Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 29, 2012

An unusual peace conference - in a Jewish settlement

Makor Rishon reports on an interesting, if quixotic, conference that took place at Ariel University. They were there to debate "What is the best peace plan?" It was sponsored by an Israeli organization that had already held similar conferences in Tel Aviv, eastern Jerusalem and Beit Jala. The Ariel conference was attended by Palestinian Arabs, Jews who live in Samaria, students...

Ma'ariv reports that King Abdullah has given the OK to a joint 100 megawatt solar energy project that will straddle Jordan and Israel. A feasibility study fo rthe project is currently taking place. The solar farm will take 3000 dunam a bit north of Eilat. It is expected to cost between $300-600 million. Businesses see the project as leverage for economic cooperation between...

Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah is on a visit to Iran, where he spoke at a Conference for Youth and Islamic Awakening. (It appears that under the new Egyptian regime, terrorists are now freely allowed to travel through the Rafah crossing to go on world tours.) The keynote speaker at the conference was none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who explained why Israel was...

From Radio Netherlands: Dutch satirist Johan Vlemmix has decided not to perform his latest hit Do the Burqa onstage following death threats. The song, a carnival parody to the music of Van McCoy's Do the Hustle, is a huge success on YouTube, so much so that the video provider has switched off the comments facility. Too many people were posting angry reactions saying that...

3000 Muslims attack Christian homes in Egypt over rumor

From AINA: A mob of over 3000 Muslims attacked Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Ameriya), Alexandria this afternoon. Coptic homes and shops were looted before being set ablaze. Two Copts and a Muslim were injured. The violence started after a rumor was spread that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, surrendered to the police this morning morning for...

Arabic news sites have been showing a series of photos of an Arab man supposedly deliberately run over by an Israeli truck near Hebron: A Palestinian construction worker screamed in pain after an Israeli soldier drove a trailer hooked to a tractor over his legs near Yatta, West Bank, Wednesday. Israeli forces seized equipment because they said the workers...

84 killed in Syria today

Al Arabiya is reporting that the death toll in Syria today is 84 people, most of them in Hama. There was also a car bomb attack and an ambush against Syrian forces, killing 12. This is besides the massacre in Homs yesterday, where 14 members of a single family were shot or hacked to death, including 8 children. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army says it captured five members...

From Al Arabiya: Fayyad and Peres at Davos The Middle East peace process is at its lowest point in two decades and the events of the Arab Spring have forced it down the world agenda, the Palestinian prime minister complained Thursday as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that the end of informal talks between Palestinians and Israel does not mean the two sides...

A leftist talks about the "Israel-Firster" label (Tablet)

From Spencer Ackerman in Tablet: At the risk of sounding like the shtetl police, there’s a right way and a wrong way for American Jews to argue with one another. The right way focuses on whose ideas are better—for America, for Israel, for the Jewish community, and for the world. The Jewish left should be right at home with this kind of substantive debate, since I believe those ideas are better than those of our cousins on the Jewish right. But...

Report: Hamas has already unofficially quit Syria

From Reuters: The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, has effectively abandoned his headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, diplomatic and intelligence sources said on Friday. “Meshaal is not staying in Syria as he used to do. He is almost out all the time,” said a diplomat in the region who spoke on condition on anonymity. A regional intelligence source, who also did not wish to be identified, said: “He’s...

Hamas radicals don't want "moderate" Meshal to step down

From YNet: Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal met with top Hamas military wing delegates in Cairo on Thursday. According to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, the mission, headed by Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades Chief Ahmed Jabari and his deputy Marwan Issa, urged Mashaal not to step down. The Politburo chief had recently announced that he will not seek another term as Hamas' political leader, sprouting a torrent of rumors as to his...

The UN's sleight of hand in considering Gaza "occupied"

Recently, UN Watch asked the UN to comment on why it still considers Gaza to be "occupied territory" when even Hamas has said that there is no occupation there. The UN promised to get back with a rationale. The UN has now answered: Spokesperson: Under resolutions adopted by both the Security Council and the General Assembly on the Middle East peace process, the Gaza Strip continues to be regarded as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory....

Salafists in Egypt are targeting Valentine's Day

We've seen how the religious police in Saudi Arabia crack down every year on people celebrating Valentine's Day. We've seen Hamas arrest people celebrating Valentine's Day. Guess who is targeting the holiday this year? The Salafists in Egypt, flexing their new political muscles, are speaking out against the holiday, which in previous years was accepted by Egyptians. Religious...

Israel congratulates Egyptians; MB says "shut up"

According to Palestine Today, Israel sent a message to "bless" the Egyptian people on their revolution. The message actually said On the occasion of the opening session of the Egyptian parliament, on January 23rd, Israel extends its congratulations to the people of Egypt for its efforts to achieve freedom, democracy and economic development. We send the new parliament our wishes of constructive and fruitful work for the well-being of the Egyptian...

Yesterday, I attended a talk by Professor Eugene Kontorovich on "Disputing Occupation: Israel's Borders and International Law" at NYU. Here is a synopsis, based on my memory. Kontrovich started off by saying what international law is not. It is not UN General Assembly resolutions. It is not advisory opinions from the ICJ (which, he pointed out, was answering a loaded...