below:
BBC’s “Obstacles to Peace” erases pre-1967 Jewish history in Jerusalem
It is, of course, bad enough that this one-sided political polemic has been allowed to stand on the website of an organization supposedly committed to accuracy and impartiality for well over six years. It is even worse that this misleading article and its accompanying ones in the same series are now being promoted by the BBC as additional reading for audience members seeking to learn more about the issues surrounding the talks between Israel and the PLO. That promotion comes in direct conflict with the constitutional basis according to which the BBC’s defined public purposes include building “a global understanding on international issues”.
Israel 'Knew about Terror Tunnel for a Year'
Daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot wrote Friday that Israel had known for over a year about the terror tunnel that Hamas was digging into its territory, but let Hamas leaders continue to pour resources into it.
"Sometimes, as part of the war of minds, [Israel] lets them invest money, wrack their brains, waste human resources, and only towards the end of the digging, does it hold up a stop sign," the paper's defence correspondent Alex Fishman wrote.
Sraya Ofer Met his Killers 2 Weeks before Murder
According to new information reported by Channel 2, the man brutally murdered outside his home in the Jordan Valley last week, Sraya Ofer, had encountered his Arab murderers two weeks earlier, when they approached his home. They aroused his suspicion in that encounter and he reported the license number of their car to police.
IDF wounds Palestinian attempting to infiltrate Negev town of Meitar
IDF forces opened fire on and wounded a Palestinian who was attempting to infiltrate into the village of Meitar in the Negev. The man was found sabotaging the fence in an apparent attempt to enter the community, the IDF said.
The forces fired warning shots at the suspect who was ultimately shot in the leg.
Socialist MEP from Belgium hold anti-Israel event over Beduin policy
The Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament on Thursday prevented an Israeli official from participating in panel discussion on the Israeli Beduin community, which degenerated into a anti-Israel hate festival, Israeli diplomats said.
Véronique De Keyser, a socialist MEP from Belgium, led the seminar sponsored by the group titled “Beduin in the Naqab/Negev: Dreams and Nightmare.”
Abbas: Reports are wrong — peace talks not at a dead end
Notwithstanding recent Israeli media reports, the Middle East peace talks are not at an impasse, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.
“The negotiations are difficult, but they haven’t reached a dead end. They are still in the initial stage and we have enough time to further deal with the main issues that turn out to be difficult,” Abbas told German Deutsche Welle television. “Such things are being claimed, but we have not gotten into a dead end.”
PMW: Fatah - “All means of struggle until statehood”
Another Fatah posting also illustrated the use of violence as one of Fatah's "means." A picture showed a member of Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, taking aim with a rifle, accompanied by the following text:
"The Al-Aqsa [Martyrs'] Brigades:
When they speak - they act;
When they promise - they fulfill;
and when they strike - they cause pain."
PA TV teaches children not to trust Jews


Archbishop Gets Award for Arming Terrorists
Melkite Archbishop Hillarion Capucci ran guns for the PLO in the 1970s. He got caught and was sentenced to 12 years in jail. He was released after serving a few years of his sentence. The Vatican, embarrassed by the presence of an Archbishop in an Israeli jail, secured his early release by promising that the Archbishop would not engage in any anti-Israel activism once he was out of jail. Capucci violated the terms of his release on a number of occasions, most recently participating in the so-called humanitarian flotilla into the Gaza Strip.
Again: Arabs Fly Nazi Flag Near Road
For at least the second time in five months, Arab residents of Beit Umar in the Palestinian Authority (PA) have placed a Nazi flag over a major thoroughfare where Jews pass in their vehicles.
Beit Umar is located between Halhoul and the Etzion Bloc, not far from Hevron.
Kidnapped Lebanese Pilgrims Released in Exchange for Pilots
Nine Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped by rebels in Syria 17 months ago arrived on Saturday in Beirut, after being freed in exchange for two Turkish pilots seized in Lebanon in August, reports Al Arabiya.
Let’s stop deluding ourselves about Turkey, says Liberman
Responding to Turkey’s accusation that Israel was behind a “media campaign” against Ankara over the exposure of an Israeli spy ring in Iran, as well as past accusations, Liberman said the claims were “baseless” and served as proof that Turkey under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would never warm to Israel, despite the formal apology issued to Erdogan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March over the 2010 Mavi Marmara affair.
“My opposition to apologizing to Turkey is nothing new. I expressed it clearly before and after the fact,” Liberman said. “I thought, and explained, that it would not bring about improved relations between the two countries, but would only hurt Israel’s standing in the region and play into the hands of extremists in the Middle East — among them Turkey under the Islamist extremist Erdogan.”
State officials: Talks with Turkey 'stuck'
The Washington Post's report about Turkey's disclosure to Iran of an Israeli spy network might have failed to elicit an official Israeli response, but state officials admit that security relations with Ankara are extremely limited and went as far as saying that reconciliation talks surrounding the Marmara raid are "stuck."
"The Turks are destroying any attempt to reach understandings," an Israeli official close to the talks said. "They don't want to resolve this thing. It's completely stuck and despite President Obama's efforts, they don't want to move ahead at this point."
Nevertheless, he stressed that Ankara might decide to resolve the matter if it suited its interests.
MEMRI: Egyptian Poet Fatima Naoot: Egypt Was Conquered by the Arabs, Coptic Language Changed By Force


US quietly releasing $1.6B in Pakistan assistance
The U.S. has quietly decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended when relations between the two countries disintegrated over the covert raid that killed Usama bin Laden and deadly U.S. airstrikes against Pakistani soldiers.
Officials and congressional aides said ties have improved enough to allow the money to flow again.
Israel Defense Forces to Develop Drone Submarines, Market Expected to Reach $2 Billion
The department within Israel’s Ministry of Defense, tasked with developing next generation weaponry, MAFAT, is working on developing unmanned underwater vehicles, the market for which could exceed $2 billion by 2020, Israel’s Globes business daily reported, citing MAFAT aeronautics director Dr. Yuval Cohen.
UUVs include ROVs - remotely operated underwater vehicles that are operated by remote control – and AUVs - autonomous underwater vehicles which are fully robotic, submarine drones, where Israel’s ingenuity could add the most value. As with Israel’s leadership in developing flying drones, the Jewish state could be very successful in this industry as well, but operating in the deep sea adds another level of complexity.
Kennedy Was a Friend to American and Soviet Jews
The conventional community memory of Kennedy would be enough by itself. JFK overcame the legacy of his father, Joseph Kennedy, FDR’s notoriously appeasement-minded ambassador to Britain, to build a warm relationship with American Jews. As Warren Bass recounted a decade ago in his book Support Any Friend, the U.S.-Israel alliance took a big step forward with Kennedy’s approval of the sale of Hawk missiles to Israel.
  • Sunday, October 20, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the Qassam Brigades English site:
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya said “The Palestinian prisoners’ file will remain open and will not close until all of the prisoners are released”, calling on the Islamic peoples "from Tangiers to Jakarta to participate in the Great Aqsa Intifada.”

In a speech on Saturday marking the two-year anniversary of Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange deal, Haneyya vowed to liberate all the prisoners from Israeli prisons, saying that their release is on the top of his government's priorities.

Haneyya renewed the Palestinian adherence to the national constants and fundamental rights despite all difficulties and plights, saying that resistance is the strategic option to the conflict in the region.

The Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza Strip affirmed that thousands of resistance elements above the ground and under the ground are preparing for the liberation battle of Palestine.

PM Haneyya stressed his trust in the Arab peoples who broke the silence and refused the injustice and supported al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem. “Our greetings to the activists all over the world who support the Palestinian people, especially Rachel Corrie”, he said.

Haneyya called for intensifying the Palestinian presence in al-Aqsa mosque, praising the Palestinian popular and armed resistance in the West Bank.

He strongly condemned all forms of security coordination and the persecution of resistance elements in West Bank, praising the latest resistance activities in West Bank.

“There will be no security or stability in the region as long as Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger," he affirmed.
The ISM movement that Corrie was a part of has not distanced itself from this speech, even though they claim that they are against violence.

  • Sunday, October 20, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Arab media is quoting AP as saying that the family of Dr. Mohammed Helmy, who was recently recognized by Yad Vashem as a "righteous among nations" for saving a Jewish woman in Berlin and helping three others hide from the Nazis, is refusing the award.

The reason? Because Yad Vashem is in Israel.

From  AP:
A member of the family of the first Arab honoured by Israel for risking his life to save Jews during the Holocaust says the family isn't interested in the recognition.

The Egyptian doctor Mohamed Helmy was honoured posthumously last month by Israel's Holocaust memorial for hiding Jews in Berlin during the Nazis' genocide, but a family member tracked down by The Associated Press this week in Cairo said her relatives wouldn't accept the award, one of Israel's most prestigious.

"If any other country offered to honor Helmy, we would have been happy with it," Mervat Hassan, the wife of Helmy's great-nephew, told The Associated Press during an interview at her home in Cairo this week.

Typically, the museum tries to track down living family members to present the award in a ceremony, but in the case of Helmy, who died in 1982 in Berlin, Yad Vashem said it had not been able to find any living relatives.

With the help of a German historian, the AP obtained the certificate of inheritance of Helmy's wife Emmi, who died in 1998. The document contained the names of three relatives in Cairo and when contacted by the AP, Ms Hassan agreed to share her memories of Helmy.

Ms Hassan said the family wasn't interested in the award from Israel because relations between Egypt and Israel remain hostile, despite a peace treaty signed more than three decades ago. But, she cautioned, "I respect Judaism as a religion and I respect Jews. Islam recognises Judaism as a heavenly religion."




Karl Vick in Time does what he always does:

Two decades ago, the word Oslo evoked everything the Middle East normally refuses to provide: hope, trust and compromise. Israelis and Palestinians, two peoples claiming the same biblical lands, had rarely talked peace with each other before in a serious way. Then, in the space of four months, their leaders secretly agreed upon a set of plans — the Oslo accords — that promised an end, once and for all, to the violent conflict between them. The diplomatic achievement was sealed on the White House lawn on Sept. 13, 1993, with a signing ceremony and a handshake between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The reality came home nine months later, in July 1994, when Palestinian guerrillas led by Arafat ended 27 years of exile by rolling into the Gaza Strip escorted by Israeli soldiers. "From the moment we entered Gaza, it looked like, my God, really peace has come," says Nabil Shaath, one of Arafat's lieutenants. "We were doing things fast."

The momentum ended on Nov. 4, 1995, when a radical right-wing Jewish settler shot Rabin dead at a peace rally in Tel Aviv. In that moment, many historians have argued, the Oslo accords suffered a fatal blow. Without Rabin to reassure a nervous Israel that Oslo was a genuine path to peace, extremists quickly began to drive events on both sides.
Were things wonderful and peaceful and hopeful between July 1994 and November 1995?

During that time there were dozens of drive-by shootings of Jews on the roads, as well as stabbings. On August 26, 1994 - Shlomo Kapach, age 22, and Gil Revah, age 21, were killed at a Ramle building site, and the PA protected their killers.

On October 19, 1994, a Hamas bomb killed 22 people on a bus in Tel Aviv.

On January 22, 1995, a double suicide bombing at the Beit Lid junction near Netanya killed 21 others.

On April 13, 1995, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Hadera Central Bus Station, killing 5 and injuring 30.

On July 24, 1995, 6 civilians were killed when a terrorist blew himself up on a bus in Ramat Gan.

On August 21, 1995, three Israelis and one American were killed when a terrorist blew himself up in an attack on a Jerusalem bus.

But none of those deadly attacks - and these are only a few of scores of them - are considered by Vick to have harmed the Oslo process. No, Arab violence is never the problem. Only Jews are responsible for ruining "peace." The dozens of Israelis killed before Rabin's assassination weren't killed by Arab extremists, according to Vick - their extremism only started after Rabin's assassination.

Beyond that, Vick is clearly unaware that Rabin never advocated a Palestinian Arab state. He never advocated dividing Jerusalem. His last speech in Knesset before his assassination described his red lines:
We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

...First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev -- as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.

The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term...

(UPDATE): Moreover, as Soccer Dad reminds me, within two months after Rabin's assassination Israel left every single major Palestinian city except for Hebron. In other words the peace process accelerated after the assassination. It was only after the terror attacks of Feb-March 1996 that the peace process went off track.

So who are these anonymous historians that Vick confidently quotes, and what are their credentials?

Vick goes on:
Violence erupted in 2000, and Israel's peace camp was destroyed in the face of the ensuing wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. The center of Israeli politics shifted firmly to the right.
"Violence erupted" as journalists have done hundreds of times, Arab terror is something that simply happens by itself, without any responsibility.

Most outrageously, to Vick, the tragedy of the second intifada wasn't that Arabs were slaughtering Jews by the hundreds - it was that their deaths killed the Israeli peace camp.

Vick, of course, doesn't mention that prime minister Olmert went way beyond the Israeli offer in 2000, showing that even with so many murdered killed during the PLO's and Hamas' terror spree, Israel still wanted peace. That narrative doesn't make it into the mainstream media which is wedded to the lie that Jews are the only people responsible for setbacks to peace.

Then Vick just makes things up:
Two decades after the White House signing, Palestinians have less income, less land and much less freedom than they did in 1993.
The implication is that this is all Israel's fault. They may have less income and less freedom - but that is because of the terrorism that forced Israel to separate Arabs from Jews. Does Vick think that an international border between Israel and "Palestine" would allow workers to freely enter Israel?

But how can Vick say they have "less land"? There was no Palestinian Arab autonomy before Oslo, but now 100% of Gazans and about 97% of West Bank Palestinian Arabs live under Arab rule, with Arab security forces, Arab infrastructure and in what are virtually two separate Arab states, one of which is recognized by most of the world's nations.

Vick's bias is once again obvious. Yet these lies are the accepted conventional wisdom, and Time doesn't even bother to fact check it.

Accompanying the story is a photo essay that is even more biased than this piece, if that is possible. It portrays Arabs as eternal victims does not show a single Jew living in Judea and Samaria who is not represented as an aggressive interloper on Arab and Muslim land. Muslims work fields or are victims of Jewish terror; Jews are not shown as normal human beings.

(h/t Phyllis, AR)

Saturday, October 19, 2013

  • Saturday, October 19, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Al Sumaria TV reports that the last remaining synagogue in Basra, Iraq, is in danger of collapse.

The synagogue was looted in 2003 with the fall of the former regime, and it had been converted into a warehouse for construction materials.



However, but there are still some indications of its former use.


The walls are cracking and the owners of surrounding shops are alarmed that its collapse will affect the structural integrity of their stores.

The synagogue was built in 1915 when this was a Jewish neighborhood.

The last Jew in Basra, an elderly woman who lived in an apartment adjacent to the synagogue, left in 2003.

As of 2009, there eight Jews left in Baghdad.

From Ian:

Stand With Us: Pro-Israel Students Need to Watch This
YT video has been taken down due to a "copyright" claim by Ali Abuelhassan
Alternate Video at Vimeo (h/t AlexandreM)


Missing Peace: What’s behind the new talks about Iran’s nuclear weapon program?
It is clear from earlier leaked details that Iran’s offer in Geneva was a far cry from what Cottler summed up in his op-ed.
The question is why in light of the real meaning of the Iranian offer in Geneva the US and EU hailed the talks as a new beginning?
Israeli commentators think they have the answer. The US and EU have in fact changed their game in order to trap Israel into inaction, they say. Israel cannot take military action against Iran’s nuclear program as long as talks in Geneva continue. The West fears an Israeli strike more than an Iranian nuclear weapon since such a strike would have a disastrous affect on the price of oil and on the world economy.
Caroline Glick: Israel and the new Munich
And now he is involved in negotiations with Iran that will necessarily lead to Iran’s emergence as a nuclear power.
From Netanyahu’s repeated declarations that Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, it is unclear whether he realizes what is going on. More than anything else, those statements represent an attempt to negotiate with Obama. Netanyahu is still trying to win Obama over.
If there was ever an argument to be made in favor of Netanyahu’s pleading, their time is long past. In nothing else, the obscene diplomatic theater in Geneva this week made that clear.
Israel is alone. We have no diplomatic option.
Iran stalls, centrifuges spin
That’s the mindset of many eager in the media to help the administration paint a picture of progress at the nuclear arms talks just concluded in Geneva, Switzerland. In fact, in the words of an official of a pro-Israel organization, “Nothing — nothing has changed.” Iran is still enriching, the centrifuges are spinning and Iran is still insisting it has a “right” to enrich and has no nuclear arms program. As the official put it, “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this rodeo.” The regime has spent all of Obama’s first term and some of George W. Bush’s talking, but not deviating one iota from its nuclear weapons plans.
Report - Source reveals details of Iranian offer at nuclear talks
Despite the various ideas presented, Al-Monitor stated that the plan did not meet various demands made previously by the United States, such as its insistence that Tehran to remove its stock of 20% enriched uranium from the country.
The Middle East news site listed other calls made by the US that the plan did not address, like the complete suspension of activity at Frodow and Arak, and the country's increasing production of low-enriched uranium.
Iran presented ‘no serious proposals’ at nuke talks, US officials tell Israel
Iran made “no serious proposals” during the two days of talks on its nuclear program in Geneva this week, senior US officials reportedly told their Israeli counterparts. The talks were “exploratory” rather than substantive, the US officials told Jerusalem, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Friday night.
US said to weigh gradually unfreezing Iranian assets
The plan calls for a graduated unfreezing of Iranian oversees assets without rescinding the sanctions themselves, affording US President Barack Obama the capacity to respond to offers made by Iran in the course of negotiations without undoing the years-long effort to put the existing sanctions regime into place, a unnamed senior official in the Obama administration told The New York Times late Thursday.
Most Israelis support Netanyahu over Iran, according to poll
Some 58 percent of respondents to the question "how would you rate Netanyahu's recent performance in the global arena vis-a-vis Iran?" said it was good (41 percent) or very good (17 percent), according to the poll published in the Haaretz newspaper.
The Israeli-Palestinian “Distraction” Fallacy
Western countries primarily fund both the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, the agency that deals with Palestinian refugees. Wealthy Arab donors haven’t built state-of-the-art hospitals in Palestine like Hadassah or Laniado in Israel; Palestinians seeking top-notch medical care still go to Israel for it. They haven’t founded schools like the ORT network or daycare centers like the WIZO network, which still serve thousands of Israelis today.
And if Arabs haven’t done this in 65 years, when so many other peoples have, there’s no reason to think a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would suddenly make them start. This failure is entirely a product of their own culture. And therefore, change can only come from within.
Study - Arab Towns Bad for Arabs
The concentration of Israel’s Arab population in Arab towns and cities is bad for Arabs, and creates mistrust and passivity, Maariv/nrg reports. The report was based on new research from Ariel University.
Researcher Dr. Yael Brender-Ilan sought to resolve a dispute between two views on ethnically homogeneous towns.
Germany urges settlement ‘restraint,’ pledges aid to PA
Merkel also vowed to provide continued financial succor to the perennially cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.
“We have always advocated a two-state solution. We have always advocated aiding and supporting the Palestinian territories, advancing the peace process, advancing economic development, and I am pretty sure we will conduct our foreign policy with this continuity,” Merkel was quoted as saying.
Euros Don’t Care PA Steals Their Money
The question is, why does a nation like Germany, that was rightly prepared to pull the plug on a debt-ridden fellow EU member state like Greece unless they got their fiscal house in order, not care that the Palestinians are stealing their money?
Merkel, who in many ways functions as the financier of the continent, is not as hostile to Israel as many of her European colleagues. But like everyone else in the EU, she thinks nothing of pouring her people’s money down the rat hole of the PA. The reasons for this are not hard to figure out.
IDF Officer - Latest Terror Attacks 'Very Alarming'
The officer said that the latest attacks are an alarming sequence of events which show that Palestinian Authority Arabs are very much motivated to carry out attacks.
"We view the attempted attack tonight very seriously and are prepared for future similar incidents,” said the official, referring to the tractor attack that was thwarted near Jerusalem on Thursday evening.
Terrorist's Uncle - He Didn't Mean to Attack
"He got lost, the soldiers did not wait, they should not have shot him right away," the uncle of Younes al-Ubeidi was quoted by Channel 2 News as having said.
The uncle added that despite the death of his older brother Marai, the terrorist who tried to carry out a similar attack in Jerusalem in 2009, "Younes had nothing against Jews."
Haniyeh calls for ‘popular uprising,’ praises recent terror attacks
Urging a renewal of intifada “resistance,” Haniyeh praised the “heroic martyrs” responsible for a series of recent terrorist attacks in the West Bank, in which two soldiers were killed, a retired army colonel was bludgeoned to death, and a nine-year-old girl was shot and lightly injured. In the latest suspected terrorist attack, on Thursday, a Palestinian man rammed a tractor through the gate of an army base north of Jerusalem and was shot dead by IDF forces.
Speaking at celebrations marking the second anniversary of the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, Haniyeh said the deal was a “historic achievement” for the Palestinian people but charged that more needed to be done to free “all the prisoners.”
Top 10 Non-Jews Positively Influencing the Jewish Future 2013
Since publishing my first annual list of non-Jews who have wielded significant positive influence over the Jewish future, it seems that the popularity of the practice of list-making has ballooned. It is my sincere hope, however, that this list merits special attention, both in the Jewish world and beyond, as the individuals who are featured herein are truly worthy of recognition.
Israel Daily Picture: The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 3
In this feature we present the pictures of Jerusalem's walls and gates. By comparing the photos to the photo essays presented here over the last two years we are able to date the pictures.
Damascus Gate 1: The shops on the right of the square belonged to a Jewish banker name Chaim Aharon Valero (circa 1905). The domes of the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael synagogues are on the horizon on the left of the picture. Both were destroyed by the Jordanian Legion in 1948.
World’s Oldest Holocaust Survivor Finally Gets Her Close-Up
At 109 years old, Alice Herz-Sommer can make multiple claims: she is the world’s oldest pianist, as well as its oldest Holocaust survivor. Now she’s also a leading lady, the centerpiece of a film charting her remarkable life, “The Lady in Number 6.”

Friday, October 18, 2013

  • Friday, October 18, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
If they don't know the basics about the Holocaust, how can they be expected to know anything about Israel besides the poison that they are exposed to on campus?




A Pennsylvania woman set out with a video camera to learn what college students in her state know about the Holocaust — and discovered an incredible lack of knowledge not only of the genocide of the Jews, but of basic facts about U.S. history and World War II.

Rhonda Fink-Whitman visited college campuses in Pennsylvania this fall, including the venerated Ivy League institution the University of Pennsylvania, where she was repeatedly faced with a remarkable ignorance about events that took place in the last century.

Students didn’t know where Normandy was, why U.S. forces landed there, why the U.S. even entered the war or who was president at the time. (Wilson, Eisenhower and JFK were among the guesses.) One student didn’t know who Anne Frank was, because he said he never read the book.

Another student thought African Americans may have been targeted in the Holocaust.

Fink-Whitman started her interviews with the simple question, “What was the Holocaust?” Here are some of the answers she heard:

“Uh, I’m on the spot now.”
“It was a, uh, I don’t know how to say it like. It was something that happened in. Oh my God, I know the answer but I don’t know how to explain it.”
“I have no idea.”
“I have no idea … is it Europe? I don’t think so.”
She also asked which country Adolf Hitler was the leader of:

“Amsterdam?”
“I forget.”
From Ian:

Why Israel Can't Trust UN for Protection
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), a pre-eminent Israeli think tank, has produced and published a historical/topographic video explaining the basis for Israel's rejection of the idea that international peace-keeping troops can be introduced into Judea and Samaria, to offer Israel protection if it withdraws its forces in a "peace treaty."
The Jerusalem Center is headed by Israel's former ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, who has been a long-time security advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.


Hecklers Flee Israeli Speaker at U of Florida
“You think the IDF kills children? You should go to Syria, where everyone knows they are murdering thousands of children with gas and other cruel weapons! Go to Syria where there are actually thousands of real refugees. They need you to demonstrate in Syria, go!” Berko lectured the SJP hecklers.
And with that, the hecklers left the room and Berko continued her lecture. The people who came to hear about what could possibly motivate women and children (that’s the “smart bomb” Berko means) to want to kill themselves were able to hear from her first hand observations and watch video clips of many who attempted to be smart bombs.
'Stop Being Afraid'
At one point, Galloway can be heard saying that he felt "threatened" and demanded to known what Hunter was hiding under his sweater - at which point the 19 year-old student pulls out an Israeli flag, to Galloway's obvious bemusement.
Before being escorted out by security, Hunter parodied Galloway's own remarks to Aslan-Levy that "I don't debate with Israelis," by declaring: "I do not have a question for you, because I do not debate with racists," before unfurling the Israeli flag and making his exit, to applause from members of the audience.
In an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva, Hunter explains why he decided not to stay silent - and relays an important message to British Jewry and fellow pro-Israel activists.
Comedy Half Hour: BDSers confounded in Oxford Street (video)
A young man of unmistakable Middle Eastern appearance approaches a gaggle of bourgeois-looking BDSers on Oxford Street who are protesting SodaStream outside the John Lewis department store.
One of the protesters hands him a leaflet. After all, the young man's sure to be receptive to material demonising the Zionist Entity, right?
Wrong! The young man in question, from Iraq and of mixed Iraqi and Iranian parentage, is in fact a staunch and well-informed supporter of Israel, and superbly capable of challenging the BDSers' nonsense (in which that infamous set of Four Maps plays its mute mendacious part).
The ultimate in Muslim victimhood mythology: 'they were victims of the Nazis, just like Jews were'
There can be no ambiguity in what the artist is claiming here: Jews, gays, and ... Muslims (dressed in concentration camp outfits) were equal victims of the Nazi holocaust. The myth of Muslim victimhood and 'Islamaphobia' is one that is now constantly pushed not just by the Muslim Brotherhood, but even more so by their useful idiot leftist allies, like the 'guerilla artist' here. To cast Muslims as equal victims when they were actually among the most enthusiastic participants in the Nazi persecution of Jews takes the myth of Muslim victimhood to a whole new level; and as with most Muslim propaganda it is a perfect inversion of reality.
Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, or al-Quds?
Well, maybe we should call Yerushalayim “al-Quds.” Why not? Western liberal Jews have so capitulated to the “Palestinian narrative” that they think within terms created by the enemies of Israel. That is, most western liberal Jews have, over the years, adopted the language that the enemies of the Jewish people use to describe the alleged atrocity which is the existence of the Jewish state..
This is what I refer to as the Palestinian Colonization of the Jewish Mind. It is the unconscious embrace of terminology developed by the enemies of the Jewish people that suggests Jewish guilt and aggression in stark contrast to supposed “Palestinian” innocence and victim-hood.
Family of Girl Hurt by Terrorist Gives Thanks
Two weeks ago, nine-year-old Noam Glick was attacked by a terrorist as she played on the balcony of her family home in Psagot, north of Jerusalem. On Thursday, her family gave thanks for her survival with a celebration.
Among those who came to celebrate with the family were Members of Knesset Yariv Levin (Likud Beyteinu) and Orit Struk (Bayit Yehudi/Jewish Home), both members of the Knesset’s Land of Israel Lobby.
Jordanian Minister: No Israeli Flag on Temple Mount
Hael Abd-el Hafiz Daud, the Jordanian Minister for Sacred Properties and Islamic Holy Sites, warned this week of unspecified diplomatic consequences to the fact that the “Israeli occupation” allows “settlers” to enter the area of the Al Aqsa Mosque and hold up the Israeli flag. This happened, he accused, with the protection of Israeli security forces, who prevented faithful Muslims and Waqf guards from taking the flag down.
Revealed: How Richard Silverstein was duped again by a phony “source”
Richard Silverstein not only devotes his blog to smearing the Jewish state – while defending even the most openly malevolent extremists – but routinely spreads wild claims and, at times, false information under the veneer of promoting “liberal” values and social justice.
The strange phenomenon of mainstream media sites taking Silverstein’s rumor mill seriously was best summed up by the following cheeky Twitterer back when the BBC cited Silverstein’s “scoop” about Israel’s “secret” Iran attack plans.
Analysis: Turkey's unprecedented act of betrayal against Israel
This strategic alliance is manifest in the biannual meetings between the heads of Mossad and MIT and between intelligence analysts and experts on both sides. The two countries’ relationship is characterized by frequent exchanges of information about common enemies and adversaries in the region, including Iraq, Syria and post-Islamic Iran.
Even during the most tense periods in relations between the two countries, intelligence ties remained intact, even if they did cool somewhat. While intelligence work is often interest-driven and unsentimental by its nature, there are still unwritten rules of conduct that govern relationships.
If it is indeed guilty of blowing the cover off of the Israeli spy network, then Turkey blatantly violated these codes.
'Turkish exposure of Israeli spies directed at Kurdish nationalists'
Meanwhile, an Israeli official said Thursday that if the report was true, it had to do with the strained ties between Turkey and the National Kurdish Nationalist Movement. The Turks and the Iranians have been working in tandem for some time against the Kurdish nationalists both in Turkey and in Iran.
Former Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon urged the government to file an official complaint with NATO and demand Turkey's removal from the organization over the incident.
Time to go cold turkey
The problem is that Erdogan does not share Netanyahu's sense of realpolitik; he does not consider Turkey to have common interests with Israel. He most certainly isn't going to assist Netanyahu in an operation against Iran. As the Ignatius article illustrates, Ankara is happier helping Tehran than Jerusalem.
Body of dead Nazi Priebke goes missing
Family lawyer Paolo Giachini said he and the former SS captain’s family lost track of Priebke’s casket Tuesday night, when they tried to celebrate a funeral Mass for him in a church compound in Albano Laziale, south of Rome.
Belgian ‘Holocaust ad’ against ritual slaughter riles Jews, Muslims
A Belgian radio ad that is accused of drawing on Holocaust themes to promote a ban on ritual slaughter has drawn sharp criticism from Jewish and Muslim representatives.
The ad, which the Antwerp-based animal welfare group Gaia produced for airing on national radio and sent Monday via email to 200 politicians, delivers a mock testimony told from the perspective of a lamb waiting for slaughter.
Christian Journalist Who Posed as Jew in Malmo: ‘I’m Optimistic Things Will Get Better’
Reilly says that a concern for safety among the Jewish community is understandable and suggests Jews wishing to visit the country be vigilant.
“Jews who are considering visiting here, my advice would be to do your homework and as I said in the article, be prepared for stares at least and violence at worst if you make your Jewish beliefs visible.”
Still, despite his experience and evidence to the contrary, Reilly believes that there’s reason to remain optimistic that a turnabout is on the horizon.
Israeli bird researcher derides spy bird ‘nonsense’
“The whole field of conservation is based on regional cooperation and not this nonsense,” said Leshem, who collaborates on several projects with Palestinian and Jordanian scientists. “It’s not enough that they kill people; now they are killing birds too.”
Pope Francis Appoints Israel-Friendly Archbishop Pietro Parolin as New Vatican #2
Archbishop Parolin, 58, who was papal nuncio in Caracas prior to this appointment, will become the youngest cleric to occupy this post since 1939.
The BBC said cardinals welcomed the choice, as Archbishop Parolin is seen as a reformer and is known for his efforts to improve relations with China and Israel.
In Tel Aviv’s Silicon Wadi, the focus is on brain gain
Ronak Kumar Samantray, co-founder and chief software architect of NowFloats.com, a Hyderabad, India-based start-up, has only been in Israel for three days. But says he never wants to leave.
“The best part of Israel is how open it is. I just love this country. I wish I was born here,” says Samantray — whose business helps small companies get online — during a meet and greet at the annual DLD Innovation Conference in Tel Aviv. He was rushing between conferences and thrilled, he said, because later in the day he had landed a face-to-face meeting with the CEO of Wix.com, the free website software company that is lauded as one of Israel’s most successful examples of a start-up. “It’s just brilliant,” he says of the culture of the city. “I can just pick up the phone and call a CEO, and they’re so approachable.”
Israel shows the way for Irish hi-tech start-up scene
THEY may share the same first letter but that is where the similarities between Ireland and Israel's start-up scene currently begin and end.
Indeed, while Ireland has struggled to produce large, home-grown hi-tech companies, the Jewish state boasts the highest number of companies listed on the NASDAQ outside of North America, the world's highest gross expenditure on R&D and highest level of venture capital as share of GDP.
However, five up-and-coming Irish hi-tech firms arrived in Tel Aviv this week hoping to rapidly learn the lessons from the small country that has been dubbed the 'Start-up Nation'.
Palestinian Media Watch has been monitoring Fatah's official Facebook page, and it seems that every day Mahmoud Abbas' party shows its support for terrorism.

This graphic they posted is pretty clear:


Under the headline "Fatah - All means of struggle until statehood" the administrator of the Fatah Facebook page posted three pictures showing different "means of struggle." One picture represents diplomacy as a "means of struggle," exemplified by a picture of PA Chairman Abbas speaking at the UN. The other two pictures represent the use of different kinds of violence as a "means of struggle." One shows a man wearing an Arab headscarf throwing a stone, while the other shows a man holding a rifle.
(no link, I received this via email and it does not seem to be posted yet.)

There is no abhorrence for violence - it is a necessary tool. The Western world can be duped by seeing the Fatah-dominated PLO talk to them only about peace and diplomacy while in Arabic there has been no change of heart regarding terror.

It isn't like we didn't know that they regard diplomacy is a tactic, not a strategy. Fatah has said it many times, and it is part of its official platform - a document that has been utterly ignored by the Western world.  (I'm not aware of anyone who translated it into English besides my excepts.)

In that same platform, Fatah calls for relationships with Israel's "peace camp" but emphasizes that this is in no way "normalization" with the enemy. It's just another tactic - weaken Israel with words that fools gullible US, UN and EU officials all the while celebrating terror.

Hell, even Arafat swore that he gave up terror in 1993, and then he directed the suicide bombing spree of the 2000s.

These are basic facts that can be checked by anyone.  It is the willful blindness of diplomats, pundits and the media, combined with the willful lies spouted by the Israel-haters, that tells the world a story that is much different from the truth.

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