Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 11, 2012

By the way, "moderate" Hamas fired dozens of rockets towards Israeli civilians this week

You might not have known it from watching the news, but Hamas (jointly with Islamic Jihad and other terror groups) shot over sixty rockets and mortars towards Israeli communities this week.

Monday:

Terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip fired some 55 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel early Monday morning. The shells landed in communities in the Eshkol Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries, although two buildings were lightly damaged and several goats were killed due to an explosion in an animal corner.

Hamas' military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the Ansar al-Quds group have claimed responsibility for Monday morning's attack on the south. They claimed the attack was a response to the IAF's airstrike on Gaza on Sunday.

Tuesday:

Two rockets fired from Gaza exploded in open areas near Sderot. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in Netivot in an open area. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.

Wednesday:

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area near Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.

Gaza terrorists fired a rocket at Netivot on Wednesday evening. The shell landed in an open area between Netivot and Sdot Negev Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported

GANSO says there were four rockets fired last night.

Overnight, 4 HMRs fired from MA toward the Green Line. No injuries were reported.

I have been noting that Hamas has been working with other terror groups in Gaza. These attacks have been explicit joint operations:

Ahmed Modlal, an Islamic Jihad official said that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are working together. He stressed that the two terrorist groups are coordinated on most military matters; however, they occasionally hold meetings in order to establish joint political policy within the Palestinian public.

"Joint action between the Defenders of al-Aqsa and Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is a good way to illustrate the Palestinian resistance," he said. "We have a joint operation room in order for us to better respond to Israeli aggression with one united national plan."

Top Politburo delegate in Gaza Mahmoud al-Zahar also confirmed that Hamas was coordinating operations with other Gaza-based Palestinian organizations in order to "respond to the Israeli aggression."

Yes, this is the same Hamas that Time magazine claims is moderating.

The Gaza NGO Safety Office consistently refers to these rockets as "HMRs," or "home-made rockets." Here's a video of the rockets from the Hamas website - you can judge how "home-made" they seem to be:

Pepsi: The choice of a terrorist generation (poster)

Background story with more photos here.

Pepsi has been quickly deleting any Facebook entries that mention their partnering with Hamas on Gaza football tournaments and sports leagues.

Hamas politician says "Jews behind every catastrophe on Earth"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras, member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on September 12, 2012.

Marwan Abu Ras: The Jews are behind each and every catastrophe on the face of the Earth. This is not open to debate. This is not a temporal thing, but goes back to days of yore. They concocted so many conspiracies and betrayed rulers and nations so many times that the people harbor hatred towards them.

Throughout history – from Nebuchadnezzar until modern times... They slayed the prophets, and so on.

Any catastrophe on the face of this Earth – the Jews must be behind it.

Is it time to riot yet?

New T-shirt- "Behead those who insult Western civilization"

Based on a comment, I thought this would make a nice T-shirt (or, most appropriately, a cutting board):

Items with this logo can be purchased here.

(For those who don't get the joke, see here.)

(h/t Bill)

Wednesday links

From Ian:

Nazi Propaganda Makes a Comeback on Twitter By Jeffrey Goldberg

“What does this all mean? I’ve been asking for months why the international left hasn’t shown solidarity with the Syrian people -- an estimated 30,000 of whom have been killed by the fascist Baath party -- by launching a flotilla to Syria’s Mediterranean coastline. Gazans have a miserable life, but their suffering today pales in comparison to that of Syrians. So why don’t the people behind the Gaza flotillas organize a relief effort? The answer is simple: If the Syrians were being slaughtered by Israelis, they would.
I’ve always suspected that many of those on the far left who express solidarity with Palestinians are less interested in helping the Palestinians than in scapegoating their Jewish adversaries. [Free Gaza's Greta] Berlin might have inadvertently helped the world understand that the extreme left has something in common with the extreme right: an obsessive interest in demonizing the Jews. “

Free Gaza Tweets for Terror and a World Without Zionism

"The still ongoing controversy about Free Gaza’s propagation of antisemitic material has revealed for me the somewhat surprising fact that apparently quite a few of the group’s supporters seem to believe that Free Gaza is somehow dedicated to promoting peace and coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians."

Abbas's Plan to Steal Local Elections by Khaled Abu Toameh

“Fatah's decision to hold local elections only in the West Bank is an admission that the Palestinians have two separate entities: the West Bank and Gaza. Abbas's critics say that by insisting on going ahead with the vote, he has "solidified" the split between the Fatah-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
This is something that the UN General Assembly will have to take into consideration when it is scheduled next month to vote on Abbas's application to upgrade the status of a Palestinian state to "non-member." The UN members should ask Abbas which state he is talking about -- the one in the West Bank or the one in the Gaza Strip?”

A storm of massive proportions is brewing in the MidEast

The region is splitting apart and ready to explode out of its largely artificial boundaries along two major fault lines, ethnic and religious, writes a former senior editor of the Jerusalem Post
“Europe’s political and media classes are missing the point. Lazy, ignorant or both, they persist in reading from a clapped-out, 30-year-old script – if it was accurate even then – when they declaim on Middle East affairs. As if the "occupation", the "settlements", the "tunnel", the "wall" and other “crisis issues” are the cause of the all world’s ills; as if the birth of Palestine holds the key to tranquillity and peace, perhaps even utopia.”

Clifton, New Jersey: Honoring an Anti-Semite? By Alan Dershowitz

For decades, Grabowski published a newspaper in Clifton called The Post Eagle. In that newspaper, Grabowski repeatedly referred to Jews as “vermin,” “animals” and “Christ killers.”

CAMERA At Maan, Gaza Training Camps are Just 'Homes'
Wall Street Journal's Creative Cartographers
Where's the Coverage? PA Accuses Israel of Trying to Destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque to Rebuild "Alleged Temple"
Maan's Mysterious Eye Witnesses to Olive Vandalism

French police find material linked to synagogue bombing in Torcy parking lot
Weapons, cash and a list of Paris-area Israeli associations among items discovered; suspects arrested in connection to attack to remain in custody

“The weekend arrests — during which one suspect was killed by police who returned fire after he shot at them — were put in motion by evidence gathered following the firebombing of a kosher grocery story in suburban Paris in September.”

If Malala survives, we will target her again: Taliban
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which attacked National Award Peace winner Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday have said that they will target her again if she survives because she was a “secular-minded lady”.

‘Major parts of Syria have effectively been bombed back to Ottoman times’

Newly re-elected Hugo Chavez says Venezuela will keep supporting Syria’s leader and government

The Attacks on Israelis You Won’t Read About Anywhere Else, September 20 – October 5

Taking aim at cancer: Israeli-Danish team finds a new way to zap malignant cells

An innovative method of using radiation to treat lung cancer could change the way tumors are treated
“With all the research to find a cure for cancer, radiation therapy is still considered by experts to be one of the most reliable forms of treatment in counteracting the disease. In fact, groups like the American Cancer Society list radiation therapy as one of the top treatments for many forms of cancer, along with surgery, chemotherapy, and other common forms of treatment.”

Also:

New website BBC Watch

Jewish refugees and the fallacy of Daniel Haboucha

Tunisian al-Qaeda children praising 9/11

Economic consequences of Iranian nukes

Reason #11 Time's Karl Vick is an idiot

We have shown pretty conclusively that Time magazine's Karl Vick is an idiot when it comes to reporting about Israel. No matter how many times he is proven wrong, he keeps barreling on with his rose-colored view of Arab intransigence and his continuous blaming of everything on Israel.

Here's reason #11 Karl Vick is an idiot.

Last week he wrote:

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.

And here is what Meshal said just last week at the same time that Time was publishing Vick's drivel:

Reiterating his support for the Arab Spring, Mash'al said: "Hamas recognizes the value of Arab peoples, and it has no other way than to support the rights of the peoples and their aspiration for freedom and honor... Hamas has memory, values, and morality, and therefore it does not forget those who assisted it and who continue to do so. The movement will not strike a bargain over the blood of the ummah and of Arab peoples... The best defense, and the strength of [our] foreign policy, which is based on conflict (with Israel), is manifested in our support for the resistance and by granting rights to the people. Today is the day of the Arab Spring. There is no turning back. Democracy is our right, and resistance is our duty."

Mash'al went on to warn that Israel intends to create a new reality in Jerusalem, and that therefore, "following the [Arab] Spring, we [Arabs] must prepare for the project of liberating Jerusalem – and the Palestinian role [in this] is no substitute for the Arab role." He called for ending negotiations with Israel: "The time has come to overturn the negotiating table on those who wished to enslave us."

He then called on the Palestinian leadership and all its factions to begin the major step of ending division and completing the national reconciliation, adding: "Resistance, not negotiation, is the path to the restoration of rights. Nothing will restore the homeland but jihad, the rifle, and self-sacrifice.

Vick never reports on Hamas' warmongering statements, except to downplay them. And his bending over backwards to make Meshal into some kind of peacemaker at the exact same time Meshal is pushing a terror war is simply the latest example of his willful blindness - and, by extension, the willful blindness of Time magazine.

Other reasons Vick is an anti-Israel idiot who will tilt every fact towards how he wants it to be rather than what it actually is:
#1
#2
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#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10

And these are just the articles I happen to have noticed in the past couple of years.

(h/t Ian)

Pepsi sponsors Hamas football? (UPDATES)

The Hamas mouthpiece Palestine Times has a photo essay of a rebuilt soccer stadium that was built in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, with Qatari aid.

As is usual with these kinds of things, Hamas prime minister and avid soccer player Ismail Haniyeh couldn't resist kicking the ball around together with the team.

But look at the logos of the players with Haniyeh:

Is Pepsi sponsoring a soccer team or league that is backed by terrorist group Hamas? How much do they spend on advertising in Gaza?

Go and ask at the Pepsi Facebook page or ask @Pepsi on Twitter!

UPDATE: Pepsi removes any mention on their Facebook page as soon as it is posted.

UPDATE 2: According to this Aqsa Sports page, the official Pepsi bottling company in Gaza - Yazji - is the official sponsor of the Hamas-supported ceremony. Based on the uniforms, it appears that the sponsorship goes beyond that. Is Pepsi officially supporting this? (h/t Ian)

UPDATE 3: Pepsi apparently sponsored the Ramadan football championship in Gaza in August:

UPDATE 4: Here is Yazegi's Facebook page, with the Pepsi logo - and Hamas terrorist in chief Ismail Haniyeh - both featured prominently.

UPDATE 5: Judge Dan reminds me that Hamas (as well as Iran and others) used to say that Pepsi is an acronym for "Pay Every Penny to Save Israel."

Abbas' latest game: Will he fool he world again?

From Maan:

President Abbas told European diplomats on Tuesday that he will resume peace talks with Israel after a UN vote on the Palestinian request for non-member status in the world body, The Associated Press reported.

Abbas believes that a freeze on illegal settlement building may not be necessary to engage in talks if the UN recognizes a Palestinian state which includes all of the West Bank, AP reported.

Only one problem: Non-state membership status at the UN says nothing about borders. As CFR writes:

How would a UN vote affirming non-member state status affect life inside Palestine?
Very little, in terms of tangible changes resulting directly from the UN decision. Statehood would be a symbolic victory for the PA, but it would lack any formal recognition of sovereignty, borders, and other such considerations normally attendant with state status. Acquiring these things from Israel would require direct negotiations even if the General Assembly endorsed non-member statehood.

So what game is Abbas playing? Is he going to pretend that the UN would confer borders? Is he going to try to sneak border information in the resolution?

This AFP article may shed some light:

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told EU envoys on Tuesday he accepts European declarations on the peace process as the basis for renewing talks with Israel and plans to incorporate them into his UN statehood campaign.

"The statements of the European Union on our cause serve as the basis for a return to negotiations," a statement from official news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as telling the EU diplomats at a meeting in Ramallah.

"We hope that you will convey to your governments our appreciation for these statements," he added.

"We will use them in the drafting of a Palestinian resolution which will be presented to the General Assembly of the United Nations in order to obtain the status of a non-member state.

"We are open to dialogue with all international parties in the formulation of the Palestinian request," Abbas said, adding it would be submitted to the UN in November.

"When we have obtained the status of non-member state at the General Assembly, we will be ready to return to the negotiating table with the Israeli side to discuss all final status issues outstanding."

It appears that Abbas does intend to put language about the "pre-1967 borders" in the resolution - even though it would have no legal validity - and then he would consider the issue of negotiations over borders to be closed, only willing to negotiate on still "outstanding" issues - not borders.

I don't know the nature of the EU statements that Abbas is referring to, and whether they are new or not.

This is consistent with statements Abbas has said in Arabic .He said to Arab media that after the UN vote, "Palestine" would be a "state under occupation" and

We have no objection [to being a sttae under occupation] because it would be state and not land in dispute, this land is for us, first and foremost, a land occupied no matter how many settlements there are .. Settlement from beginning to end are illegal, and we will not accept them, and they have to leave . This land is for us and Jerusalem is ours.

This seems to be Abbas' game: to bulldoze the non-member state bid into somehow being a legal ruling by the UN on the legality of the 1949 armistice lines as borders of a state, without negotiating those borders with Israel.

And when he says he will negotiate afterwards, he means he'll negotiate whether he will allow Israel to exist at all.

Hopefully the EU will be aware that Abbas is trying to use this latest UN stunt to short-circuit real negotiations with Israel, not to facilitate them.

Iran only 2-4 months away from enough fuel for A-bomb

From WSJ:

Iran has advanced its nuclear program to where it will be able to produce weapons-grade fuel in two to four months, nuclear experts and former United Nations inspectors said.

The new assessments feed growing alarm in the U.S., Europe and Israel that efforts to deny Tehran a nuclear-weapons capability could be rendered futile by as early as next summer.

The Institute for Science and International Security, an independent research institute in Washington with former U.N. inspectors on its staff, concluded in a report this week that Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium for one atomic bomb, about 25 kilograms, in two to four months using its largest uranium-enrichment facility near the city of Natanz.

The ISIS report offered a faster timeline than Mr. Netanyahu presented to the U.N. on Sept. 27 because of Tehran's growing stockpile of higher-enriched uranium and its expanding numbers of centrifuge machines. The Israeli leader said Iran is expected to have acquired enough higher-enriched uranium by spring or summer to begin conversion to weapons grade. He said Iran then could construct its first nuclear bomb within several weeks or months.

ISIS bases its conclusions almost solely on information released by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA said in its most recent report in August that Tehran had doubled its capacity to produce 20% enriched uranium at its underground facility near the holy city of Qom. But the IAEA didn't offer a timeline for when Iran might be able to produce weapons-grade fuel.

The think tank said Tehran could combine its stockpiles of low-enriched and higher-enriched uranium to make a dash for weapons-grade fuel, which is around 90% purity. The Iranians could do that by synchronizing the enrichment of these two grades of uranium and cutting out some intermediary steps that slow the process, ISIS said.

"Growth in the stock of near 20% [purity] reduces the time to break out," ISIS said in its report.

Iran has a stockpile 91.4 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20% purity, according to the IAEA. An additional 25 kilograms of the material is committed for conversion into fuel rods for Tehran's research reactor.

ISIS said its faster estimates for Iran acquiring the highly enriched uranium would require Tehran to use its total stockpile of 20% enriched uranium.

The institute played down Mr. Netanyahu's assertion that Iran could quickly convert the weapons-grade fuel into a usable atomic bomb. "Iran would need many additional months to manufacture a nuclear device suitable for underground testing and even longer to make a reliable warhead for a ballistic missile," the report said.

The ISIS report can be read here.

More Palestinian Arab kids are overweight than underweight

The Lancet is reporting that there is a "Double burden of undernutrition and obesity in Palestinian schoolchildren."

Data were obtained from 1484 (99%) of 1500 students. Prevalence of stunting was 97 (7%) of 1446 and underweight 94 (7%) of 1444 students. 180 (12%) of 1444 students were overweight and 86 (6%) obese. ...Obesity was more prevalent in UNRWA schools than in government schools (56 [7%] vs 30 [4%]; 1·63, 1·06–2·51; p=0·0246).

The data indicate that 18% of PalArab schoolchildren are overweight or obese, vs. 14% who are underweight or stunted.

This means that roughly the same percentage of PalArab children are overweight or obese as in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany.

Surprisingly, the abstract doesn't blame Israel for force-feeding fat Palestinian Arab kids the way that anti-Israel activists have blamed Israel for starving them in the past.

But I'm sure it is only a matter of time until the Lancet notices that the kids who throw rocks at Israelis are in better physical condition than those who watch TV all day - so the obvious recommendation will be to encourage more rock throwing.

While this study does not seem to blame Israel, The Lancet has a history of pushing junk science for the anti-Israel cause.

Previous studies have shown that there are lots of overweight Palestinian Arab adults as well.

Catching up on links

From Ian:

Berlin: Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt Gevatron concert

Ten protesters cry out 'Free Palestine', hurl CDs and JNF boxes during Israeli folk group fundraiser concert
“The Israeli folk group was performing at a Jewish National Fund and Israeli House fundraiser when 10 protesters disrupted the show immediately after the first song.
They cried out "Free Palestine" and held out signs protesting JNF activity in the settlements. The protest was organized by the BDS movement which promotes a boycott of Israel.”

Anti-Semitism without Jews in Malaysia

"In Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, politicians and civil servants devote a surprising amount of time to thinking about Israel, 7,612 km away. Sometimes they appear to be obsessed by it. Malaysia has never had a dispute with Israel, but the government encourages the citizens to hate Israel and also to hate Jews whether they are Israelis or not.
Few Malaysians have laid eyes on a Jew; the tiny Jewish community emigrated decades ago. Nevertheless, Malaysia has become an example of a phenomenon called “Anti-Semitism without Jews.” Last March, for instance, the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department sent out an official sermon to be read in all mosques, stating that “Muslims must understand Jews are the main enemy to Muslims as proven by their egotistical behaviour and murders performed by them.” About 60% of Malaysians are Muslim."

Israel intelligence: Jihadi Attacks from Crumbling Syria

Al-Qaeda-inspired terror organizations cannot be deterred. Once Assad falls, the radical elements can raid Syrian military bases, arm themselves with a range of devastating weapons, and turn their sights to the Israeli border.

Islam Earns Its Scorn

As Muslims rage against the U.S. abroad, it is rather telling to examine "the loss of cultural primacy" within Islam, along with the overall effect Islam is having on nations and individuals the world over. Of the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), as rated by the Economists Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy, none are full democracies, while 36 are authoritarian regimes (dictatorships). Of the Index's 10 most authoritarian regimes, six of them are members of the OIC.

Birds of a feather flock together at Jewish anti-Zionist confab

Free Gaza Movement cofounder Greta Berlin is to be hosted by the Los Angeles chapters of the Jews for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace next week to promote her new book about her participation in the Gaza Strip flotillas of 2010.

Taking out TA with the click of a mouse
New Iranian video game puts Tel Aviv — ominously — as the center of ‘events’

From the FNA Article: “Iran on Saturday released a computer game named "The Age of Might" with the central theme of events happening in Tel-Aviv in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Copt home attacked after Egypt president promises security

"Gunmen opened fire on the home of a Coptic Christian in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, hours after a visit by President Mohamed Morsi to reassure Christian residents they would not be targeted again."

Gazans protest Schalit's Barcelona soccer visit
Former prisoners protest Schalit's attendance at Barcelona/Real Madrid game; Palestinian invitee refuses to attend.

Hollande to boost security for French Jewish sites

French president promises Jewish leaders "total mobilization" to fight terrorist threats after shooting at Paris synagogue.
The BBC cited Hollande as saying there would be "total mobilization of the state to fight all terrorist threats" during a meeting with leaders of the country's Jewish community.

French Islamist suicide terror cell had list of Paris Jewish targets

Four members had written last will and testament. Police find weapons, cash and list of Paris-area Jewish, Israeli targets during raids on Islamists. France boosting security at Jewish sites after blank bullets were fired on a synagogue west of Paris.

The inspirational soldier who refused to let his lost arm keep him out of combat
How and why Izzy Ezagui, an immigrant from Miami whose left arm was blown off by a mortar shell on the Gaza border, fought his way back to the front-lines

August sets new record for incoming tourists

Some 298,000 visitors entered Israel last month – 10% increase as compared with August 2011, 7% more than in August 2010
Despite the grave global economic crisis and the problematic geopolitical situation in the region, Israel continues to break incoming tourism records.

Fatah: Palestinians have not abandoned armed struggle By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Fatah Central Committee member Aloul says party's program has reaffirmed "resistance is legitimate right against occupation."

"Mahmoud Aloul, a member of the Fatah central committee and former Palestinian Authority governor of Nablus, said that although the Palestinians have agreed to launch a “popular resistance against occupation, no one has dropped the armed resistance from his dictionary.” Aloul’s comments were made during an interview with the private Watan TV station in the West Bank."

MEMRI Mash'al: The Homeland Will Be Restored Only Through Jihad, The Rifle, And Self-Sacrifice

"In a fiery speech in Cairo on October 3, 2012, at a rally commemorating Saladin's liberation of Jerusalem, Hamas political bureau head Khaled Mash'al said that the Zionists are enemies of Allah and the prophets, and called for preparing to liberate Jerusalem and restore the homeland once more through jihad, the rifle, and self-sacrifice. The event, under the banner "Jerusalem – Together, We Will Defend And Restore Her," was held under the auspices of Egypt's cultural minister and representatives of institutions operating in Egypt to liberate Jerusalem, with the participation of advisors to President Mursi."

Dozens of rockets, mortars hit south

No injuries reported as Gazans launch 55 rockets, mortar shells at Eshkol Regional Council less than day after an IAF strike in Gaza injured 11; Hamas, Islamic Jihad: Attack in response to 'Zionist crimes'

It's time to proscribe Hezbollah by Douglas Murray

Britain and the EU continue to make excuses for not proscribing Hezbollah's activities, including fundraising
"As it is, Britain and the EU are perpetuating a lie. And the thing is that they must know it. It is certainly something that Hezbollah knows. And it is also something which they understand the consequences of. A couple of years ago Hassan Nasrallah said that a proscription of his group’s activities in the EU would ‘destroy’ the organisation. If it happened, he said, ‘[t]he sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral, political and material support will be destroyed.’
We have an opportunity as well as a duty to make this terrorist leader’s fears come true. How did Britain end up allowing terrorists to operate with impunity? That question is a tough one to answer. How can we stop it being the case? The answer to that question is easy."

Romney's Middle East Speech: I'll be Tougher By Barry Rubin

"Mitt Romney gave a speech at the Virginia Military Institute today which focuses on U.S. Middle East policy. There are some good points in this speech that are definite steps forward. Romney sounded like a president should, someone who grasps power politics, deterrence, credibility, supporting allies and opposing enemies, and all the basic principles that have been largely vanished by the Obama Administration in exchange for unworkable and dangerous concepts." transcript

UN completes probe into false tweet about Gaza
Findings not yet released after completion of investigation into tweet of photo falsely claiming Palestinian killed by IDF.

Hamas fires dozens of rockets, mortars into Israel, vows to launch more if Israel
strikes again

IDF retaliates, says Gaza mosques used as ‘Hamas posts’; Channel 10: terror cells using sophisticated launchers capable of firing several rockets at once

Iran claims Saturday’s drone photographed Dimona, says Al-Arabiya

Israeli reports say the UAV, shot down north of Negev nuclear facility, was incapable of relaying real-time information

Ahmadi Muslims in UK call for urgent action against hate

President of London's Ahmadiyya community urges government to intervene amid growing fear of persecution and attack

Hundreds attend anti-Semitism demo

An estimated 300 people gathered at Stockholm's Raoul Wallenberg Square on Sunday to show solidarity with the Jews of Malmo, where a Jewish community building was attacked
recently.

Modern Warfare Map Removed After Complaints From Muslim Gamers

In a single room on the map, two paintings had been hung whose frames contained a decorative representation of a quote (pictured above) attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which reads "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty". Those paintings were hung in a bathroom, one right above a toilet, and didn't appear to be found anywhere else on the map.

Banking on gold for cancer radiation therapy

An Arab-Israeli scientist is perfecting a method for injecting gold nanoparticles into cancer cells to make them more vulnerable to radiation.

Also:
WSJ's Sohrab Ahmari on the kangaroo court "Russell Tribunal on Israel" in New York:

After Mr. [Ben] White's testimony, Mr. Waters of Pink Floyd fame spoke up. "Sitting here as we are New York City," he said, "it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room—this elephant being the unfathomable influence in the corridors of power of the Israeli and Jewish lobbies."

Catching up with Mr. Waters later, I asked why the tribunal wasn't hearing an Israeli perspective. "That's not what it's for," he said. "It is a people's tribunal and we do invite the other side to attend." (Why would the Israelis have declined such an invitation, I wondered.)

(h/t Emet)

Saudi writer says Israel isn't the enemy of the Arabs

An amazing article from Arab News (Saudi Arabia) by Abdulateef Al-Mulhim:

Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967.

The 1967 War lasted only six days. But, these three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.

I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and the reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East.

The common thing among all what I saw is that the destruction and the atrocities are not done by an outside enemy. The starvation, the killings and the destruction in these Arab countries are done by the same hands that are supposed to protect and build the unity of these countries and safeguard the people of these countries. So, the question now is that who is the real enemy of the Arab world?

The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.

These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars.

In the past, we have talked about why some Israeli soldiers attack and mistreat Palestinians. Also, we saw Israeli planes and tanks attack various Arab countries. But, do these attacks match the current atrocities being committed by some Arab states against their own people.

In Syria, the atrocities are beyond anybody’s imaginations? And, isn’t the Iraqis are the ones who are destroying their own country? Wasn’t it Tunisia’s dictator who was able to steal 13 billion dollars from the poor Tunisians? And how can a child starve in Yemen if their land is the most fertile land in the world? Why would Iraqi brains leave Iraq in a country that makes 110 billion dollars from oil export? Why do the Lebanese fail to govern one of the tiniest countries in the world? And what made the Arab states start sinking into chaos?

On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was declared. And just one day after that, on May 15, 1948 the Arabs declared war on Israel to get back Palestine. The war ended on March 10, 1949. It lasted for nine months, three weeks and two days. The Arabs lost the war and called this war Nakbah (catastrophic war). The Arabs gained nothing and thousands of Palestinians became refugees.

And on 1967, the Arabs led by Egypt under the rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser, went in war with Israel and lost more Palestinian land and made more Palestinian refugees who are now on the mercy of the countries that host them. The Arabs called this war Naksah (upset). The Arabs never admitted defeat in both wars and the Palestinian cause got more complicated. And now, with the never ending Arab Spring, the Arab world has no time for the Palestinians refugees or Palestinian cause, because many Arabs are refugees themselves and under constant attacks from their own forces. Syrians are leaving their own country, not because of the Israeli planes dropping bombs on them. It is the Syrian Air Force which is dropping the bombs. And now, Iraqi Arab Muslims, most intelligent brains, are leaving Iraq for the est. In Yemen, the world’s saddest human tragedy play is being written by the Yemenis. In Egypt, the people in Sinai are forgotten.

Finally, if many of the Arab states are in such disarray, then what happened to the Arabs’ sworn enemy (Israel)? Israel now has the most advanced research facilities, top universities and advanced infrastructure. Many Arabs don’t know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy more political and social rights than some places in the Arab World. Wasn’t one of the judges who sent a former Israeli president to jail is an Israeli-Palestinian?

The Arab Spring showed the world that the Palestinians are happier and in better situation than their Arab brothers who fought to liberate them from the Israelis. Now, it is time to stop the hatred and wars and start to create better living conditions for the future Arab generations.

The first comment:

i'm am an isreali arabian(muslim),and i want to say that every word in this article is true,i live in isreal and many of my friends are jews,and most jews really are spectacular people,i've learned many new things from them,that will help me in the future, AND I WANT TO COMFIRM WHAT THE WRITER SAIED: my life in isreal is even more great than u think,and i am grateful that i live in isreal JUST LIKE THE WRITER SAIED!

He wrote a similar article last year for the Arab News, where his bio identifies him as a retired commodore in the Saudi Royal Navy.

(h/t Sagi, Oren and many others)

Syria tortures, kills anti-semitic author

I guess this proves that Assad is a Zionist!

A Syrian writer and political researcher, known for his virulent anti-Semitic writings, has been tortured to death by state security services, his family and opposition groups said on Sunday.

Mohammed Nimr al-Madani, 51, was killed 10 days ago under torture but his body is still with the intelligence security, a relative told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Close to the opposition, the father of three was arrested twice by state security since the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011.

The Local Coordination Committees and other activist groups said Nimr had been working as a "secret correspondent" for foreign news channels.

Nimr's own Facebook page describes him as a "specialist" on religions and the Holocaust, an event which he fiercely denied throughout his career.

For those who idolize the Syrian opposition, keep in mind that they aren't much better than Assad is.

Here is al-Madani saying that Jews designed Nazi crematoria:

Following are excerpts from a TV debate on Holocaust denial, which aired on Al-Alam TV on August 8, 2010:

Syrian author Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: I have read everything that has been written about the Holocaust, both by those who deny it and those who claim it occurred. First, those who claim that the Holocaust took place do not have any proof.

TV host: Those who claim that it took place?

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: Yes.

TV host: On what do they base their claims?

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: On nothing but a lie. Those who deny [sic] the annihilation have provided weak evidence. To be honest, in the West, they do not dare to speak freely...

TV host: Or to conduct objective research.

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: Right. They don't enjoy the same freedom as us.

[...]

Syrian researcher and publisher Muhammad Shaykjani: First of all, there is a Koranic verse that says: "Thus, the killing of their children was presented favorably to many polytheists."

Those who kill children in order to use their blood to get close to the god of sacrifice have turned to killing the children of the Christians in London and Paris, in Switzerland and Austria. They were expelled from Britain when murdered children were found on one of their holidays. In Syria, they murdered a Christian priest, and the murderers were executed. In many countries, on the Matza of Zion holiday, they would kill people, take the blood of the victims, and mix it with the Matza of Zion.

[...]

They believe that God died in this annihilation, so that the Jews could live in Palestine, and their god, Yahweh, would live with them.

[...]

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: The Jews mixed philosophy, religion, and politics. Throughout history, they have been continuously developing their religion in accordance with the circumstances, until they reached Zionism. Judaism has come to mean Zionism, and in recent times, Judaism has come to mean "Holocaustism."

[...]

According to the Torah, the Lord enjoined them to conduct a seven-day sacrificial burning. The "burning" is a sacred ritual of worship. I consider this to be proof of the falsity of the Holocaust, and biblical evidence that they have drawn the lie of the Holocaust from the Torah. Their reliance upon the Torah proves that the Holocaust is a lie, and that it never happened. It also shows that the Holocaust doctrine is deeply engrained in their minds and in their rituals.

TV host: On page 64 of your book, for example, you write that the Old Testament describes with great accuracy how to build a crematorium."

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: Yes. There is a text describing how to build the temple for the crematorium – its pillars, its copper ornamentation, and so on.

TV host: It describes the crematorium in detail.

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: Yes. For example, its size is approximately 2 meters. Bear in mind that the incinerators in the German Nazi hospitals, in which they burned the bodies of the sick, were 2 meters, or 190 centimeters. This is similar to the incinerators which they consider to be crematoria.

TV host: On the inner cover of the book, we read a quote by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Why did you decide to print a quote of Ahmadinejad? This is...

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: Can we present it to the camera... I was very happy when the Iranian president denied the Holocaust. Since I am convinced of the need to fight this lie, I was filled with admiration at the words of the Iranian president.

TV host: He said: "Israel should be wiped out of existence."

Muhammad Nimr Al-Madani: Yes, that's right. First of all, the Iranian president is the first leader in the world to adopt Holocaust denial. This is a great event. Secondly, the state of Israel must be wiped out of existence, as Imam Khomeini said before.

(h/t Daniel)

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.