Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Libya upset over imports of Israeli goods

Firas Press reports that a Libyan governmental website revealed many Israeli goods being imported into Libya.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Abu Setta said that the Libya market has become filled with various Israeli goods.

He claimed that some 80% of the mobile phone accessories in the Libya market have origins in Israel.

A criminal investigation has not yet been opened.

Video of Abbas and his "adopted" kid

Last week I mentioned that Mahmoud Abbas had, perhaps cynically, adopted the surviving child of a horrific auto accident.

Here is a video of the press conference where Abbas, who turns 75 this week, hugs and kisses the poor kid as cameras click. The child looks like he is being tortured. See if you can find any hint that this was motivated by anything approaching human kindness.

The child's grandfather is thrilled, though.

Followup - did Dubai expel any spies?

On March 10,

Dubai Police have warned spies operating in the Gulf to leave the region within one week or face consequences.
"Those spies that are currently present in the Gulf must leave the region within one week — if not, then we will cross that bridge when we come to it," Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Gulf News.

The statement comes following the January 19 assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, which Dahi has blamed on Israel.

The ultimatum indicates that Dubai Police are aware of the identities of spies operating in the UAE and the Gulf region and appears to be a warning of exposure if they do not comply.

Well, the week deadline has passed. The chief received some praise from Asharq Al Awsat for his gutsy move of threatening unknown spies.

But, for some reason, we have not heard about any spies exposed or expelled from the UAE.

I guess his threat must have forced all the spies to leave, afraid that they'd be exposed.

Yeah, that must be it.

Hamas denies sending message to Egypt via fake congressman

Hamas has released a statement denying that they sent a message to Egypt via "Congressman" Jack Shepard.

The fake congressman, who visited Gaza last week, had told Egypt's Al Masry al-Youm newspaper that he was delivering a message from Hamas' Mahmoud al Zahar to Egypt's government.

Hamas, still unaware that Shepard is a convicted felon, a fraud and a nutcase, simply said that they do not need intermediaries to send messages to the Egyptians, especially not American messengers.

Obama to the left of Carter?

Last June, Jimmy Carter visited the small town of Neve Daniel, in the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements.

Speaking at the end of a meeting with Shaul Goldstein, the head of the Gush Etzion regional council, Carter said that the settlement bloc would remain under Israeli control.

"This particular settlement area is not one that I can envision ever being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory. This is part of settlements close to the 1967 (border) line that I think will be here for ever," he said in the garden of Goldstein's house.

Apparently the current US administration has gone beyond even the most implacably anti-Israel, anti-settlement ex-president, as they call into question not just the large settlement blocs near the Green Line with hundreds of thousands of residents but also organic parts of Jerusalem itself.

Maybe if Obama would deign to visit Israel he could see reality.

Perhaps he doesn't want to. After all, it is easier to make pronouncements and apply pressure from thousands of miles away when you don't know the facts.

Weekend open thread

Time to relax for 25 hours before the final Pesach cleaning push.

Discuss.

The secrets of Dubai

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Dubai police chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has been sharply critical of Israel in general and Mossad in particular, releasing many minutes of security camera footage to support his case. Australia and other western nations, including Ireland and Britain, followed suit.
But General Dahi has chosen to leave hidden at least as much as he has revealed. The autopsy report has not been made public, and neither has the crucial footage from the corridor that shows how the killers entered Mr Mabhouh's room.

Nor has any indication been given of what the Hamas leader charged with organising the flow of weapons from Iran to the Gaza Strip was doing in Dubai - also on a fake passport and with no security - and where he went between 4pm on January 19, after checking in to his hotel, and 8.24pm, when he returned.
Who had he come to meet? Why would he meet Iranians here and not in Iran, or in Syria where he lived?

This is a very good point - if Dubai cameras are all over the place, and if the assassins were following him everywhere, why are we not seeing any footage of Mabhouh from those four hours?

...Trouble is not the only thing that finds its way to Dubai. Airport regulations allow any quantity of cash in any currency to be carried into the country. It is now coming in planeloads from Afghanistan, where, according to airport declarations sighted by The Washington Post, up to $US1 billion a year, more than the government's annual tax revenue, is being flown in.
Several figures closely connected to the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, own villas in Dubai, and the Post has tied the son of Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, to a $US44 million real estate spree on Dubai's waterfront - a feat made more impressive by the fact he was only 11 years old. Dr Karasik said: ''There's a lot of suitcases of money running around from a lot of different sources, so it's kind of hard to say which is bad money and which is good money.''

The Dubai authorities are hiding at least as much as they are revealing.

More from Jack Shepard the scammer (updated)

I just found Jack Shepard's YouTube channel. (Shepard is the guy I've been mentioning who went to Gaza this week and convinced Gazans and Egyptians that he is a member of Congress.) Here's his commercial as he ran his campaign for president in 2008 - from Italy:

The crosses at 1:08 seem to contradict his claims of being Jewish. So does this page of his where he chooses Jesus as his role model.

Not surprisingly, he blames the Mossad for 9/11.

You can also view his Twitter page and the home page of the organization he visited in Gaza that he is honorary president of.

I am anxiously awaiting Cairo's response to the letter he supposedly delivered from Hamas.

UPDATES: He met with the PFLP terror group while in Gaza.
Al Jazeera fell for his scam, as did many other Arabic media.

This week's scoops and exclusives at EoZ

Every once in a while I get the unbecoming urge to brag a little.

Here is a partial list of the journalistic scoops, interesting stories and original analysis that are simply not available in the Western media - just from this blog, just from this week:

Israeli flag raising in Qatar - Israelis at a sports meet in Qatar cause Arab angst
Egyptians cancel soccer match with Palestinian Arab team - because it might imply "normalization" with Israel
Algeria reveals the extent of its participation in 1967, 73 wars - it wasn't only Egypt, Jordan and Syria
Another internal attack on police in Gaza - lots of these in recent months
Two Malaysian pre-teens married to middle-aged men
"Violence erupts" - all by itself! - media bias
Abbas adopts a boy. Love or politics?
Gunbattles, kidnappings, rocket fire in Gaza. The usual. - Gaza remains a mess even with Hamas' hard line
Tamimi doesn't even pause in his lies and incitement - the man behind the riots
Major Muslim religious group calls for jihad against Israel - Nothing new but isn't it still news?
Libya worried about turnout to Arab Summit - Arab unity, again
Saudi cleric calls for destruction of Grand Mosque in Mecca - because of men and women mixing
Nuclear disarmament conference to be held - in Iran - cynical manipulation of Western useful idiots
Convicted felon in Gaza - pretending to be a US congressman and Fake congressman now scamming Egypt - The Egyptian government, major newspapers in Gaza and Egypt, and possibly Hamas have been taken in by this nutcase

Is there any professional, full-time journalist in the world who would not be proud to get this many scoops in a month, let alone a week?

Too funny: Fake congressman now scamming Egypt

I reported earlier this week on Jack Shepard, a convicted felon and failed candidate for Minnesota Senate, governor and President, who visited Gaza this week pretending to be a US Congressman.

Apparently, the fake representative is now working on a Hamas/Fatah reconciliation!

In an exclusive interview with the Egyptian Al Masry al-Youm newspaper,he claimed that he received a letter from Hamas' Mahmoud Zahar approving Cairo's reconciliation agreement and that he was presenting it to Egyptian officials.

Shepard says that he sensed a new attitude from Hamas, and that the terror group is now willing to reconcile with Fatah in order to alleviate the suffering of Gazans.

Shepard, whom the newspaper termed a Democratic Congressman (he ran as a Republican for office,) told the newspaper that he received much assistance from the Egyptian Ambassador to Washington who helped him travel from the US to Egypt and cross into Gaza from Rafah.

This is a bit strange since Shepard lives in Italy and has not entered the US in the 25 years since his felony conviction.

In a 2008 interview when he was running for president he claimed, among other things, to be Jewish:

"Anybody who votes for me now is only voting for me for one reason, and that is not to be president, but a vote in protest against our Middle East foreign policies," Shepard says, acknowledging, "It is going to take a true miracle for me to win."
He calls himself a Middle East specialist and says he often travels to countries like Syria and Israel.

"I believe it is my destiny to bring peace to the Middle East," he says.

Shepard's name will likely appear on ballots in three or four states, including New Hampshire and Arizona, he says. He has spent about $30,000 of his own money on his campaign.

Shepard says his two main concerns within Middle East policy are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and terrorism.

"As a Jew," he says, "Israel's violent actions are embarrassing."

Given the U.S. policy of supporting Israel's violent retaliations, America is in store for more terrorist attacks -- specifically a biological attack, he says.

One of the reasons he is running for president is to get the U.S. to stop "encouraging Israel's violence," he says. He has cousins who are in the Israeli military and believes, as president, he could encourage Israel to use more peaceful diplomacy, he says.

Shepard criticizes both Republican and Democratic candidates, saying none has the military experience necessary to lead the country in the age of terrorism.

Shepard served as an air force dentist in South Carolina. His campaign Web site has a copy of his military identification card from the 1970s.

Shepard's dentistry license was revoked in 1983. The Minnesota Board of Dentistry cited a string of violent incidents and Shepard's refusal to take lithium medication for manic-depression as reason for its decision.

Paul Zerby is a former assistant attorney general who represented the Minnesota Board of Dentistry in the hearings. Zerby describes Shepard as an odd and very angry man. At one point, Zerby says, Shepard brought a bobble-head doll to the hearing.

"If you read the transcript it's really kind of funny. The testimony is going on and then all of a sudden there's the judge saying, 'get that doll off the table.' If you hadn't been there you would have wondered what in the hell was going on," Zerby said. "One time he came in sort of dressed as a soccer player," he said.

When asked about the revocation of his license to practice dentistry in Minnesota, Shepard said, "After I left, (the country) I heard that it was revoked." He continues to practice dentistry in Italy, he says.

In addition to pleading guilty to felony sexual assault, Shepard was also convicted of narcotics possession -- a conviction he disputes, saying the drugs were legal for a dentist to own.

"I believe in divine destiny," Shepard says. "All the things I went through were to teach me things. So even being in prison I learned so much."

In May 2006, the Minnesota Board of Pardons denied Shepard's request for a pardon because he was still a fugitive. He says he is innocent of the alleged first-degree arson charge he is accused of running from.

"Someone kicked in my bedroom door and threw some fire in there and ran downstairs and ran away," he says.

Altogether, this nutcase has managed to convince Egyptians and Gazans that he is a sympathetic member of Congress.

PalArab news roundup 3-19-10

It looks like the PA canceled a 2003 decree by Yasir Arafat that established the Supreme Council for Islamic Courts. The leader of this council is none other than Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, the person who daily incites against Israel and who is most responsible for the recent riots in Jerusalem. This story needs to be followed.

The Palestinian Arab patent office recorded 55 patents in 2009, of which only 13 were for inventions actually created by Palestinian Arabs. (In 2008, Israel received 1166 patents.)

A Hamas site brags about a Molotov cocktail thrown at Jews in the West Bank on Wednesday night. the site refers to the driver and passengers as "rapists." In 2009, there were nearly 300 firebomb attacks and over 22,000 stoning attacks on Israeli roads by Arabs, according to Arutz-7.

Hamas claims that Jordan has been cooling relations with the terror group, and actively discouraging Hamas supporters in Jordan.

The making of a new Arab lie

The UK-based Hamas newspaper Palestine Info claims that the Bashiti family owns the land that the Hurva synagogue is on.

Subhi Shoaib Bashiti claims that his grandfather, Hasan al-Bashiti, bought the land - in 1880.

Of course, the Hurva had been rebuilt already well before then, with its first rededication occurring in 1864. The land had been unquestionably owned by the Jewish community since 1819. It is absurd to believe that the Jews would have sold the land the synagogue was on in 1880.

Like terrorism, lying about subjects like these is a form of asymmetric warfare. It is easy to make up the lies; it is often much harder to defend against them all. The liars just have to succeed once to make the lying worthwhile.

Obama the actor

When a mid-level government official in Israel insults the White House without the knowledge of the Israeli prime minister, it is a major international incident that is escalated by the administration even after a series of apologies.

When the Palestinian Authority insults the US Vice President directly, it gets papered over.

From David Bedein at The Bulletin:

The Bulletin has learned that Vice President Biden, now on an official visit to the Middle East, made a direct request that the P.A. cancel the ceremony that honors a terrorist.

And as soon as Biden was back on the plane, the ceremony was held anyway, with officials from the ruling Fatah party in attendance. (To distinguish between the PA and Fatah is an exercise in splitting hairs. Mahmoud Abbas is the leader of Fatah as well as the PA.)

People are wondering why Israel and other US allies are being publicly treated worse than Iran, Russia and Arab thugocracies by the Obama administration.

It is not because the US is aligned more with Arab interests, although the president is making worrying moves in that direction.

The reason is simply because President Obama fears confrontation with those whom he does not understand.

He (thinks he) knows that Great Britain and Israel are not going to make a stink, because they value their relationship with the US. Above all, he knows that they are not going to do anything rash.

But to Obama, the Second and Third Worlds are still a mystery. It is filled with scary characters who are not guaranteed to behave rationally. Deep down he knows that they don't think nor act like us. Yet to admit that fact aloud sounds too close to bigotry in a mindset where everyone must be fundamentally the same. It is a taboo subject.

I once described this dichotomy as "Your Crazy Uncle Ned:" Geopolitics is partially based on the idea that Arabs and Muslims are completely irrational. Instead of treating them like normal adults who need to take responsibility for their actions, we treat them like your crazy Uncle Ned who makes a scene every Thanksgiving. We smile nervously, say whatever we need to say to calm him down for now, lock up the liquor cabinet and hope he doesn't drive into a crowd. And when he acts sort-of rationally, we fall all over ourselves complimenting him on not setting the table on fire.

This is Obama's thought process towards Arabs and Muslims in a nutshell - but it is only half the story in understanding Obama.

When Obama was running for president, the impression he gave was that he was surprised as anyone that he became the frontrunner. I believe that he ran for office as a setup for a more serious 2012 run, or at best to be picked as a vice president by Hillary. He was, simply, not ready to lead. He had less experience in governing than practically all presidents in history. Even with all his rhetorical skills, it never felt like he was a man who wanted to dedicate his life to serving and leading his nation; it always seemed like someone who wanted to act like a leader rather than be a leader. He had some vague, New Age-y ideas of how the world could be a better place through mutual respect, and enough yes-men who could convince him that he was the man of the hour, but it never seemed like he truly believed it himself. He is, far more than any president in recent memory, an actor trying to learn a role.

Obama believes that a president, the leader of the free world, must act strong. But the problem is he cannot act that way when he cannot predict how the other parties will react to his show of strength. As in the movie Galaxy Quest, he may be acting but the other side is dead serious, and in such circumstances he is over his head. Upsetting a billion people or another nuclear power is something to be avoided at all costs.

So he acts like a parody of a strong leader - against his friends. He knows they won't start a war or a terror spree against American interests. He calculates that by acting tough with his friends, there is little downside while he builds up his street cred as a resolute but fair leader. He hopes that Iran and Syria (and Russia and China) will interpret his actions as a message for them, avoiding actually making decisions that could set a course from which the US cannot go back.

But what he cannot do is actually make any real foreign policy decisions. If he did, he would be burning a bridge and opening himself up to the chance that he is making a mistake. Worse yet, he would be revealing to the world that he doesn't have a clue.

For an actor playing the role of President, changing the status quo is scary. Taking a real stand is frightening. Instead,the emphasis is to make it through your term without blowing up the world. You buy time and hope and pray for the best. You rely on your advisors to guide you and you hope they are not acting the way you are.

And you continue to act how you think a President would act, hoping that your charade is not exposed.

Nuclear disarmament conference to be held - in Iran

In another transparent attempt to deceive the West (which already has plenty of people who are anxious to be deceived,) Iran will be hosting a conference next month:

The Islamic Republic of Iran is scheduled to hold an international conference on nuclear disarmament in mid April.

The conference, dubbed as "Nuclear Energy For All, Nuclear Weapon For None", will be held in Iran on April 17-18.

Foreign ministers, representatives and nuclear experts from 60 countries are due to participate in the event to discuss challenges on nuclear disarmament, countries' commitments to the issue and the aftermaths of not destroying weapons of mass-destruction.

In February, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani announced in Japan that Iran is scheduled to hold an international gathering on global disarmament in Tehran in the next two months to be attended by internationally renowned elites and experts, adding that participants are slated to assess the causes and reasons underlying the lack of heed and attention to the implementation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regulations, Article 6 in particular.

A lot of well-meaning but ultimately idiotic Westerners strongly feel that as long as Iran is negotiating, it is not going to do anything dangerous. In truth, Iran has shown over the years that it will pretend to negotiate while completely undermining its public statements in private.

Here is an especially telling example where Iran is cynically pretending to put on a public face against nuclear weaponry deliberately to take international pressure off of its aggressive nuclear program.

There are enough credulous wishful thinkers in the West who will desperately grab at this straw, because the alternative is too scary for them to contemplate. For each Westerner who opines or argues that Iran is not a threat, it makes it that much harder for the clear-thinking Westerners, who see through Iran's act, to do anything effective.

While it is true that Iran's leaders do not have the same mindset as the West, they understand the West much better than the West understands them, and this conference is proof.

(h/t dd via email)