Israel Daily News Stream 05/23/2012
May 23, 2012 13:31 by Pesach Benson
Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
Catherine Ashton says Palestinian stone-throwing is legitimate non-violent protest. Israeli watches warily as Iranian nuclear talks begin. Bloggers expose forged Israeli passport used by Iran to execute a “Mossad agent.”
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• The JTA picked up on the UK Press Complaints Commission outlandish ruling that Tel Aviv can be called Israel’s capital following HonestReporting’s formal complaint.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Via Aaron Lerner, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says (pdf) that stone-throwing is legitimate non-violent protest.
“The High Representative is very concerned by the conviction of Bassem Tamimi in an Israeli military court on 20 May 2012 on charges of taking part in illegal demonstrations and of soliciting protesters to throw stones.
The EU considers Bassem Tamimi to be a ‘human rights defender’ committed to non-violent protest against the expansion of an Israeli settlement on lands belonging to his West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The EU attended all court hearings in his case and is concerned at the use of evidence based on the testimony of a minor who was interrogated in violation of his rights.
The EU believes that everyone should be able to exercise their legitimate right to protest in a non-violent manner.”
Of course, stone-throwing in London is a different story . . .
• Elliott Abrams: Palestinian unity talks are a sham designed to give Fatah and Hamas enough breathing space to continue pressing their real goal: ousting Salam Fayyad:
The goal of this new effort is supposedly elections, which are long overdue. But neither Fatah nor Hamas wants elections any more than they want real national unity; they just want to appear to support that goal, which is popular among Palestinians, and they want Fayyad out. Logically, then, they may announce an agreement, though it will be a very costly one: many donors, Western and Arab, will hold back on delivering funds once Fayyad is gone. But what they will not do is hold parliamentary or presidential elections, which neither Hamas nor Fatah leaders think are in their interest right now.
• NY Times bureau chief Jodi Rudoren spent yesterday tweeting her helicopter ride around the country with The Israel Project. Nice tweets too:
• Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby (paywall) weighs in on Israel’s image problems. Responding to Ambassador Michael Oren’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Jacoby writes:
Israel has gone on making concession after concession to those who seek its destruction,clinging against all logic to the fantasy of a “two-state solution.” Once, it was agreed byIsraeli governments left and right that a Palestinian state would be intolerable; thatthere could be no negotiating with the PLO; that diluting Jewish sovereignty overJerusalem was heresy.
Yet in its desperate quest for peace, Israel has backed away from each of those red lines. With each retreat, it lost respect. All the while it reinforced a false and terrible message: Peace would be possible if only Israel were willing to give up more. The absence of peace, therefore, must be Israel’s fault. The 19-year disaster of the peace process —that is what happened to Israel’s reputation. How can the Jewish state get its goodname back? Step one is to jettison the policy that caused it such harm.
• AP‘s Mohammed Daraghmeh reports that pro-Hamas students are holed up in Bir Zeit University, afraid they’ll be arrested if they leave the campus.
• In a Gaza dispatch, NY Times bureau chief Jodi Rudoren finds Hamas teaching Hebrew in a new curriculum called “Know Your Enemy.” The story sparked an amusing Twitter exchange between Rudoren and blogger Richard Silverstein (via IsraellyCool).
jeb stuart
2:37 pm
May 23, 2012
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised the EU increasingly edging toward Islamic dominion, should arrive at the conclusion trying to kill people with rocks is non-violent; if a Muslim is throwing the rocks. Sometimes a hypocrite or coward can be shamed into good senses but I am afraid the EU has now submiited to anti-semitism to a degree it no longer feels shame.
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jlmsika
2:47 pm
May 23, 2012
I wish arrogant Ashton would receive some “non violent” stones on her ugly head and learn about pain and suffering. This will happen to her when England becomes a muslim state, if she does not wear her burka at all times!
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Horrified
3:16 pm
May 23, 2012
She’d look better in a burkha.
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Dr. Laz
2:52 pm
May 23, 2012
EU? More like P.U.
Just a matter of time before they start chucking “non violent” rocks in jolly ol’ England and impose sharia “law.” Loved to see Ashton on the receiving end of this gentle form of humane protest!
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Horrified
3:18 pm
May 23, 2012
Her appearance would improive enormously if she wore a burkha.
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Henry Federman
4:00 pm
May 23, 2012
How would Ashton like to get hit with a non violent rock in the head? Non violent rocks are only allowed in Israel according to the EU! But god help them if they use it anywhere else, in other countries they can be fought with non violent guns,tanks and planes as in Syria.
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yisrael rutman
4:25 pm
May 23, 2012
It is apparent from Ashton’s comment that she does not believe Tamimi was instigating rock-throwing, because she does not accept the testimony against him. Whether she is right or wrong about the facts is one thing, but she is explicitly endorsing only non-violent protest, which is what she believes he has been engaged in. Therefore, I think your headline saying that she thinks stone-throwing is a legitimate form of protest is misleading.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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norman a blumberg
4:53 pm
May 23, 2012
Over thousands of years we have survived more capable antisemites than this awful woman. Her regular comments expose her for what she is and in addition expose her stupidity.
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m
5:23 pm
May 23, 2012
Stone throwing is non violent?!?!?!?!
Plenty of ppl have been KILLED by those stones!!!
Some of those stones are more like boulders and do quite a n umber on an entire vehicle.
Remember, those members from the “religion of peace” are very goods at stone throwing. A favourite pastime of theirs.
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Unione Europea: i palestinesi hanno diritto di lanciare pietre « Bugie dalle gambe lunghe
7:38 pm
May 23, 2012
[...] Aaron Lerner – IMRA , Honest Reporting , Israel National News Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Mi piaceBe the first to like this [...]
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Lisa Levine
11:32 pm
May 23, 2012
Far from being non-violent, throwing stones has always been seen as lethal. Perhaps Ashton never read the story of David and Goliath! I would like to write to her but am not finding an email contact. It would have been helpful to include it in the story! L.
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greeneyeshade
2:42 am
May 24, 2012
I wonder for the umpteenth time who gave this cow a peerage in the 1st place.
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steve mann
2:15 pm
May 24, 2012
God forbid but I wonder what the world would do or say if the Islamists got their way and Israel disappeared.
Can you hear it. “Oh! dear what a shame” now lets get on with business.”.
Its happened before-
Biafra- Rhodesia-
Now look at them- Nigeria one blood bath-!
Rhodesia- regardless of its apartheid-and it needed mending- Look at Rhodesia now- from being the bread basket of Africa to the “Beggar” on the street.
So imagine a Palestinian state- the 58th Islamic state- with its Stoning and executions, limb lobbing and crucifixions.
The total subjugation of the people- Arab Spring could never happen under that system.
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Jeffrey Nakar
2:28 pm
May 24, 2012
This reminds me of a judgement made in Nazi Germany in which a Jew was found guilty of breaking a window after a stone was thrown at him. The Jew ducked with the result that the stone missed him and broke the window. Hence, he was guilty because if he had not ducked, the stone would not have broken the window……..and the EU wonders why Israel takes no notice of its opinions. Netanyahu is right. Countries with a two thousand year history of anti-Semitism can have no say in deciding the future of the Jewish people.
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suzette ross
11:01 pm
May 24, 2012
I love reading your comments Steve Mann…you always seem to make so much sense.
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Len Kurtz
10:48 pm
Jun 22, 2012
Ashton has heard about the David and Goliath confrontation and she rooted for Goliath.
Has Israel’s image taken a hit? Well, the media is responsible for portraying Israel’s image to the masses. It hated Israel 10 years ago and still does today. The image has remained the same.
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Len Kurtz
11:02 pm
Jun 22, 2012
Re: Israeli lab; It’s nothing but ‘heartwash’.
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