Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Muslims upset at Kotel museum exhibit - in Brooklyn!

The Al Aqsa Foundation has a new outrage to seethe about - a replica of the Kotel in Brooklyn!

The Jewish Children's Museum in Brooklyn showcased a new exhibition to dignitaries and press on Thursday featuring an elaborately detailed replica of the Western Wall standing 12 feet tall and 24 feet wide.

The museum, which is affiliated with Chabad, commissioned a team of artisans to recreate a model of the ancient wall in the heart of Brooklyn to teach children about Judaism.

When the exhibition officially opens on April 1, visitors will be invited to follow the tradition at the Western Wall and place notes with their prayers and wishes in the replica’s cracks and crevices. The notes – or kvitels, as they are called in Yiddish – will be collected once a week by an official at the museum and flown to Israel where a Chabad rabbi will place them in the Western Wall.

The inciters at the Al Aqsa Foundation are livid:

Not only is the Israeli occupation destroying the heritage of of Islamic Jerusalem, using political tools and fraud, but these lies have even reached the United States. A Jewish organization recently established a three-dimensional exhibit attaching great importance to the Wailing Wall, that they call "Jewish", in a private museum in Brooklyn in New York City. The official opening ceremony was attended by the Israeli cabinet minister, and the wall will accept notes of people's wishes, which will be flown on El Al from Brooklyn, to be placed between the stones of the "Western Wall" in Jerusalem.

The Aqsa Foundation says that the establishment of this model which enshrines the myth of "Western Wall" and the templein the United States reflects a frantic effort by the occupation to build a temple at the expense of the Al Aqsa Mosque, stressing that the Wailing Wall is an integral part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and linked to the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - who tethered his animal Buraq in this wall, and that this wall and the square in front of it are purely Islamic; and that the claims of the occupation of a "Western Wall" are just lies and superstitions.

The article includes even more photos than the JPost story does!

And if you think that the Arabs know by now that the Al Aqsa Foundation is just a bunch of raving loons whose weekly predictions of impending Israeli destruction of the mosque have never panned out, you would be wrong.

This incitement is reproduced in dozens of other Arab media, as far away as Kuwait.

Hamas is limiting cooking gas to Gaza too

Not only has Hamas created an electricity crisis in Gaza by refusing diesel fuel from Israel, but they are also now starting to limit the amount of cooking gas in Gaza, a critical commodity.

Israel's COGAT has been supplying about 900 tons of cooking gas a week, but last week that amount went down to 331 tons.

As a result, there were huge lines of people to get cooking gas in recent days - and Hamas blamed Israel.

But it turns out that Hamas is the party restricting the fuel:

Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military's civilian administration, said the Hamas government in Gaza was refusing to accept the full amount of fuel Israel is willing to send.

Inbar said he was aware that the shortages were causing problems in Gaza. "We spoke with senior (Palestinian Authority) people" about increasing the gas shipments. "It all depends on Hamas," he said.

The official said he was not familiar with any new plan to increase gas imports.

Why is Hamas doing this? A Reuters article goes a long way towards explaining it. Hamas has been increasing taxes to pay for its hold on power - and it doesn't get revenue from fuel crossing from Israel:

Traders who import goods from Israel and the West Bank say Hamas authorities have introduced additional fees beyond the usual tax they collect, putting their businesses at risk and threatening the livelihoods of thousands of workers.

Hamas says the increase in levies is meant to protect homegrown products. But local analysts believe the group has been forced to tighten the fiscal screws at home because of a drop in funding from foreign allies, notably Iran.

...
The latest levies follow additional fees slapped on four commodities much in demand that pass from Egypt through a warren of smuggling tunnels; those have been raised to 20 shekels for a ton of cement, 10 shekels for a tonne of gravel, 1.4 shekels for a liter of fuel and 50 shekels for each ton of steel.

"Tunnel owners protested for one day, but in the end they resumed work because the Hamas government rejected their demand to cancel the tax," tunnel owner Abu Islam told Reuters. But he added that some merchants simply canceled their shipments.

The fiscal demands suggests that Hamas, which is spurned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence, is struggling to make ends meet.

According to its opaque 2011 budget, Hamas' budget for Gaza was estimated at $769 million, with revenues raised locally expected to amount to $150 million.

Foreign donations from various allies make up much of the shortfall, with Iran believed to have been the major contributor. But diplomats say Tehran has closed the taps in retaliation at Hamas' refusal to back their embattled ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. Hamas ditched Assad last month, publicly supporting the Syrian revolt.

Western officials say Hamas' need for tax revenues is also at the heart of the ongoing power crisis.

Hamas came to rely heavily on fuel smuggled into Gaza from neighboring Egypt, but Cairo halted the trade in February, apparently annoyed that subsidized diesel earmarked for Egyptians was being siphoned off into Gaza.

Critics say Hamas has refused to diversify its supplies because it was able to impose high levies on the illicit Egyptian oil. Fuel imported legally via Israel is handled by Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which imposes its own levies, preventing Hamas from adding any further surcharges.

"The reason for this crisis is ridiculous and has to do with Hamas insisting on not buying from (Abbas's) Palestinian Authority via Israel," the NGO official said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of her dealings with Hamas.

"When fuel is procured from the tunnels, Hamas implements its own tax system, therefore generating its own revenue."

There have been no street protests over the blackouts because Hamas cracks down on them, but the fury is apparent on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with a barrage of complaint over electricity cuts lasting 18 hours a day.

I have yet to see any international NGO, out of the scores that work in Gaza, publicly condemning Hamas for creating a completely artificial crisis. (One Palestinian Arab NGO's head mentioned it...and got an arrest warrant.) Which just goes to show how much they really prioritize the lives of Gazans when they might lose their own revenue.

Palestinian Arabs whine that they aren't the center of attention

If there is a difference between how Palestinian Arabs have historically acted and how a typical five year old acts, I'd love to know what it is.

“The biggest challenge we face — apart from occupation — is marginalization,” Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said in an interview.

...The result is a serial splintering of the Palestinian movement, a loss of state sponsors and paralysis for those trying to build a state next to Israel. Just six months ago, there was a moment of optimism when the Palestinian Authority presented its case for recognition to the United Nations, and later when Hamas closed a deal to free hundreds of its prisoners in exchange for the release of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

But now, as momentum for a peaceful two-state solution fades, and the effort at the United Nations remains stymied, no viable alternatives have emerged and attention has focused on other conflicts.

Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security at Al Quds University in Jerusalem, said he recently joined dozens of other foreign scholars for a series of lectures on his specialty in the United States. Not a single one mentioned the Palestinian issue.

“I don’t see Palestine on the agenda of the United States or Israel,” he said. “It is on the shelf. The Palestinians don’t have the ability to impose themselves on the world and they can’t mobilize their people. The Arab world is busy. The Palestinians are becoming secondary.”

This fear of being irrelevant is deeply rooted in the Palestinian Arab psyche. When they shoot rockets, they revel in the fact that Israelis are forced to run to shelters - even if there are no casualties - because that shows that they aren't being completely ignored. Their newspapers always have articles that can be roughly translated as, "Look! Someone noticed us!"

It is this immaturity that gives rise to violence. They much prefer war to being ignored, no matter how many casualties they suffer. (It also leads to publicity-friendly stunts like the UN Security Council joke last year.)

And their supposed supporters are sick of their theatrics and unwillingness to grow up. They'll pay lip service but in the end, they don't care that much, and they don't want to be sucked into the Palestinian drama.

Because everyone knows that if the Palestinian Arabs want independence so badly, they could have it tomorrow. Their insistence on what they call "justice" rather than compromise and peace is proof-positive of their immaturity (and an indication of their true goals.) Jews have accepted compromise for peace, or even the chance of peace, since the absurdly one-sided Peel Commission partition plan of 1937. Palestinian Arabs have not.

Their public insistence on an extra 3% of land or whatever, and their willingness to refuse anything but their maximal demands, is not winning them any new friends. And it is causing them to lose their old friends. But like a couple going through a messy divorce, they insist that they get everything they demand, and who cares whether their kids will be hurt for another couple of generations? Their definition of "justice" is more important than mere human lives. And they define "justice" in their own peculiar way where they serve as prosecutor, judge and jury,

Instead of doing something positive, they whine. And complain. And threaten. And do anything they can to become the center of attention again.

Because that's what five year-olds do.

Evidence Iran is hiding nuclear activities at Parchin

From AP:

Satellite images of an Iranian military facility show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the site, indicating that crews were trying to clean it of radioactive traces possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The assertions from the diplomats, all nuclear experts accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, could add to the growing international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.

While the US and the EU are backing a sanctions-heavy approach, Israel has warned that it may resort to a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it from obtaining atomic weapons.

Two of the diplomats said the crews at the Parchin military site may be trying to erase evidence of tests of a small experimental neutron device used to set off a nuclear explosion. A third diplomat could not confirm that but said any attempt to trigger a so-called neutron initiator could only be in the context of trying to develop nuclear arms.

The diplomats said they suspect attempts at sanitization because some of the vehicles at the scene appeared to be haulage trucks and other equipment suited to carting off potentially contaminated soil from the site.

The images, provided by member countries to the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, are recent and constantly updated, one of the diplomats said. The diplomats all asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

The IAEA has already identified Parchin as the location of suspected nuclear weapons-related testing. In a November report, it said it appeared to be the site of experiments with conventional high explosives meant to initiate a nuclear chain reaction.

It did not mention a neutron initiator as part of those tests, but in a separate section cited an unnamed member nation as saying Iran may have experimented with a neutron initiator, without going into detail or naming a location for such work.

In contrast, the intelligence information shared with the AP by the two diplomats linked the high-explosives work directly to setting off a neutron initiator at Parchin.

In explaining such a device, the agency's November report said that "if placed in the center of a nuclear core of an implosion-type nuclear device and compressed, (it) could produce a burst of neutrons suitable for initiating a fission chain reaction."

If Iran did try to trigger a neutron initiator, it would harden international suspicions by adding a nuclear component to a suspected string of experiments linked to weapons development that generally have not included radioactive material.

Iran has previously attempted to clean up sites considered suspicious by world powers worried about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran razed the Lavizan Shian complex in northern Iran before allowing IAEA inspectors to visit the suspected repository of military procured equipment that could be used in a nuclear weapons program. Tehran said the site had been demolished to make way for a park, but inspectors who subsequently came to the site five years ago found traces of uranium enriched to or near the level used in making the core of nuclear warheads.

The Iranians also embarked on an extensive redo at the Kalay-e Electric Co., just west of Tehran, before agency inspectors were given access nine years ago. Although the site was re-painted and otherwise sanitized, samples taken from Kalay-e also showed traces of enriched uranium, though at levels substantially below warhead grade.

Attention most recently focused on Parchin several days ago, when senior IAEA officials first spoke of unexplained activities at the site without saying what they could be and said an inspection of buildings there was taking on added urgency.

One of six diplomats who spoke with the AP said his country continued to reserve judgment on what the movements at the site meant but two others who had seen recent spy satellite imagery said the trucks and other equipment at the site almost certainly showed attempts to clean it of radioactive contamination.

They declined to go into detail but said radioactive traces could also be left by material other than a neutron initiator, such as uranium metal which can be used as a substitute for testing purposes.

IAEA expert teams trying to probe the suspicions of secret weapons work by Iran tried — and failed — twice in recent weeks to get Iranian permission to visit Parchin. Tehran then said on Monday that such a visit would be granted.

But it said that a comprehensive agreement outlining conditions of such an inspection must first be agreed on — a move dismissed by a senior international official familiar with the issue as a delaying tactic. He, too, asked not to be named because the matter was sensitive.

You just know that the Juan Coles of the world are going to fall over themselves to say that there is no hard evidence here, that it is hearsay, that the story is unsourced, that it is not believable. They know Iran is righteous and no circumstantial evidence will change their minds (in public, at least.)

But what this story proves (again!) is that Iran has been actively engaging in hiding critical information from the IAEA, and they have been doing that for years. Which means that Iran has something to hide from a nuclear watchdog agency.

What could they plausibly be so intent on hiding that is innocuous?

Did they design a nuclear-powered bunny rabbit that they are trying to patent? An atomic film making breakthrough that would crush Hollywood?

Or maybe, just maybe, they are working on something a little deadlier?

See also this excellent related piece by Michael Ledeen.

The Shlomones - Good Groggin' (video)

Nice!

Bad (but original) Purim Torah

Q: How do we know that Benjamin Netanyahu is Jewish from the Torah?

A: Jeremiah 36:14: יְהוּדִי בֶּן-נְתַנְיָהוּ

"The Jew, Ben Netanyahu"

Islamist group threatens to kidnap Christian women in Nigeria

From Bikya Masr:

A Nigeria spokesman for the Islamist militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday afternoon that the group has plans to begin kidnapping Christian women in a push to “liquidate” the religious group from the country.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the spokesman said that “we are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women.”

He added that they would not sexually assault or harm the women, “but we will demand as ransom that the families leave our Islamic areas.”

The spokesman did not elaborate on when or how this new “campaign of terror” would take place, but it is striking fears in many Christians in the country.

“Kidnapping is very serious and dangerous. After all the bombings and violence, I don’t know what we would do,” Markos, a Christian living in Lagos, told Bikyamasr.com.

According to the same spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria on Sunday, the group “will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”

Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.

Muslim states walk out of UN debate on gay rights

From AFP:

African and Arab states walked out in protest Wednesday during a U.N. Human Rights Council debate on gay rights, saying that they could not legitimize homosexuality.

The 47-member state council was holding a session on sexual orientation-based discrimination for the first time after a historic resolution seeking equal rights for everyone was passed in June 2011, to the consternation of Muslim states.

On Wednesday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab group and the African group made their opposition clear, by walking out during the meeting.

“Licentious behavior promoted under the concept of ‘sexual orientation’ is against the fundamental teachings of various religions including Islam,” Pakistan’s envoy said.

“From this perspective, legitimizing homosexuality and other personal sexual behaviors in the name of sexual orientation is unacceptable to the OIC,” he added.

WaPo adds:

On Wednesday the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva is to discuss the recommendations of a November report surveying the discrimination and abuse — often state-sponsored — that gay people endure around the world. Even those who disapprove of homosexuality on religious grounds are unlikely to object to the report’s anodyne recommendations: that governments should decriminalize homosexuality, work to prevent violence against gays and recognize sexual orientation as a valid cause for asylum.

But not everyone welcomes the report’s conclusions. The most vociferous opposition has come from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a group of 57 Muslim states. “We note with concern the attempts to create controversial ‘new notions’ or ‘new standards’ by misinterpreting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international treaties to include such notions that were never articulated or agreed to by the U.N. membership,” Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.N. office in Geneva, wrote to the president of the Human Rights Council on the Muslim organization’s behalf.

Notice how the AFP report refers to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as "African and Arab states." Which isn't even accurate, as there are some members of the OIC that are neither - like Iran and Pakistan. But AFP would never put the word "Islamic" in the first paragraph of an article like this.

An amazing day for rhinoplasty stories

From CNN:

A lie and a nose job may cost an Egyptian politician his spot in parliament.

Anwar al-Bilkimy, a newly elected legislator, was forced to resign from the ultra-conservative al-Nour Party after lying about having plastic surgery, Ahmed Khalil, a party spokesman said late Monday.

Black and blue from his rhinoplasty, al-Bilkimy told parliamentarians that his face was bandaged because gunmen attacked him after he refused to get out of his car, Khalil said.

Suspicious, the al-Nour Party, who's hardline creed forbids plastic surgeries, formed a committee to investigate his story and found out that he had lied, a party statement said.

Al-Balkimy checked into Cairo's Selmi hospital on February 28 for plastic surgery on his nose and the next day checked into another hospital, where doctors said he claimed to have been beaten by gunmen, Egyptian media reported.

"Based on what the hospital officials said, we decided to expel him from the party, and so he submitted his resignation," a statement on al-Nour's official Facebook page said.

Which brings up perhaps the only rocking music video about nose jobs by a band with a frontman who wears a kippah, with a band name appropriate for the day:

I love all the Groggers songs I've heard so far.

(h/t Muqata)

Hamas denies report; says it would hit Israel if Iran is attacked

BBC reported earlier today:

Leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, say they will not help Iran militarily in any conflict between Israel and the Islamic Republic.

There is speculation in Israel that if it attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, it could face rocket fire from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Both are long-time allies of Iran.

But Mahmoud Zahhar, a senior leader of Hamas in Gaza, denied the group would get involved and told the BBC: "We are not part of any political axis."

"If Israel attacks us we will respond. If they don't, we will not get involved in any other regional conflict," he added.

Mr Zahhar questioned Hamas's ability to offer support from the Palestinian territory to the south of Israel, even if it wanted to.

"Don't exaggerate our power. We are still suffering from the occupation, the siege and two wars in recent years," he said.

But Iran's FARS quotes Zahar as saying the opposite:

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior official of the Palestinian Hamas movement, strongly rejected a recent BBC report which quoted him as saying that Hamas would take no action in case of an Israeli invasion of Iran, and warned that any Israel or US attack on Iran will be reciprocated by Hamas's crushing response to the Zionists.

BBC Persian's website alleged in a report on Wednesday that the No. 2 Hamas official in the Gaza Strip has assured that his movement would not take any action in the face of an Israeli attack on Iran.

Al-Zahar strongly rejected the BBC claim as unfounded and a lie.

"Retaliation with utmost power is the position of Hamas with regard to a Zionist war on Iran," Zahar told FNA on Wednesday afternoon.

Zahar rejected the possibility of any Israeli aggression against Iran, but meantime, reiterated that Hamas will give a crushing response to not only the Zionists but also to "whoever helping them" in such an attack.

Who is more likely to be lying: The BBC, Mahmoud Zahar or Iran's FARS news agency?

That's a tough one.