Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hasbara 2.0 video rental on sale

For the next seven days, I am reducing the price of my Hasbara 2.0 lecture video from $12 to only $5.

Two sickos in one convenient post!

During an interview with Joy Behar last night, Helen Thomas made it clear that she was standing behind her statements that Israeli Jews should “go back” to Germany and Poland. However, she did make a couple of additions to the list of countries that Jews should “return” to, such as Russia and the United States.

“They’ve been free ever since,” said Thomas, referring to the Jews after the Holocaust. “They didn’t have to go anywhere really, because they weren’t being persecuted anymore, but they were taking other people’s land.”

A visibly uncomfortable Behar then asked Thomas whether she considered herself anti-Semitic – and got something less than a clear answer. “Hell no. I’m a Semite. Of Arab background,” said Thomas. “[The Jews are] not Semites. Most of them are from Europe.”

The former White House reporter then launched into a tirade against the Israel lobby. “We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel,” she said. “You can’t open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but if you say one thing about Israel … you’re off-limits.”

Asked whether she had any regrets about making her controversial statement last spring, Thomas said her only regret was that “everybody misinterpreted it.”

“You have the Ari Fleischers and the Abe Foxmans distorting everything,” said Thomas. “So I certainly knew that and I should have kept my mouth shut probably.”

After insisting that her statements weren’t insensitive, the journalism veteran launched into a rambling diatribe about Palestinians being “pushed from their homes” in the middle of the night.

Watch the full clip here if you wish. Though you could probably hear a more rational and pleasant perspective on Middle East policy from a ranting homeless person at a bus station.

From Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic:

Nir Rosen, the journalist who infamously mocked Lara Logan (and who was completely dismantled by Anderson Cooper last night), has been saying hugely outrageous things for years, as I've documented here. He is sympathetic to the Taliban; he thinks al Qaeda poses no threat to America; he wishes Americans would "get over" 9/11; and he thinks Israel is an "abomination" that should be destroyed. After I posted about his previous statements, I was flooded with e-mails from Goldblog readers who told me I missed the nuttiest thing Rosen ever said. It came in an article about his Israeli origins, in which he called his homeland a place of "bloody nationalism, paranoid identity and violent religion." In reading this treatise on Israel and its sins, it becomes clear that Rosen (who attended an Orthodox Jewish day school in New York) feels the sort of hate for Israel and Judaism that one associates with the hardest core of Hamas.

The truly revealing part of this treatise comes at the end, when Rosen discusses ways to convince Israel to behave in a way he thinks is just: "I find myself in the unique and painful position of calling for international sanctions against Israel and wondering if a punitive bombing of Tel Aviv, the city I love, until it complies with international law, might be a good (albeit quixotic) idea."

Yes, Rosen is calling for the physical destruction of the world's largest Jewish city. I wrote yesterday that I would try to avoid armchair psychoanalysis in this matter, but sometimes these things are fairly obvious. Rosen, an American of Israeli origin, has spent his career rationalizing the actions of Israel's, and America's, most bitter enemies, and he envisions a day when the world community will conduct a bombing campaign of Tel Aviv. Nir Rosen seems to be engaged in a ferocious attempt to shed his identity to the point where he aligns himself with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban, and argues for the literal destruction of the city from which he came. It is deeply pathetic.

No comment necessary - these haters speak for themselves.

Although the Helen Thomas defenders in the CNN site run the usual gamut.

JOY: You owed Helen some respect. And you didn't show it. And now I have no more respect for YOU. For someone who claims to be Catholic, you sure are a Zionist and your antagonistic Jew-loving one-sided brutality towards this journalism hero who speaks nothing but the damn truth, just shows you're either really a JEW or you're bought and paid for by your JEW MEDIA CORPORATE EVIL

That's me- Jew Media Corporate Evil!

(h/t DM)

Terrorist supporter Qaradawi to address Tahrir Square

From OnIslam (verified by Al Arabiya in Arabic):

As thousands of Egyptians are preparing to celebrate their successful revolution against long-standing president Hosni Mubarak on Friday, February 18, prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi will deliver the sermon of the weekly prayers from Tahrir Square in Cairo.

Qaradawi, the present of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) will deliver the sermon at an invitation from a coalition representing the youth of the Egyptian revolution, OnIslam.net has learned.

The invitation was extended in gratitude to Qaradawi’s role in mobilizing support for the Egyptian revolution.

Thousands of Egyptians are set to gather in Tahrir Square to celebrate their success in ousting Mubarak.

Hundreds of thousands are expected at tomorrow's rally, so Qaradawi - who issues fatwas mandating suicide bombings against Jews in Israel - will have quite an audience.

Qaradawi has been banned from his native Egypt for 30 years.

BDS Fail: Israel's economy surges

From AFP:

Israel's economy picked up in the last quarter of 2010, chalking up 7.8 percent growth and a higher-than-expected annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, official figures show on Thursday.

The figure took analysts by surprise, outstripping expectations of a fourth-quarter growth rate of around 4.0 percent.

Central Bureau of Statistics data show the economy grew by 5.2 percent in the second quarter and 4.4 percent in the third.

Earlier this week, the Bank of Israel (BoI) had predicted fourth-quarter growth of between 4.3 and 4.6 percent.

The annual growth figure far outstrips the 2.8-percent average registered in 2010 by countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed nations which Israel joined last year.

It also exceeded OECD estimates, which showed Israeli GDP growing by 3.9 percent in 2010.

Last month in its annual report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the Jewish state had emerged "relatively unscathed" from the global recession, and praised the "resilience" of its economy.

I guess that the BDS movement didn't manage to boycott enough Israeli hummus last year.

Tunisian interior minister condemns anti-Jewish protest

On Monday I posted a video of a demonstration by Islamists in front of the Great Synagogue in Tunis.

Al Ahram reports today that Tunisia's interior minister strongly condemned the rally:

We strongly condemned strongly the militants and the advocates of extremism who deliberately demonstrated in front of some religious monuments and chanted slogans against the religions; it was incitement to violence, racism and discrimination.

It is unacceptable for them to undermine the very values of our republican system based on respect for freedoms and beliefs, tolerance and peaceful coexistence between all factions and ensure the exercise of civil rights.

We will spare no effort to preserve these values and respond to anyone trying to incite violence or sedition among the people of Tunisia...

This is a good sign.

A tale of two kleptocrats - Mubarak and Arafat

From NYT:

Funds belonging to the family of Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, or his senior ministers have been discovered in Switzerland, a Swiss government official said Wednesday. But the official declined to specify how much money had been identified or who controlled the account.

“The first traces have been identified,” said the Swiss official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At the end of the week, we might have a better picture.”

The disclosure came as the new military-led Egyptian government confirmed that it had asked countries across the Western and Arab worlds to freeze the assets of senior former government officials. But the statement from the government did not say whether the list included Mr. Mubarak and his family members. Egyptian opposition members said they feared that the military would shield Mr. Mubarak, a former air force chief, and his relatives from an investigation.

SoccerDad via email points out that Yasir Arafat, who embezzled as much as $3 billion himself, was never subject to such scrutiny.

From Asharq al-Awsat in 2006:

Yasser Arafat shared his secrets and thoughts mainly with the small notebooks that he filled and kept in places unknown to members of the Palestinian leadership, even those who were close to the late Palestinian leader. Even after his death, the causes of which are still unknown, nobody dared to open these notebooks, or even open the boxes in which they were kept. There is no indication as to who is in charge of safekeeping them or the nature of the information noted by Arafat. However, all sources agree to the importance and seriousness of these notes, especially as the late leader, since the launch of the Palestinian revolution, would make note of every detail in a small notebook that he would keep in the pockets of his military uniforms that he wore for over fifty years during his leadership of the Palestinian revolution. Yasser Arafat, also known as Abu Ammar never parted with his notebooks. When they were full, he kept them in special envelopes and boxes in his office, allowing no one access to them.

Those notebooks of course are the key to where Arafat squirreled all his money. While the PA begs for Western money, they don't seem to be spending too much time trying to find the money that was embezzled by their great leader.

Now, why might that be?

For my non-US readers, there is a US TV quiz show called Jeopardy! where the clues are answers and the contestants ask the questions. It has been very popular for decades now.

This week, an IBM supercomputer named Watson competed with two of the best champions the show ever had - and defeated them handily.

More details here.

I has written about Watson, which was partially designed in Israel, here.

UK Parliament on PA cash to Hamas: "You can't prove it"

I received this excerpt from a recent discussion in Parliament:

Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con): What development support his Department provides to the Palestinian Authority and to Israeli non-governmental organisations working in the west bank. [40974]
The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Alan Duncan): We provide financial and technical assistance to the Palestinian Authority. In this financial year, our support will total £31.1 million. DFID also co-funds the UK conflict pool, which supports five Israeli human rights NGOs operating in the west bank.
....
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Is the Minister aware that an increasing amount of aid to the Palestinian territories ends up in the hands of extremists and is used for extremist purposes? Will he take steps to stop that and ensure that aid gets to the Palestinians who need it most?
Mr Duncan: I do not share my hon. Friend’s conclusion. We are very careful how we spend our money in the occupied Palestinian territories and have done our utmost to support the legitimate government of Salam Fayyad with, I think, great success. We would abhor any money falling into the hands of extremists, and we do everything possible to ensure that such an accusation can never be verified or proved valid.

Interesting choice of words....

5 dead in Bahrain, tanks in the streets

From NYT:

Without warning, hundreds of heavily armed riot police officers rushed into Pearl Square here early Thursday, firing shotguns, tear gas and concussion grenades at the thousands of demonstrators who were sleeping there as part of a widening protest against the nation’s absolute monarchy.

At least five people died, some of them reportedly killed in their sleep with scores of shotgun pellets to the face and chest, according to a witness and three doctors who received the dead and at least 200 wounded at a hospital here. The witness and the physicians spoke in return for anonymity for fear of official reprisals.

The military said later it had taken control of most of the capital and banned protests, The Associated Press reported. The announcement on state television said the military had “key parts” of Manama “under control,” hours after the killings.

Television broadcasts showed tanks rolling through the capital.

Video from the scene:

One video of the tanks (h/t Missing Peace)

ABC's Jake Tapper looks at some of the Wikileaks cables showing a "cozy" US-Bahrain relationship.

Another video here.

Another potential domino - Morocco

(h/t Missing Peace)

Where's the BDS movement against the UAE?

Rock band Maroon 5 is returning to Dubai, and they are very excited!

After their first successful 2008 appearance in Dubai, the five piece band Maroon 5 are returning back to Dubai on April to perform at the Dubai World Trade Center, and no one is more excited than frontman Adam Levine.

"Dubai's a wild place; we had a lot of fun the last time round," he told Gulf News exclusively. "It's this multicultural melting pot — there's no other place like it. It's great to be back and we're very excited about the gig."

For some reason there is no boycott movement against the UAE.

The UAE is a country where only Muslims can pray in public or proselytize, where gay rights are non-existent, where women's rights are restricted, where there is no free press, where Palestinian Arabs cannot become citizens, and where there is an entire economy built on abuse of south Asian workers.

So why are no so-called human rights activists asking bands to boycott the UAE?

As far as I can tell, Maroon 5 has never played in Israel, although there are a number of websites begging them to visit. Yet they have no moral qualms about visiting a country that has such huge human rights abuses and restrictions of freedom.

And not one human rights group calls for a boycott of artists from performing in Dubai.

Egypt looking at changing constitution - will it include Article 2?

Last week the BBC reported that while some opposition groups want to rewrite Egypt's constitution from scratch, others are concentrating on very specific parts.

Today the head of Al Azhar University said that there was one section of the constitution - Article 2 - that he says will definitely not be changed, and any attempt to do so would be an act of sedition:

Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia).

It will be interesting to see if any of the other parts of the constitution that favor Islam will be up for review. For example:

Art.11: The State shall guarantee coordination between woman’s duties towards her family and her work in the society, considering her equal to man in the political, social, cultural and economic spheres without detriment to the rules of Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia).

Art.19: Religious education shall be a principal subject in the courses of general education.

There is, however, a lively debate at Al Ahram where a surprising number of people want to scrap Article 2 and make Egypt's constitution congruent with universal human rights norms.

Guess who Iran blames for demonstrations

Perhaps the most predictable "news" story ever, from Iran's FARS agency:

The Zionist regime and its hirelings inside Iran have clearly had a hand in the Monday afternoon frenzy in Tehran, an Iranian legislator underlined on Wednesday.

The seditions staged now and last year find their roots in materialistic thoughts and aspirations of the seditionists and the lead and backup of the Zionists, Shabib Jouyjari said in an open session of the parliament.

Another Iranian legislator had also earlier condemned the Monday riots, and said masterminds of the seditious plot - Mehdi Karroubi, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Seyed Mohammad Khatami - have received financial support from the Zionists.

"The very aim of the seditionists is to overthrow the Islamic Republic, a goal which has received the financial and mental support of the Zionists," member of the parliament's Cultural Commission Fatemeh Rahbar told FNA on Tuesday.

I had no idea my mental support was so effective.

NYT spins US as prescient on Egypt. Senate shows otherwise.

From NYT:

President Obama ordered his advisers last August to produce a secret report on unrest in the Arab world, which concluded that without sweeping political changes, countries from Bahrain to Yemen were ripe for popular revolt, administration officials said Wednesday.

Mr. Obama’s order, known as a Presidential Study Directive, identified likely flashpoints, most notably Egypt, and solicited proposals for how the administration could push for political change in countries with autocratic rulers who are also valuable allies of the United States, these officials said.

The 18-page classified report, they said, grapples with a problem that has bedeviled the White House’s approach toward Egypt and other countries in recent days: how to balance American strategic interests and the desire to avert broader instability against the democratic demands of the protesters.

Sounds like the Obama administration is really on top of things, right?

Well....

A senate hearing Wednesday revealed that top US intelligence agencies are largely ignorant about the current situation in Egypt and unfamiliar with the agenda of the country’s radical Islamists.

"It's hard to at this point to point to a specific agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood as a group," National Intelligence Director James Clapper told senators. When asked about the group’s attitude to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, he said this was a difficult question before assessing “they are not in favor of the treaty.”

Asked about the Muslim Brotherhood’s position on weapons smuggling to Hamas in Gaza, Clapper said he was unaware of the group’s declared stance on the issue. He said that a wait-and-see attitude was also required before determining the Muslim Brotherhood’s position on Iran.

Intelligence officials also conceded in the hearing that they did not pay enough attention to social media networks, and that they were not closely monitoring Tunisia, where the wave of ongoing regional unrest started.

So who are you going to believe - an alleged secret 18-page memo whose existence is leaked to a newspaper that has a love affair with Obama, or the actual actions and words of a bumbling administration that has never considered monitoring Facebook as a potential source for information over three years after Syria recognized it as a threat and banned it?

US offers to push Israel under bus. PLO says it isn't enough.

From Foreign Policy:

The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.

But the Palestinian's rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesdy of Arab representatives and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution Friday, according officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospects that the Obama adminstration may cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council.

Still, the U.S. offer signaled a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with its key ally and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to Israel to stop its construction of new settlements. The Palestinian delegation, along with the council's Arab member Lebanon, have asked the council's president this evening to schedule a meeting on Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from the United States.

It is nice to see that the UN Security Council can now safely ignore uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, and Iran and put the priorities back where they properly belong: on some family living in Ma'ale Adumim who want to add a bathroom to their house.

Omri Ceren at Commentary acerbically writes:

In a way, this is a natural follow-up to the administration’s bumbling in Egypt, where they managed to alienate all parties in the Middle East except the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, and Iran’s assorted proxies. This gesture won’t win us any lasting goodwill from Arab elites. WikiLeaks showed that they care far more about geopolitical stability than they do about the settlements, such that the spectacle of the White House abandoning a second ally for the second week in a row would be met with worried chagrin, regardless of what they say out loud.

More to the point, and by now out of genuine curiosity: who exactly does the Obama administration envision having as a Middle East ally, say, six months from now? Strategic administration leaks about the Egypt crisis have already signaled a renewed chill in the U.S.-Israeli relationship. U.S. backing for a UN resolution wouldn’t detonate the alliance — military-to-military ties are too strong for that — but it would be the end of cooperation between this White House and this Israeli government, a government that a militarily and now diplomatically besieged Israeli public would rally behind.

And that’s before we get to how our UN mission, representing the world’s only hyperpower, seems to believe that “bargaining” means “getting progressively closer to the other side’s position.” We’re negotiating with the likes of Libya and the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon over whether we should protect one of our last Middle East allies against a biased UN lynch mob. It’s almost difficult to believe that the Iranians, per J.E. Dyer’s must-read post, are at this very moment literally sailing their way into regional hegemony.

(That J. E. Dyer link is indeed must-read, but I don't think I'll have a chance to blog about it.)

An email correspondent, who is not a fan of Israeli settlements, has an interesting perspective:

As I see this resolution, at WORST it REITERATES the US position, namely that it "does not accept the legitimacy of CONTINUED Israeli settlement activity." This is problematic for the Arabs in multiple ways. First, it does NOT declare pre-existing settlements as illegitimate, only "continued" activity. Second, it offers no actionable items. Third, it would invalidate Palestinian attempts at recognition either of statehood or borders, both of which at least some of their leadership hope to accomplish or at least use as leverage. This resolution would accomplish nothing for the Arabs. If they were to accept it as binding, they would be insane.

The real idiocy here is that the Obama Administration proposed it. The only result of this asinine proposal is that relations between Israel and the US will become further strained and America will be seen as an even worse friend of its only ally in the region, having just abandoned another, Egypt. The Arab nations almost certainly laughed the US representative right out of the room. The Palestinians may even feel offended by this resolution. This administration clearly just doesn't get it.