Saudi/Gulf news roundup

A Saudi newspaper was shut down after publishing an article critical of the religious police.

Two "youths" - it is unclear if they are minors - were sentenced to 30 lashes each for pointing a laser pointer at security patrol. The sentence cannot be appealed.

A two-year old was taken to three doctors in Saudi Arabia over the course of a week before they realized he had a battery stuck in his nose. By that time, the battery acid was already burning a hole in his cartilage.

A Saudi minister has determined that the "ideal" price for oil is between $60 and $75 a barrel. Higher than that and Westerners will work harder for alternative fuels, lower and they don't make money. (My explanation, not his.)

Dubai - that model for Gulf modernity - gave a new set of rules of behavior in the emirate. According to a Saudi newspaper:

The Arabic-language daily Al-Emarat Al-Youm said the Dubai Executive Council has urged residents of Dubai, where foreigners make up more than 80 percent of the population, to respect the customs of the country and avoid inappropriate behavior.

The rules, which apply to all public places, include a ban on all forms of nudity, playing music loudly and dancing, exchange of kisses between men and women — and even on unmarried couples holding hands.

Any breach of the guidelines, by nationals or expatriates, carries a possible prison penalty, the paper said.

The guidelines also stipulate that anyone caught under the influence of alcohol — even small amounts — outside designated drinking areas is liable to being fined or imprisoned, the paper added.

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Not much today, sorry

I really feel guilty when I have no time to blog, but ...I have no time to blog. A full work-day and a social event tonight. If I can carve out a little time I will. Sorry!

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Dawah

Here are two recent examples of Islamic "outreach," known as dawah, where Muslims knowingly lie about the Quran in order to get Westerners more interested in Islam.

The first one is almost comical. A pamphlet written some thirty years ago by a French "scholar" and more recently updated purports to show that the Quran had a deep knowledge of modern science:

On the 9th of November, 1976, an unusual lecture was given at the French Academy of Medicine. Its title was "Physiological and Embryological data in the Qur'an". I presented the study based on the existence of certain statements concerning physiology and reproduction in the Qur'an. My reason for presenting this lecture was because it is impossible to explain how a text produced in the seventh century could have contained ideas that have only been discovered in modern times.

A number of examples are brought. For example:

The notion of a settled place for the sun is vividly described in chapter Yaa Seen of the Qur'an:

"The sun runs its coarse to a settled place That is the decree of the Almighty, the All Knowing." Qur'an, 36:38

"Settled place" is the translation of the word mustaqarr which indicates an exact appointed place and time. Modern astronomy confirms that the solar system is indeed moving in space at a rate of 12 miles per second towards a point situated in the constellation of Hercules ( alpha lyrae ) whose exact location has been precisely calculated. Astronomers have even give it a name, the solar apex.

Doesn't it sound more like the Quran is saying that the sun will keep traveling - and then stop?

His other examples are no more impressive:

Among the achievements of modern science is the "conquest" of space which has resulted in mans journey to the moon. The prediction of this event surely springs to mind when we read the chapter ar-Rahmaan in the Qur'an:

"O assembly of Jinns and men, if you can penetrate the regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate them! You will not penetrate them except with authority."

Qur'an,55:33

Authority to travel in space can only come from the Creator of the laws which govern movement and space. The whole of this Qur'anic chapter invites humankind to recognize God's beneficence.

The author doesn't seem to be bothered by the mention of "jinn", meaning, genies.

For some much more striking counterexamples of Quranic adherence to modern science, see here.

Another recent example of dakwah is a new film being produced that purports to show that the Quran is compatible with modern US values:

"The film talks about the major themes of the Quran, including the most controversial ones, like jihad, women, sex, polygamy, peace and violence," Masudi told AlArabiya.net.

Masudi explained that the documentary places Islam in a modern context and refutes the view that Islam is out-dated by linking the Quran to modern concepts like democracy, charity and diversity.

"There are so many similarities between Islam and the West because the Quran was meant to be for all of mankind, Muslims do not have a monopoly on Islam, on the book or on Allah," Masudi said.

The synopsis of the film on its website shows exactly how objective this film is:

A group of American professors is asked to probe deep into the minds of more than a billion Muslims. To find out what drives them to suicide bombings, multiple wives and religious fanaticism.

The team:

Mark Juergensmeyer: International expert on terrorism in religion and President, American Academy of Religion. Hossein Nasr, Harvard alumni, author of fifty books on Islam and science, and Professor at Washington University. Bruce Lawrence, Abrahamic Pluralist and bestselling author of From Hajj to Hip Hop. Maria Dakake, Editor Harper Collins Study Quran Encyclopedia and Professor, George Mason University. Jonathan A Brown, Omer Mozaffar, and Joseph Lumbard: all fine scholars of comparative religious traditions in prestigious universities of the United States.

The team is asked to find out if The Quran is out of step with modern times. It is directed to disregard traditional clergy, if need be.

Unaware of each others assignments, the panel delves deep into the fountainhead of this most enigmatic Faith: The Quran. It uncovers shocking facts, astonishing revelations and intriguing results about Islam. The findings raise as many questions as they answer.

The panel’s no- holds- barred, hard hitting findings include:

“In Islam, sex is a good thing. Allah is not a Muslim specific God; even Arabic speaking Jews and Christians use the word Allah in their liturgies. Polygamy is a blessing. We are not God and God is not us. It is mandatory for Muslims to revere all the Prophets of Judaism and Christianity. Muslims do not worship Muhammad. Everybody is a born Muslim!”

Congratulations, world. According to these prominent American professors, you have all just retroactively become Muslim.

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How £100M Funds Terror

From the Daily Express:

MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers' money has been spent promoting terrorism and encouraging young Palestinians to hate the West, it emerged yesterday.

Money donated as aid has been used to print textbooks which teach children that "death is not bitter in the mouth of the believers" and that the Iraqi insurgency is a "brave resistance" against Britain and the US, according to a report by the TaxPayers' Alliance.

Last year, Britain sent nearly £100million to the Palestinian territories - more than double what it sent the year before - despite the Government being warned that January that aid money was being spent on promoting terror.

The report, which will be published on Wednesday, found school textbooks encouraging Palestinian children to become suicide bombers were being used in classrooms.

In one book, published by the Palestinian Authority, pupils are taught: "Your enemies seek life while you seek death."
State-owned TV channels and newspapers have also glorified suicide bombers, called for terrorism and urged Palestinians to pick up weapons.

Speaking about Ayat al-Akhras, 18, the youngest Palestinian female suicide bomber, a TV presenter on the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation said: "You and your cause deserve the greatest respect. In our opinion, Ayat is a hero."

On the same network, history professor Adnan Ayash spoke of "the Jewish disease, the Zionist disease, which is a cancerous disease".

The disclosure that taxpayers' money is being used to fund terrorism drew a furious response from across the political and social spectrum yesterday.

Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the Conservative delegation in the European Parliament, who is hosting the launch of the report, said that no more aid money should be sent to the Palestinian territories unless donations were monitored to ensure they were not used to radicalise young people.

"Money has been misspent in the area before and used to buy weapons. This time they may not be using it on bullets and guns, but they are using it to turn the minds of young people towards militancy.

"The indoctrination and propaganda found by the report is extremely militant in its nature and is the opposite of what we should be trying to achieve in the area."

Liberal Democrat spokesman on international development Michael Moore said: "No British aid should fund people who seek to undermine the British, other allies, or the Israeli state."

The report is here. One excerpt from a textbook:

Translation:
“O heroes, Allah has promised you victory.... Do not talk
yourselves into flight… Your enemies seek life while you seek
death. They seek spoils to fill their empty stomachs while you
seek a Garden [Paradise] as wide as are the heavens and the
earth... death is not bitter in the mouth of the believers. These
drops of blood that gush from your bodies will be transformed
tomorrow into blazing red meteors that will fall down upon the
heads of your enemies." (page 16)

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Licensing for "Seven Arab Children"

I suppose to be consistent I need to offer licensing terms for my spoof play as Churchill did. OK, here they are:

The play can be read or performed anywhere, by any number of people. Anyone who wishes to do it should contact Elder of Ziyon, who will license performances free of charge provided that no admission fee is charged and that a collection is taken at each performance for Hatzalah of Yehuda and Shomron.

If the idea that giving money to a medical organization that saves Jewish lives in the "territories" makes you squeamish, perhaps you need to examine your own liberal ideals.

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Seven Arab Children

The BBC decided not to air Caryl Churchill's "Seven Jewish Children" play. Not because they disagreed with it, oh no...

But [Radio 4's drama commissioning editor Jeremy]Howe wrote: "It is a no, I am afraid. Both Mark [Damazer, Radio 4 controller] and I think it is a brilliant piece, but after discussing it with editorial policy we have decided we cannot run with it on the grounds of impartiality – I think it would be nearly impossible to run a drama that counters Caryl Churchill's view. Having debated long and hard we have decided we can't do Seven Jewish Children."

Well, I am here to help the BBC out. Since they don't have a poorly written drama available to show "both sides" of the story, I am going to write one right now. I estimate it will take ten minutes.

---

Seven Arab Children
A play about Palestine

1.
Tell him that we are one big Arab nation
Tell him that we invented algebra
Tell him that we always lived here
Tell him that others can only live here if they agree to be dhimmis
Don't tell him about the Jews who used to live here
Tell him that we live in southern Syria
and that we will never be divided from our brethren
Tell him that all Arabs look out for reach other

2.
Tell him we hate the Jews because they are weak
Tell him that they they started it first
Tell him that Jews shouldn't live in Hebron
Don't tell him that they were there for millennia
Tell him that they attacked Arabs at their Wall
Tell him they wanted to kill all the Arabs
Tell him that he will be rewarded for killing them.

3.
Tell him we are on strike
Don't tell him that Arabs are killing more Arabs than Jews or British
Tell him that the British are pro-Jewish
Don't tell him about the "collaborators"
Tell him that the Mufti will lead us to a state
Don't tell him about the feuds between the clans
Tell him that the hundreds of dead Arabs are the Jews' fault
Tell him that we will never accept compromise

4.
Don't tell him that we ran away
Don't tell him that some Arabs stayed and are not in camps
Tell him that we will still throw the Jews into the sea
Tell him not to forget that he is an Arab
Tell him that we were massacred
Tell him that over and over again
Tell him he must hate the Jews
Don't tell him that our Arab brethren keep us in camps
Don't tell him that they told us to flee
Don't blame them for our troubles
We need to live with them

5.
Tell him that we are "Palestinian"
Tell him not to say "Jews" in English, only "Zionists"
Tell him that the Arabs will help us push the Jews into the sea this time
Tell him we are united
Tell him that we still have a key to our home
Don't tell him to go to Kuwait to find a job
Tell him the UN will take care of us forever
Don't tell him to blame the Arabs for our being stateless for decades
Tell him it is needed for "unity"

6.
Tell him it is not terrorism
Tell him that the martyrs are heroes
Tell him we hate the Jews because they are strong
Don't tell him that we still cannot become citizens
of the Arab nations we were born in
Don't tell him that our brethren kicked us out of Jordan
Tell him Jews massacred us in Lebanon, not Arab Christians
Tell him about Paradise
Don't tell him about Arabs in Knesset

7.
Tell him to become a Shahid
Tell him that we will never compromise
Tell him that the "peace process" is just another means to conquer land
Tell him not to say that out loud
Tell him that a child-killer is a hero for all Arabs
Don't tell him that we killed hundreds of each other in Gaza
Don't tell him we used to have jobs and work together with the Jews
Don't tell him that the intifada was a failure
Tell him to cry on top of rubble if a reporter comes by
Tell him we won all our wars with the Jews
Don't tell him why we still live in camps in Gaza
Tell him we'll be proud of him when he becomes a shahid
Tell him that his family will be taken care of after he dies
Tell him to take as many Jews as he can
Tell him he will be a hero
and we are so proud of him

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Israeli group vows to kill released terrorists

From YNet:

The relatives of some Israeli terror victims are preparing for the "day after" a possible Shalit prisoner swap, in an effort to locate and target terrorists freed as part of the deal, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.

The new organization has already started to raise funds and held several meetings in order to formulate its "eye for an eye" policy. The initiative is being led by Attorney Meir Schijveschuurder and his brother Shvuel, who lost their parents and three siblings in the suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizza parlor in Jerusalem in 2001.

The brothers recently started to bring together relatives of terror victims and initiated contacts with donors in Israel and abroad. The new organization aims to prepare an "intelligence dossier" on terrorists with blood on their hands to be released in future swaps and pursue them worldwide.

"We have a file about most of the murderers, including information about their families," Meir Schijveschuurder said "The parents of one of the terrorists involved in the Sbarro attack, for example, own a pizza parlor in Jenin. We have their residential address."

"In addition, there is the female terrorist who organized the terror attack, and she will be the first one for me," he said. "She kept on smiling during the trial, and we shall erase her smile. I am mentally and physically ready to send her to the next world. As to the ones who will remain in Palestinian Authority areas, we will implement against them the customary law there: Eye for an eye."

Schijveschuurder made it clear that he has no qualms with the Israeli government, but added that "the moment it decided to stop punishing them, we will do it as a last result. It would be very worthwhile for those killers to remain in Israeli prisons, with all the benefits and perks. Out of jail they won't be able to sleep well at night. We will pursue them and get to all of them."

Whatever the merits of vigilante justice in these cases, it is amusing to see that the Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today called the group "a Jewish terrorist organization." Of course, they referred to the terror attacks that this group plans to avenge as being "martyrdom operations."

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Roger Cohen's "pragmatic" Iran

Roger Cohen gifts us with his wisdom about the Middle East for the fourth consecutive week, in another op-ed to inform us of Iran's pragmatism and his insisting that the US match it:

From Egypt to Algeria to Afghanistan, Islamist movements are radicalized by dreams of establishing everlasting dominion; democracy is feared because it could prove to be their means to power. In Iran, by contrast, life is a daily exercise in compromises that temper Islam with the demands of modern life. Iran is emerging from extremist fervor as clerical absolutism and pluralism spar.

...Pragmatism is also one way of looking at Iran's nuclear program. A state facing a nuclear-armed Israel and Pakistan, American invasions in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, and noting that North Korea was not hit, might reasonably conclude that preserving the revolution requires nuclear resolve.

The blindness in these comments is mindboggling.

In one paragraph, he notes that most Islamist movements dream of world domination, but he claims Iran does not follow that model. Then, further down the page, he notes that indeed Iran is developing nuclear weapons and sees that as pragmatic as well.

Let's see. the Iranian revolution was the first successful modern Islamist takeover of an entire country; Iran is racing to join the nuclear club; they are now working furiously to increase the range of their ballistic missiles to threaten all of Europe and they now have a successful space program. Does this imply "pragmatism" or "an Islamist movement radicalized by dreams of establishing everlasting dominion?"

Cohen also defends his characterization of the Jewish community in Iran as proof that Iran is a tolerant society. Somehow, he doesn't seem to be aware of the Baha'is in Iran, who are facing persecution and whose faith has effectively become illegal under this pragmatic, modern regime:

A new embargo on freedom of expression has formally been announced. Iran’s Prosecutor General, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, has declared that the very expression of affiliation to the Bahá’í faith is illegal. This was communicated in a letter to the Minister of Intelligence, Ghulam-Husayn Ejeyee, who needs no encouragement to violate rights. Human Rights Watch named him one of Iran's 'Ministers of Murder' four years ago.

According to the Prosecutor General , everyone is free to have his own belief and faith. “However, no expression or declaration in order to disparage the thought of others, nor any attempt to teach them resulting in deception and agitation of minds is permitted.”

He goes on to determine that “the administration of the wayward Baha’i sect at all levels is illegal and forbidden … their danger to national security is documented and well-established.”

When you look at things from the perspective of a criminal, everything can be justified as "pragmatic." Most people don't do insane things in a vacuum; in their own worldview, things make sense. The problem is when their worldview is itself insane.

Roger Cohen, however, is very willing to accept the worldview of the Iranian mullahs as being just as valid as any Western viewpoint. This moral relativism can also only be described as insane - and one that Cohen is ill-equipped to notice himself, because, after all, this is his own worldview.

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Muslim blames American culture for beheading

Last month, in Buffalo, Muzzammil Hassan apparently beheaded his wife days after she asked him for a divorce. The irony was that Hassan founded a TV network intended to counter Muslim stereotypes.

Today, a Muslim writer writes an apologia for Islam in the wake of that event, saying that the Quran does not support such actions as "honor killings" and female genital mutilation.

His last paragraphs, however, reveal more about Islamic culture and thinking than he perhaps intended:

So we can only feel betrayed by this supposedly well-educated, successful Muslim American businessman, who even bought a TV station for dakwah [outreach] purposes. We are betrayed because he reverted to such colossally barbaric behaviour — behaviour that discredits everything he stood and worked for.

In our moments alone, we too may ask, "How can any Muslim really be trusted, if, living in a so-called civilised country like the US, he remains capable of murdering his own wife?"

A prominent Malaysian remarked that in the US these days, it seems that killing people has become almost as casual as having a cup of coffee. And so perhaps Muslims in these Western countries become corrupted by Western values and behaviour, rather than the other way around.

And Allah knows best.

Notice that this Muslim does not characterize the Bridges TV network's purpose as being to defend Muslims from stereotypes, but as an outreach tool to convert Americans to Islam.

He has a feeling of betrayal and a moment of self doubt - can it be that perhaps Muslims are inherently violent and unstable?

But then he realizes the answer - no, it is not Islamic culture that causes a Muslim man to behead his wife - but Western values! Muslims are peaceful, and the violent ones must have become evil because of Western influence!

Now he can sleep well at night, secure in the knowledge that there is no need for introspection over such a gruesome, medieval crime. Islam is clean of corruption, and the only evil is the West. Everything makes sense again.

And Allah knows best.

One can only wonder what this writer would say about this woman in England who converted to Christianity and whose imam father came after her with an axe...

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The "even-handed" LA Times

The Los Angeles Times published two essays, both by Jews, about Zionism today. One was by Ben Ehrenreich, saying that Zionism is "the problem." The other is by Judea Pearl, asking "is anti-Zionism hate?"

One wonders if the LA Times would have an equally even-handed pair of essays asking whether assassination of newspaper editors is desirable or not. After all, there are two sides to every story, right?

Anyway, it is worthwhile to look at what Ehrenreich has to say, if only to expose the underlying errors in his thinking.

It's hard to imagine now, but in 1944, six years after Kristallnacht, Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, felt comfortable equating the Zionist ideal of Jewish statehood with "the concept of a racial state -- the Hitlerian concept." For most of the last century, a principled opposition to Zionism was a mainstream stance within American Judaism.

Indeed, not all Jews were Zionists in 1944. In fact, as Ehrenreich mentions, "Marxist Jews -- my grandparents among them -- tended to see Zionism, and all nationalisms, as a distraction from the more essential struggle between classes."

So does the fact that many Jews embraced Marxism in the 1930s and 1940s automatically make their beliefs relevant today? Ehrenreich might not have noticed, but there are precious few Communist states prospering today. Yet by his logic, the fact that many Jews didn't embrace Zionism sixty years ago is somehow an important fact today, I suppose in order to give him a pretext to hate contemporary Zionism and not feel quite so guilty about it.

To be Jewish, I was raised to believe, meant understanding oneself as a member of a tribe that over and over had been cast out, mistreated, slaughtered. Millenniums of oppression that preceded it did not entitle us to a homeland or a right to self-defense that superseded anyone else's. If they offered us anything exceptional, it was a perspective on oppression and an obligation born of the prophetic tradition: to act on behalf of the oppressed and to cry out at the oppressor.

So his ignoramus parents and grandparents knew nothing about what Judaism is, and Ehrenreich internalized this ignorance and now uses it to justify his bizarre beliefs? In his world, Jews must remain the eternal victims, always begging the powerful goyim for crumbs, until the wonderful day that Jews can become fully assimilated and disappear in the superior gentile culture. What a great representative of Judaism!

For the last several decades, though, it has been all but impossible to cry out against the Israeli state without being smeared as an anti-Semite, or worse. To question not just Israel's actions, but the Zionist tenets on which the state is founded, has for too long been regarded an almost unspeakable blasphemy.

No, in the case of Jews like Ehrenreich, just unspeakable ignorance.

The problem is fundamental: Founding a modern state on a single ethnic or religious identity in a territory that is ethnically and religiously diverse leads inexorably either to politics of exclusion (think of the 139-square-mile prison camp that Gaza has become) or to wholesale ethnic cleansing. Put simply, the problem is Zionism.

Interesting observation. Which areas in historic Palestine have no Jews and which have no Arabs? The people who claim that Zionists are "ethnic cleansers" never seem to mention the answer to that question.

The fate Buber foresaw is upon us: a nation that has lived in a state of war for decades, a quarter-million Arab citizens with second-class status and more than 5 million Palestinians deprived of the most basic political and human rights.

Notice the sleight-of-hand: if Israel has been in a state of war, the reason must be because of the Zionists! The Arabs would love to live in peace, if it wasn't for those pesky Zionists. While I of course am not allowed to mention this, this exactly mirrors the arguments of anti-semites: since Jews have been hated and kicked out of other countries for millenia, they must have done something to deserve it.

If two decades ago comparisons to the South African apartheid system felt like hyperbole, they now feel charitable. The white South African regime, for all its crimes, never attacked the Bantustans with anything like the destructive power Israel visited on Gaza in December and January, when nearly1,300 Palestinians were killed, one-third of them children.

Here the LA Times lets lies get thrown into the mix. No reliable source counts more than 280 children under 18 as being killed in Gaza, and many of the "children" were hardly innocent. Besides the fact that, according to Ehrenreich, Israel has literally no right to defend itself against Qassam rockets, which means that he believes that Israel is the only nation that has the moral imperative to let its citizens be killed with impunity.

Establishing a secular, pluralist, democratic government in Israel and Palestine would of course mean the abandonment of the Zionist dream. It might also mean the only salvation for the Jewish ideals of justice that date back to Jeremiah.

Ehrehreich seems to be blissfully ignorant of how peacefully Jews and Arabs lived together before Zionism. He seems to have forgotten that the victims of the 1929 riots were not Zionists, but Jews whose families had lived in Palestine for centuries. He is painfully unaware that the Arabs before 1948 never said "death to the Zionists" but "death to the Jews."

And, unbelievably, he thinks that his thought processes have something in common with Jewish prophets of old.

The worst part is that he believes that the accident of birth that caused him to be genealogically Jewish somehow makes him an authority of Judaism and on Jewish ideals. More sickening is that the LA Times believes the same thing.

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Fatah takes credit for murder of two Israelis

Ha'aretz reports:

Two Israeli police officers died Sunday evening from gunshots wounds sustained while on patrol near the settlement of Masu'a, in the northern West Bank.

Both victims were found in their vehicle suffering from critical gunshot wounds. One was pronounced dead by medics shortly after discovered, and the other succumbed to his wounds following resuscitation efforts.

Guess who took credit for the attack? Yes, it was the "moderates!" Fatah has taken responsibility for the killing, according to Firas Press quoting Channel One.

Israel has recently removed checkpoints in the West Bank. Israel also pardoned dozens of suspected Palestinian Arab terrorists last week.

Even though Israel has been consistently easing restrictions on the West Bank and helping the Palestinian Arabs there economically, more than half of Palestinian Arabs still support suicide bombing attacks inside Israel proper and only 42% oppose terror attacks.

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PalArab media roundup 3-15-09

Arsonists burned down a Jenin music school. Islamists?

Arsonists also burned a car belonging to the PA's director general of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

A new school was constructed in Gaza, from pre-fab buildings. Even so, it looks nicer than many American schools.

The number of Israelis who travel to Egypt for Purim plummeted this year by 90%, hurting the Egyptian tourism industry. Israeli authorities have been warning Israelis against going to Egypt for fear of terror attacks and kidnappings.

There is concern in the Palestinian Arab media that Israel is planning to "exploit" the economic situation in Russia to encourage more immigration to Israel. Oh, they also mention the fact that anti-semitic attacks in Russia have skyrocketed, which means that it is only a matter of time before people blame to Mossad for those attacks.

In Lebanon, enterprising women started their own taxi service - for women only. The taxis are pink and presumably the women who must take taxis will feel far safer with women drivers.

A recent study shows that nearly 17% of all Egyptian adults suffer from mental illness. Is this because of Israel?

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