Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

US pushing to admit "Palestine" to WTO

Palestine Press Agency reports that the US has agreed to help facilitate the admittance of "Palestine" to the World Trade Organization.

The Consulate of the United States in Jerusalem has informed both the PA Ministries of National Economy and Foreign Affairs of U.S. support Palestine's request to join the World Trade Organization as an observer, following a number of meetings and deliberations between the National Economy Ministry and the Mission of the United States in the WTO in Geneva during the past few months.

I couldn't find any articles in English about this, although the PA/PLO has been pushing to join the WTO for years so the story is very plausible.

Shouldn't this move on the part of the US be a bit more transparent?

Report: Iranian drone crashes near Bushehr nuke plant

Asharq al-Awsat says that there are reports of an Iranian-made drone crashing near the Bushehr nuclear plant, causing panic among the residents of the area who are already afraid of a US or Israeli attack on the plant.

The incident occurred last Sunday.

Iran started manufacturing their own drones last year, which they claim have a range of 1000 km, can evade radar and which can drop a payload.

Complete, detailed narrative of Lebanese border incident

This article, from an unexpected source, seems to be by far the most comprehensive one about the incident - and (assuming it is accurate) it answers some questions about the timing in the video:

On Thursday, July 29, 2010, Israel notified UNIFIL that a few Israeli soldiers would be crossing the security fence in order to cut a tree and remove a few shrubs in Israeli territory but near the Blue Line (the actual border between Israel and Lebanon). This foliage blocks the view of Israeli security cameras positioned deep inside Israel. Israel also notified UNIFIL that these soldiers would be escorted by a small patrol which would stay south of the security fence.

The Israeli notification was in accordance with UNSC resolution 1701. UNIFIL then informed the nearby positions of the Lebanese Armed Forces about the planned Israeli activities in order to ensure that there was no misunderstanding. The Lebanese Army notified the local HizbAllah force.

Significantly, the Lebanese Army unit deployed along the border with Israel is the 9th Division, whose commanders and troops are Shi’ites and recruited from the same manpower pool as the HizbAllah.

Around 10:30am on August 3, 2010, about 10 Israeli soldiers with saws crossed the gate in the security fence on foot. This detachment was covered by an Israeli patrol which included a few tanks, armored vehicles, and a command vehicle. As UNIFIL had been informed, the patrol stayed 200-300 meters south of the fence.

When the soldiers approached the tree, they were attacked by small arms automatic fire from both the Lebanese Army’s position just across the border and “civilians” (HizbAllah fighters) in the nearby village of Adissyeh.

Immediately, a few Israeli commanders ran from the command vehicle toward the fence to see what was happening. Snipers hiding in the bush adjacent to the Lebanese Army position fired on them, killing the Israeli battalion commander (a lieutenant-colonel) and critically wounding the company commander (a captain). The sniper fire came from a professional ambush that had been organized on the basis of the advance warning provided by UNIFIL.

Meanwhile, the shooting at the Israeli soldiers north of the fence intensified. Israeli forces opened small-arms and mortar fire on the sources of fire in the Lebanese Army position and in a couple of unfinished houses in Adissyeh. Two Israeli tanks and an armored personnel carrier moved forward toward the fence in order to evacuate the stranded soldiers. At this point a UNIFIL patrol arrived on the scene and the UN officers urged both sides to ceasefire. The firing stopped a few minutes later.

Escorted by the UN patrol, the two Israeli tanks and the armored personnel carrier continued to advance toward the gate in the fence in order to evacuate the soldiers. Suddenly an anti-tank missile was fired from either the Lebanese Army position or the bush immediately near it. The missile barely missed the UNIFIL vehicle and the tanks. The Israeli tanks opened fire on the missile launcher.

Major activity followed. Intense fire — small arms, heavy machineguns, mortars, and RPGs — was opened from both several Lebanese Army positions as well as HizbAllah positions in Adissyeh. Israel rushed additional tanks and artillery to the area and started bombarding all Lebanese positions. One or two Katyusha rockets were launched toward Israel, impacted in open space and caused no damage.

A pair of Israeli combat helicopters arrived on the scene. They attacked the main Lebanese Army position near Adissyeh, and subsequently the Lebanese Army battalion headquarters in the village of Al-Taybeh. The helicopters also attacked and destroyed several Lebanese Army armored vehicles which were parked near the headquarters. Three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist (from the pro-HizbAllah newspaper Al-Akhbar) who was with the troops in Al-Taybeh were killed. Another soldier was killed in the position near Adissyeh. A total of five to six soldiers were wounded. There is no reliable information about HizbAllah casualties.

The fire subsided after little over two and a half hours.

I don't understand why UNIFIL wasn't on the scene initially, since the tree-cutting was known in advance, but perhaps they were observing the Israeli actions from another vantage point.

Journalists not as anti-Israel this time around

Since yesterday, Lebanon has admitted that it fired at Israel first and now is only making the easy-to-refute claim that IDF soldiers were in Lebanese territory.

As a result, the media has come around to being much more fair (although I have yet to read a MSM article that shows the road in the picture of the Israeli cherry picker is the same one that can be seen to be quite a distance from the Blue Line.)

Reuters published a surprisingly (for them) sympathetic piece, which begins this way:

Blood-stains mark the rocky ground by the entrance to a camouflaged army bunker where the Israeli military says one of its colonels was killed by a Lebanese army sniper team on Tuesday.

"There were only two or three shots," said an Israeli military spokeswoman. "They were standing there, where the blood is."

The battalion commander was hit in the head and a fellow officer struck in the chest and gravely wounded from a range of about 700 meters, she told Reuters at the scene of the brief battle.

Israeli artillery fire, launched in retaliation at a Lebanese army post, left scorched hillsides on the Lebanese side of the steep valley that divides them.

I cannot remember the last time a Reuters piece about any Israeli conflict started off with anything from Israel's perspective.

The Guardian started, as usual, with the Lebanese statement, but at least gave the IDF as much space in its response:

Yesterday's clash broke out after the Israeli army cut down a tree on the border.

The Lebanese army admitted that its soldiers opened fire on IDF troops in the confrontation, the most serious along the border since the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah four years ago.

In a statement issued to the news agency AFP, a spokesman said: "The Lebanese army opened fire first at Israeli soldiers who entered Lebanese territory ... This constituted defence of our sovereignty and is an absolute right."

Israel continued to insist that its forces did not cross the Blue Line, the UN name for the border. It says an IDF unit was carrying out routine maintenance work to remove a tree obscuring its sight lines into Lebanon – but from Israeli territory – when the firing began.

Unifil, the UN force that monitors the border, today said the tree was in Israeli territory.

An Israeli battalion commander was shot dead, and another officer seriously wounded. In Israeli shelling which followed, three Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist were killed.

The IDF claimed that its forces were the subject of a planned ambush, citing the presence of Lebanese media close to the border. "We have reason to believe this was planned in advance," IDF spokeswoman Avital Liebovich said. She added that the initiative could have come from Lebanese army units under the influence of Hezbollah.

Certainly better than usual.

Of course, Lebanon's finally admitting that it fired at the IDF first does make it hard to spin this as Israeli aggression, so in this case the usual meme just couldn't be shoe-horned into the MSM narrative. Now, if only the media would figure out that Israel's record of telling the truth from the outset is far better that that of her enemies.....

And some "journalists" will never change.
(h/t v1)

8 reasons leftists should be pro-Israel (HuffPo)

Excerpts of an article by Alan Krinsky:

If my fellow Leftists or even Liberals think that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement will help bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as peace to the Middle East and harmony to the community of nations, they are sadly mistaken. There is a difference betweencriticism and demonization, and the campaign against Israel is of the latter type. Criticism, and there is much of it within Israel's own healthy democracy, can result in positive change. But the focused attempt to demonize Israel, not undertaken against any other nation, is aimed at delegitimizing Israel and undermining its very existence, as if the problems of the world were the fault of the Israelis -- the fault of the Jews -- and if they would only go away, all would be better.

Not only is this a sorry illusion, but this concerted assault on Israel itself betrays the principles of the Left.

Here, then, are 8 reasons Leftists should be Pro-Israel (or, at least, Pro-Peace rather than Anti-Israel):

1. Human Rights. The Left fights for human rights in the world. Even if one thinks Israel or its soldiers guilty of human rights violations (and I am not willing at the outset to grant this point), there is no international or historical comparison that could reasonably rank Israel among the worst criminals of the world or of history....If we support human rights and oppose persecution, ought we not first to focus our efforts on the places where we find the worst situations?

2. Internationalism. Leftists tend to support internationalism. One would think that the United Nations would be the world body most dedicated to furthering this aim. But how is it that Israel, this small nation, has become such a central concern? From 2003-2010, there have been more than 900 human rights actions against Israel at the U.N.; the next closest is Sudan at just under 400. Israel is the only member of the U.N. to be excluded from any of the five regional groups. And should not all on the Left oppose the absurdity of the so-called Human Rights Council, whose members include such paragons of humanitarianism as China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Kyrgyzstan?

3. Peace. Leftists want peace. In the Middle East and elsewhere. The polls make clear that, overwhelmingly, Israelis desire peace with their neighbors; the difficult sacrifices, including the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza make this evident. Israelis are prepared for a secure, two-state solution, to live side-by-side in peace. Meanwhile, the stated goal of its enemies is to end its existence. A simple thought-experiment should make the matter starkly clear: If tomorrow Hamas and other Palestinian groups unilaterally put down their weapons, what would follow? Peace. If Israelis unilaterally put down their weapons, what would follow? Millions of dead or exiled Jews.Anyone on the Left who does not recognize this is living in denial.

Read the whole thing.

More on UNIFIL's deployment

In my last post I mentioned the Indonesian background of the UNIFIL soldiers who were apparently present when the clash on the border happened between Lebanon - Israel happened. There was some confusion about which country controlled which area. I found a recent map of UNIFIL's deployment in the area. The kibbutz Misgav Am and the village Aadaisse are being mentioned on this map:

Zvi dissects the facts of the Lebanese attack

Zvi looks at the events of the day:

Ynet says that: Lt. Col. Dov Harari was indeed killed in the gunbattle. The seriously injured soldier was Capt. Ezra Lakia (res.). May Mr. Lakia recover quickly and completely.

The Scotsman (writer: Bassem Mroue): A Lebanese journalist says that the UNIFIL troops warned the Israelis that the Lebanese would open fire (it is not clear whether this was the "Down, down!" that I mentioned before [in the comments], or something more explicit).

Ronith Daher, 32, a Lebanese journalist who was at the scene, said she saw a Unifil peacekeeper ask Israel not to allow the Israeli soldier to cross the fence and warned them the Lebanese troops would open fire. The Israelis proceeded, however, and Lebanese soldiers fired into the air, Ms Daher said. She said the Israelis fired back directly at the Lebanese soldiers.

Note that the Lebanese video stream broadcast by Israel's Channel 2 appears to contradict Daher's claim that the Lebanese soldiers fired in the air. First of all, the Lebanese soldiers in the video are pointing their guns toward the Israelis, NOT visibly angling them away from the Israelis. In addition, an apparent plume of dust in the video appears to rise immediately in front of the Israeli position, which would not have happened had the Lebanese fired in the air.

It is possible (warning: complete speculation) that the UNIFIL troops heard what was going on among the Lebanese troops and tried to warn the Israelis to take cover (they yelled "Down! Down," gesturing downward). This occurred immediately before the Lebanese opened fire.

Another possibility is that the UNIFIL troops already knew that the Lebanese force was planning to attack the Israelis. In either case, why UNIFIL did not prevent the Lebanese side from ambushing the tree removal patrol is a question that UNIFIL must answer.

The Lebanese Army claimed it had opened fire on Israeli soldiers who infiltrated Lebanese territory.

But as UNIFIL and the Lebanese' own video shows, the Israelis were in fact in Israel. Furthermore, the Israelis had told UNIFIL what they intended to do two weeks in advance. Had the tree in question been in Lebanese territory, then UNIFIL would have had ample opportunity to object and say so. The fact is that UNIFIL merely sent its observers to a point where they could observe the tree removal operation. They also told the Lebanese army, which sent an ambush squad.

Bloomberg and the UK's Telegraph: Maj Gen Eisenkot says that the Lebanese army asked Israel for a ceasefire.

The Israelis believe it to be an isolated incident. The Israelis (Ynet) believe that the officer who ordered the attack was an extremist.

Al Jazeera English (Gregg Carlstrom):
* UNIFIL has promised to announce results of its investigation of the clash on Wed.
* Avital Liebovich: "We coordinated this operation with Unifil. It was not done in a secret manner. We have reason to believe this attack was pre-planned by the Lebanese army."
* Nasrallah followed up with a speech.
* The usual attacks spewed from the offices from Arab officials, who don't mind not knowing the truth because they make it up as they go along anyway.
* Hariri condemned Israel (what else) and demanded that the UN stop the fighting.

Unless Hezbollah wants it to go further, it won't go anywhere.

Let us ask:
1. Who was the Lebanese officer who ordered his men to open fire?
2. Why did UNIFIL only address its requests to the Israelis, who were doing what they had arranged to do 2 weeks before?
3. Why were not one, not two, but more than two Hezbollah-affiliated reporters brought to the scene in advance just to witness Israeli soldiers cutting down a tree in Israeli territory? Hint: if you are Hassan Nasrallah, and you know there's going to be a gunbattle, and you want to milk it for its PR effect, then you send your propagandists to spin the story immediately.
4. Which Lebanese party, writhing under probable indictment for assassinating the former prime minister, benefits from tension with Israel? Okay, so that on is a rhetorical question : - )

Finally, we should remember that in the very possible event that this clash was planned by Hezbollah, then the purpose was to distract people from the pending UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment of a high-level Hezbollah member or members for assassinating Rafik al-Hariri, and maybe to embarrass the UN in the process.

I just looked at the video again, and (again assuming that the edits are roughly in order) the Lebanese "warning shots" are from a machine gun, large enough to jostle the camera significantly - hardly from a pistol or other small gun that one would expect a warning shot to come from.

I think it is pretty clear that the entire "warning shot" scenario is a sham meant to try to square away the obvious evidence of Lebanese aggression with a face-saving lie.

By the way, Al Quds al-Arabi has a fawning op-ed glorifying the LAF for its position of defending the homeland, and saying that their bravery shames other Arab countries.

Israel's concerns towards UNIFIL (updated)

I was wondering to which UNIFIL contributing country the blue helmets belong to. I think my question was answered when seeing this picture on which the flag of Indonesia can be seen:

In April this year Israel expressed its concern:

that Indonesia could take up command of UNIFIL’s naval force, making it difficult for the IDF and particularly the Israel Navy to maintain a high level of coordination with the peacekeeping force.

Israel’s concern is that if Indonesia takes command of the force, coordination and ties will deteriorate, since Israel and Indonesia do not have formal diplomatic or military relations. Indonesia already contributes to UNIFIL 1,300 soldiers who are deployed in the eastern sector near the southern Lebanese village of Tayba.

Tayba (or Taibe) is just northwest of Aadaisse and kibbuts Misgav Am, where the incident of today took place.

This could explain a lot.

UNIFIL has to take action the sooner the better or worse incidents might take place in future.

(In the background you see the "tree-cutter". And a hill with a road. It looks very much as if it was taken in the near this position.)

UPDATE:

UNIFIL confirms Israel's version: IDF troops didn't enter Lebanon

Lebanese officials said an IDF bulldozer crossed the international border and entered about 18 meters into Lebanon.

A spokesman for UNIFIL, however, confirmed the exchange was initiated by the Lebanese Army after an IDF bulldozer crossed the border fence "in an apparent attempt to clear mines between the Blue Line (international border) and the fence."

"We characterise this as a serious incident between the Lebanese Army and the IDF," the spokesman said.

UPDATE: From YNet:

UNIFIL forces who toured the site of Tuesday's deadly exchanges of fire on the northern border said the IDF's activity did not warrant the attack launched by Lebanese Army soldiers, Israeli army officials who spoke to UNIFIL representatives said.

Not that the UN will demand an investigation or anything. (EoZ)

Map of where Lebanon fired on the IDF (update: video)

The IDF released a map of where today's incident occurred:

As the map shows, the Blue Line is not tremendously close to the road adjoining the fence.

But if you don't believe the IDF, here's what Google Maps has to say (click to enlarge)::

UPDATE: Here's video from the Lebanese side:

Assuming it wasn't edited to show things out of order, we see the UNIFIL forces yelling towards Israel to "stop!" (stop firing? We do not hear any IDF fire at that point.) and then we see the command for the LAF to fire - which they do.

Sure looks like UNIFIL is sworn to protect one side.

(h/t Jed)

Hezbollah accuses Israel of killing Hariri

The anticipated speech by Hassan Nasrallah is over, and guess who he is accsing of assassinating Rafik Hariri?

Go ahead. Take a guess.

Here's the relevant part of the speech:

We all want the truth and refuse politicization of issues, just as we want justice, not only for the family of Rafik Hariri.

I will hold a press conference on Monday, August 9, at 8:30 p.m., in which we will address Hezbollah’s accusation, based on evidence, that Israel is behind Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

In the past weeks, we made a lot of efforts. We formed a team to review all the details. I will present evidence during the August 9 press conference proving that Israel was plotting to accuse Hezbollah of killing Rafik Hariri.

I have information. We accuse Israel of killing Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.

I will present during the press conference information that will help lead to conclusions on the Rafik Hariri investigation.

I will reveal a very important secret about the work of the Resistance to prove my arguments on August 9.

After August 9, the Lebanese government should appoint a responsible [committee on the issue] if it finds what I say to be noteworthy. We are ready to collaborate with the government.

We will manage to uncover the real criminals behind the Rafik Hariri murder.

Notice the political theatre - he is buying another week, rather than unveiling his evidence today.

Of course, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is expected to find that Hezbollah members killed Hariri, possibly senior members.

Reuters video of incident - and bias

To Reuters, the first shots were indeed done by the LAF - but, somehow, they can report with certainty that they were "warning shots."

Warning shots that were aimed at the supervising officers!

Also, it is clear that UNIFIL troops were alongside the Lebanese forces. Why would they allow the LAF to shoot anything? Why wouldn't the LAF be embarrassed to fire even warning shots unless they knew that UNIFIL was going to cover for them?

Worse yet, UNIFIL knows very well that the IDF was on its side of the Blue Line. Israel informed them in advance of the action.

The entire episode is very, very suspicious.

Grudging admission at Sky News, plus Gaza's water park

I can guarantee that if bloggers like me never made an issue over the existence of a middle-and upper-class in Gaza, this section of a Sky News piece would never have been written:

The sight of a brand new Chevrolet with 2010 plates cruising through down town Gaza City begs the question: how on earth did it get there?

...For example, a mid-spec Chevrolet Cruze automatic, which sells in the UK for about £15,000, was on sale at around £30,000.

So, who in Gaza can afford that?

Gaza's middle and upper classes do not feature much in news reports - but they do exist.

This explains why there are swimming pools and water parks, boutique hotels, excellent restaurants and a brand new shopping mall.

They are doing well out of the minority of those lucky enough to have jobs.

The UN estimates that 40% of people here are unemployed.

Of those in work, about a third are on the government payroll and the cultural norm here is that wages are used to take care of the extended family.

That spreads available cash thinly, but the well-stocked supermarkets, luxury goods and new cars show that there is a level of society that can afford them.

That stratum is small but it is wrong to depict all Gazans as spending their lives in abject poverty scrabbling through the ruins of buildings bombed by the Israeli Defence Forces.

The poverty levels seen here can be found in many parts of the Middle East.

Which has been my point for at least a year.

The video report accompanying the story includes about one second's worth of one of the the water parks mentioned: