Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 01, 2011

Latest Latma (4/1/11)

Hamas member Hasan Abu Jaser was killed in a tunnel collapse Thursday.

The Al Qassam website said he was in a "resistance tunnel."

I don't think this is the same as a wind tunnel.

They said that he was a jihadi and died as a martyr. They need to announce that publicly or else he misses out on the virgins in the afterlife, so it is important to declare dead Hamasniks to be "shahids" as soon as possible after death.

BBC admits they dropped the ball on the Fogel massacre

From TheJC:

The BBC has admitted that the horrific murders of the Fogel family last month should have been covered on their 24 hour news channel.

The massacre, in which a three-month-old baby was decapitated and her siblings' throats were slashed, did not appear anywhere across the BBC's television channels, and was mentioned only briefly on the broadcaster's news website.

The BBC gave no mention of Hamas' statement praising the attack, or of celebrations about the killings in the West Bank, yet did cover the Israeli government's announcement about settlement construction the following day.

I believe this is in error. I heard one unverified report of celebrations in the West Bank and one verified report of a single person handing out pastries in Gaza. Also, Hamas never praised the attack, although Islamic Jihad did.

The broadcaster's poor coverage was highlighted by Louise Bagshawe, Conservative MP for Corby, who registered her disgust at what she called the BBC's "inexcusable" failure, in the JC as well as on Twitter and in a comment piece for the Daily Telegraph.

Ms Bagshawe, a member of the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, called on the BBC to admit their "lack of evenhandedness". She also demanded a list of the other stories which were featured on BBC News 24 on March 11, in preference. Her complaint was passed to the BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, but it was five days before Ms Boaden replied. During that time Ms Bagshawe received thousands of messages of support.

In her response Ms Boaden said: "I agree with you that the significant nature of this murder of an entire family meant it should have been included on our television news output."

A drop in the ocean, but at least it is a drop.

(h/t O)

What's beneath the Temple Mount? (Smithsonian)

A fascinating article in The Smithsonian that exposes how the Waqf has been destroying priceless Jewish artifacts underneath the Temple Mount:

...The Waqf, with the approval of the Israeli government, announced plans to create an emergency exit for the El-Marwani Mosque. But Israeli officials later accused the Waqf of exceeding its self-stated mandate. Instead of a small emergency exit, the Waqf excavated two arches, creating a massive vaulted entranceway. In doing so, bulldozers dug a pit more than 131 feet long and nearly 40 feet deep. Trucks carted away hundreds of tons of soil and debris.

Israeli archaeologists and scholars raised an outcry. Some said the Waqf was deliberately trying to obliterate evidence of Jewish history. Others laid the act to negligence on a monstrous scale.

“That earth was saturated with the history of Jerusalem,” says Eyal Meiron, a historian at the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Eretz Israel. “A toothbrush would be too large for brushing that soil, and they did it with bulldozers.”

Yusuf Natsheh, the Waqf’s chief archaeologist, was not present during the operation. But he told the Jerusalem Post that archaeological colleagues had examined the excavated material and had found nothing of significance. The Israelis, he told me, were “exaggerating” the value of the found artifacts. And he bristled at the suggestion the Waqf sought to destroy Jewish history. “Every stone is a Muslim development,” he says. “If anything was destroyed, it was Muslim heritage.”

Zachi Zweig was a third-year archaeology student at Bar- Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, when he heard news reports about dump trucks transporting Temple Mount soil to the Kidron Valley. With the help of a fellow student he rounded up 15 volunteers to visit the dump site, where they began surveying and collecting samples. A week later, Zweig presented his findings—including pottery fragments and ceramic tiles—to archaeologists attending a conference at the university. Zweig’s presentation angered officials at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). “This is nothing but a show disguised as research,” Jon Seligman, the IAA’s Jerusalem Region Archaeologist, told the Jerusalem Post. “It was a criminal deed to take these items without approval or permission.” Soon afterward, Israeli police questioned Zweig and released him. By that point though, Zweig says, his cause had attracted the attention of the media and of his favorite lecturer at Bar-Ilan—the archaeologist Gaby Barkay.

Zweig urged Barkay to do something about the artifacts. In 2004, Barkay got permission to search the soil dumped in the Kidron Valley. He and Zweig hired trucks to cart it from there to Emek Tzurim National Park at the foot of Mount Scopus, collected donations to support the project and recruited people to undertake the sifting. The Temple Mount Sifting Project, as it is sometimes called, marks the first time archaeologists have systematically studied material removed from beneath the sacred compound.

Barkay, ten full-time staffers and a corps of part-time volunteers have uncovered a wealth of artifacts, ranging from three scarabs (either Egyptian or inspired by Egyptian design), from the second millennium B.C., to the uniform badge of a member of the Australian Medical Corps, who was billeted with the army of British Gen. Edmund Allenby after defeating the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem during World War I. A bronze coin dating to the Great Revolt against the Romans (A.D. 66-70) bears the Hebrew phrase, “Freedom of Zion.” A silver coin minted during the era when the Crusaders ruled Jerusalem is stamped with the image of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Barkay says some discoveries provide tangible evidence of biblical accounts. Fragments of terra-cotta figurines, from between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., may support the passage in which King Josiah, who ruled during the seventh century, initiated reforms that included a campaign against idolatry. Other finds challenge long-held beliefs. For example, it is widely accepted that early Christians used the Mount as a garbage dump on the ruins of the Jewish temples. But the abundance of coins, ornamental crucifixes and fragments of columns found from Jerusalem’s Byzantine era (A.D. 380–638) suggest that some public buildings were constructed there. Barkay and his colleagues have published their main findings in two academic journals in Hebrew, and they plan to eventually publish a book-length account in English.

More about a coin found there:

The project has uncovered more than 4,000 Judean, Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins (plus countless other artifacts such as potsherds, flint tools, weapons, glass, jewelry, talismans, seals and inscribed stones). While most of the coinage has not yet been catalogued, one coin in particular was hailed as the group’s most sensational discovery. A rare half shekel from the beginning of the Judean uprising against Rome (66 CE) was discovered in December 2008 by 14-year-old volunteer Omri Ya’ari. The news reverberated around the world. The Wakf’s malicious attempts to destroy any Jewish link to Jerusalem had obviously backfired.

The obverse side of the coin depicts a branch with three blossoming pomegranates. Encircling the design, in ancient Paleo-Hebrew script, was the stirring legend Yerushalayim Hakedosha (“Jerusalem the Holy”). A chalice is pictured on the reverse with the letter Aleph (representing “Year One” of the revolt). Inside the rim, the words Chatzi Shekel Yisrael – “Half Shekel of Israel” – describe the coin’s denomination. Considered to be among the world’s most beautiful ancient coins, each half shekel contains approximately seven grams of pure silver, in compliance with biblical law.

Immediately after the discovery, Barkay explained that “This is the first time a coin minted at the Temple Mount itself has been found, and therein lies its immense importance because similar coins have been found in the past in the Jerusalem area... as well as at Masada... but they are extremely rare in Jerusalem.” Equally fascinating was that only a few months earlier, archeologist Zweig reported that a Greek-Syrian coin directly related to the Hanukka story had been found through the sifting process. It was a bronze piece bearing the portrait of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It was his tyrannical rule over the Jewish people that prompted the fight for religious freedom in 167 , led by Mattathias the priest and his sons Judah, Simon and Jonathan – the Maccabees. “The Antiochus coin found by our volunteers,” said Zweig, “is not actually a rare coin (we now have seven of them). But the significance... is that they are the first found in the Temple Mount itself.”

(h/t Martin Kramer tweet via David G)

"Miral" director hints that all critics are part of a conspiracy

From The Daily Caller:

Artist-director Julian Schnabel today blasted critics of his controversial new film, “Miral,” hinting at a conspiracy underlying some of the movie’s poor reviews.

“I actually think that there’s a plan to undermine this thing because people wish that it would go away,” Mr. Schnabel said after being asked whether some of the harsh reviews of “Miral” were politically motivated. A politically charged film about three generations of Palestinian women, the story is adapted from a semiautobiographical novel by Rula Jebreal, who wrote the film’s screenplay.

“And people don’t want to get fired from their jobs,” said Mr. Schnabel, one-time enfant terrible of the New York art world and director of critically acclaimed films such as “Before Night Falls” (2000) and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (2007), which earned four Oscar nominations (including best director).

“There’s a woman that was fired from her place, Nina Rothe. She wrote a beautiful review of this movie,” explained Ms. Jebreal, the stunning Palestinian journalist with whom the divorced Mr. Schnabel now lives in New York.

Nina Rothe reviewed the movie, very favorably, at the Huffington Post. Her review was less about the merits of the movie than about its politics. I could not find anything about her being fired; she is certainly still at HuffPo, not even at her Twitter page which is filled with raves about Miral. So I have no idea what Jebreal is talking about.

On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes - which collects movie reviews from both critics and moviegoers - says only 18% of the movie critics like the film. Their reviews are sometimes about the politics but often about the fact that is it simply not good filmmaking. Even very left-wing outlets like NPR panned the film.

To imply that film reviewers - perhaps the most liberal group of people in the media - are adhering to an anti-Palestinian Arab agenda borders on paranoia. (The idea that a movie reviewer can lose his or her job over a review in any major media outlet is simply insane.)

If you want to see politically motivated reviews, though, go to Yahoo Movies and look at all the A+s Miral received from viewers - across the board for acting, direction, story and visuals - in what sure looks like a small but coordinated campaign to raise its rankings. Many of the reviews simply like the movie because it makes Israel look bad, not because they have anything good to say about the actual movie.

This is the only possible conspiracy I can find.

(h/t Ian)

UPDATE: Check out this description of the film, and of Schnabel's words after a showing.

MSM FAIL: NYT finally reports on Gaza rockets that fall short

I have been reporting for years about the fact that Qassam rockets often cause more damage to Gazans than to Israel. My rocket calendars note, when I can, rockets that fall short in Gaza and sometimes they even result in fatalities.

But only now does the New York Times notice this phenomenon - and it is because PCHR released a report about it.

A Palestinian human rights group in Gaza took the unusual step this week of condemning the building and storage of anti-Israel rockets in densely populated areas, a practice that has led to injuries and deaths of civilians.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said that it had investigated recent rocket explosions and found that locally produced projectiles had fallen on homes in Gaza or exploded in factories where they were made or stored. Shrapnel severely wounded several people, including a 22-year-old woman and her 7-month-old baby.

It called on the Hamas government, which controls Gaza, to investigate “and take measures to protect Palestinians and their property.” It added that “members of the Palestinian resistance continue to store explosives or to treat such explosives in locations close to populated areas.”

“This poses a major threat to the lives of the Palestinian civilians,” it said.

Israel has long accused Hamas and other groups of endangering Palestinian civilians by carrying out militant activities in densely populated areas.

But only now does the New York Times bother to report about it - when Palestinian Arabs admit it is true.

Well, I have a tip for the New York Times.

There is a Gaza consortium of NGOs called GANSO (Gaza NGO Safety Office) that is tasked with keeping internationals in Gaza safe. So they actually keep track of Gaza rocket fire. And according to them, some 30% of all Qassams and mortars fall short in Gaza!

In one two week period late last year, 42% of rockets and 57% of mortars exploded prematurely or fell short in Gaza.

While that was an especially bad week for Gazans, this phenomenon happens all the time. Too bad that the media that has reporters on the ground in Gaza couldn't figure out what I have been able to document for so long.

The NYT is one of the very few media outlets that even noticed the PCHR report to begin with. The blame goes to the media altogether. If one out of every three rockets explodes in Gaza, and if Gazans are injured and killed by those rockets, shouldn't that fact be mentioned occasionally from the thousands of reports that come out of the area?

Yet even the PCHR and the NYT didn't mention the Gazan that was killed by a Qassam on January 21.

Oh, one other thing: The Palestinian Center for Human Rights may have condemned the rocket launches from populated areas, but they didn't have a word to say about the morality of shooting the rockets at Israeli civilians.

I guess they don't consider Israeli civilians to be human.

(h/t Mike and T34)

Kalandia checkpoint post on NewsRealBlog

A somewhat expanded version of the post I did yesterday about the New York Times' op-ed claiming that heartless Isrselis build checkpoints just to humiliate Arabs is now up at NewsRealBlog.

Hamas: Peacemaker for terrorists

Palestine Press Agency reports that "well-informed sources" say that Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based leader of the political wing of Hamas, traveled to Qatar to pressure Al-Jazeera to tone down its criticism of Syria during the demonstrations there Syria, as well as to pressure the Muslim Brotherhood to take a neutral stance after a sermon by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi last Friday whee he criticized Syria's President Assad.

According to the sources, the mediation came at the request of the Syrian intelligence service, who assured Meshaal that his mission had succeeded with al-Qaradawi, as well as with Al-Jazeera. Waddah Khanfar, director of Al Jazeera, told Meshaal that he could not ignore the events in Syria but he said he would not interview opponents of the regime on Al Jazeera.

I'm not sure why Qaradawi would tone down his rhetoric against Assad, unless Meshaal brought some serious Syrian threats along with his nice requests.

See? Hamas can be a peacemaker - between brutal Arab regimes, terror supporting Islamists, and vicious media outlets.

Victoria's Secret, BDS, Israel, Union Square: How can you not click this?

From NY Blueprint, yesterday:

"Do you like sexy panties? Then don't boycott Israel." So say the T-shirts worn by activists canvassing Union Square Park and handing out care packages of Israeli manufactured products including Victoria Secret panties today between 1-4pm in Union Square Park near NYU. It is a humorous way of drawing attention to the serious problems caused by the movement to boycott Israel, says the Birthright Israel Alumni Community who is organizing the "Kiss my BDS" event, problems for both innocent Israelis and American consumers most of whom have no idea of the many links between the two economies. These kind of unreasoning attacks on Israel only hurt America - American companies, American super markets, even in American lingerie drawers.

Today (March 30th) to counter the international anti-Israel "BDS Day" (Boycott, Divest, Sanction), sexy Israel supporters will be handing out Victoria's Secret panties in Union Square Park. (Victoria's Secret is on the boycott list.)

As much as I tried,I could not find photos of this important event. Sorry.

However, a blog called Jewish FAIL claims:

After receiving fabric from Israel, the undergarments are actually made by Palestinian women and foreign workers in Jordan who toil under brutal, intolerable conditions and then sew “Made in Israel” tags onto their work. The underwear is then returned to Israel, which exports it to the U.S. Yay, exploited labor masquerading as economic cooperation!

Damn, she's exploiting poor Jordanians!

The NYT article they point to to prove that the panties are made in Jordan is dated...1996. It seems possible, but not certain, that the lingerie is still being made in Jordan for Israeli companies. Ha'aretz reported more recently about "sweatshops" in Jordanian factories owned and used by Israeli companies.

So BDSers are boycotting Victoria's Secret, but others are complaining that Israel doesn't really make the products. I guess it is a second-level boycott.

Jordan, the nation that actually allows the sweatshops, somehow isn't blamed for any of this by anyone. Because, of course, the enlightened leftists who are so keen to complain about Israel and Victoria's Secret don't have very high moral expectations from mere Arabs.

Big afternoon linkdump

The Muqata finds at least one Korean Talmud story that is based on a specific legal issue in the Gemara. (The same Korean site has dozens of English-translated cartoons that claim to be from the Talmud; I don't recognize all the stories. If you are bored, just point your browser to http://www.kidstimes.net/2008/cartoon/324_cartoon.gif and go backwards, changing the 324 to 323 and so on, to read more of these cartoons.)

David Benjamin in JPost finds that the latest UNHRC report on Israel is not as bad as people think. I can't find the report myself, but it is an interesting article.

Forbes' Daniel Freedman talks with Israelis who are hoping to send a robot to the moon.

A New York Post op-ed on the latest Israel hatefest coming to New York: Durban III.

An anti-Israel, but Jewish, Labour MP is caught muttering about those "Jews, again" at the BBC site.

Joseph Puder decries Israel's lack of a satellite channel, a theme we've touched on before.

Jewish Ideas Daily discusses the Arab politicization of archaeology, using it to demonize Israel.

An Irish town decides to be twinned with Gaza City.

Yossi Klein Halevi in the WSJ.

Viktor Shikhman notes that Netanyahu acted exactly the opposite that every critic of him takes for granted. Not that Andrew Sullivan notices.

Yaacov Lozowick goes further into the difference between J-Street and real "pro-Israel" groups.

Is Israel planning to build an island off of Gaza?

That should do for now!

(h/t...YM, Dan, Jack, and others. Sorry, I wasn't keeping track.)

Why can't Israel do hasbara? Because Jews are too honest!

From Stars and Stripes:

The woman and her daughter had been attacked, that much was certain.

They lay on beds in Patrol Base Jaker’s medical tent, calling for “Allah” as a U.S. Navy doctor and corpsman examined them.

Both had been shot. The girl, 12, had a bullet wound to her shoulder. Her mother, in her 20s, about seven months pregnant and with three other children, had been shot in the abdomen.

It had happened overnight, many hours before, while the husband and father, an Afghan policeman, had been at his post. That also seemed pretty straightforward.

But who had done it?

“The Taliban,” the Americans were told. And within hours, that’s what the local Afghans were told, too. A squad of Marines and two Army psy-ops soldiers, one wearing a loudspeaker strapped to his back, headed out to the bazaar to tell the people of Nawa that the Taliban had attacked the woman and her daughter.

The only problem with that announcement was that it turned out not to be true.

In the intensive information war that U.S. forces are waging against the Taliban in Helmand province, getting the message out first — before insurgents provide their own version — can trump getting the message out accurately.

Studies done in Afghanistan and the United States have shown that people believe and remember the first reports they hear, not corrected versions, even when clear evidence shows initial reports to be wrong.

“It’s best to be quick and accurate,” said Lt. Col. Dave Hudspeth, commander of 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, headquartered in Marjah. “The enemy — they do info ops, too.”
...
The attackers were not, in fact, Taliban. Two colleagues of the husband, both also police officers, had attacked the women, according to local Afghan authorities. The motive was sexual assault, they said.

This was not good news for the Marines under orders to help connect the people with their government and the Afghan security forces, although the legal officer in civil affairs hoped to persuade the local Afghan prosecutor to press charges against the two Afghans, to show the government working for the people.

But there were no plans to correct the record, no plans to send out another patrol.

“Any chance to exploit the Taliban ...,” McNamara said.

But wouldn’t the Marines lose credibility when people in Nawa learned the Taliban were no longer suspected?

“Not in this environment,” said Gunnery Sgt. Brian Withrow.

I can only imagine the outrage that would accompany an article like this if it was published by an IDF magazine.

I cannot advocate that Israel start to lie when events happen and the details are not yet clear. But this article shows how critical it is to get information out quickly, as well as accurately. It also points out how important the information war is altogether.

If Israel isn't going to start lying, then she has to start doing serious investment in getting the truth out first. Things have improved a little in recent years but countering the massive amount of lies needs a much larger effort than what we have been seeing.

(h/t Silke)

Videodump

I am very behind on posting links, but here are three videos sitting in my queue.

Aish Video shows a selection of the anti-Israel hate pages on Facebook, pointing out that they violate FB policy:

They also have a link to a petition to Facebook.

Here is Bibi Netanyahu's YouTube interview:

And here is a video from CNN showing Syrian TV going dark after a woman protester gets close to Bashir Assad:

(h/t Ian, Israeligirl)

Palestine Press Agency reports that a prisoner's three-week hunger strike has ended after "a majority" of his demands were met.

Abbas Al-Sayyed was allegedly placed in solitary confinement after he spoke to Al Jazeera during a courtroom appeal.

His hunger strike gained him some publicity in the Palestinian Arabic media, A PA minister even visited his family and presented them with an honorary plaque, showing solidarity with his steadfastness and principles.

How admirable Al Sayyed is, standing up to his oppressors!

....

So, why is he in prison to begin with?

Oh, not much. Just for planning the Netanya Passover massacre that killed 30 innocent people. 21 of the victims were over 70 years old.

What a hero.

Ahava store chased out of London location

From TheJC:

The UK branch of Israeli cosmetics store, Ahava, is moving from its central London shop after years of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Protesters claim that the products sold in the store are manufactured in a factory in Israeli settlement, Mitzpe Shalom in the West Bank but are "misleadingly" labelled as produced in Israel.

The owner of the shop, currently in Monmouth Street, Covent Garden, is looking for other sites after owners of neighbouring stores complained to the landlord following protests.

Supporters claim it has been "chased out" of its location by regular "noisy and intimidating" demonstrations.

A spokeswoman for Shaftesbury PLC, which owns the property as well as several others in the Seven Dials area, said: "When Ahava's lease expires in September, we will not offer them a new one."

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been demonstrating fortnightly outside the shop, which opened in April 2007, for more than two years. A counter group of pro-Israeli supporters also demonstrate outside.

The owner of the store next door shows the spinelessness we can expect from much of the UK:

Colin George, manager of clothes shop The Loft, next door to Ahava, said: "I'm pleased Ahava is leaving. It's brought the street down. I've complained to the landlords, as has everyone here. Everyone would like them to leave. I wish they had left two years ago.

"Protesters are just going to follow them around, wherever they go. Maybe they should be an online business instead."

Perhaps it is time to stage noisy protests outside The Loft? Then Mr. George can follow his own advice!

After all, he believes that any group can shut down any shop they want to, just by acting obnoxious.

WaPo buries the lede in Hezbollah bunker story

Yesterday, the Jerusalem Post reported:

The IDF has released an aerial map of Lebanon revealing the location of some 1,000 different military sites and facilities. The map was published on Wednesday in the Washington Post.

According to the map, which the newspaper said it obtained from the Israeli military, Hezbollah has around 550 underground bunkers throughout Lebanon, around 300 surveillance sites and another 100 or so additional installations.

But the actual report in the Washington Post only mentioned this important story peripherally, buried in a story about how Israel supposedly might prefer Assad stay on as leader of Syria.

Today, after other news outlets picked up on the story, the Washington Post ironically has the story as a headline - but based on an AP report, that was based on the JPost report, that was based on the WaPo report that was buried!

So why is this important? As the AP report states:

Many of the sites on the map are located south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the zone where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons under the U.N.-sponsored truce that ended Israel’s summer 2006 war with the guerrilla group.

The map itself:

And to show how Hezbollah has turned virtually the entire population of southern Lebanon into human shields, here are details from the El Khiam village: