Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Arabs upset over - Oriental tourists at Al Aqsa

In the middle of yet another article about Zionists "breaking into" the Temple Mount and "performing Talmudic rituals", Qudsmedia notes that some visitors were dancing at Al Aqsa Mosque, thereby desecrating it horribly:

Looking a little closer, you can see that the dancers aren't Jewish religious fanatics, but rather tourists from the Far East:

The Muslims' anger isn't only at them, of course. Here's another photo they took of another set of tourists:

How horrible!

At the very least, the tourists should have enough respect for the holy site to play the traditional Muslim game of soccer, which was decreed by Allah himself as being an appropriate form of veneration, as long as the players are Muslim.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad talking unity

Hamas' Palestine Times reports:

A member of the Political Bureau of the Movement of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed al-Hindi, said that merger talks between Islamic Jihad movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas are continuing and going in a positive direction. H

Hindi said in a televised statement late Saturday 17/3/2012, that the talks discussed the stages, progression and the development of public policy, "but the outcome of the talks are not yet shown on the ground," adding that his movement looks at the issue from a strategic perspective, and stressed that his movement looks to the unity of the Islamic movement in Palestine, like the results of the Arab spring in a number of neighboring Arab countries. He pointed out that coordination between the two groups are an essential step for unity. He called for coordination fully between Hamas and his movement in all areas to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.

Islamic Jihad gained a lot of popularity in Gaza by shooting hundreds of rockets at Israel last week, and Hamas' stock with Gazans went commensurately down for failing to join in.

Which means that among the populace of Gaza, the number of people who want to actually have peace with Israel is pretty small.

Not that you will hear any Western leaders noticing that. After all, if Palestinian Arabs don't want peace, then peace is impossible, and the best you can hope for is managing conflict. After investing decades in a "peace process" that went nowhere, who wants to admit that?

City of Seattle snubs Israeli gays over "pinkwashing" charge

From Seattle Times:

Bowing to pressure from some gays outraged by Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, the city of Seattle commission that represents gays canceled a Friday reception at City Hall for a visiting delegation of Israeli gay leaders.

Commission members, some City Council members and local gay-community leaders had been invited.

The Seattle LGBT Commission had previously agreed to host the meeting, one of several the six-member Israeli delegation had scheduled on the West Coast — with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles — to exchange ideas on advancing gay rights.

Only in Washington state, however, did the team encounter pushback from fellow gays.

At a heated commission meeting Thursday, a small, vocal group spoke out against the Jewish nation, saying Israel is masking what some call its poor treatment of Palestinians by promoting its positive record on gay rights — a phenomenon that has become known as "pinkwashing."

To be sure, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a complicated, decades-long political and religious struggle that can hardly be sorted out during a few hours of a commission meeting.

Still, members — who represent Seattle's gay population to city government — bowed to pressure and canceled the session, saying they were not prepared to facilitate an event surrounding "such complex topics."

Dean Spade

The first sign that the group would encounter trouble in Washington state began with a posting Monday on the Facebook page of Seattle University law professor Dean Spade, in which he called the delegation's visit "apartheid and occupation" wrapped in the rainbow flag.

The concept of "pinkwashing" has been advanced among some gay-rights social-justice activists who believe Israel is using its progressive stance on gay rights to cover up a record on the mistreatment of Palestinians.

Spade, a transgender activist, explained that his feelings toward Israel followed a January visit to the West Bank. And in a letter to commission members, he wrote that they may be unaware that "the event is part of a broad campaign launched in recent years by the state of Israel to respond to worldwide opposition to its outrageous harm and violence to Palestinian people."

Spade could not be reached for comment.

Some pro-Israel gay-rights organizations denounce the concept of pinkwashing. By saying that Israel has a positive record on gay rights does not deny anyone from criticizing its civil-rights record, say officials with the Wider Bridge, a California-based gay Jewish organization that helped to arrange the delegation's visit.

"The truth is that Israel is a good place to be LGBT, and it is so because there are countless people within Israel doing amazing, courageous work every day ... saving lives, including the lives of young LGBTQ Palestinians who often have nowhere else to turn," Wider Bridge officials said.

In other words, the commission caved in the face of a small number of loud Israel haters. They admit that they don't know a whole lot about the issues and were only hearing from one very biased side. Yet rather than err on the side of free speech and liberalism, they decided to err on the side of censorship and hate.

I could reiterate how the charge of "pinkwashing" is simply a psychological projection that shows the manifestation of rabid, visceral hate towards the Jewish state which is nothing less than an expression of bigotry itself.

But it is better to see what mainstream gays think.

From Queerty:

Are anti-pinkwashers like Spade now saying that all gays from Israel should be silenced in the public arena, lest they accidentally encourage someone to visit their homeland?

Are we calling for the end of civil discourse and kicking Israel’s LGBT off the bus?

It’s a double standard: When Mariela Castro, the heterosexual daughter of Cuba’s president, Raoul Castro, boasts about how progressive her country is on gay issues—despite a proven track record of oppressing LGBTs and political dissidents—she’s embraced with open arms by gay activists.

According to A Wider Bridge, the admittedly pro-Israel group that brought AILO to America, some good work was done so far on its tour of the U.S.:

In Los Angeles, the delegation met with the leaders of the Trevor Project and shared ideas and practices for helping LGBT teens in crisis and working to reduce teen suicides.

The delegation met with the Regional Board of P-FLAG, and shared their own unique programs for helping parents deal with their LGBT children.

The delegation visited the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, where a multitude of strategies related to HIV testing, prevention and care were shared.

Today in San Francisco the delegation met with a diverse group of LGBT and Jewish leaders, including an LGBT Asian group and those working for LGBT inclusion in a variety of faith-based communities. Much of the conversation was focused on dealing with the special issues faced by LGBT people in minority communities, both in Israel and the U.S.

No, according to the haters, Israel has only one dimension, a single attribute that overrides everything else. And their narrowminded focus reveals far more about their own intolerance than it does about that of Israelis.

Dean Spade held a party to celebrate the victory of his intolerance. His friends ask all supporters of Israel hatred to go to the Seattle LGBT Commission Facebook page to thank them.

You may want to also visit that page and let them know what you think.

(h/t jzaik)

Shabbat video

OK, this is unusual:

2001 Iowa City High Concert Choir sings Yom Zeh LeYisrael at the 2001 Cathedral concert in St. Mary's Cathedral.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Richard Landes on Muslim anti-semitism

An important article in the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism by Professor Richard Landes:

We are faced with two opposing narratives: one in which the Muslims/Palestinians are victims who might be forgiven their imperialist Israeli-hate; and one in which the Israelis are victims, who might be forgiven their resistance to assaults from paranoid, sadistic antisemitism.

Why not toss a coin? Aside from the fact that in so doing one would greatly increase support for the imperialist Zionists to 50 percent, there are serious consequences to misreading this situation.

If I am wrong, and Palestinian hatred is merely a result of the occupation, then Israeli concessions should lessen Palestinian hatred. Of course, if the Palestinians really are rational—really want their own state rather than to destroy Israel, then they should be amenable to making some important moves toward reconciliation, such as, for example, cutting off the hate incitement on TV, and resettling their refugees out of the miserable camps they’ve been confined to since 1948.

If I am right, if Muslim antisemitism is profoundly rooted among Arabs and Muslims today, then it’s another story entirely. Solving the refugee problem by allowing these poor victims of war to have a real home is not on the Palestinian agenda. On the contrary, these refugees are designated victim-weapons in a war of annihilation.

If I am right, then every time Israel makes concessions, it encourages further aggressions. So despite the politically correct paradigm, each time Israel engages in anti-imperialist activities—withdrawing from most of the West Bank (1994-2000), southern Lebanon (2000), and Gaza (2005)—increased aggression occurred.

Read the whole thing.

Islamic Jihad: "Sure, we're terrorists"

From AFP:

Gaza militant group Islamic Jihad seeks to create a "balance of terror" with Israel, a senior member of its military wing has told AFP in an exclusive interview.

Speaking shortly after a truce ended a four-day flare-up in violence between Gaza militants and Israel, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigade hailed the fact that it forced "a million Israelis to hide in shelters."

The leader, who goes by the nom-de-guerre of Abu Ibrahim, also warned that the Brigades possesses long-range weapons that could hit the Israeli city of Tel Aviv and could be used in its next conflict with the Jewish state.

"What we seek with our rockets is not to kill Israelis, but to maintain a balance of terror," he told AFP during the interview, conducted at a secret location, flanked by armed bodyguards.

"The fact that a million Israelis were stuck inside shelters and suffered as as our people do is more important for us than deaths."

That's actually the textbook definition of terrorism. The deaths aren't the point; it is to instill terror in the people.

Abu Ibrahim warned that the Brigades had weapons that could hit beyond the town of Ashdod, which lies some 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of Gaza.

"If the occupation targets any leader of any Palestinian group whatsoever or any citizen, the Brigades will respond with force and expand the reach of the response beyond Ashdod," he said.

The group possessed "thousands" of rockets and had expanded its arsenal by exploiting "the opportunities offered by the (Arab) revolutions, particularly the fall of the Egyptian regime," he added.

I'm skeptical that they got any weapons from Egypt, but they got plenty from Libya going through Egypt.

Still, he said, "it is not easy to transport sophisticated weapons into Gaza," adding that 70 percent of its rockets "are made locally by a specialised section."

"We now have guided missiles similar to Grads and we used them during the last conflict."

Not sure how plausible this is. I'm sure that they sent people to Iran to learn how to manufacture rockets, but if any of the longer range rockets or guided were locally manufactured, I think we would have heard that from Israel. They have all the forensic evidence, after all.

He acknowledged the group receives "fundamental support" from Lebanon's Hezbollah group, saying it had trained thousands of Brigades fighters.

He said the group was not receiving weapons from Iran, as Israel has charged, but praised Tehran's "great support," citing funds it gives to the families of "martyrs" and the wounded in Gaza.

(h/t Challah)

You simply cannot out-stupid Israel bashers, even when you try

In response to my post earlier today about how two more people were killed by gunfire at funerals in Gaza, commenter ProfessorMiao wrote:

Elder you are being ethnocentric! You have to understand that if it weren't for Israel there wouldn't have been funerals. And Palestinian 'culture' demands that guns be fired wildly and wantonly at funerals. So it IS Israel's fault!!! The mainstream media, in its tremendous sympathy, sees this.

Sometimes I worry about my level of cynicism...

The good professor, in attempting to create an outrageous argument, attempts to satirize the thinking of the hate-Israel crowd.

But Prof. Miao's worries about being too cynical are misplaced. It is literally impossible for normal people to even pretend to understand the universe of convoluted logic that the Israel-bashers live in.

I bring you proof, from a Ma'an comment on the earlier story of the boy who was killed at a funeral by gunfire:

4) Bemused / New Zealand 14/03/2012 17:58
It's called Root Cause Analysis - If the Israeli's hadn't killed his relative, there wouldn't have been a funeral, relatives would not have been firing guns, and the child wouldn't have been killed. Even such simple clear linear logic is too difficult for the great minds above, obviously....

You cannot out-stupid Israel-bashers. Satire is impossible. All we can do, sadly, is report how they actually think, as insane as it is.

Man arrested in Italy for plotting to bomb synagogue

From ANSA:

Police arrested a suspected terrorist in the northern city of Brescia early on Thursday who they believe may have been planning an attack on Milan's synagogue.

Milan synagogue

The 20-year-old, a Moroccan citizen who has lived in Italy since he was six, is also suspected of setting up secret Facebook pages providing training on making bombs and using weapons for budding terrorists.

Police said they found evidence on the man's computer that he has conducted a thorough inspection of Milan's synagogue, with information on the security measures used and the police who guard the building. Investigators added that they had intercepted messages in which the man talked about a "jihad mission".

They said he was identified as a suspect terrorist during monitoring of websites that feature forums and publish documents on the 'jihad'.

Correlated investigations are being carried out in the United States and Britain and London police have detained a woman who has been in contact with the 20-year-old.

WaPo has the story as well.

Now, why would peaceful Muslims who love their Jewish cousins consider an attack on a synagogue to be "Jihad"?

It's a real mystery, I tell you.

(h/t jzaik)

A bit of BBC bias

No matter what your opinion of settlers are, you cannot deny that Judea and Samaria is their home.

Well, if you are the BBC, maybe you can.

From Kevin Connolly at the BBC:

A French parliamentary report, for example, recently concluded that the 450,000 Israeli settlers who live on the West Bank of the River Jordan, in defiance of international opinion, use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians whose home it is.

The article itself is also quite misleading about water usage in the Middle East, as much as it tries to pretend to be unbiased. But as we see, anti-Israel bias is part and parcel of the discussion, often without people even realizing it.

For some facts, see this JPost article that details how Palestinian Arabs are stealing Israeli water, and this useful factsheet as well.

(h/t Russell)

Islamic Jihad claims current rocket fire comes from "individuals"

YNet reports:

The rocket fire from Gaza continued on Thursday night but the Palestinians are saying that the truce has been in effect for a few days: Te deputy secretary-general of Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nakhleh, discussed the recent bout of rocket fire on Israel and said that his organization was committed to the ceasefire agreement. He noted that the latest rocket fire on Israel was the act of individuals.

There were at least two Grads fired on Israel on Thursday, besides a few Qassams and mortars.

If anyone believes that "individuals" can get hold of Grad rockets in Gaza, I have some penny stocks that are guaranteed to go through the roof I can sell.

Hamas monitors every single import into Gaza, if only to tax them. It is aware of where every Grad rocket, machine gun and bullet goes. And no individual in Gaza is importing Grads, nor are terror groups handing them out like candy.

The lies are so transparent, yet even the Israeli news media cannot bring themselves to point out how obvious they are.

Two more Gazans killed during funeral gunfire

A couple of days ago, an 8 year old boy was killed in Gaza as a result of gunfire shot during a funeral. His death was initially blamed on Israel.

On Thursday, two more people were killed during gunfire at funerals in Gaza. A 17-year old died immediately and the other died of his wounds in Shifa hospital in Gaza.

Here are two more civilians whose deaths no one will condemn, because they weren't killed by Israel.

BDSers target unabashedly liberal Jewish deli in Olympia, WA

From Living In Olympia website last November:

Standing in front of Hava Aviv I can sense that I am in the presence of a very bold, ambitious woman. Hava is co-founder of Kitzel’s Deli in Olympia, a Jewish restaurant set to open its doors on Capitol Way next month. Their mission is simple and refreshing. Bring quality food from local sources to your plate while creating an environmentally responsible, employee-empowering atmosphere.

Hava describes herself as an agent of social change. Earning a Masters degree in Environment & Community from Antioch University in Seattle, she is very conscious of the impact a business can have on both the environment and the community they serve. She believes that choices like whether or not to compost, how to treat employees, or where to buy supplies from can not be made from a traditional cost analysis where profits are the only consideration. Taking a big picture approach to cost analysis, she says that even if a program such as composting requires more time or a higher financial cost doesn’t mean it should be tossed out, because the cost to the environment and to the community will be higher as a result.

It is this big picture perspective and the desire to be a positive influence on the world that has driven Hava to tackle some even more challenging social issues.

As Hava delicately explains to me, Kitzel’s Deli was born out of a desire to promote a healthy, positive conversation. Citing the Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors’ decision to join the BDS movement to boycott Israeli goods, she explains that she saw the local Jewish community being forced into an unenviable corner. “Lines began to be drawn. The conflicts became very black and white in town. You were either for BDS’s stated mission of being pro-Palestinian and pro-humanitarian or you were not. And there was no room for: ‘I love Israel, but I am highly critical of their government and their military actions’, which represents a large percentage of Jews in Olympia,” she says. She describes the resulting feelings as very reactionary. It was those feelings that drove her to facilitate the Jewish community in coming together to develop a dialogue around the issues. “I don’t want to be that person that is always standing up against something. It’s just too much darkness in one’s being. At some point you have to take an internal inventory and say okay, I’m anti all these things, so that means I’m pro…what?”

Hava and her business partner, Irina Gendelman, worked hard to promote an open conversation but found that non-Jews interested in learning more about the issues were reluctant to participate because the only location around town willing and able to accommodate meetings was the local Jewish temple. “We began to look around and noticed there was nowhere around Olympia where there is a sense of Jewish pride outside of religion. There is not a Jewish bookstore, there is not a Jewish cafe, there is nothing that says we are a Jewish something, where the average Joe or Jane feels like they can just walk in and participate.”

Kitzel’s Deli in Olympia is poised to change that. Through food they hope to showcase a proud piece of Jewish culture to the public and remove some of the barriers to understanding and awareness. “Who doesn’t love a good knish?” Hava jokes.

But in Olympia, being pro-Israel or even having an open mind about Israel - even if you have impeccable liberal credibility, even if you are dead-set against Israeli policy - is verboten.

From StandWithUs:

Just this week, anti-Israel intolerance showed its ugly face in Olympia, Washington. For those who don’t know, Olympia, Washington, is a center of anti-Israel activity. It’s a place where college professors don’t speak openly of their support for Israel because they may lose researchand that the college divest its endowment from companies doing business with or in Israel.

Kitzel’s Deli offered to work with StandWithUs to host speakers from Israel who were to talk about their lives, about their community, about the progressive nature of Israel.

Because Kitzel offered to host these Israeli speakers, BDS supporters are attempting to bully the deli. They’ve threatened to protest, boycott and to cause economic damage to stop Israeli voices from being heard in Olympia. Already, Kitzel’s weekly sales have fallen 50 percent and they’ve had to lay off half their staff.

The boycott activists in Olympia call themselves open-minded and liberal. But for people who claim to be liberal, to be open minded, their actions show them to be the most close minded, trying to silencing dialog and deny anyone with whom they disagree the right to speak. Apparently the only perspective that BDS activists will tolerate is their own perspective. Their actions are the most undemocratic – an unbridled, unapologetic attempt to deny Israelis and Israel's supporters the right to speak and be heard.

My understanding is that the boycotters are upset at the fact that Kitzel's hosted Israeli speakers arranged by SWU.

You can offer your support at Kitzel's Facebook page.

(h/t mishamb)

Syria plants landmines to stop flood of fleeing refugees

From Ya Libnan:

Syria has planted landmines near its border with Turkey along routes used by refugees fleeing the regime’s deadly crackdown on dissent, the Turkish deputy prime minister said on Thursday.

“The Syrian administration has been planting mines, taking measures not to allow refugees to flee to the other side of the border,” Besir Atalay said in televised remarks.

Up to 500,000 Syrians may cross into Turkey seeking refuge from the deadly year-long crackdown on protests by the Damascus regime, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent warned Thursday.

Ahmet Lutfi Akar said his organisation expected more refugees “to cross into Turkey through the border province of Hatay in the upcoming days, as there is an extreme situation. There are various scenarios that this figure may climb up to 500,000,” the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.

Atalay said the Syrian army was militarily intervening in any attempt by the people fleeing the unrest. “Many have lost their lives,” he added.

The number of Syrians arriving at the Turkish border is increasing daily. Around 1,000 Syrian refugees, including a defecting general, flocked into Turkey in the last 24 hours, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Video from HRW:

Jihadists tally up their missile counts (updated)

Every Gaza terror group loves to give out statistics on exactly how many rockets they shoot at Jews. Here are the totals through Monday:

Islamic Jihad: (Al Quds Brigades)

91 Grads
31 "Jerusalem" missiles
24 "107" missiles
31 mortars

PRC (Nasser Salah Din Brigades)

47 "Nasser" rockets
9 mortars

Fatah (Al Aqsa Brigades - al-Nedal Division)

19 Qassam-type rockets
7 mortars

PFLP

9 Grads
32 Qassam-type rockets
5 mortars

DFLP

1 Grad
17 Qassam-style rockets
3 Mortars

Al-Ahrar and Jaysh al-Jumma
4 Qassam-style rockets

So the total through Monday is 101 Grads, 174 short range rockets and 55 mortars, or 330 projectiles for these groups. There may have been others that shot rockets as well.

Interestingly, they are not counting any rockets fired since the "cease fire" on Tuesday night.

The fragile armistice between Israel and the Gaza terror groups was stretched further on Thursday night as several rockets were fired at western Negev communities from the Strip.

Gaza terrorists fired a Grad rocket at Ashdod, which was intercepted by a nearby Iron Dome battery. Moments later Qassam rockets hit open areas in Eshkol Regional Council and the outskirts of Ashkelon.

Thursday morning saw a Gaza-launched rocket explode in an open area near Netivot. Several hours later a Grad rocket fired at Beersheba was intercepted by the Iron Dome system.

None of the terror groups are taking responsibility for these rockets. So, by the logic of the Western world, they cannot be considered "cease fire" violations.

Only when Israel responds is it a violation.

Those are the rules of the media, and who am I to argue?

UPDATE: Added PFLP, DFLP and the others to my original post (h/t Challah Hu Akbar)