Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Tuesday links

From Ian:

"The Palestinians and their leadership have spent the last 20 years converting a strong Israeli majority in favor of the peace process into one that regards the whole concept as a dangerous fantasy. Twenty years ago the Israeli left romped in an election that relegated the Likud to minority status. In next month’s Knesset elections, not even the Labor party will spend time advocating for more concessions to the Palestinians in exchange for the hope of peace. Terrorism, the second intifada, the rise of Hamas and the conversion of Gaza into a terror state have effectively destroyed the Israeli left. But rather than react to this somber shift in the mood of their neighbors with an attempt to restart peace talks or to convince them that their goal is to end the conflict rather than to merely continue it on more advantageous terms, the Palestinians are planning on doubling down on their negative image."

Majority in House: Punish PLO, Close Its Office
A majority of the House of Representatives wants to punish the PLO and close down its DC office, but the Senate rejected a similar move.

Maikel Nabil Sanad, Political Activist and Blogger Brings Tidings From Egypt to Israel

“I’m breaking a taboo coming to Israel, but I’m not the first Egyptian to do so,” said Maikel Nabil Sanad, a political activist and blogger who was jailed and tortured for 302 days for criticizing the Egyptian army post-Mubarak. He was pardoned by the Egyptian military in January 2012 following international pressure and efforts of several different human rights organizations including UN Watch.

As Hagel’s star withers, will a blunt-talking policy wonk drop her kids to take the Pentagon?

Michele Flournoy has been touted by conservatives, Israel supporters, women’s rights activists and Democrats for the US defense secretary post. But does she even want the job?
"A senior Republican Senate aide told Politico that Flournoy was well versed in Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, which is partially funded by the US, as well as regional arms sales and the importance of Israel’s military edge over its neighbors.
On Iran, her views seemingly fall in line with the pentagon’s official position, that a military strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities must be kept on the table, though the option is not an effective one."

Bethlehem's Christmas war on Jesus

"The Khoury's live in Bethlehem. Steven was raised there where his father, Dr. Naim Khoury, started Holy Land Ministries in 1980. During the past 32 years Steven, his family and the ministry's congregations have experienced opposition to the gospel of Jesus the Messiah, God's incarnate Word made flesh.
There have been threats and muggings, fire bombs and murder. Many believers have fled the region, but the Khoury's remain. Every Sunday, worship and teaching are broadcast from speakers atop their local church's steeple, clashing with Islamic calls to prayer."

Radical Muslims Take Anti-Christian Protest to St Paul's Cathedral on Christmas Eve

"A group of radical Muslims is planning to use St Paul's Cathedral to protest against the sins of British society and the fallacy of the Bible.
The protesters were due to gather outside the cathedral at 1pm, while a Christmas Eve Eucharist takes place inside.
Ahead of the protest, radical preacher Anjem Choudary claimed that Jesus belonged to Islam and that British society was riddled with "sin".

Honest Reporting: The 5 Best Articles of 2012

"I don’t want to let the curtain fall on 2012 without acknowledging that sometimes, Big Media gets the story right. While looking over content for the 2012 Dishonest Reporter Awards, I promised myself I’d follow up with a positive list. It’s my own subjective list, and I invite you to post your own list of articles in the comments section."

Eye on the UN: Antisemitism & The Latest Performance of Roger Waters

Egyptian Army Thwarts Rocket Smuggling to Gaza
Armed forces in the Sinai foiled an attempt to smuggle 17 rockets to Gaza.

"Armed Forces personnel in North Sinai, in cooperation with local Bedouins, foiled an attempt on Monday to smuggle 17 rockets to Gaza, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
A military source told the agency that the rockets are a French-made TDI model, caliber 68 mm, range three kilometers and can be used air to land or land to land."

‘Agent 15’ Paralyzing Syrian Victims
Assad’s forces probably are using “Agent 15,” which causes paralysis. The worse news is that Assad has more deadly chemical weapons.

Russian military presence in Syria poses challenge to US-led intervention
Advisers deployed with surface-to-air systems bolster President Assad's defences and complicate outcome of any future strikes

Assad’s Cash Problem: Will Syria’s Dwindling Reserves Bring Down the Regime?

"But it is the Syrian leader who faces total collapse in the face of bankruptcy. So dire are Assad’s finances, in fact, that in recent months Russia flew eight plane-loads of Syrian banknotes, printed in Russia, to Damascus, in a kind of rescue package estimated to weigh about 240 tons, according to flight records obtained by ProPublica, a U.S.-based non-profit investigative journalism organization."

Female Warrior to be Honored for Killing Terrorist
A female soldier from the Caracal unit who killed a terrorist near the border with Egypt will be given a citation on Tuesday.

"The Head of the IDF's Southern Command, Tal Russo, will award a citation on Tuesday to a female fighter in the IDF's mixed sex Caracal unit, who shot and killed a terrorist who carried out a terror attack near Israel's border with Egypt in September."

Spain, Israel plan to work on infrastructure projects

"Spanish Development Minister Ana Pastor Sunday opened the door to Spanish businesses and experts to participate in big infrastructure projects that Israel will put up for bidding in the near future at a total cost of more than 10 billion euros (USD 13.2 billion).
Expansion of ports, electrification of railroad lines, new highways, tunnels and even the construction of a mixed high-speed train line between the Mediterranean and Red Seas are some of the projects to which Spanish firms will aspire after the signing Sunday of a technical cooperation agreement between the two countries."

Sacramento City Council Members Who Resisted BDS Dedicating Ambulance to Ashkelon

"The ambulance was given as a gift to Ashkelon by Robert Leeds, a 13-year-old from the Los Angeles area who wanted to make a contribution to a worthy civic cause, according to a StandWithUs press statement. Attendees of Leeds’s bar mitzvah, instead of giving him gifts, were told to designate money toward the ambulance.
“The ambulance dedication is a thank you to the city of Sacramento for approving the newest sister city resolution with Ashkelon last August despite opposition from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in their on-going attempts to pariah the state of Israel,” Gail Rubin, representing the Sacramento-Davis area chapter of SWU, told JNS"

Israel Daily Picture: Christmas in the Holy Land 100 Years Ago
The photographs on this page were taken by the American Colony Photographic Department before and after World War I when the British captured Palestine after 400 years of Ottoman rule.

Egyptian sheikh says secularists are even worse than Jews

El Balad reports that Sheikh Mahmoud Murad Amam, a preacher in Damanhour, attacked Egypt's secularists while delivering a sermon Friday.

He described secularists as "more dangerous than the Zionists and Jews."

"They are receiving external funding to destabilize Egypt," he said, adding attacks on the media and journalists, accusing them of lying and slander against him for their reporting on his previous sermons.

(h/t Lachlan)

Arab nations still reneging on pledges to the PA

From Ma'an:

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday criticized Arab states for evading their financial commitments to the PA.

Arab countries have yet to follow through on a pledge in March to provide a financial safety net of $100 million monthly to the PA to mitigate Israeli sanctions, which were imposed in November.

During a visit to Jenin, Fayyad called for an urgent Arab summit to address the PA's financial crisis.

So what else is new?

Dead Sea Scrolls and 15th century Mishnah online

The Dead Sea Scrolls:

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is very proud to present the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a free online digitized virtual library of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Hundreds of manuscripts made up of thousands of fragments – discovered from 1947 and until the early 1960’s in the Judean Desert along the western shore of the Dead Sea – are now available to the public online. The high resolution images are extremely detailed and can be accessed through various search options on the site.

With the generous lead support of the Leon Levy Foundation and additional generous support of the Arcadia Fund, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Google joined forces to develop the most advanced imaging and web technologies to bring to the web hundreds of Dead Sea Scrolls images as well as specially developed supporting resources in a user-friendly platform intended for the public, students and scholars alike.

The Mishnah:

The text of the Mishnah describes the first written account of the early Jewish oral tradition and the earliest significant work of Rabbinic Judaism. It dates from the period of the second century BCE at a time when persecution of the Jewish populations gave rise to the fear that the details of the oral traditions dating from the first five centuries BCE might be lost. As a written authority it is second only to the Bible text and can be used as a source of authority for making judgments. The Mishnah is divided into six orders (Shisha Sedarim) and over the next six centuries, along with further commentaries, came to form the Talmud. The major part of the text of the Mishnah is written in Hebrew and reflects the debates which took place in the first and second centuries CE by a group of Rabbinic thinkers known as the Tannaim. It teaches by drawing on examples of specific judgments along with debates by notable Rabbis, and discusses problems from all areas of human existence.

This is one of only three complete manuscripts of the Mishnah, and considered to be 'an outstanding witness of the western type of Mishnaic Hebrew'. Of the manuscript, Schiller-Szinessy (vol. ii p. 9) writes: ‘Although this copy can lay claim neither to a very great age, nor to absolute correctness, we cannot hesitate to pronounce it to be a MS. beyond all price.’ Edited by W. H. Lowe, ‘The Mishnah on which the Palestinian Talmud Rests’ (Cambridge, 1883) – although that title can be considered inaccurate given more recent research on the manuscript.

((h/t Yoel)

Today's fake PCHR "civilian"

Hamas continues to slowly release obituaries of terrorists killed during Pillar of Defense. (HRW used the absence of names on the Al Qassam website as evidence that the dead could not be terrorists!)

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights described a "civilian" death this way:

At approximately 19:50 on Saturday [November 17], an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a gathering of Palestinian civilians in Wadi al-Salqa village, killing Ali Hassan Bin Saeed, 25, and wounding 3 others.

But Hamas released Saeed's obituary today, referring to him as a "mujahid."

Saeed was born in Saudi Arabia, but went to UNRWA schools in central Gaza. He attended Palestine Technical College for management and office automation, and received his bachelors degree in business administration. He joined Hamas in 2005 and the Al Qassam Brigades in 2006. He was involved in working on several weapons smuggling tunnels and participated in Cast Lead as well as Pillar of Defense.

This is one of the people who are being identified in the media as a "civilian" killed by Israel, basing it on PCHR's bogus statistics.

(poster h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Bibi Netanyahu's Christmas message - and Ha'aretz' hallucinogenic interpretation

Barak Ravid in Ha'aretz writes a truly bizarre article that discerns anti-Muslim bigotry in this brief talk.

“Today Christian communities throughout the Middle East are shrinking and many of them are in danger,” said Netanyahu, according to the announcement published by his bureau in Hebrew and English. “...this is of course not true in Israel. Here there is a strong and growing Christian community that participates fully in the life of our country.”

Netanyahu did not specify in his greeting exactly who is threatening to annihilate the Christians, but it's clear from the wording that he means the Muslims. As he did last year, he emphasized that the Christian community in Israel is large and that it enjoys freedom of religion and freedom to worship, but this year he added a hinted reference to the “Judeo-Christian heritage.”

The reference is to a sensitive term taken from the conceptual world of the rightist-evangelical anti-Muslim wing of the Republican Party.

Dexter Van Zile in The Algemeiner points out that every Christian knows that Muslim extremists are indeed threatening Christians in the Middle East; it hardly needs to be mentioned.

In fact, by not mentioning the Muslim tormentors of Christians, Netanyahu was going out of his way to make his Christmas message upbeat, not the hateful rant Ravid thinks it is.

Moreover, Ravid asserts that Netanyahu "hints" of the the phrase "Judeo-Christian heritage" and implies that this is an unforgivable anti-Muslim phrase.

In reality, the phrase is not as loaded as Ravid believes it is - it has been used way before modern Zionism.

Netanyahu's actual words can hardly be more innocuous - or accurate. He said "We hope that you will recall the places where Judaism and Christianity emerged." Who but a conspiracy theorist can find offense at that sentence?

Just like Netanyahu doesn't use the word "Muslim," he doesn't use the phrase "Judeo-Christian." Ravid is basing his article on what Netanyahu doesn't say and draws fevered conclusions from what he believes are the secret racist beliefs underlying the message with these omissions!

This isn't the work of a journalist or of a editorialist - these are the ravings of a paranoiac who is determined to see hidden meanings in everything uttered by his imagined enemies.

Finally, it is useful to point out that, unlike Netanyahu's positive message for Christians on the holiday, Mahmoud Abbas' Christmas message was literally filled with explicit hateful attacks on Israel and Zionism, referring to the Jewish state's "injustice and tyranny" and Israel's desire to "Judaize the whole earth." He accuses Israel of "eroding the national and religious culture" of Palestinian Christians. He says that Israel is "tormenting" Palestinian Arabs and making their lives a "living hell." Beyond his explicit message of hate, Abbas further implies that Palestine is only sacred to Christians and Muslims, not Jews.

The contrast between Netanyahu and Abbas could not be starker.

Ha'aretz, of course, has nothing bad to say about Abbas' speech. In fact, it never even reported it. That would upset the narrative of the evil, extremist Netanyahu versus the moderate, liberal Abbas. We can't have that.

Abbas has no plans to outlaw "honor killings"

In May 2011, to much fanfare, Mahmoud Abbas announced that he removed leniencies to the Palestinian Arab laws that reduced murder sentences in the case of "honor killings," if a woman is murdered for reasons of "family honor."

I noted at the time that he didn't bother to get rid of the law, but sort of amended it a little with still lots of loopholes.

It was even worse than I interpreted it. Abbas did literally nothing.

President Mahmoud Abbas has no plans to amend laws that reduce sentences for suspects who claim an "honor" defense for murdering women, his legal adviser says.

"Why change it? This would cause serious problems," Hassan al-Ouri told Ma’an, adding that such a reform would "not benefit women."

In May 2011, the president pledged to amend the law to guarantee maximum penalties for "honor killing" in response to protests over the killing of university student Aya Baradiya in Hebron.

The decision was announced in a phone call to a primetime show on state TV, drawing tears among crowds of mourners shown in a live link-up from the Ramallah studio to Baradiya’s hometown.

Abbas suspended Article 340, which offers a pardon for murder if the perpetrator committed the crime on finding his wife in bed with another man.

The reform was cosmetic: Article 340 had never been used in Palestinian courts since it was legislated in 1960.

"So why did we change the law? To garner public opinion," al-Ouri said in an interview in the presidential compound in Ramallah.

"I, personally, was against the amendment because the crimes that happen in the street have no relevance to Article 340," the legal adviser added.

Al-Ouri says the president will not change the go-to clauses for lawyers seeking leniency for clients who claim they committed murder to defend family "honor."

Articles 97 to 100 of the Jordanian Penal Code, in force in the West Bank, still offer reduced sentences for any act of battery or murder committed in a "state of rage."

In 2009, Abbas ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, but al-Ouri, the legal adviser, says it will only be implemented "so long as it doesn’t contravene Islamic code."

"Look, we are for total equality but if there is a basic tenet of Islamic code that we would be forced to change under CEDAW, then people would revolt and brand us as non-believers," al-Ouri said.

It's still open season on Palestinian Arab women, thanks to Mahmoud Abbas, the darling of the the Left!

I'd love to hear what the anti-Israel Code Pink group has to say about this....

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

The most appropriate video for "Nittel Nacht" - ever!

For the confused, here is Slate's article about Nittel Nacht. A more "lomdish" article is here.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Hamas lie of the day

Hamas' spokesman, Abu Obeida, responded to Human Rights Watch's charges that they target civilians by simply denyng it.

While he admitted that the Hamas rockets aren't accurate enough to target precisely, he claimed that all of Hamas' rockets are aimed at military sites.

Now, compare what Hamas says now with its press release on the last day of the fighting last month (excerpts):

The Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the following jihad tasks :
Day: Wednesday Date: 07 Muharram 1434, corresponding to 11/21/2012
Details :
- At 01:55 we bombed occupied "Ashdod" with 5 Grad rockets.
- At 04:30 we bombed occupied "Ashdod" with a makeshift rocket.
- At 09:45 we bombed occupied "Beersheba" with a Grad rocket.
- At 10:15 we bombed "Kiryat Malachi" with 3 Grad rockets.
- At 10:15 we bombed "Sderot" with a Qassam rocket.
- At 11:07 we bombed "Nir Yitzhak" with 3 Katyusha rockets.
- At 11:18 we bombed "Kiryat Malachi" 7 Grad rockets.
- At 11:10 we bombed "Kissufim" with two mortars.
- at 13:50 we bombed occupied "Beersheba " with 4 Grad rockets.
- at 15:20 we bombed troop concentrations in the military location of "Nahal Oz" with two mortar shells caliber.
- at 19:50 the bombing of "Ofakim" with a Grad missile.
....

This brings the number of rockets fired by the Qassam Brigades towards enemy positions since the beginning of the aggression to 1573 rockets.

This comes in the context of responding to the Zionist crimes and massacres committed against civilians and the bombing of houses over the heads of their inhabitants what led to the martyrdom and injury of dozens of innocent citizens

The Qassam Brigades committed itself to turn the life of Zionists into hell, and make them regret their heinous crimes against the innocent and crush their pride and to soak their noses in the dirt.

They also published numerous posters glorifying their ability to make ordinary Israelis run into shelters, which is consistent with their stated goal of - literally - terrorizing ordinary Israelis.

But if they repeat the lie that they only target military sites often enough, the media will start believing it.

Monday links

From Ian:

Hamastine: A Present from the U.N. to Khaled Mashaal by Amin Farouk

"The West, which stands on the sidelines and condones their criminality through inaction, should take into consideration that eventually Israel will be forced to take determined steps against the Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, as the Allies did for example, against Dresden. When that happens, the UN would do well not to complain: Israel has the right to defend itself, just as, in the Second World War, the Allies had the right to defend themselves -- as any country has a right to defend itself."

When the Terrorists Become the Standard Bearers

"When Wolf Blitzer was covering Operation Pillar of Defense, he had a guest on the show from Gaza describing the Gaza side of the story. The conversation seemed more like a Saturday Night Live skit. The guest explained how Israel was sending missiles into heavily populated areas, and that the missiles were doing a lot of damage. Wolf then asked with a curious intonation whether the rockets that were being fired from Gaza were guided or were falling haphazardly into Israel. The guest concurred that not only were they unguided, but Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system was abating the impact of the Hamas weapons. To which Wolf asked, “There is no Iron Dome or its equivalent on the Gaza side, right?” The guest said, “No, Israel’s missiles are hitting inside and destroying….” Gaza’s infrastructure."

CIF Watch: CiF Watch prompts Guardian correction to Ashrawi claim regarding ‘Jews only’ homes

"Ashrawi was slyly attempting to con CiF readers into believing that new homes in eastern Jerusalem would be leased to residents based on a discriminatory policy in order to buttress her broader narrative of Israeli racism."

Honest Reporting: Squeezing a Story Out of Bethlehem

"The Guardian regularly trashes or undermines Jewish historical claims to the land of Israel that go back to biblical times. Why is it, however, that the same paper has no problem promoting the claims of Palestinians using biblical imagery to buttress the case if those Palestinians happen to be Christian?"

Video Captures Arab Firebombing of Historic Jewish House in Jerusalem’s Old City

"Arabs in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem’s old city videotaped their firebombing of the Jewish Meyuhas House according to Israel’s Channel 10. The video was posted to YouTube on December 22nd and was apparently shot the night before. The video credits “Bustan
Cultural Center” for capturing the footage."

Israel Targeted Gaza Civilians – with Humanitarian Aid

"Israel “targeted” Gaza civilians with humanitarian aid during the counter-terrorist Pillar of Defense operation, at the same time Gaza terrorists committed war crimes by firing missiles on Israelis, as cited by Human Rights Watch on Monday."

Al Jazeera: Assad Unleashed Chemical Weapons

Assad has dropped bombs containing toxic gases, killing six people and blinding others in Homs, Al Jazeera reported Monday.

Air strike kills dozens of Syrians in bread line

Activists say large crowd was queuing for bread, video shows dozens of dead bodies; special envoy arrives for new talks.

Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East

Christianity faces being wiped out of the “biblical heartlands” in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report.
"The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.
And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.

Here's the beginning of the book this article refers to:

November Free Chapter - Christianophobia by Robert Shortt

Christians in Israel Well-Off, Statistics Show
Christians in Israel are prosperous and well-educated - but some fear that Muslim intimidation will cause a mass escape to the West

"The Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday released statistics on the 158,000-strong Christian community in Israel. The statistics showed that Christians living in Israel are well-educated and prosperous – but there were fears that Muslim intimidation in cities in northern Israel, where many of them live, are causing large numbers to consider emigrating to the West."

After 1,500 years, frankincense returns to the Holy Land in time for Christmas

"Seven years after I revealed her success in sprouting a 2,000 year-old date palm seed found on Masada, botanist Dr Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has done it again.
1,500 years after the last frankincense tree disappeared from the Holy Land, Dr Solowey has managed to grow the first shoots of a tree whose scented white sap was once worth more than gold."

Israel water tech start-up all WET after contest

"TACount, which developed an innovative technology to detect bacteria in water and food, was declared ‘ready to export’ at the Water Export Technology Revolution Competition
Last week was a big one for water in Israel, as seven companies competed in the final round of the prestigious W.E.T. (Water Export Technology) Revolution Competition."

ISRAEL21c’s top 10 stories of 2012
2012 was a year of innovation and progress. To celebrate the New Year, ISRAEL21c looks back at the top stories of the year.

"If you read the world’s newspapers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the only things happening in Israel this year were security related: the looming threat of a conflict with Iran, missiles from Gaza and unrest on Israel’s borders. The pages of ISRAEL21c, however, tell a completely different story."

Israel distances itself from NRA

From the New York Daily News:

When it comes to Israel and school shootings, Wayne LaPierre doesn’t know what he’s talking about, Israeli security experts said Sunday.

Such shootings are very rare in Israel and have been associated with terror attacks, not crazed gunmen, they said.

Appearing on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, NRA honcho LaPierre said: “Israel had a whole lot of school shootings, until they did one thing. They said we’re going to stop it and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then.”

But Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said the situation in Israel was “fundamentally different” from that in the United States.

“We didn’t have a series of school shootings, and they had nothing to do with the issue at hand in the United States. We had to deal with terrorism,” said Palmor.

“What removed the danger was not the armed guards but an overall anti-terror policy and anti-terror operations which brought street terrorism down to nearly zero over a number of years,” he said. “It would be better not to drag Israel into what is an internal American discussion,” he added.

“There is no comparison between maniacs with psychological problems opening fire at random to kill innocent people and trained terrorists trying to murder Israeli children,” said Reuven Berko, a retired Israeli Army colonel and senior police officer.

In recent years, restrictions on gun ownership in Israel have been tightened, not relaxed.

“Israeli citizens are not allowed to carry guns unless they are serving in the army or working in security-related jobs that require them to use a weapon,” said Berko.

The worst attack on an Israeli school was in 1974, when terrorists from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took 115 people hostage in a school in Maalot in northern Israel. Twenty-five people were killed as Israeli commandos stormed the building, 22 of them children.

“The attempt to compare the two tragedies is absurd,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University. “Palestinian terror attacks like one one at Maalot — the goal of which was to use the children as hostages in order to free other terrorists — are totally different from crimes committed by deranged people with guns.”

Despite having a standing army of more than 100,000 and police and security guards carrying guns on the street, Israel has strict firearms licensing and supervision.
Licenses must be renewed regularly and cannot be issued to people with a history of mental problems or a criminal background.

“In a country where hundreds of thousands of people carry firearms, it is essential to manage the training, licensing and authorization of those who wish to be armed,” said Yakov Amit, head of the firearms licensing department of the Public Security Ministry.

Muslims upset over prayers at Kotel HaKatan

I have occasionally written about the Kotel haKatan, the small area of the Western Wall that is rarely visited even though it is actually closer to the holiest area of the Temple Mount than the more famous Kotel is.

Yesterday afternoon there was a Jewish prayer service there for the occasion of the fast of the 10th of Tevet.

A Muslim took a video of these "Talmudic rituals" being performed and now there are articles are in today's Islamist media complaining about how this literally otherwise empty area is a holy Muslim spot called "the strap of the Kurds." Even the supposedly liberal Ma'an in Arabic complained about the "Talmudic rituals" being performed there.

For fun, I did a Google search on the "Strap of the Kurds" in Arabic. There are thousands of results, but every single one I could find was in articles about how Jews are trying to pray there.

Like the larger Kotel and so many other Muslim "holy sites," their importance is directly proportionate to how much other religions are interested in them.

Waqf destroying more priceless artifacts on Temple Mount

From Times of Israel:

The Muslim authority managing the Temple Mount on Sunday dumped tons of unexamined earth and stones excavated from the holy site into a municipal dump, in violation of a High Court injunction, Maariv reported on Monday.

Israel’s top court in September 2004 prohibited removal of earth from the Temple Mount and ruled that, should it be necessary, the Antiquities Authority must be notified a month in advance so it may examine the earth for artifacts.

Jews regard the Temple Mount as their holiest site, where the First and Second Temple were located. Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary and regard it as their third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. According to the existing arrangement, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, or trust, administers the Temple Mount complex.

Despite the High Court of Justice’s ruling, the Waqf has reportedly removed large piles of dirt from the Temple Mount in recent years and dumped them in the valley east of the Old City walls, provoking an outcry from biblical archaeologists and Jewish groups.

Tzachi Dvira, the archaeologist managing the team that sifts through soil excavated from the Temple Mount, told Maariv that mounds of earth containing historic relics were carted off and dumped on Sunday without notification and before archaeologists could investigate them.

Police claimed the removal of the soil was coordinated in advance. Dvira, however, said there were no Antiquities Authority officials on site, and the one police officer monitoring the operation had no idea of its significance.

Heavy earth moving equipment on the Temple Mount

Soil from the Temple Mount that had been removed to the Kidron Valley in recent years has yielded “tens of thousands of finds, including signet rings from the First Temple era, painted floor tiles from the Second Temple era, ancient gold coins, and horseshoe nails and arrowheads belonging to the Knights Templar, who stabled their horses in Solomon’s Stables,” Dvira said.

This video of the material actually being dumped shows what are undoubtedly carved stones.

The Israeli government is clearly giving the Waqf a wide berth to destroy any vestiges of Jewish history on the Temple Mount, apparently to avoid trouble. This is dangerously shortsighted.

The most valuable artifacts in the world are being wantonly destroyed by racists and Israel, which is supposed to guard Jewish heritage, is looking the other way.

I know - we can ask UNESCO to intervene! That's their job, right? They wouldn't stand by while priceless cultural and religious artifacts are being destroyed, would they?

(h/t Yoel and Yisrael Medad)

Gaza: 101 terrorists, 68 civilians killed

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released their findings of people killed in Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza (Hebrew only). They found that, as usual, far more terrorists were killed than had been reported via the Gaza Health Ministry and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Among their findings:

The best estimate they can make is that 178 people were killed during the fighting and afterwards from injuries. They identified 169 of them.

Of the 169, 101 of them were known "activists" and 68 were civilians.

They list every terrorist and their affiliation.

They also find that that the Gaza Health Ministry inflated the numbers of those killed, including some who died a natural death in Gaza at the time.

Of the 101 identified terrorists, 71 were Hamas, 17 Islamic Jihad, 6 from the PRC, 3 from Fatah, 2 from the Army of Islam, one from the PFLP, and one from a Salafi group.

25 of the terrorists killed moonlighted at other jobs. Five were journalists, two were clerics.

The ITIC charges that Hamas and Islamic Jihad deliberately do not release the names of all of their members killed, in order to improve morale and to make it appear that more civilians were killed.

The report includes photos of 73 of the terrorists killed.

The report concludes that it is clear that Israel did not target civilians. Indeed, the ratio of terrorists to civilians killed is unprecedented in military operations in an urban environment.

By the way, Hamas is still slowly releasing the obituaries of those killed; here's one from today. Remember, HRW used the absence of names being listed on the official Hamas site as evidence that they were not members of Hamas, not realizing that Hamas leaks out the information over months.

HRW condemns Hamas for rocket attacks but is still clueless

HRW came out with an article condemning Hamas, and other Gaza groups, for rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. The short piece (not a full report) seems perfunctory, as if HRW must add a little "balance" to the many anti-Israel reports it writes.

Some parts are somewhat noteworthy.

While the report says that intentional rocket attacks against civilians are war crimes, and that there is evidence that Hamas and other groups did exactly that, HRW does not explicitly charge Hamas with war crimes.

HRW, taking a page out of the Goldstone playbook, tries to distinguish between Hamas and the "armed groups" that deliberately shot rockets at civilians. It says:

Hamas, the ruling authority in Gaza, is obligated to uphold the laws of war and should appropriately punish those responsible for serious violations, Human Rights Watch said.

Given that Hamas itself is churning out models of the rockets that they aimed directly at Tel Aviv civilians, this idea that Hamas should "punish" the violators is simply a denial of the reality that Hamas is a terror organization.

Some rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups fell short and struck inside Gaza. On November 16, a rocket that appears to have been launched from within Gaza hit a crowded street in the Gazan town of Jabalya, killing a man, 23, and a boy, 4, and wounding five people.

We knew about this. HRW does not seem to have done any serious research into how many other Gazans may have been killed by errant rockets aimed at Israel.

Human Rights Watch interviewed four witnesses to rocket launches from densely populated areas inside Gaza, and heard second-hand reports about many more. Unlike during previous fighting, armed groups seem to have fired many rockets from underground tunnels, opening a hatch to launch the munition.

One rocket was launched on November 20 at around 1:30 p.m. just off Wehda Street in Gaza City, about 100 meters from the Shawa and Housari Building, where various Palestinian and international media have offices. “I saw it [the rocket] go up and heard it, and then smoke was in the office,” a witness said.

One man said he saw a rocket launched from the yard of a house near the Deira Hotel in central Gaza City, though he could not recall the date.

International and Palestinian journalists traveling around Gaza during the fighting told Human Rights Watch that they did not see any Palestinian militants moving in the open, suggesting that Hamas has developed a network of tunnels for personnel and perhaps rockets.

HRW doesn't even entertain the idea that the militants were walking around in civilian clothing, violating another law of war! Given that we saw that during Cast Lead, this omission shows that this report is not a serious attempt to uncover war crimes but window dressing for the next dozen anti-Israel reports. As was the case in Cast Lead.

Of course, HRW cannot resist comparing Israel's actions that were provably aimed only at military targets and those of terror groups whose entire purpose is to target civilians:

The November 14 to 21 hostilities between Israel and Hamas and armed groups in Gaza involved unlawful attacks on civilians by both sides.

HRW repeats that Israel killed 103 civilians, using suspect statistics from PCHR which we have already shown are not accurate.

HRW seems to have parachuted into Gaza, interviewed a couple of people to verify their preconceived viewpoints (on both sides,) and written up their reports according to their Cast Lead templates. Which means we can expect another few anti-Israel reports from HRW now that they got their obligatory "we condemn rockets too" article written.