[Notes below by Tom Gross]

HAMAS REPORTEDLY HOLDING TWO ISRAELIS CAPTIVE IN GAZA

An Israeli court this morning lifted a gag order to allow publication of the fact that two Israelis are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

Avraham Mengistu, 28, an Ethiopian-Israeli from the coastal town of Ashkelon, has been held in Gaza since September. The other man has not been named, but is believed to be from Israel’s Bedouin community.

Both men are said to have a history of mental problems and both apparently voluntarily entered Gaza (not together) and are now being held captive. Mengistu reportedly walked into Gaza holding a bible.

The gag order on the case was lifted following lawsuits by the Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot newspapers. An Israeli government source tells me he is concerned that the lifting of the gag order will now make it more complicated for Israel to negotiate to free them.

Hamas has not admitted they are holding the two men but Israel says it has solid intelligence that they are.

Israeli Channel 2 TV reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been in touch with Mengistu’s parents for some time and the families have also met privately with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and President Reuven Rivlin.

Israeli officials say that Hamas also holds the remains of deceased IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul and that they have been trying to negotiate for their release, along with Mengistu and the other man.

 

IRANIAN FM ZARIF REPORTEDLY THREATENS EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF MOGHERINI

As EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini announced that nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers will continue in Vienna for the next few days, reports have emerged that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made threatening remarks to her, raising his voice and pointing to her in an aggressive way, warning her: “Never threaten an Iranian.”

Zarif is usually portrayed in Western media outlets as the friendly, sophisticated face of the regime.

 

IRANIAN PRO-REGIME PROFESSOR: “U.S. NEEDS NUCLEAR DEAL MORE THAN IRAN”

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reports (July 7):

“Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and an academic at Tehran University, underscored that given the new regional order and Iran’s growing influence in the region, Washington strongly needs a nuclear agreement more than Tehran.

“‘Today the Americans know that they need the agreement more than Iran. The crisis in the EU and the region, the region’s collapse by Wahhabism, and the rise of China and Russia are all actually happening as a result of Iran’s leadership and might in the region,” Marandi told FNA in Vienna, the venue of nuclear talks between Iran and the world powers, on Tuesday. ‘Obama needs negotiations with Iran and these conditions strengthen Iran’s position at the negotiating table,’ he added.”

***

Among past recent dispatches on the Iranian nuclear issue, please see The true winner in Syria: Iran (& The worst agreement in U.S. diplomatic history)

 

“VIENNA’S SEX TRADE SIZZLES DURING IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS”

Reuters reports from Vienna:

Anyone who says it’s all work and no play for the hordes of diplomats, officials, security agents, analysts and reporters who have descended on Vienna for what should be the finale of almost two years of Iran nuclear talks is dead wrong. As the manager of a local brothel said, when the Iran talks are in town, “business is booming”.

He declined to say who were his most frequent customers, but made clear that, as far as he was concerned, the longer the negotiations between Iran and six world powers drag on, the better.

 

IRGC: “PURSUING STRATEGY OF DESTRUCTION OF [ISRAEL]” IS ISLAMIC WORLD’S TOP PRIORITY

Iran’s (semi-official) Tasnim News agency reports that Iran’s all-powerful Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) released a statement yesterday ahead of “International Quds Day,” “calling on the people of Iran and other Muslim countries to attend mass rallies this Friday in support of Palestine.”

It added that the “destruction of the Zionist regime” (i.e. Israel) must be “Muslims’ first priority”.

Tom Gross adds: The IRGC is expected to get billions more dollars to fight its various wars (it already backs the Assad regime in Syria and terrorists in Lebanon, Gaza and elsewhere) as a result of sanctions relief following a nuclear deal.

Quds Day was established by the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1979 he officially declared that “the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan was International Quds Day.” (Quds is an Arabic word for Jerusalem.)

 

LARIJANI: ISRAEL CAUSES AND REPRESENTS “INTERNATIONAL EVIL”

The powerful Iranian politician Ali Larijani, who is now Speaker of the Iranian parliament, said on Tuesday that a nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers will have no impact on the “Iran’s support for Palestine”.

He added that he believes Israel represents “international evil” and that “deep-rooted causes of evil” in the world stem from the “Zionist regime.”

(This very much echoes Hitler’s speeches of the 1930s, where he claimed that the Jews are “the cause of all international evil”.)

 

RAFSANJANI: “FORGED ISRAELI REGIME TO BE WIPED-OFF MAP”

The Iranian news agency IRNA reports:

Tehran, July 6, IRNA -- Presence of the forged Israeli regime is temporary as eventually one day this alien existence that has been urged into the body of an ancient nation and a historical region will be wiped off the map, said Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani on Monday....

Tom Gross adds: New York Times editorialists have claimed that one of the reasons Iranian President Rouhani should be considered a “moderate,” is because of his association with Rafsanjani.

 

AT LEAST 45 CIVILIANS WERE KILLED ON MONDAY: IT’S MINOR NEWS TO MAJOR MEDIA

If even one Palestinian dies – even when that Palestinian (a self-confessed militant) was killed by an Israeli in self-defense while being attacked by the Palestinian, the New York Times goes full out putting several reporters on it and making his death its main international story of the day (in its International edition) creating the impression that the Palestinian who died was not in act of trying to kill someone when he was shot.

However, these kinds of stories are ignored or downplayed.

For example, at least 45 civilians were killed on Monday:

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A massive airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeting rebels hit a local marketplace in Yemen, killing over 45 civilians on Monday, security officials and eyewitnesses said.

More than 50 civilians were also wounded in the strike in Fayoush, a suburb just north of the southern port city of Aden.

“I came right after the explosion and saw dozens of dead strewn about and a sea of blood, while the wounded were being evacuated to nearby hospitals,” resident Abu-Ali al-Azibi said. “(There was) blood from people mixed with that of the sheep and other livestock at the market.”

***

In the Iraqi town of Fallujah on Sunday, more than 50 young men were killed when a coalition airplane mistakenly dropped a bomb on a soccer field, reports the Wall Street Journal.

***

And when Iran itself kills people in its own country, you can usually only read about it in the Iranian or regional media.

For example, the IRGC kill five separatists “on July 7 in the southwestern province of Sistan va Baluchistan,” reports Basij.

 

CHINESE COMPANY CONNECTS TEHRAN AND TEL AVIV RAIL PROJECTS

Israel’s Channel 2 television reports that the Chinese company which in May won the tender to build the forthcoming Tel Aviv light rail project is a subsidiary of the Chinese company building Iran’s major new rail project.

But the parent company of the China Railway Tunnel Group is not only involved in the high-speed rail project which will connect Tehran and Isfahan, but has business ties with a corporation linked to Iran’s nuclear facilities run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

That IRGC company is blacklisted under Israeli law for having ties to an enemy government, but the China Railway Tunnel Group itself is not.

Israeli law forbids investment of over $20 million in companies trading with Iran. However, Haaretz says this is rarely enforced, noting for example, that Dutch and German companies operating in Iran received major deals with Israeli industry.

***

Tom Gross adds:

On Monday (July 6) Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif met privately with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the nuclear talks in Vienna.

Meanwhile also on Monday, Israel’s Economy Minister and Negev and Galilee Development Minister Aryeh Deri met for the first time with China’s ambassador to Israel Zhan Yongxin. The two discussed the establishment of a free trade zone between Israel and China.

The Chinese ambassador reiterated China’s commitment to begin negotiations for such a zone, which was first announced by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in March in his report to the National People’s Congress.

As I have noted in previous dispatches there are ever increasing business ties between Israel and China, which has now invested $6 billion in Israel.

 

BBC QUIETLY REMOVES THE WORD “JEWISH” FROM THOSE WHO ISIS SAYS IT WAS TARGETING

Day by day, the BBC World Service twists the news in all kinds of ways, to misrepresent Israel’s enemies.

Here is just one small further example.

Regarding the rocket attacks a week ago into southern Israel, the ISIS-affiliated group in the Sinai that claimed responsibility, wrote in its twitter feed:

“Three Grad rockets were fired at Jewish positions in occupied Palestine.”

But the BBC, which claims on its website that its goal is to build “understanding of international issues,” quietly changed the word “Jewish” to “Israeli” in its report, once again obscuring the anti-Semitic nature of some of those who wish to destroy Israel.

The BBC also failed to explain to its audience that the rockets were fired at Jews in the Negev desert, which is neither “occupied” nor “Palestine” nor what most people understand by the term “settlements”.

 

DOME OF ROCK PICTURE TOPS CNN LIST OF SITES ON “VERGE OF EXTINCTION” -- BUT PALMYRA NOT ON LIST

CNN has (once again) been criticized by the Israeli foreign ministry after it placed a picture of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock as top its list headlined “Last chance to see: 25 magnificent structures on the verge of extinction.”

CNN made the claim based on allegations by UNESCO which have themselves been dismissed as completely fabricated and motivated by anti-Semitism.

Israel has no plans, nor has it ever had any, to destroy the 6th-century Dome of the Rock, contrary to the fake reports and incitement deliberately whipped by Palestinian leaders such as Nobel Peace prize winner Yasser Arafat.

Meanwhile the list of 25 did not include the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra in Syria, where the Islamic State started to destroy monuments last week. (Pictures of Palmyra here.)

Recent UNESCO resolutions against Israel are sponsored by the non-democratic regimes of Algeria, Lebanon and Qatar

***

Among previous dispatch on CNN, please see CNN calls the attacked synagogue “a mosque”.

 

AT LEAST 45 ISIS MEMBERS REPORTEDLY DIE AFTER EATING RAMADAN MEAL

At least 45 Islamic State fighters died after eating a fast-breaking Ramadan meal in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, Haaretz reported.

They are believed to have been poisoned, possibly by a Kurdish or Iranian spy.

In November, the Iraq Times reported that Free Syrian army fighters had infiltrated an ISIS camp, posed as cooks and poisoned their lunches. Dozens of ISIS fighters died in that incident.

 

CHINESE, KOREANS “BOTH HAVE SLANTED EYES” SAYS TURKISH OFFICIAL

Both Koreans and Chinese “have slanted eyes,” Turkish official and political leader Devlet Bahceli told Hurriyet Daily News in an interview yesterday. He made the remarks after Korean tourists, who were mistaken for Chinese, were beaten up by Turkish nationalists to protest the abuse of Muslim Uighurs in northwest China.

“What is the difference between a Korean and a Chinese? They both have slanted eyes,” he said.

One can only imagine the number of outraged editorials the New York Times would be running already if an Israeli (or American) official had said such a thing.

 

PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR MAKES BLATANTLY ANTI-SEMITIC REMARKS; CITES “PROTOCOLS,” TEL AVIV PROFESSOR AS “PROOF”

Jewish organizations have called on donor governments who fund the Palestinian Authority, to denounce the Palestinian Authority ambassador to Chile, Imad Nabil Jadaa, after he made a series of blatantly anti-Semitic comments and read out passages from the notorious anti-Semitic Tsarist forgery ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ at a peace conference in Santiago, Chile. He warned that the Jews had to be stopped before they realized their plans to take over the world.

In a series of muddled remarks, Jaada also cited as “proof” that Jews don’t exist at all “the Jewish Israeli professor from the University of Tel Aviv, Dr. Shlomo Sand, in his book ‘The Invention of the Jewish people.’” (Sand is one of number of far left-wing anti-Zionist, and some would say anti-Semitic, academics teaching at Israel’s universities.)

 

POLISH MUSEUM, ARGENTINEAN, HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENTS CRITICIZED FOR ANTI-SEMITISM

Polish Jewish leaders have denounced as “sick” a “gas chamber ‘game of tag’ video” which has been installed by a Polish filmmaker at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow

The naked participants play tag in a Nazi gas chamber. The Associated Press reports that the video has previously been shown at museums in Germany and Estonia. The Krakow museum lies close to the Auschwitz death camp.

Yad Vashem has also written to the Krakow museum asking them to remove the installation.

***

American Jewish groups have strongly criticized statements made by Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in which she evoked classic anti-Semitic stereotypes blaming Jews for Argentina’s financial challenges.

During a visit to an elementary school in Buenos Aires on July 4, President Fernandez de Kirchner recommended to the children there that they read Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice to understand how Jews undermine economies. She then repeated her advice on her Twitter to her two million twitter followers, adding that “Usury and the bloodsuckers were immortalized by the best literature for centuries.”

Fernandez de Kirchner has been accused of possibly being connected to the assassination of the Argentinean prosecutor Alberto Nisman. He was killed the day before he was to expose a cover-up by the Argentinean authorities accused of helping Iran evade responsibility for the AMIA Jewish center bombing in Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed.

***

The Hungarian government is being asked to cancel plans to erect a statue in the city of Székesfehérvár to honor Balint Homan, a notorious wartime politician, who supported the Nazis and oversaw anti-Jewish laws under the Horthy regime.

Hungarian Prime Minister Orban has claimed that he opposes anti-Semitism, but is not doing so in practice.

 

THE FUTURE IS HERE: KIBBUTZ MANUFACTURES TOUCH-SCREEN BULLET-RESISTANT WINDSHIELD

Israel Defense magazine reports (July 7):

The OSG Company of Kibbutz Palmach Zova has started manufacturing a bullet-resistant windshield with a touch screen embedded in it. “It is a cassette-like device inserted between the safety glass layers. The screen is connected to the vehicle’s multimedia system, so it may be used to display maps, live feeds from the day or night vision cameras mounted on the vehicle, and other video options,” explains Daniel Cohen, OSG CEO.

“One of the problems with combat vehicles is the lack of space in the cabin occupied by the vehicle commander and driver. Today, the vehicle commander must balance his laptop computer on his knees during operational activity. This is awkward and inconvenient, and in the event of an accident – the computer can endanger the passengers. This need led us to develop ScreeneX – a touch screen embedded in the commander’s window. It saves space, and if the vehicle overturns or is hit by an explosive charge – the laptop computer will not harm the passengers. Our industry is going in that direction. These screens are used in such vehicles as HUMVEEs and MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles, where the cabin is fitted with bullet-resistant windows.”

The development of ScreeneX is yet another example of the creativity of the Israeli defense industry. Like previous innovations it is expected that it will eventually be used in civilian vehicles around the world too.

The U.S. army is interested in using the OSG innovation in its vehicles.