The Guardian Recants: Tel Aviv Isn’t Israel’s Capital
August 8, 2012 15:04 by Pesach BensonIsrael and the Palestinians
• While Syria burns, Scandinavian activists are organizing another “humanitarian aid ship” to bust the Gaza blockade. It’s a publicity stunt, as there is no humanitarian crisis in the strip. Israel would normally tell the Ship to Gaza organizers to deliver their aid overland across uh, Sinai.
“This time around it will be an easy task for the Israelis to stop us because we will be so few and strictly non-violent,” Dahle told Reuters at Oslo harbor.
• Israeli security arrested 14 Israeli-Arab citizens who helped Hezbollah smuggle explosives into the country for terror attacks. AP writes:
The Shin Bet says most of the suspects are drug dealers and presumed the packages they were asked to transfer were drugs. About 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives were smuggled in.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• With Ban Ki-moon attending the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, Haaretz (paywall) reports that Israeli officials are worried the visit will undermine the fight against Iran’s nuclear program.
• According to Chris Dickey of The Daily Beast, Iran’s spooks are losing the shadow war with Israel and the West.
According to sources in the Iranian capital, concerns about IRGC inadequacies are fueling the bitter infighting among Iran’s elites at a critical time: the war in Syria threatens to bring down Iran’s most vital Arab ally, the confrontation with Israel and the West over Iran’s nuclear program has provoked devastating sanctions, and a military attack on Iran by Israel still looms as a distinct possibility. This is a bad moment for the Iranians to discover their fearsome covert operatives are essentially incompetent.
Arab Spring Winter
• NY Times: The Golan Druse community’s divided over Assad.
• An opposition fact-checking fail? Rebels claimed to Reuters that they killed a Russian general advising Syria’s defense ministry:
A video statement from a group calling itself the “Hawks Special Operations Battalion . . . a division of the Military Leadership of Damascus City and Province”, gave the name of the general as Vladimir Petrovich Kochyev. The video, sent to Reuters, showed what the rebels said was a copy of his ID, as issued by the Syrian military.
But later in the day, a Reuters follow-up indicated the rebels were wrong:
• Iran says that some of its people abducted in Syria were “former” Revolutionary Guards and army personnel making a pilgrimage to holy sites. But the Wall Street Journal contradicts the regime:
“Everyone on this trip was either a Guard or a Basij militia. This wasn’t a regular tour group,” said an employee of the tour agency that organized the trip, reached by telephone. Agency officials could not be reached.
The reason for their journey, at the height of one of the most violent periods in Syria, is not clear. But the people familiar with the trip said the men were active members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, on a mission to train Syrian forces in counterinsurgency methods as its armed forces fight a decisive battle in Aleppo.
• Bashar Assad made his first appearance on TV in several weeks — with a visiting Iranian envoy. AP coverage.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
Clicking “Unsubscribe instantly” on your mailing will remove you from the Israel Daily News Stream list, but not from your regular HonestReporting emails.
jeb stuart
6:17 pm
Aug 08, 2012
The new Armada gives sterngth to an idea I have believed about radical ideolgues for a few years now. They really never get any new or better ideas once they latch onto to something, and they will keep repeating it even after no one cares if only for the club meeting when they talk about how novel they used to be and how the rest of the world couldn’t keep up. They never figure maybe it wasn’t such a good idea out of the barrel of ideas they have; it’s just the only one that stuck to the wall.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
12 
0
jeb stuart
6:23 pm
Aug 08, 2012
I aslo would like to add the idea that the King of Jordan is the only one not being swayed by the relevancy of the Arab Spring. He certainly doesn’t want one in his Kingdom. But I think in a limited sense it makes him more honest. He’s not saying or doing things that will get Obama re-elected. The recent attacks in Sinai on the border police and then the attempt to attack Israel has been followed up by a strong Egyptian Army reaction. Would it have been after our November elections? I don’t know, I am tending to thinking not. Obama connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and wants calm, Obama’s policy with Israel and Netanyahu and Zionists, appears to have changed, until November.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
10 
1
m
7:06 pm
Aug 08, 2012
Somebody should ask that “king” AKA camel jockey why he is keeping his own pali brethren in refugee camps.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
15 
0
m
7:12 pm
Aug 08, 2012
That’s right mr “king”. Blame everything on Israel; all your stinking arab uprisings, ingrown toenails, stale beer (oh I forgot you turds don’t drink beer), flat tires, nose hair, flatulence.
The “king” speak of Israel as if it was some 3rd world islamic cesspool. Not good enough for him that HIS people were GIVEN a country that was once ALL Jewish land. Even the name of their stinking “kingdom” is a Jewish name.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
16 
0
The Guardian Recants: Tel Aviv Isn’t Israel’s Capital | Blogs about Israel aggregation
10:23 pm
Aug 08, 2012
[...] Continued on Page 2 [...]
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0
steve mann
3:28 pm
Aug 09, 2012
Lets get it straight- and this is old hat-
The Arabs turned down partition, not the Jews.
It was the Jordanians and Egyptians that created the refugee problem in Gaza and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria)
Instead of integrating them into their communities they used them as political pawns.
Israel integrated the ones that remained after 1950 and gave them citizenship.
So now let the Jordanians absorb those from the “West Bank” let Egypt take on the responsibility in Gaza and let Israel get on with its life.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0
SALIM VARESE
1:00 am
Aug 11, 2012
WE NEED TO TAKE IT ONE STEP BACK. BEFORE THERE WAS A PARTITION, THERE WAS NO JORDAN. THE CURRENT RULING FAMILY CAME FROM THE WAHABI FAMILY OWNED COMPANY KNOWN AS SAUDIA OR SAUDI ARABIA FORMERLY KNOWN AS HIJAS AND NAJED. THE TERRITORY NOW CALLED JORDAN, FORMERLY KNOWN AS TRANS-JORDANIA, WAS SUPPOSED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF THE LOCAL INHABITANTS WHO CAME ALL THE WAY FROM AFGHANISTAN TO MOROCCO (QUOTED FROM CHURCHILL’S MEMOIRS). CIS-JORDANIA, FOR THE JEWS. THERE IS VERY GOOD EVIDENCE THAT BOTH KING FEISAL AND CHURCHILL SAID THAT THE JEWS WILL BRING PROGRESS TO THE AREA. CHURCHILL STATED IT THAT WHERE THE ARAB GOES, THERE IS DESTRUCTION AND DESERT. THE BS KING CAN GO BACK TO HIJAZ ASAP…
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0