Amid Mideast turmoil, UN chastises Israel

Israel cannot depend for its survival on pieces of paper
signed by dictators.

How often do free peoples need to be taught that lesson?

Amid Mideast turmoil, UN chastises Israel

APARTHEID WEEK - PART TWO

HOW TO BANKRUPT TERRORISM

No doubt the folks at Fairfax would cringe at the mere sight of the word "bankrupt" (let alone "terrorism") so it comes as no suprise that an interview with Nitsana Darshan-Leitner would never appear in one of its newspapers.

Thankfully, the Weekend Australian wants to provide a balanced coverage for its readers so please follow the linke to HOW TO BANKRUPT TERRORISM.

APARTHEID WEEK - PART ONE

This is Apartheid (Source: Elderofziyon)

Flotilla hero, the Gaddafi Prize and the Money

Kings of the cutthroats

As the bodies pile up in Libya, flotilla hero and Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is coming under pressure to return an honour bestowed on him last November, the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. Other recipients include former South African President Nelson Mandela and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez - Turkish leader keeps his Gaddafi Prize for Human Rights

The award also includes $50,000 and it's no surprise that Erdogan is hanging on to that along with the stash he has in several Swiss bank accounts according to WikiLeaks.

And, as far as I know, the bloke who wrote all those fanciful puff pieces about the so called peaceniks on the Erdogan financed fake flotilla is hanging on to his Walkley.

Bowling for Hamas

Those who read the Blank Pages will no doubt be well aware that the usual suspects who are supposed to bring you the news from the Middle East rarely highlight the fact that one of the worst tyrannies in the Arab world is the thugocracy that rules Gaza - Hamas. Some of them even go to such great lengths as to write six page supplements about the place without deigning to mention the word "Hamas".

It will come as a surprise therefore to their readers who don't go anywhere else for their news exactly what a bunch of murderous bastards they've hitched their wagons to - but only if they decided to read newspapers that provide the full picture.

Gaza's elected Islamist rulers crack down on secular community

After nearly four years of Hamas rule, the Gaza Strip's small secular community is in tatters, decimated by the militant group's campaign to impose its strict version of Islam in the coastal territory.

We saw Hamas in action when the movement wiped out opposition in the 2007 coup, in some cases throwing them off the roofs of apartment buildings.

This is only the tip of the iceberg and if the people of Gaza decided to protest against Hamas, Khaddafy's butchery of last week would look like a picnic.

JOURNALISTS TAKE A VACATION

Grad rockets fired from Gaza hit civilian targets in the Israeli city of Beersheba and journalism outside Israel takes a vacation - Grad rocket attack.

A clear sign that the media discriminates against bad Arabs who attack other Arabs (nasties like Gaddafi who wasn't such a bad guy in their eyes until very recently) in favour of really bad Arabs (like Palestinian terrorists) who attack Jews.

Where's Mr. McGeough?

Where's Mr. Milne?

Where's Mr. Loewenstein?

No doubt they'll come out of their holes when Israel retaliates against the terrorists.

THE OLDEST OBSESSION

"The British educated classes are obsessed by Israel, can’t leave it alone, pick at it without remission. It defines and distorts their whole outlook on the world. They think of it when they are talking about something totally unrelated to the Middle East, such as children’s rights. It has truly become a disease of the British mind, a kind of geopolitical Tourette Syndrome, a pathologically uncontrollable spasm of hatred and lies." - Melanie Phillips in The oldest obsession.

Agree with that although question the use of the word "educated".

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Today's Australian

Vile dictatorial regimes in the Middle East and North Africa are facing the wrath of men and woman who have suffered under decades of oppression, repression and persecution. At least some of these truly awful regimes may well, at long last, topple.

While men and women in their hundreds of thousands are fighting, and many are dying, to win their freedom, the UN Security Council, rather than supporting these people, found the time to debate yet another of its seemingly endless stream of anti-Israel resolutions. When so many oppressed people are trying to build roads to freedom, the UN remains in a rut on the road to nowhere.

Dr Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic

Here's more on the United Nations shambles:-

JEW BASHING CONTINUES AS ARABIA BURNS

The Libyan airforce is said to be indiscriminately bombing its own civilians so what is the United Nations thinking about at the moment?

Here are two items from the Australian's Cut and Paste of today:

Paul McGeough in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

While upheaval continues in the Middle East, the idea that the Obama administration was more concerned about its strategic interests than the human rights of more than 300 million Arabs was confirmed when Washington torpedoed a UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement-building in occupied Palestinian territory.

Of course, the Obama Administration believes such action in the UN would be counterproductive to genuine attempts to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours. One has to ask how many times during Israel's 10 month settlement freeze that operated through most of 2010 did McGeough and people of his ilk condemn the PA for not taking up the opportunity to negotiate with Israel and how many times did they excoriate the Hamas regime in Gaza for continually preaching genocide against the Jews?

And a more rational approach to what's happening than that put forward by McGeough (also from Cut and Paste)

Anne Bayefsky on Pajamas Media on February 18:

The spectacle of the UN Security Council engaged in one more Israel-bashing exercise, while the Iranian and Arab world burns, is a stark example of the organisation's moral turpitude and irrelevance for the 21st century. Iranians are rioting today against a vicious government that stones women for alleged adultery, murders homosexuals for the crime of existing, amputates limbs by judicial decree, brutalises anyone wanting free speech, and is currently holding two Americans hostage for hiking.

Is there a security council resolution in the works on the dying and the dead in Iran? Bahrain? Libya? Tunisia? Egypt? Algeria? Not the slightest possibility. The only thing on the table at the UN is a statement that it is illegal for any Jew to live on any land that is claimed by Palestinian Arabs.

WHITEWASHING THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

Accoridng to the BBC, the Muslim Brotherhood has morphed into a certifiable moderate movement - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood promotes moderate path.

Never mind the organisations history of involvement with fascism including the Nazis during World War 2 or the more recent deadly attacks on the Christian Coptic population.

They're now all peaceniks in very much the same as their Turkish IHH brothers who masquerade as peace loving charities whose members like to occasionally play around with guns, knives and metal bars.

The sick story of an Israeli Finkler

How is it that monsters like this roam the face of this earth?

The America-Bashing, Pro-Taliban Tweets of Nir Rosen

At the end of the week ... time for some fun

The same old

The New York Post and very few others are reporting that Laura Logan, a 60 Minutes correspondent, was "repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, "Jew! Jew!" as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's main square" last week - CBS reporter's Cairo nightmare.

COPT THIS

ALP Member for Melbourne Ports has written an interesting article for Breakfast Politics on an interesting array of issues that have arisen in connection with Middle East in the past month or so - Copt This.

Pompous Pilger Pasted

That John Pilger is an pompous, oafish boor who enjoys hearing the sound of his own voice is a well known and well documented proposition. He proved it again on Monday night on ABC1's Q & A when he was outshone by every other member of the panel and made to look a fool (many would say he does that naturally anyway).

In today's Australian,  Brendan O'Neill takes him and the West's so-called radical left to task - Palestine an obsession of radical West, not Arabs
In spite of everything we've seen over the past month of upheaval in Arab coutries, Pliger was sticking to tired and hackneyed lie that until "the Palestinians are given back their rights we're going to have instability throughout the Middle East. That is central to everything."

Only in the minds of those who are blind to the truth, as O'Neill points out in this article.

It's very revealing that Palestine has become less important for Arabs and of the utmost symbolic importance for Western radicals at exactly the same time. With the Palestinian people somewhat deflated, the Palestine issue can become perfect political fodder for the victim-oriented, fancy-dress radicals of the modern West.

WHEN LOCAL COUNCILS GO LOOPY ... IT COSTS

Marrackville Council's selective policies in attacking Israel alone for the conflict in its region by imposing a boycott on products from the Jewish State comes at a cost - Marrickville council: rates, roads, and global affairs.

The Inner West Courier report says that the council which has decided not to concentrate on filling in potholes, collecting the garbage, traffic control, sensible development, tree and park maintenance (all items which a correspondent to the newspaper calls "'front yard' issues that are the realm of local government" has cost ratepayers:

* The attention of 25 staff;

* More than 80 working hours;

* $1235 worth of general manager’s time;

* Time of four senior policy makers;

* Council meeting time.

This is only the tip of the iceberg as the protest movement gathers momentum against Council's loopy conduct and the delusional behaviour of those councillors who consider themselves Australia's version of the United Nations General Assembly.

At least, independent councillor Victor Macri showed that he has kept his head when he stated that the council’s focus on international conflicts has "blown out of control".

"I’ve had residents say to me, 'what the hell are you doing? What’s it got to do with you? You can’t even cut my grass, trim my trees, so how are you going to help this issue, which has been going on for over 100 years?'" Cr Macri said.

Quite!

... and now for the streets of Tehran ...

The "pro democracy" demonstrations in Egypt made great viewing on the BBC and CNN with some commentators barely holding back their support for the demonstrators and their cause.

Demonstrations will continue in this part of the world with attention turning elsewhere but how would the media react if there were similar movements in Syria or Iran?

THE JOYS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

Believe it or not!

The Arab Tsunami of Rage

Cartoon from Qatari Newspaper headlined: "The Arab Tsunami of Rage"

Written on the door: "Security"

FIRST THE SHARKS, THEN THE CATS AND THE FALCONS ... NOW THE TREES

Stupidity Palestine Style

PLAYGROUND POLITICS

Never looked so good

Over at Huffington Post, David Suissa tells why Israel's never looked so good.

You can preach to me all you want about the great Jewish tradition of self-criticism -- which I believe in -- but right now, when I see poor Arab souls being murdered for the simple act of protesting on the street, I've never felt more proud of being a supporter of the Jewish state.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Published today in the Australian Financial Review

Your February 4 editorial states that the US ignored Palestinian election results when Hamas won (with 44% of the vote to Fatah’s 41%), and continued to recognise Fatah. The reality was considerably more complex. Mahmoud Abbas, from Fatah, was still the legitimate president as the result of a separate election, and the division of power between the President and Parliament in the Palestinian Authority is unclear. The US had only agreed to establish relations with Fatah when it agreed to renounce violence and accept Israel’s right to exist. The Hamas government was offered relations on the same preconditions but repeatedly refused. Finally, it was not just the US that withheld relations with the Hamas government on that basis, but the Quartet, consisting of the US, European Union, Russia and the UN.
Hamas may have won the election, but it has shown by its subsequent conduct that it is anything but democratic or concerned with human rights. A major concern with Egypt, which should not be downplayed, is that if the Muslim Brotherhood, which spawned Hamas, takes power, even by democratic means, the result will be the same.

George Greenberg
Malvern, Vic

Palestinian gets 10 years for selling land to Israeli and the world yawns

A fringe group of Israelis makes racist statements about the country's Arab citizens and rightly gets shamed by its leadership, the majority of the people and in the media including internationally.

A Palestinian Authority Court gives a citizen a ten year jail sentence for selling land to a Jew, who it describes as "the enemy" (remember how the Palestine Papers told us Israel had a peace "partner" in the PA?) and there's not a single blimp on the radar.

Jason Koutsoukis has his head in the blank pages again.

Understanding the media

From a football discussion forum:

"A couple of years ago, a QANTAS plane had to turn back to land for a completely innocuous reason which warranted a three page spread, on the very same day, a Rex plane landed at Sydney airport with an engine on fire. An airport worker rang a Sydney newspaper to report that it had happened, the journalist asked if it was a QANTAS plane, when the employee replied that it was Rex, the journalist said he wasn't interested."

SYRIA'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS

A WikiLeak that is sure to be ignored by Al Jazeera, Der Guardian and Al Age:-

Viewing cable 08STATE135048, SHIELD S04B-08: SYRIA ARRANGING TO ACQUIRE CW
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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08STATE135048 2008-12-30 14:02 2011-02-01 21:09 SECRET Secretary of State
VZCZCXYZ0009
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #5048 3651440
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 301427Z DEC 08
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0000
INFO RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 0000S E C R E T STATE 135048

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

EO 12958 DECL: 12/23/2033
TAGS PARM, ETTC, SY, IN, PREL
SUBJECT: SHIELD S04B-08: SYRIA ARRANGING TO ACQUIRE CW
EQUIPMENT FROM TWO INDIAN COMPANIES

Classified By: ISN/CB Office Director Robert Mikulak for reasons 1.4 (b), (c) and (d)

¶1. (U) This is an action request. Please see paragraph 4.

¶2. (S//NF) BACKGROUND: The U.S. has obtained information indicating that a Syrian institution with connections to the country’s chemical and biological weapons programs is attempting to acquire Australia Group-controlled glass-lined reactors, heat exchangers and pumps from the Indian firms XXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXX . Both firms are believed to have received visits from the Syria institution in the past 3 months and may be close to concluding their respective deals.

¶3. (S//NF) BACKGROUND CONT’D: We would like to alert the GOI to this information. The GOI has a general obligation as a Chemical Weapons Convention State Party to never, under any circumstances, assist anyone in the development of chemical weapons. The U.S. also has publicly stated its belief that India is a strong partner on nonproliferation issues. We therefore seek the GOI’s assistance in investigating this activity and talking all steps necessary to prevent Indian entities from providing CBW equipment to Syria. We also want to remind the GOI that the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act requires us to report to Congress transfers of goods, services and technology on multilateral control lists, such as the Australia Group, to Syria. Sanctions may be imposed against individuals and entities identified in such reports.

¶4. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST: Request Post deliver the points in paragraph 6 to appropriate host government officials and report a response. The points may be left as a nonpaper.

¶5. (S//NF) Please begin all responses with SHIELD S04B-08 and slug for ISN.

¶6. (U) Begin talking points/nonpaper:
(SECRET//REL INDIA)
-- In the spirit of our cooperation in preventing proliferation we would like to raise a matter of chemical weapons (CW) proliferation concern and request the Indian government’s assistance in investigating this activity.
-- We have information that the Indian company XXXXXXXXXXXX may be planning to sell glass components and related chemical processing equipment to an end-user in Syria.
-- In addition, we have information that the Indian company XXXXXXXXXXXX may be planning to sell heat exchangers, immersion heaters, pumps, and glass equipment to the same end-user in Syria.
-- Further, XXXXXXXXXXXX and probably XXXXXXXXXXXX agreed to support a visit in mid-September 2008 by representatives of a Syrian institution with connections to Syria’schemical and biological weapons programs, to finalize contracts for glass-related equipment.
-- XXXXXXXXXXXX is located in XXXXXXXXXXXX, India. -- XXXXXXXXXXXX is located in XXXXXXXXXXXX, India.
-- While they have legitimate commercial uses, glass or glass-lined chemical reactor vessels, heat exchangers and pumps can be used in the production of CW agents and therefore are controlled by the Australia Group (AG).
-- We are concerned that the equipment in question is intended for, or could be diverted to, Syria’s CW program.
-- The Syrian Research Council (SSRC) is a key entity behind Syria’s chemical warfare program and may be behind Syria’s biological warfare program as well.
-- In light of its CW and other programs of proliferation concern, support to terrorist organizations, and efforts to destabilize other countries in the region, we believe Syria is an unreliable destination for dual-use exports, and Syrian end-user statements or other assurances are neither credible nor trustworthy.
-- In addition, the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA) requires us to provide periodic reports to the U.S. Congress identifying persons (including individuals and entities) who have transferred to, or acquired from, Iran, North Korea or Syria, items that are on multilateral export control lists, such as glass or glass-lined reactor vessels, or that could make a material contribution to developing a weapon of mass destruction or missile system.
-- Under INKSNA, sanctions also may be imposed against persons identified in such reports.
-- We therefore request that the Indian government take all steps necessary to investigate this matter and prevent Syria from acquiring dual-use items, such as glass or glass-lined reactor vessels, heat exchangers, and pumps that could be used in its CW programs.
-- We look forward to the Indian government sharing with us the results of its investigation into this matter.
End talking points/nonpaper.
RICE



Hat tip: elderofziyon

UNBALANCED AND UNHINGED

At the Fairfax AGM last November, Company Chair Roger Corbett responded to questions from shareholders about his organisation's anti-Israel bias by claiming that the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald coverage was "balanced".

This claim is of course utter nonsense and this item in yesterday's Australian demonstrates the contempt of this response towards shareholders and readers alike - Can you win a Walkley for explaining why a little bit of Islamism never hurt anyone?

SMH star journo Paul McGeough sees the bright side of terrorists taking over in the Middle East.

Targeting terrorists? Treason. Paul McGeough in The Sydney Morning Herald , January 27:

THE level of guidance and direction from the West in the West Bank and the extent of the collaboration between Abbas's Palestinian Authority and the Israeli defence and intelligence establishment is extraordinary. In any other country, the weaker half of the body politic teaming up with powerful foreign forces and the government of the country that occupies its land would be seen as treason.

What's wrong with Islamists? McGeough in the SMH , January 29:

BY current American thinking it would never do to have Islamists in power in the Palestinian Occupied Territories or in Lebanon and therefore they heed every despot's warning that the Islamists are waiting in the wings across North Africa and the Middle East.

McGeough in The New York Times , April 12, 2009:

OVER the long term, Hamas accepts the concept of two states in the Levant, which arguably puts Mr Mishal's terrorist movement closer to Washington than Mr Netanyahu is -- he now proposes only "economic peace" between Jews and
Palestinians.

Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) video clip, December 3, 2010

ALLAH, oh our Lord, vanquish Your enemies, enemies of the religion [Islam] in all places. Allah, strike the Jews and their sympathisers, the Christians and their supporters, the communists and their adherents. Allah, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one.

Get it? Fairfax and its "star" reporter really do have a hide.

The Israelis and Arabs have been locked together in a deadly conflict for several decades and these people have the temerity to tell those Palestinians who seem to be making genuine attempts to resolve their differences based upon parameters suggested by the world's peacekeepers to walk away from peace efforts.

This is tantamount to telling them to embrace the warmongering fascists of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and thereby consigning future generations to hatred and to miserable lives of conflict and bloodshed. Which is in fact nothing new for this reporter.

Indeed, it comes as no surprise at all to those who have read McGeough's ridiculous one-sided accounts of recent events including the Islamist inspired flotilla debacle and his sympathetic puff pieces about the Free Gaza movement which strangely omit any mention of the fascist, genocidal Hamas movement and "accidentally" blame Israel for a murder of a young Palestinian child which a French court has ruled it almost certainly did not commit.

And how strange it was for Fairfax to somehow edit the words of a Walkley award winner so that a correction was required within a week of their publication leading many to ask the question "who really writes this stuff if such glaring mistakes arise as a result of the editing process"?

Anyway, back to the Australian's point about whether a little bit of Islamism ever hurting anyone. The Middle East is littered with vicims of Islamism. Pictured below is Palestinian leader Mohammad Amin al-Husayni meeting with Adolf Hitler in December 1941. They were planning a solution to the Jewish "problem" which fundamentally does not differ from that which Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are pushing to the Arab world at the moment. That is the alternative that some people are suggesting to a peaceful negotiated solution. Please look at the picture and then read the comments above for an understanding of the disgustingly unbalanced and unhinged world view they present.

PYRAMIDS

Posted on an Israel's Facebook:

"Dear Egyptian rioters, please don't damage the pyramids. We will not rebuild. Thank you."

WHO'S NEXT?

After Egypt, will it be Jordan (in which case we might see a Palestinian State created very soon) or perhaps Syria? Why not Lebanon?

According to israellycool, the Syrian dictator is about to see mass protests against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad. The problem for the Syrian protesters is TV cameras. There are far less foreign journalists in Damascus and I wonder if they and their cameramen would be willing or have the stomach to risk all to provide coverage for the international media from this part of the world?

Then there's the question of whether the international media would be interested anyway. I mean I can't see the BBC cheerleaing for the removal of Assad in the way they've been doing in Cairo and Alexandria against Mubarak this week. The fact that Assad is more corrupt and more of a butcher than Mubarak ever was (and I'm not saying he's a nice guy at all) says more about the media than it does about Assad.

REPLAY

Dry Bones blog cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen takes a look at the events in Egypt.

Are we seeing a replay of events from a few decades ago?

FRIEND OF PALESTINE GUILTY OF RACISM

Brendan Lee O’Connell has been found guilty of publishing racist material online after a two week trial which was centred around a video he made of himself arguing with Jewish man Stanley Keyser at a Friends of Palestine protest against the sale of Israeli oranges at a South Perth supermarket in 2009 - Man found guilty over race hate video.

The precedent has been set. O'Connell has plenty of mates in this country. Some of them write comments on ABC and newspaper websites as well as some local municipal councils.