Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Thousands protesting in Morocco

Thousands of people took to the streets in several Moroccan cities to demand that King Mohammad VI give some of his powers, dissolve the government and parliament, fight corruption and give more rights to the country’s indigenous Amazigh people.

Some people in the crowd were waving Tunisian and Egyptian flags in recognition of the popular uprisings that overthrew the two countries' presidents.
A protest organizer said there were more than 5,000 participants while a police officer told Reuters there were fewer than 3,000 people at the protest in Rabat.

Uniformed police kept their distance from the protest, which began in the central Bab El Ahad area, but plain-clothes officers with notebooks mingled with the crowd, amid chants of "The people reject a constitution made for slaves!" and "Down with autocracy!"

Some called on Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi to leave but placards and slogans made no direct attacks on the king.

Analysts say Morocco, with a widely respected reformist monarch and growing economy, is one of the Arab countries least likely to succumb to the wave of protests sweeping the region.

"This is a peaceful protest to push for constitutional reform, restore dignity and end graft and the plundering of public funds," said Mustapha Muchtati of the Baraka (Enough) group, which helped organize the march.

It is interesting that each Arab country has different grievances against their leaders, even though they all invoke Tunisia and Egypt.

"Ayatollah Qaradawi"

An article in Saudi Arabia's Okaz News Agency discusses how Sheikh Qaradawi's bodyguards forcibly stopped Google executive Wael Ghonem from speaking at the massive Tahrir Square rally on Friday.

It finds a direct link between Qaradawi showing up in Tahrir Square and Ayatollah Khomeini coming to Iran in 1979 from Paris "to steal the people's revolution of Iran."

The author is saying what Western conservative writers have been warning since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution: that the Muslim Brotherhood is waiting to take advantage of a revolution spearheaded by Egyptian youth to turn Egypt into an Islamist state.

The op-ed ends with a question: "Did [the Egyptian youth] really overthrew Mubarak for Al-Qaradawi, to tell them how to breathe and how they can wear their clothes?"

The title of the article? "Ayatollah Qaradawi."

But don't tell the oh-so-enlightened Westerners who fancy themselves experts on the Arab world what the Saudis fear about the new Egypt. No, it is much better to listen to clueless star reporters who fly into Cairo for a couple of days and interview a handful of people who speak perfect English.

WaPo talks about gender equality in Tahrir Square (David G)

From David G:

There's a really cute story in the Washington Post: Egypt women stand for equality in the square.

Though the reporter was reporting from the demonstration on Friday, there was no mention of Sheikh Qaradawi's views on gender equality. There was some really good stuff in this article, but this part is priceless.

Abdel Ibrahim Hassan, a man who came to Tahrir Square on Friday to celebrate the revolution with untold thousands of his fellow citizens, argued that women have an enviable standing already and that Western prejudices should not assume they need change.

"Islam respected the role of women before any other culture," said Hassan, a math teacher. "Before Islam women were bought and sold. But men and women are not equal, a woman is a weak creature. She cannot bear arms."

His wife, Samah, bearing an Egyptian flag and wearing a black niqab covering her face with only small slits for her eyes, spoke up - strongly. "I'm hoping our young people will be able to develop a democracy," she said, as she photographed the square with a sleek cellphone. "Men and women will play an important part in the elections."

Their 15-year-old daughter, Sarah, her face and hands the only parts of her body visible from her enveloping black garments, interrupted.

"We demand seats in parliament for young people," she said, "men and women. Women will play an important role in society after participating in the revolution of January 25th."

Does the reporter, Kathy Lally, realize how absurd this sounds? First to have a husband claim women are respected then to describe how completely his wife and daughter are covered?

Though Qaradawi's views on gender equality are not discussed there, I did find a fatwa that is very revealing. (No pun intended.)

Q: I would like to ask about the ruling of Palestinian women carrying out martyr operations. Fulfilling this mission may demand that they travel alone, without a mahram, and they may need to take off their hijab, the matter which may expose part of their 'awrah. Would you please comment on this? I'd prefer Dr. Qaradawi to answer this urgent question, if you please.

A: The martyr operation is the greatest of all sorts of jihad in the cause of Allah. A martyr operation is carried out by a person who sacrifices himself, deeming his life [of] less value than striving in the cause of Allah, in the cause of restoring the land and preserving the dignity. To such a valorous attitude applies the following Qur'anic verse: "And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the pleasure of Allah; and Allah hath compassion on (His) bondmen." (Qur'an, 2: 207)

...As for the point that carrying out this operation may involve woman's travel from [one] place to another without a mahram, we say that a woman can travel to perform Hajj [pilgrimage to Mecca] in the company of other trustworthy women and without the presence of any mahram as long as the road is safe and secured. Travel, nowadays, is no longer done through deserts or wilderness; instead, women can travel safely in trains or by air.

Concerning the point on hijab, a woman can put on a hat or anything else to cover her hair. Even when necessary, she may take off her hijab in order to carry out the operation, for she is going to die in the cause of Allah and not to show off her beauty or uncover her hair. I don't see any problem in her taking off hijab in this case.

To conclude, I think the committed Muslim women in Palestine have the right to participate and have their own role in jihad and to attain martyrdom.

Women are allowed to reveal their hair when they are about to murder infidels. How enlightened!

No doubt Sarah will be able to serve in Parliament, as long as she remembers her place.

Egyptian police kidnapped in Rafah

From Ma'an:

Unidentified armed men on Sunday abducted three Egyptian officers patrolling the border with Israel, Egyptian security sources said.

Sources told Ma'an that three officers serving in Rafah's central security forces were kidnapped near the barbed wire fence separating Egypt and Israel about three kilometers south of the Kerem Shalom crossing, between Gaza and Egypt.

According to security officials, gunmen arrived in three vehicles without license plates and abducted the soldiers. Egyptian security in Rafah was negotiating with the kidnappers to release the officers, sources added.

Other sources speculated that the officers were kidnapped in retaliation for the killing of a drug smuggler shot dead Thursday in possession of a considerable quantity of hashish.

I hadn't heard about drug smugglers being emboldened by the chaos in Egypt, but certainly the Sinai has turned into the Wild West since the Egyptian revolution - a situation being taken advantage of by Bedouin, Hamas and others.

Egypt recently deployed hundreds of troops to the Sinai to help guard the gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan after part of it was blown up. Israel agreed to the extra deployment, as the number of troops in the Sinai is limited under existing agreements.

Richard Falk loves anti-semitic conspiracy theories

It is really illuminating to read how Richard Falk responds to comments on his blog about his sickening diatribe against Jews and Judaism I posted about last month.

With one rare exception, no matter how outrageous the charge someone brings against Jews, he thanks them for their comments. He ignores or mostly ignores anyone who tries to actually bring facts to his attention.

The worst example came over the weekend, with this comment by "John" in response to the devastating - and mostly bypassed - comment by the reform Rabbi Ira Youdovin I mentioned:

John writes, in part:

The German and Zionist ideologues shared similar ideas with regard to blood and soil. They both came to share Nazi ideology with regard to lebensraum for their manufactured ethnic races.

During World War One, Zionists pursued their selfish interests by getting the war prolonged, to secure the Balfour Declaration by the British Government and to see Christian-Zionist General Allenby occupy former Ottoman Palestine.

The British Palestine Mandate provided the extremist Zionists with an opportunity to deposit and expand their settlements through the displacement of the pre-existing population of Palestinians, for whom their racist ideology cared nothing.

During World War Two, Zionists offered to fight alongside the Nazis against the British and their subsequent Russian and American allies.

In this, they shared similar sentiments with white supremacist Afrikaner nationalists in South Africa.

Where the Afrikaner apartheid regime in South Africa failed, the Zionist apartheid regime in Palestine has succeeded.

This is typical drivel one would expect to see on a neo-Nazi website. But look at how Falk responds:

Thanks, John, for this illuminating and persuasive commentary.

It isn't hard to see that Falk's ability to be objective when given information is non-existent - if the information makes Jews and Zionists into evil beings, Falk believes it uncritically; if they say the opposite, Falk ignores it.

(John goes on to defend his statement by cutting and pasting some supposed Zionist quotes from some anti-Zionist website. I don't have the time to research all of them, although I have once shown how one was very much out of context, but the idea that some Zionists had attempted to work with the Nazis to save millions of Jews from impending doom is well known. John twists these facts into making it sound like Zionists "collaborated" with Nazis. Of course, in the decade before the death camps, negotiating with the Nazis to save them was as debatable as negotiating with Hamas is now, yet Israel is still "collaborating" with Hamas to save a single Jew imprisoned in Gaza. John, bigot that he is, is trying to imply the exact opposite - that Zionists were working with Nazis to send Jews to their doom. Falk does not object to John's "facts.")

(h/t Silke)

Tahrir Square millions: "To Jerusalem we head, martyrs in the millions" (updated)

From the "Angry Arab News Service" blog on Friday:

For those who say that there are no foreign policy goals for Egyptian protesters, you need to watch this. In it, Egyptians (more than 2 million today) in Tahrir Square chant: "To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions." (Yes, it rhymes in Arabic)

Chances are that this was a reaction to the speech by Islamist Yusuf Qaradawi, who said that he hoped to be able to preach in Jerusalem soon as well. The same moderate, not-to-be-worried about Islamist whose bodyguards physically blocked Wael Ghonem - the celebrated Google executive and considered by the Western media the face of the revolution - from speaking.

(h/t DL from Sweden)

UPDATE: Martin Kramer tweets to me, and comments on Yaacov Lozowick's blog, that he thinks it sounds more like "To the palace we head..." He further says that he has asked other Arabic speakers and they do not hear the words spoken here by the crowd. So this might not be correct. (It seems clear that Qaradawi did in fact say that he wants to go to Jerusalem, though.)

Palestinian Arab prisoner quiz question (now with answer)

The number of Palestinian Arab prisoners who have been in Israeli jails for over 25 years has just gone up.

In the comments, take a guess how many there are.

(The answer is in the Arabic article here.)

ANSWER: The number is a mere 30, of which 4 are Arab Israelis and 2 are from Jerusalem.

Libya cuts off Internet; death toll past 100

From AFP:

Internet service was cut off in Libya on Friday as the regime evidently moved to strip anti-government protestors of ways to organize and communicate, according to Arbor Networks.

From Newser:

[T]he death toll keeps climbing in Libya's protests. Moammar Gadhafi's minions killed another 20 people today, bringing the five-day total to at least 104, says Human Rights Watch. Gadhafi has effectively shut off Internet service and forbid media coverage, but witnesses told AP of attacks by police and government loyalists wielding guns, knives, and even anti-aircraft missiles.

Islamists 1, young secular Egyptians 0 (SoccerDad)

Thomas Friedman:

Indeed, it is no surprise that the emerging spokesman for this uprising is Wael Ghonim — a Google marketing executive who is Egyptian. He opened a Facebook page called “We are all Khaled Said,” named for an activist who was allegedly beaten to death by police in Alexandria. And that page helped spark the first protests here. Ghonim was abducted by Egyptian security officials on Jan. 28, and he was released on Monday. On Monday night, he gave an emotional TV interview that inspired many more people to come into the squareon Tuesday. And when he spoke there in the afternoon, he expressed the true essence of this uprising.

Roger Cohen:

The sea of people pulsated with energy, galvanized by the words of Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive who got the Mubarak treatment — 12-day disappearance, blindfolding, interrogation — before a tweet that will one day be etched in some granite memorial: “Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it.”

Reality:

Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.

Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.

(from SoccerDad via email)

So the Iranian ships are coming through Suez after all

Although it looked for a little while that this was a false alarm, it looks like it is true.

From YNet:

Egypt has approved the passage of two Iranian warships through the Suez Canal, a source said on Friday, a move that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman previously described as "provocative."

"Egypt has agreed to the passage of two Iranian ships through the Suez Canal," the security source told Reuters.

The two ships would be the first Iranian military vessels to pass through the canal since Iran's 1979 revolution.

To navigate the strategic waterway, naval vessels need the approval of Egypt's Foreign and Defence Ministries.

J. E. Dyer at Commentary describes why this is a big deal:

The big shift here is in political perceptions of power. The important facts are that revolutionary, terror-sponsoring Iran — under U.S., EU, and UN sanctions — feels free to conduct this deployment, and Syria feels free to cooperate in it. Egypt’s interim rulers apparently saw no reason to block the Suez transit, in spite of the Egyptians’ very recent concern over Iranian-backed terrorists and insurgents operating on their territory. Saudi Arabia, for its part, considered it prudent to host the Iranian warships last week — in spite of the Saudis’ own conviction that Iran has been aiding rebel groups that threaten Saudi territory.

The cooperation from the Arab nations should not be misread, however. The Arabs have no desire to see Iran in a position of regional hegemony. The threat of that prospect will raise the stakes for the governmental turmoil in the Arab world. The view is likely to gain momentum that Arabs need to organize as much to counter Iran as to address their own domestic issues. That factor — so inimical to the unforced development of political liberalism — was never going to be dismissible; the Iranian warship deployment makes it inevitable.

In information-speak, Iran is “inside our OODA-loop” right now: acting faster than we have prepared to react. Complacent assumptions about inertia in the status quo will not be borne out. Iran’s proximate strategic objective is consolidating the rule of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Former prime minister Saad Hariri declared his opposition to the Hezbollah-backed government in a speech on Monday; Hassan Nasrallah is promising that Hezbollah fighters will occupy Galilee; Ehud Barak warned on Wednesday that Israel might have to enter Lebanon again to counter Hezbollah. With the battle lines being drawn, Iran’s posture is hardening: the Islamic revolutionary regime is “all in.”

Djibouti,Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait protests

From Al Arabiya:

Thousands of opposition supporters, mainly students, gathered in Djibouti Friday to demand President Ismael Omar Guelleh step down, witnesses said.

The rare demonstration in the tiny Horn of Africa country was organised amid mounting opposition to the president, who last year had the constitution amended to allow him to seek a third mandate in upcoming April elections.

"IOG out", read one banner, using the president's initials, as most Djiboutians do. "No to a third mandate", read another banner.

Amid a tight police deployment, the demonstrators gathered at a stadium with the intention of staying there until their demands are met.

Hundreds of Syrians staged a protest against security forces after traffic police beat up a young man in the capital's Old City, an opposition website reported on Friday.

The Dubai-based all4Syria.info said Imad Nasab, son of a shopowner in the cobbled commercial strip of Hariqa, was assaulted by traffic police officers, sparking a spontaneous rally on Thursday in solidarity with the victim.

"The Syrian people will not be humiliated," chanted the crowd.

"Police, thieves" and "We will sacrifice our soul and blood for you (President) Bashar (al-Assad)" were some of the slogans used by the demonstrators.

Also...

Clashes broke out Friday in Jordan's capital between government supporters and opponents at a protest calling for more freedom and lower food prices, injuring eight.

The Amman protest drew about 2,000 people, including hard-line leftists, Muslim conservatives and students calling for reduced power for the king and the chance to elect members of the Cabinet.

Students from the growing "Jaayin" or "I'm Coming" movement chanted: "We want constitutional reforms. We want a complete change to policies."

"They beat us with batons, pipes and hurled rocks at us," said Tareq Kmeil, a student at the protest. "We tried to defend ourselves, to beat them back."

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed in Yemen on Friday when clashes broke out between police and protesters.

Also Kuwait, where the protesters are stateless Bedouin.

Death tolls are mounting in Bahrain and Libya.

Danny Ayalon on the Arab world's upheaval

From Danny Ayalon in the Huffington Post:

[S]ome [European and American analysts] still see every event in the Middle East, minor or major, as connected to Israel. Many of these analysts are so preoccupied with Israel or the so-called "Middle East conflict", a term that ignores or dismisses all other conflicts in the region as irrelevant and non-newsworthy, that they have no understanding of the region beyond Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

One would think that the recent events in Tunisia, Cairo, Yemen and elsewhere would demand soul-searching and humility on the part of these talking-heads who pontificate from their comfortable think-tanks and self-appointed analyst positions in Washington, London and Brussels.

Some of these analysts have not amended their tired and outdated thinking even after the recent events, merely stating the relationship of the unrest to Israel and the peace process. They have become the dinosaurs of international affairs and foreign policy analysis and will not be shaken from their ideological foundations by facts that contradict their thinking.Many of these analysts, some who claim experience in Middle East affairs, like those who claim to have been part of a peace process negotiating team when they did little more than make the tea, lack a keen understanding of the region. They fundamentally ignored the UNDP Human Development Report for Arab states report in 2009 which was a virtual roadmap for the events that took place during the last few weeks.

This report stated that the Arab world is lacking in all areas of human development, such as freedom, women empowerment and education. In addition, nearly 40% of the Arab world lives below the international poverty line. For the Arab world to merely maintain its current position, which is at the lowest rung on the development ladder, it will need to create 51 million jobs in the next ten years.

The report, co-authored by Arab scholars was a scream in the dark for many western analysts to wake up and face the very real problems affecting the Arab world. In addition, the free Arab press relates to these issues on a daily basis. However, this patronizing and perhaps even chauvinistic approach by some analysts tells the people of the region what they should be thinking rather than learning and listening.

Nevertheless, they cling to the tired and discredited claim that building a few of apartments in Ariel is what drives the so-called "Arab street" to distraction.

Paris Hilton converts? Arab sites get fooled by satire (updated)

Firas Press quotes American news outlets as saying that Paris Hilton is wearing a veil and has converted to Islam. It says she plans to open an Islamic school in Los Angeles and is changing her name to Tahirah.

Here's the photo proof:

The only problem is that this came from a spoof news site called The Daily Squib. Here's their "article":

JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia - Former American socialite, Paris Hilton has converted to Islam, her spokesman, Ian Brinkham, has revealed to CBS news.

"She has been toying with the idea for quite a while now and when she was imprisoned at Century Regional Detention Facility in 2007, she encountered a few people who had already converted," Mr Brinkham said.

By converting to the Muslim faith, Paris Hilton has decided to shun her old life as a celebrity skank.

Speaking from an Islamic study retreat in Jeddah, she said: "I have now found total peace in my life. Before, I used to be known as an STD-ridden streetwalker , a 'hoe' and a person of loose morals, but now, things have changed. Allah be praised."

Hollywood Jihad

Ms Hilton plans to return to Los Angeles next week to start her own Islamic school in the middle of Beverly Hills.

"Forget Scientology or Kaballah. This is the religion to be in now. I'm not going to be wearing a piece of red string on my wrist or walk around like a robot talking to Xenu. Islam is the new must-have religion. and I'm going to spread the word of the Koran to everyone," an excited Paris Hilton said.

Paris Hilton also plans to change her name to 'Tahirah' which means 'Pure, chaste' in Arabic. Her Islamic school will open in July and is set to become a popular Hollywood spiritual haunt for many celebrities.

UPDATE: Apparently, her love of Islam was short-lived.

(h/t Anna12)

Al Aqsa dudes freak out over Photoshopped Dome pix

Firas Press reports that the Al Aqsa Heritage people, having a slow news week, decided to condemn some unnamed Zionist websites that apparently show an edited photo of an Israeli flag flying on top of the Dome of the Rock. Although they say that they don't want to give the sites any more publicity, it shows that Zionist plans are to replace the site with a Jewish temple, yadda yadda yadda.

Unfortunately, they didn't provide the URLs of these offensive pictures.

So, I was forced to come up with my own:

UPDATE: Found the photo, at ABNA.ir. Mine's better.

Video: Libyans destroying Gaddafi "Green Book" monument

From Now Lebanon:

New video from Libya shows protesters in the city of Tubruq tearing down a monument to the Green Book on Thursday. The book was written by the country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and it outlines his political views.

The YouTube site says this happened on Thursday.

(h/t Missing Peace)