Palestinian NGO muddies the waters with Dead Sea claims
September 7, 2012 | Ahron Shapiro
Mud-slinging allegations by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq that Israel had committed “war crimes” by purportedly allowing the Israeli Dead Sea cosmetics company Ahava to “plunder” Dead Sea resources inside the West Bank became the focus of a controversial article by Fairfax’s Middle East correspondent Ruth Pollard this week.
In the September 4 article “Cosmetics firm accused of plundering Dead Sea“, Pollard regurgitated uncritically allegations from the Palestinian group that Ahava has been using materials in its products supposedly excavated from an undisclosed mining site in the jurisdiction of the Megilot Regional Council, where Ahava maintains a factory and outlet store.
PA unable to afford electricity but still pay terrorists six times the average Palestinian wage
September 6, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
With the cost of living skyrocketing as falling revenues forces the Palestinian Authority (‘PA’) to stop paying salaries to its employees, the PA is struggling to hold onto what legitimacy it has left amongst its people. In spite of this, the PA is reportedly increasing the money it pays in support of terrorists who have murdered innocent Israelis.
This blog has been following the PA’s escalating financial crisis as foreign aid donations have dwindled over the past few years. We have also been following the repeated attacks on the pipeline through the Sinai that used to supply Israel with natural gas from Egypt and the Egyptians’ eventual decision to unilaterally call-off the trade agreement.
It seems that these two issues are now coming to a head…
Media Week – “Foreign Interests” fail; Human cannon fodder
September 6, 2012 | Allon Lee
A series of articles in Fairfax newspapers focusing on the gifts and trips received by Australian Federal MPs offered sweeping and problematic generalisations on trips parliamentarians have made to Israel.
Media Week – Newton’s gravity-free zone; Village idiots; Exceptionally bad
September 5, 2012 | Allon Lee
Australian Palestine Advocacy Network vice-president Robert Newton offered up a series of red herrings in the Canberra Times (21/8) to justify why “Unless Israel stops the illegal construction of settlements in the West Bank there will be no resumption of negotiations which have been stalled since December 2010”.
Between 1993 and 2009 the Palestinian Authority (PA) did not insist on a settlements building freeze as a precondition to peace talks.
Israel and the “other Olympics”
August 31, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
Israel may not have picked up a medal at the London Olympic games, but it is a little known truth that when it comes to the Paralympic games – Israel is a superstar.
Since the Paralympic games began, Israel has won 334 medals, including 113 gold, and those numbers are expected to grow at the London 2012 Paralympic games. The national medal total ranks Israel 13th overall in the history of the Games.
The State of the Syrian Civil War/ The Plight of Mideast Christians
August 31, 2012
This Update contains two pieces on the state of the civil war in Syria, where rebel efforts over recent weeks to gain footholds in Damascus and Aleppo, the two largest cities, appear to be being pushed back by the regime.
First up is a report from Aleppo courtesy of the Economist, which makes it clear that many, both inside and outside Syria, are now arguing that the rebel move into Aleppo was an over-reach by rebel forces – and was not well-received by residents of the city. The story also discusses at length the problems of lack of unity in rebel forces, with no overall command even of the brigade attacking Aleppo…
“Breaking the Silence” – Creating headlines with the same old controversial material
August 29, 2012 | Ahron Shapiro
An anthology of stories by former IDF soldiers regarding the treatment of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza assembled by the controversial left-wing Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence has drawn the attention of Yediot Ahronot in Israel, the UK’s Guardian and Independent, Iran’s PressTV, as well as News Limited’s John Lyons and Fairfax’ Ruth Pollard here in the Australian press – but few other journalists worldwide.
This isn’t really surprising, as there is evidently little new information contained in the report, which is essentially a repackaging of some 30 self-styled “testimonies” cherry picked from the organisation’s 850-case archives (collected gradually over the past seven years) in an attempt to portray the IDF as systematic abusers of Palestinian children.
Antisemitism going up, not down, in France following Toulouse attack
August 29, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
France’s Jewish communities are deeply concerned by the rise in antisemitic incidents since last March’s deadly shootings of a seven-year-old girl, and a Rabbi and his two children at the entrance to a Jewish school in Toulouse by radical Islamist Mohammed Merah.
One might expect that following the Toulouse attack, condemned by all political leaders and societal elites, it would inspire greater reflection and tolerance towards Jews. However the opposite appears to be occurring. Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris Shmuel Trigano said, “There is a before – and after-Merah… Despite the widespread condemnation of the killings, there was, among certain people in France, a desire to see this type of violence continue.”
The truth (and lies) behind Rachel Corrie’s death
August 29, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Yesterday, Israeli Judge Oded Gershon of the District Court of Haifa handed down his verdict in the civil case between the State of Israel and the parents of a young American woman killed in Gaza in 2003, acquitting the State on all counts. The circumstances surrounding the death of then 23-year-old Rachel Corrie are well known, however there has been a long-standing dispute regarding some key facts.
Corrie’s parents had claimed that the IDF either deliberately killed Corrie or was guilty of gross negligence. Judge Gershom dismissed the claim on the grounds that the IDF could not be liable for civil damages that occurred in a ‘war zone’ during the course of armed conflict.
Nevertheless, he went on to…
Media Week – Burns’ lukewarm analysis; Some get it, others don’t; Justice denied
August 28, 2012 | Allon Lee
Former US diplomat Nicholas Burns argued that a diplomatic solution will only arise when America “create[s] a direct channel between Washington and Tehran and begin[s] an extended one-on-one negotiation with all issues on the table…To be successful, however, the US must be ready to compromise by offering imaginative proposals that would permit Iran civil nuclear power but deny it a nuclear weapon.”
A Brazilian-Turkish deal in May 2011 offering Iran medium-enriched uranium for medical research came unstuck when Iran started putting impossible conditions on any such deal, Sydney Morning Herald (Aug. 17).
