Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

World's oldest complete Torah scroll discovered in Bologna

A professor at the University of Bologna has discovered the oldest complete Torah scroll in the world in the University Library of Bologna.

The document, "Rotolo 2" (Scroll 2), which contains the complete text of Pentateuch - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - was handwritten on sheepskin parchment between 1155 and 1225 AD.

Mauro Perani, professor of Hebrew studies at the University of Bologna, was examining the manuscript for the library's new catalogue when he realised that even though it was dated 17th century it was, in fact, much older.

He came to that conclusion, he said, because the handwriting "was very old and of oriental origin".

"[The text] did not respect the basic rules of Maimonides, who in the 12th century fixed the rabbinic legislation as far as Pentateuch writing is concerned," he said, according to local reports.

According to the professor, the document, which measures 36cm x 64cm [this is a typo, they meant 36 meters - EoZ], contains "letters and signs prohibited" after Maimonides' codification. He confirmed that the manuscript's value amounts to €1m.

Further authentication tests with Carbon-14 by the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Department of Engineering of Innovation at the University of Salento confirmed the professor's conviction.

The document had been mistakenly catalogued by Leonello Modona in 1889 as belonging to the 17th century due to its "awkward handwriting".

The library has started implementing measures to preserve and safeguard the manuscript. It will be photographed and handed over for further studies to experts in a digital form.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Maimonides' laws of writing a Torah to know what rules were violated.

From the poor quality images, though, it is clear that the Torah looks fundamentally like the Torahs in use today.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Bizarre "Palestinian history" argument between Arabs

In Assabeel, Abdullah Azzak quotes a paper by Muslim Brotherhood personality Professor Abdel Fattah Dukhan. Given at a conference on Palestinian Arab issues, Dukhan argues that the ancient Canaanites were Arabs who fiercely defended their land from the invading Hebrew hordes and held off the invasion for 140 years before David conquered Jerusalem and the Jews occupied this Arab land (way before the Arabs came from, um, Arabia.)

Azzak is pained at this view of history, especially coming from the Muslim Brotherhood. To him, this argument ignores the holiness of the Land of Palestine and Dukhan is ignoring the Quran.

You see, Allah did promise the land to Abraham - who was, of course, Muslim. All the prophets who followed him - Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jesus - were Muslim too, and they understood the importance of Palestine to the Muslim people. The Hebrews were an Arab tribe and their language is just a variant of Arabic.

The Quran says that David was not a Jewish king but a Muslim as well, and it describes his conquering Palestine as a great event. How can Dukhan ignore this clear Quranic fact??

Today's Jews are not the descendants of the holy prophets of old. Today's Jews are all Khazars, as everyone knows. Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, and Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shikaki, and Fatah leader Abu Jihad, are the real descendants of Abraham and the other prophets who Allah promised Palestine to, says Azzak.

You see? It is a fundamental disagreement between people who believe history from a book of myths and those who create their own modern myths.

The PLO was founded as an antisemitic movement

Ma'an reports:

President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday hailed the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the most significant event in Palestinian people's history.

"(Ahmad) Shuqeiri was asked to figure out what the Palestinians wanted, and he returned with the convention for the PLO," Abbas said at a meeting to mark the 49th anniversary of the PLO's founding.

"We should remind ourselves that this is the most important and significant event in the history of the Palestinian people," the president added.

It is nice that Abbas is admitting that the "Palestinian people" aren't very ancient. What other people who have been around for millennia would say that their most significant event was the founding of an organization in 1964? Imagine the Greeks saying that the most important event in their history was something so trite and recent.

However, this anniversary gives us the opportunity to revisit the original PLO charter, which stated:

Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area.

According to the PLO, areas occupied by Arabs were already "liberated." Only the parts controlled by Jews were meant to be targeted to obtain their goals.

Curiously, the words "state" and "independence" are also missing from the charter in relationship with its goals. So is any mention of an ancient and historic Palestinian Arab people.

If the original goal of the PLO was not to create a state, not to be independent, and not even to re-establish an ancient homeland, then what was its raison d'être?

The answer can be seen in Article 18:

Article 18:...The claims of historic and spiritual ties between Jews and Palestine are not in agreement with the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood. Judaism, because it is a divine religion, is not a nationality with independent existence.

All this is proof positive that the establishment of the PLO, the "most important and significant event in the history of the Palestinian people," was not concerned with creating a nation - but in denying one from the Jewish people. And this stance continues to this day by Palestinian Arab leaders.

In other words, the founding principle of the PLO was not nationhood, it was not independence, it was not an appeal to historic ties of a "people" to the land.

It was simple antisemitism.

And the mindset that created that document has not changed one bit since then.

Video: Fistfight in Jordan's parliament (updated)

The argument was over electricity subsidies should be reduced, which was the topic being covered at the podium.

UPDATE: Husam points to a better angle:

Partying naked "Satanists" arrested in Saudi Arabia

Emirates 24/7 reports:

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police arrested 30 people, including Westerners and Saudis, after they were caught having a mixed-gender party involving nude persons, alcohol, drugs, sex and “Satanic rituals,” a newspaper reported on Monday.

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice raided a night camp outside the capital Riyadh lit by movie-inspired fire torches and seized 30 people from 11 nationalities, some of whom were totally naked.

Sabq newspaper, quoting a Commission member, said three men were caught having sex with women inside a tent while others were seized with drugs.

“They were having drugs and alcoholic drinks and some of them were moving and dancing to strange music,” the paper quoted the unnamed member as saying.

“Many of them were dancing around a fire as part of their Satanic rituals. Unfortunately, some of them were Saudis.”

The paper said those arrested were from the United States, Europe, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

The English version might have downplayed it, but Arabic versions of the story are emphasizing the "Satanist" angle.

Nudity? Alcohol? Drugs? Satanism? Strange music?

Sounds like a college party circa 1986.

Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

The Resurgence of European Antisemitism
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the age-old pathology of anti-Semitism, but a good place to start is to acknowledge the problem.

It sounds obvious, but such acknowledgement encounters resistance. Some European officials prefer to believe that attacks against Jews are acts of “hooliganism,” not anti-Semitism. Some spend endless hours questioning the methodology of polls, rather than digesting the consistently worrisome results. And some would rather debate ad nauseum where the line between “legitimate” and ‘illegitimate” criticism of Israel lies, instead of recognizing the stark fact that anti-Semitism has all too often been transferred from the individual Jew to the Jewish state of Israel.

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: A global tsunami of anti-Semitism

The greatest outpouring of anti-Jewish hatred emanates from the newly empowered Muslim countries, with their combined population of 1.6 billion. In conjunction with their diasporas in Western countries, they frenziedly promote a devilish brew of unique Islamic anti-Semitism combined with the traditional Western varieties. They depict Jews as vampires; descendants of apes and pigs; evil creatures disseminating AIDS; the masterminds behind 9/11; etc. Their incitement is at least as potent as the worst Jew-hatred promoted during the Nazi era. In addition, the jihadist component has been the principal element stoking the escalation of global violence, terror and murder against Jews.

Grandson of Alfred Dreyfus Asks Not to Auction Off His Letter

A grandson of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain wrongly accused of treason over a century ago, on Monday urged a private collector not to allow a letter penned by his grandfather to go under the hammer in Paris this week, AFP reports.

From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel, by Robert Wistrich (REVIEW)

The book is divided into three sections : The Antisemitic Question; Nationalism and Internationalism; Anti-Zionist Mythologies. They include short intellectual biographies (of Marx, Bernstein, Mehring, Lazare, Kautsky, and Trotsky, among others); histories of movements and ideas (social democracy, nationalism , internationalism) and deconstruction of grotesque “ideologies” such as Marxist- Islamism and Jewish anti-Zionism. “Ideology,” said Lionel Trilling, “is not the product of thought: it is the habit or the ritual of showing respect for certain formulas to which, for various reasons having to do with emotional safety, we have very strong ties of whose meaning and consequences in actuality we have no clear understanding.”

The Fear of Causing Offense by Douglas Murray

The whole country honours Drummer Rigby. But it not only dishonours him, but dishonours our nation, to see in his brutal death not an aggressive ideology with clear aims, but a mere nothingness. This was not an attack that made "no sense." It was an attack that made plenty of sense and had been whipped up, as well as aspired to, by others for many years. What makes "no sense" is for a country to continue to ignore that fact, and hope, by ignoring it, to pretend it away.

Melanie Phillips: To defeat Islamic terror, we must first acknowledge what it is

It is those who refuse to acknowledge the true nature of this threat who are doing the terrorists' job for them.
And unless Britain finally wakes up from its self-destructive torpor, all who love civilised values — Muslim and non-Muslim alike — will be the losers.

Guardian deletes ALL reader comments from Glenn Greenwald’s Woolwich related posts

So, did the Guardian remove all of the comments beneath Greenwald’s commentary – and turn off comments for the other Woolwich related CiF pieces – for fear of prejudicing the future trial of Michael Olumide Adebolajo and the other suspects?

Ali Abunimah goes to Gaza

Obviously, during his stay in Gaza, Ali Abunimah will do his very best to come up with many reasons to blame Israel. Indeed, his popular “narratives” about the bottomless evils of Israel and Zionism have presumably led to his invitation to the currently ongoing Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) – though it is a bit strange that an activist who likes to present himself as a serious reporter and political commentator would be invited to a festival that is supposedly devoted to literature and the arts. But perhaps Ali Abunimah’s advocacy should indeed be regarded as an art form that deserves to be featured in an event supported by organizations like the British Council and the Arts Council England?

Michigan Man Arrested Over Swastika Surge

A 58-year old man from Lansing, Michigan was arrested early Saturday in connection with several swastikas that have been found spray-painted on community grounds in recent weeks.
Undercover detectives reportedly caught a suspect using black paint spray to vandalize a sign at Old Town Temple, said Lansing police Capt. Daryl Green, according to Lansing State Journal.

IDF Blog: A Hero with Flying Colors: Meet the Founder of the IAF’s International Squadron

As a child, his life was saved by a Dutch family who hid him from the Nazis during the Holocaust. Today, he is an Israel Air Force hero responsible for having saved the lives of thousands of people worldwide. Read the remarkable story of Lt. Col. (res.) Arieh Oz, the founder of the IAF’s International Squadron.

Meet Israel’s Under-21 Soccer Team with Players of Jewish, Arab, Druze, Russian and Ethiopian Origin (VIDEO)

Israel’s official YouTube channel has begun to publish videos introducing members of the country’s Under-21 National Team ahead of the UEFA Under-21 Championship, to be held in Israel this June. In the below video coach Guy Luzon talks about his team’s chemistry and its unique cultural makeup, with players of Jewish, Arab, Druze, Russian and Ethiopian origin.

Dutch province wants Israeli tech, BDS be damned

Israeli start-ups seeking a home in Europe might want to have a look at the Netherlands — specifically, in the southern Brabant area of the country. There, start-ups will find a good location and infrastructure, motivated partners and maybe some working capital, according to Ben Engel of BOM Foreign Investments, a government-sponsored venture capital firm dedicated to attracting business to the region.

Israeli MD proves dogs can sniff out cancer cells

Israeli internist Dr. Uri Yoel, 43, has demonstrated that dogs are indeed capable of differentiating between the scent of cancer cells and non-cancerous cells.
“Our research proves that dogs can smell cancer cells in vitro [in lab cultures], and that different types of cancer share the same smell print,” says Yoel, who practices at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva and teaches at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

Israel Daily Picture: The New Old Train Station in Jerusalem

A new cultural and entertainment center just opened in Jerusalem and it's called the "First Station." With a farmers' market, restaurants, crafts stores and a children's play center, the First Station promises to be a busy hub for Jerusalem activity.
Just like it was when it first opened in 1892, more than 120 years ago, when the first train from Jaffa pulled into Jerusalem's new train station.

Miftah's double standards for Jews and everyone else

Miftah, the Western-funded NGO that refuses to condemn the medieval Jewish blood libel in Arabic, has another article filled with lies - this one about Jerusalem:

Looking at the state of Jerusalem’s eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.

Devastation? United Jerusalem today is more beautiful than at any time since 70 CE. So what is the devastation?

Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the subject knows that the Israel Antiquities Authority bends over backwards to save ancient artifacts - belonging to any religion. The Waqf, on the other hand, lies whenever it is convenient to do so, and has purposefully destroyed thousands of priceless ancient Jewish objects.

Condemning Jews acting responsibly to save antiquities while condoning Muslims destroying them is a bit of a double standard. There might be a term for that.

A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance.

Besides the small fact that there haven't been any graves in the area being dug for quite a while, Miftah's writer seems unaware that, in 1946, the Supreme Muslim Council approved the building of an office park directly on top of the cemetery - and their own offices would have been housed there! They justified it by citing Islamic precedent.

To Miftah, only Jewish actions are to be condemned.

There might be a term for that.

Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers.

Miftah seems to believe that Jews should be forbidden to buy buildings in Jerusalem. Yet Arabs move to Jewish neighborhoods, and that is not a problem.

There might be a term for that.

The “Judiazation” of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city.

I am not familiar with any demolition of historic Islamic structures since 1967.

Miftah's lies go beyond that, by pretending that Jerusalem has a primarily "Arab Palestinian character." They might want to explain exactly why there were no synagogues in the Old City between 1948 and 1967. I'm sure they can figure it out, even if they approve of the actions that burnt them down.

Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel’s light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center.

Legally buying buildings at hugely inflated prices is, in Miftah-speak, "wrestling." Even when the Shimon HaTzaddik portion of that neighborhood was built by Jews who were violently attacked and ethnically cleansed in 1948.

And somehow Jerusalem's light rail, which serves Arabs and Jews equally, has only taken land from Arabs in its construction. Amazing!

On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices.

Jews walking around with Israeli flags are "settlers" and "extremists." Arabs waving Palestinian flags - not being interfered with by the Israeli police - are "fearless" and "determined." Why is one group described as heroic and the other in a derogatory manner, when they were doing the same thing?

There might be a term for that.

How will the GFCA address Arab and Muslim antisemitism?

The fourth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism started today in Jerusalem. I am keenly interested in seeing what the conference will say about Arab and Muslim antisemitism.

There are some sessions and a working group at the GFCA on that topic. Here is their mission statement:

Arab and Muslim Antisemitism is growing and having a major impact on the Palestinian Authority, in Arab-Muslim countries and in the West. As a result of large-scale immigration that is changing the makeup of Europe, and through the widespread dissemination of hate messages by satellite TV and internet, Arab-Muslim Antisemitism is having an effect beyond the Middle East. Arab communities outside the Middle East are echoing the hate speech of radical Islam .

The hate messages of this Antisemitism are many and varied. Some of them are based on various classical sources from Islam that depict Jews as cursed by Allah, descendants of monkeys and pigs and destined for genocide. According to this Islamic-based Antisemitism, Jews at best are protected and must submit to Muslims, and at worst must all be killed to bring the “hour” of resurrection. Hating, fighting and killing Jews can be perceived as worship of Allah.

Other Arab – Muslim Antisemitism focuses on demonizing Jews because of so-called Israeli oppression of Palestinians. Jews all over the world are included in the collective blame for Israel's behavior. This often includes the attribution of demonic and evil acts to Israel, just as Jews were accused throughout history of poisoning wells and using blood for Matzah. Often the same people will quote both the Islamic-based and nationalistic-based hate speech.

Counter force
Alongside the Muslims who are screaming, “Kill the Jews,” however, is a small but increasingly vocal number of Muslims who are rejecting this hate speech. Muslims who themselves were brought up on the hate messages and were themselves disseminating them in the past have now rejected the hate speech and are rallying and speaking on behalf of Israel and Jews. These are the voices from the inside that must be tapped to seek the way to confront the current wave of Arab-Muslim Antisemitism ....

The goal is that the working group will produce a paper that defines the nature of Muslim-Arab Antisemitism, describes its means of transmission and creates a concrete plan to combat it, including combating the means of transmission.

I'm not sure that finding sympathetic Muslims to try to change things from the inside is the most effective way to combat this problem. I feel strongly that Muslim antisemitism needs to be exposed and condemned explicitly by Western nation-states, human rights organizations and the media. The only way to change the behavior is to shame the people who are engaged in it, and when they know that their hate makes them look bad to the West, they are embarrassed and at least make token attempts to soften the hate.

This is not in itself a solution, but it is a hugely important first step. Not only that, but it is a realistic step that the people attending the conference can implement, by using their connections with influential people.

I sincerely hope that the topic of the Khaybar antisemitic mini-series is addressed and condemned.

Here is the video message by PM Benjamin Netanyahu to the delegates of the GFCA where he speaks more about antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism:

Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Palestinians reject Kerry’s new focus on boosting their economy

A day after US Secretary of State set out a vague but hugely ambitious $4 billion economic plan designed to drastically boost the Palestinian economy and help galvanize diplomatic efforts, the Palestinian Authority on Monday summarily rejected the idea of gaining economic benefits in exchange for political concessions.
Slapping down the notion that the PA might be appeased by Kerry’s focus on economic improvements, President Mahmoud Abbas’s economic adviser, Mohammad Mustafa, said ”The Palestinian leadership will not offer political concessions in exchange for economic benefits.” He added, in a statement reported by the Palestinian Ma’an news agency: “We will not accept that the economy is the primary and sole component.”

Kerry Huffs and Puffs and Abbas Blows Him Down

No one believes in Kerry more than Kerry. He blew into town a self-proclaimed “peace for money” program” bolder than Oslo.” Abbas has rejected land for peace. Now he rejects money for peace.

Palestinians: Kerry Trying to Bribe Us to "Sell Out" by Khaled Abu Toameh

In wake of the Palestinian reactions to Kerry's "bribes," it is hard to see how Palestinian Authority leader will be able to return to the negotiating table with Israel. If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepts Kerry's economic plan and resumes peace talks with Israel, he will be accused of "selling out" to Israel and the U.S. in return for money.
Kerry's talk about boosting the Palestinian economy has only complicated his mission of seeking to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. It would be better if the Americans and Europeans started listening to what the Palestinians are telling them out loud and in public.

David Singer: Palestine? Beware the Snake Oil Salesman
Paul Larudee of ISM has manipulated language in his mendacious denial of any anti-Semitism in the Palestine Arab Liberation movement.

Larudee pleads to remove anti- Semitism from the discussion of Palestinian rights.
He should be encouraging Hamas and the PLO to remove their overt declarations of unabashed Jew hatred from their respective Charters as an essential first step.

The voices of BDS
Op-ed: Pro-Palestinian groups hijacked narrative of peace and justice, yet in reality they yearn for Israel’s destruction

The so-called “Palestinian global crisis” is only in the minds of those who propagate BDS rather than facts. For likeminded Jewish individuals such as Peter Beinart, Noam Chomsky, and many of JStreet and its followers, it boils down to them feeling uncomfortable with the measures Israel has taken in order to ensure its survival. The failure among such "open minded" Jews to understand the damage they do to the historical Zionist narrative by adopting the Palestinian one will only prolong the "occupation" they claim to stand up to rather than end it. Supporting any aspect of the BDS movement only makes the situation worse.

Australia: Libs to cut funding for anti-Israel activists

A Coalition (conservative) government would block all federal funds to individuals and institutions who speak out in favour of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

Barry Rubin: Obama's Seven Premises About Islamist Terrorism and Revolution

Here is how a Saudi writer analyzes the situation:
"Al-Qaida's former attacks were high-quality and were carried out be elite squads of fighters, [but these fighters] did not represent broad sectors of Arab society. The wars currently being waged in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, on the other hand, are frightening because they rely on [entire] social [sectors] that support [the fighters] and shelter them." That same point applies equally to the West in that individuals or small spontaneous groups are more dangerous than small groups of elite squads.

Steinitz savages Russia’s ‘totally wrong’ sale of missiles to Syria

Steinitz rebutted the claim that the S-300 missiles are purely defensive, saying that, for Israel, they are also “offensive.”
“Why? Because with range of up to 200 or 300 kilometers, you can attack all places, also the Ben Gurion Airport.” Jerusalem also worries about the missiles falling into the hands of Hezbollah or Iran, he said.

Average Palestinian Attacker Just 12-14 Years Old, IDF Colonel Says

IDF Colonel Yaniv Alaluf said that the average Palestinian attacker behind recent rock and firebomb attacks on Israeli drivers is only “12-14 years old,” Israel National News reported.

Arab 'Invasion' of Binyamin Town Thwarted

Arabs attempted to break into the town of Kochav Yaakov in the Binyamin region on Monday, and set fire to olive orchards owned by Jews that are outside the town. They also blocked the highway outside the town, preventing residents from entering or leaving.

Watch This Hezbollah Militant Hand an AK-47 to a Cute Litte Girl…Who Fires Several Rounds!

The man, who Business Insider calls one of several “Hezbollah militants,” leads the girl to the street corner reportedly in Lebanon, helps her hold the weapon, and the girl appears to fire off several rounds. (At what, if anything, is not known.)

Jordan Crushed by Debt while Helping Fleeing Syrian Refugees

Ensour outlined how Jordan, with a population of six million—most of them Palestininas—is having great difficulty dealing with about one million refugees. “You can imagine the burden,” he said. “The impact of the presence of so many refugees who have nothing in their hands and who need shelter, need food, need medicine: they represent pressure on our resources.”

Distorting NIAC’s Court Defeat

Lastly, Rosenberg claims that Mr. Daioleslam’s victory failed “to substantiate the accusation that NIAC was lobbying for the Iranian regime.” Yet the Washington Times reported in 2009 that law enforcement “experts” believed the emails between Parsi and the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, which were made public as a result of the discovery of the trial, offered “evidence that the group has operated as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws.”

US Lawmakers Demand Iran Removal from UN Disarmament Leadership

“By allowing Iran to chair this Conference, the United Nations is legitimizing a tyrannical regime committed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction while delegitimizing the United Nations as a force to contain nuclear weapons,” the letter said, according to The Hill. “Indeed, a conference seeking nuclear transparency and disarmament will be led by a country operating a dangerous and covert nuclear program that threatens global nuclear instability.”

Let's do some Al Durah face recognition algorithms (UPDATES)

Today, a correspondent sent me a screenshot from a 2008 Israeli Channel 2 report on the Al Durah case. I had never seen it before.

It shows a photo of Mohammed Al Dura from a family photo, and a photo of the dead child in the hospital identified as Al Durah.

I am not the best at face recognition, but it is not clear to me that these are the same person. On the other hand, I am not 100% convinced that they are not.

I played a little with rotating the faces and sizing them to make them as identical as I could:

Splitting the face to match up the eye and lip level:

(Not perfect, of course, because the corpse is leaning downwards.)

To my eye, they have only a slight resemblance to each other.

Another data point, the photo of the child on the stretcher:

I'm sure there exists software that could give a percentage match on the faces, so this part of the controversy could be ended.

I am certain that the IDF didn't kill Al Durah, based on the angles of the IDF position. I am not as certain that Al Durah wasn't killed altogether, and I am afraid that spending so much time on that argument takes away from what we can say definitively. But if an algorithm could say that these two faces are, or aren't, the same person, we can hopefully put that part of the issue to rest.

(h/t Josh K)

UPDATE: Concerning a film Esther Schapira made on the case:

Schapira procured images from Mohammed al-Dura’s Gazan autopsy and hired German biometric facial imaging expert Kurt Kindermann to compare the autopsy, the funeral, and the France 2 images. Kindermann concluded that the boy at the funeral and in the morgue were most likely one and the same. They were not, however, the same boy seen crouching beside his father in the famous video sequence. “We tried to investigate if he died shortly after (the shooting), but the only proof was always the funeral scene,” Schapira said “It seemed to be clear that a boy was killed, but with this new evidence it is not clear anymore.”

Schapira presents these findings in her latest documentary along with an impossible timeline sequence: Mohammed al-Dura was shot at 2 p.m., but the Gaza morgue says he was brought in at 10 a.m. “I think it’s strong evidence that there is no proof that Mohammed al-Dura is dead,” Schapira concluded. “There’s no proof he’s alive but no proof either that he’s dead.”

(h/t Elihu) I don't know if Kindermann compared the two photos above, though.

UPDATE 2: It looks like the family photo is Al Dura but not the morgue photo http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/2.1756/im-gespraech-esther-schapira-was-geschah-mit-mohammed-al-dura-1922381.html and also this video:

Affaire al Dura : Itw de Kurt Kindermann... by philippekarsenty

(h/t Elder of Lobby)

Sorry, Chris Gunness, but UNRWA really should be abolished

YNet published a nice op-ed by Yoni Dayan yesterday advocating the dissolution of UNRWA:

The time has come to admit the truth: The world cares more about the life of a Palestinian than the life of a Syrian, Sudanese, Kenyan, Colombian or Congolese.

This, quite simply, is an axiom, proven day in and day out since 1949, when the United Nations split the existing global refugee agency to created a special organization tasked with caring only for Palestinian refugees. To this day, the international community has two active refugee agencies: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

An in-depth look at these two agencies reveals the depth of the international community's preferential treatment of Palestinian refugees over other displaced people throughout the world. The UNHCR, which cares for 33.9 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) in more than 125 countries throughout the world, has a budget of just $3 billion. UNWRA, which cares for the five million descendents of Palestinian refugees, has a budget of over $1 billion. Per person, that is $88.50 for each refugee/IDP around the world, and $200 for each Palestinian refugee.

There is much more.

Chris Gunness from UNRWA responds with his usual hand waving, hoping that people don't notice that he is not addressing the real issues. For example, while it is true that UNRWA might vet employees for known terror ties, this by no means proves that UNRWA schools are neutral and do not teach hate for Israel. I have proven that they, in fact, do, along with support for jihad and "martyrdom."

My brief response in YNet:

Chris Gunness ignores a few facts. For one, unlike UNHCR, UNRWA has no means to remove refugees from that status. As a result we have an absurd situation where hundreds of thousands of citizens of a state - Jordan - are considered "refugees." [Note - actually, the number is 2 million.]

Similarly, all the "refugees" that live in the West Bank and Gaza would not be considered refugees by any sane definition, since they live in their own land, almost all under the rule of their own people.

Gunness also fails to explain why only Palestinian Arabs must wait decades for a political solution before the UNRWA tries to resettle them in other countries. Perhaps this isn't "preferred" but examples from Lebanon and Egypt show that huge numbers would choose to become citizens if only they were given the chance.

We've seen these justifications before for UNRWA's existence as a separate, unique agency for a single growing "refugee" population, and they do not hold water.

A more detailed post on why UNRWA needs to be abolished, using points that Gunness always ignores, is here.

Is the MSM going to slam this proposed Knesset law restricting freedom of speech?

Anytime there is even the hint of a proposal for a law in the Knesset that could be construed as limiting Israel's freedom of the press, the media goes crazy about how Israel's democratic character is in danger. No matter that most of these bills don't pass.

Yesterday, one such bill - internal number 481373 - was proposed by MK Ibrahim Sarsur, leader of the United Arab List, proposed an amendment to Article 173 1 of the Penal Code (1977), which would criminalize insulting of religion - including "prophets, Prophet Muhammad, Prophet Moses, Prophet Jesus and holy books."

The explanation of the law makes it clear that only one religion is really supposed to be protected under this amendment:

מספר פנימי: 481373

הכנסת התשע-עשרה

יוזם: חבר הכנסת אברהים צרצור

מצטרפים: חברי הכנסת מסעוד גנאים

טלב אבו עראר

פ/1306/19

הצעת חוק העונשין (תיקון – פגיעה ברגשי דת), התשע"ג–2013

תיקון סעיף 173 1. בחוק העונשין, התשל"ז–1977 , בסעיף 173 –

(1) בפסקה (2), המילים "פגיעה גסה" – יימחקו;

(2) האמור בו יסומן (א) ואחריו יבוא:

"(ב) בסעיף זה –

"אמונתו" – לרבות הנביאים, הנביא מחמד, הנביא משה, הנביא ישו וספרי קודש;

דברי הסבר

לאחרונה מתרבים הניסיונות לפגוע במישרין או בעקיפין ברגשותיהם הדתיים של המגזרים השונים בכלל, ובמוסלמים בפרט. עיקר הפגיעה מתבטא בקללות פוגעניות והשמצות למיניהן נגד הנביאים. לפיכך נוצר צורך להבהיר שקללה והשמצה היא פגיעה באמונתם וברגשותיהם הדתיים של אחרים.

בנוסף לכך, ניסיון לפרסם תמונה או קריקטורה של הנביא מחמד היא פגיעה קשה ברגשות המוסלמי המאמין, מאחר וההלכה המוסלמית מונעת ואוסרת כל פרסום של תמונה ושל קריקטורה או כל ניסיון לגלם או להמחיש את דמותו של הנביא מחמד עליו השלום, קל וחומר כשמודבר בקללות, ציורים או קריקטורות, שמעמידות את המוסלמים ואת סמליהם הקדושים באור שלילי ביותר.

הגיע הזמן לשים קץ לכל התופעות האלה שעלולות לקעקע את יסודות הדתות השונות, ומתגבר הצורך לשמור על יחסי כבוד בין דתות, תרבויות ואמונות שונות.

הצעת חוק זהה הונחה על שולחן הכנסת השמונה-עשרה על ידי חבר הכנסת אברהים צרצור וקבוצת חברי הכנסת (פ/1024/18; הוסרה מסדר היום ביום ה' בשבט התש"ע (20 בינואר 2010)).

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הוגשה ליו"ר הכנסת והסגנים

והונחה על שולחן הכנסת ביום

י"ח בסיוון התשע"ג – 27.5.13

Detail of The Last Judgment by Giovanni da Modena (15th century)

Recently there have been increasing attempts to directly or indirectly harm the religious feelings of the different sectors in general and Muslims in particular. Most of the damage is reflected in curses and slurs and various offenses against the prophets. Hence there is a need to clarify that a curse and slander is an injury to their faith and the religious feelings of others.

Also, any attempt to publish a picture or cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad hurts the feelings of believing Muslims very much, since Islamic law prevents and prohibits any display of a photo and cartoon or any attempt to embody or illustrate the character of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him,not to mention curses, drawings or cartoons that place the Muslims and their holy symbols in a very negative light.

It's time to put an end to all these phenomena that may undermine the foundations of different religions; there is a growing need to maintain respectful relations between religions, cultures and beliefs.

So where is the outrage?

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

How Muslim co-wives feel

From Now Lebanon:

Imagine you're a woman. Imagine you fall in love with a man, or at least, like him, or merely consider him as a potential husband. Imagine he asks to marry you, and you (or your parents, depending on the context), say yes. You move in together, you bear him two or three or five children, you wash his dirty socks and cook for him and serve him and try to be the best wife there is. Because that's what a 'good' wife does.

Now imagine that after a few years of doing that, all of that, your beloved husband, who is financially at ease, decides to get himself a new wife. Just like someone would get a new car. He doesn't divorce you. No. It is much worse than that. He wants to keep you both. And now you have to share him with another woman. You hate the guts of that other woman, and she hates your guts too. But you are forced to live together. If you are lucky enough, he would build a new floor for her on top of the one where you reside. And you wouldn't need to see her constantly gloating in your face. But every night, as he comes back from work, you would hear his footsteps on the stairs, going past your door and up to spend the night with her, to eat her food, to sleep in her bed — the younger, fresher, prettier wife — and you'd wish your heart would stop beating right there right now, because you can't take the pain anymore. But then you do take it, day after day, and you learn to become numb. And your only moment of glory or vengeance would happen the day wife number three arrives, along with the third floor on top of the previous two. That's when the one who replaced you finally learns what it means to be cast aside like a useless mop, a dirty mop full of holes that is forgotten in some corner of the cupboard under the kitchen sink...

This is not some imaginary scenario. It is the reality of many women in Lebanon and other Arab countries. The sad case of the Lebanese woman who recently committed suicide because her husband decided to take up a second wife is but one example of many stories that do not make it to the media. ...

You see, the prophet allowed Muslim men four wives on the condition they are able to do them justice: "Marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess." (Qur'an 4:3). Yet the concept of "justice" here, as interpreted in numerous Hadith (like Bukhari's), means specifically being able to provide for the four wives financially. There is no taking into account the emotional or physical needs of the wives, or their human right to be treated fairly. They are properties. As long as you can guarantee the "maintenance" of your properties, you are welcome to "acquire" more.

One long-lasting pretext to justify polygamy is the strong libido of some men, for whom one wife is not enough. So they marry more than one woman in order to avoid "committing adultery": what a genius way to make adultery itself Halal....

In the meantime, many Arab husbands will keep on buying themselves new wives, as long as Allah is the dealer and he is such an excellent salesman.

Sunnis claim Iran revealed photo of alleged Mahdi - and he's Jewish

Lots of newspapers in the Sunni Muslim world have been publishing this photo:

Supposedly, Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Major General Mohammad Hassan Nami promised last week to reveal a picture of the messianic Mahdi on the eve of the Iranian elections.

Since then, Arab media has been showing this photo of a veiled person, claiming that it came from an Iranian news agency and is indeed the supposed Mahdi.

I can't find any evidence that these images were in fact in the Iranian media, so almost certainly this is another attempt by Sunnis to make Shiites look like fools. In fact, according to the news accounts, this Mahdi is "not be a Muslim but will be of the religion and the law of the Jews, and the law of the Jews will judge the world according to their messages.

Arab news media does things like this all the time, yet Western media still believes what they have to say when their fanciful stories happen to fit the conventional wisdom - and they simply ignore the obviously crazy stuff.

Monday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Muslim writer touts Israeli tolerance of minorities

Ahmed discussed her experience working in Saudi Arabia – the topic of her book, In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, which documented the rampant anti-Semitism in the country and lack of women’s rights.
She said that Muslims she encountered saw Jewish intellectual prowess as particularly irritating.

NGO Monitor: Blood Libels & BDS – NGO Monitor’s Report to the 2013 Global Forum on Antisemitism

The network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that claim to promote human rights and humanitarian agendas in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict often use antisemitic themes and imagery. These groups include international NGOs (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch), Palestinian NGOs (MIFTAH, Badil, Sabeel, Kairos Palestine, Electronic Intifada, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme), and Israeli groups (Coalition of Women for Peace, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions).

Jewish Virtual Library: Myths and Facts 33: Zionism is Racism

The myth of the ‘Zionist Crusader’
The Muslim holy war to expel the Christian invaders did not begin until almost a century after the initial Crusader conquests.

The Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is organic and ancient. Jewish redemption and the Jewish future are centered on the Land of Israel. Anti-Israel propagandists can continue to rob the State of Israel of its legitimacy by portraying Jews as a foreign, imperialist element in the Land of Israel, yet in the end, the truth will win out. The Zionist movement – an anti-imperialist movement to the core – returned the Jewish people to their homeland.
The myth of the “Zionist Crusader” is a distortion of history that has only yielded lies and misery.

The London Beheading: A Betrayal of Britain, Not Islam

The Islam that killed Lee Rigby is growing and gaining confidence day by day. It’s time that Britain woke up to the fact that it’s already too late to fight it on the beaches. The battle is already here on the streets.

Commentators slam Glenn Greenwald for claiming ‘it’s our fault’ when Islamist terrorists attack

Here are a few suggested posts which effectively take on Greenwald, or at least fisk the logic he employs to arrive at the conclusion that it is our fault when Islamist terrorists murder civilians in the West.

Richard Kemp: Michael Adebolajo's dangerous ignorance about Afghanistan

Michael Adebolajo, the knife-wielding, blood-soaked brute who is suspected of killing Drummer Lee Rigby told passersby he was fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan. If that was the reason for Wednesday's attack on Drummer Lee Rigby, Adebolajo should have travelled to Helmand and started wielding his knife against Taliban fighters. It is they who kill most Muslims in Afghanistan.

Surrendering freedom to the violent: ANU censors student paper for mocking Islam

The Australian National University has cited international violence in the wake of the Danish cartoon and Innocence of Muslims controversies in justifying its decision to force student newspaper Woroni to pulp a satirical infographic which described a passage from the Koran as a “rape fantasy”.
The university also threatened student authors and editors of the infographic with disciplinary action, including academic exclusion and the withdrawal of the publication’s funding.
The piece was the fifth in a satirical series entitled “Advice from Religion” which had previously discussed Catholicism, Scientology, Mormonism and Judaism.
No complaints were received about any of the earlier instalments.

Concert-goers chant anti-Semitic slurs at Beyonce show in Germany

Israelis attending a Beyonce concert in Berlin over the weekend were met with anti-Semitic chants from the audience.
The incident took place when a group of eight Israelis, including two soldiers on leave, arrived at Germany's O2 stadium for a Beyonce concert. The group managed to arrive early and succeeded in seating themselves in the first row, to the dismay of local German fans.

Man wearing pro-Israel shirt attacked in Berlin

Three people attacked a 26-year-old Jewish man in Berlin early on Sunday morning, lightly wounding him.
The three men insulted and hit the man in front of a disco in the Mitte district, a neighborhood with many clubs and bars. He was wearing a T-shirt with a pro-Israel emblem on it, and the assailants learned that he was Jewish in the course of a conversation.

Jewish children hidden twice over by the Church

The formal Church directive outlining how to deal with requests from Jewish organizations looking for hidden children throughout Europe fails to mention the atrocities of the Holocaust.
“Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions that would not be in a position to guarantee their Christian upbringing,” the document says. “For children who no longer have their parents, given the fact that the Church is responsible for them, it is not acceptable for them to be abandoned by the Church or entrusted to any persons who have no rights over them, at least until they are in a position to choose themselves.”

Jews leave Swedish city after sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes

In 2009, a chapel serving the city’s 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused on their way home from prayer, and “Hitler” was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.
“I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway,” Mrs Popinski told The Sunday Telegraph.
“This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now.”
Malmo’s Jews, however, do not just point the finger at bigoted Muslims and their fellow racists in the country’s Neo-Nazi fringe. They also accuse Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor who has been in power for 15 years, of failing to protect them.

Israelis give a double punch to triple-negative breast cancer

Israeli researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot are opening a new window of hope for the daughters and granddaughters of women diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. The cancer carries a strong genetic link and it is also found in people of Jewish Ashkenazi (Eastern European) ancestry.

Marks and Spencer to Sell ‘Sweet Green’ Tomato First Discovered in Israel

The British retailer Marks and Spencer is benefiting from Israeli agriculture with what it claims is the first ripe and sweet green tomato on London’s High Street.
The tomato, named the Sweet Green, was first discovered in Israel and has sugar levels of up to 12 on the Brix scale, a scientific measure developed to assess the quality and sweetness of fruit and vegetables.

Easy laughs for visiting comedians

The crowd was friendly at Jerusalem’s Beit Shmuel theater Sunday night, eager to laugh and hear what four American comedians had to say about Israel, Jews, and just about anything else that came to mind.
It was the third show out of seven for Comedy for Koby, the bi-annual event that has brought some 30 comedians to Israel over the last 10 years, raising money for the Koby Mandell Foundation.