Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 12, 2011

Turkey sending boats to confront Israel? Plus, Israeli band in Turkey

The Turkish Navy is planning to dispatch three frigates to the Eastern Mediterranean to ensure freedom of navigation and to confront Israeli warships if necessary, a Turkish news report said on Monday.

The Turkish frigates, to be dispatched by the Navy's Southern Sea Area Command, will provide protection to civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, blockaded by Israel since 2007, the Turkish daily Sabah reported. If the Turkish warships encounter an Israeli military ship outside Israel's 12-mile territorial waters, they will advance up to 100 meters close to the ship and disable its weapon system, in a confrontation that resembles dogfights in the Aegean Sea with Greek jet fighters, according to the report.

The report comes days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkish warships will escort civilian aid ships headed to Gaza to prevent a repetition of last year's Israeli raid on a Turkish-owned ship that killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American, setting the stage for a potential naval confrontation with its former ally.

The Jerusalem Post picked up on this as well.

This report does not ring true.

First of all, Turkey has somewhat distanced itself from the warlike remarks Erdogan gave last week about accompanying humanitarian aid vessels to Gaza with warships:

According to official sources in Turkey, reporters artificially combined two different remarks made by the Turkish prime minister, creating one sentence perceived as a threat of a military clash in high seas.

The new version, sent to the media from Erdogan's office, attempts to clarify the statement.

"We stressed the principle that we will ensure the safe movement of Gaza's aid vessel," said a senior Turkish government source. "The eastern Mediterranean Sea is not Israel's private playground. As long as it avoids intervening in the freedom of movement in the region, we won't send any warships to escort the vessels."

The source dismissed the published quotes as a bad translation which failed to understand Erdogan's intention. "It appeared as if we were offering to have warships escort every aid vessel. This is not true. Turkey will defend the rights of its citizens only when Israel chooses to intervene and prevent free movement in international waters."

Secondly, what humanitarian aid ship? No one announced any aid ship I am aware of.

I don't know the political affiliation or editorial stance of the Sabah newspaper, but given the testosterone-driven culture of Turkey is seems pretty easy to imagine the media prodding the government towards war and inflaming the masses. In some ways, the Turkish media may be a bigger issue than the statements coming from the government, which still appear to be more bluster and posturing.

Until there is confirmation, I think that jumping on this story as fact is premature - and might play into the hands of warmongers.

Meanwhile, the English version of Sabah reported Israeli heavy meta band Orphaned Land performed last night in Istanbul:

Israeli heavy metal is rocking Turkey despite deep discord between the Jewish state and its Muslim former ally as hundreds of fans turned out to hear a group called Orphaned Land play a concert in Istanbul.

The group played to Turkish fans and others who came from countries across the Arab world on Saturday. Because the Israeli musicians can't enter many Arab states, they perform several times a year in Turkey, a hub for their fans.
...
The group initiated a brand of music it called "Jewish-Muslim metal" that is derived from heavy metal. Many of the band's songs include prayer lyrics from Jewish liturgy, the Koran and other religious texts.

Farhi said there are hundreds of groups who play a similar genre operating out of sight of the authorities, mainly in more moderate Arab countries. Later this year Orphaned Land will tour Europe with metal bands from Algeria and Tunisia, he said.

The group is also considering holding a concert in Egypt after a Facebook poll showed that 83 percent of their fans said they should.

In Istanbul on Saturday, Orphaned Land's fans were not disappointed. Some came all the way from Iran and Lebanon, waving their national flags.

"Music doesn't recognize closed doors. Once again, this has proven to be true. I believe all people here are supporting them and their performance is really good," one Turkish fan told Reuters.

"It takes courage to do what they are doing, coming here and performing for us. We will always be here with them and sing with them," another said.

(h/t Yoel)

UN: Syrian death toll at 2600

From YNet:

The United Nations' top human rights official says the death toll from six months of unrest in Syria has reached at least 2,600.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the figure is based on "reliable sources on the ground."

Meanwhile, Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to President Bashar Assad, said that a total of 1,400 people have died in the unrest: 700 opposition activists and 700 police dead.

Pillay spoke Monday at the opening of a three-week meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Meanwhile, France spoke up:

Alain Juppe, France's foreign minister, has stepped up pressure on veto-wielding Russia to support a UN Security Council resolution against the Syrian government's violent crackdown on protests.

Speaking during a visit to Australia on Sunday, Juppe said the UN's failure to condemn the actions of Syrian security forces against anti-government protesters was a "scandal".

He said that France and Russia remained divided over Syria after talks between French and other foreign ministers in Moscow last week.

"We think the regime has lost its legitimacy, that it's too late to implement a programme of reform," Juppe told reporters.

"Now we should adopt in New York the resolution condemning the violence and supporting the dialogue with the opposition," he said.

"It's a scandal not to have a clearer position of the UN on such a terrible crisis".

About 18 more were killed over the weekend.

World Bank: Cash crisis threatens PalArab state; it's Israel's fault (updated)

The World Bank came out with a report saying that the current financial crisis in the PA, the result of world donors not paying up their pledges, is really Israel's fault. Here's the executive summary:

The September 2011 meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee coincides with the completion the Palestinian Authority’s ambitious two-year program “Palestine: Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State”, presented on August 25, 2009. There has been substantial progress in implementing the program’s goals and policies, centering on the objective of building strong state institutions. However, the onset of an acute fiscal crisis, accompanied by declining economic growth, may undermine the promise of these institution-building achievements.

In areas where government effectiveness matters most – security and justice; revenue and expenditure management; economic development; and service delivery – Palestinian public institutions compare favorably to other countries in the region and beyond. These institutions have played a crucial role in enabling the positive economic growth in the West Bank and Gaza in recent years.

Though significant, this growth has been unsustainable, driven primarily by donor aid rather than a rebounding private sector, which remains stifled by Israeli restrictions on access to natural resources and markets. Under these conditions, lower-than-expected aid flows in the first half of 2011 had an immediate impact on the Palestinian economy. Real GDP growth, steadily increasing in 2009-2010 and previously projected to reach 10 percent in 2011, is now expected to be 5 percent. The shortfall in external financial support in the first half of 2011 has also contributed to the current fiscal crisis facing the Palestinian Authority.

The situation underscores the interdependence of institution-building and sustainable economic growth in laying the economic underpinnings of a future state. To date, the Palestinian Authority has continued to implement its reform agenda, but a protracted fiscal crisis risks jeopardizing the gains in institution-building made painstakingly over the past years.

Ultimately, in order for the Palestinian Authority to sustain the reform momentum and its achievements in institution-building, remaining Israeli restrictions must be lifted. The resulting revival of the private sector can be expected to grow the tax base and gradually reduce dependence on external assistance. Until then, however, West Bank and Gaza will remain vulnerable to reductions in aid flow, and these will need to be managed carefully.

I don't know specifically what restrictions Israel has still puts on the Palestinian Arab private sector. Certainly, the current government has done more to encourage the Palestinian Arab private sector to grow than any other. It is PA policy that makes so many dependent on government jobs. The World Bank is silent.

Israel exports Palestinian Arab agricultural goods to Europe. Boycotters specifically target these goods. The World Bank is silent.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs work in Israel or for Israelis in Judea and Samaria. The PA has been trying to stop them from holding on to the jobs near their homes without providing any alternative. The World Bank is silent.

One reason the private sector cannot thrive is because the Palestinian Arab economy is dependent on NGO money where workers get much better salaries writing anti-Israel reports rather than doing productive work. The World Bank is silent.

There is nothing Israel could possibly do to stop the PA from pushing internet-based goods and services as a cornerstone of a private sector that is not tied to any geographic or export restrictions that may exist. Yet they have done nothing to build a 21st century economy. The World Bank is silent.

The donor nations that have not fulfilled their pledges are all Arab nations who apparently have gotten sick and tired of the Palestinian Authority refusing to talk with Israel and move forward, even though they cannot say so publicly. So they are saying so with their wallets. The World Bank is silent.

Even before this year's shortfall in donor aid, the PA was refusing to pay contractors for work they had done. The World Bank is silent.

The memo somehow gives credit to the Palestinian Authority for the economic growth in Gaza, even though their entire contribution there is to spend some 60% of their budget to Gaza where their workers are paid to do nothing while Hamas runs the entire sector. The World Bank is silent.

In fact, it is inconceivable that the memo does not mention the biggest obstacle to having an independent Palestinian Arab state - the fact that much of that state has a separate and hostile terrorist government. The World Bank is silent.

The earlier World Bank study that praises the PA's institution building has been heavily criticized with many specific examples showing that the PA was not doing nearly as much as they claim. The World Bank is silent.

No, the World Bank chooses to ignore all of these facts and blame Israel alone for the serious problems with the Palestinian Authority and the economy in the territories. Now, why might that be?

Update: Challah Hu Akbar found the entire report; I had originally thought that the executive summary was all the WB released.

The report is stunning in how it ignores Hamas, and (when it is convenient) how it ignores Gaza altogether. When it wants to blame Israel for problems, it brings up Gaza; when it wants to praise the PA (security, justice, institution building), all of a sudden its statistics ignore Gaza where 40% of Palestinian Arabs live. The report simply does not acknowledge that Gaza is run by a different government. Amazing.

Morning links

The first hero of 9/11 was an Israeli (YNet video)

Netanyahu's speech yesterday on 9/11 (video, speech starts at 4:00)

Asaf Romirowsky on The UNRWA Anomaly

Why the Muslim beard bodes trouble (MEF)

I'm getting lots of hits from the Ben Dror Yemini piece in Maariv (Hebrew)

New political ads from Not Pro-Israel

Belgian trade show manager denies that he dis-invited Israeli ambassador (story here)

(h/t Richie Miller, Noah, Yerushalimey, Rudi)

Overnight open thread

9/11 is always a tough day.

Send in the clowns: Durban III counter-protest September 22

From HaOlam:

A StandWithUs-sponsored “circus” will expose the shocking hypocrisy of the United Nations when the UN puts on its third “Durban conference” against racism on September 22 in New York City. The circus and clowns StandWithUs is sponsoring will appear in front of UN headquarters on Sept. 22 from noon until 2 PM, just when the three-ring circus known as the Durban III conference is under way. Leading democratic nations have severely denounced the previous two Durban conferences, held in 2001 and 2009, for demonizing Israel and for flagrant anti-Semitism.

“One good way to counter the Durban conference’s hypocritical travesty of human rights is with parody. Sometimes humor reveals the deepest truths. There is no possible rational response to the Durban conference’s perverse distortions. They are too divorced from any reality. In fact, they turn reality upside down. We plan to fight the UN ‘clowns’ with actual clowns that expose their hypocrisy and perversity,” explained Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs.

Durban I, the first conference against “racism, xenophobia, and other forms of intolerance,” held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa, was a travesty of its stated goals that shocked the world’s democracies. The conference turned into an anti-Semitic hatefest that singled out democratic, multicultural Israel as the most racist country in the world, while ignoring discrimination and human rights crimes rampant in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere in the world. The conference allegedly against racism had turned into a hotbed of racism. Canada, the U.S., and Israel walked out of the conference and condemned Durban I for fomenting the world’s oldest racism, anti-Semitism.

Indifferent to these widespread denunciations of Durban I, the UN attempted to reaffirm the Durban I declaration in a second conference in 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. ...

At the demonstration in New York, clowns will wear Ahmadinejad masks and hold balloons that correctly label Durban III as a forum for hypocrisy, racism, and lies.

“The balloons are symbolic but accurate. The Durban conferences cast all decent values to the winds. Hopefully, our demonstration will encourage the world to demand that the UN finally live up to its original ideals,” concluded Rothstein.

You can join the protest yourself; just show up in a clown costume!

StandWithUs is a partner of EoZ.

Zionist pigs return to torture Palestinian Arab farmers!

It's been over a year since the last story about Zionist-bred and trained wild boars attacking poor Palestinian Arab farmers - but the Zionist Pigs are back!

Farmers say Israeli settlers unleashed pigs overnight Saturday to destroy their land in Salfit in the northern West Bank.

Farmers told Ma'an that the pigs destroyed a fence and broke branches of fig trees. They said they were afraid to remain on their land and appealed for help to protect their property.

This has been a recurring theme since at least 2007.

Ma'an used to routinely report the accusations that the Jews of Judea and Samaria were raising these pigs and releasing them to only attack Arab crops, often during prayer times, spreading swine flu, while leaving Jewish agriculture alone.

At least now they are reporting it as "farmers say" than as fact.

British Muslims burn American flag outside US embassy for 9/11

From The Telegraph:

A number of radical Islamic groups including Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) gathered outside the embassy on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The group of around 100 men shouted "USA terrorists", brandished anti-American placards and chanted through a loudhailer.

Several members of the Muslim groups made anti-American speeches following the flag burning. One said: "You will always face suffering, you will always face humiliation, unless you withdraw your troops from Muslim lands."

Another declared that America had been "defeated in Iraq and defeated in Afghanistan".

However, a small opposing group of Muslims - some of whom had travelled hundreds of miles to rebut the extremists - staged a counter-demonstration nearby, holding up placards reading "Muslims Against Extremism" and "If You Want Sharia, Move To Saudi".

(h/t SSR)

Anti-Israel group encourages lying to security at Ben Gurion Airport

The Middle East Fellowship and Holy Land Trust have a booklet where they describe, among other things, how anti-Israel activists should act when they try to enter and leave Israel. It also describes Palestinian Arab bigotry against Westerners, women and Jews, but it contextualizes and minimizes it. Here are some of the interesting parts:

Palestinians are very traditional when it comes to romantic relationships. We urge you to refrain from romantic relations with Palestinians or members of the program for the duration of your stay in Palestine.

Safety

Israel and Palestine have admittedly had a bad international profile when it comes to danger from within the country. Stories of bombings, shootings, demonstrations and uprisings are common enough through the images we see in the media. As a result many would-be visitors stay away from the region. The reality is much different from the perceptions that are manufactured on most media outlets.

Traveling within Palestine and Israel is essentially a safe venture. Bethlehem, where the summer program will take place, is a relatively safe place to reside in comparison to other parts of the West Bank. With the Holy Land Trust staff ’s presence on the ground, traveling in and around Bethlehem can be very comfortable.

Visitors are never deliberately targeted within Palestinian areas in the West Bank. Many travelers frequent the West Bank throughout the year and rarely experience anything that suggests violent backlash. To avoid scrupulous attention from Israeli security and Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF), avoid wearing Palestinian keffiyahs in Jewish areas and, conversely, do not wear a Jewish kippa or other Jewish items of clothing in Palestinian areas. Use your common sense when traveling and stay safe.

Do Not Pack:

Any explicit materials about your travel plans or itinerary in the West Bank (including this orientation packet).

Materials that could be seen as inflammatory by Israeli security forces if they search your bags.

Addresses of friends, family or others in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Objects that are restricted by Israeli or airport security.

Female Travelers. Middle Easterners are generally conservative, especially about matters concerning sex and women. It is very important that female visitors make an attempt to be sensitive to local cultural norms. This does not necessarily mean that women are treated with disrespect, but expectations about how women should dress and behave in the Middle East differ from many Western countries. Unfortunately, some Middle Eastern men have a twisted view of Western women. Western movies and TV give them the impression that all Western women are promiscuous and will jump into bed at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t actually take much on your part to perpetuate this belief– bare shoulders or shorts on a woman are “proof ” enough, as well as, a little flirtation or even simple friendliness can quickly be misconstrued as something more.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Western women travelers are guaranteed to be free of harassment if they dress modestly or conduct themselves in a businesslike manner. Prepare yourself for little things to avoid harassment: for instance, we recommend female travelers not to sit in the front seat of a taxi. This might sound trite, but it can prevent a very uncomfortable moment. Politely but firmly turn down whispered invitations and completely ignore come-ons. Accepting the minimum of attention will usually invite more. If ignoring come-ons doesn’t work and the attention starts to get out of hand, seek out a person of authority, or a local woman if possible, to intervene on your behalf. Usually the specter of community shame is enough to put someone back in line.

...Needless to say, many Palestinians have had traumatic experiences with Israeli settlers and soldiers. Because many believe that Israel’s current military policies are supported by all or most Jews, you may, unfortunately, hear the terms “Jew,” “Zionist,” and “Israeli” used interchangeably.

Entry Approaches

Limit Information. By limiting information, you are just a tourist who stayed at a hotel or with friends or hostel within Israel; who didn’t or doesn’t plan to meet with Palestinians, didn’t participate in our summer program in Bethlehem. Use this entry approach and your chances of getting through airport security will be higher and smoother, but never guaranteed.

Some things to keep in mind in using this approach:

You are not indicating that you are participating in Palestine Summer Encounter.

You are not mentioning either the Holy Land Trust or Middle East Fellowship organizations.

You are not indicating that you plan on traveling to the West Bank or Gaza.

You have not packed anything that could label you a “Palestinian sympathizer,” in case you are singled out for a search.

You have prepared a story for why you chose to travel to just Israel and you have contact information and material to support that story.

We often suggest people to “limit information” but the decision and what you feel comfortable with is ultimately yours.

The booklet also talks about how to go to the media afterwards with everything the activists have learned about how awful Israel is - and presumably not to discuss any sexual advances or bigoted statements made by Arabs.

(h/t Anne)

Arabic media is reporting that Jordanian groups plan to copy what happened in Egypt and break into and close down the Israel embassy in Amman, Jordan this Thursday evening.

The Facebook invite page already has a thousand people who say they will attend.

It appears that this is being organized by the Islamic Action Front, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is obliquely warning that any actions by Jordanian authorities to stop them will indicate their collusion with the hated Zionists and will result in their fall.

YNet adds:

Meanwhile, the official Egyptian news agency reported that Israel's embassy in Jordan was reinforcing security measures. Eye-witnesses claimed that they saw armored vehicles and a large number of security forces on the streets leading to the embassy.

(h/t Dan)

Details on the Egyptian riot: Embassy breached, journalists brutally attacked

Al Ahram reports that the Egyptian mob did manage to penetrate the Israel embassy and steal sensitive files:

As I could not see exactly what was happening near that entrance because of crowd numbers, I had to rely on reports from those closer to the building to find out what happened then. Most reports confirmed that an army officer or two in charge of the unit did very little to stop the crowds.

I was able to confirm later that 100-200 people occupied the building and that tens managed to break into the embassy.

Suddenly, around 9pm or so, a small unit of Central Security Forces (CSF), the notorious Egyptian riot police, showed up in the area but did not head towards protesters and instead, made its way 50 metres away from the crowd, leaving soldiers in full riot gear to block the entrance of the Saudi Embassy just around the corner.

At this point, hundreds of young people clashed with riot police up and down the Saudi Embassy side street for about half an hour. Protesters most likely set ablaze two CSF trucks, while a couple of trees also caught fire.

Some walked back from the fresh clashes with several "Made in USA" canisters of tear gas that they snatched from soldiers, and displayed them to the larger crowds.

As a firetruck worked to put out the fire on the Saudi street, CSF soldiers disappeared from the scene and things seemed to calm down in that part of the arena.

Suddenly, at around 10pm or 10:30pm, the skies filled up to a saturation point with thousands of 8” by 11” sheets of paper coming down from the top of the embassy building.

As the papers made their way down slowly onto the pavement, the crowd and I included were first under the impression that the revolutionaries were sending us a photocopied political statement of some sort.

We caught the papers and examined them. It took hundreds of people a few minutes of sorting through them before we realised that we were looking at Israeli Embassy records in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

It began to slowly dawn on us that the people upstairs in the building managed to actually break into the embassy. At this moment the crowd went wild and started pushing and shoving to catch whatever papers were coming down from the heavens.

Those who could not catch fallen documents gathered in hundreds of small groups to read what others caught, and took pictures with mobile phones. I walked from one group of “examiners” to the other trying to look at as many documents as possible.

There were records of phone deals between major Egyptian private and public telecommunications firms and Israel. I also saw documents that listed names of business transactions between the embassy and all sorts of Egyptian authorities, from customs officials to CEOs of tourism firms, bringing Israeli travelers to Egypt, and on and on.

Much of the confetti that was dropping on us dated back to the 1990s and even the 1980s, as its typeset indicated.

The revolutionaries upstairs sent at least six or seven separate sets of documents on us every 10 minutes or so for a whole hour. TV cameras hustled to interview dozens of people with documents that they believed showed the depth of the embassy’s penetration into the economic and political scene in Egypt.

... At this point I lucked out as a “journalist”, you could say. A man in his early 20s, wearing a sleevless T-shirt, and drowned in sweat asked me for a cigarette. He listened to the conversation people were having about the documents and announced to us in a matter of fact manner that he had just come down from the 22nd floor.

He said that it took over two hours for a group made up of dozens of revolutionaries using hammers to demolish the walls and steel entrances to the embassy floor. I asked him to describe to me what the embassy looked like on the inside as a way of vetting the authenticity of his story. Instead, he pulled out a stack of 10 or so plastic-laminated Israeli embassy employee identification cards, with what appeared to be pictures and names of locals who worked in the compound, and said: “See this. That proves I was one of those who stormed the enemy’s house."

Around midnight or so, as thousands were still poring over the documents, battles erupted in a few seconds between a group of protesters and CSF units around the Giza Security Directorate headquarters yards away.

In less than 10 minutes, smoke from tens of tear gas bombs and sounds of bullets filled the air and ended the festive atmosphere. Egypt’s Berlin Wall moment did not last more than a few hours.

Long standing hatred between Egypt’s still intact and widely despised CSF and Cairo’s revolutionaries and poor ushered into one long bloody night of street fighting.

The night of 9 September will go down as the bloodiest few hours that Egypt witnessed since Mubarak’s police rained hell on peaceful protesters on 28 January, three days after the outbreak of this unfinished revolution.

And CNN tells a harrowing story of what happened afterwards:

An angry crowd lingering near the Israeli embassy in Cairo after an attack on the building a day earlier turned on journalists reporting the incident Saturday, accusing at least one of being an Israeli spy.

As a CNN crew filmed the embassy from across the street, another crew from American public television -- led by Egyptian television producer Dina Amer -- approached the building. The crew's Russian cameraman was preparing to film the embassy when a woman in the crowd began hurling insults at the TV team, Amer said.

"There was this older lady who decided to follow me and rally people against me," Amer recalled. "She said 'you're a spy working with the Americans.' Then they swarmed me and I was a target." A growing crowd surrounded Amer and her colleagues, as they tried to leave the scene.

Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a producer working for CNN, rushed to help escort Amer through the angry crowd. But suddenly the two reporters were pinned against the railing of an overpass by young men who were accusing Amer of being an Israeli spy.

Yelling "I'm Egyptian," Fahmy managed to pull Amer another 10 meters down the road, until the pressure from the mob overwhelmed the pair.

Amer screamed as she and Fahmy were knocked to the ground and the crowd started to trample them. Other CNN journalists tried to reach in to help, but were pushed back by a wall of angry men. Fahmy lay on top of Amer, shielding her with his body.

"I was thinking, how powerless I was because there was no police to save us," Fahmy said. "I was worried that they were going to rape her."

At that moment, a student bystander named Mohammed el Banna called out to the journalists and pointed out a nearby car.

Somehow, Fahmy managed to carry Amer to the open door of the public television crew's car, where two of her female colleagues were waiting just a few feet away.

The mob pounded on the windows and tried to reach into the vehicle as the panicked reporters fumbled and struggled to get behind the steering wheel.

When Margaret Warner, a correspondent with the PBS program "Newshour" managed to get the vehicle moving away from the crowd, men threw stones at the departing vehicle.

Amer had few words to describe the terrifying ordeal.

"They were animals," she said.

Other Egyptian journalists told CNN they were also attacked Saturday while trying to report near the Israeli embassy.

Ahmed Aleiba, a correspondent with Egyptian state television, said he was pursued by civilians and soldiers.

"I had to run because obviously they were targeting journalists," Aleiba said in a phone call with CNN. "They attacked two other TV crews."

"I was in the car getting ready to film. A soldier knocked on the window with his stick and said 'if you don't leave by midnight your car will be destroyed,"" said Farah Saafan, a video journalist with the English-language newspaper Daily News Egypt.

Nothing about journalists being attacked is being reported at The Daily News Egypt, or anywhere else as far as I can tell. (h/t Muqata)

Large Belgian trade show disinvites Israeli diplomat after Saudi request

Accenta is a large annual trade fair held in Flanders, Belgium. Over 100,000 people are expected to attend this year's fair, running for the next week.

The main sponsor this year is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And after they found out that the Israeli ambassador to Belgium, Tamar Shamash, was invited, they complained to the fair organizers.

Accenta organizers gave in, and un-invited her.

Kirsten Karlsson, the communications officer of Accenta confirmed to the Jewish News the withdrawal of the invitation: "That is true, the ambassador is not welcome ... Saudi Arabia is the host this year ... and her presence is too sensitive".

Interestingly, however, the fair features Israeli company Soda Stream.Until the Saudis make another polite demand, I suppose.

(h/t Philosemitism blog)

Link to 9/11 hijackers in Sarasota, FL

Great investigative journalism from The Miami Herald:

Just two weeks before the 9/11 hijackers slammed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, members of a Saudi family abruptly vacated their luxury home near Sarasota, leaving a brand new car in the driveway, a refrigerator full of food, fruit on the counter — and an open safe in a master bedroom.In the weeks to follow, law enforcement agents not only discovered the home was visited by vehicles used by the hijackers, but phone calls were linked between the home and those who carried out the death flights — including leader Mohamed Atta — in discoveries never before revealed to the public.

Ten years after the deadliest attack of terrorism on U.S. soil, new information has emerged that shows the FBI found troubling ties between the hijackers and residents in the upscale community in southwest Florida, but the investigation wasn’t reported to Congress or mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who co-chaired the congressional Joint Inquiry into the attacks, said he should have been told about the findings, saying it “opens the door to a new chapter of investigation as to the depth of the Saudi role in 9/11. ... No information relative to the named people in Sarasota was disclosed.”

The U.S. Justice Department, the lead agency that investigated the attacks, refused to comment, saying it will discuss only information already released.

(h/t TNR via Silke)

Egypt belatedly protects Israeli diplomats - but how did three rioters die?

Two weeks after the Egyptian government and media made heroes out of the rioters that stormed the Israel embassy in Cairo, the Egyptian police stood by and let thousands more destroy a wall meant to protect that embassy. They only seemed to react when things got really out of hand.

From JPost:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with guards at the Israeli embassy in Cairo as they were besieged by an Egyptian mob on Saturday, reassuring them they would be rescued, aides said.

They said that after demonstrators penetrated the tower block housing the mission, some of the six-member staff on overnight security detail told Netanyahu they feared for their lives and asked him to pass farewells to their families.

"All that separated them from the mob, at that point, was one wall. We were very concerned, and so were they," said an aide.

After telephoned appeals by Netanyahu to Cairo's interim military rulers and the Obama administration, Egyptian security forces extracted the guards before dawn. Another Netanyahu aide said the Israelis' heads were covered to throw off the crowds.

It should never have gotten to that point. The simple fact is that the Egyptian police and military allowed the sovereign territory of the Israel embassy to be at the mercy of Egyptian mobs.

The Daily News Egypt adds:

Three were killed and 1,049 were injured in clashes outside the Israeli embassy late Friday and early Saturday, the health ministry said.

On Friday, the police made no attempt to intervene as protesters were tearing down the wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands.

At night, about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building throwing documents from the windows.

Protesters also brought down the Israeli flag, the second incident in less than a month.

Witnesses said demonstrators tried to storm the nearby Giza Security Directorate police in the area and set fire to another building. Four police vehicles were set on fire.

Police used tear gas to disperse protesters and gun shots were heard. Witnesses said a police vehicle drove through protesters as it fired tear gas. Clashes with police and army continued until Saturday morning.

Does this mean that the Egyptian police, when they finally reacted to a demonstration, used deadly force and killed three unarmed protesters?

I have not even seen a list of the dead, let alone calls for an investigation into how they were killed. Somehow, it is assumed that Egyptian security acted proportionately and correctly in killing three protesters.

Do the people who are incensed over the Mavi Marmara know about this?

9/11 weekend open thread

On September 11, 2006, I took this photo at about 9 AM, and superimposed an illustration of how tall the World Trade Center was:

Today, the Freedom Tower is the tallest building in lower Manhattan, about 1000 feet high. Junior Elder took a (cheap mobile phone) snapshot a couple of weeks ago:

Hope springs eternal - but memory is essential.

Syria kills defector's brother, child

In June, Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush defected from the Syrian army to join the opposition movement:

Today it was announced that his brother and child were killed by Syrian forces.

Syrian security forces killed two relatives of a defecting military officer, as opposition groups urged Russia to abandon its backing for President Bashar al- Assad and help end his government’s violent crackdown.

A child and brother of Colonel Hussein Harmoush, the most senior army commander to switch sides, were killed today in the northern province of Idlib, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said in a phone interview from Damascus. At least 11 people were wounded in the suburbs of the capital, where gunfire was heard by residents, he said. Seven protesters died yesterday in Idlib and the central region of Homs, Merhi said.

More than 3,100 civilians have been killed in Syria since protests began in March, according to Merhi and Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. About 30,000 people have been detained and 13,000 of them are still being held, the activists estimate.

Security forces “forcibly” removed 18 wounded people from al-Barr hospital in Homs on Sept. 7, including five from the operating room, Human Rights Watch said late yesterday, citing witnesses, including doctors. The forces also prevented medical personnel from reaching the wounded in a number of the city’s neighborhoods, the New York-based organization said.

Egyptians destroy part of wall protecting Israel embassy (updated, video)

On Tuesday I posted about a new wall being built in Egypt to keep people away from the Israel embassy, and how many vowed to destroy it today.

Thousands of demonstrators came out today, with hammers, to do just that.

Al Masry al Youm reports that there were minor skirmishes between the protesters and police, but the military was not able to stop them from destroying parts of the wall.

Some demonstrators were injured; one fell from a bridge that the wall was built on top of and one tried to climb an adjacent building and fell as well.

(h/t Sylvia)

UPDATE: Here's video:

(h/t Dan)

Did an Egyptian nuclear scientist defect to Israel?

El Fagr reports of an Egyptian nuclear scientist named Noha Awad Hached who moved to Israel last June.

The Egyptian media is unclear; they seem to be saying that she intends to convert to Judaism and participated in a right-wing conference that claims that Israel should include parts of Egypt, using evidence she took from Al Azhar University.

Al Ahram says that she has been working towards her doctorate for over twenty years and still does not have it, and that she had visited Israel previously. It also implies that she is a bit crazy.

The Egyptian media quotes Israeli media on this story, but I have not found any articles corroborating this very strange story.

An eyewitness to Arab 9/11 celebrations in Beirut

The original Wall Street Journal article is no longer available, but this account by Elisabetta Burba about her experiences in Lebanon is a must-read:

Whooping It Up
In Beirut, even Christians celebrated the atrocity.

BY ELISABETTA BURBA
Saturday, September 22, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT

BEIRUT--Where were you on Sept. 11, when terrorists changed the world? I was at the National Museum here, enjoying the wonders of the ancient Phoenicians with my husband. This tour of past splendor only magnified the shock I received later when I heard the news and saw the reactions all around me.

Walking downtown, I realized that the offspring of this great civilization were celebrating a terrorist outrage. And I am not talking about destitute people. Those who were cheering belonged to the elite of the Paris of Middle East: professionals wearing double-breasted suits, charming blond ladies, pretty teenagers in tailored jeans.

Trying to find our bearings, my husband and I went into an American-style cafe in the Hamra district, near Rue Verdun, rated as one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Here the cognitive dissonance was immediate, and direct. The café's sophisticated clientele was celebrating, laughing, cheering and making jokes, as waiters served hamburgers and Diet Pepsi. Nobody looked shocked, or moved. They were excited, very excited.

An hour later, at a little market near the U.S. Embassy, on the outskirts of Beirut, a thrilled shop assistant showed us, using his hands, how the plane had crashed into the twin towers. He, too, was laughing.

Once back at the house where we were staying, we started scanning the international channels. Soon came reports of Palestinians celebrating. The BBC reporter in Jerusalem said it was only a tiny minority. Astonished, we asked some moderate Arabs if that was the case. "Nonsense," said one, speaking for many. "Ninety percent of the Arab world believes that Americans got what they deserved."

An exaggeration? Rather an understatement. A couple of days later, we headed north to Tripoli, near the Syrian border. On the way, we read that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who donated blood in front of the cameras, was rejecting any suggestion that his people were rejoicing over the terrorist attack. "It was less than 10 children in Jerusalem," he said.

In the bustling souk of Tripoli we started looking for the Great Mosque, a 1294 building with a distinctive Lombard-style tower. But in that labyrinth, nobody spoke anything but Arabic, which we don't speak. Finally, in a dark shop, we found an old gentleman who knew French. His round white cap showed that he was a devout Muslim. Leaning on his stick, he managed to get on the street and with most exquisite manners gave us directions. Common decency survives all.

Once at the mosque I donned a black chador, but our Lonely Planet guide attracted the attention of a hard-looking bearded guy all the same. "Are you Americans?" he asked in a menacing tone. Our quick denial made him relax. He gave us the green light to go in. But very soon afterward we were again approached, by a fat young man. He turned out to be one of the 350,000 Palestinians who live in Lebanon, unwelcome by most of the population and subject to severe hardships. Hearing we were Italians, first he recited like a prayer names of Italian soccer players. We were relieved at first that he wanted to talk about sports, but he soon moved on to politics and the "events."

"My people have been crushed under the heel of American imperialism, which took away our land, massacred our beloved and denied our right to life. But have you seen what happened in New York City? God Almighty has drawn his sword against our enemies. God is great--Allah u Akbar," he said.

I heard these appeals to religion so often that I needed some theological help. "How can God do evil?" I later asked an Arab friend, a businessman with an international background. "According to what I learnt in my catechism, God lets evil happen. He doesn't do it," I said, and he answered:

"The Koran has the same teaching, but blood calls for blood."

What about compassion? I asked, pointing out that Jesus had turned the other cheek. Isn't Allah also always called the Merciful? "He is, but when a people has been begging for a piece of land for 52 years and it has experienced only bloodshed, what can you expect?" But the victims of the World Trade Center were civilians, I insisted. "In the new intifada, 500 Palestinians have been killed. America didn't give a damn, so why should Muslims care now about those who died in the twin towers? It's hard, but that's the way they see it."

I couldn't help it. I kept remembering how a day earlier, in Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had talked about clash of civilizations.

On Thursday night, in the Christian northern part of Beirut, we heard some loud noises. "Probably they are celebrating the attacks," someone told us when we asked. You mean the Maronite Christians are also celebrating? I asked.

"Yes, they also feel betrayed by the Americans."

On Friday, the national day of remembrance for the victims in Europe and the U.S., I was relieved to see that the Christian church in the Sahet Aukar district was packed with people holding a candlelight vigil. Less comforting was the thick barrier of soldiers and checkpoints that protected the church.

Heliopolis, in the Bekaa Valley, was the Sun City of the ancients. Nowadays it is called Baalbek. Near its lavish temples stands the stronghold of the Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Party of God. Along the clean alleys that lead to the Hezbolla's stronghold there are hand-made posters of bearded young men. "They are martyrs," explained a well-dressed, cultivated Arab man who had just gotten out of his Mercedes. "They fought until victory: the withdrawal of Israeli occupants. So they became a model for the all Arab world." Weren't they terrorists? we asked. "Terrorists? What about the Israelis who kill women and babies?"

In the seven days we spent in Lebanon, we saw one young Arab woman with teary eyes. "The stories of the victims touched me," she said, and I began to regain my trust in humanity. Then she added: "But in a way I am also glad, because for once the Americans are experiencing what we in the Middle East go through every single day." Back in Italy, I received a phone call from my friend Gilberto Bazoli, a journalist in Cremona. He told me he witnessed the same reactions among Muslims in the local mosque of that small Lombard city. "They were all on Osama bin Laden's side," he said. "One of them told me that they were not even worthy to kiss his toes."

Would statehood help Lebanese Palestinians? Nah.

An interesting article in Now Lebanon:

On September 20, representatives from across the world will decide in the UN General Assembly whether or not to upgrade the legal status of Palestine from “nonvoting observer entity” to “nonvoting observer state.”

While the difference between “entity” and “state” may seem superfluous, such a change, if it happens, could not only have important implications for Israel and the Palestinians, but also for Lebanon.

By some estimates, nearly one in 10 people living in Lebanon can be classified as a Palestinian refugee. But unfortunately for Palestinians here, there is no legal definition accorded to them under Lebanese law. Rather, the 300,000 or so people of Palestinian decent in Lebanon live in legal limbo.

Palestinians living in Lebanon have been accorded a status equivalent to “foreigner.” The country’s so-called “reciprocity law” means that any rights enjoyed by a foreign claimant in Lebanon are conditional on a Lebanese person enjoying the same rights in that person’s home country. Since the Palestinians do not have a country, this leaves them at a severe disadvantage in Lebanon.

So if Palestine is recognized as even a non-voting UN state by the General Assembly, then Lebanon would be powerless to discriminate against Palestinian Arabs based on their not having a country, right?

Of course not! The discrimination will keep on happening, and no one - not the PLO, not Mahmoud Abbas, not the Paleestinian Arab "leaders" in Lebanon, not the Arab Springers, no one - will do anything to stop it. Even this writer says so:

Although Lebanon recognizes Palestine as a state, the reciprocity law has historically been used to discriminate against Palestinians here. They are limited in their ability to obtain employment and to own property, and the vast majority is consigned to life in one of the 12 refugee camps in the country.

The greatest factor leading to the continued discrimination of Palestinians is the fear held by many Lebanese that with greater rights, Palestinians’ incentive to return home will be diminished and that they may eventually be naturalized, something that would shake up the sectarian balance of the country, as most Palestinians here are Sunni Muslim. This is coupled with the fear that if they were allowed to work in Lebanon, Palestinians could take jobs away from Lebanese.

It is unclear exactly how [UDI] will impact this country. With respect to employment, the number of professions barred to Palestinians in Lebanon has already shrunk from 70 before 2005 to around 20 today. These remain in “professional” domains, such as medicine and engineering. While competition from educated Palestinians could potentially cause tensions within a market already low on employment opportunities, for this to have a significant effect on the Lebanese labor force there would have to be high numbers of educated and qualified Palestinians in a position to compete with Lebanese applicants – and although there are no reliable statistics in this domain, reports by the Committee for Employment of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon suggest this to be an unlikely scenario.

The issue of property laws is similar. It is unclear what the position of the Lebanese government will be should the Palestinians be granted nonvoting observer state status, but in order for the implications to be felt by ordinary Lebanese, Palestinians would need enough money to move out of the camps and begin buying up Lebanese property, something most would not be able to do.

As this article makes clear, the reciprocity law is not the reason Palestinians are discriminated against in Lebanon - it is the excuse to justify legal discrimination against them. And Lebanon already recognizes "Palestine" today, so the law should already be irrelevant - and yet it is still used for the express purpose of keeping Palestinian Arabs as second-class citizens.

So on this count, a UN-sanctioned Palestinian Arab state will change nothing for the Lebanese Palestinians who are already suffering from 63 years of crushing apartheid by their Lebanese hosts.

The phantom airline between Cairo and Tel Aviv

From The Globe and Mail:

The lone ghost-white aircraft – with no logo or name displayed – sits in the far corner of the airfield outside Cairo International Airport. The aged twin-engine Boeing 737 could be mistaken for a CIA plane used for extraordinary rendition of al-Qaeda suspects; it even resembles the DC-2 that flew to Shangri-La.

The plane, in fact, is the entire fleet of the phantom airline: Air Sinai, a semi-secret division of Egypt Air.

Though thousands of people have tried and failed to get a seat on this plane, it is possible to do so. It’s just not easy.

Air Sinai was created in 1982, right after the Israel-Egypt peace treaty went into effect. As part of the normalization of relations between the two former enemies, the treaty called for the national airline of each country to fly regularly in and out of the other country’s main international airport.

Israel’s El Al airline happily complied, taking often-full flights of internationals and curious Israelis to the Egyptian capital.

The owner of Egypt Air, the government of Egypt, was a little squirmier. To fulfill the terms of the treaty without appearing to do so to its citizens and to others from Arab countries to which it flew, Egypt Air created a new division – Air Sinai, operating under the International Air Transport Association code of 4D.

This airline would fly to and from Tel Aviv every week, without forcing Egypt Air to list the destination among its flights, or on its maps. .

...It’s hard to even find Air Sinai online, and it’s impossible to book a seat between Tel Aviv and Cairo. Pursuing any of the online discount brokers that purport to offer Air Sinai tickets will lead the unsuspecting traveller either to a message that says there is “no service” between the two cities, or will route the person through Jordan on Royal Jordanian Airlines. .

Checking on the parent Egypt Air’s website, there is no mention whatsoever of Air Sinai; Tel Aviv can’t even be successfully entered in the destination box. .

Air Sinai’s telephone number is unlisted. .

It’s left to a handful of traffickers – sly travel agents and hotel concierges in Israel and Egypt – to get hooked up. An envelope of cash is sent to an unmarked office and, in return, comes an odd, horizontal yellow booklet that resembles an airline ticket of a bygone era.

This is a great description of the entire cold peace between Israel and Egypt. One side really wants peace; the other wants to do the barest minimum it is required to do while still getting billions from the US.

(h/t T34)

Israel contemplates playing hardball with Turkey

For an entire week since the Palmer report mostly exonerating Israel for the Mavi Marmara incident was released, Turkey has been increasing its rhetoric and actions against Israel - and the only official Israeli response has been to express hope that relations between the two countries can improve.

That may be about to change.

From YNet:

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has decided to adopt a series of harsh measures in response to Turkey’s latest anti-Israeli moves, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

Senior Foreign Ministry officials convened Thursday to prepare for a meeting to be held Saturday with Lieberman on the matter. Saturday’s session will be dedicated to discussing Israel’s response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent threats and his decision to downgrade Ankara’s diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.

Following Thursday’s meeting, officials assessed that Turkey is not interested in an Israeli apology at this time and prefers to exploit the dispute with Jerusalem in order to promote Ankara’s status in the Muslim world. Lieberman therefore decided there was no point in seeking creative formulas for apologizing, instead choosing to focus Israel’s efforts on punishing Turkey.

The Foreign Ministry has now decided to proceed with the formulation of a diplomatic and security “toolbox” to be used against the Turks. The first move would be to issue a travel warning urging all Israeli military veterans to refrain from traveling to Turkey. The advisory will be especially harsh as it will also urge Israelis to refrain from boarding connections in Turkey.

Another planned Israeli move is the facilitation of cooperation with Turkey’s historic rivals, the Armenians. During Lieberman’s visit to the United States this month, the foreign minister is expected to meet with leaders of the Armenian lobby and propose anti-Turkish cooperation in Congress.

The implication of this move could be Israeli assistance in promoting international recognition of the Armenian holocaust, a measure that would gravely harm Turkey. Israel may also back Armenia in its dispute vis-à-vis Turkey over control of Mount Ararat.

Lieberman is also planning to set meetings with the heads of Kurdish rebel group PKK in Europe in order to “cooperate with them and boost them in every possible area.” In these meetings, the Kurds may ask Israel for military aid in the form of training and arms supplies, a move that would constitute a major anti-Turkish position should it materialize.

However, the violent clashes between Turkey and the Kurds only constitute one reason prompting accusations that Ankara is violating human rights. Hence, another means in Lieberman’s “toolbox” vis-à-vis Erdogan is a diplomatic campaign where Israeli missions worldwide will be instructed to join the fight and report illegal Turkish moves against minorities.

The tough response formulated by Lieberman stems, among other things, from the foreign minister’s desire to make it clear to Erdogan that his anti-Israeli moves are not a “one-way street.”

The current Turkish leadership is not the type to back down in face of actions like these, so there is a danger of a macho cycle of escalation that cannot be easily repaired.

Perhaps Lieberman's disclosure of his "toolbox" is meant to give a taste of what Israel could do, not a plan of what Israel will do. Combined with European pressure, Erdogan might be persuaded to back off a bit if Israel holds onto these cards for now. And there is some indication that outside of the downgrading of diplomatic ties, Turkey's other anti-Israel moves might be more bluster than reality.

No one should discount the fact that Turkey wants to be seen as the leader of the Muslim world, and will act accordingly against Israel. Nor the fact that the Turkish street seems to support Erdogan's rhetoric. But on the other hand Turkey also seeks to be recognized as a serious nation in dealing with Europe and the rest of the West. It also enjoyed its status as a go-to place for certain Arab-Israeli negotiations.

So Israel's best response might be to remain low key, to let Erdogan continue to make a fool of himself in front of his erstwhile European friends, and not to burn any bridges. At the same time, Israel can let Turkey know that it has no shortage of matches should it come to that.

The Rachel Corrie Mafia

From The National Building Museum:

The National Building Museum will award Caterpillar Inc. the 2011 Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology during a ceremony September 14, 2011. The Turner Prize jury chose Caterpillar Inc. for its long history of innovation within the construction industry.

“Since the early days of the corporation, Caterpillar has consistently excelled in developing innovative products to meet the emerging technical and market challenges of the construction and mining industries,” stated Clyde Tatum, Henry C. Turner Prize jury member and Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. “Their recent examples of increasing the sustainability and productivity of their products provide further evidence of their leadership.”

According to jury member Art Gensler, founder and chairman of the architectural firm bearing his name, Caterpillar has “taken American technology and know-how around the world.”

This incensed the anti-Israel crowd. The Rachel Corrie Foundation, the Jewish Voice for Peace, the ISM and others went on a campaign to get the museum to rescind the award. Yesterday, the museum announced that the public ceremony was cancelled.

The museum's exact words were that it made this decision out of "an abundant concern for the safety of Museum staff and guests."

Which means that, implicitly or explicitly, the Museum was threatened. It reasonably decided that a ceremony to honor an American success story should not be marred by ugly protests from people who have decided that Caterpillar represents evil.

I never saw these hypocrites issue any condemnations when a Palestinian Arab used a hijacked Caterpillar construction vehicle to kill three civilians in Jerusalem in 2008, or the other bulldozer attacks against Israelis. No doubt they cheered.

I see no campaigns against Palestinian Arabs who use bulldozers - even when they are demolishing houses.

The simple fact is that a museum was forced to cancel a non-political ceremony because it is threatened by, and fearful of, gangs of hypocritical thugs.

That is terrorism.

The message being given is that if you accede to the demands of the terrorist supporters, then nothing will happen to you. It is the "activist" equivalent of a protection racket.

Now the same terrorist-supporting thugs are trying to get the museum to rescind the award altogether. Contact the museum and give them your support.

Egypt announces names of two Eilat terrorists from Gaza

Egyptian newspaper Masrawy gives a few details from the Egyptian investigation of the Eilat terror attacks as well as various attacks on Egyptian soil.

According to the article, the group that attacked Israel also intended to kidnap Egyptian police in order to bargain an exchange for terrorists in Sinai prisons.

Two names of Palestinian Arabs from Gaza involved in the attacks were released: Jomaa Aldoawi and Qazem Saher.

The other two terrorists caught were Egyptian.

The article says the plot was orchestrated in Gaza, with phone calls being traced between the members of the terror cells caught and their superiors in Gaza. The article also is one of the few in Arabic that tacitly admits that some Egyptians were killed during the attack by an explosive belt worn by one of the terrorists. Up until now, Egypt had insisted that all their soldiers were killed by the IDF.

This came out right after Time magazine's always wrong Karl Vick reported that neither Egypt nor Israel is interested in investigating the attacks.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, many critics charged that Israel had no evidence that any of the terrorists were from Gaza. The Masrawy article does not name any Palestinian Arab organizations behind the attack. The PRC has denied any involvement.

Let's reward Palestinians with a state (poster)

Since that terrible day ten years ago, we've had the opportunity to see Palestinian Arabs celebrating many other terror attacks. Polls show that their hatred of the US has not gone down at all, even with the most pro-Palestinian Arab administration in history.

Video of their disgusting 9/11 celebrations here and here.

The last Jews of Baghdad (Wikileaks)

From Wikileaks:

On October 10, Poloff met with one of the last remaining Jews in Iraq, XXXXXX (strictly protect), to discuss the current state of the Iraqi Jewish community. XXXXXX stated that there are now eight remaining members of the Iraqi Jewish community in Baghdad including herself (a complete biographical breakdown of the community is contained in reftel). She stated that the community had numbered 20 persons in 2003, but that the number has declined as a result of old age, immigration, and sectarian violence. XXXXXXX noted that her mother, XXXXXXXXX, had passed away in the past year and that her husband had been kidnapped by AQI in 2005 and had most likely been murdered. (Note: Since the kidnapping, the Embassy's Office of Hostage Affairs has attempted to assist XXXXXXX in locating her husband or his remains. End note.) For her own part, XXXXXXX expressed continued interest in immigrating to the Netherlands where two of her brothers are currently living. At present, XXXXXXX works as a dentist in an orphanage and conceals her religious identity to her co-workers by claiming to be Christian, although she attends weekly Jewish services held at the Embassy.

Asked about the community's religious sites, XXXXXXXX stated that there was a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery in Baghdad that had remained closed since 2004 with the keys entrusted to two separate Muslim families. She believed that the synagogue remained in good condition and noted that the Jewish community is able to pay the caretakers of the synagogue and cemetery a modest stipend from the rental income that they receive from their commercial properties. XXXXXXX was not as optimistic about the Jewish synagogue located in Basra, which has been turned into a local warehouse. She also noted that the community had a strong interest in the grave of Ezekiel, which has become a religious site for Muslims as well. Asked about the possibility for Iraqi Jews living abroad to visit the country or attempt to reestablish connections, XXXXXXXX was pessimistic saying that latent anti-Semitism within Iraqi society would prevent this from happening anytime soon.

There are Jewish services in the US embassy in Baghdad?

(h/t Bataween)

Red-lines that would cause the US to walk out of a UNGA speech (Wikileaks)

After Ahmadinejad's embrace of Holocaust revisionism and other anti-semitic statements at the UN, the United States established a list of "red lines" that, when crossed, would prompt a walk-out. They encouraged European nations to respect these criteria as well.

Here are details from a September 2009 Wikileaks memo:

Our redlines for walking out of a speech, which should be conveyed to the host government, are:

-- Denying the historical reality of the Holocaust

-- Comparing U.S. or Israeli actions to those of Nazi Germany

-- Using other clearly anti-Semitic rhetoric, including suggestions (similar to those in Ahmadinejad?s 2008 UNGA remarks) that Jews or Zionists control the media and the financial system or have formed a nefarious conspiracy

-- Threatening the destruction of Israel or any other UN member state

-- Denying Israel?s or another UN member state?s right to exist

-- Suggesting that the United States deserved 9/11

-- Embracing or justifying the Lockerbie bombing

-- If asked: The U.S. will, of course, reserve the right to respond to any other obnoxious or offensive statements.

PA minister: State will come from "diplomatic, political, and military pressure"

From Daily Star Lebanon:

A successful statehood bid at the United Nations would not stand in the way of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees eventually exercising their right of return, Palestine’s Social Affairs Minister said Wednesday.

In an interview with The Daily Star, Majeda al-Masri discussed some of the stickier aspects of the potential Palestinian state, and how it might affect the future of Lebanon’s approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees.

“Palestinian refugees are only temporarily in Lebanon, and they will definitely return to their homeland,” said Masri. “Their return can never be an obstacle to Palestine’s right for permanent membership in the U.N.”

Masri emphasized that statehood would not negate the status of Lebanon’s Palestinians as refugees, saying that if the state is accepted “refugees will still be here in Arab countries as guests until they come back. Their rights will be [protected] here … within [the framework] of what we are following up with the countries [where Palestinians live].”

...“In collaboration with governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations, we have put in place a strategy for social protection [in Palestine],” Masri said, adding that this work cannot be separated from efforts to develop the Palestinian state.

“The effort put in by Palestinian NGOs and the [Palestinian] government is part of the state building that will be completed through diplomatic, political, and military pressure.”

"Military pressure"? Whatever could Al-Masry ("The Egyptian") have meant by that?

A perfect symbol for Palestinian Arabs

From UKPress:

The Palestinians have officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they will stage a series of peaceful events in the run-up to the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly later this month.

About 100 Palestinian officials and activists gathered at the UN offices in Ramallah for a short ceremony, where they announced their plans in a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The letter urges Mr Ban to add his "moral voice in support of the Palestinian people".

The letter was handed over by Latifa Abu Hmeid, a 70-year-old woman who lost one son in fighting with Israel and has seven other sons in Israeli prisons because of alleged militant activities. Officials said Ms Abu Hmeid was selected to deliver the document because her personal story reflects the plight of the Palestinians. A resident of a West Bank refugee camp, her house has twice been demolished by Israeli authorities as punishment for her sons' activities, they said.

Mrs. Hmeid's kids do like to work fast. Last year she only had four sons in prison, as noted by Palestinian Media Watch quoting Al Hayat al Jadida:

Issa Karake, Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, awarded the Shield of Resolve and Giving to Khansa of Palestine [reference to a woman in the earliest period of Islam who sent her four sons to battle and rejoiced when they all died as Martyrs], Um Yousuf Abu Hamid, inscribed with the names of her four sons who are imprisoned in the Israeli occupation's prisons. He emphasized, 'The Palestinian mother is a central partner in the struggle, by virtue of what she has given and continues to give. It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor.'

This [was said] during a visit yesterday by [Minister] Karake and a delegation from the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, human rights organizations, and released prisoners, to the home of the Abu Hamid family in the Al-Am'ari refugee camp. [Karake] joined the meal breaking the [Ramadan] fast with the mother of the four prisoners who were sentenced to several life terms, as well as a fifth Shahid (Martyr) who was caught and executed on the spot by the Israeli special forces, having killed an Israeli intelligence officer and having wounded soldiers. Karake praised the Abu Hamid family as a model of willpower and of the struggle for the independence of Palestine... It should be noted that the Abu Hamid family is one of the fighting families of Palestine... All of the family's younger generation have been arrested, and four sons are still in prison.

The sons:

Nasser Abu Hamid: 7 life sentences + 50 years - commander in Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, in Ramallah. Convicted of the murders of 7 Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders.

Nasr Abu Hamid: 5 life sentences - Member of Fatah’s Tanzim faction, another military wing, and convicted of involvement in two terror attacks.

Sharif Abu Hamid: 4 life sentences - carried out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. Helped transport a suicide terrorist to his attack in March 2002.

Muhammad Abu Hamid: 2 life sentences + 30 years for terror attacks.

Fifth brother Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Hamid: Killed by Israel after he attacked and killed an Israeli intelligence officer.

So Mrs. Hamid/Hmeid is really the perfect symbol to represent Palestinian Arabs in their statehood bid, having raised seven terrorist sons.

And in another perfect case of symbolism, this official ceremony - which was apparently organized by the PA - was denied by its parent organization the PLO as invalid:

While the Palestinian Authority said Thursday it had officially launched its UN statehood-recognition bid, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that the PA "does not have any international relations mandate," and that the PLO was the only body that could make such a move.

Earlier, it was reported that the Palestinian Authority had submitted a letter with the move's official plans to UN chief Ban Ki-moon in ceremony in Ramallah with more than 100 Palestinian officials and activists in attendance.

The PLO representative told DPA that a date had not yet been chosen for the official launch, but that it would be made in the coming weeks

They can't figure out who their own leaders are, but they are more than ready to pretend to become a state.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar for research)

Some refreshing contrast

I spend a bit of time at terrorist websites where I see a never ending stream of photos like this of some recent Islamic Jihad "martyrs":

The IDF today provides a great antidote.

Saudi sheikh recalls the handing out of sweets in Mecca on 9/11

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a statement by Saudi Sheik Wajdi Al-Ghazawi, owner of Al-Fajr TV, which was posted on YouTube on August 4, 2011:

Wajdi Al-Ghazawi: When Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden were at the height of their might, they were extremely popular in Saudi Arabia. From mosque pulpits across Saudi Arabia, preachers would pray for their success. Moreover, from the pulpits of the most important mosques – the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca and the Nabawi Mosque in Al-Madina – direct prayers for the success of Al-Qaeda were made, during the days of the bombing of Tora Bora: "Oh Allah, help our brothers in Afghanistan." These supplications were made during evening prayers, as well as Friday prayers. The preachers would pray for them, in violation of the ministry's instructions.

When the twin towers in New York were attacked, they handed out sweets on the streets of Mecca. By Allah, they did. I witnessed this myself. The young people bowed in prayer and hugged one another out of joy. People were in heaven because of these young men, who "destroyed America and bombed this idol." Am I right or not? Was it like that or not?

Back then, when the Taliban broke off a piece of the nose of the Buddha statue, which was hewn in the mountain, an entire sermon was dedicated to it in the mosque in Mecca, and the preacher was later reprimanded for this sermon. The entire Saudi people supported and loved Al-Qaeda.

This went on until our brothers in Al-Qaeda – and I don't know what was going through their minds – began to carry out operations inside Saudi Arabia. That's when we all raised our hands, and said: "You've gone too far. We won't support you in this."
[…]
The atmosphere here in Saudi Arabia is one of extremism. It is characterized by focusing on minor details. Many things are forbidden. Yes, maybe they are indeed forbidden, but by forcing people to avoid them, and by acting as if these were major sins, an atmosphere was created that gave rise to extremist youth, who might act recklessly at the most trivial provocation.

For instance, we blew out of proportion the issue of music, the issue of smoking, or the issue of hanging pictures in public places. True, there are clear texts on these issues, but the young people embraced these issues as if they were fighting usury, fornication, or alcohol. No, these are not among the seven major sins. So our society has become extreme.
[…]
This extremist atmosphere has given rise to people who accuse others of heresy, and people who purport to be waging Jihad. It has created genes that gave rise to cells of Al-Qaeda and other terrorists. We must examine our breeding ground, in which these young men were sown.
[…]
By Allah, what can possibly emerge from such an atmosphere? Muftis who accuse others of heresy, sheiks who incite, and young people who bomb. Am I right or not?
[…]

Islamic Jihad insists "martyr" was killed by Israeli airstrike

Yesterday, an Islamic Jihad member was killed when his car exploded. Islamic Jihad claims it was an Israeli airstrike; the IDF denied it.

The Al Quds Brigades website insists that it was an Israeli airstrike, and that the cowardly Zionists don't want to admit that they are breaking the supposed truce (where the Israelis don't fire but the Gazans keep shooting rockets into Israel.) They note the huge intensity of the blast and say the mujahid's body parts were all over. They also claim a huge crater that proves it came from a missile.

The photos of the car indicate that there was indeed a huge explosion, but I cannot see anything that looks like a large crater - I do see a small one on the very bottom here:

This photo shows the street was discolored but there is no hole there:

Lots of other photos at the Islamic Jihad website.

Seven Hamas members killed during Ramadan....

...but only two of them were killed by the IDF.

The Al Qassam Brigades website has a feature about the seven Ramadan "martyrs" and the circumstances of their deaths.

Two of them were killed in "Zionist bombings." One was killed in an "accidental internal explosion." Two of them died in unspecified "accidents." One died from electric shock, and one more while in "treatment."

The website says these were "a constellation of Mujahideen who gave their lives cheaply in the way of Allah."

Schools in Gaza forcing girls to wear veils

Palestine Press Agency quotes a report from Al Hayat about schools in Gaza forcing Muslim girls to wear veils.

The 16-year old [girl] cried bitterly when her teacher at her new high school asked her to go to the office of school director. It is the first day in the first secondary (X) in her school, which she moved to after finishing her studies in a junior high school affiliated with UNRWA in Gaza City.

She recounted to the London newspaper Al Hayat: "It was a shock for me to be expelled from the classroom by the teacher, and she asked me to go to the school administration." She felt very insulted, but what made her feel more offended was the discriminatory way that the teacher asked her: "Are you Muslim or Christian? Why not wear a jilbab and hijab?" The teacher said that these were the instructions of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip.

This scene repeated itself with other students suffering degrading and discriminatory treatment, witnesses told Al Hayat. The Director of allowed Christian students (after verification of their religion) not to wear veils and robes.

The article goes on to say that Hamas is justifying its Islamicization of Gaza in order to slow down increasing fundamentalist Salafi influence.