The Apartheid campaign against Israel has another revealing feature. It rarely deals with the massive abuse of human rights or cases of real Apartheid elsewhere in the world. In other words, it singles out Israel with a false accusation. For example, President Carter
has spoken about Israeli Apartheid but is careful about how he describes the conflict in Darfur, where Sudan’s Arab regime has been slaughtering black Muslims with the backing of many Arab states.68 The campaign against Israel is not based on a concern with the universal application of human rights, but on something else. This treatment of Israel is nothing less than an effort to delegitimize the Jewish state, by attributing to it the most heinous crimes. Michael Ignatieff, the head of Canada’s Liberal Party who served as a professor of human rights policy at Harvard University in previous years, made this very point in March 2009:

“International law defines ‘Apartheid’ as a crime against humanity. Labeling Israel as an ’Apartheid’ state is a deliberate attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state itself.”69

Perhaps the most chilling indication of the real purpose behind the “Israel is Apartheid”
campaign is revealed in one of the most active websites behind the campaign. They write
that among the goals of “prosecution for the crime of Apartheid is to force Israel to –
(4) Enable the true majority to return to power over their own lands, while protecting
the rights of ethnic minorities.”70

In other words, the real goal behind the Apartheid campaign is the denial of the
legitimacy of the State of Israel and the determination that the only status the Jewish
population in Israel can hope for is that of a “protected” ethnic minority in an Arab
Palestinian state.

At the same time there is this effort to deny Israel’s right to exist, Iran has been supporting Israel’s enemies with shipments of arms – most recently emphasized by Israel’s capture of the Francop. Matthew Levitt argues that greater scrutiny must be paid to ships that are carrying shipments from Iran.

Given Iran’s history of deceptive financial and trade activity, extra scrutiny should be given to any ship that has recently paid a call to an Iranian port. Countries should be encouraged to require ports and/or authorities to collect detailed, accurate, and complete data regarding all cargo being shipped to or through their countries (especially from risk-prone jurisdictions like Iran), to conduct rigorous risk assessments, and to proceed with actual inspections as necessary. According to press reports, the Francop docked in Egypt before it was boarded some 180 kilometers of the coast of Cyprus.

Recent events show that even as the Obama administration seeks to engage Tehran, the Islamic Republic has continued to work to undermine Western interests and to support anti-Western elements around the world, as demonstrated by its ongoing efforts to resupply Hamas and Hezbollah and assist insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Disrupting Iran’s ability to arm allies and surrogates hostile to the interests of the United States and its allies would enhance Washington’s leverage in possible negotiations with Tehran, contain Iran should such diplomatic efforts fail, and prevent Iran from contributing to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East and beyond.

Of course the continued shipments to Hamas (and Hezbollah) has improved Hamas’s military capability

As a result of Hamas’s development of a long-range rocket force, future military conflicts with Israel will almost certainly be more intense, cover a broader geographic area, and produce more destruction in both Israel and Gaza as the IDF acts to destroy the rockets. Hamas’s new rocket capabilities must also be seen in the context of Hizballah’s acquisition of rockets with a 300-km range. In a possible two-front war, this means that most of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, would be within the range of Hamas or Hizballah rockets.

Through its growing rocket capabilities, Hamas is weakening the measure of deterrence established by Israel through Operation Cast Lead. And while Hamas has been careful since Cast Lead to avoid actions that would lead to renewed hostilities, its growing military capabilities may generate internal pressure to use its rockets or undertake other destabilizing actions. In December 2008, Hamas miscalculated gravely with respect to Israeli intentions and its own capabilities, sparking an intense conflict. There is no guarantee this will not happen again.

The creation of a long-range rocket force reinforces Hamas politically by enhancing its image as a “resistance” movement and its role as a spoiler and competitor to Fatah. Expanded military capacity also lends greater weight to the organization’s hard-line “military wing.”

From Israel’s standpoint, the potential political effects of threats to large population centers will likely make the government more willing to deal decisively with a revamped threat from Hamas. This would probably mean a comprehensive air and ground offensive throughout Gaza — one that would far exceed the scope of Cast Lead.

Showing that it has priorities in order, the administration this week, condemned an Israeli plan to build new housing in the Gilo section of Jerusalem. Howard Schneider of the Washington Post reported:

City officials moved forward Tuesday with a plan to build 900 homes in a disputed neighborhood of Jerusalem, prompting sharp criticism from the White House, the Palestinians and others who feel it will further undermine the chance of renewing peace talks.

The new units will expand the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, one of several built on land taken by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed to the city in a step not recognized by the international community.

What does the international community recognize? The right of Iran to arm Hamas? And what of the American administration? Does it believe that construction in Gilo is really the most pressing issue to resolve in order to restart peace talks? Or as Barry Rubin observes:

Obama said that the Gilo construction complicates administration efforts to relaunch peace talks, makes it harder to achieve peace and embitters the Palestinians.

Funny, he never said this about: PA incitement to terrorism; failure to punish terrorists; negotiations with Hamas despite its hardline positions, genocidal goals, antisemitic views, and terrorist acts; refusal to return to talks with Israel despite Obama’s express request to do so; breaking its promise on not to be a sponsor of using the Goldstone report to punish Israel; and other such actions. Each of these individually is more dangerous than the Gilo construction.

(A related point:

Yesterday Daled Amos noted that the State Department was boasting that it had done more to promote peace in the Middle East than the Bush administration did in eight years. Barry Rubin also noted:

Having sabotaged negotiations by escalating the construction-on-settlements issue, the Administration has now escalated even higher: no construction in Jerusalem is the minimum demand. Of course, Arab states and the PA will echo this, refusing all talks unless that happens. And since Israel won’t stop building in Jerusalem and the Arab side won’t—unlike the Administration—back down—Obama has just guaranteed a dead peace process for his entire four-year term in office. In fact, he’s probably ensured no comprehensive negotiations will take place, much less succeed.

Talk about painting yourself into a corner, and the Administration keeps making that corner smaller!

The administration’s mis-steps continue to discourage peace making.)

By highlighting the proposed construction in Gilo, the administration is giving further ammunition to those who would deny Israel’s right to exist by perverting international law. This, in turn, emboldens Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. It’s astonishing that to some people construction by Jews is an element that reduces Israel’s legitimacy, but that terror by Arabs continues to make their grievances worthy of being addressed. It is this perverse equivalence that the administration is encouraging.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

WTF kind of headline is this? Okay, you figure out what “post-election turmoil” means. The AP headline is “Iran sentences 5 to death in postelection turmoil.” The Iranian government sentenced five people to death whose only crime, apparently, was protesting the fraudulent election in June. So what’s the “postelection turmoil”? The fact that there was “turmoil” after the election (if you can call hundreds of thousands marching on the streets and shouting from the rooftops)? Were they sentenced for causing “turmoil”? Is the sentencing taking place in “turmoil”? Howsabout we change it to “Iran sentences 5 to death for protesting June election”? That would make it a hell of a lot clearer, and more truthful. Who writes these stupid headlines, anyway? Get someone better, AP.

Fight global warming with condoms. Seriously. The UN Population Fund says we can stop global warming by giving out free condoms and free family planning advice. See, if only there weren’t so many damned people, the world would not be suffering nearly as many ills. I propose eliminating only international bureaucrats. That’d fix the global warming problem in a hurry, since nobody else would really care about it.

Dogpile on Israelis! Dogpile on Israelis! The Gilo dogpile is on. Let’s see, the U.S., France, the UN and Britain–anyone else? Yeah, well, the suburb of Jerusalem will be building 900 new housing units. Deal with it.

Toldja so: No way the U.S. goes along with the Palestinians going to unilaterally declaring a state. On the other hand, how the hell is it going to be contiguous when Israel lies between the West Bank and Gaza?

This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside: The IAEA, the one that couldn’t find the secret Iranian nuclear enrichment plant, says that it’s all set to be up and running within a year or so. Great news! Another plant Iran can use to cheat and retreat and build a nuclear bomb, and what’s the UN doing about it? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Warm and fuzzy, part 2: Gee. The IAEA seems to have noticed that Syria is, indeed, looking to make a nuke, too. Go figure. Iran’s their patron, they hate Israel—who knew?

Bow wow wow: You know, we have such an amateur as president, he never got the memo that the U.S. President bends the knee only to God. Seriously, has any other American president been so obsequious? But hey. He’s the president of the world, right? Uh, except that even the Europeans are losing their affection for The One. So soon?

Wake me when they issue a UNSC resolution: The US accused, and Britain brought up “concerns” that Iran was involved in the smuggling of 500 tons of weapons to Hezbullah. In other words, nothing will happen in the world theater, because Israel didn’t kill any Palestinians while stopping the arms shipment.

Ahmedinejad to Obama: It’s Israel or Iran. Um. We choose Israel. Of course, it’s getting a little hard to tell with the Obama administration, but I’m pretty sure they’re not going to throw Israel under the bus. Yet. And oh yeah—he says capitalism sucks, too. So that’s why the mullahs are all gazillionaires? Because they hate the capitalist system, right?

Israel opens West Bank crossing, world ignores sign of progress. What’s that? One of the dreaded Palestinian roadblocks has been alleviated? Who cares, Israel is still building “settlements.” At least, that’s the attitude out there.

The blame game begins: So, let me get this straight. The FBI knew that the Fort Hood Jihadi was a jihadi. The CIA knew he was a jihadi. And the army knew he was a jihadi. But none of them did anything other than close the file and declare he wasn’t dangerous? Wow. I’m so happy that America is being protected by people who are really onto what terrorism is and isn’t. Because otherwise, we’d have terrorist attacks on our own soil, killing and wounding dozens. Oh. Wait.

Try to imagine what the world would be like if anyone trusted the important things to the United Nations.

But of course, it’s not just the UN that ignores proof. Consider Israel’s capture of the Karine A in 2002. Initially the New York Times reported:

The Israeli Army said today that it had seized a ship carrying 50 tons of rockets, mines, antitank missiles and other munitions meant for Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, even as the Bush administration’s envoy met with Mr. Arafat in the hope of strengthening his declared cease-fire with Israel.

Palestinian officials denied any link to the ship, the Karine A, and dismissed the announcement a day after the seizure as propaganda timed to undermine Mr. Arafat.

This was followed three days later with an admission from the captain of the ship.

The interviews with the captain were rationed to selected news organizations by Israeli military officials frustrated that the smuggling has not gotten more international attention. They bolstered the Israeli contention that the weapons were intended for Palestinians for use against Israel.

As Captain Akawi did not draw a direct line between the shipment and Mr. Arafat. He said he did not know if Palestinian officials senior to the man he called Awadallah had been aware of the operation.

The captain also did not directly implicate the Iranian government in the smuggling, as the Israelis have, but he did describe a link to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran.

Note how careful the reporter is not to implicate Yasser Arafat (or even) Iran explicitly. Also, note that this huge news was largely ignored “frustrating” Israeli officials.

A couple of months later this was reported:

American officials said that Israeli intelligence reports about the Moscow meeting were at the heart of secret briefings that Israel provided to the Bush administration after the arms shipment was intercepted.

”There’s plenty of evidence to show that it wasn’t a rogue operation,” a senior State Department official said of the ship that Israel seized in early January.

Palestinian Authority officials dismissed the charges of any Iranian involvement in their struggle against Israel and denied that Mr. Arafat knew of the arms shipment. They said the allegations were an attempt by Israel to discredit the Palestinians and to justify Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

”This is a factory of lies,” Yasir Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian minister of information, said. ”Israel is like any colonial power. When they get in trouble, they try to blame outsiders. There has not been a single Iranian here since the 14th century.”

Iran also has denied any involvement with the Palestinians or the arms shipments. Ali Shamkhani, the Iranian minister of defense, told the state news agency, ”The Islamic Republic of Iran has had no military relations with Arafat, and no steps have been taken by any Iranian organization for the shipment of arms to the mentioned lands.”

And of course, note the denial. So let’s to this week’s capture of Iranian arm shipment to Hezbollah.

Here’s the Washington Post:

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, speaking from Tehran, denied that Iranian arms were bound for Syria and said “pirates” had disrupted legitimate trade between Syria and Iran, news services reported.

The incident comes as Israeli political officials defend their country in the U.N. General Assembly against allegations that Israeli forces committed war crimes during last winter’s three-week war with the Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
…
Israeli officials offered no direct evidence that the supplies were bound for Hezbollah. They noted, however, that Iran is forbidden under a U.N. embargo to export arms. Iran is widely considered a major weapons supplier for Hezbollah and Hamas.

The New York Times:

News reports quoted the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, and other officials saying the ship had been carrying the arms from Iran to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, but officials released no evidence to support those claims.

The capture of the ship came hours before the United Nations General Assembly began deliberations on the Goldstone report on the Gaza war last January, which asserts that both Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters committed war crimes.

Note how both articles claim that Israel offered “no evidence” of the charges and that it came at the same time that Israel’s responsibility of “war crimes” is being discussed in the UN. Both articles are effectively suggesting that Israel’s making a claim to deflect attention from its (unproven) guilt. Just like Yaser Abad Rabbo did in 2002.

AP (via memeorandum) too:

But hours after the seizure, Israel had not provided proof that the arms were meant for the Lebanese guerrillas.

At least AP doesn’t mention the irrelevant (to this story) UN activity.

Media Backspin observes that there is proof that the ship is Iranian in origin.

But what more proof does Israel need?

The Syiran and Iranian foreign ministers issued denials:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem on Wednesday, dismissed the allegations out of hand.

His remarks were backed by Muallem, who asserted that contrary to Israeli claims, “the ship was not carrying Iranian-made weaponry for Syria or Lebanon,” but was in fact carrying Syrian-made items for consumption in Iran.

“Unfortunately a number of pirates disrupt business activities and frequenting of the ships, these pirates sometimes act in the name of [Iranians],” said the Syrian Foreign Minister.

Well as far as consumer good being transported, Israel provided visual proof that it’s not Syrian made toasters on the ship.

As Noah Pollak observes:

Moallem says there were no arms on board. The IDF has released a video of the ship’s weapons being unloaded in the port of Ashdod. There are rows and rows of mortar shells, rockets, and crates filled with grenades

Power Line notes:

Our enemies don’t stop scheming against us when we’re not paying attention to them. Or when we’re negotiating with them, either.

But there will be plenty who will cover for them aren’t there?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Iran to Syria: Give us back the uranium we illegally sold you. And oh yeah—do it on your own damned dime. Wow, this one’s just awesome. Iran wants Syria to return the uranium it was supposed to use in the nuclear plant that Israel bombed so that, well, Syria couldn’t make a nuclear bomb. I hope they do try it. And the IDF intercepts the ship. That would be fun.

No Security Council resolution on Goldstone: Israel and the White House have apparently reached a “silent understanding” on not letting Goldstone reach the Security Council. How long before the Palestinians and the OIC get noisy about the silence? I figure a day or two.

The Palestinian Lobby trumps the Israel lobby. Hillary Clinton has now been spanked by just about all the major players in the Middle East for daring to suggest that a total settlement freeze should not be a precondition to peace talks. And she has been properly repentant:

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington does not accept the legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and wants to see their construction halted “forever.”

That’s funny. I thought it was the Israel lobby that was powerful enough to force the U.S. President to dance to its tune, and yet, here she is, slamming Israel only days after saying that Netanyahu made “unprecedented” steps toward freezing settlement construction. Huh. Go figure. That Walt & Mearsheimer—boy, they really pulled one over on the world, hey?

Awesome: Congressional nitwit puts private ethics investigation data on public website. You have to love the internet age, because people being people, there are still just as many idiots as there were before everything was online. Only now when they make mistakes, we get to see what’s really going on behind the scenes in Congress.

Postcards from the IDF: Yossi Klein Halevi on Israeli citizens’ receipt of a postcard that details how much time they have to get to the nearest bomb shelter in the event of a missile attack. A sobering read.

No. Ya think? Best headline yet on the Iran cheat-and-retreat strategy: “Iran accused of playing games on nuclear deal.” The Telegraph wins the Keen Grasp of the Obvious award for that one.

But—but—this totally blows away the “European colonialism” argument! Genetic proof that Jews were from the land of Israel, and the man behind the science. (Of course, he’s a Jew.)

But the Gazans are living in crushing misery: The New York Times is calling Rafah a “shopping mecca,” even as Richard Goldstone, HRW, and the EU and UN insist that Gazans are starving, miserable, and oppressed. Cognitive dissonance? No. The narrative.

It’s on. It’s off. It’s on. It’s off. No, it’s Iran. Yesterday, the news was full of the Iranians accepting the draft agreement to let us enrich their nuclear fuel for them. Today, Iran did their usual thing and said, “What? We never said we’d accept that.” If Iran was a child, I’d put it in permanent time-out.

“It is easier to dismantle the Palestinian Authority than it is to dismantle us, and we will take them apart before anyone thinks of touching us.”

Ah, the Hamas/Fatah truce. The snark simply writes itself.

Turkey, the friend of Jews—not. France’s Le Monde polled the Turks, and 53% say they would not want to live next door to a Jew. But really, the Turks luuurve Israelis. Truly. They do. Probably a little more than they love Armenians, but I wouldn’t want to lay odds on that.

Abdullah to Obama: Forget Iran, it’s not that important. Uh-huh. We shouldn’t concentrate on Iran, because the king of Jordan is tired of hearing about Iran, Iran, Iran. It’s the Palestinians that are the key to mideast peace, you see—not the country that’s trying to build nuclear weapons, murdering American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, funding terrorists in Israel, South America, and, well, all over the world, and oh yeah—violently repressig its own people. So yeah, really, Obama—what’s with the Iran obsession?

Bill Maher is a great big idiot: Want to laugh? Watch this video over at Hot Air, where Bill Maher, the world-renowned scientist, tells us how dangerous flu vaccinations are, and vaccinations in general. Biggest laugh-line: It’s not settled science, like global warming. Yes, he really says that. Like Allahpundit says, when Chris Matthews is your voice of reason—well.

Hezbollah: That was no missile, that was a door! I really want to see their video footage. They’re claiming that the group of Hezbollah terrorists seen loading a long, metallic object onto a truck were carrying a metal door. Uh-huh. I’m also eagerly awaiting UNIFIL’s explanation as to why their men were watching Hezbollah load a “metal door” onto a pickup truck. What? UN peacekeepers ignoring Hezbollah UN Resolution violations? No! You don’t say!

Khameini in a coma? Or dead? I hope it’s true. But if it is, well, Iran ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Revolution? That won’t be the half of it. It might be great news to Israel, depending on who wins the power struggle. We can always dream that client states Syria and Lebanon get left out in the cold.

Those wily Jews: While the Arabs and Muslims in the region continue their important work in improving the many ways you can carry a suicide bomb, Israelis are developing things like a battery that will last thousands of hours in hearing aids and the like. Oh, and the battery will be cheaper and cleaner than those currently on the market. No wonder Israel has more Nobel prizes than the entire Arab world combined.