Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 24, 2011

West Bank rejoices over terror attack

From the Palestine Times, which is a Hamas mouthpiece:

We missed these scenes for a long time: The joy of the West Bank after the bombing in Jerusalem

Having missed the scenes of the explosions and operations that targeted Zionist buses in Jerusalem for years...

Despite condemnation by the Fatah leadership, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and described that operation as "terrorist", there was joy in the street despite the pain experienced in the cities of the West Bank.

Upon hearing the news of a bus bombing in Jerusalem, citizens hurried to the coffee shops to follow up on television news channels and radio stations to track the latest developments.

Abu Mohammed from Nablus, sitting in a café, said: "By God, it's about time for such operations, which warms our hearts and the hearts of all who [suffer] from the oppression of the occupier recently."

He added: "The occupation only understands the language of force and blood. The netanyahu government claims they want peace in public, but carries out massacres against the Palestinian people everywhere. "

Joseph, 20, from Ramallah, said as he put headphones on his ears to listen to the radio for news on the blast: "This is surely a response to the massacre carried out by the occupation authorities in the Gaza Strip, that claimed the eight martyrs, including 3 children."

He added: "The Palestinian people have become convinced that the Netanyahu government only understands the language of force and operations such as what happened today in Jerusalem."

"The people want the return of martyrdom operations .. people want to end the occupation."

There are those who expressed their joy of such events. Samira from Ramallah: "When I saw the breaking news on one of the satellite TV news and there was an explosion on Jerusalem, the joy made my heart stop."

A young man recalled happy memories of Tulkarm for operations similar to what happened today...

Others Palestinian citizens went into social networking sites like Facebook and forums on the World Wide Web, to express their joy and the news firsthand. The majority stressed our people's right to respond to crimes of the occupation.

Cutting and pasting from Reuters' "terrorist" quote

Looking at Google's cache, I can see that it was not only Reuters who wrote yesterday this disgusting phrase:

Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike.

Jeffrey Goldberg has a nice article about this phrase.

But the exact same phrase was used in reports by CNN (since changed,) Sky News (since changed) and the Daily Mail (also since changed.) In none of those articles was Reuters credited. (Of course, many, many news sites still have the original Reuters report with that phrase, but they at least credit Reuters.)

Not that we needed any more evidence of how lazy many reporters are, but to plagiarize an already offensive sentence is really something.

(h/t Joel)

Morning links

The UNHRC will only vote on six anti-Israel resolutions in the coming session. That's out of 14 that criticize specific countries. See how moderate they have become?

Richard Landes coins a neologism: "neo-progs." And he uses it well.

Barry Rubin on why terrorism flourishes.

A British MP slams the BBC for its non-coverage of the Fogel massacre.

Isi Leibler says to get tough with Hamas now.

Honest Reporting notes that Western reporters are a lot more skeptical of wild Libyan claims than they are of wild Palestinian Arab claims.

FrontPage Magazine notes what I had noted recently about that ridiculous map of Arab land - but directs its criticism towards Juan Cole, who has helped popularize it.

Is the terror escalation because of Abbas' planned Gaza visit?

Last week, Mahmoud Abbas announced plans to visit Gaza for the first time since Hamas took over.

It is possible that much of the recent escalation in rocket attacks, and perhaps even the Jerusalem attack, is an effort to stop that visit.

There has been much discussion in the Palestinian Arabic media about this planned visit. Hamas itself is divided over it, something that they even admit themselves. From Palestine Press Agency:

Official Hamas sources confirmed the existence of differences between the movement's leaders of the initiative of Abbas, and said: "Yes, there are differences in views toward Abbas's visit to Gaza" pointing out that it does not rise to the level of a dispute. "We do not have any allergies to any differences of opinion because there is a specific mechanism for decision-making, The differences in this case will be decided by opinion and the Shura Council."

The view of a senior official in Fatah is that Abbas's visit to Gaza has raised fears within Hamas, saying, "Definitely, if Abu Mazen went to Gaza, the masses will come out to receive support for his initiative because there is a strong desire to end the division [between Hamas and Fatah] ... These things frighten and confuse [Hamas], and... such a visit would be for them a new referendum on their popularity, they do not want to put themselves in that position or be engaged in this thorny issue," referring to Hamas' refusal to hold legislative elections. He added, "So we are questioning the chances of support by Hamas for Abbas' initiative."

Yesterday there were reports that the political Hamas leaders in Gaza were not against the Abbas visit but the Al Aqsa Brigades and the Syrian Hamas leadership were against it.

All recent polls show Fatah defeating Hamas in any election.

Add to this equation Islamic Jihad and the other terror groups, who now enjoy a cozy relationship with Hamas but who fear a unification that would leave them without their unofficial but substantial political power.

A new terror spree, and the Israeli reaction, would do a nice job at torpedoing any chance for re-unification between Hamas and Fatah.

Which means that in this case, Israel is not even the target of the terror initiative - Fatah is.

Killing and terrorizing Jews is just a bonus.

University of Johannesburg severs ties with Ben Gurion U

From iAfrica:

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has officially severed ties with Israel's Ben-Gurion University (BGU), deputy vice chancellor Adam Habib said on Wednesday.

"It will happen as per protocol on 1 April," Habib told Sapa.

"We had a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with them and that will now be severed."

Ben-Gurion University, however, had been working with UJ on finding a method to clean algae that has infested South Africa's drinking water. The severing of ties meant the project was likely to come an end, leaving UJ without access to BGU's extensive water expertise.

"There has been quite a lot of scare mongering that if the partnership breaks, South Africa will be confined to bad water quality," Habib said.

"The quality of our water is suffering because we are not spending the type of money on cleaning water that we need to, and not employing skill sets required.

"We can deal with acid rain water in the region if we are prepared to spend money."

UJ's severing of ties with came amidst talk of steep water tariff increases and a warning South Africa could run out of water within the next ten years if nothing was done to supplement water resources.

The Environment and Conservation Association has said that by 2015, 80 percent of South Africa's fresh water would be so badly polluted that no purification process in the country would make it fit for consumption.

The impending disaster that would be created by acid mine drainage, as well as by sewerage and industrial pollution, had on many occasions been brought to the government's attention, with no positive results, the association said.

Ah, these UJ professors are so principled, to be able to set aside the health of their people just to express their hate for Israel! How admirable!

The petition itself is a wonderful example of what a sham academia has become. 400 professors signed onto a petition to sever ties with BGU without any of them actually noticing that much of what the petition claimed are lies.

The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has had disastrous effects on access to education for Palestinians. While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation..

Let's see...before the "occupation" the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza had no access to Israeli schools. Now, they do (look at Omar Barghouti.)

And is Israel restricting access to West Bank Arab universities? Well, I know that Jews can't attend them. Maybe that's what they are referring to.

Wait, it gets better:

[BGU's] President, Rivka Carmi, describes the University as a ‘proudly Zionist institution’ [3], which effectively supports the official ideology of the Israeli state.

The signatories of the petition already know that Zionism is evil, so therefore what else needs to be said?

BGU aids and provides academic scholarships and has official protocols for providing
support to army reservist students.

And as everyone knows, the primary purpose of the Israel Defense Forces is to oppress the Palestinian Arabs, not to, you know, defend Israel.

While Palestinian citizens of Israel constitute more than 20% of the country’s population, only 9.5% of B.A. students, 4.8% of M.A. students, 3.2% of Ph.D. students and a mere 1% of the academic staff in Israeli academic institutions are Palestinians [10].

Hmmmm. In 2008, 31,527 whites graduated from South African universities, as opposed to 36,970 blacks - 46% of graduates are white. Yet the population in South Africa is only 10% white. Which means that South African universities are overwhelmingly preferential to white students compared to their proportion of the population! And I am willing to be that the majority of professors at UJ are white. Maybe the world should boycott the university until 90% of its staff and students are non-white!

Perhaps the most telling section of this academic petition are its footnotes. The very use of footnotes is meant to give an aura of scholarship to the factoids being given there. So, for example, we see:

• The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report detailing how Palestinian applicants are three times as likely to be rejected by Israeli academic institutions than Jewish applicants [11].

Footnote 11 refers to a 2005 article in Adalah which itself has lots of interesting statistics - but no citations whatsoever. And that article did not quote the UNCHR, but an Israeli group called Sikkuy, for this statistic.

Of course, that statistic, even if true, is meaningless out of context. Did the study look at equally-qualified students? Did it compare grades and the results of any standardized tests?

From a scholarship perspective, any decent professor would grade this petition a D. Yet 400 academics signed it!

Which just goes to show that hundreds of South African academics are self-righteous hypocrites, who cannot even be bothered to do basic fact checking on a petition before signing it - as long as it adheres to their already pre-existing prejudices.

This sham of a petition was signed by:

- 9 Vice Chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellors

- 11 Deans and Vice Deans

- 21 Chairs and Heads of Department

- 170 University Professors

- 125 Academic Doctorates

South African academics are prejudiced? Yes, they are.

EgyptAir erases Israel from its website

From YNet:

Egypt Air, the largest airline in Egypt, has removed Israel from the map – literally. On its website, Ynet has learned, Jordan's land reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

The airline's subsidiary, Air Sinai, flies to Israel regularly, but customers seeking flights to Ben Gurion National Airport will have a hard time finding them. On the map are the names of the Mideast capitals – Amman, Beirut, and Damascus – but Israel is nowhere to be found.

The omission is especially odd seeing as the company continues to fly to Israel four times a week. Cairo-Tel Aviv flights were temporarily halted following the recent uprising that overturned the government, but were then reinstated.

YNet is not quite right. The map does show Israel (weird boundaries, but it is there, between Jordan and the sea):

The problem is that EgyptAir erased Israel from its entire website.

In other words, even though EgyptAir flies from Cairo to Tel Aviv four times a week, it is impossible to book a flight:

You literally cannot input "Tel Aviv" or "Israel" in any fields to book a flight.

I could not see how to book a flight via EgyptAir from Cairo to Tel Aviv on Expedia or Orbitz either. So if YNet is correct and there are still flights, I have no idea how to find them. (All I could find are stopovers in Turkey or Jordan. El Al has direct flights that for some reason were not visible in my search on those travel sites either.)

Thanks to Sheila at SACH for the awesome photo.

Entire poster series here.

Palestinian Arabs quite happy about this terror attack

I had noted that Palestinian Arabs did not react to the Itamar attack with the joy that we are used to seeing from terror attacks, even though it was in a "settlement." In general, only Islamic Jihad praised the attack; other groups condemned it implicitly or explicitly, and the PalArab "man on the street" was ashamed.

I was speaking to some family members about it and my guess was that the main reason they distanced themselves from that attack was because it was so personal - to look in a baby's eyes and stab him, to butcher a three year old. I said that if it would have been a bomb or a shooting, there would have been far more celebrations.

Unfortunately, I can now be proven right.

The reaction in the Fatah-leaning Palestine Press Agency comments are uniformly ecstatic. (Autotranslation does not work as well for informal text like this, so I couldn't decode some of them.)

God is great and thankfully the hearts of Muslims in this jihadist operation and I ask God Almighty to be there to kill me in a similar operation in response to the continued crimes of the occupation in the Gaza Strip.

Praise be to God: Victory of the Mujahideen Lord Thy God is great, and thankfully

God bless these operations, And instill fear and terror in the hearts of the sons of Zion

God is great and thank God ......

Oh God, victory to the Mujahideen in Palestine and everywhere; God please make an earthquake beneath the feet of the Jews and destroy them the way they destroyed our homes in Gaza

And, from Jerusalem, what sounds like an Al Aqsa (Fatah) member taking credit, although there is no corroboration:

We are the sons of Al Aqsa Martyrs; we adopt [take credit for] the operation and with pride I go to the chapeau of the martyrs of Gaza.

Incredible interview with 12-year old Tamar Fogel (video)

Her parents must have been tremendous people to have raised such a courageous, principled young woman.

(But you just know that the J-Street and Mondoweiss crowd, if they deign to view this at all, would only see from this interview that evil settlers are brainwashing their children to, God forbid, love their land and the land of their forefathers.)

(h/t ks)

Reuters sickens us all again with its bias

It is most interesting to see how the mainstream media's initial breaking stories betray their inherent anti-Israel bias. Then when their attention is called to this, they quietly change their articles, without acknowledging the initial bias.

For the second time in three weeks, Reuters has shown what they really think of Israel.

On March 12, Reuters referred to the IDF as "Israel's occupation forces" - an anti-Israel term used by Arabs only. They silently corrected that.

This time, Reuters headlined its story about the terror attack today this way:

Jerusalem bombing kills woman after 7-year lull

And then it says:

Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.

I grabbed this from the Reuters-UK feed, because the American version was quickly changed (and the UK version might be changed by the time I post this.). The headline is now

Bomb explodes near Jerusalem bus, 1 dead, 30 hurt

and the other sentence has been turned into a lie:

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which Israeli police termed a Palestinian "suicide attack."

No one said this was a suicide bombing!

But back to the initial headline. Reuters is saying that there has been a seven year lull in bombings in Jerusalem.

This is not only a lie, but it is intentionally misleading.

The last suicide attack in Jerusalem was in September, 2004. But there have been other suicide bombings in Israel since then, as recently as 2008 (Dimona.)

But let's say that Reuters is only talking about Jerusalem, for some reason, as if terror attacks there are different than those in the rest of Israel. The last fatal terror attack in Jerusalem was a man being knifed to death in October, 2008, and in July 2008 three Jerusalem Jews were killed by a terrorist who rammed into them with a bulldozer.

But let's say that Reuters is only referring to roadside bombs. There was a pipe-bomb in Gilo, Jerusalem only a couple of weeks ago, and a sanitation worker lost his arm in the explosion. Obviously the intent was to kill there as well.

So Reuters, by seemingly referring only to the lack of major, fatal bombings in Jerusalem itself as a "lull," was consciously trying to minimize the number of terror attacks in Jerusalem - in the headline of an article about the latest attack!

Not to mention that Reuters pooh-poohs the term "terrorist attack" as some sort of Israeli propaganda when a mere 38 people are injured and only one dead. Reuters instead refers to it in more military terms: a "Palestinian strike." No doubt the lady who was killed was a legitimate military target as well, in Reuters' writers' minds.

They say that you can find out how people really think when they are drunk or sleepy. In reuters' case, you can see how they really feel in the initial bulletins after Jews are killed.

(h/t Zach)

Real Liberals Love Israel #9: Israeli Wildlife Hospital

You can read the story about this ibex here.

Entire poster series here.

(h/t David G and Folderol)

Israel continues to send aid to Gaza while Israelis are under attack

While Gaza terror groups are showering rockets on Israeli communities in the south, Islamic Jihad's mouthpiece Palestine Today still reports, without irony, that Israel will today allow between 210 and 220 trucks to enter Gaza today, loaded with aid and items for agriculture and commercial factories. Also, cement and iron is being sent through Kerem Shalom, along with food and fuel.

A shipment of cherry tomatoes is also going to be exported today from Gaza.

All while tens of thousands of Israelis within Grad rocket range - and now, again, Jerusalem - live in fear.

Islamic Jihad admits the purpose of the rockets is terrorism

When they speak in English, the Gaza terror groups like to pretend that their shooting rockets at Israel are being done for purely military means, and that they target only soldiers and IDF bases.

In Arabic, though, they brag that the purpose of the rockets is to terrorize civilians.

Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today newspaper quotes a leader of the Al Quds Brigades, Abu Ahmed, as saying, "[We] are not standing idly by, but are responding at different intervals by shelling settlements with a number of Grad rockets, creating a state of terror in the ranks of the occupiers."

That's pretty much the textbook definition of terrorism.

The same newspaper loves publishing pictures of terrified Israelis, to show Islamic Jihad's might at being able to force Beersheva women in their pajamas to run out of their houses:

They are also very proud that classes in Beersheva schools are affected by the rocket fire.

From JPost:

An explosion took place on or near a bus in central Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon.

Police said that a bomb exploded outside Egged bus number 74 at a station in front of the Jerusalem Conference Center in the center of town.

Reports said that over 30 people were injured in the attack although the exact number was still unknown.

Magen David Adom said that no deaths were reported in the attack.

Police suspected that an explosive device inside a bag was left at the bus stop, which then exploded.

A source tells me that one person was killed, but this is not official by any means.

So far I cannot find anyone claiming credit for the explosion.

Israel Matzav and The Muqata are liveblogging. So is Challah Hu Akbar.

The Muqata has unconfirmed reports of 3 fatalities.

There was also a possible murder of an Israeli in Revava.

UPDATE: One confirmed dead, an elderly lady.

J-Street in Congress: EPIC FAIL

Here's a letter written by Representatives Steve Rothman and Steve Austria to President Obama:

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We live in an increasingly complex world. Recently, we have been bombarded by news and images from around the globe about the popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and throughout the Middle East. We have seen the effects of yet another devastating earthquake, which struck Japan just days ago, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without homes and countless others dead. And we continue to live with the constant threat posed by North Korea's and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons as well as the danger of nuclear proliferation at the hands of terrorists. We write to request that, while all of these events are consuming the daily news coverage, we not take our eye off of working toward a goal that is close to all of our hearts: a peaceful and secure Jewish State of Israel.

We are sure that you share our disappointment in President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to withdraw from peace talks in October of last year and his stubborn refusal to reengage as a willing partner for peace with Israel. The continued intransigence of the Palestinian leadership is both hurtful to the prospect for a two-state solution and to a final resolution of the conflict that still plagues the Israeli and Palestinian people. Unfortunately, we live in a time when the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades will rush to take credit for the horrific, inhuman, and brutal attack in Itamar against the Fogel family, including three of their children, an 11-year-old, 4-year-old, and 3-month-old. This must serve as a wakeup call that the current state of affairs is dangerous and unacceptable. In that regard, we respectfully request that you do everything possible to urge President Abbas to root out terrorism, return to negotiations without preconditions, earnestly work toward peace with Israel, and slam the door on any effort to deal with final status issues at the United Nations.

As part of that, President Abbas must fully renounce any and all Palestinian incitement against Israel and the Jewish people. On March 8, 2009, a number of us sent President Abbas a letter calling on him ³to truly end anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement,´ but clearly there needs to be further pressure. However, Palestinian incitement continues and there is almost no effort by them to promote coexistence and peace. We would like to bring to your attention a report recently released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office entitled ³Culture of Peace and Incitement Index,´ that unfortunately shows that Palestinian incitement continues. Television programs run by the Palestinian Authority and textbooks in government schools continue to praise martyrdom and terrorists and call for an armed struggle against the Israelis. Incitement,especially by official institutions, damages the prospects of reaching a peace agreement betweenthe Palestinians and America's strategic partner and indispensible ally, the Jewish State of Israel,and only encourages terrorism.

It is our hope that an independent Palestinian state can be realized, living in peace alongside the Jewish State of Israel. While the United States must not and cannot impose a solution, our country has an important role to play in encouraging the two parties to restart direct negotiations. We respectfully request that you and your administration do all in your power to insist that President Abbas reenters peace talks, without preconditions, and demand that President Abbas eliminate all vestiges of incitement coming from his government, Palestinian entities, or officials.

Sincerely

STEVEN R. ROTHMAN Member of Congress

STEVE AUSTRIA Member of Congress

The letter is perfectly accurate and reflects longstanding US policy.

Yet J-Street opposes it!

From JPost:

J Street’s opposition to a congressional letter criticizing Palestinian incitement has led more members to sign on, according to Hill sources tracking the issue.

The letter to US President Obama, written by Rep. Steve Rothman (D-New Jersey) and Rep. Steve Austria (R-Ohio) in the wake of the Itamar murders, charges that “Palestinian incitement continues and there is almost no effort by them to promote coexistence and peace.”

It calls for the White House to “do everything possible to urge [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas to root out terrorism, return to negotiations without preconditions, earnestly work toward peace with Israel, and slam the door on any effort to deal with final status issues at the United Nations.”

In response, J Street sent an email to members of the US House urging them not to sign it and issued a statement attacking the its contents as “containing material omissions and misrepresentations of fact and presenting a biased and inaccurate picture.”

The statement specifically criticizes the letter for not acknowledging the PA leadership’s efforts to end incitement and blaming incitement for the impasse in peace talks.

“Contrary to the letter’s accusations, the current Palestinian Authority leadership has taken great political risks and shown real willingness to end the conflict,” J Street states.

While the letter was originally circulated only among members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, J Street’s email was circulated more widely and prompted many additional representatives to express interest in the letter. A final count isn’t yet available because the deadline for signatures has not yet passed.

“J Street’s opposition to the Rothman-Austria letter has only increased the willingness of members to sign on. It begs the question of what are J Street’s goals,” said one congressional staffer. “If J Street’s goals are to have fewer people sign onto the letter, they’ve already failed.”

J-Street's opposition to the letter also shows how hypocritical the group is. They oppose the letter in part because it isn't balanced - it shows a "biased ...picture" and doesn't mention the other side of supposed PA moves to end incitement.

Yet J-Street supported the one-sided, anti-Israel Security Council resolution on the settlements. It had no problem with bias then! To J-Street, the only party that has to compromise, and the only party that needs to be pressured by the US, is Israel. Not exactly how friends of Israel act!

Not only that, but the letter is correct. The PA continues to incite through its own media, as abundantly documented by Palestinian Media Watch. J-Street's refusal to acknowledge that shows, once again, that it is not a "pro-Israel" organization.

The good news is that Congress has caught onto J-Street's facade.

(h/t My Right Word)

NYT reports fairly on yesterday's accident

The New York Times' coverage of yesterday's accidental deaths of four Gaza civilians, writeen by Fares Akram, is actually fair to Israel:

An Israeli attempt to hit Palestinian militants who had fired rockets at Israel went horribly wrong on Tuesday, with mortar shells killing three youths playing soccer and a 60-year-old grandfather leaving his house.

After rockets were fired from a citrus grove behind houses in eastern Gaza City on Tuesday afternoon, the Israelis fired mortar rounds at the source. Three shells landed on a sandy street in front of a home about half a mile from the border, killing three members of the Helou family and a neighbor.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed regret at the deaths of civilians, adding, “It is regrettable that Hamas continues to intentionally rain down dozens of rockets on Israeli civilians even as it uses civilians as human shields.”

The Israeli military also said it regretted the loss of civilian life and placed the blame on Hamas. “We do not target civilians,” Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, said by telephone. “This was not our initiative. It was reactive.”

Relatives and neighbors were unusually open about the fact that the Israeli mortar attack was an attempt to hit militants firing rockets from the nearby grove.

“We heard the sound of four mortars being fired by militants from a grove just beyond our house,” said Hassan, the older brother of Mohammed Harrara. “A few minutes later, the Israeli shells landed in the area.”

But the Washington Post simply repeats Hamas lies:

Tahar al-Nounou, a spokesman for Hamas's government in Gaza, said that no one had fired rockets from the area targeted by Israel on Tuesday. "The Palestinian government condemns strongly the awful crime that was committed by the Zionist occupation this afternoon,'' he said in Gaza.

See also Meryl Yourish's excellent comparison of AP's reporting of this incident versus the Fogel massacre.

(h/t David G)

Reports that Gaza terrorists used anti-aircraft missiles

Palestine Press reports:

Media and witnesses in Gaza said that resistance fighters this morning fired a surface to air missile targeting an Israeli Apache [helicopter] over the central region [of Gaza.]

Witnesses said out that the helicopter left Gaza and went back to the Israeli border without being hit. Israeli sources did not confirm this news.

Syria kills 12 people - in a mosque

From Haaretz:

Syrian forces killed 12 people on Wednesday in an attack on a mosque in the southern city of Daraa, site of unprecedented protests challenging President Bashar Assad's Baathist rule, residents said.

Those killed included Ali Ghassab al-Mahamid, a doctor from a prominent Daraa family who went to the Omari mosque in the city's old quarter to help victims of the attack, which occurred just after midnight, said the residents, declining to be named.

Before the attack, electricity was cut off in the area and telephone services were severed. Cries of "Allahu Akbar [God is the greatest]" erupted across neighborhoods in Daraa when the shooting began.

Can't wait for the UN to condemn this.

Oh, I'm sure that Iran and Hezbollah will be on the condemnation bandwagon as well since they have been so outspoken about Arab government repression lately.

(updated with latest numbers, h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Back on the floor: An amazing Israeli success story in Haiti

Meet George, a professional dancer whose left leg was severely injured in Haiti - and whose right leg was amputated.

Thanks to an Israeli rehabilitation team in Haiti, he is dancing again.

(h/t Israpundit via Cher)

Entire poster series here.

(h/t Sshender)

Wikileaks: How the Muslims took over the UNHRC

A series of memos released by WikiLeaks exposes how the Organization of the Islamic Conference took over the then-new UN Human Rights Council in 2008. For those who are fans of the arcane world of negotiations, here is how the OIC managed to outmaneuver Western states on one resolution:

AN OIC TRIUMPH
--------------

OIC efforts to amend -- and in effect subvert -- the Freedom of Expression resolution had been a dominant subtext throughout the Council's seventh regular session. With support from the U.S., the EU and others, Canada, as chief sponsor, had sought to fend off an OIC amendment that would instruct the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to report on "instances in which the abuse of the right of freedom of expression constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination." The OIC, taking advantage of its internal discipline, had held firm throughout. China, apparently angered by criticism during the Council's March 25 meeting of its behavior in Tibet, floated its own killer amendments two days before the vote. Canada rejected these as having been raised too late in the game.

The decisive action on the freedom of expression resolution and its amendments came on the session's last day. We had joined Canada and others in efforts to sway moderate OIC members, but these had fallen short. Meanwhile, Canada had sought to find compromise language that would avoid the OIC amendment. When those efforts failed, and with the session having been extended beyond its scheduled 6pm closing time, the OIC called for a vote on its amendment, which passed (27-17-3). The U.S., Canada, the EU and others dropped their co-sponsorship. With the momentum clearly favoring the OIC and its allies, Cuba then pulled an unexpected move, proposing an oral amendment underscoring "the importance for all forms of media to report and to deliver information in a fair and impartial manner." That amendment passed (29-15-3). Canada and the EU failed in last minute procedural efforts to head off the fully amended resolution, which then passed (32-0-15).

The Ambassador's April 2 meeting with like-minded ambassadors to take stock of the session provided additional insights into the dynamics behind the last-minute maneuvering. Canada's ambassador expressed frustration at the African Group's solidarity with the OIC. Madagascar and Angola, for instance, had expressed discomfort with the amendment in conversations with the Canadians but had eventually been pressured into voting for it. The OIC had also exerted immense pressure on others during the end game, he reported; Bosnia and Herzegovina, for instance, had been pressed hard, although it had ended up voting against the amendment. Both the Canadian and Danish ambassadors expressed particular resentment toward China: though the Chinese had ostensibly kept their promise, made on the session's last day, not to put forth an oral amendment, they had clearly struck a deal for Cuba to do so.

In an April 1 extension of the seventh session to allow for closing statements, several OIC members defended the newly amended resolution. Pakistan argued that the OIC amendment had done nothing beyond providing an "add-on" that made the resolution more "comprehensive and holistic," in order to protect the stability of multicultural societies. Sri Lanka echoed that theme and expressed hope that the decisions on the freedom of expression mandate would not leave the Council as a "house divided." The U.S. was among several delegations that sharply criticized the amendments.

The OIC had scored an earlier victory with adoption of a resolution on defamation of religions (21-10-14). It also succeeded in rescheduling the Item 7 discussion of the Occupied Palestinian Territories to early in the Council session in order more quickly to condemn Israel's response to rocket attacks from Gaza. In addition to the resolution passed on that occasion, the Council also passed three other anti-Israel resolutions. One of these, on Israeli settlements, passed 46-1-0, with only Canada voting against it.

Another memo ends off with the observation that the EU has given up and decided to support the OIC:

The prevailing political and negotiating dynamics at the Human Rights Council must be broken if that body, which is still taking shape, is to address human rights problems in a serious and substantive way. Instead of seeking the support of the U.S. and other sympathetic delegations in its efforts to hold violators to their international human rights obligations, the instinct of the EU appears to be to bend over backwards to accommodate the concerns of the violators and their supporters. The result is not pretty. South Africa, which serves as the driving force behind the Durban process and has a tunnel-vision interest on issues of racial equality, appears to have made common cause with the OIC and its parallel tunnel-vision interest in ensuring the alleged rights of the collective in Muslim societies. This vision is fundamentally incompatible with the interests of Western democracies. Until the EU can be made to see that its paramount goal of ensuring its internal unity, with its predictable lowest-common-denominator results, will rarely hold anyone accountable for anything, our efforts to see the HRC evolve into an effective and respectable human rights mechanism are likely to go unrewarded. The U.S. made a greater effort in this short session to influence events, but this level and manner of engagement simply were not enough to have a significant impact.

Today is World Water Day.

All the "Real Liberals" series can be seen using the Real Liberals tag..

Rock star calls BDSers "fools"

From AP:

Kiss' Israeli-born singer-musician Gene Simmons is shouting out loud at the string of musicians who refuse to perform in his homeland.

The legendary bassist says "they're fools." He spoke to The Associated Press in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

He says artists who avoid Israel — such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies and Roger Waters, who joined the movement after appearing in Israel in 2006 — would be better served directing their anger at Arab dictators.

Simmons is making his first return to Israel since he left the country as a child more than 50 years ago. He described the visit as an emotional "homecoming."

(h/t David G tweet)

"Zionists use heavy metal music to corrupt Muslims, take over the world" (UPDATED)

A great one from The Jakarta Post:

The hard-line Muslim group Islam Defenders Front (FPI) is now setting its eyes on underground music, which its members believe carry messages that would lead young Muslims astray.

In a public lecture at the FPI headquarters in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, senior FPI member and purported Islamic music “expert” Farid Budi Fahri alleged there had been concerted efforts to turn young people away from Islamic teachings through a variety of underground music.

“There has been a conspiracy. A war launched by the underground community [against mainstream Islamic teaching],” he told FPI members who came to the talk last week.

Farid traced the roots of the underground music to a Zionist movement.

He said that a group of people adhering to Zionist ideology has used the medium to conceal their objectives of world domination.

“At the end of the day, it will sow conflict among Muslims themselves,” Farid said.

He went on to speculate that the underground music community, which initially developed as a resistance towards the mainstream industry by independently producing and distributing music, has been subverted by the Zionist movement to spread ideas that would contradict Islam.

“Are these musicians carrying out a Zionist mission? I would say no. The conspiracy is within the music, the lyrics which carry messages and the ideology which would create a lifestyle and counter culture in the end,” Farid said.

He cited the lyrics of John Lennon’s song Imagine as Zionist music, although Lennon was not Jewish and was not considered an idol of the underground music community.

“People keep singing his songs without realizing the meaning behind it,” he said.

He suspected that the song — about a hypothetical state of the world where religion, state and ideology did not exist — carry a pure Zionist message.

Farid also said some underground musical outfits had promoted Satanic messages. He said bands like Sepultura, Metallica and Lamb of God were satanic bands that could turn young Muslim fans away from religion.

In fact, the original name of Metallica was "Zionist Metallica" but they shortened it to make their world-domination goals a little less obvious.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

UPDATE: Daughter of Ziyon used her scary skillz to create the real deal:

And now you can buy T-shirts and other products with this logo at The Elder of Ziyon Store!

Afternoon links

Commentary's J.E. Dyer: Responsibility to Protect, Obligation to Shoot

Arab News: What if Arabs had recognized the State of Israel in 1948?

WSJ: The Shaky House of Assad

Khaled Abu Toameh: Are the Palestinians ready for statehood?

IsraeliGirl: Revolution and Antisemitism in the Arab world - Reflections by Dr. Webman

AP: Hamas protests plan to teach Holocaust in Gaza End of story:

Yet even if the U.N. moves ahead with the plan this year, it could face another obstacle: its own schoolteachers.

In about a dozen interviews, they said they did not want to teach the materials and warned of rebellion.

"The agency will open the gates of hell with this step," said one schoolteacher, Sami. "This will not work."

Israel21C: Big buyouts of Israeli companies

CiFWatch on the first IDF paramedic at the scene of the Fogel massacre.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar, Vicious Babushka, Solomon)

Entire poster series here.

Iranian weapons intercepted by Turkey

From YNet:

Weapons were found on an Iranian cargo plane forced to land in southeast Turkey on Saturday, Turkish media reported Tuesday.

According to reports, the arms plane left Tehran with military ammunition for Syria. Several crates containing weapons and ammunition were removed from the aircraft.

Turkish media reported that the plane was forced to land in a military airfield at the United Nations' request following information indicating it was carrying nuclear materials. It was further reported that rocket launchers, mortars, rifles and explosive materials were found in one of the main cabinets on the plane.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Iranian machinations in Bahrain

From Iran's FARS News Agency:

The Iranian Red Crescent Society announced that it is ready to send relief workers to Bahrain to provide people with medical assistance after Bahraini security forces, assisted by Saudi troops, killed and injured scores of peaceful protesters on the tiny Persian Gulf island.

The secretary general of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said the organization is ready to help the Red Crescent deal with the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Bahrain.

"If we are given permission, we are ready to send our relief forces to help the Bahraini people with medical and health supplies," Zaher Rostami told Press TV.

Wikileaks revealed that Iran had previously sent agents, missiles and other weapons to Hezbollah - disguised as medical aid.

Odds are, this is what they have in mind for Bahrain as well, as they want the mostly Shiite protesters to ultimately make Bahrain an Iranian satellite - or part of Iran.

(h/t Folderol)

EoZ makes it into London Jewish Chronicle

From page 4 of the print edition of the current London Jewish Chronicle, as a sidebar to an article about Israel activism on campus:

Now, why would they have chosen that one?

Thanks to Jeremy for setting this up!

Group encouraging Arab couples to get married at al-Aqsa mosque

From Al Arabiya:

A Palestinian heritage association launched a project to encourage Arab-Israelis to hold their marriage ceremonies in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque as part of its plan to fight perceived Israeli attempts at erasing the identity of its Arab citizens.

“This project aims at ensuring that al-Aqsa is always full of worshippers in order to assert the importance of the mosque and to counter Israeli violations and occupation,” association chairman Hekmat Naamna told AlArabiya.net.

Naamna explained that since marriage is one of the most important events in anyone’s life, holding the ceremony in al-Aqsa would highlight the importance of the mosque and help bring a sense of blessing to one’s life.

“The Aqsa Mosque is a holy place with a special importance in the entire Muslim world and couples will be blessed if they hold their marriage ceremony in it. It is a source of pride for them.”

The association, Naamna added, encourages couples to marry in al-Aqsa through offering a variety of facilities for the bride and groom as well as the invitees.

“For each ceremony, we make available two buses that take the couple and the guests to the mosque, we coordinate with the marriage registrar, and handle photographs and media coverage.”

The association also gives each couple a gift and a trophy and invites public figures to the ceremony.

Ahmed Abul-Houf, from the village of Deir Hanna in Galilee in northern Israel, was one of the first youths to respond to the association’s project and marry in al-Aqsa mosque.

“I wanted my love for al-Aqsa and my solidarity with its cause to turn from words into action,” he told AlArabiya. “I married there to take part in protecting the mosque.”

It's funny; I never saw any Jewish groups that needed to pay for the cost of the many bar mitzvahs at the Kotel. Somehow, people want to do it on their own without being bribed.

This is just more proof that the supposed holiness of the Al Aqsa mosque is derived more from politics than religion. One can be certain that there were few if any, marriage ceremonies there from 1948 to 1967.

Two unlikely stories

From YNet:

Alber Halul, who was stabbed Saturday night by a group of masked men he claims are haredim, recounted the attack Sunday. "They threatened to shoot us if we resisted and stabbed me 10 times – in my head, my leg, and my neck," he told Ynet.

Halul, a 22-year old Christian Arab from the Galilee town of Gush Halav, was assaulted while with a group of friends at Ein Zeitim forest, near Safed.

"At around 12:30 five masked drove up in a Nissan jeep and began driving in circles near us. Then they left and came back with another vehicle, and came closer," he recalled from his hospital bed.

"They threw stun grenades and fired in the air. Then eight masked men got out of the car and began to attack us. The guys I was with ran away but I stayed to protect a girl who was with us. They stabbed me 10 times in my head, my leg, and my neck until they hit me hard and I fell to the ground."

Halul says he knows the men were ultra-Orthodox Jews although they wore masks. "While they were attacking us one of the said that if we dared to resist they'll shoot us and we knew from their accent and their clothes that they were ultra-Orthodox," he said.

It wasn't the first time the 22-year old was attacked due to his race. "I won't return to the forest again. The Jews' hatred and racism against us has reached a point of real violence that threatens our lives," he said.

So let's see what a man who was stabbed ten times looks like:

Yeah.

Also, Palestine Today says that Arab guards on the Temple Mount stopped a Jewish man with a gun from entering the compound via the Mughrabi gate.

Of course, there are Israeli guards there, and no one can bring a gun into the area to begin with because the entire Western Wall perimeter has metal detectors.

The only part of the story that might be true is that the Israeli guards declared the would-be intruder to be drunk - because it happened on Purim.

(h/t Vicious Babushka via Zvi)

Report: Syria importing Hezbollah to quash protests

Israel HaYom (Hebrew) is quoting Syrian opposition groups, saying that Syria is bringing in Hezbollah to help stop the protests spreading throughout the country.

According to the reports, thousands of Hezbollah members have been brought into the epicenter of protests in Daraa, which is now under curfew.

Syria's Al Watan blamed the protests on "Palestinian extremists and members of radical Islamic organizations from the refugee camps in southern Syria."

The Daraa protesters have shattered a statue of former Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad.

There are also reports that the Kurdish minority is starting to protest as well in the northern town of Kamishli.

UPDATE: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is supporting the uprising.

Who wouldn't pay to see the MB fight Hezbollah - for many years? (h/t Silke)

Latest Richard Falk slander: "IDF sexually abuses PalArab kids"

Richard Falk has outdone himself again in his never ending quest to demonize Israel.

His latest report to the UN Human Rights Council includes this passage:

The continued reports of inhumane and degrading treatment, including sexual assault, of children in detention is further deplorable....In the Ariel settlement in the occupied West Bank, children reported that they had been given electric shocks by Israeli interrogators in the settlement. The children, one as young as 14 years of age, were each accused of throwing stones at a settler bypass road in the occupied West Bank. Following the electric shocks, the boys provided their interrogators with confessions, although they maintained their innocence. In May 2010, a 14-year-old boy reported that his interrogator in the Israeli settlement block of Gush Etzion, in the occupied West Bank, attached car battery jump leads to the boy’s genitals and threatened to electrify the cable. After further abuse, the boy confessed to throwing stones, although he maintains his innocence.

The footnotes for these accusations come from DCI-International Palestine where they simply ask children who were detained by Israeli authorities whether they were abused, and the kids happily answer with what the Israel-haters want to hear.

The accusations are so ridiculously lurid and absurd that only people who are already convinced of Israel's pre-determined guilt could possibly believe them.

Hence, Richard Falk quotes them approvingly.

DCI-PS counted some 40 more children killed in Cast Lead than PCHR did. Invariably, any of the children who were known to have been killed while fighting (and even those that PCHR admitted were combatants) their deaths were described by DCI-PS this way: “Despite DCI-Palestine’s best endeavours to collect affidavits from eyewitnesses to [the child’s] death, no reliable evidence could be gathered.”

More evidence of DCI-PS's disregard for the truth comes from their descriptions of the fictional "massacre" in Jenin in 2002, from April 12th and 16th, the second being copied in a separate report to the UN on the 19th after it was already becoming obvious that there was no massacre:

Reports emanating from residents of the Jenin refugee camp indicate hundreds of dead, a significant percentage undoubtedly children, as well as mass destruction of homes, businesses, and vital infrastructure.

With a limited number of journalists finally allowed entry into Jenin refugee camp, the picture of the massacre that occurred there has become increasingly clear. Testimony from survivors of this massacre present a harrowing picture of a bloody military offensive designed to destroy a civilian population and raze Jenin refugee camp to the ground. Survivors estimate that 1/3 of the camp has been completely destroyed. Moreover, eyewitnesses from the camp describe how Israeli soldiers dug mass graves for those killed in an attempt to hide evidence of the massacre. Thousands of residents have been made homeless and are now seeking refuge in neigbouring villages while desperately trying to seek missing family members.

It is estimated that several hundred residents of the camp were killed during the Israeli attack, including a large proportion of children. Video documentation and photographs from the camp are images of horror that no words can ever describe. They overwhelming illustrate the mass destruction wreaked on the camp and its residents. Journalists in the camp are describing that the air is filled with a noxious stench of rotting bodies that remain lying in the street or buried under rubble. There are also reports of summary executions carried out by Israeli soldiers in the centre of the camp.

As far as I can see, DCI-PS never retracted their lurid claims of a massacre in Jenin that killed possibly hundreds of children. And this report also shows how DCI will happily swallow any lies being given to them by "eyewitnesses" who make up stories.

Just like the kids who claimed to be given electric shocks by Israel.

In other words, the group has no compunction about lying, and they certainly would have no hesitation to ask kids released by Israel leading questions to indicate abuse when there was none. It is no surprise that they support BDS and that they do not say a word about Hamas' abuse of children and use of child soldiers.

So DCS-PS is a really great fit for Richard Falk, for whom facts that contradict his beliefs are ignored and for whom absurd rumors that confirm his beliefs are God-given truth.

Real Liberals Love Israel #5: Solar Energy

Entire poster series here.

Iranian site recruiting "martyrdom volunteers" for Bahrain

A website called rahil.ir, based in Iran, is recruiting people to be "martyrdom volunteers" to fight in Bahrain. Presumably this means suicide bombers.

The site helpfully describes the Bahraini government as being "a puppet of the Great Satan America and Israel."

So far, according to the site, 1938 people have pledged to sacrifice their lives for the cause.

It points out how Iran has been supportive of the other Arab revolutions, no matter if the demonstrators were Shi'a or Sunni. For obvious reasons, they don't mention supporting the people who are being shot in Syria.

(h/t O)

I unfortunately had to make this poster a bit taller and skinnier than the others; I prefer to keep things in proportion but I couldn't do that with this wonderful photo.

(photo credit IDF Spokesperson Flickr page)
(h/t David G for the idea)

Arab discrimination against Palestinians: How to fix it

Today is the Arab Mothers' Day.

To commemorate the occasion, hundreds of Egyptian mothers who are married to Palestinian Arab men are demonstrating in Tahrir Square to give Egyptian citizenship to their children.

An Egyptian law passed in 2004 allowed Egyptian mothers to pass their citizenship to their children with foreign spouses - except Palestinians.

The reason given is the usual excuse. As Al Ahram wrote when discussing the law in 2006:

Also, children of Palestinian fathers are not eligible for Egyptian citizenship. While this seems unfair, asserted Diaaeddin, it is in accordance with Arab League Decree 1547 for 1959. The decree calls for the preservation of the Palestinian identity as an integral part of the Palestinian cause, and prevents it from assimilating into the identity of the host country.

The Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court in 2006 ruled that the law should apply to Palestinian Arab fathers as well, but that ruling has been completely ignored by Egyptian authorities.

There is a Facebook page for the mothers in this predicament, called The Ugly Duckling's Sons. The group claims that the law could allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs to become Egyptian citizens, although that number seems to be exaggerated.

This is only one example of the state-supported discrimination against Palestinian Arabs, and Palestinian Arabs alone, in every Arab state.

The mothers' protest shows that the excuse given by every Arab leader - including Palestinian Arab leaders, and even parroted by UNRWA - that Palestinian Arabs do not want to become citizens of their host countries, is a complete lie. When given the opportunity, many if not most of them would jump to gain the equal rights that citizenship affords them.

There is a simple thing that could be done that could help galvanize the world to help these victims of Arab discrimination. It would not cost much and could be done by a private organization.

Commission an independent poll of Palestinian Arabs living in Arab countries, and ask them these simple questions:

Do you feel legally discriminated against in your host country because you are a Palestinian?
Do you feel that the citizens of your host country discriminate against Palestinians?
If you had the option, and if it would not impact your status as a Palestinian, would you want to become a citizen of the country you live in?
If you had the option to become a citizen of your host country but it meant that you would lose your status as a Palestinian, would you still want to become a citizen of your host country?
If given a choice, would you like to move to another Arab country and become a citizen there? If so, which one?
If given a choice, would you prefer to become a citizen of your host country or to move your family to the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas?

Never has anyone dared poll Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia or elsewhere to ask them if they would take advantage of citizenship if it was offered. It is impossible to know how bad the problem is without simply asking them.

Once the poll results are known, assuming that most Palestinian Arabs are like the protesting mothers in Tahrir Square and the poll is done without bias and without governmental pressure, the issue of systematic discrimination against Palestinians in Arab countries can be tackled properly.

Human rights groups like HRW who bend over backwards to pretend that the problem doesn't exist would be forced to acknowledge that there is a problem and that the Arab governments must be pushed to stop their discrimination.

We need to expose the truth. And it would not be that hard; to commission a poll like this can't possibly cost that much money.

For decades, the world has been fed lies about how the Palestinian Arabs feel about their own lives. Isn't it time to simply ask them what they think?

And then shouldn't every Western nation and human rights group mobilize to give Palestinian Arabs the simple human right to become citizens of any Arab country, under the same rules as any other Arab?

Anti-Semitism 2.0 (Mudar Zahran)

From Hudson-NY:

The concept of the "evil Jew" has made a well-disguised comeback: Criticizing Israel and Zionis, is now deemed a legitimate option to cursing Jews and Judaism. Not only is it open, socially acceptable and legal, but it can actually bring prosperity and popularity.

Why would a Palestinian be writing this? The answer is simple: The Palestinians have been used as fuel for the new form of anti-Semitism; this has hurt the Palestinians and exposed them to unprecedented and purposely media-ignored abuse by Arab governments, including some of those who claim love for the Palestinians, yet in fact only bear hatred to Jews. This has resulted in Palestinian cries for justice, equality, freedom and even basic human rights being ignored while the world getting consumed with delegitimizing Israel from either ignorance or malice.

Worse, just as the old form of anti-Semitism has proven itself a threat as poisonous to its supporters, as it was to the Jews, the new form of anti-Semitism 2.0 could prove itself the same -- all the more likely as we see the world tolerating Iran's nuclear ambitions not necessarily out of love for the Mullah's regime, but instead because of mental fixation against Israel.

Such bias against Israel cannot be "accidental" or merely "unfortunate." No other nation has received the amount of scrutinizing, criticism, coverage, demonization and delegitimization. In fact the question to be asked is not whether there is bias against Israel; but rather why there is bias against Israel?

...Media bias against Israel dies not harm only Israelis; it comes at very dear price to us, the Palestinians. In July of 2010, for example, a seasoned journalist Robert Fisk interviewed a group of right-wing ultra-conservative East Bank-Jordanians who were calling on King Abdullah of Jordan to strip the Palestinian majority of their citizenship and property. The group, mostly made up of retired Jordanian servicemen and journalists were also calling for ending the peace treaty with Israel and "establishing it as an enemy state." Despite my attempts to contact Mr. Fisk –-along with another Jordanian-Palestinian journalist---to warn him of the people he was going to meet, he nonetheless, published an article entitled, "Why Is Jordan Occupied by Palestinians?" -- Which was mainly a manifesto for those with whom he had met. They then publicized the article as a global media victory for themselves, and drove the Palestinians of Jordan into even deeper fear for their own safety in a country where they are already oppressed by security agencies; virtually barred from any government or local authority positions, excluded from state universities, despite paying "a university tax", as well as other taxes and tariffs --which their fellow Jordanians of Bedouins heritage are exempted from-- and regularly and openly insulted by the government-run Jordanian media calling for them to be expelled.

The day before Mr. Fisk met with the extremist group, one of their members, a retired intelligence officer now turned writer, published an article calling on the Jordanian intelligence service to "chop off Mudar Zahran's head in the UK without any observance of diplomatic restraints;" would Mr. Fisk have met with an Israeli journalist calling for the Mossad to behead a Palestinian on British soil?

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: A good idea from G:

Entire poster series here.

New poster series idea: Real Liberals Love Israel

An idea I've been kicking around:

My main problem is coming up with appropriate photos. How best to illustrate freedom of the press, or of assembly, or a top-notch justice system? (Diversity is a bit easier.) I want this one to be a positive campaign.

By the way, the New York Jewish Voice published 13 of my posters in their current edition (they apologized to me for not putting my URL anywhere on the page...)

Just a Molotov cocktail

Palestine Today quotes Israeli news as saying that a Molotov cocktail was thrown at an Israeli bus near Qalqilya on Sunday evening. Thankfully, no one was injured.

But this is not an isolated incident. A single well-aimed firebomb could kill many people, and Palestinian Arabs attack Israelis with firebombs a lot.

Yet the English-language media - even the Israeli English media - almost always ignores these attacks.

A quick glance at Hebrew media shows that there were two Molotov cocktails thrown at a soldier post near Rachel's Tomb a couple of weeks ago, and an Egged bus was shot at.

Last Friday, in Silwan, a Molotov cocktail was thrown towards an Israeli officer, and he briefly was set on fire. He is only lightly injured, but supposedly a video of the attack is making the rounds of Palestinian Arab media. (You can see a number of photos here, taken by Reuters but not picked up by any major newspaper that I could find.)

From reading the media, you would think that Palestinian Arabs merely throw small stones in their protests. You never hear about shootings, or firebombs. Yet they happen quite often.

They attempt to immolate and shoot Jews to death. Regularly.

But they don't usually succeed.

The Israeli media is used to this, so to them it is not news. The Western media doesn't care, so they don't allow it to be news.

And scenes like this are all but invisible to the world.

Syria says protesters in Daraa were "Palestinian extremists"

Syrian media is claiming that the instigators of the Dara'a protests on Friday, which resulted in Syrian forces killing a number of demonstrators, were "Palestinian extremists."

Syria's Al Watan writes that

The majority of those who participated in the chaos and devastation were Palestinian extremists...In the capital Damascus, an official Palestinian source confirmed the rejection of the riots triggered by some Palestinians in the Daraa camp, pointing out that the Palestinians in Syria ...will not hesitate to address those who violate security in Syria.

He emphasized that these are outside of the Palestinian consensus and will be prosecuted.

Al Watan attended a meeting that was held yesterday afternoon with all the Palestinian factions and the a delegation went to the Daraa camp with a clear message that any departure from the ["refugee"] camps would be faced by the Palestinian security first without mercy and they confirmed the complete rejection of any acts of sabotage carried out by extremist elements.

There are two UNRWA camps in Daraa.

If the protesters were really Palestinian, then Syria is apparently not the pro-Palestinian Arab paradise it styles itself to be. If they weren't, then it is very notable that Syria wants to blame its Palestinian population for the demonstrations.

Either way, it will take time for the Western media to mention this detail about the deadly protests, because the pro-democracy meme is easy to digest, but Syrians shooting members of its own Palestinian population is a little more complicated and detracts from the idea that Palestinian Arabs' only enemy is Israel.

J-Street Baby-in Chief whines that Netanyahu won't meet him

From Ha'aretz:

Ben-Ami added that although he has asked to meet with Netanyahu during his stay in Israel "to introduce ourselves and explain how we can work together as allies," he was rejected.

"Yet, as you may have read, while the Prime Minister doesn’t have time to meet a movement that now represents over 170,000 pro-Israel, pro-peace supporters, he has time to host Sarah Palin for dinner Monday night," Ben-Ami wrote.

As Yaacov Lozowick points out:

I don't know in what way J-Street represents 170,000 people, and he doesn't explain; nor am I convinced they're all pro-Israel in any recognizable way. So far as I can tell, however, there are tens of millions of pro-Israel people who listen approvingly to much of what Sarah Palin says, and will be eager to hear her tell about her trip, including the meeting she had with Netanyahu.

So who's the numerically-challenged one in the story?

I also have no idea how Ben-Ami came up with 170,000 people who feel that he represents them, but for fun I just compared J-Street's and Elder of Ziyon's traffic.

According to Alexa, J-Street's site is ranked 551,962 of all Internet sites, and Elder of Ziyon is ranked 172,095. (Within the United States, J-Street is slightly ahead of me, 112,217 vs. 118,793. In Israel, J-Street ranks 11,801 and EoZ ranks 2,457.)

I get roughly three times the number of global readers that J-Street does.

So, I guess I have triple the right to visit Binyamin Netanyahu the next time I'm in Israel. Hell, I think he should make a stop to the Elder Manor the next time he comes to the US! I demand a one-on-one meeting!

I really need to learn how to whine better, like Ben-Ami. It could do wonders for my traffic. Maybe Ha'aretz will quote me as well!

I have a piece of advice for Ben-Ami: When the leader of Israel doesn't think you are pro-Israel, perhaps you aren't pro-Israel.