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Archive for February, 2011

Here We Go Again, Another Day Another Gag: Shabak Holds Israeli Palestinian Incommunicado on Espionage Charges

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

By now, the scenario is down pat. Israel’s Mukhabarat, the Shabak barges into an Israeli Palestinian home in the dead of night with shouts and the brandishing of guns. Children are petrified, spouses as well. They trample through a home, confiscate every electronic device in sight including the children’s and haul off a man to a secret cell somewhere in Israel’s version of Lyubyanka or Evin Prison. There the prisoner/victim is detained incommunicado under terrorism/espionage charges. He’s interrogated for hours on end, deprived of sleep, shouted and screamed at. Names, places and dates are demanded. He’s tied to a chair. He doesn’t even bother to ask for a lawyer. If he did they’d laugh or spit in his face. Lawyer? What does he think this is? The new Egypt?

In most countries it’s called torture. In Israel it’s SOP for Israeli Palestinian victims of the police state. The latest victim, according to an Israeli source, is Muhammad Danef, born in 1968, making him 42 years old. [UPDATE: Four other Palestinians were arrested with him. When I have more information I'll update this. UPDATE I: I now have the names of two other detainees: Muhamad Bandayan, age 27 and Iyad Tubaba, age 36. They are Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and being held in a Shabak facility or prison outside Jerusalem. UPDATE II: The remaining two detainees are from Sachnin. They are Samir Hubeiza, b. 1962 (49) and Ashraf El-Baladi, b. 1995 - he is a minor (16). They are being detained in a Shabak location near Haifa.]

The way I view these cases is just like a child-kidnapping. If you can expose the case early, you may be able to stop the abuse and guarantee a few minimal rights to the accused a bit earlier in the process.

So I call on any Israeli who has any information about this arrest to help me expose it so that this man’s basic civil rights are, if not guaranteed, or at least accorded to him in a minimal fashion. If you are an Israeli journalist, please inquire of the Shabak about this man so that he is no long a nameless member of the disappeared prisoner class. This man has a name and a family and a history and a community. Let’s restore some semblance of dignity to him.

Muhammad Danef, whoever and whereever you are and whatever you have done–there are those who care about you and demand you be accorded basic human rights. Shabak–stop the torture, give this man a name. Give this man access to his attorney. Give this man his rights.

Tags: shin-bet, spying, torture
Posted in Mideast Peace | 32 Comments »

Erekat, Palestinian Cabinet Resign, Election Set

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Mahmoud Abbas: what's this nonsense they're talking about democracy and some sort of Revolution? Did I miss that? (EPA)

In a sign of the ripple effect that the Egyptian Revolution is having on its neighbors in the region, virtually the entire rump PA government resigned and Mahmoud Abbas called for new elections. It’s rather comic because he has had the opportunity to do this since 2006 and only chose now to do so. Abbas also chooses to hold an election without the participation of his chief rival, Hamas. The latter refuses to participate in an election while Fatah has refused efforts to reconcile and restore a unified Palestinian government.

This will essentially be a one party election and the West Bank will be a one party rump state. So much for real democracy. Abbas is runnin’ scared that the Egyptian model might be embraced in Palestine. This reminds me of the tribe that believes it must appease the volcano god by tossing a maiden into its maw. This is cosmetic surgery, designed to fool Palestinians and the rest of the world into believing that Fatah is the democratically elected representative of the people. But how can it be when it will have virtually no competition?

James Steinberg, proudly points to U.S. success in stifling Security Council resolutions which conform with U.S. policy (AFP)

Saeb Erekat’s resignation is a further indication of the failure of Peace Process 1.0. Any such process predicated on maximum Palestinian flexibility and minimum Israeli concessions along with a mediator heavily tilted toward Israeli interests–that is dead.

On a related matter, the Obama administration, with its announcement that it would proudly and eagerly veto the Security Council resolution condemning settlements, seems not to have learned any lessons from Tahrir Square. The message conveyed by this veto is: we stand by our allies, even when they behave in ways antithetical to our own policies and values.

Didn’t we just dump a guy for that?

What irks me especially is the pride the U.S. State Department official takes in the fact that the U.S. continually frustrates any attempt to address the evils of the Occupation in the Security Council:

“We have made very clear that we do not think the Security Council is the right place to engage on these issues,” Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee.

“We have had some success, at least for the moment, in not having that arise there. And we will continue to employ the tools that we have to make sure that continues to not happen,” said Steinberg.

Imagine the April 6th Youth Movement bringing a resolution to the Security Council condemning Mubarak’s 30 years of venality and oppression of the Egyptian people and a similar statement from a U.S. representative boasting of our ability to game the system so troublesome matters like these are never brought up. Is this what the Obama administration wishes to be remembered for as its legacy? That we were Israel’s toady?

Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that this resolution’s wording tracks almost note for note specific U.S. policy on the settlements. So we’re placed in the incredibly awkward and lame position of vetoing a resolution that diverges not a whit from our pronounced policy against settlements. I couldn’t have thought of a way to look more stupid on the world stage. Not to mention that after we struggled so hard to appear relevant during the events in Tahrir Square, for us to recede so quickly into irrelevancy is almost heartbreaking.

The truth is that the Obama administration defends freedom and liberty up to the shores of Tel Aviv. Beyond that, we’re captive to the Israel lobby here and a set of Likudist-settler interests there.

Tags: arab spring, egypt, mahmoud-abbas, palestine, Saeb Erekat, separation-wall
Posted in Mideast Peace | 2 Comments »

Ashkenazi Video Admits IDF Bombed Syrian Nuclear Reactor and Created Stuxnet

Monday, February 14th, 2011

ashkenazi: idf bombed syrian reactor and did stuxnet

Anshel Pfeffer's Haaretz report

Haaretz has just published a story that will certainly disappear due to gag order. In it, Anshel Pfeffer writes that Gabi Ashkenazi prepared a video celebrating his achievements as chief of staff, which was screened at a party marking his final day on the job. What is extraordinary about the video is that among the successes of his time in office it credits the bombing of the Syrian nuclear reactor and the Stuxnet virus attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel has never publicly acknowledged responsibility for either.

So either Ashkenazi has a monumental need to amplify himself and his heroic accomplishments before he faces the glare of police klieg lights; or he’s violated elemental secrecy rules regarding these two events (or both). It’s possible he got approval from the censor to include this material in his video, but it seems highly unlikely. To me it seems like a monumental screw-up. But maybe Israel has finally decided to ‘fess up.

Attendees at the party included former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan who also appeared in the video congratulating Ashkenazi for doin’ a helluva job. I wonder what Dagan thought of these revelations…

Rotter, one of Israel’s major online forums, where some of my work is posted and linked (and heckled) has allowed the image to the left to be published in their Scoops section, but removed two attempts to link to this post. What are they afraid of? I guess Rabbi Rotter is still a little sore at what I wrote about his son, Meir, who harrasses Sheikh Jarrah protesters regularly as a police officer in East Jerusalem.

UPDATE: Looks like I was wrong as Haaretz has posted the story online. Which goes to show that when you’re the chief of staff, even a corrupt one, you can get away with a helluva lot more than when you’re Anat Kamm.

Tags: Gabi Ashkenazi, iran-nuclear-program, stuxnet, syria
Posted in Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 16 Comments »

Haaretz Discovers al-Araqib Nakba (Finally), GOD-TV Says It’s Not Responsible

Monday, February 14th, 2011

(GOD TV’s and all other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. The video above contains limited excerpts from GOD TV’s broadcast.)

Haaretz sometimes is a little slow on the uptake in reporting news. In the case of GOD-TV’s involvement with the dispossession of the Bedouin residents of al-Araqib, the newspaper is only about two months late. Neve Gordon reported in early December that the pro-settler evangelical group was funding a massive forest that would erase the outlines of the village. Subsequently, Max Blumenthal and I expanded on Neve’s reporting with our own research and blog posts. We also produced a video which documented the campaign against the Bedouin and GOD-TV’s involvement in it.

Haaretz’s reporter didn’t see fit to mention any of that. In fact, Nir Hasson claims he never read my work (he didn’t claim he hadn’t read Max’s). Which either means that he did limited research; or it means he, like so many Israeli journalists, just doesn’t give a crap about crediting the hard work of others. I say this as someone who relies heavily on the work of Haaretz in writing this blog and who always links and credits its reporters for their work. The difference between us is that I need to credit Haaretz in order to prove the bona fides of my blog posts, while neither Haaretz nor its reporters gains anything by crediting bloggers, even when they latter beat them to the story by two months.

Returning to our story, GOD-TV is sponsoring a 1-million tree forest on some of Al-Araqib’s land. It’s paying Jewish National Fund and Israel Lands Administration $500,000 to do so. For its purposes, the evangelical group is making the desert bloom, which in turn will attract the return of the Jewish exiles. That, of course, will bring the return of Jesus to His Kingdom (they believe). JNF and ILA get a partner who turns their treif enterprise–to commit a Nakba on the Bedouin of the Negev–into a kosher one. What can be more pleasing, after all, than a forest rising in the desert? Isn’t that what Isaiah spoke about in the Good Book?

There is a general Judaizing campaign under way in the Negev to implant new Jewish settlements there and “reclaim” the land for its Jewish inhabitants. There is an accompanying campaign to forcibly remove Bedouins from their traditional ancestral lands and place them in larger towns built with concentrated populations. This of course is alienating to a generally nomadic people who aren’t used to living in western style housing or a conventional town. As a result, social strife and decay of traditional values have accompanied this forced acculturation process.

GOD-TV has a modicum of shame for the role its playing. It’s placed a moral disclaimer on its website:

It has come to our attention that reports have been posted on the Internet…mislead[ing] readers to believe that GOD TV may be responsible for displacement of Bedouin people in the Negev Desert in Israel. These claims are false.

We cannot comment on any ongoing legal proceedings between the Israeli Government and the village of Al-Arakib, as GOD TV is in no way involved in these proceedings.

GOD TV is not responsible for, or involved in, the decision as to the specific places trees are planted across the country.

In other words, while the JNF and ILA may be displacing Bedouins, we have nothing to do with it. That’s an internal matter for Israel and its indigenous ethnic groups to fight out amongst themselves. What of course is entirely disingenuous about this is the claim that GOD-TV has no control over where its forest is planted. Of course it does. If it told JNF it didn’t want to be tarred with the brush of facilitating a Nakba, it could’ve chosen a less controversial spot for its forest. The fact is, GOD-TV doesn’t give a flying fig about Bedouins since they’re not part of God’s plan and the Jews are. They don’t need Bedouin to return to the Holy Land, they need Jews to before Jesus does.

The ILA defends its planting of the GOD TV forest by saying that it only plants forests on state land. This might lead someone who is naive to think that this constitutes a denial that the forest and destruction of the village have anything to do with each other. But in reality the State has confiscated ancestral Bedouin lands in the Negev and claimed them for its own. The State has forcibly removed the residents from al Araqib because it claims the land is Israel’s and not the residents’. So of course building a forest will contribute to the campaign to eradicate Arab presence in the south. It’s essentially not that different from the work Irving Moskowitz and Elad are doing in East Jerusalem, which they say is “reclaiming” (i.e. “stealing”) the Holy Land for its true and rightful Jewish inhabitants.

The Bedouin of the Negev have lived in their villages since well before the creations of the State in 1948. Residents of al-Araqib note the State first expelled them from their lands in 1951 by military order. They’ve never accepted their forced removal.

There is talk of an international boycott campaign against Jewish National Fund for its shameful involvement in this new Bedouin Nakba. Though few if any of my readers likely contribute to JNF, I’d encourage you to tell any Jewish people you may know why THEY shouldn’t contribute either. It’s bad karma.

Tags: bedouin, israeli settlers, nakba
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 3 Comments »

Ashkenazi Criminal Investigation: IDF Chief Sold Advanced Weapons System to Iran Ally, Son Pocketed Commission

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Isn’t it instructive to note that Egypt has just thrown off the yoke of a corrupt military dictator while Israel seems enmeshed in a web of military corruption reaching to the very highest echelons. Today, chief of staff Gaby Ashkenazi is to step down from his position and almost immediately commence months of grueling police interrogation for alleged crimes involving the sale of advanced IDF weapons systems to foreign countries.

Israel, of course, has a booming military weapons industry which exports billions of dollars worth of inventory abroad. That’s nothing new. But there are usually certain rules to which these sales adhere: you don’t sell the most advanced technology in order to preserve your military advantage over your Arab neighbors. Instead, you sell the penultimate version. Also, you sell to the west and Israeli allies and not to enemies of Israel or its allies, especially the U.S.

Ashkenazi, while he was director general of the defense ministry, allegedly broke all the rules and in major and criminal ways. He was aided in this endeavor by Lt. Col. Boaz Harpaz, who also fabricated a fake memo meant to destroy the candidacy of Yoav Galant, an Ashkenazi competitor for the IDF top job. An Israeli source tells me that he and Harpaz, sold the most advanced electronic warfare system Israel owned at the time to what they thought was an Italian customer. Only the ultimate destination of the system wasn’t Italy, but Venezuela. Who governs Venezuela? Hugo Chavez. Who’s Chavez’s best chum? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Imagine the prospect of Israeli pilots attacking Iran using air weapons systems which Iran itself already owns and has had a chance to study to determine its vulnerabilities. That means any Israeli leader foolish enough to send his pilots to attack Iran will send them into a firestorm from which they might not return.

Though I don’t know which system specifically was sold, Israel penetrated Syrian air space in 2007 in attacking the alleged North Korean nuclear reactor using a new electronic warfare system which disabled Syrian defenses. I’d have to think that such a system would be highly sought after by Iran if it could get its hands on it.

The method by which Ashkenazi arranged the sale was through Israeli companies for whom he had consulted before he became director general of the ministry. He also managed to funnel the commission on this weapons sale to his son, Itay, who himself was busy organizing his own suspect military deals on the side which managed to get approval, bypassing processes that should normally have prevented the sale.

Yisrael HaYom reports that Lt. Col. Harpaz recently had a passport and tickets ready to take him originally to Peru, and later changed to Venezuela. This compelled the Interior Ministry to issue an order preventing him from leaving the country. This development has led the Shabak to believe that Harpaz may’ve undertaken the weapons deal in collaboration with Venezuelan intelligence.

Not only do you have venality and corruption in high places, but you’ve got the possibility that a foreign intelligence agency has penetrated the highest level of the IDF command. We don’t yet know whether anything that severe happened. But what we do know is bad enough.

There are Israelis who will talk about a “few bad apples.” But this is the wrong tack to take. It is not just a few bad apples. There is a culture of corruption within the IDF that allows senior officers to become consultants for military contractors and earn millions in doing so. It happens too in the U.S. But in Israel this culture is younger and therefore tends to shock more. We should remember that Ehud Barak himself, who professes shock and horror at Ashkenazi’s corrupt dealings earned $8-million over four years as a security consultant. I can’t prove that he did anything corrupt in return for that lucre. But I can say that the temptation to join the gravy train is simply too much for some.

So think about this when you think about the brave Egyptian young people who gave their lives to bring their country out of an old order of corruption and backroom deals and into a new era of democracy, transparency and self-government. Does Israel deserve any less from its leaders?

Posted in Mideast Peace | 1 Comment »

Retiring IDF Chief of Staff Accused of Selling Advanced Military Technology for Personal Gain, Sabotaging Competitor for His Job

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Outgoing chief of staff Ashkenazi: the hand that salutes also rakes in cash (UPI/Rita Castelnuovo)

I reported last week (and here) that the Israeli censor had prohibited the naming of the soon to be former (as of tomorrow) IDF chief of staff, Gaby Ashkenazi as the target of a criminal inquiry. Yesterday, the Israeli media finally named Ashkenazi as the one under investigation. According to this report, my sources were correct when they noted that he was under investigation for sleazy arms deals arranged while he was director general of the Defense Ministry during the Sharon government. I also reported that Ashkenazi used his wife’s cell phone to text hundreds of messages to a co-conspirator in a campaign to undermine the candidacy of one of his IDF enemies to succeed him.

I reported earlier that Ehud Barak, the defense minister, is known to have an intense dislike for Ashkenazi. It was Barak who noted that Ashkenazi was not worthy of having his term as chief of staff extended for “moral failings.”

Among those failings, according to an Israeli source with knowledge of this matter, was a major violation of protocol involving sales of advanced Israeli military technology abroad. In order to protect it’s technological superiority, Israel always sells the previous generation of weaponry and not the most current and advanced. Ashkenazi and Harpaz, who were deeply involved in Israeli military sales and purchases, sold some of Israel’s most advanced technology to foreign sources. And they used military resources to advanced their own corrupt schemes. Ashkenazi’s son was also involved in the shady stuff making it truly a family affair.

This Israeli report linked above, of course, makes no mention of the fact that Ashkenazi’s name has already been published here as subject of the inquiry. At the rate my scoops make it into the Israeli media you’d think we were living in the age of the Pony Express instead of the digital age. Of course, if I know these are things the reporters likely do as well. They just find themselves unable to break the gag, until they do. Who knows why (unless of course the gag has been lifted).

The article clarifies that the investigators wanted to wait until Ashkenazi officially stepped down from his position before naming him as a target. They also wished to wait until he returned from a trip abroad for the same purpose. This may explain why his name was placed under gag in the first place. As in many such cases, the article makes no mention of the fact that there was a gag order.

What strikes me as damn stupid about Ashkenazi’s behavior is that he used his wife’s cell phone to conspire with Lt. Col. Harpaz in the creation of a hoax memo claiming that Yoav Galant was engaged in a media campaign to get the chief of staff job. Why would you involve your wife in a criminal act in such a direct fashion? When you’re putting yourself in jeopardy why would you do so to your wife as well? When you remember that Ashkenazi involved his son in his corrupt acts I suppose it’s not hard to understand how he would see every member of his family as a party who could advance his agenda.

What kind of officer is this who would do such a thing not only to the army he’s supposed to lead, but to his own flesh and blood? And what does it say about the judgement of Israel’s leaders that they would choose such a venal, conniving, self-centered individual to lead its troops into battle?

Yisrael HaYom, better known as Bibiton, reports that two of Israel’s best known journalists, Dan Margalit and Ronen Bergman today published a book, The Pit: the Dark Secrets Behind the Worst Leadership Crisis in IDF History, about Ashkenazi’s corrupt military career and the infighting, petty jealousies and generally dysfunctional nature of the IDF senior command. If Bibiton is correct, the book may’ve motivated the entire investigation by the Israeli authorities. Perhaps material they uncovered even initiated the investigation. Naturally, the IDF itself fought vigorously against publication.

From reading this summary of the book, it dovetails neatly with much of the coverage and substance of what I’ve been writing about the IDF over the past few years. How can an army led by corrupt, bickering selfish men do anything other than commit atrocities in Lebanon, Gaza and on the Mavi Marmara? Are we surprised at such military failures when the men leading the forces are failing in the most fundamental way possible to discharge their own duties honestly and competently? Can we be shocked at the unadulterated lies spouted by the military spokespersons defending IDF conduct when the highest officer echelon too lies with impunity to cover its own ass?

There’s a saying that a country gets the leaders it deserves. But it gets an officer corps it deserves as well. This is a nation steeped in the oppression and corruption of Occupation. How can its army and senior command not reflect the same sort of self-centered venality?

Tags: corruption, ehud-barak, Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel Defense Forces, ronen-bergman, yoav galant
Posted in Mideast Peace | 6 Comments »

Marty “Party” Peretz Severs Ties to TNR, Closes Blog

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

'Marty Party' in Israeli exile (Amit Shaal)

Recently, the NY Times actually sent a reporter all the way to Israel to document the weirdness of Marty Peretz’s life (Martin Peretz: Not Sorry About Anything). Among other things, the profile revealed that senior editors at The New Republic, which he used to own, are mortally embarrassed by his flaming racism. At the time the story was being preapred for publication, they were seeking to oust him from any direct editorial involvement with the publication. The Calcalist story that follows reveals that this has happened, though Peretz denied in the Times that it would.

In some sense, both the Times profile and the Calcalist interview I cover below are premised on this agent-provocateur-type statement from Peretz’s now defunct blog, The Spine:

Last September, in the wake of a number of bombings, Peretz posted: “Muslim life is cheap” and “I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”

The Israeli online finance-economics blog, Calcalist, features a riveting (as in watching a car accident happening before your eyes) interview with ‘Marty Party’ (as the headline calls him) in which he tosses off racist bon mots like there’s no tomorrow. Here are some of the more choice ones. This is a defense of his racist comment about Muslims and the First Amendment:

I didn’t say anything I hadn’t said 100 times before. Lives of Muslims are cheaper than those of other religions. They’re much more likely to kill. What IS true is that I wrote one stupid sentence. To say that they aren’t worthy of enjoying the privileges of the First Amendment is idiotic. I simply wasn’t thinking. That’s the problem with these blogs. You write and done’t read what you’ve written and then hit “Send.”

Clearly Peretz has a finely developed sense of victimhood and no shame whatsoever. Imagine a blogger who admits he doesn’t read what he writes before he publishes it! I freely admit I make mistakes in writing this blog at times, but at least I proof what I write and edit it before hitting MY Send button.

The interviewer questions Peretz on his pro-Israel advocacy as integral to the editorial slant of TNR:

I asked him whether it was true that he refused to employ writers who criticized Israel. ”Yes,” he said without hesitation. I don’t see what’s so shocking about the owner of a newspaper who hires writers who support Israel. It’s what happens at all newspapers. An editor wants people who will serve his [editorial] slant.

Actually, that’s not the position of most editors, certainly not newspaper editors.

The Calcalist interview reveals that Peretz has severed virtually all ties with TNR, which is news:

One month ago, after the storm broke out [over his comments] he decided, with the advice of his partners, to resign from an active role in the publication, close his blog, and take a long holiday in Israel.

Among Peretz’s many hates is Jerusalem:

He hates the disgusting high-rises, the Haredi problem and the “Arab problem.” On the other hand he loves Tel Aviv, which has no Arab problem, no Haredi problem and high rises that don’t disgust him.

He appears to be a fan of Bibi. In this passage, he also throws in some absolutely absurd judgments of Obama’s “bond” with Israel:

I’ve known him for 30 years. Ever since we did a trip to the Negev in the 70s we’ve kept in touch. He’s a smart man who likes to talk. He faces a situation that isn’t easy. Obama is the first president since Eisenhower who has no emotional bond to Israel.

While he may like Bibi, he loves Barak and doesn’t understand the loathing many Israelis feel for the man. The fact that Peretz compares him favorably to Larry Summers, another controversial and loathed individual, is telling:

It’s simply disgusting. You can’t say anything good about him at dinner [with friends] and leave in peace, he says with a smile. He’s [Barak] one little smart guy. Like Larry Summers, there are few in politics who can think as quickly. In the U.S. Army they love him. But you [Israelis] hate him. He has personality problems, sure. Nobody’s perfect.

Peretz compares Ehud Olmert, past mayor of Jerusalem, favorably to Teddy Kollek, because the latter:

…Liked to be seen drinking coffee with Arabs while garbage was strewn in the streets.

Because Kollek raised substantial sums from rich Jews, this becomes a flaw for Peretz, who calls him an “ass-licker.”

The worst thing about Shimon Peres is that he:

Sells people this idea of the “new Middle East.” What a fraud. He lets fly with all these statements and all this bullshit in spite of the fact that he, and everyone, knows there will be no peace agreement anytime soon.

Nice to know that Marty detests the peace process and not only doesn’t want it to work, doesn’t believe it will.

On Obama’s “pro-Muslim” agenda:

I made a big mistake when I believed him when he said he would be committed to Israel. He isn’t driven by the Jewish narrative. He’s driven by the Muslim narrative. Throughout his presidency he’s expressed support for the hijab four times. If you’re a western liberal president, at least don’t say anything.

When asked why Obama supported the Egyptian Revolution, Peretz revealed his support for the recently overturned Egyptian Pharaoh, Hosni Mubarak. Peretz also underscores his absurd ignorance of contemporary Iranian politics:

Because it’s based on Islamist principles. Look at the Iranian [Green] Revolution which he refused to support [!] despite the fact that the Iranian regime hates the U.S. But the Cairo Revolution he supported despite the fact that Mubarak demonstrated loyalty to the U.S. The reason is simple: in Iran the revolution was secular and sought to erase Islamist influence [!]. In Egypt, on the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood is taking an active role and when Mubarak leaves, they can take over the government.

When you read nonsense like this you wonder how this guy managed to have the ear of an audience for as long as he did. How did he have the respect of anyone who was serious? It’s fine to be a provocateur, but at least make a minimal effort to know something about your subject before you make an utter fool of yourself.

Thanks to Ofer Neiman for pointing me to the Calcalist story.

Tags: anti-Arab, ehud-barak, Hosni Mubarak, islamophobia, martin-peretz, new-republic, racism, shimon-peres
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 6 Comments »

Turkey Flotilla Inquiry: Activists Killed ‘Execution Style’

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

furkan dogan executed aboard mavi marmara

Furkan Dogan, 19 year old Turkish-American, killed execution style by IDF after being wounded (All Voices)

Turkey’s investigation of the Mavi Marmara massacre contains troubling findings that two victims were killed before any IDF soldiers boarded the ship, in fire from helicopters, that the youngest victim, a Turkish-American, was killed execution style after being wounded in the leg, and that a photographer was killed with a laser-guided weapon while taking photographs:

The report said Israeli soldiers fired live bullets from helicopters, killing two of the activists, even before they had rappelled on board. Five of the victims were killed from close range, it added.

Furkan Dogan, the 19-year-old Turkish-American, was lying wounded after being shot in the leg when he was kicked by two soldiers, who then shot him from close range “execution-style,” according to the summary.

Another activist, Cevdet Kiliclar, was killed with laser-guided weapons while taking photographs, the report said.

…The report said none of the people on board had firearms and that Israeli soldiers continued to fire even after activists waved white flags.

The Dogan murder in particular echoes the known IDF “kill shot” technique (also known in Hebrew as “confirming the kill”) by which anyone wounded in specific types of operations is killed execution style by a shot to the head. The murder of Ziad Jilani followed this method. A 13 year-old Gaza schoolgirl carrying a school bag was shot 17 times while 100 yards from an IDF watch tower. Captain R too fired three point blank kill shots into the unarmed girl to confirm the kill, placed his weapon on automatic and emptied the magazine into her. He did so despite the fact that troops under his command repeatedly identified her as a child and never identified her as posing any threat. Here is a transcript of conversations among the officer and his observation tower:

From the watchtower “It’s a little girl. She’s running defensively eastward.” “Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?” “A girl about 10, she’s behind the embankment, scared to death.” “I think that one of the positions took her out.” “I and another soldier … are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill … Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her … I also confirmed the kill. Over.”

“This is commander. Anything that’s mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it’s a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over

The IDF cleared him of all but minor charges in the incident. The following year he was promoted to major and received compensation for his legal fees.

In Bethlehem in 2008, an IDF hit squad first wounded and then executed four wanted Palestinians. Here is how an eye-witness described the murders, which may give you an impression of what it was like that night on the Mavi Marmara:

I stood in front of the shop…and saw a red Daihatsu parked behind my car. I saw a man walking three meters from the car. Then I heard someone call out, “’Imad!”…I saw the man called ‘Imad turn toward the voice and then I heard the sound of a gunshot. The bullet hit ‘Imad in the leg and he fell to the ground.

Immediately after that, I saw six soldiers, in uniform, with helmets and masks, approach the Daihatsu and open massive gunfire at it. I saw the blue ricochet of the bullets. They fired into the car for a long time. The man who had called out to ‘Imad stood next to the minibus and didn’t fire. He was wearing civilian clothes – a blue shirt and jeans – and looked as though he was in his forties. He had a potbelly and was tall, dark-skinned and bald…

I heard ‘Imad cry out. He was lying in the middle of the street. Then I saw the soldiers who had fired at the Daihatsu turn toward him and shoot him in the head. His brain scattered all over the ground, which was a horrible sight.

Then I saw the man in civilian clothes holding a weapon. He went over to the Daihatsu and shot the heads of the three men who were inside. They didn’t move. He shot them from behind, in the head. I didn’t know who they were or why they had been executed.

After that, the man in civilian clothes fired one shot into the head of ‘Imad, whose brain was already scattered on the ground. Then he went back to the minibus, got in with the soldiers, and they drove off.

I went over to the Daihatsu and looked inside. I was shocked when I saw my uncle, ‘Issa Marzuq Zawahreh, who was 36 years old, sitting in the back seat of the car. His head was shattered and resting on the shoulder of his friend, Muhammad Shehadeh, who was next to him…Their heads, which had bullet holes in the back, were leaning forward. It was a terrifying sight, as was the sight of Ahmad al-Balbul, who was sitting next to the driver’s seat. Part of his body was scattered on the seat. The three were killed while sitting in the car. The firing was massive and lasted about two minutes.

In a separate report on France24, a Turkish diplomat specifically refutes an Israeli claim that those on board the Mavi Marmara fired weapons at the IDF boarding party:

Rende also dismissed the claim Friday, saying that “the passengers in no way used any firearms against the Israeli forces.”

He said passengers had seized three weapons from Israeli soldiers in the melee on board, but threw them into the sea.

The UN has been waiting for both countries’ reports before issuing its own. It doesn’t seem possible for the UN to issue a finding that won’t be deeply controversial unless the actual one makes virtually no substantive judgments. It will be interesting to see whether the UN inquiry has the courage of its convictions or takes the easy way out.