יום שני, 10 בפברואר 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

News no one talks about: Egypt sends construction material to Gaza

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 05:30 PM PST

You know how, now that the tunnels from Egypt have been mostly closed by Egypt, Israel is the only source for Gazans to get construction material? And how, when Israel stopped construction for private projects after discovering Hamas terror tunnels, human rights organizations insist that Israel has the sole responsibility for allowing those materials to resume being imported? Egypt, it is assumed, cannot adequately support sending large amounts of building materials into Gaza through Rafah.

Right?

Well, the latest weekly UN OCHA report (January 28-February 3) says something very interesting:

During the reporting period, the Crossing opened for one day to allow 56 truckloads of construction materials to enter for project funded by the Government of Qatar. The previous week, some 215 truckloads of construction materials designated for the Qatari construction projects entered over the course of three days.

...This week (26 January-1 February), nearly 1,000 truckloads of goods entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom Crossing, 13 percent more than during the previous week. The increase is mainly due to the entry of slightly greater amounts of basic construction materials for projects implemented by international organizations and approved by the Israeli authorities (142 compared to 48 truckloads the previous week).
If the truckloads are of comparable size, this means that Egypt is allowing more construction materials into Gaza than Israel is.

Moreover, given that the Rafah crossing is only open sporadically, if Egypt wants it could open the crossing for six or seven days a week, meaning that some 450-500 trucks of building material can go into Gaza for whatever purposes Egypt and Gazans agree on.

There is no rule that Egypt can only allow building material for the Qatar-funded projects. There is no reason why private Gaza builders should not be able to order construction material from Egypt and have it trucked in the next day. Rafah is clearly not only a passenger transit point but it can handle significant amounts of other goods for Gaza. There could be a healthy two-way trade of goods and materials for Gazans and exports of Gaza produce and other goods to Egypt.

Except that Egypt doesn't allow it.

Yet so-called "human rights" organizations are completely silent about demanding that Egypt allow more construction materials into Gaza. They only demand this from Israel, the one country that is the target for Hamas kidnap tunnels built with these very same materials.

Isn't that interesting?

Houthi official explains slogan "Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews"

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 04:00 PM PST

I've mentioned before the Houthi logo and slogan:


From the top, it says "God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Power to Islam." In many cases I've seen the fourth line autotranslated as "F--- the Jews."

Al Tagheer (translated by Shawarma News) has an interview with a Houthi spokesperson where we learn a kinder, gentler interpretation:

- Death to America does not mean death to the American people, or the death of an American tourist, journalist, merchant or employee, but it's death to the American Zionist policy in our region and the world

- Death to Israel does not mean death to the "real" Jews who have been living in Palestine for hundreds of years, but it's death to the racist entity implanted in the body of the Islamic nation and the Arab region

- Curse the Jews, we are not referring to all of those who follow the Jewish religion, we are referring to those who were cursed by God in the Koran according to the attributes associated with the curse
It is fairly clear, both to casual readers of the Quran and to ordinary Muslims themselves, that every single Jew was cursed in the Quran.

See how moderate they are? They only want to kill about half of the Jews in the world, and the rest are only damned to become apes and pigs!

Glad he cleared that up. Whew!

(h/t Bob K)

Expert: Iran has given Hamas $2 billion; Islamic Jihad gets $150m a year

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:00 PM PST

Nourizadeh
The Director of the Center for Iranian Studies in London, Ali Nourizadeh, says that since Hamas' founding it has received more than two billion dollars of financial support from Iran, according to Raya News. At the same time Islamic Jihad receives between $100-$150 million dollars annually from Iran.

On the other hand, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority have not received a penny Since the Iranian revolution so far, but on the contrary, Iran has not paid half a million dollars from the proceeds of the "Palestine" sales pavilion at the Tehran International Fair.

Nourizadeh says that Hamas has received its aid through various sources; sometimes in cash when Hamas leaders visit Tehran and some through Hezbollah. Islamic Jihad receives it money via Hezbollah or from cash transfers from banks in Beirut or Malta.

He adds that "Iran has paid a lot to strengthen its relationship with Hamas to be used as a card but it did not succeed because [Hamas] has good relations with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Arab states and Iran is no longer the main source of funding Hamas, so Iran considers its investment in Hamas to be unsuccessful."

In terms of relationship between Iran and Islamic Jihad, Zadeh says that their fighters were trained in Iran and their weapons all come from Iran; Hezbollah played an important role in achieving this. On the other hand, no more than 500 Hamas fighters were trained by Iran.

There is now a new rapprochement between the PLO and Iran, as Fatah official Jibril Rajoub visited Iran after Abbas and Hassan Rouhani met in New York, according to Nourizadeh.

Three new "Apartheid?" posters

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 12:00 PM PST

My "Apartheid?" poster series has gone truly viral in the past couple of weeks - over 23,000 views in the past week alone!

Since I hadn't added any new posters in a year, here is a Reality TV edition:

02/09 Links: State Dept: No Guarantee Arab League Will Recognize Israel; Historic 'Palestine'

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 10:00 AM PST

From Ian:
Israel may pay for tolerance it shows to killers
IF most Palestinians thought like most Israelis, peace would come to their lands.
If most Israelis thought like so many Palestinians — from its leader Mahmoud Abbas down to the shiftless youths seeking to meet Allah via Semtex and Jewish blood — there would be many fewer than the 4.3 million of them.
The tolerance of Israel, as its neighbours bait it, bomb it and demand its destruction, surprises me. Three rockets were fired from Gaza in to southern Israel as I wrote this piece.
Historic Palestine
So there you have it, from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition. Rather than being an "indigenous" populations, the Arab population of "Palestine" is composed of Bosnians, Sudanese, Algerians, Armenians, Greek, Kurds and many many others. There is no mention of a group called the "Palestinians".
Colonizers. All of them
Hard to imagine how the indigenous "Palestinians" could have escaped historical scrutiny for so many years. (h/t Bob Knot)
BBC Correspondent Apologizes For Omitting Anti-Israel Bias (satire)
In a news item last week, Philips was seen narrating a segment about a crash on Route 443, part of which runs through the West Bank. A number of Palestinian men were hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at passing Israeli cars, and the driver of one such vehicle stopped his car and chased the group while wielding a handgun, scattering them and stopping the attacks. Philips devoted almost the same amount of time discussing the attack on the motorist as on his brief pursuit, thus departing from BBC policy of specifically painting Israel and Israelis as at fault in confrontations with Palestinians.
"I apologise first to the Palestinians, who depend on the BBC for unstinting propaganda support; second, to my colleagues at the BBC, for showing what could be construed as disrespect for our journalistic standards; and of course to our viewership, who might become confused if we do not paint Israel as thoroughly evil," Philips wrote in a statement. He attributed the lack of sufficient spin to deadline pressures, but admitted he could have done better.



Rock Solid Reporting Down Under?
Central to Lyons' report is the following:
At the heart of the issue is that Israel enforces two legal systems in the West Bank, one for Jews and one for Palestinians. About 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank – also known as the Palestinian Territories – which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Palestinian children appear before the military court, while Jewish children face a civil court with full legal protections.
Contrary to Lyons' statement, the two legal systems in operation are divided between Israeli citizens (which, of course, includes both Jews and Arabs) and non-citizens. This is not a division based on race, ethnicity or religion but on the legal status of the disputed territories. The reason why Palestinians, both children and adults, are not subject to Israeli civil law is that Israel has never annexed the West Bank and therefore, Israeli law does not apply to the area. Instead, military law is applied.
Nice Country, Israel. It Would Be A Shame If Anything Happened To It. (satire)
You Israelis have done a wonderful job building up the place. It would certainly be unfortunate if something bad happened to it.
Hey, I'm not threatening. I'm just telling you, there are plenty of unpleasant folks about, and while I don't exactly support their agenda, I must confess I'd be hard-pressed to stop them if you don't give up some vital strategic interests. I'm doing you a favor here. I want to protect you, you see. These are just the political realities.
State Dept: No Guarantee Arab League Recognize Israel Even after Deal
Psaki said the proposed U.S. framework will be the basis for negotiations for a final agreement. Meaning, when in doubt, parrot something, nobody is listening anyway. Except the pesky reporter was listening, and he pointed out the final agreement won't address the Golan Heights, because it has nothing to do with a Palestinian state. He insisted on referring again to Psaki's boss, who "says the minute this agreement is signed, 22 Arab nations and 35 Muslim nations will recognize or hold out the hope" of regional recognition of Israel.
Will they, or will they have new demands once Israel makes the big cut in its own flesh?
Psaki retorted, "Well, Michael, that's a figure of speech. It doesn't mean the minute he steps off the stage of an announcement that anything will be implemented."
Jordanian Parliament: No to Recognition of Israel
The Jordanian parliament declared on Saturday that it was against Israel's demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recognize it as Jewish state.
In a statement carried by the Jordanian Petra news agency, the Lower House of the Parliament outlined its "fundamental position on the Palestinian issue" and said it was rejecting Israel's demand for being recognized as a Jewish state.
Did Bibi or his ministers label John Kerry an "anti-Semite"?
So, based on the quotes used by Tait, only one minister, Bennett, even used the word "anti-Semitic" to characterize boycott efforts, and the only one who actually accused Kerry of antisemitism was Adi Mintz, an official in the Settler's Council. Mintz is not a minister.
Contrary to the strong suggestion of the headline, photo and subsequent text, neither Bibi nor any of his ministers labeled Kerry an "anti-Semite". But, of course, a headline soberly noting that "an official at the Settler's Council" labeled Kerry an anti-Semite would be a lot less likely to elicit the interest of Telegraph readers or those who casually peruse Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds looking for interesting content.
'Netanyahu won't back down on demand that IDF stay in Jordan Valley'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of agreeing to the deployment of NATO or other international forces to replace the IDF in the Jordan Valley under a permanent peace deal with the Palestinians, Israeli officials said Saturday night.
The officials were quoted by Israel's Channel 2 as saying that Netanyahu insists that "only the IDF" can provide security for Israel in the Jordan Valley, and wherever else is necessary in the West Bank.
7 Arabs from east Jerusalem arrested at Temple Mount
Police arrested seven Arab residents of east Jerusalem on Friday, after they had caused a public disturbance at the Temple Mount following Friday prayers.
Hundreds of young people began throwing stones at the police officers dispatched along the alleyways and roads surrounding the Old City site.
Subsequently, several police officers raided the Temple Mount to disperse the crowds using stun grenades.
'Whoever Attacks Us Will Bear the Consequences'
"Our resolute policy against terrorism may be summed up in a single principle: Whoever attacks us or plans to attack us – will bear the consequences," he stated, responding to last week's rocket attacks against Israel. Saturday night, a rocket fell in the northwestern area of the Negev; no injuries or damage was reported. On Thursday, Israel suffered from three attacks; a grad rocket was fired at the Eshkol Regional Council, terrorists fired a rocket at Ashkelon, and another rocket was fired at the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.
Ya'alon: If Hamas won't prevent terror, it will pay the price
Following a Sunday morning airstrike that critically wounded Palestinian terrorist Abdullah Kharti, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon warned that Israel would exact a price from Hamas if it did not prevent terror attacks from the Gaza Strip, which it controls.
"We will not tolerate the disruption of our citizens' lives and will act forcefully against anyone who harms or tries to harm Israel," he said in a statement. "We see Hamas as responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip, and if it does not know how to impose its authority in this territory, it will also pay the price."
Hamas deploys crack troops to Israeli border
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades are considered Hamas's elite force operating in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas's decision to deploy them to prevent rocket fire against Israel may signify the Islamist terror group's intention to keep the ceasefire reached with Israel after the November 2012 mini-war.
IAF strike critically wounds Gaza terrorist
The IDF confirmed that an Israeli Air Force strike on Sunday morning successfully hit a Palestinian terrorist in the central Gaza Strip who was responsible for multiple attacks against Israel.
"Abdallah Kharti, born in 1985, is a key Popular Resistance Committees operative, affiliated with global jihad,"an IDF statement said. "Kharti was involved in numerous incidents of rocket fire towards Israel. The IDF operated in order to eliminate an imminent threat to the lives of Israeli civilians."
Kharti was in critical condition after the strike, which took place near the central Gaza town of Dir al-Balah, according to Palestinian reports. Another man was moderately wounded in the strike, but his identity has not been publicized. Kharti was hit while riding a motorcycle near the town.
PA forces arrest scores of radical Islamists in West Bank dragnet
Palestinian Authority security forces arrested over the weekend scores of members of the radical group Hizb-ut- Tahrir (Party of Liberation) in the West Bank.
The crackdown came after the party distributed a leaflet strongly condemning PA President Mahmoud Abbas's recent statements to The New York Times, where he said he would agree to the deployment of NATO troops in a future Palestinian state to prevent weapons smuggling and terrorism. (h/t Bob Knot)
Egypt Kills 16 Terrorists Near Gaza
Egypt's army reported on Saturday that it killed 16 Islamist terrorists in Sinai near the border with Gaza the day before. The liquidation of the 16 terrorists was conducted by an Egyptian airstrike in an area south of Sheikh Zuweid on Friday evening, according to the army's statement.
Revised NY State Assembly anti-boycott bill introduced
While Silver's original bill would have punished any institution that continued to use state funds to support a boycotting academic group, the new version is far less punitive: It would take away from those schools only the amount of state funding equal to the amount that goes to support the group.
"We are simply saying you cannot use state funds — taxpayer dollars — to participate in a hateful and bigoted boycott," Silver's spokesman Michael Whyland said in an email. "It does not limit an academic entity or organization from participating in such a boycott, it only says you cannot use state funds to do so."
Building a wall against us
One response that received particular attention was that posted by Ben Red, the popular 88FM radio disc jockey and host of a well-known rock show. Red's post alone received 2,800 likes.
"Music is supposed to act as a bridge between people and cultures and not create a gap between them," Red wrote. "Your attitude doesn't help to break the wall, it only makes it higher. The impression you make is that you're not really interested in bringing peace and coexistence in the Middle East and that's too bad because many of us here are…
"Maybe you've succeeded in convincing Pearl Jam not to come here, because you're sort of a 'father figure' for them, but Neil Young is not a child and he will be here because he knows that music lovers are the same anywhere in the world."
Roger Waters' Pathetic Follow-Up To Creepy Scarlett Letter
Roger Waters has published another post in the wake of his previous creepy note to Scarlett Johansson, but without addressing any of the substantive issues, like the points brought up by Deebo, or his removing of comments. (h/t Bob Knot)
Racist chants and soccer star's tears
Star striker Mario Balotelli of the Italian soccer club AC Milan cried on the bench of his team during an away game at Napoli on Saturday, with some reports saying he was reacting to racist chants from the crowd.
Balotelli, who was filmed on the bench crying after he was subbed late in the game, has in the past been the target of racist epithets due to the color of his skin and the fact that he was raised by a Jewish woman.
Senate bids to save ancient Iraqi Jewish archive
Centuries worth of Jewish documents are at risk of vanishing into the vortex of Iraq's chronic instability, but for American Jewish groups advocating for their preservation, there was a moment of optimism Friday after the US Senate approved a resolution calling for a renegotiation of the archives' status.
Late Thursday night, the Senate unanimously adopted the resolution, which was initially sponsored by Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Barbara Boxer (D-MD), and Ben Cardin (D-MD).
Foreign investment in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange tripled in 2013
Nonresident net investments reached about $1.5 billion in TASE shares in 2013, primarily in pharmaceuticals, banking and communications industries. In 2012, the figure amounted to only $410 million, indicating an increase of some 266% in 2013.
Nonresidents also bought $940 million in Israeli shares that were traded abroad, on exchanges such as the NASDAQ, in 2013.
Spain gives 1492 expellees a right of return
On Friday, Spain's government approved the bill, which was filed last month by the ruling Popular Party and proposes to amend previous legislation that allowed for granting citizenship to Sephardic Jews who chose to apply for it.
Spain's Federation of Jewish Communities, of FCJE, said in a statement Friday that it welcomed the move. "Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardon has kept his word," FCJE wrote in the statement.
The bill proposes to allow dual nationality, enabling people who can prove Sephardic ancestry to also retain their other citizenships. Reports about the bill did not say when it would go up for a vote by lawmakers of Spain's Congress of Deputies.
Anne Heyman, Rwanda Rescuer, Is Dead at 52
When Anne Heyman learned in 2005 that the genocide in Rwanda had orphaned 1.2 million children, she saw a glimpse of salvation for the country in the experience of Israel.
"It popped out of my head: They should build youth villages," she told The New York Times last year.
Ms. Heyman, a South African-born lawyer who had given up her legal career in New York to devote herself to philanthropy, was thinking of how Israel, as a new nation state in the late 1940s, had welcomed and cared for tens of thousands of children who had been orphaned by the Holocaust. The Israelis set up residential communities called youth villages to nurture them.
"Israel had a solution to the orphan problem," Ms. Heyman, a supporter of Jewish causes, told The Jerusalem Post last year. "Without a systemic solution, this is a problem that won't solve itself."

A powerful video from a Belgian Jewish family fleeing to the US

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 07:45 AM PST





(h/t Philip S)

Iranian TV shows simulation of attack against Israeli civilians, US aircraft carrier

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST

From Lenz Iran, an 11 minute Iranian video with amateurish graphics showing a simulation of Iranian drones and rockets attacking Israeli targets and a US aircraft carrier.



Note that the Israeli targets include civilian targets, such as Ben Gurion airport and many of Tel Aviv's skyscrapers. (They also seem to think that Ehud Olmert is Israel's prime minister and that the US and Israel have no air defenses whatsoever.)

Even though the video is ridiculous even to non-military types like me, a real expert goes into detail about how comical these scenarios are.

(h/t Bob Knot)

BDS trying mightily to spin Scarlett into some sort of victory

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:00 AM PST

By any objective yardstick, the SodaStream/Scarlett Johansson episode was an unmitigated disaster for BDS. But Max Blumenthal, whose rabid anti-Zionism and series of provable and verified lies have ensured that he can no longer be published except in Mondoweiss and Arab news outlets, writes a fantasy about Scarlett Johansson to try to fit the facts of the past couple of weeks into his very limited worldview - and try to spin a major BDS loss.

Writing in the UAE's "The National," Blumenthal talks about how Hollywood celebrities used to publicly embrace Israel, but are less  likely to do so today.

The reason?
These days, celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried and forced to declare where they stand on Israel's ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.

For those who have attached themselves to humanitarian do-gooder causes, the potential for PR damage is considerable — certainly enough to give them second thoughts. As the price tag on pro-Israel activity rises, some performers are quietly opting out of attractive deals before the controversy shatters their image.

But others like Scarlett Johansson, the comely blonde starlet described by Woody Allen as "sexually overwhelming" were not willing to let apartheid get in the way of a sizeable profit.

In January, the Israeli company Sodastream signed Johansson to promote its home soda-making machines in a $16 million (Dh58.8m) Super Bowl ad that featured her sucking suggestively on a straw off-and-on for two minutes.

Johansson, a standard-fare Hollywood liberal who proclaimed in 2008 that her "heart belongs to Barack", cast her deal with Sodastream as a shining example of "conscious consumerism and transparency".

She seemed oblivious to the fact that Sodastream operates out of Maale Adumim, an illegal Israeli mega-settlement built on privately owned Palestinian land whose master plan would eventually bisect the West Bank.
Blumenthal exposes his usual disregard for journalistic ethics and basic facts, of course - one minute of Super Bowl advertising cost about $8 million, not $16 million; the ad was only one minute long, Maale Adumim was not built on privately owned Arab land (except for 0.5% of it,) none of Mishor Adumim where SodaStream's factory is located was built on Arab land, even Israel's far left accepts that Maale Adumim would be part of Israel in any peace agreement, and in no way does it "bisect the West Bank."

He even says that Oxfam forced Johansson out, when the truth is the exact opposite.

Proving that Blumenthal is a liar is too easy.

The funny part is how desperately Blumenthal is trying to spin an episode that was a huge disaster for BDS into a victory.

His thesis that no major Hollywood figure today would support Israel as they did in the past is quite demolished by what Scarlett Johansson actually did do - although he blames her love of money, and doesn't mention that she isn't exactly hurting for cash.

True, there are some B-listers - washed-up rock stars and second-rate acts - that have bowed to pressure and joined the boycott of Israel. Why did they do that? Well, according to Blumenthal, it has nothing to do with what they really believe in.

It is because the Israel haters who push the boycott are bullies! And they are proud of it!

Blumenthal says it explicitly: "celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried." The haters expect that thin-skinned celebrities, who are allergic to controversy, will scamper away from any hint of trouble. Sometimes, they are right. It has absolutely nothing to do with the righteousness of their cause - it has to do with the fact that the haters can instantly raise an army of brainless Facebook drones to threaten people who are often not very self-confident to begin with.

Johansson not only pushed back against the BDSers  she pushed back on humanitarian grounds! She explained why the BDS goals actually would hurt the people they pretend to care about. She exposed their hypocrisy in a very public way. (This is another point that Blumenthal studiously avoids mentioning.)

This episode did not damage Johansson's star power one bit.

The biggest losers were Oxfam and the BDS movement itself.

Oxfam is now sputtering and making itself look idiotic as it tries to justify its desire to throw hundreds of Arabs out into the street without salaries or healthcare. The halo effect of Oxfam being a humanitarian organization has been considerably dimmed.

But Oxfam, in trying to defend itself, has in turn thrown the BDS movement under the bus! It has been publicly forced to say that it does not support boycotting Israel and it is distancing itself from haters like Max Blumenthal.

Whether that is true or not is besides the point - Oxfam does give plenty of money to organizations that do support BDS - but nevertheless a major humanitarian NGO is publicly saying that boycotting Israel  is immoral and beyond the pale, and it is jumping through hoops to make fine distinctions so that it cannot be accused of supporting BDS explicitly.

How on Earth can anyone think that BDS won?

The only people who can believe that are those who spend so much time lying that they can no longer distinguish truth from fantasy.

Like Max Blumenthal.
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