Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Guardian's whitewash of the Muslim Brotherhood

Last week, The Guardian looked at the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and - surprise! - managed to find that it was not nearly as bad as those ignorant Westerners think:

"There can be no question that genuine democracy must prevail," Mohammad Mursi, a brotherhood spokesman, wrote in an article for Tuesday's Guardian. "While the Muslim Brotherhood is unequivocal regarding its basis in Islamic thought, it rejects any attempt to enforce any ideological line upon the Egyptian people."

Although the Brotherhood appears to have firmly embraced democracy, the means for reconciling that with its religious principles are not entirely clear: the issue of God's sovereignty versus people's sovereignty looks to have been fudged rather than resolved.

The Brotherhood continues to maintain that "Islam is the solution" while at the same time demonstrating a kind of pragmatism that suggests Islam may not be a complete solution after all.

For example?

One example is jizya, the poll tax on non-Muslims, which is clearly prescribed in the Qur'an. The original idea was that non-Muslims, since they did not serve in the military, should pay for their protection by Muslims.

Today, most Muslims regard jizya as obsolete.In order to follow Qur'anic principles strictly, though, it would have to be reinstated. In 1997, the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide at the time, Mustafa Mashhur, did suggest reintroducing it but, in a country with around 6 million Christians, this caused uproar and the movement later backtracked. For non-Islamist Muslims, jizya presents no great problem: they can justify its abolition on the basis of historicity – that the circumstances in which the tax was imposed no longer exist today. For Islamists, though, this is much more difficult because the words of the Qur'an and the practices of the earliest Muslims form the core of their ideology.

The Muslim Brotherhood wants Egypt to be an Islamic country. The only way that can occur is through democracy. But if it acts too Islamic now, it can never gain the power it craves. So it tactically chooses what to emphasize and what to downplay.

This is not evidence that it believes that "Islam may not be a complete solution after all." It is evidence that they know how to play the game, very well. The Guardian completely misses the point.

The Guardian's misinterpretation gets worse:

Years of repression at the hands of the Egyptian authorities have made the brotherhood more interested in human rights than many might expect from an Islamist organisation. When the European parliament criticised Egypt's record in 2008, the Mubarak regime responded with fury, while Hussein Ibrahim, the brotherhood's parliamentary spokesman, sided with Europe.

"The issue of human rights has become a global language," he said. "Although each country has its own particulars, respect of human rights is now a concern for all peoples" – though he specifically excluded gay rights.

Rather than deploring criticism from abroad, he said, the Egyptian government would do better to improve its human rights record, which would leave less room for foreigners to cause embarrassment.

The Brotherhood's interest in human rights extends in exactly one dimension - human rights for Islamists in Egypt. While the Guardian parenthetically concedes that the Ikhwan would not support human rights for gays, it pointedly ignores the other groups that the Brotherhood does not see as legal equals:

Women
Jews and Christians
Atheists, Hindus and other beliefs that are considered "idol worship"

We have a movement that openly looks upon Muslims as being a higher class than the rest of the world, and that advocates discrimination (or death) against everyone else. And yet The Guardian praises them for their stance on human rights!

Other criticisms of the article can be found at CiFWatch.

Iran says Hollywood most active section of Israel, US military

From Tehran Times:

Participants at the Iranian conference “Hollywoodism and Cinema” issued a statement at the end of the conference claiming that Hollywood, the most powerful international propaganda tool for Zionism, is facing decline.

Organizers of the Fajr International Film Festival, in collaboration with the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, arranged the two-day conference on February 5 and 6, by inviting a group of Iranian and foreign cineastes, writers and critics.

The attendees, coming from 20 countries, discussed the impact of Hollywood in the world of cinema, focusing on Hollywoodism, terrorism, the Pentagon, and the CIA. They issued a statement at the end of the program.

Hollywood is not just for entertainment or propaganda, but is the most active section of the U.S. and Israel military industry, reads part of the statement.

Hollywood not only tries to depict the image of the opposing countries and cultures, specifically Islam and Iran as threats, but also tries to eradicate justice and revolution.

Hollywood is trying to ruin spiritual values and is promoting materialism and its culture.

At the end of the session the participants stressed that Iran has the potential to become the center for all the world filmmakers to produce anti-Zionist productions.

They also asked Iran to help unite world great cineastes to make and produce better movies based on respect and peace.

I must admit I didn't know that Hollywood was on the IDF payroll.

I had mentioned this conference last month.

Here's a video from the conference from Iran's PressTV:

Don't you love how all the international female filmophiles were forced to cover their hair as they complained about the nefarious influence of Hollywood?

An earlier Tehran Times article quoted a French attendee as saying that "Hollywood producers also use the Holocaust to devastate the morals of human beings. They use this procedure to avoid having people ask any questions on the Holocaust. "

Erekat gone; AFP lies

From AFP:

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat tendered his resignation on Saturday amid deadlock in efforts to renew peace talks with Israel, a Palestinian official said.

Erakat told AFP he was stepping down because of his responsibility for the disclosure of confidential documents on Al-Jazeera, shortly after his resignation was announced by senior PLO Yasser Abed Rabbo.

The chief negotiator said he was assuming "responsibility for the theft of documents from his office" that he said had been "deliberately" tampered with.

Last month, Erakat accused Al-Jazeera of taking part in a campaign to overthrow the Palestinian Authority (PA) after the Doha-based television began to release more than 1,600 confidential files known as "The Palestine Papers."

The documents, shared by Al-Jazeera and Britain's Guardian daily, expose concessions to Israel in 10 years of secret peace talks, embarrassing and angering the Palestinian leadership.

The files allege that Palestinian negotiators offered unprecedented concessions during peace negotiations, including on the ultra-sensitive subjects of Jerusalem and refugees, with nothing in return from Israel.

The files allege no such thing. The Guardian and Al Jazeera falsely reported that the papers said that; which means that AFP didn't bother to look at the files either and blindly believed the false reporting of their fellow anti-Israel advocates masquerading as journalists.

Any way you look at the papers, Israel offered to uproot tens of thousands of Jews from their homes, offered the Palestinian Arabs a state with about the same area as the West Bank and Gaza today, offered to take in some so-called "refugees," and offered to establish an atmosphere of true peace and normalization between two states for two peoples. It is simply a lie to say that these do not represent concessions from Israel.

Turkey's absurd flotilla report

Turkey today released its report on the flotilla incident. I haven't yet found the full report, but the conclusions are laughable. Here are some:

3. There were no firearms on board the ships.

Well, there was at least one, as an IDF soldier got shot with a bullet that didn't come from the IDF. Bullet casings were also found.

4. Prior to the convoy’s departure, an understanding was reached among Turkish, Israeli and American officials that the convoy would eventually steer towards the Egyptian port of Al-Arish, when faced with compelling opposition. Events demonstrated that Israel did not abide by this understanding.

This is a completely new claim. Certainly the captain nor the organizers ever said they would accept going to anywhere but Gaza - they repeatedly said the opposite when communicating with the IDF. In addition, the IDF told the flotilla repeatedly that they have the option of going to Ashkelon and getting the aid all sent to Gaza - why wouldn't they have asked them to go to El Arish? This is a really fishy story to pop up out of nowhere, and it shouldn't take long to get US or Israeli clarification.

5. No attempt was made by the Israeli forces to visit and search the vessels before taking any other action.

13. Prior to their attack, the Israeli forces did not proceed with standard warning practices, i.e. firing across the bow, to indicate an imminent use of force.

14. Israeli forces initially tried to board the Mavi Marmara from zodiacs. At this stage, the Israeli forces fired the first shots.

This is ridiculous. The videos show very clearly that the passengers were throwing items onto the Israeli boats before they attempted to board, so at least on the Mavi Marmara it was clear that they could not board peacefully. We've also seen videos of the IHH members brandishing iron pipes to stop any attempt to board from the sea, well before the helicopters were deployed.

The other boats in the flotilla were boarded peacefully because they did not offer any resistance. The Turks are knowingly lying.

15. The nature and magnitude of the Israeli attack caused panic among the passengers who, in fear for their lives, reacted in self-defence.

Reacted? They had already prepared themselves with slingshots, broken bottles, pre-cut iron bars and chains. Doesn't sound like a "reaction" to me!

17. The Israeli forces opened fire with live ammunition from the zodiacs and helicopters onto the passengers on deck, resulting in the first casualties.

They fired stun grenades. Shooting from a helicopter with 9mm guns does not make any sense, and, again, none of the videos show anything close to these allegations - and the video smuggled out by the activists showed the helicopters very clearly.

19. Israeli soldiers fast-roped down to the Mavi Marmara from helicopters. Three were subdued by the passengers. They were taken to the lower decks where they were treated for their non-lethal injuries.

"Subdued" must be the Turkish word for "mercilessly attacked with knives and iron bars." "Taken" must be the Turkish word for "kidnapped." I don't yet know what the Turkish word for "throwing off the deck" is.

22. The Israeli forces attacked the other ships as well. Violence by Israeli soldiers occurred on all the ships of the convoy.

What a great investigation to discover these new injuries so many months later!

26. Throughout the hours-long journey to Ashdod, the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, including the Captain, and some on the other ships were subjected to severe physical, verbal and psychological abuses.

28. Throughout the ordeal, passengers from virtually all the nationalities represented in the convoy were indiscriminately and brutally victimized by Israeli forces.

I can't wait to read the details on these.

10 killed in Egypt

From MSNBC:

Elsewhere, in the north Sinai town of el-Arish, there was a alarming development with Reuters reporting that about 1,000 people attacked a police station in an attempt to free prisoners.

Witnesses said they threw Molotov cocktails and exchanged gunfire with police who retreated to the roof. Al-Jazeera television reported the attackers were protesters who broke away from the main demonstration in el-Arish.

Arabic media is reporting that 10 were killed and 50 injured in the attack, and 12 policemen surrendered.

It appears that the attack happened either during or immediately after Mubarak's resignation.

Comprehensive report on Israeli soldier at Hampshire college

A great report on the speech of IDF Sergeant Benjamin Anthony towards a hostile audience at Hampshire College on February 3.

“No soldier relishes going to war—if you doubt that, ask yourselves how you would feel if given ten minutes to prepare” for a mission that could cost your life and the lives of your friends. But one nonetheless goes willingly, he said, when the task is to intercept a band of terrorists planning an attack against civilians inside the borders of Israel, with the intention of murdering “children as they sleep in their beds at night.”

The soldiers, he said, fight simply in order to defend their homeland. A reference to that homeland as “Israel, the home of the Jewish people,” provoked another chorus of blowing whistles.

Heckler: “It has been occupied Palestine for over sixty years!”

...Israel, Anthony explained, had never known full peace or been free of threat: “For an Israeli soldier, the battle is one into which they are born. The clock starts ticking at birth.” It was not a fate that they would have chosen voluntarily.

“There is nothing glorious about war, and anybody who believes that is sorely mistaken.”

A student suddenly stands up and shouts that, “As-a-Jew” who had “lost relatives in the Holocaust," she cannot support the racist State of Israel and its policies.

More commotion. Some members of the audience rise, in agitation. Some protesters walk out.

A heckler again blows a whistle.

Sergeant Anthony: “Excuse me, the lady who’s Jewish—the lady who’s Jewish—and therefore uses her Judaism as validity for her opinion, could you please give me the title of last week’s Torah portion?”

Read the whole thing at To Find The Principles.

Mubarak gone

From USA Today:

Update at 10:42 a.m. ET:Reuters quotes a U.S. official as describing Mubarak's departure from Cairo as a "positive first step."

Update at 11:03 a.m. ET: Hossam Badrawi, who was recently appointed general secretary of the NDP, resigns saying Egypt needs new parties, Al-Jazeera reports.

Update at 11:05 a.m. ET: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has resigned . Vice President Omar Suleiman said in a brief televised statement. His statement in full: "Hosni Mubarak has waived the office of presidency and told the army to run the affairs of the country. "

Update at 11:08 a.m. ET: Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators erupted in jubilation in Tahrir Square as vice president Omar Suleiman announces that President Mubarak has resigned and called on the army to "run the affairs of the country."

Update at 11:15 a.m. ET: Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, reacting to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, says: "This is the greatest day of my life. The country has been liberated."

Update at 11:22 a.m. ET MSNBC reports that President Obama was notified of Mubarak's resignation during an Oval Office meeting. He then watched the TV coverage for several minutes in an outer office.

Update at 11:27 a.m. ET: Al-Jazeera correspondent Sherine Tadros, reporting from Tahrir Square, reports that a number of demonstrators have fainted amid the jubilation and been helped out of the area.

Update at 11:32 a.m. ET: Our colleagues at The Oval report that President Obama will make a statement on the Egyptian developments at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Update at 11:34 a.m. ET: Here is the full statement that a grim-looking Vice President Omar Suleiman delivered on Egypt state TV announcing President Mubarak's resignation:

In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic. He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor.

Yemen's revolution stymied by qat addiction

From Al Arabiya/Reuters:

Yemen's opposition has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets to rally against three decades of autocratic rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but by noon the protesters quietly vanish.

Many head straight from the streets to the souk, or market, to buy bags stuffed with qat, the mild stimulant leaf that over half of Yemen's 23 million people chew daily, wiling away their afternoons in bliss, their cheeks bulging with wads of qat.

"After I chew I can't go out. When I chew qat, the whole world is mine. I feel like a king," said Mohammed al-Qadimi, a student who has attended Yemen rallies but said it would be hard to motivate himself to protest all day.

"When we have protests, they quiet down quickly because of this Yemeni habit. Qat is a negative influence. Every afternoon people go chew qat and the protests don't last more than a few hours in the morning," journalist Samir Gibran said, as he sat chewing qat with friends. He said he only chews once a week.

Yemen, vital to the United States in its fight against al-Qaeda, faces economic conditions often worse than those that helped spur revolt in Tunisia and Egypt. Economists put unemployment at 35 percent or higher, while a third of Yemenis face chronic hunger.

"Qat time is from one to two in the afternoon. It's not possible for a protester to use that time for something else. For him, qat time is the most important," said Marwan al-Qalisi, an accountant in Sanaa, his cheek bulging with qat.

Qat, which sucks up around 40 percent of Yemen's rapidly dwindling water resources, plays such a large role in the country's economy that the central bank calculates indicators both with and without qat. The plant accounts for 6 percent of Yemen's GDP and a third of its agricultural GDP.

The World Bank estimates that Yemenis spend a tenth of their income on the plant and lose about 25% of potential work hours to qat chewing.

Dude!

Some links for the weekend

I have not been spending too much time blogging about Egypt, mostly because there are plenty of excellent people who are.

Here's a quick rundown:

Melanie Phillips on The American debacle in Egypt.

A whole series of Barry Rubin pieces:
Tariq's Tricks: How the West's Favorite Islamist Spins His Web to Ensnare Them Egypt: If the top intelligence Guy Thinks the Brotherhood is Secular; No Wonder U.S. Policy is so Screwed Up News Flash: Mubarak's not resigning and they were all wrong!How Do We Know What Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Wants? Because It Tells Us

Mubarak's not the one who should resign (on Leon Panetta's wrong intelligence)

WSJ on White House mishandling of Egypt

The Telegraph weighed in on Clapper's comment on the MB

Krauthammer on the needed freedom doctrine

Eric Trager on the Muslim Brotherhood's strategy

Really interesting article on "illiberal democracy" at Forbes that is very un-PC

In non-Egypt news...

I don't remember if I blogged Melanie Phillips article on former British ambassador to Israel, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles.

Just Journalism looks at how The Guardian reported on the Palestine Papers (I wish they would have referred to my research on what they ignored as well)

(Melanie was also nice enough to write up one of my Palestine Papers scoops, as was Yisrael Medad in JPost.)

(h/t Devora, SoccerDad, EV)

Pro-Mubarak actor says Tahrir Square filled with sex, drugs

Egyptian actor Talaat Zakaria defended Hosni Mubarak a couple of days ago against the insults being hurled at the Egyptian president from the protesters, asking how the protesters could dare insult their President who was a hero during the 1973 war with Israel.

Now he is telling Al Ahram that while he respects the January 25th revolution, Tahrir Square has turned into a hotbed of sex and drugs from the young people camping there.

If he wants to keep young people away from Tahrir Square, that's not necessarily the best way to do it...

Gilbert Achcar and Shlomo Sand: Peas in a pod

From Richard Millett's blog:

Gilbert Achcar asked me to leave last night’s talk at SOAS given by Shlomo Sand. If I didn’t he said he would call security.

The talk was called On the Nation and the ‘Jewish People’, although it was all taken from Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People.

For an hour I bit my lip while Sand tore into the idea that the Jews had any connection with Israel. He said there had never been an exile of the Jews under the Romans and so, as there was no exile, there could never be a return.

But all Israeli school textbooks spoke of this mythical “exile” he said.

He claimed the Jews were merely a religious phenomenon and as they came from all over the world, and so had no connection with each other, they could not be described as “a people”. Sand is an Israeli Jewish atheist.

Today’s Jews, he said, are just descendants of converts from African tribes i.e. the Khazars and the Berbers. These tribes had simply converted en masse to Judaism.

Zionists had only recently taken Jewish myths and cultured them into a nationalist ideology.

But Jews had never wanted to originally go to Palestine. Only after 1924, when America closed the gates, and eventually the British too, did they finally set sail for Palestine....

Then, after defining Nazi Germany as an ethnocentric state, he said he was against Israel being defined as a Jewish state because “I am sure it will finish with the massacre in the Galilee, because 20% are non-Jews in this state”.

What is the point of an unopposed two hour verbal attack on Israel and the Jewish people at a British university? No one learns a thing apart from more anti-Israel propaganda.

During the Q&A I asked Sand what is the problem with the Jews calling themselves “a people” if they wanted to. He might not like it but most Jews think of themselves as being part of “a people”. That is how nationalism works.

I challenged him on whether Jewish history really spoke of the Jews being “exiled” by the Romans. Instead, the Jews had lost sovereignty to the Romans and many Jews left the area to become the Jewish diaspora. Therefore, Jews have a historical right to return.

What about “Next Year in Jerusalem” and the ancient religious festivals when Jews look to return to Israel and Jerusalem one day? Was that all made up by Zionists?

Anita Shapira’s destruction of Sand’s book is good on this.

Sand answered that 93% of the Jews living under the Romans were peasants and so they couldn’t leave. And diaspora Jews had only ever thought of Israel as a “Holy Land”, not as a “Home land”. “Israel” is a theological notion, not a political one.

Jews felt that the land did not belong to them, but to G-d and Jews went to Palestine only to die, not to live, so they could be the first to be resurrected when the Messiah came.

I understood the religiousness of the “Holy Land” point he was making but Sand wasn’t answering my main question: What is wrong with Jewish nationalism?

I called him a coward for not answering that question, which eventually spurred him into action.

“The Jews only came to Palestine because the doors to America and Britain were closed,” he screamed at the audience.

Even if that were true it still doesn’t preclude Jews from recognising themselves as “a people” and calling for a Jewish state.

It is not too disimilar from what the Palestinians have done. Many of them are not indigenous to what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories either, but came to the area when Jews started arriving from Europe. But they are also demanding a state.

I continued to try to question Sand but he just mocked me for being a Zionist who can’t speak Hebrew and who doesn’t even live in Israel like he does.

By then Achcar was out of his chair and bearing down on me insisting that I leave or he would call security.

I refused to leave but sat there, silent, like a good boy for the rest of the Q&A.

On the way out I was surrounded by people wanting to lecture me, including one woman who insisted that I apologise to Sand for calling him Shlomo, instead of Mr Sand, and a coward.

I already exposed Achcar as an academic fraud in his book.

As far as Sand goes....Saturday afternoon prayers ask G-d rhetorically, "Who is like the people of Israel, a unique nation in the world?" These are not Biblical words but words written during Rabbinic times - after the Diaspora began.

That's just one tiny example of how Jews always considered themselves a nation.

Their desire to return to Israel is not only mentioned in the annual recitations of "Next Year in Jerusalem" but also multiple times in daily prayers.

Not only that, but non-Jews universally recognized Jews as a nation, as I mentioned recently.

If a group of people call themselves a nation and the world agrees (and even admits where that nation's land is), its hard to argue that there's no nation there.

Sand's postulating the discredited Khazar theory shows he has no intellectual integrity at all. But since I cannot resist demolishing arguments, here are a couple:

Some Jews are descendants of Aaron (Kohanim) and Levi (Leviim.) Kohanim and Leviim have different roles in the religion and that status gets handed down from fathers to sons. If all Jews are converts from Khazaria, how did many of them turn into Kohanim and Leviim?

Moreover, there is a continual written record of Jewish legal issues from the Mishna through the rest of the Talmud through the Geonic period, Rishonim and later. If there was an influx of a huge number of converted Jews coming out of Khazaria, it would have engendered many new questions and legal rulings regarding their status as Jews. Where are they?

Not only that, but to get to the level of expert legal knowledge required by leading rabbis is a long educational process. How could a large group of new converts gain such expertise so thoroughly that they could be accepted by the existing Jewish communities without any record of them attending any existing institutions of Jewish study? Jewish law is nothing if not complex.

Finally, as to Sand's point that Jews did not go to Israel to live but to die, there are a host of prominent Jews who moved to Israel far before the First Aliyah. Speaking of, that event also predates Sand's bizarre claim that Jews didn't move to Israel until 1924. By 1924 there was already a nascent Jewish political infrastructure in Palestine.

Two liars, pretending to be academics, sharing the platform at an anti-Israel event, where an idiotic audience eats it up. This is a sick world.

"An Israeli conspiracy that never existed" (Arab News)

Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, retired commodore of the Royal Saudi Navy, writes a surprising op-ed in Arab News, whose op-eds usually argue the exact opposite:

I have, since childhood, been hearing about an invisible thing called the Israeli conspiracy.

It is always said that Israel did this and Israel did that. What is worse is when I hear that Israel is planning to do that. So, if we already know what Israel is planning to do, then why not either stop it or avoid it. The biggest conspiracy I heard regarding the Arabs and the Israelis is the humiliating defeat of June 1967. The Egyptians blamed everybody but themselves for the defeat. They insisted on speaking about why some planes came from the north and not from the east. They insisted that they were American Navy planes attacking Egypt. Did not the military analysts hear about evasive maneuvers, or did they expect the air force to fly like commercial airlines by taking the shortest and direct routes.

It turned out that the Egyptian forces were commanded by Gamal Abdel Nasser who only held the rank of major. Hours before the Israeli attack, all air defense sites were told to be on hold because Field Marshal Abdulhakim Amer’s plane was in the air. So, it was not an Israeli conspiracy that defeated the Egyptians, it was the poor planning and having a tired army coming back from Yemen tasked to go to a war that even Nasser did not know how to manage.

That was Egypt in 1967, but what about the Egyptian uprising of 2011? Was it the Egyptians or outside forces? The Egyptian leadership used to call Al Jazeera the match box. The channel’s media center in Qatar is so small that people used to wonder why regional leaders were worried about such a small media building, one that is small as a match box. It turned out that the Egyptian authorities had Al Jazeera on the top list of places to close. There was also no Israeli media center and Israel has no interest in seeing an unstable Egypt. Thomas Friedman once said that Al Jazeera should have been established in Egypt, not Qatar.

Egypt is a country whose media should have been at the front of providing information. However, Egyptians living inside the country and abroad are glued to foreign news outlets. Let us not doubt the Egyptians in their sincere request for change. We cannot accuse 80 million Egyptians of being toys in foreign hands.

To this day, I see Arabs blaming Israelis for young Arab drug addicts, their poor education, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, bad roads, corruption, lack of democracy, unemployment, 9/11, the division of Sudan, the upheaval in Tunisia and the unrest in Egypt. If Israel can do all these things, then the Israelis are either super humans or we simply enjoy blaming others for our failings.

Read the whole thing.

Hollywood loves Israeli Druse "soap" star

From Israel21c:

When Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli comes to Israel for a visit, she makes sure to stock up on Gamila's soaps for her glamorous friends around the world. She and other celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Angelina Jolie swear by the stuff, according to Fuad Hiar, the eldest son of Israel's most lucrative soap maker the 70-year-old Gamila Hiar.

Gamila is adept at the role of traditional soap maker. She's traditionally dressed, and as one would expect from an iconic grandmother figure, she has inherited her family's ancient "soap wisdom" from prior generations, using recipes from her grandfathers, and herbs from their gardens around the Galilee village of Peki'in.

For more than 40 years now, Gamila has been making and selling soap - concocted into small bars worth their weight in gold - at about $35 each. Called Gamila's Secret, about 100,000 of them are shipped every month to 23 countries around the world.

The secrets aren't in the choice of oils Gamila publicizes widely: Olive, almond, avocado and lavender. They are in the 15 secret herbs and plant extracts native to the Galilee that give the soap its special restorative properties.

18th century anti-semitism in Palestine - and Italy

Giovanni Mariti wrote "Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine; with a general history of the Levant" in the late 18th century, and it was translated into English in 1792.

In the book he describes some everyday anti-semitism in Palestine. for example:

The Jews have also a small synagogue here [in Acre], which they are not permitted to enlarge; as the governor requires that they should be contented with the small portion of ground which he has given them.

But this section, about his entering Jerusalem, was more interesting for its footnote:

One of the interpreters in the service of the convent appeared very much surprised to see me arrive without notice being sent to these good monks by the governor. Having told him in what manner I had entered, he informed me that I must return without the city; because Europeans who came from Jaffa are forbid to pass through any other gate than that of Damascus. The infraction of this law would have exposed the monastery, and perhaps myself, to some disagreeable exaction. This unlucky accident was very distressing to a fatigued traveller; and I silently murmured against the fanaticism of the Mahometans, which delights to torment, by ridiculous customs, those of a different religion from their own. There was, however, no remedy; and I said, why blame the superstitious Mussulmans? They only behave to Catholics in the same manner as the Catholics behave to the Jews. What plausible reason can the Italians have for compelling these children of the Hebrews to wear yellow caps on their heads, which exposes them to the derision of the populace*? We, nevertheless, boast of being enlightened by philosophy.

The footnote:

* They are banished into the filthiest corners of our cities where the avarice of government is continually studying how to plunder them. But it is above all in the dominions of the Pope that they are exposed to the greatest oppression.

They have purchased at a very dear rate, and particularly at Avignon, the right of having synagogues. The nuncios do not blush to make them renew their payments four or five times in a year. When they want money, they cause the synagogues to be opened an hour later: this is sufficient to inform the Jews of their intention. These unhappy proscribed people must then hasten to make a contribution. It may be readily guessed that the nuncio is not visible when they carry it to him: they deposit the offering on one of the tables of his apartment; and if it is judged sufficient, the doors of the synagogue are forthwith, opened.