Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 13, 2012

Israeli invention allows blind people to "see" using other senses

Can the blind “see” with their ears? Hebrew University of Jerusalem brain scientists have tapped onto the visual cortex of people suffering from congenital blindness by using sensory substitution devices (SSDs) – making it possible for them in effect to “see” and even describe objects.

SSDs are non-invasive sensory aids that provide visual information to the blind via their existing senses. For example, using a visual-to-auditory SSD in a clinical or everyday setting, users wear a miniature video camera connected to a small computer (or smartphone) and stereo headphones. The images are converted into “soundscapes,” using a predictable algorithm, allowing the user to listen to and then interpret the visual information coming from the camera.

Surprisingly, proficient users who have had special training in a short time as part of a research protocol in the lab of Dr. Amir Amedi are able to use SSDs to identify complex everyday objects, locate people and their postures and read letters and words.

Amazingly, this seems to work even on people who have been blind from birth.

Here's another product to be shunned by those ever-so-moral advocates of boycotting Israel.

Haniyeh: "The gun is our only response to the Zionist regime"

From Iran's ISNA:

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said gun is Palestine's only response to the Zionist regime.

Rejecting any compromise with Zionist regime, Haniya said, "Gun is our only response to Zionist regime. In time, we have come to understand that we can obtain our goals only through fighting and armed resistance and no compromise should be made with the enemy."

Also regarding Fatah-Hamas compromise, he said resistance is one of the basic principles of Palestinian nation.

Palestinian Prime Minister speaking in Iranian state TV, said, "Path of resistance continues and if we make any compromise, it is for resistance and obtaining Palestinians' rights."

He asserted Islamic Awakening developments which took place in the Arab World shows the genuineness of the way as adding resistance strategy still continues and, "we have not changed the strategy."

Palestinian Prime Minister said, "Presence of Zionist regime inside Palestine is the root of all regional problems and this presence poses a threat not only to Palestine but also to the whole region."

He added now 6,000,000 Palestinians are living beyond Palestine's borders which should return to the country and their return is possible only through resistance.

You have to understand, he's talking about peaceful guns, and peaceful fighting, and peaceful armed resistance.

I mean, how else can you understand this? It can't mean violence, because so many experts have been telling us that Hamas is pragmatic and has abandoned violence.

So "guns" must be a keyword that means "flowers" in Hamas-talk. "Fighting" must mean "hugs" and "armed resistance" means "intense lovemaking."

Groovy, man.

It's official: Everything is Israel's fault, including the Arab Spring

From Egypt Independent:

During Monday’s session of former President Mubarak’s ongoing trial, Mohamed al-Gendy, one of former Cairo Security Director Ismail al-Shaer’s defense lawyers, suggested that third parties, including Israel, helped fuel the revolution, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) has reported.

"It’s unimaginable that those in the cage are murderers, and that the countries proven to have been funding organizations in Egypt did not participate in the events,” said Gendy. "It is unimaginable that Israel, which was spying on the mobile networks, had nothing to do with fueling the events."

Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six of Adly's assistants are charged with killing protesters during the 25 January revolution, while Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal and businessman Hussein Salem are being tried on corruption charges. Adly was convicted of money laundering and fraud in May 2011.

Israel has now been accused of being pro- and anti-Egypt Revolution; pro-Fatah and pro-Hamas, pro-Assad and pro-Syrian opposition, anti-American and pro-American.

I guess when you control the world, it really all ends up being your responsibility.

(h/t Dan)

"Saudi 'apostate' faces certain execution"

From Free Malaysia Today News:

The blood of deported Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari is on Malaysia’s hands.

According to Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson, Malaysia did not give Kashgari access to his lawyers or to the United Nations refugee agency, and speedily sent him on a plane back to Saudi Arabia.

Because of this, Kashgari would most likely face an almost certain death at the hands of his government.

“Malaysia’s action to deport Kashgari to Saudi Arabia sets all new lows in the Malaysian government’s failure to respect human rights standards, and if he faces execution back in Saudi Arabia, the Malaysian government will have blood on its hands,” he said in a press statement.

He added that the Malaysian government did not allow Kashgari access to his lawyers for days, and prevented the United Nations from meeting him.

“But on Sunday, the police told those lawyers that Kashgari was still being held after he already had been forced on a plane,” he said.

The lawyers then fought to get a court injunction to prevent Kashgari’s deportation, but were too late. The Saudi journalist was already on his way home.

This was despite the claim that Malaysia did not have a formal extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia.

“By its actions, the Home Ministry once again showed that it believes rule of law is whatever it says and that it is more than willing to be totally opaque in its operations to maintain its flexibility to do what it wants when it wants,” he said.

Many called for his head after he supposedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad; which is considered blasphemous in Islam. It is also a crime punishable by death.

Kashgari had been planning to fly to New Zealand, intending to seek asylum there. He was in transit from Jordan when he was detained here.

According to Robertson, Malaysia appeared to be hypocritical in its human rights stance, especially where the UN was concerned.

“When seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, the Malaysian government pledged that it would abide by international human rights treaties.”

“But from the day Malaysia took it’s seat, Malaysian government leaders have walked away from that pledge,” he said.

Malaysia defended its actions:

The Malaysian Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said the deportation to Saudi Arabia was legal and that Malaysia cannot be seen as a safe haven, said the BBC.

Mr Hussein was quoted by the AP news agency as saying: "I will not allow Malaysia to be seen as a safe country for terrorists and those who are wanted by their countries of origin, and also be seen as a transit county."

Egyptian presidential candidate would make hijab mandatory

From Al Arabiya:

An ultra-conservative Egyptian presidential hopeful has said that if he is elected as head of state he would force women to wear the hijab (veil) or “change creed,” adding that Islam provides no guarantees of personal freedom.

“If you claim that Allah considers it your personal freedom, show me your reference. Nobody has ever said that - except for people who have no understanding of the Shariah,” Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail, a long-time supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, said in a recent interview with the Egypt’s Tahrir TV.

He said that if he is elected president he would enforce the hijab on women and that if they do not want to wear it, they have to change their “creed.”

He did not elaborate on what he meant by changing their “creed” and whether this meant changing their religion, knowing that such a move is strictly forbidden under the Shariah law and could result in capital punishment.

Ismail said that following the Shariah (Islamic law) is like being in the military, where a person has to follow a strict code of conduct.

He said that the Islamic saying of “no compulsion in religion” is comparable to “no compulsion in the military, meaning that if someone wants to enter the military, he can enter and if he does not want to, he does not have to enter.”

But once a person enters the military, that person has to respect its rules, the cleric said.

“If you join, then you are obliged to wear their uniform, to attend their classes, to attend the training with them and to obey their leader,” Ismail said.

In August 2011, Ismail appeared in an online video praising Osama bin Laden and describing him as a martyr. He said the late al-Qaeda leader spoke “the word of truth on power” and went to the “front lines to work in the path of Allah.”

Ismail said he has “some minor differences” with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group he left before expressing intentions to run for president.

The Muslim Brotherhood doesn't have any official candidates for president, so given their huge victory in the parliamentary elections, this guy really could be the next president of Egypt.

Morning links

Honest Reporting: You Can’t March In Step With Suicide Bombers and Lecture About What’s Mainstream discusses an Australian journalist who loves to contextualize suicide bombings making declarations about what most Australians think. (Here he is about 9/11; doesn't sound "mainstream" to me.)

Honest Reporting also debunks a rumor that CNN had let go of all its Jewish staff in Israel. (People had sent me that story for a few days but I am not going to report on something that incendiary without a lot more proof. I had written to some of the reporters who were let go but they didn't respond.)

Magen David Adom's first Muslim ambulance driver is a woman:

"At first it was difficult working with a team comprised mostly by men, but I've gotten used to that already. They're nice. At the station I am friends with the Jewish girls. I teach them Arabic and learn Hebrew from them. In the meantime I use the advantage of my language in east Jerusalem."

A review of "A Convenient Hatred" - a book about anti-semitism, at Stonegate Institute.

Also at Stonegate, a look at radicalization of young British Muslims.

Iran reported preparing "suicide bomb boats" at the Straits of Hormuz.

Isi Liebler of the Jerusalem Post is interviewed about a possible military strike on Iran:

(h/t Daphne Anson)

Attacks on Israel embassies in India, Georgia

From NYT:

JERUSALEM - Unidentified bombers attacked staff at Israeli embassies far apart in India and Georgia on Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, and images from New Delhi showed what appeared to be a minivan consumed by flames.

"There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were," Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, was quoted by Reuters as saying. "In both cases, the people concerned worked with the Israeli embassies."

He also confirmed that a bomb had been found in a car belonging to a staffer at the embassy in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which was defused by local police.

Indian police said at least one person had been injured in New Delhi but there was no immediate word on fatalities.

Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, confirmed that a bomb was discovered affixed to the car of an employee of the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi.

"The car of a Georgian national working for the Israeli embassy was mined," he said. "The embassy employee noticed a suspicious object and he called the police, and the police successfully defused it before it went off."

He said the car was not parked close to the embassy at the time. He said this was the first attempted attack on an employee of the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi. Police have not yet identified any suspects, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either of the apparently coordinated attacks.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the attackers were known to Israeli officials, though he did not immediately name any group. "We know exactly who is responsible for the attack and who planned it and we're not going to take it lying down," the daily Haaretz quoted him as saying.

In New Delhi, Indian officials said a driver and the wife of an Israeli diplomat were injured in the late afternoon blast close to the Israeli Embassy, The Associated Press reported.

"They are in the hospital and being tended to," an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Syed Akbaruddin, told The A.P.

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Imad Mugniyeh.

The Egyptian Parliament yesterday threatened to cancel the peace accords with Israel if the US stops aid to Egypt.

Essam el-Erian, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Egyptian parliament, said that if the United States decided to cut off economic aid for Egypt, it would endanger the Camp David agreement.

He said that part of the Camp David accords was for continued US aid to Egypt, and that if the US would pressure Egypt it would end up hurting Israel.

He said that Egypt is impervious to pressure and that it now makes all of its own decisions.

The US started sending about $1.5 billion in military aid to Egypt after Camp David, but it is not part of the signed agreements. Other US aid to Egypt is not even implicitly tied to Camp David as far as I can tell.

Gaza blackout update

Israel's Channel 10 reported about the impending power outages in Gaza City as a result of there being no fuel to run the power plant. It included some video of the darkened streets (around 20:15 on the link):

But it appears that this footage is from the normal daily scheduled outages, not from the power plant going offline. According to Palestine Times, that will happen "at any moment" as supplies coming from Egypt are sporadic and relatively small.

That is not the only problem, though.

Egypt has been cracking down on ordinary diesel and fuel smuggling to Gaza, which residents have been relying on for their cars and personal generators. Because of the fuel shortages in the northern Sinai, Egyptian authorities have been stopping the shipments to Gaza to keep their own people from rioting.

Yet in public forums, at least one Gaza official still blames Israel, according to Ma'an:

Walid Saad Sayil manages Gaza's only electricity plant, and said the lack of fuel deliveries leaves three options to stave off blackouts, speaking at the Gaza-based forum PalThink for Strategic Studies on Wednesday.

Sayil says the best and most feasible solution is to bring natural gas from Egypt instead of the current diesel which is purchased from Israeli suppliers. It would take six to eight months to arrange, but would save the Palestinian Authority about 60 percent of its budget on fuel, he told the forum.

Another option is an emergency injection of fuel and electricity, Sayil added, without specifying possible sources.

The Gaza Strip could also connect to a joint electricity grid current shared by eight Arab states. The energy authority recently visited Egypt to discuss this possibility, but he warned that such a connection would take more than a year.

A prerequisite to each option it the upgrading of Gaza's electricity network to handle the new wattage, he said.

Gaza has been refusing power plant fuel deliveries from Israel for over a year, so I think this might be a mistake on Ma'an's part. Because when Sayil says he might want an "emergency injection of fuel" he might be referring to purchasing it from Israel as they used to - but he is apparently too scared to say that out loud in Gaza.

Sayil indicated the major cause of the current energy crisis is the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority's delay in payments for fuel.

The PA is currently working to plug a $1.1 billion deficit in the public budget, but has been criticized before by Gaza officials for failing to deliver critical payments to the blockaded coastal strip.

The power plant director said the energy authority and company in Gaza also bear some responsibility for the crisis, and it worsened over the winter as electricity needs shot up.

In 2003, a proposal was developed to build a new power station in Gaza, but supporters have failed to commit to their pledges, he said, adding that neither government in the West Bank or Gaza Strip have implemented the project.

Again, Sayil is trying to appease his Hamas leaders, because while it is true that the PA has been slow in paying fuel bills, the Gaza utility company has been very bad at collecting money owed by residents who routinely ignore their electric bills.

Egypt said it would be interested in hooking Gaza up to its electric grid.

As far as delivering Egyptian natural gas to Gaza - do you think that will stop the saboteurs in the Sinai from attacking the gas lines that also go to Israel (and Jordan)?

(h/t Yoel for video link)

Fatah insulted by Khamenei's saying Arafat abandoned resistance

During Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh's visit to Iran, he met with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television quoted Khamenei as saying to Haniyeh that Hamas must continue its resistance against Israel, pointing out that the late Palestinian leader "Yasser Arafat lost his popularity because he distanced himself from the resistance."

The Iranian leader added that Iran "always stands to the side of the Palestinian resistance."

Fatah is not happy with this characterization of their founder.

Ahmed Assaf, Fatah spokesman, lashed out at Khamenei. He said, The status of the martyr leader Yasser Arafat is immortalized in the consciences of the Palestinian people and Arab and Islamic nations and the free world, and does not require the false testimony of Khamenei of Iran."

Assaf added, "The Israeli occupation assassinated the commander of the Palestinian people because of his steadfastness on the rights of our people and adherence to legitimate resistance to occupation and settlement, so he became a martyr after a siege in his headquarters in the home for three years. "

Assaf continued, "We deplore the Haniyeh's consistent abuse of the history of the Palestinian people in exchange for for a bunch of money," calling on Iran to stop interfering in Palestinian and Arabic affairs.

(h/t Eliyahud)

Syrian defector: "After we defeat Assad we will be stronger to face the Jews"

Israel's Mako has an interesting interview with a Syrian army defector.

Until six weeks ago Hassan was a lieutenant in armored division 5 of the Syrian army. Since March 2011 he fought as a soldier in the Assad's army in suppressing riots, until he decided he could do it no longer.

With the help of an organized network that runs the Free Syria Army, Hassan managed to defect together with another officer and a soldier.

For most of the interview he describes how the Free Syria Army is fighting and his observations of what he is calling a civil war.

But at the end of the interview:

Lt. Hassan will continue to fight the Syrian army and spread the messages of the Free Syria Army over the Internet. During our conversation there is one message he felt is important to him to clarify in no uncertain terms: "Zionists, do not think that after the government is replaced we would give up the sword. The Golan Heights and the Zionist state is still defined as 'Dar al Harb' (Muslim area of war). After we release Syria from the corrupt regime, we will be stronger to face the Jews."

Lovely.

(h/t Yoel)

Now Twitter helps fuel hateful Arab incitement

From The Warped Mirror blog in JPost:

Friday night, I discovered that on his Electronic Intifada blog, Ali Abunimah had put up a post claiming that Likud leaders were planning to go to Al-Aqsa early Sunday morning and that they were calling for “cleansing” Jerusalem and building a Jewish temple instead of the mosque. At the bottom of the post, Abunimah added an update that half-heartedly acknowledged that there was no basis to the story, but he nevertheless concluded by claiming:

"There’s certainly no doubt that whoever published this flyer […] is tapping into a history of calls and growing support for destroying Al-Aqsa. Feiglin’s supporters too are clear about their desire to take over the Temple Mount."

In response, I wrote a post pointing out that spurious claims about Jewish threats to the Al-Aqsa mosque had been used by Arab agitators for almost a hundred years: it was the notorious mufti Haj Amin al Husseini who first used this libel in the 1920s. In the almost 100 years that have passed since then, it was of course only sites sacred to Jews that were desecrated and destroyed in Jerusalem.

When I wrote this post last night, I noted that Abunimah’s post had about 100 tweets and some 150 Facebook endorsements. Some 24 hours later, it had 381 tweets and 523 Facebook “likes”, and there were the beginnings of a Twitter intifada: word of the evil designs of the wicked Likudniks had reached the popular Egyptian-American writer Mona Eltahawy, who send out a tweet about it – and she has more than 100 000 followers…

Luckily, by that time, Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department and professor at Princeton, had also gotten word of the story and found out that it was a hoax. Realizing that it was a very dangerous hoax, she sent out multiple tweets to alert her more than 20 000 followers.

Mona Eltahawy quickly deleted her original tweet and also helped to get out the message that it was a hoax, but by that time, the Al-Aqsa libel was already spreading like wildfire. As one tweet by a professor of sociology put it: “Scared of all the fake rumors about Al #Aqsa. First rule of sociology is if enough people believe something, it will have real consequences.”

Maybe Ali Abunimah will be pleased by the thought that just like with his #IsraelHates- campaign, he once again managed to cause a stir in the Twittersphere – and this time around, there was even the specter of going beyond a merely verbal “Electronic Intifada” to a real intifada of senseless violence and bloodshed.

The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation and various Muslim firebrands are well-known for creating false rumors about supposed Israeli designs on the Temple Mount. They do it practically every week on their website, and many of those make it into the mainstream Palestinian Arab press. Here are just a few I have documented over the years:

November 2008: Israel Antiquities Authority drawing up plans to build the Third Temple
April 2009: Israel is building a subway to the Temple Mount
June 2009: Netanyahu is planning to build the Third Temple
September 2009: Israel will give exclusive access to Jews to the Al Aqsa Mosque for 50 days a year
February 2010: Cracks on the Temple Mount is from Israeli construction and plans to destroy it
March 2010: Israel will start construction of the Third Temple on March 16, 2010

Now we have Twitter and inciters like Abiminah who are willing to help these rumors spread even faster. And it would be funny if it wasn't true that sometimes rumors like these lead to deadly results.

Surprise! Tourism to Egypt plummeting

Osama el Ashry, Egypt's undersecretary of tourism, says that bookings have gone down 20% since the recent kidnappings of tourists.

He said "the kidnapping of the Koreans, and before that the Americans, led to a decline in hotel occupancy, which was already suffering from a crisis from the security situation."

Meanwhile, civil aviation officials said that the number of air travelers to Egypt has declined by 60% since the revolution.

Egypt's tourism industry was worth about $11.6 billion in 2009,and it employs some 12% of the workforce.

Electricity crisis in Gaza gets worse

Egypt apparently sent small amounts of fuel to Gaza's power plant on Friday night, but only about a half-day's worth, according to the chief engineer of Gaza's electric plant Canaan Obeid.

On Thursday he had warned that there was only enough fuel for the power plant to run for 72 hours.

He charged the PA with pressuring Egypt not to send any diesel to Gaza, saying that Mahmoud Abbas insists that the fuel only go through Israeli crossings.

As I reported on Thursday, Hamas has been refusing to receive power plant fuel from Israel since January 2011. And it appears that Hamas has been getting its fuel through smuggling tunnels under Rafah, meaning that it never had a steady supply and it is especially bad now that Egypt is suffering from its own fuel problems and is cracking down on fuel smuggling.

Obeid says, seemingly accurately, that the electricity crisis is "highly political." Just he only blames the PA, when in fact Hamas is at least as guilty by placing its citizens at risk rather than accept fuel from Israel.

We'll see if Gaza goes dark tomorrow.

More indications of a split within Hamas

From YNet:

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has publicly expressed his opposition to a reconciliation agreement signed this week by the Islamist group's politburo chief, Khaled Mashaal, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Zahar told a Gaza-based news agency that the agreement, under which Abbas would head an interim unity government of politically independent technocrats whose main task would be to prepare for presidential and parliament elections, was finalized without consulting other Hamas leaders.

"Handing the reins of government to Abbas is completely unacceptable," Zahar said. "It's a strategically erroneous plan."

The Hamas leader added that Hamas leaders in Gaza and abroad will convene in the coming days to discuss the terror group's official position on the agreement.

In the interview, Zahar said that the Doha declaration of unity was effectively Meshal recognizing Israel and that it causes a "major threat" to the future of Hamas.

He denied that there was a rift, and said that political decisions in Hamas must not be done unilaterally but must instead go through its Shura council.

Meanwhile, Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh is in Iran, and Al Arabiya sees that as another indication of a split:

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah’s trip to the Iranian capital of Tehran highlighted the disagreement between the movement’s leaders at home and abroad, particularly his relationship with Damascus-based politburo chief Khaled Mashaal.

Haniyah’s acceptance of an invitation by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to participate in the celebration of the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, demonstrates the disagreements between Hamas leaders inside and outside the Gaza Strip, said political analyst Mekhimar Abu Saada.

“This division started becoming clear after the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo between Fatah and Hamas,” he said.

At the time, he explained, Mashaal surprised Hamas by granting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas a one-year grace period to conduct negotiations with Israel.

However, Abu Saada added, divisions inside Hamas were made clear when the resistance movement was required to take a stance as far as the Syrian crisis is concerned and the general inclination was to reject Iran’s demand that Hamas support Bashar al-Assad’s regime like Lebanon’s Hezbollah did.

“Mashaal was in the camp that favored distancing itself from Iran and Syria and getting closer to the Sunni axis represented by Turkey, Qatar, and the Palestinian president.”

That is why, he pointed out, this visit seems to have been an explicit rejection of Mashaal’s stance and that of the majority of Hamas leaders.

“This move by Haniyah and any similar moves likely to take place by Hamas leaders at home can be attributed to financial factors.”

Abu Saada explained that Hamas in Gaza is more in need of financial aid from external powers and that is why it is in its best interest not to contradict Iran.

“This, in addition to Haniyah’s objection to the rapprochement between Mashaal and Abbas, is expected to encourage the prime minister to maintain strong relations with Iran even though it supports the Syrian regime unlike Hamas’s initial stance.”

According to sources, Hamas leaders abroad as well as several Gulf nations advised Haniyah not to accept the Iranian invitation.

For his part, Haniyeh told a crowd in Iran that Hamas will never recognize Israel and will actively seek its destruction:

Hamas “will never recognize Israel,” its Gaza prime minister said Saturday in a speech in Iran that is likely to complicate Palestinian efforts to form a unity government in the teeth of opposition from the Jewish state.

“They want us to recognize the Israeli occupation and cease resistance but, as the representative of the Palestinian people and in the name of all the world’s freedom seekers, I am announcing from Azadi Square in Tehran that we will never recognize Israel,” Ismail Haniyeh said.

“The resistance will continue until all Palestinian land, including al-Quds (Jerusalem), has been liberated and all the refugees have returned,” he said.

Haniyeh’s reiteration of Hamas’s long-held stance was made on the occasion of Iran’s commemoration of its 1979 Islamic revolution. The Gaza leader spoke to an estimated crowd of 30,000 from a stage alongside Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.