Hamas accused Israeli agents accompanying National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau to the United Arab Emirates two weeks ago of assassinating one of its top operatives, Mahmoud Mabhouh.
A senior source in the Prime Minister’s Office said Israel had no comment on the matter. Continue reading
[hat tip to Mondoweiss]
Image taken from here Prepared by UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT)
This is one of the “better” anti-Israel videos I’ve seen lately; and it’s brand new.
Is there anyone out there making pro-Israel videos? Anyone…
How about this cartoon? Is this anti-Semitic? It’s called: “Hey, It’s our Holocaust Memorial Day, Not Yours!”
How about this blog post, called: “Have you heard of the Holocaust?” and which asks “Why this narrow use of the word [Holocaust]?
“Was it the Holocaust that took place during WW1 when millions perished in the mud on the Western Front? Was it the millions of Russians who were killed while driving the Germans back from the gates of Stalingrad?
Was it the number of European citizens killed by the Germans as they over ran Europe? Was it the holocaust caused by Pol Pot, one which killed millions of Cambodian citizens? Did it refer to the use of atomic bombs on the Japanese citizens by the Americans? What about the Holocausts carried out by Stalin and Mao which killed millions?”
#1: Israel has come up with a somewhat smart compromise to Goldstone’s demand for a good-faith investigation into Operation Cast Lead. Israel is proposing that a panel of respected Israeli jurists [Aharon Barak, Michael Cheshin] review internal IDF investigations into Cast Lead, and if they’re OK, to say so, in the hope that this will be enough to ward off the UN from demanding a more thorough, independent investigation, which, if Israel doesn’t establish, will land it in the Hague court on charges of war crimes. Israel is hoping this will be enough, but will it? Doubtful. The Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly is too heavily stacked against Israel. Other outstanding questions: what real powers will the judicial panel have? If a probe seems inadequate, can the judges order a more thorough investigation? What access will it have to documents, officers, witnesses? How transparent will the process be? Continue reading
Ruth Eglash and Amir Mizroch
In an hour-long interview in her office in Jerusalem, Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver gets angry only once; only once, but very, very angry.
The usually self-composed Landver, herself an immigrant from the FSU, lets rip at the widespread belief amongst veteran Israelis that while new immigrants are vital to this country, 73 percent of the people surveyed said they believe that immigration caused a rise in crime and youth alcoholism. When asked which population people would most like to have as neighbors, veteran Israelis came in first, followed by new immigrants from the United States, immigrants from France, immigrants from the Former Soviet Union and lastly immigrants from Ethiopia. The same results were found when people were asked which population they would be happy to have their children in the class with and also who they would like their children to marry. Continue reading
Press freedom in Israel nosedived in 2009, Reporters Without Borders noted in its eighth annual world press freedom index released Sunday.
Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, had an impact on the press. As regards its internal situation, Israel sank 47 places in the index to 93rd position. This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) and Lebanon (61st).
Israel has begun to use the same methods internally as it does outside its own territory, the report states. Reporters Without Borders registered five arrests of journalists, some of them completely illegal, and three cases of imprisonment. The military censorship applied to all the media is also posing a threat to journalists, the report says.
As regards its extraterritorial actions, Israel was ranked 150th. The toll of the war was very heavy. Around 20 journalists in the Gaza Strip were injured by the Israeli military forces and three were killed while covering the offensive.
Reporters Without Borders compiles the index every year on the basis of questionnaires that are completed by hundreds of journalists and media experts around the world. This year’s index reflects press freedom violations that took place between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009.
The Foreign Ministry just released this, some three hours before Ankara’s deadline for an Israeli apology:
January 13, 2010
H.E. The Ambassador of Turkey
Mr. Ahmet Oguz Celikkol
His Excellency,
I wish to express my personal respect for you and the Turkish people and assure you that although we have our differences of opinion on several issues, they should be discussed and solved only through open, reciprocal and respectful diplomatic channels between our two governments.
I had no intention to humiliate you personally and apologize for the way the demarche was handled and perceived. Please convey this to the Turkish people for whom we have great respect.
I hope that both Israel and Turkey will seek diplomatic and courteous channels to convey messages as two allies should.
Sincerely,
Danny Ayalon
Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel
[Here's my first political cartoon]:
Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an ancient Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago? This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research. But now, for the first time, the Israeli government itself has shown formal interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion and determine whether or not the tribe that makes up the hard core of today’s Taliban have a blood link to any of the ten lost tribes of Israel, and specifically, the tribe of Efraim.
Mrs. Shahnaz Ali, Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Immuno-Haematology, Mumbai, has joined the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), Haifa, to genetically study the blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad in District Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, that she collected to confirm their putative Israelite origin. Continue reading
TV screaming matches: Good journalism or bad? Should interviewers cross the line from being assertive to in-your-face, to outright combative? Is that necessary sometimes when a politician deserves it?
Here is the video of Balad MK Jamal Zahalka and journalist Dan Margalit screaming at each other on Erev Hadash last Friday. Besides being a display of passion and venom from both sides, this exchange has done more for the ratings of Erev Hadash [A New Evening] than anything the producers have done in the past.
Zahalka compared Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak to Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of SS intelligence and the ‘Butcher of Prague’, when he said that Barak “listened to classical music and killed Palestinian children” – a reference to Heydrich’s penchant for classical music and mass murder. This in and of itself is incitement, associating a Jewish, Israeli minister of defense with Heydrich. But Margalit could have handled it better. Continue reading
