Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Assad: The buck stops...elsewhere

This morning, ABC will air an exclusive interview with Bashir Assad.

Syria allowed Barbara Walters to interview the dictator.

Why Walters? Because she already has a Vogue-ish track record. And she is the go-to interviewer to help celebrities rehabilitate their reputations, since she will never embarrass her guests.

For example, in March, Walters gushed about how great the Assads are on her TV show The View:

According to YNet, in this interview Assad tries to duck responsibility for the thousands of murders committed in recent months by the Syrian security forces:

Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied responsibility for the killing of thousands of anti-government protesters. In an interview with ABC News, to be aired Wednesday, Assad said he does not control the forces implementing his country's brutal crackdown.

During the interview, the Syrian ruler said that although he is president he does not “own the country, so they're not my forces.”

In his first interview with an American news outlet since the violent crackdown began in March, Assad said there was “a big difference” between having “a policy to crack down and having mistakes committed by some officials.”

There's a leader for you - blaming his army and saying that he cannot control them.

Maybe Syria hired a PR firm for this interview as well. The timing of Walters' March interview was suspiciously close to the infamous Vogue article, which makes one wonder whether a paid PR firm got ABC News to create a puff piece for the ruthless dictator last spring - and whether ABC is doing the same today.

Salafist Egyptians talk about Jizya and Israel

From Eric Trager at TNR:

At one of my polling place visits, a van full of women that had been brought to vote for Nour called me over to extol the Nour Party’s virtues. “They are good people and serve the community,” said Nour al-Hoda Desouki, excitedly holding a Nour party sample ballot. “We are a conservative people but we’ll talk to you.” But her good deed couldn’t go unpunished. A Nour representative swiftly approached my translator and told us to stop talking to women.

Still, I humored the Salafists. If they were truly “open to anything,” would they support allowing Egyptian hotels to continue serving alcohol to tourists? “In my opinion, no,” said Mehdi, the Nour activist handing out party programs by the polling station. “Because it’s forbidden.”

“But the people who drink aren’t Muslims,” my translator, himself a committed Muslim, interjected.

“They have to respect the country,” Mehdi replied. “Like in Germany, people respect the country and have to speak German. You have to respect the country you’re in, even if you disagree.”

Well, what would be your policy towards Christians? Would you force them to pay the jizya – the special tax that Muslim rulers historically imposed on non-Muslim minorities to pay for Islamic wars? “They already pay it through their taxes,” Sherif, another local Nour coordinator, said. “Each society has its own revenue sources—in Islam, it’s zakat for Muslims and jizya for non-Muslims. Even they have to serve in the community, whether they’re Christians or Jews. They pay jizya because we offer security.”

Finally, I turned to foreign policy. What is your view of Camp David, I asked. “I heard about Camp David when I was a kid and I heard from people and our scholars that it is unjust for us,” Sherif said. “But I never read it. I don’t want war with Israel. So Israel must leave the part that it took from me.” Which part? “Israel should withdraw from all of Palestine—not just the West Bank or Gaza.” I gave him a confused look. “I never denied that some Jews lived there before.” On that note, I said goodbye.

As we headed back to the cab, our driver—who had sat in for that last part—nodded approvingly. “They’re really good people,” he said. Though he’s not an Islamist himself, he had voted for Nour earlier in the week. Why? “They’re honest.”

Translating Jihad quotes El Fagr:

A candidate for the salafi Nour Party, Ahmad 'Umran, expressed his surprise at being asked, "Who are you, and what is your role in politics?" He responded by saying, "They act as if we came from Mars and just landed here."

He added, "The Copts should not forget that we were the ones who freed them from the hands of the Romans, and that jizya is only half a dinar, which is taken from the rich and given to their poor." This came during the Friday sermon at the Mosque of the Court in the city center of Abnub.

(h/t Anna Ekstrom, jzaik)

Will the suffering never end? Now Gaza has a car glut!

Palestine Today reports that car dealers in Gaza are suffering - because they have too many cars available.

Between the dozens of cars that enter via Kerem Shalom each week and the cars that arrive through the smuggling tunnels, the profit margins are plummeting. In some cases they have had to reduce car prices by as much as $8000.

Car dealers are also complaining that the PA imposes a 50% tax on all cars imported to the territories, further squeezing dealer margins.

Hamas had imposed an additional 25% tariff but that was suspended after an outcry from the dealers who refused to take delivery last summer.

Life in the Gaza open-air prison keeps getting more desperate. I think they need a couple more flotillas.

(h/t CHA)

100 years ago: Zionist Jews help injured Muslim soldiers in Tripoli

The Italo-Turkish war was fought from September 1911 through October 1912 in what is now Libya.

The American Jewish Yearbook roundup of the year's events has a number of entries that shows that the Jews of Palestine solidly supported the Ottoman war effort.

October 15, 1911:

The Anglo-Palestine Bank is the forerunner of the current Bank Leumi.

November 11 and 13:

December 1:

And here is the really interesting entry, from December 8, 1911:

That's right - the very first Magen David Adom was organized for the purpose of helping mostly Muslim soldiers! (There were some Jewish soldiers in the Ottoman army, and in March the first Jewish officer graduated from the Imperial Military Academy.)

The MDA website says that the first Magen Dovid Adom was set up in 1918 in order to help soldiers of the Jewish Legion and was disbanded after the war. But apparently the first organization to use that name was set up seven years earlier.

While on the subject of the Yearbook, the September 23rd entry is notable:

Also, Arabs killed three Jews and wounded seven on February 3. 1912, showing once again that Arabs attacked Jews way before the fatal events of 1920, 1921 and 1929.

Swedish reporter gets chummy with Salafist interviewees

Swedish public radio's correspondent in the Middle East, Cecilia Uddén, did some heavy-hitting investigative journalism to get to the bottom of what the newsly powerful Salafists in Egypt think.

She spoke to one of their female spokespersons, Sarry Gamal Ahmed. Ahmed complained that the West only concentrates on Islamic punishments like cutting off hands for theft.

She emphasized that the most important thing is not to cram Sharia down Egyptians' throats. Maybe in five year they will be ready for it, but not now.

Of course, Ahmed added, the Salafists support stoning for adultery.

The reporter was so impressed with what she heard that she posed with her newfound friends Ahmed and her friend Lamia Selim:

And that is the photo on the website illustrating the story.

This is journalism?

(By the way, the newspaper did not identify which young woman was Sarry Ahmed and which was Lamia Selim. I wonder why?)

(h/t Erik Svansbo)

Robinson's Arch

A couple of weeks ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced an astonishing find of coins underneath the paved street near Robinson's Arch that showed that parts of the western supporting walls of the Temple Mount has been built after Herod's death. I noted at the time that the Palestinian Arabic press was saying that this was somehow proof that there was no Temple there.

Now, a hastily-convened pseudo-scientific press conference has made this Temple denial official.

A Palestinian Arab academic named Jamal Amr said that the discovery has caused much frustration to Zionist archaeologists and blew up their claims about the "legend of the temple." This distinguished expert then went on to claim that all the discoveries that have been found in the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount came from the Arab and Islamic Umayyad and Abbasid periods up to the Ottoman period!

I'm not sure, but he might be saying that the Herodian Temple was built hundreds of years later.

Dr. Amr seems to be a professor at Bir Zeit University. As far as I can tell, he has no specific expertise in archaeology - but rather in architecture.

But when you want to dig up an pretend archaeology expert, he's the man!

Note that no Israeli media outlet expressed any misgivings about the discovery. It is well known that Herod didn't build the Second Temple but rather he expanded it some five centuries after it was built. Temple rituals were not stopped during the construction. In no way does the discovery of the coins contradict the existence of the Temple - which has lots of archaeological evidence, and more discovered every few months.

Chanukah Rock of Ages (Aish video)

A funny Aish Chanukah video...too good to wait:

(h/t Yerushalimey)

"Jihad is the Way" - Muslim Brotherhood manifesto translated

Palestinian Media Watch has translated part of "Jihad is the Way," written by Mustafa Mashhur, who was the official leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt 1996-2002.

Here are some of their selected quotes:

Muslim Brotherhood goal: Islamic world domination

- "...the Islamic Ummah [nation]... can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men, as the teachers of humanity..."
- "...know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation..."
- "It should be known that Jihad and preparation towards Jihad are not only for the purpose of fending-off assaults and attacks of Allah's enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world..."
- "...Jihad for Allah is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihadhas already been raised in some of its parts, and it shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, the State of Islam will be established,..."

Means: Jihad - a mandatory religious duty

-"Then comes the power of arms and weapons,... and this is the role of Jihad."
- "Jihad is a religious public duty... incumbent upon the Islamic nation, and is a personal duty to fend off the infidels' attack on the nation..."
- "And the youth should know that the problems of the Islamic world, such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, or the Philippines, are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are problems of Islam and the Muslims, and they can be resolved neither by negotiation nor by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole. Rather, the only option is Jihad for Allah, and this is why Jihad is the way."
- "The symbol of the [Muslim] Brotherhood is the book of Allah [the Quran] between two swords. The swords symbolize Jihad and the force that protects the truth represented in Allah's book."
- "...that is, go out to battle, oh believers, young and old, by foot or with animal, under all circumstances and conditions..."

Timing: Don't rush, prepare carefully for Jihad

- "... despite this, the [Muslim] Brotherhood is not rushed by youth's enthusiasm into immature and unplanned action which will not alter the bad reality and may even harm the Islamic activity, and will benefit the people of falsehood..."
- "... one should know that it is not necessary that the Muslims will repel every attack or damage caused by the enemies of Allah immediately, but [only] when ability and the circumstances are fit to it."
- "Prepare yourself and train in the art of warfare, and embrace the causes of power. You must learn the ways and manners and laws of war. You must learn them and embrace them and adhere to them, so that your Jihad will be the one accepted by Allah."
- "... there exists an unavoidable personal duty for every Muslim to equip himself and prepare and gear-up towards Jihad..."

Personal goal: Aspire to Shahada - Death for Allah

- "Allah is our goal, the Prophet is our leader, the Quran is our constitution, theJihad is our way, and the death for Allah is our most exalted wish."
- "The Jihad is our way and death for Allah is our most exalted wish, this is the call which we have always called, ... Many of our beloved ones have already achieved this wish, ... We ask Allah to accept all of them,... and may He join us with them, ..."

Jihad against Israel:

- "Honorable brothers have achieved Shahada (Martyrdom) on the soil of beloved Palestine, during the years 47' and 48', [while] in their Jihad against the criminal, thieving, gangs of Zion. The Imam and Shahid (Martyr) Hassan Al-Banna is considered as a Shahid (Martyr) of Palestine, even if he was not killed on its soil."

Read the whole thing.

(h/t O)

"How to Wipe Out Israel" wins Iranian book award

From PJMedia:

How to Eliminate Israel, a book written by a group seminarians in the city of Qom, was being promoted at the 13th book fair held in the north eastern Province of Khorasan Province, last week.

In an interview with RASA News, Hojjat ol’Eslam Mohammad Ebrahim-Nia, who headed up the team of writers, said: “How to Eliminate Israel won the Book of the Year award in the ‘soft war’ book category at the fair. Three thousand copies of this first edition of the 180-page book has been published by the Khorasan branch of the Ministry of Islamic culture and guidance. The book is seven chapters and it covers the Israeli mentality and weak points, the Israeli people’s crimes, warnings given to Muslims about the Jews in the Quran, and the effective methods of dealing with them. Also, other than current translations of relevant verses from the Quran, the book includes pictures of Zionists associated with the themes of the cited verses and relevant statements made by Jewish thinkers. The content and title of the book are based on religious rulings issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, who judged that the elimination of the State of Israel is a religious duty similar to other duties to which all Muslims are committed. The verses of the Quran which discuss the Jews are always applicable, and there is no other people about which the Quran warns the Muslims as much as the Jews, who continue their crimes against the Muslim nation.”

Ebrahim-Nia opined that there is generally a shortage of attention given to the struggle against Israel by the Iranian regime’s own institutions which should be considered the most dangerous enemy facing Muslims. He added: “The issue of Israel is evidently not a top priority for the government which is involved in dealing with other matters. I urge all young students and seminarians to turn the instructions of our Supreme Leader, regarding the adaptation of education of the seminaries to the needs of the society, into reality. If this is done, the enemy will know that the entire Muslim nation is committed to implementing the Supreme Leader’s instructions, and will not even dare threaten a military attack.”

In the original story at Raja News the book title is translated as "How Israel Should be Wiped Out."

But I'm sure that is simply a mistranslation. Middle East "experts" have vouched for the fact that Iran has no violent aims towards Israel.

More moderate words from Hamas

Even though Hamas' military threats against Israel are an every day occurrence, too many so-called Middle East experts pretend that it doesn't exist - or even that Hamas accepts Israel's existence - so I have to document it in English.

The latest comes once again from Hamas Gaza leader Mahmoud Zahar, who spoke at a conference on "defending Jerusalem" from Zionists yesterday.

Zahar said that Israel's exit from Palestine would be "humiliating and shameful."

He also said that Hamas will continue its program of resistance to include all forms of resistance, and anyone who wants to know exactly what that means should know that "we will use our weapons only the liberation of Palestine."

Zahar called on the West to support the Islamicization of the Middle East, asking the West to carefully study the new Islamic reality, and to determine where its interests lie - as a construction project to work together with the new Islamist leaders, or as a demolition project.

Another speaker at the conference said that a Palestine without Jerusalem would not be worth anything.

Leader of Tunisia's Islamist party pretends to be moderate in DC

Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisian Islamist Ennahda party, came to Washington last week to push the idea that his Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group is moderate.

Palestine Press Agency quotes him at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as saying that he will not include any anti-Zionist statements in the new constitution and that he disagrees with the language of Iranian ayatollahs describing the US as "the devil." He also said that the controversial statements by the next prime minister of Tunisia saying he wanted to be at the forefront of the next Islamic caliphate was meant from a moral and not political perspective.

From other reports he also said that people "are free to quit any religion, or change their religion" and that he supports women’s rights, democratic principles, and freedom of speech in Tunisia.

There was predictable skepticism about his trustworthiness from right-wing websites. But surprisingly the PBS Newshour blog dug behind his moderate persona as well.

Rachid Ghannouchi, head of the Tunisian Ennhada Party which captured the majority of that country's parliamentary seats in a recent election, wants to convince Westerners that the Tunisian brand of political Islam is as non-threatening as kittens frolicking with balls of yarn.

"Tunisian Islam is very moderate Islam," he told a small group of Mideast analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Thursday.

Ghannouchi is in Washington, D.C., this week making the rounds with U.S. foreign policy wonks (he also spoke at the Woodrow Wilson Center Friday morning and was at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Wednesday), spreading a message of Tunisian liberalism based on the spirit, if not the letter, of Islamic teachings.

"People think that Islam is (only about) how we punish people," he said. "The problem is not how we punish people, but how we avoid crime. ... In our program you don't find verses of the Koran, Hadith or (quotes from) the Prophet, but you find the goals of Islam."

Ghannouchi also said that he hopes to partner with secular-liberal parties in the coming weeks to form a governing coalition and "prove that Islam can work with moderate secularism."

But comments attributed to Ghannouchi regarding Israel show that Tunis and Tel Aviv won't soon become sister cities if he has anything to say about it.

Earlier this year, Ghannouchi told this Arabic-language publication that the elimination of Israel could come as soon as the year 2027 or even before that time. This seems to also be of-a-piece with Ghannouchi's long-held views.

According to this Middle East Media Research Institute translation, Ghannouchi blessed the mothers of Palestinian suicide bombers back in 2001, telling Al Jazeera that "The Palestinian woman, mother of the Shahids [martyrs], is a martyr herself, and she has created a new model of woman."

"We will focus our efforts on Tunisia," Ghannouchi said when asked about his Israel comments.

Kudos to writer PJ Tobia for actually looking beyond the soothing words of an Islamist leader.

Al Qaeda group denies responsibility for Katyushas last week (updated)

From AFP:

An Al-Qaeda-inspired group has denied claiming responsibility for a recent rocket attack from southern Lebanon against Israel, instead blaming a group linked to Hezbollah, a US monitoring group said Monday.

In a statement issued on jihadist forums, the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam said the Nov. 29 attack should be seen as a warning to the West and Israel from embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, the SITE Intelligence Group said.

"The Brigades declared that the attack ... is to be construed as a message from Assad to Israel and the West, that if his regime is made to fall, then the field will open to the youth of the Sunni people to attack the Jewish state," the statement said.

The Brigades in their statement said it was clear that Damascus and its Shiite ally Hezbollah were keen for political reasons to blame the group for any security incidents in Lebanon, including a July attack on UN troops.

It seems unlikely that an Al Qaeda linked group would deny responsibility if they actually did it.

Which means that not only did Hezbollah shoot the rockets (directly or indirectly,) but they also fabricated the statement of responsibility from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.

Is there no honor among terrorists?

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Lebanon complained to the UN that Israel retaliated against the Katyushas. Given the UN's modus operandi, we might be seeing a few resolutions and special sessions about how Israel was the aggressor.

Danny Ayalon's speech at Bet El Dinner

I took video of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's keynote speech at the Bet El dinner where I had interviewed him on Sunday night.

Ayalon is not known as a religious person, but he evidently knows his audience, because his speech was chock full of Torah references to the and religious justifications for the State of Israel to remain in the Land of Israel.

In other words, people who already hate him for his political views will have their heads explode in anger to see him mention the Torah as well.

Also, the Algemeiner published some of what Ayalon told me during my interview.

Surprise! PalArab "Unity government" will be delayed....

Fatah news sites :

A senior Palestinian official revealed on Monday that the factional approach is to delay forming a government of national reconciliation and to keep the governments of Gaza and Ramallah [separate] for the governance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, until the legislative and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories.

Mahmoud al-Zak, a member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Struggle Front said "The general direction of the Palestinian factions now focused on the formation of a government of national consensus and commitment to hold elections on time (on the fourth of May)," pointing out that the effort is focused towards the rapid formation of the Central Election Commission to start tasks in preparation for the presidential and legislative elections.

Zak explained that the general attitude of this lies in the evasion of U.S. and Israeli pressure to halt the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority territories because of any united Palestinian government...

He pointed out that all these things will be left to the new government which would derive its legitimacy from elections to be held next May.

It will be interesting to see Hamas' reaction to this news. I think the vitriol is going to reach a peak tomorrow.

Might not be enough for those hundreds of Western reporters to notice, though. Until Ha'aretz publishes it in English, it never happened.

Meanwhile, Hamas is preparing for its 24th anniversary celebrations. Here's its logo for the occasion:

Because nothing describes the deep religious fervor of the Hamas movement like the barrel of a weapon emerging from their holy sites.

(h/t CHA)

UNRWA thieves use Israel excuse to avoid getting caught

From Ma'an:

Employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have initiated a boycott in Jordan over UNRWA's reported decision to buy surveillance equipment from an Israeli company.

Jordanian daily Al-Ghad on Sunday reported that UNRWA employees had boycotted the organizations' buses and minibuses after finding out that the surveillance systems on UN transportation were bought from an Israeli company.

Sounds reasonable, right? They are so ethical and refuse, on principle, to use any equipment made by the evil Zionist entity.

Then we learn:

The systems were fitted as a measure to stop employees using the organizations' vehicles for personal use.

Hold on!

UNRWA employees who are stealing are trying to avoid getting caught - so they refuse to use the vehicles that are being monitored!

But rather than look guilty...they claim they are doing it because of supposed Israeli equipment! (That part might not even be true!)

I wrote to UNRWA's Chris Gunness to get details, but he hasn't responded to any of my emails for a couple of years now.