Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Egyptian journalist insists she didn't pressure Shalit

From AFP:

An Egyptian journalist under fire for interviewing Gilad Shalit as Hamas handed him to Egypt denied on Wednesday that the Israeli soldier had been pressured to give the interview.

Shahira Amin, celebrated in Egypt for quitting her job as a state television reporter during the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February, conducted Tuesday’s interview for the state-owned Nile Television.

An Israeli official accused her of violating “all the basic ethical rules of journalism” by interviewing Shalit, just moments after he had spent five years in captivity and was being released at the start of a prisoner exchange.

But Amin told an Egyptian chat show that she asked Shalit to do the interview and he consented.

The interview was conducted on no-man’s land in the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, she said. Shalit was accompanied by Hamas members and Egyptian intelligence agents.

“He was tired. I sat with him at first for two minutes and said: ‘I understand you want to see your parents as soon as possible and don’t want to give interviews,’” she said.

“But the world wants to know how you are doing so don’t deprive us of some words,” she said. “If he had refused, we wouldn’t have pressured him.”

The Egyptian Gazette, a government-owned English daily, reported on its website on Wednesday that the head of Egypt’s state television also said that no one forced Shalit to conduct the interview.

When you are just released from captivity but not yet free, and a masked member of the group that has been threatening your life every day for five and a half years is standing right behind you with his hand practically touching your back, how much free will do you have to say "no"?

No, no pressure at all.

New variant of Stuxnet discovered

From eWeek:

A new worm targeting industrial control system manufacturers has a strong resemblance to Stuxnet, leading researchers to dub it "Son of Stuxnet"

Symantec researchers have discovered a new worm in the wild that has the potential to attack and cripple industrial control systems, much like Stuxnet did.

The new worm, dubbed Duqu, shares a lot of the code with Stuxnet, leading Symantec researchers to believe it was either created by the same team or by another group with access to the Stuxnet source code, Symantec researchers said in a 46-page whitepaper released Oct. 18. Unlike Stuxnet, which was designed to attack a very specific type of computer system, Duqu does not have appear to have a clear target.

Discovered a little over a year ago, Stuxnet is considered one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever developed. It compromised several industrial control systems at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. Observers believe Iran's nuclear program had been set back years by the malware. Despite the fact that researchers around the world have analyzed Stuxnet, the source code is "not out there," according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of F-Secure, noting that "only the original authors have it."

"Duqu is essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack," Symantec Security Response researchers wrote on the Symantec Connect blog. The researchers did not speculate on its origins.

Considering the time and resources required to develop tools like this, Lookingglass’ CTO Jason Lewis told eWEEK that a nation state was the likely author.

Duqu's primary purpose at the moment appears to be intelligence-gathering from industrial control system manufacturers, according to Symantec. ...

"The key thing missing here, unlike Stuxnet, is we don't know what they are looking for," Symantec said.

At the moment, Duqu only creates a back door on infected systems and connects with a command-and-control server somewhere in India, according to Symantec. The backdoor is open precisely for 36 days, after which the malware self-destructs.

The C&C server appears to not have sent any instructions yet, Symantec said. The short 36 day lifecycle implies there is a specific target, according to Lewis.

According to McAfee's analysis of the worm, the malware installs drivers and encrypted DLLS that can act as keyloggers on the system to monitor all processes and messages. It also has no mechanism to replicate itself.

McAfee researchers Guilherme Venere and Peter Szor are fairly confident that Duqu was created by the same developers responsible for Stuxnet. They based their conclusions on the fact that both viruses utilize similar encryption keys and techniques, injection code and fraudulent digital certificates which had been issued to companies in Taiwan. The digital certificate keys appear to be real, which also make the programs look legitimate.

I don't know how difficult it is to modify Stuxnet to do other things, but the description here isn't making much sense to me. I cannot see the value of using already-known exploits to try to gather new infomation when everyone with any concept of computer security would have already put up defenses against it.

On the other hand, Symantec says that this code uses a new stolen digital certificate from Taiwan that had not been breached before, and that the code seems to have been written in December 2010. A normal hacker is not usually able to steal digital certificates - that requires real-world espionage.

(h/t CHA, Zach)

Hamas flag in one hand, gun in the other

A photo taken during yesterday's celebrations in Kfar HaShiloach (Silwan), Jerusalem. I am not sure if this is one of the released prisoners.

Wonderful.

Archbishop Hanna was taking part in these peaceful celebrations as well:

Lots more photos from this Arabic site.

(h/t Moshe)

NYT uses Shalit as pretext to slam Netanyahu

An absurd editorial in the NYT:

Now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has compromised with Hamas, we fear that to prove his toughness he will be even less willing to make the necessary compromises to restart negotiations. And we fear that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his Fatah faction, who were cut out of the swap altogether, will be further weakened.

Just this one paragraph oozes anti-Israel bias.

Couldn't the NYT have equally have the concern that Abbas would become ideologically more militant as a result of the deal to gain more street cred among the happy hordes of terrorist worshippers who came out to celebrate yesterday?

No, their fear is only that Israel, by showing flexibility, will become more intransigent - without a word about Abbas' preconditions.

Yes, those new preconditions, added only a year or two ago, that Israel must stop all building in Judea, Samaria and most of Jerusalem before negotiations. The NYT is calling these "necessary compromises" but in fact it is evidence of the PLO's strategy of saying no to everything until it gets what it wants, unilaterally.

One has to ask: If Mr. Netanyahu can negotiate with Hamas — which shoots rockets at Israel, refuses to recognize Israel’s existence and, on Tuesday, vowed to take even more hostages — why won’t he negotiate seriously with the Palestinian Authority, which Israel relies on to help keep the peace in the West Bank?

One "has" to ask that question?

Israel and Hamas were never in the same room during the Shalit negotiations, as far as I can tell - Hamas bragged that they didn't even sign the same piece of paper as Israel.

And the NYT is using this as evidence that Israel is more amenable to negotiating with Hamas than with the PLO? Even when Israel has been the one party that has been begging for negotiations to restart and the PLO has been the one refusing?

Incidentally, Hamas was willing to give something up - Gilad Shalit. The PLO has offered nothing. Perhaps if the Times had ever pressured Abbas to compromise on land, there would have been peace by now. Instead, by writing editorials like this, they give Abbas more reason to stick to his favorite word - "No."

The newspaper of record is twisting facts to fit its views, and this editorial proves it as much as it can be proven.

See also Jewlicious.

The pledge that released prisoners signed

From IMRA:

Raanan Gissin told IMRA today that the Palestinian prisoners being released today in the Shalit deal are signing the same standard form as was signed by prisoners released in the past.

The following is IMRA's translation of the Hebrew version of the declaration signed by convicted Palestinians released by Israel. The text was provided to IMRA by the IDF Spokesperson's Office (the same text was signed by those who had not been sentenced yet with minor changes):

Declaration and Commitment

I the undersigned (name) (ID)

1. It was brought to my attention that beyond requirements and as a good will gesture by the Government of Israel, within the framework of its relations with the Palestinian government and the renewal of the efforts for peace, the military command decide to ease my sentence, subject to my signing this declaration and commitment.

2. I hereby declare that I oppose all terror and violent actions and I hereby commit to desist from all actions against the security of the State of Israel or the security of the region in general and include in this terror or violent activities, and support or aid to it, in any way including:

A. To desist from returning and carrying out a crime of the type of crimes that I was convicted of as well as any other crime;
B. Not to belong to a terror organization or illegal group of any kind;
C. Not to engage in inciting activities, and included in this incitement to carry out terror or act illegally against the peace process;
D. Not to be involved and not to support or aid terror activities against any person and any act of violence or action that may cause the public or any part of it damage or fear or any other damage;
E. To desist from illegally entering the area of Israel or the Israeli communities in the territories.

3. I am aware that the remainder of the prison sentence that I was sentenced by the court in the region is conditional, as of the day of my release, for the course of three years, and the condition is that I will not carry out a crime that could hurt the security of the area or the security of the State of Israel and including that desisting from any act of terror or violence and support or aid for such activities, in any way, as detained in Paragraph 2.

4. Likewise I am aware that if I violate a condition of the conditions of the release the court will have the right to activate the remainder of the sentence that was in effect prior to my release and to decide that I bear this punishment in addition to any other punishment that is imposed on me.

5. I hereby confirm that the wording of my commitment and declaration was explained to me in Arabic and that after its significance was made clear to me I signed the document out of my free will.

Date
Signature of the prisoner
Confirmation
I the undersigned Name Rank Personal Number Position

From Ma'an:

Released prisoners pledge to continue resistance

Sounds like Israel can start rounding them up again.

(h/t Cheryl)

NPR declares Hamas' Gaza to be a state

From NPR:

STEVE INSKEEP, host, Morning Edition: Now, of course you used the phrase, at the moment – as the days go on, the attention will turn back to where the peace process, or the lack of the peace process, goes next. What does this prisoner exchange mean for relations between Israel and Hamas, the group that had been holding – had been holding the soldier?

SHEERA FRENKEL, NPR reporter in Israel: I think that, as time goes on, we're already beginning to see(ph) murmurs of groups that are asking why Israel has released so many prisoners. And I think, as time goes on, there's going to be more and more people questioning whether Israel should continue to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for soldiers. In the long run, there's hope that this will create diplomatic ties that may eventually lead to Hamas and Israel making peaceful borders, eventually, in the future, some sort of dialogue through the Palestinian Authorities in the West Bank that will lead to peaceful times ahead. But that's the optimism at the moment, and I think this is a very optimistic moment. The pessimistic Israelis, and I do think, in the coming days, it will be the majority of Israelis, will say that this is a brief respite and that, likely, he will not be the last Israeli soldier that is captured by a neighboring state.

Congratulations, Hamas. You have achieved state recognition by the (partially) US-government funded public radio network.

Maybe you can open some embassies now.

(h/t notmidwest)

"Human Rights" Watch

Human Rights Watch does it again:

Yea... let's open the borders now we released some murderers! Of course no word of HRW demanding the same from Egypt. Of course no word on the prisoners with blood on their hands, who got released in this swap. No word on how Shalit came out of prison - weak and pale, while his "counter-prisoners" were strong and of good health. No word on Shalits words for the wish of peace and no word for released Hamas prisoners who want to continue rather today than tomorrow with their fight.

In which parallel universe is HRW living? Seriously.

Ousted FIFA chief blames bribery woes on - wait for it...

Zionists!

Background from ESPN last June 20:

Jack Warner quit as a FIFA vice president Monday and soccer's governing body dropped a bribery investigation of him, saying the "presumption of innocence is maintained."

Warner and Asian soccer chief Mohamed bin Hammam were suspended by FIFA last month amid the gravest corruption crisis to rock the scandal-hit organization. The two leaders were accused of offering $40,000 cash payments to Caribbean voters during bin Hammam's failed presidential campaign to unseat Sepp Blatter.

And now, today:

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has blamed Zionism for the circumstances that led to him and former Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed Bin Hammam being forced out of world football.

Warner, 68, resigned from FIFA after ethics investigations were begun into a meeting he held with Bin Hammam where FIFA say payments were made to Caribbean soccer officials ahead of the election for FIFA president in June.

Qatari Bin Hammam was handed a lifetime ban by FIFA for his role in the affair while a number of Caribbean officials were given suspensions last week.

“I will talk about the racism that is within FIFA. I will talk about the levels of religious discrimination which I sought to correct. I will talk about the Zionism, which probably is the most important reason why this acrid attack on Bin Hammam and me was mounted,” Warner said.

And who can argue?

(h/t Russell)

Iran's Supreme Leader warns about "Zionist Protocols"

From Tehran Times:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that the policies that the global hegemonistic system’s media outlets have adopted are in line with the dangerous goals of the Zionist protocols.

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in an address to a number of intellectuals, academics, athletes, economists, and literary and cultural figures in the western city of Kermanshah on Tuesday.

“The efforts made by the global hegemonistic system’s media networks to highlight deviant and crude paradigms are in line with the dangerous goals of the Zionist protocols,” he observed.

What could he possibly mean by "Zionist Protocols"?

A possible clue: The Tehran Times mentioned what appear to be the same protocols in a story about an anti-Israel computer game last year:

Iran released two anti-Israeli computer games on the eve of the Quds Day.

“Devil Den 2” and “Freedom Convoy”, which have been produced by the School Students Basij Organization, were unveiled during a ceremony on Thursday.

“Devil Den 2” is about the Israeli protocols, Brigadier Mohammad-Saleh Jokar, the director of the organization, which is affiliated to the Education Ministry, said in the ceremony.

“The illegitimate regime has said in its protocols that they will abolish all beliefs,” he stated.

“We have witnessed that the foundations of the illegitimate Zionist regime have been weakened and our younger generation must be familiarized with the protocols and the antihuman ideology of the regime,” he added.

Nah, I'm stumped.

But it can't possibly be anything anti-semitic, because we know that Iran respects all adherents of "divine religions."

Yesterday I noted that Hamas was building a massive 10,000 sq. ft.stage to celebrate the release of hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails, and I noted that it seems that Hamas can find all the building materials it needs - wood and iron - when it wants to build something.

I wondered if UNRWA was bothered at all that all these valuable building materials that are supposedly banned from Gaza are being used for terror rallies rather than, say, building houses.

Israel Awareness emailed UNRWA's Chris Gunness with that question:

Will UNRWA mention this – that Hamas has enough building materials to build plenty of homes, but refuses to use them? Will you urge Hamas to use it for the greater good?

Or will you condemn Israel for not allowing enough building materials into Gaza?

Gunness' answer, in part:

There’s no doubt that right now we all need to redouble our efforts to ease the suffering of the ordinary people of Gaza and to think again about the blockade policy.

I would imagine that the stage is built with materials which came in to Gaza through the tunnels. Because of the blockade policy the tunnels trade from which Hamas takes a fifteen per cent tax is booming. The Israeli blockade policy has empowered Hamas. Another reason you might think to lift the blockade.

I agree that we need to build houses for people who are homeless from the war and since their homes were bulldozed by the Israeli authorities ten years ago in the south. To do that, the UN needs to bring in thousands of trucks from Israel and to do that, the blockade needs to be lifted.

From what I can tell, Gunness is saying that while Hamas is the de facto government in Gaza, they are not responsible for the well-being of their citizens. Only UNRWA builds houses, leaving Hamas without that responsibility.

So, UNRWA's position is that Hamas is perfectly entitled to use building materials that could be used to build houses for people that have been homeless for ten years (way before the Gaza closure, by the way) for whatever it wants - terror rallies, weapons bunkers, tunnels to kidnap Israelis, whatever. Hamas has no fear that UNRWA will say anything remotely critical of it, and it equally has no fear that it will ever have to actually take responsibility for its people the way every other government in the world is expected to (besides the PA.)

No, Chris Gunness' condemnations are never aimed at Hamas, but rather concentrated on one entity in the Middle East, and one only.

BBC reporter not quite sure why a terrorist was in prison

At the BBC website there is a video clip of reporter Jon Donnison speaking to one of the freed terrorists in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Taha.

Donnison starts the interview off by saying, "'You are 31 years old, 10 years in prison, serving a life sentence for being a member of Hamas, I mean, how do you feel today?"

Was Taha serving a life sentence only for being a member of Hamas?

Well, it seems he was a bit more involved than that.

From the MFA site:

Ahmed Abd Al Karim Ali Abu Taha was born in 1980 and resides in Ramallah. Abu Taha was involved in preparing explosives for Hamas terrorists in Ramallah, including the car bomb that exploded in Giva'at Ze'ev in Jerusalem on 29 July 2001. A member of the Ibrahim Abu Rub and Ballal Baraguti organizations, he transported the suicide bomber Ra'ad Baraguti from Ramallah to Jerusalem, where he exploded on Hanevi'im Street on 4 September 2001 and injured 14 people. It is interesting to note that his father, Abd Al Karim Ali Mustafa Abu Taha, works in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Also, according to the list of prisoners given out by Israel, he was sentenced to 27 years, not life. He only intended to kill scores of people, but he wasn't successful.

But when the BBC gets such a great interview, with someone who actually knows English, why should they bother reporting those little inconvenient facts? It might insult Mr. Taha, and that wouldn't be polite.

(h/t Yedidya)

Abbas claims Israel promised him another major prisoner release

At a rally in Ramallah celebrating the release of hundreds of Arab terrorists, Mahmoud Abbas claimed that Israel agreed to release a many prisoners to him.

He said, " It is not a secret if I say that there is an agreement between us and the Israeli government to release another batch similar to this one after [this prisoner swap] is finished, God willing."

Ha'aretz says that "it was the first mention of such a release."

Abbas went on to praise the prisoners, some of whom are cold blooded multiple murderers of innocent civilians, as "freedom fighters, and Mujahideen for the sake of God and the homeland."

One reason Shalit looked so ill at ease in his interview (UPDATE)

A number of people have noted how cruel it was to force Shalit to be subjected to an inane interview on Egyptian TV, delaying his release for ten excruciating minutes:

And while we can attribute his hesitation to answer and his discomfort to the idiotic questions, there is another reason for his distress, as can be seen from this photo immediately before or during the interview:

(Getty Images claims this was an interview with Hamas TV before he was released, but no such interview seems to have occurred and the microphone, background wall and chair seem to match those in the Egyptian interview.)

(h/t JSSNews)

UPDATE: AP verifies it was in Egypt:

UPDATE 2: AP wrote about it as well:

Armed Hamas militants were in the area during the interview. One of them stood behind Schalit's chair, wearing a a black face mask, a green headband of the Qassam brigades – Hamas' military wing – and a video camera in his hand.

(h/t David)

UPDATE 3: The interviewer insists that Shalit wasn't pressured to do the interview. Yeah, right.

Amnesty International becomes even more of a joke

Amnesty International put out a nonsensical press release:

The prisoner exchange involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners highlights the need for the humane treatment of all detainees in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Amnesty International said today.

“This deal will bring relief to Gilad Shalit and his family after an ordeal that has lasted more than five years. Many Palestinian families will feel a similar sense of relief today when they are reunited with their relatives, many of whom have spent decades under harsh conditions in Israeli detention," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.

Cable TV, free college degrees, excellent medical care, smuggled cell phones...the horrors never stop.

Since 27 September, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike in protest against recent punitive measures imposed by the Israeli authorities.

Prisoners are demanding that the Israel Prison Service end the arbitrary isolation of prisoners and allow them regular family visits.

Amnesty forgot to mention the whole chickens! I'm sure there is an international convention on the rights to have whole chickens! And unlimited satellite TV of terrorist channels, which is another demand.

The fact that they are detained on Israeli territory makes it difficult, if not impossible for their families to visit them, as the Israeli authorities often refuse to grant them travel permits.

Since Amnesty is on record as saying that Gaza is "occupied" - against its own definition of the term - this means that Amnesty is insisting that Israel build prisons in Gaza itself! Will Hamas sign on for that?

Amnesty throws in another unwarranted dig at Israel:

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or deporting people from an occupied territory. In the event that those prisoners being exiled abroad or transferred to Gaza from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have not given their consent, Israel would be violating its obligations under international humanitarian law.

But the terrorists and Hamas agreed to the deportations. One of them insisted today to go to Egypt instead of Gaza, out of fear that she would be killed in Gaza! In other words - they did give their consent, so this paragraph serves no purpose except for Amnesty to imply Israeli human rights violations with no evidence.

Not to mention - they are lying about Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions:

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total or partial evacuation of a given area if the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.

The terrorists do not have all the privileges of Geneva's "protected persons." As the ICRC writes:

If civilians directly engage in hostilities, they are considered " unlawful " or " unprivileged " combatants or belligerents (the treaties of humanitarian law do not expressly contain these terms). They may be prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action.

Unlawful combatants do not qualify for prisoner of war status. ....This protection is not the same as that afforded to lawful combatants. To the contrary, persons protected by the Fourth Convention and the relevant provisions of Protocol I may be prosecuted under domestic law for directly participating in hostilities. They may be interned for as long as they pose a serious security threat, and, while in detention, may under specific conditions be denied certain privileges under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They may also be prosecuted for war crimes and other crimes and sentenced to terms exceeding the length of the conflict, including the range of penalties provided for under domestic law.

But beyond that, Amnesty is not even entertaining the possibility that these terrorists remain a danger to Israel - something Geneva addresses!

Keep in mind that Amnesty never called for Shalit's release. Even though he was kidnapped specifically to be a hostage, even though his capture and captivity were completely against the Geneva Conventions - Amnesty did not think he deserved to be released unconditionally.

This is only the latest embarrassment to come out of Amnesty.

It banned Zionists from an Israel-bashing forum last night in London.

The Canadian government dismissed Amnesty's "stunt"at calling for George W. Bush to be arrested when he visits Canada, noting that they never demanded the same from Castro, Gorbachev or other despots who have set foot on Canadian soil.

(HRW, not to be outdone, mimicked Amnesty's call to Canada.)

That's Amnesty - an organization that fervently believes that Hamas terrorists should be treated with more deference than US presidents.

(h/t Anne, Brad, see also Omri)

PLO envoy to Ottawa asked to leave after tweeting anti-Jewish video

From the Globe and Mail:

The Palestinian envoy to Canada has been told she’s not welcome in Ottawa after she tweeted a link to a video that the federal government deemed an offensive diatribe against Jews.

Now, Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata. The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to “limit communication” with her until a replacement arrives.

The diplomatic cold shoulder was sparked when Ms. Sobeh Ali took to Twitter this month to circulate a link to a video posted on YouTube, telling her followers on the social-media message system to “check this video out.”

The video shows a Palestinian girl, in tears and shouting with passion, reciting a poem in Arabic, “I am Palestinian.” The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews.”

When Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird learned of it about two weeks ago, he instructed his deputy minister, Morris Rosenberg, to call Ms. Sobeh Ali in to complain, and the Canadian representative in the West Bank, Chris Greenshields, to protest to the Palestinian Authority.

“Canada expects the Palestinian Authority to appropriately deal with this serious transgression,” Mr. Baird’s spokesman, Chris Day, said in an e-mail. “We have taken the decision to limit communication with this official until a replacement is selected.”

It’s not clear how quickly Ms. Sobeh Ali – essentially the Palestinian ambassador, although she does not hold that rank because she does not represent a sovereign state – will be replaced. Reached by telephone on Monday, Ms. Sobeh Ali said she is not in a position to comment right now. She denied a rumour she is leaving Ottawa this week, but when asked if the Palestinian Authority has recalled her, she said a polite goodbye, and hung up.

Complicating the matter – in the eyes of some, but not others – is the fact that the English subtitles in the video linked to Ms. Sobeh Ali are a mistranslation of the girl’s Arabic poem in several parts.

The phrase that the subtitles translate as, “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews,” is correctly translated as, “to a war that is destroying oppression and kill the soul of Zionism,” according to Salah Basalamah, associate professor in the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation.

Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which first sent Ms. Sobeh Ali’s video tweet to Mr. Baird’s office, said both versions are unfit to be circulated by a Palestinian envoy.

“You’re speaking to someone who doesn’t see a difference,” Mr. Fogel said. Calling for a war for the destruction of Zionism – the movement to establish a Jewish land – is a denial of Israel’s right to exist, he said, and the passion of the girl, shaking as her eyes well up with tears, makes it an entirely wrong thing for a Palestinian envoy to Ottawa to circulate, he said.

“I was shocked at the video,” he said. “And I’m pretty thick-skinned.”

Ms. Sobeh Ali has closed her Twitter account.

There are dozens of versions of this video of a brainwashed girl on YouTube, in Turkish, French, Arabic and English. Most translate to a diatribe against Zionists, but some do translate her words as wanting to destroy the Jews.

This seems to be the version that Sobeh Ali tweeted:

Yesterday, I noted that one of the released terrorists was Yehye al-Sinwar, who had tried to orchestrate a Shalit-style kidnapping while in Israeli prison.

Today, at the Gaza border, he congratulated the terror groups that were involved in Shalit's kidnapping and he vowed that Hamas would do whatever it takes to get the remainder of Arab terrorists released from prison, "at all costs."

What do you think he means by that?

Somehow, I don't think it means recognizing Israel and accepting peace.

Microcosm of the conflict in Ramallah

Ha'aretz reports that Palestinian Arab protesters burned tires on the planned route that prisoner buses were going to take.

source

So Israel re-routed the buses to avoid the burning tires.

Which prompted Palestinian Arabs to clash with the IDF, angry that the original route wasn't being used.

source

Which is the entire conflict in a nutshell. Palestinian Arabs so something pointless, counterproductive and destructive; Israel responds in the only way possible while preserving life, and Palestinian Arabs then turn on Israel for reacting to their idiocy.

An infinite loop of futility, fueled by self-destructive stupidity, perpetually blamed on others.

Gilad Shalit is free!

No matter what you think about the swap deal, this is a day that has been a long time coming.

Gilad Shalit is alive and well and has arrived back home.

Iran's nuclear program suffering setbacks

From WaPo:

Iran’s nuclear program, which stumbled badly after a reported cyber attack last year, appears beset by poorly performing equipment, shortages of parts and other woes as global sanctions exert a mounting toll, Western diplomats and nuclear experts say.

Although Iran continues to stockpile enriched uranium in defiance of U.N. resolutions, two new reports portray the country’s nuclear program as riddled with problems as scientists struggle to keep older equipment working.

At Iran’s largest nuclear complex, near the city of Natanz, fast-spinning machines called centrifuges churn out enriched uranium. But its output is steadily declining as the equipment ages and breaks down, according to an analysis of data collected by U.N. nuclear officials.

Iran has vowed to replace the older machines with models that are faster and more efficient. Yet new centrifuges recently introduced at Natanz contain parts made from an inferior type of metal that is weaker and more prone to failure, according to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington nonprofit group widely regarded for its analysis of nuclear programs.

“Without question, they have been set back,” said David Albright, president of the institute and a former inspector for the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Although the problems are not fatal for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, they have “hurt Iran’s ability to break out quickly” into the ranks of the world’s nuclear powers, Albright said.

Western diplomats and nuclear experts say Iranian officials have been frustrated and angered by the program’s numerous setbacks, including deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists. Four Iranian scientists have been killed by unidentified assailants since 2007, and a fifth narrowly escaped death in an attempted car-bombing.

All together now:

"Awwwwww!"

(h/t CHA)

I am the 0.003%!

From JPost:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the United States is imprisoned by "10,000 Zionists," in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Monday. "The Zionists are maximum 10,000 people, should all of American be sacrificed for the Zionists?" the Iranian president asked.

The "Occupy Wall Street" crowd complains about the 1% of Americans who supposedly control the nation's wealth, but Ahmadinejad is going a couple of orders of magnitude better - saying that 0.003% of Americans control all aspects of the nation!

I am more powerful than even I imagined!

Eyewitness to Copt massacre

The New York Review of Books has a very good, evenhanded eyewitness account of the massacre of Copts in Egypt last week. There is enough blame to go around - the government, the TV station, Muslim thugs, and Egyptian civilians..

Some excerpts:

As the march moved forward, many more people joined in, and there were some 10,000 by the time we neared Maspero, just after sunset. I rushed ahead, taking a side street past rows of riot police to reach the State TV building in advance of the crowd. A few hundred Copts were already gathered there, and I noticed plainclothes State Security agents among them and other men lurking around who looked like they might be thugs. It was in those moments, as I stood at Maspero and the march approached the corniche, turning the corner, that chaos broke out. At first there was shouting, as the police used their batons to deter protesters, and then suddenly, a siren, before gunfire filled the air—not single shots, but rounds. The sound seemed to be coming from the front line, near the October 6 Bridge, which I now stood behind. It kept coming in bursts, and the marchers were running, many back in the direction of Tahrir, where they later tweeted that they were confronted by thugs and security forces.

Almost everyone I talked to thought the army was doing the shooting, saying that security forces were firing randomly at the crowd. More plausibly, from my vantage point and the accounts of some, it looked like the army had first fired warning shots in the air to prevent the protesters from reaching the TV Building, which some activists had been proposing to storm (a theory subsequently confirmed in part by the discovery of blank rounds at the site.) But this then raises the question of who else might have been shooting, since it became clear that live rounds were used.

One witness said the first shot came from behind the security forces’ front line, in the area between the bridge and Maspero. And a friend later told me a pickup truck had driven by the march as it was approaching the corniche, and that men had shot at the crowds through the windows, stirring panic. This weekend, I was shown a video that seemed to confirm this—it showed a pickup truck that had first gone to Maspero, where five or six men with clubs and swords had got off, pelted the army with stones, and beat some soldiers. Clearly there to stir trouble, these thugs cast themselves as “Copts”, putting the army on alert. The video shows them then driving off, in the wrong direction down the street and round the corner, towards the protesters. The account of the first gunshot coming from behind the army as the protesters approached might be explained by this mob—it is possible one of them stayed behind in Maspero.

At the time, rushing back in the direction of the side street as the crackling of gunshots filled the air, I found myself facing dozens of police in riot gear beating down protesters with batons. I returned to the main street a few meters away, where people were being knocked to the ground. Men around me—civilians—were throwing rocks in the direction of the march, and people had by that point begun screaming as the APCs, which had been stationed at the foot of the bridge, began maneuvering out of their sidewalk parking spots, and then roared, zigzagging down the corniche, pushing protesters onto sidewalks and to the ground as they picked up speed.

...In that first hour after the violence broke out, rocks and broken glass and Molotov cocktails rained down on us —some of it from what looked like thugs who had joined the crowd, some from atop 6 October Bridge, and some from the line of buildings adjacent to Maspero. (Someone said objects were being thrown from the State TV building itself.) Teargas was also fired, and it lingered in the air. I continued to hear shots, seemingly fired at random, no one could really tell from where. Protesters that I had seen marching lay injured. An army car was engulfed in flames—the first in a series of army and private vehicles that would be set on fire that night.

...For the next few hours, the violence ebbed and flowed between riot police, soldiers, Copts, and mobs. I could see clashes up on the bridge and was told that the army was chasing protesters through the streets of downtown. I was chased myself at one point, up a ramp. Young boys were also flocking in—many of them teenagers, some as young as nine or ten. They picked up rocks and threw them, challenging anyone to fight back, shrieking insults about Christians, and chanting for an Islamic state. Many of them looked familiar—the same youth I had seen gather outside the Israeli embassy a few weeks before, and at other protests in recent months that had turned violent. Soldiers looked on, many of them leaving the rowdy crowds to battle, while others tried to break up the mobs. The sirens of ambulances rushing to and from the area could be heard in all directions.

...Then there is the matter of paid thugs who seem to have taken part. Official government memos obtained by local newspapers in recent weeks indicate that there is a network of some 165,000 thugs who worked for the State Security apparatus and who have been used by agents of the former regime in various assaults over the past six months. Within army ranks, it is believed that destabilizing SCAF itself may be one of their targets; a plot orchestrated from within the existent and underground remnants of Mubarak’s security apparatus. Indeed, amid the violence of Maspero, plainclothes state security agents and thugs seemed to have played more of a part then the soldiers themselves as the night wore on.

Above all, perhaps, was the role played by the state media, which actively incited violence against “armed Copts” and quickly adopted the narrative yhat the state has long fallen back on in such situations: namely, that there is always “foreign interference” or an “element” stirring trouble against the state. (During the revolution, it was State TV that claimed that protesters in Tahrir were being bribed to be there—LE50 a day and a KFC meal). In this instance, the Copts were the perfect scapegoat.

(h/t T34)

Hamas manages to find building materials when it wants to

Here are some images of the massive stage being built today in Gaza by Hamas for the ceremony to honor hundreds of terrorists being released tomorrow.

According to this story, the stage will be 1000 square meters (over 10,000 square feet) and is being built with some 1200 iron poles. 10 people have been working 18 hour days since Thursday to build this, which will include electric generators in case the power goes out.

Imagine how many houses Hamas could build if it wanted to. You know, for all those people that we hear are still homeless since the Gaza war.

I wonder if UNRWA will mention this the next time it blames Israel for not allowing enough building materials into Gaza.

The soon-to-be-free terrorists who should NOT be released

I have said that I do not support Israel releasing those who have planned major terror attacks, and from what I can tell, most of the terrorists that are supposed to be released are not these mega-terrorists, but rather those who were more low-level (transporting bombers and bombs, for example.)

However, there are a few who are going to be released - mostly to be exiled - who fit the category of terrorists who should not be released, ever, because they can conceivably plan new attacks.

Here are some of them:

Walid Anajas, from Ramallah, a commander of Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. He was given 36 life terms in 2002 for his involvement in a number of suicide bombings, including that of a Jerusalem cafe in 2002, in which 12 people lost their lives.

Nasser Yataima, who planned a suicide bombing which killed 30 people as they were about to celebrate the Passover festival at a hotel in March 2002, was sentenced to 29 life terms.

Khamis Zaki Aqel, a member of the Qassam Brigades, which carried out a string of suicide bombings and other attacks, was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to 21 life terms. It was not immediately clear for which crime he was sentenced.

Majdi Muhammed Amr, arrested in 1993, is serving 19 life sentences after being found guilty of coordinating the work of suicide bombers, including one who blew up a bus in the northern city of Haifa in March 2003, killing 17 people. [He also murdered David Cohen in a drive-by shooting in July 2001. - EoZ]

Maedh Abu Sharakh was also sentenced to 19 life terms for his role in planning the Haifa bus bombing.

Abdel Hadi Ghanim, of Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, was serving 16 life sentences after he hijacked an Israeli intercity bus in 1989 traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and drove it over a steep drop, killing 16 passengers.

Muhammed Daghales was sentenced in 2001 to 15 life terms for his role in planning the 2001 suicide bombing of a Jerusalem pizzeria, which killed 16 Israelis.

I would add Yehye al-Sinwar, sentenced to 4 life sentences, on the list as going home to Gaza. According to a Hamas website, he had poured scalding water on the face of a prison warden and had planned another Shalit-style soldier abduction from prison. Even if he did not have direct "blood on his hands" he is someone who is a clear danger and whose release will almost certainly jeopardize Israeli lives.

I confess I do not understand the logic of how Israeli negotiators considered some to be major terrorists and others not to be.

Step by step of how Shalit will return home

From Ha'aretz:

Phase 1: Shalit is released and met either by a representative of the International Red Cross or an Egyptian official on Tuesday morning.

Phase 2: Israel frees 27 Arab female prisoners on confirmation of Shalit's release.

Phase 3: Hamas transfers Shalit to Egypt via the Rafah crossing. Shalit will spend a very short period of time in Egypt, possibly under 15 minutes, before overland transfer to Israel.

Phase 4: Israel releases the first wave of Palestinian prisoners to Gaza and the West Bank upon confirmation of the transfer.

Phase 5: Shalit is transferred to an Israel Defense Forces near Israel's borders with Egypt and Gaza. He will be given his old cell phone in order to telephone his mother.

Phase 6: Shalit is expected to undergo initial medical check-ups conducted by IDF Chief Medical Officer Brigadier - General Itzik Kreis.

Phase 7: Shalit is transferred to Israel Air Force base at Tel Nof.

Phase 8: Shalit undergoes further medical examination on arrival at Tel Nof.

Phase 9: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz meet Shalit at Tel Nof.

Phase 10: Shalit is accompanied by Netanyahu, Barak and Gantz to be reunited with his family.

Phase 11: If Shalit is well and healthy, the IDF flies Shalit and his family to their home Mitzpe Hila in north Israel by helicopter.

The entire transfer is expected to be completed by Tuesday afternoon.

The exact timing of the deportation of some terrorists to other countries, and when we will learn the identities of the second wave of terrorists to be released, is not clear yet.

(h/t DoZ)

Sympathy for the devil

From Al Arabiya:

In December 1998, former American President Bill Clinton was visiting the Gaza Strip with his then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Together with late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Eriekat they listened to the story of a Palestinian girl called Nihad Zakout, whose father had been incarcerated in an Israeli jail for nine years.

The meeting ended with a tearful Clinton handing his handkerchief to the crying girl, patting her on the shoulder, and promising to do his best to release her father within a month at most — a scene that irked the Israelis a great deal.

The girl returned to her home at the Jabalia Refugee Camp and prepared to welcome her father back in the Eid ul-Fitr feast, since the meeting with Clinton had taken place at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

However, that Eid ul-Fitr came and her father never showed up. Several other Eid ul-Fitr passed and Zakout only saw her father behind bars at the Nafha Prison in the Middle of the Negev Desert, 100 kilometers away from Gaza.

However, last week Zakout, now 24 years old and mother of two girls, learned she would finally see her father Mohamed, now 48 years old, being released from prison.

At the time [of her father's arrest], Nihad Zakout was two years old. When she heard that President Clinton was visiting Gaza, she wrote a letter to the Association of Palestinian Detainees expressing her desire to meet the American president.

“They told me he is the president of the world’s biggest country and that he can put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to release my father,” she wrote in her letter.

Three years after the meeting with the president, Palestinian director Saud Mehanna made a 10-minute film on Nihad Zakout and called it “A message to Clinton.” The film, whose cost reached $10,000, depicted the disappointment of a young girl waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.

Mehanna, 53, then translated the movie into English and sent a copy to the White House in the hope that Clinton might remember the promise he made before his term was over.

The movie, which took five months to make, was shot in Zakout’s house in the Gabalia Refugee Camp and featured the girl and her mother Maysara.

How poignant!

Al Arabiya, however, gives a brief description of what the poor girl's father did to land in prison to begin with:

Mohamed Zakout was a construction worker in Tel Aviv in the 1980s and was wracked with conflict about earning a living and taking part in the building of the country that killed and dispossessed his people.

That conflict saw him leave his work place on March 21, 1989 with a knife and stab in the neck the first Israeli his eyes fell on. The victim turned out to be the head of the Environment Association in Tel Aviv.

He then stabbed another Israeli, who also died, before stabbing a third in the back of his head and his spinal cord. He was arrested by the police.

Al Arabiya doesn't give all the details in this piece however. A 1998 article fills in some gaps:

What the 11-year-old didn't tell the president -- and what Clinton apparently didn't know -- was that her father, Mohammed, murdered an elderly Israeli scientist on his way home from delivering goods to the poor in the custom of the Jewish holiday of Purim.

In a speech before about 900 Palestinian leaders in Gaza, Clinton compared the pain of children like Zakout with that of children of victims of terror. The president said he had spoken to children from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that their stories touched him deeply.

Israelis were furious. Clinton's comparison was denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, the Israeli press and many others.

"I can say one thing," said Rami Schallinger, the son of the slain scientist. "President Clinton can in no way bring back my father to me."

Schallinger, a 41-year-old insurance broker, said he learned from a reporter that the girl with whom Clinton spoke was the daughter of his father's murderer. Mohammed Zakout is serving a sentence of life plus 25 years for the 1988 slaying of Dr. Kurt Schallinger, a professor of agricultural science.

"I was telling him [Clinton] that these people were defending their homeland. The Israelis keep saying we are terrorists," [11 year old Nihal] said in an interview last night from her home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. "If we kill one of them, they are killing thousands of us. These people are heroes. They have defended their homeland. I want my father."

During the trial of his father's murderer, Schallinger learned that Zakout said he wanted to kill because he didn't want to see Jews happy at Purim, a festive holiday in which children dress in costumes and recall the deliverance of Persian Jews from death.

"I can just tell you this: My father was an old man and he was religious. The murderer didn't come in front of him and fight him," said Schallinger. "He came from behind with two knives. [My father] couldn't even see him. I can hardly call [the killer] a political prisoner. This is just a brutal murder. And to compare the pain of the victim with the pain of the son, I don't have enough words."

Multiple-murderer Mohammed Zakout is not one of the prisoners who will be deported to Turkey or Qatar. This despicable terrorist will return to Gaza where his daughter will welcome him home.

Iranian theories on assassination plot claim

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, has given his theory of why the US is accusing Iran of a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington:

In a meeting with thousands of enthusiastic university professors and students in Kermanshah province, Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution discussed the goals of the recent terror allegations against the Islamic Republic and warned: "In case American officials are living in their dreams, they should know that any wrong move - be it political or security - will face a strong response from the Iranian nation."

Ayatollah Khamenei said that diverting attention from the Wall Street movement might be one of the goals of the recent uproar caused by the US. He added: "The people of at least 80 countries have expressed their support for this movement, which is spreading to other parts of America, and this is very bitter and difficult for American officials."

But an Iranian MP has a much more interesting theory:

Disavowal of Pagans ritual is a rally held by hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims as well as pilgrims from other countries during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca each year.

During the rally, which is an initiative of the Founder of the Islamic Republic the late Imam Khomeini, pilgrims chant anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans.

Speaking to FNA, member of the parliament's presiding board Mohammad Dehqani said that the recent US accusation about Tehran's involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi Envoy to Washington was a plot to overshadow the massive Muslim rally during the Hajj pilgrimage.

The best part?

Dehqani further dismissed the US accusation as "baseless", and noted, "Nations of the region and the world have come to know Iran as a powerful and rational country and they know well that these allegations are totally baseless."

Report: Grapel deal imminent, no word on Tarabin

Israel Hayom quotes Israel Radio as confirming the Al Hayat story I noted yesterday that Ilan Grapel might be released in a swap as early as this week:

Ilan Grapel, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen arrested in Egypt in June on espionage charges, is expected to be released from Egyptian custody just days after Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza for more than five years, returns home, Israeli officials confirmed on Monday, according to Israel Radio.

The confirmation follows a report in the Egyptian state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, which said Israel has agreed to release 81 Egyptian citizens currently held in Israeli prisons in exchange for Grapel's freedom.

"All reports suggest that the Shalit deal will not be the only one concluded between Arabs and Israel in the coming days," Al-Ahram reported. The Shalit deal, the article said, will "soon be followed by another deal, between Egypt and Israel, in which the spy Ilan Grapel ... will be released in return for all Egyptians held in Israeli prisons."

Egypt has been bolstered in recent weeks, setting the stage for Grapel's release, thanks to its successful mediation in the Shalit deal, which will see 1,027 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in exchange for the hostage Israel Defense Forces soldier. Israel also issued a formal apology for the deaths of six Egyptian soldiers who were killed during the pursuit of terrorists following a multi-pronged terror attack in southern Israel in August. According to Egyptian reports, negotiations between Israel and Egypt over Grapel's release are currently in their final stages.

Still no information about Israeli Bedouin Ouda Tarabin, also held in Egyptian prison. Likud MK Ayoob Kara has been pressing to include Tarabin in any Grapel deal.

Speaking at a special press conference with the Tarabin family, Kara said: “I am ashamed that an Israeli Bedouin citizen does not get the same treatment as the one received by Ilan Grapel.”

He added, “I’ve approached the U.S. Ambassador in Israel as well as the Prime Minister and demanded that any deal to free Grapel also include Inside Ouda Tarabin. I do not accept any excuse on this matter because once we release security prisoners held in Israel for Grapel, there will be no chance to release Ouda, because no one knows who will assume power in Egypt and there’s no guarantee he’ll released in December 2015 when he finishes serving his prison sentence.”

Suleiman Tarabin, Ouda’s father, also spoke at Monday’s press conference with Kara and said: “I call on the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and the American government to act to release my son from the Egyptian prison.”

“I do not understand why when we go to the doctor we are treated as any Jew is treated, but when it comes to detainees in Egypt, the Bedouin do not get the same treatment received by a Jew,” added Tarabin. “The Shalit family has not slept more for more than 2,000 days, and my family and I have not slept for more than a decade. For more than ten years we have not celebrated any holidays. My son refuses to get married before his brother is released. I am pleading with anyone who has influence to do anything possible to have my son see the light of day.”

More on Tarabin here.

It is a shame that Tarabin has not been getting the coverage that Grapel has been receiving - from the right or from the left.

List of important Hamas prisoners who aren't being released

Although Hamas is bragging that it got "99%" of its demands in the Shalit swap, this is quite an exaggeration.

One major figure that Hamas wanted was Ibrahim Hamid. As Ha'aretz reported in June:

Ibrahim Hamid, a senior Hamas military commander in the West Bank, planned and saw to the carrying out of a shooting in the West Bank a year ago despite being in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison for the past five years.

Hamid, from the West Bank town of Silwad, was arrested in May 2006. He was tried and convicted of being responsible for the deaths of 46 Israeli in suicide bombings in the early days of the second intifada. According to the Shin Bet security service, Hamid is, in fact, responsible for the deaths of 90 Israelis, and is considered a "groundbreaker in the field of strategic terror" and a "model" for other terrorists.

Hamas wants Hamid included among the Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for the release of Gilad Shalit, but Israel is adamant that he stay in jail.

Hamid has been in total isolation since his arrest. He was recently moved from Ayalon Prison to Hasharon Prison. With the exception of his attorneys, Hamid is barred from having visitors.

Last week, the Central District Court extended Hamid's solitary confinement by an additional six months in what has become a biannual event. Unclassified information submitted by the state to support its request to extend Hamid's isolation indicated the existence of recent intelligence "pointing to his involvement in planning, from prison, a shooting attack in which two Israelis were injured on September 1, 2010 at Rimonim Junction. [Hamid] constitutes a serious and extraordinary danger even from within prison."

There has been some controversy between the Fatah and Hamas press about whether Hamid's mother complained about her son not being released; apparently she did and turned around quickly when Hamas let her know their displeasure.

Other Hamas leaders whom Hamas, for years, insisted be released and whom Israel refused to release include:

Hassan Salama. Head of Hamas' Jerusalem branch, responsible for two suicide bombings on the city's No. 18 bus in 1996 and for a suicide bombing in Ashkelon the same year.

Abdullah Barghouti. Senior bombmaker for Hamas' military wing in the West Bank. He was convicted of planning terror attacks in which 66 Israelis were murdered and hundreds hurt, including the attack on a Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.
He was sentenced to 67 life terms in 2003.

Abbas Sayid. Head of the Hamas military wing in Tul Karm. He was convicted of planning terror attacks in which 35 Israelis were murdered and hundreds hurt, including the attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002.
Sayid was sentenced to 35 life terms in 2006.

Mahand Sharim. Sayed's deputy, involved in planning the suicide attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002.

Ra'ad Hutri. One of the masterminds of the attack on the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, which killed 22 young Israelis. He was also involved in suicide attacks in Neve Yamin and at the Bar Ilan Bridge.

Jamal Abu al-Haiga. Hamas' leader in Jenin, sentenced to nine life terms for his involvement in suicide bombings at the Hadera Mall, at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem. He also planned a number of other attacks from his home in Jenin.

Muath Bilal. Sentenced to 26 life sentences for the deaths of 26 Israelis. He was involved in suicide bombings at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and on the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in 1997.

Bahij Badr. Responsible for the death of 18 Israelis in suicide bombing in Tzrifin, at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem and in south Tel Aviv.

(source)

Another prisoner who is not being released - and whose mother has taken ill because of it - is Issa Abed Rabbo, the longest serving prisoner, sentenced to life in 1984. I cannot find out his crime; pro-terror sites simply say that he was arrested for belonging to Fatah.

So it looks like most, if not all, of Israel's negotiating red lines were not crossed in this deal (at least so far.)

It is Hamas that caved, not Israel.

Chinese Jews make Aliyah

From the Los Angeles Times:

As a child growing up in Kaifeng in central China, Jin Jin was constantly reminded of her unusual heritage.

"We weren't supposed to eat pork, our graves were different from other people, and we had a mezuza on our door," said the 25-year-old, referring to the prayer scroll affixed to doorways of Jewish homes.

Her father told her of a faraway land called Israel that he said was her rightful home, she recalls. But "we didn't know anything about daily prayers or the weekly reading of the Torah."

Jin has since fulfilled her father's dream. On a hot summer day in Jerusalem, where she works as a tour guide for Chinese citizens visiting Israel, Jin, who now goes by the Hebrew name Yecholya, wore a long khaki skirt, indicative of her conservative religious views, and Teva-like sandals, the national footwear of Israel.

Jin and her relatives belong to a community of Chinese Jews that was established in the 9th century by Persian traders who traveled along the Silk Road to Kaifeng, at the time China's capital.

Records documenting the group's history are spotty, but experts do know that some of the Jewish traders settled in Kaifeng and eventually built a synagogue with official recognition from the emperor. After the last rabbi in Kaifeng died in 1809, many began to forsake their religious practices while holding on to certain traditions, like the prohibition against pork and the celebration of a communal meal on Passover.

Then in 2005, Shavei Israel arrived. The privately funded conservative religious organization, based in Jerusalem, specifically targets descendants of Jews who have lost their connection to the religion, such as those forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition in Spain.

A video about Shavei Israel and the Chinese Jews made two years ago shows more:

(h/t Philtheman, Ian)

Murderer of teenager might not get a great reception in Gaza

From YNet:

From the sea of words and images flooding the Israeli press since news of Gilad Shalit's return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners broke, two female terrorists stand out above the others: Amina Mona from Fatah and Ahlam Tamimi of Hamas.

Mona was the mastermind behind the murder of teenager Ofir Rahum while Tamimi drove the Sbarro restaurant suicide bomber to his Jerusalem destination, where he murdered 15 Israelis and seriously injured many others.

In Israel, the release of the two is stirring strong emotions as they symbolize in their non-apologetic demeanor a strong sense of disgust and well-founded desire that they serve the rest of their lives in prison for their murderous activity. According to the prisoner swap deal, both will be deported: Mona to Gaza and Tamimi to Jordan.

As part of a project I conducted in Israeli prisons, I have held lengthy conversations with the two. Apart from being a young and intelligent woman, Mona turned out to be a manipulative woman with a larger ego than the entire Palestinian problem she claims to represent.

During our meetings, her mood swings could be easily identifiable. Alongside her outrageous statements defending her right to murder her enemies, including an innocent teenager who was lured by her romantic gestures, she still tried to convince me that she was not the monster that Israelis claim her to be.

Mona's problem is that it isn’t only Israelis who view her as a monster. Her fellow inmates also think she is. She controlled the prisoners in her ward with an iron fist as if she were Al Capone. Several inmates who refused to obey her orders suffered heavy punishments. Some were bitten by her while others suffered serious burns inflicted by boiling wax because they dared challenge her leadership.

Her infamous cruelty did not go unnoticed. Many Fatah members including her accomplice found it hard to defend her actions to me. Hamas even vowed to "sort things out" with her upon her release.

Even if it is no comfort to the Rahum family and the people of Israel, Mona may initially be received as a hero in Hamas-controlled Gaza, but her fate may not turn out to be as bright. She obviously won't enjoy much comfort in light of her abusive methods in prison.

On the other hand....

Ahlam Tamimi was always proud of the fact that she was the first female Hamas combatant. She planted an explosive charge she had made inside a bottle and placed it on a supermarket shelf. Since she had a press card, she was granted free access to roam Jerusalem and collected information on possible targets for Hamas.

She personally led the suicide bomber to the location that she had singled out – the Sbarro restaurant – because she said there were "many radical Jews there".

She spoke to me while maintaining a chilling and provoking composure, which characterizes her entire attitude. The only concern she expressed in our meetings, during which she defiantly described her story, pertained to a possible deportation to Jordan, as was eventually decided upon in this deal.

During her prison sentence, Tamimi got engaged to her cousin – who is also jailed in Israel – and may now remain single. In contrast to Mona, she is expected to join Hamas' propaganda machine because of her persuasive rhetoric ability. She may even turn into Hamas' Leila Khaled (a Fatah plane hijacker who became a leading voice of the Palestinian cause).

People may want to look at a poster series I did earlier this year on female terrorists including Tamimi.

Barghouti upset he is not being released (updated)

Palestine Today reports that Marwan Barghouti, the senior terrorist in Israeli jails, was surprised by the Shalit deal and says he was in the dark about the negotiations.

According to a source close to Barghouti, he said that Hamas was not in contact with him, nor with Ahmed Sadaat of the PFLP or even with other major Hamas terrorist leaders who are not part of the deal.

He said, "No one told us that we will not be freed, and certainly they did not get our consent in writing.. We knew about the deal from the media, and that contrary to Hamas pledges to free us throughout the discussions of the deal, we were very surprised about it."

UPDATE: A Hamas website says that Barghouti's lawyer is denying this story, sayingthat the prisoners were kept abreadt of all the details and were told of "Zionist intransigence" towards their release. He blames the article on Fatah. The source it uses is a Facebook group.

The newspaper also reports that Hamas' interior minister has banned the use of shooting weapons in the air in celebration of the scheduled arrival of hundreds of prisoners on Tuesday.

He said that such celebrations are against the law and Hamas will prosecute any lawbreakers.

Qatar gives Egypt half a billion dollars

From Ma'an:

Egypt's finance minister, who has been negotiating with Gulf Arab states for financial assistance, said on Sunday that Qatar had given a grant of $500 million to support the budget which has ballooned as a result of political turmoil.

Hazem el-Beblawi said last week he was negotiating with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for funds worth close to $7 billion. He also said he was considering International Monetary Fund financing that Egypt previously turned down.

Egypt's economy, which had been growing robustly before the popular uprising earlier this year, was hit hard by the protests, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw funds and saw major revenue sources like tourism suffer.

"They transferred $500 million as a grant to Egypt," Hazem el-Beblawi told Reuters, adding that the Qatari funds had been transferred in the past week or so. "It is a grant for budgetary support," he added.

Qatar's pledges to the PA have been a lot less than that. In fact, Qatar had refused to pay its pledges to the PA back in 2007.

The PA must not be happy that the pockets of Gulf countries are open to Egyptian Arabs and not to the Palestinian Arabs.

Reports: Iran caught laundering up to $400 million

From Al Arabiya:

The issue of alleged money-laundering in Kuwait is no longer a local concern, but it is raising alarm in other Gulf Arab and Western countries, sources said.

The sources, Gulf Arab diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Kuwait al-Rai daily that investigations have begun, inquiries that have expanded since claims that Iran was behind plans to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

The investigations are looking into the extent to which some Kuwaiti officials and a businessman are involved in breaking the EU, U.S., and U.N. sanctions placed against Iran.

The alleged money-laundering scheme also involves countries including Germany, Russia and Britain.

According to Al Shahed newspaper in Kuwait, the money deposited in the accounts of two lawmakers, a former minister and a businessman, came in installments of $54,267,200, $180,891,000 and $162,802,000, for a total of $397,960,000.

Al Rai daily, the media outlet that broke the news, said that the amount alleged was $300 million, and that around $180 million was deposited in the accounts after the amount was taken on a private plane from Kuwait to Amsterdam.

The money was then taken to Moscow, where it was kept for four days before it was moved to Iran and then back to Kuwait.

Experts said that laundering money through a third country can help Iran get around the sanctions imposed on it.

In the alleged plot to kill a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil, a complaint from the U.S. Justice Department claimed that one of the key plotters, Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American citizen who is now in U.S. custody, was able to transfer of $100,000 from Iran to a financial institution in an unnamed country.

The Justice Department complaint said that the money moved to a bank in New York and was then deposited into an account monitored by the FBI.