Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Chag sameach! (again)

The festival season is winding down, and once again I will not be blogging for the next two days.

In commemoration of Simchat Torah, here is a 2009 article from the New York Times:

THE weathered brown parchment with its frayed edges and inked Hebrew letters seemed beautiful but unremarkable.

Itzhak Winer, a 34-year-old Torah scribe turned Judaica seller, considered the item a nice find, but just one of the 30 or more Torahs he buys and sells in a year. From his Jerusalem dealer, he learned that the Torah had been owned by a family in Morocco and was in excellent condition.

“He knew that it’s old, but he didn’t really know — and neither did I — how special it was,” said Mr. Winer, who works out of his home in Willowbrook, Staten Island.

Curious about the item’s origins, Mr. Winer took it to a Lower East Side rabbi named Yitzchok Reisman, an expert in identifying antique Torahs, the scrolls containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Rabbi Reisman, born in 1938 in Flatbush, Brooklyn, found himself drawn as a teenager to the scribes who congregated on the Lower East Side. They shared their craft with him, passing down stories and lore of ancient scrolls.

Rabbi Reisman also became attracted to the buying and selling of Torahs.

“There were 400 congregations that were declining, closing up and selling off the Torahs and the assets,” he said. As Torahs from the Lower East Side migrated to the suburbs and across the continent, the sellers, he saw, “helped transfer the Torah scrolls on to the rest of America.”

Today, Rabbi Reisman restores Torahs using handmade ink and carved turkey feathers at his workshop on Grand Street. Heaps of wooden rollers and antique furniture obscure treasures like the gleaming copper case of a 300-year-old Yemenite Torah and an elaborately woven Torah cover from Iraq.

Rabbi Reisman quickly realized that Mr. Winer’s Torah was unique. The materials and calligraphic style identified it as Spanish, which meant that it was written before 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain. In addition, the strong swirls on the top of certain letters matched the style favored in kabbalah, the Jewish mystical movement.

“There are very, very few manuscripts and pieces of manuscripts that are older than the 1400s,” Rabbi Reisman said on a recent day in his ramshackle office as Mr. Winer looked on. And the kabbalistic flourishes, the rabbi added, make it “the only Spanish Torah known done in that way.”

These special markings are “like thorns that appear in certain letters that only show up in a small window of time,” Rabbi Reisman said.

“No!” Mr. Winer interrupted. “A few hundred years.”

“That’s a small window,” Rabbi Reisman retorted.

As they bickered gently over nearly every detail, the two men also said that their research suggested that the Torah was created between 1272 and 1302, and that it could be connected to a famous Spanish scribe, Shem-Tob ben Abraham ibn Gaon.

But they did seem to agree on who should get the Torah. “We’re hoping to get somebody or some community or some organization that wants to preserve the Spanish kabbalistic tradition,” Mr. Winer said, “and it’s important to them to give it the respect it deserves.”

I wish all my Jewish readers a Chag Sameach!

New reports of Syrian refugee women being sold as brides

A followup to this story, from Now Lebanon:

Following the growing influx of Syrian refugees into Arab countries, women are being treated as spoils of war. Widows and daughters are being in essence sold to Arab men who are looking for cheap brides. Families of refugee women sell them into marriage to ensure they are taken care of and that they aren’t deflowered or cause problems in their new homes.

As soon as a group of Syrian activists learned of cases in which Jordanian men were marrying young Syrian girls from the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan under the pretext of protecting them, they launched an online campaign called “Refugees, not Spoils of War.”

“It was a reaction to a call made by Arab clerics encouraging such marriages as a way of protecting the Syrian refugees by using a religious context,” said Moayad Skaif, organizer of the campaign. “These calls are an abuse to Syrian women; they are demeaning and belittle their value and worth. They are also an exploitation of the Syrian refugees’ ordeal.”

The campaign aims to protect the rights of Syrian women seeking refuge, said the activist, by denouncing such acts and preventing them. It also aims to create awareness among Syrian families of the dangers of these marriages and to send a message to young Arabs that aiding Syrian refugees can take different forms than proposing marriage and handing over a dowry. Because of the campaign’s lack of money, it urges non-governmental humanitarian organizations and different donors to establish a fund that support the refugees and their need to marry if they wish to.

“We are not a human right organization and we do not have the resources. We are just concerned activists,” said Skaif.

According to an activist within the campaign who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of his work, some of the cases that were documented involved men marrying women and then forcing them into prostitution. After one such woman fled her husband and went to the police, Jordanian authorities banned Jordanian men marrying Syrian women from the Zaatari refugee camp.

As news of the ban made headlines, many other Syrian refugees living in countries such as Libya and Morocco came forward with their stories. In a report on BBC Arabic, Syrian refugees spoke of how men in Benghazi go door to door asking Syrian families if they have any young girls available for marriage and mentioned offices that handle the details of marrying off young Syrian girls in return for money. Libyan men, according to report, fancy marrying Syrian girls as opposed to Libyan because they are prettier and have lower dowries.

Sunday links

From Ian:

Palestine – Cutting Abbas Down To Size by David Singer

"PLO Chairman and Palestinian Authority President – Mahmoud Abbas – continues to promote the deceptive and misleading claim that the areas lost by Jordan and Egypt to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War constituted 22% – not 5% – of historic Palestine"

The Professor’s Shoddy History

Berlin’s Jewish Museum gave Judith Butler and Germans permission to indulge dangerous political impulses
"Why would the Jewish Museum give Butler a podium and allow her to advocate for BDS, a campaign that even the unyielding Israel critic Norman Finkelstein has labeled a “cult” that seeks to “eliminate” Israel by hiding behind nonviolent rhetoric? To understand the answer to that question, one must put Butler’s visit in the context of slowly shifting German attitudes toward Israel and Jews—as well as within Germany’s ongoing attempts to deal with its past. “I have also wondered whether the use of my abridged remarks about Hamas and Hezbollah itself was a kind of anti-Semitic attack,” Butler told the left-wing German newspaper Jungle World in 2010 in response to those Germans who had criticized her for her views on Israel. “I feel, in fact, again my vulnerability as a Jew in Germany, when I am discredited in this way in the media.” With such rhetorical feats, Butler transforms herself from an American intellectual into a latter-day victim of anti-Semitism, and in so doing gives Germans who might feel uneasy expressing support for the boycott of the Jewish state license to feel like victims as well."

Americans in Pakistan to protest drone strikes

“The American activists — around three dozen representatives of the U.S.-based activist group CODEPINK — along with Clive Stafford Smith, founder of the London-based legal advocacy organization Reprieve, want to march with Khan and publicize the plight of communities affected by the U.S. drones.
Ahead of the march, local media carried reports Friday of alleged suicide bombings planned against the demonstration and a pamphlet distributed in a town along the march route warned participants they would face danger. The main Pakistani Taliban faction issued a statement criticizing the event.”

UK think tank takes EU to task on Hezbollah stance

Whereas the United States, Canada and Holland recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist group, the EU does not.
“The Henry Jackson Society wants the EU and the UK to formally outlaw Hezbollah in its entirety – in line with the US, Canada and the Netherlands – and recognize it as “a terrorist organization that consistently uses violent terrorist tactics.”

French synagogue terrorized by blank shots as police raid jihadi cell

"A Jewish community leader told the Le Parisien newspaper that the shots were fired at the synagogue to scare the local community. “This was an act that was more against the Jewish community, it’s very worrying,” Val d’Oise Jewish community head Moshe Cohen Sabban told the paper."

Sixteen Arrested for Role in Iran's Currency Crisis

On Thursday, Tehran’s attorney general said 16 people had been arrested for their alleged “disruption of the currency market." The 16 were said to have worked with "external and internal forces" in creating a panic that benefited them personally and helped to disrupt the economy.

Vatican says talks to reconcile with anti-Semitic group ‘dead’

Chief of church doctrine says he is unable to bring Society of St. Pius X into the fold
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Saturday welcomed the suggestion that talks with the society had broken down and said it hoped the society’s members “will eventually give up their theology of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.”

Overheard in a coffee shop: A better way to do brain surgery, based on Israeli simulation technology

Two Israel Air Force officers and one American doctor have developed a novel way to allow surgeons to prepare for operations
“The idea for the Surgery Rehearsal Platform, known as an SRP, emerged, said Selman, when he overheard a discussion on flight simulation between former Israel Air Force officers Moty Avisar and Alon Geri. Knowing a good thing when he heard it, Selman, who is Neurosurgeon-in-Chief of University Hospitals in Ohio and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, got involved in the conversation. The result was the establishment of a new company with the Israeli experts (who were in Ohio working with Lockheed Martin’s office in Akron), called Surgical Theater LLC.”

Making fracking a greener proposition

Israel’s Flow Industries makes an ‘air gun’ for clearing industrial blockages, and it may also provide a better way to extract shale oil.

Australian naval contract for Israeli firm

Elbit Systems, the Israeli company that develops military technology, has won the contract to supply the Australian Navy with battle management systems in Australian ships.

UNICEF uses Israel-made water purification tablets in Syria

Israel Chemicals given special authorization to sell water purification tables to UN to rehabilitate Syria’s water sources

Jewish Virtual Library: October is Israel Innovation Month

Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, has told Quds Media how exactly the Israelis plan to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

You see, the tunnels they have been excavating nearby (he claims, underneath) aren't meant to destroy the mosque directly. Rather, those wily Israelis are setting up a situation where an earthquake of only 5.0 on the Richter scale will cause the structures on the Temple Mount to collapse on their won, and then the Jews can blame the earthquake!

Sabri has, in the past, has stated:

"If the Jews want peace, they will stay away from Al Aksa. This is a decree from God. The Haram al-Sharif belongs to the Muslim. But we know the Jew is planning on destroying the Haram. The Jew will get the Christian to do his work for him. This is the way of the Jews. This is the way Satan manifests himself. The majority of the Jews want to destroy the mosque. They are preparing this as we speak."

"Six million Jews dead? No way, they were much fewer. Let’s stop with this fairytale exploited by Israel to capture international solidarity. It is not my fault if Hitler hated Jews, indeed they were hated a little everywhere. Instead, it is necessary to denounce the unjust occupation endured by my people."

"Anyone who studies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically the Talmud will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world."

Which means that according to analysts as smart as Karl Vick, Sabri is a moderate.

Time magazine's infomercial for Mahmoud Abbas - and Hamas

You know how the Palestinian Arab leaders are frustrated about how Western media attention has been on Egypt, Libya and Syria instead of them?

Apparently, this malaise extends to frustrated mainstream media reporters like Time's Karl Vick who spend their lives covering the Palestinian Arab leaders. Their reliable front-page stories are being pushed back, and they want the spotlight no less than their Palestinian Arab idols.

So the newly marginalized Vick managed to get an exclusive interview with the equally irrelevant Mahmoud Abbas, and Time allowed Vick to write a 3000 word paean to Abbas's "leadership" which sweeps everything negative under the rug and to try to restore the corrupt, intransigent PA back to prominence.

The article is filled with deceptions like this:

Missiles still fly out of Hamas-controlled Gaza from time to time, but according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which tallies every reported incident on occupied territory, most violence in the West Bank is now committed by Israeli settlers against their Palestinian neighbors rather than the other way around. There have been spectacular exceptions, including the March 2011 slaughter of five Jewish settlers in their West Bank home. But month by month, the Palestinians tend to be the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators.

OCHA does not track all violent incidents - they only track incidents that result in injuries. So the vast majority of Palestinian Arab firebombs and stone throwings, which are really daily events in the territories, are simply not counted because Israelis have armored cars and buses and fenced communities in Judea and Samaria.

Another knowing deception:

Abbas' 2011 U.N. bid so irked Israel and Washington that each held back vital funding to Abbas' Palestinian National Authority (PA), the Palestinian transitional government. The revenue shortfalls wreaked havoc on the Palestinian economy. By September, people were burning tires in the streets to protest not Israel's 45-year military occupation but the PA itself.

The PA economy's woes have nothing to do with temporary withholding of some aid a year ago; it is from paying tens of thousands of people to not work in Gaza, paying families of suicide bombers, and other questionable economic policies of the PA.

If you read between the lines and know anything about the conflict, you can see Vick contradicting himself:

Abu Mazen himself spends more and more time abroad, flying on a chartered jet provided by the United Arab Emirates, a statesman without a state, relentlessly grooming an image of a peaceful people denied a homeland in foreign capitals.

Without me even having to point out the polls proving that they are still anything but a peaceful people and how they really want to destroy Israel in stages, Vick goes on:

If Abbas retires, as he frequently says he wants to, he will leave with no clear successor. Polls show Palestinians would elect Marwan Barghouti, a charismatic Fatah militant not currently available; he's serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison. In recent months, Palestinian business leaders have talked up Khaled Meshaal, a notion that speaks volumes about the changes roiling Palestinian politics. Since 1996, Meshaal had held the most senior position in Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, long the face of Palestinian terror.

So the "peaceful people" would overwhelmingly choose terrorists as their leaders!

But Vick needs to soften Hamas' image, so he adds this amazing fact:

Earlier this year, however, Meshaal endorsed the Abu Mazen approach. While reserving the right to violent resistance and not renouncing the Hamas Charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, Meshaal said the time has come for negotiations with Israel and nonviolent protest in the spirit of the Arab Spring. "Now we have a common ground that we can work on--the popular resistance, which represents the power of the people," Meshaal said.

So after seeing Arab governments fall from nonviolent resistance, Meshal now adds that to his arsenal of weapons to destroy Israel - and Vick reads this as Hamas moderation and a victory for Abbas' ("peaceful") approach!

Once you know that the goal of both Fatah and Hamas is the destruction of Israel - whether by using violence, politics, demographics, legal tactics, public relations or clueless magazine writers - then the switch from one tactic to another is not nearly as important as understanding the end goal. Vick purposefully ignores the goal and praises the means, which is frankly insane. But that insanity gets described this way:

To have a leader like Meshaal, whose organization dispatched numerous suicide bombers to kill Israeli civilians, adopt the Abu Mazen approach was still a remarkable philosophical victory for Abbas.

Vick ignores the fact that last week Islamic Jihad held a massive rally in Gaza celebrating terror, and Hamss didn't only condone it - they sent one of their leaders to participate. But thst's not the face of Hamas that Time readers are seeing.

He ends off with:

Whatever new governments emerge from the Arab Spring, they are unlikely to be more understanding toward Israel than the bookish moderate who, when asked last October why he was going to the U.N., replied with one word: "Hope. All the time we give them hope."

Meaning that Vick completely misunderstands the Arab Spring. Abbas' current relative moderation, as far as it goes, is not reflective of his people. and if a Palestinian Arab spring emerges - and the anti-Abbas protests have already started - he will be replaced by someone more in line with the people's will, meaning someone more violent. Which means that any "peace" is illusory if the people prefer terror. Israel's peace with Egypt is holding for now, but it has weakened considerably after their revolution; a Palestinian Arab revolution will in all likelihood bring in something worse. That is not a reason to make a fake peace agreement now - it is reason to be wary of making agreements with leaders who don't represent their people.

This is basic, but it is beyond Karl Vick.

Latest ship of Israel-hating liars heading to Gaza

From AFP:

A Swedish ship with rights activists from several countries aboard sailed from Naples on Saturday in the latest bid to break Israel's blockade against Gaza.

A crowd of well-wishers saw off the sailing vessel Estelle as it left the Italian port as part of the "Freedom Flotilla" movement.

"We think it will take around two weeks to get to Gaza, but it will obviously also depend on the weather conditions," spokeswoman Ann Ighe told the AFP news agency.

The Estelle, whose voyage was organized by an international pro-Palestinian coalition, is carrying humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip.

The 17 activists from around the world on board include passengers and crew from Sweden, Norway, Canada, the United States and Israel.

Israel says the blockade against Gaza is necessary to prevent weapons from entering the coastal territory, which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas.

The Free Gaza movement landed in hot water last month after its founder, Greta Berlin, tweeted that "Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews."

The tweet linked to a video of Eustace Mullins, a conspiracy theorist, claiming that the word “Nazi” combines the words “National Socialist” and “Zionist.”

The organization Ship to Gaza Sweden quickly issued a statement:

"This movie link and its content have since been connected to Ship to Gaza Sweden and this year’s Freedom Flotilla mission. Let’s make it clear that our action is not anti-Semitic, and furthermore is not organised in co-operation with the Free Gaza Movement," the organization said.

At just 53 metres (173 feet) long, the Estelle is much smaller than the Marmara ferry, and has sails as well as an engine.

Here are some of their lies:

Following our initial attempt to break the blockade there have only been minor easings of the blockade--commodities such as spices which Israel had previously classified as "luxury goods" are now allowed into Gaza.There is still an acute shortage of medicine, medical supplies and building materials.

Actually, since the Mavi Marmara, Israel now allows all the food and fuel into Gaza that Gazans pay for, without limit. (Don't believe me? Ask Gaza Gateway!)

Israel never limited medical supplies into Gaza. Again, that is an issue of what the PA pays for and what Hamas allows to be distributed to hospitals, rather than confiscating it and reselling it to make money.

And here is Ship to Gaza's biggest lie:

Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris said Friday on visiting the Estelle:

"This is not an initiative in favour of Hamas but in favour of Palestine, of the Palestinians who live in Gaza, and in favour of two states living as neighbours in peace and security."

But look what one of the leaders of the Ship to Gaza, Henning Mankell, said about the two-state solution:

In 1948, the year of my birth, the state of Israel proclaimed its independence on occupied land. There are no reasons whatsoever to call that a legitimate intervention according to international law. What happened was that Israel simply occupied Palestinian land. And the amount of land under possession is constantly growing, with in the war in 1967, and with the increasing number of settlements today. ... A two-state solution will not be the end of the historical occupation.

...When change is coming, each Israeli has to decide for him- or herself if he or she is prepared to give up their privileges and live in a Palestinian state.

This is the "peaceful" solution they seek - the utter destruction of the Jewish state. And to these idiots, "occupation" did not start in 1967 but in 1948.

Mankell also provides this justification for suicide bombers:

Is it strange that some of them in pure desperation, when they cannot see any other way out, decide to become suicide bombers? Not really? Maybe it is strange that there are not more of them.

More hypocrisy from Mankell is that he is against nationalism altogether - but for some reason he wants the "Palestine" borders to include only British Mandate Palestine, not to include Jordan, which indeed is part of "historic Palestine." Why should he accept colonialist borders to destroy Israel and not Jordan? If Mankell was consistent, he would - but he isn't.

Needless to say, nothing on their website is critical of Egypt, which fully controls a border with Gaza and which severely restricts goods and people from crossing. No, 100% of the efforts of these haters pretending to be "pro-Palestinian activists" is against only one state. Which just so happens to be Jewish.

So what "humanitarian aid" is being shipped? 41 tons of cement - less than the amount needed for a single house. The organizers, as with the previous boats towards Gaza, throw a symbolic amount of material on board so they can fool journalists into thinking that they are an aid organization, even though their purpose is purely political.

And the journalists are never smart enough to call them on it.

Saturday night links

From Ian:

BBC coverage of Gaza abuses story is deliberately pro-Hamas
Human Rights Watch report condemns injustice towards civilians in Gaza under Hamas rule

"It is disappointing to say the least that the BBC has decided to disregard this information and rather, to afford Hamas a 'right of reply' which takes precedence over the main story. It is unfortunate that nearly 25 million people involuntarily subscribe to the BBC through the license fee and yet they are persistently and intentionally misled about the systematic abuse which is taking place by Hamas in Gaza. Does this correlate with the BBC’s editorial guidelines? I think not."

Banking protest mural resembling Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda to be removed from East End

East London's Tower Hamlets council says it has received numerous complaints about the mural
Councillor Peter Golds said it is 'horribly similar to the propaganda used by the Third Reich in Nazi Germany'
He has urged the police to pursue artist Mear One - real name Kalen Ockerman -under race hate laws
The piece is also being defended by resident Azmel Hussain, who owns the property

Geneva mayor heads to anti-Israel tribunal condemned by UN’s Richard Goldstone

As a taxpayer of Geneva, a great city with its rightful place in the history of human rights and international law, I cannot understand why my mayor this weekend will be lending the good name of Geneva to the “Russell Tribunal on Palestine,” an extremist political exercise that corrupts the core principles of justice, including Audi alteram partem.
Mayor Rémy Pagani, head of Geneva’s À gauche toute! – a regrouping of the city’s Communist Party and other left-wing factions — is scheduled to participate in the anti-Israel event on Oct. 6-7 in New York.

Man killed in French anti-terror raid was member of Salafi Muslim group

10 terror suspects arrested in Paris and Nice as part of an investigation into the firebombing of a kosher store in September
"French authorities have released that the man killed by police in an anti-terror operation in Strasbourg on Saturday was a member of an ultraconservative Salafi Muslim group. Ten people were arrested in concurrent raids on anti-terror suspects in Paris and Nice.
Saturday’s operations were part of a larger investigation into the firebombing of a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb last month, according to officials."

With Syria ablaze, dozens of Golan Heights Druze seek Israeli citizenship

Long loyal to Damascus, many young Druze now consider their best option is to become Israeli
"Syrian Druze residing in the Golan Heights once burned ID cards offered to them by Israeli government authorities, after Israeli law was extended to the area in 1981. Three decades later, after 19-months of brutal civil war in Syria, Druze residents of the Golan are flocking to the Interior Ministry by the dozens to request Israeli citizenship."

Egypt's hardline Islamist party unravels, pointing to fragility in political Islam

"Internal feuds are threatening to unravel the political party of Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist Salafis, as pragmatists try to shake off the control of hardline clerics who reject any compromise in their stark, puritanical version of Islam."

U.S. Cracks Down on Lebanese Charities Tied to Hamas

The United States on Oct. 4 imposed financial penalties on two Lebanese charities that fundraise for Hamas, an effort by the Obama administration to disrupt the Islamist group’s activities. The U.S. Treasury added the two Beirut based charities, Al-Waqfiya and Al-Quds International Foundation, to its list of entities hit with asset freezes.

Does Archbishop Tutu Endorse Holocaust Conspiracies?

Tutu, however, seems to have let his animosity toward Israel sully him and tarnish the Nobel Prize he wields as a symbol of supposed moral authority. He is a long-time endorser of the Free Gaza movement, the organization which brought us the Gaza “flotilla” and any number of other protests and marches. Greta Berlin, the American co-founder of Free Gaza, recently tweeted, “Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews.” Free Gaza has also, according to the Jerusalem Post, claimed that the Jews supported Hitler.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation: Desmond Tutu awarded $1m

Good riddance: Hate preacher Abu Hamza lands in the U.S. after losing last-ditch bid to stay in Britain

"Hamza is expected to face a judge in New York within 24 hours on charges that include conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
The Islamist fanatic lost the last of his countless appeals in a legal farce that has seen him thwart extradition for more than eight years at a cost to taxpayers of millions of pounds."

Gujarat seeks to deepen biz ties with Israel

"The combination of strategic geographic location, skilled manpower, multi-language speakers, and local Authority which placed the economic growth and development at the top of its list of priorities, makes Gujarat an attractive market for the Israeli companies," Offer Zaks, the CEO of Israel Export Institute said explaining the overwhelming response from the Israeli business community."

Israeli Startup Gets Boost from Apple’s ‘Maps’ Debacle

With millions of Apple users frustrated over bugs and errors associated with the release of the “Maps” feature, Apple CEO Tim Cook is encouraging them to turn to competing software such as the Israeli mapping application Waze while Apple fixes the issues.

CIFWatch: My photos from yesterday’s march in Jerusalem by thousands of Christian friends of Israel

Also:
Electronic Intifada feeling uncomfortable (Harry's Place)

Defending Free Gaza's anti-semitism at Open Zion and 972mag

Translation of August interview with Iranian woman on Israeli TV:

Syria unrest sparks rifts among Lebanon’s Palestinian factions

(h/t Ronald. Yoel, Daniel)

IDF shoots down UAV over Negev

From the IDF:

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was identified penetrating Israeli airspace from the west this morning (Saturday, October 6), and was intercepted by the IAF at approximately 10:00 AM.

The aircraft remained under the surveillance of IDF forces on the ground and in the air, including fighter planes. The UAV was downed in the area of the Yatir Forest, in the northern Negev, so as to avoid damage to a civilian area.

IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yoav (Poly) Mordechai emphasized that this was a full operational success. He noted that the aircraft was identified before entering Israeli airspace and was downed in accordance with a decision of the IDF's top leaders.

Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was briefed on the incident. IDF soldiers are currently searching the area where the drone was downed, in open areas in the northern Negev, to locate debris and identify the drone.

YNet adds that it seems likely to have come from Hezbollah via the Mediterranean:

After IDF collects remnants of unmanned aircraft shot down over southern forest, security establishment examining possibility it was launched by Hezbollah to photograph Israeli reactor; army fears drones will be used to hit strategic sites

After Israeli fighter jets shot down a drone over the Yatir forest in the south Mount Hebron area on Saturday, the army is trying to figure out what its destination was. One of the possibilities the security establishment is looking into is that the unmanned aircraft, which was apparently Iranian-made, was on its way to test the option of infiltrating the nuclear reactor in Dimona, perhaps even to examine the option of targeting the plant in a future conflict.

A drone such as the one that was downed on Saturday after penetrating Israel's airspace through the Mediterranean Sea could not cause serious damage to the reactor, but such an incident would mark a psychological victory for Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah recently threatened to attack strategic targets in Israel, including power plants.

Operating a drone by remote control from such a long distance requires advanced capabilities, which Israel was not aware Hezbollah had acquired. By examining the drone's parts, the army hopes to find out whether the drone was controlled from a command center in Lebanon or was directed by a space-based satellite navigation system (GPS) according to predetermined coordinates. If that was the case, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) may have directed itself automatically and was supposed to return to its base or self-destruct over the sea.

Copt teacher in Egypt cleared of "blasphemy". She is VERY lucky.

I mentioned this case a couple of days ago, but the details are chilling. To call this a happy ending would be to ignore all the people who willingly went along with a baseless accusation against a Copt:

A Coptic teacher who was arrested last week on charges of contempt for religion and insulting Prophet Mohamed has been released, and all charges dropped, her lawyer confirmed to Ahram Online.

The case is one of several recent incidents in which Egypt's Coptic minority found itself under fire.

Nevine Gad, a social studies teacher at a preparatory school in Manfalout village, in Assiut in Upper Egypt, was explaining a lesson on Islamic history with a section on the life of the Prophet Mohamed in a class on Wednesday last week.

The next day she was told that a pupil, Mohamed Moustafa Ahmed Hashim, had filed a complaint against her, claiming that she had said something offensive about the Prophet.

Following that, more than 20 teachers working with her at the same school also complained about her to the school administration, based on the student's story.

After investigating, the administration dismissed the complaint because of the conflicting accounts of the students from the class, and a lack of evidence. To avoid problems, Gad was suspended from teaching temporarily.

However, on Sunday afternoon, police arrested Gad and took her to an Assiut police station, on charges of contempt of religion and insulting Prophet Mohamed, following a complaint from Moustafa Ahmed Hashim, the student in question's father, who is known locally to be a Salafist.

Gad denied all charges, but was detained and spent the night in a solitary confinement cell, her lawyer told Ahram Online, causing her family great worry as she is eight months pregnant.

The next day, she went before the attorney-general of Assiut, who asked her about the validity of the statements, and she again denied all the allegations.

Lawyer Magdy Farouk told Ahram Online exclusively that during the investigations, he had noticed inconsistencies in the statements and complaints of the student in question.

In addition, Gad remembered that this student was absent on Wednesday and Thursday, and therefore could not have attended the lesson.

"The educational administration in Assiut supplied us with the official student attendance lists for those two days...it showed that the student, Mohamed Moustafa Ahmed Hashim, who accused her, was absent and didn't attend that lesson. The police then released her yesterday [Wednesday] and closed the case file, considering it a malicious complaint," said Farouk.

"Most lawyers had refused to get involved in this case, fearing for their lives, but I agreed to defend her and to attend the investigations with her after I got security guarantees from a well-known businessman from Upper Egypt," he added.

Farouk cited concerns related to a case a month ago when lawyers defending, Bishoy Kamel, another Coptic teacher accused several months ago of contempt of religion, were attacked at the courthouse in Sohag in Upper Egypt.

Gad was lucky, but look how easily anyone can get someone to be arrested in Egypt! Not only that, but Gad's fellow teachers, instead of acting in solidarity with her, threw her under the bus.

It is apparent that everyone in Egypt is so frightened of being perceived as being soft on blasphemy that the accusers have the cards stacked in their favor.

The question is whether the student's father will be prosecuted for knowingly endangering an innocent, pregnant Coptic woman.

I think we all know the answer to that.

Mohammed needs defending!

From Egypt Independent:

Mohamed Assem Abdel Maged, a leader of Jama’a al-Islamiya and the al-Ansar movement to defend the Prophet Mohamed, launched on Friday the “Knock on Doors” campaign.

The goal of the campaign is to collect LE1 billion [$160 million] that would be used to create a satellite channel and publishing house to disseminate information about the Prophet Mohamed and defend him from insults. Abdel Maged said he is also considering establishing a film production company abroad as part of the campaign.

Poor Mohammed, needing so much money to defend himself from insults. Isn't this Allah's job?

But here's where things get a little, shall we say, fishy:

"The billion pounds will also be used to support the Syrian people by sending medical convoys and food ... [and] a portion will be allocated to the Syrian families in Egypt," Abdel Maged told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The movement has already sent a number of medical convoys to Syria, he claimed.

Whoa. A charity to defend Mohammed, and send medical convoys to Syria (how exactly are they entering?), and also to send money to Syrians (presumably refugees) in Egypt?

It is starting to sound like a portion of the money might also be going towards lining Mohamed Assem Abdel Maged's pockets.

Friday links

From Ian:

Palestinian Authority Rigging Courts Canada, UN Complicit by Khaled Abu Toameh

"The Canadian Development Agency, with the help of the UN Development Program, has been funding new courthouses in the West Bank "to improve the Palestinians' access to justice." But justice can be achieved even if the judges, lawyers, prosecutors and defendants sit in a tent. Instead of investing in new buildings, it would be more helpful if the Canadians and the UN agency demanded that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides stop obstructing the work of the judges."

State Stands by its Man
Update: Israel critic and terrorist sympathizer ‘valued and highly credible,’ official says

"Al-Marayati has been a vociferous critic of Israel, once suggesting that Israel should be put “on the suspect list” for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His organization, MPAC, has requested that militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah be removed from the list of United States-designated terrorist groups.
Al-Marayati’s inclusion in the U.S. delegation attracted the ire of Jewish leaders and others who feel he is the wrong person to represent America at a forum focusing on human rights and tolerance."

Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Europe

"We witnessed the terrible massacre in Toulouse earlier this year, the bombing of a community center in Malmo and many other serious attacks against Jews across the continent. The future of Jews in Europe is under threat and being Jewish we shouldn’t ask ourselves ‘what will happen’ but ‘what we are going to do about it’."

Experts: Iranian military stuck in the past

Iran may be technologically advanced but its military capabilities are so limited it can't risk war on its own soil, Israeli experts claim

Don’t Be Misled By Iran-Hamas Split

"While the spat between two groups of violent Islamist extremists can be viewed with schadenfreude, if not amusement, the West should not be fooled by this development into buying into some incorrect assumptions about Iran, Hamas or the situation in Syria. We should not be deceived into viewing Hamas’s decision as a harbinger of moderate behavior by the terrorist group. Nor should we be gulled into thinking Hamas’s defection from the Iranian fold will materially damage Iran’s hopes to keep Assad in power or lessen the need for a greater Western effort to end his reign of terror in Damascus."

Staff at Palestinian Embassy in Cairo Involved in Drug Trafficking
Ma’an News Agency reports that members of the staff at the Palestinian embassy in Cairo have been arrested for involvement in a major drug trafficking scheme.

Radical Islamic leader claims Burgas suicide bomber for his disciple

"In an interview for the Centre for Middle East studies, published in a Bulgarian daily, the radical Islamic leader Omar Bakri claimed that the suicide bomber who killed five Israeli citizens and a Bulgarian bus driver on the airport of the city of Burgas in July was his disciple."
Furthermore, Bakri was certain that the man of the footage released by the Bulgarian interior ministry was indeed Mehdi Ghezali-a Swedish citizen who has previously been a Guantanamo inmate.

Two reportedly held in Istanbul over US ambassador’s killing in Libya
Tunisians arrested by counter-terror forces and found carrying false papers, Turkish media reports

Sharia-Medicine: Egyptian Clinic Treats People with Camel Urine Per Prophet’s Advice

On September 16, popular TV persona Wael El-Ibrashi hosted Dr. Zaghlul al-Naggar, a prominent Islamic thinker and Chairman of Egypt’s Committee of Scientific Notions in the Quran, on the topic of medical science and Islam. Inevitably the idea of drinking camel urine as a form of therapy—first proposed in the 7th century by Muslim prophet Muhammad—came up.

Israel, Palestinians cooperate on Gaza Internet

For two days, Israel and PALTEL worked together to lay 15 km. of optical cables to provide Gaza high-speed Internet service.

Christians Show Love of Israel in Jerusalem Streets

There was love in the air of Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon. Marching through the streets of Jerusalem, approximately 6,000 Christian friends of Israel made their way with flags and smiles, which they readily shared with Israeli bystanders—from ultra-orthodox to secular Jews of all ages and backgrounds.

Iconic posters of a nation under construction

My anti-Obama ad

From the first Obama/McCain debate in 2008.

My major problem with President Obama is his foreign policy naivete, which is demonstrated by this clip.

The Muslim world doesn't hate America because of its policies. It hates America because it is powerful. That is never going to change.

The world doesn't want America as a friend. The world needs America as a leader. Even if that makes us unpopular.

Obama's policy of purposefully diminishing America's leadership role is a mistake that can take generations to repair, if ever.

Arabs riot on Temple Mount

Because throwing stones isn't a desecration of a holy place - but Jews peacefully walking around it is.

Following the conclusion of Friday prayers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, hundreds of Arabs threw stones at security guards in the area. Police charged through the Mughrabi Gate in the Old City and fired stun grenades to disperse the angry mob.

Unconfirmed Palestinian reports suggested that several people were lightly injured.

Police officials, having restored calm, said that they would arrest some of the stone throwers in the coming days.

Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites of Israel Shmuel Rabinovitch expressed shock following Friday’s violent demonstration, assessing that it was meant to prevent Jewish worshippers from praying in the area during Sukkot. He said that it was up to the police to arrest those who “wish to harm the delicate fabric of the holy sites in the Old City, and to harass worshippers.”

Rabbi Rabinovitch called on the public to continue observing the holiday at the Western Wall.

On Thursday, a confrontation at the Temple Mount plaza led to six arrests as a group of Muslim worshipers threatened Jewish visitors to the site.

According to a police spokesperson, about 30 Muslims began chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and tried to attack a group of Jews who were visiting the site. Police broke up the altercation, and arrested five Arabs and one Jew.

Jordan: King dissolves parliament; tribe freaks over Israel envoy appt

From AFP:

Jordan’s King Abdullah II dissolved parliament and called early elections on Thursday, the royal palace announced on the eve of a major opposition rally to demand reforms.

“The king has decided to dissolve the chamber of deputies from this Thursday and to call early elections,” a statement said. It gave no date, but the monarch has said he wants polls to be held by the end of 2012.

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood said earlier that it was going ahead with its planned rally in central Amman on Friday by an estimated 50,000 supporters.

Numerous demonstrations have taken place in Jordan since January 2011 to call for political and economic reforms and demand an end to corruption. In response, King Abdullah said early elections would be held.

But the Brotherhood says it would boycott the polls as they did in 2010 to protest against the lack of solid reforms, while calling for a parliamentary system where the prime minister is elected, rather than named by the king.

A demonstration in support of the king was called off over fears of unrest as it would have coincided with the Islamist rally, organizers said.

In an exclusive interview with AFP last month, the king said a decision by the Islamists to boycott the vote was “a tremendous miscalculation.”

“As constitutional monarch, my mandate is to be the umbrella for all political groupings and all segments of our society, and as part of that responsibility, I am telling the Muslim Brotherhood that they are making a tremendous miscalculation,” he said.

“The countdown to the elections has already started. Registration is under way. We have already crossed the one-million person mark. Parliament will be dissolved. The elections date will be announced. And we will have a new parliament by the new year.”

“This elections law is not perfect. We all understand that. But there is no better consensus on an alternative. What is critical is that we keep going forward, and -- mark my words -- we will have a new parliament by the new year,” the king said.

Jordan's monarchs know how to hold onto office, and for now Abdullah seems safe. But things are happening fast in the Arab world.

In other Jordan news, the Obeidat tribe went crazy over the announcement that one of their members would be the new ambassador to Israel:

Members of the Jordanian Obeidat tribe this week condemned the appointment of Walid Obeidat as Jordan's new envoy to Israel, considering the move 'shameful' and blasted Obeidat's acceptance of the position a grave offense to his tribe.

Following a meeting of a number of Obeidat tribe members in northern Jordan Saturday evening, a statement was issued renouncing Khalid Obeidat from the tribe, stating that "whoever accepts this position, and puts his hand in the hands of those who seized the land, killed and displaced Palestinians... has crossed all prohibitions and red lines."

The statement, a copy of which was sent to Ammon News, considered the acceptance of the post as a grave insult to the nation and the tribe, stressing that this 'shameful' stance contradicts the history and stance of the tribe and its successive generations towards the Palestinian cause.

The announcement came after the government appointed Obeidat last Thursday as ambassador of Jordan in Tel Aviv.

Members of the tribe stressed that the Obeidats will continue to be loyal to its nation and will not make truce with its enemies until the liberation of Palestine, noting that the tribe was among the first to recognize the dangers of the Zionist settlement scheme in the 1920's.

The statement also blasted the Jordanian-Israeli Wadi-Araba peace treaty as 'shameful' and denounced by the tribe and the nation, and condemned the presence of a 'Zionist' embassy in Amman, and the reciprocation of a Jordanian Embassy to the 'Zionist entity.'

Later, the tribe offered incentives for Khalid to reject the position.

Fatah releases video of Hamas "collaborator" shaking hands with IDF officer,

Here's the latest example of how ridiculously immature both Fatah and Hamas are.

Yesterday, Fatah released a short video that they claim proves that Hamas collaborates with Israel, with a known West Bank Hamas member Mahmoud Ramahi along with MP Ahmed Attoun shaking hands with an Israeli soldier.

Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf said "The videos leaked to the media, as well as information confirmed to us, prove beyond doubt that MPs and leaders of Hamas in the West Bank are collaborating with the occupation authorities initiated by their leaders in the Gaza Strip and abroad directly or through intermediaries." Assaf added that this Hamas "collaboration" is offensive to the Palestinian public and the Arab and Muslim world.

Hamas is now lashing out at Fatah, saying that the video is taken out of context. Apparently it was taken when Israel released Hamas prisoner Abdel Rahman Zeidan from the Ofer prison last Sunday.

Hamas is threatening to sue the video production company.

This is the level of discourse that Fatah and Hamas engage in all the time, and it is just one tiny proof that Palestinian Arab leaders are simply unable to act like adults.

(For some reason no one in Israel is demanding that the Israeli guard be fired for shaking hands with Hamas members. Must be proof of Zionist weakness, in the bizarre mindset of Palestinian Arabs.)