[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 08/02 Links: 16-year-old girl stabbed at Pride Parade dies of wounds; Dear President Abbas;

From Ian:

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16-year-old girl stabbed at Pride Parade dies of wounds

A 16-year-old girl who was stabbed during Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade on Thursday died Sunday after succumbing to her wounds, hospital officials said.
Shira Banki had been hospitalized at Ein Karem in the capital in serious condition following the attack, in which five other people were stabbed as well.
One other person, Yarden Noy, was injured critically in the stabbing but has since recovered and is set to be released from the hospital in the coming days.
The other four people stabbed by Yishai Schlissel were lightly to moderately injured.
Banki’s family said they would donate her organs.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat expressed deep sorrow over Banki’s murder, and vowed to protect the rights and security of all the capital’s residents.

Dear President Abbas

I’m writing to express my horror at the vicious terror attack that occurred yesterday in Duma, and my hopes that the survivors will have a full and speedy recovery. I’m sure that virtually all Israelis join me in this.
You see, we know how you feel.
I can only imagine how the surviving members of the Dawabsha family feel, but there are countless remnants of Jewish families ripped apart by terrorism who don’t need to imagine.
For at least a hundred years, Palestinian Arabs have been murdering our children, our athletes (you personally know something about that one), our bus passengers, pizza eaters, disco-goers and random Jews in the wrong place at the wrong time. They’ve been shot, stabbed, blown up, beaten or burned to death, or had their throats slit. Whole families, like the Dawabshas, have been destroyed.
You have sent your bestial terrorist filth out to kill us and then welcomed them back, dripping blood, as heroes.
And it turns out, not so surprisingly, that we have bestial terrorist filth amongst us as well. What did you expect? After a hundred years of terrorism directed at us, some members of our nation have learned to imitate yours.
We’re human too. We have our criminals, our assassins, and even our terrorists. Of course we don’t treat them as heroes. We don’t broadcast incitement on our radio and television stations. Rabbis don’t exhort their congregations every Shabbat to go out and kill Arabs. We don’t hand out sweets when a murder is committed.

Edin Black: Why Jonathan Pollard spent 30 years in prison

What follows is an article written and first published by Edwin Black 13 years ago. For this piece, author and journalist Black visited Jonathan Pollard in prison. He extensively interviewed Pollard’s attorneys and reviewed their evidence, and also interviewed then ex-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former US secretary of defense Casper Weinberger, and many other key figures.
Now that Pollard is being released under statutory conditions — he will be paroled on November 20 — “the nagging questions linger,” says Black today. “Jonathan Pollard has spent thirty years in prison – 3 times longer than more egregious offenders.”
This article — unedited from the 2002 original — explains why.
On January 7, 2002, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped through the two-doored entry chamber of a prison sally port. After the first fudge-brown steel and armored glass door slowly closed right-to-left behind him, Netanyahu passed his hand beneath a black light reader along the left wall. It illuminated a small security stamp on his hand, not unlike the type disco clubs use. Behind opaque, silver-tinted windows, watchful security officers in the control room completed their checklist, approving Netanyahu’s access. Then in a low mechanized rumble, the entry chamber’s long second door opened left-to-right, admitting Netanyahu to an inner corridor of the prison. He was ushered just down the hall and then into a large room on the right, filled with vending machines and tables. There, waiting for him was the man Netanyahu wanted to see.
The prison was not in Israel, it was in North Carolina. Netanyahu had flown to Raleigh Durham and then driven the forest-lined 20 minutes to the Federal Correctional Institution at Butner. It was all to talk to America’s most controversial Jewish prisoner, now serving his 17th year of incarceration. The prisoner, 09185-016, was Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American Jew who pleaded guilty in 1986 to spying for Israel, and was abruptly sentenced to life imprisonment despite a binding plea bargain that restricted any request for so harsh a term.

PM: Six stabbed in pride parade are ‘children of us all’

The rally, like similar assemblies in Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa, was held to condemn both the stabbing of six people at the Jerusalem pride parade on Thursday, and a terror attack against a Palestinian family, in which their house was firebombed and their year-and-a-half old baby was killed. The parents and another son of the Dawabsha family are hospitalized in Israeli hospitals, suffering extensive burns.
The rally was dedicated to both events but Netanyahu’s message, prepared in advance, referred mainly to the stabbing in Jerusalem. He said that “In every society there are extremists and murderers on the fringes, including ours. But the measure of a society is how the center and the leadership respond,” he said.
“At these moments, a 16-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a hospital in Jerusalem. She is a student in the high school next to the university. This is the high school I went to, that my children and friends went to and go to. This attack was against all of our children,” he said.
“We reject this hatred outright,” he said. “We will do whatever is necessary to draw the lessons from this [incident]. But the most important lesson is accepting the other even when they are not like you. And I strongly disagree that doing this goes against Judaism.”’

Netanyahu: Zero Tolerance for Terror ‘Distinguishes Us From Our Neighbors’

At the start to this week’s government cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s “zero tolerance” policy towards the issue of terror attacks – any terror attacks – and pointed out it is this policy that “distinguishes us from our neighbors.”
The remarks followed a 36-hour period which saw more than 60 Arab terror attacks, allegedly in “retaliation” for the horrific Jewish terror attack carried out against a small family in the Arab village of Duma late last week.
Four Jews were allegedly seen fleeing from the scene after hurling a firebomb into the open window of a small home in the village near the Samaria city of Shechem. An 18-month-old toddler was killed in the attack; his 4-year-old brother and parents were badly wounded. Hebrew writing at the scene constituted evidence the crime was carried out by Israelis.
The other terror attack carried out last week by a Jew was the stabbing of six people at the Gay Pride parade by a recidivist stabber Thursday in Jerusalem. Most of the victims are still in serious to critical condition.
“We recently witnessed two abhorrent crimes,” Netanyahu said. “Our policy toward these crimes is zero tolerance. I have instructed security and law-enforcement officials to use all legal means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and deal with the stabber and the arsonists to the fullest extent of the law.
“We are determined to vigorously fight manifestations of hate, fanaticism and terrorism from whatever side. The fight against these phenomena unites us all.

Shaked: Jewish Terrorism Worse than Arab Terrorism

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) condemned the horrific attack on a Palestinian family in Duma last week, noting that such an attack constitutes a genuine security issue and not a specific attempt to frame the right wing in Israel.
"This attack is terrorism," Shaked said, speaking on Israel Radio. "There is no connection between it and the right wing. This is terrorism, terrorism for its own sake, and we should treat it harshly."
"It's not about the Right, or 'settlers'," she stressed. "It's the right of the Israel Security Agency to deal with terrorism, even if it is Jewish terrorism." "Jewish terror against the State is even more harmful to security than Arab terrorism," she continued.
"We have experienced very few attacks against the Arabs, but such an attack does do great harm to state security and we need to use all resources to handle it."

Slain baby’s grandfather hopes he was ‘the last casualty of this terror war’

Hussein Dawabsha, whose grandson Ali Dawabsha was burned to death in an alleged Jewish terrorist attack in the Palestinian village of Duma on Friday, said he hoped his grandson was the “last victim of this terror war.”
In a column Sunday for the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Dawabsha described how his wife chose to sleep on the roof Thursday night because of the heat. In the middle of the night, she noticed their daughter’s residence some distance away was in flames.
“She woke me up screaming,” he wrote. “I told myself, this cannot be happening.
“I jumped in the car and raced over there. I refused to believe it. When I got there, I was met with a scene I will never forget: the house was totally burned, there was soot everywhere, and the stench was terrible. I went crazy… I sat on the floor and sobbed. My family is gone.”

Joint Israeli-Palestinian Prayers to be Held for Arson Victims

An interfaith prayer session will be held by rabbis and sheikhs at the Gush Etzion junction on Sunday evening, in light of the arson attack on a Palestinian family in the Palestinian Authority (PA) village of Duma.
The Shorashim organization, as well as Rabbi David Stav and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin from Ohr Torah Stone, initiated the rally for the Dawabsha's family recovery.
Participants, so far, include Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, Rabbi Mordechai Vardi, Rabbi Dov Singer, Rabbi Yaakov Meidan, Rabbi Yaakov Nagan, Rebbetzin Michal Nagan, Rebbetzin Hadassah Froman, Rabbi Benjamin Kalmanzon, Rabbi SarEl Rosenblatt and Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, as well as Sheikhs Ali Abu Awad and Ibrahim Abu Al Hawa.
"We must loudly denounce these [types of] events," said Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. "The man who committed a terrible thing is a terrorist in every respect, and he deserves punishment in accordance with the law."
"The Temple, which was destroyed on Tisha B'Av, was a symbol of justice, mercy, and honesty," he continued. "When we lose our moral standards, we lose our holiness."
"The essential goal of the State of Israel is to be a light unto the nations and serve as a compass of justice and morality to the world, and if we do not make full efforts to fulfill that mission, we do not deserve a state."

Abbas orders PA security forces to prevent revenge attacks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered Palestinian security forces to prevent any revenge attacks or mass confrontations against Israel, according to the Arab newspaper Rai al-Youm.
According to the report, the PA's security forces were instructed to prevent any anti-Israel actions in order to not lose the political advantage that they claim to have, following the attack in the village of Duma that killed toddler Ali Dawabsha.
Abbas's announcement came on the coattails of an increase in tensions and a series of clashes between Palestinian rioters and the IDF that followed the terror attack in the village of Duma, near Nablus in the West Bank on Friday.

UPDATED: The Long List of Arab Attacks Over Shabbat

HaKol Hayehudi has compiled a list of 50 Arab terror attacks and riots over the weekend.
This list is not complete…
Sunday – August 2, 2015
0:52 Arabs threw stones at vehicles at the Zarzir intersection up north, damage reported
00:38 Arabs rioting in the Old City of Jerusalem
0:02 Arabs threw stones at vehicles on the road near Karnei Shomron

Arson 'Revenge': Arab Terrorists Try to Burn Joseph's Tomb

During Shabbat on Friday night, Arab terrorists tried to burn down the ancient tomb of the Biblical figure Yosef (Joseph) located in Shechem (Nablus), Samaria, as a "revenge" attack for the lethal arson that killed an Arab infant in nearby Duma village earlier on Friday.
While the identity of the culprits in the arson in Duma remains unknown, the IDF has indicated Jewish extremists may have conducted the attack due to Hebrew graffiti at the site, and that indication was apparently enough for the Arab terrorists to launch an attack on Joseph's Tomb.
The IDF announced that its forces thwarted an attempt by Arab rioters to set Joseph's Tomb on fire over the course of Friday night.
According to the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency, the attacks on Joseph's Tomb started on Friday in the late evening and continued into the early morning.
The site reported that dozens of Arab terrorists from the nearby Balata "refugee camp" hurled rocks, empty bottles and firebombs at the IDF forces at the site.

After fatal firebombing, Abbas threatens to change PA policy

Speaking to supporters of the Israeli left-wing party Meretz in Ramallah, Abbas rebuked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for settlement construction and said that Israel must choose between the Islamic State and peace. He also took the US administration to task.
“We won’t be able to survive, but we also won’t support terror violence,” Abbas said, alluding to the increasing internal pressure on the PA to radicalize its approach as the situation escalates.
“Our hands are still extended in peace. If the situation continues this month, we will change our stance. How can I keep looking in the eyes of the families of martyrs killed by Jewish terrorists?” he added, in a reference to the killing on Friday of a Palestinian baby in an arson attack that according to suspicions was carried out by Jewish extremists.
Abbas did not elaborate regarding the steps that the PA would take, but according to reports by Channel 1, he is considering resigning.
Abbas said he “blamed the US administration for the situation.”

Two rockets fired from Gaza, land near border fence

Two rockets fell near the Israel-Gaza border fence late on Saturday night.
No warning sirens were heard and the military was initially unsure whether the projectiles struck the Israeli or Gazan side of the border.
Hamas on Friday vowed to avenge the death of Ali Dawabsha, who was killed in a terror attack when his house was firebombed. The terror attack was attributed to settler extremists.
On Friday, defense officials predicted that the Gaza terror group might launch rockets against Israel following the attack.

Hamas Blames Abbas for Arson Attack

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri has accused Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas with bearing responsibility for the death of an Arab infant in the village of Duma in Samaria on Friday, which came during an arson attack the IDF suspects may have been committed by Jewish extremists.
"I call on Abbas to stop pursuing Hamas in the (West) Bank, and place on him personal responsibility for the burning of the infant Ali Dawabsha, due to his harassment of resistance fighters," said the terrorist spokesperson.
"If Hamas had a free hand to act in the (West) Bank, the settlers wouldn't be able to commit crimes like this and burn our children," claimed Abu Zuhri.
Even though the identity of the perpetrators of the lethal arson attack remains unknown, condemnation has come in fast and furious from Israeli politicians, the EU, UN and US, with "settler" violence being assumed to be the culprit.

Lod: Arab Man Fabricates Attack by 'Extremist Jews'

Imad Abu Sharikh was hospitalized in moderate condition after being severely beaten by a gang of youths Sunday. Abu Sharikh told police he was heading to the mosque when three "right-wing extremists" attacking him, shouting "filthy Arab, expel all the Arabs!"
The report quickly made the rounds in the Israeli and Palestinian media, along with pictures of a bloodied and battered Abu Sharikh. The claim that he had been the victim of a racist attack by Jews was particularly sensitive, coming just two days after the death of Ali Dawabsha in an attack believed to have been carried out by Jewish extremists Friday.
The leader of the Arab Joint List party MK, Ayman Odeh, rushed to issue a condemnation and blame right-wing "incitement."
"Once again an Arab citizen (of Israel) was attacked for nationalistic motives, this time in Lod," Odeh said. "The racist, anti-democratic discourse of ministers and MKs from the Right gives a green light for thugs."
But while Abu Sharikh's wounds were indeed real, his story quickly proved to have been fabricated
Police soon arrested the three suspects - all of whom were Arab residents of the city.
As his version of events continued to unravel, police say it became clear the assault - which really did take place - was in fact the result of a family feud.

Government’s ignorance of the propaganda war against Israel

Out of 400 million adult citizens of the European Union, over 150 million believe Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians. Opinion polls conducted over the past decade back up these figures.
When mentioning this I am often asked if I have ever discussed this issue with Israeli government officials.
In response, I relate the sad experiences I’ve gone through over the past few years. Others had repeatedly told me many years earlier how difficult it was to convince government officials to fight back against the tsunami of verbal attacks which Israel endures. One example, among many, was during a 2005 interview with Johannes Gerster, a former member of the German parliament.
At the time he was the head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Israel. Gerster told me: “At the beginning of the second intifada, I spoke with a number of important Israelis in the government. In all conversations, I said, ‘A war is always fought with soldiers and logistical support troops for supplies. Today the war is being conducted with a third weapon: propaganda.”
To which, Gerster said, his “Israeli counterparts told me literally: ‘We regret that the Europeans cannot see for themselves what is happening.
We cannot help them with additional material.’” “This is a very wrong and arrogant attitude,” he said.
“However one defines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is today conducted not only with soldiers but with propaganda, which includes factual information. In the first one-and-a-half years since the intifada, Israeli democracy, including its civil society, failed in this. Today the situation is a bit better.”

Phyllis Chesler: Talking to Liberals About Iran Is a Perilous Art Form

Their smugness and disdain for everyone else is meant to intimidate all opposition as they lie through their teeth.
By the way: Here are my incendiary 69 words:
"Meanwhile, Obama has pulled a really fast and devious one and it is unclear if even Congress can get us out of this potential nuclear disaster. The Man is going directly to the UN Security Council which action may be impervious to Congress's votes unless...unless...c'mon, guess what might stop Obama's deal and I am not talking about a speeding bullet. Am I wrong? Oh, please tell me I am."
A good liberal wants to believe that Obama has saved us from a nuclear war. That makes them feel both safe and righteous.
A good liberal wants to believe that all people want the same thing: Peace, security, prosperity, a better world for their children.
A good conservative understands that radical evil exists in the world; that many world leaders, like people everywhere,prefer to appease a bully for as long as possible rather than stopping him; and that not all people want a better world for their own children.
A good conservative believes that while barbarians are human beings, they are also quite capable of atrocities and of genocide. And that no one will save them but themselves.

Gary Ackerman, Long-Time Democrat from New York, Joins Opposition to Iran Deal

For the fourth time in just a few days, a leading Democrat with deep connections to foreign policy has come out formally against the Iran deal. Gary Ackerman, who served in Congress for three decades representing New York’s 5th Congressional District, has announced he is joining the board of Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, a Democrat-led effort to stop the deal that also includes former Democrat legislators Joseph Lieberman, Shelley Berkley (who is also a board member of The Israel Project, which publishes The Tower), Gary Bayh, Mark Begich and Maria Landrieu. In his statement, he noted that:
An Iran with nuclear weapons must be unacceptable to the U.S. and the world. While I have long argued for negotiations between the U.S. and Iran as a means to stop their nuclear program, the agreement that emerged from these talks simply does not do the job. Stakes are too high to allow for so many loopholes. To make a deal with an enemy who then vows to kill you later, means you left something out of the deal. Don’t you think?
Ackerman, who served as Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has long been an outspoken critic of Iran, joins three other leading Democrat legislators who have formally opposed the deal in the last few days: Grace Meng, a second-term representative from New York; Albio Sires, of New Jersey; and Juan Vargas of California all currently serve in the House and are current or recent members of its Foreign Affairs Committee.

Khamenei's Advisor Ali Akbar Velayati: Inspectors Will Not Be Allowed into Iranian Military Sites


Best Man at Kerry's Daughter's Wedding: Son of Kerry's Iranian Nuclear Deal Counterpart

In 2009, Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter, Dr. Vanessa Bradford Kerry, married an Iranian-American physician named Dr. Brian (Behrooz) Vala Nahed. The best man at that wedding?
The son of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Rouhani administration and Kerry’s chief counterpart in the nuclear deal negotiations, as noted at AllenWest.com.
Did this personal connection have any impact on the recent capitulation to negotiations with Iran on the nuclear deal? Is the relationship significant and improper enough that Kerry should have recused himself from the surrender negotiations? Impossible to know, but it does suggest Kerry has a closer relationship than a Secretary of State should have with an influential member of the state sponsor of terrorism that has killed more Americans than anyone outside of 9/11.

Iran Worked with Al Qaeda, Docs from Raid on Bin Laden Compound Show

Stephen Hayes and Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard are calling on the Obama Administration to release long-suppressed documents from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, which illustrate collusion between the government of Iran and al-Qaeda, including Iran’s assistance with attacks on Americans.
Six highly-placed insiders discussed these documents with the Standard. Several of them said the evidence was so explosive that it could derail the nuclear deal with Iran.
The Weekly Standard’s account of these documents sheds new light on just how destructive President Obama’s mad dash for an Iranian nuclear legacy has been for American national security. This president is forcing our intelligence apparatus to ignore a great deal of Iranian criminal activity that is not directly connected to their nuclear program, effectively blinding the United States to serious military and terrorist threats.
“There are letters about Iran’s role, influence, and acknowledgment of enabling al Qaeda operatives to pass through Iran as long as al Qaeda did their dirty work against the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, tells the Weekly Standard. “What Congress should demand is to see all the UBL [Osama bin Laden] documents related to Iran and all the documents related to intentions of AQ into the future—they are very telling.”

Secret Deal Between Turkey And U.S. Will Sell Out The Kurds

As Western Journalism reported last week, the Turkish Intelligence Service MIT has been delivering weapons and ammunition to Islamic State as well.
The Turkish government has clearly used Islamic State to get rid of the Assad regime but has apparently come to the conclusion that direct intervention in Syria has become necessary because of Kurdish national aspirations and because of the overall situation in the country. It has become clear that Syria as we know it has ceased to exist, and Erdogan wants to be in the position to determine the future of the areas that border Turkey. So the Turkish government has clear goals and acts accordingly.
The same cannot be said of the U.S. administration, thinks military affairs analyst Jennifer Dyer.
She wrote that the U.S. military does not understand the new partnership with Turkey because there are no territorial or operational objectives–and there are no clear directives on the use of military power. She recalled how another U.S. operation to improve the situation in Syria without clear objectives became a huge failure. Dyer was referring to the training of a new local ground force that was supposed to turn the tide in the never-ending war. Nine months after the announcement of this plan, only sixty fighters have been recruited and trained. Basically, the U.S. is in this partnership for the convenience of Turkey, she concluded.
Some analysts say that there is another conclusion that can be drawn. By entering into a partnership with Turkey at a time when Kurdish forces were the only ones who succeeded in driving Islamic State out of territories in Iraq and Syria, the Obama administration seems to be selling out the Kurds.

Meanwhile, on the Palestinian track...

Congress then has 10 days to override the veto – something considered a long shot.
What that all means is that the question of whether the Iran nuclear deal will go through as it is now stands will – by September 27 – be behind us, and the world will be able to tackle other marquee agenda issues on September 28, the day the 70th UN General Assembly meeting opens in New York.
In other words, good-bye Iran, hello the Palestinians.
Sure, speaker after speaker will use their few minutes at the podium to laud the Iran deal as an accord that ensures peace and world security, but they will be providing commentary to an accord already reached. Many of them will then turn to business still unfinished – namely the Israeli-Palestinian track.
Indeed, it was no less a personage than Obama who – when addressing the UN General Assembly in 2013 – said that in the “near term” US diplomatic efforts would focus on two issues – Iran’s nuclear program and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“While these issues are not the cause of all the region’s problems, they have been a major source of instability for far too long, and resolving them can help serve as a foundation for a broader peace,” he said.
With 16 months left before the 2016 US elections, and 18 months until Obama leaves the White House, the president can – at least in his thinking – check off the Iranian issue. Which means that all that remains is the Israeli- Arab one.

'Netanyahu shuns peace because he wants another intifada,' Abbas tells Meretz MKs

A delegation of lawmakers from the dovish Meretz Party received reassurances from Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday that as long as he was in charge, his regime would make every effort to prevent terrorism against Israelis.
"The attack in Duma was a crime against humanity," the Palestinian leader was quoted as telling the Meretz members. "We cannot say this was a crime committed by a crazy man. We need to view this as a terrorist attack. Condemnations and expressions of sorrow are not enough. There need to be genuine steps taken [by Israel] against terrorists who burn families."
Meretz chair Zehava Gal-On said she spoke on behalf of the Israeli public in expressing its "shock" over the attack.
Abbas then proceeded to criticize Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli leader of refusing to engage in sincere peace talks.
"Why does Netanyahu say there is no partner for peace?" Abbas said. "Is it because he has no interest in peace? His best weapon is the intifada."
Abbas told the Meretz lawmakers that Ramallah is opposed to a boycott of Israel proper. Instead, it seeks a boycott of the settlements, the Palestinian leader said.
"What do you want me to do?" Abbas told a group of MKs. "As long as I'm sitting in this chair, I will not allow harm to come to Israelis. I will continue fighting terrorism and violence with all my might."

PMW: Jewish doctors “manufacture and spread diseases” according to Islamic lesson in Al-Aqsa Mosque

Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, who teaches Islam twice a week in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the temple Mount in Jerusalem, taught in his most recent class that Jews own 95% of the pharmaceutical industry and therefore train doctors to create new diseases in order to increase profits for the industry:
“Many diseases were created in labs - viruses created by doctors who were bought, trained and taught by the Rothschild family, the Freemasons, the Zionists, or the Jews to create and spread disease so they will be able to sell medicine for it.”
He also claimed that the world's wealth is controlled by the Jews, specifically the Rothschild family who he claims own 50% of the world’s wealth as well as the entire World Bank.
PMW has reported on previous hate speech and Antisemitism by this teacher of Islam.

Jewish doctors “manufacture and spread diseases” according to Islamic lesson in Al-Aqsa Mosque


Euro Maccabi games marred by anti-Semitism in Berlin

Two youths taunted six Jewish men with anti-Semitic insults and tossed an object at the group, police in the German capital said on Friday. The attackers fled and are being sought for alleged attempted assault and hate crimes. The incident took place in the Berlin district of Neukölln, a neighborhood with a large Muslim population. Separately, police arrested “a man with an Arab background” for yelling anti-Semitic insults at two security guards at the Hotel Estrel, where 2,000 people and athletes associated with the European Maccabi Games are staying, the Die Welt paper reported on Saturday. The hotel is 900 meters from the Al-Nur Mosque, a hotbed of radical Islam.
The head of the German umbrella organization for the Maccabi, Alon Meyer, warned Jewish athletes about traveling in large groups through Neukölln and wearing visibly Jewish items such as Stars of David or kippot. According to the Maccabi Games’ rules of conduct, athletes should not make themselves recognizable as Jews in “sensitive areas of Berlin,” and it is preferable that they travel in taxis and not wear kippot.
Neo-Nazis also threated the Jewish athletes on their Web platforms.

96-year-old former Nazi deemed unfit to stand trial

German prosecutors have shelved their Nazi war crimes investigation of a retired Minnesota carpenter whom The Associated Press exposed as a former commander in an SS-led unit, saying Friday that the 96-year-old is not fit for trial.
Munich prosecutor Peter Preuss told the AP that Michael Karkoc’s attorney had refused to allow him to be examined by a medical expert from Germany, and that his office’s decision was instead based on “comprehensive medical documentation” from doctors at the geriatric hospital in the US where he is being treated.
He said doctors there had provided prosecutors with a comprehensive evaluation of Karkoc’s health over the past year, which was evaluated by a medical expert in Germany.
“There are no doubts about the authenticity of the documentation of his treatment,” Preuss said.

When Hitler Youth summered near Long Island

On Sundays, scores of German-Americans living in New York City in the 1930s dressed in German folk costumes and boarded the Long Island Railroad’s “Camp Siegfried Special,” eager to spend a day in the bucolic town of Yaphank, Long Island.
There was nothing innocent about these outings to the countryside.
Throughout the latter half of the 1930s, 19 Nazi summer camps and family retreats operated across the United States, from New York to California. Sponsored by the Deutsche-Amerikanische Berufsgemeinschaft, DAB, or German-American Bund, the camps were set up to indoctrinate children and adults with Nazi ideology.
“The camps basically had everything the Hitler Youth camps had in Germany. Their uniforms were similar, right down to the Sam Brown belts and swastikas on the arms,” said Arnie Bernstein, author of the 2014 book, “Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund.”
The campers, aged 8 to 18, wore official uniforms and carried official banners of the Hitler Youth. Most were the children or grandchildren of German immigrants or naturalized citizens.

Israel and Cyprus to expand energy cooperation, link to European markets

Israel and Cyprus agreed on Tuesday to expand their cooperation on energy issues, including the use of pipelines and electricity grids to link to European markets, as both countries develop natural gas fields off their coasts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said they would seek to tap the potential of natural gas in the sea bed beneath both countries.
"There is palpably renewed energy in our relationship, I mean that figuratively and literally," Netanyahu said. "... We think that by cooperating with each other we can take it out more easily, we can market it better, to the betterment of both our societies."
Israel has reported some of the largest natural gas discoveries worldwide in the past decade. Cyprus found gas offshore in 2011.
Netanahyu said the two countries were exploring various options on collaboration, but did not elaborate. Anastasiades said among the options were an east Mediterranean pipeline and the Eurasia interconnector, a private project to transport to Europe electricity powered by natural gas.

India’s Kalyani Group and Rafael set to form joint defense venture

India’s Kalyani Group and Israel’s Rafael are set to create a Joint Venture (JV) to manufacture Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM). India’s state-run defense manufacturer Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) will act as the system integrator. The details of the defense JV were reported today by Indian newspaper The Hindu.
Pune-based $2.5 billion Kalyani Group will hold the majority share of 51 percent, in compliance with India’s Foreign Direct Investment regulations.
In October 2014, Indian Defense Ministry had opted for Israeli-made Spike, despite U.S. State Department’s push to promote Javelin missile. The deal includes manufacturing of over 8,000 missiles and 300 launchers — along with transfer of technology to Indian counterparts.
Traditionally, India’s defense procurement has remained heavily depended on foreign imports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 14-month old government aims to reduce country’s dependence on foreign suppliers and has removed restriction on foreign defense manufacturers willing to set up operations in India. Foreign companies can now hold up to 49 percent in defense joint ventures.
In recent months, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Or Akiva-based Meprolight have also entered in partnerships with Indian companies to form defense-based Joint Ventures – giving boost to Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India” initiative aimed to develop India’s manufacturing capabilities.

Worm-killer set to save crops worldwide

More than one out of every ten tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, okra plants, potatoes, and many more species never make it out of the field – completely destroyed by nematodes, also known as ringworms. And much of the rest of an infected crop is too damaged to sell.
These bugs have been the bane of farmers around the world, but a new solution from Adama Agricultural Solutions (formerly Makhteshim-Agan Industries Ltd) could end their reign of agri-terror. Nimitz, Adama’s brand name for a nematicide (nematode killer) based on a newly-discovered molecule called fluensulfone, will get rid of the most common nematodes without the use of heavy chemicals that have been the mainstay of nematicides, the company says.
Adama said Nimitz has the potential to be a game changer for farmers, as well as for the company. Nimitz, it said, is “expected to be a significant growth driver for the company in the future.”
Adama said that studies conducted over the past six years in 21 countries prove its product, the first new nematicide introduced anywhere in the past 20 years, is less hazardous to the environment than other solution. Israel, Australia, Europe, and many US states have approved Nimitz for use in commercial growing settings.

Kanye West to perform in Israel in October

The American rap star Kanye West has been finalizing plans for an October performance in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday.
West visited Israel with his wife, Armenian-American reality star Kim Kardashian, in April for the baptism of their daughter North at the Armenian Cathedral in Jerusalem’s Old City.
During that visit, West was rumored to be planning a free surprise concert at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem, but although fans swarmed to the site, the concert was canceled.
Different reasons were cited for the cancellation, including technical problems and West’s fatigue after a long day of touring.
The couple also went out for dinner with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Jewish filmmaker discovers how Nina Simone found peace in Israel

Today, those who have experienced discrimination can find comfort in Simone’s courage. At a time of very public discourse on race relations, combined with nostalgia for her unmistakeable contralto, Simone holds powerful appeal. In mid-July, Lieberman hosted a screening of his film in Harlem, followed by the “Largest Ever Nina Simone Dance Party.” Nearly 1,000 people showed up.
“As a Jewish filmmaker, I’m interested in exploring issues of identity and origin and ancestry, and finding a place as a minority in a larger society,” he said. “[Being Jewish in America] is very different from the African-American experience, but it has some parallels.”
Far beyond what he could include in the film, Lieberman discovered ways in which Simone’s life was impacted by Jews. Several of her early mentors and fellow musicians were Jewish men, and during her later nomadic years — Simone lived in Liberia and France — she spent several weeks in Israel.
“She found peace with some musicians there, and at the beach,” he said.
While Garbus says that “a feeling of humanism runs through all my work” and her own “tradition of Judaism and humanism are intertwined,” she was, like Lieberman, primarily driven to reveal an artist who has been misunderstood — and whose work remains powerfully relevant.
As Simone herself declares to the camera, in both films: “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times… How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That, to me, is the definition of an artist.”

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/02/2015 01:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] A Jew Builds a Second Bathroom in East Jerusalem (Satire - Mike Lumish)

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This is the bit of satire, dated 3/10/10, that got me booted off of the left-liberal political blog Daily Kos at a time when I was writing under the nom de blog, Karmafish.

I like this bit because I think that it is funny, as did some others, as you can plainly see if you are crazy enough to slog through all 423 comments.

Of course, many others considered this piece to be the very height of insensitivity.

At the time, by the way, I still believed in a little something that people call "East Jerusalem."  Today I would just say the eastern section of town or the "Old City" depending upon the specific story.

But, without further ado:

Breaking: Jew Builds Second Bathroom in East Jerusalem

Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem --- The entire world was shocked yesterday when this reporter revealed that retired electrician, Ehud David Netanyolmert, shook the peace process to its roots by building an illegal second bathroom in his East Jerusalem home.

“This is yet another example of Israeli intransigence,” said Palestinian Authority PM, Mahmoud Abbas. “We cannot negotiate with the Israelis if they insist upon violating international law with the continued building on Palestinian lands. Israel must pressure Mr. Netanyolmert to dismantle the illegal mini-settlement that he has constructed.”

Only slightly taken aback by the world community’s rejection of the second bathroom, Benjamin Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post, “Israel wants peace and two states for two peoples. The Palestinians need to sit down at the negotiating table and I honestly do not see what some guy's second bathroom has to do with anything.”

In Washington, US President Barack Obama convened an emergency meeting with his cabinet in order to evaluate the situation and to determine the best response to this most recent Israeli aggression. In response to the crisis US diplomat George Mitchell claimed, “Israelis have rights, but so do the Palestinian people. While the United States remains deeply committed to Israeli security, it is entirely unclear how the second bathroom promotes that security or in any way advances the cause of peace.”

When queried about this blatant Zionist violation of international law Mr. Netanyolmert objected to the entire line of inquiry. “You people are meshuganah,” Netanyolmert said while standing in his doorway, wearing his jammies and blinking into the morning sun. “Are you honestly telling me that Vladimir Putin objects to my second bathroom on the grounds that it is an impediment to peace? Vladimir Putin? Really?”

It should be obvious to any reasonable observer that Mr. Netanyolmert’s myopia regarding Zionist aggression, and his willingness to derail the peace process, cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. The Palestinian peace organization, Hamas, therefore responded today with a flurry of Qassam and Katyusha rocket attacks on S’derot and Ashkelon. The typical Israeli myopia extended to former S’derot mayor, Eli Moyal, who, while quivering under his desk, is alleged to have told his secretary, “Second bathroom? What second bathroom? What the hell are these people talking about?”

Meanwhile, a variety of Israeli left-of-center organizations are planning a mass rally in opposition to The Second Bathroom. Naomi Chazan, of the New Israel Fund, said that dozens of people will gather outside Mr. Netanyolmert’s home in solidarity with Palestinian activists in a No Second Bathroom rally. The protestors will carry signs reading, “Get the Hell out of the Bathroom, Already!” and “Netanyolmert, Zionist Criminal Baby Killer!” and “Who Do These Jews Think They Are, Anyways?!”

Some fear that just as Ariel Sharon's stroll on the Temple Mount inevitably caused the Al-Aqsa Intifada, so Mr. Netanyolmert's violation of Palestinian sovereignty might spark a third... The First Second Bathroom Intifada.

One hopes that if the Israeli government makes the necessary concessions by evacuating the bathroom then the Palestinian Authority might be persuaded to sit down for peace talks.

But who would blame the PA if they refuse?


From the comments at the time:

In poor taste just 2 weeks before the anniversary (21+ / 1-) of Rachel Corrie's death on March 25, 2003, by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to protect a Palestinian home from being demolished.

I have only one suggestion for this diary: flush it.

http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

by heiderose1 on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 03:01:31 PM PST

Rachel Corrie?  So I published this thing two weeks before the seventh anniversary of the accidental death of American anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie and that represents poor taste?

If it was ONLY the building of a second bathroom (14+ / 0-)that was going on in E. Jerusalem, but it is not.  There is much more going on in terms of expanding settlements and building activity than this snarky diary lets on.

by True Independent on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 01:56:25 PM PST

Who the hell are these people to complain about Jews building housing for themselves in the ancient Jewish capital of Jerusalem, east, west, or otherwise?  That was the whole point of the piece!

That's right Karma.. (26+ / 0-)..the Neyanyahu government smacking the Obama admin in the face by announcing the day Biden arrives in Israel to advance "peace talks" that they're going ahead with building 1600 housing units in northeastern Jerusalem is a joke.

You should be banned.

by sofia on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 02:09:27 PM PST 

Well, sofia got her wish.

For daring to mock western-left anti-Jewish racism I was, in fact, banned from Daily Kos.

I know it must seem silly to remark upon five year old comments in an old Daily Kos "diary," but I remain amazed at the ease with which so many on the western-left condemn Jews for building housing for themselves in Israel.

These are people who think of themselves as anti-racists concerned with social justice.

The hypocrisy is just staggering.

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

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/02/2015 11:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Vile antisemitic cartoon causes anger in Arab world - but not because of antisemitism

This cartoon, showing a Jew raping a Palestinian Arab woman while murdering her two infants, is making some Arabs very angry:

No, the vile and naked Jew-hatred isn't the problem. That's actually taken for granted.

The reason this cartoon is making so many angry is because a Hamas-affiliated news outlet published it, and it is charging the Palestinian Authority with not caring as Jews rape and massacre woman and children in the West Bank.

The masked man behind the fence represents Gaza, and he says to the woman representing the West Bank, "Rise, oh (West) Bank, defend your honor and your children." She answers ""By Allah, I would do it, but I [need] a permit [to work inside Israel.]"

The man on the left is a PA security officer ignoring the crime.

The representation of West Bank Arabs as being willing to be humiliated by Jews is the controversy, not the theme that Jews routinely rape and murder Arabs.

This cartoon came on the heels of another one where a man representing the PA in the West Bank is smoking a hookah, pays lip service to defending the Dome of the Rock but is expecting only Hamas to do something about it by shooting rockets.

This complete lack of criticism over the antisemitism of the cartoon at the top of this post again shows the basic fact that pundits, reporters and human rights NGOs refuse to speak out about: the Palestinian Arabs are not just against Israel but they hate Jews.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/02/2015 08:01:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Palestinians try to hijack refugee conference for their own purposes

From Ammon News:

The World Food Program announced new cuts Friday in food aid for Syrian refugees in Jordan, highlighting a growing funding crisis of international agencies helping millions displaced by Syria’s conflict.

A last-minute U.S. donation of $65 million kept food aid in Jordan going for August, though at reduced levels, the WFP said. If no additional contributions come in, half the current food aid recipients would lose all benefits by September.

In August, food aid for the most vulnerable among the voucher recipients, or about 200,000 people, will drop from $28 to $14 per person per month and for the rest from $14 to $7, the WPF said.

Food aid for the most vulnerable is secured through November at current funding levels, the agency said. For the rest, it would stop in September.

This is just one of the refugee crises worldwide, There was a major conference at the UN about the issue:

Senior diplomats and UN officials during a highly appreciated Pakistan-sponsored panel discussion on the plight of refugees and migrants called for addressing the root causes of the massive human movements – conflicts, persecution and poverty – in a bid to end this grave humanitarian crisis.

“Pakistan took the initiative to convene this panel because the world is confronted with a humanitarian crisis of historic proportions a global wave of displacement and forced migrations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in East Asia and elsewhere,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the delegates in a full-to-the-capacity conference room at the United Nations.

They evinced keen interest in the debate and called for cooperation among governments in devising a comprehensive plan to end the extraordinary human suffering in several parts of the world. Pakistan also came in for praise from all the speakers for hosting millions of Afghans refugees, after Dr Maleeha told the gathering that her country remains the world's second largest refugee-hosting country.

An overview of the critical situation resulting from flows of refugees and migrants was given by Anne Christine Eriksson, acting director of UNHCR, New York, and by Ashraf El-Nour, permanent observer of the International Migration Organisation (IMO) to the UN, with both emphasising that the resources available to them were limited while the challenges were unprecedented.

Millions of real refugees in danger of starvation, urgently asking the world for money to help feed them, while the UNHCR tries to feed and resettle them.

And then came the Palestinian Arabs asking for handouts for their fake refugees:

Palestine's permanent observer to UN Riad Mansour thanked Ambassador Maleeha for organising the event at which he focused on the plight of five million Palestinian refugees spread around the world. He especially called on donors to contribute to UNRWA, the UN agency taking care of Palestinian refugees, as it was facing a funding shortfall.

“If contributions did not come on time, tens of thousands of Palestinian students would not be able to go to their schools,” he said.

The world cannot pay the $14 per person per month for food for real refugees in Jordan, and the Palestinian Arabs come in and demand money for schools for Jordanian kids, with Jordanian citizenship, that are utterly unnecessary because the children can and should attend Jordanian schools - but UNRWA insists on keeping its "refugee camps" and schools in Jordan for people who are not refugees by any sane definition.

UNRWA's Chris Gunness did the same thing with a tweet, trying to conflate refugees who have serious needs with the UNRWA joke refugees who just want to keep their gravy train running:

Diplomats call 4 addressing root causes of big refugee flows http://t.co/u3c8nkEHVb They must also address @UNRWA's $101 million deficit RT

— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) July 31, 2015

UNRWA is trying to divert money for a real crisis to perpetuate a fake one. This is exactly what UNRWA has been doing for decades.

Palestinian Arab "refugees" who live as full citizens in Europe or America are still considered refugees by the bizarre UNRWA definitions that make it impossible for someone to lose their refugee status unless they die or are found to have lied about their ancestors living in Britush Mandate Palestine for a couple of years.

They can move back to villas in Ramallah and claim UNRWA benefits, and UNRWA cannot turn them away.

You know that deep down, UNHCR leaders who are trying to actually keep real refugees alive are upset that UNRWA takes such a disproportionate amount of world aid compared to the need of most Palestinian "refugees:" who aren't real refugees.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/02/2015 05:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 08/01 Links: Thousands attend anti-violence protests across Israel; Don't parole Pollard

From Ian:

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PodCast: Focusing on Israel, the U.S.-Iranian detente, and the conflicted Middle East: with Caroline Glick and Richard Baehr

We make no secret of our respect, admiration and, yes, love of Israel. And though turmoil in the region is nothing new, we thought that we should continue to examine the percolating situation in the Middle East after we’ve been able to analyze the Iranian nuclear deal.
Two of our favorite people with whom to discuss the topic are Richard Baehr, the Chief Political Correspondent for American Thinker (simply one of the best), and Caroline Glick, Deputy Managing Editor for the Jerusalem Post, and former assistant Foreign Policy Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

A distorted evening with Max Blumenthal

And it was at this point I realised that shock is a major part of Blumenthal’s selling process. He deliberately seems to go out of his way to anger the part of the audience he knows is both present and critical of him. The BDS boys are already sold; they don’t need feed such as this, Blumenthal desires to be disliked. He wants to agitate because it gets him noticed. Once the Q&A highlighted the presence of pro-Israelis, Blumenthal visibly became more outrageous; it was as if the two sides feed off each other. His message of hate towards Israel sells his books and the more we shout his name in anger from the rooftops, the more books he will sell. So he turns the level of venom up another notch.
Israelis don’t shoot Hebrew speakers. It’s a fantasy world created by a conspiracy nut who suggested that ‘my government’ ‘his government’ and ‘Israel’ are all engaged in some deep dark scheme that keeps the innocent Palestinians locked away in their refugee camps because it pleases some cabal of capitalists. All we need is for all those capitalists to be Jewish and we have a new edition of Protocols.
Blumenthal works on the premise that you cannot attack his position without appearing to attack victims, cynically using dead Gazan children as human shields. As Blumenthal mentions the amount of explosives the Israelis used as being more than ‘Hiroshima’, describes military strategies where Hebrew speakers are targeted for killing and uses comparisons with Darfur to infer genocide, the clear message is one of total force by a brutal army against an innocent population. Massive force being used without care against one of the highest populated areas on earth. And yet more innocent people died in Syria last week than in Gaza in a 50 day conflict ( Didn’t you see the massive protests in London?) Given Israel’s supremacy, the numbers simply do not tell the same tale. Israel clearly is not behaving the way that is being attributed to it.
And it was over. Having seen a slight altercation outside the building caused by two seemingly harmless women, I approached them at the station on the way home. They did not know who I was, and my possession of a bag with Blumenthal’s book suggested I was ‘a friend’. I am not going to recount the exchange here, but as usual a simple conversation about the conflict highlights a thorough lack of knowledge or information and a deep hostility to ‘Zionists’. They have formed solid opinions without even a grasp of the basics. When eventually they realised I was a Jew who wouldn’t spit on the Israeli flag, they walked away.
I haven’t read the whole book yet, but having seen Blumenthal talk, the over-riding sensation I am left with is one of sadness. The only challenging questions that came out in the Q&A were from pro-Israelis, the remainder of the audience had nothing to say and gushed over every word. It was an empty room with a few empty people looking for their bias to be fed. And fed they were.

Sarah Honig: The humanistic ardor of interwar Poland

Poland made history on Monday morning, April 19, 1937. It taught the world how to implement a boycott without actually admitting that it’s doing anything of the sort.
Headliners of today’s European Union have learned the lesson well, even if few of the EU’s sanctimonious sermonizers can likely cite the source and inspiration for their very unoriginal charade.
The Polish non-boycott was no mean feat on the eve of WWII, when dark clouds of impending doom already gathered over the heads of European Jewry.
Given the bestial goings-on and the brutish anti-Jewish boycotts next-door in the Third Reich, Poland appeared positively refined by comparison – the soul of sophistication.
The Poles never sank as low as the crude and vulgar Germans. They didn’t adopt the practice of daubing storefronts with giant Jude inscriptions, smashing windows or sending out storm troopers to form scary picket lines, carry offensive signs in the formidable Teutonic tradition and warn off the super-race away from subhuman Jewish shopkeepers.
Instead, Poland’s Minister of Industry and Commence Antoni Roman issued an edict that looked impeccably non-discriminatory.
It ordered that all business signs boldly display the proprietor’s name, directly above any other incidental scrap information such as what was sold at the premises. Precise rules were stipulated regarding the size of the letters required.
What could possibly be wrong with that? The measure applied to everyone throughout the republic. Surely nothing could be more equitable. No single community or grouping was targeted.

JPost Editorial: Don’t parole Pollard

Last week, screaming headlines were generated worldwide by breaking news in The Wall Street Journal that the US was preparing to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard after 30 years in prison. This announcement, predictably, unleashed a tidal wave of media coverage.
A subsequent announcement a few days later officially confirming imminent parole for Pollard added to the deluge of reports, which continue unabated.
There is something suspect in the timing of these news stories.
Jerusalem’s rejection of Pollard’s release as intended to mitigate Israel’s displeasure with the disastrous Iranian nuclear pact was predictable.
However, denials by US officials, claiming that Pollard’s release is unrelated to the Iranian deal were less predictable.
There were simply too many denials, at too high a level and employing too strident a tone to be credible.
Clearly, the media frenzy about Pollard occurs precisely when the Obama administration needs headlines diverted away from the Iranian deal. The public’s attention instead has become focused on a subject that many love to hate: Israel.

Thousands attend anti-violence protests across Israel

Thousands of people attended a number of anti-violence, anti-homophobia rallies across Israel Saturday evening.
The protests came in the wake of the stabbing attack Thursday at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade in which six people were injured, one of them seriously, by an ultra-Orthodox man — who had just finished serving a 10-year sentence for stabbing three people at a similar parade 10 years prior — followed by the firebomb attack Friday morning in the West Bank village of Duma which left a Palestinian toddler dead and his family fighting for their lives. The suspected perpetrators are Jewish extremists.
A Peace Now rally in Tel Aviv against incitement and violence began at 7:30 p.m. local time at Rabin Square. Demonstrators then headed toward Gan Meir to join up with those marching for LGBT rights — a separate event organized by LGBT and youth groups.
The LGBT rally also marked the six-year anniversary of a shooting at a Tel Aviv gay youth center in 2009 in which two people were killed. The perpetrator has yet to be caught.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog and Meretz head Zahava Gal-on spoke at the anti-violence rally, reiterating comments they made earlier in the day on their Facebook pages.

Slain Palestinian toddler’s parents, brother still fighting for lives

The parents and brother of a Palestinian toddler burned to death by suspected Jewish terrorists were still fighting for their lives Saturday, as protests over the firebomb attack on their home entered a second day.
The attack in the West Bank village of Duma, which killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, sparked an international outcry over Israel‘s failure to get to grips with violence by hardline Jewish settlers.
His father, Saad, was being treated for third-degree burns at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where a spokeswoman described his condition as “critical”.
Mother Riham and four-year-old brother Ahmed were being treated at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv, where a spokeswoman described their condition as life-threatening.
Saad has burns on 80 percent of his body, Riham is suffering from burns over 90% of her body, and four-year-old Ahmad has 60% burns, Army Radio reported

PM Visits Injured Relatives of Child Killed in Terror Attack

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu paid a visit to the family of the Palestinian child Ali Dawabsha, who was murdered in an attack on his home in the Arab village of Duma early this morning.
The PM spent time with relatives injured in the firebomb attack, believed to be the work of Jewish extremists, at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.
Speaking following the visit, Netanyahu strongly denounced the "brutal" attack and said he had called Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to vow Israel would track down the killers.
"I just came from the bedside of four-year old Ahmed Sa'ed. Sixty percent of his body is burned. We're doing everything we can to save this young boy, give him a life," Netanyahu said. "His two parents are in other parts of the Israeli health system. We're trying to give them the best treatment to save their lives."
"When you stand next to the bed of this small child, and his infant brother had been so brutally murdered, we're shocked, we're outraged. We condemn this. There is zero tolerance for terrorism wherever it comes from, whatever side of the fence it comes from, we have to fight it and fight it together."
"I spoke to President Abu Mazen right before I entered the hospital. I told him of this visit and of Israel's absolute commitment to find the perpetrators, bring them to justice," Netanyahu continued, while calling for calm.

Zero Tolerance for Jewish and Arab Terror in the Middle East

The attack on Duma does also raise troubling questions about how peace might ever be attained. For some critics of Israel and many Jewish left-wingers, the answer is easy: get rid of the settlements and separate the two peoples. But even if Israel were to do so, the history of the past 20 years of attempts to make peace shows that this wouldn’t solve the problem.
Ten years ago Israel removed every single soldier, settler, and settlement from Gaza in the hope that that the separation would end the violence if not foster peace. But instead Israelis watched Gaza become a launching pad for terror attacks via rockets and tunnels. Far from fostering peace, the withdrawal seemed to encourage Palestinians to continue their war on Israel’s existence. If the overwhelming majority of Israelis consider such a withdrawal from the far more strategic West Bank to be unimaginable it is because they know that it would likely lead to the creation of another and even more dangerous terror base on their doorstep, not mutual coexistence. Even the so-called “moderates” among the Palestinians reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter its borders are drawn. So long as Palestinians view their national identity as inextricably linked to a violent war on Zionism, terror will continue and peace will be impossible.
But the events of the last week show that it isn’t good enough for Jews to merely condemn an Arab and Muslim political culture that will not allow peace to happen. It is also incumbent on Israelis and their friends to acknowledge that horrors such as those that occurred at Duma only serve to justify Arab hatred and serve the cause of the Islamist haters that are gaining ground throughout the Middle East. Just as we are right to ask Muslims to police their extremists, so, too, must Jews also act against their haters.
There should be zero tolerance for hate and terror among both Arabs and Jews. Unfortunately, there seems little chance that Palestinians will isolate and reject Fatah-linked terrorists, Hamas and Islamic Jihad the way Israelis are condemning the Duma killers. Indeed, the calls for more terror attacks on Jews in response to Duma from the government of the independent Palestinian state in all but name in Gaza have already begun. But the answer begins with appropriate action against the terrorists and those who support them by the Israeli government.

Recent Jewish Fatalities from Arab Terror: Hello, Mainstream Media?

Jewish terrorism is practically nonexistent. It is so rare, that if it happens it’s difficult to believe. Supposedly Jewish “extremists” have attacked an Arab house, resulting in the death of a toddler, and it’s made headline news all over the mainstream media. Naturally, Jews everywhere are condemning the attack because unlike Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders who applaud the murder of Jews, handing out candy, naming schools, streets and plazas after terrorists, justifying the savagery, actually paying terrorists and inciting more violence, Jews do not condone terrorism.
This attack is horrific. There is no denying it.
The issue here is the double standard. Why so much news on this attack and nothing on Arab attacks against Jews?
So far, four Israelis have died this year due to Arab terrorism. These are four deaths in addition to the countless wounded in various attacks. Does the world know this? It is information you have to search for. Sure, Israeli newspapers and Jewish sites reported on their deaths, but where was the mainstream media? I saw no coverage of any of these attacks in the regular American news sites I visit. If they won’t report on them, I will.

Barack Obama’s Antisemitic Rant on the Iran Deal

On Thursday, Obama led a conference call with left-wing activists in which he repeatedly railed against his political opponents by using the old canard of rich Jews using their money to exert control.
Accusing critics of the deal of being “opposed to any deal with Iran”–i.e. of advocating war–Obama railed against “well-financed” lobbyists, as well as the “big check writers to political campaigns,” and “billionaires who happily finance super-PACs.” He complained about “$20 million” being spent on ads against the deal—a subtle reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC–whose support he had repeatedly courted when running for office).
Some of Obama’s references were thinly-veiled attacks on specific (Jewish) individuals—columnist Bill Kristol, for example, the Weekly Standard publisher and former New York Times resident conservative who served in the George H.W. Bush administration, and also helps run the Emergency Committee for Israel, which opposes the Iran deal; or billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is a prodigious Republican benefactor, super PAC donor, and well-known hawk on Israel issues.
On the call, Obama twice accused his opponents of being the same people “responsible for us getting into the Iraq war.“ That sweeping, and largely false, characterization of the opponents of the Iran deal repeats the sensational accusations of The Israel Lobby, a widely discredited 2007 book that accused a group of pro-Israel, and largely Jewish, individuals and organizations of pushing the U.S. into war with Iraq, and seeking to drag America into a new war with Iran.
Obama’s deliberate, and jarring, choice of words clearly worried even some sympathetic Jews.

Huckabee Responds to Obama’s Anti-Semitic Language

GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee is responding to Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak’s recent report about President Obama using anti-Jewish language in order to boast his Iran deal.
The former Arkansas governor says:
Instead of basting his critics with personal attacks, President Obama needs to open up his eyes. The last time the world ignored these types of threats against Jews, millions died, and it shouldn’t take a mushroom cloud over Israel for Obama to realize that ‘taking Iran’s word for it,’ is idiotic and absolutely insane. Iran has the blood of American soldiers and civilians on its hands, and for decades, they’ve been murdering Jews, Christians, and Muslims across the world.
Huckabee continued, “If Congress approves this agreement, President Obama will go down in history as the architect of a dangerous deal that triggered senseless death and a nuclear arms race across the Middle East.”

Anne Bayefsky: Huckabee is Right: Iran Nuclear Deal Brings us Closer to Catastrophe of Holocaust Proportions

In other words, the Prime Minister of a democratic state, a close ally, and three-quarters of Jewish Israelis from all political stripes who are opposed to the deal were dismissed, along with the insufficiently specific “rhetoric.”
The militarization of Iran’s nuclear program, Kerry suggested in the same hearing, was all in the past. “We know what they were doing, we’ve already drawn our conclusion about 2003. We know they were engaged in trying to make a weapon.” So this deal literally gives Iran a do-over.
Downplaying the evil intent of Iran isn’t just fuzzy thinking. This posture has formed the essence of the President’s foreign policy from the moment he took office and is critical to appreciating the catastrophic nature of the deal.
As early as March 2009, President Obama produced a video in which he directly addressed the “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” seeking “engagement grounded in mutual respect.” When his vision finally culminated last week in the overthrow of the entire hard-won UN sanctions regime, Ambassador Samantha Power boasted that negotiators “demonstrated” “mutual respect.”
Governor Huckabee is telling us: stop whatever you’re doing, and let that sink in. Mutual respect for a regime overtly committed to genocide against the Jewish state.

Obama's Iran Deal: Two False Choices

Critics of the Iran deal have pointed out that President Barack Obama has imposed a false choice on Congress: accept a bad deal, or go to war–as if those are the only two alternatives. In fact, Obama has imposed a second false choice: either cooperate with the international community, or go it alone.
Actually, the truth is that the U.S. would not be alone if it rejected the deal—and the international community was never united behind sanctions in the first place.
If Congress rejects the deal, and overrides the president’s veto, it would be applauded by Israel and by many of the Sunni Arab states of the Middle East. More than that, the U.S. would likely be supported by France, which held a tougher line than the Obama administration throughout the negotiations. Eventually, if the deal fell apart, the U.S. could lead its European partners back to negotiations–in a weaker position than the P5+1 had in 2013, but stronger than today.
The way Obama tells the story, the world was divided over how to deal with Iran until he came to office and reached out to the international community and united everyone behind sanctions. That is false–George W. Bush built the international consensus on Iran, and Obama resisted sanctions at first–but it also omits the fact that the new UN sanctions enacted on Obama’s watch gave generous waivers to Russia and China, which is why they agreed not to veto them.
With the lifting of international sanctions by the UN Security Council—before Congress has had a chance to review the deal—not much changes for Russia and China. The real change is in Europe, to which Iran will soon be open for business.
But Europe is also within Iran’s missile range, making this a different case from Iraq, where Europe’s commercial interests prevented western unity, leading to war. This time, Europe is willing to be tough–but only if the U.S. leads.

MEMRI: Critical Points To Consider In Understanding The Iranian Nuclear Deal: Part II

The following analysis is the second in a series which discusses the Iranian nuclear deal and examines the JCPOA as a legal document from an American perspective. This analysis will identify and explain various loopholes and their consequences in the JCPOA. Loopholes are common in the JCPOA and occur most often in the form of a prohibition or provision set forth in clear terms, followed by a statement or paragraph either negating or providing a possible alternative to the stated prohibition or provision. The decision to negate or to provide a possible alternative is dependent on the Joint Commission. In making so much dependent on the Joint Commission, the JCPOA has been turned into a provisional document which stands to be altered by the Joint Commission at its discretion. This analysis will also draw on United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231 which endorsed the JCPOA for reference. It does not intend to be an overall assessment of the deal.
Nuclear Activity "Suitable For The Development Of A Nuclear Explosive Device" Could Be Allowed
If there is any area in the JCPOA where prohibitions should be absolute, it should be the section regarding the development of nuclear weapons since the reason for the whole agreement is – as per statements by President Obama and Secretary Kerry – to prevent nuclear weapons development. However, the JCPOA provides alternatives even to this provision.

Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Ron DeSantis: Congress Must Reject the Iran Deal

During his reelection campaign, President Obama also promised that any deal with Iran would require Iran to “give up its nuclear program and abide by the U.N. resolutions that have been in place,” which do not permit Iran to enrich uranium. The president said flatly that “the deal we’ll accept is [the ayatollahs] end their nuclear program. It’s very straightforward.” In fact, it didn’t end up being so straightforward. The deal goes beyond the mere acceptance of an Iranian nuclear program; it requires the international community to facilitate Iran’s program, even to assist Iran in protecting its program from sabotage. Just a few years ago, a deal that permitted Iran to develop advanced centrifuges would have been unthinkable. The deal makes the international community, including the United States, active sponsors of Iran’s development of a nuclear weapons capability fortified against outside efforts to sabotage it.
When explaining the deal to the American people, President Obama said it was based on verification, not trust. Yet this deal forces us to rely on a convoluted bureaucratic process to even initiate the inspections of undeclared nuclear sites that are critical to ensure that Iran is not assembling a nuclear weapon. Iran can drag that process out for 24 days, concealing any offending conduct in the meantime. This is a far cry from “anytime, anywhere” inspections his administration lauded earlier in the negotiating process.
And if violations are identified the deal includes an explicit provision relieving Iran of its obligations under the deal in the event that the sanctions are reinstated. This represents a “nuclear snapback” that will likely negate the prospect of imposing sanctions in response to Iranian violations. Worse, the deal even lifts sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, whose activities killed so many American servicemen in Iraq.
Supporters of the deal maintain that the only alternative to this deal is war. It’s something President Obama has hinted at often. But it should come as little surprise that once again, his rhetoric isn’t reality. President Obama was right when he previously said that the alternative to a bad deal is no deal. No deal would have provided us with the opportunity to reset the negotiations and achieve a better deal, one that actually requires Iran to completely disarm its nuclear program.

Top General: U.S. Agreed to Lift Iran’s Arms, Ballistic Missile Embargoes Against My Advice

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in congressional testimony Wednesday that he advised the White House against lifting restrictions on Iran buying arms and ballistic missiles as part of the nuclear deal, but was overruled, Foreign Policy reported.
Asked directly by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) if he voiced opposition on that part of the pact, Dempsey said: “Yes … and I used the phrase ‘as long as possible,’ and then that was the point at which the negotiation continued.”
“But, yes, that was my military advice,” Dempsey, who is retiring in September, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The hearing was the administration’s latest attempt to sell Congress on the historic deal, which limits Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing harsh economic sanctions against the country.
In the exchange, embedded below, Ayotte referred to an exchange she had with Dempsey while the negotiations were ongoing and in which he had expressed his opposition to those concessions.

Netanyahu to bring case against Iran deal to N. American Jews in live webcast event

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly spoken out against the Iran nuclear deal, will state his case once again next week in a live webcast targeting Jewish institutions across North America.
Netanyahu will deliver remarks and answer questions from participants in an event described by organizers as a live virtual experience that will bring together thousands.
The event is co-sponsored by the member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Jewish Federations from across North America.
The webcast will be transmitted to computers, cell phones and flat screens set up in synagogues, organizations and Jewish community centers large and small throughout the continent, organizers said.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) the largest pro-Israel lobby in Washington has been lobbying intensively on Capitol Hill in order to kill the deal.

Another Democrat on House Foreign Affairs Committee Announces Opposition to Iran Deal

Rep. Albio Sires (D – N.J.) announced today that he is opposed to the nuclear deal with Iran. Sires, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee whose district includes Hoboken and parts of Newark, stated that he was concerned with the short time frame of the deal, as well as Iran’s history of sponsoring terrorism worldwide. His full press release is below:
I am opposed to the current proposed nuclear agreement with Iran, I do not feel the agreement will prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Energy testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this week, but I am still very doubtful. Iran has spent decades evading international sanctions, promoting terror in the region, and violently oppressing its own people. I am concerned that if the proposed agreement is made official, hardliners within the Iranian regime may hinder its implementation. Most importantly, the time frame of the deal is too short and it is unclear what will happen to Iran’s nuclear program after the initial pressure to comply dissipates and Iran is allowed to enhance its nuclear and weapons capabilities.
In the coming months, I will continue to meet with constituents, experts, and our allies in the region, but I am not convinced that this is in the best interest of our national security.

Report: Administration Hindering Review of Iran Nuke Deal Documents

There are 18 documents relating to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the recently concluded nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 nations, which the administration is keeping from public view by treating them as classified, even though 17 of them are unclassified, The Daily Beast reported yesterday.
The Obama administration delivered 18 documents to Congress on July 19, in accordance with legislation requiring a Congressional review of the nuclear deal. Only one of these documents is classified, while the remaining 17 are unclassified.
Yet many of these unclassified documents cannot be shared with the public or discussed openly with the press. The protocol for handling these documents, set by the State Department and carried out by Congress, is that these unreleased documents can only be reviewed ‘in camera’—a Latin term that means only those with special clearance can read them—and must be held in various Congressional [Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities] SCIFs. …
“The unclassified items… should be public. This is going to be the most important foreign policy decision that this Congress will make,” a Republican Senate aide told The Daily Beast. “This is the administration that once said it would be the most transparent administration in history. They’re not acting like it.”

IAEA Refuses to Brief Senators on Iran Deal, Even in Classified Setting

Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said at a hearing on the Iran nuclear deal today that they requested a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency on its agreements with Tehran.
These deals are not in the possession of the Obama administration and have never been seen by Secretary of State John Kerry, much less provided to Congress.
“I believe one person may have read it at the — at the facility, but doesn’t have it, they don’t possess it,” Kerry told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
Today, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano had been invited to come address lawmakers next week, but refused.
He turned down a meeting with senators in any setting: public, private or classified.
Corker is now gathering signatures from senators for another letter to Amano in hope that the IAEA chief will reconsider.

Poll: 76 Percent of Israelis Think Israel Needs to Continue Fighting Iran Nuclear Deal

More than three-quarters of the Israeli public believes that Israel needs to press on with efforts to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal, a new Israel Hayom survey conducted by New Wave Research revealed.
According to the poll, 76 percent of Hebrew-speaking Jewish Israelis believe Israel should continue fighting the deal, while only 15 percent think that Israel should not fight it.
In the survey—a random selection of 500 individuals over the age of 18—the Israeli public’s decisiveness on the nuclear issue was also reflected in the general opinion regarding President Barack Obama, who is seen as having led world powers toward the agreement with Iran. Asked whether they thought Obama was looking out for Israel’s interests, 73 percent said no, and only 20 percent believe Obama had Israel’s best interest at heart.

Iran FM urges ‘nuclear’ Israel, other states to disarm

In an op-ed in The Guardian, Zarif said: “The joint comprehensive plan of action, as the accord is officially known, cements Iran’s status as a zone free of nuclear weapons. Now it is high time that we expand that zone to encompass the entire Middle East.”
Zarif charged that Iran and other signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty have “actually done far more for the cause of non-proliferation in practice than nuclear-weapon states have done on paper.”
The Iranian FM also took a jab at the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, UK, France, Russia and China — all of whom have nuclear weapons and are signatories to the NPT, as well as nuclear-armed, non-NPT states India, Pakistan and North Korea.
These states, he said, “completely brush[…] off their disarmament obligations under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and customary international law.”
“In light of the Vienna deal, it is high time that the nuclear ‘haves’ remedied the gap by adopting serious disarmament measures and reinforcing the non-proliferation regime,” he wrote.

Iran's parliament has no authority over nuclear deal, Iran's top negotiator says

Iran's parliament does not have authority over the nuclear agreement signed with world powers last month, the Islamic Republic's top nuclear negotiator was quoted as saying on Saturday.
The comments from Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, are the latest volley in a lengthy battle between Iranian officials supportive of the deal, and hardliners who are skeptical of it.
The conservative-dominated parliament in June passed a bill imposing strict conditions on any nuclear deal, such as barring international inspectors from Iran's military sites.
Under the terms of the final deal, however, Iran must provide access to suspect sites including at its military facilities within 24 days, or risk sanctions being reimposed.
"It is absolutely not the case that the government must bring before parliament any agreement it wants to sign with a foreign country," Salehi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
"The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not a treaty or a convention, and I don't know under what definition it would go to parliament."

Russia, US and Saudi plan trilateral meet in Qatar

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Sergey Lavrov will confer with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir during his two-day trip to Doha starting Sunday. Kerry earlier has said he plans to meet separately in Doha with Lavrov to discuss Syria, Iran and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that during his visit to Qatar, Lavrov will discuss the crises in Syria, Libya and Yemen, international efforts to combat the Islamic State group and Iran’s role in regional affairs after last month’s signing of Iran’s nuclear deal.
Despite Russia-US tensions over Ukraine, President Barack Obama has thanked Moscow for helping reach the agreement.
Kerry departed for the Middle East on Friday for security talks in Egypt and discussions in Qatar with Arab foreign ministers whose countries are wary of the nuclear deal struck with Iran. He will not visit Israel, America’s foremost ally in the region, and the primary foreign opponent of the Iran agreement.

Dispatch from Iraq: the Stealth Iranian Takeover Becomes Clear

The genius of the Iranian method is that it is not possible to locate a precise point where the Iranian influence ends and the "government" begins. Everything is entwined. This pro-Iranian military and political activity depends at ground level on the successful employment and manipulation of religious fervor. This is what makes the Hashed fighters able to stand against the rival jihadis of ISIS. Says Major General Juma'a Enad, operational commander in Salah al-Din Province: "The Hashed strong point is the spiritual side, the jihad fatwa. Like ISIS."
So this is Tehran's formula. The possession of a powerful state body (the IRGC's Quds Force) whose sole raison d'etre is the creation and sponsorship of local political-military organizations to serve the Iranian interest. The existence of a population in a given country available for indoctrination and mobilization. The creation of proxy bodies and the subsequent shepherding of them to both political and military influence, with each element complementing the other. And finally, the reaping of the benefit of all this in terms of power and influence.
This formula has at the present time brought Iran domination of Lebanon and large parts of Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Current events in Iraq form a perfect study of the application of this method, and the results it can bring. Is Iran likely to change this winning formula as a result of the sudden provision of increased monies resulting from the nuclear deal? This is certainly the hope of the authors of the agreement. It is hard to see on what it is based.
The deal itself proves that Iran can continue to push down this road while paying only a minor price, so why change? Expect further manifestations of the Tehran formula in the Middle East in the period ahead.

‘Make him uneasy’ — Clinton emails reveal debate on handling Netanyahu

In an email dated September 22, 2009 and entitled “Bibi/Abu Mazen” — Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ respective commonly used monikers — Berger advised Clinton that the public debate should shift “from settlement freeze to final status.”
“Going forward, if Bibi continues to be the obstacle, you will need to find the ground from which you can make his politics uneasy,” Berger wrote. “I think you can do that even with current concerns in Israel about US posture.”
Berger also recommended that Clinton should “be mindful of Abu Mazen’s politics,” saying that he was “[t]aking a lot of criticism for meeting with Bibi without settlement freeze.”
In another email three days earlier, Berger wrote: “The objective is to try shift the fulcrum of our current relations with Bibi from settlements — where he thinks he has the upper hand — to ground where there is greater understanding in Israel of the American position and where we can make him uneasy about incurring our displeasure… Ironically, his intransigence over 67 borders(sic) may offer us that possibility to turn his position against him.”
Berger also suggested sending then-Middle East envoy Gorge Mitchell back to the region in an effort to find “a common basis to relaunch negotiations.”

The Canceling of Palestinian Elections

The Occupation Regime cancels elections scheduled for Palestinian Arab universities!
Why haven’t the international news media reported this outrage? Where are the usual protests of the United Nations and the State Department? What is the reason for their silence?
Because the occupier is not Israel. It’s the Palestinian Authority.
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently canceled the scheduled elections for the student councils after the first such election, at Bir Zeit Uniersity, resulted in the Islamist Bloc winning 26 out of the 51 seats, while Abbas’s Fatah movement won only 19.
The online Hamas newspaper Alresalah charged that Abbas canceled the remaining elections out of fear the Islamists would defeat Fatah on other campuses, as well.
Elections are a bit of a sore point for Abbas’s regime. He was first elected as chairman of the PA on January 15, 2005, for what was supposed to be a single four-year term. That term ended in January 2009, yet, more than six years later, Abbas is still in power and no further elections have been held.
The PA elections issue is rarely discussed in the U.S. media, however, because it contradicts the pro-Palestinian narrative favored by so many American journalists. Not long ago, both Peter Beinart of CNN and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post again trotted out the old allegation that Israel “occupies millions of Palestinians.”

Hamas leader's car fire-bombed in West Bank

Amid rising tensions between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Hamas, overnight on Friday unidentified attackers fire-bombed the private vehicle of a senior Hamas official in the Palestinian city of Jenin.
According to Maan news, Wasfi Qabaha, a former Palestinian prisoner's affairs minister, said that the suspects threw petrol-bombs from a moving vehicle, setting his car ablaze in front of his home in the al-Basatin neighborhood of Jenin.
Qabaha took to Facebook, claiming that the attack was the 38th time such attacks targeted him.
“Collaborators with the [Israeli] occupation hurled a Molotov bomb at my Hundai Accent 2007 which was parked in front of my house in Baghdad Street in al-Basatin neighborhood," Qabaha said in his social media statement.
Hamas was quick to point the finger at rival faction Fatah, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose crackdown on Hamas in July resulted in the arrest of some 245 of the group's members and sympathizers.

Tech investments in Israel hit new high

A new report by the the Israel Venture Capital (IVC) Research Center shows that Israel’s tech economy is attracting more investment money than ever – as well as a better “class” of investor.
The report issued Tuesday found that Israeli high-tech firms set a new record for financing in the second quarter of 2015 – breaking the record set in the last quarter of 2014. The report said that 179 Israeli high-tech firms raised a total of $1.12 billion during Q2/2015 – beating the $1.11 billion raised in Q4 2014.
The IVC report also shows that Israel is attracting more attention from private equity investors, a development that portends well for the tech economy, according to Koby Simana, CEO of IVC Research Center. “If we want the local high-tech industry to continue growing and see more large-scale, mature companies emerge, there is room for technology investments from more than just venture capital funds, local or foreign,” said Simana. “The industry needs a variety of investors and investment models to support companies throughout various stages.”
Much of the Q2 investment money came from foreign private equity (PE) investors, the IVC data show – with venture capital-backed (VC) investments hitting a six-year low. That change, said Simana, is a sign of maturity for the Israeli tech economy; while VCs generally invest in earlier growth-stage companies and start-ups, PE investors seek out companies that are more mature, with bigger sales and larger markets, further along on the road to “making it big.”

Visiting Israel’s hot start-up scene

I recently had the privilege to fly from Silicon Valley to what many call Silicon Wadi (also known as Tel Aviv, Israel). Israel has more than 6,000 startups and attracts more venture capital per person than any other country in the world.
While I was in Israel, I was able to sit down with some of the people behind the hottest startups on the planet and find out everything there is to know about the tech scene in Israel, Jerusalem, and the surrounding areas. It was amazing to meet some brilliant entrepreneurs who are shaping how we do things online.
Here are some of the hot startups that I see as having a bright future as well as a potential billion-dollar valuation (if they don't already) in the near future.

Yad Vashem marks diversity, bravery of Red Army Jews

A new, online exhibit at Yad Vashem recounts the powerful and personal stories of 100 soldiers in the Soviet Union’s Red Army, a lesser-known side of the Holocaust story.
There were between 350,000 to 500,000 Jews in the Red Army during the war, and about 140,000 were killed, said Dr. Arkadi Zeltser, who directed the Yad Vashem project, supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
The goal of the project, titled “Jews in the Red Army,” Zeltser said, was to tell the individual histories of some of the soldiers.
“It’s difficult to find what people felt during the war,” Zeltser said. “For us, it was important to give them an opportunity to speak.”
The Yad Vashem research team spent a year combing through both official documents, such as Russian military records and personal accounts of the war, like diaries and letters. They also used coverage of the war by the Yiddish language press and published materials from Jewish anti-fascist groups.
The researchers found official documents for those featured in the exhibit, confirming their Jewish identities, which was not always an easy task. Some were not identified as Jewish in documents, such as one soldier who had a father who was a rabbi and a brother in a yeshiva, but was listed as a Lithuanian national. There were men and women represented, serving in a wide range of military units, such as the air force, armored corps, submarines and intelligence agencies. The women were medical staff, as well as fighters, translators and propagandists against the Nazis.

Qanta Ahmed Unveiled - Dialogue with Technion President Peretz Lavie 2015 Board of Governors

Dr. Qanta Ahmed and Technion president Prof. Peretz Lavie in a dialogue at Technion's 2015 Board of Governors meeting. Dr. Ahmed is a 2015 recipient of an Honorary Fellowship from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Dr. Ahmed, is a physician, author and journalist and a frequent television commentator on Islam and Islamic extremism .
Her first book, In the Land of Invisible Women (Sourcebooks 2008) details her experience of living and working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and has been published internationally in 13 countries including in translation and is now in its 12th edition.
A graduate of the University of Nottingham, England, she has been a physician for 20 years.
Dr. Qanta Ahmed is a subspecialist board certified sleep disorders specialist and faculty attending physician in the Department of Medicine as part of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care Medicine at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York. Dr. Ahmed is appointed Associate Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York (Stony Brook). She practices sleep disorders medicine in Garden City at the Winthrop University Sleep Disorders Center where she treats adolescents and adults of all ages.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 8/01/2015 10:00:00 PM

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