From Ian:
Israel Does Not Exist to Make Liberal Jews Feel Good
In one of the most important pieces written during the course of this conflict, Shmuel Rosner has taken to the website of the New York Times, where he is a contributing opinion writer, with a profoundly thoughtful riposte to the disapora Jews who have expressed their disaffection with Israel as a result of the goings-on—from Jon Stewart to Ezra Klein, from Peter Beinart to Roger Cohen.
Rosner says these men may be right that Israel is in danger of losing its bedrock support among American Jews in particular. He says that would put Israel in a difficult position and represent a near-tragic development. But his central point is this: Israel is not actually their country. They do not live in Israel, they do not vote in Israel, their children are not in the Israeli army. Israel is a nation of 8 million people, and it must act in accordance with the views of its electorate and the existential needs of its people as Israelis define them.
Douglas Murray: The black flag of ISIS is flying in London
There is a phrase used of, and by, jihadists: ‘First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.’ Well there’s a fine example of this on display at the moment in East London. Even the Guardian has picked up on it.
At the entrance to a council estate near Canary Wharf, amid the banners of the hilariously misnamed ‘Stop the War coalition’ (‘End the Siege on Gaza’) the Black flag of Jihad is flying. Yes, that’s right, at a major council estate in the East End of London the black flag of ISIS is flying. Here is an excerpt from what one might hope is the Guardian’s learning curve:
This isn’t the first such sighting. A couple of weeks ago I drew attention on Twitter to the fact that the black flag of jihad had been hoisted when young Muslims from the East End of London blocked the Blackwall Tunnel in a gesture of anti-Israel activity. There, among all the Palestinian flags, also flew the black flag of Jihad. The black flag has been on display elsewhere in Western Europe in recent weeks, notably at pro-ISIS and ‘pro-Palestine’ demonstrations in Holland.
Humanitarian Pressure Helped Create Terror Tunnels in Gaza
Lt. Col (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, an expert on the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), explained that some of the materials, including cement and iron, were smuggled into Gaza by Hamas through other tunnels from Egypt. Yet due to pressure from international human rights organizations, until recently Israel itself was also providing Gaza with those materials. While the materials were earmarked for civilian construction projects, Halevi said that in reality, they were diverted by Hamas to create the network of attack tunnels.
“The pressure [on Israel to transfer building materials] was enormous and [was put on] by several [local] human rights organizations and international [ones], and was very effective in reaching out to the world’s public opinion, including the EU (European Union) and the U.S. administration,” Halevi told JNS.org. “And that, in a way, helped Hamas’s efforts in building these tunnels.”
The Japanese have some questions for ‘Palestine Supporters’…AND OH ARE THEY AWESOME
You are lamenting the “low sinking” of a “once proud” nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that “nation” proud and what was it so proud of?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call “Palestinians” are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over — or thrown out of — the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day “Palestinians” to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won’t work here.
Mordechai Kedar: What is Going to Become of Gaza?
The first is that we must not reach any agreement with Gaza. What can bring quiet to Gaza is only fear based on the sure knowledge that any provocation – and it doesn't matter which organization does that provocation – will be answered with a non-proportionate response. The idea of removing the sea blockade should not even be broached and certainly not the thought of an airport. Israel can continue to sell Gaza food, water, medicines, gasoline and electricity to prevent a humanitarian tragedy there.
The second is that it is important to start moving towards the only solution that can result in security, stability and quiet in Judea and Samaria, and it is establishing seven Emirates for the "hamulot" (family tribes) living in the Arab cities of Ramallah, Jericho, Kalkilya, Tul-Karem, Shechem (Nablus), Jenin and Arab Hevron. Israel must remain in the village areas while offering Israeli citizenship to the residents of those villages. The program is described in full here.
Under no circumstances can Israel allow another Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, as within a short time it will become a Hamastan. Israel and the world must take apart the PA and on its ruins establish the 8 Emirates, which include Gaza - which can stay under Hamas rule, just as long as it is deterred from hostile actions against Israel.
The third is that Israel and the world must understand that in the Middle East one only achieves peace through victory. He who manages to convince his neighbors to leave him alone for their own good can enjoy tranquillity. There are no kisses and hugs in the Middle East, just disputes and struggles, look at what's going on in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and wherever. In the Middle East there is one rule, that phrased by Helene Ensign Maw: Freedom is for those willing to defend it".
What Pulls Us Apart, What Brings Us Together
So what do we do now? How are Israelis to reconcile these conflicting emotions? It is logical to assume that a “solution” to the tunnels will be found, in the same way as Iron Dome is a “solution” to rocket attacks. We will spend millions of dollars in order to counteract the millions of dollars spent on the other side.
But that is not a real solution. Because the problem is not the rockets or the tunnels, but the feelings of the people who build them. And the same is true of our feelings. We don’t build missile defense systems with glee and searching for a solution to the tunnels doesn’t bring us joy. We and the Palestinians are now two peoples trapped in an agonizing, destructive relationship.
This is all painfully familiar to both sides. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon came and went. Khaled Mashaal gave a speech. Protests denouncing Israel were held all over the world. The Israeli Left and Right continue to quarrel, and at the same time bring too much candy to wounded soldiers. This is our life in a nutshell.
This time around, however, it seems as if the vast majority of Israelis—from both sides of the political spectrum—have adopted a more forceful attitude toward the fighting in Gaza. Polls conducted in recent days show overwhelming support for continuing the military operation. This can only be viewed as an alarming development in the public’s state of mind. Even taking into account the inevitable deaths of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians, Israelis are saying out loud that we must forge ahead. This is a departure from public opinion in previous operations, which, for the most part, rooted for a ceasefire. If nothing else, this tells us that Israelis are fed up with the never-ending cycle of conflict in Gaza. They are demanding a solution for both peoples, and this time a real one.
A U.S. Ally is Behind the Gaza War, and It’s Not Israel
Qatar’s regional strategy is based on support for and sponsorship of the Muslim Brotherhood, the destabilizing of its fellow Sunni Arab neighbors, and hedging its bets on American regional leadership with warmer ties with Tehran. Support for Hamas constitutes a part of this. The Muslim Brotherhood is an anti-Western, anti-Jewish movement, and Hamas is a designated terrorist organization.
In the U.S. case, strained relations with the government of Egypt, which fiercely opposes Hamas, are further contributing to the willingness, if not outright desire, to award a central diplomatic role to Qatar, in spite of its championing of violent anti-Western, anti-Israel, and anti-moderate-Arab forces across the region. This indulgence of terror sponsoring Qatar ought to end, and there are small signs that this complacency is ebbing, at least outside the confines of the White House and Foggy Bottom. U.S. legislators are circulating a letter questioning Qatar’s behavior, beginning to voice deep objections to their dangerous and unacceptable actions. Congressional leaders must continue to call out Qatar for its support for Hamas, and the administration for its apparent support for Qatar. In Europe, it is possible that Qatari financial investment and gas exports make adequate opposition to the Emirate hard to imagine. But neither of these constraints exist in the U.S., where the main reason for its stance toward Qatar and its terrorist allies is a naïve view of the region.
Waking Up to a Global Pogrom
There is a Global Pogrom under way. I say the terrible truth once again because it must be said again. It is a Pogrom undertaken by Muslims, Christians, atheists, and all those in between, all across the world. It is aided and abetted by the collaboration, indifference, and silence of the authorities—and of the world. It operates with impunity. It has murdered, it has maimed, it has destroyed lives and property, it has made life impossible for Jews in numerous countries, and it is now committing a crime against humanity: Expulsion and ethnic cleansing.
So the terrible truth must be spoken: Things must be called what they are—groups and individuals that commit violence against Jews, whatever they may call themselves, are not “activists,” “protesters,” or “demonstrators.” They are pogromists. The movement that enables them is not pro-human rights, it is not anti-war, and it is not pro-Palestinian. It is a Global Pogrom. Groups that deny or engage in apologetics for their violence are hate groups.
Why Everything Reported from Gaza is Crazy Twisted
You’re seeing civilians dying and suffering in Gaza. You’re seeing the destruction Israel’s military operation against Hamas has caused.
You’re hearing from Israel that Hamas is firing rockets from crowded neighborhoods, using helpless Gaza civilians as human shields, forcing them to stay in their neighborhoods in defiance of Israeli warnings to leave.
Why aren’t you hearing that from Gaza? Often, it’s because reporters are afraid to tell you.
True, in some cases, it’s anti-Israel bias. In others, it’s bad journalism—covering the story you can easily see above ground, like destruction, misery, death and funerals, instead of digging for the real story: Why this is happening and how the powerful are operating behind the scenes or underground—again, literally. It’s the scourge of 21st century “journalism,” with its instant deadlines, the demands to tweet and blog constantly, the need to get something out there that’s more spectacular than the competition, and check the facts later, if at all. Add to that the cruel cutbacks by news organizations around the world. It all means that fewer and fewer reporters have to file more and more stories, and file partial reports while they’re working. It’s impossible. I allow myself the quotation marks around “journalism” because I’ve been a journalist for half a century (I started young), covering the region since 1972, and I fear my profession is not what it used to be, and not for the better.
How to Interview a Terrorist: Hannity on Hamas
Take a look at yourself, world media
For some reason, the evacuation on Wednesday and Thursday of tens of thousands of Christians from their homes as the radical Sunni Islamic State takes over extensive areas in northern Iraq and Christian cities still hasn't been properly covered by the European media (unlike the American media), which was very -- I mean, very -- worried about Gaza. Which by yesterday had nearly been forgotten.
Is it because there are no European journalists in northern Iraq? Or maybe because the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which cares only for Palestinians, isn't active there? Either way, the Islamic State, which is much more radical than al-Qaida (is that even possible?), continues about its business without too many headlines after taking over Kirkuk, Iraq's most Christian city (it was home to 50,000 Iraqi Christians).
It seems like the international media has thus far perceived members of the Islamic State as space aliens. Hamas, on the other hand, are seen as freedom fighters working to remove the blockade for the good of the people of Gaza. Unlike the Islamic State people, Hamas operatives are seen as righteous. Try and explain that they're one and the same.
Reporter: Gazans only want us to show damage, not shooting
In recent weeks, there has been much discussion about whether or not reporting by foreign press in Gaza can be trusted, due to accounts – some confirmed, some denied – of Hamas threatening and intimidating reporting.
The Jerusalem Post attempted on Thursday to contact ten journalists who reported from Gaza in recent weeks. Of the few who responded most declined to be interviewed, even on condition of anonymity, as they plan to return to Gaza to report.
Christian Stephen, founder of "Freelance Society," a media company specializing in hostile environments and conflict zones, which sub-contracts for The Economist, VICE, Vocativ and other press outlets, agreed to discuss his experience reporting from Gaza, because he is in Israel and heading to Iraq in nine days.
"Hamas can't get me there," he quipped.
Think the BBC’s coverage of Gaza is unbalanced? Check out The Guardian
Now, Hamas has been threatening to break the ceasefire since it began on Tuesday, so it’s hardly a surprise.
From the BBC account, you’d learn that Hamas is responsible for the renewal of violence.
But from the Guardian, you’d think that the Gaza ceasefire ended because the IDF renewed strikes.
Though it does says that “Israel claims at least 10 rockets were fired”.
The use of the word “claims” in this context is deliberate; while the IDF’s decision to bomb Gaza is taken as a fact, the rocket attacks on Israel (which at least the BBC thinks are real) are cited as “Israeli claims”.
CNN Gives Platform to Radical Rabbi Who Blames Israel For Civilian Casualties in Gaza
While a nearly finished 72 hour cease-fire has at least temporarily stopped the war between Israel and Gaza, the media’s anti-Israel slant has been unrelenting. On the August 7 edition of CNN Newsroom, host Carol Costello welcomed radical pro-Palestine rabbi Michael Lerner to the program, and he placed all of the blame on Israel for the conflict.
Lerner did have the courage to label Hamas as a “terrible and oppressive force,” but throughout the segment he criticized Israel’s “oppressive” occupation and blockade of the Gaza strip. And when Costello asked the rabbi who “is more to blame for so many casualties and deaths in Gaza, is it Israel or Hamas,” his answer revealed a distinctly anti-Israel bias: (h/t MtTB)
Notorious UK paper posts op-ed by failed US president defending racist extremists
Carter’s history of shilling for the terror group Hamas is perfectly consistent with his perverse empathy for dictators and tyrants around the globe in the name of ‘peace’ while, conversely, demonizing and smearing progressive democratic states like Israel.
Such an ideological persuasion of course makes him a perfect candidate to pen an op-ed at the home address in the UK for such moral inversions, The Guardian.
“Gaza blockade must end“, by Carter and Mary Robinson (former UN high commissioner for human rights) begins with a premise which employs a tortured casuistry – suggesting that the blockade is the cause of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and not the consequence of Hamas violence – that was, tellingly, endorsed recently by the Guardian’s Middle East editor, Ian Black.
After citing erroneous casualty figures for the war, presumably from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, Carter and Robinson blame Israel for deliberately obstructing Hamas’s “promising move towards peace”, citing the reconciliation agreement among the Palestinian factions which, they claim, included the rejection of violence.
Revealed: Emails undermine Mira Bar-Hillel’s smear of UK Jewish community
In an interview on BBC Radio 4 last month, Mira Bar-Hillel (journalist for the London Evening Standard and commentator for The Independent) claimed that British Jews don’t criticize Israeli actions in Gaza out of fear of being “ex-communicated” from the Jewish community, and specifically claimed that such dissenting Jews would be denied entry to synagogues and denied the right of Jewish burial.
She of course didn’t offer any proof to substantiate these wild accusations.
CiF Watch subsequently obtained an email exchange in which Ms. Bar-Hillel was challenged by Simon Hochhauser, former President of the UK’s largest synagogue body, the United Synagogue, to back up her assertions about the British Jewish community.
BBC’s Guerin promotes Hamas popularity and an ‘occupation’ which doesn’t exist
Having relocated from Israel to the Gaza Strip, Orla Guerin produced a filmed report for BBC television news on August 5th which also appears on the BBC News website under the title “Gaza conflict: Has the way Gazans view Hamas changed?” in which she joined other BBC correspondents in promoting the theme that Hamas is more popular than ever.
Her report does however include a couple of notable points, one being possibly the first recognition by the BBC in over four weeks of reporting from the Gaza Strip of the fact that terrorist organisations fire missiles from residential areas and the second being an admittance by Guerin that Hamas targets Israeli civilians – although she does also provide her Hamas interviewee with a platform from which to wriggle out and promote the usual Hamas propaganda line.
Guerin opens by resurrecting the ‘homemade rockets’ theme which had actually been in less use by the BBC in recent weeks.
BBC’s Reynolds in Shuja’iya: still no reporting on what really happened
The last few weeks of BBC reporting from the Gaza Strip have been characterised by a repeated pattern of much of that reporting taking place during humanitarian truces or ceasefires. One of the earliest and most striking examples of that pattern took place on July 20th in the Shuja’iya neighbourhood where, after hours of fierce fighting, Hamas requested that the ICRC broker a short ceasefire of several hours and after Israel agreed. The Western media – including the BBC – immediately moved in (with or without Hamas encouragement/facilitation) and the result was ample ‘disaster zone’ style reporting of destruction and casualties, but with details of the actual battle completely overlooked. In the weeks since then, no BBC report has properly described to audiences the battle which took place in Shuja’iya neighbourhood and no real effort has been made even to inform them of why a battle took place there.
The latest 72-hour ceasefire is now also being used by the BBC to produce yet more of its ‘aftermath’ reports and one of those – presented by James Reynolds – was aired on BBC Two’s ‘Newsnight‘ on August 6th. In that report too, Reynolds passed up on the opportunity to properly inform BBC audiences why a battle took place in Shuja’iya. He does, however, continue the prevalent BBC practice of making over-dramatic, sweeping and simplistic characterisations of complicated situations.
Douglas Murray: The three golden rules of intervention
Interventions have a habit of escalating, a point that Douglas Murray made in The Spectator this time last year when Barack Obama and David Cameron were preparing to intervene in Syria. Douglas urged Obama and Cameron (and any other statesmen considering intervention) to prepare throroughly:
‘The repercussions of many interventions in recent years suggest that there are three golden rules. Never get involved unless you are clear on your objective. Never pursue that objective unless you are willing to go in far further if needed. And finally, be prepared to lose everything.
‘At present there is no clear objective in Syria. Everyone deplores the regime’s use of weapons — chemical and conventional. Sending a few missiles as a slap on the wrist could be weak and ineffectual. Toppling Assad is an option. But to what end? He is certainly bad, but the alternatives look even worse. Anybody can spot plenty of ‘bad guys’ in the Syrian civil war. It is finding the ‘good’ ones that is tricky. In addition, we have neither the desire nor the capability to own the country if our actions break it. There is no appetite to go further than dropping liberty from 10,000 feet. Given the quality of Syrian air defences, is Cameron willing to lose pilots this time? Or be dragged further in if a post-Assad Syria makes post-Saddam Iraq look like a cakewalk?
Jewish Group Calls on World Leaders to Protect Persecuted Iraqi Christians
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is urging world leaders to step up efforts to protect Iraqi Christians and other minorities who are under threat from the jihadist terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
“ISIS barbarity is now a top threat to security and stability in the Middle East,” AJC Executive Director David Harris said. “The Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq are on the run, seeking refuge from ISIS forces who do not hesitate to use brutal violence against anyone who does not succumb to their extremist ideology.”
Frightened Ukrainian Jews flee to makeshift refugee camp
The train station has been bombed. There is little avenue for escape, but in the dark of the night, Jews leave their homes, their possessions — sometimes even their elderly — and make their way to prearranged pick-ups, awaiting safe passage from their battle-scarred cities to refuge.
No longer just a World War II scenario, in the past weeks several hundred Jews from pro-Russian rebel Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine have fled their war-torn cities with little other than the clothing on their backs. Their unlikely “displaced persons camp”? A Chabad facility for children in western Ukraine’s Zhitomir, a two-hour drive west of Kiev.
Funded by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, some 250 Jews have found a personal haven — while their homes, businesses, assets and jobs remain in peril.
Why does media obsess about Gaza, sideline Ukraine?
I find it almost unbelievable that in 2014 in a part of Europe armed rebels fire against the government and local population, and that the government shells and bombs them. Why can’t the newly elected President exercise some political skills and sit down and talk through the problems?
In the end this has to be solved by political means. You cannot shell people into accepting democracy. It has to be built from both sides by active discussion and painful agreement.
I also find it curious that the media, who give us such graphic reports of the bombs, shells and deaths in Gaza, give us so little about the same problems in the Ukraine where the EU is heavily involved on the side of the Ukrainian government.
Daniel Pipes: Caliph Ibrahim's brutal moment
I predict that the Islamic State, confronted with hostility both from neighbors and its subject population, will not last long.
It will leave a legacy, though. No matter how calamitous the fate of Caliph Ibrahim and his grim crew, they have successfully resurrected a central institution of Islam, making the caliphate again a vibrant reality. Islamists around the world will treasure its moment of brutal glory and be inspired by it.
For non-Muslims, this development has complex and double-edged implications. On the negative side, violent Islamists will be more encouraged to achieve their hideous goals, leaving a wake of carnage. On the positive side, the caliphate's barbaric zealotry will have the salutary effect of awakening many of those yet asleep to the horrors of the Islamist agenda.
Stop the Jew-Hatred? and Build Palestine
In all four cases, these national liberation movements wanted their own freedom, not the destruction of the countries that occupied their land.
East Timor didn't want to destroy Indonesia. Kosovo had no interest in wiping Serbia off the map.
When Palestinians stop chanting for the death of Jews and Israel, and start working to secure their own state, they will achieve it.
Palestinians have demonstrated courage and perseverance. What they need now, is wisdom.
Lessons from the Failed Peace Process
There are a few conclusions to be drawn from Ben Birnbaum and Amir Tibon’s deeply reported and engagingly written investigation into the failure of the recent Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The first is that, if the reporting is accurate, there is no longer any doubt that it was the Palestinian side that blew up the talks. They attempted to kill the process twice, but the first time the Israeli negotiators, led by Tzipi Livni, rescued the talks. The second time, the Palestinians ensured nothing could be done to save the process.
The second conclusion is that the way the Palestinians, led by Mahmoud Abbas and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, blew up the talks bodes ill for any future peace process:
The False Prophets of the Middle East
When Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat set up a stable Egyptian-Israeli peace, both sides reaped real profits: decreased danger of war and lower defense costs that sped Israel’s development and somewhat slowed Egypt’s cycle of decline.
Jimmy Carter, who had planned to impose his own ideas with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev at a Geneva summit, was totally stunned by Sadat’s visit to Israel in 1977, but he grabbed the chance to cast himself as the Camp David deal-maker. The truth is more prosaic: Carter was a pest. Egyptian and Israeli interests met without him.
Bill Clinton also framed himself as the host of the signing of the PLO-Israel pacts known as “The Oslo Accords,” but here, too, Israel and the PLO met on their own as the vision of Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin coincided with the “Strategy of Stages” (Barnamaj al-marahil in Arabic) of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.
Who was the prophet and who profited?
Muslim Zionism is Key to Mideast Peace
At present there are small numbers of Muslim Zionists inside and outside of Israel, including some imams and sheikhs, and several have become prominent largely due to the scarcity of their kind. But only masses of Muslim Zionists can effect a tectonic shift in the regional mindset. And it is in the mind that the revelation must first take place before the ensuing revolution can emerge.
Realpolitik also aids the situation in that countries such as Saudi Arabia are newly in league with Israel against Iran, just as countries like Jordan partner with Israel versus the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS). Reluctantly, grudgingly, Arab nations admit to Israel’s stabilizing presence and usefulness as a staunch ally against the region’s truer threats. For now this is largely conceded behind closed doors, away from the media and the mobs in the streets. But in time the acceptance and appreciation of Israel is bound to lose its taboo status and become a commonplace confession.
If the Arab League would show historic and heroic courage in normalizing relations with Israel, regional peace would receive a significant boost and the timeline for Mideast normality could be sped up dramatically. But progress is a process, and re-educating Arab societies to view Israel as a central piece in the Mideast puzzle is a massive, generational challenge.
The politics of tomorrow are born in the classrooms of today. Until the Arab mentality adopts an inclusive outlook regarding Israel and Jewry, the Middle East will remain a powder keg.
Jonathan Pollard Turns 60 Behind Bars
Senior American legal scholars wrote a letter to Obama, petitioning him to commute Pollard's sentence and free him.
The letter argues "such commutation is more than warranted if the ends of justice are to be served, the rule of law respected and simple humanity secured."
Those signing the letter calling for the release of Pollard include six Harvard Law School professors, among them Alan Dershowitz, along with Canadian law professor emeritus and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Irwin Cotler.
In the letter, the legal experts note the usual sentence for Pollard's offence of "conveying classified information to a foreign government" is six to eight years, with the average actual jail time standing at a mere two to four years.
Pollard's life sentence is "excessive, grossly disproportionate, unfair and unjust," argues the letter.
Christians in Israel: Pluses and Minuses
Go to Nazareth and you can easily find the mini-mosque. It displays a large poster of Koran quotations denigrating Christianity and urging Christians to convert to Islam.
Overlooked is a fundamental difference between the two regimes. Israel is a state governed by the rule of law. The Palestinian Authority, like most other states in the region, is a personal dictatorship. Arafat started the fashion of simply disregarding the laws.
What is needed in Israel is a central policy unit with the brief of developing long-term policies both to integrate Israeli Christians and to engage with the great variety of Christians in foreign countries.
Zoabi told she is ‘not immune to police probe’
MK Hanin Zoabi, currently under investigation on suspicion of engaging in incitement and attacking a police officer, was told on Tuesday that she could not access the details of her own case.
Zoabi, a Balad MK from the Arab city of Nazareth, was informed by Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein that she would not be able to review the allegations against her, as her immunity as a lawmaker did not make her immune to being investigated by police.
Several days earlier, she had asked Weinstein to send her the information ahead of her first questioning session.
When Zoabi failed to appear at the police station for the session on Tuesday, Weinstein informed her that she was barred from viewing the information and that she must attend her police hearings. He said the authorities were not required to share allegations with suspects, even if they are lawmakers.
Economist curiously omits key reason for MK Zoabi’s Knesset suspension
The Economist then adds the following:
"This week the Knesset banned an Arab member, Haneen Zoabi, for six months for “aggressive behaviour” in anti-war demonstrations."
However, this also is an inaccurate statement as it omits key information about the suspension.
MK Zoabi, according to multiple news reports (and the official press release from the Knesset regarding the suspension), was suspended for six months from the Knesset (while still maintaining her voting rights in the Israeli legislative body) for two reasons – one of which the Economist completely omitted.
While Zoabi’s suspension was in part due to an incident with a police officer at a protest rally (as they noted), the main reason was related to her assertion, in mid June, that the kidnappers of three Jewish teens in the West Bank were not terrorists.
Minister: Revoke Israeli Citizenship of Terrorist in 2012 Attack
Minister of the Interior, Gideon Sa'ar (Likud), has submitted a request to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to revoke the citizenship of Muhammad Faraj, for his 2012 terror attack on a Dan bus in central Tel Aviv, where 26 people were injured.
The Tel Aviv District Court convicted Faraj on 24 counts of attempted murder, aiding and abetting the enemy, use of explosives, and intent to cause serious injury.
IPOs, Investments Thrive Despite War
Mobileye, ReWalk Robotics, MapiPharma and three other Israeli companies are moving ahead with major IPOs. On July 29 Mobileye increased the amount of money it plans raising in its NYSE IPO by 22 percent, to more than $600 million. And, believe it or not, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is up since the start of hostilities less than a month ago.
“Go figure that out,” he says. “This is a pattern that’s repeated itself in the last three wars. Israelis are pretty resilient.” Medved, CEO of the Jerusalem-based OurCrowd equity crowdfunding platform, does not deny that the stress Israelis are feeling extends to those in high-tech. “Most of us view our roles in this crisis as a form of reserve duty,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “It’s hard to stay focused when you have kids in the army or the reserves, and when you have to go to stand in a safe area or stairwell because of incoming missiles, and if suddenly an important business visit was cancelled because the person didn’t want to fly in. That makes life more difficult, but you realize your inconvenience is nothing compared to the sacrifice our kids are making in the fight itself, so you soldier on and get the job done.”
Israel tourism to recover quickly from Gaza war: minister
Tourism to Israel, badly damaged by rocket fire from Gaza during an Israeli offensive against Islamist militants in the enclave, should bounce back later in the year, Tourism Minister Uzi Landau said on Tuesday.
More than 3.5 million visitors came to Israel in 2013, pumping some 40 billion shekels ($12 billion) into the economy and 1.9 million came in the first six months of the year.
Landau said the tourist industry had been on course for 4-4.1 million visitors in all this year. But the Gaza flare-up that began on July 8 caused a 35 percent plunge in visitors at a cost of $500 million in lost revenue for the third quarter, according to an Israel Hotel Association (IHA) estimate.
That loss was "far too much" for a country that relies on tourism for as much as 6 percent of its GDP, Landau told Reuters in an interview.
Israeli hacker game could beat Russian web crooks
An Israeli company has put out a game that is not just for fun — it’s meant to prevent recurrence of the giant hack that a netted Russian gang 1.2 billion usernames and passwords in the “Heartbleed” fiasco. If it wasn’t obvious before, this backs up the insistence of Checkmarx that it’s time for attention to Internet security to move to the front seat.
If the UN’s statistics are correct, that 40% of the world’s 7.1 billion people use the Internet, then Russian hackers own one out of every three personal logins for social media sites, email, banking sites, and who knows what else, according to reports. How the Russian hackers got access to more than 1 billion usernames and passwords from hundreds of thousands of websites is a mystery — the company that unveiled the information, Hold Security, isn’t saying — but it could very well be connected to the enormous multi-year security foul-up that affected the Internet’s main security protocol, OpenSSL.
Israel defies Hamas rockets, creates tech for world: MK
They may not be heroes on the level of IDF soldiers, but tech-savvy member of parliament Erel Margalit insists that high-tech workers who soldiered through the war deserve considerable credit, too. “Hamas destroys, but we build — and what we build are the technologies that change the world,” said Margalit at a conference in a southern city that was targeted often by Hamas rockets.
It’s been a hard month for Israel’s high-tech industry. Events, shows, and meetings with officials and business people from abroad were canceled, workers were called away from important projects to serve in the IDF, and many companies had to move their offices down into bomb shelters for the duration of the war.
After a month of living under the constant threat of rocket attacks, entrepreneurs, executives and investors contracted a serious case of cabin fever — so on Thursday, the first full day of the first cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that seemed to be holding, dozens of all three groups drove down to Beersheba for a special event at the Jerusalem Venture Partners Beersheba-based Cyber-security Incubator.
If No Jews, Why So Many Synagogues?
Many think there were no Jews in the Land of Israel after 135 CE and the failure of the Bar Kochba Revolt.
But see here: