Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Unlikely ice hockey champions - from Israel

An Israeli hockey team of children ages 11 to 13 took first place in an international tournament recently, beating 91 other teams – all without ever stepping on the ice prior to competition.

The kids, mostly from Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion, dreamed of practicing their hockey moves at a real hockey rink with real ice. Unfortunately the only hockey rink in the entire State of Israel is located up north in Metula, so the inventive team decided to play street hockey instead using rollerblades.

The team, consisting of 17 Israelis, recently competed in a Canadian tournament. They call themselves "The Bat Yam Club" despite the fact that the group members also come from Rishon Lezion as well as two other children from Ma'alot who regularly play ice hockey on real ice.

Many of the teams which took part in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament 2011 came from countries where ice hockey is very popular and played by tens of thousands of kids, including: Canada, the United States, Finland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and more.

Israel was considered to be an underdog in the competition due to the fact that Israeli kids, unlike most of the children participating, only practice their hockey moves on dry ground using rollerblades instead of hockey skates. The Israeli team gets to play at the ice rink in Metula only a few times a year.

"We had five tournament matches, including the final match, and we won them all. The tournament organizers couldn't believe these kids, who barely even know what real ice hockey looks like," said Aaron Aharonovich, chairman of the Rishon Lezion hockey club.

That old black magic is in danger in Saudi Arabia

From Arab News, a story that never gets old:

A total of 30 officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) have been trained on how to deal with cases of black magic.

The three-day training program was held in the Eastern Province city of Al-Ahsa.

The commission has achieved remarkable successes in combating black magic in various parts of the country. It has set up nine specialized centers in the main cities to deal with black magicians.

The majority of people arrested for practicing black magic in the Kingdom are Africans and Indonesians.

According to a report received by Arab News, a single specialized center had dealt with 586 cases involving black magic, showing the enormity of the problem.

About 50 cases were reported in Jeddah alone in the first half of 2009. Gurayat and Qunfuda also reported high rates of black magic cases during that year.

The Riyadh governorate last year launched a campaign against black magicians and those who illegally treat people by reading from the Qur’an.

Only qualified Saudis are allowed to practice Qur’anic treatment methods. Expatriates practicing such treatments would be caught and deported.

I've seen plenty of articles about how the Commission is fighting black magic, but I hadn't heard that there are certified Quranic witch doctors before!

Thanks to Allah, I found a webpage that could explain this to me more fully. The author says "I graduated from the US, from where I obtained MA degree in clinical psychology. (Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy), too, I am qualified, since I have memorized the Holy Qur’an."

That site tells you all you need to know about how the Quran can heal you, but how black magic is evil. In fact, the entire reason the Jews did not follow the Prophet is because of a black magic spell! (More on the Jews here.)

I need to study it more fully so I can properly appreciate the role the Quran can play in curing various mental and physical problems. (This is not to be confused with camel urine, which cures other physical ailments.)

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Funny Passover video

From Ayeka:

(h/t JSing)

"Death to Zionist Saudis!"

From Iran's FARS:

Large numbers of Iranian students staged a rally in front of the UN office in Tehran to protest at the massacre of peaceful protestors in Bahrain and other Islamic countries in the region.

Protestors voiced their support for Muslims in Bahrain and other Islamic countries and underlined that they will continue their support for the oppressed people in those states.

The students chanted various slogans such as 'Allaho Akbar', 'Down with the USA', 'Down with the Zionist regime', 'Down with Zionist Saudis', 'Down with American-style Islam' and 'Saudi commits crimes and the UN backs it' to voice their support for people in Bahrain and other Islamic countries.

The students urged the Iranian government to dispatch voluntary forces to Bahrain and in other Islamic states.

Financial Times (behind paywall) reports

Iranian clerics and religious students abandoned their classes and staged protests inside their seminaries to show solidarity with Bahrain’s mainly Shia opposition and to denounce last month’s Saudi military intervention in the archipelago.

At gatherings in the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad, which were attended by senior clerics and aired live on state television on Wednesday, protesters shouted, “Death to Zionist Saudis” and, “The wicked Bahraini ruler is an enemy to Prophet [Mohammed]."

Of course, we already knew that Saudi Arabia was Zionist.

Which is not surprising, since many Muslims know that the Saudis themselves are Jews.

Those Zionists are everywhere!

Lunchtime Links

At least for EDT/CDT....

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian asks where the other Goldstones are.

Jennifer Rubin reminds us that the US and the UN have agreements with Israel as well - and they are being reneged on.

HRW notices that journalists in the West Bank and Gaza are abused. No surprise there.

But what is a surprise is that not only are reporters threatened by Arab regimes, but they are also bribed.

On the same topic, the Muqata notices what happens in Gaza when a reporter notices that a "martyr" is still alive.

ITIC analyzes Hamas' response to Goldstone's change of heart (although not his possible reversal.)

(h/t Yerushalimey, Lenny, Greg)

Hamas steals a "martyr"'s body

Yesterday morning, Mohammed Shalha was killed at the Gaza border. The IDF said that was armed, the Arabs say he was merely gathering concrete for aggregate.

Firas Press reports that after the body was released to the hospital it was taken to a mosque and Fatah was holding the funeral there.

During the service, Hamas came and took the body to a Hamas mosque, saying that Fatah is not allowed to "adopt" any martyrs in Gaza.

Hamas is still adding "civilian" martyrs to its Cast Lead list

The Al Qassam Brigades website has a large section of "shahids" who were members of that terror group when they were killed, usually by Israel. They are always adding new entries, some from many years ago.

I just saw that at least three more "martyrs" that the PCHR and other human rights groups considered "civilian" were added recently. Two were already on my list of fake "civilians" from other sources, but it still verifies that the methods that my team used to count terrorists were valid.

The two old names I noticed are Ibrahim Youssef Nofal (#106) and Ahmed Badawi (#4).

The new name is #200, ‘Umar Ahmed Hassan Abu Sa’id. His Hamas obituary mentions that he joined the Qassam Brigades in 2004 and was adept at placing IEDs as well as digging tunnels.

And until now, he was counted as a "civilian" in every list I am aware of.

Good news! Only one third of PalArabs support stabbing babies to death!

A new poll by Hebrew University done together with the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research finds:

63% of the Palestinians oppose and 32% support the attack in the Itamar settlement in the West Bank in which a family of five was murdered.

If that isn't a sign of moderation, I don't know what is!

How wonderful it must feel for Israelis to walk around Arabs, secure in the knowledge that only one out of every three would happily cheer their families being butchered. I mean, if you have to take an Arab cab, odds are a solid 2-1 that the driver does not pray for you and your children to die a horrible death.

This is a positive sign that needs to be publicized. Those Israelis who are skeptical of any real sort of peace agreement must now be able to sleep better at night, knowing that the Arabs who celebrate the heinous slaughtering of babies and toddlers are outnumbered.

And this is after Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Gaza and Area A of the West Bank, and after Israel has been dismantling checkpoints, helping the PA economy, sending tons of humanitarian aid to an enemy entity in Gaza, stopping the physical expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria outside their boundaries for many years, and implementing a 10 month building freeze. Just imagine how much more peaceful the Palestinian Arabs would be if Israel did more!

As always, this calls for more compromise on Israel's part to reward this great sign of moderation and peacefulness.

We need more optimism in the Middle East. I think this qualifies.

(h/t Dan)

Fatah groups ask Hamas to return their weapons

From Ma'an:

Fatah-affiliated militant groups in the Gaza Strip have asked the Hamas government to return the weapons seized from fighters in 2007 when the Islamist movement took control of the coastal enclave.

Twelve divisions of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades asked to be rearmed in a letter to the government.

"Our fighters are on alert to confront any Israeli aggression, incursion, or folly," the letter said, asking for the return of their weapons in order to fight the threat.

The signatories of the statement included the Ahmad Abu Ar-Reish Brigades, Jihad Amarein Brigades, Sami Al-Ghoul Brigades, Nabil Mas'oud Brigades, Ayman Juda Brigades, Faris Al-Leil Brigades, Engineering and Manufacturing Brigades, Muhammad Siyam Brigades, Raed Al-Karmi Brigades, Luay Qanna Brigades, Marwan Zalloum Brigades and Palestinian Commandos Brigades.

Look at all those peaceful-sounding Fatah divisions - all with allegiance to the leader of Fatah, that well-known peacemaker Mahmoud Abbas.

From YNet:

A mystery still engulfs the airstrike which took place near the airport in Sudan's main port city of Port Sudan on Tuesday, as the Sudanese media released first images of the strike's scene

According to a state government official, an unidentified plane bombed a car driving in the vicinity of the airport, killing two people. The aircraft flew in from the Red Sea but it was not clear to whom it belonged, Ahmed Tahir, the speaker of parliament in the Red Sea state where the port city is located, told Reuters.

The plane involved in the strike was "foreign", the Sudan media center said later. The report, quoting a member of parliament, said the car was on the road leading to the Port Sudan airport when it was attacked by the plane, which was following it.

In January 2009, a convoy of arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state according to Sudanese authorities, a strike that some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.

A total of 119 people were killed in that strike near Sudan's border with Egypt, according to state media.

Sudan is a known as a smuggling route exploited by terror groups. Last month, Egyptian security forces claimed that they seized five vehicles transporting weapons to the Gaza Strip. It was reported the weapons were seized along the Sudan-Egypt border and included mortar bombs, grenades, rifles and explosives.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office declined to comment on Tuesday's attack.

Palestine Press Agency indirectly quotes Sudanese intelligence officials as saying that the two killed were a Palestinian Arab - and an Iranian.

More details on how terrorists infiltrated Itamar

YNet shows how Itamar's security failed on the night of the massacre:

The alarm system of the electronic fence surrounding the West Bank outpost of Itamar goes off at exactly 8:59 pm.

Over the next three minutes, seven more warning messages register on the computer screen in the settlement's operation room, indicating that someone might be trying to breach section 20 of the fence. A security officer scours the specified area, but does not find anything unusual.

Things return to normal, with the approval of the settlement's security coordinator, who does not arrive on the scene. No military force is alerted.

That same night, five members of the Fogel family are stabbed to death.

No one sees the terrorists slip in or out of Itamar. They walk around town undisturbed for over two hours.

Itamar is protected by guards provided by a private company, Nof Yam Security. The town's security coordinator, an IDF subordinate, is in charge of these guards. On the night of the attack, guard Yuri Antropov was securing the settlement, answering to coordinator Matanya Ben-Shitrit.

The infiltration took place at a blind spot, hidden by trees and unseen by the town's security cameras. "The area wasn't exposed because the Civil Administration objected," an element of the Samaria defense establishment said. "The IDF knows very well that it is a dead spot. I didn't ask for exposure because it wasn't something achievable." Only after the attack was the area cleared of trees.

If section 20 of the fence was under surveillance, the terrorists could have been identified. But Ben-Shitrit, the security coordinator, said that a camera was not installed because there was no one to finance it. "If the IDF agreed to install a camera here, it would have been here a long time ago," he said.

Moreover, the security guard, who arrived on the scene minutes after the alarm went off, surveyed the area using only his vehicle's head lights. He did not carry a searchlight or night vision equipment; he did not even have a flashlight with him.

According to the defense establishment element, the settlement and the regional council were supposed to equip the guards with flashlights and searchlights, while the army is supposed to provide the night vision devices.

The "smart" fence surrounding the settlement was designed to identify movements caused by touch, cutting or shaking. The computer screen registers the time of the breach, the time that the alarm was turned off by the guard, and the time that the breach was terminated.

"This case did not seem suspicious because animals sometimes touch or collide with the fence for many minutes," Antropov said.

"It was irrelevant because it was a routine occurrence," Ben-Shitrit added. "There can be a shift with 200 fence collisions caused by animals."

But a security source claimed that if the guard was properly trained, he would have realized that it wasn't an animal rocking the fence.

While the fence does not differentiate between animal and human touch, the length of the alarms should have raised suspicion. Out of the eight warning messages that registered on the screen that evening, the longest one lasted 18 seconds.

"According to a test done after the terrorist attack, it takes 10 seconds on average to get through the fence," Antropov said. "A fat tracker got past the fence with a jump, and there was a shock that lasted maybe a few seconds."

Antropov noted that he and his fellow guards did not train extensively on the fence system.
"We were ordered to treat each warning in the dead spot in the same manner, regardless of how long it lasted, by sending a patrolman out," he said. "Only after the attack did the technician explain to us the different lengths."

This security failure had deadly consequences.

All of this is entirely consistent with what Itamar's mayor and his wife said in my interview with them.

The execrable Mondoweiss has a thread where they claim, based on their expert knowledge of course, that Itamar's mayor is lying, that it is impossible to climb such a fence, that there are no blind spots, and that Itamar's security was unbreakable. Comparing that thread with the YNet story is a nice lesson in how much practitioners of misoziony will cling to lies - and even still insist that it was a Jew or a foreign worker that massacred the Fogels.

Video: Babies discuss the Middle East situation

Elder poster sighting at NYU

Atlas Shrugs has photos of a BDS protest and pro-Israel counterprotest at NYU today.

One of the counterprotesters decided to use my advertisement that has been making the rounds in some California papers as a placard - something I never really thought of.

Here are the pro-Israel rally-ers:

And a close-up of the person who is holding my poster:

Nice to know that my efforts are paying off!

(h/t BH in Iowa)

Palestine, 1792

From The New Universal Gazetteer; or, Geographical Dictionary. [With] Atlas, By Clement Cruttwell, 1792, under the entry for Palestine:

The population of this country is also greatly diminished; but at present no certain calculation can be given of it, as the number of inhabitants continually varies, on account of the Bedouin Arabs, who always come hither at certain periods from Arabia, and the country beyond the Jordan, in. order to feed their flocks.

If this country has lost its ancient splendour by the destruction of its cities, and the decrease of its population, it still retains its natural advantages, being beautifully variegated with mountains, hills, and delightful plains.

Its climate is exceedingly good. It seldom rains here ; but this deficiency is supplied by most abundant dews. The cold is never excessive; and if the summer heats are great, they are, however, mitigated by a periodical breeze, which renders them supportable.

Palestine abounds with every thing almost that is useful or necessary for the life of man. It produces wheat, barley, pulse of all kinds, fruits, wine, and oil, in such plenty, that though a part only of the country is cultivated, great quantities of these articles are distributed in the neighbouring provinces of Syria, and even transported to Europe, particularly wheat, barley, and pulse.

With regard to domestic and wild animals, it produces various kinds, many of which are not known in Europe. Cotton grows bere in great perfection, particularly in Samaria and Galilee. Among its productions may be reckoned also silk, tobacco, drugs, and aromatic herbs. The fields and woods, m the proper seasons, abound with flowers of every species ; but notwithstanding those advantages which it enjoys, all Palestine is not cultivated with the fame care as the vast plains of Galilee and Samaria. I observed that the mountainous country towards Jerusalem was more barren than any other part; but there is no reason to suppose; that it has always been in the same condition. The cause of its being at present neglected is, the want of population; for the inhabitants have abandoned the mountains, and retired to the plains, where agriculture is attended with less labour, and where they find mor econveniencies for their cattle.

Even in Galilee and Samaria there are many parts still uncultivated; but, as they abound with grass, they afford pasture to the cattle, which form the whole riches of the Arabs. These people, therefore, would quarrel much sooner for a sheep-fold than for a large tract of country; and, indeed, the only wars which they carry on are undertaken in order that they may rob each other of their oxen, camels, sheep, horses, or goats.

Egyptian presidential candidate obsessed with Israel

From FARS News:

Secretary-General of Egypt's Amal Party Magdi Hussein said confronting Israeli plans in occupied Palestine and supporting the Palestinian nation stand atop his agenda for presidential campaign.

Speaking in an interview with FNA on Tuesday, Hussein announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election in Egypt to help establish democracy in his country and materialize people's demands.

Hussein said "confrontation against the Zionist plans in occupied Palestine", among others, is his top priority on the scene of foreign policy.

He viewed Egypt's relations with the Zionist regime as detrimental to his country.

He said "contents and clauses of the agreements signed between Egypt and Israel will certainly be revised" if he is elected president.

Perhaps he is trying to outdo ElBaradei.

It is certainly heartwarming that Egyptians are so unified on one issue: how much they hate their peace partner.

Why do I have the impression that the US will continue to give $2 billion a year to Egypt even if they completely abrogate Camp David?