CIF Watch
CIF watch, a site dedicated to monitoring and exposing antisemitism on the Guardian’s newspaper’s ‘Comment is Free’ blog, has a guest post by me up today. Check it out!
Damn computers.
Been having serioues computer issues, all should be sorted out in next few days, in the meantime, these girls know what I mean.
UNHRC – What a joke
In a move that surprises no-one, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted earlier today to endorse the Goldstone Report.
The council has been meeting for the past two days in a special session called by the Palestinian representatives and supported by 18 of the worlds greatest defenders of human right – those nations are :Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Senegal.
Clearly a body that incorporates such defenders of human rights should be taken seriously.
Th final vote was 25 for the motion, 6 against and 11 abstentions.
More later.
Why Israelis have no faith in the UN
As if further proof was needed of the double standard that prevails at the United Nations, below is a footage shot a couple of days ago by IDF drones over South Lebanon.
On October 12, 2009, there was an explosion at a Hezbollah weapons storehouse in Tayr Filsay, in southern Lebanon. This aerial footage, taken shortly after the explosion, shows Hezbollah operatives closing down the area around the warehouse, driving in two trucks and removing weaponry from the site. They then took the weapons to a known weapons storage facility in the center of the village of Dir a-Nahar about four kilometers away. Only after Hezbollah removed the weaponry did they allow UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army to enter the site of the explosion. The IDF has sumbitted the footage to UNIFIL to aid in their investigation of the incident.
Source
The UN Resolution (UNSCR 1701) that brought an end to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 clearly states:
15. Decides further that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent, by their nationals or from their territories or using their flag vessels or aircraft;
* a. the sale or supply to any entity or individual in Lebanon of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, whether or not originating in their territories, and;
* b. the provision to any entity or individual in Lebanon of any technical training or assistance related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of the items listed in subparagraph (a) above, except that these prohibitions shall not apply to arms, related material, training or assistance authorised by the government of Lebanon or by Unifil as authorised in paragraph 11;
Israelis ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, has rightly complained to the Security Council about “another serious violation” of the UN resolution.
Whether the UN can fit in to its busy schedule a debate on such violations of SC resolutions is, in my mind at least, questionable, as it seems quite busy right now looking into the Goldstone report.
As Goldstone had previously stated regarding the Gaza conflict, Israel should have complained to the UN about rocket attacks from Gaza – and yet Israel constantly complains about Hezbollah breaking 1701 and the UN sits on its hands and does nothing.
So if Israel is forced to take action again against Hezbollah will we hear another outcry from the likes of Goldstone?
And they wonder why we have no faith in the UN.
Added 16th Nov 09: Hezbollah video trying to refute Israeli allegations.
Goldstone report to be discussed at special session of UNHRC
Playing politics with the security of the Israeli people is something no human should ever advocate.
Mary Robinson knew that when she refused to Chair the UNHRC witch hunt against Israeli defensive actions earlier this year.
“the resolution is not balanced because it focuses on what Israel did, without calling for an investigation on the launch of the rockets by Hamas. This is unfortunately a practice by the Council: adopting resolutions guided not by human rights but by politics. This is very regrettable.”
Since it’s release the political football has been passed around the field. The UNHRC first were going to vote on the report only to have said vote delayed until March next year, apparently after Obama pressured Abbas to drop his demand for a vote, then a Libyan attempt to get the security council to look at the report failed, and now it would seem that Abbas, a man who has made an art out of doing nothing to further peace during his Presidency, has made public noises about requesting a special session of the UNHRC to debate and vote on the report.
The problem is the only reason why Abbas is making these moves is because he is fighting for his own political survival. Word on the Palestinian street is that Hamas were mighty miffed that the PA dropped their insistence of a vote the other week – so in a pathetic attempt to hold on to his political office, elections must be held next year, Abbas is hoping to bring forward a vote and use the UNHRC once again to demonise Israel, something that body does constantly.
The fall out from the Goldstone report is far from over – this is going to continue for some time. Speaking at the opening of the new Knesset session yesterday Binyamin Netanyahu attacked the report and its findings.
“Israel’s basic rights to self-defense and to exist as a Jewish state are under continued attack, which has become even stronger following the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead. Our first mission is to repel them,” the prime minister said as he attacked the Goldstone Report.
“This report, written by the warped [Goldstone] Commission, questions Israel’s very right to self-defense. This report encourages terrorism and also endangers peace. I want to emphasize this. Israel will not take chances for peace if it cannot defend herself.”
Warped indeed, but Israel needs to respond to the ongoing campaign by Palestinians and other in the UN who attack our basic rights to defend our population from the murderous intent of our so called peace partners.
A new website has been created by a number of bloggers who have been following events very closely since last winter. They offer analysis and challenge some of the issues raised by not just the report itself but the very make up of the team. Over the weeks and months ahead this will turn into a valuable resource to counter the huge anti-Israel campaign that will follow. Check them out.
Israeli Nobel laureate: Release prisoners and kidnappings will stop
First off, congratulations to Professor Ada Yonath, an Israeli born scientist working at the Weizmann Institute who last week became Israel’s 9th winner of a Nobel prize for her work in chemistry. Professor Yonath also has the distinction of being Israel’s first women Nobel laureate. I won’t even try to explain what she does, science not being my subject.
Whilst she clearly is distinguished in her field, being awarded the Nobel has given her huge international attention – and how does she respond to that attention – by telling us all that Israel should release all Palestinian prisoners who currently are getting three square meals at the hands of the Israeli tax payer.
Prof. Ada Yonath, who was informed last week that she would become the ninth Israeli winner of a Nobel prize for her work in chemistry, went on the record on Saturday regarding an entirely different subject, stating that Israel should release all Palestinian prisoners, regardless of whether it would be part of a deal to secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
“It’s not clear to me why we’re holding these Palestinian terrorists, or what we call ‘terrorists,’ instead of releasing everybody who is [in our jails] from the outset, without any connection to a deal for Schalit,” Yonath said during an interview with Army Radio.
Yonath continued by analyzing the motivation behind terrorism and stated that keeping Palestinians incarcerated for extended periods of time would not help Israeli security, but would exacerbate the threats.
“We need to think about ways to reduce their motivation to kill and be killed,” she said of the Palestinian inmates. “We have it in our power to change the current situation, when a man sits in our jails for a number of years, and around him friends and family become angry. That is how we create terrorists.”
“Regardless of these inmates, there are enough people who are currently free on the other side who are able to hurt us,” Yonath added.
Returning to the issue of Gilad Schalit, the soon-to-be Nobel prize laureate said that releasing all of the prisoners would help avoid future kidnappings.
“If there weren’t terrorists sitting in our jails, they wouldn’t kidnap Israelis in order to bring about their release,” Yonath said. “The moment we hold onto terrorists, this then gives the other side an appetite to launch kidnapping operations. The moment we no longer have terrorists and anybody to release, they won’t have any reason to kidnap.”
Questioning those who speak of a terrorist ideology, Yonath said that she believed the motivation behind Palestinian terrorism was simply a lack of hope.
“These people – for the most part – have no hope or vision, and therefore they don’t care whether others live, and so they will jump at the opportunity to go to heaven and receive a little honor,” she said. “This doesn’t happen to people with a life and hope.”
Clearly Professor Yonath is entitled to her opinion, and clearly she has been thrown into the international spotlight due to her Nobel win, but seriously, does she really think that by releasing all Palestinian prisoners that our Israelis will feel any more secure?
How can someone so bright be so naive as to think that the only reason there are terrorists attacking Israel is because some of their fellow brethren are rotting in jail?
Guardian: No Israeli Nobel Peace Prize Winners – ever!
British broadsheet The Guardian has not been known of late as a friend of Israel, but their latest attempt to remove from the history books Israeli achievements is disgusting.
In a piece entitled Nobel peace prize winners list: how does Barack Obama compare? the Guardian removes from the list three recipients to the award, who happen to be Israeli (1978 Menachem Begin, 1994 Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin).
Below are the screen shots just in case they update their site.
The columns on the table are: Year, Winner 1, Shared Winner 2, Country 1, Country 2, Sex 1, Sex 2
The Guardian should be ashamed of themselves.
UPDATE 15.57 GMT
Just noticed that the Guardian has finally realised that Israelis have won the Peace prize.
Whether the initial exclusion was intentional or not I don’t know – but with their track record one can only speculate.
Good thing I have those original screen shots!
UPDATE 2 16.20 GMT
Simon Rogers from the Guardian is arguing over at Harry’s Place that this was a simple mistake:
The errors happened when we decided to put joint winners in two columns – which is why the country reference survived, but the name didn’t, ie you see “Israel” but not Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. When the table first went up this lunchtime, it also missed out John Raleigh Mott, The Quakers and the League of Red Cross Societies. We assumed all the errors were at the top but unfortunately they weren’t.
Here is my response:
Sorry, don’t buy it.
26 double entries seem to have been logged correctly, including the years directly before and after the Arafat/Rabin/Peres win.
How can you get it right so many times and wrong when Israelis are meant to be listed?
And here is the complete screen grab.
Breaking News: Obama win Nobel Peace Prize
In a surprise announcement this morning, President Barak Hussein Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Quite an achievement considering you realise that closing date for the nominations deadline was February 1st – some two weeks after Obama took office.
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the Norwegian committee said in a statement.
“His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”
So there’s a lesson to all would be future winners, do nothing, annoy your traditional allies, bow down to those who want to destroy and win the Peace Prize.
Alfred Nobel will be turning in his grave.
US Adminstration: Why don’t you like Obama?
Akiva Elder, chief political writer for Haaretz, informs us this morning that according to an Israeli source just returned from Washington:
The U.S. administration is furious over Israeli incitement against President Barack Obama
Israeli incitement against the US President. Got that! Elder’s unnamed source goes onto to tell us how these democratic congressmen even had the audacity to hint that the blame for this incitement lies with Bibi Netanyahu.
Now, I’m no Bibi fan, I never have been, but to hint that Bibi is to blame for the Israeli public’s reaction toward POTUS is, well, quite frankly, hysterically funny.
There are many reasons why Israeli’s, of all political strands, think that Barak Hussein Obama is bad for Israel. Here’s my top five:
1. During his appeasement speech in Cairo Obama re-writes history by implying that Israel’s creation was rooted solely in the Holocaust, thus ignoring 3500 years of Jewish history in Israel.
2. Obama blames the fate of Palestinians in refugee camps on the Israelis – ignoring Arab intransigence and UNWRA inaction.
3. Obama has reneged on previous agreements Israel had with the US regarding settlements. In doing so he has explicitly said that those settlements are the stumbling blocks in the peace process, therefore placing the blame for inaction on the road map firmly at the feet of the Israelis, ignoring the very simple facts that the Palestinian leadership has done nothing since Oslo to actually work towards peace.
4. The holocaust and Israeli treatment of a hostile Palestinian populace are not equivalent. During the holocaust 6 million Jews were murdered, since 1948 the Palestinian demographics world wide have increased from approx 1 million to 10 million. Clearly if Israel is involved with Palestinian genocide then they really aren’t doing a very good job of it; unlike the real Nazi genocide against Jews.
5. Obama believes that an entity that is dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel should be negotiated with – after all, as we have been told time and time again by his administration, its all about the settlements. Right!
So Mr Elder and your unnamed sources, if Israelis don’t like Barak Hussein Obama might I suggest instead of blaming Israelis, who seem united on this front (which is, in itself, a remarkable achievement for such a politically fractured society), BHO takes a long hard look at his actions with regards to our country and takes a few minutes to think about why Israelis might not like him.
Swedish Foreign Minister supports Goldstone.
After the recent blood libel published in Swedish tabloid Aftonbladets why am I not surprised at this story in today’s Jerusalem Post.
Sweden supports Goldstone report
Sweden supports the Goldstone Commission’s report into Operation Cast Lead, the country’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said Thursday.
No real surprise there, remember Bildt at the time of the blood libel refused to condemn the series of lies published in the tabloid on the grounds of freedom of speech.
Bildt told reporters in Stockholm that South African judge Richard Goldstone was a person with “high credibility” and “high integrity” and that his report carries weight. He said the probe, which alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during last winter’s Israel offensive against Gaza, is worthy of consideration.
Goldstone might have had credibility before he drank the kool-aid but as Elder of Ziyon has shown in a series of posts, Goldstone has no problem with ignoring evidence and publishing lies as truths.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman called Bildt’s remarks “disappointing,” and said they demonstrated his “lack of reading comprehension skills,” since anyone who read the report would know that it was biased.
Disappointing is a bit of an understatement, but I guess in diplomatic speak it’s quite substantial.
