October 2011 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, October 31, 2011

Goldstone - yes, Goldstone - defends Israel from "apartheid" slander

From the New York Times, an op-ed by Richard Goldstone, author of the infamous Goldstone Report that slandered Israel: THE Palestinian Authority’s request for full United Nations membership has put hope for any two-state solution under increasing pressure. The need for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians has never been greater. So it is important to separate legitimate criticism of Israel from assaults that aim to isolate, demonize...

This is a followup to my previous post discussing whether it is accurate to describe Palestinian Arab support for terrorism as an example of its culture. In 2008, Palestine Media Watch gave lots of evidence that the (secular) Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency would routinely use the word "martyrs" in its English language articles describing the death of terrorists. In response,...

A blog-friend was offended by my last poster (which said "Palestinian culture.") It led to a spirited debate on Twitter over whether it is fair, or bigoted, to say that "Palestinian culture" can be symbolized by a bus bomber. (Others wildly misinterpreted the poster as saying I was calling all Palestinian Arabs suicide bombers, which is ridiculous.) My contention is that...

Iranophobia-palooza!

I first noticed the term "Iranophobia" last year, but in recent weeks Iran has been using the term a lot more: October 13: "The repeat of ineffective and stupid methods by hapless and distracted policy-makers in the West (to spread) Iranophobia will again bear no result," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an army base in the western city of Kermanshah, the official IRNA news agency reported. October 25: US and Europe Seek to Promote Iranophobia October...

Well, they didn't invent falafel... UPDATE: If you want to see my exhaustive defense of why this poster is accurate, see this and thi...

Abbas: "I am against terror (wink, wink)"

From MEMRI, from an interview with Mahmoud Abbas on Egypt's Dream TV: Interviewer: "Don't you think that it was the resistance that managed to liberate a thousand prisoners? "Negotiations must always be accompanied by a measure of force. There can be no negotiations without resistance. This has been shown by the experience of people – in Ireland and all countries." Mahmoud Abbas: "That's true, but our circumstances are different. We are not able...

This IsReal (video)

Nice short film by Matthew Brown. A road trip straight through Israel. Had no idea what the complexities and diversity of the cultures were, but I got deeper and deeper, seeing all walks of life living together in this amazing land. The conglomerate of things happening in that tiny, but EPIC country (it's smaller than New Jersey!) packed a punch like a bustling beehive. I was overwhelmed and totally let Israel envelope me. I bonded with every...

What will happen next with UNESCO?

As was obvious, UNESCO voted to admit a fictitious state: Palestinians won a crucial vote to enter UNESCO as a full member on Monday, scoring a symbolic victory in their battle for statehood ahead of a similar vote at the UN General Assembly in New York. "The general assembly decides to admit Palestine as a member of UNESCO," said the resolution adopted by 107 countries, with 14 voting against and 52 abstaining. "This vote will help erase a tiny...

Jordanians plan to sue Netanyahu

From Ammon News: Jordanian farmers from the Jordan Valley intend to file a lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in international courts over the fires Israel reportedly sets ablaze at the borders with Jordan, causing major damages to Jordanian border farms. Head of the Jordan Valley Farmers' Union Adnan Khaddam said that the farmers also intend to file lawsuits against Israeli Ambassador in Amman Danial Nevo over the fires...

Jordan says Hamas will not move to Amman

From Ammon News: The leadership of the Hamas, including the political bureau, will not move to settle in Amman, Minister of State for Media Affairs Rakan Majali said on Sunday. Majali, who is also government spokesperson, denied reports that Hamas' political bureau would move its offices from Damascus to Amman, explaining that discussions are underway to have "a normal relationship between Jordan and Hamas, just like other Palestinian factions." "Jordan...

The Islamic Jihad website Saraya has an article about Khansa Fatima Sheikh Khalil, a Gaza mother who has had five of her terrorist sons killed "in martyrdom." She is looking forward to joining her sons in paradise. The article says that she did not cry for more than five minutes upon news of her son Ahmad's death on Saturday. She expressed joy and praised Allah for what...

Nice shooting! Ten terrorists dead, no civilians

Since Gaza terror groups decided that they no longer had to restrain themselves from shooting rockets, Israel's record has been 10 dead terrorists and no dead civilians. Nine of the terrorists were from Islamic Jihad and one from DFLP. The official PA Wafa news agency has had many articles on the IDF airstrikes, and zero about the barrage of rockets from Gaza aimed at residential areas in Israel (with the exception of one story about the Israeli...

Voodoo Palestinian Arab economics and The Guardian (correction)

The Palestinian Authority came out with a paper last month that attempts to place a dollar value of how much the "occupation" costs the Palestinian Arab economy. I haven't had time to go through the whole thing, but the one section I skipped to shows a serious mathematical error that results in an error of, oh, about 4400%. Here is their entire chapter on fruit trees, with some very questionable assumptions to begin with: The Urbanization...

The Harlem Globetrotters played over the weekend in a country that has discriminated against its Palestinian population for over sixty years. Hundreds of thousands of this country's residents are barred from becoming citizens, from buying land, from taking up many types of jobs and even from leaving the wretched, impoverished ghettos they live in. The general population despises...

UNRWA just can't avoid blaming Israel

I have noted that the Hamas-dominated teachers' union in Gaza has declared it would go on strike this week to protest UNRWA's suspension of its leader for being politically linked to Hamas. Hamas regards UNRWA as its last major rival in Gaza to be defeated and placed under submission to the self-proclaimed "Islamic Resistance Movement," after Hamas has destroyed or co-opted Fatah and many other militant groups, independent unions and NGOs. Hamas...

More reports that Abbas plans to dissolve the PA

As I was the first one to report in English last week, afterwards confirmed by Ma'ariv, there is more evidence that Mahmoud Abbas plans to dissolve the Palestinian Authority. From Asharq al-Awsat: Despite a number of denials by members of Fatah Movement regarding Israeli press reports that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas intends on dissolving the Palestinian Authority [PA], sources have stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that President Abbas intends...

From Ha'aretz: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday in an interview with Channel 2 that the Arab world erred in rejecting the United Nations' 1947 plan to partition Palestine into a Palestinian and a Jewish state. The Palestinian and Arab refusal to accept a UN plan to partition the then-British-controlled mandate of Palestine sparked widespread fighting, then...

From The Forward: Pro-Palestinian student activists are planning a national conference this month that they hope will bring new coordination and potency to the anti-Israel movement on campus. The group Students for Justice in Palestine is already one of the most active pro-Palestinian groups at North American universities, but its diffuse chapters share no formal organizational...

Assad warns against Western intervention in Syria

From the Sunday Telegraph: In his first interview with a Western journalist since Syria's seven-month uprising began, President Assad told The Sunday Telegraph that intervention against his regime could cause "another Afghanistan". Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely," he said. "But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different. "Syria is the...

When writers like Barry Rubin warn about the dangers of Islamism in the context of the "Arab Spring," the mainstream media tends to marginalize it and the Left dismisses it as right-wing paranoia and anti-Arab racism. Which makes this article by Raghida Dergham so vitally important. Not only because she is an Arab woman, but also because it was published in both the pan-Arab...

A small victory

Last week I discovered that a Ma'an story claiming that an 11-year old boy was released after five months in an Israeli prison, which was copied and retweeted on anti-Israel sites, was not true. The real story was that a 17 year old stone-thrower was imprisoned for 4 months before being released. After I brought it to their attention, Ma'an corrected the story. (In Arabic, they corrected the age but still refer to him multiple times as a "child.") The...

Saudi prince ups reward for kidnapping Israeli soldier to $1 million

From YNet: Saudi Prince Khaled bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud declared Saturday he would give $900,000 to whoever abducts an Israeli soldier in order to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. In an interview with Saudi TV, bin Talal stressed that his offer was in response to a similar offer made by a Saudi cleric who earlier this week said he would give $100,000 to anyone who would kidnap an Israeli soldier. "Al-Qarni offered $100,000 to whoever...

The hypocrisy of the Israeli Left, perfectly captured

I noted an absurd Ha'aretz op-ed by Alon Idan the other day where he said, among other things: The Shalit deal is, in fact, a public display of Israel's racist price index. The ceremony occurs every few years, and the index is designed to update the market values of the region's various races. As of October 2011, in the Israeli market, the price of one Jew equals 1,027 Arabs. And the price increases every day. But a few months ago, during Shalit's...

Some 24 rockets (update: 35) were launched towards civilian areas in Israel this evening, killing Moshe Ami from Ashkelon. He was a father of four. Islamic Jihad, via their Palestine Today website, is bragging that they are using a new kind of multiple rocket launcher. Here's the video they posted: Will the UN continue to call these "home made rockets...

Weekend open thread

Don't forget to put in your nominations for the 2011 Hasby Awards. I was a little surprised not to see anyone nominate Bibi's speech at the UN - or, even more so, his speech to Obama. So think about any other interesting hasbara events that may have happened this year, and nominate them! Have a good weeken...

Latest Latma

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Meanwhile, in Syria...

From Al Arabiya today: As many as 37 people have been killed when security forces opened fire at demonstrators on Friday, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists as protesters called for nationwide rallies to demand the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria to protect civilians.From CNN Thursday: Three children were among 25 people reported killed Thursday in Syria, an opposition group reported, in the apparent latest round of violence to rattle...

Does this mean Israel values Arabs twice as much as Jews?

From Al Masry Al Youm: Alleged Israeli spy Ilan Grapel, who was released Thursday in a prisoner exchange deal between Egypt and Israel, thanked Egyptian authorities for treating him well during his four months of detention. Grapel was returned to Israel on Thursday night in exchange for 25 Egyptians held in Israeli prisons. He crossed into Israel from the Egyptian border town of Taba. Ouda Tarabin, an Israeli Bedouin who has been detained in Egypt...

Hamas apologist thrilled with Islamist victory in Tunisia

From Ma'an: Tunisia's main Islamist party Ennahda was officially declared winner of the national vote on Thursday, the first election of the Arab Spring. Prominent Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh lauded the democratic vote, and said Ennahda's victory demonstrated the "resilience and tenacity of Islam" in the nation where the moderate Islamist group was banned before its January revolution. Amayreh, writing for Hamas-affiliated news site...

Ma'ariv reports of Abbas plan to dissolve PA

I reported Wednesday that there were rumors that Mahmoud Abbas might announce that he would dissolve the Palestinian Authority if he doesn't get his state, in the Palestinian Arab version of a temper tantrum. Ma'ariv is quoting a senior Palestinian Arab official as saying that the PA has created detailed plans in case it decides to do just that. According to the article, Abbas requested a contingency plan be drawn up on how to transfer various...

Arab lives really are cheaper - to Arabs

Ha'aretz publishes a ridiculously anti-Israel piece by Alon Idan that mirrors Deborah Orr's absurd, antisemitic Guardian article. Idan writes: The fact is, the release of one Israeli soldier for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners is not normal; certainly it does not represent an inferior love felt by a Palestinian mother for her son compared to an Israeli mother. As it turns out, such price lists and equations reflect the Israeli consciousness and...

Ma'an reports: Israeli authorities released on Tuesday Omar Jaradat, 11, from Saeer village north of Hebron after five months in the Israeli prison Ofer. He also paid a 5,000-shekel fine. Israeli forces tried to forbid people who were waiting for the child near the checkpoint from welcoming him and tried to remove Palestinian flags that were on cars near the checkpoint....

Half a cheer - Ilan Grapel is in Israel

I'm glad he is out of Egypt, but I cannot find it in myself to be so happy that a stupid kid who was yelling anti-American slogans in Egypt is being treated with any honor. He's an idiot whose misguided idealism and naivete cost Israel, the country he loves, a great deal. I'm more worried about Egypt taking the next Grapel hostage than Hamas trying to find another ...

UNRWA teachers' strikes in Gaza resume

The conflict between the Hamas-dominated teachers' union and UNRWA has resumed after a short period of time to celebrate the arrival of terrorists in the territory. The union announced a teachers' strike next week from Sunday to Thursday, and there were more protests today. As usual, UNRWA's website ignores the issue. The major demand by the union is to be able to openly associate with terror groups. Their president was suspended from...

From NYT: One of Iran’s top grandmasters was expelled from an international chess tournament on Tuesday after he refused to play a match against an Israeli opponent, the director of the tournament said. The Iranian, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, was scheduled to play Ehud Shachar in the fourth round of the Corsica Masters, a pairing determined by computer. The director, Léo Battesti,...

Free e-book: RAND analysis of Lebanon, Gaza wars

The RAND Corporation has released a 400 page e-book, Operations in Israel’s War Against Hezbollah: Learning from Lebanon and Getting it Right in Gaza, by Benjamin S. Lambeth. I have only skimmed it but it appears to be a tremendous work of research. Lambeth has written other works, primarily about air campaigns. He had access to many IDF and IAF officials in researching this. Here are parts of a review by the Israel Defense website. Unfortunately,...