Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 25, 2012

Israelis sneaking into Jordan to provide aid to Syrian refugees

From the IL4Syrians NGO website:

The organization is comprised of a group of non-religious, Zionist, Israeli citizens who love their homeland and believe in Jewish tradition and culture that values a compassionate, open-minded respect for the sanctity of human life and dignity.

Along with this commitment to human life, the organization is also devoted to faithfully defending Israel’s borders and citizens in the face of threat.

Today, with such economic power and defense capabilities, Israel feels a moral and ethical duty to become “the voice of the voiceless” and in this particular case, even if it is the voice of the vulnerable populations among some of our toughest and cruelest enemies.

The organization is comprised of men and women who believe they are blessed to be born in a democratic country that enables its citizens to travel to challenging, dangerous places.

Because the neighboring countries forbid humanitarian aid, out of fear of political military repercussions, assistance is in the form of cash only, in order to stay under the radar and out of danger. The NGO apologizes for the lack of transparency in this particular case, but this is a direct result of the fear that is dominating in the region right now due to Assad’s reign of terror.

ABOUT THE REFUGEES

During these missions, the NGO has encountered mostly women and children whose husbands and fathers stayed behind in order to keep the struggle alive. The refugees fall into three main categories:

1. Syrians traveling legally. These refugees carry legal documents and valid passports, and usually belong to the higher socio-economic classes. They cross the border legally and go through a short military investigation and are then released and are then able to rent homes and build lives in the host country.

2. Syrians traveling illegally. These refugees, usually from lower socio-economic status, illegally cross the borders, do not go through military investigations and are not processed or listed. They try desperately to blend and disappear into the local villages. They are not eligible for any aid because they do not officially reside anywhere.

3. The detained. This category includes healthy men, women and children who have been caught by local armies in neighboring countries and are held in army bases for an uncertain time. They are subject to rigorous investigation and their numbers are unknown. Rumors among the other refugees state that some are even forced returned to Syria turned over to Assad. It goes without saying that their fate is then known.

The NGO has been sending ongoing missions to help the refugees in neighboring countries, despite facing some significant challenges. One of the most difficult challenges is the resistance of the host countries, those absorbing large numbers of refugees. They all fear Assad’s wrath – political, diplomatic, economic and even military retaliation – and therefore are reluctant to publicly admit that they are absorbing Syrian escapees, and do not allow humanitarian aid to be brought in and distributed. Not only must volunteers hide from the host country, they also have to be aware of the presence of Iranian and Syrian intelligence personnel who have infiltrated and work under cover, disguising themselves as refugees. They bring information back to the Syrian government, including numbers and names, and also work actively to frighten and hurt the refugees. There have even been reports of infiltrators poisoning the water sources of the refugees.

As a result, the Israeli NGO works with cash only: in order to buy the humanitarian aid locally, to stay under the radar, and protect the lives of volunteers and local contacts.

A news report about IL4Syrians working in Jordan was shown on Israeli TV, and it is causing a stir in the Arab world. Al Watan Voice reports on their activities, says that the video shows that they were in Jordan, and then notes

Jordanian activists denounced these acts done by the Israeli delegation, and demanded the government investigate this case, and tighten controls on the entry of Israelis to Jordan for tourism or other reasons, because of the violation of the sovereignty of Jordan, normalization with Israel and the gradual promotion of an alternative homeland [for Palestinians.] They also demanded from relevant official bodies a clarifying response to what the Israeli delegation did.

(h/t Yoel)

Arab League pulls sponsorship of French literary prize - because author visited Israel

From France24:

A celebrated Algerian novelist was given a top French literary award on Thursday in a ceremony that was marred by the withdrawal of its Arab sponsors.

Boualem Sansal had been due to receive the Editions Gallimard Arabic Novel prize for his book “Rue Darwin” [Darwin Street] earlier in June.

A 15,000-euro cheque was to be given by the Paris-based Arab Ambassador’s Council, which founded the award in 2008.

But between being nominated and being awarded his prize, Sansal attended the Jerusalem Writers Festival in May – as guest of honour.

Militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called it, “an act of treason against the Palestinian people.”

By the time the writer was due to receive his prize, the Ambassadors Council had permanently withdrawn its support for the award.

The Editions Gallimard jury finally handed Sansal his laureate on Thursday - minus the 15,000 euro prize money - after weeks of deadlock with the ambassadors.

In an open letter announcing his resignation from the jury, Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, director of France Culture radio, called the link between the Hamas statement and the withdrawal of the prize, “a sordid truth”.

“Between being nominated for the prize and actually receiving it, Boualem Sansal visited Israel,” he wrote. “Hamas immediately issued a statement calling his presence an act of treason against the Palestinians. The reaction of Arab Ambassadors Council was a direct result of this.”

Speaking on France Inter radio on Friday, Sansal said it was “completely unacceptable” that the ambassadors should interfere with their own jury’s decision and withdraw from any future association.

Arguing that Arab countries remained locked into a “non-existent” conflict with Israel, he said that those countries, and in particular his native Algeria, had “shut themselves in a prison of intolerance.”

“We have to do away with this dictatorial approach,” he said. “Yes, there are complicated relations with Israel, but we are not at war with them. And if we really want to help the Palestinians, people like me should be able to visit the country freely.”

His words echoed a June 6 interview with news site DNA Algerie: “We have to break this taboo [with Israel] .... I believe we need to go to a different level and that this would be in the interest of the Palestinians.”

The Arab League considered the book a beautiful piece of literature in April. Now they don't want people to read it because the author visited the Jewish state.

Is there any better example of Arab intolerance than this?

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Egypt's new president wants to expand ties with Iran (updated)

From Egypt Independent:

President-elect Mohamed Morsy said in an interview with Iran's Fars news agency published on Monday that he wanted to expand ties with Tehran to create a strategic "balance" in the region.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been severed for more than 30 years, but both sides have signaled a shift in policy since former President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year in a popular uprising.

Fars quoted Morsy as saying better relations with Tehran "will create a balance of pressure in the region, and this is part of my program."

Morsy's comments may unsettle Western powers as they seek to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program, which they suspect Tehran is using to build atomic bombs. They cautiously welcomed the democratic process that led to Morsy's election, but made clear Egypt's stability was their main priority.

Fars said he was speaking a few hours before the result of the Egyptian election was announced on Sunday, and that a full version of the interview would be published later.

No wonder Hamas and Islamic Jihad are celebrating.

Here comes the Islamic winter.

UPDATE: Egyptian officials deny this story, saying it is entirely made up by FARS.

Israel stops aid to Gaza "until further notice" (updated)

From COGAT:

Kerem Shalom crossing will remain closed today, due to mortar shell impacts on the crossing itself and its surrounding areas.

Palestine Today quotes them as saying that it will be closed "until further notice."

Kerem Shalom remained open and Israel continued to send aid to Gaza during the worst of the rocket attacks over the past week, but this decision apparently came about after the terminal itself was attacked yesterday.

There were five mortars fired from Gaza to Israel on Sunday, in what the media is calling a "truce."

UPDATE: 2 more mortars this morning.

How much do moderate, educated Lebanese hate Americans?

Lebanon is considered a moderate Arab country. And perhaps nowhere in Lebanon can be considered more liberal and pro-American than the American University of Beirut.

This year, AUB decided to present an honorary degree to Donna Shalala, a proud and well-accomplished Arab-American who was formerly the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Clinton administration and who has headed a number of US colleges.

And when she thanked the university at the commencement ceremony, here is what happened:

Then came her keynote address. Here's what happened then:

As the Daily Star Lebanon reported:

Several dozen people disrupted the Master’s graduation ceremony at AUB Friday evening to protest against the awarding of an honorary degree to Donna Shalala due to her support for engagement with Israel.

Shalala, president of the University of Miami in Florida and a former U.S. secretary of health, has three honorary degrees from universities in Israel, and does not support a cultural boycott of the country.

Around 40 protesters heckled Shalala as she began her speech of thanks, shouting “boycott Israel.” Some held a large banner that read “Boycott Zionist Shalala.”

Some other audience members, including graduates, ushers and parents, joined in the heckling, prompting Shalala to respond, “Let us welcome this demonstration of academic freedom.”

In her keynote address later, Shalala, born in the U.S. to Lebanese parents, spoke of volunteer work that she carried out with UNRWA at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

“Fifty years ago, my experience with Palestinians in the refugee camp seared me forever as an advocate for the people of Palestine and their statehood.”

You cannot argue that Shalala is not pro-Palestinian. But since Shalala does not explicitly support the destruction of Israel, she is considered persona non grata in the American University in Lebanon, despite her impressive accomplishments as an American and as a person of Arab heritage.

This is how moderate Arabs act towards even the most sympathetic Arab-Americans who are not blindly anti-Israel.

A few Lebanese commenters on YouTube were embarrassed, but for the most part the Arabic press - and the English-language Lebanese press - either ignored the fracas or supported it.

Notice also that the supposedly racist state of Israel has given this person of Arab descent honorary degrees without any protests whatsoever from the Jews.

America has only one true friend in the Middle East.

This is real.

From Bikya Masr:

An Egyptian delegation at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday has urged the body to focus its efforts on “real people” who need assistance in questioning the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

“Finally, concerning the highly controversial notion of sexual orientation, we can only reiterate that it is not part of the universally recognized human rights,” said the Egyptian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council.

“We call on Mr. Kiai not to undermine the credibility and legitimacy of his important work in the eyes of real people who actually need it, especially in regions where such concepts are rejected by both its Christian and Muslim inhabitants like the Middle East,” the statement added.

UPDATE: Here's the video, starting at around 11:50:

(h/t Benny)

Administrivia? Nah, just trivia

Two and a half years ago I wrote a quick review of the Google Nexus One which I bought as soon as it was released without waiting for a review. In the end, the phone served me well; the updates fixed a lot of the early glitches and it was a fine phone except for its memory limitations.

But the phone was not quite good enough for my new commute, where I am trying to blog on a netbook using the phone as a hotspot - the connection was intermittent. So I upgraded to the Google Nexus Galaxy last week.

So far, it rocks. It is running the latest Android OS - "Ice Cream Sandwich." The voice to text abilities are quite good, I can now speak continuously and it will transcribe it pretty well, as such things go. It is thin, with a large screen; I like the facial recognition unlock feature. And, so far, it has worked great during the commute.

I know that the Galaxy 3 just came out this week, but I am a fan of stock Android that gets updated immediately, so at the moment I believe I have the best phone on the market for me. (Although it appears that the battery life is not quite as good as I was hoping.)

I hadn't been to any movies lately, but I saw Men In Black 3 today. Yeah, I know, everyone has seen it already. But I noticed a mezuzah on the door of K's old apartment after he disappears in a time warp, which I thought was a nice touch.

I didn't realize that the writer was a religious Jew, Etan Cohen, who is now a hot writer in Hollywood. But the mezuzah wasn't his idea, it was the director's.

Cohen also wrote a number of Beavis and Butthead episodes as well as the really great dark comedy Tropic Thunder.

And he was born in Efrat, in Israel - so what's not to love?

Last week's top posts

If you missed any of these, now's the time to catch up:

Most popular: Reuters says Israel breaks truce - after Hamas rockets

Funniest: Islamic Jihad is coming after me, so I must defend myself.

From the Arabic press: Those symbolic keys have a different symbolism in Arabic

History: Reuters vs. the truth about the Temple Mount

Liar, liar: Gaza rocket misfires, kills 2-year old girl. Lying Arabic media blame Israel. and the sequel.

Best linked article: Stolen Kremlin documents show Soviet involvement in Arab strategy

Video that must be retweeted: There is no Zionism without Jerusalem

---
Forgot about this one: Abolish UNRWA

Morsi wins Egypt, but don't worry: Jimmy Carter approves (UPDATED)

Although closer than expected, theMuslim Brotherhood Islamist candidate won the presidential election in Egypt:

The Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, has been named the fifth president of Egypt after narrowly beating off competition from rival, Ahmed Shafiq, in the hotly-contested presidential elections' runoffs.

So now that Egypt has the Islamist Brotherhood in control of the presidency and in possible control of the Parliament after the legal issues are sorted through, should we be worried about freedom in Egypt?

Of course not! Jimmy Carter personally vouches for Morsi:

Carter said he knows the Western-educated Morsi "quite well" and that he appears committed to women's rights and the Egypt-Israel peace agreement.

"I've crossed-examined him in my own private way very thoroughly about adherence to the terms of a peace treaty for instance between Israel and Egypt that I happened to negotiate back in 1979. He assured me that he honored those terms and he's been quite an outspoken champion I would say of the basic four freedoms that should relate to any country," said Carter.

There ya have it!

And Jimmy's not alone in being happy at Morsi's win. His pals in Hamas are ecstatic as well, as is Islamic Jihad, as are most Gazans.

(UPDATE) They are shooting in the air in joy. And so far, at least one has been killed and ten injured from all the happiness.

Sunday Links

From Ian:

New IDF Videos
Israel Air Force Targets Terrorist in Gaza, Prevents Rocket Attack on Israel

Israeli Army Druze Battalion

Another dog bites man story
European Islamic group praises Holocaust-denier

“Brussels-based Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) mourned death of French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy.”

[There have been daily news stories in the Arabic press praising Garaudy since he died. - EoZ]

Fatal failure to fight for right – Melanie Phillips

“Elements of the British Jewish leadership continue to raise eyebrows abroad by fatuously asserting that reports of anti-Jewish feeling in the UK are much exaggerated, while themselves stoking the anti-Israel fires by absurdly demonising Benjamin Netanyahu as the cause of the Middle East impasse.

There is here in both camps a failure to understand that effective defence means the fight must be taken to the enemy. The US neocons believed they had a duty to fight for what is right. And that is a Jewish position.”

One million invisible people.

“As the sixth day of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip upon one million civilians living in the south of Israel comes to a close, with a school (fortunately empty) hit today and a factory worker suffering injuries from shrapnel in his neck, it is interesting to note the images chosen by the Guardian in order to illustrate its somewhat sparse coverage of events.”

Canadian Television Erroneously Omits Over 300 Gaza Rocket Attacks (VIDEO)

More on - Kenneth “let them have nukes” Waltz.
Kenneth N. Waltz – The Stupidest Strategist? by Daniel Pipes

“..Waltz has also published in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs the single most preposterous analysis by an allegedly serious strategist of the Iranian quest for a nuclear weapon. His title and subtitle neatly sum up his argument: "Why Iran Should Get the Bomb: Nuclear Balancing Would Mean Stability."

Anti-QuAIA complainants intimidated, B’nai Brith Canada steps in, files complaint

“TORONTO – Pride Toronto’s dispute resolution process, created to address complaints about the participation of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) in the Pride Parade July 1, has been discredited after the complainants’ private information was published without their consent.”

Leftists, not neo-Nazis, helped in Munich massacre

“Dr. Wolfgang Kraushaar sharply disputes 'Der Spiegel' article’s emphasis on the role of neo-Nazis in the attack. “
Can’t it be both?

Ankara says downed jet was over international waters, not spying on Syria

Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann a German Jewish refugee who started the Para Olympics
SBS News (note expires in 4 days, might turn up on YT) Ludwig Guttman honoured by paralympians
Ludwig Guttmann: Founder of the Paralympics – YT Video

PalArabs blame Israel for another child they killed

WAFA yesterday reported:

A 5-year-old child was killed Saturday when Israeli jets fired a missile at a playground near Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, according to initial reports.

There was a huge funeral for the boy, complete with articles about how his little brother won't have anyone to play with anymore and how journalists cried.

The only problem is that this story, like the one of the toddler supposedly killed early last week, is a lie.

As Arutz-7 reports:

IDF officials later revealed the story as a lie. There was no Israeli airstrike in the region in which the child was killed, they asserted.

The IDF spokesperson tweeted:

My info is that the explosion caused the death of the pales child today was because of an ordnance belonging to one of the terror groups

As with last time, Ma'an reported Israel's denial in English but not in Arabic. I could not find any reports in Arabic quoting Israeli officials, even for major wire services in Arabic.

Meanwhile, GANSO seems to report of one Gazan being killed by a misfired rocket. In its SMS roundup of Saturday night and Sunday morning attacks, it says:

MU, 24 JUN: since 1800hrs yesterday, Pal. ops. fired 19 HMRs, 2 Grads and 6 Mortars toward the Green Line. 1 Pal. fatality and 2 injuries reported. IF fired 2 tank shells; neither explode. IF conducted 4 airstrikes. 2 fatalities and 10 injuries reported. Updates to follow as received.

The message is that 1 Palestinian Arab was killed because of a misfired rocket. (HMR is "home made rocket.")

PA buys Caterpillar equipment, BDS and Corries silent

I noted on Friday how the BDS crowd, led by the "Jewish Voice for Peace" and the parents of Rachel Corrie, had lied when they claimed that TIAA-CREF had divested from Caterpillar because of their attempts to boycott Israel.

Caterpillar has been a major target of the BDS crows for years because Israel has used their equipment to demolish illegal Palestinian Arab homes, and Rachel Corrie was supposedly crushed to death under a CAT bulldozer as she attempted to defend a house that was on top of a weapons smuggling tunnel. (In reality, she wasn't killed by the bulldozer, but that is their narrative.)

While the BDS crowd was crowing over their fake victory about Caterpillar and TIAA-CREF, however, there was a ceremony in Ramallah as the official Caterpillar dealer in Ramallah transferred several tractors to the Palestinian Authority!

It even made the news in the territories:

The company that sold the equipment is proud of its Palestinian and Caterpillar roots:

Palestinian Tractor is a truly Palestinian enterprise and is set to play a leading role in the country's economic and industrial development, as well as training and development to its Palestinian staff.

Palestinian Tractor and Equipment Co. Ltd. was established in 1995 as a sister company to Jordan Tractor and Equipment Co. and as an affiliate Company to M.E. JALLAD the dealer of Caterpillar Inc. in Lebanon and Syria since 1929. It is a part of Caterpillar dealers network established all over the world.

As a Caterpillar dealer, PT&E are able to bring to the country not only the finest quality products but also the expertise and the know how of a world leader in the productive use and management of machines that serve various segments of the market.

... As a Caterpillar dealer it is our aim to bring to the customer a quality product which is reliable and is best suited to his job requirements.

Yes, while BDS tries to demonize Caterpillar in the West, the PA is happily using Caterpillar equipment with no objections from the moralists of BDS.

Do the Corries or the rest of the BDS crowd have a problem with their beloved Palestinian Arabs buying equipment that they claim crushed the life out of her body? No, of course not! It doesn't support their anti-Israel narrative, so they ignore it.

They support protests against Caterpillar in the US but won't say a word about Caterpillar sales to Arab countries. Because they are hypocrites, who only care about demonizing Israel and not at all about Caterpillar.

(h/t Max and StandWithUs)

Links by Ian

Caroline Glick’s latest column.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Useful Idiots

“THE INEVITABILITY of the Islamic takeover of Egypt means that the peace between Israel and Egypt is meaningless. Confrontation is coming. The only questions that remain are how long it will take and what form it will come in. If it happens slowly, it will be characterized by a gradual escalation of cross-border attacks from Sinai by Hamas and other jihadist groups. Hamas's sudden eagerness to take responsibility for the mortar attacks against southern Israel as well as Monday morning's murderous cross-border attack are signs of things to come.”

Canada: Anti-Semitic Church Attack on Israel by Christine Williams

“This hatred has nothing to do with the so-called "occupation," as Palestinian schoolchildren are taught to believe, but is instead fuelled by Israel having a different ideology of true Democracy and Human Rights in a region where most leaders are hostile to both.”

Putin Visit Helps Strengthen Israel's Position, Even As Obama Administration Security Leaks Undermine It

“Next week, Russian President Vladimir Putin will do something President Obama has not: namely, visit the country of Israel. President Putin will be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Shimon Perez and other officials. Talks are likely to focus on Syria’s civil war and the oncoming showdown over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Putin will also attend an unveiling ceremony in town of Netanya for a memorial in honor of the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany.”

African bank directors: Israel a better model for us than US, EU

“A delegation of central bank governors seeks ways to emulate Israel’s economic successes at home”

CiFWatch: Harriet Sherwood and the Ceasefire that Never Was

Muslim man sentenced after threatening South Park creators.

“A Muslim convert from New York was sentenced on Friday to 11-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to threatening the writers of the satirical "South Park" television show for their depiction of the Prophet Mohammad and to other criminal charges.”

Mr Mackey says “making threats to kill is bad, m’kay”

Also, Challah Hu Akbar tallies up the dead terrorists in Gaza.

Area C news you won't read in the media

Considering that Israel probably has more journalists per square meter than anywhere else on the planet, there are sure a lot of stories that don't get covered - even in the most contentious part, Area C of Judea and Samaria (West Bank.)

From COGAT:

The Civil Administration is committed to the development of the transport sector in Judea and Samaria, as transport connectivity encourages economic growth.

In 2011, the Civil Administration facilitated 22 USAID-funded road rehabilitation projects in Area C for the benefit of all communities in the region. The projects were made possible by funding from the international community (such as USAID), the close collaboration between NGO contractors and the Civil Administration and internal coordination between Civil Administration departments.

It is the Civil Administration's mission to continue facilitating transport projects in Judea and Samaria. In 2011 the Civil Administration received an unprecedented number
of road rehabilitation project applications for Area C. Each rehabilitation project requires input from a number of different Civil Administration departments. In 2011 the Civil Administration processed and approved over 95% of all road rehabilitation and construction applications submitted.

Here's a list of projects completed in 2011.

 Brukin Road near Kfar Kode – Finished July 2011
 Jayyus Road near Kafriat – Finished September 2011
 Rujeib Road near M'saken Aba – Finished July 2011
 Beit Furik Road near Beit Dajan – Finished July 2011
 Deir al Hatab Road – Finished July 2011
 Salam Road – Finished July 2011
 Road entering Nablus from Hawara checkpoint – Finished June 2011
 Birzeit Road near Jifna-Jalazun – Finished February 2011
 Taybeh Road near Deir D'buan – Finished April 2011
 Abud Road – Finished April 2011
 Deir Jarir Silwad Road – Finished September 2011
 Jaba-Qalandiyah Road – Finished July 2011
 Beit Sah'or Road – Finished May 2011
 Tekoa Road – Finished May 2011
 Za'atra Road – Finished May 2011
 Ein Arik Road near Bitunia – Finished 2011

Not a Hebrew name among them (except for Tekoa.) These are almost all roads meant to help the Arabs of Area C travel.

How could the New York Times and AP, not to mention 972Mag and Mondoweiss, have missed this story in an area they pretend to cover to exhaustively?

(h/t ehwhy for correction)

Reuters says Israel breaks truce - after Hamas rockets

You've got to see it to believe it:

Reuters says Israel broke the truce - right after Hamas shot two rockets at Israel.

Someone asked the reporter about it on Twitter:

I guess the style guide at Reuters says that only Israel can break a truce. The whole "cycle of violence" thing does not exist when it is in Reuters' interests to pretend that Israel is always the instigator.

Oh, and that person killed was preparing to shoot another rocket at Israel, a rocket that would not have broken the truce either.

(h/t Jed Galilee)

There is no Zionism without Jerusalem (video)

This was a nice video by Im Tirtzu; I made the subtitles using an excellent translation done by Nevet Basker of BroaderView.org.

Another fake BDS "victory," Forward falls for it

Earlier today, the Forward reported:

Pension Giant Dumps Caterpillar Over Israel Ties

TIAA-CREF Boots Company From Responsible Investing Fund
By Blair Thornburgh
Published June 21, 2012.

Retirement giant TIAA-CREF has dumped Caterpillar from a socially responsible investment fund after over two years of pressure from human-rights groups that say the company bolsters Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.

The pension fund had held $72 million in Caterpillar shares in its Social Choice Funds portfolio.

The Illinois-based construction company sold bulldozers to the Israeli government, which critics say are used in the destruction of Palestinian homes and buildings.

The move comes after campaigning against TIAA-CREF spearheaded by the We Divest Campaign in 2010 and a high-profile call to action by Archbishop Desmond Tutu last July.

The U.S. group Jewish Voice for Peace initiated the We Divest movement and gained support from the Palestinian BDS National Campaign and over 30 other organizations worldwide with petitions and grassroots activism.

It turns out that the truth is quite different.

As Divest This! reports:

Once more, a hoax tale seems to be centered on TIAA-CREF. If you recall, the boycotters were caught red-handed several years ago trying to pass off a generic business decision by the retirement giant as a response to their request to get the organization to divest from Israel.

Rather than simply act as though the whole incident never happened, the BDSers took the unusual step of launching a multi-year campaign to get TIAA-CREF to actually do what they had simply pretended they did the year before.

The response to date from CREF has been a series of polite “please piss off” messages. Which is why this recent announcement that their divestment campaign has borne fruit seems mighty suspicious indeed.

To begin with, the story is not accompanied by any statement from TIAA-CREF itself that it has taken any action that could be described as political in nature. Which makes sense once you realize that CREF is still heavily invested in the company the boycotters are claiming as a divestment win (the long suffering Caterpillar Corporation).

In fact, if you dig a little deeper it looks like CREF did not make any politically related investment or divestment decision at all, but rather that one of its funds (one targeting social investors) was following the lead of an independent research firm (MSCI) which generates an index which many “Social Responsibility” investment funds use to determine what will and will not be included in their portfolios.

Now earlier this year, MSCI downgraded and eventually removed Caterpillar from their index, which means that CREF was just following along with a decision made by an independent researcher, not making a judgment regarding Caterpillar on its own (as reflected by the fact that other funds managed by CREF still hold millions in Caterpillar stock).

Indeed, we can see that TIAA-CREF still has tens of millions invested in Caterpillar in other funds: $21 million in their Growth and Income Fund, a similar amount in their Large Cap Growth Fund, and $10 million more in their Enhanced Large Cap Growth Fund.

Doesn't sound like divestment, does it?

In fact, TIAA-CREF has explicitly said why they won't divest from Caterpillar:

While TIAA-CREF acknowledges participants’ varying views on Israeli and Palestinian policies and the Gaza Strip and West Bank, we are unable to alter our investment policy in accordance with those views. Our responsibility to earn a competitive financial return on the retirement savings entrusted to us by 3.7 million participants obliges us to invest in a diverse line-up of companies across all sectors of the global economy.

The Forward simply believed the false press release of the "Jewish Voice for Peace," complete with lots of quotes from the usual suspects praising this "victory": the Corries, Omar Barghouti and others.

As soon as The Forward was told that they were duped, they silently removed the article, although at the moment you can still see that they index it in their search page.

(h/t DK, CHA)

Friday Links

From Ian:

The least surprising story of the day.
David Duke endorses anti-Israel candidate from Brooklyn

Ex-KKK leader and Louisiana congressman backs Charles Barron’s Democratic primary bid, citing shared hostility to ‘Zionist control’

Another dog bites man story - Berkley Pol Sci Professor thinks Iran should have nukes.
Kenneth Waltz Thinks Iranian Acquisition of Nukes is a Good Thing
More at Commentary:
Iranian Nukes? Don’t Worry, Says Prof

Turkey's Defense Minister: Israel will not be given access to NATO data designed to protect against missile attack from rogue nation

'When there is quiet in the south, there will be quiet in Gaza'

"Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor sends letter of complaint to U.N. Security Council following recent barrages of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel • "The only thing that Hamas is 'reforming' in the area are the capabilities of its rockets to reach further and further into Israel," Prosor says."

The West's embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood – Dore Gold

From Yoel:

"Arab Spring" like protests in Sudan

Egypt border terrorist fought alongside rebels in Libya

Peres on CNN says "time is running out" on Iran sanctions

Sexual assaults in Tahrir Square keep getting worse

From Bikya Masr:

The month of June has seen numerous reports of sexual violence in Egypt’s iconic square, highlighting that women’s rights and ending harassment continue to be on the outside looking in as political tension in the country amps up.

Last Friday was the worst day, with women, both foreigners and Egyptians, reporting that they had been sexually assaulted in the square take place following the disbanding of Parliament on Thursday evening.

“I was walking in the square and was hoping to be part of the calls for the SCAF to leave power when a man behind me grabbed by butt and started saying disgusting things to me,” one woman told Bikyamasr.com on Friday afternoon, asking that their identity remain anonymous.

“He asked if I was a slut and then swore at me when I yelled at him,” she added.

Others also reported being harassed on social media networks, highlighting the growing concern facing women in the country and specifically in Tahrir Square, where masses are gathering.

One foreign correspondent, a female, said she would not head down to Tahrir when it gets dark for fear of being attacked and groped. She said on the side streets of the square, she was grabbed numerous times this past week.

If women cannot walk their streets freely, without fear of being assaulted, harassed and raped, how can the country move forward on a revolution that has been stalled by the military power in control of the country?

While there are a number of activists who have apologized for sexual violence against women, these apologies and anger toward sexual assaults against women in Egypt are usually forgotten within 24 hours, with many activists claiming there “are more important issues” to be discussed.

This misses the point facing more than half the country. As Nawal Saadawi, the prominent Egyptian feminist, told us recently in her Cairo house, “women are the revolution and without women you cannot have a future.”

...This is the current, modern Egypt that exists. And one where women are silenced from public. The use of violence and harassment against all women in this country is the main social problem that is barring any real and viable change from occurring.

If Egypt is to see the success of the revolution then women, and violence against them, must be battled at every step.

A constitution and election are important. But a country where women live in fear of walking down their streets, anywhere, is not a country that has a bright future.

Syria round-up: 170 killed yesterday; Russia admits sending helicopters; new defections

From Al Arabiya:

Clashes in Syria on Thursday killed nearly 170 people, mainly civilians, on the deadliest day since a ceasefire came into force, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as Russia acknowledged that it was trying to send repaired combat helicopters to Syria.

“It’s the bloodiest day since the start of the ceasefire (on April 12) and one of the bloodiest since the start of the revolt against the Syrian regime,” Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.

The day’s violence had killed at least 104 civilians, 54 soldiers and 10 rebel fighters, according to the toll compiled by the London-based organization, based on the reports of activists inside the country.

Aid workers hoping to evacuate trapped civilians and the wounded were unable to enter hard-hit areas of the Syrian city of Homs on Thursday due to shooting and an “unclear” security situation, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Government forces and rebels had both agreed on Wednesday to an ICRC request for a truce for humanitarian reasons after more than 10 days of intense fighting.

Meanwhile, Russia acknowledged on Thursday that it was trying to send repaired combat helicopters to Syria and said it would continue to carry out arms contracts with President Assad’s government despite Western and Arab criticism.

Today, the rebels struck back:

Twenty six men believed to be pro-government "Shabbiha" militiamen have been killed in Syria's northern Aleppo province, an activist monitoring group said on Friday.

A video link sent by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights showed several men covered in blood and piled on top of each other on the side of a road. Many wore army fatigues but some were just wearing t-shirts.

And there may have been some high-level defections:

A Syrian activist group says four senior army officers have defected and joined the opposition.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights provided a video Friday purporting to show two brigadier generals and two colonels. They declared they were defecting.

The group said the defections came Thursday — the same day a Syria fighter pilot flew his MiG-21 warplane to neighboring Jordan, where he was given asylum.

Speaking of defections:

Members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle are secretly making plans to defect to the opposition should the Syrian regime become critically threatened by the rebellion, US officials have told The Daily Telegraph.

Senior military figures are understood to be laying down “exit strategies” and establishing lines of communication with the rebels to discuss how they would be received if they deserted.

And the Golan Druze leaders, who normally can discern the political winds, have abandoned a long-standing ban for their people to become citizens of Israel. Up until now they excommunicated any people who became Israeli citizens, but they no longer feel that they have any loyalty to the Assad regime.

(h/t Yoel)

The other "price tags" that the media ignore

From Arutz-7:

Residents of the small agricultural community of Maor, east of Hadera, went to their synagogue Friday for morning prayers and were appalled to find that it had been vandalized overnight.

The vandals sprayed the walls of the building with the words of Muslim prayers, written in Arabic, and with praise for Mohammed, who Muslims believe was a prophet.

Last month:

Israelis who went to pray at an ancient synagogue near Jericho were appalled to find that the building had been vandalized. Swastikas and pro-Palestinian Authority slogans had been painted on the gate of the building and on an ancient mural.

The synagogue, in Naarin, has been desecrated in the past. However, residents of the region said, the latest incident shows that vandals have “crossed a red line.”

“The historic mural that was desecrated is an important testimony to our people’s history,” said heads of the Jewish community in the Jericho region. “A people that does not protect its past has no future.”

And deliberate arson attacks, seemingly by Arabs in the Jerusalem area have mushroomed:

A rash of suspected arson attacks in open areas around southeast Jerusalem has firefighters scrambling to find a way to stop the fires, believed to have been set by area youths.

In the month of May, firefighters dealt with 1,759 blazes in open areas around that part of the capital, according to Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Asaf Abras. Considering that the Jerusalem district usually deals with about 8,000 such events during the entire year, the number is staggering.

Abras said firefighters had opened 200 investigations into suspected cases of arson since May, and in half of the cases were able to positively identify the source of the fire as having been arson. Sometimes multiple fires are considered part of the same investigation.

Most of the blazes are around the Arnona, Armon Hanatziv, Jebl Mukaber and Sur Bahir neighborhoods. Abras said the fires were so frequent that firefighters often were called back to the same area less than 15 minutes later to deal with another outbreak.

But desecrating synagogues and setting fires aren't newsworthy when they are done by Arabs.

Links. Here.

From Ian:

Israeli Prime Minister meets with Google Executive

“(Google Chairman) Schmidt noted that an Israeli engineer created the database for organizing artefacts is now used by museums worldwide. He described how Israelis have a unique blend of discipline, motivation and creative thinking. Together these form a competitive advantage that is unlike any society in the world. Schmidt said, “The decision to invest in Israel was one of the best that Google has ever made.”

Brian Lilley Interviews Glenn Beck –Video, he talks about Israel at 14min

Media bias in Australia Danby tackles the ABC over its Israel coverage
Michael Danby has written twice to the ABC complaining about two separate reports, one on an Australian man jailed in Israel for assisting Hamas and the second on a Four Corners Program in which Robert Fisk was invited on as an and made his usual crass, ill-informed attacks on Israel falsely claiming ( without host Kerry O’Brien demurring ) that Israel supported the massacres in Syria.

Media bias against a Palestinian hunger striker.........in Norway!
Palestinian woman on hunger strike for 3 weeks. She’s not in Israel, so the Guardian yawns
Palestinians on hunger strike in Israel attract world’s attention; in Norway we just let them die

Alice Walker reactions:
Alice Walker's Bigotry by Alan M. Dershowitz
Pulitzer winning writer Alice Walker sets shocking new low for anti-Israel boycotters Boycotting a whole language

From Peter Beinart’s ~~Death to Israel~~ Open Zion page at The Daily Beast.
Some Context For The Rockets From Gaza

“But there are other facts to this story, facts that are no less important but which tend not to be discussed when rockets start flying out of Gaza. To wit: On Monday evening, the IDF carried out strikes in several locations in Gaza, and Palestinian[s] reported that five people were wounded. Shortly afterward, the IDF carried out two more strikes and killed four Palestinians.”

In other words Israeli victims of terror like Saeed Fashafshe don’t count.

Muslim couple planned to bomb Jews in al Qaeda inspired plot

"A Muslim couple were assembling components of a home-made bomb to attack Jewish neighbourhoods after becoming radicalised by al Qaeda propaganda on the internet, a court heard."

Belgium calls for Olympic ceremony to commemorate Munich massacre

"Flemish sports minister joins officials from Israel, US, Canada and Australia in supporting moment of silence"

Editor of pro-Israel Kurdish magazine vanishes in Iraq
Mawlud Afand’s co-workers suspect he was kidnapped by Iran

Syrian fighter jet lands in Jordan, pilot requests asylum

Website Of Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood: The Days Of The Zionist Entity Are Numbered

Also, Michael Totten: Winter in Cairo

Assad using cyber warfare against rebels

Pro-Israel Kurd goes missing in Iraq, may have been kidnapped by Iran

Israeli help when you need it!

(h/t Missing Peace, Yoel, O.)

The Gaza tunnels that are nowhere near Egypt

From IMEMC:

Palestinian medical sources reported that twelve residents were wounded, on Thursday before noon, after a siege-busting tunnel collapsed, east of the Sheikh Zayed area, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

I'm not sure if it is the same one, but the tunnel collapse that killed 2 Hamas members earlier today was also in northern Gaza.

Which means that these were not tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt.

So what are they?

Hamas builds tunnels outside of Rafah for one of three reasons.

One is that they are used to travel between buildings in a town without going outside and being seen by the IDF.

Another is that they build underground bunkers with weapons, which makes their claim of the Hamas members being killed by "poisonous gas" most interesting.

And the third reason is that they build tunnels under the border to Israel in order to kidnap Israelis and hold them hostage.

Either way, they are legitimate military targets, and they aren't "siege busting" tunnels as the ridiculous IMEMC says.

(h/t YM and Elliott.)

An incomplete list of rockets that fell short in Gaza

From the Gaza NGO Safety Office's SMS alerts, an unfortunately incomplete list, but representative:

20 JUN, 0805hrs: Pal. ops fired 3 HMRs from Deir El Balah, MA. 1 of the rockets dropped short.

20 JUN, 0840hrs: Pal. ops fired 4 HMRs from Deir El Balah, MA. 1 of the rockets exploded prematurely. 1 Pal. injury reported.

20 JUN, 1550hrs: Pal. ops. fired 1 HMR from Nuseirat, MA. The rocket dropped short near Salah Ad Din St.

21 JUN, 1615hrs: Pal. ops. fired 1 HMR from N-E of Nuseirat, MA, toward the Green Line. The rocket exploded at the launching site.

Life magazine argues against a Jewish state, 1946

This is an earnest editorial published in Life in August, 1946, urging that Jewish refugees not be settled in Palestine (mostly because it would upset the Arabs.)

Other notable parts of the editorial are the perfect belief in the conventional wisdom of the day:

There is no way that Palestine can absorb so many people;
The Jewish lobby is pushing Truman to do things thatare against American interests;
The Middle East is not an American interest anyway;
The reasons the Arabs hated the Jews of Palestine is because of their higher standards of living;
Nationalism, at least in the case of Jewish nationalism, is wrong.

The most amazing part is the conclusion, where the editors of Life say that rather than create a Jewish homeland where Jews can live in safety, we should instead push for a utopian world where there is no discrimination, so Jews can feel free to live anywhere.

Except Palestine!

When you read reasonable-sounding editorials today spouting what passes for conventional wisdom and coming to conclusions based on them, keep in mind how wrong the accepted facts can be to begin with.

In a World unutterably wearied of seeing people pushed around, there is an understandable, though wishful, tendency to believe in some easy solution for the problem of Europe’s homeless Jews. The notion is being broadcast that the solution is merely to let 100,000 more Jews into Palestine where they can be cared for by their own people. Thus they would be lifted from the world conscience. lt is also suggested that in a true, independent Jewish state, not just a "Home,” the Children of Israel would continue to build out of arid wastes a land of hydroelectric milk and industrial honey so rich and so charming as to attract and provide for all unwanted Jews.

The Zionists are superb organizers; they are also religious idealists, with all the virtues - and_°someof the blind spots—-of zealots through-out history. It could only he wished they had the right answers. But they haven’t.

lt is hard to say this, not only because of the immense humanitarian efforts of the Zionists but also because the situation is so tense and so full of domestic and international emotions and bitterness that it has almost become impossible to express an honest, dispassionate opinion. Yet the time has plainly come for some blunt
American speaking. The U.S. must adopt a Palestine policy and hold to it.

...The difficulty the Jews face, both as to immediate immigration and as to the long-range dream of a homeland, is primarily with the Arabs. Specifically it is with the l,000,000 Arabs in Palestine, hut generally it is with the 50,000,000 Arab population of the Middle East, now banded together in the Arab League and threatening that if they fail to obtain justiee in London they will turn to Moscow.

The differences between the Jews and the Arabs are such they can scarcely be understood unless one is an Arab or a Jew. The present obvious nub of friction is simply that the Jews in Palestine have come to enjoy a much higher standard of living than their Arab neighbors.

This View of the matter was reaffirmed only last spring hy the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry as a part of its long report on Palestine. This report also urged that l00,000 of the Jews currently in assembly camps in Germany and Austria—and most of them in or trying to get into the American zones-—should be immediately and humanely transported to Palestine.

The Arabs’ response was such that Britain’s Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin estimated that it would require dispatch of a British division and expenditure of $800,000,000 to effect the immigration. So he rejected the proposal.

When President Truman insists, in the face of British objections, that the 100.000 Jews be let in at once, he may have a nervous eye on the Jewish vote. But the President should approach it with the same bipartisan strategy he employed when the United Nations was organized at San Francisco. Otherwise the Palestine question, by becoming the price of a Zionist-led Jewish vote, could enter our politics in such a way that an entire national election might turn on how a few New Yorkers feel about an entirely extraneous issue. That wouldn't go down so well in Oklahoma.

...Britain and Zion are virtually at war today. Yet the Zionists must realize that the British, through the years, have been their truest friends and that removal of the Tommies now would probably tesult in the Arabs quickly pushing the Jews into the sea. This is what spoils the analogy between modern Palesttine and the Ireland of 25 years ago.

...It is clear that the immigration of the 100,000 Jews still in camp cannot really be decided until the central problem of Palestine's future is answered. To admit 100.000 more Jews - almost one fifth of the total Jews already there- without provision for land and industrial expansion to take care of them would only tend
to ghetto-ize the Jewish community. So, what of a Jewish state’? The Arabs regard it as an "exotic movement. internationally financed, artiﬁcially stimulated, holding no hope of ultimale or permanent sueeess.” Unfortunately there is something to this point of view. Palestine is not self-supporting. Perhaps given land expansion. great power and irrigation projects and, above all, internal peace, the Jewish community might become self-supporting in a generation or two. That is a moot point and almost irrelevant, because prospects for such expansion, projects and even peace are slight.

Aside, however, from the physical limitations, there is the higher moral question that divides the Jews themselves: namely, is religious nationalism any more the answer to the over-all Jewish problem than is any other sort of nationalism the answer to any part of the world problem?

What the Jews really need is not a national state but the right sort of world. Probably there will always be a certain number of Jews who prefer segregation in the Holy land, but we hazard the opinion that it the nations carried out that provision in the United Nations Charter, presumably not lightly adopted, for "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,” it would do far more to solve the Jewish problem than any multiplication of the Jewish population in Palestine.

Among other things this would mean the re-establishment of the 100,000 Jews in the assembly camps on the same basis, and with the same regard, as the resettlement of all of Europe's millions of displaced persons. If the remnants of Hitler's evil anti-Semitic brew precludes this in Eastern and Central Europe. then, assuredly, humanitarian gates must he opened. but not only in Palestine. The whole world must share the task. including the US.

This makes a bipartisan approach to the problem all the more desirable.
All this—a humane world and one in which a Jew ean live and prosper equally with all—is an easy solution, surely. It is only as hard as the human heart.

Jordanian rapist marries 15-year old victim to avoid jail

Ammon News has the sickening story.

The owner of a mobile phone store befriended a 15-year old girl who hung out at his store and he promised to marry her. Then he asked her to come to his shop to discuss their marriage plans. He then drugged her, drove her to another location and raped her while she was unconscious. She woke up outdoors, naked.

She filed a complaint with the police and they went to arrest the store owner. He freely admitted the rape, but he said that he would marry her - so they let him go.

According to Jordan's penal code article 308, a rapist can go free if he agrees to marry his victim.

There is a disgusting catch: he must remain married to her for at least five years, thus further victimizing the girl.

There are no words.

I imagine it will only be a few months before The Guardian also starts to put "militants" in scare quotes when referring to people who purposefully fire rockets at Israeli civilians.

Hamas buries 2 year old girl it killed as a "martyr"

Two days ago, a 2-year old girl was killed in Gaza from a Hamas rocket that misfired. Ma'an gave the details and a Hamas official privately admitted that this is what happened to a BBC reporter.

Publicly, however, Hamas insists that the girl was killed by an Israeli airstrike. So Hamas staged a funeral for a girl they killed as a "martyr," wrapping her body in a Hamas flag.

And the locals ate it all up:

Sick, depraved people.

Nice shooting (and intelligence) (update)

The IDF struck a smuggling tunnel, killing two Hamas members and reportedly injuring 21 others.

Which means that it was a tunnel for smuggling weapons.

Of course, being the liars they are, the Gazans are accusing Israel of somehow injecting poison gas in the tunnels as they were bombing them.

UPDATE: Ma'an reports that Hamas is claiming not that Israel bombed the tunnel today, but that Hamas members went to inspect a damaged tunnel and died from inhaling poisonous gas. (h/ t Tam)

Palestine Press Agency reports that on Wednesday, Israel shipped 268 trucks filled with goods through the Kerem Shalom crossing, including 9 trucks of aid, 152 trucks for the commercial sector, including 11 trucks of wheat and 20 trucks of feed, 30 trucks for the agricultural sector, 5 trucks for the transportation sector, including, 30 vehicles, 9 trucks loaded with cement and iron for construction and 61 truckfuls of gravel for UNRWA projects, and also been pumping 159,510 kilos of cooking gas and 240,097 liters of diesel from Qatar, as well as 38,000 liters of diesel for transportation.

Gaza responded by"exporting" dozens of rockets towards Israeli civilians.

Today, after eight more rockets were fired overnight, Israel is sending another 310 trucks of aid through the crossing, including supplies to help upgrade the electric grid of Gaza.

Islamic Jihad is coming after me, so I must defend myself.

From the Saraya.ps website of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades:

According to this tweet from Michael Nahum, the translation is

"O Elder of Zion: Fear the Charge of the Resplendent Insurgent!"

They are threatening me with a graphic??? Clearly, they don't know who they are messing with.

You see, this week was the annual Israeli Fat and Beautiful pageant, where Israeli women who weigh between 80-100 kilos (176-220 lbs) compete for the coveted title.

So my answer to Islamic Jihad is:

Game, set and match.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar, Ron)

Stolen Kremlin documents show Soviet involvement in Arab strategy

An amazing article by Claire Berlinski at Tablet:

Russian exile Pavel Stroilov argues in his forthcoming book, Behind the Desert Storm, “It was the Soviet Empire—not the British Empire—that was responsible for the instability in the Middle East.”

Stroilov, a historian now living in London, fled Russia in 2003 after stealing 50,000 top-secret Kremlin documents from the Gorbachev Foundation archives, where he was working as a researcher. He was given access to the archive in 1999, but Gorbachev refused him permission to copy its most significant documents. Having observed the network administrator entering the password into the system, Stroilov reproduced the archive and sent it to secure locations around the world.

Stroilov’s cache includes hundreds of transcripts of discussions between Gorbachev and foreign leaders, politicians, and diplomats. (The originals are still sealed under Kremlin pressure.)....

Stroilov’s book about these documents, many only now translated into English, challenges the conventional wisdom that Western colonialists are to blame for the chaos in the region. All of its major conflicts, he argues, were caused by Soviet expansionism. Terrorism and the rabid anti-Israeli animus of the Arab world were Soviet inspirations. And the revolutions we are seeing now were inevitable, for the Soviet client states were socialist regimes, and sooner or later socialism exhausts economies and thus the patience of the people who live in them.

Stroilov focuses upon Gorbachev’s intrigues in the Middle East, explaining the Arab Spring as the “final act of the Cold War.” This thesis is overstated—Stroilov is a bit too enamored of his own collection to admit the complexity of these events—but there is nonetheless much in his archives to support this description. The documents clearly suggest that many contemporary conflicts in the Middle East were fomented by the Soviet empire, particularly in the final years before its break-up. And the events he describes have had a significant impact upon the current state of the region—from the conflict in Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to the development of a de facto alliance between the European Union and the Arab states. Perhaps most significantly, there is much here to suggest that it is past time to reexamine Gorbachev’s reputation as a reformer and liberalizer. Stroilov’s book suggests that in the Middle East, Gorbachev’s policy was old-school Kremlin imperialism, all the way to the end.

From the close of World War I, the great prize of the Middle East has been the Persian Gulf. During the Cold War, America and its allies in Europe and Asia depended upon its oil for 90 percent of their energy needs; developing countries would be instantly crippled by a sharp hike in oil prices. But for the Soviets, attaining control of the Gulf could be achieved only by direct military aggression. Following the return of British forces to Kuwait in 1961 to defend the Emirate from Iraq’s Abd al-Karim Qasim—whose ambitions for Kuwait were subsequently, if temporarily, realized by Saddam Hussein—it became clear to the Soviets that the West would go to any length to defend the oil. “And so the comrades postponed the conquest of the Gulf,” writes Stroilov, “although some of them were sorely disappointed with that decision.”

What, then, was Plan B? It was “the subversion and eventual destruction of Israel.”

Though not as good as the Gulf oil fields, Israel would also be a big prize. It was the only democracy in the region, the strongest military power in the pro-Western camp and, indeed, the bridgehead of the Western world. Even more importantly, the very process of crusading (or jihadding) against Israel offered fantastic political opportunities. A besieged Israel effectively meant millions of Jewish hostages in the hands of the comrades, and the threat of genocide could intimidate the West into making great concessions in the Gulf or elsewhere. On the other hand, by making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the central problem of the Middle East, the Soviets could exploit Arab nationalism, anti-Semitism, and even Islamic religious feelings to mobilize support for their policies. Indeed, under the banner of Arab solidarity, the socialist influence in the region grew far beyond the socialist regimes and parties.

The code-name for this operation against Israel, according to Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking defector from the Soviet Bloc, was “SIG”—Sionistskiye Gosudarstva, or “Zionist Governments.” In a National Review article, Pacepa recalls a conversation he had with KGB chairman Yuri Andropov, who envisioned fomenting “a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world. … We had only to keep repeating our themes—that the United States and Israel were ‘fascist, imperial-Zionist countries’ bankrolled by rich Jews.”

In the mid-1970s, Pacepa recalls, the KGB ordered its Eastern European sister agencies to scour the Middle East for trusted agents, train them in disinformation and terrorism, and export a “rabid, demented hatred for American Zionism.” They showered the region with an Arabic translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and KGB-fabricated documents alleging that Israel and the United States were dedicated to converting the Islamic world into a Jewish colony.

Following the defeat of the Egyptians in the Six Day War, the Soviets came to a second realization: A conventional military confrontation with Israel, and by extension the West, carried too great a risk of escalating into nuclear war. A change of tactics was required. Gen. Alexander Sakharovsky, then head of the KGB’s intelligence arm, explained this to his East European colleagues: “[T]errorism should become our main weapon.” Sakharovsky boasted that airplane hijackings were his own invention; he decorated his office with a world map, covered in flags, each marking a successful hijacking. Though the PLO managed to unite various terrorist organizations, “the supreme headquarters of the whole network was, of course, the Kremlin,” Stroilov writes, and “the evidence accumulated at this point leaves no doubt that the whole system was invented by Moscow as a weapon against the West, and the PLO was a jewel in their crown.”

Pacepa lists examples of KGB-sponsored acts of terrorism:

November 1969, armed attack on the El Al office in Athens, leaving 1 dead and 14 wounded; May 30, 1972, Ben Gurion Airport attack, leaving 22 dead and 76 wounded; December 1974, Tel Aviv movie theater bomb, leaving 2 dead and 66 wounded; March 1975, attack on a Tel Aviv hotel, leaving 25 dead and 6 wounded; May 1975, Jerusalem bomb, leaving 1 dead and 3 wounded; July 4, 1975, bomb in Zion Square, Jerusalem, leaving 15 dead and 62 wounded; April 1978, Brussels airport attack, leaving 12 wounded; May 1978, attack on an El Al plane in Paris, leaving 12 wounded.

Stroilov’s documents indicate that the Soviets and Syrians also took credit for blowing up the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1984.

Read the whole thing.

I've noted before a PLO document that was essentially a blueprint for delegitimizing Israel from 1968, and how it appeared to be influenced by the Soviets. This strengthens that case a great deal.

Although it is obvious that Arab hate of Israel (and Jews) came way before the Soviets started meddling. But they knew how to direct that anger.

(h/t Petra)