Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Did a Gaza rocket terrorist blow himself up this morning?

GANSO has an intriguing message on its site:

I saw nothing about any Israeli airstrike in Gaza last night, so this sounds like a terrorist tried to shoot a rocket to Israel and it blew up on him.

UPDATE: The Arabic version indicates two separate incidents; the "operative" was killed by an unknown gunman in Rafah. (h/t GH)

Sinai Bedouin claim Israel sent them jeans that caused infertility

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a debate on the "invasion" of Israeli products into Sinai, which aired on Egyptian Dream2 TV on February 1, 2012:

Muhammad Al-Mane'i, Sinai Bedouin: There was a time when they would bring us jeans. These pants used to have belts. If you looked at these belts from the front, you'd find a secret compartment, and when you opened it, you would find a magnet inside. When we asked what these magnets were, we were told that they cause sterility.

Interviewer: In other words, it causes infertility.

Muhammad Al-Mane'i: Exactly.

Interviewer: There was a time when these jeans with belts would invade us from Israel, and we used to take the magnets out and chuck them away.

[…]

Interviewer: Israeli products contain lethal poison. You might not feel this poison now, but you will in the future. Israel will remain an enemy lying in wait for Egypt, no matter what happens and regardless of the agreements, because Israel has its eye set on Egypt.

With all these great Israeli inventions that painlessly cause sterility in men, why do people still get vasectomies?

The Palestinian refugees of 1936 were...Jews

Here are photos of Jewish houses in Tel Aviv destroyed by Arabs of Jaffa at the outbreak of the "non-violent" riots in 1936:

Thousands of Jews were forced to flee their homes:

Some Jews were forced to move their belongings to a public park in Tel Aviv:

Here is a refugee camp near Rishon LeZion for the Jews who lost their homes during the riots.

All these photos were done by Zoltan Kluger.

I found them at this Israeli photo archive website that just became public - although the website was created in 1998, and it shows.

Palestine Today reports that Gazans are starting to panic over rumors of new, onerous taxes to be imposed by Hamas on consumer goods and construction materials being smuggled in through the tunnels.

Vendors are not raising prices yet but some consumers are starting to buy good now ahead of time.

Hamas authorities denied the rumors, saying that they are only imposing taxes on imports of goods that are also locally manufactured, in order to protect the local markets.

Indian authorities arrest Chabad couple for "spying"

From The Times of India:

An Israeli couple who came to the city on March 3, 2010, will be deported for "suspicious activities". Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi came on a multiple-entry visa and rented a house on Rose Street, Fort Kochi, for Rs 50,000 per month, far higher than the market rate.

"Central intelligence got an alert about a covert operation being carried out by suspected Israeli agents after the 26/11 terror attacks in which south Mumbai's Chabad House came under attack and six Jews, including a Rabbi and his pregnant wife, were killed. A communication was sent to all states and it was our wing in Kerala that traced this couple at Fort Kochi," an intelligence officer here said.

Indian agencies will question two suspected Israeli agents before they are deported. "We have traced the couple's financial transactions. Preliminary investigations suggest similar Israelis are camping in various parts of the country," an official said.

In their report, the state intelligence department said a group of people turned up at the couple's rented house regularly and held meetings.

"These meetings lasted for hours in the night. They were under close surveillance".

The deportation order was slapped on Zalman and Shenoi last Monday after undercover Kerala Police officers tracked them for a year, questioned them and filed a report to Ernakulam collector P I Sheik Pareeth.

Fort Kochi is a major hub for foreign tourists next to the neighbourhood of Mattancherry, famous for its Jew Town. This is the historical part of town where Jews set up their first trading outpost centuries ago and built the country's oldest synagogue in 1568.

"A monthly rent of Rs 50,000 is disproportionately high, even in Fort Kochi. This is one of the main factors that made us suspicious," the intelligence source said. "They have been in the country from March 3, 2010. When their visas expired on March 3 last year, they went out and returned on April 1, 2011 on a new visa."

From JPost and YNet:

Chabad emissaries in the southern Indian city of Kochi on Tuesday vehemently denied a report that appeared in local media earlier in the day accusing them of being part of an Israeli covert operation.

Rabbi Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi told The Jerusalem Post they were stunned by a story run by the Times of India in which unnamed Indian security officials said they were secret Israeli agents that would soon be deported from the country.

“I was invited here by the Jewish community of Kochi with the full knowledge of local authorities,” said Zalman, a 27-year-old rabbi from Jerusalem. “I have no idea how they got the impression I was part of a Mossad operation.”

He said he and Shenoi ran an outreach center catering to Jewish travelers in the popular tourist destination as well as to the city’s remaining 50 Jews, part of a once much larger community whose origins date back to the 16th century. Zalman insisted their sole motivation for being in the country was to provide religious services to local members of the Jewish community and had nothing to do with Israel.

Shenoi speculated the report might be related to an upcoming hearing on their visa status but said she was unaware of claims they were Israeli agents before the story appeared.

The report said the couple also aroused suspicions when people arrived at their home for late-night meetings. "It's pretty strange," Yaffa said, "apparently the report is talking about Shabbat dinners with Israelis and local Jews."

Addressing the high rent, the Israeli woman said, "This is a large house that is designated for Chabad activities. It only costs $1,000 a month – not an insane amount. Local police spoke to us a few times and asked that we do not hold large gathering in the house; nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course, any Jew who knows the slightest bit about the religion would know that someone named "Shneor Zalman" is from Chabad.

Syria update: Assad interview notes hacked; wife defends him; hundreds more dead (UPDATE)

From Ha'aretz:

Hundreds of emails from Syrian President Bashar Assad's office were leaked on Monday after an attack by the hacker group Anonymous. One of the email files, which Haaretz has obtained, was a document preparing Assad for his December 2011 interview with ABC's Barbara Walters.

Assad's TV interview with Walters was memorable for his repeated denials that Syrian citizens were being killed. "We don't kill our people ... no government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person," Assad told Walters.

About 10 days before the interview, Sheherazad Jaafari - a press attache at the Syrian mission to the United Nations - sent a long email to former Al Jazeera journalist Luna Chebel, who now works in Assad's bureau. She also sent the email to an aide of Shaaban's. Jaafari, who was involved in arranging the interview with Walters, also happens to be the daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar Jaafari.

Jaafari Jr. wrote: "The major points and dimensions that have been mentioned a lot in the American media are: The idea of violence has been one of the major subjects brought up in every article. They use the phrases 'The Syrian government is killing its own people,' 'Tanks have been used in many cities,' 'Airplanes have been used to suppress the peaceful demonstrations,' and 'Security forces are criminals and bloody.'"

She advised: "It is hugely important and worth mentioning that 'mistakes' have been done in the beginning of the crises because we did not have a well-organized 'police force.' American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are 'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it.' It's worth mentioning also what is happening now in Wall Street and the way the demonstrations are been suppressed by policemen, police dogs and beatings."

Jaafari also recommended that Assad say: "Syria doesn't have a policy to torture people, unlike the USA, where there are courses and schools that specialize in teaching policemen and officers how to torture."She advised using Abu Ghraib in Iraq or execution via electric chair as more examples.

She added that that mentioning the talkbacks on articles in the American media are a useful tool, saying that "the Americans are asking their government to stop interfering in other countries' business and sovereignty and to start taking care of American internal issues."

"It is worth mentioning that when Obama asked H.E. to step down he himself have had a 70% decrease of his popularity in the States," Jaafari wrote.

"It would be worth mentioning how your personality has been attacked and praised in the last decade according to the media. At one point H.E. was viewed as a hero and in other times H.E. was the 'bad guy'. Americans love these kinds of things get convinced by it."

Jaafari also stressed that Facebook and YouTube are important to "the American mindset" and advised to mention that "the face that Facebook and YouTube are open now – especially during the crisis – is important."

Assad's wife, who was famously profiled along with her wonderful dictator husband in the Vogue puff-piece a year ago, has now come out publicly in support of the regime:

The British-born wife of Syria’s president has spoken in support of her husband for the first time since the 11-month uprising against his regime began, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

“The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role,” The Times quoted Asma al-Assad as saying in an email sent via an intermediary from her office.

The email is her first communication with the international media since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began, The Times said.

“The First Lady’s very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has long been involved with and rural development as well as supporting the President as needed,” the email reportedly continued.

“These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.” it added.

Stylish and charismatic and with a degree from King’s College in London where she was raised, the former investment banker had helped promote the soft side of an iron-fisted regime.

Meanwhile:

Heavy bombardment of the Syrian city of Homs resumed on Tuesday after violence in Syria killed as many as 128 people as Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov started a visit to Damascus.

“The bombardment is again concentrating on Bab Amro. A doctor tried to get in there this morning but I heard he was wounded,” Mohammad al-Hassan, an activist in Homs, told Reuters by satellite phone.

“There is no electricity and all communications with the neighborhood has been cut,” he added.

Monday’s deaths included 19 children and 15 women. At least 61 people have been killed in Homs alone, as the neighborhoods of Bayyada, Ensha’at and Bab Amro are still bombarded by all kinds of rockets and mortar shells, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists.

A member of the main opposition Syrian National Council said Assad’s forces killed scores of people people in a sustained bombardment of Homs, a center of armed opposition to his rule, two days after activists reported more than 200 people were killed in shelling.

A resident of Homs told AFP the latest assault began shortly after 0400 GMT Monday, with unprecedented barrages of rockets, mortar rounds and artillery shells.

“What is happening is horrible, it’s beyond belief,” said activist Omar Shaker, reached by telephone as loud detonations were heard in the background.

“There is nowhere to take shelter, nowhere to hide,” he said. “We are running short of medical supplies and we are only able to provide basic treatment to the injured.”

One video posted on YouTube apparently showed a field hospital hit by shelling in the Baba Amro district and wounded patients lying on stretchers on the floor amid pools of blood and shattered glass.

Footage shot by a BBC undercover team in Homs showed buildings ablaze in rebel neighborhoods as they were pounded with heavy weapons.

UPDATE: Speaking of Asma Assad, you can check out her hypocrisy here:
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/02/07/asma-assad-stand-by-your-man/

(h/t Yair)

Fatah Facebook page glorifies 1975 Savoy Hotel terrorists

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Fatah has chosen to use its official Facebook page to glorify terrorists.

Fatah's page currently displays a poster with the pictures of 8 terrorists who carried out a terror attack on the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv in 1975, that was posted by the Fatah administrator.

8 Israeli civilians and 3 soldiers were killed in the attack.

Text on poster:
"The Tel Aviv operation, March 6, 1975 ; The Palestinian passage to the homeland"

The text under each terrorist's picture reads:
"The heroic Shahid (Martyr)" followed by the terrorist's name.

This is the official Fatah Facebook page as announced in PalArab media on February 1.

The Fatah terrorists arrived by sea from Lebanon. They had intended to attack a different target, but they got lost and chose this hotel because it was the only building lit up on the street.

The dead included two Swiss, a German, a Somali and a teenage boy from the Netherlands. The Fatah terrorists set off explosive charges when Israeli forces raided the hotel; one Fatah member survived and initially claimed to have come from Egypt (in order to frustrate any peace agreement between Israel and Egypt) before admitting that they came from Lebanon.

Fatah took responsibility, saying that they wanted Israel to release some 10 terrorists from prison.

These are the heroes of today's "moderate" Fatah.

Iranian government websites give religious approval for destroying Israel

From WND:

The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.

The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide. [I did not see the part about "Jewish people worldwide" - EoZ.]

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a “‘jurisprudential justification” to kill all the Jews [see above] and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, an analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues.

On Friday, in a major speech at prayers, Khamenei announced that Iran will support any nation or group that attacks the “cancerous tumor” of Israel. Though his statement was seen by some in the West as fluff, there is substance behind it.

Iran’s Defense Ministry announced this weekend that it test-fired an advanced two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile and boasted about successfully putting a new satellite into orbit, reminding the West that its engineers have mastered the technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles even as the Islamic state pushes its nuclear weapons program.

Google's Farsi translation is not quite as good as its Arabic, but this is what I could puzzle out.

The article quotes Ayatollah Khomeini (possibly current leader Khamenei) saying that the destruction of Israel is necessary, as it is a cancer in the Middle East. All Muslims are obligated to fight Israel.

It goes into a legal discussion of the difference between regular jihad and defensive jihad. While primary jihad may require the blessing of the Hidden Imam, defensive jihad does not. The author defines the obligation to fight Israel as defensive jihad because Israel controls Muslim holy places as well as because Israel instills fear in Muslims.

If I am reading it right, he is saying that any Israeli action would be justification to destroy Israel.

The article goes into detail as to which targets it would attack, from nuclear facilities to railways to airports and utilities, water and sanitation.

After going through the various kinds of missiles Iran has, the article claims that Iran can destroy Israel in less than 9 minutes. It claims that one of its rockets can reach Israel in less than 14 minutes and that anti-missile batteries would be ineffective.

The Alef article includes maps showing where they say Israeli airbases are, as well as the range of their rockets:

Arutz-7 has what might be a more accurate representation of the article; I'm being pretty conservative.

UPDATE: MEMRI translated it.

Israel is not turning into an Iranian-style theocracy (TNR)

A nice article in TNR by Gil Troy that explains how "ultra-Orthodox" Jews fit into Israeli society, and it is not nearly as black and white as people like to think:

The demonizing of Israel, dismissing the democratic Jewish state as a right-wing, religious, racist project, continues. The latest storyline describes ultra-Orthodox Israelis—known in Hebrew as haredim—as medieval Neanderthals rapidly converting Israel into an Iran-style theocracy. This popular caricature encourages those liberals seeking excuses to stop supporting Israel. The appalling images of bearded, black-hatted zealots spitting on eight-year-olds, forcing women to the back of public buses, and parading their children with yellow stars in protest, are all being read as tea leaves predicting Israel’s imminent degeneration into Haredistan. But what if the opposite is true? Haredi rampages seem more like impotent attempts to build a firewall against modernity than harbingers of conquest.

Change is coming to a community defined by its rejection of change. Haredim are joining Israeli society. Haredi vocational programs are proliferating, as government generosity wanes. Over 3000 haredi soldiers have now served in Israel’s army, including a combat-ready unit. Many haredi women, who increasingly are highly educated and working, are demanding more respect while continuing to maintain gender distinctions. The debate about television and internet usage is intensifying, as modern popular culture seeps into the society, which is not hermetically sealed.

While haredi triumphalists emphasize their high birthrate, the outflow of the last two centuries since the Enlightenment continues. Though statistics are elusive, communal anxiety abounds about the apostates. Most haredim, while denying the hemorrhaging, have close relatives who are no longer haredi. The deserters are numerous enough to have inspired a television drama series: Simanei She’eilah (question marks), which tracks the stories of haredi runaways living in a Tel Aviv halfway house, debuted last year.

The Zaka organization provides the most dramatic—and inspiring—example of haredi engagement with Israeli society. Zaka became famous during the second intifada, dispatching ultra-Orthodox crews who cleaned up the spilled blood and pieces of flesh strewn about after bombings. Their reverence and thoroughness impressed normally hostile secular Israelis. Zaka’s heroism, along with the suicide bombings in haredi neighborhoods, reminded all Israelis of their shared destiny. Today, more than 1500 Zaka volunteers nationwide serve in ambulances and participate in search and rescue operations. A Zaka team in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake worked through the Sabbath, saving lives.

... Noah Efron, a Bar Ilan University philosopher and historian, has explored the ingrained prejudice and popular revulsion against haredim. “The Jewish fight against ultra-Orthodoxy is part of a long-running struggle about what legitimately counts as Jewish,” Professor Efron says. “The modern forms of Judaism have so won the day that this need to continue fighting the battle seems neurotic.” Nevertheless, emphasizing the bad behavior of haredi Jews—who epitomize the stereotypical Jew—makes modern Jews and non-Jews feel better, less judged, suggesting that “these ostensibly superior Jews are actually inferior,” Efron says. “We continually prove our own probity to ourselves by proving the depravity of those people.”

More broadly, these stories provoke secular Westerners’ condescension toward religious people. Reading many of the American and European blogs about the haredi tensions this winter, Efron has been “stunned” by “the depths of the hatred and the crassness of the arguments. The attacks reflect a toxic mix of old style anti-Semitism and contemporary anti-Zionism, with a new style modern anti-anything-that-is-not-secular-liberal-and-Western added.”

Haredim—and their leaders—are, of course, partly responsible for the broad anger against them. Many lack civic spirit. Few serve in the army. The separation of women often entails inequality. Their politicians exploit Israel’s fragmented coalition-governing system. A culture of lawlessness has grown in many communities, and their holier-than-thou attitude toward fellow citizens rankles.

Nevertheless, even in Bet Shemesh, the town where the haredi men spat on the eight-year-old schoolgirl, the true story is more complex than headlines suggest. “Haredi residents are furious at the recent developments and resent that they are being blamed for the acts of a tiny minority,” the haredi paper, HaModia reported. This doesn’t excuse haredi leaders: In a hierarchical community that grants rabbis so much power, the rabbis must do a better job of restraining the bullies. But as Rabbi Yeshaya Ehrenreich, a member of the Beit Shemesh City Council, told the newspaper, “The haredim who live in the same neighborhoods as these [fringe elements] suffer more than anyone else.”

This video from Aish, although a bit corny, seems appropriate:

(h/t Seth Mandel, SwissYankee)

The enemy of my enemy is sometimes anything but a friend

From Now Lebanon:

Russia, China and Iran are complicit in a "massacre" being carried out by regime forces in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood charged on Monday.

"We consider Russia, China and Iran as direct accomplices to the horrible massacre being carried out against our people," the group, which is banned in Syria, said in a statement issued from London.

It accused the three countries of supplying weapons and equipment to the embattled regime in Damascus, which is seeking to put down an 11-month revolt.

By doing so, the Brotherhood said, they were "directly participating in the massacre of our defenseless people."

The MB even called for a boycott of Russian and Chinese goods:

A major Islamic Movement called for boycotting the Russian and Chinese goods in protest of their veto of a Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis, a statement issued on Sunday at the movement official website stated.

In Jordan , Muslim Brotherhood’s leader Hammam Saeed accused Russia and China of participating in killing, and crackdown the Syrian people uprising.

“Russia and China decision should not pass without a popular action against their supportive policies with the Syrian regime against civilians” the statement stated.

The Islamists knows that if Syria falls, they are the the ones to fill in the power vacuum, just as they did in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

And their strategy is to eventually link up into one large Islamist 'ummah that will drive Christians from the Middle East altogether.

Things will get a lot messier in the coming years.

Would Hezbollah attack Israel to aid Syria?

From Naharnet:

Lebanon must not hesitate in supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, because backing it has major “strategic and fateful” repercussions, sources close to Hizbullah told the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.

They said: “Hizbullah will not allow the fall of the Assad regime even if it means launching a war with Israel.”

This position echoed Israeli fears that a war with the party may be ignited in order to divert attention from the current developments in Syria, said the newspaper.

The Israeli leadership is mulling “the need to issue an open threat to Hizbullah as part of a wider strategy adopted by the Israeli government.”

“This strategy aims at deterring Hizbullah and Iran from carrying out any attack against Israeli targets,” stated several sources, including the Jerusalem Post.

The Hizbullah sources did not rule out the possibility of “surprises emerging, aimed at turning attention away from the Syrian crisis.”

“Should such a surprise take place, it would shift the international community’s priorities in the region,” they stressed.

But Nasrallah has been more on the fence as Syria totters:

On January 14, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said that Lebanon should disavow itself from developments in Syria as the crisis will have negative repercussions on the situation locally.

“We call on the Syrian opposition to abide by Assad’s demands to engage in dialogue and cooperate with him to introduce reform that would resolve the country’s problems,” he stated.

During a speech in December, he voiced his support for the Syrian regime, while saying that his party backs reform and efforts to eradicate corruption in the neighboring country.

Nasrallah stressed, however, that “some people want to destroy Syria,” they reject dialogue, and they seek to “compensate their loss in Iraq.”

In general, I don't trust Kuwaiti newspapers when they quote anonymous sources - they often simply make things up.

I have no doubt that Hezbollah will work behind the scenes to ensure Assad's hold on power stays indefinitely. I also have no doubt that Nasrallah is trying to acquire whatever weapons he can get from Syria before it might fall. But Nasrallah is not stupid, and he knows that openly supporting Assad - or even launching an attack that is transparently meant to distract the world from Syria - would backfire on his own position in Lebanon.

(h/t Dan)