Islamic solidarity summit underway

This is very interesting, and severely under-reported in Western media:

Almost all the heads of state of Muslim states from across the globe gathered for a summit called by the Islamic world’s respected leader, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, to unify and strengthen the crisis-riven Muslim world.

Turkey’s Abdullah Gul, Egypt’s Muhammad Mursi, Jordan’s King Abdallah, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahemdinejad, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Yemen’s Abdo Rabbi Mansour Hadi, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas, Malaysia’s Najib Razak, Sudan’s Omar Bashir, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Tunisia’s Moncef Al-Marzouki, Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari, Bangladesh’s Mohammad Zillur Rahman, all of them are here to discuss, plan and implement a policy that puts focus on finding denominators that are common to all Muslims. The king personally received them in a display of traditional Saudi hospitality.

Addressing the summit in the midnight, King Abdullah urged Muslims to stand united in the face of growing challenges.

“Sedition is worse than killing,” the king said and called for dialogue among the various Muslim sects.

He proposed the establishment of a dialogue center to promote inter-sectarian harmony.
The proposal was received with thunderous applause from the assembled galaxy of Muslim leaders.

Earlier, King Abdullah received the Muslim leaders at his palace, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

In a gesture that would be interpreted as a sign of the summit’s success, King Abdullah made Ahmadinejad to sit right beside him. Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad was on the king’s other side.

There is a bit more going on behind the smiles, though.

First of all, this summit is meant to censure Syria's government. Syria is notably absent from the summit:

Leaders of Muslim countries are expected to suspend Syria's membership of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation at a summit in Mecca on Wednesday, despite the vocal objections of President Bashar al-Assad's main ally Iran.

The decision by the 57-member organisation, which requires a two-thirds majority, will expose the divisions within the Islamic world over how to respond to civil war in a country that straddles the Middle East's main sectarian faultline.

The other interesting background is that this summit was organized in only a couple of weeks and attracted essentially every leader of Muslim-majority nations (the ones who are not Muslim themselves are attending via video-conference since they are not allowed into Mecca.)

However, Iran's Non-Aligned Movement summit is scheduled for the end of the month. In contrast to this Islamic summit, most national leaders are staying away from the Iranian conference, sending lower-level representatives instead.

Saudi Arabia is flexing its own political muscles at Iran's expense, even as it is talking about unity between Sunnis and Shi'as.

As Asia Times writes in their analysis:

Ahmadinejad's expressions of hope for a "meeting of Islamic unity" at the summit in retrospect seem wishful thinking. Instead the meeting has produced a minor shock for Iranian diplomacy as the country gears up to host the summit of Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran at the end of August.

However, Ahmadinejad's trip is still bound to generate some cracks in the robust edifice of Saudi-Iran hostility, which alone may be worth the trip - regardless of its side-effects - one of which has been Ahmadinejad's noticeable absence in areas affected by the recent earthquake.

According to a Tehran University political science professor who spoke to the author on the condition of anonymity, the Iranian delegation to the OIC meeting "may feel cheated a little bit because [Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz] personally invited Ahmadinejad and assured Iran the goal was to promote Ummah unity, not to score foreign policy success against Iran and Syria."

Indeed, it is doubtful that Iran would have participated at such a high level at the OIC summit if it had prior knowledge of the real intention - to prioritize the expulsion of Syria, Tehran had expected the OIC to initiate genuine conflict mediation efforts aimed at fostering a cease-fire and political dialogue between the warring parties.

Itself home to a closed system of government that clamps down on internal dissent, Saudi Arabia has taken a bit of risk by spearheading Syria's expulsion. Critics may also point to how Riyadh sent troops to neighboring Bahrain to quell a mass revolt for democracy, and to the crucial military and financial support it has sent the Syrian opposition despite clauses in the OIC Charter that forbid intervention in the internal affairs of other Muslim states.

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Sacramento City Council unanimously names Ashkelon as sister city

From the Sacramento Bee:

The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to name Ashkelon, Israel, as a sister city.

Most of those in a packed City Council Chambers stood and applauded following the vote. The council vote followed an hour of impassioned - but mostly civil - testimony from supporters and opponents.

It was an unusually tense hearing for a sister city program that, until now, had operated without much controversy.

An overflow crowd of more than 250 people gathered inside the City Council Chambers and in the main foyer of City Hall. Some held Israeli flags; other wore T-shirts reading, "Got human rights? Palestinians don't."

Supporters of the plan expressed disappointment that the proposal had resulted in a political debate over Middle Eastern policy. Opponents of the proposal decried city officials for forming a bond with a city in a country they charge violates human rights.

This wasn't just a loss for the BDS crowd - they were routed.

By the way, I once made a T-shirt response to the one mentioned in the article:

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Egyptian media: "127 North Koreans to join IDF"

From Al Masry Al Youm, Shorouk News and others:

"The Jerusalem Post" reports that an Israeli plane carrying about 350 migrants from North Korea, including 127 young men and women scheduled to join the Israeli army, arrived in Israel on Tuesday morning.

The newspaper reported the news on its website Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be at the airport to welcome these immigrants.

It noted out that this trip has been organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption of Israel, the Jewish Agency for Israel and others.

This gives a whole new meaning to "Axis of Evil," doesn't it?

The explanation for the bizarre story is at the Daily News Egypt website:

Inaccurate reports that 127 North Korean immigrants arrived in Israel on Tuesday morning to join the Israeli defense forces stormed the Egyptian media, which widely reported the story and attributed their reporting to the Jerusalem Post and the Egyptian state news agency MENA.

Ahmed Kashkoosh, Managing Arabic Desk Editor at MENA said the misreporting was probably a translation mistake perhaps made because the translator was fasting for Ramadan.

The Jerusalem Post website reported, “A flight carrying some 350 olim [immigrants] from North America including 127 young men and women set to join the Israel Defence Forces arrived in Israel Tuesday morning.”

The Egyptian newspapers and websites, however, published the story with headlines including, “The Israeli Army Recruits 127 People from North Korea” and some of them even repeated it within their article, while Akhbar-el-Youm wrote that the plane carried North Americans in the article but said Koreans in the headline.

The viral circulation of such false information in major Egyptian newspapers indicates continuity of the trend of poor information verification, a trend that sometimes led to basing news on hoaxes. In July it was widely reported in the Egyptian media that a Bahraini cleric was calling to destroy the pyramids. The story was later revealed to be a hoax.

(h/t Emet)

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Arab TV show discusses how Jews bake matzoh with human blood (UPDATE: Video)

Dr. Salman bin Fahd al-Odah, Assistant Secretary General of the Federation of Muslim Scholars, spoke in a wide-ranging interview on a Ramadan TV program that was shown throughout the Arab world.

Al-Odah's topic was - Jews.

He spoke approvingly of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as well as an Arabic book called "Stones on the Chessboard" with a similar theme.

Al-Odah engaged in a bit of Jew-washing, approvingly referring to Norman Finkelstein as for his "courageous positions against the Holocaust" narrative, saying it is greatly exaggerated and that Jews set up museums to play up sympathy for themselves.

He said that Jews are the most racist people, and that the Koran describes Jews as treacherous and murderous. He also said that the final battle between Muslims and Jews is soon in coming.

The "doctor" talked about the fact that the Arabic translation of the Talmud is being sold at the Riyadh Book Fair, and he approves, because he says that the translation are a weapon for Muslims to prove the mentality of the Jews.

Al-Odah then went on to say that the Talmud and other Jewish holy books demand the murder of non-Jewish children in order to make matzoh for Passover, and he said that this is documented historically as well as in an Arabic novel called "The blood of the unleavened bread of Zion." He also said, as proof, "I read a story that a doctor was working in a lab and he lived near a Jewish family so they asked him about human blood, and he began to investigate only to discover that scandal" that Jews bake matzoh with human blood.

This sort of anti-semitism is mainstream Arab TV fare.

UPDATE: MEMRI has the video and partial transcript:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi cleric Salman Al-Odeh, which aired on Rotana Khalijiya TV on August 13, 2012.

Salman Al-Odeh: The Holocaust has an historical basis. Many stories about it are documented and well-founded. The problem lies, first of all, in the exaggeration of the Holocaust. It has been turned into a myth of tremendous proportions.

Interviewer: A sacred myth...

Salman Al-Odeh: That's the other thing. The Holocaust has been made sacred. Talking about it, refuting it, or denying it is sometimes a legal offense for which one can be placed on trial. It has become, in effect, a sacred historical event...

The late French philosopher Roger Garaudy, who wrote The Founding Myths of Zionism (sic) and some other books, faced trial because of this. Several non-Muslim historians also faced trial.

In the US, a law was enacted in the days of former President Bush Jr., requiring the US to monitor all activities worldwide regarding the Holocaust, and to report [to Congress] on the measures taken against so-called "anti-Semitic" activity or Holocaust denial.

[...]

The third and most important point is that the Holocaust has become a source for extortion. Through this Holocaust, the Jews began to extort many government worldwide – in Europe and in the US. The Jews even began to perpetrate the same thing themselves against the Palestinian people, carrying out a Holocaust in Gaza and the occupied land. They attack children, women, and the elderly under the pretext of the Holocaust that they are trying to substantiate.

[...]

The role of the Jews is to wreak destruction, to wage war, and to practice deception and extortion.

[...]

For thousands of years, the Jews were subject to persecution, deportation, killings, and accusations. Maybe much of this stemmed from their moral values, their treacherous nature, their schemes, and the ploys, which made other nations be wary of them.

[...]

The Jews believe that they have the right to kill anyone who does not adhere to their religion. This is written in the Talmud and some of their holy books.

It is well-known that the Jews celebrate several holidays, one of which is the Passover, or the Matzos Holiday. I read once about a doctor who was working in a laboratory. This doctor lived with a Jewish family. One day, they said to him: "We want blood. Get us some human blood." He was confused. He didn't know what this was all about. Of course, he couldn't betray his work ethics in such a way, but he began inquiring, and he found that they were making matzos with human blood.

They eat it, believing that this brings them close to their false god, Yahweh. This caused a scandal. The same thing would happen in Damascus. As you may know, Naguib Al-Kilani wrote a book titled Blood for the Matzos of Zion. This is the best story he ever wrote. It discusses what would go on in the Jewish neighborhood of Damascus or elsewhere. They would lure a child in order to sacrifice him in the religious rite that they perform during that holiday.

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Hezbollah's propaganda war, part 2 (VICE Video)

Part two of the video I posted yesterday:



This really is one of the better documentaries I've ever seen on Hezbollah and Lebanon, especially showing the fear of ordinary people to speak against Hezbollah.

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Tuesday links - two sets for the price of one!

From Ian:

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No Future in France: Dire Times for French Jews

The Toulouse massacre did not bring French anti-Semitism to a halt. It actually increased.
“Any time young people approach me in order to get married, I ask them various questions about their future. Eighty percent of them say they do not envision any future in France.” This is what one rabbi in Paris told me last week. I heard similar statements from other French rabbis and lay Jewish leaders: “We have a feeling the words are on the wall now,” one leader in the Lyons area confided to me. “It is not just our situation in this country deteriorating; it is also that the process is much quicker than expected.”

Honest Reporting Op Ed Righting a capital offense

“When HonestReporting filed a complaint with the UK’s Press Complaints Commission in response to The Guardian’s labeling of Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital, we did so expecting accuracy and common sense to prevail.
Outrageously, the PCC not only ruled in favor of The Guardian but actually went as far as to unilaterally declare that Tel Aviv was Israel’s legitimate capital, based mainly on the fact that many foreign embassies are located there.”

Hezbollah Leader: Our Rockets Can Hit All of Israel

Speaking in Lebanon on Monday ahead of “Quds Day”, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk said Hezbollah will continue its attempts to free “Palestine”, rid Israel from its presence in Jerusalem, and that the group’s missiles can reach anywhere in Israel.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Accuses Israel of Ruling World by Proxy

Fars: Senior Cleric: Regional Revolutionary Nations Able to Annihilate Zionist Regime

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran's provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami underlined the importance of this year's International Qods Day rallies, and said the revolutionary nations of the region are able to annihilate the Zionist regime.

Security services record Islamist exodus to Egypt

German security services have recorded a leap in the number of radical Islamists traveling to Egypt, according to a report due to be published in Monday's Der Spiegel magazine.

Captured Syrian pilot calls on Assad forces to defect

Video posted of pilot who rebels claim they shot down during bombing run

Catholic Church picks Bahrain as Gulf HQ

In February, it was reported that a Kuwaiti parliamentarian was set to submit a draft law banning the construction of churches and non-Islamic places of worship in the Gulf state.

Jewish groups protest ‘revisionist plaque’ at Babi Yar

Victims, formerly identified as Jews, now referred to as ‘peaceful citizens and Soviet prisoners of war’

Canada to release Raoul Wallenberg stamp

Israeli Innovation: Helping to Solve Global Water Issues

“The Israeli desalination company, IDE Technologies, which has been in operation for more than 40 years, has made many advances in desalination technology, installing over 400 desalination plants in 40 countries, including the Caribbean Islands and United States. In recent years, IDE won major contracts with Cyprus, India, Australia, and China.”

HIV peptide packs a punch for cancer treatment

Hebrew U. medical researchers find a tiny peptide encoded by the HIV virus could hold the key to making cancer therapies more successful.

Israel Trail named one of world’s best

National Geographic compliments the 620-miles stretch for its combination of ancient and modern history, Middle East wilderness

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From Zvi:

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Israel Home to Former Olympic Legend

"Agnes Keleti, 91 now, won 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics, including five golds, for Hungary in the 1950s before defecting and emigrating to Israel."

Danger to Israel-Egypt Ties

"The dramatic development also caught Israel by surprise. Several Egyptian officials who were "retired" by Morsi had close working relations with their Israeli counterparts over a period of many years. The personnel changes may have an adverse effect on the diplomatic and security relations between the neighboring countries."

Israel and Uganda Remember Entebbe

"Ayalon will today inaugurate a new trauma center and emergency Ward at Mulago hospital, funded and constructed through MASHAV – Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation."

India-Israel Free Trade Talks

"In an important step that will scale up their economic ties, India and Israel will hold the fifth round of negotiations over a free trade area (FTA) agreement in New Delhi from Tuesday.The negotiations, to be held Aug 14-16, will be led by D.S. Dhesi, joint secretary in the Indian commerce ministry and Ohad Cohen, deputy director general of the Israeli ministry of industry and trade."

South Africa is boycotting Israel

"The sources said a call by South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ismael Ebrahim on Sunday to his countrymen to refrain from visiting Israel “let the cat out of the bag,” and demonstrated the hollowness of South African government protestations that it was against boycotts, and that the recent move to label items from the settlements was just trying to “promote transparency.”"

North African Jews originated in biblical-era Israel, DNA analysis shows

"North Africa’s Jews originated in biblical-era Israel and are more closely related to Jews from other parts of the world than they are to non-Jewish North Africans, according to a new genetics study. The study “strengthens the case for a biological basis for Jewishness,” said medical geneticist Harry Ostrer of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who led the study.However, his research also found that Ethio­pian Jews are so distantly related to other Jews that their community must have been founded by only a few itinerants, who converted local people to Judaism.The latest research builds on an earlier study that found significant genetic similarity between European and Middle Eastern Jews. Among the new findings: Jews from Morocco and Algeria are more closely related to Jews from Europe, while Jews from Tunisia and Libya are more closely related to those in the Middle East.That DNA evidence lends credence to accounts that in 312 B.C., Egypt’s king settled Jews in what is now Tunisia. The traditional belief, now bolstered, is that after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70, 30,000 Jews were deported to Carthage, in what is now Tunisia.One surprising finding: Georgian Jews are closely related to those of the Middle East, including those in Iraq and Iran."

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Also, at CiFWatch:Islamic Human Rights Commission & Al Quds Day: Tip of the UK’s Iranian support network iceberg

Plus: Neo-Nazi flash mobs strike German cities, aim to become 'immortal' on YouTube (h/t O)

And at Palwatch: PA TV music video honors killer of 13

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Today is my 8th blogoversary

14,690 posts.

Over 4.9 million pageloads.

Mentioned or quoted in The Guardian, Washington Times, The Forward, WND, Jewish Journal (LA), The Spectator (UK), Arutz-7 (many times), The National Interest, Commentary (more than once), Philadelphia Jewish Voice, Jerusalem Post (more than once), The Propagandist, Hot Air (more than once), Pajamas Media, The Algemeiner (more than once), Israel Today, Daily Mail (UK), Tablet and TheJC, the WSJ Best of the Web and the David and Goliath book, among others.

Firefox slightly edges out Chrome as the browser of choice; with IE and Safari coming up behind.

58% of my hits come from people who have been here before.

41% of my readers are in the US, followed by Israel (12%), UK (9%) and Canada (8%.)

About 10% of my traffic comes from mobile devices.

It's been a fun ride so far!

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PalArab "civil society" isn't very civil

I've noted before that anti-Israel BDSers claim that they are supported by "Palestinian civil society" - which is really a collection of mostly tiny organizations, many of which are not even based in the areas of British Mandate Palestine.

Here's another example of how this "Palestinian civil society" is anything but civil, as they attack a true Palestinian Arab success story who (quixotically) wants a two-state solution:

The Palestinian billionaire Munib Al-Masri, a former Palestinian Authority minister, has become the latest target of a boycott drive aimed at ending normalization efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.

Masri has been singled out by the Boycott National Committee (BNC) for discussing the Arab League’s 2002 Peace Initiative with Israeli businessman Rami Levy, at a meeting at one of Levy’s supermarkets in the West Bank, as part of an effort to persuade Israelis to take the initiative seriously.

Masri told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency on August 1 that a group of independent Palestinians has launched an effort to revive the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, a peace plan outline adopted by the Arab League but largely disregarded by Israeli decision makers. Masri said the Palestinians intended to reintroduce the plan to members of Israeli civil society “across the political spectrum.”

“In order to make sure that this initiative is taken seriously on the Israeli side, we are trying to present it to various Israeli elements, especially from outside the peace camp,” Masri told Ma’an. “The peace camp is a traditional supporter of the initiative, but these days it does not influence Israeli public opinion or developments inside Israel.”

Masri’s search for an unlikely Israeli partner led him to supermarket mogul Rami Levy. But since a number of Levy’s supermarkets are located in the West Bank, the entire chain has been branded by BNC as supporting the settlement enterprise.

In a statement published on Bethlehem Radio 2000 on Saturday, BNC lambasted Masri for meeting with Rami Levy — a meeting reported by Israeli daily Haaretz on July 24 – at the Etzion Bloc supermarket branch.

“The warm relationship revealed recently between a segment of Palestinian capital and Israeli capital is among the worst kinds of normalization,” the BNC statement read. “It gives the occupation-state a fig leaf with which to cover its continued occupation, ethnic cleansing, and racism.”

The statement asserted that the Arab Peace Initiative had been rejected by Palestinians, since it ignored the rights of Arab Israelis and attempted to eliminate the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees by calling for “an agreed upon solution” to their plight through negotiations with Israel.

The statement ended by demanding that the PLO put an end to the meetings between Masri and Levy.

Actually, about two-thirds of Palestinian Arabs supported the Arab peace initiative when it came out, and even today most continue to support it. (Israelis, for very good reasons, continue to reject it.)

Nevertheless, it is clear that al-Masri represents the feelings of most Palestinian Arabs far more than his Israel-bashing detractors.

When the BDSers tell credulous Westerners that they represent Palestinian Arab opinion - they are lying. And they know it.

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Most ME Muslims believe in Mahdi's imminent return. And in Jinn.

The latest Pew survey of worldwide Muslims show a great deal of superstition in the Middle East:

People talk about Jewish and Christian messianism as a great stumbling block to peace, making the assumption that zealots would purposefully provoke a cataclysmic war in order to bring about end times. But these results indicate that we should be much more afraid that Muslims would act in accordance with their own superstitious beliefs.

Think about it: hundreds of millions of Muslims are expecting the Mahdi not just to come - but to come in the very near future. Combine that with the amount of other supernatural beliefs and we have an explosion just waiting to happen.

It is also stunning that Mahdiism is not only a Shi'a belief, as it is usually portrayed in the West - the poll makes clear that a significant number of Sunnis believe in his arrival as well.

This is very scary stuff.

(h/t @WarpedMirrorPMB)

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Lebanon, Jordan worried about Syrian terror cells

The Daily Star Lebanon reports on the latest uproar in that country:

A military judge begins investigations Monday into former Minister Michel Samaha, who along with a high-ranking Syrian military official, was formally charged in a terror plot aimed at destabilizing Lebanon.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Sunday that the results of the investigation would determine the stance to be taken in order to defend the country’s sovereignty.

The charges against Samaha, a longtime ally and friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and the chief of Syrian National Security Bureau Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, threaten to further strain the already tense relations between Lebanon and Syria following a series of deadly incidents on the shared border between the two countries.

Samaha’s reported confessions to his involvement in the terror plot sparked calls by some March 14 politicians for Lebanon to sever ties with the Assad regime.

Samaha, a former MP and two-time information minister, was charged Saturday by Lebanon’s Military Tribunal with plotting to assassinate political and religious figures in the country and planning terrorist attacks.

In an unprecedented move, Mamlouk and a Syrian brigadier general, who was identified as Brig. Gen. Adnan, were also included in the indictment.

Jordan is alarmed:

Jordanian officials in Amman are openly expressing concern over the possible existence of a "Jordanian Michel Samaha" on their land, noting that they have repeatedly arrested "Syrian sleeper cells" in a number of Jordanian cities which are hosting large number of Syrian refugees.

The Lebanese authorities' accusations leveled against former minister and MP Michel Samaha, including his alleged involvement in plots to carry out bombings in various areas under the guidance of the Syrian regime, has seemingly had a significant effect on Jordan. This has prompted some elements within the Jordanian government to sound the alarm and call for greater caution. Some Jordanian newspapers even rushed to openly express their concern over "the presence of a Michel Samaha among Jordanian supporters of the Syrian regime.”

Jordanian security services have declared a state of security alert since the beginning of the popular uprising in their northern neighbor. Subsequently, security services have also formed a so-called "strategic security cell," which includes senior officials from state institutions, especially the General Intelligence Directorate.

According to statements made by a prominent Jordanian minister to Al-Hayat, in only a short period of time, this cell managed to "monitor Syrian cells hidden in northern areas," Besides monitoring individuals who presented themselves as defectors from the Syrian army but turned out to be Syrian security elements entering into Jordan to spy. Furthermore, the Security Directorate of Jordan previously confirmed that the relevant apparatuses had foiled arms smuggling operations from Syria.

It seems likely that Iran is behind this. They make no secret that they want the Jordanian regime to fall, as their media approvingly quotes Islamic Jihad:

Representative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement in Tehran Abu Sharif stressed that the recent popular uprisings in the region have harmed the interests of Israel and are breaking the security chain around the Zionist regime.

"These developments (popular uprisings) in the region are in the interest of the regional nations and against the interests of the Zionist regime and have disturbed the power balance between the supporters and opponents of the Zionist regime," Abu Sharif said.

He pointed to the blows struck at the Zionist regime since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and stated, "30 years ago, the Islamic Revolution in Iran inflicted great damage on Israel. The deterioration of relations between Turkey and Israel was the second blow at the regime and (Hosni) Mubarak's fall in Egypt was another blow."

"If the regional changes reach Jordan, the Israeli regime will lose the last part of its security chain."

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Morsi appoints Islamist VP, breaking election promise

The Guardian reported in June:

Mohamed Morsi's first appointments as president-elect of Egypt will be a woman and a Coptic Christian, his spokesman has told the Guardian, as he moves to allay fears of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sameh el-Essawy said that although the names of the two choices had not been finalised, they would be Morsi's two vice-presidents.

When the appointments go through, they will constitute the first time in Egypt's history that either a woman or a Coptic Christian has occupied such an elevated position in the executive branch.

The Muslim Brotherhood is at pains to calm fears of what an Islamist president might mean for Egypt and the region at large. Appointing both a woman and a Coptic Christian is an attempt at a show of unity, and a rule by consensus.

The story was also reported by CNN and earlier by Egyptian media.

Well...there goes another election promise:

As part of a number of sweeping reshuffles and appointments made within the government and armed forces on Sunday, a new vice president, Mahmoud Mekki, was appointed.

... Mekki was suggested as a possible candidate to be fielded by the Muslim Brotherhood in the 2012 presidential elections. The nomination, however, was given to Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater, and then Mohamed Morsi, following El-Shater's disqualification from the presidential race.

The Mekkis are considered to be affiliated with the Brotherhood due to their Islamist leanings, although they are not official members of the organisation.

Remember all those articles about how the world needn't fear an Islamist leadership in Egypt?

So far, Morsi is doing exactly what critics of the "Arab Spring" predicted an Islamist leader would do.

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Did Morsi fire Tantawi over Rafah crossing?

Yesterday, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi replaced the leadership of the Egyptian army, including Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi who was the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Arabic media today is reporting that Morsi and Tantawi had a sharp argument in the hours before the dismissal.

According to multiple articles, Tantawi said that he had evidence that the militants who were attacking Egyptian soldiers and others in the Sinai came from Gaza, and he insisted that the Rafah crossing be closed once and for all because of the magnitude of the threat to Egyptian national security.

Morsi, who had made promises to Hamas to enlarge the Rafah crossing, responded that Palestinian Arabs would never accept such a closure.

Tantawi said that this was a military decision, and the SCAF is the party that should make this decision. Morsi cut him off, saying "I am the Supreme Commander of the armed forces."

Tantawi and other military leaders were replaced within hours, according to these reports.

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Tunisia draft constitution forbids normalization with "Zionism"

From the draft Tunisian constitution:

Chapter 27: All forms of normalization with Zionism and the Zionist entity a crime punishable by law.

This makes it sound as if it is not only illegal for the state to ever establish relations with Israel - a strange enough clause to include in a constitution - but that any Tunisian cannot have anything to do with Israelis or Israeli products.

It might be a fun idea for Israelis to start emailing Tunisian officials, or tweeting them, trying to get them to respond....

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Egypt now censoring history

From Al Ahram:

The Egyptian Print Censorship Authority has banned the import of A History of the Modern Middle East by eminent academics William L Cleveland and Martin Bunton, now in its 12th edition.

Khaled Fahmy, chair of history at the American University in Cairo (AUC), said that he received an email from the university informing him that the book he had requested for his modern Arab history course had been banned from entering the country. The short email did not give any reasons for the ban.

The author of All the Pasha's Men said that he has no idea of why the book was banned especially it does not contain anything that is particularly contentious. Fahmy thinks "it's an excellent simple book for the freshmen students of the modern history of the Mideast. I've been using this book for almost 10 years, for its simple smooth presentation of the modern Arab history."

Fahmy expressed dismay at the ban."It's strange how we as a society give the responsibility of the Egyptian National Security to some clerks in the Print Censorship Authority, who prove everyday that they lack the basic knowledge of the priorities of scientific research, as well as their disregard of national security too."

Books that relate in particular to Egyptian military affairs since the 1950s are more likely to be banned than others. Fahmy asserted that the best way to protect national security is by making books available, not banning them.

The Egyptian Print Censorship Authority could not be reached for comment.

So far we have print media, broadcast media and academia being censored under the new Egypt. What's next?

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Israel electric company threatens to pull plug on West Bank

From Ma'an:

An Israeli electricity company has threatened to cut off supplies to the West Bank over unpaid debts, a Palestinian electricity company official said Monday.

The Jerusalem Electricity Company received an official warning from the Israeli Electric Corporation that it would cut off electricity due to unpaid debts amounting to 424 million shekels ($105 million), Hasan Muslih, a member of the JEC's board of directors, told Ma'an.

A major reason for the accumulation of debt is that refugee camps in the West Bank refuse to pay their bills, Muslih said. There is also a disparity in the buying and selling tariff of electricity, he added.

The threatened cut to supplies would affect areas in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jericho, Muslih said, adding that power cuts in the West Bank could become as frequent as in the Gaza Strip.

The Jerusalem Electricity Company has organized a campaign to collect unpaid bills.

The "refugee" camps aren't paying their bills...I wonder if UNRWA usually takes care of that or not.

Of course, if IEC does cut off electricity, the world will blame Israel. Because free electricity is a human right, at least for a small percentage of humans.

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