Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Will Jordan be next?

From AFP:

Jordan plans to raise power prices after doubling taxes on cellphones to offset a large budget deficit, despite warnings that such measures will provoke a public outcry.

Grappling with little or no natural resources and an external debt of more than $23 billion, the kingdom is trying to reduce a $2 billion fiscal deficit this year and at the same time tackle cuts in Egyptian gas supplies.

Sabotage attacks on gas pipelines from Egypt -- the energy source for 80 percent of Jordan’s electricity -- are costing the government at least $1 million a day, energy officials say.
In response, as it tackles paring down a $10.5-billion 2013 budget, the government in Amman intends to hike the price of electricity by 15 percent, having already doubled taxes on cellphones to 16 percent and to 24 percent on mobile telephone contracts.

“Such wrong and uncalculated steps show that the government lacks a comprehensive understanding of the situation,” Yusuf Mansur, chief executive officer of the Amman-based Envision Consulting Group, told AFP.

“When the government increases prices and taxes, the productivity and consumption of people will be affected and this will reduce government revenues.”

Mansur, who headed Jordan’s Agency for Economic Development, estimated the current inflation rate at about seven percent and this year’s real economic growth at 2.6 percent.

According to the government, the inflation rate now stands at 6.5 percent, and real economic growth will come to 3.5 percent.

“People, including government employees, will resort to strikes and protests and the government will be forced to borrow more or impose more taxes. It’s a vicious circle,” he said.

“We are completely dependent on foreign aid and government economic policies have failed, at least in the past three years. I expect a very bad recession in the next stage.”

A government decision in November to raise fuel prices, including household gas, by up to 53 percent, sparked a wave of nationwide protests, with some calling for King Abdullah II to step down, which is punishable by imprisonment.

Unemployment stands at about 14 percent in the country of 6.8 million people where 70 percent of the population is under 30, but other estimates put the jobless figure at between 22 and 30 percent. The minimum wage is $211 (159 euros) a month.

Last month, ratings agency Moody’s cut its sovereign grade for Jordan from “B1” from “Ba2,” in the middle of its category for “speculative” or so-called junk debt, saying government finances had weakened sharply in the past two years.

And in May, Standard & Poor’s lowered Jordan’s long-term credit rating by one notch to “BB-” with a negative outlook due in part to the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

Jordan is home to more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, and Amman has repeatedly complained they are burdening the country’s scarce resources, while calling for international aid.

“Regional instability, including the disruptions in Egypt’s gas supplies and the Syrian refugees, is seriously affecting the budget,” lawmaker Mohammad Dmur, head of parliament’s finance committee, told AFP.

Economics has been the main incentive behind the revolution in Tunisia and the newest one in Egypt. Islamists are poised to take advantage of the Jordanian situation, although the Egyptian coup will make it more difficult.

It seems clear that Israel is poised to replace Egypt as the supplier of gas to Jordan as soon as the Mediterranean fields are operating more steadily, but that is not going to happen immediately and it also won't happen without some backlash from Jordanians who simply hate Israel.

No matter what, Israel's most reliable neighboring ally is in danger.

The real punch line?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has understood that their complete release is the key for restarting peace talks, and this is what he promised to Abbas, a PLO official said.

Orwell himself couldn't have imagined this.

7/27 Links: BDS Bullies, At Least 38 MB Supporters Killed in Egypt, Amar’e Stoudemire At Maccabiah

From Ian:

How Entertainers Are Bullied Into Not Performing In Israel

Israeli fans of golden oldies won’t be hearing Eric Burdon grind out his signature House of The Rising Sun. The lead Animals singer canceled his appearance, a victim of intimidation including death threats to stay away from the Jewish state.
Welcome to the ‘pro-peace’ bullies of the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) campaign, a movement whose public face is a “nonviolent pressure to end the Occupation”—but whose thinly-veiled tactics range from “shunning” to threatening celebrities who refuse to cave to the ‘big lie’ that Israel is an ‘apartheid state.’
BDS’ fixation on celebrities into taking outlandish positions on the Mideast makes perfect sense. In our world, Celebrity=Media coverage.

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: It's all connected

*When Jews are called Israelis, their maligners can fend off accusations of anti-Semitism. Such accusations are anyhow brandished as proof of manipulative intent to silence all criticism of the Jewish state. Calculated circuitous reasoning eventually turns Jew-haters into righteous persecuted underdogs, while Israelis are cast as ferocious hounds.
*World peace will supposedly be secured by restraining these hounds. Submissive Jews/Israelis are presumably assured the affections of do-gooder ‘non-anti-Semites.’ Of course, vulnerable Jews weren’t ever loved Jews. In the 1930s Jews couldn’t have been more powerless or compliant. Nonetheless, their utter helplessness won them no compassion.

Palestinians Threaten to Boycott U.S. Peace Talks If Demands for Concessions Not Met Beforehand

A Palestinian source spoke to the left-leaning gazette Ha’aretz to explain the new ultimatum:
The Palestinians will not take part in peace talks scheduled to begin in Washington on Tuesday, unless Israel commits to releasing veteran Palestinian prisoners, a senior Palestinian source has told Haaretz… He maintained, however, that the Palestinians would not participate in negotiations without a prior decision by Israel to release Palestinian prisoners imprisoned since before the Oslo Accords, including those with Israeli citizenship.

Analysts: Abbas Interested in PA Political Gains, Not Peace

With negotiations set to begin between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the public statements by both sides indicate that the distance between them is vast, and that the chances of an agreement emerging from the talks is next to zero. As a result, say some Israeli analysts, it is possible that the PA is using the talks as a means of gaining some small, short term “victories” over Israel, giving PA chief Mahmoud Abbas more ammunition with which to fight rivals that seat to unseat him, both among Hamas terrorists and in his own Fatah terror group.

Caroline Glick: Column One: How to respond to EU sanctions

Israel has for years been operating under the misguided belief that the EU would eventually come around and side with Israel against its enemies.
This belief has been informed by equal doses of innocence and wishful thinking. The EU’s decision to initiate an economic war against the Jewish state forces Israel to abandon its long-held illusions.
Israel has options for responding forcefully to Europe’s aggression. If judiciously and firmly employed, these responses can diminish the Europeans’ interest in escalating this economic war, by denying them the political victory they seek.

Arab anti-Israel Activist Long Employed as “News” PhotoJournalist

For pro-Israel news readers, it is no surprise to learn that there are strong elements of anti-Israel reporting in much of the mainstream media.
But what about mainstream media outlets which employ people as their source for news about the Arab-Israeli conflict who are not only anti-Israel, but who are major players in anti-Israel activity? Can those media be trusted?

Hezbollah reportedly wired $100,000 to Burgas bombing suspects

According to the Canadian 24 Hours daily, quoted by AFP, the money was used to help coordinate the July 18, 2012 attack which also injured dozens of people.
The two suspects were identified as Meliad Farah, also known as Hussein Hussein, an Australian citizen born November 5, 1980, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a Canadian citizen born March 22, 1988. Both are Lebanese born. A third man who served as the suicide bomber has yet to be identified.

Egyptian security forces shoot dead dozens of pro-Morsi supporters

A Muslim Brotherhood website said 120 people had been killed and some 4,500 injured. A Reuters reporter counted 36 bodies at one morgue, while health officials said there were a further 21 corspes in two nearby hospitals.

3-year-old Syrian girl transferred to Israel for treatment

A three-year-old girl injured in the bloody Syrian war was transferred to Israel for treatment Saturday morning. Together with her mother, the toddler was evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where she was treated for shrapnel wounds. She was admitted to the pediatric unit of the hospital and was in serious condition.
Earlier this week, four Syrians were brought to the same hospital in Safed for treatment for injuries sustained in the Syrian civil war.

Civilians standing in way of pro-Assad forces in Syria risk summary execution – Amnesty

Amnesty International, the global human rights group, is warning of the prospect of mass killings of civilians by pro-government forces in Syria. In a note highlighting Amnesty's latest briefing, posted up on its website, Amnesty said:
"Eyewitnesses described seeing bodies piled up in the streets and civilians rounded up by pro-government forces.

Iran State Media Reemphasizes Rouhani Support For Hezbollah “Warriors” Fighting Israel

Lebanese and Iranian media outlets are again highlighting cables sent from Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani to Hezbollah, supporting the Iran-backed terror group and praising it for waging “jihad” against Israel. Lebanon’s Al-Nahar characterized the cable as support for Hezbollah’s “jihad.” Iran’s FARS outlet was more effusive:

Thousands protest government at Tunisia funeral

Thousands joined a funeral march through Tunisia’s capital on Saturday with the body of assassinated opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi, chanting slogans in a display of the anger threatening the survival of a government once seen as a model for democracy in the region.
Adding to the tension in the North African country, a bomb exploded in the early morning underneath a car at the port in Tunis. Though there were no injuries, the rare attack helped deepen the sense of unease in Tunisia, where two opposition politicians have been gunned down in the last six months, apparently by the same weapon.

Dagestan, Russia, President Says Chabad Rabbi Shot by ‘One of the Most Extreme Islamic Terrorist Groups in the Chechnya-Caucasus Area’

He said the attack was “far from being the first” incident of this kind, in which terrorists choose religious figures as targets, adding that “several well-known muftis in the Caucasus, who professed moderate Islam and who called for inter-ethnic and inter-religious peace, have died at the hands of such thugs.”
Extremists “have put themselves not only outside of any religion but also apart from humankind; their only goal is to kill innocent people, chiefly those who promote eternal values, morals and spirituality, in this world,” he said.

Hungarian ruling party sponsors festival with anti-Semitic books

Anti-Semitic literature was on display at a festival in Slovakia sponsored by Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz.
Among the books on display at the event were Henry Ford’s “The International Jew,” “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and Erno Raffay’s openly anti-Semitic book on the Freemasons, “Politizalo szabadkomuvesseg,” according to a report Thursday on the website Hungarian Spectrum.

Bus Full of Jewish Children Pelted With Eggs, Stones, Window Smashed by Gang of Teenagers in Kent, UK, Shouting ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’

Kent Online said the Jews, from London, were visiting the town after a trip to Diggerland beach in Strood on Tuesday afternoon. Witnesses saw seven teenage boys and girls beset the hired bus with eggs and stones, smashing a window of the car as it turned into High Street from Millennium Way. The bus then stopped in a parking lot on Trinity Road, where the teenagers hurled more eggs at the children. No one was injured in the attack.

Dude, where’s my bus?

Remember the frustrations of life before Waze and other traffic apps — getting lost, getting stuck in unexpected traffic?
Well, what Waze did for cars, Israeli start-up NetBus does for public transportation. It’s one of the most-downloaded apps in the Israeli App Store, and is used well over a million times a month to tell commuters where their bus is, whether it’s going to be late, and when they should leave their homes or offices to catch the next one.

That’s Amar’e: At Maccabiah, Stoudemire feels his Jewish connections

Stoudemire, who is participating in the games as an assistant coach of the Canadian basketball squad, has long believed he has Jewish roots — or as he told JTA in an exclusive interview on Thursday, Hebrew roots.
Stoudemire, who visited Israel shortly after signing with the Knicks three years ago, could not pinpoint his specific biblical observances, but he indicated that he strove to live an ethical and meaningful life.

Female Saudi human rights activist can't renew her passport without a male guardian

UPI Arabic reports that a member of the National Society for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Suhaila Zine El Abidine, was not allowed to renew her passport, unless her male guardian would give his approval for her to travel abroad.

Abidine said that while women can now seek offices that were unavailable to them only a couple of years ago, they still have to go through this humiliating prerequisite before getting to do basic things.

She said that she was told even if a woman is 100 years old, she needs consent from a male guardian before getting approval to do many things.

7/26 Links Part 1: Kerry's Promises, Morsi Detained For Murder, PFLP-GC Attacks Pal Camp in Syria

From Ian:

Legal group to Kerry: Pre-1967 lines as basis for talks contravenes US commitments

Any US guarantee to the Palestinians that the upcoming negotiations with Israel will be based on the pre-1967 lines would be a violation of written US commitments given to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker wrote in a letter sent this week to Secretary of State John Kerry.
Baker wrote the letter on behalf of the Legal Forum for Israel, along with another attorney with the group, Yossi Fuchs. The forum, formerly called the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, was set up in the wake of the Gaza withdrawal to promote the rights of the evacuees.

Kerry refers to country of Palestine

“It’s my hope that that will be able to happen as procedures are put in place by both countries in order to empower that,” Kerry told reporters.
The reference to a country of Palestine was something that a State Department spokeswoman was later obliged to disavow, assuring reporters that US policy had not changed, according to AFP.

Kerry promised all pre-Oslo prisoners will go free, claims Arab MK

US Secretary of State John Kerry has promised Palestinian officials that peace negotiations will not resume before Israel agrees to release all 100-plus pre-Oslo prisoners, an Arab member of Knesset told The Times of Israel on Thursday. He said this group included 21 prisoners who are either Israeli citizens or Jerusalem residents and whom Israel has reportedly steadfastly refused to free as a goodwill measure to boost negotiations.

Ashrawi calls for release of jailed Fatah, PFLP leaders

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi on Thursday demanded European intervention to secure the release of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Sa’dat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Barghouti is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for his role in armed attacks during the second intifada. Sa’dat is serving a 30- year term for his role in the assassination of then-tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001.

Jeffrey Goldberg: Want Peace? Get Rid of Hamas

Of course, the collapse of Hamas wouldn't mean instantaneous Palestinian Authority rule. But nothing at all will happen with Hamas in power.
There are more important matters in the Middle East right now than the resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians: The Syrian civil war, the turmoil in Egypt and Iran's continued march toward the nuclear threshold are three. But if Kerry insists on pushing negotiations, he might as well attempt to create conditions in which those negotiations could work.
Breaking Hamas would be one way to try to achieve his goal.

Hevron: Israelis "Fight Back" Against Anarchist, Arab Extremists

Anarchists frequently enter Israeli towns on the Jewish Sabbath along with local Arabs, they say, and engage in loud demonstrations which regularly escalate into verbal and physical abuse of Jewish residents.
Left-wing and Arab extremists have also engaged in serious acts of arson and vandalism against Jewish-owned property and agriculture.
These groups speak openly of their wish to ethnically-cleanse Judea and Samaria of Jews, and Israeli residents have complained in the past at the relative impunity with which they are able to carry out their activities.

Road Terror in Jerusalem’s Old City; Baby Hurt

More terror attacks are being reported at the entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem, with Palestinian Authority Arabs attacking buses with Israeli license plates.
The Arabs hurled large rocks at an Egged bus as it traveled past the Damascus Gate on Thursday afternoon, according to Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, who tweeted the information via the Twitter social networking site.

Egypt’s Morsi ordered held over Hamas contacts, murder

The case against Morsi is rooted in the mass jailbreak of more than 30 Muslim Brotherhood leaders from a prison northwest of Cairo during the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Morsi’s predecessor, autocrat Hosni Mubarak. There have been many reports in the Egyptian media that the Brotherhood collaborated with Hamas, its Palestinian wing, and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon to arrange the breakout.

Israel Security Officials: Weapons Smuggled Into Gaza to Attack Israel, Now Used Against Egypt

Security officials in Israel believe anti-aircraft missiles originally smuggled into Gaza from Syria have since made their way into Egypt’s Sinai via Hamas operatives supporting Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda forces, which have been using the desert as a base to attack the caretaker Egyptian regime that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, Israel’s Channel 2 reported, citing security sources.

Egypt Warns: Sinai Terrorists Planning Friday Attacks

Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula are planning to attempt attacks on Friday, Egyptian military sources have warned. The attacks would be timed to take place parallel to protests in Cairo.
Terror groups in the Sinai have primarily targeted the Egyptian army, which is currently engaged in a large-scale operation aimed at restoring order to the region. They have occasionally attacked Israel as well.

Egypt braces for day of rival rallies

Political allies of Egypt’s military lined up behind its call for huge rallies Friday to show support for the country’s top general, pushing toward a collision with Islamist opponents demanding the return of the nation’s ousted president.
But there was widespread uncertainty over the army’s intentions — and worry that the military is whipping up a dangerous populist fervor.

Egyptian Army Gives Brotherhood a 48 Hour Ultimatum

The Egyptian army on Thursday gave the Muslim Brotherhood until Saturday afternoon to sign up for political reconciliation, according to a military-linked website.
“We will not initiate any move, but will definitely react harshly against any calls for violence or black terrorism from Brotherhood leaders or their supporters. We pledge to protect peaceful protesters regardless of their affiliation,” the statement said, according to Al Arabiya.

Al-Qaida family festival celebrates jihad with ice cream, tug-o-war

Bread and jihadist propaganda were distributed at the fair, but those were far from the only attractions. Video from the event shows children participating in an ice cream eating contest, with one boy wearing a Jabhat al-Nusra headband. There was even a tug-of-war contest between the two al-Qaida groups hosting the jihadist block party: Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Syrian Christian Describes Religious Cleansing by Islamic Extremists

Eventually, the local Sunni extremists were joined by foreign Islamic jihadists and cleansed the town of Christians, according to Fadul.
“In March 2012, many foreign jihadis came to Qusayr and surrounded Christian Street. They were joined by a mob of local Sunnis… The next day, all the Christians did leave Qusayr—870 families. Only two or three very old Christians stayed. Most left with nothing. No one helped us.”

Syrian forces launch offensive on Palestinian camp

Pro-government gunmen advanced in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus on Friday, officials said.
Fighting in the camp broke out earlier this week. It has been mostly under rebel control since late last year.
Anwar Raja, a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said Friday the Palestinian Popular Committees want to “cleanse” the camp of “terrorist gangs.”
The PFLP-GC is close the Syrian government.

Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil, speaking to the Xinhua news agency, stated that Hamas is "ready and welcomes all forms of dialogue with Iran to strengthen relations between the two sides."

Bardawil said that relations between Hamas and Iran "had not been interrupted at all" but he admitted that "they have become frosty since the crisis in Syria ... but we emphasize that Hamas does not want to drop relations with any Arab or Muslim party that supports the Palestinian cause."

On Tuesday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran and Hamas are resolving issues that caused "misunderstandings" between them.

This comes after the Egyptian public, and army, have come out strongly against the Gaza-based Islamist group that enjoyed close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas needs a new patron that can help it pay its bills, and tacitly backing Assad is apparently a price it is willing to pay - a move that will, if made public explicitly, cause some serious damage to Hamas' reputation in the larger Arab world.

On the flip side, Iran has been having a hard time to position itself as the leader of the Muslim world when every major Sunni group bitterly opposes it. Hamas helps Iran as well.

It will be interesting to see if Khaled Meshal, Hamas "political" head who has been moving from country to country in search of a new permanent Hamas headquarters to replace Syria, will be on board with this.

7/26 Links Part 2: A New Latma, Retaliation Against the EU and Like IDF Soldiers On FaceBook.

From Ian:

Latma: Palestinian prisoners are concerned and Bibi's plan B

For Europe, Greed and Cowardice Trump Security and Justice

The EU’s willful blindness towards jihadist organizations, be they Sunni or Shia, is nothing new and seems to be motivated largely by greed. Buying Iranian oil and gas and selling Iran “dual use” products, which are sanctioned by the U.S., has always taken a priority over security. The Europeans accepted Hezbollah for more than 30 years. Only after last year’s bombing in Bulgaria, and a plot to assassinate Israeli and other diplomats in Cyprus, when the danger seemed closer to home, have they decided to send a message to the Iranian sponsored jihadi organization by designating Hezbollah’s “military wing” as terrorists.

'Ya'alon orders freeze in permits for EU projects in West Bank'

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered the IDF’s civil administration to cease cooperation in joint projects with the EU, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
This means that the IDF will refuse to grant new permits or renew existing permits for EU construction projects in Area C, which is territory under Israeli civil and military control. It also will not issue or renew any documents that EU personnel might need for travel in the West Bank or into Gaza from Israel.
In addition, IDF offices in the West Bank, such as the civil administration and the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, will no longer hold work meetings with EU officials or personnel.

Israel announces plans for West Bank train network

Since the planned routes of the network extend throughout the West Bank, including into areas A and B, which are governed by the Palestinian Authority, construction cannot begin without Palestinian cooperation, a Transportation Ministry official told The Times of Israel Thursday.
Palestinian officials have refused to cooperate publicly with the proposal, but the official insisted that Palestinian Authority officials quietly acknowledge that the plans, if implemented, would bring enormous economic benefits to PA-controlled areas.
“They support keeping the lands available for the trains,” the official said.

Telegraph reporter lazily asserts that “settler” Jews violate Geneva Convention

Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria—the West Bank—since ancient times, and, in fact, the only time Jews have been prohibited from living in these territories in recent decades was during Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967.
Whilst reasonable people can of course disagree with Israeli settlement policy – in the context of efforts to reach a final status agreement with the Palestinians – lazy assertions that such settlements are “illegal” at best has a questionable basis in international law, and should certainly not be presented as an incontrovertible fact by a serious newspaper.

800,000 missing Jews: Guardian ‘refugee’ history includes glaring omission.

It’s one thing to parrot the Palestinian narrative of the “Nakba”, but what the Guardian did was to completely erase from the historical record the well-documented (and completely undisputed) forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews.
The Guardian’s ideologically inspired animosity towards the Jewish state has crossed a line, and the paper’s editors need to be held accountable for such completely ahistorical propaganda.

Shot Dagestan rabbi in stable condition after flight to Israel

A Chabad rabbi shot by a suspected terrorist in Russia Thursday was in serious but stable condition after being flown to Israel for treatment.
Ovadia Isakov, 40, the chief rabbi of Derbent, in the Republic of Dagestan, was returning from performing ritual slaughter for kosher meat when a gunman opened fire on him. Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that Isakov’s overt Jewish identity “is among the possible motives investigators are considering for the attack.”

Christian Students Without ‘Obvious Self-Interest,’ Seek to Legitimize Israel on Campus

Founded in 2009, CUFI on Campus has 120 chapters and has trained 2,000 students to advocate for Israel, officials say. Some chapters, such as Mukha’s, draw only a handful of members, if that many. “What you want them to do is try to do events that are well attended,” Brog said.
Sometimes the lack of interest is due to apathy, both Bain and Brog say. “At a lot of Christian schools, Israel is not a value that’s taught; we’re trying to change that,” Brog said. At other schools, where anti-Israel sentiment might be strong, people are afraid to support Israel publicly. “Not a lot of students, Jewish or not, have the guts to do it.”
That the CUFI activists aren’t Jewish can give them credibility that Jewish students, who some assume automatically will defend Israel, don’t always have. People “may wonder ‘what is this black guy from a small town in Dayton, Ohio, doing supporting Israel?” Bain said. That can help legitimize his message, he said, “because I don’t have an obvious self-interest, other than the fact I love the Jewish people.”

Report: Al Jazeera Reporter in Violent Confrontation with D.C. Police

A reporter claiming to work for Al Jazeera was involved in a violent confrontation with Washington, D.C., police on Tuesday evening after he was ejected from a pro-Israel conference for surreptitiously videotaping attendees and events, according to eyewitnesses.
Reporters identified as Matthew Cassel and Micah Garen were ejected from the Christians United for Israel’s (CUFI) annual D.C. gathering after they were caught infiltrating and clandestinely filming events closed to the press.

Global startups vie to learn in Tel Aviv

High-tech companies from 14 countries are taking part in the Start Tel Aviv international competition whose top prize includes learning the secrets of Israel’s startup ecosystem.
Start Tel Aviv is sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel Aviv Global & Tourism and Campus Tel Aviv, powered by Google.
One company from each of the participating countries – United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Latvia, India, China, Korea, Mexico,Sweden and Colombia – will win a five-day paid trip to Israel.

Bynet Expo: Israel’s best high-tech secret

For the past 10 years, Israeli high-tech icons and brothers Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel have brought their family of companies together for a showcase: the Bynet Expo in Tel Aviv.
Selling services and products for telecom, IT security, wireless mobility, finance, defense, computing and networking, the Zisapel brothers formed RAD Bynet Group in the 1970s. Last year, its 16 different companies — which together form the mother of all high-tech firms in Israel — saw more than $1 billion in sales.

Stand With Us: UN Turns to Israel for Advice on Including People With Disabilities in Society

Representatives from across the world including Estonia, Colombia, New Zealand, the Vatican - and even from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel - approached Judes to learn more from Beit Issie Shapiro and for cooperation in the field of disabilities. "Israel is a country with a wealth of talent and a big heart,” says Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor. “Beit Issie Shapiro shows all that can be accomplished with Israeli innovation, professionalism and leadership. We are very happy to have them as a partner at the United Nations, sharing their expertise to improve life for the 780 million people who live with disabilities around the world."

IDF Blog: Looking Back: IDF’s First Operation Against Hezbollah

In late June 1993, after an escalation in Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel's north, the IDF launched Operation Accountability. Although the IDF initially reacted with restraint, Hezbollah’s relentless attacks forced the military to act to protect Israel’s civilians.
On June 28, 1993 - exactly 20 years ago - the Hezbollah terrorist organization began firing rockets from Southern Lebanon onto Israel’s northern communities. The attacks injured Israeli civilians and brought normal life to a halt in northern Israel. Several days later, terrorists from Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine launched attacks on IDF outposts – killing five IDF soldiers.

Increasing number of Israeli Arabs signing up for national service

In recent weeks the activity of the forum to recruit Israeli Christians to the Israel Defense Forces has made headlines. Israeli Arab public figures, both Muslim and Christian, have spoken out against the increasing numbers of young Christians who are interested in enlisting and want to share the burden along with other minorities such as the Bedouin and Druze.

IDF Officer Makes Sure Muslims Can Get To Jerusalem for Ramadan

During holidays such as Ramadan and Christmas, the crossing becomes much busier. Open hours at the crossings are extended and many people are able to cross without a permit.
2nd Lt. Dotan is responsible for a team of 12 soldiers “Our goal and the IDF’s goal is to do the best job possible,” says Lt. Dotan, a 20-year-old who began her service in an Intelligence unit and eventually transferred to her current position at the Bethlehem crossing, where she decided to become an officer. “Even though we are required to carry weapons, we do not use them. Our role is simply to assist each person going through the crossing.”

IDF Soldiers Invite You to "Like" us on Facebook

A withering takedown of academic BDS - by a Muslim woman

Haaretz (behind paywall) has an amazing article by Qanta Ahmed. It is so good I found very little to edit out:

As a woman, a Muslim and as a physician of Pakistani descent, I can attest personally to the inordinate importance of academic freedom in Britain and the United States. This freedom was extended to me even during the time I was practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia, where - like all women – I was subject to gender apartheid. Because of this experience, I can only see the closing of the academic mind in the form of the ‘academic boycott’ of Israeli citizens and institutions as the act of invertebrate hypocrites. Boycotting Israel, whether academic or cultural is not an act of moral indignation, but an act of moral turpitude.

Academic freedom builds relationships, tolerance, and opportunity. When I moved to Riyadh 15 years ago, I had no doubts about maintaining my professional relationship with my own Jewish American mentor who had guided me throughout my then early career.

While I lived and worked in a country where as a Muslim I could worship but my mentor and his coreligionists could not, I was given every opportunity to develop in the American academic space because of his intellectual generosity. While I was subject to legislated male supremacy and relegated to being a legal minor, no Western academic suggested boycotting the medical academe hosting me in the Kingdom.

Academic freedom was in fact my only freedom at the time and I was determined to share it. I connected my Saudi colleagues - leading Saudi Muslim academics - with my mentor which led to the publication of jointly-authored papers on patient care in the Arab Gulf, benefiting primarily Muslim patients. This work sowed the seeds for subsequent conferences where both my Saudi Muslim and American Jewish colleagues met and developed their own relationships.

In contrast, boycotting Israeli entities penalizes apolitical individuals, their institutions, their innovations and ultimately, stymies a global market of ideas which benefits humanity. Perhaps it's possible to make a more generous assessment of why the various scholars, writers and entertainers who call for a boycott of 'apartheid Israel' claim to act in the interests of Palestinians: That it's based on simple ignorance. They would certainly be wiser if they had had the same opportunity that I recently enjoyed when I visited Israel to meet Israeli academia, and – critically – examined how such a boycott, whether overt or covert, particularly damages Israeli Arabs, or Palestinian citizens of Israel.

I spoke to Arab Muslim undergraduates at Haifa's Technion University during my visit in May this year. Arab undergraduates (most of whom are Muslim with a smaller Christian representation) lead a program to remove barriers to success of fellow Arab undergraduates there. Professor Daoud Bshouty, Dean of Undergraduate Studies (and both Israel’s and Technion's first Christian Arab faculty member) and Sara Katzir, former Israeli Airforce officer and head of the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students, explained the origin of the program, joined by Assistant Professor Youseff Jabareen, an Arab Israeli Muslim graduate, and the Muslim undergraduate Maysoun Hindawi, who related their own experiences as minorities.

When, eight years ago, the Technion examined their own data, they were dismayed to find a high drop-out rate amongst Arab undergraduates, even though they had met the rigorous entry criteria to a university consistently rated amongst the top three science institutes in the world. This was an untenable loss of intellectual talent for the university and in their mind, for Israel.

Since then, the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students has developed one-on-one peer mentorship by and for Israeli Arab undergraduates, with men mentoring men and women mentoring women in view of the cultural sensitivities. The program was funded by Jewish American philanthropists intent on serving all sectors of Technion’s students, majority and minority alike.
...
In less than a decade, the Weston Advancement Unit has improved the Technion’s Israeli Arab undergraduate retention rate by over 50 percent, with more gains likely. But The Technion’s support extends beyond their undergraduates. Many Israeli Arabs attend Arabic medium schools, so the move to the Hebrew-language university is a significant challenge. In response, candidates identified as Technion material are given intense year-long programs preparing them (and their Hebrew) – developed by the university itself.
...
“We have a moral obligation to develop everyone who enters the Technion, because we must nurture scientific ability. It is our responsibility," Katzir told me. The advancement program has been so effective at closing disparity gaps that it has now been rolled out across the institute and offered to every Technion undergrad who needs it, minority or not. After winning national awards, this program is being emulated at other Israeli institutions at government request.

There are also life experience and leadership gaps that need to be overcome for minority students. At the Technion, Maysoun explained, Arab Muslim students are often the first in their families -sometimes in generations - to enter higher education, and, in the case of women, may be breaking stereotypical gender roles in conservative families who may not approve of a female student living on campus. Arab Muslim students must also overcome a leadership gap created by the military service that their Jewish peers have gone through. The program develops the leadership skills of its Israeli Arab Muslim undergraduates who direct many activities themselves, based on merit, not ‘quota’.

My Technion experience clarified for me how calls for academic boycott would particularly imperil the future of these Arab Israeli students and the progressive opportunities they are offered. The shockingly ignorant acquiescence to the widespread braying for boycott, now a socially acceptable sport eclipsing the spirit of academe, whether led by Stephen Hawking or others, reveals the depth to which anti-Israel bias is now entrenched in our ivory towers.

The reality is simple: Calling for an Israeli boycott invites no reprisals. It is more than socially acceptable; it is a badge of honor brandished by those claiming to defend ‘minorities’. Yet ironically, while the costs of boycott will be shouldered by every Israeli, the major costs will be born by Israel’s own minority population, including Israeli Muslims of Palestinian heritage. This is a population which is for the first time becoming highly educated, advancing in the workplace, collaborating with their fellow Israeli Jewish citizens and eager to enter the global marketplace of ideas. These Israeli Muslim Arabs are the keystones to lasting peace in the region. No one else is better positioned to bridge conflicts and cultures and yet no one else will be more penalized by boycott.

Academic freedom means the freedom to collaborate, the freedom to cooperate, the freedom to communicate, the freedom to investigate, and the freedom to know the other. Isolating Israelis imposes upon all of us outside of Israel the worst kind of self-isolation, one which denies our engagement not only with the richly intellectual and extraordinarily productive Israeli academic community but access to those minorities facing the greatest challenges in Israel. The boycott flattens the painstakingly earned, inch-by-inch progress towards coexistence within and outside Israel; and coexistence is surely the primary step towards regional peace. At this discouraging time of increasing academic and cultural siege, every thoughtful academic should join me in lending their name and their reputation to fighting the boycott.

Qanta Ahmed MD is the author of In the Land of Invisible Women (2008), a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion and Associate Professor of Medicine, State University of New York. Follow her on Twitter @MissDiagnosis.

(h/t Zvi)

Karl Vick's anti-Israel bias shines through again

Time magazine's Karl Vick lists nine reasons to be skeptical about the chances for a peace agreement - and not one of them blames Palestinian Arabs or the PLO.

However, his first reason is enough to show how Vick will selectively choose or even twist facts to fit his anti-Israel mindset:

1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to submit any agreement to a referendum. Bibi’s promise, made Sunday at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, brought cries that he was shirking the leadership role required of a statesman, though acting consistent with his reputation for governing by poll. In any event, an Israeli plebiscite would likely sound the death knell for an agreement based – as any to emerge from Kerry’s planned talks would have to be – upon the Oslo Accords, the 1994 framework for a Palestinian state that, as a candidate, Netanyahu used to burn in effigy, marching beside a coffin labeled “Oslo.” Polls consistently show most Israelis want a peace agreement but do not believe one will come, one reason surely being that most Israelis reject the specific concessions a deal almost certainly would entail. To take only one issue: Two out of three centrist Israelis in one recent poll refuse to divide Jerusalem, the city Palestinians insist must also serve as their capital. And this week, even in the absence of any specifics at all, only 55 percent of Israelis said they were inclined to support an agreement Netanyahu might present.

So Bibi's promise to hold a referendum is a bad thing, according to Vick, because forcing Israelis to accept something they don't want or believe in is the correct action for a democracy. and he knows that the public will reject such a peace agreement. How? Because a poll shows that only 55% of the Israeli public would support a plan that Netanyahu recommends!

And we all know that 55% is, in Karl Vick's mind, a minority.

How's that for pretzel logic?

But it gets better. Because Mahmoud Abbas said the exact same thing, that he would hold a referendum. Vick doesn't see this as a problem (if he is even aware of it.) There is no doubt that the Palestinian Arabs would overwhelmingly reject any deal that does not include the "right to return" and destroy Israel demographically, or that would allow Israel to keep Jewish neighborhoods around Jerusalem, things that are non-starters for Israel. Poll after poll prove that Palestinian Arabs aren't interested in real peace, and Vick has read the polls. But Vick has nothing negative to say about Abbas' call for a referendum, while slamming Bibi for the exact same thing..

No, according to this faux-Middle East "expert," Netanyahu and Israelis are the only stubborn, intransigent parties. The Palestinian Arabs who are fed a steady diet of antisemitism and rejectionism in their media, their classrooms and their popular culture are given a free pass by Vick. Even Hamas is considered moderate by Vick, who stated nearly two years ago that it was on the verge of recognizing Israel. How did that prediction pan out, Karl?

This is only one of the many examples of bias in this article alone. Fisking the whole thing isn't necessary when it is so easy to prove bias, but just another tiny example:

Vick states that Israel approves "very few" Arab structures in the territories. In fact it mainly is concerned with Area C. Arabs can build all they want in Area A and Ramallah is filled with new buildings. I showed recently how a French-backed industrial park in Bethlehem, adding potentially thousands of jobs, is about to open with full Israeli cooperation. But Karl Vick will never report on that - because it contradicts the web of anti-Israel lies he has spun over the years, and his concern over being proven a fraud is far more important than reporting the truth.

Vick has been proven not just wrong, but consistently wrong over the years. Why he is still respected? Mostly because he writes to confirm the biases that he and his fellow reporters helped create, rather than report reality.

Israel and Israelis Jews are intransigent, Abbas and the Palestinian Arabs are moderate, Hamas is moving towards moderation, and everything is always Israel's fault. How do we know? Because the Karl Vicks of the world keep saying it, without the slightest shred of proof, or the tiniest bit of embarrassment at being proven wrong!

(h/t Zvi)

Israeli "spy bird" caught in Turkey

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Turkish authorities have cleared a renegade bird captured in the Ağın district of the eastern province of Elazığ of suspicions of working for Israel's state-of-the-art intelligence agency.

Residents of Altınavya village became suspicious that the little kestrel could be more than a bird that lost its way when they found it wore a metallic ring stamped with the words "24311 Tel Avivunia Israel," and delivered it to the district governorate.

Local authorities submitted the bird to careful medical examinations to ensure that it did not carry microchips. An X-ray test carried out at Fırat University in Elazığ finally convinced the authorities that the bird was just a simple specimen of Israeli wildlife. However, the X-ray showed the initial degree of suspicion, as the bird had been registered under the name "Israeli spy" by medical personnel.

Tagging birds is a common practice in ornithology as it helps scientists track bird migration routes.

Following the tests, the authorities decided not to press official charges and the falsely accused bird was free to fly away.

Here's the X-ray. "Israil ajin" means "Israeli agent" or "Israeli spy."

Saudi Arabia caught an Israeli "spy" vulture in 2011, and Sudan caught another one in late 2012. Iran accused Israel of sending pigeons with "invisible strings" to spy on the Natanz nuclear plant.

The definitive list of Zionist animal spies is in this article I wrote for NewsRealBlog. I also once made a comic strip about this evergreen example of Arab and Muslim paranoia.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

Hezbollah admits its "military" and "political" wings are the same

From Ya Libnan, a nice adjunct to my most recent cartoon:

Hezbollah international relations official Ammar Moussawi admitted on Thursday that Hezbollah’s political and military wings are one and the same and slammed the European Union’s decision to blacklist his party, describing it as an insult to Lebanon, its people and the resistance.

Following his talks with EU Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst he said:

“Everyone knows that Hezbollah’s political and military wings are one and the same”.

Moussawi added: “Israel may benefit from the blacklisting of Hezbollah, but we know that it does not need an excuse to attack Lebanon.”

“We informed Eichhorst of our rejection of the EU decision, which we deem as an American and Israeli product.” Moussawi said

But Eichhorst said the EU decision does not justify any retaliatory action by any country, including Israel, against Lebanon.

According to Eichhorst the primary reason for blacklisting Hezbollah’s military wing was the Burgas bombing.

Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry distributed today photos and information about the two wanted persons in connection with last year’s terror attack in the Black Sea city of Burgas.

One year after the deadly terror attack at the Sarafovo airport, the authorities are asking Bulgarians to cooperate and provide information about the two, who are believed to have been involved in the attack.

The two Hezbollah suspects in the bus bombing were identified as Meliad FARAH (also known as Hussein HUSSEIN), born on November 5, 1980, Lebanese-Australian citizen, and Hassan El HAJJ HASSAN, born on March 22, 1988, Lebanese-Canadian citizen, according to the media statement of the Interior Ministry. Apparently there is no connection between Hassan the suspect and caretaker Minister of agriculture Hassan El HAJJ HASSAN who represents Hezbollah in the outgoing cabinet.

ElderToons: One wing to rule them all

7/25 Links Part 2: Egyptian Blogger Denounces Khaybar, Irish MEP Calls For a New Intifada

From Ian:

Hussein Aboubakr: The Holy Anti-Semitic Month of Ramadan

Ramadan specials like Khaibar are designed to remind large numbers of Arab viewers every day for a month that their Jewish neighbors are plotting their destruction. I distinctly remember Ramadan in 2005, when a Lebanese TV series titled The Diaspora Arabs featured a scene in which Jews slaughtered a Christian child for their secret matzah ingredient, the blood of Christians!
Given the fact that Arabs don’t have a strong reading culture, most of the information Arabs depend on comes from television, although lately the internet is becoming more prominent. Because of this, it may not be unusual to find a viewer of The Diaspora Arabs utterly convinced that the Jews eat matzah tainted with the blood of Christians. Unfortunately some Arab TV stations have decided to take advantage of a Muslim holiday to broadcast paranoia, obsessions and illusions.
Ramadan is supposed to offer Muslims a month of spiritual reflection, self-restraint, an opportunity to give charity and empathize with those who are less fortunate. Yet because of those who make decisions on Arab TV networks, this year’s Ramadan offers another dose of unchallenged hatred and historical forgery, planting deeper seeds of Jewish hatred that is all too often becoming an expression of Arab identity in the modern age.

Irish MEP condemned for suggesting Palestinians return to intifada

In an interview last week with the Russia-based television network RT, Paul Murphy, a Socialist Party MEP for Dublin, said that a “struggle” along the lines of the first intifada was “necessary.”
“You’ve seen significant protest, significant movement, the potential to redevelop a struggle along the lines of the first intifada.
That’s the kind of thing that is necessary,” he said.
“Such a movement could link up with the genuine Israeli left, with working people and young people, who don’t benefit from the oppression of the Palestinians, overthrow the capitalist establishment of Israel.”

Terra Incognita: Helen Thomas’ lost teaching moment

Thomas had what might be described as a anti-Judeo-centric worldview, one where almost everything in the world has a Jewish or “Israeli” connection. Israeli in this case is interchangeable with “Jew,” since she argued that Israelis should return to where Jews, in her view, came from. She interposes the two, as in the construction “every Jew is a persecuted victim forever – while they are victimizing Palestinians.”

The Helen Thomas Cover-Up: Media Whitewash Bigoted Record

Miami Herald critic Glenn Garvin likewise had Thomas’ number in a 2008 review of what he called “the fawning HBO documentary,” Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas At The White House ("Documentary Forgets to Ask Hard Questions," Aug. 18, 2008). Garvin said that in her nearly half-century covering presidents; Thomas “broke no major White House story.”
Though she “is routinely referred to these days as iconic, legendary, and fearless, journalism has little to do with it. She’s celebrated not for her work as a journeyman reporter at a second rate wire service or as a virtually unread political columnist .... Her reputation really derives from scolding, tendentious speeches nominally delivered as ‘questions’ ....”

Pro-Israel groups slam US court decision on Jerusalem passports

“The court has effectively given a stamp of approval to the offensive State Department policy that singles out Israel for ‘special’ treatment,” declared Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti- Defamation League.
“All other American citizens born abroad may choose to list a city or area of birth instead of a country,” he continued.
“Even Taiwan-born US citizens are permitted to identify Taiwan as their birthplace, despite protests from China.”

Eugene Kontorovich: The Jerusalem Passport Case – Separation of Powers and Standing

More interesting was the plaintiff’s argument that Congress itself acted through an enumerated power – Immigration and Naturalization. The Court rather convincingly showed that passports were not central to this power, which in any case was concurrent with the Executive’s foreign policy powers. Thus in rock-paper-scissors terms, an exclusive executive power (recognition) beats a concurrent legislative one.

Chabad rabbi gunned down in Russia’s Dagestan

A Russian Chabad rabbi was gunned down Wednesday night near his home in what police speculated was an anti-Semitic attack.
Artur (Ovadia) Isakov, 40, the chief rabbi of Derbent, in the Republic of Dagestan, was taken to the hospital in serious condition, according to RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency.

French politician appealing libel conviction on al-Dura video

Karsenty has said he would not pursue the case further but changed his mind “because of procedural and ethical issues” that he says led to a “miscarriage of justice” in his latest trial. He declined to elaborate, citing legal issues.Russia

NYC’s De Blasio Formally Calls on Transit Authorities to Ban Saudi Arabian Airlines for Discrimination Against Israelis

In a letter sent Wednesday to the heads of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, De Blasio urged them “to take necessary steps to bar Saudi Arabian Airlines from operating at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, respectively, if the airline does not immediately end its discrimination against Israeli passengers on the basis of national origin.”

New Shoah Book Is Hit Among Non-Jewish Iranians

Dr. Ari Babaknia, an Iranian Jewish doctor based in Southern California, spent 15 years working on what some viewed as a quixotic project: the first-ever history book about the Holocaust in Farsi. But now the four-volume work—which details the facts of the Holocaust from the rise of Nazism in Germany to the final days of World War II and eventually chronicles the other genocides of the 20th century that occurred in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Sudan—is becoming a hit among the very audience Babaknia intended to reach: Iranian Muslims.
“There are about 120 million-plus people in the world who speak Farsi, but there has never been a book written in their mother language about the Holocaust,” said Babaknia, an obstetrician-gynecologist by profession who said he wrote the first draft of the work by hand.

American university heads wave welcome sign for Israelis

Many Israelis believe that American campuses are hotbeds of anti-Israel activity. But on a visit to Israel — for some, their first — several US university presidents said that their campuses have no problem whatsoever with Israelis.
“If that kind of thing is going on, I haven’t seen it,” said Brian McCall, chancellor of the Texas State University System, in a comment echoed by other top American university officials who came to Israel on a recent trip sponsored by Project Interchange.

CUFI confab pushes halt to US funding for Palestinians

More than 4,000 activists attending the annual Washington conference of Christians United for Israel cheered calls to stop funding for the Palestinians.
Pastor John Hagee, who founded the movement, said at its “Night to Honor Israel” on Tuesday night that the United States should “shut off the foreign aid to the Palestinians until they publicly recognize the right of Israel to exist, the right to defend themselves against all of their enemies and the right to secure borders.”

Hackers Launch Operation to Fight Cyber Terrorism

An independent group of anonymous hackers has banded together to announce a cyber warfare operation aimed at fighting against anti-Semitic and jihadist sites, set to begin on Friday.
One participating group called the Israeli Elite Force launched a Facebook page on June 5 called #OpIslam aimed at gathering support for the operation.

Israel announces plans for West Bank train network

Since the planned routes of the network extend throughout the West Bank, including into areas A and B, which are governed by the Palestinian Authority, construction cannot begin without Palestinian cooperation, a Transportation Ministry official told The Times of Israel Thursday.
Palestinian officials have refused to cooperate publicly with the proposal, but the official insisted that Palestinian Authority officials quietly acknowledge that the plans, if implemented, would bring enormous economic benefits to PA-controlled areas.
“They support keeping the lands available for the trains,” the official said.

Middle East casualty reality check

Every once in a while we see videos of anti-Israel rallies talking about how Israel is killing Palestinian Arabs (or Arab children) every day.

In early July, an Arab was killed after repeated warnings as he was apparently climbing onto an IDF vehicle (it was unclear if he was run over or shot.)

This was the only Palestinian Arab killed since the beginning of May by the IDF.

There were dozens killed in Lebanon as well but I couldn't find a good estimate.

Also, there are Palestinian Arab children being killed nearly every day - in Syria.

You know how people like to refer to the "cycle of violence"? Well, look at this: when Israelis aren't being killed, neither are Palestinian Arabs.

Hamas closes Ma'an, Al Arabiya offices in Gaza

Freedom of the press, Hamas-style:

The attorney-general in the Hamas-run government on Thursday ordered the closure of the Ma'an News Agency and Al-Arabiya satellite channel bureaus in Gaza.

The order was relayed to Ma'an by officials from the Hamas-run Ministry of Information and security forces.

Ministry officials accompanied by security forces questioned the Gaza bureau chief in his office on Thursday over a report published on Ma'an's Arabic site that quoted information translated from a Hebrew news site.

The report said that six Muslim Brotherhood officials had smuggled themselves into Gaza to plan an uprising against the military in Cairo, after their Egyptian president was deposed.

A ministry official told Ma'an's bureau chief that the report was false.

"Ma'an News agency insists that the Gaza Strip is involved in the Egyptian crisis seeking to intensify the incitement in Egypt against the Strip," the ministry official said.

"Ma'an deliberately publishes false news reports seeking to incite against Gaza. It has become complicit with Egyptian media outlets in incitement against the Strip and making up lies to harm the image of Palestinian resistance," the official continued.

Commenting on the accusations, Ma'an's editor-in-chief Nasser Lahham said "some people in Gaza seemingly went mad after the Muslim Brotherhood rule was ousted in Egypt.

"They take any possible occasion to wage tough attacks against Ma'an News Agency for no reason. We have lodged official complaints to the office of the Gaza premier, to the former Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouthi, to the Ministry of Information and to the union of Palestinian journalists."

And from Al Arabiya:

An office belonging to Al Arabiya television network was shut down by authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday for allegedly reporting “false” information regarding the Hamas leadership.

Hamas authorities said they are going to temporarily close the office and refrain all employees from entering the building, which is located in the al-Ramal neighborhood in the center of Gaza, Al Arabiya’s correspondent said.

The correspondent said that the employees were notified by the authorities they would be arrested if they enter the office, adding that there is a number of other media offices that were also shut down.

“The Attorney General decided to close down Al-Arabiya... in Gaza for distributing false news regarding the smear campaign against Hamas and Gaza about what's happening in Egypt,” a Hamas official told AFP.

Hamas' paranoia and fear keeps increasing.