Thursday, June 02, 2011
Elder of ZiyonDozens of people have died in clashes with troops in western Syria, where government forces reportedly shelled homes in one town, protest organizers and a human rights official said Thursday.I bet that the mosques has quite a few Korans that were destroyed, too.
At least 43 people have been killed since Sunday when government forces entered Homs province to end protests against government rule, said Rami Abdel Rahman, president of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A witness in Rastan, who identified himself as a protest organizer named Abu Abdullah, said there was heavy artillery fire and that shelling had destroyed about 20 homes and several mosques.
Abdullah said the fighting has been nonstop since troops cut off the town on Sunday.
Abdullah said he carried the body of a 16-year-old boy killed in the attack on the city.
"He was just walking in the street when he was shot," he said.
Belgian newspaper “Die Presse” has reportedly confirmed on its website that the Syrian intelligence services has resorted to a new and innovative way to get rid of the bodies of the protesters that were killed by packing them into well locked metal containers and dumping them into the sea making sure they don’t float and expose the crime.
The decision of dumping into the sea was reportedly taken in the wake of the scandal over the mass graves that were discovered not long ago and embarrassed the regime.
The paper quoted unnamed observers as saying that the number of bodies that were dumped so far into the sea are at least two hundred and some of them were killed under torture.
Thursday, June 02, 2011Elder of ZiyonThe argument for occupation has been that since Israel maintains “absolute authority over Gaza’s airspace and territorial sea [it is] manifestly exercising governmental authority in these areas,” in the words of Prof. Iain Scobbie. Others claim that border control amounts to “effective control” of the interior. But prior blockades, like that of Cuba by president John F. Kennedy, were never considered occupations. Moreover, border controls are typical along every international frontier, even among the friendliest of nations.(h/t Greg, Menachem)
...The recent UN Security Council resolution authorizing force against Libya provides an excellent experiment in whether the legal arguments widely made about Israel are also applied in parallel cases. In March, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 in response to Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s violent crackdown on anti-government rebels. The resolution authorized military action, delineated a no-fly zone across all of Libya, froze Libyan assets, and authorized the extensive use of force against Libyan troops.
Yet Resolution 1793 specifically rules out any “occupation” of Libyan territory. This was not stray language. The prohibition of occupation has helped secure the support of several skeptical nations.
At the Council meeting, Lebanon’s delegate stressed that the resolution would not result in the occupation of “even an inch” of Libyan territory.
SO we now have confirmation from the Council that a broad embargo, no-fly zone and months of constant aerial bombardment do not constitute an “occupation.” Certainly these activities have considerable effect on Libya, and “control” much of what happens there. Obviously Israel’s much less comprehensive and invasive measures against Gaza do not constitute an occupation by this standard.
Of course, the Libya resolution proves nothing new; the arguments that Gaza remained occupied after 2005 were always quite surprising.
The obviousness of the above principles when applied anywhere but to Israel should give pause to those who think that even a full withdrawal to pre-1967 lines will lead to Israel’s international legitimacy, or preclude the fabrication of new pretextual claims.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of ZiyonThese elements (Zionists), which have … formed a government in occupied Palestine today, are marionettes that are playing their parts on stage while the actual politics and actual stage is in the control of the United States.So who controls whom?
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of ZiyonOn 1 June 1941, a Nazi-inspired pogrom erupted in Baghdad, bringing to an end more than two millennia of peaceful existence for the city's Jewish minority. Some Jewish children witnessed the bloodshed, and retain vivid memories 70 years later.
Heskel Haddad, an 11-year-old boy was finishing a festive meal and preparing to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavuot, oblivious to the angry mob that was about to take over the city.
Thousands of armed Iraqi Muslims were on the rampage, with swords, knives and guns.
The two days of violence that followed have become known as the Farhud (Arabic for "violent dispossession"). About 800 Jews were killed, spelling the end for a Jewish community that dated from the time of Babylon.
"On the first night of Shavuot we usually go to synagogue and stay up all night studying Torah," says Haddad, now a veteran ophthalmologist in New York.
"Suddenly we heard screams, 'Allah Allah!' and shots were fired. We went out to the roof to see what's happening, we saw fires, we saw people on the roofs in the ghetto screaming, begging God to help them."
The violence continued through the night. A red hand sign, or hamsa, had been painted on Jewish homes, to mark them out. Families had to defend themselves by whatever means they could.
...In a nearby street in a mixed Jewish and Muslim quarter, Steve Acre lived with his widowed mother and eight siblings in a house owned by a Muslim.
Acre, now 79 and living in Montreal, climbed a palm tree in the courtyard when the violence began. He still remembers the cry "Cutal al yehud" which translates as "slaughter the Jews".
"Later lots of men came outside and set the house on fire. And the men were shouting like from joy, in jubilation holding up something that looked like a slab of meat in their hands.
"Then I found out, it was a woman's breast they were carrying - they cut her breast off and tortured her before they killed her, my mother's best friend, Sabicha."
Until the Farhud, Baghdad had been a model of peaceful coexistence for Jews and Arabs. Jews made up about one in three of the city's population in 1941, and most saw themselves as Iraqi first and Jewish second.So whenever there is a temporary power vacuum, one must expect residents who lived peacefully with Jews for generations to rise up and massacre them?
So what caused this terrible turn of events?
A month earlier, a pro-Nazi lawyer Rashid Ali al-Gilani, had overthrown Iraq's royal family, and started broadcasting Nazi propaganda on the radio.
But when an attack on a British Air Force base outside Baghdad ended in humiliating failure, he was forced to flee. The Farhud took place in the power vacuum that followed.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of Ziyon"Anyone who volunteers for national service will be treated like a leper and will be vomited out of Arab society." These were the words of Jamal Zahalka at a rally in 2008. He's a lawmaker with Balad, an Israeli Arab political party. His harsh words were intended to stop young Israeli Arabs from volunteering in Israel's National Service program. But they are not working.(h/t Silke)
Israeli Arabs do not have to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Today, only about 300 Muslim and Christian Arabs (Muslim Arabs make up three-fourths of the Israeli-Arab sector) serve in a special unit of the IDF. But now they have the option of participating in National Service instead, along with Jewish Israelis who cannot go to the army for religious or medical reasons when facing mandatory conscription at age 18.
Despite the pressures in their communities and from Balad not to participate in National Service, gradually more young Israeli Arabs are going against the grain; this year, about 1,500 Israeli Arabs are enrolled in the program.
An alternative to the military
National Service became an option for Israelis as an alternative to the usual three years in the IDF for men and two years for women. Many different non-profit organizations coordinate the placements, typically in education and health facilities. About 90 percent of the volunteers are women. They serve for either one or two years, receiving a monthly stipend of about $200, and are rewarded afterward with benefits commensurate with time put in. Money earned can be used toward a new business, or higher education after their service.
Israeli Arabs have been joining National Service since an initiative of the Israeli government in 2007 to open Israeli national civic service to all populations. Now, as Israeli-Arab Muslims, Christians and Druze look to serve alongside their Jewish counterparts, they not only gain the concept of "giving back" to society, but also are entitled to the same attractive benefits - which also include better terms on a mortgage, good deals on eyeglasses and social benefits.
A success story
One of Israel's first-ever Arab volunteers is Nasra Hmod. Today she is a confident mother of three living in Ramle, not far from Tel Aviv. In 1994, when she graduated high school, she ran out of options. "I was looking for a framework to work within and couldn't find it. For Arabs, it's hard to find work and I didn't find the place where I wanted to study," she says.
Hmod heard about National Service and inquired at Shlomit, an NGO that helps coordinate placements. "I really wanted to volunteer for the Magen David Adom [the Israeli Red Cross] but didn't succeed. Then I heard about National Service, and contacted Chaya at Shlomit and told her I was an Arab." Almost right away, Shlomit had arranged a placement for Hmod in the emergency department of Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, where today she works as a receptionist - basically the same work she is did as a volunteer, but now she has more responsibilities.
Hmod is a big fan of National Service and encourages other young Arabs to join. "I lied," she says, when asked how her community accepted her decision to volunteer. It was only after her year of volunteering was over that she told her family she had been involved in National Service. They wouldn't have accepted it otherwise, she says. To cover up for her lack of money, she'd told her family that she was in school.
When she met Jews on the job, they would always tell her "kol hakavod", a Hebrew expression of admiration, which literally means "all the honor goes to you." Hmod encourages young Arabs to do national service, even though it delays their plans to study, travel or make some quick money.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of ZiyonThe Palestinian Authority is facing a financial crisis because funds pledged by donor nations are not arriving on time, Prime Minister of the West Bank government Salam Fayyad said Tuesday.This may be a mistranslation; last year it was reported that Arab League had pledged $55 million a month and paid only a small percentage of that amount. I don't know if the Arabs have increased their payments this year, and I am not aware of any significant pledge increases.
Speaking at a press conference with Japan's representative to the Palestinian Authority, Fayyad said the slow delivery of promised aid was putting pressure on the government.
"In 2011, we have been receiving $52.5 million dollars a month from the Arab countries, which is much less than the amount they committed to deliver," he said.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of ZiyonUnder the auspices of Egyptian authorities, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo on Monday with Ramadan Shallah, secretary- general of the Islamic Jihad organization, and his deputy, Ziad Nakhleh.Al Quds al Arabi notes that they met at Al Azhar University:
The meeting between Abbas and the Syrian-based Islamic Jihad leaders dealt with ways of consolidating Palestinian national reconciliation, a PA official said.
The two sides also discussed the PA security crackdown on Islamic Jihad operatives and supporters in the West Bank, the official said.
Islamic Jihad has condemned the ongoing crackdown and urged the PA to release all its members, especially in wake of the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation accord that was reached in Cairo three weeks ago.
Under the former regime of Hosni Mubarak, Islamic Jihad leaders and members were unwelcome in Egypt.
An Islamic Jihad official said the talks also focused on ways of “confronting future challenges and Israeli threats.” He described the meeting with Abbas as positive and thorough.
[Shallah praised] Al-Azhar's 'role in confronting the challenges of the Zionists as a beacon of Islamic research and knowledge'.
Shallah said that Al Azhar is the 'fence of the Islamic faith and the spearhead of the nation to defend its holy sites and the face of Israeli plans of Judaizing Jerusalem'.
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar stressed that Egypt is ready to support the Palestinian cause in the face of Israeli plans of 'land grabbing and [violating] Islamic sanctities'.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011Elder of ZiyonOn the first day of full operations, 530 Palestinians used the terminal crossing both ways, while the second day say 845 Palestinians pass through the terminal. On Monday, the third day of operations, 722 Palestinians entered or exited Gaza.The original agreement was for older people, kids and women to have unlimited access to the crossings. Now Hamas is agreeing to only 400 people a day.
The slow process and long lines frustrated officials, while a list of more than 5,000 Palestinians blacklisted from using the terminal sparked anger from Hamas.
Officials traded increasingly headed accusations over who failed in the creation of a mechanism to allow Palestinians to use Rafah, culminating in a late-night meeting between security personnel from both sides.
Following the meeting, the officials announced that a cap of 400 travelers per day would be set on the crossing, and the names of the permitted passengers would be posted one day ahead of travel.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, May 31, 2011Elder of Ziyon
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PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
