Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

The Palestinian refugees of 1936 were...Jews

Here are photos of Jewish houses in Tel Aviv destroyed by Arabs of Jaffa at the outbreak of the "non-violent" riots in 1936:

Thousands of Jews were forced to flee their homes:

Some Jews were forced to move their belongings to a public park in Tel Aviv:

Here is a refugee camp near Rishon LeZion for the Jews who lost their homes during the riots.

All these photos were done by Zoltan Kluger.

I found them at this Israeli photo archive website that just became public - although the website was created in 1998, and it shows.

Palestine Today reports that Gazans are starting to panic over rumors of new, onerous taxes to be imposed by Hamas on consumer goods and construction materials being smuggled in through the tunnels.

Vendors are not raising prices yet but some consumers are starting to buy good now ahead of time.

Hamas authorities denied the rumors, saying that they are only imposing taxes on imports of goods that are also locally manufactured, in order to protect the local markets.

Indian authorities arrest Chabad couple for "spying"

From The Times of India:

An Israeli couple who came to the city on March 3, 2010, will be deported for "suspicious activities". Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi came on a multiple-entry visa and rented a house on Rose Street, Fort Kochi, for Rs 50,000 per month, far higher than the market rate.

"Central intelligence got an alert about a covert operation being carried out by suspected Israeli agents after the 26/11 terror attacks in which south Mumbai's Chabad House came under attack and six Jews, including a Rabbi and his pregnant wife, were killed. A communication was sent to all states and it was our wing in Kerala that traced this couple at Fort Kochi," an intelligence officer here said.

Indian agencies will question two suspected Israeli agents before they are deported. "We have traced the couple's financial transactions. Preliminary investigations suggest similar Israelis are camping in various parts of the country," an official said.

In their report, the state intelligence department said a group of people turned up at the couple's rented house regularly and held meetings.

"These meetings lasted for hours in the night. They were under close surveillance".

The deportation order was slapped on Zalman and Shenoi last Monday after undercover Kerala Police officers tracked them for a year, questioned them and filed a report to Ernakulam collector P I Sheik Pareeth.

Fort Kochi is a major hub for foreign tourists next to the neighbourhood of Mattancherry, famous for its Jew Town. This is the historical part of town where Jews set up their first trading outpost centuries ago and built the country's oldest synagogue in 1568.

"A monthly rent of Rs 50,000 is disproportionately high, even in Fort Kochi. This is one of the main factors that made us suspicious," the intelligence source said. "They have been in the country from March 3, 2010. When their visas expired on March 3 last year, they went out and returned on April 1, 2011 on a new visa."

From JPost and YNet:

Chabad emissaries in the southern Indian city of Kochi on Tuesday vehemently denied a report that appeared in local media earlier in the day accusing them of being part of an Israeli covert operation.

Rabbi Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi told The Jerusalem Post they were stunned by a story run by the Times of India in which unnamed Indian security officials said they were secret Israeli agents that would soon be deported from the country.

“I was invited here by the Jewish community of Kochi with the full knowledge of local authorities,” said Zalman, a 27-year-old rabbi from Jerusalem. “I have no idea how they got the impression I was part of a Mossad operation.”

He said he and Shenoi ran an outreach center catering to Jewish travelers in the popular tourist destination as well as to the city’s remaining 50 Jews, part of a once much larger community whose origins date back to the 16th century. Zalman insisted their sole motivation for being in the country was to provide religious services to local members of the Jewish community and had nothing to do with Israel.

Shenoi speculated the report might be related to an upcoming hearing on their visa status but said she was unaware of claims they were Israeli agents before the story appeared.

The report said the couple also aroused suspicions when people arrived at their home for late-night meetings. "It's pretty strange," Yaffa said, "apparently the report is talking about Shabbat dinners with Israelis and local Jews."

Addressing the high rent, the Israeli woman said, "This is a large house that is designated for Chabad activities. It only costs $1,000 a month – not an insane amount. Local police spoke to us a few times and asked that we do not hold large gathering in the house; nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course, any Jew who knows the slightest bit about the religion would know that someone named "Shneor Zalman" is from Chabad.

Syria update: Assad interview notes hacked; wife defends him; hundreds more dead (UPDATE)

From Ha'aretz:

Hundreds of emails from Syrian President Bashar Assad's office were leaked on Monday after an attack by the hacker group Anonymous. One of the email files, which Haaretz has obtained, was a document preparing Assad for his December 2011 interview with ABC's Barbara Walters.

Assad's TV interview with Walters was memorable for his repeated denials that Syrian citizens were being killed. "We don't kill our people ... no government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person," Assad told Walters.

About 10 days before the interview, Sheherazad Jaafari - a press attache at the Syrian mission to the United Nations - sent a long email to former Al Jazeera journalist Luna Chebel, who now works in Assad's bureau. She also sent the email to an aide of Shaaban's. Jaafari, who was involved in arranging the interview with Walters, also happens to be the daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar Jaafari.

Jaafari Jr. wrote: "The major points and dimensions that have been mentioned a lot in the American media are: The idea of violence has been one of the major subjects brought up in every article. They use the phrases 'The Syrian government is killing its own people,' 'Tanks have been used in many cities,' 'Airplanes have been used to suppress the peaceful demonstrations,' and 'Security forces are criminals and bloody.'"

She advised: "It is hugely important and worth mentioning that 'mistakes' have been done in the beginning of the crises because we did not have a well-organized 'police force.' American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are 'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it.' It's worth mentioning also what is happening now in Wall Street and the way the demonstrations are been suppressed by policemen, police dogs and beatings."

Jaafari also recommended that Assad say: "Syria doesn't have a policy to torture people, unlike the USA, where there are courses and schools that specialize in teaching policemen and officers how to torture."She advised using Abu Ghraib in Iraq or execution via electric chair as more examples.

She added that that mentioning the talkbacks on articles in the American media are a useful tool, saying that "the Americans are asking their government to stop interfering in other countries' business and sovereignty and to start taking care of American internal issues."

"It is worth mentioning that when Obama asked H.E. to step down he himself have had a 70% decrease of his popularity in the States," Jaafari wrote.

"It would be worth mentioning how your personality has been attacked and praised in the last decade according to the media. At one point H.E. was viewed as a hero and in other times H.E. was the 'bad guy'. Americans love these kinds of things get convinced by it."

Jaafari also stressed that Facebook and YouTube are important to "the American mindset" and advised to mention that "the face that Facebook and YouTube are open now – especially during the crisis – is important."

Assad's wife, who was famously profiled along with her wonderful dictator husband in the Vogue puff-piece a year ago, has now come out publicly in support of the regime:

The British-born wife of Syria’s president has spoken in support of her husband for the first time since the 11-month uprising against his regime began, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

“The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role,” The Times quoted Asma al-Assad as saying in an email sent via an intermediary from her office.

The email is her first communication with the international media since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began, The Times said.

“The First Lady’s very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has long been involved with and rural development as well as supporting the President as needed,” the email reportedly continued.

“These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.” it added.

Stylish and charismatic and with a degree from King’s College in London where she was raised, the former investment banker had helped promote the soft side of an iron-fisted regime.

Meanwhile:

Heavy bombardment of the Syrian city of Homs resumed on Tuesday after violence in Syria killed as many as 128 people as Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov started a visit to Damascus.

“The bombardment is again concentrating on Bab Amro. A doctor tried to get in there this morning but I heard he was wounded,” Mohammad al-Hassan, an activist in Homs, told Reuters by satellite phone.

“There is no electricity and all communications with the neighborhood has been cut,” he added.

Monday’s deaths included 19 children and 15 women. At least 61 people have been killed in Homs alone, as the neighborhoods of Bayyada, Ensha’at and Bab Amro are still bombarded by all kinds of rockets and mortar shells, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists.

A member of the main opposition Syrian National Council said Assad’s forces killed scores of people people in a sustained bombardment of Homs, a center of armed opposition to his rule, two days after activists reported more than 200 people were killed in shelling.

A resident of Homs told AFP the latest assault began shortly after 0400 GMT Monday, with unprecedented barrages of rockets, mortar rounds and artillery shells.

“What is happening is horrible, it’s beyond belief,” said activist Omar Shaker, reached by telephone as loud detonations were heard in the background.

“There is nowhere to take shelter, nowhere to hide,” he said. “We are running short of medical supplies and we are only able to provide basic treatment to the injured.”

One video posted on YouTube apparently showed a field hospital hit by shelling in the Baba Amro district and wounded patients lying on stretchers on the floor amid pools of blood and shattered glass.

Footage shot by a BBC undercover team in Homs showed buildings ablaze in rebel neighborhoods as they were pounded with heavy weapons.

UPDATE: Speaking of Asma Assad, you can check out her hypocrisy here:
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/02/07/asma-assad-stand-by-your-man/

(h/t Yair)

Fatah Facebook page glorifies 1975 Savoy Hotel terrorists

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Fatah has chosen to use its official Facebook page to glorify terrorists.

Fatah's page currently displays a poster with the pictures of 8 terrorists who carried out a terror attack on the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv in 1975, that was posted by the Fatah administrator.

8 Israeli civilians and 3 soldiers were killed in the attack.

Text on poster:
"The Tel Aviv operation, March 6, 1975 ; The Palestinian passage to the homeland"

The text under each terrorist's picture reads:
"The heroic Shahid (Martyr)" followed by the terrorist's name.

This is the official Fatah Facebook page as announced in PalArab media on February 1.

The Fatah terrorists arrived by sea from Lebanon. They had intended to attack a different target, but they got lost and chose this hotel because it was the only building lit up on the street.

The dead included two Swiss, a German, a Somali and a teenage boy from the Netherlands. The Fatah terrorists set off explosive charges when Israeli forces raided the hotel; one Fatah member survived and initially claimed to have come from Egypt (in order to frustrate any peace agreement between Israel and Egypt) before admitting that they came from Lebanon.

Fatah took responsibility, saying that they wanted Israel to release some 10 terrorists from prison.

These are the heroes of today's "moderate" Fatah.

Iranian government websites give religious approval for destroying Israel

From WND:

The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.

The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide. [I did not see the part about "Jewish people worldwide" - EoZ.]

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a “‘jurisprudential justification” to kill all the Jews [see above] and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, an analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues.

On Friday, in a major speech at prayers, Khamenei announced that Iran will support any nation or group that attacks the “cancerous tumor” of Israel. Though his statement was seen by some in the West as fluff, there is substance behind it.

Iran’s Defense Ministry announced this weekend that it test-fired an advanced two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile and boasted about successfully putting a new satellite into orbit, reminding the West that its engineers have mastered the technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles even as the Islamic state pushes its nuclear weapons program.

Google's Farsi translation is not quite as good as its Arabic, but this is what I could puzzle out.

The article quotes Ayatollah Khomeini (possibly current leader Khamenei) saying that the destruction of Israel is necessary, as it is a cancer in the Middle East. All Muslims are obligated to fight Israel.

It goes into a legal discussion of the difference between regular jihad and defensive jihad. While primary jihad may require the blessing of the Hidden Imam, defensive jihad does not. The author defines the obligation to fight Israel as defensive jihad because Israel controls Muslim holy places as well as because Israel instills fear in Muslims.

If I am reading it right, he is saying that any Israeli action would be justification to destroy Israel.

The article goes into detail as to which targets it would attack, from nuclear facilities to railways to airports and utilities, water and sanitation.

After going through the various kinds of missiles Iran has, the article claims that Iran can destroy Israel in less than 9 minutes. It claims that one of its rockets can reach Israel in less than 14 minutes and that anti-missile batteries would be ineffective.

The Alef article includes maps showing where they say Israeli airbases are, as well as the range of their rockets:

Arutz-7 has what might be a more accurate representation of the article; I'm being pretty conservative.

UPDATE: MEMRI translated it.

Israel is not turning into an Iranian-style theocracy (TNR)

A nice article in TNR by Gil Troy that explains how "ultra-Orthodox" Jews fit into Israeli society, and it is not nearly as black and white as people like to think:

The demonizing of Israel, dismissing the democratic Jewish state as a right-wing, religious, racist project, continues. The latest storyline describes ultra-Orthodox Israelis—known in Hebrew as haredim—as medieval Neanderthals rapidly converting Israel into an Iran-style theocracy. This popular caricature encourages those liberals seeking excuses to stop supporting Israel. The appalling images of bearded, black-hatted zealots spitting on eight-year-olds, forcing women to the back of public buses, and parading their children with yellow stars in protest, are all being read as tea leaves predicting Israel’s imminent degeneration into Haredistan. But what if the opposite is true? Haredi rampages seem more like impotent attempts to build a firewall against modernity than harbingers of conquest.

Change is coming to a community defined by its rejection of change. Haredim are joining Israeli society. Haredi vocational programs are proliferating, as government generosity wanes. Over 3000 haredi soldiers have now served in Israel’s army, including a combat-ready unit. Many haredi women, who increasingly are highly educated and working, are demanding more respect while continuing to maintain gender distinctions. The debate about television and internet usage is intensifying, as modern popular culture seeps into the society, which is not hermetically sealed.

While haredi triumphalists emphasize their high birthrate, the outflow of the last two centuries since the Enlightenment continues. Though statistics are elusive, communal anxiety abounds about the apostates. Most haredim, while denying the hemorrhaging, have close relatives who are no longer haredi. The deserters are numerous enough to have inspired a television drama series: Simanei She’eilah (question marks), which tracks the stories of haredi runaways living in a Tel Aviv halfway house, debuted last year.

The Zaka organization provides the most dramatic—and inspiring—example of haredi engagement with Israeli society. Zaka became famous during the second intifada, dispatching ultra-Orthodox crews who cleaned up the spilled blood and pieces of flesh strewn about after bombings. Their reverence and thoroughness impressed normally hostile secular Israelis. Zaka’s heroism, along with the suicide bombings in haredi neighborhoods, reminded all Israelis of their shared destiny. Today, more than 1500 Zaka volunteers nationwide serve in ambulances and participate in search and rescue operations. A Zaka team in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake worked through the Sabbath, saving lives.

... Noah Efron, a Bar Ilan University philosopher and historian, has explored the ingrained prejudice and popular revulsion against haredim. “The Jewish fight against ultra-Orthodoxy is part of a long-running struggle about what legitimately counts as Jewish,” Professor Efron says. “The modern forms of Judaism have so won the day that this need to continue fighting the battle seems neurotic.” Nevertheless, emphasizing the bad behavior of haredi Jews—who epitomize the stereotypical Jew—makes modern Jews and non-Jews feel better, less judged, suggesting that “these ostensibly superior Jews are actually inferior,” Efron says. “We continually prove our own probity to ourselves by proving the depravity of those people.”

More broadly, these stories provoke secular Westerners’ condescension toward religious people. Reading many of the American and European blogs about the haredi tensions this winter, Efron has been “stunned” by “the depths of the hatred and the crassness of the arguments. The attacks reflect a toxic mix of old style anti-Semitism and contemporary anti-Zionism, with a new style modern anti-anything-that-is-not-secular-liberal-and-Western added.”

Haredim—and their leaders—are, of course, partly responsible for the broad anger against them. Many lack civic spirit. Few serve in the army. The separation of women often entails inequality. Their politicians exploit Israel’s fragmented coalition-governing system. A culture of lawlessness has grown in many communities, and their holier-than-thou attitude toward fellow citizens rankles.

Nevertheless, even in Bet Shemesh, the town where the haredi men spat on the eight-year-old schoolgirl, the true story is more complex than headlines suggest. “Haredi residents are furious at the recent developments and resent that they are being blamed for the acts of a tiny minority,” the haredi paper, HaModia reported. This doesn’t excuse haredi leaders: In a hierarchical community that grants rabbis so much power, the rabbis must do a better job of restraining the bullies. But as Rabbi Yeshaya Ehrenreich, a member of the Beit Shemesh City Council, told the newspaper, “The haredim who live in the same neighborhoods as these [fringe elements] suffer more than anyone else.”

This video from Aish, although a bit corny, seems appropriate:

(h/t Seth Mandel, SwissYankee)

The enemy of my enemy is sometimes anything but a friend

From Now Lebanon:

Russia, China and Iran are complicit in a "massacre" being carried out by regime forces in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood charged on Monday.

"We consider Russia, China and Iran as direct accomplices to the horrible massacre being carried out against our people," the group, which is banned in Syria, said in a statement issued from London.

It accused the three countries of supplying weapons and equipment to the embattled regime in Damascus, which is seeking to put down an 11-month revolt.

By doing so, the Brotherhood said, they were "directly participating in the massacre of our defenseless people."

The MB even called for a boycott of Russian and Chinese goods:

A major Islamic Movement called for boycotting the Russian and Chinese goods in protest of their veto of a Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis, a statement issued on Sunday at the movement official website stated.

In Jordan , Muslim Brotherhood’s leader Hammam Saeed accused Russia and China of participating in killing, and crackdown the Syrian people uprising.

“Russia and China decision should not pass without a popular action against their supportive policies with the Syrian regime against civilians” the statement stated.

The Islamists knows that if Syria falls, they are the the ones to fill in the power vacuum, just as they did in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

And their strategy is to eventually link up into one large Islamist 'ummah that will drive Christians from the Middle East altogether.

Things will get a lot messier in the coming years.

Would Hezbollah attack Israel to aid Syria?

From Naharnet:

Lebanon must not hesitate in supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, because backing it has major “strategic and fateful” repercussions, sources close to Hizbullah told the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.

They said: “Hizbullah will not allow the fall of the Assad regime even if it means launching a war with Israel.”

This position echoed Israeli fears that a war with the party may be ignited in order to divert attention from the current developments in Syria, said the newspaper.

The Israeli leadership is mulling “the need to issue an open threat to Hizbullah as part of a wider strategy adopted by the Israeli government.”

“This strategy aims at deterring Hizbullah and Iran from carrying out any attack against Israeli targets,” stated several sources, including the Jerusalem Post.

The Hizbullah sources did not rule out the possibility of “surprises emerging, aimed at turning attention away from the Syrian crisis.”

“Should such a surprise take place, it would shift the international community’s priorities in the region,” they stressed.

But Nasrallah has been more on the fence as Syria totters:

On January 14, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said that Lebanon should disavow itself from developments in Syria as the crisis will have negative repercussions on the situation locally.

“We call on the Syrian opposition to abide by Assad’s demands to engage in dialogue and cooperate with him to introduce reform that would resolve the country’s problems,” he stated.

During a speech in December, he voiced his support for the Syrian regime, while saying that his party backs reform and efforts to eradicate corruption in the neighboring country.

Nasrallah stressed, however, that “some people want to destroy Syria,” they reject dialogue, and they seek to “compensate their loss in Iraq.”

In general, I don't trust Kuwaiti newspapers when they quote anonymous sources - they often simply make things up.

I have no doubt that Hezbollah will work behind the scenes to ensure Assad's hold on power stays indefinitely. I also have no doubt that Nasrallah is trying to acquire whatever weapons he can get from Syria before it might fall. But Nasrallah is not stupid, and he knows that openly supporting Assad - or even launching an attack that is transparently meant to distract the world from Syria - would backfire on his own position in Lebanon.

(h/t Dan)

"Pearls Before Swine" takes on jihadists

From last Friday's and Saturday's Pearls Before Swine comic, where the Rat character takes over Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood:

I have a feeling that the cartoonist will be getting some nasty emails.

Egyptian "liberals" spin conspiracy theory around US medical research center

MEMRI summarizes an article from Egyptian Al Wafd daily:

On January 27, 2012, the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd published an investigative article on the Naval Medical Research Unit Three (NAMRU-3), a U.S. Navy biomedical research laboratory located in the Al-'Abbassia area in Cairo. The article, titled "NAMRU – The Pentagon's Unit for Killing Egyptians in Al-'Abbassia," claims that NAMRU handles pathogens that could "exterminate the entire Egyptian nation," and that it conducts research aimed at manipulating the Egyptians' genes in order to alter them and cause deformities. The article also alleges that NAMRU is conducting experiments on Egyptian children; that it might be responsible for an increase in infertility, impotence, retardation, and disabilities among the people; and that the data it collects is used to design harmful foods, seeds, and drugs that are developed in America and then sold cheaply to the Egyptians. The daily states that the unit operates freely in Egypt, with the approval of the authorities but without their supervision.

NAMRU's mission statement is to "Study, monitor, and detect emerging and re-emerging disease threats of military and public health importance; develop mitigation strategies against these threats in partnership with host nations and international and U.S. agencies in CENTCOM, EUCOM, and AFRICOM areas of responsibility."

Here are details from the Al Wafd article:

'Your health is in the hands of the American Department of Defense.' This is revealed by the following [facts], gathered from documents of the Pentagon's research unit NAMRU-3, which is the largest American military research unit in the Middle East.

Entering the NAMRU headquarters, you feel you have stepped into a horror film. The place is silent and shrouded in secrecy. Doctors and [other] employees [move about in] white robes, gloves, and caps, and sometimes also masks. The organisms they work with are a kind of bacterial biological weapon, which, if deployed, could exterminate the entire Egyptian nation, or any other nation.

Since the establishment of the NAMRU unit in Egypt, dozens of new and mutated viral diseases have been discovered. This indicates that these pathogens are imported. No research or medical [institute] has infiltrated Egypt to a greater extent than NAMRU, which controls the secrets of the viruses that are used in [weapons of] mass destruction and biological weapons...

NAMRU sees the Egyptian children as an opportunity to test new medicines. In its reports, it notes that the Egyptian children have the best immune systems, even in comparison with soldiers in the American army. NAMRU monitors our children when they are still fetuses by stationing American doctors and researchers in health centers in the [country's] villages, so they can come into contact with pregnant mothers, and the information [these doctors and researchers collect] is linked into NAMRU's network of databanks. [NAMRU] caused a stir when its doctors tried to conduct an experimental study on children in Al-Bahira, claiming they wished to develop a serum from diarrhea for a new vaccination. [As part of this effort,] gifts and money were handed out to the [children's] families in Farshut, Umm Al-Laban, Kum Al-Qanatir, and other villages in central Abu Homs, but the families adamantly refused to turn their children into lab rats...

This incident raised questions, which remained unanswered, over whether American hands in NAMRU were behind the increase in infertility, mental retardation, and disability among Egyptians born in recent years... as well as [instances of] impotence. [This, considering] the dangerous genetic information that NAMRU has collected on the Egyptians, especially patients in the Al-'Abbasia Hospital, and its ability to disrupt [the Egyptians'] natural genes and immune systems; [and also considering the fact] that it sends [Egypt] medicines, seeds, and fodder for animals, and is involved in all experiments [conducted in Egypt] in the fields of agriculture, livestock, water, food, etc.

NAMRU-3 controls the Egyptians' health, for better or worse, and has in its possession all the Egyptian genetic specifications and compounds and their hereditary traits, alongside an arsenal of components for lethal biological weapons, which it can hand over to Israel or any country hostile to Egypt if it ever becomes angry with the Egyptian people, in order to utterly destroy them.

As Barry Rubin notes in an excellent article, this bizarre conspiracy theory is not coming from the Muslim Brotherhood - but from the people considered "liberal" in the Egyptian elections! These people are the ones that Westerners were hoping would win because they supposedly reflect Western values.

In other words, the Egyptian "moderates" are almost as screwed up and anti-Western as the conservatives are.

And this does not bode well for the future of Egypt.

US threatens to withhold aid to Egypt over NGO charges

From WaPo:

Nineteen Americans will face criminal charges as part of a probe of the funding of pro-democracy groups, Egyptian officials announced Sunday, a provocative move that could deprive Egypt of crucial aid from the United States and upend one of Washington’s most important bilateral relationships.

The development added pressure to an already strained relationship between Egypt’s ruling generals and the Obama administration. The targets of the investigation include well-connected American groups, among them one led in Cairo by Sam LaHood, son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Sam LaHood reportedly was among those facing charges.

U.S. officials have sternly warned Cairo in recent days that the roughly $1.5 billion in aid earmarked for Egypt this year could be withheld if the politically charged investigation isn’t resolved quickly. But the tone of Sunday’s announcement suggested the Egyptian government is doubling down on what has become a high-stakes diplomatic dispute.

Fayza Abul Naga, Egypt’s minister for international cooperation, who is widely seen as the mastermind of the probe, said Sunday’s announcement should leave no doubt about the “government’s seriousness about discovering some of these groups’ plans to destabilize Egypt,” the state-owned newspaper al-Ahram reported on its Web site. The minister is among the few Mubarak loyalists who remain in the Egyptian cabinet.

Egypt has banned a number of non-government organizations’ workers, including LaHood, country director for the International Republican Institute, from leaving the country. Fearing they could be arrested, at least three of the Americans under investigation have sought shelter at the U.S. Embassy.

In response to pressure from Washington, Egyptian officials have said in recent days that they were unable to meddle in a judicial matter.

Local news reports said that in addition to the 19 Americans, 14 Egyptians, five Serbs, two Germans and three Arabs will stand trial. Egyptian officials have not indicated when formal charges will be handed down, and no trial dates have been set.

Pro-democracy groups have worked openly in Egypt for years, although the government has long refused to grant them operating licenses. The groups were buoyed last year when the government allowed them to monitor parliamentary election, the first time foreign monitors were allowed to observe polls in the country.

Hopes that Mubarak’s fall a year ago would be a boon for pro-democracy activists were dashed on Dec. 29 when Egyptian authorities raided the offices of 10 NGOs and seized files and computers. The current investigation, led by two investigative judges who were state prosecutors, is predicated on a 2002 law that bars organizations from accepting foreign funding if they are not licensed by the state.

U.S. officials have long sought to make assistance to Egypt conditional on democratic reforms. Experts on the country said the ruling generals might be assuming that the latest threats from Washington will prove to be empty. Similar warnings linking reforms and aid, dating back at least two administrations, have not been pressed.

The Egyptian government has long seen its yearly aid package from Washington as payback for signing a treaty with Israel in 1978.

The generals don’t “see this aid as being aid,” said Shadi Hamid, an Egypt expert at the Brookings Doha Center. “They see it as their birthright. They see it as a bribe, and they feel they are undertaking their side of the pact.”

But LaHood’s involvement in the case could leave Washington little recourse, Hamid said. “Threatening to arrest and try the son of a top U.S. official is a red line, and they’ve crossed it,” he said.

Is it me, or is anyone else bothered by the idea that the US would only consider acting when one of those threatened is politically connected?

Abbas declared "unity" prime minister, and what the NYT is missing

From NYT:

The leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas announced on Monday that they have broken a long political deadlock and formed an interim unity government led, at least at first, by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank.

The announcement at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, which was broadcast live across the region, signaled a significant step toward reconciling the two movements as they prepare for elections.

Mr. Abbas, the chief of Fatah, and Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, met in Qatar at the weekend for talks on how to move forward with reconciliation efforts. Under an accord signed last May, the sides had agreed to form a government of independent technocrats to prepare for elections, but they had been unable to agree on a candidate for the post of prime minister.

News reports before the announcement said the two sides reached an agreement for Mr. Abbas to replace the incumbent, Salam Fayyad, as prime minister. It was not clear if Mr. Fayyad would also be a member of the new government.

The newspaper didn't mention the details:

1. The PLO, which runs the PA, will continue to be restructured, presumably to include Hamas (and probably Islamic Jihad) at its highest levels. This is why Hamas agrees to having a Fatah member as the head of the PA - because while the West thinks that the PA is the government, in fact the PLO is what calls the shots, especially in foreign affairs. Abbas, as head of the PLO, is agreeing to admit unrepentant terrorists into that organization.

2. There will be a meeting on restructuring the PLO in Cairo on February 18.

3. Abbas will head the "national consensus" government but his main job will be to set up the presidential and legislative elections. It is unclear if he will run for president - he had promised not to - and there are no credible Fatah candidates for that position, so chances are very good that Hamas will win.

4. Some more committees to address detainees, passports, travel between the West Bank and Gaza, and other provisions of the agreement last May that were never implemented despite dozens of meetings.

5. Starting work on taking the Central Election Commission out of mothballs. The implication is that the promised May elections will be delayed.

Hamas was against Abbas being the prime minister but relented under pressure from Qatar. Chances are that there was some unreported detail about the PLO restructuring that favors Hamas.

Fayyad said he welcomed the announcement.

Meanwhile, Gazans are complaining that they still cannot get passports, even after officials claimed that problem was solved.

Simpsons products banned in Iran!

What would Bart say?

An Iranian government-affiliated agency has banned dolls of the Simpsons cartoon characters, who join Barbie and others on a toy blacklist, an independent newspaper reported on Monday.

The report said that the Simpsons were banned to avoid the promotion of Western culture. But Superman and Spiderman were allowed, because they helped the "oppressed."

"We do not want to promote this cartoon by importing the toys," Shargh daily quoted Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, secretary of policymaking at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, as saying.

He did not elaborate on what was wrong with the Simpsons specifically. But he noted that any doll on which genitals are distinguishable, as well as dolls of adults, are banned. So were toys with speakers that blare out the voices of Western singers, or toy kitchen sets that include glasses for drinking alcoholic beverages.

Farjoo said however that dolls of Spiderman and Superman were authorized for sale. "They help oppressed people and they have a positive stance," he said.

The agency is the same that called Barbie dolls a "Trojan horse" in 1996. In January, police said they closed down dozens of toy shops for selling Barbies.

Possible new natural gas discovery off Israel's coast

From CRI:

An American-Israeli drilling consortium on Sunday announced the discovery of a new Mediterranean natural gas field about 120 km northwest of the Haifa coast.

The Noble Energy-Delek Group said in a statement that the find lies beneath 5,500 meters of sand and water, in 40-meter thick gas- bearing strata, according to the Globes business daily.

The report said the field may contain between 34 billion to 37 billion cubic meters of gas.

Noble's next step is to stabilize the borehole -- keeping it from collapsing -- in order to carry out a series of intensive seismic and electrical tests to further details the makeup of the rock and liquids in the strata, the report said.

The site is adjacent to the significant Israeli-owned Tamar and Leviathan fields, discovered in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Tamar contains an estimated 240 billion cubic meters of natural gas, while Leviathan, 450 billion cubic meters.

Officials told Globes that Israel's smaller Yam Tethys rig, located off the Ashkelon coast, is fast depleting as it is the country's sole source of natural gas. Israel decided to rely solely on the platform's flagging output, due to a dozen bombing attacks by saboteurs on the Egypt-Israel pipeline near el-Arish -- the latest overnight Sunday -- throughout 2011.

Uzi Landau, who heads Israel's Water and Energy Ministry, has made switching over from the Egyptian gas -- whose export came as part of the peace deal between the countries -- to its own resources, a linchpin of the country's energy development policy.

Together, the three finds could, potentially, change the strategic face of the region and turn Israel into an energy exporter.

However, a visiting energy expert told The Jerusalem Post that the country would likely not see a revenue stream before 2020.

"This is a developed economy," said Nick Butler, a former British Petroleum Group vice president of strategy, who was visiting here to attend last week's Herzliya Conference.

"Israel is not a banana republic that has to export its natural resources. I don't see why Israel could not develop gas grids in major cities to bring it to every business and every home. That is what has worked in most European countries, and there is no physical reason that cannot be done here," Butler said.

Meanwhile, the Israel Navy is preparing to significantly boost the security surrounding the country's natural gas rigs in the Mediterranean Sea due to growing threats of attack.

The army's high command recently tasked the navy's missile boat flotilla with securing the Tamar, Leviathan and Yam Tethys drilling platforms off the Haifa coast, the Ha'aretz daily reported.

The rigs are located some 22 km beyond Israel's territorial waters, but are within the country's "economic waters zone," an area that extends up to 130 km into the Mediterranean.

The plan would deploy the missile boats, which have already held protective training maneuvers in the seas around the rigs, to conduct patrols and secure future drilling platforms.

Israel's defense establishment is increasingly concerned about the dangers posed to the offshore rigs by militant groups or an armed conflict with neighboring states.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem vowed last July that his organization would not allow Israel to encroach on what he said was Lebanon's maritime sovereignty and seize its oil, gas and water resources.