Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Gaza rocket falls in Egypt, injuring a woman

A woman was wounded by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into the Egyptian town of Rafah on Wednesday, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported, as tension simmered in the region after a spate of cross-border violence.

The woman was taken to hospital with light injuries, a security source in the area said.

Another source said it was the first time a rocket from Gaza had landed on a residential area and not in the desert, which was "raising concern among the security forces here".

Al Ahram says the rocket killed cattle as well.

I can't wait for Egypt to threaten diplomatic retaliation against Hamas.

(h/t Dan)

Israel kills another terror leader in Gaza (updated)

Ma'an Arabic reports that Israel finally struck back after the rockets never ceased during the "cease fire."

A drone hit a car, killing Ismail Asmar, an Islamic Jihad leader.

This means that now 12 out of the 15 killed by Israel in Gaza were terrorists, and the three others were human shields. And a 16th, a 13 year old boy, was killed by the terrorists themselves.

Incidentally, the child killed along with another Islamic Jihad leader is eulogized in Palestine Today, as they discuss how much he wanted to kill Jews and be a shahid. He was just turning two years old. How cute!

UPDATE: Here's the car:

St Andrews student guilty of racism in Israel flag incident

In April, I posted about an incident at St. Andrews University where a student acted disgustingly towards an Israeli flag in the presence of its owner in his dorm room.

Here's the followup, from the BBC:

A student at St Andrews University has been found guilty of a racist breach of the peace after he insulted the flag of Israel.

Paul Donnachie, 19, put his hands down his trousers then rubbed them on a flag belonging to Jewish student Chanan Reitblat.

Donnachie also accused Mr Reitblat of being a terrorist during the incident at the halls of residence in March.

The case against his co-accused Samuel Colchester, 20, was found not proven.

Donnachie has been expelled from St Andrews and Mr Colchester has been suspended for one year.

Cupar Sheriff Court had earlier heard evidence from Mr Reitblat, a chemistry student on a one-term exchange from the Jewish Yeshiva University in New York, who said he felt "violated and devastated" by the incident.

The court heard that Donnachie and Mr Colchester entered the halls at 01:30 on 12 March to see another student who shared the flat.

Lithuanian-born Mr Reitblat said he had the 4ft by 3ft (1.2m by 0.9m) flag on the wall after being given it by his brother, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier.

He said Donnachie noticed the flag, and said Israel was a terrorist state and the flag was a terrorist symbol.

He then unbuttoned his trousers, put his hands down his pants, pulled off a pubic hair and rubbed it over the flag.

Mr Reitblat said he then threw the pair out.

Sheriff Charlie Macnair told Donnachie, a history student and member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, that he was satisfied he had behaved the way he had towards the Jewish student because Mr Reitblat was a citizen of the State of Israel.

He said: "This flag was his personal property. I consider that your behaviour did evince malice towards Mr Reitblat because of his presumed membership of Israel.

"I'm satisfied that you said Israel was a terrorist state and the flag was a terrorist symbol and I also hold that you said that Mr Reitblat was a terrorist."

Sentence on Donnachie was deferred for background reports.

Members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who packed the public benches in the courtroom, booed, tutted and shouted "scandalous" as the sheriff rose to leave.

Outside the court, a tearful Donnachie said he would appeal.

He said: "This is a ridiculous conviction. I'm a member of anti-racism campaigns, and I am devastated that as someone who was fought against racism I have been tarnished in this way."

Mr Reitblat, who was also booed as he left the court, said he "welcomed" the conviction.

St Andrew University conducted its own investigation into the incident back in June but reserved its findings to avoid prejudicing the court proceedings.

A spokesman for the university said it had a long tradition of tolerance, respect and the right to freedom of expression, but was also a community which "abhors racial intolerance".

He added: "Mr Donnachie was informed this afternoon that his studies at St Andrews have been terminated and he will leave the university with immediate effect.

"Mr Colchester has been informed that he has been suspended for one year and excluded from university halls of residence. Any further misconduct on his part will lead to automatic termination of studies."

History of earthquakes in Palestine

Just trying to stay topical while the East Coast recovers from a minute of swaying...

64 BC Strong earthquake in Jerusalem; damage to temple and city walls

31 BC Severe earthquake in Galilee and Judea. Josephus reports "30,000 people and many animals killed in Judea"—serious damage at Jericho, Qumran and Masada.

30 AD, 33 AD Slight damage in Jerusalem

115 AD Destructive earthquake in Syria; possible tidal wave damage at Caesarea.

306 AD Destructive earthquake in Palestine; tsunami at Caesarea, destruction at Jerusalem.

363 AD Severe earthquake affecting most of Palestine and Jordan; Severe damage at Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Tiberias, Gadara, Sepphoris, Scythopolis, Sebaste, Gophnia, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Ptolmais, and Petra of the Nabataeans.

419 AD Moderate to severe earthquake in Palestine; Many towns and villages destroyed; Antipatris destroyed; severe damage in Jerusalem.

447 AD Thermal baths at Gadara destroyed; many people killed.

631 or 632 AD Earthquake in Palestine with aftershocks continuing for 30 days; widespread destruction.

749 AD Severe earthquake in Palestine; tens of thousands of deaths. Capernaum destroyed. Susita destroyed. Great destruction in Tiberias. Gadara thermal baths completely destroyed. Severe damage at Pella, Scythopolis and Jerusalem. Many of the greatest buildings in Jerash destroyed. Great destruction at Philadelphia. Tsunami on Mediterranean coast. Seiche in the Dead Sea.

1033 AD Swarm of severe earthquakes centered in the Jordan Valley which continued for some 40 days. Felt from Syria to Egypt and in the Negev. Much damage and loss of life in Ptolmais -- port reported to have gone dry for an hour before onset of destructive tsunami. Much destruction in Judea; damage to walls of Jerusalem; Much destruction at Tiberias. Jericho destroyed. Much damage at Hebron.

1182 AD Galilee and Judea; moderate to severe.

1202 AD Severe earthquake felt from Syria to Egypt. Severe damage in Caesarea Philippi, Scythopolis, Jerusalem, 'Sechem completely ruined', severe tsunami on Levant coast apparently causing serious damage at Ptolmais.

1546 AD Severe earthquake in Palestine; hundreds killed; flow of Jordan river stopped for two days by a landslide; tsunami on Mediterranean coast from Ptolmais south to Gaza. The Mediterranean receded "a long day's walk"; seiche in the Dead Sea.

1759 AD Severe earthquake affecting most of Palestine and Syria; between 10,000 and 40,000 people killed; severe damage at Nazareth; walls of Tiberias collapsed; seiche on the Sea of Galilee; tsunami at Ptolmais flooding city streets to a depth of 2 meters and throwing ships onto the shore.

1837 AD Severe earthquake with epicenter near Safed. Many thousands of deaths with entire towns destroyed. Rockfalls at Caesarea Philippi; 28% of the population of Tiberias killed -- city walls destroyed; seiche swept shores of Sea of Galilee killing many people. Moderate damage at Nazareth, Bethlehem, Hebron and Jerusalem.

1927 AD Destructive earthquake with 250-500 casualties; flow of Jordan river stopped for 21 1/2 hours by landslides; seiches in northern basin of Dead Sea.

1943 AD Strong earthquake throughout Palestine -- 1943 and 1927 earthquakes strongest in region during 20th century.

(from here)

A scholarly paper that looks at evidence of earthquakes using ancient Jewish sources can be seen here. There was one in 92 BCE as well.

The legal wonks that stopped the flotilla (Commentary)

From Alana Goodman at Commentary:

At a radical left-wing coffee shop in Washington, D.C. last month, Code Pink founder and “Freedom Flotilla II” passenger Medea Benjamin woefully recounted the moment she realized her boat, the Audacity of Hope, wouldn’t be legally permitted to leave a port in Greece to sail to Gaza.

“There was something called a ‘complaint’ that was put against our boat,” Benjamin explained to a crowd of anti-Israel activists stuffed into the back room of the restaurant. “Well, it didn’t take long for somebody to uncover that the person, or entity, that lodged the complaint was none other than this right-wing Israeli law center based in Tel Aviv, that knew nothing about our boat and certainly had no interest in the passengers’ safety.”

The “right-wing” law center that caused Benjamin so much grief is Shurat HaDin – the Israeli group that single-handedly took down the “Freedom Flotilla II” simply by filing creative lawsuits. In total, nine out of the 10 boats in the flotilla never touched Israeli waters, largely due to Shurat HaDin’s work.

Led by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and her husband Avi Leitner, the legal center is pioneering a new strategy of Israeli-self defense: Pro-Israel Lawfare.

“There is a way of fighting back, we just have to start thinking like Jews again,” Avi Leitner told me during the Leitners’ recent visit to D.C. “And remember, the Jews invented lawfare, the Jews invented law. So you don’t sit on your hands.”

The first step the legal center took against the flotilla was to target private companies that may have been assisting it. “We thought, what do boats need in order to sail?” Darshan-Leitner told me. “And we realized that all boats must have insurance.” Shurat HaDin began by contacting the major maritime insurance agencies, and informing them they might be criminally liable for “aiding and abetting” a terrorist organization if they provided insurance.

The response was very positive: some of the companies even said they were aware of the legal consequences, and had already made the decision not to work with the flotilla.

...So with Attorney General Holder on notice – and a Neutrality Act lawsuit filed in New York federal court – Shurat HaDin turned its attention toward Greece. The group discovered the country had a Neutrality Act similar to the one in the U.S., and it prohibited boats from leaving Greece to sail to illegal ports, including Gaza.

Shurat HaDin notified the Greek minister of civil protection about the flotilla, and he immediately blocked the ships from leaving Greece.

“The second thing he did was order the port authorities in Greece to raid the boats and to find what’s wrong with each and every boat – to be very, very particular,” said Darshan-Leitner, clearly amused. “And at that point, an additional six or seven boats were grounded. Because they found a lot of [problems] there.”

This was around the time Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin and her fellow flotilla activists finally caught on to the scheme. But by that point, there wasn’t much they could do.

“When the activists found that [the Audacity of Hope ship was] grounded, they came and they did a press conference, blaming us: ‘How dare this lawfare organization use lawfare against our boat,’” said Darshan-Leitner, laughing.

...“It evens the playing field. You can either sit there and moan about it, or you can actually try to do something about it,” said Leitner. “There is a way to fight back, there is a way to get good media, and there is a way to get the world to respect you.”

Egypt bans selling "lulavim" to Israel

From Al Masry al Youm:

Egypt’s Agriculture Ministry has announced a ban on the export of palm leaves to Israel starting this year and for the coming two years, a decision that some news reports have linked with recent violence along the Egyptian border with Israel in the past week.

The decision to ban the sale of Egyptian palm leaves to Israel has been hailed as an act of defiance on the part of the minister of agriculture, Salah Youssef. However, the minster's decision is not aimed entirely at Israel, but includes a ban on harvesting and exporting palm leaves and hearts nationwide, and reflects growing concern at the poor state of Egypt's population of palm trees, which is under pressure from over-harvesting and disease.

The need to protect the trees has been highlighted before but never enacted, most recently on 26 July this year, when the governor of North Sinai called for a ban on exports to Israel.

In 2010, Egypt exported 600,000 palm leaves to Israel, and around 300,000 palm leaves to Europe.

Israelis use the palm leaves in the ritual celebration of a Jewish holiday known as the Feast of Tabernacles.

It's interesting that the minister is using the excuse of "saving the palm trees" when in fact it is obvious that his decision is meant specifically against Israel and Jews worldwide. But when the Northern Sinai governor floated the plan, he didn't mention anything about tree disease.

Egyptian palm trees are mostly grown in the Sinai in the area around El Arish.

The palm harvesters aren't happy. A delegation of palm farmers visited Youssef, demanding compensation for the money they will lose.

Christians use palm leaves on Palm Sunday, but they can substitute other branches when palms aren't available. Jews are obligated to use a palm frond, called a lulav, on the holiday of Sukkot, coming up in October this year.

In other words, this decision is aimed specifically against religious Jews. Not that we can expect any human rights organization to denounce this state-sanctioned anti-semitism.

Egypt's economy must be doing great for them to decide that they can lose yet another source of revenue.

Muslim shop-owner defends himself for selling Israeli dates (updated x2)

This video is great:

An obnoxious British Muslim woman berates a Muslim shop owner in London for selling Israeli dates (alongside Palestinian Arab dates) on Ramadan. He points out, reasonably, that he is offering a choice for his customers and that if no Muslim would buy them he would stop selling them, and if she cared so much about Palestine she should go there and fight. She then causes a scene, he calls the police, and she gets even more hysterical.

(h/t jzaik)

UPDATE: Commenter Right sends us the store details, for those who want to thank him:

Sunfresh
Carlton Terrace
11-13 Green Street, Upton
London, E7

020 8470 3031

UPDATE 2: The owner caved.

(h/t Israellycool)

How to simultaneously adhere to and breach a cease fire

On Sunday night, Palestinian Arab terror groups in Gaza agreed to stop shooting rockets at Israel and Israel agreed to stop retaliating.

Yet there have still been rockets fired, some four rockets last night.

It seems that even though Islamic Jihad, Hamas and even the PRC whose leaders Israel incinerated signed on, one group conveniently refused: the PFLP.

They are now taking sole credit for rocket fire.

So Hamas can claim that it is against rocket fire to make human rights groups happy, and wink at the rogue militants who are so zealous in their hate that they just can't stop themselves. And they know that Israel will be reluctant to respond to comparatively limited rockets if they don't hurt anyone directly, and merely cause a million people to fear going to sleep - which is, after all, what terrorism is.

I have seen no indication that Hamas is trying to stop the rocket fire, while in the past they had - when convenient - arrested members of militant groups who were firing rockets at Israel.

A win-win for Hamas.

Egyptian fatwa: Kill all Israelis in Egypt

From Palestine Today:

An Egyptian cleric issued a fatwa to kill any Israeli who resides within the Egyptian territory, in response to the killing of an officer and two soldiers from the army near the Egyptian border with Israel.

Dr. Salah Sultan, professor of Islamic law at Cairo University and Chairman of the World Federation of Muslim Scholars, told El Chorouk that Egyptians have the right to kill any Zionist attacking him, after Israel ended the Camp David accords by killing Egyptian army soldiers from a military aircraft yesterday.

The newspaper quoted Sultan during a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo as saying that "the Egyptian people will not differentiate anymore between the Egyptian and Palestinian blood."

Do you think he is including the Israeli Arabs who have continued to vacation in Sharm el-Sheikh?

Because if not, then he should clarify his statement and say he only means Jews.

A Jihadist doctor dies in Gaza

From Ma'an:

A Gaza doctor died on Wednesday night after suffering from an electric shock, a spokesman from the emergency services said.

Maher Dalloul, 36, was electrocuted while turning on an electric generator in his house in Gaza City.

Dalloul had worked as a surgeon at Ash-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said.

Just another tragic story from Gaza.

Except for the fact that he was a member of Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades.

From the English Al Qassam website:

Al Qassam Brigades mourns the death of Maher Dalul

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzeddeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy ... Today, Al-Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed: Maher Said Dalul [38 years old]

The Mujahed martyred of electric shock on 18-08-2011. He was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.

Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

Finally, may Allah (swt) accept him and his blessed efforts for the path of Jihad and may Allah grant his family patience and solace for his lose.

Dalul even had a nom de guerre, Abu Anas.

Being a doctor doesn't mean you are not a terrorist or terrorist supporter.

Lebanon thwarts UNSC condemnation of Eilat attacks

From Ya Libnan (Saturday):

Lebanon blocked the U.N. Security Council on Friday from condemning a series of terrorist attacks in Israel.

The United States had circulated a draft press statement to the Security Council that would have condemned the attacks by gunmen who crossed into southern Israel from Egypt on Thursday and killed eight Israelis. Israel blamed an armed Palestinian group from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and launched retaliatory airstrikes.

During a closed council meeting, diplomats said Lebanon refused to sign on to the statement, which requires the support of all 15 council nations.

The U.S. deputy ambassador, Rosemary DiCarlo, told reporters afterward that the statement used “standard language on terrorist acts,” which the council has adopted many times.

“We think the council needs to speak out on this issue,” she said. “We find it regrettable that because of one delegation we couldn’t issue that in a timely way.”

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor called the Security Council’s actions “outrageous,” calling it a “sad reminder that the United Nations is too often deaf and blind when it comes to acts of terror committed against the people of Israel.”

And what was the official reason that Lebanon refused to denounce a terror attack?

Kuwait News Agency tells us:

Lebanon and other Non-Aligned members on the Council, diplomats said, did not accept the use of "terrorist attacks" because the gunmen were after a military target - soldiers.

Hey, why should the truth enter into any UN decisions? It just gets in the way of its main job of condemning Israel.

And isn't it comforting to know that Hezbollah has full veto power at the UN Security Council?

(h/t Israel HaYom)

UN report proves Gazans lie to media

In my last post, I wrote that Ma'an credulously quoted a Gaza doctor who said that Israel was using new, advanced weapons that incinerated Gaza victims in a much more horrific fashion than in previous raids. As "proof," the doctor said "Israeli weapons made no distinction between women, children and the elderly, pointing out that a two-year-old toddler and a 13-year-old boy were among those killed in the latest escalation."

A UN report from OCHA shows that this 13 year old boy was killed by a Grad terror rocket that fell short, not Israeli fire:

Between Friday, 19 August and Sunday, 21 August, initial reports indicate that the Israeli Air Force carried out approximately 30 air strikes on the Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of seven Palestinians, and the injury of approximately 30 additional Palestinians. Tank fire from Israel forces stationed along the border and at sea was also reported, without casualty or damage. During the same period, tens of rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian armed groups towards cities in southern Israel resulted in the death of one Israeli civilian and the injury of six, including a baby and a nine-yearold child. One Palestinian child, 13-years-old, was also killed, and six others injured, when a GRAD rocket fired by Palestinian armed groups fell short.

We've seen in the past that Palestinian Arab "eyewitnesses" will knowingly lie to the media, and this is yet another example. The question is why the media continues to report their lies with no skepticism at all.

Another recent example is Al Jazeera publishing an op-ed by a Gazan "eyewitness" who wrote:

On Thursday, and after a rough night full of Israeli air attacks on different locations in the Gaza Strip, we woke up to another hot Ramadan day which was interrupted by news about a shooting operation in Eilat, whereby five Israeli soldiers were killed and 36 others were injured.

The first obvious lie is that the Eilat attacks didn't kill 5 Israeli soldiers, but rather killed 6 Israeli civilians and two soldiers.

Far worse, though, is that this Gaza "eyewitness" is claiming that there were Israeli airstrikes over Wednesday night in Gaza preceding the terror attack - and there were none! Al Jazeera and other Arab media publish these lies without the slightest bit of embarrassment or interest in setting the record straight.

One other fact that becomes clear from reading the UN report: Israel's reaction to the terror attack was very limited. In fact, while Gaza terrorists shot some 100 Grad and Qassam rockets at Israeli civilians, Israel's response included only 30 airstrikes. Which means that by the bizarre definitions of the world human rights community, Gaza terror groups are guilty of using disproportionate force.

(h/t IsReal1948, Dan)

New, improved, deadlier Israeli weapons! Must be true - Gazans say so!

Ma'an shills a bit:

The head of an emergency ward in a Gaza City hospital said Monday that Israeli forces were using new, more brutal weapons against residents of the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Israeli forces began a four-day bombarded the coastal enclave killing 14 Palestinians and wounding dozens more in a series of airstrikes and drone attacks.

Dr Ayman As-Sahbani said patients were admitted with horrific injuries and that some bodies delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital were so badly burned they were unrecognizable.

He said Israeli weapons made no distinction between women, children and the elderly, pointing out that a two-year-old toddler and a 13-year-old boy were among those killed in the latest escalation.

Does this mean previous Israeli weapons did distinguish between women, children and the elderly?

This is simply a conspiracy theory dressed up in a doctor's clothes. Given that some 11 of the 14 killed in Gaza were in fact terrorists, and the others were human shields, the only point that can be made about Israeli weapons is that they surpassed their previous already-stellar record of avoiding civilians.

We've seen "car swarms" for years, and the bodies were pretty much toast in those cases as well. This doctor is just playing the usual game of trying to blame Israel for war crimes when, in fact, Israel's brief gaz operation was proportional, limited and deadly accurate.

See also this important followup.

YNet: Unknown group "Jihadi Resistance" claims Eilat attacks

From YNet:

An unfamiliar organization calling itself the "Jihadi Resistance" claimed responsibility for the terror attack in south Israel last Thursday, in which eight people were killed.

The organization's spokesperson claimed the operation's aim was to assassinate Defense Minister Ehud Barak, adding that the organization will release a video of the attack in the upcoming days. The report could not be verified.

I could not find any Arabic site mentioning this unless they were quoting Yediot, so I don't know where this original announcement can be found online.

So did this organization call YNet directly?

It would make life much easier if the media sites would give links the way bloggers do. They still act as if they hold a monopoly on information - and how to interpret it.

The new Egypt wonders whether bikinis will be allowed on beaches

Al Masry al Youm reports that nervous Egyptian tourism officials met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood about their plans to encourage tourism should they gain power.

Specifically, they were asking their positions on allowing tourists to drink liquor or wear bikinis on the beach.

Muslim Brotherhood Secretary Dr. Saad Katatni dodged the question about liquor, but he stated that "Egypt is a religious country and wearing bikinis should not be allowed in the public beaches."

However, he said that "there could be an alternative to this kind of question, and perhaps one can wear bathing suits in private beaches."

The tourism officials replied that without wine and bathing suits, there would be no tourism altogether in Egypt.

A follow-up meeting is planned.

It is interesting that the tourism representatives are worried enough about a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt to initiate such a meeting to begin with.

Israel is Xanax for the Arabs (Now Lebanon)

An editorial in Now Lebanon:

The reaction to the investigation into the February 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in general, and in particular the indictments handed down to the four alleged Hezbollah members accused of carrying out the crime, is arguably the most exquisite distillation of the Arab obsession with the conspiracy.

Had there been video footage of Nasrallah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad jointly flicking the detonator switch as Hariri’s motorcade sped past the St. Georges Hotel on that fateful day, we would still believe they were Israeli lookalikes. Israel is our security blanket, our Xanax—call it what you will. We are a people who don’t want to consider any alternative to a safe but ultimately stunting worldview that casts Tel Aviv as the villain. Buying into Israel as the bogeyman is the drug we take to assure ourselves all is well.

When the March 14 coalition demands that Hezbollah surrender its weapons because it wants to move forward and build a country in which the state controls all arms, at best it is accused of hiding behind a clearly naïve argument—one that connects Lebanese security from Israeli attack to the deterrence created by the party’s armed wing—and at worst of being a key pawn in a fiendish Western stratagem to destroy the Resistance.

Anti-Western conspiracy theorists will say that the million Lebanese who took to the streets on March 14, 2005 did not force the Syrian army out of their country; the Americans did. It couldn’t have happened without them. And yet they will have no truck with an argument that suggests that Hezbollah would not be the party it is without Iran. Both are true to a greater or lesser degree, but the latter is perceived as morally stronger because it has Israel in its sights.

The Resistance is a pure, noble and brave institution, committed to Lebanon’s national integrity, ready to defend its southern border from foreign—read: Israeli—infection. The party and its supporters will laugh off suggestions that it is first and foremost a powerful asset in Iran’s regional standoff with Israel and the West. This is nonsense, we are told. It is a theory the West would have us believe, a conspiracy within a conspiracy, if you will. As one NOW Lebanon reader commented last week in defense of Nasrallah and his party, “Hezbollah is our pride, our Honor, and our [sic] Lebanon’s Liberators.” It is a mantra that tells part of the story.

Who needs the rest? Who cares about the decades of Arab authoritarianism, corruption and repression? This is explained away as our chronic condition, our lot in life, one that is somehow easier to deal with if the ever-present specter of Israel hovering in the wings is ready to rush on stage like a pantomime villain. To look inside ourselves would be too painful.

Hamas rips me off!

A few months ago, after Bin Laden was killed, I made a poster:

Now I see that a similar billboard is being put up in Gaza!

A recently erected martyrdom poster honouring Osama Bin Laden and Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin adorns a main street in Rafah near to the Egyptian border on August 21, 2011 in Rafah, Gaza

How dare Hamas take my idea equating two of the most prominent terrorist organizations!

Even worse, how dare they spit in the face of all those oh-so-educated Western Middle East experts who know without a doubt that Hamas is pragmatic and potentially peaceful with Al Qaeda is intransigent and incorrigible!

One more dead terrorist

I have noted and listed the names showing that, according to the PCHR, 10 out of the 13 people killed by the IDF in Gaza since Thursday were terrorists, and the other 3 were human shields who were right with them when they were killed.

Hamas' Al Qassam website claims that 15 were killed by Israel. And they list one Hamas member who was killed, who was not on the PCHR list:

Ashraf Azzam, 31, killed Friday.

So it is possible that the IDF was even more impressive in its accuracy of killing terrorists - 11 out of 14, or 78%, an almost unbelievable number for urban warfare. (If there was a 15th, I cannot find any mention of it.)

Terrorists count up their rocket tallies

The PRC says it shot 101 rockets and mortars towards Israel since Thursday.

Islamic Jihad says it shot 17 Grad rockets, and 9 "107" missiles and 22 mortars to Israel.

Hamas, after initially claiming to have shot a few missiles, reversed itself and now is not claiming any.

The PFLP says it shot 13 rockets and 12 mortars on Saturday and Sunday.

Terror groups have always been proud of their rocket totals.

I'm not certain if the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Fatah fired any.

It looks as if the tallies aren't final yet....two new rockets were fired Monday evening.

When masked jihadists talk - people listen

A photo from Islamic Jihad's press conference yesterday:

Surprise! PA postpones elections again!

PA president-for-life Mahmoud Abbas has just announced that the local elections that were planned for October 22 are being postponed indefinitely.

The reasons? Here's the doubletalk:

To contribute to efforts to end the division and achieve national reconciliation and unity, and support of national and Arab efforts to end the division and achieve reconciliation and unity which are national goals, and provide the atmosphere to achieve this, and to give opportunity to the Central Election Commission to complete readiness for elections in all provinces of the country, and on the powers conferred upon us, and upon the necessities of the higher interest and the public interest.

See? It is in the public interest to delay elections as long as possible. Because, after all, why should the public have a say in who is going to govern them?

And these are only the local elections. Elections to decide the actual leaders of the PA are not even on the drawing board.

Iranian sponsored anti-Israel march in London (updated)

From Iran's PressTV:

Hundreds of British nationals, including Muslims, civil and anti-war activists, and anti-Zionist Jews have taken part in the annual Al-Quds Day demonstration in London.

The demonstrators gathered at Portland Place, outside BBC Radio theatre, to protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Afterwards, demonstrators marched through central London to Trafalgar Square where they listened to speeches addressing the Palestinian issue.

Demonstrators carried Palestinian and Hezbollah flags and various anti-Zionist placards reading “Zionism is racism”, “freedom for Palestine”, “end occupation”, “end the killing”, “end the Israeli Apartheid”, “stop funding genocide”, “right vs. might”, “63 years of occupation must end”, “silence is complicity” and “boycott Israel”.

Moreover, the Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted: “we are all Hezbollah”, “end the occupation now”, “Zionism terrorism”, “we are all Palestinians”.

There are a few videos on YouTube showing the event; here are a couple of screen shots:

Notice the sign above?

I guess MJ Rosenberg is right - they're not trying to delegitimize Israel. They're just trying to destroy it.

(Al Quds Day is an Iranian holiday created by Ayatollah Khomeini. It takes place this coming Friday, the last Friday of Ramadan.)

UPDATE: More from Richard Millett who was there:

Report: Egypt identified three of the Eilat terrorists

From Al Masry al Youm:

Egyptian authorities have identified three of the people responsible for carrying out a terrorist attack in Israel, just north of Eilat, on Thursday, in which seven Israelis were killed, according to an Egyptian security source.

The same source added that one of the men identified is a leader of terrorist cells in Sinai, while another is a fugitive who owns an ammunition factory.

It is unclear whether "identified" means "caught."

Also:

The source also gave details of an attack by Israeli security forces that left three Egyptians dead on Thursday. One army officer and two police officers were killed when an Israeli helicopter crossed the Egyptian border at mark no. 79, fired two missiles and then hovered over the Egyptian checkpoint, firing its machine guns, said the source.

I've seen reports saying that the IDF accidentally killed between 3 and 5 Egyptians.

I have not seen their names. I have not seen any news about their funerals.

I have also not seen the Egyptian press mention any soldier being killed by the terrorists themselves, including by suicide belts, something the Israeli media reported on.

Al Masry al Youm also has an interesting detailed report on the situation in the Sinai:

Ayoub and his followers believe that the security apparatus unwittingly created the threat of Islamists in Sinai, and that it was the same Islamists who suffered under these unlawful and harsh detentions who attacked the police station on 29 July.

While his Salafi group is peaceful, Ayoub says there are others that believe in violence, such as Al-Takfeer wal-Hijra.

When asked about their level of armament, he says, “They are armed, like everywhere else in Egypt, especially after the revolution started.” Ayoub told the media over a week ago that his group was ready to arm 6000 people in Sinai to protect the territory. Many in Sinai view themselves as the guardians of Egypt’s borders from potential Israeli threats.

Khaled Saad, a businessman and secular political activist in Arish, may not have much sympathy for the militant Islamists, but he still doubts that they are tightly organized groups with deep-rooted ideologies. The level of their threat, he says, is somewhat exaggerated.

“There has been a lot of anger at the security practices of the toppled regime, so it became easy for some sheikhs to gather outlaws and smugglers around them so that they become a militia,” Saad says, echoing Ayoub in suggesting that the recent attacks on state institutions are the continuation of a battle that began with the oppression of locals by Mubrak’s security apparatus.

Infiltrations from the Gaza Strip have also raised concerns about a rising Islamist insurgency in Sinai. Palestinian factions competing with Hamas’ control of Gaza are chased out and driven into Sinai by way of tunnels that bypass the tightly controlled border.

“Both Hamas and the military intelligence here in Arish have full information about all groups infiltrating into Egypt from Gaza. No one can expand and form a whole armed movement here, because they are well-tracked,” says a Palestinian living in Arish who requested anonymity.

..Egyptian tanks and armored personnel carriers are currently present at military checkpoints between Arish, Rafah, and the nearby town of Sheikh Zowayed.

The military show of force is part of the Egyptian armed forces’ “Operation Eagle,” a troop mobilization that began on 12 August. The deployment, which is ostensibly in response to terrorism threats, needed to be authorized by Israel, as it technically breaches the peace accords, according to reports in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

The mobilization came a week after a statement from a group advocating for an Islamic emirate in the peninsula and calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula went viral in the Egyptian media. In response, the military said it would “purge” the peninsula. Many people in Sinai voiced their support for the operation, but others raised concerns.

Before the attacks in Israel on 18 August, Egyptian security forces were quick to call the Sinai operation a success. Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal Eddin said at a press conference last week that the campaign has so far managed to arrest members of Al-Takfeer wal-Hijra and collect arms and illegally-acquired military uniforms. The assailants in the 18 August attack in Israel were reportedly wearing Egyptian army uniforms.

Security sources have also told local media that Palestinian members of the militant group Islamic Jihad were among those were arrested, some of whom were previously detained in Egyptian prisons and fled during the chaos of last winter’s uprising.

Local media have also reported on coordination between Hamas and the Egyptian military to monitor the movement of potential infiltrators to Sinai from Gaza through the tunnels, particularly from the Army of Islam and a little-known group Jaljalat. Both claim ties to Al-Qaeda.

Some experts on Islamist movements, such as Khaled al-Berry, suggest that the Army of Islam has loose ties to the Syrian regime, which is currently facing massive protests calling for its downfall.

Berry, who classifies groups like the Army of Islam as not strictly ideologically-motivated and easily employed by political players, warns of possible chaos in Sinai being sponsored by an embattled Syrian regime trying to prove its strategic importance to the region.

But in the end, it appears that the threat came from none of those groups. The attack on southern Israel on Thursday that killed eight people was, according to Israel, perpetrated by insurgents from Palestinian Resistance Committees based in Gaza who infiltrated Sinai through tunnels.

YNet has a report about the Sinai situation as well, but it does not seem to be nearly as in depth as this one.

See also the previous post by Suzanne.

(h/t Yoel)

Egypt and Israel both struggling with Al Qaeda

In the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Southern Israel, many are still wondering who was behind the attacks. Israel believes that the Popular Resistance Committees had a hand in the attacks and retaliated against them. The in Gaza based PRC denies involvement, but the PRC is obviously not only present in Gaza, but also in Egypt:

As the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs points out in an interesting article:

To stop the loosening of the Egyptian grip on Sinai, Israel agreed twice to significant Egyptian troop increases to their force deployment in the peninsula, thus changing the parameters set in the military annex of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty. The latest deployment of more than a thousand troops was made only a few days before the terrorist incursion into Israel and was meant to boost Egypt’s efforts to regain its hold on Sinai. Assessing that the main threat to Egypt’s authority was in northern Sinai, where the gas pipeline splits toward the neighboring countries, Egypt decided to deploy its forces in that area, thus leaving the southern part diluted of forces and open to infiltrations.
However, from day one of the operations against the extremist organizations in northern Sinai, the Egyptian authorities realized to their dismay that the phenomenon is not limited to Sinai but engulfs the whole of Egypt. Islamist cells have been created all over Egypt so as to topple the regime by force. The network of Palestinian organizations in Gaza has already proved to be a threat to Egypt itself. In January 2011 Egypt’s former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, charged that the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamist group Jaish al-Islam was responsible for a New Year’s Eve attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria that left twenty-three Egyptian Christians dead. Jaish al-Islam is an Al-Qaeda affiliate and was formed by members of the Popular Resistance Committees, the organization responsible for last week’s attack within Israel.

The blog also mentions what happened two days before the event on Road 12: Egyptian forces mounted an attack east of the town of el-Arish and revealed:

The members of the group were part of a Takfiri organization, that is, the same organization of Muslim zealots that assassinated President Sadat in 1981, some of whom subsequently joined the Al-Qaeda militants.
The group was trained militarily in Gaza and in the region of Jabal Hilal in central Sinai, which is now the area where most of the fundamentalists fleeing the Egyptian security forces have found refuge. Jabal Hilal has been a notorious base for Al-Qaeda in the recent past and the location of difficult battles between Al-Qaeda and the Egyptian army, in which, in one case, an Egyptian general was killed.
Those militants were part of the groups that sabotaged the gas pipeline to Israel.
The leader of the Palestinians who allied with the Egyptian members of the El-Arish group was a member of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. He managed to reach El-Arish by using one of the underground tunnels. He had been in prison in Egypt but was able to escape to Gaza in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.
The Egyptians associated with the Palestinians were highly educated (one a mechanical engineer, another with a BA in administration) and came from Suez, Alexandria, Qalyoubiah, and Suhaj. The Egyptian security forces were surprised, since this was the first time a Sinai terrorist cell included members from outside of Sinai.
The interrogations revealed that there was a Takfiri presence almost throughout Egypt. El-Arish was a convenient location because it is close to Gaza and Israel, making it easier to obtain weapons.
The group clearly had a theological, jihadist outlook. Basically they wanted to replace the regime by force according to the tenets of Takfir (in which one Muslim declares another an unbeliever) and of the Egyptian Salafist movement.
Most of the Egyptian detainees had been members of fundamentalist organizations for years.
Their main targets were Egyptian security forces (which they viewed as heretic) and strategic installations such as the gas pipeline.

The so-called Arab Spring might be - for the time being - refreshing towards former opponents of the Mubarak regime as they now seem to be able to express their views without fears; it did create an opening towards Islamist actors as legitimate political entities:

The rise of various Islamist factions (...) that are striving for power makes it difficult for jihadists to directly threaten the regime’s stability. Realizing that they cannot (...) confront the Egyptian state head-on, the jihadists are trying to undermine the regime indirectly by exploiting the situation regarding Gaza and Israel and through renewed militancy in Sinai, and also by reviving religious tensions between Copts and Muslims, (...)

And that's a serious reason for concern:

Particularly significant is that the cell captured in El-Arish shows that the Takfiri and jihadist movement in Egypt is very much alive and even gaining more terrain. It can be assessed that the Takfiri militants are either part of Al-Qaeda or working hand in hand with their Al-Qaeda operators.

Indeed, as the The Jerusalem Center concludes:

Only a tight, effective, but mostly tacit partnership between Israel and Egypt can help both parties, each for its own reasons, cooperate in eradicating the fundamentalist cells in Sinai and beyond.

I hope the Egyptians will understand.

PRC spokesman: No truce, but we'll stop rockets

Although there were about 12 rockets overnight after a supposed cease-fire deadline at 9:00 PM, it looks like a shaky truce has started.

Originally the PRC had stated they would not adhere to the cease-fire but after a few parting shots they seem to have changed their mind. From their website:

Abu Ataya, spokesperson of the Nasser Saladin Brigades, military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said that there is no room to talk about a truce with the enemy killing our children....Our account with them is over the soil of all of Palestine.

The Nasser Saladin Brigades Mujahid was able by the grace of Allah Almighty to pound Zionist occupation settlements with rockets that have killed and wounded dozens of Zionists, and which also led to the creation of a state of terror and paralysis of the movement in the south of occupied Palestine that continues.

The military spokesman for Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades said the Brigades announced a temporary halt in rocket fire for the interest of the Palestinian people.

It is important that Westerners see the actual words that these people speak publicly. By the time it gets to the Western media the above statement, if mentioned at all, becomes "The Popular Resistance Committees military wing announced Monday they would adhere to the ceasefire." The seething hate always gets cut out, and over time well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) leftists start to believe that these people are reasonable and can be persuaded to eventually accept Israel's existence.

But isn't it great that the spokesperson for the group talks about how brave they are but refuses to show his face?

UN withholding the Mavi Marmara report again

Oh, come on:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informed Israel Sunday that he was postponing – yet again – the publication of the Palmer Commission report on the Mavi Marmara incident last year, to give both sides additional time to reach an agreement that would obviate the need to release the report.

As was the case the two previous times, the postponement was, according to Israeli officials, requested by Turkey.

The Palmer Commission report, which has already been written, is widely believed to uphold the legality of Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, and its right to intercept vessels trying to break the blockade.

The paper also reportedly takes Israel to task for using disproportionate force in stopping the ship, but does not call on it to apologize for the incident.

Turkey is demanding that Israel apologize for the incident, pay compensation to the families of the nine people killed and lift the blockade of Gaza.

Has the UN ever delayed releasing any other reports at the request of one of the countries that gets blamed within?

As Ha'aretz reported after the report was written in early July:

According to a political source in Jerusalem, the final findings of the Palmer Report show that the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza is legal and is in accordance with international law.

The report also sharply criticizes the Turkish government's behavior in its dealings with the committee. Palmer, an expert on international maritime law, added in the report that Israel’s Turkel commission that investigated the events was professional, independent and unbiased.

His findings on the Turkish committee were less favorable, with Palmer concluding that the Turkish investigation was politically influenced and its work was not professional or independent.

The Palmer Committee also criticizes the IHH organization that organized the Gaza flotilla as well as its ties to the Turkish government, suggesting Turkey did not do enough to stop the flotilla.

On the other hand, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper has suggested that the report will say that the IDF had "intent to kill" people on the ship and that Israel had requested one of the delays of releasing the report.

"It's over, frizz-head" - Details of Qaddafi's fall

Al Arabiya has some details on the dramatic events in Libya:

Jubilant crowds of Libyans gathered in Tripoli’s central Green Square Monday to celebrate a hard-fought victory over the forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, reportedly staying in the Tajura-Cardiac hospital, east of Tripoli.

Rebels and Tripoli residents waving opposition flags and firing into air swept into the square, a symbolic showcase the government had until recently used for mass demonstrations in support of the now embattled Qaddafi. Rebels immediately began calling it Martyrs Square.

The armed brigades of Colonel Qaddafi quickly melted away as rebel forces from the western mountains entered the capital on Sunday to join local rebel groups who rose up against Qaddafi a day earlier.

The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi were not immediately known, but a reporter from Tripoli told Al Arabiya TV that he was being treated in the Tajura-Cardiac hospital, east of Tripoli. There were no reports on whether Colonel Qaddafi was undergoing treatment in the hospital or simply taking refuge the facility.

The reporter said rebels had taken control of most of Tripoli neighborhoods. He added Qaddafi loyalists could not be seen in the city.

Opposition fighters captured his son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son, Mohammad, was under house arrest.

“It’s over, frizz-head,” chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Colonel Qaddafi. The revelers fired shots in the air, clapped and waved the rebels’ tricolor flag. Some set fire to the green flag of Mr. Qaddafi’s regime and shot holes in a poster with the leader’s image.

The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya’s 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Qaddafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles over a matter of hours Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.

When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Mr. Qaddafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Colonel Qaddafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official Fathi Al-Baja told The Associated Press.

Mr. Fathi al-Baja, the head of the rebels’ political committee, said the rebels’ National Transitional Council had been working on the offensive for the past three months, coordinating with NATO and rebels within Tripoli. Sleeper cells were set up in the capital, armed by rebel smugglers. On Thursday and Friday, NATO intensified strikes inside the capital, and on Saturday, the sleeper cells began to rise up.
...
The day’s first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the Qaddafi regime - the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Qaddafi’s son, Khamis. Fighters said they met with little resistance. They were 16 miles from the big prize, Tripoli.

Hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced as they took over the compound filled with eucalyptus trees, raising their tricolor from the front gate and tearing down a large billboard of Qaddafi. From a huge warehouse, they loaded their trucks with hundreds of crates of rockets, artillery shells and large-caliber ammunition.

One group started up a tank, drove it out of the gate, crushing the median of the main highway and driving off toward Tripoli.

The rebels also freed more than 300 prisoners from a regime lockup, most of them arrested during the heavy crackdown on the uprising in towns west of Tripoli. The fighters and the prisoners - many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings - embraced and wept with joy.

“We were sitting in our cells when all of a sudden we heard lots of gunfire and people yelling ‘God is great.’ We didn’t know what was happening, and then we saw rebels running in and saying ‘We’re on your side.’ And they let us out,” said 23-year-old Majid al-Hodeiri. He said he was captured four months ago by Qaddafi’s forces crushing the uprising in his home city of Zawiya. He said he was beaten and tortured while under detention.

From the military base, the convoy sped toward the capital.

Official Palestinian Arab news agency rewrites even recent history

WAFA, the official PA news agency, is known for rewriting history - for example, it has said multiple times that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

But this symbol of the "moderate" Palestinian Authority has no compunctions with lying about recent history either.

Sunday was the anniversary of the attempted firebombing of the Al Aqsa Mosque by a deranged Austrialian Christian named Denis Michael Rohan.

Yet WAFA, in its article about the anniversary, says that Rohan was Jewish. Three times.

When the official news media of the Palestinian Authority has such reckless disregard for the truth, why should anyone believe anything the PA ever says?

Syrian forces cleaning up blood from Latakia camp ahead of UN visit

From Ma'an:

Syrian forces scrambled Saturday to destroy evidence of last week's bloody crackdown in Latakia that killed dozens and sent Palestinian refugees fleeing, activists said as UN investigators arrived in Damascus.

Security forces were seen scrubbing blood off the streets and walls of al-Ramel refugee camp ahead of the cross-agency mission’s anticipated arrival in the port city.

The delegation was dispatched from Geneva in response to a damning report to the Security Council on Syrian leader Bashar Assad's "apparent shoot-to-kill" policy.

More than 60 civilians, mostly Palestinians, have died in Latakia since forces launched an offensive last Sunday, activists say.

On Saturday, regime officials brought television crews to one section of Latakia which had been opened to inspection, rights activists told Ma'an.

Prior to filming, security forces scrubbed off dried, days-old blood from the streets and planted flowers in a bid to present the area as a regular public space.

Assad's "killing machine can wash the blood off the streets but not off its hands," said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for colleagues in Syria.

"The evidence ... is overwhelming and undeniable," he said.

[T]he UN's delegation is not authorized to investigate allegations of war crimes and other serious abuses.

Its mandate is to evaluate humanitarian conditions and draw up plans for resuming public services in the coastal town and six more of the hardest-hit areas across Syria.

In Latakia, meanwhile, UN officials say about 7,500 residents of the refugee camp have not returned due to fears of new attacks. The UN refugee agency has tracked down 6,000 Palestinians who fled.

Many of those who remain missing have been locked into a sprawling stadium complex known as Latakia Sports City, activists say. As many as 4,000 people, mostly Palestinians, are believed to be held there.

Syrian rights advocate Ammar Abdulhamid says he is waiting to see if the prisoners will be moved from the stadium when the UN delegation arrives "because, right now, it is still full."

Sunny afternoon open thread

I'll be traveling for the next few hours, so here's an open thread featuring a prehistoric (1966) video from The Kinks:

A backhanded expression of support for Israel from SF

The San Francisco Jewish Federation put out a press release about the Eilat attacks, that ended up being a subtle insult at the very state they claim to support:

We mourn the loss of life and injuries in Israel in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks this morning. It is reported that Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli bus traveling near Eilat – the first in a series of attacks that reportedly have left seven Israelis dead and dozens injured. Palestinian infiltrators from Gaza struck the Egged bus just after noon today, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Two additional attacks occurred in the same area shortly after the first – roadside bombs detonated as a vehicle drove past and another on Israeli troops, according to Lt.-Col Avital Leibovitch, the IDF’s chief spokesman for the foreign press. Crossfire between IDF forces and a cell of seven terrorists continued three hours after the initial attack, and some injuries have been reported, according to the IDF.

Our hearts go out to our Israeli family, as the Federation remains committed to helping Israel to build a just, civil and inclusive democracy, and stands with the people of Israel at all times.

Does this mean that the SF Federation does not believe that Israel is already a "just, civil and inclusive democracy"? Does this mean that the Federation believes that Israel needs the help of enlightened San Franciscans to teach them about justice, civility and inclusion?

This phrase has a whiff of smugness that does not belong in a statement of unconditional support.

(h/t Ishai)

Iran's ambassador to Syria quits

Very interesting:

Iran has appointed a new ambassador to Syria to replace Ahmad Mousavi, who decided to quit his post amid growing popular protests against President Bashar Al Assad and his rule.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Saturday named Mohammadreza Raouf Sheybani to replace Mr. Mousavi. Mr. Sheybani was the former deputy at the Foreign Ministry’s Islamic Republic Middle East department.

Mr. Moussavi was Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s vice president for legal affairs and a member of the Iranian parliament from the Arab-majority Ahwaz province.

The Kaleme opposition website last week reported that Mr. Mousavi was planning to leave Damascus, amid growing opposition protests against President Assad and his Baathist regime. Syrian authorities were very critical of the ambassador’s decision, Kaleme reported.

“Ahmad Mousavi has made excuses, such as raising the possibility that he may run in Iran's parliamentary election, to explain his sudden departure from Damascus,” the opposition website reported, adding that Mr. Mousavi’s departure was a sign the political situation in Syria was critical.

Keleme quoted an unnamed Syrian diplomat saying that Iranian embassy staff have vacated their homes in Damascus and sent their families back to Iran in fear of the regime’s imminent collapse.

Iran’s support for the crackdown on protesters in Syria has triggered anger against Iranians living in Syria, the diplomat said.

Mr. Mousavi might not want to return to Tehran so quickly.

Reports: Iran cut funding to Hamas

Reuters reports:

Iran has cut back or even stopped its funding of Hamas after the Islamist movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, failed to show public support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said on Sunday.

Hamas has denied that it is in financial crisis but says it faces liquidity problems stemming from inconsistent revenues from tax collection in the Gaza Strip and foreign aid.

The movement is spurned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. It receives undisclosed sums of cash from Iran, which has acknowledged providing financial and political support to Hamas.

One diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said intelligence reports showed that Iran had reduced funding for Hamas.

Other diplomatic sources, also relying on intelligence assessments, said the payments had stopped over the past two months.

The diplomats cited Iran's displeasure over Hamas' refusal to hold rallies in support of Tehran's ally, Assad, in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria after an uprising against his rule. Hamas' leadership outside the Gaza Strip is headquartered in Damascus.

Hamas is also widely believed to receive money from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most popular and organized political force. Diplomats said those payments also may have been reduced because the Brotherhood has diverted funds to support the so-called Arab Spring revolts.

In a sign of a cash crunch, the Hamas government in Gaza has failed to pay the July salaries of its 40,000 employees in the civil service and security forces. Hamas leaders promised full payments in August, but not all employees received their wages as scheduled on Sunday.

If this is true, it is a very nice and unexpected bonus from the Syrian uprising. Syria's regime is left with only two friends, Iran and the Hezbollah-dominated Lebanese government. If Syria should fall it would be a big blow to Iran.

There have been rumors that Hamas is looking to relocate its headquarters to another Arab country (although, as one commenter here noted, isn't it interesting that they aren't trying to relocate to Gaza?)

(h/t Dan)

"Obama" was encoded in yesterday's Haftarah

I was wondering about Artscroll's translation of Isaiah 50:11 זִיקוֹת as "fireworks" since, obviously, there were no such thing as fireworks in Isaiah's day. JTS 1917 translates it as "firebrands."

As I was looking this up, I saw a Christian site note that in that same verse, the word "Obama" (or perhaps Ubama) comes out as the first letter of successive words:

הֵן כֻּלְּכֶם קֹדְחֵי אֵשׁ, מְאַזְּרֵי זִיקוֹת; לְכוּ בְּאוּר אֶשְׁכֶם, וּבְזִיקוֹת בִּעַרְתֶּם--מִיָּדִי הָיְתָה-זֹּאת לָכֶם, לְמַעֲצֵבָה תִּשְׁכָּבוּן.

Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves with firebrands, begone in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of My hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

I can't see any significance in this, and I don't place much importance to such "codes" (especially in Navi) but it was interesting.

Why isn't Israel demanding apologies?

Egypt demanded an apology for Israel's accidental killing of Egyptian soldiers as they were chasing the Eilat terrorists.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak then did apologize, but the Egyptians responded that it was "insufficient."

Yet yesterday, Egyptian security allowed an Egyptian man to climb on the roof of the Israeli embassy, burn the Israeli flag and replace it with an Egyptian flag. The man is being hailed as a hero in Egyptian media.

An embassy is officially the territory of the nation it represents, so this was an explicit breach of Israel's sovereignty that has been cheered by the entire nation of Egypt.

So why doesn't Israel demand an apology from Egypt?

Why isn't Israel demanding an Egyptian investigation of how the terrorists managed to get Egyptian army uniforms, or how they managed to infiltrate into Israel from right next to an Egyptian army post?

Why doesn't Israel take the diplomatic offensive?

Similarly, there has been a lot of news lately about how Turkey is demanding an apology from Israel for the Mavi Marmara incident ahead of the release of the Palmer report. But, according to a number of reports:

The coming Palmer report, investigating the tragic events of the 2010 Gaza flotilla, is expected to harshly criticize Turkey's handling of the sail and its ties to the IHH, but according to Ynet's source, Jerusalem does not intend to propel the report's conclusions into an international media campaign that would "vindicate" Israel.

So why isn't Israel demanding an apology from Turkey for allowing its IHH partner, a terrorist supporting organization, to sail to Gaza and spark a deadly incident?

A demand for an apology always puts the other party on the defensive. So why doesn't Israel play the same game?

Maybe Israel is trying to be sensitive to Arab "honor." Yet somehow Egyptians are not overly upset at the attacks being directed at their own army and police by the Sinai terrorist groups. Their "honor" seems to be very selective - only against those who seem sensitive to it.

It's time that Israel plays Middle East politics by Middle East rules.

10 of the 13 Gazans killed since Thursday were terrorists (updated)

In retaliation for Thursday's terror attack near Eilat, Israel has struck Gaza hard with airstrikes. Yet despite the pro-Hamas and leftist Tweeters claiming that Israel's airstrikes are aimed at Gaza infrastructure and civilians, even according to Arab sources most of them were clearly aimed at terrorists or terrorist infrastructure.

Fully 10 of the 13 killed since Friday were terrorists. From Thursday:

1- Kamal 'Awadh Mohammed al-Nairab (Abu 'Awadh), 43, PRC Secretary General;
2- 'Emad 'Abdul Karim 'Abdul Khaliq Hammad, 40, the leader of Nasser Saladin Brigades;
3- 'Emad al-Din Na'im Sayed Nasser, 46, a member of Nasser Saladin Brigades;
4- Khaled Ibrahim Salman al-Masri, 26, a member of Nasser Saladin Brigades;
5- Khaled Hamad Sha'at, 32, the leader of manufacturing unit of Nasser Saladin Brigades

A child who was with the above targets was killed as well.

From Friday:

6- Mohammed Fayez Mahmoud 'Enaya, 22, from the PRC, on a motorcycle
7- Samed 'Abdul Mo'ti 'Aabed, 25, "activist of the Palestinian resistance" on a motorcycle
8- Anwar Hassan Saleem, 23 and
9- 'Emad Fareed Abu 'Aabda, 23, "activists of the Palestinian resistance" both on a motorcycle (Islamic Jihad)
10- Mo'taz Bassem Quraiqe', 29, a leader of al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jihad)

That last attack also killed Quraiqe's 2 year old son and a physician - who were on the same motorcycle or car with him.

Every single fatality in Gaza has been from airstrikes aimed at terrorists.

No one was killed on Saturday or so far on Sunday in Gaza.

All of this comes from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (Thursday and Friday details).

Ma'an claims 14 have been killed; PCHR has no information on any other deaths though. (Ma'an's editor says that may have been a mistake.)

UPDATE: The 14th victim is seemingly a Hamas terrorist, making it 11 out of 14. Also a 13 year old boy killed that some Palestinian Arab media claim was killed by Israel was in fact killed by a Grad rocket that fell short.

UPDATE 2: A 15th death, from Tuesday night, also an Islamic Jihad terrorist. 12/15.

UPDATE 3: An Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed Wednesday. There were claims of a 65-year old man who was killed by artillery in a field; no witnesses but his body was found in pieces. The IDF said they did not fire any artillery and that all airstrikes on Wednesday registered hits to rocket cells, so I'm not sure how to count him. So for now the tally is: 13 terrorists, 3 human shields, 1 unclear.

Why has no one taken responsibility for Eilat attacks? (updated)

One of the unanswered questions in the Eilat attacks last week is why no one has officially taken responsibility for them?

Israeli intelligence has stated in no uncertain terms that the attacks came from Gaza, and PM Benyamin Netanyahu said that the terrorists who were behind the attack were killed in the retaliatory attack against the Popular Resistance Committees. It seems likely that the IDF shared some of their evidence with Israeli reporters off the record, as a Ha'aretz reporter says all of his sources show that the PRC was responsible.

Yet the PRC has denied that they were responsible. It is somewhat unusual for terrorist organizations not to race to take responsibility - on the contrary in the past we've seen multiple organizations claim responsibility for attacks even when they weren't involved.

The Israeli government would not make an explicit and specific statement without some proof. It is likely that the terrorists that were killed during the Eilat attack carried documentation that showed who they were or what group they were from, evidence that cannot be made public without compromising security.

(The conspiracy theorists can harp about how the GOI and IDF always lie and how this was an excuse to attack Gaza, but from watching their statements over the years the number of statements that they made that ended up not being true is quite small, and as far as I can tell, always a result of being pressured to make a statement before all the facts are in. And, yes, I saw the IDF spokesperson's incompetent interview.)

So why didn't the PRC claim responsibility?

The PRC has worked in the past with Hamas on terror attacks, but its main patron is Iran via Hezbollah. Its logo is even consciously based on the Hezbollah logo.

IDF sources have stated that the attacks seem to have not been meant just to kill Israelis, but to kidnap an IDF soldier.

It seems likely that this is the case. Among the terror groups in Gaza, straight terror attacks against civilians has gone out of fashion due to embarrassment as these attacks go not get any sympathy from the world anymore. Since the beginning of Cast Lead, Hamas has been disingenuously claiming to only target soldiers, and the massacre of the Fogels in Itamar in March was not widely praised even by Palestinian Arabs.

In other words, the operation in Eilat was a failure.

It would have been worth it if they had managed to kidnap a soldier as they planned, because that success would have boosted the PRC stock a great deal. That success would even outweigh the chances that Israel would invade Gaza, because in the end - to them - a prisoner is worth a thousand terrorists in Israeli jails.

It seems likely that Hezbollah would have had a hand in planning and facilitating this operation. After all, although people don't remember this, months before the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers that sparked the 2006 Lebanon war Hassan Nasrallah had promised that "We are working on making this year the year to free our brothers in Israeli detention, Samir Kantar and his friends..." The kidnapping of Eldad regev and Ehud Goldwasser was planned for months specifically to engineer a release of Kntar and others. And Hezbollah planned to do more such kidnappings. This is Hezbollah's way of thinking, and from its perspective, it has worked beautifully.

The reason that the PRC refuses to admit responsibility is because it has nothing to gain by bragging about a failed operation that would end up alienating the PRC from among other Gaza terror groups who know they will pay the price of any Israeli retaliation. But if they had succeeded in kidnapping a soldier, they would be heroes, and Hamas would be the first to praise - and protect - them.

UPDATE: Zvi in the comments makes another good point: The terrorists killed a number of Egyptian soldiers, and that screw-up is worse than failing to kidnap IDF soldiers. If they take credit for the operation then they risk the wrath of the entire nation of Egypt. Read his whole analysis.

Hezbollah releases statement praising terrorist attack

From Al Manar:

Hezbollah “greets the heroic operation carried out by fighters in the Palestinian region of Om Rashrash (Eilat), which resulted in scores of casualties among the Zionist enemy soldiers and settlers.”

In a statement issued Friday, Hezbollah “expressed pride for the hero fighters who accomplished the operation, regardless of the party they belong to,” while considering what they did as the sole means “through which the enemy can understand that this land is ours and it cannot occupy it forever.”

“This operation is in the framework of the resistant actions which achieve the Arab and Islamic will; the will that considers the whole of Palestine – from sea to river – as a sacred land which belongs to its real owners, and none of its parts can be relinquished to the usurped Zionist enemy,” the statement added.

Just in case you were unclear on how some Arabs define "occupation."

It's also interesting that Hezbollah - which has very few Palestinian members - considers all of Israel to be "theirs." Does this mean that Hezbollah subscribes to the idea of Greater Syria?

It's Friday - time for another Syrian massacre

From Al Arabiya:

Syrian forces shot dead at least 14 people when they opened fire to break up anti-regime demonstrations that flared across the country after the weekly prayers, activists told AFP.

Ten people, including two children, were killed in separate shootings on protesters in the southern province of Daraa, while three were killed in the central city of Homs and one in a Damascus suburb, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The shootings come a day after President Bashar Al Assad told the UN chief Ban Ki-moon that his security forces ended operations against civilians.

The number of dead is now at 22.

Lebanese Palestinians don't care about statehood - they want their rights

Now Lebanon interviews Palestinian Arabs about the September UN statehood stunt:

In Lebanon, at least among the Palestinian populations living in Sabra, Shatila and Ain al-Hilweh, the potentially historic moment does not appear to have caused much of a stir.

“We are hopeful,” said Nawad, a nurse at a clinic near the entrance to the Shatila camp on the outskirts of Beirut. “But I don’t hear the issue discussed around the camp.”

Indeed, around a quarter of respondents were unaware of the bid or knew only the scantest of details.

Among those familiar with the plan, their greatest concern was over the effect recognition of the State of Palestine would have on their status as refugees in Lebanon.

“I hope the law will give us the right to work and to buy property in Lebanon like other nationalities,” said Nawad.

“I have business in Syria but have to return to Lebanon every seven days with the pass I have. Will [UN membership] help with the bureaucratic hassle?” asked 34-year-old Sabra resident Saleh.

As I have documented many times, Lebanese Palestinians' main concern is that the state-sanctioned discrimination that is directed at them specifically be ended. This is something that Mahmoud Abbas is fighting against.

These were the only normal Palestinian Arabs that were interviewed. Among the self-appointed "leaders," their concerns were way out of sync with what their people care about:

According to Mounir Maqdah, a Fatah official in Ain al-Hilweh, Abbas’ diplomatic course undermines the Palestinian cause. After criticizing the bid for failing to tackle the issue of Israeli settlements and for not accounting for the territory occupied by Israel, he told NOW Lebanon that Palestinians should remain united and “regain our power by choosing once again the path of resistance. Only a military solution will be considered as a credible one and put fear in the hearts of Israelis.”

Hajj Maher Oueid, head of Ansar Allah, an Islamic faction close to Hezbollah, is more measured in his criticism. He believes the bid lacks in ambition and will probably remain fruitless, as it only calls for the recognition of the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. “The bid does not tackle the real underlying problem of the right of return of Palestinian refugees, amounting today to some six million around the world,” he told NOW Lebanon. “A fair solution is one that is comprehensive and benefits all Palestinian refugees. This one is not.

Isn't it interesting that the leaders' concerns are centered on destroying Israel while the actual Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon just want to live their lives without being discriminated against?