July 2009 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, July 31, 2009

Egypt's argument against normalization

Firas Press quotes an Egyptian official who mentions that the White House is trying to get the Arab world to normalize relations with Israel as part of a peace agreement. Disingenuously, he provides a new reason why the Arab world can never truly be at peace with Israel:Because it would destabilize the Arab regimes!The official said that in the view of Egyptian and Arabs said that this pressure has reached the stage of an unacceptable and threatens...

Hamas threatens to overthrow PA

Bubbling beneath the surface, the animosity between Fatah and Hamas is increasing every week.For a while they were holding unification talks in Cairo, but the talks went nowhere and even though they have not been officially called off, recent weeks has seen an uptick of rhetoric and tit-for-tat arrests, with the background of the Fatah conference next week.Hamas has been systematically arresting Fatah members that want to go to the conference and...

I scoop Commentary by two years

Commentary points to an article in NRO's Corner noticing that the US Consulate in Jerusalem webpage caters exclusively to Palestinian Arab activities and events, without a word mentioned about Israel.Something I blogged about over two years ago, and then had a related post last year which generated a lively discussion about whether its two offices, in both the western and eastern portions of the city, cater to Jews (they do.)Maybe I can get the writers...

MEMRI puts together an amazing collection of pure Jew-hatred that can be seen on the al-Rahma TV network of our moderate Egyptian allies. Some of these have been seen before, but there is certainly a pattern of intense and systematic anti-semitism and incitement against Jews on that channel.The full report can be seen here.Here are just some screen shots:I wonder if this topic...

IDF report on Operaton Cast Lead

The IDF has released an official report on Operation Cast Lead. It is a seemingly exhaustive document, 159 pages long, that addresses every specific criticism of IDF activities during the war. (Even so, the IDF promises to release more information as investigations are still going on.)The report describes the circumstances of every specific incident of major civilian casualties, attacks that damaged UN facilities, and attacks on mosques. It candidly...

Today's PalArab news 7-30-09

Another two were killed in two separate tunnel collapses in Rafah. Palestinian Arab "human rights" groups blame - Israel, of course, for not allowing free entry of weapons and weapons materials into Gaza.Hamas arrested a number of Fatah leaders in Gaza, including a number of people who wanted to go to Bethlehem to attend the Fatah conference next week.Our friends the Egyptians, in response to the idea of the US pledging to defend all countries from...

The Kotel, 1912

For my readers who observe Tisha B'Av, I wish you all an easy and meaningful fast. Here is a description of the Kotel from a book written by Christian pilgrims in 1912, showing how much Jews would mourn over Jerusalem, not only on Tisha B'Av but every single Friday: The scene at the Jew's Wailing Place is very touching. It is situated near the Temple site, in fact almost...

Fatah said they have a deal with Hamas where they will release 200 Hamas members from PA prisons and Hamas will allow 400 Fatah members to travel to Bethlehem for the Fatah conference scheduled for next week. Hamas said, not so fast. But either way we have shown that Fayyad's comments that the Hamas members couldn't be released because of the integrity of the PA justice system...

Palestine Today has a series of photos captioned "the desecration of dozens of Jews of the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."Here are the horrible photos, showing in minute detail all the desecration going on. I'm warning you, it's shocking:See all the rioting, the tearing up of holy Qurans, the rock throwing, the insults being screamed, and the Prophet being insulted?I'm...

Internet down open thread

On my trip I am relying on my broadband card to work, and it is having problems. So I can't blog tonight, and possibly not tomorrow either, and then is Tisha B'Av... Apparently, this is a good time for a long open threa...

Ma'an reports:The Palestinian Authority will fund the building of a museum dedicated to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the cabinet decided Monday.The PA will assume the costs of construction and operations of the new museum, which will play home to documents and artifacts from the history of the Palestinian National Movement, including many articles that belonged...

In other news...

After the weekend's tunnel collapse that claimed 7 victims, another one today has killed one with six more missing.A tree collapsed on the Temple Mount, so naturally the Arabs are blaming Israeli excavations underneath.An Egyptian man, who had a sex change operation, is suing Al Azhar University in Egypt for kicking him/her out.Egypt is seeking the death penalty for some Hizbollah terrorists caught recently in that country.The 2009 PalArab self-death...

Pakistan "dancing girls" victimized twice

This story in Al Arabiya is disgusting on two levels, one from what it says and one for what it does not. It starts off this way:Clad in a low-cut dress and heavily made-up, 16-year-old dancing girl Shabnam used to spend her nights twirling gracefully for locals and tourists in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Bejewelled dancers of Swat, famous for its beautiful, pale-skinned women, would beguile at house parties, stag nights and hotels, and Shabnam...

Yemeni women abused mostly by sheikhs, upper class

Al Arabiya (Arabic) reports that 80% of abused Yemeni women are victims of "academics and intellectuals," which seems to include sheikhs when translated.During a symposium on violence against women held today, the author of this study also said that violence against women in rural areas were "almost non-existent because of the customs and traditions in rural areas of Yemen."In a related story, the "marginalized" women of Yemen suffer routine, extreme...

Saudi religious police arrest a sorcerer

From the Saudi Gazette:A Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) team has arrested an African man accused of practicing magic and sorcery which enabled him to gain full control over a Saudi family for two years.The man was arrested after the Hai’a received information that he had offered to concoct a spell for the sum of SR8,000, and when a meeting was set up between the informant and the African man Hai’a staff were surprised...

"Honor killing" in Gaza

The father didn't just kill his 27-year old daughter for possibly talking to a man on the phone - he tortured her first: On Thursday, 23 July 2009, Fadia Jawdat al-Najjar, 27, from Jabalya refugee camp was killed allegedly "to maintain family honor." According to police sources in Jabalya, at approximately 09:30 on Friday morning, 24 July 2009, Jawdat al-Najar, from Jabalya, gave himself up to the police station in Jabalya. He confessed that he...

The Jerusalem Post has a story about a Hamas summer camp where the children are re-enacting the abduction of Gilad Shalit.The photo looked familiar, and sure enough, I had published it back on June 4th, as a series of pictures on the commencement exercises of an apparent Islamic Jihad oriented school in Gaza (following an Islamic Jihad "arts festival.")They very well might...

Afternoon Arab news

Lots of interesting items:A book was published in Beirut on the history of Jerusalem that claims that Jerusalem was never really that important to Jews.Hamas again said they would not let Fatah members leave Gaza to attend the Fatah conference next week, proving again who holds the keys to the "open air prison."Arabs are freaked out over Jews "storming" the Temple Mount to perform the dreaded "religious rites."A top Islamic Jihad sheikh says that...

"Free Gaza" admits it supports terrorism

In a long, rambling article on the Free Gaza website, Ramzi Kysia (one of Free Gaza's leaders) shows that he and his movement really do support Palestinian Arab terror. He is careful to say that not all terror is good, but he all but says that some suicide bombings are.Here are some excerpts:On the Right of Resistance We are often told that resistance is either unwarranted or impossible. Liberal apologists for Israel, such as Thomas Friedman, are...

Morning PalArab (and other) news 7-27-09

Remember the explosion last week of a Hezbollah weapons stockpile in Lebanon? Well, the moderate Lebanese government blames it on...Israel, saying that they were Zionist weapons, left behind in Lebanon for some inexplicable reason.Minister Louis Farrakhan called Michael Jackson a victim of Zionist leaders, the US government and the media.Three more bodies were found from a tunnel explosion in Rafah over the weekend.An Arab columnist slammed Arab...

Only a couple of hours after my post about Leuren Moret and her insanity, she visits the blog herself with what can only be described as a classic comment that cements everything I wrote about her. First, her comment in its entirety:Like radiation, Zionism respects no religion, no borders, and no socioeconomic class - both radiation and Zionism burn and destroy everything...

Zionists control the weather!

I just came across another of the usual nutty anti-semitic articles in Pakistan Daily where they claim that Zionists have a plan to depopulate the world with depleted uranium. It quotes one Leuren Moret:Leuren Moret is a US expert on radiation and public healthcare. In her 2007 interview, she said: “The leadership in the US, the Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon have been taken over by a shadow government – that shadow from Wall Street...

Egypt seizes 18,000 Viagra pills meant for Gaza

Palestine Press Agency reports on Egyptian officials seizing some 18,000 Viagra pills that were destines to be smuggled to Gaza in the Rafah tunnels.I guess that the Israeli blockade really does leave Hamas impotent!UPDATE 1: But don't blame Egypt....they were just trying to make sure that life in Gaza isn't so har...

Frequent Flyer open thread

I am traveling today and will not be posting much more for a while.Meanwhile, feel free to shoot the breez...

Today's PalArab news 7-26-09

One more man killed in a smuggling tunnel collapse in Rafah.Hamas' Interior Minister, who succeeded Said Siyam, vowed to hunt down all "collaborators." His predecessor was probably pinpointed by one of them, so he is saying he wants to make sure he doesn't end up dead.The PCHR condemned Hamas' insistence that female lawyers in Gaza wear the hijab and jilbab.One of the more popular, and extreme, PalArab English-language commentators thinks that the...

Islamic Jihad held a rally in Khan Younis to memorialize the "martyrs" of Gaza, and it is everything you'd expect it to be. Here are only a few of the many pictures that Palestine Today published, with my own captions:"He went that-away!" "No, he went that-away!""We protect our children with RPGs! Even Americans can't say that!"Coca Cola - the official soft drink of Islamic...

Work accident!

Two Hamas members were killed in yet another "work accident" on Friday night in a "jihad mission" in central Gaza, Hamas announced.The statement identified the victims as members of the Al-Qassam Brigades Osama Kamal Nabaheen and Bakr Jamal Nabaheen from Al-Bureij Camp.Hamas announced deathd of the two activists over loudspeakers calling on Gaza residents to participate in their funeral processions on Saturday.The 2009 PalArab self-death count is...

Saudi Arabia mulls minimum age for marriage

The good news:A new law on child marriage from the Ministry of Justice which currently has the issue under study may set the legal age of marriage at 18 while also imposing greater restrictions on persons permitted to authorize the marriage of minors.OK, the two clauses are slightly contradictory but any way you look at it, the number of sickening marriages of pre-teens to men triple their age in Saudi Arabia would be reduced.The bad news:Lawyer...

Today's PalArab news 7-24-09

Here are some interesting items I didn't get to this week....A number of English-language stories came out about Jordan revoking Palestinian Arabs' citizenship. I mentioned that last month.The current Mufti of Jerusalem condemned the publication of photos of the former Mufti talking with Hitler, saying it was "published out of context and was meant to incite violence against Palestinians." Actually, the context couldn't be clearer - his predecessor...

The Amazing Double Martyrs

Ma'an published an exclusive story detailing the "fact" that there are still many missing people from the Gaza operation presumed to be under rubble that has not been cleared.While it is possible that there are still bodies in the rubble, Ma'an wants to add these missing people to the casualty count, to pad the total number killed. Even though the PCHR's list has 1314 people (of whom a few are duplicates of each other,) and the Palestinian Ministry...

Arab News has classic anti-semitic article

Here are excerpts of the article, by Jeff Gates, subtly titled How Israel lobby controls US:The influence-peddling process works like this. Candidates are summoned for in-depth AIPAC interviews. Those found sufficiently committed to Israel’s agenda are provided a list of donors likely to “max out” their campaign contributions. Or the process can be made even easier when AIPAC-approved candidates are given the name of a “bundler.”Bundlers raise funds...

A Middle East political anecdote

Plans are underway for the first Fatah conference in twenty years to be held in Bethlehem in August.One of the problems, though, is a question about whether Hamas and Israel will allow Fatah members from Gaza to attend. Israel has said it would study the matter.Hamas, however, arrested some of the Fatah members slated to go to the conference, and one PA leader said that Hamas is the only obstacle to the conference right now.Meanwhile, PA negotiator...

Recently, radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir held a rally in Gaza, drawing hundreds of people.One of the speakers had an interesting presentation:Now, it is well known that Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for the establishment of a unified Islamic caliphate. But what exactly would its borders be?It seems we have the answer:Greece, Spain, Albania, Romania, all appear to be Muslim...