Was Gaza journalist groupthink the source of the Al Dura blood libel?

Given all the time people have spent on the case of the Al Dura hoax, it is newsworthy when someone discovers something new.

But Arnold Roth at This Ongoing War noticed something fascinating:

In "22-May-13: The post-Al Durah period: the challenges are starting to become sharper", we quoted Israeli journalist Ben Caspit's valuable analysis of the Al Durah Affair and of the role and responsibilities of the news-reporting media. 

Here's a key quote

The truth is a vital commodity, especially where we are. If we didn’t kill Muhammad al-Durrah, then I want to know that. If he wasn’t injured in the film clip screened by France 2, then I want to know that too... I have a lot of respect for correspondent Charles Enderlin from France 2, but as someone familiar with all the details at a very high resolution, I believe that he never should have determined that the al-Durrah boy was dead, as long as he had a video clip which showed him still alive. That footage was put into deep storage. It was censored and disappeared, only to show up again this week in the report by the Israeli Commission of Inquiry. A responsible journalist never would have broadcasted the footage without also showing the doubt, the full picture, and all of the details relevant to the story. [Source]

Today, this afternoon, in going back over some of the things we know about Charles Enderlin and France2, we came across something quite extraordinary. Enderlin, France2's man in Israel, the one who personally edited the original Al Durah "killing" footage that went to air all over the world on September 30, 2000, was interviewed in Haaretz on November 1, 2007, to mark the seventh anniversary, more or less, of the events that we know as the Al Durah Affair.

It's a long interview with Haaretz reporter Adi Schwartz, and it appears in both the Hebrew and English editions. Both are still online today: the Hebrew ("בואו נראה את זה שוב") here and the English ("In the footsteps of the al-Dura controversy") here.

The reporter, after reviewing the controversy about who fired at the Al Durahs and the way in which parts of the media made up their minds, asks Enderlin:

In hindsight, is it possible that you were too hasty that evening?

Here's the Haaretz English version of the answer:

I don't think so. Besides, the moment I saw that nobody was asking me anything officially, I started feeling more strongly that the story was true.

And here is the Haaretz Hebrew version of the Enderlin response to the same question:

לא חושב. אם לא הייתי אומר שהילד והאב היו קורבנות לירי שבא מכיוון עמדת צה"ל, בעזה היו אומרים, איך אנדרלן לא אומר שזה צה"ל? 

 We'll translate the Hebrew for you. 

I don’t think so. If I had not said that the boy and the father were victims of gunfire emanating from the direction of the Israeli position, in Gaza they would have said “How come Enderlin doesn’t say it was the IDF?"

Got that? It's a helpful insight into how news sometimes gets reported by certain kinds of journalists and channels.

To remind us all, Charles Enderlin was in his Jerusalem office when those events took place in Gaza on September 30, 2000. The sum total of the visual evidence he had was video material sent to him by digital transfer from a stringer in Gaza. Its source was a Palestinian Arab cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma. Did Enderlin thoroughly check it to satisfy himself that it was an authentic record of what it claimed to be - the cold-blooded and deliberate killing of a child and the wounding of the father by Israeli forces? Given what most of us know about the relative accuracy of factual reporting on the two sides of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, did he harbour any doubts at all? Did he seek independent verification? A second opinion? A third? Did he speak with any of the other video photographers out there at Netzarim? Or to their agencies?

The answer, which we have not seen reported anywhere else in all these years (correct us please if we're wrong on this), is this: evidently he felt he could not go off and check because (our understanding of his plain Hebrew words) what would they then say about him, Enderlin, over there in Gaza? 

Roth then goes on to contrast how painstakingly the media vetted the footage of the Woolwich terror attack videos to ensure accuracy. Enderlin, by contrast, told Ha'aretz that he assumed it was accurate - and any investigation he would have mounted would have made him look bad to people in Gaza!

Ha'aretz seems to have deliberately sanitized this part of the interview for its English speaking audience, which is most probably why it was not noticed until last week.

We have seen reporters and NGOs consistently take Palestinian Arab accusations of Israeli crimes at their word without doing the least amount of fact checking. That's just the way things happen in Israel and the territories. Enderlin, by his own admission, was upholding the journalistic double standards of not bothering to double check the facts when they fit so well with the anti-Israel narrative.

Read More

The NY Times can't utter the "M" word

This is an amazing article for what it doesn't say:

Eva Bromster, an elementary school principal, was jolted awake by a telephone call late Thursday night. “Your school is burning,” her boss, the director of the local education department, told her.

Ms. Bromster rushed to the school, in the mostly immigrant district of Tensta, north of Stockholm, and found one room gutted by fire and another filled with ankle-deep water after firefighters had doused the flames. It was the second fire at the school in three days.

In Stockholm and other towns and cities last week, bands made up mostly of young immigrants set buildings and cars ablaze in a spasm of destructive rage rarely seen in a country proud of its normally tranquil, law-abiding ways.

The disturbances, with echoes of urban eruptions in France in 2005 and Britain in 2011, have pushed Sweden to the center of a heated debate across Europe about immigration and the tensions it causes in a time of deep economic malaise.

The riots, now subsiding, have produced less damage than the earlier ones in Paris and London, which also involved mostly immigrants. But the unrest has shaken Sweden, which has a reputation for welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers, including those fleeing violence in countries like Iraq, Somalia and Syria, and regularly ranks in surveys as one of the world’s happiest places.

“I don’t know why anybody would want to burn our school,” Ms. Bromster said. “I can’t understand it. Maybe they are not so happy with life.”

The riots are not unprecedented here. In 2008 and 2010, immigrants clashed with the police in the southern port city of Malmo. But the past week’s arson attacks in Stockholm, the capital, and the spectacle of teenagers hurling stones at firefighters have left many Swedes wondering what went wrong in a society that has invested so heavily in helping the underprivileged.

While the violence was concentrated in relatively poor districts, most of their residents have been shielded from dire poverty by a welfare system that is one of the world’s most expansive, despite recent cutbacks.

So what might the problem be?

...One big problem is the lack of jobs. The national unemployment rate is about 8 percent, but the rate is at least twice as high in immigrant areas and four times as high for those under 25. But, said Nima Sanandaji, a Kurdish-Swedish author of several books on immigration who was born in Iran, remote areas in the north of Sweden have more people out of work, “but they are not throwing rocks and burning cars.”

...Immigrants and the Swedish-born children of immigrants make up about 15 percent of the population, and last year Sweden nearly doubled the number of asylum seekers it took in and became Europe’s primary destination for refugees from Syria.

Ms. Bromster, the school principal, whose 325 students are all from immigrant backgrounds, said families who had “escaped from terrible wars in Iraq and Syria” could not be expected to adapt easily to an entirely foreign environment. “They don’t get work, and they feel excluded from society,” she said.

So it is not poverty. What possible other reason is there for some young immigrants to riot, while poorer people don't?

What could they have in common besides their immigrant status? Something cultural, perhaps, that teaches them that rioting and rock throwing are acceptable behaviors when things don't go your way? Is it possible that, say, their religious beliefs that they are taught from the time they are children might have something to do with it?

We'll never know, because some questions cannot be asked.

(h/t EBoZ)

Read More

Egyptian parliamentarian in Gaza: "Stone all the Jews...America's apes and pigs"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Egyptian Shura Council member Sheik Muhammad Al-Saghir, upon his visit to Gaza, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 9, 2013:

Muhammad Al-Saghir: Take [my] heart, which has become as hard as steel, and use it to stone all the Jews. Take it and use it to stone all the Jews. Take my eyes. Perhaps a handsome boy who has become blind can use them to see again. Take my skin. Turn it into a fuse or a slingshot for a child, because this land constantly begets boys as proud as [Khaled] Ibn Al-Walid.

[...]
Dear brothers, the Jama'a Islamiyya and the Building and Development Party, with its leader, the Jihadi scholar who is imprisoned unjustly in the U.S., Dr. Omar Abd Al-Rahman...

Applause

America is the patron of Israel the foundling. It is America that plunged a poisonous dagger of hatred into the heart of the Arab and Islamic nation. America holds the remote control, and commands the movements of its apes, its pigs, and its juvenile thugs on the frontier land of glory. America... Let us never forget that when you see a moving puppet, do not pay attention to the puppet itself. Always look for the filthy hands that command this puppet.

>br>

[...]

I represent the [Egyptian] people as a preacher in Al-Azhar and as a member of parliament. All the people who wrote posts on [my social media] page asked for the same thing: "Oh sheik, Jerusalem is in our hearts, and Palestine is the apple of our eye. If we are not allowed to visit [Palestine], we will meet them with the beating of the drums of Jihad." They asked me to kiss the heads of the mothers and fathers of the martyrs, and if I cannot, they asked me to kiss, on behalf of the Egyptian people, the head of the symbol of resistance, Ismail Haniya. So that's what I will do.

Al-Saghhir walks over to Haniya blesses him and kisses him on the forehead

To the applause and cheers of the crowd 

[...]

Read More

Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

---

Michael Oren: Iran’s nuclear designs are the greater Middle East threat

We will prevent these sophisticated missiles from reaching Hezbollah. We will closely monitor the movement of chemical and other game-changing weapons in Syria. Together with the United States, we will develop more advanced anti-ballistic systems. Yet we can never lose sight of the ultimate threat.
If Iran gets the bomb, so too will a number of Middle Eastern states that can pose not only regional chemical but also global nuclear threats. An Iran with military nuclear capabilities will dominate the Persian Gulf and its vast oil deposits, driving oil prices to extortionary highs. And Iran can transfer nuclear weapons to terrorists who can launch them at foreign ports in shipping containers. The entire world will be endangered.

PMW: Bullets in the enemy's chest are sweet - PA TV song


Abbas: "We don't educate our children to hate" VIDEO

Norway and other European obstacles to peace

Donors have been praising the PA for its successful preparations for statehood – its institutions and its infrastructure – but few seem to care about its ethical foundations. As funders, Norway and other countries have an opportunity and an obligation to demand the end of the PA hate and terror culture.
Attacking PMW for exposing the hatred, and not the PA for promoting the hatred, is a failure that will postpone peace for another generation.

Palestinian man (whose is definitely NOT a refugee) tipped to win Arab Idol

The Palestinian “refugee” swindle is but one of the many political derivatives from the ideologically inspired uncritical embrace of the Palestinian narrative which so often passes for serious journalism at the Guardian.
Mohammed Assaf - a Palestinian (born 42 years after the 1949 war) who lives in the Palestinian run territory of Gaza, in Khan Younis – is not, by any reasonable definition of the word, a refugee. And, the fact that Palestinians continue to hold the key to this immutable victim status illustrates a greater truth about the egregious abuse of ordinary language within the cognitive battlefields of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Kerry Announces Plan to Boost PA Economy

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry unveils plan to boost the PA's economy by attracting $4 billion in private investment.

Peres Lauds 'Arab Initiative'

Speaking in Jordan, president says "Arab Peace Initiative" is a meaningful change and a strategic opportunity.

Jordanians Stage Walkout on Israelis at WEF

Jordanian reporters walked out en masse when Israeli journalists and officials entered the communications center at the World Economic Forum Sunday. The Forum is being held in Aqaba, Jordan.

Rock Terror Reaches Jerusalem Homes

Arabs hurl rock into living room in southern Jerusalem.

Jerusalem: Arab Arson Season Kicks Off

Every 24 hours, on average, Arab arsonists start a fire on Mount Scopus or near Abu Tor.

IAF Chief: Hezbollah Using Populated Areas for Weapons Transfers to Avoid Israeli Interceptions

During a strategic review, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel told a group of former senior U.S. Army generals that Hezbollah is using warehouses, civilian buildings, mosques and underground storage facilities to dissuade Israel from striking at weapons it is transferring to and from Syria.

Analysis: Rocket attack on Hezbollah a turning point

The rocket attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut marks a turning point in the Syrian war and the clearest signal yet that the conflict is likely to escalate and spread to Lebanon, already on a knife’s edge due to sectarian divisions. Shi’ite- Sunni strife in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere is manifesting itself in the Syrian civil war, dragging neighboring countries into the conflict.

Israel key to Berlin Hezbollah terror label

Israeli diplomats traveled recently to Berlin and presented court documents showing Hezbollah’s role in terrorism within the European Union.
The meticulous documentation collected by Israeli officials played a critical role in changing attitudes among German foreign ministry officials who were reluctant to include Hezbollah in the EU’s terror list.

'Assad's forces used chemical arms on rebels'

Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have repeatedly used chemical weapons against rebel fighters in Damascus, according to first-hand accounts in France's Le Monde newspaper.
The newspaper, in a report issued on its website on Monday, said one of its photographers had suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days after an attack on April 13 on the Jobar front, just inside central Damascus.

Egypt: From Energy Exporter to Energy Basket Case

Not long ago, Egypt was an energy exporter, with Israel and Jordan eager customers for Egyptian natural gas. Now, though, Egypt can't even produce enough energy for its own needs – and the country over the past several weeks has faced rolling blackouts, with even the most upscale districts in Cairo facing 3-5 hours a day of darkness.

Read More

Poor, hypocritical Gideon Levy

Gideon Levy, the Haaretz writer who hates everything Jewish about Israel, has a column talking about how a stranger came up to him, insulted him and spit at him, for his far-left viewpoint.

Levy bitterly complains about the such an unseemly display of hate - and then Levy says he "kicked his ass."

The self-righteous Levy says that people who dislike his opinions don't have to read him, and is amazed at the anger that could cause someone to act this way against someone from "the peace camp."

Poor, poor Gideon.

As far as I can tell, Levy never said a word of sympathy for the Zionists who have to run through a gauntlet of hate - of people spitting and screaming at them, of insulting them and calling them child murderers - just to see Israeli cultural events in Great Britain or South Africa. Those protesters, presumably, are simply exercising their right to free speech. Their hate is very understandable and explainable to people like Levy. The people who insist on supporting Israel in public are the ones who have to cower in fear, while their tormentors are free to act as thuggish as they want.

If an IDF soldier, who stands calmly in the face of a protester screaming and spitting in his face, would react by "kicking his ass," Levy would be the first one to want to bring the soldier up on criminal charges.

But if someone screams at Levy, this self described member of the "peace camp" cannot be expected to walk away quietly. No, his principled, moral, peaceful position is that someone insulting him must be physically assaulted in response.

This is the hypocrisy of the Left - pretending to be peaceful and tolerant, but not willing to tolerate anything close to what they insist their opponents put up with..

(h/t Kramerica)

Read More

Nasrallah 1988 video: "Lebanon should not be an Islamic republic on its own, but rather, part of the Greater Islamic Republic"

In light of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's speech on Saturday where he said he group will do whatever it takes to save Basahr Assad's regime, his opponents have released a MEMRI video showing Nasrallah's real goals:

A video in which Hassan Nasrallah spoke about his dream goal in Lebanon before he became Hezbollah leader is being circulated again on social media following a speech on Saturday in which he officially admitted engagement in the Syrian civil war.

The video being circulated online reportedly dates back to 1988 and shows a younger Nasrallah saying: “Our plan, to which we, as faithful believers, have no alternative, is to establish an Islamic state under the rule of Islam.”

“Lebanon should not be an Islamic republic on its own, but rather, part of the Greater Islamic Republic, governed by the Master of Time [the Mahdi], and his rightful deputy, the Jurisprudent Ruler, Imam Khomeini,” he said.

MEMRI's full text:

Hassan Nasrallah: What is the nature of the regime that Hizbullah wants for Lebanon at present, in light of the state of the country and the numerous sects? The preceding lectures have answered this question. Right now, we do not have a plan for a regime in Lebanon. We believe that we should remove the colonialism and the Israeli [occupation], and only then can a plan be implemented.

Our plan, to which we, as faithful believers, have no alternative, is to establish an Islamic state under the rule of Islam. Lebanon should not be an Islamic republic on its own, but rather, part of the Greater Islamic Republic, governed by the Master of Time [the Mahdi], and his rightful deputy, the Jurisprudent Ruler, Imam Khomeini.
[...]
[I was asked] about Hizbullah's relations with Iran and with the leadership of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. As far as we are concerned, these relations... I am one of the people working for Hizbullah and its active apparatuses. I would not have remained for a single moment in any apparatus of Hizbullah if I were not absolutely convinced that these apparatuses are connected, through a certain hierarchy, to the Jurisprudent Ruler and Leader, whose decisions are binding.

As far as we are concerned, this is axiomatic. Diplomatic and political statements are not what is important in this case. Ayatollah Karroubi cannot simply admit: Yes, Hizbullah are our people in Lebanon. This is inconceivable, both politically and media-wise. Our essential and organic relation with the leadership of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Rule of the Jurisprudent is axiomatic, as far as we are concerned.

We belong to this path, we make sacrifices for its sake, and we expose ourselves to dangers, because we are convinced that the blood we shed flows for the sake of the Rule of the Jurisprudent.
[...]
Should the Jurisprudent Ruler be the one to appoint the leaders, and bestow legitimacy upon them, in all Muslim countries? Yes, because his jurisprudence is not limited by geographical boundaries. It extends to wherever Muslims may be.

Of course, Hamas shares that exact same goal of "Palestine" being part of an Islamic 'ummah and not an independent state except as a stage. The only difference is whether this pan-Muslim state would be Shi'ite or Sunni.

No one seems too bothered by Hamas' identical hypocrisy, though. From their charter:

As for the objectives: They are the fighting against the false, defeating it and vanquishing it so that justice could prevail, homelands be retrieved and from its mosques would the voice of the mu'azen emerge declaring the establishment of the state of Islam, so that people and things would return each to their right places and Allah is our helper.

(Note to MEMRI: Please don't flag me on YouTube for uploading your video that is already pirated by Al Arabiya. We're on the same side, and I will happily encourage my readers to donate to you. )

Read More

Pregnant Gaza woman beaten to death for entering in-laws' kitchen

Ma'an reports:

Nawal Fathi Tafish Qudieh, 25, lived with her family-in-law in the town of Khuza, east of Khan Younis. On Saturday she was allegedly beaten to death by her in-laws. She was seven months pregnant at the time, and the baby also died.

Nawal's brother Ahmad says that his sister was humiliated, insulted, verbally abused and beaten by her mother-in-law and her husband's family.

Nawal's family even offered her a piece of land to build a house on and live in with her husband and family to get away from the abuse, but her husband refused to leave his family.

"Due to the problems she was exposed to, she was banned from entering the kitchen. She used to wait for her mother-in-law to leave the kitchen in order to be able to enter the kitchen," Ahmad told Ma'an.

On the day of her murder she had entered the kitchen without making sure her mother-in-law had left the area, her brother said.

"Her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law began beating her on the head, abdomen and back. They did not feel sorry for her or even for the baby she carried in her womb for the seventh month."

Her brother-in-law then began beating her with an iron pipe, with the family joining in until she lost consciousness, Ahmad said.

They dragged her body into the landing of the house and left her there until an ambulance arrived and tried to resuscitate her, but it was too late.

Both Nawal and her unborn baby died. Medics at Shifa hospital said that the cause of death was bleeding in her brain due to blunt force trauma.

One commenter is convinced that Israel must be responsible, somehow:

---

3 ) albertine harris / usa

26/05/2013 21:57

sorry..show me facts..how do i know that she was not abused by israelis''...? they seem vicious and cruel to children? what makes me to think otherwise.

A quick search shows that this commenter is "US Representative for Arab Green Development Association" who wants to invest in something called "bioatomic plants."

Read More

Arab League accuses Israel of "Judaizing" PA school curriculum

You might have missed it, but yesterday was the opening of the 87th Session of the Commission on Educational Programs Addressed to Arab students in the Occupied Arab Territories, which is part of the Arab League.

Perhaps in an effort to distinguish itself from the previous 86 sessions of this august body, they came up with something that is new, at least to me.

The august Commission now accuses Israel of "Judaizing" the Palestinian Arab school curriculum.

The only thing I can think of is that they are complaining that Israel regularly publicizes that the PA curricula include antisemitism and incitement to violence, and by pressuring them to remove patently offensive materials from their schoolbooks, that is considered "Judaization"!

If it is so easy for Israel to "Judaize" the curricula of schools over which it has zero responsibility, then maybe it is time for Israel to Judaize the Palestinian Arab flag as well:

The very existence of this blog post should be enough to start a new Arab League Commission on Dangers of Judaization of the Palestinian Flag, that would meet six times a year in different Arab capitals and issue harshly worded statements.

(h/t Irene for idea of adding blue to symbolize Israel's aggressive desire to take over every piece of land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in both directions.)

Read More

Jew-Bashing, the New Anti-Semitism (video parts 1-4

3 parts of a 4-part series from Canada have aired so far. I believe that the filmmakers are the same as the one-hour Channel 2 Israel documentary I posted last week.

Antisemitism in the Middle East:


Jew Bashing - Anti-Semitism in the Middle East from Skeptic on Vimeo.

Antisemitism ,in Europe:


Jew Bashing - Anti-Semitism in Europe from Skeptic on Vimeo.

Antisemitism in the US


Jew Bashing - Anti-Semitism in the USA from Skeptic on Vimeo.

Antisemitism in Canada:


Jew Bashing - Anti-Semitism in Canada from Skeptic on Vimeo.

(h/t many people)

Read More

Islamists attack "kissing protest" in Turkey

From Al Arabiya:

Islamists attacked a group of kissing couples who locked lips in a Turkish metro station to protest a morality campaign by the authorities in Ankara, the local press reported on Sunday.

One person was stabbed when about 20 Islamists chanting “Allah Akhbar” (God is Greatest) and some carrying knives attacked the demonstrators on Saturday, the Milliyet and Hurriyet newspapers reported.

About 200 people staged the kissing protest after officials in the Ankara municipality, which is run by Turkey’s ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), admonished a young couple for kissing in the street.

Turkey is predominantly Muslim but staunchly secular, although the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has introduced several measures opponents see as a sign of the creeping Islamization of the country, including restrictions on alcohol.

On Saturday, dozens of couples have locked lips at a subway stop in Ankara, to protest subway authorities' admonishment of a couple that kissed in public.
Turkish media say that, earlier in the week, Ankara subway officials made an announcement asking passengers "to act in accordance with moral rules" after security cameras spotted the couple kissing.

Read More

Sunday Links

From Ian:

---

PA officials: Abbas keeping us in the dark By Khaled Abu Toameh

The sources said that Abbas failed to brief the four officials on the outcome of his closed meeting with Kerry.
“Even chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat does not know the details of the discussions between Abbas and Kerry,” the sources said. “Abbas has decided to keep everyone in the dark.”
The sources said that Abbas had also failed to brief Palestinian officials on the results of his meeting with Kerry in Ankara several weeks ago.

Honest Reporting: How to Lie about Israel -- and Get Away With It!


‘Peres, When Are You Going to Wake Up?’

“And in general, when are you going to wake up from your dream of a New Middle East to the reality of the Islamic Winter that we are living in?” Fuchs asked.
He concluded, “You are the president of the country, but this is not a Presidential regime. There is a government in Jerusalem. Respect it, and it will respect you in your representative role as the state president.”

Israel preps for nationwide chemical warfare drill

Israel geared up for a massive military drill Monday to focus on coping with chemical weapons attacks. The nationwide exercise was to drill the civilian population as well as military and emergency services.

Woolwich attackers' university hosted 'extremist' preachers

It was reported today that the university of the attackers that killed Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich this week played host to a number of extremist speakers on campus over the past decade.
Greenwich University, which both Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale attended, recently hosted the likes of Dr. Khalid Fikry, Zahir Mahmoud and Abu Usamah.

This week's utterly disturbing Leftists

There is a sickness in the hard Left. Their unerring, almost sociopathic desire to direct the blame for terrible events onto our own country, our own ideology, our own people, is beneath contempt. Sometimes it is enough to just say “this was awful, this was evil, we will not waver”.
By attacking our own, the Left is doing exactly what the terrorists wanted all along. As a result, they have become the useless idiots who encourage the status quo.

French soldier stabbed in throat outside Paris

According to French newspaper Le Parisien, police described the attacker as a North African man aged approximately 30-years-old with a beard, a black jacket and a light colored djellaba cloak.

Alleged member of Hezbollah arrested here

The FBI has arrested a San Antonio man on charges he lied to get into the United States and tried to get a sensitive Defense Department position.
Wissam Allouche, 44, appeared for an initial hearing Friday afternoon, and shook his head when U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad read the charges leveled in a federal indictment. The judge ordered him held pending a bail hearing and his arraignment Tuesday.

In Depth: How Iranian weapons reach Hezbollah

For 20 years, Israeli intelligence has been playing a game of cat and mouse against the weapons smuggling axis of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in a battle in which "every imaginable method is employed."

Syrian Cyber-Attack on Haifa Water System

A Syrian organization launched a cyber-attack on Haifa's water system two weeks ago, a high ranking Israeli official revealed Saturday.
Speaking at a public panel in Be'er Sheva, Prof. Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, Chairman of the National Council for Research and Development in the Ministry of Science, said the attack was carried out by the “Syrian Electronic Army.”

Russia-Syria S-300 sale still on, senior Israeli official says

Reports of this cancellation have “no basis in reality,” the official said. “It’s a fairy tale. There was no agreement between Putin and Netanyahu.”
Still, the official assessed, “It’s likely that the Russians will try to stall for time and use this as a bargaining chip without following through on the deal [with Syria].”

Tehran deploys ‘massive’ number of missile launchers

Iran has fielded a “massive” number of new long-range missile launchers, state TV reported Sunday.
The new weapon components delivered to Iranian military units would allow them to “crush the enemy” with the mass simultaneous fire of long-range surface-to-surface missiles, Defence Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying.

Anti-Israel protesters crash Champions League dinner

The official Champions League final dinner was disrupted Friday night by three people infiltrating a London venue to protest to UEFA President Michel Platini about the under-21 European Championship being hosted by Israel next month.

Hungarian lawmaker doubts Auschwitz museum’s historicity

A lawmaker for the ultra-nationalist Jobbik party in Hungary said the Auschwitz death camp museum “may not reflect real facts.”
Tamas Gaudi-Nagy made the statement Thursday during a discussion in parliament on a proposal to facilitate visits by teenagers and young adults to the former Nazi camp in Poland.

Dead Sea Scroll fragments to hit the auction block

Nearly 70 years after the discovery of the world’s oldest biblical manuscripts, the Palestinian family who originally sold them to scholars and institutions is now quietly marketing the leftovers — fragments the family says it has kept in a Swiss safe deposit box all these years.

India activist seeks Israeli ‘volunteer technology’

Israel has a great deal of high-tech, agricultural technology, and environmental innovations it can help India with. But according to Joshua Victor, a social worker and activist, it has something else that can be just as important to the world’s second most populous country: A network of volunteer organizations and programs that is a model for the rest of the world.

Read More

Libyan anti-Israel postage stamps

This is the third in a series. 

As far as I can tell, no one has ever compiled an illustrated list of anti-Israel postage stamps since the 1970s.

---

Libya's first stamps on the topic, as far as I can tell, was this 1971 series promoting Fatah terrorism:

There was a 1977 series called "Palestinian Fighters and their Families" but I do not have any images.

In 1979 and 1982 they had some pro-Palestinian Arab stamps that were not explicitly anti-Israel, such as Palestinian Children's Day.

Their stamps promoting "International Day of Cooperation with Palestinian People" would typically draw maps that erased Israel from 1983, 1984 and 1985:

In 1978 the stamps explicitly called for the destruction of Israel by war:

These stamps were to commemorate the "Anti-Israel Summit Conference" in Bahdad in December, 1978.

1986 continued the theme of violent pan-Arab war to destroy Israel:

The first intifada provided more stamps romanticizing violence, a theme that continued even during the Oslo process. This 1988 stamps shows rocks and Molotov cocktails - the "non-violent" resistance we hear so much about:

1992

1989

1994

1995

1996 - rock throwing

Read More

Hezbollah lashing out in Syria but feeling squeezed at home and in Europe

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech on Saturday where he, for the first time, admitted that Hezbollah is all-in to keep Bashar assad in power:

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday vowed "victory" in Syria, where militants of his powerful Lebanese Shiite movement are fighting alongside regular troops against rebels trying to topple the regime.

"I say to all the honorable people, to the mujahedin, to the heroes: I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one" in Syria, he said at a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from Lebanon.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would always stand by its allies in the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad, stressing that its own interests were at stake.

"We will continue along the road... bear the responsibilities and the sacrifices," he said in a video-link of a speech delivered live on a huge screen.

"This battle is ours... and I promise you victory," he said.

"Syria is the rear guard of the resistance (Hezbollah's fight with Israel), its backbone, and the resistance cannot stay with its arms folded when its rear guard is exposed.

"We are idiots if we do not act," said Nasrallah who avoids appearing in public for security reasons.

He is bizarrely trying to justify this by playing the Israel card, one that the Arab public is increasingly sick of:

In a televised speech marking the 13th anniversary of the Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon, Nasrallah also said that "if Syria falls, so will Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. We will enter a very dark phase."

He also spoke about Israeli preparations for a possible conflict with Hezbollah and said that Israel formed a new government portfolio dedicated to protecting the home front. "In Israel everything is geared up for a conflict year round and all year they hold maneuvers. Israel fears rockets, because we have no air force. The Israelis built towns along its borders. They are bringing in Jews from Ethiopia, Romania, and Argentina, and placing them by our borders and providing them with money and arms. On our side of the border, our towns are nearly empty."

Nasrallah did not present the fighting as a conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but rather as one waged between heathens serving a Western Zionist agenda and the Syrian resistance that refuses to accept the dictates of the West.
Nasrallah unequivocally stressed that the fall of the Syrian regime would be a blow to the "resistance." "Syria is the backbone of the 'resistance,' that cannot sit still and wait while its backbone is being broken," he said. "If Syria falls in the hands of the Americans and the Israelis and the American representatives in the region, the 'resistance' will be isolated and Israel will enter Lebanon and force its laws upon it. Lebanon will return to the Israeli era."

In his speech, Nasrallah tied the U.S. and Israel to Jihadist organizations working under the aegis of al-Qaida in Syria: "These combatants coming from many countries received many allowances to leave their countries and arrive at Syria, this is the American method of destabilizing Syria from the inside, using these organizations that brand everyone is heathens, those organizations that had killed more Sunni Muslims than anyone else. An example of this is what is happening in Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia. We think that the armed forces taking over Syria are a great danger to Lebanon and all the Lebanese, not only Hezbollah or the Lebanese Shiites."

Lebanon's majority non-Shi'ite population is not happy at being dragged into a war they have nothing to do with:

Al-Mustaqbal Party leader Saad Hariri stated on Saturday that Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is demanding the recognition of the “State of Hizbullah," considering that the resistance has announced its “suicide" in the Syrian border town of al-Qusayr.

“You have announced yourself the end of the resistance on Liberation's Day,” Hariri addressed Nasrallah in a released statement in which he responded to Hizbullah leader's speech in the commemoration of the liberation of the South earlier on Saturday.

“You have announced the resistance's political and military suicide in al-Qusayr.”

Hariri accused Nasrallah of releasing a Fatwa that calls on the Lebanese to get involved in a war on Syrian territories.

“Your speech has no value to us, to most Lebanese and definitely to the Syrian people in all political, national, ethical, legal, religious and human measures.”

The opposition to Hezbollah's Syrian adventure was apparent this morning, as a group fired rockets at Hezbollah positions in Lebanon itself:

Rockets slammed into a Hezbollah stronghold outside Beirut, injuring at least four people, hours after the Lebanese militant group’s leader declared he could mobilize thousands of fighters to help Syria’s rulers beat an insurgency.

As many as three rockets hit a southern suburb of Beirut this morning, damaging homes, Al Jazeera satellite TV said, showing shrapnel-damaged walls and cars. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called the spillover from Syria’s civil war an act of “terrorist saboteurs” who do not want peace and stability for Lebanon, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's willingness to bet Lebanon on Assad has pushed some European states to declare it a terror group:
At the beginning of this week, the United Kingdom submitted an official request to the European Union to list Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist organization. The move was shortly followed by supportive statements from both France and Germany.

"Given the decisions that Hezbollah has taken and the fact that it has fought extremely hard against the Syrian population, I confirm that France will propose to place Hezbollah's military wing on the list of terrorist organizations," French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday after the Friends of Syria meeting in Amman.

The move from the EU Troika also comes almost a year after a suicide attack attributed to Hezbollah left 6 dead in the Bulgarian sea side resort town of Burgas in July 2012. At the same time that the Bulgarian investigation into the Burgas attack was underway, Cyprus was dealing with the case of Taleb Hussam Yacoub, a Swedish-Lebanese national who admitted in court that he had been recruited by Hezbollah. The young man described his role as a courier in several European capitals, as well as his surveillance missions on Israeli tourists in Cyprus and Turkey. However, it was Hezbollah's involvement in Syria and its increasing evidence of support to Bashar al-Assad's regime that made France and Germany abandon their hesitation, analysts say.

Now Lebanon has a scorecard of Hezbollah's diminishing clout as a legitimate player in Europe:

Read More

Video of Palestinian Arabs attacking IDF - from behind journalists

This exposes both the depravity of using journalists as human shields, and of journalists allowing themselves to be used in such a way.

From The Commentator:

Read More

Egyptian MB mufti: "Jewish fortune teller predicted Morsi would destroy Israel"

Dr. Abdulrahman Al Barr, a cleric for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, says that a Jewish fortune-teller/rabbi during the Nasser regime predicted that a man named Mohammed, the third Mohammed to lead Egypt, would liberate Jerusalem and destroy Israel.

Al Barr says that Egyptian President Morsi is that man. Sadat was the first "Mohammed" and Mubarak the second.

He made these statements at a conference Friday night in Beni Suef that was sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the dominant political party in Egypt.

There appears to be video of the statements.

He also said that the road to Jerusalem goes through Cairo and Damascus, and that Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, as he complained about Egyptians who were suspicious of Hamas.

No word on who this alleged fortune-teller/rabbi was. Then again, his audience isn't exactly the type to demand corroboration for bizarre statements.

Moreover, Al Barr stated that Israel will inevitably be destroyed because it is a foreign body that has no historic or geographical reason for existing.

There was a brief kerfuffle after he made his "Jewish fortune-teller" statement, as a Salafi leader criticized him for believing the words of an magician who makes predictions outside of Islamic belief. The mufti responded that of course he does not believe the statements of the rabbi and was surprised people would think so, apparently he just was mentioning it in the context of calling for Egyptians to rise up against Israel, but not referring to it as a prophecy.

Conference speakers also called for marches against Israel on June 7, the anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem.

The conference meanwhile saw participants chanting "Khybar Khybar, O Jews, the army of Mohammed is here," referring to the massacre of Jews by Muslims in the 7th century CE that is the subject of an upcoming antisemitic TV series.

This is how a nation with a peace treaty with Israel acts.

Read More