Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 17, 2012

US company resumes unlawfully protecting Hamas terror website

Last month, I noticed that the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades website was protected from DDoS attacks by an American company, Cloudflare.

After a number of my readers contacted the company and federal authorities, that service seemed to end.

This morning, however, I saw that it was back.

Reuters reported on Cloudflare's defense of its actions last week:

Founded in 2010, CloudFlare markets itself as an Internet intermediary that shields websites from distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks, the crude but effective weapon that hackers use to bludgeon websites until they go dark. The 40-person company claims to route up to 5 percent of all Internet traffic through its global network.

Prince calls his company the "Switzerland" of cyber-space - assiduously neutral and open to all comers. But just as companies like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have faced profound questions about the balance between free speech and openness on the Internet and national security and law enforcement concerns, CloudFlare's business has posed another thorny question: what kinds of services, if any, should an American company be allowed to offer designated terrorists and cyber criminals?

CloudFlare's unusual position at the heart of this debate came to the fore last month, when the Israel Defense Forces sought help from CloudFlare after its website was struck by attackers based in Gaza. The IDF was turning to the same company that provides those services to Hamas and the al-Quds Brigades, according to publicly searchable domain information. Both Hamas and al-Quds, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are designated by the United States as terrorist groups.

Under the USA Patriot Act, U.S. firms are forbidden from providing "material support" to groups deemed foreign terrorist organizations. But what constitutes material support - like many other facets of the law itself - has been subject to intense debate.

CloudFlare's dealings have attracted heated criticism in the blogosphere from both Israelis and Palestinians, but Prince defended his company as a champion of free speech.

"Both sides have an absolute right to tell their story," said Prince, a 38-year old former lawyer. "We're not providing material support for anybody. We're not sending money, or helping people arm themselves."

Prince noted that his company only provides defensive capabilities that enable websites to stay online.

"We can't be sitting in a role where we decide what is good or what is bad based on our own personal biases," he said. "That's a huge slippery slope."

Claims of "free speech" are always suspect from a company that profits from it.

It is not a free speech issue. It is a question of law.

Nevertheless, instead of trusting Cloudflare's interpretation of the law, we should look at the law itself.

18 USC § 2339B prohibits providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. To violate this paragraph, a person must have knowledge that the organization is a designated terrorist organization (as defined in subsection (g)(6)), that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorist activity (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act), or that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorism (as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989).

What is the definition of "material support"? That comes from 2339A:

Definitions.— As used in this section—
(1) the term “material support or resources” means any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who may be or include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials;
(2) the term “training” means instruction or teaching designed to impart a specific skill, as opposed to general knowledge; and
(3) the term “expert advice or assistance” means advice or assistance derived from scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge.

The bolded sections appear to all be clear violations by Cloudflare of federal law. Cloudflare is providing a service to Hamas (and, apparently, Islamic Jihad) where Internet communication is being routed through Cloudflare servers before going onto the website of the terror groups. Cloudflare will customize the service and help their clients implement it using their own expertise, and it clearly provides technical assistance and advice to designated terror organizations.

Even Cloudflare's Prince seems to know that he is providing services to Hamas in violation of the law:

"Our network can't be used to launch an attack, so it's not like we're supplying bullets to either side. But we are supplying the flak jackets to both sides, and that's been a very humbling experience to be in the middle of."

That analogy is apt. Providing flak jackets would indeed be a violation of the Patriot Act, as would providing anything that allows terrorists to protect themselves.

Given that Cloudflare has clearly chosen to accept Hamas money instead of following the US Patriot Act, it seems that the US government needs to explicitly say whether Cloudflare is violating the law and to follow through.

US readers want to contact their local members of Congress or senators to ask them about whether they agree that Cloudflare is breaking the law, and what they will do about it.

Monday linkdump

From Ian:

Palestinians: The Third Intifada Has Begun by Khaled Abu Toameh

Emboldened by the "victories," Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal recently reached a secret agreement on the need to launch a "popular intifada" against Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Their goal is to drag Israel into a confrontation with Palestinian civilians — one that would embarrass the Israelis among the international community and force them to capitulate.

Learn from our mistakes or face dramatic rise in antisemitism, European student union head warns

If North American Jews don’t learn from the mistakes of their European counterparts they will experience a dramatic increase in antisemitism and anti-Zionism, cautioned a community leader from Europe.
“You are us 30 years ago,” warned Deborah Abisror, executive director, European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS). “I hope that you will finally look at us and see what we did 30 years ago and not make the same mistakes that we made.”

CIA: Pollard got life sentence due to ‘Post’ interview
Newly declassified 1987 CIA damage assessment of the Jonathan Pollard case states that he violated plea bargain terms by giving interview to Wolf Blitzer in 'The Jerusalem Post.'

"Judge Aubrey Robinson sentenced Pollard to life in prison in March 1987 despite a plea agreement in which Pollard agreed to cooperate with the investigation against him, in return for a promise that he would not receive such a sentence."

Disgruntled Protestants Issue Ironic Jerusalem Declaration
"Protestants from three continents met in Jerusalem during November 5-8, 2012, to initiate a Protestant Consultation on Israel and the Middle East (PCIME). They subsequently issued a Jerusalem Declaration calling upon their churches to refrain from one-sided censure of Israel and to pay greater attention to the current miseries of Christians in such countries as Egypt, Syria and Iraq."

Barry Rubin: Egypt Democratically Adopts an Anti-Western Dictatorship (Constitution Referendum)

It isn’t that the constitution, as many Salafists would have liked, explicitly mandates a revolutionary Sharia state. Rather, the constitution sets up a framework that will allow the Brotherhood to do so. Between the president and the constitution, the Brotherhood will now march through every institution and remake it. Judges will be appointed; school curricula rewritten; army generals appointed; and so on. As the Brotherhood shows patience in carrying out this process of gaining total, permanent control, many in the West will interpret that as moderation.

The Region: Is Iron Dome anti-peace? by Barry Rubin
Following the logic of the 'Washington Post' we should hope lots of Israelis are killed by terrorists as a way to pressure those obdurate Israelis to make peace.

In other words, if a lot more Israelis were being killed and wounded, Israel would have more incentive to make peace with the Palestinians and Arabs. But since their lives are merely being paralyzed, Israel just isn’t interested in making peace.
And who is “debating” this? Well, basically the Post comes up with one name: left-wing author Tom Segev.

CAMERA: NYT Corrected E1 Falsehood. Will the Economist?
The Economist was yet another media outlet which falsely reported that E-1 construction between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim would bisect the West Bank.

BBC Watch: Examining another BBC theme from Operation ‘Pillar of Cloud’

One of the main themes created by the BBC during Operation ‘Pillar of Cloud’ – and still being promoted long after it – is the notion that the fighting between terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel began with the targeted assassination of Ahmed Jabari on November 14th.

Court Convicts Accessory to Fogel Murderers
Military court finds Yazed Awad guilty of sheltering murderers and preparing them for Shin Bet interrogations.

According to the charge sheet against him, Awad gave shelter to some of the people involved in the multiple murders and attempted to obstruct justice by briefing the suspects regarding Shin Bet interrogation techniques. In addition, he held two M-16 weapons that were stolen in the course of the murderous attack.

Hizbullah Accuses Israel of Explosion near Border
A huge explosion, apparently at a Hizbullah weapons depot, rocked Lebanon near the border Monday morning. Hizbullah blames Israel.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is responsible for maintaining security in the area, and it is investigating the blast, but Hizbullah cordoned off the area.
The explosion apparently was in an ammunition depot east of the port city of Tyre.

Turkey investigating at least five local Jews it claims aided IDF in Mavi Marmara affair
Representative of Turkish immigrants accuses Ankara of using Jewish community as leverage against Israel

Rafael Sadi, spokesperson for the Association of Turkish Immigrants in Israel, told Maariv that the Turkish authorities “are trying to intimidate the Jews” as well as to send Israel the message that if Turkish demands are not met, the Turkish Jewish community is liable to suffer the consequences.

'First we take Damascus, then Tel Aviv'
Salafist leader warns that once rebels topple Assad's regime they will set their sights on Israel; says 'We won't rest until Palestine is liberated'

Non-Jews Fly The Flag For Israel In South Australia

We see much of Aussie BDSers on videos of their Israel-demonising vigils targeting Max Brenner and Seacret, so it's refreshing to learn of antipodean initiatives on Israel's behalf. The following guest post by reader Shirlee tells of such a welcome development in Adelaide, and points out that the non-Jews involved deserve support from the Australian Jewish community.

Ido Cohen’s off-road empire
In his workshop near Haifa, a 4×4 maven and desert racer designs and manufactures Israeli vehicles for extreme conditions.

The Zibar took a decade to develop and was designed to withstand extremely harsh environmental conditions. The vehicles accelerate from zero to 62 miles per hour (100 km/h) in seven seconds, and last more than 435 miles (700 kilometers) on a single tank of gas.
“It’s the only vehicle you can drive in jungles — you can’t compare it with a Land Rover,” says Cohen. “If you want to drive anywhere off-road, no other car can compete with Zibar right now in the world, and a lot of people want to copy me.

Mahmoud Abbas has written a "Christmas Message from Palestine to the Christians of the World" which may be the most hypocritical thing he has ever done. And that's saying a lot.

First he says that Israeli settlements are making the life of residents of Bethlehem a "living hell." He goes on to say

The geographical map of Bethlehem and its social fabric are all at risk of extinction more than ever, due to Israeli policies and practices, which aim to Judaize the whole earth... Because the identity of Bethlehem is deeply tied to the birth of Christ the messenger of peace and love, it is considered a great national and religious heritage, one that all us Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, are proud of, and we will not accept any one that deprives it of that legacy or alters its identity.

In 1990, when Bethlehem was under full Israeli control, it was 60% Christian. Since the PA took over control of the town, that Christian population has gone down to around 15% or less, even as its total population has increased!

Who is responsible? well, it isn't the Jews. There must be another set of people there who are forcing the Christians out.

And this other group has been openly stealing Christian-owned land under the watchful eye of Mahmoud Abbas' government, with no known arrests or court cases to combat the phenomenon.

In an interesting historical note, in 1967, before the first Christmas after the Six Day War, Abbas' Fatah party explicitly threatened any Christian pilgrims who wanted to visit the city.

The rest of the message is not a message of peace but one of rabid incitement against Israel, one that makes his recent UN speech look tame. Abbas is using his Christmas message as an excuse for brainwashing Christians to hate Israel - it simply cannot be read any other way.

The real question is, how many Christian leaders will respond to this message of hate and hypocrisy with the contempt it deserves?

EU pretends to be relevant, considers returning observers to Rafah

From Ma'an:

Egyptian authorities have pledged to end a blacklist of Gaza residents who cannot use the Rafah crossing to leave the coastal strip, an official in Gaza said on Sunday.

On Sunday, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton told Saudi-newspaper Okaz that Europe was considering returning its border monitors to the Egypt-Gaza border.

Last month, EU representative John Gatt-Rutter told reporters that the EU was prepared to redeploy its European Border Assistance Mission at Rafah crossing, "but that necessitates the approval of all sides."

How clueless can Ashton be?

If Hamas allows EU observers at the Rafah border, it will be nothing close to what they used to do - sending a live video feed to Israel of the crossing, for example.

Here is part of the mandate for EUBAM:

The European Union Border Assistance Mission shall actively monitor, verify and evaluate the Palestinian Authority's performance with regard to the implementation of the Agreed Principles for Rafah Crossing and will act with authority to ensure that the Palestinian Authority complies with all applicable rules and regulations concerning the Rafah Crossing Point and the terms of the Agreed Principles for Rafah Crossing.

And here are some of the Agreed Principles:

• Use of the Rafah crossing will be restricted to Palestinian ID card holders and others by exception in agreed categories with prior notification to the GoI and approval of senior PA leadership.
- The PA will notify the GoI 48 hours in advance of the crossing of a person in the excepted categories – diplomats, foreign investors, foreign representatives of recognized international organizations and humanitarian cases.
- The GoI will respond within 24 hours with any objections and will include the reasons for the objections;
- The PA will notify the GoI of their decision within 24 hours and will include the reasons for their decision;
- The third party will ensure the proper procedures are followed and will advise both sides of any information in its possession pertaining to the people applying to cross under these exceptions.

The idea that Hamas would allow Israel any input into decisions as to who or what will be transferred through Rafah is ludicrous. In fact, the beginning of the Ma'an article shows explicitly that this will not be the case.

The EU, still funding EUBAM and dozens of its workers for some five years after it has done anything remotely resembling its mandate, refuses to admit that there is literally nothing it can do to restore any semblance of security at Rafah. Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt will not relinquish any real control over Rafah, although they will be more than happy to allow a toothless EUBAM to return under their terms.

Apparently, the EU will jump at such an opportunity, just to pretend that they are doing something useful and to justify the continued existence of a useless mission.

MB member: Jews are thieves, Americans are cows,

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Mahmoud Khalil, a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which aired on Al-Nas TV on September 11, 2012.

Mahmoud Khalil: Your regular American is not such a great intellectual as we imagine him to be.
Interviewer: He is not interested in politics...
Mahmoud Khalil: He has a huge body. Eats like a pig. He is like a raging bull or a runaway train. America is marching towards its death. It has the greatest debt in the world. The U.S. debt amounts to 32 million miles of $100 banknotes. Its debt consumes 102% of its Gross National Product. America has the largest debt in the world. America is deceiving...
Interviewer: Nevertheless, it is the mightiest power on Earth.
Mahmoud Khalil: Yes, I hear you, but the American citizen is after his best interests, not after values.
[...]
America will disintegrate. This is inevitable. America will go back to civil wars. This is inevitable. America is over. It is a thing of the past. The US banks have dragged one another into crisis. America is involved in global thievery.
[...]
The Jews brought their thieving [nature] to America. They have used all methods of global criminality. The case of the US banks is no less severe than what the Americans did to the blacks and the Indians, or what the English did to the Aborigines in Australia. These people are slaughterers. They are the greatest thugs in history. They are not the cowboys. They are the cows!
The Jews are money merchants. Throw a Jew into the sea, and he will emerge with a fish in his mouth.
[...]
They successfully infiltrated the U.S. political decision-making centers, and then they gained control of the world’s gold or money through the economy.

Epic Moses vs. Santa rap battle (video)

At that awkward time between Chanukah and Christmas, here is an appropriate - and appropriately bizarre - video:

(h/t Yerushalimey)

25 PalArabs killed in Syrian mosque airstrike. "Pro-Palestinian" groups silent.

From France24:

Syrian fighter jets bombed the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 25 people sheltering in a mosque in an area where Syrian rebels have been trying to advance into the capital, opposition activists said.

The attack was part of a month-long campaign by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to eject rebels fighting to overthrow him from positions hemming in Damascus. It came a day after warplanes bombed rebels on the road to Damascus international airport.

A video posted on YouTube showed bodies and body parts scattered on the stairs of what appeared to be the mosque.

Here's the video (GRAPHIC):

Somehow, Electronic Intifada hasn't covered this story yet although it is six hours old. Neither has Free Gaza.

Dead Syrians of Palestinian origin aren't really worth getting too upset over if Israel can't be blamed.

Sunday linkdump

Stellar links from Ian, as always:

‘The Western Wall and the State of Israel will be ours forever,’ says Netanyahu
Lighting eighth candle of Hanukkah in Jerusalem, prime minister responds to Palestinian claims that Kotel is ‘occupied territory’

“The Western Wall and the State of Israel will forever belong to the Jews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night, as he lit the eight candle of Hanukkah at the Wall, in Jerusalem’s Old City.
“In recent days, I have heard that the Palestinians are saying that the Western Wall is occupied territory,” said the prime minister, referring to a speech in Gaza last week by Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal marking the terrorist organization’s 25th anniversary, in which Mashaal said that the Palestinians “cannot recognize” Israel’s legitimacy and would fight relentlessly against the Jewish state. Dating from the Second Temple era, the Western Wall, or Kotel, is the only remnant of the outer wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple, the holiest site in Judaism.”

Challah Hu Akbar: The Last Month Without a Rocket or Mortar Fired from Gaza into Israel Was...

"There has not been a single month since at least 2007 in which the # of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel was 0."
"Thus far in December, there have been no rockets or mortars fired from Gaza into Israel. Will this be the first month in 5 plus years without a rocket or mortar being fired from Gaza into Israel?"

Why are Christian charities bashing Israel?

Unfortunately, mixed in with some Christian charities' good work is an alarming amount of hostility toward the Jewish state. It smacks of opportunism
"Israel sets the gold standard for human rights in the Middle East, treating its enemies, minorities and dissidents with far greater humanity than any other country, regime or political movement in the region. Instead of acknowledging this reality, Church World Service promoted the demonization of Israel.
Apparently, the people who run these charities have concluded that treating Israel fairly doesn’t help their bottom line and that anti-Zionism is an integral part of their brand."

BBC Watch: BBC amplifies PA claim that corruption is due to “occupation”

The Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the European Union – Leila Shahid – appeared on ‘Hardtalk’ (broadcast on the BBC World Service) on December 14th 2012.
Shahid’s statement that Israel “killed 1,400 civilians” during Operation Cast Lead went uncorrected, as did her use of the phrase “67 borders”. Most seriously, her claim that Palestinians were “ethnically cleansed” in 1948 raised a barely audible and certainly incomprehensible grumble from Sackur, but was not properly refuted.

No funds for BDS backers - Bishop
PUBLIC funds must not be given to groups that support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, the opposition insists.

"The Australian reported on Monday that AusAID gave $47,000 to the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in 2010. It has also received $131,000 in Australian Research Council grants.
The centre has been attacked by the government and opposition, academics and leaders of the Jewish community since The Australian revealed its head, Jake Lynch, citing his centre's BDS support, had rejected a request for help from Israeli academic Dan Avnon. Professor Avnon is credited with developing the country's only civics curriculum designed for Jewish and Arab school students.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop ramped up her criticisms of the BDS movement and demanded Foreign Minister Bob Carr make a public statement denouncing BDS in the light of recent comments he has made over Israel."

Ed Koch on Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary: “It Would be a Terrible Appointment”

"Koch says that since his election, Obama has acted in support of Israel. “He has been stalwart since the election, nobody has stood up as well as he in support of Israel, I hope he continues with that,” he said. But the appointment of Hagel, he concluded, “would be a great mistake.”

The upheavals in ME and their impact on the Kurds
The past hundred years were perhaps the worst in Kurdish history, including division among different states, campaigns of assimilation and even genocide. But the 21st century heralds new and better things.

Saudi Textbooks Retain Hateful Refrains
Schoolchildren primed with pre-persecution slurs against ‘infidels.’

"The education minister acknowledged that reform of grade 1-12 textbooks was needed but indicated it was not a government priority. I also met with Saudi Justice Minister Muhammad al-Issa and asked him why the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” an infamously anti-Semitic fabrication at the time of the Russian revolution, is included in the textbook on Hadiths (traditions of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad) where it continues to be taught as historical fact. The Saudi justice minister said that the Protocols is treated as part of Islamic culture because it is a book that has long been found in plentiful supply in Saudi Arabia (one of the relatively few non-Muslim books to be so), and was a book that his father had in his home."

Tehran warns Ankara over NATO missile system
Iranian military commander cautions Turkey against having ‘Zionist defense line’ on its territory

“Patriot missiles are a defense line for the Zionists and a result of (the West’s) concerns over Iran’s missiles and Russia’s presence to defend Syria,” he said. “Western countries approve the deployment of Patriots on the Syria-Turkey border as they design a world war,” he said in a separate quote carried by state TV’s website.

Canada-Iran Crisis: Canada Accuses Iran Of Subversive Activity On Its Soil
Canada's Foreign Ministry strongly objected to Mohammadi's statements, warning Tehran to stop using its embassy in Ottawa to recruit Iranian-Canadians to serve the Islamic Republic’s interests.

"Iranian-Canadians have rejected the oppressive Iranian regime and have chosen to come to Canada to build better lives," a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement to the National Post. "The Iranian embassy should not interfere in their choices. Canadian security organizations will act to prevent threats and intimidation of Canadians."

Militants' threaten Pakistan church school for Malala support
Authorities in Pakistan have held three people over a threat to bomb a church school in Islamabad unless it paid them $51,000 (£38,000), officials say.

"A letter sent to the school, apparently by a little-known militant group, demanded cash for not bombing it.
It accused the church school of offering prayers for Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was injured by a Taliban gunmen in October."

Der Spiegel essay: Our ‘nation of perpetrators’ is still under the spell of its Nazi past
In plaintive article, author whose grandfather served in the Nazi SA says Germany is still dominated by its dark history

"Kurbjuweit cited a poem by celebrated German author Günter Grass that heavily criticized Israel — with which most Germans were in agreement, according to a survey — as one example of the rise of anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and xenophobia in Germany. “Of course Germans can criticize Israel, and I too cannot endorse the Netanyahu government’s settlement policy,” he wrote. “But I think that we have to find a special tone, and that we can’t argue without taking history into account. Grass, a man of words, wasn’t able to find this tone.”

British Jews rail against Hebrew-less list of languages approved for school study
Forcing students to learn a second language that isn’t Hebrew detrimental to Jewish education, Board of Deputies warn

"The proposal was “extremely detrimental to our community’s identity, as language — including modern and classical Hebrew — is a vital ingredient to understanding our faith and culture,” Laura Marks, a senior vice-president in the Board of Deputies was quoted as saying.
Marks reportedly urged the British government to expand the list to include more than “just a narrow range of languages.”

Israeli delegation brings urban water expertise to India

“There is a an almost uncanny fit between India’s needs in the urban water arena, and what Israeli companies are able to offer,” so says Abraham Tenne, VP Desalination at Israel’s Water Authority following a visit last week to India. The visit was one implementation of an agreement signed this past February between the two nations aimed at fostering cooperation, with a focus on urban water management.
The delegation of Israeli water experts included, in addition to Tenne, Oded Distel, head of Israel NewTech, Zohar Yinon, CEO of the Jerusalem Water Authority “Hagihon” , and Elisha Arad of the Standards Institute of Israel.

Visit Israel!
Following last month’s Operation Pillar of Defense, which severely harmed tourism, the Tourism Ministry announces it is investing NIS 15 million in a new campaign overseas as well as one in Israel to promote tourism to South.

“Israel is also seeing an increase in tourism from emerging markets such as Brazil, India and South Korea.
The ministry recently launched a campaign to rehabilitate domestic tourism to the Southern region under the slogan, “It’s so good you’ve come South.”

HRW contradicts itself on ICC and Israel

From UN Watch:

Minutes after the U.N. voted on Nov. 29 to call “Palestine” a state, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a press release urging the Palestinians to use their new status to pursue Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Yet few noticed that HRW’s lobbying contradicted its own promises that this scenario would never happen.

In 2001, when Americans were debating whether or not to support the ICC, Human Rights Watch published “Myths and Facts About the International Criminal Court.”

As part of its campaign to get the U.S. to ratify the Rome Statute and join the ICC, Human Rights Watch affirmed that the new court would never be used “to pursue politically motivated cases against Israel.” This concern was nothing but a “myth,” insisted HRW.

This was because “Future actions on Israeli or Palestinian territory will be covered only if the ICC treaty is ratified by Israel or by a broadly recognized Palestinian state.” And as HRW explained, in aWashington Post op-ed, “That will not happen until after a peace agreement, in which case the likelihood of Israeli military action against Palestinians greatly diminishes.”

Fast forward several years. Suddenly, HRW is lobbying for the Palestinian bid to become a U.N. state and an ICC member before a peace agreement — and indeed while the Palestinians have refused to even sit at the negotiating table with Israel.

What happened to HRW’s “that will not happen”promise?

The truth is that over the past several years, HRW has actively lobbied to make happen everything that it assured Americans would never happen.

...While HRW was sometimes cagey on expressing outright support for the formal ICC request submitted by the PA, there was no mistaking where they stood: “Human Rights Watch called on the ICC prosecutor to make a prompt legal determination on the Palestinian National Authority request, consistent with the ICC’s mandate to end impunity.” The latter phrase could only mean HRW wanted the ICC to decide in the affirmative.

Similarly, in a September 2010 speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, HRW called on the 47-nation body to “urge the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to determine in a prompt manner whether he believes the court has jurisdiction over the Gaza conflict. Such a determination will clarify the avenues of international justice available.”

Again, HRW made it clear how they wanted the jurisdiction question to be decided: “The parties... have thus far not shown a willingness to conduct investigations up to international standards, so international prosecutions may be required.” Peace talks, said HRW, “in no way lessen the need for accountability. On the contrary, justice [i.e., ICC prosecution] for serious violations should be part of the discussion.”

...

The greatest supporter of the Goldstone Report’s call for ICC prosecutions, apart from HRW, was the Hamas terrorist organization. ...

By actively lobbying for Palestinian statehood prior to a peace agreement, and by urging Palestinians to pursue Israel in the ICC, Human Rights Watch promotes the Hamas agenda and the politicization of international law.

More than that, HRW breaks its word, and undermines the credibility of its organization.

Read the whole thing.

Maybe HRW needs a new logo.

(h/t Arsen Ostrovsky)

Reuters gets a D+ in Gaza strawberry story

From Reuters:

Farmers in Gaza’s Beit Lahia are out in force in the coastal enclave’s strawberry fields. Israel has given them the green light to start exporting their produce to Europe, and the farmers are keen to fill as many boxes with their locally grown produce.

But strawberry farming is a costly and labor intensive process, and the farmers have already suffered a huge loss due to an export ban imposed on them by the Jewish state.

Observing those at work is Ahmed al-Shafai, Head of the Gaza Association for Marketing Fruit And Vegetables.

According to al-Shafai farmers in the coastal enclave have lost more than 300,000 U.S dollars due to Israeli export restrictions.

“We thought we were going to export on the 18th November, but Israel only gave us the permit from 2nd December, which meant that farmers suffer a great loss. How? Well instead of exporting the strawberries we sold them in Gaza for four shekels a kilo, when it was meant to be sold in Europe for 22 shekels, so we lost 18 shekels per kilo. Which meant that farmers lost, in this period of time before the 2nd December 1, 400,000 shekels, and this was a loss for the farmers,” he said.

November, November, I'm sure something was happening the week of November 18, what could it have been?

Oh yeah, Gazans were "exporting" about 1400 rockets to Israel at that time!

Obviously the exports were delayed because of the little war that was going on then. For Reuters not to mention that is essentially journalistic malpractice.

The other thing Reuters doesn't bother to mention is that Israel has been steadily increasing the number of exports from Gaza, and that Israeli exporters are working hard to market the Gaza strawberries in Europe.

But Reuters doesn't quite flunk, because it does mention this little fact that other reports about Gaza exports ignore:

Exports have been seen by Israel as highly suspect since March 2004, when two Palestinian teenagers infiltrated the Israeli port of Ashdod by hiding in a shipping container. They blew themselves up, killing 10 people.

Wow! A relevant fact! Buried in paragraph 11, true, but this is the first "poor Gaza farmer" story I can recall that noted that terror attack.

87.7% of Palestinian Arabs support Hamas-style terror

From the latest AWRAD poll we see this question:

"The results of the recent Gaza conflict prove that armed struggle, as adopted by Hamas, is the best means of achieving Palestinian independence"

Among all Palestinian Arabs, 55.6% said they "strongly agree" and 32.1% said they "agree."

In the "moderate" West Bank, the percentage that agreed was 86.4%.

Rockets aimed at civilians are nothing less than terrorism. Which means that Palestinian Arabs overwhelmingly support terror.

(h/t IMRA)

Palestinian Arabs - killing their own kids to win a propaganda war

Iran's ABNA news agency reports:

Israeli hospital refuses to treat Palestinian child with cancer

The Israeli Kaplan hospital has expelled a Palestinian girl, Lin Hassan, who has been suffering from cancer in both her kidneys despite her treatment was not completed.

The child's mother said in a statement on Saturday that immediately after her daughter started receiving treatment, she was surprised when the hospital administration informed them of the decision to stop all treatments for Lin.

And why is this happening, according to the story?

She said that her child was scheduled to be operated on for the removal of the tumor, but the hospital administration expelled her because the Palestinian Authority did not pay the dues of Lin's previous stay in the Israeli hospital.

Interestingly, Iran seemed to have this story before any Palestinian Arab sources did. Islamic Jihad media's newer version was published today.

Even if this story is true, it reveals an astonishingly cynical use of children's lives for the apparent purpose of endangering them to blame Israel.

Hamas has already gloatingly tweeted this story.

The PA has been refusing to pay for Israeli hospital stays for years, much to the consternation of Israeli medical professionals. From the New York Times, 2009:

Scores of Palestinian patients being treated in Israeli hospitals, a rare bright spot of coexistence here, are being sent home because the Palestinian Authority has stopped paying for their treatment, partly in anger over the war in Gaza.

Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem says that for the past week, no payments have come in and Palestinians whose children it is treating have been instructed by Palestinian health officials to place them in facilities in the West Bank, Jordan or Egypt.

“Suddenly we have had 57 patients dropped from our rolls,” said Dr. Michael Weintraub, director of pediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation at Hadassah. “We have been bombarded by frantic parents. This is a political decision taken on the backs of patients.”

Meanwhile, for at least some patients, the IDF pays for their treatment itself.

Yesterday (Tuesday), a Palestinian girl from the West Bank was released from the Rambam hospital in Haifa. She had been admitted two months ago for a bone marrow transplant, which was funded by the Israeli Civil Administration.

"Without undergoing this transplant, this young girl would not still be with us," said Dalia Bessa, the Health Coordinator for the Civil Administration in the West Bank. The three and a half year old girl has been undergoing treatment for the last three years, after being diagnosed with thalassemia, a blood disorder.

"The only possible way to save her life was to undergo a bone marrow transplant," said Hanna Nishri, who is responsible for patient intake at the hospital. "Since funds for the procedure were not forthcoming from the Palestinian Authority, the Civil Administration, working through the Health Coordinator, decided to help save the girl's life."

Think about it from the Palestinian Arab leaderships' perspective. If Israel gives them free treatment, they win. If the children die because Israeli hospitals cannot afford to provide free care for them, they simply publicize this and they win even more.

The only losers are the Palestinian Arab people - and they are just cannon fodder anyway, if you are Mahmoud Abbas or Khaled Meshal.

(h/t Gidon, IranAware)

Pro-Israel rally in Sweden last Sunday

From Ilya Meyer's blog:

On Sunday 9th December this year a rally was held outside the offices of Aftonbladet, a Swedish tabloid equally well known for its vicious anti-Israel stance as for its peddling of raw anti-Semitic vitriol.

The theme of the rally was “Enough is Enough!” – no more media prejudice against the Jewish state, no more anti-Israel lies in the media, no more withholding of news that may explain Israel’s position in a neutral or objective light.

In a biting minus 15 degrees, supporters of democracy, ethics and principle gathered together outside the front door of Aftonbladet to express their disapproval of the Swedish media’s blatant prejudice against the Jewish state. True to form, Aftonbladet totally ignored the event taking place on its doorstep – it never figured in their reporting. If it doesn’t suit the paper’s political agenda, it simply didn’t happen. Such is the Pravda-esque state of what passes for journalism in Sweden.

(h/t O)

Bonus Chanukah Video: The Eighth Night

(h/t Dave Gold)

Saturday night links

From Ian, unedited (sorry):

New group unites young Palestinians against Israel

‘National Unity Brigades’ say third intifada has already started in Hebron, vow not to relinquish ‘an inch of Palestine’
"Youngsters who identify themselves with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have joined forced with supporters of Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to a video uploaded to the Internet Friday, in order to fight against Israel.
“This is the beginning of the third Palestinian intifada, which erupts from the heart of Hebron and spreads to all of Palestine,” they said."

Think Again: Disproportionate criticism

The success of the Iron Dome antimissile system allowed Israel to pursue a calibrated policy in Operation Pillar of Defense.
"Israeli military actions are consistently judged and found wanting by metrics that are applied to no other army or conflict. Application of these standards is designed to render Israel incapable of defending its citizens.
Prominent among these new metrics is the comparison of Israeli casualties to those of the civilian population from whose midst the enemy fights. As soon as the casualties on the other side exceed those suffered by Israel – usually within hours of an unprovoked attack on Israel and without any cessation of fire from the other side – Israel’s response is labeled disproportionate."

Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t?

"When she looked up for a minute, she noticed that the boy had grabbed the guard by the neck with one hand, and put a pistol to his temple with the other. Immediately, she cocked her weapon and tried to aim at the perpetrator without hitting the border policeman. She fired one shot, but the boy still had the gun to her subordinate’s head. She then released two more bullets, and the boy was dead. Shortly after the incident, it was determined that the gun was fake."

Coed Combat - The Israeli Army VIDEO

Douglas Murray: Arab Winter update

"The latest news on Great Britain’s export is that he recently took part in Tunisia in an ‘International Conference in Support of Palestinian Prisoners in the Jails of the Zionist Occupation.’ This event was such a bigging up of Hamas that the Palestinian Authority were invited as ‘observers’ rather than ‘representatives’ of the Palestinian people , and thus boycotted the conference.Among the stars of the event was Ahlam al-Tamimi, sentenced for her role in the suicide bombing of an Israeli pizza restaurant, where she helped murder eight children. She was released under the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap. Here she is on Hamas TV expressing her delight at her action, despite her initial disappointment when i hearing on the radio that she might have only helped to kill three Jews:

Americans’ support for Israel didn’t waver in wake of Gaza fighting

Pew study shows US public’s sympathy for Israel over the Palestinians remains strong with ‘stark partisan differences’; 36% have no opinion or sympathize with neither side
"The clearest partisan gap measured by Pew is in the political sphere. Among conservative Republicans, the preference for Israel is at a very high 75%, with just 2% sympathizing more with the Palestinians. For liberal Democrats, however, only 33% said they sympathized more with Israel, though this was still more than the 22% who said they sympathized more with the Palestinians. (Independents favored Israel by a margin of 47% to 13%.)"

Richard Millett: The cowardice of Peter Oborne

"Oborne quotes Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, a former British ambassador to Israel, who recently said that “anyone who has a real affection for the Jewish people will want to help them to avoid this looming disaster.”
Alarm bells start ringing when someone critical of Israeli policy then co-opts the “the Jewish people”. Are all “the Jewish people” really responsible for “this looming disaster”? Israel is a democracy and British Jews do not have a vote. And it’s not British Jews who have Hamas to their south and Hezbollah to their north."

CIF Watch: Banned by the Guardian: My journey at ‘CiF’ is over
It was a good run, but my personal ‘Comment is Free’ journey seems to have ended

"While I’ll likely never learn why I fell out of favor with ‘the Party’, my guess is it may have something to do with our continuing counter-revolutionary commentary exposing their Judeophobic biases, their licensing of the most extremist, antisemitic voices, and a pervasive hostility towards the Jewish state at their site."

BBC Watch: Correction needed on BBC article from November 5th 2012
On November 5th 2012 an article in the Middle East section of the BBC News website reported that:

“The Israeli military said the man was shot after ignoring warnings to stop. Palestinian medics said the man was unarmed and mentally ill.”
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre’s weekly report for the period October 31st to November 6th reports as follows:
“The Palestinian media reported the death of Ahmed Tawfiq al-Nabahin, 23, a resident of Juhr al-Dik. The reports claimed he was “mentally disturbed.” A picture of the same “mentally disturbed” individual, wearing a body-armor vest and armed with a rifle, was posted on the Hamas forum.”

Face value: the BBC and Palestinian NGOs

"Addameer’s Board of Directors includes Yousef Habash – reportedly the nephew of the PFLP’s founder George Habash. He has also represented PNGO (the Palestinian NGO Network) and the Health Work Committees. Until 2007 at least, he was a member of the steering committee of the ‘Palestinian Grassroots Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign’.
Addameer’s Chairperson, Abdullatif Ghaith, was described by the Palestinian NGO ‘Miftah’ in 2004 as representing the PFLP at a sit-in organized by Azmi Bishara.
Addameer’s Director, Sahar Francis, was formerly also a board member of ‘Defence of Children International – Palestine’: a title also formerly held by Al Haq’s Shawan Jabarin who was denied entry by Jordan in 2003 due to PFLP ties."

Pollard gathered intel on Arab and Soviet weaponry, not US military activities, CIA document reveals

Declassified 1987 damage assessment says jailed spy’s Israeli handlers ‘never expressed interest in US military activities, plans, capabilities or equipment’
“Extensive post-plea debriefings of Pollard, aided by a review of document-receipt records, yielded an extensive account of Pollard’s espionage objectives, activities, and compromised documents. A series of polygraph interviews tended to confirm that his cooperation with US authorities was bona fide,” read the assessment penned by analysts in the CIA’s Foreign Denial and Deception Committee and Navy Intelligence.

CAMERA: The Threatened Use of Poison Gas in the Middle East

"There is good reason to be alarmed at these reports. Yet, if the Syrian regime were to resort to using chemical weapons, it would not set a new precedent in the region. Over the years a number of regimes have shown a willingness to use chemical weapons against insurgents and defenseless civilians."

Hungarian police detain lawmaker who burned Israeli flag at protest
Balazs Lenhardt, formerly of the right-wing Jobbik party, was released after questioning

French teens arrested over explosion near teacher who reported anti-Semitism
"The teacher, Chantal Viroulou, told the radio station that before the incident, “students from that class, two or three of them at least, called me and told me: ‘Jew, we will break your face.’” Viroulou, who teaches at the Latecoere professional high school in the town of Istres, did not say whether she was Jewish."

Toronto University Students Vote to Endorse BDS
The Graduate Student Union at the University of Toronto overwhelmingly votes to endorse the BDS campaign against Israel.

More Women Than Men Admitted at Israel Bar Association Graduation Ceremony

Hypocritical condolences from Abbas to Obama on school shooting

From Ma'an:

President Mahmoud Abbas wrote to US President Barack Obama on Saturday to offer his condolences after a shooting in an American elementary school killed 26 people.

Interesting.

In 1974, the Palestinian Arabs innovated the idea of attacking a school and killing students. From Wikipedia:

The Ma'alot massacre[1] was a terrorist attack in 1974 which included a two-day hostage-taking of 115 people which ended in the deaths of over 25 hostages. It began when three armed Palestinian terrorists of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine[2] entered Israel from Lebanon. Soon afterwards they attacked a van, killing two Israeli Arab women while injuring a third and entered an apartment building in the town of Ma'alot, where they killed a couple and their four-year-old son.[3] From there, they headed for the Netiv Meir elementary school, where they took more than 115 people (including 105 children) hostage on 15 May 1974, in Ma'alot. Most of the hostages were teenagers from a high school in Safad on a Gadna field trip spending the night in Maalot. The hostage-takers soon issued demands for the release of 23 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons, or else they would kill the students. On the second day of the standoff, a unit of the Golani Brigade stormed the building. During the takeover, the hostage-takers killed the children with grenades and automatic weapons. Ultimately, 25 hostages, including 22 children, were killed and 68 more were injured.

Yes, Abbas' brave Palestinian fighters murdered more children in a school than Adam Lanza did on Friday.
(A month earlier another group of Palestinian Arab terrorists stormed a school but it was a holiday. They still managed to kill 8 children, though.)

On January 1, Fatah - which Abbas heads - will celebrate an anniversary. But it is not the anniversary of Fatah's founding - no one celebrates that - but the anniversary of the first terror attack by Fatah, in 1965.

The official PA TV still celebrates massacres against Israeli civilians and the terrorists who were behind them. Today.

Abbas claims to the West that he is against terror, but the actions of his own party and his own government show that praising terror attacks is part of the Palestinian Arab culture. Abbas himself has praised terrorists, including child-killers.

The fact is that you will be hard pressed to find a Palestinian Arab leader that would condemn the Ma'alot attack in 1974, or is the slightest bit embarrassed by it.

Abbas' "condolences" ring very, very hollow.

The ICRC’s bias against Israel disgraces its humanitarian mission and its claims of impartiality.
"Using its exclusive position, it turned GC IV – which was intended to ensure the protection of civilians threatened by war and other conflicts – into a political sledgehammer against Israel.The ICRC contrived the term OPT, promoted it in every forum and unilaterally designated what is at best a disputed area as (1) illegally occupied by Israel, (2) belonging to Palestinian Arabs and (3) an unnamed and undefined territory without a history."

Oren: Israel must prepare for ICC action
Ambassador to US says Israel cannot discount possibility that Palestinians, empowered at UN, will take action at int'l court.

"Oren expressed disappointment not only with the Palestinians for going to the UN, but with the European countries who didn’t oppose their move, and said that was particularly because the Palestinian step violated the Oslo Accords to which the Europeans were witnesses."

The Unbearable Silence about the Jewish Refugees by Michael Curtis

"The status of those Jews as refugees has been found to be in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees. The UNHCR announced on two occasions, in February 1957 and in July 1967, that Jews who fled from Arab countries "may be considered prima facie within the mandate of this office," thus regarding them, according to international law, as bona fide refugees."

OpEd: Leunig, your provocative use of Nazi analogies is so tiresome

THERE is a classic joke that tells of two elderly Jews sitting in a Berlin park during the 1930s. Isaac is reading the virulently anti-Jewish Nazi weekly, Der Sturmer, laughing to himself. ''Isaac!'' his Yiddish newspaper-reading friend Simon exclaims. ''How can you read that trash?''
''I used to read the Yiddish press, but all it talked about was Jews getting beaten, expelled from their homes and having their businesses burnt down,'' Isaac responds. ''It made me feel miserable. But here in Der Sturmer I read that Jews are powerful and in control of the world, and it makes me feel great.''

BBC Watch: RTS Chief Exec flags up “culture of denial” at BBC News

"In a speech at his retirement dinner, the outgoing chief executive of the Royal Television Society, Simon Albury, reportedly stated that “the BBC’s news and current affairs departments are beset by a “culture of denial” in which editors are unwilling to “address things that are manifestly wrong”.”

BBC turns Palestinian attacker into passive victim

"The reader is therefore left with a distorted impression of events which implies trigger-happy Israelis needlessly shooting Palestinians. And just in case the reader failed to get the ‘proper’ message, the article reinforces it by ending with the context-free words"

Anti-Semitic cartoons in Toronto-area muslim newspaper - VIDEO

CAMERA: Where's the Coverage? Construction in Truly Occupied Territory

"What about other media coverage of Chinese construction in Tibet? Virtual silence. Although Reuters reported that thousands took to the streets of New York City protesting Chinese occupation of Tibet, there was not a word about the construction.
How much construction is there? More than the 3,000 housing units contemplated for E-1? You betcha."

New Photos of Zoabi with Marmara Terrorists
MK Danon says new pictures of MK Hanin Zoabi with Turkish terrorists could be her downfall.

"A video already released shows Zoabi knew in advance that Turkish men aboard the ship Mavi Marmara, which attempted to forcibly break the IDF naval blockade on Hamas, were planning to attack soldiers. Danon said that in addition to that, there are new photos “that the public has not seen” that he hopes will be revealed in court."

Poll: Only 28% Still Believe in ‘Palestinian Partner’
Only 28.2% of Israelis think Israel has someone to negotiate with. 75% see Netanyahu winning the elections.

Abbas mulls forming confederation with Jordan By Khaled Abu Toameh

PA officials say a confederation would only take place after the creation of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines.
Abbas’s rapprochement with Jordan is the result of a Saudi-Qatari-Turkish alliance that backs Hamas and ignores the PA, the politicians noted.

Palestinian Authority still waiting on emergency funds promised by Arab states
Arab League official says no date has been set for transfer of $100 million to Ramallah

Jordan prince scorned for attending Jewish event
Anti-normalization groups up in arms over British fundraiser held less than a week after the end of Operation Pillar of Defense.

Despite Controversial Israel Policy, Chuck Hagel Is Frontrunner for Defense Secretary Position
“He is one of the most hostile critics of Israel that has ever been in the Senate,” Morton Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America told The Algemeiner bluntly.

Swedish gallery pulls art made of Holocaust victims’ ashes

Painting with burned remains from Majdanek death camp removed following protests
“I think pulling the exhibition was the right decision,” said Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director of international relations. “I would further insist the painting be returned to Majdanek for burial there.”

Public menorah vandalized in Sicily
Incident marks second year in a row that assailants have destroyed Hanukkah symbol

“Taking this all together, it’s clear that we are dealing with an anti-Semitic act of intolerance,” Benito Triolo, president of the Jewish cultural association B’nai Isaac, told the local Catania news website CTzen it. B’nai Isaac organized the menorah lightings, which were staged for the first time four years ago.”

Israel Launches Public Diplomacy Department in Arabic

"Israel’s Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry has opened a Public Diplomacy Department in Arabic. A statement released by the Ministry states that the department “will be responsible for conducting public diplomacy activities for the media and public opinion on a global level in general and among Arab countries and the Middle East in particular.”

For better or worse, cybersecurity a growth industry for Israel
No one is happy about the greatly increased need for cyberdefense. But some Israeli start-ups may keep hacks at bay

"Years after Israel established itself as a leader in computer security — with companies like Checkpoint introducing the information technology world to concepts such as firewalls — new companies like Cyvera, Lacoon Security, and Zimperium will provide new solutions to the more advanced cyber threats challenging today’s businesses, governments, and individual computer owners."

Also:
Funny fake BDS page spoofing one of their main websites

Barry Rubin - Why Islamists always win in their societies

Jonathan Schanzer in Foreign Policy - After Abbas...Hamas.

Israel winning in Europe

Sure, the Jewish state may have liked a few more 'no' votes in their camp, but given the choice, Israel would take tangible results over symbolic victories at the UN any day.

Regrettably, when commentators lament how Israel has 'lost' Europe, they overlook the impressive list of achievements by this government in the past four years.

Ben Dror Yemini - Ethiopian integration into Israeli society going faster than any other group (Hebrew, h/t Yoel)