יום שישי, 28 בפברואר 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thanks to Israel haters, we know where to buy incredible toys - part 1

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 07:00 PM PST

I mentioned on Monday that Haaretz made up some numbers of Israelis who boycott settlements pretty much out of thin air, because Gush Shalom assumed that everyone who visited their webpage listing settlement products were boycotters.

People then asked in the comments where to get this list so they could buy these products themselves!

Usually, when you see lists of Israeli products made by Jews across the Green Line, they are mostly wines and artwork. This is all very nice but I would like something more practical.

Luckily, the people who hate Israel already spend hour upon hour trying to figure out which products are made in Israel and in Judea and Samaria, so we don't have to!

And one product that Israelis excel at are toys.

According to the hate site Inminds, no less than five toy manufacturers with international reputations are based out of, or have factories or stores in, the settlements. These toys help children develop cognitive and motor skills. If the haters want to boycott them and keep their kids at a disadvantage because of their disgust for Jews living across a non-existent border, that's fine by me.

TinyLove makes innovative toys for babies. Check out this video, showing only one of their many products:



Inminds, while telling us to boycott Tiny Love, mentions that "in 2004 the company held a 25 percent global market share for musical mobiles and activity gyms."

The boycotters also helpfully inform us that "the popularity of Tiny Love products has opened the doors for the marketing of Shilav children's clothing abroad, which has also proved successful." And that "one of the stores of Tiny Love parent company Shilav is located on the West Bank in Shilat in no-mans land."

Isn't that great? The haters do the research for us!

Any parent that decides do deprive their baby of these award-winning toys because of their hate for Israel  is a pretty lousy parent. Then again, who would have guessed that people who are so obsessed with telling others to boycott the Jewish state were bright to begin with?

Now we know where to get the perfect gifts for families welcoming newborns. They are wonderful to help with a baby's development, they are Israeli products, and they drive the haters insane. How much better can it get?

More great toy companies in upcoming posts.

02/27 Links Pt2: Scarlett Johansson Breaks Her Silence on SodaStream; “Sky Shield” Tested

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 03:00 PM PST

From Ian:
Scarlett Johansson defends herself for first time since Super Bowl SodaStream ad which saw her dropped as Oxfam ambassador for breaching charity's Israeli boycott
She quit her role as Oxfam ambassador in a row over her controversial Super Bowl advert for SodaStream - and chose to keep her links with the Israeli fizzy drink firm.
Now speaking for the first time since she severed her ties with the humanitarian group, Scarlett Johansson insists she never saw herself as a role model in the first place.
In an interview with Dazed magazine, Johansson did not directly address the row with Oxfam, but said: 'I don't see myself as being a role model; I never wanted to step into those shoes.
The 29-year-old actress said she had a 'fundamental difference of opinion' with the charity after it said it opposed all trade from Israeli settlements because they say it is illegal and denies Palestinian rights
Forgotten Even By Us: Judaism's Historic Ties to Israel
With Palestinian Arabs claiming Canaanite descent, the Jewish people must make their case for their historical ties to the land of Israel. The biblical era, from Israelite origins in the land through the Second Temple's destruction, is well-known in the West. The tenacious continued Jewish presence thereafter isn't.‎
Former President Carter voiced a widely-believed misperception when he wrote regarding the year 135 CE: "Romans suppress(ed) a Jewish revolt, killing or forcing almost all Jews of Judaea into exile." But the forgotten fact is that the Jews never left.
The great significance of this, stated by eminent British historian James Parkes, is that Jews have always had strong ties to the land due to the "heroic endurance of those who had maintained a Jewish presence in The Land all through the centuries, and in spite of every discouragement," which gave the Zionists'"real title deeds." Every ruler in between was a foreign invader, and mostly non-Arab at that. The homeland Jewish Yishuv saw them all arrive and depart.‎
Irreconcilable Conflict
Literary editor of the New Republic Leon Wieseltier is calling a new book written by his TNR colleague John Judis, a senior editor, "shallow, derivative, tendentious, imprecise, and sometimes risibly inaccurate" and also "insulting" and "nasty."
The scathing remarks are contained in an email Wieseltier sent to historian Ron Radosh praising his negative review of the Judis book, which argues that Israel should not exist. Marty Peretz, the longtime former editor of TNR, remarked in 2010 that on the Middle East, "John Judis knows zero."



What went right in the State of Israel?
The pessimists who proclaim the deterioration of Israel's international standing might remember the old Jewish saying, "What you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your mouth." Their perception is inaccurate though their concern is loudly voiced.
Unfortunately for them, these boycotters are slow to appreciate the resilience of the State of Israel in responding to the fallacious Palestinian narrative that they have accepted.
The Israeli economy is strong and stable and has escaped most of the problems caused by the global financial crisis of recent years that was responsible for a decline in world trade growth and a reduction in global import demand.
Israeli GDP in 2012 increased by 3.3 percent, and GDP per capita by 1.5 percent. The driving force in the economy was the high tech industry, which was responsible for exports worth $21.5 billion. The high tech companies, mostly in pharmaceuticals, electrical components, chemicals, and aircraft, were responsible for 52 percent of the value of total exports.
BDS and the Oscars: How Screenwriter Ben Hecht Defied an Anti-Israel Boycott
Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht said he "beamed with pride" when he heard the news on that autumn afternoon in 1948: The British had declared a boycott against him. By day, Hecht was the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, but by night his typewriter had been cranking out fiery newspaper ads denouncing England's Palestine policy. Now he was going to pay a price for his unbridled opinions.
Feb. 28 will mark 120 years since Hecht's birth, an auspicious anniversary, perhaps, to consider his response to a dilemma that friends of Israel now face daily: how to respond to an anti-Israel boycott.
BDS: You Can't Fight for Justice With Hypocrisy
Less than a week before Israel Apartheid Week opened on college campuses across the U.S. and UK, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired the first shot in Israel's defense. Referring to the founders of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) as "classical anti-Semites in modern garb," Netanyahu said the time has come to delegitimize those who delegitimize Israel.‎
Netanyahu was likely referring to people such as Omar Barghouti, one of the main founders of the BDS movement and its chief ideologue.
Barghouti claims his movement is opposed to all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism. His own statements, however, demonize Israel and fall well beyond the scope of legitimate criticism. At a speech in Los Angeles earlier this year, for example, Barghouti claimed that IDF soldiers shoot Palestinian children "for sport" just because they are "bored."
The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom
I appeared on Tuesday evening, February 25, 2014, at Ithaca College for a talk on The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom.
The appearance was in response to the appearance at Ithaca College of Cornell Professor Eric Cheyfitz, a vocal supporter of the anti-Israel BDS movement and particlarly the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel.
Here's the video of my talk. Be sure to watch the question asked by a BDS supporter and my answer at the 54 minute mark)


Breitbart's Ben Shapiro Crashes UCLA Hearing, Anti-Israel Divestment Fails
Tuesday night, the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) considered a resolution calling for the university to divest from businesses that supposedly "profit from the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank."
Braving hundreds of anti-Israel speakers and protesters, Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro, a UCLA alumnus, took the microphone and delivered a fiery lecture to the student council and the protesters, exposing the true motive of the so-called Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement: Jew-hatred.
Ben Shapiro at UCLA: "BDS is just another form of anti-semitism"


Heard At The UCLA Divestment Debate
There were more than a few who let their obvious anti-Semitism flag fly, almost proudly. The one speaker who said that IDF soldiers who were there to speak were "intimidating;" another who quite intentionally referred to the IDF as "IOF" ("Israel Occupation Force"), a typical insult to those who protect Israel. The self-described "queer" who accused Israel of pinkwashing was actually rather humorous, with his lecture about not using words like "gay" or "homosexual" to describe his people, followed by his assertion that gays are treated well in the Middle East (not Israel, where being gay is not illegal nor punishable by death, but in the rest of the Middle East). While listening to him and the Jewish youth who were speaking for JVP, I couldn't help but wonder how their speeches would play in Gaza or Ramallah and would happily organise a mission for them to get there.
We oppose Israeli Apartheid Week because…
As "Israeli Apartheid Week" arrives at Western university campuses, Jewish students have decided they won't take the slander lying down. Hundreds are now participating in the #Rethink2014 campaign by snapping pictures of themselves holding up messages explaining their opposition to the annual hate-fest. The tactic borrows from the hugely successful "I Need Feminism" campaign, in which students expressed their support for feminism through messages on a whiteboard.
Here are my personal top-ten favourites, in reverse order:
You are #Rethink2014


More Utter Stupidity From The "There Was A State Called Palestine" Brigade
They've appropriated the Palestine Football Team that toured Australia just before the Second World War in support of their ludicrous thesis, assuming wrongly that the team consisted of Arabs.
They've enlisted maps supposedly of venerable age, and, as in all these ventures into a past that was not as it was but as they would like it to have been, made fools of themselves in the process.
And now they're using a postcard addressed by Golda Meir in 1930 as another piece of "evidence" for their false claim.
Look, for instance, how it's been utilised on the Facebook page of the disgusting CUFP (for the lowdown on that antisemitic group and its founder see my previous post):
It really does seem that such ignoramuses genuinely believe that before 1948 there was an independent Palestinian state with its own government. (h/t Norman F)
Poland and the chocolate factory
Since that time the family has continued to fight for its factory.
"The Polish government told us it had been nationalized according to Polish law — but said the owners were supposed to receive compensation — which they did not. That's the most frustrating thing: They're not complying with their own law," says Lynn.
Bruno's grandson, Bradley Schramek, and Wilhelm's granddaughter, Nomi Rom, are now ostensibly 50-50 heirs to the family business. Their chances of seeing any recompense are slim in a Poland that still has not legislated a Holocaust restitution law or enacted any streamlined procedure for such claims.
Jewish foundation to deliver books to Israeli Arab kids
A foundation that distributes free Jewish books to Jewish children in North America and Israel is launching an initiative to deliver Arabic books to Israeli-Arab preschoolers.
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation's PJ Library and Sifriyat Pajama, PJ's sister program in Israel, have collectively given away more than 10 million books in nine years.
The new initiative for Israeli Arabs is called Maktabat al-Fanoos, Arabic for "Lantern Library," and will distribute Arabic children's books to 45,000 preschoolers living in Israeli-Arab communities. Some 215,000 Jewish preschoolers in Israel receive Sifriyat Pajama books.
Vandalized Japanese 'Anne Frank's Diary' copies replaced
The books, a gift from the embassy and the Jewish community of Japan, were donated as police hunted those responsible for defacing copies of the much-loved book, which tells the tale of a young Jewish girl in Amsterdam who ultimately died in a Nazi concentration camp.
"Our first reaction actually was a little bit of a shock," Peleg Lewi, the embassy's deputy chief of mission, said at a ceremony in the residential area of Suginami, whose libraries were a main target.
A better potato for India, via Israeli tech
When he visits family on vacation from his post at Israel's Vulcani Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Akhilesh Kumar is always struck by the two very different New Delhis he experiences. One is the city of haves, where people can phone up a fast food joint and get a nice meal delivered. The other is the city of have nots, down in the street, among the penniless, hungry beggars that the delivery person has to wade through to make his delivery. "The food is there, but it isn't getting to everyone," Kumar said. "The problem in India is not a lack of food. In truth, India grows enough food to feed itself."
The problem isn't one of poor agriculture, but poor distribution, Kumar told The Times of Israel in an exclusive interview. "The biggest crop in India is the potato, and in fact India is the second largest producer of potatoes in the world after China (the country produced 45 million metric tons of potato in 2012, approximately 12.2% of total global potato production). But those potatoes are mostly produced in the winter, and when harvest time comes, there is a glut on the market.
Jersey's efforts to enhance Israeli relationships well received at London event
Minister Bennett addressed an audience of 50 invited guests and spoke about innovation, entrepreneurship and deregulation in Israel.
Attendance at the breakfast briefing forms part of a busy programme of activity aimed at building positive business relationships with Israel. In December, Chief Minister Senator Ian Gorst led a three-day visit to Israel, organised by Locate Jersey, and participated in a plenary session at the Globes Israel Business Conference in Tel Aviv. Details have also just been announced for an 'Island Innovators [un]Conference' from 3 – 6 April, featuring Israeli serial entrepreneur Yossi Vardi.
Israel lights way for tech start-ups
Israeli technology expert Oren Gershtein is a true believer in his homeland's start-up incubator programme, which New Zealand wants to replicate.
While Israel is better known for its long-running conflict with the Palestinians, the country is also a heavyweight player in the world of innovation, with the third largest number of listings on New York's tech-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange after the United States and China.
Many of the world's technology titans - including Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Intel - have research and development operations in the small, Middle Eastern country.
China Buys Its Way Into Israel's Tech Scene
Israel's technology scene has recently spawned several global sensations, and the Chinese are getting in on the action.
In an interview, Israeli Chief Scientist Avi Hasson said his office worked with China on dozens of joint technology projects last year. Three years ago, there were none. Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing — an investor in Waze before Google bought the Israel-rooted company for about $1 billion — is now the most active foreign investor in Israel, Hasson said.
"We are seeing more and more Chinese activity in Israeli high tech," Hasson said. "Investment in venture capital by strategic and institutional Chinese investors, direct investments in companies and also acquisitions. This is very welcome."
Ben-Gurion University Start-Up Wins $1 Million 'Cybertition'
Thirty-five cyber-security companies competed. The winning company, Titanium Core, works to repel cyber attacks on mission-critical systems and prevent attacks in real time. It will receive a $1 million investment and working space in JVP's laboratory in Beer Sheva, Israel.
"Our patented technology can provide an unbreakable security layer around core, mission-critical systems… This funding, along with the guidance of the Cyber Labs incubator, will allow us to bring our vision to market and ensure that this technology can be used to protect the world's critical IT assets," said Dudu Mimram, co-founder and chief technology officer for Titanium Core.
The company was founded by Mimram, Director of Telkom Innovation Laboratories at BGU Prof. Yuval Elovici, and Ph.D. student Mordechai Guri.
Israeli missile-defense system for passenger planes passes live-fire test
Eitan Eshel, head of research and development at the ministry, said Wednesday that testing of the "Sky Shield" system was "100 percent successful."
Wednesday's tests involved firing live missiles, which were all successfully deflected.
The system integrates laser technology with a thermal camera to protect aircraft against missiles fired from the ground. It deflects missiles fired at aircraft by changing their direction.
Eshel did not say when the system, under development for about a decade, would become operational.
Running for Holocaust survivor
Some 35,000 runners will descend on Tel Aviv this Friday to participate in the city's annual marathon, including Australian Ambassador Dave Sharma.
Partnering with Aviv Lenitzolei Hashoah (Spring for Holocaust Survivors), runners and spectators can cheer on the ambassador as he runs the half marathon to raise awareness for the plight of Holocaust survivors in Israel.
"It is an issue that resonates quite deeply with Australia," he told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
"Remembrance of the Holocaust is a large part of the Jewish community in Australia and it is an area of Jewish history that we take a close interest in," he said.
Australia today has one of the highest rates of Holocaust survivors in the world, having absorbed around 35,000 of them following WWII, second only to Israel.

Kuwaiti columnist: "Arabs need to have their brains examined"

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:00 PM PST

From MEMRI:




In an Al-Arabiya TV interview, Kuwaiti columnist Fouad Al-Hashem, talking about the tendency of the Arab peoples to idolize leaders, said that they "need to have large portions of their brains examined."

Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on January 16, 2014.

Fouad Al-Hashem: The late Saudi author Abdallah Al-Qusaimi wrote in one of his books that the Arabs are "all talk." The truth is that the Arabs are, in fact, "all mental" – they need to have large portions of their brains examined.

[...]

I've come to believe that the entire issue of the robbing of Palestine was not just in order to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, but to enable the Arab and Muslim rulers to go on peddling this cause. Thus, they have turned their peoples into laughingstocks, and have managed to rule their countries.

Take Saddam Hussein, for example. As a Kuwaiti, this example is the most relevant to me. When he invaded Kuwait, he threatened to hang the bodies of the Americans from the walls of Baghdad. During his trial, Saddam said to the judge: "Without the Americans, neither you nor your father could have dragged me here."

Interviewer: Besides, despite everything that Kuwait did for Iraq, when the moment came, Saddam decided to invade Kuwait, not Jerusalem.

Fouad Al-Hashem: This is another indication of the stupidity of this leader, who is still considered a hero by millions of Arabs. Saddam had already won the hearts of 90% of the Kuwaitis, and did not need to invade Kuwait and occupy it with his tanks. If only he had been smarter... I kept asking myself whether he was a collaborator, a madman, or a fool.

[...]

In my view, on Judgment Day, 90% of the inhabitants of Hell will be Arabs and people who pretend to be pious Muslims.

[...]

When Operation Cast Lead broke out between Hamas and Israel, I was one of the harshest critics of Erdoğan and his inflammatory statements. I warned the Arab youth and the Gulf citizens about him, and I was sentenced to prison for this. If not for the integrity of the Kuwaiti justice system, I would have spent months behind bars because of my articles against Erdoğan. People followed him as if he was a new prophet.

Today, however, 4-6 years later, Erdoğan has been exposed, and people see someone different from the man they used to idolize.

Hizbullah has also become disillusioned with Erdoğan. Nasrallah himself used to refer to him in his speeches as "the good Erdoğan," and used to place him on the same pedestal as Ché Guevara and the great freedom fighters, whose people still talk about them to this day.

Even Hassan Nasrallah, who talked about bombing "beyond Haifa" – where have his aspirations shifted to? Talk of "beyond Al-Qusayr" and "beyond Aleppo" has replaced "beyond Haifa" and "beyond Tel Aviv."
Notice that even intellectual Arabs, those engaged in self-criticism,  take it for granted that it is desirable to bomb Israel.

To AP, only Israel endangers peace

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 11:00 AM PST

AP's Josef Federman writes:

Israel has opened a new front in its attempts to halt weapons smuggling to Hezbollah, striking one of the group's positions inside Lebanon for the first time since the sides fought a war eight years ago.
Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers in a border incident in 2010. An IDF soldier was shot and killed on that border in December. There have been a dozen rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanese territory in recent years.

But Arab attacks from Lebanon to Israel are meaningless, in AP's estimation. Only Israel acts aggressively and recklessly. Just read on:

This week's airstrike, meant to prevent the Islamic militant group from obtaining sophisticated missiles, is part of a risky policy that could easily backfire by triggering retaliation. But at a time when the Syrian opposition says Hezbollah has been striking major blows for President Bashar Assad's government in neighboring Syria by ambushing al-Qaida-linked fighters there, it shows the strategic importance for Israel of trying to break the Syria-Hezbollah axis.
Hezbollah firing rockets or shooting soldiers isn't a risky policy. Hezbollah illegally acquiring advanced missiles isn't a risky policy that could backfire. Israel having the audacity to defend itself, though, is a risky policy.

While Israeli experts agree that Israel would never want to help al-Qaida, in this case Israel and the al-Qaida-linked fighters have as a common goal opposing Hezbollah and its alliance with the Syrian government. This puts them at least indirectly on the same side.
Say what?

Would AP ever report that the EU and USA, by demanding that Assad step down, is "indirectly" on the same side as Al Qaeda??

What is sad is that this sort of biased, amateur reporting is the norm.

(h/t Irene)

02/27 Links Pt1: Hamas says Teaching Human Rights is Against Palestinian, Islamic Culture

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 09:00 AM PST

From Ian:
Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas: Teaching Human Rights is Against Palestinian, Islamic Culture
What is also worrying Hamas is that UNRWA is seeking to teach Palestinian children about the disastrous repercussions of wars and violence by depicting a child burning a military uniform. "This does not serve the cause of human rights," the Hamas official said. "They want to raise children on calmness."
The Hamas protests forced UNRWA to suspend its plan to teach the subject of human rights in its schools. Some Palestinians criticized UNRWA for "succumbing" to threats, while others said they were aware that the international agency had no choice but to comply.
In an attempt to calm Hamas, UNRWA denied that its school curriculum contravened Palestinian tradition and culture.
A spokesman for UNRWA said that his agency consults with "all components of Palestinian society" about its human rights courses.
Hamas's real problem with the UNRWA curriculum is that it could spoil the Islamist movement's ongoing efforts to stir the hearts and minds of Palestinian children to wage jihad against the "enemies" of Islam.
Hamas wants Palestinian children to be taught how to become suicide bombers and seek the death of Jews and "infidels."
Israeli Foreign Ministry report on PA incitement with links to PMW reports
This week, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release criticizing Palestinian Authority incitement. The government's release included a section entitled "Examples of Incitement" with examples taken from Palestinian Media Watch reports. PMW welcomes the Israeli government's utilization of our findings. Below is a shortened version of the MFA press release into which we have added links to the original PMW bulletins to enable viewing of the videos, reading of the full translated texts and citation of the original sources:
IAEA nixed delicate report on Iran nuclear program
A UN report on Iran's nuclear program was shelved by the International Atomic Energy Agency for fear that publicizing sensitive information contained within the report would anger Tehran and harm the international community's efforts to reach an interim agreement with the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported Thursday.
Sources familiar with the subject told the news agency that the IAEA had planned last year to issue the report, which contained what one source called worrying information about the state of Iran's nuclear program. This may have included new information on the possible military aspects of the program.
But officials decided against it after Iran and Western powers announced they would begin negotiations over Tehran's nuclear aspirations.



Palestinians Must Abandon 'Right of Return' Claim
Palestinian identity is synonymous with three things, the 'right of return,' the permanent, sanctified struggle with Israel, and permanent recognition of their status as refugees, dispossessed at the hand of Israel with the connivance of the international community. A corollary demand is that the international community must sustain them as 'refugees' through UNRWA until the Palestinians themselves, somehow, declare the 'refugee crisis' resolved.
Palestinian national identity is predicated on winning a zero sum struggle with Zionism, not a vision of a state of their own. There are sentimental images of restoring the status quo ante, an imaginary Arab Palestine of plenty; indeed, the 'right of return' is founded on the one hand precisely in such vague sentimentality, as well as inventive interpretations of ever-motile 'international law.' But clear proposals for a Palestinian state and its institutions, and how that state will be grounded in a society and with social, legal, and cultural principles, remains vague. Except, of course, from Hamas, whose Muslim Brotherhood-derived goals have been both articulated and, now, tested, in Gaza. In the meantime, however, the embrace of statelessness and trauma is unending.
Kerry's framework reportedly left Abbas fuming in Paris
The report, which received no official confirmation, said Abbas exploded with rage over the US secretary's proposals, and described them as "insanity." The PA president threatened to "overturn tables" and to go back on the flexibility he had shown in order to facilitate US-led peace efforts, according to Al Quds.
The paper suggested that Abbas's subsequent invitation to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House was a form of damage control on the part of the Americans. A date has yet to be set for the visit. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet with Obama on Monday.
Report: Obama to pressure Netanyahu into accepting Kerry framework proposal
Undeterred by the failed efforts of his predecessors to clinch an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, US President Barack Obama is planning on getting more involved directly in the negotiations.
According to The New York Times, the president is expected to appeal to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to adopt a framework plan for final-status peace negotiations.
According to the report published Thursday, administration officials said this week the US president was gearing to take more of an active role in the process when he first meets Netanyahu on Monday, and later in March with Abbas.
Palestinians reject US push for peace talks beyond April
A senior Palestinian official on Thursday rejected US moves to extend an April deadline for nine months of hard-won talks with Israel to culminate in a framework peace deal.
"There is no meaning to prolonging the negotiation, even for one more additional hour, if Israel, represented by its current government, continues to disregard international law," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
Official said to confirm informal settlement freeze
According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday, Jordan Valley regional council chief David Elchaiiani asked Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit last week why construction was being held up in the settlements that he administers, even in projects that had received approval from the defense minister.
He was told that the order had come from on high not to advance construction plans in settlements outside the major blocs.
US to broker investment into Palestinian economy
The United States is convening an investors conference to help the Palestinian economy.
The conference, to take place March 8-9 in Prague, is tied to the US bid to bring about a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel. It will be organized by the ambassador to the Czech Republic, Norm Eisen, who is close to President Obama and the US Jewish community.
Anne Patterson, an assistant secretary of state, said Tuesday that the Prague conference would include Palestinian officials; figures who have been deeply involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace brokering such as Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, and Madeleine Albright, a former US secretary of state; and 50 businesses.
PMO: Israel will not change status quo on the Temple Mount
Israel will not change its policies on the Temple Mount, the Prime Minister's Office made clear on Wednesday, a day after a Knesset debate on the issue triggered angry political reactions in the Arab world.
"The policy of the government of Israel has been and continues to be the maintenance of the status quo at the Temple Mount, including freedom of access for all faiths to the holy sites," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, told The Jerusalem Post. "The government has no intention of changing this policy."
'There is No Temple Mount, Only Al-Aqsa Mosque'
Following on the historic Knesset debate over Jewish prayer rights and Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the Interior Committee chaired by MK Miri Regev (Likud Beytenu) discussed Jewish entry to the site on Wednesday morning.
The discussion was punctuated by provocative statements by Arab MKs, foremost among them Taleb Abu Arar (Raam-Taal) who claimed the Jews have no reason to visit the 3,000 year old site of their First and Second Temple, in a fine example of historical revisionism.
"Jews have nothing to look for at the Al-Aqsa Mosque," spouted Arar. "It isn't the Temple Mount, it's the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to the Muslims and not the Jews, and it is on occupied land."
Arab League Contemplates Turning to UN Over Al-Aqsa
The Arab League discussed on Wednesday the possibility of filing a complaint to the UN Security Council over alleged "Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa compound", the Palestinian Authority-based Ma'an news agency reported.
The discussion was part of an "emergency session" that the Arab League called on Tuesday, at the request of the Palestinian Authority (PA) envoy.
The discussion came in response to Tuesday's Knesset debate about extending Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
IDF Blog: Amnesty International Report Ignores Palestinian Violence
In its upcoming report, Amnesty International wholly ignores the substantial increase in Palestinian violence initiated over the past year, and shows a complete lack of understanding as to operational challenges the IDF faces.
2013 saw a sharp increase in rock hurling incidents, gravely jeopardizing the lives of civilians and military personnel. 132 Israelis were injured during that year alone, almost double the number in 2012. This is no surprise considering that over 5,000 incidents of rock hurling took place, half of which were along main roads.
IDF kills wanted Palestinian man near Ramallah
A Palestinian died during an IDF raid on his home in the West Bank town of Birzeit on Thursday, the military and a Palestinian security source said.
"After the army left the house and the town, the body of Moataz Washaha, 22, was found," the Palestinian source said.
The army confirmed the death of a "Palestinian suspected of terror activity."
"After the suspect was called upon to turn himself in, he barricaded himself inside his house," the army said in a statement.
Soldiers responded with "live fire" and recovered an assault rifle, it added.
In first, Christian Arabs recognized as own minority
The law would extend the number of panel members from the current five to ten, adding a representative for the ultra-Orthodox, Druze, Christian, and Circassian populations, as well as for reserve duty soldiers, women, immigrants, and the elderly.
While the law is, in theory, meant to boost employment among Israel's minorities, Israeli Arab MKs have accused Levin of undermining Arab identity and creating a divide in the Israeli Arab community by advancing the the legal status of Christian Arabs in Israel, at the expense of Muslims.
Report: IDF Texted Gaza Residents Asking for Information on Terror Tunnels
The Ministry warned citizens against cooperating with Israel, Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm said.
According to Hamas the Israeli text messages read: "If you have information about the presence of a tunnel near the border fence, call this number as soon as possible [number omitted] and we will promptly respond."
Hamas claimed however, that Israel's attempts to bust underground smuggling operations by communicating with Gaza residents are doomed to fail since the "Palestinian people are loyal to the cause of national liberation."
Report: Israeli Strike Destroyed Missiles Potentially More Powerful Than All Hezbollah's Rockets Combined
An unnamed senior Israeli security official told TIME magazine that Israel destroyed surface-to-surface missiles in a Hezbollah convoy, crossing from Syria into Lebanon on Monday, which were extremely dangerous because of their ability to carry very heavy warheads.
TIME wrote on Wednesday that the "Israeli official indicated they could carry warheads heavier and more dangerous than almost all of the tens of thousands of missiles and rockets Hezbollah now has pointed toward Israel."
According to TIME, the strike was "the seventh known operation since the Syrian civil war began in 2011 and was an expression of Israel's only clear policy regarding that deadly conflict: that it will not let Syria's war become an opportunity for the militant group Hezbollah to improve its anti-Israeli arsenal."
Report: El-Sisi Won't Run for President of Egypt
Egypt's powerful defense minister General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will not run for president, according to an official Egyptian government source, ending widespread speculation that he will seek the office.
"He is expected to continue in his post until all the issues regarding the election laws are resolved," the government source told Reuters.
Assad arrests kin of opposition delegates to talks
Washington was "outraged" by reports that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad "has arrested family members of the Syrian opposition coalition delegation to the Geneva II peace talks, designated delegates as terrorists, and seized delegates' assets," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"We call on the regime to immediately and unconditionally release all those unfairly arrested," she added in a statement.
Among those held was Mahmoud Sabra, the brother of Geneva delegation member, Mohammed Sabra.
In America's Absence, Israel Acts in Syria
This, then, is a reminder of how Israel acts as somewhat of a restraining force in the Middle East. It also reaffirms the wrongheadedness of the commonly heard assertion that Israel and its dispute with the Palestinians is a regional destabilizer, that without the "Israel problem" the region would calm down and the Islamic world would forget its enmity for America. The latest strike by the IAF against Hezbollah forces attempting to transfer Syrian weapons to its Iranian proxy army in Lebanon is yet another example of how in the absence of decisive American action, Israel instead is acting to prevent the further deterioration of security in the region.
Syrians to become world's largest refugee population
Syrians could soon overtake Afghans as the world's biggest refugee population, with their numbers expected to pass 4 million by year's end, a top UN official said Tuesday.
High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres spoke as the international community sharply urged Syria to comply with a new Security Council resolution demanding that President Bashar Assad and the opposition provide immediate access for humanitarian aid.
Pakistan: Where conspiracy theories can cost a child's life
Since 1978, when the World Health Organization's Expanded Program for Immunization was launched in Pakistan, conspiracy theories about polio have been rampant. While the supposed conspirators change frequently, the myth is usually the same and involves someone attempting to rid the world of Muslims — Zarmina and her fellow health workers have heard that the polio vaccine is part of a Western (or US or Jewish) conspiracy to sterilize all Muslims, or that Mossad or the CIA is orchestrating the campaign to kill Muslims outright.
"When the polio vaccination program was initially launched, international organizations didn't take into account that there was very little engagement with the local government," said a senior World Health Organization official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Because the drugs and information was all coming from another country, people became very suspicious of vaccine programs."

A real question asked by a college student to an Israeli

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 07:20 AM PST


David Ze'ev Jablinowitz is an English-language Kol Israel reporter. This is from his Facebook page:

So I'm speaking on a US campus, and during the question time that followed my remarks, a student asks how it can be that Judaism is older than Islam if the State of Israel wasn't established until 1948.
He adds:
This anecdote is part of an upcoming article; will keep you posted.
I am looking forward to it!

A commenter asked him what he answered, and he replied, "We have a little work to do here."

Unfortunately, he wouldn't say what campus he was on at the time.

(h/t Yisrael Medad)

Muslims attack church in Gaza

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 06:00 AM PST

Palestine Press Agency reports that two nights ago people attacked a Latin church in Gaza City, and they spray painted slogans against attacks on Muslims in the Central African Republic.

The attackers tried to blow up a car belonging to the pastor, Father Jorge Hernández, but their Molotov cocktail failed to ignite.

Before they left the scene the attackers wrote that they vowed revenge for the Muslims in the Central African Republic, writing "The days of you O worshipers of the cross, in revenge for the Muslims in Central Africa."

Gaza has about a thousand Christians remaining after a series of attacks in the early days of Hamas rule.

Proof of bias in Amnesty's "Trigger-Happy" report

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 03:22 AM PST

As I mentioned yesterday, Amnesty released a ridiculously biased report against Israel this morning. Now that the report is released, we can confirm Amnesty's bias.

Here is their commentary on one incident, in August in Qalandiya, where the IDF fired live ammunition at stone throwers:

Although the army stated that Palestinians were posing a danger to Israeli soldiers' lives when the latter opened fire, the fact that one soldier only was lightly injured in the incident inevitably raises the question whether the Israeli soldiers who used live ammunition gunfire against the Palestinians protesters acted proportionately or resorted to the use of lethal force when this was not justified.

Here is video of the incident. Notice the size of the stones being thrown, including those stockpiled on the roofs, as well as some stones coming from much higher roofs that are out of the view of the camera:



Nah, nothing life-threatening about that!

According to Amnesty, the IDF must wait until a soldier is killed before using lethal force. I guess there is a concept in international law that I am unaware of that you may not defend yourself until you are physically injured first.

Or does that only apply to a single party?

A quick comparison:

This report on Israel killing (by Amnesty's count) 22 civilians in 2013 is 87 pages long.  It goes into detail about every single one of those deaths, humanizing the victims and interviewing multiple friends of each, al lin an attempt to paint Israel in the worst light possible.

Amnesty's report about Egyptian repression since July 2013, where 1400 people were killed, is only 49 pages long. It only provides details on a few specific cases, and most of those aren't even for people being killed but for other violations of human rights.

In the report about Israel, Amnesty serves as judge and jury in its "conclusions and recommendations:"

Israeli soldiers have repeatedly committed serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, including unlawful killings, in response to Palestinian opposition and protests in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The cases documented in this report represent only a minority of the cases that have occurred over recent years and which follow a general pattern, in which Israeli forces use excessive, often lethal, force against Palestinians who pose no threat to their lives or the lives of others. Soldiers are permitted to do so effectively with impunity – inasmuch as the official system established to investigate alleged human rights violations or other abuses by Israeli soldiers is neither independent nor impartial. This creates a situation of absolute absence of justice and the growing environment of impunity which the Israeli army and police enjoy
But for Egypt, Amnesty makes no such determinations. It does not flatly accuse Egyptian forces of human rights violations. It is merely "concerned" about the 1400 deaths, sexual abuse cases and destruction of basic freedoms:

Amnesty International is concerned that the Egyptian authorities are utilizing all branches of
the state apparatus to trample on human rights and quash dissent. Armed with repressive
legislation, including the latest assembly law; unaccountable security forces ready to
implement it against political opponents; and a complacent judicial system that punishes
critics while allowing perpetrators of human rights violations to walk free – the Egyptian
authorities have the necessary tools to take the country further on the path of repression.
Unless, the authorities change course and comply with commitments to respect human rights
and the rule of law, the future of Egypt looks bleak and the hopes of the "25 January
Revolution" have little chance of becoming a reality.

The anti-Israel bias is blatant.
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