Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 26, 2012

PA Olympic Committee calls a moment of silence "racism"

The Palestinian Authority is against the moment of silence at the Olympics to commemorate the Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972. According to the headline in the official PA daily, "Sports are meant for peace, not for racism."

According to Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee:

"Sports are meant for peace, not for racism... Sports are a bridge to love, interconnection, and spreading of peace among nations; it must not be a cause of division and spreading of racism between them [nations]."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 25, 2012]

These words appeared in a letter sent by Rajoub to the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge. The letter "expressed appreciation for [Rogge's] position, who opposed the Israeli position, which demanded a moment's silence at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London."

The PA daily does not refer to the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 as terror. In the article about Rajoub's letter, the killing of the athletes is referred to as "the Munich Operation, which took place during the Munich Olympics in 1972."

The article is here.

The letter argues that the Olympics is not a place for politics, which a supremely hypocritical statement from the people who introduced murder for political purposes into the Olympics.

PMW goes on to quote many Palestinian Arab officials who praised the people behind the Munich massacre in the same pages of Al Hayat al Jadida and other official PA media outlets:

Honoring Amin Al-Hindi, planner of the Olympic attack:

"One of the stars who sparkled... one of many shining stations."

Official PA daily on Al-Hindi:

"Everyone knows that Amin Al-Hindi was one of the stars who sparkled at one of the stormiest points on the international level - the operation that was carried outat the [Olympics] sports stadium in Munich, Germany, in 1972. That was just one of many shining stations."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 20,2010]

Secretary General of the Abbas' office, Al-Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim on Al-Hindi:

"Secretary General of the President's office, Al-Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim, delivered a speech in which he praised the qualities of the deceased. He stressed that the loss of Al-Hindi is a great loss to the Palestinian people, who are bereaved of a prominent national leader...
The Secretary General of the Presidential office said: 'We shall continue in the path of the Shahid (Martyr) Yasser Arafat and his fellow Shahids, such as Amin Al-Hindi...'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 19, 2010]

Abbas and Fayyad honor Al-Hindi:

"The Palestinian leadership, along with President Mahmoud Abbas, parted yesterday from the body of the Fatah leader and fighter patriot Amin Al-Hindi. This was at an imposing official military funeral that was held at the [PA] headquarters...
Present at the headquarters for the farewell ceremony and for the official military funeral, along with the President [Abbas], were Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad; Secretary General of the Presidential office, Al-Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim; members of the PLO Executive Council and of the Fatah Central Committee; several ministers, commanders of security forces, senior civic and military personnel, as well as relatives of the deceased... President Abbas and the participants at the funeral cast a final parting look at the body, and laid wreaths. Afterwards, the President and those present read the opening sura [of the Quran] for the elevation of his pure soul."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 19, 2010]

Honoring Muhammad Daoud Oudeh, 'Abu Daoud,' a second planner of the Olympic attack:

"His name shined brightly in the German city of Munich"

PA TV News, on Oudeh:

"Palestinians were surprised this morning at the announcement of the death of one of the most important leaders of the Palestinian revolution, Muhammad Daoud Oudeh (Abu Daoud), who engineered the Munich Operation and was one of the most important of Israel's most wanted in the 1970s."

[PA TV (Fatah), July 4, 2010]

Official PA daily, on Oudeh:

"In its [Black September wing of PLO] ranks were many distinguished men and women, headed by the Panther of Palestine, Salah Khalaf 'Abu Iyad.' Abu Daoud was one of his prominent assistants. His [Abu Daoud's] name shined brightly in the German city of Munich in 1972, where the Olympics took place. Oh, how these events evolved into a violent drama of the most tragic kind... May Allah have mercy on this great Fatah fighter and patriot, Abu Daoud."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 6, 2010]

Mahmoud Abbas on Oudeh:

"What a wonderful brother, companion, tough and stubborn, relentless fighter."

"President Mahmoud Abbas sent a telegram of condolences yesterday over the death of the great fighter Muhammad Daoud Oudeh, 'Abu Daoud,' who died just before reaching 70. The telegram of condolences read: 'The deceased was one of the prominent leaders of the Fatah movement and lived a life filled with the struggle, devoted effort, and the enormous sacrifice of the deceased for the sake of the legitimate problem of his people, in many spheres. He was at the forefront on every battlefield, with the aim of defending the [Palestinian] revolution. What a wonderful brother, companion, tough and stubborn, relentless fighter."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2010]

Abbas Zaki, member Fatah Central Committee, on Oudeh:

"He started his life as a regular individual and concluded it with giant stature... We have lost a man on the level of the Arab region and on the level of the world revolutionary movement, by virtue of his noble actions and his glorious history. Bestowing this honor in every place, inside the homeland and outside of it, does justice to this mighty man."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 5, 2010]

Dr. Samir Al-Refa'I, Secretary of the Fatah branch in Syria, on Oudeh:

"With the fall of Abu Daoud as a Shahid we have lost a man who is worth all other men together... Abu Daoud is one of the symbols of the Fatah movement... He will always remain our ideal and a role model for the generations to come."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 5, 2010]

See also my post about Mahmoud Abbas' involvement in the massacre itself - something the media is ignoring this time around.

Only 7 years ago, the EU acknowledged Hezbollah's terror acts

As a followup to this story about how the EU has denied that Hezbollah was a terrorist organization, here is what the EU Parliament wrote in a 2005 resolution on the situation in Lebanon:

The European Parliament ,

...1. Condemns unequivocally the bomb attack in Beirut on 14 February 2005 which killed the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, and other innocent civilians, expresses its horror and indignation at this barbarous act and conveys its sincerest condolences to the families of Mr Hariri and of the other victims;

2. Calls, pursuant to the statement made by the UN Security Council President on 15 February 2005, for every effort to be made to ascertain the causes, circumstances and consequences of this attack; calls on the Lebanese authorities to continue to cooperate with the UN's fact-finding mission;

...7. Considers that clear evidence exists of terrorist activities on the part of Hezbollah and that the Council should take all necessary steps to curtail them...

Despite this, the EU Parliament has steadfastly refused to label Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization, even as early as 2002 and 2003, despite many requests by delegates to do so.

Just going to show that politics and honesty are only coincidentally coincidental.

Zionist response to Metro-North lying map ads

As a response to the Metro-North ads showing the Map That Lies - which even the bankroller of the ads all but admitted were a lie - StandWithUs is placing a series of its own ads, starting next week.

Here are some of them:

Wednesday Links

From Ian:

Arab Spring: A Blessing for Hamas by Khaled Abu Toameh

“Egypt's Mursi has put Hamas's Mashaal on an equal footing with heads of state, thus granting legitimacy not only to the Hamas leader but to its entire movement. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, has also been officially invited to the Presidential Palace in Cairo.”

NGO Monitor: On ‘Jew-Washing’ And BDS

“These were the “Jew-washers” – very visible actors in many such political attacks on Israel, particularly in Christian frameworks. They are influential beyond their actual numbers, providing a convenient means for cleansing such actions from the stains of double standards, demonization and sometimes anti-Semitism against the Jewish state of Israel, and even Judaism itself.”
“In many cases, Jew-washing is also used to whitewash the blatant theological anti-Semitism that accompanies the church-based BDS attacks on Israel. One example is Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian group that is very influential in those mainline churches active in the BDS wars. Its theology includes supercessionism – a reading of the New Testament that considers the Church to have superseded the Jewish people in God’s promises – and deicide – the charge that “the Jews” killed Jesus – that served as the basis for centuries of anti-Jewish persecution.”

UN Watch: U.N.’s Richard Falk accuses “the organized Jewish community” of crimes against Palestinians

Honest Reporting BBC’s Disgusting Response to Olympic Complaints

“Many people who complained to the BBC about its failure to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on its Olympic country website profile were answered with the following included in a
canned response:
We have received a range of feedback about the errors on the BBC Sport Olympics page and we feel it is worth explaining that a considerable number of those have been generated by online lobby activity.What exactly is the inference of referring to “online lobby activity?”

Max Brenner News plus a BDS Fail:
Baillieu seeks to toughen protest laws

“THE Victorian government will investigate whether tougher legislation is needed to prevent political protests closing down businesses, after a magistrate found in favour of anti-Israeli demonstrators targeting the Max Brenner chocolate shop chain.”
"The BDS group in my opinion is better titled as bigoted, dangerous and shameful," Mr Baillieu said. "They have sought to close down businesses just because they are associated with the state of Israel."

Max Brenner announces hotel partnership across Australia

“The hotels that currently have special deals with Max Brenner products include: Stamford Hotels & Resorts, Blue Sydney (Taj Hotel) and the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.”

Caroline Glick Syria threatens Israel with chemical weapons, Obama pressures Israel

“Many have criticized Obama by arguing that he has no policy on Syria. But actually, he does. He sees Syria in the same light that he sees Iran. In both cases, his main concern is to prevent Israel from defending itself.”

Israelis scramble for gas masks as Syria deteriorates
Citizens lining up amid fears that terrorists will obtain chemical weapons

Romney slams Obama for 'lecturing Israel's leaders'
"Speaking ahead of Israel visit, Republican presidential candidate accuses Obama of neglect, "shabby treatment" of a key ally."

‘Bomber argued with my husband before detonating,’ Burgas victim recounts
“Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov says suspected terrorist could have entered through EU”

Two Grad rockets fired at Ashkelon
“No injuries or damage reported; Iron Dome makes one interception”

Israel Daily Picture:
Anniversary of the Laying of the "Foundation Stone" for the Hebrew University in 1918
Old Jewish Men in the Old City
An incredible photographic study from the 1930s

Also:
The World Bank notices that the PA economy cannot support a state

Munich widows ask Olympic crowd to do their own moment of silence

CiF Watch gets results!

(h/t Ishai, Mike)

Information security company F-Secure writes on its blog:

Over the weekend, I received a series of emails from Iran. They were sent by a scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

The scientist reached out to publish information about Iranian nuclear systems getting struck by yet another cyber attack.

He wrote:

I am writing you to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility Fordo near Qom.

According to the email our cyber experts sent to our teams, they believe a hacker tool Metasploit was used. The hackers had access to our VPN. The automation network and Siemens hardware were attacked and shut down. I only know very little about these cyber issues as I am scientist not a computer expert.

There was also some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out. I believe it was playing 'Thunderstruck' by AC/DC.

I'm not sure what to think about this. We can't confirm any of the details. However, we can confirm that the researcher was sending and receiving emails from within the AEOI.

This is obviously the work of regular - but smart - hackers meaning to harass Iran. Metasploit is freely available and easily exploits known security vulnerabilities. While it is possible to write new exploits for Metasploit, using it is not indicative of a super-secret spy organization or nation/state behind it.

Not to mention that a nation state is not going to advertise that they hacked into a nuclear facility!

Most interesting from that email is the idea that Iranian nuclear facilities are accessible to the Internet via a VPN. And the VPN had access to the Siemens controllers. That is astonishingly poor security for a critical facility which should be completely cut off from the world. I assumed it was because Stuxnet was spread via USB drives, not the Internet, it was reported at the time.

So this is the work of mischievous hackers. But that doesn't stop "foreign policy experts" from saying stupid things implying this was a US operation:

This sort of thing isn't new. Music was central to 1989's Operation Just Cause, in which U.S. soldiers attempted to coerce Panamanian President Manuel Noriega from his refuge in the Vatican embassy by blaring loud music at the building. In documents acquired by the National Security Archives, U.S. SOUTHCOM admitted U.S. military DJs took requests, blaring a playlist that ranged from Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and, an apparent favorite, AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long.

More recently, U.S. Psychological Operations Company (PsyOps) admitted to the use of heavy metal in Iraq as a mechanism to break uncooperative prisoners' resistance. Similar use was reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross as part of the "cruel, humane and degrading" treatment of Guantanamo inmates. Though the use of heavy metal as a interrogation technique incited some record companies to warn that the United States may owe royalty fees, military officials were unrepentant. As one officer told Newsweek, "Trust me, it works."

One can only hope that Iran remains as clueless about cyber-security as it has been so far. If hackers can get into a nuclear facility in Iran, hopefully the entire infrastructure is riddled with hidden viruses, trojans, and backdoors that cannot be removed without a wholesale replacement of every computer component and computer controller.

(h/t Yoel)

Israeli art school redesigns hacked webpages for Arab hackers

To Israelis who are under constant cyber-attack, the most offensive part is that the hackers have no sense of style.

From Business Insider:

Students from HaBezefer, the Israeli school of advertising and art, and ad agency McCann Digital Israel, came up with an unconventional response to cyberattacks: Re-design hacked takeover pages so they look more aesthetically pleasing.

McCann Digital art director Nir Refuah told BI that "Israel is under constant cyber attacks each month, dozens of Israeli websites are being hacked by Arab hacker groups and replaced with anti-Israeli web pages."

While McCann and the students didn't have an immediate answer to end the wave of cyberattacks, they did come up with a way to solve their other hacking qualms, the "uninspired designs each time: black background, grotesque low-res images and unbearable amounts of text."

The solution? Students found 50 hacked pages, and while they kept the content, they redesigned the pages to look more cheerful. Refuah told BI that the students sent the redesign templates to various hacker group forums with the message, "We would like to end all cyber wars, but in the meantime -- if you must hack our sites, at least leave something beautiful."

You can see how the students packaged their work as if they were presenting it to a potential client here.

So here are some old, ugly hacked Israeli sites, and how Betzefer re-designed them:

I love it!

(h/t Israellycool)

"Palestinian peace activist" Mazin Qumsiyeh calls for military destruction of Israel

Mazin Qumsiyeh is professor and outspoken anti-Israel activist who has gone on tours of high schools to push his peculiar brand of hate, couched in terms of "human rights." In fact, he even calls his website a "human rights web." He is referred to in countless places as a "peace activist."

His latest article at Palestine News Network shows the truth.

The title of the article is "PLO Charter Was Not Legally Amended," meaning that he admits what everyone but Bill Clinton knew anyway: that the PLO Charter of 1968 was never revised to eliminate the passages calling for the destruction of Israel, and no replacement has ever been drafted.

Emphasizing that the name of the PLO is the "Palestine LIBERATION Organization," Qumsiyeh goes on to quote the entire Charter, as a way to get the Palestinian Arabs back to their terrorist roots to utterly destroy Israel. The Charter, as he approvingly quotes it, includes:

Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. Thus it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it.

...Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian people, and between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure the continuation of the revolution, its escalation, and victory.

...The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland.

...The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine.

Qumsiyeh is explicitly calling for the PLO to set the clock back not only before Oslo but all the way back to 1968, to when they were mounting daily attacks against Israeli civilians.

This is what this hypocrite considers "human rights."

Interestingly, Qumsiyeh does emphasize "popular resistance" which Westerners understand to be "non-violent." But the Charter itself refers to "armed popular revolution," "the Palestinian popular liberation war," and "the popular army," all of which are consistent with the actual meaning of his words "popular resistance."

It is something to keep in mind when listening to the doubletalk of Palestinian Arab activists.

More (but somewhat dated) information on Qumsiyeh from the ADL and CAMERA.

The rockets keep coming from Gaza. Probably for Ramadan.

From YNet:

Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at Israel Tuesday evening, one of which was intercepted over Ashkelon by the Iron Dome missile defense system. The second rocket hit open territory in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Ashkelon residents who did not hear an alert before Iron Dome intercepted the incoming rocket took the explosion as a matter of course.

GANSO said that two "homemade rockets" were fired last night, but of course Qassams do not have the range to reach Ashkelon. So at least one rocket was a Grad.

Not that the latest terror attack by Palestinian Arabs against Israeli civilians will get any news coverage outside Israel. It was probably just celebratory fireworks at a Ramadan breakfast.

Israel's PMO website removes The Levy Report. Here it is. (updated)

Up until a day or two ago, the official Hebrew copy of the Levy Report, as well as the English translation of its Conclusions and Recommendations section, could be found on Israel's Prime Minister's Office website.

They are no longer there.

So while there has been no announcement saying that Netanyahu would reject or accept the report's recommendations, perhaps this indicates that he chose to reject it in a passive-aggressive way.

On the other hand, the earlier Sasson report that had far different conclusions than Levy has also gone missing from the site.

Someone should ask the PMO whether this was deliberate.

For reference, I added the English text of the conclusions and recommendations to my existing post with (now two) unofficial translations of the legal arguments given in the report.

For those who want to access the Hebrew original, here it is:

Levy Report in Hebrew

(h/t Avi)

UPDATE: It looks like the site was redesigned; the Levy report files can now be found here. (h/t AT)

EU says Hezbollah isn't a terrorist organization

From Al Arabiya:

The European Union turned down a request Tuesday by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist group after last week’s deadly bombing in Bulgaria.

“There is no consensus for putting Hezbollah on the list of terrorist organizations,” said Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Israel blames Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah for Wednesday’s suicide attack at the Black Sea airport of Burgas in which five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver died.

But an EU decision would require the unanimous approval of all its 27 members.
Sitting beside the Cypriot minister at a news conference held after annual EU-Israel talks, Lieberman said: “The time has come to put Hezbollah on the terrorist list of Europe.”

“It would give the right signal to the international community and the Israeli people.”

But Kozakou-Marcoullis said Hezbollah was an organization comprising a party as well as an armed wing and was “active in Lebanese politics”.

“Taking into account this and other aspects there is no consensus for putting Hezbollah on the list of terrorist organizations,” she said.

The EU would consider this if there were tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terror, she added.

Arutz-7 compiled a list of terror acts that are attributed to Hezbollah:

The 1982–1983 Tyre headquarters bombings.
The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing.
The 1983 barracks bombing that killed 241 US marines, 58 French paratroopers and 6 civilians at the US and French barracks in Beirut.
The Hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985.
The Lebanon hostage crisis from 1982 to 1992, including the kidnapping and torture-murder of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley.
The 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires, killing 29, in Argentina.
The 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish cultural centre, killing 85, in Argentina.
The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 Saudi citizens, and 1 American.
The 2000 cross-border kidnapping and murder of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Benyamin Avraham, and Omar Sawaidwere.
In 2002, Singapore accused Hizbullah of recruiting Singaporeans in a failed 1990s plot to attack US and Israeli ships in the Singapore Straits.
The 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri for which 4 Hizbullah members were indicted by the Hague.
The 2006 kidnapping and murder of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, which precipitated the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War.
Indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians with rocket fire during the ensuing 34 day conflict.
The January 15, 2008, bombing of a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Beirut.
In 2009, a Hizbullah plot in Egypt was uncovered, where Egyptian authorities arrested 49 men for planning attacks against Israeli and Egyptian targets in the Sinai Peninsula.
A failed 2011 bombing in Istanbul targeting the Israeli consul, which left eight dead.
A spate of bombings targeting Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia, and Thailand in early 2012.

Yeah, but what has Hezbollah done lately?

Today's "usurpers of Al Aqsa"

Palestinian Muslim sites are freaking out over the third consecutive day of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, saying that they are "desecrating" and "usurping" the Al Aqsa Mosque (which they, of course, never enter.)

They are especially upset over this man, who was taking photos and video using a tripod. I'm not sure why photography is such a desecration of the area, given that the Muslims are photographing the Jews every time they visit.

They said this is an "incursion," a "break in," and an "attack." Plus, of course, these Jews are accused of "performing Talmudic rituals," the worst possible thing anyone can imagine.

Israeli creates recycled cardboard bicycle - $9 to build

From NoCamels:

They are made of recycled cardboard, can withstand water and humidity, cost nearly nothing – and might the concept of green vehicle. Izhar Gafni is a Kibbutz resident, who decided to prove to his fellow engineers that he could make a bicycle at nearly no cost.

Izhar Gafni, originally from Kibbutz Bror Hayil in the Negev, took the most popular and widely sold vehicle in the community and decided to turn it into an entirely green private venture.

Gafni’s bicycle redefines the idea of green transportation in every way, being environmentally friendly from early stages of production all the way through creation of the final product. The bicycles are made out of recycled and used cardboard.

The primary use, like any bicycle, is to prevent pollution while encouraging physical activity and exercise. In an interview with Newsgeek, Gafni said that the production cost for his recycled bicycles is around $9-12 each, and he estimates it could be sold to a consumer for $60 to $90, depending on what parts they choose to add.

Arabs think Temple Institute video is really an insult to Morsi

Last week I posted a video from The Temple Institute showing young kids on a beach building a sand-Temple,. At the time I noted that it would probably really upset the Islamists:

Well, it is indeed getting lots of attention in the Arabic media, but they are seeing a bizarre secret message.

While the newspaper that the father is reading has a number of stories about the Middle East, such as "Assad forces advance on rebel northern town," "Syria set to win seat on UN Human Rights Council," and about Iranian plans to build a nuclear powered submarine - all stories from July 5, by the way - the Arab media is fixated on the photo of Mohamed Morsi that is briefly and barely visible when the father drops the newspaper:

According to these articles, which originated in Egypt and got picked up by dozens of Arab media outlets, the entire video is really meant to be an insult to Egypt's president!

When you are looking for reasons to be insulted, you tend to find them.

Links

From Ian:

The Mandate for Palestine still matters 90 years later by Eli E. Hertz

"Today marks the 90th anniversary of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the UN, that published the legally binding document the “Mandate for Palestine.” The Mandate’s roots can be traced to the founding of modern Zionism in August 1897 and the Balfour Declaration of November 1917."

Baker defends Levy report in letter to US Jews

Israel Policy Forum warned last month that Levy Report endangered two-state solution; Baker: "You didn't read the report."

What Went Wrong in Munich - PodCast

"How oversensitivity toward Germany’s Nazi past contributed to the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in 1972"

Richard Millett: Just 1 minute, Mr Rogge!

He also covers the memorial plaque ceremony in Hackney.

The Mainstream Media’s War on Israel

"The violent attack on the Jewish state waged by mainstream media, is turning credible news publications into forums for Israel-bashers to delegitimize the state – all under the guise of honest reporting. It is now more apparent than ever that the anti-Israel bias in the media is not just present – it is pervasive."

Who cares about Palestinian human rights?

"In recent days no less than 120 Palestinian homes have been demolished and so you might have thought news of this would have made the headlines as the usual procession of NGOs and their self proclaimed ‘Liberal Zionist’ allies turn out to express the deepest sentiments of condemnation they are able to muster. Yet here in Britain at least these events went completely unreported and of course the reason that they failed to stir even the faintest interest is because the demolitions took place in Gaza and were carried out by Hamas."

Liberman round-up:
Liberman: Transfer of non-conventional weapons to Hezbollah would be ‘clear casus belli’ for Israel
Israel sees no reason to apologize for Marmara incident
Syrian rebels have rejected Israel’s help, Liberman says

Tourism minister says Bulgarians foiled terror plot against Israelis months ago (I covered it then - EoZ)

Abbas to delay Palestinian UN bid until after US elections

Comedy Gold: Syrian rebels burn Palestinian flag, thinking it’s Iranian

"Youtube video shows confusion among Islamist rebels who capture border crossing with Turkey
"Syrian rebels who captured the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey last week have been destroying symbols of the old regime and its backers found in the border-control building. But an amateur video posted on Youtube shows the men to be inexpert in distinguishing those they consider allies from those they regard as enemies.”

3,000-year-old wheat traces said to support biblical account of Israelite conquest

"Archaeologist Amnon Ben-Tur claims find at Tel Hazor is a remnant of Joshua’s military campaign in 13th century BCE"

Israeli scientists in the running for worldwide award, even if UNESCO still can’t find Israel

"Despite the fact that Israel does not fit into any of UNESCO’s world groupings, three women still have a chance to win up to $100,000"

Also, Iranian nuke facilities hit by malware that plays AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." (h/t Ken)

Egypt easing Gaza visa requirements? Not so fast.

AP reported yesterday:

Egypt is allowing freer temporary entry for Palestinians into the country in an unprecedented move that eases long-imposed travel restrictions, particularly on Gazans, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said Monday.

The decision has caused confusion among the security agencies here -- and appeared to bring some resistance. Some officers at the airport refused to implement the measures, an airport official said, in a sign of how deeply some in the security forces view the Palestinians as a potential threat.

And JPost reported:

Palestinians who arrive in Egypt without a visa will be allowed to stay in the country for 72 hours, the Egyptian envoy in Ramallah, Yasser Othman, announced Monday.

The announcement came as the Egyptian authorities denied that they have lifted restrictions imposed on Palestinian travelers.

But today, Othman is singing a different tune:

Procedures for Palestinians entering Egypt have not changed, despite earlier reports that restrictions had been eased, Cairo's ambassador to the Palestinian Authority said Monday.

Yasser Othman told Ma'an that regulations for Palestinians' entry to Egypt were still applicable, although Palestinians arriving in Egypt would be granted a 48 -72 hour visa to transit the country in limited cases.

"All the news circulated in the media about Palestinians' entry to Egypt are false, however human considerations will be taken into account regarding the deportation of Palestinians from the Egyptian airport to the Gaza Strip," Othman said.

It sounds like there was pushback in Egypt against loosening restrictions against Gazans - who ordinary Egyptians seem to love, as long as that love is expressed purely as anti-Israel demonstrations.

It looks like Egypt is still besieging Gaza.

How dare the world shun Israel on terrorism (Jose Maria Aznar)

This is behind the Times of London's paywall:

How dare the world shun Israel on terrorism

Forty years after Munich, we are wrong to block the country most affected by atrocities

Jose Maria Aznar

When we are about to mark the 40th anniversary of the terrorist attacks at the Olympic Village in Munich, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists, it is a real paradox to see Israel excluded from the first meeting of the Global Counter-terrorism Forum.

This initiative, led by the United States and attended by 29 countries and the European Union, took place last month in an effort to improve the co-ordination of counter-terrorism policies at global level. Why wasn't Israel invited? The meeting was held in Istanbul and no one wanted to "provoke" the host, the Islamist Government of the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Worse still, in July, the forum organised its first victims-of-terrorism meeting. Not only was Israel excluded, but Israeli victims had no place in its official speeches. When we see deadly terrorist attacks such as the recent one in Bulgaria, targeting tourists simply because they were Israeli, the marginalisation of Israel is totally unacceptable.

As a terrorism victim myself, who was fortunate to survive a car-bomb attack, I cannot understand or justify the marginalisation of other terrorist victims just for political reasons. If we extrapolate Israel's experience of slaughter to Britain, it would mean that in the past 12 years about 11,000 British citizens would have died and 60,000 would have been injured in terrorist attacks. In the case of the United States, the figures would he 65,000 dead and 300,000 injured. Israel's ordeal is far from insignificant.

It is even more poignant if one considers Israel's willingness to face up to terrorism and the practical experience that it has acquired to defeat it. Israel has much to contribute in this area and everyone else has a lot to learn if we really want to defeat the terrorists.

Fiamma Nirenstein, the vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies (and a member of the Friends of Israel Initiative) has made a proposal that is as fair as it is attractive - to hold a moment of silence at the London Olympics in memory of the 1972 massacre. Remembering is important, first, because of the victims, but also because many Europeans adopted the wrong attitude towards Palestinian terrorism after the Munich attack. The culprits who were arrested were later quietly released for fear of further attacks. And because of that initial fear the terrorists knew hose to take advantage of the situation and to press for more rewards.

I have experienced terrorism at first hand. Many of my friends and some political colleagues have been killed by terrorists whose only merit was to have a hood, a gun or a bomb. Nonetheless, even in the most difficult times, I have always believed that weakness and appeasement are the wrong choices. Terrorism is not a natural phenomenon; it doesn't happen spontaneously; its not something ethereal. It can and must be fought using all the tools provided by the law and democracy - and most importantly, it can be defeated if there is the will to defeat it. Israel has provided ample proof that it possesses that will, since its own existence is at stake.

To marginalise or isolate Israel to avoid irritating Turkey is a big mistake. All of the Middle East, from Morocco to the Gulf, is undergoing profound, although not always peaceful, change, which is yielding very disturbing results. Although the elections in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are something new and promising for the region, Syria is immersed in civil war and there is a danger that the region's largest arsenal of chemical weapons will spin out of control and become available to anyone - as happened with Libya's portable anti-aircraft missiles, which disappeared after the fall of of Colonel Gaddafi, In Egypt, the rise of Islamism threatens economic and political stability. Hezbollah is still in Lebanon, keeping alive its goal of eliminating Israel -just as members oft Hamas do in Gaza. Despite sanctions, Iran is moving forward with the development of a nuclear bomb in its effort to become the regional leader and to export its Islamist and revolutionaiy ideology as widely as possible. There are also other areas in turmoil that directly affect Europe, such as the Sahel region of Africa, south of the Sahara, which is now becoming dominated by al-Qaeda.

Isolation not only renders Israel weaker against its enemies, but also makes all Westerners weaker. And the practitioners of terrorism know all too well how to exploit our differences.

Remembering Munich 40 years on should be a useful reminder of our successes and failures. It should help us to enhance our collective abilities to light terrorism. Israel is key in this fight. Israel is a part of the West. Israel is not the problem; it is part of the solution. We will become the problem if we continue to cold-shoulder Israel, the country most affected by terrorism and, possibly, the one that knows best how to defeat it.

Jose Maria Aznar was Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004 and is chairman of the Friends of Israel Initiative.

(h/t Jason for the JPGs, I OCR'ed them)

Iran's Zionist Olympic Follies

From AP:

Iranian athletes will compete against Israelis at the London Olympics, according to the country's chef de mission.

Iran has been criticized in the past because some of its athletes withdrew from events against Israelis at the 2004 Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games.

"We will be truthful to sport," said Bahram Afsharzadeh, who is also the secretary general of the Iranian Olympic committee said.

Afsharzadeh, who was at times speaking through a translator, also said his team had no plans to boycott events because of the nationality of opponents.

"We just follow the sportsmanship and play every country," Afsharzadeh said.

From the text of the interview, he did not mention Israel by name.

This is in huge contrast to what Iran's official news agency reported last month:

IRI sports minister said here Friday Iranian athletes will just as always refrain from competing against Zionist regime’s representatives if in drawing lots they would have to do so, as Iranians do not recognize legitimacy of forged Zionist regime.

Islamic Republic of Iran Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Mohammad Abbasi made the comment on the sideline of attending a practice session of the Iranian National Wrestling Teams in an interview with an IRNA Sports Desk reporter.

He added in response to IRNA, “Not competing with the Zionist athletes is one of the values and prides of the Iranian athletes and nation.”

On possibility of deprivation of the Iranian athletes from gaining their deserved medals if they would refrain from competing against Zionist regime representatives, he said, “God willing such a thing will not happen, but if it does we would definitely find a way to solve the problem.”

Then, after world media blared this news, Iran's official news agency denied it. From YNet:

Iranian media on Tuesday denied a report quoting the head of the Iranian Olympic Mission as saying that Iranian athletes will compete against Israelis at the London Games.

"In a satanic step, Zionist media published the words of the head of Iran's Olympic Mission who announced that the Iranian athletes will compete against the Zionist regime's representatives at the Olympics," a Fars news agency report said. The report was quoted by other Iranian media outlets.

Fars claimed the Bahram Afsharzadeh's words were taken out of context. "He said nothing on the matter and did not name Israel," Fars said.

This interview with Israel's Olympics head is the most likely scenario:

The head of Israel’s Olympic committee said Tuesday he didn’t believe the Iranian delegation’s claim that its athletes will play against Israelis during the Games.

Zvi Warshaviak told reporters before boarding a plane to London that athletes from certain countries would fake being sick to get out of competing against Israelis. When game time comes, he said, “someone will have an upset stomach.”

There’s a difference between Iran saying it would face Israeli athletes and actually doing so, Warshaviak stated. “I imagine it won’t happen.”

IOC officials had in the past threatened to send home any player who refused to compete because of political reasons.

Athletes from Iran and a number of other countries have refused in the past to compete against Israeli athletes, faking sickness or forfeiting matches for political reasons.

But there is another reason why Iran can pretend to be sportsmanlike in English: it is highly unlikely that any Iranian athlete will directly compete against any Israeli:

At the London Games there is a slim chance of Iranian athletes meeting Israeli ones. Unlike previous Olympics, the two countries have no judokas in the same weight category, and none of the swimmers race in the same heat.

The field that might pitch a representative of the Jewish state against one from the Islamic republic is the 400-meter dash, and that would happen only if both sprinters compete in the same qualifying round, or if both advance to the next round.

There actually was one additional Iranian athlete that had a chance to compete against an Israeli - but you know how easy it is for athletes in top physical condition to get critically ill a week before the Games:

Despite an Iranian assertion on Monday that its athletes would compete against Israeli ones at the 2012 Games, just hours earlier the Iranian team departed for London, leaving behind the lone athlete who had the possibility of facing an Israeli opponent.

On Sunday authorities had announced that that athlete, Javad Mahjoob, a judo champion, is suffering from a “critical digestive system infection,” forcing him to take antibiotics and not travel to the Games, which begin on Friday.

We all know how dangerous it is to travel while on antibiotics, right? Every athlete who trained for years to get to the Olympics would just shrug and say, "oh, well."

Mahjoob’s absence has led to speculation that Iran is maintaining its long-standing policy of not allowing its athletes to compete with Israeli opponents.

Mahjoob himself has acknowledged going to great lengths to keep from squaring off against an Israeli. In a 2011 interview with the Iranian newspaper Shargh, Mahjoob admitted to throwing a match against a German opponent, saying that, “If I won I would have had to compete with an Israeli athlete. And if I refused to compete with the Israeli, they would have suspended our Judo federation for 4 years.”

Israel’s judoka in the 100-kilogram weight class, Ariel “Arik” Ze’evi, will be competing in his fourth Olympic Games. The 35-year-old won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games in Athens, and is widely considered to hold one of Israel’s best chances of taking home a medal in London.

If any country wants to better their chances to win a medal that has an Iranian favorite, they just need to contribute to Israel's Olympic Committee to ensure that an Israeli athlete will compete in the same category.

One thing is certain: the IOC will do nothing to penalize Iran for this farce.

George Clooney to play Arafat in 3D biopic? Arabic media fall for satire

Arabic language media have fallen for a satirical article that claims that Steven Spielberg will produce a 3D Yasser Arafat biopic starring George Clooney.

Here's where they got it from, a spoof website called the Pan-Arabia Enquirer:

He already has the beard!

George Clooney has been signed up to play the lead in an upcoming biopic of Yasser Arafat, according to an article in The Hollywood Reporter.

Quoting insiders close to the project in Los Angeles, the publication claims that actor has agreed a deal that will see him play the title role in ‘Yasser’, a new multi-million dollar 3D feature being developed as a collaboration between Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios and the Doha Film Institute.

Anne Hathaway is widely expected to join the project as Arafat’s wife, Suha
Anne Hathaway is tipped to play Arafat’s wife Suha, while Chris Hemsworth is already on board as a younger Yasser Arafat. On the other side, Kevin Spacey is the bookie’s favourite to take the role of Yitzhak Rabin while Alan Rickman is reportedly in final contract negotiations stages that should see him become Arafat’s devious latter-day nemesis Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sources closes to Clooney say the A-lister is “over the moon” to be playing Arafat, and has “long dreamed of donning the iconic headdress and army fatigues”. No director has yet been lined up, but many in the industry expect the task to be handed to Peter Jackson, who has previously suggested any film about Arafat should be spread over three separate films.

“Biopics are huge business these days, with movies about the lives of Margaret Thatcher, Marilyn Monroe and Danny Devito having earned millions at the box office,” claimed film expert Jethro Goldstein, speaking to The Pan-Arabia Enquirer. “Yasser Arafat is a character with all the action, drama and emotion to take biopics into the lucrative 3D market, and Clooney – who looks the part as well as being politically minded – is the perfect choice as the lead.”

Syrian army entered DMZ near Israel, UN; fired mortar

From Ha'aretz:

Syrian army forces crossed the demilitarized zone near the border with Israel in the Golan Heights last week, a highly unusual incident, on what is considered a quiet border.

Following the incident, in which 500 soldiers and 50 vehicles crossed into the demilitarized zone, Israel filed a formal complaint to the UN secretary general and to the president of the UN's Security Council, warning that the event may have serious ramifications.

The Syrian soldiers entered the demilitarized zone last Thursday. The Syrian forces entered the area near the Syrian village of Jubata Al Khashab, a few kilometers east of the Israeli Druze village of Mas'ada in the northern part of the Golan Heights.

Israel complained to the UN about the breach.

It didn't seem to help:

A mortar shell exploded on the Syrian side of the Israel- Syria border Monday evening.

The projectile landed within the demilitarized zone's limits, about 400 meters from the border fence.

The mortar shell exploded near the Syrian village of Jubata al-Khahasb, and not far from the Golan Heights Druze village of Massaada.

Residents of the Golan Heights as well as IDF sources said the echoes of the fighting raging in Syria are heard in Israel, with fires and smoke seen clearly from across the border.

This is not the first time Syrian forces pushed close to the border.

In March:

Blue-helmeted United Nations peacekeeping troops patrolling a slice of Syrian territory to maintain a ceasefire with Israel face new risks as violence between Syrian government loyalists and rebels gets closer.

In this tiny corner of Syria where the United Nations has a little-noticed foothold, peacekeepers stayed in their bunkers listening this month as several Syrians were reportedly killed by gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) did not publicise the incident, and there was no report from Israeli forces whose nearby hilltop observation units possibly saw or heard at least one of two gunbattles in the valley below.

The Israel Defence Forces this week declined comment and there was no report of the incident in Croatia, whose president had visited Croat troops in the Golan just two weeks earlier.

This apparent desire to play down the threat reflects the tension gripping a small UN operation that ran successfully for 36 years and now faces a new challenge as a year-long Syrian uprising against Assad turns ever more violent.

I'm not so sure that UNDOF has been that effective in patrolling the border. After all, last year they allowed Syrians - under government control - to infiltrate Israel, violating their own rules.

At any rate, things are heating up very, very close to Israel, and the UN is not going to do anything to stop it.

Israel's unrequited goodwill

How come all of the "goodwill gestures" always come from only one side and are never, ever reciprocated?

From JPost:

Israel, in a “goodwill gesture” to the Palestinian Authority, gave Ramallah over the last few days a NIS 180 million advance on tax money it transfers on a monthly basis, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The money was transferred before Ramadan, which began Friday, to help the PA – currently in the midst of a severe financial crisis – pay the monthly salaries of public sector employees.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz made the decision, one of a number of gestures made since the beginning of the year in an attempt to improve relations with the PA and encourage its President Mahmoud Abbas to renew some kind of dialogue with Israel.

Senior government officials said that the decision to transfer the funds – an advance on money that is to be transferred in the coming months – was made before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit last week, and was not the result of a US request.

In addition, the government’s economic cabinet recently decided to increase by approximately 5,000 the number of Palestinian construction workers allowed to work in the country.

From COGAT:

Towards the Month of Ramadan, Israel has approved through COGAT a list of gestures and facilitations for the Palestinians, in order to facilitate, to a certain extent, the adequate and regular routine over the course of the Month of Ramadan, characterized by family visits, arrival at mosques and places of worship and collective and mass crowding until the small hours of the night for prayer and social gathering.

The IDF has approved, through the Central Command and the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, the removal of several internal crossings and barriers, including: The southern entrance barrier to the city of Jericho and two additional barriers in Northern Samaria. The barrier is located at the southern entrance to Ramallah and shall be open 24 hours a day and enable a more convenient access to the city.

Also the VIP population and the senior businessmen (BMC) in the Palestinian Authority will enjoy this month from significant facilitations, including travels abroad through the Ben Gurion Airport, with a special permit.

The month of Ramadan is observed, beyond the daily fasting, also with mass prayers at mosques and at the temple mount in Jerusalem. Israel has approved, within the framework of holiday gestures, the exit of men and women over the age of 40 (married with children) to prayers in Jerusalem, without needing a special permit. For women and men between the ages of 35-40, a dedicated permit shall be issued for them for prayers at the Temple Mount. Likewise, permits were granted to 5,000 prayers per day to go during week days to prayers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and permits were given for family visits in Israel during the holidays and for a time period of a month.

From Ma'an:

Israeli authorities would deploy additional personel at the Allenby bridge to facilitate Palestinians traveling for the holiday, while a medical team would be on hand due to the high temperatures.

According to the statement, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj.-Gen. Eitan Dangot, met with representatives of the Palestinian Authority and updated them on the plans for Ramadan.

"IDF soldiers have been given orders to show special consideration toward the Palestinian residents of the Judea and Samaria region and, wherever possible, to refrain from eating, drinking and smoking in public, more so at the various crossings so as to demonstrate a high level of respect and understanding."

Now, go and try to find a single good word from any Arab, anywhere, about Israel's bending over backwards to accommodate residents of the territories during Ramadan. Keep in mind that under existing agreements, none of these is obligatory on Israel, and some of them costs the Israeli government some serious money.

After all, goodwill gestures should engender good will, right?

So where is it?

Monday links

From Ian:

Latma Summer series
BSN network has a new solution for the scope of the settlements

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu w-Chris Wallace (FULL INTERVIEW) - Fox News Sunday (Video)

Druze students in Syria: 'Send us back to Israel'

“The students, who reside in the northern Golan Heights, are visiting the Syrian capital as part of their studies. They have asked the Red Cross to return to Israel due to the deteriorating security situation in Syria.“

Israel complains to UN after Syrian troops enter Golan demilitarized zone

"Foreign Ministry source says Israel views the incident as a serious violation, especially given the current instability in Syria "

Arab League calls on Assad to step down

"At emergency meeting in Qatar, ministers agree to provide Syrian president with safe passage, tell rebels to form transitional government"

The warped Tweets of Ali Abunimah: Burgas terror attack conspiracy edition

"Ali Abunimah - contributor to ‘Comment is Free’ from 2006 to 2009, co-founder of Electronic Intifada and an anti-Zionist activist who opposes the existence of the Jewish state within any borders.."
"..his recent conspiratorial – and simply unhinged - Tweets about the terrorist attack in Bulgaria which killed 5 Israelis."

Israeli Settlements an Obstacle to Peace? by Michael Curtis

"For four centuries the West Bank and east Jerusalem, were provinces of the Turkish Ottoman Empire; after that, from 1922 until 1948, they were ruled by Britain under the Mandate given it by the League of Nations. These areas have never been under any Arab sovereignty. The Palestinians have never had a political state of their own; and when offered the opportunity to create one by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947, refused to create one."

Not One Moment to Remember Munich

"While we think Costas’ stand on the moment of silence has added another reason to consider him one of the most thoughtful voices on television, the IOC’s ongoing refusal ought to give the rest of us a reason to skip the globaloney fest altogether."

New York City Funding for Anti-Israel Hate-Fest

"The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the City University of New York (CUNY) has announced a two-day conference which serves no purpose, except to condemn Israel, reflecting a simple double standard."

UN tribunal sets trial date for Hariri assassination

"The trial was tentatively scheduled to start on March 25, 2013, the tribunal said.
The four defendants, members of Hezbollah, remain at large, shielded by the movement’s denial of their involvement and the practical reality that Hezbollah’s armed forces, dominant in Lebanon, can likely prevent their arrest."

Sacha Baron Cohen settles slander suit with Palestinian grocer he labelled a 'terrorist' in Bruno

Cairo airport denies easing entry procedures for Palestinians

"Authorities say three Palestinians are awaiting deportation to Gaza for arriving without a visa"

Also, although a little hard to read, this article is about an anti-Zionist (and honorary Palestinian citizen) Israeli who traveled to Morocco to shake hands with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. This caused much embarrassment to the Islamist party that organized the event,with accusations that they are too pro-Zionist.

Leonard Fein's ignorance - or malice - in discussing the Levy Report

From Leonard Fein in The Forward:

Considerable attention has been focused these last several weeks on the report of Israel’s Levy Commission. No great surprise: The three-person commission, appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to render an advisory opinion regarding Jewish settlement in the West Bank, determined that there is no barrier to such settlement and, indeed, that the legality of all such settlements that may have been thought clouded could and should be retroactively affirmed. Essentially, the Commission asserted, as has been noted in all analyses of its report, that the occupation is not an occupation, not according to its detailed analysis of the relevant international law.

Criticism of the report has been widespread and has focused on the devastating consequences were it to become state policy. But there’s a prior question: Is the report’s analysis correct?

The report tells a detailed history that begins with the Balfour Declaration (1917), goes on to the San Remo Conference (1920), where groundwork was laid for the League of Nations, goes from there to the award to Britain by the League of Nations a mandate for governing Palestine (1922) and thence to Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, which affirms that all mandate arrangements established by the League were in effect inherited, verbatim, by the UN.

All that history is, with two exceptions, quite accurate. The first exception has to do with interpreting the words of the Balfour Declaration: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The Levy Commission, as many observers have over the years, chooses to see “national home” as the equivalent of sovereignty. But the problem with such an interpretation is that the choice of “a national home” (rather than, say, “state” or “the national home of the Jewish people” or, maximally, “the establishment of Palestine as the national home”) was not accidental; it was unambiguously deliberate. Indeed, it was not until 1942, at a conference at the Biltmore Hotel in New York, that the Zionist movement itself formally endorsed Jewish sovereignty — statehood — as it aim.

This is disingenuous. For political reasons, the mainstream Zionist leadership felt it was best to cooperate with Great Britain and as such did not want to publicly go beyond the purposefully ambiguous language of San Remo that said "Recognition had thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." Anyone with any knowledge of the Zionist movement in the 1930s and 1940s know that the Zionists were building the institutions of a full-fledged state in Palestine. (To give a relevant example for today, the Palestine Olympic Committee, founded by Jews [although it included Arabs,] was established in 1934.)

The reason that Biltmore went beyond the minimalist interpretation of San Remo was because the British were violating San Remo's provision to "facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews, on the land..." The British White Paper of 1939 shut the door on immigration of millions of doomed Jews in Europe and Biltmore reflected the Zionist leaders' political break with Great Britain's betrayal. Fein's neo-minimalist interpretation of San Remo ignores all these facts (actually, he essentially ignores San Remo altogether to concentrate on the Balfour Declaration, which does not have the same legal weight. Levy's arguments were based on San Remo, not Balfour.)

Fein barrels on:

But set that exception to the side, because the next is the pill that fatally poisons the Levy Commission report. If you’re going to review a dense history, there’s something of an obligation not to end your review in midstream. Here’s what’s missing in Levi: In September of 1947, the British announced their intention to relinquish the Mandate; two months later, on November 29, 1947, the UN, in its Resolution 181, voted to approve the partition of Palestine (by then, the area from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River); the British Mandate formally concluded on May 14, 1948, and within hours, David Ben Gurion and his colleagues announced the establishment of a Jewish state.

Thus, had the Commission told the whole story, it would have had to acknowledge that UN 181 — to which it makes no reference at all — in fact and in law rendered all the earlier history irrelevant. In its place, a decision by the UN that Palestine be divided into two, that there be established side-by-side two states, one with a Jewish majority, the other with an Arab majority.

But, it will be said, UN 181 was legally only a recommendation by the General Assembly; it did not have the force of international law.

Look farther: Much happened in the aftermath of the Partition Resolution and the declaration of Israel’s sovereign independence. A war happened, and was terminated only with cease-fire agreements (not peace treaties). And, critically, in May 1949, after the cease-fire agreements were in place, the UN admitted Israel to membership, making explicit reference to the Partition Resolution and de facto accepting that Israel’s borders had been “amended” by the cease-fire lines (i.e, the “Green Line”). And that was no longer merely a recommendation; it was a binding act.

Really? UNGA 273, that admitted Israel to the UN, says nothing about borders. The word "amended" that Fein puts into quotes as if part of the resolution defines Israel's borders does not exist in 273. Nor does it exist in the UNSC recommendation for Israel to be admitted as a state. In fact, the only UN document referred to in UNGA 273 that even mentions the word "boundaries" is its reference to Israel's declarations and explanations spoken by Abba Eban, which among other things states explicitly that the question of boundaries had not yet been solved.

Fein made this claim up.

Admittedly, UNGA 273 "recalls" the earlier partition resolution in the preamble, but that has no legal weight. (It also "recalls" UNGA 194, which among other things calls for Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be under UN control. Does Fein consider that international law?) The fact is, as Fein notes and then discards, that UNGA 181 has no status in international law because the Arab states did not accept it. (If they would have, it would be considered an agreement between Israel and the Arab states and would then have legal validity, like a treaty.) But the UN never established borders for Israel, and Israel only had arbitrary armistice lines between 1949 and 1967.

Surely Fein knows this, and yet he says:

The fact that the Arabs opposed 181 and never established a state within its proposed parameters roils the waters but does not change the law: According to Israel’s birth certificate, it is not the sovereign authority in the West Bank. The Zionist movement was Israel’s father; the United Nations was its mother.

Israel exists not because the UN created it - it exists because the Jewish state survived and won a war of annihilation against them. The borders of that state were not defined by the UN - to say it was is simply a lie.

The legal status of Judea and Samaria was not set by the UN either. It certainly never declared it part of a Palestinian state, nor did the UN recognize it as part of Jordan. And Fein knows that as well.

Fein's analysis, in the end, is not only flawed - it is purposefully misleading.

Fein's attempt to find that the Levy report is in error only proves that it is Fein himself who not only omits relevant facts - but he makes them up when it suits him.

His zeal to discredit Levy only ends up discrediting Fein himself.

(h/t EBoZ)

UNDP builds school named after Hamas terrorist

From the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:

On July 8 a new elementary school was opened in the Gaza Strip, named for arch-terrorist Adnan al-Ghoul. It is located near the former Netzarim junction in the northwest Gaza Strip, a region from which Israel withdrew during the unilateral disengagement in 2005. The opening ceremony was attended by Ismail Haniya, head of the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, and Osama al-Muzeini, the administration's minister of education. Construction of the school was financed by Libya and implemented by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in the Gaza Strip, a UN agency dealing with helping poor and developing countries.

Speaking before the audience at the opening ceremony, Ismail Haniya said that the school had been built a few meters from the site of the death of Muhammad Durrah, who, he said "ignited the second intifada."2 Haniya made a point of saying that Adnan al-Ghoul had been a prominent figure in the history of the "resistance" [i.e., anti-Israeli terrorism], noting that "he was not an ordinary jihad fighter or shaheed [martyr for the sake of Allah]" (Ma'an News Agency, Dunya al-Watan, the Hamas forum and Al-Quds, July 10, 2012)

Adnan al-Ghoul, for whom the school was named, was not an "ordinary rank-and-file" terrorist operative but rather a top-ranking terrorist of Hamas' military-terrorist apparatus in the Gaza Strip. He specialized in the preparation of IEDs and developed the Qassam rocket system for Hamas (earning him the nickname "father of the Qassam"). He was the right-hand man of Muhammad Deif, head of Hamas' military-terrorist wing, and had an important role in Hamas' plot to sabotage the Oslo Accords. For example, Al- Ghoul was involved in manufacturing the bombs used in the double attack at the Beit Lid junction in the center of Israel on January 22, 1995, in which 22 Israelis were killed. He also prepared the explosive belt for the 1996 Purim suicide bombing at Dizengoff Center in the heart of Tel Aviv, in which ten Israeli civilian were killed. He died in an Israeli Air Force targeted killing on October 21, 2004.

The UNDP issued a press release defending itself:

As part of its mandate, UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People supports a wide range of development initiatives, including education projects such as building schools.

UNDP implemented the construction of this school that was upon completion, handed over to the Ministry of Education.

The implementation was done under the “direct execution modality” without any involvement of the de-facto authorities in Gaza.

UNDP was also not involved or present at the opening ceremony and has no role whatsoever in naming or in any other activity related to the school.

Through its work, UNDP and the UN system at-large aims to build lasting peace and prosperity throughout the region.

This is disingenuous. The Ministry of Education in Gaza is Hamas. It is separate from the Ministry of Education for the Palestinian Authority (although it does still use the PA logo, their websites are distinct and don't link to each other.) There is no way that the UNDP didn't know that this school would be run by Hamas or that the "Ministry of Education" is essentially Hamas.

For example, here is a photo from a ceremony from a previous event in Gaza sponsored by this Ministry: