Friday, October 30, 2015

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Egyptian TV host and historian agree that burning is the only solution for Jews

From MEMRI:

(h/t Yoel)

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 11:00:00 AM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] .@Amnesty director incredulous that Arab "witnesses" might lie

A Twitter thread between Amnesty Middle East Director Philip Luther and an apparent EoZ fan:

Luther didn't answer about the amazing coincidence.

But in the end, Luther cannot spot Palestinian lies because he is part of an organization that lies all the time. I tweeted to him one provable lie showing that Amnesty's Gaza Platform inflated the number of dead Gaza civilians by 200 even if you accept UN figures:

.@philipluther @Amnesty lies, says at least 1665 civilians killed in Gaza 2014, UN(!) says 1462. (Truth is lower.) pic.twitter.com/LQVZTMUeeO
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) October 30, 2015

What is amazing is that the congenital anti-Israel UN showed far more intellectual honesty than Amnesty.

In August 2014, the UN claimed a virtually identical number of civilian victims as Amnesty does now, 1,666. In the months since then they actually discovered 200 "civilians" were really terrorists and they modified their statistics accordingly. The real numbers are far lower still, as we've seen from the Meir Amit Center, but at least the UN showed some amount of caring about the truth.

Amnesty, many months later, deliberately used the initial and provably wrong data to build an entire website dedicated to demonizing Israel.

They know very well that they were lying. They know very well that their "researchers" were using garbage data. They've read my many articles about it. And Amnesty has made the conscious decision to allow the lies to remain on their website rather than correct it as they said they would.

So it is very rich that Amnesty, an organization that deliberately chooses not to correct clear lies, is aghast that anyone can accuse Palestinian Arab "eyewitneses" to be lying.

After all, these "witnesses" are saying exactly what Amnesty wants them to say, so they must be reliable, right?

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 10:00:00 AM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] By the way, Israel is bussing hundreds of Gazans to pray in Jerusalem weekly

Palestinian media are reporting that some 200 Gazans went by bus to the Al Aqsa Mosque this orning.

This has been the norm for a few months now.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 08:00:00 AM

From Hamas' Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades (English) website:

Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has welcomed the decision of hundreds of British scholars to boycott Israel. It opined that it reflects the increasing international awareness of Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas's spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called on the peoples of the world to continue its efforts in support of the Palestinian people who is languishing under the Israeli occupation.

The British Guardian newspaper revealed on Tuesday that 343 British scholars from 72 educational institutions signed a letter calling for boycotting Israeli universities due to Israeli violation of the international law and its illegal occupation of the Palestinian land.

According to the letter, the signers declared that they would not accept invitations to visit Israeli academic institutions; act as referees in any of their processes; participate in conferences funded, organized or sponsored by them, or otherwise cooperate with them.

And I don't think that a single one of those academics are the slightest bit uncomfortable that an organization with a genocidal charter supports their efforts as a step in the right direction.

(h/t Irene)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/30/2015 05:30:00 AM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] BDSers: "Do as I say..." (poster)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/29/2015 08:16:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 10/29 Links Pt2: Pope: denying Israel's right to exist is anti-Semitism; Harry Potter & Threats to Israel

From Ian:

Pope says denying Israel's right to exist is anti-Semitism

Pope Francis marked the 50th anniversary of the turning point in the Catholic Church's relations with Jews on Wednesday with a sharp condemnation of anti-Semitism, saying attacks on Israel's right to exist were a form of hatred.
"To attack Jews is anti-Semitism, but an outright attack on the State of Israel is also anti-Semitism," Francis told a delegation from the World Jewish Congress (WJC). "There may be political disagreements between governments and on political issues, but the State of Israel has every right to exist in safety and prosperity."
Francis called for greater interfaith collaboration in the face of religious extremism. He devoted his usual Wednesday general audience to explaining to the Catholic faithful in St. Peter's Square the importance of the "Nostra Aetate," or "In Our Time" declaration, which revolutionized the church's relations in particular with Jews.
The statement was one of the most important documents to emerge from the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern world. It said Christ's death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole, recognized the shared spiritual patrimony between Christians and Jews and decried all forms of anti-Semitism.

Netanyahu to Address Liberal Center for American Progress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak next week at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that has previously come under fire for its anti-Israel slant.
Netanyahu will address the group on Nov. 10, during his trip to the United States to meet with President Obama, the Huffington Post reported on Tuesday. News of the speech was first reported by Jewish Insider.
Several bloggers affiliated with CAP were accused of promoting anti-Semitic or anti-Israel tropes on social media in 2011 by using the term "Israel firster" and by suggesting that American supporters of Israel had dual loyalty to the Jewish state.
The Center for American Progress Action Fund's ThinkProgress was also criticized for demonizing Israel.
The think tank initially defended the staffers, but quickly cut ties with one of the bloggers, Zaid Jilani. Others have since left.
Sources said Netanyahu was encouraged by Hillary Clinton donors to speak at a liberal think tank for "political balance," since he is also keynoting the conservative American Enterprise Institute's annual dinner next week. The prime minister's office initially approached CAP, which was founded by Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, to set up an event.
Netanyahu's decision was met with mild surprise in pro-Israel circles. However, it was also seen as an example of his willingness to speak to a diverse array of audiences. (h/t Alexi)

Harry Potter on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

"It's the story of the recent events in Israel told through the story of the Harry Potter movies," explains Rachel Lester, who made a viral video clip featuring Harry Potter confronting the existential threats faced by the Jewish State.
"My goal is to make the following issues more relatable to an audience who might not know much about the Middle East conflict: (a) Hamas as a terrorist organization, (b) the biased reactions of world leaders and the media, and (c) the danger that the recently-passed Iran deal poses to Israel and the world."
The video comes days after Harry Potter author JK Rowling — whose "Harry Potter" books sold 400 million copies and were adapted into the second-highest grossing film series of all time — used Albus Dumbledore, a headmaster of Hogwarts wizarding school in the series, to make a moral point about the need for dialogue and cultural engagement with Israel.

The War Against the Jewish Trees

You might think that the obstacles to peace are the rockets from Gaza and the brutal murders of Jews.
You might be foolish enough to think that the obstacles are the ordinary Muslims who taunted and beat Adelle Banita-Bennett, suddenly widowed at 22, trying to escape the Muslim terrorist who had just murdered her husband.
You might think that it's the fact that a majority of Muslims in '67 Israel spit on the Two-State Solution and that PLO boss Abbas rejected the Oslo Accords in a speech at the United Nations.
And you would be wrong.
None of those things are obstacles to peace. If they were, surely the media would have told us so.
The real threats are the fig, palm and carob trees around a hiking path near Jerusalem. The true threat to peace comes from the pine trees that shade the kids playing in the water in a Ma'ale Adumim park.
The pine tree, you see, is a Jewish tree.
As anti-Israel activist Michael Davis accuses, "This foreign tree displaced the olive trees of the indigenous population." The "indigenous" population he mentions were the Muslim conquerors while the "foreigners" are the Jewish indigenous population who were planting the "foreign" Jerusalem pine trees that are mentioned in the Bible by that notorious foreigner, the Prophet Isaiah. (h/t NormanF)

Dennis Ross: US must move from distance to detente with Israel

Interview - 'If you want the Palestinians to have the responsibility of a state, you have to hold them responsible'
Veteran United States diplomat Dennis Ross claims there is one consistent argument within presidential administrations, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.
"There is a remarkable continuity over the concern that too close a relationship with Israel will harm US ties with the Arabs, so there is always a constituency in each administration that feels the US needs to create distance with Israel to gain responsiveness from the Arab world," said Ross, who most recently worked in the Obama administration as an adviser on the Middle East.
That historical perspective sits at the core of Ross's new book, "Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama," which provides a history of the relationship, deconstructing each administration's policies on the Jewish state.
The most comprehensive and lively chapters are about the administrations in which Ross worked, most notably, that of President Barack Obama. Ross, a religious Jew, gives a personal account of the fissures within Obama's inner circle and the debates over how to manage the US relationship with Israel.

Jennifer Rubin: Dennis Ross: Critics were right about Obama, Iran and Israel

Remember that the president says the deal blocks Iran's pathway to the bomb. No, says Ross: "One of my main concerns is what happens after year 15, when they basically can have as large a program as they want, and the gap between threshold status and weapon status becomes very small." Well, at least the deal staved off trouble for the time being. Er, not exactly: "The more you make it clear that for any misbehavior they pay a price, and it's the kind of price that matters to them, the more likely they are to realize the firewall is real, and the less likely they are to ever test it." But the deal does not do that; to the contrary, it prevents graduated sanctions since imposition of any sanctions frees Iran from the deal. Sure, but Iran's behavior in the meantime shows that it won't exploit the deal and pursue its own religious zealotry. Not at all: "We're already seeing them ratchet it up in Syria. Everyone is focusing on what the Russians are doing, but Iran is adding significant numbers of Revolutionary Guard forces to the ground, it's not just Hezbollah forces. I think this is a harbinger of things to come."
Too bad then that Ross did not unequivocally oppose the deal and urge Democrats to do the same. Now he is willing to admit it virtually guarantees that Iran will get a bomb; it has not specified means for imposing penalties without overthrowing the deal; and Iran's behavior is worse than ever. That seems to be exactly what critics of the deal have said all along.
Ross also confirms Obama critics' accusation that Obama is reflexively partial to the Palestinians. "It tends to look at Israel through a lens that is more competitive, more combative, that sees Israel more in problematic terms," he explains. He adds that since Obama "looks at the Palestinians as being weak, there is this reluctance to criticize them. 'They're too weak to criticize' is what I say in the Obama chapter. And if they are too weak to criticize, they are too weak to be held accountable, too weak to be responsible. They're too weak to have a state. Well, if you want the Palestinians to have the responsibility of a state, you have to hold them responsible." In perhaps the most damning portion of his interview, Ross lets on that Obama's contrarianism toward the George W. Bush administration represented a deliberate attempt to alienate Israel:

Elliott Abrams: If you love Israel, don't boycott it

We love Israel. We love it more than we love other nations. That's why we must do all we can to destroy its economy.
That is the message of the bizarre Oct. 25 Sunday Opinion column by professors Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl. Their argument is simple: Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza is now "permanent," unless sufficient economic damage is done to force Israel to change course.
What's missing here? Two things: history and Palestinians.
History reveals two recent attempts by Israeli leaders to negotiate a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians — by prime ministers Ehud Barak in 2000 and Ehud Olmert in 2008 — which were rejected by Palestine Liberation Organization leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. Of this, Levitsky and Weyl say nothing. They also do not mention Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, seeming to regard it as "occupied" even though not a single Israeli soldier or civilian lives there.
Instead, they simply claim that "domestic movements" in Israel to avoid "making the occupation permanent" have "withered." Now, it is obvious that the Israeli left, and the "peace movement" there, have been weakened. Why might that be? The professors, self-styled "progressives," tell us it is "thanks to an economic boom and the temporary security provided by the West Bank barrier and the Iron Dome missile defense system." This shows a deep lack of understanding of Israel and Israelis, for the "peace movement" has "withered," all right — but for a very different reason.
This reason is the conduct of Palestinians, a factor that is almost entirely absent from the professors' account. This is remarkable. The Palestinian refusal of negotiations is not mentioned. The waves of terror — from Arafat's intifadas to today's stabbings — are barely mentioned. The only mention of the Palestinians' rationale is this: "the occupation itself . . . crucially, remains the principal motive behind Palestinian violence."

'Unify Syria, Divide Israel' Says Kerry in Major Middle East Policy Address

SYRIA MUST BE UNITED; ISRAEL MUST BE DIVIDED
In contrast to Kerry's insistence that Syria – a factionalized country with various warring ethnic groups none of which want to be controlled by the other – be united, Kerry's diktat for Israel is the opposite.
Although Israel has gained territory repeatedly as the result of wars waged against it by belligerent outsiders, and which since the fall of the Ottoman Empire has never been ruled by any other nations, the U.S. demands that Israel must be divided.
STATUS QUO ON TEMPLE MOUNT GOOD; STATUS QUO IN ISRAEL BAD
And Kerry continued to insist that the status quo must be maintained on the Temple Mount – a status quo which prevents Jews from moving their lips lest they be deemed praying – but the status quo in which Israel does its best to defend its citizens must be terminated.
When not pointedly referring to Har Habayit, Kerry insisted that "the current situation is simply not sustainable. President Obama has said it publicly many times, I've said it publicly and it is absolutely vital for Israel to take steps that empower Palestinian leaders to improve economic opportunities and the quality of life for their people on a day to day basis."
Really? Israel has to empower the leaders of the terrorists so that economic opportunities and their quality of life is improved? The PA, one of the single largest recipients of international aid ever?

Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day Is Ultimate Proof of Israel's Desire for Peace

The fact that the Israeli people view him as a hero illustrates the true intentions of the Israeli people — to strive towards peace. Even in this tense time in Israel, Rabin is praised with fervor. Because he is the embodiment of the peace process in Israel, the obvious inference is that the peace process itself is praised with fervor even during times of war.
There is no need to wonder what sort of events a future Palestinian state might memorialize, when the current Palestinian Authority president says, "Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem is holy blood as long as it was for Allah."
While the current attacks in Israel are indeed a threat to the Jewish people, as we commemorate Rabin's assassination at the hands of a Jew, we are also reminded that our biggest challenge comes from within ourselves. All Israelis with whom I've talked, from the left to the right, regard Rabin as a hero. Even though they might not have agreed with his politics, they respect the peace process and acknowledge that getting there is just that — a process.

Why Netanyahu won't approve a Palestinian state

An important element of his somber weltanschauung, or world view, is the conviction that peace has been elusive due to the Palestinian refusal to accept a Jewish state. The demand that follows — that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people — overrides all other concerns. No demographic threat, no international pressure, no boycott movement and no UN Security Council resolution, Netanyahu has made clear over the years, will get him to let go of what he deems a key precondition of any peace agreement.
At his speech earlier this month to the Zionist Congress, which made headlines due to his assertion of the mufti's influence on Hitler, Netanyahu once again laid out what he sees as the main reason for the stalemate. The Palestinians "don't want a state to end the conflict because they want a state to continue the conflict and eradicate the Jewish state," he declared. "This is what this conflict has always been about."
The Palestinians not only refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish nation-state, they are "unwilling to end once and for all the conflict," he elaborated in the Knesset Monday. They are not prepared to abandon their dream of a "return" to Acre, Haifa, Jaffa and other cities within Israel, he added. "They are not willing to give up the dream of a Palestinian state — not alongside Israel, but in its place. They still teach their children to hate Jews, to see Israel as a colonialist, imperialist entity — the source of all evil."
The creation of a Palestinian state, he argued, is thus nothing but another ploy to destroy Israel. Add to this Netanyahu's security considerations, which rule out an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank as long as the Middle East remains a dangerous neighborhood, and you reach the conclusion that this prime minister will never sign off on an agreement establishing a Palestinian state.

Danon on UNHRC election: UN absurdity knows no limits

Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon criticized the election of Venezuela as a member of the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday.
"The absurdity at the UN knows no limits – Venezuela is the biggest ally of Iran and North Korea," he said.
The UN General Assembly voted to elect 18 new members to the council. A hundred and thirty-one states voted in favor of electing Venezuela as a member.
"We must remember this day the next time the UN condemns Israel," Danon said. "When a country like Venezuela, which suppresses its own people, forbids freedom of the press and detains members of the opposition, becomes a member of the Human Rights Council, it comes as no surprise that this council condemns Israel more than any other country in the world."
The ambassador also said that "the only connection between these countries and human rights is how much they excel at violating them."

Watchdog says new UNHRC members are human rights abusers

But UN Watch also singled out the United Arab Emirates, Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan and Togo as new members whose human rights records raises serious questions as to the council's legitimacy.
According to a report compiled by UN Watch along with two other groups, the Human Rights Foundation and the Lantos Foundation, the seven countries have committed various rights violations including limitations on freedom of speech, religion, press and the right to due process. Some have been accused of government corruption, discrimination against women and enabling child labor.
"It's a black day for human rights," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
"The election of even more rights abusing regimes — on a body that already counts China, Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia as members — marks another severe blow to the credibility and efficacy of" the UNHRC, he said.

UN warns of looming Israel-Arab 'catastrophe'

The United Nations warned Wednesday that a deadly surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs was headed toward "catastrophe," just as new Arab terror attacks took place in Judea and Samaria.
An Israeli woman was stabbed and moderately wounded in one such attack in Gush Etzion, while a terrorist attempted to stab an Israeli soldier before being shot dead in Hevron in another.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein [Jordan] said the latest flare-up in violence in the decades-old conflict was "dangerous in the extreme."
"The violence between Palestinians and the Israelis will draw us ever closer to a catastrophe if not stopped immediately," he said during a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
World leaders are calling to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that last collapsed in April 2014 - when the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed a unity deal with Hamas - to avoid a deeper slide into violence that many fear marks a third intifada terror war.

Israel shoots down New Zealand resolution for peace talks

National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen reportedly clarified to New Zealand's envoy, Jonathan Curr, in blunt terms that any diplomatic effort to force negotiations with the Palestinian Authority would not be countenanced by Israel.
The thrashing, according to Channel 2, comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced he had never received an official request from New Zealand on the resolution, adding that Jerusalem was unwilling to accept it anyway.
The Foreign Ministry has in turn instructed its ambassador to New Zealand to relay the message to Wellington, wherewith Israel sees no point in even entertaining a discussion on the matter.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Iran's New Palestinian Terror Group: Al-Sabireen

The Iranians are also believed to have supplied their new terrorist group in the Gaza Strip with Grad and Fajr missiles that are capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
The leader of Al-Sabireen, Hisham Salem, is a former commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. His activities and rhetoric have worried many in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who fear that his group is beginning to attract many of their followers.
Many Palestinians and Arabs in the region are already voicing concern. The last thing Abbas, Egypt's President Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah need is another Iranian terror group such as Hezbollah in the Middle East.
It now remains to be seen whether the Obama Administration and other Western powers will wake up and realize that the Iranians are continuing to fool them, not only regarding Tehran's nuclear program, but also concerning its territorial ambitions in the Middle East.
Unless the U.S. and Western powers realize that Iran remains a major threat to world peace, Al-Sabireen and other terrorist groups will one day manage to establish a UN-recognized Palestinian state that would pose an existential threat to Israel and destabilize the entire Middle East.

U.N. Human Rights Report Highlights Executions, Floggings, Amputations in Iran

The latest report issued by Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, highlights a variety of harsh punishments meted out by the Iranian regime, including executions, floggings, amputations, and even blinding, Benjamin Weinthal, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, reported for Fox News on Tuesday.
More than 480 persons were flogged during the first 15 days of Ramadan for not fasting, and two people convicted of theft had limbs amputated just weeks before the U.S. and other world powers announced a nuclear agreement with Tehran, wrote Ahmed Shaheed, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, in a 26-page report. "The Government maintains that only three individuals were subject to this punishment for their non-observance of the fasting practice."
In another case highlighted in the report, the left eye and right ear of man identified only as "Hamid S." were removed surgically. He had been found guilty of attacking another man with acid, resulting in the loss of the man's eye and ear. Iran forcibly blinded another man in March as part of its "retribution-in-kind" punishment. The man was with charged tossing acid on another man in 2009.

Iran Accuses US of Creating Major Terror Groups Including Taliban, ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Iran has accused the United States of sponsoring some of the world's most barbaric terror groups, the country's semi-official state news agency Fars reported on Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham alleged that the US, "accompanied by different countries like Saudi Arabia and others, … created Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS and other terrorist groups and have the record of the largest support for terrorism."
Afkham called it "ironic" for the US and its allies to form anti-terror coalitions, yet "continue their financial and logistical support for the terrorist groups."

Iran to be invited to next round of talks on Syria: U.S. official

Iran will be invited to participate in talks in Vienna on Friday to discuss ending the conflict in Syria, a dialogue aimed at finding a framework for political transition in Damascus, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.
An official in the region, however, told Reuters that Iran had already been invited by the United States and Russia, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would attend the talks, while the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was still under discussion.
Zarif and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call earlier on Tuesday to discuss ways to resolve the Syrian crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iran Violating UN Embargo By Shipping Weapons To Syria Via Russia

Fox News is reporting Wednesday that Russia is helping Iran ship weapons into Syria, a violation of the arms embargo established by two United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Twice a day for the past ten days, Russian cargo planes have transported weapons into the Russian air base at Latakia, Syria via unregistered civilian flights.
According to the Fox News report, Iranian General Qassem Soulimeini, head of the Al-Quds force, Vladimir Putin, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are coordinating the air lift. Iranian airline Mahan Air is also flying military personnel from Tehran into Syria multiple times a day.

Nearly 600 killed in Russian strikes in Syria, says monitor

Nearly 600 people have been killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria nearly a month into Moscow's campaign, two-thirds of them opposition fighters, a Syrian monitor said on Thursday.
A total of 595 people have been killed in Russian strikes since September 30, two-thirds of them fighters with opposition forces, including the jihadist Islamic State group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The other third, some 185 people, were civilians, including 48 children, the Britain-based NGO said.

Hezbollah supporters, commanders questioning militia's role in Syria, say analysts

A surge in casualties and a lack of a clear regional policy are driving Hezbollah supporters and senior members to raise questions about the Shi'ite Lebanese group's role in Syria where it is fighting rebels trying to topple the government of President Bashar Al-Assad, according to analysts and experts familiar with the inner circle of the militia.
Ali Al-Amin, a Lebanese political analyst and researcher, spoke of "major objections within the group over its performance in Syria" after it recently suffered great losses in lives at the hands of Syrian rebel groups.
The latest such episode came Monday when the Iran-affiliated group announced the deaths of eight fighters who fell during battles in Syria.
The growing state of restlessness with the "absence of prospects for victory [in Syria]" has exceeded the Lebanese group's support base to its leadership, according to Amin.
"The debate has moved to the inner circle of the group represented by its jihad council, with voices starting to question how after all the sacrifices they made in Syria, the Russians came and took all of their achievements," Amin said.

Israeli envoy to Chile says local Palestinians threaten Jews with violence

Israel's top diplomat in Chile is accusing the local Palestinian community of trying to muzzle hasbara efforts by making threats of physical violence against Jews.
Tensions between the Jewish and Arab communities of Chile are on the rise Thursday after the organization representing Palestinian expats officially demanded that the government declare Israel's ambassador to Santiago persona non grata.
The Federacion Palestina de Chile submitted a request to the Chilean Foreign Ministry demanding that Rafi Eldad, Jerusalem's ambassador to Santiago, be officially shunned by the government.
Local Palestinians said that Eldad's accusations of incitement to violence were "slanderous" and that they hindered their ability "to defend the Palestinian people."
Chile is home to the largest community of transplanted Palestinians whose population is estimated at 300,000 people. In recent years, relations between local Palestinians and Jews have become fraught, particularly during times of crisis.

Student Report: A Professor's Passion for Palestine

Stephanie Plotkin is a senior at Grand Valley State University in Michigan,where a professor gave her an eye-opening education in student indoctrination. The following is Stephanie's account, which she shared exclusively with the Horowitz Freedom Center.
My eyes followed my professor up and down the aisles as he passed out the flyers, flashes of sunlight reflecting off them. I almost held my breath as he weaved his way toward me. I could feel my heart race in my throat.
"You are required to attend this lecture. You do not have to agree with what Ms. Barrows-Friedman is saying, but you need to write a paper and include a summary of the content of the lecture. Then please include what you knew about the conflict before you attended, and then how you feel once you have heard what she has to say."
I couldn't believe what Professor Alvarez was saying. We had to attend? Attendance was mandatory? Finally the flyer reached me. I skimmed the contents, trying to hide my disdain from the other students. "In Our Power," the title read. "U.S. Students Organize For Justice In Palestine." The flyer depicted a woman wearing a hijab, with one fist in the air and her other holding a microphone. Two students were facing her, one wearing a tiny pin with the initials BDS imprinted on it. Underneath the drawing, there was a photo of Nora Barrows-Friedman, with a bio, and then to the left was a column that ran the length of the flyer titled, "HCC, Healing Children of Conflict." Something inside me made me take a picture. I had no idea why, but I wanted to show my mother what I was "required" to attend. I didn't feel good about this at all, even though I didn't understand what The Electronic Intifada was, or what this all really meant.

France Outlaws BDS Anti-Semitism

The highest court in France this week upheld the criminal conviction of 12 political activists for the crime of advocating sanctions and a boycott against Israel.
"BDS is illegal in France," announced Pascal Markowicz, head attorney for CRIF, the umbrella organization for Jewish communities in France. Any actions to promote the movement, he added, "are completely illegal. If [BDS activists] say their freedom of expression has been violated, now the highest legal instance in France has ruled otherwise."
The group was arrested for distributing anti-Israel material in a supermarket under the French law on Freedom of the Press.
Twelve activists wearing shirts that bore the words, "Long live Palestine, Boycott Israel" entered the store and began passing out flyers from the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement.
The flyers said: "buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza."
The law imposes a prison term and/or fine of up to $50,000 for those who "provoke discrimination, hatred or violence toward a person or group of people on grounds of their origin, their belonging or their not belonging to an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a certain religion."
The court ruled that BDS is inherently discriminatory and thus outlawed its promotion.

US Upholds Stance That Kuwait Airways Discriminates Against Israelis

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has rejected arguments by Kuwait Airways that attempted to rationalize the Arab airline's denial of tickets to Israeli passengers. Further, DOT said the American government now has "no choice but to pursue further administrative and/or judicial action" if the airline continues its discriminatory policy.
In a letter dated Oct. 22, DOT rebutted an Oct. 13 Kuwait Airways letter that defended the airline's denial of a ticket to Israeli citizen Eldad Gatt from New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR).
"You assert that the Department's [Sept. 30] decision [that Kuwait Airways discriminates against Israelis] is inconsistent with legal precedent, and that KAC (Kuwait Airways Company) cannot comply with the mandate to sell tickets to and transport Israeli citizens between the U.S. and any third country where they are allowed to disembark….Your October 13 letter adds no new information or arguments that persuade us to change our determination. Accordingly, we see no reason to reconsider this matter," DOT wrote.

Landing in Tel Aviv, Iberia pilot says 'Welcome to Palestine'

Israeli passengers on an Israel-bound Iberia flight were astonished late Wednesday when the captain announced near the end of the flight that he was preparing to land the plane "in Palestine."
During the flight from Madrid by Spain's national carrier, the pilot announced in Spanish that he was preparing to land "in Tel Aviv, in Palestine." In English, he subsequently said he was preparing to land "in Tel Aviv," and did not repeat the "Palestine" comment; neither did he say "Israel."
Lior, a passenger on the flight, told Channel 2 news that he was "a little bit shocked."
"I don't understand why he said this," said Lior. "We live in the State of Israel and he should have said 'Israel.' There was a reason he didn't say it in English. It was deliberate."

American Anthropological Association facing self-destructive BDS resolution

Such a resolution by AAA would be deemed a violation of academic freedom by the American Association of University Professors.
If passed, the resolution would be highly symbolic, because until now the AAA has been a respected academic group. AAA would be the largest such professional organization to pass a boycott resolution.
It may be coincidence, but it certainly is relevant, that the boycott resolution comes in the midst of the "Knife Intifada," in which Israelis are being stabbed in the neck and elsewhere on a daily basis, and there is widespread incitement to kill Jews for being Jews. A biased, one-sided resolution necessarily will be viewed as advancing this incitement.
It also will raise the stakes, and there likely will be even stronger academic community pushback than faced the American Studies Association — in whose case over 250 university presidents and multiple academic associations rejected the boycott. The NY Times called the ASA a "pariah" after its boycott resolution.
An AAA resolution also likely will trigger another round of political pushback, more intense than the ASA faced.
In conjunction with the release of the Resolution text, the anti-Israel "Jewish Voice for Peace" issued a statement backing the boycott resolution. JVP's involvement shows that this is part of broader political agenda, far beyond that reflected in the Report text.

Jewish Human Rights Organization Calls on New Yorkers to Shun Roger Waters Concert; Theater Offers Refunds

The SWC statement stressed that BDS has "never helped a single Palestinian," and only aims "to demonize and denigrate the lone democracy in the Middle East," noting that Israelis across the political spectrum have condemned Waters' support for the boycott movement.
SWC Government Affairs Director Mark Weitzman added that Waters' commitment to freedom of expression is mired in hypocrisy, since he considers it a "crime" to perform in ethnically and religiously mixed crowds in the Jewish state and opposes "anyone who wants to share their talents with the people of Israel."
The SWC, therefore, called on New Yorkers "to give Roger Waters the reception he deserves: an empty hall."
According to the Southampton Patch On Wednesday, the Bay Street Theater announced that anyone who wishes to boycott his sold-out performance will be given a refund.
Bay Street Executive Director Tracy Mitchell told 27east, a site calling itself "Your connection to the Hamptions, that the theater is "committed to the right to free speech but also respects the rights of others who are offended by Mr. Waters's scheduled show."

Arab-Americans continue anti-IDF costume crusade

US retail giant Walmart already conceded to criticism of supporting the "occupation" by withdrawing an IDF soldier Halloween costume from its site, but Arab-American groups are continuing their offensive against the holiday outfit.
The costumes are still being advertised Wednesday by other retailers, including Amazon and eBay. In response, Arab and Muslim groups in America are now pressing to demand their immediate withdrawal from all outlets.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) welcomed Walmart's decision to withdraw the costumes and joined other pressure groups in calling on other retailers to follow suit.
"The costumes are very problematic and offensive to many people," said ADC president Samer Khalaf. "Such a symbol of fear, violence and a long history of dispossession should not be used for entertainment purposes."

Vandals Spray Swastikas on Set of Israeli Film in Poland

An Israeli film crew that arrived in Lodz, Poland, to begin shooting director Avi Nesher's movie The Sins found the set defaced by swastikas, Israel Hayom reported.
Nesher, whose films have won multiple awards in Israel and international acclaim, said that the day before his crew arrived, the crew of another movie had been involved in an incident with local residents.
"When the residents were informed that the next day an Israeli film would begin shooting, [their behavior] crossed over into violent antisemitism, what they called an 'intifada,'" Nesher said.
In light of the antisemitic threats, Polish police decided to ramp up security on and around the set, and assign the actors bodyguards.

Vandals daub swastika on Berlin memorial to Nazis' Roma victims

Authorities say that a large swastika and the word "vergasen," or "to gas," were found daubed at Germany's memorial to the hundreds of thousands of Roma who were killed by the Nazis.
The foundation that oversees the memorial and others in Berlin commemorating Holocaust victims said Thursday that the vandalism was discovered at the entrance to the site on October 16 and removed. It said it has stepped up security at the memorial, which is located in the Tiergarten park close to the Reichstag parliament building, and that police are investigating.
The memorial, with a water-filled basin at its center, was inaugurated three years ago.
Germany opened the long-awaited memorial in 2012. Designed by Israeli artist Dani Karavan, it features a water-filled basin with a retractable, triangle-shaped column at its center that is topped by a fresh flower every day.

Tunisian Singer Causes Outcry After Offering to Perform, Possibly Live in Israel

A popular Tunisian singer sparked outrage in his home country after announcing his willingness to perform in Israel and expressing a preference for life in the Jewish state, the Arabic language newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed reported on Tuesday.
Hedi Tounsi told a radio interviewer that he would now be willing to sing for Radio Tel Aviv, in spite of having turned down past opportunities to do so. He said he is motivated by his "financial future," because, he claimed, Israel respects art more than Tunisia does. The singer then went a step further, according to the report, saying he would prefer to live in Israel, and is willing to forfeit his Tunisian citizenship.
Tunisians condemned Tounsi's remarks on various social media networks and accused the singer of unacceptable and humiliating normalization with Israel, al-Araby reported. Some accused Tounsi of betraying Tunisia and the Palestinian cause, while others called on the authorities to prosecute him for his comments.

Israel sends medicine to Greece for Syrian, Afghan refugees

Israel has sent medical assistance to Greece to help deal with the flood of migrants and refugees who have been landing on the Greek Islands, most of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
Israel sent 1.5 tons of medication by air shipment to the Greek Ministry of Health, which will disburse them at the various refugee aid centers, the Israeli Embassy in Athens said.
More than 50,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Greece last month. Greece, which is already suffering from a massive economic recession, has struggled to deal with the human influx.
Teams from the Israeli nongovernmental aid agency IsraAid also have been operating in Greece since September, providing medical and psychological assistance to the refugees.

Tel Aviv braces for takeover by foreign chefs

The chefs are arriving. They're coming to Tel Aviv for the first set of Round Tables, a global culinary initiative of 26 chefs and restauranteurs from eight international restaurants and the same number of local eateries, preparing gastronomical delights for some 10,000 diners over the course of the month of November.
Hailing from New York, London, Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam and Athens, some with a coveted Michelin star, each chef will take over one of Tel Aviv's best restaurants for an entire week.
Tel Aviv is the first destination of this global program, founded by Israeli entrepreneur and restauranteur Yair Bakair, and sponsored by American Express.
Earlier this week, however, the BDS movement called on the chefs to cancel their participation in Round Tables, sending letters and messages through Twitter and Facebook.

Adelsons donate $5 million to Magen David Adom

Around $10 million was raised for Magen David Adom, Israel's national medical emergency service, at last week's third annual Red Star Ball held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.
The event, chaired by Dina and Fred Leeds, was organized by the American Friends of Magen David Adom.
The largest donation was made by Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, who contributed $5 million.
The event's aim was to raise funds to build Magen David Adom's new National Blood Services Center, described as a "secure, underground facility that will safeguard Israel's blood supply."
At the event, Gila and Adam Milstein were given the Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld made a special guest performance, and Michael Richards, who played Kramer on "Seinfeld," was in attendance.

Why I've made my home at a kibbutz near Gaza, on the verge of hell

On a Friday evening four months ago, a friend from the US came to visit me at my home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the closest place in Israel to Gaza.
Only 875 yards (800 meters) of open fields, with an iron fence in the middle, separate Nahal Oz from the Gaza Strip. On the other side of that fence is Shejaiya, a neighborhood of Gaza City that was almost completely destroyed last year, when the IDF and Hamas were fighting door-to-door in its streets.
Nahal Oz is a green haven, with tall, leafy trees and long patches of grass, surrounding modest one-story houses. Shejaiya is a densely populated neighborhood with barely any green spaces, where tens of thousands of people live in ugly high-rises, amid piles of rubble. From the access road to Nahal Oz, you can easily see five huge stacks of dirt and dust in Shejaiya that were once multi-story buildings, but were taken down by the IDF after Hamas used them for shooting rockets. Their ruins have remained in place ever since the latest war.
My visiting friend wanted to go and have a look at Gaza, so we went to a point at the edge of the kibbutz that offers a good look across the border. On the way we passed by the kibbutz's pool, with its crystal clear, cool water. It was 8 p.m. and the sun was making its way into the Mediterranean, but while on our side of the border, street lamps were beginning to light up, in Shejaiya everything remained dark. Not just the streets; also the visible homes and apartments, which house hundreds if not thousands of people. Had we returned to that spot two hours later, we would hardly see anything across the border. I've been living in Nahal Oz for almost a year and have gone to the observation point dozens of times, but only once at night. It's too depressing to look at the complete darkness on the other side and realize that many people actually live in it.
After staring at the destruction across the border, we returned to my house for Shabbat dinner. We sat on the wooden porch with glasses of wine and enjoyed a cool breeze coming in from Gaza's seashore, only 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) away. The setting was perfect, like a scene from a tourism advertisement. Then, without any warning, the shooting started.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/29/2015 06:00:00 PM

"Winning a Debate With an Israel-Hater" was released earlier this month, and it is a nice addition to anyone's reading list.

Dr. Michael Harris, a member of StandWithUs, sees first hand the anti-Israel protests in the San Francisco Bay area. He brings years of experience to explain how to confront and make fools of the haters.

The book itself is relatively short, more a handbook than a reference work.

The focus of the book is not to explain everything about the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is very specifically to show the audience of any public encounter between pro- and anti-Israel forces that the haters have no consistent position, except hate itself. So therefore he concentrates more on demolishing the actual types of people who mindlessly spout anti-Israel slogans, whom he calls PIDS (People with Israel Derangement Syndrome,)

That being said, there is a short history lesson so that those who want to defend Israel know the basics.

Most of the arguments would be familiar to readers of this blog. But this is not a book on how to fisk the more clever haters who write articles and books.

Harris is somewhat irreverent and brings a light tone to the book. He includes a humorous "Palestinese Lexicon" in one chapter, for example.

Harris shows how to make the haters admit that they really want to destroy Israel, which is enough to win the debate (in the US at least.) He points out hypocrisy in their arguments, and describes how the UN is biased, He smartly tries to stay away from explicitly accusing the haters of anti-semitism. There are chapters about BDS, the "one state solution" and he briefly shows how many of the more visible anti-Israel "intellectuals" are corrupt.

The book is clearly written to use liberal arguments for Israel, which is a good strategy in San Francisco. But it brings up one of its faults,, which is that Harris doesn't go after J-Street, making them look more misguided than evil. (I mentioned that to him and he replied that he agonized over that decision, but this way fit better with the aim of the book.)

I wish the book was better formatted and that it had an index to quickly look up the proper rebuttals to various points. But altogether, while is it a short read, it is a worthwhile book to get.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/29/2015 04:00:00 PM

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

The World Zionist Congress met last week for the 37^th time since it was founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. Like many Jewish institutions today, it has become a battleground for the Right and Left. But what happened at the meeting put into clear focus that the struggle is really between Zionism and … something else.

An organization called LAVI introduced a resolution (the English version is here) calling for the recognition of the Jewish people as an indigenous nation:

The bill declared that "the Jewish people is a Semitic people, indigenous to the Land of Israel and seeking international recognition of its indigenous status" …

The proposal argued that "Israel’s contrived Western identity" was not only handing ammunition to its enemies to falsely label Zionism as a "colonialist" project, but that it was also placing an artificial barrier preventing peace between Israel and its other "Semitic" neighbors.

It included a statement that it "does not negate the indigenous status of any other people." Nevertheless, it barely passed, by a vote of 51% of the delegates.

I believe that the essence of Zionism is the assertion that the Jews are an indigenous people to the land of Israel, with indigenous rights (sometimes called aboriginal rights) in the land. In fact, the Jewish people are one of the oldest documented indigenous peoples, with a unique language, culture, religion and history tied directly to the land of Israel.

The resolution refers to the struggle of the Jews to return to the land after displacement by “Roman imperialism,” but it could also have mentioned the conflict between the Jews and the Arab imperialists of the seventh century or the Jordanian and Egyptian ones that invaded the land in 1948.

A moment’s reflection should suffice to show that the narrative by which the Jews suddenly appeared in 1880 or 1948 to dispossess a flourishing ‘Palestinian’ people is nonsense. Jews have been physically present here to some extent since biblical times, and they are the paradigm case of ‘a people’ in history. ‘Palestinians’, on the other hand, are Arabs who are mostly descended from recent arrivals from Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Transjordan. Their specifically ‘Palestinian’ culture developed very recently, in opposition to what they see as the threat of Jewish (non-Arab and non-Muslim) sovereignty. They didn’t even call themselves ‘Palestinians’ until the 1960s; and prior to 1948, ‘Palestinian’ meant ‘Palestinian Jew’.

The Arabs know that Zionism rests on Jewish peoplehood, and on the connection of the Jewish people to the land – our indigenousness. They know that their moral case to displace us is based on the argument that they are a long-term indigenous people and we are European colonialists. Thus they insist there is no Jewish people, only a religion. Thus they attempt to erase Jewish history in the land – by arrogating Jewish holy sites to themselves and by physically destroying archaeological evidence of the ancient Jewish presence. Their claims may appear ludicrous, but they have been successful in persuading large numbers of people.

But the insistence on our indigenous rights is more than just a response to the Arab attempt to invert reality. It is an answer to the most basic questions that can be asked about Zionism: Why does there need to be a Jewish state? Why not a democratic state of its citizens? And why does it need to be here?

The answers are provided, ironically, by the UN, in its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007, which asserts the right of self-determination as well as the rights to maintain the culture, institutions, religion, and language for indigenous peoples. It grants them the right to live in peace and security, and to not be subjected to genocide or expulsion from their native lands. It calls for them to have free access to their religious sites, and for them to be free from incitement to racial hatred against them.

Zionism is the principle, justified by historical experience, that these rights can be guaranteed for the Jewish people only in a state under Jewish sovereignty.

So why was there so much opposition to the passage of this resolution? After all, it was the World Zionist Congress.

The opposition came from delegates associated with the Union for Reform Judaism (the largest faction among the American delegates), the Conservative Movement, and especially a ‘progressive’ group called Hatikvah which included representatives of J Street, the New Israel Fund, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, and numerous other left-of-center factions.

Writing on LAVI’s Facebook page, founder Ilan Roth asked,

The fact that so many self-defined Zionists … not only opposed this resolution but also fought for a revote after narrowly losing only causes us to wonder about the fundamental assumptions upon which they are operating. Do they genuinely want to see themselves as white colonialists rather than as Semites?

Why indeed? My suspicion is that the ones farther to the left (like Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu) are ideologically married to the idea that the Jews are colonists and the Arabs indigenous. To believe anything else would violate their post-colonialist conceptual scheme, which would be too cognitively dissonant for them. More moderate delegates may have felt that an assertion that that Jews have a right or connection to the land that Arabs don’t would damage the holy “two-state solution” that they are eternally seeking. Maybe some simply don’t want to make the Arabs morefrustrated and furious than they already are.

I shouldn’t be too hard on the liberal ‘Zionists’ of the WZC, though, because Israel’s own government is schizophrenic about its Zionism. While the government is not talking about indigenousness, they are considering a “Jewish state law” (temporarily on hold) which will add to the Basic Laws – Israel’s substitute for an actual constitution – some kind of statement that while all citizens have civil and political rights, the Jewish people have ‘national rights’. This is intended to balance the ‘Jewish’ and ‘democratic’ characteristics of the state that are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. There is already a Basic Law about democracy, but none about Jewishness.

The same kind of people that think that the Jewish people have indigenous rights also tend to think they have ‘national’ ones, rights to symbols like the national anthem and flag, and the primary national language. A “Basic Law: The Jewish State” might also legitimize a Law of Return for Jews without requiring one for Arabs, justify efforts to increase Jewish aliyah, to teach Tanach and Jewish History in schools, to support synagogues with public funds, and more. It would, its backers hope, prevent concern for Arab rights to erode Jewish ones.

Various formulations of such a law have been proposed, and the Left despises all of them, because in their post-Zionist hearts they don’t believe that Jews and Arabs should be unequal in any way. They might oppose transitioning from a Jewish state with an Arab minority to a ‘state of its citizens’ for practical reasons, but it is a matter of pride for them to at least pretend to be ethnically blind. They don’t see any special reason that Israel should not be like Western Europe or the US in that respect (apparently they haven’t looked at Sweden lately).

One way or another, Israel will have to face the question of whether it will continue to be an expression of the Zionist ideal or try to become a tiny Sweden. I think the answer to which of these is more likely to survive and thrive is obvious.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/29/2015 02:00:00 PM

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 10/29 Links Pt1: Murdered American a Challenge to J Street; Fatah posts Nazi book: Don't trust a fox or a Jew

From Ian:

Palestinian Murder of American-Israeli Poses Challenge to J Street

Will the murder of fellow-peace activist Richard Lakin spur J Street, Americans for Peace Now, and other left-of-center groups to follow Leonard Fein's footsteps and speak out?
And not just speak out in general, vague terms--but ask for specific actions, such as:
1. According to the media, one of Lakin's killers was a member of Fatah, the PLO faction that is headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. J Street should demand that Abbas order Fatah to pay restitution to the Lakin family.
2. Peace groups should urge the Obama administration to demand that the PA hand over Abd al-Majid Dudin and other Palestinian killers of Americans to the United States for prosecution. More than 130 American citizens have been killed by Palestinian terrorists since the 1960s--yet not one of the killers has yet been brought to justice in America.
3. J Street should announce that it will no longer take part in meetings in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's capital, until the PA changes the names of streets and parks in Ramallah that are named after Dalal Mugrahbi, a terrorist who murdered Gail Rubin, the niece of the late U.S. Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-Connecticut)--another prominent figure in the left-of-center camp.
It should not matter that Richard Lakin was a peace activist, that Joan Davenny was a friend of a Peace Now leader, or that Gail Rubin was the niece of a liberal Democratic senator. But those are the facts.
For J Street and its allies, Palestinian terrorism is striking close to home. Perhaps these tragedies will help them recognize that speaking out against Palestinian terrorism is not a right-wing or left wing issue--it is a matter of justice, on which everyone should be able to agree.

Another American Victim of Palestinian Terror: Why it Matters

American taxpayers should care for another reason: the US government sends $500 million of their tax dollars to the Palestinian Authority (PA) every year. So the public has a right to expect the government to intervene when PA employees or PA-incited terrorists murder our citizens, or when the PA names streets, parks, and soccer teams after murderers of Americans.
The American government, too, has a special obligation with regard to American victims of Palestinian terrorism.
First, there is a legal obligation. American citizens, whether they are visiting, studying, or living abroad, are still American citizens. They pay taxes just like the rest of us, and in return the US government has a legal responsibility to act when they are harmed by terrorists abroad just as it would have an obligation to act if they are harmed by terrorists within the US.
Second, the US government has a strategic obligation to act. Fighting Palestinian terrorism must be part of America’s global war on terror. Bringing Palestinian killers of Americans to trial in the US would contribute significantly to anti-terror efforts, by making it clear to Palestinian terrorists that they could face the death penalty, or at least life in prison with no hope of release in a prisoner exchange — something that is not the case when they kill Israelis.
So, yes, it is relevant that Richard Lakin was an American. It’s not just a question of narrow national pride, or ethnic solidarity, or curiosity. For important moral, legal, and strategic reasons, the American victims of Palestinian terrorism should matter to American Jews, to the American public, and to the American government.

PMW Fatah posts Nazi children's book: Don’t trust a fox or a Jew

Today, on its official Facebook page, Abbas' Fatah movement posted the cover of an Antisemitic children's book from Germany from 1936.
Posted text: "The cover of one of the children's books in Germany in 1936 whose title is:
'Trust no fox on his green meadow, and trust no Jew on his oath'"
[Official Facebook page of the Fatah movement, Oct. 29, 2015]

Israel: Abbas’s UNHRC speech is 'the banalization of the spilling of Jewish blood'

Israel charged that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “glorified” violence against Israelis and further “fanned the flames of the conflict” during his speech before a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.
“What we have witnessed today is the glorification of terror and violence,” Israel’s Ambassador to the UNHRC Eviatar Manor told diplomatic corp in Geneva hours after Abbas’s speech.
“What the Council allowed today is the banalization of the spilling of Jewish blood,” Manor said.
In his speech to the UNHRC Abbas said that the violence in the last few weeks was fueled by built up frustration over Israel’s “occupation of Palestine” and changes it had made to the status quo in the Al-Aksa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Abbas made no mention of the 11 Israelis killed by Palestinian assailants in some 30 attacks against Israelis since the start of October. Instead he accused Israel instead of “extra-judicial killings” and “war crimes” against his people.

Analysis: Why Palestinian attacks have shifted from Jerusalem to West Bank

According to diplomatic sources, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a directive 10 days ago to halt all attacks in Jerusalem and instead place the focus on Judea and Samaria, with a special emphasis on the Gush Etzion and Hebron areas.
Israeli officials say that the attacks committed against Israeli civilians and passersby generated fierce international criticism. By concentrating their efforts in targeting soldiers in Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians believe that they could soften the blow of global public opinion.
Ever since the attacks have shifted to Judea and Samaria, security forces say there has been an overall drop in the violence. It appears that Israel has a much easier time dealing with knife-based terrorism aimed at soldiers than it does stopping attacks in the alleys of Jerusalem.
The sharp decrease in the number of attacks could be attributed mostly to the tighter security cooperation between the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the IDF, and the elite units of both the army and the police in the Judea and Samaria theater. The dragnet and wave of arrests carried out in the last week is the most extensive since Operation Brother's Keeper, the code-name for the effort to track down the three kidnapped teenagers.
In the last week, over 200 wanted Palestinians have been arrested throughout the West Bank. The security forces have been active in detaining Palestinians from various villages, towns, and refugee camps. Of those arrested, 53 belong to the Islamist Hamas movement.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Kerry: Palestinian leaders must stop incitement

The Palestinian leadership must cease inciting to violence and offer something concrete to Israelis, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday.
It is “absolutely vital” for Israel to take steps “that empower Palestinian leaders to improve economic opportunity and the quality of their lives on a day to day basis,” Kerry said in a speech in Washington to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It is “equally important,” he said, “for Palestinian leaders to cease the incitement of violence and offer something more than rhetoric.”
Instead, the Palestinians need to “propose solutions that will contribute in a real way to the improvement of life, to the reduction of violence and to the safety and security of Israelis,” Kerry said.
His speech came the same day that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that “Israel is systematically violating the principles of international law and acting as a state above the law,” and called for International “protection” for the Palestinians.

Palestinian Child Soldiers: The Horrifying Silence

The use of child soldiers is an unquestionable evil. This is because when child soldiers are used not only can’t their be any winners, but it makes any kind of real peace that much harder to attain. There is a line that is attributed to Golda Meir, “We can forgive them for killing our children, but we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.” No sane person wants to kill children, it is abhorrent to us, against our very nature and biology. The use of child soldiers is designed to either kill the enemy or force the enemy to become a child killer, with all of the vast psychological damage that would do to someone. It’s a double attack, a physical attack, but much more harmfully, it is a vicious psychological attack. I can’t imagine the heartache I would feel if I had to make the choice of killing a child or letting that child kill me or others. How can anyone be expected to remain whole after being forced to make that choice? The damage is so much worse than loss, I would expect that it would damage a person’s soul. Beyond that, this strategy destroys or poisons an entire generation of Palestinian children, and the Palestinians have already lost too many generations children, both as soldiers and civilians. This strategy literally kills the future of the Palestinian people.
How can this sort of atrocity be ignored by the world? Why don’t we hear anything from the press about this? While I see reports and resolutions about child soldiers all over the world, why don’t we see anything about it here? Why is this allowed to continue without comment. We Israelis don’t even talk about it. We cower at the idea of the International Criminal Court, but the case against the PA and Hamas is much stronger and getting stronger everyday as both of these governments blatantly, publicly and admittedly continue to use child soldiers.

IDF Expects Terror to Continue for ‘Weeks to Come’

The IDF expects the current wave of terrorist attacks, including rock-throwing and firebombings, to continue “in the coming weeks.” In a letter obtained by The JewishPress.com and sent by a brigade commander to residents under his command in Judea and Samaria, he wrote:
The challenge we face is not a short-term issue and from what I know, it will continue in the coming weeks with the understanding that there are many factors that influence the security situation.

The IDF, Border Police, police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and civilian security forces continue to work night and day to return to residents a sense of security. The army has significantly beefed up patrols and guard posts on Highway 60, the major artery linking northern Samaria with Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arba-Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills. The brigade commander also wrote:
I promise we will get through this period and, God willing, return security and the feeling of security.

IDF doubles units deployed in Gush Etzion

In light of the continuous spate of Palestinian knife attacks on Israelis in the Gush Etzion junction area, the IDF has doubled the number of units securing the area.
Military sources told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the move is part of a wider effort by the Judea and Samaria Division and Central Command to protect civilians from knife terrorism plaguing the Gush Etzion junction very frequently in recent days.
“We are preparing for this wave of terrorism to become prolonged, and we are preparing for the potential of an escalation,” one of the sources said. “We are adjusting the way we activate forces to deal with knife attacks.”
Col. Roman Gofman, commander of the IDF’s Gush Etzion Brigade, issued instructions to step up patrols around a gas station in the area, and at other spots prone to knife attacks.
Concrete blocks have been set up around bus stops and hitchhiking posts, and cameras, which dot the area, help the IDF investigate past incidents and evaluate the security situation.

Beit Hagai mother of eight slashed by terrorist near Gush Etzion junction

A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a mother of eight in the back at the Gush Etzion junction late Wednesday afternoon.
Nirit Zimora, of the Beit Hagai settlement in the South Hebron Hills, was rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem with the knife still in her back.
She underwent surgery and was listed in satisfactory condition.
Security forces surrounded and arrested the terrorist. This is the third attack in the Gush Etzion region since Sunday and the second at that junction.

Condition of Gush Etzion stabbing victim improving

Shaare Zedek Medical Center announced Thursday morning a slight improvement in the condition of the woman injured in a stabbing attack outside the Rami Levy supermarket in Gush Etzion.
After being stabbed and moderately wounded by an Arab terrorist Wednesday afternoon, the woman was evacuated to the Jerusalem hospital with the knife still in her back.
The knife's blade was removed from her spine during surgery and she is now being treated in the intensive care unit, in stable condition.
A similar attack occurred Tuesday evening, when a soldier was stabbed by two terrorists at the Gush Etzion Junction.
The 19-year-old was evacuated to Shaare Zedek in moderate condition, with stab wounds to his upper body; the two terrorists were shot dead by security forces on scene.

Hebron: Two knife-wielding Palestinians shot dead in separate incidents

The West Bank town of Hebron was the scene of two separate knife attacks against security forces on Thursday morning, resulting in the shooting deaths both Palestinian assailants.
A Palestinian assailant stabbed and lightly wounded an IDF soldier in the head near a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday morning.
The officer quickly recovered from the attack and chased the assailant who tried to stab a border policeman at the scene.
Another Border Police officer standing nearby shot and killed the knife-wielding assailant, according to a police statement.
The soldier was treated at the scene and transported by Magen David Adom ambulance to the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem.
The attack occurred on the sidelines of a violent clash between Palestinians and security forces near a checkpoint on the road in between the Kiryat Arba settlement and the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Critically Wounded Soldier Regains Consciousness, Recounts Shooting Attacker; Palestinians Praise Terrorist

The Israeli soldier critically wounded in a stabbing attack at an intersection near the West Bank village of Beit Anoun on Monday regained consciousness on Wednesday morning after being in a medically induced coma.
Remarkably, he remembered many of the details of his brush with death, Israeli Channel 2 reported.
From his bed at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Sgt. Gilad described being stabbed and – while bleeding profusely – shooting and killing his attacker.
Hospital staff told Channel 2 that what saved Gilad’s life was the emergency treatment he got from paramedics at the attack site, as well as the swift action of police, who cleared traffic for the ambulance to pass.
According to Channel 2, this was not the first time Gilad’s family has been summoned to the hospital under dire circumstances. Just over a year ago, Gilad’s brother was critically wounded during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, but survived.
The terrorist who stabbed Gilad was later identified as Raed Jaradat. According to Palestinian Media Watch, Jaradat was honored late Monday on the official Facebook page of Fatah, the organization dominating the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

Suspected Afula terror attack was attempt at suicide by cop, indictment says

According to the indictment, "the background to the incident was the emotional state of the defendant and her prior suicide attempts. She decided to try and commit suicide again, among other reasons because of a romantic relationship that had ended."
The indictment describes how Zidane arrived at the Afula bus station at 1pm on October 9th and "posed as someone committing a stabbing attack with the goal that security personnel would shoot and kill her."
After arriving at the station, Zidane stood next to a group of people – including uniformed soldiers – who were waiting to board buses. She then raised the knife "out in the open, in a threatening manner towards the people standing next to her, but did not stab anyone", the indictment reads.
Zidane then yelled at a group of soldiers "you are terrorists", which the indictment says was "done with the goal of causing them to shoot her dead."
Prosecutors referred to Zidane repeatedly as being dangerous to herself and others, because of her emotional state, and that "she has proven that she will do anything in order to carry out her goals, and will not hesitate to use any means to do so."

PM said to mull establishing a ‘special terror court’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering the establishment of a special court for security matters, he told Knesset members at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier this week.
According to a report published Thursday in the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz, the prime minister mentioned the special “terror court” among a list of steps either implemented or being weighed by the government in its attempts to counter Palestinian terrorists in recent weeks.
Several of the MKs at the meeting, the report said, sought clarification from the prime minister on the nature of this new court, but the prime minister did not elaborate.
The court, two MKs quoted anonymously by the paper said, would handle issues such as detention of terror suspects without charges, revocations of citizenship or residency from terrorists, home demolitions, and security offenses such as terror attacks and the funding or abetting of terrorism.

3,000 Moroccans Sign Petition Condemning Incitement to Murder Jews

At least 3,000 Moroccans signed a petition condemning what they said was incitement to murder Jews on full display during a Palestinian solidarity demonstration in Casablanca this week, Egyptian newspaper Youm7 reported on Wednesday.
The petition urged Moroccan authorities to hold rally organizers accountable for the mock executions of Jews and other inciting displays, which it called illegal. Also identified by the petition, which was titled “Moroccan Citizens Gathered Against Incitement to Kill Jews in Morocco,” were demonstrators dressed as Palestinians, with assault rifles pointed at others dressed as Orthodox Jews, and children trampling on the Star of David.
Video footage from the demonstration, reported by The Algemeiner, showed children marching and shouting “Death to Israel!” and “We will sacrifice our soul and our blood to you, Al-Aqsa,” in reference to the holy site also known as the Temple Mount.
Signatories expressed concern about the reaction of Morocco’s Jewish community, which today numbers under 3,000, and said the demonstration had offended many Muslims as well. They said antisemitism threatened the pluralism and tolerance enshrined in Moroccan law.

Hidden camera reveals: Why was a Christian activist expelled from Temple Mount?

The Danish pro-Israel, Temple Mount activist Jane Kiel, also known as Jerusalem Jane, was removed from the Temple Mount by officials of the Jordanian Islamic Waqf that administers the site on Wednesday.
Kiel came to Israel several years ago and says that since then “my destiny, my love, my heart has been here in Israel.”
A frequent visitor to the Temple Mount, Kiel was apprehended at the site on Wednesday by the Waqf official who called out to her by her name Jane.
She was told to leave the site and a colleague who was videoing her visit was told to stop recording and instructed to delete the video.
The officials were clearly familiar with her pro-Israel activism from her online activity on her website and Facebook page.
When Kiel asked why she was being removed, the Waqf official told her it was due to a video she had produced of herself singing the ‘Shema Yisrael” prayer just outside the Dome of the Rock shrine in September.

PA official: Al-Aqsa belongs to us, Israel won't intervene

A senior Palestinian Arab official declared on Wednesday that the Arabs will not allow “the Israeli occupation”, as he put it, to intervene in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, even for the purpose of installing security cameras as agreed upon with Secretary of State John Kerry.
Speaking with Hamas’s Palestine newspaper, the Director of the Department of Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem, Azzam al-Ahmed, stressed that the department receives instructions only from Jordan.
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque, whose area is 144 dunams, is under the supervision of the Director of Islamic Endowments, which is part of the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Amman and does not belong to any other party," stressed Ahmed.
Commenting on the prevention of installing security cameras at the Temple Mount compound, Ahmed said, "We installed the cameras according to a directive from Amman. Our position is clear and the position of the Jordanian king and the Jordanian government is clear and that is that the Al-Aqsa Mosque, its management and renovation, are the authority of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and the Department of Religious Endowments in Jerusalem, and not of anyone else, and has no connection to Israel."
"We will in no way allow Israel to intervene on the issue of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or on any other issue,” stressed Ahmed, who continued, "The Al-Aqsa Mosque is sacred, and any harm to it would endanger everyone, and that is a clear red line."

Qatari minister says Israel is 'offending 1.5 billion Muslims'

Qatar’s Foreign Minister on Wednesday ruled out the possibility that his country would cooperate with Israel, accusing the Jewish state of “offending 1.5 billion Muslims”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera and quoted by Haaretz, the minister, Khalid Al Attiyah, said, “I don’t think we are in a position to have any cooperation with Israel at this stage” in the absence of a peace process.
He proceeded to accused Israel of being provocative regarding the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
“You are offending 1.5 billion Muslims when you are talking about the Masjid Al Aqsa…and we have raised the flag before,” said Al Attiya, who warned that the current unrest is a "third intifada" that could become "the worst intifada" yet.
“The people who went to the street… [were] born after the Oslo Treaty and they saw there is no hope,” he claimed.

Honest Reporting: Audio: The Violence is Not Random

The New York Times ALMOST got it right in a story about Palestinian terrorism when they said that Palestinian leaders “seemed” to fan the violence and even celebrate the killers. But the PA does not just “seem” to be engaging in incitement — they outright glorify terrorism and promote terrorists as heroes.
Need proof? The Palestinians recently named a street after the man who stabbed two Jews to death in the Old City. Most people have not heard that story because of the media’s failure to cover Palestinian incitement. You can demand they do by signing our petition.
Yarden Frankl on the Mottle Wolfe Show discusses the accuracy of media coverage and what is NOT being covered.

How the Guardian just legitimized a Palestinian conspiracy theory

And, in the Guardian, a report by their Middle East editor Ian Black on Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN Human Rights Council included the following passages:
Shortly after Abbas made his appeal at the UN human rights council in Geneva on Wednesday soldiers shot a Palestinian dead at a security checkpoint in the West Bank town of Hebron, where hundreds of militant Jewish settlers live and there is also strong support for the Islamist movement Hamas.
Maan, the Palestinian news agency, cited unnamed witnesses saying that Israeli troops shot the man 11 times and planted a knife by his corpse. Israel TV reported that he had tried to stab soldiers and had been “neutralised”.
Of course, the only evidence presented in the Maan report – as Black himself acknowledges – are the claims of unnamed activists.
So, was Black, a journalist with decades of experience covering the Middle East, really unable to contextualize the accusation by noting the popularity of such wild conspiracy theories in the region? In Black’s view, are Israeli and Palestinian “claims” regarding the incident in Hebron equally credible? Was his reaction to Palestinian claims about the knife being planted not at all influenced by the plethora of evidence over the last month demonstrating the undeniable reality of dozens of such attacks?
As Sternthal observed in her CAMERA post, the job of journalists covering the region is to deliver facts, not to uncritically repeat, thus legitimizing, unfounded allegations which only serve to reinforce the growing Palestinian incitement industry.

Disturbing themes in BBC coverage of the wave of terror in Israel

Had BBC audiences received comprehensive information over the past four weeks on the topic of the incitement concerning Temple Mount which has been put out by Palestinian Authority sources and officials of the highest level (among others), they might have been able to understand what causes those “deaf ears”.
Likewise, had they been informed of the religious motifs evident in much of that incitement, they would have been better placed to join the dots between the whipping up of anger to a point at which young Palestinians murder Jews on the street in Jerusalem and the murders of cartoonists and Jews in a shop in Paris or a British soldier on a London street.
But of course the topic of the incitement fueling this wave of terror – and in particular that disseminated by the ‘moderate’ Palestinian Authority and its ‘secular’ president – has been studiously avoided by the BBC over the last few weeks, except when alluded to briefly using the standard ‘Israel says’ formula. The reason for that is that the religious aspect of this story is one which does not comfortably fit into the BBC’s wider narrative and so it has been consistently sidelined in favour of ‘contextualisation’ featuring ‘occupation’, ‘humiliation’ and ‘failure of the peace process’.

BBC News finds Halloween costume newsworthy – terror victims and missile attack not

If you happen to get your news from the BBC News website, you might be under the false impression that the wave of terror in Israel has come to an end. The last mention of any of the still ongoing attacks came in an article published on October 24th and the last report on incidents appeared on October 22nd. The news that a third victim of the terror attack on a Jerusalem bus on October 13th succumbed to wounds sustained in that attack has not been reported by the BBC.
However, those visiting the BBC News website on October 27th discovered that the corporation has not entirely lost interest in Israel related topics. Whilst ignoring yet another missile attack from the Gaza Strip and several stabbing attacks, editors did find it essential to inform audiences that “Walmart’s Israeli army Halloween costume sparks controversy“.

IsraellyCool: More “Poop” Than “Scoop”: Embarrassing Fail From The Mirror

Emerged online? Hardly! This “scoop” related to an event which is 3 years old – and is none other than the “incident” staged by the Tamimis, which really put Shirley Temper on the map.
Here is what seems to have happened: A pathological Israel hater named CJ Werleman tweeted this on October 22:
Because Israel haters love recycling (in addition to lying and fabricating).
Journalist Elle Griffiths saw this and thought she had the makings of a great story: a real-life, modern day “David and Goliath” story. So she rushed to get it published, without doing the minimum of due diligence.
Like a simple Google search for ‘palestinian girl israeli soldier’. Or a reverse image search.
Heck, Shirley (and her brother) was all over the news recently. How could a journalist miss that?
Why is it that an unpaid blogger like me does such due diligence for everything I publish, yet this journalist does not bother?

PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinian Newsmen Accused Of Witchcraft For Conjuring ‘Witnesses’ (satire)

The official Palestinian news agency Ma’an found itself on the receiving end of sorcery accusations today, following several weeks of instances in which the agency’s reporters created witnesses out of thin air to dispute Israeli reports of Palestinian attacks on Jews.
Prosecutors at the Palestine Office of Public Enforcement confirmed today (Thursday) they are opening an investigation into Ma’an on possible charges of witchcraft. In dozens of cases over the last several weeks, the announcement said, Ma’an has cited numerous eyewitnesses who, apparently by magic, both saw events that video footage and other evidence do not corroborate, and denied the willing participation of Palestinians in any stabbings or other attacks.
Prosecutor Salem Salem detaled for reporters fifteen sample incidents over the last week alone in which Ma’an cited “witnesses” who saw Israeli forces “plant” a knife on or near the body of each neutralized attacker, or who saw Israelis attack or harass the accused attacker before the latter reacted. In every case, said Salem, “We have been unable to confirm the existence of these witnesses through normal human channels, leading us to suspect that Ma’an has conjured those people when reporting on the events, an act that violates our criminal code.”
While Palestinian criminal law is not specifically Islamic, many Islamic sensibilities are incorporated in to the code, among them the ban on all forms of magic. If convicted, the relevant journalists may face penalties as severe as execution, although some legal experts acknowledge the mitigating circumstances of maintaining the national Palestinian image of absolute victimhood vis-à-vis Israel. Editors and other supervisors of the accused persons might also face disciplinary action, but the nature of that action is left to the discretion of the judiciary.

World Health Organization Links Falafel and Hummus to Religious Fanaticism (satire)

Days after releasing a report linking processed meat to cancer, the World Health Organization has unveiled a disturbing new study that examined the dietary habits of individuals from countries around the world and determined that people who consume a high amount of falafel and other chickpea-based food items are at significantly higher risk of being involved in an intractable religious or sectarian conflict.
“Our studies found that test subjects who consumed falafel or hummus three times a week or more were more likely to establish a caliphate, be beheaded due to their belief in a hidden imam, or live in a makeshift trailer in an illegal settlement outpost in the Judean hills out of a heartfelt believe that it’s the will of God,” the WHO noted in their report. “Anyone looking to reduce their risk of such outcomes is urged to consider eliminating ground chickpeas from their diet immediately.”
The revelation came as a shock to many falafel lovers, who were unaware of any connection between consumption of the Middle Eastern street food and religious radicalization.
“I always wondered why, after moving from London to Iraq, my interests began shifting from birdwatching and rap music to beheading Christians and Yazidis,” explained former ISIS member Jihadi John. “Now it all makes sense.”

Saudi Prince Apprehended in Largest Drug Bust in Beirut History

A Saudi Prince and four others were detained at Beirut Airport on Monday on charges that they were trafficking a massive drug supply to customers throughout the region.
Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz, a member of the extensive Saudi Royal Family, and four other unnamed Saudi citizens attempted “to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine” through Beirut Airport, a Lebanese security source told AFP.
“The smuggling operation is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut International Airport” in the nation’s history, the unnamed source added.
Captagon is a brand name for fenethylline, a popular drug that has been consumed by individuals fighting in the Syrian civil war. It is used as a stimulant for the militants on the ground, who have been engaged in an ongoing war since 2011.
The giant supply of drugs was being loaded onto a private jet for transport into Saudi Arabia, the unnamed official said, adding that the five Saudis were still being held for questioning, according to the report.

Saudis Admit 'Mistake' in Bombing Doctors Without Borders in Yemen

While the Obama administration deals with the fallout from bombing a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan, the Saudis have a similar situation on their hands in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi insurgents.
The organization, also known by the acronym MSF after its French name Medicins Sans Frontieres, claims that five airstrikes from the Saudi coalition struck its clinic in the Haydan district in Yemen’s northern province of Saada. A spokeswoman told CNN the facility serves 200,000 people in the area and has treated 3,400 casualties since May.
According to the CNN report, officials from the Yemeni Health Ministry confirmed the bombing, while claiming that “most of the victims treated there were ordinary civilians and that the facility treats very few families or relatives of Houthi loyalists.”
The head of the MSF project in Yemen, Hassan Bourcenine, told the New York Times that “the hospital was hit by several airstrikes while roughly a dozen patients and staff members were inside. The operating theater and maternity ward were struck. The staff evacuated the hospital between strikes, and one staff member was slightly injured in the escape.”

Jailed, flogged Saudi blogger wins EU rights prize

Raif Badawi was honored with the award as a symbol of the fight for freedom of speech — an announcement greeted with a standing ovation Thursday at the European Parliament assembly in Strasbourg, France.
“I urge the king of Saudi Arabia to free him, so he can accept the prize,” Parliament President Martin Schulz said.
Schulz described Badawi as “an extremely good man, an exemplary man who has had imposed on him one of the most gruesome penalties that exist in this country, which can only be described as brutal torture.”
Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted of insulting Islam and breaking Saudi Arabia’s technology laws with his liberal blog. He also was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, spread over 20 installments, and fined $266,000. The flogging has been suspended since he received 50 lashes in January, a punishment that sparked international outrage.
Western governments have condemned Badawi’s treatment, and rights groups including Amnesty International have campaigned for his release.

Spoiler: Benny Gantz wasn’t captured by Iraqi forces

Rumors that a high-ranking IDF officer had been captured while working alongside Islamic State forces began circulating on the Internet last week, beginning on assorted websites dedicated almost solely to starting and perpetuating conspiracy theories and later being picked up by the Iranian government’s official mouthpiece Fars news.
An Israeli brigadier general or colonel — the reports vary — from the Golani Brigade named Yussi Elon Shahak was allegedly caught by Iraqi forces, the websites claim.
“The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group’s terrorist operations,” the Fars News Agency claimed an Iraqi commander said.
The assertion was backed up with a photograph of the offending officer and turned into a readily sharable graphic, which was promptly shared on Facebook and Twitter.
In fact, the photograph does not show a brigadier general or a colonel, the man in it is not named Yussi Shahak and all of the so-called proof offered falls apart almost immediately when held up to any level of scrutiny.
While no discerning person could believe the bogus claim, for the sake of thoroughness The Times of Israel has broken down the allegations, as presented by the conspiracy theorizers, fact by fact for your enlightenment and entertainment:

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/29/2015 12:00:00 PM