September 2010 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

חג שמח! - open thread

Now we are in the home stretch of that autumn Jewish holidays, and I will not be blogging until around Sunday. Have a chag sameach!חג ש...

UNHRC ignores an important part of the flotilla report

Yesterday, the so-called UN Human Rights Council debated the report that slammed Israel for its conduct with the passengers who attacked IDF soldiers with iron bars, chains and knives as they boarded the ship. As I mentioned, the report was incredibly biased and it trampled on international law. But the people debating the report did not bother to read it, because they characterized the flotilla as "humanitarian" - and the report, pointedly, did...

Benny Morris takes on Hitchens

A nice piece in Ha'aretz by Benny Morris. Morris describes how Christopher Hitchens notices the Muslim world is "riddled by corruption, violence and brutal autocracy, gradually falling into the grip of a nihilistic or medieval Islamism that is challenging the core values of the West - liberalism, democracy, tolerance and equal rights for women, homosexuals and ethnic minorities." - but he doesn't see the same problems with Palestinian Arabs. In...

Hamas celebrating the past ten years of killing Jews

On the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the "second intifada" terror spree, Hamas has come out with its own statistics. According to the terrorist organization, writing in the Qassam Brigades website, Hamas has launched some 4300 attacks since 2000, including rocket and mortar attacks, sniping, ambushes and 61 suicide bombings. The one attack that they specify as being the most praiseworthy was the 2002 Passover massacre at the Park Hotel...

The pain of the Gazans paid NOT to work

Palestine Today has a weepy article about the psychological pain of Gaza men - who are forced to stay home and draw salaries from the Palestinian Authority. Since the Hamas coup, tens of thousands of men employed by the PA have been forced by to not work in order to continue to get paid. If they take another job, or go back to their old jobs, they will lose their free paycheck. Some of them have to suffer the indignity of watching their...

Yemen says that they will not bow to "Zionist pressure"

From the Yemen News Agency: In an interview with Syrian newspaper al-Watan, [Yemen's Information Minister Hassan] al-Lawzi confirmed that the Yemeni government has strong ties with the United States. ‘’These ties protect Yemen from Zionist pressures’’, said Al-Lawzi, adding the relation between Yemen and the Unites states is developed to combat a joint threat, ‘’which is the crimes of al-Qaeda’’. ‘’Pressures were put on Yemen to compromise the...

Is Stuxnet working? Bushehr plant delayed

From AFP: Iran's atomic chief said on Wednesday that the country's first nuclear power plant will be ready to generate electricity by January -- two months later than announced. Ali Akbar Salehi said that the process of placing fuel rods at the Bushehr facility, built by Russia, would be completed by the "middle of" the Iranian month of Aban, around November 7, the state television's website reported. "Two or three months from then, the electricity...

While I'm at it.... ...

Syria also threatens Lebanese civil war

Right after Hezbollah threatened a Lebanese civil war if the UN-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon makes its findings public, its Syrian sponsor seconded the threat. From the WSJ: Lebanon remains an issue of tension between Washington and Damascus. The U.S. has strongly voiced its support for the U.N. completing its investigation into Mr. Hariri's murder, as well as trying those indicted for the crime at a U.N. court in The Hague. Mr....

From Iran's PressTV: Israelis desecrate Joseph Tomb At least 100 settlers accompanied by the Israeli military have invaded Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, desecrating Prophet Joseph's Tomb. The attack occurred at midnight, Press TV correspondent Sari al-Khalili reported from Ramallah on Tuesday. They helpfully provide their readers with a photo of this "desecration": Well,...

An Abbas poster

Yisrael Medad of My Right Word suggested a poster idea to me and others via email, and I am nothing if not accommodating. Here's my implementation of his idea: UPDATE: Some suggested a more direct, shorter version. Feel free to use either on...

This year there was an architectural design competition for creating sukkot, the huts that traditional Jews eat and (some) sleep in during the current Sukkot holiday. The finalists were on display in New York. Here is a video of the finalists, from The Forward: Union Square's High-Concept Sukkahs from Jewish Forward on Vimeo. When I first saw some of these designs, I thought...

It's so easy to make up lies (updated)

I ran across this at the Intifada-Palestine site, a list I have seen before: Here’s the roll-call on who introduced terrorism (along with biological, chemical and nuclear weapons) to the Middle East: Bombs in Cafés: first used by Zionists in Palestine on March 17th, 1937 in Jaffa. (actually grenades). Bombs on Buses: first used by Zionists in Palestine Aug. 20th-Sep. 26, 1937 Drive-by shootings with automatic weapons: IZL and LHI in 1937-38 and...

I just dug this up from the Palestine Post of December 6, 1933: In January, a British judge acquitted the Arabs, noting that while they certainly lied in their testimony and did things that were very suspicious, the prosecution witnesses were not reliable either and there was not enough evidence to convict them of creating this "secret society" nor of conspiring to kill...

Hamas says Arafat instructed them to attack Jews

Palestine Press Agency quotes Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar as saying that Yasir Arafat instructed Hamas to attack Jewish civilians at the start of the second intifada. Speaking at an event commemorating the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the terror spree in September 2000, Zahar said "the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had ordered Hamas to implement a number of military operations in the heart of the Jewish state, after the failure...

Ahmadinejad to symbolically stone Israel from Lebanon

Arab media are reporting that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to throw a symbolic stone towards Israel when he visits southern Lebanon in October. According to the reports, Ahmadinejad will visit Lebanon for two days, October 13-14. On the second day he will tour southern Lebanon under the protection of Hezbollah and his own Iranian security detail, already in place planning the trip. He will visit Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbeil, both scenes of major...

Jordan reveals the purpose of UNRWA

Jordan has written a "carefully worded" letter to the head of UNRWA and to the Arab donor nations warning about the shortfall in UNRWA's budget. Originally reported in Saudi Arabia's Okaz on September 19th, the letter emphasized the dangers to Lebanon and Jordan of reducing the UNRWA budget. Even though the vast majority of so-called "Palestinian refugees" in Jordan are in fact Jordanian citizens, the Hashemite kingdom shows no...

Islamic Jihad tallies up their part of the intifada

Islamic Jihad has released a set of statistics on the tenth anniversary of the start of the terror spree known as the second intifada. Since September 28, 2000, Islamic Jihad is boasting of 654 "martyrs" - meaning members of the terror group that have been killed. They were behind 101 "martyrdom operations" (suicide bombings) killing, they say, 199 Israelis. During this time period they boast of launching 2357 rockets and 848 mortar shells into...

Hamas not thrilled with "Jewish" ship to Gaza

A ship of some 9 Jews is now being intercepted by the Israeli navy en route to Gaza. The Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today notes, that, unlike other flotillas and vessels, Hamas has been ambivalent at best towards the entire idea of this particular pseudo-aid ship. The reason? Because it has some Israelis on board who do not fully support the destruction of Israel. Political writer Dr. Issam Shawar wrote that the reception of these peace activists...

Is the US insistence on ending anti-Israel incitement just lip service?

Judith Apter Klinghoffer observes: Striving to appear even handed at his UN address, President Obama repeatedly drew a parallel between continued Israeli settlements and Palestinian incitement. Yet while the media is filled with reports of the Obama administration's disappointment with Israel's refusal to renew the temporary suspension of settlement building, not a peep is heard regarding the ongoing vile anti-Israeli propaganda emanating from the...

PalArab raping of "peace activists" not isolated incidents

A couple of months ago I posted a Ha'aretz article about how an American pro-Palestinian Arab activist was raped by one of her heroes, and the crime was hushed up. JoeSettler followed up with other cases of harassment and attacks. There have been a few other articles in the Hebrew media about these cases, and the Zionism Israel site puts it all together - and it is not pretty: If you are looking for an adventure of a new and different kind, then...

This is Mahmoud Abbas, meeting a rabbi in Paris, while speaking to a group of Jewish "intellectuals." According to Ma'an, the rabbi was enthusiastic over Abbas, calling him "brave" and a "great humanitarian." For his part, Abbas wished the audience a "chag sameach." I wonder what the usual Arab anti-semites think about thi...

Yemen chess team did not get fired - they just refused to play Israel

Last week I posted, based on a number of media reports, that the Yemen chess team had been sacked because they played Israel in the Chess Olympiad in Russia. It turns out that the Yemen team did not get sacked and simply refused to play, thus losing the match 4-0. They are still in the tournament, beating Uganda 3-1 in the latest roun...

While on the subject of rock and roll...

Completely off topic, but this kid is great: Of course, by the time I see something like this, it has already been viewed over 8 million times. I'm not quite on the cutting edge of viral video...

Sweden protects PalArab children from abuse. Arabs call it kidnapping.

Palestine Press Agency reports that the Consul General of Palestine in Sweden has complained that some 76 Palestinian Arab girls have been "kidnapped" by Swedish authorities. The Swedish authorities say that the children were being beaten and abused by their parents, and they have been placed in foster homes to protect them. The consul charges that the girls are being raised in an alien culture with no regard to their native religion and customs. The...

Hezbollah openly threatens civil war in Lebanon

Hezbollah, taking a page out of the Mafia playbook, is telling the entire country of Lebanon that anyone who supports the findings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on who was behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri (and 22 others) will be, pretty much, treated as a Zionist enemy and killed. From Naharnet: Hizbullah's MP Nawwaf Moussawi on Friday warned that "the period that will follow the (Special Tribunal for...

Iranian VP calls Israel "the representative of the Devil on Earth"

Iranian officials must be competing to who can do the best job of insulting Israel. The latest participant in the contest is Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, who put out this entry: Iran's first vice-president says Israel will bite the dust in the face of regional nations' resistance and determination, calling the Israeli regime the very embodiment of evil. "There is no doubt that the Zionist regime will be absolutely defeated...

Nasser's doctor denied that Sadat poisoned him

There has been a rumor going around Egypt for the past couple of weeks that Anwar Sadat had given Gamal Nasser some poisoned coffee to kill him and take over his job in 1970. One of Nasser's doctors felt compelled to go on TV to deny it: The doctor of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser denied recent reports that he died of poisoned coffee prepared for him by his successor President Anwar Sadat and attributed his death to hereditary reasons....

New whining in Gaza - because more goods are coming in

Even when Israel eases restrictions on goods entering Gaza, the wire services find Gazans more than happy to whine. From AFP: The shelves are packed with imported food, but the ersatz prosperity of the newly opened "Gaza Mall" hides the lingering malaise haunting the impoverished territory. The two-story supermarket in Gaza City opened its doors shortly after Israel partially lifted a four-year blockade of the Hamas-run enclave in June following...

Refreshing: Rock star admits he doesn't understand politics

From YNet and The JC: English rock star Ozzy Osbourne arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport on a private plane Sunday evening, along with his family members. Osbourne and his wife, Sharon, who also served as his personal manager, held a press conference at a Tel Aviv hotel. Asked whether he had any hesitations about visiting Israel, on the backdrop of the latest cancellations by international artists, he replied that he tries to stay away from politics...

Israeli reaction to biased UNHRC report

I posted two articles about the UNHRC report on the flotilla incident and Zvi wrote a more general article about the hypocrisy of the UNHRC. Here are some Israeli reactions to the report. From YNet: How can a country with virtually not connection to human rights be a member of a formal body dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights around the world? Is that not similar to putting a wife-beater in charge of a women's shelter? Welcome...

In Venezuela, anti-semitism is mainstream

From Pajamas Media: Unlike many anti-Semitic hypocrites in Europe or the USA, Chavistas don’t even bother to camouflage their Jew-hatred; it comes naked. Just take a look at Aporrea.org, their most important website, which is sponsored by the Venezuelan government. Use the searchword “judios” (Jews), and you will be amazed how similar the Venezuelan “socialism of the 21st century” and the German National Socialism of the 1930s are. In this article...

Egyptian cheese commercial goes viral

Some people are seeing this series of commercials as a metaphor for Egyptian totalitarianism, Arab inability to compromise, Chinese encroachment into the world's commercial marketplaces, or even American hegemony. Others just think they are funny....

Those "dismantled" Al Aqsa Brigades keep popping up

How many times have we heard that the moderate PA has managed to dismantle the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, consolidated their security forces and made all terror groups illegal? The first such announcement dates all the say back to 2007. Somehow, however, they keep on popping up. Just today the Al Aqsa Brigades announced that if Israel resumes construction in Jewish communities across the Green Line, they will "respond" and will...

Egypt finds another half-ton of explosives on way to Gaza

From Ma'an: Egyptian security forces seized a cache of explosives in the Sinai Pensinsula on Sunday, security sources said. ...[O]fficers uncovered a weapons depot containing half a ton of TNT explosives and anti-aircraft shells. The ammunition was packaged in bags ready to be smuggled through underground tunnels into Gaza, sources said.Given the number of caches Egypt has found, how many do you think they mis...

I'm sorry, but Arab paranoia is endlessly amusing

I just stumbled across a site I had never heard of but which apparently has some popularity in various Arab countries, called ArabCrunch. This blog claims that it is being targeted by the CIA and the Mossad. Here are some of the breathtaking details: We mentioned for the first time in the last post who is behind the terrorist DDoS attacks and criminal hack of ArabCrunch blog. Now we will reveal more plots, as all these plots were designed to force...

More on the UNHRC's extreme bias

In the UNHRC report on the June flotillas, we have already seen how the Human Rights Council has no compunction about twisting international law specifically to demonize Israel. Elsewhere in the report, we can see how much they twist easily verifiable facts as well. Here is how they justify believing biased, lying "eyewitnesses" over actual video evidence: 20. In ascertaining the facts surrounding the Israeli interception of the Gaza-bound flotilla,...

A great example of Elder's First Rule

Long time readers may remember Elder's First Rule of Arab Projection, that states: Whenever Arabs accuse Israel of doing some crime, they are doing that exact crime, usually on a far grander scale than their accusations. I just came across a perfect example of this rule, not by Arabs but by Muslims. You know how Muslims like to accuse Israel of purposefully targeting Jewish interests in order to make Muslims look bad? Perhaps the example that...

The joke that is the UN Human Rights Council (Zvi)

From Zvi: To be a credible authority on human rights topics, an organization of states must ensure that a state can only participate if it provides basic human rights for its people and extends the same concepts of human rights to others. So it must: * provide freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion * provide free markets * provide one person-one-vote in free and fair elections * provide rule of law and criminalize terrorism * rid...