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1. Arab Disowned by Family After Shot in Turkish Embassy Incident
by Chana Ya'ar
A Palestinian Authority man who was shot after he broke into the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv Tuesday evening has been disowned by his family.
Nadim Injaz's family members told reporters Wednesday they no longer have any blood ties to the deranged man, adding that they condemn his actions – especially his collaboration with Israel. Injaz, who has a criminal record, was in the past an informer for the Israel Police.
The PA's leading Fatah faction, meanwhile, claims the entire incident was a “Shin Bet' (Israel Security Agency) ploy. Fatah said in a statement that Injaz had once been a PA employee, but is currently “a drug dealer living in Tel Aviv under official Israeli protection.”
Fatah made an attempt in its statement to drive a deeper wedge between Turkey and Israel, while strengthening ties between Ankara and the PA. “We are certain that the depth of the connection between the Palestinian people and the Turkish people is deeper and stronger than an absurd action planned by the Shin Bet and carried out by a known collaborator,” the statement read.
Injaz demanded safe passage to Ankara and said he was armed before being shot by embassy personnel.
His attorney, Avital Horef, told reporters Injaz had fled Judea and Samaria in order to “stay alive” because he faced a PA death sentence for collaborating with Israel.
Allegedly mentally deranged, the Arab gunman made a similar attempt in the British Embassy in Tel Aviv in 2006. He was recently released after serving prison time for that attack.
Because the Turkish Embassy is considered foreign territory, Israeli police and ambulance personnel were not allowed inside the building, although it was clear that someone had been shot, and there was a risk that a hostage situation was developing.
Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor confirmed that Injaz had briefly taken two hostages. In a call to Channel 2 TV that was recorded and later broadcast, the attacker threatened to “burn down the whole building.”
Injaz said in the phone call that he was demanding asylum and protection from “the murdering Jews,” but added that Palestinian Authority leaders, including PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas “should die” as well.
It took six hours for Turkish officials to release Injaz, who was immediately taken into custody by Israeli police just before midnight. Spewing a stream of curses, Injaz flashed the victory sign to reporters as he was taken away to an ambulance outside the building. He was evacuated to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he was treated for gunshot wounds.
No one else was wounded in the incident.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry later released a statement saying, “Embassy guards neutralized the individual as he tried to take the vice consul as hostage after shouting around for asylum.” According to the ministry, Injaz was armed with a knife, a gasoline can and a toy gun.
Injaz was arrested on charges of residing illegally in Israel, due to his lack of identity papers.
It was the only possible allegation with which he could be charged, due to the fact that the embassy is considered Turkish sovereign territory.
2. IAF Strikes Gaza Weapons Factory, Tunnels in Response to Terror
by Chana Ya'ar
Israel Air Force fighter pilots destroyed a variety of carefully selected terrorist targets in Gaza overnight in retaliation for a spate of terror attacks on Jewish communities in the western Negev, including two mortars fired at Israel from the region earlier in the day, and two Kassam rockets fired Monday.
Two IDF soldiers were wounded in Tuesday morning's mortar fire while troops carried out engineering tasks along the Gaza security fence. The Salah ad-Din Brigades military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terrorist group subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack.
The PRC is one of three groups whose operatives carried out the June 25, 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held captive by the ruling Hamas terrorist organization.
In response to the attack, the IAF carried out air strikes on a weapons factory in central Gaza, two smuggler tunnels, and a terrorist tunnel in the southern part of the region.
On Monday, Gaza terrorists launched a Kassam rocket barrage that struck Jewish communities in the Eshkol Regional Council district.
“The IDF remains committed to protecting the citizens of Israel and will continue to act against terror,” said the IDF Spokesman in a statement. “The IDF holds Hamas solely responsible for terror emanating from the Gaza Strip.”
More than 115 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel from Gaza since January. Over 420 rockets were launched from the region at the Jewish State since the end of Israel's three-week counter-terrorist war, in the winter of 2008-2009, Operation Cast Lead.
3. Iran Denies Bushehr Activation Will Enable Atomic Weapon Ability
by Chana Ya'ar
Iran is denying a doomsday message to the world by former U.S. diplomat John Bolton, warning that activation of a nuclear reactor in the Islamic Republic will end the chance to prevent Tehran from developing an atomic weapon.
Iranian officials denied Wednesday that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will produce enriched uranium, or an atomic weapon, after it is activated Friday. Still, to protect its nuclear investment, Iran has vowed to close the Straits of Hormuz if necessary.
On Friday, August 21, Russia is scheduled to begin loading nuclear fuel rods into the reactor, also built by Moscow.
Iranian MP Hossein Sobhaninia has claimed the fueling of the plant “cannot be linked to Iran's nuclear enrichment program; Iran is well aware of its responsibilities.” His colleague, Iranian MP Mohammad Karim Shahrzad added a warning, however, according to a report broadcast by the country's English-language Press TV news network: “The time frame for enrichment activity is a domestic matter,” he said. “It is an issue in which the United States is not entitled to interfere."
By Friday, Bolton, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has warned it will be too late to attack, because such a move would cause radioactive fallout that could reach as far as the Persian Gulf.
Earlier this week, Bolton said in an interview that he believes Israel may have already “lost the opportunity” to prevent Iran from establishing a functional nuclear reactor.
Iranian Army Brigadier-General Ali Shadermani meanwhile has vowed to close the Straits of Hormuz if it appears that the United States might attack the country. “The country's armed forces... are in the highest state of alert,” he told the Mehr news agency on Wednesday.
Shadermani also threatened to attack American troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq. “With the slightest move against Iran, we will paralyze those troops stationed in those bases and won't allow them to make any move,” he warned.
The third element in the plan would be aimed at the Jewish State, he said: The Iranian army would, “disturb peace and tranquility in Israel, which is known as the closest ally of the United States," reported Hamsayeh.net. Shadermani added pointedly, "The U.S. and Israel well know that we can do it.”
Israel and other Western nations believe that Iran is intent on building a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. Spent nuclear fuel rods contain material that can be used to build a nuclear bomb – and even if other nuclear plants in the country are shut down, Bushehr could conceivably be used to continue such a project in future.
At present, Russia's agreement with Iran stipulates that the Islamic Republic will return its spent fuel rods abroad to Moscow. However, there is no guarantee that Tehran will keep its word.
According to Bolton, once nuclear fuel rods are placed inside the core of the Bushehr reactor, any attack on the facility could harm Iranian civilians as well as others across an extremely wide area – hence the former diplomat's warning that time is nearly up.
4. Lebanese Upgrade of Palestinian Rights Follows Ayalon Op-ed
by Eli Stutz
A senior advisor to Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon suggests that Lebanon's decision to upgrade its Palestinians' rights may be connected to Israeli PR efforts, including a recent op-ed by Ayalon in The Wall Street Journal.
Yesterday, Lebanon's parliament decided to give greater rights of employment to its 400,000 Palestinians, overturning a rule that forbade them from most work opportunities for decades.
"Parliament approved a law amendment lifting former restrictions on employment for Palestinian refugees, who will now have the right to work in any field open to foreigners with benefits including social security from their own special fund," a senior official told AFP.
Ashley Perry, senior advisor to Deputy FM Ayalon, noted to Israel National News that it is a "remarkable coincidence" that the Lebanese decision came a mere two weeks after a high-profile WSJ op-ed piece by Ayalon that highlighted the issue. "Mistreatment of Lebanese Palestinians has being going on since 1948," said Perry.
In his op-ed on July 29th, entitled "The Flotilla Farce," Ayalon highlighted the fact that Lebanon's mistreatment of its Palestinians has gone widely unnoticed, while all the world focuses on how Israel acts towards its Palestinians. This is hypocrisy, charged Ayalon.
Ayalon elaborated on Lebanon's mistreatment:
"Today, there are more than 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who are deprived of their most basic rights. The Lebanese government has a list of tens of professions that a Palestinian is forbidden from being engaged in, including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. Palestinians are forbidden from owning property and need a special permit to leave their towns. Unlike all other foreign nationals in Lebanon, they are denied access to the health-care system. According to Amnesty international, the Palestinians in Lebanon suffer from "discrimination and marginalization" and are treated like "second class citizens" and "denied their full range of human rights."
Ashley Perry noted that this article was unique in that it brought Lebanon's behavior to the fore in such an open way in the mainstream media. Perry said that, "even if the article had a small impact on this policy, then it is very welcome."
Perry said that Ayalon's article was part of a new Israeli PR effort to go on the offensive and expose hypocrisy against Israel.
Palestinians in Lebanon are still far from attaining full rights. As other foreigners, they still won't be able to work as lawyers, doctors, soldiers, or in the police force - jobs that are reserved for Lebanese citizens. The Palestinians in Lebanon still live in poverty in refugee camps and do not have health care, right to citizenship and the right to property. But the upgrade is significant, since until now Palestinians could only work very limited fields such as construction and farming.
"We hope that this government decision is the first step towards the naturalization of the Palestinians in Lebanon," a senior Israeli government source told Israel National News.
5. Jerusalem Mufti: Watch Out for Religious War
by Hillel Fendel
Is a Moslem cleric making one war-provoking statement too many? Jerusalem Mufti Muhammad Hussein says Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, Hevron could start a religious war.
Muhammad Hussein, known as the “Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine,” calls on all Moslems to take action to save the “holy places” and to support the Palestinian intifada. In keeping with the recent Moslem line that Judaism is barely linked with the Holy Land, Hussein says that Israel is “working subversively to take over Moslem holy sites," Arab affairs correspondent Dalit HaLevi reports.
Speaking with the Arabic-language internet site Ilaf on Tuesday, Hussein said that Israel has invested great efforts to erase the Islamic characteristics of Jerusalem, Hevron and other cities, in order to falsely prove Judaism’s connection with these places.
Just a few decades ago, however, it was Jerusalem’s Supreme Moslem Council (Waqf) itself that debunked the Arab Moslem position that the Temple Mount is not Jewish. The Waqf published a Temple Mount guide in 1925 in which it stated clearly that the site’s “identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the L-rd...'”, citing the source in Samuel II 24,25.
The pamphlet also makes reference to the underground area in the south-east corner of the Mount, which is refers to as Solomon's Stables. "Little is known for certain of the history of the chamber itself," the guide reads. "It dates probably as far back as the construction of Solomon's Temple. According to Josephus, it was in existence and was used as a place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D."
Bethlehem and Hevron, Too
Muhammed Hussein also now denies that Hevron, where the Patriarch Abraham purchased what is now the Machpelah Cave and the area around it, and Bethlehem, where the Patriach Jacob buried his wife, the Matriarch Rachel, are Jewish sites.
He said that the recent Israeli decision to includes them in the list of special Jewish legacy sites is an “attempt to take over the religious places and create facts on the ground… We are now in a period of war – not one with tanks and rockets, but one of religion, faith, and distorting Islamic history and tradition… This proves that Israel has no cultural roots in this land.”
Hussein added that all Moslems must know that Israel is preparing to “annex the Al-Aqsa Mosque [on the Temple Mount] in order to demolish it and build the fake Holy Temple in its place… This is taking place in the framework of the plan by the Zionist enemy to Judaize Jerusalem…”
The Dangers of PA Incitement
Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors and publicizes anti-Israel incitement in the Palestinian Authority’s media and schools, explains, “The Israeli and world media keep portraying reality as if the PA has peaceful intentions. However, the PA school books and media are full of incitement to hate and violence, glorification of terrorists, denial of Israel’s right to exist as well as demonization of Jews and Israelis… The only answer to these hate messages is to expose them - even if it is again and again - in whatever versions they appear, so that we do not become immune to them. Unless hate education and incitement is stopped, it will destroy any chance for peace.”
6. Iran Launches Holocaust-Denial Cartoon Site
by Hillel Fendel
A new website in Iran depicts the Holocaust as seen through Iranian eyes – cartoons, mockery, denial claims, and a dedication to “all those killed in the name of the Holocaust.”
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) reports that the new, extensive website, holocartoons.com, is in the form of a comic book in three languages: Persian, English and Arabic. It begins by stating that it is dedicated to “all those who were killed by those using the Holocaust excuse.”
Claims that the Holocaust either never happened or was exaggerated, long familiar on the Iranian scene, are presented in detail, as are allegations that Israel simply used the Holocaust concept to kill Arabs and take over what was then Palestine.
Mockery is the website’s overriding theme, both in the illustrations and the content. An example: “One day, when Hitler woke up, he decided to suffocate six million Jews. Unfortunately, only 5.4 million Jews were living in Europe, so he invited another 600,000 into Europe, and they arrived within a few days.”
Another page states: “Did the Holocaust happen only during World War Two? No, before that, six million Jews died of hunger and poverty during World War One, but because no one paid any attention, they let themselves be gassed to death again by the Nazis.”
The website takes the familiar approach of accusing Israel of using the Holocaust for the formation of the renewed Jewish State: “Jewish artists re-built the gas chambers, using their mental talents and their imagination… The German government asked the Jews to take everything it had, but the Jews agreed to take only $100 billion, and contributed the rest to their god.”
The site also mocks Jewish claims that Moslems in then-Palestine collaborated with the Nazis: “Researchers have proven that the Great Mufti in Jerusalem looked at Hitler’s picture three times during the war, and therefore Palestine belongs to the Jews.”
ITIC states that this new Iranian website “is yet another expression of the country’s policy of Holocaust denial, and plays a central role in the Iranian regime’s attempt to de-legitimize Israel and deny the historical-moral basis of Zionism. Holocaust denial has been very familiar in Iran since the Islamic Revolution there, but it has increased significantly ever since Mahmoud Ahmedinajad was elected president in 2005.” Since his election, ITIC notes, Iran has held an exhibit of Holocaust denial cartoons and has officially sponsored a Holocaust denial conference.
7. Israel: #22 in the World, #1 in the Middle East
by Hillel Fendel
Newsweek has deigned to rank the top 100 countries in the world – giving Israel the 22nd slot, and number one in the Middle East.
The current issue of the international weekly ranks the countries according to five categories. Israel finished 7th in health, 15th in economic dynamism, and 25th in what Newsweek called “quality of life.” The Jewish state scored 27th in political environment, but only 41st in education.
Nevertheless, Israel’s education score was higher than all other Middle East countries; Jordan was number 44, and Syria - 46. An anomaly was found here, however, in that while Israel's literacy rate was found to be 97.1%, Jordan's is only 90%, and Syria's is under 80%. The United States, at 99%, scored 26th in education. Thus, 15 places separate the U.S. from Israel, even though their literacy rates are practically the same, while only 5 places separate Syria from Israel, though Israel's literacy rate is 25% higher.
In terms of average years of schooling, the numbers for the U.S., Israel, Jordan and Syria were 15.8, 15.6, 12.8, and 10, respectively.
Among Arab countries, only one – Kazakhstan – scored ahead of Israel in education.
In terms of political environment – another term for democracy, apparently – Israel, at #27, far outranked Arab and Middle Eastern countries. Turkey topped the non-Jewish Middle Eastern states, scoring #64 on the world listing, while the four lowest places, 97-100, were taken by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Syria. Israel’s nearest Moslem competitor was Malaysia, number 54, and Egypt was 83.
In all-around “good to live in,” Israel’s #22 listing was actually #1 in the Middle East. Kuwait was the top Arab country, at #40, and in terms of Middle Eastern non-Jewish countries, Turkey and Jordan led the pack, in the 52nd and 53rd places, respectively.
Historic Photo
In a non-related item, the same issue of Newsweek features an article on the possibility that demographic trends in Israel are significantly more Jewish-leaning than commonly thought. The article is graced by a large photograph of Jewish children on the backdrop of a synagogue, with the caption, "Jewish children play in the Israeli town of Netzarim." In fact, however, Israel withdrew from Netzarim, and all of Gush Katif, five years ago; the children in the photo were expelled from their homes, and the subsequent destruction of the synagogue by Gazan Arabs has been widely photographed and documented.
(Similarly, a Newsweek graphic of the top countries mistakenly depicts Israel in 23rd place.)
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