[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 03/30 Links: PA wants 1,000 terrorist prisoners freed to continue talks; Sderot snaps back

From Ian:

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Galloway: Zionists Sent Gunmen to Ukraine to Force Ukrainian Jews to Move to Palestine

The accusation that Israel is somehow supporting the Svoboda and Right Sektor parties in Ukraine will remind readers of when Galloway claimed that Al-Qaeda was being supplied with chemical weapons in Syria by Israel. He then lied to the British Parliament, claiming he had said "no such thing".
Last week, Breitbart London reported another blatant Galloway lie, wherein he claimed that he had never refused to debate an Israeli – an incident caught on camera that resulted in him being accused of being a racist.
Galloway said at the London School of Economics, "I didn't refuse to share a stage with an Israeli. I share stages with Israelis all the time." But a video from last year shows him stating, "I don’t debate with Israelis. I have been misled."

Ali Oops: Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah shows his ignorance again

From the Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah: Is Ali all atwitter because Israel's Arrow missile defense system has the potential to save Israeli lives?
What Ali describes as "teaching hate and violence" at Israel Science Day in Rabin Square is in reality the Arrow Weapon System - Israel's national missile defense system. The Arrow defense system is designed to track and disable into missiles above the earth's atmosphere, high enough to disable chemical, biological or nuclear warheads safely. Arrow is designed to save lives, Ali. You run a website about the Middle East. Its time to get up to speed on some basic facts.
If Ali Abunimah really cared about teaching "hate and violence", you'd think he'd have said something about the latest public art in Gaza.

Netanyahu lambastes ‘hypocritical’ UN rights panel

Speaking in the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the UN Human Rights Council, which voted in a series of five resolutions condemning Israel over the weekend, was hypocritical in its “absurd” focus on Israel.
“Over the weekend, the UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel five times, this at a time when the slaughter in Syria is continuing, innocent people are being hung in the Middle East and human rights are being eroded,” Netanyahu said.
“In many countries free media are being shut down and the UN Human Rights Council decides to condemn Israel for closing off a balcony,” he said, echoing previous speeches in which he denounced the international community for criticizing Israel for settlement construction while allowing executions, lack of freedoms and other human rights violations to be perpetuated in the Middle East.
“This is absurd,” the prime minister said. “This march of hypocrisy is continuing and we will continue to condemn it and expose it.”

Iran MP says UN human rights envoy is Mossad, CIA agent

Earlier this month, special rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed filed a report with the UN Human Rights Council blasting Tehran’s faltering human rights record, and its “lack of adherence to the rule of law as well as a failure to investigate complaints and to bring human rights violators to justice.”
MP Seyyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying, “All fair and independent human rights bodies are well aware that Shaheed works as an agent for the Zionist regime and also the CIA.”
He said Iran was “familiar with the man’s character,” Fars reported, without elaborating on what Hosseini meant.
Shaheed is a former Maldivian foreign minister who was elected to the UN post almost three years ago.

Iran Names 1979 U.S. Embassy Hostage-Taker Its UN Envoy

Iran has named a member of the militant group that held 52 Americans hostage in Tehran for 444 days to be its next ambassador to the United Nations.
The Iranian government has applied for a U.S. visa for Hamid Aboutalebi, Iran’s former ambassador to Belgium and Italy, who was a member of the Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line, a group of radical students that seized the U.S. embassy on Nov. 4, 1979. Imam was an honorific used for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution.
Relations between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. and its allies are beginning to emerge from the deep freeze that began when the self-proclaimed Iranian students overrun the embassy and took the hostages. The State Department hasn’t responded to the visa application, according to an Iranian diplomat.

Revolting Race-Baiting By Extremist Jewish Voice for Peace

JVP stands shoulder to shoulder with conspiracy theorists
They provide cover for the anti-Semites who chant "Zionist Scum your time has come" at JVP sponsored events.
They conspire to silence points of view that dispute their limited vision.
They promote events with anti-Semites
They bastardize and belittle traditional Jewish rituals and practices
They accept membership from those who exploit and degrade the Jewish people
It is rather far afield for an organization that claims to represent "Jewish values"

Guardian contributor claims ALL Palestinians jailed for terror crimes are ‘political prisoners’!

However, there is, evidently, another word some use when characterizing the Itamar murderers and others with Israeli blood on their hands: Political Prisoners.
This term was employed recently by ‘Comment is Free’ contributor Martin Linton. Linton, you may recall, is a former British MP (and chair of Labour Friends of Palestine) who warned in 2010 that “there are long tentacles of Israel in [the UK] who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends.”
Linton’s ‘CiF’ op-ed (‘Release Marwan Barghouti. He can be Palestine’s Nelson Mandela‘, March 28), which contained praise for the terrorist mastermind so fawning it could be mistaken for a parody,

PA: Talks can go on if Israel frees 1,000 prisoners

The Palestinian Authority has rejected a purported Israeli offer to release a new group of 400 Palestinian security prisoners if the Palestinians agree to extend peace talks for another six months, The Times of Israel learned Sunday.
On Saturday, The Times of Israel learned from a Palestinian source that Jerusalem, backed by Washington, offered to release 400 more prisoners of Israel’s choosing, in addition to a fourth and final group of longtime terrorism convicts who were set to go free this weekend – on the condition that the Palestinian Authority agrees to prolong the ongoing negotiations beyond the April 29 deadline.
However, on Sunday, the Palestinian leadership rejected the offer and presented a counteroffer of its own to American mediators – that Israel release 1,000 more prisoners, of the Palestinian Authority’s choosing. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction and transfer some Area C regions to the Palestinian Authority’s control.
In exchange, peace talks would be extended until the end of 2014.

Netanyahu: No deal to release prisoners without clear benefit for Israel

Speaking at a meeting of Likud ministers, Netanyahu said that Israel would not make a deal to free the prisoners "without a clear benefit for Israel in return." He acknowledged that negotiations to come to an agreement could potentially "blow up."
Israel said it is willing to release a fourth batch of convicted Palestinian terrorists, but not if the Palestinians say that they will end the negotiations directly after the release, a highly-placed Israeli official said Saturday night.

Poll: Majority opposes prisoner release

A majority of Jewish Israelis -- 63.2 percent -- oppose going ahead with the fourth stage of the Palestinian prisoner release in exchange for an agreement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the current peace negotiations, an Israel Hayom-New Wave Research poll has found.
Slightly more than 15% support the release as long as it does not include Israeli Arabs, while 13.2% said they have no opinion. Only 8.3% expressed support for the release.

Why not just shut down the prison system?

Since Israel is releasing the worst prisoners it has in its cells, why not just release everyone?
What justification is there for keeping lesser criminals in jail, when the ones who have committed genuine atrocities — crimes against humanity even — are going free? Why should the embezzlers and common thieves stay in jail when the mass murderers are walking?

Shortage Of ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ Cards Hinders Prisoner Release (satire)

Parker Brothers, which produces the cards, has hit unexpected snags in their manufacture. Israel has no alternatives to the orange cards, as Parker Brothers has a monopoly on the product. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has tied continuing the negotiations to implementation of the release, but Israel insists it remains unable to do so.
The previous prisoner release proved particularly traumatic to Israelis, as it included a large number of Palestinians who had murdered Israelis. Having rent their garments over the affair, many Israelis see any further release as mortgaging their future against highly unlikely returns.
“Netanyahu is emptying the community chest and we gain nothing in return,” said a spokeswoman for families of the victims of terrorism. “It is time to stop giving murderers a free pass. as it is, we treat these monsters far too well while they’re imprisoned. We might as well be putting them up in houses and hotels. Our families’ lives are not bargaining chips.”
“This bankrupt proposal will not pass Go,” she stressed.

PA minister: Israel's goal "is to remove the Al-Aqsa Mosque"

6 arrested in Land Day-eve demo in E. Jerusalem

Several demonstrators and four journalists — among them a photographer from Agence France-Presse and another from Reuters — were slightly injured by projectiles fired by police during the incident, near the walled Old City’s Damascus Gate.
The AFP photographer, who was hit on the head, was treated in a local hospital and discharged.
The demonstration, which included over 100 Palestinians, was to mark the eve of Land Day when Arab Israelis and Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza hold protest rallies.

PA arrests dozens in raid on Islamist mosque — report

The raid was part of what critics say is a campaign of harassment against Islamists by Palestinian security forces.
Baher Saleh, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, told the Palestinian Safa news agency that PA security surrounded a mosque in El-Bireh, a suburb of Ramallah, during a weekly religious class, arresting dozens of party members both inside and outside the mosque.
“The security forces turned the environs of El-Bireh’s grand mosque into something resembling military barracks,” Saleh told Safa. “They beat the party supporters in a barbaric way, exposing the security mentality on which these agencies were raised.”

PA: Boycott Products from Settlements

The PA has unsuccessfully attempted to boycott Israeli goods in the past. Just two days ago, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that the PA has seen an increase in imports from Israel.
The PA’s imports from Israel in January, 2014, grew at a rate of 17.2%, while imports from other countries were down 16.4% compared to January of 2013.
The numbers come after a report last month indicated that 70% of the PA's imports were from Israel, with imports worth $3.5 billion entering the PA from Israel.

Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza Commemorate Slain Leaders with Militant Parades

Muslim Societies Unsure Why Honor Killings Not Enhancing Their Honor (satire)

A rise in the number and frequency of “honor killings” in this coastal territory has political and religious leaders wondering how many more young women must be killed by their families before the desired level of honor is attained.
Over the last three years the number of such killings has increased sharply, doubling twice since 2011. Local Imams and Hamas officials say that the killings are necessary to preserve the honor of a girl’s family when she enters a relationship that might or might not be romantic, but has definitely not been approved by the other males in her life, because a girl cannot be trusted to make her own decisions. A girl or woman who defies the will of those male relatives shames the family, and the honor of the family can then only be maintained when one or more of those males kills the woman.

Egypt court sentences 2 supporters of Morsi to death for throwing rivals off roof

The agency said the court in Alexandria found the men guilty of murdering a child and a young man in the coastal city during mass protests that demanded Morsi’s reinstatement after he was removed from power by the military.
The roof incident happened July 5 of last year, two days after Morsi’s ouster. It was one of the most dramatic acts of violence on a day in which 16 other people were killed in Alexandria.
One of those killed was nine-year-old Hamada Badr, who witnesses including an Associated Press journalist said was stabbed and then thrown off the roof. Another man in his twenties was hurled to his death and Morsi supporters were seen beating his lifeless body.
The father of the nine-year old said the verdict was partial vindication. (h/t Rabbi Burns)

Nasrallah: We don't want war with Israel but resistance the only option

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that his Shi’ite organization was not seeking a new war with Israel, although continued armed resistance was the only option for Lebanon and other countries in the region.
“We are not looking for a war, but Israel is wrong to conclude that we will not enter a war because of our fighting in Syria.” Nasrallah told a rally of supporters via a television link from a secret location in South Lebanon. “The resistance today relative to that in June 2006 (the Second Lebanon War), is stronger economically, it has more manpower and greater skill, and it has higher morale.

Echoes of the Holocaust in two TV specials

The mass killing of six million Jews ended nearly 69 years ago, but almost every month we discover a new aspect of the Holocaust, its aftermath, and its impact on future generations.
Witness, for example, two new television specials. One is Treblinka: Hitler’s Killing Machine, which uncovers new scientific evidence on the existence and mechanism of the death camp.
The second, Sosúa: Make a Better World, is an offbeat teen musical recalling a barely remembered footnote to the plight of Jewish refugees fleeing Germany and Austria.

New find may bring Nazi-tainted art trove to $2b.

The saga of the trove of artworks hoarded away under the Nazis by the son of art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt was given a new twist this week with the discovery of a third house in a town in the Austrian state of Styria that may well contain further pieces of art.
The location of the third house in Bad Aussee next to the salt mines where the vast majority of the art looted by the Nazis had been stored had been unknown until now, because it had been in the hands of Hildrebrand’s cousin Wolfgang, who had also gathered art for the Nazis. On the same day that its location was revealed, Austrian officials also admitted that they had apparently “missed” another 180 paintings from a previously discovered residence that had “suddenly” been discovered.

Twitter Users Rank Israel in Top 10 Travel Destinations for 2014

Online travel deal website TravelSupermarket listed Tel Aviv, Israel, as one of the most searched-for destinations among Twitter users in 2014, the UK’s Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
The Israeli city ranked No. 6 on a list of the top 10 “hot spots” that are garnering the most traveler interest online so far this year. TravelSupermarket analyzed data from across its site and combined it with Twitter metrics on what countries and cities are most talked about by users to compile the list.

S&P affirms Israel's A+ credit rating

International financial services and credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's affirmed Israel's international credit ratings and economic outlook as positive on Friday, giving it an A+/A-1 score. "In our opinion, Israel's fiscal consolidation is on track, bolstered by extra one-off revenues in 2013 and upward revisions to GDP due to new calculation methodologies," the company said in a statement.
"Fiscal consolidation is taking hold in Israel, following the passage of the 2013-2014 budget and as a result, we expect a modest decline in the general government debt burden. The stable outlook reflects our view that the government will continue to consolidate the public finances and that the effect of security risks on the Israeli economy will be contained," the statement said.

Sderot snaps back

At the Passover Seder each year, the Jewish people recite: “This is what has stood to our fathers and to us, for not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us.”
“In every generation there are those who attempt to destroy us,” echoes Rabbi David Fendel, chief rabbi of Sderot’s yeshiva, with over 400 students. “However, we stand strong.”
On the roof of the yeshiva stands a hanukkia constructed from terrorist rockets.
When lit on Hanukka,it represents the eternal radiance of the Jewish spirit.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 3/30/2014 01:00:00 PM