Egyptian authorities have seized more than a million dollars in forged US currency allegedly produced in the Gaza Strip since the Gaza-Egypt border was toppled by Palestinian fighters two weeks ago, Egyptian sources told Ma'an on Thursday.See also this posting wondering how Hamas manages to get so many pristine $100 bills.
The sources expect more counterfeit banknotes to be discovered, as hundreds of dollars are being found every day. Egyptian merchants in towns bordering Gaza, such as Al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zwaid have helped investigators by saving counterfeit bills.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
- Thursday, February 07, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- Thursday, February 07, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
Once again, Israel somehow manages to selectively oppress Christians, according to the apologists for Islamist terror against Christians. The Zionist war machine manages to force only Arab Christians to leave the territories while it keeps Muslims there.AS THE SUN rises in the east on the first day of Advent, the bells of Gaza’s churches fill the air, mixing amicably with the Muslim call to prayer. There is an air of quiet serenity spiced with excitement as the faithful walk to their churches and mosques, the doors swinging open, and Christians and Muslims bid each other good morning on yet another Sunday.
Gaza’s oldest church, the Greek Orthodox St. Porphyrus, dates back to the 16th century. The majority of Gaza’s Christians are served by the Roman Catholic Church on Al Zayotoun St. and the Gaza Baptist Church, which offer living room prayer groups, interfaith outreach, several schools, and humanitarian/medical Christian charities staffed by both locals and internationals. Today Gaza is home to approximately 3,000 Christians, the majority of whom live near these Gaza City churches.
Until November 1947, when the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 181 partitioning Palestine, Palestinian Christians lived peacefully among the Muslim and small Jewish populations of the area. With the passage of the nonbinding resolution, however, Zionist forces began their ethnic cleansing campaign in earnest. At the time Christians represented 18 percent of Palestine’s population, with many families tracing their ancestry back to the time of Christ. Today Christians comprise less than 2 percent of Palestinians, with the loss of Jerusalem’s Christian community being the most profound—plunging from a peak of 51 percent in 1922 to just 4 percent today. By the time of the Deir Yassin massacre in early April 1948, over a quarter-million Palestinians—many of them Christian—had been displaced, either killed or made refugees.
...
It is well known that one of the most effective tools for rendering a society subservient is the tactic of divide and conquer. Thus the October kidnapping and murder of Rami Ayyad, the manager of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore, presented a dangerous challenge. Speculations about the motive still abound: was it a hate crime or simply a random tragedy?
Father Manuel Musallam, the senior Roman Catholic priest in Gaza, doubts the attack was religiously motivated.
“Rami was not only Christian,” the priest explained. “He was Palestinian. Violent acts against Christians are not a phenomenon unique to Gaza.”
...
Asked if Christians in Gaza are being harassed by Hamas or the Palestinian police, all the students agreed that this is not the case.
“Every society has extremists,” Ali observed. “Like sometimes I’m criticized for not wearing my hijab. But that has nothing to do with being Muslim or Christian. Those people don’t represent our Palestinian society.”
Even though Israel's Christian population has grown over the years.
Compare to this recent article on Gaza's Baptists:
Hundreds of people crowded around a small stage on the sidewalk in Bethlehem. Traffic slowed not only to dodge those dancing in the street but so passengers could listen to the musicians publicly proclaiming God's love for the nations.The Arab propaganda machine is spinning furiously.
A visiting Gaza woman nervously looked around, checking the crowd for troublemakers at the outdoor praise and worship concert by Bethlehem Bible College students.
"We couldn't do something like this in Gaza. People are always watching," she whispered, afraid someone might hear. "Ever since our dear brother was killed for his faith, Gaza Christians live in fear."
Rami Ayyad, a prominent Baptist, was kidnapped and found dead less than a mile from a Christian bookstore he managed for the Palestinian Bible Society. Officials say there has been no progress in the investigation of the October incident. The bookstore was bombed last April but no one was injured.
Life has been increasingly difficult for Christians in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the coastal strip last June. Attacks against Christians have been rare; however, the Baptist community has been a target for extremists because of its evangelical work.
Many Baptist leaders have fled Gaza Strip, taking refuge in the West Bank. Pastor Hanna Massad and his family are among eight families who relocated because they felt it was too dangerous to remain in their homeland.
"The Lord is teaching us many things during this time. To follow Christ is very real to us now," Massad said. "There's a price to pay to follow our Lord. We see people willing to give their life for Christ. Every day, Gaza Christians are confronted with the question, 'Are you willing to follow?'"
These refugees spend much time worrying about their Baptist family back home and praying for their safety. Christians living in the Gaza Strip number around 3,000. Most are Greek Orthodox, but there are a few hundred Catholics and a small community of Baptists living in this 140-square-mile territory where more than 1.5 million Muslims live.
Massad said believers in Gaza have been robbed or threatened in recent months. When a 6-year-old girl answered the intercom system at her house recently, a voice told her he plans to kill her father.
"The man threatened isn't a leader in the Baptist church, but he is a very committed Christian," a Baptist worker said. "Most of those left in Gaza are not high-profile Baptist leaders, but they are still identified as part of the Baptist church. The threat to them is still very high and very real."
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
- Wednesday, February 06, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
An Irish woman who crossed a breached border into Gaza with her daughter said Wednesday that border guards were preventing them from returning to Egypt.As we all know, Gaza is an open-air prison run by the heartless Zionists. So this must be Israel's fault, by definition.
Treasa Ni Cheannabhain said she and her daughter, an Egyptian national, entered Gaza on Saturday, more than a week after Hamas militants knocked down the border wall.
As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt, Ni Cheannabhain, 56, said she sneaked into Gaza with her 19-year-old daughter, Naisrin el-Safty, to distribute money to needy Gazans.
Egyptian guards resealed the border Sunday, ending the 12-day breach. Ni Cheannabhain said she had not heard warnings that the crossing would close.
The pair tried to return to Egypt late Tuesday, but were stopped by Egyptian border guards.
"I admitted I entered illegally, but we want to come back in legally," Ni Cheannabhain said in a telephone interview from the border town of Rafah.
Ni Cheannabhain is married to an Egyptian physician.
Ireland's Foreign Ministry is trying to help but only Egypt can authorize the pair's return, a ministry spokesman said.
"The Egyptian authorities apparently are refusing to let her cross back over to Egypt," said the spokesman on customary condition of anonymity.
The entire world that blamed Israel for its not allowing Gazans to freely come and bomb Jews - and ignored the many hundreds of people Israel did allow to leave for medical or religious reasons - somehow remains silent when forced to confront the fact that Gaza is bordered by two countries, not one, and that Egypt can allow its fellow Arabs to roam freely back and forth as well.
(h/t Global_Freezing)
- Wednesday, February 06, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
Around 2,000 men from different Arab countries entered the Gaza Strip, after the toppling of the Rafah border wall, wanting to join the Palestinian resistance against Israel, reliable Palestinian sources told Ma'an on Wednesday.Amazing what years of non-stop incitement can do to people. When millions grow up hearing how evil the Jews are and how dying while fighting them guarantees you a place in Paradise, it is no wonder that thousands of them want to join the bandwagon of hate and terror.
Sources within Hamas told Ma'an that the men, many of whom are Egyptian young men offered to join the Palestinian resistance. He added that Hamas expressed its appreciation for the solidarity shown by the move. However, he added that Palestinian resistance factions are not interested in foreign fighters.
- Wednesday, February 06, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
TEHRAN -- A young Iranian man has been sentenced to hang for repeatedly drinking alcohol which is strictly banned in the Islamic republic, the Etemad newspaper reported on Wednesday.See how lenient the Iranians were in not hanging him after the third offense?The 22-year-old, identified only as Mohsen, was handed down the death penalty by a criminal court after being found guilty of drinking alcohol for a fourth time, the daily said.
"The defendant in this case has been sentenced to death and the official notification will be given soon," it quoted Judge Jalil Jalili as saying.
"According to article 179 of the Islamic penal code, if someone drinks twice and is punished for it on each occasion he should be executed on the third offence," Jalili said.
Truly, Allah is most merciful.
- Wednesday, February 06, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
UN rights chief reversal on anti-Semitic Arab charter
In an unprecedented reversal, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has backed off from her earlier endorsement of an Arab text calling for the “elimination” of Zionism, in response to a UN Watch protest. News of the controversy was covered internationally, sparking a series of Canadian newspaper editorials critical of Ms. Arbour’s initial statement and her overall handling of the affair.
Following is a timeline of the events as they unfolded around the globe.
Jan. 24, 2008, Geneva: High Commissioner Arbour issues an official statement: “I welcome the 7th ratification required to bring the Arab Charter on Human Rights into force... the Arab Charter on Human Rights is an important step forward [to] help strengthen the enjoyment of human rights.” At U.N. headquarters in New York, Marie Okabe, spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, highlights Arbour’s statement. When asked, she does not have the text of the charter.
Jan. 25, 2008, United Arab Emirates: The Arab world takes note of Arbour’s support for the Arab Charter, prominently featured in this article by the United Arab Emirates news agency.
Jan. 28, 2008, Geneva: UN Watch is the first to speak out, exposing the hateful provisions in the Arab Charter, and demanding action from Arbour. UN Watch sends her a detailed letter:...[click on link for full description]
Jan. 30, 2008, Geneva & New York: Arbour changes course. Now she asserts that various Arab Charter provisions are “incompatible” with international norms. The UN headquarters in New York issues a new release, entitled “Arab rights charter deviates from international standard.”
Read the whole thing.
- Wednesday, February 06, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
The reaction is both hilarious and telling:
The Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, called for the Hebrew language be taught in Egyptian schools on Tuesday evening . The suggestion has provoked an angry response from Egyptian political parties who claimed that the demand came as part of the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978.The fact that Egyptians are worried that hundreds of millions of Arabs could "assimilate" into Israeli society betrays a deep insecurity in their own culture. The fact that an Egyptian politician can even utter a sentence such as "the Hebrew language does not possess any heritage or civilization" also shows how hate can trump common sense.
Jamal Zahran, an independent Egyptian lawmaker, told the Al-Khalij daily newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates that the Israeli ambassador’s comment reflected Israeli efforts to encourage the Egyptian young people to learn the Hebrew language and travel to Israel to ‘assimilate in its society.’
He criticized the Egyptian government for remaining silent in the wake of Cohen’s comments. Zahran urged Egypt to announce its rejection of the demand and to warn Israel against what he called intervention in internal Egyptian affairs.
"The Hebrew language does not possess any heritage or civilization, and it is spoken by very few people, and so Egypt can't adopt it in its schools as a foreign language," the deputy president of the Nasserite party, Husam Issa said. He described the Israeli ambassador's demand as "stupidity and triviality" and reminded the ambassador that most of the Egyptian people antagonize the Israeli government for its brutality against the Arabs in general and the Palestinian people in particular.
Interestingly, there is increasing interest in Hebrew language instruction in Egyptian universities, as YNet noted recently:
An unexpected new trend among Egyptian university students... Hebrew language studies. Foreign Ministry data indicate that over 1,400 Egyptian students are currently enrolled in full-time Hebrew studies programs.
More than 10 Egyptian Universities currently offer Hebrew courses, usually as part of Oriental Language faculties that also teach Turkish and Persian.
Two major Egyptian universities, Ain Shams University and al-Azhar University, even boast a separate Hebrew language faculty. This is a major accomplishment, especially in universities that are considered bastions of strong anti-Israel sentiments.
One Hebrew lecturer, an Egyptian that has never visited Israel, recently told an Israeli diplomat that he teaches his students Hebrew through “Ha'Gashash Ha'chiver” comedy skits and Israeli music.
The lecturer even asked the Israeli diplomat for new movies to show his students, stressing that they must show absolutely no sex or nudity, or he could be charged with corrupting his students with Israeli pornography.
State officials explained that this burgeoning interest in the Hebrew language stems mostly from Egyptian curiosity, but also of a keen desire to “know the enemy”. Many students are sent to Hebrew studies programs by Egyptian intelligence, who frown upon students who study Hebrew of their own initiative.
Students who attend the Israeli academic Center or frequent the Israeli embassy in Cairo are likewise harassed by security personnel, who incessantly question them and often warn them not to return. Those few students brave enough to attend Hebrew lecturers are deemed highly courageous.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
- Tuesday, February 05, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- self-death
An article in the Arab News said:
The situation in Gaza represents misery, not only for the Palestinians but also for all civilized people of the world.The West is preoccupied with human rights issues in the Middle East and the collapse of the American economy when children of Gaza are dying because of the blockade. Hunger, cold, darkness, pain and blood covering women and children and many other traumas are part of the bigger picture.
...The situation in Gaza represents a slap in the face of the civilized world. Children are living outdoors, women are dying from bullets and old people are freezing to death.
I wrote:
I have been following the events in Gaza pretty closely, and I do not recall any children dying (besides a very few who were already extremely ill), I do not recall anyone starving to death nor do I recall anyone freezing to death. Do you by any chance have names and the circumstances?
And if not, why does the Arab News keep publishing absurd lies like these? Self-perpetuating myths that incite hundreds of millions of Arabs is not quite the best way to get to a peaceful solution.
- Tuesday, February 05, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- media bias
Israelis stand near the grave of Lyubov Razdolskaya, 73, killed in a suicide attack in Dimona Monday, after her funeral in the southern Israeli town of Beer Sheva, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008.
Meanwhile, I see dozens of pictures of Palestinian Arabs mourning - not mourning innocent victims of attacks, but mourning terrorists killed by Israel:
The Israeli mourners are seen from a distance, dispassionately, disinterestedly.
The Palestinian Arab mourners, on the other hand, are shown close up, as individuals who have gone through a tragedy.
And there are dozens of photos of Arab mourners, but only a handful of pictures from the Dimona funeral.
To the wire services, only one side is deserving of sympathy - the side that mourns and supports terrorists.
UPDATE: A couple of commenters here and at Israellycool pointed out that the relatives of the victim requested no media coverage, so this is perhaps a bit unfair - in this case.
- Tuesday, February 05, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
The earliest reference of a SA outside the context of warfare has been suggested to be the Biblical story of the Amorites attacking the Jews: “The Amorite who dwell on that mountain went out against you and pursued you as the bees would do; they struck you in Seir until Hormah.” The 11th century French rabbi Rashi suggested this to mean that the Amorites attacked like bees do, i.e. stinging and then dying.Apparently this came from a Wikipedia entry that has since been discarded.
The verse is in Deuteronomy 1:44:
וַיֵּצֵא הָאֱמֹרִי הַיֹּשֵׁב בָּהָר הַהוּא, לִקְרַאתְכֶם, וַיִּרְדְּפוּ אֶתְכֶם, כַּאֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂינָה הַדְּבֹרִים; וַיַּכְּתוּ אֶתְכֶם בְּשֵׂעִיר, עַד-חָרְמָה.
The Rashi (translated) is
Just as this bee when it stings a person, it [the bee] dies immediately;172 so too when they [the Emorites] touched you, they died immediately.
This seems a bit of a stretch to say that the Amorites purposefully killed themselves to hurt Jews, but it is still noteworthy.
- Tuesday, February 05, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- self-death
On Saturday 2 February, at approximately 19:00, the body of Ahmad Eyad Bilal (15) was brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. According to preliminary PCHR investigations, Ahmed Bilal, from Sheikh Radwan district in Gaza city, was killed by a bullet to the chest fired from an unknown source. The victim’s family informed PCHR that Ahmed was walking with his father in Nafaq St, northeast Gaza city, when a stray bullet hit him in the chest.
Gaza murders are barely reported anymore, and I didn't see this one in any of the Palestinian Arab daily publications I monitor (Palestine Press Agency, Ma'an Arabic, Ma'an English, Palestine Today, IMEMC.) I suspect that I am severely undercounting the number of murders in Gaza since the Hamas takeover. (And many are missed by PCHR as well.)
Nevertheless, the official 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 15.
Monday, February 04, 2008
- Monday, February 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- saudi vice
But her colleague was - gasp! - a man.
Immediately, our heroes from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice sprang into action and arrested Yara and her male colleague for being in a state of "khulwa", meaning in seclusion with an unrelated member of the opposite sex. Starbucks in Saudi Arabia are secluded enough for violating the law, but not secluded enough for our heroes to be able to see what everyone is doing.
The Vice Commission wasted no time. They forced Yara into a cab, took away her cell phone when she tried to call her husband, and then placed her in a Chevrolet Suburban, the Commission's favored means of transporting immoral criminals.
The whore Yara explains what happened next:
As the Commission knows well, it is far better for a woman to be alone in a car with two male commission members than in a Starbucks with any other man.“I told (the commission member) that I am a good Muslim, a mother of three, and a God-fearing person who would never do shameful things,” she told Arab News in tears.
Last year, the Interior Ministry issued a ruling that the commission cannot detain people and must pass them on to the police.
Yara said that she was handed a confession.
“He told me I needed to fingerprint this paper stating that I got my mobile phone and bag back,” she said. “When I told him my phone was still confiscated, he threatened me: ‘Just do it!’”
She said that she fingerprinted the paper under duress.
“I had no other choice ... I was scared for my life ... I was afraid that they would abuse me or do something to me,” she said, as she broke down in tears again.
Then another person got into the GMC and switched on the engine.
The disgusting, immoral man is still in detention.“The next thing I saw from the window was that we were approaching a place with a sign written on the outside: Malaz Prison,” she said.
Inside the prison, Yara recounts being taken to a cell with a one-way mirror. On the other side was a sheikh.
“I could not see him because there was a dark window,” she said, adding that each time she paused he would reprimand her, telling her what she did was wrong. “He kept on telling me this is not allowed.”
Yara told the sheikh that her husband knew where she was and what she was doing. He then started writing a report. Another pre-written confession was fingerprinted, she said. She pleaded with prison authorities to contact her husband.
“They would not let me contact my husband,” she said. “I told them... please... my husband will have a heart attack if he does not know what has happened to me.”
She was not given a phone to call her husband. She was not given access to a lawyer. “They stripped me,” she said. “They checked that I had nothing with me and threw me in the cell with all the others.”
The brave men of the Commission managed to keep the streets of Riyadh free from vice for another day.
And we can all breathe easier that the "family section" of Starbucks in Riyadh is a safe place where the virtue and honor of women are respected.
Episode 6: Protecting Saudi Women
Episode 5: What's ummah, Doc?
Episode 4: The car washer
Episode 3: Holy Shi'ite
Episode 2: Alone with a strange, sick woman
Episode 1: Introduction, plus A Gang of Magicians
- Monday, February 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
A controversial new electronic device could revolutionize the field of Islamic jurisprudence and allegedly issue more accurate Shariah fatwas [religious edicts]. The device, currently in production in France, will be known as the 'Electronic Mufti' and will depend on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to issue opinions on contemporary Muslim affairs and matters.
Asharq Al-Awsat met with the only Arab participating in the production of this machine, Engineer Dr. Anas Fawzi, who hails from Egypt and is a communications expert who is part of the team based in France.
He describes the device as "a very large capacity computer on which all the information that is relevant to a given [historical] figure is uploaded; everything that has been mentioned in history books or chronicled documents that indicate his/her responses and attitudes towards all positions adopted in his/her life. Through a process that relies on AI, the computer then simulates responses based on the available data so that the answers are the expected response that the person in question would give if they were alive," said Dr. Fawzi.
"The device deduces the expected response through consulting thousands of examples that have been uploaded on to the machine, pertaining to that person whilst taking into account their reactions so that it may relate the expected response in accordance with their personality as created by the Artificial Intelligence apparatus," explained Dr. Fawzi.
Dr. Fawzi said, "Although a team has assembled and uploaded all the information that is available about the Prophet Mohammed in [canonical] Islamic history books, the holy Quran and what is known about his life through Sunnah," he acknowledges that it would be highly controversial – if not downright contentious – to implement this.Notwithstanding, he revealed, "I have consulted with several Islamic scholars and clerics in elevated positions – there is no need to mention their names so as to avoid stirring up public opinion – however, they have assured me that such a device is not 'haram' [prohibited by Islam]. But there are fears and scepticism regarding misuse and causing any misrepresentation or defamation to the figure of the Prophet. There are also fears in terms of Arab and Islamic public opinion and their acceptance of a machine such as this."
Regarding the views of various Islamic scholars and clerics about this device, the Egyptian Awqaf [Religious Endowments] Ministry's First Undersecretary for Preaching Affairs, Dr. Shawqi Abdel Latif said with regards to the concept of 'simulating' the figure of the Prophet of Islam to serve the Islamic religion in accordance with special conditions: "the idea is a noble one if indeed it calls for Muslim unity in matters of religion in light of the satellite [channel] wars that the Muslim endure, in addition to the incapability of the relevant bodies of formulating and setting forth ideas in the interest of Muslims. However, I strongly stress that there is no machine or human mind capable of simulating the figure of the Prophet regardless of their knowledge or immensely advanced technological capabilities."
He also added that, "God Almighty blessed the Prophet and chose him and you cannot transcend over the rest of the creatures to be like him; the true differentiating factor here is Revelation. The incorrect interpretation of the Quranic verse 'Say: I am only a mortal like you' (Surat al Kahf 18:110) does not in any way mean that there is any similitude between us and the Prophet or between him and any famous figure that the machine can simulate."
I wonder if the AI Mohammed is better than this one?