Elder of Ziyon Daily News |  |
- Lebanese man videos wife's suicide as he pleads with her not to jump
- You know those Dutch supermarkets supposedly boycotting settlements? Well, they aren't.
- Sheikh complains that Saudi stewardess is too "flirty"
- Photos of Hashomer, Jews defending their settlements - in 1909
- 7/30 Links Part 2: Israeli Harness Saves SA Miners, A Camera for the Blind and Peace Through Profits
- 7/30 Links Part 1: Peace Talks Begin, Indyk’s Doubts, Prisoner Release Reactions
- "Israel as a Gulf state"
- The elephants in the room, 2013
- Egyptian liberal, secular party accuses the US of being a Nazi state
| Lebanese man videos wife's suicide as he pleads with her not to jump Posted: 30 Jul 2013 07:00 PM PDT In a dramatic video that has shocked the Lebanese society, Amena Ismail is seen sitting on the balcony ledge of her eighth floor apartment before jumping to her death as her husband desperately tries to convince her not to commit suicide.This is undoubtedly tragic, and the video almost certainly will help exonerate him, but why was he videoing the scene to begin with?           | ||||
| You know those Dutch supermarkets supposedly boycotting settlements? Well, they aren't. Posted: 30 Jul 2013 03:30 PM PDT Last week the Times of Israel quoted the Dutch newspaper Trouw as saying that Dutch supermarkets Aldi and Hoogvliet were boycotting any Israeli products that originated in the settlements. BDSers celebrated the news. Only one problem: Trouw was not being accurate. A Dutch food distribution news site quotes Hoogvliet officials as being irritated by the Trouw story. Apparently, the reporter asked them if they currently sell any products from the settlements, and they answered they are not. Trouw took this answer and called it a "boycott" - but it isn't. It just means that there are not any settlement products being sold currently; it is not a policy. Similarly, Aldi said that they are not selling any settlement products, but this is not a result of any company policy. They said the only criteria they use when deciding what products to sell are "quality, price and availability." A third chain, Jumbo, also denied reports of a boycott of settlement goods. They did admit that they performed an inventory of where products are sourced from to be ready in case the Dutch government would request a boycott, but they did not sell any. In this case, it wasn't the BDSers actively lying - it was a newspaper reporter. (h/t O)      | ||||
| Sheikh complains that Saudi stewardess is too "flirty" Posted: 30 Jul 2013 01:00 PM PDT From Al Arabiya: While you may have often heard of passengers getting into trouble for flirting with the hostess, the tables may have turned this time. Gulf Arab societies put a premium on public modesty and decorum.The next time you want to insult a Saudi sheikh, just call him "darling."      | ||||
| Photos of Hashomer, Jews defending their settlements - in 1909 Posted: 30 Jul 2013 11:00 AM PDT Very interesting:
:   (h/t Yerushalimey)      | ||||
| 7/30 Links Part 2: Israeli Harness Saves SA Miners, A Camera for the Blind and Peace Through Profits Posted: 30 Jul 2013 10:00 AM PDT From Ian: Israeli Instant Harness used in miners' rescue Israeli rescue equipment helped workers save the lives of at least eight trapped miners in South Africa on July 28, after a nightmarish three-day ordeal underground that left three dead, allegedly at the hands of an armed rival illegal mining crew.Times story suggesting unequal pay between Jews and Palestinians at SodaStream is "a lie". The final passage of course suggests that SodaStream pays Palestinians less than they pay Israeli Jews. So, I decided to take a trip down to SodaStream's corporate offices at Airport City (with a colleague) to ask the company's CEO Daniel Birnbaum about the allegations. While we spoke for over an hour about many aspects of company operations, here's a short clip of my question to him about the charge of a disparity in pay.US Jewish Group Runs BDS 'Summer Camp' to Teach Boycott Tactics The NGO Monitor group accused JVP of seeking to sow dissent among American Jewish campus groups by holding provocative campus events that have caused numerous splits in Jewish organizations on campus. Among its supporters are well-known anti-Israel activists, including linguist Noam Chomsky, Broadway playwright Tony Kushner, and actor Wallace Shawn.BBC's Bell suggests Maccabiah Games are racist Participation in some international sporting events is conditioned on geography – for example the Pan-American Games, the All-African Games or the Pacific Games. The right to take part in the Commonwealth Games depends on historical and cultural alliances and in the Youth Olympic Games participation is limited by age. The Pan-Arab Games are open to athletes from predominantly Muslim Arab countries.Jordanian King Pledges to Fight "Judaization of Jerusalem" The Hashemite monarch also expressed his willingness to "support the steadfastness of Muslim and Christian Jerusalemites and to preserve their legitimate rights in the city," according to a statement from the Royal Court, published Sunday in The Jordan Times.Medical NGOs Guilty of "Malpractice" in Arab-Israeli Conflict A new study released by NGO Monitor has found that several highly influential medical NGOs (non-governmental organizations) active in the Arab-Israeli conflict consistently violate their self-proclaimed moral principles.Report: Bomb Parts Used in Burgas Attack Smuggled in From Poland The detonator and remote control used in the Burgas, Bulgaria bus bombing last year that left five Israelis and the bus driver dead were smuggled in from Poland, Bulgaria's Trud daily reported Monday, citing investigators.Scuffles on war criminal Priebke's 100th birthday Erich Priebke celebrated his 100th birthday as protesters scuffled outside his residence with a young man described as a relative of the Nazi war criminal.Simon Wiesenthal Center Condemns Finland's Juha Kärkkäinen, Tycoon Publisher of Antisemitic Free Newspapers as a 'National Danger' Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a condemnation Monday of Juha Kärkkäinen, the owner of Finland's Kärkkäinen department stores and publisher of Magneettimedia, an anti-Semitic free newspaper, in an open letter to Finnish President Sauli Vainamo Niinistö.Peres attends opening of Latvia museum honoring WWII Jew rescuers President Shimon Peres has taken part in the ceremony to open a museum honoring a couple who saved some 50 Jews from extermination in Nazi-occupied Latvia.Mexican émigré to Israel harnesses people power Look closely at the blue lines of the huge Israeli flag that won a Guinness world record for most artists working on the same installation, and you'll see they're composed of fingerprints — 28,267 prints, to be exact. One of them belongs to Javier Gelbwaser.Oz, Boteach and Sharansky discuss Jewish values in Jerusalem A full-capacity crowd gathered Monday evening at the capital's newly launched Jerusalem Press Club to hear a panel discussion among luminaries Dr. Mehmet Oz, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky about Jewish values and their impact on society.Dr. Oz Travels to Israel Put away that cellphone: Israeli study highlights cancer risk A study by Tel Aviv University has shown, for the first time, a clear connection between cellphone use and higher risk of cancer.Israel's Latest Invention: Camera Helping the Blind Recognize Objects A new invention from Israel which falls in line with the Jewish state's reputation as a "start-up nation," potentially revolutionizing life for the blind and the visually impaired, will go on sale in the U.S. in September.Peace Through Profits? The Secret Tech Ventures That Are Reshaping The Israeli-Arab-Palestinian World With official relations between Palestinians and Israelis still poisonous after a century of conflict, any constructive dialogue is newsworthy. But these aren't security forces talking about joint military patrols, nor is this discussion connected to the sudden resumption of peace talks after a three-year stalemate. The group, brought together by Cisco Systems, is speaking their common language: tech management. Nearly 100 times over the past two years Israeli high-tech experts and Palestinian entrepreneurs have gotten together in the hope of making Israel's "Startup Nation" economic miracle a cross-border affair. And it's just one of dozens of business-driven dialogues quietly–in many cases secretly–proliferating across the Holy Land.      | ||||
| 7/30 Links Part 1: Peace Talks Begin, Indyk’s Doubts, Prisoner Release Reactions Posted: 30 Jul 2013 09:00 AM PDT From Ian: Israel-Palestine: Nine months of talks, but will there be a baby? Mr Obama needs to realise that he won't carve his niche in history by solving the unsolvable. The Israelis and Palestinians remain as far apart as ever on the core final status issues. Borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security are the four eternal and unresolvable agenda items and the distance between today's negotiators is as wide as it has ever been.Indyk Last Year: 'Hard to Believe' Peace Deal Can be Reached IDF Radio has broadcast a recording of an interview with Indyk in which he was asked about the chances such talks would succeed.Negotiating lessons, in Martin Indyk's own words Martin Indyk, the former two-time US ambassador to Israel named Monday as US Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, in 2009 published a fascinating account of his personal experiences as a US diplomat at the heart of the Middle East peace process, entitled "Innocent Abroad."Oren: Israel will demand recognition as Jewish state Israel's ambassador to the US Michael Oren told CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday that Israel is "predicated on having a Jewish majority," and that any final-status agreement with the Palestinians will require their recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.Ex-Mossad Head: Peace Talks were Bungled "This should have been handled differently," he explained. "We should have conducted secret negotiations with the Arab League, and only then begun open negotiations with the PA. The problem of Jerusalem, for instance, is not a PA problem but a problem of the entire Arab world. At least two states, like Jordan and Saudi Arabia, need to be brought on board, in order to give backing to any move."Peace talks arrive in the Knesset For the first time, parliamentary caucus to host a delegation of PA officials for a gathering in support of renewed negotiationsAbbas pledges: There will be no Israelis in Palestine Even as talks for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace got off to a cautious start in Washington Monday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Egypt that no Israelis would be allowed to remain in a future Palestinian state.Snag in Israel-PA Peace Talks After a three-year hiatus, negotiations were set to resume in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, with two representatives from each side to meet at the table for direct talks, supported by the U.S.Israeli Appeasement Nothing does more to abet terrorism than the release of terrorists for their gruesome crimes. In 1985 Israel released 1,150 prisoners for 3 captured Israelis. Fifteen years later it released 450 prisoners for 3 Israeli bodies and a kidnapped Israeli. In 2008 it released 5 Arab prisoners (including Samir al-Kuntar, convicted for the hideous murder of a father in front of his four-year-old daughter, whose skull Kuntar then crushed against a rock) for two Israeli bodies. Two years ago, 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were released for Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. None of these releases led to peace; only to more terrorism.Indy posts, then deletes, reference to Palestinian terrorists as 'political prisoners' We contacted Indy editors shortly after the post, and, in addition to providing the data we secured from the Justice Ministry on the prisoners and their crimes, noted that even the Guardian (following our complaint) had corrected a story in April which originally contained the false description of the prisoners as "political prisoners". Though the Indy has yet to respond to our complaint, there was recently an indication that such a correction may be forthcoming.What does the mother of a 'pre-Oslo' monster look like? The mother is rejoicing over the possible release of her son, a Palestinian (presumably seen in the photo she's holding) alternately known as Abu Moussa Salam Ali Atiya who murdered an Israeli named Isaac Rotenberg in 1994. Whilst the Indy caption doesn't include a word about the crimes of Ateya Abu Moussa or background on his victim, fortunately Almagor Murder Victims Association provides further details:Koby Mandell Foundation protests freeing terrorists "My son Koby Mandell was murdered 12 years ago near our home, and his murderers have not been found. And I have to tell you that that's a relief. In all likelihood, if they had not already been released, they'd be released now. In fact, my other son wrote an article thanking the government for not finding his brother's killers," said Seth Mandell, founder of the Koby Mandell Foundation, at a Monday evening demonstration outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem.Op-Ed: It Pays to Mutilate Jewish Children Arab torture and terrorism work. And the mutilation of Jewish families led to political gains. There is no other logical conclusion we can draw after Israel decided to free dozens of monsters who in the pre Oslo era killed hundreds of Jews. Terrorism has been a winning strategy for Arab irredentism.A triumph for terror They murdered men and women because they were Jewish, stabbed 13-year-old kids and firebombed Israeli buses and cars. They hurled grenades at Israeli civilians, kidnapped, tortured and killed young soldiers, and assaulted and slew the elderly, including a Holocaust survivor.Terrorists Lob Rocket at Israel, No One Hurt Terrorists fired a rocket Tuesday morning from Hamas-controlled Gaza into southern Israel, as "peace talks" between the Palestinian Authority and Israel began in Washington.      | ||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2013 07:00 AM PDT Malcolm Lowe at Gatestone has a thought-provoking essay that argues that the EU is a lot more pro-Israel than it seems, and things will only get better: It is a longstanding complaint that Israel is unfairly harassed in those international forums that deal with human rights. On the other hand, countries that are too big to harass, such as Russian and China, or that are oil rich, such as the Gulf states, get away with anything. Well, here's news: Now that Israel has discovered vast offshore deposits of natural gas and even some oil, it can aspire to the status of a Gulf state. Not quite geographically, but in terms of the scruples that others can brush aside in their eagerness to do business.There's lots more, read the whole thing. I'm not so certain I agree with his optimism. There are two tracks in Europe: a business/pragmatic track that wants to be as close to Israel as possible, and an "activist" track that wants to pollute the European mind with the idea that Israel is a genocidal regime. The first is not a counter to the second; it simply ignores it for as long as it can. But the worry is that there will come a tipping point in the future where anyone who publicly backs any aspect of Zionism will be marginalized and berated. It already is happening with a few clueless entertainers who are more worried about appearances than other people, but the entire point of BDS is to create an atmosphere throughout the world that would equate Israel with the worst human rights violators in history. By extension, it would paint anyone who doesn't condemn Israel as evil themselves. Right now the idea is marginal but the single-minded haters behind BDS have patience and a strategy. The existence of business ties with Israel will dampen any economic consequences to these actions, but if businesses perceive that their own reputations are being damaged to a larger extent than the benefits of working with Israel, they will act in self-interest.  Look how one anti-Israel group responded to the Pet Shop Boys' decision to play in Israel, pictured to the right. 99% of the Europeans who read that Israel kills one child every three days or jails two children a day would have no problem believing it, even though these are outright lies. This is because there is no decent hasbara campaigns in Europe to expose the lies and the hate behind the BDS crowd. They are far more guilty of blind hatred and bigotry than Israel could ever be - yet they suffer no consequences from baldfaced, bold-faced lies. Their campaigns of distortions and slander will continue to gain traction among the clueless, as indeed most people are.The BDS drones are happiest when Palestinian Arab kids are killed because that gives them more ammunition. One Israeli screw-up that results in too many civilian deaths can be a major tipping point towards the haters. Yes, it is true that Bahrain and other Gulf states can shrug off human rights accusations because of their economic power, but on the other hand there has never been a systematic anti-Saudi or anti-Bahraini campaign in Europe demanding boycott or divestment. Is such a thing really so impossible to imagine? I admit, and have even argued in the past, that the most effective thing Israel can do to combat the delegitimization campaigns is indeed to build up its economy so that it is indispensable to the world. That doesn't mean that Israel should sit back and allow the haters free reign to lie and poison the minds of millions. Complacency in the face of concerted, directed campaigns against the Jewish state is not smart.      | ||||
| The elephants in the room, 2013 Posted: 30 Jul 2013 05:00 AM PDT Now that US has successfully pressured Israel and the PA to attend talks, it seems to be a good time to revisit the list of "elephants in the room" that are still being mostly ignored. The list, sadly, has not changed much since I last did this in 2010. Elephant 1: Hamas controls Gaza Every peace plan includes Gaza in a Palestinian Arab state, and none of them has any provision on how to handle the fact that Gaza is a terrorist haven, in much worse shape since Israel uprooted the settlements there, controlled by a terrorist group that is consistently and wholeheartedly against Israel's existence. Peace is impossible with this elephant, so it is easier to pretend it isn't there. (See also Elephant 11.) Elephant 2: Palestinian Arabs elected a terror government In the only fair, democratic elections in the territories, the Hamas terrorists were chosen by the people. Poll after poll shows that Palestinian Arabs support terror in Israel itself. (Over 40% still support a violent intifada in 2013.) The elections proved that the conventional wisdom was wrong - and the conventional wisdom proceeded to ignore it. Elephant 3: The current PA government was not elected This corollary to Elephant 2 means that the current people negotiating for the Palestinian Arabs do not represent the people. Even if they sound moderate or compromising, they have no mandate. The current PA president is well past his term of office, and the current and previous prime minister were never elected (in fact, he received a tiny percentage of the vote when he did run for election.) Negotiating with the PA is, literally, meaningless. Similarly, the unelected PLO is the real power behind the PA. The PA officially reports to the PLO, and all negotiations are done by the autocratic, Fatah-dominated PLO, not the PA. Elephant 4: The current PA government has almost no power - and no respect Outside of Ramallah, the Fayyad/Abbas government has little popular support and little power. Hamas is a very real threat to the PA in the West Bank and is quietly building its base. The attitudes that forced the PA to abandon Gaza - a lack of passion by people for its positions - could very well play out in the West Bank as well. Elephant 5: The PA is being kept alive by artificial methods The PA budget is bloated from "payroll" of non-working workers - but if they would slash the payroll, the people on international welfare would revolt. So the very basis of the organized Palestinian Arab workforce is a fiction being kept barely alive by ever-increasing infusions of cash with no real plan to fix the problem. (The bulk of the PA budget goes to Gaza, and much of that goes to workers being paid not to work.) Elephant 6: Fatah remains a terrorist group paid by the PA Despite the recent claims that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has dismantled, it is a joke meant to appease the wishful-thinkers. The PA might arrest Hamas members in the West Bank, but there still remains - today - terrorist groups that report to Fatah. Here's the webpage of one of them. There has been no serious move by the PA to dismantle their own terror groups. Elephant 7: The first - and second - stages of the roadmap were never implemented The entire point of the road map was to slowly build confidence, starting with the end of terror and incitement on the Palestinian Arab side, afterwards building a "provisional" state and only then going to final-status negotiations. Abbas and his team simply threw out phases I and II. By skipping to Phase III as if the other two phases were already in place, the entire exercise is simply a joke. Incitement remains at full blast and the lull in terror is tactical, not a sea-change in Palestinian Arab attitudes. Even though the US has made statements against Palestinian Arab incitement, it hasn't moved to stop it. This is not so much an elephant anymore quite so much as it is a proof that terror works. Before the second intifada, the world was not fully behind a Palestinian state; autonomy was still considered an option. The world never demanded 1 to 1 land swaps based on the 1967 lines - but after the terror spree they now do. And the demands of the road map to slowly build confidence before granting a state has likewise been thrown out the window. Terror pays. Elephant 8: The PA's goal remains the destruction of Israel Whether it is by "right of return" or not changing the Fatah charter or by printing map after map showing no Israel, even the most moderate Palestinian leader clings to the idea of destroying Israel, and looks upon a Palestinian Arab state as only one stage in the process. One only needs to look at the maps of "Palestine" in official PA documents and schoolbooks. A 2011 poll that remains criminally under-reported proves that when Palestinian Arabs say they want a two-state solution, it is only a stage towards their real goal of destroying Israel. Elephant 9: Jerusalem Most Israelis want a unified Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Most Palestinian Arabs refuse to accept anything less than all of ("east") Jerusalem as the capital of a Muslim state. The positions are not compatible and a compromise will not reduce the chances for violence - it will increase it. Elephant 10: What happened to Gaza Forgetting Hamas for now, the time period between Israel's dismantling settlements in Gaza and the Hamas takeover is instructive as to how Palestinian Arabs take advantage of territory they gain. They didn't build new houses or communities to reduce the "refugee camp" population, no schools or hospitals. They destroyed the greenhouses purchased for them by American Jews; they turned beautiful former settlements into training camps for terror - in other words, Israel's last major concession not only didn't help achieve peace, it ended up encouraging terror. Any claims that something similar wouldn't happen in the West Bank is the triumph of wishful thinking over experience. Elephant 11: Palestinian Arab "unity" Related to Elephant #1. No peace plan can work unless Hamas and the PA/Fatah reach some sort of unification agreement. This is not possible in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Hamas is powerful enough that any such agreement must include a hardening of PLO positions that would be completely incompatible with the basic Quartet demands for peace - renunciation of terror, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements. Elephant 12: The Palestinian Arab "diaspora" and Arab intransigence Any final peace agreement would mean that Arab countries could no longer justify keeping Palestinian Arabs in "refugee camps" not could they justify their continued refusal to discriminate against Palestinian Arabs from becoming citizens of their countries should they want to stay. The millions of PalArabs in the Middle East becoming citizens would not be accepted by many Arab countries as it would endanger their own tenuous holds on power. Elephant 13: Economics Some 16 years after Oslo, the economy in the territories is still close to non-existent and wholly dependent on foreign aid. Not only is there no free market, there is no incentive to build one as the very mentality of Palestinian Arabs and their leaders is one of welfare rather than responsibility. All the plans to create a Palestinian Arab state do not consider Day 2 and how such a state would be able to sustain itself. The expected influx of hundreds of thousands of people from "refugee camps" would make it even worse. It would take at least a generation to turn the poisonous attitude of entitlement around. Elephant 14: Gaza demographics Gazans have no room to expand as their numbers continue to grow at among the fastest rates in the world. Theoretically they could move to the West Bank but only a small percentage would. This is another Day 2 powder keg that is being ignored in the interests of a "solution" of a "Palestinian state." Elephant 15: Palestinian Arab leaders never showed interest in independence The West assumes that the goal is an independent Palestinian Arab state where Arabs no longer have to live under "occupation." But the actions and words of Palestinian Arab leaders have never borne that goal out; they have not worked towards building the institutions and infrastructure that would be necessary in an independent state. Their insistence on "right of return" and "Jerusalem" as issues that must be resolved before independence betray their thought processes - inconsistent with independence (neither of which require those two issues to be resolved) and consistent with a desire to destroy Israel in stages. Elephant 16: A unilateral Palestinian Arab state would be militarized There is no way that a new Palestinian Arab state would remain demilitarized for any length of time. The Palestinian government could invite a friendly Muslim nation to position anti-aircraft weapons within its territory; to shoot missiles at El Al planes landing a few miles from the Green Line, or to get a few thousand tanks poised to cut Israel in half. Iran already effectively controls Lebanon and Syria and is working to ensure Gaza comes back under its orbit. They would use the nascent state of Palestine to position themselves on the West Bank as well. Just like the PA ran away from Gaza at the first sign of trouble, so would they abandon their state to Iranian proxies and Islamic terrorists. The PLO's will to defend themselves is not nearly as strong as their will to destroy Israel, a desire that has been inculcated in them for generations. Palestinian Arab nationalism is a fundamentally weak and externally-imposed construct. Iran is poised and anxious to take advantage of the chaos that would follow a unilaterally declared state, even if at the moment they are distracted. But the West is ready to risk Israel for that elephant as well. Elephant 17: The so-called "right to return" The PA is showing no interest in integrating the Palestinian Arabs outside of the territories into their state. On the contrary; the "refugee camps" in PA controlled territory continue to grow, rather than shrink. Clearly, the PA expects the bulk of the "diaspora" to go to Israel, not a Palestinian Arab state, and decades of incitement both within and without the territories have brainwashed generations of Arabs to not accept anything less than a "return" to a land that most of them have never stepped foot in. (UNRWA has been a major promulgator of this lie.) Elephant 18: The tension between being pro-West and pro-Arab The biggest Western success story in the Palestinian Arab territories is the existence of the "Dayton forces" that have been helping crack down on Hamas in the West Bank. However, most Palestinian Arabs regard those forces as puppets of the West. Not only do Hamas and Islamic Jihad hammer away at this point, but ordinary Palestinian Arabs do as well. The more cooperation between the PA and Israel/US, the more the PA government is delegitimized in the eyes of its people. Elephant 19: Corruption and human rights abuses are still endemic in the PA Despite the publicized successes, the PA remains mired in corruption, hardly a model for an independent state. The 2008 Global Integrity Report rated the West Bank as close to the bottom in its corruption ratings. Press freedom remains low; the justice system is improving but hardly competent, and whistle-blowers are forced to go to the Israeli press to expose corruption. The success that the PA has had in weakening Hamas in the West Bank has come at the expense of massive human rights violations, including torture. Elephant 20: Palestine would be Judenrein Statements by PA leaders make it clear that their state of Palestine would not have any Jewish citizens allowed within. Jews whose ancestors have lived in Judea and Samaria, whether for decades or for millennia, will be legally barred from living in Palestine - an extraordinary display of state anti-semitism that is completely at odds with the Western standards that the nascent state of "Palestine" is attempting to live up to. Elephant 21: The Muslim world's antipathy towards Israel Even if all of the preceding elephants could somehow vanish, the Arab world and the Muslim world remains implacably against the idea of a Jewish state in the midst of supposedly Muslim lands. Iran remains in de facto control of southern Lebanon and Gaza; ordinary Jordanians and Egyptians remain among the worst anti-semites in the Arab world. The best "peace" would be bitter cold; it will not include any real normalization, and the threat from radical Islam remains potent in Arab and Muslim states. Furthermore, any tension between Israel and any of its neighbors - Hezbollah or Hamas or Syria - would result in even the moderate Arab world solidly behind Israel's enemies, no matter what. The best peace plan would result in Israel being exactly where it is today - surrounded by enemies, with less of a land buffer, and Israel relying on US money to prompt Arab neighbors to keep radicals in check. That is not peace, and that is not security. Elephant 22: The Arab Spring We now see how tenuous is the hold of Arab leaders on their nations. The chances of a similar upheaval in the Palestinian Arab-controlled areas is not small. What would happen to the "peace agreement" then? Besides that, Abbas has no successor. Poll show that if elections were held today, the new president of the PA would be a convicted terrorist now in Israeli prison. Any piece of paper signed by Abbas would be next to worthless after he is gone. It is true that Egypt has, despite rhetoric, kept the Camp David accords, but that is out of self-interest. The entire point of Palestinian Arab nationalism has been to destroy Israel, not to achieve statehood - so their self-interest coincides with taking any Israeli concession and then reneging on their end.      | ||||
| Egyptian liberal, secular party accuses the US of being a Nazi state Posted: 30 Jul 2013 02:00 AM PDT Being completely bonkers is not only the domain of the Islamists. Even the "good guys" are crazy. Al Wafd, the newspaper of the liberal Wafd party, has already been shown to report a bizarre story about a US medical research center in Egypt that, they claim, is creating pathogens to kill Egyptians and cause birth defects, among other horrendous things. On the lighter side, al Wafd also reported that Madonna was helping Zionist take over the world. Now, the newspaper publishes an extended rant that says, repeatedly, that the US is a Nazi state, that it supported the Muslim Brotherhood, that it funds sedition, and that it supports terror groups and calls it a War on Terror. These terror groups are meant to take over Egypt. The facta are crystal clear .. Egypt will not accept to be a field for experiments in failed U.S. policy .. We will not leave the future of our country, to an America anomaly that has fallen under the influence of the World Zionists .. It has also become clear to everyone that Egypt would not retreat from fighting terrorism .. terrorists and their presence in Egypt is unacceptable ..How can any Western country navigate an Arab world where each group is nuttier than the next? Especially when they seem to make it a competition!      |
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