Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 12, 2012

Spring again: New riots in Tahrir Square

Molotov cocktails at Tahrir Square, today

Hundreds have been hospitalised during clashes between rival protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, with pro and anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators locking horns.

Tensions were alleviated after the Brotherhood supporters started to leave by the afternoon. An Ahram Online reporter, however, said that two the Islamic group's empty buses were set alight.

Secular groups, who remain in the Square up till press time following the departure of the Brotherhood supporters, took to the square for 'Accountability Friday' primarily to demand a more representative Constituent Assembly.

On the other hand, the Brotherhood supporters, who came from different governerates, were there to condemn Wednesday's acquittal of former regime figures accused of orchestrating the Battle of the Camel during the Egyptian Revolution.

Omar Rashid, the ambulance field supervisor in Tahrir Square, confirmed to Ahram Online reporter that hundreds had been hospitalised by late afternoon, mostly with head injuries. "Hundreds more suffered minor injuries," he added.

A number of people were shot with pellets by unknown assailants on Talaat Harb Street, an Ahram Online correspondent at the scene reported, while Molotov cocktails and rocks were being thrown in both Mohamed Mahmoud Street and Talaat Harb Street near Tahrir Square.

Clashes began in the early afternoon when some protesters began chanting against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohamed Morsi. They were attacked with stones in response and a stage belonging to Hamdeen Sabbahi's Popular Current was destroyed.

"Those who destroyed the stage are chanting for Morsi and beating up whoever chants against him," Mohamed Waked, a leading member of the National Front for Justice and Democracy, said via Twitter.

Security forces were absent from the square and the surrounding streets all day, an Ahram Online reporter confirmed.

"If Mubarak was a dictator, what is happening now means Morsi a "sacred' dictator," Iskander added.

"Our members haven’t attacked anyone, the people fighting are supporters of the president," Brotherhood spokesperson Mahmoud Ghozlan said.

Pro-government rioters being sent to shoot at anti-government protesters? Security forces nowhere to be found? Hundreds of injuries?

It all seems so familiar somehow....

Friday links

From Ian:

LATMA: That's exactly what they want and a story about zero hour

Leftist Christians vs. the Jewish State

"As much of the Middle East tilts towards or implodes into Islamist rule, the ever feckless Religious Left in America has organized an ecumenical appeal asking the U.S. Congress to reduce U.S. aid for Israel. After all, it is pro-America, democratic Israel that is the primary threat to peace and stability in the Middle East."
"Religious Leftists who are preoccupied with Israel might gain a little traction if they occasionally raised even slight concerns, however insincerely, about other far more repressive regimes. But the Religious Left, consistently across over 40 years, is temperamentally and intellectually incapable of deep criticism aimed at anti-Western regimes. They can at least be commended for predictability. And we can be thankful that they are almost universally ignored by both policymakers and their own church constituencies."

Will Jordan Be Next to Fall?
Protests against the monarchy—the biggest since the Arab Spring began—are bad news for Israel and the U.S.

"Should King Abdullah II become the next Arab ruler to fall as part of the upheavals that have swept through the region now for almost two years, it will mark another major setback for the United States in the region. For Israel it’s significantly worse news. Jerusalem would lose its remaining strategic partner in the region—having already lost Turkey and Egypt—and face a possible nightmare on its longest border, exposing the country’s center to attacks from the east that might include Sunni Jihadists or Iranian-trained Iraqi agents."

'Egypt grants citizenship to 50,000 Palestinians' By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Security official tells Egyptian paper that Interior Ministry instructed to give citizenship to all Palestinians with Egyptian mothers.

"The court decision paved the way for thousands of Palestinians, particularly those living in the Gaza Strip, to apply for and receive Egyptian passports."

'US funding cuts over Palestine crippling UNESCO'
Head of UN cultural agency says the body is in "worst ever financial situation" after US cut funding in wake of Palestine admission.

UN Watch: U.N.’s Richard Falk justifies his 1979 “Trusting Khomeini” NYT op-ed

"As is his wont, Falk finds a way at the end of his 1979 memoir to insert a contemporary attack against Israel and the U.S., while completely ignoring Iran’s race for the nuclear bomb and — despite his being a U.N. expert — all of the UN Security Council resolutions and damning IAEA reports about Iran’s furtive, illegal and alarming activities, which now threaten the peace of the world."

MEMRI: Advisor To Hamas Government In Gaza: Israel Must Disappear

"In an October 8, 2012 article in the Hamas newspaper Al-Risala, Kana'an 'Obeid, an advisor to the Hamas government in Gaza, urged this movement to refrain from emulating the PLO in making political concessions and adopting pragmatist policies. Instead, he called upon Hamas to declare that it was created to eliminate the state of Israel."

BBC Watch: BBC coverage of recent rocket attacks on southern Israel

"If readers are scratching their heads at the BBC’s seemingly boundless ability to classify the architects and executors of terror attacks against Israeli civilians as ‘militants’ – even after 55 missile attacks in one morning – a clue to the ‘reasoning’ behind it comes in the form of its guidance for editors:"

In Gaza, Gilad Shalit played chess with his captors

In an interview marking a year since his release, former Israeli prisoner says he would play makeshift sports to pass the time.
"While a prisoner of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Gilad Shalit played chess and dominoes with his captors, and passed the time with other “strange games” when he was on his own. Shalit, who was freed in a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas a year ago, spoke about his time in captivity in a clip from an interview that was aired by Channel 10 News on Thursday."

Hamas Celebrates Anniversary of Shalit Deal, Promises to Capture More Soldiers

Hezbollah Official Flees to Israel with Embezzled Millions

"Last month, Yoni Alpert’s Terror Watch reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards along with Hezbollah’s security apparatus arrested Hussein Fahs, who is considered Hezbollah’s CFO and head of the organization’s operational communications network. Fahs was arrested at Beirut’s Hariri Airport, on his way to an unknown destination. He and four other Hezbollah members were interrogated on suspicion of embezzling the organization’s funds and of collaborating with Israeli Intelligence. At the time it was suspected that they stole at least $5 million in Iranian aid funds.
Now it turns out, according to TW, citing Lebanese sources, that Fahs, a 29-year-old telecommunications engineer, a native of southern Lebanon, was able to flee the country, crossing the border into Israel."

[I'd like more confirmation before reporting something like this as fact- EoZ]

Israel Daily Picture: What Is Behind the Mysterious Sealed Gates of Jerusalem's Old City?

"This summer the Yisrael HaYom newspaper reported on archaeological artifacts found by a British scholar after part of the el-Aqsa mosque collapsed in the 1927 earthquake that struck Palestine. Reporter Nadav Shragai revealed that items from the period of the Second Jewish Temple were found but that their publication was suppressed."

[See also Yisrael Medad's followup. - EoZ]

Also, Alone among neo-Nazis

This is the amazing story of a young German journalist who, for 15 years, infiltrated and documented neo-Nazi concerts • But German television showed no interest in his shocking revelations

Algerian newspaper notices that Jews care about science, unlike Arabs

Algerian paper E-Chorouk Online has an interesting article comparing Jews' priorities with those of Arabs.

The author uses as a springboard the story of Serge Haroche, the Moroccan-born French citizen who won the Nobel Prize for Physics this year along with an American. Both Haroche and 1997 Nobel physics winner Claude Cohen-Tannoudji were Jews born in Muslim countries in north Africa and both moved to France.

And both of them were celebrated - in Israel.

While Arab media were obsessing over Gilad Shalit's visit to a soccer game, Israeli media all but ignored Shalit in favor of reporting about Haroche.

The newspaper notes that "the Jewish state is interested in scientific excellence in the world of leaders who build Nations, not superiority in football in the world of toys." It says that more than eighty Jewish scientists received the Nobel Prize in various fields. ‬(Actually, the number of Jews who won Nobels in physics, chemistry and medicine is about 120.)

This being Arab media, the writer has to go off on a bizarre conspiracy theory, saying that the only reason Europe and the US support Israel's push for compensation for Jews from Arab countries is because otherwise Israel will force their Jewish Nobel-eligible scientists to leave and move to Israel.

But besides that craziness, it was an interesting and fairly rare article in Arabic media..

Insane anti-semite appointed to Egyptian religious affairs ministry

Dr. Sallah Sultan has a colorful record of public statements. Founder of the "American Center for Islamic Research" in Columbus, Ohio, Sultan has stated that Jews use the blood of gentiles for Passover matzoh, that 9/11 was planned by Americans, that all Israelis in Egypt must be killed, that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are the blueprint for Jewish world domination, and in this most recent clip, that people worldwide thirst for the blood of Jews and that Israeli girls are seducing young Egyptian men to infect them with AIDS.

This crazed, hateful conspiracy theorist and Jew-hater has just been appointed Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIF) part of the Egyptian Ministry of Waqf.

The sweet smell of "Spring."

More details here.

(h/t Ian)

Jordanian newspaper proposes sending all Jews to Russia

Addustour, a major Jordanian newspaper, today has an article praising an anti-semitic Australian-born British advertising model for her crazed plan to deport all Israeli Jews to Russia.

Zia Fahoum writes about Michèle Renouf, who became a fan of Holocaust denier David Irving and has said things like Judaism is a "repugnant and hateful religion" and, at a Tehran Holocaust-denial conference, that “anti-Semitism is caused by the anti-gentile nature of Judaism.”

She runs a webpage called Birobidjan to push her plan to move all Jews to a far east region of Russia that was set up in 1928 as a quasi-autonomous secular Jewish enclave. The plan failed as the initial wave of Jewish immigrants found no jobs and a harsh climate.

Renouf's page includes praise for Moammar Qaddafi, David Duke and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Jordanian writer naturally praises her plan for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East, saying that Arabs should not let this opportunity pass by and noting that the Jews in Birobidjan even speak Yiddish!

It is unclear whether the millions of Israeli Jews whose grandparents lived in Arab countries would be forced to move to Russia as well in Renouf's "humanitarian" plan.

Israel's Mediterranean gas fields might have oil, too

From Globes:

In a presentation to investors today, Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) has raised the geological probability of success of oil in the upper target strata at Leviathan to 25%.

The 3D seismic survey of the Leviathan structure indicated that the second target strata (the first strata that may contain oil), at a depth of 5,800 meters, may have three billion barrels of oil with a 17% chance of geological success. The second oil-bearing target strata, at a depth of 7,200 meters have an 8% chance of geological success. Leviathan has 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in strata overlying the oil-bearing strata.

Noble Energy said that the Mesozoic strata throughout the Levant Basin are a new oil play, which will be initially tested beneath the Leviathan gas field. The company plans to spud in late 2013, and has contracted for a new drill ship, the Atwood Advantage, which is under construction.

The company says that the Leviathan structure's low geothermal gradient allows for the preservation of reservoir quality at the target depths. The gross unrisked resource potential is 210-1,490 million barrels of oil equivalents. It adds that the full cycle finding and development costs of Leviathan are $11 per barrel of oil equivalent, and predicts a net production rate 50,000 barrel of oil equivalent per day by 2018, generating a net cash flow of $1.5 billion in that year.

It is a crapshoot, but if Leviathan has 3 billion barrels' worth of oil then it would be considered a major oil field.

Cher warns Jews against GOP "Obama's a Muslim" websites

Cher, who looks damned good for being 89 or so, is mad! (Not to mention, angry!)

She wrote on Twitter (I combined two tweets for readability):

Thanks for the warning!

I haven't found these "MANY" GOP websites yet, but I did find that another aging mononymous singer whose career followed Cher's by several decades shouted that Obama was a Muslim during a concert.

Madonna brought her MDNA Tour to Washington, D.C. on Monday night, and added a bizarre dose of politics to the show.

"Y'all better vote for f--king Obama, OK? For better or for worse, all right? We have a black Muslim in the White House. Now that's some amazing s--t," she said. "It means there is hope in this country. And Obama is fighting for gay rights, so support the man, goddamnit."

Perhaps Cher read about that on the Huffington Post online and confused that with a GOP website. You know how all those Internets look the same.

Thank goodness we have divas to tell Americans how to vote and to warn Jews about the evil plots of the Republican Party. We can all sleep better at night knowing that thousands of their faithful fans will blindly do whatever they say.

(h/t jzaik)

Muslim Brotherhood leader calls for "holy Jihad" against Israeli Jews

From Times of Israel:

Egypt’s foremost Muslim Brotherhood official called on the Arab world Thursday to replace negotiations with Israel with “holy Jihad,” claiming that if Jews are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount they will destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and supplant it with the third temple.

Mohammed Badie, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, declared in a public message published by Egyptian daily Al-Ahram that “the Zionists only understand force,” and that Arabs cannot hope to achieve justice from the Jews “through the corridors of the United Nations or through negotiations.”

‘Zionists only understand the language of force and will not relent without duress,’ Badie continued. ‘This will only happen through holy Jihad, high sacrifices and all forms of resistance’

“The time has come for the Islamic nation to unite around one man for the sake of Jerusalem and Palestine,” Badie said. “The Jews have dominated the land, spread corruption on earth, spilled the blood of believers and in their actions profaned holy places, including their own.”

“Zionists only understand the language of force and will not relent without duress,” Badie continued. “This will only happen through holy Jihad, high sacrifices and all forms of resistance. The day they realize we will march this path and raise the banner of Jihad for the sake of God, is the day they will relent and stop their tyranny.”

Don't worry. We know that there will be dozens of Arabic op-eds decrying his warmongering and anti-semitic statements. Because we are told that most Muslims aren't extremists, and certainly we'll see the backlash from the moderates soon.

Except that this was first published 15 hours ago as of this writing, and so far...nothing.

Once again, Arab donors renege on pledges to PA. Here's why.

From The Independent:

The Palestinian Authority, facing a major cash crisis, has warned 150,000 employees it does not know when they will receive their September salaries.

The crunch has been caused largely by the failure of international donors to make good on aid pledges. Nour Odeh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Authority government, told The Independent that international donors had provided only 40 per cent of aid pledged for 2012. About half of the Palestinians' $2.54bn (£1.58bn) annual budget comes from donors.

"The President and the Prime Minister have repeatedly urged all donors and friendly countries, including the Arab countries, to expedite their disbursement of assistance to the Palestinian Authority because the situation is serious and intervention is needed," Ms Odeh said.

She said the "structural problem" of Israeli control over customs and other tax revenues had contributed to cash-flow problems, while Israel's hold over large areas of the West Bank and their natural resources were hindering economic planning efforts.

The crisis threatens to derail reforms by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government, which has implemented major budget savings and increased tax revenues, heralding a dramatic improvement in the Palestinian economy in recent years.

Palestinian civil servants – including police, doctors and teachers – only received the final portion of their August salaries last week. Violent protests in the West Bank last month led the government to cut VAT and suspend some salary payments to top officials. Palestinian trade unions said they will strike over a new monthly minimum wage of $375 – a third of the rate in neighbouring Israel – approved by the Palestinian cabinet yesterday.

Jihad Al Wazir, head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, forecast the annual budget deficit at $1.3bn – far higher than the original projection of $950m. Aside from hundreds of millions in promised aid from Arab countries, some $200m pledged by the US has been delayed by Congress to protest against the payment of generous stipends to the families of militants imprisoned by Israel.

"We haven't heard promises to pay the PA money," a Palestinian official told the Maan News Agency. "Even the Europeans said it clearly that they have paid their dues and can't pay more."

I believe that the italicized text is wrong. In April, President Obama unfroze the $192 million that was held up by Congress. And as the article states, the Europeans have paid their pledges.

Which means that the only ones who are ignoring their pledges are the Arab nations.

What do they know that the West doesn't?

It has long been my contention that Arab nations are sick and tired of the Palestinian Arab issue. This accelerated when Hamas split with Fatah, creating two separate political entities and no hope of reconciliation. (They have even reneged on pledges to help "de-Judaize" Jerusalem.)

They will pay lip service (and fake money pledges) to the Palestinian Arab cause for Western and local consumption, but in reality they don't give a damn. Arab leaders view their money towards the Palestinian Arabs as an investment, not as charity, and it is an investment that has failed miserably in the past.

If only Western nations would be as clear-eyed about Palestinian Arabs as their own Arab brethren are.

(h/t Ian)

Thursday links

From Ian:

As Syria bleeds, 'Human Rights Activists' can only target Israel By Rabbi Abraham Cooper

"Since the ill-fated 2001 UN Durban, anti-racism conference, visceral Jew-hatred masquerading as “anti-Zionism” has corrupted the discourse of the global NGO community. It numbs the world’s conscience, sometimes rendering it almost deaf and dumb at a time when the Mideast’s newest, truest crime against humanity—the violent displacement of almost one million Syrians—demands that moral voices be raised in unison and effective international action be taken.
The world’s far-flung Jewish communities, the Mideast’s exposed Christian minorities, and the Syrian people are all victims a false flag operation that deflects international attention from the crimes that should be its true focus. For this moment at least, we are all—Jews, Christians, and innocent Syrian Muslims—victims of history's oldest hatred: anti-Semitism."

Southern Israel: Living with Rockets, Miracles, and the Iron Dome

"Days and nights in southern Israel have been punctuated by a growing number of sirens and rocket explosions, with over 60 rockets striking Israeli cities and communities this past week. On Monday morning alone, 55 Qassam and mortar shells were fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. The rocket strikes damaged buildings, properties and a kibbutz petting zoo that is usually filled with children, but was empty because of the early morning hour."

Will Free Gaza implode due to anti-Semitism scandal?

Analysis: Critics slam Movement founder for posting on Twitter blaming Zionists for Holocaust.
“The growing assessments about the future of FGM suggest that the organization has experienced irreparable harm and is now viewed as a kind of left wing neo-Nazi group. The open questions are, will FGM’s supporters pull the plug on its fundraising streams and will additional FGM advisory board members–like the US linguist Noam Chomsky and Archbishop Theodosius (Atallah) Hanna from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem–resign from the FGM?”

Book tackles question of Jews among anti-Israel activists

Perhaps this could explain even a most recent event in Toronto; during a large demonstration across the street from the US consulate regarding anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims, hatred for Israel and the Jews “ran so deep throughout the protest that one would have to be willfully blind to have missed it,” according to blogger Blazing Catfur, who documented the event. Yet the anti-Zionist posters and chants were almost totally ignored by the mainstream media.
“This book is an attempt to get to grips with the paranoid conspiracy-mongering on the left, which invariably parades as a humanitarian endeavour and a compassionate defence of the ‘oppressed’ or powerless against the might of the ‘Zionist-Crusader’ axis,” Wistrich states.
“This book goes to the heart of what has become a serious mental derangement in the hope that it may help the left (and others afflicted by the same malady) to regain their sanity.

Richard Millet Holocaust analogies and calls for Israel’s destruction at SOAS’ Centre for Palestine Studies.

The London Middle East Institute (LMEI), which is based at the School of Oriental and African Studies, used to give serious lectures. Not any more. The recently established Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS) now sits like a cuckoo in the nest of the LMEI.

Israeli lawmaker: Obama is no friend of Israel

On his book promotion tour in the U.S., Likud MK Danny Danon accuses President Barack Obama of "catastrophic" policies for Israel. Danon insists he is not interfering in the presidential race, but merely stating his personal opinion. Danon has praised Mitt Romney in the past.

Erdogan, sovereignty, and Israel

Turkish PM Recep Erdogan may have been entirely justified in his response to the recent aggression by Syria. However, his actions reek of hypocrisy given his vitriolic attacks against Israel
“Just as Turkey has the inalienable right to defend its citizens against acts of aggression and terror from Syria, so too does Israel have the right to defend its citizens from terror attacks by Hamas and those seeking to support them.
Instead of demanding an Israeli apology over the Flotilla, it is Mr Erdogan who is the one that should be apologizing to Israel for his entirely unjustified and vitriolic attacks in light of his government’s recent actions. Anything less, would be completely hypocritical.”

MEMRI: Former PA Minister Asfour Boasts: Many Israelis Killed Since PA Established

PMW: Postive reports in PA media about "settlers" and "Jewish period" in Jerusalem history

“Another rare statement was broadcast on PA TV when a Palestinian artist, introducing a painting, acknowledged that there was a Jewish historical period in Jerusalem”

Italian president joins Rome’s Jews in marking ’82 attack

Palestinian terrorists killed a Jewish toddler in the assault on city’s main synagogue
Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, praised Napolitano for past condemnations of anti-Jewish sentiment and for his pledge to fight anti-Semitism, “even when it masquerades itself as anti-Zionism.”

Monument to Italian fascist angers Jewish group

Italian women’s group protests publicly funded memorial to Rodolfo Graziani
JTA – A new Italian women’s group has added its voice to protests over a publicly funded monument honoring the World War II-era fascist leader Rodolfo Graziani.

Israeli device maker to move to Mass

Argo Medical Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company that makes devices enabling paraplegics to walk, said Tuesday that it will open its US headquarters in Massachusetts and expects to hire up to 40 people here within the next three to five years.
The move was disclosed in dramatic fashion at the AdvaMed 2012 medical technology convention, where a US Army veteran who uses a wheelchair demonstrated Argo’s ReWalk device by climbing down from a podium with crutches and ambling through the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

In Israel, biotech is a woman’s world

Israeli women are dominant in all three areas of biomedical engineering — inventions, industry and investment.
Women are the superstars of the vibrant Israeli biomed industry, filling leading roles as entrepreneurs, CEOs, funders and head researchers in this increasingly significant field.

Hezbollah takes credit for Iranian made drone, says it achieved objectives

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is making a speech in Lebanon now, and the first topic he is speaking about is the UAV that made it to Israeli territory last week. From Now Lebanon:

-The main topic I will discuss is the reconnaissance drone which crossed into the space of occupied Palestinian lands.

-After this, I will address other issues which received attention in Lebanon and [the region], depending on time.

-First of all, regarding the drone, we are witnessing a unique operation in the history of Lebanon and the region.

-The Resistance claims responsibility for the operation.

-The Resistance in Lebanon sent a sophisticated reconnaissance drone from Lebanon toward the [Mediterranean] Sea, which it crosses for hundreds of kilometers, before it entered [Israeli airspace] and hovered over many important locations before it was discovered by the Israeli air force.

- Today, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu held Hezbollah responsible for [sending] the drone.

-The drone was not Russian made, but Iranian. It was [assembled] in Lebanon.

-The drone took off in the specified trajectory for hundreds kilometers and arrived in an area close to the [Israeli] Dimona [nuclear] plant.

-As for the Israeli [claims] that they discovered it over the sea, and [forced it over] land, I say they are lying to their people.
-The achievement [was to make] the drone fly all this way in an area full of US-Israeli [air defense] systems.

-The shoot down of the drone was natural and expected.

-We will leave it for the Israelis to sit down and [discover] the drone’s abilities to gather information… We are revealing part of our capabilities and concealing many others.

-In light of this event we recall the over 20,000 Israeli violations [of Lebanese airspace] at the time when the government is unable [to prevent the violations] and the international community is silent.

-It is our natural right to launch other reconnaissance [operations] to occupied Palestine whenever we want. This will not be the first time and not the last. We stress that we can reach any [location] we want.

-We named the operation after martyr Hussein Ayoub who was the first [Hezbollah] expert in this field. We want to name the drone “Ayoub” [which is also the name] of our prophet.

There are many unanswered questions about the UAV and the Israeli response to it. While Nasrallah is obviously engaging in serious spin, it would have been nice if Israel had put out a consistent story about why it was allowed to fly for so long over Israeli territory and why it was shot down the way it was.

Where's the coverage? New exports from Gaza and Hamas restrictions on imports

Israel continues to ease restrictions on exports from Gaza, but the media is ignoring it.

Gisha reported in late September:

Today, for the first time since 2007, furniture made in the Gaza Strip was shipped to the West Bank. The merchandise, ordered by the Palestinian Ministry of Education in the West Bank, includes thousands of parts for school chairs and desks. It was transported in four double trailer trucks via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Earlier this week:

Date bars produced in the Gaza Strip are set to be shipped to the West Bank on Tuesday as Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing after closing it for a Jewish holiday, a Gaza official said.

Crossing official Raed Fattouh told Ma'an that three truckloads of date bars produced in Gaza would be transferred to the West Bank under the supervision of the United Nations World Food Programme.

On the flip aide, Hamas decided to restrict imports of fruit last month:

With the exception of bananas and apples, Gaza is no longer admitting fruit from Israel, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. The ban affects at least seven kinds of fruit and, in terms of sales, constitutes around a 50% cut in imports whose 2011 value the ministry put at $26 million.

Gaza fruit importer Jaber Al-Shanty said the Hamas government ban was "irresponsible and unrealistic" as it overlooked the losses to hundreds of Palestinians whose livelihood depends on marketing the fruit.

"The local product is not nearly enough" to offset the shortfall, he said. "What do we have in large quantities, other than guava?"

Since the import ban went into effect on Friday, the price of peaches has doubled to NIS 8 ($2) a kilo, while dates were selling at NIS 11 ($2.81) a kilo, up from NIS 7.

These restrictions are making many Gazans unhappy, and some are accusing Hamas of profiteering by creating shortages of some fruit.

Since these stories contradict the mantra of a choking Israeli siege on Gaza, they are being ignored by the press. Reporting that contradicts memes only confuses the masses, so media outlets are protecting us from knowledge that might cause actual thinking.

"Jews of Egypt" film causes uproar in Arab world

From Al Arabiya:

“Jews of Egypt,” an Egyptian documentary film that records the life of Jews in Egypt before their departure from the country in the 1950s, has stirred controversy after it was screened in a film festival in Cairo.

Amir Ramsis, director of the film, was accused of promoting normalization of ties with Israel through attempting to gain the audience’s sympathy for Jewish Egyptians, currently seen as Zionists by many Egyptians.

“Those accusations are absolutely groundless,” Ramsis told Al Arabiya. “Those who think the film promotes normalization either did not watch it or analyzed it very superficially.”

It is very obvious, Ramsis explained, that the documentary is against Israel and against normalization.

“The film showed how Jewish Egyptians were against the creation of Israel before the July 23, 1952 Revolution and that many Egyptian anti-Israeli institutions were actually led by Egyptian Jews.”

Ramsis noted that the purpose of the film is to set straight many of the misconceptions Egyptians have about Jews.

“Many people do not distinguish between being Jewish and being Israeli or Zionist. Many Egyptians automatically consider Jews enemies.”

Ramsis said the film does not seek to embellish the image of Jews either, but basically to “present the truth as well as his own point of view.”

Ramsis said that the people he interviewed in the film were either Jews who still live in Egypt or who are currently residing in Europe.

“Egyptian Jews were apprehensive about taking part in the film because they were afraid they would be hunted down by State Security at the time of Mubarak. They were actually given clear instructions not to make any media appearances.”

Egypt Independent has a review:

The film is a history lesson, not simply for these fascinating and important details, that have slipped out of popular memory. It is a history lesson in its stories. The stories they tell are of an Egypt that is almost unrecognizable.

Even if we suppose that these depictions of smooth religious harmony are laced with nostalgia, we cannot escape the fact that Egypt has lost something. Not only has it lost a part of its history, but these are stories of an Egypt far less closed in on itself than it is today, far more open, respectful and integrated.

It is a tale of history that is a decline. A fraying of social fabric, as mistrust enters into the interactions between neighbors. From a way of living where to be Jewish was inconsequential to social relations, to the way that being Jewish became an accusation.

Ruth Browning interviewed her grandmother, Julie Gresh, before the onset of Alzheimer’s. She speaks about her now in the film, she says, to ensure her grandmother’s place in the history of Egypt’s Jews. In one sense, this is indeed a history of Egypt’s Jews. It is also a chapter of Egypt’s history, a forgotten one, just as it is a forgotten part of Jewish history generally.

The story of Jews in the Middle East does not fold smoothly into a Jewish narrative of oppression, and many Egyptian Jews can trace their families’ arrival in Egypt to an escape from persecution, whether from pogroms or the Spanish Inquisition. The history of the Jews in Europe has been told such that it becomes the history of all Jews, and it is a deeply politicized narrative, its folds influenced by Zionism, such that the history of the Jews without a homeland is simply one of persecution, and that Israel offers a solution to that perennial condition.

The Jews of Egypt tell a different story. So different was this story that, even for those who did not oppose Israel for political reasons, it simply did not resonate or speak to them. As a French journalist, the daughter of an Egyptian Jew, says: “It did not occur to the family to go to Israel. That was a place for oppressed Jews, so it wasn’t for us.”

...The stories become darker. There’s the story of the officer who arrives at night, giving an entire family a number of days within which to leave their country. And these are stories also of resilience — the man who says to the officer, “I am more Egyptian than you,” the one who challenges the officer at his door not to “challenge the patriotism standing before him,” or the one who answers the officer’s suggestion that he leave to Israel with, “No, why don’t you go to Israel.”

While no one in the film talks about being expelled from their country, they were compelled, and even coerced, into leaving. And on doing so, they had to sign a paper that stripped them of their Egyptian identity and obliged them never to return.

Grinsman, who, after being imprisoned for three years for refusing to leave, was later forced to sign the document, and put on a ship. He was expelled, he says, not really for being Jewish, but for his socialist activism. Forced to sign that document, one respondent comments wryly that it is easier for Israelis to get into Egypt than it is for Egyptian Jews.

While the film seems to be important for Egyptians to watch, it definitely seems to ignore the anti-semitism that was an undercurrent in Egypt and other Arab countries well before Zionism. Relatively speaking, the Jews of Egypt were in better shape than those in Europe, but they were never as fully integrated into Egyptian society as they are portrayed here. As Joseph Abdel Wahed wrote:

But even as child, I understood that Jews were second-class citizens. Signs in the street read: El yahud kalb el arab, "The Jews are the dogs of the Arabs." At school, my best friend Menyawi turned to me and said with a half-smile, "One day, all the Jews will have their throats slit." An older Muslim man advised that if I was threatened in the streets, I should say: Ana Muslum, M'wahed billah, "I am a Muslim and believe in one God."

I'm also not convinced that the Jews in Egypt in the 1940s were uniformly anti-Zionist as the director says. No doubt some were, but he clearly didn't interview any Egyptian Jews who now live in Israel.

Here's the trailer:

Surveys show how terribly Lebanese Palestinians are treated

From IRIN:

UK medical journal The Lancet has published a series of abstracts drawn from a meeting of public health researchers, The Lancet-Palestine Health Alliance, in Beirut in March 2012.

According to one of the studies, by researchers from the American University of Beirut, “discriminatory laws and decades of marginalisation” have left Palestinian refugees in Lebanon socially, politically and economically disadvantaged. Over half of them live in increasingly overcrowded camps, where “the provision of housing, water, electricity, refuse and other services are inadequate and contribute to poor health”.

Out of 2,500 households surveyed, 42 percent had water leaking from their walls or roofs, and 8 percent lived in homes made of dangerous building materials such as asbestos.

Hoda Samra, a spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Lebanon, said many refugees live in shelters lacking ventilation and daylight. While about 5,000 shelters are in need of rehabilitation, the agency has funding to repair only 730. Samra added that there is also a lack of funding to address rundown infrastructure in four out of 12 of the camps.

Camp populations continue to grow but the land allocated for them has not; the resulting overcrowding has exacerbated public health problems.

“Some of the camps are growing vertically but not horizontally,” said Samra, noting that many of the structures were built haphazardly, too close together and without proper foundations.

The study found a direct correlation between poor housing conditions and poor health among respondents; 31 percent had chronic illnesses and 24 percent had experienced acute illnesses in the previous six months.

The researchers also found a strong link between poverty and ill health. Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon are ineligible for social services, including healthcare, and they are banned from some 50 professions. UNRWA and the International Labour Organization have lobbied the Lebanese government to ease employment restrictions, but amendments to labour legislation enacted in August 2010, which would make it easier for refugees to secure work permits, are still awaiting an implementation decree from the Department of Labour.

According to another study in The Lancet series, also by researchers from the University of Beirut, 59 percent of refugee households live below the national poverty line; 63 percent reported some food insecurity, while 13 percent were severely food insecure. Only the poorest - about 13 percent - qualify for food rations and small cash grants from UNRWA.

The combination of poor nutrition, unhealthy living conditions and feelings of hopelessness breed "all kinds of illnesses", said Samra. ...

"When taken together,” writes Lancet editor Horton, “these data expose the hidden crisis facing Palestinian refugees, whose health needs have been sorely neglected.”

Of course, The Lancet refuses to say the obvious: it is the artificial classification these people as "refugees" - even though the vast majority were born in Lebanon - that is the cause of their problems. If children born in Lebanon would have been made citizens, they would not be discriminated against and would not be forced to live in squalid camps that Lebanon refuses to allow to grow.

But saying such obvious truths in the Arab world is not allowed. Indeed, the only reason they are suffering today as a separate class of Arabs in Lebanon is because the Arab League wants to use these faux "refugees" as a means to pressure Israel.

So Palestinian Arabs, and only Palestinian Arabs, have a special status in the Arab world of being permanently stateless with no recourse. The Arab world - and especially Lebanon - is wholly to blame for their situation today, but "human rights organizations" refuse to say so. Because the Arabs blame Israel for six and a half decades of apartheid against Palestinians, so must the rest of the world.