Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

"Honor": Uncle murders abused teen in Jordan

Criminal Prosecutor Ashraf Abdullah on Tuesday charged a 39-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his niece in the latest so-called honour crime to take place in Jordan.
The 16-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, was shot nine times in the head and back, allegedly by her uncle, at her home in an Amman neighbourhood.

Upon questioning, the uncle told the police that he killed his “niece to cleanse his family’s honour,” the source added.

A second source told The Jordan Times that the girl was a victim of incestuous rape by two of her relatives almost 11 months ago and became pregnant.

“The victim delivered a baby boy almost two months ago with the knowledge of her father who took her to the hospital and supported her since she was a rape victim,” the source said.

But four days ago, the uncle “claimed that he learned of the incident and decided to kill her in the name of family honour,” the source added.

The victim became the 14th person reportedly murdered in a so-called honour crime since the beginning of the year.

To normal people, "family honor" would mean punishing the members of the family that raped the girl, not the girl herself.

Another faked quote - corrected 7 years later

Honest Reporting has the fascinating story of a fake quote by Moshe Yaalon that made it to major newspapers over years before it was proven false. To its immense credit, the Toronto Star had a large article tracing how the misquote started and traveled through articles and editorial pages.

And it all seems to have started out of the feverish mind of Israel-hater Henry Siegman.

The fake quote from Yaalon was that Israel must force it to "sear deep into the consciousness of Palestinians that they are a defeated people."

What he really said was that victory would be defined as "the very deep internalization by the Palestinians that terrorism and violence will not defeat us, will not make us fold. And later he said “The facts that are being determined in this confrontation -- in terms of what will be burned into the Palestinian consciousness -- are fateful. If we end the confrontation in a way that makes it clear to every Palestinian that terrorism does not lead to agreements, that will improve our strategic position.”

We have seen many times that quotes by Israeli leaders about defeating terrorism have been twisted into quotes that sound racist against Palestinian Arabs as a whole. A few examples can be seen here.

Other examples of fake quotes are here and here as well as (indirectly) here, where even the spokesperson was made up.

In this case, Siegman pretty much makes up the quote altogether - and it was believed by enough other editors as to have become accepted as fact.

To misquote Mark Twain, "A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." (He never said that, but it sure is true.)

(h/t ehwhy via email)

Egyptian murders wife for leaving house

From Daily News Egypt:

An Egyptian man has killed his wife by strangling her with a scarf and then stabbing her with a kitchen knife for leaving the house without his permission, newspapers reported on Saturday.
The woman infuriated her husband when she refused to explain why she left home without his authorization, the state-run Al-Gomhuria and the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Well, he couldn't not kill her...that would set a bad precedent.

Chalk up another victory for "honor."

Fatah joke

Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah terror movement are holding their annual convention this week.

Surprisingly, none of the delegates can find anyone willing to valet-park their cars.

- Jake Novak

Al Arabiya (Arabic) reports on the phenomenon of some Kurds trying to encourage Jews who left Kurdistan after 1948 to return.

The Arabic video shows magazines with Israeli flags on the covers.

Al Arabiya mentions that most Kurds are not opposed to the idea, except for those who live in old Jewish areas who are concerned about losing their homes from Jewish families reclaiming them.

T

here was a large Jewish community in Kurdistan for centuries, and it appears that the Jews and Kurds lived together peacefully for the most part. It also once had a brilliant female Jewish scholar, Asenath Barzani, who became the head of a yeshiva in Amadiyah and was considered not only a halachic and Kabbalah authority but also a miracle worker.

Kurdistan has a number of Jewish shrines, including the burial place of Jonah and Daniel.

There is a website that encourages Jewish/Israeli/Kurdish ties, called the Israel-Kurdistan Network.

Victoria Beckham gets Hebrew tattoo

Victoria Beckham, otherwise known as Posh Spice, has apparently added another Hebrew tattoo to one she already had.

Victoria Beckham has been photographed with a new Hebrew tattoo thought to be inked to celebrate her ten-year anniversary with footballer husband David.
The tattoo, which translates as "Together, forever, eternally", was seen as she recorded her guest spot on the panel of American Idol.
Victoria and David previously inked matching Hebrew tattoos quoting a verse from King Solomon's Song Of Songs, which translated as: "I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me."
Last year, Victoria was said to be "furious" at David's decision to get another tattoo on his arm, a Hebrew proverb that read: "My son, do not forget my teaching but keep my commands in your heart."
David has previously described himself as "half Jewish" as his maternal grandfather Joseph West was Jewish.

I have been unable to find a photo of this important cultural landmark, but I did find her old tattoo, Song of Songs 6:3:

And her husband's matching verse (the top part):

But, alas, so far no pictures of her new wrist tattoo.

UPDATE: joem found a picture with part of the Hebrew phrase at the Daily Mail:

Moderate PalArabs beat up grieving family

PCHR looks at the circumstances of the death of Fadi Hosni 'Abdul Rahman Hamadna, a Hamas member who died in prison that I mentioned yesterday. They do not have enough information to determine whether he was tortured to death or committed suicide (which is why I have not yet added it to the self-death count) but one detail of their report shows that respect for human lives is not exactly a high priority in PA prisons:

It is worth noting that a debate took place in the morning between the victim's father and brother on one hand and security officers and guards of Junaid Prison on the other hand, as the latter refused to allow the family to enter the prison to see the victim's body. The debate developed and security officers fired into the air and beat members of the family. The victim's father sustained a fracture to the head; his brother Mohammed sustained a fracture to the left hand; his brother Hani sustained bruises to the shoulder and back; and two relatives were injured. The vicinity of the prison was then declared a closed military zone.

Sensitivity. Honesty. Truth. This is the Palestinian Authority.

UNRWA denies- and Hamas confirms- ambulances confiscated

From JPost: (h/t t34zakat)

Hamas on Monday claimed to have confiscated three ambulances that were imported into the Gaza Strip for UNRWA several weeks ago, backing up an earlier IDF claim that the ambulances had been seized.

The deputy director of UNRWA’s Gaza office, Christer Nordal, stands in front of ambulances in the UNRWA compound in Gaza. Spokesman Christopher Gunness said this picture, distributed yesterday, showed that recent media reports of stolen ambulances were false.

But UNRWA, which last week denied an earlier Jerusalem Post article quoting IDF claims that the ambulances had been confiscated, reiterated Monday that the reports were false, said that the ambulances were safe and sound in its Gaza compound, and even distributed a photograph of one of its officials, Christer Nordal, posing with what it said were the vehicles in question.
According to a statement released by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Crossings Directorate on Monday, the ambulances were confiscated in late July because UNRWA did not have proper documentation to import them into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
In an August 4 e-mail obtained by the Post, UNRWA official Jodi Clark wrote to Israeli defense officials to state that the ambulances had been "impounded by the authorities in Gaza." The e-mail was sent by Clark to several Israeli defense officials as well as to John Ging, the director of UNRWA, and Nordal, his deputy. The e-mail later circulated throughout the Defense Ministry.
"The three ambulances we imported into Gaza two weeks ago are still impounded by the authorities in Gaza and we continue to negotiate their release which is not going well at this stage," Clark wrote in the e-mail.
She went on to ask the Israeli defense officials for their assistance in coordinating the transfer of three new ambulances into Gaza, but through the Erez crossing, "to avoid the authorities having the opportunity to seize the vehicles from us."Asked about Clark's e-mail, and about the official Hamas-run Gaza Crossings Directorate's claim to be holding the ambulances, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said that the e-mail had been recalled by Clark immediately after being sent and that the story based on its content was untrue. The Post was able to confirm that the e-mail was indeed recalled.
"The e-mail was recalled within minutes because the information contained in it was wrong," Gunness said. "The story is a house of cards based on information that was wrong. We have circulated pictures which prove it was wrong."

Another picture of "Jewish extremists storming Al Aqsa"

Palestine Today has another exclusive picture of rabid, violent Jewish extremists storming the Al Aqsa mosque and causing all sorts of havoc:

Doesn't it make your blood boil to see such desecration? One can only imagine the vast damage they cause merely with their tzitzit, provocatively hanging from under their shirts.

Egyptian scientist claims Pepsi made from pig intestines

Palestine Press Agency reports:

Egyptian scientist Dr. Mustafa Shakaa, the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Supreme Council of Egyptian research, said that it has been proved beyond any doubt that through careful analysis that the content of Pepsi-Cola contains material from the intestines of pigs.

He goes on to say that the people who deny the story from Pepsi are Zionists and that they bribe officials to overlook the pig parts of Pepsi.

He goes on to say that Pepsi adds these components deliberately to help Pepsi get digested, but also that the Zionist Pepsi company has been laughing over the years from their plan to surreptitiously feeding pig meat to Muslims who drink the product.

This rumor has been around for years, as this interesting Muslim site points out:

Nevertheless, this rumor isn't sort of confined to weirdos and fringes, even Egyptian government sponsored websites or chatsites or whatever report it (in Arabic) here. What is most interesting about this latter post, as well as numerous similar posts out there in the blogosphere, is that they begin with the following title: "Have the Americans truly succeeded in ridiculing 2 billion Muslims and Arabs and caused them to drink all of these years carbonated beverages made from pig intestines?" Arabic readers:
هل نجح الأمريكيون بالفعل في أن يضحكوا على 2 مليار مسلم وعربي وجعلوهم يشربون طوال السنين مشروباتهم الغازية المصنعة من أمعاء الخنزير؟؟؟

So the rumor out there that has spread pretty far and wide is that Pepsi Cola, this huge ubiquitous presence in the Middle East (everyone has a Pepsi with dinner) with I would guess I don't really know billions of dollars of revenue per annum from the Muslim world is going to risk all of those substantial sums and a potential catastrophic drop in share price, for a laugh. I should note the piece gives other potential reasons they do this, relating to digestion and whatnot but the title provides the most prominent and important one. The posts explain if you drink Pepsi, you're participating in the humiliation and the ridicule of Islam and that more experiments will confirm this, at which time a decision will be made on the permissibility of Pepsi under the shari'a. These folks seem to suggest the conspiracy is partly proven by Pepsi's insistence on shipping the basic ingredients as a powder to its bottling plants, and not to disclose the ingredients of the powder when asked. apparently in this part of the cyberworld the only reason to protect a trade secret is to hide the distribution of pork to Muslims.

In a few of the blogs, the rumor gets sillier. Pepsi is an acronym for "Pay every penny to save Israel", they say. Pepsi was created 1898. The Balfour Declaration came in 1917. Herzl had only written the Jewish State two years earlier, the first Zionist Congress met in 1897. You've got to get pretty thick into anti-Semitic conspiracies to make Pepsi that prescient.

I guess that the rabbis who certify Pepsi kosher are also part of the conspiracy.

More rapes in Iranian prisons

From Al Jazeera :

One of the defeated reformist candidates in Iran's disputed presidential election is calling for an investigation into claims that anti-government protesters were raped while in custody.
Mehdi Karroubi said in a letter, made public on Monday, that a number of detainees had claimed that several women and men, arrested amid violent demonstrations, were repeatedly abused by their jailers.

"A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely," Karroubi said in the letter to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential religious leader and former president.

"Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped," he said, adding they were suffering from depression and serious physical harm after the alleged attacks.

Even Iran's PressTV could no longer ignore the accusations of rape in Iranian prisons.

Islamization of Gaza? Israel's fault!

Backspin notices a Guardian Comment is Free column by Ben White that rightfully exposes many recent Hamas abuses, as it turns Gaza into Taliban-era Afghanistan:

This context includes a young woman accosted by Hamas police on the beach, who then roughed up her male companions. It has also meant the harassment of shopkeepers displaying mannequins and lingerie packets. The background is a "virtue campaign" organised by the religious affairs ministry, which, in the words of the Hamas deputy religious affairs minister, is intended to "keep [people] away from sin".
While the rare incidents of physical violence are condemned by senior Hamas leaders, there is no doubting the pervasive atmosphere and policy direction. Government ministers from different departments have met to discuss a list of regulations to be implemented. As a piece in al-Akhbar noted two weeks ago, "women and the uses of technology seem to be the focus of the 'yes for virtue' campaign" whose purpose "according to Yousef Farhat, the general director of the public administration for preaching and guidance in the ministry, is to 'fight the non-ethical occurrences in Gaza'."

So when Islamists impose their misogynist and extreme interpretations of Islam on the general, suffering population, who is to blame?

Do you even have to guess?

But why is this happening now? One answer is that these developments in Gaza are a consequence of the state of siege that the tiny territory has been under – a society that has been fenced-in, starved, and seen its very fabric torn apart by unemployment and wanton military destruction. In the words of a Gaza human rights worker, isolation bred "extremism and dark ideas".

Why a "state of siege" naturally forces Hamas to impose Islamism on Gazans - something they promised not to do when they took over - is very unclear. But in the Guardian's universe, there is no path from A to an undesirable B that doesn't go through Israel.

In fact, White does have another reason why Hamas is subjecting Gazans to Islamic extremism. You see, Hamas is too moderate!

Already hit by criticism in Gaza by Islamic Jihad about a theoretical willingness to negotiate with Israel, it is possible that Hamas's leaders are seeking to safeguard its credibility and among the radical jihadist groups by off-balancing improving international relations with a domestic hard line.

The only reason Hamas has improved its international relations is because of idiots like Ben White who bend over backwards to find evidence of Hamas "moderation" even in an article about its extremism.

Way to go, Guardian!