Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 08, 2010

Hamas invites Ahmadinejad to Gaza

Firas Press quotes the Iranian FARS news agency as saying that Hamas minister Ahmed Yousef invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Gaza.

Yousef said, "We call on President Ahmadinejad to visit the Gaza Strip, and we are sure that such a visit would be of extreme importance."

Oh, to dream....

Available at the Elder of Ziyon store, for both kids and adults, in many colors and styles.

World's smallest marriage proposal

From YNet:

Many men spend weeks coming up with the most original way to propose marriage to their loved ones in order to ensure a positive response. For the most part, grand gestures are considered the safest bet, but Elad Dekel, 25, proved otherwise – the smallest wedding proposal in the world convinced his girlfriend to say "yes."

Last August, Dekel, a physics student at the Israel Institute of Technology, was sent to Dresden, Germany as part of an exchange program where he worked at a Nanotechnology research center developing miniature silicone chips.

Before leaving Israel, Dekel and his girlfriend, Chen Mendelowitz, agreed she would come visit him in Germany. He planned on using the opportunity to propose to her after seven years together.

During his time at the research center, Dekel came up with the idea of "printing" his proposal on a 1 sq. centimeter titanium and gold coated silicone chip. He spent days working out a way to carry out his vision.

Dekel eventually came up with the winning formula and printed a marriage proposal over 0.0001 centimeters in Hebrew and German. He also added a photo of himself and Chen, the first ever printed in the German lab.

The big moment arrived when Dekel invited Chen for a tour of the lab during her visit to Germany and showed her his work on the chips. "Elad put the chip under the microscope lens and I started looking to see what was there," Chen related. "I looked for quite a while, zooming in and out, magnifying the image and finally detected a weird shape. I magnified it and slowly began to realize it was a photo of the both of us. I magnified it more and saw there was something written, and then I realized it said 'Chen, will you marry me? Elad'.

"Even before I said anything I got a sudden hot flash all over my body, and when I could finally speak I just said 'sure'."

How does that compare with the world's smallest Koran?

Hamas upset over new Israeli towns - in Israel

Hamas' London-based newspaper, Palestine Info, has an Arabic article about an Israeli plan to build eleven new towns between Arad and Beer-sheva in the Negev. One of them would be an Arab community.

The language it uses is identical to articles about Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria - the Israelis are referred to as "usurpers" (Google translates as "rapists.") The Arab town is regarded as just a means to "steal" more "Arab land. " And, of course, it calls the towns "settlements."

Just in case you had the slightest thought that Palestinian Arabs were only against construction in the territories...

Invisible convoy arrives in Gaza

35 trucks of food and medicine arrived in Egypt's El Arish port today to be sent to Gaza.

They include some 500 tons of food and refrigerated trucks with medicine.

It was coordinated between the UAE's Red Crescent, Egypt, UNRWA and Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza.

No one is reporting this story.

The reason? Because the purpose of this aid convoy is - surprise! - aid. It is not meant to be a political statement, it is not meant to demonize Israel, it is not meant to support Hamas. The entire purpose is to provide aid to those who need it.

The contrast with George Galloway's Viva Palestina could not be starker. In that case, the aid was a mere prop to the real purpose of the trip. Both of them carried some 500 tons of aid - but one of them only cared about making noise.

While Viva Palestina said that they had "broken the blockade," they had done no such thing. Aid from Arab nations has been routinely coming to Gaza through Egypt. Israel has no problems with giving legitimate humanitarian aid for Gazans, except in the fevered imagination of Israel-haters more interested in photo-ops with terrorists than with the actual people of Gaza.

This was a real humanitarian aid convoy. The ships and trucks from the terror-supporters are gimmicks.

The absence of any Western media reporting this story shows that journalists are more than happy to play their part in the charade of "aid boats" and "aid convoys."

Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design (updated x3)

UPDATE: Sorry, this article is from last year. Even so, as Zach points out in the comments...things are no better now.

Additional updates at the end.

From The Guardian:

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The sophisticated technology, once mastered, allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads than older models. It reduces the diameter of a warhead and makes it easier to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.

Documentation referring to experiments testing a two-point detonation design are part of the evidence of nuclear weaponisation gathered by the IAEA and presented to Iran for its response.

The dossier, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's Nuclear Program", is drawn in part from reports submitted to it by western intelligence agencies.

The agency has in the past treated such reports with scepticism, particularly after the Iraq war. But its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said the evidence of Iranian weaponisation "appears to have been derived from multiple sources over different periods of time, appears to be generally consistent, and is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needs to be addressed by Iran".

Extracts from the dossier have been published previously, but it was not previously known that it included documentation on such an advanced warhead. "It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material," said a European government adviser on nuclear issues.

James Acton, a British nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "It's remarkable that, before perfecting step one, they are going straight to step four or five ... To start with more sophisticated designs speaks of level of technical ambition that is surprising."

Iran has rejected most of the IAEA material on weaponisation as forgeries, but has admitted carrying out tests on multiple high-explosive detonations synchronised to within a microsecond. Tehran has told the agency that there is a civilian application for such tests, but has so far not provided any evidence for them.

Western weapons experts say there are no such civilian applications, but the use of co-ordinated detonations in nuclear warheads is well known. They compress the fissile core, or pit, of the warhead until it reaches critical mass.

Do you hear that silence?

That is the sound of Western governments leaping into action to stop what is very obviously Iran's relentless drive to build not only nuclear weapons but also their delivery systems. Which could, by the way, reach most of Europe.

But taking military action to stop the inevitable deployment of weapons that can kill millions would be immoral and wrong. Much better to use diplomacy. It's worked so well so far, after all.

(h/t Ari)

UPDATE: Raymond in DC, in the comments, adds:

"Two point implosion" implies a plutonium core, not one based on enriched uranium. This confirms a long-held suspicion of a two-track development project in Iran. While attention has focused on Natanz and those spinning centrifuges, work on the heavy water facility in Arak and the effort to extract plutonium from spent reactor fuel has not gotten the attention it deserved.

We should recall that the Syrian nuclear plant destroyed by Israel in 2007 was based on a North Korean design intended to produce plutonium. (It was reportedly funded by Iran.)

UPDATE 3: Grazi in the comments brings us three important links:

An interview with former IAEA inspector,

That same inspector's article about how Syria needs to be checked out more carefully, and

Joshua Pollack on Iranian/North Korean cooperation.

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.