Ten Ways Israel Is Treated Differently
It’s appalling to see how Israel is treated by a totally different standard than other countries in the international system. Of course, Israel deserves scrutiny, as does every other nation. But it also merits equal treatment — nothing more, nothing less.Honest Reporting: 3 Media Angles to Beware Ahead of the Schabas Report’s Release
First, Israel is the only UN member state whose very right to exist is under constant challenge.
Notwithstanding the fact that Israel embodies an age-old connection with the Jewish people as repeatedly cited in the most widely read book in the world, the Bible, that it was created based on the 1947 recommendation of the UN, and that it has been a member of the world body since 1949, there’s a relentless chorus of nations, institutions, and individuals denying Israel’s very political legitimacy.
No one would dare question the right to exist of many other countries whose basis for legitimacy is infinitely more questionable than Israel’s, including those that were created by brute force, occupation, or distant mapmakers. Just look around at how many nations fit those categories, including, by the way, quite a few Arab countries. Why, then, is it open hunting season only on Israel? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that it’s the only Jewish-majority country in the world?
Second, Israel is the only UN member state that’s been targeted for annihilation by another UN member state.
Think about it. The leadership of Iran, together with Iran-funded proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, has repeatedly called for wiping Israel off the map. Is there any other country facing the threat of genocidal destruction?
Fallout from the William Schabas report could reach the International Criminal Court, where Palestinians are already pushing to put Israeli leaders on trial. Repercussions may reach the UN, where a French initiative on Palestinian statehood will top the agenda after the June 30 deadline on Iranian nuclear talks.
The worst case scenario? A chain reaction of headlines demonizing Israel while the report undermines its moral standing and its ability to fight terror. Should the report make Palestinian victimhood more resonant. efforts to isolate Israel would increase.
Here are three media angles to beware ahead of the Schabas report’s release.
1. The Halo Effect
The halo effect refers to the ability of our impression of people, institutions, or brands to influence our feelings and thoughts about their character. This applies to reporters too, who report what they hear from respectable personalities, government officials, or international organizations without question or independent verification. Will reporters paint the UNHRC and its investigators as apolitical and unbiased?
2. Disproportionate Force
More Palestinians died during the war than Israelis, a point reinforced by a steady stream of context-free daily infographics. But does that mean the IDF fought disproportionately?
3. Moral Equivalence
Hamas and Israel fought a war with each other. Both sides had domestic and international audiences to account for, both sides had spokespeople making their cases in the media, and both sides had dead to bury and wounds to lick. But that’s where superficial parallels end.
The war began with the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, escalated under barrages of rockets, and continued despite repeated cease fire offers to Hamas.
Open your eyes about Gaza
Hamas violently took control of Gaza in 2007. What have they been doing since? Oppressing the Gazan population and investing billions in terrorism against Israel's civilian population. Some people choose to close their eyes to the reality on the ground. What about you?
Netanyahu steps up attacks on UN Human Rights Council before it releases Gaza report
In the run-up to publication by the UN Human rights Council this week of what is expected to be a very critical report of Israel's actions in last summer's Gaza offensive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on the offensive Monday, trying to delegitimize the delegitimizers.'Nearly half of Palestinians killed in Gaza war were armed'
The UN Human Rights Council, Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with visiting Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, has passed more resolutions against Israel than against North Korea, Syria and Iran combined.
Furthermore, he said, the council first appointed as head of the Gaza investigation committee a man, William Schabas, who at one time received payment from the PLO.
The “so called investigation” committee established by the UNHRC, Netanyahu said, pronounced Israel “guilty even before the examination began.”
Netanyahu said that Israel goes to great lengths to prevent harm to civilians, even civilians on the enemy side – and this not out of concern for any committee or another, but because it is deeply ingrained in Israel's value system.
“There is no country that investigates its military for possible wrongdoing more than Israel,” he said. “We examine all such allegations professionally, thoroughly; they are subjected to independent judicial review by military and civilian courts.”
A Foreign Ministry report on last summer's Operation Protective Edge found that nearly half (44%) of the 2,125 Palestinians killed were confirmed to have been armed militants belonging to Hamas or to other terrorist organizations, and that Hamas perpetrated crimes against civilians both in Israel and in the Gaza Strip.Time to revise rules of war
The 277-page report, titled "The 2014 Gaza Conflict: Factual and Legal Aspects," was formulated by a team of experts from the Prime Minister's Office, the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry and the Military Advocate General's office.
The report was released ahead of the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council report, set to be published this week and anticipated to be unfairly critical of Israel.
The comprehensive Israeli report found that Hamas intentionally and strategically attacked from within civilian areas and used civilians as shields for military targets, thus committing war crimes.
"The longer Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip, the more it has invested in embedding its military operations within and under the urban terrain," the report reads. "Hamas training and doctrinal materials found by IDF forces during the operation attest to Hamas' intentional efforts to draw the IDF into combat in densely populated areas and to actively use the civilian population in order to obstruct the IDF's military operations."
The release of the Israeli report into last summer's Operation Protective Edge, as well as the impending release of the U.N. Human Rights Council's report, once again shifts our focus to the issue of warfare ethics.Hamas War Crimes Revealed in New Report
The U.S. has blatantly accused Israel of firing on UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip, even after the U.N. has conceded those locations were used as weapon caches, and at times as firing sites.
The Americans are currently unable to strike Islamic State group hubs in Syria and Iraq, knowing this jihadi group uses civilians as human shields against the West's attacks.
During the Gaza campaign, the Israel Defense Forces avoided striking targets when this would have resulted in serious collateral damage, which at times caused graver harm to Israeli soldiers and prevented the IDF from dealing harsher blows to Hamas.
The introduction of extremely violent elements to the region, which may end up using unconventional, "dirty" weapons, may see Israel face a far more difficult dilemma: Should it strike targets knowing significant collateral damage is all but inevitable, or should it try to withstand unconventional attacks?
Hamas committed war crimes against both the Israeli population and the population of Gaza during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, a new report from the Foreign Ministry has revealed.JPost Editorial: Israeli war ethics
Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold released the report Sunday afternoon (June 14), one day before the United Nations is expected to release its own report on the 2014 war.
The report found that Hamas intentionally held battles in populated urban areas, in an attempt to use Gaza civilians as a human shield. Hamas frequently wired civilian homes with bombs or used them as command centers. In some cases, Hamas fighters forced Gaza civilians to remain in their homes despite Israel warning them to leave.
Hamas also violated international law by storing weapons in schools and by fighting from mosques, as well as by disguising its soldiers as civilians or as Israeli soldiers – both of which are prohibited under international law.
Much of the fighting centered on Hamas’ efforts to prevent Israel from destroying tunnels it had built from Gaza into Israeli territory, with the goal of staging terrorist attacks. The report noted that the tunnels were built in populated areas, and often within homes themselves.
Is it possible to win an asymmetric war against the likes of Hamas? When Hamas terrorists – or terrorists from other organizations operating in the Gaza Strip – fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians and then hide behind Palestinian civilians, Israel faces a horrible moral dilemma.Former Leading IDF Official Accuses Breaking the Silence of Publishing ‘Baseless Findings’
If Israel retaliates, and causes the deaths of Palestinian noncombatants, it not only risks losing the “battle for the hearts and minds” of its own citizens, including soldiers who represent a cross section of Israeli society, it exposes itself to charges of war crimes directed at it by the international community.
That is precisely what is expected to happen when the UN Human Rights Council presents the findings from its probe into last summer’s Operation Protection Edge to the International Criminal Court.
On the other hand, if Israel refrains from retaliating against terrorists out of a desire to prevent deaths on the Palestinian side, it is being negligent in its duty to protect Israeli citizens from Hamas’s aggression.
IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Eitan Dangot, who has served as the military secretary for three Israeli defense ministers over the years, accused a group of non-governmental organizations of lying about, and causing harm to, the Jewish state, Israeli news site NRG reported on Friday.'Israel, Hamas both committed war crimes in Gaza conflict,' Schabas says
Dangot made his comments during a lengthy interview with NRG in which he addressed the activities of NGOs including Breaking the Silence and Gisha, which advocates for the removal of all restrictions on movement for Palestinians.
Dangot said that these organizations, “publish partial testimonies and baseless findings,” and in doing so, “are causing harm to the State.”
The military leader added that, “when the truth is finally revealed — and in many cases the truthful version turns out to be completely different than what was initially published — it is no longer interesting and the harm has already been done.”
In an interview with Channel 2, Schabas lamented Israel’s decision not to cooperate with UN investigators, who are due to release their findings sometime this week.Israel refuses entry to UN special investigator Wibisono
“When it suits it, Israel cooperates with commissions of inquiry,” Schabas said. “When it comes to the UN Human Rights Council and its commission of inquiry, it hasn’t cooperated. I think that’s unfortunate. I think it’s not in Israel’s best interests to boycott commissions of inquiry. It’s not a question of alternatives. It’s both.”
“It should cooperate with the international commission of inquiry, and it should also conduct the investigation itself,” he said.
Schabas brushed aside Israel’s contention that Hamas was the only party to commit war crimes during Operation Protective Edge.
“It would be a very unusual war if only one side committed violations of the laws of war and the other behaved perfectly,” Schabas said. “That would be an unusual situation and an unusual conclusion. The greater likelihood is that both sides actually committed violations of the law during the conflict.”
Israel last week refused entry to Makarim Wibisono, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who is working on a report on rights violations in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.Netanyahu hits back at Abbas over boycott comments
Wibisono plans to submit the report to the 70th session of the General Assembly this fall in New York.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said, “Israel cooperates with most human rights mechanisms of the UN. Israel does not cooperate with unfair and unbalanced mandates such as the UNHRC rapporteur’s mandate, and consequently his entry to Israel is not allowed.”
Israel remains the only country for which a special investigator is permanently assigned.
The investigator is mandated to focus on Israeli human rights violations against Palestinians and is not assigned to explore Palestinian ones.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Monday for urging African countries to boycott goods produced by Israeli-owned companies in the West Bank, stressing that vilification of Jews had led to full-fledged persecution against them in the past.Coca-Cola Palestine CEO Urges Boycott of Israel
“Yesterday Palestinian President Abbas called for the labeling and boycotting of Israeli products. This is definitely not the language of peace,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna. We will continue to resist boycotts, defamation, de-legitimization. We’ll do that internationally, we’ll do that locally if we need to, and our hand will remain stretched out for peace for any partner that wants to have peace with us.”
“I say that to the foreign minister of a free proud and independent Poland, on whose soil the defamation of the Jewish people happened when the Nazis controlled Europe,” Netanyahu said. “The attacks on the Jews were always preceded by the slander of the Jews. What was done to the Jewish people then is being done to the Jewish state now. We won’t accommodate that. In those days we could do nothing.”
Speaking at the 25th African Union assembly in the South African city of Johannesburg on Sunday, Abbas called on state leaders to require the labeling of settlement products as a means of deterring consumers from purchasing such items. The Palestinian leader added that the sale of Israeli goods produced beyond the Green Line violated international legal standards.
Perhaps at the time Coca-Cola was unaware of Mr. Khouri’s September 2014 op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel in which their partner & regional CEO noted that the “non-violent efforts of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) advocates make sense as a means to force Israel to recognize that the occupation is not cost-free.” Coca-Cola’s local partner suggested that “countries, like those in the European Union, could enforce their own laws against doing businesses with countries that violate human rights.”PA Campaign to Create New Facts on the Ground in Samaria
Perhaps Mr. Khouri should re-read the Coca-Cola Code of Business Conduct for franchisees, which states, “because The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated in the United States, our employees around the world often are subject to U.S. laws.” In addition to it being morally wrong to boycott Israel, recent amendments by the U.S. House and Senate require U.S. trade negotiators to “discourage politically motivated actions” by foreign countries and international organizations that aim to “penalize or otherwise limit” commercial relations with Israel or “persons doing business in Israel or in territories controlled by Israel.” A regional CEO threatening to boycott America’s staunchest Mid-East ally is cause for concern on many levels for Coca-Cola.
Yet, Mr. Khouri flouts these regulations, noting in the Washington insider publication The Hill that “this Congress is now legislating against the Palestinian nonviolent action of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a means to secure Palestinian freedom.” He then urges Jewish Voices for Peace, the anti-Zionist organization funded by George Soros, to assist him in lobbying efforts in Washington, DC. Does he also meet with Coca-Cola lobbyists while in our nation’s capitol?
When advocating in favor of BDS, Mr. Khouri is careful to identify himself not with Coca-Cola but as, for example, a “Palestinian-American businessman,” as he did in his bio line on The Hill or as “chairman of Orlando-based Intram Investments and chairman of the Palestinian Tourism Co. in Ramallah,” as reads his bio in the Sentinel. (Multiple emails and calls to Coca-Cola, Mr. Khouri, and Palestinian National Beverage Company requesting comment for this story were not returned. If any responds, this story will be updated to include their viewpoint.)
With many finding the BDS movement both anti-Semitic and racist, it is difficult to imagine how any company can justify a top executive supporting a boycott of Israel – and that much tougher for Fortune Magazine’s 10th most-admired company of 2015.
Arab leaders in the Shechem (Nablus) region of Samaria are escalating their efforts against the Jewish communities of the area, less than two weeks before the Palestinian Authority (PA) is to submit a "war crimes" lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its activity in Judea and Samaria.PMW: Fatah: Israel is like the Islamic State
The PA's Palestinian Organization for the Struggle Against Settlements has recently launched a new campaign called "advancement towards the mountains," which is meant to cut off the natural growth of the Jewish communities towards Arab towns in the rural village area in southern Shechem.
As part of the campaign, Arab residents placed caravans on the mountains adjacent to the towns Jamma'in and Huwara.
Rasan Daglas, a PA official who leads the organization in the Shechem region, told the Hamas paper Palestine on Sunday that the goal of the new campaign is to demonstrate the commitment of the residents to the land in light of the "daily crimes of the occupation settlers," who he said were trying to expel the Arab residents.
With the Islamic State being accepted internationally as a genocidal terror group, the PA and Fatah are repeatedly comparing Israel to the Islamic State as their new method of hate speech against Israel, as Palestinian Media Watch has reported.PreOccupied Territory: Abbas Confused By ICC Attention To Country Other Than Israel (satire)
Last month, an official Fatah website showed a peace dove being stabbed by a knife marked with both the acronym for Islamic State - “ISIS” (Daesh) - and the Star of David. (See image above) [Fatah's Information and Culture Commission website, March 14, 2015]
A similar message was expressed in another cartoon, showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing on the statue of a dove and beheading it with a hammer. Text on the image said: “Netanyahu: ‘There will be no new withdrawals from the Palestinian territories!’” Behind Netanyahu is a black and white flag similar to the flag of the Islamic State but with a Star of David.
Text on flag: “The Jewish State.”
Text on statue: “Two-State Solution” and “Peaceful Agreement.”
[Fatah's Information and Culture Commission website, March 14, 2015]
The message that Islamic State and Israel are allies was expressed by Fatah with a cartoon showing an Israeli soldier and an ISIS soldier standing embraced as partners in the same battle while shooting rifles. The soldier’s helmets bear a Star of David and the acronym “ISIS.” The caricature was entitled “Two sides of the same coin.” [Fatah's Information and Culture Commission website, March 4, 2015]
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas voiced bewilderment today at the tension over South Africa’s possible arrest of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir at the behest of the International Criminal Court, saying he was unaware that the ICC was authorized to pursue accused war criminals who are not Israeli.Israel accuses world powers of yielding to Iran for nuclear deal
Bashir visited South Africa to participate in a conference of the African Union. On Sunday, the ICC sent a request to the host country to detain Bashir, who is wanted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and a litany of other war crimes during Sudan’s civil war. A day of confusion and anticipation followed, during which it remained unclear whether South Africa, which is an ICC member, would comply with the request. This afternoon Bashir was allowed to return to Sudan, but not before the Palestinian President expressed his surprise that the Court would go to any lengths to pursue a non-Israeli.
“We of course oppose the warrant against President Bashir, as any good Arab should,” said Abbas. “The ICC is neglecting its mission as a weapon in the struggle against the Zionist Entity, in favor of persecuting a member of the group with ultimate victim-of-persecution status: Arabs.”
Aides to Abbas said the president was troubled by the impact the Bashir arrest request might have on several pending cases against Israel for IDF actions during last summer’s war in and around the Gaza Strip. “The credibility of the International Criminal Court suffers when it fails to treat Israeli crimes with the gravity they deserve – namely, that no other crimes deserve attention until Israel is punished,” explained Nabil Shaath. “It is therefore puzzling why the Court would take such an obviously compromising measure as pursuing the arrest of an ally of Israel’s victims.”
“Whose side do they think they’re on?” wondered Shaath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused world powers on Sunday of stepping up concessions to Iran to enable a deal by June 30 on curbing its nuclear program even as Tehran balks at demands for heightened U.N. inspections.Concerns over Khamenei’s health may jeopardize nuke deal
Netanyahu has argued that the agreement in the works would not deny Iran - which says its nuclear projects are peaceful - the means of making a bomb, while granting it sanctions relief that could help bankroll its guerrilla allies in the region.
"To our regret, the reports that are coming in from the world powers attest to an acceleration of concessions by them in the face of Iranian stubbornness," Netanyahu told his cabinet in broadcast remarks on Sunday. He did not offer further details.
Netanyahu's point-man on the Iranian talks, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, said it appeared that world powers were prepared to accommodate Tehran's resistance to expanded, short-order U.N. nuclear inspections and demand to continue research and development of uranium centrifuges that make nuclear fuel.
On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country, in the name of protecting state secrets, could reject stepped-up inspections - even at the cost of missing the June 30 deadline. Western diplomats had sought the right to carry out inspections with as little as two hours' notice.
But in a televised address on Sunday, Rouhani played up the benefits of easing Iran's international isolation and pledged to reach a deal that would end the hardship of sanctions.
Concerns over the health of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who reportedly suffers from prostate cancer, are mounting as the P5+1 and Tehran negotiate an agreement over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.Iranian cleric: Obama wants nuclear deal in order to become 'the hero of America'
According to recent reports in the Iranian press, Khamenei may only have months left to live, The Telegraph reported on Sunday, and an ensuing power struggle between hardliners and moderates over Iran’s top role could derail talks currently taking place ahead of the June 30 target date.
In March, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerics who appoint and can dismiss the country’s supreme leader, elected ultraconservative Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi as their new chairman.
According to the report, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, a protege of Khamenei’s and a hardliner, has been positioning himself for the role, conducting purges of the more moderate potential candidates.
US President Barack Obama's motives in the creation of the nuclear agreement with Iran were questioned this weekend by a prominent Iranian cleric, Fars news agency reported. Religious leader Amad Khatami, addressing worshipers at Tehran University, expressed how the US President is seeking to become a "hero of his nation through a nuclear deal with Iran, and he will see himself in bad crisis if Washington fails to clinch the agreement."‘Iran spying on Israel, Saudi Arabia with major cyberattacks’
"He wants his party to be elected again and if this deal with Iran is signed the Democratic party will have a better chance of victory," Khatami was quoted as saying.
He expressed doubts over Obama's nuclear policy with Iran, explaining how the US president first promoted "Iranophobia" throughout the world with allegations that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and claimed the US was taking a firm stand against Iran through the promotion of this deal. "The US needs an agreement with Iran," he continued.
Iran and six world powers are currently seeking to overcome remaining differences with a self-imposed June 30 deadline looming to end a 12-year standoff.
A framework accord was reached between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China on April 2, but several major substantive disputes remain to be resolved, including access for UN nuclear inspectors to Iranian military sites and the pace and timing of sanctions relief for Tehran.
The Israeli ClearSky cybersecurity company said it has discovered an ongoing wave of cyber attacks originating from Iran on targets in Israel and the Middle East. The goal is “espionage or other nation-state interests,” the firm said.Michael Totten: The Saudis Team Up With Israel
The hackers have used techniques such as targeted phishing — in which hackers gather user identification data using false web pages that look like real and reputable ones — to hack into 40 targets in Israel and 500 worldwide. In Israel the targets have included retired generals, employees of security consulting firms and researchers in academia.
Some 44 percent of those targeted are in Saudi Arabia, followed by Israel (14%) and Yemen (11%).
Company officials said that the targets outside Israel included the finance minister of a Middle Eastern country, Qatar’s embassy in Britain, journalists and human rights activists, according to Israel Radio.
“The campaign includes several different attacks with the aim of taking over the target’s computer or gain access to their email account. We estimate that this access is used for espionage or other nation-state interests,” ClearSky said.
Saudi and Israeli diplomats jointly announced that they've held five meetings in secret since early last year in India, Italy, and the Czech Republic.Seven trends to watch in the Middle East
The reason? Iran. The Israelis and the Saudis have a common enemy in Tehran, and they're increasingly relying on each other now that the United States, contrary to the interests of both, might ease sanctions if a nuclear deal gets hammered out later this year.
Retired Saudi general Anwar Majed Eshki and Israeli diplomat Dore Gold shook hands in front of the cameras during their announcement at the Council on Foreign Relations—a bigger deal than it seems. Not because it suddenly means that Israel and Saudi Arabia are best friends forever—fat chance of that ever happening—but because shaking hands with or even saying hello to an Israeli is a crime in some Arab countries, even in Lebanon which is more open-minded and cosmopolitan than the lot of them.
But bigotries can fade in even the most reactionary countries over time and under the right circumstances, and it's actually happening in Saudi Arabia.
To say the Middle East is experiencing trying times would be an understatement. The region is experiencing unprecedented chaos and lacks political and economic direction. The assumption is that most of this will go on for years to come, and it will likely get worse before it gets better. There are a number of trends and developments that are worth watching, some of which are being ignored by the media. In no particular order, the following are what anyone interested in the future of the region should be paying attention to:JCPA: It's Time for Israel to Stop Neglecting Cyprus
Mahmoud Abbas’s Successor
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was born in Safed in Mandate Palestine in 1935.
He was elected president in 2005 and was supposed to serve a four-year term. The success of Hamas in legislative elections in 2006 made the PA wary of holding more and they were indefinitely postponed. The problem with finding a successor to Abbas is that the Palestinians need someone younger than his aging lieutenants such as Ahmed Qurei (78), Nabil Sha’ath (77). If the PA is plunged into uncertainty and chaos that will bode ill for both Israel and Jordan – and particularly for the Palestinians.
The Destruction of Arab Education
A BBC article recently gave readers a peek inside life in Mosul, the regional capital of IS in Iraq. Mosques are being blown up, private libraries having their contents dumped in the streets and many parents were keeping their children home from school to avoid IS indoctrination. Across the region education has been the main victim of the chaos, political uncertainty, civil war and murderous onslaughts of various groups.
The long-term affect is that there will be an Arab “lost generation” which lacks basic education from Libya to Iraq. The problem isn’t just that some are being indoctrinated with pre-modern Islamist views and have gotten used to seeing people being whipped in public, beheaded or stoned, it is that even the majority rejecting these views are being deprived of means to advancement. The educational failings today will have an impact for the rest of the century.
It may sometimes seem the world is increasingly antagonistic toward Israel, but Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades' visit to Jerusalem this week should remind Israelis that there are still allies to be found, even in the Middle East. One of them lies a mere 200 kilometers from the beaches of Haifa.Bennett Tells Bereaved Family: 'Your Son Was Murdered Twice'
For decades, Israel has neglected Cyprus, focusing its efforts on becoming more acceptable to its Arab neighbors, as well as to Turkey, Cyprus' archenemy. But these efforts have stalled in recent years. Relations with Turkey have soured, the peace with Jordan and Egypt is more or less frozen, and the peace process with the Palestinians is nonexistent.
Among all of these, it is Cyprus, Israel's only non-majority-Muslim neighbor, that provides a glimmer of hope. With only 10 percent of Israel's population and 1 percent of Turkey's, the island may seem to be of little strategic importance, but recent geopolitical and economic developments have elevated its value for Israel and vice versa, creating the conditions for a renaissance in Israel-Cyprus relations.
An important agenda item of Anastasiades' visit will be energy. Cyprus and Israel share significant natural gas reserves. The same companies that own Israel's Leviathan and Tamar gas fields – Noble Energy, Delek Drilling and Avner Oil & Gas Exploration – also own Aphrodite, a 4.5 trillion cubic feet field that lies off the coast of Cyprus.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) visited the family of slain IDF soldier Moshe Tamam hy”d Monday morning.A Gaza ‘Tunnel Millionaire’ Falls on Hard Times
Bennett explained that he wanted to visit Tamam's next of kin in order to personally assure them that the play glorifying their son's terrorist murderer has been removed from the list of state-funded cultural events intended for youths.
Bennett was referring to the play "The Parallel Time" by Almidan, an Arab theater in Haifa, which tells the story of Walid Daka, an Arab-Israeli imprisoned for abducting and murdering Tamam in 1984.
Bennett expressed his sorrow over suffering the family had to go through in its struggle to remove the play from the state-subsidized “culture basket,” and promised that no more schoolchildren would be taken to see it.
"The first time Moshe was murdered was horrific,” he said. “But only in Israel, can you die more than once. The second time, they wanted to free Moshe's murderers and we prevented this. This time, they were mounting a play about the murderer with state funding, and we prevented this. I promise to continue to be your protective shield as long as I can. The family has suffered enough. I apologize for your suffering on behalf of the state of Israel.”
Mr. Sawiri is among the thousands of men thrown out of work last year as Egypt cracked down on the tunnels, accusing Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers of offering safe passage to militants fleeing Egypt. The men swelled the idle work force in Gaza, where unemployment has soared to 44 percent since last summer’s war with Israel.State of the art hospital completed in Gaza
The tunnels brought in just about every imaginable sort of merchandise — live cows, zoo animals, cars, soda and cement. They flourished after Israel and Egypt tightened restrictions on trade and movement in 2007, to punish Hamas for seizing power in Gaza.
Some former tunnel men have become vendors in this park, including Mr. Sawiri, who borrowed $65 from his mother to set up his stand in a tree-lined corner. A rare open green space in Gaza, the park is a central gathering point. Rallies typically begin here, and during the war, hundreds of people made homeless camped in the park. It attracts rich and poor, idle men and pram-pushing moms, students and lovers, making business lucrative.
Courtesy of various Indonesian NGO's, a brand new hospital has been completed in Gaza. The Indonesia Hospital, Rumah Sakit Indonesia in Bayt Layiha is preparing for its grand-opening.UN Efforts to Save the Endangered Palestinian Refugee a Resounding Success (satire)
According to Shadi Abu Herbein, the deputy director of the hospital, the building is over 3000 square meters and has 100 beds, eight in an intensive care unit, and four rooms for surgeries.
In 1949, the United Nations became concerned with the low numbers of Palestinian refugees following the first Arab-Israeli War. In response, the UN quickly declared Palestinian refugees to be an endangered species and organized a commission, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, to foster the growth of the failing population. According to the UNRWA, there were only about 800,000 refugees in 1948. However, through the use of multi-faceted conservation efforts, the current population of Palestinian refugees now numbers approximately 5 million. This growth, more than a 500 percent increase, is what led the UN to declare their program a staggering success.Israel said to urge US to increase aid to Syrian Druze
Normally, when refugees are created through conflict, the number of refugees dwindles slowly and pathetically, until none remain. This was even the case following both World Wars, two of the most destructive conflicts in history. One of the most significant threats to refugee populations is that they can’t reproduce biologically- that is, two refugee parents cannot produce refugee children. However, due to clever steps taken by the UN, Palestinian refugees can reproduce biologically and pass on their status to their offspring. The second most severe threat to refugee populations is resettling elsewhere. When refugees find a new place to call home, they usually lose their refugee status. Here again, the UN was able to find a way to protect Palestinian refugee numbers. Rather than attempt to resettle Palestinian refugees, numerous camps were set up for them so that they would be far less likely to resettle. With these types of programs in place, there is no doubt that we will see the continued success of the once endangered Palestinian refugee.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week urged Gen. Martin Dempsey to boost US aid to Syria’s increasingly embattled Druze minority, Haaretz reported Saturday night.Analysis: Threat to Syrian Druse could drag Israel unwittingly into the killing fields
The request was lodged with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman during the military chief’s Jerusalem visit, and after Israel ruled out direct involvement in Jabal al-Druze. The area, which lies deep in Syrian territory, faces attack by the Islamic State from the east and Al-Nusra front from the west, the report said.
Israel did not, however, nix sending aid to the Druze community in Khadr, on the Syrian Golan Heights, it said.
Meanwhile, thousands of Druze Israelis held protests in northern Israel on Saturday in an appeal to the Israeli government to assist their brethren across the border. Members of Israel’s Druze minority, many of whom have relatives and friends in Syria, were collecting money, clothes, food, and other staples to send across the border, the Ynet news website reported. The marches on Saturday drew large crowds, with participants chanting “We will not be silent in the face of the slaughter,” and threatening to launch an open-ended strike.
The Druze Zionist Council on Saturday penned a letter to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, urging Israel to avert a Druze “holocaust” by jihadists.
And this is where it gets unbelievable: Hezbollah and Israel have a common interest, albeit with different motives, to defend the Druse community in Syria.Jihadist attack on Syria's Druze population could spur Israel to act
This is part of a larger realignment aimed at creating an independent Druse military force. The initiative is ambitious and requires the enlistment of 100,000 troops.
The coordinator is a former general in the Syrian army. The heavy weapons – antitank missiles, armored cars and artillery – will probably be provided via Jordan by foreign suppliers.
The US, if necessary, will provide air strikes against Islamic State. It can be assumed that these steps, if executed, will be coordinated with Israel.
In the worst-case scenario, Israel is preparing for an emergency in which it will have to absorb tens of thousands of Druse refugees, or as a last resort use its air force to defend them.
The latest religious minority to be caught in the Syrian crossfire are the Druze, who have long enjoyed the protection of the Assad regime, but now find themselves under attack from the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front and could soon look to Israel for help.Israeli Druse leader calls for action to prevent 'Druse Holocaust' in Syria
The slaughter Wednesday of more than 20 members of Syria's Druze community, a monotheistic religion that incorporates elements including philosophy, Judaisim, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, could signal a coming humanitarian crisis, according to officials in Israel, which has a sizeable Druze population of its own. With embattled President Bashar al-Assad pulling forces back to defend Damascus, the nation's estimated 700,000 Druze have no protection should the terrorist groups fighting to take over the nation turn their attention to them, as they have Christians and Kurds.
"What is going on just now is intimidation and a threat to the very existence of half a million Druze on the Mount of Druze which is very close to the Israeli border," said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at a press conference of the potential humanitarian crisis.
Thousands of Israeli Druse demonstrated in the North on Saturday night in protest of the slaughter of their kin by al-Qaida-linked rebels in embattled Syria.Al Qaeda Apologizes for Murdering 20 Druze
The al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front acknowledged on Saturday that its members were involved in the killing of Druse villagers in northwestern Syria this week, saying they had violated orders and would face justice.
Twenty Druse villagers were reportedly killed in the village of Qalb Loze in Idlib province on Wednesday when Nusra Front members opened fire in an incident that spiraled from their attempt to confiscate a house.
Protests by member of the Druse community in Israel occurred particularly in the northern towns of Kfar Rameh, Kfar Sumei and in the Golan Heights.
Jaber Hamed, the head of the Sajur Council and Chairman of the Forum of the Druse and Circassian Authority, said the Druse community intended on taking action and making a strong statement against the "massacre of our brothers in Syria."
Al Qaeda's Syria affiliate said on Saturday it would prosecute members involved in an shoot-out in northwest Idlib province that killed at least 20 members of the country's Druze minority.Golda Meir pic wiped from Egypt exhibit
In an official statement published on Twitter, Nusra Front sought to allay fears of further attacks on minorities, saying that some of its members acted "in clear violation of the leadership's views," reports AFP.
On Thursday, residents of the village of Qalb Lawzah protested after a Tunisian Nusra leader tried to seize a Druze man's home, accusing him of being loyal to the Syrian regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The Tunisian leader gathered his men and accused the Druze residents of the village of blasphemy and opened fire on them killing at least 20 people, among them elderly people and at least one child," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
In its statement, Nusra said it had immediately dispatched a committee to Qalb Lawzah to "reassure the residents that what happened was unjustifiable."
A photograph of former prime minister Golda Meir was removed Saturday from an exhibition at an Egyptian museum following an outcry by online activists and Egyptian media personalities incensed at seeing the mug of the Israeli leader.
The Pioneer Women exhibition at the the Pharaonic Village in Giza, which opened to visitors over the weekend, featured images and stories of women from around the world who played a pivotal role in bringing positive social change to their communities.
A picture of Meir, who served as prime minister during Israel’s bloody 1973 Yom Kippur War against Syria and Egypt, was displayed alongside photos of other international female leaders, such as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Egyptian feminist activist Huda Saharawi, according to Egyptian daily al-Ahram.
The exhibition’s organizers decided to get rid of Meir’s photo after receiving a slew of complaints on social media and criticism by several TV hosts in the country, who claimed the former Israeli leader was directly responsible for the deaths of numerous Egyptian citizens.
Abdel-Salam Raged, CEO of the Pharaonic Village, later conceded to the Al-Ahram Arabic news website that he believed including Meir’s photo in the exhibition was a mistake.
“The exhibition includes statues and photos of 70 women figures from all over the world that have affected our lives, whether in a positive or negative way, starting from ancient Egypt until now,” Raged said.
“Our message was to highlight women’s powers, not to call for the normalization of relations with Israel,” he said.
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