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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Saeb Erekat said recently that "Palestinian efforts against the Nazi regime are a deep-rooted part of our history."

From the New York Times, May 23, 1937:


From JTA, also May 23, 1937:

Nazi flags and pictures of Hitler and Mussolini were being displayed by many Arab shops in the Old City today in connection with the celebration of Mohammed’s birthday.

Arab children thronged the teeming section’s narrow, winding streets, shouting: “Death to the High Commissioner (Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope)! Death to the Jews!

Arabs in Haifa and Jaffa prepared for the birthday celebrations, scheduled for today and tomorrow, by proclaiming a work stoppage and organizing demonstrations.

The Government Education Department issued orders prohibiting Arab pupils to participate in the demonstrations. Arabs newspapers, however, are urging the pupils to disobey.


This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/31/2015 09:18:00 PM
From Ian:

Islamic State in Egypt claims it brought down Russian plane; 224 dead
The Islamic State terror group in Egypt claimed responsibility for bringing down a Russian passenger plane on Saturday carrying 224 people. Russian authorities, however, rejected the claim.
IS in Egypt, Wilayat Sinaa (formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis) published the claim of responsibility hours after the plane, traveling from from the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh back to St. Petersburg, crashed in the Sinai Peninsula with 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board.
“The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai,” said the statement in Arabic circulated on social media. “More than 220 Crusaders were on board. All were killed, praise God.”
“Know, oh Russians and those allied with you, that you have no place in the land of Muslims…and the dozens of victims that you kill ever y day with your raids in the land of Sham [Syria] will be the cause of all your future misery. And know, also that we will kill you just like you kill us,” a statement in French said.
IS later issued video footage purportedly showing the plane being hit.
IDF coordinating with Russia, Egypt to help locate Russian plane crash in Sinai
An IDF spokesperson said Saturday that the army is coordinating with both Russia and Egypt to help locate the remnants of a Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai earlier in the day.
The IDF sent out surveillance aircraft to comb the area where the plane is believed to have crash landed. The IDF added that it would be ready to offer further assistance to Russia and Egypt if necessary.
In addition, Magen David Adom offered 30 of its ambulances and its air lift helicopters to assist Egyptian first responders following reports that there were still survivors at the crash site.
However, it was later reported that no survivors were found at the scene.
Reports: IAF targets Hezbollah assets in Syria
The Lebanese and Syrian media said Saturday that Israel Air Force warplanes have attacked targets in Syria linked to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. Reports varied, however, on the exact targets and location of the strikes.
According to a report on the Lebanese Debate website, six IAF jets carried out the strike over the Qalamoun Mountains region of western Syria, and targeted weapons that were headed for Hezbollah, Channel 10 said.
Syrian opposition groups, for their part, claimed Israeli planes had attacked targets in the Damascus area, in two strikes in areas where Hezbollah and pro-Assad forces were centered.
Syrian media, however, said that Israeli warplanes hit several Hezbollah targets in southern Syria.
Israel’s defense establishment declined to comment on the reports of the strikes, which would be the first since Russia boosted its involvement in the Syrian civil war.
A Victim of Palestinian Terror: Richard Lakin
On October 13th Richard Lakin got on a bus in Jerusalem. Two Palestinian terrorists boarded the bus and attacked the passengers with knives and a gun. Two Israelis were killed in this attack and Richard was severely wounded. He died of his wounds 2 weeks after the terror attack. Richard's wife and his granddaughter share their memories of him and recall the series of events from the scene of the murderous attack:




PM Benjamin Netanyahu: 'In no way did I intend to absolve Hitler of his responsibility for the Holocaust'
I wish to clarify my remarks about the connection between the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini and the Nazis.
In no way did I intend to absolve Hitler of his responsibility for the Holocaust. Hitler and the Nazi leadership are responsible for the murder of six million Jews. The decision to move from a policy of deporting Jews to the Final Solution was made by the Nazis and was not dependent on outside influence.
The Nazis saw in the Mufti a collaborator, but they did not need him to decide on the systematic destruction of European Jewry, which began in June 1941.
Still, the Mufti was one of those who supported the Nazi goal of destroying the Jews. He conducted his activities from Berlin during the war, disseminated virulent anti-Semitic propaganda on behalf the Nazis, recruited Muslims to the SS, demanded that after conquering the Middle East the Nazis destroy the Jewish national home and vigorously opposed the emigration of Jews – even children – from the Nazi inferno, knowing full well that this would seal their fate.
My remarks were intended to illustrate the murderous approach of the Mufti to the Jews in his lengthy contacts with the Nazi leadership. Contrary to the impression that was created, I did not mean to claim that in his conversation with Hitler in November 1941 the Mufti convinced him to adopt the Final Solution. The Nazis decided on that by themselves.
The interpretation of my remarks as though I absolved the Nazis of even one ounce of responsibility for the Holocaust is absurd.
Bassam Tawil: Muslim Blood and Al-Aqsa
We all know perfectly well that Al-Aqsa mosque is in no danger. Ironically -- I am ashamed to admit it -- thanks to the Israel Police, Al-Aqsa is the safest mosque in the Middle East.
Today we sacrifice both our sons and daughters on the altar of empty slogan -- lies such as "Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger," in the vain, blasphemous notion that omnipotent, omniscient Allah needs us to die as martyrs for his sake.
Muhammad's hadith says one drop of Muslim blood is more valuable than the Kaaba in Mecca, so the same must be true for the stones of Al-Aqsa, which is less holy to Islam than the Kaaba.
The hypocrisy and politicization of Islam has led our sheikhs deliberately to misinterpret verses in the Qur'an, and in that way we disrespect the words of Allah. There are clerics present Islam as a hideous religion bent on murder and paganism, and on sanctifying the stones of Al-Aqsa mosque more than the lives of faithful Muslims.
The Qur'an promises the Children of Israel that they will return to the land of Israel from the four corners of the earth... so we should have greeted their return as living proof of the words of Allah and the realization of the prophecies of Muhammad. Instead, we fight the Jews, which means we fight the wishes of Allah.
The Qur'an tells us that the Jews are the chosen people and the inheritors of the land, so why do our religious leaders deny it and refuse to admit that the Qur'an does not name or even hint at "Palestine" or "Palestinians?"
Will Jeremy Corbyn condemn Gerald Kaufman’s comments about ‘Jewish money’ influencing the Tories?
Yesterday, after a recording of the remarks was made public, four of Britain’s prominent Jewish organisations – the Board of Deputies, the Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust – expressed their outrage and demanded that Sir Gerald’s comments be investigated. Today calls for his resignation will grow, but as of now he has remained silent. The Spectator has requested comment from Sir Gerald’s office, but has yet to hear back. When asked by The Jewish Chronicle about the allegations that Israel had fabricated stabbing attacks, Martin Rathfelder, Sir Gerald’s election agent, merely asked in turn: ‘Is it untrue?’ Here, again, we see the classic conspiracy theory mindset at work: the impossibility of contradicting the argument presented as clear proof of its legitimacy.
Sir Gerald’s host, the Palestine Return Centre, is a proscribed terrorist group in Israel, with links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been dubbed Hamas’s political wing in the UK, although, the group denies any Hamas links. But even the Palestine Return Centre has distanced itself from his remarks, saying that they cross the line between criticism of Israel’s foreign policy and what might be interpreted as anti-Semitism. That is a distinction Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – friend of Hamas, Hezbollah and hate preachers – has often made to contextualise his own support for the Palestinians. Now he has the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that such a distinction is not a smokescreen by unequivocally condemning Sir Gerald’s speech and calling for his immediate resignation.
AUDIO: Gerald Kaufman MP's "Jewish money" slur


Edgar Davidson: The "Official Jews" response to Kaufman: pathetic and inadequate as I predicted
With no rational way to defend the ongoing tsunami of unprovoked attacks by Palestinians/Muslims against Jews in Israel, the antisemites and their friends in the media resorted to a simple lie: "there were no such attacks, and in fact Israel is deliberately killing Palestinians and planting knives". Hence they have created the latest blood libel against Jews.
As I noted in my report on Dave Collier's scoop about Gerald Kaufman, the most serious aspect of Kaufman's speech was not the 'Jewish money buys influence' lie (that Kaufman has stated many times before) but the above blood libel - that incredibly has now become part of the public narrative, with the odious Amnesty International buying into it. At the end of my article I said:
What's the betting that the "Official Jews" only focus their complaints on the Jewish money aspect (because criticism of that is accepted in all 'respected liberal circles') but ignore the far more damaging blood libel (because that, after all, means defending Israel and calling out Palestinian lies, which in not accepted in any liberal circle)?
Well, with the exception of a very good and clear statement by Jonathan Arkush of the Board of Deputies, Britain's 'official Jews' have responded exactly as I predicted. Where they have raised a complaint they have chosen to completely ignore Kaufman's blood libel. The statement from the CST manages to give a detailed report of Kaufman's speech but completely avoids any mention of his claims about Israel even though that was by far the dominant part of the speech! The statement from the Jewish Leadership Council talks about "all the old-fashioned anti-Semitic trope" but also without mentioning the blood libel. All of the Jewish MPs who have made statements about it have also ignored the blood libel.
Palestinian attempts West Bank stabbing, is shot dead
Palestinian armed with a knife tried to stab Israeli guards at a crossing near the West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday morning, and was shot dead.
The Hebrew-language Maariv website said that the man approached the Gilboa (or Jalama) crossing, heading in the direction of Israel when the incident occurred. No one else was injured in the attack, the report said. The checkpoint is manned by private security guards alongside IDF troops.
Israel’s Ynet news website said that a security guard spotted the attacker during an inspection at the crossing, while the attacker was apparently hiding in nearby bushes near a taxi rank at the entrance to the site. The attacker then ran at the guard brandishing the knife. The guard called several times for the man to stop, and opened fire when he refused to do so.
The attacker was later named as Mahmoud Talel Nazal, aged 17, from the village of Kabatiyeh in the northern West Bank, Channel 10 television reported.
Why can’t I find Baruch Goldstein Street on WAZE?
Baruch Goldstein Street vs Muhannad Halibi Street
The conflict in Israel is often referred to with, or represented by, terms such as: violence on both sides; extremists on both sides; David and Goliath; apartheid Israel; oppressor and oppressed; occupier; excessive force
These terms are value judgements and support positions that people wish to take in the conflict. The terms help justify one’s view on what is going on, and they help justify any action, or inaction, a party may take in the conflict.
These terms are used by the media, human rights activists, the BDS and their ilk. And these terms lead to a situation that denies the basic reality:
The concept of assigning blame equally to both sides is morally repugnant
There is no moral equivalency
The leadership on one side condemns terrorist attacks and certainly does not glorify attacks on civilians. To that side’s political leadership, it makes no difference how desperate a person or a community may feel…..The killing of children, women and civilians will never be tolerated and will never be glorified.
The day I find Baruch Goldstein Street on Waze is the day I start seeing the violence as justified.
The day I stop seeing streets like Muhannad Halibi Street is the day I see peace as inevitable.
PA buries 5 Palestinians killed carrying out attacks on Israelis
Riots erupted Saturday afternoon at Ayush Square near Hebron as the funerals were taking place, Channel 10 television reported. Thousands of people turned out for the funeral procession, packing into the streets of the city.
Despite cabinet opposition to the move, Israel transferred the bodies of five to the West Bank on Friday, while local residents gathered to mark the occasion.
The Palestinian baby who died Friday allegedly from inhaling tear gas fired by IDF troops near Bethlehem was also to be buried Saturday, the Ynet news website said. Eight-month-old Ramadan Muhammad Thawabteh was to be laid to rest in home village of Beit Fajjar. The IDF said it was investigating the incident.
The transfer of the five bodies took place Friday night at the Tarkumiyah crossing in Hebron, Ynet reported, where the Palestinian Authority held an official ceremony for their return.
Iran Unleashed
Last week, the Obama White House moved to ensure Hezbollah’s ability to point 100,000 missiles at Israel. That’s not how they would describe it, of course. But it was the Obama administration—as U.S. officials are quietly letting on—and not Russia that invited Iran to participate in talks in Vienna to resolve the Syrian civil war. By doing so, the White House legitimized the Islamic Republic as a “stakeholder” whose interests in Syria must be respected. But of course, Iran has only one interest in Syria, which is to protect its ally, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, whose regime facilitates the transfer of missiles to Hezbollah.
The administration admits as much. As the head of the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs, Anne Patterson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, “What [Iran is] looking for is a Syria that protects their interests and particularly their access to Hezbollah.”
Why doesn’t this seem to bother the White House? Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Its primary campaign is against Israel, while it threatens other regional actors traditionally regarded as American allies, like Saudi Arabia. It has plenty of American blood on its hands, as well. From the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut to the Iraq war, Hezbollah has targeted U.S. military and diplomatic personnel for more than three decades.
Can the IAEA Solve Parchin Mystery?
The fascinating aspect of this latest report is that it came after a visit to the site by IAEA head Yukio Amano and his team that was supposed to satisfy critics of the deal. At the time of his visit in September, the IAEA confirmed the August reports about recent construction but nothing was said about missing equipment. But now we know that a “containment vessel,” which is a specially designed chamber to test nuclear equipment including triggers to detonate a warhead that was previously known to be at Parchin, was not there in September.
The point about its disappearance is that, while Moniz impressed members of Congress with his assurances that equipment could pick up nuclear residue even if the deal required the IAEA to give Iran a few weeks notice of an inspection, if the facility at Parchin has been altered and vital pieces of evidence have disappeared, all talk of accountability or transparency for the deal is mere rhetoric.
Considering that the Iran deal was the most significant foreign policy treaty signed by the U.S. in a generation, a story about how Iran is already undermining compliance with its terms ought to be big news. But the media has greeted the reports about the hijinks at Parchin with a collective yawn. Of major outlets, only Fox News has chosen to publish anything about it.
Critics of the nuclear deal predicted that violations of its terms would be shrugged at by an administration that was too heavily invested in what it termed a diplomatic victory to hold Iran’s feet to the fire on compliance. Small violations would be swept under the rug or dismissed as insignificant. But Parchin is no small detail. Unless the IAEA can tell us with certainty that it knows what Iran accomplished there, the assumptions that are the foundation for the deal are flimsy guesses that shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Ahead of International Syria Talks, Israeli Minister Elkin Meets Russian FM Lavrov to Lay Out Israel’s Red Lines
Israel’s Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Strategic Affairs and Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin laid out Israel’s red lines in Syria in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Thursday, Israeli nrg news reported.
The Israeli minister, according to the report, relayed to Lavrov Israel’s three main concerns: preventing the flow of weapons to the terrorist group Hezbollah, maintaining a quiet border in the Golan Heights and upholding the ban on the use of chemical weapons.
While the meeting was scheduled in advance to discuss economic issues, ultimately it ended up happening a day before Russia headed to international talks on the Syrian war on Friday and Saturday. The Israelis used Elkin’s trip as a chance to lay out their concerns.
“Israel believes this meeting is very important in light of the Vienna meetings and what appears to be a significant improvement for the battered Syrian president, Bashar Assad, ” reported nrg. Additionally, Lavrov reportedly described to Elkin some of Moscow’s plans for the months ahead in Syria.
Palestinians: ICC must accelerate probe into ‘Israeli war crimes’
Palestinian officials on Friday urged the International Criminal Court to speed up its probe into accusations of “Israeli war crimes,” handing over a new dossier alleging summary killings and collective punishment.
A delegation led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda “to expedite” a preliminary inquiry, after the dossier was handed over earlier in the day documenting new alleged crimes in the past 40 days, PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters.
Abbas arrived late Friday at the court for talks with Bensouda, accompanied by Maliki, an AFP correspondent said. It was his first meeting with the prosecutor since the Palestinian Authority sparked controversy by joining the tribunal in January.
The preliminary ICC probe aims to establish if there are grounds to open a full-scale investigation. It is unclear when it will be completed, but Maliki said Friday he wants the court to finish quickly.
Russia backs New Zealand’s UN bid to restart Israel-Palestinian talks
The deeply divided Security Council has not adopted a resolution on the decades-old conflict in six years.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow has always maintained that the UN’s most powerful body “should get closer involved.”
“I think we should seriously look at it,” he told reporters. “I don’t see anything controversial about that text.”
The New Zealand draft resolution notes “with alarm the escalating cycle of violence” between Israel and the Palestinians. It declares that a two-state solution, achieved through direct negotiations, is the only path to peace, and it calls on both parties, backed by key international players, to take steps to end violence and incitement and rebuild trust.
The draft further calls on both Israel and the Palestinians to refrain from “provocative acts” including acts that threaten the status quo of holy sites in Jerusalem which have sparked recent clashes. It also calls on the Palestinians to refrain from referring “a situation” to the International Criminal Court.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon was very dismissive, calling the proposed resolution “destructive instead of being constructive.” He said “the only way to achieve peace is through direct talks between the parties,” which Israel has called for.
Trump: ‘Obama hates Israel, Jewish state safe with me’
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes US President Barack Obama hates Israel, citing the recent nuclear deal with Iran which he said was “so bad” for the Jewish state.
“So many friends in Israel, they don’t know what happened,” he said of the agreement between Tehran and the US, along with other world powers. “They actually think Obama hates Israel. I think he does.”
Speaking during a campaign speech in Reno, Nevada on, the business magnate added: “Honestly, I think Israel is in such a massive amount of trouble because of the agreement.”
Trump vowed to defend Israel if elected president. “Israel is safe with this one,” he said, pointing to himself. “Nothing bad is going to happen to Israel.”
Trudeau’s spokeswoman: Expect a shift in Canada’s policy towards the Middle East
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called Justin Trudeau on October 23 to congratulate him on his victory in the federal elections, but both sides abstained at the time from issuing any official announcement about the conversation and its content.
Talking to the Canadian Press, Kate Purchase, Trudeau’s spokeswoman, described the conversation between Trudeau and Netanyahu as a “very positive call” adding that Trudeau “explained there would be a shift in tone but Canada would continue to be a friend of Israel’s.” Rafael Barak, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, said that Netanyahu invited Trudeau to visit Israel.
On the other side, Hamdi Abu Ali, the Palestinian chargé d’affaires in Ottawa, wishes to see a turnabout in Canadian – Palestinian relations. “We hope this new government will join the international community and recognize the state of Palestine,” Abu Ali said in an exclusive interview to the Ottawa Citizen. “We are confident that Canada will start to see us as a people who want to join other nations in having their own independence and their own sovereignty.”
During the election campaign, Trudeau pledged to change Canada’s foreign policy by espousing a more “balanced” approach in the Middle East.
The Canadian Palestinian leadership which publicly sided with the “Palestinian Intifada” (also called “al-Quds Intifada” and the “Knife Intifada”), expressed its hope that the 10 newly-elected Liberal Muslim members of parliament succeed in their efforts to reform Canada’s foreign policy.
Phyllis Chesler: Jewish Professor Hounded at California Riverside Campus For Holding Pro-Israel Views
Dr. Denise Dalaimo Nussbaum, Chair of the Sociology Department, distinguished author and professor, is suing the Governing Board of Mount San Jacinto Community College for 9.5 million dollars for “assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gender discrimination, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, violation of constitutional and statutory rights of free speech and political activities, retaliation, tortious interference with law enforcement investigation, and breach of fiduciary duty.”
I think she should sue for more—far more—since this long-time tenured professor now faces a potentially dangerous and hostile work environment.
Her crime? She is a Zionist and proud of it. More importantly, she is a great believer in objective truth. This is currently out of fashion on so many American campuses when the subject of Israel, Palestine, and Islam are discussed. Dr. Nussbaum is also a feminist—and this figures in this story as well. Her love of truth, love of Zion, and love of freedom for women and minorities are anathema to those who have attacked her.
What is going on?
Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel Brownshirts are growing more and more aggressive on North American campuses. They support “hate speech” and “blood libels” but in the name of “free speech.” They claim “academic freedom” to do so. But they behave in absolutely uncivilized ways.
Jewish Human Rights Group Ad in Guardian Compares Boycott of Israel to Nazi Boycott of Jews
The UK-based group Jewish Human Rights Watch placed an ad in the Guardian on Friday calling on British universities to distance themselves from another ad earlier this week calling for an academic boycott of Israel.
Jewish Human Rights Watch said their ad “educates the Boycotters on how their call for a boycott of Jewish academics and outright support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) is sheathed anti-Semitism,” in a press release on Friday coinciding with the ad’s publication. The group said BDS was partly responsible for the apparent rise in antisemitism in Britain.
“We call upon the named universities involved in this hoodwinked attempt at anti-Semitism, to dissociate themselves from these so-called academics. We urge the universities to see the truth,” the group said.
This latest effort is part of the group’s longer campaign against the BDS movement in England. Earlier this year, the group petitioned the High Court of Justice to review a local government’s decision to boycott Israeli goods — specifically those produced in the West Bank.
Edgar Davidson: Jewish student complains about Hitler poster on Birmingham University campus - gets bombarded with antisemitic (and anti-Israel) abuse
When Jewish student Izzy Lenga complained about the above "Hitler was right" poster being put up at Birmingham University she might have expected a sympathetic response. Below is a sample of the hundreds of 'supportive' messages she got on twitter (and Britain's 'official Jews' - especially CST and JLC take note: stop deluding yourselves that antisemitism in the UK has got nothing to do with the tsunami of anti-Israel lies propagated by the media and politicians).
Rashid Khalidi Heads Pro-PLO Panel in Bashing Israel
Israel is a greater threat to America than anything emanating from the Muslim world, according to participants in an October 15 panel titled “The Future of Bipartisanship on Israel.” One of the nation’s largest Democratic Party campaign contributors, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), provided an appropriately partisan setting in their Washington, DC, headquarters for this biased panel. Columbia University professor and former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi moderated before an audience of around seventy, including Jerusalem Fund director Zeina Azzam.
Former CIA analyst and Georgetown University security studies researcher Paul Pillar (“one of the wisest people” on the Middle East, according to Khalidi) began the panel by dredging up the well-worn assertion that the U.S. suffers from its alliance with Israel. Downplaying broader jihadist motives, he claimed that the Arab-Israeli conflict is a “highly exploitable issue” that exacerbates “extremism and specifically, terrorist threats to the U.S.” American support for Israel is a “major drain on U.S. political and diplomatic capital,” he added.
Pillar defined Israeli interests in the Palestinian territories as “based on religious, nationalist, and economic reasons,” with no mention of self-defense. “When people have peaceful effective channels for pursuing their interests, they tend to use them,” he stated, implying that Palestinian terrorism is merely the result of oppression. The “denial of self-determination and democracy to a whole population shows the United States to be a hypocrite,” he maintained, as if this alleged “denial” were a policy.
Exclusive London Nightclub Shut Down After Major Brawl Sparked by Antisemitic Remark (VIDEO)
One club goer’s antisemitic comment at the celebrity London nightclub, Boujis, triggered a street brawl that has ultimately led authorities to shut the club down for two weeks, with the possibility that it will not get its license back to reopen, British media reported on Friday.
According to the exclusive club, the fight was triggered after one guest hurled insults at a group of Jews who had booked a table for the night. It spilled out onto the street, with men and women attacking one another. In video released by one club manager, “F***ing Jews” can be heard shouted and a man is thrown headfirst against a parked taxicab.
Seven people, aged 18-21, were arrested by police on the scene, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. The local licensing authorities ordered a licence review and demanded the club shut down for two weeks.
Dutch Food Authority backs ban on kosher slaughter
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority has advised the government to ban ritual slaughter of animals, citing pain and suffering caused to them in the process.
The recommendation appeared in a report by the authority’s risk assessment bureau, the NRC Handelsblad daily reported Friday.
“Ban, from a point of view of animal welfare, the killing of conscious animals and especially cattle,” the daily quoted from the recommendation. “If the slaughter of conscious cattle continues anyway,” the recommendation’s authors wrote, then slaughtered animals must not be handled as long as they display signs of life.
In 2012, the Dutch senate scrapped legislation passed the previous year that amounted to a ban on kosher and halal slaughter because it required all animals be rendered unconscious before they are killed. Both Muslim and Jewish religious law requires animals be conscious when their necks are cut.
Israeli scientists help digitize brain
How the brain is wired has long been a question researchers would love to solve. Now, an international ensemble of scientists and engineers has digitalized a piece of the neocortex of the brain of young rats and offers a first-ever inside view of how the brain works.
The Blue Brain Project, a key part of the European Union’s 10-year Human Brain Project, has released a detailed computer representation of the microcircuitry of a small area of the rat’s somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain responsible for the sense of touch.
Using supercomputers, the 82 Blue Brain Project engineers and scientists — from institutions in Israel, Spain, Hungary, US, China, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK — simulated electrical behavior of virtual brain tissue and found that while some of the behavior observed in previous brain experiments was a match, other simulations revealed novel insights into the functioning of the neocortex.
“With the Blue Brain Project, we are creating a digital reconstruction of the brain and using supercomputer simulations of its electrical behavior to reveal a variety of brain states. This allows us to examine brain phenomena within a purely digital environment and conduct experiments previously only possible using biological tissue,” said Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Prof. Idan Segev, a senior author of the research paper, recently published in the journal Cell.
Latin Americans turn to Israel for water rehabilitation
Israel’s agricultural technologies continue to attract new interest from around the world. Most recently, 24 experts from 10 Latin America countries took part in a water resources management course run by the CINADCO-Center for International Agricultural Development Cooperation and MASHAV.
The international group visited the Kishon River Authority to hear about the rehabilitation and cleanup project that is transforming the polluted waterway into a thriving nature reserve.
Kishon River authorities say the group was so impressed that interest in future collaboration in water resources management and agricultural development were raised for discussion.
The goal of the CINADCO-MASHAV program is to share Israel’s development experience and help train professionals from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
Making the desert bloom (with fish)
Israeli company GFA says it offers a solution to the geographical and environmental constraints of fish farms: They created a way to run fish farms anywhere, even in extreme conditions like the desert, with minimal damage to the environment.
Special biological filters
Based on the work of Israeli scientist Dr. Yossi Tal and Hebrew University professor Jaap van Rijn – inventor of the system – GFA has developed an on-land environment where fish can be raised, without having to exchange water or treat it chemically.
“We call this a zero-discharge system,” GFA Advanced Systems CEO Dotan Bar-Noy has said. “We use biological filters and specially developed bacteria to treat the water the fish are growing in, without wasting anything. The system can be set up to raise salt-water fish anywhere in the world – even in the desert, thousands of miles from the ocean,” he said.
Prior to the GFA solution, purification systems were based on electrical treatment systems, which are expensive to install and run, and not all that effective, says Bar-Noy. “Even when they work, the electrical purification systems are too expensive, and fish produced with those systems will cost far more than fish from the sea.”
Obama to address Rabin memorial rally in recorded message
Two US presidents will on Saturday pay tribute to slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, as Israel marks the 20th anniversary of his assassination in the Tel Aviv square where the memorial rally is being held.
President Barack Obama will address the thousands of people gathered at the event in a speech to be played on large screens.
Former president Bill Clinton, who has repeatedly paid tribute to Rabin over the years since his murder, arrived in Israel earlier this week and will speak in person at the memorial.
Major Tel Aviv streets will be closed off to traffic, including Ibn Gvirol, Ben Gurion, Frishman and Malchei Israel.
Clinton on Friday met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.
Israeli top guns taught Soviets a lesson over Egypt
The buildup of Russian warplanes in Syria has raised concerns about a possible clash with Israeli aircraft, which periodically fly over that country. If an Israeli-Russian air confrontation were to occur, it wouldn’t be for the first time.
In 1970, during the so-called War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt, Cairo appealed to Moscow to halt Israeli air attacks on its hinterland. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) had begun attacking infrastructure deep in Egypt in an attempt to force Cairo to halt shelling of Israeli troops along the Suez Canal. Responding to their client state’s request, the Soviets deployed scores of its warplanes and pilots at three Egyptian airfields.
Preferring not to tangle with a superpower, Israel initially halted its deep raids. But when Soviet planes began flying into the front-line Suez Canal zone, Israel decided to engage them directly.
The IAF command chose to lure the Soviets into combat in an aerial ambush. Israel’s best pilots were chosen for the mission. With years of combat against Arab air forces under their belts, the IAF pilots were among the most experienced in the world; between them, the 14 pilots chosen for the mission had 59 “kills.” Nevertheless, going up against the pilots of a superpower was a challenge they did not take lightly.
On July 30, 1970, the IAF dispersed some of the planes around the sky in small formations that, on enemy radar screens, appeared to be on routine reconnaissance or ground attack missions. Some were deep in Sinai, out of radar range. The bait was an attack on an Egyptian radar station by two Phantom jets.
A Conversation with George Deek, Israel’s Best Diplomat
Yesterday in Washington, D.C., I conducted an interview with George Deek, the Israeli diplomat who was profiled in Tablet in July by Israeli journalist Adi Schwartz. In the article, Schwartz discusses the talk Deek gave last year in Oslo shortly after the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge, Israeli’s summer campaign against Hamas. The video quickly became an Internet sensation. But I believe Deek’s performance yesterday at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank where I’m a senior fellow, was perhaps even more impressive.
I strongly encourage readers to watch the recording of the event, which is nearly one hour and thirty minutes of unadulterated Deek. It’s a real tour de force from a top diplomat and lawyer, who is also a great storyteller and one of the most original thinkers I’ve ever had the pleasure to speak with.
The nominal subject of the event was the latest wave of Arab violence in Israel, a topic that Deek, an Arab Christian raised in Jaffa, is uniquely positioned to discuss. The talk covered a wide range of topics—from the state of the Arab-Israeli conflict to the state of the larger region, including the ongoing war in Syria. Deek also spoke about his family, especially his grandfather who after fleeing to Lebanon with the outbreak of the 1948 war decided to come back to Israel—a decision that, as Deek described it, is a foundational moment for his family. Perhaps more importantly, it might be taken as inspiration not just for Arab Israelis and Palestinians, but for everyone throughout the Middle East who need to be able to imagine a different way of being in the world, especially now with much of the region in turmoil. (h/t Elder of Lobby)




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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/31/2015 07:15:00 PM

Friday, October 30, 2015

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Academic Freedom Opposed by "Who"?
It is that time of year again. News arrives of 343 "university teachers" who signed a letter pledging that henceforth they will not cooperate with Israeli academic institutions. Their joint letter took up a full page today in Britain's left-wing Guardian newspaper (where else?) and has caused almost no stir in Britain. It comes days after a letter signed by 150 leading British writers, musicians and others -- including JK Rowling, Simon Schama and Hilary Mantel -- opposed any and all such boycotts against Israel, and pointed out that in the eyes of most people, intellectual and cultural exchange is a good thing.
The anti-boycott letter was signed by some of Britain's leading intellectuals. The main response to the pro-boycott letter, however, may well be, "Who?" Who knew, for instance, that Israel -- or any state -- would be diminished if it could not gain from the wisdom of Professor Alex Callinicos, one of Britain's most obscure Marxist academics? He is the author of numerous interminable tracts; his efforts to bring his thoughts into mainstream politics reached their summit during his involvement with the Socialist Worker's Party, an entity too extreme even for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party. As almost nobody in Britain wants Prof. Callinicos's thoughts, why would anybody in Israel be begging for them?
Or consider another figure on the letter, one Professor Jane Hardy who teaches at the University of Hertfordshire. It would come as a great surprise to most people in Britain -- and possibly to many people in Hertfordshire -- that such an institution exists. But a quick internet search reveals that it does, and that until 1992 it was known as "Hatfield Polytechnic." So what are the students in Israel unilaterally going to lose the right to know, thanks to the stance taken by Professor Hardy? Well, her own profile page says, "My research and publications on regional development, and the gender and class impacts of change have been underpinned by a concern with the lives of ordinary people and how they have contested neoliberalism." One tries to be polite, of course, but it is worth pointing out that this kind of "study" has never been helpful in finding a place in the job-market for British students (apart, possibly, in furthering their studies in low-grade academia). Why the withdrawal of Prof. Hardy's research on regional development, gender and class in a Hertfordshire context should be such a loss to students in Israel, one is at a loss to guess.
Those well educated and despicable anti-Semites
The Guardian, the leading British leftist newspaper, just published an appeal to sever any ties with Israeli universities. The appeal has been signed by 350 professors working in UK academia.
These BDS supporters are the grandchildren of those Max Weinreich called “Hitler’s Professors”.
If Italy’s Fascism had writers and philosophers such as Gabriel D’Annunzio, Luigi Pirandello, Giovanni Gentile and Tommaso Marinetti, Hitler’s Nazism had an even greater list of talents: Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt, Gottfried Benn, Ernst Jünger, Mircea Eliade, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Ernst von Karajan, Knut Hamsun, Emile Cioran and Louis Ferdinand Celine.
The best of European culture embraced Nazism just as today it is embracing new anti-Semitism. The cowardice of the intellectuals, academics and men of letters on the “Jewish question” is repeated today on the issue of Israel.
Henry Rousso called it “Le Syndrome de Vichy”. The reference is to France under Nazi occupation, when the cream of Paris’ writers continued their work, pleasing the Germans, getting favors, condemning the Jews to death by their indifference and hypocrisy.
Israel Is Beyond Logic
There’s only one place in the world where history, archaeology, empirical science, psychology and journalistic integrity don’t apply: Israel.
Consider that we live in a world that recognizes the claim of Palestinian Arabs to what they consider their homeland (which can be backed and documented for at best several hundred years — for the small percentage of those Arabs that didn’t arrive throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as transient Bedouins or marauding tribes), while ignoring the Jewish people’s documented connection to Israel that’s almost four millennia old. If the Torah were taken by the world merely as a historical document, and history supposedly mattered to the world, then the Jews of Israel should be considered the oldest landowners alive. But history doesn’t matter in Israel.
Consider that the world recognizes the antiquity of Haram al-Sharif — the al-Aqsa Mosque (Temple Mount) — as the third-holiest site for Muslims and its centrality to Palestinian nationalistic yearning. And yet, this same world readily overlooks the archaeological digs that unearthed pieces of pottery and scrolls that prove absolutely the ancient and continuous connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish People. With a world so passive to practical proof, the Palestinians (since Arafat and the mufti before him) have audaciously claimed that there’s no connection between the Jews and Yerushalayim, specifically the Temple Mount. As if the al-Aqsa mosque isn’t very clearly sitting atop the Western Wall that archaeologists have “scientifically proven” (through carbon dating) to belong to the ancient Israelite temple as originally mentioned — where else? — in the Torah. So the world believes in archaeology that dates back to the 7th century C.E. but not as far as the 9th century B.C.E.? Archaeology, it seems, is meaningless when the digs prove too Jewish. (h/t Cliff)



JPost Editorial: Reconsidering BDS
The classic argument in favor of boycotting Israel goes something like this: Israelis – even the secular, liberal variety – have fallen into apathy. Their economy is good, their military is strong and their geopolitical situation is stable. Israelis, as a result, see no reason not to continue managing the conflict with the Palestinians indefinitely.
Therefore, true lovers of Israel have no choice but to save Israelis from themselves by punishing them in various ways until they do the right thing and either make the concessions necessary for the creation of a Palestinian state or give up on Zionism and establish a binational state that provides Palestinians with full democratic rights.
There are, however, a number of major flaws in this bizarre argument.
Boycotters seem to think they know better than Israelis or their democratically elected government. There is condescension and lack of trust in Israelis’ moral judgment here.
But there is also no small amount of chutzpah. If the boycotters are successful, men, women and children will be forced to take the risks and pay the consequences for the policies advocated by the boycott lobby.
Michael Lumish: Eyeing Temple Mount Terrorists
In any case, according to the Jerusalem Post:
PA officials have over the past few days dismissed the idea, arguing that Israel would use the cameras to arrest Palestinians “under the pretext of incitement.”
PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said earlier this week that the Israeli-Jordanian agreement to install the cameras, which was reached under the auspices of US Secretary of State John Kerry, was a “trap.”

A pretext and a trap, eh?
The implication is that incitement to genocide against Jews is merely a pretext for locking up Arabs. This can only mean that there is nothing morally wrong, not to mention illegal, about spreading such incitement. As for the cunning trap, my recommendation to Muslims who go upon the Mount is to play nice with others and then you will not have to fall into this insidious "trap."
Adnan Abu Odeh, a high-level Jordanian politician said, "The cameras will document anyone who caries out an assault or Jews who want to pray there.”
Fascinating.
The obvious implication is that there is a moral equivalency between a thug endeavoring to assault an innocent person... and Jews praying. The ethical blindness and hypocrisy of those like John Kerry, Barack Obama, Ban Ki-moon, and all those European leaders for whom this stance seems fair, is profound.
NYTs: An Arab, Muslim, and Israeli Officer at the Center of a Storm
There was a time when news reporters listened to the crackle of scanners, eavesdropping on police radio transmissions in search of the next story. Now, many of them simply sign up with one of Superintendent Luba Samri’s WhatsApp groups.
On a recent night, as police choppers thumped overhead and security forces moved in to demolish or seal up the homes of suspects, a sleepless Ms. Samri sent an explanation of the events to her restless pack of reporters at 4 a.m.
For Ms. Samri, a 44-year-old Israeli officer and spokeswoman, police work has been a calling since she joined the force nearly 20 years ago. What makes her devotion all the more unusual is that she is an Arab Muslim citizen of Israel, putting her squarely in the storm of competing loyalties and emotions stirred up by the violence that she has been broadcasting about.
Over the past month, Palestinian assailants using knives, guns and their vehicles as weapons have attacked Israelis, often several times a day, and many of the suspects have been fatally shot by police officers, soldiers or civilians at the scene, generating a furor that has engulfed both sides.
Ms. Samri, whose steady stream of WhatsApp updates starts early in the morning and continues into the wee hours, says she has no inner conflicts about her role amid the surge in violence.
“Democracy is law,” she said. “I believe in the law, not because I want to be more Jewish than the Jews. I am a proud Arab with Palestinian roots, and I am the proudest Israeli.”
‘I came to defend Israel,’ says immigrant cop who shot attackers
A young French immigrant serving in the Border Police was praised by commanders and local leaders on Friday after shooting two Palestinian assailants as they tried to stab her and a second policeman in the West Bank.
The head of Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, who arrived at the scene and spoke with the corporal, said that the officer had told him: “This is why I came to Israel. To defend the nation.”
The two men attempted to stab Cpl. A and her partner as they inspected vehicles at the Tapuah Junction. According to a police statement, the attackers arrived at the intersection on a motorcycle, dismounted and advanced towards the officers with knives in hand.
Dagan called Cpl. A “a hero” for preventing “a big disaster.”
“I realized that if I hesitated for a second the policeman beside me would no longer be alive,” Cpl. A told the press afterwards. “I didn’t think twice. I cocked my weapon and shot them.”
ADL slams British MP for accusing Israel of fabricating terror attacks
The ADL called on Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labor Party who recently committed to combating anti-Semitism, to take action in the wake of Kaufman’s remarks.
“Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn should condemn Gerald Kaufman’s rhetoric and take disciplinary action,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Corbyn pledged a month ago to stand up against anti-Semitism. Now is his chance."
Kaufman is the longest-serving lawmaker in the House of Commons. In 2011, he apologized for remarking: “Here we are, the Jews again” during a debate about Israel with another Jewish lawmaker who disagreed with his attitude to Israel.
Simon Johnson, the chief executive of Britain’s Jewish Leadership council, said the comments attributed to Kaufman on Tuesday “refer to all the old-fashioned anti-Semitic tropes.” Kaufman, he added, “owes the Jewish community a significant apology.”
A recent ADL poll found that 12 percent of those surveyed in the UK harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, compared to 24 percent in Western Europe.
British Media Slammed for Failing to Report on Parliament Member’s ‘Jewish Money’ Remarks
The political correspondent for the UK Jewish Chronicle noted the lack of British media coverage of the antisemitic diatribe elaborated by longtime Manchester Gorton Member of Parliament Sir Gerard Kaufman.
Marcus Dysch wrote on Twitter, “apparently no coverage of an MP’s antisemitic comments outside the Jewish media.”
The comments were published by blogger David Collier, who said he was sickened by both Kaufman’s statements, as well as the antisemitism of supporters who followed Kaufman at the meeting.
One British media outlet that covered the story was The Spectator, which accused the seasoned MP of drawing on “every last trope in the book: a Jewish-controlled media; a wealthy cabal of Jews buying off the political establishment; blood-thirsty Jews jumping at every opportunity to murder the innocent. Some felt that all that was missing was a reference to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
The Spectator called on the newly minted Labor chief Jeremy Corbyn, whose own associations with known antisemites as well as Hamas and Hezbollah have raised a few eyebrows, to condemn Kaufman’s comments and demand his immediate resignation.
Abbas: I don’t seek full ‘right of return’ and I won’t cancel Oslo
Mahmoud Abbas assured Dutch Jews that he neither intends to abandon the Oslo Accords nor insist on the absorption of millions of Palestinians into Israel.
“We never said we were going to cancel the Oslo Accords,” Abbas said Friday during a meeting near The Hague with members of the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, Dutch Jewry’s main pro-Israel advocacy organ and watchdog on anti-Semitism.
“We are not going to cancel, we will not cancel anything,” he added, as long as “Israel respects its obligations.”
On September 30, at UN headquarters in New York, Abbas said: “We cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel” because “the status quo cannot continue.”
At the meeting, Abbas also said he and the Palestinian Authority “never asked anyone to boycott Israel,” only products produced in the settlements. Asked about what Ramallah calls the “right of return” of several million Palestinians to what is today Israel proper, he said: “I am not asking for a right of return for six million Palestinians; I want a solution for them.” (h/t Think of England)
Poll: Most Israelis miss Rabin but don't believe in Oslo process
An Israel Hayom poll on Rabin and his legacy also found that the majority of Jewish Israelis classified themselves as either right-wing or right-leaning. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they were right-wing and 24% said they were right-leaning. A further 26% characterized themselves as being in the center, while 11% were left-leaning and 7% were left-wing. An additional 4% declined to characterize themselves.
But despite their right-wing views, most Israelis still honored Rabin's legacy and respected his efforts to strike peace with the Palestinians. Seventy-six percent agreed that Rabin was a respectable leader and 55%, crossing political lines, said they missed him.
But when it came to the Oslo Accords, only a third thought that the process had been justified, while 42% felt that the accords were unwarranted. A relatively large number of respondents, 25%, did not have an opinion on the matter.
Asked whether they supported the Oslo Accords at the time they were reached, 33% said yes and 38% said no.
Knesset votes to make Arabic compulsory in schools
Israeli lawmakers voted Wednesday to make Arabic classes compulsory for students from the age of six, in a move backers hoped would help improve ties between Israeli Jews and Arabs.
The vote came amid increasing tensions, with a month-long wave of deadly attacks on Israelis and violent clashes at protests in Judea-Samaria.
The Knesset voted unanimously in favor of the bill in its first reading Wednesday, with about half of the 120 total MKs in attendance. It will now be studied in committee before returning to parliament for a second and third reading.
Both Arabic and Hebrew are official languages of Israel, but while the majority of Arabs citizens of Israel speak at least some level of Hebrew, Arabic is not spoken among the majority of the Jewish population.
The bill was introduced by MK Oren Hazan (Likud), who said it was meant to reach out to Arab Israelis.
New Zealand circulates UN draft resolution for new peace effort
A proposed UN resolution aimed at setting the stage for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is almost certain to raise objections from both sides with its calls for a halt to Israeli settlement construction and Palestinian action at the International Criminal Court.
The draft resolution, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, notes “with alarm the escalating cycle of violence” between Israel and the Palestinians. It declares that a two-state solution, achieved through direct negotiations, is the only path to peace.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully, whose country is serving a two-year term on the Security Council, told a council meeting last week that recent events “cry out for action.”
'As long as I'm president, Honduras will stand behind Israel'
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández declared Wednesday while on a visit to Jerusalem that relations between his Central American country and Israel have never been closer. “As long as I am president, Honduras will stand behind Israel,” Hernández said in a speech before the Israel Council on Foreign Relations (ICFR) and the World Jewish Congress under whose auspices it operates, at the King David Hotel.
Hernández met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day to discuss ways in which the two countries could assist each other. The Honduran president told guests of the ICFR that “after this visit, relations, which have been solid for 65 years, would be even stronger.”
The Honduran leader, who studied in Israel in 1992 in a Mashav program (an Israeli development and cooperation program) was accompanied on his visit this week by a high-level delegation that included Secretary of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Arturo Corrales Álvarez, Secretary of Infrastructure and Public Services Robert Antonio Ordoñez, Secretary of Agricultural Affairs Jacobo Paz Bodden and Secretary of National Defense Samuel Reyes. Hernández explained that the delegation was especially interested in learning from Israel’s experience in the realms of security and irrigation.
Honduras signs development cooperation deal with Israel
President Hernandez thanked President Rivlin for his warm welcome, and reaffirmed his country's support for Israel.
"It is an honor for me and my wife, and all the delegation to visit Israel. We bring a message from the people of Honduras to the people of Israel; we have supported you and will continue to support you, and your choices, as a state and as a people."
He stressed that Israel's wealth of experience in the field of water conservation and agriculture was of great importance, and his hopes for his own country to gain such expertise from the Jewish state.
"Our country, in Central America, in the past years has been especially impacted by climate change. We are here in order to benefit from your experience, and we hope to receive your support on this issue.
"The issue of water management in agriculture is among our highest priorities for our increasing cooperation, and I call on both the public and private sectors to invest in the agricultural areas across Honduras. We have the water, and we hope to learn from you how to manage it for effective irrigation."
Effort to 'sanitize'? Equipment missing at Iranian military site during nuke inspection
Key equipment at a sensitive Iranian military site turned out to be gone when international nuclear inspectors visited, Fox News is told, suggesting Tehran tried to “sanitize” the facility to further obfuscate how far its program had progressed, leading up to the nuclear deal.
It was only last month that the Iranians granted access to its secret military site known as Parchin.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, had previously confirmed that Parchin contained a so-called "containment vessel" -- a special chamber -- for testing nuclear equipment including triggers to detonate a warhead.
Yet Fox News is told that when the IAEA toured the site for its upcoming report on Iran’s past and present program, the containment facility and equipment were gone, making it that much harder to test for radioactive residue. The source was not authorized to speak on the record.
Iran to send ‘fleet of warships’ to the Atlantic Ocean
Iran intends to dispatch “a fleet of warships” to the Atlantic Ocean shortly, the semi-state Fars news agency reported Thursday, quoting the regime’s navy chief.
“Our warships will soon berth at ports in the Atlantic Ocean,” Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari promised at a ceremony on Wednesday marking the return to port of Iranian warships that Fars said had taken part in joint drills with the Russian navy.
Sayyari said the Iranian vessels had been in the Caspian Sea and at the Russian port of Astrakhan. “The presence of Iranian warships in international ports shows the Iranian Navy’s prowess,” Fars quoted him saying.
Sayyari made a similar pledge to deploy warships in the Atlantic in early 2014. At the time, Iran promised to send its fleet close to American maritime borders as a counter to the US navy’s presence in the Gulf. But in April, the navy chief said the move had been canceled “due to a change in schedule.”
Kuwait loses Olympic qualifying event for denying visa to Israeli official
The IOC revoked the Olympic qualifying status of a shooting championship in Kuwait on Thursday after an Israeli official was denied a visa to enter the Gulf country for the event.
The IOC executive board stripped the Asian Shooting Championship of its Olympic status on the request of the International Sports Shooting Federation. The event is scheduled from November 1-12.
The IOC said the federation’s technical delegate, Yair Davidovich of Israel, was scheduled to supervise the event on behalf of the ISSF but was denied a visa by the Kuwaiti immigration department.
“The denial of a visa is against the non-discrimination principle of the Olympic Charter,” the IOC said. “The Olympic Charter must apply for all Olympic Qualification competitions.”
Abu Dhabi didn't want the Israelis to play...
The 2015 Judo Grand Slam, to be held in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) October 30 through November 1, has agreed to accept the team from Israel—which includes 2013 gold medallist at the World Judo Championships in Rio de Janeiro Yarden Gerbi—but, for some reason, out of 94 participating countries, only the Israeli white and blue flag will not be raised above the proceedings. Also — instead of competing under the letters ISR, the Israeli team will go with IJF, as in International Judo Federation.
In fact, Abu Dhabi refused to allow the Israeli team to enter the country, and it took the very vigorous intervention of IJF president Marius Weiser to get the local authorities to accept the Zionist entity in their midst.
Despite its impressive international status, the 8-member Israeli team will compete as a stateless delegation. In fact, Israel will be competing as a non-state while the representatives from Palestine, who competes as the Palestinian Judo Federation Palestine (PLE), will see their flag flying over the matches.
Roger Waters Condemns Life-Saving Surgery for Palestinian President’s Relative Because… Israel (satire)
While knife-wielding Palestinian terrorists continue to imitate the less sexy parts of Game of Thrones with Israelis instead of the Starks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ wife’s brother recently went under the knife for life-saving heart surgery at a private hospital in Tel Aviv. The only person more upset about this than the Grim Reaper is former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters.
Despite the vicious attacks and random violence, Israel approved the entry of Mrs. Abbas’ brother-in-law to receive treatment in the country. And despite the price tag attacks and the burning of Palestinian olive farms at the hands of crazy asshat Jewish settlers, Palestinian leadership let him go.
Waters, a virtual pied piper for rock stars and musicians who want to boycott Israel, was reported as having written numerous letters to President Abbas encouraging him to have the family member’s surgery be performed in Gaza. His letters apparently went unanswered.
“With all the hard work I have put into demonizing Israel- and I’m not getting any younger here- this ungrateful little shit goes and does something hypocritical like this?”
Norwegian doctor Confirmed: Mad Mads Gilbert to speak in Berkeley
Extremist Mads Gilbert is coming to Berkeley, sponsored by the usual suspects, including Jewish Voice for Peace-Bay Area, Middle East Childrens Alliance, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, NorCal Friends of Sabeel, American Muslims for Palestine, the American Friends Service Committee and Bay Area Women in Black and Students for Justice in Palestine (UC Berkeley). Mads Gilbert is a political activist and member of the fringe Norwegian Maoist ‘Red’ party. He rose to notoriety in the days following the attack on the World Trade center, when he justified the attack that left nearly 3,000 innocents dead.
In an interview for the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet Gilbert said "The oppressed also have a moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with." When asked directly "Do you support a terror attack against the USA?," Gilbert replied, "Terror is a bad weapon but the answer is yes within the context which I have mentioned."
He’ll be speaking at the South Berkeley Senior Center Thursday night, Nov. 12 at 7pm.
Iberia Airlines Pilot Suspended for Announcing: ‘We Will be Landing Soon in Palestine’
Iberia Airlines Flight 3316 from Madrid was approaching Ben-Gurion International Airport on Wednesday afternoon when passengers were shocked to hear the captain says in Spanish, “Dear passengers, we will be landing soon in Palestine.”
In his subsequent announcement in English, the captain changed the word “Palestine” to “Tel Aviv,” but he did not use the word “Israel” in either announcement.
Iberia Airlines acknowledged the incident and issued an apology. A spokesperson for the airline said an internal investigation had been launched into the incident and that the captain has been suspended from the airline’s Tel Aviv route until the investigation is complete.
The flag carrier of Spain, Iberia Airlines has operated regular flights on the Madrid-Tel Aviv route since 1983. Flying on Iberia Airlines with a stopover in Madrid is popular way to travel between Israel and North and South America.
'Hitler Was Right' Posters Popping Up At UK University Campus
A number of anti-Semitic posters have been plastered across the campus of Birmingham University, including one depicting Adolf Hitler emblazoned with the slogan “Hitler was Right”. The West Midlands Police are investigating
The posters were discovered by Students’ Guild Education Officer Izzy Lenga, who posted a photo to Twitter. She commented: “For those who don’t think antisemitism is a serious issue, these were plastered over campus on Tues”.
The poster, and others like it, have since been removed from campus by the police who are investigating the matter as a hate crime. They will be forensically investigating the posters, as well as examining CCTV footage and talking to students and staff in an attempt to track down the perpetrators.
The posters are part of a wider trend of increasing anti-Semitism which seems to be taking hold across the country. In Stamford Hill, London, police are investigating after graffiti saying “death to da jew” was found scrawled across a window ledge.
A spokesman from the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is a worrying and disturbing thing to see at a British university at a time when the number of recorded antisemitic incidents is rising, and when Jewish people are actively being targeted and killed in Europe and beyond.
Irish Court Hands Holocaust Denier Prison Term for Public Disturbance With an Ax
A man who claimed on YouTube that the Holocaust was a hoax was sentenced to five months in prison by an Irish court for displaying that view in the middle of Ennis, a town in Ireland.
The defendant, a former taxicab driver, was arrested smashing an ax through his television set at the Daniel O’Connell monument in the center of town, the Irish Times reported on Wednesday.
Irish police said the man was snapping photos of what he called a “conceptual art piece” in the middle of downtown and uploading them immediately to his social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook. Police rushed to arrest him as they watched him smash the TV on closed circuit television monitoring the area.
The man said he put on the “performance art show,” which he called “Liberation of the Mind,” to launch “International Holocaust Hoax Day.”
Kissinger on Liberating Ahlem Concentration Camp
Scores of articles and books published over the past half-century have sought to understand Henry Kissinger’s role as National Security Adviser, Secretary of State, and confidante of American presidents, to say nothing of his position as the conflicted American Jew. Niall Ferguson’s Kissinger, Vol. 1, 1923-1968: The Idealist is the first to devote several pages to a hitherto-unexplored aspect of Kissinger’s wartime military service: His liberation of a Concentration Camp. As Ferguson explains: “On April 10 [1945], just days before the roundup of the Gestapo sleeper cell, Kissinger stared the Holocaust in the face when he and other members of the 84th Division stumbled upon the concentration camp at Ahlem. For many years, this was an event Kissinger did not talk about. Indeed, his presence only came to light because one of his fellow GIs, a radio operator named Vernon Tott, decided to publish the photographs he had taken on that day. Seeing Ahlem, Kissinger later acknowledged, was ‘one of the most horrifying experiences of my life.’”
Kissinger wrote a two-page letter describing his emotions at encountering the thirty-five malnourished prisoners who survived out of the original 850 Jews who had been sent to Ahlem. These very raw emotions that the young Kissinger expressed in the weeks after the liberation remained hidden among his papers, which he donated to the Library of Congress in 1977, until Ferguson published them in his new volume. Under the title “The Eternal Jew,” Kissinger wrote the following stark and horrifying description of what he saw:
Immigrants from Cyprus resist transfer
In this newsreel from 1946 Haifa, nearly 4,000 Jewish refugees arrive in Haifa on the Knesset Israel, only to be stopped by British troops.
“When she docked, violent resistance broke out against troops ordered to transfer the Jewish refugees to a ship, presumably bound for Cyprus,” the narrator announces.
“Fire hoses and tear gas were used in a battle lasting half an hour,” he continues, “during which a number of the refugees jumped overboard, apparently intending to swim ashore.”
In the end, despite the refugees’ fierce resistance, the transfer was completed. The violent battle left casualties on both sides.

Israel boldly goes into prestigious UN space body
Israel was accepted Thursday as a full member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).
A vast majority of the committee’s members voted in favor of accepting Israel to COPUOS, the Maariv website reported, with only Namibia voting against the move, and Qatar abstaining.
COPUOS is part of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), whose job is to promote international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.
That includes efforts to clean up space debris (the thousands of now-defunct satellites that orbit the earth, getting in the way of new satellites), establishing legal codes for space exploration (claims of planets by specific countries, etc.), and developing applications based on space technology to solve earthly problems like food shortages and desertification.
Israel Defense Industries Unveil Prototypes for 2 New Armored Vehicles
Israeli defense manufacturers unveiled a prototype for a new armored personnel carrier, named Eitan, which will accompany and weigh just half as much as Namer APCs.
According to global weekly Defense News, which reported the unveiling, the Eitan is meant to replace Israeli infantry’s older M113s, one of which was destroyed by Hamas fighters during the 2014 Gaza war in an attack that killed all seven soldiers manning the vehicle.
“Sources here said it will weigh no more than 35 tons and will incorporate a new generation of active protection, an advanced turret and a full complement of munitions and sensors,” Defense News reported.
Commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Ground Forces Command, Maj. Gen. Guy Zur, said the new tank “may be less good [than the Namer], but it will be affordable and allow us to equip a large part of our force.”
The Israeli Defense Ministry’s MAFAT Research and Development Bureau is also working on a research-and-development project called Carmel for a treaded, medium-weight combat vehicle, according to the report. At about 32 tons, the Carmel weighs in at about half of the IDF’s Merkava Mk4 tank.
Israeli cleantech firms get top China tech honor
Thirteen Israeli cleantech firms are being hosted this week at a special roadshow event in China, where they are meeting top investors, government officials, and business leaders in a first-ever high profile visit as members of the “country of honor” at the Pujiang Innovation Forum. Now in its seventh year, the Forum, jointly organized by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Municipal Government of Shanghai is considered one of China’s most influential high-level international forums focused on innovation.
Prior countries of honor have included Germany, Finland, and Russia, and in China, being chosen for this event is a sign that a country has “arrived” as a tech power, said Avi Luvton, Executive Director, Asia Pacific, at MATIMOP, the executive branch of the Economy Ministry’s Office of the Chief Scientist. “A company participating in the roadshow achieves in one week what it would achieve independently over a long period of intensive work. The China desk at MATIMOP invested months of work in building an intensive, high-quality schedule with meetings tailored for each and every one of the companies selected to make up this unique delegation.”
The roadshow brings the participating companies in contact with hundreds of potential partners, venture capital firms, private investors, research institutes, industrial parks and others. In the past, say Forum officials, many business and research deals have emerged from participation in the Forum, and the same is expected this year.
Sweet dreams: El Al, in its biggest deal, buys 9 Boeing Dreamliners
Israeli national carrier El Al on Thursday signed a $1.25 billion deal to purchase nine Boeing 787 Dreamliners for its long-haul fleet, the largest purchase ever made by the company since its establishment in 1948.
El Al will also lease six additional 787 jets from independent companies, with the aim of increasing capacity and route flexibility.
Boeing describes the 787-8 and 787-9 variants in the deal as "technologically advanced, super-efficient airplanes with new passenger-pleasing features."
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner arrived in Israel to take part in the signing ceremony with El Al CEO David Maimon.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz also participated, and announced that his ministry's plan to convert the military airfield in Ramat David, near Haifa, into a civilian airfield is now underway. He noted that construction of Ramon International Airport in Timna Valley in southern Israel is also progressing.
Helen Mirren on Israel boycott: ‘It’s the craziest idea’
British actress Helen Mirren spoke out against the cultural boycott of Israel on Wednesday upon being honored at the 29th Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, California.
Talking to press before the ceremony, the Academy Award winner described the campaign to boycott Israeli through cutting off cultural ties as “a really bad idea.”
“The people who are the most inspiring in Israel tend to be from the cultural community. The writers, the directors, the poets, the musicians, they are truly extraordinary people doing amazing work, peace giving work, working towards peace all the time,” she said. “To cut them off is the craziest idea, I don’t agree with it at all.”
Mirren said she agreed with prominent British figures who signed an open letter, published in The Guardian last week, that endorsed cultural engagement with Israel rather than a cultural boycott, as a way to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mirren received the Career Achievement Award at the annual festival Wednesday and used the occasion to revel her “relationship with that beautiful country Israel.”
Opening her acceptance speech with memories of her first visit to Israel in 1967, “just 6 months after the Six Day War,” the British actress told of how she worked on Kibbutz Ha’on with her Jewish boyfriend.
“After we worked there on the kibbutz we hitchhiked around Israel and I actually slept on the beach in Eilat, so that was my first experience of Israel and I was very taken by the country and especially by the people at that time,” she recalled.
She described the trip as “absolutely a part of the building blocks that have made me the actress I am and doing the kind of work that I do.”
“I love Israel, I think it is a great, great country,” she finished emotionally. “I think that through all the difficulties, and all the pain that Israel has suffered in the past and will in the future, the great thing that Israel has is Israelis, and they will guide it through.” (h/t Yenta Press)
Helen Mirren: Israel has an "important place in my heart"


Diane Lane & Helen Mirren -29TH ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.



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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 05:00:00 PM


Posted on Twitter this morning:






This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 04:00:00 PM
An UNRWA teacher on Facebook shares her favorite baby picture:






This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 02:00:00 PM
From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Rabin's true legacy
Abbas’s actions at the UN this week, where he called for the world to protect the Palestinians from Israel while back at home he simultaneously continued his calls for Palestinians to take up knives and take to the wheel of their cars to murder Israelis, cannot come as a surprise.
They are of a piece with the PLO’s previous diplomatic machinations from 2000 to 2003 in the wake of its terrorist war against Israel.
Those machinations led the US to form the so-called Quartet with the UN, Russia and the EU and embrace the road map for peace, the most anti-Israel diplomatic document to have ever seen the light of day, in 2003.
Today Abbas uses terrorism at home to convince the UN to dictate the terms of Israeli surrender in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem to the PLO.
Abbas and Arafat succeeded 12 years ago and may succeed today for a number of reasons beyond Israel’s control, but also for one reason that Israel does control.
Abbas is able to succeed at the UN in part because Israel refuses to acknowledge that there never was a peace process. Arafat lied to us, and to the world, about his intentions, and we lied to ourselves about the nature of the Palestinian war against us. So long as we continue to play along with this tired charade, we will be unable to conceive and implement a diplomatic defense that is coherent and effective against the mountains of lies and murder on which the PLO has based its war against Israel for the past 55 years.
Israel contributes to the PLO’s diplomatic success at the UN because it refuses to do what Rabin recognized was necessary 20 years ago.
Rather than learn from his record, Israel has spent the past 20 years distorting his record.
The time has come to do justice to Rabin and end the Oslo process once and for all.
Vic Rosenthal: If you live in the Middle East, act like it
Yesterday, international talks on the ‘crisis’ (funny word, since it’s been going on for several years) in Syria were scheduled to start in Vienna.
Participating will be at least Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. CNN reports that “18 nations, plus the European Union, were invited to the meeting.”
I don’t need to tell you which particular nation, which just happens to border on Syria, which has been hit recently by ordinance fired from Syria, and which has a great stake in the outcome of events there, was not invited.
In the case of the Syria talks, Israel should demand, loudly, to be included. If the US or anyone would prefer not, then they should be forced to publicly explain just why they are taking this racist (because that is what it is) position.
The editors of Ha’aretz and the tiny elite that they serve don’t think Israel ought to be a Middle Eastern country. They would pick it up and fly it to Canada if they could. But it is, and it should act like one.
Shabbat shalom to everyone!
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Blasts UNRWA, Praises UN Watch for Exposing Antisemitic Incitement


Knesset Education Committee slams incitement in Palestinian schools
Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus presented his organization’s report on Palestinian Authority education, which assessed the prominent educational messages that could impact peace with Israel.
The report documents that in formal and informal educational frameworks, killers of Israelis are portrayed as heroes and role models, and that children are taught that Israel will eventually be replaced by “Palestine.”
At least 25 Palestinian Authority schools are named after terrorists; three are named after Dalal Mughrabi, who led the most lethal terrorist attack in Israeli history in 1978, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
Marcus showed the MKs a film from PA television, in which a student expressed pride “to attend the Dalal Mughrabi School, which bears this pioneering name,” and another student said her “life’s ambition is to reach the level that the martyr fighter Dalal Mughrabi reached.”
Another clip from televised news in the PA showed a boy saying he learned in school to “fight the Jews, kill them and defeat them,” and another told children that Jews are “Satan with a tail.”
The report also contains chapters on incitement in Palestinian textbooks, educational materials glorifying Hitler, and the PA policy of blocking joint peace-building activities between Palestinian and Israeli children.
Marcus explained that the messages Palestinian children are receiving are nationalist – that Israel is not legitimate on any borders and its existence since 1948 is an occupation – and anti-Semitic – that Jews are evil by nature, descendants of monkeys and pigs, and fated to be killed by Muslims.



Watch: 'Israel is allowing terror education in its capital'
An unusual discussion was held in the Knesset's Education Committee on Thursday, in which Palestinian Authority (PA) education system incitement to terror was analyzed.
Arutz Sheva spoke with activist David Bedein to learn more about why the event was so important.
Bedein noted that in the meeting, a researcher presented findings regarding the contents of the roughly 200 books published and used by the PA school system.
"The Arab members of the Knesset went a little bit crazy and started and started screaming and tried to disrupt him but that didn't matter, because he proved that the kids are learning jihad, the kids are learning suicide bombings, the kids are learning how to 'liberate all of Palestine.'"
He noted that a particularly telling revelation was made by representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the Education Ministry who were present.
Fighting PA Incitement


Melanie Phillips: Netanyahu’s mufti firestorm
These enemies react with fury to evidence of the grand mufti’s Nazi enthusiasm because this destroys the fiction that the Palestinian cause so dear to their hearts is noble. This cause is in fact the direct heir to a genocidal project.
We know that Nazi doctrine whipped millions of Germans into murderous frenzy. We also know Soviet propaganda turned truth and lies inside out and brainwashed millions.
Yasser Arafat learned from the Soviet Union how to rewrite history and capture the minds of the credulous. Mahmoud Abbas, whose doctoral thesis denied the Holocaust, hero-worships Husseini. Palestinian propaganda reproduces vile Nazi tropes of Jew-hatred.
Last century’s Islamist ideologues drew on both Communism and Nazism. The Palestinian cause likewise fuses Islamist and Nazi ambitions with Soviet psychological warfare. This explains not just the frenzied war against Israel, but why so many in the West are cheering it on.
That is the context of Netanyahu’s mufti firestorm.
The mufti's mysterious escape
During the recent uproar over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks on the WWII-era grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the media failed to underline the important fact that although the mufti had collaborated with the Nazis, he was never brought to trial. The story of his detention in France and his subsequent escape is little known to the public, but has significant repercussions.
In May 1945, with the German surrender, the mufti chose to turn himself in to the French occupying troops in Konstanz, believing France to be the most convenient asylum. The French authorities granted him numerous VIP privileges: a comfortable villa in the Paris region, free correspondence, telephone calls, and special food from restaurants. He was allowed to receive visitors and money and keep his two faithful secretaries, and afforded some degree of freedom of movement.
The French police guarding the villa were apparently more preoccupied with securing the mufti's safety than with preventing his escape. The French authorities were also preoccupied with the demands of Great Britain, Yugoslavia, the Jewish Agency and Jewish American organizations to extradite the mufti in order to bring him to trial as a war criminal. The French realized that rejecting this demand could harm their relations with their allies. On the other hand, they were under massive pressure by the Arab states and feared that allowing the extradition might undermine their prestige in the Arab and Muslim world. Hence the mufti's detention in France became a "hot potato" for the French authorities.
In May 1946, the mufti escaped by taking a TWA flight to Cairo using a fake passport. It took 12 days for the seemingly relieved French authorities to report his disappearance from the loosely guarded villa. The local police chief was held responsible and punished. In their internal reports, however, the French concluded with satisfaction that the mufti affair had been successfully handled and that it had boosted French prestige in the Arab world.
'Intifada'? More like The Empire Strikes Back
One month on since the current escalation in Arab terrorist attacks began, it seems clear that the latest "intifada" has been a spectacular failure.
Far from cowing Israelis into submission or even utterly annihilating every Jew - down to the last man, woman and child - as its advocates vow repeatedly to do, a stoically resilient Israel has thumbed its nose at the "knife intifada." Yes, it has hurt at times, and yes people are more wary, but a nation that withstood the horrific suicide bombings and mass-shootings of 2000-2005 are not about to be defeated by a few suicidal thugs wielding knives, axes and sharpened rulers, intoxicated by social media incitement and a misplaced sense of Arab-Islamic supremacy.
That Israeli resilience is pointedly (if somewhat crudely) summed-up in a recent satirical video mocking threats by ISIS to join the fray, featuring lyrics such as: "You don't get it? Here we aren't afraid of terrorist attacks. Ten of you dead for every one of us injured!"
Even the very Palestinian groups inciting this latest convulsion of terrorism - Hamas, Fatah and co - quite clearly do not buy their own bravado
Why Hamas Has Not Unleashed Violence From Gaza
Israel’s internal security services, the Shin Bet, said earlier this month that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is among the key drivers of the violence raging in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has called for an intifada, or uprising. Yet, he hasn’t unleashed Hamas’ huge arsenal of rockets or its trained fighting forces from the Gaza Strip, the territory he controls. Hamas has one foot in the uprising and one foot out.
Gaza has hardly been calm. Clashes along the border between Gaza and Israel have been happening daily, with breaches prompting the Israel Defense Forces to fire on the crowd. But, as Israeli journalist Amos Harel points out, Palestinian Islamic Jihad – the smaller Iran-backed militant group – was believed to be behind the border incidents, while Gaza’s Salafi groups that have been firing the rockets.
The absence of a concerted push for violence out of Gaza can be traced to a Qatar-led initiative to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza after last summer’s war. Doha is a strong financial and political patron of Hamas. The Qataris are no friends of Israel, but they currently share with the Jewish state a fear that the next war between Hamas and Israel could topple their proxy and leave a chaotic power vacuum that would be filled by Salafi groups and Islamic State wannabes in the Gaza Strip.
Though Hamas is surely tempted to join the unrest, it is restrained by the memory of last summer’s devastating conflict and the certain knowledge that a new war would only compound Gazans’ misery. And they also know how difficult it has been to negotiate reconstruction after last summer’s war.
The Egyptians have, since the rise of Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, destroyed more than 1,700 smuggling tunnels and recently flooded the border with seawater to destroy additional tunnels. This, coupled with Israel’s tight control over its own border and its blockade of Gaza from the sea, has made it impossible for Hamas to rebuild on its own.
To compensate, Qatar negotiated a quiet agreement with Israel to facilitate reconstruction in Gaza, selling it to both sides as a means to forestall the next conflict. Qatar is now operating multi-million dollar projects in Gaza. It even offered to fund an electricity generating facility based in Israel, no less.
JCPA: Stabbing at a West Bank Supermarket – A Blow to Coexistence?
The stabbing attack of a woman outside of the Rami Levy supermarket in the Etzion Bloc on October 28, 2015, will require a special investigation.
According to Western logic, including Israelis’, Palestinians have a vested interest in keeping their jobs in stores and factories near the Jewish settlements in the territories. Common wisdom generally believes that cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis must be a role model and encouraged, not a target for attack.
But some Palestinians – including the Palestinian Authority – see things differently. They fear that being involved in economic cooperation with Israelis will alienate the Palestinian people from “the struggle” and therefore must be prevented. This includes the Rami Levy stores.
It is important to recall that as soon as the Etzion Bloc complex opened, Palestinian police put up checkpoints, confiscated the shopping bags of Palestinians and chased the workers. The Palestinian Authority is also opposed to workers who work in Israeli industrial zones in the West Bank.
Therefore, Israel’s policy of positive economic gestures may convince the West of its good intentions, but the Palestinian Authority itself is opposed to these gestures and sees them as an obstacle to maintaining their struggle against Israel.
Police shoot one Palestinian, run over second in Ramallah clashes
Two Palestinians were moderately wounded Friday afternoon during fierce clashes with Border Police in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
A police unit shot and wounded a Palestinian who was about to throw a Molotov cocktail. As medical officers dispensed first aid to the wounded Palestinian, a second Palestinian approached the first responders with a sharp object in his hand. Identifying a clear danger to the officers on the scene, the commander in a jeep ordered his driver to get closer in order to prevent a stabbing, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
The driver struck the second Palestinian, wounding him. Both Palestinians were moderately hurt, and no Israeli forces incurred any injuries, the police said.
2 hurt in stabbing attack in Jerusalem; attacker shot
Two people were injured as a result of a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Friday.
According to police, an Israeli man in his 20s sustained moderate injuries after being stabbed near the Ammunition Hill light rail station on Bar-Lev Street by a 23-year-old resident of Kfar Akeb in East Jerusalem. A second man was injured by police gunfire when security forces tried to subdue the attacker, who was shot and critically wounded.
“From our initial investigation we believe that a terrorist armed with a knife arrived at the station and stabbed a civilian, injuring him. He then attempted to stab another civilian, but did not succeed,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
“Light rail guards that were on the scene, other civilians and Border Police officers that were nearby subdued the terrorist. As a result of the gunfire, an additional civilian was injured, with a gunshot wound to the leg,” Samri said.
The victim with the stab wounds was treated on the scene by paramedics before being taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. According to Magen David Adom, he was in stable condition.
Two Palestinians attempt stabbing attack in West Bank; 1 shot dead, 1 injured
Two Palestinian men attempted to stab a group of Border Police officers at the Tapuah Junction in the West Bank on Friday morning and were shot by security forces. One died of his wounds and the other was in critical condition, according to police.
The Border Police troops were not hurt in the attempted attack.
According to a police statement, the two Palestinians arrived at the junction on a motorcycle, dismounted and advanced toward a Border Police officer knives in hand. Another officer spotted the two and opened fire at them.
The incident was the latest in over 60 separate attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces over the past month. Ten Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in a spate of stabbings or attempted stabbings by Palestinian assailants since October 1.
Drive-by shooting attempt in Samaria
Arab terrorists on Thursday launched a drive-by shooting at a hitchhiking station adjacent to the town of Ofra, located in the Binyamin region of Samaria.
IDF forces on the scene responded by opening fire at the terrorists' car, which fled towards the Arab town of Yabrud.
Currently the soldiers are conducting a pursuit after the terrorists.
No one was wounded in the drive-by shooting.
The incident comes less than an hour after Arab terrorists hurled firebombs at an Israeli car adjacent to Ofra.
No damage or wounds were reported in the firebomb attack.
2 Israeli women hurt in separate stone-throwing attacks
Two Israeli women were injured Thursday night in separate stone-throwing attacks on their cars.
A woman was lightly hurt when stones were thrown at her car on Route 60, near the Karmei Tzur settlement, north of the West Bank city of Hebron. The woman, who is pregnant and was cut by glass shards, was taken by Magen David Adom rescue personnel to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem.
Hours earlier, a woman in her 60s was lightly wounded in a stone-throwing attack on her car on Route 431, close to the central town of Ramle.
Magen David Adom paramedics administered first aid treatment at the scene before evacuating the woman to Assaf Harofeh hospital near Rishon Letzion, the Maariv website reported. She sustained wounds to her face from the stones and from shattered glass.
The woman was travelling with her 8-month-old grandson at the time. The child was unhurt in the incident.
Yehuda Glick Attacked 1 Year, 1 Hour, 1 Minute after Murder Attempt
Rabbi Yehuda Glick escaped injury and even death in a rock-throwing attack Thursday night, exactly one year, one hour and one minute after a Jerusalem Arab tried to murder him.
Glick was critically wounded by four gunshots at point-blank range but made a miraculous recovery.
He was riding last night in a car driven by Rabbi Re’am HaCohen of Otniel, where Glick lives.
The car was pelted in a rock ambush between Beit Omar and Karmei Tzur, one of the favorite places for Palestinian Authority terrorists to try to murder Jews with a direct hit in the face or by causing the driver to lose control of his vehicle and crash.
Glick’s wife told The JewishPress.com that the Arabs had ambushed several Jewish motorists and that a woman in a vehicle ahead of Glick and HaCohen’s was injured.
IDF imposes new restrictions on West Bank Palestinians as attacks persist
The army began implementing a series of dramatic new measures on Thursday to separate the Jewish and Palestinians populations in the West Bank in an attempt to curb the stabbing attacks that have plagued the area in recent weeks, an IDF official said.
Hebron and the Etzion Bloc have seen nearly daily attacks against civilians and security forces in the past week. In response, the Israel Defense Forces said that it would not allow Palestinian males between the ages of 15 and 25 to pass through Hebron’s Jewish settlement, except those that live in the surrounding area, who will be forced to undergo a thorough security check.
Meanwhile, an Etzion Bloc council leader said soldiers would separate Palestinian and Jewish residents at the Gush Etzion Junction, which has been the site of multiple terror attacks.
“In Hebron, since October 1, a total of 13 stabbing attacks or foiled attempts were carried out by Palestinians against civilians and security forces,” an IDF spokeswoman told The Times of Israel.
Watch: Border Police train for stabbing attacks
Border Police Platoon Commander Course trainees are being taught how to deal with Arab knife attacks as the Arab campaign of terror continues.
Video from Channel 2 shows the trainees practicing various scenarios and learning from mistakes made in previous attacks, some of which were documented on video.
The trainer teaches the trainees that Arab attackers aim for the neck because they know that policemen wear bulletproof vests.
One scenario practiced involves a food vendor who suddenly attacks police. A similar situation occurred earlier this week, when an Arab terrorist tried to stab a security guard at the Jalame checkpoint, near Jenin, before being shot and killed. The 16-year-old terrorist was able to approach the guard by pretending to sell snacks called Krembo, which are made of a creamy filling coated with chocolate.
Terrorist drew a heart for his parents, went out to murder Jews
According to the indictment, over the last two years the terrorist frequently stayed and worked illegally at a barber shop in Kafr Qassem, located just northeast of Petah Tikva.
While staying in sovereign Israel without a permit, he decided to launch an attack to murder Jews, and therefore obtained a knife and hid it in his pants pocket. He picked central Petah Tikva as a target given the high concentration of potential Jewish victims.
Before setting out from Kafr Qassem to launch the attack, Waridat left a letter written in Arabic at the barber shop, addressed to his parents.
"(Al-)Aqsa you are not alone," he wrote in the letter, declaring the need to "defend" the mosque on the Temple Mount, and his decision to become a "martyr," while asking his parents' forgiveness.
At the end of the letter, the terrorist drew a heart, and in it wrote: "the Aqsa in our hearts." He then got on a bus for Petah Tikva.
Once there the terrorist took up a position in front of Ofer Mall and picked out a Jewish victim. He snuck up behind the man, whipped out the knife and while shouting "Allahu akbar" (Allah is greater) and "Al-Aqsa" forcefully stabbed him repeatedly.
18-Year-Old Female Terrorist Charged With Attempted Murder; Indictment Includes Details of Near-Deadly Attack
A Palestinian girl was indicted on Thursday morning for the attempted murder of a Jewish man in Jerusalem earlier this month, the Israeli news website nrg reported.
Eighteen-year-old Shorouq Dwayyat, a resident of east Jerusalem’s Tsur Baher neighborhood and a student at the University of Bethlehem, was charged with inflicting multiple stab wounds on 36-year-old Daniel Rosenfeld near the Lions’ Gate of the Old City.
During the attack, Rosenfeld managed to reach for his gun and shoot Dwayyat, and both were treated on the scene by paramedics, before being evacuated to the Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem.
A detailed account of the attack in the indictment, summarized by nrg, reveals that Dwayyat left her house in the morning of October 7 with a 12-inch kitchen knife and screwdriver in her purse – and murder on her mind.
13-year-old terrorist indicted, says 'wanted to be a shahid'
Thirteen-year-old Ahmed Manasra, who together with his cousin stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli boy in Jerusalem earlier this month, was charged with two counts of attempted murder on Friday.
Manasra made headlines in recent weeks when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed in an Oct. 14 speech that the boy had been "executed" by Israeli security. In reality, he was being treated at an Israeli hospital.
On Oct. 12, Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin stabbed a man, 20, who was walking along a Pisgat Ze'ev street, and then a boy, 13, as he was getting on his bicycle after exiting a candy shop. Both victims survived the attack.
The indictment said that Manasra had met his cousin, Hassan, on his way home from school that day. The two "talked about the situation at Al-Aqsa mosque, the living conditions in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and decided to be shahids [martyrs] -- to be killed in the battle for Islam by way of committing a stabbing attack in effort to kill Jews," the indictment said.
Activist killed by terrorists led Facebook incitement suit
An American educator and peace activist who died this week of wounds sustained in a Palestinian terrorist attack two weeks ago was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Facebook for allowing the posting of Palestinian pages that incite violence, his son said Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States by Israeli rights group Shurat Hadin days before the attack that critically injured Richard Lakin, 76. Lakin, an elementary school principal and 1960s civil rights activist in the U.S., worked for peace and coexistence after moving to Israel. On Oct. 13, two Palestinians boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers. Two men were killed in the attack and Lakin was critically injured. Ten other passengers were wounded.
The lawsuit argues that the Palestinian posts include caricatures and videos demonizing Israelis, graphics with instructions on "how to stab a Jew," and calls for attacks against them. Other posts glorify recent attacks and hail the murderers as heroes.
Jews, Christians rally for Israel in Kiev
Around a thousand Ukrainians held a solidarity rally outside the Israeli Embassy in Kiev on Wednesday, waving flags and banners proclaiming “No to terrorism” and, “The Christians of Ukraine for Israel.”
A number of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations jointly organized the demonstration, which brought together Jewish tycoons and MPs such as Vadim Rabinovich, who runs the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, and Oleksandr Feldman, the founder of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.
“Peaceful people are dying on the streets of Israel from the knife murderers and terrorists,” declared Rabinovich, according to local website newsnetwork.tv. “Many have come today because we in Ukraine have felt what terrorism is. We know what it is to lose our homes. We know what it is, when people are dying.
“You see today the shared representatives of different faiths. All these people hate terrorism,” he continued.
“I am very grateful to everyone who came. I think that Ukraine will always carry in its heart hatred of terrorism.”
Peace partner? Abbas's Fatah discusses expansion of 'intifada'
The West claims that Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas is a “peace partner” for Israel, even as his Fatah party continues to encourage terrorist attacks against Israelis.
On Thursday, representatives of Abbas’s Fatah movement met in Beirut with representatives of Hamas, headed by Khaled Mashaal, to discuss ways to expand the wave of terrorism, which they call an "intifada" against Israel.
According to a report on Hamas’s website, the two sides agreed on the need to thwart "the Israeli plan" allow religious Jews to worship on the Temple Mount, to bring an end to the "occupation", dismantle the Israeli "settlements" and protect the holy places, headed by Jerusalem.
The report further said that the sides also agreed to coordinate the work of the Palestinian Arab factions in the struggle against Israel and in promoting the implementation of the national reconciliation plan.
The Hamas delegation was headed by Mousa Abu Marzouk and the Fatah delegation was headed by Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of the group’s central committee.
Abbas to meet ICC prosecutor as terror attacks persist
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet on Friday with ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda at The Hague, Palestinian officials said, amid the current wave of Palestinian terror against Israeli civilians and security forces in Israel and across the West Bank.
It will be Abbas’s first meeting with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since the Palestinian Authority sparked controversy by joining the tribunal in January, an official with the Palestinian mission in The Hague told AFP.
Abbas, who is in the Netherlands as part of a European tour, would visit Bensouda “in the context of the grave Israeli escalation in occupied Palestine,” the official said, asking not to be identified. Israel has accused Abbas of helping fuel the terror surge, in part by peddling “lies” about purported Israeli plans to change the status quo at Jerusalem’s contested Temple Mount holy site.
Hamas declares another 'Day of Rage' Friday
Hamas is calling for a “Day of Rage” on Friday throughout Judea and Samaria and encouraging rioting and clashes with IDF forces.
In a statement issued by Hamas on Thursday evening, the organization welcomed the "heroic actions" of young Palestinians, saying "the enemy understands only the language of force".
Meanwhile, the deputy leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, to rebuild the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and to act to preserve the “Al-Quds Intifada”, as he calls the current wave of terror.
Speaking to the Hamas newspaper Palestine, Haniyeh said that Abbas should summon a meeting of the PLO's interim leadership to establish a unity government and prepare for elections.
Haniyeh demanded a discussion on the “Palestinian national strategy” in order to protect the "Al-Quds Intifada" and put an end to any intervention (a hint at the United States’ initiative) which seeks to “stifle” the intifada’s goals.
Palestinian Arab terrorist groups have called for a “Day of Rage” nearly every Friday over the last few weeks.
ADL chief: Western media's pursuit of equivalence warps Israel reporting
The western media frequently misrepresent events in Israel, Anti-Defamation League national director Jonathan Greenblatt said during a brief 48 hour solidarity visit to the Jewish state on Thursday.
Greenblatt, who recently succeeded longtime ADL chief Abraham Foxman, told The Jerusalem Post, “Much of the media reporting doesn’t contextualize what’s been happening here,” and so he wanted to come and “see for myself, talk to people, and understand first hand.”
People abroad often get a skewed view of events here, he continued, explaining that the “Western media often looks for equivalence, and so in that effort to find equivalence and a quote on quote ‘story,’ they often end up warping the reality and the facts on the ground.”
BBC WS ‘Newshour’ amplifies Israel delegitimising lawfare campaign
Coomarasamy did not tell listeners is that the incident portrayed in this exhibit took place during the 51-day conflict between Israel and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 or that the Tannur neighbourhood is located in Rafah and that the August 1st 2014 counter-offensive there took place because Hamas had broken a ceasefire by kidnapping Lt Hadar Goldin. Neither did Coomarasamy clarify that of the 41 Gazans killed in that particular counter-offensive in Rafah, 12 have been identified as terrorists and 13 as civilians, with the rest categorized as undetermined, but “of fighting age”.
Coomarasamy also refrained from informing audiences that Amnesty International’s campaign of ‘lawfare’ against Israel includes the use of this incident and he likewise made no effort to explain what the organization called ‘Forensic Architecture’ is and who is behind it or that it also partnered Amnesty International in the production of an app called ‘the Gaza Platform’ which reproduces and promotes one-sided and inaccurate information put out by two of AI’s lawfare partners – Al Mezan and the PCHR.
So, whilst failing to make any effort to provide BBC audiences worldwide with either the context or insight into the political motivations behind the exhibit to which he gave amplification, Coomarasamy did propagate the notion that Israeli actions during a military campaign brought about by terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians should be lumped into the same “ultimate crime” category as criminal murders, political murders and genocide.
Times of London journo buys into Amnesty’s latest anti-Israel smear
Earlier we posted about a Guardian report which legitimized baseless accusations that Israeli police are planting knives on innocent Palestinians after summarily executing them.
Additionally, a new Amnesty International report on Israel buttresses this Palestinian ‘narrative’ in a report which suggests a “clear pattern…of lethal force being used unlawfully by Israeli forces” against Palestinians.
As NGO Monitor and the blogger Elder of Ziyon demonstrated, however, the Amnesty report relies almost exclusively on anonymous testimony, and presents nothing in the way of hard evidence to support its allegations.
Evidently, Times of London journo David Aaronovitch is among those who uncritically accept the claims of such egregiously biased NGOs, as he wrote the following in an article which actually condemned, as divisive and anti-peace, efforts to boycott Israel.
BBC WS ‘Newsday’ passes up opportunity to inform on Palestinian politics
However, if listeners were expecting to hear analysis and information which would enhance their understanding of an issue which the BBC has repeatedly cited over the past few weeks as a factor driving the current wave of terror in Israel, they would have come away disappointed.
Although [Denis] Ross provided some interesting anecdotes and insight into his negotiations with Yasser Arafat, unfortunately the brief item did little to counter the chronic deficit of information suffered by BBC audiences on the topic of why negotiations have repeatedly failed or to provide them with a view of Ross’ broader approach to the issue.
That wasted opportunity gives all the more reason to expect BBC promotion of the selectively framed theme of ‘Palestinian frustration’ as a cause for terrorism to continue.
Terrorist? Motorist? It’s all the same to the BBC’s Kevin Connolly
He next promoted a theme which has been dominant in his own previous reports and in other BBC coverage: the description of attacks directed at Jews (rather than “Israelis” as Connolly suggests) as ‘random’ events. Concurrently, Connolly ignored the known affiliations of some of the attackers with terrorist organisations and, predictably, refrained from telling listeners about the connecting thread between all those ‘random’ attacks: incitement.
“Israelis see their country as an island of democracy in a region of chaos and Islamic extremism and they crave a sense of normality. The attacks of the last few weeks have punctured that sense. They have been the work of individual Palestinians who’ve decided to take knives from their kitchens to randomly stab Israelis – soldiers, police officers and civilians. In one case a motorist drove his own car into a queue of pedestrians, with deadly intent. Those knives tear at the fabric of daily life here. Jewish Jerusalem is an edgy place these days where people suddenly feel that any Palestinian might be a knife attacker; any passing car might pose a deadly danger.”
But just in case listeners were by now drifting off message, Connolly brought them back with more promotion of equal suffering and inaccurate portrayal of violent riots as “protests”.
Yogev urges Zoabi to 'go away to Syria' in angry debate
"We must put an end to the dispossession and occupation," Zoabi ranted. "That is the real terror - murdering Palestinian children, shooting them straight in the head. For this, [Israeli will be] prosecuted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague."
At that point, committee chairman and United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Margi burst in, asking Zoabi "was an 'I' (for the IDF - ed.) written on the knives they used to stab Israeli civilians?"
The radical Arab MK dismissed Margi's question, charging: "How many Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks?"
She was eventually kicked out of the meeting after refusing to apologize - not before prompting laughter from the audience as she paused to retrieve her cell phone charger.
MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home), sitting near Zoabi at that moment, turned to her and snickered: "In Syria, there are no chargers."
Margi tried to silence the Jewish Home MK, who continued by urging Zoabi to "go to Syria - you'll get your charger there."


This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.


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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 12:00:00 PM

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