Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, March 15, 2014

03/15 Links: Egyptian leader of 2011 Eilat terror attack, killed by own bomb; Anelka Sacked

From Ian:

Egyptian who led 2011 terror attack near Eilat killed by own bomb

Egypt’s deadliest terrorist group said one of its founders, who led a 2011 terror attack in Israel, has been accidentally killed by a bomb.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has spearheaded a low-level insurgency against Egyptian soldiers and police, said Tawfiq Mohamed Fareej was killed last week when a car accident set off a bomb he was carrying.
The group, whose name means “Partisans of Jerusalem” in Arabic, has claimed some of the deadliest attacks on Egyptian security forces since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last July.
One of the group’s founders, Fareej was the “field commander” of an August 18, 2011 cross border terrorist raid into Israel that killed 8 Israelis, the group said in a statement on Friday.

The bitter fruits of Bibi’s Bar-Ilan blunder

During the half-decade since that fateful lapse at Bar- Ilan, Netanyahu has consented to a series of far-reaching, previously inconceivable concessions – conveying that once any issue, no matter how pernicious or perilous, is raised, Israel will eventually give way.
His dramatic about-face on Palestinian statehood was soon followed by his aforementioned, unprecedented, and largely futile decision to freeze construction in Judea-Samaria – which was unreciprocated by the Palestinians, and unappreciated by the US and the international community.
This was merely a harbinger of things to come.

Mondoweiss & the Far Right?

Mondoweiss, the fanatically anti-Zionist website run by Jews, has many open and demonstrable links (unsurprisingly) with the extreme Left, especially with the Center for Economic Research and Social Change (CERSC), which publishes the International Socialist Review and sponsored the “Socialism 2012” conference.
Significantly, Mondoweiss now appears to be developing links with the extreme Right. A blog posted by Philip Weiss (co-editor of the site, for whom it is named) on 9 March this year, headed “Conservatives for Palestine” , gave an account of the “National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship”, which he attended and addressed.
The Conference was apparently wholly the work of extreme conservatives, ranging from neo-isolationists and old line “Foreign Office Arabists” to out-and-out ultra-right antisemites and Holocaust deniers.

A new incident on the Lebanese border

From Naharnet:

The Israeli army said it shelled a Hizbullah position in southern Lebanon on Friday after an explosion targeted an Israeli patrol on the border, as the Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant reportedly claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.

Agence France Presse quoted a Lebanese security source as saying that Israel shelled southern Lebanon after an explosion on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

The Israeli army confirmed that report, saying that it had acted after a border patrol was attacked with explosives.

The Lebanese source said "10 Israeli rockets hit an uninhabited border area" and that "there were no casualties."

"In response to the explosive device activated against IDF (Israeli army) soldiers, the IDF fired towards a Hizbullah terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon. A hit was confirmed," the Israeli army said in statement.

Earlier, the Israeli army radio said "artillery fired at southern Lebanon in retaliation for the explosion of a concealed device targeting a patrol."

"The device exploded near soldiers on the border in the Har Dov area," the statement added, using Israel's term for the occupied Shebaa Farms.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said “a 107 mm rocket struck an Israeli army post on the al-Ramta Hill inside the occupied Shebaa Farms.” It did not elaborate and it was not immediately clear if it was referring to the same attack on Israeli forces.

Media reports later said that the Qaida-inspired ISIL claimed responsibility for the bomb attack on the Israeli patrol.

The ISIL claim would seem to be nonsense, but there have been rockets to Israel in the past that were claimed by Sunni terror groups. I would think that Hezbollah is the more likely culprit.

But this incident, together with the similar on on the Syrian border last week and the Islamic Jihad rocket escalation, indicates that Iran is directing its satellite terror groups to keep Israel on edge. It is not clear why; perhaps to divert attention from what is happening in Syria (there have reportedly been heavy Hezbollah losses recently). If Israel attacks Hezbollah, then Iran might be gambling that public opinion would swing towards Hezbollah and against the Sunnis fighting in Syria.

Haaretz' Amos Harel thinks that this is a deliberate response to Israel's last airstrike on the Lebanon/Syria border.

Friday's incident in Har Dov points to a gradual change in the rules of the game on the northern front, after years of almost complete calm. Slowly, Hezbollah and the Assad regime are taking the gloves off in their struggle against Israel. The attacks they both attribute to the IDF are answered with terror attacks from the other side, even if for the time being the targets are limited and the operations are low-profile, and no public claims of responsibility are voiced in their aftermath.

Last December, shortly after the mysterious assassination of Hezbollah commander Hassan al-Laqis in Beirut, an IDF jeep was targeted by an IED in an area controlled by the Syrian Army around Mt. Hermon. In early March, immediately after a Hezbollah convoy was attacked in Lebanon, rockets from Syria were fired toward the Israeli side of the Hermon. Last week the IDF thwarted an attempt to plant an IED on the Syrian border, hitting Hezbollah operatives or militants loyal to Assad. The incident on Friday is the latest in this series of events.

It is possible that this is a face-saving gesture, but it seems a stretch that even Arab pride would think that these tiny attacks are any sort of retaliation.

Anyway, things are heating up in Lebanon, slowly, and Hezbollah knows quite well that it can be a wild card in whatever happens.

03/14 Links Pt2: Israelis don’t care that we hate them. But they’d like to know why

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Israelis don’t care that we hate them. But they’d like to know why

‘The lesson many in the West took from the Holocaust is that nationalism is bad; the message Jews took from it is that nationalism is necessary.’
This cuts to the heart of today’s fashionable disdain for little Israel. What many Westerners seem to find most nauseating is that Israel is cocky, confident and committed to preserving its national sovereign rights against all-comers. In short, it’s a lot like we used to be before relativism and anti-modernism. I think that Israel reminds us of our older selves, our pre-EU, pre-green days, when we, too, believed in borders, sovereignty, progress, growth.
Now that it’s de rigueur in the right-thinking sections of western society to be post–nationalist and multicultural, to be fashionably uncertain about one’s national identity, the sight of a border-fortifying state offends and outrages us. In the words of George Gilder, author of The Israel Test, Israel is now hated more for its virtues than for its political or militaristic vices. It’s hated for remaining devoted to ‘freedom and capitalism’ when we’re all supposed to be snooty about such things.
If Israel is unofficially being made into a pariah state, it isn’t because of its foreignness, or even necessarily its Jewishness, but rather because it is too western for our liking. We loathe it because we loathe ourselves.

Italian MEP Raises Tough Questions over Anti-Semitism in the Arab World

Fiorello Provera, the EU's Vice Chairman on the Committee on Foreign Affairs has written to the European Commission and its High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, to express his concerns about anti-Semitism in areas of interest to the EU.
Provera wrote yesterday: "In 2012 during the 8th Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, which was held in Morocco, a demonstrator outside the parliament in Rabat dressed as an orthodox Jew rode a person wearing a donkey’s head. It was supposed to symbolise the subservience of Arab regimes to Jews. Unfortunately there is a widespread belief in many Arab countries that Jews play a role behind the scenes when it comes to politics and economics. In Morocco, for example, the secretary general of the Istiqlal party, Hamid Chabat, claimed that the Arab Spring was the result of a Zionist conspiracy, comparable to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The hell with peace

Mr. Black is currently promoting his latest book Financing The Flames of Hate. While he was speaking, at a breakfast meeting, organized by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, about the content of his book, here is what went through my mind:
Political narcissism is cancer,
The result of forgetting the word truth, the world is experiencing stannic control,
Anti-Semitism is now in abundance… anti-Semitism means that Jews must not have a state of their own and thus must never have genuine human rights… the anti-Semites of today are all in cahoots to bring the Jews back to the exilic status from which they got freed 66 years ago, LAST,
Western societies are willingly paying to kill Jews and the outcome, the more Jews killed the richer the killer and his family become.
To understand that sickening phenomenon, here is what I heard and share, some in Mr. Black’s own words: (h/t Bob Knot)

Purim music video: "What Does Haman Say?"

Cute:

)

(h/t Yerushalimey)

03/14 Links Pt1: Abbas Rejects U.S. Plan; What Obama furtively furthers; A pilot in Noah's Ark

From Ian:

Abbas Uses Fatah Speech to Reject U.S. Plan

The day after the speech, Fahmi Zaarir, vice-chairman of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, stated on Radio Palestine on March 11 that Abbas had reported on “a framework plan to perpetuate a number of principles in a final agreement,” and that Abbas remains faithful to Fatah’s founding principles. Zaarir did not quote Abbas directly, but said, “Everyone knows what these principles are: Palestine’s borders from the Jordan River to the 1967 lines and no compromise regarding all of Jerusalem based on the ’67 lines.” Regarding refugees, “They themselves will agree based on UN decisions and the Arab Initiative.” Abbas spoke of the “right of return” of refugees – of all refugees – into the State of Israel itself. Even those who elect not to move to Israel would all receive compensation, Zaarir said. States which housed the refugees – Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria – would also be compensated for their hospitality. Zaarir emphasized that Abbas repeated emphatically that he would under no circumstances accept the “Jewish state” principle and that he would bring any agreement – if one was reached – to the entire Palestinian people, wherever they may be, for their approval. (h/t Bob Knot)

Elliott Abrams: Abbas and 'right of return' will defeat Kerry

By making the "right of return" a personal right for each Palestinian, Abbas is saying the PLO has no right to negotiate over it and no right to sign a agreement that defeats or even limits that "right." If that's really the PLO position, there will never be an agreement.
Second, if Abbas doesn't really mean it, he is narrowing his own negotiating room to near zero and obviously not preparing his own people for the compromises peace will entail.
Third, his definition of "refugee" is as broad as it could possibly be. According to Abbas, a Palestinian who left Israel in 1948 or 1967 has the right to move to Israel or to decline, but his "no" does not even bind his own foreign-born children. His son, and presumably grandson, who have never set foot in Israel and may well have citizenship in (for example) Canada have their own separate rights to move to Israel. Five million separate choices, says Abbas.

Sarah Honig: What Obama furtively furthers

One outrageously insolent remark was remarkably ignored in the hullaballoo generated by US President Barack Obama’s Bibi-bashing interview on the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s latest White House visit.
Wedged into the presidential malarkey was a new allegation against the Mideast’s sole democracy. Obama accused Israel of no less than continuing to “place restrictions on Arab-Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel’s traditions.”
Huh? Really? What restrictions? And does Obama now also presume to pass judgment on what are indisputably our domestic affairs? Is there no limit to his meddling and hubris?

The best shadchan in the world

This comes from a 1990 Usenet post by the late Dr. Eliot Shimoff, who had one of the best senses of humor of anyone I have (virtually) known. Around Purim time every year, he posted many great jokes, and this is one of them.

(Shadchan=matchmaker, shidduch=match, shtetl=small Jewish village)

The shadchan in a small shtetl went to the wealthiest man in the shtetl and offered to arrange a shidduch (match) for the man's son. The wealthy man was scornful: "I am the wealthiest man in this entire shtetl, and in the surrounding four shtetlach. I have four cows and a horse, and my own barn. I need someone like you to make a shidduch for my son???!!!"

The shadchan explained: "This is not just any young lady. The girl I have in mind is Baron Rothschild's daughter."

The wealthy man was suddenly interested: "If you can arrange that, it's worth 100 rubles!"

The shadhan then went to Paris. After great difficulty, he finally got an appointment with Baron Rothschild himself. "Baron, I have a wonderful shidduch for your daughter."

"Ha," the baron exclaimed, "I need a shadchan like you from some tiny shtetl to get a shidduch for my daughter? I am Baron Rothschild; my daughter can have her choice of young men from any major city on the Continent!"

The shadchan replied: "Ah, Baron, this is not just any young man. The young man I have in mind for your daughter is a vice-president of Chase Manhattan Bank." The Baron replied: "If you can arrange that, it would be suitable, and worth thousands of francs."

So the shadchan traveled to New York. Again, after great difficulty, he managed to get an appointment with David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan Bank.

"Mr. Rockefeller, I have a wonderful candidate for a vice-presidency of your bank."

Rockefeller was shocked. "I have executive training programs, and recruitment programs, and one of the finest personnel offices in the entire finance industry. Do you think I need suggestions from some shmendrik from the shtetl?"

"Ah," replied the shadchan, " this is not just any young man I am proposing to you. This is Baron Rothschild's future son-in-law!"

And that, my friends, is the definition of a good shadchan.

"Jews are scum of the earth": Jew-hatred in Arab media this week

Virulent antisemitism continues in the Arab media, completely unreported in the West.

As is often the case, Jordan is the source of a great deal of this incitement, and the killing of a Jordanian judge (who was apparently attacking Israeli soldiers) at the Allenby Bridge this week fueled it even more.

Al Madenah News has a column from a woman, Dalida al-Utti, who says that Jews are even worse than "descendants of apes and pigs" - they are actually "children of dogs."

Another woman, Magda Atallah writing in Assawsana, says that any Jew who does not kill a non-Jew in his lifetime faces the wrath of God, according to the Talmud. She also says the Holocaust is a lie and that "Jews are the murderers of the prophets and apostles and have been the basis of the scourge everywhere from Khyber to Jerusalem to Beirut and Cairo."

Fayez Da'jah in JordanZad laments that Jordan sometimes saves Israeli tourists who get into trouble while hiking, even though they are only in Jordan to plant fake Jewish archaeological treasures to later claim them - or to steal real archaeological artifacts. He is sorry that such a policy of saving lives is being implemented for these Jews.

Dr. Ahmad Shawabkeh in Assabeel is upset that Jews continuously kill and destroy, while Arabs only condemn them. He states simply that "Jews are the scum of the earth." Twice.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Majali in Al Ghad discusses the Quranic quote that the people most hostile to Muslims in the world are the Jews. Jews, we are told, regard all non-Jews as beasts who must serve them. He helpfully adds that Jews "are people of treachery and deceit" and he compares them to the Devil.

On a more "scholarly" note, Ahmad Samih has written a book about Jewish schemes to take over Africa. Its actual title is "Jews and Judaism in the modern era in Africa."

Another new book, reviewed in a couple of articles and written by a Palestinian Arab, is called "Zionist schemes of the 21st Century." Here's the cover:

Finally, Al Manar discusses a new organization meant to allow Jews in France to defend themselves from constant attacks. They headline the story as saying that the organization trains Jews to break Arabs' bones.

Any single one of these articles would make instant headlines and result in full-throated condemnations had they been written for Western media. But no one expects Arabs to adhere to the same standards of decency that they expect from anyone else. This expectation of Arab hate is, frankly, racism.

The writers of these articles and books are often academics. The newspapers publishing these are mainstream. The pushback against this antisemitism is nonexistent. The NGOs that supposedly are against antisemitism are silent. And the world thinks that Arab hatred of Jews is natural, and not worthy of being mentioned.

There are many terror groups under Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah

Fatah's Facebook page has this:

In the middle is Fatah's logo. Yes, the logo of Mahmoud Abbas' political party includes weapons.

The upper left logo is for the Abu Rish Brigades of Fatah.

The lower left logo is that of the Brigades of the Martyr Abdul-Qader al-Husseini.

The upper right is the logo of the Fatah Hawks. They were active before and during the second intifada, collaborating with Hamas on several attacks, but have been mostly quiet since 2005.

The lower right is the logo of the Ayman Memushuda (sp?) Brigades. Here are photos of their "martyrs."

The Nidal Brigades uses the same logo, as does the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which may be the umbrella group of these last two.

With the exception of the Fatah Hawks, each of these groups claims to exist today and they have never been asked to put down their guns by Fatah's leaders. They are not pretending to be PA security or police - these are terrorists through and through.

And some of them fired rockets at Israel in the past couple of days.

Yet the media and politicians dance around these easily proven facts, and don't stand up to Abbas for breaking his promise of dismantling these groups.

Abbas, in charge of some 4 or 5 separate terror organizations, is still hailed as the most moderate leader Palestinian Arabs are ever likely to have. That may be true, but he is also in charge of proud terror groups.

Purim music video: "The Haman Remembrance"

Probably a bunch of copyright violations here, but for a local synagogue video, this is surprisingly good.

)

03/13 Links Pt2: UNRWA Only Blames Israel; PM Cameron- 1/6 of NHS Medicines are Israeli

From Ian:

Raheem Kassam: Cameron Talks a Good Talk on Israel, But do his Promises Stack Up?

While Cameron said Britain opposes boycotts of Israel, a number of UK universities still target the Jewish State, and Britain has not once spoken out against the United Nations' bias against Israel.
Furthermore, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) still routinely works with organisations that are overtly hostile to Israel, and advocate one-state solution as well as boycotts. This needs to be stamped out if Cameron can truly stake a claim to his comment that "delegitimising the State of Israel is wrong. It is abhorrent, and together we will defeat it."
The mainstay of anti-Israel sentiment within the British government comes not from Left-wing MPs either, but mainly the FCO. Previously, FCO staffers have been found to be overtly pro-Palestinian, and even the Foreign Minister, Alistair Burt, was set to speak at an anti-Israel Friends of Al-Asqa event at the Conservative Party Conference last year.

Cameron’s Knesset Speech: Closer to Australia and Canada than Obama

Whereas Obama has threatened Israel that it will become more internationally isolated, Cameron asserted, “No more excuses for the 32 countries who refuse to recognize Israel,” and described as “outrageous” and “ridiculous” the lectures Israel receives at the UN. And Cameron also broke with Obama doctrine, and no doubt the thinking of his own diplomatic service, by refuting the notion that Israel and the absence of an agreement with the Palestinians is causing the problems in the region. Rather, Cameron spoke at considerable length about the “poison” of Islamism. A peace agreement would not stop Iran, noted Cameron, and he stressed that he was not “starry-eyed about the new regime” and shared Israel’s “skepticism” on that front.
If the attitude expressed in this speech were implemented as British policy, then Cameron would rightfully earn himself a place alongside Stephen Harper, Australia’s Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop, and the English speaking leaders of the West. Meanwhile Obama is earning himself a place alongside Martin Shulz and the Europeans.

Cameron wants to do business with Israel. No one cares what the 'boycott Israel' fanatics think

I doubt if David Cameron had time to scroll through Twitter before he left for Israel this morning. But if he had been on the lookout for Israel-related tweets, he couldn't have failed to notice the hashtag #BDS.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel makes a lot of noise. Twitter is awash with #BDS tweets, implying that the extremists who demand that the West stop buying goods produced by Jews are in the ascendancy.
The reality is rather different.
Bilateral trade between the UK and Israel is booming to an extent never before imagined. Last year it was estimated by the FCO at £5.1 billion. Growth is accelerating every year.

BDSers: here’s your chance for martyrdom

Speaking today to the Knesset in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Cameron denounced the anti-Israel BDS movement and noted:
“[Israeli technology] is providing Britain’s National Health Service with one in six of its prescription medicines through Teva and it has produced the world’s first commercially available upright walking technology which enabled a British paraplegic woman to walk the 2012 London Marathon. And together British and Israeli technical expertise can achieve so much more.”

The surprisingly pro-Israel Saudi media

From Mida:

It’s a known fact that there is no free Arab press – only official or semi-official government newspapers. Of these, the London-based and Saudi-owned al-Sharq al-Awsat is known as a paper expressing the Saudi royal house’s political line. There’s been an interesting trend in the past few weeks in the pages of this important Arab daily: a series of articles with surprising attitudes towards Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The articles discuss various aspects of the conflict, but they share a common approach. Even if the articles were not come directly by the Saudi royal house, they were nevertheless published with their consent and do not contradict their political attitude.

Bakir Oweida is a Palestinian publicist based in London. Oweida writes regularly for al-Sharq al-Awsat on a variety of issues. He has been consistently moderate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; his criticism of the Palestinian leadership is authentic and not just a Saudi diktat. For instance, on the anniversary of Arafat’s death he wrote an article against Abu-Ammar’s legacy.

Now, in a far-reaching article entitled “Palestinian Recognition of Israel’s ‘Jewishness’ – Why Not?”, Oweida calls for nothing less than recognition of Israel as a Jewish State:

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that there is official Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish State. Well, what will happen afterwards? What will happen the next day? Will an uproar break out in the Arab world, and after them the Muslim world? Or worse, will the ‘Mother of all wars’ break out and Planet Earth burn after atomic bombs are launched from the Dimona warehouses and the Pakistani safehouses?

The political uproar which will break out in the Arab world…if it breaks out, in response to official Palestinian recognition of one of the inventions of Israel’s extremist rulers, that is ‘Israel as a Jewish state’, will not go beyond verbal activity and demonstrations which will fill the streets, and throats going hoarse from shouting.

According to Oweida, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would actually benefit the Palestinians in negotiations. According to him, from its founding until Benyamin Netanyahu (“the deceiver”), the State of Israel has relied on Palestinian rejectionism to “save it from embarrassment before the countries of the world.” Oweida argues that Israel has greatly benefited from Palestinian rejectionism and their fear of dealing with challenges.

He dismisses the argument that recognition of Israel as Jewish would “open the door to expulsion of Palestinians in Israel to Jordan,” and explains that he doesn’t understand why there is such a great fear of change:

After all, the PLO already recognized Israel in its pre-’67 borders. Therefore, if the Palestinian side agrees to the Israeli demand, thus showing the demanding side (Israel) in a negative light, such a decision would not change what is seen as Palestine, that is the territorial framework, in which all members of the monotheistic faiths will live peacefully.

...

If we’re already on the subject of criticism of the Palestinian leadership, we can’t help but mention the fierce critique of another al-Sharq al-Awsat writer, Huda al-Husseini. Al-Husseini, a professional journalist and commentator, specializes in Iranian and European affairs and also apparently has ties with Saudi intelligence.

In the opening of an article analyzing John Kerry’s involvement in negotiations, she wonders aloud why the world and the Palestinians are silent in light of the horrific hunger in the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria (“there has been no protest or demand to lift the siege by the PA or Hamas”). Palestinian leaders, al-Husseini sarcastically notes, are dealing with bigger problems and believe the al-Yarmouk problem will be solved with the fulfillment of the Right of Return.

As for the negotiations themselves, al-Husseini notes the statements of Saeb Erekat in 2009, in which he admitted that Israel offered it 100% of the territories and that Israel’s position is constantly weakening. Who, then, is not interested in an agreement?, she wonders. After all, most Israelis are interested in the two-state solution.

Then she attacks the rejectionism of the Palestinian leadership, blaming it for the present impasse:

What is taking place in the region after the ‘Arab Spring’ refutes the argument that stability in the Middle East will come through a solution to the Palestinian problem. This problem does not have priority, and there are those who believe the Syrian situation is more serious and important than the Palestinians’ situation.

...At the end of the article, al-Husseini quotes a senior Western official who also expressed his opinion on the Palestinian leadership:

The Palestinians need leaders who live their lives and tribulations and are interested to rescue it in some way. Now on the other hand we see one of their leaders who insists on playing chess every day at 4 PM.

...

As was already mentioned, there is no media outlet in the Arab world that does not serve some political master, and it is therefore no coincidence that no less than four columnists in a leading Arab paper were allowed to express such unconventional opinions. It’s hard to ignore the feeling one gets upon reading the articles: this is a clear Saudi signal to Israel and the West.

We can try and complete the puzzle by looking at Saudi interests in the region...Any way you look at it, everything Saudi Arabian officials see as a threat are also a threat to Israel, and thus both sides’ interests are aligned. This alignment is particularly strong, precisely because there are a number of basic interests and not just the Iranian issue. This is a new situation and there is of course no guarantee that it will last for long, but meanwhile Saudi decision makers have decided to act based on immediate critical interests. This is not a surprise as Saudi Arabia is a master of realpolitik in the fullest sense of the term.

None of this means that the Wahhabi Kingdom is pro-Zionist: it is consistent and clear in its ultimate goal of survival first and foremost. But as such, the Saudi Kingdom is not, and has never been, a radical state. Indeed, we have before us a number of major publicists employed by the Saudis who are very far from radical and who express opinions supporting peace and not the standard anti-Israel vilification common to the Arab media.

Between the lines, the Saudis are sending a clear message of pragmatic conciliation. The appropriate authorities in Israel would do well to heed its call.

Read the whole thing.

The Hamas-oriented Felesteen news site reports on Ahmed Amar Abu Nahale, a three month old boy with an enlarged liver and heart who was supposed to be treated in Turkey, but who died waiting for the Rafah crossing with Egypt to open.

This is, according to the article, the second death during the current closure. Rafah was open for two days this week for pilgrims but possibly not for patients.

There is an interesting dynamic going on. Most so-called "pro-Palestinian" groups, and NGOs, downplay Egypt's closure of Gaza and emphasize Israel's "blockade" on travel and goods. Of course, Hamas and the other terror groups would lend their support for the cause of inciting against Israel.

Now, Hamas - stung by Egypt's treatment of the terror group - has made a decision to treat Egypt the same way it treats Israel, as an antagonist. It is trying to use the same tactics Palestinian Arabs traditionally used against Israel.

The result is that Israel's perceived evil is becoming diluted, as the fact that Arabs treat Palestinians worse that Israel does becomes more common knowledge.

The people caught in the middle are the so called "pro-Palestinian" activists, who reluctant to blame Lebanon and Egypt and Jordan for how badly those countries treat PalArabs. They want to keep Israel as the only bogeyman who is responsible for the deaths of cute innocent babies, because if the truth comes out, the entire house of cards falls - people will start to place the proper blame on Arab leaders as well as Palestinian Arab leaders who have used millions of people as pawns for 65 years.

No child has died waiting to get a permit to cross into Israel, as far as I know, even when Hamas was shooting rockets Two deaths of children in only a few weeks because of Egypt is the sort of story that would hurt the Israel haters' cause.

Which is one reason why even the Arab media will not be publishing these sorts of stories in English anytime soon.

The cracks in the anti-Israel narrative - which always depended on never, ever placing things in context or comparison with any other country - are starting to show, even among the most die-hard Israel haters.

UPDATE: There is actually video of the baby while he is dying, and a professionally made video of the family mourning him.

The episode was planned ahead of time. Not that the baby wasn't dying anyway, but someone in Gaza saw an opportunity to make news with the dying baby and his family as props.

(also corrected baby's age)

03/13 Links Pt1: The Palestinians' Real Enemies; Gaza Missiles are Palestinian State in Practice

From Ian:

Efraim Karsh: The Palestinians' Real Enemies

Had Israel lost the war, its territory would have been divided among the invading Arab forces. The name Palestine would have vanished into the dustbin of history. By surviving the pan-Arab assault, Israel has paradoxically saved the Palestinian national movement from complete oblivion.
Manipulating the Palestinian Cause Having helped drive the Palestinians to national ruin, the Arab states continued to manipulate the Palestinian national cause to their own ends. Neither Egypt nor Jordan allowed Palestinian self-determination in the parts of Palestine they occupied during the 1948 war. Upon occupying the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, Abdullah moved to erase all traces of corporate Palestinian Arab identity.
On April 4, 1950, the territory was formally annexed to Jordan to be subsequently known as the "West Bank" of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. Its residents became Jordanian citizens, and they were increasingly integrated into the kingdom's economic, political, and social structures. And while Egypt showed no desire to annex the occupied Gaza Strip, this did not imply support of Palestinian nationalism or of any sort of collective political awareness among the Palestinians. The refugees were kept under oppressive military rule, were denied Egyptian citizenship, and were subjected to severe restrictions on travel. "The Palestinians are useful to the Arab states as they are," President Gamal Abdel Nasser candidly responded to an enquiring Western reporter. "We will always see that they do not become too powerful. Can you imagine yet another nation on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean!" Had these territories not come under Israel's control during the June 1967 war, their populations would have lost whatever vestiges of Palestinian identity they retained since 1948. For the second time in two decades, Israel unwittingly salvaged the Palestinian national cause.

CAMERA: Where's the Coverage? "Jews Have Not Taken Anything by Force"

In 1936, a national leader wrote a letter. This is an excerpt:
…The situation of the Jews in Palestine being the strongest and most concrete proof of the importance of the religious problem among the Muslim Arabs toward anyone who does not belong to Islam. Those good Jews, who have brought to the Muslim Arabs civilization and peace, and have spread wealth and prosperity to the land of Palestine, have not hurt anyone and have not taken anything by force, and nevertheless the Muslims have declared holy war against them and have not hesitated to slaughter their children and their women despite the fact that England is in Palestine and France is in Syria. Therefore a black future awaits the Jews and the other minorities if the Mandate is cancelled and Muslim Syria is unified with Muslim Palestine. This union is the ultimate goal of the Muslim Arabs…
Who wrote this?
Suleiman Assad, the grandfather of Syria’s dictator Bashir al Assad, father of the previous dictator Hafez al Assad.

The Palestinian narrative: The missing link in the ‘peace process’

It is essential to understand how Palestinian Arabs think and what they believe. The Palestinian Arab national identity is almost exclusively defined by negating the Israeli narrative, including Israel’s legitimate right to exist as a Jewish state, with precious few positive Palestinian nationalistic qualities.
Palestinian Arabs mark their historical time by memorializing what others perpetrated upon them. The quintessential narrative marked in time is the “Nakba,” the catastrophe of the creation of the State of Israel.
Delegitimizing Jewish historical connections to the land extends from mosques to school textbooks, from the PA press to the PA leadership.
They view the Jewish historical narrative as at best exaggerated, but more likely fabricated.

Invasion of the Zionist persimmons

From Saudi Gazette:

The Qurayyat Municipality is on alert after its team confiscated from the local fruit market 140 kg of kakis (the Japanese persimmons) that had Israeli stickers, a section of the Arabic press reported on Tuesday.

The head of the municipality’s environment health department, Abdulaziz Al-Musaed, said the municipality acted on information that the Israeli-produced fruit was being sold in the market.

“The municipality team conducted a surprise inspection after the closing hours of the fruit market and confiscated the fruit boxes that originated from Israel,” he said. He added the municipality has notified the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“The Saudi Food and Drug Authority was also notified. It inspected the fruit and confirmed that such fruit is not allowed in the Kingdom,” he added.

Al-Musaed noted that all shops were warned against dealing with fruit vendors who do not know the origin of the produce.

The head of Qurayyat Municipality, Ali Al-Shammari, said the local authority does not know how such fruit entered the country, especially as it carried a sticker stating its origin. A source at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said communications are ongoing with concerned bodies to find out how the fruit entered the country and whether it was a single shipment or several.

The sticker indeed says "Product of Israel."

It is true that Israel exports persimmons - usually under the Sharon name, which is what one would expect to see on a sticker. And not in Arabic.

In all probability, this is a prank. Everyone knows that any Israeli product that supposedly makes it to a Gulf country causes headlines, so any mischievous Saudi teenager with an inkjet printer can print these off and stick them on random fruit.

Alternatively, this could be a deliberate attempt by another fruit store to close down a competitor.

Either way, seeing Saudis freak out over supposed Israeli fruit is almost as much fun as watching Electronic Intifada writers freak out over a cargo service that may or may not handle settlement produce.

It is like five year olds running away at the thought of getting cooties.

(h/t Ibn Boutros, plus correction in translation)

Video of Arafat accepting Israel as a Jewish state

Last month I mentioned Haaretz had an interview of Arafat where he accepted Israel as a Jewish state.

It turns out that Arafat said it on video as well. In English.

)

Unfortunately I don't know when or where this was taken, but combined with the Haaretz report, it is undeniable.

So who will be the one to ask Abbas about this?

(h/t IPT via MargieinTelAviv)

Terror rocket update: Iran's fingerprints, Hamas' ambivalence, Fatah's support, video of rockets shot from populated areas

Where is Islamic Jihad's leader while his group is shooting scores of rockets to Israel?

Iran.

Ramadan Shallah was already in Iran discussing ways to strengthen Islamic Jihad's ties with the regime. Interestingly, there were reports before this escalation that Hamas leader Khaled Meshal was snubbed in his attempt to meet Iranian leaders while Shallah was already there and being feted. (The article was in the anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency, and I cannot find it today.)

From all indications, IDF responses to the rocket attacks have been aimed exclusively at Islamic Jihad, not at Hamas targets. Even so, Hamas leaders have abandoned their headquarters.

But what is remarkable is Hamas' ambivalent response to the Israeli attacks.In Palestine Times, one of their media outlets, they do a "survey" of Gazans' reactions to the Islamic Jihad rocket barrage, and they find that some people think that a military response at this time is unwise! Moreover, at the Qassam Brigades website, a Hamas MP is quoted as saying that a "limited resistance does not mean weakness."

In the past, Hamas and Islamic Jihad worked hard to paper over their differences and when one decided to shoot rockets at Israel the other would join in. This is the first time I have seen such a large split between the two, although no one has started insulting the other one yet. It is also the first time I have ever seen Hamas publicly speaking against "resistance" while Israel is targeting sites in Gaza.

It is clear that Iran is fomenting this split, trying to increase Islamic Jihad's importance in Gaza at the expense of Hamas. It also proves that even those (like the EU) who pretend that Hamas will ever unite with Fatah don't have a plan for how to handle other terror groups in Gaza dedicated to destroying Israel, especially state-backed terror groups like Islamic Jihad.

Three other groups have decided to join with Islamic Jihad, including Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades announced that they shot 8 rockets towards Israel, and they were joined by the National Resistance Brigades of the DFLP and the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades. Fatah's joining shows yet again that Fatah is not the "moderate" party that Westerners pretend it is. For years, Abbas has refused to dismantle that group, and yet clueless Wetsern diplomats still consider Abbas a moderate.

Finally, all those people who pretend to care about "international law" when discussing Israel never seem to want to apply that standard to Israel's sworn enemies.

Which shows that they never cared about international law to begin with.

Transcript of David Cameron's speech in the Knesset

Here is the transcript for the speech that David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, gave in the Knesset on Wednesday.

So far I haven't been able to locate a full video, but here is a small part:

Shalom le-kulam [Hello everyone]

Mr President, Prime Minister, Mr Speaker, Members of the Knesset, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honour to address this historic Parliament – for sixty-five years the heart of the State of Israel and a beacon of democracy to the region – and to the world.

When I was last here in Jerusalem, I came as Leader of the Opposition and I remember being quite bemused as I sat listening to Israeli politicians telling me all about the challenges of coalition politics. They told me about building a coalition, keeping it together, balancing the demands of different parties, sorting out the disputes and I just didn’t understand this strange system of government. But after nearly four years as Prime Minister of my own coalition all I can say is: ach-shav ani mevin [now I get it].

What I have always understood is the extraordinary journey of the Jewish people. Thousands of years of history in this holy land. Thousands of years of persecution. And even today, some people despicably questioning your right to exist. My Jewish ancestry is relatively limited but I do feel just some sense of connection. From the lexicon of my great, great grandfather Emile Levita, a Jewish man who came from Germany to Britain 150 years ago to the story of my forefather Elijah Levita who wrote what is thought to have been the first ever Yiddish novel.

But more importantly I have learnt to understand something of Jewish values and character and I have grown to appreciate the extraordinary contribution of the Jewish people to my country and to the world. That sense of understanding has shaped my determination to remember the past, my commitment to Israel in the present and my hopes for Israel’s future.

And I would like to say something about each of these today.

First, remembering the past.

03/12 Links Pt2: The Perils of Parachute journalism in the Middle East; Israel’s Super Cows

From Ian:

Why Shouldn’t We Defund the Boycotters?

Defunding those who aid boycotts is both legal and morally correct.
Both the federal government and states routinely put all sorts of conditions on any entity that takes their money. Some of those terms involve bureaucratic or legal obligations. But some are rooted in the basic concept that the state is under no obligation to fund activities that are immoral or discriminatory. Aiding BDS groups and those, like the ASA, who put endorse and actively support Israel boycotts, fall into that latter category. Simply put, it is outrageous for schools or any institution to expect the taxpayers to stand by and let them use their hard-earned dollars to support activities that are inherently discriminatory.

At the heart of this question is some confusion about the nature of the BDS movement. Reasonable people can differ on many issues including many of the elements of the Middle East conflict including borders, settlements and refugees. But the question of whether the one Jewish state in the world should be singled out for discriminatory treatment and marked for extinction is not just one more academic debate. It’s a matter of life and death as well as whether Jew-hatred should be treated as a matter of opinion. (h/t Norman F)

Parachute journalism leads to poor Middle Eastern reporting

Kalman’s primary point of discussion, and his main complaint with the world of journalism, is a phenomenon that Kalman refers to as “Parachute Journalism.” Parachute journalism is an unspoken practice among journalists, in which they enter a Middle Eastern country, report on information that they know little about, take pictures of what appear to be war-torn locations with people who appear to be terrorists and then hop on a plane back to their homes, having reported inaccurately and with a sensationalized edge.
He prefaced this definition with an illustration of the news media in 2010 around the time that the “Arab Spring” began.
“If you go back to the newspapers, media, social media, video, web, etc.., in 2010, you’ll find thousands of words of analysts and commentators and people predicting and explaining what as going to happen in the Middle East in the next years,” Kalman said. “And go back to 2010 and see how many that actually correctly predicted the Arab spring. The answer is zero; nobody saw it coming at all.”

FDR to Stalin: “I Would Give Saudi King 6 Million Jews”

The mystery deepened two days later, when the Washington Post published an editorial criticizing the deletions as “pernicious” and an attempt to “doctor history.” It noted that among the deletions were “some remarks by President Roosevelt about the Jews,” although it did not spell them out. “In historical perspective, President Roosevelt will have to be judged as a whole man, indiscretions and all,” the Post argued.
Three days later, the text of FDR’s censored statement was published, by U.S. News and World Report. It reported that when Roosevelt mentioned he would soon be seeing Saudi Arabian leader Ibn Saud, Stalin asked if he intended to make any concessions to the king; “The President replied that there was only one concession he thought he might offer and that was to give him the six million Jews in the United States.”

Cruise line drops Tunisia for refusing to let in Israelis

Norwegian Cruise Lines dropped Tunisia from its itineraries after the country refused to allow Israeli citizens to disembark in the Port of Tunis.
About 20 Israelis were quietly told before disembarking from the Norwegian Jade over the weekend that they were not welcome per the Tunisian government.
The cruise line’s decision to drop Tunisia was first reported by Cruise Critic, an online cruise information site.
“We want to send a strong message to Tunisia and ports around the world that we will not tolerate such random acts of discrimination against our guests,” Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s CEO, said in a statement Tuesday. (h/t billposer)

Man shot dead at Gaza wedding

From PCHR:

At approximately 14:00 on Thursday, 06 March 2014, Mos’aad Mousa Abu Samrah (22) from Deir al-Balah was shot in the neck when an armed person fired in celebration of one of his relatives’ wedding party. The injured was immediately taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah to receive medical treatment. He was then transferred to Shifa hospital in Gaza City because of the seriousness of his injury. However, medical sources at the hospital declared his death an hour after his arrival at the hospital.

PCHR strongly condemns the killing of Abu Samrah as a result of the use of weapons in special occasions and parties, which is part of the state of misuse of weapons and attack on the rule of law plaguing the OPT. PCHR also demands the government in Gaza to take necessary measures to ensure the non-recurrence of such incidents.

Hey, shooting weapons wildly at a public event is a human right. I think there is a UN resolution supporting it. How dare anyone criticize a crucial part of Palestinian Arab culture and history?

PCHR is obviously Zionist.

Islamic Jihad pretends Manhattan explosion is from their rockets

Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today website is covering the rocket barrage being sent by that group to Israel. Of course, they are monitoring Israeli TV and websites to grab photos of any damage their rockets are causing.

Naturally, they have lots of photos like this:

But some of their photos show what looks like much greater damage:

Does that look like Sderot or Ashkelon to you?

No, it's Harlem, where there was a massive explosion today.

Terror inflation!

By the way, guess what Islamic Jihad is calling this operation, which as of this writing they claim includes some 130 rockets and mortars?

"Operation Breaking the Silence."

In other Gaza terror news, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - a subsidiary of Fatah - took credit for 4 of the rockets fired today from Gaza, at 6:20 PM. In their communique, they called the Zionists "sons of apes and pigs," by which they of course are referring to Jews.

The leader of Fatah is, of course, Mahmoud Abbas.

(h/t Yenta P)