May 2011 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Jerusalem Day: Videos

Today is Yom Yerushalayim, the day to celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem after the artificial splitting of the city for 19 long years from 1948-1967. JCPA came out with a brilliant video showing the history of Jerusalem in 5 minutes, highlighting how only under Jewish rule has it been truly a place for freedom of religion. Not nearly as good, but I made a video a couple of years ago comparing how important Jerusalem is in Jewish and Muslim...

Administrivia/open thread

The blog has broken its previous record for pageviews this month, with over 169,000 pageviews and 120,000 unique pageviews. In the past 12 months I have over 1.3 million pageviews. My Alexa rank has gone up to 139,878 out of all websites in the world, up from around 210,000 in December. That's pretty good. I am getting so many emails with suggestions for posts that I cannot possibly post them all. When I can, I put them in linkdumps, but there...

Video: Who do the territories belong to?

Well done and accurate, now with English translation in the comments...

Why are there so many Egyptian birth defects?

Al Masry al-Youm interviews doctors who list the three major reasons why Egyptian babies have a high number of birth defects. Number three is economic conditions, that make it difficult for women to get proper pre-natal care. Number two is pollution, such as contamination of water sources or living near factories that emit dangerous byproducts. But the major reason for birth defects is inbreeding. Some 35-40% of Egyptians marry their own cousins,...

"Free Software Foundation" founder cancels Israel lectures

From Thinq.co.uk: Open sourcerer and president of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, has cancelled a bunch of lectures and public appearances he was due to make in Israel, since he'd tacked them on to a visit he is to make to the Occupied Territories paid for by Palestinians. Stallman was had booked himself in to speak at Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and Shenkar College in July when he also has engagements in the Occupied...

Iranian diplomat accused of spying against Egypt

I edited this from stories in Bikya Masr, Ya Libnan and Al Masry al Youm: An Iranian diplomat working at the Iran mission in Cairo was detained on Saturday, security sources told Bikya Masr. The diplomat, Qassem Hosseini, was taken in for questioning after a tip-off led investigators to the Iranian diplomat’s villa in Maadi. Early reports said that Hosseini was being held for “passing information” from the mission in Cairo back to his headquarters...

Tweeters and bloggers overwhelmingly pro-Israel after Obama, Bibi speeches

From the Pew Research Center's Journalism.org: By almost a 3-to-1 margin, bloggers and users of Twitter and Facebook expressed strong support for Israel over the Palestinians in the week following President Obama's May 19 address on the Middle East, according to an analysis of social media conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Many of those expressing support also took President Obama to task for suggesting...

IAEA notes Iranian nuke weapons program; Saudis to build 16 nuclear reactors

The nuclear arms race in the Middle East is in full swing. From the NYT last week: The world’s global nuclear inspection agency, frustrated by Iran’s refusal to answer questions, revealed for the first time on Tuesday that it possesses evidence that Tehran has conducted work on a highly sophisticated nuclear triggering technology that experts said could be used for only one purpose: setting off a nuclear weapon. The disclosure by the International...

Popular Egyptian daily Rose el-Youssef has spun a new conspiracy theory to rival the one from yesterday (which also originated there) about the Mossad grabbing Egyptians' email and contact lists via online TV viewing software. This one says that last Friday, the Mossad almost grabbed Hosni Mubarak from his hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh. The overly detailed theory says that...

Intra-Hamas battles continue

From The Economist: ALL is not well in the camp of Hamas, the Palestinians’ Islamist faction that rules the Gaza Strip. No sooner had its leader in exile, Khaled Meshal (pictured), declared his readiness for Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinians’ more moderate Fatah faction, to relaunch negotiations with Israel, than one of Hamas’s leaders in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, said Mr Abbas did not speak for the Palestinians: “Our programme is against negotiations...

Video of Egyptian judoka refusing to shake hands with Israeli

From JPost: Arik Ze’evi is on the verge of qualifying for his fourth straight Olympic Games after winning a gold medal at the Grand Slam event in Moscow on Sunday. The 34-year-old Israeli defeated Cyrille Maret of France in the final of the under-100-kilogram competition after beating 2009 world champion Maxim Rakov in the semis. Ze’evi’s achievement was marred by a slight controversy when Egyptian Ramadan Darwish refused to shake his hand and...

Work accidents! 5 new martyrs in "paradise"!

From Ma'an : Three men were killed Tuesday in an explosion at a resistance training ground in the southern Gaza Strip. Popular Resistance Committees spokesman Abu Mujahid told Ma'an that three men affiliated with the group were killed in a blast at the Abu Ataya training ground in Tel Sultan, west of Rafah. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion but the Israeli military said it was not responsible. Abu Mujahid identified...

Dehumanizing checkpoint photos

Here are more horrid photos of Palestinian Arabs being forced to wait for hours at dehumanizing checkpoints. A Palestinian boy sleeps on the ground as he waits with his family to cross into Egypt at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip May 29, 2011. Palestinian children wait to cross into Egypt at the Rafah border...

Saudi vice squad wonders why Saudi girls run away from home

From Arab News: Most runaway Saudi girls — 51.4 percent — are aged 16 to 20, according to a study conducted by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia). “Those in the age group of 21 to 25 came second among Saudi women who run away from their homes. They constituted 38.5 percent,” the study said. The team studied the reasons why girls ran away from their homes and how to deal with them and help them integrate into...

Iranian ayatollah confirms obligation to kill Israeli children

From the website of Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi - in English: Question 1: Some people say that martyrdom operations are considered suicide and that they are haram because they contradict Islam. They quote ahadith such as this one by Imam Ja'afar As-Sadeq(a.s.): "A Muslim may fight and get killed [by the enemy] but will never shed his own blood" and ayat such as "Do not kill yourselves, for Allah is compassionate towards you. Whoever does so, in transgression...

Egyptians freak over Israeli online TV software

There is an Israeli company called "Online TV Software" that, for a fee, allows you to watch thousands of satellite channels on your PC. This is no big deal; there are lots of similar services. However, Egyptians are freaking out upon finding out that the software was actually based out of Israel, and now Arabic media has stories about how the Mossad is using this software to monitor Egyptian Internet users. Their main evidence was their "discovery"...

Report: Lebanese army stopped a rocket attack last week

From the Daily Star Lebanon, in an article about last week's attack on UNIFIL forces in Lebanon which wounded six: Before Friday, the most recent attack against UNIFIL personnel was on Jan. 8, 2008, when a road side bomb exploded on the coastal highway near Rmeileh beside a jeep carrying Irish soldiers, lightly wounding two of them. The bomb consisted of 10 kg of explosive buried about 15 cm underground beside the median strip and was detonated by...

Everything is political - even blood

Palestine Press Agency reports that Egyptians are donating blood through the "Palestine Embassy" to "support the steadfastness of the people of Jerusalem." Somehow, I don't think they mean the Jews of Jerusalem. Is there a particular reason why Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem are in need of blood? Is there a shortage we have not been told about? Or are there any activities planned in the coming days - for example, "Naksa Day"...

Sheikh Yusuf Juma Salma, the Imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, has once again accused Israel of "Judaizing" Jerusalem. One of his complaints was that there was an official Israeli government function in the Tower of David last week, and there happens to have once been a mosque there (in fact, the tower itself was built as a minaret.) So even though it is open to the public, with...

A UN resolution to recognize "Palestine" would be illegal (JCPA)

From JCPA: May 25, 2011 His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1st Avenue & 44th St. New York, NY 10017 Excellency, Re: The Proposed General Assembly Resolution to Recognize a Palestinian State "within 1967 Borders" - An Illegal Action We, the undersigned, attorneys from across the world who are involved in general matters of international law, as well as being closely concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian...

Egypt op-ed debunks Egyptian stereotypes about Israel

A rare voice of relative reason in The Daily News Egypt: While anti-Israeli attitudes are not uncommon in Egypt, they are becoming more virulent after the revolution so much so that 54 percent of Egyptians prefer annulling the peace treaty with Israel, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. The point of interest here is not to morally judge these attitudes, but to examine whether or not their underlying assumptions are logically...

From YNet: The Hamas government decided to open the home of its former spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated in 2004, to visitors. A Hamas official announced the decision will allow visitors to learn more about Yassin's "Jihadist career" as well as his activities against the "Israeli occupation." "The goal is to commemorate his image in...

Syrians burned photos of Nasrallah (video)

An editorial in Asharq al-Awsat: The Syrian people quickly responded to the calls made a few days ago by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for the demonstrators to stand with the Syrian regime "of resistance", and the popular Syrian response to this was to burn pictures of Nasrallah on what was dubbed the "Friday of the Guardians of the Homeland." This is not the first response of its kind from the Syrian protestors, indeed a slogan that was previously...

I linked last week to an article by Victor Shikhman pointing out that the Arab Spring should have important consequences for Jordan: The real question, in light of the Arab Spring, and the mass uprisings which we are told are driven by the universal human urge towards democracy and freedom, isn't whether Jordan is Palestine, or even whether it could be Palestine. The real...

From Arab News: The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) has adopted a high-tech method to improve the moral standards of the general public. The method — Tawasul (interaction) — involves installing a number of electronic devices that deliver audio and video messages containing advice and moral lessons. “The Tawasul machines are being installed...

Hundreds of women raped in Libya

From AP: At first, the responses to the questionnaire about the trauma of the war in Libya were predictable, if tragic: 10,000 people suffering post-traumatic stress, 4,000 children with psychological problems. Then came the unexpected: 259 women said they had been raped by militiamen loyal to Muammar Qaddafi. Dr. Seham Sergewa had been working with children traumatized by the fighting in Libya but soon found herself being approached by troubled...

PA economy seriously screwed up by NGOs

I recently posted a couple of articles about how NGO money, poured into the Palestinian Arab territories, has been counter-productive. Another article, written by a businessman who is trying to build a real business in the PA-controlled areas, sheds light on the problem from his perspective: Due to the enormous amounts of donor funds provided as “development aid,” many NGOs are able to lure educated and professional Palestinians by offering salaries...

Syria update: 13 year old tortured to death

A horrific video is going around Arabic sites showing the dead, tortured body of a 14-year old Syrian boy named Hamza al-Khatib. (Warning: very gruesome.) Some 8 protesters were killed on Friday and there are reports that Iran is sending trainers and advisers to Syria to help stop the demonstrations. Now Lebanon is reporting that Syrian opposition leaders in Lebanon are being kidnapped and presumably forced into Syrian jail...

Weekend links

Daniel Gordis speaks to J-Street: "In the tent or out?" Krauthammer: What Obama Did to Israel Is Obama a Zionist Agent? (Toameh) Saudi Arabia gets a pass (Adam Daifallah) Canada's Harper blocks mention of "1967 borders" in G8 statement "Jordan Isn't Palestine, But It Could Be" (Victor Shikhman) Followup on the Saudi woman driver: she's in jail for another ten days at least, and has a sick son Egypt strips citizenship from Coptic Christian...

Israel's deaf-blind theater troupe touches audiences

This is Zionism. The YouTube page has links where you can download performances. (h/t Mik...

Terrorist who stabbed a rabbi to death gets monthly salary from the PA

Remember how people said that Hamas would become more moderate when they became part of a government? Hamas' AlQassam.ps site put up an article today about Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed Fallit, who has been in an Israeli prison for 19 years. In May 1992, Rabbi Shimon Biran was ambushed and stabbed in the back by the terrorist, near Kfar Darom. The article praises him for stabbing a civilian and then talks about how difficult his time in prison has been. Apparently,...

Good analysis of the Netanyahu/Obama drama from JPost

Herb Keinon in the Jerusalem Post has a thought provoking article that discusses, from a diplomatic perspective, why things happened the way they did over the past eight days. He gives fairly reasonable answers to the questions: Why did Obama surprise Netanyahu with a speech that clearly stated the 1967 lines as the negotiation baseline? Why did Netanyahu choose to pick a fight with Obama, issuing an extremely tough response to the president’s...

Latest Latma (5/27/11)

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UNIFIL member killed, 4 injured in Lebanese blast

From AFP: An Italian peacekeeper was killed and four wounded, one gravely, in an explosion targeting a UN patrol in south Lebanon on Friday, ANSA news agency reported, citing defence ministry sources. Contacted by AFP, a defence ministry spokesman in Rome said: "I can confirm the attack but as the rescue is still under way I do not have a very clear idea of the situation. In principle we have one fallen and one gravely injured."Other sources are...

Why is BDS silent on Microsoft?

From Time in March: Microsoft's "Kinect" hands-free motion control peripheral for the Xbox 360 has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever. Kinect "sold through an average of 133,333 units per day, for a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days on sale," says Guinness. The "sold through" part is especially important as sell-through denotes products actually purchased by customers—not...

From Al Masry al Youm: A group of Egyptians have announced their intent to establish a Nazi party with "a contemporary frame of reference," an independent Egyptian news website said on Wednesday. Al-Badeel, a leftist news portal, quoted founding member Emad Abdel Sattar as saying the party would bring together prominent figures from the Egyptian society. The party’s founding...

Is Israel booby-trapping Hamas weapons?

Firas Press quotes Israeli media today as saying that Hamas is fearful that some of the weapons it is receiving are actually booby-trapped or otherwise tampered with by Israel. According to the story, Israel passes weapons to Bedouin in the Sinai who in turn smuggle them to Gaza. The Popular Front claims to have received weapons that were tampered with. I don't know if it is true, but it is a great idea, isn't it? They should add tracking systems...

Bad anti-Israel folk-singer tries again

Last year a self-styled "folk singer" named David Rovics put out a truly horrible song that made the Mavi Marmara terrorists sound like heroes. It turns out he has an entire library of anti-Israel songs, each one written and sung worse than the next. He has a new song now because Netanyahu's speech really burned him up. It is so bad, it is funny. I wrote my own folk song in response to last year's Rovics train wreck that is much better, and I...