[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Saeb Erekat gets even nuttier (if that is possible)

From AFP:

A senior Palestinian official on Tuesday likened Benjamin Netanyahu to the leader of the Islamic State group, after the Israeli prime minister compared Hamas to the organization.

"Netanyahu is trying to disseminate fear of the Islamic State led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but Netanyahu forgets that he himself leads the Jewish state," said Saeb Erekat, the PLO's chief negotiator in peace talks with Israel.

"He wants us to call Israel the Jewish state and supports terrorist settlers who kill, destroy and burn mosques and churches... like Baghdadi's men kill and terrorize," Erekat told AFP.

Just as a reminder, the constitution of "Palestine" says "Islam is the official religion in Palestine."

By contrast, Israel has no state religion.

So by Erekat's definition, the PA is far closer in its laws to the Islamic State than Israel  is.

(h/t Ronald)





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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 10:52:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 09/30 Links Pt2: J Street's Beyoncé-Themed Anti-Israel Campaign; The Jewish Food Taste Test

From Ian:

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In Depth: UK anti-Semitism continues unabated after Gaza war

The Israeli defensive war against Hamas in Gaza may have finished a month ago but its side effects are still reverberating abroad, not least of all in the UK.
While the range and level of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activity in Britain has not matched that seen in parts of continental Europe such as France, the UK Jewish community still felt its effects as never before, as illustrated by near record levels of incidents reported by the organization responsible for the Jewish community’s defense, the Community Security Trust (CST).
Their monthly anti-Semitism figures told it all. In July, the CST recorded more than 302 incidents, while the provisional figure for August is already more than 150. The statistics are incomplete as the CST anticipate receiving more detailed information about incidents from the various regional police authorities and other sources, many of which, due to their other responsibilities and priorities, take their time in submitting reports. Each and every incident reported has to be assessed and, where necessary, duplicated reports must be eliminated.
But the overall figures do not lie. The CST points to a comparison of the July total of 302 incidents with the 304 incidents registered in the six-month period from January to June 2014.

The NBA To Be Hit With Anti-Israel Protests?

In his commentary posted by the far-left magazine, "The Nation" called "Are Gaza Protests Coming to the NBA Preseason?" Dave Zirin uses the possibility of the NBA being hit by protests to make a one-sided argument declaring the evil nature of Israel and the IDF. Zirin also ignores that the groups threatening to protest are not simply against Israeli policies but call for the destruction of the Jewish State, and implies that the NBA is a tool of Israel.
From the first paragraph Zirin misleads the reader:
"When Israeli sports teams travel to Europe, they are often met with protest. Palestinian solidarity and human rights organizations, such as Red Card Israeli Apartheid, have argued that such spectacles “normalize” the military occupation suffered by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. They also argue that it is fantasy to pretend that these games do not carry a strong political as well as symbolic weight."
Israel left Gaza on August 15, 2005. The greenhouses and other industry starters Israel left when it disengaged were turned into terrorist launching pads and missile launchers.
After explaining Israel Maccabi's Euroleague championship earned the team its preseason tour, Zirin offers a one-sided commentary about the recent Gaza war. Using the words of an Israeli expatriate who uses the Hamas-supplied casualty numbers, "The Nation" commentator argues that this is no time for "hoops" as usual. He neglects to tell the reader the source of the casualty numbers, and never mentions the Hamas rocket attacks or their use of human shields.

Anti-Israel activists perform “blood bucket challenge” at Yad Vashem

If you thought the “blood bucket challenge” performed by Megan Marzec, President of the Ohio University student senate, was a disgusting politicization of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, just wait.
A group calling itself “Jews Against Genocide” just performed the stunt at various locations in Israel, including at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem.
The group’s Facebook page indicates it was formed in July 2014. That page also indicates it is a supporter of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement.
The stunt is promoted at the website of the anti-Israel The International Solidarity Movement where it is noted that the group claims inspiration from Marzec.

Israeli Socialist Movement Compares IDF to Nazis at Auschwitz

Parents of Israeli high school students from the coastal region were left furious, after a letter making the outrageous comparison between genocidal Nazi troops and IDF soldiers was read last week during an organized youth trip to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
The letter was written by a 25-year-old educator and coordinator of Ha'ihud Hahakla'i (the Agricultural Union), a youth movement founded in 1978 from the socialist movement of the same name that has been active developing agricultural settlements since the 1920s. The movement on its website describes itself as "apolitical."
The coordinator of the socialist youth group sent the letter with several of the students in the high school class visiting Auschwitz who belong to the group. Reportedly after one of the students showed the letter to the teacher he was encouraged to read it to the class, which he did, according to Walla!.

NGO Monitor: Richard Horton’s war on Israel

Richard Horton is the editor of The Lancet, which is often referred to as one of the most prestigious British medical journals. For many years, he has used (or abused) that position to publish political tracts and pseudo-scientific articles, particularly but not limited to one-sided attacks against Israel.
Although Horton has withstood past criticism of his role, he is now faced with his most serious crisis, following publication of NGO Monitor’s report showing that Dr. Paola Manduca and Dr. Swee Ang – two of the main authors of an “Open Letter for the People of Gaza” published in the Lancet – are promoting David Duke, the notorious American racist. Among their other radical activities, Manduca and Swee Ang sent out emails endorsing one of Duke’s pathologically anti-Semitic videos entitled, “CNN Goldman Sachs & the Zio-Matrix.”
This is not an isolated incident – for years, Manduca has been involved in spreading unsupported accusations regarding diabolical Israeli weapons, and she has also disseminated articles and made comments with anti-Semitic content. As editor, Horton published three articles by Manduca that included pseudo-scientific allegations that Israel caused birth defects in Gaza.
For her part, Swee Ang was a founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a political advocacy NGO that collects funds for and is involved in demonizing Israel When asked about the Zio-Matrix video, she responded, “I am concerned that if there is any truth in the video, that Jews control the media, politics and banking, what on earth is going on? I was worried.” Had Horton done a quick background check, he would also have discovered Swee Ang’s close links to the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, headed by Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad, well known for his blatant anti-Semitism.
Following his usual practice, Horton initially dismissed criticism for giving Manduca, Swee Ang, Mads Gilbert (who justified the 9-11 terror attacks on the US and co-authored the tendentious Gaza letter) and other supporters of hate a platform in the Lancet. Horton has withstood censure for trampling on the requirements of scientific integrity and methodology (as in the case of a 1998 article falsely linking a childhood vaccine with autism), and for participating in the annual, politically-loaded Lancet Palestinian Health Alliance conference held at Birzeit University.

George Soros-Funded West Bank University Has a Disturbing Discrimination Policy

A leading Palestinian university in the West Bank funded by U.S. and European donors does not allow any Israeli Jews to set foot on campus, according to a reporter’s firsthand account.
Amira Hass, a reporter for the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, detailed her recent experience being asked to leave a conference at Birzeit University, located near Ramallah in the West Bank. Hass reported Sunday that she was asked to leave due to a university policy in place for the past two decades “stipulating that Israelis (Jewish Israelis, that is) are not allowed on the university grounds,” she wrote.
Hass herself has been highly critical of Israeli policy, and made news last year after encouraging Palestinians to throw stones at Israelis, calling it their “birthright.”

5 Palestinian Artifacts From Before Israel that Prove Palestine NEVER existed

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking but no, I haven’t lost my mind and no, I am not kidding.
For those of you who have been following me (@israel_shield) on Twitter, you know that I spend a good part of my time battling and destroying anti-Israel propaganda and lies and this Palestine issue is at the top of my list. I know an area called Palestine existed; the Romans coined that name when they occupied Israel from the Jews long before Islam ever existed.
NEVER WAS PALESTINE AN ARAB COUNTRY AND NEVER WAS IT OCCUPIED FROM PALESTINIAN ARABS
Modern day Palestine was a geographical area that included what is today Jordan and was governed by the British Mandate. Palestine was NEVER an Arab State, country or national home for a people who call themselves Palestinians. A Palestinian nation is a farce, a bluff and a blatant lie. There was no such thing as a Palestinian nation and all the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians are actually Arabs from surrounding countries. This is not just my opinion, this is what their own leaders say loud and clear!

J Street Launches Beyoncé-Themed Anti-Israel Campaign

It includes an ad with a cartoon of Netanyahu standing in between two women who resemble Beyoncé Knowles. The women are wearing leotards with maps of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“If You Like it then You Should Put a Border on it,” reads the ad–a play on the 2008 Beyoncé song line “if you like it then you should have put a ring on it.” The song criticizes men who won’t commit to marriage and later regret it when their partners move on.
J Street also called on supporters to back the campaign by using the Twitter hashtag #borderonit and signing an online petition.
As of Monday afternoon, the campaign had generated mixed reviews on Twitter, with some mocking it and others criticizing it as sexist for its depiction of women.
“WTF kind of sexist campaign is @jstreetdotorg running with its @Borderonit ads?” tweeted user Uri Horesh.
Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky described it as J Street’s “lamest campaign yet.”

Max Blumenthal and ‘band of Israel haters’ try to equate Israel with ISIS

Left wing water carriers often like to prop up their positions by creating false moral equivalents. That happened today where some Israel haters thought it would be clever to create the hashtag #JSIL (Jewish State in Israel and Levant) to try and make the ridiculous assertion that Israel defending itself against terrorist attacks is exactly the same as ISIS overrunning the Middle East, beheading innocents, committing mass executions, and calling for (and inspiring) terrorist attacks around the world. (h/t MtTB)

Academic Boycott Making Resurgence on Campus

When the American Studies Association approved an academic boycott against Israel late last year, the academic world spoke out against the move loudly and clearly.
Presidents of 250 academic institutions signed a letter of opposition. Brandeis University and other prestigious institutions formally withdrew from the association. “We can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture – freedom of association and expression,” Brandeis said in a statement.
The severe backlash discredited academic boycotting as a tactic, and prevented any new motions throughout the school year.
But a new year heralds a new beginning and anti-Israel academic boycotts are once again ascendant at American universities, as if the tactic magically stopped serving as an assault on academic freedom or discrimination against Israeli academics.

Port of Oakland Loses as ZIM Moves to Friendlier Shores

On Sunday night, after not being able to unload at the Port of Oakland over the weekend, the ZIM Shanghai decided to head to the friendlier Port of Los Angeles, where BDS protests are ignored and ZIM ships are unload, unhindered.
The ship will arrive there Tuesday.
On Saturday, ILWU 10 and 34 released a statement claiming they are not involved in the BDS protest against unloading Israeli owned ZIM ships at the Port of Oakland, and that their workers were physically threatened by the BDS protesters. They claim their leadership and management have no role in organizing the conflict.

Threatening Dockworkers. This is not your grandfather's "Solidarity"

ILWU statement on blockage of Zim vessel by protestors at Port of Oakland
ILWU Local 10 and 34 represented longshoremen and clerks dispatched to work the vessel ZIM Shanghai at SSA’s Oakland California Terminal were met with hostile demonstrators, effectively blocking all access to the terminal. Longshoremen and Clerks trying to report to work were threatened physically at some points of ingress and their personal vehicles were physically blocked. As such, all personnel stood-by outside of the demonstration perimeters for health and safety purposes. At approximately 8 PM SSA released all personnel from work.
As far as the union can ascertain, the protests are organized by a coalition of individuals and organizations that plan events and create action alerts under the name of “Block the Boat for Gaza” online.
The ILWU is not among the groups organizing the protests, and the leadership and membership of the ILWU have taken no position on the Israel/Gaza conflict.

South African BDS Activists Storm Woolworths Store in Johannesburg

Scuffles broke out at a Woolworths store in the South African city of Johannesburg on Saturday, after Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists staged a protest over the stocking of Israeli goods.
Activists brandishing pro-Palestinian banners rushed into the store chanting “Free Palestine, boycott Woolworths.” After security guards attempted to move the protestors, many of whom were dancing and leaping around, out of the store, a brief confrontation ensued. The store closed its doors temporarily as a result.

Students for Justice in Palestine at Loyola Univ. Chicago Temporarily Suspended

The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Loyola University was temporarily suspended by the university administration for verbally assaulting a student group tabling for Birthright Israel according to the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
The Brandeis Center, which seeks “to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and to promote justice for all,” noted in a press release that the university presented SJP “with a letter indicating that SJP is temporarily prevented from hosting any on-campus activities or events until their leadership meets with Loyola University Chicago representatives and the group complies with stated policies and procedures that apply to all student organizations.”

Jeremy Hardy promotes stereotypes of Israelis on BBC Radio 4

So as we see, in addition to inaccuracies such as the representation of the Mandate for Palestine as a British colonial project, the claim that the British “encouraged Jewish migration”, the (obviously) unsupported claim that Israeli governments are “racist and colonial” and the falsehood that “greedy” Israel is “getting bigger and bigger”, Hardy aims for cheap and easy laughs by using offensive stereotypes of Israelis as being violent and aggressive.
Given Hardy’s track record of collaboration with the ISM, one would probably not have expected anything other than the exploitation of a ‘comedy’ show for the promotion of his own embarrassingly uninformed politics. That, of course, is a factor of which Radio 4 editors must have been aware in advance but, as we have seen before, the BBC seems to think that the promotion of inaccurate information and crude national stereotypes is perfectly acceptable – just as long as a ‘comedy’ label is appended.

Babi Yar Monument to Mass Execution of Jews in Ukraine Vandalized

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah this past Wednesday, a monument to one of the largest shooting massacres of Jews during World War II was vandalized with swastikas and other graffiti marks. The incident was reported by LifeNews, a Russian news website.
Babi Yar is a large ravine on the outskirts of Kiev, which was occupied by the Nazis in 1941. The city’s Jews responded to a summons to gather in the center of the Ukrainian capital, assuming they were to be deported. Instead, they were forced into lines and marched two miles to the ravine, where they were systematically gunned down by the machine guns of the Einsatzgruppe, the Nazi paramilitary death squad. Their bodies fell straight down into the mountain gorge.
A total of 33,771 Jews were executed at Babi Yar on September 29-30, 1941, according to Einsatzgruppe Operational Situation Report No. 101. An additional 100,000 to 150,000 corpses are estimated to share the mass grave, as Soviet war prisoners, Gypsies, Ukrainian civilians, and psychiatric patients were also killed and dumped into the bottom of the ravine.

Firebomb thrown at Kiev’s oldest synagogue

Kiev’s oldest synagogue was the target of a firebomb that burst into flames outside the building.
The firebombing at the Great Choral Synagogue on September 24, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, did not cause damage, according to the news website evreiskiy.kiev.ua, which belongs to the Jewish Kiev watchdog on anti-Semitism.
Police suspect that an arsonist targeting the actual building hurled the firebomb — a glass bottle filled with a flammable substance.

Frenchman Probed for Telling TV He Might Kill Jews

French police have opened a criminal investigation against a young man who made anti-Semitic statements and suggested in a televised interview that Jews should be killed.
Yves Jannier, the prosecutor of the Pontoise region north of Paris, ordered the probe Monday following the airing last week by the France 2 channel of an interview with a young man about the Jews of the nearby Parisian suburb of Sarcelles, Le Parisien reported Monday.
The young man, who was not named, is seen in the interview while standing with friends on the street and answering the questions posed by a female journalist for France 2. “What they are doing over there in Palestine, we are doing here to the Jews. And if we get real angry, we might just kill them,” the man said.
The interview was part of a 46-minute special program on the Jewish community of Sarcelles, a poor suburb where 60,000 Jews live amidst a heavily-Muslim population.
“If I get angry, I will light up all of them, all the Jews,” said the young man.
He is suspected of justifying a crime and “incitement to hate and violence” against an ethnic group, Le Parisien reported.

German Social Democratic Party branch puts anti-Semitic posts on Facebook

A local chapter of Germany’s second largest party, the Social Democrats (SPD), posted anti-Semitic conspiracy theory entries on its Facebook page in Hagen, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia state.
“Anti-Jewish agitation appeared on the Facebook page of SPD Hagen,” went the headline in a piece in regional paper WAZ on Sunday. The hardcore anti-Semitic statements allegedly came from Osman Demir, an SPD chapter committee member in the Wehringhausen neighborhood, and were on the Hagen branch’s Facebook page for a lengthy period and available to its 150 members.
Under the headline “Incitement by the Zionist media and press and press powers in Germany," the post's author engaged in a rant about Jewish media reports shaping the February 2012 resignation of German president Christian Wulff, WAZ reported. Wulff resigned facing allegations of corruption relating to his prior service as prime minister of Lower Saxony. He was acquitted of the allegations at a trial last February.
The postings on the SPD Hagen Facebook page prompted a prominent veteran SPD member to resign.

German Politician Dismissed Over Anti-Semitic 'Simpsons' Post

Top officials in a new German party are rushing to expel one of its members, the Bild reports Tuesday, after he posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his Facebook page.
The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, recently won several seats in regional legislative bodies.
However, at least one member will not be participating, the party's branch in eastern Brandenburg state said Monday, after it decided to start expulsion proceedings against Jan-Ulrich Weiss.
Weiss was already excluded from the party's new 11-member caucus in the state legislature due to the incident, whereby Weiss allegedly posted a caricature reminiscent of the Nazi paper Der Stuermer.
The collage-style cartoon included photos of prominent Jewish banker Jacob Rothschild next to pictures of "Mr. Burns" - the greedy villain of hit TV show The Simpsons. German newspapers refused to print the offensive post, but it quickly made the rounds on social media.

Iraqi scholar: Jews persuaded Bush to invade Iraq in 2003 because of Torah prophecy

A new book by an Iraqi scholar argues that the Jews persuaded US President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, as part of a global Jewish conspiracy rooted in the Torah and ancient history, according to a report in Palestinian media outlet Al Watan Voice.
The book, by Dr. Mohammad Hussein Al-Falahi, was published by Dar Djlah in Oman, Al Watan Voice writes.
Interest in the Iraqi people occupies a large proportion of Jewish thought, Al-Falahi argues, with “about 350-400 pages” of the Torah devoted to the Babylonian exile.
According to the report, Al Falahi argues that many of those in Bush’s inner circle, including Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, were Jews who forced the former US President to invade Iraq because this was a “central and strategic goal of world Jewry”. Other figures in the “global Jewish order”, such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, were also instrumental in persuading Bush to invade Iraq, Al Falahi says.

French Winemaker Accused of Discrimination After Label Designed by Famed Israeli Artist Found Missing From Website

A prestigious French winemaker has come under fire after it was discovered that a label designed by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam is the only one absent from its online display of bottle art going back to 1945.
Ron Agam, Yaacov’s son, said that he suspects that his father was singled out by Château Mouton Rothschild ”because of his Israeli connection” and called on the company “to acknowledge the truth and come clean.”
He said the discovery was “like a betrayal” to his father who is 86 “especially that he had considered the Mouton Rothschild wine Company, a supporter and a friend.”

Vatican to Contribute to Preservation of Auschwitz

The Vatican has joined 30 other nations in contributing to the historical preservation of Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp in Poland.
The Vatican said it will donate $127,000 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which seeks to raise $152 million to help preserve the remains of Auschwitz.
“Considering the significance of the goal of the Foundation and the support it received from the Polish government, the decision to send support in the amount of 100 thousand Euro has been taken. This sum is so modest due to the limited possibilities. However, this is an expression of full support for the project of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, wrote in a letter to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

Indo-Israel ties on the march

The “sky is the limit” in Israeli-Indian relations, Netanyahu told his counterpart at the opening of their talks held in a ballroom of Manhattan’s Palace Hotel, where Netanyahu is staying during his five days in New York.
According to Netanyahu’s office the two men discussed Iran, the threat of Islamic terrorism, which India has suffered badly from over the years, and possible cooperation in the fields of hi-tech, cybersecurity, water conservation and agriculture.
“We are two old people, some of the oldest civilizations on earth,” he said. “But also two democracies, proud of our tradition, but also eager to seize the future. I believe that if we work together it will be for the benefit of both our peoples.”

India, Israel set to team up on cyber-defense

Israel has reportedly invited India to participate in a joint effort on cyber-defense, a project that will aim to be a link between civilian and military authorities in both countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended the offer during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York on Sunday, the Hindustan Times reported.
The invitation to collaborate comes at a time when India is focusing on building its own cyber-defense systems, in collaboration with other countries including the US and UK, the report noted. Modi also discussed cyber-defense, terrorism and other security issues during a subsequent meeting on Monday with US President Barack Obama.

New baby formula has no dairy or soy

Up to half of all infants fed baby formula suffer gastro distress, skin rashes, respiratory problems and other signs that they can’t tolerate cow’s milk. The only alternative, soy formula, is a last resort because of possible hormonal effects of its powerful phytoestrogens.
A new vegetable-based product called INDI (Innovative Non Dairy Infant formula), developed by two Israeli baby-food executives, could provide parents across the world with a long sought-after option containing neither cow’s milk nor soy but delivering all the nutrition required by international regulations.
This game-changing formula came out of research, trial and error by Uriel Kesler and Hamutal Yitzhak, owners of Heart baby food. Yitzhak was previously Israel’s category manager for Similac infant formula at Abbott Labs, and Kesler handled consumer products and baby food for Promedico.

Young Israeli social entrepreneur named ‘leader of tomorrow’ by TIME magazine

27-year-old Israeli social entrepreneur has been named a ‘Next Generation Leader‘ by TIME magazine for her role in building communities of kindness. Adi Altschuler, the Israel manager of Google for Education, is one of six young people from around the world to be honored by the magazine.
“It is not enough, or even necessary, for a leader to be exceptionally good at his or her chosen discipline. What a leader must be exceptionally good at, however, is inspiring others to believe in a shared vision. That’s hard to do, especially when a young scientist, entrepreneur or activist has had only a short time to form a plan and build a team,” TIME magazine writes in its introduction to how it chose “these leaders of tomorrow who are working hard to change their worlds today.”

Western Wall plaza dig reveals structures dating back to Herod

Israeli archaeologists recently dug up an ancient subterranean structure, parts of which date back to Roman times, just meters from the Temple Mount, Channel 10 reported Sunday.
“It’s one of the [most] impressive, beautiful and grand places found recently in Jerusalem,” Israel Antiquities Authority Jerusalem Region Archaeologist Yuval Baruch told the station.
“It is one of the most significant remains” found in Jerusalem in the last generation,” he said.

The Jewish Food Taste Test


Vibrant ‘Humans of Tel Aviv’ Photo Series Struts City’s Multiculti Stuff (VIDEO)

Israeli street photographer Erez Kaganovitz is on a one-man vision quest to share what he says is the true face of the city, and country, he loves: Tel Aviv – and Israel.
“Usually when people think about Tel Aviv or Israel, they think about a war zone, or they think about the conflict with the Palestinians or they think about an ‘apartheid state,’ – but the truth is: most people don’t have a clue about what’s going on in Tel Aviv,” Kaganovitz told The Algemeiner on Monday.
Two years ago, he started photographing people, starting his own local Israeli brand of the wildly popular Humans of… photo collections, which began with New York, but quickly spread to cities around the globe.
His usually on-the-fly shots and even more posed photos feature unique faces, unlikely clothes, indie looks, unlikely poses, and exploit impromptu structural motifs and even props to depict a truly diverse and close-up-and-personal view of the denizens of Israel’s cultural and business center.

Humans of Tel Aviv


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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 06:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Arabs terrorize Jewish kids next to Mount of Olives (video)

From The Jewish Press:

Terrified Jewish nursery school and kindergarten children were rushed into bomb shelters in Jerusalem's Maaleh HaZeitim neighborhood after 10 masked Arabs attacked the Jerusalem neighborhood's complex with Molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones on Tuesday.

The Arabs specifically targeted toddlers from a nursery "Mishpacton" who were playing outside.

The teachers rushed the children inside as the Arabs began throwing explosive and rocks at the children, an angry resident told JewishPress.com.

Two other schools also rushed their children indoors as explosives landed near the schools.

The neighborhood housing complex has 4 nursery and kindergarten schools.

The crying children were rushed into the school's bomb shelters to protect them from the attack and the loud explosions.

The police took 7 minutes to arrive. But before responding, police asked residents if anyone was actually injured in the attack.

When they did arrive, the Arab attackers ran.

Arabs have been targeting Jews in the area, both dead and alive, quite a bit recently.

Maaleh HaZeitim is located across the street from the ancient, Jewish, Mount of Olives cemetery.

On Rosh Hashana, Arabs desecrated the Gur Hassidim section of the cemetery, destroying 40 graves.

Here's video of the attack:

Post by ‎אריה קינג - Arieh King‎.

I visited one of the apartment complexes the last time I was in Israel. You might wonder why Jews would want to live there, especially after looking at how the neighborhood looks from the angle of this video. But the view on the other side is what is stunning.

Here is a video of the view from one of the synagogues inside the complex:

The kids playing on the roof have an equally majestic view of Jerusalem:

(h/t Bob K, Ken K)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 04:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Egypt bans Arab film because it was funded by Israel

Villa Rouma is a film made by an Arab citizen of Israel. She tried to get funded by Arab sponsors, but they refused, so she got funded by the Israel Film Fund and the New Israel Fund:

Before film director and scriptwriter Suha Arraf approached the New Israel Fund (NIF) [sic - not the NIF - EoZ] to produce Villa Touma (2014)—her first fictional film as a director—she applied to a number of Arab corporations for funding, but didn’t even receive a reply.

“I knocked at many Arab and non-Arab doors. Had a single corporation responded, I would not have gone to that fund [NIF]. But what can I do? Arab donors seem to have no objection about me going to the NIF,” Arraf told Asharq Al-Awsat. She added: “As for the media, it is attacking the film aggressively for being funded by the Israeli state.”

This issue has affected other Palestinian film directors in the past, including Mohammad Bakri and Elia Suleiman. There seems to be no Arab cooperation or investment in Arab films directed by Palestinian filmmakers living in Palestine, yet there is a distinct readiness to accuse a film director of “selling themselves” for receiving Israeli funding.

It was shown in a number of film festivals, although Arraf insisted that it be called a "Palestinian" film rather than an Israeli film. Some film festivals decided to say that it did not come from any country.

Egypt, however, didn't like the taint of Israel that the film had:

Egyptian authorities have confiscated the film “Villa Touma” – which was written and directed by Arab-Israeli director Suha Arraf – preventing the film from being screened during the Alexandria Film Festival in Egypt.

The film was registered as Palestinian but was made with primarily Israeli public funds, including $400,000 from the Israel Film Fund.

“Egyptian Customs reserved the film’s copies, and we will not be able to display it within the festival,” said film critic and festival director Amir Abaza.

After the Alexandria Film Festival closed, officials explained its disappearance this way: "The festival's organisers were unable to secure a copy of Villa Touma by Israeli-Arab filmmaker Suha Arraf."

Meanwhile, the Israeli Film Fund is upset that a movie they funded is not being credited to their country, and they want their money back. Arraf argued back that she can define herself however she wants and that her tax dollars pay for the funding like any other citizen's.

(h/t Yoel)




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 02:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 09/30 Links Pt1: Kicking the PLO habit; Mahmoud Abbas's dangerous grandstanding

From Ian:

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David Horovitz: Bleak Netanyahu warns of militant Islam’s global ambition

There were no gimmicks. Few excruciating one-liners. Just a single visual aid: a photograph of three children in Gaza at play right next to a rocket launcher.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a no-nonsense address to the United National General Assembly on Monday — presenting himself as the leader of a “proud and unbowed” nation, charged with the “awesome responsibility” of ensuring his much-threatened people’s future in a brutal, unstable region.
It was not a speech entirely bereft of hope. He reached out “to Cairo, to Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere” and asserted that a rapprochement with Israel by such Arab players could in turn yield a peace agreement with the Palestinians, which, he also said, “will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise.”
But the outlook he presented was immensely grim, nonetheless. His bitter overview, he said toward the end of his remarks, “may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but it is the truth. And the truth must always be spoken, especially here in the United Nations.”

Caroline Glick: Kicking the PLO habit

The signs are everywhere that the time has come for Israel to abandon the PLO.
So long as the PLO remains in power, the lives of Israelis and Palestinians will only get worse.
PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas’s speech last Friday at the UN General Assembly where he repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide was not merely an abandonment of direct peace negotiations with Israel. Abbas abandoned the very concept of peaceful coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abbas called for the UN to pass a resolution that will require Israel to cede Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria in their entirety to the PLO within a set period of time. No Israeli consideration can be taken into account. No Israel concern can be attended to.
As he put it, “Palestine refuses to have the right to freedom of her people, who are subjected to the terrorism by the racist occupying Power and its settlers, remain hostage to Israel’s security conditions.”
As is always the case, the immediate victims of Abbas’s blood libels are the Israeli Left. The politicians and media elite that have hitched their horse to the PLO were again left stuttering by the wayside.
For some, like Meretz chair Zehava Gal-On, stuttering is a fine option. So she pushed out an endorsement of Abbas’s genocide speech.

Mahmoud Abbas’s dangerous grandstanding

For several years Mr. Abbas has oscillated between half-hearted participation in peace talks and attempts to advance the Palestinian cause through unilateral action at the United Nations. The latter initiatives have no chance of substantive success and risk being self-defeating, as the Palestinians should have learned from Mr. Abbas’s last such gambit in 2012. Then their lobbyists were unable to win enough support for a U.N. Security Council resolution even to force a U.S. veto, and a compensatory symbolic measure in the General Assembly provoked Israel to impose painful financial sanctions.
Mr. Abbas nevertheless is trying the Security Council again, after refusing to respond to a U.S. framework for peace talks painstakingly developed by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He proposes a resolution that would mandate the creation of a Palestinian state based on Israel’s 1967 borders in a set period of time; when it is voted down or vetoed by the United States, the Palestinians hint that they will seek a war crimes investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court. That, in turn, would almost certainly prompt retaliatory sanctions by Mr. Netanyahu’s government and possibly by Congress, which supplies the Palestinian Authority with much of its funding.
Mr. Abbas has repeatedly rejected violence, and he has convinced a series of U.S. and Israeli negotiators that he has a realistic view of the terms for a Palestinian state. Yet he has now rejected platforms for a settlement on two occasions from two U.S. presidents. He persists in grandstanding gestures that he must know will only delay the serious negotiations that must precede the creation of a Palestinian state and that undermine those in Israel who support such talks. He has spoken for years of retiring but, at 79, he clings to his post four years after his elected term expired. Hamas has done the most harm to Palestinians and their cause in recent years. But Mr. Abbas has done little good.

Analysis of the PM's Speech: Vintage Netanyahu

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stood on the world’s grandest stage on Monday and delivered three key messages: Israel’s fight is your fight, the time has come to retire the 20-year-old template of direct negotiations with the Palestinians as the path to peace, and that his main historic role is to defend the Jewish state.
The speech was vintage Netanyahu. It had passion, it had soaring rhetorical flourishes, it had sarcasm. It even had a contemporary reference to retiring New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter.
And, finally, it had an appraisal of how Netanyahu views his role as a leader.
Toward the end of the speech, Netanyahu said that some in the world do not take Israel’s security concerns seriously.
“But I do, and I always will,” he said. “Because as prime minister of Israel I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the future of the Jewish state. And no matter what pressure is brought to bear, I will never waiver in fulfilling that responsibility.”

PLO: Netanyahu's Speech Full of Hate Language

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Monday denounced Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, accusing Netanyahu of “blatantly manipulating” the facts when he compared Hamas with the Islamic State and Iran.
"Netanyahu's speech at the UN was a blatant manipulation of facts and attempted at misleading the audience through a combination of hate language, slander and argument of obfuscation," PLO executive member Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement quoted by AFP.
Netanyahu in his speech denied accusations of Israeli war crimes during its July-August offensive on Gaza, pointing out that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was jointly culpable with Hamas, which fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
"Hamas embedded its missile batteries in residential areas and told Palestinians to ignore Israel's warnings to leave," Netanyahu said.

Hamas: Israel the Source of All World Evil

Hamas claimed Monday night that photos that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu displayed during his UN General Assembly speech showing Hamas terrorists setting up rocket launchers and firing rockets at Israel from areas containing civilians were fabricated. Hamas, terrorist group spokesperson Sami Abu-Zuhri said, would never place rocket launchers next to children, as depicted by the photos Netanyahu displayed. “Obviously it is a lie,” he said.
In his speech, Netanyahu equated Hamas with the Islamic State, the Islamist group that has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq. “ISIS is Hamas, and Hamas is ISIS,” Netanyahu said. “Both want the same things. Hamas shares the same militant ambitions of global Islamists,” the Prime Minister said.

Some Terrorists More Equal Than Others

Last week, when President Obama denounced ISIS during his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations and called for a concerted effort by the international community to defeat the terrorist group, he received some well-deserved applause. But when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called for the same body to judge Hamas and Iran by the same standard they use for ISIS, he might as well have been talking to a wall. At the UN, some terrorists are more equal than others, a double standard that was also present when Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the world body on Friday.
That Netanyahu wouldn’t persuade a UN General Assembly that has repeatedly voted to demonize Israeli acts of self-defense against Palestinian terrorism was a given. But the real tragedy is not the indifference of a world body that is tainted by the same virus of anti-Semitism that is gaining strength around the world. It is that those who are supposed to represent the Palestinians are still so cowed by the Islamists that they refuse to understand that the Islamists are as much if not a greater threat to them than they are to Israel. Though much of the Arab and Muslim world is belatedly coming to grips with the fact that ISIS must be destroyed (a task they hope will be largely accomplished by the United States with minimal aid from local forces), if they are to avoid being swept away by a sea of murderous fanaticism, so-called moderate Palestinians must understand that Hamas poses the same threat to their survival.

U.S. Distances Itself from Netanyahu's Comments

Speaking to reporters, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki particularly referred to Netanyahu’s comparison between Hamas and the “Islamic State” (IS or ISIS), as well as to his criticism of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
“We believe they’re both terrorist organizations,” she said, responding to a question regarding Netanyahu’s saying that Hamas and IS are one and the same.
“We obviously believe that [IS] poses a different threat to the United States, based on, of course, the military action and other efforts that are underway,” added Psaki.
“We don’t believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu or anyone else from Israel is suggesting that the United States launch a military campaign against Hamas, so we certainly – they are both designated terrorist organizations under the United States designations, but certainly we see differences -- in terms of the threat and otherwise,” she said.
Psaki also distanced herself from Netanyahu’s comment that the UNHRC “has become a Terrorists' Human Rights Council", though she acknowledged Washington had some issues with some of the UNHRC’s actions.
“We would not agree with that,” she said, when asked if the U.S. agreed with Netanyahu’s statement that the UNHRC is a “terrorists’ commission”.

JCPA: Mahmoud Abbas Justifies Palestinian Terror in His UN General Assembly Speech

Abbas’ vision of peace does not indicate any real intention to reach a historic compromise with Israel on dividing the land into two states that would live peacefully side by side. He called for a political agreement via negotiations, but stipulated the results of the negotiations as a precondition for holding them. Moreover, Abbas lauded the Palestinian Authority’s formation of a unity government with Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations, even though it does not signal that the terror organizations have accepted the diplomatic route but, instead, that Abbas has gone in their direction.
Hamas wields complete control of Gaza and in recent months also tried to overthrow Abbas’ regime in the West Bank, a plan the Israeli security services managed to foil. Hamas’ military power and popularity in the Palestinian street, including the West Bank, constitutes veto power over any political settlement based on recognizing Israel and/or a political compromise of any kind.
Abbas wants the world to think he is taking a constructive political position. In actuality, he is merely reiterating the “just peace” formula and rejecting the Israeli “peace through compromise” formula. [“A just and agreed upon solution to the plight of the Palestine refugees on the basis of resolution 194.”] The “just peace” formula means uncompromising insistence on what the Palestinians call the “right of return” of the Palestinian refugees and generations of their descendants to Israel itself. That, in turn, means forcing Israel to take in five to seven million Palestinians while ejecting millions of Jews from their communities so that the Palestinians can move in. In other words, the “just peace” formula is a prescription for putting an end to the state of Israel, and forms the ideological basis of the Palestinian unity agreement that Fatah has forged with Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations.

U.S., U.K., Australia Won't Support Palestinian Bid for Statehood at UN

Palestinian sources say that the US, UK, and Australia have each indicated that they would reject a Palestinian-proposed UN Security Council resolution setting a timetable for ending Israel’s administration of the West Bank and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 armistice lines.
Haaretz reports that members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s UN delegation have met with representatives from all 15 member-states of the Security Council in recent days to determine what kind of response their proposed resolution would receive. While the US, UK, and Australia were definitive in their rejection, China and Russia, as well as rotating member Jordan, told the Palestinians they would support such a resolution. The remaining Security Council states have yet to give a definitive answer either way.

Shmuley Boteach: Abbas the moderate

It took all of two sentences at the UN for the world to discover just what kind of moderate Mahmoud Abbas truly is. Just after saying, “Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,” the Palestinian Authority president followed up with this: “In this year, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”
Now if Abbas says that Israel is guilty of genocide he must be correct, right? He is, after all, an expert on the subject of genocide, having written a doctoral dissertation denying the Holocaust.
All of which exposes the farce of those Jewish organizations and leaders who have embraced Abbas over the past few years as a moderate interested in peace.
This is the man whose Fatah faction in 2011 named a town square after Dalal al-Mughrabi, the leader of a 1978 bus hijacking that murdered 35 Israelis. Had Netanyahu’s government unveiled a statue to Baruch Goldstein, would anyone claim it was interested in peace?

Lieberman: Abbas 'has no intention to make peace'

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman questioned the legitimacy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as the Palestinian leader's desire for resolution to the conflict in comments made to the media at the United Nations on Monday.
"I must say that the last speech of Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, it really was a message of hatred and incitement. It's clear that he has no intention to make peace with Israel and it's not the first time," Lieberman said of Abbas, who addressed the 193-member body on Friday.
Lieberman made his comments shortly before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to address the world body's General Assembly.
"I'm not sure that he really has legitimacy to speak on behalf of Palestinian people. It's clear that he has no control on Gaza Strip and he postponed his elections more than four years, presidential and parliament elections. And I have some doubts with his authority," he added.
Lieberman described the Palestinian leader as using an "escalation in his rhetoric" at the U.N. and with the international community to compensate for what he called domestic failures.
"It's clear that he as no support and he lost his way," Lieberman finished.

Liberman Meets UNHRC Head After 'Terrorist Rights Council' Jibe

Minister of Foreign Affiars Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) met with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan on Monday, at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
FM Liberman and Prince Zeid discussed the working relationship between Israel and the Commission, the MFA stated, with Liberman reportedly stressing a "fundamental difference" between the Commission on Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made the UNHRC's anti-Israel bias a prime point in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
"The UNHRC has betrayed its noble principles to protect its enemies," he declared, noting it is "turning the concept of war upside down."

Why State Dept. Defends UNRWA's Artificial "Refugee" Designations

State is sanguine even about the fact that these UNRWA practices steadily inflate the number of alleged Palestinian refugees year after year, from 750,000 in 1950 to more than 5 million today, a sevenfold increase. "In protracted refugee situations, refugee groups experience natural population growth over time," State cheerfully affirmed in 2013.
The State Department has shown that it will resist any change in its policy toward the UNRWA practices that exacerbate and perpetuate the refugee problem. When Senator Mark Kirk introduced an amendment to the 2013 State Department Appropriations bill to force the Department to change, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R. Nides fiercely objected: "Legislation which would force the United States to make a public judgment on the number and status of Palestinian refugees would be viewed... as the United States acting to prejudge a final status issue and determine the outcome."
This is the same State Department that, on more than 20 occasions during the Obama years, has ferociously and publicly castigated the government of Israel for constructing homes in disputed areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank, also a final status issue to be resolved between the parties. Apparently more Israeli homes hurt peace, but multiplying the number of refugees is fine.

UNRWA Weighs Using Weapons Depots As Schools (satire)

Gaza City, September 30 – The head of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is considering a change in policy that would allow armament storage facilities to be used as educational institutions, to alleviate a shortage of resources facing UNRWA.
UNRWA is tasked with, among other missions, providing basic schooling to the children descended of Palestinians classified as 1948 refugees. However, an organizational oversight has apparently led to buildings originally designated as schools being used instead as rocket storage or launching facilities, a set of operations not strictly within the UNRWA mandate.
The diversion of those assets has deprived the schooling effort of necessary classroom space. Compounding the problem, say UNRWA officials, several of the schools-cum-weapons-depots have suffered damage in Israeli strikes aimed at neutralizing the threat of those rockets, and remain unavailable even after restored to their original use.

Yaalon: What'll We Do If They Lob Mortars from Samaria?

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Israel needs to “sober up” and learn a lesson from the recent war with Gaza – namely, that a similar situation must not be allowed to arise in Judea and Samaria.
“Once the area turns into Hamastan, it won't just be Hamas,” he warned, at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). “We are talking about an Iranian proxy and global jihadi elements. Who can afford such a security situation in Judea and Samaria? What reply will there be if they fire mortar shells from the western hills of Samaria?”

Officials allegedly suppress news of E. Jerusalem violence

Jerusalem police and the Housing Ministry have been attempting to cover up violent incidents in East Jerusalem, according to the CEO of Jerusalem’s light rail and a ministry official.
Police requested that CityPass not report rock throwing attacks against the light rail because it harms police and encourages the offenders, CityPass CEO Yaron Ravid told Israel Radio, which reported Tuesday that there have been no reports to the media by police or CityPass of violent attacks against the light rail over the last two weeks even though numerous incidents have occurred. Throughout the day Tuesday, the train was attacked by rock throwers three times.
When contacted for a response, police acknowledged that there had been 13 instances of attackers throwing rocks at the train and two arrests, one of which resulted in an indictment. In addition, police said, 75 people have been arrested on suspicion of rioting.

Memorial prize for three slain teens unveiled

A prize to promote national unity and memorialize three Israeli teens abducted and killed in the West Bank earlier this year was unveiled by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the families of the three victims Monday.
The Jerusalem Prize for National Unity will award an annual NIS 100,000 grant to initiatives dedicated to strengthening the sense of collective identity in Israel, Barkat’s office said in a statement.
The award is being sponsored by the Gesher Foundation and the UJA Federation of New York.
Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, were kidnapped by Hamas-linked terrorists on the night of June 12 at a hitchhiking post south of Jerusalem and killed soon afterwards. Their bodies were discovered June 30 in Halhul, near Hebron in the West Bank, after an 18-day search.
Barkat said he was inspired to establish the fund after paying condolence visits to the teens’ families earlier in the year.

Police Suspect Arab Co-Worker Cut Jewish Rapeller's Rope

Two weeks after Jewish construction worker Netanel Arami died after falling 11 stories, Arutz Sheva has learned that police suspect he was murdered, thus confirming what Arami's family and nationalist politicians have been saying from day one.
Police investigators think an Arab co-worker at the site cut the rope that Arami was connected to as he rapelled down the side of the building.
Arami, 27, owned a small rapelling business which he had been running for several years.
MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), who visited the grieving Arami family shortly after Netanel's death, was convinced from the outset that he was murdered. “For five hours, Netanel lay crushed on the ground,” wrote. His mother learned of the accident from news site Ynet,” he wrote on Facebook. Netanel's co-worker “arrived there with the police. They went up to the roof and found the slashed rope, heard the Arabs laughing. A rapelling rope that has been cut looks completely different from one that was worn out. And there are two of them – one main rope and one for security.”

Children Evacuated as Arabs Attack JM Neighborhood of Maaleh HaZeitim

Terrified Jewish nursery school and kindergarten children were rushed into bomb shelters in Jerusalem’s Maaleh HaZeitim neighborhood after 10 masked Arabs attacked the Jerusalem neighborhood’s complex with Molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones on Tuesday.
The Arabs specifically targeted toddlers from a nursery “Mishpacton” who were playing outside.
The teachers rushed the children inside as the Arabs began throwing explosive and rocks at the children, an angry resident told JewishPress.
Two other schools also rushed their children indoors as explosives landed near the schools.
The neighborhood housing complex has 4 nursery and kindergarten schools.

Study: 49% of Gazans Killed in War Were Terrorists

The terrorist to civilian ratio of Palestinian deaths in Operation Protective Edge is an unprecedented 1:1, a news study released last week reveals - supporting earlier findings regarding the so-called "civilian casualties" Hamas touts to international media.
According to the highly respected Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), 49% of the "martyrs" listed on the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry (PHM) list were found to have been linked to terrorist organizations; just 51% were confirmed civilian casualties.
The study, which has examined PHM's death tally since the war's early stages, has now tracked roughly 40% of published casualties during the war - some 842 people.

Don’t allow Israel detractors use false Gaza casualty figures to demonize Israel.

In its attempt at concealment Hamas listed a number of terrorist men as children. One, listed as a 13 year old boy, was 26 year old Fatah terrorist, Ibrahim Jamal Kamal Nasr, killed at Khan Yunis on July 18. So the Gazan Ministry of Health children’s casualty group should be taken with skepticism.
My findings throughout the research clearly showed the majority of casualties to be men of fighting age. Clearly, not all men of fighting age were terrorists but they constituted a majority of over 56% of known casualties, and not the women or children.
Out of a total of 2130, less than a thousand were children, women, or elderly.
My findings are being confirmed by the slow, methodical, work being undertaken by the Meir Amit Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center. As of September 22, they had plodded through 750 names in an effort to identify and link them with a terrorist faction in Gaza.
According to their identified people almost 50% were tied to a terrorist group. As they research later figures I am certain that their percentages of terrorists dead will increase to match my figures, or surpass them, as later fighting was concentrated in areas where the civilian population had fled.

Ya'alon: 80% of Hamas's Rocket Arsenal Destroyed in Gaza Op.

The IDF decimated about 80% of Hamas's total rocket arsenal during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon stated Monday.
Ya'alon, speaking at the Begin-Sadat center at Bar-Ilan University, summed up the entirety of the operation from his standpoint at a special conference over the fifty-day war.
The Defense Minister revealed that he convened the security cabinet several times over the course of the operation, in light of reports circulating that government ministers were skirting the real issues.
Ya'alon also said that, in his view, Hamas attacked Israel "out of distress."

'Smart Fence' to Be Built Around Gaza Belt

The Defense Ministry and the IDF have decided to build a fence enclosing the Gaza Belt region, after both a survey of the long-term damage of Operation Protective Edge on the bloc and in light of two terrorist infiltrations there within a 48-hour period.
But the fence is no ordinary fence. Security sources told Walla! News Monday that the barrier will be a "smart barrier," with an alarm system designed to alert the Gaza Belt Regional Council and the Gaza Division of the IDF at any suspected infiltration attempt. A similar system is in place near the Palestinian Authority and in Judea and Samaria.

Hamas says prisoner swap deal to be signed with Israel soon

Hamas and Israel may be on the verge of signing a deal that would see Israel release top Hamas officials and operatives arrested during Operation Brother's Keeper in exchange for the remains of fallen Israeli soldiers, according to a post on Hamas official Mushir al-Masri's Facebook page.
Masri was presumably referring to Golani Brigade Sgt. Oron Shaul and Givati Brigade Lt. Hadar Goldin, who were killed in Gaza this summer. Shaul is classified as a fallen soldier with an unknown grave.
Masri wrote on his Facebook page that "Hamas has bargaining chips that forced Israel to succumb to Palestinian demands.

PA honors murderers of 3 Israeli teens

Even though Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has stated publicly that Hamas members carried out the kidnapping and murder of the 3 Israeli teens, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that PA sources nonetheless claim that Israel comitted the crime as pretext for the Gaza war.
The official PA news agency WAFA is calling Israel's attempt to apprehend the terrorists and their eventual killing an "execution," while the terrorists themselves are being honored by the PA as "Martyrs" (Shahids) - a term indicating they are receiving sublime rewards from Allah. WAFA did not mention why Israel sought to arrest them:

"Israeli occupation forces executed citizens Marwan Al-Qawasmi and Amer Abu Aisheh today, Tuesday, in the early hours of the morning in a military operation in central Hebron... Security sources told WAFA that the occupation forces were still holding on to the bodies of the two Martyrs (Shahids)."
[WAFA (the official Palestinian Authority news agency), Sept. 23, 2014]

New Palestinian poll reveals waning support for Hamas

The survey, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) headed by Khalil Shikaki, interviewed 1,200 adult Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza on September 25-27. It found a 10 percent drop in belief that Hamas won the war, from 79% a month ago to 69% today. But 80% of respondents said they supported launching rockets at Israel if the land and sea blockade is not lifted.
Support for Hamas and its methods continues to be lower in the Gaza Strip than in the West Bank. Only 58% of Gazans believed that Hamas emerged triumphant, and 59% of Gazans were dissatisfied with the movement’s war achievements (compared to a national average of 50%). Support for rocket launching dropped to 72% among residents of Gaza.
One question, addressing the Israeli talking point of Hamas using civilians in Gaza as “human shields,” revealed interesting answers. Fifty-seven percent of respondents justified rocket launching from within populated areas; but a large discrepancy existed between Gaza — which suffered the brunt of the Israeli attacks — with 48% support, and the West Bank, with 62%.
If elections were held today, Hamas’s former prime minister Ismail Haniyeh would still defeat PA President Mahmoud Abbas by a large majority of 55% compared to 38%, a margin which has, however, shrunk since August, when Haniyeh won 61% support and Abbas only 32%. But in Gaza the two leaders are currently neck and neck, with Abbas winning 47% and Haniyeh 50% in a poll with a 3% margin of error.

Fatah Spokesman Ahmad Assaf: Hamas Leaders Stole 700 Million Dollars Collected for the Gaza People


Lacking Mannequins, Hamas EMT Trainees To Shoot People, Treat Them (satire)

Previous attempts to replace the mannequins with cadavers proved only a mixed success, with the trainees unable to or unwilling to perform the required techniques on decomposing bodies. Faced with the need to maintain an effective corps of rescue workers, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health came to the realization that the Gaza Strip has a vast wealth of resources in its people, who could serve as stand-ins for the mannequins. Last week the newest version of the training program began, with rescue workers and trainees shooting, beating, stabbing, or driving cars into 25 people, mostly members of the rival Fatah movement, after which they practiced the treatment techniques they had been taught in the classroom.
Ministry officials deemed the initial effort a success despite the deaths of 20 of the 25 stand-ins, as the deaths of Fatah members are always viewed positively, though they concede the human specimens do not provide the same reusability that a plastic mannequin would. Nevertheless, says health official Afeel Stabbi, the abundance of disposable humans makes that an irrelevant concern in the short term.
“Whereas with a plastic mannequin the trainees can take turns with, for example, chest compressions or stitches, the use of a living – for the moment, anyway – human is limited to two, maybe three trainees before being rendered unusable. That’s not really a problem, since we can just go out and get another one as needed. There are literally millions of them walking around out there,” he explained.
Human rights organizations addressed the issue by condemning Israel for the blockade, and are counting the casualties of the training as civilians killed or wounded by the IDF. Public reaction in Gaza has been muted, primarily by force.

Will US Apologize to Israel Now that Airstrikes Kill Syrian Civilians?

Last week, civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian homes were reported as well. According to Syrian rebels, airstrikes a week ago left somewhere between eight to 24 dead civilians. Of course, this is coming from anti-Assad-government rebels the media calls “activists,” but we all know by now that many of these “activists” are linked to Al Qaeda and/or ISIS. However, this is the exact same scenario as the “poor Gazans,” aka Hamas, reporting on the civilian casualties during Operation Protective Edge, and European liberals and Obama alike were “deeply concerned” and condemning Israel.
Some reported that three of the dead civilians last week were children, another angle we kept hearing about in the bashing of Israel regarding dead Gazan children. (Many of whom were actually dead Syrian children in recycled photos which had nothing to do with Israel.) Meanwhile, the Obama Administration was confident that no civilians died in the Syrian airstrikes. Really?
An unfortunate part of war is that some civilians die. At the same time, the unfortunate truth of our current politically correct world (a world in which it is politically “correct” to bash Israel) is that we pick and choose who will be the target of negative propaganda, depending on alliances and financial and political gains.
Jews are always the scapegoat. That never seems to change.

Pentagon: No Evidence Civilians Were Killed in Airstrikes

The Pentagon said on Monday there was no evidence of any civilian casualties from airstrikes targeting Islamist terrorists in Syria, The Hill reported.
The clarification came after human rights groups claimed that civilians were killed in airstrikes in Syria’s Idlib province last week.
In addition, the groups said the airstrikes were also costly to civilians’ pockets, as they have nearly tripled the price of diesel in Syria's northern Aleppo province.
"We right now don't have anything to corroborate those reports from Syrian activists," said Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren, according to The Hill. "We take the matter of civilian casualties very seriously."

Moroccan Soccer Fans Chant Pro-ISIS Slogans

However, support for ISIS by a group of football fanatics is rather ironic: under the austere interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia) implemented by the Islamic State's self-proclaimed Caliphate, "western" sports such as soccer are strictly forbidden, much as they were under Taliban rule and still are in other Islamist-controlled areas such as in Somalia.
What's more, under the Islamic State's rule it is strictly forbidden to use the term "Daesh" (Arabic for ISIS), which is deemed derogatory.

Moroccan Soccer Fans Root for ISIS


Late Night Q&A: ISIS - Late Night with Seth Meyers h/t PreOccupiedTerritory


Turkish tanks deployed to Syria border as Islamic State advances

Turkey deployed tanks and armored vehicles along a section of its border with Syria on Monday to face off against Islamic State forces whose stray shells fell into Turkish territory during an attack on a border town.
Some 15 tanks took up positions on a hill near a military base opposite the besieged town of Kobani that IS has been trying to capture from outgunned Syrian-Kurdish forces for over a week, Reuters reported.
During the course of the fighting two errant shells hit Turkey, provoking return fire from Turkish units.

Egypt Set to Boycott Turkey Over Muslim Brotherhood Support

Officials in Egypt are demanding an immediate and total boycott of Turkish goods, and even a breakoff of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Egyptian media reports said. The call is the latest chapter in the steady and ongoing decline in relations between the two countries, with Turkey accusing Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of everything to “illegitimacy” to “terrorism” to “war crimes.”
The sour relations between the two countries have their roots in the overthrow of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi by the al-Sisi led Egyptian army several years ago. Since then, Turkey has slammed al-Sisi as being a “dictator” who is “persecuting Muslims.” Just last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would welcome seven top Muslim Brotherhood figures being forced to leave Qatar, indicating his strong ties with the Islamist group - and by extension with its Gaza offshoot Hamas.

Iran's "Hanging Machine" to Execute Reyhaneh Jabbari

Reyhaneh Jabbari has been transferred to Rajai-Shahr Prison to be hanged — while the world parties at the UN and gets ready to permit Iran nuclear capability.
While the West is focused on an Iran nuclear deal and defeating ISIS terrorists, the executioner-regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran continues violating human rights.
The regime has just transferred Reyhaneh Jabbari to Rajai-Shahr Prison in Tehran and, as she is transferred to be executed, told her to say goodbye to her mother and family.
The Petition to Save Reyhaneh Jabbari from being hanged has been signed by over 188,000 people, but as usual has been ignored by the Iranian regime.
Reyhaneh Jabbari's execution may carried out by tomorrow.

Iran accused of assassinating its own nuclear scientist

Mahboobeh Hosseinpour, the sister of an Iranian nuclear scientist alleged to have been assassinated by Israel, has claimed that her brother was actually killed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) because he would not cooperate with the regime’s demand that he help create nuclear weapons.
“Western countries have long held suspicions regarding [Iran's] nuclear weapon ambitions and Mrs. Mahboobeh Hosseinpour’s claims could help support these suspicions,” Dr. Iman Foroutan, chairman of Iranian opposition group The New Iran, said in a statement last week.
Mahboobeh said that her brother, Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour, was approached in 2004 by special agents of the IRGC on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wanted to enlist Hosseinpour’s services for a project aimed at increasing uranium enrichment for developing nuclear weapons. As part of the project, he would also be tasked with teaching and supervising Russian and North Korean scientists.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 12:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Sudanese uproar over playing chess against "Jews"

Sudanese news site Al Nilin reports that head of the Sudan Fatwa Authority Sheikh Abdul Rahman Hassan Ahmed Hamed issued a scathing criticism to the Sudanese government for allowing a young chess player to compete against an Israeli at the World Youth Chess Championships held recently in Durban.

Omar Eltigani faced Israeli Matan Poleg on September 25.

Abdul Rahman said that the country is in a state of war with the Jews, and to play against an Israeli is a tacit recognition of Israel. Rahman added that a Sudanese playing against a Jew in one table means "reconciliation and tolerance," saying that the meeting was a great disservice to the Muslims and the Sudanese, because the situation requires "not mixing with Jews" as he put it.

He also said that chess was not a game for Muslims to play, according to most authorities, although a minority felt that it had value.

Poleg won the match. 

Meanwhile, the president of the Sudanese Chess Federation Tariq Zarrouk resigned from his position in protest of the match.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 10:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Saeb Erekat describes his strategy of lying

Yesterday, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat added another to his long list of lies that he spouts to the media, and this one was a doozy:

Escalating the Palestinian leadership’s rhetorical assault on Israel, the chief Palestinian Authority negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Monday claimed that 96 percent of Gazans killed in the summer’s Israel-Hamas conflict were civilians, reiterated PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s charge of Israeli “genocide,” and accused Israel of seeking to impose apartheid on the Palestinians.

Erekat, in the radio interview, defined genocide as “a direct attempt to eliminate, horrify, relocate, destroy a way of life” and claimed “Israel committed the killing of 12,000 and wounding 12,000 Palestinians; 96 percent of them are civilians.”

Not even the most extreme anti-Israel Gaza NGO claimed that 96% of those killed in Gaza were civilians, or that 12,000 were killed.

The radio interview is in English and these absurd lies can be heard at the 30 second mark here. He also says Israel "demolished" 50,000 homes (according to anti-Israel site Electronic Intifada, 15,670 homes were damaged, not demolished,) and that 500,000 Gazans are homeless (that is the maximum number displaced during the war but only about 50,000 remain in shelters as of a few weeks ago.)

I cannot remember a single interview of his or article he's written that was not filled with lies.

So how can Erekat continue to lie so openly and brazenly in literally every statement he ever makes in public? What is behind it?

It turns out that Erekat explains his strategy perfectly - in his response to Netanyahu's speech at the UN yesterday:

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, “There’s a saying that if you don’t stop a man who is lying after 24 hours, the lies turn into facts. That’s what happened to Netanyahu.”

This saying is Erekat's credo!

He lies, not one reporter - even the interviewer from Israel Army Radio here - bothers to counter his lies in any timely fashion, and Erekat wins! His lies turn into facts for his audience, or at the very least they are considered a legitimate part of the "narrative."  He literally lives his life by the saying "if you don’t stop a man who is lying after 24 hours, the lies turn into facts."

No one has the guts to tell him that he is a liar to his face and list all his lies, chapter and verse. And it is a very long list.

Erekat knows that once he puts his lies out there, no one will counter him - after all, he is a "moderate" and a "peacemaker," and reporters aren't conditioned to believe that a soft-spoken man in a suit who is considered a "moderate" will lie right to their faces.

There is literally no negative repercussion to Erekat's constant lies. So...why shouldn't he continue them?

(By the way, for all the PLO officials who railed against Bibi's "lies," not one of them actually cited any.)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 08:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Abbas spokesman says any "peace" must include banning Jews from holy places

The Times of Israel seriously botched up a news story:

Abbas spokesman says he’s ‘ready for historic compromise’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is ready for a historic compromise for peace, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Monday.

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fiery response to Abbas’s UN speech last week in which the Pa leader accused Israel of conducting a “war of genocide” in Gaza, Abu Rudeineh said that the solution must be based on UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, Israel Radio reported.

He also said the solution would have to include a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem, an immediate end to settlement activity, and the lifting of the blockade in Gaza.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh did not say that Abbas is ready for a historic compromise. He was responding that Netanyahu's statement that Israel is ready to accept a historic compromise, insisting that Israel must include certain conditions in any peace plan.

And the Western media missed one of his conditions: to make holy places like the Temple Mount, Rachel's Tomb and the Ma'arat HaMachpela (Tomb of the Patriarchs) Judenfrei.

As Arabic media widely reports, Rudeineh said that any agreement must also include "stopping the activities of extremists in holy places."

Anyone who follows Arab media knows that to them, any Jews who want to visit their own holy sites, no matter how peacefully, are called "extremists." Abbas is saying that  Jews must be banned from their holy spots.

When Netanyahu said he was ready for a "historic compromise," the response of the PA leadership was to add a new obstacle to peace, one that must disgust any truly peace-seeking Westerner, to ban Jews from their most sacred sites.

The Abbas' spokesman's response to Netanyahu's speech proves yet again that Palestinian hate is the obstacle to peace. This is the basic fact about the conflict that the Western media and governments adamantly refuse to believe..



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/30/2014 05:06:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] The Star of David Molecule

From The University of Manchester:

Scientists at The University of Manchester have generated a new star-shaped molecule made up of interlocking rings, which is the most complex of its kind ever created.

Known as a ‘Star of David’ molecule, scientists have been trying to create one for over a quarter of a century and the team’s findings are published at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern Time on 21 September 2014 in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Consisting of two molecular triangles, entwined about each other three times into a hexagram, the structure’s interlocked molecules are tiny – each triangle is 114 atoms in length around the perimeter. The molecular triangles are threaded around each other at the same time that the triangles are formed, by a process called ‘self-assembly’, similar to how the DNA double helix is formed in biology.

The molecule was created at The University of Manchester by PhD student Alex Stephens.

Professor David Leigh, in Manchester’s School of Chemistry, said: “It was a great day when Alex finally got it in the lab. In nature, biology already uses molecular chainmail to make the tough, light shells of certain viruses and now we are on the path towards being able to reproduce its remarkable properties.

“It’s the next step on the road to man-made molecular chainmail, which could lead to the development of new materials which are light, flexible and very strong. Just as chainmail was a breakthrough over heavy suits of armour in medieval times, this could be a big step towards materials created using nanotechnology. I hope this will lead to many exciting developments in the future.”

The team’s next step will be to make larger, more elaborate, interlocked structures.

What - no molecular sukkah?

(h/t Ronald)




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/29/2014 08:00:00 PM

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