A court investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has asked Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah to cough up the supposed evidence he claims to have that Israel was behind the assassination.

hizbullah evidence
AP

A court investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Wednesday requested evidence from the leader of the Hezbollah militant group after he claimed Israel was involved in the murder.

“I can assure those who bring this information that it will be thoroughly assessed,” chief prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said in a statement, also noting that his office is investigating the murder “in a neutral and objective way.”

Hezbollah on Monday displayed what it said was Israeli surveillance footage of routes used by Hariri, saying this pointed to Israel carrying out the 2005 attack on his motorcade.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had said he expected the tribunal to indict members of his own group over the assassination, said the investigators should consider whether Israel killed Hariri.

The prosecutor at the UN tribunal said it had asked Lebanese authorities to provide all information in Nasrallah’s possession, including the purported surveillance footage.

Hezbollah on Monday showed what it said was video of routes frequently travelled by Hariri, which it said had been intercepted from Israeli surveillance aircraft.

“I invite anyone who has relevant information to submit it to my office. Indeed, I welcome any information that can bring us closer to the truth,” Bellemare said.

The tribunal, which opened in March 2009, has yet to indict anyone.

Bellemare’s office also asked Nasrallah to “use his authority to facilitate its investigation”. Nasrallah has said in past he would not accept accusations by the tribunal against any Hezbollah member.

Correct me if I’m wrong but it looks to me like a UN tribunal has requested assistance from a known terrorist leader.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:22PM: The big news in the states is that a suspected serial killer has been arrested.

And he’s Israeli, according to the mainstream media. Even Israeli sites such as Ha’aretz, Ynet and JPost have been trumpeting the same thing.

But now his name has been published: Elias Abuelazam.

And my immediate thought is “That is not a Jewish name. In fact, it’s distinctly Arab.”

A quick Google search later and I find this:

The manager and regular customers of a party store where the suspected Flint serial killer worked said he was a quiet guy who sometimes joked around.

Abdullah Farah, manager of Kingwater Market on Coldwater Road and Detroit Street in Beecher, said the man arrested this morning worked for him from July 5 to Aug. 1 and was originally from Israel.

And this comment:

There’s no way this guy is Jewish. Think about it for a moment: do you really think a man named Abdullah Farah is going to hire a Jew? Most Arab party store owners in this area are Palestinian, and I guarantee the suspect will turn out to be Palestinian as well.

Is it my imagination, or is the media going out of its way to hide his Arab or palestinian origin and out of its way to make him out to be Israeli?

5:45PM: Michael Totten on Nasrallah’s claim that Israel assassinated Hariri:

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is now officially blaming Israel for assassinating former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri  in downtown Beirut on Valentine’s Day in 2005. I doubt he will convince many people.

I’ve been working in Lebanon on and off for years, and I’ve never once met a single person who thought Israel murdered Hariri. Not even the Hezbollah officials I spoke to before they blacklisted me thought so. Once in a while I met a Hezbollah supporter who said he didn’t know who killed Hariri and silently left open the possibility that Israel might have done it, but that’s the furthest even any of them were willing to go.

Hariri was one of the least anti-Israel Arab leaders on earth. His vision for Lebanon was one of peace and prosperity, not terrorism and war. Jerusalem had no reason at all to want him out of the picture. The Syrian- and Iranian-led Resistance Bloc, on the other hand, needed him out of the way, dead, or at least suppressed.

Almost everyone in Lebanon assumed from the very beginning that the Assad regime in Damascus ordered the hit, which is why Syria’s military occupation was terminated almost at once by a tremendous wave of multi-sectarian wrath. Most people, including me, didn’t entertain the idea for long that Hezbollah might be responsible, not because Hezbollah wouldn’t or couldn’t have done it, but because Syria had the greater of motives.

Speculation is now mounting, however, that the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon is about to name Mustafa Badr al-Din, a senior Hezbollah commander, as the chief suspect. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s actually true, but it will be explosive news if it is. It could easily start another round of sectarian bloodletting, and at the least it will bring Lebanon closer to the boiling point than it already is.

Nasrallah desperately needs to minimize the potential damage as much as he can in advance. Blaming the Jews often works in this part of the world, but this time it might not. His timing could not be worse. It wouldn’t have worked had he tried it five years ago, and that he’s trying it now only makes him look guilty.

5:40PM: I have been debating whether or not to post this next clip because I certainly would not want to unleash the power of Israellycool to help the powers of evil to go viral.

On the other hand, everything about it is so awful that I cannot resist.

“Highlights”:

  • 0:20: Hitler imagery and making fun of Jews (it is telling how these moonbats are invariably unable to hide their true feelings)
  • 1:11: “Cyborg Al Qaeda from the future snorting blow” (WTF?!)
  • 2:45: Use of the Star Wars Kid to make light of the very real attacks on IDF soldiers by Mavi Mamara “activists”
  • The general trivialization of violence perpetrated by these “activists”
  • The moonbats who produced this video complaining of Israel editing footage, yet the entire video being a cut and splice of unrelated video edited out of context.

Clearly, Israel’s vastly improved PR efforts in getting out video and images from the Mavi Marmara to dispel the propaganda, not to mention the brilliant We Con the World, have driven the haters to these desperate – and poorly conceived and executed – measures.

Meanwhile, I’m getting flashbacks to another terrible moonbat musical effort.

5:02PM: Turkey’s Hurriyet reports on the latest Turkish snub of Israel.

stuffed turkey erdoganIsraeli Ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy was not invited to the fast-breaking Ramadan dinner, known as iftar, given by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an for the ambassadors in Ankara on Thursday evening.

“No invitation has been sent to us,” private broadcaster NTV quoted Israeli diplomatic sources as saying. Levy was invited to the traditional iftar last year. The failure to extend an iftar invitation to the Israeli envoy comes in the wake of strained relations between the two countries since the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound pro-Palestinian flotilla that left nine people dead May 31.

The Turkish prime minister was expected to deliver a speech at the dinner which was to be attended by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and chief EU negotiator Egemen Ba???.

In the meantime, some news reports said the Israeli ambassador would also hold an iftar dinner, but it was not yet clear which ministers he would invite.

In other Turkey-Jerkey news, they’ve set up a commission to carry out their own investigation into Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara.

2:56PM: NASA and the Israel Space Agency have signed a statement of intent for future cooperation

2:52PM: Why didn’t I think of this?

Hummus in a squeeze bottle!

Full story here.

12:18PM: Lebanese MP Oqab Saqr has expressed his satisfaction with the UN tribunal investigating Rafik Hariri’s assassination requesting Hizbullah’s “evidence” of Israeli complicity.

MP Oqab Saqr stated Thursday that Special Tribunal for Lebanon General Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s request to be provided with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s evidence in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination is a “highlight” in the investigation.

“The evidence Nasrallah presented should be taken into consideration and given enough time and effort to remove all doubt and ease suspicions,” he told Voice of Lebanon.

Furthermore, he stressed that Bellemare’s request grants the international investigation great credibility and proves that the investigation does not overlook any piece of evidence.

Oh, now he doesn’t have a problem with Hizbullah’s information?

9:44AM: It’s summer in Jerusalem!

9:25AM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Ramadan greetings.

Here are only a few examples of Muslim Jewish holiday greetings:

Passover

Sukkot

Yom Kippur

Chanukah

************************************************************************************

September specials at the Okeanus Hotels in Israel.  Suites, Sea, and Style.

Rooms start at only $170. Click here for more details.

************************************************************************************

9 thoughts on “The Day In Israel: Thursday Aug 12th, 2010”

  1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

    This is interesting, since the head of the Space agency said that Obama told him that his first priority was to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world. None of the objectives was related to exploring space.

  2. The serial killer is a Christian Arab, not that Christian Arabs should be condemned for the crimes of one man.

      1. OK, Michael, what specifically bothered you about that video? I watched it again to see if I might have missed something, but I was left with the same impression of Jerusalem in the summer I had the first time I watched: "It's a great place to be." I know you think I'm a lost cause because I (perish the thought) read Ha'aretz, but I'm really interested in your point of view.

  3. Sorry dude…that video mashup IS quite funny. 'We Con the World' is lame by any standard, a little unsavoury too, given the death toll an' all.

    1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

      I suppose you are right. Not enough of those people trying to kill our boys died. AND we let them go!

      "With the death of the evil there is Joy"

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top