Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 10, 2011

Hamas co-founder dies

From AP:

A founder of Hamas in the Gaza Strip died Friday of a stroke after decades as an influential yet little-known figure at the helm of the Palestinian militant organization. He was 76.

Muhammad Hassan Shama, revered by Hamas loyalists but nearly anonymous outside Gaza, was one of the eight founders of the Islamist group in the 1980s. After his death, Hamas publicly announced Friday for the first time that Shama had been the leader of the secretive Shura Council, its top governing body.

The identity of the council's members is a closely guarded secret because of fears they could be targeted by Israel. The founder and first leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2004.

In Shamaa's biography at the Palestine Times website, we learn that he was also a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza in the 1950s and re-organized it in 1967 together with Sheikh Yassin, another former Hamas leader.

He also was a member of the Board of trustees at a number of schools and the Islamic University in Gaza.

And for 41 year he worked for....UNRWA.

Hurriyet op-ed points out Turkish hypocrisy

This is a great op-ed, written for the English version of Turkey's Hurriyet:

The organizers of the Gaza flotilla, a Turkish Islamist charity with dubious United Nation recognition, the İHH, have pledged to send a second flotilla later this month after the first one faced a deadly Israeli commando attack last year. Although the opening, and brief closure, of the Rafah crossing into Gaza has apparently made any aid flotilla meaningless, İHH’s president, Bülent Yıldırım, said the new mission is not aid but “justice.” But which justice?

The day after the Israeli raid that killed nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara, Mr Yıldırım explained his understanding of justice: “Last night everything in the world changed, and everything is progressing toward Islam. Anyone who does not stand alongside Palestine, his throne will be toppled.”

And in response to U.N., American and Israeli calls, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said governments cannot stop their citizens launching another flotilla to Gaza, and Ankara would not prevent private challenges to an illegal blockade.

Wisdom would ask Mr Davutoğlu to perhaps encourage the İHH to send a flotilla to Latakia to break the blockade on protestors and stop the Syrian police killing them. The Syrian death count is already over 1,000, or 111 times bigger than the death toll on the Mavi Marmara, excluding over 10,000 missing or detained for torture and future death.

Alternatively, if the foreign minister is so keen on the idea of freedom flotillas against illegal blockades, he can think of Varosha in Cyprus, which has remained a ghost town after the Turkish army fenced it off in 1974. But Mr Davutoğlu has other, preferred, responsibilities.

For example, the foreign minister often talks about his dream to “pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Palestinian [Muslim] Jerusalem.” He does not hide his ambition to see Jerusalem as the capital of a free Palestinian state. One wonders, though, if he would have kept his sympathetic smile if a foreign minister spoke of his dream to visit Diyarbakır as the capital of Kurdistan. I think we can guess. But he is not the only Islamist who habitually boasts multiple standards of indecent choice, all for the advance of political Islam.

Last week, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed a local crowd in Diyarbakır, saying that: “We are the grandchildren of Saladin Ayyubi’s army [soldiers] that conquered Jerusalem.” So, says the prime minister, the ancient capital of Judaism had been conquered by Muslims.

But, then, why would something taken by force from someone else belong to its occupier? Why is Jerusalem Palestinian if it had been conquered from its ancient possessors? And why should we be proud to be the grandchildren of someone whose army conquered other people’s territories?

A few days earlier, Mr Erdoğan, this time in Trabzon, reminded his party’s supporters that on May 29 “We proudly celebrated the 558th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul.” And, he said, without the conquest of Trabzon, the conquest of Anatolia would have been incomplete.

It is not a coincidence that Fatih (conqueror) is a very common male name in Turkish. The Turks are proud to be the evlad-i fatihan (the descendants of conquerors). They are too happy to be living in the territories that once belonged to other nations. But all that is understandable since they are not the only nation which does so, with or without the others naming their children “conqueror.” All the same, there is a problem with the Turkish/Islamist case.

If we are talking about universal justice and legality, why are the conquests of Istanbul, Trabzon and Anatolia by the Turks, and of Jerusalem by Ayyubi good; but the repatriation of Jerusalem to Israel by re-conquest bad? Especially when the re-conquest was the result of self-defense in the face of eight enemy armies who attack to annihilate a legitimate state.

More questions. If Jerusalem should be the capital of “free Palestine,” why should Istanbul not become the capital of “freer Greece?” Why is Nicosia a divided capital? What were the Turks doing at the gates of Vienna in 1683? Was Süleyman the Magnificent’s army there to distribute humanitarian aid to the Viennese, like the İHH claims its Gaza mission is?

Forty-four years ago, the Arabs dreamed of “having lunch in Tel Aviv.” The dream cost them a major humiliation and Jerusalem, and the Middle East, peace. Today, the Turkish leaders dream of praying in the “Palestinian capital” Jerusalem while denying the Orthodox Patriarch of Istanbul his ecumenical designation. Luckily, the Turks, unlike Arabs, are the grandchildren of conquerors.

Keeping the ancient capital of Orthodoxy as the biggest Turkish city is fine. But please, Mssrs Erdoğan and Davutoğlu, at least try not to make too much noise in commemorating the day when we took it by force from another nation. And remember, gentlemen, claiming that Istanbul is a Turkish city by origin and Jerusalem is Palestinian sounds like too-dark black humor.

Ouch!

(h/t Vandoren)

Al Qaeda gives props to Hamas for Bin Laden eulogy

A couple of weeks ago, AP published an absurd "fact check" about Netanyahu's speech to Congress which wasn't a fact-check at all but instead a reason to push an anti-Israel narrative. Here is an example of one of the AP's supposed "facts":

NETANYAHU: "Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by the Palestinian version of al-Qaida."
THE FACTS: While Hamas and al-Qaida have killed hundreds of people in religious holy wars, they have no connection, and Hamas has in fact come under criticism from the global terror network for being too moderate. Al-Qaida preaches global jihad. Hamas says its struggle is solely against Israel, not the West at large. In its Gaza stronghold, Hamas has violently clashed with smaller armed groups that claim inspiration from al-Qaida.

Obviously, the "facts" do not contradict what Bibi said - that Hamas is the Palestinian Arab version of al-Qaeda, an organization that routinely targets civilians in order to achieve political goals and whose ultimate goal is a worldwide Muslim nation.

A little more proof that Bibi is right and AP is wrong can be found today.

Hamas newspaper Palestine Times proudly posts a snippet of the latest video by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In this video, Zawahiri praises Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh for giving a nice eulogy for Osama Bin Laden.

Of course, if you use AP as your source for "news," you would know that al-Qaeda criticizes Hamas, and never praises it. Similarly, AP will not report this little piece of news.

Video: Jews fleeing Kotel today as Arabs hurl rocks from above

From YNet:

Police and Border Guard forces broke into the Temple Mount compound on Friday after stones were hurled at the end of Friday prayers. Officers dispersed the rioters using crowd dispersal means and isolated them. No injuries have been reported. Three worshippers were arrested.

Dozens of youths began to hurl stones at the Moroccans' Gate adjacent to the Western Wall as Friday prayers in the Old City drew to a close. Security forces were forced to enter the compound to put a stop to the violence.

Unlike previous weeks, police decided not to restrict the entrance of young worshippers to the Temple Mount this week.

It usually only allows worshippers over the age of 50 to enter the site when there is intelligence suggesting others may try to cause provocations.

Via Rotter.net, you can see footage from one of the "KotelCams." In the first 20 seconds Jewish worshippers are seen fleeing the Western Wall as the scene played out. You can also see that they return within a minute.

(h/t Lenny)

HuffPo says violent Syrian protesters just wanted a cup of coffee with friends

The Huffington Post posts some incredible drivel by Sharmine Narwani:

On Sunday, around 1,000 unarmed civilians marched to the ceasefire line between Syria and the Golan Heights to protest Israel's occupation of Arab lands following the 1967 war. Hours later, in the worst bloodshed since the 1973 war between Israel and Syria, up to 23 civilians were dead and hundreds wounded after Israeli troops opened live fire on the protesters.

In the West Bank, fellow protesters were only injured, as Israeli troops used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds that were only a few feet away from them.

In Majd al Shams on the occupied Golan Heights, however, the Palestinian and Syrian demonstrators were many yards away -- behind barbed wire fences -- never having crossed any ceasefire line.

As was the case with the 11 unarmed protesters in Lebanon killed by Israeli forces on May 15 in Maroun al Ras. Those civilians had not crossed any border either.

That makes Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu no different than Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Syria's Bashar al Assad, Bahrain's Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh -- and other autocrats still waiting their turn.

All fired live rounds at unarmed civilian populations voicing their grievances and exercising their right to congregate in public.

On Sunday, even the US Department of State jumped on this bandwagon: "Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself."

Defend itself against what exactly? Unarmed civilians who walk over a long-peaceful armistice line into territory that is legally viewed as Syrian to enjoy a cup of coffee with old friends?

Besides Narwani's complete belief in Syrian propaganda about how many protesters were killed and how they died - a belief that has no factual basis whatsoever - Narwani plays some slippery rhetorical games, taking advantage of the readers' ignorance of basic facts, to imply that the Syrian protesters were not violating any borders or cease fire lines.

In fact, even if you regard the Golan as Syrian territory, Israel has the right - and obligation - to guard the 1974 cease fire lines, as well as the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon which is by all definitions an international border.

But in fact the Syria protesters were violating the cease fire lines even on their side of the fence!

That's right - Israel erected two fences several hundred yards or so to the west of the actual cease fire lines, presumably in order to ensure that no one accuses Israel of a "land grab."

As former UNDOF member Tom Lehner writes:

This is a tricky field. We are talking about a simple worthless grass field that is about2 miles long and500 yards wide. Officially it belongs to Israel but for some reason, only known to God almighty, IDF did not put their fence on the east side where it belongs, but on the west side.

Now the UN Forces are supposed to hinder Syrian sheep farmers to enter that field. Ausbatt does this by going on patrol in that field and chasing all the sheep farmers away. They know they are not supposed to enter that field but do it anyway, knowing that once a month an IDF soldier shoots across the fence (he is allowed to since the field belongs to Israel) and kills a few sheep.

Now you might ask what the purpose is. The answer is simple, sheep farmers claim they did not know they were entering Israeli territory and then they complain about the sheep being killed and loss of income, blaming the UN for not watching, and demand restitution from the UN.

This is why Israel can go to the "outer fence" and repair it unimpeded by Syrian or UN forces - that fence is well within the Israeli side of the line.

And so were the (Syrian-paid and controlled) protesters who peacefully threw rocks and pledged to die as martyrs! Even the ones who did not breach the fence were on the Israeli side of the line, and Israel was allowed to shoot at them to deter them from coming further into Israeli-annexed territory.

See also this set of rules for reporting from the Middle East which Narwani adheres to perfectly.

(h/t O, Edgar)

Grad missiles being smuggled from Libya to Gaza

Maariv reports:

While the riots in Libya seem very distant geographically, Jerusalem is now worried about at least one consequence: a new smuggling route through which hundreds of missiles have already entered into the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been strengthened by hundreds of 120-122 mm Grad missiles with ranges of sixty - seventy miles. These missiles can easily threaten the center of the country.

Also smuggled are shorter range 60 mm rockets, more guns and ammunition. In addition, Israel was information on old anti-tank missiles manufactured by Russia and sold to Libya that have been smuggled out [of Libya], and there is fear that they may be smuggled into Gaza.

The new smuggling route from Libya goes through Egypt, Sinai and from there to channels in Gaza. It is causing Israeli security officials to lose sleep. Egyptians are trying to fight the new phenomenon of [weapons] convoys intercepting them by air. However, many convoys still manage to get to the tunnels.

In the Middle east, there is always a flip-side - even to revolutions against thuggish dictators. The law of unintended consequences is very, very much in force whenever anything major happens.

(h/t Joel)

Syria again tries to play the Zionist card

From Syria's official SANA news agency:

The Leadership of al-Baath Arab Party in Lebanon stressed that the steadfastness of the Syrian people, army and leadership will thwart the conspiracy hatched against Syria.

In a statement issued on Thursday after a meeting chaired by al-Baath Party Regional Director, Fayz Shoukir, the Leadership said that the reality of the projects which target the Arab nation has been divulged.

The Leadership warned that this conspiracy led by the American-Zionist alliance and some of the European countries constitutes a danger threatening not only Syria, but the whole Arab nation and its basic interests and future.

It added that the aggressive attack launched under the pretext of the so-called "Democracy" and "Human Rights" is very far from these slogans as the American-Zionist alliance practices the most obnoxious types of persecuting the nations including the Arab people to control the capabilities and resources of the Arab nation and to keep the Arab societies in a state of division and backwardness.

Member of Liberation and Development Bloc, Lebanese MP Kassem Hashem, stressed that Syria is stronger than any conspiracies hatched against it, and it will overcome the crisis.

For his part, Former Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud, considered that the current events witnessed in Syria and the way some countries deal with them, stress that the Western countries work only for achieving their private interests.

This type of article is very much in the style of Iran's English-language propaganda. They find some lackey willing to say exactly what the ruling regime wants them to say and then position it as if it is significant.

Of course, Lebanon's Baath party is nothing but a branch of Syria's Baath party and will not say anything different from the official party line.

It is still striking how Syria is clueless about how tone-deaf its message must appear even to other Arabs. The days of blaming everything on Zionists and Americans is over; the Arab people have proven that they are not so easily manipulated anymore (even though they generally hate Israel as much as their purported leaders do.)

See also this editorial at Al Asharq al Awsat that talks explicitly about how Arabs use Palestinian Arabs as excuses to do whatever they want.

(last link h/t Joel)

I guess Hamas doesn't read The New York Times

A month ago, the New York Times stated as a fact that Hamas is "fully committed" to a two-state solution, implicitly accepting Israel's right to exist.

They could not state a single fact to back up that assertion, but they repeated it in a editorial a couple of days later.

Hamas, meanwhile, must not be reading the New York Times, because they are saying something a bit different - to Iran:

New Hamas representative to Tehran told in an inaugural interview that the ultimate goal of the movement was to free the entire Palestinian land, destroy the Zionist regime and rescue the revered Quds from the claws of the Zionists.

Khaled al-Qoddoumi said Hamas would not pay any attention to the negative propaganda of the western media that Hamas should or would withdraw from the path of resistance.

The senior Hamas member refuted any option of compromise with Israel and underlined resistance as the only way of struggling with the occupiers and restoring the rights of the Palestinian nation. He predicted that one day, the Quds would return to the lap of the world of Islam.

Asked whether the Palestinian nation considers the option of compromise with Israel as legitimate, he said the Palestinian nation sees no reason to approve the option as it sees compromise as a futile and useless way. “The Israeli side has never sought peace. They have no belief in living alongside the Palestinian nation or other Muslim nations. The Zionist regime is a cancer and cancer must be uprooted,” he said.

But who are you going to trust - the NYT's wishful thinking interpretation of Hamas' words in English, or what they actually say explicitly in Arabic and Farsi?

Obviously the New York Times knows more about Hamas than Hamas does!

Syrian soldiers kicking bound civilians in the head

From Now Lebanon:

WARNING (Viewer discretion advised):A YouTube video purportedly filmed Thursday in the Homs area of Baba Amro shows members of the Syrian army kicking a civilian on the head. The man being beaten up can be heard screaming and begging the soldiers to stop

WARNING (Viewer discretion advised): A YouTube video purportedly filmed Thursday in the Homs neighborhood of Jawbar shows Syrian soldiers tying up civilian protestors on the ground. As he jumps on the back of one of the civilians and kicks his head, a soldier tells him: “This is for freedom,” and “This is for the martyrs.”

Aren't they manly?

Some links to read while I am out

Researcher says Iran can build a nuke in 2 months

Yale's latest gift to anti-semitism

NGOs promoting "Right to Return"

Michael Oren on the Six Day War and why Israel can't go back to 49 armistice lines

Video of Jerusalem right after the Six Day war

Michael Totten on Ottoman Fantasies

Some interesting historical parallels to the GCC

Dealing with "Apartheid Week" at York

Lawfare against the flotillas

Interesting old post about ownership of the Golan

JCPA's ground rules for upcoming flotillas

See you guys Thursday night....and chag sameach!

(h/t CHA, Silke, Zvi, MP, Joel, Zach N., Dan)

An open letter to Leonard Nimoy

Dear Mr. Nimoy,

I am a fan of your work (well, most of it) and as such I read your letter of support for Peace Now with sadness. It appears that you have not researched the issues as thoroughly as one would hope. Americans for Peace Now, the organization you are asking everyone to donate to, is not quite what it appears.

Peace Now is now a marginal organization in Israel. It is not mainstream and its positions do not reflect what most of the Israeli public wants.

That is not to say that Israelis are warmongers; far from it. Every Jew in Israel yearns for peace. Most Israelis support a two-state solution. In fact, even the current Israeli government publicly supports a two-state solution.

The difference is that most Israelis want to ensure that the solution will truly promote peace. They do not want to barrel headfirst into an agreement that could jeopardize their security; they want to ensure that any Palestinian Arab state will not one day turn into an Iranian satellite the way we saw Gaza and southern Lebanon become.

Gaza is instructive. Israel withdrew from the entire territory, yet it did not bring peace. On the contrary, it led to a war, and tens of thousands of Israeli citizens had to live under constant threat of rocket attack. Moreover, thousands of Israelis were uprooted from their homes in order to even bring a chance for peace.

At the time of the withdrawal, Gaza was ruled by the very same Palestinian Authority that Peace Now wants to force Israel to make an agreement "now" with. Yet they could not even control their own territory and Hamas violently took over Gaza.

The Gaza model is exactly what Peace Now demands from Israel, today. They have not learned a thing from that huge failure. Fortunately, the rest of the Israeli public learned the lesson that eludes Peace Now, and Israelis are now far more careful before jumping into any further concessions.

It is not like the Israeli leadership needs outside help in giving up concrete assets for peace. Here you can see how much Israeli governments - especially the "hawkish, far right" Likud - have given up in the often vain hope for peace:

Americans for Peace Now want America to pressure Israel to make concessions that the people are not ready to make, with a partner who is not willing to compromise and which even today routinely refers to Israel as "the enemy." This cynical use of American politics, and their recruiting of spokespeople like you, indicate that they have failed to get their agenda taken seriously by the Israeli people and are instead trying to use outside pressure to convince Israelis "what is really good for them."

This is not showing a love of Israel; it instead shows that they do not respect the Israeli public. It is not as if there isn't robust debate in Israel itself on how a peace plan would work and what compromises are necessary - the subject is a national obsession. The idea that an American actor, no matter how respected, should be used to convince Americans to give money to a movement that cannot gain any traction in the free-wheeling world of Israeli politics is, frankly, insulting to the intelligence of Israelis.

There are other problems with the organization you have chosen to identify with. For example, Peace Now supports the division of Jerusalem, something that is simply not tenable and would increase the misery of Jew and Arab alike.

Moreover, no organization has worked harder to demonize a significant percentage of the Israeli population than Peace Now. I am speaking about the so-called "settlers" who Peace Now believes are the biggest single impediment to peace. In fact, the Jews who choose to return to the Biblical Land of Israel are among the most patriotic members of Israeli society, serving with pride in the IDF and showing a love of Israel that is difficult to match. Peace Now, however, spends a huge amount of time and money specifically to battle their fellow Israelis who live on the "wrong" side of a mythical line that was never, ever a border between two countries, and was never even meant to be one.

It is legitimate to question the tactics and life choices of the Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, as it is legitimate to criticize any group of people out of love. Peace Now, however, has spent the bulk of its time treating their fellow Jews as the enemy. I think you could agree, Mr. Nimoy, that there are few enough Jews as it is that we cannot afford the baseless hatred that Peace Now exhibits towards those they disagree with.

Most Israelis agree that a great majority of these communities across the Green Line will remain a part of Israel, yet this is simply not compatible with how Peace Now acts towards these people. Peace Now actually encourages boycotts and other sanctions against their fellow Israelis and against the wishes of most Israelis altogether.

This year on Jerusalem Day, a remarkable thing happened. For the first time since Israel reunified Jerusalem, Kohanim ascended to the Temple Mount and blessed the Jews who visited their holiest site. They positioned their hands in a way you are most familiar with, as it is the one that you copied as the Vulcan greeting in Star Trek.

Jews must have free access to their holiest places - not only in Jerusalem but in Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere. Peace Now is against this. It should not be unusual for Jews to be able to ascend to their holiest spot and to be able to pray freely there.

Your letter refers a number of times to Star Trek, the television show that made you famous. If I may, I would like to mention something else from that show - the Prime Directive. As you no doubt know, this was the most important order that your character and his coworkers had to adhere to - the rule not to interfere in other cultures, even for the best of reasons.

Israel is not a banana republic, and Israelis are well aware of the dangers they face as well as the necessity for peace. When famous actors deign to tell Israelis what is best for them it is not only a violation of this rule, but it is an insult to the entire country, implying that somehow a person in Hollywood knows better than Israelis do of how they should think and act.

I hope that you come to realize the wisdom in the mythical Starfleet General Order #1, and show your love for Israel by supporting everyone who is honorable enough to live there, not by supporting division and hate.

May we all live long and prosper.

Elder of Ziyon

Crazy Egyptian plans to have cage fight with a lion - that symbolizes Israel

From Al Masry al-Youm (English):

Given the current state of the economy, it comes as no surprise that many Egyptians are doing all that they can to revive international interest in their country. What is surprising, though, is that one man has somehow managed to convince himself - and a few others - that he can single-handedly “boost tourism in Egypt” by fighting a full-grown African lion in direct hand-to-paw combat, in front of the Pyramids at Giza.

Inexplicably, al-Sayed al-Essawy, a 25-year-old from Daqahlia, has come to believe that “the world will flock to see the Egyptian man who defeated a lion with his bare hands.”

The fight, or “battle” as Essawy, prefers to call it, was announced two weeks ago, immediately igniting a firestorm of international protests and online petitions from individuals and animal rights organizations alike. The negative reaction surprised Essawy, prompting the self-proclaimed “strongest man in the world” to admit to being “confused and heart-broken.”

Nonetheless, Essawy insists that the fight is still on, even if he has to stage the battle in a secret location.

Al-Masry Al-Youm: When, and more importantly, how did you come up with this idea?

al-Sayed al-Essawy: I discovered my incredible strength at the age of 13, and, almost immediately afterwards, promised myself that, one of these days, I would fight a lion. Since then, I’ve been thinking about the best way to go about it, and, after the revolution, with the economy the way it is, I’ve been given the perfect opportunity to realize my dream.

Al-Masry: What about animal lovers? Are you aware of how many people your lion-fighting plans have angered? People are threatening to boycott Egypt and any Egyptian products because of you.

Essawy: That’s because they don’t understand what I’m going to do. They think I’m going to kill the lion. I’m not going to kill it, nor will I be armed with a sword or dagger - those are all false reports circulated by the media for reasons I don’t understand.

Al-Masry: So, you’re not going to kill the lion?

Essawy: No. Unless it’s a matter of life or death, in which case I will be forced to kill it.

Al-Masry: When is fighting a lion not a matter of life or death?

Essawy: It’s up to the lion. If he chooses to withdraw, or surrender, and lets me tie him up, then I will not kill him and the fight will end. But, like I said, if it comes down to either me or him, I will have to kill him. But I don’t want to kill the lion, nor am I planning on it. I want to make that clear.

Al-Masry: What will you do with its corpse?

Essawy: I will have it stuffed (laughs).

Al-Masry: What message are you trying to send?

Essawy: When I defeat the lion - which I will - I will pull an Israeli flag out of my pocket, and drape it over the lion, and put my foot on it. Israel led me to this, through all their atrocities which, as a child, I grew up watching on television. The message is that even though Israel and America may be as strong as a lion - the strongest creature on the planet - they too can be defeated.

Al-Masry: By you?

Essawy: By the Arab youth, which is about to explode. Soon, they will be ready to take on the mightiest foe.

Al-Masry: But, technically, the lion’s only fighting because you’re forcing it to.

Essawy: Yes. It’s a caged fight, so there will be nowhere for the lion to run. I have challenged the lion, and I will defeat it.

Al-Masry: So, to dismiss this as just some really crazy guy beating up an innocent lion would be, in your opinion...

Essawy: Completely inaccurate and misleading. I’m not a crazy person. There’s a political reason behind what I’m doing.
...

Al-Masry: If the event is successful, how will you follow it up? More lion fights?

Essawy: I have a whole series of shows planned in my head. I will pull an airplane with my teeth, and I will pull an airplane with my hair. I will also be run over by an airplane. In between each of these acts, there will be lion battles.

Al-Masry: Have you fought any other beasts before? Will this be your first lion fight?

Essawy: This will be my first battle with a lion, yes. I have fought other animals, mainly dogs. On separate occasions, I have fought three of the most ferocious dog breeds.

Al-Masry: How are you training for this specific event?

Essawy: By doing a series of mental exercises. Nothing physical, just brain-training. I visualize the fight for two hours at a time. I visualize the lion, and all the possible ways it could attack. Will it go for the head, or will it grab me by the feet? I ask myself these questions and visualize how I will dodge these attacks.

Believe it or not, the interview gets even nuttier.

Chag Sameach!

I would like to wish my readers a chag sameach, a wonderful Shavuot holiday.

(I'll still be blogging for a few hours more but I wanted to make sure my Israeli readers get the message!)

Not a good holiday for the lactose intolerant

Photos of weapons on Mavi Marmara - a year late

Last week it was reported that the Israeli Navy had photos of IHH terrorists on the Mavi Marmara wielding weapons.

Photos recently obtained by the Navy show a weapon hanging off the shoulder of one of the IHH members. Another photo shows a gun. It is as yet unclear who took the photos. One of the images allegedly shows MK Hanin Zoabi, who took part in the flotilla, standing next to an armed activist.

Navy commandos who took part in the raid later testified that the IHH men had at least two firearms and at least one of them was used to fire at the soldiers immediately after they descended on the ship. One of the commandos was hurt by a 9 mm bullet not used by the IDF.

Navy sources could not explain why the photos have only recently been received.

Today, the photos have finally been published - only in the print edition of Yediot. Here they are, courtesy of IMRA: