Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest |
- Ha'aretz changes headline to make PLO sound less anti-semitic
- Ahmadinejad rants at Zionist pharmaceuticals
- Who is the US partnering with on counter-terrorism? Turkey!
- Latest Syrian torture video
- Israeli report on PA economy contradicts World Bank
- Summing up "Palestine" (poster)
- PLO ambassador confirms: Palestine would be Judenrein
- Erdogan calls for a secular state, upsets the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
- PalArab statehood bid unilateral - even within the PLO!
- Richard Falk freaks over Palmer, lies as usual, says Israel has no right to self defense
| Ha'aretz changes headline to make PLO sound less anti-semitic Posted: 14 Sep 2011 04:34 PM PDT Google's news cache shows a Ha'aretz headline that says PLO Official: Palestinian state to be free of Jews  http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/plo-official-palestinian-state-to-be-free-of-jews-1.384493 But when you try to go to that link you get redirected to a new page, with a new headline, and even a new URL!  As we have shown, the first headline is completely accurate - and is consistent with statements that Areikat made last year. Even the Ha'aretz article itself - which does not appear to have been changed - makes that clear. But Ha'aretz is so heavily invested in the false meme that the Palestinian Arab leadership wants to have peace with Israel that they couldn't stomach that original, accurate headline that showed that their idea of "peace" is the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from "Palestine." A Ha'aretz editor decided to tone it down, so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of Ha'aretz readers who have come to expect a certain kind of news that conforms to a pre-existing viewpoint. (h/t Reb Mordechai of Chelm) 
         |
| Ahmadinejad rants at Zionist pharmaceuticals Posted: 14 Sep 2011 01:00 PM PDT From Iran's FARS agency: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the world Zionists for commercializing and misusing the pharmaceutical knowledge, and called for the revival of traditional medicine.I agree 100%. Iranians should be using their own natural herbs to combat cancer, Alzheimer's, and AIDS. Not to mention impotence. 
    |
| Who is the US partnering with on counter-terrorism? Turkey! Posted: 14 Sep 2011 11:58 AM PDT From The State Department: As stated in President Obama's National Counterterrorism Strategy, the U.S. is committed to strengthening the global counterterrorism (CT) architecture in a manner that complements and reinforces the CT work of existing multilateral bodies. The Administration's signature initiative in this area is the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), which is intended to ensure the necessary international architecture is in place to address 21st century challenges.It is the ultimate in multilateralism - when fighting terrorists, include countries that support and sponsor terrorists! Barry Rubin has lots more. More from the announcement: In addition, the Global Survivors Network will premiere a short film of interviews of survivors of terrorism from around the globe. The film will depict the different ways in which survivors are now helping to prevent terrorism by speaking out against violent extremist ideologies.Do you think that this film mentions a single Israeli victim of terror? One only needs to look at the list of members of this esteemed forum to know the answer without bothering to watch it. It reminds me of this insightful piece last week by Marty Peretz at TNR. I wish it would be historically possible—that is, historically honest—for Israel to be omitted from the long list of target countries that have been the victims of terrorism. Alas, it is not. But President Obama has a habit of making such lists, and he always fails to include Israel (or anyplace within its borders) as a target of this distinctive and most vicious form of warfare.And he brings examples. 
    |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2011 10:40 AM PDT This video, bouncing today around Syrian opposition websites and Al Arabiya, shows what is said to be a teenager being forced to kneel before and worship a photograph of Bashir Assad. He refuses and spits on the picture. I have no doubt that there is such cruelty, but I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the video. 
    |
| Israeli report on PA economy contradicts World Bank Posted: 14 Sep 2011 09:39 AM PDT The World Bank came out with a report on the Palestinian Arab economy a couple of days ago. Among its major points was this one: Economic growth in WB&G has slowed down in 2011, and together with the shortfall in external financing, this has led to a fiscal crisis for the PA. No significant easing of Israeli restrictions has taken place in 2011, so that the Palestinian private sector's potential remains thwarted. In addition, the PA's inability to pay its bills to suppliers in a timely manner has hurt business confidence. Though the PA has sought to reduce its need for external assistance, lower economic growth and lower-than-expected donor assistance have resulted in an acute fiscal crisis. The crisis has meant that the PA is now also struggling to meet its wage payment obligations.Everyone agrees that the PA is too heavily dependent on donor money in the public sector and that the private sector is the key to any chance for economic independence for the PA. Even Israel. In a new report released by the Government of Israel, it says: The PA now faces a financial crisis. The factors fueling the crisis include: the Palestinian budget's ongoing dependency on foreign aid and the shortfall in aid in 2011; the PA's inability to finance the shortfall through bank loans; the lack of sufficient internal resources to generate income; and a relatively large public sector which consumes a large portion of the budget. But contrary to the World Bank's assertion that Israel does nothing to help the private sector of the PA economy, Israel's report details a large number of initiatives done in the past year: According to data collected by Israel's Ministry of Finance, trade between Israel and the PA continued to grow by 7% during H1 of 2011. Overall Israeli sales to the PA grew by 8% while overall Israeli purchases from the PA grew by 2%. The total volume of bilateral trade exceeded NIS 7.5 billon in the first half of the 2011. A growing number of Israelis are now entering Area A in order to procure goods and services. They provide a significant contribution to the Palestinian economy in the West Bank.259% of the PA's GDP comes from Arabs working in Israel...and Israel is increasing the number of permits. Similarly, even though some 90% of the PA's exports go to Israel, there was a huge increase of exports to other markets. And Israel is facilitating this growth. I'm not sure whether the 9% figure includes those who are working in Judea and Samaria communities, but any way you look at it the PA's push to stop workers from being employed by Jews in the territories would have a major negative impact on the PA economy. The World Bank did not mention any of this, nor other Israeli moves to help the PA economy like upgrading crossings, transferring frequencies to the Wataniya Telecom Company and giving West Bank IDs to Gazans who live there. The World Bank report seems to spin the truth; it will combine the West Bank and Gaza when convenient and separate them when that would make Israel look worse. But here we see that it simply ignores direct Israeli contributions to helping grow the PA's private sector. Now, why might that be? 
    |
| Summing up "Palestine" (poster) Posted: 14 Sep 2011 08:35 AM PDT  (I updated the font and colors after people complained that it was a bit too hard to read.) 
    |
| PLO ambassador confirms: Palestine would be Judenrein Posted: 14 Sep 2011 07:23 AM PDT From USA Today: The Palestine Liberation Organization's ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews.Was he misquoted? Could he have really said "Israelis" or "Zionists"? Nope. Areikat was interviewed in Tablet last year and said this explicitly: So, you think it would be necessary to first transfer and remove every Jew—About two thirds of the nations of the world represented in the United Nations supports the establishment of a state that is, by definition, anti-semitic. It would not just an "apartheid" state - it would be a state whose very basis would be the ethnic cleansing of every single Jewish man, woman and child. We should be hearing the outraged condemnations from human rights groups any minute now. Of course. 
    |
| Erdogan calls for a secular state, upsets the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt Posted: 14 Sep 2011 06:40 AM PDT Palestine Press Agency reports that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian Islamist parties are very upset at one sentence in Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's speech in Cairo yesterday where he said "I call on Egyptians to build a secular Egypt." They are complaining that Erdogan is interfering in Egypt's internal affairs. Some believe it was a mistranslation from Turkish to Arabic, and others are saying that when Erdogan says "secular" he doesn't mean it in the normal sense but he was really speaking to his constituents at home. 
    |
| PalArab statehood bid unilateral - even within the PLO! Posted: 14 Sep 2011 05:49 AM PDT A quick rundown of Palestinian Arab politics:
PLO central council member Nabil Amr said Tuesday that the Palestinian request for full UN membership is not a "bid" but rather a diplomatic activity.If this is true, it means that the UN bid is not legal according to the PLO's own rules. The PNC never voted to approve the UN bid, and it is supposed to make all policy decisions. The only conclusion? Mahmoud Abbas is a totalitarian dictator, and the current UN bid is being led by someone who cannot even abide by the rules of the organizations he heads. 
    |
| Richard Falk freaks over Palmer, lies as usual, says Israel has no right to self defense Posted: 14 Sep 2011 03:21 AM PDT From Reuters: It is not until paragraph 10 that we find out the name of one of these "experts" - Richard Falk! Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday's statement, said the Palmer report's conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.Ah, Richard Falk. A man who is a the proven liar and twister of international law who explicitly supports terror against Israel and compares Israel to Nazis is opining about the impartiality of someone else's report. But let's look at the legal arguments of his team. Their press release says: Their main argument in this press release is that Israel's naval blockade cannot be separated from its closure of Gaza. Yet Palmer addresses this issue head-on, in paragraph 70: At this juncture, a word of clarification is necessary. The naval blockade is often discussed in tandem with the Israeli restrictions on the land crossings to Gaza. However, in the Panel's view, these are in fact two distinct concepts which require different treatment and analysis. First, we note that the land crossings policy has been in place since long before the naval blockade was instituted. 239 In particular, the tightening of border controls between Gaza and Israel came about after the take-over of Hamas in Gaza in June 2007. 240 On the other hand, the naval blockade was imposed more than a year later, in January 2009. 241 Second, Israel has always kept its policies on the land crossings separate from the naval blockade. The land restrictions have fluctuated in intensity over time 242 but the naval blockade has not been altered since its imposition. Third, the naval blockade as a distinct legal measure was imposed primarily to enable a legally sound basis for Israel to exert control over ships attempting to reach Gaza with weapons and related goods. 243 This was in reaction to certain incidents when vessels had reached Gaza via sea. 244 We therefore treat the naval blockade as separate and distinct from the controls at the land crossings. This is not to overlook that there may be potential overlaps in the effects of the naval blockade and the land crossings policy. 245 They will be addressed when appropriate. Likewise, the restrictions on the land crossings to Gaza are part of the context of our investigation, and our recommendations in Chapter 6 address the situation there. 246 But the legal elements of the naval blockade are analyzed on their own.As usual, Israel bashers ignore the substance of the argument and just use repeated assertions as proof. These "international law experts" cannot marshal a single argument against Palmer so they resort to calling themselves experts and assuming that people are too stupid to actually compare the arguments. But Falk himself is even more deceptive. He just co-wrote an article that also attacks Palmer and pretends to address the legality of Israel's naval blockade. The most significant finding of the report is its most dangerous and legally dubious: the conclusion that Israel's blockade of Gaza, in effect since mid-2007, was somehow, despite being severely harmful to the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza, a legitimate act of self-defense.The word "blockade" has a very specific legal meaning, and almost always refers specifically to a naval blockade (sometimes air.) When Falk says that Israel's "blockade" started in 2007 he knows he is lying - it started in 2009, during the Gaza war. Falk then says something that would be considered incredible if he already hadn't made a career of trampling on international law to demonize Israel: The report gives considerable attention to the illegal rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants mainly associated with Hamas, and notes, appropriately, that "stopping these violent acts was a necessary step for Israel to take in order to protect its people." But while that justifies protective action, it does not make the case for a valid claim of self-defense under international law.Yes, Falk is making another argument that Israel is not allowed to do anything in self-defense beyond sitting there and trying to shoot rockets out of the sky. Palmer disagrees: 74. Israel was entitled to take reasonable steps to prevent the influx of weapons into Gaza. With that objective, Israel established a series of restrictions on vessels entering the waters of Gaza. These measures culminated in the declaration of the naval blockade on 3 January 2009. There were a number of reasons why the previous restrictions were inadequate, primary among them being the need for the measures to be legally watertight.Falk, characteristically, is silent in responding to the actual legal arguments and instead makes up lies about the naval blockade - which is, in the end, not preventing a single shipment of humanitarian supplies from getting to Gaza. Palmer has the last word: 80. As a final point, the Panel emphasizes that if necessary, the civilian population in Gaza must be allowed to receive food and other objects essential to its survival. However, it does not follow from this obligation that the naval blockade is per se unlawful or that Israel as the blockading power is required to simply let vessels carrying aid through the blockade. On the contrary, humanitarian missions must respect the security arrangements put in place by Israel. They must seek prior approval from Israel and make the necessary arrangements with it. This includes meeting certain conditions such as permitting Israel to search the humanitarian vessels in question. The Panel notes provision was made for any essential humanitarian supplies on board the vessels to enter Gaza via the adjacent Israeli port of Ashdod, 281 and such an offer was expressly made in relation to the goods carried on the flotilla. 282 
    |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Elder of Ziyon To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה