Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 28, 2011

Egypt cuts off Internet, and more on Day 4 of riots

Round-up of news from Egypt:

The Egyptian government has ordered internet providers to shut down all international connections to the internet. Renesys, an American company that specializes in the analysis of internet data routing estimated the shut down on Friday was unprecedented in the history of internet. The four Egyptian service providers—Links Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr—are for the moment off the air. The only exception to this block is Noor Group, which still is still providing all of its 83 live routes to its Egyptian customers. The reason why Noor Group has been immune to the block is unclear, but unconfirmed reports say it is because the provider is linked to the Egyptian stock market.

Every business, bank, internet cafe, website, school, embassy and government office in Egypt is now cut off from the rest of the world. The government’s shut down all internet routes has wiped the country from the global map, and all of Egypt’s internet addresses are unreachable worldwide. According to the Renesys website, the situation Egypt’s Internet is facing now is incomparable in scale to the modest manipulation that took place in Tunisia. At 12:34 AM local time, the US agency observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to the Egyptian networks in the internet’s global routine table. The agency wrote on its website that it worries about the consequences of the large-scale shut down on the credit markets and in the streets.
After participating in a public prayer with 2000 people, opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei and other protesters clashed with police in Giza.

ElBaradei and followers conducted the public prayer after finding Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandiseen closed, according to Al Jazeera.

The controversial leader, who traveled to Egypt from Vienna Thursday, has offered to head an interim government.

Thousands of activists also clashed with security forces outside of Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo after Friday prayers, according to AFP.

Hundreds of security forces blocked traffic into downtown Tahrir Square, surrounding the area where 30,000 protesters gathered Tuesday to demand economic and political reform.

In a talk show on Thursday, prominent media personality Emad Adib said that a number of Egyptian businessmen had sent their money abroad after the eruption of Tuesday's anti-government demonstrations.

He also expected businessmen to leave the country and government officials to resign if the situation escalated.

In Suez, which has been ground zero for some of the most violent demonstrations, police fired tear gas at protesters who hurled stones and petrol bombs into the early hours of Friday. Fires burned in the street, filling the air with smoke.

The city fire station was ablaze. Waves of protesters charged towards a police station deep into the night. Demonstrators dragged away their wounded comrades into alleys.

At another rally near Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, police used tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters late at night. Cairo, normally vibrant on a Thursday night ahead of the weekend, was largely deserted, with shops and restaurants shut.

Curiously, I have been getting many hits, from IP addresses worldwide - but mostly from Germany - to my article from September about how Egyptian state media tried to smear ElBaradei by publishing photos from his daughter's Facebook page, with the photos. Hard to know whether the people coming are pro- or anti-ElBaradei.

Video of new tunnel that proves ancient Jewish connection to Temple

From Fox News:

I had read stories about the tunnel, but none emphasized that it proves the route of the main Jerusalem road at the time from the City of David to the Temple.

(h/t Solomonia)

Concordia U Jewish students terrorized (must see) (updated)

This is a chilling video. Although it was made some eight years ago, it appears that nothing has changed.

(h/t Elan Miller via Facebook)

UPDATE: The anti-Israel left, predictably, called the events here "Silencing pro-Palestinian voices." (h/t Ruthie)

Video of Arabs and leftists trying to provoke settlers

Today, near Susia, some Arabs brought their sheep over to graze in a field that belongs to Jews. They also brought along some anti-Israel activists, equipped with a video camera.

When the Jews asked them what was going on, the Arab women started to push the Jews. They targeted one Jew who was holding a stick, clearly hoping he would use it as a weapon. He didn't.

The Arabs were trying very hard to get the Jews to turn violent, but the Jews didn't even raise their voices.

And the leftists were videoing the entire incident.

Finally, frustrated, two Arabs threw stones directly at the Jews. One was injured.

When the police showed up, they arrested - the Jews!

But, luckily, the Jews also had a video camera as well and showed the police what really happened.

This was not the first time that this community was provoked to create an incident that the anti-Israel activists would use to prove that Jewish "settlers" are violent.

Here's the story in Hebrew, and the video.

(h/t O)

AFP's bias shines through

My latest article at NewsRealBlog fisks a single paragraph from an AFP story last week to show how biased the media is - even if it is subconscious.

Enjoy!

References:

Honest Reporting

Robin Shepherd

Protests continue in Egypt; new protests in Yemen; Jordan next?

Headlines from Al Masry al Youm:

Clashes between police and protestors left one civilian dead and a young girl injured in the town of Sheikh Zowayed in the Sinai peninsula.

As hundreds of protesters fought with police, Mohamed Atef was shot in the head. By the time he arrived at the Sheikh Zowayed hospital he was already dead, according to a medial source. (This is the seventh fatality during the protests - EoZ.)

Security forces arrested a 23-year-old woman in Assiut Thursday for defiling an image of President Hosni Mubarak in front of the governorate's headquarters.

Surrounded by hundreds of riot police, nearly 200 protesters rallied at the Journalists' Syndicate in downtown Cairo, demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

"The people want to topple the regime!", and "Mubarak, Get lost!" were among the slogans chanted by protesters.

And in Yemen:

Two days after Yemen’s political opposition called for a national uprising against the leadership of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, thousands of protesters took to the streets in the capital city of Sanaa, calling for the removal of what they view as a persistently corrupt regime.

A crowd of men, wearing pink bandanas in support of Tunisia’s recent revolution, flooded the streets in four different locations in Sanaa. They waved Yemen’s red, white, and black flag and carried posters that read, “We’ve had enough suppression," "We’ve had enough corruption,” and “We are next” – written above a picture of the Tunisian flag.

“I am here today to express that we need a change in the president, that we refuse corruption, and that we are against constitutional changes that will allow the president to be president for life,” says Ali Al Hossany, an employee at Yemen’s education ministry.

And from the MEMRI blog:

The alliance of leftist and nationalist elements in Jordan, which is leading the demonstrations against price increases in the country for the past two weeks, has called on residents to participate in marches tomorrow, January 28, with the aim of bringing down the government.

Wikileaks adds some support to "Palestine Papers"

From a Wikileaks cable, July 2008, at the height of the negotiations between Kadima and Fatah that have been discussed in the "Palestine Papers:"

Saeb Erekat said the GOI and PA are working on all permanent status issues, noting that the two sides “are farther along than we were at Camp David or at Taba.” He said the negotiators will need President Abbas and PM Olmert to “make the hard political decisions.”

Erekat said the PA is committed to finishing a permanent status framework, defining solutions to all permanent status issues, by the end of 2008. He said he is committed to meeting Israeli security requirements, but wants to do so through a mutually-agreed third-party security force rather than an Israeli military presence in the future Palestinian state.

This is entirely consistent with what we have read in the parts of the "Palestine Papers" we've seen. It indicates that both sides were more flexible than they were in 2001.

The highlighted part hints at an intriguing idea: Mahmoud Abbas may have been purposefully kept out of the loop of the negotiations, allowing the PA negotiators a lot of latitude to find common ground but keeping plausible deniability and veto power if necessary. In this way he could maintain his public rejectionist rhetoric.

In that same cable we also see that

Fayyad said the PA feels unsupported by Arab states, despite their favorable rhetoric.

I've pointed this out for years - the Arab leaders' support for "Palestine" has never been sincere but largely rhetorical. This has only escalated since the Fatah/Hamas split, which Fayyad also touched on:

He argued that unless the PA regains control of Gaza’s crossings, “Gaza will be gone forever.”

Morning links

The Honest Reporting blog notes how the Guardian is pining for the good old days when Arafat was at his peak.

JCPA has an analysis of Al Jazeera's agenda in releasing the "Palestine Papers."

Yaacov Lozowick has an interesting "only in Jerusalem" anecdote.

Treppenwitz adds up what he is seeing in Lebanon, Egypt, and the PA, and it does not add up to good news for his little part of the world.

Robin Shepherd says "I told you so."

Al Jazeera continues to allege facts that aren't in the PalPapers

Whether or not the "Palestine Papers" truthfully reflect what happened in closed-door negotiations, what is clear is that The Guardian and Al Jazeera are reporting their own spin rather than facts.

"Electronic Intifada" founder and NYT darling Ali Abunimah writes in Al Jazeera:

PA lobbying blocked Shalit swap

The PA blocked potential prisoner swaps that would have freed thousands of Palestinians and Shalit.

Analysis of secret minutes of meetings between top Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials revealed in The Palestine Papers shows that strenuous PA lobbying likely torpedoed the deal in mid-2008 with the result that far fewer Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel.

But he brings no proof to this. He points to memos that show that the PA was unhappy with Israel releasing Hamas prisoners for Shalit, saying that Hamas would be strengthened. Israel agrees that a swap would help Hamas politically but Livni continuously pushes back saying that they want Shalit and there is no way to avoid that unfortunate consequence. They go on to find ways to strengthen the PA simultaneously by releasing Fatah members from prison - which they even did.

Abunimah brings no memos that indicate that the PA's efforts stopped any Shalit deal. In fact, the very idea is absurd. Israel would never scuttle a deal to get Shalit back because of PA objections!

If one is to believe the spin given to the Palestine Papers by The Guardian and Al Jazeera, the PA had no power and Israel ran roughshod over every one of their requests. Yet now Al Jazeera is claiming that the PA had veto power over an issue that is hugely important to Israel and only peripherally related to the negotiations.

Abunimah writes his counter-factual screed to blame the PA for blocking the release of thousands of Hamas prisoners. Yet these same memos show that 198 were released just by the PA asking Israel to do so, and giving nothing in return. (Abunimah calls them "symbolic.")

The release of these papers proves what we have seen time and time again. Conspiracy theorists will spin their stories regardless of facts and common sense, and the PalPapers are simply a treasure trove of new data to be twisted to fit already-existing fantasies.

Abbas rewards family of terrorist

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Earlier this month a Palestinian terrorist attempted to attack an Israeli checkpoint. Carrying two pipe bombs, he ran towards the Israeli soldiers, screaming "Allahu Akbar" - "Allah is Greater" - and was shot and killed before he could detonate the bombs.

Yesterday Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas granted "the relatives of the Shahid" $2000:

"The governor of the Jenin district, Kadura Musa, has awarded a presidential grant to the family of the Shahid (Martyr), Khaldoun Najib Samoudy, during a visit that took place yesterday in the village of Al-Yamoun. The governor noted that the grant is financial aid in the amount of $2000 that the President [Mahmoud Abbas] is awarding to the relatives of the Shahid, who was recently killed as a Martyr at the Hamra checkpoint by the Israeli occupation forces."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah) Jan. 25, 2011]

Syria blocking social networking sites

In 2007, Syria blocked access to the Facebook webpage by its citizens.

Now, in the wake of the Tunisia uprising, they are tightening the ban even more. From Reuters:

Syrian authorities have banned programmes that allow access to Facebook Chat from cellphones, tightening already severe restrictions on the Internet in the wake of the unrest in Tunisia, users said on Wednesday.

Nimbuzz and eBuddy, two programmes that allow access to Facebook Chat and other messaging programmes through a single interface, no longer work in Syria, they said.

"All indicators point downhill after the revolution in Tunisia. The policy of iron censorship has not changed," said Mazen Darwish, head of the Syrian Media and Freedom of Expression Centre, which the authorities closed three years ago.

And in Egypt:

Egyptians had complained Facebook and Twitter and other sites were being blocked and mobile networks disrupted. Egypt's government denied social media websites were disrupted, saying it respected freedom of expression.

Syrians can still access Facebook through proxy servers.