Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Shiite Houthis take over Yemen's capital. Their logo says "Damn the Jews."

Yemen's Houthi fighters have tightened their grip on the capital Sanaa after seizing much of the city in a lightning advance and signing an overnight deal to win a share of power, capping a decade-long uprising against the government.

On Monday, the heavily armed rebels raided the house of General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and set up checkpoints across Sanaa, as the general and his allies fled and went into hiding.

They also raided the Suhail TV channel's headquarters in the capital, a day after the signing of a UN-brokered peace deal between the government and the Shia rebel group.

Here is the Houthi logo that they spray paint all over Yemen:

It says:

God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Power to Islam."

(Some translate the fourth line as "Curse the Jews.")

Isn't that lovely?

Yemen's president has long claimed that Iran was behind the Houthi insurgency. He said that this capture of Sanaa was a "conspiracy is beyond any imagination. We were stabbed, and we were betrayed. . . . It is a cross-border plot where many forces allied together.”

But they hate Al Qaeda, so they must be out allies!

09/23 Links Pt2: Judea Pearl denounces Klinghoffer Opera; SJP Rutgers Calls for an 'Intifada'

From Ian:

Taking on the Terror Trio: Israel’s Strategy vs. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State

Following Israel’s Operation Protective Edge this summer, Hamas continues to control the Gaza Strip and openly considers any truce with Israel as a time to re-arm for the next conflict. Across Israel’s northern border, Hezbollah has been fighting to preserve the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but still poses a danger to the Jewish state. Meanwhile, the Islamic State has exploded across Iraq and Syria in a spectacle of unprecedented brutality that could one day also knock on Israel’s door.
What should Israel’s strategy be regarding this triumvirate of terror groups? JNS.org took the pulse of three Middle East and terrorism experts on the issue.
Where things stand with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic State Hezbollah and Hamas “pose a very particular threat to Israel but also a very special dilemma,” said Natan Sachs, a fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Students For Justice In Palestine At Rutgers Calls For 'Intifada'

The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Rutgers University tabled in accordance with the "International Day of Action" against Israel and called for an intifada. Palestinian intifadas have included bus bombings, suicide bombers and the murders of hundreds of men, women and children by Islamic extremists.
The sign calling for an intifada read, "From Ferguson to Gaza, Intifada Intifada" while a second sign falsely accused Israel of being an apartheid state in the same vein as South Africa.
SJP's table on campus also encouraged the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel which attempts to isolate the Jewish state and strangle its economy.

Demonstrators protest Klinghoffer opera at Met season opening

Protesters calling for the Metropolitan Opera to cancel its production of “The Death of Klinghoffer” rallied outside the Met on its opening night Monday.
“We are going to be back here — everyone here and many, many more — every night of the Klinghoffer opera until the set is burned to the ground,” Rabbi Avi Weiss said in an address to demonstrators.
A coalition of groups in a statement called for the Monday afternoon protest at Lincoln Center, across from the Lincoln Center Plaza in Manhattan. Organizers say thousands are expected for the demonstration against a production that they contend promotes terrorism and anti-Semitism.
The opera depicting the 1985 murder by Palestinian terrorists of Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish-American man in a wheelchair, is set to premiere in October.
A letter written by Judea Pearl, the father of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by militants in Pakistan in 2002, will also be read.
It reads, in part: “Choreographing an operatic drama around criminal pathology is not an artistic prerogative, but a blatant betrayal of public trust. We do not stage operas for rapists and child molesters, and we do not compose symphonies for penetrating the minds of ISIS [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as the Islamic State] executioners.”

Moderate Fatah group says "Death to Israel"

I spent a bit of time during the Gaza war pointing out that Fatah was shooting rockets at Israel just as enthusiastically as Hamas.

This is apparently a completely taboo subject. The Israelis don't want to embarrass Fatah leader Abbas, the media doesn't want to complicate their twin memes of "Israel vs. Hamas" and "Hamas bad, Fatah good."

But just in case you thought that there might be a slight difference between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah members, here is what the cover image on the Fatah Abu Rish Battalions Facebook page was exactly one month ago, August 23:

"Death to Israel" in Arabic and Hebrew.

It doesn't quite sound like this moderate Fatah group accepts a two-state solution.

Will reporters ask Abbas any hard questions? Here are some.

Mahmoud Abbas is in New York this week. No doubt he will allow a couple of interviews.

Here are some questions that a decent reporter would ask this great pseudo-peacemaker (expanded from an earlier post of mine):

What, specifically, have you done to prepare your people for peace with Israel?

Followup: Twenty years after Oslo, 60% of your people say the five year goal of the PA should be the destruction of Israel. Isn't this from your own state-run media and school curricula?

Why does the PA name institutions after terrorists who targeted innocent civilians? Isn't that inconsistent with the message you are giving to the West?
Why is there still daily incitement on PA TV against Israel?
Do you believe, as Arafat did, that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem? Do you realize that this position is at odds with what Muslims said openly before 1967?
Describe your position on "normalization" with Israelis today. Can Israeli pro-peace groups visit Ramallah? Would you allow an Palestinian-Israeli sports camp?
Why did you threaten your citizens who dared to shop in a Jewish-owned supermarket that has low prices?
Recently you said that you believe that the Holocaust occurred. You wrote a book that claimed that it was exaggerated.Were you lying then, or are you lying now?
Do you really believe that Jews are raising dogs and wild boars and training them to attack Arab farms, as you have stated?
Do you really believe that Hamas would accept Israel's existence if you reconcile with them? Do you believe that Hamas still subscribes to its charter? Why or why not?
As leader of Fatah, why do the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group still exist? How do they get funded? Why didn't you denounce their shooting hundreds of rockets to Israeli civilians? Aren't you against that?

If they do not report to you, then why do you not distance yourself from them? And why did you say they were dismantled when they clearly weren't? Why did you allow them to hold an armed parade recently in Ramallah?

Do you agree with the Fatah platform that terrorism is legal under international law?
Why does some 6% of the PA budget go towards terrorist prisoners and released terrorists?
Do you consider the Mufti of Jerusalem who collaborated with Hitler to be a hero?
If you are so interested in peace, why did you go out of your way to meet with child-murderer Samir Kuntar?
You have publicly praised terrorists released from Israeli prisons, even embracing murderers. How do you reconcile that with your claims to be against terror?
Why did you, last week, praise a terrorist who targeted Jewish children at a circus?
What percentage of the PA budget goes, directly or indirectly, to Hamas?
Can you explain your statement in 2013 that "it's better [Syrian Palestinians] die in Syria than give up their right of return"? How many Syrian Palestinians have died because of that position?
Do you support the rights of Lebanese Palestinians, if they choose, to become citizens of Lebanon? Why or why not?
Why are there still Palestinian "refugee" camps in the West Bank? Do you not consider their residents to be full citizens of Palestine? Are you keeping them away from having permanent homes in your country for a reason?

In 1950, Israel told UNRWA that it would be insulted to have an outside organization be the primary support for refugees, and it mainstreamed Arabs into becoming full citizens within a couple of years, negating their need for perpetual UN support. Do you disagree with that sentiment?

Please send/tweet these questions to any New York based reporter who seems likely to interview Abbas. It is way past time the media stops giving him a free pass.

09/23 Links Pt1: IDF kill terrorists who murdered 3 Jewish teens; Arab Bank convicted of funding Hamas terrorism

From Ian:

Senators: Take Gaza Away From Hamas

Many Israeli politicians have begun pushing for slow-motion regime change in Gaza. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the vast majority of the U.S. Senate now is in a similar mood.
Over the summer, the Obama administration supported a draft cease-fire plan that would have strengthened the Hamas position in Gaza. Now 88 senators are urging the Obama administration to take a very different approach to the group: gradual regime change. Over time, they want to hand Gaza over to the more moderate Palestinian Authority, which oversees the West Bank today.
In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry obtained by The Daily Beast, the 88 senators write, “we must support efforts to enable the Palestinian Authority to exercise real power in Gaza. Hamas has demonstrated conclusively both that it has no interest in peace with Israel and that it has no concern for the well-being of Gaza residents.”

PM Benjamin Netanyahu on ABC Australia
'We want to make peace' with Palestinians says Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu to ‘Post’: Saudi peace initiative is for a bygone era

The Saudi peace initiative of 2002 is no longer relevant in the much-altered Middle East of 2014, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu indicated this week, in a Rosh Hashana interview with The Jerusalem Post that will appear in full in Wednesday’s paper.
“The question is not the Saudi peace initiative,” Netanyahu said, asked if he would accept the proposal now.
“If you read it carefully, you’ll see it was set up in another period, before the rise of Hamas; before Hamas took over Gaza; before ISIS [Islamic State] took over chunks of Syria and Iraq, effectively dismantling those countries; before Iran’s accelerated nuclear program,” he said.
Obviously referring to the Saudi proposal’s call for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, including returning the Golan Heights to Syria, Netanyahu noted that this plan was made “before the takeover of Syria by al-Qaida on the Golan Heights.”

US jury convicts Arab Bank of financing Hamas terrorism

In a landmark decision, a New York jury on Monday found the Jordan-based multinational Arab Bank liable on 24 counts of supporting terrorism by transferring funds to Hamas.
The verdict came after the jury deliberated for nearly two full days after a month-long trial at the eastern district court in Brooklyn.
“This is an enormous milestone,” said Gary Osen, a lawyer on the team representing around 300 American relatives and the victims of 24 attacks carried out in Israel and the Palestinian territories during the Second Intifada. The federal lawsuit was filed in 2004.
“For the first time a financial institution is liable for supporting terrorism. The question now is to see how other financial institutions, regulators will deal with their banks and this decision,” he added.

File photo

Yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech at Cooper Union Hall in New York to hundreds of American students.

As usual, it was filed with his usual hypocrisy, as he pretended that the Palestinian Arab nationalism movement was an ultra-liberal initiative and that Israel was uniquely evil.

Here are some of the more outlandish things he said:

I come here today to convey to you the greetings of my people in Palestine who aspire for peace and justice. Palestine is a country in the heart of the Middle East, a country in the Middle East where Christians and Muslims live in harmony, a country in the Middle East, the birth place of Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem, where I pray with my follow Palestinian Christians three times every year, a country that hopes to live in peace and security side by side with its neighbor the State of Israel.

Christians in the West Bank have been fleeing ever since the PA took control. Muslims have forced Christians out of Bethlehem. Abbas has done nothing to help. In Gaza, Christians have been threatened and attacked as well. Abbas goes to church for his photo-ops but he has not lifted a finger to help Christians under siege, instead he blames their flight on Israel.

But today in Cooper Union I stand on the same place where Abraham Lincoln stood over 150 years ago and condemned the scourge of slavery, to state, loud and clear, that we the Palestinian people condemn terrorism, we condemn what happened on 9/11, we condemn the treatment of Christians and non-Christians by ISIS (Daaish) I am speaking on behalf of 99 percent of the Muslim peoples around the world Here, today, nearly in the shadow of Ground Zero, I state to the world: the barbarians of ISIS (Daaish) and Al Qaeda who kill innocent people are not faithful Muslims. And to the children and families of the victims of 9/11, I say as a Palestinian Muslim, I am sorry for your pain. These murderers do not represent Islam, we all stand against them to defeat their evil plans. At the same time we must work to end the Israeli occupation and establish a Palestinian state, for we cannot fight terror only by the gun.

We haven't forgotten that PAlestinians (and Arabs in general) celebrated 9/11. Quite publicly.

A poll this month showed 86% of Palestinians support and justify rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. That is terrorism. A 2003 poll found that 40% of Palestinians found suicide bombings sometimes justified, the highest percentage in the entire Muslim world.

The 99% figure is absurd. A survey in 2008 showed that fully 36% of Muslims worldwide thought that 9/11 was fully or partilly justified.

Abbas is a liar.

As you may know, Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived peacefully together in Palestine for centuries. So peace between religions runs through the heart of the most sacred City in the world, Jerusalem. Peace between the world’s religions runs through Jericho the Oldest City on Earth. Peace between the world’s religions runs through Palestine.

No, there was no peace. There was relative tolerance by Muslims of Jews and Christians as long as they didn't think of themselves as equals. But as travelogues from the 19th century showed, Jews were hated by Muslims and Arab Christians as well. Sometimes things got much worse. That is not peace.

On behalf of the brave Palestinian people, in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, I still come here to deliver a message of peace and justice to Israel and the rest of the world.

Most Palestinian Arabs say that their national goal is to destroy Israel. Abbas has done nothing to stop the incitement against Israel and Jews in his classrooms and newspapers. There is no desire for peace, there is no real denunciation of terror and this speech is a sick joke.

Abbas himself regularly praises terrorists who target children. He did it just last week.

I made a prayer for an America that is a real friend of Israel, not a false friend. And just as real friends do not let friends drive drunk, so too a real friend of Israel would not let them engage in the widespread killing of women and children, including bombing United Nations schools and hospitals, such as we just saw in Gaza.

Oh, please. His own Fatah members were shooting hundreds of rockets at Israeli women and children and he did not say a word against it. Abbas supports terror, at least tacitly.

Security requires justice and an end of occupation. We cannot understand how the Israeli government can be misguided as to fail to understand that the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that kills thousands of women and children only sows more hate?

The official transcript says "hundreds of women and children" - Abbas changed it to "thousands." This is of course a deplorable lie.

Not to mention that Abbas' media and speeches in Arabic and statements by other officials who report to him are what creates the hate. While Israel spends hundreds of millions to save lives, Abbas doesn't really care whether his own people live or die as long as his cause is furthered. The cynicism is sickening.

In Maine every summer, young Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Arabs, and others meet in a camp called seeds of peace, founded in 1993. They build the very world I am calling for in Palestine. It works. It's real. It's the future. To those who say peace between Israelis and Palestinians is impossible, I say, let them visit America. I say, let them visit Maine.

The hypocrisy here is incredible. Abbas is 100% against any similar programs for people under his rule - because these peace programs, such as the ones funded by the EU and sponsored by the Peres Center, are considered "normalization" with Israel. Even the most pro-Palestinian groups are barred from coming to Ramallah if they are Israeli. Supporting coexistence in Maine while opposing it in one's on backyard shows exactly how much Abbas cares to live in peace with Israel.

If you can stomach 35 minutes of lies, here is the video. The introduction by William Clark is especially risible, pretending that Abbas has been working for peace all his life. (No need to mention the Olympics massacre, is there?)

(h/t Miguel for a link)

Arab professor explains how the EU tried to help Hamas (video)

Dr. Bassam Tibi is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the University of Goettingen and has served as Director of the Center for International Affairs established there in 1988. He also served as the A.D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University.

In 2009, he gave a lecture “The Islamist Challenge to America: Anti-Americanism and Antisemitism” for the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism . Within his lecture he gives an amazing, and very sobering, anecdote that is not well known.

He says that the EU was paying Gaza a half billion Euros per year before the Quartet said that Hamas must adhere to certain principles in order to be included in negotiations. But the Eu really, really wanted to continue to give this money to Hamas- run Gaza. So a top EU official EU asked Hamas to mouth the three principles at a press conference, adding "whether you comply with them or not, it's not our business": recognize Israel, accept the Oslo agreements and renounce violence.

If they did this, within a week, the money would resume.

Hamas replied that they can't do that. "They referred to their charter, they said that Palestine is property of God and (part of the Islamic waqf), we have no competence to negotiate over the property of God, therefore Israel has to go."

Tibi concludes, "People involved in appeasement are either naive or they don't know".

This little story illustrates that the EU was more interested in funding a terror group than they were in peace, even telling Hamas to pretend to be peaceful - something that would have made Israel look like the intransigent party, a clear pro-Hamas tilt. It proves that those who believe that Hamas can be appeased, or even be part of a peace process, are deluded. And it proves that the antisemitic Hamas charter, which many pretend is not really relevant today, is still the guiding document of the terror group.

Civilians reportedly killed in US airstrikes, and other Syria news

From CBS News, reporting on the US-led airstrikes this morning:

According to the Syrian Observatory, citing local activists on the ground, at least 30 Nusra fighters were killed in the strikes. The group said eight civilians, including two children, were also killed.

Practically none of the other mainstream media coverage of this top news story mentioned anything about civilian casualties.

Isn't it interesting that the media's focus on Israel's fight against radical jihadists, who were directly threatening millions of people with imminent rocket strikes, was centered on civilian casualties - and here no one really cares? We won't see any graphic photos of dead kids, except for those who read Syrian and Iranian propaganda news sites. There aren't hundreds of Western reporters on the ground in Syria eagerly camping outside hospitals in flack jackets to get some Pulitzer worthy footage of poor civilian victims.

Meanwhile Israel shot down a Syrian Sukhoi attack aircraft that came half a mile into Israeli territory. Here is alleged footage from the Syrian rebels.

But there was yet another story that came out of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights:

Syria revolutionaries front and many Islamic battalions announced the beginning of the battle of " Nasron Mena Allah wa Fathon Qarib " which will be targeting the following::
- the UN hill which is taken over by Khan Arnaba Shabiha.
- Tal Ahmar " Ein al-Nouria hill " which is related to brigade 90.
- Taranja troop which is related to the 3rd battalion in the 90th brigade.
- Kataf tropp which is related to the 90th brigade.

the statement said that the strategic targets of the battle are " to liberate whats left of al-Quneitra land, and besiege Khan Arnaba and al-Ba'th city, which are the last bastions of the regular forces in al-Quneitra province .

It is interesting that both the Syrian warplane and the Islamists are concentrating on Quneitra - a town that is half in Israeli hands.

Are both groups trying to bring Israel into the conflict to gain support? Syria already said Israel's shooting down the fighter jet was “in the framework of (Israel’s) support for the terrorist (Islamic State) and the Nusra Front." I don't think that Syria would sacrifice one of its 19 Sukhois just for propaganda, but that is some pretty incompetent flying. But the rhetoric from the Islamists about Quneitra may be worth watching.

3 more fake "civilians" of the day

On July 14, PCHR said that Adham Mohammed 'Abdul Fattah 'Abdul 'Aal, 29, was a civilian.

The Fatah Al Nidal Brigades calls him a "mujahid martyr."

On July 20,PCHR implied, and Al Mezan said, that Mohammed 'Abdul Rahman Mahmoud Abu Hamad, 24 was a civilian.

Fatah's Nidal Brigades also call him a "mujahid martyr."

PCHR said on July 30 that Mohammed Mahmoud al-Astal, 25, was a civilian.

The same Fatah page describes him also as a "martyr mujahid."

His home had one of the families that B'stelem claimed Israel wiped out for no reason; B'Tselem did not identify him as a terrorist and his family as human shields.

(h/t Bob Knot for Hamad poster)

09/22 Links Pt2: Does HRW Understand the Nature of Prejudice?; Intel Invests $6Bil into Israel Plant

From Ian:

Does Human Rights Watch Understand the Nature of Prejudice?

A few days ago, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, tweeted the following statement: “Germans rally against anti-Semitism that flared in Europe in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza war. Merkel joins.” Roth provided a link to a New York Times article about the rally, which took place in Berlin.
Roth’s framing of this issue is very odd and obtuse. Anti-Semitism in Europe did not flare “in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza,” or anywhere else. Anti-Semitic violence and invective are not responses to events in the Middle East, just as anti-Semitism does not erupt “in response” to the policies of banks owned by Jews, or in response to editorial positions taken by The New York Times. This is for the simple reason that Jews do not cause anti-Semitism.
It is a universal and immutable rule that the targets of prejudice are not the cause of prejudice. Just as Jews (or Jewish organizations, or the Jewish state) do not cause anti-Semitism to flare, or intensify, or even to exist, neither do black people cause racism, nor gay people homophobia, nor Muslims Islamophobia. Like all prejudices, anti-Semitism is not a rational response to observable events; it is a manifestation of irrational hatred. Its proponents justify their anti-Semitism by pointing to the (putatively offensive or repulsive) behavior of their targets, but this does not mean that major figures in the world of human-rights advocacy should accept these pathetic excuses as legitimate.

Jennifer Rubin: Pushing back against the world’s oldest hatred

Meanwhile, as in Europe, U.S. college and university campuses are awash with anti-Israel rhetoric. However, on American campuses it gets dressed up as scholarship. (Singling out Israel and holding it to a different standard than any other country is classic anti-Semitism, as Natan Sharanksy pointed out. But for now let’s just called it anti-Israel propaganda.) The Chronicle of Higher Ed reports that, in a “joint statement issued on Wednesday, [several pro-Israel] groups argue that Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which provides funds to international-studies and foreign-language centers to educate the public and train security specialists, is being misused ‘to support biased, politicized, and imbalanced programs of Middle East studies.’ ” The groups argue that these “programs fail to satisfy Title VI’s intended purpose, flout Congressional intent, and thwart American national-security and foreign-policy interests.”
The groups point to two studies (the Amcha Initiative and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law) documenting the fixation some of these programs have on Israel, virtually all viciously critical of the Jewish state. The report notes: “The statement alleges that such abuses continue despite amendments to the Higher Education Act, enacted in 2008, that require programs receiving Title VI funds to reflect diverse perspectives. It urges Congress to amend the Higher Education Act to require recipients of Title VI funds to establish grievance procedures to handle complaints that their programs do not reflect a wide range of views. It also urges Congress to require the Education Department to establish a formal process to resolve complaints about the programs.”

Americans were too late in realizing Israel is not the problem

This delusional perception is a continuation of the decades-long approach that Israel is the root of all problems in the Middle East, a sort of almost anti-Semitic approach. Our conflict has been so inflated by politicians and academics, that over the years many have fallen into the trap of thinking that we really are the problem.
Now that same Kerry is trying to build a "coalition" to fight ISIS, and he didn't even bother to come to Israel, because what good can Israel do? Are we Sunnis or Shiites? Or maybe we are part of the conflict of Arab nationalism against radical Islam?
Indeed, he was very late in understanding that not only are we not an Archimedean point with which the problems of the Middle East can be solved, but that we have a very weak connection to these problems. Only now, the Americans have realized that our conflict is at the margins of the margins of the real problems in the region.

Open Letter to Henk Zanoli: the Dutchman who returned his Holocaust medal

I am truly sorry for the deaths of any and all innocent civilians, particularly the members of your family that were killed in the aforementioned bombing. I truly am. I am also saddened by any grief this may have caused you. That said I am concerned as to whether or not you are aware of the unfortunate connection certain members of this family have to Hamas, an organization with ideologies similar to those of the Nazis. Although the BBC made every effort to avoid telling this part of the story, your great-niece, the woman who married into this Palestinian family, has a brother-in-law who is a member of Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades. This is a terrorist organization committed to the death of Jews to the same extent that the Nazis were when you behaved in the courageous and righteous fashion that you did so many years ago. My understanding is that her brother-in-law was in the house at the time of the bombing. It has also been reported that visiting the home on the day of the bombing was Mohammed Maqadmeh, also a member of Al Qassam. To put it in a different perspective, Al Qassam is to Hamas what the SS was to the Nazis. Brutal murderers with almost no conscience. Again let me say that you have my most sincere condolences for your loss, but I believe the presence of 2 terrorists on the premises at the time of the bombing is an important factor that can not be ignored.

Of course Muslims are attracted to ISIS because of Islamic theology

Israel's Mako has a stunning story of the first Israeli citizen to be killed after joining ISIS.

"P", an Israeli Bedouin physician, joined the ranks of ISIS and was killed three weeks ago by an US Air Force bombing raid on the Iraq/Syrian border 26 and single, he traveled to Jordan and studied medicine at the University of Amman, where he was considered an outstanding student. Upon his return to Israel he worked in a hospital.

Ten months ago, he and his cousin "O." decided to join ISIS due to its ideology to establish a Muslim state in the Middle East. With the assistance of another family member, they made contact with the organization and soon found themselves on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. "He was an outstanding student in medicine," said a person familiar with the family. "We are shocked at all he enlisted in ISIS. He did not tell us anything about his intentions, perhaps we could have prevented , there were no early signs. He was religious but never showed extremist tendencies." he said.

P and his cousin took with them several thousand dollars, flew to Turkey last year and then crossed the border into Syria and joined ISIS. Sources close to the family say he served as a hospital's director of field organization on the Syria-Iraq border, tending to the wounded of the organization and responsible for the regional medical system. "He was in daily contact with us via Whatsapp. He sent us a message that he feels fine and there is nothing to worry about," said a source close to the family who added, "He was a good boy who was influenced by the ideology of the organization."

Three weeks ago, as mentioned, P. was killed along with dozens more of the organization's fighters. His cousin, who is in Syria, heard of the death and informed the family. Since then, the family is making efforts to retrieve his body to retrieve and bring it to Israel.

"When he did not answer the phone we realized something had happened to him," said the same source. "The family still can not believe he was killed. They find it difficult to believe that a person with a bright future in the medical world was killed in such tragic circumstances."

It should be noted that Israeli intelligence estimates some twenty Israeli Arab Bedouin have left to join the fighting.

So what attracted a bright young man to throw his lot with vicious Muslim extremists?

The reason is clear. While Westerners try to claim that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, obviously many Muslims disagree.

The fundamental problem, I believe, is that there is no generally accepted theology-based interpretation of Islam that convincingly shows that the beliefs of extremist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda are not Islamic. I'm not an expert, but I am not seeing any debates on actual Islamic theology going on, with the "moderates" putting on a convincing show that the "extremists" are flat-out wrong.

It isn't surprising that young Muslims who wholeheartedly believe in the religion will always seek the purest form of it. Some Muslims may be more moderate in practice, but Islamic theology does not seem to have kept pace with pragmatism. When idealistic, extremist Muslims who appear to be winning in their quest for a caliphate - something that most religious Muslims really do want but do not believe it is practical - then it is easy to see why they would be considered attractive.

Pride is a huge part of the Muslim psyche, and there is simply more honor in pursuing this pure Islamic agenda than in accommodating the desires of the non-believers. Add in the cult of martyrdom that Islam also encourages and the truly impressive PR job that ISIS is doing and you have the ingredients for a major, extremist, Islamic movement.

To ignore the Islamic elements of ISIS is extraordinarily naive. There are only two ways to fight it: defeating it decisively on the battlefield, which will take off the sheen of its power, and - more importantly - to have an alternate interpretation of Islam that soundly defeats that of ISIS.

I don't pretend to be an expert in Islam, but the impression I get is that if there was a theological debate between ISIS leaders and moderate Muslim leaders, ISIS would win hands-down. Young, smart and ideological Muslims seem to know this.

And no one is countering it.

The big question is - is there any theologically sound flavor of Islam that could win the ideological battle with ISIS fundamentalism that would convince young Muslims that ISIS is completely wrong?

Because if not, then the enemy really may be Islamic theology itself.

(h/t k)

12-year old Gaza boy, playing "resistance," dies digging a tunnel

Last night, a 12-year old Gaza boy died in Rafah as he was digging a tunnel in the sand there.

He apparently dug deep enough to get into the hole and then be suffocated by the walls collapsing on him.

The boy was pretending to be a Hamas member.

(h/t Bob Knot)