Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

A lawyer rips Erekat to shreds

We've shown many times that PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat is a liar.

Here is a great article by lawyer Richard Horowitz that rips apart Erekat's claims at a recent conference that Israel is violating legal agreements in the Oslo framework:

On November 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3376creating the “UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,” and on May 20, 2013 it held its 352nd meeting, for which Saeb Erekat, Palestine’s chief negotiator with Israel, delivered the keynote address.

Erekat explained that the Palestinians will not resume negotiations with Israel, not because it has preconditions, but because Israel has to first satisfy its legal obligations.

“We have no conditions to resume negotiations. When we say Israel must stop settlement activity, this is not a condition, this is an Israeli obligation, emanating Article 31 the final clauses of the Interim Agreement 1995 and the Roadmap which specified stopping settlement activities including natural growth as an obligation on Israel.

When we speak about releasing prisoners, especially those who were arrested before the end of May 1994, we also stipulate Article 3 to the Sharm el Sheik Agreement of 1999; that’s an agreement signed with Israel.

And when we say two-state solution of 1967 the Roadmap specified that the objective of the peace process is to end the occupation that began in 1967. So Israel in its blame-game and finger pointing that we put conditions. Ladies and gentlemen, these are not conditions, these are Israeli obligations.”

A review of the documents Erekat cites shows no such Israeli obligations. Article 31 of the Interim Agreement of 1995 signed by both parties contains no requirement for Israel to cease settlement activity. This interim agreement mentions settlements only in the context of issues that will be determined through “permanent status negotiations,” along, for example, with Jerusalem, borders, and refugees (Article 31(5). These issues, including settlements, are again listed in Article 17(1)(a) as “issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations.”

Erekat ignores paragraph six of Article 31, “neither party shall be deemed, by virtue of having entered into this Agreement, to have renounced or waived any of its existing rights, claims, or positions,” and paragraph seven, “neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations,” as the Palestinians did by presenting the issue of its statehood before the Security Council and General Assembly.

Erekat also relies on the 2003 Roadmap as proof of Israel’s obligation to “freeze[s] all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements),” as the document states. The Roadmap, however, is neither an agreement nor in any way a legally binding document. It is a recommendation proposed by the Quartet to the parties bearing no legal authority, similar to UN General Assembly resolutions, which are non-binding. For example, General Assembly Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, a non-binding recommendation, “call[ed] upon the inhabitants of Palestine to take such steps as may be necessary on their part to put this plan into effect,” meaning “independent Arab and Jewish States … shall come into existence in Palestine,” soon after the expiration of the Mandate for Palestine in May 1948, created by the League of Nations in 1922. This resolution was accepted only by Palestine’s Jewish community, which declared Israel’s independence in May 1948, not its Arab community.

The second Israeli obligation Erekat claims is that Article 3 of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum (Erekat referred to this document as an agreement), also signed by both parties, requires Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners by stating that the article applies to “especially those who were arrested before the end of 1994.” Article 3 however, states that “Israel shall release Palestinian and other prisoners who committed their offences prior to September 13, 1993, and were arrested prior to May 4, 1994,” meaning the article refers onlyand not especially to prisoners in this category. Erekat ignored the implication of Israeli and Palestinian negotiations, pursuant to Article 3 of the Memorandum, which stated, “the two Sides shall establish a joint committee that shall follow up on matters related to the release of Palestinian prisoners.” The joint committee met numerous times to negotiate the prisoner release issue, with Erekat playing a leading role.

To prove Israel’s third obligation, to return to the 1967 line in order to create the two-state solution, Erekat again cited the Roadmap, which does state, “the settlement will resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and end the occupation that began in 1967.” As stated the Roadmap is a recommendation by the Quartet to the parties and not a binding legal document. As such, the Roadmap cannot create obligations on either party; rather, this language provides historical perspective. Moreover, that the issue of borders is included in the Interim Agreement of 1995 as a matter for final status negotiations negates the argument that a return to the 1967 line is an Israeli obligation. In fact, theSecurity Council Resolution 242 of November 22, 1967 submitted by UK ambassador, Lord Caradon, spoke of the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,” and intentionally omitted the word "the" preceding the word terroritories, indicating the resolution did not have the intention of withdrawal from all territories.

The implication of Erekat’s claim that a return to the 1967 line is an Israeli legal obligation and not a Palestinian condition to resume negotiations becomes evident when he stated, “we have also entertained that if Israel accepts two states on 1967, and Palestine becomes independent we are willing to entertain the idea of minor modifications.” Erekat in effect is saying that only after Palestine achieves statehood on the 1967 line will it entertain minor modifications on its sovereign land.

The parties agreed in the Interim Agreement of 1995 that settlements, refugees, and borders are to be left for final status negotiations, which will not occur if the Palestinians consider these issues unsatisfied Israeli legal obligations.

You literally cannot trust anything that comes out of Erekat's mouth.

(h/t Lauri)

Egypt will run out of strategic fuel reserves within a week (updated)

From Al Ahram last Friday 6/21:

Egypt's strategic reserves of three vital fuel products will run out by end of this month, Turkish news agency Anadulo reported on Thursday, citing Petroleum Minister Sherif Haddara.

According to Haddara, Egypt has enough diesel fuel to last eight days, butane enough for ten days and petrol enough for 14 days.

Ministry officials declined to comment on the Anadolu report when contacted by Ahram Online.

The news agency stated that the government was currently providing the nation's gas stations with 18,000 tonnes of octane per day and 37,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, while also providing the country's power stations with 23,000 tonnes of low-quality mazut fuel.

In recent weeks and months, Egypt has seen a spate of intermittent power blackouts, which government officials have attributed to chronic fuel shortages.

Haddara said that the current fuel quantities were meant to meet national demand, attributing ongoing shortages to hoarding and smuggling activities.

Former petroleum minister Osama Kamal recently estimated that smuggling and black market activity accounted for as much as 20 percent of all fuel the ministry provides to the local market.

He also blamed bad public energy-consumption habits. "Fuel isn't consumed rationally because it's sold at very cheap prices," he said.

According to Anadolu, the Egyptian government has requested a $265 million loan from the Islamic Development Bank to finance the import of diesel in the first quarter of 2013/14.

The news website of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party quoted Supply Minister Bassem Ouda on Thursday as saying that the state's current reserves of diesel fuel were "sufficient."

In August, the government intends to introduce a smart-card fuel allocation system aimed at reducing energy subsidies. The new system will allow consumers to purchase limited amounts of subsidised fuel, beyond which they will have to pay market prices.

Daily News Egypt adds:

According to Reuters, Egypt, which owes more than $5 billion to fuel suppliers, has shifted to large Swiss trading houses after small firms stopped delivering to the financially crippled nation, fearing that it will fail to pay.

The Egyptian government has been struggling with a shortage of fuel, a predicament symptomatic of an ailing economy stuck in a downward spiral since the revolution in 2011. While some attribute this crisis, which has hit the country’s industrial sector, power plants and fuel stations, to smugglers and bootleg markets, the American Chamber of Commerce said it’s the result of “the government’s recent inability to pay its fuel suppliers.”

Litasco, Glencore, Gunvor, Trafigura, Vitol and Mercuria are currently Egypt’s main suppliers; smaller firms such as BB Energy, AOT Trading, Eminent, Augusta and Sahara have stopped selling it fuel, Reuters reported earlier this week.

Egypt is doomed.

(h/t Missing Peace)

UPDATE: Commenter Niklas points to this new video on YouTube showing a line to get fuel in Egypt that takes over four minutes to drive past:

Hamas now preventing its own people from leaving Gaza!

Whose siege is it anyway?

From the virulently anti-Israel IMEMC site:

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip have reported that the Hamas government in the coastal region prevented Mahmoud Zahar, one of the political leaders of Hamas, from travelling, as he and a delegation he heads were trying to cross into Egypt on their way to Lebanon and Iran.

The sources said that Zahar, and 22 Hamas officials, were stopped by the Palestinian Security Forces of Hamas at the Palestinian side of the Rafah Border terminal between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the Radio Bethlehem 2000 have reported.

Zahar wanted to visit Iran to congratulate the new president-elect, Hasan Rohani.

Last week, the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement issued a statement “demanding the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party to withdraw its fighters from Syria”.

Zahar said that the statement was not issued by the Hamas movement in Gaza, and added that the Hamas leadership in exile, led by Khaled Mashal, was behind it.

This is so great on so many levels.

It shows that Hamas infighting is reaching a new peak.

It shows that Hamas is the party that is controlling entry and exit from Gaza, not Israel.

It shows that the "siege" is enforced by none other than Hamas!

Right now in Gaza we have Hamas vs. Salafists, Hamas vs. Islamic Jihad, Hamas vs. the PFLP, Hamas vs. Fatah, and now pro-Iran Hamas vs. pro-Al Qaeda Hamas.

"Pro-Gaza" activists must be very confused, not knowing which branch of a murderous terror organization to back in this intra-Hamas spat. Their anti-Israel message is being drowned out by the infighting.

(Not to mention their sputtering anger at the "Zionist" World War Z movie. )

(h/t Jonathan Schanzer)

6/24 Links Part 2: Boycott Turkey!, 75th Anniversary of Kindertransport and the Intel-Israeli Tablet

From Ian:

A modest proposal for a new ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ campaign

There is a country in the Middle East which makes a great play of being a democracy and about espousing Western ideals regarding human rights, and is forever bragging how different this makes it to its despotic Arab neighbours. But this self-same Middle Eastern country for decades now has been occupying the lands of one of its neighbours and conducting apartheid-like discrimination against its internal minority community. Its charismatic right-wing leader has one message for its close ally the United States and for the EU, with which it seeks closer ties, but quite another for its internal allies.
Isn’t it time this so-called democracy was held to account, and was made to face up to its hypocrisy? Isn’t it time the international community as a whole, and the International Solidarity Movement in particular, launched a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Turkey?

Neturei Karta Rabbi Attacked in Amsterdam

A friend of the rabbi told Channel 2, "As he was walking down the street, a car stopped next to him, and a man who appeared to be a Muslim immigrant came out. The immigrant started shouting anti-Jewish slurs at the rabbi. Rabbi Antebi is anti-Zionist, he does not advocate for war in the Middle East but he was identified as a Zionist. The Muslim started yelling at him and threatening him, and the rabbi noticed that the immigrant was going to attack him."

Jewish Groups Slam Belgian Paper Over 'Demonization'

Prince Laurent visited Israel last week as part of a delegation sponsored by the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). He received a diploma for his initiatives in the sector of environment and planted a tree in the "Forest of Belgium" near Jerusalem.
However, the visit sparked controversy in Belgium. In the article in Le Soir, KKL is described as "a Zionist group which is subject to criticism for exploiting the villages deserted by the Palestinians.”

Vatican newspaper defends ‘Italian Schindler’

The semi-official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano hit back Sunday at allegations that Italian police official and purported Holocaust rescuer Giovanni Palatucci was in fact a Nazi collaborator.
Palatucci, known as “the Italian Schindler,” has long been credited with saving thousands of Jews during the Holocaust while serving in the police department in the city of Fiume, and was designated by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

On 75th Anniversary, New Book Recounts a Father-Son Kindertransport Correspondence

A series of events are being hosted by, among others, former British Secretary of State David Milliband and the Prince of Wales, over the next two days in England to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the “kindertransport”—a clandestine program, enacted in the months preceding the Second World War, meant to save Jewish children. Thousands of children were whisked from near certain death at the hands of the Nazis and granted refuge in England.
Among the attendees at the events will be Henry Foner, nee Heini Lichtwitz, a benefactor of the program whose correspondence with his father during and following the “kindertransport” has now been published by Yad Vashem.

Surprise new UK trade minister is committed Jew, thinks Israel’s ‘amazing’

Livingston, 48, is one of Britain’s most visible business leaders, widely credited with steering telecom giant BT (formerly British Telecom) through the global downturn as its chief executive. Wednesday’s announcement of his departure from the company, which will take effect in September, immediately wiped £400 million ($618 million) off its market value.

Cybersecurity projects next on Israel-India agenda

To enhance that cooperation, Dharmadhikari organized a cybersecurity conference at Tel Aviv University. Held in the framework of the last month’s International Cybersecurity Conference of Tel Aviv University’s Yuval Ne’eman Workshop, Dharmadhikari’s event, called India-Israel Cybersecurity Connect, featured speakers from Israeli and Indian tech companies, as well as diplomats and cybersecurity experts

Shikun and Binui unit wins $580m Nigeria road contract

Shikun & Binui Holdings Ltd. (TASE: SKBN) subsidiary Solel Boneh International Infrastructures Ltd. has won a $580 million Nigerian government tender to rebuild and widen a section of the Ibadan-Lagos highway in southwest Nigeria.
Solel Boneh will rebuild an 84-kilometer section of the highway between Ibadan and Shagamu, widen the road, improve drainage, rebuild and maintain 14 bridges and overpasses to adapt it to current traffic. Payment for the project will made during the work.

6 Israeli Startups To Watch As Google Reportedly Buys Waze For $1.3 Billion

Now that Google has reportedly agreed to buy Israeli crowd-powered navigation app Waze for $1.3 billion, many other “Silicon Wadi” startups are daring to dream big. Below are six that could potentially follow in Waze’s footsteps.

TAU, Technion to offer free online courses

Tel Aviv University and the Technion announced on Sunday their partnership with the international education company Coursera, which provides free online courses.
The two institutions will soon offer especially developed classes in four study areas – including engineering, archeology, biology and cultural studies – on the company’s website.

Samsung’s new iPad challengers have ‘Intel Israel’ inside

Intel may have started out behind the eight ball in the tablet market, but Intel Israel’s team has helped the company catch up – in a hurry, said one of the company’s top engineers. Aviad Hevrony, the front end design manager for Intel Israel’s Cloverview team, Told the Times of Israel that Intel HQ counted on the 100-strong Israeli team to come up with a system on a chip (SoC) design that could be used in a lightweight tablet/convertible device — allowing use as a standard tablet, or attaching it to a keyboard for laptop-style use.

Jews wanting to pray on their holiest site are branded "ultra rightist" by Reuters

Reuters published their latest article on the Temple Mount and it is just as bad as all the previous ones.

In this case, Reuters is hell-bent to describe any Jews who want to worship on their holiest site as crazed right-wing fanatics, while Muslims who want to ban Jews from their holiest site are simply reasonable people.

Look how many times Jews simply wanting to pray are given adjectives, while Arab rioters and those against freedom of worship are given no monikers whatsoever.

The headline says it all:

Far-right Israelis stir tensions over Jerusalem holy site

Far-right Israelis are pressing for an end to an effective ban on holding Jewish prayers at a Jerusalem holy compound once dominated by Biblical temples and now home to al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's most revered sites.

Palestinians (not right wing - but just "Palestinians") oppose Jewish worship at the vast stone plaza overlooking Judaism's Western Wall as a potential threat to access for Muslims.

...Israeli police accompany most visitors to the compound, where escorted tours are held frequently. They cross a wooden bridge to a gate where plastic police shields and other riot-control gear are stored, a ready display of how quickly the otherwise serene atmosphere can sometimes go awry. [And who does the rioting? Not the "far-right" visitors!]

Visitors are closely watched by both the police and the Muslim religious officials of the Waqf who administer the compound and keep an eye out to make sure no Jewish worship takes place. Anyone wearing Jewish religious garb is generally kept away from the Islamic holy tract. [Whoops, it is no longer a Jewish holy site.]

At the compound, one group of visitors walked past al-Aqsa, drawing shouting from Muslim women [not right wing fanatic Muslim women] sitting in the shade of tree and from Palestinian children attending a day camp. They ignored the catcalls and continued deeper into the plaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has denounced the Israeli visits as a part of a "dangerous and an evil plot to demolish al-Aqsa" and build what he calls "an alleged temple". [Not "right wing bigot Mahmoud Abbas, who is against the right of Jews to worship."]
...
In 2000, Palestinian protests over a visit to the site by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon spiraled into deadly clashes and a five-year Palestinian uprising in which thousands died. [The riots were pre-planned but Reuters still wants to make it look like Sharon instigated them.]

Also in May, Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel, a Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank who is from the far-right Jewish Home Party, said in a largely tongue-in-cheek remark in parliament that he would "definitely be happy" to be assigned the job of rebuilding a new holy temple.

While some Jewish zealots advocate such construction, such a project has never been on the agenda of Israeli governments.

However, one member of Netanyahu's Likud party, legislator Tzipi Hotovely, visited the compound on the eve of her wedding last month. She said her pilgrimage was symbolic of a historic yearning "to rebuild on the ruins of Jerusalem". A Likud colleague, Miri Regev, has said the site should be shared between Islam and Judaism so that Jews could pray there openly.

Israeli police have barred further visits by another Likud lawmaker, Moshe Feiglin, an ultra-rightist who has been arrested in the past for what police said were attempts to worship on the plaza. Officials said they feared Feiglin's presence could stir violent Palestinian protests. [Jews praying are "ultra-rightist" but rioters get no adjectives whatsoever.]

Most of those campaigning for Jewish prayer in the compound represent a far-right minority, but many Muslims "see a provocation, and blame the (Israeli) government, so we have a big problem", said Israeli political scientist Yitzhak Reiter. [Again, "regular" Muslims against a "far-right" minority, whose freedom of religion just happens to be compromised by the "normal" Muslims.]

A new synagogue opens in Morocco (updated)

I don't have a translation, but this story of a new synagogue being dedicated in Salé, Morocco is apparently being covered quite nicely in the Moroccan media:

The comments on the story do have some antisemitic elements, though, with some mention of "sons of monkeys and pigs" and some noises that Morocco is helping Jews while abandoning Islam.

The good news is that the remaining Moroccan Jewish community, reportedly numbering about 5000, appears to be vibrant and surprisingly young, unless the younger people were imported for the occasion.

UPDATE: Bataween of the Jewish Refugees blogspot believes that this is about the annual pilgrimage or Hiloula to the tomb of the venerated rabbi Raphael Encaoua at Sale a couple of weeks ago. Makes sense because the younger people are French pilgrims.

Zvi's #BDSFail roundup

From Zvi:

Emina Ibrahim speech against BDS at British UNISON Union Conference

We should be supporting progressive forces in Israel, not boycotting them

She calls upon British trade unions to reengage with the Histadrut.

It is also an irony that the Histadrut is now being ignored when it has a history of achieving free democratic trade unionism and last year alone it negotiated a seven per cent pay rise for all public sector workers over two years. I repeat conference seven per cent! Not the derisory one per cent we have on the table. The Israeli trade unions have also managed to secure recognition and bargaining rights at IKEA and McDonald’s, notorious anti-trade union multinationals.We should be learning lessons – they have something to offer us and we have something to offer them. This must include playing a constructive and facilitative role in bringing together Palestinian and Israeli workers in the spirit of workers solidarity.Ibrahim is a devoted leftist and clearly not a supporter of the Israeli government. But she seems to be one of those devoted leftists who is at least - seemingly very rare, nowadays - free of anti-Semitism.We cannot continue to obstruct the ability of our fellow workers in the Middle East to work together toward a just and progressive peace in the region which ensures justice for Palestine and security for Israel.Our message from Unison Conference 2013 must be a message of hope, that we want them to and are willing to help them to work together. We must also send a message of support in their struggle on both sides for fair and just labour rights and ultimately a fair and just solution.

It's a shame that she doesn't know how corrupt and enslaved to kleptocratic/terrorist Fatah the Palestinian "labor" movement is. It's a shame that she doesn't get that "justice" for Palestinians, translated into the language of Palestinian society, means the genocidal obliteration of Jews.

But if she doesn't know as much as she probably should, at least her heart seems to be in a pretty good place. That is so rare, these days, among British leftists who talk about Israel.

#BDSFail:

French Green Party visits Israel

"Until recently it was common to obey the unwritten orders of pro-Palestinian groups and not talk to the Israeli side, but I think that's totally illogical," Place said. "The Israeli left is also very pleased with our visit."

(Their positions are still naive in various ways. I mostly posted this because of the statement by Mr. Place; in so few words, Mr. Place manages to speak volumes about what has been going on among leftists in the west).

#BDSFail:

Cyprus signs Liquified Natural Gas Plant Deal with Israel

Actually, with Israeli companies. Still #BDSFail.

#BDSFail:

Georgia PM dreams of strategic relationship with Israel

#BDSFail:

India Seeks Water Management Lessons From Israel

Last week, a delegation of 16 high-ranking Indian officials of the water authorities of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Goa and Haryana arrived in Israel for a seven-day visit.

#BDSFail:

Israel's Blue Water Technologies offers Clean Water Solutions to China

#BDSFail

Israel, Colombia sign free trade agreement

#BDSEchoesAntiSemitism

BDS is a recast version of the Arab Boycott of Israel, which itself is a recast version of the Nazi boycotts of the Jews.

Major antisemitic attack ignored by police in Belgium

From EJP:

Police in the Belgian town of Artselaar, near Antwerp, have ignored and minimized a grave anti-Semitic attack, said the lawyer of a Jewish women and her friend who last month were hospitalized after being brutally beaten by racist neighbors.

In a conversation with Jewish magazine Joods Actueel in Antwerp, lawyer Mischael Modrikamen called for an investigation by a parliament committee monitoring police activities and urged the Interior Minister to react to this incident.

Problems started after Ruth Sverdloff, a former Israeli tennis champion, and her Flemish girlfriend, Cindy Meul, took up residence in a building in Aartselaar beginning of May. The next day Ruth put a mezuzah (a parchment prayer tube affixed on the door of every Jewish home) to the door of the apartment.

From then on, they were constantly harassed by neighbors yelling every night. “They banged on the walls and shouted the most horrific anti-Semitic slogans," said Cindy Meul, like "stinking Jews", "we do not want Jews in this building" or "Jews should fuck off."

Police were called but nothing changed. "I had to send my daughter to her grandparents because the child was too scared to stay here any longer," said Ruth.

The situation escalated after two neighbors invaded the apartment on May 24 and beat Cindy Meul, [while yelling "We're here to finish what the Nazis started"] who at that time was alone at home, leaving her bleeding profusely.

The unfortunate woman was taken to hospital with a broken nose and several bruises. She was treated for two weeks.

According to Joods Actueel, the situation was really ‘’hallucinating’’ when it appeared that the police in Artselaar decided to dismiss the case as "unimportant."

‘’When the ambulance took Cindy Meul at hospital, she saw a policewoman laughing and chatting with the aggressors,” Modrikamen told the Jewish magazine.

When Ruth Sverdloff made her complaint to police, she was reportedly told by a police officer: "This is Flanders and you must speak Flemish," because she spoke English.

Only after Joods Actueel and the Israeli TV made the case public, the two victimes were questioned by police and a report was written, one month after the aggression.

(h/t Rudi)

6/24 Links Part 1: Diplomatic Chess with Iran, Russia Rearming Iran, Hezbollah in Germany.

From Ian:

Checkmate Iran

I have no doubt that The Black King (Ayatollah) will eventually place itself in a position of being Checkmated by White (Israel) because despite all the smoke and mirrors it is clear that President elect Rohani will not be able to enact nuclear reforms while still ensuring that he has the support of Iran’s supreme leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the ultimate decision maker who has adopted a consistently hard line on the nuclear issue. Israel can Checkmate Iran through accurate information and diplomacy. However it may also need to remove many Black pieces from the board in order to do so, analogous to limited military actions.

Isi Leibler: Tea-time in Tehran

The challenge facing the West is no less critical than the battles fought to prevent Nazism and communism from achieving global domination. Democracies led by the U.S. must devise a realistic strategy including the option of employing force, to deter terror and efforts to undermine our social and democratic order.
This is no time for "hoping for the best." It is a time for facing reality.

Report: Russia Offers Iran Alternative to S-300 Missile System

Russia is attempting to avoid a multi-billion dollar lawsuit from Iran over a failed deal to supply S-300 missile systems by offering an alternative defense system, the Russian Kommersant daily reported Saturday.
The newspaper, citing unnamed sources in the Russian arms trade industry, said the new offer on the table is for the Antei-2500, aka S-300VM. The missile defense system can simultaneously destroy up to 24 aircraft within a range of 200 kilometers or intercept up to 16 ballistic missiles.

Harriet Sherwood characterizes Hamas as a “conservative” group

Whilst in previous reports Sherwood has described Hamas a ”militant Islamic group” or an “Islamist group”, her recent work suggests movement towards such shameful moral inversions, by which Jews living on the ‘wrong’ side of the green line are “extremists”, while a radical Islamist movement whose leaders have openly called for genocide against Jews are merely “conservative”.
As we’ve noted on many occasions, one of the more disturbing elements of the Guardian Left ideology is this increasing tendency to grotesquely distort ordinary language in an attempt to shape political reality. It’s difficult to overstate the political toxicity of such activist journalism, which attempts to convince the public that a movement advancing a reactionary racist, violent ideology should arguably evoke greater moral sympathy than the Jews who represent the object of their malign fixation.

The Curious Case of the Israeli Ku Klux Klan Photo

With no accompanying caption, the most obvious conclusion that can be drawn by the average reader is some sort of connection between Israel and the racists of the Ku Klux Klan, something that could not be further from the truth.
When we traced the photo, the truth was surprising. Available from iStockphoto and Shutterstock image sites, the image was captioned:
Tel Aviv, Israel – December 9, 2011: Israeli activists dress as KKK members to satirize right-wing Israeli policies and politicians during in the annual human rights march in Tel Aviv.

BBC continues to ignore majority of attacks on Israeli civilians

Back in April the BBC claimed that attacks on civilians in Judea & Samaria “are rare”, later revising the statement to read “fatal attacks on settlers are rare”. We are all aware of the old journalistic adage “if it bleeds it leads”, but the BBC seems to have taken that several steps further by totally ignoring the vast majority of violent attacks directed at Israeli civilians.

Large Scale Swoop on Terrorists in Judea, Samaria

The operation involved about 200 Border Police under the command of Brig. Gen. Uzi Levi, and was fully coordinated with the IDF 's Judea and Samaria Division.
The police said that the suspects have already admitted to dozens of incidents in which they hurled rocks at security forces. In addition, the suspects have incriminated other people and more arrests can be expected.
The wave of arrests was mostly in response to an increase in the audacity of the terrorists, who began using improvised explosive charges and fire bombs against the security forces, said Brig. Gen. Levi.

In upside-down Gaza, rockets fired at Israel actually aim to hurt Hamas

The various Palestinian groups, including Islamic Jihad, didn’t even attempt to claim that the “Zionist enemy” was responsible for the current deterioration. The shooting is rooted in an internal Palestinian incident whose exact circumstances are unclear. What we do know is that a senior Islamic Jihad official was shot to death, apparently by Hamas policemen. The Jihad decided to “avenge” his death by attacking a very sensitive spot for Hamas these days — the ceasefire with Israel.

Israel hits Gaza targets in response to rocket fire

Two weapons storage facilities and a rocket-launching site in Gaza were targeted by the Israeli Air Force in the early hours of Monday morning, the IDF Spokesperson’s office said, after at least six rockets were launched from the Strip into southern Israel late Sunday night and early Monday.
“The IDF will not tolerate attempts to harm Israeli citizens, and our soldiers will continue to act against anyone who engages in terror against the State of Israel. The Hamas terror organization is held responsible,” the IDF said in a statement.

German mosque groups raising funds for Hezbollah

Hezbollah has long used German territory to raise funds for the families of suicide bombers involved in killing Israelis. A 2009 report from the European Foundation for Democracy titled “Hezbollah’s Fund-raising Organization in Germany” revealed that the Orphans Project Lebanon, based in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, is “the German branch of a Hezbollah suborganization” that “promotes suicide bombings” and aims to destroy Israel.

Summer's here, so it is time for my quarterly request for donations. I know everyone's been looking forward to this....

So, what has been accomplished at EoZ in the past three months?

I have been keeping a tally of every time the blog is mentioned in the news (anything indexed in Google News plus a few other sites that are clearly news outlets.)

During the quarter I've been mentioned or linked to in the media over 70 times! Here's the list along with the stories that I had helped put on the map in just the past three months:.

3/22 Legal Insurrection (Obama in Israel)

3/22 Propagandist (Turkey antipathy to Israel)

3/27 CAMERA (Honor killing)

3/28 Algemeiner (Miftah)

3/29 Legal Insurrection (Miftah)

3/31 Algemeiner (Miftah)

4/1 PowerLine (Miftah)

4/1 The Tower (Miftah)

4/1 Die Achse des Guten (Miftah)

4/1 Washington Free Beacon (Miftah)

4/1 Maariv (General reference to EoZ as a watchdog)

4/2 Washington Free Beacon (Miftah)

4/3 Legal Insurrection (Miftah)

4/3 Arutz-7 (Miftah)

4/4 Mida (Amira Hass)

4/3 JTA (Miftah)

4/5 Maariv (Pals highest foreign aid per capita)

4/5 Algemeiner (Arab spring hurting Hamas financially)

4/6 02elf Düsseldorf Abendblatt (Miftah)

4/7 Times of Israel (Miftah)

4/8 Algemeiner (Egyptian girl in IDF)

4/8 Algemeiner (link to list of Carter problems)

4/8 Jewish Press (Cardozo giving Carter honor, link)

4/8 American Thinker (Cardozo giving Carter honor)

4/10 Jewish Press (Roger Waters at 92Y)

4/11 Honest Reporting (Turkey Islamists)

4/11 JPost (Miftah)

4/12 TheBlaze (Ukraine anti-semitism)

4/12 FrontPage Mag (stone-throwing at Jews in history)

4/12 FrontPage Mag (Turkey Islamists)

4/12 Algemeiner (Palestine Museum)

4/13 Kyiv Post (Ukraine anti-semitism)

4/16 Algemeiner (SA concert disrupted)

4/17 Algemeiner (Hamas shuts down fishing)

4/18 Daily Maverick (SA concert disrupted)

4/19 Arutz-7 (Hamas shuts down fishing)

4/22 Presspectiva (Pravda saying Israel infects prisoners)

5/1 Algemeiner (Egyptian paper blood libel)

5/1 The Tower (Mishrawi case)

5/2 The Commentator (Egyptian paper blood libel)

5/3 Jerusalem Post (Church of Scotland)

5/3 The Tower (old post about Hamas military training for kids)

5/4 FrontPage Mag (Muslims stealing land from Xtians in Jlem, link)

5/4 FrontPage Mag (Iranians in Bangkok pleading innocent, link)

5/5 Algemeiner (reprint post on Economist)

5/9 Algemeiner (reprint post on HR groups)

5/13 Honest Reporting (Stephen Hawking)

5/13 FrontPage Mag (reprint post on liberal Israeli)

5/17 CAMERA (Economist WB lies)

5/19 Mida (Jordanians sexually harassing PalArab kids, link)

5/19 Legal Insurrection (Joseph Massad)

5/21 FrontPage Mag (Gaza women prisons)

5/21 Arutz-7 (Belz synagogue video, link)

5/21 Algemeiner (reprint post on Alice Walker’s reptilian overlords)

5/23 Algemeiner (Egypt cuts subsidies to Jews)

5/26 JPost (Radical Pals post and infographic)

5/26 FrontPage Mag (Alice Walker)

5/28 FrontPage Mag (Knesset bill to outlaw Mohammed toons)

5/31 Algemeiner (Jaffa graves, reprint post)

6/3 Algemeiner (Abbas conspiracy theory)

6/4 FrontPage Mag (Iranian stoning adulterers link, EoZ idea)

6/6 Algemeiner (Hamas split)

6/9 TheBlaze (Paris terrorist art)

6/11 Algemeiner (Reprint of Economist mistakes part 2)

6/11 Algemeiner (Arabs upset over German soccer T-shirts)

6/14 Legal Insurrection (Hello Martyr)

6/17 Vice (link, Turkish pepper spray)

6/17 HonestReporting (link, Turkish pepper spray)

6/17 Commentary (Khaybar)

6/20 Algemeiner (Jews control money, media, women)
6/20 The Blaze (Khaybar)

(During the quarter I also was the first to report on the Jimmy Carter speech at Cardozo, which was picked up by mainstream media worldwide but usually without credit to me.)

I think that any reporter would be ecstatic to have accomplished this much in such a short time.

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