[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] AFP publishes a detailed retraction of #FloodLibel

Even though it is days too late, it is the best demolition of the "flood libel" that the mainstream media has published yet:

Tzeelim (Israel) (AFP) - Once again this winter, following days of very heavy rainfall across the region, the banks of a riverbed running through central Gaza were breached, flooding dozens of Palestinian homes.

For the residents, there was no doubt: Israel was responsible after deliberately opening "a dam" to flood the enclave.

But an examination of the facts on the Israeli side tells another story, shattering a long-held Palestinian myth.

People living in Wadi Gaza say flooding happens every year after heavy rain, creating yet another challenge for those struggling to survive in the tiny coastal territory.

Residents of the Gaza Strip have lived through three wars in the past six years and are unable to leave due to an Israeli blockade.

That Israel, the invisible enemy on the other side of the fence, would flood Gaza in a bid to make life even worse is therefore accepted as fact -- as is the alleged existence of one or more dams upstream controlled by the Jewish state.

Following the latest flood at the weekend, the local authorities in Gaza on Sunday published an "urgent" statement which reiterated the claim that Israel was to blame.

AFP reported these allegations on Sunday February 22, in the form of a video and photos showing the flooding in the village of Al-Mughraqa in central Gaza.

The script of the video and the photo captions said Israel had opened the sluice gates of a dam. And the video included interviews with residents openly accusing the Jewish state.

The AFP images, in particular the video, unleashed a scathing response on social networks.

The Israeli authorities denied the information and said they had allowed four high-power water pumps into Gaza ahead of the storm in order to cope with any potential flooding.

The criticism was even more acute because Israel itself had suffered from flooding in the south.

Al-Mughraqa is located on the edge of Wadi Gaza, a river which is dry most of the year and that has its source in the southern West Bank. The watercourse then runs through the Negev desert and Gaza before reaching the Mediterranean.

In Israel, the section which links up with Gaza is known as Nahal Besor.

"In Nahal Besor, there are no dams that can be opened or closed, meaning that there is nothing that can cause or prevent a flood," said Nehemia Shahaf, head of the Drainage and Rivers Authority in the Negev area.

"To my knowledge there is no dam on the Israeli side and terrain is not suited to the construction of a dam," she told AFP.

Trottier believes that due to the heavy rains, "the waters gathered naturally and it flooded."

She said there were "a lot of myths about the question of water in the Palestinian territories and Israel."

Israeli experts say that the volume of water which flooded the river last week was unusually large due to the heavy rainfall, with an estimated five million cubic metres passing through Nahal Besor. The last time it happened was in 2010.


"It was a lot for one storm," explained Boaz Kretschmer, head of strategy at Eshkol Regional Council, the local authority in an area of Israel flanking central and southern Gaza.

"We had 30-40mm of rain across the whole region, in the Negev, in Hebron, across the whole drainage basin and of course, the water ended up in Gaza."

What does exist here is a low stone structure, barely a metre high, next to a shallow concrete channel, which is sometimes referred to as a "diversion dam" -- whose purpose is to slow the flow of water so some of it can be diverted into a nearby reservoir for irrigation purposes, Kretschmer explained.

It has no gates, nor openings, and when the flood waters hit, they simply glide over it as if it did not exist.

"If it does anything, it actually reduces the quantity of water flowing towards Gaza, and not the opposite," Shahaf said.

"We don't try and stop the flow of water. That would be impossible -- it has incredible power," explained Kretschmer.

"There have been many dreams and plans in the past about how to stop the water because it comes in such a quantity that it could save the Negev. But all attempts to channel the floodwaters have failed. It's just not possible."

Experts believe that the flooding in the impoverished Gaza Strip, which is home to 1.8 million people and has been languishing under an Israel blockade since 2006, was likely exacerbated by chronic infrastructure problems and a flurry of illegal construction close to the riverbed.

But Munther Shoblak, a senior official in Gaza's water utility, said the Israelis "are not free from responsibility".

"They know people live on the other side of the border and they could have informed us that the water was coming.

"As usual, they didn't."

But he also acknowledged "some Palestinian responsibility" for the flooding.

"Wadi Gaza is liable to flood in an area which is about 70-100 metres wide but in some of these places, there has been illegal construction and cultivation, which has reduced this area to 15 or 20 metres," he told AFP.

I added a comment, which is not visible as of this writing:

Better late than never.

AFP might want to add that the Palestinian Authority, not only Hamas, also blamed Israel for the floods, even releasing a statement that they could not believe that the international community wasn't condemning Israel for opening the mythical dams.

(h/t Michaloush)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/27/2015 02:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/27 Links Pt1: Glick: In Israel's hour of need; Iran's centrifuges: Enough for a bomb, not power

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: In Israel’s hour of need

It is hard to get your arms around the stubborn determination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. For most of the nine years he has served as Israel’s leader, first from 1996 to 1999 and now since 2009, Netanyahu shied away from confrontations or buckled under pressure. He signed deals with the Palestinians he knew the Palestinians would never uphold in the hopes of winning the support of hostile US administrations and a fair shake from the pathologically hateful Israeli media.
In recent years he released terrorist murderers from prison. He abrogated Jewish property rights in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. He agreed to support the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. He agreed to keep giving the Palestinians of Gaza free electricity while they waged war against Israel. He did all of these things in a bid to accommodate US President Barack Obama and win over the media, while keeping the leftist parties in his coalitions happy.
For his part, for the past six years Obama has undermined Israel’s national security. He has publicly humiliated Netanyahu repeatedly.
He has delegitimized Israel’s very existence, embracing the jihadist lie that Israel’s existence is the product of post-Holocaust European guilt rather than 4,000 years of Jewish history.
He and his representatives have given a backwind to the forces that seek to wage economic warfare against Israel, repeatedly indicating that the application of economic sanctions against Israel – illegal under the World Trade Organization treaties – are a natural response to Israel’s unwillingness to bow to every Palestinian demand. The same goes for the movement to deny the legitimacy of Israel’s very existence. Senior administration officials have threatened that Israel will become illegitimate if it refuses to surrender to Palestinian demands.

Sarah Honig: Oh, to be Abdullah!

No sooner was caged Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kassasbeh burned to death publicly by IS, than Abdullah vowed retribution. Members of the US House Armed Services Committee attest that immediately upon having heard of his pilot’s horrific execution, Abdullah (then the Committee’s guest in Washington) quoted Clint Eastwood’s character Bill Munny in the 1992 movie Unforgiven:
“Any man I see out there, I’m gonna kill him. Any son of a bitch takes a shot at me, I’m not only going to kill him, I’m going to kill his wife and all his friends and burn his damn house down.”
Imagine if Benjamin Netanyahu swaggered thus. Indignant condemnation of Bibi’s fascist pose would have dizzyingly whirled around the planet and picked up more vehemence with each furious rotation. But what’s unthinkable for some is only to be exhorted in others.
Abdullah avenged al-Kassasbeh by promptly hanging two convicted terrorists and the enlightened ones everywhere extolled his true grit and dogged determination. Liberal Israel doesn’t execute even the most heinous of terrorists but is mercilessly trashed by the same enlightened ones. Murderers like Marwan Barghouti, convicted by Israel’s super-liberal courts, are depicted as prisoners of conscience and Netanyahu is pressured excruciatingly to let more convicted murderers loose as “goodwill gestures” to terror masterminds.
Around the globe both the loony Left and the righteous Right cheered as Abdullah put on battle fatigues and grimaced grimly. He let the world know how utterly angry he was and the unanimously sympathetic international community was unanimously impressed.
The foreign media approvingly counted the number of sorties by Jordanian fighter-jets and praised the destruction they sowed – civilian collateral-damage notwithstanding.

Danny Ayalon: The Truth About the Balance of Power in the Middle East

Danny Ayalon, Founder of the "Truth About Israel", Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Ambassador to the United States explains the facts relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the tip of the iceberg in the greater scheme of the balance of power in the Middle East. The video explains the gap between Israel and the united Arab Muslim bloc, and highlights the disparity between the Muslim and Arab countries in the Middle East and Israel, expressed in size and population, as well as in military, political and economic strength.

PMW: All of Israel is "Palestine" according to Abbas' National Security Forces

Every city, town and place in Israel is "Palestine," according to the PA's National Security Forces' steady stream of photos from "Palestine" posted to its Facebook page.
Recent posts show places in Northern Israel as "Palestine": Atlit in the Haifa district, the Upper Galilee in general and the Montfort Castle in the Upper Galilee specifically, and Mount Gilboa in Beit She'an.
The cities Jaffa, Safed, Acre, Tiberias and Nazareth together with the Negev desert have all been recently presented as "Palestine" by the PA Security Forces, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch.
Abbas' security forces also repeated the false claim that Tiberias (with a different photo) and Nazareth are in "Palestine":

The truth about the PA’s 'imminent financial collapse'

Israel’s decision to suspend the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority (PA) was met by the latter’s claim that it is about to go bankrupt, as well as by the threat that it would have no choice but to disband itself. US Secretary of State John Kerry has publicly endorsed both the claim and the “threat” of the PA. What I call the “Kerry Rule” (i.e. if he says it, it must be wrong) has been confirmed yet again: the PA is not bankrupt and it will not disband itself.
The PA will not disband itself because its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, will not kill the cow that he and his cronies have been milking for years. From the moment it was established in 1994, the PA has diverted foreign donations and tax revenues to fill personal bank accounts, to purchase weapons, and to finance incitement and terrorism. The 1994 Paris Agreements put Israel in charge of transferring export tax revenues to the PA, but then-PLO Chief Yasser Arafat asked Israel to transfer the money to a bank account accessible only to him and to his personal advisor Mohammed Rashid. According to Israeli journalists Ehud Ya’ari and Ronen Bergman, some $3 billion were transferred to this account between 1994 and 2000. Arafat used some of this money, among other things, to support his wife’s lavish lifestyle in Paris.
This corruption didn’t abate under Abbas. As former director of the PA’s anti-corruption department Fahmi Shabaneh declared in 2010: “Abbas has surrounded himself with many of the thieves and officials who were involved in theft of public funds and who became icons of financial corruption” (as reported by The Jerusalem Post on 29 January 2010). By dismantling the PA, Abbas and his entourage would have to renounce the millions they siphon every year from foreign aid

ISIS: Pro-Palestinians in Europe Actually Sleeper ISIS Cells

Pro-Palestinian rallies and groups are being used to aid the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) in Europe, according to a book the group released this month - united under the front of "bringing down Zionsim."
The book, Black Flags from Rome, encourages European Muslims to rise up and aid ISIS from within, according to a report on the PJ Media website - and notes that terror cells have already been formed.
“There were small armies of the Islamic State within every country of Europe by late 2014, and the intelligence agencies didn’t even know about it!” the book exclaims.
“If you have ever been at a pro-Palestine / anti-Israel protest, you will see many activists who are not even Muslims who are supportive of what Muslims are calling for (the fall of Zionism)," it continues. "It is most likely here that connections between Muslims and Left-wing activists will be made, and a portion from them will realize that protests are not effective, and that armed combat is the alternative."
Such “recruits” being lured to ISIS due to frustration over their lives “will give intelligence, share weapons and do undercover work for the Muslims to pave the way for the conquest of Rome," the book also predicts.

Charles Krauthammer: The fatal flaw in the Iran deal

There is a third choice. If you are not stopping Iran’s program, don’t give away the store. Keep the pressure, keep the sanctions. Indeed, increase them. After all, previous sanctions brought Iran to its knees and to the negotiating table in the first place. And that was before the collapse of oil prices, which would now vastly magnify the economic effect of heightened sanctions.
Congress is proposing precisely that. Combined with cheap oil, it could so destabilize the Iranian economy as to threaten the clerical regime. That’s the opening. Then offer to renew negotiations for sanctions relief but from a very different starting point — no enrichment. Or, if you like, with a few token centrifuges for face-saving purposes.
And no sunset.
That’s the carrot. As for the stick, make it quietly known that the United States will not stand in the way of any threatened nation that takes things into its own hands. We leave the regional threat to the regional powers, say, Israeli bombers overflying Saudi Arabia.
Consider where we began: six U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding an end to Iranian enrichment. Consider what we are now offering: an interim arrangement ending with a sunset clause that allows the mullahs a robust, industrial-strength, internationally sanctioned nuclear program.
Such a deal makes the Cuba normalization look good and the Ukrainian cease-fires positively brilliant. We are on the cusp of an epic capitulation. History will not be kind.

Dore Gold: The world moves toward a bad deal

The new agreement between Iran and the P5+1 that is presently being completed will leave Iran's massive nuclear infrastructure largely intact. But if Parchin teaches the West any lesson, it is that Iran has not put its weaponization efforts on the negotiating table, nor will it. Neither has it agreed to allow its huge ballistic missile forces to become a subject of discussion. For that reason, Israeli spokespeople have been saying that Iran will be at the threshold of having nuclear weapons, and can be described as a threshold nuclear power. Undoubtedly, there are those in the West who are convinced that if Iran violates its agreement and crosses the threshold to assemble a nuclear weapon it would immediately face a strong reaction which could include the use of force.
There is an enormous problem for anyone who thinks that this last stage of assembling a nuclear weapon can be reliably detected. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made this point on April 11, 2010, when he appeared on the American news show "Meet the Press." He stated: "If their policy is to go to the threshold but not assemble a nuclear weapon, how do you tell they have not assembled? I don't know how you would verify that." Gates understood how intelligence collection worked since he was head of the CIA in the 1990s.
The former head of the CIA, Michael Hayden, reached a similar conclusion in testimony he gave before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 20, 2014. He told the Congressmen bluntly: "Absent an invasive inspection regime, with freedom to visit all sites on short notice, American intelligence cannot provide adequate warning of Iranian nuclear developments."
In short, Iran could acquire nuclear weapons without being detected unless a future agreement gave the West the right to move all over Iran with little notification. Given the struggle over Parchin and other sites, there is no indication that the West will have an inspection regime of this sort.

Elliott Abrams: U.S. and Israel: The Manufactured Crisis

The crisis between the United States and Israel has been manufactured by the Obama administration. Building a crisis up or down is well within the administration’s power, and it has chosen to build it up. Why? Three reasons: to damage and defeat Netanyahu (whom Obama has always disliked simply because he is on the right while Obama is on the left) in his election campaign, to prevent Israel from affecting the Iran policy debate in the United States, and worst of all to diminish Israel’s popularity in the United States and especially among Democrats.
Suppose for a moment that the Netanyahu speech before Congress is a mistake, a breach of protocol, a campaign maneuver, indeed all the bad things the White House is calling it. Grant all of that for a moment for the sake of argument and the behavior of the Obama administration is still inexplicable. Clearly more is behind its conduct than mere pique over the speech.

Their survey of British Muslims delighted the BBC: In fact, it contains some profoundly chilling findings

A headline on the BBC's website proclaimed: 'Most British Muslims 'oppose Muhammad cartoons reprisals'.' But, looking more carefully, one discovered that 27 per cent of Muslims questioned said they had some sympathy for the motives behind the recent attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, in which 11 people died.
Imagine if you read a headline which said 'Most people oppose the blowing up of Parliament'. That's not news. It's what you would expect. But a headline which stated that 'A quarter of Britons would be sympathetic to the bombing of Parliament' would be absolutely terrifying.
It is reassuring that most British Muslims oppose violent reprisals, but the really shocking thing for me (though evidently not for the BBC) is that more than a quarter of them have some sympathy for the killers who murdered 11 people in cold blood.
Of course, we don't know what having 'some sympathy' precisely entails. It obviously doesn't mean that a quarter of Muslims would have taken part in the attack if they had been invited to do so. But it indubitably implies a degree of support and endorsement for a murderous act.
There were other disturbing findings underplayed by the BBC. Twenty-four per cent of respondents said that they supported violence against anyone who published images of the Prophet Muhammad, while almost half — 45 per cent — believed that extremist clerics who preached violence against the West were not 'out of touch'. Moreover, 11 per cent felt 'sympathetic' to jihadists who wanted to fight against Western interests.

The odd reality of Iran's centrifuges: Enough for a bomb, not power

The deadline for an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is something of a moving target, but right now negotiators need to wrap things up by June 2015. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — along with Germany, have until then to strike a deal with the Islamic republic. If all goes the way the United States hopes, a signed agreement will keep Iran out of the nuclear weapons club.
For now, the two sides are operating under an interim agreement, which rolls back Iran’s stock of enriched uranium and freezes the country’s capability to produce nuclear materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. In exchange, Iran can sell its oil more freely and gain access to millions of dollars in frozen assets.
One element that’s fully expected in a long-term arrangement is a limit on the number and kinds of centrifuges Iran can use to enrich uranium. Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell said there’s an irony in that.
"If you are going to have a nuclear weapons program, 5,000 is pretty much the number you need," Morell, now a CBS analyst, said on Charlie Rose. "If you have a power program, you need a lot more. By limiting them to a small number of centrifuges, we are limiting them to the number you need for a weapon."

After bashing Netanyahu, top Obama aide Rice to address AIPAC

In a bid to ease soaring tensions with Israel over a potential Iran nuclear deal, the White House has decided against snubbing America’s leading pro-Israel lobby and will send both President Barack Obama’s national security adviser and UN ambassador to address its annual policy conference.
The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee announced Thursday that the Obama administration has confirmed that national security adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power will speak to its conference this weekend.
US officials had floated the idea of sending a non-Cabinet level official to show displeasure with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress in which he will argue against an Iran deal.
Rice’s selection came two days after an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS in which she faulted both Netanyahu and Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, who extended an invitation to the prime minister to address Congress on Iran next week, for creating the current “destructive” tension between Washington and Jerusalem.

Hypocrites: Dems Who Applauded Calderon’s Speech Boycott Netanyahu

Many of the Democrats denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech next week to a special joint session of Congress as an intrusion into U.S. domestic politics leapt to their feet in 2010 when then-Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in a similar address to Congress in 2010, slammed U.S. immigration laws and called for immigration reform. Calderon also drew a standing ovation from Democrats when he slammed Arizona’s own immigration law.
That address is forgotten today by the likes of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who has announced her decision to join the minority of Democrats boycotting Netanyahu’s speech. (Full disclosure: I ran against Schakowsky in 2010). Schakowsky has explained her decision in a bizarre Huffington Post article in which she makes the essentially racist claim that she cannot be anti-Israel because of her “DNA,” then goes on to offer two extremely weak justifications for her boycott.

Douglas Murray: Cage deserves all the scrutiny the relevant authorities can muster

So the identity of ‘Jihadi John’ appears to have come out. And surprise surprise he is a man associated with the group Cage (formerly Cage Prisoners). The leaders of this group – Asim Qureshi and Cerie Bullivant – have been filling the airwaves ever since the naming of their friend Mohammed Emwazi. Qureshi even appeared to shed a tear as he talked about what a ‘beautiful young man’ his friend Jihadi John is.
I wonder if any scales have fallen from any eyes in the last 24 hours? I do hope so. Cage is, after all, a group which has for years been introduced on the BBC, Channel 4 and so on as ‘the human rights group Cage’. Or if you were Peter Oborne writing in the Telegraph last summer, the ‘organisation’ which ‘has done more than any other to stand up for alleged terrorists’.
Peter has been a long-time supporter of Cage. Yet as I wrote in the Telegraph in a reply to Peter’s love letter last summer, Cage ‘does not just “stand up for alleged terrorists”. It also stands up for actual, convicted terrorists’.

How the man behind group that called ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi 'extremely kind' and 'a beautiful man' called for Jihad during demonstration outside the US Embassy

A video has surfaced of the Muslim activist who described ISIS executioner Jihaji John as 'a beautiful man' calling for Jihad at an anti-US rally in London.
Asim Qureshi urged protestors to 'support the jihad of our brothers and sisters' in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya.
Speaking through a microphone at the the pan-Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir movement rally, human rights group CAGE's research director preached: 'When we see the example of our brothers and sisters fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, then we know where the example lies.
'When we see Hezbollah defeating the armies of Israel, we know where the solution is and where the victory lies.
'We know that it is incumbent upon all of us, to support the Jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the West.
'Allahu Akhbar! Allahu Akhbar!'

John Rees redux

Oh, look. It’s our old acquaintance John Rees, purged commissar of the Socialist Workers Party, former Respect party leader, founder of the SWP’s low-profile breakaway rival Counterfire and national officer of the Stop the War Coalition, joining CAGE UK’s Asim Qureshi and Cerie Bullivant at a news conference held by what the gullible Associated Press calls the “CAGE human rights charity.”
Rees, of course, was pleased to follow the CAGE line that it was Mohammed Emwasi’s supposedly inhumane treatment by British authorities which led him to become a sadistic, head-sawing murderer. For someone like Rees, what other possible reason could there be?

Shin Bet busts two West Bank terror cells

Israeli forces apprehended two Palestinian cells whose members allegedly fired on Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank, the Shin Bet security agency announced Thursday.
The investigation of the cells yielded five rifles, a pistol, and ammunition. It wasn’t clear how many suspects were taken into Israeli custody during the arrests, which were made over the course of December and January.
According to the Shin Bet, the two cells, one from Beit Rima north of Ramallah and the second from Bani Naim, east of Hebron, were allegedly responsible for a string of shootings and firebombings targeting Israeli vehicles and IDF soldiers.
Members of the first group, a PFLP cell, said they intended to carry out additional attacks, including an assault on an IDF base, a stabbing attack and a kidnapping of a soldier, the Shin Bet said.

IDF, Police Launch Operation against Rock Throwers

IDF, Border Police and Israel Police forces launched a large-scale operation Thursday to block and contain the wave of rock throwing terror in Judea and Samaria.
The operation was launched after a special headquarters was established to deal specifically with the rock-throwing threat.
The HQ has command over two Judea and Samaria Border Police companies, IDF forces and additional forces. Its activities include patrols, surprise roadblocks at the entrances to villages, and other activity including arrests based on intelligence.
In addition, the HQ cooperates with the Tax and Customs Authority, and the IDF Civil Administration.
The central aim of the operation is the creation of deterrence, and safeguarding of public order, explained a police source. Several arrests were made in the HQ's first day of operation Thursday and some unspecified materials were seized – both criminal and terrorist in nature.

IDF thwarts stabbing attempt in West Bank

A Golani Brigade unit thwarted an attempt by a Palestinian to stab a soldier at the Gush Etzion junction, the army said on Thursday.
There were no injuries among soldiers in the incident.
The attacker has been arrested, and taken for questioning.

Ready for any surprise, the reservists of the Desert Blaze battalion keep both eyes on Gaza

Scattered on barren desert hilltops in the Negev, soldiers from the Desert Blaze reserve battalion lay on their stomachs with their firearms, waiting for the command.
To their right, a soldier held up a red flag that flapped in the cool winter desert breeze, marking the peripheral limit of their shooting zone.
The soldiers then rose and advanced, while some behind them provided mock cover fire. Over a hilltop a few kilometers away, the sounds of shots peppered the air, as a neighboring platoon engaged in a live-fire combat exercise.
Members of the battalion had arrived at the Southern Command training base in the South to train for combat against Hamas terrorists.

IDF to Begin Tunnel Warfare Training

IDF training and resources in 2015 will be concentrating on strengthening two primary threat assessment areas, protecting Israel’s external borders and tunnel fighting.
The army believes that Israel’s biggest threats will be emanating from across the borders where the various radical Islamic terror groups have taken over, or will be taking over. The IDF will be allocating three times the amount of reserve unit resources to concentrate on protecting Israel’s borders.
The tunnel related training will revolve around underground fighting, as well as destroying the tunnels and the terrorists inside, from above without entering the tunnel.
A new training ground will be built with an underground tunnel systems for the purpose of training the IDF troops, and in particular elite units who will specialize in tunnel fighting.

Revolutionizing rocket warnings

In the very near future, should rockets once again rain down on Israel, specific neighborhoods – and even individual neighborhood blocks – will receive targeted alerts of an imminent threat, while the surrounding areas will be left to continue as normal.
Air raid sirens with IP addresses will automatically go into action, and local residents under threat will see their television receivers automatically switch to a channel warning them of rockets approaching their area. At the same time, cellphones in the targeted area might buzz with text messages and Home Front Command application alerts, while street screens will issue warnings to drivers to seek cover.
By mid-2016, technology being developed by Home Front Command will have advanced far enough to become operational, revolutionizing the way Israelis are alerted to impending rocket threats.
A senior source from the Home Front Command told The Jerusalem Post in recent days about intensive efforts under way to upgrade the alerts. When the changes are done, he said, every siren will act as a separate geographic unit, and the old system of alerting whole cities, and disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands or millions of people, will become outdated.

IDF Official: Hamas is Working Around the Clock to Prepare for Next Fight With Israel

An Israeli Defense Forces official stated that Gaza-based terror group Hamas is working vigorously to prepare for its next confrontation with Israel, local news website 0404 reported.
The group is continuing to test-fire rockets as part of training exercises, and just this morning a test-launch was carried out into the sea, the official said. He added that the IDF is monitoring Hamas’ activities and vigilantly observing their training in the Gaza Strip, and are well-aware of what is going on behind enemy lines.
The senior IDF official said that, “Hamas continues to practice and prepare for its next confrontation with Israel. This doesn’t come as a surprise to us at all, since we are monitoring every action Hamas takes – firing rockets at the sea from the Gaza Strip, flying drones in the Strip, infantry training, military exercises, and more.”
He added that, “there is no doubt that Hamas is preparing. They are trying to do as much as possible. We know that Hamas is working to dig new tunnels and to upgrade its weapons. Just recently, we intercepted a shipment [of weapons] at sea, which was intended for the terror organization.”

Inside Gaza's tunnels, militants get ready for the next war

In an olive grove close to houses in the southern Gaza Strip, the earth slides open smoothly, revealing a sight to terrify Israel.
A deep pit containing a 120mm (4in) mortar tube, and three fighters from the militant group - Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Fully armed and in combat fatigues, the men are all wearing head torches. They move quickly, in well-drilled movements, loading and unloading the tube from a stack of mortars at the back of their position.
This is a show of readiness, a show of strength, for the next war with Israel. It is a war that both the militants and the Israeli military, on the other side of the border, believe could come again soon.
The hidden mortar pit is right by the border with Israel, or so I am told.
I cannot be entirely sure as the armed fighters blindfolded me, searched me for tracking devices and removed my mobile phones before the journey.
Viewed as a terrorist group in the West, Islamic Jihad is committed to Israel's destruction.

Israel-PA resolve electricity and water disputes

The Israel Electric Company and Palestinian Authority on Thursday reached a deal to resolve the Palestinians’ outstanding debt and halt power cuts in West Bank cities, while Israeli government officials okayed an agreement to supply water to the PA’s first planned city.
The IEC had cut power to the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin Wednesday over an unpaid debt of NIS 1.9 billion ($482 million) for the second time in a week.
The PA agreed to allocate NIS 300 million in tax funds collected by Israel on its behalf to the IEC to cover the last few months’ debt to the electric company, and the IEC agreed to stop power cuts to Nablus and Jenin.
The agreement was mediated by an unspecified senior Israeli official, Army Radio reported.

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Hezbollah Terrorists Who Own Amusement Park in Nigeria

The United States Treasury Department designated two members of Hezbollah who are running an amusement park in Nigeria.
Armin Rosen of Business Insider reports:
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control added two individuals to its specially designated nationals list on February 26: Fouzi Reda Darwish Fawaz and Mustapha Reda Darwish Fawaz, two Lebanese men living and working in west Africa. …
Three of the men’s businesses were added to the sanctions list, meaning that the US believes that those businesses in some way furthered Hezbollah’s activities (although as sanctions law expert Sam Cutler noted on Twitter, businesses “owned 50% or more by SDNs are automatically blocked and may be subject to designation.”) A supermarket and a second, innocuously named enterprise are now on the SDN list, along with a more surprising inclusion: the Wonderland Amusement Park and Resort in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies suggested to Business Insider that the Treasury Department “might have waited to list the Fawazes and their businesses because they wanted a comprehensive idea of the size of their business network and its connection to US-designated groups.”
In Desperate For Allies and Secret Assets, Iran Penetrates Africa, which was published in the August 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine, Rosen explained how Iran, who funds and partially directs Hezbollah, gained a foothold in Nigeria.

Turkish ‘permissiveness’ is aiding IS jihadists, US spy chief says

Turkey does not place a high priority on fighting Islamic State jihadists and as a result foreign fighters are able to travel through the country into Syria, US intelligence chief James Clapper said Thursday.
When asked, Clapper told senators he wasn’t optimistic Turkey would take a more active role in the war against the IS group.
“I think Turkey has other priorities and other interests,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Turkish government was more concerned with Kurdish opposition and the country’s economy, the director of national intelligence said.
“Public opinion polls show in Turkey they don’t see ISIL as a primary threat,” said Clapper, using an alternative acronym for the extremists.
The effect of Turkey’s approach was to allow a “permissive” climate for foreign recruits heading to Syria to take arms for the IS group, he said.

Iran Hacked Sheldon Adelson’s Casinos: DNI Clapper Confirms

In testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed that Iran was behind a cyber-attack against Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Corp. in 2014.
Sands Corp., which has an estimated value of $14 billion dollars, remains the “world’s largest gambling company,” Bloomberg reports.
Adelson—who is known for his generous expenditures towards Republican politicians’s presidential campaigns, along with his fervent support for the State of Israel—is Sands’s chairman and chief executive officer.
Director Clapper said that the Iran-sponsored cyber-attack, which took place on February 10, 2014, rendered many of Sands’s computer systems inoperable for an extended period of time. He said that the Iran attack, along with North Korea’s hacking of Sony Corp. in November, mark a new era in state-sponsored cyber-attacks against the United States.
“While both of these nations have lesser technical capabilities in comparison to Russia and China, these destructive attacks demonstrate that Iran and North Korea are motivated and unpredictable cyber-actors,” said Clapper.

Iran Tries To Erase Ex-President Who LOVED Freedom, Citizens React By Mocking Gov't On Social Media

Following years of informal policy, Iran has officially banned media from portraying or quoting former president Mohammad Khatami.
Khatami was president from 1997 to 2005, and was succeeded by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During that time, he attempted to pass several social, political and economic reform measures, seeking greater openness to the West and freedom in expression and business. These efforts attracted hostility from hard-liners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
After his tenure as president, he continued to work for a “dialogue of civilizations” and international nuclear disarmament. But his outspokenness for political and social freedoms, and his support for blacklisted 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, led lawmakers last year to petition the Justice Minister to enforce a media blackout against Khatami.
And Monday, a Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed that all print and broadcast media would be banned from depicting Khatami, going so far as to only refer to him in the statement as “this person.”
Iranian citizens have fought back in the days since the new ruling, flooding social media sites with photos. Many were labeled with a Persian-language hashtag that means “We will be Khatami’s media.”

Defector: North Korean slave labor system earns regime billions

A North Korean defector who escaped a life of forced labor at a construction site in Kuwait said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has spent $640 million on luxury goods, villas and fine cuisine in recent years.
Speaking at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on Tuesday, Lim Il, 47, said the North Korean leadership sends tens of thousands of slave laborers to construction sites in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Lim has said North Korea’s system of slave labor earns the regime more than $1.8 billion annually, according to South Korean Herald Business. Another significant portion of that revenue goes to maintaining “luxury villas” for elites that cost an annual $300 million in maintenance alone, Lim told the gathering in Geneva.
Lim said he left North Korea in 1996 for Kuwait at the height of the North Korean famine, lured by the promise of three meals a day, an unimaginable luxury for him at the time.
But Lim said he was never paid for 12 hours of daily manual labor at hot construction sites in Kuwait, while other foreign workers at the site not only were compensated but also given a three-hour lunch break. Lim and other North Koreans were allowed only an hour for lunch.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/27/2015 12:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Israel, Jordan sign "historic" water deal but Jordan remains silent

From i24news:

Israel and Jordan on Thursday signed a landmark agreement designed to provide the drought-plagued Jordanians with drinking water and to slow the decay of the Dead Sea.

Under the terms of the pact, a pipeline will be laid between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and a desalination plant will be built in the Jordanian port town of Aqaba.

The agreement envisions the annual pumping of 200 million cubic meters of water from the Red Sea: 80 million will be desalinated at the Aqaba plant and Israel will get 30-50 million of that amount for use in its southern port town of Eilat and the Arava region – both desert areas with a chronic water shortage. The Jordanians will get 30 million cubes for their needs in the arid southern part of their country and an additional 50 million cubes of water for the central and northern parts of their country.

The landmark agreement was signed by Silvan Shalom, who holds the ministerial portfolios for energy and water, regional development and development of the Negev and Galilee, and Jordan's Water and Irrigation Minister Hazem Al Nasser in the presence of US envoys to the two countries.

"I'm standing here deeply moved, having put pen to paper in the signing of a historical agreement," Shalom said. "We are realizing the Zionist vision of Theodor Herzel who, as early as in the late 19th century, had predicted the need to revitalize the Dead Sea."

"This is the most important agreement since the peace treaty with Jordan," the official went on to declare. "It's the high point of a productive cooperation between Israel and Jordan that will help rehabilitate the Dead Sea and offer solutions to Jordan's water supply crisis."

According to the deal, a desalination plant will be built in Aqaba for desalinating water from the Red Sea and salty residues will be pumped into the Dead Sea, which is shrinking by one meter every year.

I did not see this mentioned in Jordanian media, although plenty of Arab media picked up the story.

Also, I couldn't find a single quote from the Jordanian representative at the signing.

But at the same time, in the Jordanian parliament, representatives threatened a vote of no confidence unless Jordan expelled the Istaeli ambassador. They also expressed opposition to the Israel/Jordan natural gas deal.

There are a lot of layers to Israel's relationship with the Arab world. Too bad that the media almost exclusively concentrates on the loudmouths.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/27/2015 10:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] How incompetent are American nuclear negotiators? Apparently, very.

Earlier this week I fisked David Ignatius of the Washington Post who consulted white House sources to defend their negotiating posture with Iran, as opposed to the arguments that Israeli intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz made - arguments that were not refuted.

One of the points that Ignatius seems to have parroted from his White House sources was this sarcastic comment:

One official argues that the United States would be better off with 9,000 IR-1s and a small stockpile than with 1,000 IR-2s and a large stockpile. Netanyahu probably won’t address this issue in his speech to Congress, since he insists the only acceptable number of centrifuges is zero.

The implication is that Netanyahu is being hopelessly naive for insisting that Iran has no centrifuges whatsoever, and the Obama compromises are the best deal possible.

There's only one problem.

If Iran wants to build a peaceful nuclear power program, which is what it has insisted all along, this number of centrifuges are useless. But if Iran wants to build a bomb, it is ideal.

From Politifact:

One element that’s fully expected in a long-term arrangement is a limit on the number and kinds of centrifuges Iran can use to enrich uranium. Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell said there’s an irony in that.

"If you are going to have a nuclear weapons program, 5,000 is pretty much the number you need," Morell, now a CBS analyst, said on Charlie Rose. "If you have a power program, you need a lot more. By limiting them to a small number of centrifuges, we are limiting them to the number you need for a weapon."...

The consensus among the experts we reached is that Morell is on the money. Matthew Kroenig at Georgetown University told PunditFact the Morell is "is absolutely correct." Ditto for Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association and David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security.

Matthew Bunn at Harvard agreed with his colleagues.

"People think surely you must need a bigger enrichment system to make 90 percent enriched material for bombs than to make 4-5 percent enriched material for power reactors," Bunn said. "But exactly the opposite is true."

Bunn said there are two reasons. First, you need tens of tons of material to fuel a power reactor for a year, but just tens of kilograms to make a bomb. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the threshold amount for a bomb is about 25 kilograms of the most highly enriched U-235.

And while yes, it’s harder to make 90 percent enriched uranium (bomb) than 4-5 percent enriched uranium (power), it’s not that much harder, Bunn said.

The toughest part in the process comes when you start with the raw uranium. By the time you’ve brought that to 4-5 percent, "you’ve already done more than 2/3 of the work of going all the way to 90 percent U-235 for weapons," Bunn said. "So the amount of work needed to make bomb material is only a modest amount more per kilogram, and the number of kilograms you need for bombs is 1,000 times less.

Bottom line: Making bombs takes fewer centrifuges. And without a lot of centrifuges, it’s hard to make nuclear power.

Netanyahu is exactly right for insisting on zero centrifuges. Limiting the number of centrifuges to several thousand does literally nothing to stop Iran from building a bomb - in fact, it tacitly encourages it.

If the US negotiators didn't know this basic fact, then what else have they been fooled by?

Even David Brooks in the NYT sees the folly of US nuclear concessions as well as the wider  Obama strategy for Iran.

To pursue this détente, Obama has to have a nuclear agreement. He has made a series of stunning sacrifices in order to get it. In 2012, the president vowed that he would not permit Iran to maintain a nuclear program. Six United Nations Security Council resolutions buttressed that principle. But, if reports of the proposed deal are correct, Obama has abandoned this policy.

Under the reported framework, Iran would have thousands of centrifuges. All restrictions on its nuclear program would be temporary and would be phased out over a decade or so. According to some reports, there will be no limits on Iran’s ballistic missiles, no resolution of Iran’s weaponizing activities. Monitoring and enforcement would rely on an inspection regime that has been good, but leaky.

All of this might be defensible if Iran is really willing to switch teams, if religion and ideology played no role in the regime’s thinking. But it could be that Iran has been willing to be an international pariah for the past generation for a reason. It could be that Iran finances terrorist groups and destabilizes regimes like Yemen’s and Morocco’s for a reason. It could be that Iran’s leaders really believe what they say. It could be that Iranian leaders are as apocalyptically motivated, paranoid and dogmatically anti-American as their pronouncements suggest they are. It could be that Iran will be as destabilizing and hegemonically inclined as all its recent actions suggest. Iran may be especially radical if the whole region gets further inflamed by Sunni-Shia rivalry or descends into greater and greater Islamic State-style fanaticism.

Do we really want a nuclear-capable Iran in the midst of all that?

Mordechai Kedar's analysis of how Iran is running circles around the West in geotiations is as true as ever.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/27/2015 08:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] The Egyptian siege of Gaza continues

Gaza students protested Egypt's continued closing of the Rafah crossing yesterday.

It seems clear that Hamas is behind this protest, as it was covered prominently in Hamas media and the students there are school-age, not the college students who have lost their opportunities to go to university.

Most protesters quoted in the article still blamed Israel for Egypt's closure.

Iran's PressTV is the only outlet to cover this in English, where they note that the Rafah crossing has only been open for three days this year and only 1500 people were allowed out of Gaza through Rafah. 

Egypt has been unapologetic over the closure, claiming somewhat disingenuously that this is necessary for security. 

Israel allows hundreds of people to leave Gaza every day. Today, some 200 Gazans were allowed to go to the Temple Mount.

Also, the number of trucks of goods from Israel  to Gaza has increased this year from an average of 450 to about 550. 

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/27/2015 05:42:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] I love deli, but I'm not so sure about "deli culture"

Times of Israel reports on a new documentary:

Pastrami on wry with the Texan macher keeping deli culture alive

Loosen your belts, the Deli Man is coming.

Erik Greenberg Anjou’s forthcoming documentary about the dying (but perhaps reviving!) culture of Jewish delicatessens is a meal with many courses. Part of it is history, about the links found in taste and smell to an Old Country that exists only in the memories of our elders. But another part is more celebratory, as today’s chefs search for a way to honor the past while still eyeing the future.

Among the more charismatic figures in the film is Ziggy Gruber, a macher in the Houston, Texas Jewish community and one of the more “purist” figures detailed in the movie. “Since he’s been a little kid, he’s been an 80 year-old Jew” is how Gruber is described in the trailer. His quest to preserve and promote old schul recipes is something of the spine of Anjou’s film.

I love good deli as much as the next guy, but this is very depressing.

Based on the trailer, for the people in this film, their entire connection to Judaism is a good pastrami sandwich, a few Yiddish phrases and Hava Nagila playing ironically in the background.

Practically none of the modern "Jewish delis" profiled in the traiier are kosher. So what exactly makes them "Jewish?"

There is something very sad about people who substitute "gastronomic Judaism" for the real thing. They are so concerned about delis disappearing - but it looks like that they don't care about Judaism as much as they care about Hungarian goulash and matzoh ball soup.

Judaism has a rich culture. Jewish food (in particular, American Jewish food from the first half of the 20th century)  is only a tiny part of that culture. It is sad that too many people seem to care more about this tiny subset of Jewish culture than they do about Judaism itself.

Nostalgia cannot be a lasting basis for people's connection to their culture. For a culture to survive, one live it today, not just remember it.





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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/26/2015 08:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/26 Links Pt2: New Israel Fund Should Be Shunned for Siding With Terrorists in New York Trial

From Ian:

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New Israel Fund Should Be Shunned for Siding With Terrorists in New York Trial

The New Israel Fund has long believed in using the legal process to harm Israel—as made evident by Mr. Sfard assisting the PLO in court during this historic trial. Additionally, The NIF contributed to the infamous Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of "war crimes" during its 2009 war in Gaza and recommended indicting it in the International Criminal Court.
While my colleague and friend Ronn Torossian recently wrote in the Observer about the New Israel Fund's support for Jewish groups that are against the Jewish state, I want to emphasize that the hatred of this organization for Israel seemingly has no boundaries. As Naftali Balanson, Managing Editor of NGO Monitor, an Israeli non-profit noted, Mr. Sfard "is at the center of the NGO industry that exploits the rhetoric of human rights in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict."
An all-black jury in New York found the PLO guilty of terror—and a New Israel Fund lawyer testified for the PLO. An A-list star, Scarlett Johannson, fights against the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement—and Jewish leaders from the UJA support the New Israel Fund as the JCRC lets them march in the Israel Day parade.
Those who stand with New Israel Fund are standing against Israel. To suggest otherwise is a lie. I urge anyone affiliated with the NIF to stop supporting this organization financially.
The New Israel Fund must be ostracized by the Jewish community. An ideal starting point? Do not allow NIF to march with its banner at the annual Israel Day Parade. Don't allow the parade to be maligned by traitors whose activities prove they stand against Israel.
If you care for Israel, walk away from the New Israel Fund. There is no other choice. (h/t Yenta Press)

For terror-hit US families, vindication and tears after legal victory against PA

In the landmark verdict handed down by a 12-person jury in the federal case tried in New York, the Palestinian Authority and PLO were held accountable for seven attacks that took place in Jerusalem between January 2001 and January 2004, killing 33 people and injuring over 400. The Palestinian Authority has vowed to appeal the ruling.
"Initially I was elated to hear the verdict, then a minute later I was crying because my son is still dead," said Katherine Baker of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, whose son Benjamin Blutstein, 25, was killed in a bombing of a cafeteria at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus on July 31, 2002.
"I am glad that liability has been attributed to the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, but it doesn't change my life," Baker said.
Mark Sokolow, a New York lawyer who, together with his wife and two of his daughters, was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he also felt a variety of emotions when he learned that the victims had won the case.

Why did BBC News cut the word terror from the headline of an article about a terrorism trial?

On February 23rd the BBC News website published a report on both its US & Canada and Middle East pages about the verdict issued by a New York court finding the Palestinian Authority and the PLO liable for a number of terror attacks which took place during the second Intifada.
That decidedly minimalist BBC report was originally headlined "Palestinian groups face $218m Israel terror fine in US". By the time its third version was published some three hours later, the word terror had been removed from the headline and the article now appears under the title "Palestinian groups face $218m Israel attacks fine in US".
Remarkably, in a report about the outcome of a court case entirely about terrorism, that word does not appear at all.

No mention in Norwegian media…

One would have thought that with the amount of money that has been pumped into the PA, followed with guarantees that no Norwegian tax money ever has gone towards paying Palestinian terrorists, this little matter would have attracted some sort of debate.
Unsurprisingly, there is very little appetite to look into the realities of the blind and uncritical of the PLO and the PA.

The Cultural Boycott of Israel Isn't Solidarity, It's Condescension

Solidarity is not expressed from behind the keyboard of your MacBook. By all means raise money, send weapons, go fight even, if you care so strongly about the cause of the Palestinians. That would be a test of your "solidarity." But to mount grandiose displays of your own moral rectitude, while refusing to think through what power relationship you are actually lending support to, is not something the rest of us should feel obliged to support. Luckily, another group of artists and art world people have mounted their own criticism of the UK boycott, gathering hundreds of signatories to their more critical questioning of the logic of the cultural boycott.
In the past, western artists often campaigned against the oppressive meddling of Western governments both at home and abroad: Carl Andre and many other American artists railed against the Vietnam War; John Berger (one of the signatories of the AFP boycott) once pledged his Booker Prize money to the radical US Black Panthers movement. British artists in the 1970s and 80s campaigned against US-sponsored military coups in Latin America, against the British government's own war in Northern Ireland, and against US nuclear weapons bases in the UK. But today, Western artists seem happier to wag their fingers at those badly behaved countries abroad rather than take their own governments to task. UK artists should look to see if their own house is in order first, and ask themselves if they really want to turn art into the agent of their muddle-headed, moral colonialism.

Challenging Double Standards

A Call Against the Boycott of Israeli Art and Society
To The Signees of Current Boycott Initiatives Regarding Israel
We are writing to you about a political issue, which increasingly causes us anxiety: how artists, and individuals affiliated with the arts address conflict in the Middle East. Over the past months topics including the occupation of the West Bank, Israel's existence as a Jewish state, Palestinian resistance and its struggles, international solidarity and boycott movements, and criticism of Israeli policies, have been taken up in the arts arena with heightened intensity. We are deeply concerned by several aspects of how such issues are approached.
With this letter we are advocating against reductive, binary views of conflict in the Middle East. We believe in the role of art to question and resist dichotomous views. We see dialogue as a critical part of any conceivable peace resolution between Palestine and Israel, and are troubled by the tendency among international boycott movements—particularly cultural boycott movements supported by individuals in the arts—which make dialogue impossible. Such dialogue inside Palestine and Israel is difficult, and is only made more precarious by unilateral international boycott. Underlying these movements, we fear there is an upswing of anti-Semitic attitudes and attacks, which seem to convey varying degrees of intentionality. Neglecting or simplifying significant historical legacies, Israel is treated as a paradigmatic colonial power, and is boycotted in a way that no other country is. Such discrimination and double standards, whether explicitly stated or implied, demand to be addressed.

Belittling Anti-Semitism

The pan-European response to the slaughter of four Jews at a Parisian kosher supermarket in January was commendable. But let's face it—had it not been for the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo journalists two days earlier, it is doubtful that France would have taken to the streets; world leaders would not have flocked to Paris; and the French army would probably not have deployed 10,000 personnel to protect Jewish institutions. Nothing similar happened when a lone jihadi gunman murdered a rabbi, two of his children and a third pupil at a Jewish school in Toulouse in March 2012, or when another graduate of the Syrian jihad murdered two workers and two visitors at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May.
It is only when radical Islam went beyond the murder of Jews (or Israelis) that Europeans felt outraged. This time Jewish deaths were part of a larger drama, involving a sustained assault on Western freedoms by radical Islam. But those who marched cried for freedom, not necessarily for its Jewish martyrs. Responses will now focus on the jihadi threat and will probably seek to explain anti-Semitism as its by-product.
The response to the shootings in Copenhagen last month followed a similar pattern. The attack on a synagogue, in which a young Danish Jew died preventing much worse slaughter at a bar mitzvah, was treated by the media as an afterthought.

1 in 4 UK Muslims: Violence okay over Muhammad images

A similar number, 24 percent, suggested that violence against those who publish images of Muhammad can be justified, while 11 percent felt sympathetic towards people who want to fight against Western interests.
A total of 1,000 Muslims in Britain were interviewed in the telephone poll over the course of February. The results were published Wednesday.
Over 45 percent said that Muslim clerics who preach violence against the West are not out of touch with mainstream Muslim opinion, while one in five believe that liberal, Western society can never be compatible with Islam.

German Jewish leader: Don't wear yarmulkas in certain areas

Jews should think twice before wearing a yarmulka in certain areas of Germany, the head of the country's Jewish umbrella group warned Thursday.
"The question is whether it makes sense to be recognizable as Jews in certain areas… by wearing a yarmulka, or whether it's better to wear a different head covering. This is indeed a development that I didn't see five years ago and that is a little frightening."
In an interview with a Berlin-based radio station, Schuster said such areas include "problematic quarters," particularly in Berlin but also elsewhere in Germany, "and districts with strong Muslim populations."

'I am Charlie' exhibit forced to close in Helsinki

The Finnish Comics Society is having a hard time finding a venue for its exhibition honouring the cartoonists killed in the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, reports the daily Helsingin Sanomat.
The show entitled "I am Charlie", was on Monday closed for a third time amid security concerns. The display had only been open for about 15 minutes at Library 10 in the Helsinki's main post office building.
Originally the exhibition had been on display at another library in the Arabianranta neighbourhood, but was moved last week to the Rosebud bookshop in the city centre.
In all three cases, the building owners had asked to have the show closed because of safety worries – particularly following last week's attacks in Copenhagen.

Palestinians working for Israelis ‎‎are paid double those working in the West Bank

A survey conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) during October-December 2014, and funded by the European Union, shows that Palestinians who work in Israel or Israeli settlements are paid more than double the wage of Palestinians working in the PA-governed areas of the West Bank. In Israel and Israeli settlements, the average daily wage for Palestinians was 194.2 shekels during the period surveyed, while Palestinians working in the PA in the West Bank only earned 91.4 shekels daily. The average wage for Palestinians working for Israelis was triple that of those employed in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, who made only 66.1 shekels daily.
The results of this survey match the findings reported by Palestinian Media Watch last September, when the official PA daily lauded Israeli employers for their positive employment ethics towards their Palestinian employees.

Richard Millett: Calls for the end of Israel as racist boycott vote at SOAS proceeds.

Last night I met the SOAS Jewish Society, all four of them.
It was at a SOAS "debate" about whether to boycott Israeli universities and academics on the basis that they are complicit with Israel's military. Once again the Jewish state was being singled out at SOAS and the SOAS Student Union was attempting to make it look all so civilised.
The panel was a mixture of SOAS staff and students. Each panelist made a submission as to whether or not there should be an academic boycott of Israel. Contributions from the audience were then taken. About 250 people attended.
Three panelists argued for an academic boycott and three argued against. However, the latter three didn't argue against on the basis that a boycott is obviously discriminatory and racist. Instead, they argued that it would merely be "ineffective".

2015′s First Resolution Calling for More Investment in Israel Passed by University of Georgia Students

The Student Government Association (SGA) of the University of Georgia on Tuesday passed the first college resolution this year calling for the school to invest more in its relations with Israel. The resolution was sponsored and composed by the local chapter of activist group Students Supporting Israel and is the third such resolution ever to be passed.
In the resolution, the SGA, which represents over 35,000 students in Georgia, supports the expansion of study abroad opportunities in Israel for both undergraduate and graduate students across all fields of study. The text asserts that "academic freedom and collaboration are crucial to the pursuit of knowledge," but that the university currently offers "very limited options" for study abroad in the Middle East.
The resolution calls Israel "one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, and the country with the highest ratings in freedom, human rights, and democracy in the region." It also argues that the Jewish state is a "global leader" in science and technology research, agricultural development and practices in sustainability.

Israel Apartheid Week Comes to Berkeley

Its Israel apartheid Week" at UC Berkeley, and Students for Just Us in Palestine (SJP) just can't seem to think beyond the box, resorting to the same tired techniques to spread their demonization of Israel.
Yep. Mock-check points and mock-eviction notices.
In direct violation of campus policy SJP members distributed several hundred fake eviction notices under the doors in Unit 2, except for one floor, where a resident advisor barred their entry. (SJP described the incident as " the interruption of a Resident Advisor prevented us from exercising our right to free expression.")

Campus Press Circles the Wagons Around SJP

College students require trigger warnings now for anything that could conceivably disturb their tender psyches, so this surprise, graphic exposure of SJP's darker side no doubt unsettled many. JStreet President William Baker at the University of Virginia said he was "shocked" and found the posters "disturbing." "When I saw it I was kind of shocked," said one UCLA student. "It's like hate speech, directed toward this one specific group."
Naturally, the SJP itself has declared that the posters constitute hate speech: "They rely on Islamophobic and anti-Arab tropes to paint Palestinians as terrorists," reads the group's statement, "and to misrepresent Students for Justice in Palestine as anti-Semitic." In his own statement about the controversy, David Horowitz, who calls SJP the spearhead of anti-Israel aggression against Israel on American campuses, described this response as "fictional" and "typical SJP deception."
Accusations of hate speech, of course, are the kneejerk reaction of the left and its Islamic partners in what Horowitz calls their unholy alliance to any opinion with which they disagree. This anti-rational, go-to tactic for shutting down opposition was very effective for many years, but it is becoming increasingly shrill, desperate, and impotent in the face of truth – and the truth in this instance is that SJP is a thinly veiled hate group that actively campaigns for the demonization and destruction of the Jewish state via economic divestment and even terrorism, through its support for the terrorist governments of the West Bank and Gaza.

New Bus Ads Call on Obama to Cut Aid to Israel

An anti-Israel organization on Wednesday unveiled a new bus ad that uses Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's upcoming Congress speech to call on the Obama administration to cut Washington's aid to Israel.
The group, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), claimed in a statement introducing the new ad that Netanyahu has in the past boasted of being able to manipulate the United States.
The group quoted a statement made by Netanyahu in 2001, when he said, "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction."
The bus ad features this quote from Netanyahu, and underneath it appears the call: "Stop the disrespect - End US aid to Israel".
"At a time when the United States is close to a deal with Iran, Mr. Netanyahu is coming to persuade Congress to trade in a peaceful, diplomatic solution for war. This is unacceptable," charged Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP national political coordinator.

UCLA Student Vying for Student Government Asked if Jewishness is 'Conflict of Interest' (VIDEO)

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) student government is under fire after questioning the candidacy of a Jewish student based on her religion.
When student Rachel Beyda applied to be a member of the UCLA Judicial Board, earlier this month, she was questioned on whether her Jewishness and her participation in Jewish life on campus could be a "conflict of interest," according to a video of the debate on the issue posted by the USAC Live! YouTube account.
"Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community. How do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?" asked Fabienne Roth, one of the students who opposed Beyda's candidacy.

Is Racism Still a Problem...in our Universities?


U. Illinois Trustees seek to throw out Steven Salaita federal lawsuit

In late January 2015, Steven Salaita filed a federal lawsuit against the Trustees of the University of Illinois and certain of its senior officers, alleging that they violated Salaita's contractual and First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit concerns the Trustees refusal to approve a contingent offer of tenured employment after Salaita's bizarre Twitter behavior and hateful, unhinged tweets. Those tweets led to accusations of anti-Semitism, something Salaita vigorously disputes.

Prosecution seeks 5-7 year sentence for Rasmea Odeh

The evidence supporting both the Israeli and Detroit convictions is overwhelming and from multiple sources, as I demonstrated in Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. Rasmea's claim that she confessed to the bombing only after several weeks of sexual torture was contradicted by the fact that she confessed one day after arrest, and by corroborating evidence including a filmed interview years later with a co-conspirator.
Rasmea has become a hero to the anti-Israel activist community in Chicago and nationally, with fundraisers and national events in her honor, as well as a letter writing campaign to the Court.
The Prosecution just filed its Sentencing Memorandum (full embed below), seeking an upward adjustment from the sentencing guidelines (15-21 months) based upon Rasmea falsely testifying in court about her innocence in the supermarket bombing and defiance of the Judge's Order that she not testify in court about supposed torture since the basis of the conviction was irrelevant to the immigration charge.
That Sentencing Memorandum contains devastating new details and evidence of Rasmea's complicity in the bombing and her close ties to leading terrorist figures, including new video links. It will be interesting to see how the Judge reacts to this evidence, since after a pre-trial hearing on Rasmea's claim of PTSD (which he rejected as a defense), the Judge found that Rasmea's claims of confession after torture were "credible." But the Judge did not have all the evidence, and the evidence shows that Rasmea attempted to dupe the court.

BBC's Lyse Doucet does 'reporter in the rubble' redux – part one

Doucet makes no attempt to clarify to listeners that the Gaza Strip has not been under 'occupation' for almost a decade or why the term "siege" is not an accurate description of the restrictions on the entry of weapons and dual-use goods imposed by Israel in order to curb Hamas' procurement of arms. She again fails to point out the factor of internal Palestinian politics which has caused the donor countries to hold back on their pledges.
Instead, she simply ends her pathos rich but fact lacking report there.
Back in July 2014 Doucet was one of the BBC's reporters on the ground in Shuja'iya. Then too she amplified false claims of a 'massacre' and avoided giving BBC audiences a realistic picture of the terrorist infrastructure in that neighbourhood.
Over six months on, BBC audiences have still not been told what really happened in Shuja'iya and it is clear from this report that the BBC has no intention of rectifying that. The political agenda which underpinned the vast quantities of one-sided reporting produced by Lyse Doucet and her colleagues in the Gaza Strip last summer is still all too apparent.

More Irish Times Hate: 'Zionism and Anti-Semitism Overlap'

Only one day after Irish Times journalist Kitty Holland's outrageous tweet that she was "Not interacting with Zionists anymore," Holland's father, prominent anti-Israel ideologue Eamonn McCann, has launched his own assault. Clearly with Holland, the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.
McCann is well-known to HonestReporting. He has a history of demonizing Israel in the Irish media. In January 2014 he launched a vicious assault on the Jewish religion in an attack on Ariel Sharon. Prior to that, he wrote of Israel's "downfall in the end." In response to criticism he accuses pro-Israel activists of shutting down the conversation by making false claims of anti-Semitism. In June 2014 he addressed the kidnapping of three Israeli teens by accusing Israel of pursuing a systematic campaign against Palestinian children.
Now, writing in the Irish Times, McCann has turned his attention to the ongoing tension between Israel and the U.S. and Benjamin Netanyahu's call for Jews, in the aftermath of terror attacks in Europe, to move to Israel.
Referring to this appeal, McCann states:
Herein lies the ideological overlap between Zionism and anti-Semitism. Both believe that Jews and Gentiles cannot live together.

CiF Watch prompts Times of London correction to false Bibi quote

However, these comments – suggesting that Israeli relations with the US have suffered due to the dispute over Iranian nuclear talks – were of course not uttered by Netanyahu. It is a quote from Amos Yadlin, the Zionist Union's candidate for defense minister, per multiple Israeli news sources.
After contacting Times of London editors (and tweeting the journalist who wrote the story, Gregg Carlstrom), the entire passage was removed from the article. The following correction appeared in the print and online editions of the paper today:

Montreal Hate Crime Probe Starts With Death Threats and Bullets

Montreal police have launched a probe into what they are calling a hate crime after residents of an apartment house found their cars damaged and death threats in envelopes with a bullet for each. The ethnicity and religion of the owners of the targeted vehicles was not released.
The incident, which occurred in the parking garage beneath an apartment building on Côte St. Luc Road, was clearly directed at the Jewish community, however — the neighborhood in which the incident took place is known as a "Jewish area." The vandalism was discovered late Monday night when the smoke alarm in the garage suddenly activated.
Four of the vehicles were branded with swastikas, albeit painted backwards, sprayed in red paint on the hoods. Five of the cars "had envelopes on them, and on the white envelopes there were swastikas on them," said a resident in the building who requested anonymity. CBC News agreed not to reveal his family name. "The swastikas were huge. They covered pretty much the majority of the hood," he said. His neighbor's car had a smashed windshield. On the ground in front of the car lay a hatchet.

Canadian Leaders Rush to Condemn Anti-Semitic Vandalism in Montreal

B'nai Brith Canada called the incident, which occurred on Côte St. Luc Road, "extremely serious" and said it goes beyond simple vandalism.
"You're not dealing with a bunch of individuals who had a can of spray paint … These guys or girls planned this. They specifically set out with bullets in their pockets, with envelopes, with notes and obviously with spray paint," said Steven Slimovitch, B'nai Brith Canada's national legal counsel.
The Quebec government condemned the incident and Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Kathleen Weil issued a statement saying, "These hateful and racist acts are unacceptable. They do not reflect in any way the values of Quebec society and do not have a place in our society which is inclusive and open to diversity.
"We cannot denounce these only as acts of vandalism," she continued. "They reflect prejudice and intolerance. I wish to reassure the public that we will not accept that Quebecers be subjected to threats on account of their origin or their religious beliefs."

PreOccupied Territory: Secret Codes To Control World Economy Accidentally Tweeted (satire)

A rare mistake today by one of the shadowy Elders of Zion resulted in the temporary publication of secret codes used to manipulate the worldwide financial markets and the banking industry, resulting in a scramble to eliminate all traces of the information and wipe memories of the incident.
An Elder of Zion known even to close associates only as Fagin mistakenly let his mask slip after a meeting at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning when he forgot to switch usernames on his mobile device, and would up posting a series of the secret codes to various Twitter followers instead of sending them directly to an associate who needed the updated versions to help manipulate securities. Fagin realized his error in less than a minute, but not before several contacts called further attention to the data by commenting on it or asking questions.
The Council of Elders that normally handles crises had no time to convene to address the issue, but Fagin alerted the standby team tasked with first responses to impending exposure of the International Zionist Conspiracy™ (IZC), which took immediate action. The Twitter database was wiped clean of all traces of the original post, and crews of specialists were dispatched to the locations of the users who had reacted in some way to seeing the codes. The specialists administered memory-altering drugs, and little evidence of the snafu remained.

An Island of Normalization in the Mideast?

An imploding Middle East would seem an unlikely setting for finally realizing the Zionist dream of progress toward normalization with Israel's neighbors. So I had to rub my eyes when I read the following report: Last week, Israel and Egypt ran a joint booth at the world's biggest apparel trade fair, in Las Vegas. In addition, they're discussing plans to double textile exports from the Egyptian-Israeli Qualifying Industrial Zone, and also to expand the zone to other products, like foodstuffs and plastics. Given that normalization with Israel has long been anathema in Egypt, this is an astounding turnabout.
The QIZ, which the U.S. created 10 years ago in order to bolster Egyptian-Israeli peace by encouraging economic collaboration, allows Egypt to export textiles to America duty-free if Israel contributes a certain percentage of their value. But until now, Egypt has kept its cooperation with Israel as low-profile and limited as possible due to the sweeping consensus against normalization.
After all, this is a country where a leading author was expelled from the writers' union and saw his books banned for the "crime" of traveling to Israel and writing about his experiences. It's a country where translated Israeli books sparked such outrage that the culture minister had to defend himself from accusations of "normalization" by saying the translations were intended only to enable Egyptians to "know their enemy" and promising that the project would involve no contact with Israeli publishers, but only with the Israeli authors' foreign publishers. It's a country where every candidate in the 2012 presidential election vowed to either scrap or "renegotiate" the peace treaty with Israel. And none of this was long ago.
Yet now, suddenly, Egypt is running a joint booth with Israel at a trade fair and discussing ways to expand the QIZ.

Tel Aviv Hotel Selected for InterContinental Chain's Global Showcase

The David InterContinental Tel Aviv has been chosen along with two other InterContinental hotels in London and Paris to launch a new corporate-marketing campaign to showcase the hotel chain's brand.
On Tuesday in London, the InterContinental Hotels Group unveiled a series of experiences to showcase each of the three cities' tourist attractions.
The David InterContinental Tel Aviv is situated on the southern end of Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade, in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood, which is known for its burgeoning stylishness.
Through a project titled "Senses of Tel Aviv Insider Experience," the David InterContinental Tel Aviv will be working with renowned chef Yaron Kestenboum to offer its guests a field trip exploring Tel Aviv's local cuisine, culture, design, and overall lifestyle. Guests will also get access to the hotel's new Tel Aviv Suite, which offers an uninterrupted view of the Mediterranean Sea and Old Jaffa, among other perks.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Tells President Rivlin: 'We Have Enormous Admiration for Israel' (VIDEO)

Apple CEO Tim Cook told Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday that his company greatly respects the Jewish state.
"We have enormous admiration for Israel not only as a huge ally to the US, but as a place to do business," Cook said during a meeting with Rivlin at the presidential compound in Jerusalem. He highlighted the fact that Apple has over 700 employees in Israel and that there are over 6,000 people in the Jewish state developing applications for the company's iOS platform.
Cook also expressed admiration for Rivlin's efforts in advancing human rights, telling the president, "You inspire us to do good work."
Rivlin told Cook he was honored to host the Apple CEO "knowing what you are doing for all humanity."
"Everyone in Israel appreciates your company," he said. "You are doing miracles for the whole world."

Apple's Expanded Presence in Israel Focused on Chip Design

Apple may be looking to increase development of chips internally to the costs associated with relying on third-party suppliers, although it still relies heavily on vendors such as Samsung to produce chips for iPhones. Apple has acquired two Israel-based microprocessor chip design firms in Anobit Technologies and PrimeSense in recent years, and also hired several Texas Instrument engineers in Israel after the company announced some 250 job cuts at its Ra'anana offices.
Apple vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji is an Israeli Arab that grew up in Haifa and earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in Computer Science from Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology. Srouji joined Apple in 2008 and oversees custom silicon architecture and development covering several devices and technologies. Apple has over 700 other employees working directly for the company in Israel.
"We've hired our first individual in Israel in 2011 and we now have over 700 people working in Israel directly for us," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in the meeting with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday. "Israel and Apple have gotten much closer together over the last three years than ever before, and we see that as just the beginning," he added.

IDF Blog: A Story of Persistence: How a Catholic Filipino Became an IDF Soldier

Coming from a diplomatic family, Corporal Aaron Refael's enlistment into the IDF was more unique than most. Aaron was born to a Catholic family, originally from the Philippines, who relocated to Israel before Aaron was born. Growing up in Israel, he was determined to serve as a soldier in the IDF like the rest of his friends. Despite the difficulties along the way, Cpl. Refael fulfilled his dream and is thriving as a combat soldier in the IDF.
Like every Israeli at the age of eighteen, Corporal Aaron Refael drafted into the IDF. However, Aaron is no ordinary Israeli. Today, he serves in the IDF's Nahal Infantry Brigade, but the process to get there was not simple.
Aaron comes from a Catholic family, originally from the Philippines, and his father works as a driver in the Japanese Embassy to Israel. He was born and raised in Herzliya and has always considered Israel his home. Aaron grew up learning about the importance of the IDF, and knew from a very young age that he wanted to take part in defending the country. "I saw how everyone serves in the military, and I also wanted to contribute," said Corp. Refael.

Kalb's list: Piecing together a Holocaust rescue operation

After his mother died in 2009, Dr. Mark Colb discovered in her bedroom dresser some familiar documents and photographs. He remembered most of the stories accompanying them, too.
All related to his late father's efforts to rescue Polish Jews during the Holocaust via a land route and a smuggling operation that he had first conceived to save his fiancee and later wife – Mark's mother, Clara Lieber.
A list of names that Colb found in their Manhattan apartment indicated that his father – then known as Ben Zion Kalb, but often utilizing the code name Ben Avraham – had saved about 150 fellow Polish Jews, mostly infants, youngsters and teenagers.
Colb believes, though, that the true number is several multiples of 150; his mother left behind in Europe many pages from the list. Judith Cohen, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's photographic reference collection, estimated the number at "upwards of 1,000 people" he saved.
The information has prompted Colb, a physician living in Boston, to seek acknowledgement of the heroism of his father, who died in 1973 at age 63.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/26/2015 06:00:00 PM

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