Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanks, Arab boycott!

Thanks to the Arab boycott of Israel, which partially included Dubai, few Israelis have been exposed to the country's financial crisis. Few Israelis export to Dubai, and it seems very few have business connections with the government's Dubai World development arm, which has asked for a six-month moratorium on interest payments on its $59 billion in debt.

"Anyone involved in the business world has known for six months that Dubai is tottering," said an Israeli businessman with interests around the globe. "It is no wonder that the world crisis has reached them. They have no oil and they live on international trade and debt. There are insane real estate projects there, including artificial islands and extremely exhibitionistic buildings. Luckily, Israelis did not succeed in creating significant business dealings with Dubai, so the relationship between a few tycoons and the Dubai investment fund will not impact the Israeli economy," he said.

"There were several attempts by Israeli construction companies to participate in their large real estate projects, but it is not clear what came of those contacts," said an Israeli businessman knowledgeable about Israeli activities in Dubai.

Israel exported to Dubai only indirectly via other countries, said Dan Catarivas, the director of the Division of Foreign Trade and International Relations of the Manufacturers Association. He said Israeli companies built small, portable desalinization plants there in cooperation with American firms. In addition, software companies tried to build Internet infrastructure through American and European firms, but had little success, said Catarivas. Israeli farmers also cooperate with Jordanian farmers to export fruits and vegetables to Dubai, he said.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange indices are up today.

(h/t Meryl Yourish)

This is a screenshot taken from a Flash ad in Palestine Today. Unfortunately, it didn't link anywhere so I cannot tell what organization sponsored it, but it shows very well that the strategy of destroying Israel in "stages," first decribed by the PLO in 1974, is alive and well.

That Jewish Lobby is really all-encompassing

From the Sunday Times (h/t Backspin):

FIGHTING out of New York, with an unbeaten professional record and the Star of David on his trunks, the opponent facing Amir Khan in the first defence of the Briton’s light-welterweight world title has a background and life story that the most shameless promoter or publicist might blush to concoct.
Dmitriy Salita is a throwback to the days when young Jews tried to fight their way out of poverty in the East End of London or the big-city slums of North America.

...Now he has arrived in Newcastle, ready for the opportunity of his life, buoyed by the good wishes of the New York fight crowd, the Jewish lobby and all those touched by his struggle and his quiet, serious demeanour.

So that's how Yuri Foreman managed to win his fight a couple of weeks ago!

Notable articles from you guys

A few articles that people recommended for me:

Alan Johnston returns to the Middle East for the first time after being kidnapped by Palestinian Arabs, and shows his impartiality by writing the BBC's umpteenth typical "evil settler" story. Plus, notice how BBC puts "'Biblical' land" in scare quotes, and captions a picture "Settlers say the land is part of ancient Israel." As if either fact is in dispute. (h/t TC)

Reb Akiva at Mystical Paths notices that 13% of Palestinian Arab men are employed working in "settlements", most in construction, and notes that a settlement freeze would devastate the West Bank economy. (My guess is that the percentages are higher today, and the 13% included Gaza so the impact on the West Bank would be even more severe than is being noted.) (via email)

Azure, which is a fantastic magazine, emailed me with a recent article about how Switzerland's vaunted neutrality is hardly neutral (welcoming Hamas and Ahmadinejad, shunning the Dalai Lama) and in fact borders on the immoral.

The Adelson Institute also emailed me with an article on Mubarak's Virtual Enemies, about how Egypt is trying to shut down many pro-democracy bloggers and other Internet activists.

Abbas and Chavez, BFF

In recent weeks, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened war with Columbia, promised to personally fly on planes to "zap" clouds to make them rain, urged citizens to stop singing in the shower, said complimentary things about Idi Amin, Carlos the Jackal and Robert Mugabe, and had a warm reception with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad where he labeled Israel "a murderous arm of the Yankee empire."

In that context, his latest guest makes perfect sense:

President Mahmoud Abbas concluded his tour of Latin America in Venezuela on Friday, where he and President Hugo Chavez signed agreements to promote bilateral relations between Caracas and the Palestinians.

In a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian people, Chavez offered Abbas an olive branch and a gold-plated reproduction of a sword belonging to Simon Bolivar, the 19th Century South American political leader who played a key role in the region’s independence from Spain.

Presenting Abbas with these gifts, the Venezuelan president proclaimed, "Venezuela is Palestine; Palestine is Venezuela, we have a common struggle."

"We [Venezuelans] should devote the entire force of our hearts and souls towards the creation of a Palestinian state," he said.

Both leaders have a lot in common - the willingness to sacrifice the well-being of their people for their own egos and misplaced priorities.

Today's lying PalArab "eyewitnesses"

From Ma'an:

Fifteen Israeli settlers from the Yitzhar settlement near Nablus attempted to set fire to a home in the village of Burin, Palestinian sources said Saturday.

Wearing white prayer shirts marking the Jewish Sabbath the group stormed the home of Ayman Attalla Safwan carrying flame excellents but were confronted by several villagers who tried to prevent their entry into the home, eyewitnesses described.

Not sure what "flame excellents" are but not only would religious Jews not carry implements to create a fire - they wouldn't carry anything at all on the Sabbath, outside of what is necessary for saving lives.

Just another example of the lies that Palestinian Arab "witnesses" routinely engage in.

"Peaceful" Nil'in protestors throw Molotov cocktails

From Ma'an:

Several people were injured after protesters launched an anti-wall rally in the West Bank village of Nil'in on Saturday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

In a statement, the Nil'in Youth Center said Israeli forces opened fire on locals and international activists with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition.

The center also said Israeli soldiers were injured when youths threw stones and Molotov cocktails toward five military jeeps that crossed over the barrier and entered the village.

After that raid, two wounded children were evacuated to a hospital, demonstrators said. As many as three other Palestinians were hurt, but the nature of their injuries was not immediately clear.

Approached by Ma'an, an Israeli military spokeswoman denied that soldiers used live fire.

She confirmed that two soldiers were lightly injured, and that protesters used at least one Molotov. Protesters threw rocks and burned tires, as well, the official said.

Palestine Today calls this protest "peaceful."

These are the protests that Abbas hails as great examples of how the third Intifada should be waged.

PalArabs against boycotting Israel

From The JC:

The leader of Palestine’s equivalent of the TUC has told a delegation of British trade unionists that they are not interested in general boycotts of Israel.

Shaher Saeed, general secretary of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), told representatives of seven unions that the organisation had so little interest in the subject it had never discussed boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and therefore had no policy on the subject.

“The only area where the PGFTU did have a boycott policy was with regard to produce from West Bank settlements. Even then, there was concern about whether that boycott could do more harm than good for the 30,000 Palestinians employed there,” said Steve Scott, director of Trade Union Friends of Israel (Tufi), who was with the delegation that met Mr Saeed.

The delegates were Sheila Bearcroft, GMB central executive council member and TUC president 2009; Gerry Moloney, head of communications, Advance Union; Mike Dixon, national executive member, Usdaw; Robert Mooney, national executive member, Community Union; Duncan Harrod, public relations and communications officer, Community Union; and Terry McCorron, chair, Unison branch, attending in a personal capacity.

The delegates maintained a daily blog during the trip and in it, Mr Moloney wrote: “Listening to people from both communities on the subject of the proposed international trade union boycott, it is evident that all parties oppose this action. In a meeting with the Jerusalem municipality workers, one view from the Palestinian contingent was that a boycott would be more detrimental to the Arab workforce than any other.

“The reason was that in the event of economic sanctions, it would cause a detrimental impact on the employment levels of their community.”

On another day, Mike Dixon wrote: “There was a discussion about the boycott and it is clear that Palestinians don’t want it — all they want is equal pay and a living.”

The group met high-ranking Israeli officials as well as Palestinians during the four-day trip, one of two groups that Tufi takes every year to meet trades unionists on both sides.

Mr Scott said: “Both Histadrut (the Israeli union federation) and the PGFTU are working hard to improve relations. It is very important that UK unionists see and hear for themselves the views of people on the ground, rather than the one-sided rhetoric of some of the organisations in Britain.”

One day, it might dawn on people that those who push hard for boycotting Israel have no interest in the well being of Palestinian Arabs.
(h/t Callie)

Have a good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom

Enjoy the rest of the Thanksgiving. and 'Eid, holiday weekend!

Christian girl, 16, gets 50 lashes for knee-length skirt

From Al-Arabiya:

A 16-year-old south Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her lawyer and family said in the latest case to push Sudan's Islamic law into the spotlight.

The mother of teenager Silva Kashif said on Friday she was planning to sue the police who made the arrest and the judge who imposed the sentence, as her daughter was underage and a Christian.

Kashif, whose family comes from the south Sudanese town of Yambio, was arrested while walking to the market near her home in the Khartoum suburb of Kalatla last week, her mother Jenty Doro said.

"She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along in the market like she was a criminal. It was wrong," said Doro.

Doro said Khashif was taken to Kalatla court where she was convicted and punished by a female police officer in front of the judge.

"I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried ... People have different religions and that should be taken into account," she said.

Drive-by shooting attempts in Gaza and the West Bank

Unidentified gunmen opened fire early Thursday on the car of the deputy governor of Nablus, Mrs. Annan Alatyrh Amartij, in the west of Nablus. She was not injured.

Also on Thursday, unidentified gunmen in a car opened fire on one of the main leaders of the armed wing of Hamas in the Bureij camp, Ayad Fadhel, and escaped. He also escaped injury.

Happy Eid!

Egyptian medical association refuses Israel ties

PalToday reports that the Egyptian Medical Syndicate refuses to have any relationship with Israeli doctors.

The issue came up last month when Egyptian authorities barred Israeli doctors from attending a breast cancer conference.

Dr. Hamdi Al-Sayyed, head of the Syndicate, said that the general assembly of Egyptian doctors refused to establish relations with Israeli doctors because "they have contributed to the implementation of serious violations against the Palestinian people."

He called to "criminalize all forms of normalization with the Israeli occupation."

The reasons he gave were because Israeli doctors participate in torture against Palestinian Arabs, and also because they help steal the organs of Palestinian Arab prisoners.

The syndicate has shown similarly progressive thinking before. Last year, it supported a proposed Egyptian law that would make ban organ donations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Egypt.

Their website also reproduces a fatwa against normalization with Israel. That page has been up since 2005.

"Israel is a murderous arm of the Yankee empire"

From Ma'an:

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez branded Israel a murderous extension of US power on Wednesday during a visit by Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We know what the state of Israel stands for - a murderous arm of the Yankee empire," Chavez told joint a news conference, according to Reuters. "What the president of Israel said, we take as a threat."

Venezuela is of course a baseball-mad country. Yet out of 205 Venezuelan baseball players in major league history, only 3 have belonged to the Yankees, a clear statistical imbalance that indicates a deep hatred of Venezuela by the Yankees organization.

The seething hatred between the genocidal dictatorship and the depraved empire may be dated back to 1996, when the Yankees beat out other teams to sign a 16-year old phenomenon from Venezuela named Jackson Melian. Melian never lived up to his potential, and is still banging around the minor leagues, representing a typical failure of the Yankee organization to build up talent from within and instead forcing them to spend gigabucks to buy players developed by other organizations.

The Yankee/Israel conspiracy is less well known. The Israel baseball League collapsed after only one season, but it was known to have a couple of Dominican players, and the Dominican Republic is a major rival to Venezuela in the Caribbean Series.

I hope that others can take this story and dig up more detailed information about this under-reported conspiracy.

More pictures of Starving Gazans ®

Pictures taken this week, from Palestine Today:

Lebanon gives Hezbollah the right to attack Israel

From Al-Arabiya:

Lebanon's new cabinet has agreed on a policy statement that acknowledges Hezbollah's right to use its weapons against Israel, despite disagreement by some members of the ruling majority.

Information Minister Tarek Mitri said late Wednesday after a cabinet committee set up to draft the statement met for the ninth time that an agreement had been reached.
He said the new statement will retain the same clause approved by the previous cabinet as concerns the arsenal of Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006 and is considered a terrorist organization by Washington.

The clause states the right of "Lebanon, its government, its people, its army and its resistance" to liberate all Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah is commonly referred to as the resistance in Lebanon.

Mitri said that reservations concerning the clause by members of the Western-backed majority would be noted in the government program.

Christian members of the majority, including the Phalange Party and Lebanese Forces, argue that Hezbollah's arsenal undermines state authority and runs counter to U.N. resolutions.

Not only does this give official Lebanese status to an independent army that doesn't answer to the government, it also is clearly against UN resolution 1701, which called for "no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon; and it also implicltly contradicts the paragraph that calls for "strong support for full respect for the Blue Line."

It is effectively the continuing surrender of Lebanon to Hezbollah.