February 2012 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Lebanese blogger crushed that Dr. Ruth is a Zionist

From Now Lebanon, by blogger Louisa Ajami: You know when you like a celebrity, only to find out there’s something terribly unlikeable about them, like they charge for autographs or are bad tippers at restaurants? Well, I used to love Dr. Ruth. She’s an 83-year-old German sex doctor who’s been part of American popular culture for generations with her radio shows and TV...

Iran upset at $1.5 billion arms sale from Israel to Azerbaijan

Another BDS failure... From Al Arabiya: Azerbaijan on Wednesday dismissed an Iranian protest over its reported deal to buy arms worth $1.5 billion from Tehran’s foe Israel amid increased tensions between the neighboring states. Azerbaijan’s ambassador was summoned to Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday to explain the weapons and to receive a warning that Israel must not be permitted to use Azerbaijan to stage “terrorist acts” against Iran. But...

Israeli goalkeeper kicks ball into wind; flies back into goal

Mother Nature 1, Maccabi Haifa 0: February 29th, 2012: Maccabi Haifa took on Dynamo Kiev in a friendly today, ahead of Israel's friendly with Ukraine, and the match was played in ridiculous weather conditions as the wind took on biblical proportions. The friendly match was only 60 minutes long but there was enough time for one of the strangest goals ever seen. Kiev's second saw Haifa goalie Assaf Mendes take a goal kick. Mendes' punt forward...

Fatah values its children - as fertilizer

I had missed this from Palestinian Media Watch last month: PA TV narrator: "In the refugee camp Ein Al-Hilwe [in Lebanon], a rally was held in celebration of the [47th] anniversary [of Fatah]. A political symposium was also held on the occasion of the event." Text on slide at event: "Our children are our honor and glory, they were created to be fertilizer for the land of Palestine, and for our pure land to be saturated with their blood they...

In an interview with Al Ahram, Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party chairman Mohamed Morsi said that the new Egyptian government would welcome Hamas moving its headquarters from Damascus to Cairo: Q: Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas support the Syrian revolution and the start of migration of the Syrian Palestinian leaders from Damascus...Will we witness...

Today's interesting Wikileaks from Stratfor (updated)

Besides the leaked email I noted before about Ma'an's editor, we have: Turkey planned on downgrading relations with Israel even before the May 2010 flotilla incident, documents published Wednesday by WikiLeaks suggest. A leaked email from George Friedman, the head of US-based global security analysis company Stratfor, reveals that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger that at some point he...

I was browsing through the Quds Media site, which is one of the sources for some of the more ridiculous rumors about Israel and the Al Aqsa Mosque, and which has an English version. While there I saw this article: Jerusalem in the Qur’an is a great book that thrilled and delighted me in a number of ways. I am surprised that such a meticulously documented book had to wait...

In a remarkably tone-deaf interview, Hamas Gaza leader Mahmoud Zahar dismissed any claims that the power crisis in Gaza was a problem. The leader of the Hamas questioned those talking about a state of flux in the Gazan street as a result of successive crises such as lack of gas and power outages, saying: "There are crises in gas, housing and oil in the world, and there...

Who's telling the truth about Ramallah TV station raid? (updated)

From YNet: Communication Ministry officials raided the al-Watan TV station in Ramallah Wednesday. The raid was headed by officers at the ministry's Wireless Supervision Unit. Palestinian sources said that an IDF force accompanied them. The IDF said that the raid was prompted by the station's use of unauthorized frequencies, which endanger flight routes over Ben Gurion International Airport. One of the station's broadcasters said that the soldiers...

Wikileaks/Stratfor: Ma'an editor "batsh*t insane"

From the latest Wikileaks dump of hacked Stratfor emails: Sending straight to alpha because no WO on. Replying to this thread because it's in reference to the bias we should be aware of from Ma'an News Agency, whose story Mikey just pasted in response to the insight on what's happening at Pal camps in Lebanon. Source is new, just met him on my trip. He's a journalist who works for Ma'an. Insight below is his response to my questions about...

Netanyahu and others on PBS' "The Advocates," 1979

With host, Michael Dukakis! The Netanyahu (Ben Nitay) part begins around the 15 minute mark: I find it interesting that the pro-Palestinian Arab side is generally only talking about self-determination, not a state. By pretty much any definition, they have achieved that. But every time they achieve something, the goalposts keep moving. (h/t Hillel Neue...

Arabs against absorption of refugees (NYT, 1966)

From The New York Times, April 4, 1966: JERUSALEM (Jordanian Sector), March 30—"The Arab states will not integrate the Palestine refugees because integration would be a slow process of liquidating the Palestine problem," Ahmed Shukairy, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, declared in an interview today. "Consequently, the refugees don't...

Afternoon open thread/links

Where you can ruminate over the fact that a Houston high school basketball team may never find out if they are the best in the league. Or you can review Vice News - in Gaza. (I didn't get to see it yet.) Or discuss exactly what makes Pepsi a "Jewish drink." (h/t JTA, jzai...

Fatah accuses Hamas of stopping election plans

From Fatah's WAFA news agency: Azzam al-Ahmad, the head of Fatah delegation to the reconciliation talks with Hamas, Tuesday told WAFA that Hamas continues to prevent the Central Elections Commission (CEC) resulted from reconciliation talks from working in the Gaza Strip. “It has been agreed that CEC will start working in December 23, 2011…Two months and a week later, Hamas still prevents the commission from working in Gaza without reason,” said...

From Israel's Foreign Ministry: Israeli Ambassador Yaacov Amitai on Monday, 27 February 2012, presented his credentials to Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces. At the official ceremony, during which other ambassadors also presented their credentials, the Israeli anthem was played, along with other national anthems,...

From AP: Muslim-majority Malaysia on Tuesday banned a planned concert by Erykah Badu after a photograph appeared showing the Grammy-winning singer with the Arabic word for Allah written on her body. The American R&B singer was scheduled to perform Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, but some Muslim groups said Badu was an unsuitable role model for young Malaysians after seeing...

Hamas says unity should only be for fighting Israel

Hamas newspaper Palestine Today is featuring an article by Dr. Fayez Abu Shamala, cursing the reconciliation agreement with Fatah. Shamala is saying that if the unity agreement means that the Palestinian Arabs can no longer engage in attacks against Israelis, it is useless. He asks why the PA is stopping Hamas and Islamic Jihad from attacking Jewish settlers and security officers - they should be joining in such attacks. He stresses that what is...

From Ma'an: Egyptian security forces on Tuesday thwarted an attempt to smuggle large quantities of diesel fuel into the Gaza Strip via underground tunnels, Ma'an's correspondent said. Egyptian military and police forces stopped four trucks containing more than 7,000 liters of diesel fuel bound for the Gaza Strip. Four Egyptian smugglers were arrested and are being questioned. Egypt...

More proof that Arabs hate their Palestinian brothers

Mahmoud Abbas, in his incitement speech at Doha, said something controversial to the Arab world. No, not his lies about how there is no evidence for an ancient Jewish presence in Jerusalem. Not his assertion that Israel was planning to destroy Al Aqsa Mosque. Not his absurd assertion that Israel is practicing "ethnic cleansing" against Arabs in Jerusalem. No, none of that is controversial. The controversial part was his call for Arabs to visit...

Criminal disingenuity from Peace Now's Lara Friedman

As I've mentioned, this week there was a conference in Doha that was meant to try to ensure that Israel and Jews would never have any say in how Jerusalem is administered. The keynote speaker was Mahmoud Abbas, who gave a speech that was sheer incitement against Israel and Jews as he effectively denied any Jewish connection to the city. The Emir of Qatar urged the UN to...

The beginning of the deadly 1936 riots (US State Dept)

We sometimes see Arab propagandists mention that the 1936 Arab riots that started in April were "non-violent." I once went through Palestine Post archives to show the violence done by Arabs in the first days of the Arab strike, but there were some incidents that happened beforehand. Here is a narrative of what happened then, from the US consul's perspective. Of the incidents mentioned here, only one was against Arabs by Jews. From the United...

Lebanon forcing students to take Hezbollah 101

From Ya Libnan: Hezbollah and its allies have “taken advantage” of their role in the government in order to force public schools and the Lebanese University to dedicate a one-hour session for teaching the history of Resistance, Lebanese University (LU) students affiliated with the Lebanese Forces party said on Monday. The students were referring to a decision that has been taken by Education Minister Hassan Diab. In a written statement the students...

Iran celebrates Oscar win over Israeli film

From Payvand: An Iranian filmmaker has won the country's first Oscar, taking the prize for the best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, and Tehran has celebrated by touting it as a victory over its archenemy. Director Asghar Farhad's "A Separation," already the recipient of a number of high-profile international awards, was awarded an Oscar on February 26 over films from Belgium, Poland, Canada, and Israel. But it was the...

Israel looking at connecting its power grid to Europe

As Israel-haters pretend that they can hurt the Jewish state by threatening tiny stores in the Pacific Northwest and insecure second-tier performing artists, Israel is making billion-dollar deals with Europe aimed at maintaining energy independence. From Engineering News-Record: Israeli Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau has instructed the Israel Electric Corp. to advance a project that would connect the country to the European power grid by...

The intra-Hamas split gets more obvious

On Friday, reports emerged of Hamas officially severing ties with the Assad regime: Hamas has thrown its political clout behind an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Palestinian Islamist group's longtime patron and host, a shift that cracks a formidable alliance and further widens the Middle East's sectarian divide. Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, told worshipers at Cairo's Al Azhar mosque...

Abbas makes another threat. Yawn.

From Ma'an: The Palestinian Authority is planning to reconsider its security, political and economic agreements with Israel in the coming days, a PLO official said on Sunday. After exploratory talks with Israel ended without agreement, the PLO Executive Committee has agreed to take a number of measures to jolt the current stalemate. In an interview with Egyptian channel CBC on Friday, President Mahmoud Abbas said the PA was planning a "major...

Tempest in a Wikipot: Did Israel destroy Iran's nuclear program?

From The Times of Israel, also reported elsewhere: Israeli agents collaborating with Kurdish operatives destroyed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure last year, according to an unnamed Israeli intelligence source cited in communiques between intelligence analysts uncovered by Wikileaks on Monday. The leaked emails also contain assessments that Europeans want a military strike against Tehran to divert attention from the euro crisis and that Henry Kissinger...

Morning links

There are now some 80,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, a much higher number than previously admitted. From Facebook to the Arab League in four days An incredible chain of events has recently played out in the Middle East, demonstrating the lengths to which opinion-shapers and politicians in the Arab world will go to demonize Israel. The IRS distinguishes between New Israeli Shekels, and those remarkably similar shekels used in Jerusalem. There...

Hamas issues arrest warrant to rights activist

His crime? Correctly blaming the fuel crisis on Hamas! The director of a Gaza-based human rights organization said Sunday that he received an arrest warrant from the Hamas government, after he criticized the state-run energy authority. Al-Dameer director Khalil Abu Shamala, who is also a member of the public freedoms committee, said the arrest warrant included accusations from the Hamas-run energy authority that he had blamed them for the current...

Media bias: AP awards Palestinian Arabs their state

Some bias in the middle of an AP article by Mohammed Daraghmeh: It appears unlikely Israel's government would permit campaigning in east Jerusalem, one of three war-won territories that, along with the West Bank and Gaza, is to make up a Palestinian state. Forget negotiations! AP has declared that everything beyond the Green Line is going to be part of the Palestinian state, no matter what. If they insist on it, they must get it all. Is it any...

Jews are Judaizing Jerusalem?

From AFP: Qatar urged the United Nations on Sunday to investigate Jewish settlement expansion in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, warning that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was unacceptable. “We must act quickly to stop the Judaization of Jerusalem,” said Qatar’s emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in his opening remarks at the International Conference...

The professor who pushes anti-Israel propaganda (Algemeiner)

My latest piece for The Algemeiner is online: [Professor Amy] Kaplan accepts the premise of the question, that it is desirable to try to insert anti-Israel material into every class, but she notes that some courses (like biology or calculus, perhaps) do not lend themselves to such blatant propagandizing. However, she goes on, there is nothing to stop an intrepid teacher from not only injecting anti-Israel content into courses about literature and...