June 2012 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Lessons from the weekend protest you won't read about

Over the weekend, some 10,000 people protested over social issues in Tel Aviv. Unlike the violent protests the week before, where riots broke out and banks were broken into, this one was largely peaceful and as far as I can tell, no one was arrested There was another, much smaller protest over the weekend that reveals a lot more about the Israeli/Arab conflict, however. And...

From Talia Lefkowitz in Tablet: [...]I am a volunteer IDF soldier from New York City serving in an elite paratroopers unit. I am the only girl in a unit with 85 combat soldiers. Over the past year, we have served all over the country. Now we are based on the border of Gaza and Sinai, and things have started to get hairy. The rocket attacks always stop at some point. I...

The myth of "Jewish only roads" (Presspectiva/CAMERA)

From CAMERA: Yishai Goldflam, editor-in-chief of Presspectiva, CAMERA's Hebrew Web site, published an Op-Ed column in Ha'aretz, faulting that paper and other Israeli media for spreading the falsehood that Israel maintains "Jewish-only" roads in the West Bank. This is significant, especially since the fiction of "Jewish-only" roads features prominently in "Israel apartheid" mythology and is frequently cited by anti-Israel and pro-BDS (boycott, divest,...

Weekend links

From Ian: New (mini-)Latma The Israeli Left reaches breaking point with Hamas Caroline Glick About those Jews. "So it works out that Iran's vice president really hates Jews. In fact, he hates Jews so much that even The New York Times reported it. On Tuesday, the Times published an account of Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi's speech before a UN forum on fighting drug addiction in Tehran" The Future Leaders of Palestinians Terrorists...

Where on the Internet can you find this picture? On the Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation site! Of course it is meant to rile up the readers about supposed Zionist plans to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, but it is ironic that you can find pictures like this more often on Arabic sites than Jewish ones...

Hamas writer rues the bad old days before the first Intifada

A writer in the Hamas-oriented Felesteen site writes about how things were when he grew up in the 70s: When I was a young child in the seventies at demonstrations on the occasion of Earth Day or the anniversary of the Nakba, I would hear people shout: "Khaybar Khaybar Jews, Muhammad's Army will be back." We shouted these slogans, even though Palestine was far from Islam. Women wore scandalous short clothes, and grocery stores sold liquor and also...

From YNet: UNESCO's World Heritage committee has voted to approve a Palestinian bid to place the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on its list of sites of World Heritage in Danger. The Palestinians had pressed to have the church and pilgrimage route inscribed as an emergency candidate at the meeting of the World Heritage 21-nation committee in St. Petersburg, Russia. UNESCO...

I reported last Sunday that Hamas held a major funeral for a five-year old boy killed in Gaza. The UN's OCHA-OPT's weekly Protection of Civilians report notes what really happened: Armed factions also intensified the firing of projectiles, including Grad rockets, at southern Israel...Some of the projectiles dropped short of the Gaza/Israeli border or exploded prematurely,...

From YNet: Who assassinated Hamas official Kamal Ranaja? Hamas is pointing fingers at two opposite directions – Israel and the Syrian regime. While members of the terrorist organization blamed Israel's Mossad for the Damascus assassination, other Hamas members claimed that Bashar Assad's forces were behind the hit. The main reasoning for this hypothesis is that the method...

CNN interview of British victim of sexual assault in Tahrir Square

Earlier this week, Natasha Smith, a journalism student and reporter from Great Britain, wrote a searing and incredibly brave article on her blog describing in sickening detail how she was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square during the celebrations of Mohamed Morsi's victory in the Egyptian elections on Sunday: But in a split second, everything changed. Men had been groping me for a while, but suddenly, something shifted. I found myself being dragged...

Zulus and Christians rally for Israel - in South Africa

From AFP: Several hundreds of people staged a protest march in Pretoria on Thursday against South Africa's plans to stick "Made in the Palestinian Territories" labels on goods from the area. Around 300 members of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and the Inkatha Freedom party marched peacefully and handed over a petition against the labelling to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, ministry spokesman Sidwell Medupe told AFP. South...

Betar and the PA's attempts to destroy Jewish history

From Diana Muir Appelbaum: An interesting contest is being waged over a Judean hilltop known as Betar or Battir. This hilltop village with a system of stone-walled hillside terraces has been nominated by the Palestinian Authority for recognition as a World Heritage Site, and has won the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural...

Remember the toy guns that Muslims said were insulting Mohammed's wife Aisha? It looks like they are the linchpin in growing Sunni-Shiite tensions throughout the Arab world. Really. Plastic toy guns—the kinds with flashy lights and sound effects—were an unlikely source of sectarian tensions Friday. Yet following his weekly sermon in Saida, Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir brandished...

Arab columnist calls Israeli offer to help Syrians "blackmail"

On Monday I reported about an Israeli organization that is sneaking into Jordan to help Syrian refugees, and linked to an Israeli Channel 2 news report on the topic. I admit I wasn't thrilled with the made-for-TV portions where they (presumably the TV producer) tell the Syrians that they are Israeli and the astonished reactions are filmed. The TV station was staging things for drama, as they are wont to do. But here we see an Arab TV journalist,...

PA TV host prays for Israel's destruction

From PalWatch: Palestinian Authority television interviewed a Syrian journalist who claimed to have seen a top secret CIA memo from the Clinton administration. This CIA memo allegedly predicted that Israel would not survive beyond the year 2022. The PA TV host responded with a short prayer that this prediction should be fulfilled: Syrian journalist, Al-Bujayrami: "What I'm going to say, no one has ever heard. A report was submitted by the American...

Link'in from Ian

Founding National Myths Fabricating Palestinian History by David Bukay “The vast literature proving the historic Jewish connection to the Land of Israel has been extensively manipulated and distorted as part of the Palestinian politics of nationalism. Propaganda, indoctrination, and socialization, both domestically and internationally, are essential parts of the strategy and tactics of asserting Palestinian nationhood and statehood. By appropriating...

From CAMERA: Palestinian Christian activists and their allies have a difficult time describing the security barrier accurately. They describe the barrier as completely surrounding Bethlehem when in fact it does not. Bishara Awad, president of the Bethlehem Bible College has uttered this falsehood, as has his son, Sami Awad, director of the Holy Land Trust. Both...

From Bikya Masr: Arabic-speaking Facebook users want the social networking website to add an “Insha’Allah” button to the platform for the Middle East. And Facebook seems ready to make the move to boost its regional presence. According to Immanuel Simonsen from Multilingual Search, “Facebook has identified a strong wish from Arabic natives to include an “Insha’Allah” (Arabic...

Maariv (and Palestine Today) report that two Arab youths were arrested for setting recent fires on Mount Scopus near Hadassah Hospital and an army base. The youths were from Issawiya. One of the youths confessed and implicated the other. 13 soldiers were treated for smoke inhalation for that fire last Sunday. There have been a series of hundreds of suspected arson...

Today, a delegation led by Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshal is visiting Jordan to meet with King Abdullah. His first official visit was in January, but that was in context of the reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah. This visit appears to be more a reflection of Jordan's recognition of the Islamist revolutions taking place, especially in Egypt, and Abdullah's...

Iranian culture revealed in a "kill Salman Rushdie" videogame

From Iran's PressTV: The 2nd edition of Iran’s International Computer Game Expo and Festival is scheduled to be mounted in the capital city of Tehran’s Grand Prayer Grounds. The expo, which is slated to kick off on July 26, 2012, will host many game designers from Iran and many other countries from across the world. Organizers say the event aims to introduce Iran's culture and Islamic identity, discover new talents and present Iranian products...

Jews in sports - Airplane! joke proven

First, the classic joke: Now, the proof: The Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Adolph and Rose Levis Museum (PJSHOF) celebrated its 15th anniversary by honoring eight new individuals in a reception held on May 21, 2012... The inductees into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame represent the best of the best, those individuals and teams who, through perseverance, dedication, superior talent and skills, have risen to the top of...

Midweek links

From Ian: More on Reuters bias: Honest Reporting: Reuters Incorrect “Correction” “Nothing “shook” the truce. Palestinian terrorists fired rockets at Israeli civilian areas. Hours later, Israel attacked (from the air, lest anyone think that the word “raid” implies that Israel entered Gaza on the ground) terrorists preparing to launch more rockets. Would it be asking too much for Reuters on their correction to get the story right?” HR Video: Reuters-...

The Hamas Al Qassam website has an interview with Akram Ahmed Salmi, a terrorist who was recently released after nine years in prison. He claims that Hamas was manufacturing missiles in 2002 that were meant to be shot to the Knesset, to Ben Gurion Airport and "most importantly" to the settlement of Bet El. Salmi claimed that the expertise to manufacture the rockets was...

Legendary Muslim tolerance. From the Newmarket (Ontario) Era, July 19, 1861: (h/t jhrhv...

From Israel HaYom last week: [Professor Asa] Kasher, an Israel Prize laureate in philosophy, is considered the foremost philosopher in Israel and a supreme professional authority in the field of ethics. Some say that he is the most respected moral authority of our generation. Besides his work in academia as a world-renowned expert in linguistics, he was the chairman of...

What does the new Egyptian leadership mean for Ouda Tarabin?

Ouda Tarabin, an Israeli Arab, has been imprisoned in Egypt since 2000 when he went over the border to visit his sister in El Arish without proper papers. He never had a chance to defend himself in court against the espionage charges. There were rumors during and after the Grapel deal last year that Tarabin would be released, but it never happened. Now that Egypt has a new government, what does that mean for him? Israel's Channel 2 recently...

Syrian Free Army captures army base

From The Telegraph: Members of the Syrian Free Army gained control over a military base in the northern town of Daret Ezzah after heavy fighting with government troops. The rebels said they co-ordinated the attack with a group of defectors inside the base 30 miles northwest of Aleppo province. "The Free Army battalions in western rural Aleppo liberated the battalion 1041 in the area of Jabal al Sheikh Barakat in the town of Daret Ezzah," army...

Ha'aretz deliberately ignores anti-Israel incitement in the PA

From Behind the News in Israel by David Bedein: At the annual American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) Conference, held last week in Philadelphia, a newsworthy session was held with Chemi Shalev, the newly appointed US correspondent for the English language edition of HaAretz. Working with foreign journalists in Jerusalem for the past 25 years, the significance of HaAretz reaches beyond its scope as a daily newspaper in Israel. The HaAretz English...