Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Latest bizarre conspiracy theory: Hafez Assad sold the Golan to Israel

Nuttiness at Albawaba:

Dr. Mahmoud Jame', a close friend to late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has recently raised an interesting issue when he said that Sadat was briefed on the secret that the Golan Heights were actually sold to Israel in ahead of the 1967 War in exchange for US$100 million. Dr. Jame', a member of the first Consultative Council in Egypt, and author of the book "I Knew Sadat", said that the money was received by Rifaat al-Assad and his brother Hafez Assad, the former Syrian president. The check was deposited in a Swiss bank.

Jame' went on to say that, "one morning Sadat took me with him in private and without a guard to the (Syrian part of the) Golan Heights, and I swear by the Almighty God that he put his hand on my shoulder and as we were standing on the Golan Heights, he told me literally: Look Mahmoud. This is the Golan, can any power seize it so easily, even if it is Israel?" And Jame' said, "I said to Sadat this is impossible, he said to me I will tell you a dangerous secret, the Golan Heights were purchased by Israel for $100 million. The check was received by both Hafez and Rifaat al-Assad and deposited in their accounts in a Swiss bank."

The price in return was that Syrian Defense Minister at the time, Hafez Assad, order the Syrian forces to withdraw immediately from the Golan Heights in the June 1967 war without firing a single shot and handing it over to Israel. "This story and my testimony of this event, has been kept secret for many years until 1999, when I alluded in the book "I Knew Sadat" to the incident without revealing the full details. In 2006, when I was hosted by Almihwar channel, I provided the full details frankly, to the extent that even Moataz was stunned," the Egyptian writer said.

"The next day, Almihwar hosted Mr. Amin Gemayel, Lebanon's former president, and the subject was raised with him. He supported my words. Then the Beirut-based Future channel tried to invite me to Beirut to discuss the subject, but I apologized, and refused," he added.

Syrian sources dismiss the Egyptian writer's claims. They claim this "baseless" story is part of a smear campaign against the Assad regime.

So Syria withdrew from the Golan without firing a shot? Who knew?

I wonder how much Damascus would cost.

Administrivia/open thread

I haven't figured out yet how to automatically post there, but I now have a Google Plus page for those interested.

Blogger has added something called "dynamic pages" where you can view the blog in completely different ways. It does not yet have all the features I need - no sidebars or widgets, for example - but for those who have problems reading the blog, you can play with a live version of the Magazine style of the blog. If they add the customization features I need, I will probably redesign the blog around that format.

And stay tuned - it looks like there will be a live presentation of the 2011 Hasby Awards again this year, with some special surprises! More details to come.

Tunisian TV executive to stand trial for showing "offensive" cartoon

From AFP:

The head of a Tunisian television station whose broadcast of “Persepolis” sparked violent protests, said Wednesday he faced trial and up to three years in jail if convicted of offending Islamic values.

Nabil Karoui, the head of Nessma television, told AFP he was being prosecuted for having “violating sacred values, good morals and disturbing public order” by broadcasting the film in October.

If convicted, he faced up to three years in prison, he said.

“I am going to plead not guilty, of course,” he told AFP ahead of the trial opening on Thursday.

Nessma TV’s broadcast of the film on October 7, dubbed into the Tunisian dialect, provoked a wave of protests that included an attack on the station’s offices and violent street protests.

“Persepolis,” a globally acclaimed animated film on Iran’s 1979 revolution, offended many Muslims because of a scene showing a representation of God. All depictions of God are forbidden by Islam.

Karoui quickly apologised for the broadcast, but that did not stop the protests.

After an evening of street clashes on October 14, about 100 men firebombed Karoui’s home. He was not at home but his family had to flee.

Witnesses described the assailants, who were armed with Molotov cocktails, knives and swords, as members of the ultra-conservative Salafist sect.

The film’s showing came less than two weeks before historic polls on October 23 to elect a constituent assembly, the first since January’s overthrow of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisia’s Islamist party Ennahda, which emerged as the largest party after the vote, condemned the violence but also denounced the broadcast of the film as a “provocation”.

Karoui said the case had been brought after a complaint filed by more than 140 lawyers.

“It is scandalous that I should be the one to appear when the people who burned my house down have been released,” he said.

“The new defenders of the moral order in Tunisia want to make an example of me. We are in a moral dictatorship even worse than under Ben Ali. Under the old regime I never had death threats,” he added.

The TV station was attacked at the time of the broadcast as well.

The film itself looks very good; it is an autobiographical coming-of-age story about an Iranian woman who simply does not fit in. it has won a number of awards.

And here's how God looks in the movie:

Another threat from Iran

From FARS agency:

A senior Iranian military commander lashed out at the Zionist regime's officials for their pleasure in the death of a number of Iranian IRGC forces and commander in the Saturday blast at an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps base near Tehran, saying that the reaction of the Zionists signified their arrogant nature.

Addressing a gathering here in Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri pointed to the recent remarks made by the Israeli officials who hailed the deadly blast in Tehran, and stated, "That they voice satisfaction in the killing of innocent people showed the arrogant nature of these regimes."

Jazzayeri is deeply offended that anyone could say anything positive over the deaths of innocents.

How touching! How moral! How peaceful!

And immediately after:

"But, the Zionist regime should worry about the time when the sound of such powerful explosions are heard in Tel Aviv and other parts of the occupied territories (Israel)," Jazzayeri noted.

He seems to be pretty happy at the prospect, doesn't he?

Because, to him and to the Iranian regime, no one in Israel is considered innocent.

And who would be behind such powerful explosions in Tel Aviv, anyway?

USAF gets 30,000 pound "bunker buster"

From Bloomberg:

The U.S. Air Force has taken delivery of a new 30,000-pound bomb from Boeing Co. (BA) that’s capable of penetrating deeply buried enemy targets.

The huge bunker buster, dubbed the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, is built to fit the B-2 stealth bomber. The Air Force Global Strike Command started receiving the bombs in September, Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jack Miller said in a short statement to Bloomberg News.

Mockup of MOP, from great article here.

The deliveries “will meet requirements for the current operational need,” he said.

The Air Force in 2009 said Boeing might build as many as 16 of the munitions. Miller yesterday had no details on how many the Air Force plans to buy. Boeing in August received a $32 million contract that included eight of the munitions.

Command head Lieutenant General James Kowalski told the annual Air Force Association conference in September the command “completed integration” of the bunker-buster bomb with the B- 2, “giving the war-fighter increased capability against hardened and deeply buried targets.”

The bomb is the U.S. military’s largest conventional penetrator. It’s six times bigger than the 5,000-pound bunker buster that the Air Force now uses to attack deeply buried nuclear, biological or chemical sites.

Chicago-based Boeing is manufacturing the bomb, which was successfully demonstrated in March 2007.

The new, 20.5-foot-long bomb carries more than 5,300 pounds of explosives and is guided by Global Positioning System satellites, according to a description on the Web site of the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

The specifications:

Length: 20.5 feet (6.2 m) [7]
Diameter: 31.5 inches (0.8 m) [7]
Weight: 30,000 pounds (14 metric tons)
Warhead: 5,300 pounds (2.4 metric tons) high explosive
Penetration:
200 ft (61 m) of 5,000 psi (34 MPa) reinforced concrete
26 ft (7.9 m) of 10,000 psi (69 MPa) reinforced concrete
130 ft (40 m) of moderately hard rock

This is one really big bomb.

Yet it isn't the biggest bomb ever manufactured.

Demonizing Israel through the Bedouin of the Negev

Ha'aretz last month wrote:

Researchers who have spent much of the past several decades studying and documenting the Bedouin Arabs of Israel's Negev Desert claim that a government plan to relocate tens of thousands of Bedouin would be a gross injustice.

Ethnographer Clinton Bailey, who has authored volumes about Bedouin poetry, proverbs and legal traditions, says he is pessimistic about the Prawer Plan, which would effectively extinguish the Bedouin's land claims without adequate compensation.

The Prawer plan, which the government approved on September 11 and is supposed to take effect in three weeks' time, would appropriate land where between 20,000 and 30,000 Bedouin are living in villages that are not recognized by the state and which do not receive government services, such as electric power and other utilities.

Some of those Bedouin will be compensated for their losses, receiving either a cash payout or deed to another piece of real estate elsewhere in the country. But not all of the Bedouin who have land claims are able to produce documentation that meets the requirements laid out in the Prawer plan.

"They're giving the Bedouin much too little, much less than they deserve," says Bailey, who has reported on Bedouin life since the late 1960s. "It doesn't really relate to all the Bedouin population, whereas it should, in terms of reparations for land that's been taken, in land or in money."

Bailey also says that the wording of the government plan is as insulting as its terms. "The language of it is too sharp, as if they're doing the Bedouin a big favor, which the Bedouin will never take," Bailey says. "Generally speaking, most Bedouin are opposed to it."

This is a pretty typical article from the media on this topic which downplays Israel's legal rights and romanticizes the Bedouin as majestic creatures of the desert fighting for their way of life.

The facts are a bit different.

A legal scholar on a mailing list I receive describes it this way (referring to a similar article from a couple of months ago, and I'm putting together portions from several posts):

Like most articles about the phenomenon, this one misleads the reader into thinking that the problem is that Israel is refusing to grant zoning rights and recognition of existing municipalities, and that it is denying Bedouin property rights, when the real problem is that the Bedouin are illegally squatting on state land and stealing water and electricity as well as the land itself. A group of land squatters on state land are land thieves even if they prefer to call themselves an "unrecognized village." The land thieves don't have "traditional property rights" just because they have what the writer considers a quaint lifestyle. Observing that the Bedouins are living on stolen land does not constitute evidence that Israelis are racist.

The state is attempting to resolve the problem of rampant land theft not by enforcing the law but by granting Bedouin free land rights in new and existing villages in exchange for their yielding possession of the land they stole. The Bedouin land claims are from recent unlawful possession of state land, and have no basis in Israeli law, and would not be recognized in Mandatory or Ottoman law either, but the state is nevertheless offering generous compensation for surrendering the claims. And the Bedouin have consistently rejected the deal; they are not interested in any bargain that involves their yielding possession of the stolen land.

The Bedouin do not have land claims that are recognized by law now. The claims are without basis in Israeli law (as they would be under Mandatory and Ottoman law). They have land claims that are recognized by NGO’s because they are asserted against the state of Israel. Fear of adverse publicity has meant that Israel has very rarely undertaken enforcement measures, even after winning judgments in court.

The same situation will prevail after the land giveaways. That, in fact, is what happened after Israel created Rahat, and gave away the land there. Israel has created villages for Bedouin, and given away land to Bedouin in those villages “in exchange” for land claims elsewhere. This has not prevented the tribes who now own land in the villages from also continuing to claim land elsewhere. As long as there are government officials willing to cave in and grant land in exchange for new made-up land claims, there will be Bedouin ready and willing to make up new land claims.

In the 1950’s they didn't have any legal property claims either. The Ottomans introduced land registries. The Bedouins of the Negev decided that the price of legal property rights was taxes and that was too high a price to pay. Their choice. But you can’t now turn around and say that they have inherited legal property rights that were already voluntarily relinquished decades before there was a state of Israel. And, incidentally, most of the Bedouin claims today are “inherited” from persons that were not in Israel in the 1950’s.

Bedouin get the same welfare services as everyone else, and they exploit them to the fullest. What Bedouin don’t get is state subsidies of municipal services to fictitious municipalities on stolen land. Jews don’t either. The state of Israel doesn’t collect garbage in Jewish municipalities either. I would be delighted if the Bedouin would compare their situation to Jews and demand equal treatment. They would receive far less generous treatment from the state. It is crazy to have villages created on stolen state land. It would be yet more crazy for the state to pay the thieves to build schools, water and electricity infrastructure and garbage collection systems.

There is a very good and largely sympathetic article in Jewish Ideas Daily today, by Diana Muir Appelbaum, that shows an analogy between the Bedouin of the Negev with the Irish Travelers (Gypsies) of the UK:

The chronically tense relations between the Israeli government and Bedouins in the Negev—where unrecognized villages are built, razed, and built again—are certain to grow even more tense with the Israeli Cabinet's recent approval of a plan that will recognize about half these villages but demolish the other half, sending their 30,000 residents to existing Bedouin towns.

But if the Bedouins were to vanish, magically replaced in the Negev by the Irish Travelers (Gypsies) who were recently evicted from their unauthorized settlement at Dale Farm in the United Kingdom, Israeli authorities could be forgiven for failing to see any material difference.

In the 1980's, the Council of Basildon let a few Travelers pitch caravans at nearby Dale Farm when they were not on the road; but the Council denied permission for further settlement in what is part of England's "Green Belt." Last month, after years of lawsuits, the Council got permission to clear 86 families from Dale Farm—and did so, not without raucous protests, unfavorable media attention, and a mediation offer from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Like Bedouin culture, traditional Traveler culture is itinerant. Both groups regard their way of life as superior to that of farmers and town dwellers. Both hold honor dear and define honor in strikingly similar ways: A husband protects and provides for his women. A wife obeys her husband and does not work outside the home. Girls regularly drop out long before the legal school-leaving age and are often married by sixteen. A man gains status by fathering many children, especially sons, and engaging in traditional occupations like animal breeding. Factory and service jobs are scorned.

Job prospects in the animal-breeding business aren't what they used to be, but modernity has otherwise been surprisingly generous to Travelers and Bedouin. In both the United Kingdom and Israel, government welfare benefits, including monthly payments to parents for every child, provide significant income support. New opportunities, some in what may euphemistically be called the non-regular economy, have also contributed to unprecedented prosperity. And modern medicine means that 10 or 12 children in a family can grow to healthy adulthood. In sum, Travelers and Bedouin have unprecedented resources with which to achieve the large family ideal. In fact, these circumstances have helped make polygamy far more widespread among the Bedouin than it was in Ottoman times, when few men could afford a second wife.

Modern society does not, however, approve of living in caravans or tents pitched wherever the family chooses. In Britain, as in Israel, the government wants traditionally itinerant people to keep their children in school, take jobs in the regular economy, and move into housing that is built to code. For their part, the Travelers, like the Bedouin, prefer to live in rural settings where they can park caravans or pitch tents beside homes that they build themselves and keep livestock near the house. Not only at Dale Farm but across England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, Travelers find that the number of places where itinerants can lawfully camp in this manner is dwindling; and when they form settlements without a permit, the authorities enforce the law.

...These controversies are, in essence, struggles over identity. Such struggles between modern societies and itinerant groups are as inevitable as they are painful and universal.

Read the whole article.

The upshot is that the romanticizing of the Bedouin, as is often the case, has nothing to do with their legal rights and everything to do with using them as yet more ammunition against Israel.

See? He wants peace!

According to the Wafa agency, there were rallies to mark the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death in Beirut, Berlin and Moscow.

In Beirut a Fatah leader used classic doublespeak by saying that Palestinians in Lebanon are guests, with rights and obligations, and they want civil and human rights to live in dignity until their return, refusing resettlement and displacement. In fact, as I have documented, every time Palestinian Arabs had the chance to become citizens of Lebanon they jumped at the opportunity.

In Berlin the event opened with verses from the Quran, followed by the Palestinian national anthem, and then a film documentary about the milestones in the life of the "martyr Abu Ammar."

In Moscow, the PLO representative there said that the syphilitic killer was "a symbol for all those seeking freedom and justice in this world."

Meanwhile, a 30-episode TV series on the distinguished career of the would-be genocidal mass murderer has been announced to be shown by the TV network of one of those freedom-seeking and justice-pursuing countries that admire Arafat so much - Syria.

Israel working with Kenya against Islamists

From the BBC:

Israel has offered to help Kenya secure its borders as it tackles Somalia's Islamist group, al-Shabab, the Kenyan prime minister's office has said.

It said Kenya got the backing of Israel to "rid its territory of fundamentalist elements" during Prime Minister Raila Odinga's visit to the country.

Last month, Kenya sent troops to neighbouring Somalia to defeat al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda.

It blames the militants for a spate of abductions on its side of the border.

In a statement, Mr Odinga's office quotes Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that "Kenya's enemies are Israel's enemies".

"We have similar forces planning to bring us down," he is is quoted as saying. "I see it as an opportunity to strengthen ties."

At least 15 people were killed in a suicide bombing on an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa in 2002.

Four years earlier, more than 200 people were killed in co-ordinated bomb blasts on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Al-Qaeda carried out the attacks, with some of its senior members operating from Somalia.

Mr Odinga - who is accompanied on the visit by Internal Security Minister George Saitoti - said Israel could help Kenya's police force detect and destroy al-Shabab's networks in Kenya.

Kenya also needed Israel to provide vehicles for border patrols and equipment for sea surveillance to curb piracy off the East African coast, he said.

"We need to be able to convincingly ensure homeland security," Mr Odinga said.

The statement quoted Mr Netanyahu as promising to help build a "coalition against fundamentalism" in East Africa, incorporating Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania.

Israel's President Shimon Peres had promised to "make everything available" to Kenya to guarantee its security within its borders, the statement said.

"Consistently, Kenya has shown a very positive attitude towards Israel and Israel is ready to help," the statement quotes Mr Peres saying.

Look closely, and you can see the hate dripping from he face of the evil extremist right-wing hawkish racist supremacist Israeli leader.

Or at least some people can.

(h/t Yoel)

PA says Israel building a "Talmudic garden" in Silwan

The official Palestinian Authority Wafa news agency says:

The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem Thursday seized a piece of land belonging to a Palestinian Orthodox Monastery in the neighborhood of Al-Thawri, west of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, according to a press release by the committee for the defense of Silwan.

The release said the Israeli municipality seized the 850 square meter piece of land in order to turn it into a Talmudic garden and a parking lot.

The committee expressed fear that the land would be turned into a Talmudic garden under the control of the Israeli nature and parks authority, surrounding the areas of Wadi Hilweh and Al-Bustan in Silwan.

I have no idea what they think a "Talmudic garden" is. Perhaps it looks like this:

The Arabic press often uses the word "Talmudic" to add an extra degree of vitriol to anything that Israeli Jews decide to do.

It is most often used in articles about Jews going to the Temple Mount where they are accused of "performing Talmudic rituals" - by which they mean, prayer.

Their use of the word shows that the real fear the Arabs have is not of "Zionism" but of Judaism. Zionism is regarded as a modern construct whose expected lifespan would not be any greater than that of Communism, but Judaism is far more ancient and lasting than Islam - and that is their real fear.

That's why their cartoons and caricatures always depict Jews as hook-nosed, black-hat wearing religious Jews rather than, say, stereotypical Sabras. They project their fears into illustrations and articles like this because they know that Islam will outlast the political flavor of the decade or century - but it will never outlast the religion from which it was derived.

Interestingly, the phrase "Talmudic garden" was used by rabidly anti-semitic Christian leaders who were behind some of the censorship of the Talmud. One wanted every reference to non-Jews in the Talmud to be excised, saying he wanted "the total uprooting of all such weeds from 'the talmudic garden of Satan, the paradise of Hebrews, revered by them as the gospels of the talmudic Antichrist.' " Modern Islamic use of the term mirrors the use from medieval Christianity.

Ironically, much of the Quran comes from Talmudic stories that are not mentioned explicitly in the Torah.

Finally, a "Talmudic garden" actually was dedicated last month in Bet El, in the courtyard of a school where students would be encouraged to study Talmud outside.

It is also worth reviewing out my previous article on Kfar HaShiloach - what is now called Silwan - showing the Yemenite Jewish village on an otherwise empty hillside in 1891 and how the Jewish community grew until they were ethnically cleansed and turned into refugees by the Arab riots in 1921 and 1929.

The photograph I obtained of the area in 1891, thanks to Robert Avrech of Seraphic Secret, is now featured in the Wikipedia entry on "Silwan," showing a small victory of truth making it into the mainstream.

It looks like a good place for a Talmudic garden.

Egypt TV: "Jews use women to harm Muslim society"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Amin Al-Ansari, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on October 26, 2011:

Amin Al-Ansari: In The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, they say: "Women benefit us. They help us, wherever they may be. Whenever a woman comes to our aid, we must not reject her, because we will definitely benefit from her." If women use their clothing to do that – [Jews] benefit. If women use their makeup to do that – they benefit. If women use their moral values to do that – [Jews] benefit. If women aid them through their rebelliousness – they benefit. If women do so through any means – they benefit.

Of course, when Zionism and Judaism, benefit, it means the decline not only of Muslim women, but of humanity as a whole. As proof, whenever any woman extends her hand to them, they cut off this pure hand, and it becomes – Allah forbid – despicable.

Look at the women of Hollywood, who extend their hands to the Jews – after all, it was the Jews who created Hollywood, and this is the most elite class of women in the world that cooperates with the Jews.

What did they do? Marilyn Monroe once said… A woman once said to her: "I’d like to be just like you. I'd like to become a famous actress like you." Marilyn Monroe wrote to her – and this letter still exists: "My girl, you'd be better off marrying a man who goes to work, then returns at the end of the day with the daily bread, and you will live happily with him, raising your children. It's better than being famous, but devoid of will and devoid of honor. Take a look at me. The Jews made me what I am, and now they are killing me."

We Jews don't only own the banks, the government, Hollywood and the media - we also control all women worldwide!

Now, that's power!

(h/t jzaik)

Springtime! Tunisia's next leader goes full Islamist (updated)

Hang onto your hats; there's a lot in this small article.

From Tunisia Live:

Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda invited Houda Naïm, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council based in Gaza, to speak at a rally in Sousse, a coastal Tunisian city, this past Sunday. The event marked the first time in known memory a member of Hamas has addressed the Tunisian public.

Naïm praised the victory of the Tunisian people in establishing democracy, and stated her hope that the “liberation” of Tunisia would lead to the liberation of Palestine.

The event also saw a speech from Ennahda’s general secretary Hammadi Jebali, recently proposed by the party to be the new Prime Minister of Tunisia.

Jebali declared that the occasion was “a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a 6th caliphate,” referring to the historical system of Islamic monarchies.

The tone of this last comment is in sharp contrast to many of the party’s public statements, where it has denied any intention of instituting Sharia or Islamic law in the nascent democracy.

The general secretary also echoed Naïm’s words, stating, “The liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem.”

The Tunisian blogosphere and liberal media are in an uproar over this. One article in English at AllVoices is representative, and it claims that Jebali also was saying he was seeing signs from Allah. A newspaper reportedly placed an illustration on its front page showing Jebali dressed in the robes of a caliph.

And this insane Islamist is the next leader of Tunisia.

(h/t jzaik)

UPDATE: MEMRI now has the video:

Millions of Muslims occupied for six decades - where?

From Eugene Kontorovich at Opinio Juris back in 2009:

In 1949, a land that had for hundreds of years been home to Muslim peoples was forcibly seized by outsiders. They implemented a policy of ethnic dislocation and colonization. While some of the Muslims, chafing under the occupation, turned to terrorism, the recalcitrant state refused to budge even until today.

And the occupied country is — the Second East Turkestan Republic, home of the Uighurs.

The extensive media coverage of and diplomatic reaction to the recent and perhaps ongoing ethnic violence between Han and Uighurs in Xinjiang seems to have missed an important detail.

The Uighurs are not simply a minority group in China that may not be getting the fairest deal. Rather, they are arguably an occupied people – and the massive Han Chinese population in the area almost entirely settlers.

China conquered the independent Second East Turkestan Republic in 1949, in an open land grab. This was news to me — the illegal conquest of Tibet the subsequent year is well known, but apparently without a Dalai Lama, the Uighurs’ national aspirations are paid even less lip service than Tibetans’.

How could there be such silence about an ongoing illegal occupation? I briefly looked at the media coverage and reports of international human rights organizations (Amensty, HRW), and I can find none that discussed the situation as an occupation or the Han as illegally “transferred” people under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nor does this appear to be the position of any nation, though again I don’t claim to have done meticulous inquiry and would be happy to be corrected.

Is there some reason this issue is not on the international law radar? Or have I missed something? Naturally I don’t expect anyone to rush to liberate East Turkestan – I’m a realist. But what about “soft power”? And the role of NGOs? If this is an occupation, it is probably one of the worst ongoing ones — something like 10 million people occupied, which I think is more than West Bank, Western Sahara, Northern Cyrus, Tibet, Abkazia/Ossetia, etc. combined.

Let's start an NGO to free the millions of Uighurs. Millions of dollars can easily be raised when Muslims are living under horrendous occupation, right? Perhaps an overland flotilla of aid to get the ball rolling.

Leftists should be falling over each other to volunteer to help.

(h/t Zach N)

Human shields surround Iranian nuke plant

On Sunday, I posted about a game called Persian Incursion that essentially war-games an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. I haven't played it yet but the review I quoted made it sound really interesting.

I had a brief discussion in the comments with one of the game designers about what possible scenarios are included, and I wrote:

My only remaining question about the likelihood of civilian casualties would be if Iranian civilians are coerced or volunteer to be human shields for military or nuclear sites. Less likely than Hamas, but certainly in the realm of possibility.

The game co-designer, Jeff Dougherty, answered:

That is indeed a possibility, and one we didn't consider in the game. I can see it going either way depending on how it's presented, how deep the media digs on the story, and what the attitude of the rest of the world is at the start....

Well, my scenario has already happened.

Hundreds of students on Tuesday formed a human chain around the uranium conversion plant in central Iran, in a demonstration staged by students to show that Iranians were ready to sacrifice their lives if the nuclear sites were attacked by Israel.

After holding a noon prayer session in front of the plant's main gate, students from Isfahan universities shouted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." They vowed to resist in the event of an attack.

Wow!

There is a small body of literature on the legal status of voluntary human shields. From what I can glean, if they are protecting an unquestioned military installation or target, according to most (except HRW) they forfeit their status as civilians and become considered combatants under international law. If they are shielding a dual-use facility, which would include nuclear research and nuclear material refining, it appears that they would maintain their status as civilians.

Which makes my question, all of a sudden, really relevant.

(h/t Omri at Commentary)

An effective anti-Israel protest in Detroit - and a question

On November 1, Wayne State University's "Students for Israel" group sponsored Gil Hoffman, a Jerusalem Post writer and IDF reservist, to speak.

Anti-Israel students came up with an effective protest. They jammed the auditorium where Hoffman was speaking, some of them holding signs or with their mouths taped up, and at one point they all got up and left, leaving the hall with only 15 or so people left to hear Hoffman.

While it shows that they have no interest in dialogue or co-existence with Israel, there is nothing wrong with their methods - as long as they didn't disrupt the talk or stop interested people from attending, it is a fine and legal way to show displeasure.

However....

According to this account, about 150 protesters participated and it was well organized and planned. They were not only from WSU but also from Fordson High School.

Fordson High is about 95% Arab. Its principal and most administration are Arab as well. There have been charges that the administration has discriminated against non-Muslim teachers.

Hoffman's talk was scheduled for 12:30 PM, right in the middle of a normal school day.

Fordson High is about seven miles away from WSU, a 15 minute drive but it takes some 45 minutes to get there by public transportation.

My question is, did the administration of a public high school allow - or encourage - its students to attend an anti-Israel demonstration during a school day? And if so, did they provide transportation to the event?

If so, the high school administrators should have to answer for their actions.

Crusader inscription discovered - written in Arabic!

From Israel's MFA:

An Arabic inscription that bears the name of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, and the date "1229 of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus the Messiah", was recently deciphered by Professor Moshe Sharon and Ami Shrager of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During the deciphering it became evident that this is a rare archaeological find - the only one of its kind.

The 800-years-old inscription was fixed years ago in the wall of a building in Tel Aviv. The original location of the gray marble slab, on which the inscription is engraved, was probably in Jaffa's city wall.

As Professor Sharon relates, "Frederick II led the Sixth Crusade of 1228-1229 and succeeded, without resorting to arms, in achieving major territorial gains for the Crusader Kingdom. His most important feat was the handing over of Jerusalem to the Crusaders by the Egyptian sultan al-Malik al-Kamil as a result of an armistice agreement the two rulers signed in 1229. Prior to achieving this agreement, the emperor fortified the castle of Jaffa and left in its walls, as it now appears, two inscriptions, one in Latin and the other in Arabic. The Arabic inscription was drafted by Frederick's officials, or possibly even the emperor himself, and it is the one which has been now deciphered".

Although just a small part of the Latin inscription was preserved, it was enough to ascribe it, already at the end of the 19th century, to Frederick II. Today, with the aid of the Arabic inscription, it is possible to virtually complete the text of that fragment.

The unique Arabic inscription is almost completely intact. It lists all of the titles of Frederick II, and as already stated, has no counterpart elsewhere. In Sicily, where Frederick's main royal palace was located, no Arabic inscription of his has been found to date. Furthermore, until now this is the only Crusader inscription in the Arabic language ever found in the Middle East.

Frederick II, despite having been excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX, crowned himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and mentioned his being the 'King of Jerusalem' in this inscription. He knew Arabic and maintained a close relationship with the Egyptian royal family.

I wonder what would happen to such a find if it was discovered in an area that was ruled by a government that includes Hamas.

I'm sure UNESCO would protect Arabic writings that extol Crusaders from any possible harm.