Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Religious and moral Hezbollah involved in drug scandal

Lebanon has been rocked by a scandal involving the brother of a top Hezbollah official suspected of importing untested pharmaceutical products through forged government documents.

Lebanon’s Parliamentary Health Committee chief Atef Majdalan revelead on Thursday that “four pharmaceutical importers were involved in an operation to import more than 100 types of drugs through forged [documentation].”

It later emerged that a brother of Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish -- also a Hezbollah member –was involved in the scandal. Media reports even suggested minister Fneish might have facilitated the forging of health ministry documents for his brother and that four pharmaceutical firms implicated in the case had ties to Hezbollah.

Future News television reported on Friday that Fneish’s brother “forged the signature” of Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil to import untested drugs. The television added that the drugs entered the country “10 months ago” and that the firms involved in the importation had ties with Hezbollah.

Future News is close to the Lebanese Future Movement critical of Hezbollah and its military arsenal.

Lebanese al-Nahar newspaper reported that the firms imported most of the drugs from South East Asia and sealed them with the stamp of an accomplice company in Britain to suggest that the medicines were made in Europe.

Of course, Hezbollah has been involved in the South American cocaine trade, so this is child's play for them. But it shows that they have as little regard for the lives of fellow Lebanese as they do for infidel drug addicts in the West.

Videos of Gaza "firecracker" launches

Terrorist apologists love to refer to Gaza rockets as harmless "firecrackers."

Here are two videos, from Hamas and Islamic Jihad respectively, showing off their multiple rocket firing ability to their own people. Both were posted in the past 24 hours.

Over 70 such "firecrackers" were shot at Israeli civilians overnight, causing injuries (which the terrorist websites also celebrated.)

11,000 Syrian refugees in 24 hours

These are real refugees:

Thousands of Syrians fled their country on Friday in one of the biggest refugee exoduses of the 20-month civil war after rebels seized a border town, and the United Nations warned that millions more still in Syria will need help as winter sets in.

The UN said 11,000 refugees had fled in 24 hours, mostly to Turkey. The influx caused alarm in Ankara, which is worried about its ability to cope with such large numbers and has pushed hard, so far without success, for a buffer zone to be set up inside Syria where refugees could be housed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that compiles opposition activist reports, said at least 20 members of the Syrian security forces were killed when rebel fighters attacked a security headquarters in Ras al-Ain.

Thousands of residents poured out of the Arab and Kurdish town, in the northeastern oil-producing province of Hasaka, 600 km (375 miles) from Damascus.

In Geneva, a senior UN official highlighted the plight of Syrians still in the country. An estimated 4 million people would need humanitarian aid by early next year when the country is in the grip of winter, up from 2.5 million now, said John Ging, director of operations at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

I didn't realize that Ging, who left UNRWA last year, was now at UNOCHA. Ging was consistemtly critical of Israel and let anything from Hamas slide - even though he was the target of at least two murder attempts in Gaza.

Saturday night links

From Ian:

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Friday/weekend links

From Ian:

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

Also:

Abu who? by Martin Sherman, JPost

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.

___________

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.

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)

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.

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.

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...

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: