March 2010 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Hamas celebrates two female "martyrs"

The Al Qassam Brigades website has added two female "martyrs" to its ever-growing list.Here's a picture of the first one:And here's what the second one looks like:The resemblance is striking!Both women were allegedly killed on October 27, 2007, by a "Zionist shell" as they were doing some "charity" work for Hamas.The only problem is, the PCHR lists no women killed by Israel...

Pig blood in cigarette filters?

Al Arabiya reports: A new study reveals cigarettes may contain traces of pig's blood which could be “very offensive” to Muslims and other religious groups, Australia’s The Australian reported on Tuesday.University of Sydney Professor Simon Chapman referred to a “recent Dutch research which identified 185 different industrial uses of a pig - including the use of its haemoglobin in cigarette filters,” The Australian said."I think that there would...

Report that Hamas robbed Gaza bank (updated)

Palestine Today reports: Armed elements from Hamas today took control of a branch of the Bank of Palestine in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, and confiscated a million shekels.Local sources reported that, in the wake of this incident, the management of the bank decided to close all its branches in the Gaza Strip.In a completely different news story, the PA announced a $3.9 billion budget for 2010, of which some $1.5 billion will go towards...

Must read: "The Future of an Illusion"

By Elliott Abrams:Those who cannot remember the past are condemned, it seems, to direct the Middle East policy of the Obama administration. Since the Oslo Accords of 1993, 17 years of efforts under three American presidents and six Israeli prime ministers have taught five clear lessons. Each of them is being ignored by President Obama, which is why his own particular “peace process” has so greatly harmed real efforts at peace. Today the only...

In a story about alleged Jewish plans to storm the Temple Mount on Passover, Palestine Today illustrates the article with another image of Jewish desecration of the Temple Mount:Shockin...

Wishing a happy Passover to all my readers, and trying to get my wishes in to those about to start the holiday in Israel.I will not be posting from this afternoon until at least Wednesday night and posting might be light the rest of the week anyway.You still have time to download the free EoZ Haggadah! Over 1200 people have grabbed it already!Meanwhile, here is an open thread...

Arabs nervous over Murdoch purchase

Last month, media mogul Rupert Murdoch purchased a 9% stake in Arab entertainment giant Rotana.This has caused some consternation in Egypt that Murdoch, widely assumed in the Arab world to be Jewish, is trying to plant a "Trojan horse" in Arabic culture to normalize relations with Israel.As Middle East Online says:The tie-up between Arab entertainment giant Rotana and pro-Israel media mogul Rupert Murdoch is viewed in Egypt not only with suspicion...

UNHRC Resolution Score: Israel 5, World 3

From UN Watch, last Wednesday:The UN Human Rights Council slammed Israel in 4 resolutions today, with another scheduled tomorrow. The Council’s five against Israel surpass the total combined amount of resolutions it will dedicate to all other countries in the world — one each on Burma, North Korea and Guinea.The nation that has the best record on human rights in the Middle East is considered to be worse than every other nation combined by the...

I mentioned an Arabic news story last week that Gaza authorities rejected Israel sending clothing and shoes to Gaza because the number of daily truckloads were too low.Today, Ma'an mentions that an agreement has apparently been struck, and Israel will be sending 10 trucks full of clothing a day. Of course, Ma'an doesn't mention Hamas' previous rejection of the shipments as...

Now Gazans can smuggle entire cars

Sshender sends me this link to an Israeli Channel 2 news story that seems to show a car being pulled, whole, through a Rafah smuggling tunnel.(h/t Hasbara Master for the video lin...

UNHRC passes resolution limiting freedom of expression

From Al Arabiya:The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution condemning Islamaphobic behavior, including Switzerland's minaret building ban, despite some states' major reservations. The resolution, which was criticized by the United States as "an instrument of division," "strongly condemns... the ban on the construction of minarets of mosques and other recent discriminatory measures." Some 20 countries...

Islamic Jihad upset with Hamas for claiming responsibility for attack

Islamic Jihad is very upset with Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades for taking credit for the operation that killed two Israeli soldiers (which Islamic Jihad named "Operation Luring Idiots.")Hamas had written a detailed account of the operation, including an interview with the purported members of the team that engaged with the IDF.Islamic Jihad derided the Hamas account as a "fiction," especially a part where Hamas claimed to have shot at the soldiers from...

Arab Journalists Union to blacklist those who meet Israelis

Palestine Today reports that the Arab Journalists Union and other PalArab press organizations strongly criticized the Palestinian Arab journalists who met with their Israeli counterparts.They said that this meeting was a kind of "normalization," and a serious crime. The unions called on the journalists to apologize or risk facing the consequences.These consequences include being placed on a journalist "blacklist" and other punitive measures such...

Hamas storms hospital to arrest Fatah member

Palestinian Press Agency reports on an incident yesterday, where Hamas members attempted to kidnap a Fatah member, Sheikh Abdul Khalil. His parents tried to stop the arrest and Khalil was beaten.After the parents took him to the hospital, Hamas broke in and arrested Khalil and five of his Fatah friends (it was unclear if they were visiting him at the hospital or if they were arrested in their homes...

Sunday Times slams Human Rights Watch

The Times (UK) has a beautiful article that nicely exposes the problems at Human Rights Watch, starting with the Garlasco affair that I helped expose, but showing that Garlasco was just a symptom of a much deeper problem.Excerpts: When the story broke that one of the organisation’s most prominent and vocal members of staff might be a collector of Nazi-era military memorabilia it felt like some sort of sexual scandal had erupted in the Victorian...

Gaza journalists admit Hamas censorship - including BBC

From JPost:A delegation of Palestinian journalists from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank toured Tel Aviv on Thursday, as part of an initiative to build bridges between the Arab media and their peers in Israel.Among those present were three reporters from the Gaza Strip and two from the West Bank. The reporters work for a variety of news outlets, both in the Arabic and English-speaking worlds....One of the journalists, Palestinian TV broadcaster Lana...

"Operation Luring Idiots"

The fatal exchange of gunfire in Gaza on Friday between IDF troops and Islamic Jihad/Hamas terrorists was a named operation, according to a number of Arabic sources.While IDF sources deny that there was an ambush, Hamas claims that it was an ambush operation.The Arabic media is calling it "Operation Luring Idiots." Which makes it appear that the goal was indeed to kidnap Israeli soldier...

Zahi Hawass: "I will not allow any Jew to pray in restored synagogue"

Zahi Hawass, the Jew-hating general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and Egypt's top archaeologist, has announced that he will not allow any Jew to pray in the restored Maimonides synagogue in Cairo.He told a Muslim scientific forum that "his decision to close the temple was a reaction to Israeli attacks on Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem."He stressed that he would treat the Maimonides synagogue the same as any other Egyptian...

Obama ensures that terror has no consequences

From YNet:The Obama Administration is demanding that Israel hand over more West Bank land to exclusive PA control, including the Abu-Dis area adjacent to Jerusalem, Palestinian sources told Ynet Thursday. According to the US vision, the move will take place as part of reverting to the state that prevailed in the West Bank before the outbreak of the last Intifada."The most significant demand is to restore the situation to what it was on the...

Another bomb in Gaza

Yet another bomb exploded in Gaza near a security compound, the latest in a series of such bombings aimed at police in recent months.Earlier this week, Hamas' interior minister blamed the bombs on "teenagers...

The secret Jewish plan (guest post by Zvi)

In response to my posting on Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass' obsession with the Jews, where he declares his love for them but then informs us helpfully that the Jews have no history, culture or redeeming value, regular guestblogger Zvi reveals The Plan:WARNING LABEL: THIS COMMENT CONTAINS SARCASM. JEWISH SARCASM HAS BEEN PROVED BY RESEARCHERS AT BIR ZEIT UNIVERSITY TO HAVE PRODUCED BIRTH DEFECTS IN GAZA. THE PAPER, PUBLISHED IN THE PEER-REVIEWED...

UNHRC says Israel must compensate Hamastan

From Arab News: Israel should pay Palestinians reparations for loss and damages suffered during last year’s war in the Gaza Strip, the UN Human Rights Council said Thursday. The 47-nation body didn’t call for similar payments by Palestinians to Israelis. The resolution was opposed by the United States and five European countries.The council, which has been criticized for excessively focusing on Israel in the past, approved four other...

Egypt's top archaeologist really hates Jews

Zahi Hawass is the general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. As Barry Rubin recently pointed out, he was quoted in the New York Times as saying "I love the Jews, they are our cousins!"Which would be great, except that MEMRI translated an a TV interview he gave last year:Zahi Hawass: "For 18 centuries, [the Jews] were dispersed throughout the world. They went to America and took control of its economy. They have a plan. Although...

"Arabs should use Holocaust as a political weapon"

In an ironic op-ed at Asharq Al Awsat called "The Crocodile Tears of the Holocaust Industry," Hamad Al-Majid writes:A young Jewish American woman approached the prominent Jewish professor; she had been attending the lecture he was conducting [at the University of Waterloo] when she asked a question before breaking down in tears. In a trembling voice, the student asked "During your speech, you made reference to Jewish people – some of whom are...

Arab analyst notices Abbas' tactic of passivity

From an op-ed in Asharq al-Awsat by its editor, Osman Mirghani:The Palestinian situation is now at its worst stage with division and conflict between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Even if reconciliation efforts are successful, mutual confidence between the two parties is something that may remain absent for a long time. This would mean continuation of a state of weakness and the absence of true bargaining power. To be clear, the Palestinians...

Jews distribute pamphlet to Muslims asking them to leave

A pamphlet that some religious Jews distributed to Jerusalem Arabs, asking them to leave the Holy Land, was translated by Firas Press to Arabic.It was distributed two weeks ago and no organization claimed responsibility.It is remarkably polite.The pamphlet starts with a Koranic quote: "Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way - except in the case of those of them who do wrong - saying, 'We have belief in what has been sent down...

Today's PalArab news (3/25/10)

Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal held a "secret meeting" with Saudi Arabian leaders.Meshal was also interviewed on Al Jazeera and admitted that there was a "real crisis" in relations with Egypt because of Hamas' refusal to sign a reconciliation agreement with Fatah.Israel agreed to allow the body of Church of the Nativity terrorist Abdullah Daoud to be buried near his family in Nablus. Daoud died in Algeria following heart surgery, and the...

At the Arab Summit to be held in Libya this weekend, the Palestinian Arab delegation will present a report detailing their complaints about Jews rebuilding the Hurva synagogue.The first issue is that they still believe that the discredited prophecy attributed to the Vilna Gaon associating the Hurva reconstruction with the building of the Third Temple on March 16th is guiding...

From Zvi, in reaction to my post:Jerusalem, like the Jewish people and the Jewish state, is the subject of vast and sweeping myths and legends that deeply color how people view it.Many of the common myths about the Jewish people are monster stories (though some are "positive" myths about business acumen or high intelligence), and when you read opinion pieces, you can often...

The Elder gets ripped off by - a "Palestinian" news blog

An alert reader pointed out to me that one of my posts from last month was copied, verbatim, including original links, into the Palestine Note blog.The author is given as one "Mohamed Naseredin."The usual contributors to that blog are people like MJ Rosenberg, Jonathan Cook and J-Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami. Not exactly the company I normally kee...

I get nominated by Watchers Council

My post, Obama the Actor, got nominated for the Best Non-council Post of the Watchers Council - by the Watcher himself, otherwise known as Soccer Dad (who I didn't realize got promoted to the top spot in the Council.)I appreciate the honor. I have received a number of nominations over the years, and have won (to the best of my memory) twice.Here is my last winning post, from 200...

Last year I made a religious Zionist Haggadah, using commentaries from various Internet sites. About a thousand people downloaded it.I had hoped to clean it up, re-edit it to eliminate any potential copyright issues and maybe make a hardcover version this year, but I never did find the time. So you can still get last year's version for free, her...

The Israeli Left needs to step up

There is a basic disconnect between the Western understanding of Israeli politics and the reality.Westerners assume that the Israeli left is just like the American or European left as far as the Middle East is concerned. The EU in general, and the Obama administration in particular, have been conditioned by the media to think in simplistic terms of "Netanyahu=Likud=Hardliner=Intransigent" and that if only they would get rid of him, peace will reign.They...

Add paranoia to Jeff Gates' antisemitism

On odd occasions I have linked to the rantings of far left lunatic pundit Jeff Gates. The most recent link was when Gates asserted that the airplane underwear bomber was a Zionist, and beforehand. Previously he was used as an object lesson of how lies spread among the anti-Israel web, and before that for his classically anti-semitic piece on the Jewish lobby.Now he is in the pages of Al Ahram, talking about anti-semitism itself. He implies that Jews...

"Palestine Today" to publish list of news thieves

The Islamic Jihad-aligned "Palestine Today" site is sick and tired of other Arabic news sites stealing its articles, and they plan to issue a "black list" of article thieves.Because nothing ticks off a publication that supports attacks on civilians more than copyright violations.(One of the violators is, no doubt, Firas Press, in which practically every article is an identical copy of an article from another publication, without ever giving cred...

Malaysian politicians accused of Jew-cooties

From The Edge (Malaysia):The opposition does not use Zionist communications consultants to woo nor attract support, said Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice-president Azmin Ali on Wednesday, March 24. Azmin, who is also the Gombak member of parliament (MP), also debunked the theory that opposition and PKR de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Permatang Pauh-PKR) was a Jewish agent. During the debate on the royal address last Wednesday, Khairy...

The world wants to kill Jerusalem

All the people who hyperventilate over new buildings, projects and plans for Jerusalem seem to forget the most basic fact there is: Jerusalem is a modern, living, growing city.It is not a fossilized museum piece.Jerusalem has not always been as dynamic as it is today. The portions of the city under Jordanian rule from 1948-67 did not grow to an real extent. In fact, the Jordanian municipality of Jerusalem was a mere 2 square miles in size. Its population...

A Church of the Nativity terrorist dies

One of the terrorists who defiled the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 has died.48-year old Abdullah Daoud, known as "Abu Yusuf," was one the terrorists who was exiled in the aftermath of the standoff. He died in Algeria following an operation to repair a heart problem.The terrorists had heavily damaged and booby-trapped the church. They also looted every gold item they could fin...

Latest adventures in auto-translation

For some reason I have been seeing the phrase "high quality porn" sprinkled throughout the Google autotranslations of Arabic articles about politicians.The Arabic word is الحمساوي and I have no idea if that is what it really means. But the first two letters are "Al", which means "the," and when they are deleted the word translates into "Hamas man" or "Hamas member." The connections between Hamas and pornography is still unclear to me.In a similar...