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A BELLYFUL

When Lebanese belly dancer Johanna Fakhry danced with Israeli heavy-metal band Orphaned Land last month at the Hellfest music festival in Clisson, France the pot was well and truly stirred.

Their countries are at war but the performers don't mind singing and dancing around their national flags - LEBANON, ISRAEL: Belly dancer and metal band rock the boat.

Hizbullah won't be pleased.

Syria - 1,634 people dead, 26,000 arrested (12,617 still in detention) and 3,000 missing

Almost 3,000 missing in Syria crackdown, NGO says and today the thugs are back in Melbourne's streets picketing a chocolate shop because it's owned by Jews.

Go figure?

10 Unknown West Bank Facts

Hat tip: Israellycool

Just deranged

Anders Behring Breivik was a deranged individual who committed mass murder in Norway. The evidence is that he was not a fundamentalist Christian. Nor did he want to fight Jihadists. He was no Zionist and no lover of Jews.

Just deranged.

THE TRUE OBSTACLE TO PEACE

No kidding!

TURKEY AND APOLOGIES

Turkey's Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan keeps on insisting that his country will not "normalize" relations with Israel until the Jewish State issues an apology for the deaths of nine Turks terrorists who attacked IDF soldiers with iron bars, knives and slingshots as they scaled down from helicopters during the takeover of the Mavi Marmara in May 2010.

That's normal?

The hypocritical bastard wants an apology from Israelis for defending themselves while his country still maintains its silence almost a century after it committed genocide against the Armenians.

The Israelis should rightly tell Erdogan to go to hell!

Karma's such a bitch

Following on from yesterday's posting but on perhaps a more serious note, this from The Daily Telegraph - Israel: The start up nation taking on Silicon Valley.

The more work Israel's detractors do on their boycotts and other pathetic stunts, the better things get for Israel. Those organisations which over the past decade divested their fund accounts from Israeli companies or firms that worked with Israel have lost small fortunes for their members. Some were virtually wiped out by the GFC, yet Israel business thrives.

Karma's such a bitch.

START-UP NATION

I have just finished reading a remarkable book by geopolitical experts Dan Senor and Saul Singer entitled "Start-Up Nation". The book describes how a country of 7.1 million people, surrounded by hostile neighbours, many of them bent on its destruction has been able to rise above the adversity to foster a unique combination of innovative and entrepreneurial intensity.

The discovery of vast quantities of off shore natural gas and the potential of its shale oil reserves will only serve to strengthen the Jewish State while many other nation states are drowning in deep seas of debt.

Against this backdrop, it's an absolute tragedy that the leadership of the Palestinian people are so fueled by blind hatred of their Israeli neighbours that they are unwilling to accept them for what they are and to sit down and make peace for themselves and, more importantly, for their future generations.

Moreover, they have fallen into the traps set for them by the world's extremists of the hard right and the hard left who are so obsessed with the idea of a Jewish State that they need to sink in their own sewers of outrage per medium of the BDS, the flotillas, the flytillas and other assorted meshuganeh pursuits.

One observer, a Mr. Sultan Knish, has come up with a brilliant way in which the start-up nation can boost its tourism industry even further by taking advantage of these outraged protesters who have oodles of money to spend on indulging their hatreds and prefer to do so rather than to spend it on truly poor and needy people wherever they are on the face of this earth - Outraged Protest Tours - The Tourism Package for Leftists Who Hate Israel.

Knish believes that this is the way to deal with the great unwashed and outraged whose mission it is to intrude into the country with the sole purpose of deligitimising the state and dehumanising the population:

Rather than profiling them and giving them the heave ho at the airport, why not develop special tourism packages catering to their needs. Happily one company, Outraged Protest Tours is already on it.

By the first quarter of 2012, Outraged Protest Tours expects to be able to offer angry entitled brats a choice of three tour packages in Israel.

Love your work Mr. Knish!

How not to have a Palestinian State

How Not to Have a Palestinian State - Jose Maria Aznar (Ynet News)

The unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, and its international recognition, would be a huge mistake. A peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is essential, but it can only be achieved through honest negotiations - not by any party imposing a unilateral decision.

A Palestinian government in which Hamas is a member will make negotiations, much less a peace agreement, impossible: no negotiation or agreement is possible when one side is committed to the other's destruction.

There is no historical, institutional or legal basis on which to recognize a Palestinian state today, except as a kind of "virtual state," which exists in some fashion in the imaginations of various parties but which has no tether to reality. In the West Bank, Palestinians crucially depend on Israeli cooperation to function.

There cannot be two states, living in peace side by side, unless Palestinians accept that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and the Israelis accept that the Palestinian state will be the state for the Palestinian people. Absent that basis, no genuine progress will be made.
It is time for the international community, starting with the UN, to say that the time for game-playing and wishful thinking is past. We urge the Palestinians to see that the only way they can have their own state is through an agreement with the Israelis. No other options should be supported by the international community.

The writer is former prime minister of Spain.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Yesterday, I mentioned the faked photograph that accompanied an Op Ed in the Melbourne Age by Palestinian advocate Randa Abdel-fattah entitled "Freedom and dignity are basic rights for all, even Palestinians"

It would appear that the same piece of propaganda has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald which today published this excellent response:- 

 "Israel a home for both Jews and Arabs"

Randa Abdel-Fattah portrays Israel as a place which uses ''laws, weapons and propaganda … to safeguard the 'purity' of a Jewish-only state'' (''Freedom and dignity are basic rights for all, even Palestinians'', July 7). The reality is very different.

Some 77 per cent of Israel's total population is Jewish. The other 23 per cent are Palestinian Arabs, Bedouin, Druze and other groups. All of them are fully fledged citizens with the same voting rights as Jews. There are Arab members of the Israeli Parliament and Arab judges in Israeli courts.

Jews and Arabs use the same public transport, eat in the same restaurants, attend the same hospitals, share the same beaches, shop at the same malls, play in the same sports teams, attend the same universities and work together in many occupations.

True, there is still serious discrimination against minority groups in Israel, especially in employment, government spending and access to services. Serious racial discrimination exists everywhere, including Australia. But that does not mean Australia is a state based on racial purity.

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza seek the establishment of a specifically Palestinian state and many of them (and not just Hamas) have said they want it to be a specifically Arab and Muslim state which will exclude Jews.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the simplistic ''goodies versus baddies'' contest some people make it out to be. It's about the real world struggle of two nations, each of which is determined to live in freedom, independence and security.

Peter Wertheim executive director, Executive Council of Australian Jewry

THE AGE USES FAKE PHOTO IN PALESTINIAN NARRATIVE STORY

The photograph accompanying today's OpEd from Palestinian advocate Randa Abdel-fattah entitled "Freedom and dignity are basic rights for all, even Palestinians" was FAKED to give a false impression of prisoners behind bars. Honest Reporting exposed this fraud in December 2010 - Shattered Lens: Part 3 – Putting Palestinians Behind Bars.

Once you know this, please feel free to make what you will of Ms. Abdel-fattah's opinions but know also that for all of her talk about the security measures taken by the IDF, there is not a single mention of suicide bombings or other violence against Israeli civilians perpetrated by Palestinian terror groups which leads to the necessity for taking those security measures, including the security fence.Not to mention the declared intention of those groups to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Of course, to the Palestinian supremacists who think their basic rights override all others in the region whether they be Jews in Israel, Syrian dissidents or the bulk of Lebanon's population living under Hizbullah's jackboots, it's fair to misrepresent the situation of their own children in this disgraceful manner.

NO BOUNDS TO EVIL

Today's Australian editorial argues that the villainy of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad knows no bounds - Hezbollah armed by evil Assad.

Just when it seemed reasonable to assume the dictator in Damascus had his hands full in ruthlessly suppressing the democratic aspirations of his blighted people, it has been disclosed his regime is accelerating weapons supplies -- including missiles that bring Israel, Jordan and Turkey within range -- to Hezbollah terrorists in neighbouring Lebanon.

Unsurprisingly, Iran's thumbprints are all over shipments that make Hezbollah's the most powerful non-state military force in the world. The Shia group's new arsenal includes Scud missiles with a range of 700km.

So who supports this murderer and his regime?

Well, these flotillistas do - they're organising a flotilla to support Assad - Lebanese women travel to Syria to support Assad.

Now we know why the flyllistas don't bother flying into Damascus to support the butcher. They're on his side.

Hamas’s useful Americans

Yesterday, I referred to reports of an organisation that is standing up for Israeli victims of terror by issuing legal proceedings against those who support the terror groups.

Today, one of that organisation's founders writes in the Jerusalem Post about Hamas’s useful Americans.

The terrorist enablers are not just Americans. We have our home grown variety too and the work of the Israel Law Center is invaluable in countering those who would enable murderous terrorism and stall hopes of peace in the region.

Israeli terror victims suing Bank of China for Hamas ties

While the usual lot of idiots are floating and flying around the Mediterranean region in their campaign to deligitimise an Israel for fighting Arab terrorism for over six decades, some Israelis are fighting back in the courts - Israeli terror victims suing Bank of China for Hamas ties.

I hope they receive justice in their law suit.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

In response to reports of the visit of Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and MP Michael Danby to a Max Brenner shop in response to the recent Nazi style thuggery of BDS activists in Melbourne, this letter appears in today's Melbourne Age:

No place for hate

BY PATRONISING a Max Brenner cafe, Kevin Rudd has rightly demonstrated his opposition to the boycott of Jewish/Israeli-owned stores (''Citizen Rudd's sweet support for cafe chain'', 15/07). The sight of angry protesters yelling their hate-filled invective outside Jewish businesses is reminiscent of the thuggish Nazi boycotts of the 1930s and has no place in democratic Australia.
 
Merv Morris,  East St Kilda

Apologists will no doubt respond using the standard apologetic response for the behavior of the thugs who abused patrons of the chocolate shop and police that they were protesting Israeli policies, not Jews as such and they will no doubt come up with a Jew of convenience who supports this thuggery. The problem for them is that BDS founder Omar Barghouti (a hypocrite who doesn't practice the boycott he preaches) has outlined the movement's fundamental aim of bringing an end to Israel and thus the Jewish right to self-determination by flooding it with descendants of Palestinian refugees. The aim is to achieve this by force and against the will of the Israeli people.

The demonstrators outside Max Brenner's establishment made no secret of this aim when they chanted, "Israel will be free from the river to the sea." That's a not so subtle code for, "we want to destroy the Jewish State." Call it whatever you want. We know what these people are and Mr. Morris' letter concisely makes the point.

FLOTILLA-O-RAMA

Interesting.

Meet the key organisations and people involved in Freedom Flotilla II (includes Fairfax news guru Paul McGeough's ISM mover and shaker friends):-

HIDING THE MADNESS BEHIND FLOTILLAS

Reuters reports on the blast that killed 12 Cypriot defence personnel earlier in the week.

What were they doing?

Sitting on a deadly cargo that was discovered floating in the Mediterranean - Cyprus says attempted to offload Iran blast cargo

Needless to say the story doesn't interest certain flotilla obsessed elements in our local media.

PALESTINE GROUPIES TO BOYCOTT TV NETWORK?

Those Palestine Groupies from organisations such as the badly misnamed Australians for Palestine (should be Australians who hate Israel) who emulate the Nazis by boycotting businesses like Westfield which are owned by Jews who happen to like one of Israel's democrat allies, must surely be eyeing the Seven Network whose Australian version of The Amazing Race currently featuring Aussies travelling through Israel.

Most of contestants seem to agree that it's a nice place.

SOONER OR LATER

This guest post by Mahmoud Jabari, a student and photojournalist from Hebron appeared in Harry's Place - Palestine ……. Sooner or Later

It demonstrates that there are views, albeit in the minority, among the Palestinian people that differ from the blame Israel for every wrong crowd although Mr. Jabari doesn't go quite far enough.

The next step is to firmly place the onus on the Palestinian leadership to take responsibility for the failures of the past and to take steps to revive the peace process by recognising Israel for what it is (a Jewish State), ending its incitement against Israel and the Jewish people (including stunts like BDS and flotillas) and unconditionally resuming a place at the peace table.  

GREAT NEWS!

In a major development in cancer research, scientists at Jerusalem's Hebrew University have identified the molecular basis for DNA breakage, which results in the development of cancer - Cancer cell breakthrough reported by Hebrew U.

Amazing and great news that is told in the blank pages of the Age.

HE SHOULD FALK OFF

Imagine if the above cartoon depicted a kaffiyeh-wearing dog chewing on a bloody skeleton and urinating on Lady Justice instead of a yarmulke and was posted on the blog site of a leading United Nations official.

Apart from the violence that would explode within hours across the Arab and Moslem world, the official's role with the UN would have come to an abrupt end. He would have been drummed out of the office in disgrace even had he not lied about the whole thing.

And lie is what slimy UN envoy for human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk did last week about this anti-Semitic cartoon. He then removed it and lied about it.

"I know nothing about such a cartoon, and would never publish such a thing, ever." he declared before backtracking with a pithy explanation that he "didn’t realize that it could be viewed as anti-Semitic, and still do not realize."

Read the story from Commentary.

Falk's boss still won't sack the bigot but in any decent organisation he would have tendered his resignation long ago.

No, strike that.

No decent organisation would have hired him for the role given his obsessional hatred of Israel in the first place.

SEVEN DAYS OR THEREABOUTS

What a week it's been!

While Israel's detractors failed to provoke the Jewish State and its people on land, by sea and in the air, while Libyan leader Gaddafi threatened "martyr attacks" on Europe, Syrian  leader Assad continued to murder his own people in the streets, Egyptian Copts remain persecuted, Hizbullah was accused of murdering a Lebanese leader, dead bodies piled up in Irak, Hamas banned male hairdressers and got even tougher with gay people, Iran boasted of its missile systems while racist incitement against Jews was heard in the Palestine Authority media, Sudan and Pakistan cracked down on their media, a handful of provocateurs flew into Ben Gurion Airport in the latest hate-soaked stunt in a declaration that they had no interest in promoting peace in the region.

They get publicity here even when it's clear that they are morally bankrupt and without scruples - Israel grounds pro-Palestinian activists and increases security at air.

Then again, it's not true that they are so much pre-Palestinian as they are anti-Israel and one wonders about the scruples of newspapers that publish articles that finish like this:-

"Israel says people on board shot first and attacked with iron bars, a charge they deny."

Because we know it's not just that they deny what Israel says. They actually deny what the world has seen with its own eyes through medium of the video evidence and to wheich even the Fairfax Middle East Bureau chief grudgingly admitted on 2 June 2010 - Pressure mounts on Israel.

"Among the scores of people wounded on Monday were several Israeli soldiers whom the military said had been beaten with sticks and stabbed as soon as they landed on the deck. Video footage released by Israel appeared to back up its claim."

The video didn't just "appear" to back up Israel's claim that the incident was a provocation - it proved it!

And beyond that, many of those associated with the flotilla and various assorted anti-Israel stunts ever since have continued to tell outright lies about the flotilla, about Gaza and about the relationship between Israel and Palestine to this very day.

Fortunately, opinion is turning against the provocateurs asa they understand that these stunts are nothing more than scamsand hence, the failure of the latest round of flotilla madness.

THE FLYING CIRCUS

Some of the 200 publicity seeking nutters at the Paris Airport threw tanties and refused to leave the place on being told they were personna non grata in Israel. They put on a show anyway but if you're really humanitarians, why not just donate your airfare to the people of Gaza so they can buy more Mercedes Benzes?

IT'S NOT FLOTILLA II

Organisers of this year's phony flotilla have styled it Flotilla II but, in actual fact, there have been many other flotillas in the past decade.

Here is a list of smuggling attempts by sea to Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations issued by the Israel Defence Forces. These are the ones publicly made available and are not a comprehensive account of every smuggling attempt made by sea.

It's clear that these flotillas weren't carrying love letters for the kids of Gaza and that the weapons they carried weren't intended for messages of love to Israeli kids. What they highlight is the need for comprehensive security checks for all vessels approaching the Gaza Strip and for other vessels suspected to be carrying weapons to terrorist groups in the region.

Here are the other flotillas whose illustrious company the travellers on Flotilla II are joining:

May 7th, 2001: Santorini

The Santorini was intercepted on its way from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip. It contained a large shipment of 40 tons of weapons including Strela anti-aircraft missiles—the same kind that terrorists fired at and narrowly missed an Arkia Israeli passenger jet taking off from Mombassa, Kenya in November 2002. The shipment also included mortars, rifles and guns, grenades, mines and explosive material, anti-tank RPG-7 missile-launchers, and artillery rockets.

Three crew members aboard the Santorini were convicted for trying to smuggle weapons from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip—the captain, a professional weapons smuggler and two of his relatives aboard the ships had been involved in three previous smuggling attempts backed by Hezbollah and the PFLP-GC.

The Santorini ship was acquired by the PFLP-GC in a small island off Syria, and registered as Syrian. During previous smuggling attempts by the crew, arms were packed in Syria and transferred to Lebanon by a Syrian bus. Part of the anti-tank weaponry originated from Iran.



January 3rd, 2002: Karin-A

The Karin-A was intercepted in the Red Sea, heading towards the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. It carried 80 submersible containers containing 50 tons of weapons, including: RPG-7 rockets, RPG-18 anti-tank rocket launchers, Iranian-made anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, 2200 kilograms of high explosive demolition blocks, Sagger anti-tank launchers and missiles, as well as rifles, machine guns, AK-47s, 735 hand grenades, 700,000 rounds of small ammunition, and diving equipment. The submergible containers were to be dropped into the sea and then washed ashore to the Gaza Strip or picked up by a smaller vessel and delivered to the Strip.

The Palestinian Authority was heavily involved in the smuggling attempt, especially Yasser Arafat’s former Chief Financial Officer and confidante at the time, Fuad Shubaki. The crew of the Karin-A also included senior members of the P.A . , indicating Arafat’s direct involvement. The ship was purchased in Lebanon and sailed to Sudan and Yemen to pick up civilian goods (watermelon seeds, sesame seeds, rice, toys, and clothes) to disguise the weapons aboard.

June 8th, 2002

Two Palestinians were found swimming along the northern Gaza Strip shore armed with four grenades, an AK-47, and four ammunition magazines in an attempt to infiltrate an Israeli community

August 4th, 2002

IDF naval forces identified an armed Palestinian wearing a oxygenated scuba diving suit and carrying an AK-47, 8 grenades, 4 ammunition magazines, who was on his way towards an Israeli community from the Gaza coast.

November 23rd, 2002

After many attempts to communicate with an unknown Palestinian fishing boat heading from the Gaza Strip towards the direction of Israel, the bomb-laden boat exploded near an Israeli security patrol boat, moderately injuring three and lightly injuring one.

January 7th, 2003

A suspicious life raft found floating along the northern Gaza Strip coast was found to be booby-trapped with explosives.

May 21st, 2003: Abu Hasan

The “Abu Hasan”, intercepted in waters west of Haifa, was sailing from Lebanon to Egypt carrying a Hezbollah operative specializing in explosives bound for the Gaza Strip. The boat itself was a fishing boat, used purposefully to disguise its intentions. Cargo contained: a radio-activation system to detonate bombs remotely, CDs of directives on how to carry out suicide bomb terror attacks, five boxes with rocket fuses, and 25 Katyusha rocket detonators. The masterminds of the arms smuggling attempt were connected to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and Hezbollah.

May 9th, 2006

Early in the morning of Israel’s Independence Day, the Israeli Navy spotted a suspicious vessel crossing from Egypt into the southern Gaza Strip. After ignoring repeated warnings issued by the Navy, the Navy opened fire towards the vessel, whose crew then steered the boat to hide behind a Palestinian civilian boat. The crew was then spotted to be tossing large sacks off the vessel into the water. The Navy ceased fire out of concern that the Palestinian civilian boat would be hit, and the suspicious vessel escaped. The large sacks tossed overboard were later found by an underwater robot to contain over 500 kilograms of explosives.

May 14th, 2006

The Israeli Navy spotted a suspicious Palestinian vessel off the coast of the southern Gaza Strip and issued warnings ordering the crew to stop the vessel. Upon receiving the warnings, the crew began to toss large bags off the ship into the water. The Navy apprehended the vessel and detained the crew for questioning. The bags were later found to contain several hundred kilograms of explosives.

The Hansa India

October 12th, 2009: Hansa India. The “Hansa India”, which was charted by and sailed from Iran, was due to unload a cargo of eight containers in Egypt where it was believed to continue on to Syria or Lebanon. Following warnings from the German authorities, the vessel was not unloaded and continued to Malta where it was seized by the US military and found to be carrying bullets and industrial material intended for the production of weapons, seemingly bound for the Syrian army or Hezbollah.

November 3th, 2009: Francop

The Francop was intercepted by the Israeli Navy off the coast of Cyprus en route from Iran to Syria where it was planned to be smuggled by land to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The ship contained 36 containers with 500 tons of arms: 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 gun shells, 20,000 grenades and half of a million rounds of small ammunition, all hidden behind sacks of polyethylene. The arms smuggling was attempted without the knowledge of the Francop crew. The cache had been loaded from the Bandar Port in Iran on an Iranian vessel and stopped at an Egyptian port, where the cache was unloaded onto the Francop, a German owned vessel. The cache was ten times larger than the cache seized from the Karin-A and the Victoria.

June 7th, 2010

Israeli Navy soldiers off the coast of the central Gaza Strip near Nuseirath identified a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to execute a terror attack.

February 1st, 2010

Five barrels packed with 15-20 kilograms of TNT explosives were deployed via the sea by the Islamic Jihad and other Gaza terror organizations to Israeli beaches. Two of the barrels exploded near the Gaza Strip, while the other three, attached by a buoy, washed ashore on the Ashdod, Ashkelon and Palmachim beaches. Activation mechanisms were attached to the barrels so that they would be detonated following a cellular device signal activated by the terror organization.

Following warnings issued by the Israeli Navy, the barrels found along the Israeli shores were detonated in a controlled manner by Israeli Police sappers, and no one was injured.

March 15th, 2011: Victoria

The Victoria, a German owned ship, was discovered by the Israeli Navy to be carrying over 50 tons of weapons in three containers, concealed behind bales of cotton and sacks of lentils, including 60 mm and 120 mm mortar shells, C-704 anti-ship missiles, and ammunition for Kalashnikov assault rifles. Most of the weapons, including the C-704 missiles, were manufactured in Iran and came with Farsi-language instruction manuals which sported symbols of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on their covers.

ESCAPE CLAUSE

Yaakov Kirschen with another great cartoon from the Dry Bones blog:-

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BLATANT FLOTILLA LIE

Here they go again.

Now the flotillistas have come out with another unsubstantiated allegation as to the troubles their mission is facing - 'Israel taking advantage of Greece's economic situation'.

A Canadian ship involved in the flotilla, the Tahrir was stopped on Monday, five kilometers from its anchoring point by the Greek coast guard fifteen minutes after it departed. The ship had contravened the Greek government's ban on flotilla ships setting sail to Gaza from ports in Greece and was towed back to Cyprus.

Jewish-Canadian Dylan Kenner told Army Radio that Greece is operating in Israel's favor as a result of economic pressure Jerusalem placed on Athens due to the current financial crisis in the country.

Kenner has no authority on which to base the allegation. It's simply not true. He made it up.

The Fairfax media in Australia has had a week of embarrassment over the flotilla and other related issues. It remains to be seen whether Jason Koutsoukis will file a story based on this latest piece of flotilla fiction.

The rest of the world is getting thoroughly sick of the whining and moaning about Israel by extremist Palestinians and their supporters whose unwillingness to accept that the conflict can only be solved by sitting down face to face with the Israelis to negotiate a settlement based on a two state solution.

HITCHENS ON THE FLOTILLA

Hat tip to elderofziyon for this -

The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a "warrant for genocide" forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. I wonder if any reporter on the scene will now take me up on this.

- Christopher Hitchens in Boat People: Some questions for the "activists" aboard the Gaza flotilla

[NOTE: IT'S BEEN QUITE A WHILE SINCE HITCHENS HOLIDAYED IN GAZA]

and for this -


(look closely)

Michael Ross in the National Post makes a similar point:

Only anti-Israel activists would be blind to the glaring irony of Hamas condemning Greece for blocking the departure of the ridiculous “Freedom Flotilla II” from its ports. The supreme irony isn’t that these “peace activists” are in bed with Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization that made suicide bombing a staple of Islamist terror; it’s that Hamas issued its communiqué from its headquarters in that Mecca of social justice and human rights, Damascus. Yes, Damascus the capital of the Allawite regime that has no problem shooting its own citizenry while it tortures children and arrests thousands for merely hinting at government reform. You have to wonder if the superannuated blockade runners even know that there are refugee camps in Turkey bursting at the seams with Syrians fleeing death and terror at the hands of their own government.

BAD TASTE: BAD FLOPTILLA

FLOTILLA LIES EXPOSED

At last, Fairfax Jerusalem Bureau correspondent Jason Koutsoukis, has come out and informed readers that claims by Free Gaza that Israel sabotaged some of their their boats are untrue - Sabotage row: flotilla organisers 'living in a James Bond movie'(Age) and Setbacks fail to warn off Gaza blockade protesters(SMH).

The conclusion that claims made by flotilla liars were baseless came not from any scepticism about the porkies they habitually tell the media (often swallowed without the necessity of providing any proof), but rather, because of common sense fact checking from an unusual source. It took an investigation by Turkish police to expose these lies. Flat out denials by Israeli authorities of allegations made by the flotilla phonies without the slightest shred of evidence are never convincing enough.

Turkish newspapers have reported that an investigation by Turkish police concluded any mechanical problems on board the Irish vessel occurred before the ship entered Turkish waters and was most likely not intentional.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Yigal Palmor, says that flotilla organisers "must be living in a James Bond movie," but one suspects there are more disturbing factors at work as this Jerusalem Post Op Ed writer suggests of the Irish connection to the story - The Irish don’t mean it, because they can’t understand it.

POSTSCRIPT

Blogger Challah Hu Akbar has received the following email from a correspondent:

If you look at the underwater video (and some of the above water clips) you can clearly see remnants of paint in the gouges in the vessel's shafts. The same paint that covers the rest of the shafts.

Now, either the Israelis have found a way to paint vessels underwater or the damage (most probably a grounding of some sort) occurred prior to the vessel's last haul out (when the bottom and shafts were painted).

Also, the claim that this damage would have been unnoticeable and that the ship might have sunk at sea is hogwash! The minute this shaft was engaged it would have caused massive vibrations in the engine. No self respecting skipper would have left port with such vibrations!

The phony flotilla paranoia continues to plumb the depths.

ET TU FAIRFAX?

The letters editor of Fairfax actually allowed this piece of racism to see the light of day in today's Sydney Morning Herald:-

Think again

The wise and timely essay by Samantha Selinger-Morris (''Old hatreds in a new medium'', July 2-3) raises an issue that should make Jewish community leaders in Australia rethink their attitudes to the growth of anti-Semitism.

Tragically this upsurge of racism is attributable directly to the perceived suffering the Israeli government has imposed on the Palestinian people. 

The current Israeli government is more responsible for the spread of anti-Semitism worldwide than any ratbag racist groups waving symbols of Germany in the 1930s.

To Jewish leaders in Australia, Israel can do no wrong. They have closed minds to the damage being done to the image of Jews internationally by the intransigent attitude of Netanyahu and his extremist supporters.
Intellectuals, including many more thoughtful and perceptive Jews, realise this dilemma. They should be listened to rather than dismissed as anti-Semitic.

Vincent Matthews Forestville
 
If the author of this piece is anything, he is a ratbag waving the same symbol of Germany in the 1930s as the Fuehrer. Lies were told about the Jewish people in much the same way as they are told in parts of the media today. Stories of Judenhaas  both in the West Bank by the PA and in Gaza by Hamas are routinely suppressed by parts of the media that support the Palestinian cause. Tell your readers, Mr. Editor about the Hamas Charter which calls for genocide against Jews and for the destruction of Israel. Of course, the obsessive anti-Israel letter writer would tell you the Jews shouldn't resist that, just as six million of them were slaughtered they brought it on themselves.

Shame Mr. Fairfax Editor that you didn't follow the advice of the letter's heading before publishing Think Again.

But then, I think again and I look back at what was written here yesterday about how Fairfax lionises the haters who organise flotillas to facilitate the movement of weapons for the purpose of furthering that Covenant and murdering Israeli children and I realise that you couldn't help yourself. You couldn't resist.

CHOCOLATES FOR THE BOILED LOLLIES

BDS clowns demonstrating outside a Max Brenner chocolate shop in Melbourne.



They have the right to demonstrate and they're right that this is not a police state. If they want to see a police state they should go to Gaza where, if they behave like this, they would not see sunshine for a long, long time.

You can demonstrate here peacefully but it's unAustralian to trespass, beset a premises and assault police as 19 of these idiots found out on Friday.

Me, I'll be buying Max Brenner chocolates for all my friends and I'll send some to the kids in the Israeli army who are doing a good job protecting their country from terrorists.

SUBTERFUGE

Mavi Marmara. Haaretz photo

"Saoirse" is the Irish language word for "freedom".

Saoirse is also the name of one of the ships that was slated to take part in the anti Israel Flotilla II's current Mediterranean propaganda exercise but according to today's Sunday Age, "the Saoirse pulled out of the mission after it was damaged in an attack while moored in Turkey" - Greece halts boat to Gaza.

As if on cue, the publicity seeking activists behind the flotilla lost no time in blaming Israel for sabotaging the Saoirse and another ship moored in Greece "and for a campaign of harassment and dirty tricks against activists."

According to this Huffington Post article - Irish Boat Abandons Gaza Flotilla, Citing Israeli 'Sabotage', "[A]ctivist Huwaida Arraf told Israel's Army Radio that the ship's engine was damaged while in port and could have lead to deaths on board". She claimed that, "if this would have happened (while out at sea), if it would have bent in this way, the boat would have started taking on water and it could have led to fatalities."

Arraf is the co-founder of the Palestinian ISM movement whose objective is to bring about an end to the Jewish State allegedly by "non-violent" means. Despite such claims, Arraf's organisation has a track record of aiding suicide bombers and directly assisting violent Palestinian terrorist initiatives - STOP THE ISM.

The same Huwaida Araf (aka "Heidi Arraf") was one of the "movers and shakers" who was covered in Paul McGeough's notorious piece of agitprop in a November 2010 edition of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald's "Good Weekend" that paid homage to the promoters of the Free Gaza movement without so much of a mention of Hamas and its autocratic rulers who have lorded over Gaza since its violent putsch against the Palestine Authority in 2007.

Unsurprisingly, McGeough's piece provided no balance whatever to the stories spun by the rogue’s gallery of terrorist enablers who he so lovingly painted as 21st Century Mother Teresas.

Like the other side of the story of the Flotilla, the other side of Huwaida Arraf never emerged in McGeough's fluff piece (so much for balanced journalism at Fairfax). The other story, and a more credible one, can be found in BIRDS OF A FEATHER ENABLE MURDERERS TOGETHER.

"Away from Western cameras and microphones, however, Arraf has stated that suicide bombings are a 'noble' means of 'legitimate resistance' to what she deems Israeli oppression. She has stated (along with her husband, Adam Shapiro) that the Palestinian 'resistance movement' must be violent if it is to be effective. Toward that end, ISM activists frequently serve as human shields for armed Palestinian terrorists; many act as couriers for terrorists, smuggling explosives and bomb-making materials into Israel for the PLO."

So here is one of McGeough's "movers and shakers", a person who has no qualms about lying about her movement's "non-violent" objectives, now making claims about alleged Israeli "sabotage" of the Saoirse.

Paul McGeough won a Walkley Award for an earlier article he wrote for the Fairfax press about the first flotilla. It was based on "eye witness" reports from activists like Arraf who had every reason to lie about the events that took place on the Mavi Marmara on that fateful day on which nine IHH members and supporters died after they attacked Israeli soldiers boarding the ship.

A BBC Panorama programme aired last year provided evidence by word and on film that strongly suggested McGeough's "eye witnesses" are liars. Needless to say, Fairfax has done little to provide at least the balance which the evidence of Panorama demands. See here and here.

This, even after a recent Age editorial lectured Israel on matters of press freedom and journalistic integrity - Israel should uphold press freedom (apparently the Age has never seen fit to examine press freedom under Palestinian rule).

"Yet press freedom is at the heart of true democracy. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes this clear: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.'"

The editorial even has the chutzpah to praise McGeough for his Walkley winning article despite the fact that its credibility now lies in tatters.

Moreover, it's abundantly plain that McGeough's "mover and shaker", Arraf, has not stopped lying to this very day. Her claims of sabotage without any evidence have now been discounted by a Turkish newspaper - Initial inspection says no sabotage to Irish ship to Gaza within Turkish territorial waters.

It's true that today's Sunday Age article states, "Israel has flatly rejected accusations of skulduggery as 'paranoid'" but one wonders whether the Age will come clean on the Turkish revelation and expose Arraf's lying ways.

Here's Arraf's partner and co-founder of ISM speaking of the movement's true intentions:

It's clear these people aren't interested in a humanitarian solution but rather, a very disturbing outcome for Israel. The time is right for the Age to stop treating the Palestinians as "Bambi" and the Israelis as constant villains. It's time to ditch the Palestinian propaganda subterfuge and tell the truth about Gaza, of why Israel considers it necessary to maintain its weapons stopping blockade and to inform its readers about weapons carrying ships apprehended en route to Gaza.

In the spirit of promoting true freedom and peace for Palestinians and Israelis, isn't it time for the Age to provide some balance so that Palestinians can taste the true feeling of Saoirse? This item from a Palestinian journalist could be the basis for a new start from the Age.

Democracy and press freedom is not about subterfuge and enabling terrorists and their supporters. This is the essence of press freedom -

Life for Palestinians in Gaza Strip Improved, So Why Send Flotilla There?

A SOLDIER'S MOTHER ON HEDY EPSTEIN

Sage words from A Soldier's Mother to Hedy Epstein, one of the Hamas groupies on the racist flotilla to Gaza.

Epstein styles herself as a "survivor" which she is not. Her parents managed to get her out of Germany to freedom in England where she lived during the war years and somewhere in between then and now she morphed into one of them.

This is what A Soldier's Mother has to say to her:

Your participation, in the flotilla brings shame to you and worse is a betrayal of your family, those that died in Auschwitz. It is hard to comprehend how distorted your view of life, of Judaism, and of Israel must be to bring you to the point that you sail against your own people. Yes, you’ll say you sail for human rights, for humanity and some such nonsense but last year’s flotilla – and very likely this one, displayed the worst of humanity.

Hat tip: Elderof ziyon

THE BRAINS BEHIND THE FLOTILLA

This report in the Jerusalem Post - Hamas leader is brain behind Dutch flotilla - states that Dutch Hamas leader Amin Abu Rashid is the "brain" behind the flotilla, helped arrange the purchasing of the Dutch boat expected to be used in the expedition, and also allegedly organised the majority of the funding for the flotilla.

Israel's Public Affairs and Diplomacy Minister, Yuli Edelstein, the participation of a Hamas member in the flotilla proves that it does not have humanitarian intent, but is actually a provocation and a terror operation.

NO OBSERVATION AT THE SMH

Blogger Dan on RWDB exposes a report in Sydney Morning Herald's 'Media' column as a lie.

It was reported by Damien Murphy and/or Lenny Ann Low in Under Observation as follows

BLACK COMEDY

The bitter comic Austen Tayshus made a bit of a goose of himself on the ABC's Q&A recently, by talking over everybody unfortunate enough to have shared the rostrum with him. He even monstered the Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, challenging her to go public about her Jewish roots, but the link is on her father's side of the family and Rhiannon does not identify as Jewish. So, it will be interesting to see how the comic's way of speaking over everyone fares on Tuesday at the Sydney Institute, where he will be up against his mother, the well known Sydney Jewish community leader Margaret Gutman. The comic will drop the alter ego for the occasion and appear as himself, Sandy Gutman. Hope Mother brings some chicken soup to help calm her boy down.

It's clear that the authors failed to place the relevant episode of Q&A under their own observation because what they claim happened on the programme simply isn't true. It didn't happen that way and the transcript proves it.

For the record, Sandy Gutman did monster Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon as a hypocrite on her stand about BDS and his criticism was totally legitimate. She did splutter her way through her response but what the hell, she's now in Parliament with the big boys and girls. What's wrong with a politician thaving to answer the hard questions?

Indeed, what's wrong with so-called journalists doing some fact checking when the anti-Israel crowd make allegations? The comments attributed to Gutman were not aired on the Q&A programme which makes this truly black comedy simply another example of blatant falsehoods used against Israel and the Jewish people which foster anti-Semitism.

The SMH should be truly ashamed for publishing such garbage and a retraction at least is required.

HOWARD JACOBSON & ALICE WALKER

Howard Jacobson: Why Alice Walker shouldn't sail to Gaza

It should not need arguing, this late in the ethical history of mankind, that good people can do great harm. One of the finest and funniest novels ever written -- Don Quixote -- charts the damage left in the wake of a man who would make the world a better place.

Human beings are seldom more dangerous than when they are sentimentally overcome by the goodness of their own intentions. That Alice Walker believes it is right to join the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza I do not have the slightest doubt. But beyond associating her decision with Gandhi, Martin Luther King and very nearly, when she talks about the preciousness of children, Jesus Christ, she fails to give a single convincing reason for it.

Read it all. A sad story about a very sad woman.

The Authentic Palestine Freedom Flotilla

Ruth King says it so eloquently in The Authentic Palestine Freedom Flotilla:

No! I do not mean the motley crew of terrorist enablers, terrorists and assorted curs and knaves that is taking to the briny to defame Israel and bring “humanitarian” aid to the denizen of Gaza. Never mind those immoral misfits who forgot how the residents of Gaza trashed and looted and destroyed the farms, greenhouses, state of the art farming tools and implements, organic fertilizers and even seeds in the lush gardens of Gush Katif which provided 70% of Israel’s produce and $120,000,000 in exports of foods and flowers.

I speak of a real Palestine freedom flotilla….that fleet of ancient and ramshackle ships and the valiant volunteer crews that transported the wretched survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine in defiance of the perverse British blockade between 1946 and 1948.