Hamas "moderate" pushing closer religio-political alliance with Iran

From Ehud Yaari, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

For the last few months, a forty-three-page Arabic-language booklet has been emailed to Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip and to select members of the group in the West Bank and elsewhere. Titled The Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this new publication represents the most important attempt to date to connect the growing cooperation between Hamas and its Iranian mentors to religious affinities, rather than political expediency. The argument, in essence, is that the Muslim Brotherhood -- with Hamas as its Palestinian branch -- is a natural partner of Iran, with which it shares a common set of values and a joint vision of the revival of the caliphate, despite the divide that historically separates Sunnis from Shiites and often sets them against each other.

Subtitled The Dialectic of State and Nation in the Thought of the Imams al-Banna and Khomeini, the booklet is not being sold openly in stores. The preface was written by Dr. Muhammad al-Hindi, the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, who warns that "enemies of the nation" are trying to exploit the Sunni-Shiite rift in order to sabotage the struggle for an Islamic state. The booklet's author, sixty-year-old Dr. Ahmed Yousef, is a well-known movement leader who now holds the title of Foreign Ministry director-general in Gaza's Hamas government.

Yousef is widely recognized as one of the main spokesmen for the more moderate wing of Hamas. ...It is, in fact, his reputation as a "moderate" that makes Yousef's recent contribution both interesting and meaningful. He explains that Hamas's dependence on Iran is not an accidental marriage of convenience, as is often claimed by other movement leaders, but an inevitable partnership based on the common aspiration for the divine ideal of the "Islamic State."

He concludes:

Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, is well known for its close ties with Iran. Now Yousef, one of the military wing's most outspoken critics, is trying to redefine Hamas's relationship with Iran as a strategic alliance rooted in a similar interpretation of contemporary political Islam. Hamas is seeking a religious justification for its dependence on the Islamic Republic, beyond the political requirements. Yousef, in fact, attempts to rewrite the history of Hamas-Iran relations over the last six decades so that partnership becomes a duty for true believers. No doubt Yousef had the blessing of others in Hamas's top echelon before he published his study -- a clear signal that the movement is rapidly distancing itself from the Saudis and other traditional benefactors in order to strengthen its pact with Iran. If so, we should not expect any shifts in the organization's positions on peace and the further strengthening of ties with Iran and its allies, Syria and Hizballah. Given its efforts to move closer to Iran, Hamas is very unlikely to make more than a mere pretense of reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority.

It is no secret that both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood (which include Hamas and Al-Qaeda) desire a return to an Islamic caliphate, a pan-Islamic 'umma that would stretch across much of Africa, Asia and Europe. Western analysts have geenrally been so hung up on Shi'ite/Sunni divisions as to not notice that despite those differences, there is enough in common to allow a serious alliance between the two sides against the West.

(h/t SoccerDad)

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Hamas arrests journalists, confiscates footage, and more

From Ma'an:

The Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned on Thursday the reported arrest of a television crew at a Rafah event celebrating the life of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

In a statement, the FPA denounced "in the strongest terms," the detention of the journalists, who the association said were detained and ordered to turn over news footage to the authorities.

"The total ban by the authorities on all stills photographers wanting to cover the same event is unacceptable," the statement continued.

Also, Hamas arrested 30 people watching a movie on the life of Abu Jihad in the office of Ashraf Jom'a, a Fatah member.

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Real reporting from Ghajar

Israelinurse shows that she is a better reporter than most people who get paid to do so with a great dispatch from the Israel/Lebanese/Syrian town of Ghajar.

Israel said it would cut the town in half in order to make the UN happy - which makes the residents quite unhappy:

Najib Khatib, the spokesman for Ghajar’s local council, was unable to hide his discontent at the fact that no official representative has visited the village to ask what the 2,200 residents want or inform them of decisions which will affect their future.

“We only find out what is going on by way of the media” he said.

Since Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the residents have consistently opposed the division of the village as stipulated by the UN. Najib explained that there are not two halves to the village; it is one community and every resident of it has family members in both the artificially created parts.

“Why put up another Berlin Wall here?”  he asked rhetorically, and indeed when one sees where the proposed border would lie, one understands the full absurdity of the UN stipulation.

Most of the agricultural land belonging to the village is situated in the southerly area which means that should the division plan go ahead, the people living today in the northerly part would, according to Najib, find themselves stateless refugees in Lebanon and bereft of their lands. He calls it a “Judgement of Solomon”: a demand to divide something which cannot be divided.

Najib then explained that the village never had any connections with Lebanon, from which it is separated by the natural border of the River Hatzbani. All the old deeds they have for their lands are Syrian and were issued in the Golan Heights town of Kuneitra. The UN mapmakers who drew up the border or “Blue Line” in 2000 relied upon old maps from 1923 created as a result of the Sykes-Picot agreement. As he wryly pointed out, “Those maps were made by the British and the French. There were no Israelis, Lebanese or Syrians then.”

Read the whole thing at CiFWatch, including lots of photographs.

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New Gaza "aid" ship - hijacked?

From CNN:

Diplomats are working Thursday to resolve a reported hostage-taking on a ship with a Gaza-bound convoy.

The ship is the Greek-owned Strofades IV -- part of a convoy sponsored by the Road to Hope, an independent group of activists working to break Israel's siege of Gaza.

Ten convoy members -- six Britons, two Irish citizens, an Algerian, and a Moroccan -- were taken hostage, the group said. Also taken hostage were the manager of Libya's Derna port and two port authority police officers, it said.

The British Foreign Office said Thursday the vessel departed Libya and is headed toward Greece.

And guess who is on the ship: Ken O'Keefe, plus seven others who tried to get to Gaza in the summer Flotilla of Fools.

The existence of this ship has passed very low under the radar, but apparently it has had problems for a while. First it was a convoy, but Egypt apparently refused to let it through from Libya.

From the far-left Salem-News:

O’Keefe is a part of the Road to Hope convoy, over a dozen vehicles on their way to Gaza to deliver much needed aid. They have been stuck in Libya at the Egyptian border for over two weeks, hoping to gain entry and passage to Gaza.

Things looked quite hopeful at first, and the group was confident that they would be successful in getting through to Gaza with the aid. But things change very quickly, particularly where politics and bureaucracy are concerned.

The best route at this point seems not to be through Egypt, but around it, via the sea. That plan created a new problem, coming up with an extra 100,000 British pounds to get the convoy to Gaza by boat instead of by land.

O'Keefe's text messages tell what happened next:

"55,000 dollars have been transferred for ship payment, despite this the Greek owner of the ship (the Strofades IV, Malta flagged) is currently refusing us to board the ship..."

"We now have about 8 of our brothers and one vehicle on the back ramp as the captain is lifting it. Our vehicle is on the verge of sliding down the ramp and slamming into deck," O'Keefe said at 2:10 p.m. PT.

"Now the captain is threatening to leave without us despite 75,000 dollars being paid to his agent for the charter of this ship. We are on the verge of a stand off using our bodies on the back of the ship."

"We are being forcefully taken out of the harbour with the captain going crazy ordering the ship to leave!!!"

Then,

The violent Greek owner who is also its captain of "Strofades IV" has just disembarked (as at 22.50 GMT) through a side door of the ship, onto a speed boat. His speed boat has made for another cargo vessel in Derna the harbour - "Odin Finder".

None of our guys now know who is in charge of Strofades IV, or where it is destined to go.

The ship is empty, apart from the hostages and single convoy vehicle jammed in the doorway. It is making rapid headway to get out to sea.

So nutty Israel-haters are being shipped towards Greece, and they don't know who is steering the ship. We know who they'll blame, though.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

(h/t Harry)

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More Jew-hatred indexed as "news" to Google

Veterans Today is a cesspool of a website that is filled with anti-Zionist and anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Today they may have reached a new low. Some excerpts:

Once we acknowledge the threat that faces us – Zionist Aggression – we are left with the problem of how to remove that threat. Jews are in controlling positions in every segment of our lives, from the financial collapse of Wall Street, to the collapse of our currency by the Federal Reserve Corporation, the collapse of the US military from Jewish wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a de facto Jewish war against Pakistan and a threatened Jewish war against Iran. Trillions of tax dollars have been lost to the pockets of Jewish bankers and speculators.

Zionists are the masters of destruction. They now admit that they possess several hundred nuclear weapons, quite illegally in terms of international agreements, but very logically since it was Zionist mad scientists who designed and developed nuclear weapons and supervised the use of two of them on helpless Japanese civilians.

Zionist aggression is caused by their control of our money system. If this is taken away from them, and only if this is taken away from them, we could regain our national health, and the rest of the world could do so, too. There is a very simple way to do this. It has been done before in this country. The two presidents who did it were shot in the head soon afterward, so there is a risk involved. The Austrian leader of Germany also did this quite successfully until stopped by the combined forces of the Jewish allies (America, England and the Soviet Union) some years later.

Once we understand that Jewish Rule depends on their control of our money system we can figure out how to beat them. Events have shown that there is no political solution, i.e., by elected politicians. The politicians can’t save us even if they wanted to, which they don’t. The police and FBI are controlled by Jewish agencies such as the ADL and SPLC. There is lately talk of a US military coup against the Jews but this is frankly unlikely, since there is no curriculum in the military academies teaching the army, navy and air force about Jewish subversion. The Jews have made sure that the only curriculum is about the Moslem threat and the threat presented by American “patriots.”

Anyone still dumb enough to pay Jewish income taxes should examine the back of his canceled check to the IRS. It will say, “Pay to the order of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.” Why do you suppose it doesn’t designate the IRS or Treasury Department? Why does your tax money go to a private, profit-making English corporation owned by Jews?

We are the victims of Jewish aggression. I have spent much space on our money system, since it is the heart of our lives. No money – no lives. We must remove the Jews from our money or we will die, and soon. Now, of course, the Jews cannot let go of our veins, arteries and bank accounts. It would be against their religion, the control of all money. We must pry them loose.

There is no legal way to do this, because Jews are the law. The Jews are God and they are the law. So, to bring them under control we must ignore Jewish law and make our own law. What law is that? It is the law of survival.

The Jewish Problem is much more terrible than we even know. Jewish subversion has saturated our lives with death and filth and our minds with confusion and an inability to defend ourselves. If you wonder how this was done, read a few of the twenty-four Jewish Protocols. You’ll get the picture very quickly. Few can read all twenty-four of them – they are too revolting.

The filmmaker John Carpenter made a great training film for us in this coming struggle. THEY LIVE. Malevolent aliens live among us. But most of us can’t tell who’s who, or realize how they control our lives. A small group of resistance fighters have special glasses that reveal the hideous faces of the aliens, who have taken over the organs of power. The aliens are so evil that no mercy can be shown them. If you see the scary face, start shooting, because they mean to enslave all of us and kill some of us. The only way to save ourselves is to kill them and keep killing them until the source of their power can be turned off – forever. 

Carpenter’s aliens are the Jews. Most of them actually look like us. Carpenter’s special glasses represent the Jewish Protocols. Once you read a few of them, you see immediately what we’re up against. That’s why the Jews always freak out whenever the Protocols are mentioned.

Yes, this article advocates genocide against the Jews.

Veterans Today has decent Alexa rankings. Other writers for this website include Krazy Ken O'Keefe and Maidhc Ó Cathail.

If you want to do a project, email to all the writers for this site and ask them if they agree with this article.  Since most of them are careful to pretend that their problem is with Zionists, not Jews, their responses could be most illuminating.

None of the commenters had an criticism of the article, in fact, most praised it, even though as a supposed veterans site - on Veterans' Day - it is denigrating the US armed forces.

To complain to Google for indexing this bigotry as "news," go here.

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So how many were killed in Operation Cast Lead altogether?

Time magazine, in their article I linked to earlier, makes a passing comment:

Hamas suspended rocket attacks after Israel's devastating December 2008 military incursion, which killed more than 700 of its fighters, and a similar number of civilians.

This comes after Hamas themselves admitted last week that around 700 of the dead from Cast Lead were militants.

This admission shows, nearly two years after the operation, that Israel's estimate that 709 of the dead were fighters was quite accurate. Goldstone and PCHR, and HRW were all completely and provably wrong.

A ratio of 1:1 legitimate targets versus civilians in a war where the enemy hides among and disguises itself as civilian is literally unprecedented in war. It shows that the many people who airlly accuse Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza know nothing about war and are far more concerned with blaming the Jewish state for atrocities than for the rights of the civilians who were killed. They insist on a clinically clean war from only a single nation - the one nation that they want to delegitimize.

Now that the IDF figures on dead fighters have been proven correct, we need to now see if the total number of dead are closer to the IDF numbers or to the numbers given by "human rights" groups.

The IDF claims that a total of 1166 were killed. PCHR claims around 1415, of whom seven are either duplicates, blank or killed by Hamas.

At first glance, PCHR's figures seem compelling, because they list out the names of all of the dead. But there is one basic inconsistency that they never answered.

On the last day of fighting, PCHR had counted 1251 killed. Their weekly report on January 21st revised the number to 1285. (While they tried hard to document the names of the victims during the war, the names of the additional 34 were never published.)

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced a tally of 1314 victims on January 28th, and the Al Mazen center said it was 1268.

But on March 12th, PCHR announced the final tally was 1417 (actually, a higher number, but they then revised it downward.) Al Mezan said it was 1342 on March 7th. And the PMOH raised its figures to 1440 and we already knew that they were lying. 

Yet nowhere do either organization document how they found the additional 80-160 people. Nowhere in their weekly reports do they mention the discovery of an additional hundred or so victims found under the rubble or discovered in hospitals.

The only hint I had found that perhaps PCHR was playing with the numbers - or that they had been mislead - was from a single, very anecdotal data point. The Palestinian Ministry of Health was keeping a tally of Gaza "victims of the siege," a list of roughly 5-10 people a week who they said died because they couldn't get adequate medical attention. As  I reported last year, the number of these "martyrs" dramatically decreased during Cast Lead - just when you would expect to have more of them.

While the numbers of "siege martyrs" is only a tiny percentage of those who die in Gaza every month, the decrease in reports of their deaths may indicate that, as Israel claimed, the discrepancy might be because of natural deaths in Gaza during the war.

To be fair, this is a very small data point, and there is no way I can prove it. But since the IDF has been vindicated in its figures of the number of terrorists killed, it is time to revisit the other number - the one that might indicate that instead of a ratio of 1:1 militants to civilians, the real ratio might be closer to 2:1, which would be an absolutely amazing achievement and prove beyond any doubt that the IDF is the most moral army in history.

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The "necessity defense" in British and US law (Zach) (updated)

From Zach:

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In light of the recent announcement by British minister, William Hague, that Israeli officials need not worry about being arrested should they choose to visit the UK, it would be worthwhile to revisit a recently adjudicated case that evidences the present state of the British legal system.

“Five people are charged with destroying property valued at some $225,000 at the EDO MBM arms factory in Brighton during a January 2009 break-in. They vandalized the plant because they wanted to prevent Israel from carrying out war crimes in Gaza. EDO MBM does business with the IDF, therefore, the defendants claimed, it deserved to be attacked”

In a verdict that can only be described as shocking the conscience, a British jury actually found in favor of the arsonists. But after reading Judge George Bathurst-Norman’s instruction (really, a diatribe) to the jury, it is clear that the jury was not solely to blame; the problem was more fundamental.

Many have criticized Judge Bathurst-Norman already, but few, if any, have dealt with the fundamental legal issue presented by this case – an issue that Judge Bathurst-Norman mentions repeatedly: the doctrine of political necessity.

While US and UK law have important, fundamental differences, it is nonetheless revealing to wonder how the US would have treated this case. In fact, a nearly parallel case was tried in US courts in 1991 - and the "political necessity" defense saw its demise. In United States v. Schoon, “thirty people gained admittance to the IRS office in Tucson, where they chanted ‘keep America's tax dollars out of El Salvador,’ splashed simulated blood on the counters, walls, and carpeting, and generally obstructed the office's operation.”

According to Judge Bathurst-Norman:

Necessity means that the defendant whose case you are considering must have been acting reasonably and proportionately to avoid a threat of death or serious injury to others. The test involves two questions: was the defendant impelled to act as he did because as a result of what he honestly believed the situation to be he had good cause to fear that otherwise death or serious injury would result to others? Secondly, if that was possible, is it possible that a person of reasonable firmness, sharing the characteristics of the defendant, would have responded in the same way? If the answer to both questions is "yes" then the defence of necessity is made out.

Compare this to Schoon:

To invoke the necessity defense…the defendants colorably must have show that: (1) they were faced with a choice of evils and chose the lesser evil; (2) they acted to prevent imminent harm; (3) they reasonably anticipated a direct causal relationship between their conduct and the harm to be averted; and (4) they had no legal alternatives to violating the law.

The US Court of Appeals ruled:

The district court denied the necessity defense on the grounds that (1) the requisite immediacy was lacking; (2) the actions taken would not abate the evil; and (3) other legal alternatives existed…While we could affirm substantially on those grounds relied upon by the district court, we find a deeper, systemic reason for the complete absence of federal case law recognizing a necessity defense in an indirect civil disobedience case” …Indirect civil disobedience involves violating a law or interfering with a government policy that is not, itself, the object of protest…Analysis of three of the necessity defense's four elements leads us to the conclusion that necessity can never be proved in a case of indirect civil disobedience.

Here are three reasons provided by the US Court of Appeals:

(1) Indirect civil disobedience seeks first and foremost to bring about the repeal of a law or a change of governmental policy, attempting to mobilize public opinion through typically symbolic action. These protestors violate a law, not because it is unconstitutional or otherwise improper, but because doing so calls public attention to their objectives. Thus, the most immediate "harm" this form of protest targets is the existence of the law or policy. However, the mere existence of a constitutional law or governmental policy cannot constitute a legally cognizable harm.

(2) In political necessity cases involving indirect civil disobedience against congressional acts, however, the act alone is unlikely to abate the evil precisely because the action is indirect.

(3) The necessity defense requires the absence of any legal alternative to the contemplated illegal conduct which could reasonably be expected to abate an imminent evil.

There is a huge difference between the reasonable limitations given in US law to the "necessity defense" and Judge Bathurst-Norman's expansive (and, ultimately, untenable) interpretation.

In Judge Bathurst-Norman’s own words, “...the United States supplied 95% of the weapons to Israel, the EU 4% and the United Kingdom 1%.” The company that was attacked denies doing any business with Israel. What does it tell you about the state of the British legal system when a judge and jury promote arson to protest a company whose trade with Israel is either tiny or nonexistent?

Bathurst-Norman explicitly stated that the lead arsonist should be awarded the George Cross for his campaign.

Even if an Israeli official could travel to the UK without fearing arrest, “with friends like these,” why would they choose to?

---

There is one thing in common between the cases of universal jurisdiction and the necessity defense: if  either concept is applied universally, the result would be chaotic. It would slow down or stop the ability of democratic states to act responsibly, as they would be in fear of autocratic judges like Bathurst-Norman who could and would twist these laws into their own personal opinions of morality. They would also erode the sovereignty of states.

UPDATE: Wikipedia has an article on Necessity in English Law, and from a brief overview it is certainly possible that Judge Bathurst-Norman overstepped in his interpretation:

There must be an urgent and immediate threat to life which creates a situation in which the defendant reasonably believes that a proportionate response to that threat is to break the law.

 (h/t Barry)

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Mahmoud Abbas brags about his intransigence

At a rally commemorating the anniverary of Arafat's death today in Ramallah, PA president Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the crowd.

Abbas bragged that the fundamental demands of the Palestinian Arab leadership have not changed at all since 1988, implying that they never will. this would include the 1949 armistice lines, the "right to return," Jerusalem and all the other conditions that the so-called "moderates" have been insisting on.

Abbas also added yet another condition for "peace". He would not sign any final agreement with Israel until all Palestinian Arab prisoners are released. This includes those who have murdered Jewish women and children in cold blood.

Because, to him, they are heroes.

What a "peace partner!"

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Egypt tipped off Israel to kill Namnam (Time)

From Time:

The Nov. 3 assassination of Mohammad Namnam looked pretty much exactly like the fiery deaths of a lot of other Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip over the years. He was making his way in broad daylight through the tattered streets of Gaza City when his sedan turned into a fireball. The missile arrived from an Israeli helicopter hovering so far away that onlookers at first thought the explosion was a car bomb.

The death was not routine, however. Israel has refrained for months from assassination by missile, just as Hamas, the fundamentalist militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, has held back from launching homemade rockets into Israel. And the dead man was a senior operative not of Hamas but of another, more extreme militia called the Army of Islam. Namnam, a senior commander of the group some analysts describe as linked to al-Qaeda, was tracked and killed after Israeli security operatives learned that he was preparing a terror attack on U.S. forces stationed in the Sinai Desert not far from coastal Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas.

But the most striking element of the operation was the source of the tip: Egyptian intelligence gleaned news of the plot from Army of Islam operatives captured earlier in the Sinai. Egyptian security forces work to interdict arms and explosives on smuggling routes that run across the vast expanse from Sudan to Gaza. But sharing the intelligence on Namnam with their Israeli counterparts marked a level of Egyptian cooperation not seen by the Jewish state in years. "Egypt is helping much more," a security source in the region tells TIME.

The Army of Islam plot was aimed at the northern base, called El Gorah, about a dozen miles west of Gaza, apparently hoping to kill Americans. U.S. forces account for almost 700 of the approximately 1,600 military personnel assigned to the Multnational Force and Observers (MFO). Normand St. Pierre, head of the MFO office in Cairo, says Israel and Egypt share responsibility for the forces' security. "The relationship between the countries is really up to them, and I think they know things work better when they cooperate," St. Pierre told TIME, adding that he knew of no specific threat to El Gorah.

There has always been a huge disconnect between how Egypt acts towards Israel in public and in private. Some of the low-key ties are mandated by the peace agreement and by trying to please the US, but even Egypt knows that Israel is a reliable partner for Egypt's security.

(h/t t34zakat)

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Egypt importing Egyptian flags - from Israel!

Al Masry al-Youm, Egypt's leading newspaper, published an expose of a huge scandal.

They found evidence that Egypt was importing Egyptian flags from Israel!

The newspaper says it has seen copies of correspondence between the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the MInistry of Finance showing that a number of businessmen are importing Egyptian flags manufactured in Israel.

Egyptian customs said that there was no regulation that would cause them to stop the shipments.

Commenters on the site are incensed, as you can imagine.

So I think that Egypt should fight back by selling Israeli flags to Israel! That will humiliate the Jews!

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Very interesting op-ed by Egyptian in JPost

From the Jerusalem Post, written by Nabil Sharaf Eldin, an Egyptian journalist:

I have been haunted since early boyhood by an infatuation with Bilad al-Sham, or Greater Syria – the territories of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.

For me, this fascination started with recognizing the voices of singers like Syrian Sabah Fakhry (born 1933) belonging to the al-Sham region.

I conjured up these images and feelings as I was boarding a plane heading for the “land of beauty,” dreaming of soirées in Aleppo, touring Damascus’s old marketplaces and hanging around its cafés.

Such daydreams were flashing through my imagination until the “blessed” plane landed in Syria, when all dreams faded away within half an hour at Damascus Airport.

I was quickly singled out by a security officer, who checked my passport. He reviewed a list, and asked me to stand aside until he had dealt with a “routine problem” that would not take time. Ten minutes later, a grim-faced officer in plainclothes came and told me to follow him....

An hour later, a fourth officer arrived, no less grimfaced than his predecessors. Addressing the would-be “ambassador of the devil,” he told me I was not welcome in Syria. It was “a sovereign decision,” according to him, and he said he was not obliged to give any explanation.

...Now, on board a plane heading to Cairo, I recalled all the opinion pieces and TV interviews in which I had been critical of the policies and remarks of some senior Syrian officials. That was the reason for what had happened! ...I cannot help smiling in bitterness whenever I listen to Syrian officials parroting the Ba’ath Party’s famous slogan: “One Arab nation with a timeless message.” I have now become totally aware of what that one nation and timeless message stand for!

I THOUGHT about visiting Beirut and attending a concert by Lebanon’s iconic diva Fayrouz that was scheduled at the Al-Bayal hotel, and actually began to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

I phoned a Lebanese friend and fellow journalist.

He was terrified by my daring thought, and taken by surprise by my naivete – merely thinking about visiting Lebanon with my record of dire assaults on Hizbullah (I had once dubbed the powerful Shi’ite group a “war contractor” and a proxy for Iran’s regional aspirations).

I was even oblivious to the fact that Hizbullah men are in de facto control of Beirut Airport – another source of amazement for my colleague, who feared for my safety.

Although it was once a part of Egypt, I don’t even feel safe visiting Sudan, due to my verbal attacks on the regime of Omar Bashir, who insists on presiding over a collapsing state.

I am sure that Muammar Gaddafi’s Revolutionary Command Council will not deny me access to Libya.

Yet I am almost as certain I would never come out again, just like many others.

FAILING TO find a glimpse of hope across the greater Arab world, we must concede that Israel has become the only “safe haven” where one can be sure of his life and dignity. Yes, Israel, the state our demagogues continue to call “the alleged entity.”

Just like the Palestinian Helles family who fled Hamas “jihadists” in Gaza to Israel, I foresee a time when millions of Arabs might stand humbly in front of IDF soldiers, begging for protection.

So, I urge you, dear fellow Arab, to visit Israel.

The op-ed is interesting enough (and you should read the whole thing.) But what is more amazing is that this was not written for the Jerusalem Post - Eldin wrote and published this essay two weeks ago on his homepage on the International Quranic Center site, in Arabic, and other blogs picked it up.

Someone should gather the small but growing number of Arab writings that favorably compare Israel with the Arab world in one spot.

(h/t Elder of Lobby)

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Iranian news reported Israelis sell women in stores

Last month there was a Ha'aretz article:

Women go on sale at Tel Aviv shopping center

Window display at Dizengoff Center shows real women with price tags in provocative installation aiming to battle sex trafficking.

Shoppers strolling through Dizengoff Center mall in Tel Aviv on Tuesday were confronted with a shocking widow display of women for sale, with price tags attached to them.

Upon closer inspection, it became obvious that the display was part of an installation by the Working Group Against the Trafficking of Women, part of a widespread campaign.

Seven unkempt young women stood in front of shoppers passing back and forth under a sign that read "Women for sale according to personal taste." Some of the women were made up to appear as if they had been beaten, and all had price tags that listed details such as age, weight, dimensions, and country of birth.

The stated purpose of the installation is to solicit a large amount of signatures to submit to the Minister of Justice, in order to put forth a private member's bill by Kadima MK Orit Zuaretz to criminalize johns who solicit sexual services. Members of the Working Group believe that a law like this could eradicate the phenomenon of trafficking in women.

This was a nice publicity stunt to get an important message across.

But in Iran, they used the article to claim that women really were being literally sold in Israeli stores.

Rajanews, saying it was quoting Ha'aretz, wrote

In an evident case of promoting indecency and moral corruption in Zionist society, women are displayed for sale in Israel’s chain stores… According to Haaretz, each woman has a label that includes her age, weight, dimensions and country of origin. Following pictures shed some light on modern slavery in Israel, the country which claims to be a democracy.

A blogger in Mideast Youth named  Mohammad Memarian noticed the deception and contacted Rajanews, which took down the article (you can still find it cached here.) But by that time, other Iranian news sites had picked up on the story, and those sites still show the false story today.

As Memarian wrote,

Given the frank, unambiguous article published in Haaretz, I can hardly imagine that this case could be a simple misunderstanding. Rather, it’s fair to believe that the original news editor/translator distorted the story, assuming that no one would ever dare to find the truth. Such a bitter fact that awkward distortion of the truth is still considered a suitable instrument to manipulate the minds of the audience.

Second implication of the event, however, is far more important. Many Iranians had visited the page, found the story to be consistent with their preconceived perception of the Jewish state, thus related to it and cached it in their long term memory as another indication of Israel’s brutality and corruption. The Israeli society I knew, however, could not be this wild and obscene. That is why I doubted the originality of the story, while many other people, even the educated and the elite, did not even give it a second thought. In other words, average Iranian perception of Israel is far different from the objective truth.

He then goes on to say "Unfortunately, the same point arguably applies to the Israeli side as well" which is largely false, showing that even the most enlightened Iranian doesn't know anything about how Israelis really think.

Even so, all credit to Memarian for noticing and acting on the falsehood.
(h/t Israelity blog)

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