Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 14, 2011

Video: Tunisian march on synagogue

This video, of Tunisians protesting outside the Great Synagogue of Tunis, appears to have been taken within the past two weeks. I had not read about it in any media.

Jews in Tunisia cannot be feeling too secure.

(h/t Atlas Shrugs via True Israel, original Facebook posting here.)

Guardian admits spinning PalPapers quote - but where are the other corrections?

From Just Journalism:

On the first day of The Guardian’s Palestine papers expose, on Monday 24 January, when Palestinian negotiators were attacked as ‘weak’ and ‘craven’, a quote from then foreign minister Tzipi Livni appeared in a box, titled, ‘What they said…’. It read:

‘The Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we’ll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state.’ Tzipi Livni, then Israeli foreign minister

However, the newspaper on Saturday acknowledged that the full quote shows that Livni was characterising the Palestinian perception of Israeli policies, and not the policies themselves. What she actually said was:

‘I understand the sentiments of the Palestinians when they see the settlements being built. The meaning from the Palestinian perspective is that Israel takes more land, that the Palestinian state will be impossible, the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we’ll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state.’
By cutting the quote to exclude the first part of Tzipi Livni’s sentence, The Guardian portrayed the Israeli politician as brazenly admitting a policy of making a Palestinian state impossible.

That's great, but it is a drop in the bucket of Guardian misquotes from The Palestine Papers, a pattern that can hardly be accidental.

Here are some:

The Guardian headlined an article "Palestinian negotiators accept Jewish state, papers reveal." yet the papers said no such thing. Instead they said that the PLO has no problem with how Israel defines itself, a position they have said publicly, but they would never accept that definition. In fact, they would never accept that there is something called "the Jewish people."

In that same article, they claimed that "Israeli leaders pressed for the highly controversial transfer of some of their own Arab citizens into a future Palestinian state." In reality, the Israeli leaders were saying that they did not want to have villages divided into two states, and the villages should be in one state or another. Moreover, the Guardian misuses the word "transfer" which is usually meant to indicate moving people from their homes.

The same article mischaracterizes Livni a third time by writing

[I]n an extraordinary comment in November 2007, Livni – who briefly had a British arrest warrant issued against her in 2009 over alleged war crimes in Gaza – is recorded as saying: "I was the minister of justice. I am a lawyer ... But I am against law – international law in particular. Law in general."

She made clear that what might have seemed to be a joke was meant more seriously by using the point to argue against international law as one of the terms of reference for the talks and insisting that "Palestinians don't really need international law". The Palestinian negotiators protested about the claim.

In fact she was referring to putting a reference to international law in the Terms of Reference of a joint statement at Annapolis - not saying she was against international law altogether, as the Guardian implies. They also put the "Palestinians don't really need international law" as a Livni quote, when it was a paraphrase in the actual memo, again referring to the joint statement.

Three misquotes in one single article. Three examples of willful deception onthe part of those who read the actual memos. And The Guardian has yet to correct any of them.

Mideast unrest roundup (video)

From TheJournal.ie:

AUTHORITIES IN IRAN have fired tear gas at anti-establishment protesters gathering Tehran in a show of solidarity with protesters in Egypt.

“Severe clashes” between protesters and police have broken out in the capital and many have been arrested, reports the BBC. The main opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi has been placed under house arrest, according to his official website. Fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has also been placed under house arrest.

Internet sites and satellite news channels have been blocked by the authorities, according to reports.

Iran has officially supported the Egyptian revolution and has dismissed the Tehran protests as “political” moves instigated by the opposition leaders.

Meanwhile, protesters and police have also clashed in the capital of Bahrain, Manama. At least 14 people have been injured in the conflict so far -with breaking up one protest with teargas and rubber bullets, according to Reuters.

The majority Shia population of the tiny country is ruled by the Sunni al-Khalifa family, and analysts have said that an uprising in Bahrain could spark similar protests amongst Shias in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

On a statement in Twitter, activists wrote: “February 14th is only the beginning. The road may be long and the rallies may continue for days and weeks, but if a people one day chooses life, then destiny will respond.”

Likewise, hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets of the Yemeni capital Sana’a – with rocks being thrown by police and protesters, according to Reuters.

The Sydney Morning Herald/AFP gives us a rundown of other emerging hotspots:

ALGERIA: Opposition leaders planned a second protest march in the capital despite a long-standing ban on demonstrations, and France called on Algiers to allow anti-government protests to take place freely and without violence.

BAHRAIN: Bahraini police used tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters in the eastern village of Nuwaidrat, as security forces deployed in the tiny Gulf kingdom following Facebook calls for a February 14 "revolt."

EGYPT: The new military regime called on workers to end a wave of strikes and civil disobedience that has threatened to paralyse the country in the wake of the fall of Hosni Mubarak's government.

IRAN: Thousands of defiant Iranian opposition supporters in Tehran staged what they said was a rally supporting Arab revolts as riot police fired tear gas and paint balls to disperse them, witnesses and opposition websites said.

IRAQ: Baghdad will on March 29 host its first annual Arab summit since the US-led of invasion of 2003, in the wake of popular uprisings that transformed the political landscape of the volatile but long autocratic region.

JORDAN: Justice Minister Hussein Mujalli joins a sit-in held by trade unions and describes a Jordanian soldier serving a life sentence for killing Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 as a "hero," demanding his release.

LIBYA: Facebook groups numbering several hundred members have called for demonstrations to mark a "day of rage" in Libya on February 17 modelled on similar protests in other Arab countries.

MOROCCO: Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi was to meet the opposition to discuss parliamentary polls, with the impact of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia weighing heavily on the talks.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas reappointed Salam Fayyad as premier and tasked him with forming a new government after his cabinet resigned.

SYRIA: Woman blogger Tal al-Mallouhi, 19, gets five years in prison after being found guilty by a security court of "divulging information to a foreign country." Her blog focuses on the Palestinians, not Syrian politics.

TUNISIA: The country marked a month since the overthrow of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

YEMEN: Pro-democracy protesters clashed violently with police and supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, with clashes also reported in Taez south of the capital, where thousands of people joined anti-Saleh demonstrations.

UN sponsors anti-Israel photo exhibit in Madrid

From Iran's PressTV:

A photo exhibition called Broken Lives, Female Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails in the Spanish capital city of Madrid has portrayed the suffering of Palestinian women.

“Circulos de Bellas Artes” in collaboration with UN Women, formerly known as the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, inaugurated the World Premier exhibition in the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Sunday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The exhibition unveils stories of current and former Palestinian female prisoners in Israel's detention and interrogation centers, which every Palestinian knows well.

In the past three years, UNIFEM has received funds from the Spanish government for the implementation of the project aiming to protect the human rights of Palestinian female detainees in Israeli prisons as well as former detainees and their families.

Italian photographer Ventura Formicone portrayed the stories of women through photographs and direct interviews.

The 36 photographs take the visitors through the whole process of violent arrest, interrogation and detention endured by these women.

The article is accurate - the exhibition really is sponsored by UN Women, formerly UNIFEM.

It is a context-free exhibition. Nowhere is there anything mentioned about why these women are in prison, what terror attacks they might have been a part of, or how many people might be dead because of their actions.

UN Women funded a project called "Protection of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Prisons" which has an outdated webpage. But even on that webpage, it says that the number of Palestinian Arab women in Israeli prisons are a whopping 32. It is apparently associated with Addameer, the organization that routinely hugely exaggerates the number of people Israel has arrested.

This exhibit does not shed any light on the subject; instead it obscures it by implying that Israel wantonly puts women in jail for no reason. The assumption is that every female prisoner is innocent and deprived of her civil rights.

Which means that the UN is again slandering Israel.

Jordanian minister calls for release of murderer of Israeli schoolgirls

From NYT/AP:

Jordan's controversial justice minister has joined protesters demanding the release of a soldier who shot dead seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.

It is an unprecedented move by a Cabinet minister in Jordan, which maintains cordial ties with Israel under a peace treaty signed in 1994.

The minister, Hussein Mjali, was the lawyer for soldier Ahmed Daqamseh, who received a life sentence for killing the Israeli schoolgirls during an outing near Jordan's northwestern border with Israel.

Monday's protest in front of Mjali's office was organized by Daqamseh's family. Mjali joined the crowd, saying he was participating in his capacity as the soldier's former lawyer.

He said he joined the new Cabinet to see changes made, especially to freedom of expression.

In the past, the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan and president of the Arab Human Rights Organisation called for the release of the despicable murderer of children.

The murderer's mother has said

I am proud of my son, and I hold my head high. My son did a heroic deed and has pleased Allah and his own conscience. My son lifts my head and the head of the entire Arab and Islamic nation. I am proud of any Muslim who does what Ahmad did.... [My son] said: The only thing that I am angry about is the gun, which did not work properly. Otherwise I would have killed all of the passengers on the bus."

Assabeel quotes the minister Mjali as saying that Daqamseh is a "hero" and saying that he is only in jail because "we are afraid of the Jews."

Al Jazeera quotes him responding to the possibility that this could hurt relations with Israel, saying "if it was a Jew who killed Arabs, they would have built a statue in his honor instead of putting him in prison."

Jordanian newspaper Addustour doesn't mention that he killed schoolgirls. Rather it says that he "killed a number of Zionists in the region of Baqura after they mocked him and the Holy Prophet during his prayers."

(h/t Samson)

Aw, now we'll never know about Qatar's investment in Judea/Samaria

From Ma'an:

President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Sunday, banning local media and officials from abuse and slander of the emir of Qatar and the emirate's government.

The announcement came a day after the resignation of PLO negotiations chief Saeb Erekat, who had made several accusations against the both targets, the most recent of which included allegations that the nation had holdings in companies active in Israeli settlement construction.

PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo also recently spoke out against the emir, saying Al-Jazeera's release of negotiations documents in a series of programs dubbed "The Palestine Papers" was a political campaign directed by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Ath-Thani.

Demonstrations and government-aligned media outlets also launched accusations at Qatar, where the Al-Jazeera network is based, and its leader.

And I was so anxious for Erekat to release details on his accusations of Qatari investments in Jewish settlements! Now he can't do it because he's being muzzled by that proponent of democratic reforms and free speech, Mahmoud Abbas.

Morning links

Some things to check out:

Israel's Channel 10 has a program about Israel's navy that includes never before seen footage of the Mavi Marmara from cameras on the soldiers themselves (starts around 1:30). The chaos and fear is undeniable. Hebrew only. (h/t JS)

CiFWatch is starting a contest where you have to say why the Guardian sucks - in less than 140 characters, including room to hashtag it on Twitter. Winner gets a $50 gift card. My entry:

The Guardian sucks because it discards any journalistic integrity it once had to push an anti-Western, anti-Israel agenda @cifwatch #cwcomp

Barry Rubin on whether the Egyptian revolution will be a net gain or loss for the West.

The Netherlands Parliament affirms Israel as the Jewish state.

The ADL lauds a German scholar on his work exposing the links between Nazi and modern Muslim anti-semitism (he has a nice takedown on Gilbert Achcar as well).

IsraeliGirl and Giyus bring us another set of hate links on Facebook that you can flag for removal.

Round 1, Match 3 of the Pro-Israel Blog-Off has finished, and it was very close! Round 4 begins today.

Ya gotta love hypocritical Muslim regimes

From NYT:

The Iranian leaders who cheered the popular overthrow of an Egyptian strongman last week have promised to crush an opposition march planned for Monday in solidarity with the Egyptian people.

“These elements are fully aware of the illegal nature of the request,” Mehdi Alikhani Sadr, an Interior Ministry official, said of the permit request for the march in comments published Sunday by the semiofficial Fars news agency. “They know they will not be granted permission for riots.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was blunt.

“The conspirators are nothing but corpses,” Hossein Hamadani, a top commander of the corps, said Wednesday in comments published by the official IRNA news agency. “Any incitement will be dealt with severely.”

How will the West respond to what happens today?

Unlike Egypt, there is very little desire to support the ruling regime by most governments. But also unlike Egypt, it is not easy to find media that can get into Iran to cover the protests live, and that - more than Twitter - is what galvanized world opinion.

Moreover, while one must accept that Al Jazeera had a lot to do with Egypt's and Tunisia's revolutions, their Qatar sponsors are more ambivalent towards Iran, worrying about poking the thousand pound gorilla across the Gulf.

At the moment it looks like Iran is doing everything they can to stop any rally from occurring, including placing all opposition leaders under virtual house arrest and blocking metro stations.

Will the West criticize Iran as they did Mubarak?

(h/t SoccerDad)

Palestinian Arab "democracy" in action

From BBC:

Palestinian ministers are due to submit their resignations on Monday as part of a cabinet reshuffle, sources say.

President Mahmoud Abbas will immediately ask Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to appoint a new cabinet.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority led by Mr Abbas said it seeks to hold presidential and legislative elections by September.

The move comes after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in popular protests in Egypt, an important neighbour.

The cabinet shake-up has long been demanded by Mr Fayyad and others in the Fatah faction, according to Reuters news agency.

On political source told Reuters that it would result in a "massive change" in the composition of the government.

Mr Fayyad, 58, will be asked to stay on in the post he has occupied since 2007.

An aide to Mr Abbas on Saturday said the PA planned to hold long-overdue elections before September.

"The executive committee has decided to start preparations for presidential and parliamentary elections in the coming months... no later than September," the PLO's Yasser Abed Rabbo told journalists.

The BBC's West Bank correspondent Jon Donnison says the election pledge seems intended to show that Palestinian leaders are responding to events in Egypt and Tunisia.

However, Hamas, who are in control of the Gaza Strip, immediately rejected the plan, saying Mr Abbas had no legitimacy.

"Hamas will not take part in this election. We will not give it legitimacy. And we will not recognise the results," spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

The prime minister will remain a man who has never been elected and who received a tiny amount of the popular vote when he ran for office.

Now, that's democracy!

Iran bans Valentines Day

From WSJ:

In another sign of its ever more improvisational approach to governance, the Iranian regime has outlawed Valentine's Day. "Symbols of hearts, half-hearts, red roses, and any activities promoting this day are banned," announced state media last month. "Authorities will take legal action against those who ignore the ban."

Time adds:

In an attempt to banish Western influence from the lusting minds of Iranian youth, the Islamic country's state-run media announced that the production of Valentine's Day gifts as well as any promotion of the day celebrating romantic love between a man and a woman.

Whoops - it looks like we found a loophole!

Ya gotta love hypocritical Arab dictators

Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi called on Palestinian Arabs to act like the Egyptians and Tunisians and start a revolt against Israel.

Meanwhile, Gaddafi warned his own people against using Facebook.

You can't make this stuff up.

Besieged Gaza limits - imports from Israel

Exactly how you would expect a starving, besieged people to act, right?

From Ma'an:

A statement from Gaza's Ministry of the National Economy said Sunday that a new set of restrictions would be put on goods being imported into the coastal enclave, including a ban on clothing manufactured in Israel.

For several other items, the statement said, merchants would have to apply to the ministry for permission to sell the goods.

Ma'an obtained a copy of the list, which included the following items manufactured in Israel:

Require approval

- Home and office furniture
- Plastic products
- Tissues, toilet paper,
- Hoses
- Juices, soft drinks
- Chemical products
- Canned beans
- Biscuits, all types of candies
- Packaging materials

The ban and restrictions apply only to goods manufactured in Israel, with government officials saying goods produced from any other nation would not be subject to the restrictions.

Goods produced in Israel, merchants say, are often easier to import, and face fewer delays and restrictions at the crossings.

Palestine Press Agency explains that these restrictions are meant to protect the tunnel trade, which Hamas heavily taxes and which has taken a hit during Egypt's unrest.

Iran accuses the Mossad of being behind its drug trade

Palestine Today reports that Iran is accusing the Mossad of being involved in selling illegal drugs in the Islamic Republic.

Apparently, the Mossad is forcing drug dealers to lower their prices (by threatening them) in order to get the entire country addicted. And, of course, the drug dealers are listening to their Mossad masters.

Then, when every Iranian is busy being deeply fascinated with a single blade of grass, Israeli warplanes can swoop in and take over the country! And convert Natanz from a peaceful nuclear research facility into an atom bomb factory! Bwahahahaha!

12,000 tons of apples from Israel to Syria

From Ha'aretz:

Israel will begin transporting about 12,000 tons of apples from the Golan Heights to Syria on Tuesday. This is the largest quantity of the produce ever transferred between the two countries, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who will be overseeing the operation.

The apples were grown by Syrian farmers living in the Golan Heights. Although such transfer has been undertaken in the past, it is a rare occurrence as it requires extensive coordination between Syria's Foreign Ministry and Israel's Foreign, Defense, Finance and Agriculture Ministries,

The ICRC will act as a neutral mediator in the transfer, which will take roughly 10 weeks to complete. Three ICRC trucks will drive up and down a strip of demilitarized road half a kilometer in length, crossing the border between Israel-occupied Golan and Syria-occupied Golan.

I first mentioned this in 2008, and again last year when we saw that some of those Zionist apples get exported to Gulf states at a profit.

Morning links

The Sinai is turning problematic, as the Egyptian army does not have a strong presence there and the Bedouin are taking advantage of a lawless environment. Israel requested that all Israelis leave the Sinai and there have been attacks on a church as well as governmental and police buildings.

Some problems in Tahrir Square as well.

The Guardian started translating some of its articles into Arabic, apparently to solidify its base audience. Is a merger with Al Jazeera far behind? (h/t CiFWatch via Samson)

An Israeli Arab goes on YouTube to defend his country. (And I mean Israel.)

My Right Word looks at some of the pro-Palestinian Arab events being sponsored by the US Consulate in Jerusalem.

Israel finally found a permanent UN representative, Ron Prosor, who seems to be very good. That vacuum was a problem.

Hamas' Al Qassam website has a heartbreaking story about how some Arab kids in Silwan are under house arrest. Of course, it doesn't mention that these same kids have a habit of hurling life-threatening boulders at cars with Israeli license plates.