Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Another dead terrorist, IDF now 9 for 9

Israel killed a Hamas gunman it accused of preparing to fire a rocket from the Gaza Strip on Sunday and a separate Palestinian salvo struck a southern Israeli city, causing no damage.

The incidents followed a three-day lull since an upsurge in violence last week in which Israel killed at least seven Palestinians, and dozens of rockets were fired at Israeli towns, damaging some homes and wounding several agricultural workers.

An Israeli air strike before dawn on Sunday struck two gunmen from Hamas' military wing as they rode a motorcycle near the central town of Khan Younis, local officials said.

The Al-Qassam Brigades said Suleiman Qarra, 27, from Bani Suheila, was killed, and another fighter wounded.

An Israeli military spokesman said the air force had targeted a squad preparing to fire a rocket into Israel.

Hamas said its gunmen had fired mortar rounds at Israeli ground forces who had penetrated the coastal territory nearby. The military said those soldiers, who were unhurt, had been carrying out "routine work along the boundary fence."

Separately, two Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza struck Beersheba, a city 40 km away, causing no damage, the military spokesman said. Beersheba sounded air raid sirens and shuttered its schools as a precaution against further attacks.

The Popular Resistance Committees, one of several smaller Palestinian factions in Gaza that often operate independently of Hamas, said it had launched one of the Beersheba rockets. There was no immediate claim for the second.

YNet notes what Reuters ignores: that there were rockets fired beforehand.

This means that since the current escalation started, the IDF has now killed 9 terrorists - and zero civilians.

Here's what the jihadist looked like while alive:

And now:

May we see many thousands more "after" photos on the jihadist sites.

Islamonazism in Tanzania (photo)

Israeli Nir Geiger recently went on a trip to Tanzania, where he snapped this photo:

'Nuff said.

(h/t Israel Muse)

Eid, the holiday of sexual harassment in Egypt

From Egypt Independent:

Cairo Security Directorate said in a statement Saturday that it recorded 87 verbal harassment cases and 6 other physical harassment cases on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Adha.

Already a persistent problem, sexual harassment becomes a particular concern during vacations and holidays, despite organizing many marches advocating the right of women to walk safely in streets.

Activists who launched an initiative dubbed "I witnessed harassment" said in a report Friday that more than 60 percent of women who were in downtown Cairo were subjected to sexual harassment, including areas such as Qasr al-Nil Bridge, Abdel Moneim Riad Square, and Talaat Harb Street. The statement added that some incidents involved violence.

Most of the violations were carried out by boys between eight and 20 years old, with a few cases of perpetrators over the age of 20. The age of harassed girls ranged from between 11 to 20 years old.

The report included criticism of the police from volunteer activists who recorded the harassment incidents, saying the police questioned the identity of activists without taking any legal action against harassers.

The report cited a collective harassment incident at the Nile Corniche in Maadi, where a group of no less than 40 men attacked 50 girls. The report added the police did not interfere to stop harassers except when activists started filming the incident.

This has been a pattern during Muslim holidays in Egypt for years.

Saturday night links

From Ian:

Jewish settlement in the West Bank is not the issue

"The Arab world is in turmoil and mired in violence and religious extremism, and the Palestinian community deeply divided to the point of civil war. Meanwhile the hatred and scapegoating of Israel for all the many failures of the Islamic world deepens.
There is probably little or no possibility of the type of decisions being made that are required to resolve the Palestinian question. And the nightmare scenario for Israel is making further difficult concessions, only to end up with a second Gaza on the West Bank. Indeed Israel has made major unilateral concessions and has been badly punished for its efforts, and is unlikely to do that again.
One thing is clear though: this is not now, nor was it ever, a process that is being stopped by the presence of Jewish settlements."

Haaretz, Gideon Levy, and the Israel apartheid canard

"Today, we can look back and see how the image of the demonic Jew came into being: it took a systematic campaign of lies and brainwashing. One day the minister of history will deal with the same question: How was the image of a demonic Israel created? But there’s no need to wait for the far future. What was once done by the anti-Semitic right to the Jews is now being done by the anti-Zionist left to Israel. The difference between them, if it was not clear, is fading away."

The Most Israeli Answer to a Question Ever

"As per policy, Israeli officials have been mum about the attack, but one anonymous Israeli official has spoken off the record about the operation. I now happily present to you, the most Israeli answer to a security question ever:
“It would be in Israel’s interest to hit a factory that was a major source of weapons for the Gaza Strip, no?”

Anti-Semitism and George Galloway’s Party

A controversy in the Respect Party shows a larger trend
British Respect Party’s woman’s officer, Naz Kahn, posted on Facebook September 30:
“It’s such a shame that the history teachers in our school never taught us this but they are the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler. What have the Jews done good in this world??”
The defense Kahn seemed to offer in a later post was she is “not a Nazi, I’m an ordinary British Muslim that had an opinion and put it across.”

BBC Watch: BBC’s Jon Donnison presents hearsay as ‘analysis’

"The report includes ‘analysis’ by the BBC’s Gaza correspondent Jon Donnison.
“Many Palestinians believe Israel provoked the violence deliberately ahead of upcoming Israeli elections in January.”Donnison’s tawdry repetition of inaccurate and misleading hearsay constitutes neither the fact-based analysis nor the accurate and impartial reporting to which the BBC is committed."

At UN Human Rights Council, Will U.S. Go Down with the Ship?

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, got it only half right in her response:
“Throughout his tenure as Special Rapporteur, Mr. Falk has been highly biased and made offensive statements, including outrageous comments on the 9/11 attacks,” Rice said. “Mr. Falk’s recommendations do nothing to further a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and indeed poison the environment for peace. His continued service in the role of a UN Special Rapporteur is deeply regrettable and only damages the credibility of the UN.”
“Falk doesn’t harm the UN’s credibility. Just the opposite. The UNHRC eats away at America’s credibility by our continued participation in an explicitly anti-Israel “human rights” group that can put America’s name on its hateful work. John Bolton put it best when he said the Obama administration’s decision to join the council when it did was “like getting on board the Titanic after it’s hit the iceberg.” And now Rice is scolding the iceberg when she should be heading for a lifeboat.”

EU envoy warns PA of UN bid’s negative consequences
Speaking to London-based Al Hayat, Andreas Reinicke warned the Palestinian Authority that a unilateral bid for nonmember state status could have negative economic and political consequences."

Al-Qaida head attacks Morsi for ties with Israel
Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for mass Egyptian demonstrations over "[Israel-Egypt] peace treaty, occupation of Palestine, siege in Gaza."

Egypt Warns of Security Threat to Israel During Muslim Holiday
An Egyptian security official told the German news agency dpa Thursday that Israel and Egypt are coordinating security along their shared border after intelligence reported increased threats to the Jewish state during the Eid Al-Adha Muslim holiday.

Egyptian activists try to stop holiday sexual harassment
Young men patrol the streets of Cairo to prevent Eid al-Adha crowds from groping women

‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ read aloud in Greek parliament
Neo-Nazi MP quotes passage from notorious anti-Semitic forgery

Report Criticizes Norway for Rise in Anti-Semitism
The Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe has issued a damning report on Norwegian Officials’ failure to address anti-Semitism in that country.

Jews Exact Revenge on Nazis in Real Inglorious Bastards

"The story centers around Hans Wijnberg, a Jew, who fled Holland as a teenager for America with his twin brother, leaving behind a family that would eventually perish at the hands of the Nazis. There’s also Fred Mayer, a German Jew who fled to America ahead of the start of the war. Both joined the American army as soon as they could. Because of their backgrounds they were identified as being exceptionally valuable to the Army’s overseas operations and signed on to the OSS, the Office of Strategic Service, an intelligence agency set up during World War II. After an intense period of training they were sent to Europe."

The Real Inglorious Bastards - Teaser Clip

Requests for no Israeli flag - at Danish "diversity" festival"

From The Copenhagen Post:

A city hall request that the Israeli flag not be displayed at a street festival intended to promote diversity has Jewish community leaders wondering what “diversity” really means to some city leaders.

During planning meetings for September’s Smag Verden – Mangfoldighedsfest, a celebration of the foods and cultures of different countries, Jewish participants were warned that some would interpret the flying of the Israeli flag as a provocation.

“We were told that is was better if we did not fly our flag,” Malgorzata H Hansen, who represented local Jews at the meetings, told Berlingske newspaper.

Organisers said they feared clashes between Jewish, Muslim and leftist groups if the Israeli flag was displayed.

Originally, representatives of TaskForce Inklusion, the group responsible for communicating with all of the groups participating in the festival, told the Jewish representatives that all participating associations were being asked not to bring flags.

Other flags were displayed prominently at the festival and the groups involved said they had never been asked not to display their country’s standards.

TaskForce Inklusion has since revised their story.

“It is not that there is a flag policy,” said Pernille Kjeldgaard, the head of TaskForce Inklusion, to Berlingske. “Specific associations were asked not to display their flags as a safety precaution.”

Max Meyer, head of the organisation Dansk Zionistforbund, said the rules ought to have been the same for everyone.

“It is a shame that one group is discriminated against, especially at a diversity celebration,” Meyer told Berlingske.

Kjeldgaard said her organisation is now re-evaluating its procedures.

“We are aware of the conflict, and are looking at whether we should make some changes,” she said.

Copenhagen's deputy mayor for employment and integration, Anna Mee Allerslev (Radikale), apologised to the Zionist group and invited them to a meeting to discuss the situation.

“No one should feel excluded from a diversity festival,” she said.

Allerslev said that she had been advised to completely exclude the Danish Zionist group from the festival, although he declined to say who exactly made that recommendation.

“We had some experts who were deeply concerned about the situation and were afraid that the security was not sufficient,” she said.

The city deployed 20 additional police officers in and around the festival’s location in the multi-ethinc Nørrebro district.

City councillor Lars Aslan Rasmussen (Socialdemokraterne) called the situation “completely discriminatory”, but Allerslev said other considerations had been in play.

“I would really love to have an explanation as to why Rasmussen does not believe that public safety should be a top priority,” she said. “Politicians should be careful not to politicise cases like this.”

Allerslev stressed that the Jewish group had only been recommended not to display the Israeli flag.

“This was advice, it was not a ban. It was done with the best of intentions,” she said.

You see, it isn't discrimination. It is security!

Some Arabs and leftists and anti-semites and goons and haters who would otherwise enjoy the diversity festival might decide to go crazy and start a riot if they saw a star of David. And the feelings of anti-semites and Israel-haters are really far more important than that of proud Jews, right?

Because Jews aren't going to riot and throw stones and burn flags.

So the least objectionable thing to do is to tell the nice, quiet Jews to stay nice and quiet and don't mention anything about a Jewish state, and then the Jew-haters can enjoy the festival with their families. And everyone is happy.

How dare anyone think that this policy is discriminatory!

(h/t Ishai)

Arab Israelis saving the world

Arabs aren't stupid - their politics are.

Here are three examples of what smart Arabs worldwide could be doing if they would just decide to make peace with Israel and work together with the Jewish state instead of against it.

From Israel21c:

Arab-Israeli scientist Amal Ayoub is going for the gold –not aiming for a medal in an Olympic sport, but to help cure cancer.

Ayoub’s startup, Metallo Therapy, is premised on her earlier research showing that metal nanoparticles – especially gold – introduced into malignant tumors can enhance the effects of radiation therapy while reducing damage to neighboring healthy cells.

“Gold is a big atom containing a lot of electrons,” she explains to ISRAEL21c. “Under radiation it can absorb the rays better than smaller atoms can, and its electrons can emit secondary radiation efficient in destroying the cancer cells.”

Working with two Arab-Israeli employees – a male chemical engineer with a degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and a female biologist – Ayoub is perfecting a method to produce the gold nanoparticles efficiently on an industrial scale, and has developed a molecule to coat them so that they do not cause toxic interactions with body tissues.

Isn’t gold a very expensive material to work with? “Yes, but since we are talking about very small amounts — a couple of milligrams — the price is not an issue,” she explains. “It’s the same cost as developing any other drug.”

So far, she’s done all this with three years’ worth of funding provided by the Israeli Chief Scientist’s Office through the NGT Technology Incubator in Nazareth, the only applied sciences company devoted specifically to the Arab-Israeli community’s scientific, technological and entrepreneurial potential.

In addition, Metallo Therapy recently received $300,000 from the pharmaceutical division of Arkin Holdings, a fund established by Israeli healthcare entrepreneur Mori Arkin, to begin advanced animal trials using mice.

Also from Israel21c:

In the unrelenting Middle East sun, one thing is very clear when you build a new home: it must work with the elements. Standing the test of time are traditional Arabic buildings that kept families and worshippers cool for centuries, long before air conditioning was invented.

A new “green” teaching and research center in the Israeli-Arab town of Sakhnin showcases some of the best traditional approaches to construction in the hope that it will inspire modern building practices. And on a less concrete level, the building is seen as a “green bridge” between the Arab and Jewish communities.

The Union of the Mediterranean recently awarded it first prize in a competition on energy conservation.

Architects anywhere can pick up on traditional Arab building techniques as a means to improve building efficiency, says Hussein Tarabeih, director of the Towns Association for Environmental Quality (TAEQ) for the six Arab-Israeli towns in the Beit Natufa Valley in the Lower Galilee. This is the association that commissioned the building.

“We have a lot of energy-saving elements built into the building,” Tarabeih tells ISRAEL21c. “And it was important for us that we use the community. We conducted a survey asking them what they wanted and involved the older people quite a bit. The truth is that much of the knowledge on the traditional elements has been lost so we had to learn from the beginning. But this is one of the purposes for creating this building. We wanted to preserve the old traditional techniques.”

From NoCamels:

Arab-Israeli company Yafa has developed a unique way of harvesting the sun’s energy for clean energy purposes. The company’s founder, Salih Manasra, has recently won a prestigious European Union EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) grant for this innovation.

Yafa Energy, a four-person company, is the first Arab-Israeli firm to win the EU grant, which was awarded to Mansara by Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, and he hopes it will be the first Arab-run company to put energy into the hands of people who need it most.

After two decades of work with such automotive giants as Opel and GM, developing innovative efficient car engines, Yafa engineers, alongside a German partner, have developed a kind of solar trough, which collects energy from the sun.

The solar thermal energy is converted directly to steam to drive turbines in factories, or cool industrial processes, while additional energy derived from the system is turned into electric power that can be used by the factory or sold back to the grid.

The hybrid system aims to make a solar thermal system cost-effective, smart and capable of radically changing energy usage by manufacturers of traditional commodities like cement, textiles and edibles. These industries tend to be based in poorer countries, operate in hot climates, and consume more energy than high-tech industries.

Manasra says that Yafa Energy hopes to use its Arab-Israeli team to crack into the Middle Eastern market, approaching countries like Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Jordan. The company has already obtained the attention of the World Bank’s International Financing Committee, which recognized the technology as a “product of major interest.” The World Bank is involved in negotiations toward a commercial deal in Jordan, where solar thermal energy is recognized as a renewable energy priority.

Three stories, all from this past month, all about brainpower of less than 1.5 million Arabs in Israel using the state's educational and research infrastructure.

Imagine what hundreds of millions of Arabs across the Middle East could accomplish if they got rid of their hate and decided to work together with their neighbors in Israel.

Friday links (including Latma)

From Ian:

LATMA: A love song to Obama and Aryeh Deri is back

Analysis: The Goldstone Report’s positive effects

"Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts have been strengthened since Operation Cast Lead.
While there may still be some UN officials criticizing Israel regarding the current escalation with Hamas, there just isn’t the same incentive to push for condemnations when the state has won every major recent legal battle, from beating Goldstone, to getting a UN stamp of approval for its blockade of the Gaza Strip from the UN-sponsored Palmer Report in September 2011.Even more impressive from Israel’s standpoint than having won these battles, is why it won.
Those parties trying to bring the country down using lawfare thought that they would garner advantages and expose new vulnerabilities by fighting about Israel’s compliance with the law of armed conflict.
The opposite happened."

Canada joins Israel, US in calling for UN rapporteur’s removal
Canadian foreign affairs minister says Richard Falk’s report on settlements is ‘offensive and unhelpful’; Egyptian, Iranian diplomats call assessment fair and balanced

ADL calls on Ban to condemn Falk report
UN leader urged to distance organization from document criticizing companies doing business in Israel

Israeli Writer says Deir Yassin Was a Blood Libel

"Dr. Uri Milstein has never failed to rankle feathers, especially those attached to the status quo. His most recent book to be translated into English, Blood Libel: The True Story Of The Massacre At Deir Yassin, stays on script, refuting one of the most pivotal narratives of the civil war between Jews and Arabs in what was then British Mandated Palestine."

CIF Watch: Fact-checking Julian Borger on Ahmadinejad’s incitement to genocide

SuperPAC Billboard: Friends Don’t let Friends get Nuked

"The American Principles SuperPAC has posted a new billboard in Florida that’s getting plenty of attention. It says, “FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS GET NUKED,” and then underneath is written, “STOP OBAMA.” To the right is an illustration of an Iranian bomb heading towards an Israeli flag in the shape of Israel."

Iran’s Khamenei says U.S. and Israel conspire to divide Muslims, turn ‘jihad against Zionism into blind terrorism’

"Iran has aligned itself with its regional ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah movement in what it calls an “axis of resistance” against Israel. At the same time it denies accusations from Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchies that it is encouraging Shi’ite uprisings in their countries."

Burgas Bomber Had up to Five Accomplices, Bulgaria Interior Minister Says

"The terrorist who killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in July in Burgas, Bulgaria had up to five accomplices, all foreign, according to Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov."

Italian PM: Europe's security tied up with Israel's
Mario Monti on diplomatic visit to Israel says "any threat to Israel is unacceptable," in reference to Iran's nuclear program.

European Parliament member denies Holocaust on Romanian TV
Official says genocide didn’t affect country’s Jews, 280,000 of whom were killed

60 California Student Leaders Slam Anti-Israel Resolution for ‘Lack of Transparency’

A group of 60 elected student officials signed a letter slamming what they called the “lack of transparency” as well as the “marginalization” and “misrepresentation” of students associated with the recent passage of a resolution condemning a measure to combat anti-Semitism on California state campuses.

IDF Blog 3 Amazing IDF Gadgets James Bond Wishes He Had

"With the newest James Bond movie premiering in theaters today, the legendary agent once again makes headlines. But despite his infamous high-tech gadgets, Agent 007 is still no match for the Israel Defense Forces. Here are three brilliant gadgets Agent Bond only wishes the Q Branch could give him."

Former anti-semitic EU parliament member now fights for Israel

Last August, there was a sensational story in Hungary:

A leading member of a Hungarian anti-Semitic party, notorious for his provocative comments about Jews has discovered that he is a Jew himself.

Ultra nationalist Csanad Szegedi of the far-right Jobbik Party had accused Jews of ‘buying up’ the country, railed about the ‘Jewishness’ of the political elite and claimed Jews were desecrating national symbols.

That was until it was revealed that his grandmother was a survivor of Auschwitz death camp and his grandfather was a forced labour camp veteran.

After weeks of internet rumours, Szegedi acknowledged in June that his grandparents on his mother's side were Jews, making him one too under Jewish law even though he does not practice the faith.

Since then, the 30-year-old has been politically exiled from Jobbik with his political career on the brink of collapse.

Under pressure, Szegedi resigned last month from all party positions and gave up his Jobbik membership and last week the party asked him to give up his seat in the European Parliament as well.

Since 2009, he has served in the European Parliament in Brussels as one of the party's three EU lawmakers, a position he says he wants to keep.

After discovering he was Jewish, Szegedi met with Rabbi Slomo Koves, of Hungary's Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch community in early August, whose own parents were in their teens when they discovered they were Jewish.

Koves said: ‘As a rabbi ... it is my duty to receive every person who is in a situation of crisis and especially a Jew who has just now faced his heritage.’

During the meeting, Szegedi apologised for any statements which may have offended the Jewish community and vowed to visit Auschwitz to pay his respects.

Koves described the conversation as ‘difficult and spiritually stressful’, but said he is hopeful for a successful outcome.

He said: ‘Csanad Szegedi is in the middle of a difficult process of reparation, self-knowledge, re-evaluation and learning, which according to our hopes and interests, should conclude in a positive manner.

‘Whether this will occur or not is first and foremost up to him.’

This week, during the debate in the EU Parliament on allowing the European market to have free access to Israeli pharamaceuticals, the Szegedi - who did not relinquish his post there - had only warm words for the Jewish state:

For decades, Israel has been inside one of the most politically unstable regions of the Earth. Despite all the difficulties on how to build a modern democracy, the Jewish state has demonstrated that there can be freedom and peace for the people, where there are normally dictatorships and hatred. The European Parliament has the strong ethical and moral obligation to support any moves to bring together Israel and the European Union, as part of Europe's cultural sense of Israel. Israel is a state that continually demonstrates the maturity of respect for human rights, and therefore the EU should beware of whether they interfere in Israel's internal affairs. We would also like to take this opportunity to wish peace as soon as possible to the people of the Middle East.

The parliament passed the law, whch was another huge setback for the "boycott Israel" crowd. But they also lost a former champion.

Another jihadist who was targeted by Israel earlier this week has died.

Hamas' Al Qassam site now lists the names of each of the eight people who were killed by Israeli airstrikes. And each one of them is called a "mujahid," or jihadist.

Which means that the IDF managed an amazing record of killing 8 terrorists - and zero innocent civilians - even though some of them were in the middle of crowded neighborhoods.

All of the terrorists seem to have been either members of Hamas or of their partners, the Nasser Brigades of the PRC.

Here is another video of a rocket fired by the PRC towards Israel on Wednesday.

"Chuetas" exploring their Jewish roots

From Ha'aretz:

The Jews of Palma de Mallorca were forced to convert to Catholicism about 600 years ago, but now several hundred of their descendants, known as the Chuetas, are trying to reconnect to their Jewish roots. Members of the Chueta community and Israeli scholars recently participated in a conference in Netanya on the anusim, or forced converts, of the Balearic Islands.

The Balearic Islands, best known for the international party destination ofIbiza, are situated off the eastern coast of Spain. Palma is the main port city in Mallorca, the capital of this archipelago under Spanish rule.

A group of 15 Chueta families have, over the centuries, maintained their Jewish lineage by marrying only among themselves, one of the distinctions of this particular community of anusim. Last year, after visiting the island and examining the family trees of these families, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, chairman of the Beit Din Tzedek, ruled that their descendents, who number about 25,000 today, are indeed part of the Jewish people.

Miguel Segura, a journalist and author who himself is a Chueta and has written a book about their history, told Haaretz that he and two other members of the community, both women, have recently “returned” to Judaism – a term used by the anusim to refer to the symbolic conversion process they undergo to be considered full-fledged Jews. Segura said that over the centuries, the Chuetas, which is considered a pejorative term – one translation is “swine” – were persecuted and ostracized in Spain. So while he isn’t looking to trade homelands, the ruling has validated his identity and beliefs.

“I am 67 years old, so that is too old to make aliyah, but I now make a point of coming to Israel every year,” said Segura, who attended the Netanya conference.

Efforts to educate the community have been enhanced by the establishment of a new Beit Midrash. Rabbi Nissan Ben-Avraham, a Chueta who converted many years ago and moved to Israel, has been traveling to Palma de Mallorca every month in recent years to teach classes there.

Michael Freund wrote about Rabi ben-Avraham and the Chueta community in 2006:

Born in 1957 into a religious Catholic family, his given name at birth was Nicolau Aguilo. "My father was a shopkeeper, in a shop that has been in our family's hands since 1700, at least," he recalls. "Religion was a very important matter for my family. We went to church every week and fulfilled all the religious duties of Catholicism".
But one day, young Nicolau made an off-handed comment that would end up changing his life forever.

Sitting in the car with his mother, they drove down Jafuda (Yehuda) Cresques Street, which was named after a well-known Jewish cartographer who lived in Palma centuries ago. Nicolau pointed to the street sign and giggled, telling his mother, "He was a Xueta!" (a derogatory word in Catalan, pronounced 'shweta', which is used to refer to the descendants of Mallorcan Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism over five centuries ago).

Nicolau's mother then turned to him and said, "Why are you laughing? You, too, are a Xueta."

The disclosure caught Nicolau completely by surprise. "I was stunned. I remember clearly that for several weeks, all I could think about was: 'Me? I am a Xueta?' You have to understand that this was considered a terrible word, a slur."

The more Nicolau thought about the fact that his family had Jewish roots, the more difficult it was for him to grapple with his entirely new sense of identity. "It was very hard for me. In the Mallorcan Christian mentality, Jews and Xuetas are considered such a terrible thing, so I suddenly had to confront the fact that I came from what was viewed as being the lowest and dirtiest of places in the universe."

Those negative attitudes towards Mallorca's Jews and Xuetas were a product of the centuries of anguish and torment that Nicolau's newly-discovered ancestors had been forced to endure from their unforgiving Catholic neighbors.

No one knows precisely when the first Jews arrived in Mallorca, but the Jewish presence on the island is said to date back possibly as far as the 5th century CE.

At the turn of the 14th century, the Jews' situation deteriorated sharply. In 1305, anti-Jewish rioting erupted, and the island's first blood-libel occurred in 1309, when several Jews were falsely accused of murdering a Catholic child. In 1311, Palma de Majorca's synagogue was confiscated and turned into a church, and Jewish property was seized.

The turning point, however, came in 1391, when violent anti-Jewish pogroms swept across Spain. On August 2, the riots reached Mallorca. Many Jews were massacred and entire communities wiped out, while others were forcibly converted, possibly including Nicolau's forefathers.

Subsequently, the Inquisition became particularly active in the area, and there were numerous cases involving converted Jews who had returned to Judaism being burnt alive at the stake. The Church's harsh tactics led additional Jews, who had arrived in Mallorca after the 1391 massacre, to adopt Christianity under compulsion.

Nonetheless, the native Mallorcans never accepted the Jewish converts, and began referring to them as Xuetas, which historians believe is related to the Catalan word for pig.

A particularly brutal incident occurred on the island in 1667, when a boatload of Jews on the way to Leghorn anchored off Mallorca on a brief stopover to purchase supplies. The Inquisitorial authorities seized a 16-year old boy from the ship named Jacobo Lopez after receiving information that his parents had been practicing Judaism in secret. After allowing the rest of the ship's passengers to set sail, they tortured Lopez until he confessed. But the young hero refused to renounce his Jewish beliefs, despite the great danger that he faced. Church authorities subsequently burned him alive in January 1675 in front of some 30,000 spectators and onlookers.

As late as 1691, some three hundred years after the forcible conversions, large numbers of Xuetas were tried and executed by the Inquisition for "relapsing" to Judaism. Despite the passage of so many years, many of them had continued to practice Judaism in secret, marrying only among themselves in an effort to keep alive the faith and heritage of their ancestors.

But discrimination against the Xuetas continued well into the 19th century, and legal restrictions against them were formally lifted only in 1931.

An 1876 book (and also this book from 1719) describes the pretext for the forcible conversion of the Jews of the island:

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, when cruelty and fanaticism in the Peninsula were engaged in active persecution of the Jewish race, the unhappy Jews of Majorca came in for a full share of ill-treatment and suffering. To the cry of "Death to the Jews," they were assaulted by the populace in their quarter of the town of Palma; they were made to kiss a cross of wood, with which they were afterwards beaten, and the death of a boy, killed in the affray, was the pretext for a general sack of their houses and homes. The Majorcan Jews were not, however, finally converted until the year 1435, when it was brought about in this wise. Don Vicente Mut relates that, during Passion Week, some of the Jews conceived the horrible and blasphemous idea of naming one of their slaves after our Lord, and making him suffer what our Saviour had suffered during the Holy Week. The wretched man did not die on the cross to which he was finally attached, but four of the principal Jews were condemned to be burned alive for their crime. The offer of being hanged instead was however made on the condition of their being converted and Christianised. These four criminals were ultimately declared to be converted, and their example was followed by the rest of the prisoners, and in two days more than two hundred were baptized. The result of this rapid conversion was, that the very people who had clamoured for the lives of the criminals now prayed for their pardon, which was finally granted, even to the four who had been condemned to be burned.

The descendants of these people, to whom the name of Chueta is now applied, form the fifth class of the inhabitants of these islands. Although professing to be Christians—for there are no Jews now in the islands—they live as much apart from the people as if they still professed the religion of their forefathers; they occupy a separate quarter of the town of Palma, and they intermarry, with very rare exceptions, only amongst themselves. They are chiefly engaged as silversmiths, but in whatever trade they are occupied they are reputed to do well and make money.

And more from a 19th century magazine:

[W]e must now cross to the island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean. Here, in the fifteenth century, we find mention of some persecuted Jewish refugees who had fled to Majorca for protection, and who had, at least to all appearance, embraced the Catholic faith. They were called Chuetas, a diminutive of the Majorcan word ' chuya'—bacon, in polite allusion to the faith they had abjured. They settled in the town of Palma, where they carried on various trades so successfully that the Holy Inquisition soon cast a covetous eye on their money-bags, which it thought were too plump for orthodoxy. It is difficult to read calmly of the doings of the priests, who between 1435 and 1780 burned and tortured hundreds of these unfortunate wretches, always under the pretence of unsoundness of faith, confiscating, of course, all their goods to Holy Mother Church. In 1687 the Chuetas attempted to escape in an English vessel, hoping to find a safer refuge in another island, but an unrelenting fate cast them back in a tempest to their old dwelling-place, where they were seized and severely punished for this additional crime. To commemorate the event, the Inquisition ordered a series of paintings to be executed in the cloister of the Dominicans at Palma. Each picture represented one of the martyrs who had perished in the flames, his name, age, and the date of his punishment being written at the bottom. Several of these pictures were decorated with cross-bones, to distinguish the portraits of those whose ashes had been exhumed and cast to the winds. These works of art were to be seen at the beginning of this century. In 1782 there were more than three hundred families of Chuetas in Majorca, who still lived under a ban, and who, although they had to pay taxes, were excluded from all the privileges and rights of the other citizens.

There are other horror stories of how these crypto-Jews were treated.

UNRWA falsifies a retraction by Channel 2

From UNRWA:

Israel’s highest-rating news programme, Channel Two News, has published a statement correcting false claims that rockets were fired from schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) during the Gaza war in 2008-2009. The statement makes clear that Israeli officials themselves acknowledged that such claims were false and that there was no evidence to support them.

“We heard this misinformation during the war when there was shelling on and around the Agency’s schools and our main warehouse in Gaza”, said UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness, “but Israeli officials made it clear to the UN during the war itself that they knew claims about militants in UNRWA installations were completely false. Constant, unchecked repetition of this misinformation has been very damaging to the Agency and has produced some very poor and biased journalism, which I will continue to confront. This is the third time in just a few months that a major news organisation has issued a public retraction because of false information about UNRWA.”

However, Channel 2 says that it never issued a correction.

Yesterday UNRWA issued a wrong misleading message in a UN press release, stating that "News 2 published an correction denying the accuracy of the claims made by it in the past - whereby, from 2008 to 2009 Qassam rockets were shot at Israel from UNRWA of the United Nations' facilities in Gaza Strip . "

This press release was out to the media after News 2 agreed to the request of UNRWA to publish its response to the story Ohad Hemo aired last Saturday, and was about activities of left-wing activists in the territories.

During the item, a foreign activist hurled an accusation that Israel bombed hospitals and schools of the United Nations. In response the reporter said to her that Hamas members operated from these UN facilities and attempts were made to shoot Qassam rockets from there to Israel. UNRWA appealed to News 2 and asked to post a comment on these allegations and the response was posted alongside the story online, but it claimed that the claims raised by the reporter are not true.

The fact that News 2 agreed to the request of UNRWA to comment to the article was deceptively presented by UNRWA statement as if News 2 retracted this statement, which is not true at all.

UNRWA lying? Perish the thought!

While no one seriously claims that UNRWA consciously allowed rocket fire from inside its facilities during the Gaza war, it is clear that such rocket fire certainly did occur nearby.

(h/t O, Ruchie)

Another Sudan theory: Real targets are Sinai jihadists

Egypt Independent quotes a Reuters article that claims that the real reason for the presumed Israeli attack against the Yarmouk arms factory in the Sudan was Sinai jihadists:

If Israel bombed a Sudanese munitions factory, as Khartoum alleges, the raid was part of its widening proxy war against Islamist militants in neighbouring Egypt which the Jewish state is reluctant to confront directly.

A huge explosion ripped through the factory near the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, killing two people, with Sudan swiftly accusing Israel of sending four military planes to take out the complex.

With Sinai itself becoming a seedbed of al Qaeda-inspired cadres during Cairo's political upheaval, the Israelis now fear such arms could be used against them from within Egyptian territory. That puts Israel in a strategic bind, laid bare by the half-dozen guerrilla attacks it absorbed over the Egyptian border in recent months.

The countries' landmark 1979 peace accord precludes Israeli military action, whether preventive or retaliatory, in the Sinai, and Israel is highly unlikely to risk even a one-off breach given Egypt's unsympathetic new Islamist-led government.

Israel's response, government and military sources said, has been to hit first against those on Egypt's periphery suspected of links to the Sinai militants.

That has meant stepped-up up air strikes on Gazans accused of plotting operations in Sinai, and - to judge by reports from Khartoum - similar escalation in Sudan, to Egypt's south.

Israel has never confirmed or denied carrying out attacks on Sudanese targets. But Israeli defence officials admit placing a high priority on tracking arms trafficking through the country.

Commenting tersely on Israel's strategy, the ex-official said it aimed to "stem the flow of arms (to Sinai and Gaza) without triggering major confrontations".

"This is all the more relevant today," the ex-official said, referring to instability in Egypt and surging Sinai militancy.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence official, made clear that Sudan should be considered fair game - an enemy like Hamas and Iran - and that Cairo's interests were also at stake.

"It is clear that it (Sudan) supports the smuggling of munitions, or it helps Gaza. In actuality, these munitions pass through Egypt, so it is endangering its major neighbour, Egypt. It harms national security because tomorrow these arms could also be used against the Egyptians," Gilad told Army Radio.

It's as good a theory as any.

(slight correction h/t CHA)

Shimon Peres sends greetings to Arabs for Eid al Adha

Israel's President Shimon Peres put out a greeting for Eid al Adha on his Facebook page:

It

This was even noticed by Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today, where Peres is quoted as saying ""The festival of Sacrifice is a great occasion and also is a big opportunity in order to work on closer relations and promote good neighborly ties between us to live together with love and equality with respect for the culture of the other."

And more links. So many more. Really.

You can't have too many links...

My Country is Under Attack. Do You Care? at HuffPo Canada:

I'm angry that while the United Nations never hesitates to call a 'special emergency session' on the 'Question of Palestine' or pass the umpteenth resolution blindly condemning Israel, that I am still waiting for a session on the 'Question of Israel' and Palestinian terror. In fact, 24 hours after the rocket attacks started, I am still waiting for even one syllable of condemnation from the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly or Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

I'm angry that Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, could not find a moment to condemn the Palestinian rockets, but did find time to laugh and dance with South Korean rapper Psy from the popular dance craze Gangnam Style.

I'm angry that while the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton slammed Israel last week over the building of several hundred apartments (in an area that will arguably remain part of Israel anyway), that I am still waiting for her to slam the Palestinians for firing 80 rockets in one day.

Photo from the Guardian above proves Hamas fires rockets from densely populated neighborhoods (h/t Yaakov Lozowick)

A "normal" day in southern Israel:

Israeli-developed smartphone gives the blind new-found access to apps

The "Apartheid" poll at Ha'aretz is "spin at its worst" - but beyond that, Avi Mayer looks at the actual poll results and tears Ha'aretz apart for actively trying to make Israelis look racist. Also, NGO Monitor follows the money.

UN "Human Rights Council" calls to boycott American companies that do business in Israel

Lawfare Project Strongly Denounces Arab Lawyers Union (ALU) for Honoring Suicide Bomber

BDSFail:

The European parliament voted on Tuesday by a margin of 379-240 to remove controls on the sale of Israeli pharmaceuticals within the EU.

The passing of the bill means that Israeli pharmaceuticals can be exported to any EU nation without delays and without requiring any additional certification.

British Jews cringing at new reality TV shows that make them look like cartoons

Boycott Watch asks Pepsi about the Gaza sponsorships I reported on (without credit, alas)and does not get any satisfactory answers.

It could be done better, and the joke's been done before, but the Flotilla Cruise Line page is still pretty funny.

Is there a Churchill in the house? (h/t Josh K)

Few know of Vice President Joe Biden’s many attempts to delay or dilute sanctions against Iran. Bloggers in DC used to refer to Biden as the mullah’s “favorite senator.” Back in 2007, Biden, then-senator and -chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, blocked a Senate vote on H.Con.Res.21, which called for the US to initiate measures to indict the Iranian leadership for its incitement to genocide, suppression of human rights, terror and nuclear enrichment.

Lebanon risks being torn apart by Syrian conflict (BBC)

Tunisia's last Jews (BBC, h/t John W)

An Arab-Israeli company pioneering in solar energy. Will they be able to sell to poor Arab countries?

Happy Birthday Bibi, from all of your good friends! (h/t Yerushalimey)

Backlash against Morsi's mosque visit

From MEMRI:

In his daily column, Dr. Osama Al-Ghazali Harb of the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram discussed a MEMRI TV clip that shows Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi attending Friday prayers on October 19, 2012, at a mosque in the city of Marsa Matrouh, nodding his head and answering "amen" as the preacher curses "the Jews."

Over the past two days, MEMRI 'caught' a fat fish, which it is now streaming worldwide via the Internet: a television clip of President Mursi during his last visit to [the northwestern city of] Marsa Matrouh. [Mursi is seen] sitting in the front row amongst the congregants of the Al-Tana'im Mosque, listening resignedly to a Friday sermon by Sheikh Futouh 'Abd Al-Nabi Mansour, head of the Islamic Endowment in Marsa Matrouh.
"As usual, Sheikh Mansour concludes his sermon, in the presence of President Mursi, of course, with the following supplication: 'Oh Allah, absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels. Oh Allah, deal with the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. Oh Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them. Show us Your omnipotence, oh Lord.' Of course, Mursi nodded his head, mumbling 'amen' along with the congregants after each supplication [against the Jews].

MEMRI is now streaming this scene on the Internet and distributing it around the world with audio and video, and with English subtitles. This is very embarrassing to the president. I do not know how the honorable president would respond if asked: 'Do you agree with what Sheikh Futouh said?' If he says no, it is a problem, and if he says yes, it is an even bigger problem. I believe that no one will ask the president this question, but the case and its implications will not go over well [with Western viewers], since this matter embodies the massive gap that still exists between the official contractual obligation for peace with Israel, and the popular objection to this [peace] agreement. As part of his official duty, the president must respect the agreement, as he has stated many times, but he also cannot disconnect from the prevailing popular mood. This is a complex problem that must be dealt with more wisely. Furthermore, it is important to be well prepared for such events.

As for Sheikh Futouh, I do not know if his honor knows that his name, voice, and image are now circling the globe [and spreading] on wide-reaching social networks, and that he is being accused, whether directly or indirectly, of antisemitism. [Publishing his words and image around the world] did not even occur to him, and he might not have even heard of it.

That is refreshing, and it is not the only bad feedback to this episode from the Muslim world.

Egypt's Al Azhar came out with an opinion that it is not permissible for imams to curse "Jews" or "Christians" as a whole. Other scholars agreed, and if I am reading it correctly even the infamous Yusuf Qaradawi sayd you can pray for the destruction of Jewish usurpers, but not Jews. Apparently Saudi Arabia (perhaps shamed by older MEMRI clips) also came out against similar hate in mosques.

Reports about the MEMRI story have been published throughout the Arabic-language media.