Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Gabriel Latner running for Cambridge Union President (UPDATE)

Gabriel Latner, the Cambridge debater who is subject of my most popular post this year (over 9000 views so far,) is still in the news.

For one thing, he will be interning at UN Watch next year.

Beyond that, he is running for the presidency of the very union that had banned him.

Here are the details from Standpoint:

Gabriel Latner, a second year law student at Cambridge University now famous for his audacious speech at the Union last month, is running for Union President this week. Hustings take place on Thursday and the vote is on Friday.

Here's the back story.

The Union hosted the following debate last month: "this house believes Israel is a rogue state".

Latner spoke for the motion, arguing that Israel is a rogue state. He was joined by the hysterical Lauren Booth (famous only for being Tony Blair's sister-in-law), and the more impressive Mark McDonald, a barrister, and founder of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

His speech has become one of the most controversial to have been delivered in the chamber for some time. In a nutshell: Latner argued that Israel is a rogue state because it does not conform to regional standards.

By upholding human rights, maintaining an independent judiciary, and ensuring both legal and constitutional equality, Israel is a rogue by comparison to its neighbours.

...
The speech epitomised everything the Cambridge Union should stand for - a counter-intuitive, original, and clever argument. Latner deserves applause and recognition for that.

Instead, he was escorted off the premises minutes after the debate ended.

Earlier, before Latner started his speech he leaned over to Booth and whispered, "I am going to nail you to the f****** wall up there". For a clever guy, it's not the smartest thing he's ever done - but you have to admit it's funny as f***.

Booth complained vigorously about this and Latner was subsequently escorted off the premises by security, banned for life by the current President and then, on appeal, readmitted.

During that time, the issue has refused to go away. Latner's speech has gone just about everywhere, the debate itself was reported in the press, Laruen Booth howled about the injustice of it all to anyone who would listen, and several student societies wrote to the Union complaining about Latner.

Now he's running for the Union's Presidency.

His hilarious press release says:

GABRIEL LATNER @ The UNION, Round 2:

After the success of his Union debut, which critics are calling "brilliantly audacious", "pretentious", "zionist dog lies", and "so titillating it made Lauren Booth see God", Gabriel Latner is returning to he Union.

The appearance is part of an international press tour for the launch of his new book 'My Life in Mossad - The Confessions of a Petunia Arranger'.

No one knows for sure what Latner intends to say at the Union, but sources close to the reclusive author have indicated that the address is "so riveting it will have the audience glued, nay, nailed to their seats". (See for yourself, Thursday @ 7:00)

Fans may recall that Latner was escorted out of the Union by security personnel after his last address, out of concern for his safety. A deranged debater was so moved by his speech, that she proceeded to re-enact Glenn Close's "rabbit scene" from Fatal Attraction. Commenting on the experience Latner said "It was all a little much. I mean, it was just a speech. Yes it was brilliant. Yes it made Dr King's 'I have a Dream' look like a speech by Sarah Palin. And yes, I am incredibly dashing in a tuxedo. But for a 50 year old woman to throw herself at me like that was just wildly inappropriate. That kind of thing just shouldn't be permitted in polite society. Frankly, I'm a little concerned about the general state of the Union's morals. Did you know that they have an entire wall devoted to sexual intercourse?"

His manifesto:

Why Vote for me? (BESIDES A CHEAPER BAR)

1. After certain recent events I've probably read the Union Constitution/Rules more times than any living member. Might come in handy to have a President who knows the rules.

2. I will actively seek members' input and suggestions, specifically with regards to motions. We need to get rid of VAGUE and REPETITIVE debate topics and start having debates on RELEVANT ISSUES. Ms Hill wants to let you help decide the emergency debate motions. I want to have your help choosing MAIN DEBATE TOPICS.

3. CHANGE IS GOOD, BUT IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE ESTABLISHMENT, YOU CAN'T BE PART OF IT. I WON'T INVITE D-LIST CELEBRITIES TO THE UNION. They add nothing, and make us look bad. And they're usually horrible debaters.

4. IT WILL BE REALLY, REALLY FUNNY. Think about it. What could be more annoying to the cadre of self-important, arrogant toffs who feel that they're some how entitled to run the Union, than electing someone who won't listen to a word they say? Plus, irony is funny.

5. I'M OFFERING CHANGE. The other candidates are long-time Union personnel. I'm not. I'll be honest, they have more experience than me, but that shouldn't be what decides your vote for two reasons:

a. Any NECESSARY experience I can pick in my term as President-Elect.

b. They have experience- running the Union the wrong way. Whichever of the other candidates you vote for, you can be fairly sure you'll get another term of the SAME MEDIOCRE DEBATES. I'm offering you a legitimate alternative.

Latner has also done an interview with The Tab - one of the student rags in Cambridge - where he tells them, "I'm a fan of irony". He goes on:

The Union is like Cripps Court. People on the inside think everything's fine. But everyone on the outside can tell those buildings are ugly as sin.

Meanwhile, Lauren Booth is still huffing and puffing about Latner, saying his decision to stand for election is

an insult to the members of the debating union whose own rules he mocked and clearly has no respect for.

I would also like to ask [the President] James Counsell why he has re-instated this creature when his ban was supposed to stand unless I received an apology for his rude, drunken behaviour.

Latner has apologised - but Booth refused to accept it. That attitude has characterised Booth's conduct throughout this whole affair. She has tried to slam Latner at every possible opportunity since he obliterated her shrieking pleadings in the Union. Whipping up sentiments against Latner in Cambridge was bad enough - but I also suspect she was also behind some of the stories which appeared in the press about it too.

The irony - of which Latner is no doubt all too aware - is that all this publicity might help him win on Friday. I hope it does.

Vote Gabriel Latner!

UPDATE:

For speaking to the press, a violation of the Union’s election rules, Latner has been fined 20% of his vote!

(h/t Stan)

UPDATE: The appeals panel at the Cambridge Union Society has penalized Latner 40% of his votes for the double infraction of talking to the press and then posting the interviews on his Facebook page. (via email from Latner)

We find that the communications made by Mr Latner to The Cambridge Tab did make explicit reference to the election in question, and attempted to persuade others to act in a way conducive to the acquisition of more votes for himself. Mr Latner was therefore engaging in campaigning making use of the world-wide-web.

The Returning Officers imposed a penalty under Chapter T, 14(a)(ii), docking of a percentage of a candidate‟s votes. Commission of a Category 3 Electoral Malpractice requires a minimum penalty of the docking of 5% of the candidate‟s votes. Given the severity and foreseeability of the consequences of Mr Latner‟s malpractice, but after mitigating factors were taken into account, the penalty was fixed at 20% of Mr Latner‟s first preference votes.

The Appeal Panel determine that Mr Latner‟s malpractice has caused a gross distortion to the fairness in the election; Mr Latner ought reasonably to have foreseen the results of his malpractice, and the severity of the offence is therefore very significant, despite any mitigating circumstances such as Mr Latner‟s admission of his offence.

Although Mr Latner made an admission of his malpractice to the Returning Officers, he has reproduced the interview on his facebook campaigning page under the heading “Tab Interview”; he has therefore not attempted to reduce publicity resulting from The Cambridge Tab article despite the decision of the Returning Officers. Considering the severity of Mr Latner‟s offence, the reasonable foreseeability of its impact, and the damage that it has caused to the fairness of this election, the Appeal Panel hereby alter the decision of the Returning Officers as follows:
Mr Latner is found to have committed a Category 3 electoral malpractice, under Chapter T (6) (g) and (i), and the penalty imposed is the docking of 40% of Mr Latner’s first preference votes.

BBC notices the PA jailing an atheist

From the BBC:

One of Mr Hasayin's postings was called Why I left Islam. He goes on to strongly criticise the religion for not allowing free-thinking and also mocks and insults the Prophet.

Some of his essays posted on a website called The Light of the Mind are detailed and clearly written by someone with a strong academic background. He also identified himself as a Proud Atheist.

As to exactly why Mr Hasayin has been arrested, the Palestinian Authority is not saying.

A spokesman for the Palestinian security services, Gen Adnan Damiri, said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

"Insulting religion is a crime under Palestinian law," says Naser al-Rais, a lawyer with the Al Haq human rights organisation based in Ramallah.

Asked to comment on the case, Mr Rais said: "I respect Mr Hasayin's right to have these beliefs but he also has to respect the law, there are limits to freedom speech."

Mr Rais says Mr Hasayin could face a prison term of between three months and three years.

Nice to see that the BBC is catching up to things I wrote about two and a half weeks ago, that the AP noticed a few days later, and the LA Times mentioned a few days after that.

In case you get turned on by the alluring eyes of a Burqa'd woman...

From the French version of Slate, a photo of a woman at the Hajj.

Maybe she is taking this recent fatwa seriously....

(h/t Silke)

The IDF's Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion

From the IDF website:

The moonless desert night is cool and the stars are twinkling above. A grayish cigarette ash falls on the golden sand next to a soldier’s red boots. In a few moments, the quiet will cease and the true nature of the surroundings will appear. The vapor of sweet tea spreading in the tents will give way to clouds of dust as the soldiers' march towards the target destination will begin. Among the briefings delivered in Hebrew, a few words in Arabic are thrown in here and there; but this does not represent the enemy because Arabic is the mother tongue of most of the men dressed in uniform.

Soldiers from the Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion raid the abandoned communication facility simulating a weaponry warehouse in Gaza. If any infantry battalion knows how to do this, it is this battalion: its soldiers know the area to perfection, every fold and stone on its ground. “The battalion knows the line, its fighters understand the field and know how to survive in it. They are excellent fieldsmen,” notes the Battalion Commander, Meir Almalam. In fact, they are trackers without being trackers.

The battalion, which took an active part in all major conflicts in the Gaza Strip, was founded in 1987 and is entirely composed of volunteers, mostly Bedouins and some non-Bedouin Arab-Israelis. In recent years, a considerable increase in the enlistment to the Battalion has been recorded, and for good reason: the battalion explains that for the Bedouin community’s members, it represents a ticket to the very heart of the Israeli society, and also a solution to economic distress.

The battalion provides its soldiers with a warm home, a livelihood, a possibility for extended academic opportunities and the camaraderie of fellow company soldiers. “They are doing something altruistic. They are volunteers and do a great job, and invest themselves”, Almalam, the Battalion Commander says. “They show tremendous motivation to succeed and cope through their actions. At the end of the day, it is a great battalion”. Company Commander Capt. Yussef Suwad adds that “We know our job, we know ourselves.”

...Near the tent encampment sits Corporal Mamdouh Dahir. He is smoking a cigarette and the moment he opens his mouth I am surprised by his accent. Mamdouh is a Bedouin Arab-Muslim, but unlike the rest of the battalion’s soldiers, he grew up among Jews his whole life and at one time did not even know Arabic fluently. He did not join the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion in order to be integrated into the Israeli society, but rather the opposite: “I wanted to join the Givati or Golani Brigade like the rest of my classmates; I was dying to get in just like them. Because of my ethnic origin, I passed by the offices of the Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion during recruitment where they briefed me and I was very impressed. I decided it was an opportunity for me to learn a bit about my religion and learn how to speak Arabic. At first, people here thought I was showing off with my accent in Hebrew and then they realized that this is what I know.”

Today, Mamdouh talks about his unit to his friends at home: “I explain to them that we are infantry in everything we do and also that we deal with the most challenging missions. I tell them about the experience and growth soldiers gain in the Battalion and the way in which the Battalion improves the abilities of the Bedouin community within society”. He surprisingly declares: “I am a Zionist” and clarifies that, “All my life, I felt part of the Jewish society, except for the religious part. Therefore the definition of Israel and its army doesn’t bother me as long as I am granted my freedom of religion. I believe that the Jews deserve a state and that they went through very difficult events. When I am in the army I don’t fight against Muslims, I fight against bad people who do not care about Muslims, innocent children or civilians. The Palestinians are suffering from extremists no less than we are.”

Deputy admits possibility Hezbollah murdered Hariri

YNet reports:

A Hezbollah parliament member, Walid Sukkarieh, made an unusual statement Wednesday and said that "even if Hezbollah murdered Rafik Hariri, we have no interest in destroying Lebanon," the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat reported.

Here's the original Asharq al-Awsat story - which is its top headline at the moment. He gave the statement after the release of the sensational CBC documentary on Hariri's assassination, which has been covered extensively in the Arabic press.

(h/t Joel)

PA has literally wiped Israel off the map

Palestinian Media Watch has put together a large list of maps used in PA schoolbooks, by PA institutions, and by the PA government itself that consistently erase Israel.

Just in case you had any doubts as to their peaceful intentions.

(h/t Joel)

A Muslim response to BBC Panorama

One response to the BBC Panorama program called "British Schools, Islamic Rules" came from the Islamic Education and Research Academy, which is "a global dawah organisation committed to presenting Islam to wider society."

They were not happy with the BBC's portrayal of the schools as teaching anti-semitism and homophobia.

But their response does not contradict the program at all. They just said that it needs to be put in proper context:

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, iERA’s media representative said, “The attack on mainstream Islamic speakers because they hold established theological views is making the job of community cohesion difficult, as is the constant misconstruing or lack of context with regards to their statements. The programme-makers would have been better served to look deeply into the Islamic scholarly tradition and its historical impact, and they would have found a beautiful model of community cohesion. For example it is a well known historical fact that Islam and Muslims for centuries have been offering protection to the Jewish community.

That "beautiful model of cohesion" is that the despised Jews can be "protected" as long as they meekly accept their inferior status and pay the jizya tax to their Muslim overlords. But that is apparently in no way incompatible with schoolbooks that ask Muslim children to detail all the "reprehensible" characteristics of Jews, which seems to be an established theological view.

At least iERA didn't deny it.

Actual equal rights of Jews and Muslims living in the same society? That's crazy talk!

And don't even get the Muslims started on Hindus...

(h./t Orna)

New Abbas poster

In the same speech that Mahmoud Abbas waxed nostalgically over the PLO in 1964 today, he added, "We must also recall the outstanding [early] leadership of the Palestinian people, the Grand Mufti of Palestine-Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, who sponsored the struggle from the beginning, and sponsored the struggle and displacement for the cause and died away from his home."

The Mufti was a rabid Jew-hater who was the driving force behind not only the 1929 massacres in Jerusalem and Hebron but also the 1936-39 riots that resulted in the deaths of hundreds. He moved to Germany during World War II, hoping that Hitler would win and allow to him murder every Jewish man, woman and child in Palestine, and proposing plans to do exactly that.

This is Mahmoud Abbas' hero.

For some reason, that part of his speech wasn't translated in the English version of the Ma'an article.

If any Western politician would publicly praise a Nazi sympathizer who supported genocide, their careers would be over. When the so-called "moderate" PA leaders do exactly that, no one says a word.

This idea that it is acceptable for Arabs to make outlandish and unacceptable statements because they are Arab is nothing less than bigotry. If they are to be treated as respectable world leaders, they should be held to the same standards as anyone else. It is way past time of granting them a free pass.

Abbas remembers the good old days of the PLO in 1964

Ma'an (Arabic) reports that Mahmoud Abbas spoke at the opening of a new PLO headquarters in Ramallah today. He described it as a "temporary" headquarters, saying that he expects it will be moved to Jerusalem "in the near future."

If he believes that, then he just announced that he wasted millions of dollars of donor money to build a useless building.

He recalled visiting the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem in 1964, saying that just as it was the headquarters of the PLO then, so it will return.

For some reason, he didn't mention that the PLO in 1964 had explicitly rejected the idea of a Palestinian Arab state on the West Bank, saying that they have no ambitions to take away Jordanian territory. From its original charter:

Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.

Also in 1964, the PLO's goal was not to build a state - it was only to destroy Israel. Nowhere in its charter does it use the word "state" or "nation" in terms of its goals; it only talks about a "homeland" and the "liberation of Palestine" that is strongly implied - along with the concept of a Palestinian Arab people - to be a tactical move on the way to pan-Arab unity:

Article 11: The Palestinian people firmly believe in Arab unity, and in order to play its role in realizing this goal, it must, at this stage of its struggle, preserve its Palestinian personality and all its constituents. It must strengthen the consciousness of its existence and stance and stand against any attempt or plan that may weaken or disintegrate its personality.

Article 12: Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary goals; each prepares for the attainment of the other. Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine, and the liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity. Working for both must go side by side.

The only nation it speaks about is the negation of a Jewish nation, anywhere:

Article 18: The Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate System, and all that has been based on them are considered null and void. The claims of historic and spiritual ties between Jews and Palestine are not in agreement with the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood. Judaism, because it is a divine religion, is not a nationality with independent existence. Furthermore, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are citizens to their states.

Within the same document we see the attempt to artificially create a people who nobody had heard of a few decades earlier, and to deny the nationhood of a people who had been identified as such for millennia.

This was the PLO of 1964 that Abbas nostalgically recalls. And this document is still available on the PLO's UN website.

And while its stated goals might have changed, its actions are still remarkably consistent with the actions of today's "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas.

Nice takedown of a takedown of UNRWA

Not all criticism of UNRWA comes from the perspective of the damage it does to Palestinian Arabs. Sometimes, as in a recent Comment is Free piece in the Guardian, the criticism comes because it helps stop Palestinian Arab terror.

The Kieron Monks piece starts off okay:

"Peace Starts Here" is the slogan adopted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to promote its work in the Palestinian territories. But why does peace "start here"? Why not 60 years ago when UNRWA began its work with Palestinian refugees? Or 60 years in the future, when we will still be debating the same problems if the aid models do not change.

The timing of Chris Gunness's recent article about the UN agency's work was unfortunate, coinciding with strikes by UNRWA employees, which have paralysed essential services in the West Bank's 18 refugee camps. The laudable initiatives Gunness mentioned – health centres, schools, food for hardship cases – ground to a halt without his agency's patronage.

That's not sustainable development; it's a permanent life-support system. Neither is it sustainable for UNRWA, which had been forced to slash its services because of budget deficits even before the strikes began.

Palestine is one of the world's largest beneficiaries of foreign aid, receiving over $3bn (£1.9bn) annually (not including the budget of UNRWA itself). Yet a quarter of the West Bank population remains food-insecure and half of all Palestinians live below the poverty line.

If relief work is failing, economic development is even more worrying. Prime minister Salam Fayyad told the Annual Capital Forum that Palestine's GDP grew 9% in the past year, but as a former IMF representative he should know that the gains are hollow. In 2009, over 60% of Palestine's gross national income, and almost 100% of government expenditure, came from aid.

But then we start to see his real agenda:

The Palestinian Authority, which receives over $2bn annually, is answerable not to Palestinians, but to its donors. The aid-management structure in Palestine is innately political. At the top level, the ad hoc liaison committee, members include the United States and Israel. The impact of foreign interests can be clearly seen in PA budgets that allocate 10 times more money to security – suppressing resistance to the occupation – than to agriculture, which could be the backbone of the Palestinian economy.

Whoa! He is saying that the PA shouldn't be stopping terrorism; in fact he is implying that terrorism is a good thing!

The rest of the piece makes this clear - Monks' problem with UNRWA (and the PA) is not that they are hurting those they pretend to help, but that they are helping Israel! And so is the rest of the world when they fund these NGOs! It's a conspiracy meant to keep the Palestinian Arabs enslaved forever! Bwahahaha!

Adam Levick at CiFWatch does a very nice job at finding out that Monk's motivations are a bit suspect. Very much worth reading.

Israel building new "racist wall"

From Egypt's Al Masry al-Youm:

Egypt neither approves nor rejects the construction of a fence that Israel has begun constructing along the Egyptian-Israeli border, so long as it is built on Israeli territory, spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki, said on Monday.

Zaki said Egypt has reiterated this position several times before, adding that the wall is an internal Israeli affair that does not harm Egypt's interests nor violate its sovereignty.

Israel says the fence should stop infiltrators and smugglers who cross into Israel from the Egyptian side of the border.

Bulldozers were dispatched to three points along the 250km boundary and Israeli TV showed them clearing patches of land and digging trenches near Egyptian border posts.

The project is estimated to cost US$370 million and will take up to two years to complete.

The fence is expected to cover at least 140km of the border and will be backed up by an electronic barrier.

But Jordan's press is reporting it a bit differently in Arabic.

Jordan's Al Ghad newspaper writes:

Israeli occupation authorities began yesterday in building the racist wall along the borders of a new entity with Egypt and the Golan up to the Gaza Strip, threatening "to seal the blockade against the occupied Palestinian territories and isolated from its surroundings."

...But there are other goals of the racist wall that brings serious implications for the occupied Palestinian territories, where it will cause "a negative impact on life in the Gaza Strip, indirectly, and prevent any relationship [between Gaza and] neighboring Egypt except through checkpoints and borders," according to a political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza Youssef Rizqa.

Rizqa said "the occupation through this wall is trying to obstruct the efforts of the resistance factions and any activity practiced in the occupied territories."

Yes, this mainstream liberal Jordanian newspaper is saying that anything Israel does to stop terrorists and infiltrators, that might however indirectly hinder the "resistance" is, by definition, "racist."

Apparently, Jews objecting to being blown up is just one example of their inherent racism.

Full video: BBC Panorama on hate taught in Islamic schools

Here is the BBC Panorama story I mentioned yesterday on how British Islamic schools teach Jew-hatred and homophobia:

(h/t Suzanne)

Saudi scientists: Camel urine fights cancer, heart attacks, strokes

Jordan's Al Ghad reports that Saudi scientists have proven that camel urine has similar properties as aspirin in fighting blood clots that could cause strokes and heart attacks.

The study compared urine from camels in various parts of the kingdom with that from cows and humans, and discovered that only the camels had these miraculous medicinal properties.

They said that the same blood thinning qualities can also help inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.

The article says that the scientists are working with American pharmaceutical companies to figure out how to convert the camel urine - and perhaps this story - into a form that people can swallow.

Full video: CBC implicates Hezbollah for Hariri murder

The video of the CBC story I mentioned yesterday:

(h/t Islamo-nazism blog)

Paris museum suspends Israel-bashing exhibit

I mentioned on November 10th that the Museum of Modern Art in Paris was showing an "award winning" collection of photos from the Gaza Strip meant to bash Israel. Not only were the photos biased, but the very rules of the award were created for a single purpose - to compare Israel to Nazis.

Last Sunday, a group of Zionists mobilized on Facebook to create a unique counter-protest.

In the words of the leader of the group, Jean-Patrick Grumberg:

With the active support of members of the Europe-Israel group, volunteers recruited on Facebook, and members of the JDL, leaflets was distributed on Sunday 21 November, before the exhibition opened.

The flyer was a perfectly neutral, and could not be construed as an attack. Photos, taken from Palestinian sites, with this title: "Disturbing Gaza photos." Thus, we followed the logic of the show: the audience was invited to see for themselves that there is another truth, in Gaza.

My goal was to restore some balance. To inform the public, and show this side of Gaza hidden by the media. The result was well above our expectations.

The administration of the museum became trapped by its ignorance - or complicity, we will probably never know - revealed by this leaflet. The photos revealed that they became the purveyors of propaganda disguised as art exhibition, as was revealed by our photos.

Consequence: the museum's management has decided, on Sunday 21 November, to close the exhibition for a period of one week.

The team of volunteers distributing the flyers suffered - how strange - Judeophobic and Israélophobic insults: the truth revealed in the leaflets, I must admit, is a rare attack, because nothing and nobody can challenge the images - the pro-Palestinians know only too well.

The expo is not definitively closed, and we already expect the usual reactions of propaganda specialists.

This is a brilliant example of how pro-Israel activism should work.

(h/t EoL)