February 2010 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Open Purim thread

No time to post.A freilichen Puri...

Report of large explosion near Hamas leader's home

More evidence of Hamas infighting....Palestine Press Agency is reporting that a large explosion occurred Saturday night in the Shati refugee camp. Witnesses said it targeted Abu Anas Hammoudeh, one of the top leaders of the Qassam Brigades in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza.Sources in Gaza said that the secrity forces of Hamas on Thursday arrested two members of the armed wing of Hamas against the backdrop of bombings that rocked a few days ago...

Arab News insanity

Arab News published a ridiculous article,that stated in part:Check this out. Here's a story of two countries from the Middle East. One is an ancient civilization with a rich history that goes back five thousand years. It's a functioning democracy with free elections held at regular intervals. It's a huge country of 70 million people. It has remained within its borders and hasn't attacked any country in the last 100 years. It is pursuing a...

Arab papers jumping on the passport bandwagon

Kuwait's Al Rai newspaper is reporting that the assassins of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, killed in Syria in 2008, used fake passports as well.According to the paper, quoted by Palestine Today, Mughniyeh's killers had passports from Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.In my experience, Kuwaiti news scoops of this nature are rarely confirmed and are often fictional. The "analysis" that follows pretty much proves it.Using peerless logic, the...

What's in a name?

The New York Times' Ethan Bronner reports, in an article about a dispute between Jerusalem's mayor and Jerusalem Arabs:[N]o utterance escapes politics. All labels and names here are contested. The mayor calls the neighborhood not by its Arabic name of Al Bustan but by a Hebrew one — Gan Hamelech, or the King’s Garden, a reference to the spot some believe King David wrote psalms.The implication is that the Arabic term for the neighborhood is the ancient,...

10,000 tons of apples from Israel to Syria

Palestine Press Agency reports that the ICRC will be transferring 10,000 tons of apples from Israel's Golan Heights to Syria next week.This has been an annual occurrence, as Israel has been selling their surplus apple crops to Syria since 2005, where the apples are often resold to Gulf states at a profit.Druze communities in the Golan, which Syria considers occupied, grow most of these apples. And Syria supplies water to at least one of the Druze...

New resources for college students

The annual hatefest known as "Israel Apartheid Week" is almost upon us. CAMERA has set up a very useful site that demolishes the claims of the Israel-haters and shows them to be anything but peaceful.Also, check out this video about the "anti-Zionist" Jew-hatred on college campuses.(h/t Jac...

Israel selling Iran booby-trapped material for nukes?

Palestine Today quotes French media as saying that Israel has set up dummy companies in Europe to sell components that could be used in the manufacture of nuclear bombs.The purpose of these front companies is to take orders from Iran, ship them fake components, and when the Iranians open up the shipments ....boom.According to this unconfirmed report, some Iranian experts were already killed in this manner.I could not find the original sourc...

Islam's three tombs of Abraham

The New York Times, on November 9, 1902, had an interesting article, about two tombs of Abraham - and neither one was in Hebron:Edward James Banks wrote a book in 1912 about his adventures in Babylon and he includes his attempts to excavate under the Tomb of Abraham in the village of Tel Ibrahim, and why he was stymied:Tell Ibrahim, the Biblical Cutha, for which I had sought...

Mabhouh's use of passports and disguises

Firas Press reports:A close friend of Hamas leader Mahmoud Mabhouh said Thursday that Mabhouh, who was assassinated in Dubai, resorted to the same method used by the killers as he used several false passports and means of deception during secret missions undertaken by him to bring arms to Hamas.Mabhouh would take his personal security very seriously. "He used to wear contact lenses and dyed his hair while traveling to European countries," the source...

Today's hypocrisy by Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook, the Nazareth-based writer who finds every excuse he can to lie about and bash the nation that allows him to write freely, has another perfect example of hypocrisy in his latest piece published by Ma'an.You see, New York Times reporter Ethan Bronner recently revealed that his son was in the IDF.Cook uses this as a springboard to accuse all Western journalists in Israel (outside of himself, of course) of having pro-Israel biases. He...

"Death of those who support mingling men and women"

From Al-Arabiya:A prominent Saudi cleric has issued an edict calling for opponents of the kingdom's strict segregation of men and women to be put to death if they refuse to abandon their ideas.Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak said in a fatwa the mixing of genders at the workplace or in education "as advocated by modernisers" is prohibited because it allows "sight of what is forbidden, and forbidden talk between men and women.""All of this leads to whatever...

Happy (almost) Puri...

Mabhouh circus update

The latest bizarre details in the Mabhouh assassination:A third Palestinian Arab is being questioned by Dubai authorities for his involvement in the murder.Two (or three) of the suspects left Dubai after a reconnaisance mission (or the hit) and went to Iran.Iran is the only player in the region outside the Mossad that would have the means to do such an operation, and the ability to make it look like Israel did it.However, I think it is more likely...

PalArabs are protesting Jewish ties to ancient sites, not Israeli

If you think that the latest Palestinian Arabs are rioting over Netanyahu's including the Cave of Machpelah and Rachel's Tomb as Israeli heritage sites, read the Arab press.They are upset that the sites are being called "Jewish heritage sites."From Palestine Press Agency:The city of Hebron in the West Bank called a strike this morning in response to the call by Fatah to protest the Israeli decision to annex the Ibrahimi Mosque and another mosque...

How do you insult Al Jazeera?

By publishing its logo on top of an Israeli flag!This accompanied a bizarre conspiracy theory article in Firas Press which seemed to link Al Jazeera with the assassinations and arrests of major Arab figures.As far as I can tell, the article does not really claim that Al Jazeera ("The Island" in case you want to puzzle out the autotranslation yourself) is in cahoots with Israel,...

Are Muslims obligated to hate all Jews and Christians?

Last week, an op-ed was written by a Dr. Hamad Al-Majid in Asharq al-Awsat, calling on Muslims to interpret the Quran in liberal ways that would allow respect for non-Muslims:I think that with a careful Shariaa reading of a number of texts on this subject, and by confining this [hatred] to specific cases, many problems and dilemmas would be solved, and this could even have help in consolidating social peace, especially in the Muslim countries where...

Ahmadinejad blames US for delaying return of the Mahdi

From Al-Arabiya:President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed once again to "cut the hands" of Iran's enemies if the Islamic republic came under attack, AFP reported Tuesday.In the speech, broadcast live on state television and circulated in several media outlets, Ahmadinejad reiterated his accusations that the United States was hindering the return of the redeemer of Islam, the Mahdi, local media reported.“If the Mahdi does not come, this will mean that...

Dubai police now have 26 suspects

From Gulf News:Police revealed 15 more suspects in the Al Mabhouh murder case on Wednesday. The extensive investigation has led to a total of 26 suspects so far involved in the murder of the Hamas official Mahmoud Al Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel. In addition to the previously released list of 11 suspects, Dubai Police has now identified another six suspects, who include a woman who used British passports, a man and three women travelling on Irish...

Hillel Cohen responds to my review of "Good Arabs"

The author of "Good Arabs," Hillel Cohen, responded to my review where I questioned whether the word Nakba was used in the 1950s:Thanks for your review. Just one factual comment - the term Nakba was in use in Arabic in the 1950s. As you might know, the book of Constantin Zureik 'Ma'na al-Nakba' (the meaning of the Nakba) was published in Beirut in summer 1948 (!). It is true that Jewish Israelis (and the elders of Zion?) became familiar with it only...

UNRWA chief again takes away "refugee" choice

The new UNRWA Commissioner General, Fillipo Grandi, is in Syria to discuss the situation in UNRWA camps there and to praise the Syrian president for all he does for Palestinian Arab "refugees."According to Firas Press, he explicitly told the Syrians that UNRWA is not interested in resettling any Palestinian Arabs in other countries besides "Palestine." While he stressed that UNRWA wants to improve their living conditions in the camps, he said that...

Hamas leader's son was a "collaborator" who saved many lives

Remember Mosab Yousef, the son of one of Hamas' founders who converted to Christianity and caused his family much grief?Their grief is about to be redoubled. From Ha'aretz:The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas...

The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles has an op-ed by Rabbi Marvin Hier where he discusses the article I found in the Palestine Post about how the Supreme Muslim Council approved building on the Mamilla Cemetery in 1945 - including its own offices - showing how the Muslim community no longer considered it sacred ground.It also has an article about the 1945 plan, which mentions...

Mossad T-shirt sales explode

From Irish Times: SALES OF Mossad-themed T-shirts, available by mail order, have risen tenfold since the Israeli spy agency was linked to last month’s assassination in Dubai.Despite the fact that Israeli leaders are refusing to confirm or deny Mossad involvement, orders for the garments have flooded in over the past few weeks – from Israelis and particularly from diaspora...

The myth of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque continues

I mentioned a few months ago that Palestinian Arabs gave Rachel's Tomb the supposedly "ancient" name of the "Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque" in the mid-1990s. The Arabs are desperately trying to claim this indisputably Jewish shrine as their own, just as they claim every other Jewish shrine in the Middle East without exception.Now that Binyomin Netanyahu decided to place Judaism's second and third-holiest sites in a list of Israeli heritage sites, the lies...

Syrian human rights activist to be tried for "insulting" Assad

Al Quds al Arabi reports that a prominent Syrian human-rights advocate is going to stand trial later this month on the charges of "insulting Syrian President Assad and his father."Haitham al-Maleh, 78, has been held by Syrian authorities since last October. His arrest came two days after he gave an interview criticizing Syrian authorities for their repression of free speech.Meanwhile, the Obama administration rewarded Syria by appointing a new US...

Political intrigue in Libya between Fatah and Hamas

An Arab League summit is planned in Tripoli next month, and the big question is whether Hamas would be allowed to attend as a representative of Palestinian Arabs.At first it appeared that Hamas would not be permitted to attend as a representative unless there is a reconciliation deal between the two groups.But Al Quds al-Arabi is reporting that when Mahmoud Abbas went to Libya to make arrangements for the meeting, Libya's leader Maommar Ghaddafi...

Now, here is a target for the Mossad

According to the Saudi Okaz news agency, quoted by Palestinian Press Agency, this coming weekend it is likely that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet in Damascus both with Hamas "politburo" leader Khaled Meshal and with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.Actually, why bother with the Mossad? A couple of cruise missiles or smart bombs could do more for long-term peace in the region than any number of UN conference...

A new "Persian Gulf" diplomatic crisis

From the WaPo:Airlines not referring to the waterway between Iran and the Arabian peninsula as the Persian Gulf will be banned from Iranian airspace, the transport minister told local media Monday. The warning was directed specifically toward the airlines of neighboring Gulf Arab countries who have a history of referring to the body of water as the "Arabian Gulf." "The airlines of the southern Persian gulf countries flying to Iran must use 'Persian...

Friend of Jimmy Carter visits Hamas in Gaza

From Ma'an:De facto government Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh hosted former national security adviser for Latin America Bob Pastor in Gaza City on Monday, officials reported.Pastor, who worked under the Carter Administration, teaches at the American University in Washington DC in the International Service School, he is also co-director of the Center for North American Studies and the Center for Democracy and Election Management at the university.Government...

"Israel has the right to defend itself..BUT"

Ask anyone from the EU or someone like Richard Goldstone whether Israel has the right to defend itself, and you will get the answer of "Yes, but...."Goldstone, for example, said that the UN report he wrote "in no way contradicts the right of Israel to defend itself." He just wrote it in such a way that so severely hampers Israel's ability to defend itself as to make the words meaningless.Amnesty International's Middle East director says that “Israel...

Jordanian murderer gets trial postponed for soccer game

Al Quds al Arabi reports that a Jordanian man who is accused of murdering his three sons, a neighbor and her two children in 2008 has requested that his trial be postponed...until after an important soccer match between Jordan and Singapore next month.The judge agreed to postpone the trial to the week after the gam...

Why peace is impossible, reason #73

In 2001, a pair of books were written for the purpose of cross-cultural understanding between Jews and Muslims. One was called "Children of Abraham: an introduction to Judaism for Muslims" by Reuven Firestone and the other one was called "Children of Abraham: an introduction to Islam for Jews" by Khalid Durán. The latter book was slammed by Muslims and Islamists as being inaccurate, and the author says that he received death threats. The book for...

Ma'ariv: Hamas trying to manufacture Qassams in the West bank

Ma'ariv (Hebrew) reports that PA security forces arrested seven men, five of them Hamas members, who had created a rocket manufacturing facility near Ramallah.One rocket which was close to completion had written on it "there is no god but Allah."This could be the secret new type of offensive that Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades swore in revenge for the death of Mabhou...

Another work accident in the "playground of death"

From Ma'an:The paramilitary wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Monday that one of its combatants was killed in Khan Younses, southern Gaza."Diya Al-Khalout, from Jabaliya, was martyred on a Jihad mission," a statement issued by the armed group said.Two combatants were injured following an explosion at a military training camp affiliate to the National Resistance, west of Khan Younes, Gaza, witnesses reported.Here is Hamas' press...

Arab op-ed slams PA corruption

From Al-Arabiya:The revelation of corruption and sexual harassment against Rafiq Al Hussieni, an aid to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas last week by a former Palestinian intelligence officer, was not the first charge of corruption against the Palestinian leadership that came to exist in the occupied territories as a result of the Oslo accords between Israel and the PLO in 1993. Corruption, within this ‘Oslo leadership ordinary Palestinians claim,...

I had a whole bunch of interesting, amusing and insightful posts in my head for today, but then an obstacle came up that I could not avoid:Yes, I saw some Girl Scouts selling the sublime Thin Mints outside a supermarket, and that was that. All the posts flew out of my head as I became fixated on one supreme goal - eating these cookies.The entire superstructure of the Elders...

Book Review: "Start-Up Nation"

Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle is a remarkable book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. It details what has allowed Israel, a besieged nation with few natural resources and under political and military pressure from birth, to become an incubator for a hugely disproportionate number of successful entrepreneurial enterprises compared to any other nation. It also asks what other nations could learn from Israel's success. Senor and...

A look at a child marriage in Yemen

IRIN reports:It was every little girl’s dream - she was to get a new dress, jewellery, sweets and a party for all her friends. What 10-year-old Aisha* did not know was that after the wedding party she would have to leave school, move to a village far from her parents’ home, cook and clean all day, and have sex with her older husband. “He took out a special sheet and laid me down on it,” Aisha told IRIN, wringing her small plump hands. “After it,...