Tuesday, December 18, 2012

  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
I came across this video from a conference last week that explains everything you need to know about Israel's significant oil shale reserves and how they can be extracted efficiently:



The speaker, Dr. Howard Vinegar (who is a world-renowned expert on the topic,) says that within the decade Israel could be energy independent just from shale at a production price of $40 per barrel, much less than the current price of oil. Israel's total reserves rivals those of Saudi Arabian oil.

This is all besides Israel's huge offshore natural gas deposits.

Meanwhile, another Middle Eastern country that doesn't have much in the way of traditional oil reserves is also sitting on top of huge oil shale deposits.
Jordan has approximately 40-80 billion tons of oil shale (about 34 billion barrels of shale oil) that could last for over 900 years at current consumption, said a top official at an Estonian company tapping the Kingdom's reserves of oil shale.
The economic map of the Middle East will be completely redrawn in the coming years.
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here is a 2008 letter written by Paul van Buitenen, a former Dutch MEP who did his own research on the way EU money was spent by the PA. It has not been made public until now. (This has been scanned and OCRed, so there might be minor errors.)

Buitenen charges that the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF ignored evidence that money given by the EU to the PA was diverted to buying weapons for use in terror attacks.



European Antifraud Office (OLAF) The Director-General
Mr. F-H. Brüner
30, Rue Joseph Il
B-1049 Brusseis

Subject:
Palestinian monies Final Case Report

Place and Date:
Breda (NL), 28 April 2008

Dear Mr. Brüner,

The European Union financially supports the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian society as well as organisations that work in the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. This is performed through various mechanisms, either directly by the EU, or indirectly through the EU Member states individually, the World Bank or through United Nations organisations such as UNRWA. Although EU-support already started in the year 1994, more structural support started in the year 2000 and has since then increased to the present level of an estimated amount of almost 800 million per year (exact figures not known to me). The amount of this EU financial support, is unmatched by any other EU support in the world, if compared to the size of the Palestinian territories and population.

Following allegations in the past that some of the EU funding to the Palestinians may have been used for corruption or financing of terrorist activities, the European Parliament initiated a Working Group (WG) in March 2003 (active until March 2004), while OLAF carried out an investigation into these allegations in 2003 and 2004, with a Final Case Report and press release in March 2005.

The WG analysed the EU Direct Budgetary Assistance (DBA) to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The period under their examination was the end of 2000 to the end of 2002. Next to its task to assess the decisions of the European Commission with respect to the DBA, it was to establish whether the above mentioned allegations were founded.

With respect to the documents handed over by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) which claimed these would prove transfers of funds to terrorist activities, the WG report (endorsed by Wynn, on behalf of the Committee of Budgets, and Mrs. Theato, on behalf of the Budgetary Control Committee) states that the Commission responded as followed:
"many of these documents were already known and had been commented upon. Furthermore, many documents related to the period before 2000 when EU was not supporting the PA budget”. Moreover, the report also claims that the evidence was insufficient since "proven execution of payment" were missing (pp. 6). Also OLAF holds the view that it discards the documents provided by the IDF as evidence which would be acceptable in court since these were "based on, or largely rely on, intelligence reports” (pp. 7). The IDF, however, remained convinced that EU funds were used for terrorist purposes while the Minister of Finance of the PA at the time, Mr Fayyad (Minister of Finance since June 2002, Prime Minister since June 2007), denied these claims. While the other report of Mr. Laschet (on behalf of the Committee of Foreign Affairs) confirms this position of OLAF, it does state that "this is OLAF’s way of proceeding. However from a political point of view, the numerous documents with President Arafat’s signature and authorising the payment cannot be discarded" (Draft Conclusions by Laschet, pp. 13). Both reports finally conclude that the allegations of payments to terrorists cannot be proven.

This OLAF investigation covered the Palestinian Authority budget period of 2000 to 2003. On 17 March 2005, OLAF published an official press release stating:
”On the basis of the information currently available to OLAF, the investigation has found no conclusive evidence of support of armed attacks or unlawful activities financed by the European Commission’s contributions to the budget. However, the possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority’s budget and other resources, cannot be excluded, due to the fact that the internal and external audit capacity in the Palestinian Authority is still underdeveloped."

Moreover, the press release also contains the following passage which is not elaborated upon any further:

"However, there are consistent indications to support the hypothesis that it cannot be excluded that some of the assets of the PA may have been used by some individuals for other than the intended purposes”

On 12 January 2006 and 6 November 2006, I have made a request for access to the 2005 Final Case Report of OLAF on the alleged abuses of the spending of the subsidies received by the Palestinian Authority. You refused such access on 3 April 2006 and on 18 December 2006.

On 17 January 2007, the former chairman of the EP Committee on Budget Control, Fazakas MEP, also asked access to this OLAF report under the provisions of the framework agreement between the Commission and Parliament. You replied on 22 February 2007 in which you offered a confidential 10-page summary of the OLAF report. This summary did not meet the needs of the Committee on Budgetary Control as it did not reveal any additional substantial information in comparison to the press release of 17 April 2005, which OLAF had published on its report.

On 25 April 2007, the newly appointed chairman of the EP Committee on Budget Control, Bösch MEP, reiterated the request for access to the OLAF Final Case Report on the Palestinian moneys. He even suggested access to be granted just to one member of the Budget Control Committee, namely me. On 25 May 2007, you refused to grant access, even under the confidentiality clauses that are applicable for such circumstances.

On 17 July 2007, OLAF gave a presentation behind closed doors, in the Budget Control Committee, on the results of the investigations, which were covered in their report of March 2005. Again no new information was given to the MEP’s.

Finally, on my parliamentary question of 2nd October 2007, requesting further clarifications on the conclusions of the 2005 OLAF investigation as well as the follow-up that was given, the Commission, on proposal of OLAF, replied on 29th November 2007 that the OLAF conclusions were confidential and that disclosing them would undermine public security, military matters, international relations and commercial interests.

This leaves me, as Member of the parliamentary Committee on Budget Control, with the question what indications were found by OLAF towards abuses of the Palestinian moneys and whether the conclusions, as presented in the OLAF press release, actually cover the contents of the findings in the Final Case Report. As OLAF systematically refused to provide me and the EP Committee on Budget Control with any substantial information on this matter, l have tried to obtain the information that OLAF possesses, elsewhere.

For the OLAF investigation, the Israeli Authorities provided extensive information to OLAF, including documentation from the Palestinian Authority and Fatah that they had confiscated during the operation 'Defensive Shield’ in 2002, when they entered the Ramallah Headquarters of the late PA President Arafat. According to the Israelis, this information contained clear evidence of PA support to terrorist activities. When I asked some Israeli Authorities to provide me with the same information, they initially promised me to provide the material, but finally I did not get it. Informally, one of the Israeli officials told me that the Israelis did not want to undermine the position of Fatah and President Abbas in their power struggle with Hamas. Revealing incriminating material to a Member of the European Parliament that would prove corruption and the financial support of terrorists by Fatah and/or the Palestinian Authority would have an undermining effect and was to be avoided by the Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile however, I have managed to obtain parts of this material through informal channels. After studying the material, I conclude that its contents confirms what the Israeli authorities have stated all along. The documents show clear evidence that the High representatives within the Palestinian Authority, including President Arafat himself, at least until April 2002, which is almost two years after the start of massive and structural EU financial support to the PA, were providing financial support to a significant number of known terrorists as well as supporting the dealing and production of light and heavy arms.


Copies of letters and lists showing the names of these terrorists and proving the involvement of the highest political authorities within the PA are now in my possession and must also be in the possession of OLAF. The hand-written notes and signatures of Arafat, asking the PA Treasury department to execute payments to many lists with between 5 and 20 named terrorists each, of S350, S600 and $800 per person, leave no doubt of the involvement of the official Palestinian Authority Treasury.

Also documents with altogether 150 Fatah activists were found on which it is shown that these Fatah activists are integrated on the payroll of the official Palestinian Authority security forces. Yet another example are the financial reports that were found with the costs of a production plant for heavy artillery rockets and mortars (costs $80,000), as well as the calculation of financial needs for the buying of rockets, bombs and rifle ammunition. This is the same Palestinian Authority Treasury that received, at the same time (in 2001/2002) millions of Euros from the European Union as Direct Budgetary Assistance to the same budget as from which these abusive payments were made.

In sharp contradiction with these findings is the official OLAF press release of 17 2005, concerning the closure of the OLAF investigation into the allegations of abuses by the Palestinian Authority over the period 2000-2003. In this press release, OLAF concludes the following (I repeat):

”On the basis of the information currently available to OLAF, the investigation has found no conclusive evidence of support of armed attacks or unlawful activities financed by the European Commission's contributions to the budget. However, the possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority'5 budget and other resources, cannot be excluded, due to the fact that the interna/ and external audit capacity in the Palestinian Authority is stil/ underdeveloped."

On 24 April 2008, I met with your chief investigator in charge of Palestinian moneys, Vlogaert, in his office at OLAF, who confirmed that you gave clearance for this meeting. I informed Mr. Vlogaert that I could not match the information I possess on the Palestinian Authority support to terrorist activities with the text of the official OLAF press release on this matter. After I showed to Mr. Vlogaert some of the documents that I obtained he confirmed to me that OLAF had received similar information and that they had taken it into account in their investigation. The conclusions of the OLAF final case report would confirm the following:


  • It was established that in the years 2001 and 2002, indeed payments from the official Palestinian Authority budget have effectively been made by the Palestinian Authority Treasury to terrorists and terrorist activities.
  • At the same time, the European Union contributed substantially to this same official Palestinian Authority Budget.
  • It is not realistic to make a distinction between parts of the PA budget that would originate from EU moneys and parts that would not originate from EU sources. The PA budget, from which these irregular payments originated, was one budget of which the EU moneys were one of the substantial sources.


During the meeting, I agreed to submit to OLAF a copy of all the material that I have obtained concerning irregularities with the Palestinian budget. OLAF would then check whether they are already in possession of this material or whether there is new information included. I would get feedback on this from OLAF. Please find this material attached to this letter.

Therefore, I have the following questions:

1. Can you confirm the above observations made concerning the OLAF Final Case Report?

2. Which members of the European Parliament Working Group received access to the documents as handed over by the IDF to OLAF?

3. Why did OLAF not provide this information to the European Parliament, but instead chose to stick to its official declaration made in the press release of 17th March 2005, as quoted above?

4. As the parliamentary Working Group concluded in its report of March 2004 that there was no proof of execution of payments, did you inform the parliament that OLAF indeed found proof of payment on request by President Arafat, by the PA Treasury to terrorists?

5. What information did OLAF transmit to the European Commission on its conclusions of the Final case report? Did the Commission get a copy of the complete Final Case Report? Did either the Israeli authorities or the Palestinian Authorities receive a copy of the Final Case Report? Did any other organization or individual receive a copy of the Final Case Report or their conclusions?

6. Can OLAF confirm to me in detail whether the information attached to this letter was
already in possession of OLAF in the course of its investigation that lead to the report on which the 17 March press release was issued?

Paul van Buitenen
Copy: Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of the fight against fraud, Mr. Siim Kallas

Attachments:
Copies of captured IDF documents from the Palestinian Authority, with translations and explanations by the Israeli Defence Forces; 141 pages.


Much of Israel's documentation and findings can be seen here, including documents with Arafat's signature authorizing payments to terrorists.

It appears that the EU stonewalled the investigation into misuse of funds by the PA.

See also this 2005 analysis from EU Funding:


If the aid was effective in alleviating poverty, the World Bank may not have been moved to comment "55% of those who receive emergency assistance are not needy.... 32% of the needy do not receive emergency assistance." [Related story]
If the aid has been effective, then Muhammed Dahlan, Abu Mazen's close ally, would hardly have stated in August 2004 that all of the funds which foreign countries had donated to the Palestinian Authority, a total of $5bn "have gone down the drain, and we don't know to where." [Related story]
To put it bluntly, aid has been diverted and the EC cannot admit it.


(h/t MP, CHA)
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Daphne Anson:

I am a proud, British-born Muslim, and I love my country more than any other place on earth.

But, if for some reason, I had to leave, with my young family, and I was told that I must go and live in the Middle East, where would I decide to go?

Would I choose Dubai, with its vibrant city life and soaring skyscrapers?

No.

Would I choose Saudi Arabia, a fabulously wealthy nation and the birthplace of the holy Prophet Mohammed?

No.

There is only one place I could possibly go: Israel, the only nation in the Middle East that shares the same democratic values as Britain.

And the only nation in the Middle East where my family would feel the warm embrace of freedom and liberty.

Thus spoke Sajid Javid, MP for Bromsgrove since 2010 and, since September this year, economic secretary to the Treasury, addressing the 700 attendees at a business lunch of Conservative Friends of Israel last week.

Mr Javid, who is married to a Christian, observed:
In Britain, we are rightly very proud of our long history as a nation. But we are mere beginners compared to Israel, a nation that is governing itself in the same territory, under the same name, with the same religion, and the same language as it did 3,000 years ago. Now that’s what I call sustainability!

Israel is a country about which almost everyone has a passionate opinion — an opinion which they’re not usually shy about sharing, especially when that opinion is based on total ignorance.

If you want to have any chance of understanding the complexities of the Middle East, you can’t just read about Israel, you have to experience it.

(h/t Ian)
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ian:

Paper peace, paper god
Israel, like Britain’s Chamberlain, sacrificed lives and resources for an article of faith. We cannot retrieve the lost lives, but we can stop making the blood sacrifices.
Let’s start by admitting what we can see and hear with our eyes and ears: The PLO Accords of 1993 and the Gaza pull-out of 2005 did not serve peace, only the PLO, Hamas and the false god of paper.
Let’s stop worshiping the false god, and let’s stop pretending that the PLO and Hamas ever want to be our friends.

Ed Koch: Collaborators Then, Collaborators Now
The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas has refused to sit at a peace conference without preconditions for the last two years. President Abbas may desire peace, but he knows that if he were to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel, the Muslim Jihadists worldwide as well as his neighbors on the West Bank and Gaza, supporters of Hamas, would kill him. The European leaders know that but continue to blame Israel for a lack of peace when they know better. Shame on them.

UN Watch: Human Rights Watch Should Remove Antisemitic U.N. Official Richard Falk from Its Board
We are shocked to discover that Richard Falk—the U.N. official whose antisemitic remarks and 9/11 conspiracy theories have been condemned by British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay—is a board member of your organization.
By legitimizing this racist and enemy of human rights, your organization undermines its own founding principles. We urge you to remove him immediately.

'Disturbing' Video Shows 'Brutal' Israeli Occupation
A new video shows the Palestinian Authority under Israeli "occupation." PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently accused Israel of "waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people via the demolition of their homes" in Judea and Samaria.
The photos speak for themselves.

BBC Watch: BBC’s Connolly reports on ME Christians: omits the one place they thrive
You can always tell that Christmas is on the horizon by the fact that as the nights get longer, Western journalists suddenly develop an interest in Christianity in the Middle East. To his credit, the BBC Jerusalem Bureau’s Kevin Connolly at least refrained from going down the over-trodden route of tracking down a photo-op with a wizened old shepherd from Bethlehem.

Israeli Embassy’s ‘lynching Jesus’ Facebook post sparks Irish ire
‘Problematic’ Christmas message claiming Palestinians would kill Jesus and Mary if they were living in today’s Bethlehem removed after outcry
“A thought for Christmas… If Jesus and mother Mary were alive today, they would, as Jews without security, probably end up being lynched in Bethlehem by hostile Palestinians. Just a thought…….”

Nezar Hindawi loses parole bid
A man jailed for 45 years for plotting to blow up an Israeli airliner has lost a High Court battle for parole.
Lawyers for Jordanian Nezar Hindawi, 57, said he no longer posed a threat and it was safe to release him on licence.
Hindawi planted a bomb in his pregnant fiancee's hand luggage on a flight from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv in 1986. The device could have killed 375 people had security staff not found it.

Rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Syrian rebels seize camp after pro-Assad fighters pull out; report states 95 percent of Palestinian families flee Yarmouk.
The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Many PFLP-GC fighters defected to the rebel side and their leader Ahmed Jibril left the camp two days ago, rebel sources said.

U.N. sees risk of escalation in Syrian-Israeli tensions in Golan
A U.S. and Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution to extend a peacekeeping mission in a demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel warns that tensions between the neighbours could escalate as Syria's civil war spills into the area.

UN Sending Chemical Weapons Kits to Troops in Golan
The United Nations is sending chemical weapons kits to troops in the Golan Heights because of growing fears over Syria's arsenal.

Sharia enforcers attack Egyptian cafes
Hazemoun and Ahrar movements attacked people at cafes in Cairo, chanting "Sharia is lifestyle," witnesses said.

’Friend a Soldier’ Connects IDF Troops With Internet Users Around the World
An online initiative meant to enable dialogue between former Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Internet users from around the world has relaunched a newly designed website.

Individual approach to online learning, Israeli style
One might expect some pretty fancy jujitsu moves from a company named Mindojo (for “mind” and “dojo,” a martial arts gym). And indeed, Mindojo founder Guy Zaslavsky’s online learning startup has just raised more than $2 million for a technology that Zaslavsky states confidently will “revolutionize education.”
Expected to debut in early 2013, the new Mindojo platform will allow individuals or a companies to create an online course that will automatically adapt to each student’s needs and learning style. The platform can be used for any subject that’s textbook based.

Ambassador Oren, Jewish Leaders, Mourn Sen. Inouye
Israel owes Sen. Inouye ”an immense debt,” says Ambassador Oren. Agudath Israel, Chabad and others mourn his passing.
The Jewish People owe the late Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye “an immense historic debt,” Israel Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said after the pro-Israel senator died Monday at the age of 88 from respiratory complications.
“The Iron Dome system that recently intercepted hundreds of terrorist rockets aimed at our homes stands as enduring proof of his commitment to the defense of the Jewish State,” Oren said.
“A hero of World War II, Senator Inouye devoted his life to serving not only the people of Hawaii, but the entire United States…. When he was still a soldier, recovering from the loss of an arm in combat, Senator Inouye learned about the Holocaust and began a lifelong attachment to the Jewish people and, later, to Israel. His dedication to Israel’s security was unswerving,” he added.

  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
We last wrote about Mazin Qumsiyeh a few months ago, noting that while the academic is constantly referred to as a "peace activist" and while he constantly refers to himself as being concerned for human rights, he fully supports terrorism and calls for the military destruction of Israel.

Well, surprise of surprises, he's also an anti-semite.

From the crazy-left Al-Jazeerah.info site:
I believe it is necessary for all of us to work on all fronts against oppression, whether of fellow human beings or of the environment. I think the issues are related: the same multi-millionaires and billionaires (most of them happen to be Zionist) work to keep people fighting each other, push them towards servitude, poverty, and ignorance while getting rich themselves.
How would you stereotype evil rich people hell-bent on destroying the world for their money grubbing ways? Ah, they must be "Zionist."

Qumsiyeh's website also has a virulently anti-semitic article called "Jewish Power" which he pretends that he doesn't necessarily agree with: " I think it is useful to post controversial material that start discussions and exchanges," he avers.

When he posts an article by Meir Kahane, then maybe we can believe him.

Otherwise, his throwaway line about how most evil billionaires are "Zionists" - which are the headline of the article - pretty much tells us all we need to know about him.
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Adam Lankford in the NYT:
For years, the conventional wisdom has been that suicide terrorists are rational political actors, while suicidal rampage shooters are mentally disturbed loners. But the two groups have far more in common than has been recognized.

Over the last three years, I have examined interviews, case studies, suicide notes, martyrdom videos and witness statements and found that suicide terrorists are indeed suicidal in the clinical sense — which contradicts what many psychologists and political scientists have long asserted. Although suicide terrorists may share the same beliefs as the organizations whose propaganda they spout, they are primarily motivated by the desire to kill and be killed — just like most rampage shooters.

In fact, we should think of many rampage shooters as nonideological suicide terrorists. In some cases, they claim to be fighting for a cause — neo-Nazism, eugenics, masculine supremacy or an antigovernment revolution — but, as with suicide terrorists, their actions usually stem from something much deeper and more personal.

...I can’t help but wonder about Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. If they had been born in Gaza or the West Bank, shaped by terrorist organizations’ hateful propaganda, would they have strapped bombs around their waists and blown themselves up? I’m afraid the answer is yes.
The analogy is misleading.

There is a fundamental difference between rampage shooters and suicide terrorists. Shooters are abhorred in the West, while terrorists are honored in the Arab world.

It is true that many people in the West seek fame - there is no shortage of people willing to make fools of themselves on reality TV. It is also true that a tiny minority of people who already have mental problems will be attracted to the idea of dying in a blaze of glory with 24-hour news coverage. But their desire for fame is despite society's horror at their acts, not because of it.

In the Middle East, it is quite the opposite. It is not news that the actual people recruited for suicide missions are not always the most mentally stable people to begin with, while they are manipulated by their leaders. But that is the point - they do not become suicide bombers on their own in their bedrooms, they are recruited, trained and supported by large organizations that create entire media empires around the glory of "martyrdom."

The two are not remotely comparable. In the West, the shooters act in opposition to the prevailing morality of society, in the Arab world they act in harmony with it.

While Lankford may be right in saying that Harris, Kleibold and Lanza may have become suicide terrorists had they been brought up in the sickening Palestinian Arab world where such people are regarded as heroes, he didn't ask the other question: would Arabs who were raised watching videos on TV about the glories of martyrdom act differently had they been raised in suburban America?

Some people are mentally ill and violent no matter what. But the problem in the Arab world, and in the Palestinian Arab world in particular, is that the prevailing cultural mores say that terrorists are heroes. In such a society, terrorism is not an aberration - it is a lofty goal. Lankford ignores that there is an entire culture that lionizes murderers.

By conflating the two, Lankford is not contributing to the solution in the Middle East; he is exasperating the problem. The only way to solve the problem is to shame Arabs into realizing that terrorism is sickening, not laudable; that it is immoral, not heroic.

Such a change is possible. While a large part of the Muslim world used to applaud suicide terrorism, that percentage has gone down in most places over the past decade - with the notable exception of the Palestinian Arab territories!


The reason is, I believe, a combination two factors. One is that the Muslims in places like Iraq and Afghanistan are seeing how the terrorists can be used in civil wars, indiscriminately killing other Muslims.

The other is that Western media, and Western morality, is slowly being consumed and assimilated more in the Arab world. Muslims, like most groups, do not want to be perceived as immoral compared to others, and it is hard for them to justify terrorism using Western language and mores that has slowly become part of even mainstream Arabic media.

Pretending that everyone is the same, as Lankford does, is a fatal mistake. We  are a product of our upbringing and our culture. The culture in Gaza and the West Bank is one that mainstreams and elevates terrorists. Lankford's logic in saying that they are just like us might fit his agenda, but it is not doing anyone any favors. In the long run, it will cause more people to be killed by the people Lankford wants to pigeonhole as being merely mentally unstable.
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
The latest PCPSR poll of Palestinian Arabs shows that the Gaza fighting has, predictably, boosted Hamas' popularity. But it also reveals some other interesting facts that don't get reported.

If a presidential election were to be held today, Hamas leader Haniyeh would defeat Mahmoud Abbas 48% to 45%. Parliamentary elections would be a virtual tie according to this poll, but usually Islamists are under-represented in these surveys (which is why Hamas' victory last time was such a surprise.)

Other interesting results:
Positive evaluation of conditions in the Gaza Strip rises sharply from 25% three months ago to 43% in this poll while 33% say conditions are bad or very bad.

Similarly, positive evaluation of conditions in the West Bank rises sharply from 19% three months ago to 35% in this poll while 36% say conditions are bad or very bad.
Nothng has changed on the ground - in fact, many buildings in Gaza were damaged in the fighting - so the people's perceptions are guided more by propaganda (Hamas' "victory" and Abbas' UN stunt) than by reality.

But even as people feel more positive, they report that freedom of expression has gone down!
35% of the Palestinian public say people in the West Bank can criticize the authority in the West Bank without fear. By contrast, 29% of the public say people in the Gaza Strip can criticize the authorities in Gaza without fear. These results indicate a decrease in the perception of freedom to criticize authorities in the West Bank compared to results obtained three months ago when it stood at 42%.
This next finding contradicts every piece of anti-Israel propaganda seen in the West:
Perception of safety and security in the West Bank stands at 60% and in the Gaza Strip at 70%. Three months ago these percentages stood at 64% in the Gaza Strip and 56% in the West Bank.
Most people who the UN says are under "occupation" feel quite safe. I don't think any UN art exhibits will show this, though.
Findings show that the percentage of Gazans who say they seek immigration to other countries stands at 41%; in the West Bank, the percentage stands at 22%.

In other words, if Arab countries would stop discrimination against Palestinian Arabs, one in five West Bankers and 2 in 5 Gazans would happily move elsewhere. They don't feel "Palestinian," they just want to have the freedom to emigrate.

Yet there are no "human rights" organizations that fight for this right. No one who claims to be "pro-Palestinian" demands that Arab countries open their doors to give citizenship to any of their Palestinian brethren who desire it.

And finally:
44% believe that the first most vital Palestinian goal should be to end Israeli occupation in the areas occupied in 1967 and build a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. By contrast, 33% believe the first most vital goal should be to obtain the right of return of refugees to their 1948 towns and villages, 14% believe that it should be to build a pious or moral individual and a religious society, one that applies all Islamic teachings, and 9% believe that the first and most vital goal should be to establish a democratic political system that respects freedoms and rights of Palestinians.
Think about this one. For one third of Palestinian Arabs, destroying Israel demographically with the "right to return" is more important than their own independent state! You can be sure that this is the second-most important goal for a large percentage of those who chose a different top goal, but the raw numbers are not released yet.
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From al Arabiya:
The Syrian regime has a large arsenal of chemical weapons, which matches up to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the defected former head of Syria's chemical warfare program told Al Arabiya on Monday.

Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected from the regime earlier this year, was party to top-level talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.

He told Al Arabiya where the Syrian regime has stored its chemical weapons in specific cities across the war-torn country, highlighting chemical warehouses in the city of Homs and weapons stored also in scientific research center in Aleppo.

“Syria’s chemical arsenal has reached similar levels to Israel’s nuclear weapons,” he said in the interview. Israel is believed to be one of the world’s largest nuclear superpowers.

Sillu, who once led the army’s chemical weapons training program, said in June that the main storage sites for mustard gas and nerve agents are supposed to be guarded by thousands of Syrian troops but that they would be easily overrun.

Probably anyone from the Free Syrian Army or any Islamic extremist group could take them over,” he said.
Speaking of Syrian Islamists....

Jihadi leader Ahmad Al Baghdadi Al Hassani has spoken of Christians as polytheists and friends of the Zionists, in an Egyptian TV address. The extremist leader further stressed they must choose “Islam or death”, while their women and girls may legitimately be regarded as wives of Muslims. Today he lives in Syria, supporting the armed opposition.
Trying to figure out the lesser of evils in Syria becomes preposterous when both sides are unimaginably evil.

Monday, December 17, 2012

  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Times of Israel:
The Palestinian premier called on his people Sunday to boycott Israeli products, the latest step in an economic battle between Palestinians and Israelis spurred by the Palestinians’ status upgrade last month at the United Nations.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, a US-educated economist, told reporters the call for a boycott is a protest against Israel’s withholding of funds to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

Israel is holding $100 million in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, based on an interim peace accord. It cut off the funds to protest the Palestinians’ successful bid last month at the United Nations, which granted the Palestinians nonmember observer state status. Israel said the Palestinian move was an attempt to bypass peace negotiations. Palestinians deny that.

Israel has briefly withheld tax transfers on previous occasions to pressure the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank uses the money to pay salaries to its tens of thousands of civil servants and security forces. Israel said it is using the money to pay down huge debts Fayyad’s government owes to Israeli firms, including its electricity company.

Fayyad admitted a Palestinian boycott of Israeli goods would violate an interim peace agreement with Israel, in which the two sides pledged economic cooperation, but he justified the move because “the Israeli government is working against this agreement” by withholding tax funds.
So it is fine for the PLO to abrogate Oslo by going to the UN and for Fayyad to violate the agreements by calling for a boycott, but it is not OK for Israel to try to recoup the huge amounts owed to it?

Here's the funny part:
In the past, Fayyad called for a boycott of goods made in Israeli settlements, but that boycott appears to have had no impact.
If Fayyad cannot get Palestinian Arabs to boycott the evil "settlements," - indeed, tens of thousands of them work in them - then he only practical result from his call to boycott Israeli goods altogether is to expose him as a hypocrite, calling to violate accords while blaming Israel.

(h/t Ian)
  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Globes:
Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz estimates that the Israeli economy will grow faster in 2013 and 2014 than his ministry has forecast up to now.

Steinitz was speaking last night at the annual conference of insurance and pensions industry organization "Adif", in Ramat Gan. "The Ministry of Finance Research Division has updated its growth forecast for 2013 and 2014. The growth forecast for 2013 is 3.5%, and for 2014 3.9%," Steinitz said.

The ministry's previous growth forecast was 3% for 2013, and 3.4% for 2014.

"Assuming that the growth forecast is realized, and this is a realistic forecast prepared by the Research Division and supervised by the ministry, Israel will continue, for the next two years as well, to be the number one growth economy among all the countries of the developed Western world."
You mean, a few haters screaming outside a cosmetics store in London don't negatively affect Israel's economy?

Here's a condolence card you can send your favorite Israel-hater.


(h/t @LizH1974 for the condolence card idea)

  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday, I reported about a very suspicious article that originated in Iran's ABNA "news" agency that charged that an Israeli hospital "expelled" a sick Palestinian Arab girl and denied treating her for cancer. Palestine Today later claimed to interview the mother of the girl and the story was gloatingly tweeted by Hamas, where many people retweeted it as well.

As I suspected, the story is a complete fabrication. 

An EoZ reader contacted American Friends of Kaplan Medical Center and received this reply:
Your inquiry about the Kaplan Medical Center's refusal to treat a Palestinian girl because of a non-reimbursement of funds by the Palestinian Authority lacks not only facts but also is not based on the facts. Iran is not known to "love" Israel....

The Kaplan Medical Center's Children's Medical Center does not treat serious pediatric cancer cases. If the chemical or radiation treatment is not helping, the patient is referred and transferred to the Schneider Children's Hospital which specializes in these cases. This may have been the case with the sick girl in question.

If you would look at our website under: KMC IN THE NEWS you would find many cases where the KMC had saved lives of the children, regardless of their creed or provenance.
Iranian media making up a story? Say it ain't so!

Here is one story about Kaplan treating a Gaza child who had been injured in an explosion that world media falsely blamed on Israel.
  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
Last week, a Hebron teenager was killed at a security checkpoint by the IDF.

The IDF said that the teen attacked an officer and he was shot when he refused to put his weapon down. (The weapon turned out to be a cigarette lighter shaped like a realistic gun.)

The anti-Israel went crazy, saying that the teen - who had just turned 17 - would never have attacked an IDF officer, he was looking forward to celebrating his birthday, he just bought his own birthday cake, and this was a cold-blooded murder.

Well, the video was just released.



It sure looks like the teen was looking for 72 virgins for his birthday.

Will he haters admit they were wrong, ignore the video, or try to twist the facts?

My vote is that they will find some seeming inconsistency between what the IDF officer reported and what is seen here - the entire attack, from beginning to his being fatally shot, is only about 20 seconds - and emphasize that, ignoring the obvious fact that he attacked the officer.

PCHR, on the other hand, will ignore this completely.

UPDATE: Looking at it again, there are a series of flashes in the teen's right hand while he is attacking the soldier. I think it is the gun-lighter reflecting the lights, or maybe he is even starting the lighter. But there is clearly something in his right hand throughout, even after he is shot.

  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
The PA's Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs has declared that the Western Wall is an Islamic holy site and that no Jews worshipped there before 1917.

Speaking in reaction to Binyamin Netanyahu's statement that the Kotel "will be ours forever," the minister, Mahmoud Habash, said that Israel's claims were "worthless."

Habash said that Israel's claim on Jerusalem and the "Wailing Wall" lacks the most basic historical foundations. He said that the Wall was not a non-Muslim place of worship at any time in history, until after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

That will come as a surprise to these Jews worshipping there in this photograph from 1865:


Habash went on to call for UNESCO to uphold Palestinian Arab "rights" in Jerusalem, presumably to confirm his bizarre interpretation of history. 

Given that UNESCO hasn't the foggiest idea what the Wall is to begin with, Habash might be successful. 

The PA had previously made the same claims, notable the Ministry of Information in 2010

  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
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, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
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.
  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
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?
  • Monday, December 17, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
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.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

  • Sunday, December 16, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
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.

  • Sunday, December 16, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
At that awkward time between Chanukah and Christmas,  here is an appropriate - and appropriately bizarre - video:



(h/t Yerushalimey)
  • Sunday, December 16, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
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.



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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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