יום רביעי, 19 בדצמבר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

Surprise! Hamas bans EU observers from Rafah

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST

On Monday, I reported that the EU, absurdly, expected to be able to resume monitoring the Rafah border with the EUBAM. I noted that there is no way that Hamas would allow such a thing unless the EUBAM mandate, which I quoted, was radically changed.

It turns out that Hamas responded pretty much as I expected.

From Middle East Monitor:
The Head of the Gaza Border Agency, Maher Abu-Sabha, has refused entry to the EU Mission charged with monitoring the border with Egypt at Rafah. The Mission was planning to return to Gaza after an absence of six years.

Speaking to a Palestinian newspaper, Abu-Sabha insisted that the Rafah Crossing is Palestinian and is under absolute Palestinian sovereignty. "There is no need for an EU mission in Rafah," he said.

EU High representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said earlier that the EU is thinking about resuming the work of the EU mission at the Rafah Crossing; it was suspended when Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006.

"Why does the EU think that it needs to come back?" asked Abu-Sabha. "Didn't it abandon Palestinian patients who needed the mission's help to cross the border for treatment abroad?"
But will EUBAM be dismantled? Nah. Doing that would be tantamount to admitting that well-meaning moonbats cannot compete with radical Islamists.

So EUBAM employees will continue doing the easiest job in the world, hanging out in Israel with nothing to do and getting a nice salary. As they have for the past five years. (They occasionally pretend to consult for the PA security services to justify their existence.)

(h/t Josh)

The UN tried to take Israeli territory in 1957

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 08:00 PM PST

From Yaacov Lozowick's "Israel's Documented Story" blog:
As noted earlier this week, only once between 1956 and 1958 was there a discussion of any real interest in the Ministers' Committee for Foreign Affairs and Security - but that once it was very interesting. The most interesting part of all was when Foreign Minister Golda Meir reported about tensions with the United Nations.

...The armistice agreements of 1949 had left some patches of territory inside Israel's borders as demilitarized zones.

 ...Golda and her colleagues were convinced the UN was trying to undermine Israeli sovereignty in those areas (within the 1967 borders, of course). So, August 11th 1957:
Golda Meir: For a while now there's been tension and a sort of struggle with the UN officials including with Mr. Hammarskjold. Recently however Hammarskjold has stepped back a bit and he operates through Leary. General [Eedson] Burns [Leary's predecessor, whom we've already met here] filled Hammarskjold's orders, but he did so with charm. Leary doesn't know how to do that.
It's clear that Hammarskjold intends to demonstrate with facts that the demilitarized zones are not the same as the rest of Israel. His position is that these areas have a special status, and the UN has enhanced authority in them. He's never said so openly, nor has he asked us to agree with him, but his actions make clear that he sees it that way, for example when he insists the UN obsevers enjoy greater independence in those areas and need not liase with IDF officers.
Recently he [Leary] wanted to station observers above the [B'not Yaacov] Bridge [over the Jordan on the Syrian border]. We said: no, there's no need. He said, OK, so there will be visits of observers. We agreed to visits. So what did he do? He came one day and announced  he'd put an observer there. Joseph Tekoa, of the Foreign Ministry, responded: What do you mean you're announcing. You must ask. He said it's demilitarized and he was announcing, not asking. Tekoa told him that wouldn't work and brought the matter to me. Of course we told [Leary] there was no such option: no observers and no special authority in that area. He went back to saying observers would visit. I said OK. What's he doing now? Fist an observer stood there an hour then left. A bit later another one came and stood there an hour. Now he has them standing there four hours, to be repalced by someone else for four hours. We told him again we would not allow it to become an observers position.
Our problem is that no outsider will understand what we're quarreling with them for. Possibly even some Israelis won't understand.
Justice Minister Pinchas Rosenne: I'm one of those.
Golda Meir: I'm surprised at you. At a different place we quarreled with them about another little detail. The wanted to raise the UN flag over one of the positions. One of our officers was positioned there too, we said it's Israeli territory, there's an IDF officer there, there's no way you're going to fly the UN flag. There's no precedent for such behavior. If you insist on a UN flag there will be an Israeli flag above it. They said no, that would anger the Syrians. We said Fine, so no flag at all. So they raised the UN flag, and when we saw that we raised our flag above it. He was angry and reported to Hammarskjold, who must also have been angry. They took their flag down, and then we took ours down, too. Then he wanted his observers to spend the night there. We said we don't see any sense in that but if they wish, fine. Leary then said the overnight observers must be armed. We said none of them are armed anywhere else in the country and they won't be armed there either... What Hammarskjold is trying to achieve is that the demilitarized zone isn't under full Israeli sovereignty, and once he suceeds at that he'll apply the same reasoning to the demilitarized zone on the Egyptian border.
I found some similar issues discussed in Foreign Relations of the United States from 1960, also with comments from Golda Meir:

Pass OSD, Army, Navy, and Air. Joint Embassy, Army and Air Attaché message. Reference Embassy telegram 729.2 In long discussion evening February 1 Foreign Minister made following points about southern demilitarized zone (DMZ) situation:

1. Decision to "clean up military base" old Tawafiq taken by Cabinet afternoon January 31.

2. In reply my query whether Israeli action not contrary to paragraph 5(B) Article V armistice agreement, she did not disagree but said it was necessary prevent further loss of life and in "interests self-defense within our border." She also mentioned Article 51 UN Charter.

3. Israeli Army not going attack and will take no action except in self-defense. I inquired whether Israel as UN member would act in conformity Articles I and II UN Charter, to which she responded, "of course." I then asked whether reported northward movement troops and equipment might not be misinterpreted. She stated she had not asked Prime Minister particulars these movements but she believed he would do what was necessary, and further that it was better to be alive and misinterpreted than be dead and eulogized.

4. On DMZ history Mrs. Meir said Israel had made over 700 complaints to UN and MAC. "UN more to blame than Syrians" and should have made an attempt to get Syrians to stop work. Last Saturday she had sent personal word to Von Horn and to Cordier through Tekoah urging return to "status quo" and Israel's complete willingness discuss matter. GOI considered DMZ as much of Israel as Tel Aviv and would not discuss with Syrians anything pertaining to DMZ. Israel would discuss with Syrians questions border tranquility and would discuss with chairman of MAC or Von Horn Arab cultivation and grazing rights in DMZ if Arabs had previously cultivated land. Mrs. Meir added one thing certain these Syrians "not farmers" and action "pure and simple attempt to get foothold in Israel territory called DMZ."

Comment: At end of meeting I again urged on Mrs. Meir the need for fullest cooperation with UN, the danger of misinterpretation by other countries over reported substantial troop movements even if defensive in character, and the need to find a constructive peaceful solution to present situation. She said Israel "day or night would be prepared for discussion," but that the "UN should tell the Syrians to stop this." She was willing to see Von Horn "any time." Mrs. Meir concluded, we are concerned with "self-defense of our people; not looking for a war."
There was tension along the DMZ in 1964 as well.

Israel's oil shale reserves update

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST

I came across this video from a conference last week that explains everything you need to know about Israel's significant oil shale reserves and how they can be extracted efficiently:



The speaker, Dr. Howard Vinegar (who is a world-renowned expert on the topic,) says that within the decade Israel could be energy independent just from shale at a production price of $40 per barrel, much less than the current price of oil. Israel's total reserves rivals those of Saudi Arabian oil.

This is all besides Israel's huge offshore natural gas deposits.

Meanwhile, another Middle Eastern country that doesn't have much in the way of traditional oil reserves is also sitting on top of huge oil shale deposits.
Jordan has approximately 40-80 billion tons of oil shale (about 34 billion barrels of shale oil) that could last for over 900 years at current consumption, said a top official at an Estonian company tapping the Kingdom's reserves of oil shale.
The economic map of the Middle East will be completely redrawn in the coming years.

Ignoring evidence EU funds paid for PLO terror

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST

Here is a 2008 letter written by Paul van Buitenen, a former Dutch MEP who did his own research on the way EU money was spent by the PA. It has not been made public until now. (This has been scanned and OCRed, so there might be minor errors.)

Buitenen charges that the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF ignored evidence that money given by the EU to the PA was diverted to buying weapons for use in terror attacks.


European Antifraud Office (OLAF) The Director-General
Mr. F-H. Brüner
30, Rue Joseph Il
B-1049 Brusseis

Subject:
Palestinian monies Final Case Report

Place and Date:
Breda (NL), 28 April 2008

Dear Mr. Brüner,

The European Union financially supports the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian society as well as organisations that work in the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. This is performed through various mechanisms, either directly by the EU, or indirectly through the EU Member states individually, the World Bank or through United Nations organisations such as UNRWA. Although EU-support already started in the year 1994, more structural support started in the year 2000 and has since then increased to the present level of an estimated amount of almost 800 million per year (exact figures not known to me). The amount of this EU financial support, is unmatched by any other EU support in the world, if compared to the size of the Palestinian territories and population.

Following allegations in the past that some of the EU funding to the Palestinians may have been used for corruption or financing of terrorist activities, the European Parliament initiated a Working Group (WG) in March 2003 (active until March 2004), while OLAF carried out an investigation into these allegations in 2003 and 2004, with a Final Case Report and press release in March 2005.

The WG analysed the EU Direct Budgetary Assistance (DBA) to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The period under their examination was the end of 2000 to the end of 2002. Next to its task to assess the decisions of the European Commission with respect to the DBA, it was to establish whether the above mentioned allegations were founded.

With respect to the documents handed over by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) which claimed these would prove transfers of funds to terrorist activities, the WG report (endorsed by Wynn, on behalf of the Committee of Budgets, and Mrs. Theato, on behalf of the Budgetary Control Committee) states that the Commission responded as followed:
"many of these documents were already known and had been commented upon. Furthermore, many documents related to the period before 2000 when EU was not supporting the PA budget". Moreover, the report also claims that the evidence was insufficient since "proven execution of payment" were missing (pp. 6). Also OLAF holds the view that it discards the documents provided by the IDF as evidence which would be acceptable in court since these were "based on, or largely rely on, intelligence reports" (pp. 7). The IDF, however, remained convinced that EU funds were used for terrorist purposes while the Minister of Finance of the PA at the time, Mr Fayyad (Minister of Finance since June 2002, Prime Minister since June 2007), denied these claims. While the other report of Mr. Laschet (on behalf of the Committee of Foreign Affairs) confirms this position of OLAF, it does state that "this is OLAF's way of proceeding. However from a political point of view, the numerous documents with President Arafat's signature and authorising the payment cannot be discarded" (Draft Conclusions by Laschet, pp. 13). Both reports finally conclude that the allegations of payments to terrorists cannot be proven.

This OLAF investigation covered the Palestinian Authority budget period of 2000 to 2003. On 17 March 2005, OLAF published an official press release stating:
"On the basis of the information currently available to OLAF, the investigation has found no conclusive evidence of support of armed attacks or unlawful activities financed by the European Commission's contributions to the budget. However, the possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority's budget and other resources, cannot be excluded, due to the fact that the internal and external audit capacity in the Palestinian Authority is still underdeveloped."

Moreover, the press release also contains the following passage which is not elaborated upon any further:

"However, there are consistent indications to support the hypothesis that it cannot be excluded that some of the assets of the PA may have been used by some individuals for other than the intended purposes"

On 12 January 2006 and 6 November 2006, I have made a request for access to the 2005 Final Case Report of OLAF on the alleged abuses of the spending of the subsidies received by the Palestinian Authority. You refused such access on 3 April 2006 and on 18 December 2006.

On 17 January 2007, the former chairman of the EP Committee on Budget Control, Fazakas MEP, also asked access to this OLAF report under the provisions of the framework agreement between the Commission and Parliament. You replied on 22 February 2007 in which you offered a confidential 10-page summary of the OLAF report. This summary did not meet the needs of the Committee on Budgetary Control as it did not reveal any additional substantial information in comparison to the press release of 17 April 2005, which OLAF had published on its report.

On 25 April 2007, the newly appointed chairman of the EP Committee on Budget Control, Bösch MEP, reiterated the request for access to the OLAF Final Case Report on the Palestinian moneys. He even suggested access to be granted just to one member of the Budget Control Committee, namely me. On 25 May 2007, you refused to grant access, even under the confidentiality clauses that are applicable for such circumstances.

On 17 July 2007, OLAF gave a presentation behind closed doors, in the Budget Control Committee, on the results of the investigations, which were covered in their report of March 2005. Again no new information was given to the MEP's.

Finally, on my parliamentary question of 2nd October 2007, requesting further clarifications on the conclusions of the 2005 OLAF investigation as well as the follow-up that was given, the Commission, on proposal of OLAF, replied on 29th November 2007 that the OLAF conclusions were confidential and that disclosing them would undermine public security, military matters, international relations and commercial interests.

This leaves me, as Member of the parliamentary Committee on Budget Control, with the question what indications were found by OLAF towards abuses of the Palestinian moneys and whether the conclusions, as presented in the OLAF press release, actually cover the contents of the findings in the Final Case Report. As OLAF systematically refused to provide me and the EP Committee on Budget Control with any substantial information on this matter, l have tried to obtain the information that OLAF possesses, elsewhere.

For the OLAF investigation, the Israeli Authorities provided extensive information to OLAF, including documentation from the Palestinian Authority and Fatah that they had confiscated during the operation 'Defensive Shield' in 2002, when they entered the Ramallah Headquarters of the late PA President Arafat. According to the Israelis, this information contained clear evidence of PA support to terrorist activities. When I asked some Israeli Authorities to provide me with the same information, they initially promised me to provide the material, but finally I did not get it. Informally, one of the Israeli officials told me that the Israelis did not want to undermine the position of Fatah and President Abbas in their power struggle with Hamas. Revealing incriminating material to a Member of the European Parliament that would prove corruption and the financial support of terrorists by Fatah and/or the Palestinian Authority would have an undermining effect and was to be avoided by the Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile however, I have managed to obtain parts of this material through informal channels. After studying the material, I conclude that its contents confirms what the Israeli authorities have stated all along. The documents show clear evidence that the High representatives within the Palestinian Authority, including President Arafat himself, at least until April 2002, which is almost two years after the start of massive and structural EU financial support to the PA, were providing financial support to a significant number of known terrorists as well as supporting the dealing and production of light and heavy arms.


Copies of letters and lists showing the names of these terrorists and proving the involvement of the highest political authorities within the PA are now in my possession and must also be in the possession of OLAF. The hand-written notes and signatures of Arafat, asking the PA Treasury department to execute payments to many lists with between 5 and 20 named terrorists each, of S350, S600 and $800 per person, leave no doubt of the involvement of the official Palestinian Authority Treasury.

Also documents with altogether 150 Fatah activists were found on which it is shown that these Fatah activists are integrated on the payroll of the official Palestinian Authority security forces. Yet another example are the financial reports that were found with the costs of a production plant for heavy artillery rockets and mortars (costs $80,000), as well as the calculation of financial needs for the buying of rockets, bombs and rifle ammunition. This is the same Palestinian Authority Treasury that received, at the same time (in 2001/2002) millions of Euros from the European Union as Direct Budgetary Assistance to the same budget as from which these abusive payments were made.

In sharp contradiction with these findings is the official OLAF press release of 17 2005, concerning the closure of the OLAF investigation into the allegations of abuses by the Palestinian Authority over the period 2000-2003. In this press release, OLAF concludes the following (I repeat):

"On the basis of the information currently available to OLAF, the investigation has found no conclusive evidence of support of armed attacks or unlawful activities financed by the European Commission's contributions to the budget. However, the possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority'5 budget and other resources, cannot be excluded, due to the fact that the interna/ and external audit capacity in the Palestinian Authority is stil/ underdeveloped."

On 24 April 2008, I met with your chief investigator in charge of Palestinian moneys, Vlogaert, in his office at OLAF, who confirmed that you gave clearance for this meeting. I informed Mr. Vlogaert that I could not match the information I possess on the Palestinian Authority support to terrorist activities with the text of the official OLAF press release on this matter. After I showed to Mr. Vlogaert some of the documents that I obtained he confirmed to me that OLAF had received similar information and that they had taken it into account in their investigation. The conclusions of the OLAF final case report would confirm the following:


  • It was established that in the years 2001 and 2002, indeed payments from the official Palestinian Authority budget have effectively been made by the Palestinian Authority Treasury to terrorists and terrorist activities.
  • At the same time, the European Union contributed substantially to this same official Palestinian Authority Budget.
  • It is not realistic to make a distinction between parts of the PA budget that would originate from EU moneys and parts that would not originate from EU sources. The PA budget, from which these irregular payments originated, was one budget of which the EU moneys were one of the substantial sources.


During the meeting, I agreed to submit to OLAF a copy of all the material that I have obtained concerning irregularities with the Palestinian budget. OLAF would then check whether they are already in possession of this material or whether there is new information included. I would get feedback on this from OLAF. Please find this material attached to this letter.

Therefore, I have the following questions:

1. Can you confirm the above observations made concerning the OLAF Final Case Report?

2. Which members of the European Parliament Working Group received access to the documents as handed over by the IDF to OLAF?

3. Why did OLAF not provide this information to the European Parliament, but instead chose to stick to its official declaration made in the press release of 17th March 2005, as quoted above?

4. As the parliamentary Working Group concluded in its report of March 2004 that there was no proof of execution of payments, did you inform the parliament that OLAF indeed found proof of payment on request by President Arafat, by the PA Treasury to terrorists?

5. What information did OLAF transmit to the European Commission on its conclusions of the Final case report? Did the Commission get a copy of the complete Final Case Report? Did either the Israeli authorities or the Palestinian Authorities receive a copy of the Final Case Report? Did any other organization or individual receive a copy of the Final Case Report or their conclusions?

6. Can OLAF confirm to me in detail whether the information attached to this letter was
already in possession of OLAF in the course of its investigation that lead to the report on which the 17 March press release was issued?

Paul van Buitenen
Copy: Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of the fight against fraud, Mr. Siim Kallas

Attachments:
Copies of captured IDF documents from the Palestinian Authority, with translations and explanations by the Israeli Defence Forces; 141 pages.

Much of Israel's documentation and findings can be seen here, including documents with Arafat's signature authorizing payments to terrorists.

It appears that the EU stonewalled the investigation into misuse of funds by the PA.

See also this 2005 analysis from EU Funding:


If the aid was effective in alleviating poverty, the World Bank may not have been moved to comment "55% of those who receive emergency assistance are not needy.... 32% of the needy do not receive emergency assistance." [Related story]
If the aid has been effective, then Muhammed Dahlan, Abu Mazen's close ally, would hardly have stated in August 2004 that all of the funds which foreign countries had donated to the Palestinian Authority, a total of $5bn "have gone down the drain, and we don't know to where." [Related story]
To put it bluntly, aid has been diverted and the EC cannot admit it.


(h/t MP, CHA)

British Muslim MP praises Israel

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST

From Daphne Anson:
I am a proud, British-born Muslim, and I love my country more than any other place on earth.

But, if for some reason, I had to leave, with my young family, and I was told that I must go and live in the Middle East, where would I decide to go?

Would I choose Dubai, with its vibrant city life and soaring skyscrapers?

No.

Would I choose Saudi Arabia, a fabulously wealthy nation and the birthplace of the holy Prophet Mohammed?

No.

There is only one place I could possibly go: Israel, the only nation in the Middle East that shares the same democratic values as Britain.

And the only nation in the Middle East where my family would feel the warm embrace of freedom and liberty.

Thus spoke Sajid Javid, MP for Bromsgrove since 2010 and, since September this year, economic secretary to the Treasury, addressing the 700 attendees at a business lunch of Conservative Friends of Israel last week.

Mr Javid, who is married to a Christian, observed:
In Britain, we are rightly very proud of our long history as a nation. But we are mere beginners compared to Israel, a nation that is governing itself in the same territory, under the same name, with the same religion, and the same language as it did 3,000 years ago. Now that's what I call sustainability!

Israel is a country about which almost everyone has a passionate opinion — an opinion which they're not usually shy about sharing, especially when that opinion is based on total ignorance.

If you want to have any chance of understanding the complexities of the Middle East, you can't just read about Israel, you have to experience it.

(h/t Ian)

Tuesday links

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST

From Ian:
Paper peace, paper god
Israel, like Britain's Chamberlain, sacrificed lives and resources for an article of faith. We cannot retrieve the lost lives, but we can stop making the blood sacrifices.
Let's start by admitting what we can see and hear with our eyes and ears: The PLO Accords of 1993 and the Gaza pull-out of 2005 did not serve peace, only the PLO, Hamas and the false god of paper.
Let's stop worshiping the false god, and let's stop pretending that the PLO and Hamas ever want to be our friends.

Ed Koch: Collaborators Then, Collaborators Now
The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas has refused to sit at a peace conference without preconditions for the last two years. President Abbas may desire peace, but he knows that if he were to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel, the Muslim Jihadists worldwide as well as his neighbors on the West Bank and Gaza, supporters of Hamas, would kill him. The European leaders know that but continue to blame Israel for a lack of peace when they know better. Shame on them.

UN Watch: Human Rights Watch Should Remove Antisemitic U.N. Official Richard Falk from Its Board
We are shocked to discover that Richard Falk—the U.N. official whose antisemitic remarks and 9/11 conspiracy theories have been condemned by British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay—is a board member of your organization.
By legitimizing this racist and enemy of human rights, your organization undermines its own founding principles. We urge you to remove him immediately.

'Disturbing' Video Shows 'Brutal' Israeli Occupation
A new video shows the Palestinian Authority under Israeli "occupation." PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently accused Israel of "waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people via the demolition of their homes" in Judea and Samaria.
The photos speak for themselves.

BBC Watch: BBC's Connolly reports on ME Christians: omits the one place they thrive
You can always tell that Christmas is on the horizon by the fact that as the nights get longer, Western journalists suddenly develop an interest in Christianity in the Middle East. To his credit, the BBC Jerusalem Bureau's Kevin Connolly at least refrained from going down the over-trodden route of tracking down a photo-op with a wizened old shepherd from Bethlehem.

Israeli Embassy's 'lynching Jesus' Facebook post sparks Irish ire
'Problematic' Christmas message claiming Palestinians would kill Jesus and Mary if they were living in today's Bethlehem removed after outcry
"A thought for Christmas… If Jesus and mother Mary were alive today, they would, as Jews without security, probably end up being lynched in Bethlehem by hostile Palestinians. Just a thought……."

Nezar Hindawi loses parole bid
A man jailed for 45 years for plotting to blow up an Israeli airliner has lost a High Court battle for parole.
Lawyers for Jordanian Nezar Hindawi, 57, said he no longer posed a threat and it was safe to release him on licence.
Hindawi planted a bomb in his pregnant fiancee's hand luggage on a flight from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv in 1986. The device could have killed 375 people had security staff not found it.

Rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Syrian rebels seize camp after pro-Assad fighters pull out; report states 95 percent of Palestinian families flee Yarmouk.
The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Many PFLP-GC fighters defected to the rebel side and their leader Ahmed Jibril left the camp two days ago, rebel sources said.

U.N. sees risk of escalation in Syrian-Israeli tensions in Golan
A U.S. and Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution to extend a peacekeeping mission in a demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel warns that tensions between the neighbours could escalate as Syria's civil war spills into the area.

UN Sending Chemical Weapons Kits to Troops in Golan
The United Nations is sending chemical weapons kits to troops in the Golan Heights because of growing fears over Syria's arsenal.

Sharia enforcers attack Egyptian cafes
Hazemoun and Ahrar movements attacked people at cafes in Cairo, chanting "Sharia is lifestyle," witnesses said.

'Friend a Soldier' Connects IDF Troops With Internet Users Around the World
An online initiative meant to enable dialogue between former Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Internet users from around the world has relaunched a newly designed website.

Individual approach to online learning, Israeli style
One might expect some pretty fancy jujitsu moves from a company named Mindojo (for "mind" and "dojo," a martial arts gym). And indeed, Mindojo founder Guy Zaslavsky's online learning startup has just raised more than $2 million for a technology that Zaslavsky states confidently will "revolutionize education."
Expected to debut in early 2013, the new Mindojo platform will allow individuals or a companies to create an online course that will automatically adapt to each student's needs and learning style. The platform can be used for any subject that's textbook based.

Ambassador Oren, Jewish Leaders, Mourn Sen. Inouye
Israel owes Sen. Inouye "an immense debt," says Ambassador Oren. Agudath Israel, Chabad and others mourn his passing.
The Jewish People owe the late Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye "an immense historic debt," Israel Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said after the pro-Israel senator died Monday at the age of 88 from respiratory complications.
"The Iron Dome system that recently intercepted hundreds of terrorist rockets aimed at our homes stands as enduring proof of his commitment to the defense of the Jewish State," Oren said.
"A hero of World War II, Senator Inouye devoted his life to serving not only the people of Hawaii, but the entire United States…. When he was still a soldier, recovering from the loss of an arm in combat, Senator Inouye learned about the Holocaust and began a lifelong attachment to the Jewish people and, later, to Israel. His dedication to Israel's security was unswerving," he added.

Some anti-semitism from a "moderate" Palestinian "peace activist"

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST

We last wrote about Mazin Qumsiyeh a few months ago, noting that while the academic is constantly referred to as a "peace activist" and while he constantly refers to himself as being concerned for human rights, he fully supports terrorism and calls for the military destruction of Israel.

Well, surprise of surprises, he's also an anti-semite.

From the crazy-left Al-Jazeerah.info site:
I believe it is necessary for all of us to work on all fronts against oppression, whether of fellow human beings or of the environment. I think the issues are related: the same multi-millionaires and billionaires (most of them happen to be Zionist) work to keep people fighting each other, push them towards servitude, poverty, and ignorance while getting rich themselves.
How would you stereotype evil rich people hell-bent on destroying the world for their money grubbing ways? Ah, they must be "Zionist."

Qumsiyeh's website also has a virulently anti-semitic article called "Jewish Power" which he pretends that he doesn't necessarily agree with: " I think it is useful to post controversial material that start discussions and exchanges," he avers.

When he posts an article by Meir Kahane, then maybe we can believe him.

Otherwise, his throwaway line about how most evil billionaires are "Zionists" - which are the headline of the article - pretty much tells us all we need to know about him.

Are suicide jihadists just like Western mass murderers?

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 07:15 AM PST

From Adam Lankford in the NYT:
For years, the conventional wisdom has been that suicide terrorists are rational political actors, while suicidal rampage shooters are mentally disturbed loners. But the two groups have far more in common than has been recognized.

Over the last three years, I have examined interviews, case studies, suicide notes, martyrdom videos and witness statements and found that suicide terrorists are indeed suicidal in the clinical sense — which contradicts what many psychologists and political scientists have long asserted. Although suicide terrorists may share the same beliefs as the organizations whose propaganda they spout, they are primarily motivated by the desire to kill and be killed — just like most rampage shooters.

In fact, we should think of many rampage shooters as nonideological suicide terrorists. In some cases, they claim to be fighting for a cause — neo-Nazism, eugenics, masculine supremacy or an antigovernment revolution — but, as with suicide terrorists, their actions usually stem from something much deeper and more personal.

...I can't help but wonder about Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. If they had been born in Gaza or the West Bank, shaped by terrorist organizations' hateful propaganda, would they have strapped bombs around their waists and blown themselves up? I'm afraid the answer is yes.
The analogy is misleading.

There is a fundamental difference between rampage shooters and suicide terrorists. Shooters are abhorred in the West, while terrorists are honored in the Arab world.

It is true that many people in the West seek fame - there is no shortage of people willing to make fools of themselves on reality TV. It is also true that a tiny minority of people who already have mental problems will be attracted to the idea of dying in a blaze of glory with 24-hour news coverage. But their desire for fame is despite society's horror at their acts, not because of it.

In the Middle East, it is quite the opposite. It is not news that the actual people recruited for suicide missions are not always the most mentally stable people to begin with, while they are manipulated by their leaders. But that is the point - they do not become suicide bombers on their own in their bedrooms, they are recruited, trained and supported by large organizations that create entire media empires around the glory of "martyrdom."

The two are not remotely comparable. In the West, the shooters act in opposition to the prevailing morality of society, in the Arab world they act in harmony with it.

While Lankford may be right in saying that Harris, Kleibold and Lanza may have become suicide terrorists had they been brought up in the sickening Palestinian Arab world where such people are regarded as heroes, he didn't ask the other question: would Arabs who were raised watching videos on TV about the glories of martyrdom act differently had they been raised in suburban America?

Some people are mentally ill and violent no matter what. But the problem in the Arab world, and in the Palestinian Arab world in particular, is that the prevailing cultural mores say that terrorists are heroes. In such a society, terrorism is not an aberration - it is a lofty goal. Lankford ignores that there is an entire culture that lionizes murderers.

By conflating the two, Lankford is not contributing to the solution in the Middle East; he is exasperating the problem. The only way to solve the problem is to shame Arabs into realizing that terrorism is sickening, not laudable; that it is immoral, not heroic.

Such a change is possible. While a large part of the Muslim world used to applaud suicide terrorism, that percentage has gone down in most places over the past decade - with the notable exception of the Palestinian Arab territories!


The reason is, I believe, a combination two factors. One is that the Muslims in places like Iraq and Afghanistan are seeing how the terrorists can be used in civil wars, indiscriminately killing other Muslims.

The other is that Western media, and Western morality, is slowly being consumed and assimilated more in the Arab world. Muslims, like most groups, do not want to be perceived as immoral compared to others, and it is hard for them to justify terrorism using Western language and mores that has slowly become part of even mainstream Arabic media.

Pretending that everyone is the same, as Lankford does, is a fatal mistake. We  are a product of our upbringing and our culture. The culture in Gaza and the West Bank is one that mainstreams and elevates terrorists. Lankford's logic in saying that they are just like us might fit his agenda, but it is not doing anyone any favors. In the long run, it will cause more people to be killed by the people Lankford wants to pigeonhole as being merely mentally unstable.

Hamas popularity surges, 2 in 5 Gazans want to leave, 33% of Pals' top goal is destroying Israel

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 05:30 AM PST

The latest PCPSR poll of Palestinian Arabs shows that the Gaza fighting has, predictably, boosted Hamas' popularity. But it also reveals some other interesting facts that don't get reported.

If a presidential election were to be held today, Hamas leader Haniyeh would defeat Mahmoud Abbas 48% to 45%. Parliamentary elections would be a virtual tie according to this poll, but usually Islamists are under-represented in these surveys (which is why Hamas' victory last time was such a surprise.)

Other interesting results:
Positive evaluation of conditions in the Gaza Strip rises sharply from 25% three months ago to 43% in this poll while 33% say conditions are bad or very bad.

Similarly, positive evaluation of conditions in the West Bank rises sharply from 19% three months ago to 35% in this poll while 36% say conditions are bad or very bad.
Nothng has changed on the ground - in fact, many buildings in Gaza were damaged in the fighting - so the people's perceptions are guided more by propaganda (Hamas' "victory" and Abbas' UN stunt) than by reality.

But even as people feel more positive, they report that freedom of expression has gone down!
35% of the Palestinian public say people in the West Bank can criticize the authority in the West Bank without fear. By contrast, 29% of the public say people in the Gaza Strip can criticize the authorities in Gaza without fear. These results indicate a decrease in the perception of freedom to criticize authorities in the West Bank compared to results obtained three months ago when it stood at 42%.
This next finding contradicts every piece of anti-Israel propaganda seen in the West:
Perception of safety and security in the West Bank stands at 60% and in the Gaza Strip at 70%. Three months ago these percentages stood at 64% in the Gaza Strip and 56% in the West Bank.
Most people who the UN says are under "occupation" feel quite safe. I don't think any UN art exhibits will show this, though.
Findings show that the percentage of Gazans who say they seek immigration to other countries stands at 41%; in the West Bank, the percentage stands at 22%.

In other words, if Arab countries would stop discrimination against Palestinian Arabs, one in five West Bankers and 2 in 5 Gazans would happily move elsewhere. They don't feel "Palestinian," they just want to have the freedom to emigrate.

Yet there are no "human rights" organizations that fight for this right. No one who claims to be "pro-Palestinian" demands that Arab countries open their doors to give citizenship to any of their Palestinian brethren who desire it.

And finally:
44% believe that the first most vital Palestinian goal should be to end Israeli occupation in the areas occupied in 1967 and build a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. By contrast, 33% believe the first most vital goal should be to obtain the right of return of refugees to their 1948 towns and villages, 14% believe that it should be to build a pious or moral individual and a religious society, one that applies all Islamic teachings, and 9% believe that the first and most vital goal should be to establish a democratic political system that respects freedoms and rights of Palestinians.
Think about this one. For one third of Palestinian Arabs, destroying Israel demographically with the "right to return" is more important than their own independent state! You can be sure that this is the second-most important goal for a large percentage of those who chose a different top goal, but the raw numbers are not released yet.

"Syria's chemical weapons match Israel's nukes" - defected general

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 02:35 AM PST

From al Arabiya:
The Syrian regime has a large arsenal of chemical weapons, which matches up to Israel's nuclear arsenal, the defected former head of Syria's chemical warfare program told Al Arabiya on Monday.

Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected from the regime earlier this year, was party to top-level talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.

He told Al Arabiya where the Syrian regime has stored its chemical weapons in specific cities across the war-torn country, highlighting chemical warehouses in the city of Homs and weapons stored also in scientific research center in Aleppo.

"Syria's chemical arsenal has reached similar levels to Israel's nuclear weapons," he said in the interview. Israel is believed to be one of the world's largest nuclear superpowers.

Sillu, who once led the army's chemical weapons training program, said in June that the main storage sites for mustard gas and nerve agents are supposed to be guarded by thousands of Syrian troops but that they would be easily overrun.

"Probably anyone from the Free Syrian Army or any Islamic extremist group could take them over," he said.
Speaking of Syrian Islamists....

Jihadi leader Ahmad Al Baghdadi Al Hassani has spoken of Christians as polytheists and friends of the Zionists, in an Egyptian TV address. The extremist leader further stressed they must choose "Islam or death", while their women and girls may legitimately be regarded as wives of Muslims. Today he lives in Syria, supporting the armed opposition.
Trying to figure out the lesser of evils in Syria becomes preposterous when both sides are unimaginably evil.
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