January 2011 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, January 31, 2011

Hasbara 2.0 - why the Israel haters are winning today

Since it was frustrating trying to figure out what to post here and what to post at my NewsRealBlog gig, I decided to start to document my ideas about Hasbara 2.0 that I spoke about in December. So I will be running a continuing series on hasbara there. The first installment, an introduction, is up now. Check it ou...

"Israel shocked at Obama's 'betrayal' of Mubarak"

From Reuters: If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday. Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political...

UNRWA report on Pal. poverty in Lebanon flies under the radar

On December 31, UNRWA released a major report that goes into detail of the poverty and unemployment for Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon. Here are some important parts: 6.6% are extremely poor i.e they cannot meet their essential daily food needs (compared to 1.7% amongst Lebanese). 66.4% of Palestine refugees in Lebanon are poor i.e cannot meet their basic food and nonfood needs (compared to 35% amongst Lebanese). 56% of Palestinians are jobless 38%...

Today's Jew-hatred courtesy of Google News and Veterans Today

At this time, the most anti-semitic site (by far) that is indexed on Google News is called "Veterans Today." (Sorry, I won't link to this trash. But it is easy enough to find.) Here's a taste of today's entry: The uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen are the inevitable results of the J-factor, which destroys everything. As I was told by a Saudi army general many years ago, all Arab countries are secretly controlled by Israel, including his own. (I...

Hamas has no problem with movie theatres. Well, maybe a little.

From Ma'an Arabic: The Minister of Culture in Gaza, Dr. Osama al-Issawi, said that his ministry does not have any objection to the reopening of cinemas in the Gaza Strip, pointing out that there has not been any application to the Ministry to open one so far. Al-Issawi said in a press statement, "We believe that art is part of the basis of any society, and we encourage arts festivals and special film festivals. We do not have any objection to...

Last July I linked to some writings by the amazing John Roy Carlson. (Unfortunately, the Google Books link no longer shows large portions of the book I screen-captured.) Here is a description of the "Moslem Brotherhood" in Egypt that Carlson wrote in 1948, published in the Palestine Post, as part of a larger article about Egypt altogether. The article goes on to describe...

The most popular post in my blog over the past few days has not been one of my new posts, but a post from September. The people viewing that post are finding it from a Google image search for "ElBaradei daughter." (And Google's algorithm for guessing search terms shows that a lot of people are also searching for "ElBaradei daughter swimsuit.") The September post...

Headlines from Egyptian media

Tahrir Square protesters say they plan to march Friday to the presidential palace in Heliopolis unless the army makes its stance clear. Youth-led groups issued a statement calling for all Egyptians to march on the palace, the People's Assembly and the television building, in what they are calling the "Friday of Departure." They say the army must choose which side they are on: That of the people, or the regime. --- Al Jazeera reports that six...

Whew!

In the first round of the Pro-Israel Blog Off contest, I had chosen a cartoon to compete against articles by my competition, especially an excellent article called Zionist Football by Life Through My Eyes. Part of my strategy was based on knowing that one of the judges was Yaakov Kirschen, the cartoonist who makes Dry Bones. (Who is not only brilliant but handsome too, just like the other wise and impartial judges. :) ) In the reader votes, which...

Morning links

Here is a great interview with Michael Oren from The Daily Caller. Israel released a video showing that a Jewish resident of the territories shot a Palestinian Arab youth only after repeatedly being stoned by him. No More Lies shows that while some Egyptian protesters seem to want genuine democracy, others seem to be motivated by hate for Israel. Bicom analyzed the "Palestine Papers" released so far, and - surprise! - came up with the same conclusions...

Amnesty supports a confessed Hezbollah spy

From TheJC: Amnesty International has put out a Press Notice "urging the Israeli authorities to end their harassment of Palestinian human rights activists" "after a veteran Palestinian campaigner was jailed for nine years earlier today and given an additional one-year suspended sentence. Ameer Makhoul, a longstanding Palestinian activist, was convicted on various counts of having contact with enemies of Israel and espionage after a plea bargain...

The other "Palestine Papers" from AFP: Did Obama harden the Palestinian Arab position?

From AFP: Palestinian delegates to 2010 peace talks rejected out of hand Israel's demand to hold on to swathes of West Bank settlements, documents given to AFP on Saturday show.A discussion paper prepared by the Palestinian side and made available to AFP on condition of anonymity challenges the Israeli assumption that the large blocs of adjacent enclaves where most settlers live would be annexed to Israel in a deal to set up an independent Palestinian...

ElderToons: Egypt's choice

...

Jewish boy kidnapped in Yemen

Wikipedia says:Moshe Ya'ish al-Nahari (1978 - December 11, 2008) was a Jewish Hebrew language teacher in Raydah, Yemen, who was killed by Abdul Aziz Yahya Al-Abdi, a Muslim Yemenite who accosted him near his home demanding that he convert to Islam. Al-Nahari's attacker subsequently boasted of the killing and the prosecution demanded the death penalty. The court ruled that the attacker was mentally unstable and ordered him to pay damages. In...

Is Hamas about to crack down on Ma'an News Agency?

Once upon a time. Ma'an News Agency tried to build for itself a niche as a professional, Western-style news outlet for Palestinian Arabs. Then, after the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Ma'an started receiving threats from Hamas - and immediately it changed its coverage to stay away from anything negative about Hamas (unless Hamas denied a story from another source, in which case Ma'an would report the denial, but never the original story in context.) Other...

No new "Palestine Papers" since Wednesday

Why have The Guardian and Al Jazeera stopped releasing any new memos since Wednesda...

Sunday linkfest

Iran is very happy at the events in Egypt, claiming that it is a natural extension of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the Shah of Iran and installed one of the most repressive regimes in the world. The prisons in Egypt are emptying as prisoners are rioting and killing guards. Some reports say that thousands of prisoners are now roaming the country. The Muslim Brotherhood is celebrating the escape of its members. There are reports of "dozens...

Southern Sudan vote results in: 98.83% chose to secede

From Al Arabiya: Close to 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results published Sunday. Updated figures published on the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission's website and accounting for 100 percent of ballots cast in both the north and the south gave secession an overwhelming 98.83 percent of the vote. Early counting had put the outcome of the ballot...

Arab League "Conference to Support Jerusalem" postponed indefinitely

Late last year, Qatar undertook to host a "Conference to Support Jerusalem" in February 2011, which was advised at the end of the Arab League conference in Sirte last March. Some 74 countries were invited to what was planned to be an anti-Israel hatefest. The conference was meant to show that Jerusalem is not only a Palestinian Arab issue but a pan-Arab issue. Seminars scheduled included how the "Arab" Jebusites built the city and the ancient Israelites...

What Hamas is doing in Egypt

Palestine Press Agency, which is rabidly anti-Hamas but whose reporting has generally panned out as true, is reporting exactly what Hamas is doing to take advantage of the chaos in Egypt: Special units of the Qassam Brigades of Hamas infiltrated through the tunnels deployed on the border two days ago to the city of Rafah in Egypt and then to the towns of Sheikh Zuwaid and El-Arish to support the Sinai Bedouin attacking the centers of the Egyptian...

PalArabs trying to prove Al Jazeera in cahoots with Israel

The pro-Fatah Palestine Press Agency has a story claiming that Al Jazeera apologized to Israel last Thursday for saying good things about arch-terrorist and baby-killer Samir Kuntar. While Al-Jazeera did once apologize about its coverage of Kuntar's birthday party, it wasn't last Thursday - it was in 2008. PalPress published this lie in order to add fuel to the conspiracy theory that al-Jazeera published the "Palestine Papers" at Israel's...

No Jews with kippahs allowed at Rutgers anti-Zionist event (updated)

From WND: Rutgers University campus police tonight barred some 400 Jewish students and their supporters, including some Holocaust survivors, from attending what was billed as an anti-Zionist gathering at the state school tonight. The student-sponsored event was announced with an open invitation campus-wide, and Rutgers policy is for all student activities to be open to the public. However, when the sponsoring organizations of "Never Again for Anyone"...

Wikileaks: US had contact with Egyptian democratic activists

An interesting and somewhat timely Wikileaks cable released today, written in December 2008: On December 23, April 6 activist XXXXXXXXXXXX expressed satisfaction with his participation in the December 3-5 "Alliance of Youth Movements Summit," and with his subsequent meetings with USG officials, on Capitol Hill, and with think tanks. He described how State Security (SSIS) detained him at the Cairo airport upon his return and confiscated his notes...

Hamas criminals escape Egyptian prison, make way to Gaza

Hamas members who have been arrested by Egypt have escaped from the El Arish prison in the riots, and some have made their way back to Gaza. One particular prisoner, Mohammed Ramadan, known as "the Mouse", is reported to have made it to Gaza. He was known as being the "king of all tunnelers." He was arrested for running smuggling rings. It is unclear if he was smuggling weapon...

Hamas hooking up with Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? (UPDATE)

From Stratfor, a report that they admit is unconfirmed: The Egyptian police are no longer patrolling the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt and are closely collaborating with the MB. The MB has fully engaged itself in the demonstrations, and they are unsatisfied with the dismissal of the Cabinet. They are insisting on a new Cabinet that does not include members of the ruling National Democratic Party. Security...

Just in case you thought Al Jazeera had any credibility...(corrected)

From Al Jazeera: According to sources in the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel is making preparations to welcome Hosni Mubarak into exile after Saudi Arabia rejected overtures.(h/t Zach) UPDATE: I hadn't noticed that this was from the crazy AlJazeera.com website, which is not associated with the satellite channel/network (aljazeera.net.) Thanks to the commenters who pointed that ou...

Amnesty officially calls Turkel report a "whitewash" - with no proof

As a follow-up to this story I broke this morning, proving Amnesty's bias by condemning the Turkel Commission report before even reading it, Amnesty has written a more comprehensive critique of the Turkel report, this time explicitly calling it a "whitewash." Of course, since Amnesty had already come to that conclusion before actually examining the report, we can rest assured that their objectivity in their analysis is equally flawed. Can it even...

Some links for the weekend

Reuters Middle East Watch notes in which paragraph Reuters decides to put some context into a story. Jonathan Tobin on why the Kadima peace talks failed. MEMRI brings us a lovely Egyptian government newspaper item on when, exactly, the Jews will be destroyed. (h/t Challah Hu Akbar) Rick Richman on UNRWA in Gaza, echoing something I mentioned recently (h/t CHA) A welcome development [pun intended] in Jerusalem on top of an old abandoned Arab...

There are protests in Turkey, too

Still against the government, but against Islamist influence: Students demonstrating against Turkey's Islamist-rooted conservative government on Thursday clashed with riot police in Istanbul and Ankara. Police dispersed about 100 students in Ankara with tear gas and water cannon, with students responding by pelting police with stones. There was a similar confrontation in Istanbul where police also used batons to clear the students, television footage...

Reports: Colombia will not recognize "Palestine"

Firas Press quotes Israeli radio as saying that Colombia will not follow other South American countries in recognizing "Palestine." The report said that the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, assured a reporterat the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that his country would not recognize a Palestinian state. The President of Colombia spoke about his strong ties with Israel in all areas. The eight South American...

Amnesty proves it cannot be unbiased - Malcolm Smart must be fired

My latest article at NewsReal shows that Amnesty does not even need inconvenient things like "facts" and "proof" before accusing Israel's Turkel Commission of a "whitewash." One can argue that other accusations of bias have no solid proof. But a press release from Amnesty slamming the report before they even read it shows, beyond any doubt, that Amnesty has an anti-Israel agenda, and it casts doubt on the methods used in every report Amnesty has...

Latest Latma (1/28/11)

I like this one....

Egypt cuts off Internet, and more on Day 4 of riots

Round-up of news from Egypt: The Egyptian government has ordered internet providers to shut down all international connections to the internet. Renesys, an American company that specializes in the analysis of internet data routing estimated the shut down on Friday was unprecedented in the history of internet. The four Egyptian service providers—Links Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr—are for the moment off the air. The only exception...

Video of new tunnel that proves ancient Jewish connection to Temple

From Fox News: I had read stories about the tunnel, but none emphasized that it proves the route of the main Jerusalem road at the time from the City of David to the Temple. (h/t Solomoni...

Concordia U Jewish students terrorized (must see) (updated)

This is a chilling video. Although it was made some eight years ago, it appears that nothing has changed. (h/t Elan Miller via Facebook) UPDATE: The anti-Israel left, predictably, called the events here "Silencing pro-Palestinian voices." (h/t Ruthi...

Video of Arabs and leftists trying to provoke settlers

Today, near Susia, some Arabs brought their sheep over to graze in a field that belongs to Jews. They also brought along some anti-Israel activists, equipped with a video camera. When the Jews asked them what was going on, the Arab women started to push the Jews. They targeted one Jew who was holding a stick, clearly hoping he would use it as a weapon. He didn't. The Arabs were trying very hard to get the Jews to turn violent, but...

AFP's bias shines through

My latest article at NewsRealBlog fisks a single paragraph from an AFP story last week to show how biased the media is - even if it is subconscious. Enjo...

References:Honest ReportingRobin Shephe...

Protests continue in Egypt; new protests in Yemen; Jordan next?

Headlines from Al Masry al Youm: Clashes between police and protestors left one civilian dead and a young girl injured in the town of Sheikh Zowayed in the Sinai peninsula. As hundreds of protesters fought with police, Mohamed Atef was shot in the head. By the time he arrived at the Sheikh Zowayed hospital he was already dead, according to a medial source. (This is the seventh fatality during the protests - EoZ.) Security forces arrested a 23-year-old...

Wikileaks adds some support to "Palestine Papers"

From a Wikileaks cable, July 2008, at the height of the negotiations between Kadima and Fatah that have been discussed in the "Palestine Papers:" Saeb Erekat said the GOI and PA are working on all permanent status issues, noting that the two sides “are farther along than we were at Camp David or at Taba.” He said the negotiators will need President Abbas and PM Olmert to “make the hard political decisions.” Erekat said the PA is committed to finishing...

Morning links

The Honest Reporting blog notes how the Guardian is pining for the good old days when Arafat was at his peak. JCPA has an analysis of Al Jazeera's agenda in releasing the "Palestine Papers." Yaacov Lozowick has an interesting "only in Jerusalem" anecdote. Treppenwitz adds up what he is seeing in Lebanon, Egypt, and the PA, and it does not add up to good news for his little part of the world. Robin Shepherd says "I told you so...

Al Jazeera continues to allege facts that aren't in the PalPapers

Whether or not the "Palestine Papers" truthfully reflect what happened in closed-door negotiations, what is clear is that The Guardian and Al Jazeera are reporting their own spin rather than facts. "Electronic Intifada" founder and NYT darling Ali Abunimah writes in Al Jazeera: PA lobbying blocked Shalit swap The PA blocked potential prisoner swaps that would have freed thousands of Palestinians and Shalit. Analysis of secret minutes of meetings...

Abbas rewards family of terrorist

From Palestinian Media Watch: Earlier this month a Palestinian terrorist attempted to attack an Israeli checkpoint. Carrying two pipe bombs, he ran towards the Israeli soldiers, screaming "Allahu Akbar" - "Allah is Greater" - and was shot and killed before he could detonate the bombs. Yesterday Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas granted "the relatives of the Shahid" $2000: "The governor of the Jenin district, Kadura Musa, has awarded a presidential...

Syria blocking social networking sites

In 2007, Syria blocked access to the Facebook webpage by its citizens. Now, in the wake of the Tunisia uprising, they are tightening the ban even more. From Reuters: Syrian authorities have banned programmes that allow access to Facebook Chat from cellphones, tightening already severe restrictions on the Internet in the wake of the unrest in Tunisia, users said on Wednesday. Nimbuzz and eBuddy, two programmes that allow access to Facebook Chat...

Iran publishes and promotes explicit anti-Semitism

The Muslim world has always insisted that it is not anti-semitic, simply anti-Zionist. The current Iranian regime in particular has stressed this argument, using useful pawns like the New York Times' Roger Cohen to point to the Iranian Jewish community as proof it is not against Jews. The Aladdin Project, an initiative to promote peace between Jews and Muslims, has demolished Iran's claims. The Aladdin Project has catalogued more than 160 books...

Gaddafi foundation reneges on UNRWA pledge

From UNRWA, August 9, 2010: The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) and UNRWA have signed a $50 million agreement to rebuild 1250 refugee homes in the Gaza Strip destroyed when Israel launched its last devastating attack on Gaza during December 2008 and January 2009.Isn't it heartwarming when Arabs step up to help out their fellow Arabs in Gaza? Oops: The media advisor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine...

What it feels like to be murdered by an Arab

A must-read article in the Jerusalem Post: The two women got out of the car with Wilson’s dog, Peanut, and walked a bit on the Israel Trail. They had wandered off the path to an overlook when suddenly two Arab men appeared and asked in Hebrew if they had any water. “I was startled... so I answered in Hebrew, which was a mistake,” Wilson said. “I know what they were trying to do, they were trying to figure out if we were Jewish.” The men gave her...

Conspiracy theory: Netanyahu released PalPapers to get Abbas killed

A great conspiracy theory is published as an op-ed in the pro-Fatah Palestine Press Agency. The author argues that the release of the "Palestine Papers" must have been orchestrated by Bibi Netanyahu. Here's the bizarre thinking that leads the author to this conclusion. Netanyahu is threatened by Abbas because Abbas is managing to build a nation on his own. Abbas is also a threat because Israel can no longer point to him and say that all Palestinian...

...

Fatah newspapers have been furiously publishing articles supporting the Fatah leadership and attacking Al Jazeera. One article in Al-Ahd shows a gimmick that we have seen even mainstream newspapers use in order to push forward propaganda as news. See if you can spot it: The masses of refugees in camps in the West Bank confirmed their support for President Mahmoud Abbas and...