Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 22, 2012

PA blames Israel for stupid UAE rumor about Abbas

Ma'an Arabic reports that the PA strongly denied rumors that Mahmoud Abbas will leave Ramallah because of fear that he will be treated like Arafat as a result of his intransigence in negotiations. Meaning that ISrael will imprison him in his equivalent of the Muqata and then they'll poison him, as comspiracy-minded Arabs like to believe.

The Ma'an report says that the PA claims that this rumor was planted by Israel, naturally.

Only one problem: The rumor came out of the UAE. I reported a version of it on Monday and another version came out of a UAE newspaper, al-Khaleej, over the weekend. It's just another silly Arab rumor that gets tossed around, especially in Gulf-area newspapers who love to publish "inside" stories from far away to an audience that is raised on conspiracy theories.

What makes this especially funny is that the rumor is believed by some Palestine-Firsters. No rumor about Israel can be too outrageous to be wholeheartedly believed by activist "journalists" who dedicate their careers to inciting against Israel.

Overnight open thread

Go for it!

Iran blinks in face of US warships

From the NYT:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that it considered the likely return of American warships to the Persian Gulf part of routine activity, backing away from previous warnings to Washington not to re-enter the area.

The statement may be seen as an effort to reduce tensions after Washington said it would respond if Iran made good on a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane for oil exports from the gulf.

“U.S. warships and military forces have been in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East region for many years, and their decision in relation to the dispatch of a new warship is not a new issue, and it should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence,” a Revolutionary Guards deputy commander, Hossein Salami, told the official IRNA news agency.

On Jan. 3, after President Obama signed new sanctions aimed at stopping Iran’s oil exports, the Iranian government ordered the [USS] Stennis not to return — an order interpreted by some analysts in Iran and Washington as a blanket threat to any United States carrier.

“I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Iran’s army chief, Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi, said at the time. “We are not in the habit of warning more than once.”

Washington says it will return, and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said any move to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a third of the world’s sea-borne traded oil passes, would be seen as a “red line,” requiring a response.

Apparently, Iranian machismo evaporates when there is a credible response.

Final results of Egypt elections: MB 47%, Salafi 24% of seats

From AFP:

Egypt’s Islamists led by the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood clinched nearly half of seats in parliament in historic polls after the ouster of strongman Hosni Mubarak, official results showed on Saturday.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won 235 seats in the new People’s Assembly, or 47.18 percent, electoral committee head Abdel Moez Ibrahim told a news conference, giving the final results from marathon polls.

The FJP secured 127 seats on party lists and its candidates won another 108 in first-past-the-post constituency votes.

The ultra-conservative Salafist Al-Nur party came second with 121 seats or 24.29 percent, and the liberal Wafd Party was third with nearly nine percent.

The liberal Egyptian Bloc -- which includes the Free Egyptians party of telecoms magnate Naguib Sawiris who is facing trial on allegations of insulting Islam -- came fourth with around seven percent.

It was only last April that the leading experts and polls were predicting a much different outcome:

The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center and based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Egyptians, is the first credible survey since the revolution lifted many restrictions on free expression. It is also the first to directly address Western debate over whether the revolution might drift toward Islamic radicalism.

The poll found about 30 percent of Egyptians have a favorable view of Islamic fundamentalism and about the same number sympathize with its opponents. About a quarter have mixed views.

That range was exemplified by attitudes toward the Muslim Brotherhood, the previously outlawed Islamist group.

Many in the West have assumed that as the best-organized nongovernmental organization in Egyptian society, the Muslim Brotherhood might quickly dominate Egyptian politics — a view long espoused by the Mubarak government. The poll shows the Muslim Brotherhood is indeed regarded favorably by about three in four Egyptians, receiving very favorable ratings from 37 percent of respondents and somewhat favorable ratings from an additional 38 percent.

But that put the group roughly at a par with the April 6 Movement, a new and relatively secular and progressive youth group that played a leading role in organizing the revolution. Seven in 10 viewed that group favorably, with 38 percent viewing it very favorably and 32 percent viewing it somewhat favorably. The poll’s margin of samplinfg error is plus or minus four percentage points.

Only 17 percent of respondents said they would like to see the Muslim Brotherhood lead the next government. Al Ghad, a liberal party led by Ayman Nour, a formerly jailed presidential candidate, was favored to lead the new government by roughly the same number. And one in five supported the New Wafd Party, a secular liberal party that was recognized under Mr. Mubarak.

Nearly two-thirds of Egyptians said civil law should strictly follow the Koran, but then the existing Constitution of Egypt’s largely secular state said that it is already based on the Koran.

Sobhi Saleh, a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a former parliamentary candidate, dismissed the poll’s findings as wildly overstating the support for other parties. Only the Brotherhood has a broad organization and a well-known platform, he argued, predicting success at the polls. “These findings are wrong, and it’s only a matter of two months until you see that,” he said.

And now the major liberal parties combined to receive only 16% of the seats in Parliament.

The discrepancy is probably due both to bad polling methods (did Pew ask the right questions to Egypt's rural voters?) and to the importance of organization in winning elections. Initial enthusiasm is no substitute for grassroots organization and hard work to get out the vote.

But then again, I already said that - last February, in response to an overly enthusiastic column by Nicholas Kristof:

Kristof is making a major mistake. He is confusing bravery for political maturity.

No one doubts the protesters' bravery. No one doubts their integrity, or their desire for change, or even their desire for democracy.

But there are serious doubts at their ability to translate the raw desire for freedom into a functional, liberal, democratic government.

It is hard work to create the institutions necessary. More importantly, it takes time - and time is not on the side of the protesters.

It is now fashionable to pooh-pooh the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kristof's liberal circles, but no one can doubt that the Islamists are better organized and much more politically mature than the Facebookers of Tahrir Square. It takes time to set up an organization, to define a clear agenda, to build a fundraising mechanism, to attract volunteers, to build a means to communicate with all the people - including in rural areas, and to do all the myriad details from physical buildings to a phone system to a mailing list.

True freedom cannot flourish until Egyptians have been exposed to a wide range of ideas on a level playing field. The existing Islamist groups are running circles around the "Egyptian youth" we hear so much about. Kristof is so caught up in the emotions of the moment that he cannot think outside Tahrir Square, to the 99% of the country that is not as emotionally invested in who their leaders would be. To them, the nice people with beards who build a free Islamic school for their kids are the only game in town.

Enthusiasm does not ensure effective state building and true freedoms. Kristof, instead of spouting straw-man arguments, should be advocating ways for his jeans-wearing heroes to channel their sparks of enthusiasm and bravery into the hard, thankless and often boring work necessary to build a new Egypt from scratch.

How many times will NYT columnists keep making the same mistakes over and over again?

For as long as their adoring readers choose to forget those mistakes.

Moderate Jordan: Youth charged with "Undermining Royal Dignity"

From Human Rights Watch:

‘Uday Abu ‘Isa, an 18-year-old activist from Madaba, 40 kilometers south of Amman, and a member of the Youth Movement for Reform, ignited a large banner showing King Abdullah II that was hanging on the municipal building in Madaba, witnesses told Human Rights Watch. Such images adorn nearly every official building and office in Jordan. Security forces immediately arrested Abu ‘Isa, who is already on trial on similar charges for shouting slogans in December. The prosecutor also charged him with burning property.

“Burning a royal’s image as a political statement should not be criminally prosecuted,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. “To prosecute this act would send a chilling message that criticizing the king is off limits.”

Abu ‘Isa’s father and fellow activists said on January 12 that they did not know his whereabouts, but media reports later that day said the military prosecutor at the State Security Court had charged Abu ‘Isa with “undermining his majesty’s dignity.” The charge is among several acts of lèse majesté, or insulting the king, for which article 195 of Jordan’s penal code imposes sentences of between one and three years in prison.

Abu ‘Isa’s father visited his son in Muwaqqar 1 prison on January 13 and 17, and told Human Rights Watch that he saw marks on his body Abu ‘Isa said were the result of a beating by police at Madaba’s Public Security Directorate on January 11.

"The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust" - incitement clothed as research

From The National (UAE):

It took the distinguished Palestinian scholar, Nawaf Al Zaru, 15 years to finish his latest book, The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust, an encyclopaedia-size opus that just came out in the Jordanian capital Amman, according to the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.

In his review of the new release, Rashad Abu Shawar wrote: "Because the Palestinian holocaust targets not only human beings but also land, trees, heritage and civilisation, the author gave it a subtitle: The fabrication of 'Israel' and ethnic cleansing policies.

"And because the Palestinian holocaust did not end with the 1948 war, or the 1967 war, and because the Zionist genocide scheme … and displacement policies are still very much in effect - and will stay that way until the Palestinians are completely and definitively uprooted from the land of their ancestors - the Palestinian holocaust could only be described as 'ongoing'."

The 1040-page book is arranged in 14 sections, with several chapters under each section, complete with "irrefutable facts and figures," the reviewer said, in addition to photographs documenting the massacres perpetrated against the Palestinian people since the beginning of the conflict.

"It is Al Zaru's ambition to give the idea of the 'Palestinian Holocaust' the status of a universal truth," the reviewer said, "but one that is not limited to the murder of thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, rather one that includes such aspects as the altering and falsification of the identity of a people's land: Palestine."

Under the world's watch, he went on, and with complete immunity, Israel has been disfiguring the city of Jerusalem, which contains holy sites for both Muslims and Christians.

In this scholarly enterprise, Al Zaru was helped a great deal by his "close familiarity with the Zionist discourse," the reviewer said, as he speaks perfect Hebrew, which he picked up during his 11 years in Israeli prisons. After he got out in 1979, he worked as a journalist and developed his research skills until he became a reference on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

This synopsis does not capture the feelings of the Al Quds reviewer, who was enraptured by the book. He got good and angry looking at the many gory photos, naturally.

Which is of course the entire purpose of the book - not to inform but to get readers to be angry at Israeli Jews. It is incitement clothed in the mantle of "reference." I'd love to see the "irrefutable facts."

To give you an idea of how objective this book is, here is the cover of an earlier edition:

Jenny Tonge and her Hamas idol

Remember Jenny Tonge, the British baroness who accused Israeli doctors of stealing the organs of disaster victims in Haiti?

Yesterday she spoke at an event in the British Parliament for the "Palestinian Return Centre".

At one point she picked up a magazine (apparently part of the Independent) that had a four page story on Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh, talking about how wonderful that was.

You can see her entire speech, along with plenty of other hateful speakers, at Richard Millett's blog. Truly amazing.

Here's that heroic photo of Haniyeh from the Independent:

The interview is here. While part of it is fawning, there is at least a little skepticism there:

[T]here have also been allegations – by Amnesty International, among others – of the repression of political dissidents, detentions, and beatings meted out without even the pretence of a trial. Similar accusations have been levelled at the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these charges; what I did witness in Gaza, however, was something of the atmosphere of fear and intimidation that one would expect in such an environment. One evening, I had dinner with a selection of local artists, musicians and private citizens. After we had finished eating, a figure in a loose-hanging black leather jacket appeared and took a selection of them to one side to demand their names and details of why we had been meeting.

Sounds like a place that Baroness Tonge would feel right at home.

(h/t Simply Jews)

Iran's latest nemesis: Barbie

From Reuters:

Iran’s morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.

As the West imposes the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and tensions rise over its nuclear program, inside the country the Barbie ban is part of what the government calls a “soft war” against decadent cultural influences.

“About three weeks ago the morality police came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies,” said a shopkeeper in a toy store in northern Tehran.

Iran’s religious rulers first declared Barbie, made by U.S. company Mattel, un-Islamic in 1996, citing its “destructive cultural and social consequences.”

Despite the ban, the doll has until recently been openly on sale in Tehran shops.

The new order, issued about three weeks ago, forced shopkeepers to hide the leggy, busty blonde behind other toys as a way of meeting popular demand for the dolls while avoiding being closed down by the police.

Sara and Dara, ugly and fat

A range of officially approved dolls launched in 2002 to counter demand for Barbie have not proven successful, merchants told Reuters.

The dolls named Sara, a female, and Dara, a male, arrived in shops wearing a variety of traditional dress, with Sara fully respecting the rule that all women in Iran must obey in public, of covering their hair and wearing loose-fitting clothes.

“My daughter prefers Barbies. She says Sara and Dara are ugly and fat,” said Farnaz, a 38-year-old mother, adding that she could not find Barbie cartoon DVDs because she was told they were also banned from public sale.

Well, they can always just dress Barbie in appropriate clothing:

Hours of fun, especially playing dress-up!

Fatah nervous about elections

From AP:

Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian national movement whose survival is key to hopes for a peace deal with Israel, appears ill-prepared for a promised electoral showdown with the Islamic militant Hamas.

The movement’s leaders, blaming Fatah’s loss to Hamas in 2006 parliament elections on lack of organization, say this time they’ve come up with a detailed plan to mobilize supporters and field attractive candidates. But skeptics note the party, known for epic infighting, hasn’t even begun looking for a presidential candidate to replace leader Mahmoud Abbas, 76, who says he is retiring.

Some say the movement that once cast itself as a band of swashbuckling revolutionaries needs “rebranding” ─ its star dimmed after two decades of corruption-tainted rule in the Palestinian autonomy zones and the failure of negotiations with Israel meant to produce an independent state.

In the West Bank’s largest city of Hebron, district party leader Kifah Iwaiwi said he spent much of the past four years on the job apologizing for the past misbehavior of Fatah members. Relying largely on volunteers and donations in the campaign, Iwaiwi said one of Fatah’s biggest assets, at least locally, is the ability to solve voters’ personal problems because of its ties to the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah and Hamas ─ after several years of running rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza ─ agreed in principle to “reconcile” and hold presidential and parliamentary elections by May 2012. Since then, Islamists have emerged victorious in parliamentary elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, feeding a fear that the Palestinian territories ─ if elections indeed are held ─ could be next.

A political takeover of the West Bank as well by an unreformed, globally shunned Hamas would isolate the Palestinians, crushing any hopes for peace and a negotiated path to Palestinian independence. It could also mean the end to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of annual foreign aid from the West, which regards Hamas as a terror group.

“Everyone feels that if Fatah falls down again, it’s the end,” said Iwaiwi. Hebron overwhelmingly voted for the Islamists last time.

The election date is linked to progress in slow-moving reconciliation talks, and Abbas’ initial election date of May 4 already seems out of reach.

Central Elections Commission director Hisham Kheil said he still awaits Hamas permission to update voter records in Gaza, a process of some six weeks. Elections would be held about three months after preparations are completed, with the date set in a presidential degree by Abbas.

The delay has raised questions about whether Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal are genuinely committed to elections. They announced again last month that they are ready to end the split, but the goodwill gestures promised at the time, such as releasing political detainees and lifting travel bans, have not been carried out. They plan to meet again in Cairo in early February.

Abbas has told Fatah’s 22-member decision-making Central Committee repeatedly that he is serious about retiring and moving forward with elections, and that the party had better find a presidential candidate.

But polls show that only Abbas could defeat a Hamas candidate, and that his lieutenants ─ except senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned by Israel ─ would win minimal voter support.

Egyptian cleric: "These Jews are a cancer in the body of planet Earth"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on September 9, 2011.

Hazem Shuman: What was our response when six Egyptians were killed by Jews on the border? Was the Jewish ambassador summoned? No. Was he expelled from Egypt? No. Was the Egyptian ambassador recalled from Israel? No. So what was the response? Brothers, this is about the honor of the people. I am talking to the Jews in the name of 85 million Egyptians, who hate them from the bottom of their hearts.

[...]

I saw footage of a young Egyptian fighting a lion. He did this for the sake of the thrill. He went into the lion's cage holding a spear, and they filmed him fighting the lion. He got out of the cage after overcoming the lion. I said: By God, young Egyptians who fight lions cannot fight the Jews? Can't they devour the Jews? How many millions of our young men are ready to fight lions... I mean, Jews.

[...]

I address them on behalf of 85 million Egyptians, whose hearts beat with hatred for the Jews, and with the knowledge of what the Jews did to us and of how Allah warned us about them...

I tell them that the battle is bound to come, Allah be praised. The Prophet Muhammad, whose words are divinely inspired, said: "Judgment Day will come when the Muslims fight the Jews." That means that the Muslims will be the ones who engage [in fighting]. It's not just any battle. He said: "The Muslims will fight the Jews, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." Even the stones and the trees hate them. The battle is bound to come.

[...]

Jews will be Jews, guys. The Jews of today are the Jews of Khaybar, who tried to poison the Prophet Muhammad. They are the Jews of Banu Nadhir, who tried to kill the Prophet Muhammad. They are the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa', who tried to lift up a Muslim woman's dress. Jews will be Jews. We know what you are like, you Jews, and we know your hatred toward the religion of Allah, toward the servants of Allah, and toward the Muslims worldwide.

You will be vanquished, Allah willing, but it will not be us who will vanquish you. It will be Allah. Just like He used wind to vanquish you in the War of the Ahzab, and like He used fear to vanquish you in the Battle of Khaybar, Allah will vanquish you again.

Today, 92% of the world's film industry is in your hands, 90% of the world's famous actors are Jews, and 90% of the giant news networks, like CNN, are in Jewish hands.

[...]

Oh nation of Muhammad, Allah says to you: If you fear war with the Jews, brace yourselves for war with Allah. It is either a war with the Jews or a war with Allah. Allah says that the entire nation could be replaced if it is not prepared to sacrifice its blood for the sake of Palestine.

[...]

My message to all the Jews is that the battle is bound to come and you will be vanquished. Allah has promised that you will be vanquished and that we will prevail. I tell you that our Prophet Muhammad, whose every word we believe and whose light we follow - the moment he signed the Hudaybiyya Treaty with Mecca, the first thing he did after the battle with the Quraysh tribe, only 20 days after signing the Hudaybiyya Treaty, he took his army and attacked Khaybar.

Why, oh Messenger of Allah? Because these Jews are a cancer. These Jews are a catastrophe. There is not a catastrophe in the world that is not the handiwork of the Jews. These Jews are a cancer in the body of planet Earth, and if permitted, it will spread and infect the entire body. Getting rid of these Jews is a must.

I think he really meant to say "Zionists." All this is just a slip of the tongue.

Hamas says it will investigate attack on human rights activist. Sure.

Ma'an reports:

The Gaza government on Thursday vowed to find the perpetrators of an attack on a human rights activist who was stabbed in Gaza City.

Mahmoud Abu Rahma was attacked by masked men and stabbed multiple times while walking back from his brother's house on Friday night, he told Ma'an.

"There were three masked men following me, I ran quickly toward the house but I tripped on the stairs and fell over. They began attacking me, stabbing me in my right thigh, three times above my right knee, my back and left shoulder, and cutting off part of my hand," Abu Rahma told MADA, the Palestinian center for media freedoms.

He had received death threats shortly after authoring an op-ed calling for legal redress for victims of misfiring and other operational mistakes by resistance groups as well as violations by Palestinian governments.

The Hamas-led government in Gaza condemned the attack, which it said violated religion, law and customs in a statement Thursday.

The Interior Ministry will investigate the incident and find the perpetrators, the statement said, adding that the government had received a complaint from the Al-Mezan human rights group which employs Abu Rahma.

The main focus of Abu Rahma's article in Gaza was Hamas itself. It is highly likely that he was attacked by one of those masked Hamas "security forces" that show up quite often in Gaza.

Hamas also has a history of attacking NGOs in Gaza, of arresting critics of its policies, and for shutting down any activity that it doesn't explicitly approve.

This should be a fun "investigation."