[Elder of Ziyon] Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Palestinians Plan Violence to Force the US to Extract Concessions from Israel by Khaled Abu Toameh

The Palestinian Authority leadership is hoping that the anti-US protests will scare Obama and force him to exert even more pressure on Israel.
The Palestinian Authority's message to Obama: You must act quickly against Israel before things get out of hand.
It now remains to be seen whether Obama is aware of this attempt to put pressure on him, or whether he will continue to turn a blind eye to the Palestinian Authority's new-old tactic of initiating an escalation with the hope of extracting concessions from the US and Israel.

50,000 Tell Obama: Bring Pollard With You
Former president, MKs and Nobel Prize winners among 50,000 Israelis calling on Obama to free Jonathan Pollard.

More than 50,000 people have signed a letter calling on United States President Barack Obama to free Jonathan Pollard. An ongoing campaign to free Pollard has gone into high gear in light of Obama's plan to visit Israel in March.
The petition to release Pollard opens with the line, "Honorable President Obama, come with Pollard!"
Among those who have signed so far are a former Israeli president, several former ministers and former and current Members of Knesset, as well as Nobel Prize winners.

The neighboring Kingdom of Mahmoud Abbas

Today, these basic tenets of democracy are sorely lacking in the Palestinian governing bodies. The PLO in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza vet and approve every appointment of every civil servant to every public position, from teachers in schools to judges in courts. Both of these organizations have been recognized in the past by the US government and other Western nations as terrorist organizations.
Palestinian human rights activists explained that Anas Awwad received a harsh sentence for his benign exercise of freedom of speech, primarily because he is known to support the Hamas movement. In a court in the "kingdom" of Mahmoud Abbas, where judges are appointed by the PLO, being a Hamas supporter is considered to be a crime. It would behoove those who claim to advance Palestinian human rights, including the right to statehood, to start by soul searching a bit closer to home.

UK court finds 3 guilty in 'spectacular' plot aimed at synagogue
Muslim extremists face life in prison for plan to carry out 'another 9/11′; watchdog decries 'disturbing example of would-be anti-Semitic terrorism'

LONDON — Three men were found guilty Thursday of planning a "spectacular bombing campaign" in the UK, including an attack on a synagogue.
Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, wanted to carry out "another 9/11" by using eight suicide bombers armed with guns and explosives-filled rucksacks to target "crowded places" in their native city of Birmingham, Woolwich Crown Court found.
The trio had not decided on a specific target, but in conversations secretly recorded by police, Naseer said that even if the group could not make a bomb, it could "get guns, yeah, from the black geezers, Africans, and charge in some like synagogue or charge in different places."

Guardian reports on UK terror plot ignore facts regarding potential Jewish targets

The document also outlined specific plans to attack the Stamford Hill and Golders Green neighborhoods in London, areas in which, the terror group chillingly noted, "tens of thousands of Jews" are "crammed in a small area."
It's curious, to say the least, that the Guardian reporter covering the terror plot, by self-radicalized Brits intent on causing mass casualties in the UK, evidently didn't find it of interest to note that one particular often-targeted religious community was again singled out by the Jihadists for murder.

Israel's Deputy Ambassador to the UK Forced to Flee Essex University

Roth-Snir was speaking at Essex University when 40 students disrupted the meeting, university officials split students into two groups, according to who was and wasn't supportive of Mr Roth-Snir's presence, and allowed the lecture to continue in a small side room.
However, security officials ultimately decided the protestors posed a great enough risk that Mr. Roth-Snir was evacuated.

Israeli-British student had earlier run-in with boycotting MP
Following George Galloway debate walkout, officials say Israeli engagement on British campuses will continue despite a series of recent pro-Palestinian disruptions, protests

Aslan-Levy, a dual national who was born and educated in London and who would have been 16 at the time, says he challenged the MP on a previous statement that there should be no engagement with anyone connected to the state of Israel.
Galloway, he said, denied he had ever said such a thing, calling him a "L.I.A.R. – liar."

Hizbullah Terror Group Scanning EU for Israeli, Jewish Targets

Hizbullah terror operatives are in Europe scanning for area for Jewish targets, according to a source quoted by The New York Times. Israel has for months tried unsuccessfully to persuade the European Union to add Hizbullah to its official list of terrorist organizations.

Experts decry EU 'delays' on Hezbollah sanctions
Israeli analysts believe European reluctance to label Hezbollah a terrorist group stem from fear of antagonizing organization.

Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University, told the Post that "the leaders of the European Union claim to promote moral foreign policies, but the cynical excuses used to avoid designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization are anything but moral. For years, the EU turned a blind eye to Hezbollah's role in rocket and mass terror attacks – every one a war crime – and allowed this organization to raise funds and operate freely."
Steinberg, who runs the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor watchdog group, added, "After the Burgas attack, and then the official Bulgarian report with the evidence of Hezbollah's role, EU leaders still ignored the evidence and the need to take a principled position.

President Peres: "The Time Has Come for Every Country in the World" to Add Hezbollah to its Terror List

"On our border, in Lebanon, Nasrallah [Hezbollah's leader], wrapped in a cloak of religiosity, is pushing Lebanon into a bloody war. It is time to call Hezbollah what it really is – a murderous terror organization. The United States of America and other countries have already included Hezbollah in its list of terrorist organizations. Now, after it has been proved that Hezbollah was behind the terror attack in Bulgaria, on European soil, and murdered innocent civilians, and as reports increase of its involvement, along with Iran, in attacks in Cyprus and Nigeria, the time has come for every country in the world, and especially the European Union, to add Hezbollah to its list of terror organizations," he said.

'Gazans seek elections as Hamas support declines'
AWRAD poll shows support for Hamas declined since December; 68% support negotiations if Israel halts settlement construction.

Support for Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza has declined by four percentage points to 18 percent since December, according to a poll published Thursday.
The poll, conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), said that while support for Hamas was down, support for Fatah was back to its July 2012 level (42%), an increase from 37% in December.
According to the survey, 95% of Gazans support holding legislative and presidential elections immediately, as do 82% of West Bank respondents.

Gaza man self-immolates in government office
A man set himself on fire at a government office in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, wounding himself and four others, witnesses and medics said.

Nazi Thugs Attack Soccer Fans in Lyon Pub
Fans of the English Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur were the target of an anti-Semitic attack in France Wednesday night ahead of the club's Thursday match in the country.

A gang of thugs chanting Nazi slogans descended upon the Smoking Dog pub in Lyon in what police believe was an incident "of an anti-Semitic" nature and was "well-coordinated."

Barcelona to play in Israel for peace
Top Spanish soccer club will fly over in July, face Israeli-Palestinian squad

Barcelona FC, one of the most prestigious soccer teams in the world, will play a game in Israel against a team made up of Israeli and Palestinian players, President Shimon Peres and Barcelona's president, Sandro Rosell, announced Thursday evening.
Peres praised the power of sports to teach people values. The planned game will be "a great celebration and a message for peace to us and our neighbors," he said at a press conference in Ramat Gan. Children want to be like the Barcelona players, and this project can convey a "good and important message."

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Posted By Ian to Elder of Ziyon at 2/22/2013 09:00:00 AM