Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 12, 2011

The Paris Muslims who saved Jews from the Nazis

From Missing Pages: Stories from World War II:

Si Kaddour Benghabrit

In Paris, a grand mosque built in honour of the 100,000 Muslim soldiers who died fighting for France in the First World War, became a sanctuary for Jews escaping persecution less than three decades later. Si Kaddour Benghabrit was a French Algerian who was deeply loyal to France. During World War I, he was appointed honourary consul-general and served the religious needs of Muslims in the French army. After the war came to an end, he worked in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1920, when the parliament decided to acknowledge his loyalty by asking him to establish a mosque in Paris. Six years later, the Great Mosque of Paris became a reality and Benghabrit was appointed its rector.

When war broke out in Europe again, and Jewish lives were in danger, Benghabrit used the mosque as a hiding place, issuing each person with a fake certificate of Muslim identity. One North African Jew named Albert Assouline who had escaped from a German prison camp, wrote of his experience hiding in the mosque, “No fewer than 1,732 resistance fighters found refuge in its underground caverns. These included Muslim escapees but also Christians and Jews. The latter were by far the most numerous.” Accounts differ on the number of those saved, yet it remains a shining story of human solidarity.

In tracing the story down it seems that the main witness was Assouline. As described by the American Council for Judaism in a book review of Robert Satloff's Among the Righteous:

According to Assouline, he and an Algerian named Yassa Rabah escaped together from the camp and stealthily traversed the countryside across the French-German border, heading for Paris. Once in Paris they made their way to the mosque, where, evidently thanks to Rabah’s connections to the Algerian community, the two found refuge. Eventually Assouline continued his journey and joined up with Free French forces to continue the fight against the German occupation ... the most fantastic part of the story was his claim that the mosque provided sanctuary and sustenance to Jews hiding from the Vichy and German troops as well as to other fighters in the anti-Fascist resistance.

In a 1983 article for Almanach due Combattant, a French veterans’ magazine, Assouline wrote [that] the senior imam of the mosque, Si Mohammed Benzouaou took “considerable risk” by hiding Jews and providing many (including many children) with certificates of Muslim identity, with which they could avoid deportation and certain death. Assouline recalled one “hot alert” when German soldiers smelled the odor of cigarettes and, convinced that Muslims were forbidden to smoke, searched the mosque looking for hidden Jews. According to Assouline, the Jews were able to escape via sewer tunnels that connected the mosque to nearby buildings.

In Satloff’s view, “Assouline’s stunning story described the mosque as a virtual Grand Central Station for the Underground Railroad of Jews in France...."

Derri Berkani, a French documentary film-maker, of Algerian berber origin, was so moved by the untold story of the mosque that he made the 1991 film “Une Resistance Oubliee: La Mosque de Paris” (The Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris). ...

Berkani adds many previously unknown details: that Benghabrit had a special button installed that he would push to trigger a warning alarm in the event of a police raid and that, in emergencies, Jews would huddle in the mosque’s main sanctuary, which was known to be off-limits to non-Muslims, including German soldiers. In addition, Berkani provides the testimony of a physician in the municipal department of public hygiene, a man named Ahmed Somia, who tells the story of a young Jewish orphan, 7 or 8 years old, whom Benghabrit hid in the safety of his home. “Si Kaddour felt that we had to do something for this child,” he said. The solution was to provide the boy with a false birth certificate from the mosque that certified him as a Muslim and allowed him to live openly.

Another case is that of Salim (Simon) Halali, a world-renowned singer, who died in Cannes, France in 2005. Born in 1920 to a poor Jewish family in Annaba, near the Algerian-Tunisian border, he made his way to France when he was just 14. It was not long before Halali became France’s most celebrated “oriental” singer. For the next 40 years, he was a fixture of Andalusian music. It seems that he owed his success, and his life, to the mosque of Paris.

Virtually every obituary of Halali, on both sides of the Mediterranean, told the same story: Halali escaped certain deportation and death thanks to the generosity and ingenuity of Benghabrit. French writer Nidam Abdi explained in the Paris newspaper Liberation that the 20-year-old Halali found himself all alone in 1940 after his closest friend joined Radio Berlin, the Nazis’ premier propaganda organ. When Vichy started its pursuit of Jews, Halali turned to the mosque for help. Benghabrit, who had been a fan of Halali’s, evidently provided him with a certificate of Muslim identity. But because Halali was such a public figure, Benghabrit had to go one step further. To lend credibility to Halali’s claim of Muslim roots, Benghabrit arranged to have the name of Halali’s grandfather engraved on an abandoned tomb in the Muslim cemetery on Bobigny.

“For a certain number of Jews living in France — it is impossible to know how many — passing as Muslim was a clever ploy to avoid confiscation, arrest or deportation,” writes Satloff. “This was a particularly useful ploy for Jewish men, since Muslims, like Jews, are circumcised, often the defining test of Jewishness under Vichy rule.”

Satloff met in Paris with Dalil Boubakeur, the current rector of the Paris mosque and president of the governing body of all French Muslims, the Conseil Francais du Culte Musulman (CFCM).

When asked about the mosque’s role during World War II, he said that the reports of Jews being saved were true: “The mosque represented the sensibilities of the Muslims of North Africa toward their Jewish brothers. It was a natural phenomenon. ... What happened then (in the 1940s) was very symbolic but exemplary.”

Boubakeur noted that, “It is true that the mosque provided certificates of Muslim identity to some Jews. This was possible because, especially for North African Jews, the names are very close.” The motive, he said, was selfless, to enable Jews to avoid persecution by providing an acceptable rationale for their circumcision. The opportunity took advantage of a “double game” that, he said, characterized the complex relationship between the German occupation authorities and the Muslim community of Paris.

“The Germans were always pressing the mosque, trying to impose themselves on the mosque to use it for propaganda among Muslims,” he said. “They always wanted to have visitors here; at one point, we feared that Hitler himself would make a visit. We tried to resist but it wasn’t always possible.” Asked by Satloff if it was not courageous for the mosque to risk its status by helping Jews, Boubakeur replied: “Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely, it was courageous. It was very courageous. Courageous and natural at the same time.”

Boubakeur showed Satloff a copy of a document from the French Archives. Dated Sept. 24, 1940, the document was a note to the French minister of foreign affairs from the deputy director of the ministry’s Political Department. In it the writer — a bureaucrat identified by the initials “P.H.” — informed his superior about a certain peculiar action taken by the German authorities in Paris. The brief, typewritten note read as follows: “The occupation authorities suspect the personnel of the Mosque of Paris of fraudulently delivering to individuals of the Jewish race certificates attesting that the interested persons are of the Muslim confession. The imam was summoned, in a threatening manner, to put an end to all such practices. It seems, in effect, that a number of Jews resorted to all sorts of maneuvers of this kind to conceal their identity.”

Far from downplaying the role played by the mosque of Paris in rescuing Jews, Satloff points out that its Web site not only includes praise for the “active role” the mosque played during the war “in saving Jews and resistance fighters,” but there is also reference to “the late friend of the mosque, Abraham Assouline, (who) advanced the figure of 1,700 persons.”

This is a story of heroes that needs to be publicized.

A children's book was written about this episode, and a short film dramatizing it can be seen here.

(h/t Abdullah305 via Twitter)

UPDATE: Bataween at Point of No Return has more details.

Abu Sisi reveals Hamas uses mosques for military training

Yesterday, Yediot Aharonot revealed that Abu Sisi, the Gaza engineer who was kidnapped in the Ukraine, has revealed to investigators a treasure trove of facts about Hamas.

Some of the revelations:

The engineer told interrogators that following Operation Cast Lead Gaza, top Hamas terrorist Mohammed Deif and the group's military wing commander Ahmed Jabari found Hamas' operations to be lacking and decided to make Abu Sisi in charge of establishing the organization's new military academy.

"An analysis of the war with Israel was undertaken. It found that a large number of Hamas activists ran away from their positions. A failure occurred in decision-making coupled with an inability to use arms during the battle – because of fear," he said. "A program of study had to be created, in order to improve the situation."

The new academy was tasked with imparting combat methods and tactics to Hamas terrorists, Abu Sisi said. Hamas men were undertaking their studies at mosques, while passing their final exams in known Gaza universities or in mosques.

"The books and academic materials did not bear the Hamas name or logo," he said. Instructors include university lecturers, education ministry officials, merchants and others.

"I assisted Hamas in developing their missile capabilities, by identifying and handing over mathematical equations that improve the metal pipe's ability to withstand pressure and heat," he said. "I was present when a missile was test-fired at the sea in Khan Younis."

Someone should tell Goldstone that Hamas doesn't seem to distinguish between its military its "civilian" wings.

While the information published is very valuable, the impression that the IDF gave initially was that Abu Sisi was much more important than what we are seeing here. It is unclear whether there is a lot more, far more important information that has not been released. Even so, the characterization of him as being only involved with Gaza's electrical plant has been shown to be false.

State Department funds MEMRI to investigate Arab anti-semitism

From Israel HaYom:

The U.S. State Department has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Middle East Media Research Institute to conduct a project that documents anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Holocaust glorification in the Middle East. The grant was awarded by the Office of International Religious Freedom, part of the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

"The grant will enable MEMRI to expand its efforts to monitor the media, translate materials into 10 languages, analyze trends in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and glorification, and increase distribution of materials through its website and other outlets," the State Department said in a statement released Thursday.

Through translations and research, MEMRI aims to inform and educate journalists, government leaders, academia and the general public about trends in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East and South Asia, generating awareness and response to these issues. MEMRI is a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. Its research is translated into 10 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew.

I cannot wait to see the outraged reaction from the many MEMRI critics who get so upset that the organization shines a light on the hate that can be found in the Arabic and Persian media.

Hundreds of millions of American aid - to Hamas

The New York Times reports:

The State Department sent a message to Gaza’s Hamas leaders on Thursday that it would withdraw some $100 million it is spending in Gaza on health care, agriculture and water infrastructure if they did not back off a demand to audit the books of American-financed charities operating there.

The threat, delivered via an intermediary, came after Hamas officials suspended the operation of the International Medical Corps on Sunday for its refusal to submit to a Hamas audit at the charity’s site.

Tensions have been simmering for months over Hamas’s relations with the nongovernmental organizations of a number of countries operating in Gaza as the authorities have sought to increase surveillance of the groups. Early this year, Hamas asked all such groups to register with the central government, pay a fee and submit financial reports.

Although those requests were resisted, most groups ultimately agreed to them, officials at charities based in Gaza said. But in June, when Hamas demanded that the groups permit its officials to audit their books, the objections grew. Though Hamas did not explain the reason for its demand, many governments are suspicious of foreign financing of charities, fearing that money can be diverted for political or intelligence-gathering uses.

For American organizations, United States policy forbids direct contact with Hamas, labeled a terrorist group by the State Department. As a result, on-site audits by Hamas officials would lead to suspension of aid, American officials said. The United States accounts for a large share of the money that foreign governments spend on humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

No doubt the administration would argue that this money goes straight to needy Gazans and non-Hamas projects, and not to Hamas.

Yet this is a fiction. Hamas, as the ruler of Gaza, has a budget - and the money that it doesn't have to pay to keep things running can be freed up to shore up its terror infrastructure.

And everyone knows it:

Aid provided by American and other foreign groups goes to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, where most of the 1.6 million residents are refugees. Like the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Hamas has had trouble meeting its payroll recently, and foreign officials hope that the threat of losing outside financing will persuade Hamas officials to drop their demand.

If there were no relationship between Hamas' budget and Western-backed NGO aid, then why would anyone think that Hamas' financial issues have any relevance to this issue?

The huge amount of money flowing into Gaza from the PA and the West might not officially go to Hamas, but it is clear that Hamas is the main beneficiary.

(h/t David G)

The frustration of the anti-Zionist left (updated)

Joseph Dana writes in the UAE's The National:

Last weekend, more than 300,000 Israelis protested for economic reform throughout the country. In Tel Aviv, the epicentre of the housing protests, 250,000 Israelis marched to the defence ministry chanting the slogan "the people want social justice". The demonstrations were some of the largest in Israel's history and have pumped new life into the corpse of Israel's leftist political movement.

But the one issue glaringly missing from these demonstrations demanding "social justice" is the most urgent social justice issue in the region: the equality of everyone under Israeli rule, including Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Despite the connection between economic hardship and the settlements, Israeli protesters have been careful not to connect their struggle with Palestinian solidarity or an end to occupation.

This is partly tactical. In the climate of radical politics, Israeli public opinion meets any discussion of the occupation with a negative reaction. Protest organisers say economic reform would not receive the 87 per cent public approval rating that it enjoys if the early demonstrations had been overtly anti-occupation. However, after a month of increasing protests, questions about "social justice" can hardly ignore the occupation or unequal conditions for non-Jews.

Organisers are desperate to show that the demonstrations include all Israelis. As the protests have gained momentum, Arab-Israelis, among the most disenfranchised people in the country, have slowly joined. But displays of Zionist politics have been overwhelming.

How can a protest in Israel, borrowing the revolutionary energy of the Arab Spring, ignore Israel's military control of the Palestinians?

Dana and his anti-Israel fellow travelers have been tweeting their frustration about this issue for weeks now. They see the tent protests as an opportunity wasted, as a tragically Zionist phenomenon when it should have been, they believe, an anti-Zionist movement.

Of course, their complaints have been based more on their hatred of Zionism than on any logic.

The protests touch upon a romantic memory of Israel's socialist past, when the entire country felt that it was like one big kibbutz and everyone was in it together. Whether this is true or not, and whether a massive social program would help more than it would ultimately hurt, is not the issue for now - the point is that the tent movement is a quintessentially Zionist response to perceived economic and economic inequity.

In other words, it's the economy, stupid.

Dana and his pals love to say that the "settlements" are the cause of the economy's woes, as they paint a picture of massive Israeli investment in helping crazed rightists on hilltops oppress their Palestinian Arab neighbors. This is false to begin with.

Beyond that, if the anti-Zionist left would get their way and a half million Jews were ethnically cleansed from their homes, it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars - money that every Israeli taxpayer would have to pay! It cost about $2 billion to remove a few thousand Jews from Gaza; the cost of Dana's idea of "social justice" would be a huge burden on the Israeli economy, making the chances of affordable housing in Israel much more remote. As much as Dana loves to pretend that the settlements are expensive, he never addresses the flip side.

If you want a back of the envelope calculation, Ha'aretz reported that the total cost of building the Jewish communities across the Green Line was $17 billion - of which $13.5 billion were for the homes that the Jewish residents paid for themselves, Many of the other public buildings like synagogues were paid for by the residents as well, not the state. It would cost an order of magnitude more to evict them, and such a move would hugely exacerbate the housing crisis that prompted the tent protests to begin with.

So Dana's agenda is exactly the opposite of that of the tent-protesters. He wants them to pay a massive personal price for a program of ethnic cleansing that they do not support.

There is, of course, another angle that Dana and his fellow anti-Zionists always ignore as they push their half-baked arguments. Israelis - real Israelis of all types, right and left, not the coffee-shop Tel Avivians of Dana's world - have become extraordinarily cynical about Palestinian Arabs.

The Israeli Left enthusiastically supported Oslo. Even though there were plenty of terror attacks during the process in the 1990s, before the intifada, they were downplayed by the government and the media because of the desire for peace which seemed at hand.

Arafat's intransigence at Camp David, followed immediately with the pre-planned terror war that cost thousands of lives, left the Left with no one who really believed in the peace process. Sure, the Ha'aretz crowd would still push the concept, but real Israelis, including the Left, saw that the PLO's goals were far from peaceful. They felt let down and their idealism crumbled.

From an economic perspective, the PLO-engineered intifada was hugely expensive. The additional security measures cost Israeli taxpayers - a cost that continues to this day.

Dana and his friends will never mention the intifada except in how they believe it was justified by Israeli policies. To them, the intifada is another "social justice" movement, and they cannot figure out the difference between Arab suicide bombers and tent-dwellers on Rothschild Boulevard.

Dana's world does not include the Zionist Left, the mainstream Left that built the state (and, incidentally, is part of the government.) His viewpoints are fringe within Israeli society. His stated objective would result in the exact opposite to what the protesters want.

And his knowledge that his opinions are so far out of whack with those of the mainstream is frustrating him to no end.

UPDATE: The paragraph I struck out was overly harsh towards Dana, and I apologize for that. I didn't know that he had lost family members in terror attacks. I don't want it to detract from my main points, though.

Dana did not accept my apology. Instead, in reply he insulted me on Twitter, saying that I "care nothing for human life whether israeli, palestinian or otherwise" and that I am "disgusting" and I am a "pusher of vile hate."

Of course, he refused to apologize for these far worse insults to me. And (as I pointed out to him) I never saw him use such words against the ISM, which explicitly supports the murderers under the name "resistance." He quotes Electronic Intifada liberally without any note of irony about the name of the site. But those purveyors of hate are not nearly as bad as I am, apparently.

Pro-Mubarak Egyptian singer accuses Pepsi, Coke of being behind revolution

From Al Ahram:

Crooner and music composer Amr Mostafa prompted a flurry of activity on social media after making a host of particularly odd comments on the January 25 Revolution and its instigators.

The once-popular artist is convinced that some renowned global companies were behind the triggering of the 18-day revolt, citing the slogans of these corporations as evidence.

During an interview on Mehwar TV, Mostafa referred to one of Pepsi’s advertising campaign slogans that reads “Express your opinion; who can match you?” saying it was actually a hint dropped by the American company to reveal in a witty manner that it had a hand in the Egyptian uprising.

He also accused Coca-Cola of being involved in the same plot, as he interpreted its slogan “Delivering 125 Years of Happiness” as a reference to the revolution’s date, 25-1-2011.

British telecommunications company Vodafone was also on Mostafa’s list, thanks to its slogan “The power is in your hands.”

Mostafa, who turned out to be one of the most loyal disciples of toppled president Hosni Mubarak and is on the artists’ blacklist, as a result, told TV host Riham Saied in a confident tone: “All the American companies represent the revolution. When you say ‘Express your opinion, who can match you?’ what does that have to do with some beverage?

“Are they trying to say that they were behind the revolution? When you say 125 years, what’s that supposed to mean? When I travelled abroad they told me there is no such thing; so are they trying to refer to the day the revolt began? And what does ‘The power in your hands’ mean?” he said without mentioning the companies’ names.

During the same show, Rasd, Mostafa stirred up more controversy by saying that the word “want” in Arabic is originated from Hebrew, trying to cast doubts over the famous chant “the people want to bring the regime down,” which was repeated quite frequently during the revolution.

The article goes on to note that Egyptians are rightly making fun of him for these ridiculous assertions.

UNRWA suspends operations in Jenin

From Ma'an:

UNRWA announced on Thursday the suspension of its operations indefinitely in the West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp beginning Friday.

The organization called the step "regrettable" and said it came in response to "continued threats to our employees and staff in the area" without elaborating on the nature of the threats.

The statement added that suspension of its operations includes relief and social services. An employment assistance office and the office of its refugee camp manager will also close.

UNRWA said it could not offer services to refugees amidst an atmosphere of "violence and threats," adding that UNRWA employees and its facilities became unsafe in light of these threats.

This is a natural result of having generations of people raised to expect everything should be provided to them for free, combined with a culture that praises violence.

For some reason the Western reaction has consistently been to reward this behavior.

Which is reason #3764 why real peace is impossible in this generation.

Beirut "work accident" victims were from Hezbollah

From AFP earlier:

Two men were killed in a Beirut parking lot on Thursday when explosives they were handling detonated, a police official told AFP.

"Two people were killed in the blast that took place in a parking lot, near a commercial centre in Antelias," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity and referring to a Christian suburb of the Lebanese capital.

A passerby was also wounded in the explosion, he added.

A witness said he saw rescuers carrying away from the site a man whose arm and leg had been torn off.

A pool of blood could be seen on the ground in the parking lot, where several cars were damaged. Army and police forces immediately rushed to the site and cordoned off the area.

The official identified the two victims as Ihsan Dia and Hassan Nassar, and said they were handling explosives when the blast occurred.

"They were either holding the bomb or had explosives strapped to their bodies when the blast occurred," he said. "Their bodies were torn apart.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said the two victims had been seated in a car in the parking lot, adding that one of them was the owner of the vehicle.

It turns out that the 'splodeys are Hezbollah:

New TV quoted on Thursday security sources as saying that the two men who died in the Antelias bombing earlier in the day were Hezbollah members.

“The two men intended to cause commotion in the Christian regions of Beirut,” the sources added.

Al-Manar TV denied the “allegations” of the sources, but did not refute that the victims' surnames indicate that they might be affiliated with Hezbollah.

But don't call Hezbollah a terrorist organization. It makes them angry, and who knows what they will do when they are angry?

Hezbollah MP describes plan to destroy Israel

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Hizbullah MP Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Walid Sakariya, which aired on ANB TV on August 7, 2011.

Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Walid Sakariya: Iran is the country most hostile to Israel, but Iraq serves as a buffer between Iran and the Palestine front – from the days of Saddam Hussein and until the US military presence in Iraq. Iran supports the forces of confrontation: Hamas, Hizbullah, and Syria.

If, following the US withdrawal, Iraq becomes a bridge linking Iran to Syria, the Iranian forces could cross Iraq and arrive in Syria, in order to participate in a direct war on the Golan front.

In that case, Israel would not be fighting Hizbullah alone. It would be fighting Hizbullah, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This is the so-called "Shiite Crescent" that they fear. Since Iran dominates this [axis], the Arab countries refer to it as the "Shiite Crescent."

If Hizbullah has 5,000 missiles and can destroy some targets in Israel, the equation will completely change when Syria and Iran join the war. You will have the strategic superiority and a force large enough to pulverize Israel, even if this war costs you hundreds of thousands of martyrs – not just 1,000 or 2,000. You will enter this war with a population mass exceeding 100 million.

[...]

If Syria, as a confrontation country, fails, America and the Zionist enterprise will be victorious.

Interviewer: Syria is that important...

Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Walid Sakariya: Of course. But if Syria is victorious as a confrontation country, Israel will come to an end. There are military balances. Hizbullah can defeat Israel, but it cannot abolish it. If Syria enters a war with Israel, it may be able to regain the Golan, but it will not be able to liberate Haifa and Tel Aviv.

However, Hizbullah, Syria, Iraq, and Iran will constitute a force that is militarily superior to Israel and will destroy it. They will wage a war and might even suffer hundreds of thousands of martyrs – because Israel might use the nuclear weapon in order to survive – but nevertheless, this war will put an end to Israel.

To some people, this is just more proof that Israel has to work harder and offer more in order to bring peace. (Or, that always fun alternative - that peace should be imposed by the US.)

Either way, clearly Israel must do more to make the Arab world happy!

(h/t Yoel)

Iranians arrested for - a water fight

A Tehran water gun fight, with consequences, that took place on July 29th.

From Radio Free Europe:

Yet again, a number of young people have been arrested in the Iranian capital.

Their crime: engaging in a water fight.

The evidence: water guns and bottles.

The accusations against them: violating Islamic principles and norms.

It sounds absurd, but sadly it's the reality in the Islamic Republic of Iran where, among other things, having a bit of fun can also land one in prison.

The young women and men had gathered last week in a Tehran park, ironically named the Garden of Water and Fire, and splashed water at each other.

The event, planned and organized on Facebook, had reportedly attracted around 800 people. Pictures of the event show happy girls and boys soaked with water, carrying colorful water guns.

They weren't chanting opposition slogans or protesting against the government, but they were having a good time in public, which can be seen to challenge state-enforced codes of conduct. Their photos were shared on websites, blogs, and social media.

Many praised them for their creativity, for managing to organize the event, and also for having fun, which is not always easy in Iran.

Not everyone was happy, though. Conservative websites used the "incriminating" photos to accuse the young people of immorality and corruption.

On July 31, Tehran's police chief, Hossein Sajedinia, said a group of young Tehran residents were arrested for splashing water at each other. Sajedinia warned that the police would act against others who disrupted "public order and security." He provided no details on the number of arrests.

One parliament deputy, Mousa Ghazanfarabadi, said the organizers of the event were trying to distance the youth from Islamic principles and the values of the Islamic republic. Another lawmaker, Hossein Ebrahim, called on the judiciary to take action against similar events.

It looks like they had a lot of fun before the police moved in.

30 were arrested; all of them have now been freed.

Bar Refaeli is a dirty girl

Israeli model Bar Refaeli tweeted yesterday from the Dead Sea:

*muddy* but feels good!! DEAD SEA- if you haven't been... well, sucks for you!

Click to see entire photo.

PalArab leader threatens US if it vetoes PalArab state

I have previously discussed "the diplomacy of fear," where Arabs and Muslims will threaten huge uprisings unless they get their way - a time tested formula since at least 1877.

Today, Marwan Barghouti gets in on the threats. from AFP:

A Palestinian leader jailed in Israel has warned Washington that vetoing a Palestinian state at the United Nations would spark huge regional protests, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported Wednesday.

Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the dominant Fatah party convicted of organising attacks against Israelis during a revolt that started in 2000, gave an interview to MENA through his lawyer from an Israeli prison.

"Voting against the Palestinian state would be a historic, deadly mistake in the record of US President Barack Obama, in whom there was hope for change," he said of Palestinian plans to ask the United Nations for state recognition.

Washington, which has failed in its efforts to mediate peace between the Palestinians and Israel, will veto the proposal if it reaches the UN Security Council.

"Such a veto will be confronted by millions-strong protests throughout the Arab and Muslim world, indeed throughout the whole world," Barghuti was quoted as saying.

Arabic accounts have him saying that a veto would signal the end to Washington's role in the region. His threats and rhetoric were far more extreme than was quoted by AFP:

[He said] the use of Washington's veto would be an example of "international terrorism" and the United States should reconsider its position on this matter, because the veto will not be directed against the Palestinians only, but against all the Arab nation and its against all the Islamic nation and its against the four-fifths of humanity, which supports the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Of course, when westerners capitulate to such threats then they become more effective, and in a few years we would be hearing that unless mosques are taller than churches in every town the Muslim world will rise up and protest.

Crown Heights and the NYT: The must-read article of the day

The Jewish Week published an incredible piece by Ari L. Goldman about how the New York Times refused to report the facts of the anti-semitic Crown Heights riots of 1991 and instead relied on its own, trusted memes:

...When I picked up the paper, the article I read was not the story I had reported. I saw headlines that described the riots in terms solely of race. “Two Deaths Ignite Racial Clash in Tense Brooklyn Neighborhood,” the Times headline said. And, worse, I read an opening paragraph, what journalists call a “lead,” that was simply untrue:

“Hasidim and blacks clashed in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn through the day and into the night yesterday.”

In all my reporting during the riots I never saw — or heard of — any violence by Jews against blacks. But the Times was dedicated to this version of events: blacks and Jews clashing amid racial tensions. To show Jewish culpability in the riots, the paper even ran a picture — laughable even at the time — of a chasidic man brandishing an open umbrella before a police officer in riot gear. The caption read: “A police officer scuffling with a Hasidic man yesterday on President Street.”

I was outraged but I held my tongue. I was a loyal Times employee and deferred to my editors. I figured that other reporters on the streets were witnessing parts of the story I was not seeing.
But then I reached my breaking point. On Aug. 21, as I stood in a group of chasidic men in front of the Lubavitch headquarters, a group of demonstrators were coming down Eastern Parkway. “Heil Hitler,” they chanted. “Death to the Jews.”

Police in riot gear stood nearby but did nothing.

Suddenly rocks and bottles started to fly toward us and a chasidic man just a few feet away from me was hit in the throat and fell to the ground. Some ran to help the injured man but most of us ran for cover. I ran for a payphone and, my hands shaking with rage, dialed my editor. I spoke in a way that I never had before or since when talking to a boss.

“You don’t know what’s happening here!” I yelled. “I am on the streets getting attacked. Someone next to me just got hit. I am writing memos and what comes out in the paper? ‘Hasidim and blacks clashed’? That’s not what is happening here. Jews are being attacked! You’ve got this story all wrong. All wrong.”

I didn’t blame the “rewrite” reporter. I blamed the editors. It was clear that they had settled on a “frame” for the story. The way they saw it, there were two narratives here: the white narrative and the black narrative. And both had equal weight.

There can be no better description of media coverage of Israel than reading about how the Times covered the 1991 pogrom.

Truth is not the objective in today's media - "even-handedness" is. Arab anti-semitism is downplayed or, more often, ignored. Daily, we see Arab leaders making it clear that the ultimate objective of a Palestinian Arab state is really the destruction of the Jewish state, but that does not get publicized. An entire population that cheers terror attacks gets swept under the rug.

Instead, we see absurd stories where people who would be considered extremists in any other context are now dubbed to be moderate - because there happen to be other people who are even more extreme.

And it all happens because the all-knowing editors at key newsrooms have decided that they have a "frame" and nothing that extends outside those boundaries can be reported.

Editors and publishers will not report stories as they really are, warts and all. Instead, they choose only the news that fits their frames. By doing that, they think they have proven their point, since most of the world will never see the pesky facts that don't fit the memes.

They are not reporting the news - they are twisting facts into how they believe the news should be.

The most charitable explanation is that this is a supreme form of laziness - to write stories that everyone has already seen before. But it is more than that. It is a reflection of the political and social beliefs of the editors and reporters and publishers, beliefs that they are proselytizing under the guise of "news."

Some things cannot and should not be reported in an even-handed way. Sometimes both sides of the story do not deserve equal weight. Sometimes there is a right and a wrong.

Goldman notes a grotesque equivalence in the Times between the tragically killed Gavin Cato and the victim of hate Yankel Rosenbaum.

Perhaps most troubling was an article written in the midst of the rioting under this headline: “Amid Distrust in Brooklyn: Boy and Scholar Fall Victim.” The article compared the life of Gavin Cato, the 7-year-old boy killed in the car accident that spurred the riots, and the life of Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, who was stabbed to death later that night. It recycled every newspaper cliché and was an insult to the memory of both victims, but, again, it fit the frame.
“They did not know each other,” the article said. “They had no reason to know… They died unaware….” In the eyes of the Times, the deaths were morally equivalent and had equal weight.

Yet ten years later the New York Times wrote something far more sickening, in its profile of a female suicide bomber and one of her victims:

The suicide bomber and her victim look strikingly similar.

Two high school seniors in jeans with flowing black hair, the teenage girls walked next to each other up to the entrance of a Jerusalem supermarket last Friday.

Ayat al-Akhras, 18, from the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, was carrying a bomb. Rachel Levy, 17, from a neighborhood nearby, was carrying her mother's shopping list for a Sabbath eve dinner.

The vastly different trajectories of their lives intersected for one deadly moment, mirroring the intimate conflict of their two peoples. At the door of the supermarket, Ms. Akhras detonated the explosives, killing Ms. Levy and a security guard, along with herself.

...The daughter of a refugee family originally from the Gaza Strip, Ms. Akhras grew up in Dheisheh, a grim warren of alleys and tightly packed dwellings that house 12,000 people on the southern edge of Bethlehem.

She was the 7th of 11 children, living in a bare third-story apartment down one of the camp's narrow streets.

Despite the violence and turmoil of the past 18 months, Ms. Akhras stuck to a steady routine, her relatives said. Every morning at 7 o'clock, she would leave home for the half-hour walk to school at the neighboring village of Artas. She would return home in the afternoon and devote herself to homework and housework: cooking, ironing, doing the laundry.

A top student with superior grades, she was preparing for graduation exams in a few months and planned to study journalism at a West Bank university, said her father, Muhammad Akhras, a construction foreman. ''She studied all the time,'' said a brother, Fathi Akhras.

On Sept. 1, 2000, she became engaged to Shadi Abu Laban, a tile layer from Dheisheh. They were to be married in August.

Ms. Levy was also preparing for graduation exams. Her specialty in school was photography, and she recently completed a final photo project whose theme was water: pictures of a waterfall, a street puddle, a pond.

See how human the terrorist is? She's just like her victim - high school student, dedicated daughter, studious, serious! She's just as human as her victim, who tragically happened to be where this wonderful bomber decided to blow herself up.

This is the end result of such disgusting dedication to false memes. And the New York Times is hardly the only newspaper that distorts news through the lens of its almighty memes.

"Israeli airspace a prison"

From Alaa Tartir in Ma'an:

On a recent journey from Ramallah to London -- of course through the compulsory Amman route as the West Bank is not allowed an airport -- I experienced a new form of Israeli detention, this time in Israeli airspace.

It was an unpleasant experience, as passengers were forbidden from fulfilling basic human needs such as using the toilet, receiving food or water, or moving between seats to chat with friends.

I am fully aware that the denial of these basic human needs does not compare with the everyday violations of human rights that the Palestinians suffer on the ground due to the Israeli occupation, or with other violations of human rights in the wider region.

But, while traveling, I was puzzled by a simple question: How many people from all over the world are imprisoned everyday in Israeli airspace?
...

On my flight back to London, I sat in the front row opposite the crew manager.

Early on in the flight, the pilot announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now entering Israeli airspace and due to security requirements, all passengers must remain seated with their seat belts fastened until a further notice."

I looked at the crew manger at that point and said: "I am in an urgent need to use the toilet, can I please use it?"

While I felt like a pupil asking his teacher in the classroom for permission to use the bathroom, she told me confidently, "Sorry sir, this is not allowed at the moment, please wait and hold it."

I tried again, and she refused once again.

When I asked why, she told me "Due to the rules and regulations."

I asked which "rules and regulations," and after some hesitation, she said she truly didn't know but "We have been told that if any passenger moves that will be a threat to the Israeli security."

As a passenger, I felt I deserved a satisfactory reason why using the toilet presented a threat to Israel's security. I asked how she felt about this "plane arrest" for herself and the passengers she flew with to Amman.

As she blushed, the passenger next to me introduced himself as an American Jew and said: "So the government of Israel is also arresting us, the Jewish people."

I tell this story for illustrative reasons: my concern is that these airlines accept Israel's demand to "arrest" their passengers and deny their basic human rights.

How do the global civil aviation regulations allow Israel to apply this pressure? Why don't the stakeholders confront this policy? Why does the international community allow it?

I want to illustrate that the occupation follows us all, not just Palestinians, who try to fly freely.

There was a similar article in the Jordan Times a couple of years ago, blaming "the usual Israeli arrogance." (Interestingly, it mentions that some flights ignore people who walk about at the time.)

Of course, neither writer bothers to do a modicum of research to find out why these restrictions might be in place. They are interested in bashing Israel, not in doing reporting. And their audience certainly doesn't want to know whether any of these restrictions are anything but Israel acting like a bully for no reason.

There is indeed a rule that Israel requests passengers sit down while in Israeli airspace. And the reason is simple: fears of a 9/11 style attack.

From The Telegraph, December 2009, which discussed restrictions on flights to and from the US at the time due to fears of specific terrorist activity:

Up to 25,000 people were caught up in the disruption at British airports on Sunday as airlines scrambled extra staff to cope with demands from US authorities which were kept deliberately “unpredictable” to wrong-foot terrorists.

The most stringent restrictions came as aircraft entered US airspace, with passengers confined to their seats for the last hour of their flight, banned from having access to books, newspapers or even blankets or pillows.

The clampdown came as airlines around the world responded to new rules from the US Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) in the wake of the Detroit bombing attempt.

The restrictions imposed for the final hour are similar to anti-hijacking rules already in place on flights to Israel.

“Once you are within 200 miles of Israeli airspace, passengers have to sit down,” one pilot said.

“The idea is that it makes it possible to scramble fighter jets and escort the plane in.

“If you do try to move in the last hour, it does draw attention to you.”

Since Israel is obviously the top target for terrorists, and one whose security posture is always at the level that the US was in December 2009, the 30-minute requirement of staying in one's seats does not seem so absurd anymore.

But don't tell that to Alaa Tartir. He isn't interested in the truth. His point is to get everyone to be upset that Israeli "occupation" affects even people who aren't Palestinian Arab.