Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Syria again enters Lebanon, kills farmer

Syrian troops entered Lebanese territory on Thursday and shot dead a Syrian living in a remote border area of the eastern Bekaa region, a security official told AFP.

"At around 2:30 p.m. in an area called Saaba, next to Aarsal, Syrian troops entered Lebanese territory and opened fire on farmer Ali al-Khatib, a Syrian national," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"His body is still on site and a probe is underway."

He said Khatib was married to a Lebanese and lived in the area, where the border is not clearly delineated.

A government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident and said it was unclear why Khatib was targeted or how he was killed.

"The area in question is very remote and right along the border," he said.

Earlier this week, Syrian tanks entered the same region in a brief incursion that raised fears of the revolt against the regime in Damascus spilling over into Lebanon.

As I mentioned earlier this week, there had been three previous incidents of the Syrian army crossing the Lebanese border, and as far as I can see, no formal protests on Lebanon's side.

(h/t CHA)

Photo of the Zionist flag at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair

From the St. Louis Jewish Light:

Most Jews are very familiar with the flag of Israel, which stands alongside the American Stars and Stripes at many synagogues, but few are familiar with its origins or with the startling fact that the first time the Zionist flag flew over a public building on an official occasion was at the 1904 World's Fair right here in St. Louis!

When the World's Fair (officially named the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) was being organized, Michael Stiffelman, a local Zionist leader, won the support of Jules Aubere, a non-Jewish newspaperman, to persuade the Fair's board of directors to approve a request to publicly fly the Zionist flag alongside those of other countries atop the Hall of Nations. According to the late Moses Joshua Slonim, a famous local Zionist leader in his book, "The Struggle for Zion's Rebirth," which was extensively quoted by the late Jewish historian, Dr. Walter Ehrlich in his definitive "Zion in the Valley," the flag snapped proudly in the breeze, alongside the Stars and Stripes of the USA, the British Union Jack and the French Tricolor.

A striking photograph of the Zionist flag fluttering above the Hall of Nations appeared in the 1926 anniversary edition of The Modern View, a local Jewish newspaper published in St. Louis from 1900 through 1944.

This really is a stunning photo.

The proto-Israeli flag was introduced and displayed on a balcony outside the Stadt Casino Musiksaal in Basel, Switzerland during the First Zionist Congress in 1897, but the 1904 World's Fair may indeed have been the first time it was officially flown at a non-Zionist event.

Muslim jihad in Spain - against dogs

From Soeren Kern in Hudson-NY:

Spanish authorities are investigating the recent deaths by poisoning of more than a dozen dogs in Lérida, a city in the northeastern region of Catalonia that has become ground zero in an intensifying debate over the role of Islam in Spain.

All of the dogs were poisoned in September (local media reports here, here, here, here and here) in Lérida's working class neighbourhoods of Cappont and La Bordeta, districts that are heavily populated by Muslim immigrants and where many dogs have been killed in recent years.

Local residents say Muslim immigrants killed the dogs because according to Islamic teaching dogs are "unclean" animals.

Over the past several months, residents taking their dogs for walks have been harassed by Muslim immigrants opposed to seeing the animals in public. Muslims have also launched a number of anti-dog campaigns on Islamic websites and blogs based in Spain.

In response to the "lack of sufficient police to protect the neighbourhood," 50 local residents have established alternating six-person citizen patrols to escort people walking their dogs.

In July, two Islamic groups based in Lérida asked city officials to regulate the presence of dogs in public spaces so they do not "offend Muslims." Muslims are demanding that dogs be banned from all forms of public transportation including all city buses as well as from all areas frequented by Muslim immigrants.

Muslims in Lérida say the presence of dogs violates their religious freedom and their right to live according to Islamic principles.

When will they release the dog beheading videos?

Yom Kippur War hurting Gazans in 2011

Today, Egypt is celebrating what it considers its victory in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973.

This is a state holiday, with parades and air force overflights.

Because it is a holiday, Egypt closed the Rafah crossings to and from Gaza, imprisoning 1.5 million people.

Just sayin'.

Pat Condell - The Great Palestinian Lie (video)

Refreshing to hear someone just speak the truth.:

(h/t Lisbeth)

Joseph's tomb vandalized with swastikas and anti-semitic graffiti

From YNet:

Unknown assailants have scrawled graffiti, including swastikas, on the walks of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Soldiers and worshippers arriving at the holy site on Wednesday night, exactly one year after the completion of its renovation, rushed to erase the graffiti.

Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika placed responsibility on the "Palestinian police terrorists."

When the first soldiers and worshippers arrived at the site, they immediately painted the graffiti in white and the prayer began.

Council head Mesika responded to the vandalism at the site, saying that "only barbarians could do such a horrible thing. People capable of desecrating such a holy site in a pathological manner do not deserve to be called humans."

CNN adds

The Israeli Civil Administration filed a complaint with the Palestinian Authority.

Israel HaYom:

The vandalism at Joseph's Tomb included anti-Jewish writing as well as swastikas.

Israel's chief rabbis expressed their outrage at the attack. In a joint statement, Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger said it was "unacceptable that holy places become the targets of attacks of revenge between religions."

The chief rabbis called on the leadership of all the faiths in the Holy Land and across the world to loudly denounce the attack on Joseph's Tomb, as well as introduce into their flocks great respect for holy places.

The worshippers should have photographed the desecration before whitewashing it; the only photos available now don't show much:

It will be interesting to compare the world reactions to this outrage to those for the arson at a mosque in northern Israel on Sunday.

Israel announced that they had made an arrest in the mosque arson.

Egypt, Hamas, and maybe Jordan causing lulav problems

A few weeks ago, Egypt confirmed a story I had in August that the country would refuse to export palm fronds - lulavim - that religious Jews use in the upcoming Sukkot holiday.

UPI reports that Egyptians were smuggling lulavim to Israel in defiance of the ban, although it is not clear how exactly this was being accomplished.

According to some sources, after the Egyptian ban, Israel then tried to get the lulavim from Gaza:

Israeli officials will temporarily lift a ban on agricultural exports from the Gaza Strip to allow the entry of palm fronds used to mark a Jewish holiday, a newspaper report said Wednesday.

Maariv, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily, said the defense ministry agreed to alllow 100,000 lulavs to enter Israel from Gaza on a "one-time basis" ahead of Sukkot, which starts next week.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized importing the lulavs from Gaza to avert a "crisis" caused by Egypt's refusal this year to approve the sale of the fronds, Maariv reported.

This gave UNRWA's spokesperson another opportunity to slam Israel:

"What a revealing double standard," said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

"When Israel's theocratic echelons need agricultural produce for a Jewish religious celebration, imports from Gaza are authorized, yet since June 2007 this has apparently been an insurmountable security threat.

"Now the truth is laid bare," Gunness told Ma'an.

Gunness did not mention that Israel restricts exports from Gaza not only for security reasons but also to retain some leverage over Hamas. Security is not only stopping the smuggling of weapons.

Anyway, this move that would have injected much needed cash into Gaza's economy was stopped - by Hamas.

Israeli traders will buy between 70,000 and 100,000 lulavs – palm tree fronds that are one of the Four Species of Sukkot – from Jordan. Another initiative – to buy 50,000 lulavs from Gaza traders who smuggled them into Gaza from Sinai – was vetoed by the Hamas terror group that rules over Gaza.

I wonder if Gunness will issue a statement on how Hamas is subjecting Gazans to collective punishment.

As far as the Jordanian lulavim are concerned, things aren't going so smoothly either. Religious website bhol.co.il reports that 85,000 lulavim are being held up at the Jordanian border for unspecified reasons.

Israel supplies some 650,000 lulavim from local sources.

The Sukkot holiday starts on Wednesday night.

Journalists, NGOs complain of Hamas restrictions

From Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders is worried by the Hamas interior ministry’s adoption of new rules for foreign journalists that will restrict their access to the Gaza Strip.

Under the new rules, adopted on 25 September, every foreign journalist wanting to visit the Gaza Strip will have to apply in advance to the interior ministry in Gaza, and processing the application could take several days.

Journalists submitting applications will have to include a photocopy of their passport and ID photos, and will have to name a “guarantor” in the Gaza Strip.

The official PA Wafa news agency adds:

A number of foreign employees and local journalists in Gaza complained of restrictions imposed by Hamas on the entry of foreigners into the sector, forcing them to pay 'access control' fees in order to make more money for its treasury.

The sources added that a number of journalists and staff of institutions that support humanitarian projects in the sector remain in Jerusalem, and refuse to come to Gaza because of the restrictions.

One expatriate staff member told Wafa, "We have no problem with the registration of in and out of Gaza; the problem in the payment of funds to Hamas. To give money to Hamas means funding a designated terrorist organization and the legal [complications] may result in suspension of relief projects in Gaza. "

Sources told Wafa that Hamas imposes restrictions on foreigners in order to monitor local journalists who work in the sector in addition to acquiring funds from the so-called 'access control' levy.

Hamas charges about $10 to any foreigners who want to stay in Gaza, and the procedures required to register before entering takes at least five days.

A local journalist who refused to be named said, 'if a foreign journalist wrote material critical of Hamas, the local journalist, who acts as his assistant and translator, is the one who bears the responsibility and this constitutes a threat to it. "

The journalist added that there are numerous restrictions faced by journalists in Gaza and they can not shoot or write anything about what is really happening in Gaza behind the scenes.

That last part I hadn't heard of before. Since most foreign journalists cannot get around Gaza without locals, Hamas leans on the locals and threatens or punishes them if their guest writes anything that Hamas doesn't like.

Even the bravest reporters would hesitate before writing something that would put their friends and colleagues in danger. Not that there are any brave reporters in Gaza who are willing to report negatively on Hamas to begin with.

Glenn Kessler of WaPo "contextualizes" Iran's calls for Israel's destruction

Glenn Kessler writes a very strange and somewhat deceptive article in the Washington Post that brings up the old question of whether Iranian leaders ever said that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

He accurately notes that the real quote was along the lines of "wiped from the page of time" and he mentions or links to other anti-Israel statements, as well as links to many photographs of the phrase "Israel should be wiped out of the face of the world" in English in Tehran:

But in his conclusion, Kessler says:

In fact, Ahmadinejad is not the power broker in Iran; it is Khamenei. Khamenei, in fact, has been consistent in speaking of his hatred of Israel, but without a military context, as he demonstrated once again this week. Moreover, the fact that Ahmadinejad was merely quoting Khomeini suggests that even less weight should have been given to his words, especially since there is a dispute over the precise meaning in English.

Kessler's proof that Khamenei spoke about the destruction of Israel outside a military context comes from this part of his speech this week, to which he does not provide a link:

The Islamic Republic’s proposal to help resolve the Palestinian issue and heal this old wound is a clear and logical initiative based on political concepts accepted by world public opinion, which has already been presented in detail. We do not suggest launching a classic war by the armies of Muslim countries, or throwing immigrant Jews into the sea, or mediation by the UN and other international organizations. We propose holding a referendum with [the participation of] the Palestinian nation. The Palestinian nation, like any other nation, has the right to determine their own destiny and elect the governing system of the country.

However, Khamenei also said something else later in the speech, which was quite specifically military:

What is posing a threat to the Zionist regime is not the missiles of Iran or resistance groups… the real threat, which can never be countered, is the strong will of men, women, and the youth in Muslim countries, who no longer want the United States, Europe, and their subservient elements to rule over them and humiliate them. However, if a threat is posed by the enemy, those missiles will fulfill their functions.

Once Kessler goes so far to try to provide context for Iran's threats against Israel, it is very strange that he concludes that those threats have never been military.

Sorry, but mentioning Iran's willingness to use its missiles is a very military context.

Even if he would argue that Iran's military threats have been carefully calibrated to sound as if they are purely defensive, one must also add the small fact that Hezbollah is effectively an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and now that Lebanon is under effective Hezbollah control Iran can use any future Israeli defensive actions in Lebanon as a pretext for military reprisal.

Kessler needs to award himself a "pinocchio" or two for this "fact check."

(h/t JW)

The whopper of a lie gets even bigger (updated)

In the summer of 2009, the Addameer organization testified before the Goldstone commission that some 750,000 Palestinian Arabs had been arrested since 1967. As I showed at the time, this is a completely made-up number, an exaggeration so absurd that it takes only a minute of thought to realize it.

That didn't stop Goldstone from believing it and quoting it uncritically in his infamous report. And that hasn't stopped this ridiculous lie to be found all over the Internet.

In early 2010, Addameer inflated this already absurd number even more, to "nearly 800,000."

And now, thanks to an article written by the Fatah Foreign Relations Commission that was published in Ma'an, we see that another hundred thousand Palestinian Arabs have been supposedly arrested in the past 20 months - 5000 every month!

The article, supposedly a rejoinder to AP's fact check on Mahmoud Abbas' speech that I had discussed briefly last week, is filled with so many lies that it would take a couple of hours to go through it. But this one is enough to show that Fatah has zero interest in truth:

AP omits that since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, almost 900,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces.

(PCHR counts about 80 arrests for September, which was a relatively high number of arrests due to the violence at the beginning of the month - and quite a bit less than 5000!)

The capacity of Palestinian Arab spokespeople to lie is infinite.

I am looking forward to the date in 2012 when Israel will be blamed for its millionth arrest, and when credulous media reports the lie without any skepticism.

(h/t CHA)

UPDATE: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics just released a report claiming 750,000 arrests since 1967. Again, no methodology is given for how they come up with this (h/t CHA)

Rare biblical treasures, smuggled out of Syria, displayed today in Israel

A fascinating story from AP:

Precious Bible manuscripts originating in the Jewish community of Damascus, Syria, went on display for several hours Wednesday, offering a rare glimpse at a collection that includes books spirited to Israel in clandestine operations before the ancient community disappeared at the end of the 20th century.

The books are held at Israel's national library. Because of security and conservation concerns, most of the collection has been on display just once before, also for just a few hours, more than a decade ago.

The collection includes 11 volumes. Three, including the oldest and most important book in the collection, were brought out of the library's vaults and displayed during a symposium Wednesday evening.

Ranging from 700 to 1,000 years old and written in the Middle East and Europe, the parchment manuscripts include meticulous Hebrew penmanship and illustrations in ink and gold leaf. Some boast intricate micrography - decorations made up of thousands of tiny Hebrew letters.

Genesis 12

Syria is accusing Israel of stealing the manuscripts - as if they ever belonged to Syria:

Zionist occupation security forces, with the help of Israeli Mossad, have succeeded in stealing 11 Old Testament books, some dating back 1,000 years.

But some of the details show that they were jealously guarded by the Jewish community; none of them were written in Syria:

The oldest of the Damascus Crowns was written in the late 10th century A.D. in what is now Israel. Because it shows the influence of two rival schools of textual scholars, it has provided modern researchers with important information on how the Biblical text evolved. It was purchased by a famed British collector of manuscripts, David Solomon Sassoon, in 1914 and taken to Britain. The library purchased it in 1975.

Another of the books displayed Wednesday, a 700-year-old Bible that scholars believe was written in Italy, had a riskier journey to Jerusalem.

Beginning in the late 1970s, a Canadian Jewish woman, Judy Feld Carr, undertook an effort to smuggle Jews out of Syria, raising money from North American synagogues, bribing Syrian officials, dispatching envoys and running an independent immigration operation for more than 20 years from her living room in Toronto. All told, Feld Carr's endeavor facilitated the emigration of more than 3,000 Syrian Jews.

Feld Carr learned of the manuscript, she said, from Jews who had already fled, and dispatched a contact to Damascus in 1993. She would identify the man only as a Western Christian who died last year.

Feld Carr orchestrated a meeting in Damascus between her envoy and the community's rabbi, she recounted. The rabbi slipped him the book, and the man then smuggled it out of the country hidden under his raincoat in a black shopping bag. The book reached Feld Carr in Canada and came to Israel the next year.

While the book was in her possession, Feld Carr saw there were two records of purchase appended to the manuscript. One showed it had changed hands in Spain before Jews were expelled from the country in 1492, and the second recounted another sale in the Ottoman Empire, where many Jews found refuge.

"It went from Italy to Castille, to Constantinople, to Damascus, and then to Toronto - this book was the story of the Jewish people," she said.

The eight books that were not put on display at the library Wednesday arrived in Israel in the 1990s in murkier circumstances, smuggled out of Syria via the West in an operation conducted by Israel's intelligence services. Few details of that smuggling operation have been disclosed. Aviad Stollman, the library curator in charge of the collection, said the eight books were not displayed to avoid putting a spotlight on a story that remains largely classified.

In Damascus, the manuscripts were guarded in some of the 24 synagogues that existed before the community's emigration. They were taken out only on special occasions or with permission from community leaders, said Shlomo Baso, a Damascus-born rabbi.

From what I can see in the photo that shows the text, it looks beautifully written, a bit more artistic than the Aleppo Codex.

Hamas vs. UNRWA

From Reuters:

Thousands of Gaza teachers quit classes Wednesday to protest at a U.N. refugee agency's suspension of a Palestinian staffer, raising tension between UNRWA and Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers.

The Local Staff Union, a pro-Hamas body, called for a general strike Wednesday, the second such action in a week, to protest at UNRWA's suspension of the head of the union, Suhail Al-Hindi. Hamas sources said the U.N. agency had accused Hindi of meeting with Hamas political officials.

Buses took some 7,000 teachers employed at UNRWA-run schools to U.N. headquarters in Gaza city where they held a sit-in, calling for an end to "UNRWA political punishment of employees."

"Death rather than humiliation" read a banner held by striking teachers. "Deception, lying and hypocrisy have become the core values of UNRWA," read another.

The strike affected all of UNRWA's 243 schools in Gaza.

Hindi told the teachers he would stand against "oppression and injustice" but added that Palestinians saw UNRWA as a symbol of the cause of refugees and that its role should be preserved "until the Israeli occupation is removed."

Hamas lawmakers often criticize UNRWA's education policies and some accuse it of trying to teach material that encourages normalization with Israel or educate pupils about the Holocaust.

UNRWA denies this is part of its curriculum.

Islam Online writes:

Palestinian political analysts described the conflicts taking place between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Hamas as a “hidden war” between the two. This conflict has been taking place for over five years with regards to who has authority to manage Gaza’s affairs.

The conflicts between Hamas and UNRWA never seem to subside; whenever the tension between the two over an issue ends, another begins.

...UNRWA media advisor Adnan abu Hasneh denied Hamas’ accusations. He said during his speech with Islam Online that UNRWA is offended by the repeated accusations made by Hamas, adding: “the decision to terminate the union chairman was due to his participation in a political activity, which is against UN laws that ban its workers from engaging in political activities…This applies to everyone with no exceptions.”

The rhetoric increased at today's rally, as the terminated union head said that UNRWA is pushing its own agenda and is engaging in "intellectual terrorism" fro creating a curriculum not to Hamas' liking. He also said that UNRWA didn't protest the Palmer report.

A Hamas-oriented columnist flatly stated that UNRWA is a tool of the CIA and Mossad.

Meanwhile, the official WAFA news agency of the PA published UNRWA's press release without identifying it as such.

This seems more serious than the usual bickering between UNRWA and the people it pretends to help. If UNRWA caves to Hamas demands and allows its teachers to openly associate with terrorists, it will lose all of its US funding (and perhaps more.) But if it holds its ground the Hamas-led union will cripple it.

Hey, maybe it will be forced to leave Gaza. UNRWA has no business existing in the territories, and the care of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank should properly be done by their leaders. UNRWA's being a crutch allows Hamas to spend more on weapons and less on medicine, food and education.