March 2009 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Saudi women's advocacy group folds

From the Arab News:A proposal to establish a first-of-its-kind organization to support women’s rights in Saudi Arabia has been dropped shattering the hopes of Saudi women for an official organization that would fight for their rights.“We failed to obtain official approval to operate legally,” said Sulaiman Al-Salman, the man who came up with the idea to establish the society, Ansar Al-Mar’ah (Supporters of Women).Al-Salman said he has been in constant...

Iranian logic

One of the most often-used arguments in favor of anti-semitism is that since there is such a long history of persecution of Jews, the Jews must have done something really evil to deserve it.In normal enlightened societies where racism and bigotry are frowned upon, the haters are the ones who are put on the defensive. But in the twisted world of the bigots, the innocents who are persecuted are the ones who must prove they shouldn't be hated, an impossible...

Via Daled Amos, an article from the April 8, 1897 New York Times:The mental picture of a European rabbi who barely knows English explaining to an Irish New York cop about Birkat HaChamah is really amusing.Birkat HaChamah will be observed on April 8 this yea...

PalArabs support the "peace process" - and terror

A recent poll of Palestinian Arabs from the PCPSR shows what would appear to be a contradiction.61.9% say they support the peace process while less than 20% oppose it. Yet 54.2% of Palestinian Arabs also support terror attacks against civilians in Israel, while only 42.7% oppose terror.In Gaza, the seeming incongruity is even starker: 66.9% support terror attacks and 31.6% oppose - but 73.3% support the peace process, with only 15.5% opposing!How...

UNRWA teachers overwhelmingly support Hamas

From JPost:Hamas supporters scored a victory in elections for the school teachers' union of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that were held in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.The results showed that Hamas won all 11 seats of the teachers' union.The Hamas victory means that Hamas supporters will continue to control UNRWA-run schools and other academic institutions throughout the Gaza Strip. Hamas has controlled the UNRWA teachers' union...

Arabs sick of Palestinian issue

From Ma'an:The results of the Arab Summit in Doha were unrealistic and lacked any practical measures to ensure goals are met, said Palestine’s Islamic resistance movement Hamas on Tuesday.A special statement from Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said the summit failed to deal with the Palestinian issue, and neglected the suffering of Gazans following Israel’s three week war on the Strip.“We were expecting that this summit would be different than...

Wild Saudi women let loose in all-girl coffee shops

From the Saudi Gazette:Women’s coffee shops are no longer just meeting places for friends or refuges for a moment’s escape from the daily routine. Instead, according to some, they have become the haunts of university students and schoolgirls playing truant to indulge themselves in smoking shisha pipes and cigarettes, with women using the locations as impromptu job agencies, and matchmakers seeking willing bribes. Behind the walls of women’s coffee...

Money doesn't buy influence from Arabs

Diplomats are addicted to the idea of "influence." The thinking goes that they can influence how other entities act by dangling carrots or threatening with sticks. In recent times, sticks have gone out of fashion and the carrots have proliferated, but either way, the thinking is that by offering positive incentives, intransigent parties can become more malleable. Likewise, by offering a steady stream of positive incentives, the implicit threat of...

Syphilitic dead terrorist in the news

A new website has been set up by the Yasser Arafat Foundation to celebrate the life of the world's foremost modern terrorist.Don't take my word for it; here is how Arafat is described in his biography on the site (autotranslated):Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian people and the revolution of modern bomber, and one of the most great leaders in the world during the twentieth century, the struggle and fought a relentless jihad for more than half...

Clan clash!

From Ma'an:A young Palestinian man was killed and six others were injured on Monday afternoon after a fight broke out between two families at Balata Refugee Camp east of Nablus.Palestinian security sources said Ma’an that 25-year-old Saher Mahmoud Sawalmeh, a policeman, was killed after being injured in a clash at the camp as a result of being struck on the head with an iron bar. Shortly after his arrival at Rafidia Hospital he died, they said.Sources...

New Israeli MK supports Iranian nukes

In other countries, this would be considered treason. From The Bulletin:Hanin Zoabi is the first woman to be elected to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as a representative of an Arab party. Ms. Zoabi, former director of the I’lam: Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel, is a feminist and strong secularist. She is now one of three representatives of the Balad (National Democratic Assembly) Party.On one of her first days in the Knesset, the...

Qaddafi goes nuts in Doha

It looks like the good Colonel has not mellowed in his old age:Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi stormed out of an Arab summit on Monday after denouncing the Saudi king and declaring himself "the dean of Arab rulers."Gadhafi disrupted the opening Arab League summit in Qatar by taking a microphone and criticizing Saudi's King Abdullah, calling him a "British product and American ally."When the Qatari emir tried to quiet him, the Libyan leader and current...

Doha showcasing Arab disunity and support for genocide

There is an Arab League summit starting today in Doha, Qatar, and - as usual - it highlights the differences between Arabs more that their purported "unity."In fact, pretty much the only unified statements that the Arab League has ever made have been support of Palestinian Arabs and denunciations of Israel.This year, Egypt refused to attend, due to disputes between Egypt and Qatar. Egypt feels that Qatar has fallen under the influence of Iran and...

What I have been working on

With what little free time I had on Sunday, I decided to start creating a Passover gift for Elder of Ziyon readers.Soon, I hope to be able to post a full EoZ Passover Haggadah.It will not have any original material; it will just be a series of commentaries that I have taken from various websites that have a religious Zionist perspective, along with the full text in Hebrew and most of the full text in English. Since I didn't spend that much time on...

Most Bahrani wife-beaters went to college

Another nail in the coffin of the idea that poverty and desperation causes violence among Arabs:More than 60 percent of Bahraini men who abuse their wives have higher education, according to Baqer Al-Najjar, a professor of sociology at the University of Bahrain. He said Bahrain should invest more in counseling services. “An academic qualification does not rule out violence. We need more family guidance centers across the country to deal with this...

Palestinian Arab kids' orchestra disbanded after Holocaust concert

Last week we saw a heartwarming story, the type of story that gives everyone who yearns for a real peace hope for the future:For just over an hour on Wednesday, a club for elderly Holocaust survivors on a side street in this suburban town south of Tel Aviv came alive with an encounter of an extraordinary kind.A youth orchestra came to play for the elderly Israelis, a good turn that might pass in other countries as routine. In this case, though, the...

Israel hit Fajr-3 rockets in Sudan

The more details that leak about the Israeli airstrikes in the Sudan, the more impressive it appears.The Sunday Times reports that Israel used unmanned drones and UAVs to perform the strike:The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) attacked two convoys, killing at least 50 smugglers and their Iranian escorts. All the lorries carrying the long-range rockets were destroyed. Had the rockets been delivered to Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls...

Hamas again rejects moderation. World ignores it.

One of the recurring themes coming from the wishful-thinking anti-Israel liberal crowd is that Hamas is really not that extreme, that it needs to be included in the "peace process," and that its "moderate" leaders can and should be encouraged and rewarded by the West.There is a good reason we are seeing so much of this lately. The reason is that they want peace, and they project this desire onto everyone else. Peace is so obviously preferable to...

Saudi lingerie sold by - men

From the Times of India (h/t Jihad Watch):RIYADH: Before her wedding last year, Huda Batterjee went abroad to buy her bridal lingerie she just couldn’t bear the humiliation of discussing her most intimate apparel with a man.She had little choice: there are almost no saleswomen in Saudi Arabia.Now a group of Saudi women sick of having to deal with male sales staff when buying brasor panties, not to mention frilly negligees or thongs have launched...

Hezbollah smuggling through Mexico to the US

From the Washington Times:Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say.The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region...

Continuing Rule 5 Sundays, as suggested by The Other McCain....From the IDF website:Without a doubt, the most presentable Corps in the IDF is the Navy. White uniforms, impeccable ceremonies reflect an impressive sense of duty. It was therefore not surprising to discover that Miss Israel 2009 Adi Rodnitzki is also a corporal in the Israel Navy. Even less surprising is the fact...

A "civilian" tortures a civilian to death in Gaza

From the PCHR: According to PCHR investigations, at approximately 01:30am on Tuesday 24 March 2009, medical sources at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City pronounced the death of Jamil Naser ‘Assaf, 20, from the ‘Asqoula neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. ‘Assaf died after suffering severe kidney failure, resulting from beating and torture carried out by members of the Security Services. The injuries were sustained while Jamil ‘Assaf was being detained...

Mistaking "peace process" for "peace"

The New York Times encapsulates the problem that much of the world has in its utter inability to distinguish between real peace and the illusory "peace process."In a hugely condescending editorial today, the august NYT states:As he prepares to take office as Israel’s next prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is offering what sounds like a tantalizing commitment. He said that his government will be a “partner for peace.”“I will negotiate with the Palestinian...

Anti-semitism to be "debated" at Oxford

Ah, debates. Where you get people of goodwill together to entertain an audience with intellectual arguments about interesting topics.The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is going to hold a debate on anti-semitism, with an interesting line-up of debaters. According to Middle East Online:The debate, entitled "Anti-Semitism - Alive and Well in Europe?", will host Gilad Atzmon, renowned Israeli saxophonist and devoted opponent of Zionism; Denis...

Evening links

There are lots of stories out there that are important that I haven't had time to comment on.Pat Oliphant made an incredibly offensive cartoon, published in the Washington Post and New York Times. See Barry Rubin's take on it, plus Daled Amos to fill in a missing piece that makes it even worse. Also check out Meryl Yourish and Abe Greenwald.Roger Cohen is getting a bit repetitive with his coddle-the-terrorists-and-pressure-the-Jews shtick, but he's...

The PCHR vs. the IDF on Gaza casualty counts

(This posting has changed from quoting yesterday's Haaretz article to quoting today's Jerusalem Post article which seems more accurate and uses the same numbers as YNet.)The IDF has released a report on the Arab casualties in Gaza:The IDF formally released precise figures on Thursday for the first time detailing Palestinian casualties incurred during Operation Cast Lead, and said a large majority of those killed were terrorists.Of the 1,166 names...

Hamas privately admits it sucks at fighting

From Jane's:Hamas will adopt new fighting and training techniques and emphasise its anti-armour capabilities following a review of the organisation's failures during the three-week conflict in Gaza, a senior Hamas official has told Jane's. Some 50 field commanders will also be removed from their roles for their poor performance in response to Operation 'Cast Lead', the official said. The highest-level military council and a representative from...

Chips

According to an article in Firas Press, a "collaborator" captured by Hamas admitted that he was given special "chips" by Israeli intelligence, homing devices that he placed on terrorists' cars or Qassam rocket factories, so they could accurately fire at the targets.Of course, the only reason to do this would be to minimize civilian casualties, but that part didn't quite make it into the articl...

Something to look out for

A couple of years ago I had found a Ma'an article about a PalArab Sesame Street special on Jerusalem, including a visit to the separation barrier, which seemed a bit too political for Sesame Street. I commented then:Apparently, for the BBC to refer to Jerusalem as Israel's capital was a major crime worthy of apology, but for people to teach children that Jerusalem is Arab Palestine's capital is not a problem at all.I wonder if Children's Television...

Open question/thread

I had been barely following the IDF T-shirt controversy that al-Aretz has been talking about, and I looked at it a little yesterday. Many of the T-shirt slogans that Ha'aretz claimed were being printed were indeed very offensive and insensitive, although I have not had much luck actually finding photos of many of them.My question for the day is, how many of you realized, from reading the media, that the T-shirts with the pregnant woman and the child...

Muslim Council of Britain seethes and whines

From The Guardian:Britain's largest Muslim body has accused ministers of wanting to "undermine its independence" by demanding one of its leaders be removed from office.The accusation is the strongest public attack yet by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in its row with the government after ministers broke off relations earlier this month.Hazel Blears, the communities and local government minister, wrote to the MCB demanding the resignation of...

One strange thing that many Arab websites have in common is a weird tendency to stretch photographs to fit into pre-defined dimensions, rather than cropping them. As a result one would see webpages filled with distorted images that look like Silly Putty versions of the originals.Sometimes, the results are less than flattering.From Syria's SANA news agency (h/t Soccer Dad via...

Israel celebrates, and Egypt despises, peace anniversary

From Al Arabiya (AFP):Israel is set to celebrate on Wednesday its first peace treaty with an Arab state but its partner Egypt plans to leave the 30th anniversary almost entirely unmarked."No commemoration is planned in Cairo" for Thursday's anniversary, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said, in a sign of the cold peace that still reigns between the two neighbors amid widespread popular opposition to the treaty in Egypt."We haven't received...

Rumors of IDF shooting at civilians found false

The rumors that surfaced last week that the IDF had deliberately shot at civilians in Gaa were found to be completely untrue, an IDF investigation is revealing:"All of the soldiers who were involved in the conference were questioned - not as a punishment - but in order to understand whether they had witnessed these things. From all of the testimonies we collected, we can safely conclude that the soldiers who made the claims did not witness the events...

From CTV:British MP George Galloway says ambulances and medical supplies he gave to Hamas were meant for Palestinians battered by the Gaza conflict, dismissing the reasons behind a decision to block his entry into Canada. "I have not now, nor have I ever been a supporter of Hamas," Galloway told CTV's Power Play by phone from New Jersey on Tuesday. "If I had a vote in the...

UN notes - and excuses - Gaza violence against women

From the UN's IRIN news service:The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Gaza, local Palestinian NGOs and mental health professionals are reporting increased incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault against women in Gaza since the beginning of 2009.An unpublished UNIFEM survey of male and female heads of 1,100 Gaza households conducted between 28 February and 3 March indicates there was an increase in violence against women during and...

Those Jewish Zionists infiltrate everything

Gulf Times:Militants yesterday warned the Pakistan government to stop expanding the mobile telephone network in a restive tribal area, worried it could be used to spy on their activities. They circulated a pamphlet in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan on the Afghan border, telling authorities to stop the network expansion and ordering vendors to stop selling SIM cards, residents and officials said. “A Jewish, Zionist-backed company is setting...

Following a Muslim rumor

Late last year, a Dutch Muslim apostate created a short film called "Interview with Mohammed" where Mohammed, masked, is asked questions about any mistakes he might have made 1400 years ago, including topics like women's rights.The Muslims were upset, of course. The first criticism of the movie was from a Moroccan newspaper, quoting unnamed European Muslim groups as saying that the movie was a "cartoon movie about the wives of Mohammed" and calling...