February 2009 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Saturday, February 28, 2009

PalArab news roundup 2-28-09

The PLO called a general strike on Friday to protest reports that Israel was going to demolish 90 houses in Jerusalem. How exactly these strikes hurt Jews and help Arabs is just as unclear as it was in the 1930s.A young man was strangled to death in either an honor killing or some sort of revenge killing in Gaza City.Another man was killed in a tunnel collapse under Rafah.Abu Marzouq, an exiled Hamas leader based out of Damascus, entered Gaza on...

The water in the State Department

Remember when Condoleeza Rice was a hawk? When Condi was National Security Advisor she was pretty consistent in her rhetoric against terror, in her support of Israel and her impatience for Arab coddling of terrorism.Then, once she became Secretary of State, she seemed to come down with State Department disease - an unremitting hostility towards Israel, and a single-minded notion that more pressure on Israel is the best way for achieving the nirvana...

Law and Order, Palestinian Arab style

According to a report in Palestine Today, a man was on trial in a courtroom in Ramallah for murder.One of the witnesses against him was testifying, and during the testimony raised a gun and pointed it at the accused.The court officers jumped on the witness, causing a general ruckus ... during which the accused murderer escape...

At a wedding I attended this week, I saw this during the bedeken (veiling of the bride):You have to admire the dedication of people who learn Daf Yom...

New Elder video site

After my banning from YouTube, I have placed most of my videos on NMA-TV, a conservative video hosting site run by Heritage New Media Partners. A few others are hosted on LiveLeak; when I get a chance I will upload those to NMA-TV as well.I know I'm missing some, so I'm still looking to fill the gap...

Jameel hits the big time

Jameel at the Muqata, who was one of the two major "warbloggers" from Israel during the Gaza operation (Aussie Dave at Israellycool was the other), gets interviewed.Well, OK, the Yeshiva University newspaper is not the Times of London, but it still testifies that blogging is becoming more mainstream when a blogger merits an intervie...

Hamas wanted the war (Dan Gordon)

A great analysis by an IDF soldier to expose a simple truth:What major news outlets have completely missed is not the fact that Israel invaded. The story they have missed is that Hamas knowingly provoked Israel's incursion because this was to be their offensive. It had been planned and prepared for months. It was their strategy, their tactics, their battlefield, prepared according to their doctrine, to be fought at the time of their choosing.I first...

Now, my turn for jokes

Thanks for the jokes, all. Since I have many new readers, here are the jokes I posted last year, after scouring the Internet (and links to the originals):A rabbi and a priest are driving one day and, by a freak accident, have a head-on collision. Both cars are totally demolished, but amazingly, neither of the clerics has a scratch on him.After they crawl out of their cars, the rabbi sees the priest's collar and says, "So you're a priest. I'm a rabbi....

Wisdom from Paul Berman

Joem in the comments pointed me (via Yaakov Lozowick's blog) pointed me to this lengthy interview with Paul Berman, a liberal who gets it. Here is a small sample:People ought to have noticed by now that any number of humanitarian catastrophes lie just over the horizon and are perfectly predictable - the catastrophes that will follow ineluctably from any future wars in Gaza or Lebanon, or from an attack that Israel, out of fear of the Iranian nuclear...

NYT op-ed: Stop using the word "terrorism"

I was going to comment on this insipid piece by Michael Slackman, but others have done it better than I would have.On the plus side, I got to use the word "insipid."UPDATE: One more take (h/t joe...

PalArab news roundup

Palestine Today quotes Yediot Aharonot as saying that Hamas established its new headquarters in a psychiatric hospital in Gaza, secure in the knowledge that it wouldn't be attacked.PalToday also reports that there was a clash between Arabs and Jews on the Temple Mount, as the Jews tried to pray. I'm sure that the prayers were very violent, though, justifying the scuffle. Of course, PalToday says that the "extremist Jewish settlers" "stormed" the...

"Peace negotiator" idiots say: "Talk with Hamas"

From Reuters:The United States and Israel must change policy toward Hamas and engage the Palestinian militant group if progress is to be made on peace in the Middle East, a group of former peace negotiators said on Thursday. Writing in Britain's Times newspaper, 14 former foreign ministers and peace negotiators said the three-year policy under which Hamas has been ostracized by the international community had backfired and needed to be changed....

February Rocket Calendar

Q=Qassam (may include Katyusha-style rockets)QS=Qassam landing short in GazaM=MortarF=Fatality (F=Gazan, F=Israeli)(G)=Grad (included in Qassam count, not consistent yet)M*- Apparently upgraded 120mm mortarsMS=Mortar landing shortP - unnamed "projectiles"(Paren) indicates unconfirmed Palestinian claims* - Fatal non-rocket attackK=Katyushas from LebanonMortars are severely undercounted since they simply don't make the news any more.Yellow=day Israel...

More anti-semitism on Google News

One of the "news" sites that Google News indexes is Pakistan Daily. Here is the first paragraph of an article written there on Wednesday, that argues that Barack Obama is a puppet of the Jews: Zionist Max Nordau wrote of the psychopathic nature of the ideal Jewish puppet. He stated that the leaders will be psychopaths [M. Nordau, Entartung, C. Duncker, Berlin, (1892-1893); English translation: Degeneration, D. Appleton, New York, (1895); and Der...

BTFA: Rock and roll ain't what it used to be

Tonight, I heard a radio commercial asking listeners to buy tickets to see Mötley Crüe at the Bellagio.That is just so wrong, on so many level...

Open Adar Thread - User Submitted Jokes Edition

Where you are invited to tell your favorite jokes. Keep them (relatively) clea...

Afternoon Links

I remain busy, and won't be able to blog much for the rest of the day, but these should keep you occupied (not in the legal sense:)Sultan Knish goes much deeper on Chas Freeman, and familiarity certainly breeds contempt in this case. Soccer Dad fills out the sordid picture.Ami Isseroff on how Israel is losing the battle for hearts and minds. I'm looking forward to his followups.Lisa Goldman writes a provocative piece on The Danger From Dubai (h/t...

Richard Cohen's bias and his Arab fans

Richard Cohen's wrote another of his signature op-eds yesterday, where he castigates a minority of Israelis for daring to vote for Avigdor Lieberman. As usual, is it quite dishonest:The day after the United Nations created the state of Israel, the country's first president, Chaim Weizmann, found time to work on his memoir, "Trial and Error." In it, he issued a warning to the Israeli leaders of today: "I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish...

Indian writer apologizes for not appearing anti-Israel

Distinguished Indian novelist Shashi Tharoor has a weekly column on various Indian issues. At the outset of the Gaza operation, he wrote:AS Israeli planes and tanks exact a heavy toll on Gaza, India's leaders and strategic thinkers have been watching with an unusual degree of interest, and some empathy. Unsurprisingly, India's Government has joined the rest of the world in calling for an end to the military action, but its criticism of Israel has...

BTFA: My Name is Earl

For the past few, um, decades I haven't been watching too much network TV. But since I realized that I can watch TV shows on my PDA I have been going through seasons of various interesting-looking TV shows that I missed the first time around.One of them is My Name is Earl (NBC, Thursday nights.)The plot of the show is that a petty criminal named Earl Hickey, through an improbable series of events, discovers a simple version of karma that works for...

BTFA: Break the Format Adar

Since this is the Jewish month of Adar, where weird and counter-intuitive things tend to happen, I will be occasionally posting clearly unElder-like posts for the next few weeks when time allows. I hope to make them...eclectic.The posts will be labeled BTF...

Another wacko Arab theory about ancient Israel

Al-Quds (Arabic) has a lengthy report on Kamal Salibi, a Lebanese professor who has been pushing a theory for decades now that Biblical stories all took place in Arabia, not Israel. Even the Jordan River, he argues, was really the Sarawat Mountains (since he says the word "river" is never used in the Bible) and all Biblical placenames are really names in Arabia, including Jerusalem - in 'Asir, southern Arabia. According to this theory, those crafty...

"Issues, action, power, self-interest."

I read this passage over the shoulder of someone in a train today:The day after the rally, Marty decided it was time for me to do some real work, and he handed me a long list of people to interview.Find out their self-interest, he said. That’s why people become involved in organizing -because they think they’ll get something out of it. Once I found an issue enough people cared about, I could take them into action. With enough actions, I could start...

The Israeli Left attacks co-existence

To give an idea of how far left the Left in Israel has become, check out this NYT article:Achinoam Nini, a singer and peace activist, has long stirred controversy here. Known abroad by her stage name, Noa, she has recorded with Arab artists, refused to perform in the occupied West Bank, condemned Israeli settlements there and had concerts canceled because of bomb threats from the extreme right.But lately it is the left that has been angry with Ms....

From YNet:During a recent live broadcast of a popular children' show on Iranian television, one young girl surprised viewers when she related how her father called her stuffed monkey 'Ahmadinejad', the name of the Islamic Republic's president.An Iranian news agency reported on Tuesday that, during a telephone call that took place on the show 'Uncle Fornaj', the show's host...

Yesterday, the Islamic Jihad terror movement held a large meeting to praise the behavior of Palestinian Arab "journalists" in Gaza during the Israeli operation.As usual in meetings like these, all pretense of objectivite news gathering goes out the window - the speeches make clear that the purpose of the media in Gaza is to further the "resistance" and to "expose Zionist crimes."...

Confirmation that Hamas has unexploded ordnance

The UN reported last week a large amount of unexploded ordnance from the Gaza operation had disappeared before it could be safely disposed of. I had exclusively reported that Hamas had claimed to taken those explosives with the intent of using them in new weapons, saying that they were "a gift from the sky."Today, we have further confirmation, from Palestine Today:Private sources confirmed that the Palestinian resistance obtained the Israeli missiles...

Today's must-reads

While I'm stuck in meetings, here's some good stuff:Hamas' challenge to the PLO (elaborating on a story I broke over three weeks ago)In a Palestinian Arab unity government, Hamas wins (JPost)The Path of Realism or the Path of Failure (Elliot Abrams)Backspin's Responding to AmnestyTreppenwitz: Why am I nervou...

Banned by YouTube

Unfortunately, I received my third strike from YouTube, and it was from one of the "good guys."My first strike was my Rachel Corrie video, which someone complained about but which clearly did not violate any of the Community Guidelines.The second one was for my "Just Like Us" video, which indeed showed some violence - but whose footage I took directly from another YouTube video. That got me banned from YouTube for two weeks.The third was from my...

Seven Jewish Children - the poster (Adar edition)

I was sent this via email from commenter LW about the anti-semitic play that's running in London:Click to enlarg...

A billion dollars for Gaza terror

The United States is pledging nearly one billion dollars to help rebuild Gaza, in a classic example of good money following bad.Let's put aside the fact that this money will allow Hamas to spend 100% of their Iranian funding directly on weapons and terror, and it will give them a position of strength as they negotiate with the PA take over the Palestinian Arab cause, and let's not think about the fact that the large percentage that will go to UNRWA...

Bahrain's Crown Prince - pro-settlements?

Perhaps nowhere on Earth are sentences parsed for hidden messages as carefully they are in the Middle East. So the interview that Bahrain's Crown Prince gave to Sky News is curious indeed.It starts off as one would expect - with the prince, Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, trying to pressure Great Britain to be even more pro-Arab than it already is:The crown prince of Bahrain said on Monday Britain was too pro-Israel in its outlook, but...

2002: A socialist site bemoans leftist anti-semitism

An article at the socialist Worker's Liberty site, reprinted today, is harshly critical of the Left's tendency even then towards naked anti-semitism. It correctly points out that real socialists would never support Islamists nor the destruction of Israel.As we see today, their complaints fell on deaf ears.This was their report at the very first public appearance by the Muslim Association of Britain - in 2002:ON 13 APRIL [2002] there was a big London...

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Yemen Jews desperate to go to Israel

From that Zionist paper, The National (UAE):AMRAN, YEMEN // Jewish community members in Amran who have been living in fear following a wave of threats and hate attacks have stepped up their efforts to migrate to Israel.“We are all fed up. All of the Jews are willing now to migrate to Israel but some prefer not to speak up their desire,” said Yahia bin Yaish, the rabbi of the Jewish community in the northern governorate of Amran, about 60km north...

Al Arabiya reported that Leonardo DiCaprio may consider converting to Judaism to please girlfriend Bar Refaeli's father before marrying her.And the Arab commenters are freaking out.In English:Leonardo you better get a lawyer and a prenup these MAGGOTS are after your money.By doing so, he will get more success in a jew dominated hollywood, but does he know that judaisam is...

New LG netbook feature: Built-in Quran!

From Middle East business site AMEInfo, a press release from LG Electronics:LG Electronics, global leader and technology innovator, provides the LG Netbook X110 equipped with Holy Quran software and with the benefits of better, faster access to information and communications technology.The software provides e- Holy Quran in 10 different languages. Recitation of the holy Quran is by Sheikh Abdul Rehman Sudas & Sheikh Saoud Al Shuraim. This software...

"Gas the Jews"

On Sunday, an IDF reserves captain spoke in Holland, and before he even said a word three protesters threw shoes at him. The venue for the speech had to be changed because the original hotel received threats about hosting it, and decided in that typically European way that anyone who threatens free speech is far more important than free speech itself. But one detail in the story that got overlooked by most media reporting it:According to Edelheit,...