Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 26, 2013

Worries of Salafi attack at annual Jewish pilgrimage to Tunisia synagogue

A Jewish pilgrimage this weekend to the most ancient synagogue in Africa will take place under huge police presence amidst fears of a Salafist attack. A little under 1000 Jews are arriving at the so called "island of dreams" on Djerba ahead of the pilgrimage on 26 - 28th April to the El Ghriba synagogue, Tunisia's most ancient Jewish site, and the scene of a 2002 suicide attack by Al Qaeda in which 21 people were killed when a bus full of explosives detonated against its walls. The synagogue, which is located in the Jewish village of Hara Seghira, or 'Er-Riadh', dates back to 586 BC and is revered for the chanting of the Torah which resonates from its walls. This peaceful and meditative place is a symbol to Tunisia's Jewish community, who, until yesterday, had been fully tolerated and fully integrated into Tunisian society. But today's pilgrims will make the visit under a shadow of fear as the threat of attack from certain Salafist elements threatens to cancel out what until now has been a peaceful co-existence.

Hundreds of armed officers are lining the entrance to the island as well as in the traditional sites where pilgrims gather for prayers. Most of the 2000 strong Jewish community - the biggest in the country, lives in Arryadh, where the synagogue is located, and the Tunisian government is determined not to be caught off guard by any potential Salafist trouble.

At a demonstration on January 14 last year to mark Ben Ali's escape, Salafist groups shouted at their Jewish neighbours, and threatened to attack them in their homes. Tunisian Salafists make no distinction between Jews and Zionists and Jewish community leaders are hard pressed to drive home the idea that they are first and foremost Tunisians - by many generations, and only second Israelites. In a bid to cut risk security forces have carried out a "clean sweep", arresting nearly 500 people in the last few weeks.

Hezbollah's Al Manar points to the security measures as proof that Arabs are only against Zionism. not Jews. They don't quite mention how the Al Qaeda attack against the synagogue fits in with that alleged tolerance.

Or how this Hassan Nasrallah's quote fits in with that tolerance as well:

If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli. (New Yorker, Oct. 14, 2002)

Or how Hezbollah's deadly attack on the Jewish center in Buenos Aries fits in with that famous Muslim tolerance.

1944 Jewish Agency letter to Britain describing death camps in detail

The Guardian has an article about newly released archives describing how the British predicted in 1948 the Jews would win any war, and many other details.

Being the Guardian, it is spinning things to make the Jews look as evil as possible, and I cannot compare the Guardian's reporting with the actual documents yet because they do not seem to be available on the British National Archives website.

But while I was looking, I came across this:

As we all know, the British did nothing with this information to save the remainder of Europe's Jews.

That antipathy seems to have spilled over into the more recently released archives, based on the new report.

Hopefully we will be able to check it out soon rather than trust a newspaper that can be relied upon to always put on an anti-Zionist spin on history.

Absolut Tel Aviv

From YNet:

Tel Aviv is becoming part of the desired list of cities who have got their own special Absolut Vodka bottle.

The Absolut Tel Aviv bottle is being released as part of the Absolut Blank series designed by artist Nir Peled, who uses the professional name Pilpeled.

Pilpeled joins a long and distinguished list of artists from all over the world who have designed posters and other items for the Swedish vodka brand, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and others.

The bottle, which is being released in a limited edition of 150,000 units, commemorates Tel Aviv's ficus tree boulevards. It serves as a tribute to nights filled with vodka and alcohol in the city, which is associated - internationally as well – with the club and nightlife culture.

Here's a detail of the bottle design.

Muslim cleric says Jews behind French Revolution. Plus - EoZ business card!

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a religious program featuring Egyptian cleric Sayyed Azab, which aired on Al-Omma TV on April 18, 2013:

Sayyed Azab: The Jews wanted to corrupt the world. They staged what is known as the French Revolution, establishing the world’s first republican regime. They wanted such regimes to protect them. They based the revolution on so-called freedom, fraternity, and equality, regardless of religion, race, gender, or language. Then they made themselves superior, and whenever anyone dares to criticize them, they raise hell, accusing him of being an antisemite.

They established the first republican regime, in order to leave the ghetto, or the Jewish neighborhood. The people suffered so much from the evil of the Jews that they confined them to designated neighborhoods, called ghettos, which they were not allowed to leave. They prevented them from marrying non-Jews. They confined the Jews to specific quarters, and prevented them from running in elections or doing anything, because they knew how dangerous and scheming the Jews are.

So the Jews carried out what is known as the French Revolution, in order to crawl out of the woodwork, and to practice their scheming in public, so that they could take over the world. After staging the French Revolution, the slogan of which was “Hang the last priest by the intestines of the last king,” they discovered that they had not accomplished their goal.

All this was not enough to corrupt the world and take control of it. So they carried out what is known as the Communist Revolution. Marx the Jew, the founder of the Communist theory, and Friedrich Engels, the philosopher of the revolution… The revolution was staged by Lenin, who was also a Jew. This entire revolution was carried out by the Jews. This is how they wanted to spread atheism throughout the world. Leon Trotsky the Jew established what was known as the Soviet Red Army, which brought catastrophes upon the Muslims, killing millions of them.

All these Jews wanted to spread atheism and to corrupt people.

And he is absolutely right, although Jews have been controlling the world from way before the French Revolution. My limited edition business card, which is a prized collectible item, admits the truth.

If you want your own limited edition and signed EoZ business card, just donate $200! (Hey, it can't hurt to ask...)

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Elie Wiesel, history's witness

His impassioned writing and speaking have won him a Nobel Peace Prize, and a large place in the public intellectual discourse about the Holocaust and the human condition.

Muslim Arab Bedouins serve as Jewish state’s gatekeepers

[Lt. Col.] Mazarib is a Bedouin, a Muslim Arab who grew up in northern Israel, intimate with its green, hilly landscape from an early age.
“This is our country,” he states simply in perfect Hebrew with a light Arabic accent. And its Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David or the theme of the national anthem, do not perturb Mazarib. “The flag of England also has a cross on it, and the Jews there are fine with it,” he says during a tour of the Bedouin Heritage Centre which houses a memorial to the 182 Bedouin killed fighting for Israel. (h/t Zvi)

IDF Chief Gantz to Druze Community: We Are Brothers in Arms

Israel’s Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, sent a letter to Israel’s Druze community Wednesday in honor of the Druze holiday of Nabi Shu’aib, a celebration of the Islamic prophet Shu’aib. In the letter, Gantz praised the Druze community’s long-standing commitment to the State of Israel’s security.

BBC recognizes that the Mavi Marmara was not an “aid ship”

Whilst additional amendments would have contributed to bringing this report and others into line with the standards of accuracy demanded by the BBC Editorial Guidelines, this is nevertheless a (small) step in the right direction.

BBC promotion of PA narrative on Jewish heritage sites

By lending oxygen to the long-existing Palestinian Authority campaign to distort history and deny Jewish connections to what objectively (whatever one’s opinions of the desired form a negotiated settlement to the conflict should take) cannot be seen as anything other than a geographical area steeped in Jewish heritage, Berg is severely compromising the BBC’s reputation for impartiality.

New App Warns Drivers: Arab Mob Ahead

Only in Israel: a new app for android phones lets drivers know if they are about to drive into a mob of Arabs armed with firebombs and rocks.
Such ambushes have killed and maimed many Israelis over the years, including a baby girl, Adelle Biton, who has been barely clinging to life in the Schneider Children's Hospital since last month.

Tunisia ups security ahead of annual Jewish pilgrimage

Visitors to arrive Thursday at 2,500-year-old El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba Island; in 2002 a terrorist bomb killed 21 at the site

Thailand Seeks Israeli Security Solutions

A group of 33 Thai Members of Parliament are in Israel Wednesday to learn about Israeli defense systems for use in Thailand.
The MPs’ visit is intended to lay a framework for trade in defense and security equipment between Israeli companies and Thailand.

Israeli ‘smell technology’ bans bugs from food, crops

It’s not just the ick factor: Insects are responsible for a great deal of economic damage. According to the United Nations, between 5 and 10 percent of the world’s post-harvest produce was rendered unusable last year due to insect infestation. That’s on top of as much as 15% of crops lost due to destruction by insects out in the field.

Top Azeri Diplomat Praises Ties With Israel on First-Ever Visit

Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan’s first foreign minister to visit Israel, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and other Israeli officials during his April 21-23 trip, saying the visit will help expand ties further, his office said today by e-mail.
The visit marks a turning point in Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel after the former Soviet republic has in the past refrained from high-level visits under Iranian pressure. (h/t Zvi)

Israeli biotech company sold for $480 million

OPKO Health Inc. chairman Dr. Phillip Frost: "Prolor's drug-product candidates for growth hormone deficiency, hemophilia, obesity and diabetes ... are highly valuable assets that will complement OPKO's strategy."

"Shiites even worse than the Jews!"

I have noticed a recurring theme in Egyptian media over the past several weeks. In at least five separate instances, religious and other officials have declared that Shiites, and sometimes Iranians, are at least as bad as Jews are.

Al Mesryoon on April 5 quoted Sheikh Mohamed Alaa El Din Abu Azaim as saying that Egypt needs to cut Egyptian-Iranian relations, because "they are more dangerous than the Jews" - he is worried that Iranian tourists will try to convert Egyptians to Shiism.

Al Mogaz on that same date reported that the Suez Bar Association said something similar, warning of the spread of Iranian tourism in Egypt and spread of Shi'ism Egyptian society. They added that these Iranians "represent a more serious risk to Islam than from the Jews themselves," saying that they did not want the tourism money that they bring in.

Al Mesryoon revisited the topic on April 13, quoting Salafi spokesman Sheikh Abdel Moneim El-Shahat, of warning President Morsi not to allow Shiites into Egypt, saying - again - that the Shiites are more dangerous to Egypt than the Jews themselves because they want to spread their ideology in Egypt. He pointed out that the function of the state in protecting religion "does not extend to Shiites whose hands are stained with the blood of innocent people."

Yet another article in Al Mesryoon, an op-ed on April 18, attempts to draw comparisons between how disgusting the Shiites are to how terrible the Jews are. He points out that the Jews sway during prayer, as well as the Shiites. The Jews like shedding blood of every Muslim, and so do Shiites. Jews distorted the Torah; Shiites distorted the Koran. Jews and Shiites both hate the angel Jibril (Gabriel.) (There are a few others that I didn't quite get, something about women and another about kissing, that apparently Jews and Shiites have in common.

Finally, in Wednesday's Masrawy, Sharif Taha, Secretary of the Nour Party in Dakahlia province, said that the Shiites are worse than Jews as they are more bloodthirsty and filled with malice to Sunnis. He also said that both Jews and Shiites engage in "intellectual terrorism."

How Muslims persecuted the Jews of Shiraz (Persia), 1893

You know how Iranians like to pretend that they have always treated their Jewish subjects with respect?

Well, not so much.

From "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," July, 1893:

Shiraz has the largest Jewish population in the south. Their number is 5,000, and they occupy 430 houses in their own quarter, called Mahale Yahoodian i.e., "the quarter of the Jews." They have ten large synagogues, two chief Rabbis, and five schools, where the children study Hebrew. No one knows the Talmud except the Rabbis. They read Hebrew in order to be able to say their prayers in the synagogue. Not one Jew in Shiraz can read the Persian language, or speak it properly. They speak a jargon Persian, quite different from the Jews of other parts of Persia.

All the Jews are very anxious to have a proper school in which to learn the Persian and European languages. By occupation they are goldsmiths and silversmiths, and have their shops on the back streets of the Mohammedan quarter. There are a good many petty merchants, who go to Fessa and Jahroom to buy opium, and return to Shiraz where they sell it to the Mohammedans on credit.

...Nowhere in Persia are the Jews so badly persecuted as in Shiraz. The chief Mollah has promulgated the following laws with regards to them:

1st. "They must not wear ordinary clothes like the Mohammedans." This law is carried to such an extent that no Jew dare put on a black hat like the Moslems.

2nd. "The Jews must not ride on horse, mule, or donkey to the towns." (I did not see one Jew acting contrary to this law.)

3rd. "A pervert to the Mohammedan religion has a right to claim the whole property of his deceased relative." At the present time the perverts have not so much power as before, and dare not claim the whole of the property, but they trouble their relatives, and get about 500 kerans from them, and then leave them in peace.

4th. "If a Mohammedan is in debt to a Jew, the Jew must not force him to pay, but the Moslem may pay his debt at his own pleasure; but if a Jew owes to a Mohammedan he must pay him on the first notice."

5th "If a Mollah or priest beats a Jew in the street or abuses him, that Jew must not return the abuse, but must pass on quietly."

These laws are in some respects similar to those enacted by the Mollahs of Ispahan for the Jews of that town. (See Jewish Intelligence, November, 1889, page 116.) About six years ago, when Prince Zel-El Sultan was the Chief Governor of the whole of the South of Persia, he ordered the Chief Mollah of Shiraz to be brought to Ispahan, because he used to trouble the Jews. He obeyed the order, and come to Ispahan, where he was kept until June, 1888, when the Prince was deposed. He then returned to Shiraz^ and commenced his enmity against the Jews.

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Where is the mob of Muslim-hating Americans going crazy after Boston? It's a figment of liberals' imaginations

Time and again, Left-leaning campaigners and observers respond to terror attacks in the West by panicking about the possibly racist response of Joe Public – and time and again, their fears prove ill-founded and Joe Public proves himself a more decent, tolerant person than they give him credit for. What this reveals is that liberal concern over Islamophobia, liberal fretting about anti-Muslim bigotry, is ironically driven by a bigotry of its own, by an deeply prejudiced view of everyday people as hateful and stupid. The anti-Islamophobia lobby poses as the implacable opponent of bigotry, yet it spreads a bigoted view of ordinary white folk as so volatile, so brimming with fury, that they are one terrorist bombing away from transforming into an anti-Muslim pogrom. Yes, some prejudiced things have been said about Muslims post-Boston; but far more prejudiced things are being said or implied about ordinary Americans.

Mosque that Boston suspects attended has radical ties

The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon double bombing has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism.

Family Says Boston Marathon Explosions Suspect Was Interested in ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’

The former brother-in-law of Boston Marathon explosions suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev said in an interview that the bomber was interested in reading the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Ban slams Falk for tying Boston attack to US policy

UN chief says special rapporteur could undermine world body by suggesting US foreign policy responsible for terror.

UK condemns UN’s Richard Falk for “antisemitic” remarks – for “third time”
Canada FM: “UN should be ashamed to be associated with Richard Falk”

At last, EU wakes up to 'useless' Ashton: MEPS condemn indecision by foreign policy chief

In a hard-hitting report, MEPs on the foreign affairs committee said the EEAS – which they want to behave like an EU foreign office – is ‘top heavy’, has ‘too many decision-making layers’ and has been slow to respond to situations such as the Arab Spring and the conflict in Mali.

PMW:

Chairman of the Prisoners' club: Prisoners recieve salaries "exactly... [like] me and you" VIDEO
Possible hearing in Norway regarding Foreign Ministry misinforming Parliament about PA salaries VIDEO

The Muslim Brotherhood wants Spain back. Can the Christians have Egypt in exchange?

The Islamic Society of North America, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has published an article that calls Andalusia – the hottest bit of Spain – a “paradise” that will return when “the only victor is Allah.” It reads like part travelogue and part religious tract, claiming that Andalusia was a region of tolerance “for 800 years” when occupied by Muslims, was then ruined by “the insanity following the Spanish reconquista” and, only today, has regained some of its former lustre thanks to growing interest in Islam in the region. Quote: “In 2006, Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said that Spain was indebted to Islam for its great historical contributions.” Mr Zapatero also legalised gay marriage, so it’s fair to presume that he’s not too keen for the Caliphate to come back.

CIF Watch: Guardian removes original claim about Iran’s nuclear weapons program from ‘the pages of time’

However, the if you go back in time a few days (to a cached page), you can see the title they originally used: “Glencore traded with Iranian supplier to nuclear weapons’s programme”.
At some point after the story was published on April 21 the word “weapons” was deleted from title.

Holocaust Denial Hurt Us, Says Potential Iranian Candidate

Iran’s denial of the Holocaust was damaging to the Islamic Republic, a potential presidential candidate has admitted

Levski Sofia penalized for display of Nazi symbols

The Bulgarian Football Union has fined Levski Sofia for club fans displaying Nazi symbols during a domestic league match last weekend.
The union said on Wednesday the club will be fined 19,000 euros ($24,700) because its fans displayed banners bearing swastikas during the match against Litex in Lovech on Saturday. Levski won 2-1.

Did an American academic group vote to boycott Israel? (updated)

From Inside Higher Ed:

The general membership of the Association for Asian American Studies has unanimously approved a resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli universities, making it the first scholarly organization in the U.S. to do so, according to the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

About 10 percent of the association’s membership was present for last week’s secret ballot vote, which was open to all members and took place on the final day of the AAAS annual conference in Seattle. The resolution raises a number of concerns about the impact of Israeli policies on Palestinian students and scholars – including restrictions on travel and the forced closure or destruction of schools as a result of Israeli military actions – and describes Israeli academic institutions as “deeply complicit in Israel's violations of international law and human rights and in its denial of the right to education and academic freedom to Palestinians, in addition to their basic rights as guaranteed by international law."

“Be it resolved that the Association for Asian American Studies endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions,” the resolution reads in part. “Be it also resolved that the Association for Asian American Studies supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.”

The AAAS president, Mary Yu Danico, confirmed the resolution was approved and directed questions to the association’s past president, Rajini Srikanth, a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Srikanth likened the academic boycott to that which was levied against South African universities to protest apartheid, and emphasized that the boycott is of institutions, not individual academics.

Something here does not smell right.

First of all, there is nothing about this resolution on the Association for Asian American Studies website. The only place this vote has been publicized are on rabid anti-Israel sites like the "U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel."

The Word document that shows the full resolution was written by David Lloyd, a USC professor who is one of the founders of the USCABI and a profound hater of Israel.

The past president of the AAAS quoted here, Rajini Srikanth, is also an academic anti-Israel ideologue.

But even with such members in the organization, is it plausible that a vote like this would be unanimous? Not a single academic standing up against the boycotting of other academics?

This seems even more unlikely when you look at the full schedule of the AAAS conference. Not a word is said about Palestine or Israel. In fact, not a word is stated about any resolutions or voting whatsoever, on any day of the conference, let alone the Saturday that this was supposed to have occurred. Saturday was a full conference day, with some 52 sessions throughout the day non-stop from 8:15 Am to 4:15 PM. There was literally no time for all the members to get together to debate or discuss any topic, let alone one as controversial as this, unless it was done Saturday evening - when most attendees would be itching to go home.

I don't have absolute proof that this appears to be a manufactured victory for BDS, but at best this appears to be a secret resolution rammed through using irregular procedures using hand-picked members only to "vote." At worst, this is a fiction being created by a small anti-Israel contingent of a relatively obscure academic association, purely to generate the impression of a wave of anti-Israel sentiment in Amerian academia.

Either way, this needs to be investigated. The integrity of the organization is at stake. If they really followed procedures correctly, the idea that an American academic group is filled with people who support boycotting Israeli universities without a single dissent is amazing. If, as I suspect, this was done under the table, then this needs to be exposed and the people behind it shamed - and probably expelled.

Was the membership at large of the Association for Asian American Studies aware of this resolution, and was each member given an advanced copy of the resolution in order to vote? This appears unlikely, but if anyone knows any member of this organization, feel free to ask them - or have them contact me.

UPDATE: In a private communication, Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, confirmed that "The association itself confirmed the facts of the story - that the AAAS did this".

What we still don't know is how this was done and whether the AAAS members at large were made aware of the vote.

One member who was at the conference did write to me saying that "I did not attend the membership meeting and would not have voted for this, if it is true." So the question remains - how do the actual members of AAAS feel about this, as opposed to the few who seem to have attended this meeting?

I did confirm that in general, the AAAS general membership meetings do occur on the Saturdays of their annual conference.

UKIP candidate spouts antisemitic rhetoric on Facebook (updated)

From SWNS.com:

A UKIP candidate has sparked outrage by reportedly claiming that Jews deliberately murdered each other in the Holocaust as part of a masterplan to create Israel.

The extreme racist views were posted in Mrs Anna-Marie Crampton’s name on a conspiracy theory website called ‘Secrets of The Fed’.

Crampton, 57, is allegedly quoted as saying: “Holocaust means a sacrifice by fire. Only the Zionists could sacrifice their own in the gas chambers.

“The Second World Wide War was engineered by the Zionist jews and financed by the

banksters to make the general public all over the world to feel so guilty and outraged by the Holocaust that a treaty would be signed to create the State of Israel as we know it today.”

Mrs Crampton posed with UKIP leader Nigel Farrage at a rally in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, two weeks ago – and proudly posted a photo on her Facebook page.

A further outrageous comment, posted two months ago, added: “The Rothschilds are Zionists..there is a difference between Jews and Zionists. These Psychopaths hide behind and use the Jews.

“It was thanks to them that 6 million Jews were murdered in the War (along with 26 million Russians!).”

Another comment says: “I am anti Zionist, not antisemit (sic). I love the true Israel and the Jews.”

Mrs Crampton is standing for UKIP in next week’s county council elections in the traditionally Conservative ward of Crowborough in East Sussex.

UKIP yesterday (thur) said they were anxiously trying to contact Mrs Crampton to hear her explanation of the reported comments, but had so far failed to reach her.

A spokesman admitted: “We need to chase her down. These comments are really way out there and really hard-core anti-Zionism.”

Anti-racist groups said UKIP had to drop Mrs. Crampton as a matter of urgency.

Sam Westrop, director of Stand for Peace, a leading Jewish-Muslim interfaith organisation, said: “Time after time, conspiracy and anti-Zionist sentiment is revealed to be nothing more than thinly-veiled anti-Semitism.

“UKIP, to its credit, has expelled extremist and bigoted members in the past.

“They must also expel Anna-Marie Crampton. Such hatred must be fought at all times.”

Here's the text of part of her diatribe, which she bizarrely claims is not anti-Jewish:

‘The Second World Wide War was engineered by the Zionist jews and financed by the banksters to make the general public all over the world to feel so guilty and outraged by the Holocaust that a treaty would be signed to create the State of Israel as we know it today. By the way, Holocaust means a sacrifice by fire. Only the Zionists could sacrifice their own in the gas chambers. No others, since you and I cannot sacrifice that which is not ours. I am anti Zionist, not antisemit. I love the true Israel and the Jews, but I love the son and daughters of Ihsmel, who are also the children of Abraham. We need to defend Palestine by joining the true Jews…. thanks go to Alan Schiller for this info....

‘The Rothschilds are Zionists..there is a difference between Jews and Zionists. These Psychopaths hide behind and use the Jews. It was thanks to them that 6 million Jews were murdered in the War (along with 26 million Russians!). Read the Protocols of Zion, all you need to know is in there and it’s in their own words.’

This is a great example of how die hard Jew-haters simply substitute "Zionist' for "Jew" in spouting classic antisemitic tropes - and then claim they aren't anti-semitic. Probably because they have a soft spot for Gilad Atzmon.

The idea that the "Zionists" were behind the design of the US dollar bill is especially funny.

Edgar Davidson has a new article about the casual anti-semitism of the British middle class.

UPDATE: More from Anna-Marie:

(h/t Colin)

UPDATE 2: Another UKIP politician seems to share Anna-Marie's obsession. (h/t Ian)

Citing bad publicity, IDF decides to stop using legal white phosphorus smokescreens

Maariv reports that the IDF has decided to stop using white phosphorus shells during battle. Not because there is anything illegal or immoral about them, but they were bad PR - and they are no longer as necessary as they were in years past.

During Operation Cast Lead, many anti-Israel activists, NGOs like Amnesty and HRW, as well as the

Goldstone Report, criticized the IDF's use of white phosphorus shells that were used to obscure the vision of the enemy. In rare cases a different version may have been used to illuminate enemy positions at night.

The critics gave a range of charges, ranging from saying that the shells were dangerous to civilians to expounding junk science to claim they caused birth defects to ridiculous claims that they were illegal chemical weapons. I have one post that discusses the legal military use of white phosphorus extensively, written by two military experts, that debunk these claims.

Nevertheless, the IDF decided that the legal military benefits of using the shells - which are used by Western nations all the time - was outweighed by the bad PR of the occasional civilian who touched the shells and received burns.

It is researching alternatives (which generally are not as effective as a smokescreen.) A spokesman also said that use of pyrotechnic phosphorus at night is no longer necessary now that night-vision goggles are widely used instead.

While the IDF used WP in a legal way, it is interesting to note that Hamas would scavenge the WP they could find in unexploded shells and put them in rockets that were shot at Israeli civilians. As far as I can tell, not a single "human rights" group ever said a word about that use of WP, which is patently illegal.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

EoZNews: Interview with IDF soldier Izzy Ezagui (updated)

One of the honorees at the Algemeiner gala on Tuesday, and also one of the speakers, was Izzy Ezagui.

His story is worth hearing.

UPDATE: At Izzy's request, I have taken down the video. You can see other videos and articles about him by searching the web.