יום שבת, 26 בינואר 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

Weekend links

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST

By Ian, lots of links - many of which I could have made full posts from. Wish I had the time!
Latma: Yair Lapid's amazing coalition and a bird's eye view of Israeli democracy [and welcome back Ronit! - EoZ]



IDF Blog: Seven Years Later: Gaza's Reality Under Hamas
"Seven years have passed since Hamas won the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. They made a lot of big commitments, and promised the people of Gaza a better life. Today, seven years after Hamas proudly presented its platform, is a good time to stop and check: Did Hamas live up to its own standards?"

How the Palestinian Authority Tried to Scare Israeli Voters by Khaled Abu Toameh
"It does not matter who is in power in Israel: no Palestinian leader has a mandate to make any concessions to Israel, let alone sign a peace treaty. Abbas knows this very well and that is why he will keep coming up with excuses to avoid signing a peace treaty, regardless of who is in control of the Israeli government."

Stand With Us: Palestinian 'Non-Violent' Demonstrations and a 6th Broken Camera
"I had been in Seattle and the U.S. only a few days when I heard that Palestinian Iyad Burnat, brother of the filmmaker of the Oscar-nominated feature documentary, "5 Broken Cameras," would be speaking about the "non-violent" nature of Palestinian demonstrations. I knew I had to attend the event.
I had met Iyad five years earlier when I was a young Israeli soldier, an 18-year-old who had just started my service in the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF]. The IDF knew there would be a demonstration against Israel's security fence near Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. The IDF wanted someone who spoke Arabic to mediate between the demonstrators and the IDF soldiers and minimize the chances of any physical altercations. Since I speak Arabic, I was chosen for this task.
As soon as I arrived at the Palestinian town, I encountered Iyad Burnat who was leading the demonstration. I tried to speak with him again and again, and ask him to stop what was becoming a violent riot. I told him there are other ways to protest and that talking with each other would work better than clashing with the IDF. In response, he shoved me to the ground and the crowd cheered. Soon after, the Palestinian demonstrators began hurling rocks and stones. One broke the jaw of a friend of mine, a fellow IDF soldier. He was forced to stay in the hospital for three weeks until he recovered."

No to Politicization of UCSF (University of California, San Francisco)
"Life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72 in 2000 and rose further to 74 in Gaza and 75 in the West Bank in 2011, outpacing most surrounding countries. Furthermore, despite the ongoing enmity of Hamas and other extremist Palestinian groups, Israel continues to share its medical expertise with Palestinians. For example, in 2011, Israel gave medical care to over 100,000 Palestinians, while 2,000 Palestinian doctors attended conferences in Israel, and 100 Palestinian doctors chose to do their internships in Israel."
"Sadly, Ms. Gaber is attempting to win support for the extremist, self-destructive policies that have plagued the Palestinians and prevented peace. UCSF students and faculty should not be diverted by such partisan conflicts but rather should fulfill their important mission of constructive action to advance health care and research that will benefit humanity."

Barak: Israel 'learned a lesson' from global failure to stop Assad
Our friends tell us, 'Don't worry,' promise support in times of crisis, says defense minister, but events in Syria show there are no guarantees of international action

Terrorists' New Tactic: Hit Israelis, Jews Overseas
Terrorists fail to cause death in Israel, switch to attacking Jews and Israelis worldwide with attacks in Bulgaria, India, and elsewhere.
"The Shin Bet's 2012 report on terror had a highly positive finding: no Israelis were murdered in terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria for the first time since 1993. However, the report found that terrorists have not stopped murdering Israelis, but rather, have switched their focus to less heavily-guarded Israelis abroad."

BBC quotes Holocaust-denying terrorist-run website
"The Hamas-run website 'Filastin' has, as may be expected, supported terrorism against Israeli civilians and published commentary condemning a visit by a PA official to Auschwitz in 2012 which included the statement:
"What is the wisdom in such a simple step that supports the Jews and their crimes?… Neither the Jews nor we believe that Hitler killed six millions Jews,"Does the BBC really think that it contributes anything to its audiences' understanding of the Middle East by reproducing opinions from terror-supporting antisemitic outlets alongside those from legitimate members of the media?
And perhaps – with Holocaust Memorial Day approaching – BBC Monitoring and the Editor of the BBC News website could find the time to explain to their licence fee-paying funders why they consider the promotion of material from a Holocaust-denying website appropriate."

3,000 Gaza teens graduate Hamas terror school
Islamist PM hails first products of high school course as 'generation that will liberate the land'"More than 3,000 Palestinian teenagers on Thursday graduated from the ruling Hamas terror group's first high school military training program in the Gaza Strip, displaying mock weapons, crawling commando-style on the ground and taking up fighting positions for thousands of cheering supporters."

Jihadist group delivers chilling threat to France
"Speaking to French weekly Paris Match, the spokesman for the cell known as "Those Who Sign In Blood", which is headed by notorious Mokhtar Belmokhtar said "French crusaders, Zionist Jews and their minions, will pay for their aggression against Muslims in northern Mali."In a warning deliberately aimed to stir up fear in France, the spokesman, who called himself Joulaybib, said there would be repeats of recent terror attacks carried out on French soil by self-proclaimed Islamist extremists.
"I hope France realizes that there will be dozens of Merahs and Kelkals," Joulaybib said."

Beyond "Apes and Pigs": Ten Morsi Quotes That Tell All
"Morsi's "descendants of apes and pigs" quote "comes as no surprise, but fits into a long record of his own and of Muslim Brotherhood statements," Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes told JNS org.
Below, JNS org reviews that record with a compilation of 10 statements Morsi made between January 2010 and November 2012."

Satire: Exclusive Apology Letter from President Morsi
"I would like to clear the air immediately and make it understood — in no uncertain terms — that some of my best friends are apes and pigs. It is most regrettable that this has happened between two nations who have been operating under a peace agreement for over thirty years (especially because I thought I had changed my video's settings to "private".)"

EgyptAir reviews 'hot' in-flight movies after Islamist complaint
"Egypt's national airline said on Thursday it will analyze its onboard movies to make sure they respect "Egyptian values and customs," following a complaint by a Muslim Brotherhood member who took offence at a film screened during one of its flights."

The failed Israel boycott
"Norway has never bought so many goods from Israel as in the last year; in spite of boycotts. No one from the Socialist party or the PalCom wanted to comment upon this on yesterday-while friends of Israel were euphoric.
"These figures show the lack of success when it comes to boycotting Israeli goods", says Ola H. Grytten, a professor of economy, to Dagen."

French Court Rules Twitter Must Hand Over Data Identifying Authors of Racist and Anti-Semitic Tweets in France
"It is a major precedent and breakthrough in the attempt to balance privacy online with the need to combat hate speech," Sacha Reingewirtz, vice president of the Union of French Jewish Students, told JTA."

TAU Research Team Discovers New Treatment for Stroke
Researchers Tel Aviv University have found a new treatment for stroke and other brain damage that can help even months after the event.
"The findings of Efrati's study, published in PloS ONE, showed significantly increased neuronal activity after a group of affected patients received two months of hyperbaric treatment, compared to a group that received none, he said.
The study "opens the gate into a new territory of treatment," said Efrati. "It is now understood that many brain disorders are related to inefficient energy supply to the brain. HBOT treatment could right such metabolic abnormalities before the onset of full dementia, where there is still potential for recovery."

I'm sorry. Egyptians are just nuts.

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 10:56 AM PST

Even the opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood are crazy anti-semites.

In 2011, a major library/document archive in Cairo was burned down during the protests. The Institut d'Egypte was founded by Napoleon in 1789.

Now, one of the opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood is claiming that the MB as behind the fire.

The reason?

Because the Muslim Brotherhood loves the Jews!

Yes, the same MB that spouts anti-semitic rhetoric is also a lover of Jews, if you are a crazy Egyptian opponent of the Ikhwan.

Dr. Tharwat Kherpauy (notice how they are always doctors?) said that the MB burned the building down because it had records of the Jews of Egypt willingly selling their land, houses and companies to Egyptians for pennies on the dollar before they left - again, voluntarily - their homeland in the 1950s and 1960s.

Now that the records are gone, the MB is allowing their Jewish friends to flock back to Egypt and claim that their property was stolen, not sold! And the poor honest Egyptians will have no defense, because the records that would prove them wrong are up in smoke!

The logical gaps in this theory are large enough to sail an aircraft carrier through. But that doesn't stop the opponents of the Brotherhood from saying them, publicly, without embarrassment.

And notice the common denominator: in Egypt, if you want to discredit your opponents, you simply claim that they love the Jews.

Juan Cole making up facts again

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 08:55 AM PST

Here's another example of how a third-rate academic acts.

In the middle of a typical anti-Israel posting that makes the usual, tedious and idiotic arguments one would expect from Mondoweiss (NEWS FLASH: Non-citizens who do not live in Israel cannot vote in Israel! This is awful!) he throws in his famous pseudo-facts that have no basis except his own fevered imagination.

For example, Cole claims that most haredim support Netanyahu. Who knew? I would have thought UTJ/Degel HaTorah, which gained seven Knesset seats, but what do I know?

Or this gem:

It should be noted that the Israeli right wing plays dirty tricks on the Israeli left and liberals, smearing them as traitors and harassing them (many of the nearly 1 million Israelis living outside Israel were leftists unwilling to live under Likud harassment. Such treatment of these Israelis acts as a form of voter suppression.
(Yes, this academic forgot to close the parentheses.)

Many of the million Israelis outside Israel fled because of Likud harassment? You mean they didn't move abroad for economic or family reasons, but to escape the horrid police state that Bibi built?

If that's the case, then of course the Israeli right must be dead-set against allowing non-resident Israelis to vote.

Except for this:
The inability of Israelis overseas to vote is an issue for the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, which has tabled a bill to change the electoral law. "(In an) era of globalisation, when many citizens reside outside their country on the time of the election day, we must allow them to participate in the elections," the party says.
Wow, it almost sounds like Cole's ultra-right fascist party is more democratic than many European democracies!

Once again, Juan Cole is proven to just make things up.

You know, the sort of thing that would get most academics fired.

(h/t Dan)

A small detail about an "eyewitness" to an IDF shooting

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:00 AM PST

On Wednesday, Ha'aretz reported:
Military police investigators are looking into the circumstances of the shooting death Wednesday of a 21-year-old Bethlehem woman, Lubnah Hanash. The IDF Spokesman declined to say whether Hanash, who is the first woman killed by IDF fire in the West Bank since April 2007, had been targeted in the shooting.

The IDF confirmed the incident, saying an initial investigation revealed that an army squad was ambushed by firebombs and rocks on Highway 60 near the Al-Aroub refugee camp and opened fire, fearing for their lives. Hanash was allegedly killed by an Israel Defense Forces officer at about 2 P.M. on a stretch of Route 60 in the West Bank between Bethlehem and Hebron.

According to a deputy commander of the Judea regional brigade, Shahar Matana, the incident occurred when he and another IDF officer were on their way from Jerusalem to Hebron. Matana said a group of young people threw Molotov cocktails at him from the side of the highway near the Al-Aroub refugee camp. The two officers left their car and one of them allegedly opened fire while the other gave chase after the young people.

Hanash, a university student from a refugee camp in Bethlehem, was critically injured and died in surgery at a Hebron hospital. Another young woman was also shot and lightly wounded in the incident. The two were on their way from a college near the highway and apparently planned to catch a bus home.

An eyewitness who lives near the highway told Haaretz that he had been at home when he heard shooting and went outside, where he saw the two officers, neither of whom was wearing a flak jacket or helmet. The witness, who reported that he did not see Hanash being shot, said one of the soldiers fired his weapon while the other gave chase.
Ma'an interviewed the injured woman, who insisted that there were no rocks, no firebombs, and nobody else around:
"I saw an Israeli soldier on the main road firing gunshots haphazardly, so I put my left hand on Lubna's back, and grabbed her to try and run backward. A gunshot hit my hand, and I shouted as I ran.

"I thought Lubna was running behind me until I reached the security guards of Al-Arrub College who took me to a clinic in the camp before an ambulance arrived and took me to hospital."

This, says Suad Jaara, 28, is what she witnessed Wednesday afternoon when Israeli officers near al-Arrub refugee camp shot her and her friend Lubna al-Hanash. Lubna, 22, died hours later.

Speaking to Ma'an, Jaara said Thursday that she and Lubna were walking on the campus of Al-Arrub College about 100 meters from the main road when they came under fire.

"An Israeli soldier was shooting from his rifle while a white car was parked on the roadside. There was nobody in the area except Lubna and I. He was a criminal ... yes, a criminal who opened fired at us in cold blood killing Lubna and injuring me."

Jaara's testimony contradicts claims by the Israeli army's chief of central command on Channel 10 Wednesday evening that the woman was trying to hurl a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli vehicle.

An army spokeswoman also told Ma'an on Wednesday that "soldiers were attacked by Palestinians who hurled multiple firebombs at them while they were traveling near al-Arrub. Soldiers returned fire and the circumstances of the incident are currently being reviewed."

But Jaara says she and her late friend were the only ones in the area, walking around and enjoying the scenery.
So who is more believable?

The last part of the Ma'an article gives us a clue:
Jaara is an employee at the Ministry of Prisoners Affairs. Her brother Jihad was a gunman in Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades in the Bethlehem area. He was deported to Ireland after the Nativity Church siege in 2002.
But someone whose family has known terrorists and who works for one of the most anti-Israel organizations in the territories wouldn't lie, would she?

(Kudos to Ma'an for at least mentioning that, albeit in the last paragraph.)

Hamas formally teaching kids to be terrorists

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST

From JPost:
Hamas plans to establish a military academy in the Gaza Strip to train and educate schoolchildren.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced on Thursday that the military academy, the first of its kind in the Gaza Strip, would prepare the children for the "phase of liberating Palestine."

He said that children in grades 7-9 could join the school and graduate with a diploma or a BA in military affairs.

Haniyeh made this announcement during a ceremony in the Gaza Strip marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad. More than 10,000 schoolchildren attended the ceremony, which included a "military parade" by some of the teenagers.

The prime minister said he has instructed the Hamas-run Education Ministry to draw up plans for the establishment of the military academy. Haniyeh said that the new academy would educate and prepare children for the establishment of a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea."
The Hamas-run Palestine Times reported this.

Here's a photo of the "military parade" with armed teenagers:

This photo with Haniyeh was taken at the same ceremony:


Last month, senior Hamas commander Zaher Jabarin said in a video interview published later on the IDF blog that Hamas labors "day and night" in educating Palestinian children in Gaza to become suicide bombers.



I wish to talk about our choice, the choice of resistance. There was training of the divine generation, the true generation of martyrdom-seekers, through which we can participate in the battle. First, before anything else, before any Jihadi action, before the transfer of weapons, money, etc., and everything required for action, first and foremost is the individual person. The Islamic Movement [Hamas] took care of the education of this youngster who will participate in this battle, and afterwards we found out, as we always say, that the martyrdom-seekers stood in line, moreover, the thought among themselves who will be first to perform the suicide operation or Jihad operation. There was a quarrel between these Jihad warriors. We labored day and night to build the person, who will participate in this battle, and indeed, after 26 years, today the results are clear and visible to the entire world, that Hamas indeed has succeeded to build in this period of 26 years, what others wouldn't have succeeded to build in centuries, such a person and such a resistance.

The Palestinian youngsters, the resistance and Jihad warriors, fight and quarrel over performing a courageous suicide operation. No doubt when Rabin said he has no solution for this weapon (suicide bombings), it's because you want to kill this man, but he himself is essentially coming to die, so how can you scare him and how do you want to deal with this weapon? There is no treatment, and you cannot find a treatment for this weapon. With God's grace, Hamas originated the use of this weapon.

We in Hamas are now convinced that our leaders are preparing for the battle of liberation, not resistance. We will remain "The Islamic Resistance Movement" — Hamas — but we now have the concept of liberation, and we are preparing for the battle of liberation and entering Jerusalem, God willing. I am convinced that you will interview me — if Allah wished that we stay alive — from the courts of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem. The Palestinian people and the Arab people are now convinced that Israel will be defeated, and indeed it will be defeated, and we will succeed to liberate our country. We are now preparing for the battle of liberation, and not just the resistance as we have done in the past.

Major explosion reported at Fordow underground Iranian nuclear facility (UPDATE)

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 02:16 AM PST

From Reza Kahlili at WND:
An explosion deep within Iran's Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime.

The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran's nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. A further enrichment to weapons grade would take only weeks, experts say.

...According to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow, an explosion on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Tehran time rocked the site, which is buried deep under a mountain and immune not only to airstrikes but to most bunker-buster bombs. The report of the blast came via Hamidreza Zakeri, formerly with the Islamic regime's Ministry of Intelligence and National Security,

The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, the source said. As of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel.

The site, about 300 feet under a mountain, had two elevators which now are out of commission. One elevator descended about 240 feet and was used to reach centrifuge chambers. The other went to the bottom to carry heavy equipment and transfer uranium hexafluoride. One emergency staircase reaches the bottom of the site and another one was not complete. The source said the emergency exit southwest of the site is unreachable.

The regime believes the blast was sabotage and the explosives could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site, the source said. The explosion occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them.

The information was passed on to U.S. officials but has not been verified or denied by the regime or other sources within the regime.
Fordow is the major known centrifuge facility in Iran, and it had recently doubled the number of centrifuges there.

So if true this is very, very big.

The problem is that there may be many secret facilities, not all of which are known by Western inteligence.

But Fordow was virtually impervious to an airstrike, so this reported sabotage was apparently more effective than anything that could have been done militarily.

(h/t Ellen)

UPDATE: I am told that Reza Kahlili does not have a great record for accuracy with a long history of making similarly stunning claims. I generally don't like to quote WND but this was so specific that I felt it was  better to get the story out there.

The IAEA inspects Fordow regularly, so within a few months we will know whether it mysteriously lost many of its centrifuges. But for now we should be skeptical until we hear something corroborating it - for example, that Iran closed off the area this week.
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