www.youtube.com A short documentary produced by Shavei Israel on the aliyah of Jews from Kaifeng China to Israel.
http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com/  | | Mohammad Bakri (left) |
Bakri spliced together video footage shot during the offensive in which an Israeli tank [armored personnel carrier -- ed.] appears to trample a group of Palestinian prisoners. Bakri said there was no proof that incident ever took place, but that he was trying to demonstrate what an Israeli tank symbolized to Palestinians. — Joshua Mitnick in the NJ Star-Ledger, from Electronic Intifada [my italics]Fresnozionism.org
27 July '11
http://fresnozionism.org/2011/07/the-rest-of-the-story-about-mohammad-bakri/
This is a long post. But if you get bored, please make sure you read the last few paragraphs where the rest of the story is presented.
The Israeli Supreme Court has dismissed a libel suit against Israeli Arab filmmaker Mohammad Bakri. Here is some background, from a post I wrote in 2009 when the suit was filed:
You may recall that in 2002, after a horrendous wave of bombings and shootings in which hundreds of Israelis were murdered and thousands injured, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank to root out the terrorists responsible for it. One of their strongholds was the city of Jenin, in Northern Samaria. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the period of 2001-2002, 57 Israelis were killed and hundreds injured by terrorists based in or directed from Jenin alone. During April 3-11, 2002, IDF soldiers fought a fierce battle in Jenin with members of Fatah's al-Aqsa brigades, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
After the first day, the fighting moved to the adjacent 'refugee camp', which had been heavily fortified and booby-trapped by the Palestinians. Nevertheless, in order to reduce civilian casualties as much as possible, IDF soldiers fought house-to-house instead of employing artillery and air strikes. As a result — as ultimately attested to by the UN — only 52 Palestinians were killed, almost all combatants; but 23 Israeli soldiers were lost, 13 of them in one ambush on April 9.
After the battle, Palestinian spokesmen such as Nabil Sha'ath, Hassan Abdel Rahman, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Saeb Erakat, claimed that Israel had massacred hundreds of Palestinians, burying them in mass graves or leaving their bodies to decompose under the rubble. But unlike the situation in Gaza, the Palestinians did not control access to the area, and the truth ultimately came out (although, as CAMERA notes in the link above, the fact that they had lied through their teeth didn't seem to hurt the credibility of the Palestinian spokesmen with the international press).
The anti-Israel media, particularly in the UK, took up the story of the 'Jenin Massacre' with glee, embellishing it with ever-more bloody details and accusations of wanton Israeli cruelty. Alleged body counts rose to the thousands. And Mohammad Bakri's crude propaganda film won a film-festival prize for "Mediterranean Documentary Film-making and Reporting".
The film consists of after-the-fact interviews with Palestinians who tell ever more horrible stories, and 'visualizations' of events such as tanks crushing Palestinians which even Bakri admits didn't happen:
Jenin, Jenin director Muhammad Bakri will not be charged by the state with libel, Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz decided on Tuesday. However, Mazuz stressed that he would attend a hearing on an appeal filed to the Supreme Court by representatives of former combat soldiers who took part in the IDF incursion into the Jenin refugee camp during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. The soldiers and families are appealing a ruling by the Petah Tikva District Court in June 2008, which had rejected their civil libel suit against Bakri, whose film accused IDF soldiers of war crimes… The district court agreed that the film was libelous, but ruled that the individual soldiers could not seek redress for libel committed against "an entire group." As I reported once before, my daughter met Bakri in Tel Aviv a few years ago and asked him if he really believed that his film was accurate. He responded that he was an artist and not a historian, and that although perhaps all the details weren't accurate, the film was a true depiction of what Israel was doing to Palestinians. Bakri's theory of truth seems a bit different from mine.
The definitive refutation of Bakri's film is a short article by Dr. David Zangen, who was present during the battle as an IDF doctor, and even treated one of Bakri's interviewees. It's called Seven Lies about Jenin. Almost as interesting as his comments about the film is his account of the way the audience at a Jerusalem screening treated him.
The film was originally banned by Israel's film board, but the ban was overthrown by the Supreme Court. Bakri was then sued for civil libel by five IDF reservists who had taken part in the operation. However, the suit was thrown out because the judge ruled that while the film libeled IDF soldiers as a group, it did not single out these soldiers, so they did not have standing to sue.
Now the soldiers have appealed to the IDF Advocate General, who asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to indict Bakri on criminal charges. Bakri's response was typical: "This is the difference between me and the military advocate general: He is busy with murdering people and I am busy with art."
Bakri is wrong. He is as much a soldier in the war against Israel as any Hamas bomber. It is unacceptable that he be allowed to use 'art' as a shield and to benefit from Israel's free society as he does his best to destroy it. He should be indicted and held responsible for his actions.
Mazuz did not indict Bakri, but rather chose to support the appeal to the Supreme Court. Here is a news report from January 5, 2010:
In dismissing the suit, the judges ruled that even though Bakri's film was "full of things that are not true" and even though it was hurtful to the feelings of the five soldiers, there was no provision under the law for them to bring a civil claim against Bakri because the film made reference to the IDF's operations in Jenin as a whole and not to any specific soldier. Now the appeal has been denied on the same grounds:
Almost certainly this puts a final end to the issue: Bakri, who deliberately made a film full of vicious lies in order to promote the destruction of the state of which he is a citizen and which gives him the opportunity to practice his 'art', will suffer no negative consequences for it.
And now, as the great Paul Harvey would have said, for the rest of the story:
Bakri's latest film was made in 2005, about his difficulties after Jenin, Jenin. On June 18, this film was screened in New York in an event paid for by the New Israel Fund (NIF). You can read the NIF's fulsome account of it here, including the repetition of some of the lies told by this "esteemed actor and director" (their words).
Let's see: the NIF supported most of the NGOs that provided material for the Goldstone Report, it supported a coalition of groups that advocate an economic boycott of Israel, and it supports groups who are practicing 'lawfare' against Israel, including the arrest of Israelis in Europe for 'war crimes' (all of this is documented here).
Now it is paying to provide an audience for an admitted liar and anti-Israel propagandist in the US!
How long will it take for the liberal American Jews who support the NIF — including Rabbi Richard Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism — to learn whom they are really helping?
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carolineglick.com
27 July '11
http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/07/no-prizes-for-erdogan.php
Shortly after Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Recip Erdogan came to power in 2002, he began undermining Turkey's strategic alliance with Israel. Erdogan officially ended the alliance last May when he sent the IHH, an al Qaeda-aligned, Turkish NGO affiliated with his Islamist AKP Party to lead the pro-Hamas flotilla to Gaza.
Aboard the Mavi Marmara, IHH members violently attacked IDF naval commandos who boarded the ship in order to prevent it from breaking Israel's lawful maritime blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza coast. In the life and death battle that ensued, nine of the IHH assailants were killed.
By attempting to break Israel's lawful blockade, passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara and the rest of the ships in the flotilla were engaged in illicit acts of war against the Jewish state and providing illicit aid and comfort to an illegal terrorist organization. In supporting and arguably organizing the flotilla, including the Mavi Marmara, Erdogan himself was waging an unlawful war against Israel.
Erdogan reacted to the Mavi Marmara incident with enraged indignation. He demanded that Israel apologize for its commandos' actions and pay compensation to the families of the dead. He also demanded an international inquiry into Israel's actions.
Answering his call, the UN set up a commission to investigate last year's flotilla episode. The report has been ready since May. But its publication has been repeatedly delayed. According to media accounts of its findings, the UN commission agrees that Israel's blockade of Gaza is legal. It also claims that the naval commandos used disproportionate force in fending off the Mavi Marmara passengers' assault against them.
In a bid to salvage Turkey's ties to Israel and so increase waning Congressional support for Turkey, the Obama administration has been mediating talks between Israel and Turkey for the past few months. According to news reports, the administration is now pressuring Israel to agree to Erdogan's demand for an apology and to pay compensation to the families of those killed onboard the Mavi Marmara. The U.S. is also demanding that Turkey agree not to press damages or war crimes claims against Israeli personnel in international or other courts.
Given President Obama's expressed admiration and support for Erdogan, it makes sense that he is pushing this position. But the question remains, why is Turkey insisting that Israel apologize and pay damages for the IDF's lawful actions on the Mavi Marmara? What is he trying to achieve? And what would be the consequences if Israel were to bow to U.S. pressure and apologize?
There are two explanations for Erdogan's behavior. First, there is the issue of honor, which plays such a prominent role in Islamic society. He views the Mavi Marmara incident in the context of honor politics. And he demands an apology from Israel in order to increase his honor and diminish Israel's.
Most of Israel's objections to Erdogan's demand to date have centered around this issue. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon have cited this as the primary reason for refusing to apologize.
But while unpleasant, honor is probably not Erdogan's main rationale for pursing his demand for an Israeli apology. Since he was reelected to serve a third term as prime minister last month Erdogan has been openly seeking to establish a neo-Ottoman Turkish hegemonic position in the Arab world.
To this end he has been actively interfering in the popular revolt against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The IHH has been hosting Syrian opposition leaders in Turkey. Erdogan's clear aim is to replace Iran as Syria's overlord in a post-Assad Syria.
Erdogan has also been actively engaging Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in February. Erdogan plans a high profile visit to Egypt in the near future. And he plans to end his visit to Egypt by crossing the Egyptian border with Gaza. There he will become the highest-level foreign leader to visit Gaza since the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood Hamas took over in 2007.
As far as Erdogan is concerned, if he gets the U.S. to force Israel to apologize, it will be a massive public relations coup in his bid to convince the Arabs to accept his leadership. After all, Israel would be apologizing for having had the temerity to oppose the aggression of IHH terrorists engaged in an act of war against Israel. An Israeli apology would serve as proof that his double game of remaining a NATO member and carrying out aggression against Israel is the winning formula. If Israel apologizes for defending itself against Turkish aggression, Erdogan will have succeeded where the Arabs have failed.
Obviously, on the merits, Israel has no reason to apologize. And Turkish promises not to file lawsuits and war crimes complaints against Israel will have no legal weight. The Turkish pledge will not bind the relatives of the dead. And an Israeli apology and compensation will provide them with a prima facie claim that Israel admits culpability.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior IDF officers reportedly argue in favor of an apology, claiming the strategic alliance with Turkey is so important that Israel must be willing to swallow its pride in order to rebuild it.
This argument has apparently won over Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor. It has also caused Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to temper his honor-based rejection of the Turkish demand.
The problem with this argument is that it fails to take address Erdogan's second, and more strategically significant motivation of using Israeli humiliation to strengthen his image as a pan-Islamic leader.
That motivation gives lie to the notion that Erdogan has any interest in reinstating Turkey's strategic alliance with Israel. The man who is cultivating Hamas in the PA, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria, is not going to permit the Israeli Air Force to renew its training flights over Turkish airspace.
Erdogan is not going to share intelligence with Israel on Iran. He will not cooperate with Mossad agents along Turkey's border with Iran or Syria.
Instead he will use his ability to humiliate Israel and curb its military operations to demonstrate to the Muslim Brotherhood that it should accept Turkey's role as regional hegemon and operate under its wings.
Moreover, Israel can fully expect that under Erdogan, Turkey will share any intelligence information Israel provides with the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that any intelligence information Turkey transfers to Israel to be of limited value.
The UN announced on Sunday that it was delaying the publication of its report on the Mavi Marmara for another month. The expectation is that Israel will bow to Turkish and U.S. pressure and apologize and so obviate the need for the report to ever see the light of day.
Given the true stakes involved, Israel must stick to its guns and say no apology, no compensation, and no political prize for Erdogan.
Originally published in The Jewish Press.
 |
 | Ashkelon: Choice target for the freedom
fighters (excuse the deep sarcasm)
of Hamas-controlled Gaza |
"Relative state of calm in south breaks early Thursday as rocket hits open area; no injuries reported. Residents in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council woke up Thursday morning to siren alarm sounds. A Qassam rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel and exploded in an open area south of Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported."Frimet/Arnold Roth
This Ongoing War
28 July '11
http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/2011/07/28-jul-11-once-more-theyre-firing-at-us.html
From Ynet, a report of an incoming rocket early this morning (Thursday), the 24th such attack this month alone:
Ashkelon is a city. An Israeli city. It's not a military base. It's not a dusty, pockmarked war-zone with shanties and bomb craters. It's a place filled with ordinary civilians, and the bustle of normal, constructive, peaceful lives.
Which is precisely why the Gazan jihadists and their thuggish Hamas masters find it so hard to desist from lobbing bombs and other explosives in the general direction of its many children and kindergartens. There are no innocent bystanders or victims caught in the crossfire when it comes to the terrorists. All of us are in their crosshairs. All of us are at war with them, whether we wish it or not..  |
Yosef
Love of the Land
28 July '11
In an effort to keep the members of the last failed "Flotilla" afloat with what they would have encountered, if they had arrived via normal channels (i.e Rafiach), today's latest event.
Thursday, July 28, 2011PRESS STATEMENT: UNRWA condemns attack on World Record facility in Gaza Statement by UNRWA Spokesman, Chris Gunness At ten minutes past midnight last night, ten men attacked and vandalised the Summer Games facility in north-west Gaza where later today UNRWA will attempt a world record for the largest number of children flying kites. The attackers damaged a large billboard, burnt a UN flag and torched part of the stage. None of the UN security personnel at the venue were harmed. We condemn this attack, which is an attack on the children of Gaza as much as on the United Nations. We call on the authorities in Gaza to investigate and bring those responsible to account. We will repair and rebuild the damaged infrastructure and go ahead with the event as planned today. Full details of the kite-flying World Record attempt can be found below. (H/T IMRA) In any case, there might have been some time to take in the sights, relax poolside, visit luxurious restaurants, with all the ambiance needed to impress that significant other recently met aboard a flotilla yacht. Perhaps the Rais Resort would be just the right destination, but ...
From Ma'an News yesterday:
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Assailants burned a Gaza resort at dawn Wednesday, the manager said. Imad Al-Wazeer told Ma'an a group of 30 armed and masked men arrived at the Rais resort in Gaza and threatened employees.
The resort was damaged in Israel's Operation Cast Lead but Al-Wazeer says he reopened the facility in order to show Israel that the people of Gaza would live their lives in spite of the attack.
"This time, unfortunately, my resort was damaged by Palestinian hands," he said.
The resort cost some $120,000 to establish and has swimming pools, restaurants and other facilities. After the attack, however, 13 employees have lost their jobs, Al-Wazeer says. He held the police in Gaza responsible for the attack, saying they should provide security. "I asked the police several times to provide protection and security but no one paid any attention," he said. Perhaps our failed "Flotilla" was not such a failure after all, considering what awaited them and others who wish to follow in their wake. Sorry guys! and Gals! .  |
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem
27 July '11
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=3036
The Israel Chamber Orchestra on Tuesday performed Wagner's opera Siegfried Idyll at the Bayreuth Opera Festival. It was the first time an Israeli orchestra had played Wagner in Germany.
The conductor, Roberto Paternostro, whose mother and other relatives were Holocaust survivors, agreed that "Wagner's ideology and anti-Semitism were terrible, but he was a great composer." He opined that Wagner's worldview should be treated separately from his music. Paternostro conceded that not enough time had passed for Wagner to be played in Israel, but felt it was appropriate to do so in Germany. "The aim in the year 2011 is to divide the man from his art."
The orchestra's chief executive, Erwin Herskovits, went further, telling Reuters that "there is great pride and excitement… This is not just another concert. It is a once-in-a-lifetime concert." With works from Jewish composers Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn (banned by the Nazis) also being played, he said that "it was like a mission to be here playing Jewish music by Jewish musicians from the Jewish state… It was a victory concert."
But Wagner's history cannot be so summarily dismissed. He was a central pillar in the anti-Semitic character of Nazism. In fact, Wagner even coined the terms "Jewish problem" and "final solution," which subsequently became central to the Nazi vocabulary.
In his notorious essay titled "Judaism in Music," first published in 1851, Wagner expressed his extreme revulsion for what he described as "cursed Jewish scum" and declared that the "only thing [that] can redeem you [the Jewish people] from the burden of your curse [is] the redemption of Ahasverus - total destruction" - a code term for expelling Jews from society. In this essay, Wagner described Jews as "hostile to European civilization" and "ruling the world through money." He argued that "Judaism is rotten at the core, and is a religion of hatred," describing the cultured Jew as "the most heartless of all human beings" and referring to Jewish composers as "comparable to worms feeding on the body of art."
Wagner's family continued to promote his vile anti-Semitic ideology. His daughter Eva married Houston Chamberlain, an Englishman who crafted the ideology for Nazi racism in his notorious book, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century. After his death, Wagner's family became a central attraction for radical right-wing Germans.
ALTHOUGH WAGNER died 50 years before the Nazis came to power, Hitler venerated him, proclaiming that "whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must know Wagner." He was so enraptured with him that he is quoted as having said, "Richard Wagner is my religion."
Hitler also became a friend of Wagner's son Siegfried. After Sigfried's death in 1930, Hitler remained very close to his English-born widow Winifred, a passionate Nazi and anti-Semite who had befriended him early in his career.
Wagner's great-grandson Gottfried visited Israel in 1996, giving lectures condemning his great grandfather's obsessive hatred of Jews, stressing that Wagner's anti-Semitic views were far more important to him than his music. Gottfried was regarded as the black sheep of the family, which disowned him, and he came under attack from neo-Nazi groups.
For Jews, and in particular for survivors, Wagner is not just another anti-Semite. He is bracketed with Nazism, and can be said to have been a forerunner of those who paved the way for the Shoah. On top of this, Bayreuth, the location of the festival, was renowned as a center for Nazi "cultural" activity.
Under such circumstances, it is surely shameful for an Israeli chamber orchestra, perceived to be representative of the Jewish people, to be linked to such an evil person.
It truly requires a person to act in a schizophrenic manner to say that they can enjoy this man's music and close their eyes to his evil actions. But even more so, the heartlessness of Israelis ignoring the sensitivities of Holocaust survivors represents a stain on our dignity and national identity.
Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, accused the Israeli orchestra leaders of being "tone deaf." He condemned the performance as "a disgraceful abandonment of solidarity with those who suffered unspeakable horrors by the purveyors of Wagner's banner."
For the Israeli Chamber Orchestra to have actually gone to Germany to perform his works in Bayreuth, where he was glorified by the Nazis, is truly a national disgrace.
ileibler@netvision.net.il
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post
|
Rubin Reports
pajamasmedia.com
27 July '11
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/07/27/palestinian-moderate-he-is-in-relative-terms-shows-why-real-peace-is-impossible-at-present/
Nabil Shaath has given a fascinating and insightful interview that is well worth analyzing. But first let's take a look at who Shaath is.
Supposedly, he is the archetypal Palestinian moderate. There was a time when the Western media ridiculed the Israeli declaration that he was a secret Fatah member. When Israel agreed to negotiate with non-PLO Palestinians, the PLO put his name forward although it knew, of course, that he was no such thing. Peace processors ridiculed Israel's refusal to accept him.
Since 1994, he has held several high positions. He has been credibly accused, by Fatah militants who criticized Yasir Arafat's corruption, of taking a lot of Palestinian Authority money for himself and his family.
Nevertheless, it is reasonable to call Shaath as moderate as anyone in the PA's leadership, more moderate than the Fatah leadership. And what does Shaath say in an interview on July 13, 2011:
Nabil Shaath: The recognition of a [Palestinian] state…will make many things possible in the future. Eventually, we will be able to sign bilateral agreements with states, and this will enable us to exert pressure on Israel. At the end of the day, we want to exert pressure on Israel, in order to force it to recognize us and to leave our country. This is our long-term goal." "[The recent French proposal, quite friendly to the Palestinians generally] reshaped the issue of the "Jewish state" into a formula that is also unacceptable to us-–two states for two peoples. They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people. The story of `two states for two peoples' means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this….We will not sacrifice the 1.5 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who live within the 1948 borders, and we will never agree to a clause preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their country." In other words, the goal is not to come to a deal with Israel but to gain recognition from other countries which will pressure Israel and force it to give the PA what it wants. (Incidentally, this is pretty much Yasir Arafat's strategy from 30 years ago, though he was using a higher level of violence in that process.)
But what does the phrase "leave our country" mean as a "long-term goal?" Does "leave our country" mean just the West Bank and east Jerusalem (pre-1967 borders without mutually agreed swaps) or wiping Israel off the map and replacing it with an Arab Muslim state? It's ambiguous, isn't it? So perhaps Shaath is a moderate (as advertised in the Western media? In this case, though, Shaath gives us an answer.
In other words, Shaath, one of the most important and relatively moderate Palestinian Authority leaders, is against a two-state solution. First, there will be a Palestinian state "for one people," that is an Arab, Muslim state. But there can be no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state because that implies a permanent peace. Shaath and the Palestinian leadership almost unanimously seek a second stage in which the "Palestinians with Israeli citizenship" plus the "returning…to their country" of Palestinian refugees will turn Israel into an Arab Muslim Palestinian part of Palestine.
This is merely a restatement of the "two-stage" solution of the PLO adopted forty years ago. No real progress in 40 years, despite all the disasters and potential lessons seen by the Palestinians! I have been very skeptical about the peace process, especially for the last 15 years, but I don't think I've ever read anything that has so brought home to me why this is such a mirage because Shaath is so open about it and if anyone could be expected to support a real two-state solution it would be him.
Will anyone read and understand what Shaath is saying who believes that peace is at hand and that the Palestinian leadership is eager for a two-state solution?
Incidentally, Shaath also accurately reflected what many Arabs—including relatively moderate ones—think about U.S. policy. He sees Obama as weak: "President Obama will not make his presence felt in the coming 14 months….In practical terms, the US does not play a role any more in the Middle East, although it does not want to acknowledge or accept this….The US has no real presence."
This observation is equally devastating. And again will it penetrate at all into much of the mass media? Guess you should be congratulating yourself that you read PajamasMedia.
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frontpagemag.com
27 July '11
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/07/27/sinai-from-buffer-to-badlands/
"The main, immediate beneficiaries of what is known as the 'Arab spring' are Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip," Israeli military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai reported on Ynet the other day.
His and similar reports haven't attracted much attention, and perhaps it's understandable. There's been a mass murder in Norway, and, in Israel, raucous public protests over housing prices. But the deterioration in Gaza is surely worthy of note, and, for Israelis, likely to be more significant than the cost of flats.
Ben-Yishai, noting the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt since Mubarak's downfall, says "the group's influence prompted Egypt's government to completely halt construction" of an underground metal wall between Egyptian Sinai and Gaza. Built with U.S. assistance, it was supposed to block smuggling tunnels.
Now, though, "the Egyptian regime is making no effort to curb new tunnels and has virtually suspended its battle against smuggling…to the Strip."
This is bad enough, but in addition, "Egyptian security forces preoccupied with domestic developments [have] completely lost their hold on the Sinai…." That means, along with the enhanced global jihad presence in the peninsula, that
[s]ome 300,000 Bedouins belonging to four or five large tribes are now the Sinai's true rulers. These tribes' main income is based on smuggling in general, and on smuggling to Gaza in particular, and they quickly exploited the security vacuum in the peninsula in the wake of the revolution. Last February when the "Arab spring" was still young, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was in Cairo harshly berating Israel for not reacting enthusiastically. But if Israel wasn't celebrating the events at that time, it has even less reason to do so now.
"As a result," says Ben-Yishai, of the abandoned work on the wall and Sinai's descent into a Wild West,
arms shipments to the Strip have been surging…: everything that has been sent by the Iranians and their emissaries in recent years and was hidden by the Bedouins…has flowed freely into Gaza in the past five months. Meanwhile, new shipments arrived and were transferred to Hamas and Islamic Jihad without delay or a need to hide them. Hence the terror groups have "doubled their rocket arsenals" so that they now "possess some 10,000 rockets of all types, a similar number to the Hezbollah arsenal in the Second Lebanon War," including "thousands of mid-range Grad rockets and a few heavy Fajr rockets that…can reach the outskirts of…Tel Aviv."
The Iranian-supplied merchandise also includes "three times (!) the quantity of industrial explosives compared to the quantity handed over throughout 2010," along with "large quantities of anti-aircraft weapons…creating a greater threat for Air Force choppers and jets."
Another Israeli military correspondent, Haaretz's Amos Harel, cites "senior defense officials" blaming "[t]he revolutions in the Arab world, especially the Egyptian security forces' diminished control in the Sinai" for allowing the Palestinians to "exponentially increase" the smuggling into Gaza.
And to the Egyptian example Harel adds another, confirming earlier reports that
the civil war in Libya opened new opportunities for weapons after the Libyan army lost control of vast weapons stores in the east of the country. Local arms dealers made contact with Gaza smugglers, and new weapons began to flow by a much shorter and easier route than the ones originating in Iran. The Israeli government, too, has chimed in, with the home front minister warning that "metropolitan Tel Aviv…will be bombed by missiles in the next Gaza war" and adding: "There is no country in the world that is threatened like the State of Israel. The only country that approximates it is South Korea."
Israel, too, has been building up its capacities and is, of course, far from helpless before these threats. But the rapid demise of what's left of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty is a story that shouldn't sink under the radar, uncongenial as it may be to many.
That treaty, signed in 1979, entailed a total Israeli evacuation of armed forces and civilians from Sinai, which was supposed to become a vast buffer zone and guarantor of peace between the two countries. Sinai has, in fact, been a weapons-smuggling route to Gaza since the 1990s, when, as part of another "peace" venture dubbed Oslo, Israel partially transferred security control of the Strip to Yasser Arafat's forces.
The situation only worsened—dramatically—when Israel totally withdrew from Gaza as well in 2005. Note that, if Israel had remained in Sinai, then relaxing control of the million-plus hostile Arabs in Gaza—something most Israelis wanted in principle—might have been doable without incurring unbearable security costs. But leaving Gaza after Sinai, on which it borders, was totally out of Israel's hands—as "disengagement" opponents warned at the time—was a recipe for strategic disaster.
At least, toward the end of its existence, the Mubarak regime in Egypt tried to do more to stop the smuggling. Now, with that regime gone, the Islamists ascendant, and Sinai in anarchy, the situation is as described above.
Going back, though, to the 1979 treaty, it was widely touted as showing that Israel could make real, stable peace with its neighbors. Yet, with or without Israel's blunders, it now emerges clearly that the treaty's unraveling was a matter of time and a function of intra-Arab dynamics. It will be the same with any other contrived "peace" Israel makes, or is pushed into making, with any other of its neighbors.
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator in Beersheva, Israel. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com. |
American tax dollars at work: Bankrolling Palestinian terror |
 Israeli watchdog group reminds US Congress that it is illegal to financially support the terror-backing Palestinian Authority; angered Hillary Clinton having none of it
more |
Israel and the Norway terror attacks |
 Online media outlets are overjoyed that Norway killer is a 'Christian' with an apparent affinity for Israel; bloggers wok hard to pain him as a poster child of Christian Zionists
more |
Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs |
View this page at www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe | | DAILY ALERT | Friday,
July 29, 2011 |
In-Depth Issues:
Targeted Iranian Confirmed as Nuke Expert - George Jahn (AP)
A man shot dead on a Tehran street by motorcycle-riding gunmen last weekend was a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons and not a student as officially claimed, a foreign government official and a former UN nuclear inspector have told the Associated Press.
An official from a member-nation of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency verified that the victim was Darioush Rezaeinejad, who participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.
Th e official described Rezaeinejad as a physicist who had worked in the past for the Iranian defense ministry on projects linked to nuclear weapons development.
Soldier Held over Terror Plot at Fort Hood - David Goodman (New York Times)
Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo has admitted that he planned to attack Fort Hood, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Police in Killeen, Tex., arrested Abdo on Wednesday after a clerk at a local gun store alerted the police about a suspicious purchase.
Among the items found in his room were a pistol, shotgun shells and an article on "how to make a bomb in your kitchen" from the English-language Qaeda magazine Inspire.
Abdo, who joined the Army in April 2009, gained national attention last summer when he refused to deploy with his unit to Afghanistan, insisting that his Muslim faith prevented him from serving.
Man Who Shot Two Arkansas Soldiers Also Shot at Rabbi's Home (AP-Washington Post)
Abdulhakim Muhammad, who pleaded guilty to shooting two soldiers outside a military recruiting station in Arkansas, said he also fired 10 rounds at the home of Rabbi Eugene Levy in Little Rock days earlier, according to a letter he wrote to the FBI.
In a letter dated November 24, 2009, Muhammad said he targeted Levy's house after researching Jewish leaders in Little Rock, Nashville, and Memphis.
"Figured the FBI wasn't watching me anymore," he wrote. "I started my plans to attack recruitment centers, Jewish organizations, across America." He said he bought rifles, a pistol, ammunition a nd materials to make Molotov cocktails.
On June 1, 2009, Muhammad said he decided to firebomb another rabbi's house in Nashville. He said he lobbed a Molotov cocktail at the home, but the fire blew out mid-air.
Muhammad was sentenced to life in prison without parole this week.
Israeli Player on UK Team Subjected to Anti-Semitic Abuse in Malaysia - Dominic Fifield (Guardian-UK)
Britain's Chelsea soccer club has lodged a formal complaint with the Malaysian Football Association alleging that the club's Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun was the subject of anti-Semitic abuse during last week's friendly in Kuala Lumpur.
Large sections of the crowd booed and jeered Benayoun's every touch in Chelsea's 1-0 victory over a Malaysian team.
"We believe Yossi was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse by a number of supporters at the game," a Chelsea spokesman said. "Such behavior is offensive, totally unacceptable and has no place in football."
Israeli Experiments Land with Final Space Shuttle - Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf (Canadian Jewish News)
When the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down after its final voyage last week, it returned with three Israeli experiments.
The Israeli scientific payloads included microgravity experiments on telomeres - DNA sequences that protect chromosomes from erosion, a study on bone cells, and another on water purification.
All three experiments were organized by Israel's Fisher Institute for Strategic Air and Space Studies.
| | News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:- U.S. Accuses Iran of Aiding Al-Qaeda - Joby Warrick
The Obama administration said Thursday that Iran is helping al-Qaeda funnel cash and recruits into Pakistan for its international operations. Documents filed by the Treasury Department accuse Iran of facilitating an al-Qaeda-run support network that transfers large amounts of cash from Middle East donors to al-Qaeda's top leadership in Pakistan's tribal region.
A Syrian national who directs the network has been allowed to operate in Iran since 2005, and senior Iranian officials know about money transfers and allow the movement of al-Qaeda foot soldiers through its territory, administration officials said. "By exposing Iran's secret deal with al-Qaeda, allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran's unmatched support for terrorism," said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. (Washington Post)
See also below Observations: Al-Qaeda in Iran - Editorial (Wall Street Journal) - U.S. Voices Commitment to Israel in Defense Talks - Charles Dharapak
The U.S. on Thursday reiterated its support for a strong military in Israel as Defense Minister Ehud Barak held talks with top leaders in Washington. Newly installed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stressed his "strong commitment" to defense relations with Israel and to "ensuring that Israel maintains its qualitative military edge," Pentagon spokesman George Little said. (AFP) - 3,000 People Missing in Syria's Uprising
The online activist group Avaaz.org has identified 2,918 Syrians who were arrested or abducted by force by security troops and whose whereabouts are now unknown. "Hour by hour, peaceful protesters are plucked from crowds by Syria's infamously brutal security forces, never to be seen again," said Ricken Patel, executive director at Avaaz.
Avaaz has identified 1,634 who were killed in the crackdown since March 15. Moreover, 26,000 have been arrested, and many of them were beaten and tortured. Some 12,617 are still in detention, the group said.
Syrian troops opened fire Wednesday on scores of people in the Damascus suburb of Kanaker, killing at least e ight people. On Thursday, security forces swept through the Barzeh neighborhood of Damascus, arresting more than a 100 people, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (AP-Washington Post)
See also Bomb Blast Targets Oil Pipeline in Syria
A bomb blast struck an oil pipeline in Talkalakh in western Syria on Friday in what Syrian state television described as a "terrorist" attack, saying that "saboteurs" were behind the explosion. (AP-Washington Post)
See also Syrian Regime Tortures Indiscriminately - Haitham Al-Tabiai
The stories coming out of Syria every day reveal new details about the brutal practices of the Syrian security apparatus as part of the Assad regime's attempt to suppress the protests that have swept the country. Asharq Al-Awsat spoke to Syrian citizens who revealed that they had been tortured at the hands of the Syrian security forces. (Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) - Clinton: House Foreign Relations Bill Deserves Veto - Pete Kasperowicz
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday told House Republicans that the Foreign Relations authorization bill approved in committee last week would be "debilitating" to her efforts to conduct foreign policy, and that she would push for a veto. Among other reasons, Clinton cited as a problem language that conditions funding to Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority on certifications that no terrorist groups are involved in those governments. Clinton said this would require the administration to meet "burdensome and infeasible certifications." (The Hill) - Death of Libyan Rebel Leader Stirs Fears of Tribal Conflict - David D. Kirkpatrick
The leader of the Libyan rebels' provisional government, Mustapha Abdul Jalil, announced Thursday that unnamed assassins had killed the top rebel military commander, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, and two other officers. Younes was a former interior minister in the Gaddafi government and members of his tribe - the Obeidi, one of the largest in the east - blamed the rebel leadership for having some role in his death. (New York Times)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:- Peacekeeper Bombing Used Sophisticated Technology - Nicholas Blanford
The investigation into Tuesday's bomb attack against a convoy of French UNIFIL soldiers suggests that the explosive device was detonated by a command wire, allowing it to circumvent the electronic defenses used on UNIFIL vehicles, the Daily Star learned Wednesday. The use of a command wire suggests the perpetrator could have been relatively close to the scene of the blast, allowing him to see the approaching convoy and set off the bomb as it passed by.
Unhappily for UNIFIL, the 11,000-strong force is a sitting duck for this kind of attack. If there are further bomb attacks against European troops in UNIFIL - particularly if any of them prove fatal - how long will it be be fore their respective governments decide to call it a day in south Lebanon? (Daily Star-Lebanon)
See also Italy to Downsize UNIFIL Contingent - Patrick Galey and Youssef Diab
Italy voted Wednesday to reduce the number of its peacekeepers in Lebanon by more than one-third, bringing 700 of 1,780 soldiers back to Rome, just a day after five French UN peacekeepers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack. (Daily Star-Lebanon) - Jerusalem Greets French Edict on Israel as Jewish State - Herb Keinon
The French Foreign Ministry on Wednesday circulated comments made by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe last week saying that any solution to the Middle East conflict would need to recognize Israel as the nation-state for the Jewish people. Juppe said: "There will be no solution to the conflict in the Middle East without recognition of two nation-states for two peoples. The nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people, and the nation-state of Palestine for the Palestinian people. There is no getting away from this."
Israeli diplomatic officials said Juppe's statement was an indication that the Europeans were moving in the direction of Prime Minister Netanyahu's position that recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish peop le must be part of the parameters for future negotiations with the Palestinians.
For weeks, diplomatic discussions have been quietly taking place regarding a formula for a return to negotiations that would be acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinians, and which could keep the PA from pressing the statehood issue at the UN. (Jerusalem Post) - Israel Announces Full Diplomatic Ties with South Sudan - Barak Ravid
The Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that Israel has established full diplomatic relations with the government of South Sudan. In recent days, an Israeli delegation visited the South Sudan capital of Juba and held talks with senior government officials. (Ha'aretz) - Palestinian Security Forces Raid Home of Former Security Strongman Muhammad Dahlan
Palestinian security forces raided the Ramallah house of ousted Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan on Thursday. Gunshots were heard as Dahlan's security guards tried to escape. Twelve security men were held, and communications equipment, computers, 16 weapons and 12 of Dahlan's personal cars were seized. (Maan News-PA)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):- Reports from Inside Iran - Abbas Milani
The heat on Ahmadinejad, at fever pitch till a month ago, has subsided, at least for now. An uneasy peace seems to have emerged between the president and the increasingly authoritarian Khamenei. When threatened with impeachment by the Supreme Leader's allies in parliament, the press and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Ahmadinejad decided to fight fire with fire. He threatened to tell the truth about what is happening in the country. He talked of the tens of millions of dollars made each year from the illicit trade in American cigarettes, and how "the brothers" - an unmistakable reference to the IRGC - have not been able to forgo the temptation to avail themselves of this source of income. He talked of these brothers operating many illegal ports of entry where, usin g the guise of national security, they bring in all manner of commodities at great profit.
There is no indication that the Bushehr reactor, scheduled to start operation at least a year ago, will be operational anytime soon. The viruses introduced into the computer system controlling the centrifuges did, by all indications, considerable damage to the regime's nuclear infrastructure. Of these viruses (all reportedly designed by the U.S. and Israel) only the first, Stuxnet, attracted much attention in the West. Almost in passing, the Iranian regime referred to a second virus and, of course, claimed that much as they had with Stuxtnet the "soldiers of God" immediately beat back this new "Zionist-American" attack. The writer is Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, where he is also the codirector of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. (National Interest) - Norway Needs a Single Standard Against Terrorism - Alan M. Dershowitz
I know of no reasonable person who has tried to justify the terrorist attacks against Norway. Yet there are many Norwegians who not only justify terrorist attacks against Israel, but praise them, support them, help finance them, and legitimate them. The world must unite in condemning and punishing all terrorist attacks against innocent civilians, regardless of the motive or purported cause of the terrorism. Norway, as a nation, has failed to do this. It wants us all to condemn the terrorist attack on its civilians, and we should all do that, but it refuses to live by a single standard. (Hudson Institute-New York) - Egypt-Sinai-Gaza: The Triangular Threat to Israel - Gilad Stern, Einav Yogev, and Yoram Schweitzer
Last week's attack on the gas pipeline in the El-Arish area in northern Sinai was the fifth attack on the pipeline in the past six months. While no organization has taken responsibility for the attacks, various elements in Egypt have pointed to terrorist organizations based in Gaza: al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad and Jaish al-Islam. These events, along with the sharp increase in smuggling of advanced weapons through Sinai to Gaza, make Sinai a security challenge for Israel because of the looser control of the peninsula by the new Egyptian regime.
Sinai is likely to become a "no-man's land" from a security point of view, where terrorist organizations will be able to maneuver more ea sily. Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, head of Israeli Military Intelligence, recently observed that Egyptian security forces "are losing control over the Sinai region." Recent developments sharpen the need for an in-depth examination of the possibility of a strategic shift in relations between Israel and Egypt. This would likely require new military and security arrangements on the southern front, quiet for over thirty years.
At the same time, the accepted assessment in Israel is that the new regime in Egypt will continue to adhere to the peace treaty. Nonetheless, as long as the Egyptian security apparatus is occupied primarily with the uprising aftermaths in the large cities, the common border area between Egypt, Israel and Gaza will likely continue to be a focus for increased activity by terrorist organizations against Israeli targets. (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
Weekend Features
- Over 170,000 Views for YouTube Video "The Truth about the West Bank"
A new video featuring Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon, who explains where the terms "West Bank," "occupied territories" and "67 borders" originated and how they are incorrectly used and applied, has already been viewed by over 170,000 worldwide. "For too many years, our public diplomacy has been mainly based on a 'peace narrative,' where Israeli officials talk about how much we are willing to concede for peace," Ayalon said. "While we do all we can do promote peace, it is time for Israel to return to a 'rights-based diplomacy' and talk about the facts, rights, history and international law which are little known but give a dramatically different viewpoint to what is currentl y accepted."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Dr. Saeb Erakat claimed in an official PA press release that Israel was accepted to the UN on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 181. Ayalon responded: "This false claim shows that Erekat misconstrues international law and its system, proving exactly how misguided the Palestinian attempt to have their unilaterally declared state recognized at the UN really is. Israel was admitted as a full UN member in 1949 by UN General Assembly Resolution 273, after a recommendation by the Security Council, because it met the criteria of statehood and signed armistice agreements with our neighbors, something the Palestinians should bear in mind before they further their confrontational and damaging plan towards September."
"I challenge any of the Palestinian Authority political leadership to an open debate on all the issues ahead of September," Ayalon added. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) - Minorities in the IDF - Aryeh Tepper
Non-Jews from the Muslim, Druse, and Christian communities in Israel serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) alongside their Jewish peers. After completing their basic training, these soldiers swear fealty to the state of Israel on a copy of the Quran or the New Testament instead of the standard Hebrew Bible.
Israeli Arabs are not drafted - though some still do serve voluntarily. Israeli Druse number approximately 115,000, and the overwhelming majority of men proudly serve in the IDF. The Sunni Muslim Circassians (of whom around 4,500 live in Israel) also loyally serve in the IDF. While Israeli Bedouins are not obligated to serve, some 5-10% volunteer for army service, often as trackers. In addition, each year a few dozen Ar ab Christians volunteer to serve in the IDF. (Jewish Ideas Daily)
Observations: - The U.S. government has formally acknowledged the connection between the world's most dangerous terrorist group and the leading state sponsor of terrorism.
- The Treasury Department sanctioned six members of a terrorist network based in Iran for serving as "the core pipeline through which al-Qaeda moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East to South Asia," principally meaning Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- The Obama Administration has come a long way since the days when it thought it could strike a "grand bargain" with Iran's mullahs, and Thursday's move is another good step.
- Above all, it's a reminder of why a regime that has no qualms serving as al-Qaeda's facilitator can on no account be permitted to build a nuclear bomb.
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A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright~
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