Sunrise

I am still on vacation, after all.

Read More

Two unreported stories from the territories

...Which are probably related.

IDF and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT) have made an effort to facilitate Palestinian movement throughout the area by reopening six important roadways.

The terror attacks of the Second Intifada forced Israel to close roadways in Judea and Samaria during this difficult period, specifically in high-risk zones. Lately, in light of increased stability and calm in the region, the IDF and COGAT have made an effort to facilitate Palestinian movement throughout the area by reopening six important roadways.

• Shomronim Barrier.
• Shofa Izbat Shofa Barrier.
• Zvata Barrier.
• Sha'ar Gilazun Barrier.
• Ariel Salfit Barrier.
• Beit Dajan Barrier.

And:

In the last few days hundreds of violent attacks were directed against IDF patrols, Border Police and civilians by Arab terrorists with rocks, fire bombs, Molotov Cocktails, rocks put on the road to force the vehicles to stop. Security forces have responded to these murderous attacks using restraint.

May 8, 2012

• Massive rock attacks on Israeli vehicles on the road between Efrat and Tekoa causing damage.
• Rock attacks against Israeli vehicles on Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near El Arub causing damage to vehicles.
• Near Bet Umar on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway IDF soldier moderately injured by rocks in his leg. He was treated by IDF medic on the spot.
• Possible shooting directed on Israeli vehicle between Ma'ale Levona and Sinjil in the Benjamin Region. Driver reported shots and when the vehicle was examined the mirror was found damaged. Security patrols check for evidence of shooting.
• For hours over 50 Arab terrorists in Abu Dis north east of Bet Lechem attack IDF forces with rocks and Molotov Cocktails.
• Massive rock attacks and damage to several Israeli vehicles on the Cross Judea Highway near the bridge of Chalchul and near Bene Naim village in the Kiryat Arba region.
• Massive rock attacks against Israeli bus in El Fuar in the Southern Hebron Hills.
• Rock attacks against Israeli vehicles near Bet Enun north of Kiryat Arba continuing the attack for hours and causing damage to Israeli vehicles. And moderate injuries to 2 Israelis.
• Bet Enun, planned ambush by Arab terrorists with vehicles waiting to escape into the village following attacks on Israeli vehicles. Following the attacks the waiting vehicles escaped into the village when IDF arrived. 7 Israeli vehicles were damaged in the attack.
• Arab terrorists attacked IDF force near Neguhot in the southern Hebron Hills and rock attacks against Israeli vehicles near El Fuar.
• Rock attacks between Bet Umar and El Arub causing damage to Israeli vehicles.
• Arab terrorists continue to attack Israeli vehicles on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway near Chalchul north of Hebron as a result of the attack Israeli bus damaged.

May 7, 2012

• Road 446 north of Nili in the Benjamin Region Arab terrorists put blocks in road causing damage to Israeli vehicle that hit the obstruction.
• Massive rock attacks on Israeli vehicles near El Arub on the Gush Etzion-Hebron Highway.
• Arab terrorists threw rocks on Israeli vehicle north of Na'alim checkpost causing damage.
• 3 Arab terrorists started fire between Har Bracha and Kedumim in the Shomron fire fighters put out the flames.
• Hundreds of Arab terrorists with Hamas flags marched inside of Hebron towards the Jewish Quarter of Hebron.
• Qalandia checkpost Arab terrorist found hiding firearm on his possession. Arrested and taken in for questioning by security forces.
• Rock attacks on Israeli vehicles between Tapuach and Migdalim in the Shomron causing damage.

Read More

40 years ago: Israeli commandos storm hijacked Sabena flight

From the IDF Blog:

On May 8, 1972, a flight from Belgian airline Sabena set off from Vienna towards Tel Aviv, named Flight 571. Twenty minutes after takeoff, it was hijacked by four terrorists–two men, two women–from the Black September terror group. This set off a series of events leading up to Operation Isotope–one of the most daring rescue operations in the history of Israel.

Following the terrorists’ attempt to break into the cockpit, Reginald Levy, the plane’s captain, kept his cool and attempted to relax his passengers by entertaining them through a loudspeaker conversation with the terrorists, about everything from navigation to sex.

Aboard the plane, the terrorists were demanding the release of 315 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, claiming they would blow up the plane if their demands were not met.

Captain Levy sent in distress signals, which were received by Israeli Security Minister Moshe Dayan. Dayan immediately began negotiations with the terrorists, while simultaneously planning a covert rescue operation: Operation Isotope.

The Sabena flight reached Tel-Aviv, landing in Lod Airport (now Ben-Gurion Airport). Captain Levy was sent out to show the waiting Israelis a sample of the explosives on the plane, to convince them of the threat. Aboard the plane, passengers were crying or hysterical.

A team of 16 elite commandos (Hebrew: Sayeret Matkal) approached the grounded aircraft in white overalls, disguised as airplane technicians. They convinced the terrorists that the aircraft was in desperate need of repairs.

Within ten minutes of boarding the plane, the squad of elite commandos managed to kill the two male terrorists, arrest the two female terrorists, and neutralize the threat to the passengers. Nearly all civilians on board were unharmed, except for three, one of whom later died from her injuries. Among the commandos were Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu–both of whom eventually became Israeli prime ministers. 

Netanyahu was slightly injured during the rescue, seemingly from friendly fire. Here he is being congratulated by Israel's president Zalman Shazar:

Read More

The PalArab prisoner cause jumps the shark

Guess who is now pushing the issue of Palestinian Arab prisoners in Israel?

That bastion of human rights, Syria!

From the official Syrian SANA news agency:

Al-Fadel Association for Development, Culture and Support of Resistant Creativity, in cooperation with the Palestinian Youth Movement, staged a sit-in in front of the UN Commission headquarters in Damascus in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the Zionist occupation.

The participants chanted slogans in support of prisoners, Palestine and Jerusalem, raising the Palestinian flag and banners which call for releasing the prisoners and liberating al-Aqsa.

They condemned the stances of the Arab League and some Arab countries which conspired against the Palestinian Cause.

Arab dictatorships have used the Palestinian Arabs as pawns to distract the world from their very real human right violations, so why mess with that formula?

And if they can say that their Arab enemies are also enemies of the "Palestinian Cause," so much the better!

Read More

Arab media noticing Israel's Jewish refugees

Al Quds quotes an Israeli Foreign Ministry report from last month about Jewish immigrants from Arab countries:

Up until the present day, an injustice was done to the Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries. Their property rights and their historic justice were abandoned.

During various efforts and talks in pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, negotiators have overlooked an important element pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict - the uprooting of around 850,000 Jews living in Arab nations, the loss of their assets and property, and the difficulties they underwent upon migrating to Israel and their absorption.

But the part they highlighted was this part:

Close to half of Israel's Jewish citizen's today, including their descendents, came from Arab countries.

This is a remarkable statistic.

The MFA's point:

There should be a joint solution between the Arab countries and the international community in order to provide compensation for both Palestinian and Jewish refugees. In order to achieve this goal an international fund will be created that will be based on President Clinton's suggestion from 2000 and the Congress resolution 185 from 2008 in which Israel will also take part, even only in a symbolic way.

This fund will also compensate the countries that had already been working on absorbing and rehabilitating refugees; amongst others Jordan and Israel (retroactively) and perhaps Lebanon if it is willing to rehabilitate the descendants of Palestinian refugees in its territory. Here we should emphasize that the basis for compensation will be the value of assets of the refugees at the time, which according to research was much greater on the Jewish side than on the Palestinian side.

The fund will also deal with the issue of Jewish property that is still in the hands of Arab and Muslim countries, however the so-called Right of Return will not be relevant as the Jews are not interested in returning to the places from which they were deported from.

The State of Israel will not accept the principle of a Palestinian "right of return" but will prefer to provide compensation by an authorized third party. This demand has historic precedents as in the case of Cyprus.

... The Palestinian refugees will be rehabilitated in their place of residence just as the Jewish refugees were rehabilitated in theirs - Israel. There should be an immediate discontinuation of the perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee issue.

However, there is a reason that the almost throwaway sentence highlighted by Al Quds is critically important.

It completely destroys the Arab narrative that Israel is a colonialist entity.

If half of Israel's citizens are from the Middle East, then Israel is not an artificial European colonialist state as the Arab world likes to define it. Israelis are as likely as not to be descended from Jews who lived in the Middle East for centuries.

Of course, even if 100% of Israel's citizens were European Jews, it would not be colonialist either. But this statistic is a much more visceral argument against every stereotype Arabs try to ascribe to Israel, and it is important to highlight the fact that - even after the massive aliyah of Russian Jews in the 1990s - nearly half of Israeli Jews are native to the region by any definition.

Read More

Google innovations created in Israel

Forbes lists ten Google innovations created in Israel. I knew about some of them, but others were new to me.

Live Results is being developed in Israel. It allows people to find data they are looking for directly in the Google webpage, without the need to click on a link that will direct visitors to a website. For instance, you search “Weather in Rio de Janeiro” and it directly shows the forecast instead of only links to websites.

Person finder application. An app that was very useful during the Turkey Earthquake. Whenever a natural disaster takes place, the person finder application goes live, aiming to provide reliable and actual information about missing people. People basically have two buttons, “I am looking for someone” and “I have info about someone.”


Google Suggest – The Autocomplete Search Tool that let us “search faster than the speed of typing” was fully developed in Israel. 


Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project. Google has digitized one of the oldest manuscript ever discovered and allows everyone to examine it online with high resolution. For instance, if you search for “And the world shall dwell with the lamb,” you can instantly find the exact location in the digital version of the original scroll. This project was such a success that in the first day it was live more people saw the dead sea scrolls than in the entire year before.

Inna was very excited to present the work Google has done with the Yad Vashem memorial, dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. This collaborationhas created an online collaborative archive of photographs of the museum. Basically, Google uploaded thons of physical documents, such as photos. Anyone, anywhere can not only find information about each person and/or location in the pictures but also easily add information.

Google Insights for search started in Israel and now is being improved by Google engineers all over the world. It is a free tool to analyze search queries. However, only ratios and not the total number of queries are revealed. For instance, you can verify that the total amount of searches for the term “Pele” was about three times higher than ”Maradona” in the past 30 days.

In-Page Analytics was fully developed in Israel. Basically, it lets you quantify precise information about your website. For instance, you can measure the percentage of visitors who clicked on any clickable item in your website.

Receive emails through SMS in Ghana. Google Israel developed an app that allows people to receive emails in SMS format. In Ghana, just like in Guinea Conakry where I worked, broadband internet is not widespread. However, most people have cell phones. When you send an email to someone registered in this service, the person receives the email as a SMS. I hope Google has found a better way of filtering spams than in regular Gmail.

Interactive videos in youtube started in Israel and was taken to Mountain View to be fully developed.

“Got the wrong Bob” for Gmail, Priority inbox for Gmail, Hot topics and hot searches, all started in the Israel office.

Google hires some of the smartest software engineers and programmers on the planet, and even so Google Israel seems to be punching above its weight in creating interesting Google applications.

(h/t Mike)

Read More

Major archaeological finds in Israel confirm Biblical accounts from King David's time

From Israel's MFA:

Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, the Yigal Yadin Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, announced the discovery of objects that for the first time shed light on how a cult was organized in Judah at the time of King David. During recent archaeological excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified city in Judah adjacent to the Valley of Elah, Garfinkel and colleagues uncovered rich assemblages of pottery, stone and metal tools, and many art and cult objects. These include three large rooms that served as cultic shrines, which in their architecture and finds correspond to the biblical description of a cult at the time of King David.

This discovery is extraordinary as it is the first time that shrines from the time of early biblical kings were uncovered. Because these shrines pre-date the construction of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem by 30 to 40 years, they provide the first physical evidence of a cult in the time of King David, with significant implications for the fields of archaeology, history, biblical and religion studies.


Located approximately 30 km. southwest of Jerusalem in the valley of Elah, Khirbet Qeiyafa was a border city of the Kingdom of Judah opposite the Philistine city of Gath. The city, which was dated by 10 radiometric measurements (14C) done at Oxford University on burned olive pits, existed for a short period of time between ca. 1020 to 980 BCE, and was violently destroyed.

The absence of cultic images of humans or animals in the three shrines provides evidence that the inhabitants of the place practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanites or the Philistines, observing a ban on graven images.

The findings at Khirbet Qeiyafa also indicate that an elaborate architectural style had developed as early as the time of King David. Such construction is typical of royal activities, thus indicating that state formation, the establishment of an elite, social level and urbanism in the region existed in the days of the early kings of Israel. These finds strengthen the historicity of the biblical tradition and its architectural description of the Palace and Temple of Solomon.

According to Prof. Garfinkel, "This is the first time that archaeologists uncovered a fortified city in Judah from the time of King David. Even in Jerusalem we do not have a clear fortified city from his period. Thus, various suggestions that completely deny the biblical tradition regarding King David and argue that he was a mythological figure, or just a leader of a small tribe, are now shown to be wrong." Garfinkel continued, "Over the years, thousands of animal bones were found, including sheep, goats and cattle, but no pigs. Now we uncovered three cultic rooms, with various cultic paraphernalia, but not even one human or animal figurine was found. This suggests that the population of Khirbet Qeiyafa observed two biblical bans - on pork and on graven images - and thus practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanites or the Philistines."

...The stone model helps us to understand obscure technical terms in the description of Solomon's palace as described in 1 Kings 7, 1-6. The text uses the term "Slaot," which were mistakenly understood as pillars and can now be understood as triglyphs. The text also uses the term "Sequfim", which was usually understood as nine windows in the palace, and can now be understood as "triple recessed doorway."

Similar triglyphs and recessed doors can be found in the description of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6, Verses 5, 31-33, and in the description of a temple by the prophet Ezekiel (41:6). These biblical texts are replete with obscure technical terms that have lost their original meaning over the millennia. Now, with the help of the stone model uncovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the biblical text is clarified. For the first time in history we have actual objects from the time of David, which can be related to monuments described in the Bible.

(h/t D)

Read More

A Gaza journalist who really does deserve an award

Over the years we have seen many awards given to Palestinian Arab journalists purely based on their anti-Israel reporting. We've even seen Helen Thomas receive a "Courage in Journalism" award purely because she publicly espoused anti-semitic opinions.

But there are some Palestinian Arab journalists who exhibit real courage. Reporting the truth about their political leadership is a hell of a lot more dangerous than writing yet another anti-Israel screed.

Here is one of the truly courageous Arab journalists:

Gaza journalist Asma al-Ghoul has won an international award for courage in journalism, the International Women’s Media Foundation said.

Al-Ghoul, 30, was awarded the 2012 IWMF prize alongside female journalists Reeyot Alemu from Ethiopia, Khadija Ismayilova from Azerbaijan and Zubeida Mustafa from Pakistan.

She has worked for Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam and her popular blog, AsmaGaza, was discontinued in February for unstated reasons.

Her reporting on the Palestinian internal division and social and political issues has earned international acclaim, receiving awards from Human Rights Watch and the Anna Lindh Mediterranean Foundation.

Al-Ghoul has been beaten by security forces at popular protests in Gaza, received death threats against her and her son, and once slept at her office out of fear for her life, the IWMF said.

The foundation added: "In 2007, she wrote an article as an open letter to her uncle -- a Hamas commander -- questioning methods of certain entities claiming to seek peace for Palestine. The article resulted in al-Ghoul’s uncle threatening to kill her."

Putting your life on the line to report the truth is brave. No matter what your political opinions are, Asma al-Ghoul is a courageous reporter.

Read More

Observations about Israel's new unity government

I don't usually blog about internal Israeli politics, mostly because understanding them requires total immersion.

One of my Israeli correspondents, who wants to be called Professor X, is a tenured professor in the social sciences who has a background in political sciences, economics and law. I asked him if I could post his thoughts:

Three observations:

Kadima as a party has not proved itself either centrist or pragmatic. It came into existence to pursue a leftist and utterly failed policy of unilateral withdrawal, and then moved to embrace the Labor-left policy of “peace in our time” through the imagined acceptance by the PLO of a generous Israeli peace offer.

As long as Israel keeps getting richer, the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow. It is a continuing matter of astonishment to me that people can look at statistics showing that all Israelis are getting wealthier and proclaim them proof of a broken economic system or a failure of social justice because the affluent are growing wealth faster. The Jewish principles of social justice do not embrace a return to Israel’s failed socialism, high taxes, wasteful spending, and obstructive regulation. It is unclear to me that the general population is generally “underpaid” — I would suspect quite the opposite. The working public is overpaid on average, thanks to the Histadrut, notwithstanding the fact that the labor agreements generally require underpaying the more skilled to subsidize overpaying the less skilled, while pricing many of the less skilled out of the working market altogether. Israel has several serious economic problems — monopolies established during Israel’s socialist heyday, underemployment of the workforce thanks not only to overly generous welfare benefits but also laws that require unemployment in order to enjoy state benefits like exemption from army service, excessive government ownership of land and other sectors of the economy, excessive regulation of land use and ordinary business decisions, and an overly powerful labor union that controls vast sectors of the economy (again a relic of Israel’s socialist heyday). Much of the agenda of the “social protests” was to exacerbate these problems, and, at best, the reforms adopted so far have been a mixed bag. There is little reason to celebrate if the unity government means an adoption of the destructive agenda of the “social protests.” Certainly, it’s not true that Israel has retained failed socialist policies and dirigisme due to the excessive influence of “wealthy donors” who will now be neutralized. And, incidentally, the protests were hardly “student-led.”

The idea that there is no peace with the Palestinians due to a violent fringe of Israelis is unfairly exculpatory to the Palestinians and defamatory to Israelis. Notwithstanding noisy fringes on the left and right (and the left fringe has done – so far as I can see – far more damage to Israel), they have not been players in the game in recent years. Both with and without Kadima, the government has the stability and motivation to reach a worthwhile agreement with the Palestinians. It is absolutely clear that whether Kadima is in or out of the government, Abbas has no interest in such a deal. It is true that Kadima endorses your suggested policy: that Israel should aim for a unilateral withdrawal after trying to use another round of failed negotiations to prove that that there is no realistic possibility of negotiated peace. But I hope and believe that Netanyahu has no such plans, and certainly the public will not demand such a self-destructive course after the Gaza fiasco. If this is the secret agenda of the new government, it is a cause for mourning, not celebration.

Other notable analyses from The Muqata, who looks at winners and losers, and Gerald Steinberg at the Times of Israel.

A number of people were trying to figure out why Netanyahu was calling for early elections, and a consensus of sorts was that it would give him more flexibility in deciding on a military option for Iran since Likud was well ahead in the polls. If that is true, this unity government is even more effective than any election results could have been in giving Israel internal political strength should it make that decision.

Read More

Work accident in the "playground of death"

From the Hamas al-Qassam website:

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzeddeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy ... Today, Al-Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed:

Rantisi in happier times, hanging out in his playground

Faris Mahmoud Al Rantisi,19 years old

Jabaliya refugee camp – North of Gaza Strip

The Mujahed martyred from wounds sustained during training last week. He was martyred on Monday evening May 7th, 2012. He was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.

Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

Finally, may Allah (swt) accept him and his blessed efforts for the path of Jihad and may Allah grant his family patience and solace for his lose.

I'm not sure if that last word is supposed to be "loss" or "for being such a loser." (Or perhaps he had a pet louse who is inconsolable.)

As usual, the Arabic version is much more flowery in language as they beseech Allah to allow him into Paradise even though he didn't manage to actually, you know, kill any Jews.

Read More

French Jews interested in aliyah

From JTA:

Some 5,000 French Jews participated in an aliyah fair in Paris.

The fair, organized and run by the Jewish Agency, took place Sunday as French voters went to the polls and elected Francois Hollande as their new president, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, considered the favored choice in the Jewish community.

“I cannot recall having seen such a massive number of people interested in aliyah since the days when lines of people stretched out of the Israeli embassy in Moscow,” said Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who attended the fair. The annual fair usually attracts about 2,000 visitors, according to the Jewish Agency.

The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe, with some 500,000 members, according to the Jewish Agency.

The fair comes on the heels of an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse in which a rabbi and his two young sons and the daughter of the head of the school were killed.

Again proving the necessity of a Jewish state.

(h/t O)

Read More

More Zionist racism in the Negev

From Al Arabiya:

Dozens of Bedouin women from southern Israel join the work force after an Israeli phone company opens a service center inside a local mosque, where women feel they can work without any inhibition.

The country’s largest telecom group, Bezeq Israel Telecom, in a joint venture with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, launched the center inside the mosque in an attempt to combat unemployment among Arab Bedouin women.

“Bedouin women would like to work, most of them, and they want to be a part of the work market and to contribute to the economy of the house alongside their husbands. But because there are no work places in the villages and they are not able to work outside the villages, this is preventing many of them from being a part of the work force,” Mahmoud Alamour, director of Rayan Center, said.

Because of their traditional, patriarchal lifestyle, persuading husbands and fathers to allow wives and daughters to go to work was not easy and the best way to allay fears was overcome by housing the call center at the mosque.

”The girls felt safe when we told them that they will work under a mosque. They were so happy because a girl feels she is in a safe place, like in her house and her village. Now we have two shifts, morning and evening and the girls work until 23:00, and we could only get this because we operate from the mosque,” said Naifa al-Nabari, vocational coordinator for Rayan Center.

“As a Bedouin woman I am so proud of myself because as a Bedouin girl I started from zero. This is my first career, I never had another job, it took me not too long in order to be a manager in a company like Bezeq,” said Dalal Abu-kaf, team manager at telephone service center.

“I think I have no problem with this project and if I sometimes need to go out of work in a specific time, like when a child is sick, Bezeq helps me –- they allow us to go and tend to our children,” said Manal Abu-keren, a Bezeq employee.

Itamar Harel, vice president of Bezeq’s private marketing division, said the company recruited workers throughout Israeli society and was happy to take on the Bedouin women in the belief also that investing in their training was economically sound.

Speaking confidently in Hebrew and attired in traditional Arab garb, Bedouin women helped customers solve phone line faults from a call center housed in a mosque in a desert town in southern Israel.

Only some 20 percent of Israel’s Muslim women participate in the job market, according to official figures, and among Israel’s Bedouin, that number is even lower, at around 15 percent, Rayan told Reuters.

Now, how can the anti-Israel crowd spin this to prove Israeli Jewish racism?

That's an easy one. I figure within two days we'll see an article on Mondoweiss about how Israeli occupiers are exploiting Arab women for slave labor.

The commenters at Al Arabiya go beyond that. Charles from Saudi Arabia writes:

Why are you writing nice things about an Israeli company and the hiring of Bedouins. This must be a zionist plot to capture and enslave these women, perhaps to trade them for future israeli hostages

And Ram Jam, also from Saudi Arabia, wrote:

Women who work have higher chances of being promiscuous and unfaithful. Pick the good cherries and dump the brusied [sic] ones....

There ya go.

(h/t Zvi)

Read More

Egyptian cleric says MB candidate will liberate Jerusalem

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an address made by Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi at a rally in which he launched the presidential elections campaign for Muslim Brotherhood candidate Muhammad Mursi. The rally aired on Al-Nas TV on May 1, 2012.
Safwat Higazi : We can see how the dream of the Islamic Caliphate is being realized, Allah willing, by Dr. Muhammad Mursi and his brothers, his supporters, and his political party. We can see how the great dream, shared by us all - that of the United States of the Arabs... The United States of the Arabs will be restored, Allah willing. The United States of the Arabs will be restored by this man and his supporters.
The capital of the Caliphate - the capital of the United States of the Arabs - will be Jerusalem, Allah willing.
[...]
Ceremony leader : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Crowds : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Ceremony leader : I am an Egyptian and proud of it.
Crowds : I am an Egyptian and proud of it.
Ceremony leader : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Crowds : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Ceremony leader : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Crowds : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Ceremony leader : Say: "Allah Akbar."
Crowds : Allah Akbar.
Ceremony leader : Say: "Allah Akbar."
Crowds : Allah Akbar.
Ceremony leader : Say: "Allah Akbar."
Allah Akbar.
Safwat Higazi : Our capital shall not be Cairo, Mecca, or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem, Allah willing. Our cry shall be: "Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem." Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Safwat Higazi : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Ceremony leader : Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews.
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
From the eyes of all Jews...
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews.
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
Forget about the whole world, forget about all the conferences.
Brandish your weapons... Say your prayers...
Brandish your weapons... Say your prayers...
And pray to the Lord.
From the eyes of all Jews...
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom...
Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews.
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
Safwat Higazi : Indeed, all the lovers of martyrdom are Hamas. I say from this podium, from Al-Mahalla, from the heart of the Delta, the heart of Egypt, so that the whole world may hear.
We say it loud and clear: Yes, Jerusalem is our goal. We shall pray in Jerusalem, or else we shall die as martyrs on its threshold.
Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.

While Mursi is behind in the polls, you can't count out the official Muslim Brotherhood candidate - and you can't trust Egyptian polls that probably undercount the rural population.

Read More

UNRWA employees in Jordan go on strike, again

From Al Arabiya:

The majority of Jordan’s 7,500 staff at the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency began an open-ended strike on Sunday after the management failed to meet their demands for better pay and conditions.

“The employees started their open-ended strike today after talks with the management failed,” a top UNRWA official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency employees, including teachers and medical staff, “have been demanding a $140 salary raise, and they do not want their annual bonus cut,” the official said.

The strike forced UNRWA’s 172 schools in Jordan to close, affecting 123,000 pupils.

Remember, the vast majority of "refugees" in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship - meaning that they aren't refugees at all!

In other words, there is no sane reason for most of the UNRWA camps in Jordan to exist nowadays even if you accept the absurd idea that descendants of refugees are refugees themselves. Their only purposes are to prolong suffering (to pressure Israel) and to discriminate between Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin and "normal" Jordanian citizens.

As it stands, there are no plans to reduce the number of people on UNRWA's rolls. In fact, UNRWA has no mechanism to take away "refugee" status from any of the people it is responsible for.

So we can expect more and more of these strikes by people who feel entitled to hold on to their artificial jobs for an agency whose existence should have ended in the early 1950s.

Read More

Introducing the Zionist Sausage Queen!

And here she is, decades before Lady Gaga made fashion out of meat:

Click to see entire meaty image

Maybe we should call her Lady Gaza.

Apparently, this young lady was promoting the Kosher Zion Sausage Company of Chicago, a venerable institution that existed since the Civil War as we see in this 1956 advertorial: (It is no longer in business.)

Yes, the Jewish reputation for big sausages has a factual basis.

(h/t Dan, who asked me to be careful with this sensitive information. But how could I resist?)

Read More