Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Dubai asks Google to censor the Internet

Al Arabiya (Arabic) reports:

Officials of the Dubai Police asked the popular search engine "Google" to find a mechanism "to reduce the spread of pornographic images and films that would create problems and decadence in the society, especially among young people and adolescents."

The police said in Thursday, "During a meeting in Dubai, security officials demanded that the Google Director of Development in the Middle East and Europe, Giselle Hescuk, limit the spread of pornographic passages, which make fun of religions, support atheism and calls to promote new religions, as well as asked her to prevent the part [of Google] which violate privacy, and calls for terrorism and violence, which are not suitable for young people, and promote calls for chaos and insecurity, and the passages which urge people to commit suicide and self-destruction."

An official complained about "people who exploit the Internet sites and redirect to locations incompatible with our customs and traditions, and the modesty of the people are hurt and dishonored."

He stressed that "The Dubai Police are not against freedom, but they are duty-bound to preserve the society and its customs and traditions," adding that "the security services and police will intensify its coordination with the Co-operators of the Internet in the UAE, and with it keep abreast of technical developments, in order to protect the youth" .

Another official said the campaign will ask the Internet service providers in the UAE for a ban on the display of pornographic images, and cartoons of religions, and anything out of the customs and traditions of society, did not rule out that the campaign includes an other sites, including the "Facebook" social site.

Palestinian Arab glee at axe murder of 13 year old

As expected, average Palestinian Arabs who read the mainstream, Fatah-leaning Firas Press are positively joyous that a 13-year old Shlomo Nativ was brutally murdered by one of their brethren.

Here are some comments in the Arabic Firas site:

All pay tribute to the resistance

God supports the right and power of God and the sons of Islam, the great

Cherishing God - Recognizes the hands of God, who was killed that pig

Every revolution is the answer Every God is the answer and the best solution is the clandestine resistance cells ...

The Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the operation Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Salute to the Champions-Aqsa Brigades

The best news I have read today, support the Mujahideen

The Palestinian people confirm that the operation came as a natural and smooth response from the one coming at the hands of our fighters and the bomber arrived QUSAI 9 through which the safety of all the best and thank God it was bull until victory

Notice that the Fatah supporters who read Firas are very happy that "their" terrorists claimed responsibility. Sort of like rooting for a sports team, just they are rooting that their team murders more children than their competitors.

Needless to say, not a single person wrote a message condemning the murder.

Lieberman's speech

As usual, the press likes to write that the "ultranationalist" Avigdor Lieberman made a hardline speech rejecting peace and a two-state solution. And as usual, it is not easy to find the actual text of the speech so people can make up their own minds.

I am not a big fan of Lieberman. I do not think he is qualified nor has the temperament to be an effective foreign minister, and in many ways I think some of his ideas on a two-state solution are dangerous. But this speech is nothing at all like it is being represented, and I see little in this speech that I disagree with.

So since the media won't bother to put it in context, here it is:

Good afternoon, honorable outgoing Foreign Minister, honorable outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister, incoming Deputy Foreign Minister, Director-General Ministry employees, honored guests,

When my fellow students and I studied international relations, and learned what an international system is, we learned that there is a State and there are international organizations and all kinds of global economic corporations. Things have changed since then and, unfortunately, in the modern system, there are countries that are semi-states. It is hard to call a country like Somalia a state in the full sense of the word and the same holds true for the various autonomies in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans and here as well. It is even hard to call a country like Iraq a state in the full sense of the word. And even worse, there are now international players that are irrational, like the Al Qaeda organization. And we can certainly also ask if the leader of a strong and important country like Iran is a rational player.

In my view, we must explain to the world that the priorities of the international community must change, and that all the previous benchmarks - the Warsaw Pact, the NATO Alliance, socialist countries, capitalist countries - have changed. There is a world order that the countries of the free world are trying to preserve, and there are forces, or countries or extremist entities that are trying to violate it.

The claim that what is threatening the world today is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a way of evading reality. The reality is that the problems are coming from the direction of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

What is important is to maintain global and regional stability. Egypt is definitely an important country in the Arab world, a stabilizing factor in the regional system and perhaps even beyond that, and I certainly view it as an important partner. I would be happy to visit Egypt and to host Egyptian leaders here, including the Egyptian Foreign Minister - all based on mutual respect.

I think that we have been disparaging many concepts, and we have shown the greatest distain of all for the word “peace.” The fact that we say the word “peace” twenty times a day will not bring peace any closer. There have been two governments here that took far-reaching measures: the Sharon government and the Olmert government. They took dramatic steps and made far-reaching proposals. We saw the Disengagement and the Annapolis Conference.

Yisrael Beiteinu was not then part of the coalition, Avigdor Liberman was not the foreign minister and, even if we had wanted to, we would have been unable to prevent peace. But none of these far-reaching measures have brought peace. To the contrary. We have seen that, after all the gestures that we made, after all the dramatic steps we took and all the far-reaching proposals we presented, in the past few years this country has gone through the Second War in Lebanon and Operation Cast Lead - and not because we chose to. I have not seen peace here. It is precisely when we made all the concessions that I saw the Durban Conference, I saw two countries in the Arab world suddenly sever relations, recalling their ambassadors - Mauritania and Qatar. Qatar suddenly became extremist.

We are also losing ground every day in public opinion. Does anyone think that concessions and constantly saying “I am prepared to concede,” and using the word “peace” will lead to anything? No, that will just invite pressure, and more and more wars. "Si vis pacem, para bellum" - if you want peace, prepare for war; be strong.

We definitely want peace, but the other side also bears responsibility. We have proven our desire for peace more than any other country in the world. No country has made concessions the way Israel has. Since 1977, we have given up areas of land three times the size of the State of Israel. So we have proven the point.

The Oslo process began in 1993. Sixteen years have passed since then, and I do not see that we are any closer to a permanent settlement. There is one document that binds us and it is not the Annapolis Conference. That has no validity. When we drafted the basic government policy guidelines, we certainly stated that we would honor all the agreements and all the undertakings of previous governments. The continuity of government is respected in Israel. I voted against the Road Map, but that was the only document approved by the Cabinet and by the Security Council - I believe it was Resolution 1505. It is a binding resolution and it binds this government as well.

The Israeli government never approved Annapolis, neither the Cabinet nor the Knesset, so anyone who wants to amuse himself can continue to do so. I have seen all the proposals made so generously by Ehud Olmert, but I have not seen any results.

So we will therefore act exactly according to the Road Map, including the Tenet document and the Zinni document. I will never agree to our waiving all the clauses - I believe there are 48 of them - and going directly to the last clause, negotiations on a permanent settlement. No. These concessions do not achieve anything. We will adhere to it to the letter, exactly as written. Clauses one, two, three, four - dismantling terrorist organizations, establishing an effective government, making a profound constitutional change in the Palestinian Authority. We will proceed exactly according to the clauses. We are also obligated to implement what is required of us in each clause, but so is the other side. They must implement the document in full, including - as I said - the Zinni document and the Tenet document. I am not so sure that the Palestinian Authority or even we - in those circles that espouse peace so much - are aware of the existence of the Tenet and Zinni documents.

When was Israel at its strongest in terms of public opinion around the world? After the victory of the Six Day War, not after all the concessions in Oslo Accords I, II, III and IV. Anyone who wants to maintain his status in public opinion must understand that if he wants respect, he must first respect himself. I think that, at least from our standpoint, will be our policy.

Saudis ban entertainment at women's charity events

From Al-Arabiya:

An official decree by Saudi Arabia has banned all forms of entertainment at women's charity events, according to press reports Thursday.
The Ministry of Social Affairs issued an urgent decree banning music, dancing, singing, and fashion shows at events held by women's charitable organizations, which make up 16 percent of the kingdom's 500 organizations, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported.

The decree came on the heels of the first fashion show, part of a designer contest for women, held in the kingdom last week.
Besides entertainment, the decree stipulates that all activities that contradict customs and traditions are banned. Fashion shows are only allowed if the clothes are displayed on mannequins, but no human models.

The ministry assigned its officials in each of the kingdom's 13 provinces the task of reviewing and authorizing all events organized by charitable associations and making sure the program does not include any banned activities.

Now, why would only women's charities be singled out? Presumably these events are women-only. Could it be that Saudis can't stand the idea of women having fun even among themselves?

And does this mean that the idea of women having fun, away from men, is so reprehensible that charities must lose money?

"There is no escaping the fact that the day will come when we will free the Golan, through peace or through war," Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday.

He added: "We have our principles, and whoever abides by them will not constitute a problem for us."

According to Assad, "From the war of Palestine (in 1948) to the occupation of the Golan (in the Six Day War – R.N.) people are becoming more hostile towards Israel. There may come a generation that is unwilling to talk peace.

"There is now a resurgence of the idea of resistance. Israel is advancing in a direction that goes against its interests, and eventually all people are moving towards resistance, which is certainly in the interest of the Arabs."

This points to a fundamental difference between Israel and most of its neighbors. To Israel, the major goal is peace. The means to get to that goal is negotiations, concessions, and sometimes through shows of strength, but the ultimate goal is to live in peace with her neighbors.

To Arabs, though, peace is not the goal. The goal is land, concessions, "Palestinian rights," apologies, compensation, and a whole host of other demands - but the end-goal is not to have peace.

For Israel, concessions are a way to bring peace. For the Arabs, the pretense of "peace" is a way to wrangle a never-ending stream of concessions.

Which is, as Assad implies, exactly how they view war and terrorism ("resistance.")

What kind of a peace can be expected when one side views it as a tactic and not as a goal?

Bahais attacked in Egypt

From al-Arabiya:

In the latest outburst of religious tensions in Egypt, dozens of villagers set fire to Bahai homes after hearing on television that the village was "full of Bahais," reports said Thursday.

Angry villagers rampaged through Sharoniyah, in southern Egypt, on Monday and Tuesday, setting fire to and damaging four Bahai homes, a security official told AFP, asking not to be named.

The fires spread to two Muslim homes which were also damaged, the official said. The villagers also threatened the village's roughly 30 Bahais with death, the official said, after which all of them fled.

The arson attacks were the culmination of unrest that began with stone throwing immediately after a Bahai named Ahmed called a television talk show that was discussing the religious minority on Saturday night.

Ahmed, who now lives in Cairo after fleeing persecution in Sharoniyah, described the village as ‘full of Bahais,’ which showed that Egypt's around 2,000 Bahais are not just a minority in Cairo.

A column in the state-owned al-Gomhuriyah newspaper said on Tuesday that the Bahais, whose world headquarters are in Haifa, Israel, are connected to "world Zionism."

Columnist Gamal Abdel Rahim described the Bahai as "a deviant group which seeks to harm Islam to serve the interests of the enemies of the Muslim religion, in particular world Zionism."

Hamas declares obscenity to be "natural"

After today's terror attack of a Palestinian Arab literally butchering a 13-year old boy with an axe, Hamas announced:

"This attack was committed in the framework of the resistance," Ayman Taha said. "This is a reaction to the continuing occupation and the continued building of settlements."

"This is a natural reaction," he said, "especially against the backdrop of Israel attacks. We are a people occupied, and it is our right to defend ourselves and to act in every way and with every means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves."

This is not the first time that Hamas labeled terror attacks against innocent civilians to be "natural." They said it after an 86-year old Jewish man was murdered in Gilo, they said it after a Jewish woman was murdered with a bulldozer, they said it after many teens were massacred in their school.

In fact, Hamas believes that any attack against Jews is natural. When terrorists bragged about raping Jewish women as "revenge" against the Jews, Hamas didn't say a word against it. It is literally impossible to imagine a scenario where Hamas and other Palestinian Arab terror groups would condemn any attack that can possibly be claimed to be against Zionists worldwide.

Hamas has redefined any obscenity to be natural - if it is done by Arabs.

The labeling of heinous, disgusting crimes as "natural" is, in many ways, worse than the terror itself. It creates a mentality, already embraced by many in the West, that terrorism (disguised as "defense" or "resistance") is a human right, and that there is nothing that could be remotely considered immoral if the victims happen to be Jews who live in the Middle East. It is enshrining hate and it needs to be deplored, not with mealy mouthed official condemnations, but as an indictment of the entire Palestinian Arab mindset that glorifies obscenity. Israel should pronounce Hamas and their supporters not just to be "terrorists" but to be a vile, sickening bunch of animals who do not deserve any consideration, let alone respect, and who have - with their own words - dehumanized themselves.

Israel needs to emphasize that the most loathesome people are heroes in the twisted Palestinian Arab culture and that to even entertain the idea of negotiating with people like that is beyond absurd.

Brave Palestinian Arab axes Jewish boy to death

A Palestinian Arab man attacked Jews with an axe in Bat Ayin, killing a 13 year old boy and injuring a 7-year old. The terrorist escaped to a neighboring Arab village, where the peace-loving residents will hide their latest hero. Israel Matzav is liveblogging it.

There is zero chance that any Palestinian Arab will publicly show disgust at this act of deliberately attacking and murdering children. There is zero chance that the Arab village will hand this murderous scum over to any authorities. There is a 100% chance that this attack will be praised or, at the least, justified by the mainstream Palestinian Arab society and media. There is a 100% chance that multiple terror groups will vie for the honor of taking credit for this attack - in fact, that has already happened, with both Fatah and Islamic Jihad claiming responsibility.

As horrible as Qassam rockets aimed at civilians are, and as disgusting and deadly as suicide bombers are, there is something even more viscerally reprehensible at the thought of a man taking an axe and deliberately attacking children with it. Given the history of the Arab world celebrating Samir Kuntar, who similarly murdered a four year old girl by bashing her head in after murdering her father, this depravity is considered heroic and worthy of emulation. If the murderer gets caught, there will be summer camps in Ramallah named after him next year.

At this time, only Palestine Today is reporting this story in Arabic, referring to the dead boy as a "settler." And the entire world considers "settlers" to be subhuman already.

The Elder of Ziyon Haggadah

The Elder of Ziyon Haggadah for 5769/2009 is ready and available for download.

It contains the full Haggadah text, including English (except for Nirtzah.) It includes dozens of commentaries that I found on the Internet, almost all from a religious-Zionist perspective. Many of the commentaries assume that the audience is religious, so there are many transliterations of Hebrew words that I did not translate. I did not write anything original; I just compiled and edited it, pretty quickly.

The Haggadah is in PDF format, suitable for printing. It is 61 pages long and looks pretty decent when printed two-sided on a color printer.

To download it, click here and then click on the Download button.

חג שמח!

Hamas, Fatah fight over "Al Quds" celebrations

From Ma'an:

Palestinian division has overshadowed events celebrating Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture 2009; celebrations are disparate, scattered and above all dominated by the factions hosting them.

Nowhere is this more apparent these days than in the two launches of Al-Quds Cultural events; on 17 March in Gaza, and on the 21st in the West Bank.

While only a few days separate the festivities the impact of the division spreads far beyond the immediate audiences and on to the viewers in other Arab nations who wish to share in the celebration of a great Arab Capital.

Each side has a multi-million dollar budget, allocated to figures close to the Palestinian Authority and de facto government offices. In the West Bank Dr Rafiq Al-Husseini, advisor to the President, controls a five million US dollar budget, while in Gaza member of the de facto government’s minister’s council Dr Atallah Abu Al-Sabeh controls the close to two million dollars allocated to the Al-Quds events.

For his part Abu As-Sabeh in Gaza described local events as “strong and successful,” but said that the internal division was palpable at each show.

“It looks like the shows in Gaza and the West Bank are competing with each other,” he said, “and that does no good for the audiences at home and abroad.”

“I just hope this does not reflect badly on Jerusalem,” he added.

Don't worry, Abu. Jerusalem will remain the most beautiful city in the world under Jewish control no matter how many Arabs fight each other over their claims.

Notice that millions of dollars of Western aid is going into these purely political events to make Jerusalem, Judenrein.

By the way, a good indication of the violence-loving psychology of Palestinian Arabs can be seen by the what they name their terrorist rockets after: Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Fatah's rocket is called the Al-Aqsa and Islamic Jihad calls theirs the Al-Quds.

Can you imagine, say, Spanish bombs called "Vaticans" or Italian rockets called "Bethlehems"? For normal people, their holy sites stand for peace, not war; for Palestinian Arabs, holiness is war.

April Islamic Fools open thread

There are no shortage of Muslim myths that are appropriate on April Fool's Day, like
"Yasser Arafat was poisoned by evil Joooz" or "Palestinians are suffering from a genocide."

Here's one from Iraq:

James Hider, the Middle East correspondent for the London Times and a self-confessed arachnophobe, was covering the U.S. Marines' campaign in Fallujah where he heard reports that the city's preachers would boost the Islamic fighters' morale with tales that Allah had sent in legions of “chair-sized arachnids, whose poisoned hairs could make a human body turn blue and explode in a shower of corrupted blood.” Oh, and the spiders also scream along at 40 kms an hour.

And don't forget Gaza's "Angels from Allah."

See also MEMRI's Top Conspiracy Theories of 2006 and the links there for earlier ones.

Meanwhile, post anything interesting you might have seen while surfing today...

Ain't got no time

...to blog.

Still working on the Elder Haggadah; hope to have that ready soon.

Palestinian "journalist"'s unfair advantage

One of the most prolific - and hateful - Palestinian Arab journalists is Khaled Amayreh, who we've quoted before as calling the PA "Zionist proxy scum!" He breathes bile, often at the "Palestine Think Tank" site.

One recent article compares the Palestinian Arab children's orchestra who played for Holocaust survivors in Israel to Holocaust victims forced to play music for Nazis. The pure hatred he feels for all things Israeli and Jewish is palpable.

Another from today calls the new Israeli government

an extremist coalition of war criminals, pathological liars, racist thugs (both of the Hitlerian and Stalinist styles), and hateful religious maniacs who inhale and exhale hatred 24 hours per day.

...I am, of course, in no way suggesting that the previous Israeli government was less nefarious than the new one. The previous government of the evil trio Olmert, Livni and Barak had all the hallmarks of a Zionist Third Reich.

But from looking at his website, I can see how he knows so much. You see, Khaled Amayreh has an advantage as a journalist that allows him to see the truth and to dismiss any Zionist propaganda.

He can read minds!

Right below where he calls himself a "peace activist" on his "About Us" page, he writes that his interests include "outer space and parapsychology."

People who are interested in astronomy do not refer to their interests as "outer space," which means that Amayreh not only believes in mind reading and telekinesis, but he probably has a direct connection to aliens and flying saucers as well!

This explains his deep knowledge of the facts as well as his devotion to truth. His main source is Zrfgpl from the planet Zyrkle-8, who happens to also be a rabid anti-semite.

Saudi women's advocacy group folds

From the Arab News:

A proposal to establish a first-of-its-kind organization to support women’s rights in Saudi Arabia has been dropped shattering the hopes of Saudi women for an official organization that would fight for their rights.
“We failed to obtain official approval to operate legally,” said Sulaiman Al-Salman, the man who came up with the idea to establish the society, Ansar Al-Mar’ah (Supporters of Women).
Al-Salman said he has been in constant conflict with the Ministry of Social Affairs to gain approval, adding that the ministry’s rejection has frustrated the group’s determination and that group members have, as a result, lost interest.
“I recently called members for a meeting, but no one showed up apart from one member who said he would be willing to join again once the society gets approved,” he said. “I realized that I was the only one working for this goal, all alone. So I decided to break it up,” he said.
He added that Ansar Al-Mar’ah does not enjoy support in some official circles because it includes members of both genders.

Support for women in the sharia state of Saudi Arabia seems to be a bit...lacking.

Iranian logic

One of the most often-used arguments in favor of anti-semitism is that since there is such a long history of persecution of Jews, the Jews must have done something really evil to deserve it.

In normal enlightened societies where racism and bigotry are frowned upon, the haters are the ones who are put on the defensive. But in the twisted world of the bigots, the innocents who are persecuted are the ones who must prove they shouldn't be hated, an impossible task.

In today's world, the two major recent recipient groups of unbridled hate are "Zionists" and Americans. And just like classic anti-semitism, the haters are arguing that their hate is justified because everyone else is doing it.

From the Los Angeles Times, in part of a response by an advisor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President Obama's Persian New Year's greetings:

In all corners of the world, it is worth noting, the only flags being set ablaze belong to the U.S. and the occupying Zionist regime.

See? Because Muslims have a love of burning flags, then the nations whose flags are burned must all be evil! QED!

I would add that the major targets of shoe-throwing incidents have been Israelis and Americans as well. The author can feel free to use that argument next time.