Thursday, January 20, 2011

  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JPost:
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has been using an old Jordanian law to crack down on Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the past few weeks two journalists from Bethlehem were detained by PA security forces for violating the controversial Jordanian law, which dates back to 1960.

The two have since been released from prison following strong protests by human rights activists and other journalists. One of them had been held since last November.

Article 195 of the ill-reputed Jordanian Penal Code stipulates that “anyone whose audacity to insult His Majesty the King has been proven will be punished with prison between one and three years.”

The law bans anyone from “extending” his or her tongue at the king, whether by a written, oral, or electronic letter or by a photograph or caricature.

The law is mainly intended to silence opposition voices and prevent people from criticizing the monarch. Similar laws exist in most of the Arab countries.

The two journalists from Bethlehem were arrested separately by the PA’s General Intelligence Service.

One of them, Mamdouh Hamamreh, a correspondent for the local Al-Quds TV station, was taken into custody after posting a photo of the PA president on his Facebook page next to a picture of Ma’moon Bek, a Syrian actor who played the role of a spy in Bab al-Hara, one of the most popular television series in the Arab world.
Of course, the journalist had ticked off Abbas with his reporting (about the problems between Abbas and Dahlan), and the PA used the old Jordanian law as a pretext to harass him.

(h/t T34)
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday I linked to an interview with Dani Dayan, head of the Yesha Council, in the Washington Times.

Moment magazine has published its own interview with him, and it is fascinating:

On a clear day, Dani Dayan can look out the bedroom window of his two-story home and see the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv, just 20 miles away. But as we sit in his open and airy modern living room on a chilly winter day, with a eucalyptus tree swaying in the breeze and an ancient-looking wine press in the sprawling green yard, Tel Aviv seems a world away. The neighborhood’s serenity belies the fact that Dayan’s home is in the settlement of Maale Shomron in the northern West Bank, far beyond the separation barrier and deep in territory that may very well someday be part of a Palestinian state.

At a time when settlements are perceived as a major obstacle to a two-state solution by much of the world—and by many Israelis eager to resolve the long-standing conflict—Dayan insists that Israelis will rue the day, if it ever comes, when his home and community are not part of the Jewish State. “It’s either me and my family or a belligerent Palestinian state,” says Dayan, a clean-shaven, bareheaded secular Israeli who speaks in an accented English that reveals his roots in Argentina, where he lived until he was 15. A two-state solution, he continues, “wouldn’t improve the situation for a single Israeli or Palestinian.”

...To convince Israelis that holding on to the West Bank is in their interest, Dayan recently hired a new director-general for Yesha, Naftali Bennett, another high-tech veteran with a law degree who served as then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff from 2006 to 2008. It is notable that he does not live in the West Bank, but in the rather bourgeois Tel Aviv suburb of Ra’anana. “Our main challenge in the next couple of years is to move public opinion,” says Dayan of his selection, which was approved by Yesha’s executive committee amid some controversy. “And in that, Naftali knows the client best.”

Bennett, who refers to the settlements as “suburbs of Tel Aviv, and beautiful ones, at that,” has polished and near-perfect English—thanks in part to his American parents and five years spent working in New York. In an effort to give influential figures a first-hand view of a West Bank that is decidedly different from the one they see on the nightly news, the Council treats Israeli celebrities to tours of the settlements, complete with wine and organic cheese tastings. The organization’s Hebrew website has a section on local cafes, restaurants and vineyards to attract Israeli tourists to a part of the country they’ve never cared to explore. “They come to Yesha and see the peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs,” says Bennett. “They see the vast amount of land available for Jews and Arabs. And they can only see all of this from being there—not from talking about it.”

...Although Dayan describes himself as essentially “an urban guy,” he and Einat preferred the hilltops of Judea and Samaria—the biblical terms for the West Bank—to the hip neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. Although many Israelis buy homes in settlements for a higher quality of life and lower cost of living made possible by financial incentives, the Dayans’ decision was an ideological one. “There are more important things in life than being near good restaurants and the opera house,” says Dayan. “We thought that the best thing for the State of Israel and its security is being here. So we decided to move to Samaria.”

They chose Maale Shomron, founded in 1980 and now home to about 150 families, in part for its mix of religious and non-religious Jews. “Our way of life is almost completely secular,” he says, “but we didn’t want to live in a secular ghetto.”

...From Dayan’s point-of-view, anything remains possible: Settlers will return to Gaza someday, which is why Yesha continues to keep the ayin in its name representing Aza—Gaza. And he wants his daughter Ofir to be among the “hilltop youth,” as they’re known, but still be a woman of the world. “I would like her to establish an outpost on a very distant hilltop in Judea and Samaria, but I would also like her to know the road to the cultural centers of Israel well, and to be able to enjoy a trip to London or Paris,” Dayan says. “You don’t have to choose between Hebron and Tel Aviv. You can have both.”
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
The anti-Israel hatesite Mondoweiss posts this about the Macy Gray story:
On her twitter account late on Wednesday night, Gray posted a response to one of her followers: “@bahebakyagaza See I'm willing to listen - really listen - but some of you so called boycotters are just assholes.” I prefer to call us killjoys, if one believes there is joy in saying ‘Yes!’ to normalization of the military occupation, and ‘Go for it!’ to turning a blind eye to the passing of racist, McCarthyite bills in the Knesset, ‘making the world happier’ by ignoring the 'bullies' who call for Israeli leaders to be prosecuted for war-crimes.
While Gray's tweet was fun to read, no one is looking at the tweet by bahebakyagaza that made her react that way.

He said:
@MacyGrayslife supports aparthied....and entertains the muderous IDF...BDS..boycott this lover of filthy israeli lucre.....#boycott
Gray's tweet seems to have described him perfectly.

And the Mondoweiss writer, "Eleanor K", clearly considers herself to be just like bahebakyagaza.

So, if the shoe fits...

(h/t Zach)
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
In August, the Congressional Research Service released a report called "US Foreign Aid to the Palestinians." it goes into great detail how much the US gives and in what forms.

The paper discusses methods that the US uses to ensure that money that is earmarked for the PA or Palestinian Arabs are not diverted to terrorist organizations. For direct aid, they have made progress compared to the past, although it is far from perfect.

The section on UNRWA aid is most revealing.

The US has given over $4 billion to UNRWA since its inception, and the amount has been increasing. Of course, the US is UNRWA's biggest donor, by far.

UNRWA tries to assure the US that funds are not going to terrorists, but there is a significant loophole. Here's the relevant section:
The primary concern raised by some Members of Congress is that U.S. contributions to UNRWA might be used to support terrorists. Section 301(c) of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act (P.L. 87- 195), as amended, says that “No contributions by the United States shall be made to [UNRWA] except on the condition that [UNRWA] take[s] all possible measures to assure that no part of the United States contribution shall be used to furnish assistance to any refugee who is receiving military training as a member of the so-called Palestine Liberation Army or any other guerrilla type organization or who has engaged in any act of terrorism.”
The May 2009 GAO report said that, since a previous GAO report in 2003, UNRWA and the State Department had strengthened their policies and procedures to conform with Section 301(c) legal requirements, but that “weaknesses remain.”33 Neither report found UNRWA to be in noncompliance with Section 301(c), and to date, no arm of the U.S. government has made such a finding. The following are some points from the 2009 report and subsequent  developments related to it:
  • ...UNRWA said that it screens its staff and contractors every six months and that it screened all 4.6 million Palestinian refugees and microfinance clients in December 2008 (and intends to make this a routine procedure) for terrorist ties to Al-Qaida and the Taliban, pursuant to a list established pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1267. UNRWA said that it is unable to screen those of its beneficiaries who are displaced persons from the 1967 war because it does not collect information on those persons.37 
  • UNRWA’s UN 1267 terrorist screening list does not include Hamas, Hezbollah, or most other militant groups that operate in UNRWA’s surroundings. UNRWA is unwilling to screen its contractors and funding recipients against a list supplied by only one U.N. member state. Nevertheless, UNRWA officials did say that if notified by U.S. officials of potential matches, they would “use the information as a trigger to conduct their own investigation,” which led to the report’s recommendation that the State Department consider screening UNRWA contractors. In response, State says that it now screens quarterly against the Excluded Parties Lists System (EPLS, which is a list of parties excluded throughout the U.S. government from receiving federal contracts)....
This means that while UNRWA will happily check to ensure that none of its contractors or other beneficiaries of aid are members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban, they refuse to check for membership in Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, the PFLP, the DFLP or any of other known terrorist groups. The ones that are actually based in areas that UNRWA works!

The report touches on other problems with UNRWA as well, and dismisses them:
In Gaza, most observers acknowledge that the role of UNRWA in providing basic services (i.e., food, health care, education) takes much of the governing burden off Hamas. As a result, some complain that this amounts to UNRWA’s enabling of Hamas and is an argument militating for its activities to be discontinued or scaled back. However, many others, U.S. and Israeli officials included, believe that UNRWA plays a valuable role by providing stability and serving as the eyes and ears of the international community in Gaza. They generally prefer UNRWA to the uncertain alternative that might emerge if UNRWA were removed from the picture.29
The footnote points to a document justifying the US foreign policy budget, with these words:
 U.S. government support for UNRWA directly contributes to the U.S. strategic interest of meeting the humanitarian needs of Palestinians, while promoting their self sufficiency. UNRWA plays a stabilizing role in the Middle East through its assistance programs, serving as an important counterweight to extremist elements.
Nowhere does the footnote say that UNRWA is serving any constructive role as the "eyes and ears of the international community in Gaza" - and that is a dubious assumption, since practically all UNRWA employees are Palestinian Arab. Also, nowhere does it say that Israeli officials agree.

Elsewhere the budget documentsays (sorry, it doesn't allow copy/pasting, but it is on page 88)  that if the UNRWA wouldn't provide the services, then extremist groups would, especially in Gaza and Lebanon. But what this also means is that Hamas would have to divert some of its budget that now goes towards weapons into basic services for its people!

From all appearances, while Congress seems to be trying mightily to oversee US funds to UNRWA, it is not enough. UNRWA's pushback on not vetting for Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists is unacceptable, especially to the major donor country of that agency. And no real evidence has been provided that UNRWA is in fact acting as a moderating factor against terrorist influence in Gaza or elsewhere.
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
This sort of article is literally a daily occurrence in Iran's English language media:
Zionists' footprints seen in Islamic world mishaps: IRI Parliament Speaker

IRI Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said here Wednesday Zionists' footprints are clearly seen in many of the Islamic world crises.

Iranian Parliament Speaker, Larijani, made the comment during his meeting with the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran's representatives in UAE, referring to the recent developments in Tunisia, Palestine and Lebanon, reiterating, 'Surveying the developments in those countries, signs of the international intriguing factors and opportunist elements are seen very easily.'

His logic for the Tunisian case is simply brilliant:

Larijani meanwhile focusing on the people's uprising in Tunisia, reiterated, 'Some western countries, such as the United States, were opportunistically trying to ride the wave an to impose an alternative plan to the Tunisians, but working out of such plots is far from the realities, as the west is too deceitful to be successful in such scenes.'

The parliament speaker elsewhere in his comments found similarities between the recent developments in Tunisia with a long tale behind which a Zionist-US-British scenario was laid.
But then later he said...
On the recent collapse of the Tunisian government, Larijani said that the United States and some other Western countries opportunistically shifted their policy and withdrew support for their former ally (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali) to pretend they are supporters of the Tunisian nation.
Of course the two accounts in the same speech pretty much contradict each other, but why should that matter?
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Intelligence Online (registration required):
The intelligence services in Syria are doing everything possible to prevent a copycat uprising in the country, following the overthrow of Ben Ali in Tunisia.

President Bashar Al Assad held a meeting with the principal as well as regional heads of Syria’s security services on January 16. On the agenda was how to ensure that the current wave of opposition in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt does not spread to Syria’s streets.

In a bid to preempt unrest, Assad ordered a crack-down on corrupt officials. He also told the security services to position their officers in meeting places throughout the country, in the souks and in town centres, ready to deal swiftly with any demonstrations of opposition. Military security was also told to increase the pace with which it takes down satellite TV dishes (IOL 632).

The various units in charge of phone tapping are going to increase their presence in call centres, and they are going to set up an emergency plan that, in case of trouble, will isolate a village, a town or even a region from the rest of the fixed and mobile telephony network.

On January 17, Assad took a highly rare meeting with Interior Minister Saed Samour, police officials from the different regions and the heads of Criminal Security branches: usually, the president only takes meetings with the interior minister and the head of Political Security.
If Assad is good at anything, it is staying in power.
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil reiterated Wednesday the movement's insistence that there was no Al-Qaeda presence in the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli security official said there were some 500 active "militant activists" operating in the territory.

Bardawil said that "The aim of these Israeli statements is to create animosity between Hamas, the Palestinians in Gaza and the Western world."

"Such statements are not new, they get reproduced not and again to create animosity," he said, adding that the claims that Al-Qaeda is getting deeper into Gaza "borders on incitement."
You gotta love when the people behind children's characters like Farfur the Genocidal Mouse accuse Israel of "incitement."
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
YNet published this important article by Gil Kol a few days ago:
More than 60% of the Palestinian Authority's Gross National Product comes from the United States, European Union, United Nations, World Bank and others countries, according to a study conducted by economic analyst Eyal Ofer in cooperation with President of Financial Immunities consulting firm Adam Roiter.

According to the study's findings, during 2009 and 2010 the PA's reliance on donations increased – with a 20% growth in donations, totaling some $3.96 per year.

In real values, the scope of donations more than doubled within a period of four years.

The research, similarly to OECD reports, points to the PA's steadily increasing dependence on donation funds. In fact, the Palestinian people receive the largest amount of donations worldwide.

For every Palestinian citizen, the PA receives an average of $1,000 per annum, which amounts to an average of ILS 2,000 (about $560) per family, per month. The data reinforces the claim that there is no Palestinian economy, and that in reality is almost exclusively supported by the donation industry.

Yes, an economy can be built from donations – if these are allocated for development, production and infrastructure, but this is not the case.

"The donations toward the entrenchment of government institutions instead of the development of infrastructure, industry, human capital etc'," explained Roiter. "What we have here is a schnorrer country, without which it does not exist," he added.

Ofer and Roiter noted that since 2000 – when the rate of donations reflected 10.47% of total GNP – there has been a steady increase in the scope of foreign donations. The most significant boost began in 2007, immediately after Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip, and following the PA's claim that it needed more funds to establish its regime.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's links with the International Monetary Fund, as well as his "Western" rhetoric vis-à-vis transparency, the building of government institutions and preventing market monopolies have helped him with the task of fundraising.

However, according to the study, the facts on the ground indicate that the governmental apparatus and international aid organizations impede the growth of the business sector, while donations are used to preserve the ruling party rather than build a separate economy that is not dependent on foreign donations.

The study points to the absence of an industrial sector in the Palestinian Authority. "Employers lack the ability or the will to go into industry or development, because they cannot compete with the salaries of governmental organs and that of the aid workers on the ground," said Ofer, adding, "In reality, their economy is solely based on the trade of services."

Even grants that are specifically designated for "projects" throughout the Palestinian Authority are only partially used for their original purpose, claimed Ofer.
I have a copy of the study, written in Hebrew and not yet available publicly. It breaks down the sources of the nearly $4 billion that the PA gets annually, this besides the money UNRWA gets.

The study also partially debunks the myth of the PA being ethical in its use of donor money. The head of the PA banking system is the son of Abu Jihad. While the World Bank claims that the PA is adhering to money laundering laws, it "forgot" to delve into money laundering for terrorism. In fact, the PA doesn't have the word "terror" in its regulations (and only uses that word when referring to Israel.)

For example, in 2007 the PA sent $3 million to Hamas bank accounts in Gaza, and attributed it to a "computer error" - but there has been no investigation or trial in the matter.

The study also notes what I have mentioned a number of times - that some 60% of the PA budget goes to Gaza, and it is Western trust in Fayyad that allows this to happen without proper oversight.

The study says that the PA is happy with the status quo. Fayyad's power is increasing because the inflow of money is dependent on him, and an entire layer of bureaucracy has been created to funnel cash to various targets, which do not involve anything that can possibly make the PA truly independent. Nothing has been done yet to create a Palestinian Arab currency, for example, which would be a pre-requisite for independence. And if the Israeli tax dollars that help prop up the PA would disappear, the PA would not be able to survive.

So Fayyad will continue to make his statements blaming everything on Israel, which does not cost him a dime, and do everything necessary to keep the foreign aid coming.

(h/t QuasiPundit)
On the topic thread on Richard Falk's blog, he wrote:

Palestinians have been living in intolerable conditions in refugee camps and under occupation for decades. In contrast, Israelis live under conditions of relative prosperity, freedom of movement, the rule of law, while Israeli settlements daily encroach upon the 22% of historic Palestine set aside after the 1967 War for an eventual Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Who exactly "set aside" the territories for a Palestinian Arab state after 1967? Certainly not Jordan - at least not until some 21 years later. Just more misinformation from a world-renowned "expert."

I won't even go into his ridiculous use of "historic Palestine," as if the Jordan River was ever a border of any representation of Palestine before 1921. It's just another lie. Move along.

But since he mentioned how Palestinian Arabs are suffering in "refugee" camps, I asked him:
Have you ever publicly called for Arab countries and the PA to dismantle these camps and move their residents into normal housing? You do realize that it is not Israel that keeps anyone in camps, but their Arab hosts, do you not?

Would you say that Palestinian Arabs should have the right, if they choose, to become full citizens of their host Arab countries (Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc.) as any other Arabs can? If you do, have you ever publicly called for the Arab nations to rescind their laws, on the books today, that specifically discriminate against Palestinian Arabs in areas such as naturalization?

His answer:
I have not, and do not know too much about the Arab discriminatory laws against Palestinian refugees that you mention. I have had a good deal of contact with the refugees themselves, and I can honestly say that I have yet to meet a Palestinian refugee that wants to resolve the issue via the Arab governments. At the same time I have in the past and will continue to criticize Arab governments for abuses toward refugees living within their territories.
So Falk admits he never called for Arab countries to dismantle the camps. He obviously knows that it is the Arab nations and the PA and Hamas that keep the Palestinian Arabs in camps to begin with. Yet he trots out the camps on every possible occasion as proof of Israel's bigotry against Palestinian Arabs. A slight problem, no?

And this person who has studied the topic of Palestinian Arabs for decades never heard of the Arab League Council resolution 1547, adopted March 9, 1959, that Arab nations do not give citizenship to Palestinians "to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland"? He is surely aware that West Bank Arabs only became citizens of Jordan and no other Arab country allows them to become citizens. he is certainly aware of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs, many quite well off, living in Gulf states but still stateless. And no doubt he is aware of the current Jordanian policy to strip Palestinians of their Jordanian nationality if Jordan suspects that they have family in the West Bank. I have a feeling he knows about the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of PalArabs from Kuwait, or the murder of thousands by Jordan a bit further back.

Falk disingenuously says that he has never met a Palestinian Arab "refugee" who wants to resolve the issue that way (who would ever admit to that?), but he neatly sidesteps the real questions: how many of them would choose the benefits of citizenship in their host countries if it was available? And isn't their forced statelessness at the hands of the Arab League massively depriving them of their rights to a nationality?

There is no way Falk is not aware of systematic discrimination against Palestinian Arabs by their hosts. He just chooses to ignore them in his zeal to demonize Israel. Which proves that he is yet another hypocrite who pretends to care about human rights for Palestinian Arabs but really uses that as a bludgeon against Israel while he cares little about the "refugees" who, in his mind, would rather retain that refugee status forever.

Finally, perhaps he has occasionally criticized Arab governments for abuses towards refugees, but he sure hasn't done it very much. I'can't find a single criticism amongst the avalanche of his anti-Israel statements and articles that span the Internet.
  • Thursday, January 20, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Translating Jihad, quoting a fatwa published Wednesday in Islamweb.net:

Fatwa No.: 147,523
Title: Ruling on transporting Christians to their churches
Date: 19-1-2011

Question: A bus driver occasionally drives Christians to their churches to perform religious rites. He then goes to the mosque and performs his prayers. When they finish their rites, he drives them back home. Of course he doesn't always do this, but he does do it sometimes. At times he also drives Christian dance teams, who are performing some rites associated with Christian holidays. What is the ruling on all of this?

Fatwa: Praise be to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the prophet of Allah, and on his family and companions, etc.

It is not permissible for this man to drive Christians to their churches, nor to drive those who dance on their holidays. For if the Christians are confessing their religion, it is not permissible to support them in their vain and perverted rites and religion. This is according to the saying of the Most High: "Help ye one another in righteousness and piety, but help ye not one another in sin and rancour" [Qur'an 5:2]. This is the general view, which is contrary to the view of the Hanafis, who hold that it is permissible to do such things for employment. 

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
The IDF is releasing a report on the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma, and FreznoZionism has a very interesting take:
The IDF has completed its investigation of the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma, the woman that was alleged to have been killed by IDF tear gas used against demonstrators at Bili’in on December 31, 2010. The Jerusalem Post report almost makes sense:

Jawaher Abu Rahma, the woman who Palestinians claimed was killed in late December from IDF-fired tear gas during an anti-security barrier demonstration near Bilin, died as a result of the medical treatment she received at a Ramallah hospital, the IDF probe into the incident has concluded.

Abu Rahma, IDF sources said on Saturday, did not actively participate in the demonstration but was inside a house about 500 meters away from the site of the demonstration. She was however evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah sometime later in the day and after the demonstration where she was treated for an unclear ailment.

“According to our findings Abu Rahma died as a result of the medical treatment,” an source in the Central Command said on Wednesday.

Medical documents obtained by the IDF show that Abu Rahma received unusually high doses of Atropine, a medicine that is commonly used as an antidote to nerve agents such as nerve gas. Israeli gas mask kits used to be distributed to the public with shots of atropine inside.

According to the IDF’s findings Abu Rahma died of medical complications due to the medical treatment she received that was not connected to tear gas. The IDF has also uncovered documentation which hints to the possibility that Abu Rahma was sick with cancer and had been hospitalized several weeks before her death. — Jerusalem Post

This is strange indeed. Atropine? Nerve gas? Why would they treat her for exposure to nerve gas? Israel does not even use nerve gas against enemy troops, not to mention demonstrators. And Atropine isn’t a treatment for cancer.

I think there is a better explanation.

Atropine is an antidote for aldicarb pesticides, such as temik. Aldicarb is highly toxic. When I lived in Israel in the 1980′s it was commonly used, although there were very strict rules about how it is applied, protective gear, etc. It would not surprise me in the least if Arab farmers also use it, and perhaps are somewhat less careful.

Atropine also might be given as an antidote to organophosphate pesticides like malathion, also highly toxic. This would explain ridiculous initial statements that Israeli soldiers or police had used ‘phosphorous’ on the demonstrators, and the mentions of nerve gas. Most military nerve agents are based on organophosphates.

The Palestinian doctors probably were quite familiar with pesticide poisoning. My guess is that Abu Rahma was somehow exposed to a pesticide like temik or malathion. Unlike tear gas, they are deadly, so relatives rushed her to the hospital — where someone accidentally gave her more than a safe dose of atropine.
I think he might be onto something.

While I don't know if Jawaher or members of her family were farmers, Palestinian Arabs definitely use a variety of organophosphate insecticides. I found a few papers about insecticide poisoning in the territories. It happens relatively often and Palestinian Arab doctors are no doubt familiar with it.

This study is most relevant, as it talks about the extensive use of organophosphates in the West Bank. It even lists the banned organophosphates used there: Azinphosmethyl (Cotnion), Dichlorvos (Divipan), Parathion (Folidol) and Dimethoate (Rogor).

These pesticides, when misused, act as nerve agents.

A great majority of Palestinian Arab farmers were reported as keeping these pesticides stored in their houses, often under dangerous conditions. 72% mixed the pesticides in their own homes, and 84% stored them at home.

Symptoms of organophosphate poisoning mirror the symptoms that Abu Rahma was reported to have had: shortness of breath, vomiting, excessive sweating, excessive tearing, confusion, and tremors.

I do not know how quickly these symptoms appear.

In many ways this theory relies on a few too many variables for me to be comfortable with. But it would neatly explain why she was treated with atropine and with her symptoms. And organophosphate pesticides are many orders of magnitude more deadly than tear gas. If, as the IDF is now saying, Abu Rahma was in her home at the time she fell sick, this theory makes far more sense than tear gas poisoning.

Certainly, many residents of Bil'in are farmers - their main complaint about the separation barrier is that it keeps them from their farmland. So one would expect a fair amount of pesticides stored in people's homes.

The bigger question is: was any banned pesticide stored in Abu Rahma's house?
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
On Monday, performing artist Macy Gray posted this on her Facebook page:
I'm booked for 2 shows in TelAviv. I'm getting alot of letters from activists urging/begging me to boycott by NOT performing in protest of Apartheid against the Palestinians. What the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinians is disgusting, but I wana go. I gotta lotta fans there I dont want to cancel on and I dont know how my NOT going changes anything. What do you think? Stay or go?

There have been 2000 comments since then, and counting. Her Twitter account has likewise been swamped with comments, pro and con.

At this point I doubt that she will read all of them, but I added my voice to the cacophony.
The people of Israel love you. Not only that, but they love music, they love the arts, they love culture, they love science, they love people - and they love life.

Those who are demanding that you not perform, hate. They hate Israel, and their hate is so deep that it extends to Israeli people, to those who support Israel, and to countries that are allied with Israel. The comments here show only a tiny part of the hate they have.

It is usually a good bet to side with the lovers.

See also Balfour Street's post.

UPDATE: She seems to have decided to go to Israel after all. (h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

UPDATE 2: After the BDSers started attacking her for her decision, she wrote a classic tweet that says what I was saying, in a somewhat blunter manner (h/t CHA again):
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From a Wikileaks cable, January 2010:

XXXXXXXXXXXX argued that the only effective sanctions which could positively impact the regime's security calculations on the nuclear dossier would be a ban on sales of conventional arms. Only such a move could shift the security calculation for the regime from the longer term goal of achieving nuclear capability to the shorter term goal of maintaining a conventional capability. He warned that ineffective sanctions could be worse than no sanctions, especially if they send more money to the IRGC's pockets (through increasing necessity of procurement on the black market which is dominated by the IRGC.) In the interim XXXXXXXXXXXX recommended that a policy of covert sabotage (unexplained explosions, accidents, computer hacking etc) would be more effective than a military strike whose effects in the region could be devastating.
Stuxnet was already on deployed at that point.

More from The Guardian.
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Arutz-7:
As the IDF restricts Jewish access to Joseph's Tomb (Kever Yosef), a small group of determined Jews are finding creative ways to reach the holy site anyway, according to the IDF magazine B'Machaneh.

Members of the Breslov chassidic sect told the magazine that they have taken to bribing Palestinian Authority officers in an attempt to gain access.

“Once we saw that the Palestinians now have control over the tomb, we understood that we would need to act differently than before,” a chassid who went by “M” said.

“There was a certain period where nobody tried to sneak in, because we had an arrangement with the IDF,” he continued. However, he said, “Recently our cooperation with them has dwindled, and we started to feel like we were being shut out.”

“We did everything we could... but there's been a change in our relation with the army and until things change, we're going to keep working with the PA police,” he concluded.

Another Breslov man said of the PA officers, “They are still our enemies, this is cooperation solely for an important purpose. We aren't afraid of them, and we know Shechem [Nablus] better than we know our own houses.”

Leaders in the Breslov community said they believe the illegal entry to Joseph's Tomb will stop once relations between the community and the IDF are restored.

An IDF captain in the region said the Breslov chassidim in particular enter the area despite the general prohibition on Jewish access because the community “seeks out challenges” and has “a strong desire to get into Joseph's Tomb privately.” The captain said IDF officers had asked their PA counterparts to look into the issue.
For some reason no one is asking the question of why access to a Jewish holy site is restricted to begin with, in violation of the 1995 Oslo interim accords which called for "free, unimpeded and secure access to the relevant Jewish holy site[s]."
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ingo Way, who wrote that great article on camps in the PA, has a German-language article in Cicero magazine on Israeli leftist self-loathing. He describes Ha'aretz' Gideon Levy wonderfully:
To the extreme in this attitude is Gideon Levy. The star columnist of the daily newspaper Haaretz has for years been posing as a lonely prophet, who is in his own world - this despite the fact he is among the highest paid journalists in the country. Levy has gone so far as to claim that the Palestinians will end up in concentration camps. He apparently did not count on the resentment that this forecast would create,and he answered back that he would not compare Israel with Nazi Germany, but rather ... "At best, with the Germany of 1933, as the disenfranchisement and marginalization of the Jews started off slowly." 
This is precisely what Levy had written eight years ago in Haaretz. And if 1933 was 2003 for Israel, if Levy's analogy is any good, now it's 1941. And still there is no National Socialism in Israel and no concentration camps, and he, Levy, can cheerfully publish his articles.
(h/t Silke)
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
The contestants in the 2011 Pro-Israel Blog-Off, being run at Israellycool and co-sponsored by Honest Reporting, are now set.

In the first match-up of the first round, my entry will go up against posts by Life Through My Eyes and Liberty's Spirit.

The ultimate winner in the 24-player competition will get an Apple iPad.

You will be able to vote next week, as reader votes will combine with the opinions of the four esteemed judges.
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JPost:
[D]ocuments, uncovered in French archives...shed new light on the covert activities of the British in the Middle East. They reveal that British intelligence agencies played a key role in shaping Britain’s policy by securing the tacit collaboration of prominent Arab nationalist leaders in Syria and Lebanon after helping them attain power.

They also disclose that British agents were behind the schemes to integrate Syria in an Iraqi-led Hashemite confederation, or with Transjordan in a Greater Syria federation that was to include Palestine. The documents include a secret agreement from May 29, 1945 revealing that Syrian president Shukri al-Quwatli was coerced into tacitly granting Britain a dominant strategic and economic position in Syria in return for its help against the French army attack on Damascus (provoked by British agents themselves).

The Syrians’ claim that their country was the first Arab state to secure complete independence from colonial rule is therefore debatable. In this regard, it is worth quoting a telegram of November 5, 1945 from the Syrian minister in Washington to his foreign minister in Damascus referring to statements made by American diplomats: “As far as British influence is concerned, the American government asks, ‘Did we recognize your independence just for you to put yourselves in the hands of Great Britain?’ Having reminded them that Great Britain delivered us from French oppression, they said to me, ‘Is that deliverance? They freed you in order to use you themselves. Great Britain, under the pretext of delivering you from the French, wants to annex you. We will not allow feudal Syrians to sell their country to Great Britain.’”

YET-TO-BE-PUBLISHED documents from 1945-1947 indicate that after their success against France in Syria, British intelligence agents, who enjoyed even greater freedom of action in the Middle East under the Labor government, employed similar tactics against the Zionist movement.

In fact, the “Zionist card” became a vital instrument used by British agents in securing their country’s influence in the Arab world by playing on the Arabs’ fears of the Zionists’ aspirations for a Jewish state.

It was also exploited to deflect the Arab nationalists’ hostility from Britain and justify Britain’s continued influence in the Arab world.

Constantine Zurieq, a diplomat in the Syrian legation in Washington who later became a leading Arab nationalist intellectual and the first to apply the term “nakba” to the 1948 Arab defeat, quoted in a telegram to Damascus on November 7, 1945, the warnings of an American official in the State Department: “Great Britain wishes to exploit the Arab-Jewish conflict because it is the only way for it to remain in Palestine, to dominate all the Arab countries. The American government strongly desires to find a friendly settlement between the Arabs and the Jews. But it is convinced that the British colonial authorities will do everything to prevent that, as Great Britain wishes for incidents to worsen in Palestine and for disorder, where blood is spilled, to take place.”
The entire paper can be seen here. It includes some new source materials. For example, here are some of the arguments against Greater Syria given by a Syrian diplomat in London to Syrian Foreign Minister Mardam:

On several occasions I noted the little respect that we enjoy here, because the English, as I already knew and as you know also, do not respect those who are smaller than them, especially those whom they consider to be their servants. I regret to tell you that I feel strong emotion taking hold of me when I think of the situation I am in and how people regard us behind their smiles of diplomatic courtesy.

I return to the plan for Greater Syria. In a few days I hope to obtain a copy of the plan which I will send to Your Excellency. For my part, I strongly rejected the possibility of the Syrian Government's agreement to such a plan or to any other plan that ushers the Zionists into our country - as if we don't have enough disasters visited upon us by God, France and the misfortunes it has brought us, in the end to see the Jews coming into Syria after having taken Palestine.

I hope I have conveyed the point of view of the Syrian Government with regard to this grave matter.
 (h/t Elder of Lobby)
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From al Masry al-Youm:
Leaders participating in the Arab Economic Summit issued a statement rejecting foreign interference on the issue of minority rights in the Arab World.

The summit opened Wednesday in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort.

Earlier this week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Egypt planned to demand that the summit denounce external meddling in its domestic affairs.

The call was triggered by an appeal made by Pope Benedict XVI along with a number of Western states urging the protection of Christians in the Arab world following deadly attacks on churches in Iraq and Egypt.

The statement said that Arab leaders reject attempts by foreign powers to intervene in Arab domestic affairs.

It added that such attempts demonstrate an ignorance of the history of the region, and reflect a lack of understanding of the nature of terrorist attacks, which have not neglected any area of the world.
The disappearing Christian minority in every Arab nation is testimony to how well the Arabs are handling this issue on their own.

And it gives me reason to quote another section from the Martha Gellhorn article on Palestinian Arabs in 1961:
I directed myself toward the nearest church steeple, rang a doorbell beneath, and was admitted by an enormous, rotund priest in a brown cassock. He looked like an Arab but was an Italian. He had lived in this country for nearly thirty years and had learned how to survive: by laughter. He laughed at everything, and it was an awesome sight, as if a hippopotamus broke into silent mirth....
With another mute roar, he told me that the Arabs said, First we will finish with the Shabbaths, and then with the Sundays. They never changed their ideas. They went around looking at the women and the houses they would take when they managed to get rid of the Jews and the Christians. He laughed himself into a good shake over this one.
Unfortunately, the Arab Christians who are the targets of the Muslims are no more tolerant themselves towards Jews:
I asked about the Eichmann trial and the reaction of his Roman Catholic parishioners. Well, his Christian Arabs thought Eichmann was right, because the Jews were the enemy of the German state. They were always the enemy of the state; the Pharaohs had to drive them out of Egypt, the Persian King tried to clear them out, Ferdinand and Isabella kicked them out of Spain. No one could live on good terms with them, so Eichmann was right. (Horrified, really horrified, I said, "Surely. that is not a Christian attitude to the most appalling murders we know about?" He found it terribly funny that I should expect a Christian attitude from Arabs.)
(h/t Just Journalism)
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Backspin reports on a CNN story where their reporters talk about covering the Tunisian riots, as they downplay any dangers from tear gas (start around the 2:30 mark):



As Backspin notes,
Can you imagine Western journos covering Bilin security fence protests breathlessly gushing for the IDF? Why is the world only uptight about tear gas when Israel is involved?
But it is even worse. While there have been rare deaths during the weekly Bil'in and Nilin riots, for the most part they are set up as circuses, with activists dressed as Avatar characters or Santa Claus. In Tunisia, they were very deadly, with 78 people killed in a couple of weeks - including one journalist from a tear gas canister!

So why do reporters cover Bil'in as if it is incendiary and Tunisia as if it is a joke?
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From YNet:
Hours after Russian President Dmitri Medvedev declared his country recognizes an independent Palestinian state, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat described the statement as "an historic move to make the Palestinians proud for a very long time to come."

Medvedev said Tuesday during a visit to Jericho that Moscow had effectively recognized Palestine back in 1988 and has no intention of changing its position now. He noted that all would benefit from the establishment of a Palestinian state, including the Israelis.

Talking to Ynet Erekat noted, "We appreciate the Russian recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders whose capital is east Jerusalem."
Medvedev didn't say a word about "1967 borders." He simply said that Russia continues to recognize "Palestine" in the way that the Soviet Union did in 1988, which didn't mention borders at all and which was pretty much ignored by the world community at the time. But it is hardly the first time Erekat has been caught lying.

The YNet article does mention that Israel's Foreign Ministry strike is severely hampering Israel's efforts to fight this latest wave of PLO diplomatic victories. One result is that Medvedev didn't even visit Israel. This strike is really hurting Israel and it needs to be resolved quickly.
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ron Dermer, advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, writes a nice letter to Time magazine in response to their latest ridiculous anti-Israel article:

Dear Mr. Stengel,
I wanted to bring to your attention a recent article in Time entitled "Israel's Rightward Lurch Scares Some Conservatives." I hope that you will agree that the article's obvious bias and numerous distortions are not worthy of the standards of your prestigious magazine.
Israel is depicted in the article as essentially sliding towards fascism. Your correspondent refers to Israel's Shin Bet (the equivalent of the FBI) as a "secret police," claims that the Israeli government "increasingly equates dissent with disloyalty," and accuses the Prime Minister of "taking a page from neighboring authoritarian states."
The evidence offered for these outrageous allegations includes a preliminary vote in our parliament that would require naturalized citizens to make a pledge of allegiance, a proposal to strip citizenship from Israelis convicted of espionage and terrorism, a motion to investigate foreign government funding of local NGOs, calls on Jews to not rent property to Arabs, and demonstrations demanding prohibitions of Arab boys from dating Jewish girls.
But your correspondent did not find it necessary to inform your readers of a few facts.
Oaths of allegiance are commonplace in most democratic countries, including the United States. Naturalized citizens in America swear an oath to its Constitution and to defend the country against "all enemies, foreign and domestic." Israel's proposed pledge would require naturalized citizens to swear an oath to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, words taken directly from our Declaration of Independence.
Moreover, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy are just some of the many countries where citizenship can be stripped for various infractions that are defined as undermining "national interests." Are these European countries not democratic?
In the United States, Senator Joe Leiberman proposed a bill last year to "add joining a foreign terrorist organization or engaging in or supporting hostilities against the United States or its allies to the list of acts for which United States nationals would lose their nationality." Is American democracy threatened by such a bill?
As for questioning the legitimacy of foreign government funding of Israeli NGOs, mentioning America's Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) may have presented a more balanced picture.
FARA requires that any organization engaged in lobbying in the U.S. that receives money from foreign individuals, let alone foreign governments, must among other things register as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice and permit the Attorney General to inspect all of its activities.
It is hard to imagine any democratic country accepting foreign governments intervening in its domestic affairs by funding domestic groups engaged not merely in criticism of a particular government's policy but also attacking the very foundations of the State.
What would Britain do if the French government was actively funding a British NGO that sought to eliminate the monarchy? What would the United States do if the Iranian government was funding American NGOs pressing for a withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East?
There is a vigorous public debate in Israel, including within the Likud party, over the best means to address the problem of foreign government funding of local NGOs. Proposals range from launching a parliamentary investigation to laws banning or restricting such funding to measures to ensure full transparency. Far from being a sign of Israel's slide toward fascism, the current debate in Israel is a testament to how vibrant our democracy truly is.
Finally, contrary to the implication of your correspondent, Prime Minister Netanyahu has publicly and forcefully condemned the racist sentiments that were mentioned in the article. For example, this is what the Prime Minister said at the opening of Israel's annual Bible Quiz to an audience of mostly observant Jews a few hours after he learned of the letter calling on Jews not to rent apartments to Arabs:
There are non-Jews among the citizens of this country. How would we feel if someone said not to sell apartments to Jews? We would have been outraged, and indeed we are outraged when we hear such things in neighboring countries or anywhere else. Such statements should not be made, neither about Jews nor about Arabs. They must not be made in any democratic country, let alone a Jewish-democratic country that respects the moral values of the Jewish heritage and the Bible. Therefore, the State of Israel categorically rejects these things.
Contrast this unequivocal condemnation by the leader of Israel to the Palestinian Authority law that mandates the death penalty for any one who sells land to Jews. Such laws are all too common in a Middle East in which Christians are persecuted, gays are hanged in public squares and women are stoned for adultery.
In Israel, things are different. Here, we protect the rights of women, gays and minorities, including the 20% of Israelis who are Arabs, who enjoy freedom of speech and religion and the protections afforded by independent courts and the rule of law.
Every decision in Israel is put under the microscope by one of world's largest foreign press contingents, the hundreds of human rights organizations and NGOs that operate freely here, a famously adversarial local press and most critically, by a vociferous parliamentary opposition.
Israel has upheld its democratic values despite being threatened like no country on earth. In defending itself against wars of aggression, unparalleled terror campaigns and continuous promises to annihilate it, Israel has a track record on the protection of rights that would compare favorably to the record of any democracy, much less democracies under threat.
Even in peacetime, other democracies enact laws that would be inconceivable in Israel. The Swiss ban on minarets and the French restrictions on headscarves passed in Europe, not Israel.
One final point regarding media coverage in the Middle East. In 2000, after an Italian television station (RAI) was threatened by the Palestinian Authority for broadcasting the film of a Palestinian mob lynching two Israeli soldiers, RAI issued a shameful apology. Similarly, in 2003, CNN admitted to burying negative coverage about Sadaam's regime so that its personnel could continue working safely in Baghdad.
I can assure you that no matter how biased and unbalanced your correspondents' coverage of Israel, they will always be free here to write whatever they want. Of course, Time is also free not to print it.
Ron Dermer 
Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister

(h/t Backspin)
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday, the PLO mission in Washington placed their flag outside their building. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), new Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reacted appropriately.
Raising this flag in DC is part of the Palestinian leadership’s scheme to manipulate international acceptance and diplomatic recognition of a yet-to-be-created Palestinian state while refusing to directly negotiate with Israel or accept the existence of Israel as a democratic, Jewish state.

IsraeliGirl interviews Professor Dina Porat about anti-Israel rhetoric, Muslim propaganda and anti Semitism. It is nice to see a pro-Israel blog move do MSM-style interviews, and IsraeliGirl has already done a few.

Backspin notes that Great Britain's bizarre advertising rules now seem to force the Daily Mail to advertise visits to "the Holyland," Jerusalem, Galilee, the Dead Sea - but never mentioning any country's name. My suggestion is the use "The Land of Israel" which is completely accurate and shouldn't run afoul of any rules.

Jenny Peto, the person who wrote a master's thesis with the general theme that all Jews are racistssays that the controversy over her paper has strengthened Canada’s Palestinian Arab solidarity movement. Now, one might wonder, why Palestinian Arabs regard brazen anti-semitism as beneficial to their cause?


Haaretz has a decent op-ed - by an Arab, naturally - saying that Tunisia will not herald any real change in Arab regimes:
The Arab world has a ready explanation for all its troubles: a Jewish, Zionist and imperialist conspiracy. Expressions of this conspiracy include distributing chewing gum that causes sexual arousal in women, an intent to corrupt Arab culture and society, and dispatching guided sharks to attack tourists on the Sinai coast in order to destroy Egypt's tourism industry. Spreading infantile tales such as these is a type of opium for the ignorant masses, who seize upon the "Zionist conspiracy" and fall into a stupor. In the Arab world, the "Zionist conspiracy" opiate provides an easy and safe way to avoid genuinely confronting the problems at home.
I didn't talk about "BraGate" but one can find opposing viewpoints from an Israeli Jew - on Al Jazeera's side - and an Israeli Arab! (h/t L. King)
  • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Washington Times has a nice interview with Dani Dayan, head of the Yesha Council in Judea and Samaria.

He says some surprising things, and it is worth reading, but I like his anecdote at the end:
Mr. Dayan took a lobbying trip to Washington in September, when the White House presided over the launch of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. ...

On his flight back from Washington, Mr. Dayan recounts that he found himself seated across the aisle from Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. After some hesitation, he introduced himself.

"We chatted for 30 minutes," Mr. Dayan says. "I suspect that he tried on me the speech he has prepared for Jewish communities in the United States, full of empty slogans and cliches, and after some 30 minutes, a British guy that was sitting in the row beside us told us, 'Guys, it's very interesting, but I want to sleep.'"

"And so, once again, Great Britain damaged the prospects of peace in the Middle East," he says.
(h/t GPOIsrael tweet)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AP:
Coalition for a Free Palestine and Amnesty International, South Africa members hold a candlelight vigil in Johannesburg, Tuesday Jan 18, 2011 to commemorate Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2009.

Indeed, Amnesty co-sponsored this event with the Coalition for a Free Palestine.

And who exactly is that?
The Coalition for a Free Palestine (CFP) is a COSATU led coalition representing a wide range of civil society organizations and trade unions. Some member organizations include the South African Council of Churches, South African Young Communist League, South African Communist Party, Muslim Judicial Council, Muslim Students Association, Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Palestine Solidarity Committee, Palestine Solidarity Group and the student society, the Wits University Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Their webpage, which seems to have been created solely to condemn Israel for the flotilla incident, includes such lovely items as this:

It also calls for an absolute boycott of Israel.

One of the members of this coalition, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, says that "Zionism is a theory of ethnic cleansing and racism."

Another, the Palestine Solidarity Group, says that its aim is to destroy Israel and create a single state on "historic Palestine."

This demonstration also called for the arrest of Tzipi Livni, who is visiting South Africa.

Does Amnesty International support these groups' goals of eradicating Israel and using lawfare to single out only the Jewish state for harassment and boycotts?

Amnesty is certainly not distancing themselves from these haters.

And by participating with a coalition of groups who have every desire to destroy the Jewish state, and whose fake "solidarity" with Palestinian Arabs ends at the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt,  Amnesty is showing yet again that it is far from an impartial observer in its analyses of the Middle East.

UPDATE: Challah Hu Akbar notes that an Amnesty chapter is also sponsoring a talk by Israel hater Norman Finkelstein. In that case, however, there seems to be a little bit of effort to distance Finkelstein from official Amnesty positions.

But can you imagine an Amnesty-sponsored talk of any member of Israel's government?
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AFP:
Some 200 Omanis protested on Monday against high prices and corruption, a rare phenomenon in the Arab Gulf monarchy that seems to have been touched off by the revolt in Tunisia. 
“Rising prices have destroyed the dreams of ordinary citizens,” read one banner carried by the crowd gathered outside the housing ministry, where police manned a security cordon but did not intervene.

The protesters, who appeared after they received emails and messages on their mobile telephones calling for the demonstration, chanted slogans against corruption and the high cost of living.

“No to corruption. No to corruption,” shouted the protesters who called for “higher wages” and “fixed prices” for basic food items, the cost of which have swelled since the global financial downturn.

Demonstrations are rare in the Sultanate of Oman, as in most other Gulf oil monarchies, where street protests are strictly prohibited and where trade unions and political parties are banned
Things are spreading...
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
This article appeared in today's Al Riyadh newspaper, by Fahad Amir Ahmadi. Here are the parts I could understand via auto-translate:
This is the painful truth, gentlemen ...

You can differ with me however you like .. But the truth is established by objectively comparing the numbers ..

Israel is better than all the Arab and Islamic countries with regard to democracy and political integrity (evidenced by the annual lists issued by various organizations of the world)...

For lack of space I will just focus on technical and military superiority.

At a time when the Arab peoples suffered from illiteracy, Israel was engaged in building the Dimona nuclear reactor and the formation of the first agency for space research in 1959 .. In spite of our superiority in encrypting our satellite TV channels (!) Israel has always excelled in sophisticated security technologies. While our efforts have failed to raise the women's cloak from the shoulder of the head, Israel succeeded in raising the missile "Horizon" and "Amos" above the atmosphere ...

Today, Israel is in third place globally in the export of weapons, and first place in the world in the production of drones (even with their small size and small population) .. It is also the smallest country that can produce tanks and fighter planes, and the fifth state in terms of possessing nuclear bombs, in fact, twenty years ago and I hear they had between 300 to 400 nuclear warheads, and between 2500 to 3000 missiles. (God alone knows how many they have nowadays)!

I personally believe that the Zionist plan for the transfer of technology is going today with the same momentum, which began sixty years ago .. In the area of space, for example, Israeli scientists participated since the sixties in the U.S. programs and build the first station to monitor their own space in 1964. In 1976, Jewish scientists from America contributed to the construction of the first Israeli satellite .. At the beginning of the seventies they had developed a missile, "Shavit" and "Tonan" .. In 1983, the re-structuring of space institutions and resulted in the establishment of the Israel Space Agency (Sala) ..

Israel exploited the collapse of the Soviet Union, attracted by Russian scientists in the manufacture of rockets. ...

All this made it possible for Israel in 1988 to launch the first of its own spy satellite Horizon 1, and in 1990 Horizon 2. Then, in 1995 Horizon 3 and Amos 4 military communications satellites... And it continues to launch these satellites, which was a dream cherished since the 1973 war when they relied on American satellites to monitor the Arab armies!!

... In fact, the best description is in this article written in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, the day after the launch of spy satellite Horizon 3:

"The gap between Israel and the Arabs in the technology space are measured in light years. While Israel is able to launch rockets orbiting Earth, ... the most developed country among the Arab countries, Iraq, is producing crude rockets using World War II-era technology!"

[Remember,] this was written 15 years ago. 
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
David Solway says "Forget peace. It's not going to happen."

The IDF explains why an Arab man was killed last week.

Palestinian Media Watch notes that the PA hasn't really eschewed violence.

Alana Goodman talks about how NGOs will find any excuse to slam Israel.

The Jawa Report brings us another PMW video - about PMW itself!
Another insufferably self-righteous rant from a lying, terror supporting Israel-hater Richard Falk:
As someone who is both Jewish and supportive of the Palestinian struggle for a just and sustainable peace, I am often asked about my identity. The harshest critics of my understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict contend that I am a self-hating Jew, which implies that sharp criticism of Israel and Zionism are somehow incompatible with affirming a Jewish identity. Of course, I deny this. For me to be Jewish is, above all, to be preoccupied with overcoming injustice and thirsting for justice in the world, and that means being respectful toward other peoples regardless of their nationality or religion, and empathetic in the face of human suffering whoever and wherever victimization is encountered.
And what makes this "Jewish"?
As the great Rabbi Hilal teaches, “[T]hat which is hateful to you do not do to another. The rest (of the Torah) is all commentary, now go study.” Not hateful only to another Jew, but clearly meant to encompass every human being.
Falk, whose Jewishness is so pronounced that he cannot figure out how to spell "Hillel," wildly misinterprets Hillel's words. Hillel in no way meant that every human being has veto power over what every other human being can do, which is what Falk pretends he is saying. Falk's Hillel would be against freedom of speech if it hurts someone's feelings, the real Hillel wouldn't.

The real Hillel simply inverted "love your neighbor as you love yourself." Falk is clueless.
But in a more fundamental respect my own evolution has always been suspicious of those who give priority to tribalist or sectarian identities. In other words, it is fine to affirm being Jewish, but it should not take precedence over being human or being open and receptive to the insight and wisdom of other traditions. We have reached a point in the political and cultural evolution that our future flourishing as a species vitally depends upon the spread of a more ecumenical ethos. We have expressed this embrace of otherness in relation to food, with the rise of ‘fusion’ cuisines, and with regard to popular culture, particularly music, where all kinds of borrowing and synthesis are perceived as exciting, authentic, valuable.

Falk is here slyly accusing most Jews of racism by simply wanting to prioritize the security of their people. Of course, he would never say similar words in terms of the racial and religious superiority endemic in Arab or Muslim culture.

Prioritizing your own people - family, tribe, religion, nation - is not in itself racism. It is often necessary for survival. Should native Americans not fight for their right to maintain their culture?

If Falk would take his self-righteous words seriously, that means that he would not accept a kidney transplant for his own daughter if someone across the world might be a better candidate. I somehow doubt that his fake morality would withstand that test.

Yet by his accusing Jews of giving priorities to their own, he is charging them - and them alone, because that is the topic of this essay - with bigotry. If he would ever say anything remotely similar about Islam, I'll eat my words. The next time he sees a Saudi leader, let's see him demand that the Gulf Arabs be more amenable to accepting Hindu, Buddhist and Christian culture as being equal to their own.

There is of course no contradiction between giving priority to one's own people and learning from, and borrowing from, other cultures, and Falk's implication that (in this case) Jews resist that is ridiculous. Ever hear of Yiddish and Ladino? Ever listen to Jewish music from Arab lands? Ever notice the difference of Jewish cuisines depending on where one's ancestors came from? Jews are hardly the poster children for intolerance of other cultures. I can think of some people who might fit that criticism a bit better, but Falk would be loathe to go there.
For me this rejection of tribalism takes two forms, one negative, the other positive. I do not feel exclusively Jewish. Also, even if I did, I would never claim the superiority of the Jewish religion over other religions. I have felt uncomfortable since childhood with biblical claims, often repeated in contemporary social settings, that Jews are ‘the chosen people’ of God, even if this is understood benevolently and temporally as a special destiny associated with doing justice rather than as a matter of societal achievement via wealth and professional success. As soon as exclusivity or superiority is claimed for any ethnic or religious fraction of the human whole, there is implicitly posited a belief in the inferiority of ‘the other,’ which unconsciously and indirectly gives rise to the murderous mentality of warfare and gives a moral and religious edge to many forms of persecution, culminating in a variety of inquisitions.
Hey, Richard, do you admit that most people are either exclusively male or exclusively female?  If so, are you not using "exclusivist" terminology that will inevitably go down the slippery slope to murder of the "other"?

Judaism sees different roles for different groups of people. That brings with it a host of concomitant obligations. Within Judaism, descendants of Aaron have a different role than others, but that does not make them "superior" in any sense. Falk's lie about this basic concept of Judaism shows that his knowledge of the religion he pretends to take pride in is virtually nil.

He then makes his hatred for Jews more explicit:
And, of course, the historical climax of inverted exclusivity was the Holocaust, a process in which Jews (along with the Roma and others) were chosen for extermination. Claims of exclusivity often usually pretend to possess privileged access to truth that helps disguise monstrous intentions and behavior. To have such access, whether from a divine or secular source, treats all those outside the select circle as tainted by falsehood, the logic of which generates a societal license to kill, even to exterminate. Extreme tribalism is genocidal at its core given material scarcities and inequalities that exist in the world, which would otherwise be indefensible.
Again, Falk's only example of this "extreme tribalism" is the Jews. Is there any real difference between what he is saying here and what one can find at neo-Nazi sites?
...In my case I have at various times been inspired and enlightened by the practices and wisdom of Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Taoist, and indigenous peoples. And in a more mundane sense, I think that the future of humanity will be greatly enhanced if these various religious and wisdom traditions are ecumenically and inclusively embraced by more and more people throughout the world, providing a thickening societal and civilizational fiber for human solidarity....In this sense, I want to say, yes I am Jewish, and proud of it, but I am equally indigenous, Sufi, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian to the extent that I allow myself to participate in their rituals, partake of their sacred texts, and seek and avail myself of the opportunity to sit at the feet of their masters.
Falk says he is proud to be Jewish, yet he cannot point to a single example of Jewishness that he admires. On the contrary, he only has terrible things to say about most Jews that he dismisses as tribalist and exclusivist, and any parts of the religion that treat Jews differently from non-Jews are evil.

Falk's Judaism has no room for proud Jews, nor for Jewish tradition, nor for Jewish history, nor for the Judaism practiced for thousands of years. For Falk to be "proud" of his Jewishness he must demonize the entire religion and all of its adherents.

How is that not anti-semitism?

I have criticized Falk many times in the past, but have never called him a self-hating Jew because of his anti-Israel positions. This essay, however, proves that he really is. And it can hardly be a coincidence that this anti-Zionist is also anti-semitic.

(The same post is on his blog. Feel free to comment there - he clearly reads all the comments.)
Reader Greg points out the Australians for Palestine website, where we see this graphic prominently featured:

So-called "pro-Palestinian" advocates don't even try very hard to say they believe in a two state solution or in Israel continuing to exist.

Even though Australians for Palestine's Statement of Principles pretends to advocate for a two-state solution, they say:

...all of Jerusalem remains the subject of final status negotiations because of its strategic importance in reconnecting the northern region of the West Bank to the southern region.

In other words, Israel has no rights over even the parts of Jerusalem west of the Green Line.

Australians for Palestine upholds the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees to return home. This right is enshrined in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948. No agreement, negotiations or parties which purport to trade away the right of return or any other inalienable rights can have any legal basis and cannot bind or compel the Palestinian people to accept them. The right of return is as much an integral part of the Palestinians’ right of self-determination as it is of individual and collective human rights.
Meaning that even if the PA agrees to forgo this "right" in any peace plan, AfP and similar groups will not accept that peace proposal and will continue to agitate to destroy Israel demographically. (I do not need to mention that UNGR 194 does not give this right, it certainly does not apply to descendants and it was roundly rejected by all Arab states.)

Australians for Palestine adopts the position that Israel has the right to exist as does Palestine based on the 1967 borders according to UN Resolutions 242, 338 and 194. The right of Israel to exist is not exclusive to, or more valid than, the right of Palestinians to exist. How they shall exist is the issue still to be resolved.
So Israel's existence is still up for grabs. Maybe it will end up being ensconced in a cafe in Tel Aviv.

Australians for Palestine recognises the right of Palestinians to legitimately resist Israel’s oppressive occupation within the territories occupied in 1967. ...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states quite clearly: “It is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected under the rule of law.” By failing to protect Palestinian human rights, the international community has driven the Palestinians to resist their occupiers and oppressors.
So Arab terrorism is the fault of the West!

But...
Australians for Palestine adopts the position that terrorism violates the right to life, and therefore, is contrary to the fundamental principles of humanity embodied in international humanitarian law. This applies equally to the oppressor and the oppressed.

How to resolve these two paragraphs? Clearly the first one justifies terror, but the second pretends to condemn it. Chances are that they simply define "terror" as something only Israel does. Problem solved!

Finally,
Australians for Palestine adopts the position that pressure must be put on Israel to end its occupation and apartheid policies against the Palestinians through boycotts, divestment and sanctions. The failure of diplomacy and dialogue, and an international community led by the United States unable and/or unwilling to confront Israel and demand that it respect international law and United Nations resolutions condemning its policies, leaves this as the only non-violent option to bring about change. Therefore, Australians for Palestine will appeal to our government to uphold international law and apply sanctions on Israel; appeal to institutions such as churches and universities to divest from corporations that do business with Israel; and, appeal to the general public to use their own power to boycott products and services that benefit Israel.
Even though these sanctions hurt Palestinian Arabs, and if Palestinian Arabs would divest from Israel their economy would crash and burn.

Now, note what these principles do not say.

Not a single word of responsibility for Arab countries to treat their Palestinian "guests" as equal citizens of their countries. Not a word about the systemic discrimination that Palestinian Arabs suffer in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere. Not a thing about the conditions in the camps that hundreds of thousands still live in, nor a call to dismantle them. Nothing about inter-Palestinian Arab squabbles and unifying the cause.

All of its concrete demands are against Israel. It advocates "resistance" against Israel, it advocates boycotts and sanctions against Israel and advocates destroying Israel demographically.

So why exactly is it considered "pro-Palestinian"?
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas leader Saleh Aruri met with Israeli intelligence representatives in a secret meeting in the Czech Republic.

PalPress says that Aruri was released from an Israeli prison several months ago under condition that he goes into exile. He lives in Syria.

Sources say that Israeli intelligence initiated the meeting.

Hamas is apparently interested in extending the current calm. It is unclear whether Gilad Shalit was part of these talks, although Hamas says that a German mediator had presented some "new ideas" to help release him.
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hamas is pleased to announce that they decisively won the elections of representatives to Gaza's Nursing Association, with a solid 70.5% of the vote.

The moderate terror group prevailed handily over its competition.

And who was the competition?

Islamic Jihad, which garnered the other 29.5%!

Who says that Hamas is against democracy?
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Al Qassam website says:

Al Qassam Brigades mourns one of its heroes martyr Zaher Ahmad Jarghoun from Khan Younis south of Gaza Strip who was martyred during his duty for path of jihad.

Since they are not blaming Israel for his death, this means that either he offed himself or another Hamas member killed him.

Either way, let us all hope and pray for many more such sacrifices for jihad!
  • Tuesday, January 18, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
This is classic! From crazy far left Online Journal:
Captain Israel- A sickening hasbara magazine for Jewish diaspora youngsters
By Gilad Atzmon

Look at this new Jewish-cartoon magazine -- PDF version.

It has become pretty obvious that that Israelis and Zionists do not try to disguise their morbidity anymore. Zionism is clearly a threat to humanity and humanism.

Airplanes and tanks, decorated with Jewish symbols, are consigned to spread death and carnage in the name of the Jewish people.

Captain Israel, a kosher superman, is holding a Menorah torch. He is there to set the entire region on fire.

Endowed with the ‘strength of Samson’ and the ‘wisdom of Solomon,’ Captain Israel is a genocidal hero who profoundly personifies the disastrous state of current Jewish national affairs

Israelis and Zionists are proud of their pathological, murderous intentions. They are a threat not just to their neighbors, but to humanism and humanity in general.
You can almost feel the spittle hitting the keyboard as he angrily types in his bile.

And what is driving Atzmon so crazy?

 Does Captain Israel glorify war? Hardly.


Atzmon proceeds to get this Captain Israel mixed up with a different character at the SuperJews website that can be found here.

(h/t Lenny and Challah Hu Akbar for the correction immediately above.)

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