[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 08/29 Links: Obama's Iran Deal Hypocrisy Knows No Limits; The Return of Shirley Temper

From Ian:

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Questions raised over shocking West Bank image of boy with a broken arm being held at gunpoint by an Israeli soldier after girl, 13, seen biting attacker is revealed as prolific 'Pallywood star'

Questions have been raised over the authenticity of shocking images of a boy with a broken arm being held at gunpoint by an Israeli soldier after a 13-year-old girl seen biting his attacker is said to be a prolific 'Pallywood star'.
The remarkable images which surfaced online on Friday appeared to show an IDF soldier armed with a machine gun grappling with the little boy as two women make desperate attempts to pull him off following protests in the West Bank.
A young girl is seen ambushing the balaclava-clad soldier by forcing the weapon from his hands and biting him before he flees the scene.
But it is thought the young girl in the photographs is Ahed Tamimi [aka Shirley Temper], whose parents Bassem and Nariman - also pictured - are well-known Palestinian activists in their village of Nabi Saleh.
The teenager has appeared in a string of similar videos where she challenges Israeli security forces and rose to prominence after she was filmed confronting one who arrested her brother, which resulted in her being presented with a bravery award. (h/t Sergio)

Tila Tequila kicked off Celebrity Big Brother after praising Hitler on Facebook and posting a picture wearing Nazi gear in front of Auschwitz

Glamour model Tila Tequila has been kicked out of the Celebrity Big Brother house after it emerged that she posed in front of Auschwitz in Nazi gear and claimed to be 'Hitler reborn'.
Hundreds of viewers and campaigners complained about the controversial American star who has previously praised the German dictator and referred to herself as 'Hitila', which lead Channel 5 and Endermol to remove her from the house on Friday, one day after she entered.
A Channel 5 spokesman said: 'Unfortunately, Channel 5 and Endemol did not know about the views and attitudes Tila had expressed in social media postings prior to her involvement in Celebrity Big Brother.
Glamour model Tila Tequila has been kicked off Celebrity Big Brother after it emerged that she posed in front of Auschwitz in Nazi gear (pictured)
'When they were brought to our attention, she was called to the Diary Room for a discussion with producers and was subsequently removed from the house.
'The views Tila had expressed, and permitted to remain uncorrected, are totally unacceptable and, accordingly, her continued involvement in the programme was untenable.'

Israel hits back at Swiss envoy's 'ugly act' in showing Netanyahu bird droppings cartoon

Israel also took issue with Haas' upbeat characterization of Iran.
"What happened (in Zurich) proves that the nuclear deal ... created an unbridled incentive to pour billions of dollars into Iran without it being required to changes its policy of terror and belligerence," said Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
"Greed begets attempts to grovel before the Iranian regime, with attendant loss of basic sense and self-respect."
Switzerland and Israel have at times had fraught relations.
In 2009, Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland to protest a UN conference in Geneva attended by then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel has also complained to Switzerland in the past about its purchase of natural gas from Iran.
In 1998, Swiss banks reached a $1.25 billion deal with Holocaust survivors and their descendants over the fate of funds deposited in Swiss banks by Jews during World War Two.

Ben-Dror Yemini: The disgraceful link drawn between the Holocaust and the Nakba

In 1949, Egyptian foreign minister Muhammad Salah al-Din Bey clarified that: "It is well-known and understood that the Arabs, in demanding the return of the refugees to Palestine, mean their return as masters of the Homeland… they mean the liquidation of the State of Israel." In 1959, the Arab League clarified that "The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the host countries." In 1960, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser clarified that "If the refugees return to Israel – Israel will cease to exist." And Arafat's aide, Sakher Habash, clarified to Palestinian youth that "to us, the refugees issue is the winning card which means the end of the Israeli state." And nowadays, the "right of return" is the banner of the BDS movement, which rejects any agreement with Israel.
We could go on. There's more. The glorification of the Nakba in a book that ties it together with the Holocaust is enough to demonstrate that point.
Every now and again, the representatives of the Nakba school of thought try to market the claim that there is a need to recognize the Nakba in order to achieve reconciliation and understanding. Reconciliation is important, but the consciousness of the Nakba does the exact opposite of that. Peace can only be achieved when the Arab side as a whole, and the Palestinians specifically, recognize their responsibility, their intransigence, the fact their leadership declared war and talked about eradication. No change can come without them looking inwards at the fact they rejected any partition plan, and the fact they could have formed a state between the years 1949-1967, before there was an occupation.
But they didn't want a state. They didn't want to do anything for themselves. They wanted to perpetuate the problem. But that isn't happening. Both because the Nakba school of thought encourages victimization, legitimizes any lie under the auspices of the "Palestinian narrative," and promotes the "right of return" fantasy.

Capture of Joseph’s Tomb Terrorists Exposes Truth About Palestinian Authority

You won’t read about it in the New York Times or the Washington Post. But this week’s arrest of four Palestinian terrorists who were plotting to attack a Jewish holy site tells you everything you need to know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.
The reason you won’t hear about it in the American news media is because the terrorists were caught before they struck. Apparently intentions don’t count. No casualties, no news coverage—and even when there are casualties, there isn’t always news coverage. Did your daily newspaper report about the 2-year-old Israeli child who was recently hit by Arab rocks?
The four arrested terrorists—who planned to attack Jews at Joseph’s Tomb—are residents of Tulkarm, Nablus (Shechem in Hebrew), and Qabatiya. Those three cities are all governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Yet it was the Israeli security forces, not the PA police, who captured them. That’s because the PA doesn’t arrest terrorists; it shelters them.
Of course, the 1993 Oslo Accords require the PA to apprehend and imprison terrorists. Of course, the PA is obligated to disarm and outlaw terrorist groups. Of course, the accords state that the PA must extradite terrorists to Israel. But the PA does none of those things, and the international community is silent.
The entire “peace process” is based on the notion that if Israel surrenders land to the PA, the PA can be trusted to prevent terrorism from that area. The entire argument in favor of a Palestinian state is that such a state would be peaceful and that its rulers would combat terrorism. Twenty years of PA self-rule has proven otherwise.

Edgar Davidson: Corbyn finally responds properly to the JC questions and confirms he is not an antisemite* (satire)

Exclusive: I managed to get Jeremy Corbyn to finally answer the questions posed by the Jewish Chronicle*:
Question 1. What is your response to people who have accused you of being an antisemite?
The only people who have made such an astonishing, disgusting and libellous accusation are a bunch of Zionist Jews. The very same people, I may add, who hold racist views such as believing that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own homeland, and the same people who go around massacring millions of Muslim Palestinian children every day just for fun. To stop these ridiculous accusations of antisemitism thrown at me once and for all, I want to make it crystal clear that I believe that every non-Zionist Jew has a right to exist. Indeed, some of my very best friends in the whole world are ethical anti-Zionist Jews who are active in organisations like JFBDJS (Jews for the Boycott and Destruction of the Jewish State). Moreover, not only do I have such Jews as my best friends, but I have ensured that every one of my sons has a genuine devotion to the Jewish people as demonstrated in an almost obsessional interest in Palestine. Specifically, we all know that the only way to save the Jewish people from themselves is by ensuring the end of Israel as a Jewish state so that Jews no longer have to be embarrassed – as Jews - by Israel during dinner party conversations. We cannot tolerate the idea of a faith-based state, which is why we are fighting for Israel to be replaced by a State of Palestine run by Hamas and governed by Islamic Sharia Law. When that day comes it will be a wonderful moment of redemption for the Jewish people.
* satire but not much different to the reality.

Obama to US Jews: Iran deal lifts existential threat to Israel

US President Barack Obama insisted Friday that the recently negotiated agreement on Iran’s nuclear program “deals with the existential threat to Israel,” citing the concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most vehement opponents of the deal. Furthermore, he said, the agreement “blocks every way, every pathway that Iran might take in order to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
He said once the nuclear accord was implemented, he expected “pretty quick” improvements in US-Israeli relations.
Obama was speaking from the White House in live webcast organized by North American Jewish groups about the Iran nuclear deal. At the start of the webcast, the president made a few remarks before taking questions that were submitted ahead of the event.
The president said that the agreement ensures that Iran’s centrifuges in Natanz will be removed, except for a handful, and it makes sure that those cannot be used to create enriched uranium. He said the plant at Fordo would be converted into a research facility and would no longer have in it centrifuges that could be used to create nuclear materials.
He also maintained that the US has ensured that it can “snap back” the tight sanctions on the Islamic Republic that Obama credited with bringing Iran to the negotiating table, “in the event that Iran cheats or does not abide by the terms of the deal.”

Obama to Jewish Audience: Iran Deal Leaves Future President Better Positioned to Address Nuclear Threat

Fifteen years from now, the president, whoever that may be, will be in a stronger position to respond to the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, if the current deal with Tehran is adopted and implemented, President Barack Obama told an online audience for the Jewish Federations of North America on Friday.
Obama said the U.S. would have greater “knowledge” of the Iranian nuclear program after 15 years, when key provisions of the agreement such as limits on uranium enrichment and centrifuges expire.
The president vowed that the U.S. would be prepared to respond in the even that Iran dashes for nuclear weapons. “We are confident in our ability to respond,” he said.

Obama’s Iran Deal Hypocrisy Knows No Limits

President Obama was at pains to express his devotion to the U.S.-Israel alliance during a webcast conversation with the Jewish community broadcast by the Jewish Federations of North America today. But amid the bromides about his administration and the Jewish community being part of one big pro-Israel family, was the sort of hypocrisy and misleading arguments that we have come to expect from the president during the course of the debate about his nuclear deal with Iran. The hypocrisy stems from his whining about the nastiness of the pact’s critics while at the same time being unwilling to own up to the toxic tone and insults that he has employed to pressure Congress to back the deal. But as insufferable as that may be, the real problem remains the disingenuous spin he uses to defend a deal that failed to achieve the objective that he set for the negotiations when they began: end the nuclear threat from Iran. Obama claims to be only arguing from facts but at the core of his spin are two indefensible notions: a dismissal of the concerns of Israel and its friends as being “visceral” rather than his supposedly rational stand and a refusal to acknowledge that Iran is not planning to change and that the deal doesn’t give the U.S. the ability to do much to stop it from getting a bomb when the deal expires.
The president and his team were badly outfoxed in the negotiations by the Iranians. At every point when they refused his demands, he gave in demonstrating his desperation for a deal at virtually any price. But his skill at politics is unmatched as his chutzpah. Thus although the ostensible purpose of the webcast was to soothe relations with an angry and divided Jewish community, Obama stuck to his talking points and refused even to acknowledge that he is even partially responsible for injecting a toxic tone into the debate while delegitimizing his critics.
Perhaps it was too much to ask of federation leaders to ask him a pointed question about the way he sought to smear the deal’s critics as a powerful “lobby” that was using “big money” to oppose him in the same terms that earned President George H.W. Bush universal opprobrium when he challenged AIPAC in 1991. But when they asked him a more anodyne question about what could be done to heal the wounds from the debate that he has poured salt on, the president responded with self-righteousness and hypocrisy rather than conciliation.

Poll: Over 80% of Americans Oppose Giving Iran Sanctions Relief Without Congressional Approval

A poll released this week found that 82% of Americans oppose the administration granting Iran $100 billion in sanctions relief “without the approval of Congress,” The Hill reported yesterday.
The poll, released by Secure America Now, found that 82 percent of Americans — including large majorities in both parties — oppose the White House granting billions of dollars in sanctions relief “without the approval of Congress.”
The survey also showed that, when informed about “secret side deals between Iran and the U.N. monitoring agency,” 61 percent of people thought that Congress should vote to kill the deal. Just 16 percent said it should be approved, despite the existence of the side deals. …
“It’s not easy to find voters who are comfortable with the secret side deals allowing Iran to self-inspect their own nuclear activities,” Patrick Caddell, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the survey, said in a statement.

 Iran official: We will never end fight against Israel

A aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday dismissed remarks by British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond that Tehran has changed its stance on Israel, insisting that fighting the “illegal Zionist regime” is an ongoing policy of the Islamic Republic, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
“[The] fight against the illegal Zionist regime is one of the immutable policies of Iran, which has always been maintained,” Seyed Mahmoud Nabavi said.
Hammond was in Iran on Sunday and Monday for the reopening of the British embassy in Tehran, and said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had indicated a “more nuanced approach” to Israel’s existence. Hammond said Khamenei’s “revolutionary sloganizing” should be distinguished from “what Iran actually does in the conduct of its foreign policy.”

Rouhani opposes parliament vote on nuclear deal

President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday he opposes a parliamentary vote on the landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers because the terms of the agreement would turn into legal obligations if passed by lawmakers.
Rouhani told a news conference that the deal was a political understanding reached with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, not a pact requiring parliamentary approval. The deal also says Iran would implement the terms voluntarily, he said.

Rouhani: Nuke deal won’t affect Iran’s military capabilities

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that the country’s military capability has not been affected by the nuclear agreement. His comments were apparently designed to reassure hardline opponents at home that the agreement does not signal a weakening of Tehran’s standing.
“With regards to our defensive capability, we did not and will not accept any limitations,” Rouhani was quoted by Reuters saying at a press conference aired on Iranian TV.
“We will do whatever we need to do to defend our country, whether with missiles or other methods,” the Iranian president said.

Iran seeking to expel 200,000 Sunnis from Damascus — report

Iran is working with the Syrian regime to clear hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslim residents from Damascus in an effort to alter the demographic makeup of the city, according to the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
According to the report, the overwhelmingly Shiite Iran is helping the regime to raze homes in the relatively plush Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus, pushing out the Sunni residents in an effort to cement local support for the regime.
Hundreds of families living in the area were given just a few hours to evacuate their homes, the report said.
The Christian Science Monitor reported this week that Iran had also been seeking to include a population transfer in a recent ceasefire in the Syrian town of Zabadani, close to the Lebanese border.

Iran Executes Second Kurdish Activist this Month Despite International Outcry

Iran hanged Behrouz Alkhani, a 30-year-old Kurdish man accused of “enmity against God” and involvement with the outlawed Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), only weeks after the execution of Kurdish PJAK activist Sirvan Nezhavi on similar charges, Reuters reported yesterday. Alkhani’s sentence was still being appealed at the Supreme Court.
Behrouz Alkhani, 30, was convicted in 2011 of having ties to the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an outlawed group that seeks self-governance for Iran’s Kurds and has links to Turkey’s militant Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
He was also found guilty of being involved in the shooting of a public prosecutor in West Azerbaijan Province in 2010, which the authorities blamed on the PJAK.
Alkhani’s brother said that he had been a member of PJAK but had never taken up arms. Five other Kurds were executed for drug dealing at the same time.
After Sirvan Nezhavi was executed earlier this month, PJAK forces attacked a base of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Music to Barenboim’s Ears

It’s been a while since renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim took center stage in an international controversy.
Luckily for the 72-year-old expatriate (whose family moved to Israel from Argentina when he was nine, and who has spent the bulk of his career in Germany), his political views can always be counted on to give his baton a boost.
This week, the general music director of the Berlin State Opera and its orchestra, the Staatskapelle, announced his plan to take the show on the road to the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the wake of the nuclear agreement reached between Tehran and six world powers in July.
Because the mullah-led regime in Tehran views Western music as one among many threats to its reign of terror, however, the best Barenboim can do is “negotiate” a potential concert.
...
And Barenboim’s overall ideology makes him an obvious member of the lunatic Left, which ostensibly champions human rights while apologizing for the greatest abusers of it.
Furthermore, in light of repeated statements from Iranian officials reiterating the regime’s intention to destroy Israel and continue to view America as the “Great Satan” — an enemy with which it signed a pact enabling it to proceed with its nuclear weapons program — Barenboim’s advances could well be rejected.
He is a Jew with Israeli citizenship, after all.

Strange Bedfellows: Saudi Arabia Moves Toward Hamas

Saudi Arabia has reached out to the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, inviting its leaders to Riyadh, and offering to negotiate between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement. The outreach to Hamas, which is still being funded by Iran, is one way that the Sunni Saudi Arabia is trying to cement alliances with other Sunni states in the Middle East.
It is also part of new Saudi King Salman’s more activist policy in the region, which has ranged from public talks with Israel to being in the forefront of air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“Under King Salman, Saudi Arabia is acting as a regional power,” Theodore Karasik, of the Institute of Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, told The Media Line. “The whole idea is to pull together a Sunni bloc of countries to kick out Iranian influence (in the region). Riyadh would be the stepping stone for a Sunni-led bloc of countries.”
Early next month, King Salman will meet with President Obama in Washington – his first visit there since ascending the throne. On his way back to the Middle East, he is expected to stop in Egypt. On the agenda will be Egypt’s relationship with Hamas.

Whose Flag Will Be Raised at the UN? Fatah or Hamas?

Always looking for ways to symbolize their quest for sovereignty, the Palestinians are asking that they be allowed to raise their flag at the United Nations next month when the General Assembly convenes. The gesture is meaningless, but it requires bending the rules since that is a privilege restricted under the world body’s rules to member states. Since the Palestinian Authority is there as a “non-member observer state,” the PA’s allies are requesting that all such observers be granted the honor of having their banner fly in Turtle Bay. But there are two problems with the plan. One is that the only other such observer — the Vatican — opted out of the farce. The other is that it bears asking which of the two rival Palestinian governments will the UN be honoring: the corrupt Fatah regime that runs the West Bank or the Hamas terrorists that rule Gaza? Can anyone at the UN answer the question? Or better yet, will any of the nations that will surely force this through even care?
Given the recent decision of the Vatican to recognize Palestinian independence, it might have been natural for the church to chime in on the flag issue. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. The Vatican said that while it didn’t oppose the raising of the Palestinian flag, it did not wish to endorse the stunt or take part in it. The tiny Vatican City State has a flag with the pope’s coat of arms, but the Church sees no value in the symbolism of having it fly alongside that of other countries. But the Palestinians take comfort form such gestures and view any opportunity to pose as a sovereign state as one to be seized.
But like the entire effort to allow the Palestinians to be treated as a sovereign power without first requiring them to make peace with Israel, there’s a huge problem with the effort.

The Ambassador schools the professor

Professor of sports sociology Gerd von der Lippe has become accustomed to not having her often exaggerated and wrong statements regarding Israel checked or challenged. Thus, she has become so arrogant that she cannot be bothered to spell or fact check her own oped before publishing it, leaving this job to the Israeli ambassador.

Imprecise and misrepresentative about racism in Israel
It is strange to see how some people in parts of the public debate present simplifying generalizations about complex internal and external affairs as regards Israel.
Ambassador
Raphael Schutz
Once again it becomes clear how easy it is to put forward serious claims about Israel without presenting sources. It is strange to see how some people in parts of the public debate present simplifying generalizations about complex internal and external affairs as regards Israel. The rhetoric is often problematic, where mere assumptions and undocumented claims are used as premises for own convictions. In this case the chronicle contains so many inaccuracies that it all simply becomes embarrassing. We can for example inform you that the name of the 18 month old Palestinian boy who was killed in the barbaric fire bombing on July 31, was named Ali Saad Dawabsheh and not Yedioth Aharonoth, which is one of Israel’s largest newspapers.

Federal Court Backs Funding Cut to ‘Antisemitic’ Canadian-Arab Group

The Federal Court of Appeal in Canada upheld the government’s decision to withdraw funding for an Arab group accused of supporting antisemitism and terrorism, the National Post reported on Thursday.
In 2009, former Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney cut $1 million in annual funding to the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), which was being paid the sum in exchange for providing language-training services to new immigrants.
Kenney argued that the group’s leadership promoted antisemitism and had repeatedly expressed support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Federal Appeal Court in July backed Kenney’s decision to cut funding and rejected CAF claims that Kenney’s conclusion was an “abuse of authority” or “a blatant attempt to suppress criticism of Israel.”
Kenney told the National Post on Wednesday that CAF had a long track record of “expressing hateful, antisemitic views, and glorifying terrorists.” His office cited several incidents, including a CAF executive attending a Cairo conference where Hamas and Hezbollah delegates were present, and a CAF-organized rally in which the Hezbollah flag was flown.

The NDP’s anti-Israel grassroots

Part of the [Canadian] Conservative party’s strategy against the New Democrats in this election includes the website Meetthendp.ca, which aggregates controversial statements by NDP candidates. Already the site has led to one Nova Scotia New Democrat being relieved of his candidacy — and presumably the Tories are saving their best fodder for later in the long campaign.
A number of the comments posted so far centre on Israel. Some NDP candidates accuse Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes” and call for a boycott of the Jewish state. Another talks about how good he felt supporting the murderous First Intifada.
The NDP’s response so far — cutting loose the young Nova Scotia candidate — will almost certainly not be the last time their hands are forced in response to oppo research by the Tories.
The social media response, including from NDP supporters, has been predictable: Leader Thomas Mulcair is caving to pressure from the Zionists who, in the inevitable spiral of online discourse, morph into caricatures of Jewish power and control.

BDS Announces Boycott of the Palestinian Authority, Citing “Close Economic Ties With Israel” (satire)

In a surprising turn of events, organizers of the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) have announced that the internationally recognized political representative of the Palestinians – the Palestinian Authority (PA) – will become a target of their activities. The BDS movement, originally a place where anti-Semites could hide behind a more civil banner, is dedicated to convincing people, governments, and corporations that Israel is worth thinking about in their spare time. Though with the recent attempt at boycotting Matisyahu (a Jewish, but not Israeli reggae rapper) in Spain, it appears that BDS is collecting controversies like Jews collect pennies (to put it in terms they’d understand). Despite this questionable position, support for BDS remains strong, leading many followers to wonder about their newest announcement concerning the PA.
“The PA has all the hallmarks of an organization we’d like to boycott,” BDS leader Jon Katz told The Mideast Beast. “The PA does business with Israel, works on joint projects with Israel, many of the people it represents work in Israel and for Israelis. Just look at a map- it’s even touching Israel. I have to tell you, it makes me sick.” Katz hopes to see international support for the PA evaporate, and as a result, Israel along with it. “When you really think about it, the Israeli military industrial complex needs the PA; how could they justify buying so many guns for shooting civilians without an enemy to fight?” And with this point, the logic of the argument is revealed like the horns on a Jew when taking off his hat.

Which got more cover on BBC News website this week – terror or ketchup?

Like the majority of attacks against Israelis, this one did not receive any BBC coverage. However, the attacker was later identified as being Muamar Atta Mahmoud – the convicted murderer of Professor Menachem Stern – who was released from prison in December 2013 within the framework of the ‘goodwill gestures’ supposed to advance talks between Israel and the PLO in 2013/14.
BBC coverage of those prisoner releases at the time made much of the terrorists’ status as “heroes of the Palestinian cause” and repeatedly promoted the description of them as “freedom fighters” and “political prisoners” whilst failing to adequately address the topic of glorification of terrorism – made especially relevant by the Palestinian Authority’s lavish receptions for convicted murderers. Nevertheless, the BBC has still not found it appropriate to inform its audiences of this incident.
On the other hand, visitors to the BBC News website’s Middle East page did learn this week that Heinz can no longer label its product ketchup in Israel.

A Polish reporter’s account of the human shields the BBC refused to see

Last year the BBC Complaints department responded to complaints concerning the lack of BBC coverage of terrorist missile fire from the Gaza Strip by claiming that “it was very hard for journalists in Gaza to get to see rockets being fired out” and by citing a filmed report by Orla Guerin from August 12th 2014 as support for the claim that it did in fact report “on allegations that Hamas and other militants put Palestinian civilian lives at risk by operating from residential areas, as well as launching rockets near schools and hospitals”.BBC Trust
Earlier this year the BBC Trust’s ESC produced a decidedly tortured and self-contradicting verdict rejecting complaints from members of the public about a statement made by Orla Guerin in that same filmed report from Gaza in which she said that there was “no evidence” to support the claim that civilians in the Gaza Strip were being used as human shields.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz recently published an article by Polish Radio’s foreign correspondent Wojciech Cegielski in which he recounts some of his own experiences whilst in the Gaza Strip last summer.
“Yes, Israel bombed Palestinian houses in Gaza. But Hamas is also to blame for its cruel and selfish game against its own people. I do not have hard evidence, but for me, spending a month in the middle of this hell, it was obvious that they were breaking international rules of war and worst of all, were not afraid to use their own citizens as living shields.

Thai police arrest foreigner over bombing at Bangkok shrine

Thai police arrested a foreign suspect and seized bomb-making materials Saturday in the investigation of a deadly shrine bombing, officials said Saturday.
“It is most likely he is related to the bombing at Rajaprasong,” deputy police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said of the suspect. The blast at the Erawan Shrine in the commercial Rajaprasong district of the capital on Aug. 17 killed 20 people, including foreigners.
The man was arrested Saturday in Nong Jok on the outskirts of Bangkok. Chakthip said, “We found bomb materials in his apartment.”
National police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said that the arrested person is a foreigner, but refused to say if he was Turkish, as was reported by some local news organizations.

Germany warns Facebook: Clamp down on Holocaust denial - or else

Facebook will have to abide by German laws banning racist sentiment even if it might be allowed in the United States under freedom of speech, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview with Reuters.
Maas, who has accused Facebook of doing too little to thwart racist and hate posts on its social media platform, said that Germany has zero tolerance for such expression and expects the US-based company to be more vigilant.
"One thing is clear: if Facebook wants to do business in Germany, then it must abide by German laws," Maas told Reuters. "It doesn't matter that we, because of historical reasons, have a stricter interpretation of freedom of speech than the United States does."
"Holocaust denial and inciting racial hatred are crimes in Germany and it doesn't matter if they're posted on Facebook or uttered out in the public on the market square," he added.

White supremacist who killed three people in gun rampage against Jews tells jury he is sorry he didn't kill more and testifies he was 'devastated' to learn victims weren't Jewish

A white supremacist charged with killing three at Jewish sites in Kansas City spent more than two hours Friday telling jurors how he planned the attacks and he was sorry he didn't kill more people.
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr, who is acting as his own attorney, called himself as a witness and spoke of his military history and of how he started a North Carolina group in called the White Patriot Party.
Seventy-four-year-old Miller, who could be sentenced to death if he is convicted, also told jurors the prosecutor had a 'slam dunk' and he knew they would put him on death row.
Miller, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan, asked that he be found not guilty because he believed that Jews have too much power and must be stopped before resting his case on Friday.
He is charged with killing high school student Reat Underwood, 14, and Underwood's grandfather, 69-year-old William Corporon, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City.
The while supremacist is also charged with killing Terri LaManno, 53, outside a nearby Jewish retirement home during the April 2014 shootings in Overland Park, Kansas, outside of Kansas City.
None of the victims were Jewish.

Vienna Jews: City ignoring Muslim anti-Semitic incitement

The Jewish Community of Vienna has accused the city’s prosecutor’s office of ignoring anti-Semitic incitement by pro-Palestinian activists.
The incitement took the form of a caricature published last month on the Facebook page of organizers of the Vienna march of International Quds Day — an annual event held in cities across the world since it was initiated in Iran as an expression of solidarity with Palestinians and rejection of Zionism and Israel.
The caricature showed men wearing Middle Eastern garb and one child pouring water into a hole, at the bottom of which stands a worried-looking, drowning Orthodox Jew holding an Israeli flag. The caricature contained a Turkish-language quote attributed to Ruhollah Khomeini, the late spiritual leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran: “If every Muslim poured a glass of water on Israel, it would drown.”
The organizers of the march on July 11 removed the caricature after the Jewish Community of Vienna complained about it in Austrian media. Politicians from across the spectrum condemned the caricature as anti-Semitic and several parties filed a criminal complaint for incitement, but the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office recently decided to close the case without charging anyone.
The cartoon “was not directed against a group of people and constitutes no [criminal] offense,” the prosecutors said, according to a statement published last week on the community’s website.

Next stop Mars, with Israeli radiation protection

Israeli technology that can protect first responders from deadly gamma radiation – the kind of radiation emitted by nuclear bombs – may one day protect astronauts who explore deep space from the high levels of radiation they are likely to encounter.
Israel’s StemRad is working with US defense giant Lockheed-Martin to develop a version of its gamma-ray shielding vest for use in deep-space missions, the companies announced this week.
“We’re going to take our extensive knowledge of human spaceflight, apply our nano-materials engineering expertise, and working closely with StemRad, evaluate the viability for this type of radiation shielding in deep-space,” said Randy Sweet, Lockheed Martin business development director for the civil space line of business. “The Lockheed Martin team believes this could result in an innovative solution to enhance crew safety on the journey to Mars.”
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor building Orion, NASA’s next-generation spacecraft designed to transport humans to destinations beyond low Earth orbit and bring them safely home. Designed for the space missions of tomorrow, Orion will, among other things, provide technology against the effects of deep-space radiation, considered one of the biggest threats and roadblocks to human exploration of the solar system beyond the moon.

JNF Hosting Water Summits Across US to Share Israeli Expertise

Jewish National Fund (JNF) has announced that it will host a series of water summits across the United States in order to share Israel’s drought solutions with American communities.
Seth M. Siegel, author of the upcoming book Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World, will be the keynote speaker at summits in Chicago (Oct. 26, 2015); Austin, Texas (Dec. 1-3, 2015); San Diego (Dec. 8-10, 2015); Denver (Jan. 26-28, 2016); Las Vegas (Feb. 2-4, 2016); Los Angeles (March 1-3, 2016); Washington, DC (June 8-9, 2016); Albany, N.Y. (TBD); Boston (TBD); New York City (TBD); and Phoenix.
“We are on the brink of a global water crisis and California’s drought is only the beginning,” Siegel said. “The U.S. government predicts that 40 of our 50 states—and 60 percent of the Earth’s land surface—will soon face alarming gaps between the supply and growing demand for water. Without immediate action, food prices will rise, economic growth will slow, and political instability is likely to follow. I thought that rather than just laying out the problem, concerned citizens and policymakers would want to have a model for what actually works and how we can blunt the worst of this coming water crisis. Israel is that model.”
Laureine Greenbaum, chair of JNF’s National Water Task Force, said, “For many years, JNF has worked to help bolster Israel’s water economy by developing alternative water sources and advancing Israeli agriculture while improving the environmental water quality and saving the country millions every year. We are so happy to partner with Seth on these summits to heighten American awareness on this relevant and urgent issue.”

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/29/2015 08:40:00 PM