Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Iran faces economic crisis

Al Arabiya (Arabic only) has an article detailing the economic woes that Iran faces.

With the worsening budget deficit, soaring fuel consumption and its simultaneous problems in production, Iran's options are extremely limited.

The country has only two choices: either the devaluation of local currency and a willingness to face the negative economic consequences, or removal of subsidies on the staples and facing the wrath of the street.

[Analysts believe that] low-income people will be most affected by the decision to lift subsidies on basic food commodities that will be channeled for the benefit of employers, which may lead to unrest in the short term.

...Many fear that the elimination of subsidies will cause a higher inflation rate than the 10% inflation Iran has currently, which can increase the discontent towards the government.

I have doubts about the chances of sanctions working at this late stage, but this is the time to tighten them further.

A Palestinian Arab ambassador's lie

From TheJC:

A senior officer of the Board of Deputies has urged president Vivian Wineman to issue a "historic" invitation to the Palestinian Authority's UK Ambassador, Manuel Hassassian, to address British Jewry's main representative body.

Board treasurer Laurence Brass, in a letter to Mr Wineman, said it would be right to open dialogue with the Palestinian envoy even if it incurred criticism from right-wingers "who have tended to dominate" its Middle East agenda.

I just stumbled upon this video, apparently from 2007, of this Palestinian representative to the UK denying that the videos of Palestinian Arabs celebrating 9/11 were real:

Not only does he say that the videos don't show them celebrating 9/11, but he makes the astounding claim that the videos were of Palestinian Arabs celebrating the Oslo Accords!

Here's one of the actual videos from CNN;

Right after 9/11, rumors started that the CNN videos were fake. Here was CNN's reaction at the time:

There is absolutely no truth to the information that is now distributed on the Internet that CNN used 10-year-old video when showing the celebrating of some Palestinians in East Jerusalem after the terror attacks in the U.S. The video was shot that day by a Reuters camera crew. CNN is a client of Reuters and like other clients, received the video and broadcast it. Reuters officials have publicly made the facts clear as well.

Here is yet another example of a Palestinian Arab spokesperson who has no compunction about openly lying on TV, in English.

Not only that, but in the same interview he supports rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

Yet instead of being an embarrassment to his people - he remains a representative of them. Lies and justifying terror are simply part of his job.

Why on Earth would a Jewish organization want to invite a proven liar and terror advocate to speak to them? Dialog with liars is hardly a worthwhile endeavor. He should have been shunned, publicly and permanently, once his lies were exposed.

The PA has a new chief Dhimmi

Ma'an has an article by Faisal Hijazin, Parish Priest of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Ramallah, talking about how difficult life is for Christians in Bethlehem:

This Christmas, Christians around the world will be singing such Christmas Carols as “O Little Town of Bethlehem” without knowing that in truth, they could soon be singing of a town where you can no longer find the living presence of Christ, the community of those baptized into his body, the Church; “O Lost Town of Bethlehem” could be a more accurate sentiment when Christians awake to find that the Christian presence in this small holy city has, after 2,000 years, come to an end.

The fact is that this is a community that has been suffocating under military occupation, and all the restriction of liberty – particularly separation from family living very short distances away due to the “Wall of Separation” - that this subjection to arbitrary regulations and threat of imminent violence carries with it. The prolongation, decade after decade, of these circumstances, means that Christians are leaving their beloved city to seek places where they can raise their families where they can live, work and pray with the dignity of human beings. This is perhaps an accusation of our failure to willingly suffer all things in Christ. Though our faith has sustained us for many years, yet, failing to see change coming, many, and ever more, opt for places that offer brighter futures.

The hardships of the political situation have severely reduced the Christian population. Certainly, there are some voices in the international press who present this flight as a result of Islamic persecution. This is false. While of course the Christian community of Palestine has problems due to its minority status, as happens to minority populations virtually everywhere, still careful polling of emigrating Christians clearly demonstrates that the primary reason for leaving is the condition of living under the heavy thumb of the military occupation, without rights, of the Israeli government. This is a situation that, in one form or another, has gone on for 62 years.

Really? Israeli policies were forcing Christians out of Bethlehem before 1967 when Jordan occupied the city? Wow, those Jews are really cunning!

...It has not always been easy to control my own anger, let alone counsel forgiveness to the suffering and bereaved. Some have been able to hear Christ’s words of comfort. Others think of flight. Israel makes no distinction whatsoever between Christians and Muslims. The glaring fact is that the Israelis want the Palestinian land, but do want the Palestinians, the people who have lived there for thousands of years. And, without restrictions on their power, they act accordingly.

Bethlehem's population has been steadily increasing, year after year: 21,670 in 1997, 28,111 in 2004, 29,927 in 2008 (PCBS estimates.) Hijazin freely admits that Israeli policies are equal for Muslims and Christians. Yet the Christian population keeps decreasing while the Muslim population goes up.

So how can it be that Christians are fleeing because of Israeli policies while Muslims are moving in under those same policies?

Hijazin is practicing the usual form of dhimmitude that we see this time of year, where Jews are blamed for Christian suffering and Muslim persecution of the minority population is hushed up.

The only Middle East nation with an increasing Christian population is Israel. There is no way that one can blame Christian flight on Israel while simultaneously explaining the Muslim takeover of the city. Father Hijazin is simply a liar.

Oh, and that claim that Bethlehem Christians have "lived there for thousands of years"? This paper from Bethlehem University has this interesting fact:

[L]arge numbers of the settled Christians including the citizens of Bethlehem were ethnically Arabs of the Ghassanid tribes that had migrated earlier from the Yaman northward toward geographical Syria. Bethlehem's two largest Christian Arab clans/quarters trace their origin to these southern Arabian Christian tribes (the Gassanids). These include Al- Farahiyyah clan/ quarter who trace their origin to the Yaman and to their grandfather, Farah, who came from Wadi Musa in southern Syria (now in Jordan). There is also An- Najajreh, who say that their ancestors came from Najran in Arabia. Likewise, Al- 'Anatreh clan/ quarter trace their ancestry to Christian Arab tribes.

There may be some Palestinian Arabs who have lived there since Roman times, but I have yet to find anyone who could claim to trace their family back even a thousand years. On the contrary, the most important Palestinian Arab families seem to have arrived in the last 500 years.

Arabs fooled by video of "amazing new Iranian airplane"

Firas Press links to a YouTube video that claims to show an Iranian airplane being launched from underwater:

Western intelligence sources said that Iran's air industry has succeeded in manufacturing a fighter plane that takes off directly from under the sea. Those sources considered this a serious technological development that demonstrates the new capabilities of the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guard forces that support them.

One minor problem: it is fake.

The video is a few years old, and it is simply a video of an F-15 superimposed on top of a video of a missile launch from a submarine.

Dishonest Reporter Awards released

Honest Reporting has released its annual "Dishonest Reporter" rewards, noting the worst anti-Israel bias throughout the year in the press.

Highlights include:

Reuters for having so many reporters on the scene before a routine Israeli tree-cutting operation on the Lebanese border - almost as if they knew that the LAF was going to start shooting and killing Israeli soldiers.

The Guardian for similarly claiming to be "at the right place at the right time" with a gaggle of other reporters who were waiting for Arab youths to throw stones at Jewish-owned cars in Jerusalem.

Paul McKeough for his biased and lying article on the Mavi Marmara - that received a prestigious award.

And Time Magazine for their cover story, "Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace."

Read the whole thing.

Priest spouts anti-semitism on Greek TV

From JPost:

A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece's financial problems on Tuesday.

The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim also blamed world Jewry for other ills in the country during his appearance on Mega TV.

Mixing Freemasons with Jewish bankers such as Baron Rothschild and world Zionism, the Metropolite said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.

Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's policies? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?"

The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."

Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said.

I found a Greek blog post from last January that detailed and provided links to this priest's public anti-semitic remarks.

From the official webpage of the Greek Orthodox Church:

The Jews use Hollywood to promote the degradation of Christ and the Church through the movie "The da Vinci Code..."

Other quotes:

Jews, along with Satanists, are trying to homogenize humanity and enforce the ecumenical religion of darkness - their latest trick: cremation.

...the sharp claws of the Zionist monster....[performing] the Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people...

The powerful prelate referred to people who make up the Bilderberg are "elite officers of the Jewish lobby and from the world of recognized Jewish bankers like Rothschild and Rockefeller and the known anti-Greek Kissinger, Brzezinski and Soros."

This guy has been saying this stuff, proudly and publicly, for years!

Hamas munitions apparently explode in Gaza neighborhood

Palestine Press Agency reports that a series of powerful explosions rocked Gaza City this morning, injuring one.

It quoted residents as saying that rockets were stored on a lower level of that building.

Evidence that it was a Hamas arms depot hidden in a residential neighborhood comes from the fact that Hamas immediately cordoned off the area, it forcefully prevented journalists from approaching the scene and taking photos, and it evacuated residents in "fear of other explosions that may result from the presence of missiles or weapons inside the building [that could be set off by the] fire which resulted from the explosions."

A poster that goes for the jugular

Another in my series:

Wikileaks: New Zealand used spy flap to help sell lambs to Arabs

From The Guardian:

US diplomats disparaged New Zealand's reaction to a suspected Israeli spy ring as a "flap" and accused New Zealand's government of grandstanding in order to sell more lamb to Arab countries, according to leaked cables.

The arrest and conviction in 2004 of two Israeli citizens, who were caught using the identity of a cerebral palsy sufferer to apply for a New Zealand passport, caused a serious rift between New Zealand and Israel, with allegations that the two men and others involved were Mossad agents.

"The New Zealand government views the act carried out by the Israeli intelligence agents as not only utterly unacceptable but also a breach of New Zealand sovereignty and international law," New Zealand's then-prime minister, Helen Clark, said after the arrests.

But US officials in Wellington told their colleagues in Washington that New Zealand had "little to lose" from the breakdown in diplomatic relations with Israel and was instead merely trying to bolster its exports to Arab states.

A confidential cable written in July 2004, after New Zealand imposed high-level diplomatic sanctions against Israel, comments: "The GoNZ [government of New Zealand] has little to lose by such stringent action, with limited contact and trade with Israel, and possibly something to gain in the Arab world, as the GoNZ is establishing an embassy in Egypt and actively pursuing trade with Arab states."

A cable two days later was even more pointed, saying: "Its overly strong reaction to Israel over this issue suggests the GNZ sees this flap as an opportunity to bolster its credibility with the Arab community, and by doing so, perhaps, help NZ lamb and other products gain greater access to a larger and more lucrative market."

IHH and HRW: Two sides of the same coin

Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has an important report showing that Turkey's IHH is not a "humanitarian organization" but is pushing a political, anti-Israel agenda.

Some of the aid IHH gave the Palestinians was humanitarian, intended to ease the physical distress of the Palestinian population and improve its economic standing. However, some aspects of the aid, as described in the booklet, also clearly have political implications, such as the large amounts of money and equipment given to the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, donations of money to the families of shaheeds in the Gaza Strip and the construction of houses (possibly of terrorist operatives) to replace those destroyed by Israel in Judea and Samaria. The donations help Hamas' civilian network, which supports terrorism, and its educational system in the Gaza Strip, which indoctrinates the younger generation with radical Islam and sets them on the path of terrorism ("resistance"). In addition, IHH waged a propaganda campaign in Turkey during the years before Operation Cast Lead, contributing to Turkish hatred of Israel and sympathy for Hamas.

This is not terribly surprising, but it is important for those who still consider IHH a "humanitarian aid" organization.

HRW just issued its umpteenth report criticizing Israel, a 171 page report called "Separate and Unequal" that relies on already biased NGOs to piece together a picture of Israel's discrimination against non-Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria.

This report shows that HRW has essentially the same anti-Israel agenda that IHH does.

The agenda is clear from the photo on the cover of the report:

The Palestinian Arabs are living in poor, decrepit shacks while under the thumb of the evil settlers!

I just went through my photos to see if I could find any pictures of Israeli and Palestinian Arab communities in the same shot. Here's one from Efrat:

This is a lot more typical, but that wouldn't fit in with HRW's anti-Israel agenda. And, of course, there are plenty of Palestinian Arab mansions that dwarf every single Jewish-owned house in the area (click to enlarge):

There is plenty more to criticize in HRW's report, but the clear proof of its bias comes from its recommendations. HRW tells Western governments and businesses to essentially join the BDS movement and to ensure that products that are created in Judea and Samaria - only by Jewish-owned businesses - to be boycotted and labeled.

Going through every other report that HRW created in the past month, not once do they make recommendations to the world business community to punish a specific state nor do they make specific recommendations for any government to boycott real abusers of human rights. In fact, their recommendations almost always call for the UN and interested governments to "insist" on human rights in the target country, or to "investigate" abuses, or to "press" government officials to act in certain ways, or to "monitor" allegations. I cannot find in any other HRW report any specific recommendations to target businesses and governments that way that HRW demands Israel be targeted, no matter how egregious or obvious the human rights abuses are.

Human Rights Watch, when dealing with Israel, is not following a human-rights agenda, but rather a political agenda to delegitimize and punish Israel for often-imaginary abuses, while allowing governments that have real human rights abuses to pass without any specific recommendations to punish them. Which means that HRW does not treat Israel as a violator of human rights but as a political target.

Just like IHH.

Loony open thread

I didn't stay up to watch the lunar eclipse, but after playing around with the settings of one of my cameras, did manage to get this shot of the full moon a few hours beforehand:

Taken with a Fujifilm FinePix S2500HD, manual settings at ISO 100 and 1/60th second exposure. I would have played more with the settings but it was quite cold outside!

I digitally increased the contrast and darkened it a bit so the details are easier to see. (The picture is also heavily cropped.)

Default settings invariably gave a very blurry image.