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Sunday, August 18, 2013

8/18 Links: PA Radio - "One day" no Israel, Coptic Tragedy in Egypt, Sherlock in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Obama clogged up in the ‘heart of the Arab world’
In June 2009, President Barack Obama made a landmark speech setting out a new US policy toward the Middle East — and the world. To deliver it, the newly elected president traveled to Egypt, which his then-press secretary Robert Gibbs described as “a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world.”
Four years later, the Cairo streets through which Obama traveled are burning. The past week’s violence in Egypt may finally push the US toward a conclusive decision — propping up or cutting off Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s military-controlled interim government.
Merkel: Anti-Semitism a threat to democracy in Europe
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said anti-Semitism and racism remain a threat to democracy in Europe almost 70 years after the end of World War II.
Merkel cited the ongoing trial of five alleged neo-Nazis over the killing of 10 people between 2000 and 2007, and the fact that Jewish schools and synagogues still require police protection, as evidence of the problem in Germany.
George Mason U. Student: “Jews had their golden age under Muslim rule”
With such iconic conservative luminaries like Walter E. Williams associated with George Mason University, one assumes students are generally well-informed and reasoned in their opinions.
So this video of one of its scholars from the school’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid group may be shocking:
College students shout down Israeli speaker then claim their free speech was violated
This is what we’ve come to.
A group of anti-Israel students showed up at a talk from an Israeli speaker, heckled and shouted him down, then claimed that their free speech rights were violated when the school disciplined them.
No wonder Florida Atlantic University ranks dead last for college life.
Anti-Semitic Slurs by Morsi Protesters on the Temple Mount (VIDEO)
Another group chanted and accused Abdel Fattah el-Sisi guilty of treason and they questioned, "Are you a Jew or what?"
The pro-Morsi Muslims carried banners that said, "Sisi: hypocrite, traitor, working for the Jews," as well as, "Murderer, agent, traitor, criminal, butcher."
There were others in the crowd who compared Sisi to Adolf Hitler. Under the pictures of Hitler was written: "I killed the Jews for my people and for my flock." Under the picture of el-Sisi was written: "I killed the children of my people and my flock for the Jews."
PA radio: "One day" there will be no Israel
Radio announcer: "Greetings to all our listeners and happy holiday to you, our people in occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel), 1948 Palestine, the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel, created in 1948)... Greetings to our people in Acre, Nazareth, Tiberias, Haifa and Jaffa (all Israeli cities)... May your Palestinian identity be rooted in your hearts and minds. Allah willing, one day Palestine will be Palestine again!"
[Voice of Palestine (official PA radio), Aug. 8, 2013]
Hussein Aboubakr: Coptic tragedy in Egypt
There once lived a great Jewish community in Egypt that has been lost forever. Just as 80,000 Egyptian Jews were abused and fled, today Coptic Christians are facing similar religious persecution, yet they don’t have any other home country to turn to. Today, the world is preoccupied with the current political turmoil in Egypt, while ignoring the ongoing catastrophe faced by an indigenous Middle Eastern Coptic Christians. One of the churches burned by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, was the Prince Tadros Church in Al Minya – a 4th century church which contained ancient manuscripts on Orthodox theology. Is the West ready to accept such a loss? Are power and money more important than human life and history?
Egypt's Christians Attack Western Media Coverage
The Egyptian Coptic church has released a statement backing the country's military-backed government, and slamming the western media for its coverage of the violence in Egypt, which has killed more than 600 people.
Referring to perceived sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood by western media outlets, the statement, translated by Al Arabiya, called on the West to "read objectively the facts of events, and not give international and political cover to these terrorists and bloody groups."
Tamarod movement calls on Egyptian government to cancel Camp David peace treaty
The Tamarod ("Rebellion") movement in Egypt has joined a campaign calling to stop US aid to Egypt, and to cancel the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel, Daily News Egypt reported on Saturday.
The campaign is in response to "unacceptable" US interference in Egyptian political affairs, after US President Barack Obama decided to cancel a joint drill with the Egyptian military in response to the outbreak of violence in the country earlier this week.
Report: Israel Assured Egypt that U.S. Aid Won't be Cut
Israel has been pressuring the United States not to stop the military aid that it provides to Egypt, fearing the fate of the peace between the countries, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.
According to the report, Israel and Egyptian Defense Minister General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have been in close contact throughout the latest crisis in Egypt. The diplomats told the New York Times that Israel assured Egypt it did not have to worry about the U.S. threat to cut its enormous aid package to that country.
American al-Qaida militant calls for attacks on US diplomats
Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million US price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the US ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said.
IDF retaliates after mortars fired from Golan Heights
The IDF fired a Tamuz missile at a Syrian military post in the Golan Heights after several mortars were fired from the Syrian side of the border into Israel earlier Saturday.
According to the IDF, the missile destroyed a Syrian cannon which had fired artillery at Israel.
Iranian nuke chief says country’s nuclear program has 18,000 centrifuges
Tehran has a total of 18,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, Iran’s outgoing nuclear chief said Saturday. The number is higher by a third than is publicly known.
Uranium enrichment is a process that can be a pathway to making nuclear weapons.
Toronto marks anniversary of anti-Jewish violence
It was August 16, 1933, less than seven months after Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, and a Protestant youth team from St. Peter’s Church was playing against Harbord Collegiate, a mostly Jewish squad that included some players of Italian background.
Toronto, at that time, was dominated by its white, Protestant majority, and both Jews and Italian immigrants faced discrimination by the establishment. Like their American and European counterparts, Canadian Jews were restricted from certain professions and social clubs, and faced quotas at academic institutions. Signs in store windows and in the city’s Beaches neighborhood read “No Dogs or Jews Allowed,” and a “swastika club,” inspired by the new regime in Germany, was even parading its hatred on the shores of Lake Ontario, proudly bearing the symbol of Hitler’s aggressive new Reich.
Menachem Begin: His legacy, a century after his birth
Menachem Begin, Israel’s sixth prime minister, was born 100 years ago today. A century after his birth, and more than two decades after his death, it behooves us all, regardless of our political stripes, to take a moment and reflect on the profundity of his contribution to the Jewish people.
That claim will undoubtedly strike many as strange, since more than half a century after he helped rid Palestine of the British, Begin is still disparaged by many of the very same Jews who see in the American revolution a cause for genuine pride.
2,700 year old Hebrew inscription uncovered in City of David
Thousands of fragments of pottery, candles, ceramics and figurines dating to the end of the First Temple were discovered during archaeological excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem, located on a narrow spur south of the Temple Mount, surrounded on all sides by valleys, near the Gihon Spring and the Arab village of the Silwan.
The findings were discovered during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the most important of which being a ceramic bowl with a partially-preserved Hebrew inscription, possibly containing the name of a Biblical figure.
Spaniards to Play Jewish Slaves in Upcoming Film 'Exodus'
Thousands of Spaniards in the depressed southern region of Andalusia lined up on Friday morning to play the role of slaves in film-maker Ridley Scott's Biblical epic "Exodus", hoping for a way out of unemployment, AFP reported.
In a region with unemployment at 35 percent, the prospect of work as an extra with a daily wage of 80 euros ($107) has sparked a rush in Almeria where casting is being held for the story of Moses and the Jewish exodus from Egypt to the promised land.
Benedict Cumberbatch voices new documentary on Jerusalem
He might be instantly recognizable as Sherlock Holmes in the critically acclaimed BBC remake about the famous London detective, but Benedict Cumberbatch has doffed his deerstalker to narrate a new documentary about Jerusalem.
The 45-minute film traces the history of the city, following three of its young residents - a Jew, a Christian and Muslim.