Israel Matzav: Arab commentators agree: Assad behind Naqba day events

Arab commentators agree: Assad behind Naqba day events

Arab commentators agree that Syrian President Bashar

al-Assad was behind Sunday's events at Majdal Shams on the Syrian border.

The Syrian government "made use" of Sunday's rallies to "divert attention from... the Syrian uprising which has been the main event in Syria for months," said Burhan Ghalioun, director of the Centre for Contemporary Eastern Studies.

...

Sunday's protesters -- most of them Palestinian refugees living in Syria -- would have never made it across the armistice line without a nod of approval from President Bashar al-Assad's embattled regime, analysts said.

"Neither the Syrians nor the Palestinians in Syria can move alone. Syrian security services use people as tools. They inspire, organise and point out" to people what to do, said Ghalioun.

"If the Syrian regime was in a different situation, it would have not allowed the protesters to enter through the Golan," he said.

What happened Sunday "fell right within the regime's will."

Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, agreed that the protesters could not have done it without the regime's support.

This is risk free for Assad. Israel isn't going to start a war over an invasion that looks mostly like civilians. Assad gets his crackdown out of the headlines for a day or so. And if someone happens to steal his way in long enough to bring back some intelligence, all the better.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Arab commentators agree: Assad behind Naqba day events

RubinReports: Belgium: Half of All Muslim Immigrant Children Are Antisemitic

Belgium: Half of All Muslim Immigrant Children Are Antisemitic

This article is published on PajamasMedia.

By Barry Rubin

The Flemish-language newspaper De Morgen (link only in Flemish) has a major article about a survey of Muslim students in Brussels high schools. The professor who conducted the survey concludes that half "can be described as antisemitic which is a very high rate.’’ Five times higher, in fact, then among Flemish-speaking Belgians, who historically have been relatively anti-Jewish.

Incidentally, what was being measured here was not antagonism toward Israel but traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes. No doubt, the former attitude is even stronger.

The anti-Jewish sentiments among Muslims don't vary depending on education level or living standards. Obviously, they aren't getting it from Belgian society.

"The antisemitism is theologically inspired," says the sociologist, Professor Mark Elchardus. "There is a direct link between being Muslim and antisemitic feelings. Catholics, too, are negative toward Jews too, but their sentiments are by far less strong.’’

I think the following points are reasonable to assume:

--These students don't learn anything in school that is going to change their minds. Note that these are overwhelmingly people born in Europe and are native-speakers of the local language.

--Regarding the local media, given the hostility to Israel it is probable that antisemitic stereotypes and feelings will be reinforced rather than diminished.

--It seems reasonable to assume that this statistic basically applies to other European countries.

--Hostility to Jews is likely to climb as this sector of the population grows. It is estimated that about six percent of Belgians today are Muslims, climbing to ten percent in 2030. However, the fact that these people are disproportionately living in big cities increases their influence on the society.

--Even though only a small proportion of Muslim immigrants will engage in anti-Jewish violence, the level will increase sharply. So will discrimination plus other activities against Jews grow as these attitudes influence other parts of society or, which amounts to the same thing, non-Muslim institutions try to appease that sector of the population.

--Pretending that this problem doesn't exist and that only neo-fascist white skinheads exhibit antisemitism is not going to help deal with this issue.

--I'll bet that antisemitism and not Islamophobia is actually Europe's number one "hate" problem but very few politicians or leaders are going to say that.

RubinReports: Belgium: Half of All Muslim Immigrant Children Are Antisemitic

RubinReports: A Leading Intellectual Gives The Long-Term Perspective On Today's Problems

A Leading Intellectual Gives The Long-Term Perspective On Today's Problems

This article is published on PajamasMedia.

By Barry Rubin

The incomparable Walter Laqueur was born in Breslau, Germany (now Poland), in 1921. Recently, he had a 90th birthday party that was a very special and enjoyable event. Walter was 12 when the Nazis took power and went through his high school years under the increasingly oppressive regime. He was able to go to the land of Israel (i.e., the British mandatory territory of Palestine) but his parents were killed.

He went through the 1948 war as a journalist, became an expert on the USSR, learned a total of eight languages, and wrote far more books on the Middle East, Europe, terrorism (a subject he pioneered), and even wrote novels. Walter had a lot to do with the development of think tanks. He invented the concept of "contemporary history." He knows everyone, has read everything, and has a remarkable memory and an archive of anecdotes.

At the party, I remarked to him that these are very difficult times we are going through.

His response? "I've seen worse."

We laughed because, of course, it's so true. And that's a good thing to keep in mind as we deal with the phenomena ranging from nonsensical to horrific every day.

RubinReports: A Leading Intellectual Gives The Long-Term Perspective On Today's Problems

Love of the Land: Mark The Islamic Expert's Words: It's Not About Politics and Borders - It's About Theology and Annihilation

Mark The Islamic Expert's Words: It's Not About Politics and Borders - It's About Theology and Annihilation

Daphne Anson
16 May '11

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/05/mark-islamic-experts-words-its-not.html

At yesterday's angry demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in London (see my previous post for a nine-minute video), where Hezbollah flags were waved by many in the mob, a certain genocidal chant rang out.

To quote Tom Friedmann, who has a most evocative description of the demonstration that deserves to be read in full:

"Over at the [simultaneous] Israeli demonstration Jewish teenagers waved Israeli flags, sang traditional Jewish songs and joined in chants declaring their will to peace. If they could have been described as provocative at all it was when they chanted ‘We love life, you love death’ yet undeniably quite accurately reflecting the statements of countless Islamist clerics on the subject. Nor could the Palestinian side really attempt to claim that they were not championing the Islamist cause; several Hezbollah flags could clearly be seen among their crowed. And while the Israeli demonstrators made their calls for peace and that Gaza be freed from Hamas the Palestinian group decided to go for a rendition of ‘Khyber al-Yahud’ which calls on Jews to remember how they were slaughtered by Mohammad and his men at Khyber in 7th century Arabia. [My emphasis] Indeed much of the chanting was in Arabic as most of the crowed appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin, many in traditional Islamic dress. The odd Quaker/Anarchist that had ill-advisedly come along nervously struggled to join in with the Arabic, but for the most part Middle England had stayed away this time. There was of course Lauren Booth who seemed to have come in fancy dress; sporting an amusingly dysfunctional combination of designer sunglasses, a pink jacket and a keffiyeh for a hijab, but then she can hardly be said to count." See: http://tomfriedmann.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/two-very-different-demonstrations-at-the-israeli-embassy/ and also http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/naqba-day-extremists-spew-hate-outside-israeli-embassy/

No doubt the genocidal chant pierced the air at similar "Nakba Day" rallies in other cities round the world.

Binyamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, in assuring his compatriots that "we are determined to protect our borders and our sovereignty" from "Nakba Day" incursions by Arab trouble makers, added:

"The leaders of these violent demonstrations have personally stated that their struggle is not over the '67 lines, but rather to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel, which they define as a disaster which must be corrected."

This fact - that the issue is not one of borders but of Israel's very existence - is powerfully expressed by Egyptian-born expert in Islamic radicalism Dr Tawfik Hamid, of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia.

A former Islamic extremist who once belonged to the same terrorist organization as Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Dr Ayman al-Zawahir, he has a message for American diplomats that deserves to be heard and heeded by all who place the onus for peace upon the Jewish State:

"Approaching the Arab-Israeli conflict from the perspective that it is about land, so that giving more land to the Palestinians will solve the problem, is a failed endeavor.


Israel has already given Egypt the whole of the Sinai, and got nothing in return except a cold peace and rising anti-Semitism in the country. Similarly the disengagement from Gaza did not magically lead to a decline in the wave of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.


Pro-Palestinian Muslim demonstrators across the world repeatedly use the chant “Khyber Khyber Ya Yahood... Gaish Muhammad Sawfa Yaood,” which reminds the Jews that the army of Muhammad is coming back for a repeat of what was done to the Jewish Khyber tribe.


According to authentic Islamic history books, the Islamic army, led by Muhammad, annihilated the Jewish tribe of Khyber, raping its women and killing all its men.
Such barbaric statements against the Jews have been used by many in the Muslim world, and even inside the US and Europe. Sadly the chant was also used on Friday by thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.


The Hamas charter also calls for the destruction of Israel. This violent principle has its roots in the traditional Islamic teaching, based on Hadith books, that encourages the killing of all Jews before the end of days.


.... [T]he problem in the eyes of the Palestinians and their supporters is not the borders of Israel but the very existence of the country, all future missions will similarly fail. Solving the Arab-Israeli conflict must be done initially at the theological rather than the political level, as the former is impeding the latter. [My emphasis]


It is unfair to ask Israel to trust those who shamefully advocate the killing of Jews, and claim that Islamic annihilation of the Jews by an Islamic army is a model that must be emulated today. [My emphasis]


The problem is not only in the existence of violent teachings in historical Islamic texts, but also in the dangerous desire of many Islamists and violent Islamic scholars to revive such violence in modern times....


The problem is that this disastrous anti-Semitic religious dimension is not limited to verses in books, but is also propagated by a powerful media machine that utilizes vicious, Nazi-style propaganda across the Muslim world. Publishing dehumanizing cartoons in the mainstream media, and blaming Jews for nearly every problem in the world has become much too common in the leading Arab media over the past few decades.


It is virtually impossible to promote any form of peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict without reducing such levels of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.

Until future envoys to the Middle East understand the religious dimension of the problem, and that the Arab- Israeli conflict is not about borders but about the existence of the state of Israel, all future attempts to make peace in the area will fail. [My emphasis] See: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=220694

And for a truly repellent Israel-delegitimising piece by Jody McIntyre in The Independent newspaper today that says, inter alia:

"I often wonder how I am expected to recognise the legitimacy of a state that does not recognise its own borders. I often wonder how I can recognise a state that has invaded and occupied every country it shares a border with. How can I recognise a country that refuses to recognise the right of return, as enshrined in international law, of the Palestinian refugees? Yesterday, those refugees proved that they will never allow that right to be forgotten. Despite the combined efforts of Israel, the US, and the Palestinian Authority, they will never forget the homes that they left in 1948."

see http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/05/16/a-right-to-return/

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Love of the Land: Mark The Islamic Expert's Words: It's Not About Politics and Borders - It's About Theology and Annihilation

Love of the Land: Hamas in English vs. Hamas in Arabic

Hamas in English vs. Hamas in Arabic

Khaled Abu Toameh
Hudson New York
17 May '11

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2126/hamas-english-arabic


Hamas leaders have recently been sending conflicting messages about their policies and plans that have prompted some Westerners to argue that the movement has indeed changed and that this is the time to engage with it.

But the reality is that Hamas has not changed. All one has to do is listen to what Hamas says in Arabic to understand that it does not even have any intention to change.

This week, as Palestinians marked "Nakba Day" [the Day of Catastrophe] in protest against the creation of Israel. Hamas leaders reiterated their commitment to their movement's strategy, saying the fight against Israel would continue.

Not only is Hamas not prepared to change its charter, it also has no intention to accept the three conditions set by the international community for dealing with the Islamist movement, namely renouncing violence, recognizing Israel's right to exist and accepting previous agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israel.

On the one hand, Hamas leaders have been telling Western media outlets that they accept the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 lines.

The Hamas leaders have also been telling Western journalists -- in English, of course -- that their movement has changed and is now willing to renounce violence.

In an interview with the New York Times earlier this month, for example, Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared: "The world must deal with what Hamas is practicing today. Hamas has accepted a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders including East Jerusalem, dismantling settlements and the right of return based on a long term truce."

Mashaal complained that it was "not logical for the international community to get stuck on sentences written 20 years ago." He was obviously referring to Hamas's charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel and vows to pursue the fight against the Jewish state.

Mashaal is not the only Hamas leader to send such conciliatory messages to Western audiences. Another one is Ahmed Yousef, an advisor to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip.

Yousef, who has been described by some Western correspondents as a "moderate voice" in Hamas, has been entrusted with marketing his movement to the outside world.

Listening to Yousef and reading what he writes in Western newspapers, one is left with the impression that Hamas is a peaceful organization whose only goal is to live in peace alongside its Jewish neighbors.

In an article entitled, "What Hamas Wants," Yousef wrote, also in The New York Times, that Hamas has been trying to engage the international community to explain its platform for peace.

"Hamas has consistently offered a 10-year cease-fire with the Israelis to try to create an atmosphere of calm in which we resolve our differences," he said.

Such messages, however, are almost never heard in Arabic. On the contrary, in Arabic Hamas's message has always been consistent and clear.

At the same time that Mashaal and Yousef are talking in English about accepting the two-state solution, most of Hamas's other leaders are vowing in Arabic that their movement would never recognize Israel's right to exist.

Following the signing of the Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas, the Islamist movement's representatives in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip reassured Palestinians and Arabs that their movement has not abandoned its goal of "liberating all of Palestine."

Also in Arabic, Hamas leaders have pledged that their charter would not be changed despite the rapprochement with Fatah.

If one really wants to know what Hamas thinks, one should listen to what Hamas leaders tell their supporters in mosques and public rallies in the Gaza Strip, not what they write in the New York Times or the Guardian.

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Love of the Land: Hamas in English vs. Hamas in Arabic

Love of the Land: Golan Brigade commander: Infiltration of Syrians did not surprise us [Problematic narrative]

Golan Brigade commander: Infiltration of Syrians did not surprise us [Problematic narrative]

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
17 May '11





[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: One hopes that this and other remarks by various officials are more a reflection of an approach to treat the Israeli public like children while they themselves realize that they screwed up and are acting to rectify the situation.


The size of the Golan did not change yesterday ( "you have to remember that this [the Golan Heights] is a very large area") - so that's hardly an explanation that can justify failure.


Also the line that "At a certain point, the Syrian crowd started throwing stones" is deceptive as it leaves the impression that the forces were deployed and then this transpired when in truth the invasion was apparently underway before Israeli forces were even in a position to respond.


And, of course, this remarkable narrative: "after this (shooting at legs) they withdrew".


They didn't "withdraw". Those inside the Druze village interviewing with an Israel Radio reporter remained there for hours.


This, in fact, was perhaps the most distressing element of the story: those listening to the live broadcast of Israel Radio Reshet Bet heard the correspondent talking live with invaders from Syria at the very same moment that Israeli defense spokespeople were giving the impression that the invaders had been repulsed. All this while for over an hour IDF Radio ignored the event altogether.]

Golan Brigade commander: Infiltration of Syrians did not surprise us
16 May 2011 , 17:36 IDF Website
http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/2011/05/1605.htm

"We prepared for such situations, in which people climbed the border fences, but you have to remember that this [the Golan Heights] is a very large area," commander of the Golan Brigade, Colonel Eshkol Shukrun, said on Sunday evening (May 15) following violent clashes on the Israel-Syria border when Syrian demonstrators breached the border fence. "Their infiltration was not a complete surprise."

Col. Shukrun himself was slightly injured in the clashes but continued to command the forces on the ground.

"At a certain point, the Syrian crowd started throwing stones, some of them large stones that endangered the soldiers," Col. Shukrun said. "When I understood that the event had gotten out of control, I realized that it was time to begin to shoot at the legs of protesters, mainly those who appeared to be the main inciters of the event. After this, they withdrew."

Col. Shukrun explained: "Because it was a crowd that included women and children, the orders to soldiers were to cause as little harm as possible. We tried to exercise restraint and cause little damage. "

Col. Shukrun said that the IDF cooperated with United Nations forces during the event.

"International forces assisted in handling the event, and were in touch with us particularly in the final stages. They took charge of the incident at the 'Shouting Hill' in terms of moving the demonstrators back to the east. The cooperation was good," Col. Shukrun said.

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Love of the Land: Golan Brigade commander: Infiltration of Syrians did not surprise us [Problematic narrative]

Love of the Land: The real nakba

The real nakba

Palestinian refugees from
Iraq after the fall of
Saddam Hussein
(2007 photo)

Fresnozionism.org
16 May '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/05/the-real-nakba/

I don’t have to tell you that every day we are bombarded with stories about ill-treatment, racism and apartheid perpetrated against Palestinian Arabs by Israel. Fifty, a hundred NGOs painstakingly document every tiny humiliation suffered by the noble Palestinian Arabs at the hands of the Jews. Half the world directly supports the Palestinian Cause, which is always described in terms of human rights and justice, although we know that as a matter of fact it is the opposite.

But I’ll bet there is some recent history of the Palestinian Arabs that you don’t know. It’s not surprising — the West doesn’t really care about Arabs; they are just barely above black Africans on the ladder of importance in our media and to our politicians (quick: how many died in the Second Congo War between 1998-2008? Did you even hear about the Second Congo war? Try 5.4 million human beings).

Of course since 1967 everyone’s heard the Arab version of the Palestinian story ad nauseum. But here are some questions to think about (and then I’ll tell you where to find the surprising, even shocking answers):

Who has practiced apartheid, de jure as well as de facto, against Palestinian Arabs?

What countries do not allow Palestinian Arabs to work in various professions, to go to regular schools, to be appointed to civil service jobs, to vote, etc.?

Who really made the Gaza Strip an “open-air prison?”


What country expelled 450,000 Palestinians?


Why does no Arab country except Jordan allow Palestinians to become citizens (and even in Jordan their rights are strictly circumscribed)?


What country has killed more Palestinian Arabs than have died as a result of their struggles with Israel since 1948?


In 1967, the life expectancy of a Gaza resident was 48 (today it is 72). Why is that?


Why are there 4-5 million claimants of Palestinian refugee status today (about 600,000 fled from Israel in 1948)? Why has this problem persisted longer than any other refugee problem in history, including that of 850,000 Jews who were kicked out or fled from Arab countries at about the same time?

Thanks to Ma’ariv writer Ben-Dror Yemini, and the bloggers Elder of Ziyon and IsraeliNurse, you can find the answer to these questions, as well as the real story of the Palestinian Arab refugees here.

Don’t miss it. Seriously, read it (you won’t find it in English anywhere else) and ask yourself why Israel should pay the price for the real nakba of the Palestinian Arabs.

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Love of the Land: The real nakba

Love of the Land: Israel Straight Talk: The Naqba Lie

Israel Straight Talk: The Naqba Lie

Avi Abelow
Israel Straight Talk
IST #63
16 May '11



May 15th is the Anniversary of Israel's Declaration of Independence. The Arabs call the day their Naqba, or the 'catastrophe' and they blame Israel for their predicament. However, all the blame falls on them alone - The Arabs started the war in 1948, the Arabs called upon their brothers living in homes in British Mandate Palestine to leave their homes and return after the Jews are pushed into the sea, the Arabs LOST the war and the Arabs expelled around 900,000 Jews from the Arab countries.




SHARE this video to expose the Naqba lie! They had a naqba, but they can only blame themselves for the self-inflicted consequences.All questions or comments are welcome on http://www.facebook.com/israelstraighttalk

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Love of the Land: Israel Straight Talk: The Naqba Lie

Israel Matzav: Iran building missile bases in Venezuela

Iran building missile bases in Venezuela

Five months ago, Germany's Die Welt reported that Iran was installing ballistic missiles in Venezuela that could reach the United States. Now, the same newspaper reports that Iran is building medium range missile launch pads on an area known as Paraguana Peninsula. The missiles will be based in underground silos.

Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and engineers from a construction firm – Khatam al-Anbia – owned by the Revolutionary Guards visited Paraguaná in February. Amir al-Hadschisadeh, the head of the Guard’s Air Force, participated in the visit, according to the report. Die Welt cited information from “Western security insiders.”

The rocket bases are to include measures to prevent air attacks on Venezuela as well as commando and control stations.

The Iranian military involvement in the project extends to bunker, barracks and watch tower construction. Twenty-meter deep rocket silos are planned. The cost of the Venezuelan military project is being paid for with Iranian oil revenue. The Iranians paid in cash for the preliminary phase of the project and, the total cost is expected to amount to “dozens of millions” of dollars, Die Welt wrote.

The Paraguaná Peninsula is on the coast of Venezuela and is roughly 120 kilometers from America’s main South American partner, Columbia.

According to Die Welt, the clandestine agreement between Venezuela and Iran would mean the Chavez government would fire rocket at Iran’s enemies should the Islamic Republic face military strikes.

What could go wrong?
Israel Matzav: Iran building missile bases in Venezuela

Israel Matzav: Claim: Mossad raided London hotel of Syrian official

Claim: Mossad raided London hotel of Syrian official

London's Daily Telegraph reports on the 2006 Mossad raid on a Kensington hotel in London in which agents downloaded the contents of a hard drive from a Syrian nuclear official's laptop, and implanted a trojan horse to monitor his work. The computer and its contents were valuable enough to leave the target - who was originally to have been killed - alive. The computer had important information about Syria's al-Kibar nuclear reactor, which was destroyed - allegedly by the IAF - in September 2007 (Hat Tip: Zvi S).

The operation began when Israeli intelligence picked up an online booking for a senior Syrian nuclear official at a hotel in Kensington, west London, in late 2006, according to the Israeli authors of the book Israel vs Iran: the Shadow War.

Mossad then dispatched three undercover teams to Britain including a team of "spotters" who were sent to Heathrow airport to identify the official as he flew in from Damascus under a false name. A second team booked into his hotel, while a third monitored his movements and any visitors.

The agents included members of the Kidon [Spear] division, Mossad's hit squad, and the Neviot [Springs] division, which specialises in breaking into houses, embassies and hotel rooms to install bugging devices.

The first day of the official's trip was apparently devoted to a series of meetings at the Syrian embassy in Belgrave Square but the following day he went shopping before his return to the airport.

The Kidon team followed him closely from shop to shop while the Neviot agents broke into his room and found his laptop. A computer expert took 15 minutes to download the hard drive and install trojan software that allowed Israel to monitor every keystroke he made.

When the computer material was examined at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, officials found photographs and blueprints for a plutonium reactor at Al Kibar near Deir el-Zor, a remote desert town 80 miles from Syria's border with Iraq.

...

In August 2007 Israel apparently sent a special forces team into Syria to collect soil samples near the reactor, then at around 1am on September 5 2007 Israeli fighter bombers attacked the facility in a raid into Syrian airspace that destroyed the plant.

The ramifications of the al-Kibar raid continue to plague Syria.

Satellite images and other information indicate Syria was building a covert atomic reactor when Israel bombed the site in 2007, a former senior UN nuclear inspector said on Tuesday.

Olli Heinonen, who stepped down as deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2010, made his remarks at a time when some argue that Damascus may soon be referred to the UN Security Council over the issue.

Now a senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, he said "satellite imagery, procurement, and infrastructure information tend to point (in the) direction that the destroyed building at Dair Alzour was, indeed, a nuclear reactor at an advanced state of construction".

In an email to Reuters, he said, however, that Syria had not "engaged in any substantial discussion" about Dair Alzour.

...

Western diplomats expect the Vienna-based IAEA to use stronger language in its next quarterly report on Syria which is due later this month, possibly by saying it believes the facility was a reactor under construction.

The United States and its European allies are expected to seize on this finding to push for a decision at the June 6-10 meeting of the IAEA's governing board to send the file to the U.N. Security Council -- a move last used against Iran in 2006.

The move would reflect growing frustration in the West over Syria's stonewalling of an IAEA probe into Dair Alzour, which US intelligence reports said was a nascent North Korean-designed reactor intended to make bomb fuel.

If only Brother Mohamed were still in charge at the IAEA.... Heh.

Israel Matzav: Claim: Mossad raided London hotel of Syrian official

Israel Matzav: IDF won't release video of Lebanese Armed Forces shooting protesters

IDF won't release video of Lebanese Armed Forces shooting protesters

The IDF has decided not to release video that shows members of the Lebanese Armed Forces shooting at protesters on the border area between Maroun al-Ras and Avivim on Sunday. The IDF fears that if the video is released, the LAF will do nothing to stop the protesters the next time. The IDF itself has been accused of doing the shooting and killing ten protesters.

The video was taken by the IDF of the area just north of the town of Avivim, where hundreds of Palestinian refugees gathered on Sunday to participate in Nakba Day demonstrations against Israel. At one point, a group of the protesters rushed to the border but were pushed back by soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces.

IDF soldiers also opened fire at the legs of some of the protesters who managed to penetrate the LAF perimeter and reach the border fence. Lebanese media reported that 10 people were killed. But senior IDF officers said on Monday that it was likely that most of the dead were killed by the LAF gunfire.

The decision not to release the video was made during consultations between the IDF and the Prime Minister’s Office, both of which were concerned that its release to the public could embarrass the LAF, and in turn deter the Lebanese army from responding aggressively the next time protesters try to storm the border.

Of course, if there is a UN investigation, we might be forced to release that video.... Heh.

Israel Matzav: IDF won't release video of Lebanese Armed Forces shooting protesters

Israel Matzav: The Long Overdue Palestinian State

The Long Overdue Palestinian State

Sixty three years ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy left his home in the Galilean city of Safed. His was a family of means. He studied in elementary school, and then came the naqba [calamity, namely, the founding of the State of Israel - ed.]. At night, his family left by foot from Tzfat, to the Jordan River, where they remained for a month. Then they went to Damascus, and then to their relatives in Jordan, and then they settled in Damascus. That child's story, like that of so many other Palestinians, is mine.

Continue reading here.

Note: This post is a rewrite of Abu Mazen's article in the New York Times (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

Israel Matzav: The Long Overdue Palestinian State

Israel Matzav: Norwegian art project trains delinquents to draw anti-Israel graffiti on subways

Norwegian art project trains delinquents to draw anti-Israel graffiti on subways

It's been just two days since I pointed you to a post that argued that Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in the West. Now, I have more proof for you. Norway is training juvenile delinquents to draw anti-Israel graffiti in its subway system (Hat Tip: Tundra Tabloids).

The picture above is from [Monday's] Aftenposten, with the article heading saying “Spray fantasies on the subway” with the subtitle saying “Meet the wall in a creative way”. The title refers to how the youths in the project are being taught how to spray-paint the walls in the subway station with messages of their own choice. That’s right, they are receiving expert tuition, from a Berlin-based Norwegian artist, on how to best get their message across. The subtitle is a play on how the youths in question are in a special school for students who have “met the wall”, that is, are unable to function in a normal school.

So we have young thugs painting political propaganda on the walls of a public space, and this is somehow what, art? This is good? Not a critical question from the Aftenposten journalist, of course, who probably sincerely believes that “Free Palestine” cannot possibly translate into “Destroy Israel”. Except if Israel is Palestine, than the freeing of Palestine can only come about through the abortion of the zionist project, duh?

Now as it happens, Artists4Israel are currently in Israel, and I will be meeting with some of them on Wednesday night. I would love to send them to Norway to teach these kids something different, and they are willing to go run a program there, but... how do we pay for it?

Ideas appreciated.

Israel Matzav: Norwegian art project trains delinquents to draw anti-Israel graffiti on subways

Israel Matzav: Davutoğlu summons and 'warns' Israel's ambassador to Turkey

Davutoğlu summons and 'warns' Israel's ambassador to Turkey

Israeli ambassador to Turkey Gaby Levy (pictured) has been summoned and 'warned' by someone acting on behalf of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The content of the warnings was not disclosed. Davutoğlu made the fact that the 'warnings' were given public (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

Levy was summoned at Davutoğlu's order and the Israeli diplomat had a meeting with Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Halit Çevik, who gave him a series of “serious warnings and messages,” Davutoğlu said in an interview broadcast on a local television channel in Konya, his hometown and electoral district. The foreign minister did not reveal what the warning were about, saying only that they concerned “recent developments.”

But the conversation, whose date was not given, appeared to be about a planned aid flotilla to Gaza. Davutoğlu denied reports that Levy had visited the Foreign Ministry to tell the Turkish officials to stop the flotilla, which is expected to sail towards Gaza in June despite an Israeli blockade of the coastal strip.

“Ambassador Levy's coming to the Foreign Ministry and issuing such a warning is out of the question. No foreign ambassador in Ankara can do that,” Davutoğlu said. “On the contrary, he was summoned to the Foreign Ministry upon my directions and given several serious warnings and messages about recent developments. Turkey's expectations concerning steps that need to be taken so as to prevent a repeat of similar events were conveyed to him,” he added.

Davutoğlu said he would not provide details about the content of the meeting but added that Gaby was given “clear messages” regarding Turkey's stance on certain issues.

Another report makes clear that the warnings related to the prospect of a repeat attempt by the Mavi Marmara to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza.

"What Turkey expected to prevent repetition of similar incidents to Mavi Marmara attack have been relayed to the ambassador," Davutoglu said while speaking at a tv program.

When recalled that participation to Israel's foundation anniversary celebrations was low and that nobody from the cabinet attended the celebrations, and asked whether this was a diplomatic boycott, Davutoglu said it was not right to describe this a diplomatic boycott.

"It is very meaningful that nobody went there although there was not a boycott decision," Davutoglu said adding that Israel should take this stance into consideration seriously.

Davutoglu said Israel should soon review its stance and should show respect to Turkish nation, "normally, we are careful about national days of the countries. If they want our friendship, criteria of this is clear. Israel should admit its crime and compensate it," he said.

When recalled the news reports that ,"a second flotilla is getting prepared to set sail a short time before the anniversary of the Mavi Marmara attack. There are demands from the United States and Israel to stop this flotilla. Israeli Ambassador in Ankara Levy came to foreign ministry and told to stop the flotilla," Davutoglu said it was out of question for Levy to come to the ministry to make such a warning. "No ambassador can come to Foreign Ministry in Ankara to make warning," he said.

"On the contrary, Deputy Undersecretary Halit Cevik recalled Israeli Ambassador upon my directives, made him serious warnings over the recent developments and gave messages," Davutoglu said.

It's time to recall Levy from Ankara. Enough is enough.

Israel Matzav: Davutoğlu summons and 'warns' Israel's ambassador to Turkey

Israel Matzav: Erdogan's government boycotts Israel Independence day

Erdogan's government boycotts Israel Independence day

I suppose there was no reason to expect it to be otherwise. No current member of the Turkish government showed up at the Israeli embassy's Independence day celebration last week (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

The Israeli Embassy celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the Jewish state's independence on Monday in Ankara, but not a single Turkish government official showed up for the event.

Former Foreign Trade Minister Kürşad Tüzmen, former Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Güler, Higher Education Board (YÖK) President Yusuf Ziya Özcan, former Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV) President Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu and US Ambassador to Turkey Francis J. Ricciardone participated in the reception, hosted by Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Gaby Levy on Monday.

Asked by reporters about participation from the Turkish government, Levy said the embassy had extended invitations to government officials but that it is up to them to accept or decline.

In the meantime, there is no Turkish ambassador to Israel and the current Turkish government continues to obsess with venomous hatred toward us.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Erdogan's government boycotts Israel Independence day

Dopey soccer star supports a new intifada

Dopey soccer star supports a new intifada

A soccer (football) star from Real Madrid, Marcelo Vieira, put up this photo on his Facebook page on Sunday:

The caption is "My heart with Palestinian now as they fighting with Israel."

Nice to know that some haters of Israel haven't quite yet figured out that they are supposed to pretend to love peace while they advocate the destruction of the Jewish state.

So far, that comment has garnered some 3,300 "Likes."

Taken From Elder of Zion (http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com)

Skynet is coming! New Israeli cargo drone is being spawned. Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

Skynet is coming! New Israeli cargo drone is being spawned.

In what I will bill as an AWESOME new UAV platform, Elbit is developing a drone cargo plane, that would hypothetically be able to continuously transport one ton of supplies per trip to troops in theater (as a point of reference, a C-130J can haul 36 tons per flight, and the popular IAI Heron UAV can carry a quater-ton of stuff, but it's usually carrying electronic anti-bad guy awesomeness.) Once Elbit's robotic hauler becomes operational (in about 4-5 years), logistical support will get that much easier, not having to rotate in fresh pilots for lighter hauls, not to mention the reduced threat to airborne personnel. Now all they have to work on is the airplane's name...

Prepare yourselves, Skynet is coming...

"Defense News" reports that Elbit Systems Ltd. is working with the Ministry of Defense to develop unmanned cargo plane, dubbed the "Flying Elephant". Sources say that cargo an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a "huge, slow, self takeoff and landing pallet carrier that would fly through high winds and land in austere, unpaved areas."

The Ministry of Defense's Research & Development Directorate (Mafat) launched the project several weeks ago. Under the unpublicized [huh? except for on the internet... -ed.] multiyear contract, Elbit System will develop multiple prototypes of the Flying Elephant, which will be designed for maximum safety, stability, and carrying capacity.

Sources said that the cargo UAV will have limited range given the close proximity of most combat theaters where Israel is likely to deploy large numbers of ground forces. Future versions of the Flying Elephant may be configured for medical evacuation missions, with ground troops uploading severe casualties for the return flight home.

...
Defense and industry sources say that the development contract covers four years, with possible options for optimizing the aircraft for supporting medical evacuation missions.

"Defense News" said that Elbit Systems would not confirm or deny involvement in the program and referred all queries to the Ministry of Defense. A Ministry of Defense spokesman confirmed the recently awarded development program, and estimated that the first prototype should be ready for testing within two years, but declined to provide additional information.

"Defense News" compares the Flying Elephant with two other Israeli UAVs, one operational, and the other under development. The Israel Air Force deploys a small squadron of one-ton carrying UAVs, the multi-mission Heron, built by Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) (called the Eitan in Israel). It is far too sophisticated and costly to be used for close range cargo-hauling missions. [ed., not sure what the source is, but IAI themselves put the Heron's carrying capacity at 250kg, or 550 lbs., or 1/4 ton.]

The Flying Elephant will more than double the carrying capacity of the AirMule, a dedicated, multi-mission vertical-takeoff and-landing UAV in advanced flight testing by Yavne, Israel-based Urban Aeronautics Ltd. Defense and industry sources said that the AirMule, with its sophisticated internal lift rotors and low radar signature, represents a different class of the recently expanding cargo UAV market, and cannot be compared with the crude, propeller powered, outsized airframe envisioned for the Flying Elephant.

p.s., free marketing advice from the Doubletapper blog: Call this plane the Colossus.

Skynet is coming! New Israeli cargo drone is being spawned. Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

More details on precursors to the 2007 Syrian nuclear reactor hit Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

More details on precursors to the 2007 Syrian nuclear reactor hit

Mark Twain once said, "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

Whenever I read about some Mossad escapade, Twain's quote comes to mind. If you can imagine a Mossad agent telling a true story to a CIA counterpart, the CIA guy will undoubtedly sputter, "But, but... that's impossible!" And he'd be right.

Every step along the way in this unconfirmed Telegraph report is impossible, and straight out of a movie or 24, but somehow, the miracle-wielding Jews have done it again...

The operation involved at least 10 undercover agents on the streets of Britain and led directly to a controversial bombing raid into Syrian territory that destroyed a nuclear reactor that was under construction.

It closely mirrored the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas arms trader, who was killed in his hotel room in Dubai last year using agents disguised as tennis players.

The operation began when Israeli intelligence picked up an online booking for a senior Syrian nuclear official at a hotel in Kensington [how the heck do you do that? Monitor clandestinely every hotel in the world? -ed.], west London, in late 2006, according to the Israeli authors of the book Israel vs Iran: the Shadow War.

Mossad then dispatched three undercover teams to Britain including a team of "spotters" who were sent to Heathrow airport to identify the official as he flew in from Damascus under a false name. A second team booked into his hotel, while a third monitored his movements and any visitors.

The agents included members of the Kidon [Spear] division, Mossad's hit squad, and the Neviot [Springs] division, which specialises in breaking into houses, embassies and hotel rooms to install bugging devices.

The first day of the official's trip was apparently devoted to a series of meetings at the Syrian embassy in Belgrave Square but the following day he went shopping before his return to the airport.

The Kidon team followed him closely from shop to shop while the Neviot agents broke into his room and found his laptop. A computer expert took 15 minutes to download the hard drive and install trojan software that allowed Israel to monitor every keystroke he made [the movies make this look easy, but I'm sure the laptop had military-grade encryption, and for a guy to hack in in 15 minutes is another miracle. -ed.]

When the computer material was examined at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, officials found photographs and blueprints for a plutonium reactor at Al Kibar near Deir el-Zor, a remote desert town 80 miles from Syria's border with Iraq.

According to one source quoted in the book, the discovery saved the life of the official, who would otherwise have been killed in Britain, causing a major diplomatic incident.
"His computer and its contents turned out to be his life insurance. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have left Europe alive," the security official boasted.

In August 2007 Israel apparently sent a special forces team into Syria to collect soil samples near the reactor, then at around 1am on September 5 2007 Israeli fighter bombers attacked the facility in a raid into Syrian airspace that destroyed the plant.

More from Doubletapper on the Syria-related sundries:

• Syria - What's next?


• Syria can do no wrong


• Keep your eye on the ball


• Rapid Fire: Russia promises to deliver Syria cruise missiles.


• Rapid Fire: Syria has four additional nuclear sites, besides the one that Israel bombed.

More details on precursors to the 2007 Syrian nuclear reactor hit Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

RubinReports: A Brief Guide to Why 1948 Was a Palestinian Arab and Arab Disaster

A Brief Guide to Why 1948 Was a Palestinian Arab and Arab Disaster

This article is published on PajamasMedia.

By Barry Rubin

In 1947 the UN voted to partition the British mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. The Jews accepted partition into two states; the Arabs rejected it.

The international community offered to make Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian Arabs' leader, head of a state despite the fact that he and his closest colleagues were the subject of a 1938 British arrest warrant for terrorist activities (not mythical but for killing lots of people), and had spent World War Two in Berlin doing pro-Nazi propaganda, recruiting for SS units, and planning a Holocaust of Jews in the Middle East.

But al-Husseini rejected partition and so did all of the Arab states. While Jordan wanted to make a deal and Egypt’s government wasn’t enthusiastic, they all had to go along with al-Husseini’s intransigence, their hysterical public opinion, and the other Arab states' pressure. The Arab League's leader, a Nazi agent during World War Two, bragged that the Jews would be massacred. The Muslim Brotherhood, which collaborated with the Nazis during the war and were subsidized by them before the war, sent volunteers to fight the Jews.

And so a Palestinian Arab army, whose three chief commanders had all fought for the Nazis during World War Two, went to war against the Jews using Nazi-supplied weapons (provided for the Palestinian Arab revolt in 1939 and for an Egyptian revolt that never happened in 1942). They lost.

Then the armies of the Arab states invaded Israel. They largely lost, though the Egyptian held onto the Gaza area while the Jordanians took east Jerusalem and what became known as the West Bank. Egypt ran Gaza; Jordan annexed the West Bank.

Everything that happened afterward was due to Arab decisions to reject both a two-state solution and Israel’s creation.

That’s the bottom line. So the disaster was due first and foremost to the Palestinian Arab leadership and secondly to the Arab states and publics.

Dealing with the “nakba” would then require that the Palestinian Arabs and the Arabic-speaking world generally would recognize that the disaster resulted from their refusal to accept Israel’s existence and to seek a genuine, compromise two-state solution.

But, instead, in the name of the 1948 disaster they are repeating the same policies that brought it about! Indeed, they are the same policies that led to the self-inflicted disasters of 1967, 2000, and others since then.

For example, as part of the preparations for the commemoration of the 1948 disaster, Palestinian Authority television played repeatedly a music video entitled "On the Way to Jerusalem" The main lines are:

"Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth are ours.

[ I ], Muhammad, sing about the Galilee and the Golan (Heights).
Jaffa, Acre, Haifa and Nazareth are ours."

This is precisely the one-state, wipe-Israel-off-the-map that brought on them the disaster of 1948, disaster every year since then, and more disaster into the forseeable future. Sixty-four years (counting from 1947) of failed policy has not brought wisdom.

Almost every event--Egypt's revolution, demonstrators trying to cross Israel's border, a terrorist attack, Western sympathy, and so on--is interpreted as proving that Israel's destruction is possible and so additional decades should be spent in diplomatic intransigence and the incitement of violence rather than some constructive effort. That's one reason, by the way, why the Palestinians always ultimately lose.



This has also been going on so long that much of the West has forgotten the roots and ongoing causes of this conflict, Palestinian suffering, Israeli suffering, and the terrorist violence and defamation of Israel.

Note: The use of the words “Nazi collaborator” and other mentions of pro-Nazi activities in this article are not name-calling but based on German and U.S. intelligence materials. These points will be fully and in detail documented in the forthcoming book by myself and Wolfgang Schwanitz, to be published by Yale University Press next year.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and a featured columnist at PajamasMedia http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/ His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is http://www.gloria-center.org. His PajamaMedia columns are mirrored and other articles available at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/.

RubinReports: A Brief Guide to Why 1948 Was a Palestinian Arab and Arab Disaster

RubinReports: Tell Me What They're Reading and I'll Tell You Who Will Win?

Tell Me What They're Reading and I'll Tell You Who Will Win?

This article is published in PajamasMedia.

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By Barry Rubin

There's an interesting point about pre-World War One Europe that applies very well to today's international situation as well. In Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman pointed out the difference between what the British and Germans were reading on the eve of the war.

In 1909 Norman Angell, a British member of parliament wrote a pamphlet, "The Great Illusion," that became a best-seller. It argued that since war had become so terrible and governments were rational and would understand this, another major international war was impossible.

But in Germany they were reading Friedrich von Bernhardi's Germany and the Next War, where he argues that "war is a biological necessity" based on the law of nature, the struggle for existence.

Germany was preparing for war; Britain was pacifist. The same process repeated itself before World War Two. And the same process was again repeated in the brief time before the end of World War Two and the Cold War.

Each time, though, the "less prepared" but more democratic side won in the end. Still, because the "fat, materialistic, having a good time" democracies took too long to realize what was going on and the resulting conflict took longer and cost more lives than might have been possible.

In 1940, John F. Kennedy published Why England Slept, a book about how British appeasement helped create an atmosphere where Nazi aggression prospered. Of course, his own father had favored and encouraged those policies. Of course, the war he was "warning" about had already begun the previous year. But the surprise attack that killed about 2400 Americans and brought the United States into the war took place more than a year later.

Twenty years later, Kennedy was elected president.

In 2006, Bruce Bawer published While Europe Slept. It was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. One panel member described the book as "racist," while the group's president lamented, "I have never been more embarrassed by a choice" and called it an example of "Islamophobia." Needless to say, he didn't win the award.

For anyone to have read the book and made such statements is a measure of the intellectual insanity that has seized hegemony in the West. Bawer's book was published not one but five years after the conflict he described had already visibly emerged in the form of 3000 Americans killed in a surprise terrorist attack on New York and Washington. As of today, the United States is engaged in three different wars relating to the issues he discussed.

So far nobody's been talking about electing Bawer president.

We can call this state of being, post-September 11 snoring.


We're in the grip of a new version of Angell's "The Great Illusion," a double-edged title if there ever was one. Surely, nobody could want a radical Islamist state! Certainly, nobody would be willing to sacrifice their life for such a thing! Nor would anyone conceivably prefer martyrdom and murder to having a nice toaster and a hybrid car!

That's why all of this talk about Usama bin Ladin hiding behind women, pleading for his life, doing drugs, and having a pornography library really bothers me. Such things stem from this need to prove the other side doesn't really mean what it says, they're really just sybaritic, materialistic, hedonistic hypocrites. Because if they are, well there really isn't any threat, is there? They can be bought off.

Meanwhile, anyone who examines the real politics, current religious thinking, and actual behavior doesn't get an award but is slandered instead. Or, at best, is ignored and barred from access to the mass media's audience.

Yet every day on the other side, the argument is openly and publicly being made that--in a slight paraphrase of von Bernhardi's theme--that war is a religious necessity (jihad) based on the law of the divine being and natural struggle for existence.

And simply repeating what that side is saying daily is a thought crime.

Last October, I published an article about the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's declaration of war against the United States. A few months before the Egyptian revolution, the speech by the Brotherhood's leader made clear that it was a radical, Islamist, antisemitic, anti-American movement that incited violence.

Not a single mass media television station or newspaper has mentioned that speech to this day, despite huge coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood. The chiefs of American intelligence seem to remain unaware of it. On the contrary, one could find hundreds (thousands?) of claims that the Brotherhood is secular, moderate, pro-democratic, and against violence.

Recently I was interviewed on a big-city radio station. When I made some of these points, the show's host retorted that their correspondent in Cairo "speaks lots of languages," is very experienced, and hadn't mentioned any of these things. So why should he believe me?

Don't believe me, I explained (without any success in this case). Believe what America's enemies are reading, and saying, and doing. Of course, to do that you first have to know about what they're reading, saying, and doing.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and a featured columnist at PajamasMedia http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/ His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is http://www.gloria-center.org. His PajamaMedia columns are mirrored and other articles available at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/.

RubinReports: Tell Me What They're Reading and I'll Tell You Who Will Win?