Honor killing in the West Bank: A slight twist and a light sentence

Firas Press reports that a West Bank man who murdered his daughter for "honor" has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

His sentence was reduced from life imprisonment because he is older and the head of a large family, as well as (if I am interpreting it correctly) his "fury" showed that it was a real honor crime, a crime of passion and not just an ordinary murder.

One twist: Not only did he kill his daughter because of his suspicion that she was involved with a man who was not her husband, but he also thought that she was involved in giving intelligence to Israel!

I'm not sure if that was a factor in the light sentence, though.

Last days of Passover open thread

I will not be able to blog for the last two days of the Passover holiday starting tonight. (This is reason #1765 to move to Israel....)

Anyway, here's an open thread to entertain everyone until Tuesday night....

Have a Chag Sameach and happy holidays for the other weekend holiday celebrants (including, of course, Egyptians!)

"Jews destroyed the Arab character of the Jewish Quarter" (NYT, 1971)

From the New York Times, May 29, 1971:

It sounds ridiculous to claim that the Jewish Quarter had an "Arab character" after only 19 years, but isn't it equally ludicrous to characterize all of Jerusalem outside the Green Line as "Arab East Jerusalem"? Yet that is what is routinely written today.

Jews were a majority in Jerusalem since the 1860s. Since 1900, Jerusalem's Old City and its neighborhoods/villages in  the east, north and south have been under 18 years of Ottoman rule, 30 years of British rule, 19 years of Jordanian Arab rule and 47 years under the rule of the Jewish state. For some reason, the 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation is considered the status quo, the anomalous 19 years that makes the entire area supposedly "Arab."

But it isn't. Jerusalem has never been an important city to Arabs or Muslims except during times that it was controlled by Jews or Christians. Jews didn't only live in the Jewish Quarter, but they lived throughout the city as well as in supposedly "Arab" neighborhoods like Silwan - a Biblical village later settled by Jews who called it Kfar HaShiloach. 

There were even synagogues and yeshivot in the Muslim quarter 150 years ago. 

As absurd as the headline of this story is, only a few decades later the world now believes the lie.

(h/t/ Ahron, YMedad)

BDS Claims Credit For Keeping Mozart From Appearing In Israel (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. 

Check out their Facebook page.

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Vienna, May 13 - Leaders of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel are boasting that their publicity efforts have succeeded in preventing one of the world's most famous composers and performers of classical music from making an appearance in the Jewish State.
Wolfgang Mozart, an Austrian composer of chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, has never performed in Israel, and appears unlikely ever to do so. While no official statement from Mozart addresses the issue specifically, BDS activists assert that their campaign served as the decisive factor.

"The facts are simple: we have been campaigning among artists for quite some time, and since we began more than a decade ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has not once announced plans to travel to Israel," said prominent BDS activist Mustafa Barghouti. "Clearly, this kind of pressure works, and we intend to maintain our course of action until all artists finally come around."

Other figures in the music world who are active in BDS circles applauded the news. "This is a growing movement whose success is magnified through momentum, so we celebrate this coup," said former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, a high-profile proponent of the cultural isolation of Israel. "At the same time, we must keep up the pressure for genuine success to happen. Real political change - the elimination of the only Jewish state in he world - is not something that will occur all by itself."

Waters added that all indications seem to point to other musical giants joining the boycott: of Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, the entire Bach family, Josef Haydn, Claude Debussy, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Frederic Handel, and many other influential composers, not a single one has announced a planned trip to Israel since the current round of BDS activity began to gain momentum in 2002.

Cultural institutions in Israel have yet to respond formally to the BDS announcement, but experts say they are unlikely to dignify it. "Reacting publicly to this would be playing into the hands of the BDS people, whose main weapon is publicity," explained Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon. "I personally find this all an unconvincing publicity stunt, since what they're really after would be an actual statement by, say, Ludwig Beethoven that he refuses to play in Israel because of the way they treat the Palestinians. And they're never going to get that, not from everything we know about Mozart."

Solomon explained that it would be completely unlike Mozart to involve himself in anything political, considering the composer's experience of dependence on political figures. "Alienating an entire society, especially one disproportionately appreciative of and involved in classical music, is not something I can see Mozart ever doing, and that's only one myriad other good reasons not to believe the BDS crowing," he added.

Activists intend to continue focusing on major figures in classical music. "Our next best bet is probably a major composer already predisposed to our point of view," said Barghouti. "Richard Wagner comes to mind."

Best place to go for breaking news from Syria

Now Lebanon is following Syrian tweets, Facebook entries and YouTube channels to bring you the very latest on the protests in Syria.

Here are two videos said to have been taken last night of two separate crowds, in two separate towns, chanting "The people want to bring the regime down.”

To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=253828#ixzz1K9hkaYLF
Only 25% of a given NOW Lebanon article can be republished. For information on republishing rights from NOW Lebanon: http://www.nowlebanon.com/Sub.aspx?ID=125478

How to manipulate photos to tell an anti-Israel story (update)

From Ma'an:

Amateur photographer Ahmad Nazzal captured Israeli forces spraying 'skunk water' at a Palestinian child during the Kafr Qaddum weekly march in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

Five-year-old Muhammad Riyad appears standing in front of Israeli forces wearing a Palestinian Keffiyeh before the forces begin chasing him with skunk water, the boy eventually falling to the ground.

The foul-smelling liquid has been used by the Israeli military as a form of non-lethal crowd control since at least 2008 and can leave individuals and homes smelling like feces and garbage for weeks.

The poor kid is just standing there, minding his own business!

Too bad the photographer didn't show what else the little boy and his friends were doing for quite a bit of time while the soldiers did nothing. The boy in blue in this first clip looks like he isn't out of diapers yet.

And also that the skunk water was not aimed at the kid, but at the older stone throwers (The kid can be seen running on the left side while the water is clearly aimed at adult stone throwers on the right,  Another video shows where he tripped):

Where are the parents? Obviously letting their little boys go out and throw stones at soldiers.

Don't expect Ma'an to issue a correction, but it might be fun to tell them just to see them remove the comments.


(h/t Bob Knot)

UPDATE: I posted a comment:

The full video of the event shows not only that the child was throwing rocks from close range, but the police did nothing. The video also shows that the skunk water was shot at adult rioters on the right, unseen here. Video at Palmedia YT page.
Ma'an owes its readers a correction and apology.

We'll see if it gets published along with the hate.

05/12 Links Pt1: Kontorovich: A Tale of two blockades; Palestinian Authority's "Crimes of High Treason"

From Ian:

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Eugene Kontorovich: A Tale of two blockades

In Gothenburg, Sweden, a ship has set sail to run Israel’s blockade of Gaza, in a reprise of a now common activist tactic. At the same time, an Iranian ship has set sail from Bander Abbas to relieve the Saudi coalition’s blockade of Yemen, which has half the country on the brink of starvation.
Both blockades arise in what much of the international community regards as “non-international armed conflict” (NIAC). [The reasoning for both characterizations as NIACs is quite strained, in my view.]
In a new post at OpinioJuris, I discuss the legality of the Saudi blockade, showing that much previously neglected state practice supports the use of blockades in NIACs. Indeed, the only time it has been argued that such actions are illegal is in relation to the Gaza blockade. But the international community’s acceptance of the Yemen blockade (though not necessarily the particulars of its administration) shows that any potential anti-blockade norm has failed to materialize.
One wonders whether the new Gaza flotilla will meet a different response from the international community, now that it has remembered that blockade is legal. One also wonders whether the Yemen blockade, which by Oxfam’s description of it has turned it into what one would elsewhere call “the world’s largest open air prison” will manage to get half the international attention as the Gaza one.

Eugene Kontorovich: Libya’s shelling of Cook Islands ship gives New Zealand its own Maersk Tigris moment

The Libyan Navy has attacked a civilian ship off that country’s coast, as it was apparently bringing supplies for an Islamist rival militia, which Turkey has been accused of backing. The Turkish-owned ship was shelled from the shore and then attacked from the air. It caught fire and was towed to port, with at least one crew-member killed.
Some quick observations:
1) The vessel was flagged out of the Cook Islands, a Pacific nation with much the same defense relationship with New Zealand as the Marshall Islands have with the U.S. While under the former relationship, the Cooks must formally ask for assistance, it is unlikely that Wellington would brave the Barbary Coast to release the captured vessel.
It is quite a historical moment when the security benefits of being a New Zealand protectorate are indistinguishable from those of being an American protectorate.
2. It is unclear from news accounts if the ship was in territorial waters, but given the resulting loss of life, this is a matter of international note. One wonders how long it will be before the U.N. creates special commissions to investigate, as has been its past response to the violent loss of life on Turkish vessels.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority's "Crimes of High Treason"

Hamas is at least being honest about its intentions to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamist state. But the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank continues to deceive not only its people, but also the international community, with regards to the refugee problem.
By sponsoring, funding and encouraging Palestinians to take to the streets to "mourn" the establishment of Israel and remain committed to the "right of return," Abbas and his officials in Ramallah are not being honest with their people. They are undoubtedly afraid of telling their people that Israel would never allow millions of Palestinians into its borders. They are even more afraid of admitting to the refugees that Arab and Palestinian leaders have been lying to them since 1948 by asking them to stay in their camps because one day they will return to non-existent villages and homes.
If and when the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ever resume, PA leaders will not be able to make any concessions on the refugee issue. They will not because they know that their people would not accept any kind of concessions on this matter. Once again, the PA leaders will have only themselves to blame for having radicalized their people over the years to a point where Palestinians consider any concessions to Israel as a "crime of high treason." This stance not only applies to the refugee issue, but also to other matters, such as the two-state-solution, the status of Jerusalem and the future borders of a Palestinian state. Neither Abbas nor any future Palestinian leader will be able to reach a compromise with Israel when the Palestinian Authority itself continues to promote such anti-Israel sentiments.

Breaking the Silence bids to place IDF, Hamas on level field

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli nongovernmental organization, used to gather and publish accounts of military service in the West Bank and Gaza as part of an attempt to turn Israeli society against the occupation of those areas. Now it has shifted tack.
The NGO’s most recent report, at its core, seeks to change how Israel wages war.
Breaking the Silence, which on Tuesday is hosting a public launch of the report in Tel Aviv, largely expects Israel to value and seek to preserve the lives of the citizens of Gaza and limit collateral damage just as it would if its own civilians were being held by Hamas — an approach that would mean more Israeli soldiers would pay with their lives, fewer Palestinian lives would be lost, and Israel’s ability to bring its military might to bear against Hamas would be drastically reduced.
War, in that context, would look a lot like a hostage-rescue mission, based almost exclusively on small arms fire. The strongest army in the Middle East and the terror group that controls Gaza would be facing off on a largely level field.

Israelis Help Others; Palestinians Don’t Even Help Themselves

Israeli humanitarian efforts finally got a little attention in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake. While some acknowledged it, unfortunately, it was glossed over by others, while the hardcore haters said, “Yeah, but…” That “but” was followed by crazy stories of ulterior motives (like the old anti-Semitic canard of organ harvesting, baby trafficking, or that it was purely a publicity stunt?!) or sob stories of how Israelis are helping the earthquake survivors but won’t help those “poor” Gazans.
The truth is, Israelis do help Gazans. During Operation Protective Edge, for example, the IDF set up field hospitals and treated Gazan casualties, and Israeli hospitals treat even the relatives of Hamas leaders who vow to destroy the Jewish State and celebrate the “victory” of any dead Jew, from babies to elderly Holocaust survivors, murdered by Arab ‘martyrs’.
Israel has also decided to double the amount of water delivered to the Palestinian territories, despite only receiving payment from the Palestinian Authority for less than 10 percent of the water usage. Palestinians are also wasting their water; up to 33 percent is wasted due to leakage, and their own policies prevent them from having more water. Still, Israel is providing more water to help them.
Furthermore, the IDF facilitates the transfer of goods into Gaza, like cement which is intended for building new homes.
Here’s the kicker: that cement is not used to build new homes. Building terror tunnels to kill more Jews takes priority over their own well-being. That violence is valued higher than taking care of themselves, despite their cries to the world that their living conditions are poor. If they are in such dire need, why are they not using the cement transferred into Gaza via the efforts of those “evil” Israeli soldiers, to help themselves?

Nepal relives nightmare as new quake rips fresh wounds back open

Aftershocks have been rattling Nepal every day or so since a massive earthquake devastated the country on April 25. But the quake on Tuesday, striking just as the country was beginning to pick up the pieces, felt different from the quick jolts those in Nepal have grown accustomed to, with the shaking lasting longer, witnesses said.
While the 7.3-magnitude quake toppled homes and knocked out infrastructure, it also reopened emotional wounds just beginning to heal from the last earthquake, while catching Israeli aid groups just as they were preparing to shift their focus from rescue to rehabilitation.
“Only the ‘hard-core’ organizations are left,” said Sam Amiel, the senior program director at the Joint Distribution Committee, which has committed more than $250,000 to Nepal.
IsraAID had already sent its rescue team back to Israel, and started concentrating on bringing social workers and therapists.

Israel may send new aid team to Nepal following quake

Israel will likely send a new aid team to Nepal after a fresh earthquake rocked the country Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while greeting a returning Israeli delegation from the ravaged country.
Netanyahu was speaking at Ben-Gurion airport as he welcomed home a 260-member army team of medics and search and rescue experts who had spent 14 days in Nepal following an initial quake on April 25.
“I am certain that you are already prepared for the next mission, wherever it may be needed, and it appears, according to the news, that this next mission is already in front of us,” Netanyahu said.
“I told the Nepali ambassador just a few minutes ago that we are prepared to the best of our abilities to help now too. I hope that they will not need you, but if they do, we know – and the world is beginning to know – that we can count on you.”

IsraAid in Nepal: Phones down after new quake, people afraid to be indoors

Following the earthquake Tuesday, Israeli-based humanitarian aid agency IsraAid released a statement in which its head of mission stated that phones were down in Kathmandu and people were outside afraid to come indoors.
"I am worried for vulnerable neighborhoods like Gongabu, where our search and rescue team rescued Krishnadevi last week. The houses there are not sturdy, and many were damaged by the earthquake. We are on the way there now," said Yotam Polizer, IsraAID's head of mission on the ground in Nepal.
IsraAID, an Israeli-based humanitarian aid agency, currently has medical and psychosocial teams on the ground and is distributing goods in in Nepal, in coordination with the Nepalese government, UN agencies, and NGOs.

Diary of an IDF rescuer

In ordinary days, Yoav Sasson is a lieutenant serving in David Company of the Kedem battalion in the IDF Homefront Command. Following the deadly earthquake in Nepal last month, Sasson had departed for the battered country to command one of the Israel Defense Forces' search-and-rescue teams. This week he returned to Israel and is sharing his firsthand account of his time there.
A day late, I celebrated my 21st birthday at the military post I was stationed at the time. My entire family came to visit me there to cheer me up until At 1:30 a.m., I received a sudden phone call: "Yo-Yo [my nickname], I need you in my office as soon as possible." It was Diller, my company commander. "Do you have a passport?" He asked me and I innocently replied that I did, because I was planning to travel abroad on my next vacation.
"Pack your bags and notify your family -- you are joining the IDF search-and-rescue mission in Nepal! When I called home to tell my parents, my mother started crying and my father didn't know what to say. While everybody outside were still in shock, I began packing the equipment. This is the only unit where the transition from routine to emergency is extremely sudden.

Saudis Show Iran Deal Crackup Has Begun

Put another way, because the Obama administration is refusing to do anything to oust Bashar Assad, the Saudis are getting together with the Turks and Qataris to back some of the more fundamentalist Islamist fighters working against the Assad regime—including, it is rumored, the Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate. This is what happens when the Gulf states lose confidence in America: they start taking matters into their own hands and that means they will increasingly forge a pact with extreme Islamists, possibly even with ISIS, because they see the extremists as the only reliable barrier to the spread of Iranian influence.
This is a catastrophic if wholly predictable development, and it is only the beginning of the fallout from Obama’s decision to align so closely with Tehran. The next step in the Sunni pushback is, as the Saudi leadership has loudly and long signaled, for them to acquire their own nuclear weapons. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Saudi Arabia is conveniently next to Jordan which has vast uranium reserves but no money to exploit them. The Saudis could easily fill that gap and develop their own nuclear capacity within a decade, the timeline of the Iranian nuclear deal. Or the Saudis could get nukes even sooner if their friends in Pakistan agree to provide them.
Nothing that President Obama will do or say at the Camp David summit can remotely offset this parlous trend. What America’s Arab allies are looking for is an American commitment to resist Iranian designs. Instead all they see is America standing aside while Iran threatens to dominate the region.

Irwin Cotler: Defending human rights prisoners of Tehran

Canadian parliamentarians from across the political spectrum joined together to launch the fourth annual Iran Accountability Week in order to sound the alarm on the toxic convergence of threats posed by the Iranian regime: the nuclear threat, terrorism, incitement to hatred, and particularly the widespread and systematic violation of human rights.
Our program this year included hearings of the House of Commons’ Subcommittee on International Human Rights, a public forum on Parliament Hill, press briefings, political prisoner advocacy, and a concluding call to action. Among the participants were Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran; Iranian-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and former political prisoner Maziar Bahari; Marina Nemat and Shakib Nasrullah, both former prisoners of conscience at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison; FDD leaders Mark Dubowitz and Ali Alfoneh and Freedom House President Mark Lagon.
This year’s Iran Accountability Week occurred at a most propitious time, as the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran have overshadowed – if not sanitized – the Iranian regime’s massive domestic repression.

US Senate passes resolution for release of Americans in Iran

The US Senate on Monday unanimously passed a resolution calling on Iranian officials to immediately release three Americans held in Iran and help locate a fourth.
The measure, which passed 90-0, calls for Iran to free Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Jason Rezaian and cooperate with the US government to locate and return Jewish-American former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who went missing eight years ago from the Iranian resort of Kish Island.
Abedini, a Christian pastor from Idaho, has been in Iranian custody since September 2012 and is serving an eight-year sentence for undermining state security. During a trial in January, he was convicted of trying to establish a network of Christian churches in private homes.

US poll: Many approve Iran deal, but most don’t trust Tehran

Many Americans like the idea of the preliminary deal that would limit Iran’s nuclear program but very few people really believe Tehran will follow through with the agreement.
An Associated Press-GfK poll found that just 3% said they were very confident that Iran would allow inspections of its nuclear facilities, remove plutonium from the country and shut down close to half of its uranium-enriching centrifuges as the preliminary deal says would be required. Nearly seven in 10 people said they were not confident, while 25% said they were only moderately confident.
The US, Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China are aiming to finalize a deal with Iran by June 30 that puts limits on Iranian programs that could be used to make nuclear arms. In exchange, economic sanctions on Iran would be lifted over time. Tehran denies any interest in such weapons but is negotiating in hopes of relief from billions of dollars in economic sanctions.
The next round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers were to start Tuesday in Vienna.

Zarif: Why Can’t the U.S. be a Dictatorship like Iran?

Speaking in South Africa, where he is cultivating business now that sanctions are collapsing, Iranian Foreign Minster Mohammad Javad Zarif demanded that the Obama administration bypass any Congressional review of the Iran deal. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Zarif said:
“We consider the US government responsible for implementing the [final nuclear] agreement. In our opinion, the Congress bill does not take the load of the commitments off the US government’s shoulder, and in fact makes it heavier. The US government should show that it will act upon the possible agreement between Iran and the P5+1… In our opinion, the bill by the US Congress does not have any effects, and if it does, then the US government has to nullify it.”
How inconvenient and incomprehensible it must be for Mr. Zarif, who has such a history of lying that his lies have even merited widespread use of a twitter hashtag (#ZarifLies), to realize that American leaders are accountable to the people’s elected representatives. And how arrogant and disrespectful it is of Mr. Zarif to demand that President Obama simply ignore the law, should Congress eventually pass a more stringent and biting review process than Senator Corker’s slight-of-hand solution. How sad it is, meanwhile, that Congress largely stands aside as a representative of an undemocratic and unrepentant terrorist-sponsoring regime lectures Congress on how it does its job. Then again, that’s not nearly as sad as an arrogant chief executive and a legacy-seeking secretary of state who rather consult with Iranian leaders than with their own congress.

Iran Promises Not to Reverse Engineer Russian S-300 Missile Defense System

Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmayeeli, the Commander of Iran’s Khatamul Anbia Air Defense Base, announced on Monday that his country does not intend to reverse engineer the sophisticated Russian S-300 missile air defense system.
According to Esmayeeli, “S-300 is an operational system and doesn’t need reverse engineering,” and “since the S-300 is a defensive operational system, it will be deployed in specific spots and will not be reverse engineered.”
According to semi-official state news agency Fars, Esmayeeli also emphasized that the Khatamul Anbia Air Defense Base’s experts have undergone the necessary training, and are ready to use the Russian-made missile defense shield.

Defying Sanctions, Iranian Airline with Terror Ties Buys New Planes

An Iranian airline that has been sanctioned due to ties with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has purchased nine planes in violation of existing sanctions, the Financial Times reported today. According to the report, the airline, Mahan Air, purchased the planes from European companies using a front company.
The Financial Times reported that though Western diplomats fear that the planes could be used to transport weapons to Yemen, a member of Mahan’s board said that it would use the planes to address a shortage of planes within Iran, rather than transporting weapons internationally. However, a Mahan Air plane was turned away by Saudi jets earlier this year as it headed to Yemen.
While the suspensions of some sanctions have allowed Iran to purchase spare parts for planes, the sale of planes to Iran is still prohibited by American and European sanctions.
The Financial Times called the scheme through which Mahan purchased the planes “most ambitious,” and involved using an Iraqi airline, Al Naser, to purchase the modern Airbus planes, which, in turn, were sold or transferred to Mahan. Al Naser denies that it acted on behalf of Mahan, but the Financial Times reported that a diplomat traced payments from Mahan through Gulf-based companies to purchase the planes.

‘#Iran_Aflame’ Trends as Kurdish Protesters Confront Iranian Police

As Iranian Kurds rioted in the northwestern city of Mahabad in response to the mysterious death of a Kurdish woman, the Twitter hash-tag “#إيران_تشتعل” or “#Iran_Aflame” has been popularly adopted to disseminate the ongoing story.
The hashtag – which reached 230,000 tweets since Saturday – was used to circulate pictures and video clips of the ongoing tensions within Iran, specifically in Mahabad in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province.
Riots there arose after Farinaz Khosrwni, a 23-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, committed suicide by throwing herself from the fourth story of the hotel where she worked. Activists claimed Khosrwni took her own life to prevent herself from being raped by an Iranian officer.
Chief of Iranian Police Gen. Hussein Ashtari said a number of police officers and security forces had been killed by those he described as “evil armed gangs which oppose the regime,” according to Al Jazeera.

Middle East nuclear weapons ban proposal stumbles at UN"

A U.N. attempt to work out a ban on nuclear weapons in the Middle East was in jeopardy after Egypt complained on Monday about the lack of progress and demanded the resignation of the Finnish coordinator of the initiative.
Western officials said Arab proposals drafted by Egypt for a major nuclear nonproliferation conference at United Nations headquarters in New York could torpedo the process and push Israel to walk away.
Israel neither confirms nor denies the widespread assumption that it controls the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal. Israel, which has never joined the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, agreed to take part in NPT meetings Monday as an observer, ending a 20-year absence.
The head of Egypt's delegation, Assistant Foreign Minister Hashim Badr, rejected any suggestion that Cairo was a spoiler and insisted that he wanted to move the process forward, not kill it.

Did Palestinians poison Yasser Arafat?

For many years Palestinian conspiracy theories held that Israeli Jews in some way had killed Arafat. The Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs, Al-Habbash, on November 8, 2013 drew on history and preached that Arafat was killed in the same way as the Prophet Muhammad.
He "knew" that the Prophet had been given poisoned meat by Jews in the town of Khaibar, and died of it three years later. Similarly, though Habbash did not mention that the mechanism had been meat, he declared that Arafat had been killed by Jews in the same way as the Prophet had been. Arafat had become a martyr.
The drama about Arafat’s death began in July 2012 when al-Jazeera television incorrectly, probably deliberately, reported a version of an article in The Lancet. That article was written by scientists associated with the Institute for Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland on the general subject of the detection of polonium poisoning.
The Institute happened to include the laboratory that had initially tested some of Arafat’s clothing.
Al-Jazeera then reported that The Lancet article had supported the possibility that Arafat was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210. This inaccurate statement was based on the fact that the Swiss scientists had merely examined Arafat’s effects and found “abnormal levels of polonium.”
The Arab League secretary-general, Nabil al-Araby, who had been less interested in probing the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, raised Arafat’s case in the UN Security Council.

White House hosts US-Palestinian teen beaten by Israeli cops

White House National Security Council staffers recently hosted a US-Palestinian teenager who was beaten by Israeli riot police last year to review “pending issues related to his case,” CNN reported on Monday.
Tariq Abu Khdeir, 16, met with officials at the White House on April 15 to discuss matters related to his family’s planned visit to Jerusalem later this year.
“The US government has remained closely engaged with Tariq and his family since his return from Jerusalem,” a White House official told CNN. “As part of the follow-up on pending issues related to his case, National Security Council staff met with the Abu Khdeirs recently.”
The Tampa teenager — of Palestinian descent — and his family plan to return to Jerusalem in the summer to visit relatives in the Shuafat neighborhood of the capital.

PA Cracks Down on Hamas Supporters on West Bank College Campuses

Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have rounded up more than two-dozen Hamas supporters on West Bank college campuses for interrogation in recent weeks.
A Hamas-aligned student group won an April 22 student council election at Birzeit University, which is located near the PA’s de facto capital of Ramallah.
“Everyone knew that this was going to happen,” Nagham Yassin, a Palestinian student at Birzeit, told Al Jazeera. “It happened last time the Islamic bloc won in 2007. Everyone assumed it would happen this time. Anyone who goes into student politics—especially Hamas supporters—knows they risk arrest.”
According to another Hamas supporter, Jihad Saleem, PA security forces allegedly blindfolded him, deprived him of sleep, and held him in stress positions during his 24-hour interrogation.
“They wanted to know how the Islamic bloc won the elections. They wanted to know how Hamas’s supporters had funded the election campaign on the campus,” Saleem told Al Jazeera.

IDF sees no alternative to Hamas rule in Gaza

IDF Southern Region Commander Maj. Gen. Shlomo “Sami” Turgeman said on Monday that Hamas remains, effectively, the only option for governance in the Gaza Strip. He further accused Israeli media of handing the terror group propaganda victories during the war there last summer by revealing the number of southerners who left their home during the fighting.
Turgeman met with the heads of local authorities located near the Gaza border, where he reviewed the 50-day war with Hamas, which the IDF dubbed Operation Protective Edge.
He argued against the assertion — espoused by several senior Israeli ministers during the war — that the army should have worked to topple Hamas or take full control of the coastal enclave.
“There is an independent rule in Gaza that behaves like a state,” he said. “Inside that state there is a ruler, Hamas, and at the moment there is no alternative to Hamas. Aside from that, there is no one else who can hold things together. The alternative is the IDF or chaos.”
Turgeman assessed that the residents in Gaza were also not interested in ousting their Hamas rulers.

The Salafist 'nuisance' in Gaza

The first and foremost ideological difference is that Hamas is also a national Palestinian organization. Its goal is to fight solely against Israel inside the borders of the Palestinian homeland. Hamas’ leader, Khaled Mashal, has declared on numerous occasions that Hamas will not operate outside of Palestine. Those declarations earned the group the opportunity to participate in the 2006 election in Gaza and enter into a unity government with Fatah.
This is not the case with the Salafist groups affiliated to IS. Their ideology is anti-national. They have and still are attacking Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, such as the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin; the leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and the spiritual leader of the movement, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi; the leader of Tunisia’s Muslims Rashid al-Ghannushi, and even former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi - all of whom incorporate a national component in their ideology.
It is no wonder that those zealous, anti-national Muslim groups are flourishing in places where the national Arab leadership has failed. The Arab nationality has enabled the establishment of states within borders set by the Imperialists. Now, when one by one those countries disintegrate, the Islamic state movement, unbound by national borders, rears its head. We see this happening in Iraq and Syria and to some extent in Libya and Yemen, as well. Is this also the fate awaiting the Palestinians, who have not yet succeeded in establishing their own national state? Not likely, but in the meantime the violence is raging.

Report: Iran Funding Shi'ite Religious Centers in Gaza

Shi'ite religious centers have opened for the first time in Gaza, Walla! News reports Tuesday, and are being directly funded by Iran.
The centers, under the name 'Al-Sabrin,' (from the Arabic word for 'patience') are attempting to spread Shi'ite Islam in the Sunni stronghold, according to the news agency, and are doing so on Tehran's orders.
Most Palestinian Arab Muslims are Sunni, and very few people have embraced Shi'ite Islam instead, but this is a completely new phenomenon in Gaza.
Photos of the centers sent to the daily show banners featuring Ayatollah Ruholloh Khamenei, the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, hanging over the entrances. One banner even reads, "good luck to the Iran-Jerusalem axis."

Report: Hezbollah Apparently Already Has Chlorine Gas

Syria is believed to have succeeded in transferring chemical weapons to Hezbollah, Channel 1 television's military affairs correspondent said Monday.
According to the reporter, Amir Bar Shalom, it appears chlorine gas bombs have made their way from Syria to Hezbollah's hands, despite the IDF's efforts to interdict the transfer.
Forces loyal to Syrian strongman Bashar Assad have recently been using chlorine gas against civilians in the ongoing civil war there, despite Syria's having supposedly gotten rid of its chemical weapons stockpiles, in an agreement the Obama administration took pride in.
Bar Shalom noted that the IDF has recently been repeatedly targeting convoys and facilities along the Syria-Lebanon border because of these developments.
He explained that Assad's use of chlorine bombs in recent months obviously indicates has the ability to use such weapons successfully. It would be a relatively easy matter to transfer the weapons a few kilometers across the border into Lebanon and into Hezbollah's hands, he noted. (h/t Alexi)

UN Castigates Saudis for Bombing Houthis and Their Human Shields After 24-Hour Warning

A recent exchange between UN representatives in Yemen and Saudi Arabian officials sounded just like the ones that take place between the UN and Israel over Hamas in Gaza.
On Sunday, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Johannes Van Der Klauuw said he was “deeply concerned” by the Saudi-led coalition strikes on northern Yemen. The UN warned that the “indiscriminate bombing of populated areas a violation of international law.”
The UN claims the airstrikes have killed at least 1,400 people and more than half of them were civilians.
Saudi’s military spokesperson, Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, responded to the UN criticism, saying Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are using hospitals and schools to store weapons, which is why they have been targeted by airstrikes.
On Sunday, the Saudis reportedly also targeted the home of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. Saleh is unharmed, according to a BBC report.
The Saudis have declared the northern province of Saada, located on the Saudi border, a “military zone”, and on Friday dropped leaflets warning local civilians to get out before the attacks began.

Who needs Bashar Assad?

For as long as the northern border remained quiet, it was in Israel's interests somewhat to see Syrian President Bashar Assad remain in power. A weakened dictator who makes a concerted effort to keep the border quiet is better than the chaotic terror of the Islamic State gangs. Israel is better off with a familiar, albeit crazy, neighbor who plays by the rules along the border than new neighbors who are no less crazy but don't who abide by any rules at all.
This held true for as long as the rules were observed. But now that the Golan Heights border is starting to become a terror border, now that the situation has been reversed and the Lebanon border is relatively quiet while the Syrian border has seen an increase in terrorist activity on the part of Hezbollah, under the cover of the general chaos in Syria, we need to rethink what is good for Israel.
The fall of Assad's regime would bring Islamic State to our borders – and that's a problem. But it would also be a fatal blow for Hezbollah. Without the Assad regime and the Hezbollah-Syria-Iran axis, the threat from Lebanon would fade significantly. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen for sure.

Beware the pan-Arab army

Israel, however, cannot ignore the fact that the unstable reality in the Middle East means that the plan to form a pan-Arab coalition of this nature has negative potential.
Washington has vowed that bolstering the Arab nations' military abilities will not undermine Israel's strategic qualitative edge -- a pledge the U.S. is bound to keep, as per a 2008 Congress resolution -- but history has taught us that this promise is not without its weak spots.
The U.S.'s strategic considerations do not have to account for threats from Canada or Mexico, but Israel does not have the luxury of dismissing Middle East dynamics, even when it concerns countries with which it has peace treaties -- and especially with regards to a pan-Arab army that includes nations with which such treaties do not exist.
An Arab coalition that seeks to stop Iran and its proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Sinai and Yemen from expanding Tehran's regional influence is a welcome development, as long as we remember that even what appears to be steadfast and permanent may prove fleeting.

Syrians cross border into Israel for treatment

CNN's Oren Liebermann reports on a hospital in Israel that is treating Syrians -- included militants -- injured in that country's civil war.

05/14 Links Pt1: BTS Report Isn't Journalism It's Propaganda; Palestinians' Anti-Peace Campaign

From Ian:

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Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians' Anti-Peace Campaign

Palestinian activists on May 11 broke up a conference in east Jerusalem where Israelis and Palestinians met to discuss the two-state solution. The activists belong to the "anti-normalization" campaign, which aims to thwart meetings between Israelis and Palestinians.
The conference at the Ambassador Hotel was organized by the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) think tank based in Jerusalem. It has been working towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Entitled, "Is The Two-State Solution Still Relevant?," the conference was supposed to include a discussion on the issue from the perspectives of the Palestinian side and the Israeli Left.
Organizers said the event was made possible by the support of the Government of the Netherlands.
The Israeli side was represented by Dr. Alon Liel, former Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to South Africa. The identity of the Palestinian representative was not announced before the discussion, apparently to avoid pressure from the "anti-normalization" activists.
Liel is an outspoken critic of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Two years ago, he told The Times of Israel that he supports cultural boycotts of Israel, and that he himself started boycotting goods produced in the settlements to protest the lack of progress in the peace negotiations.
But all this did not stop the "anti-normalization" activists from disrupting his speech and forcing him to abandon the podium at the Ambassador Hotel.

Matti Friedman: The Latest "Breaking the Silence" Report Isn't Journalism. It's Propaganda.

In analyzing trends in the press I have found it most helpful to keep an eye on the mainstream and avoid extreme cases. So let’s look again at the Washington Post, a good U.S. paper, to see how a report of this kind becomes major international news.
The Post receives a document about Israel’s conduct in the 2014 Gaza war that has been produced in English by a group of Israelis funded by European organizations and governments. The paper’s correspondent, recently arrived in Jerusalem from a posting in Mexico, takes at face value that this is an “Israeli” organization and also an organization of “veterans,” perhaps not grasping that, because Israel has a mandatory draft, the term is quite meaningless; most people can plausibly claim to be “veterans.”
The correspondent then selects some of the most egregious examples in the report, summarizes them, and presents them as representative not only of the report but of the entire Gaza operation. He takes the words of people whose identity is not known to him, who have been interviewed by people whose identity is similarly not known to him, the interviews edited and redacted in a process not known to him, and pastes them into his article. As a reporter, you wouldn’t be able to get away with publishing purely anonymous testimony that you have collected, but it is one of the peculiarities of Israel-related journalism that you are allowed to use anonymous material if it has been pre-packaged for you by a political NGO.

Michael Lumish: Pope Francis Recognizes anti-Semitic Genocidal Organizations

To European Jews: If you can go, you should go. Europe is hostile territory and things seem to be getting worse. There are only a few places on this planet where Jews, as a people, can live without significant hostility. These places, for the moment, include North America and Australia. They do not include Great Britain.
In the Middle East, of course, Obama and the West has given the signal to Arabs that it's Jew Killing Season.
They honestly think that 300 to 400 million Arabs have every right to go after 6 million Jews because they tell themselves that those Jews were mean to the "Palestinians."
To American Jews: Your faith in Barack Obama was misguided from the start, as was mine. One thing that differentiates you from your more thoughtful co-religionists is that some of us were not so ideologically blinkered as to fail to acknowledge that which is before our nose. Now that the Pope has turned on Israel we can expect American Catholic support for the Jewish people to erode, with the full passive-aggressive support of the American President until, hopefully, the next election.
To Israeli Jews: Declare the final borders of the State of Israel and defend yourself without apology.
Eliminate Hamas and point to their charter, which calls specifically for the genocide of the Jewish people on religious grounds.

Reaffirming Commitment to Peace with Palestinians, Netanyahu Announces Coalition Guidelines

The incoming Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally presented its government coalition guidelines, which explicitly reaffirmed its commitment to pursue a peace process with the Palestinians.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) translated the relevant text: “The government will advance the diplomatic process and strive to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and all our neighbours, while maintaining Israel’s security, historical and national interests. If an agreement such as this is achieved, it will be sent for approval to the government and Knesset, and if necessary by law, to a referendum.”
AFP went on to note that “The rest of the government policy outline deals with issues such as reducing the cost of living, improving competition in the Israeli economy, boosting education and protecting the environment,” which are not significantly “different to those published by Netanyahu for his two previous governments, formed in 2009 and 2013.”

PLO: No peace talks unless Israel commits to West Bank pullout

Speaking with the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Wasel Abu-Youssef emphasized that the Palestinian leadership would not compromise on the matter and would not agree to US mediation unless the aforementioned timeline were set, Israel Radio reported.
He further asserted that Washington held a clear bias in favor of Israel and that the Palestinians were therefore wary of US involvement in peace negotiations between the two parties.
Abu-Youssef said the PLO’s decision came following the establishment of Israel’s new government, which the Palestinian official deemed to be far more likely to advance Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank than the last, according to Israel Radio. “The political horizon with the new settler government is completely shut,” Abu-Youssef concluded.

‘Obama Trying to Topple Netanyahu’

The Obama administration is trying to topple the new Netanyahu government after having failed to stop it from being elected, a senior government source told Reshet Bet (Voice of Israel) radio Thursday.
The source also explained that Washington is pressing Israel to stop hunting down terrorists in “Area A” in Palestinian Authority cities where the Abbas regime is supposed to be in charge of security.
Keeping the IDF out of Area A would mean the end of keeping a lid in Hamas terrorist, a mission that Abbas’ security forces has not been able to accomplish for political, intelligence and military reasons.
A reign of terror in Palestinian Authority following an IDF “hands-off” policy, even against “ticking bombs.” would create conditions for a violent eruption, de-stabilizing the Abbas regime and setting the stage for a demand that Israel accept the Arab agenda or face an all-out war or an upfront Hamas terrorist regime based in Ramallah.

French-Israeli Relationship Hits Snag over Palestinian Issue

Particularly irking the Israelis, Haaretz reported Thursday, is French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius' attempt to revive a UN Security Council resolution bent on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a mandated and deadlined peace deal.
The draft would define the 1949 Armistice Lines as a reference point for peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel but allow room for exchanges of territory. It would also designate Jerusalem as capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state and call for a fair solution for Palestinian refugees, with some vague references to Israel as a Jewish state.
Israeli diplomats told the newspaper that the Foreign Ministry had received information suggesting France had already begun discussing the draft's language with the Palestinians, Arab states, and the Security Council.
No such consultations, they claim, have been had with Israel, nor has Israel received an outline of the resolution's main points.
Two Israeli diplomats told Haaretz that Foreign Ministry Director-General Nissim Ben-Shitrit protested the unfair treatment during last week's talks with the French delegation led by Foreign Ministry Secretary General Christian Masset.

Rubio: Palestinian statehood not currently possible

US Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, said he would not pursue a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict right now.
“I don’t think the conditions exist for that today,” Rubio said Wednesday during a question-and-answer session hosted by PBS’s Charlie Rose at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “That’s the ideal outcome, but the conditions for a two-state solution at this moment do not exist.”
Rubio, a hawk on pro-Israel issues, blamed the Palestinian Authority, the official government of the Palestinians, for the current situation, as well as the lack of unity among the Palestinians. He also pointed out that the Palestinians had rejected two previous peace offers from Israel.
“I think the most we can hope for in the short term is that the Palestinians Authority will be able to provide a level of stability in that territory. And ultimately, the conditions will rise up with new leadership that will allow something like that to happen,” he said, according to Haaretz.

ICC threat of 'one-sided' Gaza war probe sparks outrage in Israel

The official went on to say that "given this context, the prosecutor's office was mistaken in accepting the Palestinian claim and launching a preliminary investigation. We hope that the court will not allow its resources to be taken advantage of to deal with a claim that has no legal basis and is guided by cynical political motivations, and which, if addressed, will damage the court's credibility as well as the chances of establishing a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.
"It is shocking that the prosecutor of the ICC -- whose job it is to abide by the highest standards of professionalism, caution, independence and impartiality -- has chosen to deal with these issues in the media, and even said in the Associated Press article that she 'may perhaps be forced to just go with just one side of the story.' This casts doubt on the credibility of the process being undertaken at the prosecutor's office.
"Israel is a democratic country that respects the rule of law while being positioned on the frontline of the global war on terrorism."
Bensouda said she has already received information "from others regarding the preliminary examination," but refused to elaborate except to say that her office was also collecting information from confidential sources, identified groups and individuals and open sources.

Vatican causes stir with treaty recognizing Palestine as a state

The agreement, being finalized in Rome by a group called the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine, “deals with essential aspects of the life and activity of the Catholic Church in Palestine,” according to a joint statement posted on the Vatican’s Web site. Palestinians said the accord addresses such matters as properties, taxes and protocol at holy sites.
Social media and news reports — as well as some pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian voices — seized on the treaty to suggest that the Vatican had newly recognized the “State of Palestine,” although the Vatican had done so shortly after the United Nations granted Palestine “non-member observer status” in 2012.
News of the pending agreement triggered conflicting statements on its significance for the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it was “disappointed.”

Pope Francis and the Palestinians: The Vatican's recognition of a Palestinian state will have lamentable consequences

To them, the birth of a secure Palestine at peace with its neighbor comes a distant second to extermination of the Jewish state.
Against this backdrop, a unity government between the relatively moderate Fatah faction and the killers in Hamas is bidding for international sympathy with plans to isolate Israel and win recognition straight from the UN.
No tradeoffs. No land swaps. No security guarantees. No need to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Just the reward of statehood after decades of unrepentant violence.
More powerfully than ever, Palestinian leaders can use to their advantage the Pope’s empathy for the plight of 4 million residents of the territories without having to take actions that might lead to peace, and that’s unfortunate.

Vatican Recognition of ‘State of Palestine’ Riles Jewish Organizations

The American Jewish Committee said it “regrets the announcement” of the treaty, in which the Vatican refers to the “state of Palestine” rather than the Palestinian Liberation Organization, as it had in previous documents.
AJC Executive Director David Harris said the move was “counterproductive to all who seek true peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
He said “peaceful coexistence … is best served, we believe, by encouraging a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, rather than unilateral gestures outside the framework of the negotiating table.”
Additionally, the Anti-Defamation League “expressed disappointment” at the Vatican’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, calling the step “premature.”
ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said the move would “bolster the Palestinian strategy of seeking statehood through international fora and not through recognition, reconciliation and negotiation with Israel.”

Vatican Recognition of Palestine Won’t Bring Peace Closer

After all, if Abbas’s real goal been an independent Palestinian state, he could have had one in 2000, 2001 when his former boss Yasir Arafat rejected an Israeli offer of statehood including almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share of Jerusalem. Abbas rejected an even better offer in 2008 and then refused to negotiate seriously in 2013 and 2014 even after the Israelis had accepted an American framework whose goal was a two state solution.
The Palestinian campaign to get recognition from the United Nations and other countries is motivated by a desire to avoid peace talks, not to make them more successful. The Palestinians want a state but not one that is prepared to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state alongside it, not matter where its borders are drawn. By telling the Palestinians, the Church recognizes his faux state; it is making it easier for Abbas to refuse to negotiate. To the extent that this recognition grants the Palestinians rights to all of the disputed 1967 territories, the Vatican and other European states that have done the same thing, is prejudging negotiations that should be conducted by the parties, not outsiders.
Just as important, the Church ignores the fact that an independent Palestinian state in all but name already exists in Gaza under the tyrannical rule of Hamas terrorists. Which “Palestine” is the Church recognizing? Hamasistan or Fatah’s corrupt kleptocracy that Abbas presides over? With Hamas growing more popular, the prospect of it gaining power in an independent West Bank makes an Israeli withdrawal a fantasy rather than a viable policy option.
While no one should question the pope’s good intentions, the Vatican move will only serve to make peace less likely and do nothing for Middle East Christians who are under unbearable pressure from Islamists, not Israel. In this case, being even-handed undermines the already dwindling hopes for a two state solution.

Obama Gives Syria a Pass on Chemical Weapons. Will He Stop Iran’s Nukes?

So what is Obama doing to enforce the chemical weapons accord? Bombing Damascus? Stepping up support for the Syrian resistance? He’s not even passing a stiffly worded resolution at the UN, where its friends from Moscow and Beijing protect the Assad regime.
Josh Rogin and Eli Lake of Bloomberg report that the administration was informed months ago by UN inspectors of their findings. Since then the White House has basically been sitting on the issue, no doubt for fear that any action would offend Assad’s patrons in Tehran and disrupt hopes of negotiating a nuclear deal. “The discovery set off a months-long debate inside the administration about how to respond. President Obama is said to have not yet decided,” Rogin and Lake write. “Meanwhile, a coalition of rebel groups on the ground has been attacking the area around the facility, raising the danger that the chemical weapons could fall into the hands of the rebels, many of whom are linked to Islamic extremists.”
If this is how the administration reacts to blatant violations of an arms control agreement by a weak regime such as Assad’s, just imagine how it would react to violations by the much stronger Iranian regime. Unfortunately Iran’s leaders can read the tea leaves as well as anyone else—and they know that they will get a pass, at least while Obama is still in office, no matter how much they cheat on a nuclear deal.

Saudis to warn Obama they will match Iran’s nuke buildup

Saudi Arabian officials are warning that they will seek to match Iran’s nuclear arsenal, a US newspaper reported Thursday, as US President Barack Obama and leaders from six Gulf nations — including Riyadh — convened outside Washington to work through tensions sparked by the US bid for a nuclear deal with Tehran, a pursuit that has put regional partners on edge.
Along with Saudi Arabia, smaller Arab countries also say they also plan to pursue a nuclear weapons program to offset Iran’s, portending a much-feared nuclear arms race in the Middle East, according to the New York Times.
“We can’t sit back and be nowhere as Iran is allowed to retain much of its capability and amass its research,” one Arab leader attending the Camp David summit told the New York Times.

House Leadership to Ban Lawmakers from Amending Key Iran Bill

House leadership will not permit lawmakers to offer amendments aimed at strengthening a key piece of legislation that would provide Congress with oversight over any nuclear deal the Obama administration strikes with Iran, according to Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.).
DeSantis had been planning to offer several amendments to the legislation aimed at forcing Iran to disclose all of its nuclear-related work and provide international inspectors with access to all military sites.
However, House leadership is planning to suspend normal rules and bring the bill to an immediate vote, preventing lawmakers such as DeSantis from altering the bill.
A Senate version of the legislation—which would provide Congress with the ability to cast an up-or-down vote on any Iran deal—overwhelmingly passed last week in a 98-1 vote. That version of the bill, authored by Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), was also brought to a vote without amendments, despite multiple efforts by leading senators.
The suspension of normal protocol in both legislative chambers has caused frustration among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and stoked tensions with Republican leadership.

Russia says no automatic sanctions snapback if Iran breaks deal

A Russian official on Wednesday bluntly rejected claims that sanctions on Iran would be restored immediately should the Islamic Republic violate the terms of an agreement to curb its nuclear program, poking a hole in a central White House plank meant to soothe critics of the deal.
Speaking to Bloomberg News, UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin stated that “there can be no automaticity, none whatsoever,” with regard to sanctions on Iran. He did not elaborate any further.
The Obama administration has stated that Russia agreed “in principle” on the need to reimpose sanctions if Iran fails to comply with the agreement, but the Russian government has never confirmed that it agrees with such a stance.
The US has repeatedly pointed to the ability to “snap back” sanctions should Iran violate the deal in a bid to allay fears by allies that Tehran could escape punishing sanctions without actually curbing its enrichment program.
Critics have expressed doubts whether the UN can automatically reimpose sanctions, or whether there will be the international will — specifically from Russia and China — to do so.

Iran on Nuclear Inspections: “Depends What Meaning of Is Is”

So, let’s get this straight: Obama and Kerry have celebrated Iran’s concessions and flexibility. They have celebrated Iran’s agreement to be guided by the Additional Protocol, an enhancement to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that was created in 1997 in order to fill loopholes that had allowed Saddam Hussein to develop a covert nuclear program all the while receiving clean bills of health by the IAEA. The vast majority of the world—and pretty much every state of concern (minus North Korea and Pakistan which are not NPT members)—has signed onto the Additional Protocol and accept its contents. Not so, Iran. First, they said they would only abide “voluntarily” to the Additional Protocol, which means they could walk away at any time. Now, the Iranian government is putting forward an interpretation that would effectively gut any remaining bite the inspections have by arguing that raising security concerns should be enough to avoid inspections. That reading is the nuclear equivalent of quibbling over what the meaning of “is” is in order to absolve oneself from a lie. Perhaps it’s time for Obama and Kerry simply to replace the Stars and Stripes with a white flag of surrender, because it is increasingly clear that their deal is nothing but capitulation and the verification mechanisms about which they bragged are little more than an illusion. Unprecedented verification, indeed.

Iran Rejects IAEA Call for Inspecting Military Sites as Part of Nuclear Deal

An Iranian spokesman rejected calls made Wednesday by Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that Iran open up military sites for inspection, Iran’s semi-official news agency PressTV reported, saying that the demand was an inaccurate interpretation of the “additional protocol” of the nuclear deal made with Western powers.
“First of all, the Islamic Republic of Iran has neither approved nor implemented the Additional Protocol yet; secondly, no article of the protocol envisions a specific obligation regarding access to the the military sites of the signatories,” spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi told IRIB on Wednesday. …
Under the Additional Protocol, access to the sites demanded by the UN nuclear agency requires evidence and the IAEA must take into account the considerations of the signatories, including “security considerations,” Amano said.

Czechs stopped potential nuclear tech purchase by Iran

The Czech Republic blocked an attempted purchase by Iran this year of a large shipment of sensitive technology usable for nuclear enrichment after false documentation raised suspicions, U.N. experts and Western sources said.
The incident could add to Western concerns about whether Iran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal being negotiated with world powers under which it would curb sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.
The negotiators are trying to reach a deal by the end of June after hammering out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing to reduce the number of centrifuges it operates and agreeing to other long-term nuclear limitations.
Some details of the attempted purchase were described in the latest annual report of an expert panel for the United Nations Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, which has been seen by Reuters.
The panel said that in January Iran attempted to buy compressors -- which have nuclear and non-nuclear applications -- made by the U.S.-owned company Howden CKD Compressors.

Iran: We’ll Build Five More Underground Nuclear Plants

This brings us to the issue of who in Iran has committed themselves to resolving Iran’s nuclear program through negotiations. For a moment, let’s assume that Rouhani and Zarif are sincere (although there is ample evidence that they are not). Has the Supreme Leader really endorsed a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear deal as proponents of the talks have suggested? Take the issue of “heroic flexibility.” That doesn’t mean, as proponents of the deal have suggested, that Khamenei has thrown his weight behind the talks. His own advisors have explained that what Khamenei blessed was a change in tactics, not a change in policy. In other words, so long as Iran gets its nuclear capability, the Supreme Leader doesn’t care if it comes through subterfuge or if he holds his nose and has representatives talk to the Americans. How sad it is that Obama and Kerry have such faith in the Supreme Leader, when he refuses to meet American officials, and yet doesn’t hesitate to find time for Gambians, Belarusians, and Eritreans. What the White House and the news media have not realized, however, is that the term “Heroic Flexibility” also has religious connotations. It’s sad to see the State Department and the media—both bastions of multiculturalism—so myopic on issues of culture. Now, none of this even begins to touch the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that has said no to any deal from the very beginning.
So what to make of Larijani’s interview? His proximity to the Supreme Leader should concern anyone who does not have political blinders on. Whether because of personal ambition (in the case of some diplomats or Kerry’s destructive quest for a Nobel Peace Prize), ideological sympathy, or just naiveté, too many do. Simply put, it’s strange to see the White House and the State Department convince themselves that Khamenei is onboard with a substantive nuclear deal that will end Iran’s military nuclear program and illicit nuclear activities when so many statements that come from his office and his proxies suggest the opposite.

Iranian official says Saudi king 'traitor to Islam,' iterates support for Assad

A senior Iranian official branded Saudi Arabia's King Salman a traitor to Islam on Thursday and equated the Gulf state's military assault on Iranian-allied fighters in Yemen with Israeli actions against Palestinians.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran's national security and foreign policy committee, speaking in Damascus, also reiterated his country's support for the Syrian government, which is battling an insurgency backed by Saudi Arabia.
Shi'ite Islamist Iran has been a vital ally for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the four-year Syrian war, providing crucial military and economic support.
Syria is a focal point in a wider regional struggle between Tehran and Riyadh and which is also playing out in Yemen.
"We are here to announced anew that our support for Syria - government and nation - is solid and continuous, and we are proud of this support," Boroujerdi said, according to a report on the Syrian state news agency SANA.

Iran Threatens War over Saudi-Led Blockade in Yemen

The New York Times reported that “the head of the Red Crescent Society of Iran, Amir Mohsen Ziya’ee, said that ‘based on international regulations, no one can inspect a vessel that is moving in international waters carrying the flag of a country,’ according to Iran’s official Press TV.” Late last month, Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged ship in an international shipping lane, and did not release the ship until the ship’s operator agreed to settle a financial dispute with an Iranian company.
Northwestern University law professor Eugene Kontorovich analyzed the legality of the Saudi blockade of Yemen for The Washington Post, writing that “if Riyadh and its allies are inclined to maintain the blockade, and intercept the Iranian relief ship, it has a strong legal basis.”

Iranian Ships Fire Warning Shots at Singapore-Flagged Vessel in Gulf

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fired warning shots over Singapore-flagged cargo vessel in international waters in the Gulf on Thursday, prompting the cargo vessel to flee into United Arab Emirates’ territorial waters, a U.S. official told Reuters, saying the account was based on preliminary information.
The United Arab Emirates sent Coast Guard vessels toward the cargo ship and at some point the Iranian ships turned away, the official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was unaware of any U.S. Navy involvement.

IRGC Deputy Commander Salami: "We Welcome War with the Americans"

In an Iranian TV interview, IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami threatened the Americans, saying: "We welcome war with the Americans." The U.S. aircraft carriers would be destroyed, its air bases in the region burned, and the skies set ablaze, he said. "We have built our strength for the purpose of long, extended wars... more than for the purpose of peace, compromise, and dialogue with them," said Salami. The interview aired on the Iran TV's Channel 1 on May 6, 2015.

Iranian General Jazayeri Warns the U.S., Saudi Arabia Not to Send Aid to the Region

In an Iranian TV interview, Iranian Deputy Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Masoud Jazayeri threatened the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, saying: "There is a limit to Iran's self-restraint." Sending humanitarian aid to the region would "spark a strong fire, which they will not be able to extinguish," he said. An excerpt from the full interview was posted on the Internet, and then aired by Al-Alam TV with Arabic subtitles on May 13, 2015. The full interview has not yet been broadcast.

Four hurt in suspected car-ramming terror attack

Four people were injured after a vehicle drove into a bus stop in the West Bank, in a possible terror attack Thursday afternoon.
The attack occurred outside the Alon Shvut settlement in the Etzon settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, at the site of a similar fatal attack in November.
The deputy head of the Etzion settlement bloc council Moshe Savil told Ynet news the driver came from the direction of nearby Kfar Etzion. “He crossed the highway and with great force struck a group of students who were waiting for the bus,” he said.
A suspect was arrested a short while later and was handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning. He is reported to be a Palestinian resident of Hebron.
One person was seriously injured, another moderately and two more lightly hurt in the incident, Israel Radio reported. All four were evacuated to a nearby Jerusalem hospital.

IDF: Hezbollah hiding 100,000 missiles that can hit north

According to the official, Hezbollah has an estimated 100,000 short-range rockets capable of striking northern Israel, several thousand missiles that can reach Tel Aviv and central Israel and hundreds more that can strike the entire country.
Most of the weapons have been transferred to Lebanon through war-torn Syria, coming from Hezbollah’s key allies, the Syrian government and Iran, he said.
The official showed reporters satellite photos of what Israeli intelligence believes are Hezbollah positions in dozens of Shiite villages in southern Lebanon.
The photos were marked with dozens of red icons, signaling what are believed to be missile launchers, arms depots, underground tunnels and command posts.

Israel says it foiled Palestinian terror attack in east Jerusalem

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Jerusalem Police prevented a stabbing attack on a security guard at a sensitive Jewish enclave in east Jerusalem, according to a statement by the security agency on Thursday.
The Shin Bet said that earlier this month they and the Jerusalem Police arrested three suspects, Muhammed Nasser Ahmed Abassi, 21, Murad Muhammed Uda Kustiro, 23, and a minor, on suspicion of plotting an attack on security guards stationed outside of Beit Ovadia, a Jewish building in the mainly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan.
The Shin Bet said that Abassi confessed to having the minor carry out surveillance on the house ahead of a planned shooting attack. Abassi later decided that a stabbing attack had more potential to work, so he acquired a knife and axe and stashed them at his house and his grandfather’s house, the Shin Bet said.
He also admitted to making pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails which were used against Israeli police during recent rioting in East Jerusalem.

Khaled Abu Toameh: 'We will return even if we have to wait another 67 years' says 'Nakba Day' protestor

The major rally took place in Ramallah, where hundreds of Palestinians marched from the Mukata presidential compound to the center of the city, chanting slogans in favor of the “right of return” for refugees to their former homes inside Israel.
The rally was organized by the Palestinian Authority, whose representatives delivered speeches emphasizing the importance of the right of return and condemning Israel for its practices against Palestinians. Similar rallies took place in various parts of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas announced that “resistance” was the only means to achieve the right of return.
Many participants in the Ramallah march wore black T-shirts with the message, “1948, the return is a right and the will of the people.” Others carried keys as a symbol of the refugees returning to their homes.
A woman carrying a placard with the name of her former village, Bet Nabala, shouted, “We will return even if we have to wait another 67 years. If we don’t return, our children or grandchildren will return.
We educate our children that this [the West Bank] is not our homeland. Our real homeland is there, in Palestine. There is no Israel. This is the land of Palestine from where we were forcibly expelled.”

CAMERA: What You Won’t Hear about “Nakba Day”

Friday, May 15, has been designated by Palestinian Arab leaders to mark this year's “Nakba Day,” the day they commemorate the “catastrophe” of the founding of Israel. There will be marches, rallies and demonstrations. And, there will be media coverage but it will likely not include some of the major elements in the Arab-Israeli conflict. For example...
1) Over 800,000 Jews either fled or were driven out of their homes in Arab countries during and after Israel's war for independence. This is roughly equivalent to or even greater than the number of Palestinian Arab refugees created by that war. Israel absorbed the Jews who immigrated there but the Palestinian refugees have been kept in camps for decades, used by Arab leaders as a cudgel to batter Israel. (For more information, please see CAMERA's Backgrounder on Refugees.)
2) There is no such thing as a Palestinian “right of return.” Those who claim there is such a right often cite as its basis United Nations Resolution 194, passed on December 11, 1948. This is a General Assembly resolution and therefore does not carry the weight of international law. Further, the Arab states voted against 194 precisely because it did not create a “right of return” and have violated it numerous times since its passage.

State Department Issues Naqba Day Alerts

The United States Consulate General Jerusalem sent out an email today alerting US citizens of possible danger zones in Israel, due to expected Arab rioting for “Naqba Day”.
The U.S. Consulate advises U.S. citizens to exercise caution due to the possibility of demonstrations within Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza associated with “Nakba Day” on May 15 or on the days preceding that date. ?In the past, large demonstrations have taken place in connection with Nakba Day, some of which have become violent. Additionally, the upcoming religious holiday of the Isra & Miraj (May 16) and Jerusalem Day (May 17) may also see traffic congestion and road closures throughout Jerusalem.

Fatah official glorifies arch-terrorist who planned killings of 125

Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki: "[Abu Jihad] was a substantial threat to Israel, starting with the Savoy operation (i.e., terror attack, Savoy hotel Tel Aviv, 11 killed) to the Dalal Mughrabi operation (i.e., bus hijacking, 37 killed). I am talking about the large-scale operations, the prominent ones and not the small ones: Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., bus hijacking 37 killed), Dimona (i.e., attack on bus, 3 killed) and the attempt to capture the [Israeli] Ministry of Defense. That is why this man, who it seems Allah created just to confront this enemy, dedicated his time to serious activity. Likewise, he had a talent for persuading young people to die as Martyrs and to always be prepared to sacrifice, give and be patient... Everyone should know that this region needs pioneers [on] the path of brother Abu Jihad." [Fatah-run Awdah TV, April 19, 2015]

PreOccupied Territory: Fatah, Hamas, Agree To Paper Over Differences With Better Paper (satire)

Among the factors complicating this treatment of the Fatah-Hamas rift was an intense quarrel between the parties over what kind of paper to use and how it should be procured. “Several of the bombings and beatings targeting Hamas or Fatah officials over the last year were when emotions were running high over the use of foil-backed wallpaper, versus the easier to hang, but nevertheless more durable, cloth-backed variety,” explained defense analyst Vertiga Trim. “Essentially, even once Fatah and Hamas agreed on the general approach to papering over their differences, the fundamental gaps between the two organizations’ outlooks colored every detail of their continuing interactions.”
Eventually, reported Abed Rabbo, a compromise settlement was drafted, under which both kinds of paper would be used. The Fatah and Hamas representatives each pledged to cover half the cost of the purchase and delivery. “We will have to see whether it works out, because our brothers in Hamas, unfortunately, do not have a reputation for keeping their word in this kind of agreement,” he warned.
Hamas delegate Fawzi Barhoum responded with a litany of Fatah offenses, and other reasons to suspect that adherence to the agreement would be violated by Mahmoud Abbas’s loyalists, not Hamas. “In all likelihood the delivery van carrying the wallpaper will be stopped by Fatah policemen and forced to dump the paper that Hamas ordered,” he said. “That is, if they even ‘remember’ to bribe the right customs officials to let the shipment though in the first place, those corrupt Fatah dogs.”
At press time, the opposing delegations were shooting at each other from opposite sides of the negotiating room.

Syrian tanks headed towards Daraa; Syria headed for seat in UNHRC

Via Now Lebanon,  here is a video taken this morning that says it shows tanks being transported towards Daraa, Syria, the center of the anti-government protests.


Other interesting updates:

A tweet from CNN's Hala Gourani: Eyewitness in #Daraa tells CNN some 35 tanks in and now around city. Says people forced to stay home bc of snipers on rooftops.

Twitter user @wissamtarif tweets that many water tanks in Daraa were emptied after being shot, adding that more people—Including a 6-year old child—were killed overnight in the city.

Most towns and cities in the Houran province (which includes Daraa) have run out of wheat.

A senior US State Department official on Tuesday said that Washington will limit its response to the violent crackdown on civilian protests in Syria to diplomacy and possible sanctions, AFP reported.

Meanwhile...

The brutal crackdown by Syrian President Bashar Assad may finally be getting the attention of world leaders -- but apparently not enough to stop Syria from becoming the newest member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The UN needs a laugh track to accompany everything it does.

Mer-Khamis' "Freedom Theatre" spawned terrorists

Two weeks ago, a new martyr was created. Juliano Mer-Khamis, who ran a drama club and theater for the youth of Jenin, was murdered by the very people he was said to be trying to help.

Condolences came from all over the world talking about how Mer Khamis and his mother, Arna, who created the theater were a ray of hope in Jenin, where they were teaching the young people there about how peace is better than bullets.

In reality, the theater was not only a failure, but its original members spawned an almost unbelievable amount of terror.

From The Globe and Mail, April 20, 2009 in an article that is sympathetic to the theater (no longer online, a copy is here):

The scene is 1989, the second year of the Palestinian intifada. Stone- throwing protests against Israeli occupation have spread throughout Gaza and the West Bank. In Jenin, the youthful protesters are joined by older militants who carry out armed attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers. The Jenin camp´s schools are closed; its children have nowhere to turn.

Enter Arna Mer, a 59-year-old Jewish peace activist who had been born in a northern collective farm, fought as an 18-year-old to create the state of Israel, joined the Israeli Communist Party and married an Arab-Israeli activist. Since 1967 she had protested against the Israeli occupation and, by 1989, was determined to help the children of Jenin.

On the top floor of a house owned by a local widow name Samira Zubeidi, Ms. Mer opens a children´s drama school. Aided by her actor son, Juliano Mer Khamis, she forms a small troupe and provides an artistic and educational outlet for dozens of children, including Ms. Zubeidi´s sons, Zakariya and Daoud. For her efforts, Ms. Mer was awarded an alternative Nobel prize in 1993 and the prize money went to create a proper school facility.

The school would survive Ms. Mer´s death from cancer in 1996, and Mr. Mer Khamis´s departure – until 2002, that is, and the violence of the second intifada. It was destroyed when Israeli bulldozers levelled a section of the camp.

That´s when Mr. Mer Khamis would return and make an extraordinary film called Arna´s Children, using old and new video footage to show what had happened to those original young children his mother had nurtured.

Thirteen years after joining Ms. Mer´s company of children, all but one of the original troupe were dead: One had been so affected by the killing of a young girl, he launched a suicide attack on the Israeli town of Hadera; two had perished in the Battle of Jenin, killed in the theatre school´s rehearsal hall from where they had fired on advancing Israeli forces. One had become the Jenin leader of the al- Aqsa Martyrs´ Brigades militant group and was hunted down and killed.

Only Zakariya Zubeidi had survived. Imprisoned for throwing rocks, and again for throwing Molotov cocktails, he had been released after the 1993 Oslo Accords and joined the Palestinian police. He left the force, as a sergeant, disillusioned, he said, by the corruption he encountered.

In 2002, his mother and brother were killed when Israeli forces moved into Jenin camp. Once again, Mr. Zubeidi picked up a weapon.

He survived the intense battle in Jenin and, somewhat reluctantly, succeeded his friend as the leader of the al-Aqsa militants.

Mr. Zubeidi, his face still badly marked by a bomb of his own making, said in an interview last week that he did not approve of suicide missions, only military attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers. High on Israel´s most wanted list, however, he somehow survived several assassination attempts.

In 2006, Mr. Zubeidi approached Juliano Mer Khamis, his old drama tutor and, by that time, an award-winning filmmaker, and urged him to reopen the theatre school.

Mr. Zubeidi, by this time a husband and father, said he wanted the next generation to find a better way to express itself.

“I was fed up with the fighting,” he said. “It didn´t get us [Palestinians] anywhere.”

Arna's school had not resulted in a single original student supporting pacifism. Every single one of the original kids there became a militant.

It is hard to imagine that any random classroom of Palestinian Arab kids in the West Bank, or even in Gaza, would have such a stunning record of churning out terrorists.

Juliano's film, instead of castigating what was by any measure a catastrophic failure of the vision of his mother, romanticized it by claiming that Israeli measures are so bad that every single child was driven into terror, despite his mother's efforts.

From Mother Jones' tribute to Juliano and description of his film:

The film, shot over almost two decades, is set in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, a place where Israeli bombs and tanks are inescapable realities of childhood. In the first half of the film, we are introduced to Juliano's mother, Arna, a Jewish Israeli who set up the theater group in Jenin in the late 1980s. Arna is bald from chemotherapy, yet devotes her dying days to her playful and talented little actors, helping them express their anger and grief through art and drama.

Years pass. Arna succumbs to cancer, the 1994 Oslo peace accords unravel, the theater program shuts down, the Israeli occupation hardens, and the 2000 second intifada erupts. On April 3, 2002, the Israeli army invades Jenin, killing more than 50 Palestinians and destroying hundreds of homes.

And many of "Arna's children" have now become militiamen and suicide fighters.

In the second half of the film, Juliano returns to Jenin to find out how and why this has happened. We see that it's not mainly about anti-Semitic brainwashing—Jenin residents adore Arna and Juliano despite their Jewish background and Israeli nationality. Rather, Arna's children have chosen "martyrdom" because of the searing horrors they've witnessed with their own eyes.

How can a youth program, supposedly meant to foster "peace" but that has a 0% success rate of creating peaceful people, be considered so wonderful?

Arna Mer-Chamis, if she really was trying to teach peace, was a spectacular failure. It is not possible for her to have been more of a failure. The last person alive from her kids, who now claims to want peace, didn't say he learned the idea from the Mer-Chamises - he just says that he was simply "fed up with fighting."

Which brings up the question: did the theater really promote peace in any sense at all?

Now Juliano Mer-Chamis, who created an entire movie trying to soft-pedal the terrorism of his mother's proteges, has become victim to something the leftists pretend doesn't exist - Palestinian Arab hate. His film, rather than showing the inherent culture of violence and hate that laughs at the idea of words replacing bullets, was a prophetic view of what his own end would look like.

No one is asking the question - if Mer Chamis was murdered by Palestinian Arabs for no good reason, then perhaps the terrorism that he justified in his movie is also for no reason, and not because of anything Israel does?

Too bad that those who watch the film have no capacity to look beyond the rosy, romantic notion of Palestinian Arab peacefulness and see the simple facts: the Palestinian Arab kids who were exposed to Western values became terrorists anyway. The same kind of terrorists that killed Juliano himself.

(h/t Silke, Giulio Meotti)