Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Spy vulture story reaches Israeli media

Last week I wrote about a large bird being caught in Saudi Arabia, with markings indicating "Tel Aviv University," and the Saudi suspicions that it is part of an Israeli espionage plot. (It was, of course, part of a research program.)

The Hebrew media finally caught up to the story, nearly a week later.

The bird is evidently a vulture.

An English version of the story is here.

(h/t Joel)

Al Azhar University wants 15-year sentence for Quran errors

From President Obama's 2009 speech in Cairo:

As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam -- at places like Al-Azhar -- that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment.

From Al Masry al-Youm:

Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy on Thursday proposed a new law mandating 15-year jail terms for printing and publishing houses found guilty of making copy mistakes in published versions of the Quran.

Under the proposed law, the transgression would be classified as a felony rather than a misdemeanor, while offending printing or publishing houses would be forced to close.

According to Academy Secretary-General Sheikh Ali Abdel Baqi, a committee composed of academy members, Al-Azhar scholars and legal experts would draft the proposed legislation before referring it to the Shura Council (the consultative house of Egypt's parliament) for discussion.

Enlightened!

How Arab media describes Jewish pilgrimage to Abuhatzeira grave

The Egyptian media is linking to a YouTube video showing mostly Mizrahi Jews - men and women - at the gravesite of Yaakov Abuhatzeira.

They are praying, chanting and one person blows a shofar:

However, at least one Arabic article, even after linking to the video, describes a much different - and quite unlikely - scene:

Among the rituals of the ceremony, to be held at the tomb, are practices to drink alcohol [or spilled over the cemetery and licked after that - not sure what that means - EoZ] , and the slaughter of sacrifices are often sheep or pigs, and dance hysterically to some Jewish tunes and say prayers and entreaties to cry bitterly in front of the grave, and hit heads in the Wailing Wall for the blessing.

Yeah, let's slaughter and sacrifice pigs at a famous rabbi's tomb!

There is also a group of Egyptian bloggers who are very much against the annual visit.

Israel again ranks high in world university survey (Zvi)

From Zvi:

Here's how Israeli research universities fared in the 2010 "Academic Rankings of World Universities" subject rankings.

Israel was one of only 8 countries to have universities that received top-20 "subject" rankings (US, which dominated, followed by the UK, France, Japan, Israel, Switzerland, Canada and Germany, in that order).

Subject Rankings:

Computer Science:
#12 in the world: Weizmann Institute (#1 outside of North America and of course #1 in Eurasia)
#15: Technion (#2 outside of North America and of course #2 in Eurasia)
#21: Hebrew U. of Jerusalem (#4 outside of North America, #3 in Asia)
#31: Tel Aviv University (#9 outside of North America, #7 in Asia)

Israel is the only country other than the United States that has more than 3 universities in the top 50.

No other middle eastern country has even one university that made it into the top 100.

Mathematics:
#26: Tel Aviv University (#6 outside of the US, #1 in Asia)
51-76: Technion
51-76: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Only 10 countries made it into the top 50: the dominant US, followed in order of appearance by the UK, France, Russia, Israel, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Canada and Italy. Other than Switzerland, all of these countries have much larger populations than Israel.

No other middle eastern country has even one university that made it into the top 100.

Economy/Business:
#44: Hebrew University of Jerusalem (#5 outside of North America, #1 in Asia)
78-100. Tel Aviv University

Only 6 countries made it into the top 50; listed in order of first appearance, these are the US, which dominated, the UK, Canada, Israel, France and China (Hong Kong). All of the other top countries have much greater populations than Israel.

No other middle eastern country has even one university that made it into the top 100.

Physics:
51-75. Hebrew University of Jerusalem
51-75. Weizmann Institute of Science
76-100. Tel Aviv University

Only 12 countries made it into the top 75. All but Switzerland have much greater populations than Israel.

No other middle eastern country has even one university that made it into the top 100.

Chemistry:
51-75. Technion
51-75. Weizmann

Only 14 countries made it into the top 75. All but Switzerland and Sweden have much greater populations than Israel.

No other middle eastern country has even one university that made it into in the top 100.

Algerian soccer team ES Setif's Italian coach left the team a couple of weeks ago, and the club was on the verge of hiring his replacement: French coach Victor Zvunka.

But at the last minute, the team withdrew their offer to hire Zvunka.

The official reason is that Zvunka was not interested in the job.

But Al Arabiya (Arabic) reports:

Negotiations broke down for fear of reactions to unpleasant consequences after it emerged that [Zvunka] has "Jewish roots."

It goes on to say that management will try to avoid the embarrassment from the issue.

This is a corrected cartoon, my original one said that she was not at the riot but in fact there is evidence she was.

"Tear gas death" was a hoax (updated)

I was part of a conference call with an Israeli security source who prefers to be unnamed at this time, but the upshot is this:

All evidence points to the fact that Jawaher Abu Rahma was not killed by tear gas.

The number of inconsistencies and the amount of evidence of lies by Palestinian Arab spokespeople is incontrovertible. Here are some of the facts that the security sources mentioned:

* Abu Rahma arrived at the hospital at 15:20 on Friday - but her lab report is dated/timed 14:45, 35 minutes earlier!

* There is no emergency room report for her arrival.

* The reason for death given was "Inhaling gas from Israeli soldiers according to family."

10 days prior to her death she was in that hospital, taking medication for leukemia. There is evidence that she was in the hospital in the weeks prior as well, which indicates that she had a chronic disease.

Never has anyone died from tear gas in five years of riots in Bil'in.

There is no evidence that Abu Rahma even attended the riot. Her brother is the ringleader of the weekly Bil'in riots and yet there are no photos of her next to him, or anywhere else, on Friday (and possibly ever.)

The tear gas that the IDF used on Friday is exactly the same concentration and type that they have always used, and the same as used by Western countries for years.

The IDF always receives reports of injuries during the demonstrations. On Friday, they received word of two lightly wounded people, both of whom were quickly released from the hospital.

And in order to die from tear gas, you pretty much have to be in an enclosed room with the canister exploding next to you. Outdoors, it is pretty much inconceivable (although there may be some isolated cases.)

(The spokesperson also said that there is no better method to deal with rioters, and keep innocent civilians safe, than tear gas. In addition, Israel's High Court has already decided to re-route the security barrier around Bil'in yet they protesters still show up. Why?)

Interestingly, this may be the second time that Palestinian Arabs have falsely claimed that someone was killed by tear gas. In September, they claimed that a 18-month old baby was killed from tear gas in a Jerusalem riot. There were inconsistencies then as well - the death was never officially reported. But it was instantly believed by Palestinian "human rights" groups.

You can read more coverage from other bloggers on the same call, Israel Matzav and The Muqata, and My Right Word had the initial Israeli news reports.

UPDATE: There is evidence that Jawaher was at the protest. Jewish Voice for Peace tweeted that she had been injured during the rally and was taken to the hospital, at 14:36. There is still no evidence that tear gas was a cause of death, and that remarkable claim needs at least some real evidence besides her brother's say-so. (h/t Jeremiah Haber)

UPDATE 2: Ha'aretz fills in some gaps:

Following repeated requests from Israel's defense establishment, the Palestinian Authority on Monday turned over the medical report on Abu Rahma's death. IDF officials say the medical report contradicts the family's version of events.

According to information obtained by Haaretz from Palestinian medical sources, in the weeks before Abu Rahmah's death she was taking drugs prescribed for a medical condition. It is not known whether these drugs, combined with the tear gas and the "skunk bombs" used by the soldiers, could have caused her death.

Her family says Abu Rahmah's death was caused by the Israel Defense Forces' use of a particularly lethal type of tear gas, but they cannot explain why other demonstrators affected by the tear gas did not need medical care.

The IDF only used standard tear gas - so this is a lie.

Eyewitnesses told Haaretz that the tear gas had an immediate and dramatic effect on Abu Rahmah, who within a few minutes after exposure went into convulsions, began foaming at the mouth and lost consciousness.

Abu Rahmah's brother Samir said that for several weeks his sister had complained of bad headaches, mainly near one ear. He said she also had dizzy spells and problems keeping her balance and had unusual marks on her skin.

He had denied any medical problems only a couple of days ago.<

On December 21, Abu Rahmah saw Dr. Khaled Badwan, head of the ear, nose and throat department of Jerusalem's Augusta Victoria Hospital. He refused to be interviewed for this report.

According to a document obtained by Haaretz, Badwan prescribed a common remedy for dizziness and instructed her to bathe her ear in hot water. Samir said Badwan thought the problem was caused by water trapped in the middle ear, but nevertheless ordered a CT brain scan.

Physicians consulted for this article said Badwan probably suspected another condition.

Another lie by Samir - again, the only "proof" of her being killed by the tear gas comes from him and his family, who have lied twice in this article.

After receiving normal results from the December 27 brain scan, Abu Rahmah saw Dr. Nasser al-Mualem at the Ramallah hospital, who according to Samir said her problem was common and told her to return in one month.

The medical documents seem to support Samir's claim that with the exception of the headaches and dizziness, his sister was in generally good health. None of the doctors consulted for this article could think of a condition or symptoms that could be fatal in the presence of tear gas.

Of course, Ha'aretz didn't ask any of the doctors whether the tear gas itself could have been in any way a contributing factor to her death. Tear gas is designed specifically to be non-lethal - that's why it is used.

There are 49 species of sharks in the Red Sea

I just saw this interesting tidbit at Victor Shikhman's blog (h/t Silke):

You may remember the story which recently made headlines around the world, of Mossad-trained sharks taste-testing unsuspecting tourists to Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh resort, in a clever Zionist bid to devastate the Egyptian economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism. Like me, you were probably aghast at the diabolical nature of the Zionist plot, to harness the ocean deep's more fearsome and ruthless creature in a brutal and unprovoked attack on the most peace-loving nation of people among all of humanity - the Egyptians. After all, who had ever heard of shark attacks in these tranquil waters?

The Sharm el-Sheikh harbor, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula where the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba meet and join the Red Sea, offers one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. Its waters are deep blue - Egyptian prisoners warned us against swimming there for they are teeming with sharks - and they are framed by hills of crimson rock.
Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life, pg. 254-255.

We are left to conclude either that sharks have been present in the waters off the resort for at least sixty years, or that Moshe Dayan, writing in 1965 about events of the Sinai Campaign some ten years earlier, inserted an insidious line meant to absolve the nascent Mossad shark-training program of culpability in the attacks on tourists to Egypt some six decades hence.

Which got me to do a little research and find this:

Boni il, R.; Abdallah, M. Field identification guide to the sharks and rays of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. Rome, FAO. 2004. 71p. 12 colour plates.

ABSTRACT

This volume presents a fully illustrated field guide for the identification of the sharks and rays most relevant to the fisheries of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. An extensive literature review and two field surveys in the region were carried out for the preparation of this document. A total of 49 sharks and 45 batoids reliably reported for the region are listed and those common in the fisheries or likely to be found through fishing operations are fully treated (44 sharks and 33 batoids). Included here are the first confirmed reports for the region of Hensigaleu.s. miernsruniii. Carvharhinus dussinnierf Actomyfilmy vespertilin, Hinumnirir liii, Aluhuld japonica and an undescribed Dasyuris sp. The guide includes sections on technical terms and measurements for sharks and batoids, and fully illustrated keys to those orders and families that occur in the region. Each species account includes: at least one annotated illustration of the species highlighting its relevant identification characters: basic information on nomenclature, synonyms and possible misidentifications; FAO, common and local names; basic information on size, habitat and biology, importance to fisheries, and distribution. Colour plates for a large number of the species are included.

Abbas older brother dies

Arabic media is reporting that Mahmoud Abbas' older brother Atta has died in Syria.

Like Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), his brother had a nom de guerre - Abu Fayez.

Why do members of such a moderate family insist on having separate terrorist names?

And why did he live in Syria anyway? Wouldn't it have made sense for such a prominent relative to want to live in the Palestinian Arab territories? Or did he just consider "Palestine" to be part of southern Syria?

Egypt bars one third of anti-Israel agitators from entering Gaza

From Ma'an:

The Asia 1, an aid convoy backed by nations in Southeast Asia which drove from India to Syria and sailed for Egypt, arrived in the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, Egyptian officials said.

Of the 160 activists traveling with the convoy, 112 were allowed entry into the coastal enclave, with Iranian and Jordanian activists excluded.

As the activists entered Gaza, the aid from the ship was being unloaded at El-Arish, the Egyptian port city, and will enter Gaza on Monday morning, officials said.

Egypt has barred potential troublemakers from Gaza before, most recently with Viva Palestina.

It will be interesting to see Iran's reaction. So far they have mentioned it without comment.

Arab reporter astonished: "Ramallah is like Europe!"

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Maisun Azzam, a journalist from Al-Arabiya TV in Dubai, was interviewed on the PA TV talk show, Palestine this morning.

PA TV host asks Maisun Azzam: "What is your picture of Palestine?"
Azzam: "Look, the main picture is the picture we see on TV since, unfortunately, in the media bad news is good news for us [journalists]."
PA TV Host: "That's the prominent news."
Azzam: "Yes, the prominent, main news, because if there's different news, we say it's not newsworthy. But if someone dies, or something is destroyed, then that's newsworthy. So, as a Palestinian, I didn't expect to get here, I didn't expect to find you alive, and I said that [also] at Bir-Zeit University. I looked and said, 'You're alive!' I went to the Stones restaurant [in Ramallah] to do an advertising campaign for our director, Nadal Hassan; I felt like I was in Europe."

[PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 29, 2010]

And this is from someone on Dubai TV that would be one of the better-informed Arabs on the subject.

Meretz convinces Adidas to threaten Israel

From The Jerusalem Post, December 7:

Three Jerusalem City Council members from the opposition sent a warning letter last week to sports apparel company Adidas, one of the major sponsors of the International Jerusalem Marathon, calling on the company to withdraw its sponsorship of the race if the municipality did not remove east Jerusalem segments from the route.

“There’s no reason why it needs to go through the eastern part of the city,” said City Councilman Pepe Alalu (Meretz), who heads the opposition. “A marathon does not bring Jews and Arabs together. This is just an aggressive move.”

The letter was co-signed by Laura Wharton and Meir Margalit, both of Meretz.

The current route of the marathon, which will be held on March 25, starts at the Knesset and takes runners all the way out to Pisgat Ze’ev, before circling Hebrew University, entering the Old City at the Zion Gate, wending its way through the hills of Rehavia and Talpiyot to the promenade, and finally doubling back to the Knesset.

“As members of the Jerusalem City Council, we feel it is our duty to inform you that this year, the path of the marathon is due to run through parts of east Jerusalem that are considered occupied territory by the international community and by us,” the Meretz letter to Adidas stated.

“For that reason, we object to the marathon as it is now planned and believe it is important that you realize that a significant portion of the Israeli population as well as an overwhelming majority of the general population abroad will doubtless express their opposition once the details of the marathon are made public,” it continued.

I don't know if Adidas would have caved so easily had the letter come from BDS leaders, but since it came from people who pretend to represent Jerusalem, they did. From Ma'an:

Sportswear company Adidas forced the Jerusalem Municipality to reroute a planned marathon to avoid occupied Palestinian neighborhoods, Israeli media reported Sunday.

Hebrew-language daily Ma'ariv said Adidas threatened to withdraw sponsorship from the event after the company was lobbied by human rights organizations.

The newspaper reported that several organizations threatened to boycott the company over the issue.

The report said the March race would be held within the Green Line, in what Ma'ariv described as a submission to Adidas.

It is simply outrageous for members of a city council to lobby an outside company to threaten their own city.

Wikileaks: The beginning of Turkey's change

From a Wikileaks cable dated October 13, 2009:

IRAN:
Turkey understands and partially shares U.S. and international concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but is hesitant to use harsh language in public statements, in part due to its dependence on Iran as an energy supplier and as a trade route to Central Asian markets. PM Erdogan himself is a particularly vocal skeptic of the U.S. position. Turkey believes international pressure against Iran only helps to strengthen Ahmadinejad and the hard-liners. However, it continues to press Iran quietly to accept the P5 plus 1 offer. The GOT is a strong partner in our non-proliferation efforts, with several significant results. Politically,Turkey will try to position itself on Iran between wherever we are and where Russia is. In a pinch or if pressed, the Turks will slant to us.

ISRAEL:
While the Foreign Ministry and the Turkish General Staff agree with us that a strong Turkey-Israel relationship is essential for regional stability, PM Erdogan has sought to shore up his domestic right political flank at the expense of this relationship. His outburst at Davos was the first in a series of events the results of which we and his staff have sought to contain. The latest of these was Exercise Anatolian Eagle. Erdogan canceled Israel's participation hours before the exercise was to begin. With an Israeli strike - across Turkish airspace - against targets in Iran a possibility, Erdogan decided he could not afford the political risk of being accused of training the forces which would carry out such a raid. Through some remarkable work with Allies and with the inter-agency, we engineered a public "postponement" of the international portion of the exercise, but the relationship has begun to sour.

At the time, the State Department seemed to regard Erdogan's anti-Israel stance as more political than strategic, and that his opinions were not in concert with his foreign ministry and general staff.

It would be interesting to know if the State Department still believes this.

The Zionist heavy metal rocker from Disturbed

From JPost:

With his bald plate, ominous double labret vertical chin piercings and chic, black, embroidered T-shirt and pants, David Draiman doesn’t look like anyone else in the David Citadel Hotel business lounge. Not that the 37- year-old native of Chicago looks much like anyone you might see anywhere else in Jerusalem either. Let’s just say, he’s got a style all his own that sets him apart from the normal street scenery of the Holy City.

But one of the many ironies surrounding Draiman is that he can move around Israel in relative anonymity.

People look at him and can’t help but immediately comprehend that he must be someone famous. But unless they’re under 25 or a fan of American hard rock bands, they won’t pick up on the fact that the muscular, confident tourist is the vocalist for Disturbed, a heavy metal band that has sold over 11 million albums world-wide since its 2000 debut. Each of their subsequent four albums has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 list, a testament to the rabidity of Disturbed’s fans and the apparent chemistry its explosive music creates.

Another irony surrounding Draiman is that when he wants to jump off the album/rehearsal/tour merry-go-round – or recuperate from the rigors of rock & roll life which include a throat infection which caused part of a tour to be canceled – he doesn’t opt for a secluded Caribbean beach or a French Riviera resort. He returns to Israel.

“I love it here! I come every year or two,” said Draiman last week. He claims to have close to 200 relatives in the country, including his brother Ben, also a musician, and his grandmother. However, that isn’t what keeps him coming back repeatedly since he made his first trip with his parents when he was six years old. It’s because Israel and Judaism are part of his being, and though they aren’t as dominant in his life as they were, Draiman remains one of the few high-profile hard rock singers who are defiantly Jewish – imagine a young Ozzy Osbourne as the spokesman for the Jewish Defense League.

And in what is perhaps the greatest irony in the Draiman saga, the same voice heard belting out the angst-ridden, menacing vocals that characterize Disturbed’s music used to regularly inspire teenage yeshiva students as the shaliach tzibur for Shaharit, Maariv and High Holy Day services.

When did your relationship with Israel start?

I came here many times as a kid with my family. I think the first time I was six. I used to come here for summer camp a couple times in my childhood, and I spent the year after high school here studying at Neve Zion yeshiva [in Telz Stone]. I was one of those guys you used to see getting into trouble or hanging out on Kikar Zion in Jerusalem.

Playing heavy metal, you must run into fans occasionally who espouse anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi sentiments.

I’m incredibly defiant against neo-Nazis and skinheads.

In fact, here’s a true story that occurred in the band’s infancy when we were playing Southside Chicago clubs.

One of the guys who would come to see us was a skinhead, he had a swastika tattoo, the whole nine yards.

After he became a die-hard fan, the band was sitting down having drinks after a show and he comes in and starts going on about niggers and Jews, and I interrupted him and said, “Dude, I don’t know if you realize this but I’m Jewish.”

He responded, “You’re Jewish! This completely changes my whole idea of what a Jew is supposed to be.” And soon after that, he had his swastika removed, and denounced the skinhead culture.

I’ve always been very proud of my heritage and where I come from, and I’ve defended it to the extent of being bloodied on many occasions. In fact, most of the fights I’ve been in my life – and there have been many – have been because I was defending my family or my faith. And I don’t apologize for it.

There’s still anti-Semitism everywhere, and unfortunately, what has happened with our people no longer being the underdogs in this region, peoples’ perception of Israel has changed dramatically. I find myself more and more having to defend us, and I will continue to do so.

I wrote a song on our latest album Asylum called “Never Again” about the Holocaust and the people who deny it, like Ahmadinejad, that piece of shit. And part of our live show includes a video presentation depicting him as the new Hitler. Believe you me, I’ve always been direct about hits, I never pull any punches and I will never apologize for who I am or where I come from.

The lyrics for Never Again:

Never again, never again

They have a frightening desire for genocide
They wouldn’t stop til what what was left of my family died
Hell-bent on taking over the world
You couldn’t hide in the shout of conformity
We can’t forget how we were devastated by the beast
And now we pleaded with the captors for release
We were hunted for no reason at all
One of the darkest times in our history
All that I have left inside is
A soul that’s filled with pride
I tell you never again
In a brave society
Didn’t end up killing me
Scream with me, never again
Not again

A generation that was persecuted endlessly
Exterminated by the Nazi war machine
We will remember, let the story be told
To realize how we lost our humanity
You dare to tell me that there never was a Holocaust
You think that history will leave the memory lost
Another Hitler using fear to control
You’re gonna fail this time for the world to see

All that I have left inside is
A soul that’s filled with pride
I tell you never again
In a brave society
Didn’t end up, killing me
Scream with me, never again
Not again

All that I have left inside is
A soul that’s filled with pride
I tell you never again
In a brave society
Didn’t End up killing me
Scream with me, never again

For the countless souls who died
Their voices fill this night
Sing with me, never again
They aren’t lost, you see
The truth will live in me
Believe me, never again