Iran must Halt Enrichment within Weeks, says Strategic Affairs Minister

by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz calls on world powers to place a red line before Iran • Says action should be taken within "a few weeks, a month" if Iran does not halt uranium enrichment.

Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz says Iran is buying time to build a nuclear weapon. | Photo credit: Lior Mizrahi

Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz on Sunday called on world powers to set a deadline for military action against Iran within weeks, to persuade it to halt its nuclear enrichment program, after talks in Kazakhstan over the weekend ended without progress.

World powers and Iran failed again to end a deadlock in the decade-long dispute over Iran's nuclear program during the talks in Almaty, prolonging a standoff that could yet spiral into a military conflict.

"Sanctions are not enough and the talks are not enough," Steinitz told Army Radio. "The time has come to place before the Iranians a military threat or a form of red line, an unequivocal red line by the entire world, by the United States and the West ... in order to get results." 

Steinitz said action should be taken within "a few weeks, a month" if Iran did not stop enriching uranium, although he did not elaborate.

Netanyahu himself has spoken of a mid-2013 "red line" for denying Iran the fuel needed for a first bomb, although several Israeli officials have privately acknowledged that this has been deferred, maybe indefinitely.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S. Russia, Britain, France and China — and Germany are trying to persuade Iran to abandon its higher-grade uranium enrichment, as a first step to a broader deal.

Refined uranium can be used to power atomic reactors, Iran's stated aim, or provide material for weapons if processed further. Iran says its nuclear work is intended for peaceful purposes.

Steinitz said in the interview that Iran was using talks to play for time while continuing to strive for a nuclear weapon.

"We warned beforehand that the way in which these talks are being conducted is a ploy to gain time. The Iranians are talking and laughing their way to a bomb while enriching uranium," Steinitz said. "We have a very clear stance on the matter and the world is beginning to understand." 

Steinitz cited North Korea's threat to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and the U.S. as an example of what Israel fears could happen if Iran managed to produce a nuclear weapon.

"I think that what is currently happening in Korea serves to demonstrate to us all ... how urgent it is to stop Iran's nuclear [activity]," Steinitz said.

"North Korea was somehow allowed by the international community to gain nuclear weapons and it is threatening to use them against South Korea, Japan and even the United States. Imagine what could happen within two or three years not only to Israel but to Europe, the United States and the whole world if the fanatical and extreme regime in Tehran attains nuclear weapons."

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8437

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Massive Cyberattack Underway, Israeli Hackers Fire Back

by Ilan Gattegno, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

A group of Israeli hackers take control of the website belonging to Anonymous, the organization behind the largest cyberattack ever against Israel, and insert pro-Israel content • Cyberattack expected to fully commence at 6 p.m. Israel time.

In the cyber trenches. | Photo credit: Getty Images

A weekend cyberattack campaign targeting Israeli government websites failed to cause serious disruption, officials said Sunday. The attacks followed warnings in the name of the hacking group Anonymous that it was launching a massive attack.

The wide-ranging cyberattack was scheduled to officially begin at 6 p.m. Israel time. According to the Internet hacker group Anonymous, it would be the largest cyberattack ever against the Jewish state. 

Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, of the government's National Cyber Bureau, said the hackers had mostly failed to shut down key sites.

"So far it is as was expected, there is hardly any real damage," Ben Yisrael said. "Anonymous doesn't have the skills to damage the country's vital infrastructure. And if that was its intention, then it wouldn't have announced the attack ahead of time. It wants to create noise in the media about issues that are close to its heart." 

Thousands of private Facebook accounts were also hacked as of Sunday. 

Israeli hackers, meanwhile, have already returned fire, breaching opisrael.com, the site where members of Anonymous report about their anti-Israel activities, and altered its contents to make them pro-Israel.

Ronni Bahar of the Avnet Security Consulting firm said that the hacking of the site was a moral victory in and of itself: "We are witness mainly to the build-up of tensions and power struggles between Israeli hackers and those affiliated with Anonymous. We can tell of directives given to employees to alter their email passwords. Many organizations have uploaded their sites to cloud servers."

Alon Mantzur, CEO of 2Bsecure of the Matrix Group, added that Israeli preparedness today is "better than it was a year ago in all areas."

The cyberattack is liable to prevent access to hacked sites, and infect them with viruses and Trojan horses. The Israel National Cyber Bureau advised large institutions to block overseas access to their websites. According to speculation, the cyberattack will focus on well-known websites and will try to shut down services they provide the public, which the hackers hope will raise awareness of the attack and cause panic. 

For a list of the websites targeted for attack a group calling itself "Team Danger Hackers (#OpIsrael)" click here.

The Israel Defense Forces was also preparing its cyber defenses, announcing that the Telecommunications Branch has run a diagnostics check on all of its systems and also simulated various attack scenarios in order to test its preparedness.

On Saturday, the Israel Securities Authority website was downed, but its sister financial reportage site, Maya, remained unaffected. The ISA site was up and running again Sunday morning. Sites affiliated with the Absorption Ministry, the Intelligence and Atomic Energy Ministry and others were also attacked. 

Israel's Bureau of Statistics was down on Sunday morning but it was unclear if it had been hacked. Israeli media reports said the sites of the Defense and Education Ministry as well as banks had come under attack the night before but they were mostly repelled.

Hackers also exploited holes in the cyber protection for dozens of small businesses. 

One of the sites already hacked belongs to the Larger than Life organization, which also help Muslim children suffering from cancer. Larger than Life CEO Lior Shmueli said Saturday, "It's a shame that such a thing is happening to the organization's website, of all places, which seeks to help every child with cancer receiving treatment in Israel, without discriminating against religion, race, sex or nationality."

An official of the terrorist Hamas movement praised the current attack. "God bless the minds and the efforts of the soldiers of the electronic battle," Ihab Al- Ghussian, Gaza's chief government spokesman, wrote on his official Facebook page.

Due to the attack, the software security company Checkmarx decided to grant free scanning services for site owners who aren't certain their site is adequately protected. Those interested can click here.

Ilan Gattegno, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8449

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Iran’s Silent War in the Gulf

by Jonathan Spyer

photo: David Holt

Jerusalem Post, 5/4: A series of trials currently under way in the neighboring Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain offer a glimpse into the ongoing, silent war being waged by Iran against its regional rivals.

Bahrain is of particular interest to Teheran. The tiny island emirate is home to a Shia majority – ruled over by the Sunni Khalifa monarchy. Iranian officials often describe Bahrain as rightfully constituting the ‘14th province’ of Iran. A Shia insurgency was crushed in March, 2011, following the entry of Saudi, Kuwaiti and UAE forces. Tensions remain high.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is one of the main regional rivals of Iran. The two, both major oil-producing states, are separated by sectarian loyalties, strategy toward the west, and straightforward geo-political competition for dominance in the energy-rich Gulf region.
The latest revelations suggest that the long standing use by the Iranian regime of subversion and irregular warfare as tools of policy in the Gulf as elsewhere is proceeding apace.

In Bahrain, recent revelations have centered on two separate cases. In the first, a Bahraini citizen convicted in July 2011 of transferring “military information and identifying sensitive sites in Bahrain” to Iranian diplomats in Kuwait had his ten year sentence confirmed this week.

According to a statement from the court, the man, who has not been named, sought to photograph ‘military and economic installations’ in Bahrain, as well as the homes of individuals employed at the US Juffair naval base on the island. The Juffair base is the main site in the Gulf offering onshore services for the US Navy’s 5th fleet. The ‘diplomats’ in question were identified as members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. IRGC members have a long history of posing as Iranian diplomats and consular staff.

In the second, more recent case, the Bahraini authorities in late February arrested eight Bahraini citizens who were accused of membership in a cell established by the Revolutionary Guards to plan and carry out attacks on Bahrain’s international airport, interior ministry and other public facilities, and to assassinate Bahraini officials.

The Bahrainis identified an IRGC official, code-named ‘Abu Naser’ as the head of this group. They claimed to have captured a host of evidence, including electronic equipment, incriminating the arrested men. The authorities also maintained that the members of the cell attended IRGC training camps in Iran and Hizballah-run centers in Iraq.

In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the authorities in March arrested 16 Saudi citizens, an Iranian and a Lebanese, similarly on suspicion of membership in a cell established by Iranian intelligence elements, and tasked with gathering information and providing documents concerned with ‘installations and vital areas’ in the kingdom. The Saudi citizens all hail from the country’s 2 million strong Shia minority.

The Iranians, predictably, have denied all the accusations. Iran and its regional mouthpieces accuse the Gulf states of seeking to justify their repression of Shia communities.

Thus, the opposition al-Wifaq party in Bahrain denounced the latest arrests. In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, 37 Shia clerics issued a statement accusing the Saudi authorities of escalating sectarian tension as a way of diverting public attention from other issues.

It is indisputable that both the Shia majority in Bahrain and the Saudi Shia minority face real repression and discrimination. The existence of real and justified grievances does not, however, cancel out the evidence of Iranian subversive activity.

And it is also clear that the evidence emerging regarding the activities of the IRGC in both countries follows a pattern familiar both from past experience and from Iranian activities elsewhere in the region and beyond it.

The use made by Iran of local Shia communities, and the subsequent engagement of those communities in political violence on its behalf is no longer in dispute. Past precedent suggests that Iran seeks not only to recruit participants for paramilitary activity. Rather, Teheran also wishes to build political influence and power through the sponsorship of Shia Islamist movements.

Their efforts in Bahrain are not of recent vintage. As far back as 1981, the proxy Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain launched a failed coup attempt, with the support and probably under the direction of Iran and the IRGC.

The Iranians have spent many patient years building up assets and clients within the Bahraini opposition.

Hasan Mushaima, the Shia Islamist leader of the Haq movement, was openly pro-Iranian and known to have strong links with the Iranian regime. Mushaima was jailed for life after the 2011 unrest. His son, along with five others, was convicted (in absentia) 2012 for involvement in an earlier Teheran sponsored terror cell.

Both the mainstream Wifaq opposition movement and the more radical Coalition for a Republic have pro-Iranian elements within them. The latter includes the Bahraini Islamic Freedom Movement. The leader of this openly pro-Iranian body, Saeed Shihaby, was discovered in 2011 to be working in London in premises owned by the government of Iran.

The latest revelations of Iranian subversion in the Gulf come against a background of frenetic activity by Teheran elsewhere.

Just this week, Lebanese-Swedish Hizballah member Hossam Taleb Yaccoub was convicted of gathering information on Israeli holidaymakers in Cyprus prior to the bombing at Burgas.

A build up of Hizballah and IRGC personnel in Damascus, according to a report in Al-Arabiya, is now under way, in a determined attempt to hold back recent rebel advances.

An Iranian ship carrying weapons for Shia rebels in north Yemen was seized last month.

Teheran is seeking to guard and expand the perimeters of the client and proxy structure it has built, at a time when a rival Sunni Islamism is having its moment.

Iran’s silent war in the Gulf forms an important front in this larger campaign.

POSTED FIRST AT Jonathan Spyer’s blog 


Jonathan Spyer

Source: http://www.gloria-center.org/2013/04/irans-silent-war-in-the-gulf/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The International Push for Blasphemy Laws

by Robert Spencer and David Wood





Robert Spencer and David Wood

Source: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/04/robert-spencer-and-david-wood-on-the-international-push-for-blasphemy-laws.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

U.K.: Sharia Court tells Abused Wife to Stay and "Correct" Herself

by Robert Spencer

When these Sharia courts opened in the U.K., British officials assured the public that wherever Sharia law conflicted with civil law, it would give way. But that almost immediately proved not to be the case, and here is further confirmation of the warnings we gave about these courts at the time: that they would become the legal system for a Muslim state within the state -- one that would continue to grow and expand.

The Sharia court here is acting in accord with Islamic law:

"Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them." (Qur'an 4:34)

Muhammad’s example is normative for Muslims, since he is an “excellent example of conduct” (Qur'an 33:21) – and according to a canonical hadith, Muhammad’s favorite wife, his child bride Aisha, reports that Muhammad struck her. Once he went out at night after he thought she was asleep, and she followed him surreptitiously. Muhammad saw her, and, as Aisha recounts: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?” (Sahih Muslim 2127) Aisha herself said it: “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women.” (Sahih Bukhari 7.72.715)

The Koran commentary Ruhul Ma’ani reflects mainstream Muslim understandings of this verse when it gives four reasons that a man may beat his wife: “if she refuses to beautify herself for him,” if she refuses sex when he asks for it, if she refuses to pray or perform ritual ablutions, and “if she goes out of the house without a valid excuse.” 

"Sharia court tells 'abused wife' to stay," by James Fielding for the Express, April 7:

Dr Suhaib Hasan told the undercover reporter that she should only contact police “as a last resort”, but she would be forced to leave her marital home if she did so. The shocking exchange, filmed by the BBC’s Panorama programme for a special report into Sharia courts, has infuriated equal rights campaigners.
Baroness Cox is trying to take ­forward a private members’ Bill in the House of Lords to make it an offence for Sharia councils to set themselves up as courts.
She said: “It is a system which, in its gender discrimination causing women such suffering, is utterly incompatible with our country’s ­values. It is time to draw a line in the sand and say ‘enough is enough’.”
The programme, to be screened tomorrow night, highlights the problems faced by Muslim women who are pressured to stay in abusive marriages. Posing as a woman seeking a divorce from her violent husband, the reporter consults Dr Hasan of the Leyton Islamic Sharia council in east London.
His first response is to ask if she has done anything to provoke her treatment.
He asks her: “I think that you should be courageous enough to ask this question to him. Just tell me why you are so upset, huh? Is it because of my cooking? Is it because I see my friends, huh? So I can ­correct myself.”
The reporter asks if she should report the violence to the police but is warned: “You involve the police if he hits you but you must understand this will be the final blow.
“You will have to leave the house. Where will you go then? A refuge? A refuge is a very bad option. Women are not happy in such places.”
Dr Hasan goes on to suggest counselling, adding: “Don’t think about the police because if the police is involved then think, your family life is going to break.” Leyton Sharia council handles 50 cases a month, mainly marital disputes brought by Muslim women. For many couples a Sharia divorce is the only option because they have a Sharia marriage not a British civil one.
Dr Hasan told the BBC: “We try to facilitate for the Muslim community something which they badly need because there’s no other institution [which] can provide such services so we are providing it.
“We are not just here to issue divorces. We want to mediate first.”
However, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal, who tackles domestic and honour-based violence for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “What I’ve witnessed is so dangerous because if there is early intervention we know people’s lives can be saved.”
There are thought to be at least 85 Sharia councils in Britain.
Family Law barrister Charlotte Proudman, who has attended many Sharia hearings, said: “There’s no accountability and many of them are not operating in accordance with UK law.”

What a surprise.

Robert Spencer

Source: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/04/uk-sharia-court-tells-abused-wife-to-stay-and-correct-herself.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Arming for Virtual Battle: The Dangerous New Rules of Cyberwar

by Thomas Darnstaedt, Marcel Rosenbach and Gregor Peter Schmitz

Capt. Carrie Kessler/ U.S. Air Force

 

Now that wars are also being fought on digital battlefields, experts in international law have established rules for cyberwar. But many questions remain unanswered. Will it be appropriate to respond to a cyber attack with military means in the future?

The attack came via ordinary email, when selected South Korean companies received messages supposedly containing credit card information in the middle of the week before last.

Recipients who opened the emails also opened the door to the enemy, because it was in fact an attack from the Internet. Instead of the expected credit card information, the recipients actually downloaded a time bomb onto their computers, which was programmed to ignite on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Korean time.

 At that moment, chaos erupted on more than 30,000 computers in South Korean television stations and banks. The message "Please install an operating system on your hard disk" appeared on the screens of affected computers, and cash machines ceased to operate. The malware, which experts have now dubbed "DarkSeoul," deleted data from the hard disks, making it impossible to reboot the infected computers.

DarkSeoul was one of the most serious digital attacks in the world this year, but cyber defense centers in Western capitals receive alerts almost weekly. The most serious attack to date originated in the United States. In 2010, high-tech warriors, acting on orders from the US president, smuggled the destructive "Stuxnet" computer worm into Iranian nuclear facilities.

The volume of cyber attacks is only likely to grow. Military leaders in the US and its European NATO partners are outfitting new battalions for the impending data war. Meanwhile, international law experts worldwide are arguing with politicians over the nature of the new threat. Is this already war? Or are the attacks acts of sabotage and terrorism? And if a new type of war is indeed brewing, can military means be used to respond to cyber attacks?

The War of the Future
 
A few days before the computer disaster in Seoul, a group led by NATO published a thin, blue booklet. It provides dangerous responses to all of these questions. The "Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare" is probably no thicker than the American president's thumb. It is not an official NATO document, and yet in the hands of President Barack Obama it has the potential to change the world.

The rules that influential international law experts have compiled in the handbook could blur the lines between war and peace and allow a serious data attack to rapidly escalate into a real war with bombs and missiles. Military leaders could also interpret it as an invitation to launch a preventive first strike in a cyberwar. 

At the invitation of a NATO think tank in the Estonian capital Tallinn, and at a meeting presided over by a US military lawyer with ties to the Pentagon, leading international law experts had discussed the rules of the war of the future. International law is, for the most part, customary law. Experts determine what is and can be considered customary law.

The resulting document, the "Tallinn Manual," is the first informal rulebook for the war of the future. But it has no reassuring effect. On the contrary, it permits nations to respond to data attacks with the weapons of real war.

Two years ago, the Pentagon clarified where this could lead, when it stated that anyone who attempted to shut down the electric grid in the world's most powerful nation with a computer worm could expect to see a missile in response.

A Private Digital Infrastructure
 
The risks of a cyberwar were invoked more clearly than ever in Washington in recent weeks. In mid-March, Obama assembled 13 top US business leaders in the Situation Room in the White House basement, the most secret of all secret conference rooms. The group included the heads of UPS, JPMorgan Chase and ExxonMobil. There was only one topic: How can America win the war on the Internet?

The day before, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had characterized the cyber threat as the "biggest peril currently facing the United States."

The White House was unwilling to reveal what exactly the business leaders and the president discussed in the Situation Room. But it was mostly about making it clear to the companies how threatened they are and strengthening their willingness to cooperate, says Rice University IT expert Christopher Bronk. 

The president urgently needs their cooperation, because the US has allowed the laws of the market to govern its digital infrastructure. All networks are operated by private companies. If there is a war on the Internet, both the battlefields and the weapons will be in private hands.

This is why the White House is spending so much time and effort to prepare for possible counterattacks. The aim is to scare the country's enemies, says retired General James Cartwright, author of the Pentagon's current cyber strategy.

Responsible for that strategy is the 900-employee Cyber Command at the Pentagon, established three years ago and located in Fort Meade near the National Security Agency, the country's largest intelligence agency. General Keith Alexander heads both organizations. The Cyber Command, which is expected to have about 4,900 employees within a few years, will be divided into various defensive and offensive "Cyber Mission Forces" in the future.

Wild West Online
 
It's probably no coincidence that the Tallinn manual is being published now. Developed under the leadership of US military lawyer Michael Schmitt, NATO representatives describe the manual as the "most important legal document of the cyber era."

In the past, Schmitt has examined the legality of the use of top-secret nuclear weapons systems and the pros and cons of US drone attacks. Visitors to his office at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, the world's oldest naval academy, must first pass through several security checkpoints.

"Let's be honest," says Schmitt. "Everyone has treated the Internet as a sort of Wild West, a lawless zone. But international law has to be just as applicable to online weapons as conventional weapons."

It's easier said than done, though. When does malware become a weapon? When does a hacker become a warrior, and when does horseplay or espionage qualify as an "armed attack," as defined under international law? The answers to such detailed questions can spell the difference between war and peace.

James Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the country's top cyberwar experts, is somewhat skeptical about the new manual. He sees it as "a push to lower the threshold for military action." For Lewis, responding to a "denial of service" attack with military means is "really crazy." He says the Tallinn manual "shows is that you should never let lawyers go off by themselves."

 Claus Kress, an international law expert and the director of the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne, sees the manual as "setting the course," with "consequences for the entire law of the use of force." Important "legal thresholds," which in the past were intended to protect the world against the military escalation of political conflicts or acts of terror, are becoming "subject to renegotiation," he says.

According to Kress, the most critical issue is the "recognition of a national right of self-defense against certain cyber attacks." This corresponds to a state of defense, as defined under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, which grants any nation that becomes the victim of an "armed attack" the right to defend itself by force of arms. The article gained new importance after Sept. 11, 2001, when the US declared the invasion of Afghanistan an act of self-defense against al-Qaida and NATO proclaimed the application of its mutual defense clause to come to the aid of the superpower.

Thomas Darnstaedt, Marcel Rosenbach and Gregor Peter Schmitz

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/expanding-combat-zone-the-dangerous-new-rules-of-cyberwar-a-892238.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Rectifying the Palestinian Narrative

by Michael Curtis

The mainstream media in the United States and in Western Europe have often been uncritically receptive of the Palestinian narrative. Media rarely question it, but instead disseminate its distortions of history and its deliberate misrepresentation of Israeli policies and often of the Jewish community. However, alert journalism demonstrated the true nature of that narrative when it uncovered one of the more historically flagrant and outrageous fabrications about Jews in an article published by Miftah, the Palestinian think tank, at the end of March 2013.

Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, was founded in Jerusalem in December 1998 with an ambitiously stated objective: "To disseminate the Palestinian narrative and discourse globally to both official and popular bodies and decision-makers." It purports to adopt the "mechanisms of an active and in-depth dialogue, the free flow of information and ideas, as well as local and international networking." Using language that appeals to freedom-loving societies, Miftah says it seeks "to promote the principles of democracy and good governance within various components of Palestinian society."

The well-known Palestinian publicist and media personality, Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, member of the executive committee of the PLO, and scholar of literature, was appointed as secretary-general of the organization and also serves as the chair of the Board of Directors. One of the members of the Board of Trustees is Rashid Khalidi, formerly a professor in Chicago and now the incumbent of the Edward Said Chair of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. 

The organization is very well funded, including contributions from many respectable sources such as the Anna Lindh Foundation (European Union), the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (Germany), UNESCO, the United Nations Population Fund, Oxfam, the NGO Development Center, a number of European countries, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, and International Republic Institute. 

In late March, Miftah published an article on its Arabic language website accusing Jews of using Christian blood in the rituals of Passover. During his visit to Israel President Obama had referred to Passover as "a sacred holiday." While talking to Israeli students, Obama referred to the Passover story and to the history of the Jewish people as one of centuries of slavery, of perseverance amidst persecution, and finding freedom "in your own land."

The president's remarks provided the opportunity for one of Miftah's authors, a man named Nawaf al-Zaru, described as an "expert" on Israel and on Hebrew, to promote Miftah's "principles of democracy." This author, presumably a Muslim, used Christian allegations made since the 12th century to correct the president, whom he said did not know the relationship between Passover and Christian blood. He instructed Obama that the historical Jewish blood rituals are real and not fake; "the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover."

When a journalist quickly criticized the article, Miftah issued a statement anonymously but presumably from its leader Ashrawi. Forgetting the organization's supposed objective of "active and in-depth dialogue", a concept welcomed by people and organizations in democratic societies, Miftah at first denounced the criticism as a "smear campaign" that slandered the organization. Ashrawi, who has always portrayed herself in American television as a political moderate, refused to disavow the blood libel accusation made by her own organization. Instead, she, or someone in Miftah, blamed the victim. 

Within a day or so Miftah recognized its blunder, and the offensive article was taken down from its website. The organization offered an apology, reminiscent of typical bureaucratic excuses and defenses of mistakes. It explained that the article was "accidently and incorrectly published by a junior staff member." That unnamed staffer had been reprimanded for the "disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews." (One might ask what other group of people has had to face the repulsive accusation of blood libel!!). 

The apology by Miftah declared that "Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, as founder has nothing to do with the day to day management at Miftah and was in no way involved in this incident." Ashrawi has been much admired by the Western TV and press media, had been a close friend of Peter Jennings of ABC News, and one may take at face to value her own statement that she has never been associated with any anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic campaign. The problem is that the nature and ideological thrust of various articles published by Miftah, as well as some of the statements made by Ashrawi, suggest caution in evaluating her true political position and that of the organization. 

In spite of her self-portrait as a "moderate," Ashrawi has been an exponent of some of the main tenets of the familiar Palestinian narrative. She was the highly articulate official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process, 1991-1993. At the United Nations Durban I Conference on August 28, 2001 she said, "I represent a narrative of exclusion, denial, racism, and national victimization." She spoke of her heavy heart "leaving behind a nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, as the most intricate and pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism, and victimization." Israeli settlements, she declared, leads to "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank.

One of the principal writers for Miftah, Joharah Baker, also editor of the Palestine Report, has written a number of articles arguing that Israel is a racist society, as well as praising the female suicide bombers who targeted Israeli civilians. In a July 2006 article she applauded "the string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause." 

The criticism of the article in Miftah and consequent reluctant "apology" by the website is significant. It illustrates that a rapid response by independent and courageous media to inaccurate statements and prejudiced accusations can and sometimes does result in rectifying them and shaming the accusers. It is a valuable lesson to the mainstream media when in future they refer to Middle East affairs or are confronted by the Palestinian Narrative to return to Shakespeare and "stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood," and forgo their grudges against the State of Israel.

Michael Curtis

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/rectifying_the_palestinian_narrative.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Anti-Semitic Incidents on the Rise Worldwide in 2012

by Rick Moran


A report published by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, reports that incidents of anti-Semitic violence rose an alarming 30% in 2012.

Associated Press:

The report linked the March 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four, to a series of copycat attacks, particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled.
Researchers who presented the report at the university on Sunday said they had also found a direct correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some European countries and high levels of anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attacks on other minorities and immigrants.
They said Europe's economic crisis was fueling the success of parties like Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine.
Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, called for strong action by the European Union, charging that governments -- particularly Hungary --were not doing enough to curb these parties' activities and protect minorities.
"Neo-Nazis have been once again legalized in Europe, they are openly sitting in parliaments," said Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress.
Golden Dawn swept into Greece's parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform. The party rejects the neo-Nazi label but is fond of Nazi literature and references. In Hungary, a Jobbik lawmaker has called for Jews to be screened as potential security risks. The leader of Ukraine's Svoboda denies his party is anti-Semitic but has repeatedly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.
The report by the university's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry found little correlation between the increase of anti-Semitic attacks and Israel's military operation in Gaza in November. While there was a spike in incidents at the time, it was much smaller in number and intensity than the one that followed the Toulouse attack, said Roni Stauber, the chief researcher on the project.
"This shows that the desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and right-wingers, regardless of events in the Middle East," he said.
The release of the report was timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was starting Sunday at sundown.

Jews have been portrayed as scapegoats for hundreds of years in Europe so it is hardly surprising that right wing extremist groups would use these "blame the Jew" tactics to get ahead politically. Most recently, the bank crisis in Cyprus saw many ordinary people carrying signs blaming "Jewish bankers" for their troubles.

The antidote to anti-Semtism is exposing it wherever it rears its head. There are enough people of good faith with good hearts who will rally against hatred and shine the light of truth on those who would use that hate to gain power.
Rick Moran

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/anti-semitic_incidents_on_the_rise_worldwide_in_2012.html

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PA Removes Offensive Map for Pres Obama's Visit

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the official maps of the Palestinian Authority erase the entire State of Israel and replace it with "Palestine." These maps appear in the offices of PA officials, in schools and on monuments, just to name a few examples. Before his first election, US President Obama criticized such maps that anticipate a world without Israel, calling them a threat to Israel's security: "I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security... Not when there are terrorist groups and political leaders committed to Israel's destruction. Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don't even acknowledge Israel's existence." (emphasis added) [AIPAC Conference, June 4, 2008] After the UN vote in November 2012, the PA built a monument in a central square in Bethlehem called "The State Monument," which shows the "State of Palestine." However, the model of "Palestine" also includes all of Israel, thereby erasing it completely. The monument celebrates the UN vote on statehood as well as the first PLO/Fatah terror attack against Israel in 1965, which is seen as the beginning of the Palestinian "revolution" and Fatah's anniversary date. The words on the map-shaped monument are: "Birth certificate of the State of Palestine - Nov. 29, 2012, The outbreak of the glorious revolution - Jan. 1, 1965" It turned out that the monument was on President Obama's route in Bethlehem, so in order to prevent him from seeing it, the PA had the monument removed before he arrived, the official PA daily reported. This, however, outraged the local Palestinians who witnessed its removal: "In the city, there are those who not only welcome the visit of the American President, but are willing to go even further... Residents were surprised to find that a model of the map of Palestine engraved with details about the Nakba ("Catastrophe" i.e., Israel's creation) and an olive tree were removed from the Al-Karkafa Square, to be replaced by a model of what was described as a peace dove. This enraged many people who gathered there."   PMW has documented that the PA hides its ideology, activities and goals from the US and European donors, in order to get political support and funding. The temporary removal of the map-shaped monument, so Obama would not see it, is consistent with this deception policy. (See PMW's book Deception for extensive documentation.) In response to the popular anger that the PA daily had reported, the PA then tried to deceive its own people as to the reason for the removal of the monument. Two days after the first story appeared, the paper reported on a press conference held by the Bethlehem District Governor with the Mayor of Bethlehem, at which they claimed that the monument was removed in order to be "redone" and expanded. The fact that it was immediately before Obama's visit was coincidental, according to the PA. In the words of the District Governor: "Everyone knows that Americans do not dictate any Palestinian decisions." The following are the two articles that appeared in the PA daily. The first describes the PA's deception of Obama and the second describes the PA's deception of its own people: "Obama's upcoming visit to Bethlehem weighs heavily on the City of the Nativity. Every day, reporters asked residents their opinion about the visit. Most of them expressed opposition to US policy regarding the Palestinian issue... Activists laid a large picture of Obama on the ground at the intersection of Bab Al-Dir, not far from the Church of the Nativity. Cars drove over the picture and then it was burned. It seems that in the city, there are those who not only welcome the visit of the American President, but are willing to go even further... Residents were surprised to find that a model of the map of Palestine engraved with details about the Nakba ("the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) and an olive tree were removed from the Al-Karkafa Square, to be replaced by a model of what was described as a peace dove. This enraged many people who gathered there." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 19, 2013] "Bethlehem District Governor, Minister Abd Al-Fattah Hamail, and Mayor Vera Baboun, held a press conference yesterday [March 20] to clarify details of what happened to the State Monument and why it was removed... Hamail said that it has been decided to redo the monument at the Nisan Square, known as 'Khaikhoun Square,' and place a monument symbolizing the Palestinian people's pursuit of freedom and peace next to the State Monument, according to the proposal submitted by the artist Akram Nastas. He also noted that the map engraved on the monument is the map of Palestine, which represents national symbolism and is implanted in the hearts of all Palestinians. He added that it is forbidden to infringe on the patriotism of even one Palestinian, whether he is a senior official or not. Hamail denied that Americans had any connection to the subject (i.e., the removal of the map), and said: 'Everyone knows that Americans do not dictate any Palestinian decisions, as the Americans fought until the last minute against the decision to appeal to the UN, and President Mahmoud Abbas rejected this intervention and achieved the UN resolution regarding the [Palestinian] state. This monument illustrates this policy, and no one can remove it, no matter what happens.'" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 21, 2013]

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Source: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8704

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Gaza Rocket hits South of Israel

by JPost.com Staff

Kassam rocket falls in an open area in the South as Israel begins its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.

Gaza escalation Photo: Nikola Solic / Reuters

A Kassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on Sunday landed in an open area of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.

No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.

Security forces located the remains of the rocket after searching the area. A red alert siren had sounded in the area prior to the rocket's landing.

The attack came on the heels of a rise in attacks in the South which was marked by two straight days of rocket fire last week, which lead to an Israeli strike at targets in the Gaza Strip. It was Israel's first retaliation since a truce was implemented following an eight-day flare up last November that nearly lead to an Israeli ground invasion.

Reports of the rocket on sunday were received at the same time that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was delivering a Holocaust Remembrance Day speech at Yad Vashem.

The increase in attacks has raised tension in the south, as residents geared themselves for possibly another round of violence from the Gaza Strip.

JPost.com Staff

Source: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Gaza-rocket-hits-south-of-Israel-none-hurt-309012

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