VideoBite: Honest Reporting bites Time Magazine

VideoBite: Honest Reporting's newest video shoots back at Time Magazine's front page assault on Israel

Understanding Egypt's view of Israel

6th of October Bridge in Cairo

Anti-Israeli Sentiment in Egypt: Not About Palestine -Eric Trager

To assume that the Egyptian protesters who attacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo were motivated by pro-Palestinian concerns is to completely ignore the sad truth that Egyptians overwhelmingly hate Israel for wholly Egyptian reasons.

Every day millions of Egyptians drive over the 6th of October Bridge [pictured], one of Cairo's busiest thoroughfares that was named for the date on which Egypt attacked Israel to launch the 1973 war. 500,000 Egyptians live in October 6th City southwest of Cairo, which is home to October 6th University.

An additional 140,000 Egyptians live in 10th of Ramadan City, which is named for the equivalent date on the Islamic calendar and houses the 10th of Ramadan University. Cairene schoolchildren visit the October War Panorama, where they are taught that Egyptian forces defeated the "enemy" in the 1973 war, without any mention of the Israeli tanks that were rolling towards Cairo as the war ended. Egyptians commemorate April 25, when Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, and October 6 as national holidays.

The success of Egypt's January revolt in forcing Hosni Mubarak's ouster unleashed an unprecedented wave of Nasserist-infused nationalism, inspiring calls from across the Egyptian political spectrum for the reconsideration of the Camp David Accords. Egyptians bristled, in particular, at the clauses limiting the number of Egyptian troops in Sinai, and they viewed amending these clauses as the next step towards restoring national dignity.
(New Republic)
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Dining with the Devil: Ivy League Disgrace

Call On Columbia University President to Cancel Ahmadinejad Dinner

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) issued the following statement following reports that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger has arranged to attend a private dinner for Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with Columbia students.

"UANI calls on Columbia University's President Lee Bollinger to cancel this "dinner with Ahmadinejad" immediately. It is highly inappropriate for the leader of a prestigious U.S. University to meet with the head of a regime that is defying the international community by pursuing nuclear weapons, ruthlessly violating the human rights of its people, and sponsoring al-Qaeda and other terrorists. Would Mr. Bollinger attend an event with the leaders of al-Qaeda?"

UANI also released a report detailing Iran's partnership with al-Qaeda, which the U.S. Treasury Department detailed earlier this year. According to Treasury, Iran is allied with al-Qaeda, and is allowing al-Qaeda to use Iran as a place to transfer money, weapons, and fighters to bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This evidence follows recent reports that al-Qaeda operatives such as Saif al-Adel, the organization's chief military strategist, have been operating out of Iran with impunity.
[Business Wire]


Columbia’s A’jad dinner -Yoav Gonan & Colin Mixson

A group of students at Columbia University will break bread with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Midtown next week, the student newspaper reported.

As many as 15 members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association received e-mails over the summer inviting them to the private dinner, which is set for Sept. 21. A location has yet to be determined.

None of the council’s board members responded to an e-mail seeking comment, nor did the university’s press office. But the council’s vice president of academics, Tim Chan, told The Columbia Spectator that none of the members had expressed any reservations about participating.
[New York Post]
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UPDATE: 

Columbia University Cancels Dinner with Ahmadinejad

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) released the following statement regarding the previously planned dinner with Columbia students and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Said UANI Executive Director, David Ibsen:

UANI is pleased that Columbia students and faculty have apparently decided against meeting with Ahmadinejad this year. Columbia was widely criticized four years ago for its irresponsible decision to host Ahmadinejad, and as UANI and other groups argued, repeating that mistake again would have greatly damaged Columbia's reputation.
[UANI]
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The "Muscular Counterterrorism" of New York City's Police Department



Raymond Kelly exhibits "remarkable leadership"

In Praise of NYC's Muscular Counterterrorism -Daniel Pipes

U.S. law enforcement agencies have generally responded to 9/11 with a pretend counterterrorism policy. They still insist that naming the enemy as Islamism causes terrorism, that Islamist violence poses no more threat than that of neo-Nazis, racial supremacists, et al...

And then there is the New York Police Department, an institution uniquely spurred by 9/11 to abandon its former laxity and get serious. The force quickly transformed itself into an outstanding counterterrorist agency under the remarkable leadership of Raymond Kelly. Unlike other law enforcement institutions, NYPD names the enemy, acknowledges the predominant threat of Islamist violence, and built a robust intelligence operation.

NYPD established the Terrorist Interdiction Unit to handle informants, including "mosque crawlers," "café crawlers," shopkeepers, and nosy neighbors.

It also established the Demographics Unit to "map ethnic residential communities within the Tri-State area" and to send undercover police officers, or rakers, to monitor Muslims. Made up of 16 officers speaking among them Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu, the unit lists 29 "ancestries of interest," all of them predominantly Muslim, including one described as "American Black Muslim." In all, NYPD identified 263 of what it calls "ethnic hot spots" in the city, plus 53 "mosques of concern."

[T]hose tactics have protected New York from thirteen failed or thwarted terrorist plots, Commissioner Kelly stands by them, and they garner wide political support. New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the NYPD for a "very good job" and John Brennan, Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, lauded its "heroic job." U.S. Representative Peter King commended its methods as a model for the federal government.

King is right: every other Western law enforcement agency should adopt the approach of "America's best counterterror force."
[National Review Online]
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Talking Turkey

A cartoon worth a thousand words

The Arab Spring: with Video

Egyptian spring: mob attacks Israel Embassy
Click HERE for more dramatic photos

U.S. Helps after Protesters Attack Embassy in Cairo -Michael Birnbaum & Ingy Hassieb

Israel airlifted its ambassador home and sought U.S. intervention with Egypt to help secure its embassy in Cairo on Saturday, hours after thousands of Egyptian protesters besieged the building. They knocked down a 12-foot concrete wall that had been built last week to protect the embassy, which is near the top floor of a 21-story residential building.

Israeli officials described tense hours Friday night during which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke by phone with President Obama to seek help in protecting the embassy and extricating six Israeli security guards trapped inside when a mob broke through an outer door into the public reception and consular affairs area. Netanyahu was also in contact with the Egyptian chief of intelligence, Gen. Murad Muwafi, a member of the ruling military council. "The rioters were literally a door away" from the security guards, said one Israeli official. "There was very real concern for their safety and their lives."

After tear gas was used to disperse the protesters, the Israeli guards were eventually extricated by Egyptian commandos and escorted to the airport, where they flew back to Israel on an Israeli air force plane. An Israeli official said "we know" that American intervention with the Egyptian authorities helped "stabilize the situation and get our people out." Diplomats in Cairo voiced concern, wondering whether their own embassies were secure.
(Washington Post)
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The Israeli Embassy Attack  -Daniel Nisman

Even Cuba, which hosts a minor diplomatic mission of its most hated enemy, the U.S., takes painstaking efforts to ensure the safety of American citizens deployed there.

The Cubans' efforts are not based on friendship with the U.S., but rather, on strict adherence to international custom.  However, the Egypt-Israel relationship is apparently resistant even to this basic gesture of respect.

One could only imagine the response of Egyptians to a mob of angry Israelis raiding the Egyptian embassy and burning the Egyptian flag.
(Ynet News)
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9-11 Memorial Post

Fighting Terror, a Decade after 9/11  -Uri Bar-Lev

After 9/11, Israel tried to help and to lend our collective experience to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which was to spearhead the American effort in the struggle against terror. Even today, I'm not convinced we succeeded in our efforts there.

In the U.S., there are 19,000 separate bodies responsible for law enforcement and many different agencies responsible for fighting terror, each acting on its own and without any coordination with the others. There is no central, unifying agency that can create a comprehensive understanding of the intelligence gathered by these agencies.

In every city and state, the marshals, sheriff's department, traffic police, local police and subway police all operate separately - still incapable of synchronizing their actions in the field. Compare this to Israel's situation; when there is, heaven forbid, a terror attack in Tel Aviv, the highest-ranking police officer on the scene runs the scene. This method of field operations has led to efficiency and success.

The U.S. continues to struggle to find a balance between the need to prevent acts of terror and the need to uphold the U.S. Constitution. The Americans have no idea what to do with the system known as "profiling": the identification of potential terrorists based on personal details, so they invented what they call "random checks"” in an effort to fool themselves. That certain groups pose more of a threat than others is a fact that cannot be ignored. It doesn't make sense to perform a stringent security check on a four-year-old boy, and yet allow the three Pakistanis behind him to pass freely.

Without that focus, terrorists will slip through the net again and again.
The writer served as the Israel Police and Public Security Attache in North America.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Click HERE for The Washington Times' excellent 9-11 Retrospective

Profile of American Muslims

Poll Quantifies Radical Minority of U.S. Muslims -David J. Rusin

[T]he Pew Research Center publish[ed] a survey of great value due to its broader range of topics, direct questioning, and extensive demographic cross tabs.

[T]he data indicate that radical views are held by a small but important minority that cannot be ignored. These and other interesting results are highlighted below:

Radical Muslims remain uncommon in the U.S. — but not uncommon enough. Muslims' opinions of al-Qaeda are 5% favorable and 81% unfavorable; 14% did not answer. This is a step forward, as only 68% recorded disapproval in 2007.

Perhaps most troubling, 21% of U.S. Muslims see a great deal or fair amount of support for extremism among their own.  [M]ore U.S.-born Muslims than immigrants hold radical views. Native-born African-American Muslims lead with way...

Despite pseudo-academic studies smearing those who sound the alarm about radical Islam as "Islamophobes," Pew finds that 60% of Muslims are very or somewhat concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism in the U.S. — almost as high as the figure for the general public (67%). Are many Muslim Americans "Islamophobes" as well?

The Pew poll erodes the Islamist meme that life in America is miserable for Muslims. Pew finds that 56% of Muslims are satisfied with the country's direction, compared to 23% of the general public. Muslims also are happier with their lives, have a more positive financial outlook, and feel more confident that hard work leads to success.

It is reassuring that most U.S. Muslims hold mainstream views, but history shows that Islamists need not be a majority to be dangerous.
[Islamist Watch]
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Optimism for Israel's Future

Israel's Situation: Little to Fear -Barry Rubin

Israel’s security situation is as good as or better than it has been since any time since the establishment of the state. The two main threats have always been either a potential attack by most or all Arab armies or a high level of successful cross-border terrorism.

At present, though, these two threats are relatively low. The immediate problem is rocket, missile, and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip. The longer-term threat, Iranian nuclear capability, seems to be continually postponed. 

The Saudis and Gulf Arabs, whose economic support would be vital in any confrontation, don’t want war with Israel. The same point applies to Jordan. Syria is militarily weaker than ever and entangled in a revolution whose effects will convulse the country for years whatever the outcome.

Muammar Qadhafi’s likely overthrow in Libya won’t bring a friendlier regime but will reduce the sponsorship of international terrorism arising from his personal ambitions. Similarly, Iraq has dropped out of the conflict and turned inward, while the Kurdish-ruled sector in the north is friendly toward Israel. A new addition to that short friendly list is the Republic of South Sudan.

The “Arab Spring” may be a victory for Sunni Muslim Islamism but for that reason is an Iranian defeat. Tehran’s ambition of being hegemonic in the Middle East is blocked since it can no longer hope to become leader over the majority Sunni Muslims. Its rival, the Muslim Brotherhood, is the single most powerful force in Egypt, has “stolen” Hamas from Iran, and may do the same with Syria.

Moreover, Iran is taking far longer to get nuclear weapons than expected due to technical and other problems. Iran is a legitimate Israeli concern but the threat today is far less than it was expected to be several years ago. The likelihood of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear installation has also dropped sharply.

This leaves Egypt. The most likely president, Amr Moussa, doesn’t like Israel but he is also experienced and pragmatic enough to avoid a confrontation, even though he is also demagogic enough to talk tough.

As for non-state actors, to the north, Hizballah is having trouble controlling Lebanon. The loss of its Syrian patron and growing Sunni-Shia tensions make its task tougher. Hizballah doesn’t want a war with Israel now and during the next few years. The threat must be closely watched and no assumptions made, but that front should remain relatively quiet.

Time is not against Israel but it is against the Arabs. They are splintering rather than uniting. Each country faces some level of civil war between Islamists and nationalists, monarchies and oppositions, and religious-communal groups.

The Sunni-Shia rift is heating up. Two Islamist blocs will contend, sometimes violently as we have seen in Iraq. True, both sides hate Israel but they are hardly likely to cooperate against it, and neither has a superpower ally.

The vision of a united Arab or Muslim world wiping Israel off the map—or making a serious effort to do so—is as distant as always, more distant than from the 1950s into the 1970s. The Arab Spring is in fact the start of an internal Arab political winter, 20 to 40 years fighting over who will run each country. While they fritter away money, resources, and energy, Israel will continue to advance economically and militarily.

Disastrous populist, radical nationalist, and Islamist domestic policies will also slow Arab development and widen Israel’s advantage. I do not rejoice at the Arab world’s self-made misfortune. A prosperous, happy, moderate, and democratic Arab world at peace with Israel would be a wonderful thing. But that won’t happen. Neither will there be a prosperous, united, radical Islamist world at war with Israel.

Israel has weathered the international economic crisis better than any other developed country. When Israelis have time to bicker over housing and cottage cheese prices, it’s a sure sign of an improved security situation and relative consensus on “foreign conflict” issues.
[Jerusalem Post]
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Libyan Rebels Free al Qaeda Prisoners

VideoBite: News report of Libyan jails with open doors

Breakthrough Israel Solar Tech

VideoBite: Breakthrough Israel Solar Technology


An Energy-Producing Window - Desmond Bentley

Israel's Pythagoras Solar beat out nearly 5,000 entrants to win this year's $100,000 GE Ecomagination Challenge, which recognizes the most promising green energy building innovations, for its unique solar window.

The world's first transparent photovoltaic glass unit (PVGU) "will produce benefits such as power generation and reducing the building's energy needs, while allowing light in," says Pythagoras Solar CEO Gonen Fink.

Pythagoras' optical design uses direct light to generate energy, while optimizing daylight inside the building.

"The idea is to maintain the work environment at a comfortable temperature without massive, energy-guzzling, cooling and heating systems...."
(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
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VideoBite: Jerusalem Imax Film coming in 2013

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemGiantScreen on Vimeo.

Video: Preview "Jerusalem," Filmed in Imax 3D

After a year of research and preparation, the giant screen film Jerusalem advanced into production with an unprecedented aerial shoot throughout Israel and the West Bank.

Scheduled for worldwide release in 2013, the film will take audiences on a spectacular tour of the Holy Land and the city once believed to lie at the center of the world.
(Jerusalem Giant Screen)
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The Dirty Politics of Water in the MidEast

The Devastating Truth about Water and Palestinian Statehood -Yochanan Visser & Sharon Shaked

The Palestinian Authority has been sabotaging the two-state solution by preventing the development of an independent water infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.

44 joint Israeli-Palestinian Water Commission-approved projects, like the construction of a waste water treatment plant in Jenin that received approval in 2008, have not been implemented.

The German government even withdrew a plan to build a WWTP in Tulkarm when it concluded that the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) could not handle the project.

The PWA did not implement projects in the Eastern aquifer that would have solved much of the Palestinian water crisis. More than half of the wells approved for exploitation of the Eastern aquifer have still not been drilled.

The Palestinian Authority neglects the basic needs of its citizens and cynically uses water as a weapon in a PR campaign against Israel.

The stubborn refusal to work with Israel on mutual interests like improvement of the water infrastructure, and the way the PA subsequently uses that lack of improvement to demonize Israel, prove that the PA is not interested in the two-state solution, or peace.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Palestinians Water Supply -Sharon Udasin & Lahav Harkov

The Palestinians currently have much more access to water than in any country in the Arab world except Lebanon, Israel's Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan said in an interview.

Israel supplies the Palestinians with 80% more fresh water every year than what was required in the Oslo Accords, and if the Palestinians would recycle their sewage water as Israel does with most of its own, the Palestinian water supply would be even greater. "We told Palestinians we are willing to give them all the knowledge, but they insist on using fresh water and sending us sewage," Erdan said.
(Jerusalem Post)
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VideoBite: Monty Python Does Israel

This exceedingly enjoyable and poignant video spoofing on Monty Python's film "Life of Brian," hits the spot in 2011




The original!

Book Review: Gateway to Terror

Original Book Review -Bruce

Whew, what a book. Activating dormant terror cells all over the United States is the subject matter for "Gateway to Terror," a stunning novel. Starkly realistic, this gripping novel will scare the hell out of you. The message is clear: we are vulnerable...too vulnerable.

In Joe Smiga's first novel, the action shifted between good guys and bad guys. This novel, however, focuses almost exclusively on the bad guys...written so skillfully, one begins to assume their point of view. As the book draws to a close and one of the main characters is in danger, this reader finds himself feeling badly...for a terrorist! This is not your usual novel. This is an experience.

Don't miss it. 
[Bruce's MidEast Soundbites]
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Arens calls for caution: "No 'Peace Now'"

Israel Must Adjust to a Changing Middle East -Moshe Arens [pictured]

Diamonds may be forever, but treaties with dictators are not.

We must realize that the facts on the ground around us are changing, and that there may yet be more changes in the wind. It is time for a reappraisal of pre-conceived ideas.

This is not a time to throw caution to the wind. This is not a time to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines. It is not a time for "daring political initiatives." It is a time for watching and waiting to see how things are going to turn out. It is a time to think how we are going to assure the security of Israel's citizens in the southern part of the country from daily rocket attacks, and make sure that those living in the north and the center of the country do not share their fate.

It is a time to put away the placards calling for "Peace Now."
(Ha'aretz)
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Gaddafi's Sick Obsession: Female Bodyguards

More photos click HERE

Gaddafi bodyguards subjected to genital mutilation

The female bodyguard contingent of Gaddafi who were known as "Sweet 72" or "Killer Beauties" were compelled to undergo Female Genital Mutilation [FMG].

[The bodyguards] were said to swear an oath that they would give their lives for him and it was claimed they never left his side, night or day. A special training college [put] the recruits through a tough physical program and girls who did not drop out emerged as trained killers, experts in firearms and martial arts.

[D]espite his insistence that his guards were chaste, rumors abounded that he was demanding their sexual favors. By rotation, all of the members of "Sweet 72" or "Killer Beauties" were having sexual [relations] with the Libyan autocrat.

Female Genital Mutilation, the term used for removal of all or just part of the external parts of the female genitalia, is a crime in the eyes of international law.
[Weekly Blitz]
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Following Eilat Attack, Terror Missiles Rain on Israel...Iran pulling the strings?



An Israeli policeman inspects a Beer Sheba school hit by a rocket fire


Israel Mulls Response to Rocket Attacks

One Israeli was killed and scores were injured after approximately 100 rockets were fired at southern Israel over the weekend. Rockets fired by Palestinians in Gaza fell in Beersheba and the Ashkelon area. One rocket fell on a school in Beersheba causing extensive damage but no injuries.

An Israeli man was killed Saturday night when a rocket exploded near a house in Beersheba. Six others were injured in the explosion, including two who were in critical condition Sunday. Other Israelis were injured when rockets exploded in Ashkelon, Ofakim, Ashdod and elsewhere in the western Negev over the weekend.
(UPI)
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Terror Groups Change Tactics; Avoid Iron Dome -Anshel Pfeffer

After Palestinian launch teams realized that the intercept systems deployed in the past two weeks around Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva provided near-perfect protection from rockets, they began targeting Ashdod and Ofakim more frequently.

And when they did aim at Be'er Sheva on Saturday night, they did not fire one or two rockets, as in the past, but rather a volley of seven rockets almost simultaneously. Iron Dome intercepted five of them successfully, but one penetrated the defense system, killing a resident.
(Ha'aretz)
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Tehran pulls strings of Gaza missile war

The role of Iran and Hizballah in manipulating the ongoing Palestinian war on Israel from Gaza is manifest, Debkafile's military sources report. They planned, orchestrated and funded the coordinated attacks on the Eilat Highway - and its sequel: volleys of 90 missiles launched day and night from Gaza against a million Israeli civilians since then.
[DEBKAfile]
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Gaddafi's Forces Crumble as Rebels Rejoice




Libyan rebels celebrate; note the knife in the celebrant's right hand. 

Obama's war might be drawing to a close...but the most important issue is what the "rebels" create in the aftermath.  Anarchy may reign as Libya falls into pieces.  The level of control by forces sympathetic to radical Islam is unknown.

 

Rebels Sweep into Tripoli as Gaddafi Forces Crumble -Missy Ryan

Jubilant rebel fighters swept into the heart of Tripoli as Muammar Gaddafi's forces collapsed and crowds took to the streets to celebrate what they saw as the rapidly approaching end of his four decades of absolute power. Two of Gaddafi's sons were captured by the rebels, but the whereabouts of Gaddafi himself were unknown.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Gaddafi's rule was showing signs of collapse and called on him to quit now to avoid further bloodshed.
(Reuters)
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The Dictator Has Fallen! Long Live [Fill in the Blank] -Barry Rubin

As NATO jets bombed the military positions of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the watching rebels cheered, “Allah Akhbar!”

Now that is a common Muslim expression, not just used by Islamists, and yet there is something symbolic about it. Allah did not bring the rebels victory, the United States and Europe did. Nevertheless, Allah will get the credit. And that means the triumph will be attributed to the rebels’ piety rather than the West’s warplanes.

In political terms, Islamism is likely to be more attractive than a pro-Western stance. But that doesn’t mean Libya will be an Islamist state; it merely means it won’t be a democratic, pro-Western one. Of course, the key factor here is that nobody, including the Libyans, knows what’s going to happen there.

[T]he prospects for violence and internal disorder are tremendous.
[Pajamas Media]
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Libyan Blues -Daniel Pipes, PhD

Many are ready to party about the political demise of Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi. I am not partying. Here's why not.

The NATO intervention in March 2011 was done without due diligence as to who it is in Benghazi that it was helping. To this day, their identity is a mystery. Chances are good that Islamist forces are hiding behind more benign elements, waiting for the right moment to pounce, as roughly happened in Iran in 1978-79, when Islamists did not make clear their strength nor their program until the shah was well disposed of. Should that be the case in Libya today, then the miserable Qaddafi will prove to be better than his successors for both the Libyan subjects of tyranny and the West.

I hope I am wrong and the rebels are modern and liberal. But I fear that a dead-end despotism will be replaced by the agents of a worldwide ideological movement.
 
I fear that Western forces will have brought civilization's worst enemies to power.
[National Review Online]
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Understanding the Eilat Attack



New Phase in War -Barry Rubin

This isn’t just another terrorist attack — it’s a major escalation, a new phase in the Arab-Israeli conflict in two ways. First, it is the bitter fruit of the U.S-backed downfall of the government of President Husni Mubarak in Egypt, opening the Egypt-Israel border as a new front in the war. Second, it is probably the first successful al-Qaeda attack on Israel. (The Palestinian Popular Committees, a Gaza-based al-Qaeda affiliate is the prime suspect.)

A group of up to 20 terrorists from the Gaza Strip travelled through Egypt using vehicles, then went through the Egyptian border area without any apparent difficulty. Approaching the Egypt-Israel border they fired at a regularly scheduled public bus and cars on highway 12 — a road between Beersheva and Eilat, then entered Israeli territory. Their armaments included mortars and an RPG, as well as handguns. Soldiers engaged the terrorists in a firefight. Several soldiers were wounded; seven terrorists were killed.

According to several eyewitnesses, the attackers were wearing Egyptian army uniforms, a detail which if true is going to be a major issue. Stolen or sold or provided by low-level sympathizers in the Egyptian army? And the site of the attack was near an Egyptian army outpost which — so far as we know now –didn’t do anything about it. One eyewitness said a terrorist was firing from an Egyptian army position. Again, these details will have to be checked by an investigation.

This is a very sophisticated and complex operation.
 
Have no doubt: This is not just an isolated incident but the opening of a new phase. It will get worse. At a minimum, Israel will have to devote a lot more of its limited resources to guarding the Egypt-Israel border.
 
Given U.S. policy, nothing can be expected from Washington except words of dismay. The Egyptian regime will assure everyone that it is committed to the peace treaty and will take strong action.  Both Hamas and Fatah sites feature rejoicing at the killing of Israelis. Nobody [Palestinian] is critical of the attacks.
[Pajamas Media]

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UPDATES: 

Coordinated Terrorist Attacks -Anshel Pfeffer

IDF officials believe the [unrealized] goal of the attack was to kidnap a soldier.
(Ha'aretz)
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Netanyahu Strikes Back

Prime Minister Netanyahu said: "We witnessed today an attempt to escalate the terrorist war against Israel by launching attacks from Sinai.... When the citizens of Israel are attacked, we respond immediately and with strength.... Those who gave the order to murder our citizens, while hiding in Gaza, are no longer among the living."
(Prime Minister's Office)
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Vacuum in Sinai -Avi Issacharoff

Thursday's attack was one of the worst terror attacks Israel has experienced in recent years. Israel's warnings of the implications of the Egyptian regime's weakening following the revolution, warnings that were roundly criticized in the world, turned out to be correct and even relatively optimistic. About six months after Hosni Mubrak was deposed, Sinai constitutes a shelter for World Jihad activists. Another attack like this one is only a matter of time.
(Ha'aretz)
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PA Silence over Terror Raises Questions about Statehood -Herb Keinon

The Palestinian silence regarding Thursday’s terrorist attack in the South was “deafening,” and raises serious questions about the Palestinian Authority’s readiness for independence, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev said.

Government sources noted that even Arafat would issue pro-forma condemnations of violence during the height of the second intifada, something the PA leadership has not yet done since Thursday’s attack.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Obama: More Jabs at Jerusalem

Stunning graffiti in Jerusalem

U.S., Mideast Mediators Criticize Israel

The U.S. and other Mideast mediators criticized Israel for a rush of new settlement building approvals. The Quartet of mediators said the housing units planned in Ariel and east Jerusalem prompted a restatement of its position that "unilateral action by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community."
(AP)


Disband the Middle East Quartet -Elliott Abrams

The Middle East Quartet was unable to issue a statement about the Palestinian effort to get the UN to declare Palestine a state and admit it to membership. Nor has the Quartet issued a statement about the attacks the Assad regime has been carrying out this week against Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, which have led thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes. But on August 16 it addressed what it apparently saw as a graver issue and a greater threat to peace, Israel's announcement of plans to construct additional housing units in Jerusalem and Ariel.

Nowadays the Quartet seems able to reach agreement on only one thing: criticism of Israel. This is the lowest common denominator among the U.S., EU, UN, and Russia. If this is the only function of the Quartet, the better path would be to disband it now - for the statements it is making and the statements it seems unable to make combine to bring discredit on all participants.
(Council on Foreign Relations)
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U.S. Presses Israel to Apologize to Turkey -Alex Fishman

The U.S. administration is applying heavy pressure on Israel to apologize to the Turkish government over events surrounding the May 2010 takeover of the Mavi Marmara. The American demand was also voiced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during talks she held with Defense Minister Ehud Barak three weeks ago. According to Israeli diplomats in Washington, U.S. officials had even implied that it would be difficult for the U.S. to persuade other nations to reject the Palestinians' UN statehood bid in September if Jerusalem refuses to apologize to Ankara.
(Ynet News)


Netanyahu to Clinton: Israel Won't Apologize to Turkey

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Israel will not apologize for the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid in which nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists died.
(Ha'aretz)
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If Palestine Declares Statehood -Martin Peretz

For nearly 20 years (1948-1967), the world sat quite comfy with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with help from the local Arabs, having occupied and then destroyed the entire ancient Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. All of "east Jerusalem" was governed by King Abdullah I, who made sure that no glory attached to what we are now endlessly told is the third holiest city in Islam.

The major impediment to moving on is actually the relentless psychodrama about new Israeli construction in the territories which is little and far between. Shame on the administration for going into hysterics over a few hundred apartments in a Jewish neighborhood.
(New Republic)
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Tearjerker: Identifying Holocaust Children

A new project of the US Holocaust Museum...with holy results

Israel Advances Fight Against Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is known as a fast spreading and aggressive disease

Slowing pancreatic cancer

Israeli researchers have discovered that a protein known to retard the aging process also seems to prevent the growth of pancreatic cancer. If it could be produced commercially without significant side effects, this substance could provide a needed weapon against this and other fast-growing cancers.

In the United States, an estimated 37,660 people will die of pancreatic cancer this year.

The scientists noticed that healthy pancreatic cells contain klotho, but cancerous cells do not. When they injected the cancerous mice with klotho, they discovered that it not only prevented the cancer from spreading, but actually caused tumors to shrink.

"Within a week or two after the protein was injected, the [cancerous] growths stopped spreading and began to shrink," said lead researcher Dr. Ido Wolf.
[ISRAEL21c]
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Obama follows Saudi King on Syria

President Obama finally abandoned Syria's Assad, doing so only after Saudi Arabia broke ties

U.S. to Tell Assad that He Must Go -Bradley Klapper

The Obama administration is preparing to explicitly demand the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad and hit his regime with tough new sanctions, U.S. officials said Tuesday as the State Department signaled for the first time that American efforts to engage the government are finally over.
(AP)
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The Arab States and Syria -Editorial

The harshest statement [against Syria's Assad] came on Sunday from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. On Monday, along with Kuwait and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Damascus in protest.
(New York Times)
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UPDATE:

Truth About Syria -Editorial

President Obama has finally called for the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to step down and end his murderous war against the Syrian people.
(New York Times)
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Dramatic Find in Israel on eve of Tisha B'Av

Ancient Jerusalem Tunnel Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Artifacts

The excavation of an ancient drainage tunnel beneath Jerusalem has yielded a sword, oil lamps, pots and coins abandoned during a war 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said, suggesting the finds were debris from when rebels hid from Roman soldiers crushing a Jewish revolt during the time of the Second Temple.

The tunnel [pictured] was built two millennia ago underneath one of Roman-era Jerusalem's main streets. After a four-year excavation, the tunnel is part of a growing network of subterranean passages under the modern city.

When the tunnel opens to the public sometime in the coming months, underground passages totaling about a mile in length will be accessible beneath Jerusalem. The tunnels have become one of the city's biggest tourist draws and the number of visitors has risen in recent years to more than a million in 2010.
(AP-Washington Post)
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On the eve of Tisha B’Av, artifacts breathe new life into story

[A]rtifacts were exposed that breathe new life into the story of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem:

A sword in a scabbard that belonged to a Roman soldier and an engraving of the Temple’s menorah on a stone object were discovered during work the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted in the 2,000 year old drainage channel between the City of David and the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden.

The channel served as a hiding refuge for the residents of Jerusalem from the Romans during the destruction of the Second Temple.
[Israel Antiquities Authority]
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Click HERE to download high resolution photographs

Iranian Golden Sundaes: Stranger Than Fiction




Ice cream with 23K edible gold leaf

 
Iran's Rich Eat Ice Cream Flecked with Gold as Poor Struggle to Survive
-Thomas Erdbrink

Although record oil profits have brought in billions of dollars to the Iranian Revolution, many say the gap in Iran between rich and poor has never seemed wider. Iran's new wealthy class includes children of people with close connections to some of Iran's rulers, as well as families of factory owners and those who managed to get huge loans from state banks at low interest rates. The oil windfall - nearly $500 billion over the past five years - has played a central role in establishing this small group that is visibly enjoying its profits.

The new wealthy are buying Porsches, getting caviar delivered to late-night parties, and eating $250 ice cream covered in edible gold at what's billed as the highest rotating restaurant in the world, atop Tehran's 1,427-foot-high Milad Tower.

"Anger over inequality had been the main motivation for people to join the 1979 [Islamic] revolution," said Hossein Raghfar, an economist who recently quit as an adviser to Ahmadinejad's government. Raghfar noted that 2.5 million children are working rather than attending school, and that there has been an increase in legal kidney sales - along with a recent price drop, from $10,000 to $2,000, because so many people are selling their organs for cash.
(Washington Post)
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Three Strikes You're Out...unless you're Palestinian

Declaring a Palestinian State, Yet Again -Daniel Pipes

By my count, this is the fourth Palestinian push to declare a state.

On Oct. 1, 1948, Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, stood before the Palestine National Council in Gaza and declared the existence of the All-Palestine Government. 
On Nov. 15, 1988, again before a meeting of the Palestine National Council, Yassir Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), declared the existence of a State of Palestine.
Arafat later insisted he would declare a Palestinian state on May 4, 1999.

And now September 2011.
(DanielPipes.org)
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September Surprises -Reuven Berko

The declaration will not change the reality on the ground. Palestinians know that if Abbas takes unilateral measures against Israel, Israel will respond with tough measures of its own, including economic ones. Palestinians realize that a unilateral declaration of statehood would release Israel from the Oslo Agreements and would also release Israel from cooperating with the Palestinians on numerous issues.

Will the Palestinian Authority try to set the region alight? Palestinian officials are well aware of the Islamic devil waiting in the wings for its opportunity to take over the West Bank, just as it did Gaza. They are not anxious to commit collective suicide through a third intifada that could quickly spiral out of control.
(Israel Hayom)
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VideoBite: The Cesspool of Anti-Israel Groups

A new video from NGO Monitor
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NewsFlash: Turkey's Top Military Brass Resign En masse

Troops march past a large poster of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern state of Turkey.  Atatürk foresaw the destructiveness of combining Islamic law with state power and structured the military to counter any encroachment of political power by religious forces.  Several military coups have kept Turkey out of the orbit of radical Islamist influence...until now.

Turkey’s Military Chief Said to Resign -J.D. Goodman

The top commander of Turkey’s military resigned suddenly, the semi-official Anatolian News Agency reported, in a dramatic signal of deepening tensions between the armed forces and the country’s [increasingly radical] Islamic government.

Local media reports also indicated that the commanders of the country’s navy, army and air force had also stepped down, though their reports were attributed to unnamed officials and could not be immediately verified.

The military chief of staff, Isik Kosaner, sent a letter of resignation to the prime minister’s office, the state-run agency said, without elaborating on his reason.

Earlier, Mr. Kosaner met with the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and President Abdullah Gul, according to local media reports. Shortly after, according to an account in the daily Hurriyet, Mr. Kosaner as well as the army commander, Gen. Erdal Ceylanoglu; the navy chief, Adm. Esref Ugur Yigit; and the commander of the air force, Gen. Hasan Aksay, stepped down.

It was not immediately clear why the country’s top military leaders would resign en masse. The Associated Press reported that the move came only hours after 22 people, including several generals and officers, were charged in a campaign on the Internet to undermine the civilian government.

A rift between Turkey’s long-powerful, secular military, broadly respected in Turkish society, and the popular ruling party has grown wider in recent years.
[New York Times]
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UPDATES:

Turkey's Military Leaders Resign: High-Stakes Power Struggle -Soner Cagaptay

The Turkish military on Friday staged an "inverted coup" with a strike-style walkout by its top leadership. Chief of Staff Gen. Isik Kosaner resigned, as did the heads of the Turkish Army, Navy and Air Force. A headless military is a risk in a country flanked by Iran, Iraq, and Syria, the last of which is undergoing revolutionary turmoil on the other side of a 500 mile-long border.

In 2007, the ruling AKP party launched a court case, known as Ergenekon, which alleged a coup plot against the government and accused the military of involvement. Four years and hundreds of arrests later, the case has yet to reach a verdict. Around half of all Turkish admirals have been jailed. The final straw came when pro-AKP media suggested that 14 active-duty generals and admirals who had been arrested, though not yet indicted, would be forced to resign. Furthermore, police arrested 22 additional top-brass officers.

By walking out, the military has in a way conceded defeat to the AKP. Yet, at the same time, the government needs a military, and a secular military is currently its only option.
(Daily Beast)
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Turkey's Islamic Revolution -Benny Morris

The Turkish Islamists, who took control of the country after democratic elections in 2002, are well on their way to completing a revolution. This weekend, they ticked another important "V" with the mass resignation of the country's top military brass and their immediate replacement by Islamist-friendly generals.

The Turks may soon find an emulator in Egypt, where Islamists seem set to take over the state by democratic means. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties may be expected to follow the same Turkish paradigm, in which a state is gradually subordinated to Islam and removed from the West's orbit by a slow, incremental process which the West finds itself unable to counter.
(National Interest)
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Defeating the Hydra

Nasrallah

Slaying the Syria-Iran-Hizbullah Hydra -Hossein Askari

If the Tehran regime were to fall, Syria's Assad would be isolated and forced to compromise with his Arab brethren and as well as with the U.S.; if Assad were to fall, Iran's mullahs would face insurmountable hurdles in supporting Hizbullah; and with the fall of either the mullahs or Assad, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah's days would be numbered (and with the fall of both his days would be almost over).
(National Interest)
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Urban Warfare Revolutionized

Israel's Urban Warfare Ladder

-Yaakov Katz, Herb Keinon & Tovah Lazaroff

The IDF is purchasing a new tactical ladder to enable soldiers to climb high walls with greater ease during urban warfare.

The current ladder used by the IDF needs to be carried by at least two soldiers and held in place by two more soldiers. The new ladder can be carried by a single soldier [photo above], open up to over 10 meters, and be held in place by one soldier.

Ladders are often needed by soldiers to climb over obstacles during operations inside cities – or to surprise a target and enter a building through a window.
(Jerusalem Post)
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US Funds Palestinian Terror

"U.S. Paying Salaries to Jailed Palestinian Terrorists" -Herb Keinon

The Palestinian Authority spends more than $5 million a month paying salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons, according to a Palestinian Media Watch report presented to congressmen in Washington.

According to the report, such payments contravene U.S. law, which prohibits funding of any person who "engages in, or has engaged in terrorist activity." "The U.S. funds the PA's general budget....Through the PA budget the U.S. is paying the salaries of terrorist murderers in prison and funding the glorification and role modeling of terrorists."

"A law signed and published in the official Palestinian Authority Registry in April 2011 puts all Palestinians and Israeli Arabs imprisoned in Israel for terror crimes on the PA payroll to receive a monthly salary from the PA," formalizing "what has long been a PA practice." More than 5,500 Palestinian prisoners receive these funds.
(Jerusalem Post)
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The Bible comes to life in Israel

Rare Gold Bell Discovered in Excavations in Jerusalem

A rare gold bell with a small loop at its end was discovered during an archaeological excavation in [a]drainage channel [near] the City of David [in] Jerusalem. According archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, "It seems the bell was sewn on the garment worn by a high official in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period."

The high priests who served in the Temple used to hang a gold bell from the fringes of their robe. In the Book of Exodus, there is a description of the high priest Aaron's robe: "Upon the skirts of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the skirts thereof; and bells of gold between them round about."
(Israel Antiquities Authority)
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Ethiopian Israeli Wins Israel's American Idol [with video]

Hagit Yasau, an Ethiopian Israel from battered Sderot, won "A Star is Born," Israel's version of American Idol.  The song featured in the video above is by Israeli superstar Ofra Haza, of blessed memory.
[Hat tip: IsraPundit]
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Grand Mall Opens in Gaza

Biggest Mall in Gaza Opens Its Doors -Nasser Najjar

The Al Andalusia Mall, the biggest mall in Gaza, opened its doors on Tuesday.

Ihab Al Isawia, a mall investor, said: "The mall is built on 3,000 square meters and has 14 departments providing goods and services." There is even a swimming pool and a cinema.
(Gulf News-UAE)
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The Next Attack: VideoBite [part 3]

An ABC News video

The Next Attack: VideoBite [part 2]

An ABC News video

The Next Attack: VideoBite [part 1]

An ABC News video