Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 27, 2007

Today's news from Bahrain

A Thai prostitute complained to Bahraini police that a Saudi client had stolen her handbag. Needless to say, the Saudi got off scot free and she is being deported.
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A 20 year-old Bahraini woman got drunk and a man photographed her naked. The pictures became very popular, very quickly as people Bluetoothed the picture from phone to phone. Needless to say, the Bahraini police arrested her for "immoral acts" and the man who took the pictures got off scot free.
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A Bahraini group is sending emails throughout the nation, trying to gather people together to visit Israel in December in the spirit of peace and conciliation. Needless to say, the "Bahraini Society Against Normalisation with the Zionist Enemy" has denounced this effort:

"The Israelis are killing our brothers every day and yet there are some Arabs, who are heartless, promoting this terrorist country just for money," he said.

"We know that there are a few trying with every mean possible to normalise ties with the Zionists, but Bahrainis can't be deceived with their scams.

"It is true that the Israeli ban office in Bahrain has been closed down, but that doesn't mean that Bahrainis should compromise their principles to go on such trips.

"Bahrainis are not banned from going to Israel and have never been, but no one has ever thought of going there."

She said that even people thinking of going to Israel, should think twice because they were going to a dangerous state, where Arabs and other nationals are being killed.

PalArabs do not horribly murder IDF soldier in Jenin

According to Ma'an:

The Palestinian security services on Monday returned an Israeli officer who had mistakenly entered Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli officer entered the city via An Nassera Street in a white car and wearing his uniform.

The witnesses also revealed that a Palestinian police car stopped the Israeli officer when he arrived in the main square of the city centre and escorted him to the Mukataa.

When the news spread in the city, dozens of furious Palestinian citizens rushed to the square and set the officer's car ablaze.

One of the enraged citizens said that the arson attack was a display of anger for the assassination of two Palestinians and the injury of four others by the Israeli forces in Jenin two days ago.

Ma'an's reporter in Ramallah said that four Israeli military vehicles stormed the city and took position in front of the Mukataa, before exiting the city accompanied by Palestinian security vehicles.

The officer was then handed over to the Israeli forces outside the city.

Abduction attempt

The Islamic Jihad movement accused the Palestinian Authority security of protecting the officer after he had been gradually enticed to the area by the movement's Al Quds Brigades.

A spokesperson of the Al Quds Brigades told Ma'an "the PA security obstructed a group of the brigades abducting the major."

Deputy of the preventive security in Jenin, Salah Bzour, said "what was said by the spokesperson of the brigades was absolutely incorrect; the officer lost his way and entered the city mistakenly.

"When the PA security found out, they did what they are supposed to do; they took the officer and handed him to the Israeli side through the military coordination office."

They say that you should praise children whenever they do anything good in order to provide a positive feedback and encourage good behavior. Similarly, when Palestinian Arabs fail to act like animals it is necessary to praise them, in the hopes that at least some of them can eventually learn how to act like human beings.

(For those who do not know, in 2000 two Israeli soldiers who accidentally entered Ramallah were brutally beaten and lynched by a large crowd in a most horrific way, all captured on videotape.)

Morning links

The Anonymous Liberal compares US and Israeli prisoner policies, and finds that Israel affords far more human rights to terrorists than the US does, even though the US threat is a fraction of Israel's. (via Israel Matzav)

Meryl Yourish notices that when CNN rebroadcast its "warriors" series twice over the weekend, it made sure that the Jewish segment always was played while people were awake. The other two's orders were switched.

The Los Angeles Times yesterday published a great op-ed by Moshe Ya'alon - a breath of fresh air among the Hamas garbage that has been filling op-ed pages of late.

The Daily Telegraph points out that Hamas in Gaza is now doing the exact same arrests, beatings and tortures that Fatah did when they were in power.

Fatah reacts to Hamas' "Lion King" cartoon

Last week, Hamas broadcast an anti-Fatah cartoon. It starts off with a scene of a lion, clearly resembling Disney's Lion King, who is finished with his meal of an animal with a Jewish star on his remaining bone. Then a gang of Fatah rats, led by a rat who speaks with canned quotes from Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan, takes over Gaza - using American money and Israeli weapons to destroy institutions, kill children, set fires, take off a woman's veil, and eventually to shoot RPGs at mosques. At this, the Hamas lion comes in and chases the Fatah rats out of Gaza, with the threat that it will do the same in the West Bank. It ends with a scene of the lion looking over the ravaged land as flowers start to grow.

Fatah is not happy about this.

Here's an autotranslated reaction from PalPress that is really funny:

The Fatah movement demanded of all Palestinians to launch a national campaign against international Arab cartoon instigation no serious for children aired channel space Hamas and inciting Fatah elements. "

This came during a panel set up to the training committee of the Fatah movement on no Animation (animation) directed against serious movement (Fatah) produced, and aired space Aqsa inflammatory.

He said Abu Bakr Al-Bakr, a leader of the Fatah movement and responsible training "that this movie aimed at children and broadcast by the channel and the number of sites, which included an illustration of the movie serious violators of Hamas in Gaza, any (opening) rats damaged and rotten and wage which kill and loot and violate privacy and destroy, any Assad Hamas (? ! ) expected that the patient felt the need to move against the mice, and not against the enemy, whose images only greatness Azahha Assad from the point easily, then began the eradication of rats, and the remainder fled to the West Bank stronghold of any traitors "by portraying movie.

Abu Bakr said, "It is the first time since World War II are portrayed as dirty rats offenders must blitz as it did with Nazi violators.

Meanwhile, he said that the movie seriously Deek an unprecedented degree requires him to the national campaign and the Arab world because it is simply first wave of children to any young people decide where the new movie that the other does not exist and killers allowed, and also shows that the Bank Habitat traitors, and promotes the eradication of all dissenting hatred and racism, and that Hamas only God successors are survivors and the lords of the jungle.

He said Yasser Egyptian that the movie is making them Palestinian issue to the conflict between the animals in the jungle (? !) The only power which must be controlled sense that categorically rejected democracy and ends the movie threatening words and say you returned back (?!).

Participants asked not diverted jamming ideas Safaehem children and the destruction, and the failure to devote concepts blind hatred, racism and blasphemy in the minds of people from Hamas, which eventually lead to a dangerous extremism in the society, especially in Gaza, and participants demanded the national campaign against the Arab world and these ideas, pushers of killers who govern Gaza iron The fire, and brought lawsuits against the mentioned space issues that threaten peace and national reconciliation, and add propaganda in favor of the enemy.

After years of Fatah TV inciting against Jews it is really amusing to see the outrage that Fatah is showing when it is on the receiving end of similar hate.

PA outrage at Israeli actions is an act meant for both Western useful idiots as well as for whipping up their masses in an orgy of hate, but it always appears rehearsed and planned. This statement, though, is truly hysterical and emotional. You can almost feel the spittle being sprayed as Al-Bakr fumes.

Deep down, the PalArabs know that Israel treats them far better than any Arab country ever has and that their campaign against Israel is not defensive in the least. They know that they are not in existential danger from Israel. But when they see real hatred, when they see real incitement aimed at them, -in other words, when they see all the things that they have been claiming for years is how Israel acts towards them coming instead from fellow Arabs - they regress into a visceral reaction, not the sound-bites we are used to hearing from the Erekats and Barghoutis mouthing outrage at Zionists.

After years of being coddled by billions from the West and Israel and empty promises from their brethren, the Fatah thugs are getting a taste of what Arab hate feels like.

Hamas stealing drugs from Gaza hospital?

Palestinian Press Agency, which is very anti-Hamas, claims that an adviser to Hamas leader Haniyeh has been stealing pharmaceuticals from the Shifa hospital in Gaza and transferring them to a Hamas-run hospital.

Saudi teacher beats up student, parent

The Arab News just gets better and better....In this story, a teacher beat up his student, and when the father came to investigate, he got beaten up too:

“I received a telephone call from my son at the end of the academic year. He wanted help and so I hurried to the school. When I saw Yasir, I thought he had fallen and didn’t think a teacher had beaten him up,” said Abdullatif.
The father said that when he went into the school, the teacher screamed at him and was abusive. He then beat him up. “I didn’t expect this to happen in an educational institution. This is a place where children should learn ethics before knowledge. How could such behavior come from a person who is supposed to teach our children ethics and morals,” said Abdullatif, who took Yasir to the Al-Ansar Hospital in Madinah following the assault.
“He had suffered bruises to his chest, back, right leg and hand. He had been beaten with a hose,” said Abdullatif, who also suffered bruises to his face and other parts of his body.

So...what punishment did the teacher get for beating up the father/son pair?

[The teacher] will be transferred to a school in a remote desert village and have his salary deducted, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.Bahjat Junaid, the general manager of the Education Department in the Madinah region, ordered the teacher be transferred as punishment.

Because when he beats up people in remote villages, who really cares?

This is yet another example where the Arab News thinks that it is being so progressive in looking down at the barbaric behavior of some Saudi citizens, while being clueless about how it is also promoting milder forms of barbarity.

Saudi Best Wife Award

Here's another great "human interest" story in the Arab News that shows, subconsciously, how twisted Arab society is:

TABUK, 27 August 2007 — A man here recently stated that if there was a Best Wife award in the country, his first wife would win it. The reason is that his wife is exceptionally wise and understanding, he said.

When he informed her that he wanted to take a second wife a couple of weeks ago, she took the initiative and found a pretty girl willing to be his second wife, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday. The first wife also made all the necessary arrangements for the wedding in a matter of days. The man was deeply impressed by her desire to make him happy, even if it meant sharing him with another woman.

Her enthusiasm didn’t stop there; at the wedding reception she welcomed guests and then danced with them. And finally she led the bride to the decorated car and seated her beside the bridegroom and wished them a blissful night.

After their departure she told her friends who were shocked at her behavior, that you cannot stop a man if he wants to marry again. “He will do it with or without our knowledge. So it is better that I cooperate with him and allow him do it with my knowledge and under my supervision, thus minimizing the harm.”

What a gal!

A PLO co-founder dies

From Ma'an:

A member of the Arab Nationalist Movement's liaison department, Ahmad Mahmoud Al-Jamal, died on Saturday.

Al-Jamal was born in 1940 in the Palestinian village of Lubya. He was one of the founders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

Al-Jamal worked in the PLO's Damascus-based office until his death.

If the PLO is the "sole representative of the Palestinian (Arab) people," and if the West is so hot on saying that it is "moderate," why are its offices in Damascus?

Freedom of the press, PalArab-style (IX)

The series continues....
From AP via Jpost:

Hamas militiamen tried to arrest a prominent Palestinian journalist late Saturday, but left the scene at the urging of Hamas political leaders after a group of reporters blocked the force from entering the man's home.

The attempted arrest of Agence France Press reporter Sakher Abu El Oun came a day after Hamas beat a group of journalists covering a demonstration protesting the Islamic militant group's rule in the Gaza Strip. Abu El Oun, who heads the Gaza journalists' union, harshly criticized the Hamas crackdown.

About 15 Hamas security men arrived at his home late Saturday, saying they had orders to arrest him. Abu El Oun called some colleagues, who rushed to the scene and formed a human chain around the home.

Within minutes, officials from the office of deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas official in Gaza, arrived to end the standoff. The officials persuaded the militiamen to leave, calling the incident a "misunderstanding."

"Everything has been settled and freedom of speech and journalism is respected," said Taher Nunu, a spokesman for Haniyeh.

AFP did not immediately comment.

The CNN/Amanpour trifecta

Once I read Seraphic Secret's account of Part 3 of CNN's Moral Equivalence Festival, I realized that I had to read the transcript for myself and join the party.

"Now, God's Christian warriors -- the religious right in America."

Even though we knew this is what the Christian part would be about, it is still amazing to think that the honchos at CNN cannot see a gaping, huge, gigantic difference between the Taliban and Jerry Falwell.

Would it even be conceivable that CNN would mention the Christian Phalangists who massacred Palestinian Arabs in Sabra and Shatila as examples of "Christian warriors?" Because, you know, they actually committed mass murder?

AMANPOUR: And from the beginning, there was controversy...

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Go home! Go home!

AMANPOUR: ...as Falwell thrust religion into politics. His mission was to change America.

Hate to break it to ya, Christiane, but the Founding Fathers invoked God a hell of a lot as well. Perhaps it was people like Amanpour who changed America?

Dorms are either male or female. At this Liberty, there is no freedom to go astray.

Damn - just like the Taliban!

AMANPOUR: Suddenly, conservative Christians had become a political force...

Just like the Taliban!

AMANPOUR: This bombing at a Birmingham clinic killed a police guard. In the mid '90s, from Boston to Florida, angry zealots murdered seven people -- three of them doctors. The violence not only frightened a number of abortion clinics into closing, it also caused a public backlash.

This is the crux of the show. Two hours about seven deaths. The rest is just filler because, since CNN can't do a special of more than two hours and that's what they had to give the Muslim "warriors" in order to pack mention of some 0.2% of Muslim terrorist deaths in that time period, they have to of course give two hours to each other major religion. Amanpour is itching to talk about these admittedly horrific murders because, to her, people who aren't feminist secularists are indistinguishable from the Taliban.

She's not after a body count - that's too crass. The underlying philosophy is just the same - don't you see it? Are you blind?

AMANPOUR: And so the courts became the new battleground over the unborn. But year after year, the religious right lost every Supreme Court decision on abortion. Falwell and others were determined to reverse that, using their political clout to make sure new justices passed the Christian conservative abortion litmus test.

So secularists who vote for those who are pro-abortion and who will help pro-abortion Supreme Court justices are OK. But if you are on the other side of the political process using the exact same litmus test, it is Evil.

AMANPOUR: At issue -- the public display of the Ten Commandments inside a county courthouse. Staver lost in a 5-4 ruling.

But there's nothing in the bible that would say to Staver thou shalt not litigate again. And so, way down on the Suwannee River, Dixie County, Florida has become the dean's new battleground over the Ten Commandments.

This six-ton granite monument carved by the local gravestone salesman sits on the courthouse steps. It is a clear example of what the Supreme Court has disallowed -- a standalone monument on government property with an obvious religious message -- love God and keep his commandments.

Evidently, Amanpour has never actually read the Ten Commandments.

AMANPOUR: The Supreme Court has become ground zero in this combat between law and religion -- the final word on God's place in public life.

Evidently, despite her eight months of research on religion, she still doesn't understand that at least two of her major religions are actually based on legal mechanisms. She is saying that law is automatically opposed to religion and vice-versa - an astonishingly stupid statement.

But let's cut her a little slack. She has two hours to kill.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): "In God We Trust" is part of the American dialogue. And yet, the religious right would have you believe there's no mention of God anywhere in our public sphere. It's on the currency.
...But they also play the victim somewhat. Are they victimized?

This show sort of proves it!

Next comes an entire section dealing with John Hagee, who is not only a devout Christian, which is obscene enough, but he also supports Israel! How far from the CNN studios can you get?

The rest of the show is really, really boring. Stuff about creationism, politics, who knows what.

And then comes this:

AMANPOUR: On campus, students must follow a strict set of rules.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

AMANPOUR: No secular music or television. No "R"-rated movies. No alcohol. No drugs. No dating.

(on camera) When I, you know, read that women have to wear skirts of a certain length. And guys aren't allowed to, you know, go on the Internet, unsupervised. And I think, you know, totalitarian regimes.

LUCE: No. It's about learning to have disciplines that communicate purity. You know? The skirts' length are to keep guys from -- you know, any man on the planet can be distracted. And we don't want to unintentionally create distraction.

AMANPOUR: But, Ron, that's what the Taliban said.

So she is comparing a private college, where people go voluntarily and submit to the rules voluntarily, with - of course - the Taliban!

As I mentioned in my commentary on part 2, Amanpour puts all religions together as equally evil and threatening. Not so much for their actions as to what they believe - that's what threatens her. She is so insecure in her own beliefs that she treats those who believe differently as a mortal threat, and she cannot distinguish at all between religions.

Her vapidity is all there in black and white, thanks to CNN Transcripts!

Guest poster Sophia on the CNN "religious warriors" sham

Sophia wrote a great comment on the CNN miniseries this week that deserves its own post:

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I have watched all three segments, practically fell asleep during the third (on "Christian Warriors"; was very interested by the second, and was deeply disturbed by the first, which showed Jews as extremists, ugly, rich, and manipulative, not to mention violent, thieving, and bad.

On the other hand, we had uber WASPs Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush, James Baker, Charles Percy and John Mearscheimer - people deeply involved in big business and international politics - explaining how the sneaky, pushy, manipulative Joos run the US. The term "more powerful than Foggy Bottom" was actually used by Amanpour, as were these statements:

"6,000 miles away, in New York, defiance comes dressed in diamonds... God's Jewish Warriors in America...

"With a smile and a song, they ignore their government's policies."

This came packaged with references to "illegal" settlements and of course, Meir Kahane.

This cartoon was maybe a high point:

http://www.coxandforkum.com/arch...ves/ 000785.html

C & F seem interested to discover that they are presented as part of a Jewish conspiracy, go figure.

http://www.coxandforkum.com/arch...ves/ 001180.html

CNN did manage to scrounge up some hapless fools who had prepared a bomb, but fortunately were arrested by Israeli police before they could set it off. Their target was a Palestinian girl's school - an abominable thing to even contemplate. However rather than attributing this nauseating plot to Judaism it would have been more to the point to metnion the attack that didn't fail: the one that killed 26 Israeli schoolchildren at Ma'alot in 1974, and wounded 60 other people.

Baruch Goldman was prominently featured of course, along with a conspirator who had had designs on the Dome of the Rock, but fortunately was caught and imprisoned and has since renounced violence.

It is interesting to note that one can practically count all these "warriors" on one hand - was this mentioned? NO. There was no discussion of Judaism, no tender scene of a Jewish mother or wife with her family, as there were in both the Muslim and Christian segments.

Not mentioned at all was the REAL destruction of Jewish holy sites, nor the fact that following the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank & East Jerusalem in 1948, Jews were forbidden even to worship in Hebron or at the Kotel.

However, Sabra and Shatilla sneaked in; though Amanpour did mention that it was a Lebanese Christian job, merely invoking Sabra and Shatilla cast yet another pall on the Jewish people. For the fact of the matter is, we have always been collectively responsible even for things we didn't actually do. And I fear this program will merely incite more hatred and misunderstanding, rather than build a bridge as Amanpour stated she wanted to do in the case of the Islamic "warriors".

In contrast, even the most extreme Muslims were given a human face. Interesting aspects of Shia theocracy were investigated. There was no real investigation of Saudi Arabian extremism, however, though Qutb was mentioned, and his aversion to American materialism; of course Muslim Brotherhood was discussed but in the context of a "moderate", mainstream political party oppressed by the Egyptian government.

There was a Palestinian suicide terrorist prominently featured but even he was given a warmly human face: he had hoped to be an artist, and turned to terror after witnessing an Israeli raid that killed a young girl who died in his arms.

No such humanity was granted G*d's Jewish Warriors. No such context, no discussion of the fear and hardship confronting Israel and the Jewish people; even the security barrier was mocked - Amanpour did interview an Israeli lawyer who works for Palestinians affected by the barrier, as well as a Palestinian man who had to move when the Western Wall plaza was constructed. His sad plight was detailed at length and horrible bulldozers were prominently featured.

No. No humanity, no context, no history was granted G*d's Jewish Warriors.

And that is very great shame.

Oh, this is so tempting....

ArabicNews.com is for sale.

Should I make an offer?

Understated headline of the day

From The Australian:

"A nuclear-armed Iran would not be good"

I love the smell of "work accidents" in the morning

Ma'an says:

A member of Hamas' Qassam Brigades was killed, and another four were injured, in an aerial attack from an Israeli military helicopter near Car's Market in Gaza City at midnight on Thursday.

The car in which the five Qassam Brigades activists were travelling was shelled.

According to Palestinian medical sources, ambulances evacuated the corpse of 20-year-old Ahed Said Ahmad Abu Jabal and the four wounded Palestinians to Ash Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The Israeli forces have denied shelling a Palestinian car in Gaza City.

AP has it slightly differently:

An explosion ripped through a car east of Gaza City late Thursday, witnesses said, and hospital officials said one person was killed and another was seriously wounded.

Hamas security officials said Israel fired a surface-to-surface missile at a group of Hamas fighters, killing one and wounding an unspecified number of other fighters, including one who was seriously hurt.

The Israeli army, which customarily acknowledges its air and ground operations against Palestinian militants, denied involvement in its initial response. Some blasts that do not involve the military are caused by explosive devices intended for use against Israel that go off prematurely.

This reminds me of an old Dry Bones strip from the 1970s or 80s - I wish I could find it - where an Arab terrorist, reading a newspaper, says something like, "Hey look! There was a gas explosion in Tel Aviv, killing some kids! Fatima, call a press conference to take responsibility! We Palestinians have to keep up on the news."

The 2007 PalArab self-death count is now at 510.

UPDATE: A PalArab shot and killed in a "family quarrel" during a wedding in the West Bank. 511.

"Shmuel of Arabia "

From the Jewish Journal, by David Suissa

...Rav [Shmuel] Miller has more than stories. He's an expert in Arabic. He can learn Torah in Arabic, and often does. In the pristine shul that he built in his backyard, he teaches his sons and others how to study Jewish texts in Arabic. If it were up to him, there'd be many more Jews learning Arabic.

It's not obvious why this Jewish man would have a passion for a language that today is too often associated with suicide bombers and radical Islamists. Here is a French Orthodox rabbi who has studied at the top yeshivas in Europe; an expert in Talmud, philosophy and mysticism; a lover of Jews, Torah and the Hebrew language; a sofer who writes mezuzahs and Torah scrolls in perfect Hebrew calligraphy; and yet, when the subject of Arabic comes up, his eyes light up like he's one of the kids at the Munchies candy store on Saturday night.

I know the emotional arguments. I've been hearing them for years from my parents, aunts, uncles and their friends who grew up in Morocco. They have nostalgia for the past. They love Arabic music, and they're crazy about the language. It's a little like my Ashkenazic friends who wax about the joys of Yiddish. There are words in the Judeo-Arab dialect spoken by my parents that light up the heart like no word in French or English can.

I remember this one word I was particularly fond of: "Shlemto." If one of her kids would do something wrong, my mother would use that word to convey that "I really love this kid, but I really wish he wouldn't do that, but at the same time, I want everyone to know how much I still love him even when he does something that really annoys me."

That's with one word. There are many others.

In the Morocco that I remember, Arabic was the daily language of emotion.

But what about for Rav Miller, a rabbi who was born and raised in France? His first language is French, then Hebrew. Where does his mad love for Arabic come from?

If you see him, you get some clues. There's a regal, Lawrence of Arabia quality to him. Short beard. Piercing eyes. Always upright. He looks like he'd fit right in with the romantic mystics of the Middle Ages.

But beyond that, after hanging out with him for the better part of a year since I moved to the hood, and seeing him give classes at my place on everything from the patriarchs to Spinoza, I have a simpler explanation for his Arabian passions.

He loves Arabic because he loves Judaism.

Take his love affair with Maimonides. He wanted to read "The Guide to the Perplexed" in the language in which it was written, so he studied it in Arabic. He says this gave him a deeper, "more palpable" understanding of Jewish ideas. For example, the word in Arabic that Maimonides uses for the Hebrew daat (knowledge) is eidrak, which refers to a knowledge that you "apprehend" or "take in." It is a union between the modrak, the one who understands, and the modrik, the one who is understood. Whereas the Hebrew daat denotes something external and impersonal, the Arab eidrak defines a knowledge that is more personal and contemplative, one that ultimately becomes part of you.

Similarly, by studying Rabbi Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari in the original Arabic, Rav Miller got a more subtle take on the problematic notion that Jews are the "chosen people." Looked at superficially, the idea of being "chosen" can easily offend other groups by suggesting racial superiority. In Arabic, however, the notion of the Hebrew segula (chosen) is more layered. The Arab term khassuss speaks to a one-to-one intimacy with God. In the original Arabic text of Rabbi Halevi, Jews are more likely to be the "particular, singular, private" people, rather than the more blunt "chosen" people. It's about intimacy, not superiority.

How's that for a disconnect? The language of Osama bin Laden and Hamas can teach the Jews some important subtleties about their own faith.

That does take a little getting used to.

Maybe that's why Rav Miller has no illusions about Arabic classes ever catching on in the Jewish world. Of course, that won't stop him from continuing to give his own classes to his inner circle, and from spending long nights poring through ancient Arab texts written by Jewish sages.

Sounds like a neat person!