יום שישי, 8 ביולי 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Video of French flytidiots being stopped from boarding plane in Paris

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 07:18 PM PDT

Here is a video taken on July 7 of anti-Israel activists in Paris being stopped from boarding planes to Tel Aviv.


They are shown holding a copy of the letter that Israel sent the airlines:


The text reads, in part:

Due to statements of pro-Palestinian radicals to arrive on commercial flights from abroad to disrupt the order and confront security forces at friction points, it was decided to refuse their entry in accordance with our authority according to the Law of Entry to Israel 1952.

Attached is a list of passengers that will be refused entry to Israel.

...In light of the above-mentioned, you are required not to board them on your flights to Israel.

Failure to comply with this directive would result in a delay on the flight and their return on the same flight.
For some reason, the airlines gave the activists the entire list.

The letter also states that the list might have more names added at any time.

New Latma Beach Boys song parody: "Guns, Guns Guns." And a modest EoZ effort.

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:46 PM PDT



Doesn't quite hit the spot for me, though.

I would have chosen Van Morrison's "Gloria" instead:

Like to tell you 'bout my Gaza
Their people believe in their god,
You've never seen such hospitality,
The guys in Islamic Jihad,
They like to shoot their Qassams,
Just about midnight,
They make me feel so welcome,
They make me feel so right,
And we're coming on F-L-O-T-I ---
FLOTILLA (Flo-tilla!)
FLOTILLA (Flo-tilla!)
I'm going to sail every night
I'm going to tweet every day
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Hamas cleans the streets,
Of every infidel,
If their women don't cover up,
They'll all go to hell,
They cannot admit,
Every war they lose,
That's why I love them,
And because they hate Jews.

FLOTILLA (Flo-tilla!)
FLOTILLA (Flo-tilla!)
Press conferences every night,
Hunger strikes every day,
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Eh, maybe I need to think a few more minutes.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Israel-haters in the UN freaking out over upcoming flotilla report

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 11:47 AM PDT

From AFP:

A UN rapporteur Thursday slammed a highly anticipated UN report set to back a 2010 Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla aiming to break Israel's blockade of Gaza which left nine people dead.

"The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter, has received a draft of this report and he firmly opposes its conclusions," De Schutter's office said in a statement.

He was preparing "a statement where he denounces the conclusions" of the report by a UN commission which the UN chief is expected to release on Friday, it said, adding such a move would be "exceptional" within the UN.

"Tomorrow, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will release a statement supporting the legality of the Israeli intervention against the 2010 'Gaza Freedom Flotilla,'" the statement said.

"According to Olivier De Schutter, the blockade and the Israeli intervention clearly violate international law and the human right to food," it added.
A UN rapporteur denouncing a UN report before it is even released?

And his name isn't Richard Falk?

The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food is an expert in maritime law?

The institutionalized anti-Zionists at the UN will find their heads exploding at a UN report that is actually semi-fair to the Jewish state.

By the way, I still have not found a single person who starved to death in Gaza. I hear that they have some very expensive specialty chocolates available there, however.

(h/t Mike Tan)

Tony Karon's latest attempt to push a lie

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 10:35 AM PDT

Time Magazine's Tony Karon is at it again, creating a straw man argument about Israel as he loves to do:
There's nothing new about those hoping for a game-changing U.S. intervention groaning at the news of Ross -- the personification of two decades of "process" without end -- being put in charge. But one paragraph stood out in the exasperated Israeli's [Akiva Eldar] column:
"Now Ross, the former chairman of the Jewish People Policy Institute, is trying to convince the Palestinians to give up on bringing Palestinian independence for a vote in the United Nations in September and recognize the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people - in other words, as his country, though he was born in San Francisco, more than that of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was born in Safed."
The institute to which Eldar refers is a Jerusalem-based think-tank established by the Jewish Agency, a government-backed institution promoting Jewish immigration to Israel. Ross headed it up for a period between his service to the Clinton and Obama Administrations. Now, Eldar accuses him of using the bully pulpit of American power to cajole the Palestinians into heeding Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a "Jewish state" and as "the national home of the Jewish people."

Skeptics view this demand as simply the latest red herring tossed out by an Israeli prime minister who has built his political career on opposing the Oslo peace process. It has been introduced very late in the game, and its' purpose is largely to preempt any negotiation over the right of return for Palestinian refugees who lost their homes and land to the nascent State of Israel in 1948. After all, it's not recognition of a Jewish theocracy that Netanyahu is demanding; rather, he insists that the state's ethnic composition will remain predominantly Jewish.

Because of the refugees -- and also because of the implications for the status of the 1 million Muslim and Christian Palestinians who are Israeli citizens -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demurs. The PLO has long ago recognized Israel in keeping with all the requirements of international law, he counters, and Israel's definition of itself is a matter for its citizens to decide.

It's hard to know how far Ross and the Obama Administration are pressing Abbas to go in accommodating this new Israeli demand, but Eldar's observation is worth unpacking: Should the Palestinians be required to recognize Israel as Dennis Ross' "national home"?
He then goes on to quote lots of doom and gloom statistics that indicate that Jews, Israelis, young people and Israeli expatriates all do not seem to regard Israel as the "Jewish national home" and therefore it is ridiculous for Netanyahu to demand the same from Abbas.

There is only one problem: Netanyahu never made that demand.

He only demands that Abbas recognize Israel as a Jewish state - which is much, much different. For one thing, it is possible to have more than one Jewish state - look at how many Muslim and Arab states there are.

To Zionists, of course, Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, by definition. It makes no sense to demand that Abbas accept that definition. However, it makes a great deal of sense to demand that Abbas recognize that Israel will remain a Jewish state - in order to finally make the Palestinian Arabs realize that they have no choice but to integrate into their current countries of residence, or move to countries that would welcome them. Their dream of destroying Israel demographically must finally be put to rest - if they are ever to get out of their 63 year limbo. There is no doubt that if their ancestors were asked in 1949 whether they would prefer that their descendants be stateless living outside of "Palestine" or full citizens of other countries, they would choose the latter. That same question can, and should, be asked today.

However, Karon's entire screed is based on a premise that doesn't exist. It is a real issue for Zionists and Jews as to how Israel has lost its centrality in Jewish thought. That issue has nothing to do with the politics of the peace process, and Karon's attempt to conflate the two is simply another method of Israel-bashing under the patina of deep thought.

If you need more proof that Karon is engaging in histrionics rather than analysis, it is worth noting that it was not Netanyahu who introduced the idea of a "Jewish state" being part of the negotiations as Karon says. It was Olmert, and it was enthusiastically defended by Tzipi Livni. Karon is trying to position this as a fringe right-wing Israeli issue, using Akiva Eldar as his basis for what Israelis think.

Left wing columnists, especially Jewish ones, love to pretend that Akiva Eldar and Gideon Levy represent Israeli public opinion - because they desperately want Israel to reflect their own beliefs. They will never admit what every Israeli knows: Eldar and his ilk are the ones who are on the fringe of Israeli society. The mainstream Israeli public fully supports the demand that the PA accept Israel as a Jewish state. They also overwhelmingly support defensible borders for Israel, and they support Israel keeping Jerusalem and its Jewish suburbs. You will never find writers like Karon admitting this in their columns, though. They prefer to push the lie that average Israelis hate their government and think the way Western leftists do.

And that deep desire makes them write idiotic lies like we see here.

(Karon made fundamentally the same points last year, in the friendlier waters of the UAE's National newspaper, where he makes it clear that he himself is the one who is so uncomfortable with the idea that Israel could be considered his home.)

Afternoon links

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:45 AM PDT

Sadat assassination plotter remains unrepentant (MSNBC)

Christian Aid's one-sided Palestinian "refugee" report (NGO Monitor)

UN Watch exposes Richard Falk's anti-semitic cartoon; Falk tries to hide the evidence

Does Iran's Latest Military Exercise Signal a New Defense Doctrine? (JCPA Blog)

The Gaza Flotilla up the river Thames (Richard Millett)

How the Media Fosters the Myth Palestinians Want Peace (Evelyn Gordon, Commentary - a type of post I would make!)

There was a brouhaha last week on the news that the US had put Israel on a terror watch list. The Homeland Security Department now says it was a mistake.

Prospects and Implications of UN Recognition of Palestinian Statehood (Washington Institute)

Canadian on FBI terror list accused of seeking to set bomb in Israel

(h/t Zach N, Silke, CHA)

US judge decides to help out PLO terrorists

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 08:42 AM PDT

From Suits and Sentences:

The Palestinian Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority will get an unusual second chance to challenge a very expensive lawsuit that had previously been ignored.

This is something you don't see every day. In April 2005, after the defendants essentially stopped responding, a federal court issued a default judgment in favor of the victims of a February 2002 suicide bombing in the West Bank village of Karnei Shomron. Two American teenagers died in the bombing of the pizza parlor, and many others were injured.

The victims and family members sued Syria as well as the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority and others. By defaulting, the Palestinian organizations faced a judgment potentially exceeding $300 million. Now, though, they want a chance to contest the lawsuit.

In a decision made public Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said that though "the default was wilfull at the time, (the Palestinian organizations) clearly demonstrated their commitment to engaging in this litigation." Moreover, Leon noted, imposing a massive liability "on a struggling government, even if that government is not a recognized state, is not something this court takes lightly."

And so the case is back on.
It sounds like the judge decided to allow the PLO to reopen the case because, gosh darn it, it would hurt their struggling government too much if the previous decision for them to pay up would be enforced.

All we are saying, is give terrorists a chance.

(h/t Lenny)

Even the HuffPo declares flotilla a failure. Plus - an origami contest!

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 07:40 AM PDT

You know that they failed when the Huffington Post says they failed!

The loose-knit network behind the stranded aid flotilla that has garnered international attention has little to tie it together except a cause, and now it is dispersing after at least two weeks in Greece. Many American activists flew home on Wednesday, and a peaceful sit-in by Spanish protesters at their embassy in Athens was dwindling in size.

Members of this genial Tower of Babel, including veterans of leftist politics, gave formal news conferences in casual attire in the past week to drum up publicity, one of the few tools at their disposal in the face of government pressure blocking their flotilla.

The movement included Dror Feiler, an Israel-born musician who moved to Sweden decades ago; Vangelis Pissias, a professor at the Technical University of Athens; and Jane Hirschmann, a psychotherapist from New York City and member of a group called "Jews Say No!"

There was also a Swedish crime writer, an Irish rugby player and a former indigenous chief from Canada.

"We are people that normally never communicate with each other," said activist Mattias Gardell, a Swedish academic who has studied religious extremism in the United States. "We disagree heavily on other subjects."
But we all really, really hate Israel!
As options dwindled, organizers declared victory anyway, citing the attention they drew to their cause.

"Maybe if we're here a bit longer, we will learn the Greek language," joked Raef El-Ghamri, a native Egyptian who now lives in Germany and helped prepare an ambulance with medicine and a wheelchair for delivery to Gaza's population. He said a cargo vessel that is supposed to carry the equipment had not been loaded, another sign of how far the flotilla was from achieving its goals.

...On the surface at least, many adhere to a Woodstock-era message of harmony that verges on simplistic at times. It would be hard to imagine a number of them engaging in lethal combat.

"Exist to Resist," is one snappy slogan. "Stay human, brother," is a rallying cry.

Some flotilla news conferences resembled religious revival meetings, with activists chanting and holding "Free Gaza" signs. On the podium, French organizer Thomas Sommer-Houdeville drew applause when he said:

"We are not terrorists, we are victims of love!"

Canadian activists, whose boat is called "Tahrir" after the square in Cairo that became a symbol of the Egyptian uprising, urged people back home to put a boat symbol in their office or home windows. They posted instructions on how to make an origami boat on their website.
An origami flotilla! That's such a great idea!

So here's the contest: Create a moonbat origami boat, decorated appropriately, and email me a photo. I'll choose the best ones to post here.

For instructions to make an origami boat, check here, here  here, here or here.

Five star hotel to open in Gaza

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 06:37 AM PDT

Palestine Today discusses Gaza's first five-star hotel, due to open in the coming weeks.

The $45 million hotel features 225 rooms, a spa and swimming pools.

Israellycool managed to snag some photos of the hotel from a Facebook page that is no longer available:




Slate noticed this as well, although it contextualizes it as a hotel that will not have any guests.

Inside, at least, the hotel lives up to its five-star claim: It features a top-floor "royal suite," which comes with its own reception area and multiple security rooms (enclosed rooms near the entrance to the suite where guards can monitor and screen anyone entering), and in the basement, workers were finishing an ornate Turkish bath and sauna. Outside on the patio, smartly uniformed waiters serve colorful milkshakes in sugar-rimmed glasses, and a group of women in fashionably tight jeans and spiked heels smoke shisha.

...In some respects, Hamas-controlled Gaza is buzzing with construction, and the seaside area of Gaza City is lined with new restaurants. Over the last year, Israel has eased the blockade, allowing some building materials to get through, and the rest come through the tunnels, albeit at a premium. Gaza—or at least Gaza City—shows signs of basic economic improvement. Consumer products are flowing in, and the Gazan equivalent of a dollar store (a 2.5-shekel shop, which is actually equivalent to about 73 cents), sells everything from women's underwear to cooking whisks. For better or for worse, the Al-Mashtal is just one sign of Gaza's slow recovery. In Gaza City, once-pockmarked streets are being rebuilt with attractive brick pavement. Ziad al-Za Za, a former economic minister for Hamas, rattled off a laundry list of projects in progress, ranging from street construction to rebuilding residential housing.

...Indeed, the Al-Mashtal illustrates a fundamental dilemma of Gaza's economy: Gaza is now open enough that it can get the materials necessary to build projects like a five-star hotel, but it lacks the economy to support it.
The reporter is forgetting about the bustling NGO industry in Gaza that will always ensure lots of Westerners with expense accounts will not put up with less than the best. Or does she think that Gaza businessmen are so stupid as to invest millions in a luxury hotel that would remain empty?

(h/t T34 for the Slate article)

What happened to the Jordanian ship?

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 05:25 AM PDT

Since the Flotilla Flop started, we have not heard much from the Jordanian ship that was supposed to participate.

The Jordanian vessel was the most worrisome one, as it would have been filled with Arabs whose idea of "non-violent resistance" includes Molotov cocktails, iron bars and chains.

The "Jordan Lifeline" committee started off with high hopes. Its never completed webpage says that, in their original press conference in February, they hoped to get 200 participants, each paying some 4000 dinars ($5600)  for the privilege.

In April, they announced 140 participants.

On June 26th, they announced that they provided a 10% down payment on a boat in Greece, and was trying to get the Jordanian unions to pay for the other 90%. At that point they said they had 70 Arabs who would be on board, 35 of them Jordanian.

A later story seems to imply that the funds were found, but the source is far from reliable.

So what happened? Did they get the boat? (And would Jordanian trade unions really put out $800,000 from their own funds to purchase a boat that would, at best, be symbolic?)

Or is this just another of the many examples of flotilla fools talking big and failing even bigger?

UN flotilla report finds Gaza blockade is legal (Ha'aretz)

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 02:58 AM PDT

From Ha'aretz:

The UN committee investigating the events of last May's Gaza flotilla, headed by former Prime Minister of New Zealand Geoffrey Palmer, convened Wednesday in New York to conclude the report.

According to a political source in Jerusalem, the final findings of the Palmer Report show that the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza is legal and is in accordance with international law.
The report also sharply criticizes the Turkish government's behavior in its dealings with the committee. Palmer, an expert on international maritime law, added in the report that Israel's Turkel commission that investigated the events was professional, independent and unbiased.

His findings on the Turkish committee were less favorable, with Palmer concluding that the Turkish investigation was politically influenced and its work was not professional or independent.

On Thursday, the Palmer Committee will present its findings to UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, yet it remains unclear if it will be made public. Turkey is pressuring the UN to delay that release of the investigation's findings, but the report is likely to be made public in the coming days.

The Palmer Committee also criticizes the IHH organization that organized the Gaza flotilla as well as its ties to the Turkish government, suggesting Turkey did not do enough to stop the flotilla.

Israel does not come out of the report unscathed, with the committee concluding that based on testimony given by passengers, the Israeli naval commandos used excessive force. Israel claimed the soldiers acted out of self defense, thereby justifying the use of force.

According to the final draft of the probe, Israel is not asked to apologize to Turkey, but the report does recommend it expresses regret over the casualties. The Palmer Report also doesn't ask Israel to pay compensation, but proposes Israel transfer money to a specially-created humanitarian fund.

Palmer says that although international law permits the interception of ships outside territorial waters, Israel should have taken control of the flotilla when the ships were closer to the limit of the naval blockade – 20 miles off the coast. Israel responded by saying that its interception of the flotilla so far from the coast was due to military and tactical considerations, following the organizers' refusal to stop.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been quoted - even by the BBC - as saying that the blockade is illegal. However, that is not true - they said that the closure of Gaza was illegal where Israel limited the types of goods allowed in before last summer. The word "blockade" in a legal sense refers specifically to the naval blockade by Israel of an enemy territory. The Red Cross was very careful not to use the word "blockade."

Amnesty and a host of other NGOs were not as careful, as they - without citing any evidence or legal reasoning - referred to the blockade as "illegal" in a report issued last year.

The UNHRC, in its laughable flotilla report, actually tried to find legal reasonings why the blockade is illegal:

In evaluating the evidence submitted to the Mission, including by OCHA oPt, confirming the severe humanitarian situation in Gaza, the destruction of the economy and the prevention of reconstruction (as detailed above), the Mission is satisfied that the blockade was inflicting disproportionate damage upon the civilian population in the Gaza strip and that as such the interception could not be justified and therefore has to be considered illegal.
Given that Gaza has no ports to import goods, it is absurd to say that the naval blockade is disproportionately punishing Gazans!

Wikipedia summarizes the governing laws of a blockade:

According to the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994,[10] a blockade is a legal method of warfare at sea, but is governed by rules. The blockading nation must publish a list of contraband. The manual describes what can never be contraband. Outside this list, the blockading nation is free to select anything as contraband. The blockading nation typically establish a blockaded area of water, but any ship can be inspected as soon as it is established that it is attempting to break the blockade. This inspection can occur inside the blockaded area or in international waters, but never inside the territorial waters of a neutral nation. A neutral ship must obey a request to stop for inspection from the blockading nation. If the situation so demands, the blockading nation can request that the ship divert to a known place or harbour for inspection. If the ship does not stop, then the ship is subject to capture. If people aboard the ship are resisting capture, they can be attacked. It is still not allowed to sink the ship, unless provision is made for rescueing the crew. Leaving the crew in liferafts / lifeboats does not constitute rescue. If a neutral ship is captured, any member of the crew, resisting capture can be treated as prisoners-of-war, while the remainder of the crew should be released. A neutral nation may choose to send a convoy accompanied by warships. The warship can provide guarantees that the convoy does not contain contraband. in which case, the blockading nation does not have any right of inspection.
Israel has fastidiously adhered to all of these requirements.

It is nice to see that the UN has the ability to tell the truth once in a while. It remains to be seen if this report will ever see the light of day.
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