02/29 Links Pt1: PA TV Antisemitism: When fish in the sea fight, "the Jews are behind it" ~ EoZ

From Ian:

PA TV Antisemitism: When fish in the sea fight, "the Jews are behind it"

The Palestinian Authority teaches that Jews are "evil" and the source of all bad in the world. An official PA TV host and preacher of Islam explained in his weekly education program about Islam, that as long as Jews are spreading their corruption "humanity will never live in comfort." He illustrated this with an example: "An old man told me: If a fish in the sea fights with another fish, I am sure the Jews are behind it":
"Humanity will never live in comfort as long as the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land. Humanity will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility as long as they are corrupting the land. An old man told me: If a fish in the sea fights with another fish, I am sure the Jews are behind it. As Allah says: ''Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. They strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters'' (Sura 5:64)." [Official PA TV, Feb. 27, 2016]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Antisemitism is a fundamental principle of PA ideology. Antisemitic hate speech was recently voiced by PA Chairman Abbas' advisor, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who said that throughout history Jews have represented "evil," "falsehood," "the devils" and "the satans," and accordingly Israel is "Satan's project." Islam and the Palestinians on the other hand constitute "the good" and "Allah's project":

"Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land" - Muslim preacher on PA TV

Isi Leibler: Despite World Challenges, Israel Is Stronger Than Ever

The same applies to Israel internationally. The US will in the long run remain Israel’s best friend and most important ally. Hopefully, the next president shall reflect the positive public support for Israel in the US and reverse the recent erosion of Israel’s international standing by restoring the close bonds between both countries.
But after our experience with the Obama administration, it is crucial that we broaden alliances. The European Union is unlikely to become a friend of Israel, but it is becoming a weaker force and we should seek to strengthen ties with individual European countries. The recent realignment with Greece and Cyprus – former adversaries – is an example. There is also the extraordinary – albeit highly delicate – positive relationship with the Russians and other East European countries.
There has also been extraordinary progress with the three major Asian countries – India, China and Japan, all of whom are today deeply engaged in trade with Israel.
Finally, the upheaval in Syria, the threat of Iran and the emergence of ISIS has brought Israel close to unspoken alliances with Egypt and some of the Gulf States including, ironically Saudi Arabia, the source of Wahhabism and the export of much Islamic extremism throughout the world. Their antisemitism remains unchanged but temporary alliances to confront the threats from the Iranians and ISIS has created strange bedfellows.
Despite the mushrooming antisemitism facing Jews in the Diaspora, especially in Europe, and notwithstanding the despicable bias the Jewish state faces at the UN and other international bodies, Israel today is in an objectively stronger position than it has ever been. But Jews and Israel must be prepared to be more flexible with their allies than has been the case hitherto. In order to be an or l’goyim – a light unto the nations – we must first ensure our own security and only then we can concentrate on tikkun ha’olam – repairing the world.

David Singer: End the West Bank Refugee Gravy Train

As of 14 September 2015, 136 of the 193 United Nations member states have been playing the PLO name-game change and recognised the “State of Palestine”.
These 136 States now need to answer two questions:
1. How can any person living in his own country still be classified as a refugee?
2. Shouldn’t the 760,000 registered Palestinian Arab refugees living in the West Bank have their refugee status revoked and be resettled and fully integrated among their fellow Palestinian Arabs?
Claiming the trappings of Statehood – whilst segregating its citizens into two different classes – is a recipe for continuing tension and future conflict.
Change the name – change the game – but be prepared to accept the consequences.

JCPA: The Knife and the Message: The Roots of the New Palestinian Uprising

The latest wave of Palestinian violence against Jews is something new, an insidious wave of seemingly un-orchestrated attacks, perpetrated by unlikely assailants, and generally untraceable to any particular organization. They were also characterized by brutality, viciousness and randomness, and the purposeful use of the knife, to drive home the intent of bringing a new and unrelenting wave of slaughter to the Jews; a message to all Israelis that neither they, nor their children, will ever be able to live in this land in peace.
As this document will show, the Palestinian president and those under his authority are indeed instructing young Palestinians what to do. Not sending them into battle as soldiers, but goading them into action through deliberate messaging, distortion and fabrication, sometimes stated openly by senior Palestinian officials, but mostly insidiously, aimed at keeping the conflict alive and portraying the Palestinians as the victims in a whitewash of terror.
There is a guiding hand in all this, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian faction that leads it, Fatah. What is being witnessed today is the end-game of a strategy adopted by Fatah in 2009 and culminating in Mahmoud Abbas’ speech to the UN General Assembly on September 30, 2015, when he announced that the Palestinians are no longer bound by the Oslo (peace) Accords.
A television broadcast that sends a youth on his/her mission of death is part of a carefully calibrated policy of incitement and cynicism, which has brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a new level, one that generates terror without fingerprints, but which adroitly serves Fatah’s strategy of an endless war of attrition, by varying means, against Israel.
While the current wave of violence has succeeded in placing the Palestinian issue back on the international agenda to some degree, it has lost the Palestinians a valuable asset: the Israeli political center. Israelis have lost trust in the Palestinians and their leaders, even those Israelis who believe that Israel should relinquish the territories as part of a peace agreement between the sides.
No society can live in fear and with anarchy at its doorstep, where suspicion lurks at every turn.

Netanyahu: Palestinian terrorism not motivated by despair

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said attempts to explain Palestinian terrorism as motivated by despair were “incorrect.” Terror attacks, he said, “don’t come because of their despair and the frustration over the inability to build. They come because of their despair and the frustration over inability to destroy.”
He took issue with the desperation claim, saying it “exonerates the Palestinians from being responsible for their actions.” He noted that Arabs had attacked Jews in Israel “before the state was founded and afterwards, before there were territories and settlements and afterwards, when there was a peace process and when there wasn’t one.”
The prime minister was speaking at an event in honor of the late prime minister Yitzhak Shamir at Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.
The premier added that much of the Palestinian violence against Israelis was a result of incitement. He noted that Arab attacks on Jews in Israel in the 1920s “started because of the claims of (Jerusalem’s grand mufti) Haj Amin al-Husseini, that the Jews were about to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple in its stead. Sounds familiar? The incitement continues, and the waves of terror continue.”
Twenty-eight Israelis and three foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence since October. Nearly 170 Palestinians have also been killed, some two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.

Hebron snipers caught after months-long search

Israeli security forces have arrested two brothers from Hebron who are believed to have carried out a number of sniper attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past few months, the Shin Bet security service announced on Monday.
The two brothers, Nasser Faisal Mahmad Badawi and Akram Faisal Mehmed Badawi, along with a number of other suspected operatives in terror organizations, were arrested in a joint Shin Bet, IDF and Israel Police operation over the past few weeks. The exact dates of many of the arrests have not been released.
The Badawi brothers have been implicated in a series of sniper attacks that injured four Israelis. The younger brother, Nasser, is a member of Hamas, the Shin Bet said.
On November 6, 2015, Nasser and Akram met on the third floor of a building owned by their father near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. From that vantage point, Nasser, 23, and Akram, 33, fired into a group of Jewish Israelis who were praying near the holy site, injuring two of them, one seriously and the other lightly.
“After carrying out the attack, the two then went on to their cousin’s wedding celebration,” the Shin Bet said, citing their confession.

Home of Eliav Gelman attacker mapped for demolition

Israeli forces mapped the home of the Palestinian attacker Mamduh Amro overnight Sunday ahead of its demolition, the army said Monday.
Amro, 26, from the village of Dura near Hebron, tried to stab Air Force reserve officer Eliav Gelman last week at the Gush Etzion Junction in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem.
Gelman, a father of two from the nearby West Bank settlement of Karmei Tzur, was hit by errant IDF gunfire aimed at Amro.
He was taken in critical condition to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he succumbed to his wounds some two hours after the attack. He had been on his way home from his Air Force base, where he was performing reserve duty.

Israel buys armored buses in NIS 106 million deal

Israel recently requested from the Merkavim factory 71 bullet resistant vehicles for a total amount of NIS 106 million, due to the continued wave of terrorism in the West Bank and renewed shooting attacks. This is the largest transaction for the purchase of bullet-resistant buses ever in Israel.
Mars Defender model buses were requested by Egged and all other transportation companies of the regional councils in the West Bank, where the Defense Ministry participates in financing the cost for the extra protection. The price of each armored bus stands at NIS 1.5 million – almost twice than the price of a regular bus.
Some buses will replace the old armored buses that have become obsolete, while also increasing the number of armored buses and the frequency of travel on high-risk routes in the region around Jerusalem, the Binyamin communities, Hebron, and Gush Etzion. The low frequency of buses is one of the factors for extensive hitchhiking in the West Bank, which increases the risk of kidnappings. Following the abduction and murder of three boys -- the late Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrah -- in June 2014, Transportation Minister Israel Katz decided to integrate armored buses in the bus routes of the local councils to transport students, but this was a temporary measure to close the gaps.

US appeals court: Terror victims can seize $9.4 million of Iran funds

Victims of a 1997 triple suicide bombing in Jerusalem have won a major US appeals court judgment involving an award of $9.4 million in damages.
The Ninth Circuit Appellate Court, which handles appeals from California court decisions, handed down the judgment on Friday in favor of a group of victims represented by Shurat Hadin’s Nitsana Darshan-Leitner in Israel, and by David Strachman of Rhode Island as US counsel.
The attack in question took place on September 4, 1997, when three terrorists set off explosives attached to their bodies as they wandered into the packed Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall in the middle of the afternoon, killing five Israelis and wounding scores more. Three of those killed were 14-year-old girls.
In 2001, Shurat Hadin helped the American families of those wounded in the attacks to begin legal proceedings against Iran due to its sponsorship of Hamas, which claimed credit for the attack.
In 2013, a lower federal court entered a $9.4m. judgment lien in favor of the families – the first time such victims had found Iranian assets in the US that could actually be transferred to them. The award stemmed from years of interest and fees on top of a $2.8m. base judgment.

PA demands control over Iran cash handouts to terrorists

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday said direct financial assistance by Iran to the families of Palestinian terrorists and attackers killed in a five-month wave of violence would be unacceptable, and called for such funding to be directed through a PA .
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a PA presidency spokesman, was quoted in local media as saying that bypassing the Authority in handing out such funds would constitute illegal interference in internal Palestinian affairs.
Tehran announced last week assistance would be offered to families of those killed in the wave of Palestinian stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks that erupted in October 2015. The PA official did not reject the payments, but said such aid must follow official channels.
Iran should “send this money through official channels to the [PA’s] Martyrs and Prisoners Foundation rather than relying on informal and circuitous routes,” Abu Rudeineh said.

Temple Mount cameras won't include mosques

A Jordanian team arrived in Israel on Sunday, with the goal of installing surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount in the coming days, Jordanian Waqf Minister Hail Daoud told Jordanian media.
The Jordanian Minister said that technical teams have already arrived at the Temple Mount in order to carry out technical and operational testing and determine where to place the cameras. They are scheduled to install the actual cameras later this week, he added.
An agreement between Israel and Jordan to place the security cameras was brokered in October by Secretary of State John Kerry, and stipulates that 24-hour security cameras covering the entire site would be installed in the compound, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
But the project has yet to be implemented, and earlier this month there were reports that there were disagreements between Israel and Jordan on several issues, causing the delay.
Meanwhile, Jewish Temple Mount groups that have been following the reports from Jordan said Sunday that a Jordanian expert, who was interviewed by the Al-Rad network, said that a Jordanian delegation is traveling to Jerusalem to examine the final stages of the installation of cameras outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Dennis Ross and David Makovsky: The neglected Israeli-Palestinian peace process must be revived

Rarely has there been a time when less attention has been paid to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than today. Given the threat from the Islamic State, the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, proxy conflicts between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Egypt’s struggles with radical Islamists, it is hard to find anyone in Washington or the Arab capitals who is thinking about the Israelis and Palestinians. But the problem is not going away.
For the past five months, there have been more than 100 individual Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis. As the risk of escalation grows, both sides are becoming even more doubtful that there will ever be peace. With Palestinians divided and their leaders increasingly discredited, and a right-wing government in Israel, the conflict is not about to be resolved. But that is all the more reason to think about what can be done to preserve the possibility of a two-state outcome, particularly with the Palestinians entering a period of uncertain succession.
Any new effort must start with defusing tension and restoring a sense of possibility. Given Palestinian paralysis, the most direct way to begin changing the climate between Israelis and Palestinians may be to affect Israel’s settlement policy by adopting a new approach on this contentious issue.
Not all settlements are equal. In May 2011, President Obama gave a speech in which he spoke of borders established in any peace agreement being based on the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed territorial swaps to compensate the Palestinians for the settlement blocs that the Israelis would retain. But since that time, Obama administration policy has continued to treat all settlement activity as unacceptable, effectively dismissing the distinction drawn by the president. The administration’s inability to differentiate between settlement activity within and outside of those blocs has actually bolstered the Israeli right, because most Israelis draw a distinction between the two. The Obama approach is seen as dismissing Israeli needs.

US to Israel: Build in Jerusalem for Arabs, but not for Jews

US Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Israel next Sunday, and the Obama administration is launching an all-out effort to prevent a repeat of the diplomatic flare-up that marred his previous trip in 2010.
In what is likely to be the Obama administration’s last state visit to Israel, Biden’s visit closes out a rocky relationship between Israel and the White House.
Perhaps the most publicized dispute in that period was the so-called “Ramot Biden” incident in March 2010, when plans for a new housing project in the haredi neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem were announced while Biden was in Israel promoting talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Biden issued a sharp condemnation of the plans, while then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton berated Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a 43-minute phone call.

Talk Grows About Who Will Succeed Palestinians’ Fading Mahmoud Abbas

The political weakness of Mr. Abbas became painfully clear in September, when he called a meeting of the Palestinian National Council after removing another former ally and now critic, Yasser Abed Rabbo, whom he accused of conspiring with Mr. Dahlan and Mr. Fayyad.
Mr. Abbas had called the session, the first since 1996, to “realign” the P.L.O.’s Executive Committee and banish Mr. Abed Rabbo. But it never materialized. Mr. Abbas also said he would make an important declaration about Palestinian tactics and hinted he would dismantle the Palestinian Authority. But he did neither. At the time, Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, said there was an internal struggle over nominations.
But in another sign of the sensitivity about succession, Mr. Tirawi, along with other key Fatah members like Qadura Fares, refused interview requests.
“We worry that the Palestinian Authority is getting weaker,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security and strategic affairs. “It’s very hard to decide who will be the leader because if you say who you prefer, you damage him in the eyes of those there.”

Elkin: Israel must overhaul Palestinian education when PA inevitably falls

The political weakness of Mr. Abbas became painfully clear in September, when he called a meeting of the Palestinian National Council after removing another former ally and now critic, Yasser Abed Rabbo, whom he accused of conspiring with Mr. Dahlan and Mr. Fayyad.
Mr. Abbas had called the session, the first since 1996, to “realign” the P.L.O.’s Executive Committee and banish Mr. Abed Rabbo. But it never materialized. Mr. Abbas also said he would make an important declaration about Palestinian tactics and hinted he would dismantle the Palestinian Authority. But he did neither. At the time, Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, said there was an internal struggle over nominations.
But in another sign of the sensitivity about succession, Mr. Tirawi, along with other key Fatah members like Qadura Fares, refused interview requests.
“We worry that the Palestinian Authority is getting weaker,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security and strategic affairs. “It’s very hard to decide who will be the leader because if you say who you prefer, you damage him in the eyes of those there.”

Settler group accuses EU envoy of supporting ‘terror state’

A settler group on Sunday released a video that accused the European Union’s ambassador to Israel of working to “establish a terror state.”
The video accuses Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the Danish head of the EU’s delegation in Israel, of “undermining Israel’s sovereignty, ignoring the law, building wherever he wants and establishing a terror state — on Route 1!” The group was apparently referring to prefabricated homes built in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.
The accusation relates to mobile homes presented by the EU to Palestinian and Bedouin families living in the West Bank area east of Jerusalem, which Israel has charged amount to illegal construction by the European umbrella body.
“Andersen must be restrained!” flashes onto the screen at the video’s conclusion, alongside a mockup photo of Andersen with a Hannibal Lecter mask across his face.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold was quick to criticize the video on Sunday evening. His office released a statement saying that he “condemns the disrespectful way the European Union ambassador was presented.”

Women activists to launch freedom flotilla to break the siege on Gaza

The Freedom Flotilla coalition has announced that a women's boat to Gaza is expected to set sail for the Strip soon in order to break the blockade on the coastal territory and express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israel.
In an interview with the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds on Monday, Dr. Essam Youssef, the head of the Popular International Committee to support the Gaza Strip, said that his organization will announce the launch of the flotilla on International Women's Day on March 8. He explained that the announcement will take place on this day in order to illuminate the persistent struggle of Palestinian women to win freedom.
Youssef added: "The flotilla is not only aimed at breaking the siege but also at bringing hope to the Palestinian people with the support of civil society institutions, women's organizations and international activists."
"In order to achieve these goals, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has decided to launch a popular campaign with the participation of activists from all around the world that will challenge the siege on Gaza, draw the world's attention to Palestinians’ distress in general and to Gazans' distress specifically."
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition suggested several ways to support the campaign: release a message supporting the initiative, spread the event during International Women's Day or donating money to the campaign.

PA Rules Out Turkish Proposal For Gaza ‘Safe Passage’

The Palestinian Authority will oppose an EU-brokered proposal to create a maritime route between Gaza and Cyprus, a PA official has said.
Azzam Elahmad, head of the Fatah negotiating team with Hamas, said that the PA ruled out a proposal recently made by Turkey as part as its reconciliation drive with Israel.
Ankara suggested that the ongoing closure of Gaza could be alleviated by a safe passage to Northern Cyprus.
Israel is also inclined to reject the initiative so as not to risk its relationship with the Egyptians, who wish to maintain pressure on Hamas-ruled Gaza, Israeli media reported. Israel also fears Hamas would use the end of the naval blockade of Gaza to smuggle mass quantities of weaponry by sea.
The Palestinian Authority does not wish to upset Cairo, said Elahmad, but another reason for rejecting the route is that the PA does not recognize Turkish-ruled Northern Cyprus.
“We recognize only one Cyprus, integral and indivisible,” he said. “We do not recognize Turkish Cyprus. We will not condone the division of the island, and we will never forget Cyprus’ steadfast support of the Palestinians in our most exacting periods.”

Netanyahu hails report ranking Israel 8th world power

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday celebrated a recent report listing Israel as the 8th most powerful country in the world during a Likud faction meeting.
The report was published by US News & World Report last month, and was conducted together with BAV Consulting and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, based on a survey of 16,000 people from four regions who were asked to associate 60 countries with specific characteristics.
It found that while Israel came out an overall 25 out of the 60 total, in the field of "Power" Israel came in 8th. The Power subranking lists a country's power in terms of being a leader, being economically influential, politically influential, having strong international alliances and a strong military.
"Israel was ranked as the number eight power in the world based on three things: military power, international influence, and - pay attention, this is what they say - international alliances. It isn't me who chose to say that," said Netanyahu as reported by Yedioth Aharonoth.
"They rank us on our international power and our international alliances," emphasized Netanyahu. He did not note that the same report ranked Israel as 25 overall. It ranked Israel 21 in terms of Entrepreneurship, and 34 in Quality of Life.

Senior Hamas official: Considerable improvement in our relations with Egypt

Hamas' foreign relations chief Osama Hamdan has revealed that the relations between the Palestinian terror organization and Egypt are witnessing a considerable improvement.
In an interview with Turkish Anadolu news agency, Hamdan said that Hamas is holding conversations with Egyptian authorities in order to develop bilateral relations between the parties. Hamdan added that such a development may improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Hamdan refused to give details about the rapprochement between Hamas and Egypt and did not answer questions about an expected visit by a Hamas delegation to Egypt. However, he stated: "We want our relations with Egypt to be strong."
In what appears to be an attempt to placate Egypt in light of Hamas’ renewed rapprochement with Iran, Hamdan said: "Egypt has an active role in the area and our relations with other states will never come at Egypt's expense."

WATCH: Hamas emulates ISIS beheadings in Gaza propaganda

While the vast majority of Arab violence during the ongoing wave of terror against Israel has emanated from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, much of the propaganda, incitement and instruction to terror has come from Hamas-affiliated outlets in Gaza.
That propaganda is continuing apace, as illustrated by a selection of clips from Hamas media gathered by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The clips are from a number of public demonstrations of terrorists' skills, held in front of large crowds in Gaza and aired on Hamas's TV stations and on the internet. They appear aimed at inspiring further shooting and knife attacks by glorifying the perpetrators of previous such attacks, as well as urging a resumption of suicide bombings - something Hamas cells in Judea and Samaria have been attempting to carry out for some time now, though unsuccessfully.
Among other things, the demonstrations feature a reenactment of the murder of Rabbi Eitam and Dalia Henkin in front of their two children - a shooting hailed as "the heroic Itamar attack", after the Jewish town in Samaria close to which it took place.

Israeli envoy to Egypt: I won’t be deterred by shoe-throwing

Haim Koren, the Israeli ambassador to Cairo whose recent meeting with an Egyptian lawmaker sparked a shoe-throwing protest in parliament on Sunday, said the incident has not deterred him from strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.
“I meet with [Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah] el-Sissi and members of his government regularly,” Koren told Israel’s Channel 10 television on Sunday evening. “Both countries have a shared interest in fighting terror organizations like the Islamic State and Hamas.”
Koren went on to tell the TV station that bilateral meetings between Israeli and Egyptian officials — aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries — would proceed, despite the scuffle in parliament earlier in the day.
“I can say that relations with Egypt are very good,” Koren added.
Egypt has full diplomatic relations with Israel, but directly dealing with the Jewish state remains deeply taboo in Egyptian society.

Egypt Rejects Israeli Offer to Hold Friendly Soccer Match

Egypt rejected an Israeli offer to hold a friendly soccer match between their national teams, the Saudi-owned pan-Arab news outlet Al Arabiya reported on Sunday.
Speaking to Al Arabiya, Azmi Mugahed, the Egyptian Football Association’s (EFA) spokesman, revealed that Israel had recently sent the EFA the request to hold the match, the second time it had done so since 2010. Egypt rejected the offer both times, Mugahed said, adding that no patriotic Egyptian could ever accept such an offer.
“We will never permit or agree to a match either with the Israeli national team or with any [Israeli] soccer clubs,” Mugahed said. “The idea of playing against Israel is entirely inconceivable, and is rejected by the people of Egypt.”

BBC News frames Iranian elections as victory for ‘reformists and moderates’

And audiences found the term “moderate conservative” used in this article and a subsequent one to describe a man implicated in the 1994 AMIA bombing and the murders of Iranian dissidents.
“Early results gave former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative, and Mr Rouhani the most votes for the assembly, which is composed of mostly elder and senior clerics.”
The BBC is of course not the only Western media organization to be reporting on the Iranian elections in this euphemistic manner. The Wall Street Journal, however, has unpacked some of that journalistic framing.
“Western media are nonetheless describing the results as an “embarrassing defeat” for the regime’s hard-liners and the moderates’ “best nationwide electoral showing in more than a decade,” as the Associated Press put it. Of particular note are the results in the capital, Tehran, a national barometer where on Sunday it appeared that candidates on the moderate list had swept all 30 seats in the Majlis.
Some moderates. Consider Mostafa Kavakebian. The General Secretary of Iran’s Democratic Party, Mr. Kavakebian is projected to enter the Majlis as a member for Tehran. In a 2008 speech he said: “The people who currently reside in Israel aren’t humans, and this region is comprised of a group of soldiers and occupiers who openly wage war on the people.”

Report: Western Intelligence Agencies Anticipating Imminent Iranian Space Launch; Fear Carrier Rocket Capable of Holding Nuclear Warhead

Western intelligence agencies believe Iran is about to launch a satellite into space, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Sunday.
According to the report, the satellite will be launched by the Islamic Republic’s orbital carrier rocket, Simorgh. Aside from the serious intelligence-gathering that this will provide Tehran, the report said, the West fears the launcher will be used for military purposes, as well, due to its capacity to reach deep into Europe and carry nuclear warheads.
A number of weeks after North Korea successfully launched a satellite into space, Iran began to gear up for its own launch, which intelligence sources assess will take place within a few days from now. According to Channel 2, this assessment is based on Western satellite photos revealing that the launching site in the Iranian city of Semnan, some 200 kilometers from Tehran, is ready.
These photos show many vehicles driving around the area of the launching site, carrying what are believed to be components of the Simorgh rocket, the largest two-phased missile developed by Iran.
In addition, the Iranian space agency has issued warnings about the possibility of an imminent launch.

Iraqi Researcher Abdel-Hussain Shaaban: Our Complete Rejection of the West Stems from Backwardness

Russian police arrest ‘terrorist’ nanny with child’s severed head

A black-clad woman holding the severed head of a child and reportedly shouting “I am a terrorist” was arrested by Russian police outside a Moscow metro station on Monday, the Russian news channel RT reported.
In a video, the woman can be heard screaming: “I’m a terrorist. I want you dead. Look, I’m a suicide bomber, I’ll die; the end of the world will come in a second.”
She said she had been cursed and destroyed “so many times,” and announced: “I hate democracy. I’m a terrorist.”
The Investigative Committee of Russia said in a statement that firefighters had found the body of a child aged or three or four, which bore “signs of violent death,” after dousing a blaze in an apartment block in Moscow. An initial probe pointed to the child’s nanny, who is suspected of murdering the child and setting the apartment alight after the child’s parents and older sibling had left, the statement said.

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