Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 08, 2010

AP is just a joke. Plus, Pam Anderson at the Kotel.

AP doesn't even try to find out the facts anymore...

Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson said Sunday she will try her powers of seduction while in Israel on an unlikely audience — ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers.

An anti-fur bill has been put on hold in Israel over concerns by ultra-Orthodox leaders that it could impact production of the characteristic fur hats worn by some men from Hassidic sects on holidays and other festive occasions.

To combat growing secularization of Jews to European society in the 18th century, Hassidic Jews decided that their way of dress should remain intact and not be influenced by fashion. Descendants of these communities to this day wear the black hats and coats of that period, including, at times, fur hats.

The bill in Knesset explicitly excluded shtreimels - the fur hats that AP says is the problem.

The real issue is that the religious groups are uneasy about supporting the anti-fur organizations who are also against kosher slaughter.

Again, we see pure sloppiness from a major wire service. It cannot be trusted to even give basic facts accurately.

But - it includes photos of Pamela Anderson at the kotel, in a weird burqa-type outfit:

B'tselem's hypocrisy

From Israel Today, translated by NGO Monitor:

Here is a quote from the “Bubbes and Zaydes for Peace” (BZP) website: "First launched in Toronto in 2005, ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ has grown to become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar... This year, IAW occurs in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level."

Based on their declaration, Bubbes and Zaydes supports and seeks to strengthen the BDS movement. ...The strategy is not just one of international activity to delegitimize Israel, but also undermining of the basic consensus of Israeli society. [The BDS movement] also grants indirect support and legitimacy to the armed struggle against Israel, that is to say, indirect support for terrorism.

Two weeks ago [BZP] donated money to B’Tselem, and the organization’s executive director, Jessica Montell, was quick to boast on Twitter: “I don't know the group but it brought a big smile to my face.” NGO Monitor, headed by Prof. Gerald Steinberg, contacted B’Tselem and warned them that the donation was from an anti-Israel organization that promotes Israel’s delegitimization, and supports the anti-Israel, and essentially anti-Semitic, policy of BDS. This contradicts the stated principles of B’Tselem – and the recent declarations of the New Israel Fund which supports B’Tselem – not to cooperate with organizations that deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Will you reject the contributions, asked NGO Monitor, now that the donors have been revealed to be anti-Israel? The organization’s response was that it was honored to accept donations that aim to ensure the highest ethical standards for life in Israel.

So ‘grandmas and grandpas’ in Yiddish (Bubbes and Zaydes) sounds harmless, and what could be wrong with accepting donations from them? A simple search, however, exposes the harsh face of this organization.

Organizations such as B’Tselem, that hold Israel to exceptional moral standards, should themselves be held to the same standards, especially when it comes to Israel’s existence.

B'Tselem had written to NGO Monitor [entire email exchange here] saying that "B'Tselem's board has explicitly rejected BDS tactics against the State of Israel. We have in the past and will continue to refuse donations from organizations whose aims and activities contradict universal human rights principles."

I couldn't find any official mention of the anti-BDS policy on B'Tselem's site, and they ignored my email asking for clarification. But from what they are saying, they seem to believe that the BDS movement that aims to destroy Israel and denies Jewish national self-determination - which they personally disagree with - is still in accordance with "universal human rights principles."

On paper, B'Tselem's mission of human rights is admirable, and there is nothing wrong with holding Israel to high standards in that area. But this email seems to indicate that B'Tselem is more interested in money and politics than in its own supposed idealistic goals.

The fanatically anti-Israel Al Aqsa Foundation has, on its website, an article about the restoration of a minaret in Safed.

According to the article, the minaret dates back a few hundred years and was in danger of collapse. Repairs cost some $25,000.

Even though this same organization will accuse Israel of doing everything possible to erase Muslim heritage in "Palestine," here we have a story where the Jewish state had no problem with the restoration of an Islamic symbol in a town that has deep Jewish roots going back to Biblical times, and is considered a holy city to Jews.

When synagogues are restored in Egypt or Lebanon, the Arab governments use those occasions to spout propaganda about how they value diversity and how they value their Jewish communities. This even though the synagogues are nothing more than museums for communities that are all but gone because of explicit and implicit anti-Jew policies.

Here, though, we see what is an everyday occurrence. The supposedly racist Jewish state routinely allows its Muslim citizens to maintain their religious sites without blinking an eye. And even more so, they allow it when the organization behind the repairs is more political than religious, and will vilify the very state that allows them the freedom to act. (The website has a similar feature about the the restoration of a major mosque in Jaffa a few months ago, funded by Turkey.)

In fact, while the Muslims will accuse the Jews of politicizing religion by calling Israel "the Jewish state," on top of that very minaret a PLO flag was hung a couple of weeks ago:

Don't expect the Al Aqsa Foundation to acknowledge the truth about how they are free to worship and build religious structures in Israel which they then use against the very state that gives them that freedom. Instead, they blame every tree that dies on the Temple Mount on "Israeli excavations" that they still claim are going on underneath.

Hamas refuses any Gaza ceremony to memorialize Arafat

There have been a number of stories lately indicating that Hamas and Fatah are getting closer to a re-unification. These stories are cyclical - they pop up every few months and Palestinian Arabs get excited, then something goes wrong and they then start accusing the other side of collaborating with Israel, the worst insult they can muster.

That is the reason I stopped covering those stories in my regular round-ups of the PalArabic media - because even when they do meet, nothing ever happens.

Here is another indication that reconciliation is not in the cards anytime soon.

November 11th is the sixth anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat. While Arafat was the head of Fatah, every Palestinian Arab terror group professes respect for the last (and second) real leader that the PalArabs ever had. You will not find Hamas or Islamic Jihad insulting Arafat.

But when Fatah in Gaza wanted to organize a pan-Arab rally in commemoration of the anniversary, Hamas shut them down. Fatah says that "the leadership of the Fatah movement has a program to commemorate the anniversary in Gaza by everyone, because of the fact that Abu Ammar [Arafat] was a national leader, the leader of the Palestinian people, and does not represent any individual movement."

Keep in mind that only a couple of weeks ago, Hamas participated in a huge rally commemorating the anniversary of the death of the co-founder of the Islamic Jihad movement, Fathi Shiqaqi. So the issue isn't that Hamas doesn't recognize the leaders of other terror movements - but it does not want to even give the impression of supporting Fatah in Gaza.

Links to start off the day

Gaza's Surfer Girls (The Atlantic) (h/t t34zakat)

IsraeliGirl/Giyus interview with Professor Eyal Zisser, an Israeli expert on Syria

From Berlin gang to IDF spokesman (Ha'aretz, h/t Silke)

From anti-Zionism to anti-semitism at University of Texas at Austin, see also this video (h/t Joel) and here.

UNRWA and the code of silence (JPost)

The Muqata on Rachel Corrie's propaganda trial

Israel Matzav on Saeb Erekat's praise of a murderer

Palestinians, leftists caught burning a forest in the West Bank

From YNet:
Six foreign nationals and Palestinians set fires alight near the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin in the Gush Etzion bloc. Police said the suspects were taken in for questioning on suspicion of arson and illegal congregation.

Settlers said that at about 11 am they saw fires on lands they said belonged to Bat Ayin. Security sources said it was apparently land whose ownership is not regulated.

Dov Mark, land supervisor for the Gush Etzion Council, said such acts have taken place a number of times. "This is a known Palestinian method to take over state land," he said. "With the support of anarchists, who usually come from abroad, they come to an area of natural woodland which has never been cultivated, burn it on purpose and at the same time plant trees. It's all supposed to alter the reality on the ground."

Mark warned that "in this way, it's hard for the Israel Land Administration to work from the moment they plant trees on the land or cultivate it for agricultural crops. In today's case, some 80 dunams (20 acres) of natural woodland were burned by a group of 25 Palestinians and anarchists."

I grabbed the YNet video and put it on YouTube:

(h/t Jed)

This rose bush is in front of Chez Elder, and I can assure you that the leaves are just as painful as they look. However, the bush seems to thrive as the temperature goes down. (This photo was also taken by my phone, and heavily cropped.)

Google started keeping statistics for Blogger sites. The stats go back to July 2010. According to Google, the number of pageviews that I get is about 50% higher than what Statcounter tells me.

If that is true, then I have already passed a million pageviews this year! Statcounter says I am at 750,000 hits for 2010.

Maybe Google also includes RSS feed views, because otherwise I cannot account for the discrepancy.

Anyway, here's an open thread because I am having a busy Sunday.

The Virginity Capsule - now for sale

We have discussed the phenomenon of hymen restoration surgery for Muslim women to appear more like virgins for their wedding night, and how it is illegal in many Arab countries. But since it can save the lives of many women who might be murdered by their new husbands, the procedure is even covered by British national health insurance.

But now, there is a cheaper method.

According to Elaph.com, a capsule is being sold in Arab communities in the Middle East - including in Israel - that is inserted vaginally before the wedding night. It then explodes, giving off a red dye that resembles blood, thus potentially saving the woman's life, as well as her reputation.

Not bad for a few bucks.

The capsule is not legal in any country.

Elaph also says that there are many Israeli clinics that perform hymenoplasty, often in a half-hour procedure.

This capsule is similar to a Chinese device I mentioned last year that performed the same function, when an Egyptian cleric demanded that any bride found to be using it should get the death penalty.

PA arrests atheist for his online activities

Palestine Press Agency reports that PA police arrested a man for his postings on Facebook and his blog.

The man, who was not identified, was caught as he was at an Internet cafe in Qalqilya.

In his Facebook postings, he supposedly claims to be God and he attacks other monotheistic religions, including Islam. He reproduced the Danish Mohammed cartoons and, according to the article, angered hundreds of thousands of people with his atheistic arguments. People who complained managed to get him removed from Facebook but he simply kept writing on his blog, which seems to have been named "Code of The Light of Reason."

I believe that his name is Waleed Al-Husseini and this is the blog. The Facebook page it links to is indeed gone (here's the cached version.) This would be his English-language blog.

I don't see him claiming to be God, except perhaps in a sarcastic way; he is advocating atheism and describes why he doesn't believe in Islam.

So, of course, the enlightened Palestinian Authority - who staked him out for two months - regard him as a deep threat to their nascent, democratic, secular, enlightened nation they are planning.

Weekend Christian conference in DC hosts a would-be ethnic cleanser

The mission of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation is to ensure "the continued presence and well-being of Arab Christians in the Holy Land and to developing the bonds of solidarity between them and Christians elsewhere."

This is admirable. Christians are disappearing from the Middle East at an alarming rate (everywhere, in fact, except for Israel.)

Unfortunately, the HCEF seems to be a bit fixated on supposed Israeli actions that are forcing Christians out, and they downplay any oppression that come from the Palestinian Muslims. I couldn't find anything on their website about threats, or attacks, or stealing land.

This group held a conference in Washington this weekend. One of the speakers is "Ambassador" Maen Areikat, who represents the PLO in Washington.

And who says, very explicitly, that he envisions a Palestinian state that would have no Jews in it.

In other words, he advocates the forcible transfer of some half-million Jews out of the free, democratic country he pretends to support.

It seems a little odd that an organization that is against Christians being forced out of the Holy Land has no problem honoring a man who wants to do exactly that to hundreds of thousands of Jews.

Gaza businessmen must be really stupid

From Ma'an:

Nablus businessman Munib Al-Masri on Sunday toured industrial projects being carried out by the Palestine Development and Investment Company in the Gaza Strip.

The West Bank multimillionaire told journalists Friday that after three years of waiting, his company decided to inaugurate a five-star hotel in the northern Gaza Strip. The hotel was completed in 2007, but its opening was delayed due to the dire conditions in the Strip.

I guess this is another successful businessman who doesn't read the papers enough to realize that Gaza is filled with poor, starving people to whom a luxury hotel would be a cruel joke, how no one in Gaza can afford even the basics that are for sale there, and how such a project is doomed to failure.

This comes on the heels of the announcement of another Gaza mall that is equally doomed.

It's almost like these people expect to make money in a place that is universally regarded as one of the worst places on Earth. How arrogant they are to think they know more about Gaza than the New York Times and the UN!

Video of Israel's "Dancing with the Stars" same-sex couple

I mentioned it last week, so how can I not show it? Especially since it is a magnet for blog hits....

This is the first time that any incarnation of "Dancing with the Stars" has shown a same-sex dance team.

And, come on - who is going to object?

Did you ever received a parcel saying "fragile" but the sticker "this side up" was missing so you never knew how to handle the package carefully? This is how I feel towards Lebanon. How to approach Lebanons fragile state at this moment?

Hezbollah is threatening, because of the Hariri Tribunal, which it wants to boycott amid unconfirmed reports that an impending indictment would implicate its members. This worries of course the Lebanese army. A general said ahead of the UN indictment:

"I am worried but I am not afraid," General Jean Kahwaji, who rarely makes public statements, told the daily An Nahar. "We have deployed sufficient troops in Beirut and have studied all other areas at risk," he said. "The army will be firm... in all areas and particularly Christian areas," he said without elaborating.

This is how Hezbollah threatens in the meanwhile:

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has openly warned Lebanese against further cooperation with the tribunal.

His second-in-command, Sheikh Naim Qassem, has said charges against Hezbollah would be "equivalent to lighting the fuse, to igniting the wick for an explosion."

(...)

Last week a report in the daily Al Akhbar, which is close to Hezbollah, said the Shia party had quietly sent its partisans throughout the country in a dry run for a possible takeover of the capital and other areas in the aftermath of the STL indictment.

The fact that people die as a result of clashes between the Lebanese army and "gunmen" might be a warning for worse to come.

A package usually will not crash itself when you just stand there and watch it. We can wait and see, but I just hope the package was not a ticking bomb.

Maybe it's not such a stupid move by Netanyahu to withdraw from the northern part of the village Ghajar after all.

Hamas? Anti-semitic? No way!

You know how Hamas always says that they have nothing against Jews, just Zionists?

Apparently, they are also referring to the Zionists of the Middle Ages:

The Jews will soon be expelled from Palestine that same way they were kicked out by France, Britain, Belgium, Russia and Germany, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said over the weekend.

“The only nation that received the Jews after they were expelled was the Islamic nation, which protected them and looked after them,” Zahar said in a speech in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend.

“But they have no place here amongst us because of their crimes. They will soon be expelled from here and we will pray at the Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem].”

Zahar claimed that Jews were expelled in the past “because they betrayed, stole and corrupted these countries.”

I seem to recall Jews being expelled from or fearfully fleeing state-sponsored persecution in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Jordan, but perhaps Zahar's is more a scholar of medieval history than modern.

Notice that he doesn't mention Spain and Portugal, two other countries that famously expelled Jews. Why not? Because in those countries Muslims were persecuted and/or expelled along with the Jews! That little fact might make his fellow Muslims question his theory that people who are kicked out of countries, or forcibly converted, deserve it. Better to avoid that topic, then.

Oh, by the way - Zahar is one of those "pragmatic" Hamas leaders that so many people pin their hopes on for an ultimate peace treaty.

Hospitals in Gaza have no medicine - but not because of Israel

Palestine Press Agency has an article Gaza hospitals that do not have basic medical supplies, like pain relief medicines and even gauze.

Families of patients have to go to pharmacies to buy the medicines - of which the pharmacies have where there are plenty - and then give them to the nurses at the hospitals to administer.

What is interesting is how the medicines in the pharmacies are labeled. They say things like "In support of the Palestinian people" or "in support of charity X." In other words, medicines that are meant to be given to the hospitals for free are being diverted and being sold to pharmacies instead, for what is presumably a tidy profit for the thieves.

Israel does not limit the shipment of medicine and medical supplies at all.

The PA is responsible for coordinating shipments of medicine to Gaza, and they have only been sending roughky half of what was needed, thus creating a black market for the supplies.

Although this article did not explicitly blame Hamas, we have seen in the past that Hamas has confiscated aid meant to be distributed for free and diverted it to Hamas-run hospitals and clinics, or to the black market.