Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 29, 2010

Turkey wants return to Ottoman-era influence - and no Israel (Ma'ariv)

Iranian-style rhetoric from Turkey, from Ma'ariv, translated by Coteret via Islamo-nazism blog:

Turkey – “Israel will not be able to remain over time an independent country, and a bi-national state will be established on all of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River in which Jews and Palestinians will live,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a number of meetings that he held with journalists and academics, including a number of Israeli academics. Davutoglu’s vision, which he revisited a number of times, is for Turkey to become a dominant force in the Middle East and further, that it will be the protector state of the above-cited bi-national state within a number of years.

Davutoglu, a professor of international relations, is considered to be the principal ideologue of the AKP, the party that is headed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the course of the meetings with academics and journalists, which were held prior to the eruption of the recent crisis between Turkey and Israel in the aftermath of the flotilla to the Gaza Strip and the killing of nine Turkish nationals on board the Mavi Marmara, Davutoglu said he did not believe that Israel would be able to sign peace agreements with its neighbors, including the state that is to be formed in the area of the Palestinian Authority.

The central idea that was put forward by Davutoglu, which he has been trying to promote by means of a number of journalists and Turkish government officials, is that Israel as an independent state is illegitimate in the region and, as such, is destined to disappear. That assessment is rooted in a deeper ideology that aspires to restore to Turkey the historic influence it wielded during the era of the Ottoman empire, which ruled the Middle East for close to 400 years. Davutoglu said on a number of occasions that he believed that peace would be restored to the Middle East only in the wake of deep and substantial Turkish intervention.

In other words, Davutoglu and Erdogan aspire to set a new regional order — Erdogan by means of populist rhetoric and closer ties with Turkey’s neighbors, Syria and Iran; Davutoglu by means of promulgating the ideological basis. This new order, as noted, has no room for Israel as an independent state. Both Erdogan and Davutoglu have been advancing a policy that promotes closer ties with Syria and Iran, and moves away from the West. Davutoglu added in his meetings with the journalists and academics that the historic [colonial] powers, (Britain and France) which conquered the Middle East from the Ottomans, are the ones that are responsible for the difficult situation that currently reigns in the Middle East, since they drew the borders in a way that suited their own political and military interests, without taking into account the demographic affiliation of the region’s residents.

Sounds like an ideal candidate for the EU, doesn't it?

Iran and Turkey are now jockeying to become the major players in the Middle East because they perceive the weakness and fragmentation of the Arab world and the perceived reticence of the US to throw its weight around in that region outside of pressuring Israel. Iran's ambition is actually greater than Turkey's, as it seeks nothing less than world domination based on Islam, but both of them are trying to take advantage of a vacuum of power in the Middle East.

Maybe Israel should enter that vacuum as well.

After all, Iran's rush to become a nuclear power is not necessarily to use it against Israel immediately - it is to cow the Muslim nations into its orbit, as they lose faith that the US would protect them. Iran sees nuclear weapons, and long-range missiles that can hit most of Europe, as its ticket to being a superpower. Turkey longs for a return to the regional influence it used to have and any alliance with Syria and Iran strengthens its position against more moderate Arab states. Fear is a powerful factor in diplomacy.

Israel already is a nuclear power and has a very good army. We already see that Arab states, especially in the Gulf, are more concerned with Iran than with Israel.

What would happen if Israel offered to protect Gulf states from any Iranian aggression?

Instantly, by the logic of the Turks and Iran, Israel would become a regional superpower. Notwithstanding their rhetoric about Jewish expansionism, Israel has been happy to keep things local unless it is threatened from afar. A move like that would make Turkey and Iran think twice before writing Israel off.

And if Israel would threaten to show some Muslim-style diplomatic muscle, the US might be persuaded to properly take its role as the world's real superpower - something that it needs to do a lot more publicly in the Middle East. Behind-the-scenes maneuvering does not engender respect from Arabs. If stability is what is desired, only the US can achieve that - and it requires acting like a leader.

Wikileaks: The Gulf fear of Iran and the demolition of "linkage"

From the perspective of Israel, the Wikileaks revelations have vindicated Israel's prioritizing the Iranian nuclear issue above all else. The news that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Gulf countries have consistently communicated their fear of - and sometimes recommended military strikes against - Iran prove, definitively, that the "Palestinian issue" is not the driving force behind peace in the Middle East.

While the New York Times credits the Obama administration with pushing more far-reaching sanctions against Iran than the previous Republican White House, it doesn't mention that this same administration has been using the Iran issue as bait to pressure Israel to do what it wants. Whether this is a reflection of the importance Obama gives the "peace process" or whether it is an indication that he deep down believes that somehow a peace agreement would truly defuse other Middle East problems is unknown, but the end result is the same - the administration has been using "linkage" as a strategy to push Israel into doing its bidding.

Which is a very dangerous game to play if the real priority is Iran.

What is very clear, though, is that the so-called "experts" and "realists" like Stephen Walt and Marc Lynch who support the "linkage" claim are completely wrong. As Omri at Mere Rhetoric notes:

Either Walt, Mearsheimer, Lynch, Chas Freeman, and their ilk don’t know much about the Middle East, or they’re ignoring what they do know in order to push their own foreign policy wishful thinking as objective analysis.

Read Omri's entertaining analysis for more.

Dozens of "aid" planes filled with missiles to Hezbollah?

In the wake of the Wikileaks revelation that Iranian Red Crescent planes sent to Hezbollah during the Lebanon war were "half filled" with missiles, one may wonder how many planes are we talking about?

One hint: The war lasted from July 12 to August 14. Here is a report from Radio Free Europe from August 1:

The fifth consignment of Iranian aid destined for Lebanon arrived in Damascus on July 23, IRNA reported. The two aircraft carrying medicine and medical equipment from the Red Crescent Society came on the heels of four other aid shipments, Iranian Charge d'Affaires in Syria Ghazanfar Roknabadi said.

If there were two planeloads in each consignment, and the fifth one was on July 23rd, that averages out to roughly a planeload a day.

If half of the cargo were indeed missiles and other weapons, that means that Iran may have smuggled 16 cargo planes worth of missiles during the war via the Iranian Red Crescent - and possibly dozens more in the months following.

I don't know, but Geneva might consider this a war crime. Perhaps protocol 1, article 38?

It is prohibited to make improper use of the distinctive emblem of the red cross, red crescent or red lion and sun or of other emblems, signs or signals provided for by the Conventions or by this Protocol. It is also prohibited to misuse deliberately in an armed conflict other internationally recognized protective emblems, signs or signals, including the flag of truce, and the protective emblem of cultural property.

Can't wait for HRW and Amnesty and the UN to jump on these revelations and strongly censure Iran for this crime. Any hour now.

Wikileaks: Iran and Syria lied to IAEA about nuke plants

From The Guardian:

Iranian officials withheld from international atomic energy inspectors the original design documents for a secret nuclear reactor suspected of being part of Tehran's plan to build an atomic bomb, a US embassy cable reveals.

The secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was denied the blueprints when in October 2009 its inspection team visited the part-built facility in a mountainside at Fordow near Qom. It was instead provided with designs that showed only what was already built.

Providing a picture of Iranian obstruction to the visit, Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA's deputy director general who led the inspection, revealed that Iranian officials were "steered by unseen observers who send notes to the Iranian interlocutors during meetings" and insisted on tape recording the meetings but refused to allow the IAEA to do the same.

According to the secret cable back to Washington the inspectors were "not impressed" by the Iranians' continued refusal to elaborate on their denials of evidence pointing to the nuclear programme's military intent.

"The secretariat was still trying to understand ... why Iran would build this facility, scaled as it was for 3,000 centrifuges in contrast to the much larger Natanz facility," Nackaerts told Richard Kessler and David Fite, senior staff members of the US house of representatives foreign affairs committee, in a 90-minute meeting in Vienna.

The IAEA believed there was "a high-level decision not to co-operate" with the inspection, Nackaerts said, and Iran's denials had left the agency at "an absolute stalemate" with Tehran over the military application of its nuclear programme.

Iran insists the facility is for purely civilian purposes. It told IAEA inspectors during the four-day visit that documentary evidence its nuclear scientists had obtained "green salt", an intermediate product in uranium enrichment for nuclear reactor or bomb material, was forged. It said a document about uranium metal describing the process of machining hemispheres of the kind used in nuclear warheads was "mistakenly" included in a packet of information Iran received from the network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani nuclear scientist believed by the US to be a serious proliferation risk because of his previous trading in nuclear weapons technology.

Nackaerts challenged the Iranians to prove the evidence was bogus. He "asked that, if some of the documentation were 'doctored', Iranian officials should show the [IAEA] secretariat 'where the truth ends.' "

In the very same leaked cable, we see details on how Syria stonewalled the IAEA investigation on the nuclear plant that Israel bombed in Dair Alzour in 2008:

9. (SBU) The Syria case, Nackaerts said, was starting to look like Iran in that the government provided "good cooperation" on some areas but presented a "stalemate" on others. The Secretariat challenged Syria's proposed explanation for the presence of uranium at Dair Alzour/Al Kibar (i.e., that Israeli depleted uranium munitions could be the source), but the inquiry was at a roadblock. Syrian officials had been told their first explanation for anthropogenic uranium at the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) was not credible, and the Agency had inquired what nuclear material Syria could have had that was not previously declared. Overall, the IAEA still "did not understand" (meaning, it could not yet present the solid case for) how Dair Alzour fit in as part of a Syrian nuclear program "or part of someone else's program."

Syria was taking a page out of Iran's playbook, and apparently it is as successful in stonewalling the IAEA without much fear for significant sanctions.

(h/t Emet)

Wikileaks: Iran used Red Crescent to send agents and weapons to Hezbollah

A heavily redacted memo in Wikileaks as presented by The Guardian shows that Iran has cynically used its Red Crescent to smuggle weapons -including missiles - and agents into Lebanon during the 2006 war as well as elsewhere.

8. (S) Per the IRC's regulations, following his election in 2005, President Ahmadi-Nejad was able to appoint four members (out of 16) of the IRC management group. These four [NAMES REMOVED] were opposed to the IRC's leadership and eventually requested its president, Dr. Ahmad Ali Noorbala, to resign. [DETAILS REMOVED] He did so in January 2006 [DETAILS REMOVED] Most of the incoming managers were members of the IRGC or the MOIS [Iranian Intelligence Agency]. [NAME REMOVED] said that pre-existing members now considered the IRC an agent of the IRGC. [Iranian Republican Guard]

9. (S) [NAME REMOVED] further elaborated on the presence of MOIS officials in the IRC and other government agencies. All government agencies include an MOIS representative [DETAILS REMOVED] [NAME REMOVED] Prior to Ahmadi-Nejad, the IRC official in this position was the sole MOIS representative; afterwards, [NAME REMOVED] said 40 officers at headquarters and 100 officers at the provincial officers came from the MOIS.

10. (S) [DETAILS REMOVED] in line with Ahmadinejad's government-wide directive, that all employees pass a counterintelligence course. [NAME REMOVED] indicated that such a course violated the principles of the IRC because Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations are supposed to be independent from the state.

11. (S) In addition to the personnel moves, [DETAILS REMOVED] The IRC under Dr. Noorbala had resisted the IRGC's request to take responsibility for relief and rescue operations. [DETAILS REMOVED] the IRGC's Basij forces to assume responsibility for relief and rescue. [DETAILS REMOVED]

12.(S) In 2007, the IRC's budget was granted an additional $200 million to acquire helicopters. The IRC, [DETAILS REMOVED] ordered 20 Russian MI-17 helicopters. Five of these were delivered to the IRC, the remaining 15 went to the IRGC. A similar helicopter order was planned for 2008. (Note: [NAME REMOVED] indicated that [NAME REMOVED] is the only Iranian entity allowed to import helicopters and that it is owned by the IRGC and MOIS.)

13.(S) [NAME REMOVED] has invested in three Iranian companies backed by the IRGC and Defense Ministry. The first, owned by the Defense Ministry, produces chemical weapons protective equipment; it had been defunct prior to the infusion of IRC funds. The second, owned by the IRGC, produces pre-fabricated military commands and mobile hospitals. The third, owned by the Defense Ministry, produces armored personnel carriers.

14.(C) Finally, the IRC [DETAILS REMOVED] began building health clinics in Karbala, Najaf, Hilla, Kazemayn, and Basra and awarded the construction contracts to IRGC companies, despite the IRC's own staff of qualified engineers. [NAME REMOVED] said the clinics would be used for treatment but also as warehouses for military equipment or military bases if needed. He noted that the Iraqi Red Crescent and Iraqi Ministry of Health were not happy with this activity.

Facilitating IRGC Support to Hezbollah

--------------------------------------

15. (S) The IRC again facilitated the entry of Qods force officers to Lebanon during the Israel-Hezbollah war in summer 2006. Although [NAME REMOVED] did not travel to Lebanon during the conflict, he reiterated that the only true IRC officers dispatched to Lebanon were [DETAILS REMOVED] all others were IRGC and MOIS officials. [NAME REMOVED] further said that the IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to facilitate weapons shipments. He said that IRC [DETAILS REMOVED] had seen missiles in the planes destined for Lebanon when delivering medical supplies to the plane. The plane was allegedly "half full" prior to the arrival of any medical supplies.

16. (S) [NAME REMOVED] also allowed the transfer of an IRC hospital in southern Lebanon to Hezbollah. [NAME REMOVED] said that Hassan Nasrallah had asked Supreme Leader Khamenei to allow Hezbollah to run the hospital during Dr. Noorbala's tenure as IRC president. Although Khamenei acquiesced, Dr. Noorbala prevented the transfer until his own departure. The hospitaL [DETAILS REMOVED] is under Hezbollah control. [NAME REMOVED] is allegedly close to Nasrallah and is also trying to create a network of medical clinics in Lebanon.

17. (S) Comment: [NAMES REMOVED] are examples of figures nominally within the Iranian government establishment who have taken courageous stands against IRGC and MOIS incursions into Iranian governance. Such figures are key to our ability to understanding and countering the malign activities of these organizations regionally...

Wikileaks: Mossad's advice to the US

The Guardian has trove of the Wikileaks documents. Here are excerpts of an interesting 2007 description of Undersecretary Burns' meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan. The problem is that little of his prescient advice is being followed by the US.

In an August 17 meeting, Israeli Mossad Chief Meir Dagan thanked Under Secretary Burns for America's support of Israel as evidenced by the previous day's signing of an MOU that provides Israel with USD 30 billion in security assistance from 2008-2018. Dagan provided his assessment of the Middle East region, Pakistan and Turkey, stressing Israel's (a) concern for President Musharraf's well-being, (b) view that Iran can be forced to change its behavior, and (c) sense that Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are unstable with unclear futures ahead of them.

Assessing the region, Dagan said Israel sees itself in the middle of a rapidly changing environment, in which the fate of one Middle Eastern country is connected to another. Dagan then said he was concerned about how long Pakistani President Musharraf would survive: "He is facing a serious problem with the militants. Pakistan's nuclear capability could end up in the hands of an Islamic regime." Turning to Iran, Dagan observed that it is in a transition period. There is debate among the leadership between Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad and their respective supporters. Instability in Iran is driven by inflation and tension among ethnic minorities. This, Dagan said, presents unique opportunities, and Israelis and Americans might see a change in Iran in their lifetimes.

Dagan said that Jordan has successfully faced down threats from the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and that Egypt is struggling with the question of who will replace President Mubarak. He said he sees no hope for the Palestinians, and that Israel looks at Syria and Lebanon, and sees only instability. Further afield, it looks at Turkey and sees Islamists gaining momentum there. The question, he asked, is how long Turkey's military -- viewing itself as the defender of Turkey's secular identity -- will remain quiet.

7. (S) If Israel's neighborhood were not unstable enough, Dagan observed, it did not help that Russia is playing a "very negative role" in the region. He observed that all of these challenges have to be addressed globally -- they could not be dealt with individually. Returning to Jordan as an example, he noted that the more than one million Iraqi refugees in Jordan were changing Jordanian society, and forcing it into a new relationship with Saudi Arabia. This is evidenced by Saudi King Abdullah's recent visit to Jordan, which implies greater understanding between the Jordanians and the Saudis.

10. (S) Dagan led discussion on Iran by pointing out that the U.S. and Israel have different timetables concerning when Iran is likely to acquire a nuclear capability. He clarified that the Israel Atomic Energy Commission's (IAEC) timetable is purely technical in nature, while the Mossad's considers other factors, including the regime's determination to succeed. While Dagan acknowledged that there is still time to "resolve" the Iran nuclear crisis, he stressed that Iran is making a great effort to achieve a nuclear capability: "The threat is obvious, even if we have a different timetable. If we want to postpone their acquisition of a nuclear capability, then we have to invest time and effort ourselves."

11. (S) Dagan described how the Israeli strategy consists of five pillars:

A) Political Approach: Dagan praised efforts to bring Iran before the UNSC, and signaled his agreement with the pursuit of a third sanctions resolution. He acknowledged that pressure on Iran is building up, but said this approach alone will not resolve the crisis. He stressed that the timetable for political action is different than the nuclear project's timetable.

B) Covert Measures: Dagan and the Under Secretary agreed not to discuss this approach in the larger group setting.

C) Counterproliferation: Dagan underscored the need to prevent know-how and technology from making their way to Iran, and said that more can be done in this area.

D) Sanctions: Dagan said that the biggest successes had so far been in this area. Three Iranian banks are on the verge of collapse. The financial sanctions are having a nationwide impact. Iran's regime can no longer just deal with the bankers themselves.

E) Force Regime Change: Dagan said that more should be done to foment regime change in Iran, possibly with the support of student democracy movements, and ethnic groups (e.g., Azeris, Kurds, Baluchs) opposed to the ruling regime.

12. (S) Dagan clarified that the U.S., Israel and like-minded countries must push on all five pillars at the same time. Some are bearing fruit now; others would bear fruit in due time, especially if more attention were placed on them. Dagan urged more attention on regime change, asserting that more could be done to develop the identities of ethnic minorities in Iran. He said he was sure that Israel and the U.S. could "change the ruling regime in Iran, and its attitude towards backing terror regimes." He added, "We could also get them to delay their nuclear project. Iran could become a normal state.

16. (S) On Pakistan, Dagan said that President Musharraf is losing control, and that some of his coalition partners could threaten him in the future. The key question, Dagan said, is whether Musharraf retains his commander-in-chief role in addition to his role as president. If not, he will have problems. Dagan observed that there has been an increase in the number of attempts on Musharraf's life, and wondered whether he will survive the next few years.

CiFWatch takes apart The Guardian's Harriet Sherwood

CiFWatch has a masterful piece that looks at the six month anniversary of The Guardian's Harriet Sherwood reporting from Israel, and seeing if she is meeting her own stated standards of objectivity and going beyond the wire-service coverage to find the deeper stories.

The results aren't pretty:

The entire article is worth reading.

While you are at it, last week CiFWatch published a fantastic flotilla parody which I tweeted and commenters linked to, and if you haven't read it yet you are missing out.

Oslo mall shut down because of anti-Israel protesters

From Nyheter (Norway,) November 19th:

Oslo City [Mall] was closed for fifteen minutes this afternoon after protesters took action against Israeli products in the mall.

Socialist Youth and the Red Youth organized the demonstration. Over 100 young people blocked a booth inside the mall that sells cosmetic products, including Israel's Dead Sea products.

The protesters shouted slogans like "Boycott Israel" and "Free Palestine", they distributed leaflets and hung up banners inside the mall.

Some of the youths could not get into the center. They demonstrated outside the main entrance when the police blocked the entrances.

Police had to close the center to prevent trouble, and one person, according to SU-manager, has been arrested while he was sticking up stickers inside the center.

Eventually, protesters were removed by police and the center was reopened.

[Police described the action as an "illegal demonstration."]

The banners say "Occupation is not nice - Boycott Israel!" and "Shame on you!"

Notice that the protesters were not saying to boycott the "settlements" but to boycott Israel altogether.

(h/t Isak)

Inspiring American Muslim kids to kill their neighbors

From the WSJ:

The November special issue of Inspire, a slick new English-language Web magazine produced by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, aims to do more than report the news. It wants to make news, by inspiring young American Muslims to kill their neighbors.

In addition to offering a wealth of fresh details about the attempted bombing of two U.S. cargo planes last month, the third issue of Inspire (the first issue came out in June, the second in October) also provides hard evidence of what many analysts once said was impossible—the growth of homegrown Muslim terrorism in America from a secondary nuisance into a major threat.

To bring down America, "we do not need to strike big," the editors of Inspire boast. "Attacking the enemy with smaller but more frequent operations" will "bleed the enemy"—a strategy of death "by a thousand cuts." One article claims that the recent effort to bomb FedEx and UPS cargo planes, which the magazine calls "Operation Hemorrhage," cost only $4,200: two Nokia phones at $150 each, two H-P printers at $300 each, plus "shipping, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses."

The accompanying editorial package offers a canny blend of photos, feature stories, insider details, snappy news bits and verse-quoting theological justifications for terrorist attacks, all of it calculated to appeal to American Muslims who grew up on glossy magazines like Details and GQ. It is also notable for its collegiate sense of humor, which includes a mention of the fact that the plotters dropped a copy of Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations" into one of the bomb packages—a detail illustrated by a close-up of the novel's paperback edition. A photograph of Yemeni President Ali Saleh is accompanied by the caption "Yeah, keep scratching your head"; a credit at the bottom states "This ad is brought to you by A Cold Diss," a seeming attempt to appeal to the sensibilities of Muslim hipsters.

If Inspire feels so very American, that is because it is believed to be the work of two longtime American citizens—Samir Khan, a Saudi-born American who produced jihadist propaganda from his parents' basement in Queens, N.Y., before fleeing to Yemen in 2007, and Anwar Al-Awlaki, a supposedly "moderate" Islamist cleric who once ran a mosque in Virginia and was recently labeled "the most dangerous man in the world" at a public briefing by New York Police Department intelligence analysts. Targeted for death by a presidential order last May, Mr. Awlaki has reportedly inspired recent terrorist strikes against the U.S. and its allies, including Major Nidal Malik Hasan's rampage at Fort Bragg, in which the U.S. serviceman killed 13 fellow soldiers and wounded 32 others.

Available as a download from an array of websites, Inspire represents a shift among Western jihadists from following theological casuistry on YouTube videos and chat rooms to mobilizing individuals for violent jihad in their home countries. The magazine, whose title comes from a Koranic verse, "inspire the believers to fight," remixes old-school jihadist tropes for an English-speaking Western audience raised on videogames and consumer magazines. Feature stories, first-person narratives, and theological and strategic arguments are mixed with step-by-step instruction in the nuts and bolts of killing people with readily available objects. "If you are sincere in your intentions to serve the religion of Allah," one article advises, "what you have to do is enter your kitchen and make an explosive device." A recipe for making a simple but deadly bomb follows.

The most unnerving pages of the magazine for an American reader are those devoted to advice to the aspiring suburban jihadist, who is encouraged to attach large, sharp blades to the front of a pick-up truck "to mow down as many people as possible in a crowd" and to use other gruesome homemade devices to act upon fantasies of violent martyrdom.

"Road to Hope convoy" meets with Hamas

The "Road to Hope" convoy to Gaza, which suffered a setback when its ship was taken to Greece by its captain, made it to Egypt on Friday.

Practically no news media is covering the event outside of Iran and anti-Israel sites.

The reason is simple: the symbolic aid arrived through proper channels in El Arish and Egypt allowed it through - even including flotilla nutcase Ken O'Keefe. Israel didn't object.

Yesterday, the "humanitarian" group met with senior Hamas officials, including "prime minister" Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh confirmed what everyone knows - the aid is secondary, and the primary purpose of these groups is political:

We look at the convoy not only as a humanitarian but also political par excellence to support the Palestinian people, who have been suffering for more than 63 years, and demand fair administration of their state and its capital Jerusalem.

Which is funny, because the Road to Hope webpage says, disingenuously, "We... do not seek to spread any political message."

O'Keefe plans to stay in Gaza for forty days, where he will file reports on his Facebook page and blog.

Work accident!

An Islamic Jihad member was seriously injured in an explosion in densely-populated Rafah on Saturday.

His arms and legs were amputated in emergency surgery and he is in intensive care.

Too bad he couldn't become a full martyr, with all its benefits. Now he's just a loser.

Iran freaks over Star of David at airport (updated)

From YNet:

Images published Saturday by Iranian media outlets show a Star of David on the roof of the main national airline's building at the Tehran airport.

The satellite image was taken from the Google Earth service. According to the Iranian report, the Iran Air building was "built by Israeli engineers," who operated in the countries before the 1979 Islamic Revolution during the days of Shaa Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

"It's interesting that even 32 years after the victory of the revolution, this Zionist star symbol has yet to be removed from this building," a local news website wrote.

The calls to remove the Star of David, which the Iranian authorities view as a symbol associated with Israel, were accompanied by local media reports on the close relations with Israel in the past, which were completely severed after the revolution.

Here's a Farsi article about it.

I was able to find the image in Google Maps:

Check it yourself here.

UPDATE: Marc El in the comments points out an Iranian feature visible from satellites as well, at a university, that does not make the Iranians upset at all:

UN flotilla investigator attends Israel hatefest

From the Bangkok Post:

Two women, one a Jewish-American and the other a Christian-Malaysian, last week provided some deep insights into the Israeli occupation of Palestine and appealed to global activists and media to help the world hear an alternative perspective on the long-standing conflict.

Anna Baltzer, a political activist and a grandchild of Holocaust refugees, and Kuala Lumpur-based human rights activist Mary Shanthi Dairiam, were on the programme to commemorate the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People organised at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand by the Bangkok arm of the Palestine Solidarity Council on Thursday.

...Ms Dairiam's presentation was directly relevant to Thailand. She was one of a three-member panel appointed by Thai Ambassador Singhasak Phuangketkeow after he assumed chairmanship of the UN Human Rights Council in June to investigate the May 21 attack by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish aid ship seeking to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Ms Dairiam provided insights into the Human Rights Council investigation panel's findings. She said that as she was watching Ms Baltzer's documentary, it occurred to her that the Israelis always seem to have reasons for everything that they do. ''We have to fully understand the rationale that Israeli gives and attack that rationale, not just the incidents,'' she said.

Although she called herself a pacifist who had never held a gun in her life, she said the accounts of violence she had heard from victims of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara had changed her forever. ''I have learned so much about the violence in this investigation. It is mind-boggling. I am not the same person now. I am not proud of the knowledge I have.''

Ms Dairiam said the panel had concluded that it had been the Israeli intention all along to cause as much physical injury as possible. She said the Israelis were apparently embarrassed by the many maritime efforts to break the blockade and the adverse publicity it was generating. ''They were going to stop it once and for all. They were intending to kill,'' she said.

Which explains of course why every other ship in the flotilla - the ones without any IHH activists - were taken peacefully without incident.

This violence was totally unnecessary, she said. The captain of the ship told the investigators that if the Israelis had simply intended to stop the ship from sailing onwards, all they had to do was blast the propeller, which would have rendered the vessel inoperable.

And leave the ship stranded in the sea? The Mavi Marmara, as I recall, was too big to be able to safely tow to port in a reasonable amount of time. (And commenter Eliezer, who has served in the Israel Navy for decades, flatly says that it is impossible to blast the propeller without sinking the ship.)

The rest of the article is filled with lies that have already been debunked, by the BBC and by a Turkish reporter no less. But it shows very well that not only was the UN investigation of the incident was a sham, but it was intended to be a sham from the start.

(h/t Israelinurse)

Overnight open thread

I've been spending time trying to make my December 7 "one-man show" as educational and entertaining as possible, so blogging may be somewhat lighter than usual as I keep adding and tweaking slides.

But that doesn't mean you can't keep using the soon-to-be-gone Echo comments....

People are excited about the Hasby Awards! (corrected)

There have been hundreds of votes so far for the People's Choice Hasby Awards, and the two front-runners are - almost suspiciously - European.

It appears that two sites, drzz.info and Europe-Israel, have been pushing the awards on their sites, and as a result the early (and possibly insurmountable) lead is for the unique protest against the Museum of Modern Art, Paris.

There are a lot of votes also for Pilar Rahola's essay, which didn't make such big waves when it was first published. She would also be a European favorite.

It's great that the awards are getting international attention, even if they are skewing the results a bit. But I will certainly announce the Readers' Choice awards along with the official Hasby Awards during my live appearance in New York on December 7!

(Correction: I had said that the two sites were campaigning for votes, and they were not. I apologize.)

Comment system changes afoot

I just found out that the Echo comment system, which I have never been keen on, has raised their annual fees by a factor of ten - from $12 a year to $120.

Sorry, but I will not be keeping Echo comments. They never did a good job on the conversion from the previous free system; the sidebar widget is not very good, and poor Ruthie is adding the titles of posts to every thread because there is no way to tell otherwise who is commenting on which post.

My Echo subscription expires towards the end of December so I will be looking at changing comment systems to another, or maybe just going back to the default Blogger system. Right now the two that people like the best are Intense Debate and Disqus. I don't know if I can run two comment systems at the same time so comments may be disrupted at times over the next few weeks.

I can save existing comments to an XML format but,to be honest, I do not see any easy way to move the old comments into any new system. Which really sucks. 66 megabytes of comments will probably be history.

I am not happy having to spend time on this.

180,000 PalArabs treated in Israeli hospitals in 2010

From the IDF website:

Humanitarian dilemmas are a recurring issue in the Judea and Samaria region. A terrorist fires at IDF soldiers, is shot and gets wounded. Is an IDF medic to be called to treat him? A building is about to collapse in the heart of Ramallah. Does the IDF enter? Does it jeopardize its soldiers’ lives, or does it call the International Red Cross and risk losing precious time?

To Israel, the answer to these questions is clear. According to Division Medical Officer, Lt. Col. Michael Kassirer, “The treatment of the Palestinian population is first and foremost a moral and professional obligation for every one of us.” Do we treat them? There is no question about it. But what happens in the long run and how? Where do international organizations fit in? How will an independent Palestinian medical body be established and how does coordination between bodies happen in life? These are the real questions.

In order to start answering these questions, a special conference on the topic of humanitarian medicine was held on Monday (Nov. 22), atHadassah Medical Center at Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Commanders and medics attended in order to speak and learn, from the most senior, IDF Chief Medical Officer and the Commander of Judea and Samaria Division, to the 19-year-old paramedics serving with the battalions in the region.

“Up until September 2000, a Ramallah resident could have taken his car and driven to Ichilov Hospital [in Israel],” began Commander of Judea and Samaria Division, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon. “But from September 2000 we’ve been in a state of terror. Hundreds were killed, Jews and Palestinians alike. The battles took place in the heart of the cities, in places where enemies stood side by side with civilians, with difficult conditions and limited ability to evacuate. We could not practice medicine beyond the minimum. In those days, we were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.”

But today, he says, the situation is different. Thanks to many efforts on both sides, stability has been restored. “The political leadership is able to make decisions not in the context of buses exploding. And now, along with direct military activity – patrolling, arrests, crossings – we are starting a new kind of routine. Medicine is an integral part of it. In today’s reality, we are obligated to do a lot more than the minimum. Our addressing of the situation should be as wide ranging as possible,” said Brig. Gen. Alon.

...Dr. Tawfik Nasr, Director of the Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem and coordinator of all hospitals in east Jerusalem, described the example of patients coming from Gaza to be treated in Jerusalem, sometimes over a period of three to four months. They are housed in a special hotel on the Mount of Olives.

...And, unbelievable though it may sound, because of desire and will, it is working. Last year, 180,000 Palestinian citizens entered Israel to receive treatment.

Maybe the IDF should receive the Muammar Gaddafi Prize for Human Rights!

Oh, too late for this year, but maybe next year.

Latner disqualified from Cambridge Union election

From Varsity, yesterday:

Initially, you had indicated that you were not planning to apologise to Lauren Booth. What made you change your mind?

I said I was sorry for "speaking in haste and choosing my words poorly". It's true. I am sorry about that. The minute I said it, I thought of a dozen funnier, less vulgar comments I could have made instead. Hindsight's 20/20.

What is your reaction to the Appeals Panel's decision to impose a penalty of a 40 per cent reduction of your first preference votes? Do you see it as a fair penalty?

My reactions were, in chronological order: surprise, befuddlement, amusement, hysterical laughter, and contacting every single reporter and blogger who has been in touch with me over the last month. Was it fair? No. I may be biased, but I'm around 99% sure that this penalty reflects who I am, not what I did. As I said, I don't really think the Rules were intended to prohibit what I did, and if they were, there was discretion to impose a) no penalty, b) a far less severe penalty that wouldn't have the effect of rigging the election.

Why have you agreed to this interview, given that it could lead to further penalties imposed on you as a candidate?

I think it's important that people know what's going on – same reason I spoke with the Tab. As to the possibility of further penalties – it would kind of be like sentencing someone serving a life sentence to another 100 years in jail. I wasn't ever going to win this election. Anything else they throw at me now will just make them look kind of silly. Plus, I don't think I'm breaking any of the rules – I'm not soliciting votes, or talking about my campaign. I'm talking about what I see as a fairly ridiculous disciplinary hearing, and the resulting punishment. While there is a certain cadre of people currently running the Union may not like that, I don't think they can do much. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

And today:

Gabriel Latner has been disqualified from the election for the Union presidency, after Returning Officers found that he had given an interview to Varsity, in contravention of election rules.

Latner had previously been penalised 40 per cent of his first preference votesfor commenting for an article by The Tab.

In a statement, the Union Returning Officers said: "Due to the fact that this is second time that Mr. Latner had been found guilty of such an offence and that, in this case, the article was much more focused on the Candidate’s own quotes, the Returning Officers have resolved to disqualify Mr. Latner from the current election."

Fact-checking Bibi and the NYT

The New York Times reports on Binyamin Netanyahu's reaction to the PA paper saying there is no Jewish connection to the Kotel.

The "paper of record" makes a couple of mistakes, but, unfortunately, so does Netanyahu.

The Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall of a plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site where their ancient temples once stood. The plateau is also the third holiest site in Islam.

Actually, it is the third holiest place in Sunni Islam only. Shiites have many other shrines that they say are more important.

In Muslim tradition, the wall is the place where the Prophet Muhammad tethered his winged steed, Buraq, during his miraculous overnight journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the seventh century.

If you look at 19th century sources, it appears that the spot that Muslims believed Muhammed tethered his flying horse was quite a bit to the north of the Kotel. From The survey of western Palestine: Jerusalem By Sir Charles Warren:

The "Bab al Nazir" is well to the north of the Kotel, as this map from the Aqsa.org.uk shows:

I believe that there are other Muslim traditions as to exactly where Muhammed was said to have tied his horse, but none of them included the Kotel until the Mufti of Jerusalem made that story up as part of his plan to drive the Jews out of Jerusalem.

Mr. Netanyahu, in a statement issued by his office, said the Western Wall “has been the Jewish people’s most sacred place for almost 2,000 years, since the destruction of the Second Temple.”

He is wrong; the most sacred place remains the Temple Mount. The holiness of the Kotel and the other remaining portions of the wall around the Temple Mount derive from the super-holiness of the Mount itself. To say that the Kotel is the most important spot today is like saying that moonlight is more important than sunlight. By saying this, Netanyahu is effectively abandoning Jewish tradition and claims to our holiest site, and the fact that the prime minister of the Jewish state can make such a statement is a very sad commentary on how far we have fallen - and a very big warning as to how committed he is to other Jewish holy sites.

The excitement for the 2010 Hasby Awards, for the best hasbara events of the year, is reaching a fever pitch!The entire free world is awaiting the live presentation of the winners on December 7th in New York City.

While the selection process for the official Hasbies is a closely guarded secret by the audit firm of EoZ and Associates, the People's Choice Hasbara Awards are all up to you.

In no particular order, here are the nominees. (I am not including those who nominated things I did; that will be a separate poll.)

1. The IDF releasing video of soldiers being attacked on the Mavi Marmara within hours of the event, causing most viewers to see that the "peace protesters" were hardly peaceful:

2. The Im Tirtzu organization on publicizing the recipients of New Israel Fund monies going towards anti-Israel testimony in the Goldstone Report

3. Gabriel Latner's speech at the Cambridge Union Society debates arguing "Why Israel is a Rogue State."

4.Latma's We Con the World:

5. HRW founder Robert L. Bernstein's speech on Human Rights in the Middle East.

6. David Horowitz asking a question from a Muslim student at UCSD and getting a chilling answer:

7. RabbiLIVE revealing Helen Thomas' anti-semitism and ending her career:

8. 16-year old Elad Daniel Pereg facing off, alone, against an angry anti-Israel mob in Los Angeles with an IDF shirt and Israeli flag:

9. Israeli tourists sing Hebrew songs to the consternation of protesters outside the Ahava store in London on Rosh Hashanah:

10. The IDF's instant field hospital in Haiti after the earthquake:

11. The Emergency Committee for Israel's TV campaigns against anti-Israel candidates, specifically Pennsylvania's Joe Sestak, who lost:

12. The IDF's soldiers rocking the casbah in Hebron:

13. Rupert Murdoch's pro-Israel speech at the ADL dinner.

14. Pilar Rahola's article, "The Anti-Israel Hysteria"

15. Canadian PM Stephen Harper's speech at an anti-semitism conference:

16. Paris Zionists' unique protest against the anti-Israel Gaza photo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris:

Vote now!

They don't make martyrs like they used to

The Hamas media is mourning the loss of their latest member to be killed.

The Palestine Times headlines the article "In Jabalia - the Martyrdom of an al-Qassam Mujahid."

The English Al Qassam website spoke of the fallen fighter in glowing terms:

The Ezzeden Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, mourned on Thursday evening November 25th one of its heroes, the mujahed Bilal Maher Zaqout ,22, from Jabalia refugee camp.

...Ezzeden Al Qassam Brigades said in its military communiqué that the mujahed was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.

In addition, the Brigades reaffirmed the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

Finally, the Brigades prayed to Allah to accept the martyrdom of the mujahed and to grant his family patience and solace

And what heroic thing was he doing when he became a martyr? Here's how they described it in paragraph 2:

The Brigades announced in a military communiqué released on Thursday evening that the mujahed Bilal Maher Zaqout was martyred due to a live bullet fired by mistake while he was cleaning his own gun in Jabalia refugee camp north of the Gaza Strip.

Yes, this Hamas hero shot himself in the chest while cleaning his gun.

(h/t Samson)

Guess who Egyptians are blaming for Copt unrest?

From CNN:

Egyptian authorities have rounded up 156 people in connection with this week's deadly protests over plans to build a church near Cairo, the government announced Thursday.

Those arrested have been ordered held for 15 days while the investigation into Wednesday's clashes continues, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported.

Police battled about 150 demonstrators outside a government building in the Cairo suburb of Giza on Wednesday. Police turned to tear gas to break up the melee, while protesters responded with Molotov cocktails. The clashes left a Christian protester dead.

Tensions have been running high between Egypt's Muslim majority and minority Christians, who make up about 9 percent of the people. Copts, who are adherents of an Egyptian sect of Christianity, complain of discrimination, including the lack of freedom to build houses of worship. The government denies those accusations.

Dr. Mostafa El Feki is a high ranking member of Egypt's ruling party who had recently received the Mubarak Award, Egypt's highest honor, andis now a member of the Shoura Council. He is considered

Al Quds al Arabi quotes him as knowing exactly who was behind the Copt disturbances this week:

The Mossad.

As el-Feki says,

It is very clear that the fingers of foreign parties are playing havoc on the country and are exploiting the election season for the implementation of their plan to destabilize the security and stability in Egypt. Almost certainly the involvement of Mossad [can be seen] in those events, after the admission of the Israeli director of the responsibility for playing a pivotal role to turn the South Sudan and the African States against Egypt.

The only connection I've seen between the Mossad and Southern Sudan is that the Mossad admitted that they are on the ground there, training security forces.

But you know those Jews, always stirring up trouble against the neighbors they have peace agreements with.

Fascinating history of the movement to save Soviet Jewry

Yossi Klein Halevi has written a semi-autobiographical book review of "When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry" by Gal Beckerman, at The New Republic.

His review may be almost as good as the book.

Here's the beginning:

By the standards of the 1960s, the founding demonstration of the Soviet Jewry movement was hardly notable. On May 1, 1964, a thousand students gathered across from the Soviet mission to the United Nations in Manhattan to protest a Soviet ban on baking matzo and other anti-Jewish measures. Compared to demonstrators for the far better known causes of the time, they were a tame lot. No one blocked traffic or scuffled with police. Instead, protesters marched in a circle so orderly that one reporter commented on how refreshingly responsible these young people were, which was damning praise for a movement aspiring to change history.

Yet that is precisely the process that was set in motion by the May Day demonstration. The struggle to free Soviet Jewry would become one of history’s most successful protest movements, a sustained quarter-century-long campaign that lost none of its fervor and encompassed ever-widening circles of participants. Though the movement failed to persuade the Soviet Union to permit the free baking of matzo, it went on to fulfill its most improbable goal: forcing open the Iron Curtain and restoring to the Jewish people several million Jews marked by the Kremlin for coerced assimilation. In the process, American Jewry discovered its political power and its spiritual vitality, as a once-timid community learned to become a vigorous advocate of Jewish interests. This was the pre-history of the élan that American Jewry acquired in the wake of the Six Day War a few years later.

The movement’s significance transcends its impact on Jewish history. In the mid-’70s, Congress adopted the JacksonVanik amendment linking trade credits for the Soviet Union to its Jewish emigration policy. By mobilizing Congress to override a reluctant White House, the movement helped to establish the principle that human rights supersede national sovereignty, that democracies are morally bound to intervene in the internal affairs of dictatorships. The Soviet Jewry movement in America was also a milestone in modern humanitarian politics.

And, according to Gal Beckerman’s superb and likely definitive narrative of the Soviet Jewry struggle, the movement deserves credit even for helping to hasten the fall of the Soviet Union. Deftly moving between the Soviet Union and the United States, the two main arenas of the struggle, Beckerman shows how Jewish activists on one side of the Iron Curtain emboldened Jewish activists on the other. The more risks Soviet Jews took in challenging their government, the more American Jews intensified their campaign, in turn further encouraging Soviet Jews, who initiated acts unprecedented for Soviet citizens, such as sit-ins at government offices. The “refuseniks,” as Jews denied exit visas were known, created the Soviet Union’s only mass dissident movement that spanned the USSR, and the vigorous support of Jews abroad provided a measure of immunity, ensuring that refuseniks would not become anonymous and therefore extinguishable targets. By weakening the capacity of the Soviet system to instill fear, the movement eroded the self-confidence of Soviet leaders. “Zionism is making us stupid,” Beckerman quotes Leonid Brezhnev complaining to his Politburo. In effect, the Kremlin was confronted with a bleak choice: either renew Stalinist-era repression or concede defeat. Soviet leaders tried to respond with a third, and more ambiguous, approach: allow some refuseniks to emigrate while jailing others and keeping still others in limbo. That process failed because every exit visa pried from the Kremlin only convinced activists to intensify the pressure.

Halevi was himself involved in the movement from the beginning, so he has some interesting insights on the subject.

The New Republic provides some bloggers and their readers with a special pass-through URL to go past TNR's paywall, so you can read the entire review here. (Just another benefit of reading EoZ!)

And if you want to buy the book, please use this link to support the blog.

Gaza rockets continue - with Gazans getting hurt

The latest bi-weekly GANSO report from Gaza, covering the period from October 31 to November 20, has some interesting statistics.

During that time period there were 36 mortars and 16 rockets that were intended to be shot to Israel. Of those 36 mortars, 5 of them fell short or exploded prematurely. Of the 16 rockets, 7 of them exploded before launch or landed in Gaza.

Those accidents resulted in the injury of 7 Gazans during those two weeks, and as far as I can tell, zero Israelis.

GANSO says that about 30% of rockets and mortars fired out of Gaza do not reach Israel. In this time period the percentage was 14% of the mortars and 44% of the rockets.

Another mortar fell short today.

A brief "Thanks"

Over the past weekend, I hit my two millionth pageview (according to Statcounter, Google seems to be counting some 50% more hits.)

I also just saw that I have some 566 subscribers of my RSS feed, according to Google.

I'm getting roughly 150 comments a day, and they are read some 2000-3000 times daily.

So for Thanksgiving I would like to thank you for reading my blog and joining the community. Thanks to those who link to my posts, especially those who translate them into other languages And thanks to those who send me links, which make things easier for me; sorry if I haven't acknowledged all of them.

This week I had a post about how Mahmoud Abbas complimented the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem this week, calling him "outstanding" and wanting his role in history to remain in the forefront of Palestinian Arab consciousness.

Commenter abal31 links to a French and English website with a large amount of material on the infamous Mufti and his involvement with the Nazis.

For example, this small video clip of the Mufti's meeting with Hitler:

And here's a telegram from Heinrich Himmler to the Mufti in 1943:

To the Grand Mufti: The National Socialist movement of Greater Germany has, since its inception, inscribed upon its flag the fight against the world Jewry. It has therefore followed with particular sympathy the struggle of freedom-loving Arabs, especially in Palestine, against Jewish interlopers. In the recognition of this enemy and of the common struggle against it lies the firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between the National Socialist Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims of the whole world. In this spirit I am sending you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour declaration my hearty greetings and wishes for the successful pursuit of your struggle until the final victory.

He has lots more, including part of a documentary that details much more of the Mufti's activities for the Nazis. It is worth checking out.

And it is worthwhile to remember that Mahmoud Abbas praised this genocidal filth just this week.

...and all that (Israeli) jazz

From NPR: (music samples can be heard there)

For a country of some 7.5 million, Israel has a surprisingly large jazz footprint. More and more internationally acclaimed jazz musicians happen to be from the country.

Twenty-five years ago, the Israeli jazz scene was barely on the cultural map. But enough American musicians moved there, and enough foreign-trained Israelis moved back — and they started teaching. There's long been an infrastructure for classical music in Israel, and jazz latched onto that model. U.S. jazz schools have since established relationships with Israeli ones, owing in part to long-standing political relations.

The same reporter later blogged:

Yesterday, All Things Considered aired my conversation with host Guy Raz about Israeli jazz musicians. Or rather, jazz musicians from Israel — I haven't had the opportunity to scope out the Tel Aviv clubs for myself. But I did talk to a number of Israeli musicians — several of Arnie Lawrence's students among them — to get a sense of why it's boomed of late. So I wanted to expand on some of the ideas I only briefly raised yesterday.

Education is a big part of it: Americans or American-trained musicians moving/returning to Israel to teach. Israel's teachers have long produced talented classical musicians — think of Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman or Gil Shaham — so the infrastructure was there for widespread musical literacy.

Twenty-five or so years ago, the numbers for jazz seemed to hit a small but critical mass. The Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, like many arts magnet schools, became known as a jazz incubator. The Rimon School for Jazz and Contemporary Music started up in 1985, and developed an affiliation with Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Hed College of Contemporary Music started, and is now connected to Oklahoma City University. And Arnie Lawrence would be proud to know that the New School announced a formal partnership last year with the jazz program at the Israel Conservatory of Music. (A whopping 10 percent of the New School's jazz student body is from Israel — a country whose entire population is less than Virginia's, or New Jersey's, or North Carolina's — according to a New School press release.)

Seemed an appropriate post on this most American of holidays.

(h/t Zvi)

An olive-harvest story you won't see on AP

In recent weeks there have been scores of stories in the mainstream media, and especially news-wire photos, showing Palestinian Arab farmers harvesting their olives. The implication is that these people are indigenous to the land, doing the exact same thing with the same trees that their ancestors did, for centuries. The reason that only Palestinian Arabs are shown harvesting olives and not, for example, Greeks is because the media wants to drive home the subtle message that any Jews that happen to live on the land are interlopers whose only purpose is to deprive Arabs of their land and livelihoods.

Recently, AP purposefully misrepresented an earlier Ha'aretz article in order to make one specific Jew, Erez Ben Sa'adon, appear to be a fanatic -and thieving -Jewish fanatic by quoting an anti-settler activist's accusation that he stole his olive grove. Ben Sa'adon replied that he has no reason to prove that he owns his land, as his land deed is the Bible. In fact, as Ha'aretz showed, no less a personage than the Arab mayor of the neighboring town vouched that Ben-Sa'adon owned the land that the was working - and that his nearby vineyard had been destroyed by Arab vandals.

So you cannot expect to have AP or the BBC or any of the other media outlets, who are wedded to the meme of evil, criminal, fanatic Jewish settlers who steal land, showing these Jews actually harvesting olives on the land that they legally own - and land that their forefathers indeed did harvest grapes and olives.

Which is why the world needs alternative news outlets like blogs.

This video shows Erez Ban-Sa'adon, as well as the olive oil production of the Meshek Achiyah company. Jews have some 8000 dunams of olive groves in Judea and Samaria. Unfortunately it is in Hebrew only.

h/t Yisrael Medad of My Right Word

Abbas represents jailed terrorist leader at his daughter's wedding

Palestine Press Agency reports that Mahmoud Abbas gave away Marwan Barghouti's daughter at a huge wedding ceremony in Ramallah.

The guests included a Who's Who of Fatah leadership, including Ahmed Qurei ("Abu Ala",) Tawfiq Tirawi, Mohammed Dahlan, Azzam al-Ahmad, Issa Qaraqe, as well as Arab member of the Knesset Ahmed Tibi.

Abbas told the audience that he was "honored to represent my brother Marwan Barghouti" in giving his daughter away.

Barghouti was a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist groups responsible for many attacks against civilians on both sides of the Green Line.

Here are some of the terror attacks he oversaw:

Jun 12, 2001 - The murder of a Greek Orthodox monk on the road to Ma'ale Adumim.
Jan 17, 2002 - The shooting attack during a bat mitzva celebration at a banquet hall in Hadera. Six Israelis were killed in this attack, 26 were injured.
Jan 22, 2002 - The shooting spree on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. Two Israelis were killed, 37 wounded.
Feb 25, 2002 - The shooting attack in the Jerusalem residential neighborhood of Neve Ya'acov. One Israeli policewoman was killed, 9 Israelis were wounded.
Feb 27, 2002 - The murder of an Israeli at a coffee factory in the Atarot industrial zone of Jerusalem.
Feb 27, 2002 - The suicide attack perpetrated by Daryan Abu Aysha at the Maccabim checkpoint in which two policeman were injured.
Mar 5, 2002 - The shooting spree at the Tel Aviv Seafood restaurant. Three Israelis were killed, 31 wounded.
Mar 8, 2002 - A suicide terrorist was killed in Daheat el Barid as he was on his way to carry out an attack in Jerusalem.
Mar 27, 2002 - The interception of an ambulance and the confiscation of an explosive belt which was being smuggled from Samaria into Barghouti's terrorist infrastructure in Ramallah.
Marwan Barghouti was also directly responsible for operating the terrorist cell of Raed Karmi in Tulkaram which carried out a series of deadly terrorist attacks.

Although Barghouti pretended to be only a political figure, the IDF gathered much evidence linking him to the attacks and to the terror infrastructure of Fatah.

Here is a 2001 letter requesting money to pay "fighting brethren" that Barghouti notated before handing it to Arafat (bottom signature is Barghouti's, left side is Arafat's handwritten approval)

But Mahmoud Abbas is a man of peace, so his praise and friendship for a convicted terrorist is not important at all. To mention it would just distract from his wondrous moderation that we hear so much about.

"Siege" news

Today, for what must be about the 30th time, Israel is shipping cars into Gaza.

Also cement and iron for UNRWA projects are going into Gaza today.

Also, on Sunday, Israel will allow the first of the season's exports of strawberries and carnations from Gaza to Europe. This year they are considering vegetable exports as well.

Isn't it weird that when Hamas makes an effort to stop rockets, Israel makes an effort to help Gazans? Somehow this cause and effect escapes the world's Middle East experts.

Al Azhar to start dialogue with Those Who Must Not Be Named (Zvi)

From JPost:

Scholars at the oldest Islamic university in the world issued a proclamation on Tuesday that lifted an ancient ban on dialogue with Jews, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The statement drafted by Sheikh Fawzi al-Zifzaf, chairman of the permanent committee for dialogue at Al- Azhar University in Cairo, was read during a gathering of senior faith and political leaders at Parliament in London.

“And the point of origin of this invitation is Islam itself [calling for] brotherhood and mutual understanding and the strengthening of bonds between Muslims and followers of the other religions, and the establishment of bridges of dialogue with scholarly institutions in Europe and America,” Zifzaf wrote.

The event was hosted by the Children of Abraham charity and Al-Azhar Institute for Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions.

The Egyptian Sunni institute, founded in 970 CE, has had open channels of communication with Catholics and Anglicans since the 1990s; however, until now, it has had no direct talks with Jewish scholars.

While the proclamation did not mention Judaism by name, a spokesman for the grand mufti of the UK and alumnus of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Prof. Mohamed Elsharkawy, told the Post on Wednesday that its message was aimed at a Jewish audience.

“You’ve got to understand there are extreme sensitivities,” the spokesman said.

“I’m not at liberty to say how hard it was to draft the document. In the process, the people who have taken the document forward have done so at great risk and danger, and so they’ve done that very carefully. There already exists a dialogue with Christians, so anyone with two brain cells can add up to what is being said here.”

Zvi comments:
What's the point of making a declaration that dialog with Jews is (supposedly) acceptable when Al-Azhar is not even willing to name Jews in the declaration?

“You’ve got to understand there are extreme sensitivities,” the spokesman said.

Why do I need to understand that?

The only thing that I have got to understand from this statement is that they STILL can't bring themselves to admit that I and the rest of the Jews are full human beings, and that it is okay to talk to us as human beings.

We're not talking about actually TREATING us as human beings, of course - even a DIALOG with us is banned.

In the process, the people who have taken the document forward have done so at great risk and danger, and so they’ve done that very carefully.

With all due respect, that is ridiculous.

These guys have a significant effect on the beliefs of mainstream Sunnis. They have a much greater effect than most other opinion shapers. They can argue intelligently based on their (purported) expertise, and many members of their religion will accept their rulings. There is danger for newspaper reporters who say that dialog is important; there is danger for politicians; but very little for members of this particular group.

In addition, these same men have regularly inflamed hatred against me and mine (Jews in general). It is therefore up to them to take the risks required to BEGIN to undo the crippling hatred that they, themselves have sown and watered so assiduously.

“This is a landmark decision, and Al-Azhar deserves praise for it,” Schneier said.

Again, that's ridiculous.

Al-Azhar will deserve praise when it does the right thing and names Jews as people with whom it is okay to have a dialog. Until then, all I see is an attempt to turn an explicit ban on dialog into an implicit ban. In the absence of a formal termination of the ban, many imams and others will be concerned that any attempt at dialog will be retroactively interpreted as some sort of treason. "We never meant the ruling to apply to Jews!" Some loophole will invariably be found.

In the absence of a formal statement paving the way for dialog with Jews, spoken explicitly, in Arabic, in front of Arabs rather than in English, vaguely, in front of Englishmen, there will continue to be nothing.

In the absence of a ruling permitting dialog (just DIALOG!) with Jews, what exactly have the great sages of Al-Azhar actually done? Nothing but PR for naive and stupid Westerners.