Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Syria blames Israel for deadly suicide bombings

Israel is behind a set of twin car bombings in Damascus on Saturday, Syrian state-run television said Sunday. The blasts killed at least 27 people, Army Radio reported.

“Israel committed these crimes by use of its agents,” said Sheik Abdul-Kader al-Shehabi from Damascus on Sunday, providing no motive, but adding that Israel was “created by the devil as a product of his sinful thoughts.”

So it must not have been the will of Allah, but of his arch-nemesis that he cannot control. Just trying to keep track of the Islamic theology of Zionism.

Sharing the screen with Shehabi was the Anglican Bishop of Aleppo, Ibrahim Nassir, who shared the sentiment. Army Radio quoted Nassir as saying, “This criminal act gives the Israeli entity a real opportunity to extend its control over the region.”

The two near-simultaneous bombings involved explosives-laden vehicles detonated near heavily guarded intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital.

The regime blamed the opposition, which denied having a role or the capabilities to carry out such a sophisticated attack. And after other similar attacks, U.S. officials suggested that al-Qaida militants may be joining the fray.

The early morning explosions struck the heavily fortified air force intelligence building and the criminal security department, several miles apart in Damascus, around the same time, the Interior Ministry said. Much of the facade of the intelligence building appeared to have been ripped away.

State-run news agency SANA said a third blast went off near a military bus at the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus, killing the two suicide bombers.

That third blast killed a number of Palestinians - and the vehicle that exploded belonged to the "Palestine Liberation Army" which is a division of Syria's armed forces.

A Damascus source noted security forces had threatened the camp just days earlier due to reported dissent.

A security official threatened to raid the camp due to Fatah's alleged support of demonstrations against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, sources in the camp told Ma'an this week.

“Yarmouk is not more precious than (Homs neighborhood) Baba Amro, and it will be raided if the demonstrations which Fatah movement organizes” continue, a security agent was quoted as saying.

There was another car bomb in Aleppo today.

Gaza fuel crisis continues and Hamas keeps blaming everyone else

Even though there were reports that the Gaza government would allow some power plant fuel from Egypt to enter Gaza via Kerem Shalom, it has not yet happened.

This time, Hamas is blaming "Egyptian intelligence" for the delay.

A Hamas official pretty much admitted that the Gaza government strategy is to put pressure on Arab governments to deal directly with Hamas and give them what they want by using public pressure: He "expressed confidence that the Arab peoples of the Spring would pressure their governments to improve living conditions in Gaza."

Another Hamas official said that Egypt had no reason to insist that fuel go thorough Israel, calling it "political blackmail" and an "attempt to subdue Hamas." Fuel transferred via Israel to Gaza gets taxed by the PA and Hamas is seeking to get fuel straight from Egypt so it can tax the fuel directly to blunt Hamas' own cash crunch.

The Rafah crossing cannot handle large amounts of fuel, as it has no pipelines to Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas has also reduced the supply of cooking gas via Israel to Gaza, causing people in Gaza serious problems, but they are still blaming Israel.

Yesterday, Palestinian Arabs protested the energy crisis, but instead of demanding that Hamas allow fuel to enter the area through Kerem Shalom - which they have resisted for over a year - they are demanding that Egypt increase their electrical grid connectivity to Gaza. It has already increased from 17 to 22 megawatts, with plans to increase it to 27 mW in the near future.

Israel directly supplies 120 megawatts to Gaza daily.

"IDF dogs are crossbred between wolves and pigs" says Pal. "human rights" org

Palestine Times quotes the "International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights" as saying that the dogs used by the IDF were crossbred from wolves and pigs in order to be especially vicious.

The Foundation was quoted as saying "the use of dogs is behavior that demonstrates the extent of the low-level moral culture of the occupation, and the extent of malice and hatred and violating the dignity of the Palestinian citizens, turning their bodies into pieces of meat for these big dogs."

That sounds like an objective report, doesn't it?

The English-language Hamas site that reported on this story was apparently too embarrassed to mention the charge about the cross-breeding. But since their report also had standard charges against Israel, it is quoted as an authentic human rights organization.

The ISFHR, or "Tadamun Society," has been quoted by rabidly anti-Israel media a couple of times in the past year, but appears to have no website. It seems it is one of those "insta-NGOs" that sprout up in the territories to take advantage of the huge amounts of money that seems to always be available for any anti-Israel organization, especially if they throw the words "human rights" in their title. It is based out of Nablus and appears to have a single member, Dr. Ahmed Al-Beitawi.

Now, who do you think funds the ISFHR/Tadamun Society? Europeans? Gulf states? Iran? The PA?

Too bad there are no real investigative journalists in the territories who would bother to ask these questions.

Several Palestinian Arabs killed by a massive bomb, but it no one cares because they weren't killed by Israel.

Ephraim Karsh writes about the Middle East's real apartheid.

The English editor of Ma'an describes how Hamas intimidates journalists. But he doesn't write it in Ma'an, proving that he is one of those intimidated.

Remember how the Beirut River turned blood red? Now the Litani turned milk-white.

An Iranian link between the Delhi and Bangkok blasts.

Female Israeli pro-Palestinian Arab activists complain they are being sexually harassed by PalArabs and fellow enlightened leftists.

A Fatah leader charges Iran with paying off Hamas to stop any unity between the two.

Gazans protest the fuel crisis - but carefully avoid blaming Hamas.

Does the UN care about human rights? Hahahahaha!

(h/t Yoel, Dan, Benny)

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.