Bollywood looking to film in Israel?

From TheJC:

The next Indian blockbuster may have Jewish characters and scenes filmed in Israel, if new plans to bring Bollywood to Israel pan out.

Eight leaders of the Indian film industry spent this week in Israel, scouting out locations and speaking to local counterparts about ideas for films with storylines that bring characters to Israel. They attended the Jerusalem Film Festival, where one of the producers, Vinod Kumar, previewed his new film, Gangor.

"It has been a revelation of sorts," said Mr Kumar, Secretary General of the Film Foundation of India and head of three major Indian film companies. "We had heard that Israel was very small but every kilometre is different from the next, which is amazing for a filmmaker."

Another delegate, Bobby Bedi, managing director of Kaleidoscope Entertainment and producer of the internationally acclaimed 1994 film Bandit Queen, said after a tour of Jerusalem that he would find it "absolutely fascinating" to film in the Old City.

Indians would greet films involving Israel with enthusiasm, he predicted. "India is still a poor country and most people can't travel, and film are a way of 'taking' people overseas," he said.

OK, I admit I posted this just to give an excuse to again show this video from Israeli defense contractor Rafael trying to sell "indigenous air systems" to India in 2009:


Dinga dinga dee!

Not that the cross-culturalization only goes one way. Here's a classic video of Hava Nagila, Indian-style:

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Muslim Brotherhood leader is a crazy, raving lunatic

In 2008, The Forward published an op-ed by Essam el-Arian, a leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, laying out why it should be allowed to field candidates in Egypt's then-upcoming elections. You might disagree with what he had to say but the piece was lucid and organized.

Earlier this year The Guardian interviewed the same Essam el-Arian as part of an article about the MB's goals. He sounded much like any politician does in a news interview.

In May, the Washington Post interviewed him. Large parts of the interview were published, and again there was little that was exceptional in that interview. The questions were softball, and the answers published include a few suspicious ellipses (. . .) within the text, but he still sounds like a sane man.

Today, we see a Michael Totten interview with him - no editing, and the questions are a bit more pointed (as well as Totten doing followups.)

The guy is a complete nutcase.

He refuses to answer anything, he pushes bizarre conspiracy theories, and some of the stuff he says would not be out of place if the interview was with a mental patient.

Here's a small part:

Esam El-Erian: The media and think tanks play a very important role. You created a ghost, a monster, this terrorism. You magnify terrorism, and we face its vengeance. You in the media link every Arab, every Muslim, to terrorists. We were pushed to take off our shoes in your airports.

MJT: I have to take off my shoes, too.

Esam El-Erian: Why?

MJT: I don’t like it either.

Esam El-Erian: You make people live in terror.

MJT: Who does?

Esam El-Erian: You do. The media.

MJT: Who is living in terror?

Esam El-Erian: Your politicians. Your media. Your media.

MJT: We don’t live in terror. I don’t know a single person in the media who lives in terror.

Esam El-Erian: Can you answer one question? Why don’t we hear about trials for September 11?

MJT: Because the people who did it are dead. They killed themselves in the towers.

Esam El-Erian: Four thousand innocent people were killed, and there has been no trial.

MJT: That’s because the people who did it are dead.

Esam El-Erian: Nobody was put in a cage to face a trial.

MJT: They were on the planes. They blew themselves up in the towers.

Esam El-Erian: No. Who was behind it?

MJT: Osama bin Laden. And we just killed him, too.

Esam El-Erian: We know you have about 600 people in Guantanamo Bay. None of them have faced trials. Why? This is a very big mystery.

MJT: Well, what do you think happened? What’s your theory?

Esam El-Erian: And another 4,000 Americans were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You have almost 10,000 innocent Americans killed. Never mind the millions killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You never put anyone on trial. Who is behind all this? Who made the conspiracy? Is Osama bin Laden alone? Who is behind Osama bin Laden?

Armin Rosen: Who do you think is behind Osama bin Laden?

Esam El-Erian: I want to know!

MJT: What’s your theory?

Esam El-Erian: You have the documents now that Osama bin Laden is dead.

MJT: What’s your theory?

Esam El-Erian: I don’t know.

MJT: You have a theory.

Esam El-Erian: I want to know. That is the question.

MJT: Everybody has a theory. What’s yours?

Esam El-Erian: Why 10,000 Americans killed? Why? Without any investigation.

MJT: Why does it have to be a conspiracy? It really isn’t that complicated.

Esam El-Erian: Is Osama bin Laden alone, or is somebody with him?

MJT: Why does anyone have to be behind Osama bin Laden?

Esam El-Erian: This must be investigated in America! There is this case in the U.K. about hacked telephones. 160 news people were fired.

MJT: [Laughs.] That has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden.

Esam El-Erian: A very old newspaper was closed. There was no drop of blood. If 10,000 Americans don’t expect to have a full investigation about the killings in New York, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we want to know.

MJT: Look, it really isn’t that complicated. Osama bin Laden had some support in Saudi Arabia and from Pakistan’s ISI.

Esam El-Erian: Look, sir. It is not enough that Osama bin Laden admitted in public that he did it. Osama bin Laden can’t do it alone.

MJT: He had some support in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Esam El-Erian: If you’re saying Saddam Hussein supported him, it’s a lie. Colin Powell said Saddam Hussein had biological weapons, but this was a lie. Colin Powell now regrets this.

We want to know.

MJT: What is it that you don’t know?

Esam El-Erian: You tell me.

MJT: This isn’t complicated.

Esam El-Erian: Yes, it’s complicated. I agree!

MJT: No. It’s not complicated.

This is not just a politician who is trying to avoid answering; this is just a loony who is not used to anyone asking him something beyond the norm.

Read the whole thing. The craziness starts immediately as he answers questions that were never asked from the get-go.

And it makes one wonder - did the other Western media outlets that interviewed El-Erian edit his responses so he doesn't sound like he is in a psychiatric hospital? Do other major political figures of any stripe say equally crazy things, and if they do, are they also being sanitized before being presented to Western audiences?

The part of the interview about Palestinian Arabs was interesting as well:

Esam El-Erian: Can you imagine a democratic Syria or a democratic Jordan assimilating Palestinians in their lands? They cannot. It is a matter of time. Those people must go back [to Israel]. You prevent Mexicans by force from secret immigration.

MJT: Only illegal immigrants, not legal immigrants.

Esam El-Erian: This is illegal. We cannot have non-citizens in our lands. They take our jobs.

MJT: Palestinian refugees have been living in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan for more than 60 years.

Esam El-Erian: No! Even if they’ve been there for 200 years, they must go back [to Israel].

The Muslim Brotherhood, representing mainstream Islamist politics, is saying that the reason that the Palestinian Arabs they claim to love cannot be naturalized as Arab citizens of other countries is because "they take our jobs." And the Arab nations cannot have their Palestinian brothers in their lands.

So it isn't that they want the Palestinian Arabs to "return" to Israel because they love them. They just want them the hell out of their lands because they hate them!

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NGO Monitor's list of BDSers being funded by governments

NGO Monitor came out with a very important piece of research showing a list of organizations that support boycotting and sanctions against Israel - and the countries that fund them:

NGOs involved in BDS and their funders (partial list): NGO Primary Funders Funding Amount Central Involvement Addameer Sweden €207,000 (2009)  Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) NDC* $127,000  (2010-12) Al Haq Holland $426,201 (funding ceased in 2008) Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) Ireland Norway $88,928 (2009) $156,163 (2009, funding ceased) Ford Foundation Diakonia NDC* $600,000 (2009-10) $120,490 (2009) $134,000 (2010-12) Al Mezan Sweden €105,000 (2007-9)  Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) NDC* $425,000 (2010-12) Norway, EU funding not transparent Alternative Information Center Belgium ICCO Sweden (via Diakonia) Spain and the Basque gov't (via MUNDUBAT) Catalan gov't (via Sodepau) funding not transparent 434,024NIS (2009)    164,225NIS (2009)  711,182NIS (2009) 173,271NIS (2009)  "Yes to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Against Israel" Alternatives (Montreal) Canada $2,000,000CAN (2008-10) (unclear if ceased)  Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (PA) EU €374,174 (2009-11)    Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) Spain €98,347 (2009) Switzerland  funding not transparent Badil (PA) NDC* $575,000 (2010-12)  Leader of BDS movement Christian Aid Ireland, EU 24,521,692£ (2009-10) "Partner supporting" calling for BDS and "pursuing parastata Zionist orgs" Coalition of Women for Peace EU €247,954 (2005-7)   Runs "Who profits?" website, which is central in the Norwegian BDS campaign NIF $294,129 (2006-9)(funding ceased 2011) Defence of Children International -Palestine Section Sweden (via Save the Children) European Union 459,000SEK (2009-11) 600,000€ (2009-12)  Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) NDC* England $639,000 (2010-12) £12,500 Diakonia Sweden $52.7 million (2009)  Advocates for divestment strategy against Israel, lobbies against EU-Israel upgrade EU 10,500,000SEK Human Rights Watch Soros' Open Society Institute $2,353,895 (2007-8) $100,000,000 (2010-20) Supported Caterpillar boycott,Call for cuts in U.S. foreign aid to Israel Ford Foundation $445,000 (2009-11) Netherlands via Oxfam-NOVIB  $987,818 (2007-8) Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Spain €105,000 (2009)  Leader in BDS activism NDC* EU $76,000  (2010-12) €169,661 (2010-12) KAIROS Canada - funding washalted in 2009 $1,575,966 (2008)   Main supporter of church divestment campaign Machsom Watch EU €251,650 (2007-2010)  Norwegian Pension Fund divestment campaign NIF $204,698(2006-9) Miftah EU $79,906 (2010) Signatory to 2005 BDS call (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) Denmark $28,077 (2010) Austria NDC* $60,624 (2010) $110,000 (2010-12) Mossawa NIF $517,642 (2006-8) Norwegian Pension Fund divestment campaign EU €298,660 (2006-8) UK funding not transparent Norwegian Association of NGOs for Palestine (incl. Norwegian People's Aid) Norway €57,000 (2008)  Coordinates Norwegian Boycott Israel Campaign USA €8,000 (2008) Sweden, Netherlands  funding not transparent Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) NDC* $130,000  Leader of BDS movement Received France's Human Rights Prize Sabeel Sweden €76,000 (2006-8) Leader of global church divestment movement Trocaire Ireland €23,499,837 (2008) Supports BDS movement, lobbies against EU-Israel upgrade, calls for review of arms export licenses UK €640,682 (2008) EU €1,698,692 (2008) War on Want UK €256,000 (2008) Advocates for sanctions, including arms boycott Ireland €77,000 (2008) EU €266,000 (2008) Palestinian Center for Human Rights (Gaza) NDC* EU, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden $425,000  (2010-12) funding not transparent Leader of BDS movement  *The NDC mechanism is funded by Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands; 2008-9

I wonder if anyone ever put together a list of which regions/countries receive the most international NGO help? It would be interesting to see if money spent has any relationship to money needed.

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Hezbollah having cash flow problems?

From Der Spiegel:

In recent months, Hezbollah has become involved in disastrous investments, losing almost €1 billion ($1.4 billion). The Iranians, who are now feeling the brunt of the UN sanctions imposed as a result of their nuclear activities, have made it clear that they cannot provide Hezbollah with additional funding at this time. This is embarrassing for Hezbollah, whose image in Lebanon depends in large part on its generous social services. It is now falling behind in the rebuilding of homes it had promised to Hezbollah's Shiite followers after the destructive 2006 bomb attacks. Israel began massive bombing strikes in Lebanon that year after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Western intelligence agencies believe that they have identified a new Hezbollah income source: the drug trade. Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese were reportedly "enriched" with large quantities of heroin and cocaine. The drugs were then allegedly shipped to their final destination, Western Europe, through the Turkish Cypriot port of Famagusta. The Iranian representative of the Revolutionary Guard in Beirut, Hassan Mahdavi, allegedly mentioned, in a telephone conversation, a "drug tsunami" that could flush millions into Hezbollah's coffers.

I'm a little surprised that Spiegel doesn't mention the large amounts of evidence that Hezbollah has been in Mexico and South America for years working the drug trade; for example this information hacked from Arizona police recently by lulzsec.

But the article gives me an idea - send pump and dump penny stock schemes to Hezbollah email addresses! You can get rich while Hezbollah loses more money!

Or a good pyramid scheme - Shahid Investments, LLC.

Bernie Madoff is in prison, but maybe he can help us set this up? Might as well use his skills for something good...

(h/t Daily Alert)

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MK Zoabi gets ejected from Knesset, pushes guard (video)

Fun times in the Knesset yesterday! From Arutz-7:

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) flew into an uncontrollable rage Wednesday during a Knesset speech by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu was answering Opposition members regarding a bill that regulates housing issues.

He noted that many leading members of Kadima had signed on to the original law before the party reversed itself on this issue. He also said that he expected Opposition parties to protest regarding other issues – such as the participation by MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) in the violent Gaza flotilla in 2010.

The remark threw Zoabi into a rage. While most of what she said was not sufficiently clear for the microphones to pick up, she was visibly distraught and pushed a Knesset guard who was escorting her out (2:27 on video).

She approached a microphone and said to the Prime Minister: “Stand me against a wall and have the soldiers from the flotilla shoot me!”

YNet notes:

The Knesset's employee committee sent a letter of complaint to Knesset Director-General Dan Landau demanding that MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) apologize for her behavior Wednesday. Zoabi had clashed with a security guard during the prime minister's plenum speech, which she disrupted.

The employees' committee representing the security guard says that it will consider countermeasures against Zoabi if she does not apologize.

An Arabic site has a different version of the video.

(h/t Israel Muse)

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Egypt pushes off elections

From Bikya Masr:

The country’s ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces on Wednesday announced it was moving back elections that had been scheduled for September until October or possibly November. The move was met with widespread skepticism and frustration.

“It has been decided to hold elections for the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council next October or November,” the state-run MENA news agency quoted a military official as saying on Wednesday, in reference to the lower and upper houses of parliament.

Despite the delay, the military rulers who took power after 18 days of street protests ousted President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, stated their continued support for democracy and a transition to civilian rule.

The same official added that the military “is committed to its previous announcement that the electoral process would start six months from the constitutional declaration” of March.

“This means that the electoral process for the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council would start before the end of September,” the official said.

After the announcement by the military, debate ensued. Many felt it was too little too late and the interim government and the military were not doing enough to meet the protesters demands.

The ministry of interior, however, hoped that its concurrent announcement would also bring about a change in perception among the protesters. It announced that they would fire some 600 police officers accused of participating in the attacks on civilians in January and February during the uprising.

Still, it didn’t appear to be enough for the few hundred protesters maintaining their sit-in in central Cairo.

“We want an end to the old guard, former ruling party members and we want to see the trials of Mubarak and Adly and others for what they have done to us and this country,” 31-year-old Ahmed Gabr told Bikya Masr. He has been in Tahrir daily since July 8, when the sit-in began with a massive gathering activists hoped would push the country forward on the right path.

Not all Egyptians are throwing their weight behind the sit-in, however, with a growing section of Egyptian society beginning to wane in their support for public action that has brought downtown Cairo to a near standstill and saw the country’s main administrative building forced closed for three days this week.

“They are not us. They don’t speak for us. What is our life right now? It is the same and we are losing jobs and money, but they don’t seem to care,” said Goma’a Mohamed, a Cairo electrician.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

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Crazy Water Park attacked, and other unreported Gaza news

The Gaza NGO Safety Office has come out with their biweekly report for June 20-July 3, and it includes news (or details of news items) that did not seem to make it into any media.

Here are some of them::

On June 29, an experimental rocket was fired by Hamas towards the sea.

On 24 June, masked gunmen opened fire and threw a hand grenade targeting the Crazy Water Park tourist resort in Sheikh Ejlen area, S-W of Gaza City. People panicked and fled the area; however, there were no reports of injuries or damage. The de facto police opened an investigation. The Park has been targeted before, when on 19 September 2010 the Park’s buildings and restaurants were set fire by unknown masked gunmen.

The next day, an explosive device was detonated at 2322hrs next to the perimeter wall of the United Nations Special Coordinator (UNSCO) compound causing damage to the wall. Having left a 30cm crater in the ground, the device is thought to have had an explosive force equivalent to 200 grams of TNT. The force from the blast shattered the windowpanes of both a mosque, which is located 15 meters further down the road, and of an INGO office. As a result of the shattering glass, 1 Palestinian passerby was injured. The fact that the explosion took place late in the evening, and that the explosive device did not contain any shrapnel, suggests that the intention was to shock and convey a message, rather than to do actual harm.

On 26 June, 50 people affiliated to the Fatah Youth Organisation (Shabibah) organised a sit-in in front of the house of a prominent Fatah leader, west of Gaza City, to protest against the decision to dismiss Mohammed Dahlan from the Fatah movement. Shots were fired, which resulted in 1 injury.

On 28 June, a Palestinian man was shot three times by 2 masked gunmen on a motorcycle in Al Bureij Camp.

Another man, allegedly a 50-year old drug dealer, was found dead in Nuseirat Camp. It was reported that he died as a result of an interrogation by the de facto police.

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Understanding UN bias against Israel (video)

A very effective word-graphic video:

It appears that this was created for the Jerusalem Institute of Justice.

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Two rock star FAILS for BDSers

From Moby's website:

if you go to america does that mean you support american foreign and domestic policy? does a visit to america mean that you support guantanamo?
if you visit italy does that mean you support berlusconi?
if you visit the uk does that mean you're a happy supporter of david cameron?

i'm guessing the answer is: no.

a visit to a country isn't a condemnation or an endorsement of the domestic or foreign policies of that nations current government.

when i tour i visit countries that are universally loved (canada), as well as countries for which people have more complicated feelings (israel).

but when i tour i'm going to countries to play music for people.
my presence in a country is not an endorsement or a condemnation of that countries policies.
my presence in a country is an effort to connect with people through playing music.

almost every country on the planet has some aspect of their foreign or domestic policy that is questionable(i mean, i live in the united states, and many aspects of our foreign and domestic policy are seriously questionable...but yet i continue to live there and do what i can to effect positive change).

i have opinions about the policies of the countries i visit, of course, but i think its incredibly dangerous to form opinions of a place without actually spending time there.

the situation within a country is oftentimes considerably more complicated when experienced from within rather than when seen from thousands of miles away or through the sensationalistic and often simplifying and reductionist lens of the media.

i'm sorry if my decisions to visit certain countries are troubling to some people.

Moby played in Tel Aviv yesterday.

And from Richard Millett's blog:

Take That are currently touring the UK and during a recent concert at Wembley national treasure Robbie Williams approached a group of screaming teenage girls who were sporting cheesy Israeli head-wear and took away one of their Israeli flags, promptly kissed it and then took it on to the stage with him (see clip below).

You could call it sticking two fingers (or even one finger, if you wish) up at the vicious anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which desires to kill off the Jewish state for good.

If you listen carefully, you can hear BDSers heads exploding.

(h/t Israel Muse)

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Ancient Shabbat marker found in the Galilee

From JPost:

An ancient rock inscription of the word “Shabbat” was uncovered near Lake Kinneret this week – the first and only discovery of a stone Shabbat boundary in Hebrew.

The etching in the Lower Galilee community of Timrat appears to date from the Roman or Byzantine period.

News of the inscription, discovered by chance Sunday by a visitor strolling the community grounds, quickly reached Mordechai Aviam, head of the Institute for Galilean Archeology at Kinneret College.

“This is the first time we’ve found a Shabbat boundary inscription in Hebrew,” he said. “The letters are so clear that there is no doubt that the word is ‘Shabbat.’”

Aviam said Jews living in the area in the Roman or Byzantine era (1st-7th centuries CE) likely used the stone to denote bounds within which Jews could travel on Shabbat. The Lower Galilee of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages had a Jewish majority – many of the Talmudic sages bore toponyms indicative of Galilee communities.

The engraving uncovered in Timrat is the first and only Shabbat boundary marker yet discovered in Hebrew – a similar inscription was found in the vicinity of the ancient Western Galilee village of Usha, but its text was written in Greek.

One of the very cool things about Israel is that an ordinary person, walking his dog, can stumble upon an archaeological treasure like this - which is what happened.

Biblewalks also tries to figure out which town this was the marker for:

We speculate that the marker in Timrat is related an ancient town, located approximately 1kmto the south-east of the marker. This Jewish Roman town was called “Mahalul”, and flourished from the commercially strategic location during the Roman/Byzantine times (Mishna and Talmud). It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud (Megila page 2 , 2 1:1, Hebrew): “Nahalal is Mahalul”, and listed among the walled cities from the period of Joshua. The distance from the Roman village to the Timrat Sabbath stone fits the exact range of the perimeter as defined by the Jewish tradition.

Another candidate for the town related to the marker is Simonia, located around the nearby Tell Shimron. This was another Jewish town during the Roman and Byzantine periods. It is also located about 1.5KM from the marker, on the south-west side.

(h/t Yoel)

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Gaddafi sent delegation to Israel!

I had missed this one from JPost:

A delegation from Libya sent by leader Muammar Gaddafi recently visited Israel and met with opposition leader Tzipi Livni and other officials, Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the delegation of four senior Libyan officials received visas from the Israeli embassy in Paris after gaining approval from Israeli security services. Once in Israel, the delegation immediately asked to meet with Livni.

Upon receiving the invitation for a meeting, Livni immediately turned to security officials, who gave their approval for the opposition leader to meet with the Gaddafi delegation.

In the four-day visit, the senior Libyan officials reportedly met with other Israeli officials in addition to the opposition leader.

Earlier this year, a leader of a Jewish group told The Jerusalem Post that Libya secretly offered to give Israelis of Libyan descent an undisclosed sum of money if they agreed to form a "Libyan political party."

Michael Totten comments:

I can’t help but wonder: does Qaddafi take the myth of overwhelming Jewish power so seriously that he thinks Israel can pull the plug on NATO’s campaign against him?

Ah, the positive part of anti-semitism!

(h/t Silke)

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Universal health care - for terrorists (poster)

All the aid money that goes into Palestinian Arab infrastructure frees up funds for Hamas to buy rockets, guns and explosives to target Israel.

(h/t D)

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Glenn Beck in Knesset (video)

Again, whatever you think about his politics, you cannot argue with the fact that he loves Israel and Jews.

Except that many anti-Israel Jews, people who will never say a word against explicit Arab anti-semitism, are openly saying that Beck is an anti-semite.

MJ Rosenberg in HuffPo writes that Beck is especially critical towards liberal Jews, so therefore he must be anti-semitic.

Sorry. I can accept people calling him a buffoon, or a right-wing nutcase.

But the accusation that Beck is anti-semitic is manifestly absurd.

Rosenberg, absurdly, titles the article "Glenn Beck Defiles the Holy Land." He is very happy with virulently anti-semitic Arabs having rights to freely say whatever they want; he is happy with Jewish shrines being taken over by Muslims in the textbook definition of defilement - but when an openly pro-Israel media figure, someone who loves unapologetic Jews, speaks in front of the Jewish State's government to acclaim, Rosenberg calls this a defilement?

Rosenberg's definition of anti-semitism is really anti-liberalism. And it is really sad that so many Jews think that Judaism is identical with leftist politics, so much so that they are not even embarrassed to publish drivel like Rosenberg did.

(h/t Yoel)

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Pure anti-semitism in the Palestine Chronicle

The Palestine Chronicle calls itself "an independent online newspaper that provides daily news, commentary, features, book reviews, photos, art, etc, on a variety of subjects. However, it's largely focused on Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East region."

It is edited by Ramzy Baroud, a prolific anti-Israel writer that this blog has mentioned before. But it boasts an honorary editorial board that includes Hanan Ashrawi and Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, as well as the following endorsements:

"The Palestine Chronicle has been an invaluable source of information and analysis about Palestine and related issues, drawing from a wide range of sources, including many that are otherwise inaccessible to the concerned public. An independent voice, it has been trustworthy and reliable." -- Noam Chomsky, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"In the midst of an institutional media bias against telling the searing truth about Palestine, the Palestine Chronicle is a beacon. History, witness, analysis and ways forward are here, written with authority and humanity. Long may it publish." -- John Pilger, a world-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker.

"The Palestine Chronicle presents independent commentary on crucial issues. The editors and their work constitute a sign of hope for a better future." -- Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

"The Palestine Chronicle is an essential publication for keeping up with the big picture in the Middle East." -- James Petras, Professor Emeritus, Binghamton University; author of many books.

"The Palestine Chronicle is proof positive that there is hope, that alternative media can one day overpower the corporate mainstream." -- Joshua Frank, co-editor of DissidentVoice.org.

With all of that supposed influence, one of its latest essays is most revealing.

Written by Stuart Littlewood, it is called "Zionists in Our Midst: Battle of Britain II."

Churchill, in his Battle of Britain speech 71 years ago, said: 'If we can stand up to him [Hitler], all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science...'

Today those "broad, sunlit uplands" of Churchill's are again shrouded in storm-clouds. Zionist infiltrators have succeeded where Hitler failed. The difference now is that the enemy’s invasion forces are not massing across the Channel. They are already here in our midst and we are indeed on the brink of a new Dark Age, as the ruthless conspiracy masterminded by foreign interests expands its influence by stealth and by subversion and by intimidation.

America is sliding into the abyss fast as US Congressmen repeatedly parade their abject subservience to the powerful pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. Who will forget the pathetic spectacle of 29 standing ovations they accorded the swaggering, lying, crazed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu while he delivered his poison?

The question now is whether we in the UK can stand up to the encroaching menace and save "all that we have known and cared for", when we have so completely lost our moral bearings.

We duck our solemn responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions and give Zionist war criminals a safe haven immune from arrest.

We allow fanatics, such as Conservative Friends of Israel, to organize and promote the interests of the criminal Israeli regime at the very heart of Westminster government.

We allow MPs to place themselves under the influence of foreign interest groups and to abuse the principles that are supposed to underpin standards in public life.

We allow Jews to be hugely over-represented in our Parliament and to dominate key areas of our administration, including those related to security. If Muslims were over-represented to the same extent they’d have 200 seats and action would be taken.

We spend large amounts of treasure and send our troops to murder foreign civilians and die in foreign lands simply to support US-Israeli greed, destroying our own good name in the process.

We allow civil society's hard-earned savings to bail out Zionist bankers in distress and fund endless wars and the corporate and personal profits of those who promote wars.

...Churchill, a Zionist sympathizer of the old-fashioned kind, confronted many dire threats but could not have foreseen, in his day, how the tentacles of Zionism would envelop the civilized world. But there’s no excuse for today’s leaders when the truth is so brazenly ugly. That they embrace it and even change our laws to accommodate it, underlines their utter unsuitability for high office.

We stood up to Hitler. Is no-one incorruptible enough to stand against the Zionist menace?

While the entire screed owes a huge debt the the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Littlewood lets his "anti-Zionist" mask slip off by not only referring to "Zionist bankers" but to Jews in Parliament, with the implication that Jews cannot possibly be loyal British subjects.

In other words, this is a classic (if poorly written) anti-semitic libel, that is being given prominence by a media source that is well-respected in the English language "pro-Palestinian" universe (and of course this same article has been copied to other well-known leftist and "pro-Palestinian" websites as well.)

Will the self-styles fighters against bigotry who support the Palestine Chronicle rise up and demand that this article get removed? Will Littlewood's essays be banished from publication by similar sites because he has exposed himself to be a hateful, bigoted man whose opinions are forever tarnished because of his sickening bias against Jews?

Or is this just more proof that anti-semitism and anti-Zionism are two sides of the same coin?

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Ma'an English vs. Ma'an Arabic (updated)

From Ma'an (English):

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a young Palestinian man early Wednesday near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli security officials said.

University student Ibrahim Sarhan was shot while emerging from a mosque during a search operation in Al-Farah refugee camp near Nablus, Palestinian security sources told AFP.

Soldiers were looking for an activist of the Islamic Jihad movement but Sarhan did not belong to any Palestinian political group, they said.

From Ma'an Arabic:

The Islamic resistance movement Hamas in the West Bank confirmed that the martyr Ibrahim Sarhan, 22, is one of its children and its activists in the Farah camp.

The Arabic article was timestamped 11:24 AM. The English one was posted at 11:40. It was still the top English story at 14:00.

UPDATE: At 17:18 Ma'an English updated the story - but it still does not point out that Sarhan was a Hamas member, only approaching the issue elliptically:

Sarhan was close to graduating from the faculty of engineering at An-Najah University, where he supported the Islamic bloc in student senate elections, the Hamas party announced Wednesday.

In a statement, Hamas said Sarhan was shot while en route to morning prayers.

Yet the Hamas statement explicitly said that he was one of its activists, as can be seen on the Hamas Al Qassam website.

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