November 2011 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A scary photo mistake

Al Arabiya English has an article by AFP about how Islamists are gaining the upper hand in northern Africa and how the West is growing concerned. What interested me more than the article was the file photo illustrating it: When was this photo taken? It turns out that Al Arabiya got the photo caption wrong. It is not a recent photo of Islamist women in Egypt...

Great speech by Ron Prosor at the UN yesterday

Here is what Israel's ambassador the the UN, Ron Prosor, said yesterday in a speech on the occasion of the General Assembly debate on "The Question of Palestine." Mr. President, A great Jewish sage once wrote, “The truth can hurt like a thorn, at first; but in the end it blossoms like a rose.” His words came to my mind today. His insight could really benefit many in this hall. It takes a well of truth to water the seeds of peace. Yet, we continue...

Turkey suspends all financial dealings with Syria

From Al Arabiya: Turkey will suspend all financial dealings with Syria and freeze Syrian government assets as part of sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday. Davutoglu also told a news conference that Turkey, once a close friend of Damascus, would block the delivery of all weapons and military equipment to Damascus as part of measures aimed at persuading Assad to end...

I am still piecing things together, but it appears that about five Jewish owned stores were vandalized last night in the heavily Orthodox Jewish community of Highland Park, NJ. Someone threw stones through the windows of a pizza shop, two Judaica stores, a kosher restaurant and a Jewish-owned hardware store. More photos here. I am also told that someone threw a brick...

Hamas Gaza leader Mahmoud Zahar has again said that the heralded "unity" deal with Fatah is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Zahar pointedly said that the meeting between Abbas and Meshal in Cairo was not reconciliation, but a postponement of reconciliation. He says that there is no way that the elections will be held in May because in the time beforehand there needs...

On November 30, 1947, while Jews were still in the streets of Palestine celebrating the UN partition vote, Arabs murdered seven Jews. Six of them were on a bus. Arabs threw grenades at an Egged bus traveling from Netanya to Jerusalem, and one exploded inside. Devora Yaari was injured, and her husband Shalom rushed to her aid. He was shot dead in cold blood. Shoshana Mizrahi...

Muslim Brotherhood leads Egypt voting, Salafists in 2nd place

From Al Masry al Youm: The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is leading parliamentary polls across Egypt, according to early estimates Wednesday. Egyptians cast their ballots Monday and Tuesday in the first round of parliamentary elections, held in nine governorates. Elections will continue over several phases into January. With the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ability to organize and mobilize supporters, many expected the FJP to dominate...

From Amir Farshad Ebrahimi's blog; I have no way to confirm it: According to the regime, the students stormed the embassy. But this guy is a Quds force officer, Karim Jalali, When he was there, it means Sepah was behind it with direct order of the supreme leader. The Wall Street Journal adds: The scenes outside the British embassy in Iran yesterday evoked Tehran,...

From The Australian, originally at The Times of London: AN IRANIAN nuclear facility has been hit by a huge explosion, the second such blast in a month, prompting speculation that Tehran's military and atomic sites are under attack. Satellite imagery seen by The Times confirmed that a blast that rocked the city of Isfahan on Monday struck the uranium enrichment facility there,...

Thomas Friedman at the New York Times just can't learn. Clueless Friedman Israel has an Arab awakening in its own backyard in the person of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority. He’s been the most radical Arab leader of all. He is the first Palestinian leader to say: judge me on my performance in improving my peoples’ lives, not on my rhetoric. His...

The Forward reveals that Stand With Us is - gasp! - right of center!

Here's another Forward expose, this one written by Nathan Guttman, where they find out that a pro-Israel organization is somewhat to the right of the Forward! Shocking, I know: [I]n a time characterized by burning debate among Jews regarding what it means to be pro-Israel, SWU’s stance has provoked some strong criticism. Those who claim to be Zionists and supporters of Israel while publicly criticizing its government’s policies towards the Palestinians,...

Why would anyone think this is a hate crime?

From The Gothamist: More details have emerged about the man who was stabbed on a Park Slope subway yesterday—while initial reports said that the incident occurred on the G train, the Daily News says it was an F train, and the spat began over some anti-Semitic comments. Emil Benjamin, a loan broker from Bensonhurst, was on a southbound F train approaching the 4th Avenue/9th Street station around 10 p.m. Monday night when two men reportedly started...

This is an interesting initiative to buy Israeli goods this week. It seems to be more like a Groupon-type site, along with some local deals (at least in the US.) Nicely done, check it ou...

Secularists, Salafists clash at Tunisia university

From AFP: Hundreds of demonstrators calling for women to be allowed to wear the Muslim veil in class clashed with students at a university outside Tunis on Tuesday for the second day running. Protesters wearing the veil and bearded men wearing the Muslim tunic shouted “God Is Great”, facing other students responding “Islamists, Go Home.” The demonstration at the University of Manouba, west of Tunis, came a day after a group of Salafists disrupted...

This columnist in Jordan's Al Arab al Yawm, Asad al-Azzouni, manages to hit every major anti-semitic stereotype about Jews - and create a couple of new ones - in a pretty short op-ed. MEMRI gives us the translation: Israel is a peace rejectionist. That much is obvious. But what people don't know is the reason for this – namely, that Jews and peace are generally incompatible. [The...

Two more data points for the clueless Karl Vicks of the world

Yesterday I wrote about how Time magazine's Karl Vick was wedded to the idea of a moderating Hamas despite all evidence to the contrary. Since then, Hamas' "political wing" member Sheikh Salah Aruri has emphasized that terrorism is a "right": Our agreement with Fatah has nothing to do with the rest of our choices and our visions. We remain with our previous position, that all forms of resistance are a right and duty, with no restrictions on the...

In the wake of the Iranian "students" attacking the British embassy in Iran today, here is what was happening in the Middle East on November 30, 1947: Wow, who knew students were so violent? Then again.....

Religious quasi-police group organizes in Tunisia

A self-declared "Association of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" is being organized in Tunisia, in what appears to be patterned after the religious police in Saudi Arabia. The organizers hope to create an Islamic legal authority that stands on its own and does not depend on rulings from imams in other countries. While Tunisian law does not allow for the creation of political parties on a purely religious basis, this is not a political...

Praise for Bin Laden, threats to Jews in Tahrir Square

MEMRI translated the video showing cleric Tawfik al-Afni in Tahrir Square on November 18: Tawfiq Al-Afni (in interview): First of all, Islamic law is the only source for legislation. […] In addition, I would like to say to the whole world that the Prophet Muhammad prophesized that the return of Islam was inevitable. Why do they fear Islam? When Islam rules, justice, compassion, and goodness will prevail. So why do people fear Islam? […] I...

From NYT: In the latest sign of deteriorating relations with the West, a group of Iranian protesters stormed the British Embassy compound in Tehran on Tuesday, chanting “death to England,” tearing down a British flag and ransacking offices, according to British officials and images broadcast live on state-run Iranian television. One Iranian news agency said six embassy workers...

As a follow-up to this post from Sunday: From the Palestine Post, November 30, 1947: Again, no Arab nation is talking about accepting a Palestinian Arab state! It's as if they didn't think that Palestinian Arabs were a nation. You can almost imagine them saying words to the effect that there were no such thing as a "Palestinian people" in 1947. So when the UN declared...

Foreign Policy praises a lying conspiracy theorist as a "global thinker"

Foreign Policy magazine put out their annual list of Top 100 Global Thinkers, and coming in at #28 are Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, "for forging a path between violence and surrender." "Enough, enough, enough." With those words at the U.N. General Assembly, Mahmoud Abbas finally stepped out of Yasir Arafat's shadow and began to build his own legacy as a Palestinian nationalist. Abbas, who has guided the Palestinian Authority through nearly seven...

From YNet: One of the Katyushas The IDF confirmed Tuesday that two Katyusha rockets were fired at the western Galilee from Lebanon on Monday night. No injuries were reported, but several structures sustained damage. The IDF's Northern Command has been placed on high alert following the fire. The military stressed that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible...

Time's Karl Vick remains clueless

How many times do we have to see people who pretend to be analysts prove themselves so incredibly, irredeemably wrong? Here's Time magazine's Karl Vick: [W]hat if Abbas is holding still, and Hamas is moving closer to Abbas? That's what's been happening, from nearly all appearances, for the last two or three years, and everything coming out of the Cairo meeting points in the same direction. The head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, and Abbas spoke for...