Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Abbas awards himself "keys to Jerusalem" - in Ramallah

A delegation of young Jerusalem Arabs "awarded" Mahmoud Abbas with "seven keys to Jerusalem" in a staged Fatah ceremony - in Ramallah.

Which means that Abbas awarded this fake award to himself!

Here's another photo of Abbas magnanimously accepting this great honor in a ceremony that was staged by his own party in his own headquarters.

Abbas, now in the eighth year of his four year term, used this opportunity to toss around more of his lies, including that "Israel wants war but we want peace" and that Israel is digging under the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Abbas added that he would not accept any Palestinian Arab state without Jerusalem, and also that he insists on the release of every prisoner held by Israel, which would of course include some of the most vicious terrorists whom he considers heroes.

Another speaker at the same fake ceremony, Sheikh Yusuf Adeis, charged Israel with a "racist plan" to demolish the mosque and to built its own Temple there, and that the Jews were working overtime to stop Muslims and Christians from worshiping in Jerusalem.

Craziness: Egyptian Islamist party calls for violent jihad to implement Sharia

Background from Wikipedia:

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya renounced bloodshed in 2003,[27] and in September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members, citing what Interior Minister Habib el-Adli called the group's stated "commitment to rejecting violence."[12]

Following the 2011 Revolution, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya established a political party, the Building and Development Party. In August 2011, it presented 6,700 proxies (signatures) to the Egyptian political parties' committee on behalf of its party. In a statement the Gamaa said that any legislation drafted in Egypt after the revolution must refer to the sharia of God, “who blessed us with this revolution. We believe that the suffering we endured during the past years was due to neglecting religion and putting those who don't fear [God] in power.” It also stated that "Islam can contain everyone and respects the freedom of followers of other religions to refer to their own sharia in private affairs."

The Building and Development Party contested the 2011-2012 elections to the People's Council, the lower house of the Egyptian parliament, as part of the Islamic Alliance which was led by the salafi Al-Nour Party. It gained 13 seats: 12 in Upper Egypt and one in Suez.

Egypt Independent reports:

Jama'a al-Islamiya hinted Friday that it may be willing to resort to violence in order to see Sharia adopted in the latest draft of the constitution from the Constituent Assembly.

The group called on Egyptians to collect funds for what it described as a battle against “secularists and liberals.”

Jama'a al-Islamiya leader Mohamed Salah is a member of the Jurisprudence Commission for Rights and Reform, which is comprised of a number of Islamist figures, including Khairat al-Shater, deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Salah said during a conference in the Ain Shams neighborhood that Egyptians should “support Islamic Sharia in the Egyptian constitution,” and that “Jama'a al-Islamiya will fight for the application of God’s law, even if that requires bloodshed.”

He called on Islamist movements to organize mass demonstrations to “trap secularists inside the place where the Constituent Assembly holds its meetings, so that everyone knows that the people want an Islamist [state].”

He also demanded that President Mohamed Morsy issue a decree to “defeat the schemes of liberals to reject the law of God.”

He stressed that the referendum on the constitution in its current form is forbidden by Islam, calling on the Egyptian people to “[wage] jihad and fight in support of Sharia.”

Assem Abdel Meguid, leader of Jama’a al-Islamiya’s political arm, the Construction and Development Party, said that “the conference is the first step to announce the rejection of the second article [of the constitution] in its current form.”

He noted that the next step would be mobilizing millions for jihad with their lives and money in the battle to support Sharia.

Just another day in that liberal democracy known as Egypt.

Iran sanctions and Swedish greed (Zvi)

From Zvi:

Ha'aretz reports:

The Swedish government is trying to prevent the European Union from imposing further sanctions on Iran for fear of losing a lucrative deal for Swedish communications company Ericsson, according to a Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

Why does the EU refuse to take effective action to halt Iran's march toward nuclear weapons? That march will, if not stopped, lead to the slaughter millions of people in an instant. It will allow the IRI to realize its genocidal ambitions. It will allow Iran to terrify its neighbors into submission. It will poison the air, water, land, and of course everything that lives on them. It will destroy any hope of peace in the middle east for decades.

And why does the EU drag its feet? Are EU countries afraid?

No, it's not about fear.

It's all about greed..

The greed of European politicians, who are in the pockets of European corporations.

The greed of European consultants, who are paid water carriers for European corporations and for middle eastern dictators.

The greed of European businessmen, whose companies grow bloated on the profits that they gain by helping dictators to clamp down on their own people and by providing dual-use technology.

It's not just about fear of terrorists, as bad an excuse as that would be.

It's about rampant greed - in this case, centered in Stockholm.

The Swedish government is evidently an ethics-free zone in which the most incredible hypocrisy is king.

Care about peace? Not if it means that Ericsson doesn't score a deal with a pack of thugs.

Care about human rights? Not if it involves losing an Ericsson deal.

Care about the environment? Not if it involves paying a real price.

Care about minorities? Not if they're Jews.

Swedish politicians must evidently check their consciences at the door before they enter government.

Does the Swedish king have anything to say about this? About the terror of Jews in Malmo? About the Swedish government aiding and abetting the regime in Tehran, a regime that stole elections, murdered Nada and her fellows and beat the protesters into the dirt? A regime that sends heavily-armed soldiers to slaughter Syrians and occupies Lebanon?

Why not?

Why NOT?

Reports that Emir of Qatar to visit Gaza this week

Palestinian Arabic media is reporting that the Emir of Qatar plans to make an official visit to Gaza before the end of the week.

If true, this would be the first visit by a national leader to Hamas-controlled Gaza. It would be an unprecedented boost for Hamas' legitimacy and a slap in the face of the PA, even if he doesn't officially meet with Hamas officials.

The reports say that the Qatari ambassador is arriving ahead of time to arrange the logistics.

Gaza's Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had already met with the Emir in Qatar earlier this year.

Some Jordanians still claim the West Bank as theirs

MEMRI reports:

In a meeting with Palestinian citizens in Jordan, Prince Hassan bin Talal, Jordanian crown prince between 1965 and 1999, made an unusual statement, saying that the territories of the West Bank are actually part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The Jordanian website Almustaqbal-a.com reported that the speech by the Jordanian prince took place at an October 9 meeting with Palestinians from Nablus, members of the Ebal charity organization. The meeting was organized by Jordanian Senate President Taher Al-Masri, who is himself a Palestinian from Nablus. During his speech, Prince Hassan said that he intends to visit other organizations in Jordan that represent West Bank residents.

The report stated that "Prince Hassan stressed that the West Bank is part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which included both banks of the [Jordan] River" and added that Hassan "did not personally oppose the two state solution, but that this solution is irrelevant at the current stage."[2] He later added that even if the two state solution does not materialize, there are other options. According to Hassan, "both sides, Arab and Israeli, no longer speak of a political solution to the Palestinian problem." He implied that even the Oslo Accords had met their end, and said that Arab losses from the Accords are estimated at $12 billion. The report added: "The attendees understood that Prince [Hassan] is working to reunite both banks of the [Jordan] River, and commended him for it."

Prince Hassan later added: "The unity that existed between the west and east banks for 17 years... was arguably one of the best attempts at unity that ever occurred in the Arab [world]... I hope that I do not live to see the day when Jordan, or the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, relinquishes the land occupied in 1967 by the IDF, since it would bring us all to witness the humiliating end... These lands, which were occupied as part of the 1967 lands, including East Jerusalem, were promised to us, and nowadays we speak of them as Area C..."

Prince Hassan tried to clarify his statements and said that in terms of sovereignty and law, the West Bank was occupied by Jordan in 1948, and that everyone, including the Palestinians, agrees that Jordanian law is the basis for the demand to reclaim them from Israel. However, he added, Jordan ceased negotiating for these lands with Israel following a request by the Palestinian Authority. Hassan said: "If, God forbid, we were to recognize the Jordan River as a border with Israel, then every element hostile to Jordan – and there are many – could claim that Jordan has failed in its demand [to restore] Arab rights."

Perhaps more significant, a number of Jordanian media outlets published Saturday a lengthy article about Jordan's legal rights to the West Bank. Some Jordanians, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, are claiming that King Hussein's 1988 declaration cutting off the West Bank from Jordan (and revoking Jordanian citizenship from West Bank Palestinian Arabs) was illegal.

After the PLO was recognized by the UN and even the West as the "sole representative of the Palestinian people," Hussein relented and "disengaged" from the West Bank, taking away citizenship from them "not to give Israel the opportunity to drive them across the bridges and use their land for the benefit of the settlers." But the pressure to do so came from Arafat and the Arab League, according to the article.

Mamoun Al-Tamimi, a Palestinian National Council member who lives in Amman, says that the 1988 decision was flawed and should not have been done while Israel still was physically in the West Bank. He notes that "the consequences were serious for the Palestinian people, as it caused migration of thousands to Europe and Canada to become citizens there after they were deprived of Jordanian nationality, and so it does not contribute to the permanency of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, but reduces them."

Zaki Bani Irsheid, Deputy Comptroller General of the Muslim Brotherhood, says the position of the Islamic movement said "we must differentiate between the Palestinian Authority on the one hand, and the struggle for identity and Palestinian statehood. The PA created by the Oslo agreement came to save the Zionist entity's security and achieve the purpose of the President to abort the Palestinian militant project, which includes the Liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The rejection of disengagement is not a rejection on the basis of who governs the West Bank, but on the basis of unity and cohesion." (The Muslim Brotherhood regards all Arab territories as part of a great Muslim Ummah, and wants to erase the boundaries to recreate a caliphate.)

Dr. Asad Rahman, a researcher of Palestinian affairs, said "The decision [to disengage] was from the first moment a divisive issue in the emotions and opinions, and still is today. Some say that the decision is unconstitutional under Jordanian law... but the silent majority was against the resolution. Some say that the decision came without basis in any reference in the political entity of Jordan, but actually came just like the decision which granted Jordanian citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank in April 1950, meaning that both resolutions came without parliamentary or legal justification."

Hopefully MEMRI will translate the entire article, because while it discusses many different viewpoints it upends the conventional wisdom that all Jordanians supported King Hussein's decision.

Which means that the idea of a confederation between Jordan and the Palestinian Arabs on the west bank of the river is not as far fetched as many say it is. Obviously the intent of all the people interviewed is to take as much territory out of Jewish control as possible, and the failure of the PLO to do so is what seems to be the incentive behind this new set of articles.

Saturday night links

From Ian:

Swedish government body funds book on Israeli ‘apartheid’

Member of country’s Art Council praises ‘high quality’ of work that claims Herzl sought to increase Jewish suffering
The book contains a quote attributed to Theodor Herzl which the Stockholm-based Swedish Israel Information Center claims is a forgery: “It is essential that the sufferings of Jews become worse. This will assist in the realization of our plans. I have an excellent idea. I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth.”
Lisa Abramowicz, the center’s secretary general, has said the book reminded her of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

[The quote in the title of the book has also been proven false - EoZ]

Fake Gaza “Art” at Canadian Public Library
"The unanimous opinion of experts is that these drawings – which depict various scenes of alleged “Israeli brutality” – are far too sophisticated to have been drawn by children. Contrary to CJPME President Thomas Woodley’s claims as published in the Hamilton Spectator, this artwork cannot be considered “authentic”. The symbolism, detail, colouring and motifs all indicate the work of trained artists imitating the style of a child."

[Some of the text from that article was taken from my earlier post on the topic. I assume it was an oversight that they didn't credit me. -EoZ]

The banal realities of Israel’s self-defence

If an enemy state or organised military group sent drones over Russia, or Britain, or France, as part of an openly stated campaign of ultimate destruction, there would not be the smallest word of dissent against the victim’s right to self-defence
"When is an act of war not an act of war? In the Middle East, that is usually when the State of Israel is the target of unprovoked aggression from some group or other hell bent on securing the Jewish state’s destruction. At least, that is how it is seen in the chancelleries of Europe and much of the rest of the world besides.”

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: If only we were Turks

“Obviously one set of rules applies to Turkey and quite another to Israel – without even configuring the incomparably more prolonged, frequent and menacing provocations against
Israel.
That goes for the media too. One Syrian mortar shell that hit just inside Turkish territory last Sunday made headlines worldwide. Over 55 shells and rockets that barraged Israel that same night went largely unmentioned. Israeli pain is clearly not worth wasting airtime for."

Dore Gold: Iran and Turkey Compete for Middle East Power

It will not be so simple to wave the flag of the Palestinian issue in order to cover up their own encroachments on the rest of the Middle East. Many Sunni Arabs understand that "Iranian special forces were involved in the massacres of their people in Syria, which were part of the spreading of Iranian power across the region. Pointing to Israel will not change what Iran did in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. Ironically, Israel and the Arab states have growing mutual interests in seeing that their region is not dominated by either Turkey or Iran, but whether they can draw together to block these two powers remains to be seen."

US: Russia’s policy on Syria is ‘morally bankrupt’

"The Obama administration on Friday accused Russia of pursuing a “morally bankrupt” policy in Syria, following Turkey’s seizure of alleged Russian military equipment from a Syrian plane headed from Moscow to Damascus."

Secret Israel-Syria Peace Talks Involved Golan Heights Exit

For several months in 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel engaged in secret, American-brokered discussions with Syria for a possible peace treaty based on a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Prosecutor: Suspects in Paris store attack linked to Syria

Terror cell called the ‘most dangerous’ uncovered in France in more than 15 years
"Suspects in the recent bombing of a kosher supermarket near Paris belonged to an “extremely dangerous” cell with links to Islamist rebels in Syria, a Paris public prosecutor has said."

Hezbollah claims it sent drone over Israel, but expert calls it 'rinky-dink'

"Israel usually tracks these drones as they come across the border and often doesn't bother to shoot them down," Zenko said. "They just want to see what Hezbollah thinks it can do."
Drones like the one shot down on Saturday cannot even be piloted until someone has "line control" of the device, or is at least within 50 kilometers of it, he said.
"To call them rinky-dink would be polite," he said. "The drones that Iranians display at airshows or that they tout for sale, defense industry press people describe them as crude."
These drones don't have "hard points," or brackets, on which ammunition can be fixed, Zenko said, but they do have the ability to conduct surveillance. It's unclear if the Iranians have drones that can do surveillance in real time, he added.

BBC tunnel vision in Gaza

"The frequent use of the phrase “Israel says” by journalists is a subject for discussion in itself. It implies to the reader that, whilst seemingly presenting multiple viewpoints on a certain subject, the journalist is not entirely convinced of their validity or objectivity.
Of course in this specific case, it is not just Israel which “says” that weapons are smuggled into Gaza through the tunnels.
In May 2012, Major General Warren James Whiting – commander of the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai – said that advanced Russian-made missiles were being smuggled from Libya, through Egypt, into the Gaza Strip. "

'All the Jews there live in fear that their telephones are tapped'

"Iranian Jews view Iran as their home, and they can practice their religion freely. Most belong to the upper class, so they are not as affected by the economic sanctions. But there is suspicion and fear too, since Big Brother is always watching."

Iron Dome can handle Hamas’s improvised multi-barrel rocket launchers, expert says

Uzi Rubin, chief engineer of the Arrow anti-missile system, says there are ‘no game-changers’ in the ongoing conflict with Gaza.

Rocket hits backyard in Netivot
Gaza terrorists continue to pound southern communities: Explosion heard in city of Netivot on Friday evening as rocket lands in house's yard. No injuries reported; one person suffers from shock

Iranian Diplomat to be Honored at Holocaust Museum
Abdol-Hossein Sardari was the Iranian envoy to France in 1940 when Nazi Germany became the occupying power there, and it was at this time that his efforts led to saving the lives of thousands of his countrymen.

EU Nobel Peace Prize is more farcical than Obama's

The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in what can only be described as a travesty and a complete farce

It's got a collapsing currency and rioting on the streets but the European Union wins the Nobel PEACE Prize

Nobel committee said the award was for 'the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights'
But critics condemn the move at a time when the bloc is gripped by the Eurozone crisis and facing serious questions about its future
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says it is 'slightly interesting' to give to the award to an 'acronym'
Tory MEPs joke the Nobel committee 'is a little late for an April fools joke' and declare: 'Parody is redundant'
The prize is awarded by a panel of five people from Norway - which is not even a member of the EU

Also, BBC Radio looks at Jewish refugees from Arab lands (h/t Yerushalimey)

Nice shooting!

From JPost:

Motorcycle swarm! From PalToday

The air force launched an air strike on Saturday night on members of a Palestinian jihadi organization that fired a rocket into southern Israel over the weekend – and which were planning terror attacks on Israel – the IDF said.

Palestinian medical sources said two men riding a motorcycle in northern Gaza were reportedly killed in the strike.

The interior ministry of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, said one of the men killed was Hisham Al-Saedni, also known as Abu Al-Waleed Al-Maqdissi, believed to head the Jihadist Salafi group Tawhid and Jihad (One God and Holy War).

The group, rival to Hamas, has an Islamist ideology shared by al-Qaida and sources have said that Saedni joined al-Qaida in Iraq at the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003.

In March 2011 Hamas detained Saedni for 17 months and had freed him in August.

Last year members identifying themselves with Tawhid and Jihad kidnapped and killed a pro-Palestinian Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, in an apparent attempt to secure the release of Saedni.

An Israeli military spokesman could not confirm Saedni was the target of the air strike. A written military statement said the two men targeted were "terror operatives of the Shora Council of the Mujahideen, a Gaza-based Global Jihad affiliate." The same group had claimed responsibility for a rocket that was fired into Israel on Friday and landed near a house in the Israeli town of Netivot, causing damage but no casualties.

An army source said the cell was involved in past terrorist attacks on Israel, and was in the last stages of preparing another attack.

Hezbollah CFO flees to Israel? (update)

I was waiting for confirmation of this story first noted in The Jewish Press and Israeli site Terror Watch, and here it is:

Hezbollah’s CFO has fled to Israel taking with him large sum of stolen money, classified documents and maps, local news media reported on Friday.

The news website, Now Lebanon, cited Hezbollah officials saying that the 29-year old telecommunication engineer, Hussein Fahs, has crossed to Israel carrying with him $5 million in embezzled money from the group. Fahs is also head of Hezbollah’s operational communications network.

In September, Fahs, who is native of southern Lebanon, was arrested along with other four Hezbollah members over the suspicion of embezzling the group’s funds and collaborating with Israel, Yoni Alpert’s [sic] Terror Watch reported.

The operation to arrest the five was a collaborative one between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Hezbollah, which has long been a staunch ally to both Iran and Syria, officially became part of the Lebanese government in 2011.

According to Al-Joumhouria newspaper, he was arrested while on his way to an unknown destination by 20 Iranian intelligence officers at Beirut’s Hariri Airport. At the time it was suspected that they stole at least $5 million in Iranian aid funds.

Cases of Lebanese nationals collaborating and spying for Israel are not new.

On Tuesday, Imad al-Zein, a Lebanese Military Tribunal Judge, issued eight arrest warrants against Lebanese citizens charged of collaborating with Israel, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

The eight arrested include seven women and one man and were all charged in absentia. They were also natives of southern Lebanon, a region known for being a Hezbollah stronghold.

Since 2009, Lebanon has arrested more than 100 people on suspicion of spying for Israeli intelligence, including high-ranking security and telecommunication officials, Nahar Net said.

Interestingly, Debka reports that Israeli sources deny this story. (UPDATE: So does Israel Radio.) So until Fahs surfaces, the facts are not all in yet.

Another fake BDS "victory"

Electronic Intifada is claiming that a website called Creative Time Summit has removed its "Sponsors" page - because one of the sponsors is Israeli and the Summit isbeing boycotted by some anti-Israel groups for doing something so horrible:

Update: Creative Time Summit “partner” page showing Israeli group removed

In light of the boycott actions mentioned above, by Mosireen and Rebel Diaz, it would appear that the Creative Time Summit has attempted to scrub its website of the evidence of its partnership with Israeli government funded Israeli Center for Digital Art.

Luckily, we kept screenshots. You can see the page as it appeared before, whereas now a click on the link brings up “page not found.”

So, the Israel-haters actually think that Creative Time Summit would delete all of their partners just to avoid mentioning Israel?

Now, look at the two screenshots above and the menu under the title. Notice how the first says "Partners" and the second, in the same position, says "Sites."

Clicking on "Sites" shows that website simply renamed "Summit Partnerships" to "Summit Sites", and the page prominently mentioning the Israeli Center for Digital Art is prominently displayed exactly as it was before:

So there is no demotion or boycott of the Israeli sponsor, just a renaming of every sponsor to a featured site.

But don't tell the idiots at Electronic Intifada. They seemed so happy.

Molotov cocktails at Tahrir Square, today

From Al-Ahram:

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.