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1. Activism Works: Anti-Israel Ads Will Not Run on Seattle Buses
by Elad Benari
Seattle’s King County Metro Transit officials announced on Thursday
that they have decided to halt all new non-commercial ads, The Seattle
Times reported.
This includes a controversial ad campaign which claimed that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza.
The campaign, sponsored by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign,
would have seen twelve buses carrying an ad reading “Israeli War Crimes:
Your tax dollars at work”. The ads were supposed to show an image of a
group of Arab children, with one little boy staring out at the viewer
while the others gawk at a demolished building.
The ad was to have appeared on the buses on December 27, the second
anniversary of the beginning of the IDF’s counter terror Operation Cast
Lead.
The announced campaign resulted in a huge backlash,
with pro-Israel group StandWithUs alerting its supporters worldwide to
the planned campaign and asking them to send e-mail messages protesting
the campaign to the King County Council members and to the Metro bus
company.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center announced a counter campaign which
would have seen ads that read “Palestinian War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars
At Work” with pictures of Israeli bus passengers killed by Arab suicide
bombers during the Second Intifada. The children of Sderot and kibbutzim
around the border with Gaza running to shelters as Gazan launched
missiles fall on their Negev town might have been another idea.
Seattle’s KING5 TV, which first reported on the controversial ad
campaign, quoted King County Executive Dow Constantine who cited
possible bus service disruption as the reason for the cancellation.
“My job is to deliver essential services to the people of King County,
including transit service,” said Constantine. “I have consulted with
federal and local law enforcement authorities who have expressed
concern, in the context of this international debate, that our public
transportation system could be vulnerable to disruption.”
Metro officials told KING5 that non-commercial advertising will
temporarily be added to the list of currently restricted ad campaigns,
with the exception of certain government ads. Constantine added that by
the end of January further work will be done to determine a sound policy
that abides by First Amendment rights and protects Metro passenger
safety.
2. IDF Wounds Gaza Terror Suspects at Security Fence
by Chana Ya'ar
The IDF fired at four young men from Gaza who approached the fence
separating the Hamas-controlled territory from Israel, wounding at least
two of them. According to an IDF spokesperson, the four young men
entered the security buffer zone between Israel and northern Gaza.
The spokesperson told the AFP news service that soldiers began firing
at the suspects after they ignored the soldiers' initial warning
shots. The military spokesperson added that as far as he knew, only two
of the suspects were hit, both wounded in their lower bodies.
Palestinian Authority medics in Gaza alleged that IDF soldiers shot and wounded four young men in the incident.
An unconfirmed report on the same incident, which quoted a Hamas
medical spokesman, said a 14-year-old was shot in the head and a
17-year-old hit in the back. Both are reportedly in serious condition.
In addition, an 18-year-old was allegedly shot in the hand, and a
22-year-old was allegedly shot in the back. Both are reportedly in good
condition. The report claimed the group was searching for gravel near
the fence.
%InAd1%
3. Attacks on Jews Continue, As Does Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
by Chana Ya'ar
Palestinian Authority Arabs continue to attack Jews in the western
Negev and on Judea and Samaria roads, as thousands of tons of
humanitarian aid supplies are delivered daily to Gaza.
In Judea and Samaria, PA Arab attackers are continuing to hurl rocks at Israeli vehicles traveling through Judea and Samaria.
PA Arabs attacked drivers near two Jewish communities Thursday afternoon, hurling large, sharp-edged rocks at their vehicles.
Jewish drivers were targeted near the western Samaria community of Alei Zahav, and in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Hevron.
No one was injured, but the vehicles were damaged in the attacks. IDF soldiers were ordered to search the area.
Humanitarian Aid Deliveries to Gaza Continue
While PA terrorists continue to launch rocket and mortar attacks on
southern Israeli communities, hundreds of truckloads of supplies are
being delivered daily to Gaza.
Last week 910 truckloads (22,167 tons) of supplies, including 180
truckloads of construction materials were delivered through the land
crossings into the region, according to the IDF Coordinator of
Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT).
General merchandise, fuel supplies and foodstuffs are delivered in
daily deliveries through the Kerem Shalom and Karni Crossings.
On Wednesday, 272 truckloads of goods, fuel and merchandise made their
way into the region, just a day after a short-range Kassam rocket was
fired from Gaza at Kibbutz Zikim.
The rocket exploded next to a kindergarten just as dozens of parents
were dropping of their children at school. A 14-year-old girl was
wounded in the blast, and several others suffered traumatic shock.
Earlier in the week, seven missiles were fired from the region at southern Israeli communities.
4. Arab to be Evicted from East Jerusalem for Inciting Riots
by Elad Benari
The IDF said on Thursday that it has ordered an Arab resident of east
Jerusalem to stay out of the city for four months for inciting protests
against Jewish residents.
The man is 34-year-old Adnan Jith, a resident of the Shiloach (Silwan)
neighborhood near the Kotel. Jith, who is a leader in Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, said he will appeal
the order. The IDF said it had received "security and intelligence
information linking Jith with activity which is liable to cause a breach
of public order within the city of Jerusalem."
Arab residents of Shiloach have gone on many rampages in the last few months. In June, at least two hundred Arabs hurled fire bombs,
fireworks and rocks at security guards stationed at Beit HaDvash in the
neighborhood, and at dozens of policemen and Border Police who came to
restore order.
An Arab mob in Shiloach also attacked a car driven by a Jewish man
accompanied by his three children. The man managed to drive away but the
vehicle was damaged.
In another incident in late August, which was described as “a near-pogrom,”
dozens of Arabs went on a rampage for over 90 minutes, blocking roads
and setting Jews’ cars on fire. The rioters also pelted a Border Police
truck with fire bombs and rocks.
David Be’eri, who drove into an ambush of Arab youths throwing stones
at passing Israeli cars in the neighborhood, swerved to the side and
hit an Arab youth who ran in front of his car while pelting him with
stones. These are just several of many incidents which have taken place
in the neighborhood over the last several months.
The banishment order against Jith is based on a rarely used emergency
statute from 1945 during the British Mandate. It was often used against
Jewish groups who were battling the British. Attorney Daniel Seidemann,
an expert on Jerusalem, said in a conversation with The Associated
Press: “Since the early 1970s, to the best of my knowledge, this has not
been used. So this is a serious regression. Beyond that, this sends a
very serious detrimental message to the Palestinians of east Jerusalem:
Behave well or you're out of here.”
Jith himself told The Associated Press on Thursday that he has been in
and out of Israeli jails over the past two decades for demonstrating
against what was termed “the occupation of Palestinian territory.” He
said that Israel is trying to punish him for those protests.
He added that he has no intention of complying with the order, and
said: “There is only one way they can carry out their decision: to
deport me by force.”
Jith claims that Israel is “trying to make look it like I am the one
threatening the security, as if saying no to oppression and to house
demolitions is an assault. Whatever they do to stop me, I will keep
talking.”
Meanwhile, PA President Abbas appealed to the United States to halt the
eviction. PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh told AP: “It's illegal and
unacceptable, and it will negatively affect the American efforts to
revive the peace process.”
%InAd2%
5. Court OKs Jewish Building at Nili
by Gil Ronen
High Court Judge Neil Hendel rejected on Thursday a request for a
temporary stop-work order against construction of 60 housing units at
Nili, a mixed religious and secular Israeli community in the Binyamin
area north of Modi'in, off route 443, and part of the areas restored to
Israel in the Six Day War.
The request was filed by residents of Dir Elkadis, an Arab village near
Nili. The claimed that the land upon which the units are being built
belongs to them.
The units will be built by the Bar-Amana construction company, in cooperation with the community of Nili.
Attorney Akiva Sylvetsky,
legal advisor to the Samaria Regional Authority and the Benjamin area,
who represented Nili, told the court that the construction is being
carried out on state land that was declared as such in 1981. He noted
that the Arab petitioners did not object to the declaration at the time
it was made, and showed that the land was allocated to the community by
the Zionist Histadrut cooperative society.
Sylvetsky wondered why the petitioners also did not object when
authorities approved the zoning plan that includes the land in question.
The construction is being carried out with permits granted on the basis
of that plan.
Judge Hendel said that in view of the community's response, he does not
see fit to grant the stop-work order and construction can continue..
6. Strong Zionist Counterattack against Seattle Bus Ads
by Gil Ronen
Supporters of Israel mounted an impressive campaign this week to try and prevent Seattle buses from running anti-Israel advertisements, sending over 1,800 email messages to local government council members and to the bus company involved.
The planned advertisements show a group of Arab children standing near a
bombed-out building and carry the text: "Israeli War Crimes: your tax
dollars at work." The ads are supposed to appear on at least 12 buses
that run through downtown Seattle, starting December 27, the second
anniversary of the Cast Lead counter-terror campaign mounted by Israel
after eight years in which Gaza terrorists shelled Israeli population
centers.
Pro-Israel group StandWithUs alerted supporters worldwide to
the planned campaign and asked them to send email messages of protest
to the King County Council members and to the Metro bus company.
"We've received copies of over 1,800 emails so far," StandWithUs
informed its supporters Thursday. "And we know that that is only a small
portion of the emails that have been sent - not everyone copied us on
their emails. Plus, the phones at Metro have been ringing off the hook
with complaints about Metro accepting the anti-Israel 'Israeli War
Crimes' ad."
"Since Monday, StandWithUs Northwest's professional and Seattle lay
leadership have been on the phones, calling King County Council members,
lobbying them to come out in opposition to the anti-Israel ad."
"As a result of your emails and calls, and calls from other community
members and leaders, along with StandWithUs Northwest lobbying, we know
that at least three King County Council members have publicly come out
in opposition to Metro running the ad. The first to speak out was
Council member Peter von Reichbauer. Yesterday both Council members
Reagan Dunn and Jeanne Hague also came out very strongly with statements
opposing the ad."
StandWithUs also succeeded in having a 'stuffed' poll on the subject of
the advertisements pulled from the Internet. KING 5 TV, which first
broke the story, had an on-line poll on whether or not Metro should
carry the ads. "It very quickly became the most visited page on their
website, with tens of thousands of people voting. Blogs across the
country directed people to vote in the poll. By Monday evening, slightly
more than 50 percent of the votes were against Metro running the ad.
Then, between late Monday evening and early Tuesday morning, more than
15,000 nearly unanswered 'yes' votes came piling in, supporting Metro
running the ads."
StandWithUs Northwest's co-chairs called KING 5 and explained that it
was statistically nearly impossible for so many 'yes' votes to come in
so quickly in a legitimate way. KING 5 responded immediately by
investigating the problem and, within an hour, pulled the poll off the
web.
In addition, StandWithUs and three other community organizations - the
AJC, the Federation of Greater Seattle and ADL - met Wednesday afternoon
with representatives of the King County Executive's office and the
senior management of Metro. "Both the King County Executive's office and
the Metro management heard our position. No decision was reached at the
meeting, but we expect to hear from them shortly," StandWithUs
reported.
Meanwhile, the David Horowitz Freedom Center announced on Thursday that
it has purchased thousands of dollars of ads to counter the anti-Israel
campaign. The Freedom Center's ads will read "Palestinian War Crimes:
Your Tax Dollars At Work" with pictures of Israeli bus passengers killed
by Arab suicide bombers during the Second Intifada.
The Freedom Center is encouraging people who want to assist its
pro-Israel campaign and expand it to other cities in the U.S., to do so
by helping fund for these counter ads. Click here to help out.
%InAd3%
7. "Start" of Good Things for Obama?
by Amiel Ungar
Barack Obama and the Democratic Party exulted in the Senate
ratification of the New Start Treaty reducing the number of nuclear
warheads held by the United States and Russia. The treaty passed the
Senate by an ample 71-26 margin easily crossing the Constitution's two
thirds barrier for treaty ratification. (Jewish groups were divided over
the issue. For analysis of START's influence on Israel, click here.).
As opposed to what occurred during most of the current Congress where
the Republican caucus in the Senate held firm and the defections came
from the Democratic side of the aisle, the vote on the treaty reversed
the pattern. The Republican vote fragmented, allowing the Obama
administration an important win.
The Democrats are already banking that the vote will set a precedent
for further "bipartisanship" in the next Congress and that Pres. Obama
will thus be able to reclaim the mantle of the "post-partisan
president", a man who can get things done, as he successfully advertised
himself during the 2008 election.
Before the Democrats get their hopes up too high is important to recall
that the Start Treaty from its very beginnings offered the optimal
chance to exploit Republican divisions. Already in the Foreign Relations
Committee the Republicans split down the middle, with the ranking
Republican 6-term senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, highly regarded for
his foreign policy expertise, supporting the treaty as did two of his
Republican colleagues. Obama heaped special praise on Lugar after the
treaty passed and Lugar may pay heavily for such praise if he runs
against a more conservative opponent in a primary.
Republican administrations have a long history of supporting arms
control measures and it was therefore easy for the administration to
secure the backing of former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, James
Baker and George Shultz as well as, of course, the ranking Republican
in the Obama administration Defense Secretary Robert Gates who is a
holdover from the Bush administration. Senate minority leader Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, although he voted against the treaty, did not
attempt to twist arms to secure a monolithic Republican vote.
The Obama administration made commitments in writing to allay
Republican fears. Firstly, the administration has pledged to invest tens
of billions of dollars in modernizing the American nuclear arsenal so
that the remaining warheads after the treaty mandated reductions will be
more potent and reliable. Secondly the administration promised to go
ahead with an antimissile system in Europe despite Russian objections
and despite the wording in the preamble to the treaty that appeared to
limit such an option.
Since very few people currently fear a American-Russian nuclear
exchange, the main purpose of the defensive missile system is to counter
countries such as Iran and North Korea. With these 2 major concessions
in hand, the major Republican argument, aside from arguing that arms
control in itself broadcasts timidity and smacks of appeasement, was to
claim. as did Sen. John Kyl. that the treaty was being railroaded
through and should be deferred to the next Congress. This procedural
issue did not provide a sufficient rallying point.
Some of the Republican senators who broke ranks and voted with the
Democrats were either unseated in the primaries or had retired and will
not be back in January. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ruefully
concluded "With a new group of Republicans coming in, we could get a
better deal on almost everything."
The Republicans would like to believe that the main theater of their
opposition to the Obama administration will be the spending front, and
their success in thwarting an administration spending bill augurs well
for the next Congress. In 6 months we should know which prognosis was
correct and who was engaging in wishful thinking.
8. Wikileaks to Publish 3,700 Israel-Related Documents
by Hillel Fendel
Wikileaks intends to publish thousands of secret documents related to
Israel six months from now, co-founder Julian Assange told Qatar-based
Al Jazeera TV’s "Without Borders" program.
Asked if Israel has been in contact with him, Assange said, “No, no
contacts with Israel, but I am sure Mossad is following our activities
closely, [just] like Australia, Sweden and the CIA." He said it is not
true that he has a deal with Israel not to publish the secret files.
Assange appeared to contradict himself when he later said, “We will
publish 3,700 files and the source is the American embassy in Tel Aviv” –
after he had previously said “there are 3,700 files related to Israel
and the source of 2,700 files is Israel… In the next six months, we
intend to publish more files, depending on our sources.” It was unclear
if he was referring to files included in the 3,700 aforementioned files,
or to others.
After he referred to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Assange curiously
said, “Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu was traveling to Paris to
talk to the U.S. ambassador there. “
Assange said the files contain “some information” from “files
classified as Top Secret” about the Second Lebanon War between Israel
and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006. He also indicated that some files
incriminate Israel in the assassination of Hamas terrorist leader
Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
Originally from Australia, Assange is under house arrest in England
pending an extradition hearing; he is wanted for questioning
in Sweden regarding alleged sexual offences. He denies the allegations
and claims they are politically motivated.
Asked by Al-Jazeera if there are “any files about agencies providing
intelligence information about famous personalities in the Arab world?,”
Assange replied, “I am not sure about that, but there are files about
Hizbullah in Lebanon.”
Regarding Israel and its Mossad intelligence agency, he said, “Most of
the files related to Mossad are classified as top secret but there may
be some files related to the role of Mossad in killing a Lebanese
military leader in Damascus by sniper bullets. There 2,500 files related
to Mossad and I have read only 1,000. So I don’t know about everything,
I need more journalists including Arabs to read and analyze and put
everything in the context for the benefit of the readers.”
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