Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 31, 2012

BDS: Cultural graffiti

Starting last night, the Batsheva Dance Company is performing in Edinburgh, Scotland. Naturally, the Israel-haters are out in force, both noisily protesting outside and - last night - interrupting the performance three times from inside the theatre.

A number of Israelis refer to the BDS actions against Israeli artists as "cultural terror." I think that is an overstatement, and it also gives them too much credit. In reality, what they do is cultural graffiti.

On the surface, one might think that both graffiti artists and BDSers are motivated to get an important message out to the world. The scrawler on walls is, after all, spending time creating something for people to look at, and the boycotters are noisily chanting for their cause.

But only a little digging finds that both of them are driven not by altruism but by egocentrism. Just as graffiti artists usually emphasize painting their own code names, BDSers are obsessed with their own sense of self-worth. A look at their triumphant tweets shows that they are proud not so much at getting their message out as in bragging about successfully doing something very simple - shouting. Even then, as is often the case, they wildly exaggerate their supposed victories in order to feel important. (They showed great happiness and pride at forcing an Israeli official to use the side door to avoid injury.)

Both the graffiti artists and the BDSers will carefully plan their crimes, coming up with ways to avoid the police and security guards. The fundamental skills needed for both are quite limited - anyone can spray paint and anyone can shout robotic slogans. The fact that some are more talented than others in their space doesn't detract from the basic fact that they are both immensely proud of thinking that they can bypass authority, something that take very little skill.

Another commonality they have is the misguided notion that what they are doing makes a difference. They think that their illicit activities somehow serve a higher purpose, and they ascribe false morality to immoral activities.They regard themselves as having a more refined notion of what is right and wrong than ordinary people. This is again an offshoot of their fundamental egoism.

Related to that is that both groups are so self-centered that they have an utter indifference to the effects their acts have on others. Their actions cost them little but they cost the public a great deal, in extra security as well as in the psychic costs of living in an environment made deliberately uncomfortable by selfish blowhards.

Finally, in both cases, when they do get caught by authorities, they believe that this gives them more credibility in their own communities.

In the end, the self-righteous BDSers are no more than a bunch of kids with paint cans.

Some choice nuggets from Iran's Supreme Leader

The complete text of Ayatollah Khamanei's speech to the NAM summit is online, and it has some doozies:

The UN Security Council has an illogical, unjust and completely undemocratic structure and mechanism. This is a flagrant form of dictatorship, which is antiquated and obsolete and whose expiry date has passed. It is through abusing this improper mechanism that America and its accomplices have managed to disguise their bullying as noble concepts and impose it on the world....Torture and assassination are permissible and completely ignored if they are carried out by America, the Zionists and their puppets.

...The U.S. and its Western allies have armed the usurper Zionist regime with nuclear weapons and created a major threat for this sensitive region. Yet the same deceitful group does not tolerate the peaceful use of nuclear energy by independent countries, and even opposes, with all its strength, the production of nuclear fuel for radiopharmaceuticals and other peaceful and humane purposes. Their pretext is fear of production of nuclear weapons. In the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they themselves know that they are lying, but lies are sanctioned by the kind of politics that is completely devoid of the slightest trace of spirituality.

And spiritual people like Khamanei wouldn't lie, would he? I mean, the thousands of centrifuges being built underneath mountains are for medicine, right?

...The summary of this matter is that on the basis of a horrible Western plot and under the direction of England in the 1940s, an independent country with a clear historical identity called “Palestine” has been taken away from its people through the use of weapons, killings and deception and has been given to a group of people the majority of whom are immigrants from European countries.

Well, maybe he'll lie a teensy bit.

...Political and military leaders of the usurping Zionist regime have not avoided any crimes during this time: from killing the people, destroying their homes and farms and arresting and torturing men and women and even their children, to humiliating and insulting that nation and trying to destroy it in order to digest it in the haraam-eating stomach of the Zionist regime, to attacking their refugee camps in Palestine itself and in the neighboring countries where millions of refugees live.

Apparently, Khamanei wants all non-kosher restaurants in Tel Aviv to close down.

Even now after 65 years the same kind of crimes marks the treatment of Palestinians remaining in the occupied territories by the ferocious Zionist wolves.

Doesn't he mean a crossbreed between wolves and pigs?

Now I would like to give a benevolent piece of advice to American politicians who always stood up to defend and support the Zionist regime. So far, this regime has created countless problems for you. It has presented a hateful image of you to the regional peoples, and it has made you look like an accomplice in the crimes of the usurping Zionists. The material and moral costs borne by the American government and people on account of this are staggering, and if this continues, the costs might become even heavier in the future.

If the leaders of Iran would kill themselves and democratic elections would follow, the US would save even more money!

Just a benevolent piece of advice.

Friday links

From Ian:

IDF Blog Palestinian Terrorist Group Graduates Its First Class from New Academy

"The PRC, along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, tries to enlist and train as many terrorists as they can in order to be able to fire rockets into Israel and fight the Israel Defense Forces. The PRC has established the Shahid Imad Hamad Academy of Military Training for this purpose. This week, the first class graduated from the academy."

Israel’s Right to Exist Not Based Upon UN Resolution

"Jewish rights to the Land of Israel are steeped in four millenia of facts. The right to re-establish a country on the entirety or any portion of this land stems from writ and deed, and from the continual presence of Jewish communities dwelling in the land throughout the epochs. Living descendants of these die-hard, holdout communities are firm links in the chain of generations, and proffer irrefutable proof. Every archaeological Tel and architectural artefact testifies to the truth. All remnants and ruins bear witness. Relics substantiate and place-names verify."

Romney: Obama 'threw Israel under the bus'

As he accepts Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney slams president's Iran policy • Every American is less secure today because Obama failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat ... We're still talking, and Iran’s centrifuges are still spinning, says Romney.

Iraqi Ally of Israel Dispossessed of his Home, he Says by Iraqi PM Maliki

"Former Iraqi Parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, who in a series of recent interviews with The Algemeiner has spoken of Iran’s alleged bribery of numerous Iraqi officials, says he has received notice from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that he is being dispossessed of his home in Baghdad’s Green Zone."

UN investigator condemns Corrie court ruling

Richard Falk, a UN special rapporteur on human rights says decision "a victory for impunity for Israeli military."

Jimmy Carter calls Corrie ruling ‘unacceptable’

Former US president says decision exonerating IDF in activist’s death ‘confirms a climate of impunity’

[There's that word again! -EoZ]

Pro-Palestinian group offers BDS tour of Australian stores

Sally McGregor, an American podiatrist who founded the Brisbane shop in 1994, said members of the group occupied her store until police were called and eventually moved them on, the newspaper The Australian reported Thursday.
“I am really scared that they will return and damage my business, but I will not be told what I should or should not stock,” she told J-Wire, a local Jewish website.A letter was given to owners of several stores visited by the group, asking them to “stop importing and selling goods from Israel,” according to the Justice for Palestine website.
Danny Lamm, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told The Australian: “These mafia-style tactics have no place in contemporary Australia. The shop owner deserves our admiration and every support for refusing to be stood over.”

LAPD: ‘Active’ Terror Plots Linked To Iran, Hezbollah, ‘Sovereign Citizens’

The Department is currently tracking “government of Iran operatives, Hezbollah, sovereign citizen, homegrown violent extremists, animal rights groups” and others, Downing said.
He added that Iranian or Hezbollah agents may initiate attacks locally if war erupts between the U.S. and Iran.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: July, 2012 by Raymond Ibrahim

Egypt's Salafi Party Objects to Banning Sex Slavery by Raymond Ibrahim

‘June 67 taught them respect’: Heavy-metal Swedes hail the IDF

Hard rockers Sabaton spend their only free day on tour in Israel visiting Ammunition Hill and army base in West Bank

The greenest house in the world?

Students at Ariel University marshal all sorts of techniques to build an environmentally sound abode

Israel Daily Picture Ottoman General at the Damascus Gate 1916
“...the street was full of observant Jews dressed in their Sabbath finery.”

Richard Millett: Paralympics are Go: Israeli team receives warm welcome from home crowd.

And a full-length dramatic film about the Jewish founder of the Paralympics, Sir Ludwig Guttmann:

Also, Iran's translator tampers with Morsi's NAM speech. (h/t O)

Robot gives science lesson at Israeli school

From Digital Journal:

Technology is making a bigger and bigger impact in the classroom and this summer, RoboThespian, a robotic actor, got a summer job as a guest science teacher for a group of grade 5 and 6 students in Israel.

Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, describes RoboThespian as a robot that gestures, has facial expressions and multiple vocal effects. It was purchased by Israel’s National Museum of Science, Technology and Space from British company Engineered Arts Limited back in 2010 for a Robot Zoo exhibition.

Then this month the robot was put to work, giving a live lesson to kids on the science of levers. Prof. Igor Verner of the Technion’s Department of Education in Technology and Science tells the Institute’s magazine Focus, “We’ve just witnessed one of the first ever formal science lessons given by a robot.”

(h/t NoCamels)

Will Arab/Iranian Paralympians refuse to compete against Israel?

While the idea of countries refusing to compete against Israel in international sport is reprehensible enough, it will be interesting to see if they also refuse to compete in the Paralympics,which are going on now.

So far, I've only found one competition where an Israeli and Arab were together, the second heat of the men's 100m backstroke that was held yesterday. Israeli swimmer Yoav Valinsky competed in the lane right next to Iraqi Jawad Kadhim Joudah Joudah. Neither of them advanced but Joudan ended up in fourth place with Valinsky in sixth.

Israel is competing against UAE in a shooting competition but in that case the athletes are not competing at the same time. Israel's other main sports seem to be table tennis and sailing, with no apparent Arab or Iranian competition.

So far, one Israeli swimmer has won one bronze medal.

By the way, this commercial for British TV coverage of the Paralympics is a must-see:

Report: Gaza vegetables being smuggled to Saudi Arabia

Palestine Press Agency reports that vegetable prices have risen dramatically in Gaza recently, while the prices of fruit have declined.

According to a dealer interviewed, the reason for the rise in prices is that Gazans have been smuggling their vegetables through Rafah tunnels to sell them to Saudi Arabia, which pays better than the local market.

The produce smuggled out include tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant.

Earlier this month, a shipment of vegetables was exported from Gaza through Kerem Shalom to Saudi Arabia, according to Arab media.

Saudi vegetable prices doubled over the summer due to a severe shortage because of the high summer temperatures and drought conditions, so the idea that there is a black market in imported Gaza vegetables is not so far-fetched.

In July, Saudi Arabia ended a 20-year ban on importing vegetables from Jordan as well, apparently to ease the shortage.

Egyptian officials accuse Mossad of assassinating Sinai jihadist (update)

From Ma'an:

Egyptian security officials said Thursday that three Bedouin men from the Sinai are suspected of involvement in the killing of an Islamist militant earlier this week.

Two of them fled to Israel on Wednesday, while another was captured by a Jihadi group, the officials said.

Egyptian intelligence reports also accused Israel's security service Mossad of being involved in the operation.

Ibrahim Owida Nasser Madan was killed in an explosion while riding his motorcycle south of Al-Qasiya, 15 kilometers from the Israeli border, on Sunday.

At the time, an Egyptian intelligence report said he was hit by a missile fired by an Israeli drone.

Other officials told Ma'an that Madan may have been killed by a missile which exploded while militants were trying to launch it.

Israel told Egyptian authorities it was not involved in the incident, Egyptian security sources said.

Madan, a member of a Jihadi militant group, had just been released by Egyptian security services after he was detained a few days ago during an Egyptian security campaign in northern Sinai, the intelligence report said.

This article doesn't directly say that Madan was killed by a drone, but Egyptian media is saying that. According to those reports, the Bedouin acted as spotters and called in the drone to kill him.

Their evidence? They say that there was a crater three meters deep and three meters wide where the motorcycle exploded, and if he was carrying explosives or ran over a mine it would not create such a crater.

That would be convincing evidence - if it was true. But here are two photos of the motorcycle; the first one while it was still burning and unlikely to have been moved:

Can you see any crater, let alone one ten feet deep?

In fact, the photos pretty much prove that it was not an Israeli drone that killed him. The accusations of Bedouin who escaped to Israel could be a cover-up in order to hide the fact that Egyptian security could not find them, or it might actually be true that the Bedouin who know the desert went over the border just to hide until the heat is off.

I somehow doubt that the Mossad has drones!

A Daily Star (Lebanon) report at the time made a bit more sense:

Witnesses said he was killed in an explosion as he tried to fire a rocket, and as an Israeli military drone hovered in the sky above its side of the border.

But the Mossad story is so appealing when you are already a crazed conspiracy theorist who already blames the Mossad for everything. Like most Arabs and some of their biggest fans.

UPDATE: Challah Hu Akbar points out that these photos, while accompanying a number of stories about the incident, are from an earlier Sinai incident. The real photos show a crater but it still does not look like it came from a missile (which would leave some shrapnel, directed downward), rather an explosion or a landmine: It does appear to be 3 meters wide in the sand but not close to three meters deep.

UPDATE 2:

Egyptian police said they found a decapitated head in Sinai on Friday of a man kidnapped by Islamist militants, reportedly for his role in assassinating an extremist.

A security official said another man, also accused in the assassination, was believed to have been kidnapped by the Bedouin militants.

A Bedouin tribal source said the head found in the Muqatta area in north Sinai belonged to Manazil Bereikat from the same tribe of an extremist killed in a mysterious explosion near the Israeli border on August 26.

At the time, witnesses said the militant, Ibrahim Ouda Bereikat, died in a blast as he tried to fire a rocket into Israel. Security sources said he might have been killed in a landmine.

The Bedouin source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the militants behind Manazil’s kidnapping accused him and several other men of planting a booby trap to assassinate Ouda Bereikat.

The security official said two other men the militants were hunting to avenge Ouda Bereikat’s death fled across the border into Israel.

Booby trap, landmine, malfunctioning rocket, missile? The stories change with the wind.

Miracle in Sderot as rocket hits house but fizzles

Is this even considered news anymore?:

The Color Red alert was sounded twice in Sderot and the surrounding area in the early hours of Friday morning. A short time later a rocket exploded in Sderot, hitting a home but miraculously – no one was injured...

Security forces arrived at the scene to remove the Qassam rocket, which failed to explode completely when it hit the house.

An additional rocket exploded in an open area in Sderot, no injuries were reported.

Later on Friday morning a rocket fired from Gaza has hit the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, evidently exploding in an open area – but security forces have yet to locate the explosion site.

Limor Aflalo, the owner of the house that was hit by the rocket, told Haaretz that this was the second time a Qassam has hit her home: "This happens to us again, it's just desperation, thank God that there is damage only to property and not to any person, this is a great miracle, but at some point these miracles stop," she said.

"I'm not going to leave my house. In 2007, we left the house because of the Qassams, but I can't leave again, and now we're going back to that reality. It is hard for my children to deal with this. I do not believe in the phrase 'be strong' anymore. It's so sad that this is happening and that they are allowing this to happen. This is the fifth [rocket] to fall in our neighborhood, the second in my house. We hope it will stop," she added.

The rocket fell on the ceiling of her home. It broke the roof of her house, and then landed in her neighbor's garden.

The mayor of Sderot David Buskila said on Friday, "We can't relax here, we are going back to the tough days [of rockets falling] in Sderot. Sometimes there are lulls but the shooting has gone on for 12 years now. There was a miracle here."

GANSO did not report on any of these rockets.

$40K grant to Ontario hatefest showing fake Gaza kids artwork

Notice how the people are drawn in a single-line outline - no child does that.

Festivals and Events Ontario supports and gives grants to various public festivals in Ontario, Canada. This year they gave $40,000 to MuslimFest, which takes place this weekend.

Normally, there would be nothing wrong with that. But in this case, MuslimFest is a hatefest.

It is showing an exhibition of the fake children's artwork from Gaza that is nothing but contrived anti-Israel propaganda, as I discussed previously.

Already a year ago I showed evidence that most of the "art" was not drawn by children at all, both from the style and from the simple fact that the artists didn't sign their names nor are they named in the exhibit. I added more information in this article for the Algemeiner.

This exhibit is vicious anti-Israel hate that uses a falsified story about the "art"origins in order to incite hate against Israel. Yet this fake art exhibit continued to be shown across the US and Canada.

Eye on a Crazy Planet reports that Muslim Brotherhood-linked IRFAN is also sponsoring this festival.

FEO should have more oversight on what they give their money to. The idea that a public festival is a venue for indoctrinating hate is something that simply should never happen in Ontario.

(h/t BlazingCatFur)

Rachel Corrie DID get college credit for joining ISM

Yesterday, I asked whether Rachel Corrie received college credit for joining the ISM in Gaza. I based this on a 2003 article that said that all Evergreen students in Rafah were getting independent study credit.

It looks like Corrie had set up her trip to Gaza as an independent study course at Evergreen. A lengthy 2003 article in Mother Jones tracing Corrie's journey says:

In the fall of her senior year a friend returned from ﬁve months in Gaza and talked enthusiastically to Corrie about the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist group founded just the year before. A motley collection of anti-globalization and animal-rights activists, self-described anarchists and seekers, most in their 20s, the ISM upholds the right of Palestinians to carry out "armed struggle" and seeks "to establish divestment campaigns in the U.S. and Europe to put economic pressure on Israel the same way the international com- munity put pressure [on] South Africa during the apartheid regimes."

...Corrie proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join the ISM team, and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah.

So indeed, Corrie went to Gaza with the expectation of receiving college credit for her work.

I still don't know which of her teachers sponsored her study program. Footnotes in the book based on her journals list three radical anti-Israel teachers who encouraged her to go: Simona Sharoni (who I mentioned in yesterday's post,) Steve Niva and Jean Eberhardt.

Steve Niva is a piece of work. In an article he wrote for Electronic Intifada on the first anniversary of Corrie's death, he defended her for burning the American flag - and made it sound like it was her patriotic duty!

Israeli apologists frequently circulate a picture of Rachel burning an American flag at a Palestinian demonstration, as if to prove that she was an irresponsible promoter of anti-American hatred.

Yet the most important point that her critics miss is that the symbol of an American questioning her government’s policy in the Middle East is extremely important and highly beneficial to Americans in general. It is very important for Americans to show people in this region that America is not monolithic and that some American civilians strongly disagree with their government’s policies. Lack of exposure to these voices is a major factor that increases the likelihood of terrorism and animosity towards American citizens.

Compared to the immensely dangerous impact on regional public opinion of the widely disseminated images of U.S. Marines placing flags on Iraqi government symbols during the recent war, Rachel’s act appears altruistic. Americans should be thankful for people like Rachel who uphold deeply rooted American values about freedom from illegitimate domination and for presenting a progressive image to the world.

Get that? Burning the symbol of America represents American values!

The Mother Jones article disputes the Corrie's parents contention that the area was not a war zone (they repeated this last night in a videoconference call): It also confirms the Haifa judge's contention that there were hidden explosives in the area that had to be cleared .

Masked militants from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades prowl the city's sandy alleyways at night, past gray cinder-block homes and shops whose walls are covered with "martyr" posters and brightly painted images of assault riﬂes and exploding Israeli tanks. Nightly gun battles pit Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers (apcs) patrolling the border strip -- known by the Israelis as "Philadelphi Road" or the "Pink Line" -- against guerrillas ﬁring anti-tank missiles, grenades, and Kalashnikovs. Roadside bombs lie buried in the sand, and a local Bedouin family controls a lucrative business smuggling weapons from Egypt via tunnels dug as deep as 100 feet and often concealed inside Palestinian homes.

And it appears that Corrie naively thought that her status as an international would be a kind of force field that would protect her, no matter what. As the article goes on to say:

Corrie had come to Rafah a paper radical, primed for outrage, but with little real-world experience. That changed immediately. On her ﬁrst night in Rafah, she and two other human shields, a fellow Olympian and an Italian, set up camp in a heap of rubble inside Block J, a densely populated neighborhood along the Pink Line and frequent target of gunﬁre from an Israeli watchtower. By placing themselves between the Palestinian residents and the troops, and hanging up banners announcing the presence of "internationals," the activists hoped to discourage the shooting. But the plan backﬁred. Huddling in terror as Israeli troops ﬁred bullets over their tent and at the ground a few feet away, the three activists decided that their presence at the site was provoking the soldiers, not deterring them, and abandoned the tent.

But even after this incident, Corrie still believed that she was invincible because she was an "international." She wrote on February 22, nearly a month after arriving in the Middle East:

People can’t get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can’t get home; and internationals, who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, won’t make it. We could probably make it through if we made serious use of our international white person privilege, but that would also mean some risk of arrest and deportation.

Joe Smith, another ISM member, admitted that they felt invincible:

It's definitely easy to get cocky in this war zone when a tank is shooting at people and you walk up to them and shout at them, 'Hey, I'm here!' and they pack up and leave. You get so used to this idea, 'Hey, they won't hurt us.' It [Corrie's death] has really made me realize how naive and cocky I was.

Corrie's professors and her ISM comrades told her that her "whiteness" would protect her, because Israeli kill Palestinian Arabs purely for racist reasons. She even wrote that in a February 27 email:

When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I’ve ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.

This is what Rachel Corrie was taught, and this is what she believed.

Her mentors encouraged her to risk her life for their anti-Israel cause, falsely telling her that she was protected because she was white and from America and had a magic fluorescent vest and a magic bullhorn and magic signs that can stop tanks and bulldozers.

No wonder that after her death, her martyrdom is celebrated. By dying, Rachel Corrie managed to make the difference she was indoctrinated to make. And, according to the same Joe Smith, it was all worth it:

The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression.

(h/t Ian, Nevet)

Gazans keep firing rockets

Ma'an reports:

A previously unknown militant group claimed responsibility Wednesday for an attack on the Israeli city of Ashkelon with five Grad missiles the previous evening.

"The Mujahadeen consultative council in Jerusalem and its environs" said it would continue its attacks targeting Israeli areas near Gaza in response to its crimes against Palestinians.

Israeli authorities said two rockets and a mortar shell were fired into southern Israel late Tuesday. There were no reports of injury or damage in the attacks.

Don't you love how these "previously unknown groups" pop up all the time in Gaza - and they manage to get their hands on mortars and rockets?

Especially since every weapons tunnel into Gaza is monitored and controlled by Hamas?

GANSO says this is what they noticed Tuesday night:

MU, 29 AUG: Overnight, Pal. ops. fired 8 mortar shells and 3 HMRs ["home-made rockets"] toward the Green Line. 2 mortars and 1 HMR dropped short. No injuries or damage reported.

Luckily for Gazans, the ones that fell short didn't hit any homes. This time.

Meanwhile, Israel is complaining to the UN, and the UN is ignoring it:

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor has submitted another complaint to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon over the rockets that have been fired from Gaza on Sderot. Prosor accused the UN of inaction, urging the global body to condemn the violence.

Thursday links

From Ian:

Prosor: Roar of Gaza rockets fall on deaf ears to UN

Israeli Ambassador to the UN pens letter to UNSC president in response to report stating that Gaza won't be "livable" by 2020.
"A group of researchers on the moon could have produced a more accurate and balanced report on Gaza than the one the UN produced this week, Israel’s ambassador Ron Prosor wrote Wednesday in a blistering letter to Security Council President Gerard Araud."

How Many Millionaires Live in the "Impoverished" Gaza Strip? by Khaled Abu Toameh

Syria's War Spills Into Lebanon by Michael J. Totten

Palestinians Face Own Diplomatic Tsunami

In stinging rebuke to hosts, UN chief denounces Iranian anti-Israel threats and Holocaust denial

“I strongly reject any threat by any [UN] member state to destroy another, or outrageous comments to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust,” Ban said.
“Claiming another UN member state does not have the right to exist or describe it in racist terms is not only utterly wrong but undermines the very principles we have all promised to uphold,” the UN chief added.
Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, accused Israel of being made up of “bloodthirsty wolves,” a day after Ban asked the cleric to tone down his rhetoric against Israel.

Australian Jews protest news reports about abuse by IDF

"The newspaper reports triggered a scathing response Tuesday from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s president, Dr. Danny Lamm, who described it as “crude propaganda” and challenged the testimonies, which he said were “anonymous, non-specific as to times and places, devoid of critical detail and untested by any kind of cross-questioning.”

Egypt may resume civilian nuclear program, Morsi says

Egyptian nuclear ambitions were discarded following the 1967 defeat at the hands of Israel. Egypt signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 but delayed ratifying it, presumably because it had evidence that Israel had embarked on a nuclear weapons program

Red Cross halts most Pakistan aid in wake of doctor's beheading

"The killing of an ICRC official in Quetta had seriously worried staff members of the organization about their security in Pakistan, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Dale, who converted to Islam, ran a health program in Quetta when he was kidnapped on January 5 while going home from work."

MEMRI Man Crucified By Al-Qaeda-Affiliated Ansar Al-Shari'a For Allegedly Directing U.S. Drones In Yemen.

Upper Nazareth square dedicated for Munich athletes

Hamas Condemns Mahmoud Abbas for Saying “Israel Is Here to Stay”

During the meeting Abbas said that ”Israel is here to stay, no matter what certain extremists say…It is not that there is one state too many in the region; rather that there is one state too few.”
Now, Hamas has condemned Abbas for making this statement and says that he must apologize to the Palestinian people for taking such a position.

Hamas Accused of Torturing Salafi Leader in Gaza

Activists Call for Transparency From Mahmoud Abbas on Property & Bank Accounts in Jordan

Iranian World of Warcraft gamers blocked by sanctions (Surely the Iranians will abandon their nuclear bomb now!)

New worlds discovered, courtesy of US-Israel team
Kepler-47 is the first multi-planet solar system found in a binary star system

Israel To Make Agric Tech Available to Ghanaian Farmers

Israel is a world leader in agricultural research and development; this has led to dramatic increases in the quantity and quality of the country’s crops.
The drive to increase yields and crop quality has led to the development of new seed and plant varieties.
A statement issued by the organizers of the show quoted the ambassador as saying that, with an increasing population, Ghana was faced with the challenge of satisfying rapidly growing food demand.

Also:

Judith Butler and the politics of hypocrisy

Who Killed Rachel Corrie?