Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 25, 2013

Israel haters try to ram a BDS resolution through American Studies Association

The National Council of the American Studies Association is deliberating a proposed resolution to endorse a boycott of Israeli universities, and a decision is expected before Thanksgiving, according to the executive director of the association, John F. Stephens. The council had a long meeting on Sunday morning, at which many thought there would be a decision, but the meeting is still technically considered to be in session.

The resolution, which was proposed by the ASA’s Academic and Community Activism Caucus, has been endorsed by the current president and president-elect of the association, and attracted strong support from members during an open forum at the association’s annual conference on Saturday. A letter opposing the resolution on academic freedom grounds was signed by more than 50 members, including seven past presidents. Comments on the resolution continue to pour in.

The National Council, which is a body of about 20 elected representatives within the ASA, may choose to endorse or reject the resolution as is, to rewrite or revise it, or to refer it to the general membership for a vote, among other options.

...[S]entiment at Saturday's open forum for ASA members skewed pro-boycott by a huge margin.

Isn't it interesting that so many of these anti-Israel initiatives are scheduled on Saturdays?

Both pro- and anti-boycott scholars claim the mantle of academic freedom. Opponents of the boycott cite the AAUP's stance that boycotts cut off free exchange between scholars, while those in favor describe a desire to increase academic freedom for Palestinian students and scholars specifically. The resolution presented to the National Council outlines concerns about the closure or destruction of schools as a result of Israeli military strikes and restrictions on the ability of Palestinian students and scholars to travel.

“It’s very important that when we think about this issue, if we’re going to think about it, as well we should, in the context and framework of academic freedom, that we keep primarily in mind the freedom and ability for Palestinians to study free of a military occupation,” said Steven Salaita, an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech.

So let's punish Israeli schools because, allegedly, Palestinian Arabs can't easily get to school!

Proof that this was a well-organized anti-Israel initiative meant to overwhelm the ASA council comes from this telling detail:

Speakers on Saturday overwhelmingly urged the council to immediately act and approve the resolution -- any delay, they argued, was a tactic for defeat.

Like a car salesman telling you that if you don't buy it today, the opportunity will be lost forever. Don't think! Don't deliberate! Just do as I say! Now! or else there will be terrible consequences! The last thing these haters want is a sober discussion of the facts, because the facts are not on their side. These pseudo-academics are using emotion to subvert the very standards of objectivity and evidence that they pretend to uphold.

Can you imagine the outcry if people said to boycott Palestinian Arab schools because of the pro-terror atmosphere they encourage? Even though some Palestinian Arab universities are directly complicit in terrorism?

Yet boycotting Israeli universities - whose connection to the crimes alleged by the haters is extraordinarily tenuous - gets respectful hearings from academics???

It is obvious that the motivation here isn't academic freedom for Palestinian Arabs. If it was, then they would mention the restrictions that Palestinian students face in Lebanese public universities, including a quota system limiting "foreign students" (aimed specifically at Palestinians) and some courses and majors that are simply off limits if you are Palestinian.

Yet no one is bringing that up. No one is criticizing Lebanon for its institutionalized bias against Palestinians, including specifically against Palestinian students.

This isn't about education. This isn't about helping Palestinian Arab students. This is a thinly veiled attack on Israel, period. It uses "academic freedom" as an excuse to betray academic freedom.

Some see this clearly:

Simon J. Bronner, a distinguished professor of American studies and folklore and chair of the American Studies Program at Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, criticized what he described as “the curtailing of academic freedom in the name of somehow guaranteeing academic freedom.” The letter opposing the boycott, which Bronner signed, states that the adoption of a boycott resolution would “do violence to this bedrock principle of academic freedom."

“Scholars would be punished not because of what they believe – which would be bad enough – but simply because of who they are based on their nationality. In no other context does the ASA discriminate on the basis of national origin – and for good reason. This is discrimination, pure and simple."

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East wrote a lengthy and devastating fisking of the anti-Israel resolution, pointing out its lies and errors.

Simon Bronner set up a petition to counter the anti-Israel resolution. If you are an academic you may want to sign and give your reasons. (Although it appears that the anti-Israel petition is being signed by non-academics as well.)

Rafah closed yet again. NGOs still pretty quiet.

For the fourth day in a row, Egypt has closed the Rafah border to Gaza.

Here is a calendar showing how often the crossing was open in recent weeks:

Rafah, October-November-December

S	M	Tu	W	Th	F	S
27	28	29	30	31	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Green- open

Red-closed

Even the days it was open the number of people who could cross were severely limited. While the average number of travelers allowed to cross in June averaged over 1800 people daily, during the days Rafah was open in November the number of people allowed across averaged closer to 100 a day.

Which means that, practically speaking, Rafah has been closed the entire time.

The handful of people who have been allowed to cross include medical patients.

By contrast, Israel has been allowing about a thousand people a week to cross through Erez.

Sometimes NGOs will mention Rafah. They might even betray puzzlement as to Egypt's arbitrary rules for opening and closing the crossing. But they never, ever condemn Egypt for its siege of Gaza.

The willful blindness of the Israeli Left

From +972, quoting Daniel Seidemann, founder of Ir Amim:

This afternoon, I paid a working visit to a friend in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Bahir, barely a kilometer from my home. When we took leave of one another, I headed home in my car. I had the misfortune of ending up in a traffic jam in the center of the village, just as school was getting out.

I didn’t see it coming, but should have: I was a sitting duck. The rock was probably thrown at point blank range; it smashed the side window with enough force to leave a deep gash in the back of my head. I was fortunate: I did not lose consciousness, nor my sense of orientation. Thankfully, the traffic jam loosened up a bit. Within a minute or so I was out of danger and on my way to get treatment.

This ended with a few stitches and no serious damage (confirmed by a CT).

...I don’t romanticize the prick that cracked my head open. But I don’t find it particularly important if he is or is not apprehended. (OK – I do fear that he might have just been practicing on me, and that more deadly violence can be expected of him in the future).

But this ends not when Palestinians behave better, or when our Shin Bet becomes more efficient. It ends when occupation ends. Until then, I remain a symbol of that occupation, and not without reason. And no good deeds, as it were, will redeem me or protect me.

Seidemann is not a stupid man. But the idea that Arab violence will end if Israel withdraws to the 1949 armistice lines is willful blindness of the worst kind.

He knows that before "occupation" there were Palestinian Arab attacks on Israel - and not on Jordan, which occupied the West Bank at the time. He knows that before the state of Israel was reborn the Arabs (not called Palestinians then) would routinely attack Jews (not called Israelis then.)

"Occupation" is not the cause of violence, but a trendy excuse for violence. Nothing proves that more than the rocket attacks that not only didn't end after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, but that increased.

Yet he is willing to ignore all of that, and even his now first-hand knowledge of the dangers of the "non-violent resistance" that Mahmoud Abbas encourages that includes stone throwing. No, he is - like so many in the Israeli Left - so singlemindedly obsessed with "occupation" that simple facts have no meaning to him anymore.

It would behoove him to read this article from earlier this year from a former member of his religion of Leftism:

I participated in the Dialogue for Peace Project for young Israelis and Palestinians who are politically involved in various frameworks. The project’s objective was to identify tomorrow’s leaders and bring them closer today, with the aim of bringing peace at some future time.
...
The Israeli side, which included representatives from right and left, tried to understand the Palestinians’ vision of the end of the strife– “Let’s talk business.” The Israelis delved to understand how we can end the age-old, painful conflict. What red lines are they willing to be flexible on? What resolution will satisfy their aspirations? Where do they envision the future borders of the Palestinian State which they so crave?

We were shocked to discover that not a single one of them spoke of a Palestinian State, or to be more precise, of a two-state solution.

They spoke of one state – their state. They spoke of ruling Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Akko, Haifa, and the pain of the Nakba [lit. the tragedy – the establishment of the State of Israel]. There was no future for them. Only the past. “There is no legitimacy for Jews to live next to us” – this was their main message. “First, let them pay for what they perpetrated.”

In the course of a dialogue which escalated to shouts, the Palestinians asked us not to refer to suicide bombers as “terrorists” because they don’t consider them so. “So how do you call someone who dons a vest and blows himself up in a Tel Aviv shopping mall with the stated purpose of killing innocent civilians,” I asked one of the participants.

“I have a 4-year-old at home,” answered Samach from Abu Dis (near Jerusalem). “If God forbid something should happen to him, I will go and burn an entire Israeli city, if I can.” All the other Palestinian participants nodded their heads in agreement to his harsh words.

When an Israeli peacenik is attacked, he is instantly willing to forgive. When an Arab liberal is attacked, he is instantly drawn to revenge, even if it takes generations.

Real peace is impossible. All the Daniel Seidemanns in the world willing to work to help all the Palestinian Arabs in the world will not bring them one step closer to accepting Israel's existence. Believing otherwise is not moral - it is delusional. And it will result in more attacks, more terror and more deaths, not less.

(h/t YM)

Long lost 1913 film of Jews in Israel restored (updated)

Haaretz reports:

For 80 years, the movie “The Life of the Jews in the Land of Israel: 1913” was thought to be lost. The film, shot in prestate Israel in 1913, disappeared during World War I. In 1975, a copy was found in a private collection in the United States. However, when the cases were opened, it transpired that the film reels had disintegrated.

For years, Yaakov Gross – a documentary film director and researcher of Israeli films – searched for the missing film, but was left with a feeling of disappointment. Nevertheless, he never stopped believing that another copy would some day be found, “a copy that would shed light on the mystery of the lost film,” he said.

In 1997 his dream came true, and a copy was found in the archives of the French National Center of Cinematography (CNC). Four boxes containing 170 reels were found in the archives of the CNC, an agency of the French Ministry of Culture. But there were no identifying marks or documentation for the films.

Gross was called in to aid with identifying the films. Armed with the program of the movie from 1913, which he had found in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, he immediately understood that the missing movie had been found.

Now, on the centenary of the making of the movie, the Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque has produced a digital version of the original using today’s most advanced technology, improving the quality of the soundtrack and images. The completely restored film will be screened next week as part of the 15th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival (on Tuesday December 3 at 6 P.M.).

Here is film of the Jewish Quarter and the Kotel:

UPDATE: Here is an hour of it (h/t Bob Knot):

Here's another word missing from the Iran nuclear deal: Parchin

Yes, Parchin.

As Reuters reported some 18 months ago:

Six world powers demanded Iran keep its promise to let international inspectors visit a military installation where the U.N. nuclear watchdog believes explosives tests geared to developing atomic bombs may have taken place.

The joint call was an unusual show of unity among the powers on Iran before a planned revival of high-level talks as well as widening disquiet about the nature of Tehran's nuclear ambitions, with Israel threatening last-ditch military action.

Heaping pressure on Iran to come clean, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany used a U.N. nuclear watchdog governors' meeting on Thursday to urge Tehran to grant prompt access to its Parchin military facility.

They voiced concern that no deal was reached between Iran and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors at talks in January and February, "including on the access to relevant sites in Iran, requested by the agency ... We urge Iran to fulfil its undertaking to grant access to Parchin."

The message was reinforced by a remarkably blunt statement from IAEA director Yukiya Amano accusing Tehran of seeking to "tie our hands" and restrict inspectors during their last two rounds of meetings.

His deputy Herman Nackaerts told Thursday's closed session of the IAEA board of governors session, according to one participant: "Due to major differences between Iran and the agency, agreement could not be reached."

Nackaerts, the IAEA's chief safeguards inspector, said it had information from satellite pictures showing "the precise location where we believe an explosive chamber is situated".

The word "Parchin" is not mentioned at all in the actual published deal.

As bad as we already know the deal to be, it is astonishing that the US-led alliance did not consider inspections at Parchin to be of paramount importance. Remember, Parchin is where evidence of a weaponization program was clearly being actively hidden by Iran, even to the point that they built large pink tarps to cover the complex to stymie satellite intel.

Simple explanation of what's wrong with the Iranian nuclear deal

The full text of the nuclear deal has been published. The best description I could find of why it is a disaster comes from former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton:

This interim agreement is badly skewed from America’s perspective. Iran retains its full capacity to enrich uranium, thus abandoning a decade of Western insistence and Security Council resolutions that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activities. Allowing Iran to continue enriching, and despite modest (indeed, utterly inadequate) measures to prevent it from increasing its enriched-uranium stockpiles and its overall nuclear infrastructure, lays the predicate for Iran fully enjoying its “right” to enrichment in any “final” agreement. Indeed, the interim agreement itself acknowledges that a “comprehensive solution” will “involve a mutually defined enrichment program.” This is not, as the Obama administration leaked before the deal became public, a “compromise” on Iran’s claimed “right” to enrichment. This is abject surrender by the United States.

Indeed, that's what the agreement says:

This comprehensive solution would involve a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program.

It is hard to interpret this as anything other than the "right to enrich," something that Kerry strenuously denied last night. In this specific example, Iran clearly won.

Bolton goes on:

In exchange for superficial concessions, Iran achieved three critical breakthroughs.

First, it bought time to continue all aspects of its nuclear-weapons program the agreement does not cover (centrifuge manufacturing and testing; weaponization research and fabrication; and its entire ballistic missile program). Indeed, given that the interim agreement contemplates periodic renewals, Iran may have gained all of the time it needs to achieve weaponization not of simply a handful of nuclear weapons, but of dozens or more.

Second, Iran has gained legitimacy. This central banker of international terrorism and flagrant nuclear proliferator is once again part of the international club. Much as the Syria chemical-weapons agreement buttressed Bashar al-Assad, the mullahs have escaped the political deep freezer.

Third, Iran has broken the psychological momentum and effect of the international economic sanctions. While estimates differ on Iran’s precise gain, it is considerable ($7 billion is the lowest estimate), and presages much more. Tehran correctly assessed that a mere six-months’ easing of sanctions will make it extraordinarily hard for the West to reverse direction, even faced with systematic violations of Iran’s nuclear pledges. Major oil-importing countries (China, India, South Korea, and others) were already chafing under U.S. sanctions, sensing President Obama had no stomach either to impose sanctions on them, or pay the domestic political price of granting further waivers.

Even if you disagree with Bolton's politics, all three points seem incontrovertible.

He continues:

[T]he deal leaves the basic strategic realities unchanged. Iran’s nuclear program was, from its inception, a weapons program, and it remains one today. Even modest constraints, easily and rapidly reversible, do not change that fundamental political and operational reality. And while some already-known aspects of Iran’s nuclear program are returned to enhanced scrutiny, the undeclared and likely unknown military work will continue to expand, thus recalling the drunk looking for his lost car keys under the street lamp because of the better lighting.

Moreover, the international climate of opinion against a strike will only harden during the next six months. Capitalizing on the deal, Iran’s best strategy is to accelerate the apparent pace of rapprochement with the all-too-eager West. The further and faster Iran can move, still making only superficial, easily reversible concessions in exchange for dismantling the sanctions regime, the greater the international pressure against Israel using military force. Iran will not suddenly, Ahmadinejad-style, openly defy Washington or Jerusalem and trumpet cheating and violations. Instead, Tehran will go to extraordinary lengths to conceal its activities, working for example in new or unknown facilities and with North Korea, or shaving its compliance around the edges. The more time that passes, the harder it will be for Israel to deliver a blow that substantially retards the Iranian program.

(h/t Lauri)

PA TV hostess expresses her "respect and love" for Sbarro's suicide bomber

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Palestinian Authority TV recently interviewed released terrorist Qahira Al-Sa'adi, who drove a suicide bomber to an attack that killed 3 and injured 80 in Jerusalem on March 21, 2002. During the interview, the host chose to send greetings to another terrorist, Ahlam Tamimi, who led a suicide bomber to the Sbarro pizza shop in Jerusalem on August 9, 2001. 15 people were murdered in the attack, 7 of them children, and 130 were injured.

Apparently finding something in common with terrorist Ahlam Tamimi who studied journalism, the PA TV host expressed how Tamimi's choice to study and work in the field of media "increases the respect and love I feel for her":

PA TV host: "We send greetings to the released female prisoner Ahlam Tamimi and to all the female prisoners who were released. I focus here on Ahlam because Ahlam chose a way that increases the respect and love I feel for her. I send greetings to you, dear Ahlam, and to your husband Nizar. Ahlam chose the way of media (i.e., as a journalist), and now hosts a program for prisoners."

11/24 Links: BDS is just the same old, same old hate, IDF restores eyesight to blind Filipinos

From Ian:

BDS is just the same old, same old hate

The BDS movement is particularly strong on campuses in part because of the support from anti-Israel faculty and outside groups that target campuses.
This video explains how it’s nothing new.
The speaker is Chloé Simone Valdary promoting the Declare Your Freedom festival in New Orleans next year (h/t HenMassig):

These days, Israel is often mocked and ridiculed on school campuses. From Israel Apartheid Week to the ever popular BDS movement, the university has not historically been a pro-Israel environment. However we’re working to change that! We spend the entire year fighting slander, writing publications, and holding events, and this Spring will be the LARGEST event of the school year, put together by the University of New Orleans, Tulane University, and McNese State! It will illustrate our strength, solidarity, and perseverance as supporters of Israel.

Pro-Israel Festival in New Orleans this Spring.

Breaking the Silence: Group’s message emboldens enemies, delegitimizes Israel

NGO Monitor’s detailed analysis of the book shows that Breaking the Silence tailored the anecdotal and unverifiable accounts of low-ranking soldiers to fit a predetermined conclusion that Israeli policy is the “intimidation, instilling of fear, and indiscriminate punishment of the Palestinian population.” In fact, many testimonies contradict this harsh claim, explicitly noting that incidents of individual misconduct were opposed and punished by officers.
Audiences, then, are hearing personal political perspectives on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and not the unfiltered words of ordinary Israelis.

British university heads back Islamists in pro-segregation scandal

Outrage is sweeping across Britain’s higher education sector after it emerged yesterday that Universities UK (UUK), an organisation constructed of university vice chancellors from around the country, has caved to Islamist demands to encourage gender segregation of events on university campuses.
Against the backdrop of a wave of segregation cases on university campuses, wherein women are forced to sit separately or even in different rooms to men, the group of academics has stated that segregation is acceptable as long as men and women are seated side by side and one party is not at a disadvantage. The news has shocked anti-extremism campaigners, as well as those who believe in Western liberal values.

Brandeis president ‘reaches out’ to al-Quds counterpart in row over Jihad rally

In a statement, Lawrence said Nusseibeh had “made a number of remarks and serious accusations to the media that have not been conveyed to me personally or through my staff. I am reaching out to President Nusseibeh today and hope that he will be open to that discussion.” (h/t Bob Knot)

Incitement: The oxygen keeping the conflict alive

With such ferocious hatred being disseminated by the PA, it is little wonder that Palestinians find it hard to see an end to this conflict. Incitement is the oxygen keeping the conflict alive.
By demonising Jews and Israelis and portraying them as killers, thieves and liars, Abbas is entrenching a mindset of war among his people.
Equally, by failing to demand an end to incitement, Obama is ensuring that these peace talks, like the others, end in failure.

Iran nuclear agreement a ‘historic mistake,’ Netanyahu says

“What was accomplished last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement; it’s a historic mistake,” Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday morning’s weekly cabinet meeting. “Today the world has become much more dangerous, because the most dangerous regime in the world took a meaningful step toward acquiring the most dangerous weapon in the world.”

Israeli Ministers Line Up to Lambast Iran Nuclear Deal; Choice Was Between ‘Plague and Cholera’ Says Lapid

In an interview on Israel Defense Forces radio, Israel’s Finance Minister, Yair Lapid, widely believed to be the second most influential politician in the country, sounded a bitter tone.
“We had a choice here between the plague and cholera. We were left alone explaining the truth, and all of our options were bad,” he said. “I don’t understand how the French Foreign Minister can call an agreement that doesn’t involve the dismantling of one centrifuge a ‘victory.’ I can’t understand the world’s failure to notice the nineteen thousand Iranian centrifuges.”

Trumpeting deal, Iranians say agreement stymies ‘Zionist plot’

The agreement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, represented “a big success for Iran” and an indication that “all plots hatched by the Zionist regime to stop the nuclear agreement have failed,” according to a report from state-sponsored Islamic Republic News Agency.

MEMRI VIDEO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani: Iran's Enrichment Activities Will Proceed Similar to the Past
The art of hiding nuclear enrichment facilities

Foreign intelligence would thus prefer to keep mum on its knowledge of an attempted hidden facility, so as not to induce the country in question to increase its on-site defensive capabilities or construct another hidden facility.
Both proliferators and external intelligence organizations are faced with several dilemmas. For a proliferator, the most important ones would be to decide where the facility should be located and what defensive measures should be implemented (if any).
For external intelligence agencies, the main problem would be how to use their limited assets in the most efficient way.

Iran announces plan to build two more nuclear power plants

Iran is expected to build two new nuclear power plants in the near future, an Iranian official said Saturday.
“The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has put construction of the second and third [nuclear] power stations on its agenda due to the government’s programs and the emphasis laid by… President [Hassan Rouhani],” AEOI Deputy Chief Hossein Khalfi said, according to the Fars News Agency.

Saudi Arabia: We Won't 'Sit Idly By' if West Fails with Iran

Ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, who was speaking to the British Times, called the Obama administration’s “rush” to embrace Tehran “incomprehensible.”
“We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region,” Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi King Abdullah’s nephew, said.

Region will lose sleep over Iran deal -Saudi adviser

"The government of Iran, month after month, has proven that it has an ugly agenda in the region, and in this regard no one in the region will sleep and assume things are going smoothly," Askar said.
In the hours before Sunday's deal was sealed, Gulf Arab leaders, including Saudi King Abdullah and the rulers of Qatar and Kuwait, met late on Saturday night to discuss "issues of interest to the three nations".

Al-Hayat Editor: We Are In The Midst Of A Regional Sectarian War That Threatens The National Cohesion Of Countries Near And Far, Especially Lebanon

In a November 20 article in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Hayat, the daily's editor, the Lebanese Ghassan Charbel, wrote that the war in Syria poses a horrific threat to the entire Middle East, since it has sparked a region-wide sectarian war in which Sunnis and Shi'ites travel to Syria from other countries in order to fight each other there. This, he says, has virtually eliminated the boundaries between countries and shattered their internal cohesion, creating a conflagration of unprecedented severity that cannot be controlled or contained.

Palestinian identified as 2nd Iran embassy bomber in Beirut

Lebanese authorities identified the second man involved in the deadly attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Tuesday which killed 23 people as a Palestinian with ties to a fugitive Lebanese cleric, Reuters reported Saturday.

‘Father of Suicide Bombing’ Reportedly Injured in Iran Suicide Bomb

In a he-had-it-coming-to-him-moment, the self-proclaimed father of suicide bombing appears to have been injured on Tuesday in Beirut, where the Iranian embassy was targeted by an Al-Qaeda faction, The Times of London reported. 23 people were killed in the attack, including an Iranian diplomat, and 140 were injured.
The Times said 67-year-old cleric Issa Tabatabai is a close ally of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a key go-between for Iran and its Lebanese proxy militia, Hezbollah. It cited website Ayandeh as reporting that the cleric’s wife and daughter were also wounded, and that all three were in hospital in Beirut.

Lebanese Army Defuses 250-Pound Car Bomb, Averting Major Terror Attack

The Lebanese army prevented another massive bomb attack Friday, diffusing a 250-pound car bomb just three days after twin suicide bombings targeting the Iranian embassy in Beirut killed 25 people.
The incident took place in the Bekaa Valley, a stronghold of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization. The official National News Agency reported that the bomb was meant for Beirut.

Jordan’s king and the Islamists: In one boat?

In a congressional hearing, US Senator Lindsey Graham said Jordan’s king had told him he “did not think he would be in power within a year from now” because of the crisis in Syria. To which US Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey responded: “Yes, that is basically his fear.”
The weekly anti-regime protests in Jordan have almost stopped; this has been celebrated by some of the pro-king journalists in the West. Nonetheless, they have celebrated too early, because Jordanians have switched from peaceful protesting to violence.

Turkey Gives Seized Media to Erdogan Ally

Last spring, as President Obama stood beside his good friend Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the White House Rose Garden, Turkish officials were raiding the media assets of the Çukurova Group, one of the last business conglomerates whose media outlets maintained an independent rather than hagiographic take on Turkey’s prime minister. Obama, of course, was silent. Not only did Obama not speak up in defense of media freedom, but he chose Sabah, a once-independent paper seized by Erdogan’s administration and transferred to Erdogan’s son-in-law for an op-ed about Obama’s love for Turkey.

Israeli agritech IPO could be first of a controversial wave

The Evogene IPO could have an a major impact on these and other agritech start-ups, said Kardish. “Evogene is such a great example of Israeli ‘Ag Valley,’ our agricultural version of ‘Silicon Valley.’ Evogene started out as a small company with a combination of plant genetics science and hi-tech software, and now it is providing cutting edge solutions for all the big industry players worldwide. Although GMO is considered a controversial topic, I believe that to feed the growing population we’ll have to use methods that increase crop productivity, and this is what GM eventually does,” Kardish said.

Israeli delegation restores eyesight of blind Philippines residents

The Israeli medical delegation to the Philippines has managed to restore the eyesight of four residents of the Philippines, aged 40 to 74, who were blind as a result of pterygia – growths in the eyes, associated with ultraviolet-light exposure, low humidity and dust.
The patients suffered from pterygia before Typhoon Haiyan hit the islands. "Many locals had this disease, but those who are poor couldn't afford surgery," Lt.-Col Dr. Erez Tsumi told Ynet.

IDF treats 2,000th patient in the Philippines

Another baby was named for the Israeli doctors over the weekend. Louis, the head of security in Cebu, named his daughter Shai, after IDF Military Attaché to the Philippines Col. Shai Brovender. Baby Shai was born in the IDF field hospital.
The Israeli doctors and nursing staff have been treating all Philippine patients wanting to see a doctor – whether they were affected by Typhoon Haiyan or not. For many, this was the first medical care they ever received.

Duluth nurse joins Israelis to offer aid to Filipinos recovering from typhoon

The IDF has essentially turned a developing world, rural hospital into a fairly modern-day medical facility in just 48 hours, all in the context of a major disaster. They have integrated electronic records, ultrasound, digital X-ray, a fairly sophisticated laboratory, an active surgery suite and incredible medical staff with varying specialty backgrounds. I’ve been mainly working with the orthopedic specialists and surgeons. We have been treating a lot of septic wounds, fractures and fresh wounds from falls, motorcycle crashes and — particularly — soft-tissue wounds sustained in the process of the local residents’ cleanup efforts; machetes, axes, things falling, the list goes on.

Turkey, Egypt expel each others' ambassadors

From BBC:

Egypt has told the Turkish ambassador to leave the country, a day after the Turkish leader called for ousted President Mohammed Morsi to be freed.

Relations with Ankara would be lowered to charge d'affaires, officials said.

On Friday, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his criticism of the July overthrow of Mr Morsi and urged the Egyptian authorities to free him.

Egypt's foreign ministry accused Mr Erdogan of provocation and interfering in Egypt's internal affairs.

From DW:

Egypt's decision on Saturday to downgrade relations with Turkey and expel the country's ambassador, Hussein Awni Botsala, from Cairo led to an escalation in diplomatic exchanges between the two countries.

Tensions have mounted since the summer, after a military coup ousted the Islamist Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi (left in picture), of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and his Justice and Development party have quite vocally protested.

"[Turkey's] leadership has persisted in its unacceptable and unjustified positions by trying to turn the international community against Egyptian interests and ... by making statements that can only be described as an offense to the popular will," the Foreign Ministry said.

Turkey then expelled Egypt's ambassador, who had not resided in Ankara since August. The decisions represent a dramatic reversal of the relations between the two countries, which had warmed over the past year. Both countries will remain represented in each other's capitals by embassies headed by a charge d'affaires, effectively the second in command.

If self-avowed Middle East experts are right, then in no time Sisi will send Erdogan a bouquet of flowers, because that's how things work there.

(h/t Yoel)

Ukrainian game show is source for latest anti-Israel blood libel. Really. (updated)

From Ma'an:

An Israeli soldier admitted that she shot and killed unknown numbers of Palestinian people, including children, on a Ukrainian television program that aired in early November.

Elena Zakusilo, a Ukrainian Jewish woman who moved to Israel in order to serve in the Israeli army, revealed on the Nov. 4 episode of the program "Lie Detector" that she had killed Palestinians and had shot at Palestinian children, but was unsure how many she managed to kill.

Zakusilo, who goes by the name Elena Gluzman in Israel, also explained that she trained army dogs to raid Palestinian villages and conduct video surveillance that she monitored from up to 10 kilometers away.

Zakusilo said on the show that one of the times when she shot Palestinians was during protests that broke out after Yasser Arafat died in 2004.

"It's scary, especially when children run with Molotov cocktails, and they send children, to turn the attention to them, little kid, barely walking, 3-4 years old," she added, explaining that she was unsure how many Palestinian children she had shot dead.

Although Zakusilo said was "not proud" of these acts, she blamed Palestinian mothers for sending their children to be "suicide bombers" and suggested that they did not care about their children's lives.

Zakusilo also spoke about her work training dogs for reconnaissance missions into Palestinian villages, which involved placing headphones and cameras on them and directing them to attack Palestinians they encountered until soldiers could arrive.

"The doggy gets a little bag in teeth, it can be a video camera."

"It has an electronic collar, and a camera that hangs on the collar, and the trainer has the remote control, and he, from a distance up to ten kilometers, can watch and give orders to the dog, to attack or not attack," she added.

Zakusilo explained that she was a "senior trainer" and trained a total of 150 dogs, and for her work she was promoted to the rank of major.

Zakusilo's mother was also present during the show's filming, and when asked if she knew her daughter had killed people, said, "Of course, how can you be in the military without (killing)."

Zakusilo responded in the affirmative when asked by the game show host if she was "willing to go back to Israel and continue killing enemies" if she had financial difficulties in Ukraine, and said that she was unafraid of potential repercussions for revealing what she had done while in the Israeli forces.

She also explained that she goes by the name of Gluzman in Israel, "so that they won't hear there our Ukrainian family name, and with the other name (Gluzman), with Jewish roots, they'd treat (me) differently."

Zakusilo added that while at first she hesitated to kill people, she came to see her fellow soldiers as "family," and they helped her come to terms with killing Palestinian children and other feelings she had.

Referring to her commander, she said, "He is a general, he tells you to go and shoot like this, so you go. But if you come to him and say, just for example, you know, I was walking down the road, and there was a kitten there, ran over by a car, or a person hit, and I feel bad."

"He will sit with you for an hour to talk, and try to understand why you feel bad."

So a person on a game show - a game show that encourages people to try to beat a lie detector - is the latest source for supposed Israeli atrocities.

Her story about her supposed IDF service was peripheral to the point of the show; she was saying to her mother than she'd rather kill children than live with her, which is why she says she went to Israel as a lone soldier. She also claims she was abused both by her mother and by her schoolmates. She does not sound like a very reliable source. (On the show, she passed the lie detector test, but people who believe their own lies would pass easily.)

The IDF investigates every killing, in great detail, especially children. But Zakusilo says she has no idea how many children or adults she killed. She says she only would speak about her troubles to her superior - a general! - and he would calm her down about a dead kitten!

There have been extraordinarily few killings by women in combat in the IDF.

On the day that Arafat died, exactly one Palestinian Arab was killed during riots, and it was not a child. (Two more were killed in Gaza during a house raid.) None were killed the day after nor the day after that.

I have never heard of IDF dogs being "controlled" by remote control from ten miles away without any soldiers around, and a quick search came up empty, even though this is supposedly a 10-year old technology. I also find it highly unlikely that a woman whose specialty is training dogs would also be thrown into a live fire situation with rioters, let alone be responsible for multiple deaths.

The Israelis I asked about this say it is not even close to being plausible. Russian language social media in Israel are also extremely skeptical about these claims.

But none of that matters to the Israel-haters, who will believe anything as long as it fits their preconceived notions of evil bloodthirsty Israeli soldiers who enjoy aiming at children.

UPDATE: The IDF says she is full of it.

John Kerry praises Iran and insults US allies as warmongers (updated)

Here are excerpts from John Kerry's speech last night defending the easing of sanctions against Iran:

Don't you feel safer now?

UPDATE: Here are PM Netanyahu's remarks (English closed captioning)

A reader who commented on my Thomas Friedman article last week at The Algemeiner pointed me to a stupefyingly ludricous passage in Friedman's celebrated book, "From Beirut to Jerusalem," pp 126-127:

Ariel Sharon never sent Yasir Arafat flowers.

Whatever one thinks of the former Israeli general and Defense Minister, Sharon did not play games with his enemies. He killed them. After a few years in Beirut, I came to understand a little why the Jews had a state and the Palestinians didn't. The European Jews who built Israel came out of a culture of sharp edges and right angles. They were cold, hard men who always understood the difference between success and failure, and between words and deeds. Because the Jews were always a nation apart, they developed their own autonomous institutions and had to rely on their own deep tribal sense of solidarity. This gave them a certain single-mindedness of purpose. They would never settle for a substitute homeland; life for them was not just another Mediterranean life cycle or fatalistic shrug.

The single-mindedness of the European Zionists also had a certain ruthless aspect to it. They emerged from ghettos in which they were never invited by the outside world to drink coffee. They were never part of a Middle Eastern kaleidoscope, like Lebanon, where today's enemy could be tomorrow's friend. For the Jews coming out of Europe, today's enemy was tomorrow's enemy. The world was divided into two: the Jews and the goyim, or Gentiles. The Arabs, for the Zionists, fell into two subsets of goyim—agents and enemies. Agents you ordered and enemies you killed.

The rhythm of life in the Arab world was always different. Men in Arab societies always tended to bend more; life there always moved in ambiguous semicircles, never right angles. The religious symbols of the West are the cross and the Jewish star—both of which are full of sharp, angled turns. The symbol of the Muslim East is the crescent moon—a wide, soft, ambiguous arc. In Arab society there was always some way to cushion failure with rhetoric and enable the worst of enemies to sit down and have coffee together, maybe even send each other bouquets.

This passage is incomprehensibly idiotic on so many levels. Besides the obvious - do I really have to point out how inane his point about religious symbols is? - Friedman is generalizing his experiences in relatively cosmopolitan and liberal Beirut to the Arab world as a whole.

Sure, Arabs love to have coffee - but the idea that this means they accept compromise with Jews is the exact inversion of the truth.

No one represents Friedman's disgusting characterization of bigoted, menacing, trigger-happy European Jews more than Menachem Begin. You know - the person who traded territory that was double the size of Israel itself for a piece of paper.

The real Arab world is a place where antisemitism is mainstream and where rejectionism of Israel is absolute even in countries that have "peace treaties" with Israel. It is the Arabs who have announced boycotts of Jews since the 1920s, Arabs who stated the "three no's" of Khartoum, Arabs who accuse even Hamas terrorists of being too pro-Israel.

Even in Friedman's wonderful, tolerant Beirut, we see absolute rejection of anything that tastes remotely Zionist.

It is the Arabs who utterly reject normalization with Israel, and those hardheaded European Jews who want to be accepted in the Middle East. (The Jews from the Arab world tend to be more hawkish, because they understand the mentality of the Arabs a lot better than Friedman does.)

Oh, I think its also a fair bet that moderate, compromising Arafat never sent Ariel Sharon flowers either.

How can anyone take Friedman seriously after reading trash like this?

(h/t Gary)