Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 14, 2012

"Why do they hate us?" (updated)

Once again the Muslim world is going crazy and we are seeing murderous rampages. And once again the pundits are asking "Why do they hate us?"

Or, even more pointedly, Hillary Clinton asked "How could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?"

There is no shortage of people willing to immediately say that the US is the reason Muslims go on killing sprees in the name of Mohammed.

Russia Today interviews a supposed "expert" who said "Washington and America are still living in their own Western bubble where they believe they don’t have any chain of responsibility for the events that have happened to transform countries like Libya."

The editor for Al Quds al Arabi writes, and Juan Cole agrees:

US interferences in Arab and Muslim affairs in favor of Israel, its occupation, and Judaization of the holy places, and the US’s embrace of groups hostile to Islam and Muslims are the main reason for the current scourge and instability, and even wars in our countries.

This is idiocy.

While the Benghazi murders seem to have been pre-planned and deliberate by radical Islamists, the riots that have broken out in Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere - where more people have died - are different. They are almost identical to the Mohammed cartoon riots of 2005 against Denmark.

In both cases, individuals decided to do something provocative towards Islam. In the first case it was to prove the importance of free speech, and this time it was a crude attempt to incite hate against Islam, but in neither case was the nation that hosted the offensive media responsible for it. In fact, in both cases the nations' laeaders distanced themselves from the incidents.

Yet in both cases the Muslims rioted against those blameless host countries.

In other words, if you are going to ask why the Muslims hate the US, you must also ask why they hated Denmark - rioting outside Danish embassies, and causing deaths, just like today.

All of a sudden, the self-righteous assumption that US policy is the source of their hate is revealed to be absurd. Denmark is hardly a symbol of oppression against Muslims.

The common denominator isn't that the West is offending Islam; it is that Muslims today are almost eager to act offended - so they can flex their political muscles.

There is no doubt that many Muslima resent the West. So does pretty much everyone else in the non-aligned movement. But they don't start murderous riots at the drop of a hat.

Islam is a supremacist religion, and a supremacist political philosophy. If it was only a personal religion it wouldn't be so terrible - every religion believes that it is superior to others. But as a set of political philosophies, the idea of supremacy is dangerous.

Muslims are taught that their way is superior - and that history is on their side, . They are told that inevitably Islam will take over the world, and it is a superior political movement compared to liberal democracy or any other political system.

But in reality, most of the Muslim world suffers from infighting, from a backwards culture, from the inability to progress. And they see the Western world has left them in the dust since the 1600s.

When the truth clashes with what people are taught, it tends to make them touchy. The Muslim world suffers from a mass inferiority complex as they see the success of people who they believe should be second-class dhimmis under their control.

It is natural for people to be jealous. It is even natural to be resentful against those who are doing better than you. But resorting to violence for ridiculous perceived slights against one's honor is only natural in the Muslim world. And part of the reason is because of their complete inability to take responsibility.

So please spare us the pseduo-intellectual analyses that blame America for Muslim violence. If the Muslim world is to ever progress, it requires that their members take personal responsibility for their actions. That isn't a Western concept, but apparently communities that embrace that simple idea are the ones that will ultimately prosper.

As long as self-hating Westerners keep blaming the victims and holding the criminals blameless, they are encouraging the next round of senseless murders.

UPDATE: Israel's Channel 2 reports that Arabs protesting in Acre today said that only an Islamic caliphate will cause the violence to stop. "Only Islamic rule throughout the world will make peace. Jews and Christians can live without fear under the wings of Islam." (h/t Yoel)

Franklin Lamb is not only a liar - he's a thief and scam artist

Earlier this month I posted evidence that PressTV darling and Hezbollah groupie Franklin Lamb would simply make up lies about Israel and publish them. But they weren't ordinary lies - they were very detailed and seemingly well researched, as he would quote US intelligence reports and give historic anecdotes that he simply made up.

It appears that Lamb is a known scam artist and criminal, and has been playing this game for decades.

Check out this article in New York magazine, after Lamb scammed the Washington Post into believing that Israel destroyed a building in Lebanon with a "vacuum bomb":

Shoplifting and other theft convictions? How interesting!

But it doesn't stop there. Commenter Carpe Diem pointed me to a most interesting site that shows court cases in Maryland, and Franklin Pierce Lamb - his full name - has a colorful record.

(Proof: His full name is on this complaint against Israel given at the Hague.)

He was found guilty of passing a bad check in 2001, and then convicted of violating parole.He was charged with harassing people through telephone calls. He was charged with fraud. He was charged with second degree assault and then with violating a protection order - very possibly against his wife, Nadia, who requested a restraining order against him before their divorce.

Lamb also had numerous traffic infractions - speeding, driving without a license. He was sued for not paying for services. He apparently took out a loan and never paid back, with a judgment of $6500 against him.

And there was this interesting summary judgment against him in 2000:

Summary Judgment entered in favor of The Greenbrier Hotel, against Franklin Lamb, trading as US Arab American Association, in the amount of $140,862.00 plus interest and court costs.

It appears that Lamb has violated probation from one or more of his convictions, because he has spent the past five years in Lebanon building up his reputation among the clueless Left as a defender of freedom while the State of Maryland has been summoning him and he has been playing legal games to avoid going back.

There's lots more there, and this is only concerning ten years of his sordid life. All evidence points to Franklin Lamb being a repeat criminal and swindler and a probable scam artist.

None of this stuff made it into his official bio at one of the sites he writes for, and it appears likely that very little of the information in his bio is true.

From walking into the Washington Post offices in 1982 and finding that he can get lies published so easily, Lamb has learned that he can apply that same methodology as much as he wants. People simply cannot believe that the alleged lawyer in a suit is lying to their faces, so he keeps doing it.

Don't expect the far-left outlets that publish his garbage to care, though. They just need material that fits their viewpoints, and the credibility of the writer is not an issue.

Hamas releases documentary on the dangers of "collaboration" (updated)

I've seen lots of articles in the Arabic press trying to dissuade Gazans from being "collaborators" with Israel, but this production brings it to a whole new level.

This propaganda took some time and money to make, and indicates that Hamas is very nervous about Israeli intelligence.

At the end, the alleged spies all describe how relieved they are that they are in jail rather than at the mercy of their Israeli handlers.

UPDATE: David G provides invaluable background here and here.

UPDATE 2: Hamas sentenced a "collaborator" to death yesterday, and sentenced his wife to 10 years in prison.

The Palestine Press Agency has a report that says that Hamas is acting behind the scenes to nudge the popular protests against high prices into riots that could bring down the PA.

While the agency is very anti-Hamas, they name specific Hamas members behind this alleged scheme: Khalil al-Hayya, Ismail al-Ashqar, and Zakaria Abu Muammar.

According to the report, Muammar is responsible for the Bethlehem and Hebron protests, attracting "weak" and poor people and radical students to join and co-opt the otherwise peaceful rallies.

al-Hayya and al-Ashqar are directing Hamas cells in the northern section, including Ramallah and Nablus.

The report says that Hamas is attempting to guide the rallies into becoming anti-Abbas rallies, forcing confrontations with police with the intent of ultimately toppling the PA and taking over.

Given the source, it is hard to know how accurate this is. The methodology described is very consistent with how Islamists try to guide popular revolts throughout the "Arab Spring," and the description of a "war room" behind the scheme is detailed.

On the other hand, this is exactly what the PA would accuse Hamas of doing even if the rallies got out of control for different reasons.

There is no doubt that Hamas media is doing all it can to praise and incite the protests, and whether it is a formal plan or not, no doubt the Islamists are ready to take advantage of any chaos for their own advantage.

Careful with those superhero kippot

When Junior Elder had his fifth birthday party, I came up with a neat activity for the kiddie guests: decorate your own kippah.

I got white leather kippot, drew outlines of the Batman and Superman logos in pencil, and give the kids markers to fill them in.

I hope I don't get into trouble:

Marvel’s Spidey sense for copyright violations has stretched all the way to Jerusalem to ensnare a popular kippa maker in its web of lawsuits.

The comics publisher swung into action recently over the sale of products, notably skullcaps, featuring Spider-Man.

The company is suing the well-known Kippa Man shop for NIS 100,000 ($25,274) in damages because it sells a range of kippas featuring the red and blue superhero’s costume design and image, Maariv reported on Thursday.

In the lawsuit, being brought by local Israeli attorneys Ivtsan-Netzer-Wolecki & Co., Marvel claimed it lost revenue due to breach of intellectual property by Kippa Man.

“The defendant distributes and sells kippas that carry the plaintiff’s symbols in a breach of the plaintiff’s rights to the product, including trademarks, the trademarked name, and manufacturer’s rights,” read the lawsuit.

There are a lot of places selling Spiderman kippot on the web. Not to mention every other cartoon character you can think of.

Now, if someone would make a Mohammed kippah....

Lebanese imam: Christians wouldn't make offensive video, only Jews

From Now Lebanon:

Salafi Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir condemned on Thursday the release of an amateur anti-Islam film that insulted Prophet Mohammed and sparked angry protests in number of Arab countries.

Assir, who was speaking during a sit-in held outside Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, said that the film and other previous anti-Islam actions “do not represent Christians, but are the work of the bitter Zionists who are seeking to sow strife between Muslims and Christians,” according to a press statement.

He also called on the United Nations to take a “unified stance” against “this insult.”

“We will not allow anyone, neither the Zionists nor the Syrian regime to [create] schism between us and Christians especially in this country.”

The English translation edited out his statement that "Jews" made the film "from the intensity of their anger and hatred against Islam and Muslims."

Then again, an Arab member of Knesset said the same thing:

"Zionist elements" are to blame for increasing hatred and fear of Islam, MK Taleb a-Sanaa (UAL-Ta'al) said on Thursday, in reaction to rioting over the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims.

"This is an abomination and a desecration of God's name," a-Sanaa stated. "Whoever made this is playing with fire."

He added that "Zionist elements" are trying increase Islamophobia "out of political considerations."

Egyptian MPs seek to bar IMF loan for "usury"

Al Ahram reports:

Egyptian parliamentarians have renewed their attacks on government plans to take a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, with some Islamist figures claiming such borrowing is against religious law.

Speaking during a Wednesday afternoon sitting of Egypt's Upper House of Parliament, several MPs said an IMF loan would involve ursury [sic], a practice forbidden by Islamic strictures.

They called for a 'fatwa' -- a religious ruling -- from Egypt's Office of Religious Edicts.

Leading the calls was Abdel-Halim El-Gammal from the Salafist Nour Party and head of the economic committee in the Upper House.

El-Gammal claimed that Egypt has untapped resources which could form an alternative to the controversial loan.

Maybe they can sell the Pyramids to a Vegas developer to get the cash they need!

Thursday links

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The guilty men behind the Arab Winter

"So now we can see the terrible results of western liberal hubris, the so-called Arab Spring so credulously and stupidly brought into being by Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy. In Libya, the American ambassador and three colleagues have been murdered. In Egypt, the embassy has been sacked. In Yemen, the mob inflamed by Muslim Brotherhood incitement has today stormed the US embassy there."

The Palestinian Authority's sorry state

"The facts, however, consistently belie the accepted Palestinian cop-out. Israel is the indispensable crutch upon which the PA leans. Without Israel propping up the Ramallah-based economy, things there would be incalculably worse. Thus Israeli taxpayers foot the PA electricity bills. Ramallah’s arrears amount to a quarter of the Israel Electric Corporation’s deficit and the shortfall is borne by each and every Israeli household."

Palestinians call for protests to end Oslo Accords By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Activists call for mass demonstrations in the West Bank on Friday to demand an end to the Oslo Accords, other agreements.

Did intelligence fears prompt Canada to cut Iran ties?

I believe Harper acted on new intelligence. But the warnings were likely more about the Iranian embassy activities in Canada than they were about the safety of our personnel abroad.
"Indeed, the sheer number of reasons given for the diplomatic break may mask the true one: Iran’s aggressive use of diplomatic cover to prepare guerrilla cells to attack in the west should Iran itself be attacked."

The Hidden Threat of an Iranian Nuclear Bomb

"This is where Keller’s argument completely fails. The whole premise of allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon is based on the theory of mutually assured destruction (MAD): that Iran would never use a bomb against Israel because Israel would retaliate with its own nuclear weapons.
But if a suitcase bomb were to go off in Jerusalem, MAD simply does not work. Yes, Israel may suspect that the bomb came from Iran. But how can it know for sure? The bomb might, for instance, have been smuggled out of Russia."

MSNBC host: ‘Who’s More Dangerous, the Supreme Leader in Tehran or Netanyahu?’

Chris Stevens was a noble, empathetic man, say the murdered envoy’s Israeli friends

The US ambassador to Libya, who had served in Jerusalem, fell in love with Middle East when serving with the Peace Corps in Morocco in the 1980s

Cairo Encouraged Embassy Attack by Letting Previous Attackers Walk

Just two weeks ago, a Cairo court sentenced 76 people indicted over last September’s mob attack on Israel’s embassy in Cairo. The net result is that not a single person is going to jail over that attack, sending the clearest possible message that mobs can attack foreign embassies in Cairo with impunity. Yet no world leader has lodged even a pro forma protest over this decision.

MEMRI: Testing YouTube's 'Promotes Terrorism' Flagging Feature For Videos Of Osama Bin Laden, 9/11, Al-Qaeda – The Results: 58 Of 100 Remain Active

Blame Anyone but Hamas at UNRWA

"Mr. Turner, however, is evidently taking his cues from the Palestinian narrative. So enthralled is he by images of persecuted Palestinians and jackbooted Israelis that he seems incapable of objectively assessing the state of Gaza. How else can one explain his inability to not only hold Hamas to account, but to even acknowledge their existence in his piece?
Turner seems to suffer from bigotry of low expectations when it comes to the true masters of Gaza’s fate, the Palestinian people."

Hamas finance case can proceed against Arab Bank

US judge rules that Jordan-based bank can be held liable for holding Hamas funds by US citizen wounded in 2008 Hamas fire.

Cairo agrees to host Hamas headquarters, Arabic daily says
A year after leaving Damascus, Islamists reportedly find a new home

3 Cheers to Batsheva

"Once again, just over a week ago, the anti-Israel movement excelled itself in its disrespect for international culture and dialogue, whilst promoting a vision of hate. Rather then let the many concert goers watch the internationally acclaimed Israeli Batsheva Company perform, anti-Israel boycotters tried to ruin the enjoyment of everyone by protesting at the event."

Brad Pitt, IBM, and the Holocaust

Judea Pearl, Daniel Pearl's Dad, Wins "the Nobel Prize of Computer Science"

"It's a strange day to report this news. Still, I'm happy to report it: Judea Pearl, a UCLA professor, the father of Daniel Pearl, and a true gentleman, won the Turing Award, an award that many people call "the Nobel Prize of Computer Science."

New Israeli tactic makes deadly viruses commit suicide

“Vecoy offers a cunning new way to disarm viruses by luring them to attack microscopic, cell-like decoys. Once inside these traps, the viruses effectively commit suicide.
Livneh presented his invention to colleagues in 2010, when he represented Israel at the multinational program of the Singularity University, based at NASA’s Ames Research base in California. He explained that Vecoy technology can capture and neutralize a wide range of deadly viruses, including resistant strains for which there are no vaccinations or cures.”

Muslim protest roundup

Yemen:

Yemeni police Thursday shot dead a protester and wounded five others when they opened fire on a crowd attempting to storm the US embassy in Sanaa to protest a film mocking Islam, a security official said.

The shooting came as protesters, chanting "O, messenger of Allah... O, Mohammed," launched a second charge on the complex which they had stormed earlier but were ejected by the security forces.

President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi apologised to his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama and the American people for the acts of a "mob" and ordered a probe.

"Those who are behind (the attack) are a mob that are not aware of the far-reaching plots of Zionist forces, especially those who made a film insulting the prophet," said Hadi.

Egypt:

Protesters ripped the doors off a police car, as they pushed it toward the line of black-clad Central Security Forces officers guarding the road leading to the US Embassy in Cairo. From 100 meters away, they advanced, throwing rocks, until the crowd was perhaps a dozen meters away from the CSF line. Protesters set the car on fire next to the Omar Makram Mosque, and black smoke billowed into the air, obscuring part of the CSF lines from view. Tear gas canisters volleyed through the black smoke, and protesters were driven back.

The exchange was just one episode in ongoing clashes which started late last night and have continued unabated, as protesters angry at a film which they say insults the Prophet Mohamed seek to make their way to the US Embassy, which is less than 250 meters from Tahrir Square.

Early in the afternoon, 30 to 40 people, mostly men aged from their mid-teens to mid-twenties, were directly taking part in the fighting. Petrol bombs were occasionally thrown by the protesters. Both sides threw rocks, and protesters picked up burning hot tear gas canisters, and lobbed them back toward security services.

Mahmoud Sayed, 69, who works for the Ministry of Heath, expressed what appeared to be a common demand amongst protesters. “The ambassador has to be expelled,” he said. “All we want is that, we don’t want to kill him like they did in Libya.”

Among protesters interviewed by Egypt Independent, there was a palpable sense of humiliation, as if the film was felt to represent an infringement of their dignity. Many saw the film as just one among a litany of humiliations which Muslims had suffered at the hands of Western governments.

Iraq:

In Iraq on Thursday, hundreds of Shiite followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad because of the film. Protesters burned American flags and carried banners reading, “We reject the attack on the Prophet Muhammad.

“No, no, to Israel! No, no to America!” thousands shouted in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad. “’Yes, yes for Messenger of God.”

Iran:

Iranian students protested outside the Swiss embassy in Tehran on Thursday against an anti-Islam film that sparked violent reactions in several Muslim countries and the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Additional security forces were deployed around the embassy, which looks after U.S. interests in Iran where Washington has no diplomatic relations, Fars news agency reported. It gave no estimate of the size of the protest.
Members of one student organisation present called on Muslim nations to "cut their relations with the United States and demonstrate their religious values against the colonial system", Fars said.
Protesters expressed support for demonstrators in Libya and Egypt, shouting slogans including "Muslims unite" and "Mohammad is God's prophet," the report said.

Israel:

Chanting “God is Great” and waving the green flags of the Israel Islamic Movement, around 50 protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on Thursday, to protest against an anti-Islam film that has inflamed passions across the region.

Islamic Movement spokesman, Attorney Zahi Nujeidat, said Thursday that the protesters came from across Israel to the embassy, to “express our rage about this despicable movie that has harmed the honor of our prophet."

Gaza's protest was run by Hamas, smartly trying to keep Gazan anger directed outwards:

Several hundred Palestinians in the Gaza Strip protested on Thursday against an anti-Muslim film that has sparked deadly riots in Libya and Yemen.

The protest, called by the ruling Hamas government's ministry of religious endowments, comes after two days of demonstrations that have left four US embassy staff including the ambassador dead in Libya and a protester shot dead in Yemen.
Ismail Radwan, Hamas's minister of religious endowments, called on the protesters gathered outside the legislative council building in Gaza City to "boycott American products."

He called for new demonstrations to be held after Friday prayers.

Protesters held banners reading "Where are you Muslims, when your prophet is being insulted?"

Tunisia:

American flags were also burned in Tunisia, outside the US embassy in the capital, Tunis.

Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who shouted their opposition to the film, and chanted slogans against the US.

But in Libya, there was a counterprotest:

Amazing quote from US diplomat: "They got the wrong guy"

Barry Rubin notices something truly perverse in a Haaretz article (now behind the paywall):

I have a lot of friends in the Foreign Service, now and retired, and I was very upset about the deaths of five American diplomats and two American soldiers in Libya. I know this person was a colleague, too. But my goodness, how horrifyingly revealing is this quote:

“They got the wrong guy,” said a friend of the slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens at the [notoriously anti-Israel, BR] U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, “If there was someone who cared about the Arab and Muslim world, it was Chris,” who had previously served there as chief of the political section. “He spoke Arabic, he was dedicated to the cause of the Arabs.”

Perhaps this diplomat should give al-Qaida a list of approved Americans they should be assassinating. In other words, what? It would have been better to have killed a Foreign Service officer more friendly to Israel? To have murdered some Republicans or Jews? I’m afraid that this is very frankly how these people think. And what is “the cause of the Arabs?” Which Arabs? To wipe Israel off the map? To have radical nationalist dictatorships? To have Sharia states? At least define your “Arabs” as the genuine moderates, genuine democrats, genuine liberals or even–since there aren’t so many of those people–those who feel their self-interests basically coincide with those of the United States.

I find this person’s statement even more shocking than the apology over the mysterious little you-tube film. And yes I have heard this before in private.

OK, an anecdote. I’m sitting with about a dozen U.S. military officers doing a briefing a couple of years after September 11 and my co-briefer–a medium-high State Department official in the Middle East section–starts visibly panicking as he’s speaking. “Other issues might threaten you,” he tells them looking really scared, “but only the Israel issue can endanger your life.” I can only report that the looks of contempt on the face of the officers made me proud of the U.S. army.

Note: I don’t mean this as a criticism of all Foreign Service Officers. There are many good ones. But this Jerusalem-based diplomat’s reaction to the death of Ambassador Stevens, plus four diplomats and now two U.S. soldiers rescuing the rest of the embassy staff is all too revealing. Perhaps he’s just too confused about what country’s capital he’s in.

PLO official talks "binational state," Hamas and Fatah slam him

From JPost:

Senior PLO official Ahmed Qurei said the Palestinian Authority is willing to discuss the formation of a bi-national state with Israel, if Israel gives up on the two-states solution, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Speaking to Israeli reporters to mark 19 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords, Qurei said that while the Palestinian leadership supports the two-state solution, he accused Israel of sabotaging it.

A "binational state," of course, is a code word for the destruction of the Jewish state.

And Arabs have talked about such a state ever since they realized that a Jewish state might actually come about, in 1947 before the UN partition vote. The, too, they pretended that they would live in peace with the Jews, as long as the Jews would stay in their ghettoes and behave themselves according to the rules of dhimmitude.

But Hamas isn't having any of that.

Mahmoud Zahar cannot even stomach having any Jews in Palestine, or even giving lip service to Jews having any political say in their future, as he slammed the idea of a "binational state." He called the idea of negotiating with Israel on its own destruction "bankruptcy."

He then restated the Hamas position, that so many Western idiots think shows Hamas flexibility:

"We do not accept a two-state solution. We accept a state even on the land liberated from the 1967 territories, without any concessions from the rest of historic Palestine, with the right of future generations to return."

Hebrew media report that Fatah was against Qurei's idea as well - because, in a binational state, Jewish communities would still exist in Judea and Samaria!

In other words, according to the progressive, liberal Fatah party, Judea and Samaria must remain Judenrein no matter what - even in an Arab-majority "binational" Palestine!

Sounds like apartheid, doesn't it?

Maybe some outraged, moralistic Europeans will boycott Fatah for saying that they want Jew-free zones.

Al Qaeda releases video of Jewish hostage in Afghanistan. Why?

Challah Hu Akbar reports:

Warren Weinstein, an American Jewish contractor was kidnapped on August 13, 2011 in Lahore, Pakistan. In December, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for Weinstein’s kidnapping.

A month later, reports suggested that Weinstein was being held by “Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants in North Waziristan.” In May 2012, a video of Weinstein was released by Al Qaeda. During the video, Weinstein said, “My life is in your hands, Mr. President…If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."

A few days ago, Zawahiri implied in a new video that Weinstein was still alive. Today, Al Qaeda released a new video of Weinstein in which he appeals to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene.

Here is the video, and below is a transcript.

My name is Warren Weinstein. I am 71. I’m a consultant. I was working in Pakistan when I was captured by the Mujahidin. I appealed to the President of the United States and the American government to intervene on my behalf and to seek my release.

I am the father of two daughters, I have a wife, I’m a grandfather, and I was hoping I would be able to again see my family alive.

Unfortunately, President Obama and the American government have shown no interest in my case. Did not respond and have in no way tried to be responsive to and accept the demands of the Mujahidin.

Therefore, as a Jew, I am appealing to you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the head of the Jewish State of Israel, as one Jew to another, to please intervene on my behalf, to work with the Mujahidin and to accept their demands, so that I can be released and returned to my family; see my wife, my children and grandchildren again. So, as one Jew to another, I beg you to please accept the demands of the Mujahidin and to obtain my freedom.

The demands by Al Qaeda seem to be:

Zawahiri implies Weinstein is not to be freed "until the Crusaders release our captives" including Omar Abdel Rahman and Aafia Siddiqui according to a translation by the SITE Monitoring Service...Last year Zawahiri issued a far longer list of demands, including Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an end to U.S. military bombings abroad.

Since most of the demands are for the US, why is Al Qaeda having Weinstein ask for Israeli help?

Are they trying to dare Israel to mount a rescue operation? Do they think Israel can influence the US to release terrorists in order to save Weinstein? Is this just a pathetic attempt by a fading Al Qaeda to appear relevant and stay in the news? Or do they want to taunt Israel in the future by saying "we can kidnap Jews and there is nothing you can do about it"?

It is good to see that Weinstein appears healthy, but this video release is very bizarre.

Round-up on "Sam Bacile" and the misdirection of the "Mohammed" movie

Here's a brief chronology on how the story about "Sam Bacile," the man whose film was blamed for sparking the deadly riots in Egypt and Libya that killed US diplomats, fell apart yesterday:

Jeffrey Goldberg:

As part of my search for more information about Sam Bacile, the alleged producer of the now-infamous anti-Muhammad film trailer "The Innocence of Muslims," I just called a man named Steve Klein -- a self-described militant Christian activist in Riverside, California (whose actual business, he said, is in selling "hard-to-place home insurance"), who has been described in multiple media accounts as a consultant to the film.

Klein told me that Bacile, the producer of the film, is not Israeli, and most likely not Jewish, as has been reported, and that the name is, in fact, a pseudonym.

NYT:

The history of the film — who financed it; how it was made; and perhaps most important, how it was translated into Arabic and posted on YouTube to Muslim viewers — was shrouded Wednesday in tales of a secret Hollywood screening; a director who may or may not exist, and used a false name if he did; and actors who appeared, thanks to computer technology, to be traipsing through Middle Eastern cities. One of its main producers, Steve Klein, a Vietnam veteran whose son was severely wounded in Iraq, is notorious across California for his involvement with anti-Muslim actions, from the courts to schoolyards to a weekly show broadcast on Christian radio in the Middle East.

Tablet: The Truth About Mohammed Movie

AP finds the likely real "Sam Bacile":

The provocative anti-Muslim film implicated in mob protests in Egypt and Libya received logistical help from a man once convicted of financial crimes and featured actors who complained that their inflammatory dialogue was dubbed in after filming.
The self-proclaimed director of "Innocence of Muslims" initially claimed a Jewish and Israeli background and said he had gone into hiding because of the international controversy set off by the movie. But by day's end Wednesday, others involved in the film said his statements about his background were contrived, and evidence mounted that the film's key player was a southern Californian Coptic Christian with a checkered past.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told The Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles that he managed logistics for the company that produced "Innocence of Muslims," which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad and may have inflamed mobs that attacked U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya.

Nakoula denied he had directed the film, though he said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cellphone number that the AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where Nakoula was located.

Nakoula told the AP he is a Coptic Christian and supported the concerns of Christian Copts about their treatment by Muslims.

The film was implicated in protests that resulted in the burning of the U.S. consulate Tuesday in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other embassy employees were killed during the mob violence, but U.S. officials now say they are investigating whether the assault was a planned terrorist strike linked to Tuesday's 11-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Nakoula denied he had posed as Sam Bacile. Federal court papers filed in a 2010 criminal prosecution against him said Nakoula had used numerous aliases in the past. Among the fake names, the documents said, were Nicola Bacily and Erwin Salameh.
During a conversation outside his home, Nakoula offered his driver's license to show his identity but kept his thumb over his middle name, Basseley. Records checks by the AP subsequently found that middle name as well as other connections to the Bacile persona.

The AP located Bacile after obtaining his cell phone number from Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who had promoted the anti-Muslim film in recent days on his website. Egypt's Christian Coptic populace has long decried what they describe as a history of discrimination and occasional violence from the country's Arab majority.

Nakoula, who talked guardedly about his role, pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Leigh Williams said Nakoula set up fraudulent bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers; then, checks from those accounts would be deposited into other bogus accounts from which Nakoula would withdraw money at ATM machines.

It was "basically a check-kiting scheme," the prosecutor told the AP. "You try to get the money out of the bank before the bank realizes they are drawn from a fraudulent account. There basically is no money."

American actors and actresses who appeared in "Innocence of Muslims" issued a joint statement Wednesday saying they were misled about the project and alleged that some of their dialogue was crudely dubbed during post-production.

In the English-language version of the trailer, direct references to Muhammad appear to be the result of post-production changes to the movie. Either actors aren't seen when the name "Muhammad" is spoken in the overdubbed sound, or they appear to be mouthing something else as the name of the prophet is spoken.

"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," said the statement, obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

In the end, it was not this bizarre bigoted movie that started the protests, but they were well-planned in advance:

A pro-al Qaeda group responsible for a previous armed assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is the chief suspect in Tuesday's attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, sources tracking militant Islamist groups in eastern Libya say.

They also note that the attack immediately followed a call from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri for revenge for the death in June of a senior Libyan member of the terror group Abu Yahya al-Libi.

The group suspected to be behind the assault -- the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades -- first surfaced in May when it claimed responsibility for an attack on the International Red Cross office in Benghazi. The following month the group claimed responsibility for detonating an explosive device outside the U.S. Consulate and later released a video of that attack.

Noman Benotman, once a leading member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now based at the Quilliam Foundation in London told CNN, "An attack like this would likely have required preparation. This would not seem to be merely a protest which escalated."

"According to our sources, the attack was the work of roughly 20 militants, prepared for a military assault; it is rare that an RPG7 is present at a peaceful protest," Benotman said.

"According to our sources, the attack against the consulate had two waves. The first attack led to U.S. officials being evacuated from the consulate by Libyan security forces, only for the second wave to be launched against U.S. officials after they were kept in a secure location."

EoZ Interview with Danny Danon

Tonight I had the opportunity to interview Danny Danon, deputy speaker of Knesset, who is publicizing his new book called Israel: the Will to Prevail.

Danon is a very right-wing Likud politician who is against a two-state solution.

While he is clearly a politician and answered many of my questions with well-rehearsed sound bites, he gave some interesting answers when I pushed. I don't think I pushed enough on some questions, but there were time constraints, after all.

In the first part he speaks about the Iranian threat and what Israel could do, his opinions of Obama and Romney and more.

In the second part, Danon talks about and defends his "three state solution", he discusses the Levy Report and the threat of labeling goods made in Judea and Samaria.

Jordan's king says Israel frustrates his nuclear ambitions

From AFP:

King Abdullah II on Wednesday accused Israel of disrupting Jordan's nuclear programme which is aimed at meeting its dire energy needs and powering water desalination plants, in an exclusive interview with AFP.

"Strong opposition to Jordan's nuclear energy programme is coming from Israel," the king said.

"When we started going down the road of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, we approached some highly responsible countries to work with us. And pretty soon we realised that Israel was putting pressure on those countries to disrupt any cooperation with us."

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

"A Jordanian delegation would approach a potential partner, and one week later an Israeli delegation would be there, asking our interlocutors not to support Jordan's nuclear energy bid," Abdullah said during the interview at his palace.

Jordan, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs, is struggling to find alternatives to unstable Egyptian gas supplies, which normally cover 80 percent of the kingdom's power production.

Since 2011, the pipeline supplying gas from Egypt to both Israel and Jordan has been attacked 14 times, with a consequent disruption of supplies.

With desert covering 92 percent of its territory, the kingdom is one of the world's 10 driest countries and wants to use atomic energy to fire desalination plants to overcome its crippling water shortage.

"Nuclear energy will be the cheapest reliable way to desalinate water," the king said.

I don't think that Abdullah actively seeks a nuclear weapon, but the idea that a nuclear power plant would be used exclusively for desalination seems strange. While Japan and Russia do have nuclear desalination plants, as far as I know, the largest existing desalination plants are not nuclear-powered.

But even if we take the Abdullah at his word, there is no doubt that he wants to position himself properly in case there is a nuclear arms race in the Middle East because of Iran's ambitions to build a bomb.

And given that Jordan is one bullet away from becoming a hostile Islamist state, Israel's concerns over its generally reliable neighbor seem well-placed.

(h/t Yoel)