Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Poster for counterprotests - 1

A friend wrote to tell me that there was an anti-Israel protest (called "Gaza Massacre Remembrance") in New York's Herald Square on Sunday.

So, for any counter-protesters, I'm going to make some quick posters that they can plaster all over the place. Of course, anyone can use them for any similar purpose.

Here's the first:

Muslims freak out over Kotel iPhone app

Recently, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation released iKotel, an iPhone app that lets you see a live camera view of the Western Wall and also allows you to send notes to be placed between the stones. It also helps point the user towards the Temple Mount for prayers.

Muslims aren't happy.

The Al Aqsa Foundation put out a press release, quoted by Ma'an, saying that the Jews - through this app - are attempting to get the younger generation to forge a closer connection to what they falsely call the "Al Buraq Wall."

Palestine News Network quoted them:

The "Al-Aqsa Foundation" said that the Wailing Wall is an integral part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and it is exclusively Islamic, linked ideologically and religiously fully with the incident of [al-Buraq] with the Prophet Mohammed - peace be upon him - and non-Muslims have no right to it, even to the dust of the Wailing Wall, it is the right of Muslims and will remain so, even though it came under the control of Israeli occupation.

Next week the Al Aqsa Foundation will probably come out with a press release slamming the 1695 Amsterdam Haggadah, which depicts the Second Temple in Jerusalem:

Also, the official WAFA news agency of the Palestinian Authority quotes the Al Aqsa press release with obvious approval of the contents. The PA had previously published a paper claiming that there is no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

Is there any daylight between the rantings of the "extremists" of the Al Aqsa foundation and the "moderate" Palestinian Authority?

Morning links

Jonathan Halevi at JCPA has a monograph on Hamas' continuing genocidal intent - even while people continue to call for Israel to talk to Hamas.

Michael Horesh has a nice posting about European investment in the PA.

Fatah says that Hamas arrested over 3000 of its loyalists in 2010 in Gaza.

Charles Jacobs writes an important piece on "Jewish malware:Why is World Jewry So Bad at Defending Itself?"

Jews may be susceptible to a particular type of rhetorical virus, so devastating that once implanted it prevents them from acting in their own self-defense and turns otherwise eloquent people into stuttering blockheads. The worm is simple, and ancient. It’s called “accusation.”

Accuse the Jews. Accuse them unfairly and with such disproportionate frequency that anyone who wishes to can see there’s an agenda at work that has little to do with the actual charges raised. Accuse the Jews and they instinctively, like moths fly to candles, start believing they can cleverly explain themselves, and convince their accusers of their innocence and their goodness.

I mentioned the Jewish and Zionist frontman for the heavy metal band Disturbed. There is an Israeli heavy-metal band that is gaining Arab fans too.

And for those who think that I shouldn't only highlight Latma's brand of right-wing humor, here is a funny piece from Israeli comedy program Eretz Nehederet that skewers the Right:

(h/t Yerushalimey and Gidon)

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.

More questions about Abu Rahma (UPDATED)

An update on this story about the Palestinian Arab woman Jawaher Abu Rahma who was allegedly killed by tear gas in Bil'in.

The Independent's Donald Macintyre writes:

The Israeli military said yesterday it was investigating the death of a Palestinian woman after she inhaled tear gas fired by soldiers during a protest against the military's separation barrier in the West Bank.

The woman, Jawaher Abu Rahma, 36, collapsed vomiting after being caught in a cloud of tear gas...

There were conflicting reports yesterday over whether the dead woman had any medical condition that made her especially susceptible to tear gas. One of her brothers, Samir, yesterday denied suggestions that she had suffered from asthma.

He said she had had trouble with one ear and protest organisers said she had suffered recently from flu or another illness which may have included respiratory problems, but that she had recovered well before Friday's protest.

Michael Sfard, the Israeli lawyer representing the woman's family, said troops used "incredible quantities of gas" at the protest, a weekly event that often degenerates into clashes between stone throwing protesters and soldiers.

Witnesses however said that Ms Abu Rahma was some way from such a confrontation at the time. She died in hospital in Ramallah on Saturday

Ilham Abu Rahma, 19, a cousin and neighbour of the dead woman, said she was on a first floor verandah at her house when she saw Ms Abu Rahma standing on a wall across the street talking to a relative and looking down the hill towards olive trees where soldiers were confronting stone-throwing youths. The protesting youths were between her and the soldiers. She said she was conscious both of tear gas and the foul smelling "skunk" which the military add to the water fired from water cannon during some protests. She went inside her house and shut the windows.

She said Jawaher had started walking up the street away from the protest. "I heard Hilmi (her brother) telling me to come and help Jawaher. She was vomiting yellow stuff and lying on the ground. She waved me away to say she was still being sick. I couldn't carry her." With the help of another cousin, Ilham got her into the house, where she said they waited nearly half an hour for an ambulance. She added: "There was saliva in the corner of her mouth. She was pointing at her chest and saying, 'Am I going to die?'"

Ilham Abu Rahma said she did not know why her cousin, who worked as a local baby-sitter, had been so much more gravely affected by the tear gas than others in the same areas. "Maybe it was just because the wind blew up a cloud of gas to where she was," she added.

The Israeli military described Friday's protest as a "violent and illegal riot". It said it was investigating the incident but complained that it had not been shown the medical report by the Palestinian authorities.

Dr Mohammed Eideh, who treated Ms Abu Rahma in Ramallah, said she died of "respiratory failure and then cardiac arrest" caused by tear gas inhalation.

Macintyre does not say explicitly that she was attending the protest, but the Independent's caption under her photo says "Jawaher Abu Rahma was protesting against the barrier in the West Bank."

It is interesting that the cousin says she shut the windows of her house but then heard her brother call for help. Possible, but interesting.

The bigger question is how Dr. Eideh knows the cause of death was from the tear gas when there is no evidence that any tear gas was shot near her at all?

And then we have this account from Palestine News Network on Saturday that mirrors the Facebook entry that her cousin wrote:

The primary cause of death was suffocation from tear gas chemicals mixed with phosphorus (shot by Israeli troops at protestors, in a peaceful Friday weekly demonstration) according to the doctor that attended her.

Jawaher was not present at the demonstration. She was in her home, approximately 500 meters away from where the gas canisters landed, when she suffered the effects of gas that was carried over the village by wind. The chemicals caused poisoning in her lungs, which caused suffocation and the stopping of the heart, leading to her death after fighting for her life overnight at Ramallah city Hospital.

I don't know if the doctor mentioned here is the same one mentioned by the Independent. Reuters Arabic quotes that same doctor, Mohamed Eida, who is the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Ministry of Health, as saying that he didn't know the kind of gas that caused her to stop breathing, while her attending physician claimed it was phosphorus and tear gas, and the Independent quotes Eida as saying definitively that it was tear gas.

Israeli TV showed video of a woman being treated at the scene, but it does not appear to be the Abu Rahma:

Abu Rahma (from the Independent)

Woman from protest shown on Israeli TV

Her brother claiming that the gas was "phosphorus" on Israeli TV

(screenshots h/t Jed)

It seems impossible that tear gas can be fatal from the distance she was, both according to the Independent and the PNN accounts. According to a tear gas fact sheet:

The deadly effects of tear gas would only occur following exposure to a dosage several hundred times greater than the amount of tear gas typically used by law enforcement officials for crowd control.

Coupled with the fact that the PA is not sharing their medical records with Israel (and yet so many Arabs claim to know the cause of death) and the story is just not adding up.

(h/t DJK for tear gas fact sheet)

UPDATE:
From The Muqata:

Israel TV and IDF radio are both reporting that IDF has announced that Jawaher ABu Rahma was not even at the violent, weekly Bil'in protest.

So how did she die?

Apparently she had Leukemia, and died of her cancer - completely unconnected to the protest.

She was in fact in a Ramallah hospital for 10 days prior to her death.

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.