Last summer, at the prompting of several human rights activists, among them Motty Fogel, whose brother was murdered in a terror attack in Itamar, Yossi Gurvitz, author of the Friends of George blog, began to reconsider some of the moral issues regarding legitimate resistance to Occupation. Though I have had no direct contact with either Gurvitz or Fogel, I imagine that at least some of the reconsideration sprang from the particularly gruesome death suffered by Fogel’s brother’s family, including the murder of an infant.

Gurvitz wrote a blog post, On Violence, which stated that while at one time he didn’t consider any settlers to be civilians, and hence all should be considered potential targets of legitimate resistance, today he believed that only those armed should be considered so. Among those who Gurvitz believed legitimate targets were the settler “security” thugs armed with AK-47s, attack dogs and all manner of weaponry, whose job was not to protect settlers, but rather to terrify, maim and kill Palestinian farmers and shepherds and their non violent activist supporters. Here I’ve recounted some of their more heroic exploits defending the inalienable rights of the Jewish people to “enjoy” the fruits of others (I.e. steal Palestinian land).

To any reasonable person, Gurvitz’s post would appear to be a sensitive moral reappraisal in order to further distinguish between civilian and military targets. The end result was for Gurvitz, a leading blogger of the Israeli anti-Occupation movement, to reduce the number of those he considered so morally culpable for the Occupation that they might be targets for resistance and attack. Further, the blogger made clear that he personally opposed violence of any sort and would not engage in it himself.

But the Israeli security apparatus and it’s loyal helpers in the far right lawfare community didn’t see it that way. They saw Gurvitz’s post as an opportunity to teach a particularly brave and outspoken blogger a lesson in the ways of the new far right Hate-State that Israel has become.

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, a lawfare-type pro-settler advocacy outfit, filed a formal complaint with the Israeli police accusing Gurvitz of incitement. They claimed that he was advocating killing IDF soldiers and settlers. The police, a sorry lot on the best of days, took up the cause along with the State Inquisitor, Shai Nitzan, who is an expert at figuring out ways to turn legitimate political activity into seditious criminality.

Two weeks ago, the police “invited” Gurvitz for questioning. He was handled politely, the interrogation was judicious. You see, because Gurvitz is an Ashkenazi male journalist, he was accorded far better treatment than was accorded Dirar Abusisi or Ameer Makhoul.

Yossi was forced to sign a document denying him the right to discuss the questioning or what is being investigated. But I have signed no such document and can speak freely to denounce this travesty of justice and democracy.

The Forum affirms its support of free speech in a statement made to Haaretz. However free speech doesn’t entitle anyone to actually challenge the worst depredations of the Occupation State. These leftists have to understand that there’s a new Zionist sheriff in town. And Sheriff Bibi ain’t gonna take no guff from no one. If they don’t like it they can get outa Dodge.

Seriously, there’s a new environment in this version of what we might call Israel 2.0, which so many of us have come to detest. It’s characterized by fear, intimidation, hatred and violence directed at anyone who stands in the way of the ultra-nationalist steamroller. It’s time for those of us who object to do what we can to place our bodies, like the Tienamen Square lone man standing before a tank, in the path of the machine.

JIDF's David 'Appletree' Brotsky admits violating Facebook TOS

David Appletree exposes Aussie Dave's 'fake' Facebook accounts

I’ve come into possession of a series of tweets from 2010 and shared among Aussie Dave, the Jewish Internet Task Force’s (JIDF) David Appletree (the nom de guerre of David Brotsky) and other members of the hasbara jihad brigade.  They document a coordinated project to forge Facebook accounts and identities in order to amplify their pro-Israel efforts among the social networking community.  Among the activities in which they’ve engaged, more recently are the creation of the “David Loeb” Facebook profile which Aussie Dave used as a hoax identity.  Aussie Dave also reveals that he’s used a fake ID in order to infiltrate this pro-Palestinian Facebook group.  Once accepted, he posts incendiary pro-terror comments seeking to bait other members into escalating the conversation.  Such provocations can then be used by the hasbara activists to discredit the cause and general and get groups taken down.

Aussie Dave blames JIDF for exposing fake FB account

JIDF exposes one of Aussie Dave's fake Facebook accounts, "Dave Israel," which FB cancelled

This is precisely the sort of manipulation of online discourse which poisons the well and degrades the value of Facebook and similar sites.  It’s why it’s important to police their activity and bring it to Facebook’s attention and to insist that Facebook better police its own site and pages.  Of course, these activities violate the site’s Terms of Service and one tweet in particular finds Aussie Dave saying this explicitly.  In another tweet, the latter remonstrates with the JIDF major domo for “outing” one of his fake IDs, “Dave Israel,” and endangering his entire web of fake accounts.

I would urge groups administered by Palestinian or peace activists to maintain vigilance for this sort of behavior and to insist that individuals who appear to be provocateurs provide evidence of their bona fides.  I’m sure many are already doing this.  But this new evidence shows the need for constant vigilance.

Aussie Dave documents infiltration of Palestinian FB groups

This also indicates the absolute bankruptcy of the hasbara project.  Instead of engaging in substantive activity dealing with real issues and political debate, these knuckleheads spends countless hours engaged in subterfuge and deception seeking to sabotage the “enemy” rather than advancing anything constructive or of real value on behalf of Israel.  What does it say about the hasbara apparatus as a whole and the entire pro-Israel movement that it would countenance such lying and cheating.  Is a cause worth anything if its worst adherents can justify such behavior.

I should make clear that there is nothing wrong with supporting Israel in whatever fashion one chooses as long as one does so transparently, candidly and forthrightly.  What Aussie Dave and JIDF do should be treif for anyone who supports Israel.

During the recent uproar over IDF Captain Peter Lerner’s cold-hearted Twitter #fail put-downs of the murdered Palestinian protester, Mustafa Tamimi, I spent some time reviewing his Twitter feed and that of others like Avital Leibovich and Captain Barak Raz.  Despite the fact that their lies and pimping for the IDF were to be expected since it is, after all their job to lie on behalf of their country and army, I hadn’t expected is that their PR efforts were far broader.

They view their job as promoting Israel in all its infinite variety.  If an Israeli won an international sailing competition, they’d tweet it.  Captain Lerner seems to admire Jewish comedy in particular as he retweets about Tom Lehrer.  Perhaps that #fail hashtag was another feeble attempt at Jewish wit (or snark).  I suppose also Lerner feels compelled to throw a sop to “the other side” as when he promotes the beauties of the Israeli Palestinian town of Nazareth (unless he really means to tout the higher class Jewish-only enclave, Upper Nazareth.  He also gets into the spirit of the holidays by wishing the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles “hot doughnuts, chilly nights, and cozy evenings” during Hanukah.  I tell you, if I hadn’t known Lerner was a heartless SOB who valued Palestinian lives as little more than dirt, I’d have been downright touched at his humanity.  Lerner also appears to be a cheerleader and career advisor for the foreign ministry as he wished Israel’s new ambassador (the last one was run out of town on a rail after Israel invaded Egypt to kill five Egyptian policemen) well in his new job.  He probably should’ve warned him to always know where the key to the panic room is just in case.  Lerner’s also a bit of a foreign policy wonk who takes a great interest in the goings on around the Middle East including the toppling of the ruler of Israel’s neighbors, Syria.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich’s specialties seems to be tourism promotion as she touts the beauty of Bethlehem during the Christmas season with a heartwarming video from the “Civil Administrator” about peace on earth and good will to man…except for Palestinians it appears.  I tell you, I never knew a Civil Administrator could be so menschlich.  Here she praises the desert beauty of Beersheva.  Leibovich’s skills are so acute she may’ve even been on the Nobel Committee which awarded Prof. Dan Shechtman the most recent Israeli Nobel Prize.  At least you might think that from her tweet congratulating him.  Israel may be the only country in the world which feels national pride when its citizens win such prizes and use them as apparent confirmation of the righteousness of the cause in oppressing the Palestinians.  But don’t ask the Lt. Col. any “political questions” because she’s not allowed to offer such opinions.  Leave aside the fact that her very job as PR flack and her Twitter feed are political statements in themselves.

It makes you wonder why the IDF would feel it needed to employ spokespeople who delved in tourism promotion, touting of the nation’s IQ, and promoting observance of the Jewish holidays.  Don’t know about you, but I always thought that soldiers fought and defended their country and should leave extraneous subjects to others.  Can you imagine a U.S. military spokesperson tweeting to a Bulgarian about how gorgeous a Rocky Mountain sunset is?  There seems to be a great deal of confusion within the IDF about its purpose.  It has ranged far outside defending the country from military threat and bled over into PR flackery and hasbara puffery.

I suppose it’s possible that Israel’s national army, like that of China or Egypt plans to branch out into numerous profit-making enterprises which could be used, in these parlous economic times, to subsidize all those mega-billion arms system purchases and R&D.  That may explain some of the diverse interests of the IDF’s spokesrepresentatives.

Finally, all of the IDF’s PR flacks seem to have majored in basic elementary math as they count fastidiously every rocket fired by every Palestinian militant which lands harmlessly in open fields.  You’d be hard-pressed though to find even a whisper about routine killings of Palestinian civilians by the IDF and Border Police.

Israeli minister Yuli Edelstein (l.) & Standwithus' Avi Posnick (r.) at Park Slope food coop patrolling Brooklyn's mean streets

 …We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas…would carry on the struggle…

–Winston Churchill

Edelstein "buys Israel"

The residents of upscale Park Slope (Brooklyn) will no doubt feel reassured that Israel’s Hasbara Minister, Yuli Edelstein, traveled all the way from the State of the Jews to defend the good citizens from the depredations of the BDS movement seeking to turn the neighborhood’s food coop into a Judenrein bastion of the Delegitimizers.

Readers of this blog will know that the Israeli government, its U.S.-based diplomatic personnel, and its water-carriers in this country, Standwithus, have joined in a lawfare-style campaign to harass and intimidate the Olympia food coop, which endorsed BDS a few months ago and removed nine Israeli products from its shelves.  Channel 10′s Tzinor Layla interviewed deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon about the lawsuit and he confirmed that it was part of a concerted campaign by the government to fight BDS even if it meant taking American companies to court to do so.  SWU’s website even documented the effort to target Olympia and Park Slope and any other company that dared to entertain thoughts of divesting their shelves of Israeli products.  In the Pacific NW the SWU campaign is directed by the Israeli consul general, Akiva Tor and SWU director, Rob Jacobs.

In Park Slope, the SWU operative is Avi Posnick.  He is a Long Island native and Yeshiva University graduate who rose through the SWU campus program.  He seems to derive from the Orthodox Jewish community’s pro-Israel nationalist nexus.

Though an article in the local JTNews here in Seattle intimated that in the Olympia lawsuit the complainants were being represented pro bono, Ayalon’s interview statements inferred that either the government was funding the lawyer’s fees or it was helping to arrange for those fees to be paid by related parties (possibly wealthy American Jewish pro-Israel donors).

Why was Yuli Edelstein walking Park Slope’s mean streets seeking out anti-Israel villains to combat?  Because the food coop offered (but did not sponsor) its facilities for a program, Images of Palestine, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  SWU no doubt got wind of the program from anti-BDS coop members patrolling the organization’s bulletin boards and website for any hint of delegitimization.

Palestinian activist Phan Nguyen received this e-mail from a coop member who attended the education program:

“Afterwards a crowd of men formed a circle and chatted with Barbara Mazor [a prominent anti-BDS person at the Co-op].  Most but not all were in business suits & yarmulkes [and] had not attended our talk.  At peak, there were 15 people in a sidewalk clump outside the coop.  After chatting happily and amicably for nearly an hour, several of them broke off and piled into a scary new black SUV with a driver, followed by a late-model black sedan with two security types in it.  When asked who the VIP was, one of the remaining men on the sidewalk first joked that it was ‘your man, Barack Obama,’ and refused to say more.  But eventually another of them claimed convincingly that the VIP was ‘somebody from the embassy,’ which I assume means the consulate.”

Actually, the intimidating crowd was composed of Israel’s Minister of Hasbara, Yuli Edelstein, an ultra-nationalist settler and Standwithus’ local director, Avi Posnick.  They knew what others residents of Park Slope could barely discern, that if you didn’t fight this evil on the beaches, in the hills and alleys and on the stoops in a house-by-house campaign to rid your neighborhood, you would fall down a slippery slope into the clutches of the Israel haters and delegitimizers.

Barbar Mazor knows this.  That’s why, no doubt, if there is ever a vote in favor of BDS at the food coop, she and Avi Posnick will join together with New York’s Israeli consul general to sue the coop for having the unmitigated chutzpah to express their political opinions about the Israeli Occupation.  She’s such a pro-Israel groupie, and so impressed by her brush with greatness that she entitled her post about the encounter, The Minister and Me.

The Jewish Forward recently profiled SWU on its 10th anniversary and noted that if it receives any direct funding from the Israeli government it should be registering as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Act.  Of course, it hasn’t done so.  But whether or not there is direct financial funding, the two entities are virtually joined at the hip.  There is virtually no difference or separation between the two.  This is an issue that requires further research.

Haaretz’s trusty government stenographer, Barak Ravid, recounted the event inaccurately in an article recently:

One example is the story of “Park Slope Food Co-op,” a Jewish supermarket located in Brooklyn, situated in one of the most “Jewish” areas in the United States. Every week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists assemble near the entrance, where one can purchase Israeli goods such as Bamba, Milky, and hummus, and call for a general boycott of the store.

As Phan notes in his e-mail to me, there’s nothing “Jewish” about the coop since it’s open to membership for anyone, even an Arab or, God forbid, a Palestinian.  Yes, Park Slope is considered a Jewish neighborhood though it is quite a diverse place whose residents run the gamut of almost all ethnic groups living in New York City.  ”Hundreds” of pro-Palestinian activists” don’t assemble at the site ever.  Rather, a few members distribute flyers on an irregular basis.  No one is calling for a boycott of the store.  In fact, since only members can shop there, it would be foolish for members to support a boycott of their own store.  Finally, Bamba and Milky are not sold at the coop and hummus, contrary to Ravid’s and Edelstein’s rather insular viewpoint, are not “Israeli goods.”  Someone should tell Barak there’s nothing like a little good old-fashioned reporter’s shoe leather to do a bit of work and check the information offered you by your government sources with actual members of the food coop who can confirm or deny your sources’ claims.  No doubt Ravid doesn’t care whether his reporting has any credibility among people who really know what he’s talking about.  But a good reporter would.  What does that make Ravid?

Edelstein’s efforts were part of the Israeli government’s “Buy Israel Week” festivities.  Imagine an Israeli minister comes all the way to our shores to ensure that we Americans know to do what we’re supposed to do–buy Israel.  Edelstein doesn’t visit businesses like aerospace or high-tech where there’s real commercial prospects to sell Israeli products.  Instead he’s visiting supermarkets to make sure we can still buy Israeli hummus.  Don’t know about you, but as a Jew and someone who cares about Israel, it warms the cockles of my heart that there’s some Israeli out there doing this sort of dirty work for us.  Raymond Chandler would be proud to know that down these mean streets of Brooklyn walks an Israeli:

“…Who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.”

I know that in my heart of hearts Yuli Edelstein is such a man.  Don’t you?

Related articles

• Settlers are excluded (sort of) from hasbara campaign on college campuses (mondoweiss.net)

Captain Barak Raz, Hasbara Ministry acknowledged he was one of Israel's 'chief delegitimzers'

In the aftermath of the murder of Mustafa Tamimi, Israel’s Ministry of Hasbara (that IS what they call it in Hebrew, in English it’s called the Minsitry for Public Diplomacy) last night issued an unprecedented statement acknowleding for the first time that the worst delegitimzer of Israel in the world today is not the BDS movement, nor the New Israel Fund, nor even Iran.  The worst delegitimizer is the IDF itself.

The Ministry pointed to the fact that an army Twitterperson (yes, they do have such an IDF job assignment and the skills necessary for the job entitle him to his high rank), Captain Barak Raz tweeted several times in effect blaming Tamimi for his own death.  Raz pointed out that Tamimi had a slingshot in his pocket when he was murdered and that he had been arrested in 2010 for inciting violence.

Minister Yuli Edelstein, despite the fact that he is himself an ultra-nationalist settler, apparently had had enough of the IDF’s flagrant disregard for human life (yes, he even conceded that Palestinians were a form of human life) and released this statement:

In this day and age, when Israel finds enemies practically in every nook and cranny of our world, when the BDS movement attempts to block the sale of hummus, one of Israel’s most critical exports, to the Park Slope food coop; and attempts to block the performance of a rock group deemed essential to maintaining the sanity of all Israelis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers; when the New Israel Fund whispers in Judge Goldstone’s ear sweet nothings about Israeli war crimes–to have the IDF fire a tear gas canister at point blank range and kill an unarmed Palestinian is just too much to bear.

Can’t we allow our real enemies to delegitimize us without doing their work for them?  Please IDF, if you want to kill Palestinians at least do it off camera next time.

Signed,

Yuli Edelstein
Minister, Settler, Israeli Legitimizer, Hummus Lover

Continuing his intrusive intervention into the local and regional political environment, Israel’s Pacific NW consul general, Akiva Tor, strongly urged St. Mark’s Cathedral to allow him to speak at an event featuring Israeli new historian, Ilan Pappe and American Friends of Peace Now founder, Mark Rosenblum.  They will speak on at Town Hall’s Great Hall in Seattle on Monday, September 19th at 7PM.  Those of you following this blog know that Tor and Stand With Us were instrumental in ginning up a lawsuit against the Olympia food coop after it endorsed a boycott of Israeli food products.  It seems Tor is continuing in his ways with this chutzpadik attempt to force his way into the St. Mark’s program.

In the e-mail below, which Tor and American Jewish Committee chair Wendy Rosen sent to a Church official, note how he describes Rosenblum’s political beliefs:

I wanted to request the opportunity to take part in the panel you are organizing on “Israel and Palestine’s Future: Why is Navigating a Two State Solution So Difficult?” The reasons I ask to take part are the following.

Firstly, the topic is an excellent one. It is indeed perplexing that 18 years after the Oslo Accords, an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty had not been concluded even though it is in the strong  self-interest of both peoples. This is a topic that needs to be unpacked and analyzed by any group of people that wants to help and achieve peace between the two peoples.

Second, I think it is really necessary in such a conversation to hear the perspective of the Israeli mainstream. Professor Pappe is an important academic but represents a non-Zionist view on the far left of Israeli politics.  Professor Rosenblum is an important proponent of the Zionist Israeli peace camp which is a valued viewpoint, but not presently at the helm of Israeli politics today, where the general position is more cautious and frankly, somewhat depressed, about the prospects for peace in the immediate future. Ideally, the panel would include a Palestinian Authority perspective as well, although Professor Pappe may approximate this position.

In any case, I just think it is very important that you hear and better understand the thinking from the main body of the Israeli body politic. I would present the positions of the Israeli government, but would also try to present to the best of my understanding the thinking of the majority of the Israeli public today. I know the Bishop’s Committee holds strong positions on the conflict,  and wants to play a helpful role in its resolution – and I think hearing where Israel stands and how it understand the meaning of the Arab Spring and the current state of Israel-Palestinian relations would be helpful in your endeavor.

Thirdly, I happen to be in Seattle on September 19^th  and therefore hasten to embrace the chance to engage with you.

Now, can you imagine the U.S. ambassador to Israel going to an Israeli sponsor of a conference about American politics and demanding the right to be added to a panel which includes two Israelis discussing the issue?  Why would he do this?  Why wouldn’t he simply allow Israelis to discuss American politics and let it go at that?  Note as well, how Tor distinguishes between the views of Rosenblum, a quite distinguished liberal Zionist supporter of Israel and his own views, supposedly representing the “majority of the Israeli public.”

Tor neglects to mention that on September 18th, the day before, and in the same venue, former Jerusalem Post military affairs correspondent, Hirsh Goodman will be speaking.  If Goodman doesn’t represent a mainstream Israeli point of view then no one does.  So, in essence Israel’s consul general is saying that it’s not enough to balance a program critical of Israel with one supportive of Israel on successive days, U.S. churches must actually balance every program they host with the voice of Israel’s hardline rightist government.

Not to mention that we’re supposed to accept the specious view that Israel’s current government represents the thinking of the majority of the Israeli public.  That would be akin to claiming that George Bush’s policies represented the majority of Americans during his presidency.  What is true is that Bibi Netanyahu managed to pull together a coalition in Knesset allowing him to form a government.  It didn’t mean that the majority of Israelis support his pro-Occupation, anti-Palestinian policies (though certainly many do).

Surely, one of Tor’s most important purposes is combatting the (in his view) noxious propaganda offered by an anti-Zionist like Pappe (who he actually calls “an important academic” while biting his tongue), who was hounded from his academic appointment at the University of Haifa by right-wing campus inquisitors.  The current Holy Grail concept for the Israeli far-right is “delegitimization,” and Pappe is a king of them all.  They likely want to bird-dog him around the world at every speaking engagement he has, just as they bird-dogged Reps. Keith Ellison and Brian Baird before the traveled to Gaza in 2009.

I find Tor’s behavior in Seattle simply beyond chutzpah (sorry, Alan).  By what right does an official of a foreign government get the right to say he should be heard whenever Israel fears the contents of a program sponsored in this country?

Thankfully, the local church committee organizing the event politely declined the consul’s offer of participation, but said it was willing to continue a dialogue with him on these issues.

In his response, Tor made clear that he was eager to inveigle his way into the local discourse on Israel-Palestine within the St. Mark’s church community:

I’m disappointed, as we view the Palestinian diplomatic effort at the United Nations as deeply counterproductive to a negotiated peace and it would probably be important for such a viewpoint to at least be presented at an open and meaningful discussion on the topic.

In any case, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Bishop’s Committee or with an audience constituted by you at a future, hopefully not too distant, time. Please let me know at your convenience when might be a good occasion and venue.

You do have to hand it to Tor.  He’s a nervy sorta guy.  It takes guts to want to butt your way into the Seattle progressive church community when hardly anyone in it has a good word to say about Israel’s current policies.  But once a flack, always a flack.  I have a feeling that Israeli diplomats earn points for the most unlikely venues to have done hasbara.  Speaking from the altar of one of Seattle’s premier progressive churches would earn Tor big points back home at Hasbara Central (aka the Israeli foreign ministry).

I like to be as transparent as I can in writing and running this site, which sometimes involves revealing things other bloggers in my position might not.  So this post is in that vein.  In some ways, this blog relies on the “kindness of strangers.”  I don’t personally know some of the people who pass on tips and scoops to me.  I have to rely on their past reputation if they’ve worked with me before; or the credibility of the information they’re offering if they haven’t.

For the past several months, a reader/commenter calling himself Dedi Rozenthal has posted comments regularly.  He’s riled me and other commenters up quite a bit with his right-wing comments.  But there was nothing remotely close to causing me to ban him.

However, a few weeks ago he began offering information about intelligence-related stories, which is a subject I’m very interested in.  I did some research and discovered that if this commenter is indeed Rozenthal, then he’s a retired colonel in the Israeli air force.  Frankly, I’ve never known of any colonel in the IDF offering intelligence information to a lefty blogger.  But at the start, the information, which related to corruption involving Gabi Ashkenazi, seemed quite plausible.  Since it didn’t reflect well on the IDF, I figured anyone offering the information to me within the IDF would have no reason to do so if it was false.

But then Dedi brought me a story claiming five Israeli Palestinians had been secretly detained and one of them, a minor, had died.  I reported this story too in the spirit of pikuach nefesh, because I thought lives might be in danger.  Afterward, it turned out that key details of the story couldn’t be authenticated.

Around that time, he brought me an even more ‘amazing’ story which claimed to expose the identity of the head of the Israeli intelligence unit which created Stuxnet.  There was a side story about the allegedly stunning 25 year-old woman, Noia Dar Artzi, who commanded the unit engaging in multiple affairs with subordinates, and the son of a friend who was drummed out of the unit for filing a sexual harassment complaint.  He worked up a whole life history for Dar Artzi that sounded impressive.  Though the idea of a woman of 25 commanding one of the IDF’s premier cyber-warfare units gave me pause.

Given the problems I discovered with the earlier story, I held off on publishing the Stuxnet story.  It just seemed too wild to believe given that his earlier information hadn’t panned out.  But I had to hand it to Dedi.  He knew how to spin a yarn.  And like all lovers of literature, I like a good story.

Then Dedi claimed he was coming to California and would bring with him a package containing incriminating e mails Ameer Makhoul had sent which proved he was a Hezbollah agent.  My Israeli friend even wrote me that he’d shipped off the package to me.  But I never received it and I told him so.

Then came the clincher.  Dedi started warning me about people hacking our e mails and wanted me to get a new e-mail address to write to him.  When I refused, he told me that when he’d returned to Israel someone (I think he was implying it was the American authorities or possibly Israeli) gave him the package back and told him never to do it again.

It was at that moment that Dedi lost all usefulness to whoever put him up to this charade (if anyone did).  Now, it’s possible that Dedi, or whoever he is, did this of his own initiative.  Or it’s possible he has an intelligence connection of some sort.  At any rate, his goal was clearly to discredit me and my work.  So the reason I write all this is to let you know that there may be times you get a story wrong or are fooled.  And if you do, it’s because you tried your hardest to vet it given the inherent limitations of writing a blog in the U.S. about Israeli intelligence matters.  And something got by you.

Dedi was pretty good, I’ve got to hand it to him.  Far more credible than other jokesters who in the past came to me claiming to know the date of the coming Israeli attack on Iran.  Dedi worked into his narrative death under torture, illicit sex, computer hacking and other skullduggery.  It was perfect for the age.  But ultimately he couldn’t carry it off.  Alas, poor Dedi, we thought we knew him well.

UPDATE:  There is evidence that the person/s behind this hoax is/are active in the threads of at least one other progressive blog, so I thought it worthwhile to expose the IP addresses, e mail addresses and other information about those who’ve proven to be frauds in connnection with this and earlier incidents at my blog.

‘IlanP’ used the e mail address dedirozenthal@gmail.com and IP 188.40.33.213

‘Arijay’ used the e mail address arijay82@gmail.com and IP 38.108.124.153

“Tired of Shenanigans” using this e mail address lompicotos@yahoo.com and the following IPs:

95.154.230.252
66.28.139.242
74.55.82.154

This IP has also been used by the merry little band of hoaxsters:

193.202.110.204

He/they clearly have access to an an array of e mail addresses and IPs, so the above list is by no means exhaustive.  But if you have any commenters using these IPs be forewarned.

I also wanted to let my readers know that I’ve had a Google Adsense ad tower in this blog’s sidebar (it’s not the ad tower at the top of my sidebar, which is a separate entity) since it began in 2003.  No more.  Some malicious hasbarist has click bombed my ads and Adsense has punished me with banishment.  This will no doubt give the Rotterites or other juvenile delinquents who would engage in such fraud great pleasure.  Until they realize that the small amount of income I was earning from Google Adsense will be more than offset by my readers replacing it with direct donations.  So please, show the bastards that they don’t own the web and don’t get to damage my reputation without paying a price.  I’d love to collect from you ten times what I’m losing from Adsense ad revenue.  To participate, go to the Paypal button and give as generously as you can.

If you’re a potential advertiser, you can still advertise here through the Blodads/Blogging Liberally ad network.

Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu used false identity to enter Britain after Mossad promised not to engage in similar behavior

In its assassination conspiracy against Mahmoud al-Mabouh, the Mossad cloned the legitimate passports of numerous Israeli dual-nationality citizens, among them several from Britain.  As a result, Mossad station chiefs were ejected from several major western capitals.  For the second time in the past twenty years or so (yes, it had done this earlier) Mossad promised the Brits that it wouldn’t abuse its sovereignty in the future.

Now Defense News brings word that an Israeli general has done almost precisely that, only a few months after the promise was made to Britain.  The IDF’s chief spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu traveled to  England a few weeks ago in secret.  He used a false name and (apparently) false papers to do so:

Q. EVEN IN FRIENDLY COUNTRIES LIKE BRITAIN, WHERE SOLDIERS ARE FIGHTING TERROR AT HOME AND ABROAD, YOU AND OTHER IDF OFFICERS ARE THREATENED WITH MASS PROTESTS AND EVEN ARREST WARRANTS. WHY?

A. It’s true. In my last visit to London, I had to assume a false name because well-funded anti-Israel activists are exploiting universal jurisdiction powers to wage lawfare against us.

I’d like some of my British readers to query Whitehall about whether its customary for generals of foreign militaries to use fake IDs to enter their country.  Or did British authorities participate in this fiction?  I know if I were a foreign minister I wouldn’t take too kindly to such shenanigans especially given Israel’s predilection for engaging in such fraud on a regular basis.

Benayahu is trying to wriggle out of his predicament by claiming that his security detail directed him to engage in such fraud.  Further, in defending his behavior he attacked European nations like Britain which allow the issuance of warrants for the arrest of Israeli leaders on charges of war crimes.  He made this espeically inflammatory statement in a Yediot Achronot interview:

It’s absurd.  Britain and other European countries are no less concerned about terror than we.  Their leaders understand that he who feeds the radical Islamist snake will get bitten by it.

I’m wondering what an Islamic snake looks like and what it has to do with anything.  And why is issuing an arrest warrant against an Israeli general or defense minister “feeding the Islamist serpent?”  Israel’s problems are not with radical Islamists, but with Palestinian nationalists.  Despite all its attempts to raise the specter of Al Qaeda in Gaza, Israel would be hard-pressed to argue that it invaded Lebanon or Gaza in order to prevent Al Qaeda from taking over Palestine or Lebanon.  Besides, this is just a rhetorical smokescreen to divert attention from Benayahu’s own act of duplicity.

Frankly, I don’t care what his reason for such behavior is.  Other Israeli leaders have refused to travel to Britain for fear of arrest, why does Benayahu earn a right they don’t, to do so using a fraudulent passport and identity?

The interview also reveals other views toward the social networking revolution that are diametrically opposed to the prevailing wisdom.  Benayahu frets that social media pose threats to “operational security” in urban areas (like Gaza), presumably because Palestinian victims can report on the location of Israeli forces.  Perhaps this is why Gazans using cell phones were murdered during Cast Lead.

If you listen to this passage without know who said it, you might think it was Hosni Mubarahk or Muammar Qaddafi speaking:

Even more disturbing is the fact that anyone with a 3.5-generation camera and Internet access can outreach mainstream media to disseminate lies, distortions and calls for unlawful action. It’s ironic that technology developed in the West can be co-opted to serve the interests of decidedly anti-Western, anti-democratic forces.

What he means to say is that Palestinians (a number of whom were provided video cameras by B’Tselem to record IDF abuse) may use digital media to expose the crimes and injustices of Israel.  Can anyone think of a single instance in which cameras or internet access was used during the Arab democratic revolts of the past month to “serve the interests of anti-western, anti-democratic forces??”

The interview is really a flackery masterpiece of its kind.  The interviewer asks him generally probing questions and he replies without addressing the questions at all.  Instead, he makes whatever point he wishes even if it has little or nothing to do with what he’s been asked.  I recently wrote a post about Benayahu in which I expressed strong negative views about him.  This was before I’d read a full interview with him.  Now I find myself even more disgusted.  One of my Israeli readers who is a retired IDF officer told me he knew Benayahu and that if I did I’d like him.  Not on your life.  In fact, the thought crossed my mind, given Benayahu’s announced plans to employ IDF internet geeks to expound pro-Israel hasbara online, thay my interlocutor might be Benayahu himself.  But I’m afraid that the honorary general (whose rank was as well earned as “Colonel” Sanders), has bigger media fish to fry than me.

Many in the English-speaking world think Mark Regev is the most mendacious, oily IDF press representative.  That’s because they haven’t read enough of Benayahu.  He even has the chutzpah to tell the reporter interviewing him that as long as he’s “wearing the uniform” he’ll never express a political opinion!