| Who wants peace? And who doesn't? (video) Posted: 10 Nov 2011 08:39 PM PST A good one: 
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| Gaza children have really crappy amusement parks Posted: 10 Nov 2011 03:58 PM PST Gaza children celebrated Eid al Adha in an amusement park in Gaza City - but they didn't look happy about it.
They know that their amusement parks aren't nearly as good as Disney World or Six Flags. So while their parents try hard to buy them cheap toys to make them happy, they know, deep down, that their amusement parks are really crappy.
Flotillas are desperately needed to bring decent roller coasters, log flumes and teacup rides to the impoverished sector. Otherwise, Gaza children are forced to take junky rides like this one.
This is what an open-air prison amusement park looks like, and it isn't pretty. But you must force yourself to look at the horror and see what the reality is for Gaza children - every day.
Call Viva Palestina, ISM and Free Gaza to ask how you can help improve Gaza's amusement parks. Because, otherwise, it is a crime against humanity.
And if anyone gets killed because a ride is not maintained properly, it is a slow genocide against all Gaza kids.
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| Iranian anti-semitic film trailer - translated Posted: 10 Nov 2011 02:48 PM PST I mentioned earlier this week an anti-semitic Iranian film, and uploaded the trailer to YouTube. MEMRI now has a translation, and it is even worse than it appeared. Title: "Saturday Hunter" Woman: I am Jacqueline, your beautiful nurse. Cut to another scene Rabbi Hanan to grandson Benjamin: You should be grateful to God that He did not create us as women. Cut to another scene Rabbi Hanan to woman: In order to fend off immorality, I hereby purify this woman. Cut to another scene Rabbi Hanan: This is the rule of Hanan. Cut to another scene Rabbi Hanan: Marry me. Woman: I can't. Rabbi Hanan: I will buy you God's paradise for all eternity. God, shave all our sins away from our skins and our bones. Woman: But I am a Christian. I don't understand the Jews. Rabbi Hanan: We don't insist on religious women. Cut to another scene Title: "Saturday Hunter" Rabbi Hanan to Arab: We are the children of Abraham. Now, who are you? Cut to another scene Benjamin: In the Holy Book it is written that killing is forbidden. Rabbi Hanan: You idiot, the killing of Jews is forbidden. We seek peace. Footage of battlefield We are civilized people Footage of battlefield This is war, you infidels. Don't you get it? It's war. Footage of battlefield The whole world is waiting for you in silence. Benjamin: Oh, God! Rabbi Hanan: God waits for you in silence as well. Footage of battlefield Rabbi Hanan: You must not betray the Jews. Palestinian: I never want to taste failure or humiliation. There is nowhere for you to flee. They will kill you. Cut to another scene Rabbi Hanan: Never reveal your inner thoughts to anyone. 
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| Israeli contributions to US national interests Posted: 10 Nov 2011 12:50 PM PST From Tablet: Many foreign-policy experts, even as they acknowledge that the United States has a moral responsibility to stand with the sole democracy in the Middle East, argue that Israel is a strategic liability. Robert Blackwill, a high-level diplomat in Republican administrations and a self-described Kissingerian realist, is someone who you'd safely assume shares that view. But Blackwill wanted to see if that way of looking at things was actually true.
Along with Walter B. Slocombe, who served as undersecretary of Defense for Policy under President Bill Clinton, Blackwill detailed his findings in a paper just published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Israel: A Strategic Asset for the United States" argues that the United States not only shares national interests with the Jewish state—like preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and combating terrorism—but also reaps numerous advantages from the alliance.
The paper offers chapter and verse on Israeli contributions to the U.S. national interest. They include: Israeli counter-proliferation efforts, such as the 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility and the 2007 attack on Syria's secret nuclear facility at al-Kibar; joint military training exercises, as well as exchanges on military doctrine; Israeli technology, like unmanned aerial systems, armored vehicle protection, defense against short-range rocket threats, and robotics; missile defense cooperation; counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation; and cyber defense. Blackwill and Slocombe conclude that the alliance is in fact so central to U.S. national interests that U.S. policymakers should find ways to further enhance cooperation with Jerusalem.
Blackwill and Slocombe's detailed list is a unique event in the ongoing U.S. policy debate over the advisability of this bilateral relationship. Blackwill says that for all the media attention devoted to Israel, he and Slocombe were surprised to find no comprehensive account of Israel's contribution to the U.S. national interest existed previously. "I figured I'll just Google it," he told me this week over the phone. "But there was no existing encompassing list. So, we went item by item, making sure we had the facts straight. We didn't exaggerate or overstate the contribution." The authors gave a presentation about the paper at the Washington Institute on Tuesday: The paper itself can be seen here. Followng is the main part, that actually lists Israeli contributions to the US: Through joint training and exercises as well as exchanges on military doctrine, the United States has benefited in the areas of counterterrorism cooperation, tactical intelligence, and experience in urban warfare. The largest-ever U.S.-Israel joint exercise is scheduled for spring 2012.
Israeli technology promotes American interests. Increasingly, U.S. homeland security and military agencies are turning to Israeli technology to solve some of their most vexing technical problems. This support ranges from advice and expertise on behavioral screening techniques for airport security to acquiring an Israeli-produced tactical radar system to enhance force protection. Israel has been a world leader in the development of unmanned aerial systems, for both intelligence collection and combat, and it has shared with the U.S. military the technology, the doctrine, and its experience regarding these systems. Israel is also a global pacesetter in active measures for armored vehicle protection, defense against short-range rocket threats, and the techniques and procedures of robotics, all of which it has shared with the United States..
In the vital realm of missile defense cooperation, the United States has a broad and multifaceted relationship with Israel, its most sophisticated and experienced partner in this preeminent domain for the United States. Israel's national missile defenses—including the U.S. deployment in Israel of an advanced X-band radar system and the more than 100 American military personnel who man it—will be an integral part of a larger missile defense architecture spanning Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf that will help protect U.S. forces and allies throughout this vast area. For this reason, the director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency recently praised the specific contribution that Israel's integrated, multilayered command-and-control network makes to the U.S. military's ability to defend against the Iranian missile threat..
While it is certainly true that Israel gains significantly from generous U.S. financial assistance to its military—most of it spent in America—Israel's defense industries have certain unique competencies that benefit the United States. One result is the growing importance to the U.S. military of Israeli defense goods, as the United States has taken advantage of access to unique Israeli capabilities in key "niche" areas of military technology. Overall, the value of annual U.S. purchases of Israeli defense articles has increased steadily over the past decade, from less than a half billion dollars in the early 2000s to about $1.5 billion today. Among the Israelideveloped defense equipment used by the U.S. military are short-range unmanned aircraft systems that have seen service in Iraq and Afghanistan; targeting pods on hundreds of Air Force, Navy, and Marine strike aircraft; a revolutionary helmet-mounted sight that is standard in nearly all frontline Air Force and Navy fighter aircraft; lifesaving armor installed in thousands of MRAP armored vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan; and a gun system for close-in defense of naval vessels against terrorist dinghies and small-boat swarms. Moreover, American and Israeli companies are working together to jointly produce Israel's Iron Dome—the world's first combat-proven counter-rocket system..
Counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation is deep and extensive, with the United States and Israel working to advance their common interest in defeating the terrorism of Hamas, Hizballah, and al-Qaeda and its affiliate groups by sharing information, supporting preventive actions, deterring challenges, and coordinating overall strategy. Joint Special Forces training and exercises, collaboration on shared targets, and close cooperation among the relevant U.S. and Israeli security agencies testify to the value of this relationship..
More broadly, Israel is a full partner in intelligence operations that benefit both countries, such as efforts to interdict the supply of parts to Iran's nuclear program or to prevent weapons smuggling in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. This intimate relationship reinforces overall U.S. intelligence efforts by providing Washington with access to Israel's unique set of capabilities for collection and assessments on key countries and issues in the region, since Israel is able to focus resources and attention on certain targets of central importance to the United States. Such was the case, for example, when Israel passed to the United States conclusive photographic evidence that Syria, with North Korean assistance, had made enormous strides toward "going hot" with a plutoniumproducing reactor. As Israel's strategic intelligence collection capabilities (e.g., satellite and unmanned aerial systems) mature and improve, this cooperation and exchange of intelligence information and analysis will increasingly serve U.S. national interests..
Given that Iran and its allies in the greater Middle East represent clear and present dangers to U.S. interests, Israel's military—the most powerful in the region—plays an important role in addressing those threats posed especially by Syria, Hizballah, and to some extent, Iran itself. The ability of the Israeli armed forces to deter the military ambitions of destabilizing regional actors promotes American national interests because it presents our common enemies with an additional— and potent—military capability to resist their aggression..
Looking to the future, Israel's world-class expertise in two cutting-edge areas of national security—cyber defense and national resilience planning and implementation—will increasingly redound to the benefit of the United States. Israel is a primary place where the United States can build an enduring partnership to try to secure the cyber commons, as enunciated in the administration's International Strategy for Cyberspace. With its world-class information technology, R&D, and cybersecurity capabilities, Israel will be an ever more important player in efforts to secure cyberspace and to protect critical U.S. national infrastructure from cyberattack. Through the Israel-based activities of major U.S. companies or the licensing in the United States of Israeli technologies, Israel's excellence in cybersecurity already benefits critical U.S. infrastructure such as banking, communications, utilities, transportation, and general Internet connectivity. And if security concerns of both parties can be managed, Israel can become a major partner in efforts to exploit the military applications of cyberpower, in the same way that the two countries have established collaborative relationships in intelligence and counterterrorism. Finally, drawing on its experience in building a flourishing economy and vibrant democracy despite decades of conflict and terrorism, Israel has a role to play in helping the United States deepen its own internal resilience in dealing with terrorist threats against the homeland and the impact of natural disasters..
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| Ha'aretz outdoes itself Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:33 AM PST In the middle of an otherwise fairly straightforward news article about Israel releasing female prisoners, Ha'aretz illustrates the story - and captions the photo - this way: How objective Ha'aretz is! UPDATE: The inevitable, silent correction: (h/t DF) 
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| Ambition: Undecided Posted: 10 Nov 2011 10:30 AM PST Here is the yearbook picture of Natie Finkel, who graduated from the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago in 1960.
He became a rabbi, Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and grew to become the head of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem where he built it into the largest yeshiva in Israel, with over 6000 students, over the past 21 years.
100,000 people attended his funeral. Not bad for a kid from Chicago who didn't know what he would be doing after high school. 
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| Propaganda from a "Palestinian theologian" Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:10 AM PST Hudson-NY has an interesting article by Malcolm Love about "Palestinian theologian" Mitri Raheb. Here are some excerpts: The "first assumption" of his new way of thinking, he announced, is that "the Bible could not have been written anywhere else but in Palestine." Now, such books as Esther and Revelation explicitly state that they were composed outside the Land of Israel (in Persia and on a Greek island respectively). Is Raheb so ignorant of his Bible?
His second assumption is outrageous, echoing nineteenth century attempts to obscure the Jewish origins of Jesus, which peaked in the "Aryan Christianity" of Nazi Germany. It is that "the Palestinian people and part of the Jewish people are the continuation of the peoples of the land" whereas "Israel represents Rome of the Bible, not the people of the land."
Why? Because "I'm sure if we were to do a DNA test between David, who was a Bethlehemite, and Jesus, born in Bethlehem, and Mitri, born just across the street from where Jesus was born, I'm sure the DNA will show that there is a trace. While, if you put King David, Jesus and Netanyahu, you will get nothing, because Netanyahu comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages."
Even if Raheb's claims about the ancestry of himself and Binyamin Netanyahu were true, he would be putting them at the service of a shameless racism. But, of course, he also has not the slightest evidence to support those claims. He knows nothing of Netanyahu's ancestry. And he himself, for all he knows, may be descended from Greek pilgrims or from Europeans who arrived with the Crusaders, as I have pointed out elsewhere. As for DNA, had he taken the trouble, Raheb could have found that genetic studies on Jews have shown that European Jews are genetically much more closely related to Jews in the Middle East, and even to some non-Jews there, than to non-Jewish Europeans.
Recall that the leitmotif of "Christ at the Checkpoint" was the claim that today Israeli checkpoints would prevent Joseph, Mary and Jesus from ever getting to Bethlehem. In fact, of course, if today a Jewish couple expecting their first child tried to set up house in Bethlehem, they would be denounced by the UN, the US State Department and all the world's foreign ministries as illegal settlers. And Mary would be lucky to live long enough to give birth.
So here comes Raheb to the rescue. As Yasser Arafat liked to say, Jesus and Mary were not Jews but Palestinians; so no problem. "And being born just across the street from where Jesus was born," adds Raheb, "I always loved to say that most probably one of my grand, grand, grand, grandmas used to babysit for Jesus." Once again, Raheb displays ignorance of or contempt for his Bible. According to Matthew's Gospel, the Holy Family fled Bethlehem for Egypt shortly after the birth of Jesus. If anyone babysat for Jesus, it was Copts.
We need not pursue further Raheb's "new thinking" except to note its fundamental aim: to show that wherever the Bible talks about a Chosen People, it means today's Palestinians and specifically the Palestinian Arab Christians. Yes, he really means to make that preposterous claim. Consider a few quotations, and note that his initial inclusion of "part of the Jewish people" has vanished: now it is just Palestinians.
"Actually, the Palestinian Christians are the only ones in the world that, when they speak about their forefathers, they mean their actual forefathers, and also the forefathers in the faith." "So, that is the reality of the peoples of the land. Again, they aren't Israel. This experience I'm talking about, it's only the Palestinians who understand this, because Israel represents Rome." "It was our forefathers to whom the revelation was given..."
If one reads attentively all the "Palestinian theology" produced by Raheb and Ateek and their like, one finds that this claim about Palestinian chosenness, with the concomitant disqualification of Israel, is the whole point of the exercise. All the rest is baseless rigmarole, churned out in the attempt to get to that conclusion.
I didn't know it was so easy to make up theologies. Good to know. Maybe I'll make one up where Palestinian Arabs are really Philistines and quote liberally from Samuel I 7. 
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| Iran ups the ante Posted: 10 Nov 2011 08:00 AM PST FARS news reports that a senior Iranian official is threatening World War III if Iran is attacked: Responding to a question about Iran's capability to target Dimona nuclear facility in the occupied Palestinian territories, Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri told Al Alam News Network that the center "is the most accessible center to Iran", and stressed that Iran enjoys the capability even to target areas farther the nuclear plant.
As regards a possible US or Israeli military aggression against Iran, Jazayeri underscored, "Our capabilities and our defensive tactics will definitely make the enemies, including the US and the Zionists, repent (their action)."
"The US or any other regime may initiate a war, but definitely they will not be the side who ends it," he underlined, and stated, "Iran can manage any military move."
Last night, a senior member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Commission warned that Israel would find itself in war with Iran in Tel Aviv streets if it dared to attack the Islamic Republic.
"Israel is not in the size to launch a military strike on Iran, but if it takes such a foolish action, the Iranian militaries will fight with the Zionist soldiers in Tel Aviv streets and will force them out of the Palestinian soil," member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi told FNA on Tuesday.
Naqavi also warned that in case Iran comes under a military attack, the battlefield won't be Iran, but "the entire Europe and the US".
"Iranian forces will fight with the enemies with maximum might and power all throughout the European and US soil, if Iran comes under attack," he reiterated. And Iran's Supreme Leader says that Iran will attack even if it feels threatened: Iran "will respond with full force" to any attack − or even any threat of military action − the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told students at a Tehran military college Thursday.
"The enemies, especially America and its stooges and the Zionist regime (Israel), should know that it is not Iran's custom to invade any country or nation. But it will respond with full force to any aggression or even threats in a way that will demolish the aggressors from within," he said, according to a statement on his official website. Another Iranian "expert" was quoted in PressTV: He said Israel is more vulnerable in difficult times "because even if Israel fires 100 missiles at Iran it will not even displace a few Iranian families" but four ordinary Iranian missiles are enough to make one million Zionists flee. 
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| Arab newspapers call ALL of Jerusalem "occupied" Posted: 10 Nov 2011 06:58 AM PST The Jordan Times is owned by the Jordan Press Foundation - which is majority owned by Jordan's government, making it a government newspaper. The Jordan Times routinely changes the dateline of wire service stories from "Jerusalem" to " Occupied Jerusalem" - even when the story has nothing to do with any part of Jerusalem that Israel won in 1967. They aren't the only English-language Arab newspaper to do so; we see the same in the Daily Star Lebanon, Khaleej Times, Bahrain News Agency, Oman Tribune, and Al Arabiya (although the latter is inconsistent.) When Israel asserts that contested areas will remain under Israeli control, the world freaks out. But these daily Arab assertions that supposedly uncontested areas are "occupied" - even from a country that has a peace treaty with Israel - elicits not a peep of protest from any Western nation. 
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| Praise for a master terrorist on the anniversary of Arafat's death Posted: 10 Nov 2011 05:34 AM PST Tomorrow is the seventh anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, and Fatah-oriented newspapers are starting their annual love-fest with the master terrorist already. Palestine Press Agency has two articles so far. One is about Nasser al Kidwa, Arafat's nephew and former "foreign minster," who has been spending years trying to prove that Arafat was poisoned by Israel. Two years ago he announced that he was very, very close to the proof he needed. This article sounds much the same, as Kidwa announced that he is about to finish translating the French medical report into Arabic. He claims that the French could not say he was poisoned for political reasons, but his interpretation of the report leaves no doubt in his mind that Israel poisoned him with an unknown poison whose effects mirror every symptom Arafat had. Kidwa will die before he manages to accomplish his life's work. No doubt of secret Israeli poison. (Or the ever popular Joo-Rays.)  The second article is about how Arafat was brilliant at keeping all his terrorist factions together in the name of unity. Here's the photo that accompanied the story, showing Arafat with Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin whose own death was also in 2004. Wafa also lauds Arafat's ability to unify and his terrorist history, saying that his opposition to external influence cost him his life. They also have an interview with Fatah member Abbas Zaki, praising "Abu Ammar" on his military and political skill as well as his refusal to make peace in 2000. Because, it seems, peace is one of those "red lines" that cannot be crossed. 
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| Another explosion at Egyptian gas pipeline Posted: 10 Nov 2011 02:27 AM PST From Reuters: Saboteurs blew up the gas pipeline between Egypt, Israel and Jordan on Thursday in Northern Sinai using remote controlled bombs, forcing it to shut down, Egyptian security sources said.
The first blast, the sixth since the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and the seventh this year, was near Mazar area, 30 kilometers west of the town of Al-Arish, security sources and witnesses said.
Witnesses saw a second, smaller explosion west of Al-Arish near a pumping station, state news agency MENA reported. The report said it was not clear whether any damage was done. The explosions are the first since pumping resumed on Oct. 24.
"Primary examination showed that Improvised Explosive Devices were put under the pipeline and were detonated from a distance," a security source told Reuters.
"The attackers used two trucks and extended wires were found at the scene," he added.
Residents in Al-Arish told Reuters that flames could be seen from the town. Witnesses told MENA that security forces and fire fighters had controlled the fire. At Jordan's Ammon News site, there is a bit of exasperation in the talkbacks, with people blaming Egypt, Hamas, and - of course - Israel. 
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The second article is about how Arafat was brilliant at keeping all his terrorist factions together in the name of unity. Here's the photo that accompanied the story, showing Arafat with Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin whose own death was also in 2004.
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