[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Male:female ratio of deaths in Ukraine similar to Gaza, but UN comes to different conclusions!

An August 11 article by the head of statistics from BBC News looked at the ratio of men to women being killed in Gaza:

Its recent report said that as of 10 August, 1,948 Palestinians had been killed and 66 Israelis and one Thai national since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July.
...
So there were 226 members of armed groups killed, and another 709 men who were civilians. Among civilians, three times as many men were killed as women, while three times as many civilian men were killed as fighters.
...
[T]he proportion of civilian men over 18 killed seems high and it is not immediately obvious why.

Men in blue, women in red, from BBC article

To help understand this conundrum, the BBC asked the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights if they had any clue:

Matthias Behnk, from OHCHR, told BBC News that the organisation would not want to speculate about why there had been so many adult male casualties, adding that because they were having to deal with a lot of casualties in a short time, they had "focused primarily on recording the casualties".

"As such, we have not at this stage conducted a detailed analysis of trends of civilian casualties, for example in relation to the reasons why different groups are affected and the types of incidents, but hope to carry this out at some point in the coming future," he said.

Another UN official, Chris Gunness, was incensed that an earlier version of this BBC article included this line:

If the Israeli attacks have been 'indiscriminate,' as the UN Human Rights Council says, it is hard to work out why they have killed so many more civilian men than women.

Even after the BBC pulled that quote, Gunness tweeted:

@bbcworldservice pulls offensive quote condoning killing of civilian men in #Gaza Ask @rajandatar #OverToYou why it was there in1st place RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) August 12, 2014

Clearly, UN officials either didn't want to speculate about why the ratio of adult men to women killed in Gaza was so lopsided, or they were angry at anyone who attempted to come up with a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon.

Let's fast forward a week.

On August 17, this same UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on the human rights situation in the Ukraine.

Just as in Gaza, there have been over 2000 killed. Just as in Gaza, there have been far more males than females killed - about 12% of Gazans killed, about 11% of Ukranians killed.

And what did the UNHCR say about that in the Ukraine?

Reports of medical establishments from the areas under the control of the armed groups do not distinguish between civilian and military casualties. A gender imbalance of casualties reported by these establishments (as of 11 August, women comprised 11% of killed and 13% of wounded in the Donetsk region) may indicate that members of the armed groups who are predominantly male constitute a considerable part of these casualties.

Yes - in nearly identical situations in terms of casualties and ratios, among equal accusations of indiscriminate firepower that cannot distinguish between men and women, UN officials come to radically different conclusions. In the Ukraine, the imbalance seems to indicate that a large portion of the casualties are, in fact, combatants.

But in Gaza, such a conclusion cannot be countenanced. The very idea that the IDF is in fact killing lots more combatants than the UN is counting cannot possibly be raised.

The rules to evaluate behavior in the rest of the world is quite different from those that are used to judge Israel.

(h/t Nurit Baytch and CiFWatch)



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 11:02:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Two more decapitations in the Sinai

From Al Ahram:

Two young men's bodies have been found decapitated in Egypt's North Sinai, south of Rafah city, early Sunday morning.

Local witnesses told Reuters' Aswat Masriya website that unidentified assailants kidnapped the two men the previous day and that their corpses were found later in a desert area.

North Sinai locals have found several decapitated corpses recently amid continuous unrest in the peninsula.

On Friday, locals found the decapitated head of a young man who had also been kidnapped.

And two weeks ago, residents discovered four decapitated bodies of men in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid. Security forces said the victims, abducted two days earlier, might have been targeted for perceived cooperation with the army and police.

A video released Thursday, attributed to the Sinai-based militant group Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, showed the beheading of four Egyptian men, accusing them of providing information that helped an Israeli drone strike kill three of the group's fighters last month.

Police say they are investigating the [latest] incident and suggest that "jihadists could be behind it.”

Wow - those police are really good!




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 05:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Harris-Gershon, Heritage Theft, and Symbolic Inversions (Michael Lumish)

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I said in my recent book review of Harris-Gershon's, What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, that I feel sorry for the guy.

There is no question that he and his wife, Jaime, went through something horrific.  She was almost killed, for chrissake.  But what makes things even sadder is that Gershon's main "take-away" from the 2002 bombing of Hebrew University is that everything is pretty much Israel's fault because Israel (and by implication, the Jewish people as a whole) are failing to live up to Jewish morality.

In Harris-Gershon's world Arabs seek to kill Jews because Jews are mean.  The check-points and the security barrier are not so much defensive actions on Israel's part, but ways to demean and demoralize the largely innocent "native" population.

I focus on Harris-Gershon in this piece not because of whatever small influence he may wield, but because his views are representative of the type of Jew that internalizes unjust Arab accusations and thereby welcomes the "Palestinian colonization of the Jewish mind", which is the seeing of the world through "Palestinian" eyes.

The last time that Barack Obama dared to show his face in Israel, he snubbed the elected officials of the Israeli people by refusing to speak to the Knesset, preferring to speak over their heads directly to Israeli college students, instead.  During that speech he made an eloquent case for the necessity of Jewish Israelis to try to see the world through "Palestinian" eyes.  What he did not recommend, however, is that the vast Arab-Muslim majority try to see things through the eyes of the tiny Jewish minority in that part of the world.

The reason that he made no such request is because he, himself, is entirely incapable of it and I doubt very much that such a notion would even occur to him.

Harris-Gershon's view of the conflict is similar to that of Barack Obama in the sense that they both consider Arabs as largely innocent victims of western and Israeli aggression.  They, and those like them, infantalize the great Arab-Muslim imperial nation.  Islam is one of the most successful and most aggressive colonial projects in world history and at its height challenged the historical legacy of even the great Roman Empire.

When Muslims conquered Judea and Samaria in the 7th century they were, you can be sure, entirely unapologetic.  They stole Jewish land and put the entire Jewish native population to either death or dhimmitude.  Head-chopping, needless to say, was quite popular then, too, as was, the traditional Arab-Muslim sport of pelting Jews with rocks, a past-time that was (and is) particularly popular among the kids.

In a 2013, New York Times piece by Jodi Rodoren entitled, In a West Bank Culture of Conflict, Boys Wield the Weapon at Hand, we read this:

It was Muhammad’s fourth arrest in three years for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and settlers. His five brothers — three older and two younger — have all faced similar charges. Last year, three Abu Hashem boys, and their father, were in prison at the same time.

“Children have hobbies, and my hobby is throwing stones,” Muhammad explained weeks before his most recent arrest. “A day with a confrontation is better than a free day.”

Children, indeed, do have hobbies and just as Muhammad and his brothers play "Army and Arabs" so most American boys, at least those of us born toward the mid-late twentieth century, sometimes played "cowboys and Indians" or played at war with either toy rifles or, more likely in my neighborhood, long sticks.

Basically it was just neighborhood kids chasing one another around and it was fun.  Of course, afterwards we did not seek to maim or injure any traditionally despised nearby minority.  The difference is cultural.   We simply were not raised to believe that other peoples were inferior, or subhuman, or the children of apes and pigs, and thus it never occurred to us to attack another community.  On the contrary, we were taught that our neighbors are our neighbors and that they should be treated with decency and respect as they do so with us.

The largely unspoken truth of the Arab-Israel conflict is that the source of the conflict is Arab-Muslim Koranically-based hostility toward the besieged Jewish minority and everything else flows from this simple overriding fact.

Those who wish to defend the honorable Arab-Muslim tradition of stoning Jews will say that we have it coming because Jews are allegedly oppressing our former oppressors.  What the western-left tells itself is that, of course, Arab youths pelt Jews with rocks because Jews deserve it.  In the progressive imagination, aggressive Jewish fascists marched out of Europe in the middle of the twentieth-century and drove the "indigenous" population off of the land that they and their families had cultivated for generations, if not centuries.

Pro-BDS western Jews like Harris-Gershon ultimately justify not only aggression against the small Jewish minority in that part of the world, but also explore and expand upon the types of propaganda techniques developed within the Soviet Union and the PLO under Arafat.

One of the foremost of such tactics is in the theft and symbolic inversion of Jewish history and heritage.  These include, but are not limited to, the following toxic themes (or memes):

The Jews are the New Nazis.

The "Palestinians" are suffering a "Holocaust" at the hands of Jews.

Gaza is the Warsaw Ghetto.

Jesus was the first "Palestinian shaheed."

The Hebrew Temples never resided in Jerusalem.

The Jews are not a people, merely a religion.

Anne Frank would wear a keffiyah, today, and support Arab elimination of Jewish sovereignty.

The "ancient Palestinians" have been around longer than anyone else on the planet, including the Chinese.

Zionism is Racism.

And on and on and on.

And now Harris-Gershon informs us that the Arabs of Gaza have their own special version of 9/11, as well.

He writes in a piece for Daily Kos entitled, "Gaza's 9/11" – High-Rise Apartment Tower Toppled by Missile Strikes

In what Palestinians are calling "Gaza's 9/11," an 11-story apartment complex housing approximately 50 families was brought down by multiple missile strikes yesterday in what The New York Times has characterized as an "audacious" escalation...

Obviously, Palestinians are referring to this as "Gaza's 9/11" due to the intentional destruction of a high-rise building, and the similar optics. It is worth noting, however, that over 2,000 people were (and have been) killed in both the September 11 attacks and Israel's assault on Gaza during the past month. In this regard, Palestinian journalist Mohammad Omer wrote to Americans that "your 9/11 is our 24/7."

I point this out because the tactic of historical and symbolic inversion is one of the great under-discussed aspects of the Long Arab War Against the Jews of the Middle East.   All Harris-Gershon is doing is employing a familiar tactic, but doing so in a way that will not work and probably in a way that he is not even conscious of.  I very much doubt that Harris-Gershon even realizes that heritage theft and symbolic inversions are part of Arab war tactics.

In truth, his effort was rather lame and he probably knows it.  Even some of his fellow "Kossacks" recognize this.

From the comments:

Ummm no (2+ / 0-) 

Sorry, but there is no real comparison between 9/11 and this except that innocent people were killed. I cannot imagine making this comparison. I used to like reading your diaries, including the ones critical of Israel. I cannot stomach it anymore. This is way too far.

by mole333 on Sun Aug 24, 2014 at 01:55:37 PM PDT

mole333 is an old-timer at Daily Kos and is perhaps less influenced by current anti-Zionist trends within his ideological camp.

Gaza's 9/11??? (3+ / 0-)

Are you smoking something?

Did Al Qaeda give warning to the people in the Pentagon or the World Trade Center????

One more example of the diarist's open support for Hamas against Israel in this war. He is a really good propagandist.

by charliehall2 on Sun Aug 24, 2014 at 01:20:54 PM PDT

charliehall2 is one of the few remaining pro-Jewish / pro-Israel participants left on Daily Kos.  He is a good man and he means well, but one of the main problems with progressive-left pro-Israel activism is its general reluctance to play offense.  Progressive Zionists generally play a reactive game and thereby are perpetually back on their heels.  Charlie is no exception, from what I can tell.

The WRECK list (5+ / 0-)

It's an embarrassment to this web site that this disgraceful diary is on the rec list.

Others have eloquently ripped apart the "Gaza's 9/11" insanity, so I'll just go with the quick, obvious difference that al-Qaeda actually intended to kill as many innocent American civilians as possible, whereas Israel intended to kill as few as possible (and thus killed zero) shown by the warnings it gave.

David Gershon owes an apology to kos for this one.

by slipper on Sun Aug 24, 2014 at 11:36:51 AM PDT

If you look at many of the other comments you will see that most "Kossacks" in the discussion actually praise Harris-Gershon.  What I think is that he, as we say in the United States, jumped the shark.

The point to bear in mind, however, is the tactic.

The Jihadi project is an attempt to replace the Jewish people on Jewish land.  We see this every time they display a map that blots out the small Jewish homeland in favor of "Palestine."

Heritage theft and symbolic inversions are under-noted tactics that we must be aware of.

I do not know if Harris-Gershon is conscious of this tactic, but conscious or not, he clearly uses it as a weapon toward his own people.

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Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 03:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 08/31 Links: Melanie Phillips A New Strategy For Israel; Left on the wrong side of history

From Ian:

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Honest Reporting: Melanie Phillips Calls For New Strategy to Present Israel’s Case

Ms. Phillips stated that Israel needs to reframe the entire narrative about the Middle East, firstly by educating the uneducated through teaching the history of the Jewish people and Israel, through exposing the Muslim and Arab anti-Semitism so prevalent even among so-called moderates in the Middle East, and to position Israel at the forefront of the global battle for civilization by reclaiming the word Zionist for the moral high ground where it belongs.
She stressed that Zionism is an integral part of Judaism and to be hostile to Israel or Zionism is to be hostile to Judaism.
Israel should delegitimize the delegitimizers by calling the United Nations to account, particularly UNRWA’s relationship with Hamas and the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council as a mechanism for empowering dictators and rogue states.
Ms. Phillips also urged Israel to hold its allies to account for their silence in the face of years of demonization and delegitimization and the constant incitement against Israel and Jews.

Melanie Phillips: Western Jewry - Paying the Price for Gaza

Reveal UNRWA's bluff

It was quite ironic that during the fighting in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces was shot at from facilities of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, and had to return fire, as over the years no one defended the existence of UNRWA more than the IDF and the Israeli defense establishment. But now, with the fighting over, it is time for Israel to do what it should have done decades ago -- remove the layer of protection and legitimacy it grants to UNRWA. Israel should recognize UNRWA for what it is -- a hostile Palestinian organization that perpetuates the dream of the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel -- and treat it accordingly.
Israel's policy on UNRWA was set by the defense establishment. It was based on the premise that UNRWA was "the lesser of two evils" -- or as a Defense Ministry official put it to me, "UNRWA is crap, but Hamas is more so." This is a narrow view of the issue. Even if UNRWA itself does not attack the IDF directly, it ensures that there will always be someone to do so in the future. Under a thin veil of humanitarian activities, UNRWA acts with a clear political agenda, aimed at perpetuating the situation of Palestinian refugees and fostering the dream of their return to Israel. This is how UNRWA builds the ideological foundation for the next generation of fighters against Israel.

The Australian, Editorial: Left on the wrong side of history

Further muddying the public space, activist group Australians for Palestine failed to correct a falsehood in a recent email newsletter that misrepresented a photograph of a group of dead children as victims of the Gaza conflict. In a letter to the editor today, Sonja Karkar from Australians for Palestine admits the image was used “inadvertently” and that no correction email was sent out. The hypocrisy of the Left and its rampant moral equivalence makes a rational debate on national security and the threat posed by extremists more difficult. The murderous rampage of the Islamic State, whose warlords have Israel, the rest of the Middle East, much of Asia and some of Europe in their sights, shows what is at stake in quashing the caliphate. Apologists for Hamas and those who would turn a blind eye to the Islamic State barbarism are on the wrong side of the moral ledger of history and humanity.
The Prime Minister spoke yesterday about the atrocities perpetrated in Iraq — beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions. He reminded us of our nation’s obligations under the UN’s doctrine of a responsibility to protect those facing slaughter in Iraq. “This is as near to pure evil as we are ever likely to see,” Mr Abbott said, and urged our nation to strive for a better world. Yet, this bracing dose of reality for our nation, and those like our own, is greeted by the sadly predictable, but utterly obnoxious, refrain of “mission creep” from those unable to discern our nation’s vital interests.
The threat of terrorism for us is real, but the slaughter of innocents is occurring right now. We must be part of the mission to end this, rather than indulging in the moral emptiness of the Green Left.

A "Captive Mouthpiece" Demonizes Israel

Rev. Hanna Massad does not mention that perhaps Hamas actually wants the blockade to end so it can bring in more weapons and cement to build attack-tunnels so it can "finish the job."
Hamas does not just admit to using human shields, it brags about using human shields. Why does Massad have to inject an air of uncertainty about Hamas's use of human shields when no such uncertainty exists?
The problem is that any self-respecting journalist would confront Massad with a follow-up question about Hamas's ideology and violence, but not the folks at Christianity Today.

IDF shoots down drone that entered Israeli air space from Syria

The IDF shot down a drone that entered Israeli air space from Syria on Sunday.
The air force fired a surface to air Patriot missile to intercept the drone, which had come from the Quneitra region in Syria, adjacent to the Israeli border.
"The IDF will not tolerate a breach of the State of Israel's sovereignty," the army said.
Army sources said the drone likely belonged to the military of the Assad regime, and strayed into Israeli airspace by accident.

Fijians negotiating with Islamist captors of 44 peacekeepers

The Fijian military said Sunday that it was pursuing negotiations with the Syrian Islamic rebel group which kidnapped 44 UNDOF peacekeepers in the Syrian Golan Heights Thursday, but still had not received word on where the soldiers were being held.
Fiji has been told that the men were unharmed and were being treated well, but “we still at this stage cannot confirm the exact location of our troops. We are continuing negotiations at all levels,” said Brig. Gen. Mosese Tikoitoga, head of the Fijian army, according to a Reuters report.
“However, we are still very concerned that we cannot confirm at this stage their exact location, whether they are still in Syria or whether they have been moved to neighboring countries,” the general added.

72nd Gaza war casualty: Sgt. Shachar Shalev, 20, succumbs to wounds

An IDF soldier injured during Operation Protective Edge died of his wounds on Sunday, bringing the Israeli death toll in the war to 72.
The soldier was identified as Sgt. Shachar Shalev, 20, from Alonei Habashan in the North. Shalev, a soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade, was injured during operational duty in southern Gaza on July 23, 2014.
Shalev had been hospitalized at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
The news of Shalev's death came just two days after IDF Sgt. Netanel Maman, 21, from Gan Yavne, died on Friday morning, succumbing to wounds sustained from a rocket attack last week.
Shalev’s death brings the toll from Operation Protective Edge on the Israeli side to 72, with 65 of them soldiers.
According to Magen David Adom, there were 842 Israeli casualties during the fighting.

Netanyahu: Toppling Hamas remains an option

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave interviews to the country’s three television networks over the weekend defending the Gaza operation, and saying that driving Hamas from power has not been removed from the agenda.
“I never removed the goal of toppling Hamas, and I am not doing that now,” Netanyahu told Channel 2, saying, however, that Israel faces numerous other security challenges.
“When I look around and see al-Qaida on the fence [the border with Syria], ISIS [Islamic State] moving toward Jordan and already in Lebanon, with Hezbollah there already, supported by Iran, I defined the goal in the cabinet of delivering a hard blow to Hamas, and we did that.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah blasts Hamas for stealing humanitarian aid during Gaza operation

The statement accused Hamas “militias” of committing the ugliest crimes and encroachments during the war against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.
It said Hamas representatives shot and beat dozens of Fatah members, some of whom were transferred for medical treatment in Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus.
The statement said Hamas also placed more than 300 Fatah members under house arrest, exposing them to Israeli air strikes.
Other Fatah members were kept in Hamas prisons during the war, which also endangered their lives, the statement said.
Fatah said it preferred to remain silent toward the Hamas “crimes” during the war out of keenness to preserve Palestinian unity.
Fatah also accused Hamas of confiscating food and medicine sent to the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and other countries. It said Hamas distributed the aid among its men in mosques and sold some of it in the black market. (h/t Alexi)

Rudoren Misreports by Ignoring Palestinian Polls

So, unfortunately, Palestinians do not just want, as Rudoren claims, a two-state solution in which the country of Palestine and the country of Israel live side-by-side in peace. If that were really the case, the conflict would have been solved a long time ago. The reality is that Palestinians also demand the right to send millions of Palestinian "refugees" (really mostly the descendants of refugees) into Israel, which would quickly destroy the country from within.
Jodi Rudoren ought to know all this, but if so why doesn't she report it? And if she doesn't know it, well, that's why the term "teachable moment" was invented.

Journalist Revisits the Gaza Family Mistakenly Declared Dead

A few weeks ago, Donald Macintyre mistakenly declared the entire family of ten-year-old Mohammed Badran to be dead as part of an almost 4,000 word report from Gaza for the New Statesman. HonestReporting pointed out how the initial error, which had been corrected, cast into doubt Palestinian casualty figures, not to mention the accuracy of some of the reporting coming out of the conflict.
But it got worse when it turned out that the father of Badran who was actually killed later in an air strike, was revealed to be a Hamas operative, something that Macintyre’s report had failed to acknowledge.
So it’s to Macintyre’s credit that he has revisited the story and acknowledged some of the missing pieces in a new article for the New Statesman, albeit focusing attention on the debate over what constitutes acceptable collateral damage when targeting terrorists:

ICC: Palestine is a state, can file war crimes complaints against Israel if chooses

Ending speculation on the issue, Bensouda explained concisely that her office had concluded that following greater UN recognition in 2012, "Palestine could now join the Rome Statute."
Bensouda's op-ed, is in and of itself a highly uncharacteristic public venue for her to articulate her office's usually closely held official positions. But it appeared to be a response to the unprecedented barrage of criticism following the recent Gaza war from a range of parties that her office was artificially blocking the Palestinians from filing against Israelis.
On August 5, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki met with Bensouda to investigate in greater detail the possibility of Palestine joining the ICC's Rome Statute, which would grant it the right to file war crimes complaints with the court.
At the time, Bensouda's office merely confirmed that Palestine had not yet chosen to join the Rome Statute and, therefore, could not file any complaints.
Some had speculated that this message muddied Bensouda's readiness to accept Palestine as a state.

Ali Abunimah Advocates Solidarity With Hamas

For many years, Ali Abunimah has been a prominent proponent of “pro-Palestinian” solidarity activism, and he is often invited to speak on US campuses. As a veteran professional activist, he usually delivers smooth presentations that tend to obscure the fact that his often invoked demands for “justice in Palestine” require the injustice of doing away with the world’s only Jewish state in order to replace it with another Arab Muslim-majority state. While Abunimah’s activism focuses primarily on delegitimizing Israel and promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) to help bring about the hoped for elimination of the Jewish state, he is usually not very outspoken about the fact that he is also an ardent supporter of Palestinian terror groups like Hamas and its Al-Qassam Brigades as well as Islamic Jihad.
In view of the genocidal antisemitic Hamas Charter and Abunimah’s claims to be a “progressive” rights activist, his reluctance to reveal his admiration for the “Islamic Resistance Movement” is arguably prudent. However, during this summer’s fighting between Hamas and Israel, Abunimah has become increasingly open about his unqualified support for what he euphemistically calls the “Palestinian defense forces” and his concomitant contempt for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) under President Mahmoud Abbas. Abunimah has denounced Abbas as an “Israeli puppet” and a “collaborator;” he dismissed the Palestinian president’s announcement of a ceasefire on August 26 as “shameful talk” and asserted that “Abbas is utterly irrelevant.” By contrast, Abunimah eagerly shared “a ‘joint military communique’ from all the Palestinian defense and resistance forces” delivered by the Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesman Abu Obaida (Abu Ubayda), whose statements Abunimah translated in a series of completely uncritical tweets that included the terrorist group’s obscene claims of victory, its threats against “surrenderist Arabs,” the ominous declaration that “No one’s word is above that of the resistance,” and the preposterous assertion that by attacking Israel, Al-Qassam’s jihadi terrorists were defending “the Muslims and Arabs and free people of the world.”

The Real Reason for the PA and Hamas's Wage War

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday promised to pay Hamas employees in Gaza their backlogged salary "as soon as possible," but one PA official revealed fears over the group's international purse-strings are behind the continuous postponement in pay.
Tensions in the wage war began with the PA-Hamas unity deal in April, after which Hamas's 40,000 employees in Gaza still were not paid backlogged wages by the new unity government even as the PA's 70,000 employees in Gaza continue to be paid.
The rage boiled over into violence, with Hamas eventually shutting down all the banks in Gaza for roughly a week, until in June a financial bail-out from Qatar temporarily stemmed the crisis; however, Hamas's launching a terror war on Israel early in July apparently put off the salary payments even further.
A solution from the PA does not appear to be imminent.

Hamas 'Victory Rally' in Abbas's Home Turf of Ramallah

After Arab citizens of Israel led by radical Arab MKs held a "Hamas victory rally" in the Galilee last Friday, Arab residents followed suit on Saturday in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stronghold in Samaria.
Thousands of local Arabs took part in the rally, which was organized by the Hamas movement in Ramallah in celebration of the hard-hit terrorist organization's supposed "victory" against Israel in Operation Protective Edge.
The rally, held in the Al-Bireh neighborhood of Ramallah, was entitled "The Pledge of Allegiance and Victory." Hamas leaders and parliamentarians in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from different parts of Judea and Samaria took part in the celebration, accompanied by leaders of other Palestinian Arab organizations.

PA reportedly detains Hamas members in West Bank

Palestinian Authority security forces apprehended several members of Hamas during rallies organized by the group in two West Bank cities over the weekend, Hamas-affiliated media outlets reported Sunday.
According to Israel Radio, Hamas said a number of its supporters were detained while others were repeatedly harassed by PA security men at demonstrations in Tulkarem and Ramallah.

Hamas: Any attempt to disarm Gaza is ‘worthless’

Any initiative to disarm Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip would be “worthless,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Saturday, saying such a move would be “inconsistent with international law and our people will not allow it.”
Abu Zuhri told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency that, if anything, Israel was the party that should be disarmed, while the international community should “ban the American administration from providing it with the weapons that are used to kill children and women.“
London-based Arab newspaper A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported Saturday that ceasefire talks will be renewed in Cairo next week. Palestinian negotiators are expected to repeat their demands for the release of Hamas prisoners held by Israel since June, as well as the establishment of a seaport and an airport in the Strip. Israel has rejected these demands, and Hamas accepted an open-ended ceasefire on Tuesday without them.

Liberman: Arab MKs who celebrated in Hamas victory rally should be jailed

Balad MKs Jamal Zehalka and Haneen Zoabi, and United Arab list head Ibrahim Sarsur, sang the Palestinian national anthem during the rally at the Kabul Regional Council southeast of Acre.
Palestinian flags draped the event, which was held under the banner “Gaza won.”
Some 2,000 people attended the event, which was organized by the Monitoring Committee of the Israeli Arab Leadership.
"Those demonstrators, which included Israeli-Arab MKs, did not demonstrate to identify with the pain of Gaza residents, rather they expressed open support for an enemy that fought against Israel for two months," Liberman wrote on his Facebook page.
"Therefore, they should be seen as traitors and as those who support a terrorist organization, they should be tried and they should be given the "right" to observe a minute of silence, as they did at the rally, inside of a prison cell."

Jon Stewart: ‘I’m not anti-Israel’

On accusations of being a “self-hating Jew,” Stewart said he had no patience for such narrow-minded viewpoints.
“Look, there’s a lot of reasons why I hate myself — being Jewish isn’t one of them,” Stewart told the reporter. “So when someone starts throwing that around, or throwing around you’re pro-terrorist, it’s more just disappointing than anything else. I’ve made a living for 16 years criticizing certain policies that I think are not good for America. That doesn’t make me anti-American. And if I do the same with Israel, that doesn’t make me anti-Israel. You cannot outsmart dogma, no matter what you do. If there is something constructive in what they’re saying, hopefully I’m still open enough … to take it in and let it further inform my position. But I’m pretty impermeable to yelling. As soon as they go to, ‘Your real name is Leibowitz!’ that’s when I change the channel.”

Italian FM elected next EU foreign policy chief

Mogherini, a 41-year-old center-left politician, has been Italy’s foreign minister only since February, drawing criticism that she lacks experience.
Mogherini was in Israel in July, just a week into Operation Protective Edge, and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then president Shimon Peres.
Her visit included a trip to rocket-hit Ashdod, after which she said the experience showed her “the strong physical and psychological pressure, on the people.”
“As a mother I understand very well the pressure and the tension there and at the same time the number of civilian victims in Gaza is extremely worrying. I think it’s in the interest of the Israeli and Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, to stop this,” she said at the time.

George Galloway Suspect Named

He has a Facebook profile with a fair amount of public posting. This is of interest, posted yesterday at 8:44 am:
"As a Catholic, it grieves me deeply that the catholic church was confederate-in-chief in antisemitism; and their antisemitism essentially caused the most brutal murderous aspects of the Nazis…
If we fail to check Islam in precisely the same way as we, using the most advanced laws of the day, did against Catholics for centuries, then a greater antisemitism with a far greater darkness than the Nazis will be sure to follow.
Where Jews suffer, we are all doomed to suffer… eventually.
Kill the beast, it must be slain. Keep destroying it until it starts to destroy itself.
PS Catholics have paid their dues to the protestant ascendancy and are now reconciled; why does Islam get the free pass…? Now that is an infinitely more unfair form of discrimination against humanity if we fail to stop it."
I’m sure this will be discussed endlessly and it is highly interesting to note, despite Gilad Atzmon’s knee jerk calls for Jews to be spied on, he is not Jewish.

Who's afraid of the big, bad boycott?

Let's start with the conclusion: Israeli exports are not affected by the present economic boycott, nor will they be affected in the future. This is not because certain European consumer groups and the like are not trying – it is because the unique nature of Israel's exports simply does not allow for it. It's a logical concept on paper, but simply does not hold water in reality.
The most obvious example of how the boycott concept is unsustainable is Israel's trade relations with Turkey. In 2010, after Cast Lead, and the Mavi Marmara incident in particular, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who is now trying to change the laws in his country in order to become something akin to a sultan) demanded a boycott of Israel at every opportunity.
And lo and behold - just the opposite has happened. Trade relations with Turkey, both exports and imports, have jumped dramatically and are now at the highest level – and almost 100% rise since 2009, long before the Mavi Marmara.

The new business battlefields

A difference, and an irony, in the current campaigns targeting Israel, is that the more they succeed in intimidating Jews, the more they fail in their claimed goals of providing justice for Palestinians. The campaigns, often driven less by anti-Israeli or pro-Palestinian fervour than by raw anti-Semitism, are escalating, as seen in the smashing of shop windows in a Jewish district of Paris and in physical assaults on Jews. The result is an increasing exodus of Jews from many European countries and into Israel, which increases Israel’s proportion of Jews relative to Muslims and decreases the fear that Israelis have of Israel eventually becoming a Muslim-majority country — it is this fear that drives the majority of Israeli Jews to want Palestinians to have a state of their own. The more that Israeli Jews lose the fear that they might one day no longer be masters in their own land, the less likely that Palestinians will ever achieve a state of their own.

Man Unsure Whether Israel Like Hitler Or Hitler Was Right (satire)

El-Bir added that it is difficult for him to wrap his head around the possibility that Hitler initiated killings of Jews on a mass scale, since that notion could never be assimilated properly in his mind, but that only such numbers of Jews killed would be congruent with charges of Israeli genocide. If the casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Gaza health authorities are to be believed, approximately 2,000 Gazans died during Operation Protective Edge, meaning that invoking Hitler makes no sense.
“If Hitler didn’t really do anything wrong, then Israel being like Hitler is simply untrue,” continued the father of three. “Only if Hitler actually did terrible things does it make sense to mention him. I’m having a hard time with this one.”
El-Bir is not alone in his confusion, says Joe Goebbels, who studies media manipulation and public opinion in the Arab world. “There is no end to the contradictions an Arab must face in his encounters with news. Jews are supposed to be descended from apes and pigs, but these simian and porcine people have also somehow managed to outfight them despite being outnumbered, over and over again. Israel has a burgeoning high-tech industry, a flourishing democracy, and a successful economy that is simply out of place in the Middle East. So are the Jews subhuman, or are they superhuman, capable of controlling the media, the banks, and whole countries, without leaving a trace of evidence?”
“You know who else confronted those contradictory notions about Jews?” said Goebbels. “Hitler.”

Celebrating 5 years of CiF Watch!

Last week, CiF Watch celebrated its 5th anniversary.
In our inaugural post on Aug. 24, 2009 we announced our intention to combat antisemitism and anti-Israel bias at the Guardian, and “to regularly post articles exposing the bigoted and one-sided nature of [their] obsessive focus on Israel and, by extension, the Jewish people.”

Honest Reporting: Brangelina Wedding Leaves Israel Jilted

We wish Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt a hearty mazal tov on their recent wedding. Jolie has, at times, been estranged from her father, actor Jon Voight. According to reports, Voight was “not invited” to the private ceremony in France.
What has this got to do with Israel? Absolutely nothing of course.
But this did not stop The Independent from attempting to add an Israel angle to the story with this headline?

Firebomb Attack on Historic Jerusalem Home Wounds One

Arab terrorists on Saturday night threw a molotov cocktail at "Beit Meyuhas," an historical Jewish home from the 19th century CE in the City of David area just south of Jerusalem's Old City.
In the firebomb attack one 45-year-old Jewish man was wounded lightly, suffering first and second-degree burns to his head.
Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics gave the wounded man medical treatment before transferring him to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

Security forces hunting for suspects after 3 explosive attacks in West Bank

Security forces have launched a search for suspects after three explosive attacks occurred in Samaria on Sunday.
In the first incident, an explosion was reported at Rechalim Junction, near Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank, in an area used by Israeli hitchhikers. There were no damages or injuries in the attack.
Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a police bomb disposal unit was dispatched to the junction, cordoned off the area, and ensured that there were no additional bombs around.
Shortly afterwards, Rosenfeld said, two pipe bombs were hurled at Jit Junction, near the scene of the first attack. The pipe bombs were thrown at a main road hitchhikers use.
"These attacks might have been coordinated," Rosenfeld said. "Border Police and the IDF are searching the area to see if there are additional explosive devices." Police and the army have heightened security in the area ahead of the start of a new school year, Rosenfeld added.

4,000 Dunams in Judea and Samaria to Become State Land

A government spokesperson announced Sunday morning that following instructions issued by the political echelon after Operation Brother's Keeper, 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of Judea and Samaria land will be declared state land, opening the possibility of further construction in the region.
The spokesperson for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated that "the process was enabled after a thorough examination by the Civil Administration's zoning crew."
According to a military spokesperson cited by AFP, the land is near Gevaot, to the south of Beit Illit in Judea.
Extreme leftist groups and Arab residents of Judea and Samaria will have a month and a half to submit opposition in the courts to the process of incorporating the 4,000 dunams into state land.
By declaring the area state land, the Knesset would enable the construction and expansion of Jewish communities in the region, although the process may take long years to complete.

Palestinians pan Israeli West Bank land appropriation

In an angry reaction to the announcement, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat called for diplomatic action against Israel.
“The Israeli government is committing various crimes against the Palestinian people and their occupied land,” he told AFP.
“The international community should hold Israel accountable as soon as possible for its crimes and raids against our people in Gaza and the ongoing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”

ISIS says forcing detained pilots to train militants: report

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria said in a recent tweet it is forcing detained Syrian pilots to train militant fighters to fly stolen aircraft, CNN Arabic reported on Saturday.
In an account reportedly associated with the militant group, ISIS said in a tweet the pilots were abducted when the group gained control over the Tabqa military airbase in Raqqa Province.
ISIS seized the airbase earlier this month. The major airfield houses warplanes, helicopters, tanks and other artillery and ammunition, which were also confiscated by ISIS, according to several media reports.

Italy Beefs Up Security After Islamic State Announces Pope Francis Is 'in the Crosshairs'

Il Tempo reported that according to their sources within Italy’s intelligence services, the Islamic State plans on “raising the level of confrontation” with Pope Francis because he is the “greatest exponent of the Christian religion."
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said to Catholic News Agency, after catching wind of the IS threats: “There is nothing serious to this. There is no particular concern in the Vatican.”
Earlier this week, however, Italy issued an official terrorism alert, largely because of increased concern about the threat posed by the radical Islamist group. Rome cautioned that IS could hit “sensitive targets” throughout Italy and its embassies abroad, including that of the Holy See. Deputy interior minister Filippo Bubbico warned that churches, mass transit stations, seaports, and airports were all at risk. “ISIS poses an international and European security threat, and we in Italy feel particularly exposed,” said the deputy interior minister.

Iran says possible response to new U.S. sanctions could not be 'pleasant'

Iran's possible response to new U.S. sanctions could "not be pleasant", its foreign minister said on Sunday, raising the prospect of tit-for-tat retribution against the Islamic Republic's old adversary weeks ahead of fresh nuclear talks.
Iranian leaders reacted with dismay to Friday's announcement that Washington was going to penalize a number of Iranian and other foreign companies, banks and airlines for violating sanctions against Tehran, most of which are tied to a decade-old dispute about its nuclear program.
Washington said the moves were a signal that there would be no let-up of sanctions while international talks were underway to ease the economic measures in exchange for Iran's agreement to curb its nuclear activities..

Daniel Pipes: Basting Turkey's new prime minister

As Turkey's 26th prime minister, Davutoglu faces a bubble economy perilously near collapse, a breakdown in the rule of law, a country inflamed by Erdogan's divisive rule, a hostile Gulen movement, and a divided AKP, all converging within an increasingly Islamist (and therefore uncivil) country. Moreover, the foreign policy problems that Davutoglu himself created still persist, especially the Islamic State hostage emergency in Mosul.
The unfortunate Davutoglu brings to mind a cleanup crew arriving at the party at 4 a.m., facing a mess created by now-departed revelers. Happily, the contentious and autocratic Erdogan no longer holds Turkey's key governmental position; but his placing the country in the unsteady hands of a loyalist of proven incompetence brings many new concerns for the Turks, their neighbors, and all who wish the country well.

Impatience grows in Turkey over Syrian ‘guests’

Erdogan has maintained an “open door” policy for all those fleeing Syria’s civil war, with the result that there are now some 1.2 million Syrian refugees living in the country.
Some 285,000 Syrians are accommodated in refugee camps in the south and southeast of the country but a far greater number of 912,000, according to official figures, are now living in Turkish cities.
It is these refugees who have become the source of an upsurge in tensions in Turkey, where local authorities appear to have been initially poorly prepared for the huge influx.
The refugees have become an increasingly visible presence in cities including Istanbul, with entire families huddled together on carpets and begging in the middle of the pavement in the city center.

UN hosts Historic Counter-Anti-Semitism Confab

On Monday September 8th, 2014, at 1:15 p.m., the UN Permanent Mission of Palau, and the Engr Aja Eze Foundation are sponsoring a conference on “Global Anti-Semitism: A Threat to International Peace and Security” at the United Nations Headquarters facility in New York City.
The counter-anti-Semitism conference will feature speakers who will explain how the rising tide of anti-Semitism will have a catastrophic effect on the safety and security of the world.
The opening statements will be made by H.E. Dr. Caleb Otto, Amb. UN Perm. Mission of Palau, and H.E. Mr. Ron Prosser, Amb. UN Perm. Mission of Israel. Other noted speakers will be Ms. Brigitte Gabriel, of ACT for America; Mark Langfan, Arutz Sheva UN Correspondent/Security Analyst; and Pastor Mario Bramnick, Chief Liaison for Israel and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
“There is no better place in the world to hold a anti-anti-Semitism conference than the United Nations, HQ. It’s a vital forum to fight this resurging scourge,” said Langfan, who will be presenting his graphic analysis of the strategic dangers to Israel and the world.

Clashes at Stockholm protest against neo-Nazis

Swedish riot police briefly clashed with counterdemonstrators at a neo-Nazi rally in Stockholm on Saturday, two weeks before a parliamentary election.
Police said four police officers and three civilians were slightly injured in the violence that erupted on the sidelines of a march by about 150 members of the far-right Party of the Swedes.
Thousands of people gathered in downtown Stockholm to protest peacefully against the march, but a few dozen masked activists attacked police with firecrackers, bottles, eggs and panels from a security fence.

When Jimmy Carter met Wonder Woman

Gadot posted the picture on Saturday, noting that she ran into the statesman at an airport.
“Off to a new project, guess who I ran into in the airport?? It’s not everyday that you get to meet with a Nobel prize winner former president Jimmy Carter. So humbled I am star struck,” she wrote.
While the picture received over 60,000 “likes” within about eight hours, it also drew a barrage of scathing comments about Carter’s views on Israel.
“Gal please don’t hang with people who hate Israel. Love you,” wrote one commentator.
“I’m surprised he touched a Jew,” said another.
“It’s not an honor to take a picture with this bigot racist Antisemite,” declared a third fan.
Other comments accused Carter of being a “Nazi,” “a well known anti-Semite,” and a supporter of the Hamas terror group.

Gaga gives go-ahead for TLV show

After a summer of heartbreak for Israeli music fans, with cancellations from Neil Young, The Backstreet Boys and Lana Del Rey among others, producers of Lady Gaga’s planned September 13 concert in Tel Aviv confirmed Sunday that the provocative pop star’s show will indeed go on.
The multi-talented singer-songwriter, who burst onto the world stage with her 2008 album “The Fame,” will perform at Yarkon Park as part of her world tour, dubbed “artRAVE: The ARTPOP ball.” The tour is named in honor of Gaga’s third studio album, Artpop, which was released last November and features such hit singles as “Applause,” “Do What You Want” and “G.U.Y.”
She played Tel Aviv once before, in August 2009.

Israeli IPO’s world-beating 73% surge leads August rally

Mobileye NV (MBLY), the technology company that went public a month ago, led gains among U.S.-listed Israeli stocks in August as investors shrugged off concern that the seven-week Gaza conflict will weaken the economy.
Mobileye has surged 73 percent to $43.22 since listing in New York on July 31, the biggest rally among all companies globally that raised $500 million or more in the past three months. Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd. (CSTE), the maker of quartz counter-tops, climbed 20 percent in August, the second-best performance on the Bloomberg Israel-U.S. Equity Index, which rose 4.8 percent.
While signs have emerged that the Gaza fighting is starting to curb output at some Israeli businesses, hurt tourism and cut into consumer spending, investors have shown little concern, instead bidding up stocks in line with gains being posted in the U.S. and other major global markets. The performance of Mobileye and Caesarstone, which has more than tripled since its 2012 listing, could help bolster demand for more Israeli initial public offerings, according to Josef Schuster, the founder of Chicago-based IPOX Schuster LLC.

Aqua Shield thwarts marine terrorism

One of the prominent events in Operation Protective Edge was the elimination of a Hamas terrorist squad sent by sea to Zikim on the Ashkelon coast in order to carry out a large-scale terrorist attack. The thwarting of the attack was unquestionably a very great achievement in many aspects: the rapid operational response, the encounter between the IDF unit and the terrorists, and above all the early detection of the threat, which made appropriate preparation possible.
The scuba terrorists who made their way from the Gaza Strip to Israel came through an area of shallow water a few dozen meters from the coast, where swimming is possible, but the water is not deep enough for naval vessels to patrol and operate there. The advanced detection systems, however, can also cover shallow water, which makes it difficult to penetrate Israel territory from this area. This unsuccessful terrorist strike exposed the problem of the threat of marine terrorism, a threat that has already been worrying the world for several years. Israel's Aqua Shield system, which gives marine terrorists no chance, makes it a global leader in this field.

The Maccabeats - Home (Medley) - Israel


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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 01:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Self-righteous artists condemn Israeli sponsorship of exhibition - including Israeli artists

From Hyperallergic:

Artists participating in the 31st São Paulo Biennial have signed an open letter calling on the organizers to return sponsorship funds accepted from the Israeli state, Hyperallergic has learned. The patronage, credited to the Israeli consulate in São Paulo, appears on the sponsor board in the main exhibition space, in official publications, and online, alarming some participating artists who arrived in São Paulo ahead of the September 1 preview.

In the letter, the artists state that with the Israeli sponsorship, their exhibited work is “undermined and implicitly used for whitewashing Israel’s ongoing aggressions and violation of international law and human rights.” The missive follows an August 20 meeting between objecting artists and the Biennial president, Luis Terepins, who said that the organization would consider the matter, a source close to the discussions told Hyperallergic. When no resolution seemed forthcoming, the open letter was organized. The letter, reproduced below, has 55 signatories as of this writing; the biennial lists 68 participating artists and collectives.

Israel's consulate contributed $40,000.

At least one of the artists who signed this anti-Israel letter is Israeli, Yael Bartana.

Turkey is another sponsor of the biennial, to no one's dismay, except perhaps some Kurds and Armenians, but who cares about them? Certainly not these progressive artists!

The curators of the show support the artists:

The curators of the 31st São Paulo Biennial have supported the artists’ call on the organization to return Israeli sponsorship funds, a demand they believe “should also be a trigger to think about the funding sources of major cultural events.” Their stance, articulated in a three-paragraph statement sent to Hyperallergic earlier this evening (and reproduced below), endorses the broader strategy undertaken by the open letter the objecting artists released yesterday.

In their statement, Biennial curators Charles Esche, Galit Eilat, Nuria Enguita Mayo, Pablo Lafuente, and Oren Sagiv write, in part: “[S]ources of cultural funding have an increasingly dramatic impact on the supposedly ‘independent’ curatorial and artistic narrative of an event. The funding, whether state, corporate or private, fundamentally shapes the way the public receives the work of artists and curators.”

So to be consistent, the artists should reject all outside funding, right? If funding affects the art, then it is just as immoral to accept funding from Samsung and KPMG and Air France as it is from Israel and Argentina and Turkey, right?

But, as we've seen many times, "you've gotta start somewhere," and Israel is where these self-righteous hypocrites always start - and end.

Sickeningly, two of the curators who support the artists are Israeli as well.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 11:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 2 RPGs and a Koran

Al Qassam Brigades terrorist Mohammed Abdullah Hussein Hawajri was killed on July 26 by the IDF along with three of his terrorist colleagues.

His family posted a bunch of photos of their proud mujahid. But this one is interesting:

Look how artfully the Koran is placed between the two RPGs.

Not only that, but if the RPGs would have been placed on the table directly, they would not have been centered vertically with the Koran. So four AK-47 magazines were used to add to the effect, to allow the set designer to emphasize that Islam and violence are entwined.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 09:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Hamas calls media "partners in victory"

Gaza's Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, proving that the Palestinian Arab media are simply propaganda outlets, praised the media and journalists as "partners in the victory" against Israel.

During a ceremony to honor "martyrs of the media," which was organized by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Information, Hanieyahsaid that the media "contributed to the steadfastness of the Palestinian people."

He said, "The Palestinian people has triumphed over the Israeli aggression on all levels, including militarily, politically and morally and in the media."

Haniyeh said that "the men of the Palestinian media have formed the source from which the world's media derived all that was going on in Gaza, and was a source for even the Israeli media after they lost confidence in their leaders."

There is no indication that the media that relied on these liars for their reports are bothered in the least.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 06:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Fake Civilians of the Day

PCHR, that "human rights" organization that the UN relies upon to determine its death statistics from Gaza, reported on July 29:

At approximately 06:00, an Israeli drone fired a missile near a house belonging to Ahmed Sa'id all-Hashash in al-Hashash neighborhood in the north of Rafah. When members of the family attempted to evacuate the house taking their disabled mother out, the Israeli drone fired a missile at them. When a number of their relatives attempted to help them, the Israeli drone fired a third missile at them. As a result of these attacks, 6 civilians were killed: Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hashash, 16; Mohammed Ahmed al-Hashash, 18; Mas'oud Ahmed al-Hashash, 20; Sa'id Ahmed al-Hashash, 20; their mother Hana' Ali al-Hashash, 43; and Mohammed Mousa al-Hashash, 20.

Here are the Hamas "mujahid martyr" posters for four of these family members:

Bilal

Muhammad

Masoud

Said

Here's the funny part: Hamas admitted that these were member of the Al Qassam Brigades on the day they were killed. It was all over pro-jihadi forums that very same day.

There is no way that PCHR didn't know that this was a family of Hamas terrorists, but that didn't stop them from calling them all "civilian."

So when you see statistics of how 75% of those killed in Gaza are civilians - here is what a lot of those "civilians" look like.

(h/t Israellycool, Johnny, Bob Knot)



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/31/2014 12:18:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 08/30 Links: 75 UN troops flee to Israel; Will Jews Buy Umbrellas When They See Clouds in the Sky?

From Ian:

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Will Jews Buy Umbrellas When They See Clouds in the Sky?

19th century Zionist philosopher, Max Nordau, was quoted as telling Jewish leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky that "the Jew learns not by way of reason, but from catastrophes. He won't buy an umbrella merely because he sees clouds in the sky. He waits until he is drenched and catches pneumonia."
On so many counts, Nordau's words remain completely accurate and reliable today.
In Israel, in the aftermath of Jews being removed from Gaza, disastrous peace talks, and the capitulation to terrorism, Hamas is still firing weapons at the State of Israel. Throughout Europe, Jews are attacked and in danger. In America, American Jews – wrongly – think that without Judaism they can retain Jewish identity – and thus assimilation rates continue to skyrocket. And throughout all of it, the world unfairly continues to condemn Israel.
During these frightening times, it is interesting to remember Zionist heroes, such as Max Nordau, who first raised the concept of what he termed at the time a "muscle Jew," at the Second Zionist Congress in Basel on August 28, 1898. During a recent trip to France, I met countless Jews who discussed the need to emigrate to Israel – and thankfully today there is an army to protect the Jewish State.

Policy Paper for Submission to the UN: UNRWA Pt I

The UNRWA workers union has been controlled in practice by Hamas for many years. The "Professional List", headed by senior Hamas activist Suheil Al-Hindi, won a landslide victory in the elections for the UNRWA workers union held in September 2012.
In the elections, in which nearly 11,500 employees of UNRWA voted, the "Professional List" won all 11 seats allocated to the teachers' sector, 6 of 7 seats in the employees' sector and 8 out of 9 seats in the service sector.
The "Al-Karama (Honor) List," affiliated with the Islamic Jihad organization, also participated in the elections, whereas the Fatah movement chose to boycott them, claiming that Hamas controls the UNRWA workers union and limits its activities.
The 2012 workers union elections were not the first ones to be won by Hamas. They also won the 2009 elections. The bloc affiliated with Hamas also won the previous election for the UNRWA workers union by an overwhelming majority. Lists affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO (uniting representatives of the PFLP, Fatah and the People's Party) and the independents took part in the 2009 elections. 17 representatives of Hamas (63%), four from the PFLP, four from Fatah, one from the People's Party and one from the independents were elected to the union, which includes 27 members.

 Michael Lumish: Netanyahu & the West Doom Israel to Perpetual War.

With the recent alleged conclusion of Operation Protective Edge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with the western powers, has doomed the Jews of the Middle East to perpetual war.
Unless we see significant policy changes coming out of Jerusalem viz-a-viz the security of the south, Israel can write off that part of the country and just accept the idea that their children will never be even remotely safe. Furthermore, of course, if Israel had any plans to economically or agriculturally develop that part of the country they can simply forget about, at least into the foreseeable future.
Hamas, as it turns out, is actually far more effective in the ethnic-cleansing of Jews from Jewish land than is even the EU, the UN, or the Obama administration. Obama has been twisting Jewish arms for years trying to get us to move off of Jewish land without success, but Hamas knows how it is done.
Violence.
You simply hit Jews in the head until we go away.

IDF Blog: Fighting for Life: The Female Paramedics of Operation Protective Edge

They are among the few women who entered the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge. Amid the clashes and mortar fire, three combat soldiers tell us of the days they spent fighting to save the lives of their comrades on the battlefield.
Before entering Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, IDF combat paramedics experienced intensive training and some of the military's most demanding courses. For a year and a half, they underwent training in the IDF Paramedic-Combat course, acquiring advanced expertise in emergency medical care.
Rigorous testing, hospital internships and intensive physical training shaped the service of IDF paramedics who participated in Israel's operation. After returning from Gaza, they told us about their unique experiences saving lives on the battlefield.

I Have Two Nightmares About a Palestinian State

I ran into an old friend, a well-known journalist, whose son had just emerged from the fighting in Gaza.
So what do we do now? I asked.
"I'm ready for almost any deal," he said. "But even if Abbas were a serious partner, I worry that he'd be overthrown by Hamas if we pulled out of the West Bank. When Bibi said that we can't give up security control there, I actually found myself agreeing with him."
"I have two nightmares about a Palestinian state," I said. "That there won't be one and that there will be one."
Meanwhile, we try not to ask ourselves too many questions about the future, because it is too terrifying. The only good news from this terrible summer of 2014 is that we've once again surprised ourselves with our resilience. When Hamas released a video of a song (sung in bad Hebrew) threatening terror attacks, Israelis countered with YouTube clips of young people dancing to the catchy Hamas tune in the streets of Tel Aviv. Other young Israelis went into battle singing the Hasidic song, "The whole world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to be afraid." It was a psychological message of its own: We're here to stay.

The war in the eyes of our leaders

The following points are the product of conversations I have had over the past week with authorized officials of various ranks and with relevant experts. I amalgamated the disjointed conversations into one article in an effort to provide an all-inclusive view of the way the latest campaign was handled by the different branches of the Israeli leadership, from the points of view of those leaders. It is important to take these things into account in any serious discussion of this military operation and of its implications. (h/t Bob Knot)

Intelligence Report: Terrorists Killed by IDF Listed as Child Casualties

The report determined that 46 percent of those killed were militants, while 54 percent were uninvolved civilians. However, due to Hamas' policy of concealment and deception, the numbers might actually skew even more toward the militant side.
For example, a great many armed militants killed during the fighting in the Gaza City suburb of Shejaiya between July 19-August 1 remain buried under rubble, and therefore do not appear on any casualty lists. According to intelligence estimates, some 100–150 terrorists were killed in Shejaiya.
The report also revealed that armed terrorists killed during the fighting were later listed as young children by the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH).
For instance, Gaza's MoH said that Abruim Jamal Kamal Netzer from Khan Younis, killed on July 18, was just 13-years-old. In reality, he was a 26-year-old militant associated with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
The ITIC said this was not an innocent mistake, but rather a deliberate effort to identify deceased terrorists as children.

Aerial Video Shows Hamas Stronghold in Ruins

An Arab-produced video shows aerial views of the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza. The neighborhood was reduced to rubble in the fighting between Hamas and the IDF.
Thirteen IDF soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in Shejaiya on July 19-20. There was fierce fighting in the neighborhood, which Hamas had fillied with boobytraps, snipers and terrorists armed with antitank missiles and other weapons.
Seven of the soldiers killed in the battle had been seated inside an APC that was targeted with an RPG. In the immediate aftermath of that attack, terrorists abducted the body of Sgt. Oron Shaul hy"d. The IDF responded to the attack and abduction with fierce shelling. (h/t Bob Knot)

BBC's summary graphic continues to mislead on Gaza casualty ratios

As we also see, there is still no evidence to suggest that the BBC has independently verified the statistics it quotes and promotes and BBC audiences have still not been informed of that lack of independent verification or of the political backdrop to the figures cited.
Readers may be interested to know of the existence of a petition to try to persuade the BBC to correct its obviously problematic policy.
Notable too is the fact that at no point during its last seven weeks of coverage of the conflict has the BBC attempted to put the topic of civilian/combatant casualty ratios in Gaza into their broader context. Audiences in the UK and other Western countries have not been informed how those ratios compare to other conflicts in which their own armed forces were involved.

Wounded IDF Soldier Leaves Hospital After Mt. Scopus Attack

Twenty-five days after a near-fatal attack on Mount Scopus, during Israel's self-defense operation in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, Sgt. Chen Schwartz was released from Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem.
Schwartz's release was an emotional event Friday, after spending nearly a month being treated for wounds sustained by a terrorist on a motorcycle.
The soldier thanked the hospital staff for "giving him a second life."
"I am leaving here with a smile," Schwartz stated.

Zoabi proclaims Palestinian 'victory' in Gaza

Balad party MK Hanin Zoabi hailed a Palestinian "victory" over Israel in the latest round of Gaza violence, making the declaration at a rally in northern Israel on Friday.
Approximately 2,000 people attended the demonstration called by the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee entitled the "Gaza victory" in the Galilean village of Kabbul. Attendees, headlined by Zoabi and fellow Balad MK Jamal Zahalka, marked a moment of silence in memory of those killed in the Gaza Strip, waved PLO flags and held picture of slain Gazans.
"The Palestinian resistance and the people as a whole in Gaza defeated all the military and political objectives that Israel set for itself. Our people's struggle thwarted all of Israel's objectives," Zoabi said at the gathering.
"This is a victory rally for the Palestinian people," she told Channel 2. "There is no people without resistance and there's no resistance without the people. This is victory for the Palestinian people, and it's the right of the entire nation to fight the occupation. I'm not concerned about public incitement. It's the natural right of the Palestinians. When there won't be occupation, there won't be resistance."

Islamic State vows to reach 'Palestine' and 'kill the barbaric Jews'

Now in the organization's new English language publication, Dabiq, aimed at young Muslims in western states, the extremist organization declared, "Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path towards Palestine."
Denouncing the ineffectiveness of other Arab states and organizations in carrying out the "will of Allah," the magazine vows that, "Its [Islamic State's] actions speak louder than its words and it is only a matter of time and patience before it reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees – the trees of the jews."

British MP who called for Israel boycott released from hospital following attack

George Galloway, a British lawmaker known for his anti-Israel remarks, was hospitalized following an attack on the streets of Notting Hill.
The politician was taken to a London hospital for treatment and was released on Saturday afternoon.
Galloway was posing for pictures with the public on the streets of west London when a man plunged at him. A spokesman said he thought the attack was connected to the MP's views vis-a-vis Israel, since the assailant made remarks about the Holocaust as he began punching him.

5 Reasons Why No One Should Be Glad That Galloway Was Beaten Up

2. He needs his jaw, and so do we
I reckon every time Galloway opens his mouth, he does more for the pro-Israel cause than he would like to think. I mean he's a Grade A loon and everyone apart from the leftist hordes that have nothing better to do with their Saturdays but sit in Hyde Park with a keffiyeh and a Hezbollah flag knows it. The silent majority of Britain know him not as a great orator, or a man of significant intellect, but as a man who pretended to be a cat on Big Brother. So let's be having more of him.

Netanyahu Says Abbas Must Choose Between Hamas and Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 10 on Friday that the latest Gaza conflict "might have" opened a possibility for a diplomatic breakthrough with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but only if Abbas decides to give Hamas "a divorce."
Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party are currently part of the unity government.
"I think [Abbas] understands today that he must choose between a Hamas that doesn't only call for [Israel's] destruction, it also called for his overthrow, and in fact acted on it," Netanyahu said, referring to a recently uncovered Hamas plot to topple Abbas in the West Bank. "I hope that we can cooperate with him on a diplomatic process."

Report: Abbas, Hamas agree on plan for independent Palestinian state

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas have agreed on a three-phase plan that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Saturday.
The paper quoted Palestinian sources in Ramallah as saying that the plan calls for giving the Americans a period of four months to draw the borders of the Palestinian state and win Israel's recognition.
If the two sides agree on the plan, they would launch immediate negotiations with a defined timetable during which Israel would be requested to present a map showing its own borders, the sources said.
But if the plan is rejected, the sources added, the Palestinians, together with the Arab countries, would ask the United Nations Security Council to "evict Israel from the land of Palestine."

Eastern Jerusalem Church Forced to Close After Years of Islamist Harassment

An Evangelical Christian church in eastern Jerusalem was forced to close following years of harassment and intimidation by Islamists, a Palestinian pastor said.
The Calvary Baptist Church—which is affiliated with the Evangelical Christian Holy Land Missions organization—was forced to move out of its building in July after Islamists threatened its landlord. The congregation is currently looking for a new building.
The church, which was located in the predominantly Muslim eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, is trying to raise $3.5 million to purchase a new building.
"We can't get a loan because we don't own anything in Israel," Holy Land Missions' Pastor Steven Khoury told Morning Star News. "By faith we are asking the Lord to help us raise $3.5 million. We've been able to raise about $700,000 so far."
According to Khoury, the persecution of Calvary Baptist congregants started shortly after the church opened in 2007. Among the attacks were a congregant being threatened with a knife, a Molotov cocktail being tossed at the building, and vehicles and even children being harassed at church functions.

Nearly 600 Terror Suspects Arrested in August

Israeli security forces detained 597 terror suspects in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in August, raising the number of terrorists and suspected terrorists in Israeli prisons to more than 7,000, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said.
The majority of the arrests took place in eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem and in the Judean city of Hevron - both of which are hotbeds of support for Hamas, which led attacks against Israel during Operation Protective Edge - according to the Ramallah-based NGO.
Many were arrested during violent demonstrations in support of terrorists in Gaza during the deadly 50-day war with Israel, which included the firing of thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians.
Since the June kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in Gush Etzion in Judea, at least 2,000 suspects have been questioned and detained, according to the NGO.

Two mortars explode near Israel-Syria border

Two mortar shells exploded inside Israel near the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights Saturday, causing no injuries or damage, according to initial reports.
The explosions were believed to be strays from fighting between rebel groups and government troops on the Syrian side of the Golan.
On Thursday, the IDF said it was raising the level of alert following the intense fighting across the border amid reports that the Quneitra crossing was seized by the Nusra Front, a rebel group affiliated with al-Qaeda, and in light of the abduction of 44 Fijian UN peacekeepers and the siege of 110 Filipino UN troops by the group.

Dozens of UN troops trapped by Syrian rebels freed under fire

Around three dozen Filipino UN peacekeepers out of 110 surrounded and trapped by Syrian rebels for the past few days were rescued under fire by other UN forces, news agencies reported Saturday evening.
Irish UNDOF soldiers participated in the rescue efforts, according to a statement by the Irish forces.
"Irish personnel secured a route, provided security as UNDOF troops withdrew from a UN position and escorted them to the Force Headquarters in Camp Faouar" on the Syrian side of the armistice line, the Irish statement said.

75 UN troops flee into Israel to escape Syrian rebels

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that a number of UN peacekeepers entered Israel. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Channel 2 said 75 UN troops had crossed the borders, after two UN positions on the Syrian side of the border were targeted by al-Nusra rebel forces.
Earlier in the day, the Philippine defense chief said that Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights were attacked by Syrian rebels, who are also holding dozens of Fijian troops hostage.
Clashes continued in the area through Saturday.

Suriname president's son pleads guilty to 'Hezbollah plot'

The son of the president of Suriname pleaded guilty on Friday to US charges he sought to offer a home base in his South American country to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Dino Bouterse, once picked by his father to lead a counterterrorism unit in Suriname, told a judge in federal court in Manhattan that as part of the scheme he provided a false Surinamese passport to a person he believed was a Hezbollah operative. He also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and firearms charges.
The guilty plea came a year after Bouterse's arrest in Panama on charges he conspired to smuggle cocaine into the United States. He had already been extradited to the United States and jailed when authorities added terrorism charges accusing him of agreeing to accept a multimillion-dollar payoff in exchange for allowing large numbers of Hezbollah fighters to use Suriname as a base for attacking American targets.

Saudi Arabia: ISIS Will Reach America In Two Months

Saudi Arabia's head of state King Abdullah issued a dire warning to the West if they choose to ignore the Muslim extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
"If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month," Abdullah said at a Friday diplomatic ceremony and later quoted by Saudi television.
"Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East," he continued. "You see how they [jihadists] carry out beheadings and make children show the severed heads in the street."

Islamic State reportedly seeking biological weapons

Plans to develop biological weapons and instructions on how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals were found on a laptop belonging to a Tunisian Islamic State jihadist, by a Syrian rebel commander from a moderate group in northern Syria.
The laptop was seized during an attack on an IS hideout in Idlib province, near the Turkish border, in January, according to the Syrian commander, dubbed Abu Ali, Foreign Policy Magazine reported. (h/t Alexi)

Armenia hands invitation letter to Erdoğan to mark 100th anniversary of 1915

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has officially invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a ceremony that will mark the 100th anniversary of the killing of Ottoman Armenians in 1915.
Nalbandian attended Erdoğan's inauguration ceremony in Ankara on Aug. 28, where he handed him the official letter to attend the ceremony next year.
"During the reception given after the ceremony in the honor of the heads of delegations, Nalbandian had a short conversation with President Erdoğan and handed him the official invitation letter by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan to attend the Remembrance Ceremony, dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, which will take place in Yerevan on April 24, 2015," a written statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry said Aug. 29. The Turkish Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the issue.

'Jewish Ritual Murder' Page Removed, Then Restored by Facebook Within 24 Hours

A Facebook page entitled "Jewish Ritual Murder" was taken town and then reactivated within a 24-hour period after the social media giant reconsidered its decision that it violated their community standards, The Algemeiner has learned.
Dexter Van Zile, an analyst for media watchdog CAMERA, reported that he had been notified by Facebook that the page had been removed on Thursday, after a long campaign by Jewish activists and groups.
"Facebook Removes Antisemitic page. Life's little victories," Van Zile tweeted at 10:44 a.m.
But on Friday, The Algemeiner received multiple reports of Facebook users who had complained about the page, being informed that it was now back up.

British Jews to Call for 'Zero Tolerance' for Anti-Semitism

Thousands of people have participated in anti-Israel protests, and the demonstrations have been accompanied by anti-Semitic violence. Over the past several weeks, for example, pro-Palestinian rioters vandalized a Birmingham Tesco store out of rage over a refusal to boycott Israeli products; in a similar incident, hundreds of demonstrators rioted outside the Kedem store in Manchester, in a series of clashes which culminated in dozens of death threats being hurled at the store's owners.
But British Jews have begun to fight back, according to the grassroots Campaign Against Anti-Semitism - and will rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
"There is a wave of widespread antisemitism sweeping across Europe, and also here in Britain," Jonathan Sacerdoti, spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said. "British Jews are afraid. Citizens are looking to the police and government to enforce the law with zero tolerance against antisemites, as they do in other cases of racism. It is only through zero tolerance that the tide of antisemitism can be turned. This demand is backed by the full spectrum of Jewish organizations."

Cleveland State, University of Haifa sign agreement

Cleveland State University and the University of Haifa have signed an agreement to develop joint programming.
David Faraggi, rector of Israel's University of Haifa, signed the memorandum of understanding to formalize their collaborative relationship with CSU President Ronald Berkman on Wednesday in Cleveland.
Faraggi was in Cleveland for a two-day visit to meet with college deans and community leaders.
The two universities plan to develop joint programs in natural sciences, Middle Eastern studies and educational leadership, according to Cleveland State.

Cornell's most daring step: Hoping to find Zuckerberg on new campus

Cornell's much bigger plans are down in New York, where a fifth of its 2.5 lakh alums live. Cornell Tech, the graduate school that preps students to build projects for local firms and start their own tech firms, started classes in Google's offices in 2013 with plans to move to the Roosevelt Island campus in a few years, when it's complete. Built in partnership with Israel's Technion, the campus, being funded in part by Cornell grads Chuck Feeney and Irwin Jacobs, hopes to generate $23 billion in economic activity over three decades.
"The entrepreneurial passion is something you can't teach," admits Dan Huttenlocher, dean of Cornell Tech. "But I think an Ivy League university is a tremendous place to get the skills to make you much more likely to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavours."

Orbotech Announces Closing of the Acquisition of SPTS Technologies

Orbotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: ORBK) has been at the cutting edge of the electronics industry supply chain, as an innovator of enabling technologies used in the manufacture of the world's most sophisticated consumer and industrial products, for over 30 years. The Company is a leading provider of yield-enhancing and production solutions, primarily for manufacturers of printed circuit boards, flat panel displays and other electronic components. Today, virtually every electronic device is produced using Orbotech technology. The Company also applies its core expertise and resources in other advanced technology areas, including character recognition for check and forms processing and solar photovoltaic manufacturing. Headquartered in Israel and operating from multiple locations internationally, Orbotech's highly talented and inter-disciplinary professionals design, manufacture, sell and service the Company's end-to-end portfolio of solutions for the benefit of customers the world over.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/30/2014 09:00:00 PM

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