Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Britons in aid convoy kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Libya

Three women who were part of an aid convoy passing through Libya on the way to Gaza have been sexually assaulted in Benghazi, after a group of five British nationals were briefly kidnapped.
The three women, two of whom are sisters, were part of a large aid convoy travelling to the Gaza Strip. It is thought that they were part of a group of five people who were briefly kidnapped near Benghazi in the early hours of Tuesday and they were released some hours later. The group is currently safe in the Turkish consul in Benghazi and is expected to return to the UK.

Hamas and human organ trafficking?

Sudanese and East African flesh peddlers aligned with Hamas terrorists are ransoming captives and engaging in the trade of human organs to buy weapons for jihad. This information does not come from right-wing Cassandras, but from CNN’s own correspondent in Berlin, Frederik Pleitgen.

The final days of the UN’s Golan peacekeepers?

As the war in Syria intensifies, the international peacekeepers’ mission and the reality on the ground have grown increasingly incompatible
Peacekeepers, the blue-helmeted warriors of the United Nations, know what to do when two attacking armies begin to advance toward one another. They leave. Quickly.

IDF video shows terrorists caught in the act
Two Tanzim members try to shoot at cars near Beit Fajjar but are spotted by a military observation team

After the soldiers report that the men are attempting to carry out a shooting attack, an IDF patrol arrives, and the men try to flee. Moments later, they can be seen returning in surrender, their hands over their heads.

Palestinian journalist jailed for ‘reviling’ Abbas on Facebook

A West Bank appeals court on Thursday upheld a one-year prison term for a Palestinian journalist who had a photo on his Facebook page that authorities claimed portrayed President Mahmoud Abbas as a traitor, rights activists said.
It was the second such case in two months, and Abbas’ Palestinian Authority is facing mounting criticism for stifling dissent. In particular, Abbas’ security forces have targeted supporters of the Islamic militant Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from him in 2007.
The defendant in Thursday’s case was Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Hamas-linked Al-Quds TV.

PA: We don't want Turkish PM to visit Gaza By Khaled Abu Toameh

Senior official in the Palestinian Authority: Gaza is not an independent Palestinian state, Hamas is not the legitimate representative of the Palestinians.

US to Erdogan: ‘Opposed to Engaging Hamas’

White House politely warned Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan this week against visiting Gaza and "engaging with Hamas."

Internet cable-cutters caught by Egypt signal new terror threat

Two bids within days to sabotage a major cable off the coast of Alexandria raise the specter of a new kind of ‘hacking,’ says Israeli expert

Egyptian forces foil 10 attacks in Sinai, official says

Another report claims 230 smuggling tunnels between the peninsula and Gaza have been destroyed in recent months

Cyprus gives Hezbollah terrorist 4 years in prison

Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, who holds Lebanese and Swedish passports, acknowledged membership in Hezbollah and admitted to having staked out areas frequented by Israeli tourists, but claimed he did not know his work was part of a plot to kill Israelis.

France ready to add Hezbollah to terror list, says report

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius reportedly informed US Secretary of State John Kerry of Paris’s decision at their meeting on Wednesday, a French official told al-Hayat.

Hanan Ashrawi's Miftah NGO also praises female terrorists

As my readers look a little deeper into Miftah, which published an outrageous piece of anti-semitic hate only two days ago, Yenta Press found this piece written by Miftah's Johara Baker:

Fighting Back

Palestinian women have also participated in the resistance. As the conflict grew more intense and young men were recruited to carry out military operations against Israeli targets, several young women also decided to join the ranks of the resistance movement. In January 2002, 28-year-old nurse Wafa Idrees, detonated a bomb in Jerusalem’s Jaffa Street, killing one Israeli and injuring 150 others. She was also killed in the blast.

This marked the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause. Over the next two years, seven other women carried out similar operations, the most deadly of which was carried out by Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old attorney from Jenin. Hanadi detonated explosives strapped to her body in a busy Haifa restaurant, killing 19 Israelis and injuring 50 others.

Not a word of condemnation. On the contrary, this article shows a clear romanticism in describing unspeakable acts of terror aimed squarely at innocent civilians - what it calls "resistance."

And this is in English!

In Arabic, I found this piece that says that if Hamas decides to respond to international sanctions with terrorism, then the responsibility for the deaths belongs to the US.

To be fair, Miftah officially claims that it is against some terrorism. It did condemn a couple of attacks on Israeli civilians many years ago. But its funders must be aware that the same organization that sometimes claims that terrorism is immoral cannot turn around and lionize the bravery and dedication of female terrorists.

One gets the impression that Miftah's condemnations are perfunctory while the praise for the terrorists themselves reflects more of how they really think. For example, they regard Dalal Mughrabi as a heroine.

If Miftah wants to be hypocritical, that is no big deal. The question is whether the European and American NGOs that fund it want to be part of that hypocrisy.

Ma'an acts as mouthpiece for Jew-hating Al Aqsa Foundation

Ma'an, which strives to appear like it maintains good journalistic standards in English, has an Arabic article today that shows again that it reports things differently to different audiences.

The artiicle is about the Birkat Kohanim event at the Western Wall Plaza (Kotel), that attracts tens of thousands of Jews every year. Ma'an's headline? "Tens of thousands of religious Jews storm into the vicinity of Al-Aqsa."

The article itself is simply a reproduction of a press release by the virulently anti-semitic Al Aqsa Foundation that denies any Jewish connection to Jerusalem. It says that the Kotel is really the "Buraq Wall" and is a Muslim holy site, notwithstanding that even the few Muslims that had heard of that site before the twentieth century identified it to be a distance away from the Kotel.

Uncritically quoting the Al Aqsa Foundation, the Ma'an article says

Tens of thousands of religious Jews desecrated the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the day and night on Thursday, and performed Talmudic rites, including what is called the "priestly blessing" - on the occasion of "Passover", at the Wailing Wall and its courtyard throughout the day and night, through loudspeakers, with the participation of "senior rabbis" whose voices could be heard inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sparked great disquiet among worshipers during prayers. The "Aqsa Foundation" said that violations of the occupation of the area of the Buraq will continue throughout the Passover festival days which ends the middle of next week. The "Aqsa Foundation" confirmed that the Wailing Wall is a precious part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and is purely Islamic, and that Square Buraq is also purely Islamic, they constitute the Moroccan Quarter, which was destroyed by the occupation in 1967, and turned it into a yard for "prayer of the Jews." and "Aqsa Foundation" showed that every occupation practice in the Buraq is illegitimate and really part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Talmudic stories about them are false.

The supposedly liberal Ma'an can't even be bothered to mention that Jews say that they have historic ties to Jerusalem. No, it can only reproduce the ahistoric rantings of the Islamists as fact.

Email addresses of NGOs that support Miftah

Here is a list of email addresses of some of the organizations that financially support Miftah, which published a blatantly anti-semitic article on Wednesday. So far, they have not responded to numerous tweets, so here is a chance for you to do something that can make a difference.

Representative Office of Norway repram@mfa.no
The Anna Lindh Foundation info@euromedalex.org Facebook
Oxfam UK enquiries@oxfam.org.uk Facebook
National Endownment for Democracy info@ned.org Facebook
Secretariat for Consulate of Italy in Jerusalem segreteria.gerusalemme@esteri.it
Heinrich Böll Foundation info@boell.de Facebook Arab Middle East FB
Austrian Development Agency oeza.info@ada.gv.at
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ireland contact page List of Twitter contacts
Konrad Adenauer Foundation - Palestinian Territories Info.Ramallah@kas.de
International Republican Institute webpage contact
UNESCO - English media editor r.amelan@unesco.org

I have emailed all of the organizations listed here and am waiting to hear back.

If you receive any response, please let me know.

Palestinian Arabs keep getting killed in Syria, and no one cares

I noted that the death toll of Syrian Palestinians had gone over 1000 last month. Things have, if anything, accelerated since then.

On Sunday and Monday, six more were killed.

On Tuesday, nine were killed - including five members of one family.

On Wednesday, seven were killed.

UNRWA noted the deaths of five children earlier this month:

On 15 March, Mohammad Al-Khateeb (aged 14) was killed by a bullet as he was returning home on foot after buying bread from a bakery in his neighbourhood in Dera'a. On 19 March, Hisham Mahmoud (aged 10) and Farhat Mubarak (aged 11), were killed at the crossroad of Yazour and Safad Streets in Yarmouk, Damascus. They were returning home from classes at a community-run learning centre when an explosive shell detonated nearby, killing them instantly. In a separate incident on the same day, two brothers, Ali Mijel (aged 14) and Abdullah Mijel (aged 15), were killed along with their aunt and cousin when an explosive shell hit their home on Hittin Street in Sbeineh Camp.

We must have missed the stories about these in Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada, who pretend to care so much about Palestinian Arabs.

Israeli commando raid to save Jewish objects from Syrian synagogue?

A couple of weeks ago there was news that the ancient synagogue in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, known as the Eliyahu HaNavi synagogue, had been bombed, apparently by Syrian regime forces.

Syrian TV is reporting that it is the Free Syrian Army that is looting the synagogue:

The latest rumor, which may be coming from Israel, is that Israeli commandos have taken valuable Jewish objects from the synagogue.

Syria Truth, which has not been a fan of the Assad regime, writes:

Informed sources in Tel Aviv revealed this evening that Israeli intelligence succeeded in recent days in a raid the synagogue in the suburb of Jobar in the east of Damascus, and to transfer its contents out of Syria across the Turkish and Jordanian borders in collaboration with "Banner of Islam" group, which controls the region.

A source close to Syrian Rabbi Abraham Hamra, the leader of Jews who came from Syria to Israel in 1994, said that a commando group was composed of about 15 people belonging to the "Jewish Black Panthers" unit went to Jobar early this week in collaboration with Jordanian and Turkish security agencies and "Banner of Islam", which controls the area, and rescued the contents of the Temple of priceless manuscripts and precious collectibles, including a copy of the Torah is one of the oldest in the world, before being transferred through "Banner of Islam" out of Syria through different ways, revealing that the commando team split on the way back to more than five groups, each consisting of two or more people, carrying with them a part of the manuscripts to prevent the loss of all of them if caught by the Syrian army. According to the source, the commandos were mostly Iraqis, Moroccan and Lebanese Jews of who disguised themselves as "Mujahideen Islamists"...

According to sources for Syria Truth, the decision-making process started about three weeks ago when the temple was exposed to mortar fire that destroyed portions of the outer walls and internal rooms and almost destroyed the synagogue totally. Then the Israeli authorities initiated contacts with third-party Turkish and Jordanians to help save the contents of the temple through the channels established by the two countries with the "Free Syrian Army".

I didn't see this in Israeli media, but given the Syrian news story about how the Free Syrian Army looted the synagogue, this actually might have some truth behind it.

Let's hope so.

Why the Miftah antisemitism story is so important

On Thursday, I reported exclusively that Miftah, an NGO that was founded by Palestinian Arab media darling Hanan Ashrawi, had published as pure an anti-semitic screed as is imaginable - resurrecting the reprehensible blood libel that Jews ritually slaughter Christian children and consume their blood on Passover.

Miftah is an organization that is ostensibly dedicated to promoting Western, liberal idea like democracy and equal rights for women. At least, that's what they tell their donors, which in 2011 included Oxfam, the Anna Lindh Foundation, Norway, Ireland, UNESCO and the US-based National Endowment for Democracy:

Miftah presents itself as a transparent NGO dedicated to its ideals and principles.

Yet, within hours of my publicizing the disgusting article on its website, Miftah simply deleted it - no explanation, no apologies, no excuses. It simply pretended that the hugely offensive piece never existed, hoping that no one would notice their cover-up.

This is not how a transparent organization should act.

Here we see what happens when a supposedly liberal Arab organization is faced with the exposure of bigotry and hate in its midst: it sweeps it under the rug. And, so far, the NGOs that fund Miftah have been complicit in this silence, hoping that the controversy will go away.

And this is the problem.

While these same liberal organizations would be the first ones to complain when they see an example of anti-blackracism, Arab antisemitism is not regarded as nearly as toxic an issue. They know, as all observers of the Middle East know, that Arab antisemitism is endemic. It is the rule, not the exception.

Instead of demanding accountability and the eradication of hate among organizations funded by these Western NGOs and governments, Arab antisemitism is tacitly accepted as "one of those things," or justified as a side effect of Israeli policies.

However, this example of naked hate has no excuse. The classic blood libel has nothing to do with Zionism, nothing to do with modern Israel. It is a pure throwback to the Christian antisemitism of the Middle Ages. And it exists, today, in the Arab world.

Just like the scourge of Christian Jew-hatred has been largely marginalized by modernity, by exposure and by shaming the haters, this is what must happen to today's Muslim anti-semitism. It is not acceptable, it is not something to be hidden away when it gets exposed. It must be confronted and, most importantly, the people who practice it must be shamed. Shame is the West's biggest weapon to fight Arab hate and it is one that too often is ignored because of a mistaken, cowardly idea that there is nothing to be gained by shaming people who are easily enraged.

The offensive article was not written by a marginal figure or a loose cannon. Nawaf al-Zaru has written other articles for Miftah, and similarly his blood libel article is still visible on major Arab media, today. Not only that, but al-Zaru is regarded as an Arab expert on Israel and Hebrew. He has written numerous articles and books, and was the editor of at least two Jordanian newspapers. Indeed, he had written a more expansive version of the blood libel article in 2009, in response to an earlier Passover seder at the White House.

His viewpoints aren't an aberration. They are mainstream. I see the same kinds of writings nearly every day in the Arab media, although not always as explicit.

By ignoring the hate, the funders of Miftah are tacitly endorsing it. And people like Hanan Ashrawi will not be called to account for overseeing a publication and website in which such hate can be published, past all the editors and webmasters and other gatekeepers whose salaries are being paid by these NGOs.

The NGOs themselves should be falling over themselves to distance themselves from Miftah. The Anna Lindh Foundation says "Our purpose is to bring people together from across the Mediterranean to improve mutual respect between cultures." How exactly can that purpose fit in with Miftah's encouragement of hate of Jews? Shouldn't people be tweeting them about this?

Oxfam says "We strive to do what we say we will do. Read about our core values and operating principles against which we measure ourselves." One of these is that "Unjust policies and practices, nationally and internationally, must be challenged and people’s rights must be respected." Should Oxfam be measured by their own words? They are on Twitter as well.

Part of UNESCO's mission is "to contribute to the building of a culture of peace." How can Arab Jew-hatred contribute to peace? Shouldn't people tweet to them as well?

The National Endowment for Democracy is a US-based NGO that also supports Miftah. They say that "NED provides hundreds of grants each year to non-governmental groups working abroad in the areas of human rights, independent media, the rule of law, civic education and the development of civil society in general." How does Miftah's hate and cover-ups fit in with that vision? You can tweet them and ask.

Miftah is not the problem - it is a small symptom of the real problem. But to fix things we must start somewhere. And you, right now, can directly ask all of these NGOs and governments that fund Miftah what they are doing to uphold their own standards and distance themselves from the naked hate that Miftah apparently feels is acceptable discourse in the Arab world.

Some tunnels are not meant for smuggling

From Ma'an:

A member of Hamas' armed wing died Thursday during a mission in eastern Gaza, medical officials and witnesses said.

Mohammad Ahmad al-Sarhi, 20, from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, was killed in a tunnel collapse, and three other people were wounded, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.

Witnesses in the area confirmed to Ma'an that a group of Al-Qassam members were operating in a tunnel east of Zaytoun when the tunnel collapsed suddenly.

This tunnel was nowhere near the Egyptian border.

Which means it was either an underground bunker to stockpile weapons, or it was a tunnel to kidnap Israelis.

Hamas' Al Qassam website called it a "resistance tunnel."

A little context is a useful thing.

(h/t PTWatch)

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Pro-Gay and Anti-Israel? ‘Pinkwashing’ to the Rescue

Given the reaction that a Jewish state has elicited in the region, one can only imagine how a “queer state” would be received. Yet Elia and her fellow travelers prefer a fictional “queer state” to an actual country where gays are welcomed—a sure sign that, for them, bigotry trumps reality.

Flotilla 3.0: International 'activists' work with Hamas affiliates to sail OUT of Gaza

A new propaganda initiative designed to test the resolve of the Israeli blockade on Hamas in Gaza is seeking to highlight how trade from Gaza has been affected by Israel.
The focus of the 'Gaza Ark' is the fact that while goods do indeed enter the Hamas-run, Palestinian enclave, goods are said to rarely ever leave. The premise of the trip is that Gaza wants to trade with the world, rather than receive aid. Critics have called the trip "intentionally misleading", pointing to the fact that on a weekly basis, dozens of trucks export products from Gaza.

Scottish Government Funds Pro-Terror Group

The Daily Express revealed last week that Islamic Relief Worldwide, a British charity accused of links to terrorism, was presented with £398,000 of the taxpayers' money by the Scottish Government last year, as part of its £9 million International Development Fund.

British-Palestinian town twinning plans collapse

The twinning of a norther English borough and a West Bank town has fallen through, with public support for the motion considered too low

Daphne Anson: Anti-Israel Fanatics Petition Morgan Freeman

Celebrated African-American screen actor Morgan Freeman is due to be honoured by the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University at a ceremony in Toronto on 6 May.
Predictably, Israel-haters including the usual BDSers are up in arms, and a furious campaign on social media has been launched in order to bring pressure on Mr Freeman to refuse the honour.

"This is Islamic Apartheid": New AFDI ad campaign to launch in NYC to counter blood libel by American Muslims

Troubling Times for Once Mighty Hezbollah

Writing on February 6 for the Washington Institute, Matt Levitt, taking into account the EU position and Hizballah’s support of the Syrian regime, came to the following conclusion:
“The ‘Party of God’ has turned its ‘weapons of resistance’ not on Israel, but on fellow Muslims. This, more so than the UN indictment of four of its members for the murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, and more so than the exposure of Hizballah operations in places like Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Turkey, is what now threatens Hizballah’s standing as a Lebanese political party and social movement.”

Bulgaria to present new evidence in Burgas bombing

Move may increase pressure on European Union to label Hezbollah a terrorist group

The Shining Is About What?
Room 237 uses Talmudic exegesis to uncover whether Kubrick’s film is about Indians, the Holocaust, or bears

Even people who haven’t seen it know that The Shining, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel, is the scarific tale of a stir-crazy caretaker—Jack Nicholson, no less—driven mad by the ghosts haunting an isolated, off-season hotel to murder his wife, played by Shelley Duvall, and their small son, who happens to be psychic. But, was this contribution to the horror cycle of the late Carter era also Kubrick’s meditation on the Holocaust?

Kubrick’s Lost Holocaust Film
America’s greatest Jewish director was haunted by the Nazi horror—too much to address it directly in film

Nearly all of Kubrick’s films are told from the perpetrator’s point of view, and references to Nazi Germany populate his work, most often as signifiers for characters who are growing mad with power: Dr. Strangelove’s proposal for a “final solution” and his exclamation, “Mein Führer, I can walk!”; the Leni Riefenstahl imagery shown to Alex during his Ludovico treatment in A Clockwork Orange; Jack’s German Adler typewriter on which he chronicles his descent into insanity in The Shining.

Israel Daily Picture: More on the Jewish Legion in Palestine, 1917 - 1919,

In our last posting on the Jewish Legion we published this photo of the "Jewish Legion entering a Jewish village in the Land of Israel." We have subsequently discovered more information about the photograph.
The picture shows Colonel Eliezer "Lazar" Margolin riding into Ben Shemen. Margolin, a Russian-Palestinian-Australian, was a decorated officer who succeeded John H. Patterson as the commander of the Jewish Legion.
Margolin was born in Russia in 1874 and moved to a small farm in Rechovot Palestine with his parents when he was 17. He was proficient in Hebrew, Arabic, marksmanship and riding. Years later he was known as a figure who "rides his horse like a Bedouin, and shoots like an Englishman."

Video of those Hebron kids "arrested on the way to school"

On March 20, the Huffington Post wrote:

As U.S. president Barack Obama arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the Israeli military reportedly detained a group of children on their way to school in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Independent Catholic News:

Twenty-seven Palestinian children, age seven to 15, were arrested while on their way to school in the West Bank city of Hebron, Christian Peacemaker Teams reported on 24 March.

B'Tselem:

Soldiers detained or arrested over twenty minors on their way to school.

Now, the video:

Isn't it interesting that the many media outlets that showed video of the children's arrests didn't bother to show what was happening immediately beforehand?

(h/t Omri)

Obama's AIPAC/Illuminati shape-shifting reptilian secret service alien

From The Jewish Press:

Somebody got a hold of the video of President Obama’s March 4 speech to the “Zionist cabal,” also known as AIPAC, and noticed – how could they not – that one of President Obama’s shape-shifting body guards, a lizard-humanoid, let go of his human shape for a brief moment, exposing to the world his truly hideous alien form.

The text-to-speech program narrator tells you all about it with the certainty of a GPS program plowing away minutes after your car has gone into the lake.

The bald-headed secret service agent acts strangely, looking to his right and to his left incessantly and almost mechanically, then totally shape-shifts into a reptile. Or not. How many shape-shifters have you seen to compare with this one?

The video was shot by JN1, a Jewish news service, which probably hadn’t been told by the Jewish cabal to keep their lenses off the alien shape-shifters.

Anyway, the video has gone seriously viral, with close to 3 million views.

The original video link is gone, but here is a copy - and it is hilarious.

(h/t Ian)

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Obama, Einstein, and Jerusalem

Einstein wanted a nuclear weapon-free world, but when he saw what Hitler was doing, he helped America develop an atomic bomb. Einstein knew the difference between imagination and pretense. He could imagine a bomb-free world, but did not pretend that just talking to Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan would stop the war.
Like President Obama, Professor Einstein wanted peace, but when faced with unrelenting war, Einstein wanted to win. Just talking to dictators would not stop them.

Stephen Walt and the Islamist Lobby

Now Stephen Walt has taken another step to confirm this conclusion. He has been featured as the March 2013 Guest Writer for the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a website whose self-described mission is promoting “the Palestinian cause” by reaching out “to opinion makers and decision makers in a deliberate, organized and sustained manner.”
However, as far as MEMO is concerned, the “Palestinian cause” is really the cause of Hamas. It is therefore no coincidence that, together with their esteemed guest writer Stephen Walt, MEMO also featured a “New strategic document” by Hamas leader Khalid Mishaal (also spelled Mashal or Meshaal).

Bernard-Henri Levy: Have I Become an Undesirable in Libya? by Bernard-Henri Lévy

Bernard-Henri Lévy fought tirelessly for Libya’s liberation. So why does he suddenly feel unwelcome in the country he loves—all because of his religion?

Europe: The Submission That Dare Not Speak Its Name

The French Jewish community is the largest in Western Europe. Its existence dates back to the early Middle Ages. A decade ago, it had approximately 500,000 members. Last year, its number fell to 400,000, and continues to fall. If the trend does not stop, the Jewish presence in France will, in the medium term, come to an end.
As long as what happens in France also happens in other European countries, what is taking shape could be a shift towards the end of the Jewish presence in Europe. It is impossible to assess the consequences that such an event could have, but one would have to be blind to underestimate its significance.

French soldier, two others held in terror probe

French police have detained three people, including a soldier, in southern France as part of an investigation into last year’s deadly terror attacks in Toulouse that targeted Jews and paratroopers, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Cult Of Mohamed Merah

"This newsclip (in French) shows how Mohamed Merah has become an object of veneration to the Muslims of France. Flowers are regularly left at his grave. The grave attendant says they should have buried him somewhere more obscure to make it more difficult for his worshippers to leave flowers.

Critically wounded Syrians treated in Israel; one dies

The IDF said the injured Syrians were met at the border by Golani Brigade soldiers and were secretly transferred to Israel under heavy security for fear that - if identified - they would be harmed upon their return to Syria. All of the wounded are residents of the Syrian-controlled central Golan Heights region.

Trapped: The Plight of Palestinian Refugees From Syria

Families seeking asylum in neighboring Jordan are being turned away at the border because they lack Syrian identification.

Syrian rebels claim Iranian plane shot down

Opposition source in Damascus says the craft carried a weapons shipment for President Bashar Assad’s army

Russian lawmaker quits over reports of Israeli citizenship

Opposition blogger targets Vitaly Malkin of Putin’s United Russia party for dual nationality, undeclared foreign assets

Swiss gov't employee fired for praising death of Jews

The construction department of the St. Gallen canton in Switzerland dismissed a managerial construction employee because he sent an email to the Israeli Embassy in which he praised the deaths of Jews in a terrorist attack.
Candrian wrote in his email about the attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas in July 2012, “That is a good day in my life. I am proud of the heroes who killed Jews.”

France: Jewish minister ‘doesn’t think in French’

Leader of far left denies comment was connected to religion of Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici

Russia’s new Middle East energy game

While we have consistently made out a strong case that the (Iranian-Syrian) Shia v Sunni (Saudi and much of the rest of the ME) divide would, despite the rhetoric, means not a single ME government would come to Iran’s aid in the event of an attack, we can also state precisely what Russia won’t do.
Moscow won’t jeopardize its new deeply strategic energy partnership with its Israeli-Greek Cypriot ‘Western’ partners – in particular, its burgeoning relationship with the Middle East’s coming energy superpower, Israel.