Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 09, 2012

"Jew" in Pakistan forced to flee home

From the Express Tribune (Pakistan):

LAHORE: A man wrote that his name was ‘Jew Jurian’ on his national identity card form. The data entry clerk then assumed he was a Jew. Thus for the first time in the history of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC), a Pakistani was officially declared a Jew.

The problem was that he was a Christian.

The bigger problem for Jurian, as he told The Express Tribune, was that he was accused of being a Jew – and subsequently, through the twisted logic of twisted souls, of blasphemy.

After thorough investigations, Jurian was released by the police, along with three others, in May 2003. Almost nine years later, he and his family still face death threats.

Qaiser Azeem, one of the other three men, was stabbed to death two years later. Another, Mushtaq Ahmed, was also shot after testifying against religious extremists accused of terrorism.

Despite the families of Jurian and those murdered fleeing the area, death threats still continue. An FIR [First Information Report - initial police report] obtained by The Express Tribune seems to confirm this.

According to the FIR, registered at Bakri police station by Jurian against unknown extremists, the victim (Jurian) was detained for blasphemy in 2002. Despite being declared innocent, he and his family received death threats. Through his father, Maqbool Masih, he then contacted Kamran Micheal, the provincial minister for human rights and minorities and submitted an application.

In his application he appealed to be saved from extremists. He also said that the assistant sub inspector of Baghbanpura police station is providing security to such extremists.

The contents of the FIR further stated that the victim received threatening calls continuously. Late at night on October 25, 2011, he received a call from a stranger calling him an infidel (kafir). This being a regular occurrence, Jurian and his family have now left the area. Only one Christian family lives in the area, Mohallah Green Park, situated in Shalimar Town, Lahore – and Jurian claimed that some local residents are in contact with religious extremists. He also alleged that a police official at a local station sympathises with extremists, and they have worked together to create trouble for Jurian and his family, eventually forcing them to leave. He alleged that the Baghbanpura police have continuously harassed his family and conducted various raids at his home.

Jurian, his family, and the families of those already victim to such extremists have left the city to live an underground existence. Be they Jew, Christian or unclassifiable, this is obviously an unacceptable state of affairs.

Who are we to judge? It's a cultural thing, and multiculturalism must be celebrated.

(h/t Dan)

Unity! Hamas accuses Fatah of political arrests

That famed Palestinian Arab unity keeps on going.

The latest accusation comes from Hamas, who said that Fatah arrested 8 Hamas members in the West Bank over the weekend - including a journalist.

They also accuse Fatah of extending the detention of other Hamas members, and of firing a teacher who is a member of the group.

One of the major issues between the two sides has been political arrests, and even while the heralded "unity" meetings are taking place - the arrests continue.

Nabil Sha'ath, the Fatah leader who traveled to Gaza last week to keep the appearance of unity going, charged that there are still some in Hamas who do not want reconciliation between the two sides.

Naturally, Hamas responded with an angry denial, saying Sha'ath's remarks were "irresponsible and baseless."

British atrocities against Palestinian Arabs, 1936-39

Here are excerpts from "The Banality of Brutality: British Armed Forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936 – 39", by Matthew Hughes:

Punishment in the form of the destruction of Arab property across urban and rural areas of Palestine was central to British military repression after 1936, the countryside being badly hit although there were some egregious house demolitions in urban areas. Destruction and vandalism became a systematic, systemic part of British counter-insurgency operations during the revolt, and justified by the legal measures in force at the time. Alongside the destruction, soldiers looted properties, something not officially sanctioned; indeed officers often tried to stop the men pilfering. Alongside the blowing up of houses—often the most impressive ones in the village—and the smashing up of Arab villagers’ homes, there were ‘reprisals’ in the form of heavy collective fines, forced labour and punitive village occupations by government forces for which villagers bore the cost.

Abuses went unreported as the British heavily censored the Palestinian Arabic-language newspapers, while commanders such as Major-General Bernard Montgomery in northern Palestine banished newspaper reporters so that his men could carry on their work untroubled by the media.

During army searches, soldiers would surround a village—usually before dawn so that they could catch any suspects before they fled—the men and women then divided off, held apart from the houses, often in wired ‘cages’, while soldiers searched and often destroyed everything, burnt grain and poured olive oil over household food and effects.41 The men meanwhile were ‘screened’ by passing hooded or hidden Arab informers who would nod when a ‘suspect’ was found, or by British officials checking their papers against lists of suspects. If the army was not on a reprisal operation but was following up an intelligence lead and looking for a suspect or hidden weapons, any destruction was incidental to the searching of properties—troops also used primitive metal detectors on such operations. On such operations, however, brutality against villagers could occur as the army tried to extract from them intelligence on the whereabouts of hidden weapons caches or suspects, as happened at the village of Halhul in 1939. In some cases, the brutality would then extend to the vandalism of property as a means of gaining information. The level of destruction varied, the army using the excuse of weapons searches to justify any damage if there were complaints. Army engineers would also demolish houses or groups of houses.

The largest single act of destruction came on 16 June 1936 in the Arab city of Jaffa when the British blew up between 220 and 240 buildings,47 ostensibly to improve health and sanitation, cutting pathways through Jaffa's old city with 200–300 lbs gelignite charges48 that allowed military access and control. By this act—headlined in al-Difa‘ as ‘goodbye, goodbye, old Jaffa, the army has exploded you’—the British made homeless up to 6,000 Palestinians, most of whom were left destitute, having been told by air-dropped leaflet on the morning of 16 June to vacate their homes by 9 p.m. on the same day.49 Some families were left with nothing, not even a change of clothes.

In June 1936, Muslim religious leaders wrote to the High Commissioner detailing how police officers on operations ‘stamped’ on things, destroyed everything, ‘smashed doors, mirrors, tables, chairs wardrobes, glass, porcelain’ and ripped women's clothing and bed linen. Soldiers mixed in margarine and oil with foodstuffs, they trampled on ‘holy books’, and they destroyed wooden kitchen utensils, as well as glasses, clocks, smoking pipes and basins.59 In the same month, another protest complained about police and soldiers hitting innocent people, insulting their dignity, stealing items and destroying furniture, goods and provisions.60As one rebel recounted, servicemen,61Searched houses, each one by itself, in a way that was sabotaging on purpose, and they looted some of the assets of the houses, and burnt some other houses, and destroyed provisions/goods. After putting flour, wheat, rice, sugar and others together, they added all the olive oil or petrol they could find. And in every search operation they destroyed a number of houses of the village and damaged others. They also put signs on other houses to destroy them in the future if there are any incidents near the village, even if that incident is only cutting telephone wires.

A British doctor in Hebron during the revolt, Elliot Forster, recalled the effect of living under sustained British military occupation. Accustomed to local life, Forster worked in Hebron's St Luke's Hospital and held surgeries in outlying villages. He lived through periods of intense military operations as the army and police fought local guerrillas. The rule of law collapsed as troops ran amok, shooting Arabs at random simply because they were in what was, in effect, a ‘free-fire’ combat zone. While some officers tried to restrain the men, local Arabs moved about Hebron and the surrounding countryside in fear of their lives, not from rebel actions but because of the violence meted out by marauding troops and police. ‘Anyone who sees the army nowadays runs like a hare—I do myself!’ wrote Forster.79 In engagements with rebels, the army would shoot Arabs near the battle zone, even when these were old men and boys tending their flocks. Forster daily treated local people brought in to his hospital with gunshot wounds. Candid as to when he was treating a real rebel, most of the time he was tending gunshot wounds inflicted by trigger-happy British troops. He included a well-documented account of policemen executing in broad daylight in October 1938 an Arab suspect travelling in a police vehicle through the Manshiya district of Jaffa, an outrage witnessed by non-British European residents, and repeated examples of troops robbing Arabs of money, including young children who were relieved of their pocket money.

For the soldiers, their activities in Palestine were unremarkable, their job being ‘to bash anybody on the head who broke the law, and if he didn't want to be bashed on the head then he had to be shot. It may sound brutal but in fact it was a reasonably nice, simple objective and the soldiers understood it’.83Regimental histories and contemporary regimental journals did little to hide the reprisals, destruction and collective fines, recording how villages were ‘beaten up’, homes burnt and men detained in cages ‘on orders from above’ because of rebel activity nearby.84 While euphemisms would be used—‘the search was drastic enough to shake the villagers’85—regimental journals would cheerily and sportily describe the trashing of a village, as with the Essex Regiment at the ‘sack’ (obvious pun intended) of Sakhnin, 25–26 December 1937, with physical force that stopped short of outright torture or blatant wanton destruction—or these were not reported.

It was common British army practice to make local Arabs ride with military convoys to prevent mine attacks. Often, soldiers carried them or tied them to the bonnets of lorries, or put the hostages on small flatbeds on the front of trains, all to prevent mining or sniping attacks. ‘The naughty boys who we had in the cages in these camps’ were put in vehicles in front of the convoy for the ‘deterrent effect’, as one British officer put it.89 The army told the Arabs that they would shoot any of them who tried to run away.90 On the lorries, some soldiers would brake hard at the end of a journey and then casually drive over the Arab who had tumbled from the bonnet, killing or maiming him, as Arthur Lane, a Manchester Regiment private candidly recalled:91… when you'd finished your duty you would come away nothing had happened no bombs or anything and the driver would switch his wheel back and to make the truck waver and the poor wog on the front would roll off into the deck. Well if he was lucky he'd get away with a broken leg but if he was unlucky the truck behind coming up behind would hit him. But nobody bothered to pick up the bits they were left. You know we were there we were the masters we were the bosses and whatever we did was right …. Well you know you don't want him anymore. He's fulfilled his job. And that's when Bill Usher [the commanding officer] said that it had to stop because before long they'd be running out of bloody rebels to sit on the bonnet.

British accounts also detail soldiers bayoneting innocent Arabs and Arab fighters in battle being machine gunned en masse by men from the Royal Ulster and West Kent regiments as they came out to surrender near Jenin. ‘At one time the Ulsters and West Kents caught about 60 of them [Arab guerrillas] in a valley and as they walked out with their arms up mowed them down with machine guns. I inspected them afterwards and most of them were boys between 16 and 20 from Syria …. No news of course is given to the newspapers, so what you read in the papers is just enough to allay public uneasiness in England.'

Up to fifteen men died in Halhul, mostly elderly Palestinians (the youngest victim was thirty-five, the oldest seventy-five) who died after being left out in the sun for several days in a caged enclosure with insufficient water. Halhul villagers also claim that soldiers shot a local man at a well during the same operation—in fact, it seems that soldiers beat the victim and then left him to drown in the well.

"Before or after destroying the village [of Al Bassa,], almost certainly the latter, RUR soldiers with some attached Royal Engineers collected approximately fifty men from al-Bassa and blew some of them up in a contrived explosion under a bus. Harry Arrigonie, a British Palestine policeman at al-Bassa at the time, recalled what happened in his memoirs, with the British ‘herding’ about twenty men from al-Bassa ‘onto a bus. Villagers who panicked and tried to escape were shot. The driver of the bus was forced to drive along the road, over a land mine buried by the soldiers. This second mine was much more powerful than the first [i.e., the rebels’ mine] and it completely destroyed the bus, scattering the maimed and mutilated bodies of the men on board everywhere. The villagers were then forced to dig a pit, collect the bodies, and throw them unceremoniously into it."

A letter in Arabic of 8 September 1938 giving the Palestinian side of events extends the atrocity to include premeditated torture. The letter dates the rebel mine explosion to 10.30 p.m. hours on 6 September, following which, on the morning of 7 September, soldiers came to al-Bassa. They shot four people in the streets, in cafes and in the homes of the village, after which the soldiers searched and looted the village, before gathering and beating inhabitants with sticks and rifle butts. The British then took one hundred villagers to a nearby military base—Camp Number One—where the British commander selected four men (the letter lists their names) who were tortured in front of the rest of the group. The four men were undressed and made to kneel barefoot on cacti and thorns, specially prepared for the occasion. Eight soldiers then told off the four men and two per Arab detainee set about beating them ‘without pity’ in front of the group. Pieces of flesh ‘flew from their bodies’ and the victims fainted, after which an army doctor came and checked their pulses. The army then took the group of villagers to another base—Camp Number Two—while soldiers destroyed the village of al-Bassa. All of this happened on the morning of 7 September, with the army withdrawing at 1 p.m. on the same day.

The article goes into much more detail and gives many more examples.

The British destroyed other villages as well - Kaukab Abu al-Hija, for one. Yet it is extraordinarily difficult to find details on these events.

Yet even after the author goes to great lengths to detail these horror stories, he concludes this way:

Britain lost control of Palestine in the late 1930s during the Arab revolt. Faced with similar disturbances, other imperial powers responded much more harshly than the British did in Palestine, as even a cursory glance at other twentieth-century counter-insurgency campaigns shows, whether it is the Spanish in the Rif mountains, the Germans in Africa before the Great War and during the Second World War, the Japanese in China, the Italians in Libya, the French in Algeria, the Americans in Vietnam, the Portuguese in Africa or the Soviets in Afghanistan. These actions included systemic, boundless violence, large-scale massacres of civilians and POWs, forced starvation, overt racism, gross torture, sexual violence and rape, the removal of legal process, the use of chemical and biological weapons against civilians, ethnic cleansing, extermination camps and genocide. This does not excuse British abuses in Palestine but it provides some comparative context. Put simply, in Palestine the British were often brutal but they rarely committed atrocities. Indeed, by moderating its violence, Britain was probably more effective as an imperial power. Perhaps this is the best that can be said for the British ‘way’ in repressing the Arab insurgency in Palestine: it was, relatively speaking, humane and restrained—the awfulness was less awful—when compared to the methods used by other colonial and neo-colonial powers operating in similar circumstances, an achievement, of sorts.

This study was released in 2009. Yet it made no discernible impact. No news articles about the revelations, no calls for public inquiries, no angry British demanding answers, no apologies from British who feel bad that these actions were done in their name.

The next time any smug British journalist or politician decides to talk about supposed Israeli atrocities against Palestinian Arabs - ask them how it compares with Britain's record against those very same people.

(h/t CHA for research)

Another Qassam rocket explodes - in Gaza

The Gaza NGO Safety Office sent out an SMS message on Sunday morning:

08 Jan: Overnight Pal[estinian]. op[erative]s. attempted to fire 1 HMR [home made rocket] from Al Bureij Camp, MA [Middle Area], but the rocket exploded prematurely. No reports of injury or damage.

Just because you haven't heard about any rockets from Gaza doesn't mean they aren't still trying to fire them.

And as I have shown, as many as 30% of rockets explode on the ground or fall short in Gaza, sometimes causing injuries or even death.

Coptic businessman on trial in Egypt over Mickey Mouse cartoon

From Al Masry al Youm:

The Central Cairo Prosecution has referred Coptic businessman Naguib Sawiris to trial over charges of defamation of religion.

In June, Sawiris posted a picture depicting Mickey Mouse wearing a beard and Minnie Mouse wearing a face veil on his Twitter account, a cartoon that many Muslims considered offensive.

Sawiris later apologized for posting the cartoon, however, his apology did not manage to calm the anger of Salafis who filed a report accusing him of defaming religion.

Salafi groups also launched a one-month campaign to boycott companies that Sawiris owns or is a partner in, such as Mobinil and Al-Masry Al-Youm, causing heavy losses, particularly for his mobile phone company.

On 25 June, Mamdouh Ismail, the lawyer for Jama'a al-Islamiya, and 14 other lawyers filed a suit over the incident, accusing Sawiris of intentionally ridiculing Islamic icons and attire.

According to the paper, Ismail said Sawiris has openly said he rejects Article 2 of the constitution, which states that Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is its language, and Islamic Sharia is the main source of legislation.

Ismail added that Sawiris previously expressed his rejection of the veil, which he said provides proof that the former intentionally derides Islamic dress.

Other Islamist movements also criticized Sawiris after he posted the cartoon.

In July, Mohamed Morsy, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, criticized Sawiris and described him as "a corrupt icon from the former regime."

A lawsuit is one thing - but now this is a criminal prosecution, decided upon after months of deliberation and thought. Before the Islamists officially take over.

Welcome to the new Egypt.

Keep in mind that people like Sawiri were the ones that the West latched onto as the face of the new Egypt - liberal, self-critical, open-minded and secularist - during the revolution. Based on the election results so far, that crowd ended up being a very small minority in Egypt.

Here's the offensive cartoon he posted:

The real apartheid in the Middle East (video)

From Stand With Us:

Western Union shuts down Gaza operations

From Ma'an:

International money transfer service Western Union has stopped its service to many currency exchange stores in the coastal enclave over concerns about money laundering, [Palestinian Monetary Authority Governor Jihad] al-Wazir said.

While the currency centers were able to use Money Gram and Money Express, the PMA was working to resolve the Western Union shutdown as soon as possible, he added.

Money laundering in Gaza? Geez. What's the world coming to when you can't trust funders of terrorists who shoot rockets at innocent civilians to be honest in their business dealings?

Haniyeh: "We will not lay down our arms"

From AFP:

The prime minister in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday promised "difficult days" for Israel, and at a rally in Tunis urged Arab Spring revolutionaries to fight for an independent Palestine.

Ismail Haniya received an ovation from the crowd of some 5,000 men, women and children gathered in a stadium waving Palestinian, Tunisian and Hamas flags.

"We promise you that we will not cede a single part of Palestine, we will not cede Jerusalem, we will continue to fight and we will not lay down our arms," he said, urging "the people of the revolution to fight the army of Al-Quds" as Jerusalem is known in Arabic.

"To Tunisia we say: 'It is us today who are going to build the new Middle East'."

Haniya insisted "We will not recognise Israel", as the crowd chanted: "Death to Israel", "The Tunisian revolution supports Palestine", and "The army of Mohammed is back".

Some wiped their feet on the Star of David.

Haniya's visit does not sit well with representatives of the Palestinian Authority led by president Mahmud Abbas, with a source telling AFP: "The Palestinians are furious."

Jews in Tunisia asked the government earlier Sunday to take steps to avoid a repeat of anti-Semitic slogans chanted during the Hamas leader's visit.

Islamist activists welcoming Haniya were heard chanting slogans like: "Kill the Jews, it is our duty", along with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian messages.

I'm sure when they say "death to Israel" they mean it metaphorically, like "jihad" and "intifada" and "resistance." Nothing to worry about here.

(h/t CHA)

Work accident!

22-year old Jihad Anwar al-Habib was killed this morning "while performing a Jihad mission," according to Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades.

Unfortunately, Islamic Jihad didn't describe the circumstances of his death. His face was mostly intact, though.

There was a large funeral for the mujahid in Gaza City.

The sheikh who spoke exhorted the crowd not to be fooled by the tricks and ploys of those who are calling for "popular resistance." He also reminded them that Habib's blood was not spilled in vain.

May many more jihadists follow precisely in his footsteps.

Arab pride will ensure no unity between Hamas and Fatah

I've been covering the increasingly hostile spat between Hamas and Fatah over what appears to be a minor incident: Fatah members being forced to wait at the Erez crossing to enter Gaza.

The Fatah members left in a huff, saying that Hamas disrespected them; Hamas responded by saying it will charge one of them with blasphemy for "cursing God."

Now Fatah has again increased the rhetoric. The Fatah Central Committee is demanding an apology from Hamas for how they treated their members.

And if they don't get it, they will re-assess the entire idea of unification with Hamas.

They also called on their "Arab brothers" to be aware of "Hamas' tricks" in Gaza.

They also said

Some of the leaders of Hamas in Gaza have blood on their hands with the blood of our people and our movement; they are not in a position to accuse, for it is they who should be tried for their crimes against the Palestinian national project and the right of freedom fighters of our people as well as their insistence on deepen and consolidate the division that serves only the Israeli occupation and the few leaders of Hamas in Gaza who benefit.

They further said that Hamas' threats to charge one Fatah member with blasphemy are "threats, lies, and an inappropriate use of religion to pour oil on the fire of division."

Hamas today responded by accusing Ramallah of not providing adequate medicines for Gaza.

This incident sheds light not only on why the entire "unity" scenario is a sham, but on why peace with Israel is impossible.

Here we have a case of wounded pride, of Fatah members feeling slighted, and it has turned into the equivalent of an international incident between the two sides, with rhetoric that one simply would not see outside the Muslim world. No one is even attempting to back down or to tone down the rhetoric - on the contrary, they are bringing up old grievances.

Both sides hate each other, and even though their leaders will grimace in their vain attempt to "unify" so they can fight Israel, there is no unity there, and there never will be. If there ever is an election (something that Mahmoud Zahar yesterday said would not happen by May as scheduled) the losing side is likely to ignore the results and keep whatever territory they already rule. Arab pride will not allow admitting defeat, or guilt.

If this is how Hamas and Fatah talk to each other when they are trying their hardest to pretend to be unified, how can anyone ever think that there could be peace between them and Israel?

Morning links

"Popular resistance" - 4 terrorists with 12 bombs, gun and knife caught at one of those inhumane checkpoints

Stonegate: Divisions in Hamas' leadership exposed in Sudan

Abbas' honoring a child-murderer is ignored by the Left

Volume of trade between India and Israel is now $5 billion annually; expected to triple when a free trade agreement is signed later this year. Sorry, Israel-haters.

Solving a problem begins by calling it by its proper name, at Treppenwitz

You know how the Left pretends to be against discrimination? Well, that doesn't apply to the ultimate evil of Jews wanting to live in their ancient homeland. Left wing group petitions High Court against allowing a Jewish settler from being a judge.

Over 100 mosques attacked over the past five years - in the Netherlands.

Israeli ophthamologists from Tel Hashomer Hospital go to Nablus to help treat eye diseases, do a surgery marathon. A young boy asked why the Jews were helping his grandfather; his parents answered "not all Jews are bad."

The biggest kids' store in the Middle East is in Israel - and owned by an Israeli Druse.

A flashmob of religious and secular women in Bet Shemesh:

Israelis saving the world again: an artificial pancreas.

US: MB will honor peace treaty. MB: No, we won't.

Who are you going to believe?

From Ha'aretz on Friday:

The Muslim Brotherhood gave the United States assurances regarding the maintaining of Egypt's peace deal with Israel, a top U.S. official said on Thursday, despite recent comments by party leaders claiming that the 1979 treaty did not bind Cairo's new regime.

From Israel HaYom today:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday denied remarks made by U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland that the Islamist group made guarantees to the U.S. that it would continue to respect Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

In an interview over the weekend with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Essam Arian, said, "We never promised that we would honor the peace treaty with Israel. The treaty is not sacred and we can and should make changes in it."

Another senior member of the party told the London-based newspaper Asharq Alawsat, "The movement's position is not to recognize the Zionist entity and not to recognize peace agreements with hostile entities, and this position will never change."

The truth? Egypt simply cannot risk the billions of dollars it receives from the US every year, so the Muslim Brotherhood will do the minimum necessary to appease the US while dismantling every discernible manifestation of an actual peace with Israel.

The ally from hell (Goldberg/Ambinder)

From Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic:

Nuclear-weapons components are sometimes moved by helicopter and sometimes moved over roads. And instead of moving nuclear material in armored, well-defended convoys, the SPD prefers to move material by subterfuge, in civilian-style vehicles without noticeable defenses, in the regular flow of traffic. According to both Pakistani and American sources, vans with a modest security profile are sometimes the preferred conveyance. And according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, the Pakistanis have begun using this low-security method to transfer not merely the “de-mated” component nuclear parts but “mated” nuclear weapons. Western nuclear experts have feared that Pakistan is building small, “tactical” nuclear weapons for quick deployment on the battlefield. In fact, not only is Pakistan building these devices, it is also now moving them over roads.

What this means, in essence, is this: In a country that is home to the harshest variants of Muslim fundamentalism, and to the headquarters of the organizations that espouse these extremist ideologies, including al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (which conducted the devastating terror attacks on Mumbai three years ago that killed nearly 200 civilians), nuclear bombs capable of destroying entire cities are transported in delivery vans on congested and dangerous roads. And Pakistani and American sources say that since the raid on Abbottabad, the Pakistanis have provoked anxiety inside the Pentagon by increasing the pace of these movements. In other words, the Pakistani government is willing to make its nuclear weapons more vulnerable to theft by jihadists simply to hide them from the United States, the country that funds much of its military budget.

The article gets even scarier after that.

(h/t Yoel)

Report: Egypt demanding $500 billion from Israel for Sinai damage

Egyptian media is reporting that Egypt has prepared a 750 page document detailing Israel's liability for damage done to the Sinai while Israel controlled it from 1967 to 1982.

Rose El Youssef says that the report being given to the UN. It details how Israel supposedly ravaged the Sinai and hurt the Egyptian economy. It includes some 190 maps.

Among the ludicrous charges:

Israel destroyed the fishing industry
Israel destroyed 40% of the coral reefs
Israel took lots of oil from the Sinai
Israel stole 25% of the precious gems and marble, leaving worthless rocks behind
Israel took the entire contents of two gold mines, leaving nothing of value left
Israel disrupted international maritime trade through the Suez Canal, depriving Egypt of revenue
Israel killed 250,000 (!) Egyptians and injured a million more
Israel looted all Egyptian banks in Gaza the day before the Six Day War, in the "biggest military robbery in modern history"
Israel stole priceless artifacts from Egypt's museums in the Sinai and gutted archaeological sites there
Israel emptied out 30% of the fresh water wells in the Sinai, and placed there pipes that continue to drain Egyptian water towards Israel today
Israel stole millions of tons of valuable sand, worth $49 billion in today's prices
Israel used the Sinai to research desert agriculture Israel benefits from the research but the Sinai desert lands were weakened as a result
Israel destroyed Sinai's wildlife and stole many exotic animals to make medicines being sold to Europe
Israel shot down Libyan Airlines Flight 114 (that is true, details at Wikipedia; the plane strayed into Israel accidentally and purposefully refused to acknowledge the IAF pilots' attempts to contact them)
And, of course, Israel destroyed Egypt's air force "for no reason" at the beginning of the 1967 war

You can't make this stuff up.

I think if Israel managed to steal $50 billion worth of sand, then Egypt's cash flow problems are over - the rest of the sand in the Sinai must be worth trillions! Who needs oil when you have such valuable sand?

Movie night open thread

I am in the mood to watch The Princess Bride. I only saw it once and forgot most of it.

I know, I know. Inconceivable.

Unity! Hamas to charge Fatah member for "blasphemy"

On Friday, a delegation of four Fatah officials tried to get into Gaza but left in a huff after being forced to wait, they said for an hour, at the Erez crossing.

Hamas denied it, saying that they only waited for ten minutes.,

Now Hamas has upped the ante:

The row over a Fatah delegation that said it was denied entry to Gaza continued Saturday as Hamas said delegate Sakher Bseso may face prosecution for blasphemy.

Four Fatah officials tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday for reconciliation talks, but said they were refused entry by Hamas border guards. The group said they waited for 45 minutes at the Erez crossing before giving up and returning to the West Bank.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza swiftly responded that the delegation only waited for 10 minutes at the border, and refused to wait any longer for border guards to call their supervisors to arrange the group's entry.

The ministry said Fatah delegate Sakher Bseso "cursed God" and insulted the officers. On Saturday it announced that "certain officials" had started legal proceedings against Bseso for blasphemy.

"Bseso should be ready to stand in a court and be judged," the ministry said in a statement.

Bseso told Ma'an he did not curse God and reiterated that the delegation was visiting Gaza for talks to implement the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah.

Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf insisted Friday that the delegation was refused entry to Gaza and accused Hamas leaders of holding the strip hostage. Some Hamas leaders are not interested in reconciliation, Assaf said in a statement.

Can't you feel the love?

Latest Latma

I like the commercial about Ilan Grapel.

The fake refugees of 1948

In 1949, the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) held a months-long conference in Lausanne with Israelis, Arab countries and representatives of Palestinian Arabs to discuss how to solve the issues that came up from the 1948 war, including boundaries, Jerusalem and refugees.

The Commission was frustrated by both the Israelis and Arabs, as the Arabs wanted the repatriation of refugees to be the prerequisite for any other discussions, while Israel wanted the problem to be solved in context of a comprehensive peace plan. The Commission, with delegates from the US, France and Turkey, often sided with the Arabs and spent much of its time trying to find formulas to allow many or most of the refugees to go to Israel.

I came across a very interesting article in the Palestine Post, July 13, 1949, by Jon Kimche, regarding this Commission.

Perhaps the failure of the Commission is best indicated by its failure to have done anything about the 200,000 Arab refugees who have fled, not from Israeli occupied territory, but from Arab occupied Palestine. There was no political obstacle to their repatriation. Yet they continue to sit in camps and refugee villages without anyone lifting a finger to get them back to their homes. Next there are 200,000 destitute Arabs who are not refugees but who draw assistance form the relief funds or live in refugee camps. Their problem will not be settled by repatriation of genuine refugees. What are they waiting for? In other words almost half the total problem of the so-called refugees could have been tackled without waiting on Israeli agreement for anything. It detracts considerably from the humanitarian argument used to persuade Israel to do something quick while these conditions continue unbettered.

It seems to have been well known, at least among those who followed the issue, that a significant number of "refugees" did not come from the territory controlled by Israel!

This seems consistent with research that Efraim Karsh did to count the number of 1948 Arab refugees. He calculated between 583,000-609,000 refugees from Israeli territory during the war. But the UNRWA's first count of "refugees" done at the end of 1949 came up with 962,000! (I believe that they reduced that number in their second estimate to something lower than 900,000 after accounting for fraudulent claims, mostly for people who died and who didn't exist.)

The first UNRWA report accepted that there were over 150,000 destitute Arabs who were seeking aid from the Agency who were not refugees, so it is unclear if they were included in that initial number - or if they ended up being included anyway. UNRWA and other organizations at the time also freely admitted that the Arabs were exaggerating their numbers. "Many of the needy are now actually in poorer circumstances than the average refugee because the latter receives food, medical care and some clothing, little of which is available to the non-refugee."

I had not been previously aware of the number of "refugees" who fled from areas that ended up being in Jordan or Gaza. Perhaps they left out of fear that the Zionist forces would reach them. But it looks like many of them took advantage of the free food and medical care that UNRWA provided. I don't know if Kimche's numbers are accurate - they seem somewhat exaggerated - but it appears that a large proportion of the "refugees" in 1949 were nothing of the sort.

And chances are that many of them and their descendants are still defined as "refugees" today.

Gazans in Jordan: "We are like the living dead"

Al Quds al Arabi has an article about one of the most discriminated groups of Palestinian Arabs - the Gazans of Jordan.

Most of Jordan's Gazans fled there in 1967 because they or their parents didn't want to live under Israeli rule. Unlike the West Bank Palestinians who Jordan naturalized in 1949, these Palestinians from Gaza have been treated as if they don't exist.

There are over 100,000 Gazans in Jordan.

The article talks about Mohammed Khalil Shami, born in Aqaba in 1969, who has never left Jordan in his life. When he returned with his family on vacation in a nearby town, he was stopped at a checkpoint that other Jordanians could sail through. He was held for several hours.

Instructions from Amman on how to treat Gazans at any point in time are arbitrary and secret. In this case, Shami complained about how he could be treated like foreign spies when he has lived in Jordan his whole life?

People of Gazan descent in Jordan have restrictions on land ownership, business ownership and jobs. Some register their businesses under the names of Jordanian friends.

Shami says that Gazans in Jordan are "the living dead."

A pharmacist friend of his complains that pharmacists, among others, cannot get licenses. "We have received education in the best universities in and outside Jordan, our skills are very important but we are just ghosts - the ministries do not give us a license to practice our profession and no one wants to recognize our existence at all."

Others complain about things as simple as getting cell phones, not to mention health benefits. "Is there anything more humiliating than this?"

I had covered the disgraceful plight of Gazans in Jordan in 2010. I ended off asking these questions:

How many times have you read about this "open-air prison?" How many human rights groups have championed the cause of Jordanian Gazans? What op-eds have ever been written, shaming the Hashemite Kingdom on how poorly they treat their Arab brethren? How many flotillas and convoys are being organized to help out the women and children? How many people are working to divest from Jordanian products because of this shameful discrimination?

And the answer:

Zero, zero, zero, zero and zero.

(Related: Jordanian Gazans prove that Arabs don't really care about the "right to return.")

(h/t Arthur)

Tunisians greet Haniyeh: "Kill the Jews!" (updated)

From Point of No Return:

Cries of 'Out with the Jews!', 'Kill the Jews!' greeted the arrival at Tunis airport of the Hamas chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, StandWithUS (France) reports.

A few hundred people gathered on 5 January at the Tunis-Carthage airport to welcome Haniyeh. As they waited for him they sang antisemitic chants and slogans to the glory of Palestine and the liberation of Gaza. They carried Palestinian flags, the flags of the Ennahda movement, and the black flags of the Salafists.

Ismail Haniyeh was arriving in Tunisia from Turkey for a two-day visit.

CiFWatch adds that the clip also includes “Killing the Jews is a must!” (0:16) and “Chasing away the Jews is a must!” (0:20).

These must be those moderate Islamists we've been hearing so much about.

The YouTube comments include quite a few Tunisians who are deeply embarrassed about this.

UPDATE: Translation from commenter Sammish at the Point of No Return blog:

Speaker(One person):"Kick the jews:
Crowd:"Duty" [wajib] (It is a duty)

Speaker:" Expel the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty".

Speaker: "Kill the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty"

PA leader praises TV, radio for creating "culture of resistance"

Tayeb Abdel Rahim, secretary general of the PA presidency, spoke on behalf of Mahmoud Abbas at a ceremony honoring Palestinian Arab radio and television as a new cultural center opened in Ramallah.

In his speech, he said that every day the PA TV and radio broadcasters create new and beautiful programming showing the "genius of the revolution." He congratulated them and blessed Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is responsible for all broadcast media, for deepening the idea of a "Palestinian homeland" saying that the "culture of resistance" flows through their veins.

I didn't see him praising them on telling the truth, or on objectivity, or allowing any perspectives into Palestinian Arab TV besides the government line.

I didn't see any response from PA reporters, saying that their jobs are to report the news accurately and objectively, and saying that they are not simply parroting the official government positions.

I also don't see the people who pretend to care so much about freedom of expression saying anything about this speech that proves (as if people didn't know) that the Palestinian Arab media are nothing but organs of propaganda and incitement.

Fatah/PA leader Sha'ath: "We are not abandoning armed resistance"

For the past several days, Fatah leader Nabil Sha'ath has been in Gaza working on unification with Hamas.

In an interview there, he was asked about Hamas' position that armed resistance is still necessary.

"If you wish to end the siege on the Gaza Strip you must agreed with the program of President Abu Mazen which calls for peaceful resistance to achieve the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza on the border of 1967 and its capital Jerusalem."

In response to Hamas's rejection of the option of popular resistance and adherence to armed resistance, he said Hamas was divided on this issue, and Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas political leader spoke of the popular struggle in Cairo at length and Hamas went to Khartoum to agree to that.

Shaath said the adoption of the popular resistance does not mean giving up the armed struggle ...international law and morality gives the right of armed resistance, but it is better to resist the military and not attack civilians, pointing out at this time that any use of armed struggle would be more costly than its results, expressing his belief that Hamas agrees.

He said he did not ask the Hamas movement to abandon the option of armed resistance which is a right, and President Abu Mazen said in a statement that all options are open.

Shaath said that at this time popular resistance is preferable in addition with political pressure on Israel such as attempts to gain statehood at the UN.

See? Unity stands a chance - as long as Fatah keeps moving closer to Hamas' positions!

Don't expect the Western media to make a big deal over the fact that the "moderate" Fatah is saying pretty much what Hamas says about "armed resistance."

Israel-haters just make things up; their fans eat it up

It doesn't always take years for history to be re-written. Sometimes it takes only 19 days.

From John Glaser at Anti-War.com:

Israel may betray its earlier promise to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the second phase of a prisoner swap agreement that secured the release of one captive Israeli soldier.

That agreement has already resulted in the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas for five years. That first exchange took place in October, and Israel had agreed to release another 550 – a total of 1,027 – within two months of Shalit’s release.

But now a government-appointed panel in Israel recommended in a secret report Thursday to back out of the deal. Defense Minister Ehud Barak would not divulge details of the report but said Israel has “no choice but to overhaul the rules” now that Sgt. Gilad Schalit has been freed.

You may recall that Israel fulfilled the second half of the Shalit deal, releasing 550 prisoners, on December 18th.

Was this perhaps an older article written by Glaser in early December and somehow released yesterday?

Nope. The quote from Ehud Barak is accurate and was made yesterday. As reported by AP:

Israel is rethinking its policy on prisoner swaps to avoid the kind of lopsided deals that saw Israel recently trade more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a lone Israeli soldier.

A government-appointed panel submitted its recommendations in a secret report Thursday and details were not divulged. But Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel has "no choice but to overhaul the rules" now that Sgt. Gilad Schalit has been freed after five years in captivity in Gaza.

Barak told Israel Radio, "We have to get off the slippery slope we ventured on 25 years ago."

Over the past three decades, Israel has carried out a series of wildly uneven prisoner swap deals. In some cases, the freed prisoners returned to violence against Israel.

Glaser clearly knew that the Shalit deal was completed, because the same source that he got the Barak quote from said that Israel traded more than 1,000 prisoners for Shalit.

The only conclusion is that Glaser simply made it up.

And since Israel haters travel in packs, his article has already been copied without any thought on other anti-Israel sites.

Glaser writes about two articles a day for the "news" section of Anti-War.com.

(h/t Arnold)

UPDATE: To his credit, one of the reposters corrected his post. And it appears that this site at least is not one of the mindless anti-Israel sites.

UPDATE 2: The Anti-War.com post has been taken down. No correction that I could find. The headline is still on the front page at the moment, linking to an error page. (update: now gone)

UPDATE 3: Anti-War did publish an apology.

PA cartoon: Jews would have killed Mohammed as a child because he was Arab

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Narrator: "When Muhammad was 12 he went with his uncle Abu Taleb to trade in Syria. A surprise awaited them on the way":

Wise man: "This boy is the prophet foretold in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament."

Uncle: "Muhammad, my brother's son, is a prophet?"

Wise man: "Yes, I advise you to take him back with you. If the Jews find out that the prophet of this time is of the Arabs and not of them, they will kill him."

Uncle: "Don't worry, no one will find out about him, I'll protect him as long as I live."

Peace partners!

(h/t Jack)

IDF aid missions help thousands around the world (video)

From the IDF:

As is usually the case with facts that don't portray the IDF as genocidal monsters, this video is already causing Israel-haters' heads to explode.

Jewish TV tries to make its mark (JTA)

From JTA:

It is a strange irony: Jews have been successful in the television business -- but Jewish TV, not so much.

It’s not for lack of trying. Right now, no fewer than three Jewish-focused national cable channels are trying to carve out a viable niche within the already small niche for Jewish TV.

It’s a road others have taken in the past, only to reach a dead end.

Jay Sanderson, who served for 21 years as CEO of the Jewish Television Network, knows better than most.

“There’s been dozens of attempts and dozens of failures,” said Sanderson, now the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. “It’s a cycle that’s been happening for 30-plus years. People want it to happen.”

The current Jewish television channels -- The Jewish Channel, Shalom TV and Jewish Life Television -- have scored some successes. They all launched in the past five years.

I just went to the webpages of each of the three networks mentioned in the JTA piece - TJC, Jewish Life Television and Shalom TV.

To me, the programming is almost universally boring.

Rabbis talking around a table. Re-runs of old Dinah Shore shows and Jack Benny. I mean, come on!

There are some bright spots, especially dubbing/subtitling Israeli TV shows and movies. A couple of original programs might have promise. But altogether, there is very little I can imagine anyone under 50 wanting to see.

Hire me as program director, guys. If I can keep a blog interesting by myself and without any money, imagine what I could do with a budget:

Cooking show: "Tastes like Treif" - how to cook classic non-kosher dishes while making them kosher and delicious

Syndicated Ahmed and Salim

A Jewish Mystery Science Theatre 3000

If I was going to show old dusty sit-coms, I would dub them with new dialogue.

I could come up with ideas all day.

Gamesmanship over Iran continues

From BBC:

EU member states have agreed in principle to ban imports of Iranian crude oil to put pressure on the country over its nuclear programme.

The move is expected to be announced formally at an EU foreign ministers' meeting at the end of January.

The US, which recently imposed fresh sanctions on Iran, welcomed the news.

From Sky News:

The UK would respond militarily if Iran carries out its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, the Defence Secretary has warned.

Philip Hammond used a speech in Washington DC to warn Iran that any attempt to close the key Gulf trade route would be "unsuccessful" and could be stopped in part by the Royal Navy.

"Any attempt by Iran to do this would be illegal and unsuccessful," he said in a speech at the Atlantic Council.

"Our joint naval presence in the Arabian Gulf, something our regional partners appreciate, is key to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open for international trade.

"It is in all our interests that the arteries of global trade are kept free, open and running. Disruption to the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz would threaten regional and global economic growth."

Iran has threatened to block the 34-mile wide strait in retaliation for a planned EU trade embargo on Iranian oil.

From Christian Science Monitor:

If Iran is hoping that China will buy more of its oil to make up the exports it is slated to lose because of a European embargo on Tehran’s crude it will be disappointed, Chinese analysts here predict.

Beijing “will not take the risk for Iran’s benefit” of angering the United States and becoming too dependent on one source of oil, says Ma Xiaolin, a commentator on Middle East affairs and head of the Beijing-based BLSHE economic consultancy.

From NYT:

If Iran were to follow through with its threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit route for almost one-fifth of the oil traded globally, the impact would be immediate: Energy analysts say the price of oil would start to soar and could rise 50 percent or more within days.

(h/t Ian)

Islamic Jihad more powerful than Hamas?

Islamic Jihad may have the edge on Hamas in weaponry in Gaza, according to Israeli military intelligence sources quoted by Israel's Channel 10.

According to the article, Islamic Jihad rocket have a range of 74 km.

Sources say that Iran is supplying the group with sophisticated weapons and with training through Hezbollah, who have a presence in Gaza. They add that Islamic Jihad is surpassing Hamas' weaponry both in quality and quantity.

If Hamas loses control of Islamic Jihad, it could inflame the entire area and lead to another war.

It is a sad state of affairs when the anti-semitic, relentlessly terrorist and philosophically genocidal Hamas is considered the most reliable and peaceful group in an area.

A rocket with a 74 km range which would easily reach Tel Aviv - and even Jerusalem. In fact, if the targeting is accurate, they could conceivably attack Jewish communities in parts of Judea, such as Efrat.

(h/t Yoel)

Kotel Photoshop kerfuffle causes Ha'aretz to incite Muslims

From Ha'aretz:

IDF rabbinate edits out Dome of the Rock from picture of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

Israel’s military rabbinate released an educational document ahead of the holiday of Hanukkah last month, featuring a photo of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount without the Dome of the Rock, Haaretz learned on Thursday.

The photo was featured in a packet prepared by the Military Rabbinate issued to Israel Defense Forces bases ahead of Hanukkah, under the section titled “The Festival of Jewish Heroism,” which included an article and a quiz on the Jewish struggle against Hellenistic rule.

One reserves officer talking with Haaretz said that when he “received the materials from the battalion rabbi something seemed strange about that picture.”

“We get material from the rabbinate every week and it’s mostly positive things,” the IDF officer said, adding that the edited picture was part of an “official release, which is why it’s problematic the army is distributing it.”

The IDF Spokesman’s Office said in the response that Haaretz’s description was “absurd and biased, a fact which we can only regret,” adding that the educational packet included a photo meant to illustrate Jerusalem during the period of the Second Temple.

“As was explained to the reporter, the Dome of the Rock did not exist at that time, so there was no need for it to appear in the picture,” the IDF said.

Based on the photo in the story, I tracked down the original.

It was definitely Photoshopped, as the base of the Dome of the Rock is still there.

The original photographer/artist is Mikhail Levit, who apparently did the editing. I've seen the photo on websites as far back as 2008.

So obviously the IDF rabbinate did not edit the photo. It was a nice picture, the people behind the pamphlet found it somewhere online, and put it on the pamphlet. (The IDF's explanation that it represents the time of the Second Temple is silly as well - where is the Temple? Moreover, notice that the photograph still includes the Al Aqsa Mosque on the far right side!)

This does not look deliberate. It is easy enough to take or find a photo of the Kotel where the Dome of the Rock isn't visible - without editing. Here's one I took a couple of years ago:

Or a painting of the Temple could have been used.

The graphic designer probably just Googled "kotel" and picked the nicest photo he or she could find. This is not a huge story about IDF hate for Islam.

But the officer who brought it to the attention of Ha'aretz, and Ha'aretz itself by quoting him approvingly, show more than a little hypocrisy:

Speaking with Haaretz, the reserves officer said he expected “the Military Rabbinate to be more alert about the educational messages it passes on, especially considering the Temple Mount’s history,” adding: “A world war could break if someone would try to do something about that place, and I think they should be more cautious when approaching the subject.”

“It’s infuriating that the rabbinate isn’t more being more responsible about this,” the officer added.

He's infuriated that the rabbinate wasn't more careful? Because it is so incendiary?

Let's see. Chanukah ended weeks ago.

No one noticed this photo. No Arab riots, no angry op-eds in Al Jazeera, nothing.

Now, this incensed officer is so angry about how dangerous this pamphlet cover photo is that he brings it to Ha'aretz weeks later, which splashes the story prominently in its online edition. Where everyone can see it!

The story got picked up by Islamic Jihad (top story), Hamas and Fatah websites, and probably around the Arabic press worldwide. Tens of millions of easily excited Muslims will see the story and potentially be incited to violence.

Thanks to Ha'aretz for bringing this story to their attention!

Because it is responsible journalism to publicize something silly the IDF rabbinate did with little intent and twist it into a story that could incite millions of people to believe that it is an attack directly on their souls. And to pretend that you are doing it because of potential problems that didn't occur!

Ha'aretz, by pretending to position this story as a warning against incitement, has done far more to incite hate against the IDF than the rabbinate did.

But Ha'aretz doesn't have to follow the same rules it insists the IDF does.

Fishy story: Turkey claims they almost shot down Israeli UAV

From Today's Zaman:

An Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was observed spying above the 14th Hawk B. Brigade Command in Hatay’s Kırıkhan district for four hours, the Taraf daily claimed on Tuesday.

The aerial vehicle was hovering over the brigade command post in order to capture pictures of missile batteries and radar equipment.

According to the daily’s report, the Israeli drone was first noticed by a military lieutenant, who saw a white light flashing in the sky. Later he asked an air defense senior sergeant to verify what he had seen, who confirmed that a drone was hovering over the command post.

All the military personnel then left the post in preparation for a possible attack.

Radar followed the Israeli drone as military officials waited for the order to shoot it down. Higher ranked military officials did not reply to the radar center’s call before the drone moved out of range.

At the same time as the events in Hatay, the Diyarbakır 2nd Air Force Command Strike Center was also tracking the drone. Upon an insistent request of the Hatay command, the Diyarbakır command center sent two F-16 fighter jets to the region, where they tracked and followed the drones, and eventually returned to their base in Diyarbakır.

In a related story, Turkey purchased 10 Herons from Israel in a 2004 arms deal at a cost of about $183 million. Turkey has been using Israeli-made Heron drones in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). But the Herons purchased by Turkey were not able to reach the altitudes indicated in the contract, and five of the Herons had engine-related problems. These five and at least two others that had other problems were sent to Israel for repair.

There were significant delays in the return of the drones, prompting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to publicly complain in September. This, intelligence sources say, sped up the delivery process, and Israel recently returned all of the Herons. Israeli technical personnel in charge of renovating the crafts left Turkey due to security reasons, following a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel in September 2011.

I am not a military expert, but as far as I can tell:

Herons probably do not have flashing lights
Herons don't hover
Herons don't carry missiles
The story first talks about one drone, and then "drones"
The second part of the story with the F-16s tracking the "drones" seems inconsistent with the first part. It seems strange that Hatay command could "insist" that Diyabakir send jets to the area without going through a normal military chain of command.

Also, there are other countries besides Israel that use Herons (if they were positively identified as such) and, of course, other surveillance drones.

It seems that if this was true there would be an official complaint, although I suppose that pride might play a part here.

Hatay juts out of Turkey and borders Syria as well as the Mediterranean. It would be interesting to know which direction the drone supposedly left Turkish airspace.

(h/t Yoel)

Apartheid?

Time to start on the 2012 series of posters to counter "Israel Apartheid Week."

All of my "Apartheid?" posters can be seen here.

(h/t M)

Iranian Revolutionary Guards caught in Syria?

From Albawaba:

IRGC logo. Looks a lot like Hezbollah's.

Syrian rebels insist that Iranian mercenaries are trying to help the Syrian regime in the suppression of the uprising. A brigade of the "Free Army" had taken five Iranian hostage, said Colonel Abd al-Razaq Tlass, one of the commanders of the rebels in the city of Homs.

The rebels have shown a German reporter the Iranian passports and identity cards. They were dressed as civilians, but were taken up in a combat zone, said Tlass. According to him, the five were also appear in images wearing military uniforms. The Syrian rebels claim these five Iranians are actually officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranian embassy in Damascus announced last month that the five Iranians were technicians working in a power plant in Syria. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Wednesday called for their release, saying "according to the latest information we have…they are in good health."

On Tuesday, an unknown group calling itself "The Movement against Shiite tide in Syria" claimed responsibility for kidnapping the five Iranians, adding "we take upon ourselves the task of detecting and hit all the forms of support provided by both Iran and Hizbullah to the offender." The statement said that the kidnapping is a "first warning to Iran and Hizbullah for their continued support of the Syrian regime in suppressing the revolt."

Its very hard to know what is really going on, and without any reporters there the Free Syria Army has just as much incentive to lie as the Assad regime does.

But the story is quite believable. Iran does not want to lose its major ally it has in Syria.

(h/t Yoel)

EoZ being reported to Facebook as "spammy"

When people try to post a link to my homepage on Facebook, they are now receiving this message:

Similarly, when they try to click on some of my links in my Facebook page, including my homepage, they are seeing this:

The first message gives a link where one can report that this is not an abusive page, so for the people who are seeing this pop up on Facebook, please go to that link and fill out the form.

Apparently there are people out there who are uncomfortable with the things I write, and prefer to silence me by pretending that my blog is abusive or unsafe or spam.

Even though this blog is probably one of the least incendiary websites out there on the Middle East, from either side.

Israel might become an exporter - of water!

A very important story that I had missed from a month ago (YNet only published it last week):

Israel's national water company signed a financing agreement to build a desalination plant, which officials said could allow drought-ridden Israel to export water to its neighbors upon completion in 2013.

Israel's ADL, a subsidiary of state-owned Mekorot, will build and operate the plant in the coastal city of Ashdod for 25 years, supplying 100 million cubic meters of desalinated water annually, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Israel is two-thirds arid and to avoid further depleting its fresh water sources it has become a world leader in desalination and wastewater recycling. The new Ashdod plant will join four other desalination facilities that to provide, by the end of 2013, 85% of the country's household water consumption.

"In the coming years we will be able to return water to nature and even sell water to our neighbors," said Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau.

The Finance Ministry had previously put a $400 million price tag on the plant, which will use reverse-osmosis to desalinate seawater from the Mediterranean.

Israel produces about 2 billion cubic meters of water annually. I think that the idea of export is quite a few years away.

Even so, this is big news.

Israeli company teaching kids math and science with Lego

From Israel21C:

Sometimes the best ideas are born of misfortune.

"The project started when I was injured in an accident during my military service and was forced to spend seven months at home, on crutches," says Amir Asor, who went on to conceive uniquely innovative programs that teach children the intricacies of engineering as they play with Lego.

From a diversion, internalizing the thought process behind lego model-building became a mission for Asor during that period. "I had the time and frame of mind to explore the possibilities, and built dozens of prototypes of each idea," he tells ISRAEL21c.

Still only 26, he now heads the Decade Group, a rapidly growing business that conducts extracurricular programs for schoolchildren around Israel, and has just won the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year prize from Britain's Youth Business International non-profit organization.

The video really picks up around the 3:30 mark when you see kids building his team's designs on their own.

I want that!

"Infidel Santa" murdered

From Russia Today:

A young man dressed up as Father Frost, the Russian counterpart of Santa Claus, has been brutally killed in Tajikistan. The assailants reportedly shouted “infidel” as they stabbed him to death.

The tragedy unfolded in the capital, Dushanbe, on Sunday night. Parviz Davlatbekov put on a traditional Father Frost costume to visit his friends and celebrate New Year with them. But before reaching his destination, the 24-year-old encountered a group of youths who beat him up and stabbed him. He died in hospital shortly after.

According to some local media and reports on social networks, the attackers were Muslim radicals who had targeted Davlatbekov for wearing a Father Frost outfit. They are said to have called their victim an infidel during the attack. Reports say some 30 people participated in the killing.

However, the religious motive is being denied by the police, who say they are treating the killing as an ordinary, secular crime. Three people have been detained for their role in the assault, all of whom are university students.

That's funny. I was sure that Santa was always targeted by Zionists, not Muslims. At least that's what leftist darling cartoonist Carlos Latuff - an anti-semite who has been praised by the BBC, the Guardian and Reuters - tells his many fans:

It almost looks like the murderers used Latuff's cartoon as a model.

(h/t Serious Black)

First Temple-period bulla found

From Bible History Daily and The Temple Mount Sifting Project:

Jerusalem archaeologist Gabriel Barkay announced this week that the Temple Mount Sifting Project has discovered a fragment of a seventh-century B.C.E. clay bulla impressed with the ancient Hebrew inscription [g]b’n lmlk, or “Gibeon, for the king.” According to Barkay, the bulla is evidence for royal taxation of different Judahite cities, in this case the town of Gibeon. More than 50 other such “fiscal bullae” are already known, but most lack contextual information. “All the fiscal bullae known until now come from the antiquities market, and our bulla is the first one to come from a controlled archaeological project,” wrote Barkay on the project’s Web site. “This bulla enables us to fully illuminate and discuss the entire phenomenon of the fiscal bullae.”

The bulla originates from the eastern slope of the Temple Mount, descending into the Kidron Valley.

The [full collection of] bullae include names of 19 different cities of Judah, and dates of the reign of one of the Judean kings, usually in hieratic numerals, as well as the particle “lmlk“, “for the king”. ...The fiscal bullae represent a taxation system from the different Judean cities, based on yearly taxes, which probably replaced the previous one, reflected in the royal Judean jars and their seal impressions, from the time of King Hezekiah. The discussion includes the characteristic details of the taxation systems of the Samaria Ostraca and the “lmlk” jars, in comparison to the fiscal bullae. A detailed discussion of 13 different arguments is brought to suggest the dating of the fiscal bullae to the time of King Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son (698-642 BCE). The mentioning of Lachish in some of the bullae is directly connected to the question of the date of the reconstruction of that city’s level II. The city is mentioned to pay its taxes in the 19th and 21st regnal years, which could not be in the reign of Hezekiah as the city was destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 BCE, which was Hezekiah’s 14th regnal year. According to our suggestion, Lachish was restored after being in ruins for about 16 years, by King Manasseh, rather than Josiah, as previously suggested.

The discovery of the fiscal bulla with the name of Gibeon from the slope of the Temple Mount, authenticates all the other fiscal bullae, and enables us to study a variety of subjects connected to the history of Judah in the 7th century BCE.

Those Jews, always pretending to have been in Israel for more than 63 years.

(h/t Dan)

Arab League "observers" in Syria not observing anything wrong

From Global Arab Network:

Syrian Democracy activists on denounced as "unprofessional" an Arab League observer mission in Syria, after the bloc's chief admitted snipers were still active in the country despite their presence.

The mission has been mired in controversy since the first observers arrived on December 26, with activists accusing Syria's regime of keeping the monitors on a short leash as it presses on with its lethal crackdown on dissent.

Meanwhile, as unrelenting violence continued, French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad step down for overseeing "disgusting" massacres against his own people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed three civilians in the central city of Homs, even as state television reported observers were in the Homs region.

The group also reported two more civilian deaths in Hama, and said 18 members of the security services died during clashes with army deserters in the southern city of Daraa.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, in his first remarks since the observers arrived, defended the mission, saying it had secured the release of political prisoners and the withdrawal of tanks from cities.

However, "there are still snipers and gunfire. There must be a total halt to the gunfire," he told reporters on Monday.

There have actually been dozens of murders since the observers arrived. 29 were killed Tuesday alone.

Political cartoonists have been noticing this:

(h/t gidon)

Abbas' demands violate Oslo (Yitzhak)

From commenter Yitzhak:

There is an interesting aspect of Abbas' demand that there be a 'halt' to what he terms the construction of 'settlements'. The word 'settlement' itself is carefully chosen to convey the sense of illegality and illegitimacy which Abbas desires to associate with Jewish presence in a land that has quite literally been Jewish for millenia, and which was Arab for nineteen years - and even then, only because of a crime against international law committed by the Jordanians in 1948.

Much more insidious, however, is Abbas's demand that Israel not build in these areas. The very act of making such a demand constitutes a violation of the Oslo Accords, or more precisely of the Interim Agreements between the Israelis and the Arabs, signed and witnessed by the European Union, Egypt, Jordan, Russia, and Norway, and of course by the United States, on 28 September 1995 (see Article XVII, para. 1). See inter alia annex to UN document A/48/486-S/26560 dated 11 October 1993.

If you consult the above documentation, in particular Article 27 of Annex III (Civil Affairs Annex), you will note that full rights for construction powers are granted to the respective authorities (in this case, the Israeli Government, and the 'PA' or 'Palestinian Authority'). Judea & Samaria were split into three zones: A, B and C. In Zone A, all control (including security) was handed over to the PA. In Zone B, all control except security, was handed over to the PA. Only in Zone C - which includes Israeli villages and Israeli military installations, was full control retained by the Israeli authorities. In all of these zones (including C), the situation was agreed upon by the Israelis, the 'Palestinians', and was given official sanction in the aforementioned UN documents (supra).

So in fact, it is legal and moral nonsense, to refer to Israel as 'the occupying power' in any of the above zones, or to assert that Israel must 'halt construction' in Zone C. During the discussions which led to the Interim Agreement of 1995, the PA had requested the addition of a 'side letter' which would restrict construction in Zone C. This request was ultimately withdrawn.

As for the 'settlements' themselves, the usual rationale for 'illegality' is that their existence is a violation of the IV Geneva Convention. This is not the case, because Article II of the aforementioned Convention deals with 'partial or total occupation' of the territory of a High Contracting Party. As Jordan's seizure and subsequent annexation of Judea & Samaria came about following a war of aggression, Jordan does not enjoy this status. (International Law, Malcolm N. Shaw, Fifth Edition, Cambridge University Press 2003, pp. 1061-1063. See also Article XLII, Hague Regulations 1907 and A. Gerson, Israel, the West Bank and International Law). To accord the status of 'High Contracting Party' to Jordan from 1948 onwards would be to legitimize a posteriori armed aggression and land theft. [Obviously, the PLO is not a "high contracting party" either. - EoZ]

The second reason the Convention does not apply can be found in Paragraph 6 of Article XLIX, which states: 'The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies'. To quote Prof. Eugene V. Rostow, former dean of Yale Law School and US Under Secretary of State, 'The Jewish settlers in the West Bank are most emphatically volunteers. They have not been “deported” or “transferred” to the area by the Government of Israel, and their movement involves none of the atrocious purposes or harmful effects on the existing population it is the goal of the Geneva Convention to prevent'.

Also, to cite Professor Julius Stone (former Challis Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law at the University of Sydney and visiting Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales), 'Irony would...be pushed to the absurdity of claiming that Article 49(6), designed to prevent repetition of Nazi-type genocidal policies of rendering Nazi metropolitan territories judenrein, has now come to mean that...the West Bank...must be made judenrein and must be so maintained, if necessary by the use of force by the government of Israel against its own inhabitants. Common sense as well as correct historical and functional context excludes so tyrannical a reading of Article 49(6)'.

I repeat: there is no legal impediment whatsoever to Israeli construction in Zone C, and this is where the currently disputed 'settlements' are located. By demanding that construction be halted, Mahommed Abbas is committing yet another violation of the Oslo Accords (as he did when he went to the UN in September of 2011), and showing that neither he nor his 'Palestinian Authority' can be trusted.

I would add that the PLO leaders regularly say that Israel, by continuing to build in the areas of existing communities, are violating "signed agreements." They seem to be referring to the Roadmap of 2003. But Israel made clear at the time that it did not accept certain parts of the roadmap, and spelled them out.