Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 25, 2012

Abbas' terror wing consolidates and reorganizes

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the terror wing of Fatah, has been somewhat splintered in recent years.

They are all still loyal to Fatah's leader, though - who is Mahmoud Abbas. He's so busy with his peaceful activities that he hasn't had the time to dismantle several organizations that are part of his own Fatah party.

The groups have announced a military unification and placing all of their weapons under a single unified military council, "from Rafah to Jenin."

A spokesperson would not confirm or deny that these moderate terrorists get funding from Iran.

Latest Latma

This is the second time I've seen them spoof a song from the Israeli musical Kazabla, and it is a good one:

Aussie anti-Israel rally: "'Zionists rape female prisoners"

From AIJAC:

The recent "Nakba Day" protests in Sydney attracted some controversy due to a ruling by NSW Supreme Court Justice Christine Adamson allowing the protesters to block peak-hour traffic in the centre of Sydney's CBD. Adamson drew particular criticism for likening "Nakba Day" -- a Palestinian commemoration of the establishment of Israel ("nabka" meaning "catastrophe" in Arabic) -- to Australia Day, Christmas Day and ANZAC Day.

That said, something far more sinister took place at the protest. A video (below), posted anonymously on Youtube, depicts various scenes from the protest set to dramatic music. The video shows a number of protesters bearing Hezbollah flags, which are a common occurence at such events, despite their military wing being listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia. While the bulk of the video simply shows a few dozen people stopping traffic as expected, it takes a more concerning turn around the 8 minute mark.

At this point, an off-camera female voice begins reading what is alleged to be a "letter from a Palestinian female prisoner". A transcript is provided below, with the more shocking portions emphasised in bold.

Dear brothers, we are your sisters. Do you not hear our cries? Do you not hear our lamentations? Have the walls of our cells prevented our voices from reaching you? Or have the luxuries of your lives deafened you? Or has the pleasure of this world erased your Ghibtah [positive jealousy/ambition]? Your jealousy for your sisters from your hearts?

We are your sisters, captured in cages like animals, with zookeepers -- the Zionists. Our stomachs have been filled with children of zina [unlawful fornication] from daily rape. Our bodies are paraded naked in front of these animals while they drool over us. Our food is mixed with their faeces and our drink mixed with their urine.

Where are you, oh brothers? Where is your honour? Why have you not liberated us? Why have you not destroyed the walls of this hell we live in? Even if it means we will die with them. Wallahi [I swear to God]! Wallahi that's more honourable to us than living in there. Wallahi death to us is sweeter than being handled by them.
Crowd Members:

Khaybar Khaybar, ya Yahud! ["Khaybar Khaybar, oh Jews!" -- a reference to the Qoranic "Battle of Khaybar" -- where Mohammed conquered a Jewish town called Khaybar after a month-long siege]
Speaker:

No, not 'Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud'.

By Allah my brothers, on the Day of Judgment, after we complain to God about the injustice we've suffered at the hands of the Zionists we will complain about our brothers who sat idle while their sisters were raped. Do not let any of us give birth to one more child of zina from the descendants of Zion. We would rather have our wombs torn out and fed to the dogs.

We beseech you by Allah to guard your honour and have Gibtah -- jealousy -- for your sisters. We are your sisters and we are calling to you to save us from this terror. May Allah [indistinct] and as-salaam aleikum [peace be upon you].
Despite the speaker's rather half-hearted attempt to curb what was overtly racial villification, there is absolutely no doubt that this "letter" contains severely vitriolic and racially charged sentiments that are inciting racist chants from the crowd.

The attempt to mask the word "Jew" with "Zionist" would be laughable if there were anything remotely funny taking place. Even putting aside the fact that the allegations of Israelis raping Palestinian prisoners are completely unfounded -- such accusations are not even made by the most hostile of the many NGOs for whom criticising Israel is their raison d'etre -- the "descendants of Zion" is clearly not intended to refer to people who choose to identify with a particular ideology.

The "letter" contains the imputation that it is worth killing Palestinian prisoners in order to kill "the descendants of Zion" -- a clear endorsement of terrorist attacks that kill innocent civilians, regardless of who the victims are, so long as some Jews are amongst their number.

AIJAC notes that the Arabic "zina" usually means concensual relations, not rape, and thinks that the speaker/fake letter writer is using the word "rape" poetically but is really complaining about Jewish men sleeping with Arab women. I find it hard to believe as the letter was purportedly written from prison, and the crowd reaction is more in keeping with the literal meaning of "rape."

(h/t Ian)

Pal Muslims attack Christian village - no one reports it

A must-read from Hisham Jarallah at the Gatestone Institute:

A few weeks ago, veteran CBS News correspondent Bob Simon reported on the plight of Christians of the Holy Land who have been leaving the region for many years.

In large part, Simon blamed the Christian exodus on Israel.

But had Simon visited the Christian village of Taybeh in the West Bank, he would have heard "the other side to the story."

This is a village whose population is 100% Christian. It is surrounded by a number of Muslim villages, some of which are extremely hostile.

The number of Christians living in Taybeh is estimated at less than 2,000. Residents say that another 15,000 Taybeh villagers live in the US, Canada and Europe, as well as South America.

Over the past few years, the Christian residents of Taybeh have been living in constant fear of being attacked by their Muslim neighbors.

Such attacks, residents say, are not uncommon. They are more worried about intimidation and violence by Muslims than by Israel's security barrier or a checkpoint. And the reason why many of them are leaving is because they no longer feel safe in a village that is surrounded by thousands of hostile Muslims who relate to Christians as infidels and traitors.

Just last week, scores of Muslim men from surrounding villages, some of the men armed with pistols and clubs, attacked Taybeh.

Fortunately, no one was harmed and no damage was caused to property.

Palestinian Authority policemen who rushed to the village had to shoot into the air to drive back the Muslim attackers and prevent a slaughter.

The attack, residents said, came after a Muslim man tried to force his way into a graduation ceremony at a girls' school in Taybeh.

The man, who had not been invited to the ceremony, complained that Christians had assaulted him. Later that day, he and dozens of other Muslims stormed the village with the purpose of seeking revenge for the "humiliation."

Were it not for the quick intervention of the Palestinian security forces, the attackers would have set fire to a number of houses and vehicles and probably killed or wounded some Christians.

Palestinian government and police officials later demanded that the Christians dispatch a delegation to the nearby Muslim villages to apologize for "insulting" the Muslim man. To avoid further escalation, the heads of Taybeh complied.

Also at the request of the Palestinian government, residents of the village were requested not to talk to the media about the incident.

Even some of the leaders of the Christian community in the West Bank urged the Taybeh residents not to make a big fuss about the incident.

This was not the first time that Taybeh had come under attack. In September 2005, hundreds of Muslim men went on rampage in the village, torching homes and cars, and destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary, after learning that a Muslim woman had been romantically involved with a Christian businessman from the village.

The 30-year-old woman had been killed by her family.

Western journalists based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have refused to report about the most recent attack on Taybeh, most probably because the story does not have an "anti-Israel angle."

Like Bob Simon, most Western journalists prefer to see only one side of the story. All they want is to find stories that shed a negative light on Israel.

Simon, by the way, has probably never heard of Taybeh.

The next time anyone wants to learn about the true problems facing the Christians of the Holy Land, he or she should head to Taybeh and conduct off the record and private interviews with the villagers.

UPDATE: This blog claims that the events described were greatly exaggerated.

Tough questions and disingenuous answers in Parliament on Pal. incitement

From the UK Parliament website, from a debate last Wednesday in the House of Commons:

Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con): What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of aid provided to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. [108772]

The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell): Both the Minister of State, who is today attending the Friends of Yemen meeting in Riyadh, and I keep a close eye on the effectiveness of our programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Guto Bebb: I thank the Minister for his response. On a trip to Israel and the west bank earlier this year, I saw education materials that incited violence and the use of Palestinian Authority broadcast media to glorify conflict, not least relating to a group of children singing about the aim to saturate their land with blood. Will the Secretary of State provide assurances that our aid donations do not contribute towards such incitement? Will he highlight what steps the Government are taking to deter the Palestinian Authority from supporting such publications and broadcasts?

Mr Mitchell: I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. I would be very interested to see the material he describes. I can tell him that numerous credible studies show no evidence of incitement or anti-Semitism in Palestinian Authority textbooks, so if he ensures that we get a copy of what he has seen, we will take the appropriate action.

...
Mr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con): The next generation of Palestinian peacemakers and state builders are too frequently exposed to messages of hate and violence rather than of peaceful co-existence. What measures are in place to ensure that aid is used to teach mutual understanding and reconciliation?

Mr Mitchell: My hon. Friend makes an important point. A recent study was set up by the Americans to look at the content of textbooks and teaching both in Israel and in the west bank for precisely the reason that he sets out. We take this issue very seriously. I will ensure that my hon. Friend receives a copy of that report when it is published.

While the questions were about general incitement in Palestinian Arabic media and educational materials, which is subsidized by Western aid and which has plenty of incitement. Mitchell's answer concentrated on textbooks, which have improved somewhat after being exposed for blatant anti-semitism - but most of them still do not acknowledge that a nation called "Israel" exists. One example I wrote about here.

Of course, not all MPs are asking tough questions about the PA. Some are asking loaded questions about Israel that includes outright lies. Two of them:

Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): I also visited the west bank and East Jerusalem last year and I saw the consequences of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Will the Secretary of State assure us that Church groups will be urged to get the Government of Israel to follow the parable of the Good Samaritan?

...
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab): We need to focus on the real issue of aid, not on red herrings about its misuse by the Palestinians. The fact is that Israel has blockaded Gaza and the checkpoints in the west bank are stifling any attempt by the British Government to bring aid to the Palestinians. What is the Secretary of State doing to make the Israelis co-operate in respect of the aid that Britain and the EU gives to the Palestinians?

Really? Israel is practicing "ethnic cleansing"? Israel is telling Great Britain that they cannot bring aid into the territories?

It is a shame that the few decent questions about the territories are so anomalous that they are newsworthy.

(h/t Benjamin)

Muslim Brotherhood candidate leading in Egypt's election results

From Egypt Independent:

Results from polling stations across Egypt’s 27 governorates began to roll in late Thursday night and early Friday morning following the country’s most competitive presidential poll in history. Voting confirmed analysts' suspicions that only five of the thirteen candidates face the possibility of advancing into a run-off. Those garnering significant support were the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohamed Morsy, Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, former Brotherhood leader Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi, and the former head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.

12:30 pm: Al-Masry Al-Youm has reported that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy is heading the race after vote counting ended in 20 out of 27 of Egypt's governorates, followed by Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

In the 20 governorates — Daqahliya, Beheira, Gharbiya, Minya, Assuit, Kafr al-Sheikh, Qena, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Aswan, Damietta, Ismailia, Luxor, Port Said, Suez, Red Sea, North Sinai, South Sinai, Marsa Matrouh, and the New Valley — Morsy has 28 percent and Shafiq 21 percent.

Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi is third with 20 percent of the votes, followed by former Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh with 19 percent and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa with 12 percent.

Separately:

A Brotherhood official said that with votes counted from about 12,800 of the roughly 13,100 polling stations, Morsy had 25 percent, Shafiq 23 percent, a rival Islamist Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh 20 percent and leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi 19 percent.

Given that Fotouh, in third place, is a former Muslim Brotherhood leader, chances are most of his votes - including most of the Salafi vote - would go to Morsi (even though he did garner some support from secularists.) Shafiq is being reviled by the Islamists as being from the "remnants" of the Mubarak regime. It is unclear how the supporters of Sabbahi would vote.

What kind of president would Morsi be?

Calling himself the only authentic Islamist in the race, Mursi has targeted devout voters whose support helped the Brotherhood and the ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist movement to secure 70 percent of parliament seats earlier this year.

He has promised to implement Islamic sharia during rallies peppered with references to the Koran, God and the Prophet Mohammad and occasionally interrupted by pauses for mass prayer.

Morsy has called for a review of Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, saying Egypt's neighbour has not respected the agreement, a line mirroring that of most of the other candidates in the race. The group has said it will not tear up the deal.

"We will take a serious step towards a better future, God willing," Morsy said at his final campaign rally on Sunday, promising to combat any corrupt hangers-on from Mubarak's era.

"If they take a step to take us backwards, to forge the will (of the people) and fiddle with security, we know who they are," he said. "We will throw them in the rubbish bin of history."

"It was for the sake of the Islamic Sharia that men were ... thrown into prison. Their blood and existence rests on our shoulders now," Morsy said during one campaign rally.

"We will work together to realise their dream of implementing sharia," said the Brotherhood contender, who himself spent time in jail under Mubarak.

More anti-semitic incidents in Hungary

A couple of weeks ago I passed along two stories about anti-semitism in Hungary. Commenter Stanley Ukridge, who writes from a Budapest IP address, confirmed the first story but said the second one was untrue.

He just sent me news of two more recent anti-semitic incidents.

In one, a statue of Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg was desecrated by someone placing pigs feet around the neck:

In the second, anti-semitic graffiti was scrawled on a statue commemorating the shooting of Jews into the Danube by the Arrow Cross militiamen towards the end of World War II (hundreds of Jews were lined up at the river's edge, told to take off their shoes, and shot so they fell into the river and were swept away.)

The graffiti here says "This is not your country, filthy Jews."

This one has an arrow pointing to the Danube and says "You will be shot there."

(There is another famous sculpture commemorating the massacre on the banks of the Danube.)

US Senate may change definition of "Palestinian refugees"

Great news, from The Times of Israel:

Nearly everyone agrees that around 650,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes between June 1946 and May 1948. But when it comes to counting the number of Palestinian refugees alive today, the math gets fuzzy.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main body tasked with providing assistance to Palestinian refugees – there are more than 5 million refugees at present. However, the number of Palestinians alive who were personally displaced during Israel’s War of Independence is estimated to be around 30,000.

This enormous disparity is explained by UNRWA decisions in 1965 and 1982 that extended the definition of “refugees” to include the children and grandchildren of displaced Palestinians. Today, UNRWA’s annual budget stands at approximately $600 million, of which $250 million is contributed by the United States. Overall, America has contributed $4.4 billion to the UN agency since its establishment in 1949.

Writing in Foreign Policy, Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies cites a study that projects nearly 15 million Palestinian refugees by the year 2050 if UNRWA does not reform its method of accounting. Nevertheless, Schanzer predicts a lot of resistance to the Senate provision.

“In recent years, politicians and policy wonks, including one former UNRWA administrator, have called for UNRWA reform. The agency hasn’t merely demurred; it has girded for battle,” he says. “UNRWA set up shop in Washington with two Hill-savvy professionals, despite the fact that its operations are entirely based in the Middle East, anticipating the need for what looks like a full-scale lobby effort to defend its mission. The agency even toyed with changing its name last year in an attempt to burnish its image in the West.”

The US State Department, which pledged an additional $10 million in UNRWA funding earlier this year, is also making noises opposing the measure. But Schanzer says “such grumblings will likely pale in comparison to the expected outcry in the West Bank, Gaza, and the Palestinian refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries.”

“The refugee narrative is a sacred one in Palestinian political culture. Palestinian leaders will not simply table it because Congress passes new legislation. Rather, it’s a fair bet they will mobilize. When UNRWA merely mulled a name change in July 2011, Palestinians organized protests and sit-ins. Proposing real changes to UNRWA could even prompt violence,” he says.

In Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Lara Friedman of the left-leaning Americans for Peace Now criticizes Kirk for trying to “unilaterally” resolve the refugee issue “outside of negotiations.” She believes the issue should be solved in bilateral permanent status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and adds that, even if made into law, the Kirk amendment wouldn’t work.
“Palestinians who consider themselves refugees don’t do so simply because UNRWA, or anyone else, gives them permission to do so,” she says. “They do so because this is their personal experience and their personal narrative. Forcing the UN to redefine millions of them to no longer officially qualify as refugees won’t change that self-definition, and it won’t make the issue easier to solve in the future. In truth it will just make it harder, since the new, Kirk-approved terms of reference will be totally disconnected from the actual issues at the heart of the conflict.”

Kirk’s office explains, however, that the legislation does not call for a total cutoff to needy Palestinian descendants receiving aid from UNRWA.

Instead, it changes the way the US views them – as people living below the poverty line rather than as refugees.They say the amendment will improve the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace, as it could yield a Palestinian “right of return” without resulting in demographic suicide for Israel.

The Lara Friedman quote shows how much some Jews have gone off the deep end.

Although I don't believe for a minute that the State Department or White House would allow this to happen, the real effect of creating a universal definition of "refugee" would be to pressure Arab states to naturalize the many Palestinians who were born in their countries, as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states explicitly:

Article 7

1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and. as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.

2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.

Arab countries that discriminate against Palestinian Arab children, including Lebanon and Syria, have signed this convention. And they flout it.

So there is a universal definition of refugee created by the UN - with the exception of Palestinian Arabs. There is a universal convention on assigning citizenship to children - except for Palestinian children. And there is even a Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, that apparently doesn't apply to Palestinians either:

A Contracting State shall grant its nationality to a person born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless.

Palestinians really are exceptional, aren't they?

This is a false refugee problem that has not been resolved directly because of Arab discriminatory actions against Palestinians. The US has chance to be a leader in eliminating this problem and solving a huge humanitarian crisis created by the Arab nations. The hundreds of millions of dollars now going to UNRWA can be properly channeled to allow Arab countries to naturalize their Palestinian Arab "guests."

It is only sixty years too late.

Abbas lies, again, and dooms his people to misery

Ma'an reports:

According to Beirut-based Now Lebanon news agency, Abbas told the An-Nahar newspaper of “permanent” cooperation with the Lebanese government to maintain security in Palestinian refugee camps.

The president also voiced hope that the lives of Palestinians in Lebanon would be “easier”, adding that they did not “want to be naturalized.”

(Now Lebanon mirrors the article. In his original speech it appears that he says that "we do not want resettlement.")

Either way, it is a lie that the Lebanese do not want citizenship. As I've pointed out numerous times, every time Lebanese Palestinians gained a loophole to become citizens they jumped at it. (So have Gazans to become Egyptian citizens in recent months, over 2000 have done that including Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.)

In 2005, Abbas actually said that Lebanese and other "guest" Palestinians should have the right to become citizens of their host states if they want, and then he did an abrupt about-face, deciding that they should have no freedom to make such a decision themselves.

Arab "leaders" like Abbas have consistently campaigned to deprive Palestinian Arabs of their rights to become citizens of their host countries, as well as the rights of their children to become citizens of their home countries. They effectively tell their people to go to hell.

And it is all because they are holding out hope that millions of Palestinian Arabs will one day flood Israel and destroy the Jewish state. That is the only reason these people have suffered for 64 years, and their freedom to choose to become citizens - that all other Arabs have automatically - is taken away from them.

Not that Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch care. Amazingly, HRW actually agrees that Palestinian Arabs must remain stateless. Really.

(h/t Tamzen)

Freedom for me, boycott for thee

Next week the Israeli Habima theatre company will perform The Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theatre in London.

Anti-Israel activists have already said that they will do everything they can to disrupt the performances.

The Globe says it is beefing up its security:

Shakespeare's Globe has stepped up security in anticipation of next week's two performances by Israel's Habima Theatre Company in order to avoid a repeat of the scenes at the Proms last year.

Pro-Palestinian activists have made clear their intention to disrupt proceedings with demonstrations at both performances. Both shows are now sold out.

In a letter sent this week to ticket-holders, the Globe reserved the right "to refuse admission to anyone we have reason to believe may cause a disruption" and that "any objects or material which could be used in disrupting the performance will be deemed prohibited items".

The organisers warned that individuals who attempted to disrupt the show would be asked to leave and advised that ticket-holders should leave bags at home.

The letter also said that there would be "enhanced security processes in place" including extensive checks of bags and audience members, with food and drink banned in the auditorium and no video or photography equipment allowed at the venue.

The audience has been advised to arrive up to 90 minutes before curtain-up, with plans for the show to be significantly delayed "if the majority of the audience arrive after 7pm".

Interestingly, a theater company that represents a brutal dictatorial regime already played at the Globe without incident. Their government has banned public gatherings, censored newspapers and jailed people whose opinions it disagreed with. Yet no one protested their right to perform; ther ewere no letters to the Guardian insisting that hosting this play would empower the despot rulers to continue their brutal oppression of their people.

I'm talking of course about the well-reviewed Palestinian Arab production of Richard II as part of the same Shakespeare festival.

That theatre company, Ashtar, spoke about the importance of art as a basic human right:

Last week, after receiving a standing ovation for their colourful and enjoyable Arabic-language version of Richard II as part of the Globe's Shakespeare festival, Ashtar members joined a discussion on "theatre under occupation," organised by Jewish anti-Israel campaigner Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.

The panel event, held at the Globe but organised independently, featured Ashtar's artistic director Iman Aoun, actors George Ibrahim and Nicola Zreineh, as well as Bidisha, author of the forthcoming book Beyond the Wall, and playwright Sonja Linden.

Questioned by the audience on the role of theatre, Mr Zreineh, who played Bolingbroke, said that it was "about communicating stories."

"This is why we Palestinians believe that theatre can be a very powerful tool to create change first in Palestine, and then regionally and internationally," he said.

To nods of approval and applause from the other panellists, Bidisha added: "It's about artists saying, I want to create artistic practices, to exhibit, to perform, to go on tour. These are normal, absolutely basic human rights.

"Artistic creation and drama is wholly universal, and it is a human right to create and perform."

"Art really does have a role in our very conflict-ridden world," said Ms Linden. "The artist's role is to reflect and engage. I'm interested in theatre as a forum for communicating."

But some freedoms are just too much for the oh-so-principled thespians of Ashtar:

[M]oments later, asked to share their views on the recent calls for the Globe to withdraw its invitation to Israel's Habima Theatre company – due to perform The Merchant of Venice at the Globe later this month – the panellists argued that no Israelis should be given a place on stage.

"It's not about Habima, it's about any Israeli organisation, governmental or non governmental, because for us we call for boycotting Israel. That's it," said Mr Zreineh. "As long as there is no justice in our area, we call for boycotting Israel as a state.

"For us it's not about Habima or not Habima, it's about an Israeli existence in our land, in our area."

"We support the BDS [boycott, diverstment and sanctions] and the cultural boycott of Israel," said Ms Aoun. "We have also written to the Globe asking them to disinvite Habima."

It seems that blatant, sheer hypocrisy is also a human right.

Syria loves Shlomo Sand

A symposium was held yesterday at the Lecture Hall of the al-Assad National Library in Damascus, as reported by Syrian's official TV network website.

The subject? "The Invention of the Jewish people."

Yes, the entire symposium was dedicated to the absurd ramblings of Shlomo Sand.

The sponsors of the meeting was the "Syrian Arab Popular Committee to support the Palestinian people and resistance to the Zionist project."

I guess the only people who take Sand seriously are School of Oriental and African Studies in London - and the Syrian government.

Al Manar op-ed: "We need an Arab Netanyahu"

An Al Manar (Lebanon) op-ed by Fayez Abu Shamala looks at Binyamin Netanyahu's acts over the past few days.

It talked about him offering deep condolences to Rachel Atias, whose entire family was wiped out in a horrific car crash in Tiberias on Monday night.

The article then went on to discuss how Netanyahu emotionally described the importance of Jerusalem to the entire Jewish nation, and how it would be a fatal mistake give up the Temple Mount, saying that if Jerusalem is gone, Zionism is gone.

The op-ed concludes with this:

Arab people want a leader they can believe in, ideologically and revolutionary, who is honest with them, as Netanyahu is with the Jews. The Arab people want a leader who does not betray their covenant, nor abandon their rights, a president careful about their future, compassionate to them, at the same time be firm in his positions, solid against the their enemies, tough on the holy sites, and aggressively against those who want to undermine their rights.

And, yes, this is the same Al Manar run by Hezbollah.

We have seen many times that Arabs treat Israeli concessions as signs of weakness and they deride them. Here we see the flip side: they respect power and principles.

Report on the AZM panel Monday night

On Monday night, I participated in a panel discussion on Israel advocacy sponsored by the American Zionist Movement in New York.

My co-panelists were Bari Weiss, senior editor at Tablet Magazine, and Noah Pollak, writer and one of the founders of the Emergency Committee for Israel.

I had met Noah before, and he is always fun to talk to. He knows a lot of important people and when he says things like "Bill Kristol reads your blog and wonders 'Who is this Elder of Ziyon?'" it blows me away.

Bari is super nice, and she was surprised that I wouldn't tell her my real name even in person.I think she is taking that as a challenge.

I'm such a dork; I put on my badge and walked around with "Elder of Ziyon" on my lapel until I realized at the beginning of the panel that the other panelists weren't wearing theirs. I discreetly removed it during the introductions. What do I know about panel speaker badge etiquette?

I enjoyed myself. I feel a bit guilty because ShalomTV wanted to cover it and I insisted I remain anonymous; since they couldn't guarantee that my face wouldn't end up on the video they chose not to come. It is a shame because events like this need to be covered so that it is not limited to the audience of 50 or so that showed up. (AZM made a video, when it is available I'll link to it.They promised to keep my face out of it.)

Noah talked about what American Jews need to do from a political perspective to help Israel, and he pointed out that Jews tend to like to discuss things but politics requires going on the offensive and taking the battle to the other side. That's what the other side is doing and it is what we need to be doing as well to defend Israel. And, he pointed out, making fun of BDSers is pretty easy - they parody themselves.

Bari talked about how she became galvanized to become a journalist after seeing the documentary Columbia Unbecoming, which showed how pro-Israel students at Columbia University were intimidated and singled out by professors and students alike.

I spoke about my experiences from the blog and pointed out that videos I've posted have had ten times the audience of my posts. I talked about how effective hasbara must be experiential and visceral, and not merely words. I pointed out that the reason Birthright and Israel semester programs in Jewish high schools are the best way to get people to be pro-Israel because it is not only a logical issue but an emotional one, one that has to reach people on a gut level, and blog posts rarely rise to that standard.

Everything was quite cordial. The only slightly discordant note came from, well, me.

An Israeli pointed out that as much as BDS is a joke in the US, as Noah mentioned, it is regarded as even more of a joke in Israel, so what is the real danger to Israel's existence? How could he convince his fellow Israelis that they should be concerned about any existential threat?

Noah answered that the danger was more in the attempts that BDS and similar initiatives to split the American Jewish community, not in any direct damage they do to Israel.

My answer was that Arabs have a long term strategy to destroy Israel, bit by bit; that they think in terms of centuries and not election cycles and that they will use any combination of military, political and social means to accomplish that. I pointed out that the "right to return" is being downplayed by Westerners but it is an integral part of Arab strategy and while it is not a danger now, it might be in a decade or two as the argument gets strengthened by repetition (legal aspects end up becoming just politics after a while; no international court is going to rule that the "right" of return is invalid even though it has no legal basis.)

The moderator then pointed out that while it might be my opinion that all Arabs want to destroy Israel, not everyone thinks so.

I then quickly said that as soon as I see a single Arabic article that disagrees, I would publicize it far and wide; so far I haven't seen it.

It didn't bother me too much but that small incident shows how far we still have to go. The idea that Arabs still want to see the Jewish state fall should not be considered controversial; it is not a right-vs.-left opinion - it is explicitly said in the Arabic media every day without any dissent at all. (The latest example, from the Western-funded "moderate" PA, can be seen here.) If you want to disagree, fine, but at least show me a single counter-example! Just one!

Althogether, though, I had a lot of fun and it was very nice meeting some of you in person, including Barbara Mazor who led the fight against the BDSers at the Park Slope Co-op and who was on The Daily Show as a result.

Afterwards I was kicking myself that I didn't even think of doing a quick video interview with Bari and Noah for the blog. D'oh!

Why is Gaza still dark?

A Welsh activist in Gaza tweeted a number of times overnight that Gaza City was completely dark:

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

Fuel crisis in gaza is getting worse. This is the first time we've had no electricity and no generator in the middle of the night. #gaza

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

I look out the window and gaza is in blackout. Total blackout

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

Streetlights have gone out and cars are creeping along slowly unsure how to continue. Also I banged my knee. Ouch.

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

On the roof and the only that I can see with electricity is Shifa Hospital.

This is a #Gaza horizon during this fuel crisis. That single lit building in the distance = the hospital. http://twitpic.com/9ohlvr

Of course, he blames Israel (and peripherally Egypt.)

But Israel has been sending lots of fuel into Gaza. Every week the number has been somewhat inconsistent but it has been enough to run the Gaza power plant; yesterday 289,000 liters were sent in - a higher amount than usual.

COGAT's weekly reports lately have been saying "Due to the heavy-duty diesel crisis from Egypt to the Gaza strip in order to operate the power plant, operating the power plant may be problematic and the electricity may temporarily not work in the strip." I don't quite understand this - is the diesel being sent by Israel not the type the power plant needs? That was the entire point of the agreement where Hamas allowed fuel to be transferred through Israel.

As usual, it seems to be that Hamas is artificially creating this crisis. There was one unreported incident last month where Hamas got into a dispute with the local energy office and no fuel was transferred for a day.

But any way you look at it, there is far more fuel going into Gaza now then during the months of the crisis earlier this year, and if Gaza is suffering through more power cuts now than then, it has nothing to do with Israel. Hamas has a history of manipulating the fuel supply to score political points, and this is probably what is happening now.

Egypt's Copts nervous about possibility of Islamist president

Today is the second day of polling for Egypt's presidential elections, and Egyptian Copts are especially concerned over the possible results.

Many Egyptian Christians felt marginalized under former President Hosni Mubarak and are voting to keep an Islamist from replacing him, out of fear their community would be further sidelined.

In Shubra, a working-class Cairo neighborhood home to many Copts, voting lines were long, and the worry and tension felt by many Christians was palpable.

“I don’t want the Islamists. If they come to power and I oppose them, they will say I am criticizing their religion, and who knows what they’ll do to me? We can’t talk to them,” said 57-year-old Sanaa Rateb after casting her ballot.

Dressed in a floral jacket topped with a pearl necklace, Rateb railed against those, including the Muslim Brotherhood, who object to a Christian or a woman running for president.

“It’s a mistake. Where is the principle of citizenship in all this? I have the right, as a woman or as a Copt, to stand for the presidency if I want,” she said.

Nassim Ghaly, a young man with a cross tattooed on his wrist in the distinctive manner of Egyptian Christians, interjected: “God protect us if the Islamists come to power, and they control Parliament and the presidency at the same time.”

Like all the Copts questioned on Wednesday, Rateb and Ghaly voted for Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak. Shafiq’s campaign posters were the most visible in Shubra.

“Shafiq is a respectable man who can restore the country,” said Mary, who declined to give her family name.

The Coptic Orthodox Church, whose patriarch Pope Shenouda III died in March, has refrained from endorsing a candidate. However, Mary insisted that within the community, “everyone is voting for Shafiq.”

But she said the community is not looking to Shafiq to protect their rights as Christians.

“We don’t want anyone to defend us. We just don’t want any problems and to be left alone,” she added.

The Coptic community, which makes up between 6 and 10 percent of Egypt’s population of about 80 million, is traditionally low-key and fairly absent from the country’s circles of power.

Mubarak named Shafiq, a former Air Force chief of staff, as prime minister in the final days of Mubarak’s regime.

He is reviled by the youth of the “revolution,” Muslims and Christians. They call him “feloul,” a pejorative term for those who served in the old regime. But others reject that label.

“If Shafiq is feloul, then we are all feloul,” said Ghaly.

Still, the subject is sensitive, and many of those interviewed were unwilling to be identified — most of them whispering as they spoke so they wouldn’t be heard by their fellow voters.

Asked about her position on Egypt’s Islamists, a young Christian woman responded dryly: “I’m sorry, I don’t wish to say anything on that subject.”

Notice how institutionalized the dhimmitude of Egypt's Christians is, their psyche so ingrained with the idea that they must not speak out or turn too political which would draw attention to themselves.

The Egyptian Copts have not even formed their own political party in the wake of Egypt's revolution.