Anti-Israel activists at Ahava UK convicted

From TheJC:

Four activists who chained themselves to concrete block inside the London branch of Israel cosmetics shop Ahava were illegally trespassing, a judge has ruled.

All four defendants, who have been conditionally discharged, argued the store was committing "war crimes" by selling products from an Israeli settlement, Mitzpe Shalem, in the West Bank. They plan to appeal the verdict.

But District Judge Ian Baker said at Highbury Magistrates' Court that although he had "considerable hesitancy" in calling Ahava's business legal, it had never been proved to be illegal in the UK.

He said: "Until such time as Ahava UK Ltd is prosecuted and defence arguments herein properly tested, I can do no more that accept it is trading lawfully."

The four, who arrived in court dressed in casual T-shirts and supported by many pro-Palestinian activists, occupied Ahava in Covent Garden on two separate occasions last year. The protests by Matthew Richardson, 24, and Gwendolen Wilkinson, 20, were on October 2 2010 and by Christopher Osmond, 30, and Jessica Nero, 33, on November 22. All were convicted of aggravated trespass after a three day trial at Stratford Magistrates' Court last month.

The protesters lay on the floor and chained themselves to each other and a concrete bollard, until they were cut free by police, and the store was forced to close.

All four were ordered to pay £250 in costs. Both Mr Richardson and Ms Wilkinson argued they had no income, and Ms Wilkinson said she has no bank account in her name. After Judge Baker asked "how they keep body and soul together", Mr Richardson claimed he ate leftover food from supermarkets.

Judge Baker acknowledged the activists had trodden carefully in order to try to act legally but added: "Unfortunately, I don't agree with your analysis of the law."

He added: "The defendants cite financial reasons why they were unable to pursue judicial reviews or private prosecution that does not justify an unlawful course of trespass and disruption instead. The defendants are free to hold protests outside the shop. They are not free to act in the way they did on this occasion."

The four released a statement saying: "Today's judgement illustrates the complicity of the authorities in allowing companies to profit from the occupation. Throughout the trial neither the Judge nor the prosecution challenged the assertion that the settlements are illegal in international law."

Lawyers for the four were instructed by the law firm Irvine Thanvi Natas, whose partner Simon Natas is involved with Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. Mr Natas said all four would appeal the verdict.

Richard Millett's blog has much more, including this priceless piece after the defendants claimed to have no money:
The judge did say that the defendants seemed to have found plenty of money to travel to “Palestine” on quite a few occasions though. One of the unemployed people answered that he cycled to get there!!!
This verdict is in marked contrast to the absurd, unprofessional verdict by Judge Bathurst-Norman last year, which I posted about a few times.

(h/t Samson)

05/16 Links: Pope calls Abbas ‘angel of peace’; Jerusalem then and now: A journey in photos

From Ian:
Ben-Dror Yemini: The folly of the international community on the Palestinians
Pushing both sides into a forced settlement will lead to disaster, and a Hamas takeover in the West Bank; meanhile, the outrage over Shaked is entirely misplaced.
The formula is a familiar one: The more right-wing the government of Israel appears to the world, the easier it is for the anti-Israel campaigners to do their work. An increase in Israel in statements and incidents of an anti-Arab nature leads to a fall-off in support for Israel among Jewish students on US campuses, and the more organizations like Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem create the distorted impression that Israel is committing crimes on an ongoing basis, the easier it is for the BDS activists to tout their case.
The starting positions are problematic – not only due to the composition of the new Israeli government, but primarily in light of the geopolitical situation. The absurd thing is that under current circumstances, Israel's control over the territories is the lesser evil.
A hasty political settlement – to which the US administration and EU are leading, with the encouragement of a bunch of Israelis who support the Palestinian demand for unilateral recognition of statehood – would be a disaster for the Palestinians. A Hamas takeover would only be a matter of time.
This has nothing at all to do with the composition of the government. Isaac Herzog would encounter the same geopolitical situation; and Tzipi Livni, too, would encounter Palestinian opposition to any peace deal. After all, the Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert governments made very generous offers to Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas respectively – to no avail.
‘Nakba Day’ Footage Shows Riots in Jerusalem, Arabs Chanting ‘We Don’t Want Jews’
Arab residents of Jerusalem marched through the Israeli capital’s streets on Friday to mark “Nakba Day” — the Arabic name for the perceived catastrophe (nakba) of the creation of the Jewish state. Video footage of one demonstration showed the rioters chanting “We don’t want the Jews.”
In the video clip, a large group of Palestinian demonstrators is seen congregated across from the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The rioters begin throwing glass bottles at yeshiva students, simultaneously calling out, “We don’t want Jews,” “by our souls and by our blood, we will redeem Al-Aqsa,” and “Allahu Akbar.”
Many yeshiva students hid inside the school fearing the protesters outside, according to Israeli news portal 0404. One student told the website that Jerusalem’s Arab residents “do whatever they want here.”
“They do not fear anyone,” he said, expressing hope that “one day someone will wake up in our country and make it clear to them who is boss in this country, and to whom Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong.”
Pope calls Abbas ‘angel of peace’ during Vatican visit
Pope Francis praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as an “angel of peace” during a meeting at the Vatican.
Francis made the compliment Saturday during the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of an official audience in the Apostolic Palace. He presented Abbas with a medallion and explained that it represented the angel of peace “destroying the bad spirit of war.”
Francis said he thought the gift was appropriate since “you are an angel of peace.”
Abbas is in town for the canonization Sunday of two new saints from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. It also comes days after the Vatican finalized a bilateral treaty with the “state of Palestine,” making explicit its recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Abbas, for his part, offered Francis relics of the two new saints. (h/t Bob Knot)



The Vatican Will Not Protect Christians By Recognizing ‘Palestine’
In Taibe, on the other side of Jerusalem, a Muslim mob set off on a matter of honor, yelling, “Burn the Crusaders,” and burned a statue of the Virgin Mary because a Muslim woman wanted to marry a Christian. She was beaten to death in an honor killing. He was jailed. The mob was not punished. The lesson was not lost.
As Christmas 2005 approached, taking note of the desperate situation of Christians living under Palestinian rule, the Vatican did a rare diplomatic about face and asked Israel to intervene to protect Christians. Father Artemio Vitores echoed these sentiments when he asked Israeli President Moshe Katsav to “help us keep Bethlehem.” But it was too late. The Oslo Accords put Bethlehem under the rule of Arafat and his thugs that had returned from Tunsia.
No doubt the Vatican feels that appeasing the Palestinian Authority will in some ways protect the remnant of the Christian community there in a time of grave peril. It will not. Christians, like Jews, are dhimmi, second class citizens under Sharia. The move will only emboldened the Palestinians to do what their culture instructs them to do, to reign triumphal over the infidel.
Bethlehem was once 90% Christian and 10% Muslim. Today it is precisely the reverse. If Jesus and his parents were to enter Bethlehem today, as a Jewish family seeking refuge, they would be lynched.
The Vatican, in an act of desperate diplomacy, has unwittingly put a down payment on the rope.
Obama: Deal with Palestinians not possible in coming year
In a lengthy interview with news outlet Al-Arabiya on a number of challenges facing the Middle East, US President Barack Obama was asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and he did not express a great deal of optimism on the prospect of reaching a peace deal in the near future.
"This is a very difficult challenge. On the one hand I am a strong supporter of Israel and the connection between the United States and Israel. Israel has legitimate security concerns. There is no doubt about it. And what is also true is that I am deeply committed to a Palestinian state," Obama said.
The president recalled hearing of "the heartbreaking stories from Gaza" and the sense he hears when speaking to Palestinian students in the West Bank "that their world is shut off because of their circumstances."
"The only solution is a two state solution," Obama said.
"What I think at this point realistically we can do, is to try to rebuild trust, not through a big overarching deal, which I don't think is probably possible in the next year given the make up of the Netanyahu government and the challenges of Abbas [PA President Mahmoud Abbas].
Obama called for relieving humanitarian suffering in Gaza and promoting job opportunities in the territories as ways to slowly build trust between the parties.
Through this trust building "the logic of a two-state solution will reassert itself," Obama said.
Turkish Paper: Palestinian Cause Now ‘Much Less a Priority’ for Arab World
The Palestinian cause is now “much less a priority” for the international community and Arab world, Turkish state media contended on Friday.
The reason: “Observers argue that ongoing political upheaval in several Arab countries has largely shifted the focus away from the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
The article, published by Andalou Agency on the date Israel declared independence in 1948, which is also the day Palestinian commemorate what they view as the mass expulsion of Arabs from lands absorbed into the newly declared Jewish state, discusses how Arab calls for the “liberation of Palestine” have diminished greatly in the four years since the beginning of widespread political unrest in Arab countries.
“The Nakba’s 67th anniversary, however, comes as most ‘Arab Spring’ states remain embroiled in deadly political infighting and derailed democratic transition,” referring to the Arabic name for that perceived catastrophe (nakba) as well as the common moniker for the Arab uprisings that began in 2010 (the Arab Spring).
 Turkish Islamists exploit Palestine
Just like Iran has been doing for years, political Islamists -- who finally seized power in the Turkish government significantly eroding constitutional checks and balances, causing the disintegration of the rule of law and curbing parliamentary democracy -- have done a great disservice to the Palestinian people by exploiting their plight for domestic and regional ambitions.
The chief architect of Turkey's policy in the last decade in regards to Palestine has been Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who had served as foreign minister and chief foreign policy advisor to then prime minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Davutoğlu is a committed ideologue and a die-hard Islamist whose utopian perspective orbits around the supremacy of a Muslim Brotherhood-style international network of Islamists. With the blessings of his boss, Davutoğlu has worked hard in the case of Palestine to reclaim ground among radical voices that exploit public sensitivities to long-running injustices and the occupation Palestinian people have been suffering at the hands of Israeli oppression.
In the end, the Turkish role that was long-cherished as a positive one and that came to be appreciated and recognized by Turkey's partners and allies including the transatlantic alliance, was eventually transformed into a negative one under the Davutoğlu-Erdoğan stewardship. Turkish Islamists' latent hostility towards President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement and keen interest in exploiting public frustration over the lack of political progress and lingering humiliation of the Palestinian people, has now stirred a backlash against Turkey. Gaza-ruler Hamas is obviously favored by the Islamist leaders as Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshaal frequently attends private dinners at Erdoğan's house, often shows up in Ankara unannounced and has been an enthusiastic campaigner at Davutoğlu's public rallies in Turkey to garner support for the Islamists.
Obama to mark Jewish heritage month at DC synagogue
US President Barack Obama will address a Washington congregation to mark Jewish American Heritage Month.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz, announcing the president’s schedule for next week, said that next Friday, May 22, Obama would speak at Adas Israel, a Conservative movement synagogue in the city’s northwest quadrant.
“On Friday, The president will travel to the congregation of Adas Israel, one of the largest congregations here in Washington, to deliver remarks in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month, which recognizes contributions of Jewish Americans to American society and culture,” Schultz said Friday.
Obama’s visit would be during the daytime, and would not coincide with Sabbath eve services, an Adas congregant said.
Iranian Ayatollah: We ‘Will Never Allow’ Inspections of Nuke Sites
Iran will never allow Western powers or the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Tehran’s military sites as part of a final agreement with the P5+1 world powers, Iran’s Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said Friday in an address to Tehran University students.
Kermani has enormous influence in the country as Tehran’s Friday Prayers imam, and is appointed directly by the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
He said that the West, and particularly the United States, “are hallucinating” if they think that Iran would allow inspection of its military apparatus, according to Iran’s state-controlled Fars News agency.
Those who wish for Iran to recognize the State of Israel as part of a final agreement should “bury their dreams,” the Ayatollah added.
He told the crowd, “We tell Mr. Amano (IAEA director general), the westerners, and the U.S. that they should bury their dreams of recognition of Israel and also the inclusion to visit Iran’s military sites within the framework of nuclear agreement.”
Military Option Prevents War
The assertion that there are only two options in dealing with the rogue ayatollah regime — negotiation or a military option, which supposedly amounts to war — defies reality. Such an assertion is either mistaken or misleading.
The threat of a limited surgical naval or air force bombing of critical nuclear installations, with no ground troops, would not amount to a war but it would deter the ayatollahs, possibly moderating their nature. If activated, it could permanently cripple their pursuit of nuclear capabilities. If necessary, strikes could be repeated from U.S. military bases in Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Indian Ocean or from U.S. aircraft carriers.
Recent precedents demonstrate that there are many military options, dramatically short of war, that are critical to moderating the nature of rogue regimes and preventing war. On the other hand, the removal of a military option from the table while negotiating with rogue regimes whets their appetite and fuels war.
Iran will protect Palestinians, other 'oppressed' people in Middle East, Khamenei says
Iran will help oppressed people in the region, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday, days after Gulf Arab leaders met US President Barack Obama and expressed concern about Iranian expansionism.
Khamenei also denounced Saudi Arabia for its role leading a coalition of Sunni-ruled Arab states against Yemen's Houthi rebels, comparing it to the pagans who ruled the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam in the seventh century.
His speech to a meeting of Iranian leaders and diplomats from the Muslim world, reported by the state news agency IRNA, brought the issues of political and religious legitimacy squarely into the struggle between the two regional powers.
"Yemen, Bahrain and Palestine are oppressed, and we protect oppressed people as much as we can," IRNA quoted him as saying.
"Those people who bring suffering to Yemeni families during sacred months are even worse than the ancient pagans of Mecca," he said at the event for the holiday of Lailat al-Miraj, when Islam says the Prophet Mohammad visited heaven and met Jesus, Abraham, Moses and other prophets.
Fabricating the silence: Anonymous, selective, partial testimony and its deadly impact
Despite the severe shortcomings of the content, the shoddy methodology, the unabashed absence of independence or objectivity, and the egregious partisan-political agenda of the BtS people and their Gaza 2014 report, their allegations - chiefly about a "broad ethical failure" by the IDF resulting in many dead Palestinian Arabs - have been and continue to be taken seriously. They are currently echoing through some of the most impactful parts of the news media. They have been granted credibility in a way that - were the context, the setting, the geographical location different - simply could never have happened. Neither foreign aid nor the thoughtful media do such things... except when they do.
Next month, to illustrate the point, an exhibition showcasing the BtS/Gaza "revelations" is due to take place at Zurich's Kulturhaus Helferei. The sponsors include the government of Switzerland the Zurich municipal authority. We find that astonishing. We are as much in favour of free and open discussion of ideas as the next blogger. But you can only apply that view to the Breaking the Silence people and their work-product once you manage to close your eyes and ears (and frankly your nose as well), ignore the show-stopping problems with the report itself, and pretend that there is a silence and that these brave souls are somehow breaking it. In reality, they are inventing it.
We wish those Swiss officials and those directors of the Rockefeller fund and those leaders of that Danish church were honest enough with themselves to understand this. A small cell of political activists, hiding behind context-free "testimony" by nameless people, pretending to be oppressed and reviled and deprived of a spotlight and a microphone by cruel, monolithic Israeli society are in reality free to publicize documented and verifiable allegations all day long without the smallest danger of paying a legal or moral or any other price (other than perhaps the danger of seeing their lavish funding from foreign sources dry up). Pick up any edition of the daily newspaper Haaretz to confirm that.
To paraphrase what the editors of the Italian newspaper Il Foglio wrote (in Italian) back in 2010, in reality the largest risk taken by the Breaking the Silence heroes is of arriving late at their Tel Aviv café.
FIFA head fears Israel vote could set dangerous precedent
FIFA president Sepp Blatter is worried that a dangerous precedent will be set if Palestine goes ahead and asks for a vote to suspend Israel at the annual Congress of soccer's governing body on May 29.
Blatter, who is standing for re-election at the Congress, said the dispute was "the biggest challenge" facing him as he comes to the end of his current mandate, and added that Israel had not broken any FIFA statutes.
The Palestine Football Association (PFA) has accused Israel of hampering its activities and restricting the movement of players between the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel cites security concerns for the restrictions it imposes and the Israeli FA has argued that it has no control over security forces.
FIFA has been trying to broker a settlement for two years and Blatter confirmed that he would travel to the region again next week and meet Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Blatter said that if the Palestine proposal was approved, other nations could use football to air political grievances.
Evidence Suggests Egyptian Prez Said Some Really Embarrassing Things
Analysis supports allegations the Egyptian president and his inner circle engaged in a series of embarrassing conversations, as revealed by leaked audio recordings.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi and his top generals mocked Gulf allies, corrupted the judiciary and kept billion in private military accounts, if the leaks prove accurate, reports The New York Times.
No signs indicate the recordings were fabricated, according to reports submitted to British police. Sisi’s voice is recorded twice and his top general, Mamdouh Shaheen, is on another recording, writes The NYTimes.
Lawyers for ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi ordered the analysis by audio forensics firm J.P. French Associates. Morsi was ousted by the military in 2013. Sisi, formerly the minister of defense, ran for office and won in 2014. Recordings were purportedly taped during the year preceding Sisi’s election.
Leaks expose Sisi’s ambitions for a Hollywood-style image, saying he wants to be perceived as the man “on a nearly impossible mission,” while Egypt looms on the brink of disaster.
Egyptian court sentences former leader Morsi to death
An Egyptian court sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi and over 100 others to death Saturday over a mass prison break during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak and later brought Islamists to power for the first time in Egypt.
As is customary in passing capital punishment, Judge Shaaban el-Shami referred his death sentence on Morsi and others to the nation’s top Muslim theologian, or mufti, for his non-binding opinion. El-Shami set June 2 for the next hearing.
Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, was ousted by the military in July 2013 following days of mass street protests by Egyptians demanding that he be removed because of his divisive policies. Morsi’s successor, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, was the military chief at the time and led the ouster. El-Sissi ran for president last year and won the vote in a landslide.
Also sentenced to death with Morsi in the prison break case were 105 defendants, most of them were tried and convicted in absentia. They include some 70 Palestinians. Those tried in absentia in Egypt receive automatic retrials once detained.
Report: Gunmen shoot dead three Egyptian judges in Sinai
Gunmen shot and killed three Egyptian judges in Sinai on Saturday, AFP reported.
Earlier in the day an Egyptian court sought the death penalty for former president Mohamed Morsi and more than 100 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood in connection with a mass jail break in 2011.
It was unclear whether the events were linked and who was responsible for the Sinai attack.
Report: Egypt to buy S-300 air defense system from Russia
Egypt is set to buy the S-300 missile defense system from Russia, a senior Israeli intelligence official told Reuters Wednesday, following an announcement from Moscow last month that it would deliver the advanced weapons system to Iran after lifting a ban on weapons sales to the Islamic Republic.
“If you speak about the S-300, they [Egypt] are buying this system,” the Israeli official said.
“I don’t know what kind of threat Egypt looks at when they decide to buy it, but we don’t see Egypt as the enemy,” the official said, adding that he hoped relations with Cairo would continue to improve.
The alleged arms deal was not officially confirmed by Egypt or by Russia, but an official in Cairo nevertheless stated that Israel had nothing to fear in light of the reports.
“If we are getting such a thing, it’s because we’re looking east, not north,” the official told Reuters, apparently referring to Iran.
Report: Hezbollah Rakes in Up to $100 Million Annually from Latin America
A new blockbuster report in Argentine news outlet Infobae claims that Hezbollah generates between $60 to $100 million dollars a year in illegal activities in Latin America, particularly in the Tri-Border area uniting Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. The piece echoes years of reporting warning that the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group has expanded its influence in the region.
Infobae reports that the astronomical sum was revealed to them by “sources within French intelligence,” who calculated this based on the numerous businesses that Hezbollah members are involved in throughout the region, particularly drug and arms trafficking and money laundering. The report describes the Tri-Border region as Hezbollah’s “capital,” from which $10 million annually flow into Lebanon alone. If the capital had a “municipal building,” it would be the Galeria Page mall, which the outlet claims is “under the control of the Shiite militia” and used to launder illicit money through its sales.
In 2006, the United States Department of Treasury identified the Galeria Page’s owner, Muhammad Yusif Abdallah, as “a senior Hizballah leader in the TBA [Tri-Border Area] and an important contributor of funds to Hizballah, notably hosting a fundraiser for the terrorist group in the TBA in 2004.” The same press release described the mall as “serv[ing] as a source of fundraising for Hizballah in the TBA and is locally considered the central headquarters for Hizballah members in the TBA.”
The Infobae report claims this situation has not changed since 2006 but, rather, expanded. “Mosques, Islamic cultural centers, businesses and other organizations without apparent political ties unite hundreds of members, which in many cases are ‘used’ by the terrorist group” to generate funding, Infobae notes.
US House Unanimously Passes Tougher Sanctions Against Hezbollah
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously passed the Hezbollah International Financial Prevention Act, which would enact tougher sanctions against the Lebanon-based and Iranian-funded Hezbollah terrorist organization.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and cosponsored by nine other members of Congress, would sanction foreign financial institutions that facilitate Hezbollah’s activities through actions such as providing significant financial services or money laundering for the terror group.
“Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, poses a direct threat to American and Israeli security, dominates the Lebanese government, fights for the Syrian Assad regime, and possesses an arsenal of more than 100,000 rockets,” said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which urged the Senate to also adopt the legislation.
Khamenei Fights to the Last Drop Of Shiite Alawite Blood
So, while Khamenei preaches sobriety, piety, and planting trees, the ruling class of Iran are raking in billions of dollars in profits based on sowing bedlam and mayhem and instigating the murders of hundreds of thousands of Muslims Arabs and thousands of Jews throughout the world. There are two reasons the Iranian ruling class loves the sanctions: first they are developing a nuclear arsenal to create even more chaos, and second, they love the Iranian black-market they created which allows them to exploit their own people.
In an Islamic analog to George Orwell’s satire Animal Farm the ruling Iranians play the role of the pigs. First, the Iranian Revolutionaries say “All animals are equal”, or its equivalent, “All Muslims are equal.” Then, they proceed to the Orwellian “but some animals are more equal than others” by saying that “Some Muslims (i.e Shiites) are more equal than other Muslims.” Then they proceed to “Four legs good, two legs better!” by saying “Iranians good, Iranian Revolutionary Guard better!” In short, Khamenei’s Revolution is a fraud.
And where is President Obama, the erstwhile leader of the Free World? Obama is enabling this genocidal corrupt-to-the-core regime to acquire a nuclear weapons’ arsenal. Obama has to now baby-sit American-flagged ships through the Straits of Hormuz with US destroyers, so Iran won’t hijack them. But, Obama who can’t trust Iran not to hijack US-flagged ships in the Persian Gulf, is the very same Obama who is trusting Iran with a nuclear-weapons industrial infrastructure buried deep inside Iranian mountains.
Which bring us back to the question: Would Iran arm Assad with a nuclear bomb if Iran could? Assad has already murdered 300,000 Syrians. What’s another 300,000, or 1,000,000 Shiite or Sunni Syrians to Assad or Khamenei? Just a bunch of Animal Farm “4-legged animals.”
US commandos kill senior IS commander in Syria raid
US commandos mounted a rare raid into eastern Syria overnight, killing a senior Islamic State commander in a firefight, capturing his wife and rescuing a Yazidi woman held as a slave, the Pentagon said Saturday.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the raid, identifying the militant as Abu Sayyaf. He said no US forces were killed or injured in the operation.
A US-led coalition has been striking Islamic State militants in Syria since last year, but this is only the second time troops have carried out a ground raid. A previous operation was aimed at rescuing Americans held hostage by the group.
Syrian state media earlier reported that Syrian government forces killed at least 40 IS fighters, including a senior commander in charge of oil fields, in an attack Saturday on the country’s largest oil field — held by IS.
It identified the commander as Abu al-Teem al-Saudi. The name indicates he was a Saudi citizen.
Turkey fighter jet shoots downs Syrian aircraft
The Turkish air force on Saturday shot down a Syrian military aircraft that violated the country’s airspace Saturday, Turkish media reported.
Turkey scrambled F-16 fighter jets after the plane entered Turkish airspace twice, Hurriyet Daily News reported. The fighter aircraft fired two missiles at the Syrian aircraft, a Turkish military source told the news site.
It remained unclear what kind of Syrian aircraft entered Turkish airspace, but Syrian state TV reported that Turkey downed one of its surveillance drones.
Turkey’s NTV news station quoted eyewitnesses saying that the aircraft crashed on the Syrian side of the border.
“The area is currently being searched for the crashed aircraft,” a Turkish source told Hurriyet. “It would soon be seen if it was a plane or a helicopter.”
According to local witnesses, the Syrian craft crossed over the Dursunlu-Emek area in the country’s southern border province of Hatay.
ISIS Leader Pronounces: “Islam Religion of War, Islam is Not Religion of Peace”
ISIS released an audio message which it claims is from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The message was posted on jihadist websites. The message urges all Muslims to carry guns and fight on behalf of the “caliphate.”
The ISIS leader also had a veiled message for the last several U.S. presidents.
“O Muslims, Islam was never for a day the religion of peace. Islam is the religion of war,” the voice purporting to be Baghdadi said. He called upon Muslims around the world to either make their way to the Islamic State or “fight in his land, wherever that may be,” according to the news site Vocative.
Greek town wants Star of David off Holocaust memorial
Jewish groups were infuriated by a Greek town’s demand that the Star of David to be removed from a new Holocaust memorial or they will not permit its display.
The American Jewish Committee said Friday that its partner body in Greece, the Central Board of Jewish Communities, reported that municipal authorities in the Greek port of Kavala had canceled a May 17 ceremony unveiling the memorial.
A Star of David is engraved into the monument. The authorities want the ancient Jewish symbol, which also features on the Israeli flag, removed before they allow the memorial’s display.
“How can it be that the eternal symbol of the Jewish people — the very symbol that the Nazis required Jews to wear in the death camps and ghettos of Europe during the Second World War — is deemed unfit for public display in Kavala?” AJC’s executive director, David Harris, said in a statement.
The memorial commemorates the 1,484 Jews in the northern city murdered by the Nazis.
Jewish Groups Deplore Greek Demand to Remove Star of David From Holocaust Memorial
Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Abraham H. Foxman, who is a Holocaust survivor, called the move “morally reprehensible.”
“Kavala’s Jews were killed because they were Jews, and the value of a monument is to make that fact demonstrably clear. The mayor and the City Council have insulted the memory of victims, the Greek Jewish community, and Jews around the world, and we join with the Greek Jewish community in voicing our outrage,” he said.
The monument in question memorializes the 1,484 Jews of Kavala who were exterminated during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II.
The monument was set to be unveiled when, just two days before, the mayor and a majority at the city council insisted on the removal of the image of a Star of David from the memorial.
Meanwhile, Greek Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Education, and Religious Affairs, Giorgos Kalantzis, said “‘As an Orthodox Christian, I feel deeply insulted by this issue, because it would be as if someone asked us to erase or modify for ‘aesthetic reasons’ the symbol of the cross on the tombs of our grandfathers executed by the Germans,” according to a statement released by the AJC.
The AJC called on Kavala’s city officials to “reconsider and reverse their appalling decision.”
Eighty-one percent of Greece’s Jewish population was murdered following Nazi occupation during WWII.
French Jewish Woman Assaulted in Paris Suburb by 3 Men Shouting ‘Hitler Didn’t Finish His Work’
A French Jewish woman was assaulted by three men in an apparent antisemitic attack in the Paris suburb Sarcelles last Wednesday, the Algemeiner has learned.
The three assailants were of African origin and shouted “Hitler did not finish his work” and “dirty race” while assaulting the woman, according to a French antisemitism watchdog.
The victim said she was attacked after the son of one of the assailants threw a ball in her direction. The three men approached the woman to retrieve the ball when they began attacking her, according to the report.
The victim filed a complaint with local police shortly after the assault.
Escaping the Nazis, Rexingen’s Jews built new lives near the beach at Shavei Zion
In 1937, just over 200 Jews resided in the German town of Rexingen. Some of them relocated as a group to Moshav Shavei Zion in the late 1930s — every other Jew there who couldn’t bring himself to leave his home, or had been too old or too ill to do so, perished in the Holocaust.
Jews had lived in Rexingen for over 400 years, first arriving in 1516 when the Knights of St. John – a Christian Order dating back to the 11th century – offered them protection. Most of the Jewish inhabitants were farmers or owned small businesses and the town boasted a variety of Jewish institutions.
For centuries, Rexingen’s Jews and Christians lived in peace and harmony. But in the 1930s, a swastika appeared on the four-meter tower that overlooked the village; Nazis paraded through the village, and the Nuremburg laws reared their ugly head.
We learned all this and more on a fascinating tour of Shavei Zion with moshav member and Archives Director, Judith Temime. She explained that almost half the Jews of Rexingen read the writing on the wall, and understood that they would have to leave their native country. But when they contacted organizations in England and Germany for assistance, it was suggested that they head for Uganda, or Costa Rica.
No way, they said – if we have to leave, it will be to settle in the land of our forefathers. And in 1937, with the help of a former German lawyer who had already immigrated to British-mandated Palestine, a small group was sent to check out the possibilities offered by the Jewish National Fund. In the end, they chose land near the beach in northern Palestine for what would become Moshav Shavei Zion.
US Electronic Payment Company Buys Israel’s Seergate
The American electronic payment company MyECheck has bought Israeli company Seergate Ltd, which provides electronic payment solutions, for $3 million. The California-based company announced its acquisition of Seergate last week.
The U.S. company, a leader in electronic check solutions for online and mobile payments, bought 100% of Seergate stock, in exchange for 150,000,000 shares of MyECheck common stock or approximately $3 million.
Seergate was founded by Eldad Aharoni and Alicia Roisman Ismach in 2007 to make payments simple, secure, and convenient for financial institution customers. The Israeli company’s specialization in electronic payment services for banks will be integrated into MyECheck’s electronic payment systems, adding global electronic banking and payment capabilities to the U.S. company.
The Israeli corporation, whose headquarters are in Ra’anana, also has offices in Roswell, Georgia, and has provided its services to four U.S. banks.
Jerusalem then and now: A journey in photos
Jerusalem Day commemorates the unification of the city in 1967 under Israeli sovereignty, when IDF soldiers liberated the Old City from Jordanian occupation.
Only then were Israelis able to return to the holiest place on earth for the Jewish people, the Western Wall, after 20 years during which they had been denied access to the site.
I decided to celebrate 48 years of the unification in a special way, by inviting you to join me on a journey through time in Jerusalem — a journey in photos.
Recently, a rare collection of photographs was unveiled by the U.S. Library of Congress, uncovering some stunning scenes from Jerusalem during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

If it looks like s**t and smells like s**t, it must be - Lauren Booth!

Lauren Booth, unhinged moonbat and unabashed terrorist supporter, has described what she considers clear proof that Israel killed both Juliano Mer Khamis and Vittorio Arrigoni:
The headline ‘Italian peace activist killed by Palestinian extremists’ is an Israeli propagandists wet dream....Which brings us to timing of both Juliano and Vittorio’s murders. ...

It is no coincidence then that both Juliano and Vittorio should die within two weeks. Both, at the hands of unknown Palestinian ‘cells.’ As they say on children’s TV - tell us boys and girls what’s wrong with this picture?

Israel’s supporters will doubtless feel affronted at the assertion that Vittorio was murdered by those almost certainly in the pay of the Jewish State. But they can’t have their dark ops cake and eat it too. Not this time. Too many of us have our eyes open to the filthy tactics employed by Israel every time they come under intellectual attack. And there is no doubt that Israeli Apartheid is losing traction by the day.

As Hamas rounds up the perpetrators of this most recent, deadly crime, the Gaza grapevine is buzzing with the news that they will indeed be found to be, (as suspected from the get-go), Israeli collaborators.

Statements of denial from the ‘Salafis’ accused of the murder have already been issued.

So, who benefits from the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni? And what is the significance of the timing of his murder?

Well, if it smells like s***t and looks like s**t it almost certainly is - Israel.

Sure, the kidnappers’ video looked genuine at first. It had all the customary layout of the kind of ‘Jihadi’ videos that the tabloid press loves: the black flag of Islam, the Quranic verse in the introduction, footage of the kidnapped victim. But a small detail on the black flag, underneath the precious, Islamically untouchable phrase ‘There is No God, but God’ raises questions about the authenticity of the groups grasp on Islam. The extra words read something like “the Brigades of Muhammad Ibn Maslama.” This has been hard for experts to verify because the video is being systematically pulled off YouTube. But one thing is certain;


‘Jihadis’ never write ANYTHING on the flag besides La Ilaha Ila Allah.

After reading her whole diatribe, this is her only real shred of "proof" that Israel must be behind the murders: because of text that is under the Shahada, something Jihadi's "never do."

Here's the supposedly problematic flag from the video:


Five minutes of searching found this:

I don't read Arabic, but it looks like the bottom flag also contains the Muslim declaration of faith, if stylized differently. And there is text underneath, something that even newly-Muslim Lauren Booth knows is not done by real Muslims!

Well, she can always still rely on the "Gaza grapevine" for unassailable proof of her fevered fantasies.

The rest of her posting is equally stupid. Read it all to see how detached from reality the anti-Israel crowd is.

"Jews lie as easily as they breathe" - Egyptian newspaper

From an op-ed in the popular Egyptian newspaper Youm7 by Massad Ismail:

Jews lie as easily as they breathe, a fact that we Arabs who live in our homelands since ancient times know well. We know the temperament and lies ranging from major lies like saying that God gave them the land of Palestine, causing them to kill much of the population of Arabs and forcing them out and setting up their own state, in preparation for their expansion to occupy Arab land from the Nile to the Euphrates.

And when the world discovered the extent of their ambitions symbolized in their flag, they discovered that some of their books increase the hatred of the world for them and expose their plans for corrupting the land, so they resorted to discredit these books and claim they were forged.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum of American writes about the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying
It is the most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Its lies about Jews, which have been repeatedly discredited, continue to circulate today, especially on the Internet. The individuals and groups who have used the Protocols are all linked by a common purpose: to spread hatred of Jews.

The Protocols is entirely a work of fiction, intentionally written to blame Jews for a variety of ills. Those who distribute it claim that it documents a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. The conspiracy and its alleged leaders, the so-called Elders of Zion, never existed.

This is a lie of lies of the Jews, who want to cleanse their evil history with big lies like the Holocaust, [but the Protocols] exposes their desire for sovereignty over all human beings

The Auschwitz photo album

From Yad Vashem:

The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a unique document and was donated to Yad Vashem by Lilly Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier.

The photos were taken at the end of May or beginning of June 1944, either by Ernst Hofmann or by Bernhard Walter, two SS men whose task was to take ID photos and fingerprints of the inmates (not of the Jews who were sent directly to the gas chambers). The photos show the arrival of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia. Many of them came from the Berehovo Ghetto, which itself was a collecting point for Jews from several other small towns.

Early summer 1944 was the apex of the deportation of Hungarian Jewry. For this purpose a special rail line was extended from the railway station outside the camp to a ramp inside Auschwitz. Many of the photos in the album were taken on the ramp. The Jews then went through a selection process, carried out by SS doctors and wardens. Those considered fit for work were sent into the camp, where they were registered, deloused and distributed to the barracks. The rest were sent to the gas chambers. They were gassed under the guise of a harmless shower, their bodies were cremated and the ashes were strewn in a nearby swamp. The Nazis not only ruthlessly exploited the labor of those they did not kill immediately, they also looted the belongings the Jews brought with them. Even gold fillings were extracted from the mouths of the dead by a special detachment of inmates. The personal effects the Jews brought with them were sorted by inmates and stored in an area referred to by the inmates as "Canada": the ultimate land of plenty.

The photos in the album show the entire process except for the killing itself
.
Women and children being taken to Crematoria IV and V by way of the BII sector of the camp. The elderly and the young children were almost always sent immediately to the gas chambers as they were deemed "unfit for work".
Jews "unfit for work" and selected for death, shortly before being sent to the gas chambers.
(h/t Daily Alert)

UNRWA's anti-Israel social media campaign

Today, UNRWA started a new hashtag campaign called #JustSolution, with an accompanying webpage.



The use of the word "just" is no accident. It means that unless Israel allows itself to be flooded with millions of angry, antisemitic Arabs, destroying the Jewish state, there is no "justice."

"Justice" has long been a keyword of the anti-Israel crowd. It is effective because who is against justice? What it really means is that the stateless Arabs are the judge and jury to determine what is "just." UNRWA's webpage even asks lots of Palestinian Arabs what they think would be "just." People who live in the territories say they want to live in their grandparents' homes in "their country,"  and only that would be "just."


The mandate that created UNRWA said that it had two goals:

7. Establishes the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East:
(a) To carry out in collaboration with local governments the direct relief and works programmes as recommended by the Economic Survey Mission;
(b) To consult with the interested Near Eastern Governments concerning measures to be taken by them preparatory to the time when international assistance for relief and works projects is no longer available;
That was originally meant to be 6 months, not 65 years.

But the Arab governments didn't cooperate. They didn't want to assimilate the Palestinian Arabs into their countries. UNRWA kept trying, for several years, to reduce the refugee population, and then in the face of Arab national  intransigence they gave up.

And now they only blame Israel.

There is nothing just about the idea of a "Just Solution." It is not meant to solve any problem (as can be seen by the continued existence of UNRWA camps in areas fully governed by the PA and Hamas.) The entire campaign is designed to destroy the Jewish state demographically under the imprimatur of "justice."

Notice that UNRWA didn't start this campaign on its own anniversary. It started it on the anniversary of Israel's declaring independence.

That says volumes.

Previous essay on how anti-Israel activists misuse the word "justice" here.

Brussels Jewish Museum invites BDS advocates to "reflect" on antisemitism

From The New Antisemite:

It is a well established fact that Israel-bashing is one of the main causes of antisemitism in Europe.  Or isn't it?  Well, the Museum is organising a conference entitled Reflexions on antisemitism and islamophobia" and the two guest speakers are two militant Israel-bashers and pro-BDS.  They are Nadia Fadil and Anya Topolsk.  Both are signatories of the BELGIAN CAMPAIGN FOR AN ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (BACBI) petition - by the way, only a tiny minority of academics signed it - of whom a couple of Jews.  Sadly, these are the people the Museum has invited, and Belgian Jewish representatives don't seem either to mind or, according to a source, to be aware of their speakers' anti-Israel stance...  


This is the same museum where an "anti-Israel" terrorist - one who no doubt supports BDS - walked in last year and murdered four people.

Speaker Nadia Fadil signed a petition in 2009 urging the EU to take Hamas off its terror list. 

Are there no Jews left in Belgium with any self-respect?

(h/t Rudi)

Red Cross: "There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza"

From the IDF:

Mathilde Redmatn is the deputy director of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip. Redmatn has had the opportunity to see with her eyes what most of us only see on television screens.

On previous assignments, Redmatn has lived in Congo and Colombia. Her activities in Gaza are completely different, she says.

"Of course the work is different everywhere, but here the fabric of life is problematic," she says. "There are two peoples, one living under closure and one living under daily rocket fire, which violates international law.

Redmatn has a lot to say about problems related to the closure Israel has placed on Gaza but she also talks about the surprising normalcy in one of the most explosive regions of the world that receives extensive media attention.

"There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza," she explains. "If you go to the supermarket, there are products. There are restaurants and a nice beach. The problem is mainly in maintenance of infrastructure and in access to goods, concrete for example. Israel has the legitimate right to protect the civilan population, this right should be balanced with the rights of 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip. Despite the easing of the closure and the partial lifting of export bans in the wake of the flotilla incident, continued restrictions on the movement of people and difficulties in importing building materials hampered sustainable economic recovery and dashed any hope of leading a normal and dignified life".

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar via HuffPoMonitor)

The first real casualty of the Arab uprisings: Pan-Arabism

Pan-Arabism, the idea that all Arab countries would eventually combine or at least confederate, seems to be on its last legs.

Pan-Arabism had its heyday in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Egypt and Syria created the United Arab Republic.

It has been in decline ever since.

But wishful thinking about the power of a united Arab front continued, mostly in the form of the Arab League, which would meet regularly and where every such meeting would result in de rigueur condemnations of Israel and little else.

Now that Egypt's leadership role in the Arab world has faded as it struggles to discover its own identity, and in the wake of the other Arab uprisings, even the Arab League is falling apart.

A major Arab League summit that was to take place next month in Baghdad has been postponed, and no new date has been set although they are talking about September.

The reason for the postponement is that the Arab League members are squabbling with each other. Iraq is against Saudi Arabian and UAE supporting Bahrain's government in the current Shi'ite uprising there, and Iraq is siding with Iran.

The upheavals in the Arab world are taking the focus off of "Palestine" as each government must actually think about survival. The always-ready excuse of blaming everything on Israel has outlived its usefulness for Arab despots.

While pan-Arabism has been mostly a joke for decades, its most likely successor is not funny at all: pan-Islamism, a construct that Iran hopes to control. Iran also intends to ultimately make Arab identity meaningless, subsumed under the banner of Islam.

While it is too early to know how successful Iran will be - centuries of enmity between Arab and Persian cannot be erased so quickly, and neither can the Shiite/Sunni rift be patched up anytime soon - it is clear that the Islamic Republic is the early winner as the world witnesses the death of pan-Arabism.

Reagan wasn't the last actor in the White House

A fascinating look behind the scenes of Obama's speech to the nation Sunday night, from Reuters photographer Jason Reed:
This photo was not taken during the speech!
As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.

Obama's re-enactment

Poynter.org researched the history:
Doug Mills, New York Times photojournalist and former Associated Press staffer, says it has been done this way “always, always … well, as long as I have covered the White House, going back to the Reagan administration. We [still photographers] have never, never, never, ever been allowed to cover a live presidential address to the nation!”

Poynter’s Senior Faculty for Visual Journalism, Kenny Irby, explains, “The most obvious concern is noise. The 35mm cameras emit shutter noise, that would be multiplied by several photographers and increased by the echo which resonates off of the marble floors. The other visual distraction is the placement of the teleprompter that impedes the photographers’ line of sight to the president.”
That article concludes:
It is time for this kind of re-enactment to end. The White House should value truth and authenticity. The technology clearly exists to document important moments without interrupting them. Photojournalists and their employers should insist on and press for access to document these historic moments.

In the meantime, anyone who uses these recreations should clearly disclose to the reader the circumstances under which they were captured.

Apparently, wire service photographers will happily descend that slippery slope between news and acting.

This is of course not nearly as bad as the fauxtography and staged photos we are so used to seeing coming out of the Middle East. Even so, one would hope that the White House would not be acting like Hezbollah in even this small way.

(h/t PB)