Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, September 15, 2012

PLO whines it is not the center of attention in the West

The Muslim world is engaging in deadly riots against Western targets, and the PLO is jealous that the media is not focused on them - and only them:

PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat met on Thursday with ambassadors from Europe, the US and Japan on the 19th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Erekat said Israel had been occupying Palestine since 1967, "and this is considered an offense to humanity. Israeli authorities have signed many agreements, and never committed to them."

In a statement, he called the occupation a main source of violence and chaos in the Mideast.

Yup. All the rioters in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain and elsewhere are really upset over - the "occupation."

But Erekat did talk about the idiotic Mohammed video, in typically bombastic terms:

Separately, Erekat addressed the growing outrage over an anti-Muslim video clip apparently produced in the United States.

"All abuses and attempts against Islam cannot be justified by freedom of expression. The real names for such abuses and attacks are 'racist,' 'terrorist,' and 'fascist,'" Erekat said.

Now, which is worse: a stupid video no one saw until Muslims broadcast it on their TV, or the now-daily explicit anti-semitism and incitement in the Arab media that are read by hundreds of thousands?

And why is it that not a single Western journalist is smart enough to ask Erekat the liar such a simple question?

Saturday night links - and lots of them

From Ian:

LATMA: Post chronological Islamic history and a Rosh Hashana greeting (very funny Judith Butler skit)

Israel’s window for action against Iran ‘is getting much smaller,’ says Ambassador Oren

‘The issue is not whether we trust the US,’ says Israel’s envoy to Washington. ‘The issue is our responsibility as a sovereign Jewish state
"In a telephone interview from his Washington offices on Thursday, Oren — a former paratrooper who fought in the 1982 Lebanon War; author of “Six Days of War” and other highly regarded works of history; and now three years into the post of ambassador — was at his diplomatically polished best."

The abandonment by Charles Krauthammer

“The Obama policy is in shambles. Which is why Cordesman argues that the only way to prevent a nuclear Iran without war is to establish a credible military threat to make Iran recalculate and reconsider. That means U.S. red lines: deadlines beyond which Washington will not allow itself to be strung, as well as benchmark actions that would trigger a response, such as the further hardening of Iran’s nuclear facilities to the point of invulnerability and, therefore, irreversibility.”
"This is beyond feckless. The Obama policy is a double game: a rhetorical commitment to stopping Iran, yet real-life actions that everyone understands will allow Iran to go nuclear.
Yet at the same time that it does nothing, the administration warns Israel sternly, repeatedly, publicly, even threateningly not to strike the Iranian nuclear program. With zero prospect of his policy succeeding, Obama insists on Israeli inaction, even as Iran races to close the window of opportunity for any successful attack.”

Palestinians Have Launched 9,000 Rockets at Israel Since Gaza Pullout

IDF Poster: These are our neighbours

Gunmen attack Sinai HQ of MFO peacekeeping force, four injured

Islamist gunmen burst through perimeter fencing, firing heavily, bring down observation towers; Egyptian troops arrive to try to restore order
"The headquarters of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai was attacked on Friday night by dozens of Bedouin Salafi gunmen, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported.
Dozens of gunmen, in some 50 vehicles, surrounded the base and then 60-70 of them burst in, storming into the base amid heavy gunfire."

BBC is full of liberals afraid to mock Islam (says veteran of the BBC)

"A respected BBC broadcaster has claimed television is dominated by ‘liberal sceptical humanists’ who laugh at Christianity but are afraid to mock Islam.
Roger Bolton, a former editor of Panorama, said an obsession with human rights over religious beliefs had left corporation bosses out of touch with the public."

Riot News:
Australia: Arrests made after police officers injured at anti-Islamic film protest in Sydney CBD
Syndey Riots Video

Rabbi Says Media Must Answer If Reports That Jews Made Anti-Islamic Movie Aren't True

He calls the spreading of false information "blood libel," which could result in more violence against Jewish people.

The eight dumbest things said about free speech this week

CNN Ignores Real Goal of Cairo Riots: Freedom of Blind Sheik

Obama Covers Posterior, Suddenly Complies With War Powers Resolution

Israel a ‘prisoner’s paradise,’ says American cable series

MSNBC’s ‘Lockup: World Tour’ visits the Jewish State and passes an encouraging verdict
"Not only does Israel maintain fewer prisoners per capita than most Western countries, but released inmates achieve high levels of reintegration into society. Recidivism rates in the US and Europe hover at 75%, with rates in Israel as much as 20% lower. Israeli prisons themselves are less crowded than in most countries, in part due to the release of thousands of Palestinian “security” prisoners in recent years.
A thread running through Lockup’s Israeli prison interviews is the ability of education, skills-development and job placement to prevent repeat offenses."

With neurotechnology, the lame don’t just walk — they race

Neurotech, the science of putting together man and machine, is set to be the next big breakthrough area for Israeli technology
"How was she able to finish the marathon — or for that matter, even walk? Lomas was able to accomplish her feat thanks to a special hi-tech walking brace suit, called the ReWalk, made by Israeli company Argo Medical Technologies. Lomas’ accomplishment is notable not just for itself; it also sheds light on what has until been on less well-known area of Israeli activity in life sciences, neuroscience and neurotechnology."

From Zvi:

Forbes: From Startup to Brain Nation

"Israeli President Shimon Peres,89, has a vision: position Israel not only as the “Startup Nation,” but also as the Brain Nation. “There is no doubt that brain research in the next decade will revolutionize our lives and impact such major domains as medicine, education, computing, and the human mind, to name but some. Moreover, it will not only relieve the suffering of patients of such debilitating diseases as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, but it will also engender large economic rewards as well.”"
It's really nice to see incredibly talented people working together on an ambitious dream.

SingTel: Israel "part of our golden plans"

(and he's clearly very serious about this)

"Southeast Asia's largest telco SingTel is eyeing investments and partnerships in Israel, especially in the multimedia space, as part of its ongoing transformation to diversify from its core carriage business to becoming a provider of ICT services....He pointed out that the telco had set up a S$200 million (US$163 million) venture capital fund, Innov8, in 2010, which it could tap on to invest in startups...."For many of these people in emerging markets, the only way advertisers have access to them is through mobilephones," he pointed out to ZDNet Asia in an earlier report, referring to how people in such countries were more likely to own handsets than own television sets or consume media through other forms."

Confused half-truths, projections of Palestinian tendencies onto Israel and twisted caricatures by the Chairman of the Pal Encyclopedia

He got a few things right about the intense debate and a few things right about the history, but what is striking is how little the author understands Israel, its culture, its people, its history, its leaders and its reality. And yet he feels comfortable "teaching" people his completely nonsensical version of reality.

And of course, toward the end, he throws in a pile of complete balderdash in which he blames Haredi soldiers for the purported killing of Palestinian civilians, after he claims that rabbinic councils have called for such (another complete fiction).

OECD: Israel has 2nd highest percentage of people attending higher education

"Israel has the second-highest percentage of 25 to 64-year-old people attending higher education among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states, according to a just-released report."

What?!? Those "evil" Israelis didn't kill him?

"A deaf Lebanese boy who crossed the barbed wire fence into Israel was handed over to U.N. peacekeepers Friday.
Security sources said 10-year-old Mohammad Hasan Fadel Jawad had crossed the barbed wire fence facing the southern Lebanese village of Rmeish Thursday afternoon.
They said Israel handed over the boy to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at the border town of Naqoura Friday morning.
UNIFIL in turn handed the boy over to the Lebanese Army, who returned him to his parents in the border town of Aita al-Shaab."

Lebanese newspaper editor goes on anti-semitic diatribe

Charles Ayoub is the editor of the Lebanese newspaper al-Diyar and is known to be close to Hezbollah and Syria.

But his latest article, about the absurd Mohammed video, is pure Jew-hatred. He doesn't even try to pretend to be anti-Zionist - he hangs his Jew-hate right out there, proudly.

In this article, he says Jews want to divide Muslims from Christians so Jews can control both of them. He says 400 Jews disembarked off the airplane that eventually was bombed over Lockerbie. He says Moammar Gaddafi, his sons and his mistresses were Jewish, and that's why he sent arms to Lebanon to keep the civil war going.

And, of course, he says all the Jews didn't come to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

According to Ayoub, Jews control both the United States and Russia.

The stupid Mohammed video? It wasn't released to coincide with 9/11. No, the Jews who (naturally) made the movie to cause a rift between Christians and Muslims released it right before the Pope was to visit Lebanon, in order to cause internal strife! The film's purpose is to incite Muslims to attack Christians while the Pope is there.

So diabolical!

There has been a definite uptick in explicit anti-semitism in the Arabic media in the past few months. It is starting to become as acceptable as it was in the days before MEMRI and the Web when Arabs didn't pretend to distinguish between Jews and Zionists. Usually, Arab anti-semites would hide their caricatures of big-nosed, black-hatted Jews by labeling them "Zionists" or they would claim that "Zionists" controlled the banks and the media, and so forth.

And even though it was a joke, it revealed that they were at least embarrassed to admit that they really hated Jews. That embarrassment seems to be melting away.

Only in the past week we saw explicitly anti-Jewish vitriol and incitement in Egyptian and Jordanian newspapers.

As far as I can tell, there has been no pushback against these articles in the Arab media or in talkbacks.

Saudi vice cop gets beaten

Haven't done one of these for a while....

Two Saudi men and a woman allegedly beat up a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) on Wednesday night after he caught one of their female relatives with an Arab man in a state of khulwa (seclusion) inside a car.

The girl, who managed to escape the scene afterward, called for help from her family after the Hai’a officer caught the couple.

Lt. Col. Zaki Al-Rehaili, spokesman for Makkah police, said the victim sustained a fractured skull when he was hit with a stone by one of the assailants.

Must be the occupation.

Friday links

From Ian:

A "Palestinian Spring": A Renewed Fatah Bid to Remove Fayyad by Khaled Abu Toameh

"Palestinians noticed that in many cities, Fatah activists were organizing and leading the anti-Fayyad protests. Palestinian Security forces had been instructed not to prevent the protesters from burning posters and effigies of Fayyad."

A cynical view of Middle East democracy -- One person, one vote, one time?

The latest rampages following the "Innocence of Muslims" film do not augur well for the future of MidEast democracy
"Am I being overly cynical? Tell me after we see what action Libya takes against the murderers of the US ambassador and after we see how hard President Mursi cracks down on the demonstrators, feverish over a 13 minute film trailer. And finally, tell me when we see if either regime (or any of the others) allows any significant political opponents to arise who could defeat them in future democratic elections – if they ever take place.
How long did democracy last in Gaza before political opponents were tortured and thrown off buildings? How many opposition parties are there in the West Bank – outside prison, that is? Yup - one person, one vote, and only one time."

Myths and realities: Israel and the refugee problem

"The Palestinians' so-called leaders are busy selling their "narrative", but let's call a spade a spade – their narrative is nothing but propaganda, full of half-truths, omissions and outright lies and it's built on the tears of the crimes the Arab world committed against 850,000 Arab-Jewish (*) refugees and continues to commit against the 5,000,000, downtrodden Palestinian pawns."
(* Jews from Arab countries would be better)

Irish Times: State did nothing to save Jews, says Shatter

THE GOVERNMENT in the 1940s did nothing to oppose the extermination of the Jews in Europe, Minister for Justice and Defence Alan Shatter said yesterday.
"He also warned that the international community today had to stand up to those such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran who not only denied the Holocaust but were actively seeking to destroy the state of Israel.
Opening a conference to mark the centenary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved more than 50,000 Hungarian Jews from the death camps, the Minister said there were many who did nothing in the face of the industrialised genocide and destruction of European Jewish civilisation."

UN Watch: Hillel Neuer: New UN human rights official is a hero to Holocaust deniers

"De Zayas is not a Holocaust denier. But he is a hero to them. His publications and lectures are promoted on websites such as “Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust.” It’s easy to see why.
One of his key themes is that hardly any Germans knew what was happening to their Jewish compatriots."

MEMRI Cartoon in PA daily shows Israel as a knife slitting Jerusalem’s throat?

Israel urges world boycott of Ahmadinejad speech to the UN

UN envoy Ron Prosor: ‘Iran’s nuclear program is like an express train, and the international community’s response is like a local train that stops at every stop’

U.N. shipment of high-tech to North Korea, Iran unjustified and unfathomable, say investigators

"The high-tech shipments to two of the world’s most dangerous governments were initially made public last April by Fox News, which reported that WIPO’s method for carrying out the transaction in North Korea seemed designed to bypass safeguards set up in 2008 after a similar scandal involving another U.N. agency, the United Nations Development Program."

Dramatic moustache causes man to flee hometown

The iconoclastic facial hair caused him to abandon his hometown of Bara in Khyber Agency after the militants declared it ‘un-Islamic’.
“It was the summer of 2008, when members of the LeI arrested me and took me to a religious scholar who declared the moustache un-Islamic and ordered it to be shaved,” he said.
The pride of Afridi’s life was shaved at gunpoint. Refusing to be cowed by the militants’ threats, however, he decided to move to Peshawar so that his moustache may thrive unfettered."

IDF Blog A Rosh Hashana Greeting from the IDF Chief of Staff

A great Jewish year for tourism: Record 3.5 million visit Israel

Israel receives NIS 18 billion ($4.5 billion) in tourism revenue over past 12 months • Tourism Ministry approves construction grants for 18 new hotels, half of them in Jerusalem.

Israel Daily Picture: Beneath the Old City of Jerusalem Lies a Huge Cave. Does It Date Back To King Solomon or King Zedekiah?

Also, check out Zach Novetsky in Tablet: Beware of Even Numbers - The film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ and the dangerous failing of the media

"Why do they hate us?" (updated)

Once again the Muslim world is going crazy and we are seeing murderous rampages. And once again the pundits are asking "Why do they hate us?"

Or, even more pointedly, Hillary Clinton asked "How could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?"

There is no shortage of people willing to immediately say that the US is the reason Muslims go on killing sprees in the name of Mohammed.

Russia Today interviews a supposed "expert" who said "Washington and America are still living in their own Western bubble where they believe they don’t have any chain of responsibility for the events that have happened to transform countries like Libya."

The editor for Al Quds al Arabi writes, and Juan Cole agrees:

US interferences in Arab and Muslim affairs in favor of Israel, its occupation, and Judaization of the holy places, and the US’s embrace of groups hostile to Islam and Muslims are the main reason for the current scourge and instability, and even wars in our countries.

This is idiocy.

While the Benghazi murders seem to have been pre-planned and deliberate by radical Islamists, the riots that have broken out in Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere - where more people have died - are different. They are almost identical to the Mohammed cartoon riots of 2005 against Denmark.

In both cases, individuals decided to do something provocative towards Islam. In the first case it was to prove the importance of free speech, and this time it was a crude attempt to incite hate against Islam, but in neither case was the nation that hosted the offensive media responsible for it. In fact, in both cases the nations' laeaders distanced themselves from the incidents.

Yet in both cases the Muslims rioted against those blameless host countries.

In other words, if you are going to ask why the Muslims hate the US, you must also ask why they hated Denmark - rioting outside Danish embassies, and causing deaths, just like today.

All of a sudden, the self-righteous assumption that US policy is the source of their hate is revealed to be absurd. Denmark is hardly a symbol of oppression against Muslims.

The common denominator isn't that the West is offending Islam; it is that Muslims today are almost eager to act offended - so they can flex their political muscles.

There is no doubt that many Muslima resent the West. So does pretty much everyone else in the non-aligned movement. But they don't start murderous riots at the drop of a hat.

Islam is a supremacist religion, and a supremacist political philosophy. If it was only a personal religion it wouldn't be so terrible - every religion believes that it is superior to others. But as a set of political philosophies, the idea of supremacy is dangerous.

Muslims are taught that their way is superior - and that history is on their side, . They are told that inevitably Islam will take over the world, and it is a superior political movement compared to liberal democracy or any other political system.

But in reality, most of the Muslim world suffers from infighting, from a backwards culture, from the inability to progress. And they see the Western world has left them in the dust since the 1600s.

When the truth clashes with what people are taught, it tends to make them touchy. The Muslim world suffers from a mass inferiority complex as they see the success of people who they believe should be second-class dhimmis under their control.

It is natural for people to be jealous. It is even natural to be resentful against those who are doing better than you. But resorting to violence for ridiculous perceived slights against one's honor is only natural in the Muslim world. And part of the reason is because of their complete inability to take responsibility.

So please spare us the pseduo-intellectual analyses that blame America for Muslim violence. If the Muslim world is to ever progress, it requires that their members take personal responsibility for their actions. That isn't a Western concept, but apparently communities that embrace that simple idea are the ones that will ultimately prosper.

As long as self-hating Westerners keep blaming the victims and holding the criminals blameless, they are encouraging the next round of senseless murders.

UPDATE: Israel's Channel 2 reports that Arabs protesting in Acre today said that only an Islamic caliphate will cause the violence to stop. "Only Islamic rule throughout the world will make peace. Jews and Christians can live without fear under the wings of Islam." (h/t Yoel)

Franklin Lamb is not only a liar - he's a thief and scam artist

Earlier this month I posted evidence that PressTV darling and Hezbollah groupie Franklin Lamb would simply make up lies about Israel and publish them. But they weren't ordinary lies - they were very detailed and seemingly well researched, as he would quote US intelligence reports and give historic anecdotes that he simply made up.

It appears that Lamb is a known scam artist and criminal, and has been playing this game for decades.

Check out this article in New York magazine, after Lamb scammed the Washington Post into believing that Israel destroyed a building in Lebanon with a "vacuum bomb":

Shoplifting and other theft convictions? How interesting!

But it doesn't stop there. Commenter Carpe Diem pointed me to a most interesting site that shows court cases in Maryland, and Franklin Pierce Lamb - his full name - has a colorful record.

(Proof: His full name is on this complaint against Israel given at the Hague.)

He was found guilty of passing a bad check in 2001, and then convicted of violating parole.He was charged with harassing people through telephone calls. He was charged with fraud. He was charged with second degree assault and then with violating a protection order - very possibly against his wife, Nadia, who requested a restraining order against him before their divorce.

Lamb also had numerous traffic infractions - speeding, driving without a license. He was sued for not paying for services. He apparently took out a loan and never paid back, with a judgment of $6500 against him.

And there was this interesting summary judgment against him in 2000:

Summary Judgment entered in favor of The Greenbrier Hotel, against Franklin Lamb, trading as US Arab American Association, in the amount of $140,862.00 plus interest and court costs.

It appears that Lamb has violated probation from one or more of his convictions, because he has spent the past five years in Lebanon building up his reputation among the clueless Left as a defender of freedom while the State of Maryland has been summoning him and he has been playing legal games to avoid going back.

There's lots more there, and this is only concerning ten years of his sordid life. All evidence points to Franklin Lamb being a repeat criminal and swindler and a probable scam artist.

None of this stuff made it into his official bio at one of the sites he writes for, and it appears likely that very little of the information in his bio is true.

From walking into the Washington Post offices in 1982 and finding that he can get lies published so easily, Lamb has learned that he can apply that same methodology as much as he wants. People simply cannot believe that the alleged lawyer in a suit is lying to their faces, so he keeps doing it.

Don't expect the far-left outlets that publish his garbage to care, though. They just need material that fits their viewpoints, and the credibility of the writer is not an issue.

Hamas releases documentary on the dangers of "collaboration" (updated)

I've seen lots of articles in the Arabic press trying to dissuade Gazans from being "collaborators" with Israel, but this production brings it to a whole new level.

This propaganda took some time and money to make, and indicates that Hamas is very nervous about Israeli intelligence.

At the end, the alleged spies all describe how relieved they are that they are in jail rather than at the mercy of their Israeli handlers.

UPDATE: David G provides invaluable background here and here.

UPDATE 2: Hamas sentenced a "collaborator" to death yesterday, and sentenced his wife to 10 years in prison.

The Palestine Press Agency has a report that says that Hamas is acting behind the scenes to nudge the popular protests against high prices into riots that could bring down the PA.

While the agency is very anti-Hamas, they name specific Hamas members behind this alleged scheme: Khalil al-Hayya, Ismail al-Ashqar, and Zakaria Abu Muammar.

According to the report, Muammar is responsible for the Bethlehem and Hebron protests, attracting "weak" and poor people and radical students to join and co-opt the otherwise peaceful rallies.

al-Hayya and al-Ashqar are directing Hamas cells in the northern section, including Ramallah and Nablus.

The report says that Hamas is attempting to guide the rallies into becoming anti-Abbas rallies, forcing confrontations with police with the intent of ultimately toppling the PA and taking over.

Given the source, it is hard to know how accurate this is. The methodology described is very consistent with how Islamists try to guide popular revolts throughout the "Arab Spring," and the description of a "war room" behind the scheme is detailed.

On the other hand, this is exactly what the PA would accuse Hamas of doing even if the rallies got out of control for different reasons.

There is no doubt that Hamas media is doing all it can to praise and incite the protests, and whether it is a formal plan or not, no doubt the Islamists are ready to take advantage of any chaos for their own advantage.

Careful with those superhero kippot

When Junior Elder had his fifth birthday party, I came up with a neat activity for the kiddie guests: decorate your own kippah.

I got white leather kippot, drew outlines of the Batman and Superman logos in pencil, and give the kids markers to fill them in.

I hope I don't get into trouble:

Marvel’s Spidey sense for copyright violations has stretched all the way to Jerusalem to ensnare a popular kippa maker in its web of lawsuits.

The comics publisher swung into action recently over the sale of products, notably skullcaps, featuring Spider-Man.

The company is suing the well-known Kippa Man shop for NIS 100,000 ($25,274) in damages because it sells a range of kippas featuring the red and blue superhero’s costume design and image, Maariv reported on Thursday.

In the lawsuit, being brought by local Israeli attorneys Ivtsan-Netzer-Wolecki & Co., Marvel claimed it lost revenue due to breach of intellectual property by Kippa Man.

“The defendant distributes and sells kippas that carry the plaintiff’s symbols in a breach of the plaintiff’s rights to the product, including trademarks, the trademarked name, and manufacturer’s rights,” read the lawsuit.

There are a lot of places selling Spiderman kippot on the web. Not to mention every other cartoon character you can think of.

Now, if someone would make a Mohammed kippah....

Lebanese imam: Christians wouldn't make offensive video, only Jews

From Now Lebanon:

Salafi Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir condemned on Thursday the release of an amateur anti-Islam film that insulted Prophet Mohammed and sparked angry protests in number of Arab countries.

Assir, who was speaking during a sit-in held outside Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, said that the film and other previous anti-Islam actions “do not represent Christians, but are the work of the bitter Zionists who are seeking to sow strife between Muslims and Christians,” according to a press statement.

He also called on the United Nations to take a “unified stance” against “this insult.”

“We will not allow anyone, neither the Zionists nor the Syrian regime to [create] schism between us and Christians especially in this country.”

The English translation edited out his statement that "Jews" made the film "from the intensity of their anger and hatred against Islam and Muslims."

Then again, an Arab member of Knesset said the same thing:

"Zionist elements" are to blame for increasing hatred and fear of Islam, MK Taleb a-Sanaa (UAL-Ta'al) said on Thursday, in reaction to rioting over the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims.

"This is an abomination and a desecration of God's name," a-Sanaa stated. "Whoever made this is playing with fire."

He added that "Zionist elements" are trying increase Islamophobia "out of political considerations."

Egyptian MPs seek to bar IMF loan for "usury"

Al Ahram reports:

Egyptian parliamentarians have renewed their attacks on government plans to take a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, with some Islamist figures claiming such borrowing is against religious law.

Speaking during a Wednesday afternoon sitting of Egypt's Upper House of Parliament, several MPs said an IMF loan would involve ursury [sic], a practice forbidden by Islamic strictures.

They called for a 'fatwa' -- a religious ruling -- from Egypt's Office of Religious Edicts.

Leading the calls was Abdel-Halim El-Gammal from the Salafist Nour Party and head of the economic committee in the Upper House.

El-Gammal claimed that Egypt has untapped resources which could form an alternative to the controversial loan.

Maybe they can sell the Pyramids to a Vegas developer to get the cash they need!