Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Thursday links. Come and get 'em!

From Ian:

Ignoring the real bloodshed in Syria by focusing on Israel by Alex Ryvchin - NGO Monitor

"This week, Oxfam, Crisis Action and other NGOs will send delegations to Brussels to lobby the European Parliament in the political campaign to single out Israel by labelling goods that originate from Israeli settlements on the eastern side of the “Green Line.” This is the 1949 armistice line that arbitrarily marked where Jordanian and Israeli forces were located at the end of the 1948 war, and has no legal significance. This political event is funded by the government of Denmark, whose support for boycotting Israel and failure to implement similar measures against Syrian products reveals the same hypocrisy and poor judgment as the NGOs it’s hosting in Brussels this week."

U.S. State Department Strengthening Hamas by Khaled Abu Toameh

"The Emir of Qatar's visit to the Gaza Strip is a huge diplomatic victory for Hamas and a severe blow to the moderate Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority. The emir did not come to the Gaza Strip to try to persuade Hamas to abandon terror and recognize Israel's right to exist. Nor did he come to the Gaza Strip to tell Hamas to endorse democracy and stop its oppressive measures against Palestinians, especially women."

America’s foes get away with murder

“So here are a few conclusions that should, by now, be apparent: 1) Iran’s rulers collaborate with al-Qaida, a terrorist organization with which the Obama administration says we are at war; 2) Iran’s rulers, the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism, do not hesitate to plot terrorism on American soil, confident they will pay no price; 3) Iran’s rulers are pursuing a nuclear weapons capability and, if they achieve that goal, will become much bolder and more dangerous.
It’s time we grasped this, too: Swatting mosquitoes and shooting the occasional crocodile takes you only so far. At some point it becomes necessary to devise a strategy to drain the swamp.”

Turkey: Another emerging Islamist autocracy By Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking: Bernard Lewis predicted that Turkey would evolve into an aggressive Islamist dictatorship and could become the greatest threat to Israel. Alas, his prediction about Turkey is being realized.

UN Watch: UN’s 9/11 conspiracist calls for boycott of HP, Volvo, Motorola & Caterpillar

Falk was just condemned by the British government for his “anti-Semitic” remarks, with the Foreign Office delivering a protest to the U.N. that expressed London’s “serious concerns” over his “unacceptable” comments. UN Watch urged the U.S., France, Germany and other democracies to follow suit by taking the floor today to condemn Falk’s anti-Jewish remarks.

Silence on Gaza rockets gives terror a green light, Israeli envoy warns UN

"Ron Prosor warned Security Council members that if they don’t condemn the rocket attacks, “there could be tragic consequences” because Hamas and other terrorists will interpret the silence “as a green light for terror and provocation.”

Daphne Anson Angling For An Apology: Britons Battling The Balfour Declaration

"So runs a silly doomed-for-the-dustbin e-petition to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office concocted last year by an anti-Israel activist. Tweeted at intervals by its framer, who also happens to head a small Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch somewhere in the British boondocks, the e-petition closed in August this year, having attracted just 155 signatures."

Obama’s Benghazi Investigator: An Iran Sympathizer

"The problem is that Pickering has ties to the pro-Iran Islamist front group known as the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC lost an important defamation case in federal court last month in which it unsuccessfully argued the group was not a tool of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

SBS Dateline Tourism on Trial (Video)
As Egypt's tourist industry already struggles post-revolution, some Islamists want the Pyramids covered and people segregated.

MEMRI TV Host Yahya Abu Zakariya to Terrorists: No Black-Eyed Virgins Await You in Paradise.

The part where he reveals what the virgins look like is a LOL moment.

PMW Scriptwriter on PA TV: Israel is "foreign entity" implanted in Greater Syria

Jewish Schoolboy in France Attacked, Insulted in Arabic
Two men assaulted a Jewish schoolboy in Paris’ 19th arrondissement Monday. According to a report on JTA, the two men hurled insults in Arabic at the 12 year-old boy, whipped him with a belt and told him to remain silent.

Israeli flag burned in front of Budapest synagogue
Ultranationalist party suspected; Hungary issues statement condemning anti-Semitism

Hillary Sides With Anti-Semitic Ukrainian Opposition

Elbit Systems wins $25m Brazilian order
Brazilian subsidiary Ares will supply its Remax remote controlled weapons stations to the Brazilian Army over two years.
"Elbit System said that this was its second Brazilian contract in a month, after another Brazilian subsidiary AEL Sistemas SA won a $15 million order to supply unmanned turrets to the Brazilian Army."

The Israeli company that clothes the world’s athletes

Tefron is now set to manufacture apparel for one of the most respected athletic gear brands in the world
"And XTS is just as impressed with Tefron, said CEO Bodo W. Lambertz. “Like XTS, we find Tefron to be among the most technologically advanced companies in the apparel industry. We, therefore, chose Tefron because they have the sophistication in their manufacturing to produce our unique sportswear products and because they have established a reputation for innovative athletic wear that we believe will best serve to develop the North American market” for XTS products, he said."

These are enough links for now...but stay tuned.

Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, Zionism's Sephardic Father

This is extraordinarily cool. From Michael Freund in JPost:

This month’s anniversary of the passing in October 1878 (4 Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar) of Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, a Sephardi Jew from Serbia, presents an opportunity to correct the record and restore the Sephardi impact on Zionist renewal to its rightful place.

While his name may not be overly familiar to most Israelis, his intellectual legacy laid the groundwork for the modern rebirth of Israel.

Though he was born in Sarajevo in 1798, Alkalai’s formative years were spent in Jerusalem, where he delved into ancient Jewish texts and became steeped in Jewish mysticism.

At the young age of 27, he was offered the post of rabbi in the town of Zemun, which is today part of the Serbian capital of Belgrade. At the time, however, it fell within the boundaries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and straddled the border of Turkish-occupied Serbia.
[...]
Within a decade, in 1834, he produced a booklet called Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel) proposing something which at the time was considered radical: to create Jewish colonies in the land of Israel as a prelude to redemption.

In other words, Rabbi Alkalai advocated that man take action to bring about Jewish national emancipation.

This notion ran counter to conventional wisdom, which primarily believed that Jews should wait passively for Messianic deliverance.

Nonetheless, he developed the concept further, writing additional books and pamphlets and traveling throughout Europe to spread his message.

IN HIS 1845 work Minhat Yehudah, Rabbi Alkalai wrote, “In the first conquest, under Joshua, the Almighty brought the children of Israel into a land that was prepared: its houses were then full of useful things, its wells were giving water, and its vineyards and olive groves were laden with fruit. This new Redemption will – alas, because of our sins – be different: our land is waste and desolate, and we shall have to build houses, dig wells, and plant vines and olive trees.”

“Redemption,” he wrote, “must come slowly. The land must, by degrees, be built up and prepared.”

To accomplish this, Rabbi Alkalai offered novel, and highly prescient, suggestions, which included the launch of a national fund to purchase land in Israel, the convening of a “Great Assembly” to oversee Jewish national affairs, and a redoubling of efforts to revive Hebrew as a spoken language.

At a time when many Jews were beginning to despair after centuries of persecution, Rabbi Alkalai offered concrete hope.

More importantly, by highlighting practical measures that Jews could take, he empowered people throughout the Jewish world to become involved in a national act of self-redemption which would engender Divine mercy. In 1874, at the age of 76, Rabbi Alkalai and his wife made aliya, settling in Jerusalem to fulfill his life-long dream. He passed away four years later.
[...]

In one of those curious twists of fate that even the most inventive novelist could not contrive, one of Rabbi Alkalai’s faithful congregants and most ardent disciples was a man named Simon Loeb Herzl, whose grandson Theodor would later alter the course of Zionist and Jewish history.

Is it possible that Simon Loeb came home from synagogue on the Sabbath, fired up by the rabbi’s sermon about the need for Jews to head to Zion, and shared this passion with his offspring?...

“We, as a people, are properly called Israel,” he once wrote, “only in the land of Israel... Though this venture will begin modestly, its future will be very great.”

Here is a passage from one of Rabbi Alkalai's works:

Now we pray every day: Let our eyes behold Thy return to Zion in mercy, and if we believe our own words, then upon whom will the Divine Presence become manifest? Upon the trees and the rocks?

Therefore, as the first step to the beginning of redemption of our souls we must return to the Land twenty-two thousand (Jews), the Holy One Blessed Be He to cause the Divine Presence to descend upon them. This most certainly will be followed by His showing us and all of Israel beneficial signs.

Such an idea is hinted at in the Torah: And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem... and he bought the parcel of ground where he spread his tent. Why did Jacob buy the land if his only intention was to rest there for a time and then continue on to see his father, Isaac? It is apparent that this act was realized to teach his descendants that the redemption would come about by purchasing the land from its inhabitants. Because he bought the parcel of land it was as if he lived (permanently) on it.

More so, the redemption from Egypt brought the people of Israel to a good and spacious land, one whose wells were already dug, and whose vineyards and olive groves were already planted. Yet, because of our sins, the Land is now empty and desolate and we must, for this redemption, build the houses and dig the wells and plant the vineyards and the olive groves.

According to this article at The Jewish Agency, the town of Ohr Yehuda near Tel Aviv is named after Alkalai.

There was a protest organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan for the 18th anniversary of the 1994 peace agreement with Israel, known as the Wadi Araba treaty.

Held near the Israeli embassy, the Islamists held signs saying "No Zionist Embassy on Jordanian ground," "the liberation of Palestine requires resistance and jihad," "Araba is a stain on the faces of merchants", in addition to the "people want to overthrow Araba."

Speeches were made denouncing Jordan sending an ambassador to Israel and denouncing any form of normalization with Israel.

There was a similar protest last Friday, also outside the embassy, where Israeli and American flags were burned.

Members of the tribe of the new Jordanian ambassador to Israel placed black flags of mourning in front of their houses when he was officially received by President Peres.

I hope that the Israel embassy security in Jordan is top notch, as it seems all too possible that these protests could morph into an attack on the embassy itself, as we saw last year in Cairo when the Israelis there were almost lynched.

The threat from Jordan's Islamists cannot be minimized. From AP:

[T]his week’s announcement that Jordanian authorities had thwarted an al-Qaida plan to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country has raised fears that extremists could take advantage of growing calls for change to foment violence.

The king also has been working overtime to fend off a host of domestic challenges, including a Muslim Brotherhood boycott of parliamentary elections, increasing opposition from his traditional Bedouin allies and an inability to keep the Syrian civil war from spilling over the border.

So far, Abdullah has largely maintained control, partly by relinquishing some of his powers to parliament and amending the country’s 60-year-old constitution. His Western-trained security forces have been able to keep protests from getting out of hand. And most in the opposition remain loyal to the king, pressing for reforms but not his removal.

The stakes are high: Abdullah is a close friend of the United States and has been at the forefront in its global war on terrorism, including in Afghanistan. Jordan serves as a buffer zone to Saudi Arabia, another Sunni Muslim country, and to Israel, a friend under a peace treaty signed in 1994. The kingdom hosts the largest Palestinian population outside the West Bank.

“The worst nightmare would be for Israel and Saudi Arabia,” said liberal lawmaker Jamil Nimri. “Jordan shares the longest border with Israel and is one of its few remaining Arab friends, while for the Saudis, it’s a neighboring country with a similar monarchy system in trouble.”

(h/t Lachlan, Washington Guardian)

So what happened in Sudan? And is there an Iranian nuclear link?

Lots of noise but very few hard facts:

Sudan claims this is an unexploded Israeli rocket, doesn't seem likely.

Sudan said on Wednesday that an Israeli air strike had caused the huge explosion and fire at an arms factory in Khartoum that killed two people, but Defense Minister Ehud Barak declined to comment.

Sudan, which analysts say is used as an arms-smuggling route to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip via neighboring Egypt, has blamed Israel for such strikes in the past, but Israel has either refused to comment or said it neither admitted or denied involvement.

Asked by Israel's Channel Two News about Sudan's accusations, Barak said: "There is nothing I can say about this subject."

A huge fire broke out late on Tuesday at the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of the capital which was rocked by several explosions, witnesses said. Firefighters took more than two hours to extinguish the fire at Sudan's main factory for ammunition and small arms.

"Four military planes attacked the Yarmouk plant ... We believe that Israel is behind it," Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman told reporters, adding that the planes appeared to approach the site from the east.

"Sudan reserves the right to strike back at Israel," he said, adding that two citizens had been killed and the plant had been partially destroyed. Another person was seriously injured, he said.

JE Dyer has some analysis:

Media reporting has suggested for more than a decade that Iran set up an arms factory in Sudan in the 1990s. (US intelligence suspected a Sudanese factory of producing weaponizable chemical agents in the ‘90s, and the Sudanese government of complicity in supplying al Qaeda. This led to a Tomahawk missile attack on the factory by Bill Clinton after the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Iran was not implicated by US intelligence in this installation.) Tehran is Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir’s chief foreign patron – well suited to his penchant for atrocities against his non-Muslim population – and of course is also the main supplier of arms to Hamas and Hezbollah.

Members of the Sudanese opposition have told reporters the arms factory that was hit was Iranian-sponsored. This is very probable, and it is equally probable that the attack was, in fact, conducted by the IAF. Sudan to Egypt to Gaza is a known arms route, and during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, when Israeli forces were going after Hamas in the wake of more than 4400 rocket attacks from Gaza up through December 2008, two arms convoys intended for Hamas were attacked on the roads through northern Sudan. Another convoy for Hamas was reportedly attacked in Sudan in December of 2011. (A peculiar report from early 2009 also suggested that a ship – possibly carrying arms – had been sunk in or near a Sudanese port. While fun to analyze, the report could not be considered definitive.)

Cutting off the flow of Iranian arms to Hamas is clearly a national security interest for Israel. The 24 October attack may or may not have been launched “because of” the rocket barrage from Hamas; it was certainly planned much earlier, but was probably executable on short notice, pending the weather conditions. Perhaps a more reliable construction to put on the Yarmouk attack, however, is that Israel sees a need to accomplish something more definitive than interdicting convoys. The time has come to administer a setback from which Hamas – and Iran – can’t recover quickly.

Another consideration for Israel may be that the window for unopposed action in Sudan might close in the not-too-distant future. Getting strike-fighters into Sudan means routing them over the Red Sea and keeping an airborne tanker aloft there, with its own fighter protection. Saudi Arabia and Jordan have the means to know the IAF aircraft are there, but they aren’t likely to interfere with Israeli attacks on Iranian arms facilities or arms bound for Hamas.

Egypt, however, also has the means to know the IAF aircraft are operating – and Egypt’s posture could well be changing. Mohammed Morsi is not a naïve target for an Iranian charm offensive, but for his own reasons – Islamist ideology and his designs on Jerusalem – he will reach the point at which he will not be willing to stand by quietly for Israeli operations in Sudan.

Debka, always entertaining but only sometimes accurate, claims:

Complex of military plants near Khartoum, whicht was bombed five minutes after midnight Wednesday, Oct. 24, by four fighter-bombers, recently went into manufacturing Iranian ballistic surface-to-surface Shehab missiles under license from Tehran, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources disclose. Western intelligence sources have not revealed what types of Shehab were being turned out in Sudan but they believe the Yarmouk’s output was intended to serve as Tehran’s strategic reserve stock in case Iran’s ballistic arsenal was hit by Israeli bombers.

Haaretz quotes Al Arabiya:

An Islamist responsible for supplying weapons to Hamas was apparently among the two people killed in a missile strike near the main port city of Sudan this week, the Al-Arabiya news network reported on Wednesday citing various sources.

And in a separate analysis:

Opposition sources in Sudan claim that the arms factory bombed overnight Tuesday in south Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, belongs to Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

..What was not said by the Sudanese authorities, who provided a plethora of confusing and conflicting reports (even regarding the number of casualties), was information regarding the factory itself. In recent years, several reports published in the Arab media said that Iran's Revolutionary Guard built weapons manufacturing plants together with the Sudanese government.

However, their military cooperation does not end with the establishment of one military plant, and even senior Sudanese officials have not denied in the past that Iran has military factories on their land.

In fact, according to foreign reports, the arms factories that Iran built in Sudan were meant to arm Hamas.

But here is one wrinkle I was not aware of, from Sudan Tribune:

Sudanese authorities shut down the opposition-affiliated Ray Al-Sha’b newspaper in May 2010 after it published a report talking about the construction of an Iranian weapon factory in Sudan as part of military cooperation between the two countries to produce nuclear weapons.

Could some of the components of a nuclear weapon or delivery system have been outsourced to this Sudanese factory? It appears to me that attacking a factory is, politically, a much riskier move by Israel than attacking arms convoys, and risking the lives of civilians nearby is also an unlikely move by Israel to temporarily disrupt Hamas arms smuggling. But if a major component of a nuclear weapon or nuclear-capable missile is being built there - away from inspectors and sanctions - then such an operation becomes well worthwhile.

It is only speculation. But then again, so is everything else.

Anatomy of a "work accident"

On September 30, Hamas announced the death of one of its terrorists, Mohammed Abdulah Hamad, who was killed "doing his Jihadist duty." But they gave no details on how he died.

According to the Gaza NGO Safety Office:

On 30 Sept., a Hamas operative died due to a tunnel collapse in Nuseirat Camp.

What is the Nuseirat camp?

It is a crowded UNRWA camp right in the middle of Gaza:

It is not near any border with Egypt or Israel.

So any "tunnel" being built there is really an underground weapons depot, where Hamas hides rockets and explosives. And they are deliberately building these terror bunkers directly under the feet of tens of thousands of Gaza civilians, in a camp that was established by the UN.

Keep in mind that Hamas controls all of Gaza, including the areas that are not crowded at all (as you can see from the photo, there is still plenty of green surrounding the camp.) They choose quite deliberately to build their terror infrastructure in such a way that civilians are acting as human shields.

Not that Human Rights Watch will notice it.

Morsi promises lots of lip service for Gazans

From Al Ahram:

President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday said Egypt would do its best to support Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli occupation "without declaring war against anyone."

Morsi spoke on national television to mark Muslim's four-day Al-Adha feast, which starts on Friday.

"We will never accept any assault or siege on the Palestinian people. Egypt provides Palestine with all its needs such as food and clothing," he said.

"The blood of Palestinians is our blood, their life is our life and their pains are our pains. However, supporting Palestine does not mean that we will declare war against anybody," he added in reference to Israel, which he stopped short of calling it by name, maintaining the same pattern he has followed in his speeches since his inauguration as Egypt president.

Well, actually, food and clothing for Gaza mostly come through Israel, and some through smuggling tunnels. None of it comes officially from anything Morsi did.

And the free fuel for Gaza came from Qatar, so Egypt didn't have anything to do with that either. In fact, Egypt held up the fuel from being shipped for over two months.

So Morsi is not providing Gazans with basic food, fuel or clothing, and will not fight on their behalf. He closes the Rafah crossing capriciously and won't allow Gazans to enter Egypt at all unless they have Israeli ID cards.

But he promises to support them!

The Rami Levy BDS protest proves BDS failure

Today there was a violent protest outside the Rami Levy supermarket in Sha'ar Binyamin. Ma'an reports:

Around 150 protestors demonstrated on Wednesday in front of an Israeli chain store east of Ramallah, the Popular Struggle Committee said.

Four activists were detained and several injured as Israeli police and soldiers broke up the demonstration, a statement said.

Palestinian, international and Israeli protesters gathered outside of a branch of the Rami Levi store, chanting slogans and carrying banners calling for a boycott of Israeli products.

Actually, they broke into the store.

But what Ma'an doesn't report is the real reason for the protest. YNet adds:

[Activist Abir Kopty said] "This time we chose the Rami Levy store because we want to send a message to boycott the occupation and its products. As long as the Palestinians get no justice, settlers and Israelis will not lead normal lives."

She added that the protest was also meant to send a message to the Palestinian people not to shop in Rami Levy. It should be noted that the retail chain has two branches in the West Bank that also serve Palestinians.

She repeated that on Twitter.

And from the signs they carries, one could see that the intended audience for the boycott call is Arabs, obviously not the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria!

Here is what is really going on:

Rami Levy markets are islands of of co-existence in the territories. Arabs and Jews shop there peacefully together. Arabs and Jews work side by side as employees. I once made a poster based on a photo taken inside a Rami Levy market:

Arab bigots cannot stand the success of Rami Levy.

A couple of years ago, the PA mounted a concerted campaign to get Arabs to boycott Rami Levy. They intimidated Arabs by saying that they were keeping track of license plates on cars at the markets. They told their people that the supermarket's entire purpose was to humiliate Arabs. They even claimed that the meat being sold there was poisoned - although how it only poisoned Arab and not Jewish customers remains a mystery. They prohibited Palestinian Arabs from working at the supermarket.

Even with all of that, Palestinian Arabs continued to shop and work there. The boycott calls were a complete failure.

Since trying to convince Palestinian Arabs to avoid Jewish stores failed so badly, the BDSers are trying to physically intimidate the Arab customers. They are hoping to create a gauntlet at the store that makes Arabs decide not to bother shopping there, even though they want to.

Get it? They want to force Palestinian Arabs to act in the ways they deem acceptable - in the name of freedom!

Rami Levy symbolizes everything they hate - Jews and Arabs actually living, working and shopping together. They want to create an apartheid state where only Arabs live and where Jewish products are banned. And they are willing to use force to create this situation!

Doesn't sound very liberal, does it?

The "Popular Struggle Committee" is dedicated to pushing boycott of Israeli products and stores worldwide. But they cannot even get Arabs who live in the territories to boycott a Jewish-owned store!

Rami Levy, by continuing to attract ordinary Arabs, symbolizes the failure of BDS more effectively than anything else.

Midweek links. Lots of 'em. Free!

From Ian:

Ahead of U.S. Election Arab News Outlets Depict Anti-Semitic Stereotypes

"Ahead of the U.S. presidential election in early November the ADL released a new report Tuesday highlighting anti-Semitic election-themed cartoons from Arab news outlets. The many cartoons portray Israel as overly influential in U.S. politics, as well as depicting candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as catering disproportionately to the Jewish vote."

CAMERA: The ABC's of Settlements
ABC News' online "Cheat Sheet" on foreign policy issues posted before last night's presidential debate states:

“Obama's relationship with Netanyahu has been rocked by several public strains in the past four years, including disagreements about Israel's expansion of settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

It’s all at the Co-op … unless it’s truth about Israel you’re after ...

"Then when it was pointed out to him that there was no consensus over whether the settlements are illegal – eg the United States does not think this so – a visibly agitated Len Wardle argued that the US's view is worthless because the US ‘occupies’ Guantanamo Bay! (The truth is that the Guantanamo Bay site is leased by the US from Cuba in a commercial arrangement).
Cooperative member and Brighton resident Daniel Matthews said: “The Co-op’s boycott is out-of–step with the opinions of many of its members here in Brighton. A number of us attended the Area Meeting and let the leading figures in the Co-op know that we are opposed to any boycott of Israeli companies."

Obama's real record on Israel By Anne Bayefsky

"The president’s move is reminiscent of a similar game played by the United Nations. The organization trashes the state of Israel 364 days a year, and pauses on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27th for an “International Day of Commemoration.”

Study finds no anti-Semitism or anti-Israel activity at most North American colleges
Investigators report absence of incidents on 97 percent of campuses, conclude that divestment movement ‘backfired’ for anti-Israel activists

Gazan reporter aims to keep thorn in Hamas' side

"A secular, feminist Palestinian journalist, al-Ghoul, 30, has been harassed by Hamas. She's also been beaten and arrested by Hamas police for protesting its Islamist policies and suppression of human rights."

IDF Nabs PA Terrorist with 8 Pipe Bombs
Border Police prevented a large-scale terrorist attack Tuesday by nabbing a Palestinian Authority terrorist with eight pipe bombs.

France ‘botched’ Toulouse gunman investigation

"French authorities on Tuesday made public a scathing report of the country’s domestic intelligence agency, criticising its investigation into the man behind the Toulouse shootings, Mohamed Merah, as a series of failures."

Taiba inaugurates Ilan Ramon space center

“Ilan Ramon was the first Israeli astronaut in space and ‘everybody’s astronaut.’ For me, dedicating a center in the Arab community is the fulfillment of a dream. There are things that are stronger than any politics, and that is the understanding that we are here together building one society and state. We are proud that with these centers, we bring the language of science and peace to all parts of the country,” Herschkowitz said."

Europe opens market to Israeli medicines
Passed in European Parliament by vote of 379-230, pact will contribute to the elimination of technical trade barriers.

“At its core, this was not a debate on the merits of the agreement. This was about politics,” Schwammenthal added.
“Some members of the European Parliament were putting their disagreements with Israel ahead of their obligations to ensure their constituents had fast access to the best and most affordable healthcare.”

Israel Daily Picture: Rachel's Tomb
We Present a Special Album of Pictures to Commemorate the Death of the Matriarch Rachel about 3,600 Years Ago

Also:
Peter Jenkins and the Bloodthirsty Jews (JPost)

At times, however, Jenkins is not a particularly good anti-Semite. The less-stupid ones wrap usually their bigotry in modish political anti-Israel rhetoric. Occasionally, they let slip their real feelings. Jenkins, it turns out, is a traditional anti-Semite who thinks of Jews as perpetrating medieval cruelties and amassing influence and power.

Hezbollah Prepares for a Wider War Than It May Want (Bloomberg, h/t WarpedMirrorPMB)

Israel's Horses and Bayonets (history at Mostly Kosher)

PA TV parody mocks how Palestinian Arabs blame all their problems on Israel (PMW)

For Iran, no red line means green light (Ledeen)

From Adam Segal, "Rockets Keep Falling On Our Heads"

Will Egypt arrest Alla Said for "defamation of religion"?

Egyptian law criminalizes "defamation of religion." An atheist Egyptian blogger, Albert Saber Ayyad, is now on trial for mocking Islam and Christianity, and and has been held in Egyptian jail for months where guards are said to be inciting other prisoners to attack him.

However, at the same time, Egyptian preacher Alaa Said is on TV, also mocking Christianity:

Islam will be instated, the Shari'a will be implemented, whether you or whoever is behind you likes it or not. Whether the Christians like it or not, they will learn the meaning of Islam. I find it strange that they spend all that money... Let me ask the reasonable among the Christians: Why do you approach poor people and little children with a cross in one hand and bread in the other? Kids just want a chocolate bar or biscuits... The boy wants money... [They give him] 200 Egyptian pounds every day... [They give money] to girls who have sex, and then the girls say: "We have become Christians." The [missionaries] say: "The whole world is open to us. Where would you like to go? You want to go to Germany, America, or anywhere in Europe? We will take you. Do you want to be pampered? We will pamper you."

This is your religion, and yet you dare talk about Islam?! You dare say that Islam coerces and harms people?!

Let me ask you something. It's not a riddle. The bread in the Last Supper was not actual bread. It was flesh, and the wine was blood. Do you understand any of this?

You explain this me. The bread in the Last Supper is not real bread. The bread is flesh, the wine is blood, and three is one. Three is one, get it?

They say that Jesus is the only son of Allah. He was born, but not conceived. I'd like their leader – what's his name? – to explain this to us. What does "born but not conceived" mean? Do tell us. No Christian is allowed to ask what this means.

Will Alla Said be prosecuted in Egypt for defamation of religion?

Or are Islamic leaders who pretend to care about the honor of other religions simply hypocrites?

The visit of the Emir of Qatar to Gaza yesterday gives PLO leaders a great excuse to show their hypocrisy.

PLO chief negotiator and liar, Saeb Erekat, responded to his visit by saying "[The visit of the] Emir of Qatar to Gaza will not delegitimize the PLO, and Hamas must realize that the legitimacy of states do not come through visits, but from the ballot boxes ... No force can take away the legality of the PLO, which gives legitimacy is the Palestinian people."

When was the PLO elected as the representative of the Palestinian Arabs again?
Who won the last PA-wide elections again?
When did Mahmoud Abbas' four year term end again?
When was Saeb Erekat elected to his position again?
And how come he is still in the same position that he resigned from 18 months ago again?
And if the legitimacy of states does not come from recognition by other countries, then why does the PLO keep touting the nations that recognize it as proof of its legitimacy?

Erekat appears on Western TV often, but not once has any reporter asked him about his many lies or hypocrisies. As a result, Erekat keeps spouting nonsense without any fear that he will be publicly exposed in the mainstream media.

And this one is a doozy.

Videos of Gaza rockets taken by IDF and Hamas (update)

From Israel's Channel 10 (via Palestine Press Agency,) terrorists taking large Grad rockets out of a truck in order to launch it. (In color!)

From Hamas, multiple rocket launches jointly done by Hamas and the PRC:

UPDATE: I didn't realize that the first video is a year old. That's what I get for trusting Palestine Press Agency as a legitimate source :) (h/t Yoel)

Gazans greeted the Emir by slaughtering sheep in front of his motorcade

From the PalDF forums, some photos of Gazans greeting the Emir of Qatar's motorcade yesterday:

They're just like us!

(h/t Gidon via Rotter)

77 rockets since last night

From JPost:

Palestinian terrorists fired 60 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel Wednesday morning, injuring five and sending local residents fleeing for cover. IAF strikes targeting Palestinian rocket-launching squads killed three Hamas operatives but did little to stem the flow of rockets.

Of the projectiles fired by the terrorists, 22 landed in the Eshkol region while 21 landed in the Lachish region, according to the Israel Police. An additional 10 rockets landed in the South on Wednesday morning. The Iron Dome intercepted seven rockets, according to the IDF. The barrage followed 10 rockets fired on Tuesday evening, making a total of 77.

Two of the victims, foreign workers, suffered critical injuries and were evacuated via helicopter to Soroka Medical Center. Two more victims were lightly hurt, and one was being treated for shock, according to MDA.

IDF Home Front command instructed residents living within 10 km of Gaza to remain indoors and take shelter.

Air raid sirens went off during the attacks and local residents fled for cover. Southern municipalities canceled schools amid the ongoing escalation. Police have heightened patrols around Gaza in the south, including bomb sappers to deal with the heightened threat.

The IAF carried out an air strike around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning following three operations overnight, each striking rocket-launching cells in the northern and southern Gaza Strip. Hamas said that three of its operatives were killed in the strikes, and another three injured. The IDF also launched tank fire at targets in southern Gaza on Wednesday morning.

The three injured foreign workers were hit while at a chicken coop - or, as Hamas calls it, a "military site."'

A number of houses were hit in Israel.

Hamas has instructed all their police/terrorists to evacuate their "security" buildings.

Palestinian Arab newspapers are quite pleased with the damage and injuries to Israeli civilians.

Hamas' Palestine Times is liveblogging, and says that 6 Gazans have been killed so far. I have verified that at least three are terrorists.

Bayonets and Horses, redux

Yesterday I excerpted an older article by JE Dyer on how important the US Navy is to national security and pax Americana as a response to President Obama's sarcastic comment to Mitt Romney during the last debate.

Now, she wrote her own direct response. Read the whole thing, but here are parts:

What is it we are trying to do with these naval forces? Mitt Romney’s approach is to assume that we intend to exercise control of our ocean bastions – the Atlantic and Pacific – and effectively resume our position as the primary naval influence on the world’s strategic chokepoints: the approaches to Central America; the maritime space of Northwestern Europe; the Mediterranean; the chokepoint-belt from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Hormuz; and the Strait of Malacca and South China Sea. Being well briefed, Romney no doubt has in mind as well the increasingly maritime confrontation space of the Arctic, where Russia and Canada are competing, but the US – with our own Arctic claims – has in recent years been passive.

Romney thus sees the Navy as a core element of our enduring strategic posture. For national defense and for the protection of trade, the United States has from the beginning sought to operate in freedom on the seas, and, where necessary, to exercise control of them. We are a maritime nation, with extremely long, shipping-friendly coastlines in the temperate zone and an unprecedented control of the world’s most traveled oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific.

We have also chosen, since our irruption on the world geopolitical stage a century or so ago, to project power abroad as much as possible through expeditionary operations and offshore influence. Indeed, seeking the most effective balance between stand-off approaches, temporary incursions, and boots-on-the-ground combat and occupation has been a perennial tension in our national politics and our concepts of war throughout the life of our Republic. We have always naturally favored offshore influence and quick-resolution campaigns, from which we can extricate ourselves just as quickly.

The character of these preferences and military problems has changed with the passage of time – but in comparison to the United States in 1916, they are all bigger today, as well as faster-moving and more likely to be our problem than, say, Great Britain’s.

...If you want to control the seas, you still need surface combatants. And since the seas are the pathway to most of what we do outside our borders, there is no such situation as one in which we will only need to do what aircraft carriers do, or only what submarines do, or only what minesweepers or oilers or merchant ships do. If we do not control the seas, we do not control our security conditions or our strategic options.

...In the end, the difference between Romney’s approach and Obama’s isn’t a difference between buying a 328-ship force and having no Navy at all. It never is; the difference is always between one policy and another. Obama’s policy is to cut defense spending, even when that leads to the decommissioning of some of our best ships. Yet in 2010, the Navy could only fulfill 53% of the requirements for presence and missions levied by the combatant commanders (e.g., CENTCOM, PACOM). Cutting this Navy will reduce further its ability to fill warfighter requirements.

Given the constraints of Obama’s budgetary priorities, DOD envisions eventually sustaining a Navy whose size averages 298 ships through 2042. Romney has articulated a national-security policy that emphasizes building faster and having a larger Navy, one that can better meet the requirements of US policy and the combatant commanders for naval power. Obama has used sophomoric sarcasm to imply that Romney’s approach is ignorant and outdated. That pretty much sums up the choice the voters have between them.

When reading things like this analysis, you realize that most so-called "experts" that we see in the media have no clue of what they are talking about.

Maybe there are good arguments against Dyer's position, but all we have heard so far is dismissive, not substantive.

Nice shooting! (updated)

Once again, the IDF responded to rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as a serious bomb attack earlier today, and once again, both of those killed were terrorists - both from Hamas.

Which is interesting, because the IDF says that it hit terrorists about to shoot rockets into Israel - and Hamas claims that they don't fire rockets.

The IDF says that three were killed, but as of this writing I cannot find out the affiliation of the third one killed. The Hamas Al Qassam site seems to imply that those badly injured were theirs as well, so chances are that the third was also Hamas.

Interestingly, Palestine Times says that eyewitnesses said that the Hamas members were indeed about to shoot rockets into Israel.

UPDATE: The count is up to four. The third was with the PRC, the affiliation of the fourth is still unclear.