| Abbas refusing to send leukemia medicine to Gaza Posted: 08 Aug 2013 06:00 PM PDT This story last month from PCHR seems to have slipped under the radar: The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is gravely concerned over the lives of 36 patients, who suffer from Leukemia in the Gaza Strip, due to not receiving the necessary treatment they need for 8 months. PCHR is concerned these patients may have serious complications leading to death if they do not receive their treatment immediately. PCHR calls upon President Mahmoud Abbass to promptly intervene to save the lives of these patients and to instruct the Ministry of Health in Ramallah to supply the medicine needed for these patients as soon as possible.
According to PCHR's follow-up, the suffering of the patients of Leukemia, which is a serious cancerous disease that affects blood cells, started in December 2012 when the medicine (Glivec 400 mg tab) fully ran out in the blood section pharmacy at Shifa Hospital. As a result, the patients have not received their medical treatment since then. Doctors in charge stated that this medicine is the sole treatment for Leukemia patients and not receiving this treatment would cause complications and put the patients' lives at risk. It should be noted that the medicine is only available through the Ministry of Health in Ramallah and cannot be found in medical warehouses or private pharmacies in the Gaza Strip to save the patients' lives.
As part of PCHR's follow-up of the patients' conditions, PCHR's Legal Aid Unit addressed the Ministry of Health in Ramallah on 16 April 2013 and explained the conditions of Leukemia patients in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the unit called upon the Minister of Health to urge the competent bodies to immediately send the medicine to the Gaza Strip patients. On 30 April 2013, the Pharmacy Department at the Ministry of Health in Ramallah responded that the medicine is available at the central wheelhouses in Ramallah and that coordination was being done to send it to the patients. However, the quantity of (Glivec 400 mg tab) that reached the pharmacy in June and for once was very limited. The quantity amounted to 210 tablets that can help treating 7 patients only for one month. However, patients in the Gaza Strip need approximately 1,600 tablets a month. Consequently, the Leukemia patients have been deprived of that medicine, which is the sole treatment for them, and not receiving it would cause serious health complications. Israel has never withheld medicine from Gaza. But apparently Mahmoud Abbas does. PCHR doesn't bother to mention that while both Abbas' PLO seems to have no problem getting money to pay terrorists in jail, and while Hamas manages to buy rockets and anti-tank missiles, neither of them can find the money needed to save Palestinian Arab lives. Which pretty much tells you everything right there. If an appeal for leukemia medicine for Gazans would be made in synagogues this coming Saturday, the meds would be there next week. Yet this was posted on PCHR in late July and there were almost no stories about it in the Arab media. Somehow the Arab world doesn't seem to care about dying Palestinian Arabs if their deaths cannot be blamed on Jews.  |
| Israel, Cyprus, Greece sign MOU on energy and water Posted: 08 Aug 2013 04:00 PM PDT A great followup to my earlier post on the political issues of Israel distributing natural gas: CYPRUS, ISRAEL and Greece will sign a "historic" memorandum of understanding (MOU) on energy and water issues today, paving the way for the further strengthening of relations between the three countries.
Speaking after a meeting with Agriculture Minister Nicos Kouyialis in Nicosia on Wednesday, Israeli Minister of Energy and Water Resources Silvan Shalom described today's signing of the memorandum between the three countries as a "historical moment", as it was the first of its kind between the three countries.
On the initiative of Cypriot Energy and Trade Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis, Shalom and Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Yiannis Maniatis are in Nicosia to discuss issues concerning tripartite and regional cooperation in the energy sector, including protection of the environment from offshore hydrocarbon activities and connecting the electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus and Greece through submarine power cables.
The signing of the MOU on energy and water collaboration, due today, shows how far the three countries have come in terms of cooperation, said Shalom. Relations are better than ever, he said, adding that the MOU will enable the three countries to strengthen relations even further.
"The fact that we are here shows that we do not only work well on (issues concerning) water, but it's also about geopolitics, strategy and political issues between the three countries," he said.
Shalom and Kouyialis yesterday held a bilateral meeting to discuss water development, management and protection.
The Israeli minister hailed the meeting as an indication of the good relations enjoyed between Israel and Cyprus these days, adding, "I believe we can do more".
He spoke of a "big change" in relations and the "good will between the two sides" to help one another.
Enhanced relations between the two countries was also a major theme of President Nicos Anastasiades' speech at the opening of a fifth desalination plant, which Israeli companies had helped build, near Limassol last night.
Anastasiades said energy cooperation between Israel and Cyprus, given their common interests in the exploration and exploitation of significant natural resources, could "become the driving force for an enhanced partnership between our two countries".
Given the government's determination to move ahead with the construction of an LNG plant, he invited Israel "to seriously consider committing to exporting Israeli gas" from the Cypriot LNG facility.
"This is all the more pertinent if one takes into account that Cyprus is perhaps Israel's most stable partner in the region. In addition, our proximity to the Suez Canal is an important factor favouring the creation of a regional energy hub in Cyprus for the transportation of natural gas from Eastern Mediterranean countries, not only to Europe, but also to the Far East," said Anastasiades. It's really funny how Iran pretends that Israel is the most isolated country in the world in light of deals like this. (h/t Professor Pelotard)  |
| 8/08 Links Part 2: Turning the Negev into the 'Israeli Silicon Valley, Followup on anti-Israel "Donald Duck" Posted: 08 Aug 2013 02:30 PM PDT From Ian:
Why this Christian Supports Israel By: Gary Bauer The people of Israel love what we Americans love and honor what we Americans honor. Israel is built on the rule of law. Its Declaration of Independence is modeled after ours. We are joined at the heart.
The only memorial in the Middle East to honor the three thousand innocent Americans brutally murdered on the morning of 9/11 is in Israel. As crowds in the West Bank and Gaza rushed into the streets to celebrate the murderous attack on America, Israelis mourned with us, lowered their flag as we lowered ours, and wept with us. A three part series on BDS by Steve Apfel at The Commentator. Israel boycotters: A Kabbalistic mission
Part 1. of a 3 part series on the whys and wherefores of Israel boycotters
Israel boycotters: La Trahison des clercs
Part 2. of a 3 part series on the whys and wherefores of Israel boycotters
Israel boycotters: The goose and the golden egg
Part 3. of a 3 part series on the whys and wherefores of Israel boycotters CIF Watch: Irish Times report includes false claim about BDS impact on Jerusalem Light Rail However, his claim that Veolia withdrew from the Jerusalem consortium appears to be flatly untrue. As a fact sheet on Veolia's website, and even posts on pro-BDS sites such as 'Who Profits?' (a project of Coalition of Women for Peace) make clear, Veolia has NOT ended its involvement with the consortium.
Additionally, while the company has indicated its wish to eventually sell its 5% share, McDonald's passage misleadingly implies that Veolia's calculations are based on the political pressure by BDS activists, a charge flatly denied by the company and contradicted by a recent report in Globes, which included the following: More BBC whitewashing of 'Al Quds Day' That rally was as usual organized by the Iranian regime-linked 'Islamic Human Rights Commission' – a registered charity whose chair, Massoud Shadjareh, has been quoted and promoted by the BBC on numerous occasions over the years. The event was also supported by various non-Shiia bodies and non-Muslim organisations such as the 'Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign', 'Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods' – one of the founders of which, Tony Greenstein, has appeared on BBC programmes – and the 'Stop the War Coalition' – members of which are also to be found not infrequently as guests of the BBC.
In contrast to the curious little local custom – odd, but harmless – which this BBC article tries to make Al Quds day out to be, it is in fact a well-organised, well-funded vehicle for promoting racist hatred and glorifying terrorism. BBC audiences are entitled to expect to read the truth about it rather than Ardalan's insipid, almost anthropological, whitewash. Israel: For now, no pacts with EU due to West Bank rules The ministers "did not make a decision specific to Horizon 2020," a government source told The Times of Israel on Thursday, "but they all agreed that the new EU guidelines are detrimental to the possible success of the peace talks with the Palestinians."
The ministers also agreed that "Israel will be unable to sign additional agreements [with the EU] that include the stipulations the EU is demanding. The government of Israel will seek clarifications from the EU regarding the territorial clause," the official said. Major German daily publishes anti-Israeli cartoon A major German newspaper on Wednesday published an anti-Israeli caricature likening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an evil character from an anti-Nazi song. The cartoon raised serious concerns among Jews in Germany and beyond, who have demanded that the paper apologize.
In Wednesday's Stuttgarter Zeitung, Netanyahu is seen sitting on a park bench, pouring poison from a bottle labeled "settlement construction" over a piece of bread which he apparently intends to feed to a peace dove. The cartoon caption references a 1938 anti-Nazi song by the Jewish Austrian-American composer and performer Georg Kreisler called "Pigeon Poisoner." Obama asked to raise anti-Semitism with Greek PM Elisa Massimino, the president and CEO of the US-based group, urged Obama in a two-page letter Tuesday to ask Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during their meeting on Thursday to "speak out more forcefully to counteract the negative anti-Semitic and xenophobic discourse."
The letter specifically pointed to the political party Golden Dawn, which holds 7 percent of the seats in the Greek parliament, noting "its representatives use Nazi symbols, have praised German Nazi leaders in the past, and have engaged in blatantly xenophobic rhetoric." Disney Claims 'Anti-Israel Donald Duck' is 'Not Currently Under Contract,' No Comment on Future Employment The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday tried to distance itself from an Egyptian voice over artist who calls himself the "official voice of Donald Duck in the Middle East" and who caused an online firestorm this week after he published anti-Israel and anti-Zionist remarks on Twitter.
Wael Mansour, whose Twitter tirade surprised Disney executives while the company, which owns the rights to Donald Duck, was preoccupied with presenting its third quarter results this week, is an outside subcontractor who has no affiliation with the parent company, a spokesman for Disney in Europe and the Middle East told The Algemeiner. Despite losing wife to terror attack, Chabad envoy returns to India Only nine months ago, during Operation Pillar of Defense, Rabbi Shmuel Scharf's wife, Mira, was killed when a Hamas rocket struck their home in Kiryat Malachi. Now, about a month before the Jewish High Holy Days commence, Shmuel is going back to India with his kids, where he will once again serve as the director of New Delhi's Chabad House.
Scharf, who was injured along with his children during the rocket attack, is moving to India against the advice of psychologists, who believe it would be premature to resume his activities as a Chabad emissary. But Scharf, having largely recuperated from the attack, says he must pick up from where he and his wife left off. Israel's Compugen inks $10 million Bayer deal Tel Aviv-based Compugen, a drug discovery company focused on therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies to address unmet needs in immunology and oncology, is getting $10 million at the start of a major collaboration and license agreement with Bayer HealthCare.
Their joint preclinical research program aims to research, develop and commercialize antibody-based therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy against two novel "immune checkpoint regulators" discovered by Compugen. AOL Pays $405 Million for Israeli-Founded Adap.tv Adap.tv, which is now based in San Mateo, California, was founded by Israeli start-up veteran CEO Amir Ashkenazi, Dan Klein and CTO Teg Grenager in 2006, and its investors include Gemini Israel Ventures, as well as US funds Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners, Israeli's Globes business newspaper reported.
Adap.tv will operate independently as part of AOL's video department and it will be included in the overall solution packages offered by AOL Networks to its publisher and advertiser partners. Netanyahu: Negev will become the Israeli Silicon Valley According to the current timetable, the IDF's Communication Corps compound will be transferred from central Israel to the new Negev complex next year. The IDF's intelligence compound is set to move to the Negev in 2018, and with it 30,000 personnel of which 6,000 are career servicemen.
"The IDF's move to the Negev represents an unprecedented maneuver in its scope and economic, social and cultural impact. The completion of the maneuver will see the Negev turn into the 'Israeli Silicon Valley,'" Netanyahu said.  |
| The political roadblocks of Israel exporting gas have little to do with Arab/Israel conflict Posted: 08 Aug 2013 12:30 PM PDT Reuters reports: A group of energy companies that discovered large amounts of natural gas off Israel's Mediterranean coast said they were in talks to export the gas to Europe via a pipeline to Turkey.
They are also studying options to export gas to Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Avner Oil & Gas said on Tuesday.
"The partners are negotiating with various officials," Avner, one of the partners in the project, said.
A spokesman for Delek Group, the parent company for Avner and for Delek Drilling, said the group - led by Noble Energy - was already in advanced talks with companies in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority about buying Israeli gas and building pipelines. As always, there are some hitches. World Bulletin reports: An Egyptian energy official has dismissed reports saying that the country is in talks with Israeli energy companies for gas imports and possible pipeline projects.
On Tuesday, Avner Oil & Gas, leading a group of energy companies that discovered large amounts of natural gas off Israel's Mediterranean coast, said that they were in talks to export the gas to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. The talks, the company said, also covered the possibility of building pipelines to help export the gas to Europe.
However, Taher Abdel-Rahim, chairman of the Egyptian Gas Holding Company (EGAS), which runs Egypt's gas pipeline network, dismissed the claims.
"We have not made such negotiations and will not go into talks in the meantime with any international companies about such proposals," Abdel-Rahim said.
Abdel-Rahim said such deals cannot be completed without the knowledge of his company. But the real issue isn't the Arab/Israeli conflict - so far I have not seen any pushback from Jordan or the PA about buying Israeli gas - but from political issues in other parts of the Mediterranean: What form should those exports take? One early idea was a pipeline to Turkey. Great. Turkey is nearby; it's a booming market that is expected to see demand grow from 43.5 bcm in 2012 to around 60 bcm in 2020; and it favors diversity of sources. Moreover, at present, its only completed agreement to cover the extra 16-17 bcm/y of gas it needs to import (and, since domestic production is minimal, its increase in demand is tantamount to an increase in imports), is for 6 bcm to come from Azerbaijan, starting in 2018-19.
But that's a political minefield. The foreign ministry likes the idea because it would help improve ties with an important neighbor. But it still has no clear answer to the question as to whether maritime boundary issues first must be settled–or even a full solution of their 40-year Cyprus dispute.
The reason is that waters to the east of Cyprus (if not actually Lebanese or Syrian), may be Cypriot in international law, but in practice a good part of any route taken by a pipeline from Israel to Turkey to the east of Cyprus would have to pass through waters controlled not by the Government of Cyprus but by the self-proclaimed breakaway state which calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
As for a possible line to the west of Cyprus, that would need to pass through waters that are even more diplomatically murky. The problem here is that Greece, Turkey and Cyprus have yet to state, let alone agree, just what they consider their respective Exclusive Economic Zones to be in this area. Judging by maps produced by Turkish and Greek analysts, any formal claims would be fundamentally incompatible, with Turkey likely to argue that its EEZ would have a common boundary with Egypt's EEZ; Cyprus would looking to support prospective Greek claims that Greece and Cyprus share a common EEZ boundary. Perhaps it is just as well that neither Athens nor Ankara seem to wish to oppress this point at present. After all , they've been arguing over their maritime boundaries in the Aegean for half a century, with no solution in sight.
Some Turkish sources have suggested the simplest solution would be to lay a subsea line from the Israeli and Cypriot fields to southern Cyprus, then run an overland pipe to northern Cyprus, followed by a subsea line across to Turkey. In terms of cost, and engineering, they are almost certainly right. It's just that laying a pipe from southern Cyprus to the north is politically improbable, and perhaps impossible, in the absence of a solution to the underlying Cyprus problem.
As for various occasional suggestions that Cyprus and Israel might want to look at a pipeline to Greece, this not only poses similar problems, unless a route can be found through Egypt's EEZ, but it's also extremely complex, requiring state of the art technology to lay pipes at depths as great as 3000 metres. It thus can be ruled out on grounds of cost, unless, of course, Greece itself finds gas at some convenient intermediate location. The writer concludes that the only way to make this work is to build a liquefied natural gas plant, one that Israel and Cyprus could both use. LNG can be shipped anywhere. But that has problems as well: So it looks to be LNG. That's certainly the goal of the memorandum of understanding signed with the government of Cyprus on June 26 by the Delek Group and Noble Energy, the companies currently developing the major offshore gasfields discovered so far in both Israeli and Cypriot waters. The MoU aims to put in place the basic terms of a formal agreement to develop a joint two-train LNG plant at Vasilikos on the southern coast of Cyprus, with operations to start in 2018-19.
Can Noble and its partners pull this off? No government has yet approved the construction of an LNG plant primarily designed to serve its own resources but to be located in another country. This may be the first time it happens. There are still options for Israel to go it alone, but that would require building an LNG plant in Israel itself, which, given its limited Mediterranean coastline, would be likely to cause serious environmental protests; or to develop floating LNG, already criticized for constituting an obvious target for missile attack from Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. Maybe it makes sense for Israel to build its own LNG plant just so it can not have to worry about any future political issues with Cyprus. It certainly would seem to be the most flexible solution giving Israel the most freedom to sell to whom it wants without worrying about the conduits being attacked. Even so, it is funny to see that that from the perspective of building a pipeline from Israel to Turkey and Europe, the existing political minefield seems to be more intractable than any issues Israel has with its Arab neighbors!  |
| Egyptian op-ed reminds readers that Jews are the real enemy Posted: 08 Aug 2013 10:30 AM PDT Al Mesryoon has an op-ed called "Have we forgotten the Zionist Snake?"  With all the turmoil in the Middle East, and especially how Egypt went from perceiving Hamas from being an ally to being an enemy, Egyptians need to remember who the real enemy is, according to Hisham al-Najjar. He helpfully informs us that "The Zionist industry plots and feeds coups and wars and strife; and students of history know that they are responsible for most of the degradations in the world of pain and the killing of millions and unrest throughout the ages, which reached its peak in past four centuries." You see, the French Revolution was started by Jews (here he discards the awkward "Zionist" label.) Same with the Russian Revolution. Similarly, today "the Zionist snake" is presenting itself as a peace-loving friend of the Arab world while it schemes to destroy everything, and is hatching plots to incite hatred and cause strife and unrest and coups. Everyone needs a gentle reminder of the big picture, and Jew-hatred is about as uncontroversial a position as one can take in Egypt nowadays.  |
| 8/08 Links Part 1: Oren Slams NYTs for Dehumanizing Israeli Victims, Bankrupting Hamas Posted: 08 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT From Ian:
Lionizing Palestinian Stone-Throwers Only in passing, from an Israeli woman who lives nearby, did Rudoren note that "a man and his 1-year-old son" were killed in a stoning attack. Indeed, not two years ago, on the same Road 60 that bisects Beit Ommar, 24-year-old Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan, driving to meet his pregnant wife, were murdered by stones hurled by two Palestinians. Smashing the windshield (crushing Asher's face and fracturing his skull), they caused the car to crash. One of the killers was sentenced to two life terms and an additional fifty-eight years in prison. So much for stoning assaults, which Rudoren referred to as "a rite of passage and an honored act of defiance" – and a "game."
As for the settlements that the Times so loves to hate, the unique and distinguished history of Gush Etzion (the bloc of communities that surround Beit Ommar), should be noted (but wasn't). Unlike the overwhelming majority of Jewish settlements, built in the years following the Six-Day War in the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, Gush Etzion has a longer history. First established in 1927 as a community of Yemenite immigrants and a sprinkling of ultra-Orthodox Jews, it was destroyed in the 1929 Arab riots, during which 67 Jews in the nearby ancient Jewish city of Hebron were brutally murdered. Israel Ambassador Oren Slams New York Times Article on Palestinian Rock-Throwers; Says it 'Dehumanized' Israeli Victims Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, responded sharply to a New York Times article published Tuesday, that favorably depicted Palestinian Arab youths who throw stones at Israelis.
"While Palestinian protagonists are described in detail, their Israeli victims are largely dehumanized 'settlers' — no name, age or gender," Oren writes in a letter- to-the-editor published by the paper. Gaza Terrorists Fire Qassam at Southern Israel Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a Qassam rocket towards the Eshkol Regional Council on Wednesday night.
The rocket exploded in an open region, causing no physical injuries or damages. Local residents said that the "Red Alert" warning siren had not gone off before the rocket exploded. Jonathan Schanzer: Bankrupt Hamas Since Morsi's ouster, the military has been unleashed: It has arrested at least 29 Brotherhood financiers, including at least one significant contributor to Hamas's coffers, according to a senior Israeli security official. It has also reportedly deployed 30,000 troops to the Sinai and purportedly destroyed roughly 800 of the 1,000 tunnels connecting Egypt to Gaza. Ala al-Rafati, the Hamas economy minister, recently told Reuters that these operations cost Hamas $230-million — about a tenth of Gaza's GDP.
All of this presents U.S. Secretary of State Kerry with a rare opportunity to try to hasten the group's financial demise. And it is in his interest to do so. The group, after all, carried out suicide bombings against Israeli civilian targets in the 1990s to torpedo the peace process. It's a fair bet that Hamas will launch a new campaign of violence now that talks are ramping back up. Letter Circulating in Congress Asks Qatar to Sever Hamas Ties Qatar reportedly pledged more than $400 million to Hamas in October 2012 during a visit to Gaza by Qatar's ruling emir at the time, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The U.S. House letter, which was organized by U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and John Barrow (D-GA) and had been circulating in the House since last month, said the Qatari government's support of Hamas "empowers, legitimizes, and bolsters an organization committed to violence and hatred." Israel lets Arab Idol winner move to West Bank Guy Inbar, an Israeli military spokesman, confirmed on Tuesday that Israel has granted West Bank residency to Assaf, his sister, brother-in-law and the couple's three children. Inbar said Israel responded to a request by the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based self-rule government of President Mahmoud Abbas.
When Assaf won the Arab Idol contest in Beirut in June, the charismatic performer became a symbol of Palestinian pride, and Abbas embraced him as a national hero.
In contrast, the Islamic militant Hamas rulers of Gaza gave Assaf a cool reception when he briefly visited Gaza after his win. Hamas views contests such as Arab Idol as frivolous and opposes them on religious grounds. Erekat to US Representative: PA curriculum not perfect, but working on teaching mutual respect No group on earth has been subjected to more discrimination and hate than the Jews, and the US will not fund curriculum in the Palestinian Authority that does not teach tolerance and mutual respect, US Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said on Wednesday.
Hoyer, leading a massive delegation of 36 Democratic US congressman, said this issue was the first one he broached during a meeting Wednesday in Ramallah with PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat. Palestinians riot in Jenin after terror activist's arrest Dozens of Palestinians rioted in response to the IDF's arrest Wednesday morning of an Islamic Jihad leader in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
At least 150 protesters threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and burning tires at the soldiers throughout the raid of the Palestinian activist's home, an IDF spokeswoman told The Times of Israel. The IDF responded with riot-control munitions, including tear gas canisters, the spokeswoman said. Egypt a Battleground for Hamas, Fatah Feuding Egypt has emerged as a battlefield between the Hamas and Fatah terror groups in their ongoing struggle for control of the Palestinian Authority, according to a top Palestinian Authority academic.
Adnan Abu Amer, writing on the web site AlMonitor, addressed accusations by Hamas that top PA officials collaborated to blacken Hamas' reputation among Egypt's military leaders, saying that such reports were at least partially confirmed by documents seized by Hamas from a Fatah operative. Egyptian crisis puts fearful Christians in a corner It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting "Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians." A half-dozen kids were spray-painting "Boycott the Christians" on walls, supervised by an adult.
While Islamists are on the defensive in Cairo following the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi, in Assiut and elsewhere in Egypt's deep south they are waging a stepped-up hate campaign, claiming the country's Christian minority somehow engineered Morsi's downfall. Islamists Raise Al Qaeda Flag Over Coptic Church in Egypt According to Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based Coptic human rights organization that cited a local Egyptian report in Shorouk News, the Islamists chanted that Egypt should be an "Islamic [state] despite [the wishes of] secularists." The church immediately closed its doors after the demonstration and prevented the entry or exit of its members.
Additionally, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters surrounded a church in the Egyptian city of Girga to denounce Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros and his support for the interim military-backed government. Saudi Arabia tries to woo Russia away from Syria with arms deal Saudi Arabia offered to buy billions of dollars worth of arms from Russia in return for a Moscow commitment to ease its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and to not block any future United Nations Security Council resolutions against the Damascus regime.
According to a Wednesday report from Reuters, based on several unnamed sources from across the Middle East, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan made the proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two met in Moscow last week.
Syrian opposition sources claim Bandar offered to buy $15 billion worth of weapons and also pledged to ensure that Gulf gas producers will not challenge Russia's position as the leading gas supplier to Europe. Satellite images show Aleppo devastation Satellite images have laid bare the suffering inflicted on Syria's largest city, a London-based rights group said Wednesday, cataloging hundreds of damaged or destroyed houses and more than 1,000 roadblocks.
Amnesty International said it had worked with the American Association for the Advancement of Science to analyze pictures of Aleppo taken by aerospace imagery providers DigitalGlobe and Astrium for signs of destruction in the metropolis, which has been the scene of months of vicious fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels fighting to topple him. How the EU Empowers Hezbollah's "Military Wing" By preserving contact with, and funding of, Hezbollah's "political wing," without substantial measures against its "military wing," the EU not only sanitizes and legitimizes Hezbollah's "political" leadership, but also also legitimizes the entire terror group as an important actor in both Lebanese politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Even the European media have been puzzled at the EU's decision to bolster one side of the terror group while symbolically -- though not practically -- punishing the other side. An editorial in The Times noted, "It is implausible to believe that Hezbollah's political organisation is sealed from its terrorist wing. These are one entity, not two. Hezbollah comprises a murder gang and a public relations front." Analysts: New Iran Site May be Used to Test Ballistic Missiles Iran has built a new rocket launch site which is likely to be used for testing ballistic missiles, military analysts publishing satellite images of the structure told the British Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
Pictures of the newly discovered site have been published weeks after the Iranian government said it was building new space launch bases for its domestic satellite program. Iran Christian Sentenced To 10 Years Jail For Evangelical Activities Mohammad-Hadi (Mostafa) Bordbar, a 27-year-old resident of the city of Rasht, was "tried by Judge Pir-Abbasi on the morning of June 9, 2013 in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran," amid a wider government crackdown on spreading Christianity in Iran said Mohabat News, an agency of Iranian Christian and activists.
Bordbar, who has been detained since December 27, 2012, received a five-year jail sentence for "membership of an anti-security organization" and an additional five years for "gathering with the intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security," according to published court documents. The Turkish saga The pugnacious Erdogan now aims to run for president, since he cannot continue for another term as prime minister. Accordingly, he aims to change the rules of the game and make the presidency more potent.
Those urban Turks who are relatively Europeanized have cause for concern.
As Peres opined all those years ago, the Middle East demolishes clichés. In this region liberal secularists put their trust in the military, whereas the forces of Islam are its hardly democratic adversaries. Chipping away at the military hierarchy – to say nothing of eliminating it – bolsters the fundamentalists and brings theocracy ever closer.
No alternative is democratic, but the West – Israel included – needs to decide with whom it would rather do business, or with whom it can do business.  |
| Was the Lebanon incident injuring 4 IDF soldiers an ambush? Posted: 08 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT From AFP: Two blasts that wounded four Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon were in fact an "ambush" set by Hezbollah, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday.
The explosions hit the patrol on Wednesday when the troops ventured 400 meters into south Lebanon, parts of which are controlled by the powerful Shiite movement.
"The enemy blundered when they violated the border with Lebanon, and fell into a trap that only the resistance could set," said the newspaper, which has links to Hezbollah.
"Only Hezbollah can make bombs that blow up Israelis" when they pass by, it said.
Hezbollah, which has close ties to Iran and the regime in Syria, is considered Israel's arch-foe, and the two fought a brief but bloody summer war in 2006.
"The Israeli unit fell into a well-set ambush and the enemy found itself faced with a difficult question: 'How did Hezbollah know we were there?'" the daily wrote.
"The ambush is a dangerous failure for the enemy because it shows that Hezbollah has an intelligence structure that allows it to know when a patrol arrives, its route and to set a trap for it," it added.
"That means the resistance is prepared for every eventuality, in case of confrontation on a wider scale or in case of a general conflict."
The Lebanese army said four Israeli soldiers were wounded by explosions 400 meters inside Lebanese territory.
Israel's military confirmed the toll without specifying what side of the border the soldiers were on as they were "carrying out nocturnal activities in the Lebanese border area when the explosion occurred".
The soldiers were members of an elite unit, Israeli public radio reported.
A UN officer in the area said the 10-strong Israeli unit withdrew taking their wounded with them, as troops on the Israeli side of the border fired flares to aid their exit.
The barbed wire marking the border had been cut, an AFP correspondent reported, and the two blasts occurred in a pine forest several hundred meters into Lebanon. I read this as Hezbollah observed under what circumstances the IDF troops would enter Lebanon and it created those same circumstances to ambush them. If so, even though troops were injured, the operation must be regarded as a failure, because the usual goal is to take soldiers hostage. Even if the goal was to start an incident to anger Lebanese citizens and redirect their anger from Hezbollah to Israel, it didn't work, based on what I am reading in Lebanese papers.. Lebanese media report that it was an ordinary mine explosion. If so, then perhaps Hezbollah is simply trying to take credit for dumb luck, although it seems unlikely the IDF would have soldiers walking in a minefield without adequate protection.  |
| Soccer player stunt "like an Egyptian bomb in Tel Aviv" Posted: 08 Aug 2013 05:00 AM PDT From soccer site 101 Great Goals: Last week, during Basel's home match against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League, Basel's star winger, Egyptian Mohamad Salah, went to great lengths to avoid shaking hands with his Israeli opponents.
Salah positioned a pair of boots on the side of the pitch and avoided the pre-match handshakes under the pretense of changing his orange Adidas footwear.
That incident went viral, and ahead of the return leg in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night there had been planty of chatter whether Salah would even be arriving in the Jewish land for political reasons.
In the end Salah did turn up in Israel, despite telling reporters before the match:
In my thoughts I am going to play in Palestine and not Israel, and I am also going to score and win there. The Zionist flag won't be shown in the Champions League.
As it turned out, Salah's pre-match predictions played out according to his word. The Egyptian scored Basel's second goal in a thrilling 3-3 draw, which saw the Swiss club knock out Maccabi 4-3 on aggregate.
Salah's behaviour before the match in Tel Aviv also drew plenty of attention as, once again, the Basel player fudged the pre-game handshake pomp.
Rather than shaking his opponents hands like normal, Salah devised a trick to get around the customarily duty as he gave a fist-bump to the Maccabi players as he walked down the line.
Many reports in the Arab world seem to be celebrating Salah's innovative way of not shaking the Maccabi Tel Aviv player's hands, however these days it could be argued that a fist-bump is a normal method of displaying a greeting in public.
Will UEFA investigate this shocking lack of sportsmanship from the Egyptian? Egyptian newspaper El Fagr described what Saleh did in heroic terms, even though he was the first Egyptian player to appear in Israel in nearly twenty years. The newspaper's choice of an analogy to describe this so-called heroism? A terrorist attack. The headline says "Egyptian 'bombs' in the middle of Tel Aviv cause devastation." The accompanying photo shows an Israeli flag being burned. The article says that Saleh's actions "succeeded in landing several blows, like Egyptian bombs destroying central Tel Aviv." It adds that his actions were "a horrible nightmare that destroyed the Zionists." It also said that his playing, coming during Ramadan, reminded the Israelis of the Egyptian "defeat of the Zionists" in the Yom Kippur War, which also occurred during Ramadan. Yes, "moderate" Egypt considers a soccer player's antics to be as great as a major terror attack in Tel Aviv. Which says quite a bit about Egypt.  |
| Nasrallah: "Call us terrorists" Posted: 08 Aug 2013 02:30 AM PDT Hezbollah's Al Manar translated parts of Hassan Nasrallah's Quds Day speech last Friday. It is worth watching for those who mightily try to find "moderation" in the worst terrorists. There is nothing moderate in his words. (There was no audio for some reason.) He thanks Syria and Iran for their help in funding terrorist groups, and says that Hezbollah will continue to help all terror groups that fight against Israel. Some more of the speech: Palestine which we are talking about is the whole of Palestine from the sea to the river, which should return fully to its people no one of the world's Sheikh or Sayyed or Prince nor King or President or a government to give up or abandon one grain of sand from the soil of Palestine, or a drop of its water, oil, or a piece of its land and does not have a mandate to do so....
Imam Khomeini had described Israel accurately when he called it a cancerous tumor, and it is really a tumor that kills, the only solution is to eradicate it without giving it any opportunity or surrender and eradicate. ...Israel represents a constant and enormous threat not only on Palestine and the Palestinians, this is an illusion and misinformation and ignorance. Israel is a threat to all peoples and countries of the region, with its security and sovereignty and he who denies this is arrogant.
...Some might think that the demise of Israel is a Palestinian interest, it's rather a national interest of each country of the region, and [Israel] is a threat to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, thus the disappearance of Israel is a national Jordanian, Syrian, Egyptian and Lebanese interest....
...On al-Quds Day, which is the last Friday of Holy Ramadan, we the twelver Shiites will not abandon Palestine, the Palestinian people and sanctities.
Hezbollah, the Islamic Shiite party, will not abandon Palestine, al-Quds, and the holy sites of the nation. We were born and arisen on bearing the responsibility of defending Palestine and Al-Quds. We - the Shiites- won't abandon this cause never ever. Call us rejectionists, call us terrorists, call us criminals, say whatever you want and keep killing us at every front, at the door of every mosque, we the Shiites of Ali bin Abi Taleb will not abandon Palestine. Now, does Nasrallah represent the "political" or the "military" wing of Hezbollah? This speech was also notable for being performed live, rather than via closed circuit TV as Nasrallah usually does. Which means it is a real shame that at the moment he said "keep killing us at every front" the IDF didn't do exactly that.  |
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