Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Report: Egypt refuses Hamas request for consulate in Gaza

The (anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency reports:

Informed sources said the Hamas delegation to Cairo were told of the absolute rejection of the request made by the Hamas to opening a representation office for the Arab Republic of Egypt in the Gaza Strip.

The sources said the shock hit a delegation of Hamas after the rejection, as they expected the approval...

The sources said that the Egyptian side emphasized that they would not help foster the continued division [between the PA and Hamas].

It appears that while the new Egypt is more conciliatory towards Hamas, they are not willing to throw the PA under a bus as Hamas expected.

E-Book: "Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel"

This full e-book, just released on the Web, contains a excerpts of the official English translation of the Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research, September 1968, at Al Azhar University in Egypt.

It is essentially a treatise on why all Muslims should hate Jews and (of course) Israel.

Here is just one of countless examples from the "scholarly" papers in this book:

As the introduction states:

Arab spokesmen contend that they differentiate meticulously between Zionism and Judaism and that they are against Zionism and not against Judaism. There cannot be a more trenchant disproof of this allegation than the arguments used at the Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research, at least as regards it participants. The odium of Zionism is described as emanating from the perversity of Judaism. Zionism and Jews are treated synonymously.

Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel 4th Edition

Thanks to Brian of London who emailed this around, and to David Littman who is one of the co-editors (along with the late Professor Yehoshafat Harkabi) and who decided to release this on the Web. (The name D. F. Green is a pseudonym for the two.)

BDSers: Hating Israel trumps helping Africa

From TheJC:

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have launched a campaign to stop Bob Geldof from visiting Israel next month on the basis that going there would damage the singer's "credibility as a defender of the rights of the dispossessed".

The former Boomtown Rats singer is to make his first trip to the country to accept an honorary degree from Ben Gurion University (BGU) in recognition of his anti-poverty work.

But Raymond Deane, the cultural and academic boycott officer for the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Camp (IPSC) has demanded that the star reject it and also pull out of a conference the same week on Israel's humanitarian aid work in Africa.

He also said Mr Geldof should consider whether it was "appropriate" to attend the IsraAid conference because "the criminal actions of the Israeli state have resulted in the Palestinians being more dependent on humanitarian aid than any people on earth".

Mr Deane went on to add that if his appeal was ignored, the singer "may well stand accused of placing the oppressor's flattery above the victim's plea for solidarity."

He wrote: "You will have lent yourself heedlessly to exploitation by a rogue state that has mastered the art of propaganda and whitewash".

So not only are the BDSers trying to convince people to boycott Israeli products, but also to boycott Israeli charitable organizations that help thousands of people worldwide!

IsraAid coordinates Israeli charity responses to disasters and other needs around the world. Part of its mission statement is:

To provide humanitarian assistance to people in need, regardless of religion, race, gender, nationality, age, disabilities.

To provide aid with full respect to culture and custom of the beneficiaries, while building on local capacities and involving program beneficiaries in the process.

The conference that Geldof will attend is about how to most effectively help people in Africa in need.

BDS advocates hate Israel so much that they would rather hurt thousands of people in need worldwide than allow Israel to help them! They would rather see Africans starve than have them accept any aid from those awful ~~Jews~~ Zionists.

BDSers don't give a damn about helping people. Their entire purpose is simply to slander a single state as the worst human rights violator on the planet. A state that, by sheer coincidence, just happens to be the only nation that is meant to support the human rights of Jews to self-determination.

How's that Egyptian democracy going?

From the NYT:

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak two months ago.

The blogger, Maikel Nabil, 26, had assailed the Egyptian armed forces for what he called its continuation of the corruption and anti-democratic practices of Mr. Mubarak. Mr. Nabil often quoted from reports by established human rights groups.

The charges against Mr. Nabil included insulting the military establishment and spreading false information about the armed forces. The tribunal charged him with spreading information previously published by human rights organizations like Amnesty International on the army’s use of violence against protesters, the torture of those detained inside the Egyptian Museum and the use of forced pelvic exams, known as “virginity tests,” against detained female protesters.

The main evidence against Mr. Nabil, who blogged under the name “Son of Ra,” was a CD containing 73 screen shots of entries on his blog and his personal Facebook page, according to Heba Morayef, a researcher in Egypt for Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York.

Mr. Nabil has the unusual political position in Egypt of being a pacifist as well as a champion of Israel, often praising its democracy, educational standards and innovations.

Mona Seif, a rights advocate, said Mr. Nabil may have been singled out as an easy target partly because of previous run-ins with the military and partly because of his pro-Israel views.

Apparently, the Egyptian military figures that most Egyptians won't get too worked up about a Zionist being arrested.

Here is Nabil's blog post, in Arabic, describing why he is pro-Israel.

(h/t Silke)

Accidental Islamic education in Australia

From the Herald Sun, quoting The Australian (I cannot find the original):

A MOSQUE in western Sydney was selling copies of the inflammatory anti-Semitic book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on the same weekend it opened its doors to the wider community to dispel some of the myths surrounding Islam.

The bookstall on the ground floor of the Lakemba Mosque had in stock about 15 bright-pink paperback editions of The Protocols for sale for $8.

The Protocols is a hoax document first published in Russia in 1903 that purports to be an account of a meeting of Jewish leaders discussing plans for economic world domination. The books were for sale in a small makeshift bookshop lined with ornate copies of the Koran in a room off a car park underneath the mosque.

On a large table in the middle of the room was a jumble sale of books ranging from early childhood education to cookbooks, including a couple of stacks of The Protocols among the piles of Islamic literature.

When asked by The Australian why the mosque was selling The Protocols, the bookshop volunteer hurriedly grabbed the books and said he would take them off the table. ``We’re not racist. I don’t want any trouble,’’ he said. ``I can’t read, I don’t read the books, I don’t know what’s in them. I don’t decide what books are chosen."

I'm not sure, but it might have dispelled one myth about Islam - the Muslims have no problem with Jews.

Egyptian Salafis attack Copts, Sufis; hundreds of Copts fleeing Egypt

Remember how optimistic everyone was about Egypt in February? Apparently, not all Egyptians are quite as sanguine.

From Al Masry al-Youm:

Since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak in February, many Coptic Christians have begun making plans to leave the country, fearing instability and the rising power of Islamist political groups.

Lawyers who specialize in working with Coptic Egyptians, who account for around 10 per cent of the country’s 80 million citizens, say that in the past few weeks they have received hundreds of calls from Copts wanting to leave Egypt.

Naguib Gabriel, a prominent Coptic lawyer and head of the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights, said his office had been receiving at least 70 calls per week from people wanting to know how they can emigrate.

“Every day people come to me and ask how they can get to the American or Canadian embassies. They are insisting on leaving Egypt because the risks of staying here are too great," Gabriel said.

“We’re at a crossroads,” he added. “Many Christians are afraid of the future because of the fanatics in the mosques.”

At least 15 people, Christians and Muslims, were killed last month in a chain of violence which erupted because of a relationship between a Coptic man and Muslim woman in a village south of Cairo. At least 10 people were killed in similar clashes in the Cairo neighborhood of Moqattam in March.

In recent days there have also been clashes involving the Salafi movement -- a hard-line, literalist Islamic sect that has recently been flexing its political muscle throughout Egypt.

According to recent reports, a Coptic service center in Cairo was closed down last month after being picketed by Salafis, while fights broke out in the Fayoum Governorate south of the capital after the sect tried to force the closure of a shop selling alcohol.

It all seems a far cry from the days when demonstrators in Tahrir Square were declaring, “Muslims and Christians are one hand."

Sam Fanous, who runs a company helping Egyptians emigrate and settle in Canada, said that over the past month his office had been “bombarded” with requests from Copts who wanted help in leaving the country.

“I have people coming to my Cairo office until midnight. Often I tell my assistant to shut down the phones because we have so many people calling,” he said. “The majority of people want to emigrate. Some ask about asylum, but I explain they cannot get refugee status from Egypt.”

Fanous said most of the people coming to him were well-off professionals.

“Some want to go and not come back. Some want to take their families and then come back until it becomes time to leave," he said.

Some details:

In the last two weeks three attacks on churches were undertaken by Salafis or Islamic Fundamentalists in Egypt. The Salafis demanded churches move to locations outside communities and be forbidden from making repairs, "even if they are so dilapidated that the roofs will collapse over the heads of the congregation," says Father Estephanos Shehata of Samalut Coptic Diocese.
...
On Sunday March 27 nearly 500 Salafis, armed with swords, batons and knives, stood in front of St. Mary's church in the Bashtil district of Imbaba, Giza demanding its closure because "this is a Muslim area and no church should be allowed here." They closed the church door and held a number of the parishioners inside, including children. The terrorized Copts called the army to get them out, especially the children, who were traumatized. The military police arrived, freed the congregation and dispersed the Muslim mob, who lurked nearby "to see if they need to attack again in case the Copts returned to the church," said a Coptic witness.

St. George's Church in Beni Ahmad, 7 KM south of Minya was also subjected to Muslim intimidation. The 100 year-old church received three years ago an official permit from Minya governorate allowing for the expansion of its eastern side as well as the erection of a social services center within a small plot of land belonging to the church. Three Salafis together with a large crowd of village Muslims visited the church on Wednesday, March 23 and ordered the church officials to stop construction immediately and undo what they had completed, otherwise they would demolish the church after Friday prayers. They also demanded the church priest, Father Georgy Thabet, leave the village with his family.

...The Diocese stepped-in and contacted the authorities who in turn asked them to contact the military governor. A meeting was held between representatives from the church, the Salafis, the army and security in Minya. The Salafis requested the demolition of what was built and the departure of the priest and his family. In the end the military told the Copts they cannot interfere in this case. "In other words the authorities have sold the Copts to the Salafis, to do what they like with them and the church," commented local Coptic activist Mariam Ragy.

Catholic Online adds:

People are anxious to know where this wild ride will end. They are anxious because what happens to the Copts will signal the fate of many others. The Copts are the largest religious minority in the region, and Egypt holds a certain preeminence in the region. Consequently, if it does not end well for the Copts, it is not likely to go well for other Christians throughout the region. Unfortunately, at this point all we know for certain is that life for the Copts in Egypt after Mubarak hangs in the balance.

The Salafis are also attacking Sufi mosques:

16 historic mosques in Alexandria belonging to Sufi orders have been marked for destruction by Salafis. The newspaper notes that Alexandria has 40 mosques associated with Sufis, and is the headquarters for 36 Sufi groups. Half a million Sufis live in the city, out of a municipal total of four million people.

Aggression against the Sufis in Egypt has included a raid on Alexandria's most distinguished mosque, named for, and housing, the tomb of the 13th century Sufi, al-Mursi Abu'l Abbas. Born in the then-Muslim city of Murcia in southeastern Spain, al-Mursi emigrated to Alexandria. He was a disciple of and successor to the Sufi sheikh Abu'l Hassan al-Shadhili, founder of the powerful Shadhili Sufi order, which remains influential throughout north Africa, south Asia, the Muslim communities of the Indian Ocean, and Indonesia.

Salafis have alleged that Sufis are agents of the west as well as heretics. The extremists want to take control of Sufi mosques, after they destroy shrines within their precincts. One object of their manoeuvres is the Qaed Ibrahim mosque in Alexandria, which was the site of mass protests, involving thousands of people, co-ordinated with those in Cairo's Tahrir Square, during the movement against ex-president Hosni Mubarak.

The Alexandrian Sufi leader sheikh Gaber Kasem al-Kholy has said: "Coptic Christians are a main target for those extremists, but we need to speak out about the suffering of the Sufi people. We have a considerable number of followers, and we are willing and able to protect Egypt's legacy."

Insane anti-Israel quote of the day

From our old pal Ken O'Keefe, who is so crazy that even the Free Gaza movement has distanced themselves from him, talking about an Israeli attack on a suspected weapons factory in March:

What is taking place in Gaza is as bad as anything in history.

"Wall of Lies"

The David Horowitz Freedom Center has been publishing a full page ad in various college newspapers called "The Palestinian Wall of Lies" and has a companion website that highlight many lies that are constantly told about Israel and Jews. It has caused some controversy but it is worth looking at.

An EoZ fan, taking my Hasbara advice, took each of the points in the ad and turned it into a simple video. This is a great example of how to move information from one medium to another, and help find a new audience for it. It is something that needs to be done much more often.

The DHFC itself made its own much more elaborate video to back up the facts mentioned in the Wall of Lies.

Write a message to Gilad Shalit!

A new initiative called MeetGilad has been launched to send messages to Gilad Shalit.

I joined the initiative as an organization, so you can write your message to Gilad Shalit here. I am aiming to get 250 messages from readers of this blog.

After you write your message you can write to the Red Cross, UN, EU , PA and various NGOs to pressure the Gaza government to allow messages to be sent to Shalit. You can also write to Shalit's family with words of support.

Go write to Gilad Shalit now!

More information on who is behind it.

Israeli Arab MK defends Gaza rockets

Firas Press quotes Maariv as reporting that Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi said that Gaza armed groups have a right to fire rockets at Israel - her country.

She said, "Those who live under siege and hardship will do everything for their freedom and Israel understands that."

Zoabi was on the flotilla that included the Mavi Marmara last summer.

Would any democracy in the world tolerate a member of their parliament publicly supporting war against their own country?

Wikileaks: US confirms Syrian nuclear weapons site

From a new Wikileaks cable, dated April 25, 2008:

- You will recall reports that the Israeli air force conducted a mission over Syria on September 6, 2007.

- I want to inform you that the purpose of that Israeli mission was to destroy a clandestine nuclear reactor that Syria was constructing in its eastern desert near a place we call al-Kibar.

- The Israeli mission was successful - the reactor was damaged beyond repair. Syria has completed efforts to clean up the site and destroy evidence of what was really there, constructing a new building on the old site.

- We have delayed sharing this information with you, because our first concern was to prevent conflict.

- We believe - based on strong evidence - that North Korea assisted Syria with the reactor at al-Kibar.
...
- Our intelligence experts are confident that the facility the Israelis targeted was in fact a nuclear reactor of the same type North Korea built indigenously at its Yongbyon nuclear facility. The U.S. intelligence community conducted an intensive, months- long effort to confirm and corroborate the information Israel provided us on the reactor and to gather more
details from our own sources and methods.

- We have good reason to believe this reactor was not intended for peaceful purposes.

- First, we assess this reactor was configured to produce plutonium: it was not configured for power production, was isolated from any civilian population, and was ill-suited for research.

- Second, Syria went to great pains to keep this secret by taking very careful steps to conceal the true nature of the site.

- Third, by maintaining secrecy and not declaring the site to the IAEA and providing design information, as Syria's NPT-mandated IAEA safeguards agreement requires, Syria undermined the very purpose of IAEA safeguards - to provide the international community with the necessary assurance/verification that the reactor was part of a peaceful program.

- Finally, Syria's concealment and lies about what happened for months now after the Israeli air strike is compelling proof that it has something to hide. In fact, after the attack on the site, Syria went to great lengths to clean up the site and destroy evidence of what was really there. If there were nothing to hide, Syria presumably would have invited IAEA inspectors, other experts, and the news media to the site to prove that.

...- The existence of this reactor was dangerous and destabilizing for the region, and we judged that it could have been only weeks away from becoming operational at the time it was destroyed by the Israeli air force.

- Specifically, we assessed that once the pumphouse and pipe system were complete in early August, the reactor could begin operation at any time. Once operations began, certainly a military option would have been much more problematic with radioactive material present.

...
- We discussed policy options with the Israelis, but in the end Israel made its own decision to destroy the reactor. This decision was made by Israel alone - they did not seek our consent. Nonetheless, we understand Israel's decision.

- <> saw this reactor, and what Syria may have intended to do with it, as an existential threat that required it to act to defend itself.

- Syria's secret construction of this nuclear reactor is the latest in a series of unacceptable actions by the Asad regime.

- Syria is a state that supports terrorism, destabilizes Lebanon, and is the largest conduit for foreign fighters and suicide bombers entering Iraq to kill Iraqis, Americans, and Coalition forces.

- The Syrian Government supports terrorist groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, and others, including by playing host to leaders of some of these groups.

- Syria is a proliferator in every sense - of terrorism, of instability to its neighbors, including Lebanon, and now as a recipient and developer of dangerous nuclear technology.

- The Syrian regime, in going down this path, has shown a disregard for the security of the region and of its own people.

- We call upon the Syrian regime to reveal the full extent of its nuclear activities, as it is required to do under the NPT and its safeguards agreement, and verify that its covert nuclear-related activities have stopped.

- For better relations with the international community, in addition to full disclosure and
cooperation regarding its covert nuclear program, Syria needs to end support for insurgents and foreign fighters in Iraq, support for Palestinian terrorists, and interference in Lebanon. If willing to do so, Syria can expect to be welcomed by the international community.

I wonder what happened between 2008 and 2009 that prompted the US to ignore all this known information about the country and reward it with a new ambassador.

Or, as David Shenker notes in TNR,

Support for the regime goes beyond the standard “devil you know” rationale. To wit, one commentator in The National Interest recently opined that “Washington knows [Syrian President] Bashar well and it knows how rational and predictable he is in foreign affairs.” No doubt, Assad hasn’t killed millions like Stalin. But he has spent his first decade in power recklessly dedicated to undermining stability—and U.S. interests—in the Middle East.

Here’s the devil we know: Since 2006 alone, Assad’s Syria has exponentially increased the capabilities of the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah, providing the organization with advanced anti-ship and highly accurate M-600 missiles, top of the line anti-tank weapons, and has allowed the organization to establish a SCUD base on Syrian soil. At the same time, Assad continues to meddle (and murder) in Lebanon, harbor and support Hamas, and subvert Iraq. Damascus remains a strategic ally of otherwise isolated Tehran. And in 2007, it was revealed that Assad’s Syria was progressing toward building a nuclear weapon. Given the pernicious effect of Assad’s policies on U.S. interests and the region, it’s difficult to imagine that a successor or replacement regime could be worse.

Anyone can get a Grad rocket!

An interesting item from Ma'an:

A group calling itself the Marwan Haddad division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a new Palestinian military group in Gaza, said its fighters had launched a homemade projectile toward Israel late Sunday night.

"Israel is not safe from the resistance," a statement from the group said, adding that the projectile was aimed at the Ashkelon power plant.

The group said it would not accept truce conditions with Israel, and announced the launch less than an hour before a ceasefire deal was set.

On Sunday morning, the group issued its first statement, saying fighters had fired a Grad-style missile at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and two homemade projectiles at the Zikim military base.

A little-known group in Gaza can get their hands on a Grad rocket?

This means that either this tiny group is:

Lying.
In contact with arms dealers from Egypt and likely Sudan in order to smuggle Grad rockets through the Rafah tunnels.
Purchasing or stealing extra Grads from Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Working with existing terror groups in Gaza like Hamas to be able to shoot rockets into Israel while giving the larger groups plausible deniability when they announce "cease fires."

I would guess the chances of each are 20%, 0%, 20% and 60%, respectively.

Does this mean that France is more Islamophobic than Israel?

From AFP:

France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim population, on Monday officially banned women from wearing full-face veils in public places.

Other European countries have drawn up bans on the burqa and the niqab but France is the first to risk stirring social tensions by putting one into practice.

Police on Saturday said they arrested 59 people, including 19 veiled women, who turned up for a banned protest in Paris over the ban, while two more were detained as they attempted to travel to the rally from Britain and Belgium.

Of course, Israel has no ban on burqas. Or minarets. Or muezzin's amplified public calls to prayer.

Europe is making Israel look like a model of tolerance for Islam!

World Bank calls health of PalArab children "outstanding" (updated)

From the BBC, 2009:

The Lancet medical journal report highlights how 10% of Palestinian children now have stunted growth.

An Israeli government spokesperson said the Lancet had failed to seek its view, and said many Palestinians had accessed medical care in the country.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government, called the report one-sided.
He said: "This is propaganda in the guise of a medical report."

"Mortality rates among infants and under-fives haven't declined much. This is unusual when compared with other Arab countries that used to have similar rates but have managed to bring them down.

"The trend for stunting among children is increasing, and the concern is about the long-term effects. It is caused by chronic malnutrition, and affects cognitive development and physical health.

"There are pockets in northern Gaza where the level of stunted growth reaches 30%.

"It's very important that women and children have access to quality care."

The New York Times quoted a Harvard researcher who slammed the Israeli reaction:

The Israeli government’s dismissal of the report as “propaganda in the guise of a medical report” is disheartening. Measuring stunted growth among children represents objective health data collection. Regardless of partisan persuasions, the percentage of Palestinian children who now suffer from stunted growth remains ten percent. Dismissing the report as one-sided does not change the medical facts on the ground, which clearly indicate that the Palestinian population in Gaza is facing a dangerous and worsening health situation, one that certainly has implications on any future prospects for peace.

The Lancet (and, to an extent, the BBC and NYT) were pushing the idea that a 10% stunting rate in children is horrible.

Naturally, Israel was blamed as part of the problem.

Yet the World Bank report just came out with a report designed called "Building the Palestinian State: Sustaining Growth, Institutions, and Service Delivery." The point of this report is to say that the Palestinian Arab territories are ready for statehood.

Look how they report roughly the same statistics:

In terms of indicators of early childhood nutrition, WB&G is an outstanding performer. Among children under the age of 5, only 11.5 percent suffer from stunting (low height for age) and a mere 1.4 percent from wasting (low weight for height). In the average middle income country, 3 out of 10 children are stunted, i.e. more than three times the figure for WB&G. Performance in terms of wasting incidence is even more compelling: one in 10 children in a middle income country suffers from wasting, i.e. the rate is 7 times lower in WB&G. Thus, judged by anthropometric outcomes, WB&G performs better than most other countries in the world, irrespective of income. ...It is important to note that the pool of countries in the sample includes a variety of middle income countries from the region, such as Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Morocco -- and WB&G fares better than these in terms of early childhood nutrition indicators. In addition, overall incidence rates of stunting and wasting have been relatively stable over time.

How is a 10% stunting rate considered terrible in 2009 and 11.5% considered outstanding in 2011? It depends on what propaganda goal you have in what you are writing. When you want to demonize Israel, you cherry pick numbers to make the health situation look bad; when you want to make the PA look good and ready for a state you do the exact opposite. That "objective data" mentioned in the NYT is now seen to have been presented in the most subjective manner possible - by not comparing it to similar territories worldwide.

And by the way, both those numbers seemed to have been taken from studies made in 2006. Did things worsen?

Well, the Lancet followed up in 2010, and reported on a newer 2008 Bir Zeit study:

6% of 1883 children who were assessed were stunted (8% of 930 boys vs 3% of 950 girls, p=0·01), less than 1% had wasting, 2% were underweight, 11% were anaemic (7% of boys vs 14% of girls), and 15% were overweight and obese (11% of boys vs 20% of girls; 11% were overweight, and 4% were obese).

Between 2006 and 2008 - when Israel already had the blockade in Gaza - children in the territories got a lot fatter, and stunting went down seemingly dramatically, from 11.5% to only 6%! (The sample ages may have been different in the two studies; the second study was for schoolchildren. Yet the study implied that young children were in better nutrition programs than older schoolchildren.)

It is hard to come up with a better example of lies, damned lies and statistics.

(h/t Zach N)

UPDATE: Here are the stunting statistics for various Arab countries, according to UNICEF:

Qatar 8%
Palestinian Territories- 10%
Algeria - 15
Lebanon - 11
Jordan - 12
Oman - 13
UAE - 17
Saudi Arabia - 20
Libya - 21
Morocco - 23
Kuwait - 24
Iraq - 26
Syria - 28
Egypt - 29
Yemen – 58

(h/t Dusty)

New IDF video of Iron Dome

YNet got hold of a video put out by the Defense Ministry, seemingly done with a night-vision camera, showing Iron Dome intercept and destroy Qassam rockets on April 7:

Nice!

(So why doesn't YNet just put it on YouTube directly instead of making bloggers like me jump through hoops to be able to capture it and put it on YouTube ourselves?)