Syrians perform in Edinburgh. Where are the protests?/other news
http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com/ 
Rubin Reports
31 August '11
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/08/31/you-can%E2%80%99t-spell-%E2%80%9Cchutzpah%E2%80%9D-without-%E2%80%9Cpa%E2%80%9D-palestinian-authority/
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has refused to condemn an attack on Israel from Egypt by an al-Qaida affiliate group that killed eight Israelis. The PA is also going to the UN to get support for a unilateral declaration of independence that violates every agreement it reached with Israel since 1993. The PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has said that even if Palestinians get an independent state they will continue to demand that millions of Palestinian Arabs must be allowed to go live in Israel so they can turn that into a Muslim Arab state.
Oh, and even when the PA declares that it is a Muslim Arab state (as it says in the PA Constitution) that it will refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. And on September 20, the PA is organizing massive anti-Israel demonstrations that will probably lead to violence. Did I mention that the PA is currently in partnership with Hamas—even though that isn't working out so well—which regularly attacks Israel with rockets and mortars, as well as declaring that it's going to kill all the Jews?
But, wait! The PA needs money! So what does it do?
Why, of course it goes to Israel and asks for money! Specifically, it requested that Israel move up the turnover of the $105 million in tax revenues Israel has collected on imports. Not just pay the money, mind you, but pay it sooner than required! The PA took out a short-term bank loan on the assumption that this would happen since Israeli civil servants in the finance and defense ministries recommended it be done. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said, "No."
The nerve! Now, according to previous agreements that Israel and the PA have made, Israel is supposed to give the money. But it is under no obligation to give the money ahead of schedule. Moreover, the PA is denouncing these same agreements which require, for example, that the PA stop incitement to murder Israelis; arrest those planning to commit terror attacks or who have done so; and negotiate in good faith toward a compromise peace.
The PA wanted to pay salaries for its personnel (including those in prison for murdering Israelis and for those living in the Gaza Strip, whose payment would pump money into the Hamas-ruled statelet that is attacking Israel on a regular basis).
And one might ask what has happened to the billions of dollars in international aid, a higher per capita payment than any other political entity has received in the history of the planet earth?
Let me dramatize the situation for you:
Hi! I know I'm in partnership with a group at war with you; am inciting my people and teaching my children to murder you, am refusing to negotiate with you, have stolen most of the money I've received in foreign aid, which is why I'm broke, am rejecting and breaking the agreements on which your obligation to pay me rest; am going to the UN to get international sanction for breaking the previous agreements; am lying about you every day (a PA minister has just accused Israel of stealing organs); am seeking an outcome in which I can then wipe you off the map; and using the money you would be giving me to pay people who have murdered your citizens….
BUT can you move up your payment of money to me as a favor?
This is the absurdity of the Israel-Palestinian issue, whose reality is never reflected in the Western mass media.
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Jon
Divest This!
31 August '11
http://www.divestthis.com/2011/08/dear-ynet-sky-is-not-falling.html
With this the 300th entry to Divest This (can you believe there have been that many things to say about this subject?), I had planned to write a description of what the final failure of BDS might look like. But with publication of today's "Sacrebeu! BDS is On the March! We've Got to Do Something!!!!!" panic piece from Ynet, I thought it best to alert my reader that the sky is indeed not falling.
The first thing I noticed when reading over the Ynet article was that the author got nearly every single fact wrong.
Agrexco, Israel's leading flower company, is going through financial problems not because of significant losses in exports, but due to a major drop in the domestic market (along with a host of general financial issues). Similarly 2009-2010 "divestment" from the Africa-Israel Corporation was not due to politics but to the company's near hopeless debt situation, trigged by the 2008-2009 crash in the real estate industry. In both these cases, BDS activists have made claims that the financial problems these companies face were based on their boycott and divestment advocacy, but (as chronicled here and elsewhere), these claims were exposed as fraudulent time and time again.
The article also mentions Caterpillar Tractor without once mentioning that anti-Israel divestment targeting Caterpillar at universities, churches and the like have been going on for close to a decade without one share of Caterpillar stock ever being sold by one of these institutions for political reasons. And Caterpillar itself has all but told the BDSers to piss off after years of harassment at annual shareholder meetings.
As we move onto boycotts, the Park Slope Food Co-op is not going to approve a boycott of Israel products "soon," for the simple fact that a decision on this matter is not even on their agenda. A group of local BDSers is pressuring the Co-op to put a boycott to a member ballot (which wouldn't necessarily be binding), and even this so-far-unsuccessful campaign has been met with stiff resistance by members trying to avoid having the Middle East conflict dragged into their community.
The University of Johannesburg recently reversed its decision to break ties with Israel's Ben-Gurion University. Hudson Bay has made it clear that it did not pull Ahava products off the shelf at the urging of BDSers. DePaul University rejected (not approved) a boycott of Sabra hummus, and on and on and on. (I'm assuming the Ynet piece is an editorial vs. a regular news story, but even so how hard can it be to use this new Internet thingy to double check so many easily debunked claims?)
Even in situations where BDS "wins" documented in this story are not simply false or outdated, boycott or divestment "victories" can hardly be described as successes. Rockers like Elvis Costello cancelling their gigs in Israel have proven to be far more embarrassing to the performers than to Israel. The violent protests that led to the closure of an Ahava store in London or the ban on Israeli products (including books) by a local council in Scotland exposed BDSers and mindless thugs, incompetent ideologues or both. Recent attempts to reproduce such bully-boy tactics in Australia have managed to unite nearly the entire Australian political spectrum against the boycotters. So again, are we supposed to quake in fear of such BDS tactics, or simply continue to (successfully) fight against them?
I'm not familiar with the author of the story, and from what I can tell he seems to have sent up this signal flare in an attempt to alert his fellow Israel supporters to what he perceives to be a mounting danger. And there is something to be said about not becoming smug or assuming that if we just ignore BDS or other de-legitimization activities they will just go away.
But in this case, the real story is how most if not all of the problems he chronicles have been dealt with rather well. BDS financial hoaxes (such as those relating to Israel-Africa) are now exposed so quickly that the divestment cru rarely uses this tactic anymore out of (legitimate) fear of getting quickly cost and embarrassed. Even in harsh political environments (like U Johannesburg), sensible heads are prevailing. And this entire story of Israel's alleged dire economic predicament due to boycotts ignores the fact that Israeli exports and the Israeli economy itself close to doubled during the decade when BDS is alleged to have forced it to its knees.
The motto on all these matters still holds: Don't Panic, Don't be Complacent. And while I welcome calls to avoid complacency, panic (especially one informed by so much mis-information) really doesn't do anyone any good.
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Arlene Kushner
Arlene from Israel
31 August '11
Well, Kaitana Savta (Grandma Camp), which was great, is over. I am back to normal -- whatever that means -- and prepared to resume more frequent postings. The questions then are where to begin and what to focus on during this upside-down time.
Of primary importance is terrorism, attempted terrorism, and the threat of even more terrorism.
Late Sunday, Israel received concrete intelligence regarding Islamic Jihad plans for a second attack involving infiltration from Gaza into southern Israel via the Sinai; the plans reportedly are for the attack to be executed (once more!) along one of the roads running near the border with Sinai and to involve abduction of Israelis. More than 10 terrorists were said to be already in Sinai, preparing.
Several actions were then taken:
Chief of Staff Benny Gantz ordered a sizeable deployment of infantry forces to the area.
Two large Israeli Navy corvettes (war ships) were docked in Eilat.
And the possibility of the attack was made public.
On orders from General Gantz, the Egyptians were informed of IDF plans to deploy along the Sinai border. Because of the tenuous relationship with the Egyptian military, it was decided that there would be no IDF incursion into the Sinai in pursuit of the terrorists.
The Egyptians, for their part -- fearing an upswing in violence at the end of Ramadan (Aid el-Fitr), which was yesterday -- are in process of a military operation to hunt down jihadi groups in the northern Sinai. Launched on Monday with Israeli approval, the operation involves some 1,500 soldiers and police, utilizing tanks and armored vehicles, who have been operating in Al-Arish, Sheikh Zuwayed, and Rafah, near the Gaza border.
There is considerable sentiment inside of Egypt for a re-writing of the peace treaty with Israel, in particular with regard to the demilitarization of the Sinai.
Last week, in the course of Egyptian demonstrations outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, the Israeli flag was torn down from the roof of the building.
While the flog has been re-instated (this time in a safer locale on a balcony) on instructions from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the man who tore down that flag has become something of a national hero.
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I add here that while Defense Minister Barak was gung-ho to permit large scale Egyptian troops into the Sinai (well beyond what has been approved for the specific operation mentioned above), three days ago Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed quite a different opinion. This is "not something that we have to rush into," he said at a meeting with Likud ministers. Furthermore, he indicated that a Cabinet vote would be required for a change in the treaty with Egypt.
Additionally, MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), Chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, was making noise about the need for his committee to pass on this as well.
On Monday, a terrorist, thought to be acting alone, entered Israel illegally from Nablus with intention of striking at a Tel Aviv nightclub filled with young people enjoying an end-of-summer party. Earlier in the evening, the police had made a decision to bolster their presence outside major venues in the city, and thus it was that an attack was adverted. He ran his vehicle into a police roadblock, injuring some officers and yelling "Allahu Akbar."
That Palestinian Arab state and the UN:
I think it's reasonably clear at this point, in spite of occasional media reports to the contrary, that nothing will change on the ground for Israel after the PA goes to the UN in September -- something Mahmoud Abbas continues to insist he will do unless Israel caves on his major demands.
What he is seeking to do is secure his state without committing to end of conflict. He, in fact, made it clear just recently that he would still push for "right of return" even after the founding of a Palestinian state (although he may run into difficulty on this -- see below).
Israeli concerns about outcome focus on a possible increase in violence by the Palestinian Arabs -- perhaps with large numbers at the borders attempting to enter Israel -- and greater international legitimacy for the PA. This might give it leverage with regard to bringing charges against Israelis in the International Criminal Court and against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
On Sunday night, here in Jerusalem, I attended the first part of a conference on "The Palestinian Statehood Initiative," jointly sponsored by the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and Hadar Israel (a grassroots civic organization).
Michla Pomerance, Professor of International Law, Hebrew University, spoke about the enormous confusion with regard to the whole issue of "UN law," which is very problematic. Traditional international law is not imposed by a central authority but is rooted in reciprocity -- it derives from the consent of states.
The Security Council is not an enforcer of international law, and may not order transfer of/or concessions on territory. It has no power to abrogate sovereignty.
The General Assembly does not have authority to recognize states. Its authority is only with regard to admitting and suspending members, pending SC approval.
Only states already in existence can be admitted to the UN. They are required to be peace-loving, and able and willing to carry out their obligations under the UN charter. There is no admission of a state granted with the intention of eliminating another state.
Within international law, there is no universal right of self-determination recognized.
With regard to a Palestinian state, self-determination would require a defined population. But as there is a question of boundaries, there is no defined population.
Dr. Tal Becker, International Associate, Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Israeli negotiator, believes that Abbas is proceeding as he is because of the "Arab Spring" -- fear that street anger will be channeled against his government if he doesn't act; expectations that have been created by Obama and Fayyad; and a desire to secure his legacy.
He cautions that if the PA does go to the UN, it is likely a committee will be created to begin a slow process: there will not be speedy results.
General (Res.) Yossie Kuperwasser, Director General, Ministry of Strategic Affairs, addressed security concerns.
The PA, he says, cannot accept Israel as a Jewish state because of the issue of the refugees; because of the Arab population inside of Israel (which would be utilized for demands for a "state of all its citizens" in the second stage of their plans); and because it would require adjusting the narrative.
The bottom line is that the PA goal is to destroy Israel. It is essential that it accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. But the Arabs are seeking to end historical claims.
Absent PA acknowledgement that Israel is the Jewish state, Israel may have to begin to think in terms of managing the conflict rather than resolving it.
There are security dangers for the PA, as well. The entire process will be an embarrassment for the PA, and Hamas may end up the winner -- with escalation of violence against the PA.
For other takes on the PA initiative:
Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, in an exclusive interview, said yesterday that if the PA proceeds with its plans, all agreements between the PA and Israel might become null and void:
"We have a lot of agreements with the Palestinian Authority, we have no agreements with a 'Government of Palestine,' It's just a fact, we have no agreements with a 'Government of Palestine.' It puts us in a different realm."
Oren was referring, he said, to agreements that cover such matters as import-export, water sharing, and Israel-Palestinian security forces cooperation.
"It's not just our agreements with the Palestinian Authority, it's America's agreements with the Palestinian Authority (that are at risk)," he further explained. "America is a cosignatory to the Oslo Accord and this would seriously undermine it.... Unilateral steps would have legal, economic, and political ramifications for us and for America as a cosignatory."
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/08/30/
Jordan has just urged the PA to reconsider its move to pursue bid for UN recognition King Abdullah considers the move dangerous because it may compromise the "right of return."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4115922,00.html
Jordan, of course, worries that without a "return" of refugees to Israel, there might be a push to make Jordan the Palestinian state officially (while it is now de facto, with a majority Palestinian population).
Last week similar discouragement with regard to the PA bid in the UN came from the Arab League:
Said Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, "The unilateral appeal to the U.N. Security Council and U.N. General Assembly could be a very dangerous move for the Palestinians during this period and I propose that Abbas reconsider the handling of the matter."
Elaraby is concerned because the PA is not in control in Gaza.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=807
The PA team -- headed by Saeb Erekat -- that is preparing the UN initiative has received an independent legal opinion -- from by Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor of public international law at Oxford University who has long advised the PA on legal matters -- that the initiative could jeopardize the rights of the Palestinian people.
Since 1975, the PLO has been recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and in fact has observer status at the UN. The PA is seeking to replace PLO representation at the UN with a state sitting in the UN. But then there would no longer be an agency that "can represent the inalienable rights of the entire Palestinian people." Palestinians "outside the homeland" would no longer have representation and would be disenfranchised with regard to such matters as "right of return."
This comes from the PLO news agency, Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415804
Elliott Abrams, Senor Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, asks "Whose Brilliant Idea Was That UN Vote?" He looks in greater depth at the Goodwin-Gill concerns, and at additional legal/diplomatic issues as well.
http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2011/08/24/whose-brilliant-idea-was-that-un-vote
And we're worried about the UN initiative? I wonder how much sleep Mahmoud Abbas is getting these days.
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David Warren
Ottawa Citizen
31 August '11
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/republic+anti+Israel/5331129/story.html
We are waiting patiently, as the fuse burns down on another Middle Eastern powder keg. On Sept. 20, as the next United Nations session opens, Mahmoud Abbas will present a declaration of statehood to the General Assembly, on behalf of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. Though unilateral, it will be welcomed by a voting majority which includes all the dictatorships of the Muslim world and Africa.
Full membership in the UN requires the sanction of the Security Council, where there is an American veto. That will almost certainly be exercised, even by the Obama administration. But for all practical purposes, the Palestinian Authority has been a member for a long time, and been behaving as a state. It has the ultimate hallmark of a state, for it conducts its own foreign policy, freely.
We live, I have argued, in a "postmodern" time, under post-modern conditions, including those created by post-modern wars and diplomacy. The difference between "de facto" and "de jure" has been lost. This may have seemed "academic" even to many in the past; and it could be said that the whole history of the nation state is de facto becoming de jure. But the attempt to preserve certain legal niceties was responsible for a great deal of peace and order. Even tyrants hesitated to cross taboo lines, in the days when those lines were enforced.
The Palestinians, so far as they are a people, have now a long history of being able to do things without consequences. (They are not ethnically distinct from neighbouring Arabs, but defined by family ties to a given location.) Under the direction of a succession of "reformed" or unreformed terrorist leaders, from the Mufti of Jerusalem to Yasser Arafat to Hamas, they have "evolved" a polity which may itself be defined as "the Anti-Israel."
Israel is consistently held to account, both internally and externally, as an old-fashioned, formal nation state. When the Israelis respond to rocket attacks from Gaza, they are compelled to justify their action. But the people who sent the rockets are not. And supposing them to have been launched "freelance" by independent terror cells, the authority which governs Gaza is not held gravely responsible for having failed to stop them.
Imagine what the consequences would be, if Israeli citizens, acting independently, began lobbing missiles into the Palestinian territories, gratuitously at targets both civilian and military - whatever happened to be in range. And then, the Israeli authorities made no gesture to stop them. The diplomats of the world would spit up their sherry. Our peace-loving politicians would go berserk.
Yet they have nothing to say after each of many thousand Qassams comes down within Israeli borders of the strictest 1947 definition.
Take this mental exercise one step farther. What if a party in the Israeli Knesset - a party in a position to sweep any free election - announced in its very constitution that Israel's borders extend from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, and include all deep-historical areas of Jewish settlement, including the entire West Bank. That, moreover, while Jews and perhaps a few quiet Christians are allowed to stay, all Muslims must get out. On pain of death.
Yet the reverse of this is the "final position" of Palestinian statecraft.
Hamas declares it openly, and swept the only election in which it was allowed to freely run. The operatives of the PLO used to declare it, but made an ambiguous recognition of Israel's "right to exist" - tactically, in exchange for substantial territories, and Israeli complaisance in their own "right" to enter and govern them.
If an identifiable Jew from Israel wanders, unguarded, into any part of the Palestinian territories, he is a dead man. This is a fact of life, and everyone knows it. Leftist and Islamist rhetoric about Israeli "apartheid" masks a very big truth: that more than a million Muslim Arabs live, work, and move freely around Israel, with full citizenship and protection under Israel's laws (enforced by very liberal courts). Whereas, the number of Jews enjoying this status under the Palestinian Authority is zero.
The western position has been, settle a boundary, let Israel live in peace within it, let Palestinians live in peace on the other side. Let all past claims be resolved by direct negotiations, under international supervision. This is called "the two state solution."
It sounds plausible, but only so long as we avert our eyes from the reality.
The UN will be granting Palestinian statehood without a resolution of anything. It will be a reward for consistent Palestinian refusal to negotiate in good faith, or to deliver on any significant undertakings made under the various Madrid, Oslo, and other "peace agreements" reached in the past.
Israel was told to exchange Gaza for peace. All the Jewish settlements in Gaza were uprooted. All the Israeli troops were withdrawn. Observe what happened. |
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Haaretz
31 August '11
[Moshe Arens, Israeli aeronautical engineer, researcher, and former Defense Minister of Israel three times, weighs the pros and cons of Iron Dome, but his final paragraph says it all. Y.]
While Iron Dome can effectively defend small militarily important targets, it does not provide the protection that our civilian population in the south, and maybe tomorrow in the north, is entitled to.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/iron-dome-is-not-enough-to-protect-israeli-citizens-1.381655
As the walrus said to the carpenter in Lewis Carroll's fable, "the time has come to talk of many things." In Israel, after the pounding Israel's citizens in the south took from assorted rockets and mortar shells in the past weeks, the time has come to talk of that great Israeli development, the Iron Dome rocket interception system.
It successfully engaged a good number of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip against the south, and was a source of justified pride for all Israelis. But before we make this system the linchpin of Israel's defensive strategy it might be well to analyze the performance of the system during the recent attacks, and the final result. Who was the winner in the duel, the Iron Dome or the combination of Grads, Qassams and mortar shells fired against the civilian population in southern Israel?
The Iron Dome, developed by Rafael, is a superb technological achievement. It follows Israel's first technological breakthrough in ballistic missile interception - the Arrow, developed by IAI. For years the interception of ballistic missiles was considered next to impossible, until the Arrow, designed to intercept missiles launched from a distance of hundreds of kilometers, proved otherwise.
Obviously, intercepting missiles launched from shorter ranges is a far more difficult task. The Iron Dome is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles launched from a distance of 5-70 kilometers, no mean feat. It is an achievement unequaled anywhere in the world. All Israelis can take pride in this achievement. Over and above its military value, and it has substantial military value, it enhances Israel's image in the eyes of friends and foes alike.
As should be expected, it is a very expensive system, which at this point intercepts simple, very cheap, rockets. If valued in terms of out-of-pocket costs, for attacker and defender, it cannot win the battle against the incoming missiles. But, of course, that is not the only consideration in acquiring the system.
An Iron Dome battery is capable of providing defense for an area of about 150 square kilometers against incoming ballistic missiles. That is its "footprint." That means that it cannot provide protection for all of the Israeli civilians living in southern Israel, even if a substantial number of additional batteries were added to the two batteries presently deployed. Also, if a large number of rockets are directed into the area protected by an Iron Dome battery the system can be saturated, and thus penetrated. It does not provide protection against mortar shell launched at short range. In other words, it is only a very partial answer to the rocket threat against Israeli civilians coming from the Gaza Strip.
This became clear last week. The incoming rockets forced Israelis throughout the south to run for shelter. That is the bottom line - and in that sense the rockets were the winners in the duel with the Iron Dome. The terrorists in the Gaza Strip understand that, and more rockets will surely be coming our way. Thus the Iron Dome is a source of pride and gives us the feeling that we are not completely helpless against the rocket threat. It gives mayors in the south a chance to compete against each other in pressuring the government to acquire more Iron Dome batteries and deploy them near their cities, and it seemingly provides justification to increase the defense budget.
But to be honest, whereas the Iron Dome can effectively defend small militarily important targets, it does not provide the protection that our civilian population in the south, and maybe tomorrow in the north, is entitled to. The idea that missile interception systems, when eventually deployed throughout Israel, will provide an impenetrable umbrella under which Israelis will be able to peacefully carry on their daily lives even when Israel is attacked by rockets, is an illusion. There are other ways to put an end to the rocket threat, and the government will sooner or later have to resort to them.
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American Thinker
31 August '11
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/08/israels_flag_back_over_cairo_embassy_not_fit_to_print_in_ny_times.html
In its Aug. 30 edition, the New York Times runs a lengthy article about what happened in Cairo since anti-Israel demonstrators pulled down and desecrated the Israeli flag flown over the Israeli Embassy a week ago. But leave it to the Times to omit the most important development -- of which more later ("In Egypt, An Act of Boldness Is Disputed" page A4).
The article, reported by no fewer than two Times correspondents in the Egyptian capital -- Heba Afify and Stephen Farrell -- runs the full length of a column on the main international-news page.
It starts off by recounting in great detail the feat of a Spiderman-like protester, who climbed up the side of the Embassy building, ripped away the flag and tossed it down, thus becoming an instant hero. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter took it from there.
"His rebellious ascent thrilled the crowd and many across the nation," Afify and Farrell write. "To them, it seemed to epitomize a new Egyptian boldness." But the jubilation didn't last long. A rival soon emerged claiming to be the real Flagman. He insisted that it was he who got to the flag and tossed it to the other guy a few stories below, who then proceeded to reach bottom first and to falsely claim his moment of glory.
So for the next few days, Egyptian media served up the "Battle of the Flagmen." And now the Times obliges.
But in its fascination with and emphasis on the anti-Israel mood in Cairo, the Times omits an important final act in this bit of political theater -- as of Aug. 29, the day before the Times' went to press with its story, the Israeli flag proudly flew again outside the Cairo Embassy. This was understandably news in both the Egyptian and Israeli media -- but not for the Times and its Cairo correspondents .
An example of Israeli resilience in the face of adversity just doesn't comport with the paper's anti-Israel bent. The Times, which boasts on its front-page masthead that it provides "all the news that's fit to print" did not see fit to print the most recent and most newsworthy development about the Israeli flag proudly fluttering again at the Embassy of the Jewish state in the capital of Egypt.
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 | Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
gets ready to lay a wreath at the
tomb of murderous terrorist
Yasser Arafat, in Ramallah, 2007 |
Fresnozionism.org
30 August '11
http://fresnozionism.org/2011/08/rein-in-the-un/
Today, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl), chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the "UN Transparency, Accountability and Reform Act of 2011," HR 2829.
It combines an approach to US funding for the UN which supports American goals and interests with provisions that specifically target some of the UN's bullying tactics against Israel, which — it should be remembered — is allegedly an ally of the US.
The bill says that the US will not fund UN activities that are in opposition to our interests by making our contributions for various programs voluntary rather than assessed. It states that the UN cannot use our money for purposes other than those for which it was intended. It withholds US contributions for any program that will upgrade the status of the Palestine observer mission, and ends US funding for the Hamas-friendly UNRWA refugee agency, the corrupt UN Human Rights Council, and the "Durban process." It also includes a provision condemning the Goldstone report and calling for its revocation.
A summary of the bill is here and a news report about the bill and reactions to it is here.
It has 57 original co-sponsors. They are all Republicans. The Obama Administration opposes the bill because "This draft legislation is dated, tired, and frankly unresponsive to the positive role being played by the UN," according to a spokesperson.
The reference is to UN support of US actions in Afghanistan and Libya. But the Ros-Lehtinen bill wouldn't prevent that kind of cooperation — indeed, it would make it more likely, since UN officials would have an interest in pleasing the US (and of course it depends on individual nations, not the UN bureaucracy).
In actuality, the UN does not play a positive role in almost anything. Many of the useful specialized agencies like the International Telecommunications Union, the World Health Organization, etc. could be spun off, at which point the rest of it could profitably disappear. Short of that, by tying US funding to the actual activities of the units funded, Ros-Lehtinen's bill could provide some accountability.
Just as an example, how many Americans enjoy having their taxes support the UN's Special Unit on Palestinian Rights (UNISPAL) and its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (every November 29, the anniversary of the partition resolution that they rejected)? Not too many, I'll bet. What about the paying the salary of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Richard Falk, who has publicly accused the US government of complicity in 9/11 and recently apologized to dogs for comparing them to Jews?
There is no reason why this has to be a partisan issue. Aren't there Democrats who resent having their money ($3.35 billion in 2010) spent by an unaccountable organization which as often as not opposes our national interests? Or Democrats who would like to see the UN reined in from attacking Israel?
We'll see.
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National Review Online
30 August '11
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/275823
Of the world's many great lies, this is among the greatest.
Next month, the U.N.-sponsored Hate-Israel Festival known as Durban III takes place. Under the heading "Anti-Racism," the great bulk of the conference, like its Durban I and II predecessors, consists of condemning Israel for racism and equating it with an apartheid state.
Of the world's many great lies, this is among the greatest.
How do we know it is a lie? Because when South Africa was an apartheid state, no one accused Israel of being one. Even the U.N. would have regarded the accusation as absurd.
Israel has nothing in common with an apartheid state, but few people know enough about Israel — or about apartheid South Africa — to refute the libel. So let's respond.
First, what is an apartheid state? And, does Israel fit that definition?
From 1948 to 1994, South Africa, the country that came up with this term, had an official policy that declared blacks second-class citizens in every aspect of that nation's life. Among many other prohibitions on the country's blacks, they could not vote; could not hold political office; were forced to reside in certain locations; could not marry whites; and couldn't even use the same public restrooms as whites.
Not one of those restrictions applies to Arabs living in Israel.
One and a half million Arabs live in Israel, constituting about 20 percent of the country's population. They have the same rights as all other Israeli citizens. They can vote, and they do. They can serve in the Israeli parliament, and they do. They can own property, businesses, and work in professions alongside other Israelis, and they do. They can be judges, and they are. Here's one telling example: It was an Arab judge on Israel's supreme court who sentenced the former president of Israel, a Jew, to jail on a rape charge.
Some other examples of Arabs in Israeli life: Reda Mansour was the youngest ambassador in Israel's history, and is now Consul General at Israel's Atlanta Consulate; Walid Badir is an international soccer star on Israel's national team, and captain of one of Tel Aviv's major teams; Rana Raslan is a former Miss Israel; Ishmael Khaldi was until recently the deputy consul of Israel in San Francisco; Khaled Abu Toameh is a major journalist with the Jerusalem Post; Ghaleb Majadele was until recently a minister in the Israeli Government. They are all Israeli Arabs. Not one is a Jew.
Arabs in Israel live freer lives than Arabs living anywhere in the Arab world. No Arab in any Arab country has the civil rights and personal liberty that Arabs in Israel have.
Now one might counter, "Yes, Palestinians who live inside Israel have all these rights, but what about the Palestinians who live in what are known as the occupied territories? Aren't they treated differently?"
Yes, of course, they are — they are not citizens of Israel. They are governed by either the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) or by Hamas. The control Israel has over these people's lives is largely manifested when they want to enter Israel. Then they are subjected to long lines and strict searches because Israel must weed out potential terrorists.
Otherwise, Israel has little control over the day-to-day life of Palestinians, and was prepared to have no control in 2000 when it agreed to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state to which it gave 97 percent of the land it had conquered in the 1967 War. The Palestinian response was to unleash an intifada of terror against Israeli civilians.
And what about the security wall that divides Israel and the West Bank? Is that an example of apartheid?
That this is even raised as an issue is remarkable. One might as well mention the security fence between the United States and Mexico an example of apartheid. There is no difference between the American wall at its southern border and the Israeli wall on its eastern border. Both barriers have been built to keep unwanted people from entering the country.
Israel built its security wall in order to keep terrorists from entering Israel and murdering its citizens. What appears to bother those who work to delegitimize Israel by calling it an apartheid state is that the barrier has worked. The wall separating Israel from the West Bank has probably been the most successful terrorism-prevention program ever enacted.
So, then, why is Israel called an apartheid state?
Because by comparing the freest, most equitable country in the Middle East to the former South Africa, those who seek Israel's demise hope they can persuade uninformed people that Israel doesn't deserve to exist just as apartheid South Africa didn't deserve to exist.
Yet, the people who know better than anyone else what a lie the apartheid accusation is are Israel's Arabs — which is why they prefer to live in the Jewish state than in any Arab state.
There are lies, and then there are loathsome lies. "Israel is an apartheid state" is in the latter category. Its only aim is to hasten the extermination of Israel.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. He may be contacted through his website, dennisprager.com.
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http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/ The following is an advertorial, written by EoZ, for Z Specialty Food.
If you are looking for a great Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot gift, you have just found it. I am not exactly a "foodie." Don't get me wrong - I love food, but I am no aficionado. My taste buds are stuck somewhere in the fifth grade and I still get enthusiastic about eating Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. So when Ishai Zeldner asked me to write a post about his food products I admit that I was a little nervous. I want to be honest in what I post, and I was worried that maybe some of his products would not be my style. Zeldner's company, Z Specialty Food, is a family-owned gourmet foods business based in California. His products are under the brand name of Moon Shine Trading Company and Cowboy Caviar. Ishai learned how to raise honey bees under the tutelage of one of Israel's top beekeepers at a kibbutz in 1969. Zeldner started harvesting and marketing his own honey over 30 years ago, and then added more varieties of honey to his collection. Later his company diversified, bought other small food companies and expanded, and now his whole family is involved. He is proud that his foods are all natural and that his company is environmentally friendly. When I received a selection of products to review I gathered Mrs. Elder and Daughter of Ziyon to help me out. And the first thing we did was set up a taste test between three of his honeys and two generic honeys. There is definitely a difference between the honeys that even I could appreciate. The gourmet honeys we tried tend to be a little lighter in color and smoother in taste than the generic brands. The California Orange Blossom Honey had a little citrus-y "kick" that I liked; the womenfolk preferred the High Plains Sweet Clover Honey and the somewhat sweeter California Yellow Star Thistle Honey; Mrs. Elder described the Yellow Star Thistle Honey as having a "perfect texture and taste." Indeed, that was the honey that started the company.
This is only three of Z-Specialty's honeys; they sell some 15 different varieties from various regions in the US. Z Specialty Foods is proud that they support American farmers with all of their products.
They also sell "Honey in the Straw" – thin plastic tubes of honey that you can take with you and enjoy any time. (Eating it straight from the tube feels slightly illicit.) You can put it into tea when you are traveling. It is quite good, and they even sell Rosh Hashanah cards that include honey straws! Next we tried the California Honey Apricot spread. This is simply a mixture of apricot preserves and honey, which is a really great idea, when you think about it. I ate it for breakfast on toast and I also tried it as a substitute for syrup on waffles. It tastes as you would expect – a sweet and tart fruit spread, with the apricot flavor accentuated. It is very tasty and a nice alternative to jelly. A more unusual food that we tried is called Cowboy Caviar, a savory spread, made with fresh vegetables. The one we tried is called Red Bell Pepper Tuscan Style and it is almost like a mild salsa. The company recommends it with eggs. This spread was a hit with all three of us. The last product I sampled is the one I wanted to try the most: Chocolate Almond Crunch, a spreadable chocolate nut cream. It is even better than I hoped it would be! You can dip cherries into it, or spread it on cookies, or pour it on ice cream, or eat it straight out of the jar (which I admit I am guilty of.) It's great on graham crackers too. This stuff is simply awesome. (We are all sneaking tastes every time we open the refrigerator. It did not last long.)
As I said, the honeys especially would make wonderful gifts for your hosts if you are invited out for the holidays. If you are more ambitious, you might want to throw a Rosh Hashana honey-tasting party with all 15 varieties – along with a good supply of apples! If you want to have a sweet year, you can't do better than to start off like that! All food products are certified kosher by the Igud HaKashrus of Los Angeles (Heart K). (The "royal jelly" and propolis are not certified.) The chocolate and vanilla nut spreads are dairy.
You can save 15% on your order by using the discount code ELDER at checkout.
Shana tova! |
Rashid Khalidi, the radical Columbia professor who felt that Yasir Arafat was too dovish for his tastes, writes an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune complaining that Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. went on a trip to Israel.
It is a typical combination of false outrage and outright lies:
[I]nstead of going to Americans hard-hit by the economic downturn, this money is used by Israel to subjugate, humiliate and segregate millions of Palestinians. Is Khalidi equally outspoken about every US expenditure - or only the tiny percentage of the budget that goes to Israel?
Of course, American money to Israel is audited and none of it goes "to subjugate, humiliate and segregate millions of Palestinians."
Rather than spend his time touring Israel, and seeing what the flacks for Israel wanted him to see, Rep. Jackson could have stayed home and met with constituents facing difficult times. And rather than write tendentious articles for the Chicago Tribune, Rashid Khalidi could be volunteering to help starving kids in Somalia. By his stunningly stupid "logic" he is a heartless SOB for not spending every minute of his day doing things more valuable than writing op-eds filled with lies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated insistence that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state is entirely at odds with the principles of the modern-day United States and a throwback to an era in which the U.S. was considered a white state. This is a baldfaced lie. Jews are a nation, whites aren't. Khalidi's denial of this simple fact, and his comparison of nationalism with racism, is indeed a manifestation of anti-semitism. He is simply denying the Jewish right of self-determination that he so tenaciously ascribes to a people who did not exist as such a hundred years ago.
Recognition of Israel as the Jewish state formally reduces Israel's 1.4 million Palestinian citizens to second-class citizenship. This is a lie. Citizens have equal rights and would continue to do so.
If Khalidi really believes this, then he must be against the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state where its Declaration of Independence and its constitution both explicitly define the state as being "Arab" - meaning that non-Arabs are second class citizens. Would he ever dare to say so?
No, of course not. Because Khalidi will only say such things about the Jewish state.
Jackson explicitly lectured Palestinians for not using nonviolence, ignoring a long tradition of nonviolent resistance by occupied and disenfranchised Palestinians.
A laughable lie that I demolished in great detail here and here.
...Israel's massive apartheid wall, a behemoth (which is both longer and in places higher than the former Berlin Wall) that snakes through Palestinian territory, grabbing land meant for a future Palestinian state. As Khalidi well knows, the land was always up for negotiation. It was never "meant" for a future Palestinian Arab state. In fact, when it was won in 1967, it was considered by the entire world to be Jordanian. One major objective of the Oslo process was to determine where that border would be, and the path of the security barrier has already changed a number of times.
[H]undreds of unarmed activists acting in the spirit of the U.S. civil rights movement, and who proudly claim to be inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, have been arrested without charge. Hundreds more have been injured or killed by rubber bullets and high-velocity tear gas canisters.
MLK never advocated throwing boulders, using high velocity slings, dropping boulders onto civilians from a height, or throwing Molotov cocktails - all activities that happen weekly in the territories, often at these "non-violent" protests.
Jackson also approvingly quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for the forcible transfer of Israel's Palestinian citizens. This is an absolute and complete lie. Lieberman called for redrawing borders, ironically giving more land to a Palestinian state, not to forcibly transfer one Palestinian Arab from their home.
It is no wonder then, that peace and security for all in the region is still so elusive. When professors at Columbia can spout such errant untruths on the pages of a major American newspaper, it allows Palestinian Arab leaders to become even more intransigent and less willing to make the hard compromises necessary for peace.
Khalidi has no interest in peace in the Middle East; he wants Israel to be destroyed and in fact refers to all of Israel as "occupied." He is an extremist, and for him to talk about "peace" is the ultimate of hypocrisy - because his conception of "peace" is the destruction of a nation. |
From Syrian government mouthpiece SANA:
Syrian dramatist Dr. Hannan Kassab Hassan, playwright Omar Abu Saada and dancing designer Osama Hilal participated in Edinburgh Festival for the British Contemporary Arts which was held between August 22nd and 28th.
The Festival presented variety of British contemporary shows and held a number of meetings to provide opportunities of opinions, experiments and knowledge among dramatists from different parts of the world. The Festival also conducted dialogues about the Arab theatre.
Prominent Arab and African dramatists also took part in the international festival, among them Director of Beirut Spring Festival Randa al-Asmar and the Executive Director of Jordan Festival Suha Bawab.
Elizabeth White, Director of the British Council in Syria said that each Summer, Edinburgh embraces new productions and opinions at all streets, halls and theatres where the coffees are crowded with dramatists, playwrights and spectators who enthusiastically discuss the good and bad works. Somehow, I missed the protests by British "human rights" activists that must have occurred outside the festival, calling attention to Syrian war crimes.
After all, they have determined that the human rights of Arabs is far more important than any arts performance, didn't they? |
From UPI:
Iran will send a submarine and another warship from the republic's 15th fleet to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said.
The navy will continue to maintain a highly active presence in the area to serve the country's interests, Press TV quoted the navy commander as saying Tuesday.
Sayyari did not say when the naval vessels would be dispatched.
Iran's presence will not only enhance security in the area, but will convey a message of peace and friendship to all countries, he said.
Iran's announcement came shortly after Israel said Tuesday it was boosting its naval presence near the border with Egypt Tuesday, following reports Sinai terrorists plan attacks on Israel.
Due to the warnings based on concrete intelligence received by the security establishment, Israel also boosted its ground forces along the border with Egypt and Gaza.
Israel informed the Egyptian authorities of the move. Al Masry al Youm reports that first Iran made their announcement and then Israel announced that two warships would be deployed in the Red Sea. Predictably, they interview an Egyptian "expert" who says that Israel's move is designed to "provoke Egypt." |
Just a quick graphical reaction to the PLO's "Empty Chair" stunt I mentioned yesterday:
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From ABC News:
She kept a promise of silence and secrecy for 66 years. A promise made to one of the vilest leaders of Nazi Germany.
Now Brunhilde Pomsel, 100 years old, is talking about her time as secretary to Joseph Goebbels, propaganda chief for Adolph Hitler, a man who railed against Jews and once wrote, "Adolf Hitler, I love you because you are both great and simple at the same time. What one calls a genius." All these years later, his secretary calls him something else.
"I will never forgive Goebbels for what he brought into this world," Pomsel tells Bild, Germany's most widely-read paper. "And the fact that he could murder his innocent children in this way."
She worked for Goebbels from 1942 until May 1, 1945 — a week before V-E Day — when he killed himself in Berlin.
"He got away lightly with suicide," she says. "He knew he would be condemned to death by the Allies. His suicide was cowardly, but he was also smart because he knew what was coming if he didn't take that way out."
Countless books have been written about Goebbels and his role in the war, but none had the benefit of a conversation with Pomsel, whose job was to take down Goebbels' every word — "The Jews must get out of Germany, indeed out of Europe altogether", "The Jews ought to please observe the laws of hospitality and not behave as if they were the same as us," and so on.
Pomsel tells Bild she was asked to work for Goebbels because she was a fast typist. "It was an order to be transferred to work for him. You couldn't refuse."
And while Pomsel kept notes on all her boss' hate-mongering, she also claims — in colorful language — to have never known about the horrors that were underway. "I didn't know about the Holocaust. I was a stupid, politically uninterested little sausage of simple means. I only learned about the Jewish extermination program after the war."
Pomsel recalls eating goose with Goebbels at his home outside Berlin, and receiving dresses from his wife Magda after her own home was destroyed in an allied bombardment. But "you couldn't get close to him," she says. "He never once asked me a personal question. Right up until the end I don't think he knew my name." Andrew Roberts notes that Goebbels was the exception - that most Nazi leaders were very kind to their employees as they carried out the most horrific crimes known to man.
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From Al Arabiya:
Five female bodyguards of Muammar Qaddafi say they were sexually assaulted by the former Libyan leader in a report published in the Malta Times on Sunday.
The claims have been collected by Benghazi-based psychologist Sehram Sergewa who is compiling a dossier for the International Criminal Court for any criminal proceedings against Qaddafi.
Qaddafi was known for his female bodyguards who were always well groomed and rumored to be up to 400 according to a recent report in Al Arabiya. Qaddafi made his guards take a vow of virginity and renamed all of them Aisha, after his only daughter.
The women who stepped forward to share their experiences, however, speak of horrifying crimes of rape by the leader and then his sons or other officials.
One woman, who said she was raped before becoming a female guard by Qaddafi when she sought his intervention to be re-instated at university, was blackmailed into becoming a bodyguard.
"She was told you either become a bodyguard or your brother [detained on fabricated charges of drug trafficking] will spend the rest of his life in prison," Dr. Sergewa told the newspaper.
Charges of rape aren't limited to Qaddafi. When conducting a survey at a refugee camp in Tunisia, Dr. Sergewa spoke to women who said they were raped by Qaddafi troops.
An 18-year-old claimed she was raped in front of her father by a soldier. And it gets worse:
A father slit the throat of his three teenage daughters in an 'honour killing' after they were raped by Gaddafi loyalists during the siege of the port city of Misrata.
Allegations of the shocking executions are contained in a report by the respected Physicians for Human Rights group into war crimes and atrocities in the embattled city, which faced two months of being cut off from the rest of Libya.
The father is said to have carried out the 'honour killings' because of his humiliation and shame at the rape of the sisters – aged 15, 17 and 18 – in Tomina, on the outskirts of Misrata. The victims were not named. (h/t jzaik) |
Nothing illustrates Palestinian Arab intransigence more than their rejection of the concept of "two states for two peoples."
Especially when one remembers that this idea was originally floated by the Israeli Far Left - and it was at one point considered political heresy in mainstream Israeli politics.
One early example of this formulation can be seen in the 1974 book "Land of the Hart" by Israeli pioneer - and super-dove - Arie Eliav, as can be seen in these two snippets:
Similarly, a 1989 demonstration organized by Peace Now in Jerusalem used the slogan prominently. That demonstration, which only attracted a few hundred, was overshadowed 13 years later by the famous Peace Now rally of some of 50,000 Israelis in 2002 - featuring that same slogan.
In other words, the concept of "two states for two peoples" has been the mantra of the Israeli "peace camp" for decades.
In what can only be considered a triumph by the leftists, this idea, which was was considered anathema to Israeli governments of both the right and the left, became mainstream Israeli policy. Even Ariel Sharon used that exact phrase in May, 2004 when unveiling the disengagement plan from Gaza (placing him far to the left of Yitzchak Rabin, who never accepted the idea of a "Palestinian state.")
Similarly, that phrase has been highlighted by both George Bush and Barack Obama.
Yet the mainstream, supposedly moderate Palestinian Arab leadership has never accepted this key concept, and has been consistently and adamantly against it. To them, the idea of even accepting the existence of a Jewish people cannot be countenanced - even in private.
Any reasonable observer can see that this is a dealbreaker. The PLO's insistence on trampling the idea of a Jewish people and a Jewish homeland means that real peace can never be achieved. They are the ones who are the true obstacle to peace, far more than anything the Israeli government has ever done. The majority of Israelis have steadily moved to the stated positions of the "peace" movement in the past two decades, while the majority of Palestinian Arabs have remained as obstinate as ever.
However, the Israeli Left, the vanguard of "two states for two peoples," willfully ignores, and even hides, this huge divide between their concept of peace and the red lines drawn in no uncertain terms with their purported "peace partners." They will not publicly castigate Mahmoud Abbas for his repeated insistence on this point, nor on his insistence on "return."
The extremism of the PA and the PLO gets a free pass.
Rather than exposing the PLO for ruining any chance for peace, the Israeli Left instead keeps on blaming the Israeli Right for the lack of progress in the "peace process." They simply cannot admit to themselves that their "two states for two peoples" formulation has no takers on the other side.
So they choose to ignore it. They paper over their differences with their "moderate" counterparts on the Arab side. Perhaps it is out of embarrassment, perhaps it is from a refusal to admit that there is no peace partner.
This has far reaching implications. The world media takes its cue from the Israeli Left, symbolized by Ha'aretz. The Western world has largely subscribed to the ideas of the Israeli Left. As a result, for years, journalists have also failed to highlight the inflexible and obdurate position of the Palestinian Arabs and their leaders.
This is one reason that stunts like the unilateral declaration of independence gain any traction to begin with. If the Israeli Left was as ferocious in denouncing Palestinian Arab inflexibility and intransigence as they are of the Israeli Right, then world leaders would be a lot more skeptical about accepting and facilitating these anti-peace stunts.
Instead, the Israeli "peace camp" has dropped the ball in its quest for peace. Its voice could have been a powerful ingredient in pressuring the PLO for accepting compromise and coexistence. Instead, Israeli leftists chose to play political one-upsmanship with the Right and to hide their differences with their supposed Arab counterparts.
This emboldens the Palestinian Arabs to continue to refuse compromise and say no to negotiations and peace, as they are given political cover by the Israeli Left and the journalists who admire them.
And the entire world will pay the price. 
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This summer's floptilla has a historical antecedent:
As in the more recent example, it failed to sail - and the organizers blamed the Greeks! (WaPo)
A Palestine Liberation Organization plan to sail a ship filled with people deported from the occupied territories to Israel, much as Jewish war refugees did in 1947 aboard the Exodus, has been stalled by a "secret" Israeli dissuasion campaign aimed at Greek merchant shipping, PLO officials charged today. Israel denied the charge.
An Israeli Embassy spokesman here denied the charge today. But in Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has expressed outrage at and opposition to the PLO plan to copy the Jews' postwar tactics to settle refugees in what was then British-administered Palestine. Greece also denied being pressed by Israel or the United States-as the PLO had alleged-to prevent the sailing.
The PLO plans to load the ship with international observers, reporters and 131 Palestinians who were deported from the Israeli-occupied territories on the West Bank and Gaza and sail it to Haifa in Israel. The ship would make a stopover in Larnaca, Cyprus to pick up more international observers, including a number of Palestinians, the PLO said. And just like today, anti-Israel stunts are catnip to the media.
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G=Grad
Q=Qassam
M=Mortar
P=Unidentified projectile (includes mortars)
R=Unidentified rocket
S=Fell short in Gaza
E=fell in Egypt
F=Fatality (Green-Gaza, Red-Israel)
[] - Palestinian claims
August 2011
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Prepared for the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs |
View this page atwww.dailyalert.org
Subscribe | | DAILY ALERT | Thursday,
September 1, 2011 |
In-Depth Issues:
Report: Increasing Nuclear Cooperation between Iran and North Korea - Yossi Melman (Ha'aretz)
The German dailySuddeutsche Zeitungreported that North Korea has supplied Iran with a highly precise computer to help simulate a nuclear explosion.
The computer transfer is part of a larger $100 million deal between Tehran and Pyongyang that also includes teaching and training Iranian experts in nuclear weapons and missiles.
Sarkozy: Iranian Nuclear Bid Could Provoke Attack(AFP/Defense News)
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Wednesday that Iran's attempts to build long-range missiles and nuclear weapons could lead unnamed countries to launch a pre-emptive attack.
"Its military nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all costs," he said.
The Devastating Truth about Water and Palestinian Statehood - Yochanan Visser and Sharon Shaked (Jerusalem Post)
The Palestinian Authority has been sabotaging the two-state solution by preventing the development of an independent water infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.
44 joint Israeli-Palestinian Water Commission-approved projects, like the construction of a waste water treatment plant (WWTP) in Jenin that received approval in 2008, have not been implemented.
The German government even withdrew a plan to build a WWTP in Tulkarm when it concluded that the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) could not handle the project.
The PWA did not implement projects in the Eastern aquifer that would have solved much of the Palestinian wa ter crisis. More than half of the wells approved for exploitation of the Eastern aquifer have still not been drilled.
The Palestinian Authority neglects the basic needs of its citizens and cynically uses water as a weapon in a PR campaign against Israel.
The stubborn refusal to work with Israel on mutual interests like improvement of the water infrastructure, and the way the PA subsequently uses that lack of improvement to demonize Israel, prove that the PA is not interested in the two-state solution, or peace.
Video: Preview "Jerusalem," Filmed in Imax 3D(Jerusalem Giant Screen)
After a year of research and preparation, the giant screen film Jerusalemadvanced into production with an unprecedented aerial shoot throughout Israel and the West Bank.
Scheduled for worldwide release in 2013, the film will take audiences on a spectacular tour of the Holy Land and the city once believed to lie at the center of the world.
| | News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:- New Egypt Troop Presence in Sinai a Gamble for Israel - Edmund Sanders
The aftermath of the "Arab Spring" is forcing Israel to gamble with what had long been one of the foundations of its security: a demilitarized Sinai peninsula. This week, as many as 1,500 more Egyptian troops poured into the region with armored vehicles and a limited number of tanks amid a crackdown on Islamist radical groups after a cross-border attack this month left eight Israelis dead. But allowing an increased Egyptian military presence along the border carries significant risk for Israel. The military-led council that replaced Mubarak is facing strong public pressure to take a harder stance against Israel, which remains deeply unpopular in Egypt.
A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official s aid Israel has agreed since January to permit Egypt to deploy "several thousand" soldiers along the border. However, he said, Israel so far has been unimpressed with the Egyptian army's results. "They can't or won't clamp down to stop the weapons flow," he said, and in recent months Libyan-made shoulder-launched missiles and anti-tank missiles have been smuggled through Sinai into Gaza. He said Egypt has the manpower to accomplish the job, if it has the will.
The risk for Israel, analysts say, is in opening a door that will be difficult to close again. Once Egyptian soldiers are deployed in the Sinai in large numbers, can Israel be assured that they will leave after the threat is controlled? (Los Angeles Times) - Proposed Legislation Would Cut Off Funds to UN Groups Elevating Status of Palestinian Mission
The head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is asking Congress to block U.S. funds for any UN entity that supports giving Palestine an elevated status at the UN. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), in legislation unveiled Tuesday with 57 cosponsors, also would ban U.S. contributions to the UN Human Rights Council and to the Durban conference against racism scheduled for next month which is seen as a platform for anti-Israel rhetoric.
Ros-Lehtinen said her bill follows the example of George H.W. Bush, who in 1989 succeeded in stopping the UN from recognizing a Palestinian state by threatening to cu t off U.S. financial support. The U.S. State Department opposes the legislation. (AP-Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:- Israel: Acceptance of PA's UN Bid Will Push Back Talks for Years - Herb Keinon
A UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the Palestinian Authority as a nonmember state would create "unbridgeable gaps" and push back negotiations for years, a senior Israeli official warned Wednesday. He said that once such a resolution was passed, the Palestinians would never be willing to negotiate on the basis of anything less, and no Israeli leader would ever be able to agree to such terms. He said that this was well understood by the U.S. He added that Israel had no intention of negotiating with the Palestinians - or anyone else - over the language of the UN resolution.
The official also said it was an "illusion" to think that a Palestinian state could "go it alone," adding that the Palestinians need I sraeli assistance in everything from tax collection to combating Hamas. (Jerusalem Post) - Israel Deploys Third Iron Dome Anti-Rocket Battery - Yanir Yagna
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday deployed a third Iron Dome anti-rocket battery outside the city of Ashdod. During the recent round of Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza, two other Iron Dome batteries in the Beersheba and Ashkelon areas successfully intercepted more than 20 Grad missiles. On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that nine Iron Dome batteries would be deployed within the next two years. (Ha'aretz)
See also Israel to Double Iron Dome Production - Yuval Azoulai
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. will open a second production line for the Iron Dome's Tamir missiles, which intercept rockets fired at Israel from Gaza. Israel's two operational Iron Dome batteries intercepted over 90% of the rockets that would have hit populated areas in recent days. (Globes)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):- Assad, Going Down - Rami G. Khouri
The signs are not good for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the tightly knit network of relatives, security agencies, Baath Party members and business associates that dominates the country. When Syria's two closest allies - Iran and Hizbullah - publicly acknowledge that the problems in Syria are deep and cannot be resolved by current hard security measures, this is a signal that Syria is in deep trouble. Turkey also continued to pressure the Assad government, saying that if it is forced to choose between supporting the leaders or the people of Syria, it would support the people.
The Syrian regime still has decisive leaders, many security services, a core political/demographic base of support at home, plenty of tanks and ammunition, billions of dollars of money, and tens of thousands of foot soldiers. All these assets, however, are bunched into an increasingly smaller and smaller space, and are confronting mass popular rallies that steadily grow in frequency, size, bravado and political intensity. Using tanks to kill your own civilians is not a sign of strength, but of savagery born of desperation. The writer is Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. (New York Times)
See also Syria's Gamble on Gaddafi Fails - Osman Mirghani (Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) - Still Far from Ready for Statehood - Efraim Inbar
Unfortunately, General Assembly resolutions cannot fix a Palestinian national movement that is hopelessly fractured and dysfunctional. Can the UN bring Gaza and the West Bank together to present reasonable interlocutors for Israeli negotiators? Can it mellow Hamas' lust to kill Jews and to eradicate Israel? Can it eradicate the "shaheed" death culture?
The Palestinians insist on the invented "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, which most of the world sees as an unrealistic demand and an obstacle to peace. The Palestinians are trying to deny Jewish history in Jerusalem. They are still not ready to concede that they lost the struggle over Jerusalem, a united capital city that the Jews wi ll adamantly defend. The Palestinians remain unwilling to make a pragmatic deal in order to achieve statehood. And can the PA survive without begging for international support every few months?The writer is professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.(bitterlemons.org/The Australian) - The Republic of Anti-Israel - David Warren
On Sept. 20, as the next UN session opens, Mahmoud Abbas will present a declaration of statehood to the General Assembly, on behalf of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians, so far as they are a people, have now a long history of being able to do things without consequences. Under the direction of a succession of "reformed" or unreformed terrorist leaders, from the Mufti of Jerusalem to Yasser Arafat to Hamas, they have "evolved" a polity which may itself be defined as "the Anti-Israel."
Israel is consistently held to account, both internally and externally, as an old-fashioned, formal nation state. When the Israelis respond to rocket attacks from Gaza, they are compelled to justify their action. But the people who sent t he rockets are not.
The Western position has been: settle a boundary, let Israel live in peace within it, let Palestinians live in peace on the other side. Let all past claims be resolved by direct negotiations, under international supervision. This is called "the two-state solution." It sounds plausible, but only so long as we avert our eyes from the reality. The UN will be granting Palestinian statehood without a resolution of anything. It will be a reward for consistent Palestinian refusal to negotiate in good faith, or to deliver on any significant undertakings made under the various Madrid, Oslo, and other "peace agreements" reached in the past. (Ottawa Citizen-Canada)
Observations: - For those interested in a two-state outcome, the Palestinian UN gambit should be opposed. First, it does an end-run around face-to-face talks. Responsible political leaders should be encouraging the Palestinians to return to the table with Israel, not undermining the prospect of direct negotiations.
- Second, if a Palestinian state is recognized along the 1967 lines (nothing more than the 1949 armistice lines), this undermines UN Security Council Resolution 242 and 338 and the Camp David Accords, which call for a negotiated outcome and do not predetermine final boundaries. Indeed, once the UN General Assembly (GA) endorses a Palestinian state's borders, how will the Palestinians ever accept the territorial adjustments diplomats know will be required to address the minimum needs of both sides to reach a deal?
- Third, countries that support the Palestinian strategy may well contribute to a resurgence of violence. Why feed false expectations?
- Countries should consider carefully if "Palestine" today has the necessary elements of statehood. If every secessionist, insurgent, or so-called independence group felt it might get validation from the UN General Assembly, regardless of actual conditions on the ground, all hell could break loose.
- Finally, a GA vote would say to Israel: we are prepared to hand over, among other land, Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter and sacred Western Wall to Palestinian control.
- We'll know soon enough what democratic nations have the courage to embrace principle in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace, and what countries are ready to throw it to the wind.
The writer is the Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee.
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