יום שישי, 3 בינואר 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

01/02 Links Pt2: Even Peaceniks are terror targets, Yemeni Columnist Denounces Calling Jews 'Apes And Pigs'

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:30 PM PST

From Ian:
Even Peaceniks are terror targets
Winston Churchill famously remarked "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
I've often suspected the reason some Jews join with our enemies is that the belief that if they support terrorists who want to destroy Israel and the Jews, they will be spared. Many learn too late that it doesn't matter if you're a self-hating Jew who is happy to denounce Israel and your fellow Jews; to a terrorist you are still a Jew.
MEMRI: Yemeni Columnist Denounces Custom Of Calling Jews 'Descendants Of Apes And Pigs'
Dr. Youssuf Al-Hadhiri, a columnist for the Yemeni paper 'Aden Al-Ghad, came out against the practice of Muslim clerics and preachers to call the Jews "descendants of apes and pigs" and entrench this expression in the Muslim public discourse. In a recent article, he discusses the Koranic verses that are the source of this expression in order to prove that it is false, and argues that the use of this expression only damages Islam. (h/t Bob Knot)
In Europe, Elites Create the Atmosphere That Allows Popular Anti-Semitism to Grow
One group cloaks its prejudice in high minded rationalizations. The other openly appeals to people's most base hatreds. The elites might never personally assault anyone or espouse violence. However, they create an atmosphere that allows others to more freely engage in anti-Semitic actions. It is not a matter of one group being worse than the other. It is that both are necessary for the perfect storm. This storm might take a very long time to gather to gale force—but the atmospheric elements increasingly seem to be falling into place.
Yet, before reading this as a license to panic, let's remember how different things are today than in the Europe of the 1930s. Even before Jews protested and demanded a response to Anelka's salute—something we can freely do today—political leaders, commentators, and public intellectuals were already condemning it as an expression of racist and anti-Semitic prejudice. Many among them were clear about seeing the ideas underlying the silly hand gesture as a threat to the kind of society in which they wish to live.
Dieudonné, Anelka, and Parker have all responded defensively, variously insisting that their actions have nothing to do with anti-Semitism or were misconstrued. Thankfully, no one believes them.



In New Year's Address, French President Hollande Vows to Oppose 'Anti-Semitism, Racism'
French President Francois Hollande used his televised New Year's Eve speech to address resurgent anti-Semitism after the international outcry over French anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala's quenelle salute.
In the speech, Hollande declared that he "will not condone anti-Semitism, racism and any form of discrimination… The values of the French Republic are not negotiable."
Thousands march to honor Nazi collaborator in Kiev
About 15,000 people marched through Kiev on Wednesday night to honor Stepan Bandera, glorified by some as a leader of Ukraine's liberation movement and dismissed by others as a Nazi collaborator.
The march was held in Ukraine's capital on what would have been Bandera's 105th birthday, and many of the celebrants carried torches.
Giant Swastika Sprayed on Kingsbridge, Bronx Center of Israel Synagogue
A four square foot Nazi swastika was spray painted in black across the front wall of the Kingsbridge Center of Israel synagogue, in Bronx, New York, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
The Post said the "disturbing discovery" was made by the synagogue's president at 8:30 AM on Monday when he arrived at the building after locking up at 6 PM the night before.
Nazi-looted art in the German parliament building?
The German-language daily Bild reported Monday the parliament building's 4,000-piece art collection may contain Nazi-looted art, some with ties to infamous Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt whose collection was publicized in November in a scandal still rocking the country.
In question at the parliament, writes Bild, are some 108 works of "unknown provenance." Specifically, two are currently being investigated by an art historian who began researching the collection in 2012.
Regimes that supported Richard Falk in 2013
On June 10, 2013, UN Human Rights Council expert Richard Falk presented a report to the plenary that called for UN Watch to be shut down. The following countries took the floor to support Falk — and to attack UN Watch.
Bennett Names 'Hot Mic' UN Interpreter as His Person of the Year
Bennett, who followed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who topped the list, was asked in turn to choose his person of the year for 2013. He chose the interpreters, particularly the United Nations interpreter who, not realizing her microphone was on, noted that the incessant emphasis on condemning Israel - for crimes real or alleged - is uncalled for and excessive.
Honest Reporting: The People's Choice: The Top Ten Stories of 2013
HonestReporting has managed to clock up nearly 3.5 million pageviews during 2013. Here are the top ten most viewed posts of the year:
BBC Israel focus in numbers: December 2013 and year-end round up
One issue arising from the 2012 report commissioned by the BBC Trust on the subject of the 'Arab Spring' was that of excessive focus on one particular Middle East issue.
"Although the review does not cover the period before December 2010, some BBC executives volunteered the view that in that period Middle East coverage focused too intensively on the Arab-Israel conflict, at the expense of the wider Arab world, so that the public was more surprised by the outbreak of the "Arab Spring" than it need have been."
It would seem that with regard to the BBC News website at least, little has changed since then, with coverage of most Middle East countries – including some of those named in that report – still very sparse indeed and disproportionate focus on the one free country in the region.
Which country does not have a capital city on the BBC website?
A country's capital city is usually the one in which its official seat of government is located, although the Netherlands is one example of an exception to that rule of thumb. But in any case, a capital is of course defined by the people of a particular country and their government, rather than by media organisations apparently having chronic difficulties with post-colonialism.
It might perhaps be suggested that the BBC's stubborn and anachronistic refusal to name Israel's capital city as such is related to a reluctance to be seen as taking a stance on the issue of 'disputed territory' – even though the district of the city in which the seat of government is located is not in fact 'disputed'. Well, obviously not.
The Case for Jonathan Pollard's Release
Releasing Pollard now is the right thing to do, notwithstanding the reprehensibility of his actions. Release may be a bitter pill for many in the U.S. intelligence community to swallow. As part of a deal with Prime Minister Netanyahu to advance the peace process, President Clinton planned to release Pollard in 1998. That plan was aborted when CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign in protest.
But the Israelis themselves have swallowed even more bitter pills at the behest of an American President. To advance the current peace process, they acceded to President Obama's request to release a number of Palestinian prisoners. Last October, Israel released 26, most of whom had been involved in murdering Israeli citizens. Three of the prisoners had murdered senior citizens with axes. None of those released had served as long as Pollard has.
Israel survived the release of murderers. The United States will survive the release of Jonathan Pollard.
US tells Israel: There's no chance Pollard will be freed for release of Israeli-Arab prisoners
Also on Wednesday, Labor MK Nachman Shai and Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked, who head the lobby for Pollard's release in the Knesset, appealed to President Shimon Peres to push for the release of the Israeli agent.
Together, 106 MK's from the coalition and the opposition, Jews and Arabs as one, submitted a letter to President Peres, written to President Obama, pleading for Pollard's release.
Israeli Air Force Develops 'Waze' Technology for Fighter Pilots
The unit is currently working on a series of groundbreaking technologies that have garnered praise from hi tech companies both in Israel and around the world. On Monday, the it was officially recognized by Israel's Chief of General Staff for its innovative and valuable software, Walla said.
One of the Horizon Unit's most compelling projects is a software program that sends information right into a fighter plane's cockpit – in real time. The mass of valuable data then allows the pilot to identify different types of enemy targets and make quick decisions while on the attack.
IDF's encrypted cellphones to get upgrade
The Israel Defense Forces signed a $100 million contract with Motorola Solutions on Tuesday to produce new encrypted smartphones for the IDF for the next 15 years.
The smartphones will include a touchscreen, GPS and an eight-megapixel camera, and will allow soldiers to send secure text messages, images and emails.
8 Female Israeli Soldiers Who Shattered Barriers in 2013
Women have proudly served in the IDF since the very beginning. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, wrote an impassioned letter to religious communities outlining the necessity of women serving and protecting Israel. Since then, women have taken increasingly high-level positions in the IDF. These female Israeli soldiers challenge stereotypes through the work they do every day.
IDF appoints first female battalion commander
IDF Maj. Oshrat Bachar made history late Wednesday when she was appointed as the Israeli military's first combat battalion commander.
Bachar, a 35-year-old Petah Tikva native, was appointed commander of a battalion in the IDF's Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, where she has served throughout her 17-year-long military career.
Israel to name Arrow site after former US senator Daniel Inouye
Israel plans to name an Arrow defense missile facility after deceased former US senator Daniel Inouye for his contribution to Israel, marking the first time Israel has named a military facility after a non-Israeli.
"I knew Inouye for 30 years, and he was Israel's greatest supporter in Congress," Robert Asher, a former president of AIPAC, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
Mayim Bialik's coming to Israel
Bialik was best known for her lead role in the NBC sitcom "Blossom," and has been nominated for two Emmys for her recurring role as Amy Farrah Fowler, Sheldon's love interest on CBS's "The Big Bang Theory." In her private life, she holds a PhD in neuroscience, is recently divorced and writes frequently about attachment parenting, veganism and the challenges of being an observant Jew in Hollywood.
Top Israeli Jewish Philanthropies of 2013
Some of the most inspiring charities to look out for next year.
Start popping champagne bottles! We are getting ready to ring in the New Year. With tons of philanthropies and charity work, here are some of the top Israeli charities to look out for in 2014:

Has the earliest Hebrew inscription been decoded?

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST

From Times of Israel:

An ancient eight-letter inscription — dating back to King Solomon's reign in Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago — was deciphered by a researcher from the University of Haifa, shedding light on the Solomonic kingdom's impressively sophisticated administrative system.

The carving was discovered on a clay jug in the Ophel area, near the southern wall of the Temple Mount, by a Hebrew University archaeological team headed by Dr. Eilat Mazar. It is considered the most ancient Hebrew engraving to emerge from the archaeological digs in Jerusalem to date.

However, the meaning of the cryptic inscription eluded researchers until Professor Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa interpreted it as a classification of a type of wine stored in the jug. He published his findings in the journal "New Studies on Jerusalem."

Galil estimated that the carving was written in the middle of the tenth century BCE, after King Solomon built the First Temple, his palaces, and the surrounding walls that unified the three areas of the city — the Ophel area, the city of David, and the Temple Mount. These tremendous infrastructural projects contributed, Galil said, to the sudden need for copious quantities of poor-quality wine.

"This wine was not served on the table of King Solomon nor in the Temple," Galil wrote. "Rather it was probably used by the many forced laborers in the building projects and the soldiers that guarded them. Food and drinks for these laborers were mainly held in the Ophel area." His theory is shored up by pottery fragments found in Arad, Galil wrote.
Haaretz had details:

Galil suggested that the letters were early Hebrew and identified the key word as "yayin", meaning wine.

Of all the region's languages, Galil noted, only southern Hebrew wrote the word yayin with two instances of the letter yod, rather than one.

According to Galil's interpretation, the inscription describes the wine that was in the jar bearing the inscription. The first letter is a final mem, which could be the end of the word "esrim" (twenty) or "shloshim" (thirty,) referring to either the twentieth or thirtieth year of Solomon's reign. Next comes the word "yayin" (wine) followed by the word "halak", and then the letter mem, the first letter of the wine's place of origin.

"Halak" is an oenological term from the Northern Syrian language of Ugarit. It referred to the lowest of three types of wine – "good wine," "no good wine" and lowly "halak". Galil speculated that the poor-quality wine was drunk by the king's conscript labor force working on various building projects.
Here is Galil's illustration of the letters in the ancient Semitic alphabet:

The three rightmost letters are partially conjecture on Galil's part; most of them fall outside the actual piece of pottery:


When you see that, then the "two yod" theory seems much less strong - those points could be part of other letters of the alphabet at the time.

The word "halak" (h-l-q) seems to be the best evidence for the missing letters to spell "yayin" but it is not a sure thing. This paper from July posits that the letters should actually be read right to left, and he also assumes that some letters are different than Galil's assumptions - for example, instead of h-l-q it might be h-p-q or h-l-r.

Still, Galil's hypothesis is interesting and any inscription in Jerusalem from First Temple times is spectacular.

(h/t DM)

The hundredth school to condemn ASA's boycott of Israel

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 12:30 PM PST

Avi Mayer has been keeping track of the colleges and universities who have condemned the ASA for their boycott of Israel. So far, one hundred have joined the condemnation.

(I am hearing noises that the ASA itself might not survive this kerfuffle.)

The hundredth institution is Catholic University of America, and their letter is worth posting here:

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT JOHN GARVEY
ON THE AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES

The American Studies Association's recent call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions is lamentable. The Association has appointed itself as a kind of inept volunteer fire department, aiming to put out the Israeli-Palestinian conflagration by throwing gasoline on the fire. That's not exactly right. It has decided to pour gas not on the source of the fire but on bystanders, some of whom are trying to extinguish the flames. No good can come of punishing academic institutions for the shortcomings, real and perceived, of their nations' leaders and policies.

Rather than restricting academic freedom to advance political causes, academic organizations like the ASA should be working to foster dialogue with their foreign interlocutors, perhaps especially those they disagree with. The academy – universities, faculties, and satellite institutions – is a place where research, open discussion, and creative thought can lead to reforms and new approaches to longstanding problems. I hope the ASA's call for a boycott produces just the opposite of its intended result – a proliferation of U.S. linkages with Israeli universities and other universities in the Middle East.

Explosion reveals armed wing of "Palestine's" diplomatic corps

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST

Jamal "Boom-boom" al-Jamal
Yesterday:
An explosion on the premises of the future Palestinian embassy in Prague-Suchdol killed Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic Jamal Al Jamal, 56, but Poice President Martin Červíček said this was not an act of terrorism.

Prague Police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulová said a security system may have exploded on the safe.
Well, so much for that theory, which the New York Times accepted without question.
A large, illegal weapons stockpile was found Thursday at the home of the Palestinian ambassador in Prague, Jamel al-Jamal, Czech media reported, a day after al-Jamal was killed in an explosion there

Respekt, a Czech weekly newspaper, reported that the arsenal was enough to arm a unit of ten men.

Czech police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova confirmed that arms had been found in the ambassador's residence, which is located within a newly constructed Palestinian diplomatic mission in the city.

Channel 2 News reported that the stockpile included heavy firearms, that it was held illegally, and that its existence had not been previously known to the Czech authorities.
Assuming that Jamal was not the one responsible for the explosives and arsenal of weapons, who was?

It seems likely to be this guy:

The first ambassador of the State of Palestine to Prague was Samih Abd al-Fatah, known as Abu Hisham, a veteran of the Palestinian movement who was close to Yasser Arafat. He was Jamal's superior and diplomacy teacher. As a result, Jamal, too, was Arafat's man to an extent, a source from the Arab community in Prague told LN.
A State Department cable revealed on Wikileaks describes Abu Hisham as "a close advisor on security affairs to PA President Mahmoud Abbas."

Is it conceivable that a cache of weapons and explosives could have been hidden at the PLO's Czech mission without Abu Hisham's knowledge? And is it conceivable that the decision to have such a weapons cache didn't come from Ramallah?

The PLO is a Soviet-style top-down organization where very few people are allowed to act or think independently. There is no way that this is peculiar to the Czech mission.

I hope that every PLO office worldwide is being searched now.

All of this makes the EU's insistence that terror groups can have "political wings" seem rather quaint. Along with the idea that Fatah and the PLO are peace-seeking organizations.

01/02 Links Pt1: Will Arab Countries Label the MB a Terrorist Group?, PA doc. predicts ‘third intifada’

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST

From Ian:
Khaled Abu Toameh: Will Arabs Have the Courage to Label Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group?
The question being asked today in the Arab world is whether other countries will take similar measures against Muslim Brotherhood groups and branches.
Buoyed by the Egyptian move, Palestinian and Jordanian political analysts and activists have urged their leaders to seize the opportunity and crack down on the Islamists in their countries.
But for now it seems that most Arabs, especially the Jordanians and Palestinians, are reluctant to follow the Egyptians — the reason why this week the Egyptians urged the members of the Arab League to enforce a counter-terrorism treaty that would block funding and support for Muslim Brotherhood.
Badr Abdelatty, spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign ministry, said Arab League members that signed the 1998 treaty should enforce it against the Muslim Brotherhood, which has a presence in most Arab countries.
The "Palestinian Revolution" Began In 1965
In 1965 - before the 1967 conflict which resulted in the "occupation" and before "settlements" were constructed.
So says Abbas (thanks IMRA):-
Final Status Agreement Guarantees Our Rights
"We negotiate with Israel to reach a solution that leads to a Palestinian state within the 1967 occupied territory, with Jerusalem as a capital. We negotiate to reach a fair solution to the refugees' issue based on the UN Resolution 194 as stated in the Arab Peace Initiative", said Abbas.
...Abbas made reference to the 1965 Revolution by saying it was a success; its ideas of adhering to the national rights and aspirations have been successful from one generation to another.
(h/t NormanF)
CiF Watch prompts correction to false Indy claim about "caged" Palestinian kids
A couple of hours ago we posted about a horribly misleading report in The Independent (Israel government tortures Palestinian children by keeping them in cages, human rights group says, Jan. 1) which included the following:
The broad, unsubstantiated insinuation, based on very vague wording in a report by the radical NGO PCATI, that Palestinian kids detained by Israeli security personnel are "tortured".
The charge, based on completely uncorroborated allegations, based on a PCATI report, that Palestinian children are sexually abused while in custody.
The completely erroneous charge that Palestinian children were caged "for months" - an allegation which was not even leveled by PCATI, nor by anyone involved in the story.
Following our complaint to Indy editors, the word torture in the headline was placed in quotes and, more importantly, the false charge that Palestinian children were caged for months has been amended.



Template BBC report on prisoner release
The caption to the photograph used to head early versions of the report (which also appears in later ones) states:
"The prisoners' releases are deeply resented by families of their mainly Israeli victims".
In fact, as those who have studied the list of prisoners provided by the Israeli Prison Service will be aware, in this particular round of releases, the number of Palestinian victims is higher than the number of Israeli victims. Like the rest of the Western media, the BBC however is determined to avoid exploring the subject of Palestinians murdered by Palestinians.
PMW: YouTube restores PMW video that exposed Fatah incitement to murder
Last week, Palestinian Media Watch reported that YouTube had blocked a PMW video in Hebrew that exposed Fatah's incitement to murder, defining it as a violation of YouTube's "policy on depiction of harmful activities."
PMW had exposed a video that was posted on the YouTube account of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah), which Fatah subsequently publicized on its official Facebook page.
The video incites Palestinians to kidnap, bomb and kill Israelis.
The Jordan Valley is the answer
The Jordan Valley is the answer -- it provides the minimum vital strategic depth, it is a defensive strip against outside threats and allows the fight against terrorism to be effective. Full Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley will negate the need for pointless discussions over security arrangements -- give us sovereignty and we will tend to our security needs. Even those who are prepared for less understand that there is no technological system replacement for a defensive buffer and that we cannot trust foreign forces to protects the lives of our soldiers and be the first to retreat during a crisis. The entire Jordan Valley, under complete Israeli control, is Israel's eastern border.
Elliot Abrams: Confidence-destroying measures
One can perhaps forgive a murderer's family for greeting him with kisses; one cannot forgive the highest authorities of the PA and PLO for doing so, and Silvan Shalom is right in asking what lesson this teaches all Palestinians. Palestinian leaders refuse to make any moral distinctions, not separating those who committed crimes of violence from those who did not, nor even -- the very least that might be expected -- separating those who killed soldiers from those who killed civilians.
The official Palestinian glorification of those who murdered Israelis is now the backdrop to Kerry's arrival in Israel today to advance "peace."
Former Navy Head: Who Releases Terrorists With No Peace Deal?
Marom, who spoke at a seminar of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, criticized the government for making a connection between the terrorist release and continued construction in Judea and Samaria.
"Releasing terrorist murderers with blood on their hands without a peace agreement to keep together a coalition that would allow construction in the settlements, is in my opinion a worthless move," said Marom.
Arab MKs: No Way Will we Live Under the PA
MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al), who used to be an adviser to former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and a resident of Tayibeh, told Maariv in response to the report, "This is a bizarre offer which treats Arab citizens as a chess piece that one can move around and change."
He added, "No offer that involves an exchange of population will be accepted, neither by the Arab Israeli community nor by the Palestinian Authority. Once they feared our nationhood, now they fear our citizenship."
Leaked PA document predicts 'third intifada'
An internal Palestinian Authority document leaked to Israeli media has predicted a "third intifada" if US-brokered peace talks fail.
The document, whose contents were reported by the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Radio on Thursday morning, said that if the peace process collapsed, a violent uprising was likely to erupt in the West Bank. Jihadi and Salafi groups were also likely to become more active, possibly by setting up a network of terrorist cells with the intention of carrying out attacks against Israel, the report said.
The report also estimated that Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, might secretly renew its military activity in the West Bank if its rift with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party continued.
According to the report, such a tactic by Hamas would receive the backing of Palestinian prisoners released to Gaza in exchange for the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Cameron, Merkel scheduled to visit Israel in February
Both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron will visit Israel in February, but Israeli diplomatic officials stressed the visits are not connected to the diplomatic process with the Palestinians since they were planned months ago.
Palestinian Terrorists' Forgotten Weapon: Murder by Stoning
Most Americans have no trouble recognizing the lethal danger of rock-throwing. Recall the case of three drunken teenagers who threw rocks at cars on the Capital Beltway in Washington, D.C., in 1990. Thirty drivers or passengers were wounded, including a girl who suffered irreversible brain damage. The attackers were convicted of "assault with intent to murder" and each sentenced to 40 years in prison. An editorial in the Washington Post at the time correctly asked, "What's the difference between assault with a deadly weapon—a shooting—and assault with rocks that hit cars at potentially lethal speeds?"
There is no difference, of course, to any reasonable person. But there's a very big difference to New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman and some of his colleagues. In an April 2012 column, Friedman endorsed what he called "nonviolent resistance by Palestinians"—and then listed boycotts, hunger strikes, and rock-throwing as examples of such "resistance."
Bad luck: Same family killed by Assad in Syria and by IDF bombing in Gaza
But if you doubt the atrocity tales that Islamic supremacists tell, you're a greasy Islamophobe, a genocide denier, and worse.
Rachel's Tomb Terrorist Shot
IDF troops shot a Palestinian Authority terrorist as he was throwing stones at Rachel's Tomb.
Palestinian Authority terrorists regularly throw firebombs and stones at the Jewish holy site and at the Jews who visit, as well as the occasional explosive device.
IDF Prepares for Tunnel Warfare
The IDF is planning new combat training that will prepare soldiers to fight underground, in tunnels built by terrorists, Maariv/nrg reports.
"The tunnels infrastructure has expanded and continues to expand. New, more technologically advanced tunnels have been found. So we cannot relate to this threat in the same manner we used to," the paper quoted Lieutenant-Colonel Ziv Namni as saying.
Ariel Sharon's life in grave danger, doctor says
Former prime minister Ariel Sharon is suffering from vital organ failure after his condition deteriorated significantly in recent weeks, Sheba Medical Center director Zeev Rotstein said on Thursday. It was a first statement to the press by hospital personnel since a spokesman put out a laconic statement Wednesday saying the comatose leader's condition had taken a turn for the worse.
Hezbollah Buries Commander Who was Missing for Months in Syria
A Hezbollah commander, who had been missing for months in Syria, was buried in Lebanon on Wednesday after his body was repatriated following his torture and killing by rebels, relatives told the AFP news agency.
Hussein Salah Habib, 30, was captured by opposition fighters during the fight for Qusayr, a strategic town near the Lebanese border that fell to the regime on June 5.
Jeffrey Goldberg: For Iran, 2013 Was a Very Good Year
Remember that interim Iranian nuclear agreement forged in Geneva on Nov. 24, the one accompanied by blaring trumpets and soaring doves?
Would it surprise you to know that the agreement -- a deal that doesn't, by the way, neutralize the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, just freezes the program, more or less, in place -- has not yet been implemented? Would it surprise you to learn that this deal might not be implemented for another month, or more? Or that in this long period of non-implementation, Iran is free to do with its nuclear program whatever it wishes? And that one of the things it is doing is building and testing new generations of centrifuges? Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, recently said, "We have two types of second-generation centrifuges. We also have future generations which are going through their tests."
MEMRI: Punitive Measures Against Athletes For Flashing Four-Finger "Pro-MB" Sign Spark Controversy In Egypt
Kung Fu fighter Muhammad Youssef, a gold medalist at the Moscow Kung Fu World Championship in late October 2013, attended the medal awarding ceremony in a T-shirt bearing the four-fingered Rabi'a symbol, and also flashed the sign while receiving the medal. In response, the Egyptian Kung Fu Association suspended him from all competitions at national and international levels for a year, saying that he should have waved the Egyptian flag at the ceremony instead of making partisan political gestures. Furthermore, the Egyptian Sports Ministry stripped him of his medal and announced that he would be investigated for mixing politics and sports and deviating from the national consensus.
Egypt refuses to extradite convicted PA official
Colonel Rashid Abu-Shbak, head of the Palestinian Authority's Preventative Security Agency in Gaza from 2002 to 2006 and head of internal security in the city prior to Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, was tried in absentia by an anti-corruption court in Ramallah for the embezzlement of nearly $1 million during his service as security chief.
The former security official, who currently divides his time between Cairo and the United Arab Emirates, was convicted on December 29 and charged with a fine of $930,000 in addition to his prison sentence with hard labor.
Vodafone Egypt accused of sending coded terror message via online ad
PROSECUTORS have questioned officials in one of Egypt's largest telecommunications companies over an online advertisement featuring a puppet, which a controversial blogger has accused of delivering a coded message linked to the Muslim Brotherhood group, the company said Wednesday.
The accusations made against Vodafone Egypt's ad starring well-known puppet Abla Fahita come shortly after the government designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.

The Telegraph exposes "Breaking the Silence" (and the entire NGO funding ecosystem)

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST

When you get NGO money involved, all of a sudden the truth is less important than pleasing your sponsors. This is a must-read from Jake Wallis Simons:
In a grimy corner of downtown Jerusalem, tucked away on the top floor of an anonymous-looking block of offices, is the headquarters of an organisation called Breaking the Silence.

This is a group of former Israeli soldiers who have served in the West Bank, and aim to "expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories".

...
I liked all the members personally, and at first found them to be sincere in their beliefs. But when the interviews began, something didn't feel right.

For one thing, the majority of the testimonies seemed to reflect the roughness of the military rather than any human rights abuse. The indignity of checkpoints; the intrusion of house-to-house searches; the unpleasantness of curfews. All of this stuff is awful, but only a small percentage of it appeared to warrant court martial.

I couldn't shake the feeling that Breaking the Silence was milking it.

It was only a hunch at first. But later, the bias of the organisation became clearer. During a break between interviews, I asked Yehuda Shaul, one of the founders of the organisation, how the group is funded. It was with some surprise that I learned that 45 per cent of it is donated by European countries, including Norway and Spain, and the European Union. Other donors include UNICEF, Christian Aid and Oxfam GB. To me this seemed potentially problematic....It appeared that these former soldiers, some of whom draw salaries from Breaking the Silence, were motivated by financial and political concerns to further a pro-Palestinian agenda. They weren't merely telling the truth about their experiences. They were under pressure to perform.

Indeed, I later discovered that there have been many allegations in the past that members of the organisation either fabricated or exaggerated their testimonies.

The matter became more unsettling when one of Breaking the Silence's former soldiers accompanied me to Hebron...

We set up our video camera outside an army base in the Israeli sector of Hebron, and I began to interview the former soldier from Breaking the Silence. He was talking about his army service, and came out with the line, "the first time I ever met a Palestinian was when I entered his house in the middle of the night".

While he was speaking a car drove by behind him, drowning out his words. I said: "Just give me it one more time about how… the first time you ever met a Palestinian was when you kicked down his door in the middle of the night". This was my mistake; he hadn't said that he kicked down anything.

He duly repeated it. This time, however, he took my lead and changed his account from "entered his house in the middle of the night" to "kicked down his door in the middle of the night". On the surface it may seem like a small detail. But when we played back the tape I found the ease with which he exaggerated his story very troubling. We didn't use the interview.

Most worryingly of all, Breaking the Silence focuses almost exclusively on Hebron, presenting it as typical. Several times a month it ships foreign diplomats, officials and ordinary folk to this unhappy place, showing them the grim military infrastructure and providing testimony about the abuses carried out by settlers and soldiers.

The group does not offer tours to any other settlements on the West Bank. This one city, they say, is a "microcosm of occupation".
Now, there is no doubt that Hebron is a highly disturbing place, or that violence takes place there on a regular basis. But all the anti-settlement organisations I spoke to, including Peace Now, B'Tselem and Rabbis for Human Rights, acknowledged that Hebron is the exception rather than the rule. Most settlements are far more peaceful and less abusive. A few even have supermarkets where Arabs and Jews shop side-by-side.

This isn't to justify the existence of the settlements, or to soften the debate about their legality. It is to illustrate the simple point that Breaking the Silence appears to be sexing up the harshness of the Israeli presence on the West Bank by focussing only on its very worst manifestation. That is to say, it is warping the terms of the debate. And it is funded largely by Europe, and by extension the UK.

Whatever your view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is surely self-evident that it must be based on the truth of the situation, not a biased and partial interpretation of it.
This is the problem with all of these anti-Israel NGOs. They depend on funding to exist, and that funding comes from sources that want them to justify their existence by fulfilling the agenda of the funders. The pressure to constantly issue anti-Israel reports is literally existential. No one is paying anyone to create reports that say that Israel treats Arabs well - there is no political gain from that.

The decision to oppose Israeli policy has already been made by the EU, and it funds groups to support that decision, not to uncover the truth. The NGOs, in turn, happily fulfill that role to continue to receive tens of millions of dollars. Lazy reporters, in turn, are happy to parrot the findings of these biased reports, because it is easy to cut and paste and they can get to their pubs earlier in the day. It is a self-feeding cycle.

The entire ecosystem of NGO funding is rotten, but that story isn't sexy enough to attract funding either. And most reporters aren't energetic or honest enough to dig behind what the NGOs themselves are saying.

Kudos to Jake Wallis Simons for looking beyond the stories being hand-fed to hundreds of journalists in Israel.

You won't believe how many new settlements have been approved by Israel since 1990

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST

Here is a BBC comedy program that spoofs what the world agrees is Israel's inexorable expansion of settlements:



The reason that people think this is funny is because it appears to be based on what is universally accepted as truth - that Israel keeps building more and more settlements. For decades we have heard that these settlements are endangering a two-state solution because they are grabbing more and more land, and eventually there won't be any land left for Palestinian Arabs to live on.

What is the truth?

Well, just ask Peace Now: From their report on April 19, 2012:

According to reports, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated this week that the Government will approve the establishment of three settlements (Bruchin, Sansana and Rechalim), in the upcoming cabinet meeting on Sunday, April 22. This decision is required in order to legalize the illegal outposts.... If approved next Sunday, it will be the first time since the Shamir Government in 1990 that the Israeli government is deciding on the establishment of new settlements.

That's right. In 23 years, Israel has approved exactly three new settlements.

Since then, no new settlements have been approved. Peace Now also has a report on settlement activity since Bibi was re-elected and not one new settlement is mentioned.

To be sure, within existing settlement boundaries, there have been many new buildings added. The vast majority of this building takes up no additional land whatsoever. And the vast majority of the building also takes place in areas that Israel will continue to control in any possible peace agreement. (Sometimes, a few times a year according to Peace Now, new neighborhoods are approved that expand existing settlements into state land as well, never into privately owned Arab land, and always in Area C, where only about 2% of Palestinian Arabs live to begin with.)

It is true that dozens of illegal outposts have been set up as well, against Israeli law. (Which means, by definition, their existence is not against international law no matter how you interpret the Geneva Conventions.)

Of course, the Netanyahu government has made no secret that it intends to legalize other older settlements. Yet - it hasn't, after being in power for nearly five years.

In 2002, Btselem claimed that 1.7% of area of the West Bank is taken up by settlements plus roads to them. Peace Now put the amount of settlement lands at 1.36% at the time.  However, Saeb Erekat  said that an aerial survey of the area funded by the EU showed that Israeli settlements only took up 1.1% of the land in 2011! (He was actually arguing that since they take up so little space, "Palestine" should be created based on the "1967 lines.")

This is hardly the massive expansion of land that is being portrayed by the media, politicians, and now comedy programs. In real terms, Israel's settlement policy has done very little since before Oslo to imperil any two state solution.

Outside of celebrity scandals, Israel's settlement policy is perhaps the most exaggerated issue in the history of news media.

(h/t Anne)

Egyptian astrologer says Jews will be powerful in December 2014

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 02:00 AM PST

Great stuff from MEMRI:



In an end-of-year interview on Al-Nahar TV, Egyptian astrologer Sayyed Al-Shimi warned that whenever Saturn enters a fire sign, the Jews become stronger. Attributing various events, including the first World Zionist Congress, the Balfour Declaration, and the 1948, 1956, and 1967 wars, to the constellation of the stars, Al-Shimi warned that in December 2014, Saturn would enter Sagittarius again.
Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on Al-Nahar TV and was posted on the Internet on December 31, 2013:
Sayyed Al-Shimi: Saturn will enter the fire sign of Sagittarius. My late father and I have had a long history with Saturn entering fire signs. As Sheik Daud Al-Antaki wrote, when Saturn enters any of the fire signs, the Jews grow stronger. Don't believe in this merely because I say so. It's been tested. We tested it, and it turned out that...
Interviewer: What happened in the past in such a case?
Sayyed Al-Shimi: We discovered that Saturn entered the fire sign of Sagittarius when the first World Zionist Congress convened. The Balfour Declaration was released when Saturn was in the fire sign of Leo. The Haganah Brigades began organizing and helping the English in 1928, when Saturn was in the fire sign of Sagittarius. The 1948 war took place when Saturn was in the fire sign of Leo. The 1956 war took place when Saturn was in the fire sign of Sagittarius. The 1967 war took place when Saturn was in the fire sign of Aries.
Between 1963-1967, my late father warned in his annual reports: "Beware, Saturn will enter the sign of Aries in 1967, and this means that the Jews will grow stronger, just like in 1956 and in 1948." "Beware," he said, "something is about to happen." But they refused to believe him.
[...]
After visiting the sign of Aries, Saturn entered the sign of Leo. This was in 1977, when Sadat visited Jerusalem.
[...]
The last time Saturn was in the fire sign of Leo occurred in 2006. I started warning them in 2004: "Beware, when Saturn enters the sign of Leo, the Jews in Palestine will get stronger. Something leading to this will inevitably occur." What happened? The Palestinian Authority split into Fatah and Hamas. Now Saturn is about to enter...
Interviewer: It all happens in fire signs? Saturn never enters a water sign, or whatever?
Sayyed Al-Shimi: It does enter water signs, but in December 2014, it will enter the fire sign of Sagittarius. Therefore, I hope that until December 2014, the Arab leaders must do whatever they can to resolve the Palestinian problem.
[...]
I guess Al Shimi disagrees with the Talmud (Shabbat 156a) that says that astrological portents do not apply to Israel (ein mazel l'Yisrael.).
פורסם על ידי zoom ב- 0:04

אין תגובות:

הוסף רשומת תגובה

הירשם ל- תגובות לפרסום (Atom)