Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Elder of ZiyonThe pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Wednesday that the Tunisian authorities have refused to open the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's office to the public.One can understand how proof of his corruption and homosexuality might be a tad embarrassing.
The source added that there have been several attempts to obtain access to the personal archives of Arafat.
The archives include correspondence, documents and secret letters of Arafat, and are believed to reveal the personal life behind the public figure.
The main archives of Yasser Arafat in his Tunisia office are closed to the public.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007Elder of ZiyonEven a whiff of such an attitude in the West would have liberals - rightly - screaming. If it is evil over here, why is it not evil elsewhere?Nasrallah's speech last night was only the culminating moment in a summer marked by Hizbullah's celebration of its "divine victory" last year. The group even opened a museum last month in Dahia that commemorates its war efforts against the Israelis. Thousands of Lebanese have visited in recent weeks.
The museum's main exhibit - which is entitled "The Spider's Web" - is a macabre testament to Hizbullah's ongoing fascination with battling the Jewish state. At the entrance, children pose with badly-damaged Israeli armoured vehicles, adorned with placards giving the name of their model and the date of their destruction by the "resistance".
Moving past the tanks, one enters the main exhibit through an elaborately reconstructed Hizbullah bunker, where mannequins dressed in fatigues and holding Kalashnikovs stare ponderously at maps of the battlefield. In the "Living Post Model" inside the mock bunker, two would-be Hizbullah guerrillas recline on the floor watching television. An RPG leans against a bookshelf covered with Qurans, and Hizbullah flags and posters of Nasrallah dot the walls.
One emerges from the bunker into a large room filled with photographs from the war and weapons and ammunition captured from the Israeli military. Heart-wrenching pictures of Lebanese children wounded and killed in Israeli bombings are flanked by those of bloodied Israeli corpses. Airbrushed on one wall is a picture of an exploding Israeli warship that bears the caption, "Watch it burn, it will sink taking with it tens of Zionist [sic] Israeli soldiers"; adjacent to the warship, a wall-sized image of a contemplative, smug Nasrallah looks down upon droves of women and children lining up to snap pictures of Israeli rifles and rocket launchers with their camera phones. A replica of a dead Israeli soldier, outfitted in a captured IDF uniform and bearing an M16, lies in a shallow grave carved into the floor; ammunition, cans of Kosher food, and a smashed iPod lie to his sides.
The audio-visual presentations of the exhibit are its highlight. A television shows screen-shots of a Hizbullah computer game ("Special Force 2: Tale of the Truthful Pledge"), whose object is to shoot IDF soldiers and blow up Israeli tanks. At the end of the main hall, visitors enter a darkened room where an enormous projection screen stands over the remains of a damaged Merkava tank. Images come across the screen of Hizbullah fighters firing RPGs and launching rockets at Haifa, as coloured lights illuminate the faux corpses lying by the tank. After an explosive climax, where sounds of screaming and crying fill the small room, the 10-minute movie ends with footage of Nasrallah proclaiming victory in front of thousands waving the yellow Hizbullah flag. The lights come up, and militiamen-cum-curators guide the onlookers back outside, where busloads of young children unload and line up to see the sights.
The last stop in the exhibit is the "Martyrs' Oasis", an abstract installation on the museum's lawn consisting of a few large blocks covered in white sheets and a stairway leading up to an open door, presumably signifying the entrance to heaven. And, as if the guarantee of paradise were not sufficient, the museum also boasts a gift shop, where those so-inclined can purchase Hizbullah DVD's, key-chains, car-fresheners, and perfume.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, August 14, 2007Elder of ZiyonGAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face.This is pure child abuse and brainwashing for the singular purpose of ridding the Middle East of Jews.Teaching children to aspire to death shows, better than anything I can write, the depravity of Islamism.
Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can't, the young star of Hamas television's best-known children's show said, she'd be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land.
With the show's producer helpfully offering written tips during an interview, Saraa didn't get into how she hopes to die for her cause, be it suicide bombing, fighting the Israeli military or some other way. She carefully sidestepped any suggestion that she's subtly calling for the destruction of Israel .
" Israel says that we are terrorists," Saraa said minutes before an interview with her was interrupted by an errant Israeli airstrike that slammed into an apartment building on the adjacent block. "But they are the ones that must stop their attacks against us and our kids."
Saraa is the sweet face of "Tomorrow's Pioneers," a weekly, hour-long Hamas television children's show best known for bringing the world a militant Mickey Mouse look-alike and then having him killed off by an Israeli interrogator.
With her jarring mix of innocent charm and militant rhetoric, Saraa is at the center of the militant Islamist group's increasingly sophisticated campaign to become the dominant force in Palestinian politics.
Since it went on the air last year in the Gaza Strip , the Hamas -funded al Aqsa television has gained momentum and expanded its audience to include the West Bank .
Taking a lead from Hezbollah's al Manar television station in Beirut , Hamas is using al Aqsa to promote its agenda and challenge its rivals, in this case Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his fractured Fatah allies.
During its decisive June military showdown with Fatah in Gaza , Hamas used its television station to broadcast footage of Fatah leaders joking with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Bush administration officials. The message was clear: Fatah is in bed with America. After Fatah lost Gaza to Hamas , Fatah forces laid siege to al Aqsa's offices in the West Bank and arrested several employees.
The station, which operates with a license from the Palestinian Authority, also features religious lessons, cartoons, advice shows and militant music videos. One video hailed a female suicide bomber whose young daughter vows to follow her mother's example.
"Tomorrow's Pioneers" sparked an international furor in April when it began featuring Farfour, the Mickey Mouse look-alike who sounded more like Iran's firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than a Disney character.
After two months, Farfour was beaten to death on the show by an Israeli interrogator. Nahoul, a larger-than-life bee, is now carrying his message.
"A lot of people in Palestine have died as martyrs, and lots of Palestinians hope to be martyrs," Saraa said of Farfour's demise. "This is one of the ends."
Asked if she hoped one day to be a martyr, Saraa instinctively nodded her head.
"Of course," Saraa said. "It's something to be proud of. Every Palestinian citizen hopes to be a martyr."
Saraa helps deliver similar messages to Palestinian children from a Hamas TV set filled with colorful numbers and pictures of kittens. During the show, Saraa fields calls from Palestinian children who warble songs about Islam, liberating Jerusalem and finding answers in the barrel of a machine gun.
On one show, she cut off a caller who was singing about surrendering herself, presumably to God's will.
"We don't want to surrender," Saraa told the caller. "We want to resist."
On the show, Saraa offers moral lessons to viewers and urges them to do what they can to fight Israeli occupation. After some prodding in an interview, Saraa offered a personal message for Israeli girls her age.
"They have to leave," she said. "This is our country. They kicked us out and stole our happiness. This is a natural result."
Monday, August 13, 2007Elder of ZiyonThe MIM technique (Minimally Invasive Mastopexy), developed by the startup of the same name, promises to reshape, support and lift breast soft tissue in a much more minimally invasive manner than today's cosmetic breast surgery. They're calling their breast support kit the 'Cup&Up'.
"Today in aesthetic surgery, plastic surgeons reshape many body parts - the nose, butt, hands, tummy - most of the procedures are very intensive, risky ones, with long recovery periods, problems with scars, inconvenience. We're trying to develop a method to replace those surgical procedures with minimally invasive kits," says the MIM CEO Adi Cohen.
..."What we've done is build a silicon bra, insert it into the body and attach it to the ribs and to the fascia. It's like a normal external bra," he continues, "where a strip lies on the shoulder and attaches around the body. We attach it to the ribs instead of to the shoulder, and to the fascia in the lower part of the body."
...The procedure is minimally invasive requiring two small openings through which the device is attached to the ribs.
"It may sound scary but take a look at cosmetic and plastic surgery - that's much more invasive," said Gur. "The most prevalent procedure in the world is breast implantation. Who is the crazy woman who agreed to be the first woman to put silicon into her body? Very strange things happen within the cosmetic world and the MIM is not as crazy as it sounds; that's the end point of what I'm saying."
Cohen founded MIM in 2004 as part of the Meytav technological incubator in Kiryat Shmona. Within three years they have produced a final prototype which has undergone rigorous testing.
According to Gur, tests applied included strength, fatigue and endurance "because the device in the body will have to endure running, spinning, bike riding."
Monday, August 13, 2007Elder of Ziyon
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Monday, August 13, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Monday, August 13, 2007Elder of ZiyonWell, AIDS isn't that rare anymore.The London-based newspaper Al-quds Al-Arabi reported on Monday that Suha Arafat, the wife of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, lost Tunisian citizenship after it was granted to her in the fall of 2005.According to the newspaper, the report was first made by a local Tunisian newspaper that claimed the Tunisian President had issued a decree cancelling Mrs. Arafat’s citizenship over the weekend.
The report did not reveal the reasons behind the decision, but commentators have suggested that Shua’s departure from Tunisia is related to a conflict between her and her Tunisian business partners.
Suha Arafat, along with her daughter Zawha, moved to Tunisia in 2004, shortly after Yasser Arafat died in a military hospital in France after suffering a rare disease.
Monday, August 13, 2007Elder of Ziyonfreedom of press palestinian styleHamas' Executive Force on Monday banned any form of demonstration in Gaza unless its organisers obtain permission.
Spokesperson of the EF, Saber Khalifeh, issued a statement announcing that "for the sake of the general benefit and to secure the rule of law, it is totally forbidden to demonstrate without getting permission from the Executive Force."
The Palestinian factions called a rally on Monday in protest against EF actions in the Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses at the rally of Palestinian factions said the Executive Force banned journalists from covering the events.
A journalist who attempted to film the demonstration on his mobile phone was arrested.
"The government should urgently consider ways of engaging politically with moderate elements within Hamas," the all-party group of lawmakers said.UPDATE: PCHR adds lots of details of this morning's moderate Hamas activities:
The Center’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 11:00 on Monday, 13 August 2007, tens of members of the Executive Force deployed around the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Palestinian Legislative Council building. They prevented dozens of civilians from reaching the area to attend a rally organized by several PLO factions to protest the attacks of the Executive Force in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the Force prevented journalists from covering the rally, and confiscated the camera of Ahmad El-Ras, cameraman for Ramattan News Agency, and detained him in one of their vehicles. The Force members used sticks to disperse the demonstrators.
Ahmad El-Ras gave the following statement to PCHR’s fieldworker:
“At approximately 10:30, two colleagues and I went to cover the rally in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier area. When I disembarked from the agency vehicle carrying a camera, 2 members of the Executive Force raised their weapons at me; and one of them said to me, “If you take photage, we’ll put an end to you.” I answered them that I have not taken any photage; and I went back to the car to leave the area. Then, two Executive Force vehicles intercepted us. Force members took me and put me in one of their vehicles. They confiscated my camera. Several journalists gathered around the vehicle in which I was detained. They talked to the Force members. The latter stated that they would release me only if the camera tape is confiscated. And this happened.”
At approximately 11:35, two Executive Force gunmen raided the offices of Al-Arabiya and MBC satellite stations in the 12th floor of Al-Shoroq building in Gaza City. They confiscated the camera and rally photage belonging to Al-Arabiya. Reem Abd El-Karim, the director of the offices, informed PCHR’s fieldworker that the Executive Force gunmen raided the office and requested the rally photage. A verbal exchange took place when she refused to hand over the materials. However, the Executive Force took the camera and photage by force. The Executive Force returned the confiscated equipment to Al-Arabiya at approximately 15:30.
Sunday, August 12, 2007Elder of ZiyonThe An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), have announced responsibility for setting a trap for an Israeli Press vehicle on a road, east of Gaza City, on Friday.Many of these tyes of reports end up being fabricated or exaggerated, but the point is not whether the PRC actually succeeded in targeting Israeli journalists - it is the fact that they are bragging about targeting them, thus violating international law (the Geneva Conventions define journalists as civilians and therefore as protected.)
The brigades claimed that one of the Israelis in the vehicle was injured.
Sunday, August 12, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, August 12, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, August 12, 2007Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, August 12, 2007Elder of Ziyon
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