Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 05, 2011

Surprise! PalArab "Unity government" will be delayed....

Fatah news sites : A senior Palestinian official revealed on Monday that the factional approach is to delay forming a government of national reconciliation and to keep the governments of Gaza and Ramallah [separate] for the governance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, until the legislative and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories. Mahmoud al-Zak, a member...

UNRWA thieves use Israel excuse to avoid getting caught

From Ma'an: Employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have initiated a boycott in Jordan over UNRWA's reported decision to buy surveillance equipment from an Israeli company. Jordanian daily Al-Ghad on Sunday reported that UNRWA employees had boycotted the organizations' buses and minibuses after finding out that the surveillance systems on UN transportation were bought from an Israeli company. Sounds reasonable, right? They are so ethical...

Yesterday, I reported that Virgin Megastores in both Qatar and Bahrain had featured an Arabic version of Mein Kampf as "recommended" books to read for their customers. The UAE-based National picked up on the story, and received a statement from Virgin in Doha: Virgin Megastore Middle East is a regional leader in retail entertainment, offering our customers a wide range...

Hamas denies its members are fleeing Syria

UPI reports: Iran has threatened to cut off funds and arms to Hamas if its officials vacate their Damascus headquarters and leave Syria, Palestinian sources told Haaretz. Hamas officials involved in raising funds for the organization's military wing and some members of the political leadership have already left Syria with their families for Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Qatar, the sources said. The sources told Haaretz "second- and third-ranking" Hamas...

From AFP: Saudi Arabia may consider acquiring nuclear weapons to match regional rivals Israel and Iran, its former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Monday. "Our efforts and those of the world have failed to convince Israel to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iran... therefore it is our duty towards our nation and people to consider all...

Newspapers speculate on Iran, come up with different theories

The New York Times says: It is still unclear what caused the explosion, with American officials saying they believe it was probably an accident, perhaps because of Iran’s inexperience with a volatile, dangerous technology. Iran declared it an accident, but subsequent discussions of the episode in the Iranian news media have referred to the chief of Iran’s missile program as one of the “martyrs” killed in the huge explosion. Some Iranian officials...

From the IDF: IDF holds conference supporting Gaza flower export The Erez Crossing Coordination Liaison Offices (CLO) at the Gaza Strip held a flower cultivation conference for 24 Palestinian representatives in response to the recent carnation export. The conference focused on protecting crops during the winter and the export process in general. "There is not natural...

Syria test-fires Scud B, other missiles - but betrays its fears

From UPI: Syria test-fired at least one Scud B missile and other missiles "with accuracy" near the Iraqi border, officials said. State television released footage of the tests, which SANA, the country's official news agency, said were aimed at proving the military's capability "to defend the homeland." The test-firings "all achieved their goal with accuracy," the report said. Israeli television reports said Scud B missiles have a range of about...

Quartet irritated by Palestinian Arab actions

From Ha'aretz: The U.S. government has asked senior Palestinian officials to refrain from leaking details of talks that took place recently between Middle East Quartet envoys, Israeli representatives and the Palestinian Authority. According to a senior U.S. official, the Quartet agreed with Israel and the Palestinians that the content of the talks would remain confidential. “Quartet members and parties have agreed to preserve confidentiality in...

Exclusive: EoZ interview with Danny Ayalon

I interviewed Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon at the Bet El dinner on Sunday night. It was a noisy room so the sound quality isn't the greatest but for the most part it is understandable....

More details on Shalit

YNet has some interesting new details on Shalit as a hostage in Gaza: On Sunday Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that the kidnapped soldier decided to stop eating while captive and reached a point of malnutrition that put him in a life threatening situation. According to the report, Shalit's hunger strike advanced his release as Hamas senior officials feared for his life. An intelligence source said that "there were those in Hamas who feared...

Now it is time for - Hunger-washing!

From YNet: A majority comprised of 133 states voted at the United Nations General Assembly Friday in favor of an Israeli proposal to make farming technology more accessible to developing African nations. Arab countries, who opposed the measure for political reasons, led a group of 35 nations who abstained from the vote. The measure proposed by the Jewish state is expected to aid the Arab world among other regions, and is in line with the UN policy...

Barry Rubin lets the Obama administration have it. Take the Palestine Quiz! The IDF's Mona Lisa - an Arab woman enlists in an elite IDF counter-terror unit. From Bucharest to Jerusalem at Jewish Ideas Daily Moderate PA envoy: "Israel never had any shred of right to exist" Here's a photo from Israel's Terror Watch showing an Iranian protester throwing a stone at the British...

France doesn't want to lead UNIFIL next year

From Naharnet: France has renounced leading the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon fearing that its contingent would be a possible target of attacks if the situation on the border deteriorated, according to a report published in Le Figaro Newspaper on Saturday. “It is better to stay in the shadows when the French diplomacy is taking a major role in the campaign on the Syrian regime,” military sources told the newspaper. The sources said that...

The speech of US ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, that I mentioned earlier today is online. And it is even worse than what YNet reported. There is and has long been some amount of anti-Semitism, of hatred and violence against Jews, from a small sector of the population who hate others who may be different or perceived to be different, largely for the sake of hating....

Abbas has no strategy - and another type of media bias

A rare wire-service article critical of Mahmoud Abbas, from AFP: The Palestinian bid for membership of the United Nations, launched amid fanfare in September, has hit a dead end and left the major powers wondering if president Mahmud Abbas has a strategy. The Palestinian leadership shows no sign of calling for a vote on the application for full membership at the UN Security Council and after getting acceptance by UNESCO there has been no followup...

A Twitter user has a photo of a book display at a Virgin Megastore in Qatar: Yes, that is Hitler's Mein Kampf prominently displayed as a recommendation for Virgin's Arabic-reading customers! And it is not only in Qatar. This blog post from Bahrain shows that the Virgin store there also recommends Mein Kampf. So this does not look like it was the decision of the...

Islamists end up with 65% of Egypt vote

From Al Arabiya: Islamist parties have won 65 percent of votes for party list seats in the first round of parliamentary elections, according to official figures obtained by AFP on Sunday. The Muslim Brotherhood won 36.62 percent of the vote, followed by the hard-line Salafist al-Nur party with 24.36 and the moderate Al-Wasat with 4.27, according to a chart provided by elections committee secretary general Yusri Abdel Karim. Abdel Karim said that...

From YNet: Growing global anti-Semitism is linked to Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, the American ambassador to Belgium told stunned Jewish conference attendants in Brussels earlier this week. Speaking Wednesday at a Jewish conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Union (EJU,) Howard Gutman told participants he was apologizing in advance if...

Poor little anti-semitic cartoonist getting death threats from Muslims

We have discussed Carlos Latuff's many anti-semitic cartoons before. While he has been heavily criticized for them, as far as I know nobody has threatened his life because of them. But when he drew a fairly mild cartoon about the results of the Egyptian elections, all hell broke loose. And his reactions showed him to be the classy guy we always suspected. A Brazilian cartoonist...