EoZ

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] UN runs out of money to feed Syrian refugees while UNRWA keeps raising cash

The United Nations' food agency has announced that it is suspending its food programme serving more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees because it has run out of money.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday that it "immediately needs" at least $64m in December alone to support the displaced Syrians now living in neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.

"A suspension of WFP food assistance will endanger the health and safety of these refugees and will potentially cause further tensions, instability and insecurity in the neighbouring host countries," said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, in an appeal to donors.

"The suspension of WFP food assistance will be disastrous for many already suffering families."

Since the war in Syria began in 2011, over three million people have fled to neighbouring countries.

Under the UN programme, the refugees use vouchers to buy food in local shops. The UN provides basics like flour, cooking oil and sugar. But it also gives vital food vouchers to pregnant and nursing mothers.

"Without WFP vouchers, many families will go hungry. For refugees already struggling to survive the harsh winter, the consequences of halting this assistance will be devastating," the UN said.

Every month, the UN feeds over four million people inside Syria, and over a million more now temporarily sheltered in other countries.

Muhannad Hadi, the UN coordinator of the food programme, told Al Jazeera the refugees would face a harsh winter without support from the world body.

"It's definitely a catastrophe," he said, speaking from the Jordanian capital Amman. "If we cannot deliver the food voucher, they simply would not be able to eat."

"We are asking the world [to help]. This is an international crisis."

There is only so much international aid to go around, and one reason why the World Food Program is running out of money is because the bloated, superfluous UNRWA keeps on manufacturing its own "crises" every couple of months to keep its own cash flow coming.

Last week, UNRWA declared an "emergency" because of flooding in Gaza that did not kill or injure a single person.

While the WFP needs some $64 million a month to stop people from starving, UNRWA is demanding $1.6 billion from the international community on top of $300 million it demanded earlier this year.

While Syrian refugees cannot eat, UNRWA goes fundraising in Japan and Azerbaijan.

Even crazier is that UNRWA also solicits money for the relatively small percentage of Syrian refugees who fall under its mandate. Rather than a single UN fundraising effort for all Syrian refugees to ensure fair distribution, UNRWA has a separate program because the UN makes a distinction between refugees who happen to have some ancestors who lived in British Mandate Palestine in 1947 and all others. The UNHRC and WFP are struggling to give Syrian refugees the basics of food and medical care while the Palestinians who fall under UNRWA's mandate receive much higher levels of aid per capita, including schooling and medicine. "Palestinian" refugees from Syria go o different camps in Jordan than the rest of the refugees because of Arab bigotry against Palestinians that gets swept under the rug.

The inefficiencies from having UNRWA doing the same work as other UN agencies, and the Arab nations insisting on discrimination against Palestinians, is wasting huge amounts of money.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/02/2014 08:00:00 AM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Hezbollah kids' magazine glorifies war and martyrdom; AFP waters it down

AFP gives us an object lesson into how to downplay even the most despicable acts by a terror group.

It’s aimed at children, but instead of princes and princesses, fairies and magicians, the heroes of Lebanon’s “Mahdi” magazine are the “fighters who fell resisting the Israeli enemy.”

Produced by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement for the last 11 years, Mahdi aims to teach a new generation the militant Shiite group’s ideology of “resistance” to the Jewish state.

Packed full of stories inspired by the lives of Hezbollah militants and terrorists, its cartoons represent bearded fighters and its puzzles teach children how to avoid Israeli landmines.

Critics accuse it of glorifying violence, but its publishers insist the monthly magazine is not about indoctrination or military propaganda.

“What we want to do is teach children the values of the resistance,” the magazine’s general manager Abbas Charara told AFP.

“We don’t encourage carrying of weapons, we’re just making sure they know about the exploits of the resistance,” he added.

Before the readers of this AFP article knows what the magazine includes, they are exposed to Hezbollah's denials that there is anything wrong.

You have to read all the way down to paragraph 15 before reading anything specific about the content, and even further to read what a critic actually says - and that critic is still equivocal.

And AFP does not illustrate the article with a single page image of the magazine,and its examples of what the magazine includes does not include the worst parts.

Here is the reality, from blogger Khaled Alameddine who first exposed the magazine in July. This is the version of the magazine aimed at 4-7 year olds.

A children’s rhyme about defending your land, victory and how the enemy will reap defeat;

Color the weapons inside the big bomb!

Kids love stickers...

Help the bunny cross the minefield, and then count the different kinds of mines it avoided.

The Hezbollah spokesman in the AFP article said “We don’t encourage carrying of weapons," You decide if he is telling the truth. AFP can't figure it out.

Effectively, a sickening piece of propaganda aimed for kids as young as 4 is being whitewashed because AFP is more interested in being "even-handed" than in showing the truth. By highlighting the Hezbollah defense of the magazine before mentioning what's wrong with it, and by ignoring the worst parts of the magazine, AFP is effectively being a mouthpiece for Hezbollah indoctrination of children into religion-based terror and hate.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/02/2014 05:19:00 AM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Latest Gaza tally shows 52% militant, 48% civilians killed of those identified

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released (in Hebrew only) part 8 of its series analyzing the people killed in Gaza and (using Palestinian Arabic sources) determining whether they were terrorists or not.

The latest report covers those reported killed between July 25-29.

So far, they have examined 1,165 fatalities. 157 of them are not yet identified as civilian or terrorist. Out of the remaining 1017 names, 528 were terrorists and 480 were civilians, a 52%-48% ratio.

Another interesting statistic comes out from this. Since the center is analyzing the deaths in chronological order, the people that were killed between July 25-29 (plus any from earlier reports who had been positively identified in this report, probably negligible) are found to be 93 terrorists vs. 41 civilians, which is over 69% terrorists.

Here are a few of the dozens of photos of terrorists that the Meir Amit Center found for this batch, including some "martyr posters" that were released as late as last week, including two that they got from me!

(h/t Yenta Press)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 08:00:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 12/01 Links Pt2: Interview with the Green Prince; Terror linked charities get British millions in Gift Aid

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Statement on Media Censorship of Criticism of NGOs

In a November 30 article published in The Atlantic (What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel), former AP journalist Matti Friedman states that, during his time at the AP Jerusalem bureau, reporters had explicit orders "to never quote [NGO Monitor] or its director… Gerald Steinberg. In my time as an AP writer moving through the local conflict, with its myriad lunatics, bigots, and killers, the only person I ever saw subjected to an interview ban was this professor."
"Matti Friedman's revelations regarding the efforts to censor NGO Monitor and me as its president are not entirely surprising," said Professor Gerald Steinberg, president and founder of NGO Monitor. "Based on our experience in publishing detailed research on over 150 NGOs claiming to promote human rights and humanitarian objectives, we are aware of the intense efforts to maintain the NGO 'halo effect' and prevent critical debate. While the AP censorship was explicit, we have experienced similar silencing from other media platforms."
Friedman also highlights the "ethical gray zone of ties between reporters and NGOs" in Israel, where journalists socializing in the same circles as NGO officials, seek employment with NGOs, and adapt to a journalistic culture in which NGOs "are to be quoted, not covered."

Reflections on the UN Partition of Palestine

On November 29, Arab UN delegations called the UN move 'undemocratic.' Ambassador Amir Arslan of Syria, proclaimed, "My country will never recognize such a decision," Jamali of Iraq objected that Resolution 181, "Undermines peace, justice and democracy," and they and their Arab colleagues abruptly walked out the halls of the UN in Lake Success, New York, in protest. Almost immediately, Arab labor strikes in Palestine were called, and acts of terror were launched against Jews.
In the first month after the UN vote, 118 Jews were killed and 217 were wounded. Civilians were attacked on the streets, and convoys to cities were also attacked as were medical clinics. Violence also extended into the Arab world. In the Yemenite city of Aden, anti-Jewish riots broke out with reports of 76 Jews killed and 74 wounded.
Soon, the Arab Legion of irregular troops led by Nazi trained commandoes Hassam Salameh and Abdul Kader Husseini, nephew of the infamous Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini, led the Arab war effort while the surrounding Arab nations preferred to wait until the British evacuation. On February 11, a bombing on Ben Yehudah Street in central Jerusalem killed and wounded hundreds.
The Jewish State, not even officially re-born, was fighting for its existence.

i24news Exclusive Interview with the Green Prince - 25/11/2014 (h/t Yoel)

Terror link' charities get British millions in Gift Aid

Charities accused of supporting jihad in Syria and other forms of terrorism have been paid millions of pounds by British taxpayers.
Groups under investigation for allegedly aiding Syrian militants have used the Gift Aid scheme to claim large sums from the public purse.
Among them is Al-Fatiha Global, a Midlands-based charity that is being investigated by the Charity Commission after the chief executive's son was apparently pictured in Syria with two masked men holding AK-47s. He denies the photograph is of him.
Unpublished accounts seen by The Telegraph show that Al-Fatiha's donations total went from £4,038 in 2012 to more than £1.2 million in 2013.
The auditors refused to approve the accounts, saying that insufficient records were kept of "goods distributed to beneficiaries in Syria".

UNESCO seeks to save Jewish sites from Islamic State's claws

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova recently warned that "Islamic, Christian, Kurdish and Jewish heritage … is being intentionally destroyed or attacked in what is clearly a form of cultural cleansing."
Other than the physical damage, one of the greatest concerns is that terrorists are plundering ancient sites and selling artifacts on the black market to fund their operations. In a press release posted on its website, UNESCO reiterated that a ban on trafficking in Iraqi cultural objects was adopted by the U.N. Security Council in Resolution 1483 of 2003, and that it is still in effect.
According to the agency's Emergency Response Action Plan paper, "Relevant parties, including Customs and police at border crossings, Interpol, the World Customs Organization and auction houses, will be alerted and informed about the possibility of illicit trafficking of Iraqi cultural property, as well as the specific measures needed to prevent such acts."

The United Nations and Holy Sites in the Holy Land

The United Nations is inconsistent regarding its position on the "character", "access" and "rights" of holy sites in the Holy Land across the Green Line.
In 2010, UNESCO published a paper highly critical of Israel regarding its treatment of two holy places in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank: the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem. The statements were a complete inversion of the truth:

Tragedy of Mizrahi Jewish Refugees Emerges From the Shadows

Commenting on the Knesset bill after it was passed, MK Shimon Ohayon noted that "we have finally corrected a historic injustice and placed the issue of Jews who were expelled or pushed out of the Arab world in the last century, on the national and international agenda."
Elaborating, he added, "In Israel, the history of the Jews who originally came from the Middle East or North Africa, who make up around half of the population, was ignored for too long. This is a vital part of our fight against those internally and externally who delegitimize our presence here and claim we are somehow foreign to the region."
He's right. The theme of "indigeneity"—that those deemed to be native to a particular territory have supreme rights over it—has been a core element of the Palestinian and Arab campaign to portray Israel as a colonial interloper, and an alien presence in a Muslim-Arab region. But Jews lived in the Islamic world for thousands of years, just as they did in the land that is now Israel.
In that sense, there is a political goal behind the commemoration day, and it's nothing to apologize for. Almost 70 years after Jews were stripped of their citizenship and property by avowedly anti-Semitic regimes, their fate remains largely hidden from the gaze of historians and journalists. In part, that's because these refugees didn't stay refugees for very long. The majority were absorbed in Israel, still others went to Europe and the Americas, all of them got on with their lives. But fundamentally, the injustice remains unaddressed.

Travails of Jews from Arab Lands finally recognized after 66 years

History was made Sunday, when for the first time in the annals of the state, official recognition was given to Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran.
The event, hosted by President Reuven Rivlin at his official residence, was the continuum of legislation that was passed by the Knesset in June this year designating November 30 as the national day of commemoration of the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran.
The date was significant in that it commemorates the day after the anniversary of the November 29, 1947 UN resolution on the partition of Palestine, which led to an immediate flare up of anti-Zionist action and policy among Arab states, resulting in the killing, persecution, humiliation, oppression and expulsion of Jews, the sequestration of Jewish property and a war against the nascent State of Israel.
In 1948, close to a million Jews lived in Arab lands. Some were massacred in pogroms. Most fled or were expelled between 1948 and 1967. In 1948 there were 260,000 Jews in Morocco. Today there are less than 3,000.
In the same time frame, the Jewish population of Algeria declined from 135,000 to zero, in Tunisia from 90,000 to a thousand, in Libya from 40,000 to zero, in Egypt from 75,000 to less than one hundred, in Iraq from 125,000 to zero, in Yemen from 45,000 to approximately 200, in Syria from 27,000 to 100, and in Lebanon from 10,000 in the 1950s to less than 100.

For Jewish ex-refugees, it's about recognition, not politics

Waldman settled in San Francisco, where in 2001 she founded Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA), an organization committed to education and the collection of oral histories of Jewish refugees.
"I feel as though the chapter of our history was torn out of the Jewish history book," Waldman told The Times of Israel. "Most Israelis originally from Arab countries don't know their own histories."
In 2011 JIMENA began translating the personal accounts it collected into Arabic and Persian with the help of Middle Eastern dissidents, launching an Arabic Facebook page last year which has already garnered 10,000 followers.
"We feel that unless the Arab young generation is educated, our job is not complete," she said. "We get tremendously positive reactions."

Israel calls for reparations for Middle Eastern Jews

Israel on Sunday marked the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries in the years after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin calling for financial reparations.
In a bid to draw attention to the plight of the forced migrants, Israel formally marked their displacement with a ceremony at the president's house under a new law naming November 30 as the anniversary.
"It is not for nothing that this day is marked on the day after the 29th of November," Netanyahu said, in reference to the anniversary of the UN adoption of the Palestine partition plan in 1947. "The Arab countries, which never accepted the UN declaration on the establishment of a Jewish state, compelled the Jews living in their territories to leave their homes while leaving their assets behind… We have acted – and will continue to act – so that they and their claims are not forgotten."

Cities against Israel

All these proposals have public relations as their main goal. Keeping Israel in a negative light draws the attention away from the massive criminality of the Palestinians. That concerns both Fatah and its leader, Palestinian President Abu Mazen, who glorify Palestinian murderers of Israeli civilians. The criminality is even more pronounced in the largest Palestinian party, Hamas, a genocidal Islamo-Nazi movement.
Once a new initiative is made, such as the one by the Leicester city council, others will follow. Israel cannot effectively fight these developments with its present infrastructure: it needs a central anti-propaganda agency with a sizeable budget. Only such an organization can be effective in making the boycotters understand that there are no free anti-Semitic lunches.

UAW-affiliated California Grad Student Union to Vote on Israel boycott this week

The anti-Israel movement on campus never sleeps.
The latest is that anti-Israel students took over control of the operating council of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 2865, comprised of over 12,000 graduate student employees. They used that control to send to the membership for a vote on December 4 a wide-ranging anti-Israel resolution.
What makes this resolution different is that it turns Grad Student union members into activists inside the classroom, calling on them to honor the academic and cultural boycott in their university teaching capacity. This places the union vote far outside any of the other academic boycotts, such as by the American Studies Association, which did not even purport to infringe upon professional responsibilities in the teaching of courses.
As in all these efforts, the anti-Israel activists position themselves to control the flow of information to members to filter out contrary viewpoints. Since in the real world few people turn out to vote on such issues other than committed activists, resolutions can pass without a majority of the entire membership agreeing.

California Teamsters Issue scathing letter in opposition to BDS

In a letter directed to the executive Board of UAW Local 2865, the California Teamsters have reiterated their opposition to BDS, stating unequivocally that they "cannot conceive of an action more hostile to the interests of [Teamsters] members and more antithetical to the most basic principles of the union movement"
The letter is reproduced in its entirety at the website of Informed Grads, a group organized in opposition to the Dec. 4th BDS resolution at the University of California

Jewish Students Have the Right to Feel Safe on Campus

Jewish students have the right to feel safe on campus. They have the right to walk the halls wearing a yarmulke. They have the right to hang a mezuzah. They have the right to host pro-Israel events, and to speak freely about their support for Israel in the classroom and on the square. When he headed the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Brandeis Center President Ken Marcus took the first step by including protection against anti-Semitism under Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act. But more must be done to ensure that universities comply with the law.
I know firsthand how distressing it is to be a victim of anti-Zionism that morphs into anti-Semitism. I will carry that passion of personal experience with me when helping other students. The Brandeis Center chapters give law students like me a chance to do our part.

NY Times Again Whitewashes Palestinian Violence

Certain traditions die hard. Like camels in the Jordanian police force. And Times' whitewashing of Palestinian violence.
Hewing to a well-worn pattern, The New York Times again whitewashes Palestinian violence and responsibility for conflict. This time, though, there's a novel twist to the old, tired formula: the story doesn't involve Israel. In an interesting article about the traditional use of camels in Jordan's desert police force, Ben Hubbard writes (Nov. 29):
"Jordan's rulers have long seen those descendants of Palestinians, who tend to care less about the monarchy, as a demographic threat to their rule, according to Ora Szekely, an associate professor of political science at Clark University in Massachusetts, who studies Jordan.
This sentiment increased after Black September, the violent battle that began in 1970 between the Jordanian Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Thousands were killed, but the monarchy won and expelled the P.L.O. from the kingdom.
"This cemented the decision and convinced the monarchy that the only people they could trust were the East Bankers," Dr. Szekely said, "and especially the Bedouin."
What, exactly, convinced the monarchy that it couldn't trust Palestinians? Contrary to Hubbard's muddled reporting and the confusing statement by Dr. Szekely, the violence of Black September was not the cause of the late King Hussein's distrust of Palestinians; it was the result.
In addition, the source of King Hussein's lack of trust was not merely of a demographic nature. In August 1970, Yasser Arafat convened the Palestine National Council in Amman, which openly debated overthrowing King Hussein (Arafat's War, Efraim Karsh). Indeed, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine twice attempted to assassinate the King in early September 1970.

Guardian columnist Giles Fraser should know better than to hold Jews to higher standards

However, the broader point which critics of the proposal to enshrine Israel as the Jewish state miss – and one which we examined in a previous post – is that Israel is not at all unique in these respects. Within the democratic West, there are many nations which maintain codified systems of preference for those claiming a particular religious, ethnic, or linguistic connection with the state.
We'd also be remiss if we didn't note that, though he was raised by a Jewish father and a Christian mother, Fraser later separated completely from his paternal religious tradition by becoming an Anglican priest. Of course, the Anglican Church is the official Church of England.
The King or Queen, as "the head of the Established Church", MUST be Anglican and can never convert to another religion. Additionally, in the Coronation Oath, he or she pledges to maintain the Protestant Reformed Religion as established by law and to be the "Defender" of the Protestant-Christian Faith. Despite the fact that Christianity is so privileged over all other religions, all citizens are, nonetheless, guaranteed equal civil and political rights under the law.
"Of all people", Anglicans like Fraser should understand that the Jewish state's firm desire to maintain a state with a uniquely Jewish character does not in any way undermine the fundamental rights of non-Jews, nor is it at odds with the bible's insistence that Jews and non-Jews must be equal under the law.

BBC continues to promote the notion of a 'siege' on Gaza in report on flooding

As has been pointed out here before, the definition of the term 'siege' does not accurately describe the restrictions on the import of dual-use goods with the potential for use in terrorist activities which is applied to the Gaza Strip by Israel and yet, as we see, that Hamas-favoured terminology is still being used by the BBC.
And what of Alkashif's claim that Israel is not allowing building materials for reconstruction into the Gaza Strip? Let's take a look at just a few of the recent reports from COGAT.

Defiant Hungarian doctor hid Jewish boy as Nazis scoured Budapest during Holocaust

In December 1941, when Hungary severed relations with the United States during World War II, Maria Madi, a doctor in Budapest, started keeping a diary for her daughter, who had just immigrated to Louisiana.
Madi did not know if her daughter would ever see her words. But she wrote anyhow: About the war. About the Nazis. About the suffering of Jews. And about the two people she hid in her apartment, at times behind a large mirror when visitors came to call.
By war's end, Madi, who was not Jewish, had filled 16 notebooks in handwritten English that serve as a grim portrait of the Holocaust in Hungary and of a defiant woman sickened by its cruelty.

BBC Airs Documentary on Jane Haining, 'The Scot Who Died in Auschwitz'

BBC One Scotland on Sunday aired a documentary telling the story of a non-Jewish woman who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp and became the only Scot officially honored for working to protect Jews during the Holocaust.
Jane Haining: The Scot Who Died in Auschwitz tells the story of a farmer's daughter from the south of Scotland who spoke up in defense of Jews after the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and Britain declared war on Germany. At the time, Haining was working in Budapest at the Church of Scotland mission school and taught both Christian and Jewish children. Haining treated all her pupils with fairness and equality, according to the BBC report.
"We never felt we were not equal with each other or with the Christian pupils," said former student Dr. Zsuzanna Pajzs. "We did not even notice who was Christian and who was Jewish."

Jane Haining The Scot Who Died in Auschwitz

New app offers original writings of Anne Frank

A publisher in Amsterdam released the first smartphone application to contain Anne Frank's diary in its original language.
Uitgeverij Prometheus unveiled the Dutch-language application, or app, earlier this month at Theater Amsterdam — a 1,100-seat auditorium which was built in the Dutch capital earlier this year for the show "Anne," about the Jewish teenage diarist's life.
The app contains the international bestseller "The Diary of a Young Girl," which is a version of Anne Frank's writings edited and brought to print by her father, Otto Frank. It tells the story of the Franks' two years in hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam until their deportation to German concentration camps, where only Otto Frank survived.

World's first artificial cell churns out proteins

Years of intense lab work in Israel have led to the world's first artificial cell-on-a-chip, an exciting development with many potential applications.
"The idea to mimic a living cell is a longstanding dream shared by many," Weizmann Institute of Science Prof. Roy Bar-Ziv tells ISRAEL21c. "If we can build a primitive model of something so complex, we can possibly understand the dynamics of protein synthesis better."
Bar-Ziv began this project as independent researcher after his post-doc at Rockefeller University in New York 12 years ago. "It took that long to get it to work," the physicist says.
He accomplished his goal with Weizmann PhD students Eyal Karzbrun and Alexandra Tayar, in collaboration with his former fellow Rockefeller post-doc, Prof. Vincent Noireaux, now at the University of Minnesota. They recently reported on their achievement in the journal Science

AposTherapy, RealView Imaging raise $25 million

Two Israeli companies geared to the medical treatment market have completed huge financing rounds worth $25 million. AposTherapy, a clinically-proven treatment for knee and back pain using unique calibrated shoes, recently closed a $15 million financing round, according to a Globes report. The same paper reports that RealView Imaging, which develops a 3D holographic interaction system for medical applications, raised $10 million in a financing round led by Chinese fund LongTec China Ventures.
The AposTherapy round comes as the company looks to expand to the US market and perhaps China as well, according to reports. The company is in talks with physiotherapy clinics to adopt its method, which it says, can heal back and knee pain without medicines or surgery.
Meanwhile, RealView Imaging's funding round will be used to take its anatomical hologram system – that makes it easier for doctors to treat a patient and cut down on the time it takes to conduct medical procedures– to the commercial market by 2016.

New York Hops on $15 Billion Israeli Corporate Bond Boom

U.S. real-estate developers are joining the largest wave of local debt issuance on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange bond trading platform since 2007, capitalizing on yield-starved investors to obtain financing.
Companies have sold $14.6 billion of bonds this year through Nov. 20, up from $8.7 billion in the same period of 2013, according to bourse data. New York real-estate firms, including Extell Development Co. and Zarasai Group Ltd., have joined the boom, issuing a total of $436 million. It's now about 0.12 percentage point cheaper for borrowers to sell bonds in shekels and convert to dollars than it is to issue in greenbacks directly, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A year ago, shekels were about 0.69 percentage point costlier to borrow.
Attractive borrowing costs and investor demand for higher-paying debt securities are luring foreign issuers. Buyers have responded by pouring into Israel's $86 billion corporate bond market, driving the Tel Aviv Bond 40 Index to near a record. New York-based companies benefit from Israeli traders' familiarity with that market and increased interest for deals that may be considered small in the U.S., according to Israel Shimonov, founding partner at Shimonov & Co. Advocates.

'Remote control killer' uses gestures, not buttons

Remote controls may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a new system by Israeli gesture start-up eyeSight. The onecue control center lets users communicate with just about any connected device in the home – from TVs to air conditioners – with the swipe of a hand.
"Every device in our homes, from the TV to the cable box to the thermostat, has its own control system and remotes, cables or apps for operation, resulting in lots of clutter and fragmentation," said Gideon Shmuel, CEO of eyeSight. "To solve this problem, we developed onecue, a control center to bring together all of these devices through a natural, easy-to-use interface that leverages our years of experience in gesture recognition technology to let you experience your home through your fingertips."
It's a system, said Shmuel, that will provide a major boost to the Internet of Things and smart home technologies by making it easier to interact with networked devices.

Tel Aviv designated UNESCO creative city for media arts

Tel Aviv was among 28 cities UNESCO designated as new members of its creative cities network Monday, with a focus on media arts.
The network aims to develop cooperation between cities that have made creativity a strategic priority, and promotes partnerships in creative projects, studies, training and policy linked to creative development.
The media arts designation, previously shared by Lyon and Enghien-les-bains in France and Sapporo, Japan, looks at how digital technology and media can improve urban life and how digital platforms can enhance cultural access. Other cities designated in the category Monday included Dakar, Senegal; Gwangju, South Korea; Linz, Austria and York in the UK.

Sacha Baron Cohen in Israel for granny's funeral

Comic filmmaker Sacha Baron Cohen was in town this past weekend for the funeral of his 99-year-old grandmother, Liselle Weiser.
The well-known grandson is reported to have sent flowers every week to his maternal granny who lived in Bat Yam.
The funeral took place at the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv.
The Ali G, Borat and Bruno creator is a regular visitor to Israel. His mother, Daniella Weiser, was born here, and Baron Cohen volunteered at two kibbutzim before breaking out onto the world stage.
He was also a member of the Zionist youth movement Habonim-Dror in Britain and started his acting career by appearing in Habonim theater shows.

Holocaust Survivor: 'I'm Thankful'

I'm thankful for the last conversation I had with my father inside the concentration camp before we were separated and he was later murdered. "You are young and strong, and I know you will survive," he told me in a quiet moment our first night at Auschwitz. "If you survive by yourself, you must honor us by living, by not feeling sorry for us. That is what you must do."
I'm grateful for those words. They echo in my heart even still. It was a gift only a father's wisdom could give. It gave me a reason to go forward, a reason to be. It does still. And I'm grateful.
I'm thankful that in the winter of 1945, the stupid-looking wooden clogs the Nazis made me wear did not give out in the unrelenting snows we encountered over many miles during the Death March from Buna to Gleiwitz. Even as the German soldiers turned our column into a moving shooting gallery, for some unknown reason, God kept their guns off me, sparing me the fate of the scores of frozen frames that lay littered across the land, embalmed in glacial graves.
I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the hundreds of thousands of American boys led by Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower—whom I later made suits for—and their willingness to fight and die to destroy Hitler's death machine.
I'm thankful.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 06:00:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Hamas/Fatah"unity" is over.before it ever started

From Ma'an:

A senior Fatah official on Sunday told Ma'an that there was never any agreement that the Palestinian unity government would last only six months, hours after a Hamas spokesman said the government's term had expired.

Faisal Abu Shahla said that the national consensus government was assigned to carry out a number of tasks, including holding elections, "within at least six months," but that it was never agreed that the government term would end if it did not complete those tasks within that time frame.

"If the Hamas movement has retracted the reconciliation agreement and the termination of rivalry, that is a different case," Abu Shahla said.

The Fatah official added that further reconciliation discussions were pending a response from Hamas regarding the attacks with explosives against Fatah leaders' property in Gaza and the cancellation of a ceremony commemorating the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City in early November.

Earlier Sunday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that the six-month mandate of the national consensus government had ended.

Any decision on whether the government should be disbanded or continued or be reshuffled must be made only through national dialogue and consensus, Abu Zuhri said.

If Hamas declares "unity" to be dead, that pretty much means it is dead.

On a related topic, Hamas and the PA are arguing over payment for fuel for Gaza. Hamas wants a discount and is blaming the PA for not paying fpr enough fuel at a time to ensure the Gaza power plant can run.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 04:00:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] More proof that Amnesty's and ICRC's definition of "Gaza occupation" are lies

As I was researching my post this morning, I came across this gem from Amnesty International last summer in a Q&A document they released during the Gaza war that proves, yet again, that Israel cannot be considered to be occupying Gaza.

Tunnels that are being used for civilian purposes (including smuggling civilian goods and supplies into Gaza) are not military objectives and cannot be directly targeted. As the occupying power, Israel may take reasonable and proportionate measures of control or security. This could include preventing unregulated entry and exit of goods, and ensuring that weapons and military equipment are not entering the territory.

An occupying power has the ability to monitor and control the border of the territory being occupied, so it is reasonable to expect that power to be able to prevent unregulated entry of goods and to prevent weapons, by simply adding police to the border areas and enforcing the law.

But for Israel to do what Amnesty says it is allowed to do to prevent illegal smuggling under international law, Israel would have to invade Gaza and take over the entire border area with Egypt. It would have to methodically destroy hundreds of houses in Rafah that are hiding tunnels.

Would Amnesty approve Israel's invading Gaza in order to fulfill its obligations as "occupier"?

The definition of occupation is that the occupying power maintains "effective control." That means that it controls the police, the borders, and the government of the territory under occupation.

Effective control means that the borders can be properly policed. If they cannot be, then there is no effective control, and hence no occupation.

Amnesty (and the ICRC and HRW and UN) must jump through rhetorical hoops in order to pretend that Israel is occupying Gaza. But when you actually read how they try to square that with actual international law, you find that all of them are forced to come up with bizarre arguments that would be laughed out of court if anyone but Israel was involved.

If you want to see an even more egregious example of how the definition of occupation changes when Israel is involved, check out this document that the ICRC wrote in 2002, before Israel withdrew from Gaza, as a study guide to the laws of belligerent occupation:

Anything that the ICRC has written about Gaza being occupied by Israel after 2004 directly contradicts its own definition from 2002.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 02:00:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 12/01 Links Pt1: Toameh: Why a Palestinian State Will Become a Source of Instability

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why a Palestinian State Will Become a Source of Instability

This is precisely what Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries want: to turn the Gaza Strip into an Israeli, and not Arab, problem.
There is good reason to believe that the Arabs are not going to change their attitude toward the Palestinians once a Palestinian state is established. The future Palestinian state will have to continue relying on Israeli and Western aid in order to survive.
And if Israel and the West do not come to their assistance, the Palestinians will find themselves begging at the doorsteps of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State. Then, the future Palestinian state will be anything but a source of stability in the Middle East.

JCPA: Internal Hamas Debate about Rethinking Policies

The results of the Gaza war have caused Hamas serious distress, something its leadership did not foresee before launching the war with Israel. The movement now appears to be in a process of stocktaking and reassessment in light of its situation, including the difficulties in rehabilitating the Gaza Strip, the bitter rift with the Palestinian Authority, and the deterioration in relations with Egypt. Among other things, Egypt has been constraining Hamas’s ability to arm itself.
To this must be added the effects of the weakening of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent-movement of Hamas, and of the strengthening of the Islamic State as an organization that, in the name of Islam, has been challenging Arab regimes and Western states as it acts to establish the Islamic Caliphate-the goal to which Hamas also aspires.
A recent conference at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah addressed the issue of “The Political and Strategic Status of the Gaza Strip.” Among the topics discussed were the difficulties Hamas is encountering in the domestic, national, and regional spheres and the need for a thorough rethinking of its tactics and strategy.

A Fantasy-driven Muslim World can Never Become Modern

In the last century those Renaissance and Enlightenment values finally triumphed in China, India, and China.
But not in the Muslim world, which went back on one of its periodic regressions to the fantasy past. The worst thing is that the Islamic Reaction to the past has been supported by Western politicians -- Jimmy Carter did it with the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran; Bill Clinton failed to get Bin Laden at least four different times; and now Obama, worst of all, consistently tries to make “friends” by religious maniacs in Qatar and Turkey, in the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.
This is crazy, of course. But Obama is also the most mentally stuck person ever to occupy the presidency. He will never change.
The coming presidential election will therefore mean do or die for America and the world. We must find political leaders who are not delusional. It seems like a pretty basic idea, but twice in the last six years Americans have voted for a fantasy-driven person -- supported by a fantasy-driven media.
As the Iranian Bomb will soon teach the world, mass fantasies have a way of cracking under the pressure of facts.
It’s better not to wait for that to happen.

‘Egypt thwarts Islamic State-linked bid to hit Israeli targets at sea’

Egypt thwarted a bid by Islamic State-affiliated terrorists to attack Israeli targets in the Mediterranean Sea last month, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Monday. The terrorists commandeered an Egyptian Navy missile boat for the planned attack, the TV report said, but were stopped at sea by a pursuing vessel, and eight people were believed killed in the ensuing battle.
At the time of the incident, on November 12, the Egyptian military said one of its navy vessels came under “terrorist” attack in the Mediterranean, leaving five servicemen injured and eight others missing at sea. Four boats used by the assailants were destroyed and 32 of the suspected militants were arrested and are under interrogation, the military said in a statement at the time.
Adding fresh detail to that account, Monday’s Israeli TV report said Islamic State-linked Sunni extremists “staged an accident” and were able to install one of their own group in temporary charge of an Egyptian missile boat. They set out for sea from the port of Damietta, and intended to target Israeli boats and/or gas installations in the Mediterranean.

OU 'Adopts' Family of Murdered Druze Officer

The Orthodox Union (OU) was moved by the story of Zidan Seif, the 30-year-old Druze police officer who was murdered by terrorists at the Jerusalem synagogue in Har Nof, as he tried to stop their attack in which they murdered four Jews.
Rabbi Avi Berman, Director General of the Orthodox Union in Israel, recently visited the Seif family home in the town of Yanuh-Jat in the Galilee.
Rabbi Berman told the family of the strong desire on behalf of Jewish communities from the United States to thank them for their son’s heroics and express their sympathy, and added, "Dozens of rabbis, donors and members of the communities asked me to come here and thank you on their behalf to your wonderful family who raised a man who sacrificed his life for others."

Israeli stabbed by Palestinian woman in West Bank

An Israeli was stabbed and lightly injured Monday morning in the West Bank south of Jerusalem.
The female Palestinian attacker was shot and badly injured by security forces after assaulting the victim at Gush Etzion junction, on a major road in the Etzion settlement bloc.
Emergency services provided first aid to the victim.
Initial reports from the IDF indicated the victim was a civilian.
The army said forces at the scene “overcame the suspect and transferred her for further medical assistance.”

Gush Etzion Stabbing Victim: 'It Was a Miracle'

Josh Yehoshua Lorech is the victim of the stabbing attack on Monday, in which a female Arab terrorist of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction attacked him with a knife at Gush Etzion Junction in Judea.
Recounting the attempt to murder him, Lorech said on video "I stood at the hitchhiking station, I spoke with someone who I knew who stopped in his car to pick up hitchhikers. As I was speaking with him, suddenly I felt a blow here on the left side."
"I was kind of in shock until I managed to turn around and I saw a black figure moving away from me, who it turns out was a female terrorist. At the same time I saw out of the corner of my eye that I had a knife stuck into me here, I took it out. I didn't feel too much, I didn't fall on the floor," recalled Lorech.

Clashes break out in West Bank town after stabbing attack

Residents of Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem clashed with Israeli police Monday, in the wake of a stabbing attack on an Israeli by a 22-year-old woman from the West Bank town.
Police attempted to disperse the rioters with tear gas.
Security forces surrounded the home of Amal Taqatqa before the clashes broke out, shortly after she attacked an Israeli earlier in the day at the nearby Gush Etzion junction south of Jerusalem.
Her father was arrested, according to Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
Taqatqa was shot by soldiers at the scene and was brought to Hadassah-Ein Kerem hospital in serious condition. The Palestinian Ma’an news site said she was affiliated with the Fatah movement.

Developing: Israeli seriously injured in suspected hit and run in West Bank

An Israeli aged about 50 has been seriously hurt after being struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run in the West Bank, Magen David Adom paramedics said.
The man is receiving treatment, and paramedics have initiated resuscitation efforts.
The incident occurred between Migdalim and Ma'aleh Ephraim.
The IDF said it has launched a pursuit of the vehicle involved in the incident. Soldiers are assisting paramedics in treating the injured man, who is in critical condition.
Judea and Samaria police said they do not yet know what caused the collision, adding that they have set up checkpoints and are searching for the driver.

Terrorists Firebomb Home in Beit El in Samaria

One or more Palestinian Authority terrorists hurled a firebomb Sunday night at a home in the Jewish community of Beit El, in the Binyamin region of Samaria. No one was injured, and the attackers fled.
If the Arabs had “succeeded” by burning the house to the ground and wounding or killing the residents, the establishment media would have been all over the story.
But, like rock-throwing, it was barely reported.

3 charged in plot to attack MK Feiglin on Temple Mount

Three east Jerusalem residents were indicted over the weekend on suspicion of conspiring to throw stones and fire crackers at Likud MK Moshe Feiglin and activist Yehuda Glick on the Temple Mount in late October.
Attorney Yifat Pinhasi claimed in the indictment that the three suspects had planned to stay in Al-Aqsa mosque the night before Feiglin and Glick's visit to the Temple Mount and to emerge during the visit to throw stones and firecrackers at them.
According to Pinhasi, the three were planning "to injure a person using cold weapons and with a nationalistic motive."

Self-Determination Shouldn't Stop with "Palestine"

It seems that quite a few European countries are in the process of "recognizing" the "state" of "Palestine." The question arises as to what the appropriate response from Israel should be to these actions by the Europeans.
Here is a plan:
If Belgium recognizes "Palestine," then Israel must recognize the separatist movements of the Flemish, the Walloons, and the Belgium Germans, and officially recognize the right of each group to set up its own state.
If Denmark recognizes "Palestine," then Israel must recognize the separatist movement of the Faroese and officially recognize the right of the Faroe Islands to be an independent state.
If Finland recognizes "Palestine," then Israel must recognize the separatist movements of the Åland Swedes, and officially recognize their right to set up their own state.

Hamas says unity government is over

Hamas announced on Sunday that the unity government established with Fatah over the summer has ended.
The unity government’s six-month term has expired, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said at a press conference in Gaza City, adding that talks would take place regarding a future government, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
Hamas “isn’t interested in incitement, but rather seeks to maintain national unity,” he said.
Gaza’s leaders responded to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused Israel and Hamas of secretly negotiating. Hamas called on the Palestinian president to stop spreading lies, Israel Radio reported, and accused Abbas’s forces of arresting its members for political reasons.

Fatah official denies unity government mandate has ended

Faisal Abu Shahla told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency that there was never any agreement that the government would fall if the unity government had not completed the steps it was tasked with, including holding elections, within six months. A national reconciliation pact was signed in June.
“If the Hamas movement has retracted the reconciliation agreement and the termination of rivalry, that is a different case,” he said.
Abu Shahla was responding to comments made earlier in the day by Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, who said the unity government’s mandate had come to an end.

MKs: Use PA Terror Salary Money to Pay IEC Debt

According to MKs, the PA has been using money that Israel collects for duties and taxes on behalf of the Authority, to pay the salaries of terrorists. Families of terrorists in Israeli prisons receive the money, and in this way, said MKs Orit Struk (Jewish Home), Eliezer Mozes (UTJ), Nissim Ze'ev (SHas), Shimon Ohayon (Yisrael Beytenu), Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid) and Miri Regev (Likud), Israel was indirectly supporting terror.
The MKs requested that the Committee discuss the matter, demanding that the government do “the minimum possible.” If international agreements require that Israel transfer money to the PA, legal contracts require that the PA pay its bills to the IEC, so the government is perfectly justified under all aspects of international law in deducting that money from the PA payments and transferring them to the IEC.
The PA owes the IEC at least NIS 1.4 billion ($360 million), and has not made payments to the Israel Electric Company in at least four years.

EU wants to recognise a “Palestine” that doesn’t exist

There is some dispute as to how many countries globally have already stated this recognition, ranging between 112 and 134. But however many have done so, you cannot manufacture a sovereign state by wishing or voting it into existence if the building blocks for an independent nation-state do not exist.
Under accepted international norms, a state is defined as having a permanent population, a defined territory, a stable government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. The fictitious “Sate of Palestine” falls down on all those points. There is no state in existence today that can legitimately be called “Palestine” except the one state that chooses not to: Jordan.
Every vote or governmental statement recognising the imaginary state of Palestine is further encouragement for the Palestinian Authority and PLO to continue to avoid making the kind of compromises that might lead to a genuine peace agreement. Every vote is a nod to Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to achieve statehood outside of a negotiated settlement.

Jordan, Israeli Ally or Dangerous Enemy

The result is a precarious stability, and considering that its present king is married to a woman whose family is from Shechem, when their son rules, if the kingdom lasts that long, there will be what's known as a "Palestinian" sic king.
There are those Israelis and Jews who want Jordan to be called "Palestine," sic, but I'm not among them. I consider it a very dangerous mistake. That's because it gives recognition to the faux people and their faux culture and fictional history.
For quite a few years, Israel has done its best to keep a peace with Jordan. For quite a few years after the 1967 Six Days War, the Israeli movers and shakers were convinced that Jordan would come begging for peace with Israel in exchange for the so-called "west bank," but that never happened. Jordan wasn't interested in fully annexing Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley and providing it with modern infrastructure. During the nineteen years of Jordanian occupation of the areas, there had been no development.
When Israel took over after the Six Days War, it discovered a totally backwards area. Even when we moved to Shiloh in 1981, and our phones were via the nearby Turmus Aiya village, the phones had local operators like in the very early twentieth century. Every night the villages went dark about 10pm, because they turned off their generators. Piped water and sewer systems were also built by Israel.

US to Supply Israel with 3,000 JDAMs for ‘Smart Bombs’

The U.S. Defense Department has announced it will supply Israel with 3,000 upgraded Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits for $82 million, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported.
The shipment will be completed by November 2016, and Janes said that the contract is a “modification to a $307.5 million award made to Boeing in October for baseline JDAM tail-kits for Morocco, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.”
The upgraded JDAM turns unguided bombs into ”smart bombs” by using a GPS guidance system.

Cricket Judge Death Shocks Israel With Existence Of Cricket (satire)

Indeed, the players and spectators of cricket in Israel are by and large immigrants or foreign workers from South Asia. A handful of British-born locals or visitors occasionally participate in informal competitions, but few others in Israel have encountered cricket in its full, unmitigated horror.
“Supposedly cricket has rules, but a lot of good they apparently do,” remarked Mira Cohen, 44, of Jerusalem. “I’m keeping my children indoors until this scare subsides.” The mother of four said that despite the recent wave of terrorist stabbings and attacks with motor vehicles, she had felt relatively safe, but that her newfound awareness that cricket exists was too much to bear.
Less than a week ago, a player in Australia met a similar fate, but the populations of cricket-loving countries have long been inured to the tragic nature of the pastime. Israel, which until its establishment as a state was only under British rule for about two decades, never had a chance to absorb this unsavory aspect of British culture to the same extent as its counterparts in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, Australia, and assorted other former colonies that Britain controlled for more than a century.
Commentators agree that Israel will not be the same after this tragedy. “Yes, a man has died, and that in itself is a cause for grief,” said Voice of Israel contributor Hanan Crystal. “But it’s a tragedy on a much larger scale that we’ve now, as a nation, had our innocence shattered. Yesterday, we knew nothing of wickets, bowlers, innings as a singular word, or… well, it’s too painful to continue. I’m sorry.”

Hanukkah Reignites Expat Dunkin Donuts Vs. Krispy Kreme Debate (satire)

While European and North American Jews emphasize the potato pancakes called latkes, in Israel the celebration of the miracle of the oil on Hanukkah more often takes the form of deep-fried dough, most commonly in the form of a filled doughnut. The confections vary widely in quality, but no quality is necessary to get a Krispy Kreme aficionado embroiled in a vociferous exchange with a Dunkin Donuts fan. The heated encounters, appropriately, call to mind the civil conflict that the holiday recalls, a generations-long spiritual struggle that persists to this day.
Indeed, it is often precisely the cruddy variety of sufganiyah that resurrects the dead horse, says Netanya resident Riba T. Halav, an unabashed Dunkin Donuts fan. “All it takes is the sight of that pathetic filling Israelis call ‘jam’ – a disgusting imitation of DD’s jelly.”

Saudi Writer Abdullah Hamadaddin: Israel Does Not Pose a Threat to Saudi Arabia, but Iran Does

Western Media Ignores Jordanian Police Murdering Palestinian Teenager

According to a statement made by Jordanian Palestinian MP Lufti Dirabani, who is a relative of the boy, Palestinian teenager Ibrahim Nadir Al Dirabani was coming out of a courthouse in Amman when he was stopped by a Jordanian police officer and asked to show his ID card for no apparent reason. After that, the police officer proceeded to beat him, despite pleas from the young boy that he just needed to wait until his father came out of the courthouse to see a valid ID (underage Jordanians generally don’t have their own ID cards and the father possessed a family ID where his name was registered).
Due to the beatings, the teenager started to run away from the police officer. In retaliation, the police officer fired five bullets at the Palestinian teenager. Two did not hit the boy, three did. According to eye-witnesses, the Police officer then proceeded to stomp on the boy with his shoes as he was bleeding, proclaiming: “you are just fine you little bastard.” Eye-witnesses reported that they failed to call an ambulance and when one finally arrived, the Palestinian teenager’s body was tossed inside like cargo.

Palestinian Rock-Thrower Suspended For Steroid Use (satire)

Other members of the gang were less reflexive in their reactions. “There’s a lot of pressure to perform,” said Mustafa Hijazi, 18. “I know three or four guys who use steroids all the time. I have nothing against Muhammad – I don’t know him all that well anyway – but the charges don’t surprise me. I actually expected his sentence to be more severe, considering how rampant the problem of performance-enhancing drugs has become in the last few years.” He declined to name the other youths.
Hijazi described the perceived necessity of steroids in confronting Israeli soldiers and paramilitary Border Guards with ever-more-sophisticated riot-dispersal technology at their disposal. Increased muscle mass can help both in hitting the Israelis from a greater distance, making certain dispersal methods less effective, and by adding natural padding to insulate certain areas of the body from the impact of rubber bullets.
Jibril Fatuh, 17, a close friend of Al-Attar, dismissed Hijazi’s allegations and defended his friend. “Mustafa is jealous of Muhammad’s natural prowess with Molotov cocktails and slingshots,” he said. “I suggest Mustafa stop accusing other people of things he probably does all the time, and accuses others just to keep the focus off himself.”

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh: The Arab Spring Was a Zionist-Western Conspiracy

Amnesty: Egypt forcibly evicted 1,165 families from Rafah by the Gaza border

Egypt has forcibly evicted an estimated 1,165 families in Rafah so that it can clear a buffer zone by the Gaza Strip border, charged the human-rights group Amnesty International, which is concerned that additional homes will be demolished in the coming weeks.
“The scale of the forced evictions has been astonishing; the Egyptian authorities have thrown more than 1,000 families out of their homes in just a matter of days, flouting international and national law,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Thursday.
“Shocking scenes have emerged of homes in Rafah being bulldozed, bombed, with entire buildings reduced to piles of rubble and families forcibly evicted,” Sahraoui said.

Goodbye, Tahrir revolution

Egypt’s current enemy is political Islam, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, and not Mubarak and his aides. The focus of the media has clearly shifted to another jailed ex-president and it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember that just three years ago, the whole country was holding its breath while watching the "Trial of the Century" on TV, while hundreds of thousands were partying in Tahrir. What is the mechanism behind the shift in media focus? Who tells the journalists what to write and demands that editors focus on Morsi’s crimes and not on Mubarak’s faults? The case of the Egyptian media is fascinating for it is not a strict and uncompromising censorship that forbids people to express their opinion, but rather a self-censorship that was always exercised by the Egyptian state-controlled and private media. Just like the judges, Egyptian journalists understood that the climate has changed, the short days of "Egyptian perestroika" were over and there was no longer a reason to dwell on the faults and misdeeds of the Mubarak regime.
Mubarak and his sons will soon become free men. Alaa and Gamal will probably attempt to make a comeback to business and political life. If the current Pharaoh allows it, they might even achieve some success, for both of them still have influence and connections. Their father will give interviews and write memoirs about his incredible story, and the days of Tahrir will soon be forgotten, with the generous help of Egyptian mass media.
But some things will remain the same regardless of the changing narrative. The harsh economic conditions, the poverty, the fundamentalism, the threat of terrorism, the water crisis with Africa and the lack of democracy - the very same reasons that brought on the huge eruption of popular anger back in January 2011.

Egypt Warns Qatar to Stop Destabilizing It

In a wide-ranging interview in Asharq Al-Awsat, a pro-Saudi Arabian paper, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri warned Qatar to cease its efforts to destabilize Egypt and stated that concerning ties with Iran, “the situation has not changed much over the past 25 years. Ties are frozen and diplomatic relations severed.”
Israel didn’t rate a mention in the interview.
The most immediate issue explored in the interview was the recent reconciliation of the Gulf States with Qatar that has, up to now, politically and monetarily supported both the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its offshoot Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt Designates ISIS and its Affiliates as Terrorist Groups

An Egyptian court on Sunday designated the Islamic State (ISIS) a terrorist organization and banned it in the country.
According to The Associated Press, the court ruling adds that it considers all of the ISIS's affiliates to be terrorist organizations as well.
One of the ISIS affiliates is the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, which has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police over the last year, and has beheaded several people in acts similar to those of ISIS.
Among the attacks claimed by the group since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was the assassination of a top Egyptian police general, who was gunned down as he left his home in a west Cairo neighborhood, and a bus bombing on a tour bus filled with South Korean tourists in the Sinai.

US, Turkey Close to Deal on Joint Action against ISIS

The US and Turkey are close to an agreement on joint military action against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in northern Syria, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing officials from both the U.S. and Turkey, the paper reported that the proposed deal would allow the U.S. and its coalition partners access to Turkish air bases for launching air strikes.
The agreement would also provide for a no-fly zone along a section of the border between Turkey and Syria, which would be off limits to Syrian government aircraft and provide protection for "moderate" Syrian rebels and refugees fleeing the country's civil war.

Pope Calls Out Jihadists: Violence Against Innocents 'Shows Contempt for Image of God'

In Istanbul Sunday morning, Pope Francis employed some of his strongest language against Islamic extremism to date, condemning jihadist violence against the weak and defenseless as “a profoundly grave sin against God.”
Francis spoke of the “plea” coming from the victims of violent conflicts, and made specific reference to Turkey’s “neighboring countries” that are “scarred by an inhumane and brutal war.”
The Pope also denounced the recent slaughter of Muslims praying in a Mosque in Kano, Nigeria, and called the massacre a “grotesque and senseless attack.” The bombing, which killed more than 100 people, is assumed to be the work of Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to establish a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria.
Francis said that “committing every act of violence – or consenting to such acts – especially when directed against the weakest and defenseless, is a profoundly grave sin against God, since it means showing contempt for the image of God which is in man.”

ISIS Claims, Kurds Deny Capture of Canadian-Israeli Fighter

Jihadist websites on Sunday reported that Gila Rosenberg, the Canadian who served in the IDF and volunteered to help Kurdish forces fighting against ISIS in Syria, was abducted by ISIS militants, Israel’s Ch. 2 News reported. There has been no official confirmation of the report.
However, two Kurdish sources – one a senior member of the fighters – cast doubt on the report, according to Israel Radio. One said she was not even in the area of Kobane, along the Turkish border, where first reports claimed she was abducted.

Al Qaeda plot to blow up 5 passenger planes in Christmas 'spectacular'

The threat has been taken so seriously it came close to leading to an outright ban on all hand luggage, a senior insider has revealed.
Mobile phones and electronic devices could still be banned from plane cabins, with the threat of a 9/11-style coordinated attack on London and other major cities feared imminent.
The warning comes as Whitehall officials admit that a terror strike on the UK is now "almost inevitable" particularly with British jihadis returning from fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
An airport security source told the Sunday Express: "We've been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They've been waiting for the big one.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 12:00:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Chris Gunness' main argument against UNRWA school incitement gets demolished

I have spent quite a bit of time documenting that UNRWA schools have been teaching hate and antisemitism, based on their own websites. Also I have shown that UNRWA employs many viciously antisemitic and hateful employees whose opinions they happily publicize go completely against the UN chsrter and human rights standards. Even UNRWA's own photos of their schools show painting of terrorists on the walls.

When a documentary showing UNRWA schools teaching incitement against Israel was shown on TV, UNRWA's Chris Gunness responded on Fox News. First he attempted to trash the documentary and the person behind it, and he claims to have shown some inconsistencies showing that the schools in the film were not UNRWA schools. But finally, he argued that the curricula of UNRWA schools in "east Jerusalem" is exactly the same as those of other Arab schools in Jerusalem, and he sarcastically asked that if the teachers there were teaching anti-Israel and antisemitic incitement, then why is Israel allowing it?

It turns out that this is a very good question, without the sarcasm.

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Official Palestinian Authority television regularly educates children to see the destruction of Israel as a goal and PA leaders often present all of Israel as part of "Palestine," "occupied land" that will be "liberated" or "returned to" Palestinians. This worldview constitutes a basic tenet of Palestinian education and ideology, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch for years. Now, the Chairman of the Jerusalem Teachers' Association, Issa Salman, has stated that this is likewise the educational message in Arab schools in Jerusalem.

Speaking on PA TV, the teacher said:

"In our schools, we teach what our religion and conscience dictate: That Jerusalem is Arab and that Palestine - from north to south, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea - is Islamic Palestinian Arab, and will remain so in spite of the damned occupier."
[Official PA TV, Nov. 15, 2014

UNRWA's Chris Gunness admitted that UNRWA schools in Jerusalem teach the same material that other Arab schools in Jerusalem do. Arab teachers brag that they teach that Israel must be destroyed.

So Chris Gunness must admit that UNRWA schools are teaching the exact hate that I've already proven they teach.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 10:00:00 AM

PA president Mahmoud Abbas has stated that he is fully behind Egypt's actions in the Sinai against "terrorists," including Egypt's shutting down the tunnels to Gaza.

Speaking to Egyptian media, Abbas said, "I cannot ask Egypt to stop the military operation in the region, and we are aware of the nature of the Egyptian national action."

Abbas stressed the need to demolish illegal tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, pointing out that he had called on the Egyptian authorities multiple times to close the tunnels. He added that the tunnels have created 1,800 millionaires in the Gaza Strip through their exploitation of the smuggling.

He claims that he had proposed that Egypt create a 30-meter water-filled trench along its border and to destroy the homes of Rafah residents who hosted tunnels, saying that that "no country in the world suffers from the problem of tunnels, only Egypt and Palestine."

Abbas pointedly didn't mention the tunnels that Hamas constructed to attack Israeli civilians in the Negev, which is a bit worse than the problem of Gazans making millions by importing cars and washing machines. He also did not say a word about tunnels being used to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

Abbas is fully behind Egypt's siege of Gaza, and he fully accepts Egypt's narrative that it is necessary for defense. Yet when Israel is directly targeted by tunnels under its border - not for smuggling but for kidnap and murder - Abbas is against any military action.

Human Rights Watch has called the tunnels a "lifeline" to Gaza's economy. Amnesty International has previously said that Israel has no right to target civilian smuggling tunnels in military operations as Egypt is today.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 08:00:00 AM

Luke Baker at Reuters wrote a highly biased article about Israel that nicely illustrates how journalists play games with the facts in order to push an agenda rather than report objectively.

Let's fisk it a bit:

A cartoon in Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu studying a poster made by his publicity team of Mahmoud Abbas, the mild-mannered, soft-featured Palestinian president.

The poster depicted Abbas looking fierce, with menacing eyes and bloodied fangs. A disappointed-looking Netanyahu turns to his aide and asks: "Can you lengthen his fangs a tad?"

Spot the bias! Abbas is represented in the most positive way even though his speeches are every bit as fiery as any politician's.

The prime minister has lost no time in casting Abbas as the devil in recent months, accusing him of inciting violence in Jerusalem that has lead to the death of 11 Israelis, including four rabbis stabbed and shot by Palestinians in a synagogue. Around a dozen Palestinians have also been killed, including several of those who carried out the attacks.

While the head of Israel's security service says Abbas is not inciting unrest, and centrist politicians have warned Netanyahu against alienating the only partner Israel has in stalled peace negotiations, the prime minister shows no sign of letting up in his criticism of the 79-year-old Palestinian.

The reason, in large part, is politics.

Baker ignores the direct incitement that Abbas has been directing, not to mention the much more disgusting incitement in the media that is under his direct control and in the statements of leaders of his political movement.

Abbas has said that he wants Arabs to defend Al aqsa Mosque 'by all means," which would naturally include killing Jews who are perceived as wanting to visit. Officials have called for religious war against Jews on PA-run TV. PA newspapers call murderers of rabbis "martyrs." Fatah social media is filled with antisemitic articles and cartoons.

That is incitement. And it is not reported by Reuters.

As well as demonizing Abbas, he has pushed a highly contentious bill that would establish Israel as the Jewish nation state, legislation critics say puts religion ahead of democracy and marginalizes the Arab minority.

Can Reuters quote the part of the draft bill passed by the cabinet that puts religion ahead of democracy? No, because it isn't there.

...[T]he upshot is the most hardline government analysts can recall.

"This is the most right-wing government in Israeli history, much further to the right than the Menachem Begin or Ariel Sharon governments," said Menachem Klein, a professor of Israeli politics at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

Ah, the old trick of finding "experts" that agree with the reporter's bias. As we have shown, Netanyahu's positions are well to the left of Yitzhak Rabin's, the Nobel Prize winner who never uttered the words "two state solution."

But why look at facts when you can find an "expert" to contradict them?

Combined with the nation-state bill, which would enshrine certain rights for Jews only...

Really? Can you name one? Of course not! Baker is just assuming that what he reads in Haaretz must be true, because he likes its politics.

Most of these aren't direct lies. Reuters editors can self-righteously say that they are merely quoting what some Israelis themselves are saying. But that is sophistry, not reporting. They knew what they wanted to report before a word was written and there was no objectivity - the exact opposite of how reporters are supposed to act.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/01/2014 05:30:00 AM