Saturday, January 19, 2013
Elder of Ziyon
Saturday, January 19, 2013Elder of ZiyonNo worries on that last point, Ms. Annata. The only "media" to pick up on this laughingly stupid story was - you guessed it - Mondoweiss, where any anti-Israel rumor is swallowed and regurgitated no matter how obviously made up.A campaigner for the human rights group, the Hurriyat Centre has accused Israeli prisons of treating Palestinian prisoners who fall ill with dog medicine. In a statement Ibtisam Annata, a lawyer at the Centre said a prisoner had told her that he suffered with back pain during his detention in Raymond prison prompting the doctor in charge to prescribe him with medicine used to treat dogs.
He continued to take it for several years. Other inmates revealed that many of them had been prescribed the same medicine by prison doctors. Annata condemned the practice as “inhumane” and accused the doctors of“punishing and torturing the prisoners with a slow and painful death.”She added that she feared the prisoners put their lives at further risk by exposing these crimes to the media.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of Ziyon“Many Palestinian journalists, and those in the Middle East, are forced to use Facebook to publish what their own media will not accept. But the problem becomes worse when Facebook itself starts removing material that bothers dictatorships and tyrants. One can only hope that the same Facebook employee who "accidentally" removed the article will make the same mistake and close down the accounts belonging to terrorist organizations and their leaders. It is the duty of Facebook and Western societies to side with those seeking freedom, and not to be complicit in suppressing their voices.”
“Interviewed on Lebanese television, Chomsky gave further insight into his political allegiances. “The policies of Hamas,” he insisted, “are more forthcoming and more conducive to a peaceful settlement than those of the United States or Israel… The policies, in my view, are unacceptable, but preferable to the policies of the United States and Israel.” Viewers may well have been perplexed at the sight of this Jewish academic who apparently considers the demand for the murder of all Jews – clearly stated in the Hamas covenant – preferable to Israel’s official support for the two-state solution.”
"The intransigence of Hamas is no news but in light of the reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah Marzouq remarks should function as a wake up call to European leaders. They view Palestinian unity as an important element to reach a solution in the Mid East conflict."
“Hamas’ Ministry of Economics announced this week its decision to ban the import of certain types of goods into Gaza through the Israeli crossings. These include office furniture, various types of foods, hygiene products, gas pipes, plastic, plastic bags and clothing.
The local population in Gaza expressed its dissatisfaction with the decision, especially since the Israeli products that enter Gaza are considered to be of much higher quality than the goods that are smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, through the tunnels in the Rafiah area.”
“In addition, noted COGAT, 301 tons of strawberries, and 52,000 flowers units were exported from Gaza this week. The export was coordinated by the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration through the Kerem Shalom crossing.”
"The Israeli Channel 2 further commented that Bulgarian Interior Minister,Tsvetan Tsvetanov also left the country to brief European leaders about the results of the investigation in the attack.
The Interior Ministry's press office reported Thursday that Tsvetanov was in Dublin for talks with European Union ministers and was expected to update Bulgaria's EU allies with the latest news. This has been interpreted as a step ahead in the effort to have the EU declare that the attack was masterminded by Hezbollah."
"According to Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon, Columnist Nicholas Kristof on Wednesday afternoon retweeted the message written by longtime Israel critic M.J. Rosenberg, which recalled the recently unearthed statements by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi that referred to Jews as “pigs.”
"White supremacists, and other extreme right-wing groups, don’t have a platform at ‘Comment is Free’, while Islamist extremists who are affiliated with groups openly calling for the murder of Jews (and, no, not merely Zionists) are routinely provided a platform by Guardian editors – evidently motivated by the risible belief that such violent radicals are giving voice to genuinely “progressive” values."
"Did the BBC editor who selected the questions to be publicized in this Q&A session even bother to check out the obviously propagandist motivations of the questioner? Or was the chance to once again plug this much-touted item - the circumstances of which the BBC has still not bothered to verify - just too much to resist?”
"Another radical Islamist, Abderrazak Ajah, said Moroccans must “choose between supporting the Islamist fighters as best we can or the Zionist crusade and its agents,” also posting his comments on social media."
"Addressing those present who took part in the uprising, Peres said: “To sit between you is to sit between a legend and a dream. It is hard to fathom the heights of your bravery. One cannot understand the depth of the Nazi atrocities when compared alongside the heroic bravery of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. I stand in awe of the heroism of the fighters and am shocked, to this day, by the Nazi hatred.”
We Uncover 150-Year-Old Pictures of One Family in Three Different Collections
"In the 1940s the Jewish population in the Arab world numbered between 850,000 and one million. They were integrated into their societies, although over history they were often subjected to religious persecution and even pogroms. Some Jewish families were wealthy and owned considerable property."
But a lie remains a lie, whether it is repeated ceaselessly in international forums or broadcast all day to the Iranian masses. As a former employee of the Iranian foreign ministry, I served as interpreter for visiting dignitaries, diplomats and officials. I paid close attention to public proclamations and official statements. And I was present at inner-circle conversations in which a number of high-profile Iranian officials made no secret of their intention to go atomic. I personally witnessed the following examples:
It isn’t just pathetic but also weird that educated Euro-North Americans who are eager to destroy the career of anyone who has ever uttered a single sentence that was or can be portrayed as hate speech will accept those who issue whole reams of the stuff. What is truly ridiculous about this kind of controversy is the outrage or apologia over one statement. In fact, Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood leadership including leading figures in the ruling party have made hundreds of radical statements. They are either ignored or explained away as insignificant.
In October 2012, the Palestine Committee of the Arab Lawyers Union (ALU) awarded its "highest honor . . . in esteem for any lawyer in the Arab Homeland" to female Palestinian suicide bomber and law student Hanadi Jaradat. In 2003, Jaradat left the legal profession by blowing herself up at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel, killing 21 and injuring more than 50. Among the deceased were three children and an infant.
We, The Lawfare Project and other members of the legal community, urge ECOSOC, UNESCO, ILO, and other organizations affiliated with the ALU to sever official ties with the latter, as well as to publicly denounce the ALU's decision to praise a suicide attack.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of ZiyonPalestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spoke to Arabstoday exclusively about the Bab al-Shams [“Gate of the Sun” in Arabic] Palestinian protest camp...Sounds like another violation of Oslo by the PA, if anyone still keeps track of those.
Fayyad said that “attacking the village and evacuating it is not the end of the battle. There will be more Bab al-Shams.”
The Prime Minister exclusively told Arabstoday that the Palestinian Authority’s Local Government Minister had been assigned with appointing a special committee for this end - to manage Bab al-Shams and other Occupy-style camps like it, with “all necessary measures” being taken to protect the project.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of Ziyon11 people were killed, including seven children and three women, on Thursday in an air strike that targeted a Palestinian refugee camp near Husseiniya of Sayeda Zeinab south of Damascus.UNRWA says 12 Palestinian Arabs were killed.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the warplanes targeted the camp with three missiles.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of ZiyonThe chief United Nations nuclear inspector says no deal has been reached with Iran to investigate that nation's controversial nuclear program, but that a meeting will take place next month on the issue.No need to worry, though:
International Atomic Energy Agency team leader Herman Nackaerts said Friday that two days of "intensive discussions" in Tehran failed to produce an agreement on access to Iranian nuclear facilities.
Citing unspecified "differences," Nackaerts said the two sides could not agree on a structured approach to resolve outstanding issues. He said another round of talks will take place February 12 in Tehran.
The IAEA had hoped to gain access to the Parchin military site, which Western nations suspect is related to nuclear weapons development. Iran says it is a conventional military site and that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that a religious decree issued by Iran's supreme leader banning nuclear weapons is binding on the Iranian government.To see why the people who rely on this fatwa are idiots, read this.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of Ziyon
max blumenthalPolice and the Shin Bet security service foiled a suicide bombing yesterday that was planned for the Tel Aviv region. After a dramatic chase, police stopped a commercial vehicle carrying the suspected suicide bomber and eight other Palestinians near Kibbutz Sha'alvim, on Route 1, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Police said that the suspect, an Islamic Jihad activist from the Jenin area, was carrying a bag containing between five and seven kilograms of explosives.Here is a AP photo taken after the high speed chase when Israeli special forces stripped and handcuffed the suspects:
The Islamic Jihad network in the northern West Bank claimed responsibility for the planned attack. That network has been responsible for the last seven suicide bombings, which killed 26 Israelis.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of Ziyon[Arabs] are increasingly perceived by the Jewish majority as undeserving of even the most basic rights. The attitude taking root in Israel today is that Arabs are not part of the nation’s social fabric, that they should either be evicted or penned in, and that they deserve to lose their citizenship.
It all began with "Project Y," the first reality show ever aired in Israel. The winner, Faris Huri, was a young Israeli Arab, and his victory was seen as an expression of pluralism and acceptance of the other. That show was aired more a decade ago. Since then, there has been increasing hatred and hostility in Israel. Nonetheless, the power of reality television to present an alternative Arab face has only gotten stronger.The supposed racism of Israeli Jews doesn't jive with these successes (and there are lots of other Arab contestants who have done well in Israeli reality shows as well.)
In 2006, Niral Karantinji, a young Muslim from Haifa, participated in "Israel’s Next Top Model." On this show, the Israeli public was introduced to a beautiful, bold young woman, photographed in swimwear and revealing clothes and shattering conventions along the way. She may have been rejected by the other contestants, not least because of her origins — but the Israeli public voted for her anyway, and she ended up winning the show. She was the judges' choice, but she was the audience's choice as well.
Two years ago, Futna Jaber, a restaurant-owner from Jaffa, became a housemate on "Big Brother." Jaber later went on to become a popular celebrity on talk shows and cooking shows. In doing so, she presented a very different message about the status of Arab women than the preconceived notions that can be deeply rooted in Israel's Jews.
Then there is "A Star Is Born," which has emerged in recent years as the proverbial campfire where all of Israel gathers and shares its songs and stories in one big jamboree. This is a seminal show that shapes and influences Israeli society, and one of its contestants, Miriam Tukan from the village of Iblin, made it all the way to ninth place. Tukan performed Israeli classics with a thick Arabic accent, stunning the judges and audience alike. A beautiful young Israeli Arab took songs that are hallmarks of Israeli culture, plucked them out of their natural setting and put a whole new twist on them — and it worked. People loved it.
But beyond a doubt the person who showed off the Arab community in a way that many Jews had never seen them before was Salma Fayumi from Kfar Kassem, who was a contestant on "Master Chef." Fayumi, a nurse with a master’s degree, is a devout Muslim who wears the hijab. She is one of the most impressive reality stars to appear on television in years. Yes, she looks like an Arab, but apart from her appearance, it is virtually impossible to pigeonhole her. Her Hebrew is fluent and rich, and her sense of humor is tantalizingly self-deprecating. She is good-looking, educated and a wonderful cook. This is the stuff that reality stars are made on.
Friday, January 18, 2013Elder of ZiyonFemale students at the Ain Shams University Faculty of Arts sent a complaint to media outlets accusing their professors of sexual harassment. The National Council for Women demanded that the dean and the minister of higher education immediately begin investigations into the charges.At least five professors would extort either sexual favors or money from female students in order to access the same course materials that everyone else was able to get freely. One would troll female students' Facebook pages and make suggestive remarks based on their personal information.
The students said they had to resort to the media because the university administration did not investigate the matter.
Leila Aboul Magd, head of the faculty’s Hebrew department, told the privately owned ONTV satellite channel on Wednesday that the students had shown her evidence of the harassment.
Other students are afraid to come out against the professors in case they are failed in their courses as retribution, she added.
Thursday, January 17, 2013Elder of ZiyonIsrael is a free, democratic, open, and relentlessly self-analytical place. To hear harsh criticism of Israel's policies and leaders, listen to the Israelis. So questioning Israel for its actions is legitimate, but lies are something else. Throughout human history, they have been used not only to vilify but to establish a basis for cruel and inhuman acts. The catalog of lies about Jews is long and astonishingly crude, matched only by the suffering that has followed their promulgation.The irony is that when Shultz was nominated for Secretary of State, the pro-Israel lobby was against him - especially his ties to Arab regimes through his position at Bechtel. He was replacing Alexander Haig, who was regarded as very pro-Israel, and he started off his term with some pro-Palestinian Arab statements.
Defaming the Jews by disputing their rightful place among the peoples of the world has been a long-running, well-documented, and disgraceful series of episodes across history. Again and again a time has come when legitimate criticism slips across an invisible line into what might be called the "badlands," a place where those who should be regarded as worthy adversaries in debate are turned into scapegoats, targets, all-purpose objects of blame.
In America, we protect all speech, even the most hurtful lies. We allow a virtual free-for-all by which laws are adopted, enforced, and interpreted. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent yearly to influence this process; thousands of groups vie for influence. Among these are Jewish groups that have come under renewed criticism for being part of an all-powerful "Israel lobby," most notably in a book published this week by Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.
Jewish groups are influential. They also largely agree that the United States should support Israel. But the notion that they have anything like a uniform agenda and that U.S. policy in Israel and the Middle East is the result of this influence is simply wrong.
One choice. Some critics seem overly impressed with the way of thinking that says to itself, "Since there is a huge Arab Islamic world out there with all the oil, and it is opposed to this tiny little Israel with no natural resources, then realistically the United States has to be on the Arab side and against Israel on every issue, and since this isn't the case, there must be some underhanded Jewish plot at work." This is a conspiracy theory, pure and simple.
Another tried and true method for damaging the well-being and security of the Jewish people and the State of Israel is a dangerously false analogy. Witness former President Jimmy Carter's book Palestine—Peace Not Apartheid. Here the association on the one hand is between Israel's existentially threatened position and the measures it has taken to protect its population from terrorist attacks, driven by an ideology bent on the complete eradication of the State of Israel, and, on the other, the racist oppression of South Africa's black population by the white Boer regime.
The tendency of mind that lies behind such repulsive analogies remains and is reinforced by the former president's views, spread across his book, which come down on the anti-Israel side of every case. These false analogies stir up and lend legitimacy to more widely based movements that take the same dangerous direction.
Anyone who thinks that Jewish groups constitute a homogeneous "lobby" ought to spend some time dealing with them. For example, my decision to open a dialogue with Yasser Arafat after he met certain conditions evoked a wide spectrum of responses from the government of Israel, its political parties, and American Jewish groups who weighed in on one side or the other. Other examples in which the United States rejected Israel's view of an issue, or the view of the American Jewish community, include the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and President Reagan's decision to go to the cemetery at Bitburg, Germany.
The United States supports Israel not because of favoritism based on political pressure or influence but because the American people, and their leaders, say that supporting Israel is politically sound and morally just.
We are a great nation. Mostly, we make good decisions. We are not babes in the woods. We act in our own interests. And when we mistakenly conclude from time to time—as we will—that an action or policy is in America's interest, we must take responsibility for the mistake.
So, on every level, those who blame Israel and its Jewish supporters for U.S. policies they do not support are wrong. They are wrong because, to begin with, support for Israel is in our best interests. They are also wrong because Israel and its supporters have the right to try to influence U.S. policy. And they are wrong because the U.S. government is responsible for the policies it adopts, not any other state or any of the myriad lobbies and groups that battle daily—sometimes with lies—to win America's support.
Thursday, January 17, 2013Elder of ZiyonIs the whole world under Zionist occupation? This might sound cynical, if not outright provocative but please bear with me.
I am sure that you are all aware of the fury of the Zionists over the appointment of Chuck Hagel as the new Secretary of State. A fury that made Mark Regef, spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, say openly that if this appointment went ahead, Israel would wield the veto that it holds over Washington. Yes, little Israel has power of veto over the mighty goliath that is the United States of America.
Top-ranking government officials in Jerusalem confirmed Tuesday that Israel would exercise its longstanding, constitutionally granted veto power over American policy if U.S. lawmakers confirmed retired congressman Chuck Hagel as the United States’ next Secretary of Defense. “In light of Mr. Hagel’s worrying remarks on Israeli-Palestinian relations and questionable classification of Israeli interests as ‘the Jewish lobby,’ we consider him a highly inappropriate choice for Defense Secretary who stands far out of line with our national priorities, and therefore we are prepared to swiftly and resolutely use our official veto power over this U.S. action,” said Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev of the legal maneuver that the small Middle Eastern nation has employed to block U.S. Cabinet nominees, U.S. legislation, U.S. international relations, and U.S. domestic policy over 1,400 times in its 64-year history. “Because congress does not possess the necessary nine-tenths majority to override an Israeli veto, they’ll have no choice but to head back to the drawing board and provide a Defense Secretary whom we find more suitable.”When your entire mind is already filled with hate, there leaves little room for thinking.
Thursday, January 17, 2013Elder of ZiyonOne becomes increasingly convinced that many Jewish liberals have closed minds and do not wish to be enlightened.
“One would wish to believe that much of the condemnation of Israel by liberal Jews, compounded by purportedly being grounded on Jewish values, is not malicious but based on ignorance. The blame for such behavior could then be directed solely toward Israel’s failure to convey the reality of our situation.
Yet sadly, one becomes increasingly convinced that many Jewish liberals have closed minds and do not wish to be enlightened, because their principal motivation is to demonstrate to their “progressive” friends that they are more open-minded, universal and tolerant than their “bigoted” Israeli kinsmen.”
The Palestinian Ambassador to the UK last night told an audience in the British Parliament that Israel cannot exist forever 'as a pariah state' and that the country 'nurtures on conflict'
"In a controversial speech hosted by the virulently anti-Israel Member of Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, Manuel Hassassian reportedly told an audience of around 100 people that, “there is no two state solution”.
The event was organised by the controversial Palestine Solidarity Campaign and hosted Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter, as well as Lib Dem MP and former government minister Sarah Teather."
"This is nothing new; in the past, Palestinians have rejected attempts to alleviate the conditions of their refugees by resettling. They kept the refugees, and millions of their descendants, as a political card. Moreover, the refugees constitute an important element in their self-propagated image of victimhood and martyrdom.Instead of helping his people in distress, Abbas, in the best Palestinian tradition, prefers to cling to the right of return – a demand that no Israeli government is ever going to accept. Moreover, most of the international community rejects this Palestinian demand, understanding that there is broad consensus in Israel against a mass influx of Palestinians that could destroy its Jewish character."
"The Guardian’s attempt to provide a thoughtful and appropriate article about a praiseworthy attempt by UK footballers to provide schools with a serious and sensitive Holocaust educational film documenting what they learned from a trip to Auschwitz (‘England’s football stars feature in Holocaust educational video film for schools, Jan. 14), was quickly hijacked, as we noted earlier, by Holocaust deniers."
"The BBC article states: “In the clip from Palestinian broadcaster Al-Quds TV, Mr Morsi referred to Jewish settlers as “occupiers of Palestine” and “warmongers”.[UPDATE: The BBC issued a correction.]
He called for a “military resistance in Palestine against these Zionist criminals assaulting the land of Palestine and Palestinian”.”
"Secondly, Morsi makes no reference whatsoever to “Jewish settlers” in his antisemitic, terror-glorifying rant: that phrase is an invention by the BBC. In fact, Morsi speaks of “Zionists”, by which he means all Israeli Jews – regardless of whether they live on one side or the other of the ‘green line’ – the existence of which Morsi clearly says he does not recognize."
"Tamer Nafar of the Arabic hip hop band DAM says the group’s latest album was inspired by the contrast between NASA’s space exploration and the digging of smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. He tells the pro-Palestinian website Electronic Intifada that the “occupation” and the U.S. are to blame for hindering Palestinian space exploration ambitions."
“That’s an arrogant and presumptuous point of view and doesn’t further progress on anything,” the senator said, and he returned to that view throughout the call as he discussed the location of Israel’s capital and Israeli settlements. Paul decried U.S. politicians who display “this flippant and arrogant” attitude about internal Israeli affairs, saying that “no one can really know as much as people in the region” about such matters. “It is not up to the U.S. to dictate” to mayors and West Bank officials where housing goes, Paul added."
"Available on Google Play, the app store for Android products, one app that goes by the name, Infamous Adolf Hitler Quotes opens with this description: “Looking for Adolf Hitler Quotes?? Then this is the App for you!”
"Sgt. René Elhozayel is a perfect example of what the IDF calls the ‘kur hituch’, or melting pot. One of his parents is Bedouin, and the other a Swiss Jew — he celebrates both Eid al-Adha and Passover. One day, he hopes to become a doctor. René agreed to sit down with us and talk about his unique IDF journey. Here’s his story."
"Sounding more like a clean tech venture capitalist than a head of state, David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, once said that Israel requires “the study of desalination, massive utilization of solar energy, preventing waste of useful rainwater and maximization of power from wind turbines.”
Israel Daily Picture: Eureka! Pictures Beneath the Temple Mount Now Online
Thursday, January 17, 2013Elder of ZiyonSource: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Jan. 9, 2012Moderator at Fatah ceremony:
"Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs (i.e., Jews) is a war of religion and faith. Long Live Fatah! [I invite you,] our honorable Sheikh."
PA daily: "Jews, Jews! Your holiday [Passover] is the Holiday of Apes"
Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Apr. 19, 2011
"The spring carnival has retained its [Palestinian] flavor in towns such as Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Ramallah... with the demonstrations of the Scouts, songs, dances, and popular Palestinian hymns about Christian-Islamic unity and internal Christian unity. These hymns carry meaningful messages, in response to the Israeli prohibition [to enter Jerusalem], as seen in the calls of the youth who lead the procession of light, waving swords and not caring if anyone accuses them of Antisemitism: ... 'Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Christ redeemed us, with his blood he bought us, and today we are joyous while the Jews are sad,' and, 'Jews, Jews! Your holiday is the Holiday of the Apes, while our holiday is the Holiday of the Christ.'"
PA cleric: The "cursed apes and pigs" [Jews] undoubtedly poisoned Arafat
Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Nov. 5, 2004
Ibrahim Mudayris, PA religious official, Ministry of Religious Affairs:
“We are absolutely sure that the Zionist government is responsible for the attempt to kill the president [Arafat]. We have no doubt that it somehow poisoned him to kill him slowly. These are the cursed apes and pigs [Jews]. It is our right to pray to Allah to cure him, and to plant poison the hearts of those pigs. Have you seen them on TV embracing each other, singing and dancing, those apes, those pigs, on the news about the president’s death.”
PA TV: Allah describes Jews as "apes and pigs"
Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Sept. 12, 2004
PA cleric, Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi:
“All the weapons must be aimed at the Jews, Allah’s enemies, the cursed nation in the Quran, whom Allah describes as apes and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers…Nothing will deter them except the color of blood in their filthy nation... We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the apes and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion. The Jews will fight you and you will subjugate them. Until the Jew will stand behind the tree and the rock. And the tree and the rock will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
Jews are pigs and apes
Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Sept. 29, 2003
Girl on phone to TV show:
Girl: "My name is Alaa, I am from Rafah, ten years old."
Host: "Yes, please, Alaa."
Girl: "Let the pigs and the apes know, and their leaders Sharon and Bush, that we shall stay on this land, our birth place and origin. And we shall be buried there, Shahids (Martyrs) for Palestine.”
PA religious figure: Allah turned Jews into apes and pigsThese are only some from the PA. Hamas has plenty more!
Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Nov. 1, 2002
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem, PA religious figure:
"Praise unto Allah, Who cursed our enemies; curse upon curse up to Judgment Day. And He has cursed them as well through the words of His prophets and emissaries… The Jews, however, as is their nature, and as Allah described them in His Book, [characterizing them] by conceit, pride, arrogance, rampage, disloyalty and treachery... They have a single common trait: enmity of Islam and Moslems... Note [their] deceit and cunning. Thus, it is not an exception to their nature, for which Allah transformed them to apes and pigs. [Quran] "We said to them: Be apes, despised and loathed.""
Thursday, January 17, 2013Elder of ZiyonJews of European origin are a mix of ancestries, with many hailing from tribes in the Caucasus who converted to Judaism and created an empire that lasted half a millennium, according to a gene study.That last paragraph comes straight from the paper, and shows already how sloppy the paper is. Of course, far fewer than 90% of Jews today are Ashkenaz; the paper misquoted that statistic from an article about American Jews. Seth Frantzman in JPost showed this and other sloppiness about this study a few weeks ago.
The investigation, its author says, should settle a debate that has been roiling for more than two centuries.
Jews of European descent, often called Ashkenazis, account for some 90 percent of the more than 13 million Jews in the world today.
Seeking new light in the argument, a study published in the British journal Genome Biology and Evolution, compares the genomes of 1,287 unrelated individuals who hail from eight Jewish and 74 non-Jewish populations.Frantzman shows that Elhaik makes assumptions about history that are simply not true:
Geneticist Eran Elhaik of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, trawled through this small mountain of data in search of single changes in the DNA code that are linked to a group's geographical origins.
However, the real flaws in this new research are historical. The author claims a massive knowledge of history that has major implications for his findings.In other words, Elhaik uses as source material Shlomo Sand and Arthur Koestler, who are more akin to fiction writers than serious researchers!
“There are no records of Caucasus populations mass-migrating to Eastern and Central Europe prior to the fall of Khazaria.”
The footnote for this is another genetic research study, but a claim like this requires historical knowledge of the Caucuses. In fact, the Caucuses were a place of great human movement from the 15th to 19th centuries. Cossacks, Circassians, Chechans, Tatars and numerous other groups roamed the region in the period, some of whom, like the Khazars, vanished to history.
The author claims that his evidence shows that “Judaized Greco-Roman male-driven migration directly to Khazaria is consistent with historical demographic migrations and could have created the observed pattern.” Following in the footsteps of Tel Aviv University academic Shlomo Sand’s work, The Invention of the Jewish People, Elhaik claims “no Jewish historiography was produced from the time of Josephus Flavius (1st century CE) to the 19th century.”
But the source, Sand, is not an expert on Jewish history in the period – his book, like Koester’s, was more a polemic.
Elhaik goes further, noting that “the religious conversion of the Khazars encompassed all the Empire’s citizens and subordinate tribes and lasted for the next 400 years…the Judeo- Khazars fled to Eastern Europe and later migrated to Central Europe and admixing with the neighboring populations.”
There is actually no evidence of this; the general view has been that only some of the Khazar elite converted to Judaism.
Yet Elhaik even claims to know the details of the Judeo-Khazar life. “After the decline of their Empire, the Judeo-Khazars refugees sought shelter in the emerging Polish Kingdom and other Eastern European communities, where their expertise in economics, finances, and politics were valued.”
The source for much of this is Koestler, passed off as fact with no mention that Koestler simply inferred most of it from his imagination and theories.
I think the author fumbled the interpretation of the results.I've previously outlined my own reasons for saying that the Khazar theory is nonsense:
His mistake was treating the Armenian reference sample as a Caucasus group, and also a proxy for the gene pool of the Khazar Empire. Thus, when the Jewish samples showed strong affinity to the Armenians, the author mistook this as a signal of Khazar ancestry in Jews, because the Khazar Empire included parts of the Caucasus.
But what do modern Armenians of the South Caucasus have to do with ancient Khazars of the Pontic Caspian Steppe? Not much, I'd say. Armenians aren't even a useful Caucasian reference set, in my opinion. They're better treated as an Eastern Anatolian group, due to their high affinity to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern populations.
Moreover, they show low North/East European input, and very little East Eurasian influence, which is actually the sort of stuff we'd want in a proxy for the inhabitants of the Khazar Empire in what is now Southern Russia.
All those looking for Khazar influence in Jews should be aware that the Eurasian steppes are part of the Northern world, and this has been the case for thousands of years. We know this from ancient DNA, from samples all the way from what is now Ukraine to South Siberia. This Northern world is separated from the Southern world by some mighty barriers to gene flow, like the Black Sea, Caucasus Mountains and the deserts of Central Asia (see here).
Based on my own analyses of Jewish genomes, I'd say that Ashkenazim Jews are genetically an Eastern Mediterranean group, but with various other admixtures, like Western European, Eastern European, Eastern Anatolian, and even African and East Asian. Does that mean ancestry from the Khazar Empire? Perhaps in part, but it's hard to say for sure.
So, what could be a sure signal of Khazar influence in modern Jews? The best bet is probably the R1a-Z94 carried by many Ashkenazim Levites. This marker is very common in modern Indo-Iranian and Turkic groups, so it's not difficult to imagine its presence in ancient Khazaria. The only problem is that it's also seen in Semitic groups, like Arabs. That's why it's not possible to say at the moment if the Z94 in Jews is of Semitic, Khazar or some other origin, like, for example, Persian. Someone should look into that.
Some Jews are descendants of Aaron (Kohanim) and Levi (Leviim.) Kohanim and Leviim have different roles in the religion and that status gets handed down from fathers to sons. If all Jews are converts from Khazaria, how did many of them turn into Kohanim and Leviim?
Moreover, there is a continual written record of Jewish legal issues from the Mishna through the rest of the Talmud through the Geonic period, Rishonim and later. If there was an influx of a huge number of converted Jews coming out of Khazaria, it would have engendered many new questions and legal rulings regarding their status as Jews. Where are they?
Not only that, but to get to the level of expert legal knowledge required by leading rabbis is a long educational process. How could a large group of new converts gain such expertise so thoroughly that they could be accepted by the existing Jewish communities without any record of them attending any existing institutions of Jewish study? Jewish law is nothing if not complex.
Thursday, January 17, 2013Elder of ZiyonAnyone with eyes knows that Jewish character - wherever and whenever it is found - is indistinguishable from delinquency, and has never rid itself of corruption....[Jews] never succeeded to have a normal coexistence and good relationships with humanity. It is not an exaggeration to say that they do not cease to be a source of evil and harm to all human societies, in other words: [Judaism] inherently can not ever be compatible with a community of human societies.Morsi's statements were not anomalous - they are mainstream within his belief system. And this system now rules the most populous and influential Arab country in the world.
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