AxisMundi Jerusalem
Inside Israel and the Palestinian Territories
On the rocks
A new primetime drama series called “Ayrılık” (meaning ‘separation’ or ‘farewell’ in Turkish) recently made its début in Turkey on the state-run TRT 1 television channel. Israel’s Channel Two aired a scene from the fictional show, showing a Palestinian father holding a baby above his head and an Israeli soldier in full combat gear taking aim and shooting the infant. Since the broadcast, Israel-Turkey relations have been put under more strain. The heated debate about the show has further influenced previously close ties between the Jewish state and Muslim Turkey that have deteriorated somewhat since Israel’s December-January Gaza offensive. At the same time, Turkey has strengthened its relations with neighbouring Syria. (Read more here.)
Leading Israeli daily newspapers Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz have reported extensively on the show, wondering whether it pointed to growing anti-Semitism in Turkey. Tourism agencies said Israeli vacation bookings in Turkey have fallen steeply since the show was aired. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his disappointment in “the incitement on Turkish TV”. Netanyahu aides said Turkey, which has mediated indirect Israeli-Syrian talks, could not be an honest broker in any future peace negotiations. Commenters on Israeli web portal sites have called on Turkey to look in the mirror and take responsibility for what they termed its genocide against the Armenians.
Professor Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, believes Turkey is “not clean of anti-Semitism”.
“Anti-Semitism is not only in Arab countries, we can see now growing anti-Semitism even in Europe and unfortunately Turkey is not clean of anti-Semitism,” he told Reuters. “Basically we see a long term development in Turkish foreign policy, which is distancing itself from the West. We’ve seen the Turks deviate from European behaviour, for example accepting (Iranian) President Ahmadinejad in Istanbul, even inviting President Bashir of Sudan, who was indicted for war crimes. Just recently, the Turks announced they would not join sanctions against Iran as their American allies desire. So we see basically Turkey giving in to the Islamic impulses of the AKP Party (Turkish Prime Minister’s Tayyip Erdogan Justice and Development Party).”
Click below to watch a selection from “Ayrılık”:
Israel’s Chosen Weapon Against Iran– memory sticks?
Yesterday Reuters reported US President Barack Obama emphatically stating that Joe Biden’s comments this week on ABC were not a “green light” to Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Yet he did reiterrate Biden’s argument that Washington cannot “dictate to other countries what their security interests are.”
If Israel were to decide to try to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, how might it do that? It sounds almost like something from a spy novel, but Reuters’ Dan Williams reports that Israel may use “cyber warfare” to accomplish that goal.
“… malware — a commonly used abbreviation for “malicious software” — could be inserted to corrupt, commandeer or crash the controls of sensitive sites like uranium enrichment plants.
Such attacks could be immediate, [Scott Borg, director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit] said. Or they might be latent, with the malware loitering unseen and awaiting an external trigger, or pre-set to strike automatically when the infected facility reaches a more critical level of activity.
As Iran’s nuclear assets would probably be isolated from outside computers, hackers would be unable to access them directly, Borg said. Israeli agents would have to conceal the malware in software used by the Iranians or discreetly plant it on portable hardware brought in, unknowingly, by technicians. “A contaminated USB key would be enough,” he said.”
(To get the whole story, click here.)
Mind you, click here and here for a reminder, again from Dan, that Israel also possesses, it is assumed, more traditional weapons of mass destruction. Dan told us Israel has just sent one of its nuclear-armed submarines through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea in what officials called a deliberate signal to Iran.
Meanwhile, as Obama calls for engagement and diplomacy, top US military advisers argue he needs to hurry up.
“There’s a great deal that certainly depends on the dialogue and the engagement,” [said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff] . “I’m hopeful that that dialogue is productive. I worry about it a great deal if it’s not.” Mullen noted that some forecasters believe Iran could be as little as a year away from developing a nuclear bomb, adding: “The clock has continued to tick.”
When it comes to destruction, caos,war, fighting, and killing. no one does it better in any way shape or form better than isrel. ahh, great to see the american tax dollar spent well.
Vacation with a difference
Modern vacation tastes have long-since evolved from the ‘sun, sea and sangria’ beloved of our forebears.
Niche holidays are all the rage these days and a cursory browse of the web quickly throws up an eclectic mix of possibilities from this Elvis Presley-themed trip to the United States, to a pleasant vacation in Germany looking at tractors and other farm machinery, right through to this combination “boat trip on the Seine/making a quilt” holiday. (And those are all from just one web site).
But even these high-adrenalin holidays pale by comparison to the week-long tour of Israel we spotted on the web being offered by Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre whose motto is “Bankrupting Terrorism – One Lawsuit at a Time”.
Their “Ultimate Mission to Israel” offers a range of unusual activities sure to put the smile on any vacationers face, to whit:
- Briefings by Mossad officials and commanders of the Shin Bet.
- Inside tour of the Israeli Air Force unit who (sic) carries out targeted killings.
There’s so much more to Israel than war tours and religious tours. Tel Aviv was named the ‘Mediterranean Capital of Cool’ by the NY Times. Trust me, its worth investigating!
Wanted: an ethical code of war
International law governing the conduct of war is based on the traditional model of two armies on a battlefield. It fails to apply effectively to ‘terrorist conflicts’ and provides insufficient response to the ethical dilemmas that arise.
Until effective international law is developed to regulate the ‘war on terror’, no decisive ethical code will exist. This is not only a challenge for the Israeli military. It is shared by all Western armies fighting to preserve core democratic values.
The above is the thesis of an Israeli foreign ministry briefing published March 25 in response to allegations that Israel flouted the rules of war in its Gaza offensive Dec 27-Jan 18 against Islamist militants led by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Here are a few excerpts. It may be noted that the docmuent does not define “terrorist” or allude in any way to the political, religious, national or other causes underlying “terrorist” activities. You can read the full document (one and a half pages only) here.
“Terrorists have developed a number of strategies … to offset their military inferiority … at the same time they place the value of propaganda above the value of human life.”
“Terrorists attempty to deligitimize the actions of their state targets: by protraying themselves as victims, by accusing the state of unfair play, and by waging war in densely populated areas and causing panic among the populace with the ultimate goal of obtaining media coverage.”
“To confront ethical dilemmas arising during counter-terrorist operations, the IDF (Israel Defence Force) developed a moral code, The Spirit of the IDF .
The code is composed of Israeli values, democratic Western values and commitment to international laws. It is deeply integrated throughout each IDF soldier’s education.
Spirit places a high standard of personal judgement when targetting terrorists who seek shelter among civilians.
Until an effective international deterrent exists, terrorists will continue to use civilians as human shields. The advantages to amoral forces of operating from densely-populated urban areas are clear, as are the media advtanges arising from international condemnation of counter-terrorist operations in these areas. As a result, international legal attention to this issue is vital.”
The entire idea is a conflict of terms.
There already is a code of war ethics.
But war is war. It isn’t pretty. There will always be collateral damage, blue on blue incidents, and civilian casualties. It’s not entirely avoidable. It can only be minimized. And there will always be a very small percent of soldiers who don’t care and will commit war crimes. But you can’t blame the army or country they belong to for their actions. And you can’t judge the entire country, army, batallion, or other smaller unit based on the actions of those few.
Michael, USAF
Breaking Ranks
Its been two months since Israel ended its 22-day offensive in Gaza – two months during which Israel has been weighing up the costs and the benefits of what was achieved in the fierce fighting.
Strong international condemnation of the offensive – and the slew of boycotts, bans and blunt dioplomacy that have followed – has been met with a mix of incredulity, anger and resignation in Israel.
Much of the condemnation of the offensive has been attributed in Israel to the standard leftist, anti-Israeli, anti-semitic rabble-rousing from the usual quarters along with a failure elsewhere in the world to understand the gravity of the rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel which Israelis feel forced the army into action.
Within that narrow prism – Israel has, in large part, dismissed the criticism and a large tranche of public opinion is still supportive of the war despite questions about the achievements of a campaign which left Hamas in power, rockets still falling on southern Israel and Sgt Gilad Shalit still a captive somewhere in Gaza, 1,000 days after he was captured in 2006.
But internal criticism, from the very heart of Israel’s most venerated institution, is another matter entirely.
The publication of transcripts of conversations with soldiers who served in Gaza has whipped up a storm of controversy in Israel far beyond anything the international outcry stirred up.
Thanks for your comment, Hassan. It’s important to note, in the sentence you cite, the following words: “…has been attributed in Israel…”. We are not, in Reuters, characterising those who criticise Israel’s offensive. We are reporting how they are characterised by many people in Israel.
Send in the drones
Israel’s economy is, in large part, mirroring what is happening elsewhere in the world – with job losses, factory closures and all the other symptoms of the global financial meltdown.
One sector though is defying all the odds.
Elbit Systems – an Israeli company that makes electro-optics, airborne systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and command and control systems – announced this week a record 4th quarter with profits rising 32.6 percent and strong forecasts for continued growth in the year ahead.
Their results presentation gave the company a chance to show off some of its latest technologies as you can see from the video below.
While the credit crunch is forcing governments, companies and individuals around the world to rethink spending across a huge range of goods and services, defence spending seems to be immune.
A ‘pop-psychologist’ would probably have a field day interpreting this trend, in an uncertain world where many of the basic pillars of our society seem to be tottering and the natural instinct to protect and defend comes to the fore.
actually if you would hav read your history properly, jews were actually killed even more by the romans, it was under muhammed they found refuge and saftey although there were still persecuted by other arab tribes who not only opposed but also muhammed himself. so it might suit you better if you learned the intrecacies of history and not generalize people as one. which is why there the world seperates judaisim from zionism, it is an insult to blend the two together. and u say that americans have accepted their wrong doings? really, how so? by moving the indians onto unhabitiable land, where they can’t grow anything, don’t have proper access to water and medical and educational needs, much like how the zionists are doing to the palestinains. fundamentalist muslism hate everyone including other muslims, much how like fundamentalist jews hate everyone else, christians, arabs, and even other moderate jews (it was a jew who assasinated yitzak rabbin). let’s also not forget how israeli forces have bombed and killed thousands of women and children in palstine and lebanon because they refuse their right to exist. why should pakistan have a need to have any diplomatic ties with israel? what purpose will it serve them? none what so ever, every country has a right to choose who it is they speak with, u know kinda like how the U.S and israel refuse to talk to iran, or the democratically elected Hamas in palestine. israel openly talks about bombing other countries and has done so and now with the israeli version of the taliban taking over the government in israel, they openly talk about ethnic cleansing of the arabs. so who really is the extremist and terrorist?? i am including a link to a documentary which interviews many israeli jewish human rights workers exposing the truth for the crimes israel commits, perhaps you should find the truth about your own country before trying to tell someone else what to do.
http://www.occupation101.com
from Global News Journal:
Twittering from the front-lines
Who remembers the Google Wars website that was doing the viral rounds a few years back – a mildly amusing, non-scientific snapshot of the search-driven, internet world we live in?
It lives on at www.googlebattle.com where you can enter two search terms, say ‘Lennon vs. McCartney’ or ‘Left vs. Right’, and let the internet pick a winner by the number of search hits each word gets.
As we reported here – the virtual world has become a real battleground in the ongoing Gaza conflict – with all sides deploying significant resources.
For Israel – where hasbara or PR has often been frowned upon as unnecessary pandering to international opinion that never turns in Israel’s favour anyway – the second Lebanon war underlined the need for a coherent media and PR strategy coordinated at the centre of government.
The post-mortem of the month-long war with Hezbollah in 2006 - known as the Winograd Commission - recommended a centralised approach to hasbara to avoid spokesmen from different ministries, the army or the police telling different or conflicting stories to a voracious local and international media.
Notwithstanding the fact that the head of the new National Information Directorate did not make it to a scheduled interview with our reporter on the story above – as my colleague Dan Williams reported here the strategy certainly seems to be working for domestic consumption.
Sources inside the Israeli government have said they are generally happy with the way the strategy has worked internationally as well despite growing international calls for a ceasefire and increasingly angry protests around the world.
Joe the plumber is right. Journalists are incapable of being unbiased always having some political bias. Apart from that, what soldier wants to rescue journalists who get themselves captured risking their own lives?
Turkey should be applauded for exposing the brutal tactics Israeli soldiers use against the Palestinians. Anti-Semitism has nothing to do with it, although it’s not surprising that many pro-Israeli bloggers are attempting to deploy the ‘great silencer’ in an effort to ward off criticism. Even Israeli soldiers have confessed to murdering Palestinian kids in cold blood (‘IDF in Gaza: Killing Civilians, Vandalism, and Lax Rules of Engagement: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072 040.html)
The IDF is sadly devoid of ethics. The illegal occupation has lead many Israeli troops to believe that killing Palestinian civilians is a routine matter, or worse, a right of passage – “You are the law, you are God” as one soldier put it.
The link below is an article by Amira Hass that describes what the Samouni family in Gaza experienced during Operation Cast Lead. It is just one of many incidents where the IDF knew it was targeting civilians and tried to destroy the evidence, corpses and all
Family who lost 29 Members in Gaza War: We envy the Dead
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121 720.html