Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 04, 2013

Davutoğlu refused to shake hands with Ehud Barak

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu refused to shake hands with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Munich Security Conference held in early February, Today's Zaman has learned.
Davutoğlu did not shake hands with Barak, thus rejecting an attempt by US and German officials to break the ice between Turkey and Israel during a dinner hosted by Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer on the sidelines of the conference last month.

According to the seating plan prepared by US and German officials, Davutoğlu sat next to Seehofer and US Vice President Joe Biden, while Barak sat opposite the Turkish minister. When officials sitting in Davutoğlu's row started to shake hands with the figures sitting opposite them, the Turkish minister immediately stood up and greeted the Macedonian and Croatian presidents. Seeing Davutoğlu not responding to his attempt to shake his hand, Barak said, “As the distance between the two sides of the table is wide, we could not reach each other's hand.” Davutoğlu replied: “No, the problem is not the size of the table. There will always be a distance between us unless you meet our demands.”

Davutoğlu was referring to Turkey's demand for an official apology from Israel for a deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara bound for Gaza in May 2010.

Classy, right?

Meanwhile:

Last month, Israel agreed to send promised electronic systems to Turkey, which will integrate those systems into its Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) military aircraft purchased from the US. In addition, Israel also offered to build an undersea gas pipeline from Israeli-owned offshore gas rigs to Turkey's south coast for Turkish business conglomerate the Zorlu Group.

And:

A senior member of the Turkish government, former Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan, recently visited Israel for stem cell treatment. Unakitan, who is suffering from chronic renal failure, served seven years in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government from 2002-2009.

According to Turkish media, the 67-year-old Turkish politician was treated at Tel Aviv’s International Center for Cell Therapy & Cancer Immunotherapy (CTCI) for almost two and a half months.

It seems that instead of sending advanced AWACS equipment and offering to help Turkey in other ways, Israel should simply say that unfortunately the distance between the two states has become insurmountable, and it might decide to use its goodwill towards friendly Greeks and Kurds instead.

Let's recall how friendly a reception the IDF received when it boarded the Mavi Marmara:

(h/t Silke, Zvi)

Jordanian columnist describes Arab childishness perfectly

In my last speaking engagement, I stressed that the Arab world must be held accountable for choosing to act like children, instead of the coddling that the West has been giving the Arab world, where outrageous behavior is simply considered normal.

This op-ed from Ammon News in Jordan is directed to Jordanians only, but it describes how childishly a large part of the Arab world acts.

It’s Friday and we must have a protest in Jordan. Someone, somewhere in Jordan has done something that peeves us and makes us angry so we need to go out, block the roads, cry foul and snarl traffic because we have nothing constructive to do but protest. We seem to be doing a lot of that in Jordan lately.

The latest spat is because the government has raised fuel prices that are already subsidized by another 4%. So let’s go out and protest against these government civil servants and their leadership that must be corrupt.

It cannot be that the fuel prices have been kept low for so long by subsidies that the government cannot continue to maintain due to large debts, and fuel prices that are going up. It has to be because they are corrupt.

It cannot be because we refuse to walk anymore to burn off some of the fat from our overly obese bodies (The rise of Diabetes in Jordan is staggering). Or the fact that some of us cannot walk a kilo without collapsing because of all the cigarette smoking we do and the fact that this vile, dangerous, costly, dirty habit is killing us and our children who have to live with second hand smoke (Cancer and many other disease linked to tobacco use in Jordan is growing rapidly).

We don’t want to change our poor habits. We don’t want to take a bus or taxi (because that is beneath us). We don’t want to walk or try different alternative sustainable energy methods that in the long run will make it cheaper for us and our country. We just MUST HAVE cheap fuel.

It cannot be because we are lazy and do not want to try to make things better by attempting new innovations or thinking. It’s because it must be the corrupt civil servants and their leadership that is doing this to us.

We don’t want to leave our wet nurse, we don’t want to grow up and start to think and live on our own and pay our own way. We want to be moochers of the government coffers, because after-all they are our mommy’s and daddy’s.

So when we do not get our way, we need to throw a fit. We need to go out and protest. We have to show them and the world that we can throw a tantrum just as well as a teenage kid, when they are told that they are spending too much time playing and on the phone with his friends and not studying and applying new skills.
...

My brothers and sisters we of all people know that we have been living like wet nursed children for so long. We know that we need to wake up and move on alternative sustainable energies. We know that we need to raise prices not just on fuel but things that we are fully aware are killing us and our children principally tobacco use.

This product must be taxed to limits that will deter its use. We know that we have to control this dangerous narcotic as we control other dangerous narcotics. But I have yet to hear a protest or demands about its flagrant use in our public building and street and at tobacco companies, who are profiting on the demise of others.

We must get our heads out of the sand and stop pretending that we do not live in the real world. When things get hard we must rise to the challenge. That does not mean we let our public officials off of performing their duty to us, but understand that things in our country must change for us to survive. So like my father used to say, “Pull up you big boy pants and get to work”.

Westerners are so afraid of criticizing the Arab mentality the way that some brave Arabs do. But that criticism itself is a necessary precondition to forcing the Arab world to grow up. By giving them a free pass, the childish behavior is being rewarded and reinforced. This hurts everyone - including the Arabs themselves.

Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

A.B. Yehoshua Tells BBC Correspondent: I Hope Israel Flourishes in the Future and is Recognized by You (VIDEO)

The interview, which became contentious at times, was conducted by Tim Franks, the BBC’s former Middle East correspondent. At its conclusion it became apparent how exasperated Yehoshua had become, when he answered a question from Franks on whether or not he remained optimistic about Israel by saying, “This is what I’m doing with my friends in Israel, to work very hard that our Israeli state, the Jewish totality state will be functioning in peace with its environment, and I would say flourishing in the future,” then hesitated, adding “and recognized by you.”

The BBC ‘explains’ Zionism

And of course the fact that there would have been no “life under occupation” whatsoever had Arab nations not chosen to take another shot at wiping Israel off the map in 1967 is also completely ignored.
Instead, the writer absolves the Arab nations in general and the Palestinians in particular of all responsibility and agency for their fate, blaming Zionism for all ills. One might even wonder if this particular BBC journalist moonlights as a speech writer for Erdogan.
Clearly, this article contravenes BBC Editorial Guidelines on impartiality: a correction and an apology should be issued urgently.

Telegraph runs silly and gratuitous anti-Israel propaganda piece
The Telegraph's attempt to smear Israel with the apartheid label over Palestinian buses is silly, but it is also dangerous

First, there's the obvious security issue: there is a dreadful history of Palestinian suicide bombing on Israeli buses. Israelis are understandably afraid, especially in the context of mass incitement by the Palestinian Authority, and would rather Palestinians took their trips to Israel on their own buses. (Are you absolutely sure you wouldn't feel the same way?)
The second reason, which explains why Israel has made its move now, is that due to more generous arrangements for the Palestinians, Israel is now granting more work permits. More workers, more buses. More Palestinian workers, more buses for Palestinians. Not one of life's great mysteries... unless you smell a conspiracy.

Guardian provides forum for Palestinian terrorist Samer al-Issawi

Issawi’s ‘jailhouse letter’ at ‘Comment is Free’ represents not only another example of the Guardian Left’s inability to see past even the most risible charades of post-colonialism and anti-imperialism, but also what can only be described as a fetishization towards political violence which continues to make a mockery of every value the true left has historically embraced.

PMW: Debate at the highest political level in Norway following TV report on PMW findings
MPs challenge Norway's funding of the PA and criticize Norway's failure to stop PA Antisemitism and hate promotion

The next day, two Norwegian MPs from opposition parties were interviewed by NRK TV and challenged Norway's funding policies. They called to stop funding the PA if the PA continues its hate incitement and terror glorification:
Morten Høglund, foreign policy spokesman for the Progress Party: "We must use the power we have, and as a major donor to the PA, we must fight fire with fire and say that we will stop the aid unless the PA takes immediate action to stop this type of hate message."

Palestinian finance minister resigns in anger
Nabeel Kassis walks out in protest of the PA’s growing budget deficit, expected to reach $1.4 billion in 2013

Nabeel Kassis told reporters Sunday that the Palestinian Authority’s 2013 budget deficit is expected to reach $1.4 billion. He says he decided to step down after politicians and labor unions objected to a number of proposed austerity measures.

Kerry: US releasing millions in aid to Egypt, but with promise of reform

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday the United States will give Egypt $250 million more in aid, following President Mohammed Morsi's pledges for political and economic reforms.
However, Kerry also said the Obama administration will hold Morsi, who came to power in June as Egypt's first freely elected president, to his commitment.

John Kerry vilified by Egypt’s opposition
US secretary of state promises aid to Morsi, protesters block his path to airport in response; leading Islamist gets stoned in Tunisia

The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that Al-Ahly Ultras, fans of the Cairo-based Al-Ahly soccer club that was embroiled in a massive riot in Port Said a year ago, used burning tires to block the road leading to the airport, paralyzing traffic in both directions and delaying Kerry’s flight by two hours.
In addition, supporters of over 28 political parties launched protests in front of the US consulate in Alexandria.

Egyptian Religion Classes Aim to Prevent Conversion to Christianity

A recent course in Egypt’s southern city of Aswan has raised a few eyebrows after it was announced that the course would be an “anti-Christianization course” aiming to educate youth about Islam and how to respond to attempts of converting by Christians in the country.
The course, which started on Saturday and will continue until Wednesday, is run independently, according to coordinator, Ibrahim al-Etmany, a student at the engineering faculty in Aswan.

Egypt unleashes Islamic morality police force

A new informal police force has been launched in Cairo, to ensure Islamic morals are adhered to. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice denies it is linked to Saudi's dreaded morality police, which share the same name.
Islamic Cleric Hisham el-Ashri, founder of Egypt's newly launched Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, stated the morality police will only use "non-violent methods" to implement the moral principles of Islam, the IB Times reported.

Latin American priests ‘create new friendships’ in Israel
Delegation organizers hope to forge bonds of understanding between future Catholic leaders and the Jewish state

Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, said, “We seek to achieve increased cooperation between future Latin American Catholic and Jewish leaders in the teaching of common values, mutual respect and support for the Jewish state, which will add strength to our communities.”

Islamists claiming IDF officer kicked a Quran on Temple Mount

The Al Aqsa Foundation, an organization that has no compunction about lying, claims that a female Israeli police officer kicked a Quran on Sunday while trying to move some women who were studying it. Other Islamic media are carrying this story as fact.

The Al Aqsa website claims to have photos and video of the incident, but none of the videos show anything remotely like that. All that can be seen is that the Israeli police are asking that they move their chairs and tables a couple of meters, and then the women start protesting.

The article at the Al Aqsa website helps explain what probably happened.

Apparently, in an attempt to stop all Jews from entering the Temple Mount, the women set up their "study groups" directly at the Moroccan Gate, the only entrance for non-Muslims at the Mount.

They normally study in the large plaza between the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic Museum, where there is plenty of room, as I showed in the video tour of the Temple Mount I made last month. Israeli police then asked them to unblock the entrance, and they replied that they had the right to "study the Quran" anywhere they wanted to.

This appears to be another attempt to incite a third intifada, something that the Al Aqsa people have been trying to do for years by making up ludicrous rumors and incitement.

Report: Hamas refused smuggled rockets with "spy devices"

According to Egypt's Youm7 newspaper, Hamas has refused to accept some 28 long-range missiles smuggled from Libya because it discovered that they were equipped with tracking devices that would allow Israel to know where they were.

The report says that members of the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas inspected the missiles in the Sinai and discovered the tracking hardware within.

As a result, Hamas has ended its relationship with come of its arms smugglers.

Hamas suspects that Israel was behind these attempts.

It is certainly plausible that Israel would do this. It was widely reported that Israel had placed GPS tracking on some of the cars that were transferred into Gaza on the assumption that the first cars to be imported there would go right to major Hamas officials.

Report: Hamas taking over Kerem Shalom crossing

From YNet:

Hamas will take control over one of the most important crossings connecting Israel and the Gaza Strip:

The organization's government in Gaza has notified Nahed Shuhaiber, the concessionaire who operates the Kerem Shalom crossing from the Palestinian side, that his responsibilities are being rescinded and that starting Monday morning, the new concessionaire will be Muhisan Sharafi. Monday morning, 70 trucks stood at the crossing waiting to bring goods into the Strip.

Because Shuhaiber operated the crossing on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and for this reason, Israel agreed for years to cooperate but Israel has also made a fundamental decision that the government and the defense establishment do not work opposite any Hamas-related entity.

In the past six days, the Kerem Shalom crossing has been closed for the entrance of goods to the Gaza Strip as a response to the rocket that fell on Ashkelon last week and the shots fired on the car of the Gaza Division's Northern Brigade from the Strip on Friday.

Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major-General Eitan Dangot announced on Sunday that the crossing will be opened on Monday morning, but it seems that Hamas is planning on disrupting the resumption of activity there.

It is estimated that the PA's disagreement with the Hamas government in Gaza's unilateral decision, will cause the crossing to remain closed since there will be no trucks or contractors at the site to receive the goods from the Israeli side.

Palestinians estimate that 400 trucks full of goods will reach the crossing on Monday morning, a larger quantity than usual because of the fact that it has been closed over the past few days.

The Palestinian crossings administration updated Dangot regarding Hamas' decision and clarified in talks with senior PA officials, that Israel sees this move as an upset of the security-related status quo at the crossing, causing a situation in which Hamas and not the PA, is operating the crossing.

Dagnot explained to officials in the PA that working with a new concessionaire without coordination constitutes a security risk.

In light of the conflict, Egyptian officials placed heavy pressure on the Palestinians so that activities resume on Monday morning at the crossing.

Hamas made this decision in light of their new demand that the concessionaire pay a toll of NIS 170 (about $46) for every truck that enters the Strip. The reason for this toll stems from the loss of profits from taxation from the smuggling tunnels which were mostly destroyed over the past few weeks as a result of intensive Egyptian activity.

Palestinian sources in Rafah told Ynet that Egypt is not only destroying the tunnels intended for weapons smuggling, but also tunnels intended for the smuggling of goods and fuel – which prompted a rise in costs for various products in the Strip on the one hand, and to a significant reduction of income for the government in Gaza on the other.

The Fatah-leaning Palestine Press Agency reports this more as an excuse for Hamas to increase profits at the crossing, and not as a takeover by Hamas. It quotes Hamas official Ziad Zaza as saying that this is merely an attempt to open up the Kerem Shalom concession to competition, and Hamas has no plans to take it over; moreover, that Hamas isn't interested in directly controlling a crossing that Israel is involved with, presumably because Hamas doesn't want to appear to publicly speak to Israelis. Then again, if the previous concessionaire was considered to be working for the PA from Israel's perspective then this may still disrupt the operations there.

We will see in the coming hours whether the trucks make it through the crossing.

Meanwhile, after months of promises, several trucks of building materials have been starting to enter Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

Muslims attacking Copts in Egypt over false rumor

From Al Ahram:

A rumour has spread in the Upper Egyptian city of Kom Ombo that a divorced Muslim woman in her mid-30s has been kidnapped by the Coptic Church and converted to Christianity. In an area socially divided across tribal loyalties and religion, the story managed to fuel violence against the area's Christian minority.

The city's most central and largest church, Mar Girgis, has been under attack for the past three days from what residents described as "unknown assailants." Mostly in their teens, hundreds of young boys and men have been surrounding the church, showering it with rocks and Molotov cocktails.

With Central Security Forces (CSF) trucks and soldiers fighting the assailants with teargas grenades, the church was relatively protected, although Molotov cocktails and rocks managed to reach its roofs and its open central courtyard.

A field hospital was set up in one of the corners of the courtyard while many of the injured sat inside the church resting, others praying. One young man in the church had obviously burned skin on his arms and back, which he said he suffered from one of the Molotov cocktails thrown at the church.

"The missing woman is not in this church as you can see … Her family never claimed she was," Priest Abanob Wahid of the Mari Girgis Church of Kom Ombo told Ahram Online.

The violence is not only limited to the church. Seventeen-year-old Copt Abanob, whose arm was covered with medical bandages, explained he was attacked by a young man also in his teens who had first asked him whether or not he was Christian.

"'Yes, I am a Christian! What's your problem?' I exclaimed before he followed me accompanied by a friend of his and took out a pocket knife. He aimed for my face but cut my arm instead, which I quickly raised to cover my face in an attempt to protect myself," Abanob told Ahram Online.

...Despite denials made by the family, church figures, and influential men of both religions that the woman had been kidnapped by the church, violence continues against Kom Ombo's Copts for a third day.

Since the missing woman disappeared a week ago, rumours have continued to spread and change without their sources ever being confirmed.

The latest widespread belief was that the room of the missing woman, who is also a well known school teacher in the area, was left full of crosses and Christian texts. Some say her ex-husband has kidnapped her; others claim she escaped with her Coptic lover and converted in a place far from Kom Ombo.

In recent years, Egypt had witnessed several attacks on churches, especially in Upper Egypt where sectarian tensions are more commonplace.

Clashes over alleged forced religious conversions have also been common in recent years. Most alleged instances centred on Christian women converting to Islam and believed held captive by the Coptic Church. The best known case was that of Camelia Shehata, the wife of a Coptic priest who was allegedly detained by the Church after she converted to Islam.

Copts have frequently complained that young Coptic women have been kidnapped by Muslim men and forced to convert for the purposes of marriage.

While conversion from Christianity to Islam is legally recognised, the opposite is not.

Sunday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Rand Paul: It's not Our Business Where Israelis Build
The senator spoke at The Iron Dome Congressional Tribute, a celebration of the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Several hundred Jewish leaders from across the U.S. journeyed to the capital to offer their gratitude to members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives for their staunch support of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Nearly two dozen Members of Congress, ranging from ultra-conservative to extremely liberal in their political ideologies, put partisanship aside and participated in this special program in order to stand united with the State of Israel.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, spoke about his trip to Israel and how much he enjoyed being there. He told the crowd how he sang Hebrew songs together with a group of rabbis at the Western Wall, even though he had no idea what the words meant. However, the statement that received thunderous applause was, “It is not our job to tell Israelis where they can or cannot build."

Kerry Commended for Defending 'Bedrock' of Jewish People
Simon Wiesenthal Center commends Sec. of State Kerry for directly confronting Turkish PM Erdogan's slanderous accusation against Zionism.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center commended U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday for directly confronting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's slanderous accusation in which he called Zionism a “crime against humanity”.
“Secretary Kerry is to be commended for publically objecting to Erdogan’s outrageous attack against Zionism, the bedrock of the Jewish people's historic narrative,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the leading Jewish human rights organization. “If our Turkish NATO ally wants to contribute to peace the first step would be for the Turkish prime minister to stop his verbal assaults against the Jewish state and her supporters around the world.”

UN Watch:

Germany Condemns Turkish PM Erdogan for “Hurtful and Unacceptable” Remarks
Full Transcript: Kerry calls Erodgan remark “objectionable”
World Leaders Condemn Turkey’s Erdogan over Zionism Slur

No way out
For Muslims, there is no escape from anti-Semitism

Muslim anti-Semitism has become historically genetic. It is fed into them with their mother’s milk.
It is inculcated at all levels, family, religious, cultural and political. It demands a high level of personal resolve and courage for an individual Muslim to break out of this festering prison of Jew-hatred. Yet to do so leaves that individual open to ridicule, hatred and retribution if he or she remains in that environment. This is the worrying swamp which, for many, there is no escape.

MEMRI: Inspire X "Open Source Jihad" Calls To Assassinate Top U.S., British, And French Heads Of State And Politicians

"If you think you are unable, then you have easy targets like [G.W.] Bush, Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, or Condoleezza Rice. Of course, you can also kill Sarkozy and Tony Blair. It is now easy to reach these guys, especially [now] that they aren't in office anymore."

Sanctioned sex club events and Israeli Apartheid Week have some university students angry over what their money funds

“It was one of those clear examples of crossing that line from legitimate criticism of Israel into hate and anti-Semitism,” says Mr. Gilboord. “Am I gonna cry at night? … No, but I think on campus we’re supposed to have a more academic atmosphere.”
Mr. Gilboord said one of the speakers quipped that Israeli Defence Forces kill Gazans six days a week out of seven. “I guess they take the Sabbath off,” said the speaker, according to Mr. Gilboord. When he and a handful of other pro-Israel students in attendance left near the end of the event, their departure was cheered by others in the crowd. All of this despite the equity statement commonly read at student meetings about ensuring a safe, inclusive space free from intolerance.

Jewish Students at Cornell Respond to Anti-Israel Defacement of Flyers on Campus

More than 20 posters that showed a defaced promotion for a Cornell Hillel event that brought Israeli soldiers to speak on campus were left scattered in a university rec center last week . The posters, which were marked up with red ink, denounced the “exclusively Jewish” soldiers — asserting that they engaged in “war-crime[s],” not “combat,” and served in “massacres,” not “missions.”
The Cornell Daily Sun reported that on Sunday Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to “raising awareness of the Palestinian experience,” took credit for making the posters. SJP claimed it produced the posters to “condemn the nature of Hillel’s event.”

Finnish police find ‘Jew list’ at neo-Nazi’s home
Man arrested for stabbing had compiled information about Jewish teens

JTA — Finnish police have informed several members of the country’s Jewish community that a neo-Nazi activist has been gathering information about them.
Police sent a letter to an undisclosed number of individuals after finding details about Finnish Jews on a USB stick in the possession of a man arrested two months ago, according a report Friday in the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.

Google opens Campus Tel Aviv startup space
The newest pin on the Google-Israel map aims to contribute toward future Israeli tech innovation.

Google opened its Tel Aviv offices in 2006. Currently, 270 developers work in this creatively designed eight-floor headquarters in the 45-story Electra Tower.
Another 80 employees churn out new products and technologies at Google’s Haifa R&D lab. “We also have a business operation here working with advertisers in Israel, Europe and Africa to build online businesses,” says Solomon.

EoZNews: Interview with Alex Safian of CAMERA

When I was in Israel I had the opportunity to meet with many of the people working for CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle east Reporting in America, as well as representatives of their sponsored blogs CiFWatch and BBCWatch. We had a good discussion of media bias and strategy. (Yes, conspiracy theorists, I will discuss strategy with fellow pro-Israel advocates. Scary, isn't it?)

Here is an exclusive EoZNews interview with Alex Safian, Associate Director of CAMERA, about media bias, the "apartheid land policy" claim that got him involved in the field, and other topics.

Sunday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Syrian Rebels Hang 'Palestinian Refugees' who Aided Assad
Syrian rebels hanged two Arabs registered as “Palestinian refugees” on suspicion of aiding the Assad, says a rights watchdog.

"Rebels in the Yarmouk camp executed two men accused of cooperating with the regime by identifying targets that were bombed last week," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"They were hanged from trees in the camp," added the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground to collect information. It provided a picture illustrating the hangings, reported AFP.

Assad accuses UK of bullying, vows to hit back at Israel
Speaking to Sunday Times, Syrian president blasts London for trying to send arms to rebels, says Damascus always retaliates against Israel

Speaking about a reported Israeli airstrike in January on Syrian soil, which had allegedly damaged a chemical weapons site, Assad vowed to hit back as he said his country always had, though he said it might not be an overt counterattack.
“We retaliated in our own way, and only the Israelis know what we mean. Retaliation does not mean missile for missile or bullet for bullet. Our own way does not have to be announced,” he said.

Three Syrian Mortar Shells Strike Golan Heights

Three mortar shells exploded Saturday afternoon in the southern Golan Heights, near Ramot Magshimim. No one was hurt and no damage was caused.
The defense establishment believes that the shells were stray ones, which were fired in the course of the civil war in Syria, on the other side of the border.

Israel to renew apple exports to Syria

Thousands of tons of Israeli apples will be exported to Syria later this week in a renewal of an arrangement that was halted last year due to the civil war across the border.
The apples, grown by Druze farmers on the Golan Heights, are transferred between the two countries with the coordination of the United Nations and the International Red Cross.
This year is set to be the largest ever export since the arrangement began several years ago. Some 18,000 tons of apples will pass through the border crossing at Quneitra over the next three months.

Plague of locusts afflicts Egypt
Swarm of Biblical proportions surprises local authorities and blankets the ground near Giza

An enormous swarm of locusts is plaguing Egypt in a development that agricultural authorities admitted they failed to predict.
Egyptian Agricultural Minister Salah Abad Almoman said the swarm, comprising an estimated 30 million insects, descended on Giza, near southern Cairo, where it is causing great damage, Maariv reported on Sunday.
“The armed forces and the Egyptian border units are trying to battle the swarm with various means at their disposal,” Almoman said, but the report did not detail what action was taken. The minister appealed to local residents to refrain from attempting to deal with the ravenous horde themselves.

Islamic Cleric Charges: Morsi is a 'Zionist'
An Islamic cleric who opposes the Muslim Brotherhood described Egyptian President as a “Zionist” who shares security interests with Israel.

An Islamic cleric who opposes the Muslim Brotherhood described Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on Friday as a “Zionist” who shares security interests with Israel, Al Arabiya reports.
Speaking to protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Nasr, leader of the Front “Ozharyoun with civil state,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was coming to Egypt to support “Morsi the Zionist.”

Egypt, two Coptic Orthodox children aged 9 and 10 risk jail on blasphemy charges

Yet another case of violence and abuse against Coptic Christians. On 26 February, the Court of Bani Suef (Upper Egypt) dismissed the appeal of the families of the two children Rzik Nagy, aged 10, and Mina Farag, 9, accused of desecrating the Koran. They have been detained in a juvenile prison since April 2012. The case has attracted a lot of criticism in the country. Many claim the trial was illegal and devoid of any logic.

100 Copts Arrested In Libya

Voice of the Copts strongly condemns the round-up, detention and presumed torture of Egyptian Copts in Benghazi, Libya being held for allegedly proselytizing Christianity which is illegal in that country. Evidence of such offense is yet unsubstantiated as facts cited by the arresting body keep changing. Furthermore, the charges are highly suspect given they follow recent attacks on a Coptic church.

Seized Chinese Weapons Raise Concerns on Iran

Among the items aboard the dhow, according to a review of factory markings on weapons and their packing crates, were 10 Chinese heat-seeking antiaircraft missiles, most of them manufactured in 2005.
The missiles were labeled QW-1M and bore stencils suggesting that they had been assembled at a factory represented by the state-owned China National Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation, sanctioned by the United States for transfers of missile technology to Pakistan and Iran.

Comedy Central: Jon Stewart Letter Backing Anti-War Protest Group is Counterfeit
Code Pink published a letter "from" Stewart backing their anti-drone campaign; Comedy Central says the note is bogus.

Code Pink, the organization known for screaming and streaking during their public protests, published and sent to its email list a letter purported to be from The Daily Show host on Wednesday; it claimed his support for the group's request that the senate releases documents about the drone campaign.
However, a representative from Comedy Central has confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the letter was not sent by Stewart or anyone at the network.

Accuweather says the Jewish Quarter is in "Palestine"

Last year, CiFWatch noted that the Israeli town of Modi'in is considered to be part of "Palestine" by Accuweather, even though it is within the Green Line. Tweeter "AntiIsrael Douchebag" noticed the same in his mobile app:

Not surprisingly, many Jewish communities in the territories are also considered to be within "Palestine" as well by Accuweather, although Jerusalem is still in Israel at the moment...

Pisgat Ze'ev, a part of Jerusalem, is also in "Palestine" according to Accuweather. (Interestingly, Har Nof is considered Israeli, and so is Maale Adumim.) Canada Park, owned by the Jewish National Fund, is considered in "Palestine."

Here's a full list of "Palestine" cities.

As absurd as this is, nothing beats this one I stumbled onto:

"Jewich Quarter"?

It is a good thing that peace plans aren't drawn up by clueless webmasters at weather sites.

Far more camps/ghettoes in Holocaust than previously thought

From NYT:

Thirteen years ago, researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum began the grim task of documenting all the ghettos, slave labor sites, concentration camps and killing factories that the Nazis set up throughout Europe.

The researchers have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945.

The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington.

“The numbers are so much higher than what we originally thought,” Hartmut Berghoff, director of the institute, said in an interview after learning of the new data.

“We knew before how horrible life in the camps and ghettos was,” he said, “but the numbers are unbelievable.”

The documented camps include not only “killing centers” but also thousands of forced labor camps, where prisoners manufactured war supplies; prisoner-of-war camps; sites euphemistically named “care” centers, where pregnant women were forced to have abortions or their babies were killed after birth; and brothels, where women were coerced into having sex with German military personnel.

...When the research began in 2000, Dr. Megargee said he expected to find perhaps 7,000 Nazi camps and ghettos, based on postwar estimates. But the numbers kept climbing — first to 11,500, then 20,000, then 30,000, and now 42,500.

The numbers astound: 30,000 slave labor camps; 1,150 Jewish ghettos; 980 concentration camps; 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps; 500 brothels filled with sex slaves; and thousands of other camps used for euthanizing the elderly and infirm, performing forced abortions, “Germanizing” prisoners or transporting victims to killing centers.

In Berlin alone, researchers have documented some 3,000 camps and so-called Jew houses, while Hamburg held 1,300 sites.

Dr. Dean, a co-researcher, said the findings left no doubt in his mind that many German citizens, despite the frequent claims of ignorance after the war, must have known about the widespread existence of the Nazi camps at the time.

“You literally could not go anywhere in Germany without running into forced labor camps, P.O.W. camps, concentration camps,” he said. “They were everywhere.”

Egyptian protesters torch police station

From Al Arabiya:

Egyptian protesters torched a police station in Port Said on Saturday, as police used tear gas to disperse crowds in the province of al-Mansura, reported Al Arabiya.

Residents said protesters set a light the police station after a security vehicle ran over demonstrators taking part in a peaceful march, leaving five people wounded.

About 500 protesters threw stones and petrol bombs and then blocked fire engines from approaching the blaze, said the interior ministry.

In Mansura, Egyptian protesters also stormed a police building, amid renewed clashes after a demonstrator's death overnight, the official MENA news agency reported.

They attacked a building that formerly housed the now-relocated regional police headquarters, but where police still have offices.

A security source told AFP police were able to repel them with tear gas.

Six officers were also reportedly injured in Port Said as demonstrators attempted to free detainees held inside the car by hurling stones at the vehicle which was on its way to Port Said’s courthouse.

Here's a video of the smoldering police station:

Things are not looking good in Egypt.

Great picture from Jerusalem Marathon

(h/t Joel)

Saturday Links

From Ian:

Into the Fray: Surrendering sovereignty – again
Israeli leaders need to realize that the litmus test of good diplomacy is not to get the world to applaud your compliancy and capitulation, but to accept your pursuit of national interests and imperatives.

Talkbackers get what government doesn’t...
And finally, NormanF: “The Israeli government’s default mode is to surrender to Arab blackmail, threats and intimidation. It can’t say “no” and uphold Jewish sovereignty... Any other country on earth would never accept for themselves the “international observer” nonsense Aharonovitch peddled before the Knesset. It would reject outright all attempts to compromise its independence. What his statement proved again in the face of escalating global anti-Semitism, is that its easy to take the Jew out of the ghetto but its very difficult to take the ghetto out of the Jew!”

Elliott Abrams: Kerry wrong to push for a permanent accord
Senior official in George W. Bush administration also says Israel should not have opposed Palestinians’ UN gambit, and that Olmert’s claim he was close to a peace deal is a ‘mirage’

“Israel’s opposition to it was so strong that it actually built up the importance of the resolution,” he said, adding that the Palestinians’ non-member state status changes very little on the ground. It would have been smarter for Netanyahu to openly declare that Palestine will not become a state through UN resolutions, but it was a “mistake” to fight the UN bid so vehemently.

Full Transcript: Ambassador Prosor’s Speech on Incitement to Terror and Violence at UN Conference

Below is the full text of the speech delivered by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on February 28th 2013 on the subject of Incitement to Terror and Violence, at a United Nations Conference.

Far left Australian newspaper "The Age" and the odious flotidiot Paul McGeough, shill for Hamas terrorists.
Leader waits in shifting sands of Middle East

First comes one projectile, then another. Both are in full flight, moving quickly.
Launched by Khalid Mishal in the early hours of the morning, they could be rockets over Gaza. But he is in Doha, deftly quartering apples and guavas, then hurling pieces the length of the room, to a colleague at the other end of a long, leather-inlaid conference table.

More:
Hamas chief evokes Arab Spring in push to lead all Palestinians
Khalid Mishal: terrorist or rebel with a cause?

Gantz: Rocket fired at Ashkelon Tuesday aimed for power plant
Chief of staff says he does not see third intifada unfolding; shots fired from Gaza Friday hit IDF officer’s vehicle

Syrian troops destroy ancient synagogue

One of the oldest synagogues in the world was partially destroyed by Syrian government shelling, according to a video posted to YouTube overnight Friday.
The Jobar Synagogue, located in a suburb of Damascus, is approximately 2,000 years old, and is said to have been built on top of a cave where the prophet Elijah concealed himself from persecution.

Police confiscate US consulate building plans in Istanbul

Security forces have confiscated explosives along with a series of building plans of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, a synagogue and a church, in a recent operation against al-Qaeda in several cities, Doğan news agency reported today.
Police departments of the Western province of Tekirdağ and Istanbul cooperated in an operation that detained 11 people and seized 25 kilograms of A-4 type plastic explosives, five rifles, five guns, several USB flash disks, CDS and remote-controlled explosive mechanisms.

Jews, Armenians Exposed to Most Hate Speech in Turkey

A study by Turkey’s Hrant Dink Foundation has found that Jews have become the main object of hate speech in the country, followed by Armenians, Christians, and Greeks.

This is over': Libya closes file on Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 despite U.S. and British pleas to re-open inquiry

Officials from new regime reject calls to hunt down remaining suspects
Authorities fear new investigation could prompt demand for compensation
Britain tonight insisted investigation into 1988 atrocity remains open

Two NJ men indicted in series of synagogue bombings

Childhood friends could face life in prison if convicted of all 30 charges
Two men were formally charged Friday in a series of firebomb attacks on synagogues in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
A grand jury handed up a 30-count indictment against Aakash Dalal and Anthony M. Graziano, Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

Irish channel must apologize for show calling Israel ‘cancer’
National broadcasting regulator rejects claim that comments were anti-Semitic, but says host failed to meet standards of fairness

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland upheld a complaint against prominent broadcaster Vincent Browne on Thursday for referring to Israel as “the cancer in foreign affairs” on his late-night TV3 show.

Israeli start-up brings gesture tech to iPhones
PointGrab’s new CamMe app shows off a future in which users will be able to interact more easily with their iDevices

With gesture technology gaining traction as an important interaction method between man and machine, it was only a matter of time before it showed up on smartphones and tablets. Now, Israeli 2D gesture technology company Pointgrab has become one of the first to bring it to smartphones, specifically Apple’s iOS platform.

New Poll: 31% of Americans Favor Israelis Over Palestinians

The first question was whether the United States should support the Israelis more than the Palestinians, support the Palestinians more than the Israelis or should the U.S. treat both the same? To this question 55% of respondents answered that they should be treated both the same, while 31% said Israelis should be favored vs. just 4% in favor of the Palestinians.

Two more "Apartheid?" posters

Since the two-month long "Israel 'Apartheid' Week" has begun, I added a couple of posters to my most popular series ever:

All of the posters can be seen here.

I received over a thousand hits just last month for that poster page. Tens of thousands of people have read that page and at least that many have seen the posters being sent in email chains, on other webpages, and at counter-protests.

Another Palestinian Arab dies in custody - but there will be no riots

From Ma'an:

A prisoner being held in a Palestinian Authority jail in Jericho died on Friday, a senior Palestinian official said.

Ayman Mohammad Sharif Samara, 40, died while being detained on charges of assault, Palestinian Authority attorney general Muhammad Abdul-Ghani al-Uweiwi told Ma'an.

He was arrested on Friday and transferred to a nearby hospital, where he passed away, al-Uweiwi said.

The PA attorney general denied that the prisoner was tortured or beaten during interrogations and said that an autopsy would be performed and the results made public once completed.

An investigation into his death has already begun, al-Uweiwi added.

Why no demand for an international investigation? Why no riots about the uncanny coincidence of a prisoner dying the day of his arrest? Why no uproar?

Ah, it is another application of the Middle East version of the Inverse Square Law:

The amount of outrage over an Arab death is inversely proportional to the square of the possibility that the death can be blamed on Jews.

Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

John Kerry: Kyrzakhstan and Palestine

So, “East Jerusalem” is Jerusalem’s Old City and its surrounding neighborhoods. The original and oldest parts of Jerusalem are in this “East Jerusalem”.
There has never been in history an independent municipal entity known as “East Jerusalem” just as there has never been an independent national entity known as Palestine just as there has never been a Kyrzakhstan.
When anti-Israel extremists created the term “East Jerusalem” it was for one reason. They wanted to rip Israel’s capital apart in order to defeat Israel. This effort tragically gained full force with the Oslo Accords. This was fully explained in the B’tzedek Online Journal on December 30, 1996 in an editorial titled The War Has Just Begun:

NSF leaders refuse to meet Kerry in protest against US pro-Morsy stance

Hamdeen Sabbahi and Mohamed ElBaradei of the National Salvation Front (NSF) will not meet US Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Egypt, said Heba Yassin of the Popular Current Party.
The United States insists on painting a positive image of President Mohamed Morsy, despite the criticisms and demands of the opposition, the political figures claim.

'Erdogan Uses Denigration of Israel to Walk Islamist Street'
"Erdogan has chosen to use the denigration of Israel to establish his credentials with the Islamist street,” said leading Jewish group.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center decried UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s silence at a UN conclave in Vienna as Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan charged that Zionism is "a crime against humanity," lumping it together with racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Erdogan's hypocrisy
Erdogan? ‘Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism are crimes against humanity.’ Oom Shmum? ‘We’re keeping shtum’

So who’s going to take Erdogan on and expose him for the bullying humbug that he is? Certainly not Ban Ki Moon and the other insidious officials at the UN. Perhaps US Secretary of State John Kerry might slip him a hushed scolding on his upcoming visit to Turkey?
I, for one, am not holding my breath.

UN slams Erdogan's Zionism remark, 'if rightly interpreted'

The UN issued a formal apology on behalf of Erdogan, "if the comment about Zionism was interpreted correctly," a UN spokesperson clarified in the statement.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon heard Erdogan's speech through an interpreter, and said in a statement that if the comments were translated properly, they were "wrong" and "hurtful."

White House slams Erdogan's Zionism remark

We reject Prime Minister Erdogan's characterization of Zionism as a crime against humanity, which is offensive and wrong," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.
"We encourage people of all faiths, cultures, and ideas to denounce hateful actions and to overcome the differences of our times," he said.

EXPOSÉ: Italy's New Leader: Here is What He Says on Israel
New popularist politician's remarks on Israel - among other topics - raise concerns over antisemitism...

Mr. Grillo even defended Mel Gibson's rant on the Jews: "Israel is scary, her behavior is irresponsible", the politician said. "I said it. And I'm not drunk. I'm just scared for my children. Israel is behind the United States or the United States is behind Israel, which is the cause and which the effect?".
Mr. Grillo has attacked "the Holocaust industry". During a show in Rome, Grillo invited Iraq's Saddam Hussein to point his rockets on a precise point on the map which was then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's house near Milan.

IDF Blog: 24h With IDF Soldiers Chapter 2: Judea and Samaria

This is where the Kfir Brigade is stationed. The IDF decided to establish the brigade in 2005 to provide an effective response to Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria and to urban guerrilla warfare.

IDF Blows Up Sand in Hunt for Safe Windows
Near a southern airport, IDF workers are bombing a fake building. The goal – to find the world’s safest windows.

A group of IDF workers has spent a large part of the last several weeks in the desert in southern Israel, setting off bombs. Their goal: to find the safest windows in the world.
Major Benny Brosh, head of the research and development unit, explained the process to Arutz Sheva.
The army is responsible for testing the windows, along with similar devices developed by civilian firms that are now seeking high levels of safety certification, he said. The military runs tests that include controlled explosions to see if the windows can stand up to shock waves, shrapnel, and even poison gases.

JPost Editorial: Arrow sharp

Arrow 3 underscores Israel’s ongoing technological superiority in the region and it can buy us time. But it and accompanying lower-tier interceptors unfortunately cannot hermetically seal our skies, nor can they replace traditional offensive measures to destroy weapons of mass destruction arsenals across the lines.
There are no neat, deluxe fixes, but Arrow 3 means better protection by far than that which is currently available, at higher altitudes and at significantly greater distances from our narrow borders. For a tiny, densely populated state such as Israel that is very reassuring news.

Paid NYT obituary takes shot at NYT

Priceless:

(h/t Jeffrey Goldberg)

Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

LATMA: What is academic courage, and the blessed approach of the 3rd Intifada

Palestinians to Hagel Report: "We Don't Need U.S. Troops Here" by Khaled Abu Toameh

There is also no guarantee that Egypt, Jordan or any Arab country would be prepared to join a US-led force in wake of the current events in the Arab world.
Many Arabs and Muslims continue to view the US as an enemy, especially because of Washington's support for Israel. Any Arab leader who agrees to join a U.S. or NATO force will be denounced by his people as a traitor and puppet in the hands of Americans and Zionists.
Besides, who said that the Arab countries are keen on sending troops to patrol the streets of Palestinian cities?
Does anyone seriously think that Jordan's King Abdullah would ever send Jordanian soldiers to Palestinian cities? Hasn't Jordan's policy over the past two decades been to distance itself as much as possible from the Palestinians?

PMW: PA TV honors terrorists who killed 22 children and 4 adults for the second year in a row
Other terror attacks by DFLP also honored

The Ma'alot massacre was done by the DFLP in 1974. Terrorists took school children as hostages.
22 of them were murdered along with four adults.
The PA TV tribute also honored terrorists who were described as "the heroes of Beit Shean, the pride of the Palestinian revolution."
These were three PFLP terrorists who killed four civilians in the Israeli city of Beit Shean.

CIF Watch: A glimpse into how the Guardian reported Palestinian terrorism in 1974

Though the snapshot from the video is blurry, the story appears to open with the words, “Sixteen Israeli schoolchildren were killed tonight and 70 wounded by Arab terrorists…”. The focus is on the victims. The perpetrators were not described, per the author, Eric Silver, as “militants” (or some other euphemism), but, rather, “terrorists”.
The terrorists are referred to as “Arab”, not “Palestinian”.
Finally, though the strap line lurches towards something suggesting sympathy for the terrorists – by characterizing them as “trapped” – the headline aptly describes the event as a “massacre”.
It’s inconceivable that such terrorist savagery would be reported similarly today.
It’s difficult, short of scouring the Guardian Archives, to say for sure when the Guardian – a truly liberal and Zionist paper under the leadership, and subsequent legacy, of former owner C.P. Scott – began to first turn on the Jewish state. However, in 1974 (based on their coverage of the Ma’alot Massacre) they were still willing to unambiguously inform their readers that cold-blooded fanatics had murdered innocent Jewish children.

BBC Watch: Where can terrorism be named as such by the BBC?

One can be fairly confident that the BBC will not be setting up an interview between the police spokesman and Mishal Husein so that she can ask him how many residents of Northern Ireland were actually killed by “home-made contraptions”.
Notably, the BBC does not suggest any kind of linkage (implying extenuating circumstances) between the discovery of the weapons and the actions of Protestants in Northern Ireland or the policies of the British government.
In this case, the BBC has managed to report the story for what it is: the illegal possession of military-grade weapons by a terrorist group which threatens civilian lives.
It is a pity that the BBC is so often unable to apply the same standards of reporting to certain parts of the Middle East.

Accessories in Fogel Murder Sentenced
Three PA Arabs have been sentenced to prison for aiding the murderers of the Fogel family

Over two years after the vicious murders of five members of the Fogel family of Itamar, four PA Arabs have been sentenced to between two and seven years in prison for the assistance they rendered to the two Arab terrorists who carried out the attack.

Egypt confiscates missiles smuggled from Libya

An Egyptian security official says authorities have confiscated two pick-up trucks carrying 60 anti-tank missiles smuggled across the border from Libya.
The official says two truck drivers were arrested and the weapons seized just south of Cairo on Wednesday morning.

Hezbollah in a Slump
Arab sources openly denounce the organization as a subsidiary of Iran. Hanin Ghaddar, of the Lebanese web site, NOW, recently wrote:

Hezbollah is not, as it claims to its supporters, a Lebanese party whose mission is to protect Lebanese people and territories. It is a militia which uses Lebanon as a geographical base from which to launch attacks against Iran’s enemies no matter where or who they are.

Report: “Independent” Campaign Against Iranian Sanctions and Military Intervention Has Numerous Links to Regime

The Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) was founded by Abbas Edalat in 2005. CASMII claims to be an advocate of Iranians everywhere as well as “independent of all political groups and governments, including the Iranian government.” But a recent report released by the Germany-based Stop the Bomb, a nonpartisan initiative aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, appears to counter these claims. According to the report, many of the people associated with the campaign have close ties to the Iranian regime, or have publicly supported it.

Ethiopian Israeli Stars on the Rise
A new pop singer and a new Miss Israel hit the mainstream

In what might be construed as either a coincidence, a rising trend, or a cultural rebuke against Israeli immigration policies, Ethopian stars seem to be making some serious headway in the Israeli cultural landscape.

"Harlem Shake" shaking up Egypt, Tunisia

I've been seeing lots of Arabic articles about young people performing the "Harlem Shake" dance craze as a protest in Egypt and Tunisia. Bloomberg seems to have done a decent synopsis:

Farid Sayed says more than two years of protests are bringing about little change in Egypt, so he decided to try something different: dancing.

The university student and his friends brought the Harlem Shake to the Cairo headquarters of President Mohamed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood late yesterday. In front of the building, emblazoned with the group’s twin-sword logo, a dancer wearing a Mickey Mouse head and traditional Arab robe was joined by dozens of dressed-up protesters.

“We are sending a certain message: Our revolutionary struggle will continue and we will continue to be creative and sarcastic,” Sayed said before the rally.

Tunisians are also using the dance as a protest vehicle. A Facebook group is calling for a mass Harlem Shake today at the Ministry of Education, which is investigating students who made a dance video. Harlem Shake dancers have clashed with Salafists, followers of a strict version of Islam, and in Egypt at least four have been arrested.

While many Arabs, like people elsewhere in the world, are making videos inspired by the dance craze for fun, there’s a political edge to it in countries like Egypt and Tunisia. Their revolutions of 2011 have been followed by the rise to power of Islamist groups, raising concerns about restrictions on women’s rights and free expression.

Jonathan Rashad, who attended a Harlem Shake filming at the pyramids last month, said police stopped participants and asked them about the purpose of their dance. “They didn’t get that we were just doing that for fun,” he said. “Now, it’s becoming sort of activism, and resisting the government.”

Dance as a form of protest is “part of the renaissance movement that aims to break all taboos and red lines,” said Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo. Younger generations are reacting because their hopes for freer countries after the uprisings are being dashed by Islamists who are pushing them aside and monopolizing power, he said.

Tunisian Minister of Education Abdellatif Abid told Mosaique FM radio that he was ordering a probe into the filming of the video by students in a school compound in Tunis, and said those involved may be punished. Tunisian Salafists have confronted dancers over Harlem Shake videos, criticizing them as imitations of the West and as frivolous activities while Muslims are dying in Palestine.

A tour of the Belz synagogue in Jerusalem (EoZNews video)

Here is the video I made of the personal tour I had of the immense Belzer Hasidic synagogue earlier this week, that I mentioned in yesterday's post of the interview with the Belzer representative:

Hamas stole machine to print Egyptian IDs: Report

Youm7 reports that in the months after Egypt's revolution, a machine designed to print Egyptian ID cards was stolen from the Sinai and smuggled into Gaza, where fake Egyptian IDs are being printed to allow Gazans to move about Egypt without restrictions.

According to security sources, Egyptian authorities tried to get Hamas to cooperate in finding the machine in Gaza, but were rebuffed.

As a result, the report says, Egyptian security has been working hard to find all Palestinian Arabs in the Sinai and have set up numerous checkpoints to nab anyone using the false IDs.

Meanwhile, in another example of friction between Egypt and Hamas, several of the people involved in attacking and killing 16 Egyptian soldiers last year were positively identified as being from Gaza, both from autopsies and from what they had with them. The investigators say that a large number of Gazans were involved in the operation, together with radical jihadists in the Sinai.

Hamas denies both claims. Spokesman Abu Zuhri said that they had not the slightest basis in fact, and that the Egyptian people love the Gazans.

Hamas seems to have gotten the message that rockets must be stopped

I mentioned earlier that Israel has closed the Kerem Shalom crossing since a rocket attack on Monday.

It looks like Hamas has gotten the message that Israel will not turn a blind eye towards these events as she did in the past.

According to the (virulently anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency, in response to Hamas claims that Fatah is cooperating with Israel in keeping calm in Judea and Samaria, an apparent Hamas directive calling for the arrest and prosecution of people launching rockets in Gaza was leaked.

The document, dated 28/02/2013, is titled "A directive for the public interest in order to preserve the security and safety of citizens."

The directive called on all provincial managers, specialized departments and police stations to pursue rocket launchers and bring them to Hamas officials and then be handed over to the Internal Security Agency where they will be held accountable for a severe violation of the law.

PalPress released a facsimile of the order, pictured.

Keep in mind that PalPress is criticizing Hamas for keeping the peace, just as Hamas is criticizing Fatah for not publicly pushing a full-blown intifada in their areas. Unity talks between the two have been suspended indefinitely and the accusations have been increasing.

13,000 Gazans eagerly became Egyptian citizens in two years

You know how the Arab world (and their apologists) has been insisting for years that Palestinian Arabs have no desire to become citizens of any other country because they don't want to lose their "Palestinian" identity? (This includes, of course, becoming citizens of the "State of Palestine.")

The only problem is that every time a loophole opens that allows them to become citizens of Arab countries, they have jumped at the opportunity. It happened in Lebanon in the 1950s and again in the 1990s.

Now, an Egyptian law that allows children of Egyptian mothers to become Egyptian citizens has resulted in over 13,000 Gazans claiming and earning Egyptian citizenship in the last two years. Thousands more have applied for citizenship.

Anyone who claims to be "pro-Palestinian" who says that Palestinian Arabs must not be allowed to become citizens of Arab countries, if they so desire, is a hypocrite. Human rights advocates must demand that Palestinian Arabs be given the same rights that other Arabs have of applying for citizenship in any other Arab country, let alone their host countries that the vast majority were born in.

More Palestinian Arab farmers "collaborating" with Israel

Once again, contrary to what we are told by the Israel-haters, Palestinian Arab farmers visited Israel in order to cooperate in learning the latest farming techniques.

A colorful and a bit idyllic picture characterized the busy day that 40 farmers and merchants from the Gaza Strip spend during a professional-agricultural tour in Israel. The tour was coordinated by the agriculture department at the District Coordination Office (DCO) in Gaza, and was accompanied by the DCO Agriculture Coordinator, Mr Uri. Madar and Mr Eli Sadeh, also from the DCO’s Agriculture department.

The merchants came to Erez crossing as early as 8:00 am. For some, it was the first time in Israel, and others who have experienced past tours or seminars organized by the DCO, were warmly received by Eli Sadeh. The group boarded excitedly on the bus waiting for them at the crossing, and started the tour.

During the day, the group members visited agricultural factories around the country, where they were exposed to a variety of technological developments used in the agricultural industry in Israel. Between greetings and light refreshments, the farmers received information about the products manufactured in the factories, which will allow them to acquire the most appropriate products for their crops, and use it correctly. The farmers eagerly listen to every bit of information said by the professionals in the factories. Throughout the tour, the farmers asked questions about issues they encountered at the field, and received substantive and professional response.

"One tomato is enough for an entire family’s salad," marveled one of the farmers during visit in a factory for the production of different varieties of fruits and vegetables, and took a bite of an engineered tomato. Thus, this strain was added to list of products that the farmers planned to order on his return to Gaza. The list included pesticides, types of sheets and other products the farmers heard about during the day. Leaving the factory, the farmers were warmly invited to visit in the summer, during which a selection of watermelons and cantaloupes strains will be showcased.

Israel's policy of cooperation is dependent on calm from the Arab side, though:

None of this would have been possible if not for the tranquillity prevails in the Gaza Strip and around the Gaza Strip in recent months since Operation Pillar of Defense and under the framework of the new understandings, allowing Gaza’s farmers frequent visits for professional training and agricultural meetings. The Coordination and Liaison Gaza Strip will continue to promote the issue of agriculture and economy in Gaza as long as the situation will allow, and welcomes the opportunities and initiatives.

Indeed, since the rocket fire from Gaza on Monday, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, sending a message that cooperation is a two-way street. Hopefully the message has been received and goods transfers can resume soon.

This story shows yet again that the groups claiming to represent "Palestinian farmers" who call for boycotting Israel represent no one.

UC-Irvine researchers excited by Israel's water management

From Zvi:

We are accustomed to hearing bad news from UC Irvine. Last year, UC Irvine's student senate voted to join the ranks of the BDS (a.k.a. Bigotry and Double Standards) movement. UC Irvine allowed a group of hate-filled hooligans to repeatedly and aggressively attempting to silence Amb. Michael Oren.

Today, the news is of a very different kind.

A group of Irvine water researchers is visiting the region, exploring opportunities to share knowledge and to collaborate. I should say, first of all, that being water researchers, these visitors adhere to a point of view that is progressive and environmentally focused. For them, the water shortages in the middle east and around the world are looming crises that must be addressed soon in order to stave off disaster. They recently published a study on water losses in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran over the years from 2003 to 2009. The researchers were invited to Israel by Friends of the Earth - Middle East.

In National Geographic Water Currents, Prof. James Famiglietti, director of the Hydrologic Modeling Center at the University of California – Irvine comments on their recent visit to the Technion.

Technion University was our first stop on this water journey,, where we met with researchers at the Grand Water Research Institute (GWRI). During our conversation at Technion, we learned about the Israeli tools to allocate, reuse, and distribute water and how academic research improves these tools. Israel’s water monitoring and allocation system is phenomenal – every drop of water, from freshwater resources to desalinated water, is accounted for, priced accordingly, and delivered to the end-user. ....

For we Californians, it was surprising and inspiring to hear about the innovative strategies in place to meet agricultural water demands and, even more so, that the farmers were completely in support of these policies. ...

As our discussions at Technion illustrated, the support for such innovative management policies begins with knowledge transfer to stakeholders. For example, the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture hosts annual meetings that farmers, academics, and decision makers attend with the goal of sharing their respective water experiences and to work toward more efficient water practices. A core aspect of that effective communication is creating practical, actionable results rooted in technical research. During our discussion at Technion, we repeatedly heard an emphasis on interdisciplinary research, bringing together economists, engineers, hydrologists, and politicians to guide those actionable results for water management. Technion is one of many universities that are part of the Middle East North Africa (MENA)Water Centers for Excellence project, sponsored by USAID. This platform provides the foundation for collaboration between researchers throughout the MENA region including in Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan.

The concept of a “water research network” is lacking in the United States, as is the connection between researchers and decision-makers at the local, state, and national levels. In Israel, this model of collaboration has resulted in meticulous monitoring of water resources to inform water management policies and the subsequent support from all stakeholders. If we could shift our water management paradigm in the United States to effectively link researchers, policy-makers, and local stakeholders with open lines of communication, the outcome could be groundbreaking.

Our meeting at the GWRI at the Technion left us with many ideas for potential collaboration between our research center at UC Irvine and the Technion. On a technical level, we discussed a wide variety of potential research topics, ranging from the development of a 3D groundwater model; the evaluation of the linkages between water and soil management at a global scale; the use of enviromatics to better manage and monitor regional water systems; and optimization of land-surface and water management models to better reflect the reality of water demand and supply. On a broader level, our meeting provided a glimpse at new strategies and tools that we, in California, can use to more effectively manage water resources, link stakeholders, communicate knowledge, and develop policies to sustainably manage our resources.

This Israel-California knowledge transfer model is an exciting venture, and we hope that over the duration of our trip we will find more ideas, collaboration opportunities, and links with civil society, academic, and governmental agencies.

Universities and researchers around the world need to reject bigotry, double standards and lies, and instead actively support collaboration with Israeli researchers. They do not need to do this for the sake of Israel; rather, they should do it for the sake of their own societies.