Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, December 29, 2011

US giving/selling $11 billion in weapons to shaky Iraqi regime

From the NYT:

The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.

The military aid, including advanced fighter jets and battle tanks, is meant to help the Iraqi government protect its borders and rebuild a military that before the 1991 Persian Gulf war was one of the largest in the world; it was disbanded in 2003 after the United States invasion.

But the sales of the weapons — some of which have already been delivered — are moving ahead even though Mr. Maliki has failed to carry out an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize the Sunnis and turn the military into a sectarian force. While the United States is eager to beef up Iraq’s military, at least in part as a hedge against Iranian influence, there are also fears that the move could backfire if the Baghdad government ultimately aligns more closely with the Shiite theocracy in Tehran than with Washington.

United States diplomats, including Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, have expressed concern about the military relationship with Iraq. Some have even said it could have political ramifications for the Obama administration if not properly managed. There is also growing concern that Mr. Maliki’s apparent efforts to marginalize the country’s Sunni minority could set off a civil war.

“The optics of this are terrible,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, an expert on national security issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a critic of the administration’s Iraq policy.

The program to arm the military is being led by the United States Embassy here, which through its Office of Security Cooperation serves as a broker between the Iraqi government and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Among the big-ticket items being sold to Iraq are F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers. The Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Mr. Maliki consolidate power.

So not only might this aid be used to repress dissent in Iraq, but it very possibly will end up going to Iran!

Brilliant!

It is unclear if this is a sale (as the headline states) or aid (as the article mentions.) If it is aid, notice that $11 billion is about four times the amount Israel receives annually from the US. Yet the people who protest US aid to Israel invariably defend themselves saying that it is their tax dollars being spent.

If it is indeed aid, how many protests will they hold against this very problematic US military aid to Iraq?

(updated to relfect the ambiguity on aid/sales.)

Questions about the mosque arson at Tuba Zangaria

Israeli blog "Brilliant Disguise" has an intriguing article about the burning of the mosque in Tuba Zangaria in October.

The author, Gal Chen, is not a settler or even a rightist. She is against the settlements. But when this "price tag" attack was reported in October, a number of things bothered her - so she started researching it.

The first thing she noticed is that the village has a history of violence, corruption, intra-clan feuds and smuggling. Two years ago the office of the Jewish head of the town council appointed by Israel's Interior Ministry was hit with a hail of bullets.

Chen went to Tuba Zangaria to see it for herself.

It is not an easy village to travel to, especially for any settlers. It is really two villages - Tuba on the bottom of the mountain and Zangaria on top. The only way to get to Zangaria is to go through Tuba.

The village itself is in the Galilee, not very close to Judea and Samaria.

In Tuba itself, the mosque is easily visible and accessible - but it was untouched. The arsonists apparently spent the extra ten minutes to go up the mountain to find a much less prominent mosque to burn.

There are houses surrounding the mosque. Chen wondered how outsiders could have made it to this inaccessible mosque in a small village without residents noticing, as well as how no one smelled the smoke or heard the fire before it became so large.

Here is the graffiti that seemed to prove this was a "price tag" attack:

The words say "[Price] tag" "Palmer" "Revenge", referring to the murder of Asher Palmer and his son in September.

But Chen noticed that the words were not written with spray paint, as is usual with this sort of vandalism - but with charred wood from the fire itself. She wonders how the arsonists could have forgotten a can of spray paint.

Not only that, but the diagonal pattern of the graffiti indicates that it was written after the fire had already blackened the wall.

Chen asked the villagers how anyone could have driven to the village without being noticed. They admitted that they are vigilant to see strange vehicles, especially at night, and conjectured that the arsonists walked there from the fields.

Which would mean that they decided to carry gallons of gasoline up a mountain, filled with thorns and stones, to get to an inaccessible mosque, in a crime-ridden Galilee village, surrounded by houses, miles from Judea and Samaria. Residents who live next door did not notice the fire until about half of the mosque was burned and destroyed, and yet the criminals managed to wait there long enough for the fire to cool down so they could write "Price tag/Palmer/Revenge" afterwards.

A few days later, village youths set fire to the local council building - led by a retired IDF general - and he fled, fearing for his life.

Chen ends her post without any accusations, but wondering about how the Israeli media at the scene jumped to conclusions without asking any of these questions.

(h/t Ruchie)

(correction - I had initially assumed Chen was male.)

Israel saving the world, again

From Israel 21C:

Every patient, nurse, doctor and visitor to a hospital knows the drill: hands get a splash of antibacterial fluid found at every bedside, entrance and exit. Keeping hands clean can prevent some infections, but superbugs -- those sometimes deadly bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics -- can outwit the best hygiene practices.

Hospital-acquired infections are one of the leading causes of preventable death in the developed world today, with 100,000 people in the United States alone dying every year from bugs they catch as patients in the hospital, according to the World Health Organization. The old and very young are at an especially high risk of infection from resistant bacteria that can spread like wildfire.

But now superbugs may have met their match, thanks to a genetically engineered cleaning solution developed in Israeli laboratories.

Costing only a few dollars a quart, the solution is non-toxic to patients and can be spread on hospital surfaces to kill what conventional soaps and antibiotics can't, report researchers Rotem Edgar from the Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center and Udi Qimron from Tel Aviv University. They detailed their technology recently in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The solution uses a laboratory-grown virus called a bacteriophage, which disrupts the DNA of resistant bacteria and renders them susceptible to antibiotics.

"We have genetically engineered the bacteriophages so that once they infect the bacteria, they transfer a dominant gene that confers renewed sensitivity to certain antibiotics," says Qimron, who believes his solution will one day be part of every hospital's anti-germ arsenal.

The researchers say that the new spray could be applied on any surface where there is a high concentration of germs, such as door handles, faucets, bedrails and handrails.

"Our novel approach relies on an effective delivery process and selection procedure, put on the same platform for the first time," says Qimron, suggesting that it will knock out all kinds of bacteria, reducing the infection rate from even non-resistant bacteria.

This solution, the researchers note, should be part of a two-step process to neutralize bacteria in the hospital effectively. The second part of the process is a compound called Tullurite. This would be spread over the surfaces to kill any remaining bacteria not sensitized by the new advance. The two-step cleaning combination would first disarm the bacteria and then go on to kill those that are still dangerous, they say.

Like all medical products, the new spray needs to be tested in a clinical setting before being approved for sale.

This is huge, as hospitals are breeding grounds for the most dangerous strains of bacteria. Tens of thousands of lives could be saved.

Happy New Year from the IDF (video)

I'll admit it - the main reason I am posting this video is because I like to imagine how enraged the anti-Israel crowd would be when they watch it.

People who cannot stand seeing IDF soldiers as anything but bloodthirsty genocidal monsters will go crazy when they see this. The thing they hate the most in the entire world is seeing that IDF soldiers depicted as human beings.

If this goes viral, I'm predicting an epidemic of aneurysms.

(h/t Silke)

"The only remaining people under military occupation in the world"

Even though I fisked Maen Areikat's op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday, there were too many lies for one post. In fact, one can make an entire post from each of his lies.

One of my readers, who would like to remain anonymous, did exactly that.

Areikat said that the Palestinian Arabs were "the only remaining people under military occupation in the world."

Certainly.

Except for the Kurds, of course, the Turkish military rides the Kurds pretty hard, and they use live ammunition. But except for the Kurds the Palestinians really are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the people of the Western Sahara, of course. But the Moroccan Army makes sure that the world doesn't hear much about them. Still, they're occupied and not happy about it, so except for the Kurds and the Western Sahara, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the Uyghur of Eastern Turkistan. And the Tibetans of Tibet. The Chinese pretty much bash the Uyghurs and the Tibetans if they say peep. Still, except tor the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the people of Darfur, of course. It's pretty ugly what goes on in Darfur. Rape, murder, pillage, and wholesale ethnic cleansing for the sake of land theft all committed by a militia backed by the Arab government of Sudan. Better not to talk about it. Still, it's happening, so we kind of do have to at least mention it. So, except for the people of Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the people of Western Papua where they are really, really not happy about living under Indonesian military occupation. Neither are the people of Aceh, come th that, just ask them. So Except for Aceh, Western Papua, Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the Tamils of Sri Lanka. But the Sri lankan government pretty much snuffed them, in fact, maybe they don't count any more since that was the nearest thing a deliberate, calculated genocide that the world has seen this millenia. Even the omniscient Wikipedia lists them as "no longer active." Shissh, talk about mealy-mouthed. Dead! They're dead. The Sri Lankans killed them and nobody except John Lee Anderson writing in the New Yorker even cared. A few of them did survive and manage to stay in Sri Lanka, so I suppose we should count them. So except for the Tamil of Sri Lanka, Aceh, Western Papua, Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And Baluchistan, and Wazirstan, you really do have to mention Baluchistan and Wazirstan because not only are they really, really pissed off by the Pakistani military occupation, lots of people die from it. And when a military occupation is killing that many people, we at least have to add them to this list. So, except for Baluchistan, Waziristan, the Tamil of Sri Lanka, Aceh, Western Papua, Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the oppressed Assyrians of Syria, and the Patani in southern Thailand, the Kurds of Syria, the Syrian Druse, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, the....

Oh, why bother?

Unity! Hamas continues to harass Fatah members

From PCHR:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, on 26 and 27 December 2011, 50 activists of Fatah Movement throughout the Gaza Strip were summoned to ISS centers, each of them according to his area of residence. When they went there, they were held for several hours, during which they were questioned about their participation in celebration and honor ceremonies of Palestinian prisoners who had been released from Israeli jails.

On 19 December 2011, ISS officers raided and searched 3 houses belonging to 3 members of former security services in al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. They confiscated computer sets and summoned the three persons to the ISS center in Deir al-Balah on the following day. When those summoned went to the center, they were held for several hours, during which they were questioned. They were then ordered to refer to the center again on 04 January 2012.

On 13 December 2011, two members of former security services in the central Gaza Strip were summoned to the ISS center in Deir al-Balah for the following day. When they went to the center, they were held for several hours, during which they were questioned. They were then ordered to refer to the center again.

Additionally, a number of members of former security services were arrested by the ISS in the Gaza Strip. Some of the released detainees reported that were subjected to methods of torture during interrogation.

It should be noted that the ISS has recently waged a campaign of arrests that targeted persons who used to work in the Palestinian General Intelligence throughout the Gaza Strip. Some of the detainees were released, while others have remained in custody. The detainees were interrogated by ISS officers and were accused of having contacts with Ramallah. A released detainee reported that he was subjected to method of torture while being interrogated in Gaza City for accusations of having contacts with Ramallah. He stated that they placed a plastic bag over his head and that he was subjected to Shabeh* in a 20-square-meter room for 15 days, including 12 consecutive days. He added that he was placed in a cell for another 15 days together with another 6 persons. They were interrogated and subjected to methods of torture, including forcing them to hear extremely loud sounds.

* Regular shabeh entails shackling the detainee's hands and legs to a small chair, angled to slant forward so that the detainee cannot sit in a stable position. The detainee's head is covered with an often-filthy sack and loud music is played non-stop through loudspeakers. Detainees in shabeh are not allowed to sleep.

In other "unity" news, Hamas informed Fatah in Gaza that they will not allow any celebrations on the 47th anniversary of Fatah's founding January 1.

15 years of restrictions on construction in Lebanese PalArab camps

On January 1, 1997, the Lebanese government put into effect regulations that severely restrict bringing construction materials into Palestinian Arab camps in southern Lebanon.

For fifteen years, these camp residents who live in already dilapidated houses have had almost no recourse to repair it.

And for fifteen years, as the population in the camps grew, no new housing has been built.

The restrictions were lifted in 2004 but then reinstated in 2006, adding a new camp to the regulation.In theory there is a lengthy bureaucratic process through which building in the camps could be authorized, but in fact it hardly ever gets approved. People building without a permit are subject to arrest.

UNRWA downplays the issue:

There are no legal restrictions in place regarding the transportation of construction materials into Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Restrictions, when they exist, function on an administrative basis and only apply to camps in the south of the country and to Nahr el-Bared. Camp dwellers have to apply for a permit, to be granted by the Army. However, in some camps, it seems that smuggling of construction material is rife.

Not only that, but in 2001 Lebanon passed a law outlawing Palestinian Arabs from purchasing land or for transferring land they already owned to their children, so the little amount of land that Palestinian Arabs do own in Lebanon is disappearing as the owners die.

You will be hard-pressed to find anyone calling to boycott Lebanon, a country that discriminates so egregiously against its Palestinian population. You will not find UNRWA reports condemning Lebanon for its planned policy of discrimination and marginalization of its Palestinian population.

The 15th anniversary of these regulations is coming up. Good luck reading about this anniversary in any English-language media besides here.

UNRWA spokesperson Abu Adnan Hasna said today that Israel bears the legal and moral responsibility for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestine Today.

I wonder if Hasna considers PLO and Hamas as responsible for damage to southern communities from rockets, for paying for the Iron Dome system, for the construction of hundreds of rocket shelters and indeed for the entire Gaza war that was only fought to stop Gaza rocket attacks?

Or does UNRWA only consider responsibility a one-way street?

Arabs upset that Palestinian Olympic Committee cooperates with Israel

Recently, the Israel Olympic Committee signed an agreement with the Palestine Olympic Committee to help facilitate travel of Palestinian Arab athletes through Israel and to help ensure that sports equipment gets delivered to the Arab athletes in a timely manner.

This is causing an uproar in the Arab world, both within the territories and from outside.

Besides the scandal of Palestinian Arabs actually speaking to Israeli Jews, which is bad enough, it looks like this cooperation is going to help both Israel and a Palestinian Arab team to compete in the Mediterranean Games.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs have been barred from participating in the Mediterranean Games, and this cooperation seems to make it easier for both to join in. The IOC, which had once been against allowing Israel to participate, is now supporting allowing both teams to compete.

Even though adding a Palestine team would help legitimize the Palestinian Arab cause, the price to be paid - allowing Israel to compete in the games - is considered way too high by the Arab world. Arabs would prefer that both teams be barred than to allow Israel to join.

Which is just one more piece of evidence that no one in the Arab world is really "pro-Palestinian." People who want to penalize Palestinian Arab legitimacy in international sports are not in any way "pro-Palestinian."

They are simply anti-Israel.

And it is further proof that while Israelis try to find "win-win" solutions, Arabs will not. They would rather have "lose-lose" if one of the potential winners would be Israel. They base their most basic decisions on irrational hatred of Israel. Their mentality remains zero-sum.

By the way, this 1996 article from the New York Times shows that fact checking was not a priority for that newspaper even then:

Although Atlanta will mark the first Palestinian participation in the Olympics, Palestinians have a long association with sports -- they were once among the Arab world's best boxers. And, according to Nahil Mabrouk, president of the Palestinian Track and Field Federation, the Palestine Olympic Committee was founded in 1931 and remained a member of the Olympic family until 1967, the year of the Six-Day War and the beginning of Israel's 26-year occupation.

In fact, the Palestine Olympic Committee that was formed in 1933 changed its name in 1951 - to the Israel Olympic Committee. It was recognized by the IOC in 1952.

(h/t E. ben Abuya for correct dates.)

Tunisia sends 4 tons of aid to Gaza. No one notices.

In recent days, Ma'an has started writing a boilerplate description of Gaza in a number of articles:

The Gaza Strip has been under a sea, land and air blockade imposed by Israel since 2007.

Really?

There has been a steady stream of land convoys that have been going to Gaza through Egypt's Rafah crossing over the past year, and no one is doing anything to stop them.

The latest came from Tunisia, which sent activists with 15 vehicles carrying four tons of what they say are medicines and medical equipment.

There have been others - Viva Palestina, Miles of Smiles, and more - that successfully and pretty quietly send whatever they want to Gaza through Rafah without any Israeli intervention.

Essentially, anyone can send whatever aid they want to Gaza.

Not that you would know it from reading the news.

Israeli pencils in Saudi Arabia?

From YNet:

How Youm7 illustrated the story

Saudi authorities are investigating how Israeli pencils reached one of the kingdom's biggest retail chains. The Kravitz chain, which markets the pencils in Israel, was surprised to hear about the affair stirring up the Gulf kingdom.

It turns out that Abu Rialin, a Saudi chain which offers all of its items for two riyals, is selling one of Kravitz's most popular products – a set of 12 pencils with an eraser.

The pencils are sold with the Kravitz logo in Hebrew and without any attempt to conceal the fact that they are made in Israel.

Kravitz learned about the incident following a report published by Saudi website Jazan. The reporter noted that Kravitz was the biggest manufacturer of office supplies in Israel and asked how the Saudi Ministry of Commerce could overlook such a thing.

"Where are the Saudi kingdom's supervision authorities?" the reporter asks, calling for an investigation into the apparent marketing of an Israeli product in Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the original Saudi story. Plenty of Arabic sites are talking about this but every one I can find is referring to an article about it in Ma'ariv.

I found "Jazan News" and "Jazan Press" websites, but no newspaper simply called "Jazan." I found a story on both sites complaining about the prices of school supplies at the Abu Rialin chain, but nothing about Israeli pencils.

So while it is a fun story, it might be just a rumor.

SA CEO responds to critics for selling Israeli products, Muslims seethe

From IOL News (South Africa):

Ivan Saltzman, the chief executive of pharmacy giant Dis-Chem, is embroiled in an ugly spat with a Durban woman over the retailer’s decision to sell Israeli-made skin care products.

The spat began when Fathima Moosa visited the Westwood Mall branch of Dischem and noticed that they were selling Dead Sea products made in Israel.

She later submitted an online letter of complaint, asking them to remove the products on the basis that Israel’s “human rights violations replicate Hitler’s Nazism”.

After Dis-Chem’s initial response that the products were not going to be removed, Moosa demanded that her e-mail be forwarded to top management.

Twenty days later, Saltzman responded to her personally, telling her that likening Israel’s supposed human rights violations was a “a scurrilous slur that you have clearly chosen to employ in order to give maximum offence”.

The spat which has since seen the Islamic Media Review Network get involved with an open letter to Saltzman now threatens to turn into boycott of Dis-Chem by pro-Palestinian groups in SA.

Moosa's original email to the website stated:

i visited your store in westwood mall, durban, and noticed that you stock products from Israel. as a south african who lived under oppression, i was very upset to see that your store imports products from a country whose human rights violations replicate hitler's nazism. please consider removing israeli products from your shelves.

Dear Fathima

Thank you for contacting us. I have brought this matter to the attention of one of our Directors who has advised that we will not consider removing the Israeli products from Dis-Chem stores.

Kind regards

Dawn de Klerk

Moosa responded:

Hi

I am very disappointed by your response.

Please forward this mail to your director, whom I believe is a caring individual. ( I am formerly from Pretoria, and I know that he does a lot of charity).

It is very easy for us to rise to the defense of those who are from our brethren, but the nobler response is to do what's right, even if its the unpopular choice.

The jews of many organisations nationally and internationally have nobly and amazingly distanced themselves from the israeli regime, and have been at the forefront of the call for sanctions against Israel, because of their racist and inhumane policies.

Please google, "nkusa", "young jewish and proud", "rabbis against Israel", Ronnie Kasrils: "not in my name".

Among all these voices, are Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and many Israeli MPs who urge the world to end the madness.

I hope and trust that your good judgement and commitment to the values enshrined in the Torah, allow you to make the right decision.

Happy is the man who renounces everything that puts a strain on his conscience.

After all, we are all the children of Abraham.

Thank you

Fathima Moosa

And here is CEO Ivan Saltzman's unapolgetic response:

Dear Fatima Moosa

I will begin by answering your likening Israel’s supposed human rights violations to Hitler’s Nazism, a scurrilous slur that you have clear chosen to employ in order to give maximum offense. I think you well know that the crimes of the Nazi regime involved the deliberate mass murder of millions of civilians, largely Jews, as a matter of planned policy. Is this really what Israel is doing. Obviously not – in fact it does completely the opposite. Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to minimize civilian casualties and has been extremely successful in this regard. Palestinian (or for that matter Lebanese) casualties have been a tiny fraction of what they would have been if Israel had truly adopted a Nazi-like extermination policy, given the massive military capability it has at its disposal.

In fact, it is very easy to identify the true modern-day Nazis in the Middle East. They are found in the ranks of such murderous extremist groupings as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestine Islamic Jihad (amongst others), all of which regard the mass murder of Israeli Jews as the noblest goal their followers can aspire to. Have you ever thought what the consequences would be if Israel were to adopt the same kind of tactics against the Palestinian population? Mass slaughter would indeed ensue, but fortunately Israel, no matter what the provocation, has not nor will not ever stoop to such depths.

So far as your stated intention of boycotting Dis-Chem goes, that is obviously your decision. After all, we do live in a free country. However, if it is your intention to boycott Israeli products, you need to be consistent If your gesture is to have any meaning. I hope you don’t use an intel chip in your computer with which you probably wrote your e-mail because it was invented in Israel. I hope that you stay in good health because if you need preventative surgery against a heart attack, you will have to boycott the procedure because guess what? The stent was invented in Israel! Likewise, I hope you are never prescribed any patch for diabetes, to deliver medication and other drugs. If you are an asthmatic you may have to use a new type of inhaler (Spin) invented in Israel. So please check! Israel has given the world the system of drip irrigation which is being widely adopted in South Africa with water shortages like many countries. Should you boycott all fruit and vegetables grown by this method. The list that Israel has given the world is very lengthy. Check very carefully what you boycott.

You may not have noticed the crisis in the Arab world, “Arab Spring” which now is in Winter with no end in sight. To the best of my knowledge this over human rights but then I have an HD TV which you are probably boycotting. The cheapness of life in Somalia and Sudan is perpetrated by people who you are strongly affiliated to. You obviously don’t know what the racism of Hitler differs very little to Israel’s enemies. Both want the destruction of the Jewish people.

I believe I had to answer your “complaint”. I will continue to sell Dead Sea products from Israel. You know the Dead Sea has two shores. I wonder why the Jordanians or Palestinians (most come from Jordan) do not want to share this wonderful natural resource of the Dead Sea.

I will not respond to any further correspondence on your subject.

Yours faithfully

IVAN SALTZMAN | CHIEF EXCECUTIVE OFFICER
23 Stag Rd, Allandale, Midrand, South Africa
(011) 589-2208
ivan@dischem.co.za

A Muslim organization in South Africa, Media Review Network, responds with a lengthy letter that actually defends Moosa's characterization of Israel as engaging in Nazi-like behavior.

Unsurprisingly, MRN explicitly supports Hamas and terrorism against Israelis (saying the Shalit prisoner swap "vindicates any and all resistance options to oppression must be employed against the brutal Zionist occupation of their lands.")

(h/t Gidon)