Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Last minute chance to vote in the Blog-Off!

If you are a procrastinator, waiting to the very last minute to vote (hopefully for me) at the Israellycool Pro-Israel Blog Off Finals, your time is almost up.

Just imagine how much more I'd be able to blog with a brand new iPad! :)

I'm hoping to make the vote closer than it is.

Click on this link now and vote!

(If it doesn't work, try it with a different browser; people have been having problems all week.)

And...Happy Father's Day!

1960's style video of Mavi Marmara "peace activists"

Something to link to every time an Israel-hater says that "Israel killed nine peace activists in cold blood" on the Mavi Marmara.

Peace and love, baby.

Stunning IMAX aerial video footage of Israel

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemGiantScreen on Vimeo.

It looks good here, but click on the HD button and watch it, full screen, on Vimeo. Really, really beautiful.

A full-length version is going to be released as an IMAX 3-D movie in 2013.

(h/t Y. Medad)

80% of PalArab "refugees" have citizenship!

On the eve of World Refugee Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released some interesting numbers. From Wafa:

According to UNRWA records, registered Palestinian refugees totaled 4.8 million in 2010: 41.6% in Jordan, 23.2% in the Gaza Strip, 16.4% in the West Bank, 9.9% in Syria and 8.9% in Lebanon.

In the Palestinian Territory, refugees represent 43.4% of the total population in 2011, with 29.7% of them in the West Bank and 67.3% in the Gaza Strip.

The vast majority of "refugees" living in Jordan have had Jordanian citizenship since 1950, meaning that they cannot be considered refugees in any sense of the word - except for UNRWA's tortured definition.

But even more bizarre is the characterization of "Palestinian refugees" living in...Palestine! How can people be considered refugees if they live in their own purported country? The most they can claim to be are "displaced persons" which is a completely different thing.

If you add together the Jordanian "refugees" with citizenship and the Palestinian "refugees" who also are citizens of the Palestinian Authority, you see that about 80% of all so-called "Palestinian refugees" are nothing of the sort. You cannot be a citizen of a country and a refugee at the same time.

If UNRWA and the Palestinian Arab leadership and Jordan were interested in solving the so-called refugee problem, they would acknowledge these simple facts and work to mainstream those who still live in camps and depend on UNRWA services into their respective Jordanian and Palestinian Arab societies. Their refusal to do so shows, more than anything else, that the "refugee" problem is an artificial construct, a fake issue that is being exacerbated and prolonged by the very people who pretend that it is their primary concern.

The facts are clear. 80% of the so-called refugees, aren't. And the only reason they are still called refugees is to use them - some four million people, if you believe UNRWA's numbers - as pawns to help destroy the Jewish state.

If the US and EU truly want to see peace in the region, this issue must be dealt with head-on. The truth must be exposed, and these "refugees" must be properly categorized and their issues solved within the context of Jordan and the PA. Otherwise, all the calls for negotiations and Israeli concessions are a large shell game to conceal the truth of how the Arabs (and the UN) have been cynically using millions of people as political pawns.

Hamas not happy with "prisoner Facebook" story

Here's a funny item from Hamas mouthpiece Palestine Info:

The Gaza prisoner affairs ministry has called on local media not to reproduce Israeli media hype that Palestinian prisoners communicate with the outside world using social networking sites on the internet.

Israel tries to convince the world that the Palestinians enjoy all their rights while Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in Gaza, is denied visits and access to family, the ministry’s media director Riyadh al-Ashqar said in a statement on Saturday.

Ashqar added that Israel also uses such rumors to justify the prison authority’s frequent violent raids on prisoners’ cells in search of mobile phones.

Ashqar expressed surprise that Palestinian news outlets would reproduce such reports despite the ulterior motives behind them.

Note that Ashqar doesn't deny that Palestinian Arab prisoners are on Facebook, just that he wants to censor Arab media from mentioning it.

The good part? The story was not broken by Ma'ariv (which published it on Wednesday) - but by Al-Arabiya, which printed it last Monday!

So it was Arab reporters who came up with this Zionist propaganda to begin with!

(h/t Gaia K)

Poster: How can you make peace with those...

...who treat each other like this?

(from an idea by Y. Medad, h/t to Adam L. for better wording)

UNRWA summer camps shut down, Hamas camps in full swing

I reported on Friday that some Gazans, upset that UNRWA has not rebuilt their homes, have been blocking UNRWA from performing its services - and threatened to block UNRWA's Summer Games program.

On Saturday, the protesters made good on their threat:

Homeless families in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday shut down UNRWA summer camps in protest over the agency's failure to reconstruct homes destroyed during the Second Intifada.

Gaza residents also closed UNRWA's emergency department, social services office and ration stores, said Atiyya Radwan, who heads a committee of families whose homes have been destroyed.

Now as bad and counterproductive as UNRWA is, alternate providers of services are worse.

And, right on cue, Hamas is moving in to fill the vacuum.

Hamas announced Saturday that its own summer camp program, which they use as a breeding ground for terrorists, is in full swing and so far has 50,000 campers.

Hamas camps have been known for paramilitary activities as well as routinely teaching kids to hate.

For some reason, the protesters are not complaining against Hamas building mosques instead of houses on otherwise empty land.

US consulate rescinds invitation to anti-semitic PalArab cartoonist

A Palestinian Arab political cartoonist, Majed Badra, had been invited by the US Consulate to go to the US and participate in an international political cartoonist convention.

At the last minute, the US Consulate rescinded the invitation, when they became aware that some of his cartoons were, pretty explicitly, anti-semitic.

Badra objects to this, saying that he has nothing against Judaism and that his cartoons are only against Israel, not Jews. He is complaining that he had already cleared his schedule to go to the US.

Interestingly, in the past two weeks, he pulled all content from his website. Perhaps he is not as convinced that his work can stand up to scrutiny as being purely political.

Luckily, some of his cartoons can still be found elsewhere on the web.

A grab-bag of links

I have too many windows open and I'm not sure who recommended all these pages, plus I don't have time to do a normal linkdump, so....

http://www.israellycool.com/2011/06/13/pro-israel-blog-off-final/ Vote!

http://www.melaniephillips.com/unscrupulous-optimists-and-the-harm-they-cause-us

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-truth-should-be-taught-about-the-1948-war-1.368167

http://www.giyus.org/2011/06/these-are-the-faces-of-the-new-anti-semitism-please-report.html

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egyptian-judge-denies-plans-to-charge-american-israeli-accused-of-spying-1.368134

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/unrwa_protesting_too_much.html

Syrians getting shot today - last second shows two with legs blown off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcVBfEohpRQ

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/269836/israel-palestine-and-brthe-peace-pieties-barbara-lerner?page=3

http://freeisraelnow.blogspot.com/2011/06/genocidal-racist-arab-leader-ahmad.html

How come "peace activists" only pressure one side for peace?

There is a new advertising campaign in various US cities on public transit:

This organization, the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine (which carefully does not disclose the names of the people behind it and launders its charitable contributions through the Illinois Justice Foundation)

It claims that it is for "peace" and that the only way to get there is to stop US aid to Israel. This will, they say, force Israel to be more flexible in its approach to peace with Palestinian Arabs.

This is a recurring theme with so-called "peace" organizations. Their entire existence is only to pressure one side to make concessions.

If they are so interested in peace, shouldn't they be demanding that both sides make compromises?

Has Americans for Peace Now ever called to pressure Congress to reduce aid to the PA when Abbas walked away from negotiations?

But the problem is even worse than the bias that all these so-called "peace" organizations exhibit. The deeper problem is the absolute lack of pressure from any source demanding that Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies to make peace.

Where is the Palestinian Arab equivalent of Peace Now? Where are "Muslims for Peace" who are writing Arabic op-eds demanding "peace now"? Where's "A-Street" - the Arab equivalent of J-Street, an organization that claims that the US is coddling the PA with too much aid? Where are the leftist Arab newspapers slamming Saeb Erekat for yet more excuses to keep Palestinian Arabs in misery?

Why do European states fund so many "pro-peace" organizations whose entire purpose is so one-sided? Why aren't they searching out and encouraging peace-minded Arabs to do equivalent pressure on the PA and Hamas that so many dozens of organizations are dedicated to doing for Israel?

The sad fact is that Arab intransigence has paid off. The very idea of pressuring the Palestinian Arab leadership to make necessary compromises for peace is viewed as a non-starter. Years of sloganeering that "the settlements" are the "obstacle to peace" without acknowledging daily incitement, refusal to negotiate and all the other shortcomings of the PA position has resulted in a huge victory for the Arab side. Those who might try to call for pressuring the PA to negotiate with (as opposed to demand things from) Israel in Arab countries and the PA would be putting their very lives in their hands by even bringing up the topic.

Jews, on the other hand, are endlessly willing to give, and give more, and then give even more. So it is easier to demand that they be the only side to make substantive and concrete concessions.

This is not because Israel "holds all the cards," as the other side would claim. This exact same mindset of only pressuring one side was obvious before Israel was founded, as the British happily acceded to Arab demands about Jewish immigration and land purchasing, when the Jews held no cards whatsoever. The logic then was the same as it is now: Jews are reasonable and can compromise; Arabs are crazy and cannot be pressured without risking riots and bloodshed.

That is the real calculus of "peace." If we pressure Israel, maybe there will be peace. If we pressure Arabs, there might be bombs in our cities next month.

It is no contest.

So now anti-Israel organizations like this one can take advantage of this implicit Western mindset and cloak their hate in nice, liberal terms like "peace."

(The question of how reliable a local peace treaty might be when one party is widely but silently recognized as a threat to world peace is a question that no one dares to tackle.)

Palestinians attend Friday prayers at a new constructed mosque in the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim which was dismantled in 2005, close to Gaza city on Jun 17, 2011

Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya delivers speech during Friday prayers at a new constructed mosque in the former Israeli settlement of Nate Sarim which was dismantled in 2005, close to Gaza city on Jun 17, 2011

There was once a beautiful synagogue in Netzarim:

Within minutes of Israel's evacuation, the Arabs burned it down and celebrated its destruction:

It looks like there is no problem finding building materials in Gaza, when the desire is there. And what greater purpose can be served in Gaza than building a brand new mosque in the place that hundreds of Jews lived a few years ago?

I haven't seen any new housing complexes built in the destroyed Jewish communities of Gaza. Mostly they have been used for terrorist training, some agriculture, and now this.

This new mosque was not built because of a pressing humanitarian need. It was built to insult Jews.

The "humanitarian aid" of "The Audacity of Hope": Letters!

Via a great article in The Telegraph, you can see a link to an interview with nutcase Alice Walker who will be on the US flotilla vessel called "The Audacity of Hope."

In the preface to that interview we find the exact contents of what the moonbat Americans and Canadians will be bringing with them to Gaza: letters from Americans to Gazans.

And from looking at the web page of US to Gaza, which is sponsoring the ship, we find out that the letters have already been emailed to Gaza for Gazans to make a public display out of them.

I'm sure that the starving Gazans will chew on the letters thoughtfully.

(h/t Israel Muse)

Palestinian Arabs celebrate even when Jews die in accidents

The horrific gas explosion in Netanya last night that claimed four lives is being covered by the Palestinian Arabic media - and the commenters are overjoyed.

From the pro-Fatah Palestine Press Agency we have "Allah is great" and "Prasie be to Allah."

At Firas Press Agency we see a person who wanted to repeat "Praise be to Allah" 9 times, plus someone who adds "Good news!" and another who called the victims "Jewish oppressors."

Egypt's Al Ahram obsessed with "spy" story

Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram, which is the most popular Egyptian daily, has been obsessed with the story of Ilan Grapel.

Every day there are multiple stories with new and more bizarre accusations.

Today we have:

An analyst who tries to prove that Grapel's actions could only be explained by his being a spy, as tourists would never act the way he did. (Of course, Arabists and adventurers would act exactly the way he did.)

Another article claims that a US embassy staffer told Grapel "You are in big trouble" and that Al Ahram obtained documents that Grapel filled out requesting a renewal of residence saying he was a Muslim.

A third is a lengthy interview with a security officer giving details on how the brilliant Egyptian security team managed to track down this spy who was using his own name and freely talking to everyone without trying to hide anything.

Al Ahram confidently publishes a disclaimer of sorts at the end of one of the articles:

Pending completion of investigations

Al-Ahram will continue to publish all information and documents about the Israeli spy case, as it has been doing in recent days. The days after the conclusion of the investigation and the start of the trial will determine whether the Al-Ahram has been truthful and accurate or otherwise.

Other Egyptian papers are allowing at least a small degree of skepticism. But in poker terms, Al Ahram is "all in" and will now ensure that the most bizarre rumors will be plastered all over its pages to make sure that any possible "trial" will support its yellow journalism.

I don't know what the US is doing to get Grapel out of there, but this is a case of life and death, with Arab pride on the line. Every day that is wasted can literally be a death sentence for him. It is time to mobilize and write to the State Department to insist that this is the highest priority.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian woman in this photo with Grapel was interviewed on Egyptian TV. She revealed that Grapel told her he fought in the Lebanon war, that he studied in Tel Aviv and in the US, that his Arabic accent was Lebanese, he invited her to Israel but warned that "there was racism there."

He once told her that they will be allies one day. She asked, "Against whom?" He said "Iran." She replied, "forget it, that's impossible."

UN Watch again blasts the UN's hypocrisy

From UN Watch:

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer's speech after the usual "human rights" advocates - including Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Venezuela, and Iran - slammed Israel this week, as usual, at a UNHRC meeting in Geneva.

Mr. President,

History will record that the highest human rights body of the United Nations met today for no objective reason. Nothing in recent events, nothing in logic, nothing in human rights justifies today’s debate.

Our meeting is automatic—the consequence of a decision adopted four years ago, shortly after this council was created, to keep a permanent agenda item on one country only: Israel.

History will record that at a time when citizens across the Middle East were being attacked by their own government—by rifles, tanks, and helicopters—the UN focused its scarce time and attention on a country in that region where this is not happening; the only country in the region which, despite its flaws, respects the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion; the only country in the region with free elections, an independent judiciary, and the equal treatment of women; the only country where gays are not persecuted, arrested or stoned to death, but, on the contrary, march in their own annual parade, as they did in Tel Aviv three days ago.

Mr. President, that is why the logic of this agenda item represents the opposite of human rights, and why it embodies the pathologies that so discredited this council’s predecessor.

Indeed, this item is so unjust, so biased, so selective, so politicized, and so contradictory to this council’s own principles of equality and universality, that it was condemned by the Secretary-General himself, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on 20 June 2007, the day after its adoption.

And so we ask: In its recent 5-year review, despite everything happening in the Middle East, why did the Council decide to perpetuate this item, an act that will be finalized this week by the General Assembly?

Mr. President,

History will record that when citizens were being persecuted or massacred by their own governments—in Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and elsewhere—the UN chose to turn a blind eye to the victims, and instead endorsed the cynicism, hypocrisy and scapegoating of the perpetrators.

Thank you, Mr. President.