Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Leftist code-word: "Justice" means destroying Israel

This week, an anti-Israel group bought some ads in New York subways:

New York City subways have recently started to display advertisements calling for the end of US military aid to Israel, deliberately coinciding with the United Nations General Assembly sessions next week.

The 25 posters in 18 Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Bronx subway stations are part of a mass transit advertising campaign by Be On Our Side to remedy what the advertisements call “the flawed and skewed representation in mainstream media” of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

The small print says that the New York ads were paid by The Wespac Foundation.

Its website has articles that say that Mahmoud Abbas is a secret Zionist agent. Another posting, from September 2010 when Israel had frozen construction in the territories and the US was seeking to get the PLO back to the negotiating table, quotes the "Palestinian community" in rejecting negotiations with Israel.

This campaign was done in conjunction with Jewish Voice for Peace, the fanatically anti-Israel movement that supports a full set of boycotting, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

But look at the alleged photos of Palestinian Arabs and Israelis who want "peace and justice"! Who could be against such noble goals?

When people hear the word "peace," they usually associate it with the kind of peace that is agreed upon by two or more parties in order for them to live together in harmony. Such a peace requires, by definition, compromise on both sides. This is how marriages work, this is how businesses cooperate, this is how nations work together. This kind of peace comes through negotiations and good will on the part of both parties.

But when the word "justice" is added to the formula, people mean something quite different. Invariably, a demand for "justice" is not a call for negotiations or compromise; it is a call for an imposed solution where one side wins and the other loses.

Justice means there is a right and a wrong, not that both parties have valid claims. Justice in the context of international conflicts demands that one party be seen as pure and good and the other as oppressive and evil.

The word "justice" is a code word that is used by anti-Israel organizations to act as a cover to destroying Israel and denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination.

The concept of "justice" is used (by groups such as "Students for Justice in Palestine" and many others) to claim that Palestinian Arabs have the only historic claim to the area, that Jews are Western colonialists, that Palestinian Arab suffering is solely the responsibility of Israel, that the descendants of Palestinian Arabs have the "right" to "return" to Israel and destroy the state demographically. Very often these same ""peace" groups will say that "justice" demands a Palestinian Arab right to terrorism ("armed resistance") as well.

If it was real "justice" they were after, they would demand that Jews continue to live in Gush Etzion and the entire Old City of Jerusalem where they were expelled in 1948. They would demand that Jordan compensate Israel for the destruction of dozens of synagogues in a single month. They would demand that residents of Sderot and Ashkelon be reimbursed by Hamas for the money spent on building rocket shelters. They would demand that convicted terrorists remain in jail for their full terms, and that Gilad Shalit be released immediately with no preconditions. They would demand payment of billions of dollars from Arab countries that expelled hundreds of thousands of Jews for the property they seized. They would demand that Jews be allowed to live in their historic homeland that they have always planned to return to. They would demand that the US stop funding a Palestinian Authority that praises terrorists and pays salaries to murderers in prison.

In order to have a true peace, there cannot be a demand for a one-sided and twisted version of "justice." That demand is completely antithetical to real peace between two parties, when each side has claims on the other that can never be reconciled.

In other words, the phrase "peace and justice" is an oxymoron in the way that it is being used by anti-Israel activists like this. They cunningly use a term with universally positive connotations, justice, and twist it to mean accepting the false narrative of only one party and the absolute defeat of the other.

There is no advertising-friendly way to expose the contradiction between what these Israel haters try to imply by using the term "peace and justice." A poster like the one pictured above goes straight into one's subconscious thought, associating peace with abandoning one side of the conflict.

Yes, a poster with smiling families and that calls for universally supported themes can be a cover for pure hate.

Similar campaigns have been answered pretty effectively with counter-campaigns that show that peace is impossible with people who raise their kids to love terror.

And Divest This! came up with a nice parody poster:

So I figured I have to join the party, with a poster showing what they are really after:

Will a popular uprising begin in Algeria this Saturday? (updated)

There's a Facebook page that started last month calling for a Day of Anger in Algeria on September 17th.

This event mostly slipped under everyone's radar, but the Algerian government is taking no chances. So, of course, it announced that the September 17 movement is orchestrated by Zionists.

The Algerian Minister of Interior and Local Government, Dahou Ould Kablia said that foreign parties are involved in order to cause unrest in Algeria September 17. The survey conducted by security services, confirmed a general reluctance on these malicious calls from foreign parties whose purpose is to destabilize the country.

In a statement to Ennahar, Ould Kablia said that the authorities, who surveyed the streets of Algeria, through social networking sites, like Facebook, have concluded that there was no impact of these nuisance calls on the Algerians. On the contrary, many people, especially youth, organize to combat these ideas by calling for wisdom and mobilization in order to bar the way to any attempt to destabilize the country.

According to the Minister of Interior, "the appeals find no echo and there will be no demonstrations or disturbances at that precise date."

Responding to a question as to the results of the survey which was conducted by the security services, to reach the authors of this appeal, Ould Kablia said that they were foreign parties, given the date chosen which coincides with the Camp David and also with the events of Sabra and Shatila. It is, in his view, a Zionist plan against Algeria. "If it was the work of people inside the country, we would have unmasked and arrested them, but the clues point us to foreign parties in relation to the Zionist entity."

They even came up with a theory as to who is behind this entire enterprise: French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy:

The date of September 17, 2011 of the alleged revolution in Algeria, to which call hundreds of Facebook and Internet users as the French journalist of Jewish origin, Bernard Henri Levy, for the overthrow of the regime in Algeria, coincides with the same day when Napoleon III had trampled Algerian soil. The choice of the date by the French philosopher is not accidental. According to an article by Daniel R. published in the French magazine “Histoire” in January 1991, Napoleon III came to Algeria September 17, 1760 [sic]. He dreamed of creating a Jewish state stretching from Algiers to Baghdad, under a French protectorate.

So the date chosen by the French writer and journalist Levy, of Jewish origins, and his consorts fans of Napoleon Bonaparte, those who belong to the new philosophical movement whose slogan "liberation of nations from domination" and follow a new modern way, using the youth of the Arab countries, and Algerians in particular, by encouraging them to revolt; a way to re-colonize these nations and put their people once again under the boots of Napoleon Bonaparte.

(UPDATE): T34 found an article about Napoleon III by Daniel Rivet in L'Historie, but it says nothing about him wanting to create a Jewish state. In fact, he wanted to create an Arab kingdom, with equal rights for all, although under the protection of France. And it does appear that he indeed came to Algeria on September 17th, 1860.

Chances are that this Saturday's actions will fizzle as the Algerian government is already on the offensive to stop the uprising before it starts. As always in the Muslim world, "Zionists" provide the pretext.

Ha'aretz changes headline to make PLO sound less anti-semitic

Google's news cache shows a Ha'aretz headline that says

PLO Official: Palestinian state to be free of Jews

Even the URL of this link shows the headline:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/plo-official-palestinian-state-to-be-free-of-jews-1.384493

But when you try to go to that link you get redirected to a new page, with a new headline, and even a new URL!

As we have shown, the first headline is completely accurate - and is consistent with statements that Areikat made last year. Even the Ha'aretz article itself - which does not appear to have been changed - makes that clear.

But Ha'aretz is so heavily invested in the false meme that the Palestinian Arab leadership wants to have peace with Israel that they couldn't stomach that original, accurate headline that showed that their idea of "peace" is the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from "Palestine."

A Ha'aretz editor decided to tone it down, so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of Ha'aretz readers who have come to expect a certain kind of news that conforms to a pre-existing viewpoint.

(h/t Reb Mordechai of Chelm)

Ahmadinejad rants at Zionist pharmaceuticals

From Iran's FARS agency:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the world Zionists for commercializing and misusing the pharmaceutical knowledge, and called for the revival of traditional medicine.

"The Zionist and western capital holders have changed all human and cultural concepts in the world so widely that treatment is completely considered as a business in the world today," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director, Hassan Abdolrazzaq Jazzayeri, in Tehran on Tuesday night.

He underlined the high potentials of different natural herbs in curing different diseases and treating people, and said, "We should try to revive our own traditional medicine."

I agree 100%. Iranians should be using their own natural herbs to combat cancer, Alzheimer's, and AIDS.

Not to mention impotence.

Who is the US partnering with on counter-terrorism? Turkey!

From The State Department:

As stated in President Obama’s National Counterterrorism Strategy, the U.S. is committed to strengthening the global counterterrorism (CT) architecture in a manner that complements and reinforces the CT work of existing multilateral bodies. The Administration’s signature initiative in this area is the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), which is intended to ensure the necessary international architecture is in place to address 21st century challenges.

The U.S. proposed the creation of the GCTF to address the evolving terrorist threat in a way that would bring enduring benefits by helping frontline countries and affected regions acquire the means to deal with threats they face. It is based on a recognition that the U.S. alone cannot eliminate every terrorist or terrorist organization. Rather, the international community must come together to assist countries as they work to confront the terrorist threat.

The 30 founding members of the GCTF are: Algeria, Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The GCTF will consist of a strategic-level Coordinating Committee, co-chaired initially by the United States and Turkey; five thematic and regional expert-driven working groups; and a small administrative unit that the U.S. will host for the first few years.

Official Launch: The GCTF will be launched officially in New York at the level of foreign ministers on the margins of the upcoming UN General Assembly meetings in September 2011. In addition to adopting the GCTF’s founding documents (a political declaration and terms of reference) and short speeches from the Co-Chairs (the U.S. and Turkey) and other GCTF members, the event will include the announcement of two concrete deliverables, thus highlighting the GCTF’s practical, action-oriented focus from the outset.

It is the ultimate in multilateralism - when fighting terrorists, include countries that support and sponsor terrorists!

Barry Rubin has lots more.

More from the announcement:

In addition, the Global Survivors Network will premiere a short film of interviews of survivors of terrorism from around the globe. The film will depict the different ways in which survivors are now helping to prevent terrorism by speaking out against violent extremist ideologies.

Do you think that this film mentions a single Israeli victim of terror? One only needs to look at the list of members of this esteemed forum to know the answer without bothering to watch it.

It reminds me of this insightful piece last week by Marty Peretz at TNR.

I wish it would be historically possible—that is, historically honest—for Israel to be omitted from the long list of target countries that have been the victims of terrorism. Alas, it is not. But President Obama has a habit of making such lists, and he always fails to include Israel (or anyplace within its borders) as a target of this distinctive and most vicious form of warfare.

And he brings examples.

Latest Syrian torture video

This video, bouncing today around Syrian opposition websites and Al Arabiya, shows what is said to be a teenager being forced to kneel before and worship a photograph of Bashir Assad. He refuses and spits on the picture.

I have no doubt that there is such cruelty, but I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the video.

Israeli report on PA economy contradicts World Bank

The World Bank came out with a report on the Palestinian Arab economy a couple of days ago. Among its major points was this one:

Economic growth in WB&G has slowed down in 2011, and together with the shortfall in external financing, this has led to a fiscal crisis for the PA. No significant easing of Israeli restrictions has taken place in 2011, so that the Palestinian private sector’s potential remains thwarted. In addition, the PA’s inability to pay its bills to suppliers in a timely manner has hurt business confidence. Though the PA has sought to reduce its need for external assistance, lower economic growth and lower-than-expected donor assistance have resulted in an acute fiscal crisis. The crisis has meant that the PA is now also struggling to meet its wage payment obligations.

Everyone agrees that the PA is too heavily dependent on donor money in the public sector and that the private sector is the key to any chance for economic independence for the PA.

Even Israel.

In a new report released by the Government of Israel, it says:

The PA now faces a financial crisis. The factors fueling the crisis include: the Palestinian budget’s ongoing dependency on foreign aid and the shortfall in aid in 2011; the PA’s inability to finance the shortfall through bank loans; the lack of sufficient internal resources to generate income; and a relatively large public sector which consumes a large portion of the budget.

But contrary to the World Bank's assertion that Israel does nothing to help the private sector of the PA economy, Israel's report details a large number of initiatives done in the past year:

According to data collected by Israel's Ministry of Finance, trade between Israel and the PA continued to grow by 7% during H1 of 2011. Overall Israeli sales to the PA grew by 8% while overall Israeli purchases from the PA grew by 2%. The total volume of bilateral trade exceeded NIS 7.5 billon in the first half of the 2011.

The number of permits for traders has been increased by 1,000 and is currently 16,000.24

A growing number of Israelis are now entering Area A in order to procure goods and services. They provide a significant contribution to the Palestinian economy in the West Bank.25

According to data issued by the Israel Customs Directorate, in the first half of 2011, Palestinian imports (except Israel) amounted to NIS 3,127,395,640, a 17.44% increase compared to the parallel period in the previous year. Palestinian exports (except Israel) amounted to USD 45,458,095 in the first half of 2011, a 23% increase compared to the parallel period in the previous year.

Palestinian employment in Israel is one of the West Bank economy's major sources of income. According to the PCBS, compensation for employees in Israel in 2009 totaled USD 627 million, more than 9% of the West Bank GDP. The increasing importance of Palestinian employment in Israel is due to the high wages earned in the Israeli economy, and to the Israeli policy of increasing the number of employment permits (see below). Notably, the increase in the share of permit holders among employees in Israel is one of the reasons for the increase in the wages.

As of September 1, 2011, the number of West Bank Palestinians employed in Israel stood at 29,851. The maximum number of employment permits for Palestinians working in Israel, which amounts to 36,650, is not utilized in full. The number of Palestinians employed by Israelis in the West Bank is 24,503.

In 2011, Israel increased the number of permits for both seasonal and permanent employment of Palestinians from the West Bank in Israel. Working permits were issued as follows:

o Construction – 4,000 new permanent permits.

o Agriculture – 1,250 new permanent permits, 3,000 seasonal olive harvest permits for families39, 750 seasonal almond picking permits for families.

The validity of employment permits for factories and industrial zones in the West Bank was extended from six months to one year.

9% of the PA's GDP comes from Arabs working in Israel...and Israel is increasing the number of permits. Similarly, even though some 90% of the PA's exports go to Israel, there was a huge increase of exports to other markets. And Israel is facilitating this growth.

I'm not sure whether the 9% figure includes those who are working in Judea and Samaria communities, but any way you look at it the PA's push to stop workers from being employed by Jews in the territories would have a major negative impact on the PA economy.

The World Bank did not mention any of this, nor other Israeli moves to help the PA economy like upgrading crossings, transferring frequencies to the Wataniya Telecom Company and giving West Bank IDs to Gazans who live there.

The World Bank report seems to spin the truth; it will combine the West Bank and Gaza when convenient and separate them when that would make Israel look worse. But here we see that it simply ignores direct Israeli contributions to helping grow the PA's private sector.

Now, why might that be?

(I updated the font and colors after people complained that it was a bit too hard to read.)

PLO ambassador confirms: Palestine would be Judenrein

From USA Today:

The Palestine Liberation Organization's ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews.

"After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated," Maen Areikat, the PLO ambassador, said during a meeting with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. He was responding to a question about the rights of minorities in a Palestine of the future.

Such a state would be the first to officially prohibit Jews or any other faith since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was judenrein, or cleansed of Jews, said Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. National Security Council official.

Was he misquoted? Could he have really said "Israelis" or "Zionists"?

Nope. Areikat was interviewed in Tablet last year and said this explicitly:

So, you think it would be necessary to first transfer and remove every Jew—

Absolutely. No, I’m not saying to transfer every Jew, I’m saying transfer Jews who, after an agreement with Israel, fall under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state.

Any Jew who is inside the borders of Palestine will have to leave?

Absolutely. I think this is a very necessary step, before we can allow the two states to somehow develop their separate national identities, and then maybe open up the doors for all kinds of cultural, social, political, economic exchanges, that freedom of movement of both citizens of Israelis and Palestinians from one area to another. You know you have to think of the day after.

About two thirds of the nations of the world represented in the United Nations supports the establishment of a state that is, by definition, anti-semitic.

It would not just an "apartheid" state - it would be a state whose very basis would be the ethnic cleansing of every single Jewish man, woman and child.

We should be hearing the outraged condemnations from human rights groups any minute now. Of course.

Erdogan calls for a secular state, upsets the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

Palestine Press Agency reports that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian Islamist parties are very upset at one sentence in Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's speech in Cairo yesterday where he said "I call on Egyptians to build a secular Egypt."

They are complaining that Erdogan is interfering in Egypt's internal affairs.

Some believe it was a mistranslation from Turkish to Arabic, and others are saying that when Erdogan says "secular" he doesn't mean it in the normal sense but he was really speaking to his constituents at home.

PalArab statehood bid unilateral - even within the PLO!

A quick rundown of Palestinian Arab politics:

The Palestinian Authority is the supposedly democratic institution that has administrative and some security responsibilities over sections of the West Bank.
Fatah is the terror group/ political party that dominates the PA.
Hamas is the terror group/political party that controls Gaza.
In the last election, Hamas took over the PA but then the PA's president gave the power back to Fatah.
The PA's president, Mahmoud Abbas, is also the leader of Fatah and of the PLO.
Abbas has been president of the PA well past the date that elections were due to be held. Hamas does not recognize him as president of the PA.
The PA works for the PLO. It is not independent at all.
The PA has no ability to engage in international diplomacy, only the PLO speaks to the international community concerning "Palestine."
Hamas, which controls some 40% of the Arabs in the territories, opposes the bid.
The PLO has a Palestinian National Council that is supposedly its main legislative body. It has not met since 2009.
The PNC chooses the PLO Executive Committee which is the main executive branch of the PLO.
The two groups are somewhat incestuous, as the Executive Committee is the main group that nominates candidates for the PNC and the Executive Committee is elected by the PNC.
The PLO is supposedly the party that is bringing the unilateral statehood bid to the UN.

All of this is necessary to understand the irony of this news story:

PLO central council member Nabil Amr said Tuesday that the Palestinian request for full UN membership is not a "bid" but rather a diplomatic activity.

The former ambassador to Egypt expressed reservations over the plan to seek state membership of the United Nations at the annual General Assembly meeting in New York, which opens on Monday.

...Regarding the PLO, Amr said members of the PLO executive committee "knew nothing" about what the Palestinian leadership was doing and had "no real, effective role."

If this is true, it means that the UN bid is not legal according to the PLO's own rules. The PNC never voted to approve the UN bid, and it is supposed to make all policy decisions.

The only conclusion?

Mahmoud Abbas is a totalitarian dictator, and the current UN bid is being led by someone who cannot even abide by the rules of the organizations he heads.

Richard Falk freaks over Palmer, lies as usual, says Israel has no right to self defense

From Reuters:

Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a U.N. body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate U.N. probe into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year's raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.

A panel of five independent U.N. rights experts reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in "flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law."

It is not until paragraph 10 that we find out the name of one of these "experts" - Richard Falk!

Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday's statement, said the Palmer report's conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.

Ah, Richard Falk. A man who is a the proven liar and twister of international law who explicitly supports terror against Israel and compares Israel to Nazis is opining about the impartiality of someone else's report.

But let's look at the legal arguments of his team. Their press release says:

“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy towards Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” stressed the experts.

“As a result of more than four years of Israeli blockade, 1.6 million Palestinian women, men and children are deprived of their fundamental human rights and subjected to collective punishment, in flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law,” they said. “Israel’s siege of Gaza is extracting a human price that disproportionately harms Palestinian civilians.”

Their main argument in this press release is that Israel's naval blockade cannot be separated from its closure of Gaza. Yet Palmer addresses this issue head-on, in paragraph 70:

At this juncture, a word of clarification is necessary. The naval blockade is often discussed in tandem with the Israeli restrictions on the land crossings to Gaza. However, in the Panel’s view, these are in fact two distinct concepts which require different treatment and analysis. First, we note that the land crossings policy has been in place since long before the naval blockade was instituted. 239 In particular, the tightening of border controls between Gaza and Israel came about after the take-over of Hamas in Gaza in June 2007. 240 On the other hand, the naval blockade was imposed more than a year later, in January 2009. 241 Second, Israel has always kept its policies on the land crossings separate from the naval blockade. The land restrictions have fluctuated in intensity over time 242 but the naval blockade has not been altered since its imposition. Third, the naval blockade as a distinct legal measure was imposed primarily to enable a legally sound basis for Israel to exert control over ships attempting to reach Gaza with weapons and related goods. 243 This was in reaction to certain incidents when vessels had reached Gaza via sea. 244 We therefore treat the naval blockade as separate and distinct from the controls at the land crossings. This is not to overlook that there may be potential overlaps in the effects of the naval blockade and the land crossings policy. 245 They will be addressed when appropriate. Likewise, the restrictions on the land crossings to Gaza are part of the context of our investigation, and our recommendations in Chapter 6 address the situation there. 246 But the legal elements of the naval blockade are analyzed on their own.

As usual, Israel bashers ignore the substance of the argument and just use repeated assertions as proof. These "international law experts" cannot marshal a single argument against Palmer so they resort to calling themselves experts and assuming that people are too stupid to actually compare the arguments.

But Falk himself is even more deceptive. He just co-wrote an article that also attacks Palmer and pretends to address the legality of Israel's naval blockade.

The most significant finding of the report is its most dangerous and legally dubious: the conclusion that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, in effect since mid-2007, was somehow, despite being severely harmful to the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza, a legitimate act of self-defense.

The word "blockade" has a very specific legal meaning, and almost always refers specifically to a naval blockade (sometimes air.) When Falk says that Israel's "blockade" started in 2007 he knows he is lying - it started in 2009, during the Gaza war.

Falk then says something that would be considered incredible if he already hadn't made a career of trampling on international law to demonize Israel:

The report gives considerable attention to the illegal rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants mainly associated with Hamas, and notes, appropriately, that “stopping these violent acts was a necessary step for Israel to take in order to protect its people.” But while that justifies protective action, it does not make the case for a valid claim of self-defense under international law.

Yes, Falk is making another argument that Israel is not allowed to do anything in self-defense beyond sitting there and trying to shoot rockets out of the sky.

Palmer disagrees:

74. Israel was entitled to take reasonable steps to prevent the influx of weapons into Gaza. With that objective, Israel established a series of restrictions on vessels entering the waters of Gaza. These measures culminated in the declaration of the naval blockade on 3 January 2009. There were a number of reasons why the previous restrictions were inadequate, primary among them being the need for the measures to be legally watertight.

Falk, characteristically, is silent in responding to the actual legal arguments and instead makes up lies about the naval blockade - which is, in the end, not preventing a single shipment of humanitarian supplies from getting to Gaza.

Palmer has the last word:

80. As a final point, the Panel emphasizes that if necessary, the civilian population in Gaza must be allowed to receive food and other objects essential to its survival. However, it does not follow from this obligation that the naval blockade is per se unlawful or that Israel as the blockading power is required to simply let vessels carrying aid through the blockade. On the contrary, humanitarian missions must respect the security arrangements put in place by Israel. They must seek prior approval from Israel and make the necessary arrangements with it. This includes meeting certain conditions such as permitting Israel to search the humanitarian vessels in question. The Panel notes provision was made for any essential humanitarian supplies on board the vessels to enter Gaza via the adjacent Israeli port of Ashdod, 281 and such an offer was expressly made in relation to the goods carried on the flotilla. 282

81. The Panel therefore concludes that Israel’s naval blockade was legal.

Facebook group causes Gazans to start family feuds

Palestine Press Agency and other Arabic media report that while Facebook is helping Arabs rise up against their rulers in other parts of the Middle East, in Gaza it is helping tear families apart.

A Facebook page called "Secretary of the Devil," that is currently blank, supposedly started indecent rumors about Gazans, especially Gazan women and girls in the Nuseirat camp.

According to reports, it caused some knife fights in the camp between families.

Hamas police arrested a number of young men and extracted some confessions.

The truth about the peace process (video)

Another good video hosted by Danny Ayalon:

The fake child artists of Gaza (updated)

From HuffPo:

Bowing to pressure from the Bay Area's Jewish community, Oakland's Museum of Children's Art has decided to cancel its planned exhibition of drawings by Palestinian children documenting their experiences during the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Organized by the Middle East Children's Alliance, "A Child's View of Gaza" was supposed to run from September 24th through mid-November; however, the public reaction against displaying the pictures convinced the museum's board of directors to halt its plan.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

It had become a distraction to the main objective of bringing arts education to all children, said museum board member Randolph Bell.

"We were getting calls from constituents that were concerned about the situation," Bell said.

"We don't have any political stake in this thing. It just became apparent that we needed to rethink this."

"We understand all too well the enormous pressure that the museum came under. But who wins?" asked Middle East Children's Alliance president Barbara Lubin in a press release. "The museum doesn’t win. MECA doesn’t win. The people of the Bay Area don’t win. Our basic constitutional freedom of speech loses. The children in Gaza lose."

Pictures from the exhibit, which were culled from art therapy sessions at a number of Gaza children's centers, show images like a bomb painted with American and Israeli flags crashing into a street filled with dead bodies, helicopters destroying a city and a boot decorated with a Star of David stomping on a Palestinian flag.

Well, we wouldn't want to be considered censors, so let's look at the artwork that is available online. Here is every one I could find.

Now, let's compare these to those from a similar story from 2002.

A display of pictures in a State Street coffee house drawn by Palestinian children has stirred commotion among the UW-Madison community.

The 4-day pictures display that began Sunday, entitled \Innocence Under Siege: Palestinian Children's Perspectives of the World Around Them," is presented by the Palestinian Humanities and Arts Now, a Chicago-based group, in conjunction with Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition. The pictures were along the wall at Espresso Royale Caffe, 650 State St., until last evening.

Images were drawn by middle school aged Palestinian children and focus predominantly on violence in the Middle East. One picture, for example, shows a woman cradling the bloody body of a man, probably her husband, with a person holding a gun in the background. Other pictures show Israeli tanks and Palestinian towns and children surrendering.

"Our organization put the pictures up because they present a reality and experiences that are completely silenced in the United States media," said UW-Madison senior Sarah Kaiksow, co-chair of the UW-Madison chapter of Al-Awda. "I feel like for any true peace to be negotiated between any two parties in any conflict, the reality of what those people are facing needs to be negotiated."

But members of Madison's Jewish community, including those of UW-Madison's Hillel, say they are offended by some of the artwork, including pictures on which a child wrote things like "Death for Israel," "From North to South it's only Palestine" and "Bloodshed is the language of Israel." That particular picture was drawn by an eighth-grader.

I am not an art expert, but the second set of pictures from 2002 look like they were actually done by grade-schoolers - and the newer ones look like they were done by adults trying to draw in a childish style.

The symbolism, the coloring and the motifs seem, at the very least, to have been heavily prompted by adults. Kids don't come up with this stuff on their own.

FresnoZionism asked an art professor for an opinion on these pieces. Here's what she said:

The paintings (color drawings) are highly sophisticated especially in relationship to detail. Did you see the barbed wire? Also, there is a carefully drawn Star of David in each work. The authenticity of the painting is remarkable for a child’s hand. The drawing of the planes and helicopters, the man in the tower, the dynamic brushstrokes that are well conceived and controlled all seem to project a more mature approach to art. Could these “children” be in their late teens, college age, or young adults [MECA says they were 9 to 11 years old]? According to the the quote, “much of the artwork was produced by children.” I wonder how “much”? Also, it is possible that the “children” were directed by an adult who supervised and perhaps completed the initial drawing?

In fact, the last picture from the first set above is clearly based on an image by anti-semitic artist Latuff:

An artistic acquaintance wrote this about the artwork:

I've been an avocational artist my entire life and have some experience with the styles of amateurs. The sureness of the color application -- especially in the dense, complicated scenes (which are obviously all done by the same person) -- is at variance with the primitive (faux-primitve, frankly) nature of the sketching. It's the use of color especially that gives it away to me as the product of an older person. But the complexity of the composition in the big scenes is uncharacteristic of 9-11-year-olds as well. Certainly the politicized content is atypical.

The sureness of stroke in these pictures is something you almost never find from a very young artist. The biggest giveaway I see in this regard is not actually in the complex, refined drawings, but in the more primitive ones. For example, the confidence with which the concertina wire is sketched in, in one of the primitive crayon drawings, is just not characteristic of the young. I was accounted an exceptional artist in my K-12 years, and I couldn't have achieved that confident, bold, rapid-stroking effect until I was at least 16. It's one of the hardest things to do, and you really do lack the coordination and focus for it when you're younger. A kid would draw that laboriously, with a lot of short, stubby strokes strung together -- or he would simply achieve a cruder, less symmetrical and more tentative effect.

These drawings don't look like those of unusually accomplished children. They look like trained artists imitating the style of a child.

Moreover, what do child artists do immediately after they finish their work? They sign them. I cannot find one signature in the new set of images, although each of the older ones have them.

Even more interesting, one would think that a children's art exhibit showing such precocious examples of drawing would want to publicize the names of the artists - and elaborate on their own personal stories from which sprung such eloquence and experience. The artist's story is often more compelling than the art. But, for some bizarre reason, we are deprived of this information. Could it be that the organizers don't want the children to be interviewed?

Ultimately, it is up to the exhibitors to prove the authenticity of provenance of the works. Identify these young savants.
And if this is a hoax, well, what museum would want to be associated with something like that?

The Middle East Children's Alliance is trying to pressure MOCHA to change their mind and show these questionable pieces. You may want to contact the museum and support their decision, and also ask them the provenance of the drawings.

UPDATE: I updated this a little in The Algemeiner, and in the comments there also identified there the names of some of the art experts who chimed in here.

Saudis keep enforcing their illegal boycott against Israel

Al Arabiya reports that the Saudi Interior Ministry has, over the past few months, managed to discover a few companies that were trying to sell Israeli-made products in the Kingdom.

Some were joint ventures between Israel and foreign companies, and others were set up by Israeli Arabs. The products were agricultural - seeds and fertilizers.

The Saudis allege that some of the products were laundered through other Arab countries, and that Saudi Arabia is reviewing their relationships with them.

The interior minister stressed that the Kingdom will not turn a blind eye on this phenomenon, and will develop the necessary controls to prevent the entry of Israeli products and goods to the land and the Saudi markets.

The interesting part?

Saudi Arabia pledged back in 2005 to end its boycott of Israel as a condition of joining the World Trade Organization.

In the six years since, the Saudis have continued to publicly enforce that boycott - and suffered no consequences in the WTO.

The kingdom even continued to publicly flout its promise after Congress passed a unanimous resolution calling on the Saudis to drop the boycott as they had promised.

And in 2009 members of Congress were again angered to find out that nothing had changed.

So it goes. The WTO will never expel Saudi Arabia for breaking its pledge, the President will not bring the issue up in international bodies (just as his predecessor didn't) and an Arab nation can flout the law with no consequences.

Arab media has the best videos

Recently, Israel opened to the public an amazing tunnel that was originally a drainage ditch that goes from Kfar HaShiloach (Silwan) to the Temple Mount. Ha'aretz reported on this in January.

The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation recently started making a fuss over this, and released a great video of the tunnel that I couldn't find the original of:

Here, for contrast, is a video of the tunnel made in June by a Christian:

Egypt foreign ministry: Don't say peace with Israel is "forever"

Al Masry al Youm says that there were some media reports quoting Egyptian ambassador to Israel, Yasser Reda, as saying that Egypt's diplomatic relationship with Israel is "eternal."

Egypt's Foreign Minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, worked quickly to say that this is simply not true.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that "these expressions or descriptions are contrary from known diplomatic phrasing. There is no such things "eternal relations" between countries. In addition, it is impossible that a career diplomat and veteran ambassador such as Ambassador Yasser Reda, known for his patriotism and efficiency, would make such a statement."

Notice that the Foreign Ministry didn't say anything like "Of course, we want our relations with Israel to continue and to be strengthened." No, their reaction to the idea of a permanent peace with Israel is more akin to...horror.

Glad they cleared that up in such a diplomatic way.

Sometimes, the enemy of my enemy is just freaking crazy

From Al Arabiya:

The head of al-Qa’im district, in Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar, has confirmed that about 160 families have had their Iraqi citizenships revoked, citing their Syrian origin as the reason for the action, DPA reported on Sunday.

Farhan Aftikhan said that among the people who had their citizenship revoked were government employees and army and police personnel, all of whom had their nationality certificates, food-ration cards, and citizenships annulled by the Iraqi government.

He added that these families have been Iraqi citizens for years and hail from the tribes in Anbar province.

While the district’s chief official said the government did not cite a “real” reason for the cancellation of the citizenships, the affected families cited “sectarianism” and pointed out that other Iraqi families are classified as Iranian, Pakistani and Afghani citizens.

One former Iraqi citizen, who wished to remain anonymous, said when he went to Baghdad to renew his 61-year-old father’s citizenship, and during the process an officer with the rank of a lieutenant in the nationality department destroyed his father’s papers and revoked the entire family’s citizenship.

He added that he doesn’t own papers to prove that he is Syrian, and is now stateless.

In an unrelated but similar story:

Forces on both sides of the Libyan war have committed war crimes and the country risks descending into a bloody cycle of attacks and reprisals unless order can be established, human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday, as Muammar Qaddafi’s forces launched surprise attacks on three fronts.

Qaddafi’s actions against civilian protesters were a crime against humanity, while arbitrary detentions, torture of prisoners and widespread abductions were war crimes, the London-based charity said in a report.

Amnesty also criticized Libya’s opposition forces and said Qaddafi’s fall from power after 42 years had left a “security and institutional vacuum” that they exploited to carry out revenge killings and torture.

Arabs treat Arabs worse than dirt and no one gives a damn. The "good guys" are little better than the ones they replaced.

Arabs were never one people; they were always divided - whether it was into tribes or nations. And they've always killed each other.

But Arabs are unified on one topic and one topic only: hating Israel. That wouldn't change one tiny bit no matter what Israel does. Anyone who claims otherwise is simply lying (often to themselves.)

Morning links

Video of clueless anti-Israel marchers in Berkeley on 9/11

Another video of Islamic terrorist rally in London on 9/11

Good news! Al Qaeda is grabbing Libyan missiles - including surface to air missiles! See, they aren't all going to Gaza!

Islamic nations continue to refuse to adhere to a universal definition of terrorism

WaPo editorial - Once again, Israel is scapegoated

WaPo op-ed - Israel's hostile neighborhood

(h/t jzaik, David G, Yoel, Yigal)

Iranian F-5 crash - video

An Iranian F-5 crashed on Friday in Tabriz. It was practically unreported in English anywhere:

This one post in Stop Fundamentalism claims that Iranian fighter planes have been intimidating anti-government protesters:

Despite Iranian government’s military and security preparations to prevent further protests from taking place in the Azerbaijan province of Iran, last Saturday many cities in this northern province including Tabriz, Orumieh, Khoy, Salmas witnessed massive street demonstrations by Iranian people.

Eyewitnesses report of heavy use of violence by the security forces. Some eyewitnesses indicate that military fighter planes, flying low on top cities, have been used to intimidate protesters. The crash of a military plane in Tabriz has been associated to the efforts by government to use its fighter jets to crackdown on Iranian people.

At the same time a football match in Tehran Azadi Stadium turns to be another excuse for Iranian youth to show dissent.

Sporadic breakout of protests in Iran show how the opposition to the regime of Ayatollahs still exists despite 2009-2010 clampdowns.

There are a number of Persian language articles about the crash.

(h/t Dan)

Turkey changing military software to allow it to fire at IDF?

From YNet:

Turkey has developed a new radar system for its US-made F-16 fighter jets that will allow them to fire at Israeli targets, Ankara's Star Gazete reported on Tuesday.

The new radar system – Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) – is a defensive command and control system developed by Turkey's Military Electronics Industry (ASELSAN) for the nation's air force and navy. It is slated to replace a similar US version which is in use today.

The US system is comprised of lists of "friends" and "foes." The system's settings are designed to prevent pilot error as well, to an extent, disabling the ability to fire at "friendly" targets even by mistake. The US system identified Israel as a 'friend,' thus preventing Turkish fighter jets from firing at them automatically.

The new system, however, allows Turkey control the "friend or foe" list independently.

The orders to modify the IFF system reportedly came directly from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office.

The Turkish IFF system is scheduled to be mounted on all Turkish fighter jets, military vessels and submarines in the near future.

There are two parts to this story that YNet is conflating: Turkey deciding to rewrite the software, and Turkey deciding to classify Israel as an enemy in the software.

As the original Star Gazete article indicates, the decision to rewrite the software occurred over two years ago - prior to the Mavi Marmara.

This post on Strategy Page indicates that Turkey's original decision to rewrite the software came after there were rumors that the US installed a kind of "kill switch" to disable the planes if Turkey should decide to use them in ways that are against US interests.

Whether the other part of the story is true, that Turkey is now programming these systems to consider Israel an enemy, it is possible - but, as with yesterday's news from Turkey about sending boats to the Mediterranean to confront Israel, it could be Turkish media whipping up an anti-Israel frenzy.

(h/t Joel)

"Friend Request Pending" - nice video

From Hasbara Fellowships:

J-Street seeking rabbinic cover for anti-Israel activities

J-Street is looking to hire a new Rabbinic Organizer:

J Street has a Rabbinic Cabinet of more than 650 rabbis, cantors and seminary students. Rabbinic leadership is vital to J Street’s advocacy work. Rabbis help on a local and national level to shape J Street policy, communicate J Street’s message publicly, lead rabbinic actions, organize events, and expand our rabbinic community, as well as serve as validators for the pro-Israel pro-peace movement.

J Street is seeking a rabbinic organizer to build and cultivate rabbinic leadership within the pro-Israel pro-peace movement. The rabbinic organizer will work with the JSEF Vice President, J Street’s rabbinic leaders and J Street’s field team to develop and implement a strategy for rabbinic outreach and organizing within J Street’s strategic framework.

Rabbis are being recruited to put the J in J-Street - to pretend that their anti-Israel advocacy has rabbinic certification. Since their positions are so evidently against what the Israeli public wants, and completely out of step with what most American Jews want, they are bending over backwards to pretend that there is something vaguely "Jewish" about J-Street.

This allows Jews who desperately want to believe that they are not abandoning the Jewish state when they join J-Street to feel better about themselves; if a supposed rabbi (or cantor! or seminary student!) agrees with J-Street, then critical thinking about the religious aspects of J-Street go out the window.

This also helps fool credulous low-level politicians who are not aware of how badly J-Street has already shown itself to be anything but pro-Israel.

After all, when it comes down to it, the entire purpose of J-Street is to put forth the pretense that there is a large number of American Jews who believe that the best thing for Israel is to abandon its democratically elected officials and to replace them with more liberal-friendly alternatives. They want to pretend that pro-Israel groups like AIPAC are not in sync with American Jewry - and J-Street is. How better to further the charade than to organize a tiny minority of rabbis for whom politics is more important than religion? What can be more effective than to give a kosher seal of approval to acts that make the average Israeli - and involved American Jew - blanch?

Do you want to know how J-Street is using its rabbis to prepare for giving up Judaism's holiest places? Read this sickening pseudo-d'var Torah on the J-Street site by Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, Congregation String of Pearls, a Reconstructionist congregation in Princeton, NJ that hold services in a Unitarian church. This is the most intricate pilpul on J-Street's site:

[T]he Torah itself places our textual tradition squarely in the realm of a literary, rather than a literal, tradition. The need for a lively symbolism trumps the need for historical accuracy.

But throughout this literary masterpiece, perhaps most clearly in Deuteronomy, its fifth book, we can discern a political stance that takes the form of an arc toward justice, especially distributive justice. The Torah claims that justice and peace can not exist without economic parity. And we also find in it the radical notion... that land does not belong to any of us, that we are all its tenants. As the narrative’s protagonist, God, says in parshat Yitro: indeed all the earth is Mine, ki li kol ha’aretz.

...Right now we need to bring these resilient foundations of our tradition to bear on a seemingly intractable problem. Of course a sovereign state needs clear and verifiable boundaries, but let us remind ourselves that we come from a literary tradition in which land has long been revered for its symbolic value at least as much as its economic or strategic value; we do not come from a literal tradition. A literal interpretation would claim land ownership, down to the last hectare and dunam, based on our ancient ancestors’ understanding of what God wanted from them and from their descendants.

Yes - Reb Donna (which is what her temple's website calls her) takes God's words of "all the Earth is Mine" and applies it literally.

But the eighth verse in Deuteronomy, the book she praises for its political stance, says quite clearly: Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

That explicit promise, and many similar promises that God made to the Israelites in the Torah, we are told, are literary.

And Reb Donna is just the person to understand what parts of the Torah are literal - the ones she believes in - and which parts are disposable.

When God says to treat widows and orphans well, that is of course literal. When He says to circumcise Jewish males, well, we have to ask Reb Donna if it fits in with her personal political feelings at the moment to decide what exactly it is. Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe it will change next year depending on the political climate or what Jeremy Ben Ami decides.

This is the type of rabbinic approval that J-Street needs so badly - personal interpretations of Torah texts by dilettante "rabbis" to give a sheen of quasi-Judaism to its thoroughly political, anti-Israel (and anti-religious) positions.

It is a well-paying job, commensurate with experience, as well it should be. Putting lipstick on a pig and declaring it kosher is no small accomplishment.

(h/t DJK and CHA)

Saudi Arabia threatens the US in an NYT op-ed

A threat by former Saudi ambassador to the US Turki Faisal, which no doubt reflects official Saudi policy, called "Veto a State, Lose an Ally":

The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people.

Saudi leaders would be forced by domestic and regional pressures to adopt a far more independent and assertive foreign policy. Like our recent military support for Bahrain’s monarchy, which America opposed, Saudi Arabia would pursue other policies at odds with those of the United States, including opposing the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq and refusing to open an embassy there despite American pressure to do so. The Saudi government might part ways with Washington in Afghanistan and Yemen as well.

If the Saudis supported Bahrain's monarchy against American wishes before any UNSC vote, why would the vote make a difference? The fact is that every country will act in ways that are in their self-interest, and Saudi Arabia is no different. Otherwise, Faisal is admitting that his country is now an American puppet. Obviously that is not true.

Israel should see the Palestinian bid for statehood not as a threat, but as a chance to return to the negotiating table and prevent further conflict. Recent polls show that up to 70 percent of Palestinians say they believe there will be a new intifada if the deadlock is not broken shortly; this should encourage Israel to seek peace with the moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

I didn't see that poll, but it shows that Palestinian Arabs will resort to violence whenever they don't get 100% of what they demand. This is not a reason to give in to 100% of their demands, and as we have seen, they have not changed their demands of Israel since 1988.

The Palestinian statehood initiative is a chance to replace Oslo with a new paradigm based on state-to-state negotiations — a win-win proposition that makes the conflict more manageable and lays the groundwork for a lasting solution.

Israel giving up the heartland of the historic Jewish state, including historic Jerusalem, makes it a "win-win"?

Today, there is a chance for the United States and Saudi Arabia to contain Iran and prevent it from destabilizing the region. But this opportunity will be squandered if the Obama administration’s actions at the United Nations force a deepening split between our two countries.

Although Saudi Arabia is willing and able to chart a new and divergent course if America fails to act justly with regard to Palestine, the Middle East would be far better served by continuing cooperation and good will between these longstanding allies.

Is he saying that if the US vetoes the security council bid that Saudi Arabia will move under Iran's orbit? That its opposition to Iran is somehow dependent on US attitudes to Palestine? Because the two have nothing to do with each other, and if Faisal is making such a linkage, that means that the Saudis are no friends. Quite the contrary.

Faisal also fails to describe how exactly declaring a state helps real-life Palestinian Arabs.

Will the new state accept millions of so-called refugees in its borders? Not at all.

Will it help their economy? No, it will destroy it.

Will it pacify Hamas and Islamic Jihad? No, it will strengthen them.

If Saudi Arabia wants to help Palestinian Arabs, they can use their billions of petrodollars for good, and ask those who want to - voluntarily - to become citizens of Saudi Arabia. Only those who want to end their limbo that was imposed by most Arab governments for 63 years. These are the people that supposedly need "statehood" the most, yet no plan is being made to actually help them - on the contrary, they have been used as pawns for decades by self-righteous hypocrites like Saudi Arabia leaders. As well as Palestinian Arab leaders themselves.

Give them a choice. In the name of human rights, allow the many Palestinian Arabs who want to become normal citizens of Arab countries to have that right of citizenship.

Then, and only then, do hypocritical Arab states have the right to claim that they are trying to help the Palestinian Arab people.

Jews dancing in the Old City in Rosh Hashanah video

This ain't your grandfather's hora.

From Aish:

Iranian again forfeits wrestling match with Israeli

From Hurriyet Daily News:

More than 800 wrestlers from all over the world are ready for the big showdown, as the World Wrestling Championship starts in Istanbul on Monday.

Five Israeli wrestlers have been registered to participate in the world championships, which will start in Istanbul on Monday.

FILA President Raphael Martinetti said the Israeli federation did not contact the world wrestling’s governing body to ask for increased security.

“Israel did not ask for special security,” Martinetti said at a press conference last week. “Sometimes athletes can get last-minute injury reports to rule themselves out when an Iranian is set to meet an Israeli, but I don’t think that will be the case here, since the organization is important for athletes who want to earn an Olympic berth.”

It looks like Iran had one of those "last minute injuries."

YNet Hebrew reports that Robert Avinshin won when his Iranian opponent Hasam Golmarzeh did not appear.

(h/t Dan)

Egyptians believe Israel's embassy flag is meant to show Israel's border on the Nile

A small, nutty detail among all the reporting from the Israel embassy over the weekend, from Al Ahram:

Many Egyptians have believed for 30 years that Israel chose to implant its embassy in this specific location in order to be able to fly its Star of David, blue and white flag over the Nile.

And why should Israel care so much to fly the flag over the Nile? Why, obviously, to demarcate Greater Israel - which takes up all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates!

And indeed that is what they think. This Facebook group talks about it, and the Egyptian who took down the Israeli flag from the embassy in August claims that he saw a banner on top of the building that said, in Hebrew and Arabic, "The Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates."

Even Al Ahram notes that most Egyptians are so irrational as to believe that Israel would choose a site for its embassy, not for security, but to engage in a symbolic annexation of a good portion of Egypt.

Ma'ariv reports that it took US threats to withdraw all aid to the Egyptian military and take away its own embassy personnel before the government decided to help out the Israeli guards who were facing a lynch mob. It also reports that Israel is looking for a new location for the embassy - presumably not on the Nile.

(h/t Yoel)

Podcast interview with Max Brenner protesters in Australia

Ben Fordham talks to protesters outside of Max Brenner chocolate shop. Some of them say that the Mossad and CIA were behind 9/11; others support Gaddafi against NATO.

Fordham asks many of they had ever been to Palestine; none had. When one challenges him saying it is irrelevant he mentions that he had worked in Palestinian Arab camps helping the residents there.

(h/t Daphne Anson)

Poll: Arabs split between supporting, opposing 9/11 attacks

From Arutz-7 - original story in Arabic at Al Arabiya:

More than one-third of Arabs justify the 9/11 attacks, and only 23 percent believe Al Qaeda was behind the aerial suicide bombings.

The survey included 220,000 Arabs and was carried out by the Al-Arabia television channel in Dubai and a British research institute.

Thirty-six percent of the respondents justified the attacks, but only 38 percent took the opposite view, leaving another 16 percent undecided or with no opinion.

Only 23 percent believe that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks, while a large number – 26 percent – think that the terrorist organization did not plan and carry out the hijack-bombings.

The poll was done by Al Arabiya and YouGov Siraj, but the raw results are not available online.

Al Arabiya has not yet translated their analysis into English.

Meanwhile, International Business Times notes the prevalence of 9/11 conspiracy theories in the Muslim world:

Following 9/11 and despite Al-Qaeda claiming the attacks, conspiracy theories emerged rapidly, with many blaming a Zionist enterprise. While many claim a Zionist involvement, very few seem able to explain how Bin Laden, a symbol of the fight against the West and the infidels for many Islamist extremists, apparently worked hand in hand with the Jewish lobby groups to prepare the attacks.

Most of the conspiracy theories insisting the leadership behind the attacks was more Zionist than Islamist. However for such bizarre beliefs to be taken seriously one would have to assume that Osama Bin Laden himself was a secret pro-Zionist and was part of a Zionist plot aimed at world domination.

While some theories accuse Israeli army veterans, an Israeli spy ring or even the media, most fail to give even a walk on part to al-Qaeda, preferring instead to focus on Jews. The surge of such theories also angered al-Qaeda leader Al-Zawahri, who at the time accused Hezbollah and Iran of being behind the rumours saying "The purpose of this lie is clear - (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.

The intrafada continues

From Ma'an:

Unidentified assailants detonated an explosive device overnight Sunday in front of the home of a Palestinian Authority general intelligence officer in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, witnesses told Ma'an.

Residents said an explosion was heard at 4.15 a.m. by an outdoor parking lot where PA intelligence officer Muhammad Nayif Addiri parks his car.

PA leaders cannot walk around safely in Gaza, but, hey, the world will give them a state that they cannot control anyway.