Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 21, 2012

Games Palestinian Arabs Play

From the NYT:

One year after the Palestinians’ high-profile failure to win United Nations membership through the Security Council, they are returning to the General Assembly next week seeking largely symbolic “nonmember state” status, with a subdued campaign that many analysts see as a long-shot effort to win back the waning attention of the world.

The delegation heading to New York this weekend is half the size of last year’s. And there are no concerts or street parties planned this time around President Mahmoud Abbas’s Sept. 27 speech to the General Assembly; instead, it comes after days of unrest across the West Bank focused more on the Palestinian Authority than its Israeli occupier.

It has been a year without peace talks. And it has been a year in which economic conditions for Palestinians have deteriorated, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded, and promised reconciliation between Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction and the more militant Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip has failed to materialize.

“A lost year” is how Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian commissioner of international relations, put it in an interview this week. “We have wasted a whole year, and that waste cost us a lot in the circumstances of our people, in the support of our people. The frustration is unequaled. This stalemate, this closed door, this impasse cannot stay.”

In 2009, the PLO told frustrated American negotiators that their stance has changed and that they will stop negotiating with Israel without a freeze on all Jewish activity in the territories - a drastic change from before.

Since then, the PLO tried a UN stunt that crashed and burned spectacularly, Fatah and Hamas announced a fake unity but are now further apart then ever, Arab nations continued to renege on financial pledges to the PA,and the world realized that the status quo is really not so terrible for Palestinian Arabs.

In comparison with the real news from the Arab world - the revolutions, the rise of Islamism and the violence in Syria - the Palestinian Arab issue is now regarded, correctly, as a joke. Arab leaders pay it lip service and some Western leaders still do the same, but the world has recognized what Mahmoud Abbas said in 2009, that "in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life."

What the New York Times doesn't realize is that world leaders, Arab and non-Arab alike, are sick of Palestinian Arab intransigence. The decision to walk away from talks was stupid and counterproductive, and no one has sympathy with people who keep whining about how awful their lives are but who choose publicity stunts over actual decision making. The PLO, caring more about pride than substance, sticks to its guns.

And then they choose to continue to try even more stunts:

While there is broad support for the United Nations bid among Palestinian leaders and on the street, there are also growing calls for a far more drastic move: abandoning the Oslo agreements that have governed Palestinian-Israeli relations for nearly two decades, or dissolving the Palestinian Authority. After two evenings of sometimes-heated meetings this week, according to participants, Mr. Abbas told the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization that within 10 days of his return from New York he wanted a decision either to walk away from Oslo or to hold national elections and replace him.

Experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict see this more as posturing than serious policy making, and they warn that a vacuum could provide opportunity for extremists. “Supposing now you scrap Oslo — then what?” Tony Blair, the representative of the so-called quartet — the Middle East peacemaking group made up of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — asked in an interview on Wednesday. “If you burn the house down on the basis that somebody’s going to have to build you something new, you might just be left with a burned house.”

They are not scrapping Oslo, they are not dissolving the PA and Abbas isn't stepping down until he is dead. We've seen this play before.

It is another stunt to frighten the world. Like a child having a temper tantrum, the Palestinian Arab leadership is acting more to regain the spotlight than to do anything constructive.

And now that the world has seen the real upheavals in the Middle East, no one is really in the mood to coddle a spoiled brat.

(h/t DM)

Late Hamas poster contest entries

OK, got some more good ones, so we can have another poll:


Adam	AH

MW1	MW2

online survey

Hamas poster contest entries (updated)

Four intrepid EoZ readers decided to enter the terrorist poster contest:


From LBS	From AA

From DG	From SG

survey solutions

UPDATE: There are a couple of good but late entries in the comments, check them out.

Documenting the massive Veolia #BDSFail

From a report by Christian Middle East Watch:

★ In 2000 Veolia Transport became a minority shareholder in the consortium contracted to plan, build and operate a light rail transport system (LRT) in Jerusalem, running from the west to the north-east of the city, its route crossing the 1949 armistice line between Israeli and Jordanian forces. The LRT had been conceived following the Oslo Accords of 1993, as a means to bring together the Arab and Jewish populations of the city and to encourage growth and more efficient public transport.

★ Since its participation in the light rail consortium, Veolia has been the target in several countries of groups representing the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In Britain, one aspect of this campaigning has been to pressure local councils and joint authorities to refuse to allow Veolia to bid for contracts or to reject bids submitted by Veolia (or even to terminate existing contracts). Councillors and councils are fully aware that, under UK regulations, they must not allow political considerations to affect commercial decisions in the bidding process.

★ In order to evaluate the true results of the BDS Veolia campaign in the face of dramatic claims of success at every turn, we sent freedom of information (FOI) requests to 18 councils that (a) had been the subject of a local BDS anti-Veolia campaign, and/or (b) had recently either accepted or rejected a Veolia bid for a future contract, and/or (c) were due to consider a Veolia bid in the near future, and/or (d) had voted on an anti-Veolia resolution, and/or (e) were the subject of claims of success by the BDS movement. Our FOI requests revealed that every one of these contracts was decided on straight commercial grounds and that political considerations were not applied in rejection of Veolia’s bids.

★ Our research included 17 situations where BDS campaigns had pressured local authorities to break their legal obligations in spending public money by asking them to deny Veolia the opportunity to bid for contracts or even to break existing contractual arrangements. We found that the BDS campaigns had failed in every case to achieve their aims.

★ The BDS campaign against Veolia has clearly failed and the main reason why is not hard to find. Any decision by a local authority to reject a commercial bid by Veolia on political grounds would be illegal; and even though the movement has tried to get round that by alleging “grave misconduct” on Veolia’s part (an exception under EU procurement regulations), council lawyers are highly unlikely to advise that participation in a legitimate light railway project in another country is an act of “grave misconduct”.

★ Furthermore, since Veolia never held more than a 5% stake in the LRT consortium and sold that stake in 2010, there is even less point in continuing to wage an empty and doomed campaign against a company no longer holding even a tiny financial stake in the project. The campaigners clearly sought to exploit Veolia's commercial dependence on UK public sector contracts, but have been defeated by the strict regulations governing the local authority bidding process.

★ In order to cover up its defeat, the BDS extremists have been reduced to constant repetition of the mantra that Veolia is “losing” contracts “following” BDS campaigns: a charade which this paper exposes.

The upshot is - BDSers are lying again, and did not succeed in forcing Veolia to lose a single contract.

Big surprise.

There is something else I just noticed.

You know how the BDSers always say that "Palestinian civil society" calls for their boycotts? I've discussed many times how most of the groups that signed on to the original BDS call were tiny groups (many of whom probably no longer exist) and many are not even from "Palestine."

But if you look at the original 2005 call for BDS, you see something interesting:

We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

This appears to be a call for direct boycotts against Israel, not secondary boycotts against those who do business in Israel - like Veolia.

Now, who did support secondary (and tertiary) boycotts against Israel?

The Arab League, continuing their policy of boycotting Jewish businesses since 1922!

The current BDS campaign didn't start in 2005 - it started as a purely anti-semitic initiative before Israel was born, and there is a straight line between the old Arab boycott of Jewish businesses, to the Arab boycott of Israel before "occupation," to the BDS movement today.

Egypt wants Interpol to enforce Sharia

Egypt Independent reports:

An Egyptian Interpol official said Wednesday that theoffice sought the issuance of a red bulletin, an international wanted persons alert, against the eight defendants implicated in producing an amateur film that denigrates Islam and Prophet Mohamed.

"The warrant of arrest was issued [in Egypt] against the defendants after the prosecutor accused them of committing crimes harming the unity of the nation and defamation of the Islamic religion," said the head of Egypt's Interpol office, Brigadier General Magdy al-Shafei.

He added that his office had asked its counterpart in the US to arrest the defendants. While the US has condemned the film as reprehensible, it is unlikely the American government would prosecute the filmmakers given protections for free speech and expression in that country.

Then again, this wouldn't be the first time that Islamist countries used Interpol to persecute those who insult Islam.

Get psyched: Here are the Thursday links!

From Ian:

Barry Rubin Romney Tells the Key Truth Needed to Comprehend the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

"So, of course, Romney was correct in what he said. Indeed, he was merely stating the obvious. In the current upside-down era, telling the truth is heresy, or at least there are powerful establishment figures who try to make it seem so.
What’s most important here, though, is not just this specific statement or this particular issue but a basic principle absolutely vital to the survival of the United States: If we are barred from recognizing the nature of our problems we will surely find no solutions."

Friedman has a broken clock moment: Look in Your Mirror by Thomas Friedman

"They might want to look at the chauvinistic bile that is pumped out by some of their own media — on satellite television stations and Web sites or sold in sidewalk bookstores outside of mosques — insulting Shiites, Jews, Christians, Sufis and anyone else who is not a Sunni, or fundamentalist, Muslim. There are people in their countries for whom hating “the other” has become a source of identity and a collective excuse for failing to realize their own potential."

Are Radical Imams Going to Redefine Freedom of Speech? by Alan M. Dershowitz

“Individuals have the right to pick and choose which expressions to condemn, which to praise and which to say nothing about. Governments, however, must remain neutral as to the content of expression. And governments must protect the rights of all to express even the most despicable of views. Finally, the international community must use its collective power to apprehend and punish anyone who commits violence in reaction to expressions with which they disagree. Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.”

Mideast carnage: Appeasement and history's lessons By ISI LEIBLER

"Today, the forces of Islamic extremism are testing our resolve to stand up and resist their efforts to globally extend their evil totalitarian ideology. If we continue burying our heads in the sand and minimizing the threat emanating from these barbaric reincarnations of the Dark Ages, we will be paving the way for our children to inherit a world which has reversed the great advances of Western civilization, especially the Judeo-Christian heritage."

The Peace Process: View from the West Bank by Hisham Jarallah

"The actions and words of Abbas and his aides over the past three years prove beyond any doubt that they have chosen to abandon the path of peace in favor of a huge diplomatic effort to delegitimize Israel in the eyes of the international community.
Romney should be commended for understanding that the conflict in the Middle East is not over a settlement or a checkpoint. Rather, this is a conflict over the very existence of Israel. In the Arab and Islamic world, there is still a majority of people who have not come to terms with Israel's right to exist.
Unlike Barack Obama, Romney appears to have understood where the real problem lies."

PCC rules that Guardian’s Conal Urquhart ‘significantly misled’ readers in flotilla story

"The Guardian’s initial coverage of the 2010 incident was as obsessive as it was one-sided, and included 71 separate pieces published in the first four days following the incident – most of which was based on the presumption that the passengers were innocent victims of Israeli aggression.
Urquhart’s grossly misleading claim – running interference for violent IHH terrorist peratives - was thoroughly consistent with the Guardian’s ongoing ideologically motivated script regarding Israel’s immutable guilt."

The Attacks on Israelis You Won’t Read About Anywhere Else, September 9-13

IAF kills Hamas operatives in Gaza airstrike

Army Radio says targets were planning major terrorist attack

Firebombing of kosher store outside Paris injures four

Motives of two men, dressed in black, who tossed Molotov cocktail into Sarcelles supermarket are still unclear.

Libyan preacher urges followers to ‘detonate wrath’ against West for anti-Islam film

Call in Benghazi mosque for economic boycott of West, and for ‘Allah to destroy’ Christians and Jews, comes days after mob kills US ambassador, torches consulate in city.

Pakistani man accused of blasphemy for not protesting Muhammad film

A Pakistani businessman who declined to take part in protests over an anti-Islam film now faces charges of blasphemy, which in Pakistan carries a death sentence.

Pakistan declares Friday a day of protest against anti-Islam film

Hebrew U — now anytime, anywhere, and for free

Israel’s premier higher education institution will be enrolling students from around the world over the Internet

Also:

18 Palestinians killed in Damascus

Eli Lake: Who’s Sabotaging Iran’s Nuclear Program?

The chief of Iran’s nuclear program says the power lines to his nuclear facilities were sabotaged. U.S. Special Forces have trained for operations inside Iran for years. Do these latest disclosures suggest they are already on the ground?

David Keyes: Hamas Advances Peace

How unfortunate that many will try to drown out the great news about Hamas by using logic, reason, fact and sensibility. They are missing the point: Hamas may be stopping rocket fire and that cannot be bad. If Hamas wanted war, it would wage war. Can anyone think of an example when a regime bided its time waiting until the right moment to attack? Besides Germany in 1938, Japan in 1941, North Korea in 1950, the Soviet Union in 1956, Egypt and Syria in 1973, Iraq in 1990, Gaza in 2009 and a few hundred other cases, I can’t think of a single one!

EJP: EU parliament committee vote on Israeli pharmaceuticals is step towards EU ACAA agreement

Warnings ahead of Yom Kippur War did not reach prime minister (h/t Yoel)

Israel's team of American (Jewish) ringers beats South Africa in the World Baseball Classic

Commentary notes what I've been saying for years - the PA budget crisis is because of Gaza, not Israel

Muslim chant "Death to Jews!" on the Champs Elysées (video)

From a Muslim rally in Paris earlier this week:

Dozens of times they chant "Khaybar, Khaybar al-Yahud" (the traditional implicit threat to kill Jews the way Mohammed did in Khaybar) and, more explicitly, “Tuer les juifs!” ("Kill the Jews!")

All of this happened before a grenade was thrown in a kosher supermarket in Paris.

But French imams are calling on the government to protect Muslims from violence.

Because, you see, there must be lots of other rallies in France calling for "death to Muslims," and bombs thrown into Halal grocery stores, that somehow escaped the media's attention.

Contest: Make the best terrorist sign

Yesterday, I posted this incongruous photo:

Very quickly, I saw that someone Photoshopped it, improving it somewhat:

So can anyone do better?

Here's my attempt to get the ball rolling (and the New Year started off right):

I know you guys can do better than that!

Report: Assad has plans to transfer WMD to Hezbollah

From Al Arabiya:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would transfer the chemical weapons to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a Syrian defected general told the Times of London.

Former Syrian general turned defector, Major-General Adnan Sillu, said that aside from plans to transfer weapons to Hezbollah, Syria had planned to use chemical weapons on the Syrian people, “as a last resort,” a report on the Israeli online edition of Haaretz said, quoting the Times.

“We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas,” Sillu said.

“We discussed this as a last resort -- such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo,” the General was quoted as saying.

The German weekly Der Spiegel on Monday claimed that Syria tested delivery systems for chemical weapons at the end of August.

“Five or six empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents were fired by tanks and aircraft, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir,” east of the city of Aleppo, Der Spiegel reported.

The Safira research center in question is regarded as Syria’s largest testing site for chemical weapons. It is officially referred to as a “scientific research center.”

Iranian officers, believed to be members of the Revolutionary Guards, were flown in by helicopter for the testing, according to the witness statements cited.

Scientists from Iran and North Korea are said to work in the expansive, fenced-off complex. According to Western intelligence agencies, they produce deadly chemical agents such as sarin and mustard gas.

If Assad feels desperate enough to use chemical weapons against Syrians in a last ditch effort, it seems likely that he would want to shoot a few rockets with chemical warheads towards Israel as well, to try to rally support. Most Arabs would cheer such a move, after all.

By the way, the Al Arabiya article was illustrated with this really good infographic, but I cannot find a larger version:

Female prisoner swapped for Shalit tries to set herself on fire

Arabic media is reporting:

Freed prisoner Abeer Awda, 30, attempted to burn herself on the lighthouse roundabout in downtown Ramallah, in protest against the difficult economic conditions and the laws adopted by the Palestinian government on tax and price hikes.

Palestinian police Palestinian at the scene prevented her self-immolation after she poured gasoline on herself.

Awad is an officer in the National Security Service for the Ministry of Interior in the Palestinian government in Ramallah, after she was released in the prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel for the soldier kidnapped by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, Gilad Shalit.

I think it would be much more effective if hundreds of the terrorists swapped for Shalit all decided to set themselves on fire simultaneously.

Now, that would be a progressive protest!

Iran admits lying to the IAEA about its nuclear program

But I thought that lying was against sharia law! The mullahs would never allow this!

Iran has been systematically providing false information to the International Atomic Energy Agency because it has been infiltrated by intelligence agencies keeping tabs on Iran's nuclear program, Iran's Atomic Energy Vice President Fereydoun Abbasi Davani has admitted.

Abbasi Davani, who heads the Iranian delegation taking part in the 56th session of the agency in Vienna, made the revelation in an interview with the Al-Hayat newspaper.

"The IAEA says it gets its information from the intelligence services belonging to the member states, and we monitor and followed up seven years ago activities of the British foreign intelligence service [MI6], which gathered information for people, which then exposed [Iranian nuclear scientists] to assassination at the hands of Zionist intelligence agents. Some of the information provided by the agency related to these events. For our part, we sometimes gave false information to protect our nuclear sites and our interests. This inevitably misled other intelligence agencies," Davani told Al-Hayat.

Does this mean that the "anti-nuclear fatwa" might be a lie too? Allah forbid!

More Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons

Besides the ones I posted yesterday, here are some of the others that is causing France to close embassies:

"With my new iPhone 5 with 4" screen you can see clearly that they've insulted the prophet!"

Problem teenager - He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't take drugs, he doesn't screw -
"My son is a Salafist!!!"

Riots in the Arab countries ...
after publication of the photos of Madame Mohammed

Salafist stupidity - Any pretext is good!
"Another insulting representation of our prophet!"

Stop kidding around about Mohammed!
"I'm a Jew!"

Mohammed reduces unemployment among young people -
there are lots of new film critics

A film about Islam triggers the rage of the fundamentalists -
"Show us an intelligent film and we start World War III!"

There are a few more that are somewhat more scatalogical.

(h/t Ishai, translation h/t Islam vs. Europe)

Muslim "experts" weigh in: Why is Holocaust denial criminalized but not defamation of Islam?

One of the major arguments that Muslims have been using to defend their desire to censor any criticism of Islam is that most European countries have criminalized Holocaust denial, so the excuse of "freedom of expression" rings hollow.

Saudi Arabia's Al Madina take a slightly different tack. They asked a panel of Arab "experts" why "the Jews" managed to criminalize Holocaust denial but Muslims have been unsuccessful in doing the same against "defamation of religions"?

The question itself is flawed for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it isn't "the Jews" who criminalized Holocaust denial in some European countries, it was the European governments who did so, for various reasons. Secondly, in some of those countries the laws are not specifically against Holocaust denial but against denial of other genocides as well or even more generalized hate speech.

The "experts" answers, however, show why it may makes sense in some cases to prohibit Holocaust denial - because their answers conform to the typical stereotype of Jews running the world!

One said that the Jews "control the economy and the policies of the world," which the Muslims do not, so that explains why Jews are so powerful as to put these laws in place but Muslims cannot.

Another "expert" noted that this was "due mainly to the capabilities of Jews' media, they dominate the world media that have succeeded through it to impose their vision on the Western countries; in contrast the media capabilities for Muslims is weak and ineffective and lacking professionalism and craftsmanship and the ability to promote properly the principles of Islam."

The bottom line is that many European countries understand that Holocaust denial is simply a precursor to anti-Jewish incitement, and they had seen first hand what anti-semitism could result in - the genocide of millions only because they were Jewish. "Islamophobia" might exist in a very mild form, but it will not result in genocide.

The "Innocence of Muslims" video is a perfect case in point. While the producer certainly wanted to incite people against Islam, there were no deadly anti-Islam riots as a result of the film. There were no calls for mass murder. The only incitement that resulted from that film was by Muslims, not against Muslims!

Anti-semitism remains real - and especially potent in the Muslim world. Last week a Jordanian newspaper called for the genocide of Jews, without the least hint of embarrassment. The answers given by these Saudi "experts" show also that Muslim anti-semitism is alive and well, and paradoxically give more reasons to enforce laws against hate. And their anti-semitism is so ingrained that they don't even notice it.

While bombing hospitals, Syria says Mohammed film violates "humanitarian and moral values"

From DP-News/Sana:

The Syrian government condemned on Tuesday what it said the US-Zionist "Innocence of Muslims" film which offends Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

The Government considered, in a statement issued on Tuesday, that the producing, funding and directing of this film is a denounced and shocking act as it provokes the moral and human logic.

"The Syrian government condemns this disgusting film and calls upon all countries of the world not to show it in full or partially including on the internet as this constitutes an encroachment on religious, humanitarian and moral values and a flagrant assault against all symbols of humanity," the statement said.

The government called upon the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation to be cautious and stand together in the face of the Zionist conspiracy against the position of Prophet Mohammad and the holy religions.

The government held those who are responsible for and involved in this "immoral offensive act" regardless of their nationalities and motives legally accountable for the film, adding that no one in the whole world has a moral, religious, cultural or humanitarian justification to do such "a hateful act".

Wow, Syria really seems outraged at such depths of immorality.

Meanwhile:

Civilians, including many children, are the main victims of indiscriminate Syrian army bombing and shelling of areas abandoned to opposition forces, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday.

The London-based international human rights group said its first-hand field investigations had revealed a pattern of relentless attacks by President Bashar al-Assad’s military on territory lost to rebels in the north of the country, according to Reuters.

Syrian government forces are stepping up attacks on markets, hospitals and bread queues, increasing civilian deaths in the country’s worsening conflict, Amnesty said.

On Tuesday, Syrian forces killed as many as 148 people across the country, activists told al Arabiya.

The rights group said its investigators had found hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured in recent weeks “in the street, while running for cover or trying to shelter from the bombings,” according to AFP.

When was the last time angry Muslims had spontaneous deadly riots over events in Syria?

Jordan Salafists hold emergency meeting over silly French cartoon. And issue a threat.

Yes, really:

Jordan's Salafi Jihadi Current is holding an urgent meeting on Wednesday to discuss the cartoons published by a French weekly that is deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

"The West aims to offend Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through methodological plans and using the pretexts of democracy and freedom of expression," the Salafi Jihadi movement said.

"If the West considers offending the Prophet as freedom of expression, then let them be open to the reaction of Arabs and Muslims," he added.

Wednesday links

From Ian:

Genocides, unlike hurricanes, are predictable, says world expert. And Iran is following the pattern

Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, says Iran has taken six of the eight steps on path to genocide. But it’s not late to follow Canada’s preventative lead
“Genocide is neither linear nor “inexorable.” It is, rather, predictable and preventable, so long as you recognize the universal signs. And Iran, in its language and action, has taken six of the eight steps on the path to genocide, according to Dr. Gregory Stanton, the world’s foremost expert on the matter.”

Abbas threatens to step down - Is it that day of the month already?

Iran's crazed gay bashers

Conspiracy is rife in certain sections of Iranian society when it comes to issues such as Israel, the US, and homosexuality. Sadly, mainstream media outlets also play their part
"The ideologues of the Islamic regime in Iran know all too well how to use external enemies to persecute enemies closer to home. According to those in power, the Jews, the Israelis, the United States, and even the West more generally are the causes of Iran’s domestic problems."

Daniel Pipes: Islamic violence advances Shariah law

"Western civilization in the balance: Islamist aspirations grow with improved communications and weakened Middle Eastern governments, ultimately posing an existential question for Westerners: Will we maintain our historic civilization against their challenge, or will we accept Muslim dominion and a second-class dhimmi status?”

Muslims Continue Showing Respect for Other People’s Religion

"That’s why when Muslims in Lebanon protested by tearing down posters of Pope Benedict, they were respecting religion. And when they rioted on the Jewish Temple Mount, more respect for religion. And when Muslims deface the Star of David, the symbol of the name of King David, a man they claim to consider a prophet, that’s just more respect for religion. With so much Muslim respect for religion out there, it’s hard to know if we can take any more."

Pakistan 'forced' scientist to trade secrets

Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's renegade nuclear scientist, claims he was ordered to sell nuclear secrets by Benazir Bhutto, the country's former prime minister.

IAEA renews pressure on Iran after 'terrorists' charge

The U.N. nuclear agency said on Tuesday that Iran must address concerns about its suspected atom bomb research, one day after Tehran alleged that "terrorists" had infiltrated the organization to sabotage the Islamic Republic's uranium enrichment plants.

Defected Syrian general: Damascus planned to send chemical weapons to Hezbollah

Adnan Sillu, formerly in charge of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, tells Times of London Assad has drawn up plans to gas rebels and civilians

Hamas Calls for Abbas to Resign After he says Israel Founded to ‘Remain’

Hamas demanded the resignation of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas after Abbas said Israel “was founded in order to remain and not in order to vanish” as the result of a nuclear war with Iran, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported Sept. 18.

CAIR Rep: Violence Shows It’s America That Needs to Change

Anti-American violence throughout the Muslim world, ostensibly over a cheap Internet film denigrating the Muslim prophet Muhammad, may be misguided, but it’s a result of “the lack of dignity, the lack of respect that they’re being shown.” And it’s up to America to change policies to calm things.

Honest Reporting: Israeli Cruise Review Sinks in Ocean of Garbage

“On September 15, Gabriella Le Breton published her review of a cruise to Israel in The Times of London. What followed was a stunning display of ignorance and a lack of fact checking.”

IDF Blog: Learn How to Defend Yourself — IDF Style (Episode 2)

The IDF incubator for Israel’s future CEOs

The top physics and math students in Israel are groomed for dazzling careers through an unusual military training program.

Millions of pounds to be spent on regenerative medicine research; millions of people to benefit

A UK-Israel scientific effort seeks to make new discoveries in stem cell therapy, molecular medicine, and other areas.

Also, UNESCO Třebíč ghetto scene of denial of Jewish heritage (Missing Peace)

Plus, how Chinese describe the difference between how Jews and Chinese do business:

The difference between Jewish and Chinese people: A Jew opens a gas station in some place and business is very good. Then a second Jew comes along and opens a restaurant, and then third Jew opens a supermarket, and the place very quickly prospers. When a Chinese person opens a gas station and business is very good, the second Chinese will definitely open a second gas station, and then the third, the fourth… Competition is vicious and it’s no fun for anybody.

(h/t Russell)

Copt gets six years for insulting Islam - and Morsi

Egypt Independent reports:

A Coptic Christian schoolteacher, Bishoy Kamel, has been sentenced to six years in prison for posting cartoons on Facebook deemed defamatory to Islam and the Prophet Mohamed, and for insulting President Mohamed Morsi and his family.
The Sohag Misdemeanour Court imposed the following sentences on Kamel: three years for defaming Islam and the Prophet Mohamed, two years for insulting the president, and one year for insulting Mohamed Safwat who made the allegations against him.

The prosecution said Kamel had used Facebook to deliberately defame the Prophet Mohamed. He had also insulted the president and shown contempt for society’s sacred symbols, the prosecution said.

Members of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya and various Salafist groups attempted to attack Kamel when he was led out of the court after receiving his sentence. They pelted with rocks the police car used to transport him away from the court.

I would say that Morsi is a jerk for persecuting Copts who exercise free speech, but then I might be sentenced to prison too.

See also this similar story from January where the "insult" was a picture of Islamist Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Masked terrorists with AK-47s celebrate "Mohammed - Messenger of Peace"

The Al Qassam Martyrs' Brigades held a night-time rally in Gaza to show their support for Mohammed.

Their website shows lots of photographs (as does Palestine Times,) but this one photo says it all.

"Amending" Camp David "a matter of time" says Morsi advisor

From Egypt Independent:

An adviser to President Mohamed Morsy has said that amending the 1979 peace treaty signed with Israel is "a matter of time," adding that such a move is necessary to restore full Egyptian control over Sinai.

Mohamed Essmat Seif al-Dawla, who has been publicly advocating the move, told Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda in an interview published on Wednesday, "There is no reason for keeping a treaty unchanged for three decades."

He added that the 1979 accord "preserves Israel's national security more than Egypt's, which constitutes a blatant violation of Egyptian sovereignty," and that it would not endure under Egypt's new leaders.

Dawla, a member of the activist Kefaya movement and one the opponents of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, is an engineer and a researcher for national issues. He also belongs to an anti-Zionist group, according to state news agency MENA.

Egypt is receiving some $2 billion a year from the US as compensation for signing Camp David.

When they revoke it, will the US revoke the aid too?

Iran trying hard to incite Muslim world against US, Israel

Ever since the inane "Innocence of Muslims" video was released (and if you think the trailer is bad, check out the apparent full video,) Iran has been in the forefront of trying to stoke the fires of rage in the Muslim world.

As usual, the Iranian leadership has been trying to use any excuse to appear as the leader of the entire Muslim world, and this event has seen a torrent of articles in the Iranian press variously blaming the release of the video on Jews, Americans, NATO and even Mormons - but always in cahoots with "Zionists."

Here is a video showing an ayatollah inciting his followers into attacking the US:

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: This wave of holy rage must turn into a hurricane or a tsunami against the US so that they will refrain from toying with what is holy to the Muslims. They should learn that toying with Islam and with its most honorable prophet is tantamount to playing with a lion's tail. They will pay a steep price for this. They have already paid for this, and they will pay more.

It is notable that Iranian media still pushes the lie of the "100 Jewish backers" of the video.

The cynicism is obvious, but it is so easy to manipulate the opinions of millions of naive Muslims.

While the Danish cartoon controversy died down after a week or so, Iran is doing everything it can to stoke the fires of this fake outrage.

The Charlie Hebdo caricature of Mohammed

From YNet:

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on Wednesday, a decision criticized by the French authorities which sent riot police to protect the magazine's offices.

The magazine's front cover showed an Orthodox Jew pushing a turbaned figure in a wheelchair and several caricatures of the Prophet were included on its inside pages, including some of him naked.

The publication comes in the midst of widespread outrage over an anti-Muslim film posted on the Internet. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticized Charlie Hebdo's decision as a provocation and said he had ordered security beefed up at French diplomatic offices in the Muslim world.

Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices were fire bombed last November after it published a mocking caricature of Mohammad. In 2005, Danish cartoons of the Prophet sparked a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world that killed at least 50 people.

The cover makes fun of the recent French movie hit, The Intouchables, and shows a Chassidic Jew pushing a wheelchair of a Muslim as they both say "Must not laugh!"

And here is the image that will probably get the offices of Charlie Hebdo firebombed, a spoof of Mohammed as Brigitte Bardot with the caption "The film that embraces the Muslim world:":

By the way, the Onion acidly satirized the Mohammed video kerfuffle with a pornographic cartoon that is way too explicit to be shown here, under the headline "No one murdered because of this image":

Following the publication of the image above, in which the most cherished figures from multiple religious faiths were depicted engaging in a lascivious sex act of considerable depravity, no one was murdered, beaten, or had their lives threatened, sources reported Thursday. The image of the Hebrew prophet Moses high-fiving Jesus Christ as both are [undergoing a sex act by] Ganesha, all while the Hindu deity [performs a sex act on] Buddha with his fist, reportedly went online at 6:45 p.m. EDT, after which not a single bomb threat was made against the organization responsible, nor did the person who created the cartoon go home fearing for his life in any way. Though some members of the Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths were reportedly offended by the image, sources confirmed that upon seeing it, they simply shook their heads, rolled their eyes, and continued on with their day.

UPDATE: More cartoons from the issue.

Who's right, Romney or the PLO?

Over the past couple of days, Mitt Romney was slammed for saying, among other things:

I'm torn by two perspectives in this regard. One is the one which I've had for some time, which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish. Now why do I say that? Some might say, well, let's let the Palestinians have the West Bank, and have security, and set up a separate nation for the Palestinians. And then come a couple of thorny questions. And I don't have a map here to look at the geography, but the border between Israel and the West Bank is obviously right there, right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the center of Israel. It's—what the border would be? Maybe seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank…The other side of the West Bank, the other side of what would be this new Palestinian state would either be Syria at one point, or Jordan. And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel. So Israel of course would have to say, "That can't happen. We've got to keep the Iranians from bringing weaponry into the West Bank." Well, that means that—who? The Israelis are going to patrol the border between Jordan, Syria, and this new Palestinian nation? Well, the Palestinians would say, "Uh, no way! We're an independent country. You can't, you know, guard our border with other Arab nations." And now how about the airport? How about flying into this Palestinian nation? Are we gonna allow military aircraft to come in and weaponry to come in? And if not, who's going to keep it from coming in? Well, the Israelis. Well, the Palestinians are gonna say, "We're not an independent nation if Israel is able to come in and tell us what can land in our airport." These are problems—these are very hard to solve, all right? And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say, "There's just no way." And so what you do is you say, "You move things along the best way you can." You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don't go to war to try and resolve it imminently.

Outside of Romney's idea that the West Bank borders Syria, and a little oversimplification, this is pretty accurate. Even under the most rosy scenarios, the chances that a Palestinian Arab state would end up being controlled by Iranian proxies within a couple of years is unacceptably high. After all, Hamas did win the last elections, and Gaza today could easily be the West Bank tomorrow.

But here was the reaction from the PLO's envoy to the US:

"The leaked statements by the Republican presidential nominee once again show complete ignorance of facts and realities regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Maen Areikat said in a statement.

"Romney’s allegations that Palestinians are committed to the destruction of Israel are baseless given the fact that Palestinians have expressed support for the two-state solution, and repeatedly recognized Israel’s right to exist."

And here is what Saeb Erekat said:

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Tuesday that comments by US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that the Palestinians did not want peace were “absolutely unacceptable.”

“We consider these statements absolutely unacceptable,” he told AFP.

“No one has an interest in peace more than the Palestinian people, because peace for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership means freedom and independence from the Israeli occupation,” Erakat said.

So let's look at the numbers.

The latest PSR poll for which we have the full results, from June 2012, shows that 49% of Palestinian Arabs oppose a two-state solution.

The last Bir Zeit poll (from 2007) showed that 67.5% of those polled preferred a solution where Israel is destroyed.

In the latest PCPO poll from February only 15% supported peace negotiations, as opposed to an imposed solution or a new intifada.

And The Israel Project poll last year showed that the vast majority of those who said they wanted a two-state solution wanted it as a stage to take over all of the area and destroy Israel.

Of course, you can look at this video and see how many Palestinian Arab organizations show their desire for a two-state solution:

On balance, it seems that Romney's off-the-cuff remarks reflect reality more than the outraged soundbites of the PLO's official liars.

But what about the official position of the PLO itself? Surely it supports two states, right?

Well, yes - as long as both states are Arab-majority.

The PLO and the PA has consistently and adamantly refused to accept the formulation of "two states for two peoples." They want "Palestine" to be allowed to ethnically cleanse some half million Jews from its borders, while insisting that Israel must accept millions of Arabs as full citizens in the 1949 armistice lines. I've documented this exhaustively.

Erekat and Areikat are feigning offense at being told what they in fact believe themselves. But if you don't believe me, just find a reporter to ask them the question plainly: do you support two states for two peoples? We know what the answer would be.

(By the way, since Romney's leaked remarks are so newsworthy, when are we ever going to see the videotape of Obama's 2003 remarks at the dinner honoring Rashid Khalidi? Why is one off-the-record video leaked and the other one purposefully buried by the media? What is the line between good journalism and partisanship?)

Muslims claim Jews wearing priestly garments storm Al Aqsa

Qudsmedia "reports:"

Extremists and settlers broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque dressed as priests of the alleged Temple and performed Talmudic rituals especially in various parts of the al-Aqsa mosque, guarded by Israeli occupation forces. They stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the afternoon and wandered at the Dome of the Rock, and then led biblical and Talmudic rituals, despite the attempts by Aqsa Mosque guards to prevent it.

In recent days in the al-Aqsa mosque, it was noted that there are extremists and settlers deliberately if surreptitiously performing some biblical rituals in al-Aqsa mosque, wearing clothes for the "priests of the Temple", and then walked the path specified around the Aqsa mosque, and performed multiple biblical and Talmudic rituals, provocatively and noticeably, especially when they came out of the al-Aqsa mosque towards the door, some barefoot.

Here is what these dangerous stormers looked like:

Two of them are wearing kittels, a white garment that some Jews wear on Rosh Hashanah. It is not a priestly garment. (The guy with the earflaps is not exactly wearing a priestly garment either!)

Tuesday night links

From Ian:

Berlin Jewish Museum event calls for Israel boycott

Jewish institution hosts Judith Butler, who renews support of BDS movement; 700-strong audience cheers boycott call.
"The German taxpayer-funded museum’s decision to showcase a speaker in the capital city, which during the Nazi period served as the launching pad for a boycott movement against German-Jewish businesses, has raised eyebrows about the management’s direction of the museum.
In an email to The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, termed the cultural institution the “Berlin anti-Jewish Museum.”

PM Netanyahu on Meet the Press (VIDEO)

Arabs Try To Burn Books of Psalms on Mount of Olives

Three Arab youths were caught Saturday night desecrating Jewish holy books at a sacred Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem.

Merkel: Still hope for political solution on Iran

German chancellor says Tehran poses a threat not just to Israel, but to the whole world, yet political solutions have not been exhausted; EU foreign policy chief to meet Iranian negotiator as IAEA talks continue.

Australia: Girl, 8, calls on Islamic youth to back jihad

"AS PM Julia Gillard struggled to explain how Muslim children could be used to incite violence, eight-year-old Ruqaya yesterday fronted a congress of Islamic fundamendalists in Sydney to espouse her love for jihad. Addressing a 600-strong crowd at the Australian chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bankstown in the city's west, the young girl urged all Muslim youth to fight for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate, a single global government for all Muslims established under strict sharia law."

In anti-Islam movie furor, a filmmaker’s lies have legs

Many still believe an Israeli-American real estate developer named Sam Bacile made movie, and that 100 Jews funded it
"Still, there are those who continue to cling to the false notion that Jews were behind the film. Days after the Jewish connection was shown to be a fiction, the English-language website of Iran’s Press TV was repeatedly citing the disproved reports that the film was made by Jews. Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a statement blaming “evil Zionists” and the US government for the film."

Innocence of Muslims: A Review

Liberals used to mock conservatives for worrying that violent and sexually explicit movies could have an impact on audiences - now they don't question it.
"I watched a ten-minute clip of the movie because a) I wanted to know what all the fuss was about and b) I write film criticism professionally and have an interest in movies that cause a stir. It is the worst film I have ever seen that didn’t star Adrian Grenier. The acting is terrible, the plotting non-existent, the cinematography amateur, and the tone vicious and bigoted. It’s like The Birth of a Nation as directed by Ed Wood."

French Jewry alerted to watch out for ‘fake Jews’

Local security services say terror groups may try to conduct reconnaissance and gain access to community buildings

Hamas calls on Egypt to reconsider shutting smuggling tunnels
Haniyeh and Mashaal to visit Cairo on Monday and discuss tunnels, economy and reconciliation

Rosh Hashanah in purgatory

My father, Alexander Breuer, fled the Nazis in 1938, only to return several years later with the US Army. He was among the first Americans to enter Buchenwald and witness, firsthand, the decimation of European Jewry. And on the scorched earth of occupied Germany, in 1945, he celebrated the High Holidays

Mitt Romney Recalls His Trip to Israel in Rosh Hashana Message VIDEO

New Book on William Cooper

A new book has been written about William Cooper, the Aboriginal who lead a march to the German Consulate to protest Kristellnacht in 1938…one of the few recorded protests world-wide.

Muslim Rage & The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate

Once again the streets of the Arab world are burning with false outrage. But we must hold our heads up high. Ayaan Hirsi Ali on how she survived Muslim rage—and how we can end it.
"How often have I endured bizarre conversations with government officials who cling to the illusion that the threat is temporary or that it can be negotiated. And then there are the even more delusional positions staked out by some prominent intellectuals who blame the writer, the politician, the filmmaker, or the cartoonist for provoking the threat. In the days after van Gogh was murdered, too many prominent Dutch individuals expressed precisely this position, declaring smugly, “Yes, of course killing is wrong, but Theo was a provocateur ...” Will they never cease looking for ever more ingenious ways of apologizing for free speech?"

Islamic Terror and the American Story

"Islamic terrorism has been part of the American story, since the first (1801-1805) and the second (1815) U.S. wars against Libya, Tunisia and Algeria-based Muslim pirates. Anti-U.S. Islamic terrorism has been fueled by Islam’s imperialistic vision, inflamed by core American values — irrespective of American national security policy — systematically and deliberately targeting innocent Americans in the U.S. and abroad."

The psychology of the Muslim rioter
Muslims are frustrated with themselves. By directing anger towards the West, they are providing a distraction

Ryan: Obama Admin Treats 'Israel with Indifference Bordering on Contempt'

Speaking at the Values Voter Summit on Friday, Ryan said the Obama admin treats "Israel with indifference bordering on contempt." Obama's critics on this issue cite his administration's hesitance to stand with Israel should they strike Iran, their refusal to set red lines that might prevent a strike from being necessary in the first place, and Obama's recent decision to meet with David Letterman instead of Israeli PM Netanyahu as evidence of this indifference.

Maureen Dowd Goes Borderline Anti-Semitic: 'Neocons Slither Back'

"Maureen Dowd, on the eve of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, decided to write a column dripping with anti-Semitism to attack Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s hardline positions on the Middle East and national defense. In her rant, titled “Neocons Slither Back” Dowd used ancient anti-Semitic imagery."

Syria Tested Chemical Weapons Systems, Witnesses Say

"The Syrian army is believed to have tested missile systems for poison gas shells at the end of August, statements from various witnesses indicate.
The tests took place near a chemical weapons research center at Safira east of Aleppo, witnesses told SPIEGEL. A total of five or six empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents were fired by tanks and aircraft, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir. "

Khamenei blames 'Zionists' as Iranians protest film

Supreme leader says West must prove its innocence in US-made anti-Islam film; Iran FM asks UN's Ban to take legal action.

Iran claims its nuclear facilities could now survive enemy ‘missile attacks and raids’

"Iran’s nuclear chief said Monday that “terrorists and saboteurs” might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency in an effort to derail his nation’s atomic program. He also said his country’s nuclear facilities could now survive enemy attack."

Iran: Saboteurs cut power lines to nuclear bunker

Explosives used to cut power to Fordow plant last month, Iranian nuke chief claims; says "terrorists" have infiltrated IAEA.
Explosives were used to cut the electricity power lines to Iran's Fordow underground enrichment plant last month in an apparent attempt to sabotage Tehran's atomic advances, its nuclear energy chief said on Monday.

Freedom House: 'Arab Spring' countries at risk

Report finds that democratic governance declined worldwide in 2011, ME and N. African states may slip back into dictatorships.

Gaza court convicts 4 for Italian activist's murder

"Three of the defendants were identified by the Hamas-run court as Hamas security men who had been working for the Salafi group for ideological reasons. Two received life sentences and one was jailed for 10 years. The men flashed defiant smiles as the sentences were handed down.
The fourth man, a fisherman, fled Gaza after the killing and was sentenced in absentia to 12 months. Two other men were killed in a gun battle with Hamas forces trying to rescue Arrigoni."

Pro-Hamas bloc wins control of UNRWA union in Gaza

Islamist coalition takes 25 out of 27 seats among 10,000 Palestinian workers
The development underscores Hamas’ influence among Gaza’s professionals even though it has been criticized lately for ignoring the needs of the poor.

Egypt’s Islamic TV talks with iron Salafist

A Muslim cleric hosting an Egyptian television show recently outlined his version of Islamic instructions for wife-beating. In another show, a cleric claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood, now governing Egypt, one day will rule the world.

PM Erdogan: Islamophobia should be recognized as crime against humanity

Pakistani Protester Burns American Flag and Dies From Smoke

!Shana Tova u'Metuka שנה טובה ומתוקה!

Once I saw a piece of art that turned the sounds of the shofar into a graphic format, done by Avraham Lowenthal of Tzfat. (h/t Amiyena and Vermue) I thought it was a nifty idea and made one of my own.

So here is a Rosh Hashanah poster for EoZ fans using the same motif, although using only the mandatory 30 sounds instead of the full 100, and mine is a bit more literal.

It would also make a great sukkah decoration!

I want to wish all of you a Shana Tova u'Metukah, a happy and sweet year. May this be a year of health, a year of prosperity, a year of joy, a year of peace, and a year of security.

I will not be blogging during the holiday.

Sunday links

From Ian:

Undermining the Jews of the Arab World

"If you’re looking for an online aggregator of Israel-bashing articles, you could do a great deal worse than visit Open Zion, the website edited by the darling of America’s Jewish far left, Peter Beinart. All the obsessions of today’s anti-Zionists are neatly organized there, in the form of hand-wringing tracts about Rachel Corrie’s death, Israel’s resemblance to apartheid South Africa, and the dangerous refusal of Israel and the United States to acknowledge that Iran’s rulers really are reasonable people."

Westerners who fuel the Muslim world's grievance culture

Condemning the "grievance" as much as the perpetrator is fast becoming the default response to mass Islamist violence. This must not be allowed to stand "
"Rather predictably, The Guardian this week argued that the wave of violence sweeping the Middle East was a spontaneous reaction to the anti Islamic film, "The Innocence of Islam". The film, we were told, set off a "long fuse that led to an explosion of violence that killed the US ambassador to Libya". The Independent adopted a similar line with its article headlined: "An incendiary film –and the man killed in the crossfire". It added: "The mob enraged by film mocking Prophet Mohamed kills US ambassador in Benghazi rocket attack".

MEMRI:
Sunni-Shiite Debate Deteriorates into a Brawl on Egyptian TV

Anti-American Antisemitic Cartoons on Yemeni Houthi Channel Al-Masirah TV
Hizbullah TV Dedicates Excellence Festival to French Holocaust Denier Roger Garaudy

'It's not about elections in America, but centrifuges in Iran'

PM Benjamin Netanyahu addresses claim that he is using Iran issue to harm the Obama re-election bid: "The only thing guiding me is centrifuges in Iran. It's not my fault that the centrifuges aren't more considerate of the Americans' political timetable."

Armada of British naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike

An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s covert nuclear weapons programme.

Revolutionary Guard chief threatens Israel’s annihilation in case of Iran strike

Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari also warned that Iran might close the Straits of Hormuz if it is attacked, withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and hit U.S. bases in the Middle East.

Hezbollah Raises Latin American Profile

Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.

Man charged with trying to bomb downtown Chicago bar

An 18-year-old man who tried to set off what he thought was a car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar on Friday night has been arrested and charged in a federal undercover sting, authorities said Saturday.
Adel Daoud, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Hillside, planned for months for the attack and prayed with a man who turned out to be an undercover agent before attempting to set off a bomb in a Jeep outside a bar, authorities said.
According to an FBI affidavit, Daoud used email accounts starting in about October 2011 to gather and send materials "relating to violent jihad and the killing of Americans."

IDF Blog: Happy Rosh Hashana from IDF Soldiers

What the Mossad’s female agents do — and don’t do — for the sake of Israel

Breaking cover, five high-ranking agents discuss the advantages they have as female spies, the dangers and costs of their work, and where they draw the line

Where I Go: Bar Refaeli

The native Israeli, whose work as a model and as the founder and designer of under.me
underwear has taken her across the globe, returns to her childhood home when vacation calls. She shares her local favorites—from chic shops to secret beaches to home-cooked meals—below.

Also, The Blood Libel Continues at the Guardian and Fox News

Armada of British naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike (h/t Yoel)

Rosh Hashanah greetings from Netanyahu and Peres

I always like that Netanyahu has a full set of Talmud, Mishnayot and Shulchan Aruch behind him. (The Shas is not in order, though. )

Peres' is just cheesy:

(h/t Yerushalimey)