Everything you need to know about the weekend media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

An embarrassed Arab League weighs pulling its monitors out of Syria; Google’s investing a lot of money in Israeli start-ups, but it may not be good news. And Gadaffi’s daughter raises eyebrows by hiring an Israeli lawyer.

Israel and the Palestinians

• On the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, an excellent New Statesman commentary puts the casualty count into perspective:

Kemp explains that by UN estimates, the average ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in such conflicts worldwide is 3:1 — three civilians for every combatant killed. That is the estimated ratio in Afghanistan. But in Iraq, and in Kosovo, it was worse: the ratio is believed to have been 4:1. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ratios were very much higher in Chechnya and Serbia. In Gaza, it was less than one-to-one.

Since the 22-day Gaza operation, Israel has also been demonstrably fastidious in its efforts to protect civilian lives while targeting combatants. The Israel correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly sites Israel’s record this year, saying “the IDF killed 100 Gazans in 2011. Nine were civilians. That is a civilian-combatant ratio of nearly 1:10.”

• The PA plans to raise the issue of settlements at the UN Security Council. More at Haaretz.

Arab Spring Winter

• Robert Bowker: Hamas sees an opportunity in discontent

• A Washington Post staff-ed slams Egyptian authorities for raiding 17 NGOs promoting democracy and human rights:

Thursday’s raid consequently represents a frontal provocation by the ruling military council to the Obama administration, which has waffled between supporting a transition to democratic civilian rule in Egypt and appeasing the generals. The military is attempting to rally waning domestic support by blaming domestic disorder on sinister “foreign hands”; it is also seeking to destroy liberal, pro-democracy groups that have resisted its attempts to perpetuate its power indefinitely.

Hosni Mubarak

Elliott Abrams says the raids are part of a “self-fulfilling prophecy” resulting from “Mubarakism.”

In his thirty years in power, Mubarak did not crush the Muslim Brotherhood. He made deals with it, setting for example how many seats it could have in parliament, while crushing the moderate, centrist parties. The Egyptian government refused time after time to allow the establishment of a moderate Islamist party that would have competed with the Brotherhood. And when a non-Islamist named Ayman Nour had the audacity to run against Mubarak in the 2005 elections, he was jailed. The policy during the Mubarak years was to attack and weaken the center, and then tell the Americans and others that the only choice was Mubarak or the Islamist radicals.

Given recent election returns this seems to have been a self-fulfilling prophecy–and this is the real crime of Hosni Mubarak against his country.

• The credibility of Arab League monitors took another hit as the league’s advisory body called on the monitors to leave Syria. Reuters writes:

“This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhumane actions under the eyes and ears of the Arab League,” he said.

Meanwhile, monitors disputed among themselves whether they saw Syrian snipers in Deraa. According to the BBC:

The latest footage posted on the internet cannot be verified, but it shows what appears to be an Arab League observer complaining about snipers shooting at demonstrators in Deraa.

The man is filmed telling protesters: “You’re telling me there are snipers? You don’t have to tell me, I saw them with my own eyes.” . . . .

However the head of the Arab League mission, Gen Mustafa al-Dabi, later contradicted these accounts. He told the BBC’s Newshour programme that the official seen in the video was making a hypothetical remark.

“This man said that if he saw – by his own eyes – those snipers he will report immediately,” Gen Dabi said. “But he didn’t see [snipers].”

• Syrian rebels raise a flag from the past (FT via Google News).

Old Syrian Republic flag

• Col. Gadaffi’s daughter, Aisha, has hired Israeli lawyer Nick  Kaufman to represent the family in its own quest for justice: pressing the International Criminal Court to investigate her father’s death, suggesting that rebel forces and NATO were guilty of war crimes. Kaufman told The Daily Beast:

“It’s got nothing to do with the fact that I’m Israeli,” Kaufman said in a phone interview. “When it comes to practicing at the ICC, I’m one of the few lawyers with substantial experience.”

Iranian Atomic Urgency

• Will Israel Attack Iran in 2012?

• CNN: Iran successfully built and tested its first nuclear fuel rod.

Rest O’ the Roundup

• This from AP:

Fox Latin America has apologized for a poll on whether Jews killed Jesus Christ that one of its staffers put on a Facebook page promoting the National Geographic Channel’s Christmas special.

The poll asked readers who they think is responsible for the death of Christ: Pontius Pilate, The Jewish People or the High Priests.

The poll was already removed.

• Ottawa unapologetic for friendship with Israel after Canada fails to get seat on the UN Security Council. More at National Post.

•  The Israel Law Center is threatening to take legal action against Twitter over a Al Manar TV’s Twitter account. Al Manar is Hezbollah’s media outlet and their Twitter account has 7,700+ followers and has posted more than 16,000 tweets in English, French and Arabic.

I liked CNN coverage — the Washington Post and MSNBC focused too much on the possibility of recruiting through Twitter, but Al Manar looks too smart to do that. As the Washington Times wrote when the State Dept. first considered adding Al Manar to its designated terror list:

But as the Treasury Department made clear, the issue is not al Manar’s role as a television station but its role in facilitating the activities of Hezbollah, an organization that has killed more Americans than every other terrorist group save al Qaeda.

“Any entity maintained by a terrorist group — whether masquerading as a charity, a business or a media outlet — is as culpable as the terrorist group itself,” said Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.

Meanwhile, a Globe & Mail staff-ed takes an opposite view regarding Taliban tweets. I don’t agree with the thinking, but the G&M deserves an airing, even if the Taliban itself doesn’t:

Freedom is a greater weapon than censorship, and silencing the Taliban’s social-media voice will not eliminate the problem of the Taliban insurgency, nor will it alter the Taliban philosophy, though its voice may be muffled. In the long term, openness in these media may be the greater weapon, and the bravado just a short-term annoyance. Far from being a weapon that aids the Taliban cause, Twitter may yet be the sword that the Taliban will fall upon.

• Nahum Barnea (YNet News) slams the Prime Minister’s Office for its handling of the Tom Friedman column.

• The LA Times discovers “terror.”

For months many Israelis shrugged off the mosque burnings, the uprooted Palestinian olive trees and even the death threats against Jewish leftists. But when young settlers this month vandalized army bases and stoned Israeli soldiers, the question of Jewish terrorism turned into a national emergency.

I agree that price tag attacks should be called terror. But how often does the LA Times use the T-word when the terrorists are Palestinian?

• After failing the first time, Richard Silverstein outed Aussie Dave. And Aussie Dave confirmed he is indeed the mild-mannered David Lange.

This afternoon, I posted the backstory. Disclaimer: HonestReporting is a sponsor of the Pro-Israel Blog-Off organized by Aussie Dave.

• Google is pouring money — lots of it — into Israeli start ups. But it ain’t necessarily good news:

“The minute Israeli high-tech is primarily based on development centers of major companies, their fortune will be tied to that of those companies so that, if they are cutting staff, they will cut in Israel as well,” Peled said.

• Washington Post ombudsman says corrections in the print edition are down, but there are no stats for online corrections. I like these suggestions:

I’d like The Post to figure out a way to count its online errors, at least the more significant ones, such as fact inaccuracies and misspellings. And I also recommend that there be a page on the Web site, in addition to the printed corrections on Page A2 every day, where recent corrections are listed, both for print and online.

After failing the first time, Richard Silverstein outed Aussie Dave.

Aussie Dave confirmed he’s really mild-mannered David Lange.

Silverstein’s blog is very widely read, and he’s been quoted as a primary source of info on controversial stories in the NY Times, YNet News, and Maan News — among others. But Silverstein’s fact-checking skills have been less than stellar — a few months ago, Silverstein told Israel’s Channel 10 News (fast forward to 2:14) that he’s reported false info before, “and I’m trying to be more careful about not getting taken in by such scams.”

Aussie Dave and Richard Silverstein

I long suspected that Aussie Dave was really Clark Kent — it always bothered me that I never saw the two together.

Disclaimer: HonestReporting was a sponsor of the 2011 Pro-Israel Blog-Off organized by Aussie Dave.

Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

Iran bangs the war drums with “strait” talk. Arab League monitors in Syria are losing credibility. And why so many long faces at a gathering of Israeli envoys?

Israel and the Palestinians

• Haaretz reports that the Palestinians have offered to resume peace talks without a settlement freeze. But hold your optimism and read the fine print:

. . . the Palestinian Authority informed the Quartet two weeks ago that it would renege on its demand for a settlement freeze if Israel releases 100 prisoners as a show of good will . . .

The Israeli official indicated that Israel rejects the Palestinian offer for two reasons: 1) That is replaces one precondition with another, and 2) since officials say the Palestinian proposal is too vague and did not make it clear whether the prisoners’ release will lead to full talks that would include meetings between Netanyahu and Abbas or just the preparatory sessions.

• Over at The Guardian, reporter Phoebe Greenwood hops into bed with Physicians for Human Rights. The latest accusation: Palestinians hoping to leave Gaza Strip — especially for medical care — are asked to collaborate with Israel. Simon Plosker took apart al-Guardian earlier today.

• I liked David Keyes‘s take on Israel-Hamas dialogue.

Arab Spring

• Worth reading: Egyptian army officer’s diary of military life in a revolution. Key snippet at the end says army dissent against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is significantly growing:

Most of the mid-level officers now think of him as Mubarak’s right-hand man, and they hate the fact that Scaf’s violence has tarnished the army’s image in the eyes of the public. Many still disapprove of the current protests because they feel it’s not the right time, and also because they’re resentful that others can go and demonstrate on the streets when they themselves do not have such freedom. But that attitude is beginning to change, especially as independent TV channels have been airing video clips of the recent violence and the brutality of the security forces is being openly discussed by people like [prominent media personalities] Yosri Fouda and Ibrahim Eissa. More and more mid-level officers are turning against Scaf, and against Tantawi.”

• Two Syrian dissidents who obtained US asylum talked to YNet News. Meeting with Israelis is considered treason, so there’s great risk for the two activists identified only as Rahim and Amar. They want Israelis to notice that the flags being burnt are Iranian, Russian and Hezbollah, not Israeli:

“The Syrian opposition and Israel share a joint interest. We have no ideological hatred for Israel or for Jews. I know that’s what you think, but it’s not the case. It’s true that for years they taught us to hate Israel and fight is, but many Syrians already realized that they are being taught to hate Israel to divert attention away from the oppression in the country.”

• A free-lance filmmaker got in and out of Homs. Here’s the video he did. CNN says more to come.

• Arab League observers in Homs spent the day dodging bullets and being followed around by activists carrying video cameras. According to the Daily Telegraph, the monitors have already bankrupted their credibility.

Lt Gen Mohammed Ahmed Mustapha al-Dabi, head of the mission, described the city of Homs, where it is thought more than 1,000 people have been killed, as being “nothing frightening“, although he conceded “some places looked a bit of a mess“.

 At one point, the opposition denied a group of monitors entry to the besieged rebel enclave of Baba Amr because their security detail included a lieutenant colonel from the Syrian army.

 Eventually he agreed to step aside, but activists later claimed that the group had been unable to visit a secret Assad detention facility because of an outburst of gunfire nearby.

The Lede rounds up all the videos, links etc. 

•  Gaddafi’s daughter reportedly seeks asylum in Israel. As if that’s not strange enough, the LA Times adds:

But Aisha may not need to make a formal request and chance refusal; she might qualify for immigration rights. Stubborn rumors have persisted among Libyan Jews in Israel for years that Kadafi himself is Jewish.

In recent years, several elderly Israelis of the Jewish community that once lived in Libya have come forth with stories about the dictator’s allegedly Jewish heritage.

•  FYI, The National Review picks up on Spanish reports that Mahdi al-Harati, a key Libyan rebel commander, was aboard the Mavi Marmara and spent nine days in Israeli detention.

Iranian Atomic Urgency

•  An Iranian news report details how the regime would close off the Straits of Hormuz. Memri says Mashreq News is “close to Iranian military circles.”

In a further threat, the article stated that Iran would in the future be able to attack the 480-km pipeline with a capacity of 2.5 million barrels/day that the UAE is planning to build in order to bypass the Strait of Hormuz in order to neutralize Iran’s ability to disrupt the world’s oil supply: “As for the plan… to construct a [pipeline] from the UAE that will be an alternative in times of emergency in case the Hormuz Strait is closed, we should note . . .  that the entire territory of the UAE is within range of Iran’s missiles, [so Iran] will easily be able to undermine security at the opening of this [pipeline] using weapons to be discussed this report.”

• Is Iran really capable of closing off the straits? Time talks to the experts. The general consensus says blocking the straits would damage the Iranian economy and US naval forces would prevail. But it’ll be a tough fight.

• Worth reading: Iran’s battle for TV influence takes shape on Press TV

You Know Israel’s Image is Taking a Beating When . . .

• You know Israel’s image is taking a beating when a friendly writer like Miami Herald columnist Frida Ghitis worries about settler youth and haredi extremists threatening democracy. Unlike others, Ghitis doesn’t go off the deep end:

There are wild claims that Israel is becoming a Taliban-style theocracy. That’s absurd. The country remains a vibrant democracy that juggles different lifestyles and worldviews.

• You know Israel’s image is taking a beating when glum Israeli envoys gathering in Jerusaem say they now spending more time in damage control over domestic issues than addressing diplomatic and security matters. Haaretz writes:

Yet, in contrast to past annual gatherings, one topic kept coming up during all the discussions, this being an understanding that developments in Israel’s domestic arena have a negative impact upon the country’s reputation overseas. Within hours, ultra-Orthodox men who spit at children in Beit Shemesh, or who threaten women bus passengers in Ashdod, cause huge diplomatic damage to Israel around the world. To garner the extent of such damage, it sufficed to read one of this week’s The New York Times editions, which carried three lengthy reports about discrimination of women in Israel, Egypt and Somalia.

• You know Israel’s image is taking a beating when a staff-ed (in this case, in the Christian Science Monitor) leads off equating the status of women in Israel and Egypt:

When ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel recently put up signs telling women not to walk past their synagogues, the reaction was swift. Government workers took down the signs and Israel’s leaders denounced the public discrimination.

In Egypt, too, strict Islamic norms that treat women differently in public circumstances or as strictly sexual beings are also under challenge. On Tuesday, a court faulted the military for forcing “virginity tests” on women arrested during protests. The physical exams, done ostensibly to prevent the Army from being accused of rape, violated the women’s rights, a judge declared.

Rest O’the Roundup

Richard Silverstein

• Aussie Dave’s feud with Richard Silverstein escalated when Silverstein outed (or so he thought)  the anonymous IsraellyCool blogger. Turns out Aussie Dave fed Silverstein false info and Silverstein wasn’t careful with his fact-checking.  

Silverstein’s a prominent blogger and has been cited as a reliable source by the NY Times (Israeli espionage in the US), YNet News (Israel masterminded an explosion in  Iran), and Maan News (missing Iranian general died in Israeli prison). Earlier this year, Silverstein told Israel’s Channel 10 News (fast forward to 2:14)  that he’s reported false info before, “and I’m trying to be more careful about not getting taken in by such scams.”

Disclaimer: HonestReporting’s a sponsor of IsraellyCool’s Pro-Israel Blog-Off.

(Map via Wikimedia Commons/Ryantashma)

As NGO Monitor has extensively detailed, Physicians For Human Rights (Israel) has a radical political agenda far removed from simple medical matters. It’s therefore no surprise that the organization provides the main body of an article in The Guardian that claims: “Palestinian patients and business people hoping to leave the Gaza Strip are being asked to collaborate with Israel in exchange for an exit permit”.

According to PHR:

172 people, mostly men aged 18 to 40, were called for interrogation by the Shabak, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, last month. Some who attended interviews were granted exit permits.

Putting this figure into perspective, in August 2011 alone, 1522 permits were granted for medical treatment to residents of Gaza (762 patients and 760 for accompanying individuals). In one week in December 2011, 330 patients and accompanying individuals crossed into Israel and the West Bank via the Erez Crossing.

Not to mention that there is nothing to stop Gazans from crossing into Egypt for medical treatment. After all, Israel is under no obligation other than humanitarian concerns, to treat Gazans in Israeli hospitals where Jews and Arabs are treated equally by both Jewish and Arab medical staff based solely on medical and not political concerns.

Israel’s security services would not be doing their jobs properly if extreme caution was not exercised in giving out permits to Gazan patients. While The Guardian is happy to publish a story accusing Israel of abusing the right to healthcare, it would do well to remember the real abuse of medical permits.

Al-Biss caught at the Erez Crossing

For example, Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss (recently released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner deal) was caught attempting to smuggle a suicide bomb belt through Erez taking advantage of her medical permit for hospital treatment at Soroka Hospital in Israel. Indeed, Wafa actually intended to blow herself up in the very hospital that had given her treatment.

The MFA details other examples of Palestinians abusing the medical permit system.

Nobody said that the task of accumulating human intelligence from Gaza is a pleasant business. It is, however, necessary. That this story appears in The Guardian courtesy of PHR-I is merely the result of the unholy and symbiotic relationship between anti-Israel journalists and anti-Israel NGOs.

Thankfully, for every story such as this one, there are many more such as that of Israeli doctors saving the life of a Palestinian baby thanks to open-heart surgery – just the sort of news that you won’t ever see in The Guardian.

Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

A Palestinian diplomat responds to Newt Gingrich with a dubious take on national identity. And Arab League peace monitors in Syria are led by a Sudanese general who presided over the founding of the Janjaweed.

Israel and the Palestinians

• The PLO envoy to the US, Maen Rashid Areikat, takes to the Washington Post to counter Newt Gingrich’s comments about Palestinian identity. This snippet implies that the Palestinians pre-dated the Canaanites:

We lived under the rule of a plethora of empires: the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and, finally, the British.

This is the first time I’ve seen the suggestion that the Palestinians lived under Canaanite occupation too.

• Worth reading: Time for Israel to Change the Narrative

• Arab media reports say the PA wants to build an international airport:

Al-Krunz said that the airport would be built in the Al-Bqai’a area between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. He added that 70 percent of the land marked for the airport project belongs to the Jerusalem area and the remainder to the Bethlehem area. The project is estimated to cost $340 million.

• If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the rumblings of international criticism over Israeli plans for a tourist center in the City of David. AP says things are in a bureaucratic stage that would normally have editors yawning:

A spokesman for Jerusalem City Hall said Tuesday that the plans would be discussed in a committee Wednesday and would then be open to public objections as part of the standard zoning process. That process typically takes between several months and several years.

Arab Spring

• Big time credibility problem for the Arab League observers now in Syria. The head of the mission, Sudanese Gen. Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, helped create the Janjaweed militia. David Kenner writes in Foreign Policy:

But Dabi may be the unlikeliest leader of a humanitarian mission the world has ever seen. He is a staunch loyalist of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity for his government’s policies in Darfur. And Dabi’s own record in the restive Sudanese region, where he stands accused of presiding over the creation of the feared Arab militias known as the “janjaweed,” is enough to make any human rights activist blanch.

Meanwhile, human rights groups accuse the Syrian regime of hiding detainees from the monitors.

The security official told HRW that he received orders to assist with an “irregular detainee transfer” after Damascus agreed to admit the monitors under a deal which calls for an end to violence, the withdrawal of troops from the streets, the release of prisoners and dialogue with the opposition.

The report also said that police identification cards had been issued to many soldiers to give the appearance that police and not the military were patrolling the streets.

• Oops? Mohamed ElBaradei blows cover on secret US-Egypt talks aimed at preserving the Camp David treaty. The Jerusalem Post writes:

The former leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency told Fars that “what the supreme military council said was that the talks were about bilateral and mutual relations, but I believe that Americans wanted to ensure that the deals signed between Egypt and Israel will remain intact if Islamists ascend to power.”

“The negotiations were completely secret and confidential,” ElBaradei continued.

Not anymore.

• Martin Fletcher pays homage to the Arab Spring in a Times of London commentary.

Rest O’ the Roundup

• Eli Lake (The Daily Beast) reports that the Israel and the US still haven’t agreed on what red lines would justify an attack on Iran. I hope they get their act together. Tick tick tick . . .

• Jerusalem is sharply displeased with a secret EU paper highlighting the plight of Israeli Arabs. The Independent got a look at it:

While EU leaders regularly criticise Israel over its activities in occupied territory – including the growth of settlement building – the draft is unusual in tackling a highly sensitive issue within Israel’s borders. It warns that the erosion of Israel’s founding ethos – as a Jewish homeland but one committed to treating all citizens equally – “will reinforce those who seek to ‘delegitimise’ Israel and damage [its] international standing”.

A detailed list of recommendations for the EU itself – including active lobbying against discriminatory laws, allocating more European scholarships to Arab students, encouraging European high-tech companies to invest in Arab areas, and fostering the teaching of Arabic and co-existence projects in schools – are understood to have been dropped from the paper after objections mainly from the Netherlands. The draft affirms that Israel’s treatment of its minorities within its borders should be seen by the international community as a “core issue, not second tier to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.

• Palestinian police stormed the Church of the Nativity after clerics cleaning the building brawled over jurisdictional boundaries. Details and video at The Independent.

“It was a trivial problem that … occurs every year,” said police Lieutenant-Colonel Khaled al-Tamimi. “Everything is all right and things have returned to normal,” he said. “No one was arrested because all those involved were men of God.”

Security forces storming West Bank holy sites used to be soooo politically incorrect.

• A Cyprus Mail staff-ed gives a thumbs down to the Knesset’s discussion on the Armenian genocide, calling it “too little too late, and truly meaningless because it was done for all the wrong reasons.”

The Knesset’s move can only be described as a cynical political move to beat Turkey with the proverbial diplomatic stick, especially in the wake of France’s decision to have denial of the Armenian genocide declared a criminal offence.

Neither will Monday’s session accomplish anything. The Israeli government has made it clear that although it is currently at odds with Turkey, it would like to keep the door open for future restoration of ties with its former military ally. Recognising the Armenian genocide would likely be the last nail in the coffin, and not something Tel Aviv is likely to risk in the long term.

Woman kneeling over dead Armenian child in Aleppo Desert

• Embarrassed Saudi officials are investigating how Israeli-made pencils reached one of the kingdom’s largest retail chains. YNet News writes:

The pencils are sold with the Kravitz logo in Hebrew and without any attempt to conceal the fact that they are made in Israel.

• Abe Foxman (Huffington Post) weighs in on NY Times Bibiwashing.

(Armenian image via Wikimedia Commons)

If Newt Gingrich’s comments about Palestinian identity weren’t explosive enough, a PLO diplomat makes a counter-argument that’s an absolute bombshell.

Maen Rashid Areikat, the PLO’s chief representative in the US, says the Palestinians pre-dated the Canaanites in a Washington Post op-ed:

We lived under the rule of a plethora of empires: the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and, finally, the British.

Airekat’s claim doesn’t hold water if he’s basing his argument on the bible. Everyone knows the story of Noah and the flood; numerous ancient civilizations independently attest to a world-wide deluge as well. And Canaan —  Noah’s grandson – moved to the Holy Land after being cursed for his role in debasing Noah.

That means Canaan moved into an empty Holy Land. I’m not aware of any scholarly research suggesting that anyone lived in the region before the Canaanites. I’ve heard Palestinian claims of Canaanite descent, but never that they pre-date the Canaanites. That’s a stretch.

I suppose Airekat’s original Palestinians living in Canaan ”from time immemorial” were really good swimmers.

Noah curses Canaan, by Voltaire

Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

A PLO envoy to the US  reaffirms that a Palestinian state will be judenrein. Hamas may split over PLO membership. And should Iran be denied access to Western TV satellites?

Visit Backspin everyday and never miss another Media Cheat Sheet.

Israel and the Palestinians

• The PLO’s envoy to the US, Maen Rashid Areikat, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Jews would not be allowed to live in an independent Palestinian state. Airekat sought to sugar coat a judenrein state, but columnist Steve Huntley didn’t buy it:

But a settlement would require Jews living in the Palestinian-governed West Bank to leave. In other words, a peace deal will be followed by ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, where Jewish history is measured in millennia and where Jews had lived before being expelled in the Arab world’s 1948 war to destroy Israel.

This isn’t the first time Airekat called for a Jew-free state.

• Israelis and Palestinians are escalating a cultural battle for Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. AFP describes what the PLO’s UNESCO membership has wrought:

Jewish groups are now working hard to increase the number of visitors to the Jewish section of this site on the occupied West Bank.

In response, the Palestinians launched a counter-campaign to encourage their ranks to hold celebratory events like circumcision ceremonies and weddings at the site’s mosque.

Hebron's Tomb of Patriarchs

• Jonathan Schanzer says Hamas is ripe for a split between its pragmatists and purists over possible PLO membership:

The prospect of a defanged Hamas is an attractive one, of course, but it’s not that simple.

If Hamas does renounce violence, it will create a vacuum. This is exactly happened in the late 1980s, when the Yasser Arafat’s PLO renounced terrorism. It was the upstart Hamas that quickly filled that void, establishing a reputation as a headline-grabbing terror group that promised to deliver what the PLO could not: the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state of Palestine.

If Hamas joins the PLO, could a new Hamas splinter fill the void? Perhaps. But even if it isn’t Hamas, another jihadist group will likely emerge. No matter what it’s called, we can count on Hamas members being part of it.

But Asharq al-Awsat says Hamas/PLO unity’s on hold again; Abbas is worried about the West cutting off aid.

• Ron Estas (St. Augustine Record) frets that White House support for Israel is leaving the US internationally isolated:

If the U.S. were to lose the support of these Arab allies, we will have paid a terrible and dangerous price for our alluded to level of support for Israel.

Arab Spring

Muslim Brotherhood logo

• It’s become a big issue in Egypt whether Salafi party spokesman Yousseri Hamad was deceived into talked to Israeli Army Radio.

But Tariq Almohayed (Asharq al-Awsat) says the bigger signifiicance is what Hamad actually had to say — namely that the Islamists would recognize the Camp David agreement and negotiate with Israel.

. . .  if the Salafist Islamist party – and the Muslim Brotherhood – acknowledge the Camp David Accords, and believe in negotiating with Israel – along with the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Hamas movement – then why has our region been so preoccupied with this phenomenon of accusing others of being agents for foreign powers or the west, not to mention treason and takfirism? Why have decades, of our life and the life of the region, been wasted on wars and battles, when these groups actually respect peace treaties and negotiations?

 • Powerful staff-ed in The Australian denounces the Arab Spring’s Muslim violence against Christians. It also ties in an equally powerful commentary (paywall, but also published at the Hudson Institute) by Khaled Abu Toameh, who slams the PA’s mistreatment of Bethlehem’s Christians. 

King Farouk

• Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal, click via Google News) on why so many people misunderstood the Arab Spring when it first began:

. . . maybe the best answer is that hope and change are two words best kept far apart. Beginning in January, an unreasoning pessimism about the Arab world’s capacity for change abruptly gave way to an unreasoning euphoria. Fourteen centuries of conservatism were supposedly collapsing in the face of Twitter’s 140 revolutionary characters. The term “Arab Spring” became common parlance with no consideration for the change of seasons. People like Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim emerged out of nowhere to play the part of Lech Walesa. It was 1989 again at last.

But 1989 was the wrong template. The Arab world had revolted against unpopular overlords before: the Ottomans during the First World War; the British in the 1920s and ’30s; the weak monarchies of Farouk in Egypt, Faisal in Iraq, and Idris in Libya. What happened in 2011 was another such revolt, this time against secular autocrats. Someday it will be known as the Fourth Arab Revolt.

• Since that controversial Vogue cover story, Syrian first lady Asma Assad has disappeared from Big Media’s radar. CNN wonders: Where’s Mme. Assad?

Since then, little has been reported about Asma Al-Assad. It’s not even clear where she is. Could she have returned to her native England, where she attended fancy prep schools and got her college degree? Or is she still in Syria with her husband, as he fends off pressure from the growing protest movement and the many governments that have called on him to step down?

Wherever the Butcher of Damascus’s wife is, she’s still active on Facebook. It may be hard to believe, but 88 people thumbs-upped her syrupy Christmas greetings. Not likely that many were from Homs.

Rest O’ the Roundup

• Iran jams TV signals to prevent citizens from watching content the regime objects to, even as it airs own propaganda on the very same satellites. So the Wall St. Journal asks: Should Iran be denied access to Western satellites? Opinions are divided:

Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, calls for refusing access “until the Iranian government learns to respect freedom of expression and freedom of free information,” or at least until it stops sabotaging foreign news channels’ satellite signals, a practice barred under international conventions Iran has signed. Ms. Ebadi, who now lives in the U.K., contends satellite companies should drop IRIB as a customer.

Others say barring Iranian state channels from European and U.S. satellites would itself amount to censorship. “If the Iranian speech is not advocating terrorism, as a free-speech advocate, I’m reluctant to block it,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D., Calif.), who has helped craft U.S. sanctions on Iran . . . .

The director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Hadi Ghaemi, called IRIB “an arm of repression.” Mr. Bahari, now free, said, “I think the argument of freedom of speech would be valid if the Iranian government was just broadcasting information, but they broadcast forced confessions [and] fabricated propaganda.”

• Cracks in the BDS movement? Israeli spyware was sold to Iran.

• Today’s burning question: Who owns a key Twitter feed? Court to decide if @noahkravitz feed belongs to an Oakland area writer or his former employer. The stakes are high. Kravitz had 17,000 followers when he and Phonedog parted ways.

(Image credits: Hebron via Flickr/rictulio; TV static via Flickr/jetheriot)

Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

As Hamas prepares to join PLO, Fatah frets Islamists will spoil the party. Syrian soldiers are shooting anything that moves, and pirates now threaten Israeli offshore gas exploration.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Palestinian negotiator says the PA may withdraw recognition of Israel and abrogate the Oslo accords. The Jerusalem Post says it has to do with Hamas and Islamic Jihad joining the PLO:

At least three senior officials in Ramallah have voiced strong reservations over the decision, a Fatah official told The Jerusalem Post. He said that those who were opposed to the move were worried that Hamas would replace Fatah as the dominant party in the PLO.

One official was quoted as saying that Abbas was paving the way for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to take control not only over the PLO, but the entire West Bank as well.

• The Media Line elaborates on the Hamas break with Iran:

Hamas officials told The Media Line that the Muslim Brotherhood has urged them to cut their remaining ties with Iran because such they threaten to alienate voters angry that Tehran has backed Al-Assad even as more than 5,000 Syrians have died. “Iran can’t be pro-Bahrain Shiite revolution and anti the Syrian revolution,” said a senior PA security source in Ramallah who spoke to TML on conditions of anonymity.

• A study claims that Israel arrested 3,312 Palestinians in 2011. Somewhere in GuardianLand, Deborah Orr is getting ready to denounce Israel for detaining the equivalent of 3.22 Gilad Shalits.

• According to AFP, the IDF caught five Palestinians trying to infiltrate from Gaza.

Arab Spring

• Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian blogger, was freed from prison. As soon as he was released, Fattah went back to Tahrir Square, where he saw his wife and baby, who was born while he was in detenion. More links at The Lede.

• Der Spiegel: Syrian snipers death squads are killing anything that moves in Homs:

But, in Homs, anywhere from five to 15 people die every day, most as the victims of snipers. The insurgents have counted more than 200 sniper positions in Homs, from which people are being shot arbitrarily and without warning — not because they are protesting, but merely because they are there.

• Syrian medical personnel who treat protesters are targeted by Assad. The LA Times paints an especially harrowing picture of Homs.

Rest O’ the Roundup

• YNet News: Pirates are disrupting Israel offshore gas exploration.

• Sudan’s buzzing with media rumors that Israel hit another arms smuggling convoy. YNet News and Israel HaYom sort through what’s known.

• Elder of Ziyon takes a look at how Big Media’s use of Judea and Samaria shifted to West Bank over the years. Things changed in the 70′s:

So today the use of the correct historical term for the area is considered extremist, and the use of the anomalous term created when Jordan illegally annexed the area for 19 years is considered normative.

Everything you need to know about the weekend coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

Two papers use Christmas to take gratuitous swipes at Israel. Two former White House advisors urge more pressure on Iran. And Hamas wants to join the PLO.

‘Tis the Season to Bash Israel

• This is one disingenuous Times of London dispatch. Nothing in Sheera Frenkel’s report indicates that Palestinian Christians are effected any differently by settlements than other Palestinians.

It’s just a cheap shot tied to the holiday season.

The headline could just as easily have said Palestinian gays, elderly, entrepreneurs, musicians (fill in your choice) “choked” by spread of Israeli settlements. If you want to know what’s really choking Palestinian Christians, just look at the Palestinian Authority.

• Here’s some really ugly spin from The Guardian:

If he were to come, Jesus would’ve been shot by Palestinians on a dark, lonely road somewhere between Nazareth and Bethlehem.

• Here’s a photo essay you’ll  (hopefully) only see at Maan News: Santa Joins West Bank Wall Protest

Israel and the Palestinians

• Jerusalem Post: Hamas and other rejectionist groups to join reconfigured PLO. Meanwhile, in an interview with AP, Martin Luther Mashaal Jr. touts the joys of popular resistance. But this comment spoils the mood:

“As long as there is an occupation on our land, we have the right to defend our land by all means, including military resistance,” he said.

• Ismail Haniyeh’s leaving Gaza for the first time since 2007 and AP doesn’t blame Israel:

Haniyeh has been confined to Gaza, in part because of tensions with Egypt.

• PLO’s ultimatum to Quartet: if no progress on peace talks within a month, we resume unilateral statehood bid. According to the LA Times:

The quartet -– the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -– had given the Palestinians and Israel until Jan. 26 to submit proposals for borders and security.

The Palestinian Authority has submitted its proposal, but Israel has said it will submit its proposal only at the negotiating table. The Palestinians insist that there will be no negotiations before Israel stops all settlement activities, a move that does not appear imminent.

• UNESCO cut funding for a PA magazine praising Hitler. AP coverage.

Iranian Atomic Urgency

• One of President Obama’s former advisors, Matthew Kroenig, says it’s time to attack Iran. His commentary at Foreign Policy is behind a paywall, but YNet News writes:

Kroenig acknowledged that a military operation in Iran is not an “attractive prospect,” but explained that it is within the US’ power to minimize the anticipated effects . . . .

Kroenig warned that waging a cold war against Tehran, aimed at containing its nuclear capabilities, is “a costly, decades-long proposition that would likely still result in grave national security threats.”

• Dennis Ross takes to the Wall St. Journal(via Google News) to remind the world that when it comes to Iran, pressure works.

Arab Spring

• The Arab Spring has Christian communities in Syria, Egypt and Iraq all worrying about a tyranny of the Islamic majority. The Christian Science Monitor writes:

“It doesn’t take into account that democracy for us is a little bit frightening because a lot of forces in society are opposed to non-Islamic entities like ours.”

Related commentaries in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times (via Google News) the Washington Times and The Spectator.

• Maan News picks up on reports that Russia’s mulling asylum for Assad:

Quoting Israeli sources, the Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported Sunday that Farouq Al-Shara met with foreign minister Sergi Lavarov and proposed that al-Shara temporarily replace Assad after he leaves Damascus for Moscow until elections are held.

Sources in the Kremlin, meanwhile, confirmed al-Shara’s visit, Maariv reported, but they provided no details.

• Here’s a worrisome question from The Daily Beast‘s Dan Ephron: Is Bashar Assad more likely to let his chemical weapons stockpile fall into Hezbollah’s hands, or fire them at Israel in a last-ditch blaze of glory?

• A pair of car bombs in Damascus killed 44 and injured 150 more. See NY Times coverage.

Rest O’ the Roundup

Rachel Shabi

• Over at The Guardian, Rachel Shabi has so many bees in her bonnet, you’d think that all 7 million of Israel’s citizens were a persecuted minority.

• According to a study cited by All Facebook:

Israelis spend more time per person on social media than people in any other country, yet the percentage of Israel’s population that uses the technology doesn’t rank in the top ten.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ranks first for having the largest percentage of the population using social media, yet the country doesn’t make the top ten for the amount of time spent per person using the technology.

(Images: Kalishnikov via Wikimedia Commons/Radio Flyer, dove via Flickr/lednichenkoolga, Iran via Flickr/futureatlas)

Here’s some really ugly spin from The Guardian:

The security barrier so heavily criticized in Phoebe Greenwood’s dispatch was built to prevent suicide bombers, drive by shootings etc. – the kind of activities that get people added to Santa’s naughty list.

If he were to come this year, it’s more likely Jesus would’ve been shot by Palestinians on a dark and lonely road somewhere between Nazareth and Bethlehem.