Saturday night links

From Ian:

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Why is the Jewish and Israeli Left so Extreme?

"While many of Meir’s views on economic policy would differ from those of today’s Prime Minister, as she was a member of the left-wing Mapai political party, her views on security coincide with the leaders of the Israeli government today."
"Whether one defines themselves as a Revisionist Zionist like Jabotinsky, or a Liberal Zionist like Meir, Zionists must be concerned with the security of the Jewish state more than “peace” with an enemy who wants to destroy Israel piece by piece."

On Middle East Peace, Obama Will be More Realistic in Second Term by Dore Gold

"Presently, there are a host of Israeli commentators who foresee a difficult period for Israel because, as they argue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bet on the wrong horse. Never mind, as David Makovsky writes in Foreign Policy, the Israeli leader never came out and endorsed President Obama’s opponent, Governor Romney, they still are trying to paint baseless scenarios of doom and gloom. Over the last four years, there is no escaping the fact that the U.S. and Israel had real differences over policy. But at the end of the day, the U.S.-Israeli relationship is based on common interests and shared values and those will continue to form the fabric of the ties between the two countries in the years ahead."

Abbas ‘seriously considering’ pushing off UN statehood bid to January
Palestinian sources cite Obama’s victory in the US elections and his need for time to organize a second term agenda

Levy Distorts, Haaretz Supports

"How absurd for Haaretz to be so named for the Land of Israel when it is quite unworthy of the title. Through the years, Haaretz has been known to produce “news” that has been called “unconscionable,” “unacceptable,” and “slanderous,” yet the editors fail to properly correct serious factual errors. They employ journalists who, with malicious intent, villify and cast Israel as racist, oppressive and unjust to its Arab population. Gideon Levy is a pathetic example of a Jew who is afflicted with pathological tenderness or traumatic bonding, a form of Oslo Syndrome, as he cringes at Israel’s successes and defines himself by reproaching his own people and aligning himself with their enemy. It is also ludicrous to realize that if Israel were what Levy and Haaretz claim her to be – unjust, unfair, and totalitarian in nature – the paper would have long been closed down. It exists and Levy continues his lies and invectives precisely because Israel is a democracy."

BBC Watch: Upcoming Radio 4 programme on “The BBC and the Hungarian Holocaust”

"Mike Thomson investigates documents which suggest that the BBC was directed not to broadcast crucial information and examines claims that it could have saved thousands of lives.”

Toronto Islamic School Caught Teaching Anti-Semitic Material Will Not Face Criminal Charges

"A Toronto Islamic school whose teaching materials disparaged Jews and encouraged boys to keep fit for jihad will not face criminal charges but police did issue a warning and said they had identified passages in school materials that were of concern."

Girl, 9 forced to marry older man as 'compensation' in Pakistani rape case
Pakistani elders have ruled a nine-year-old girl must marry a 22-year-old man as compensation to settle the case of the rape and abduction of another young girl.

More than 5,000 child brides in Saudi Arabia
More than 5,000 girls below the age of 14 are married off in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports.

Bahrain: Sunni leadership strips 31 Shiite lawyers, activists of citizenship
US rebukes Gulf kingdom for policy barring all protest rallies

Pakistan's minority Hindus feel under attack

"They came after dusk and chanted into the night sky "Kill the Hindus, kill the children of the Hindus," as they smashed religious icons, ripped golden bangles off women's arms and flashed pistols. It wasn't the first time that the Hindu temple on the outskirts of Pakistan's largest city was attacked, and residents here fear it will not be the last."

Security and Defense: Night raid
The ‘Post’ joins the Kfir Brigade in a search for terror suspects in the West Bank village of Azun.

"The village of Azun has long stood out on the IDF’s radar as a hotbed of security threats, due to the frequent Molotov cocktail attacks, rock throwing, and more ominously, two shooting attacks on Israeli vehicles in the northern West Bank area this year, the most recent of which occurred on September 30. (No one was injured but a car was damaged by bullets.)"

Israeli researcher among three winners of EU's new Marie Curie prize

“An Israeli researcher is one of the three winners of the European Commission's new Marie Curie Prize for outstanding achievement in research, announced today at a ceremony in Nicosia.
Dr Sarit Sivan, a senior research fellow in the department of biomedical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, won the prize in the 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' category. She has developed an innovative treatment for lower back pain resulting from the degeneration of discs in the spinal column.”

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Arab "researcher" upset that UNESCO doesn't (yet) deny Second Temple

Jordanian newspaper Assabeel quotes an Arab "researcher" who is livid that there are Hebrew signs in Jerusalem pointing out where Second Temple-era sights can be found.

Fakhri Abu Diab is aghast that Israeli authorities have put up signs on archaeological and historical sites "in the northern part of Silwan, just tens of meters from the southern wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," - meaning around City of David and close to the Temple Mount.

Abu Diab, who has read a bit too much anti-semitic propaganda, further says that the Israelia are trying to push the idea that the Temple was located near this area. He said the move is "an attempt to falsify history and monuments, and target awareness for future generations and to brainwash visitors and tourists... to erase the truth and the Arab and Muslim nature of these historical places, and rework and rewrite the history of the Hebrew forgers. "

He stressed that the falsification of history and archeology "comes at the hands of the occupation authorities, after Jewish archaeologists have confirmed the fact there is no history of Jews in Jerusalem, despite long years of research and exploration in the corners of the city to prove its Jewishness."

Abu Diab pointed out that "this fraud takes place" right under the nose of the world! He is especially upset at UNESCO, who refuses to deny the fact that a Temple existed in Jerusalem or to condemn Israelis saying that there was.

I would laugh at the idea of UNESCO denying the Temple, but then again UNESCO believes the provable lie that Rachel's Tomb is the "historic Bilal bin Rabah mosque." Similarly, UNESCO has no idea what the Western Wall actually is.

So the idea that UNESCO might one day deny the existence of Jewish Temples in Jerusalem is all too believable. After all, the ultimate goal of the PLO joining UNESCO to begin with was to ban Jews from worshiping in their own holiest sites, and denying their existence is a step in that direction.

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Gaza terror groups up the weapons ante

From The Times of Israel:

Four soldiers were injured when an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck and penetrated an Israeli army jeep patrolling some 200 meters inside the Israeli border with Gaza on Saturday evening.

Two of the four were in serious condition and were undergoing surgery on Saturday night.

Retaliatory strikes by the IDF against terrorists in the Gaza Strip left at least four Palestinians killed and two dozen wounded.

Later Saturday, a rocket barrage fired from Gaza pounded southern Israel; residents were ordered to stay within 15 seconds of sealed rooms or other protected areas. No major damage or injuries were reported. Red Alert sirens sounded as far north as the cities of Ashdod and Gan Yavne after long-range Grad rockets were fired in their direction.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), claimed responsibility for the anti-tank missile attack shortly afterwards, saying it fired two Kornet missiles at the Israeli vehicle.

The IDF and Israeli media reports were skeptical about the PFLP’s claim, and instead posited that the likely perpetrator of the attack was Islamic Jihad.

Kornet missiles have been used rarely but most infamously in the attack against a schoolbus in April 2011, killing a teenager. A 9K111 Fagot (AT-4 Spigot) anti-tank system also targeted a jeep in March 2011.

Islamic Jihad graphic bragging about rocket fire

Notably, Iran now builds its own clone of the Kornet-E missile.

Islamic Jihad claims another first, saying that in the barrage of missiles targeting Israeli communities that they shot, for the first time, something called a KS8 missile aimed at the community of Nir Yitzhak.

Last month, a shoulder-mounted surface to air missile was shot by Hamas towards an Israeli aircraft.

There is no doubt that more sophisticated weapons are being smuggled into Gaza, but using them is an escalation that the IDF cannot ignore. The only reason that they haven't used them much so far is because of fear of massive Israeli response, and unfortunately that fear is the only path to have Israeli Negev communities live near-normal lives.

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Cognitive dissonance in pictures of Syria and the West Bank

The Atlantic has a haunting photo essay entitled Syria in Ruins - a very disturbing series of photos of devastation and death in Syria:

And there was another story with photos, in Your Middle East, showing unimaginable luxury - in the West Bank:

So you can understand how Human Rights Watch thinks that things are roughly as bad in the "occupied territories" as in Syria..

You can hardly tell the difference between them.

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Friday/weekend links

From Ian:

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LATMA The man who can beat Bibi



Meanwhile, on the Israeli-Palestinian Issue by Elliott Abrams

"Nevertheless, this Palestinian move brings potential benefits as well. First, once “Palestine” has become a UN member state it is far harder to argue that the “one-state solution” remains viable. Legally, the Palestinians will have moved definitively away from that outcome. Second, if this new status for the PLO creates difficulties for Israel it creates greater ones for “Palestine.” What is Gaza, after all? A “lost province” that has rebelled, or territory of the new state—and if the latter, isn’t it an act of war every time a mortar or rocket is launched by Gazans into Israel? If “Palestine” is a UN member state, what is the legal status of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza? Are they citizens of that state—and if so, why not shut down UNRWA, the UN agency that deals with Palestinian “refugees?” This leaves the Palestinians to argue that their new UN status is meaningless, unimportant, symbolic—which once again raises the question why the PLO is doing it. I suppose it is because the leadership has no constructive ideas about what to do, and has found the difficult daily work of building a state unattractive."

Refugee issue must not cloud statehood bid

“His comment struck many observers as the diplomatic equivalent of waving a white flag. A failure of leadership, some Palestinians claimed. Traitor, others called him. Yet no one, as far as we can tell, has yet offered a more appropriate label for the comment: realistic.”
“Mr Abbas no doubt underestimated, astonishing though this seems, the passions Palestinians hold for their ancestral homeland. But if the Palestinians' goal is an independent state - a position they will soon be advocating again at the UN - then the only way forward will be through hard, painful compromise.”

MEMRI: PA President Mahmoud Abbas Presents His Views on the Right of Return VIDEO

Friends With Benefits Why the U.S.-Israeli Alliance Is Good for America

“Beyond leading to largely symbolic UN votes against U.S. positions, Washington’s support for Israel has hardly damaged the United States’ ties with its Arab and Muslim allies. Standing with Israel certainly has not hobbled U.S. policy toward the region as much as the war in Iraq or Washington’s backing of autocratic Arab regimes. Meanwhile, no Arab ally of the United States has ever, as a result of its pro-Israel posture, refused to cooperate with Washington on counterterrorism or denied its requests for access, basing, or overflight rights.”

Progression of a lie: Haaretz, ‘apartheid,’ and Twitter

"They say a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. And with communication technology like Facebook and Twitter, this has never been more true than today.
But what happens once the truth is fully dressed? What if, to take the travel analogy a bit further, the lie continues to circulate unhindered because the truth lives in an unpopular, under-served neighborhood, which discriminatory taxi drivers prefer to avoid?"

Bibi and Main Rival Agree on Peace Process

"In short, contrary to the media’s persistent portrayal of Netanyahu as a “hardline right-winger” heading a “far right” coalition, his positions on the Palestinian issue are shared by almost all Israelis – not only supporters of his coalition, but also supporters of what is likely to be the main opposition party come January, assuming Netanyahu (as expected) forms the next government. What will probably keep Yacimovich out of his coalition aren’t her diplomatic views, but his economic ones.
Hence if Obama is hoping for an Israeli leader whose positions on the “peace process” will be closer to his own than Netanyahu’s, he should think again: There isn’t one."

Will Obama Impose a Peace Plan On Israel?

"But Eldar’s scenario is a leftist fantasy that won’t come true. The PA’s UN campaign — the so-called diplomatic “tsunami” that was supposed to isolate Israel but which turned out to be nothing more than a light drizzle — failed in 2011. That was not just the result of Obama’s veto threat, but also because even the Palestinians’ friends know that granting independence to the PA when its Hamas rival controls much of its territory is insane. The PA is a corrupt, bankrupt failure that can’t make peace even if it wanted to, and even the Europeans know Abbas’s gambit would be a disaster."

Senior Palestinian official claims Abbas may postpone UN move, report says
If US offers ‘clear objective’ for negotiations, Ramallah said willing to reconsider a unilateral push for nonmember state status

IDF ground forces enter Gaza after finding tunnel packed with explosives
Bombs detonate while troops are crossing back into Israel, lightly injuring one soldier and throwing an army jeep 20 meters into the air

Arabs Torch Jewish Neighbors' Cars - Video
Security camera captures Arab terror act in Jerusalem's French Hill.



Police in probe over tyre-slashing near Bradford Alhambra Theatre

"Police are investigating whether a tyre-slashing spree in a car park close to the Alhambra Theatre could be linked to a demonstration against an Israeli dance troupe performing there.
Five vehicles were attacked in the unlit car park in Sharpe Street, yards from the Alhambra, where a performance by the Batsheva Ensemble dance company was taking place."

MEMRI: Al-Manar TV, Banned By The U.S. And U.K., Now Hosted On U.K. And Netherlands Servers

Kids’ Books Glorify Jihad at Frankfurt Book Fair
World’s most prestigious book fair also features anti-Semitic books

European court rejects PETA appeal over ‘Holocaust’ ads
Ban on German billboards that likened animals to genocide victims was not a violation of free speech, judges rule

Israel Aids Victims of Both Sandy and Ghana Shopping Center Collapse

"Just days after Israel Flying Aid, an Israeli global humanitarian organization, distributed supplies of gas, food, batteries and generators to Hurricane Sandy victims, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Homefront Command delegation departed for Ghana to assist search-and-rescue efforts following the collapse of a multi-story shopping center in the city of Accra that killed at least four people and trapped dozens."

IDF Blog It’s Our Job: Mission International Rescue

Beyond the bike
Israeli-invented origami-style reinforced cardboard could eventually replace metal, super-green bicycle inventor says

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Also:

Abu who? by Martin Sherman, JPost

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UN elects Sudan to human rights body (UN Watch)

From UN Watch:

 UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group, urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon, rights commissioner Navi Pillay, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and the EU’s Catherine Ashton to condemn today’s U.N. election of “genocidal, misogynistic and tyrannical” Sudan to its 54-member Economic and Social Council, a top U.N. body that regulates human rights groups, oversees U.N. committees on women's rights, and crafts resolutions from Internet freedom to female genital mutilation.

"This is an outrage," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. "On the same day we hear that Sudan is killing babies and burning homes in Darfur -- precisely the kind of dire situation ECOSOC should be urgently addressing -- the U.N. has now made vital human rights protection less likely than ever."

"It's inexplicable that 176 of 193 U.N. member states voted to support the blood-soaked regime of Omar Al-Bashir, failing to recognize that electing genocidal Sudan to a global human rights body is like choosing Jack the Ripper to guard a women’s shelter," said Neuer.

"By granting the seal of international legitimacy to a mass murderer, the United Nations human rights system has today diminished its own credibility, and cast a shadow upon the reputation of the organization as a whole.”

Although the U.S. took important action in September to pressure Sudan into withdrawing from this Monday's elections to the 47-nation Human Rights Council -- boosted by a massive campaign led my film star Mia Farrow and UN Watch -- the Obama Administration has been surprsingly silent on today's vote.

By contrast, in 2004, the U.S. ambassador famously walked out of ECOSOC after Sudan was elected.

The Obama Administration promised that when a country is under Security Council sanction for massive human-rights abuses, "it should be barred, plain and simple, from leadership roles like chairmanships in U.N. bodies. Abusers of international law or norms should not be the public face of the U.N."

Yet even though Sudan's president al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, war crimes and and crimes against humanity -- by virtue of a Security Council referral -- the U.S. voice has been silent, as has that of the European Union.

Al Bashir's regime will now help select the members of the Commission on the Status of Women, the executive board of UN Women, and UNICEF, which protects children’s rights.

Under the U.N. Charter, ECOSOC is the principal organ legislating on matters related to “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”

Importantly, ECOSOC is also the body that accredits and oversees human rights groups at the U.N., deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.

The dominant influence of tyrannies in ECOSOC's notorious 19-member "Committee on NGOs" has often led to the rejection or expulsion of human rights groups that dare to criticize China, Cuba or other repressive U.N. member states, or which speak for minority ethnic groups or for gay rights.

ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on, among others, the U.N.’s Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. 

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Islamic scholars from Egypt flock to Gaza to preach Jihad

From Hamas' Palestine Times:

The head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Egypt, Salah Sultan, says that dozens of Islamic scholars will run convoys to the Gaza Strip in the coming months.

The famous Egyptian preacher told the Palestine Times on Friday: "The main objective of these visits is to lead the nation to destroy and break the Israeli siege of Gaza and encourage people to wage jihad for the sake of God and life in the cause of God. "

He continued, "There are dozens of caravans and delegations from Egypt's scholars who will follow the convoy of scholars and preachers that arrived in Gaza two days ago."

He pointed out that Egypt's Islamic scholars are trying to lead the nation to break the blockade of Gaza and lift the morale of the people of Gaza and Palestine and spreading the spirit of jihad in the Islamic nation. "We and all the scholars want to supply the people of Gaza with the spirit of the will and the challenge to understand the broken Israeli and American hegemony."

Because Gaza needs more people preaching jihad.

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Arabs freak out over "Israeli Mezze Station" at Harvard with MidEast foods

From Al Arabiya:

Globalization brings the world to your table; quite literally when it applies to international cuisine. However what is meant to be marketed as exotic may in fact come off as politically incorrect, such as with the case of the Harvard Business School dining room.

What started off as a simple post shared on social networking site Facebook – Sara el-Yafi's online clarification notice to the caterers on the University's questionable Israeli Mezze Station – spread like wildfire.

“The post was entirely written by me after I saw the picture of the menu on one of my friends' timeline on Facebook last week,” the Lebanese Harvard graduate told Al Arabiya, indicating she is not a campus activist. ”I asked him if he did something about it or was going to do something about it, he said no. So I told him I was going to take the picture and write something about it!”

Hummus, Harrisa, and Halloumi, to name a few, were all historically fact-checked by Yafi, emphasizing with each bullet point that the food item was not Israeli, rendering the name of the station inaccurate.

“If you insist on giving no honor to the Arabs (many of whom are Harvard students/alumni- “hi!”), and/or if you insist on never ever speaking of Arabs in culinary worth (since we're only ever referred to as warmongers and terrorists), at least have the decency of calling it Mediterranean Mezze Station,” Yafi said in her post.

The student said the HBS has many Arab students, and thought that it was necessary to draw attention to the apparent labeling gaffe.

“During my time at Harvard I honestly never saw anything so outrageous. Apparently in the past three-four years, that Israeli Mezze Station has been showing up around campus quite a lot. As soon as I knew that, I thought to myself it's impossible not to do write about it and really bring to the attention of the appropriate people that this is simply unacceptable. So I tagged some Harvard alumni on the photograph so they can read and share my post,” Yafi said.

I can understand how Arabs would be upset at seeing their traditional foods misrepresented, although calling it "the most outrageous" thing is quite a lot of overkill. And I would have no problem with relabeling the station "Middle East" or "Mediterranean." In fact, the photo on the menu comes from a generic representation of a Ramadan Iftar meal.

But just imagine if the station had said "Palestinian Mezze Station." That would be equally inaccurate, since none of these are uniquely "Palestinian" foods - but would any proud Lebanese or Egyptian student have made such a stink about it? Obviously not.

The anger isn't because of "cultural misrepresentation" as the article claims. The anger is because of the word "Israeli."

Somehow, I cannot imagine Israelis being this angry if Arab restaurants started selling "Arab Sabich" or "Arab Ptitim" or "Arab Bamba."

The article goes on to say that the food vendor contracted by Harvard is responsible for the labeling.

UPDATE: Apparently the photo at the top of this post was not from the caterer, but an Al Arabiya photo montage of the menu juxtaposed with traditional Ramadan break-fast food. (h/t Mark)

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Arafat might not be dug up - Pals and French squabble

It seems that the PA wants to take over the investigation of Arafat's death - and the French authorities in Gaza to exhume his body are not going for it.

According to Arabic media sources, the French experts dispatched to Ramallah reject PA interference in the investigation. For good reason, since the PA has been officially calling his death a murder in the eight years since he died.

The Palestinian Arab committee on Arafat's death is insisting that the results of the investigation go to them - presumably so they can control how it can be publicized. The French delegation is refusing, saying that this is a French judicial matter and they are bound by French law.

Swiss experts on-site to do the actual testing for polonium on Arafat's bones are apparently uninvolved in this controversy.

The controversy threatens to delay or even cancel the exhumation.

In other Arafat news, Hamas has banned any Fatah commemoration of the anniversary of his death this Sunday in Gaza.

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Egyptian Islamists demonstrate for Sharia law in Tahrir Square

From Al Ahram:

Several thousand protesters have started gathering at Tahrir Square for a mass protest organised by Salafist forces scheduled to start after Friday's noon prayer to demand that Egypt's new constitution be based on the "rules of Islamic Sharia."

Many demonstrators have arrived in chartered buses from provincial areas.

On Thursday night, protesters built a huge stage inside the square with banners demanding the enforcement of the "law of God".

"We promise the prophet of God that we will sacrifice ourselves for the sharia of God," read one of the banners.

The protest, which was called for by a number of Salafist groups including Gamaa Islamyia and the Salafist front, also calls for the dismissal of the Prosecutor General.,

Meanwhile, Egypt's most influential Islamist groups the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Al-Nour party announced that they will not participate in the protest.

The constitution itself deals with religion somewhat inconsistently; while it says "Islam is the state religion" and "the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main sources of legislation" it also calls for equality of various groups depending on which draft is being used. For example, the language saying that women are equal to men has recently been dropped from the document. Other drafts seemed to allow freedom of religion only to Christians and Jews, and no others.

The Islamists, however, are not happy with the language of "principles" of Sharia - they want Egyptian law to be Islamic law, period.

Islamic Sharia and its rulings – not its "principles" – should be the main source of legislation, Ahmed Mawlana, People Party spokesman, told Al-Ahram's Arabic news website.

Many Salafist Muslims regard the "principles" of Islamic law – which translate into values such as justice, truth, and equality – as too vague and far placed from proper Islamic doctrine, while Sharia encompasses all aspects of life, they argue.

Sheikh Hashem Islam, conservative Al-Azhar scholar and member of the Fatwas Committee (religious edicts) of Al-Azhar, issued a religious edict toping to enshrine Sharia as such.

Article 2 should read as, “Islamic Sharia alone is the source of all legislation and all that conflicts it is invalid and corrupt,” said Sheikh Islam. The article should also stipulate that Sharia governs the constitution and laws, he added.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the Islamists described exactly what they want. One said "Shari’a does not mean immediately implementing Islamic hudud [punishments] for we have to ensure social justice and eradicate poverty before cutting off the hands of thieves."

How reassuring.

One person who strayed slightly from the Islamist line caused a controversy at the meeting:

Magdy Hassan, Chairman of the New Labour Party, accused liberals of trying to “destroy the nation” by fighting the Constituent Assembly.

In a comment which earned the crowd’s approval he also said that the “Islamic project” was gaining ground regardless of what the constitution said and that more judges and legislators are becoming Islamists on their own accord.

Hassan’s advocating for the phrase “principles of Shari’a” instead of just “Shari’a” to remain in Article 2 of the constitution as the principle source of legislation earned him the anger of the crowd; predominantly made up of Islamist youth.

“We reject principle: this is an Islamist state despite the secularists noses,” and “The people demand the implementation of God’s law,” were the loudest chants, this time in an angry rather than approving tone. Hassan had to leave the press conference.

In a related story, Islamist preachers are now lecturing to Egyptian police.

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Interesting new weapon defeats electronic targets

While this is a sales/press release from Boeing, it is interesting:

A recent weapons flight test in the Utah desert may change future warfare after the missile successfully defeated electronic targets with little to no collateral damage.

Boeing and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., successfully tested the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) during a flight over the Utah Test and Training Range.

CHAMP, which renders electronic targets useless, is a non-kinetic alternative to traditional explosive weapons that use the energy of motion to defeat a target.

During the test, the CHAMP missile navigated a pre-programmed flight plan and emitted bursts of high-powered energy, effectively knocking out the target's data and electronic subsystems. CHAMP allows for selective high-frequency radio wave strikes against numerous targets during a single mission.

"This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare," said Keith Coleman, CHAMP program manager for Boeing Phantom Works. "In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy’s electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive."

I can imagine this being useful in any "go it alone" scenario...

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Saudi advisory body puts women members behind a screen

Too funny:

A Saudi official says a screen will separate genders on the country’s main advisory body to King Abdullah when women join it for the first time.

Following a decision by Abdullah, women will be allowed to join the Shura Council, his main group of advisers expected to reconvene early next year. The format is seen as a compromise with hardline Islamic factions that oppose even small reforms in the ultraconservative kingdom, where sex segregation is a widespread custom.

Abdullah has pledged to allow women to vote and run in the next municipal elections in 2015. But Saudi women still face many restrictions, including a ban on driving.

The official, quoted in Al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday, says an internal communications network will allow men and women to communicate despite the barrier.

If this "communications network" is text-based, that last paragraph implies that the women wouldn't even be able to speak from behind the screen.

Here is a screen separating men from women at a Saudi McDonalds:

Doesn't the male worker behind the counter still see the female customers?

I guess he is a foreign worker.

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Thursday links

From Ian:

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MEMRI: Hamas TV Host Criticizes UNRWA for Teaching Holocaust to Palestinian Children



Where Would Hezbollah Be Without the EU? by Douglas Murray

"The EU has been here before. During the same period they came up with their false wall-of-separation within Hezbollah they did the same thing with Hamas. That terror group too, they decided, had a military and a political wing. After the atrocities of the Second Intifada, however, that fiction disappeared. It did not disappear because the EU was made aware of something it had previously been unaware of. It disappeared in Europe because it was no longer possible – in terms of public opinion or political expediency – to allow a group to operate which blew up buses full of civilians."

Bahrain arrests bombing suspects and blames Hezbollah

Peres warns: Iran threatening another Holocaust
At inauguration of Russian Jewish museum in Moscow alongside Russian FM, Peres thanks Russia for defeating Nazis in WWII.

Nick Clegg just can’t bring himself to support Israeli defensive action against Iran.

"Clegg continued in the same vein even when Bradby asked whether Clegg would expect military action once Iran had loaded nuclear weapon technology into a missile and, finally, if Israel’s intelligence showed that they couldn’t sit and tolerate the situation anymore.
Yet still Clegg could not bring himself to support Israeli defensive action, even against such an existential threat as an all-out nuclear attack."

BBC Watch: BBC shields audiences from antisemitism in Istanbul

“The BBC article also fails to relate in any way whatsoever to the antisemitic spectacle which went on outside the court on the first day of the ‘trial’ and which was obviously tolerated – if not encouraged – by the Turkish authorities.”
“In the name of accuracy and impartiality, it would of course be proper for the BBC to update its anodyne profile of the Free Gaza Movement to include the recent display of blatant antisemitism by its leader Greta Berlin, who is quoted in the BBC profile. So far – over a month after the incident – that has not been done.”

Hamas offices in Syria raided, adding to fears of Palestinian deportations
Abbas appeals to envoy for international protection as Palestinians increasingly involved in violence

[Also I saw an Arabic article saying that Syrian rebels would re-open Hamas offices when they win. - EoZ]

7 more Syrian generals defect to Turkey
Seven generals who recently defected from the Syrian army arrived with their families at the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday and were allowed to enter the country at the town of Reyhanlı in the southern province of Hatay under tight security measures.

Space-age rapid transit to debut in Tel Aviv

Developer of NASA-designed skyTran chose Israel as the perfect place to pilot the software-guided personal transport pods that glide on a cushion of air.
If all goes as planned, within two years Israelis will be the first people to try out a futuristic rapid transport system designed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.

World Famous Tenor Andrea Bocelli Tells UK Paper of His Love for Israel

“A country that has really resonated with me and I was really impressed with was Israel. I found that the whole country had a very special atmosphere. I was there to perform but it was one of the few places that I’ve visited over the years that I had some free time to explore, and I was hugely impressed by all the religious history there.”

IDF sends search and rescue crew to Ghana after mall collapse
Dozens feared trapped in rubble in Accra shopping center

"The Israel Defense Forces was scheduled to send a search and rescue team to Ghana Wednesday night after a shopping center collapse in the African country’s capital earlier in the day left dozens trapped.
The army search and rescue force of doctors, engineers and other experts, 18 people in total, were to be flown to Accra late Wednesday night to assist in rescue attempts, the IDF said on its website. Some 51 people have so far been pulled from the rubble of the shopping center, with one confirmed death."

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Anti-Israel NGOs keep on pumping out lies

A reader asked me to comment on an October report apparently being distributed to EU politicians by some 20 NGOs to pressure them into banning imports of goods from Jews - and only Jews - who work in Judea and Samaria.

These slick-looking reports are churned out with regularity by the anti-Israel crowd, complete with lots of footnotes that no one will ever check out for veracity. Beyond that, they engage in deception by framing issues in the most biased way possible.

I don't have the time to fisk this entire report, called "Trading away Peace: How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements," but I noticed one section, 2.2, that is emblematic of the deception throughout the document.

Ban on dual-use items: Israel bans Palestinians from importing a range of “dual-use” items, including chemicals and fertilisers used in factories and agriculture. While Israeli settlers have full access to these materials, Palestinians are forced to turn to more expensive or less effective alternatives that further increase the cost of production and often have greater negative long-term impact on the environment. It is estimated that the fertilizer restrictions lead to losses of between 20% and 33% in agricultural productivity.

It is simply unbelievable that such a paragraph could be written without even acknowledging the history of terror attacks - using home-made explosives - that have come from the West Bank. The demand that Israel ignore its own security imperatives is untenable an shows an alarming lack of concern about the lives of Israelis.

Any report such as this that doesn't even acknowledge Israel's very real security concerns - even if only to dismiss them - can be assumed ab initio to be biased against Israel no matter how many footnotes it has.

But here's the next paragraph:

Obstacles to movement of goods: While settlers enjoy easy and direct access to Israeli and international markets, all Palestinian goods destined for Israel or further export must pass through Israeli checkpoints where they are unloaded from Palestinian vehicles and extensively checked before they can be re-loaded onto an Israeli vehicle on the other side (the so-called ‘back-to-back’ system). This is extremely time-consuming and often damages the products. Palestinian goods destined for international markets then pass through Israeli port and airport terminals where they face further disadvantages, obstacles and excessive time delays. All these obstacles significantly reduce the competitiveness of Palestinian products and increase the unpredictability of their delivery times and quality.

This is a bit silly; if there were an independent Palestinian Arab state declared on the 1949 armistice lines today, access to the European markets of Arab goods would have the exact same restrictions. In fact, goods exported to Jordan from the PA have more onerous restrictions than those going through Israel! (This recent post of mine addresses the issue.)

In other words, they are objecting to Israel behaving like a sovereign nation.

More deception follows:

Gaza closure: Compared to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip has been subject to even more stringent restrictions, especially since the takeover by Hamas in 2007. Exports from Gaza, a territory inhabited by 1.6 million Palestinians, have been banned almost entirely, contributing to the low volume of overall Palestinian exports. Despite the easing of some restrictions by Israel since 2010, the volume of exports from Gaza is still less than 2% of the pre-2007 levels. EU imports from Gaza over the five years of blockade have been limited to a few shipments of agricultural produce to the Netherlands and two trucks of garments to the UK.

The source for this, Gisha, does not note what percentage of goods exported from Gaza before 2007 went to Israel. My understanding is that a significant majority of all goods exported from Gaza before the blockade did go to Israel. Surely Israel has the right to limit its imports from Gaza if it chooses. So the 2% figure, while probably accurate, does not give any indication of how many goods were exported from Gaza to the EU before 2007, which I would venture to say was negligible. But if, say, 85% of Gaza's goods used to go to Israel  then Gisha should note that before putting out the 2% number.

It might just be that Israel doesn't want to buy goods from a sector that is still shooting rockets at it. Just a wild guess. Do these NGOs think that Israel should be allowed to say where it imports its tomatoes from?

Besides, Israel is indeed working to increase the number of exports from Gaza to the West Bank, as I've reported. One question to ask is what demand there is for Gaza goods in the West Bank today and if that is not being met.  Another question is whether any of these NGOs are complaining that Egypt is not importing goods from Gaza, which Israel could not limit if it tried. These are questions that this report does not ask - because the truth is not the goal of reports like these.

This is an indication of the bias that pervades this - and similar - reports. People who are not well-versed in the issues, those who do not have the time or inclination to research it themselves, those who don't have the necessary skepticism and those who are already sympathetic to the anti-Israel cause will swallow this garbage without thinking.

Which is exactly what the Israel-haters want.

The organizations behind this exercise in demonization are:

1. Aprodev
2. Broederlijk delen (Belgium)
3. Caabu (UK)
4. CCFd - Terre Solidaire (France)
5. Christian Aid (UK and Ireland)
6. Church of Sweden
7. Cordaid (Netherlands)
8. danChurchAid (denmark)
9. diakonia (Sweden)
10. FinnChurchAid (Finland)
11. ICCo (Netherlands)
12. IKv pax Christi (Netherlands)
13. International Federation for Human rights (FIdH)
14. Medical Aid for palestinians (UK)
15. medico international (Germany)
16. medico international switzerland
17. The Methodist Church in Britain
18. Norwegian people’s Aid
19. Norwegian Church Aid
20. Quaker Council for european Affairs
21. Quaker peace and Social Witness (UK)
22. Trocaire (Ireland)

Truth and fairness are obviously not part of these organizations' agenda.

By the way, if you object to my characterization in the first paragraph of these organizations' goals as banning imports of goods from only Jews who work in Judea and Samaria, I am being entirely accurate.

There are a number of industrial zones across the Green Line - Barkan, Atarot and Adumim - whose companies get targeted regularly by the anti-Israel crowd. Richard Falk relies heavily on the "Who Profits" website when he insists that certain American and Israeli companies be universally boycotted, and this "Trading Away peace" report quotes "Who Profits" some 26 times.

I looked through the Who Profits site, and I was unable to identify a single Israel-Arab-owned company that they propose boycotting.

Yet, according to this Globes article that discussed the success of these industrial parks, the Atarot park was quoted as having "a nice combination between Arabs and Jews, both in terms of employment and business ownership."

So there are definitely Arab-owned companies in these industrial zones - but not one of them are targeted for boycott!

One probable example is Al Mada'ain Food Products, formerly Slava Food Company, in Atarot, owned by Abu Ghazala Haitham. Assuming that Mr. Haitham is an Israeli citizen, then why isn't his company being tracked for being boycotted by Who Profits or other similar "pro-Palestinian" initiatives? Is he not Palestinian? [If he isn't an Israeli citizen, then presumably the PA will arrest him any hour now.)

When you go beyond the rhetoric and fine print in the volumes of invective released by these NGOs, you uncover the fact that they really are discriminating against Jews, and only Jews.

I think there is a name for that, but these "humanitarian" organizations get very upset when you say it.

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Egypt news: Porn ban, Fatah member killed, plague of locusts

Here's today's roundup of interesting news from Egypt.

The Egyptian government has announced that Internet pornography will be banned:

A new moral code has been sculpted for Egyptians, one which has jostled them into a freeze frame “based on ethics.” The limits have well and truly been set, much to the mass grumble of Egyptians from liberal circles.

To quote Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, the decision to ban all pornographic online content in Egypt on Wednesday by the state prosecutor was “a first step towards establishing a society based on ethics.”

And the reaction has showcased the usual split in Egyptian society, one which has made a cyclical appearance since the Islamist powers garnered control of the country’s presidential and parliamentary scenes: The societal yearning for freedom of expression vs. state control.

Now in Egypt, the ban has raised questions over the futility of online censorship – whether blocking porn can be easily dodged with a bit of proxy fine-tuning – and whether authorities are stifling democratic freedoms by crouching behind “ethical boundaries.”

The argument being, attributing the porn ban to “ethics” and the “national interest” is an open-ended declaration.

“These pornographic websites stem from a Western culture, they deteriorate our moral family values and youth. They promote a criminal culture, one which leads to unproductivity, drugs and theft,” says Mamdouh Ismail, a Salafi member of the Egyptian parliament who rose to prominence after he stood up during a parliament session in February to loudly recite the Azaan, or call to prayer, in protest of session timings.

Of course, there is plenty of home-grown Egyptian porn out there, and the thirst for pornography in the Arab world is apparent just from the number of hits I still receive from Internet searches for misspelled "Arab six videos".

In other news, Palestine Press Agency reports that a Fatah member who fled Gaza to avoid being killed by Hamas during the coup was murdered in El Arish, Egypt. Could be a coincidence, but Hamas ties to Egyptian Islamists might have had something to do with this.

Finally, a Biblical plague is hitting parts of Egypt, today:

The Agriculture Ministry declared a state of disaster in Aswan on Thursday as swarms of desert locusts descend on Lake Nasser, the Egypt-Sudan border and the Eastern Desert.

There was a huge plague of locusts in Africa and the Middle East in 1988.

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