Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Elder of ZiyonA bit more religious/idealistic than most of the others. Then again, he has a sign outside his winery that points to a prophecy in Amos that sure looks like it applies to him very well!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Elder of Ziyon
From Fox News:
What the media is not reporting, as far as I can tell, is that this is the second plane crash near Bushehr this month. The first was a drone that crashed nearby, causing much panic among people who live near there, already antsy about an Israeli or US strike.
If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would be wondering if there is any software on board these planes that can be remotely controlled by, say, someone over the border. Although if there was, this would not be the time to show your hand.
An Iranian fighter jet crashed Tuesday in southern Iran near the country's nuclear power plant that is to start up over the weekend, a semi-official news agency reported. The two pilots ejected safely.
The Fars agency quoted local government official Gholam Reza Keshtkar as saying one of Iranian airforce's F-4 planes crashed about four miles (six kilometers) north of the city of Bushehr. The city is located 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of the capital, Tehran.
What the media is not reporting, as far as I can tell, is that this is the second plane crash near Bushehr this month. The first was a drone that crashed nearby, causing much panic among people who live near there, already antsy about an Israeli or US strike.
If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would be wondering if there is any software on board these planes that can be remotely controlled by, say, someone over the border. Although if there was, this would not be the time to show your hand.
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
arab refugees, unrwa
UNRWA has again warned that it is running with a large deficit and will be forced to close schools or other programs if it does not get some cash quickly.
Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, said that a deficit of $84 million needs to be covered this month or else services will be affected.
Given that the real or imagined population of "refugees" that UNRWA takes responsibility for is increasing at a high rate, UNRWA has done surprisingly little planning on how to reduce the problem. In 2005, UNRWA came out with a five year plan that pretended "to create conditions for the human development and sustainable self reliance for Palestine refugees." Yet the only concrete tactics were a microfinance plan and vocational training - important but largely symbolic initiatives that are not designed to make a real dent in reducing Palestinian Arab dependence a UN welfare agency.
I have yet to see a real, long-term strategy by UNRWA to continue its operations for the next decade. It is obvious that they cannot continue to receive more and more money from the West (Arab nations pay only a small part of the UNRWA budget, and often renege on their pledges.)
Even if there was a peace plan tomorrow and a Palestinian Arab state the day after that, there would still be nearly five million officially registered "refugees", a continuously growing population. The PA cannot afford to keep its own economy going; they sure couldn't absorb millions of Arabs kept stateless by their host countries, many of them radicalized by being stuck in miserable conditions for so many years.
And nobody is thinking about how to solve this issue.
Arab states are more than happy to keep the status quo - it costs them nothing to give these squalid camps to UNRWA and they have no responsibility. The millions of pseudo-refugees are being kept in limbo for Phase 2 of the plan to destroy Israel, namely, the non-existent "right of return." No matter what agreement Israel signs that says that it will never happen, that issue will come up as a legitimate issue within a few years.
There is only one solution: The Arab states need to assume responsibility for their role in keeping the Palestinian Arabs stateless, discriminated against and in misery. They need to start implementing plans to integrate their "guests" into their own societies, the way every other refugee population in history has been integrated in their host countries.
The only way this can happen is by shaming them.
Publicize the endemic discrimination that the Palestinian Arabs have been subject to since 1948. Tell the world how desperate these people are to become a normal part of society. Show how Palestinian Arabs, alone among all Arabs, cannot become citizens of other Arab countries - at the urging of the Arab League itself.
UNRWA could actually do something positive for once. They can tell the world a simple fact: Even if the events in 1948 were a catastrophe for Palestinian Arabs, the problems that they have 62 years later are squarely the responsibility of the Arab states that have treated them like subhuman pawns. If UNRWA would publish a single, simple press release laying out these facts that everybody knows, they could do more to help the population of "refugees" than they have accomplished in six decades.
Human rights organizations that pretend to care about Palestinian Arabs should also be in the forefront of this initiative. The time to use Palestinian Arabs as pawns needs to end, and they should be given the choice of becoming citizens in any Arab country they want, under the same naturalization laws that any other Arab citizen would go through.
Everyone has their heads in the sand pretending that a "peace plan" can solve the problem. But this fact is clear: The status quo is unsustainable and something needs to be done to reduce and eliminate the scourge of stateless people being cynically used solely as a weapon to hurt Israel.
Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, said that a deficit of $84 million needs to be covered this month or else services will be affected.
Given that the real or imagined population of "refugees" that UNRWA takes responsibility for is increasing at a high rate, UNRWA has done surprisingly little planning on how to reduce the problem. In 2005, UNRWA came out with a five year plan that pretended "to create conditions for the human development and sustainable self reliance for Palestine refugees." Yet the only concrete tactics were a microfinance plan and vocational training - important but largely symbolic initiatives that are not designed to make a real dent in reducing Palestinian Arab dependence a UN welfare agency.
I have yet to see a real, long-term strategy by UNRWA to continue its operations for the next decade. It is obvious that they cannot continue to receive more and more money from the West (Arab nations pay only a small part of the UNRWA budget, and often renege on their pledges.)
Even if there was a peace plan tomorrow and a Palestinian Arab state the day after that, there would still be nearly five million officially registered "refugees", a continuously growing population. The PA cannot afford to keep its own economy going; they sure couldn't absorb millions of Arabs kept stateless by their host countries, many of them radicalized by being stuck in miserable conditions for so many years.
And nobody is thinking about how to solve this issue.
Arab states are more than happy to keep the status quo - it costs them nothing to give these squalid camps to UNRWA and they have no responsibility. The millions of pseudo-refugees are being kept in limbo for Phase 2 of the plan to destroy Israel, namely, the non-existent "right of return." No matter what agreement Israel signs that says that it will never happen, that issue will come up as a legitimate issue within a few years.
There is only one solution: The Arab states need to assume responsibility for their role in keeping the Palestinian Arabs stateless, discriminated against and in misery. They need to start implementing plans to integrate their "guests" into their own societies, the way every other refugee population in history has been integrated in their host countries.
The only way this can happen is by shaming them.
Publicize the endemic discrimination that the Palestinian Arabs have been subject to since 1948. Tell the world how desperate these people are to become a normal part of society. Show how Palestinian Arabs, alone among all Arabs, cannot become citizens of other Arab countries - at the urging of the Arab League itself.
UNRWA could actually do something positive for once. They can tell the world a simple fact: Even if the events in 1948 were a catastrophe for Palestinian Arabs, the problems that they have 62 years later are squarely the responsibility of the Arab states that have treated them like subhuman pawns. If UNRWA would publish a single, simple press release laying out these facts that everybody knows, they could do more to help the population of "refugees" than they have accomplished in six decades.
Human rights organizations that pretend to care about Palestinian Arabs should also be in the forefront of this initiative. The time to use Palestinian Arabs as pawns needs to end, and they should be given the choice of becoming citizens in any Arab country they want, under the same naturalization laws that any other Arab citizen would go through.
Everyone has their heads in the sand pretending that a "peace plan" can solve the problem. But this fact is clear: The status quo is unsustainable and something needs to be done to reduce and eliminate the scourge of stateless people being cynically used solely as a weapon to hurt Israel.
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
The story of photos of IDF soldiers posing with Palestinian Arab prisoners is exploding.
It started yesterday when images of a former soldier surfaced. She had placed the pictures on her Facebook page with her smiling in front of prisoners. These photos were nowhere near what we saw at Abu Ghraib, yet the anti-Israel crowd came out in force.
The IDF released what can only be considered an extraordinary video denunciation of the incident:
An argument can be made that this was overblown even by the IDF. The girl in the pictures was not doing anything to demean the prisoners; the fact is that nowadays, 19-year olds will put up everything on Facebook - here I am at the beach, here I am in my kitchen, here I am at work. Her job might have been extraordinary but it is normal human psychology to get used to the circumstances you are in and regard it as routine.
But now, Breaking the Silence has released other photos that are much worse. There is simply no justification and no excuse for these photos and for treating Arab prisoners this way, no matter what they had done. This is not how a professional army should act, ever, and it must be condemned in the strongest terms and the people involved should be punished.
Even though this is a despicable story, and one that might very well get worse, I am still struck at the hypocrisy from the supposedly outraged Arabs and their supporters.
The initial set of relatively innocuous photos were described as "despicable," "shameful" and "repulsive" by the IDF.
Can you imagine any act that any Arab could do against any Israeli that would be so reprehensible that a Palestinian Arab leader would use those words to describe it?
If a tiny Islamist terror group would pop up and systematically rape Israeli infants before ripping them limb from limb on video, would we ever hear a condemnation from any Arab leader that would approach the IDF's reaction to pictures of a girl smiling in front of prisoners? On the contrary - they would close ranks, and the worst possible condemnation would be (as it always has been after the most horrific terror attacks) that such actions "hurt the Palestinian cause."
As far as I know, no Palestinian Arab leader has ever condemned any terror attack because it was immoral. Kids blown up in ice cream parlors, pizza shops or at school were perfunctorily and emotionlessly "condemned" in order to appease the Americans. But never did Arafat or Abbas or Fayyad or Erekat or anyone else say that a terror attack was wrong for any other reason than that it made their side look bad. Quite the opposite - the terrorists are lionized, their schemes considered heroic, and schools and camps and streets are named after them.
The photos we are seeing seem to show something severely lacking in how the IDF teaches its code of conduct. They cannot be excused. The incidents need to be taken seriously and the people behind them need to be punished.
However, these incidents show us once again the enormity of the gap between the morality of the IDF and of her enemies, as well as the light-years between how the world expects Israelis to act and how Arabs are expected to act.
It started yesterday when images of a former soldier surfaced. She had placed the pictures on her Facebook page with her smiling in front of prisoners. These photos were nowhere near what we saw at Abu Ghraib, yet the anti-Israel crowd came out in force.
The IDF released what can only be considered an extraordinary video denunciation of the incident:
An argument can be made that this was overblown even by the IDF. The girl in the pictures was not doing anything to demean the prisoners; the fact is that nowadays, 19-year olds will put up everything on Facebook - here I am at the beach, here I am in my kitchen, here I am at work. Her job might have been extraordinary but it is normal human psychology to get used to the circumstances you are in and regard it as routine.
But now, Breaking the Silence has released other photos that are much worse. There is simply no justification and no excuse for these photos and for treating Arab prisoners this way, no matter what they had done. This is not how a professional army should act, ever, and it must be condemned in the strongest terms and the people involved should be punished.
Even though this is a despicable story, and one that might very well get worse, I am still struck at the hypocrisy from the supposedly outraged Arabs and their supporters.
The initial set of relatively innocuous photos were described as "despicable," "shameful" and "repulsive" by the IDF.
Can you imagine any act that any Arab could do against any Israeli that would be so reprehensible that a Palestinian Arab leader would use those words to describe it?
If a tiny Islamist terror group would pop up and systematically rape Israeli infants before ripping them limb from limb on video, would we ever hear a condemnation from any Arab leader that would approach the IDF's reaction to pictures of a girl smiling in front of prisoners? On the contrary - they would close ranks, and the worst possible condemnation would be (as it always has been after the most horrific terror attacks) that such actions "hurt the Palestinian cause."
As far as I know, no Palestinian Arab leader has ever condemned any terror attack because it was immoral. Kids blown up in ice cream parlors, pizza shops or at school were perfunctorily and emotionlessly "condemned" in order to appease the Americans. But never did Arafat or Abbas or Fayyad or Erekat or anyone else say that a terror attack was wrong for any other reason than that it made their side look bad. Quite the opposite - the terrorists are lionized, their schemes considered heroic, and schools and camps and streets are named after them.
The photos we are seeing seem to show something severely lacking in how the IDF teaches its code of conduct. They cannot be excused. The incidents need to be taken seriously and the people behind them need to be punished.
However, these incidents show us once again the enormity of the gap between the morality of the IDF and of her enemies, as well as the light-years between how the world expects Israelis to act and how Arabs are expected to act.
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Firas Press reports that there has been a rash of thefts of shoes from mosques in Ramallah.
Muslims remove their shoes in an outer room and then pray inside. While they are in prayer, others have been going in and taking their shoes.
Some worshippers have resorted to splitting up their shoes, placing each one in a different corner of the room, so that the thieves would more likely be caught as they try to find the matching shoe.
When the worshippers return and find their shoes missing, they are forced to walk barefoot to a nearby store to buy some more shoes.
Which makes one wonder if perhaps the shoe store owners are involved....
Muslims remove their shoes in an outer room and then pray inside. While they are in prayer, others have been going in and taking their shoes.
Some worshippers have resorted to splitting up their shoes, placing each one in a different corner of the room, so that the thieves would more likely be caught as they try to find the matching shoe.
When the worshippers return and find their shoes missing, they are forced to walk barefoot to a nearby store to buy some more shoes.
Which makes one wonder if perhaps the shoe store owners are involved....
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday, the IDF killed a man who was planting explosive devices near the fence in Gaza.
It turns out that he was involved in the fatal ambush last March, where Maj. Eliraz Peretz and St.-Sgt. Ilan Sviatkovsky were killed as they also went to confront Gazans planting explosives near the fence.
Islamic Jihad was very proud of that operation, which they had called "Operation Luring Idiots." PIJ is claiming that the Gazan killed was the architect of that March attack while the IDF says that he took part.
Ma'an in Arabic, usually upheld as the most moderate of Palestinian Arab news outlets, calls the terrorist a "martyr."
It turns out that he was involved in the fatal ambush last March, where Maj. Eliraz Peretz and St.-Sgt. Ilan Sviatkovsky were killed as they also went to confront Gazans planting explosives near the fence.
Islamic Jihad was very proud of that operation, which they had called "Operation Luring Idiots." PIJ is claiming that the Gazan killed was the architect of that March attack while the IDF says that he took part.
Ma'an in Arabic, usually upheld as the most moderate of Palestinian Arab news outlets, calls the terrorist a "martyr."
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday I wondered whatever happened to the "Mariam" or "Virgin Mary" or "St. Mary" ship that supposedly had left Lebanon two weekends ago.
Today, Palestine Press Agency quotes the leader of the ship, Samar Haj, as saying that they hope to obtain permission within the next few hours to sail, and then be able to leave in the next few days.
Today, Palestine Press Agency quotes the leader of the ship, Samar Haj, as saying that they hope to obtain permission within the next few hours to sail, and then be able to leave in the next few days.
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
- bbc
Here's the BBC program on the Mavi Marmara.
And here is a MEMRI report on the MM, where interviewees use the word "captive" to describe how they were holding the IDF soldiers and also describing the IHH "peace activists" as the "resistance."
(Also, how unfortunate that they weren't tortured in Israel!)
(h/t Middle East News Watch)
And here is a MEMRI report on the MM, where interviewees use the word "captive" to describe how they were holding the IDF soldiers and also describing the IHH "peace activists" as the "resistance."
(Also, how unfortunate that they weren't tortured in Israel!)
(h/t Middle East News Watch)
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Hamas said some disparaging things about the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Endowments (the Waqf) which is in charge of all Muslim institutions in the territories.
Mahmoud Habbash, minister of the Waqf, said that his organization has built over 90 mosques and has had over 250 people memorize the Quran in just one year.
Furthermore, in response to Hamas insults, he said, "They accuse us that we are fighting Islam?! We are... training imams in the arts of rhetoric and reading of the Koran, and we have not bombed mosques and we did not kill the elderly and children in mosques because they have different views," implicitly accusing Hamas of doing exactly that.
Hamas had also accused the Waqf of acceding to a request by the Jews of the territories to turn down the volume on mosque loudspeakers during Ramadan. Habbash was incensed at the very thought that his organization would be accused of being considerate to non-Muslims' feelings. "How can anyone accuse us of working to reduce the call to prayer to not disturb the settlers?!" Habbash went on to say that anyone who makes such an accusation is obviously in bed with the Zionist settler terrorist state.
Furthermore, Habbash said that accusations that the Waqf had fired members of Hamas were untrue; that they employed Hamas members as long as they adhere to ministry requirements and don't politicize mosques.
So from this article we can learn that 90 mosques were built by the cash-strapped PA this year, almost certainly using money from the EU and the US. In these mosques, as MEMRI has shown numerous times, come the worst kinds of incitement against Israel and, often, Jews.
It appears that the West is funding PA anti-semitism, not only by funding the TV station but also by funding the mosques.
Mahmoud Habbash, minister of the Waqf, said that his organization has built over 90 mosques and has had over 250 people memorize the Quran in just one year.
Furthermore, in response to Hamas insults, he said, "They accuse us that we are fighting Islam?! We are... training imams in the arts of rhetoric and reading of the Koran, and we have not bombed mosques and we did not kill the elderly and children in mosques because they have different views," implicitly accusing Hamas of doing exactly that.
Hamas had also accused the Waqf of acceding to a request by the Jews of the territories to turn down the volume on mosque loudspeakers during Ramadan. Habbash was incensed at the very thought that his organization would be accused of being considerate to non-Muslims' feelings. "How can anyone accuse us of working to reduce the call to prayer to not disturb the settlers?!" Habbash went on to say that anyone who makes such an accusation is obviously in bed with the Zionist settler terrorist state.
Furthermore, Habbash said that accusations that the Waqf had fired members of Hamas were untrue; that they employed Hamas members as long as they adhere to ministry requirements and don't politicize mosques.
So from this article we can learn that 90 mosques were built by the cash-strapped PA this year, almost certainly using money from the EU and the US. In these mosques, as MEMRI has shown numerous times, come the worst kinds of incitement against Israel and, often, Jews.
It appears that the West is funding PA anti-semitism, not only by funding the TV station but also by funding the mosques.
- Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian Media Watch unearths a little garden-variety anti-semitism from official Palestinian Authority TV:
Now, it's personal.
Earlier this summer, in a dramatic performance at a PLO cultural festival, two young Palestinian boys lamented Arafat's death, and compared his death at the hands of the Jews to the death of Jesus:
Boy 1 [addressing Arafat]: "Father, father the Elder [Arafat]. Why did it happen this way? Why did it happen this way? Death chose you, and you did not complete the path."
Boy 2: "Do not ask why it happened this way. Yesterday they crucified Jesus; today they poisoned the father, the Elder [Arafat]."
[PA TV (Fatah), June 4, 2010]
The PA Minister of Culture was present at this performance.They are calling Arafat "Elder"?
Now, it's personal.
Monday, August 16, 2010
- Monday, August 16, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
OK, I'm placing a tip jar on the right hand sidebar (it is slightly wider than the column, making it a little ugly, but this was the easiest and smallest widget I could find, sorry.)
It uses Google Checkout, which allowed me to be somewhat more anonymous than PayPal or GPal. For existing users of Google Checkout, it is very easy to choose an amount to donate, click and it is done. Otherwise, you would have to sign up for that service (I think.)
I have not tested it thoroughly, but if anyone wants to throw me a buck or two, it would be very much appreciated.
Meanwhile, I got rid of the sidebar ads.
I'll try to keep the begging to a minimum!
Thanks so much for all the compliments in the previous post's comments. I do appreciate it.
UPDATE: I fixed the "out of stock" problem.
It uses Google Checkout, which allowed me to be somewhat more anonymous than PayPal or GPal. For existing users of Google Checkout, it is very easy to choose an amount to donate, click and it is done. Otherwise, you would have to sign up for that service (I think.)
I have not tested it thoroughly, but if anyone wants to throw me a buck or two, it would be very much appreciated.
Meanwhile, I got rid of the sidebar ads.
I'll try to keep the begging to a minimum!
Thanks so much for all the compliments in the previous post's comments. I do appreciate it.
UPDATE: I fixed the "out of stock" problem.
- Monday, August 16, 2010
- Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of Elder of Ziyon.
Looking back at the first posts in August 2004, they were pretty much just links to articles I found interesting. I don't think that the blog really started getting started until January 2005, when I started posting original pieces like this and this (almost seminal) article.
I now have over 1.7 million page hits, of which some 800,000 came since my last blogoversary.
I am posting at a much faster pace than I was a year ago. Last year I was averaging four posts a day, now I am doing closer to ten; I have published an unreal 2200 posts in the past year. This is sort of crazy, and chances are I will have to cut back to a more manageable pace.
Another astonishing thing (to me at least) is that this blog is really up in the top tier of most-read Zionist blogs. My current Alexa ranking is at around 172,500, which is higher than practically every other blog that is in this space. I don't know how accurate Alexa is, but it is very interesting to see.
Yet, so far today, I have earned exactly six cents from my foray into ads. Sigh.
Also in the past year I added Suzanne as a guest poster, and Zvi as an unofficial guest poster. They are both great and have added a lot to the blog. I would love to have more people posting here; there is a lot of talent out there.
As far as my choices of topics, my main criterion is to be original. If a topic is being covered by other blogs, I have less interest in talking about it as well unless I think I have a different perspective (or I have writers' block.)
I wish I had time to do other projects. Part of me still wants to write a book or two; also I like doing videos because they generally get more attention. (My Gaza Mall video was the biggest hit that I have made - 69,000 views so far. Not Justin Bieber, but not bad.) But it is not easy since I still have a day job, a part-time home business and a family.If any organization wants to hire me to do this sort of thing full time, I would be happy to consider it!
Finally, I have to thank you guys for coming here. The community in the comments section continues to grow (often a hundred comments a day, and about 3000 comment views a day.) The tips that you send make my life much easier, and I remain amazed that people like to come here as much as they do.
Looking back at the first posts in August 2004, they were pretty much just links to articles I found interesting. I don't think that the blog really started getting started until January 2005, when I started posting original pieces like this and this (almost seminal) article.
I now have over 1.7 million page hits, of which some 800,000 came since my last blogoversary.
I am posting at a much faster pace than I was a year ago. Last year I was averaging four posts a day, now I am doing closer to ten; I have published an unreal 2200 posts in the past year. This is sort of crazy, and chances are I will have to cut back to a more manageable pace.
Another astonishing thing (to me at least) is that this blog is really up in the top tier of most-read Zionist blogs. My current Alexa ranking is at around 172,500, which is higher than practically every other blog that is in this space. I don't know how accurate Alexa is, but it is very interesting to see.
Yet, so far today, I have earned exactly six cents from my foray into ads. Sigh.
Also in the past year I added Suzanne as a guest poster, and Zvi as an unofficial guest poster. They are both great and have added a lot to the blog. I would love to have more people posting here; there is a lot of talent out there.
As far as my choices of topics, my main criterion is to be original. If a topic is being covered by other blogs, I have less interest in talking about it as well unless I think I have a different perspective (or I have writers' block.)
I wish I had time to do other projects. Part of me still wants to write a book or two; also I like doing videos because they generally get more attention. (My Gaza Mall video was the biggest hit that I have made - 69,000 views so far. Not Justin Bieber, but not bad.) But it is not easy since I still have a day job, a part-time home business and a family.If any organization wants to hire me to do this sort of thing full time, I would be happy to consider it!
Finally, I have to thank you guys for coming here. The community in the comments section continues to grow (often a hundred comments a day, and about 3000 comment views a day.) The tips that you send make my life much easier, and I remain amazed that people like to come here as much as they do.
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