Child terrorist wannabes on Hamas TV

More child abuse, lovingly captured on a kids' show in Gaza. From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a children's show on Umm Nidal Farhat, which aired on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV on March 29, 2013:

Child presenter: Iman, you are the daughter of the martyr Nidal. What did your father do to help liberate Jerusalem?

Iman, who is sitting alongside other grandchildren of Umm Nidal Farhat: He produced missiles.
Child presenter: He produced the first missile, and it was called "Qassam," right? When he was making missiles, was your grandmother there with him?
Iman: No. 

Child presenter: Did she encourage him to do so?

Iman: Yes, of course.
Child presenter: Iman, are you proud to have Umm Nidal Farhat as your grandmother?
Iman: Yes.
Child presenter: Are you proud that your father is a martyr?
Iman: Yes.
Child presenter:Would you like to follow in their footsteps? 

Iman: Yes.

[...]
Veiled child presenter: Jinan, you told me that the great mother, Umm Nidal Farhat, saw her sons in a dream before she died, right? Tell us that story.
Janin: When she was in Egypt, she was already ill.
Veiled child presenter: She was in Egypt before she came here, right?
Janin: Yes. Allah be praised, she got a little better before she died, and she saw her martyred sons in a dream, coming to her and wanting to take her. They missed her a lot, just like she missed them. Imad 'Aqel, Allah's mercy upon him, also came to her in a dream. It was a day before she returned to Gaza. He wanted her to go with them. He wanted her to meet them in Paradise.
Veiled child presenter: She understood that she was going to them, right?
Janin: Yes. She said to my uncle: I want to go to Gaza.
Veiled child presenter: She didn't want to die in Egypt. She wanted to die on her land. She insisted on departing from this life in her own bed, right?
Janin: Yes. 

[...]

Granddaughter of Nidal Farhat: I call upon all Muslim mothers, daughters, and sisters – Al-Aqsa Mosque expects us to be the next generation to march toward it. Do not spare us the commanders, the soldiers, and the martyrdom lovers. Al-Aqsa Mosque expects us to be the next generation to march toward it. Do not hesitate [to sacrifice] commanders, soldiers, and martyrdom-lovers. The mothers send their sons to victory or to Paradise, Allah willing.
The children in the studio sing in unison: Jihad bestows pride and glory upon you when you become a martyrdom-seeker.
Jihad bestows pride and glory upon you when you become a martyrdom-seeker.
Oh explosive device of glory – with her blood she created freedom.
Oh explosive device of glory – with her blood she created freedom.
Ask [suicide bomber] Fatima Al-Najjar how one should live a life of pride.
Ask [suicide bomber] Fatima Al-Najjar how one should live a life of pride.

Presenter in chicken costume: Let's have a round of applause.

[...]
Veiled child presenter: We should sacrifice our lives for the sake of the homeland, so we can please God and liberate Palestine and Jerusalem. What we learn from her example is that we should follow in her footsteps.
Child presenter: She raised her children from an early age on love of martyrdom for the sake of Allah, as well as on love of the homeland and its defense. We should learn from them. We should wage Jihad and persevere, in order to liberate this land. When one of us is martyred, we say that his life is precious, yet it is a cheap price to pay for the liberation and defense of the homeland.
Veiled child presenter: The lives of all the martyrs are precious, but no price is too high when it is paid for the sake of the homeland.

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So why are Israelis so damn happy, anyway?

Tiffanie Wen at Open Zion is perplexed:

By now everyone in Israel has read the results of the study published earlier this month that showed Israelis ranked among the happiest people among the Western nations, despite an extensive laundry list of problems in their country.

Israel ranked low in terms of income, housing, education and security for example—all things we would typical associate with contentment. As an Asian-American who hails from San Francisco, I could add a few of my own complaints to the list: lack of ethnic food, the outrageous cost of imported goods, the raging summer heat, the marginalization of minorities and refugees, and the famous Israeli frankness that has me constantly fielding questions about why I pay so much for my apartment and my (ever so subtle) fluctuation in weight (Up or down? Eating cakes or working out?), chief among them.



So then why—if they probably can't find a job or afford the apartment that they live in—are Israelis so damn happy?

War has quite a bit to do with it.
The fact is that Israel has been in a perpetual state of war—or under the threat of war—since David Ben-Gurion declared independence in May 1948, the only Western country in the world in which this is the case.



Even during periods of "peace," there still seems to exist, at a minimum, a potential intifada brewing in the West Bank, or chemical weapons making their way into the hands of Hezbollah, or rockets being lobbed into the country from Gaza.

And this has created a fascinating psychological paradox, one that has been studied extensively by Professor Zahava Solomon of Tel Aviv University. On one hand, as she told me in a recent phone interview, the culture of conflict has made Israelis constantly aware of their potential demise; on the other it has made them virtually fearless.
Think about it. 
How would you act if you woke up every morning thinking that this day could be your last? Or at least took a moment to imagine how you would be eulogized at your funeral? (An exercise that Stephen Covey recommended in his wildly popular “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” although admittedly “live in a war zone” did not make the list.)


The point is this: you'd enjoy the day you had.
 And if you continued to survive until the next morning, this daily exercise might develop into a mantra for how you lived your life. And you might bother to take that beach day, or spend more time with your family. You might grow a pair and launch that startup you've been thinking about (Boom: Silicon Wadi) or stop a beautiful woman on the street and insist that she have lunch with you, or park on the sidewalk if there was no other parking within a five-block radius. You might climb a mountain, or go scuba diving or backpack in South America for a year. All things that Israelis do in droves, and that, in my opinion, probably lead to a more fulfilling existence.



If constant war or threat of war makes people happy, then people in Iraq and Lebanon must be ecstatic!

Ms. Wen and her TAU professor) is completely clueless.

Haaretz was even more flummoxed:

It’s not clear why Israelis are so happy, despite a relatively poor showing on measures such as housing, income, job security, community support and education. It could be that what makes the average Norwegian happy doesn’t do the trick in Israel. Or maybe Israelis try to appear happy even when they’re not and respond to pollsters accordingly.

Yeah, they are just pretending to be happy to pollsters!

The answer is not such a mystery, and it sheds more light that you might expect.

Happiness comes from many sources, but a critical one is a sense of belonging.

Israelis don't just think of themselves as citizens of a state, of a random set of people with nothing in common except an accident of where they were born. They think of themselves as a family. (This mostly applies to Jews, but not exclusively.)

This is why they can be rude to each other - because there is a knowledge that, just like in your family underneath that rudeness is love. That's why bumping into someone in the store is a lot less likely to escalate into a gunfight. You can yell and threaten and curse - but deep down you know that you are all one people.

There is a second criteria for happiness, especially obvious in the workplace. It is that one must has a sense of accomplishment, of doing something important, and of fulfilling one's responsibility.

Here, again, Israeli Jews share that idea. Just by living in Israel they are making a statement to the world that they are in their home. By sharing the burden of serving in the IDF they know they are defending their people from those who want to kill them. They aren't just anonymous citizens of a state. Everyone is important, because everyone depends on each other.

This is why Ms. Wen doesn't get it. She lives in Israel but only as an outside observer, not as an Israeli. She cannot fathom the sense of fulfillment that comes from these twin senses of belonging and of accomplishment at fulfilling your responsibilities towards those you love.

Ha'aretz, the TAU professor and many of those who live in the Tel Aviv "bubble" are also clueless - because to them Israel is just an abstraction, a land to be analyzed and criticized but not one to be viscerally involved with. To them, the emotional ties of Jews to the land of their forefathers is a silly superstitious myth - and they cannot fathom how it is the source of Israeli happiness and contentment.

This survey, unwittingly, reveals more about Israel's critics than it does about the subjects of the survey itself.

(h/t Ian)

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Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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The ‘Disabled’ Terrorist Stood Up to Attack IDF

There is some other information that Maan did not report. For example, he was arrested in a hideout, not in his home.
And the “handicapped” man “threw at the soldiers everything he could get his hands on,” such as hammers, said a military spokeswoman. “I won’t say he does not have a disability, but he can walk,” a spokesman added.
For a man who supposedly cannot walk on his own, he must have had an angel helping him because he walked down the stairs from the second floor, where soldiers nabbed him, and then tried to grab a soldier’s rifle.

Special Report: Canada's University of Manitoba Students' Union becomes first in North America to ban IAW

The University of Manitoba Students Union (UMSU) has become the first in North America to vote to ban Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) on campus and strip the group Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA) of official student group status.

Investigation: Jewish Students Were Unjustly Evicted from Brooklyn College BDS Event

After a two month investigation into the circumstances surrounding the expulsion of four Jewish students from a BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) event aimed at Israel at Brooklyn College in February, a report has been issued that states that a “plausible inference can be drawn that the removal of the four students was motivated by their political viewpoint.”
The event featured anti-Israel activists Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, and gained considerable attention in the press when it was discovered that the school’s Political Science Department was a sponsor.

Lawsuit Threatened if Major Equities Fund Goes Through With Boycott of Israel

The Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) is threatening legal action against the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) if it chooses to adopt a resolution boycotting Israeli firms and investments.

PMW: "To war that will... destroy the Zionist's soul" - Girl recites poem on PA TV
"To war that will... destroy the Zionist's soul" - Girl #2 recites poem on PA TV
Abbas to appoint PM or head gov't himself By Khaled Abu Toameh

He added that none of the candidates on the short list to replace Fayyad were viable reformers. “Whether Mohammad Mustafa, [former PA public works and housing minister] Azzam al- Ahmed or even Rami Hamdallah, it is significantly less likely that the new prime minister challenges Abbas on matters of transparency and reform,” he said.

German event with Iran envoy ‘legitimizes evil’

A German government ministry and an evangelical church academy provoked outrage in the US and Germany by inviting the Iranian ambassador – allegedly involved in the massacre of Kurds – to speak at a conference slated for this week in Lower Saxony state.

Father of Israeli Hi-Tech, Efi Arazi, Dies at 76

Arazi began his career in the United States. While he was a student at MIT in 1969, he built the camera the Apollo 11 crew used to broadcast the first pictures of the moon. NASA continued to use his camera until 1995.

Report: Germany Prefers Israeli Over US Drones

Germany is in talks with Israel to buy weaponized drones for its military that are seen as more technologically advanced than US ones

The Israeli medical device Steve Jobs would have liked

For the first time, an Israeli company has been accepted into a prestigious program run by GE Healthcare, one of the biggest health-tech companies in the world. Oxitone, located in Ashkelon, was selected for GE Healthcare’s Start-Up Health Academy Entrepreneurship Program, a three-year arrangement where start-ups enter as fledgling businesses and emerge ready for prime time.

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Guess who's upset at Erdogan?

Azzam Al-Ahmad, member of the Fatah Central Committee, criticized the announcement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he intends to visit the Gaza Strip, and said that this further divides the Palestinian Arabs.

Ahmad told the official "Voice of Palestine" radio that Mahmoud Abbas will visit Ankara within days to discourage Erdogan from the planned visit.

He added: "Any official visit to the Gaza Strip without coordination of the legitimate Palestinian leadership supports and deepens the divide between the West Bank and Gaza."

It is indeed noteworthy, but not surprising, that Erdogan is publicly siding with the Hamas terrorists.

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Al Qassam members "escape" from Hamas prison

Palestinian Arabic media are reporting that three members of the Al Qassam Brigades escaped from a prison in Gaza last night.

All three had been convicted of murder.

Given that the majority of police and security services in Gaza also moonlight for the Al Qassam Brigades, and both organizations ultimately report to the same people, I have a feeling that this prison break didn't involve any tunneling or dramatic hiding in the laundry truck. It was probably more like, "Hey, Guard Ahmed, we're going to leave tonight, OK?"

"Okey-dokey!"

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Hamas damages ancient harbor for terrorist training

From Al Monitor:

Earlier last month, amid overwhelming criticism from public figures and nongovernmental organizations, the military wing of the Islamic movement of Hamas, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea. The Brigades damaged the harbor in order to expand its military training zone, which was initially opened on the location in 2002, according to Ejla.

The Anthedon seaport, which dates back over 3,000 years to the Mycenaean era, is considered one of the most important sites in the Middle East and is the oldest harbor in Gaza. It was designated an international heritage site by UNESCO in 2012. The location was discovered in 1997 on the space of 180,000 square meters. It contains mosaic floors with historical pillars from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic ages.

In a press statement, the Hamas-run Ministry of Tourism said that it is the only responsible authority over the location, and it would not permit harm to the monuments.

“Due to rising population in the region, the ministry appreciates the urgent need for using new pieces of land. This is why the ministry has agreed with the different responsible parties on using a limited part of the location temporarily in a way that won’t harm the underground monuments there in any way,” the statement read.

But Deputy Minister of Tourism in Gaza Muhammad Khela told Al-Monitor that the location was taken for military use and not demographic purposes.

“We can’t stand as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian resistance; we are all a part of a resistance project, yet we promise that the location will be limitedly used without harming it at all,” Khela explained.

UNESCO describes the harbor as a tentative World Heritage site, and it says that it qualifies because "Anthedon exhibits an important interchange of human values, over important periods of time that relate to the main trade route crossing the Holy Land from Egypt to the Fertile Crescent and linking Africa and the Middle East to Europe."

UNESCO has not issued any statements condemning Hamas' destruction of this site.

That description was submitted by the PA, in part of its effort to flood UNESCO with heritage sites. Indeed, it appears to be an important archaeological site - yet today much of it is under the "Beach refugee camp" which was set up by - the UN!

Adjoining to the site is another important archaeological site, Blakhiyya, unearthed by the French between 1995 and 2005, but since then Hamas has built a police station, a parking lot and other structures directly on top.

Most telling, however, is that the deputy tourism minister of Hamas admits that terrorism is more important to the government than tourism!

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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NC professor illustrates Deir Yassin with Nazi concentration camp photo

A blog entry by Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, talks about the "massacre" of Deir Yassin in the 1948 war.

He quotes an article about the event from Counterpunch that is filled with lies - even Safi admits that the article he quotes is probably wrong when it says that 250 people were killed, but he shows no skepticism about the rest of the article, such as saying many of the bodies were stuffed down wells, or that the Jews threatened another massacre in Jaffa with loudspeakers when in fact the Arab leaders at the time led the flight from Jaffa...there are dozens of such lies. And that article was also written by a professor.

But as bad as it is for academics to engage in flat-out lies, Safi goes further. He illustrates the "massacre" with a photo of victims of the Nazis!

In fact, this photo is of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, part of the Buchenwald complex, and the dead bodies were victims of a Royal Air Force bombing raid in April 1945.

The Religion News Service, which sponsors this blog, claims:

RNS strives to meet the highest standards of public service journalism. Through our work, we report, write, compile, record and post news, features, photos and video.

Our goal is to promote civic engagement and discourse on religion. We strive to inform and challenge our readers, out of a conviction that religious literacy is a necessary component of effective citizenship.

I didn't know that outright lies were considered "highest standards" of journalism.

Hat tip to Tundra Tabloids, who has more. A much more accurate description of what happened in Deir Yassin, and how both Jewish and Arab leaders used exaggerations and lies about the event to further their own aims, can be seen here.

UPDATE: Safi removed the photo.

UPDATE 2: But he replaced it with this:

EoZ reader Irene looked at this and noticed the plastic bags - were plastic bags widely available in 1948?

In fact, this image is associated  on the Internet more with the Sabra and Shatila massacres done by Christian Phalangists against Muslims than with Deir Yassin. 

Yes, the esteemed professor Safi cannot even do a decent job in basic research skills. He saw the photo at an anti-Israel site a sbeing "Deir Yassin" and believed it wholeheartedly. 

Religion News Service must be so proud to host this person who, apparently, adheres to the "highest standards of public service journalism."

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"Created in Israel" video - Happy Yom Ha'atzmaut!

What's not to love?

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick)

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Jordanian family threatens to kill 10 Israeli tourists in "revenge"

From Arabs Today, April 7:

Last week policeman Ibrahim al-Jarrah, aged 27, had been accompanying Israeli tourists to the Ma’in hot springs, close to the Dead Sea, shortly before he was found dead at the site.

Al-Jarrah’s brother, Joseph, told Arabstoday: “We want a full explanation of the death of our brother, who remained in sulphuric water for 40 hours.”
Relatives have claimed al-Jarrah was killed by criminals.

Security sources have meanwhile denied reports of foul play circulating on social networking sites, amid claims al-Jarrah was killed after receiving a blow to the head while escorting 21 Israeli tourists to Ma’in.

“There is no criminal suspicion here,” sources told Arabstoday.

Video of Harrah's body being recovered makes it appear likely that he simply slipped and hit his head in the rocky spring.



But if Jews were around, naturally the Arabs will want to blame them.

Angry Jordanians burned an Israeli flag on Friday to protest what they are convinced is Jewish involvement in Jarrah's death.

On Thursday, Jarrah's brother Yusuf Mohammed threatened to kill or kidnap up to ten Israeli tourists who enter Jordan as of this past Saturday until an investigation is completed to the family's satisfaction.

An op-ed in allofjo.net written by a Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman lashes out against the very idea that Jarrah was accompanying the hated Jews to begin with calling them brothers of monkeys and saying that Jarrah's blood wa smade worthless in order to stay away from blaming the Jews. Moreover, the op-ed describes the murderer of seven Israeli schoolgirls as a hero, and is disgusted that Jordan's King Hussein apologized to mere Jews for their deaths, calling it a disgrace to Jordan's armed forces. He wails that Jordanians are serving the Jews, enemies of Allah.

This hasn't hit the media yet, but Israeli tourists to Jordan should be extra careful.

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Happy Birthday Israel video (Fountainheads)

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Gilad Atzmon reveals that Jewish anti-Zionists are part of the Jewish conspiracy!

Iran's PressTV publishes Jewish anti-semite Gilad Atzmon's latest ramblings:

Surprisingly enough, an attempt to examine our contemporaneous controlled opposition within the Left and the Progressive reveal that it is far from being a conspiratorial. Like in the case of the Jewish Lobby, the so-called ‘opposition’ hardly attempts to disguise its ethno-centric tribal interests, spiritual and ideological orientation and affiliation.

A brief examination of the list of organisations founded by George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI) presents a grim picture - pretty much the entire American progressive network is funded, partially or largely by a liberal Zionist, philanthropic billionaire who supports very many good and important causes that are also very good for the Jews. And yet, like staunch Zionist Haim Saban, Soros does not operate clandestinely. His Open Society Institute proudly provides all the necessary information regarding the vast amount of shekels it spreads on its good and important causes.

...As with Orwell’s Big Brother that frames the boundaries of dissent by means of control opposition, Soros’ Open Society also determines, either consciously or unconsciously, the limits of critical thought. Yet, unlike in 1984, where it is the Party that invents its own opposition and write its texts, within our ‘progressive’ discourse, it is our own voices of dissent, willingly and consciously, that are compromising their principles.

...We may have to face up to the fact that the progressive discourse effectively operates as Israel’s longest arm - it certainly acts as a gatekeeper and as protection for Zionism and Jewish tribal interests. If Israel and its supporters would ever be confronted with real opposition it might lead to some long-overdue self-reflection. But at the moment, Israel and Zionist lobbies meet only insipid, watered-down, progressively-vetted resistance that, in practice, sustains Israeli occupation, oppression and an endless list of human rights abuses.

Instead of mass opposition to the Jewish State and its aggressive lobby, our ‘resistance’ is reduced into a chain of badge-wearing, keffiyeh-clad, placard-waving mini-gatherings with the occasional tantrum from some neurotic Jewess while being videoed by another good Jew. If anyone believes that a few badges, a load of amateur Youtube clips celebrating Jewish righteousness are going to evolve into a mass anti-Israel global movement, they are either naïve or stupid.

...For the Jewish progressive discourse, the purpose behind pro-Palestinian support is clear. It is to present an impression of pluralism within the Jewish community. It is there to suggest that not all Jews are bad Zionists. Philip Weiss, the founder of the most popular progressive pro-Palestinian blog was even brave enough to admit to me that it is Jewish self -interests that stood at the core of his pro Palestinian activity.

Yes - the anti-Zionism of Mondoweiss is really an expression of evil Jewish tribalism, and meant to stifle the truly radical and moral voices like Gilad Atzmon's!

Atzmon himself, however, is hiding the fact that he is part of the Jewish problem as well. After all, he was born a Jew, and by definition he cannot escape that calamitous tribal membership. He has not yet publicly called for the mass extermination of Jews worldwide, proving he is not as independent as he pretends. Indeed, if you think about it clearly, Atzmon's cause is also part of the long arm of Israel - because his over-the-top characterization of all Jews as part of a grand tribal conspiracy can only serve to make him the butt of jokes and strengthen Jewish tribalism even more!

He is another tool in the circles within circles of the vast, overpowering Zionist world domination. We invented him to make the other anti-Zionist voices seem sane by comparison, and we are fully supporting those anti-Zionists with billions of dollars - in order to marginalize them! It makes so much damned sense!

It takes a true genius to see through all the conspiracies that we Jews are up to. But no Jew can properly reveal them, because he is part of them. We've brainwashed Atzmon so much that he doesn't even realize he is our puppet (and that his jazz playing  is pretty bad as well!)

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Sunday Links

From Ian:

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Seeds of violence
Little has changed in the hostile atmosphere in the Gaza or the West Bank since the days of the second intifada.

In the end, if the Palestinians truly want to continue negotiations with Israel, Western states must make certain that the intentions of the Palestinian government similarly reflect peace. When we have a Palestinian budget which spends a bulk of its donated funds on armaments, there is impeccable evidence that ending the conflict with Israel is not an intention. Until that time comes the West must stop bankrolling Ramallah’s corrupt and terror-ridden bureaucrats.

Archbishop Tutu, revisit Israel!

THE LAST time Tutu visited Israel was way back in 1989. At the time, he offended many by insensitively saying about the Holocaust during a visit to the Yad Vashem memorial, “We pray for those who made it happen, help us to forgive them and help us so that we in our turn will not make others suffer.”
To say these words at that place in the heart of the Jewish state was deeply hurtful. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called it “a gratuitous insult to Jews and victims of Nazism everywhere.”

IDF arrests 3 Hamas members in West Bank

IDF troops arrested three prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank village of Jalqamus on Sunday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.

Islamist Children's Festival on Temple Mount

The festival was sponsored by the Al Aqsa Foundation and the Institute for Development of Al Aqsa and the Holy Sites. The theme was the strengthening of ties to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the commitment to its "liberation" from "the Israeli occupation."

Honest Reporting: Thoughts on “The World’s Largest Outdoor Prison”

When you get right down to it, Gaza’s Islamist overlords remain committed to perpetuating their control of the strip, their division with Fatah, and their agenda to destroy Israel. Dawber’s violin just sounds tinny and broken.

Hamas Arrests 'Collaborators' Following Amnesty Period

Hamas forces in Gaza have begun arresting suspected "collaborators" with Israel following a month-long period of amnesty.

Egypt's Coptic Christians live in fear of Islamic extremists

"I feel unsafe," said Samir, a high school philosophy teacher with a cross tattooed on her wrist. "The Islamists want war. They want strife. But this is our land too. It is a country blessed by God, and there's no way we'll leave it to them."

Four Copts arrested for complicity in Cathedral clashes

The Coptic Maspero Youth Union announced that Michael Morqos was arrested on Friday alongside three other activists. The union condemned his arrest, calling it an escalation against Coptic youth and likening it to Mubarak’s violations against Copts where “the violator is free and the victim gets jailed and humiliated”.

Report: Turkey nixes NATO meeting with Israel

An initiative to bring Israel and six Arab countries’ ministers together under NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue group for the first time since 2008 has been nixed by Turkey and Egypt, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Saturday.
Ankara and Cairo reportedly said “it was not the right time” for such a meeting.

Genocidal Muslim Country Warns of Genocide if Europe Doesn’t Accept Muslims

Turkey not only committed genocide against Christians, but it still lies about it and locks up its citizens who even mention the genocide. It’s also violently anti-semitic under its current Islamist government.
So that means the time is right for its government to hypocritically warn Europe that the failure to accept Muslim immigrants could lead to another Holocaust.

Swedish Social Democrats Oust Chairman of Islamic Association

Islamiska Förbundet has invited to Sweden speakers with known anti-Semitic views. The Swedish anti-racism magazine Expo revealed that one speaker invited by Mustafa, Egyptian Salah Sultan, had previously slandered the Jewish community in an interview with al-Jazeera by saying they kill Christians on Easter.

Judea Pearl to light memorial candle for slain son

Prof. Judea Pearl, the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, will light the memorial flame at the Jewish Agency’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday to commemorate Jews slain in terror attacks and in anti- Semitic incidents abroad.

Doctor who Fought Libel joins IDF Despite Cancer

David showed up for reserves duty during Pillar of Defense even though he is suffering from cancer.
“Physically it was very difficult,” he said, “but spiritually it was extraordinary. It’s very powerful to be part of the most important thing going on – protecting soldiers in the Israel Defense Force.”
David fought for years against an Arab story, widely published in the world media, accusing Israeli soldiers of shooting and killing a terrified Arab child, Mohammed al-Dura. He revealed in 2007 that he had treated the father, Jamal al-Dura, for wounds sustained in an Arab gang attack – injuries that al-Dura later claimed had been inflicted by the Israeli army.

Israeli medical start-up prepares to build a better bone

Make no bones about it: A one-of-a-kind factory is going up in northern Israel.
Scientists at the Haifa facility there will manufacture bones for use in bone grafts, and they’ll do so using a new technique — taking live fat cells from patients by liposuction –which, according to its inventor, Dr. Shai Meretzki, will significantly change the way doctors relate to orthopedic problems and bone repairs.

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Israel nervous that UNDOF will abandon Syria

Maariv reports:

Jerusalem is concerned that the Austrian troops of the UN force in Golan Heights, which are its largest contingent, will leave the area soon and will effectively cause the dissolution of power. In a situation like this there is a reasonable possibility that opposition Islamists will take over the Golan border positions, including the Syrian Hermon post.

In the coming weeks the arms embargo imposed by the EU on all sides in Syria should expire. It is believed that Britain and France will start to arm some rebel groups fighting Assad, but Austria has threatened in that case to consider pulling its soldiers....Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Sfindlgr, currently visiting Israel, expressed during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his fears of possible arming the rebels, ...saying that arming the rebels would bring the government to seriously consider the evacuation of the Golan Austrian battalion.

The UN had hinted that this might happen over two weeks ago:

The United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights have reduced their activities in response to the presence of armed groups from the Syrian conflict, the world body’s peacekeeping chief said today, calling for respect for the safety and security of UN personnel.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous told journalists in New York that the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has had to “adopt a posture which is somewhat more static” and take additional security measures, which include the use of more armoured vehicles.

“We have had to reduce somewhat the footprint of UNDOF in the Golan Heights in the area of operation,” Mr. Ladsous said after briefing the Security Council behind closed doors on actions taken since the seizure and safe release of 21 blue helmets earlier this month. In the days following, UNDOF vacated two positions which were particularly exposed to gunfire.

He thanked the countries contributing troops to the region and said he very much hopes that they will stay the course on this “very important mission.”

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia, which holds the presidency of the Council for this month, told reporters that the armed groups are being “provocative” in the area where the peacekeepers operate, but the blue helmets do not have the mandated authority from the Council to stop them.

(h/t Yoel)

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Ha'aretz forced to issue another correction for Gideon Levy's fantasy statistics

From CAMERA:

CAMERA's staff in Israel has prompted corrections in Ha'aretz today, in both English and Hebrew, on a March 31 Gideon Levy column which falsely attributed a figure for Palestinian combatant deaths during Operation Cast Lead to Amnesty International. As first noted yesterday in our Snapshots blog, Levy erred in claiming:

One can argue ad nauseam about the numbers, but even the official IDF records − 1,166 killed, including 709 "terrorists," 89 children and 49 women − leave no room for doubt. Amnesty International, for instance, enumerated only 92 Palestinian fighters among the dead.

(Emphasis added.)

As Snapshots reported, contrary to Levy's claim, Amnesty International's lengthy report on Cast Lead does not indicate that "only 92 Palestinian fighters were among the dead...

While Amnesty acknowledges it did not have "the time and resources to verify all the reported deaths," it nevertheless somehow concluded that there were 1,400 Palestinian casualties, including 300 children, more than 115 women, some 85 men over the age of 50, and some 200 men under 50 they say took no part in hostilities -- a total of 700 uninvolved civilians, and an additional 250 Hamas policemen they say were not involved in hostilities when they were killed. According to Amnesty's own calculations, that leaves 550 unclassified Palestinian casualties out of 1400. Though Amnesty does not say so explicitly, presumably they are combatants. In any event, nowhere in its Cast Lead report does the organization cite only 92 Palestinian fighters killed.

It is no surprise that Gideon Levy lies - he has been doing that for years.

What is amazing is that Ha'aretz continues to refuse to fact-check his columns and publishes his lies despite his amazingly bad track record.

(h/t Yoel, Ian)

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Yes, the PA directly pays terrorists in prison

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Since 2011, Palestinian Media Watch has been supplying governments and media worldwide with documentation that the PA pays high monthly salaries to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for security offenses, including terrorists serving multiple life-sentences for murder.

Yet for nearly two years, the British and Norwegian Foreign Ministries have told their MPs that PMW's documentation was incorrect. They argued that the PA does not pay salaries to security prisoners, which would be a reward for terror, but gives "social aid to the families" like other PA social welfare programs. This, they have now explained, was what the PA assured them.

In spite of all PMW's documentation, Norway and the UK have justified their continued funding of the PA, saying that none of their support money was going into a funding program specifically for terrorists, but was going to the wives and children. (See quotes below.)

PMW is now releasing a recent interview with a wife of a Palestinian prisoner that verifies the accuracy of PMW's reports. In the interview, the prisoner's wife and mother of five children complains repeatedly that the prisoner, her husband, has not given her and their children control of his salary, but instead gave it to his brother.

PA TV journalist Roba Al-Najjar to wife of prisoner: "For nearly four years, the prisoner's allowance from the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs and the official institutions has not reached your hands and your children's hands... Did you try to turn to the authorities?"

Prisoner's wife: "A year and a half ago, I went to the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs... Their answer was: 'Your husband transfers it to the person he wants. It's in his power not to transfer [it to you] and we can't do anything about it."

Prisoner's wife: "[My husband] told me: 'If you do what I want, it [the monthly salary] will return to you. As long as you are like this, it won't return to you.'"

According to the prisoner's wife, many other prisoners likewise don't give control of their salary payments to their wives:

Prisoner's wife: "It's not just me, this problem, many of the prisoners' wives and children suffer from it, from the transfer of his salary, the prisoner's salary."

As is clear from the account of the prisoner's wife broadcast on PA TV and the response of the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, the payment is the prisoner's salary, is under his control, and is not a social welfare payment.

The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs consistently calls the money it sends to prisoners "salaries" or "wages," not "aid" or "support" or anything that would indicate that it is a social welfare program. In addition to the salaries, however, they also provide some direct services to released terrorists, such as paying for their education, providing loans, offering trips to Mecca for the Hajj, free health insurance and vocational counseling.

The West is funding all of this.

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Happy Birthday Israel video (MFA)

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Arab media roundup: Egyptian Jewish leader dies, Hamas upset over women's clothing, PLO freaks out over Baird visit

Woman leader of Egypt's disappearing Jewish community dies:

The leader of Egypt’s dwindling and aging Jewish community, known for her tireless work preserving synagogues and a once-sprawling Jewish cemetery, died Saturday at the age of 82.

Carmen Weinstein will be buried on Thursday in the Bassatine cemetery she herself worked to save since 1978. It is the only Jewish cemetery left in Cairo and is the largest in Egypt.

The transformation of Bassatine mirrors the dramatic changes Egypt has undergone as its population skyrocketed and poverty grew. Named in Arabic after its gardens, the cemetery is now a slum of tightly-packed redbrick apartment buildings that house thousands of poor Egyptians after waves of migration from villages in southern Egypt.

Parts of Bassatine were turned into a garbage dump, while another area was seized by antiquities’ officials. Weinstein was able to preserve a small area as a Jewish cemetery.

Hamas cracks down on women's clothing stores:

Hamas officials Saturday prevented men in the Gaza Strip from working in stores that sell women's clothing, as well as the display of women's clothing in front of shops, said residents of the sector.

A witness stated that verbal altercations occurred between members of Hamas and a number of dealers and sellers of women's apparel in the Jabalya refugee camp while trying to impose these new edicts.

Christian school gates torched in Gaza City:

Arsonists set fire to the main gates of a Christian school in Gaza City on Saturday, witnesses said.

Unidentified assailants set fire to the entrance of the Holy Family School in the early hours of Saturday, with no injuries reported.

Unnamed Arab "dignitaries" sign petition demanding Britain apologize for Balfour Declaration (from Hamas media):

220 Palestinian, Arab, and international personalities signed a memorandum demanding the UK to apologize for the Balfour Declaration.

The International Campaign to demand Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration said in a press statement on Thursday that the signing of the memo took place during a conference held in Cairo from April 4 to 6, in the presence of a group of dignitaries from around the Arab and Muslim world.

The campaign added that the signatories to the petition were parliamentarians, scholars, academics, journalists, politicians, researchers, heads of associations, doctors, engineers and writers, from different Arab, Islamic and Western countries.

International Campaign to demand Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration has been officially launched in London on January 19 during an academic conference organized by the Palestinian Return Center.

The campaign aims to collect one million signatures within five years to be submitted to the British government to demand it to apologize to the Palestinian people for the Balfour Declaration.

Erekat freaks over Baird visit

The PLO lodged an official complaint with Canada on Friday after its foreign minister attended a meeting with an Israeli leader in East Jerusalem.

John Baird broke a widely observed diplomatic taboo when he met with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni at her office in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967.

Such meetings are normally avoided by visiting diplomats over concerns they could be seen as legitimizing Israel's annexation of the city's eastern sector.

In the complaint, obtained by Ma'an, a senior PLO official blasted the move.

"Your recent meeting with Israeli officials in East Jerusalem has the effect of attempting to legitimize the illegal situation on the ground and may be deemed as aiding, abetting or otherwise assisting illegal Israeli policies," Saeb Erekat wrote in the message to Canada's representative office.

"As such, Canada’s actions are tantamount to complicity in ongoing Israeli violations of the international laws of war. ... these violations are being (perpetrated) not only against the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people, but against the international community as a whole."

In London, Baird rejected criticism over the visit.

“I’m just not interested in getting into the semantic argument about whether you have a meeting with one person on one side of the street (and) it’s OK, and you have a meeting on the other side of street and it’s not,” he told reporters covering the G8 summit, according to the National Post newspaper.

The Justice Ministry is two blocks from the Green Line.

View Larger Map

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Egyptian Islamist denies "union with Israel" statement

On Friday, I noted a story where an Egyptian Islamist said "Egyptians 'would love' to be part of an Islamic Union model which will bring together not only the Muslim countries but Israel as well to discuss how to solve regional conflicts."

I predicted some serious backtracking this coming week.

Well, it happened even faster than I thought it would:

A prominent Islamist member of the Egyptian parliament denied on Friday telling a Turkish television that Egyptians “would love” to be part of an Islamic Union in which Israel, Russia and Armenia can participate.

Abdulmawgoud Dardery, head of the Foreign Relations Committee at Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), described the idea of Egyptians taking part in a union with the Jewish state as “imaginary.”

I guess Dardery values his life.

(h/t American Infidels)

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Saturday Links

From Ian:

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Barry Rubin: Snapshots: Personal Experiences in the Real Middle East

--The left-wing American peace activist lectures the Fatah man, who has told the American honestly that he wants to wipe out Israel and replace it with a Palestinian state, on how he must sound more moderate in order to gain Western support.
--A young Israeli who has just left the army describes how his first job in the army was to register guns given to the Palestinian forces to maintain security and prevent terrorism. His last duty before leaving is capturing Palestinian terrorists and sometimes recognizing—by checking the serial numbers—the guns he helped issue to the Palestinian police a couple of years earlier.
--The editor of a major newspaper who changes the reporter's story because it said that Hanan Ashrawi voted not to change the PLO National Charter (which called for wiping Israel off the map). Since, the editor said, Ashrawi was a moderate she could not possibly have voted that way. How did the journalist know about the true story? The journalist was standing outside the hall in Gaza where the meeting was taking place and asked Ashrawi how she voted.

Israel Sees Jordan: Things are Not All Quiet on the Eastern Front

A recent Jordanian-Arab Palestinian agreement to prevent the Judaization of Jerusalem, and an overwhelming majority of the Jordanian parliament urging prison release for the mass murderer of Israeli schoolgirls, reveal things are not all quiet on the Eastern front.

Obama Budget Attempts to Resume UNESCO Defunding Over Recognition of 'Palestine'

The Obama administration is trying to circumvent U.S. law dating back to 1990 by asking Congress to resume the funding of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Kerry asks Abbas, Fayyad to bury the hatchet

Palestinian Authority president to meet in Ramallah with resigning prime minister, an American-trained, West-backed economist

Palestinian Arab Museum that “Rewrites” History Funded by the West (VIDEO)

In a video celebrating the museum’s launch the claim is made that Palestine was home to “one of the most infuential [sic] cultures the world has ever seen” but that the fabric of the nation was torn apart by “dispossession” and “forced exile” in the 20th century.

Canada's FM Meets Livni in Eastern Jerusalem, PA Fumes

The Palestinian Authority is fuming after Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, met Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in her eastern Jerusalem office this week.
Such a move is normally avoided by visiting diplomats since world countries do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem, which it liberated during the 1967 Six Day War.

Hezbollah Must be Called Terror Organization by EU, Says Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird is calling on the 27-member European Union to join Canada in recognizing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

IDF troops come under fire along Syrian border

An IDF patrol in the Golan Heights came under artillery and small arms fire Friday from Syrian forces. No injuries were reported, but damage was inflicted to an IDF vehicle, according to an Israel Radio report. The IDF Spokesperson reported that no damage was reported.

Swedish mayor who opposes anti-Israel vitriol attacked

A Swedish mayor working to stop anti-Israel propaganda from being sold at a municipal cultural center was assaulted.
Mats Green, mayor of Jonkoping, was lightly wounded in an attack April 7 outside his home when two men struck him and kicked him, the news site nyheter24 reported.

NY teacher asks students why Jews are evil

Teacher may face discipline after giving writing assignment as part of a class project to demonstrate how Nazis thought.
An Albany, New York high school English teacher who asked students to imagine they were Nazis and give reasons why Jews were evil may be disciplined, a school district spokesman said on Friday.

Portuguese Architect Defies BDS Bullies & Accepts Israeli Prize

Nevertheless, Mr Souto de Moura, despite apparently critising Israeli policy in the past, has withstood the badgering and announced that he will in fact be accepting the Wolf Prize.
To judge from the invective spewed out by some of its representatives on social media, the response of the BDS movement is much beating of breasts and gnashing of teeth.

Before Jackie Robinson, there was Hank Greenberg

This year, filmmaker Brian Helgeland taps into this time of year when baseball is on the brain with the release of his Jackie Robinson biopic, “42,” premiering in theaters across the US on Friday, April 12. Helgeland’s film tells the story of the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era.

Holocaust-Era British Rabbi will Receive Award for Rescue of 300 Children

The UK’s Department for Communities on Monday will posthumously honor a British rabbi who saved about 300 Jewish children during the Second World War as a British hero of the Holocaust.

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Happy Birthday Israel video (Israel21c)

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Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Latma asks to bring back the country we know and Tawil Fadiha compares Israel to the Nazis



Kerry’s quest: Who really wants peace?

What was John Kerry thinking when he asked Turkey’s viscerally anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be “a partner” in brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Does he honestly think Hamas’ loyal and enthusiastic supporter, a man who has called Zionism a crime against humanity, could be an honest broker? The State Department spokeswoman confirmed a Turkish newspaper report that Kerry wants Erdogan to play an active role in the peace process, and said Kerry asked Turkey to use its “significant influence with the Palestinians” to encourage Hamas to accept the demands of the International Quartet.

MPs: Erdogan's son doing business in Israel

Turkish opposition members have embarrassed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by revealing that in the past three years, while the relations between Ankara and Jerusalem were at an all-time low, his son continued doing business with Israel.
The son, Ahmet Burak Erdogan, is the owner of the MB Shipping company, which holds two cargo vessels. One of them, Safran-1, has sailed between Turkish and Israeli ports several times, transferring goods back and forth.

Turkey says terrorists planned to bomb US Embassy, synagogue

Al-Qaeda-linked operatives planned to bomb the US Embassy in Ankara, a synagogue in Istanbul and other sites, Turkish police said on Thursday.
Turkish officials uncovered the plot and arrested 12 people — two Chechens, two Azeris and eight Turks — in February.
The police seized 50 pounds of plastic explosives with detonation systems attached, as well as six laptops and other evidence during a raid on two terrorist cells in Istanbul and Corlu, reported The New York Times.

Caroline Glick: Column One: Moral relativism and jihad

The danger exposed by the cancellation of Geller’s speech and the conferral of honors on the likes of Carter and Waters by mainstream Jewish institutions is daunting. If moral relativism remains the dominant dogma of the American Jewish establishment, the already weakly defended, but still strongly rooted, support for Israel among the rank and file of the American Jewish community will dissipate.

IDF: Mideast being Redrawn along Sunni-Shiite Fault Line

He added that regional shifts have deteriorated governance in areas bordering Israel, noting, "For the first time in decades, Israel has four active borders which could open up from terror attacks."
Kochavi also discussed the changing role of religion in shaping regional alliances. "Today, the Middle East is being redefined into Shiite and Sunni camps," he explained, "which explains things like why Hamas has distanced itself from Iran in recent months and is moving closer to Egypt and Turkey, or why Iran is arming the Shiite minority in Yemen."

23,085 soldiers have fallen protecting Israel

The Defense Ministry released its annual figures of fallen soldiers on Friday morning ahead of Remembrance Day, stating that 92 soldiers had fallen this year and a total of 23,085 have fallen in Israel's wars since 1860.

UC Santa Barbara, in Marathon Hearing, Becomes Latest School to Reject Israel Divestment

“The argument against the bill was pretty multi-faceted, but essentially rested on the fact that there were a bunch of claims in the resolution that were either false, taken out of context, or disputed by independent experts, and so the effect of passing the resolution would be to declare Israel guilty of all these accusations despite all the conflicting evidence,” Samarov said.

Pallies File UN Complaint Against Canada

I bet we're still taken for suckers & Baird gives them another 300 Million
"In a move that could greatly impact the actions of third-party states and companies currently profiting from Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the West Bank, the Palestinian village of Bil’in recently filed a complaint against Canada with the United Nations."

South Africa: Labels for Products from 'Occupied Territories'

The new rules stipulate that goods will no longer carry "Made in Israel" labels but instead will have to be specific about the exact origin of the goods.
Medupe explained that goods coming from Gaza will be labeled Gaza-Israel goods, those made in Judea and Samaria will be labeled West Bank-Israeli goods and imports from eastern Jerusalem will be tagged East Jerusalem-Israeli goods.

Avago buys Israel's CyOptics for $400m

CyOptics is developing next-generation optical components for high-speed transmission of video content. Customers include governments and some of the world's biggest companies. The company is growing rapidly, tripling its sales in the past three years to $210 million in 2012.

Israel set to bag another mega Indian defence deal

Israel seems all set to bag yet another mega defence deal to equip all the 356 infantry battalions of the Indian Army with third-generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). While Russia is far ahead in the lead, Israel is trying to stave off a strong challenge from the US to remain the second largest arms supplier to India.
The Rs 15,000-crore ($2.76 billion USD) project will involve an initial direct acquisition of the man-portable "tank killers", with a strike range of 2.5-km, followed by transfer of technology (ToT) to defence PSU, Bharat Dynamics, for large-scale indigenous manufacture.

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Egypt would "love" to see Israel as part of a regional union, says Islamist MP

Say what?

Egyptians “would love” to be part of an Islamic Union model which will bring together not only the Muslim countries but Israel as well to discuss how to solve regional conflicts, a prominent Islamist member of Egyptian parliament told a Turkish television station during a visit to Istanbul this week.

Abdulmawgoud Dardery, head of the Foreign Relations Committee at Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), told Turkey's A9 TV that Egyptians “cannot wait” to see the formation of an Islamic Union model, in which even non-Islamic countries such as Israel, Russia and Armenia take part, according to a press report by the Turkish channel sent to Al Arabiya.

Dardery made the statement in response to a question by Turkish author Adnan Oktar during a talk show on A9 TV. When Oktar asked him about an Islamic union model. which will bring unity to the region Dardery “heartily agreed in principle,” according to the report and said Egyptians “would do whatever it takes on their part to contribute to that,” the report added.

I have a feeling we will be seeing some serious backtracking next week.

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Jordanian parliament demands murderer of 7 Jewish schoolgirls be released

From YNet:

An overwhelming 110 members of the Jordanian House of Representatives signed a petition demanding a pardon for a Jordanian soldier who shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.

Ahmad Musa Mustafa Daqamseh shot the girls during a school fieldtrip in Naharayim, near the Israel-Jordan border, and is currently serving a life sentence.

A number of Jordanian MPs refer to Daqamseh as a hero in this initiative.

This is not the first time there has been a push in Jordan to release the heinous murderer. I reported on earlier attempts in 2008, 2009, 2011 , including from Jordan's justice minister and the head of "human rights" organizations.

Some 31 members of parliament demanded his release in 2009. Now the number is apparently more than triple that.

Yes, in "moderate" Jordan, a soldier who wantonly mows down schoolgirls is considered a "hero" by a large percentage of people.

Memorial to the girls in Naharayim

One person, a Dr. Fares, commented in the Jordanian media by saying that Daqamseh is no hero for killing schoolgirls. Practically every comment afterwards insults him for saying such a thing.

(h/t Josh)

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Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Barry Rubin: In Egypt, Pogroms against Christians Have Become Routine

The Brotherhood is running the government; the Salafists are running in the streets. Moderate Muslim Egyptians, like those who run al-Ahram for the time being (as a state newspaper it will soon come under Brotherhood control) are unhappy with the persecution but can do nothing.
Things can only do worse. The world is indifferent; the Western mass media is usually determined to be “even-handed” or to ignore the extent of the situation, preferring to seek alleged oppressors in other, near-by countries.

PMW: Facebook allows Palestinian promotion of hate speech but prevents PMW from exposing it

Following Palestinian Media Watch’s bulletin exposing the PA TV broadcast of a girl reciting a poem referring to Jews as “enemies of Allah, descendants of pigs,” Facebook, like YouTube, decided to remove PMW’s post.

BBC guest champions Hass’ advocacy of violence against Israelis

By providing a platform for Glass to whitewash Hass’ call for what is – let’s be perfectly frank about this – the organized and pre-meditated attempted murder of Israeli civilians, the BBC has rendered itself complicit to that incitement. Although it fairly successfully avoids reporting on the majority of the dozens of incidents in which Israelis are attacked – and sometimes killed – by Palestinian stone-throwers, it would not be too difficult for the BBC to apprise itself of the consequences of such shockingly frequent acts of terror.

US-Palestinian boy faces trial for stone-throwing

"The American government is obligated to do something for us," says father of 14-year-old suspected of stoning cars in W. Bank.

Lawyer: Recognize Victims of ‘Terrorist Rape’

There is a clear trend of Arab men sexually assaulting Jewish girls and women as a form of anti-Israel terrorism, attorney Roni Sadovnik said Wednesday, speaking to Arutz Sheva.
Israel’s courts prefer to treat such crimes as solely criminal in nature rather than as crimes motivated by nationalist hate, she said. Changing the status of such crimes would give victims a wider array of services and assistance.

U.S.: Fayyad Not Going Anywhere, as Far as We Know

The United States on Thursday reacted warily on Thursday to reports that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was poised to offer his resignation to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas after a dispute between the two, AFP reported. Similar reports have surfaced in the past.

'Hamas didn't probe executions of spy suspects'

Rights group says Hamas failed to investigate executions of 7 Palestinians accused of spying for Israel during Gaza operation.

Hamas Claims 'Collaborator' Campaign a Success

"A number of agents turned themselves in," Shahwan said, without giving a number, adding only that they would be "dealt with" according to Palestinian law.
Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death.

Sinai Bedouin kidnap, release Hungarian observer

An Egyptian security official says armed Bedouin tribesmen have kidnapped a Hungarian member of the multinational observer force in Sinai.
The observer was released several hours after the kidnapping, and the kidnappers said they did not know he was a member of the international peacekeeping force.

West has ‘hard evidence’ chemical weapons used in Syria

Diplomats say the West has firm proof that chemical weapons have been deployed at least once over the course of the civil war that has been ravaging Syria for two years.
“In one case, we have hard evidence,” one diplomat was quoted by AFP as saying Thursday. And “there are several examples where we are quite sure that shells with chemicals have been used in a very sporadic way.”

U.S. Envoy: Syria ‘Not Fit to Sit’ on UN Rights Committee

The Geneva-based watchdog group UN Watch congratulated Ambassador Killion and urged UNESCO to finally expel Assad from the panel.
“It is indefensible for the Syrian regime to be allowed to stand as a judge of other countries’ human rights records,” said Ambassador Killion in response to a question by UN Watch, which heads a global campaign of more than 50 parliamentarians, human rights and religious groups calling for Syria’s expulsion.

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Video: Screaming Christian woman sexually assaulted on the street in Egypt

I saw this video going viral in some Arabic sites, but MEMRI's translation seems to verify that it is what they said it was - Egyptian Islamist men sexually assaulting a Christian woman on the street in the name of Allah:

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Nightmare on Schocken Street - Ha'aretz in serious trouble

Mida (Hebrew) has an extensive report on Ha'aretz' problems in the wake of the Amira Hass debacle.

The article talks about Ha'aretz' firing dozens of workers, dramatic cuts in wages, eliminating editorial meetings, the chief editor losing control of his writers, and above all the deterioration of journalistic norms in favor of pursuing sensationalism and radical propaganda.

Interviewing several former employees, Mida heard about the shocking loss of journalistic standards at the "New York Times of Israel." Even so, the Hass article is seen as crossing a red line, a new low for the paper.

Mida also goes over some of the embarrassing mistakes made over the past year, such as Gideon Levy's purposeful misinterpretation of a poll indicating Israel "apartheid" and Ha'aretz' scoop that the White House has a secured telephone line to Dennis Ross, a claim ridiculed by Jeffrey Goldberg.

Someone should translate this entire article.

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Today's UN hypocrisy

Today Israel re-opened the Kerem Shalom crossing after closing it on Monday in response to rocket attacks.

On Wednesday, the UN criticized the closing:

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. James W. Rawley, expressed serious concern regarding the impact of these restrictions on the civilian population. "These measures are resulting in the depletion of stocks of essential supplies, including basic foodstuffs and cooking gas, and undermine the livelihoods and rights of many vulnerable Gazan families”, said Mr. Rawley. “If these restrictions continue, the effect upon the Gaza population will be serious".

Notice that the closure did not affect a single Gazan. The stockpiles of goods were somewhat depleted but they were adequate to ensure that Gazans still had their basic needs met as they have been.

Yet the UN itself last week stopped giving food and other services directly to Gazans in response to riots at UNRWA offices and distribution centers. If anyone was engaging in collective punishment, it was UNRWA.

But, hey, criticizing Israel is so much easier than justifying your own hypocrisy.

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Your tax dollars at work: $20 million "Palestine Museum"

From Ma'an:

Palestinian officials on Thursday joined a ceremony to lay the cornerstone for a new museum of Palestinian culture, history and society in Birzeit near Ramallah.

Organizers said the museum would provide Palestinians with "a valuable source of information on Palestine and its history".

The museum is to be constructed in two phases, the first of which is slated for completion by the end of 2014. It is expected to cost some $20 million.

"The museum will not only be for Palestinians but will reach out to the whole world through an advanced digital network," project manager Omar al-Qattan said as ground was broken on the new venture.

"It will be more than a traditional building with archaeological relics. We are looking at an institution that will transcend all boundaries -- geographical and political," he added.

There is nothing wrong with building a museum, even if it supports a narrative that is at odds with history. (In video, they say that ancient Palestinian culture is "one of the most infuential [sic] cultures the world has ever seen." Well, yes, if you mean the culture of the Jews who lived in an area later called Palestine.)

In fact, "Palestinian culture" is mostly a fiction. There have been some specific examples of local culture - costumes in Bethlehem, soap in Nablus - that have been collected ex post facto into a collective "Palestinian" culture in order to further a national myth that is a mere decades old. It could hardly be described as influential on a world scale, or even in a pan-Arab scale. From the Arab perspective, remember, "Palestine" was really considered southern Syria up until the early 20th century.

Be that as it may, Palestinian Arabs have every right to build whatever they want. That is not the problem.

When museums are built in the rest of the world, they are funded by private donors and foundations, with perhaps the aid of local government. However, this museum in Bir Zeit - like most other Palestinian Arab initiatives - is using Western government funds.

The major funder is called "The Welfare Association." Despite its universal sounding name, it is dedicated solely to Palestinian Arab projects.

Its money comes from "the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, World Bank, EU, Islamic Development Bank, Arab Monetary Fund, Kuwait Fund, AGFUND, Ford Foundation, and the governments of Austria, Canada, France, Italy, and Switzerland, among others."

Apparently, the West has become so enamored with the Palestinian Arab cause that it believes that propagating the PalArab national myth is worth millions of Western dollars. Yet as we saw recently, the Palestinian Arabs knowingly push this myth not only to achieve a unity that has eluded Arab residents of Palestine for centuries, but also to actively battle against the undeniable facts of Jewish culture in the same land. (In this case, it looks more like they want to subsume Jewish culture rather than deny it altogether.)

It is highly questionable whether it is appropriate for the West to spend so much money and effort to build a national myth for a nation they want desperately to exist. (How much Western money is earmarked for Kurdish or Armenian culture?)

It far worse, however, when that same money is being used deliberately to erase or marginalize the culture of a real nation that has existed for thousands of years.

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Wikileaks: an interview with a Black September leader

A couple of days ago, Wikileaks released 1.7 million diplomatic cables from 1973-76, and many others have been noting interesting ones. (See this excellent analysis by Lee Smith in Tablet.)

Here's one I found from March 1973:

1. US NEWSMAN HAS GIVEN EMBASSY ON CONFIDENTIAL BASIS TEXT PURPORTED BUT UNRELEASED INTERVIEW "SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY" WITH BSO MEMBER BY GERMAN TV NEWSMAN.

2. DURING INTERVIEW, BSO MEMBER STATES

(A) NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN AL FATAH AND BLACK SEPTEMBER,

(B) BSO RECEIVES $80-85 MILLION ANNUALLY FROM LIBYA ($30 MILLION), SAUDI ARABIA ($15 MILLION), GULF STATES ($10-12 MILLION), ALGERIA ($5 MILLION) AND PRIVATE SOURCES. STATED EGYPT AND SYRIA PAY NOTHING,

(C) ARAFAT RECEIVED $5 MILLION " BONUS" FROM LIBYA FOR MUNICH OPERATION AND HAS PRIVATE BANK ACCOUNT IN SWITZERLAND,

(D) 10-15 EUROPEANS INCLUDING GERMANS ARE PART OF BSO, AND

(E) BSO WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION COME FROM USSR, PRC, EGYPT, SYRIA AND ALGERIA.

Keep in mind that at this time, Arafat strenuously denied any connection between Fatah and Black September, which was responsible for a string of terror attacks (including killing Americans in Khartoum.)

The State Department knew very well that Arafat was lying. Even these cable show that clearly (here's one where Idi Amin stated that Arafat assured him that Black September would not disrupt an OAU meeting.)

Given all this, the interview sounds like the real deal.

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An anti-Jewish political initiative disguised as a cultural festival

Ma'an (Arabic) reports on a spring festival scheduled to take place in in Ramadeen, near Hebron, to celebrate the culture of the Bedouins. It will showcase foods, costumes and customs of the Bedouin people.

The PA government is sponsoring this festival.

Why?

The article explains the reason specifically: not because there is any love of the Bedouin culture in Ramallah, but because this festival helps fight the idea that Jews have anything to do with the area.

The Hebron Governor said that the presence of participants from community and civil and international institutions sends a strong message to support the citizens in the face of occupation and make them feel more confident to fight and prevail over the Jews in asserting our cultural heritage. He added that these cultural festivals and heritage are meant to defeat the Jews' claim that this is their land and is part of the political battle being fought by the Palestinian people for freedom and independence, particularly in this location on the borders of the Green Line and near the settlements and the wall.

This is a purely political initiative is meant solely to delegitimize Jewish history, but it is disguised as a cultural festival!

They aren't even trying to hide their agenda.

The article goes on to say that this program is funded by a number of NGOs, including the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and Action Aid.

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