Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Latest libel: Israel's doctors are too careful with their patients' lives

The Dutch newspaper Trouw has an unbelievable article written by Ilse Van Heusden, who had pre-natal care done in Israel for her child.

Her verdict? "The Chosen People have to be perfect."

Van Heudsen's thesis is that Israelis value Jewish children's lives because they think they are better than everyone else. Therefore, they recommend all of these unnecessary tests to make sure that they have nice, perfect children. Israelis, she says, are obsessed with perfect children, and will abort any child who falls short of this standard.

It is, to her, irresponsible to care that much about a mere baby. Her implication is that it is borderline racist.

Here's the kicker: Tests showed that she had a virus, CMV. As a result, Israeli doctors recommended a battery of tests to ensure that her baby would not be infected with the virus, since 20% of babies with CMV develop serious health problems.

Most people I know would insist on doing everything possible to ensure the health of a baby. But Israel-haters are a special breed indeed.

She saw every test as proof of the Chosen People's absurd obsession with the health of an unborn child. She considered her Israeli doctor, doing everything possible to ensure the health of her baby, a scaremonger. She complains that "the Israeli health insurance reimburses unlimited fertility treatments for women to 45 years, until they have two children. In the Netherlands there is a limit to the number of treatments and there is debate about treating women older than forty."

How dare they!

She even says:

Finally we held this little baby boy in our arms that went through all those tests. When we admired his little fingers and toes we saw that one of his toes was too small. His personal revenge on the Israeli health system.

Yochanan Visser of Missing Peace has an excellent point-by-point critique of her article and points out the factual errors she makes about Israel's health care system.

But the article itself is very simple: A woman who hates Israel is trying to find a racist motive for the excellent pre-natal care she received.

Which just goes to prove that hate has no rhyme or reason, and that haters can take any fact and twist it in their minds to fit their pre-determined conclusions.

Muslim Brotherhood flip-flops, now says it would consider allying with Salafis

Last month the Muslim Brotherhood website said:

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) denied alleged alliance with the Salafist al-Noor Party, and confirmed that the only electoral coalition now is with the Democratic Alliance which includes 11 parties, al-Noor not one of them.

Saad El Katatny, FJP Secretary General, criticized media fabrication of news about the FJP and its alleged alliance with the Salafist al-Noor Party to form an "Islamist government," and urged Egyptian media to abide by professional standards of accuracy and objectivity at this critical timing.

This was echoed at OnIslam a couple of days ago:

Salafi and Brotherhood leaders have ruled out an alliance between the two Islamist groups in parliament as Salafis are seen as politically inexperienced.

But now Al Jazeera says that the MB's Freedom and Justice Party is considering an alliance with the Salafi Nour party.

A deputy of the Muslim Brotherhood told the newspaper that FJP is still looking at all possible coalition partners, but that it is "obvious" that there will be some sort of alliance with Nour and it would be natural to invite them into the coalition.

Al Masry al Youm said on Sunday that the FJP was considering a coalition with Nour, as one of five options the party is studying.

Syria death toll for 2012 tops 300

Here is the death toll in Syria since January 2, according to Al Arabiya quoted in Now Lebanon:

2-Jan	24
3-Jan	19
4-Jan	21
5-Jan	30
6-Jan	61*
7-Jan	26
8-Jan	32
9-Jan	18
10-Jan	36
11-Jan	27

I don't have the number killed on January 1, but unless Assad's troops took a holiday this means that there have already been over 300 killed in Syria this year.

(*this number includes the 26 victims of the suicide bombing in Damascus)

Jimmy Carter has "no problem" with Islamists in power (ElderToon)

AFP reports:

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter gave the thumbs up on Tuesday to Egypt’s parliamentary elections, saying the people’s will was “expressed accurately.”

“We have been very pleased,” Carter told reporters during a tour of a polling station at the Rod al-Farag girls’ secondary school in a working class district of the Egyptian capital

Asked about Islamists coming to power, Carter said: “I have no problem with that. The U.S. government has no problem with that either.”

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party's platform, when discussing women, says (in Arabic) that it aims to "Ensure that all women get their rights as long as these don’t contradict Islamic Sharia and as long as they are balanced against their duties." Meaning that the FJP is explicitly against equal rights for women.

The platform also criticizes the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Yes, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and supposed defender of human rights - who quit the Southern Baptist Convention because of its stand towards women - has no problem with the most populous Arab nation being controlled by a group whose platform is explicitly against equal rights for women (not to mention its attitude towards Egyptian religious minorities.)

Where is the outrage from Carter's fellow liberals?

Turkey to rebuild mosques in Gaza

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Turkey will help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip repair mosques damaged in Israeli strikes and rebuild those torn down, the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate Mehmet Görmez said yesterday.

“As the Directorate of Religious Affairs, we will help them in every way possible to repair and rebuild the destroyed mosques,” Görmez said after a meeting with his counterpart from Gaza, Salih Alreqed.

(h/t D)

"Attempted murder" against rabbi in New Jersey

From CBS New York:

Authorities are investigating a firebombing of a northern New Jersey home attached to a synagogue as attempted murder and bias-related arson.

The fire was reported around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford.

Police say someone threw explosive devices through the window.

“Incendiary devices were used to attempt to start of a fire in the upstairs portion of the structure which is a residence,” Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg.

Rabbi Nosson Schuman, who lives in the home with his wife and five children, said he saw a flash of fire outside his bedroom window before his bedspread caught fire.

“The fire in the bedroom, I had to go put it out. My quilt was on fire. I had to put it out,” he told WCBS 880′s Sean Adams. “Got the kids out and realized that this must have been a continuation of the hate crimes that have been occurring throughout the area.”

Schuman said damage to his home and congregation were minimal.

CBS 2′s Christine Sloan reports Schuman suffered burns to his hands but neighbors said he is doing okay.

Authorities say multiple devices were tossed at the home, including Molotov cocktails and rigged aerosol cans. All appeared as if they were being aimed at the second floor of the house.

Officials say whoever did this was targeting Schuman.

“At this point it’s not just a hate crime and a bias crime. It’s now an attempted murder,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli.

It comes just one day before a meeting between representatives of more than 80 synagogues, law enforcement and some Jewish day schools to discuss several incidents targeting Jewish temples in Bergen County.

There was a suspicious fire and two anti-Semitic graffiti incidents in the past few weeks.

It is a small Orthodox synagogue that looks like a converted house:

PA TV sermon: "Every evil in the world is caused by Jews"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon in Al-Bireh, the West Bank, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV on January 6, 2012.

Preacher: “Oh servants of Allah, every evil and catastrophe on the land of Palestine – moreover, in the whole world – is caused by the Jews.

“They generate civil strife with their clandestine handiwork, their despicable texts, their bitter hearts, and their abominable intentions.

“Allah said: ‘Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it, but they strive to do mischief on earth. Allah loves not those who do mischief.’ This is the history of the Jews.

“Many a covenant have they violated.

“Many a prophet have they slayed.”

I think Israel is way overdue for a peace treaty with these guys, don't you?

(This was run on the official PA TV - not Hamas, not a pirate channel, but the TV channel that reflects the opinions of the PLO.)

(h/t CHA)

Egyptian media spinning Abuhatzeira tomb ban

From Al Masry Al Youm:

For the first time in years, nine-year-old Sherif and his friend Mahmoud, residents of the village of Damtu, are able to play freely outside their house, which is located across from the tomb of Abu Hasira, a 19th-century Jewish rabbi, after years of deprivation due to security orders.

Sherif, Mahmoud and all of the village residents were finally able to enter the area around the mausoleum without fear. Previously, anyone who tried to enter the area would be beaten, humiliated or imprisoned for weeks because former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly’s security forces had turned the area around the shrine into a military barracks, forbidding anyone from approaching it.

The festival, scheduled for 9 to 10 January, is held on the annual anniversary of the death of Abu Hasira, whose mausoleum is located in the village of Damtu outside Damanhour. A number of political groups in Egypt announced Monday that they plan to protest at the Abu Hasira festival.

The usual security measures were absent around the tomb, which is located on top of the small village’s highest hill. Only one police vehicle with five policemen can now be found at the mausoleum, and for the first time in years, dozens of village residents are visiting the shrine.

Abu Hasira was born in Morocco and, according to Jewish lore, the ship that was carrying him to Palestine sank. Abu Hasira floated on a straw mat that eventually landed on Syrian shores. The rabbi, according to Jewish tradition, went from Syria to Palestine and then on to Egypt.

He died in Damtu in 1880. Every year, thousands of Jews come to celebrate the anniversary of his death.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, together with a number of village residents and activists from the Beheira Governorate, visited the tomb, which Jews failed to visit for the first time after activists declared they would form a human shield to prevent any Israelis from setting foot in the area.

Abu Hasira’s tomb lies in the center of Damtu. It is located on a 5-meter-high hill, where a closed shrine encloses the rabbi’s tomb, and three other tombs, which Jews say belong to his grandchildren. Abu Hasira’s tomb is covered with a large piece of black cloth embossed with Hebrew phrases embroidered with gold thread.

The room that includes the mausoleum is 30 square meters in area and includes three oil paintings of the Jewish rabbi, a marble plaque written in Hebrew at the entrance, and a group of small coin-like pieces placed on top of one of the adjacent tombs. It also contains a small, broken wooden painting and nine wooden windows, most which have been broken as a result of rocks being thrown at them.

After the revolution, a group of people tried to demolish the tomb, but village residents stopped them.

“We are against the tomb, but at the same time we are against demolishing it in such a manner. The revolution didn’t erupt to demolish such tomb,” said Mohamed Fawzym, one of Damtu’s residents.

Umm Abadam, a 50-year-old woman, might be the only resident suffering from the festival's cancellation. She benefited from being the closet neighbor to the tomb.

She used to earn money cooking food for the visitors of the tomb.

“What were [visitors] doing? I used to sell to them. In the beginning, they bought cows and goats from the village. People from Tanta used to come here and sell them cloth. But the number of visitors has decreased, and I was forced by security to not sell them anything,” Umm Abadam told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Bassiony Mohamed, another village resident, shed light on another aspect.

“We had suffered a lot from the visits of Jews. Secret police were all over the place. During the festival, we weren’t able to move freely. The secret police were summoning the people who live close to the tomb and threatening them if something bad happens at the festival,” Mohamed said.

While the article sheds some light on the situation, it is filled with spin.

The newspaper is trying hard to make it sound like the residents have no problem with Jews, but only with the security services that made their lives miserable. But articles about the pilgrimage from previous years show real Jew-hatred, and not merely people upset at the security forces:

In 2008, villagers described it as "another foothold of Jews in Egypt", and complained about practices of the Jewish revelers from the "slaughter of pigs and drinking, dance and exercising unethical behavior."

A group of lawyers sued to stop "this harassment and moral pollution" caused by the Israelis and the Jews of Europe to the people of the village.

The earlier article made it sound like the security cordon was in place only for the week that the pilgrims would arrive, unlike the Al Masry al Youm article that says it was year-round.

Villagers also described "alcoholic celebrations spilled over the tomb, and then the slaughter of sacrifices that are often sheep or pigs, roasting meat, and dancing. Celebrants then hysterically sing Jewish melodies as they become almost naked, and then say some prayers, entreaties and tears to the tomb, burning, beating their heads on a wall and asked for their needs."

And the Facebook groups and others who are determined to stop Jews from coming to Egypt are explicit that they simply don't like Jews in Egypt.

We don't even have to go to previous years to see the hatred of Jews from the residents of the village. A blog called AntiAbuHosira quotes a newspaper as saying the villagers would allow Jews to come "over their dead bodies." Another Facebook group calls on the tomb to be "destroyed immediately."

And who exactly broke every window with rocks?

Iran's currency in freefall; leaders panicking

From Reuters:

Iran's currency has slid 20 percent against the dollar in the last week despite central bank intervention, and Iranians concerned about the economy said on Tuesday attempts to send text messages using the word "dollar" appeared to be blocked.

The central bank reportedly pumped $200 million dollars into the market last Wednesday after new and much tougher U.S. sanctions prompted nervous Iranians to change rials into hard currency, accelerating a rise in the price of dollars on the open market.

Saying it would act to stabilise the currency, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) imposed a rate of 14,000 rials to the dollar - up from record lows of around 18,000 rials - but many exchange offices would not sell at that price.

By Tuesday the exchange rate had risen again to around 17,000 rials, according to exchange bureaus, 50 percent more than the CBI's "reference rate" of 11,240 rials.

The currency slide is a huge risk for consumer prices in a country where the official inflation rate - considered an underestimate by many economists - is already around 20 percent and rising.

In a hint of political sensitivity over the issue, Iranians, long used to controls over Internet and mobile communications, said they were unable to send text messages containing the word "dollar".

"My colleagues and I tried to text each other in the office and to our surprise we found that texts that included words like 'dollar' and 'foreign currency' could not be delivered," said Malek, a 45-year-old government employee in Tehran.

Newspapers reported on the problem, adding that officials had denied filtering text messages. Reuters calls to officials went unanswered.

The head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, Asadollah Asgaroladi, estimated that annual inflation stood at 40 percent this month and that it would have been 27 percent without the currency slide, Khabaronline, a website close to the government, reported.

There is nothing in the official Iranian press about this.

In related news, India is set to cut Iranian oil imports:

The union government [in India] has told refiners to reduce Iranian oil imports and find alternatives as New Delhi may not seek a waiver that would protect buyers of Tehran's oil from a fresh round of U.S. sanctions, two industry sources said on Wednesday.

India, Iran's second largest oil buyer after China, is already struggling to pay for the crude due to existing sanctions, and fresh U.S. measures aimed at isolating Iran over its nuclear programme will make payment even harder.

The South Asian country buys from Iran about 12 percent of its oil needs, or 350,000-400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and worth $12 billion annually.

Indian oil firms were told by officials at a meeting on Monday that the government was not planning to seek an exemption from the U.S. sanctions, and were advised to reduce dependence on Iran and be ready with alternative supply sources.

It looks like the increased Western sanctions against Iran - and threats of new sanctions - are finally starting to take effect. It is a shame that they were not in place years before.

Is this a case of better late than never?

(h/t Yoel)

Two tunnel families shooting each other in Rafah, Egypt

Two competing family owners of Gaza smuggling tunnels have escalated their war with each other on the Egyptian side of Rafah.

Five people have been injured in recent days from gunshots between the clans. There have also been kidnappings.

Witnesses say that the families shoot at each other during the afternoons.

The families have installed machine guns on the roofs of their houses. Some Palestinian Gazans go through the tunnels to help with the fighting.

The report says that there is effectively no police presence in Rafah since the Egyptian Revolution; the military guards the border and the entrances to the city only.

The tunnel trade to Gaza remains lucrative and strong as ever.

Ismail Haniyeh was quoted in a Gulf newspaper as saying that Hamas remains committed to "resistance" - and he didn't mean protests.

The Hamas leader in Gaza said that "resistance that did not stop as many people imagine, but we are at the stage of study and planning to come back strong as ever, because the Palestinians know that their holy places will not return except by Jihad."

Haniyeh added that "the resistance of the Palestinian people is the only option to restore the Islamic holy sites, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that jihad is our choice for the restoration of holy places in Palestine."

Haniyeh returned to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening after finishing his trip that led him to Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey.

Another Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated

From Iran's PressTV:

A terrorist car bomb explosion around a square in northern Tehran has killed yet another Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded two bystanders.

The victim, identified as Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was a chemical engineering graduate of Iran's prominent Sharif University of Technology and served as marketing deputy of Iran's Natanz nuclear installation.

Witnesses say they spotted a motorcyclist attaching a sticky bomb to a car near a college of the Allameh Tabatabaei University in the Iranian capital on Wednesday.

An investigation is underway over the incident.

Wednesday's terror bombing bears the hallmark of a 2010 terror attack that killed Majid Shahriari, another university professor, in Tehran.

On November 29, 2010, unidentified terrorists slapped adhesive bombs onto the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi and detonated them.

Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi, the current director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, and his wife sustained minor injuries and were rushed to a hospital.

On December 2, 2010, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that the Israeli Mossad, the American CIA, and the British MI6 all played a role in those attacks.

Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, another scholar at Tehran University, was assassinated by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010.

The terror bombing took place near the professor's home in northern Tehran.

Many analysts assume that the Mossad is behind these assassinations. At least one longtime Iran observer thinks that most of the recent examples of sabotage and assassinations are really from internal Iranian opposition.

Another possibility:

A top Iraqi security official claims that the Mossad has increased its recruitment efforts in country's Kurdish region, focusing mainly on Iranian refugees.

According to France's Le Figaro, the move is part of Israel's efforts to wage an intelligence war against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The refugees, which according to the paper's sources are Iranian dissidents, are recruited by Israeli agents to target Iranian nuclear experts.

(h/t Yoel)

Tel Aviv named "Best Gay City"

From JPost:

Tel Aviv was voted the best gay city of 2011, according to an online poll on LGBT travel website gaycities.com.

"The gay capitol of the Middle East is exotic and welcoming with a Mediterranean c'est la vie attitude," the website said.

Tel Aviv garnered 43 percent of the vote, far ahead of the next competitor, New York City, which raked in 14%.

Other cities on the list included Toronto, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, New Orleans, and Mexico City.

I wonder how Ramallah did.

After all, as a tiny percentage of gay people know, the Palestinian Arabs are far more tolerant towards gays than Israel is, and every gay person who voted for Tel Aviv in this poll is obviously "pinkwashed" with evil Zionist propaganda.

ISESCO denies Jewish Temples existed; publishes "media plan" on how to defeat Zionism

A press release from ISESCO, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly denounced the Israeli occupation army’s publication of a photo of the Holy Aqsa Mosque without Qubat Al-Sakhra (the Dome of the Rock).

In a communiqué released today, ISESCO affirmed its rejection of what the so-called religious authority of the Israeli occupation army in the occupied city of Al-Quds did when they published a photo of Al-Aqsa Mosque without the Dome of the Rock. This photo, ISESCO underlined, depicts the true intention of the Israeli occupation authorities to judaize the city and establish the alleged Temple in the so-called “Temple Mount” on “the ruins” of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially as a model of the Temple has been built in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the calls of the Jewish rabbis to demolish the First Qibla and the Third Holy Mosque have increased.

"Alleged" Temple? "So-called" Temple Mount?

I guess we can see the importance of education, science and culture to ISESCO.

Elsewhere, ISESCO makes its Temple denial more explicit:

[N]o trace was found of this temple after many excavations and archaeology digs carried out by Israeli and western archaeologists. An increasing number of Israelis refute the Jewish allegations about the temple, having conducted their own investigations, excavations and studies which all point to the non-existence of the temple in the alleged site at any time in history.

It is this document that proves that ISESCO is a sham organization, whose purpose has nothing to do with Islamic culture or history - but rather to uproot any vestige of Jewish history.

The document is called "Media Plan for Publicising the Cause of Al Quds Al Sharif in the West and Mechanisms for its Implementation." It looks like it was written in late 2004. ISESCO is the architect of a plan on how to spread Islamic propaganda in the West and how to counter Jewish claims to Israel and Jerusalem.

And it makes its goals quite clear, in this paragraph describing its idea of the Jewish view of Jerusalem:

Jerusalem is at the heart of the Jewish faith, the cornerstone of its spiritual and intellectual edifice and of the dream of rebuilding the Hebrew state in accordance with the false Zionist slogan of the “Return to Zion”, or “Return to Jerusalem”, ensuring its continuity and the continuity of the Israeli presence in the Arab region. This presence is vital for the West since Israel acts as a shield that protects the western civilisation from confronting the so called “Arab backwardness, barbarity and savagery”. Thus, Jerusalem is the cornerstone of the spiritual edifice and the Zionist Jewish entity. Were it to be dislodged, the whole edifice and the Zionist entity itself would crumble like a deck of cards.

That is the entire goal of this media plan! It describes short, medium and long term goals to do exactly this dislodging of Jerusalem from Judaism.

For example, do these objectives sound familiar?

1- Gaining the support of some intellectual, cultural and political role-players who can impact on the Western public opinion about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the question of Al Quds, by adopting the international resolutions of legitimacy and the related UN resolutions as a starting point in the media plan.

2- Penetrating Western activities or fields of activities, particularly those of influential media, cultural, intellectual and economic spheres in such a way as to ensure their responsiveness to the other’s point of view and their outlook on the official stance of their countries as subservient to and reflective of the interests of the Zionist movement with its various formations and bodies, and not of the interests of their own countries, in particular economic and vital interests.

3- Discreetly and indirectly encouraging trends critical of Zionism and the Israeli judaisation policies in Jerusalem within western circles and in a way that would prevent the targeting, isolation and annihilation of these trends by the Zionists movement and its concealed and visible tentacles.

It is almost as if Walt, Mearsheimer, Blumenthal, Friedman, Mondoweiss and others are acting in a play written by ISESCO!

Can you imagine a genuine cultural or educational organization creating a document on how to spread propaganda in order to destroy an entire culture?

Anyone who wants to truly understand how the anti-Israel crowd is using the media should read this document.

(h/t CHA)

The kosher symbol from the 6th century

From Ha'aretz:

A 1,500-year-old seal with the image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah has been discovered near the city of Acre.

The ceramic stamp, which dates from the Byzantine period in the 6th century CE, was found during ongoing Israel Antiquities Authority excavations at Horbat Uza, east of Acre, which are being undertaken before the construction of the Acre-Carmiel railroad track.

It is thought the stamp was used to mark baked goods, and is known as a “bread stamp.”

“A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period,” said Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority,

“The stamp is important because it proves that a Jewish community existed in the settlement of Uza in the Christian-Byzantine period. The presence of a Jewish settlement so close to Acre - a region that was definitely Christian at this time - constitutes an innovation in archaeological research,” Syon said.

“Due to the geographical proximity of Horbat Uza to Acre, we can speculate that the settlement supplied kosher baked goods to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period,” Jaffe and Syon added.

Horbat Uza is a small rural settlement where other archaeological finds, a Shabbat lamp and jars with menorah patterns painted on them, have alluded to it having been a Jewish settlement.

The stamp bears the image of a seven-branched menorah, and the handle of the stamp is engraved with Greek letters. According to Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this is probably the name Launtius, which was common among Jews of the period and has appeared on other Jewish bread stamps.

“This is probably the name of the baker from Horbat Uza,” Jaffe and Syon said.

I know, I don't usually highlight archaeological findings that are so new - only 1,500 years old.

But it still predates Islam!

(I wonder if this hechsher was considered reliable...."You trust the seven-branch menorah? It isn't mehadrin!")