Al Qaeda took responsibility for the double bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut Tuesday morning, minutes after Iran accused Israel of begin behind the explosions that killed an Iranian diplomat and at least 22 others.

The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Ghadanfar Roknabadi, said it was an “Israeli scheme” and that the attacks served  the “Zionist entity.”

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, linked with Al Qaeda, said it was behind the bombings, one set off by a motorcyclist and the second detonated by a suicide car bomber whose vehicle carried 200 pounds of TNT. At least 146 people were wounded. Among the fatalities was Ebrahim al-Ansari, the cultural attaché of the embassy.

Regardless of who was behind the attack, it  was a serious breach of security in the heavily guarded and Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut where the embassy is located.

The car bomb exploded only 30 feet from the building.

Everyone can try to pretend that relations between Israel and Turkey, and even between the United States and Turkey, are just as warm and fuzzy as they have been in the recent (recent for the U.S. is more recent than for Israel) past.

But once the U.S. starts packing up its toys and refusing to share (or sell) them with a former playmate – Turkey – there is no denying the rift.

The toys the U.S. will not be sharing with Turkey include 10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as Predator drones.

The reason for the rupture?

Most reports point to the the Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan having disclosed to Iran the identities of 10 Iranians collecting information for the Mossad. But others see a deeper problem than one that just involves Israel. These theorists point to a more generalized problem of Turkey and Iran becoming closer collaborators, a dramatic about-turn given Turkey’s relentless campaign to unseat Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad, Iran’s primary puppet regime.

Yet another theory for the U.S. – Turkey rift – this one advanced by a Pakistani defense site – suggests that the drone contract cancellation was in response to Turkey’s rejection of bids from U.S. and other firms in favor of a Chinese defense firm for a $4 long-range air and missile defense system.  The Chinese firm which won that contract is sanctioned by the U.S.

The Jewish Press has had the dubious honor of pointing the finger at Turkey’s chief intelligence officer Hakan Fidan and state flatly that his betrayal of 10 Mossad agents was the stuff that should get him something nice in his car in the morning. Yes, we don’t go for nice over here, but, as you’ll see, the rest of the world is coming around rather quickly to our position, and so, if I’m Hakan Fidan, I’d get me a bus pass.

An Eli Lake article in the Daily Beast has confirmations from U.S. officials of the David Ignatius initial Washington Post report. A CIA officer compared the loss to the betrayal of the Cambridge Five the network of Soviet moles (including the notorious Kim Philby), who provided invaluable intelligence to Moscow during the Cold War.

Danny Yatom, a former chief of Israel’s Mossad, told the Beast: “The fact those ten spies were burned by the Turks by purposely informing the Iranians is not only a despicable act, it is an act that brings the Turkish intelligence organization to a position where I assume no one will ever trust it again.”

Yatom said the Mossad has traditionally informed its Turkish counterparts about meetings with its spies on Turkish soil. He said if Turkey gave Iran any details about these meetings, it would compromise Israel’s intelligence operations against Iran.

Indeed, in April, 2012, the Tehran Times announced: “Iran has foiled Israeli terrorist plots.”

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday announcing that it recently foiled several Israeli terrorist plots.

The statement was issued to provide more details about recent operations by Iranian intelligence forces that led to the arrest of 15 Mossad-linked spies and terrorists.

On April 10 [2012], the Intelligence Ministry announced that key members of an Israeli terrorist network had been identified and arrested in Iran.

Presumably, the blood of those 15 agents is on Hakan Fidan’s hands.

Omri Ceren, of The Israel Project, wrote today: “Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that if the story is true, then Turkey’s intel chief Hakan Fidan was just ‘doing his job’ by ‘not letting other intelligence agencies operate in Turkey.’ That might be surprising to Turkey’s NATO allies, not to mention any country that does counterterror work with Ankara.”

And that is a problem well beyond the anger and betrayal anyone in the Mossad might be feeling today. Turkey has the largest army of all the European NATO members and it plays a central role in the alliance. Which means that if you’re a senior security official in any of NATO’s member countries, you’ll start reviewing your exchanges with the Turks. Remember, Turkey serves as a passageway not only for spies going into Iran, but also for terrorists coming out of Iran. If you can’t now trust the Turks to monitor that traffic reliably; if, in fact, you have to worry about them actually aiding and abetting those terrorists – what do you do?

This is far from being an Israel-only problem. I mentioned in an earlier article the similarity between Hakan Fidan’s despicable act and those Afghan soldiers who shoot their American fellows on patrol. If Turkey does not find a meaningful way of convincing its NATO allies that it is trustworthy—it could bring on a sea change in Turkey’s already eroding relationship with the West.

Is Erdoğan’s Turkey turning its back on its European aspirations, in search of a safe and familiar role as the Muslim world’s eternal second fiddle?

So, it appears that yours truly has gotten an entire country angry at him and that, as we speak, the Turkish high command, along with something they call “MIT” (it stands for Milli Istihbarat Teskilati, or National Intelligence Organization – nothing to do with brainy guys in Boston figuring out the universe) are up in arms over the threat I’ve been posing to Turkey’s national security. Well, kiss that trip to Istanbul good bye. I saw “Midnight Express,” I know the drill.

I’m a little excited, to be honest, I’ve never had a brawl with a country before. For the most part I fight with Jewish crazies who hate Muslims pathologically, with Reform Jews who insist anyone with a checkbook is a Jew, with the Women of the Wall who must have their piece of the rock, with a president who took my money and gave it to my banker – but never with an entire country. It’s strangely exhilarating, I have to say.

It all began about a week ago, with a story that was published in the Washington Post, the gist of which was that one Hakan Fidan, the head of the Turkish MIT, had knowledge of Israeli agents operating in Iran and, guess what, he turned over a list with ten of their names to the Iranians.

Considering the fact that no reputable refutation has been made available so far, and that the Israelis have not denied the story (since they were probably the ones who gave it to the Post in the first place), what Hakan Fidan did was bloody treacherous.

Indeed, last Friday the Turks stopped the denial campaign, which was coupled with accusations against Israel (naturally) and came around to admitting—in a roundabout way—that he probably had done it.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Turkish Hurriyet: “When you read these articles, Hakan Fidan is accused of … not letting other intelligence agencies operate in Turkey. Therefore, he is being blamed for doing his job.”

Yet another good man being hunted down for his loyalty to his country and his faith.

Except that what Hakan Fidan has done was usurp a relationship that began in the 1950s between Israel’s and Turkey’s secret services, taking information he received as Israel’s ally and handing it over for execution to Israel’s worst enemies. Now, there’s a man doing his job and being blamed for it. What a victim.

And, according to The Wall Street Journal, Hakan Fidan was behind the arming of Muslim Brotherhood groups fighting in Syria. That’s one shade away from arming Al Qaeda. Also, the WSJ cited senior U.S. officials who said Fidan gave Iran sensitive intelligence collected by the U.S. and Israel.

A true friend, just doing his job. Lay off our Man Fidan, for he represents the highest values cherished by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey: love of country, love of the downtrodden and the Jews done it.

Now, none of the above stories of betrayal and murder-facilitation were anything I, personally, have gathered. I merely reported on the initial Washington Post expose regarding the folks Fidan most assuredly sent to their deaths. But if you google Hakan Fidan, both in regular and news flavors, you’ll get my Jewish Press story well above anything else in the world, including his Wikipedia profile and the original Washington Post column.

All of Turkey reads my article first, before they read anything else on the subject. I’ve been getting Turkish followers on my Twitter account, and Turks have been leaving hundreds of really angry comments on our Facebook page, comments we labor to remove every hour, because they’re not pleasant to read.

That’s because of a nasty note I, in the heat of opining, entered in the flow of my story: “If anyone deserves to find a special surprise in his car one morning, it’s Fidan, the Turkish spy chief.” You’ll have to admit, it’s not exactly a call to arms, it’s an expression of rage at what appears to be a lowlife reminiscent of those Afghani trainees who murder their American patrol fellows, or those Palestinian “security” folks who turned and shot their IDF patrol partners.

Surprisingly, the Turks are not angry at their own security chief for betraying the trust of a close ally—make that two close allies. They’re upset at me, for saying he deserves to be punished. I suppose some of it gets lost in translation. I also think the Turks, like those Muslims who kill people on account of their Muhammad cartoons (you don’t see Bugs Bunny worshipers doing that, now, do you?), should go shopping for a thicker skin. Seriously.

In any event, I am now a major star in Turkey, most likely because of the magical combination “Jewish Press,” which must be the final proof some Turks needed to the fact that whatever blood curdling fantasies they had harbored about Jews was totally true – look at the facts, this Yori Yanover said so, in the “Jewish Press” — that must be the communications organ for all the Jews.

Let’s face it, antisemites truly believe there’s a powerful Jewish cabal out there, and that if one of us Jews gives the word, immediately those trained, clandestine teams everyone knows so much about take off to carry it out. We can argue it ain’t so until we’re blue in the face, it won’t change their minds. Like I told you, they have the convictions of their deep seated antisemitism.

And so, instead of arguing, I will be the big man here, and announce officially that whatever surprises I may have been plotting for Hakan Fidan are now null and void. I order the Mossad to call the hit teams back; likewise the U.S. Seals which we Jews control with Rothchild’s gold must return to base. There will be no surprises for the Turkish spy chief as long as I’m running this cabal.

And tell David Duke his shorts are ready at the cleaner’s, we gave him the special gentile rate but he mustn’t forget the ticket. No tickie…

Great, now I went and started a war with the KKK and China, too.

Headlines of fowl accused of spying for Israel are making the rounds again in Middle Eastern media, with the most recent bird of espionage being an eagle  “arrested” by Hezbollah  in Lebanon.

Local hunters caught the bird in the town of Achkout, who alerted authorities after discovering that the bird had an ID ring attached to its leg with the words “Israel” and “Tel Aviv University” printed on it, according to one Lebanese news site.

The Hezbollah- affiliated Al-Manar TV, whose news site’s Israel section is called “Enemy Entity,” claimed that the eagle was one of many birds sent by Israel to spy and gather information via GPS transmitters across the Middle East. The report pointed to the “arrest of birds carrying similar devices” in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and most recently in Egypt.

Tel Aviv University responded, “This morning, the media reported on an Israeli ‘spy” that was caught by Hezbollah. The ‘spy’ is a predatory fowl that was part of the one the research projects conducted by Tel Aviv University on raptors.”

Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority stated that the eagle was born in a breeding center in southern Israel and had been released a couple of years ago.

Ohad Hatzofeh, one of the Tel Aviv University bird researchers who identified the eagle told Tazpit News Agency that he was “fed up” with the eagle ‘spy’ accusations.

If all of the Arab countries that have “caught” previous spies, such as a stork, a vulture and  pigeon, it only shows how paranoid they really are.

In July, Turkish authorities detained a bird on the suspicion that it was spying for Israel. The kestrel, referred to as the “Israeli agent” by Turkish press because it had metal ring with “Tel Avivunia Israel” on it, was placed in an X-ray machine at a university hospital and underwent a scan for bugging devices. After passing the surveillance, the Zionist spy was freed.

Egypt arrested a stork in late August for spying for Israel because of authorities were suspicious of the tracking device placed by scientists to record its migration. Eventually, the stork, called Menes, was freed but local villagers later ate the spy.

Saudi Arabia apprehended a vulture in 2011, accusing the raptor of being an Israeli spy because of a GPS device with the suspicious “Tel Aviv University” label on its leg. The vulture was eventually freed.

Sudan captured an Israeli hawk last year because tags reading “Israel Nature Authority” and Hebrew University Jerusalem, obvious stooges of the Mossad, were found on its legs.

In May 2012, Turkish authorities were sure they had foiled a Mossad ploy when they caught a European bee-eater.

In a settlement deal between the state and the family of Ben Zygier (aka Prisoner X), the State of Israel has agreed to pay the family NIS 4 million. As part of the settlement deal, the state will not assume any responsibility for the suicide of the former Mossad agent, or mistakes that were made in his recruitment.

NIS 2.4 million will be paid in 2013, and then an additional NIS 400,000 will be paid every year for 4 years.

Facebook is the world’s largest social media website, one with hundreds of millions of users in well over a hundred countries. Despite its size, however, Facebook is not an entirely public forum on which “anything goes.” Rather, it is a worldwide gathering place where certain forms of speech and certain kinds of images are not allowed.

On its community standards page, the site lists a variety of types of speech that are not allowed, including threats of violence, pornography, and spam. Among those prohibited is “hate speech,” about which the policy is as follows:

“Hate Speech: Facebook does not permit hate speech, but distinguishes between serious and humorous speech. While we encourage you to challenge ideas, institutions, events, and practices, we do not permit individuals or groups to attack others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.” [Emphasis added.]

This has nothing to do with censorship (which is a government activity, and cannot be engaged in by a private individual or organization), but with maintaining a civil space for the exchange of ideas. Granted, that isn’t always the case, but that’s why Facebook makes provision for hate speech to be reported. One can disagree with the policy, but it is clear what sorts of speech are being curtailed.

I was recently pointed in the direction of a Facebook page entitled The Untold History, run by a group out of Sweden that calls itself the European Knights Project, a partner of the Institute for Historical Review. On its masthead, it proclaims in all-caps that it is a “HISTORICAL SITE NON-POLITICAL,” but this is a sham. It is, in fact, a Holocaust denial site that not only presents bogus and falsified history, but also traffics in the vilest sort of anti-Semitism.

Presented primarily in the form of graphics with messages, Photoshopped pictures, and cartoons, the page offers all of the anti-Semitic greatest hits: Jews control America and want to control the world; the Holocaust never happened; Jews exploit the Holocaust myth for money; the Allies did far worse to the Germans, Japanese, and Japanese-Americans than the Nazis did to the Jews; Hitler was a great guy who was just standing up for Christian civilization; Communism is a Jewish tool; Israel is the source of all evil in the world; 9/11 was a Mossad job; etc. In one graphic, a “quote” fabricated by the American evangelist Texe Marrs is put in the mouth of Menachem Begin:

“Our race is the ‘Master Race.’ We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects…. other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.”

Once I had examined “The Untold History” for myself, I reported it to Facebook, and expected it to be quickly removed. Instead, I received this response from administrators:

“Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed the page you reported for containing hate speech or symbols and found it doesn’t violate our community standard on hate speech.”

Flabbergasted by this response, I began contacting my Facebook friends, and urging them to report “The Untold History” for violating site standards. Dozens have done so, and all have received the same response. For some reason that is impossible to fathom, the administrators of Facebook seem completely incapable of recognizing anti-Semitism when it is staring them in the face, or see how it constitutes a violation of terms of use that ban hate speech.

In an effort to put pressure on Facebook to act, I have set up a page called Protest “The Untold History” and Other Anti-Semitic Pages. Oddly enough, this page seems to have a problem with disappearing posts. But you can still “like” it to send a message. I have also contacted the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Anti-Defamation League to look into Facebook’s non-disapproval of hate speech directed at Jews. As the word gets out, hopefully the company will do some serious self-examination, and ask itself why it has such a difficult time seeing what is obvious to all but the most bigoted observer.

This article was written for JNS by David Fischler, an Evangelical Presbyterian pastor and writer who blogs religious and moral issues.

Turkey has had the decency to admit that an Israeli bird that flew over its sovereign territory is not an Israeli Mossad spy, as first suspected last year.

The country’s Hurriyet newspaper reported that the dead bird, commonly known as a bee-eater, has been cleared one year later from any charges of spying. A Turkish farmer had found the bird, a dead Merops Apiaster bird, or European Bee-Eater, in his field. Considering Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s paranoia of Israel, it was not surprising that Ankara intelligence started working overtime to expose a Mossad spy.

The bird wore a metallic ring, stamped as “24311 Tel Avivunia Israel.” You would think that if the Mossad were going to spy with a bird, it would not advertise the fact, but Turkish officials obviously figured that the Mossad was using reverse psychology to trick them into thinking that the bird was not a spy.

It took a year for medical personnel ay Elazığ’s Fırat University to admit that the bird was not carrying a microchip.

The innocent bird now shares the same history as the squirrels, sharks and other Zionist animals that Arab countries suspect as being Mossad spies.

In 2007, Iran’s goon squads arrested 14 squirrels that “were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services.”

Three years later, Egypt blamed Israel for a breakout of shark attacks in the Red Sea, charging that the Mossad placed them there to damage tourism.

And there is the famous case of the Mossad vulture, the bird that Saudi Arabia detained on suspicion of spying.

In all cases, Paranoid Arab officials have made monkeys  out of themselves.