Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The dwindling Jews of Yemen

The Yemen Post has a very nice article tracing the history of Jews in Yemen, and how things have been going downhill since, oh, Mohammed:

According to traditions the Jews of Yemen history can be traced back as far as King Solomon , with legends telling the tale of some 75,000 Jews who, having foretold the fall of Jerusalem - destruction of the first Temple - emigrated to Yemen in search of a more hospitable land where they would spread their beliefs and sprung forth a new community.

Historians established that the first mention of the immigration of Jews to Yemen took place at the beginning of the second century BC.

While Judaism flourished in Yemen provinces for several centuries the coming of Prophet Mohammed and the fast-paced spread of Islam throughout ancient Arabia changed everything.

By the fifth century C.E. The Jewish population had rose to about 5,000 souls, with communities scattered throughout the country.

When Saladin became sultan in the last quarter of the twelfth century and the Shiites revolted against him, the trials of the Yemenite Jews began. Their capital at the time was Teima and they called themselves Rechabites.

Tribes lost in the middle of the Islamic empire, the Jews of Yemen were often at war with their Ismaelitic neighbors.

As centuries past and Islam became the beating heart of Arabia, Yemen Jewish communities were ostracized, forced back to the outskirts of Yemen metropolis.

In the 19th Century, under the rule of the Imams, the Jews of Yemen became social pariahs, being forced to follow harsh and often humiliating rules -- they were forbidden from wearing new or flamboyant clothes, compelled to walk long distances on foot as riding donkey and mules were reserved for Muslims; they were also prohibited from engaging in money transactions --

Reports estimated the Yemeni Jewish community to be standing at 30,000 with 200 in Aden - southern seaport - 10,000 in Sana'a, 1,000 in Sa'ada, 1,000 in Dhamar and 2,000 in the desert of Beydha --

A series of mass migration to the Jewish of Israel left only a handful of Jews in Yemen northern highlands, the only remnants of a long exhausted line of Israelite migrants, who once upon a time sought refuge in the land of Queen Sheba.

Yemen 2011 Revolution left the Jewish community ever more so vulnerable as sectarian tensions started to flare up again in Yemen, awaken by the Houthis' claims over provinces lying north of Sana'a and Sunni extremists clamoring for a return to Sharia law.

With most of the remaining Jews of Yemen now living in a guarded compound in Sana'a, the dwindling community has said to be living a nightmare, with the walls of history literally closing down on them.

There's more, read it all.

Now there are rumors that Israel is trying to save the remaining Jews of Yemen. The rumors are coming from Arab and Iranian sources, though, not Israeli, so they are a bit suspect.

As a result of these rumors, a Houthi spokesman says that they have no problem with Jews and they are willing to let them go back to their homes. Except for those who supported the deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh, which is realy every single Jew in Yemen. Saleh saved their lives by protecting them and giving them a place to live when the Houthis took over the areas the Jews lived in.

So the offer seems a bit hypocritical.

Especially since, as I've reported, the Houthi logo includes the words "Damn the Jews".

But wasn't it nice of them to offer?

Reason #82,654 the UN is worthless

Mahmoud Abbas will tell anyone who listens to him that the UN General Assembly recognizes the State of Palestine within the "1967 borders."

Just today, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said "We will deal with any Israeli government that is committed to the decision of the General Assembly of the UN for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital."

(By the way, the UN did not declare Jerusalem to be the capital of "Palestine" in the relevant, operative part of resolution.)

I looked again at how the resolution referred to borders.

Here is the only part of the operative section that mentions it:

4. Affirms its determination to contribute to the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the attainment of a peaceful settlement in the Middle East that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and fulfils the vision of two States: an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel on the basis of the pre-1967 borders

There is only one problem. There are no such things as "pre-1967 borders." The Green Line was never accepted by either the Arabs, Israel or the international community to be the legal borders of Israel.

Certainly UN diplomats are well aware of this fact. Indeed, UNSCR 242 says that Israel and its neighbors have the "right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force," a reference to the fact that the Green Line was not recognized as a border.

If the UN would draft a resolution based on the borders created by pink elephants in 1873, would it be worth the paper it was written on? Because that is exactly what this is.

In fact, not a single person debating the resolution noted this obvious error in the text itself.

This isn't the only mistake in the resolution, of course. It contradicts itself between two of the operative clauses, which also have to do with borders. On the one hand, it says the UNGA "Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967," which implies all of the territory. But then it says it wishes for "a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement between the Palestinian and Israeli sides that resolves all outstanding core issues, namely the Palestine refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, borders, security and water."

Did the UNGA determine the borders or is it a final status issue? It cannot be both. Yet this contradiction is embedded in the text, again, without a note of caution from a single member of the UN.

Instead of creating a committee to iron out these self-contradictory parts, the UNGA rubber stamped whatever the Palestinian Arabs wrote.

Which is another reason that the UN is worthless.

Wednesday linkdump

From Ian:

Disrupting the ecosystem of extremism By Ron Prosor

We cannot rest until the evil ideologies that fuel terror become nothing more than relics of the past.

"There is a specific kind of ecosystem that creates terrorism. Terrorism is rooted in hate, watered with instability and state support, and then planted in the next generation.
Every roadside bombing, every suicide attack, and every act of terrorism begins with words and thoughts of hate. It begins with al-Qaida websites that turn suicide bombers into jihadi celebrities. It begins with Hezbollah summer camps that use arts and crafts to glorify martyrdom and teach bombmaking skills to children.
It begins with statements by Hamas leaders like Atallah Abu al-Subh, who recently said on public Palestinian television (and I quote) “The Jews are the most despicable and contemptible nation to crawl upon the face of the Earth.” This is the poison that is being fed to people across the Middle East, day after day."

Won't Syria Be Obama's Main Middle East Crisis in 2013? By Barry Rubin

"The Obama Administration, especially now with Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and CIA director John Brennan will maintain a consistent policy of helping to create an Islamist-dominated regime in Syria, believing that this is a great idea since the Muslim Brotherhood is moderate and will restrain the "real" extremists. To paraphrase what a former U.S. intelligence official said: So, they tell us they're going to take over; they tell us exactly how they're going to do it; then they do it. Now we watch the results playing out in front of our eyes and there's still some question out there that this threat even exists!"

Obama Needs to Realize It’s Not About the Palestinians

"Mutual threats to the U.S. and Israel — such as nuclear Iran, Islamic terrorism, the proliferation of advanced missiles and nuclear technologies, and the clear and present radical menace to pro-U.S. Arab regimes — transcend the Palestinian issue. Moreover, pro (and anti) U.S. Arab leaders have never considered the Palestinian issue a cardinal matter on their agenda. They are currently traumatized by the lethal Iranian nuclear threat, raging Arab Winter, emboldened Islamic terrorism and the erupting Iraqi, Syrian and Muslim Brotherhood lava, which might trigger their downfall."

Obama tried to meddle in Israeli elections, says senior source
Reports claim that Obama has attempted to undermine Benjamin Netanyahu in the Israeli elections, showing his hostility, as well as his ignorance of Israeli politics

"Dan Senor, a former foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign today said that during a recent trip to Israel, two US officials admitted that recent comments by US President Barack Obama were intended to undermine Benjamin Netanyahu’s election bid."

Genocide Abuse Day at the IHRC

"The far left have tackled this problem by keeping Jewish victimhood centre stage, whilst alleging that Zionists wanted the Holocaust and/or actually colluded with the Nazis to bring it about. They turn the moral tables on Zionism, by claiming that Zionists needed and desired and worked towards dead Jews in order to gain global sympathy for their enterprise.
The pro-Iranian IHRC ( Islamic Human Rights Commission), however, prefer the tactic of declaring a Genocide Memorial Day. This year it is subtitled “Remembering Man’s Inhumanity to Man” and will be held on 20th January. The day’s title enables the IHRC to gently subsume the genocide of European Jewry under the sheer scale of man’s inhumanity to man. Challenge this as sophistry and you are forced into a somewhat nauseating comparative study in human suffering."

Peter Oborne gives a free pass to Palestinian rejectionists
It is astonishing that Oborne's blatantly one-sided account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which eschews proper context, is allowed to pass for respectable journalism in Britain

"According to a very recent opinion poll carried out by a Ramallah-based research centre, some 88 percent of West Bank Palestinians believed that armed struggle is the right method to achieve independence. This accords with earlier polls which show a majority of Palestinians supporting a two state solution only as a stepping stone to the eventual 'liberation' of Palestine."
"Yet none of this features on Oborne's political radar. In describing his visit to Ramallah, he declares that 'there was not a hint of violent language from Riad Malki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority'. (Palestinians are adept at playing the game of public diplomacy, as we know). In other words, the violence and extremism that Oborne so disapproves of can only be found on the Israeli side of the border. This view is so one-sided and sloppy that it beggars belief that any serious journalist could entertain it."

Lee Jasper: 'Israel is racist oppressor'
Respect Party politician Lee Jasper has used the upcoming Holocaust Memorial Day to mount an attack on Israel as a "racist oppressor".

"Mr Jasper, a former equalities adviser to Ken Livingstone and an activist on race relations issues, made the comments about Israel and the Holocaust on his Facebook page.
Writing incorrectly that HMD is today – it is in fact later this week – he said: "We are asked to remember that which Israel has forgotten, that religious & racial hatred is a sin against God."

UK teachers encouraged to join pro-Israel unions
Jewish teachers in the United Kingdom are bring encouraged to join unions to combat anti-Israel rhetoric.

Senior Hamas Commander: We Labor “Day and Night” Educating Children to Become Suicide Bombers (VIDEO)

"On December 18, 2012, senior Hamas commander Zaher Jabarin gave an interview to Hamas’ Al-Quds TV, during which he said Hamas labors “day and night” educating Palestinian children in Gaza to become suicide bombers.
The role of suicide bomber is in high demand amongst children, Jabarin claimed. “The Palestinian youngsters, the resistance and Jihad warriors, fight and quarrel over performing a courageous suicide operation,” he said."

Abbas protests Malaysian prime minister’s Gaza visit
Palestinian Authority president says Abdul Razak’s meetings with Hamas leaders in the Strip undermine his status

"The visit prompted a bitter protest from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said it undermined his status and that of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. Abbas said he was seeking “clarifications” from the Malaysian government."

Canada: Pakistani protesters say: ‘Massacre of Shia Muslims a Zionist plot’

"A large crowd of about 300 men, women and children gathered outside the Pakistani consulate on Jan. 14 to protest against deadly terrorist attacks in Pakistan, which had targetted primarily Shia Muslims.
The messages delivered by most of the speakers at the protest reflected that of the promotional flyer for the event, which stated in part, “Massacre of Shia Muslims; Zionist Plot – Local and Regional Extremist Hands” and “Down with Zionist Plots.”"

Italian MP: Anti-Semites Sitting in EU Parliament
Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein fights inclusion in EU parliament of representatives from ‘anti-Semitic’ European parties.

"More than 30 MPs in the European Union Parliament stood in protest Monday to express support for a request to keep representatives from anti-Semitic parties out.
The request, filed by Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein, seeks to challenge the membership of Greek representative Eleni Zaroulia of the Golden Dawn party, and Hungarian MP Tamas Gaudy-Nagy of the Jobbik party."

Israeli doc helps Haitian amputee get groove back
Georges Exantus underwent surgery in Israel after he lost his leg in the 2000 earthquake; today he’s boogying on the dance floor

"Israeli doctors and physical therapists who came to Haiti after the quake sent him to Israel for surgery and rehabilitation.
Three years later, the 31-year-old professional dancer is back on the floor, spinning away as he does the salsa, cha-cha and samba. A prosthetic leg doesn’t hold him back."

Yesh Atid to Make History with First Female Ethiopian MK

Pnina Tamano-Shata, number 14 on the Yesh Atid list, will be the first ever female MK from Ethiopia.
"Pnina Tamano-Shata, number 14 on the Yesh Atid list, made aliyah from Ethiopia at the age of three. She is a lawyer who in the past worked as a reporter on Channel 1 News. Now, she will be making history as an MK. Previous MKs from Ethiopia have all been male."

Reuters creates a "blockade" on the truth

From Reuters:

Malaysia's prime minister defied Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip to visit the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday, part of a diplomatic push by Gaza's Islamist rulers that is irritating their secular rivals in the West Bank.

Israel has not had any say over what goes through the Rafah border since the EUBAM observers left Gaza in 2007.

Since then, Hamas members have traveled back and forth to Iran for terror training, many buses filled with European sympathizers of Hamas have entered Gaza, Gaza's political leaders have gone on extended Middle East tours and attracting lots of fellow anti-semites, and construction material has been transferred into Gaza through Rafah.

Israel has a full naval blockade on Gaza - one that is entirely legal - and it limits the types of materials that go into and out of Gaza through Israel. But it doesn't restrict what transverses Rafah, although Israel is understandably concerned over the hundreds of tons of weapons that get smuggled in that way.

Reuters, however, is making the act of Malaysia's prime minister into a heroic act, saying he is defying Israel's blockade - as if Israel was trying to block him.

In fact, it is Mahmoud Abbas who condemned the Malaysian leader's visit, not Israel.

Najib's visit drew a stern rebuke from Abbas, who has not set foot in Gaza since his forces fought and lost a civil war against Hamas there in 2007.

"The Palestinian presidency rejects and denounces the visit ... and believes it undermines the representation of the Palestinian people," his office said in a statement. "It enhances division and does not serve Palestinian interests."

Reuters, once again, ignores the truth for its own narrative purposes.

(h/t Arnold)

"The settlements don't endanger Israel's existence - they guarantee it" (Dani Dayan video)

From a January 15th debate at the Royal Geographical Society.

(h/t Yoel)

Life in Lebanon "horrible" for fleeing Syrian Palestinians

From Reuters:

Palestinian refugees who fled Syria's war to neighboring Lebanon are living up to 20 in a room with no water, fresh air or electricity, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.

Donors needed to do more to help at least 20,000 Palestinians who have already come in from Syria and more than 200 who join them every day to endure "horrible" conditions, UN Relief and Works Agency chief Filippo Grandi told Reuters.

He had toured the Shatila Palestinian camp and found "the conditions were horrible" for new arrivals.

"The main problem they have is accommodation. They rent small, cramped, very unsanitary premises without running water, without ventilation, without electricity," he said.

"And sometimes you see rooms in which 12, 15, 20 people live in really substandard conditions." He met one family living in a dark room with only one candle. "I couldn't see who I was speaking to," Grandi said.

Some politicians fear an influx of majority Sunni Muslim Syrians and Palestinians will tip the demographic balance of a country that is still reeling from its own 15-year civil war. More than 400,000 Palestinian refugees already live in Lebanon.

Grandi said Jordan, which already hosts 2 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants from the Arab-Israeli wars, was turning back Palestinian refugees from Syria, though he did not have figures.

Jordan has said it cannot take in more Palestinian refugees.

"I understand the sensitivity of the issue for the Jordanian authorities," Grandi said.

"I would like to appeal to (Jordan) to exercise all humanitarian considerations when Palestinian refugees ask to be admitted to Jordanian territory from Syria," he added.

It is funny how UNRWA is so understanding of Arab nations mistreating Palestinian Arabs. You never hear the UN or the EU condemn Arabs for specifically discriminating against Palestinians.

They save their condemnations for another target.

By the way, three Palestinian Arabs - including a child - were killed today in Syria. It was in all the headlines, wasn't it?

Iran: "If Assad is toppled, the line of resistance against Israel will be broken"

From Iran's ABNA:

Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said the fall of al-Assad will damage the resistance front against Israel.

“The main reason behind our focus on the Syrian issue is to prevent the fall of the resistance line against Israel. If Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, falls the resistance line against Israel will break up,” Velayati stated.

[Velyati] described his fate as a “red line” for the Islamic Republic.

Westerners who pretend Iran is a rational player need to read this quote over and over again. Iran is stating that its major foreign policy goal is to fight Israel, to the extent of pulling out all the stops to prop up a ruthless, murderous dictator that the entire world agrees must go.

If Iran's hatred for Israel is so irrational, why do people still believe that their desire for a nuclear bomb that would be aimed against Israel is any less monomaniacal?

In a related story, the Times of London reports about Hezbollah's direct fighting for the Assad regime, along with Iraqi Shiites. No doubt this is at Iran's behest as well. As the CSM reports:

An unprecedented and slickly-produced video is being circulated around Shiite areas of Lebanon showing alleged Shiite combatants fighting in Syria. The video's production and open dissemination highlight how fighters outside Syria are jumping into the country's ongoing civil war – and growing more bold about it.

According to Lebanese sources close to the militant Shiite Hezbollah, the combatants seen in the video are a mix of Hezbollah members and Iraqi Shiites, but the video was produced in Iraq.

Hezbollah’s leadership has played down persistent reports that its fighters are helping defend the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the video, which was clearly made with the consent of the combatants, appears to reflect the growing conviction within Shiite circles in Lebanon that the war in Syria is no longer one between an embattled autocratic regime and a grassroots opposition but a sectarian confrontation against the emerging and increasingly influential Salafi Jihadist groups that view Shiites as heretics and Hezbollah as an enemy.

The conflict in neighboring Syria presents Hezbollah and its Iranian patron with a strategic dilemma. Assad’s Syria represents the geopolitical lynchpin that binds Hezbollah to Iran and is a core component in the “Jabhat al-Muqawama” or “Axis of Resistance,” the pan-regional alliance challenging Israel and Western ambitions in the Middle East. If Assad falls and is replaced by a moderate Sunni regime that turns away from Iran and towards Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Hezbollah could become isolated on the Mediterranean coast and potentially threatened by a Sunni resurgence in the Levant.

Sources in the Syrian opposition, the rebel Free Syrian Army, and Western embassies concur that Hezbollah is participating in some fighting and also training regular Syrian troops in urban warfare tactics and turning the pro-regime Shabiha militia into an effective paramilitary force.

How do you act in your holiest site when it snows?

It is hard to tell the difference between the third holiest place in Islam - and a schoolyard at recess.

Palestinian Human Rights Foundation declares the Holocaust a "myth"

The Palestinian Human Rights Foundation (Monitor) has an article in its website by Dr. Mustafa Ahmed Abul Khair, chairman of its Advisory Council and a professor of international law.

In the article, Khair claims that Israel should compensate Egypt for damages Egypt claims Israel has done to it over the years, up to some $500 billion.

In order to buttress his argument, he says that "the Zionist entity is extorting Germany to get too much financial compensation for the myth of the Holocaust."

I will be speaking at Yeshiva University in Manhattan next Tuesday night.

The topic is "דע מה להשיב: How to answer the 20 most popular anti-Israel libels clearly and concisely."

I will also be speaking about Hasbara in general. In addition, I will be giving out the Hasby Awards for the best examples of Hasbara for past year (although it will be more low-key than I originally planned given I am in mourning, so no song-and-dance routines.)

I don't yet know specifically which building/room I am going to be speaking in.

It is sponsored by the YU Israel Club.

Tuesday links

From Ian:

Study: Allow Gaza population to expand into Sinai By Khaled Abu Toameh
Palestinian study recommends solving “population explosion” by transferring residents to West Bank, setting birth control rules.

"A study published Monday by a Palestinian engineer recommends solving the Gaza Strip’s “population explosion” by allowing the enclave to expand into the Sinai Peninsula.The study also recommends transferring some of the Gaza Strip’s residents to the West Bank and setting rules for birth control as a way of solving the problem.
The study was prepared by engineer Mustafa al-Farra and published in the daily Al- Quds newspaper."

France marches on Mali, and the Left's anti-war fervour falls silent. Is liberal interventionism back on the agenda?

"Surely it is only a matter of time before the righteous legions begin their counter-march. The demands for a boycott of French produce. The recall of our Ambassador from Paris. Soon the Mall will echo to lusty cries of “Pas en mon nom!”, while lawyers begin to draw up papers for the arrest of the 24th president of the Republic.
Then again, perhaps not. It may just be me, but the anti-war movement seems to have been a little slow off the mark when it comes to France’s latest bout of international adventurism. Seamus Milne has been strangely silent. A search of Google uncovers no condemnation from venerable anti-imperialist John Pilger. Even George Monbiot doesn’t yet appear to have found a pipeline with which to explain and expose Hollande’s true motives."

Caroline Glick: Bye-bye London

"At another point, I was asked how I defend the Nazi state of Israel. When I responded by among other things giving the Nazi pedigree of the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by Nazi agent Haj Amin el Husseini and currently led by Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, the crowd angrily shouted me down.I want to note that the audience was made up of upper crust, wealthy British people, not unwashed rabble rousers. And yet they behaved in many respects like a mob when presented with pro-Israel positions."

London Review of Books Cheerleads for Hamas

"The London Review of Books is nothing if not consistent in its contemptuous attitude towards the Jewish state. A recent article, "Why Israel Didn't Win" (Dec. 6, 2012), by Adam Shatz is illustrative. Ignoring a litany of violent provocations and repeated proclamations by Hamas leaders that "Palestine is ours from the river to the sea," Shatz grasps at the disingenuous figleaf of a "temporary truce" offered by Hamas in order to cast Israel as the villain responsible for last November's intensification of violence. Shatz's argument is shoddy, transparently reversing cause-and-effect. It typifies the diminished quality of analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict coming from The London Review of Books."

BBC outsources coverage of Israeli elections to writer for far-Left magazine

"+972 magazine showcases the opinions of a tiny fringe on the far Left of Israeli politics which is alien to mainstream Israeli opinion. As its Editor himself admits, its English language format is intended to appeal primarily to foreign readers, with the aim of securing “dramatic pressure from abroad” in order (rather undemocratically, some might think) to influence the internal Israeli political process.
The BBC’s decision to outsource some of its election coverage to a contributor to such a forum is the equivalent of its publishing analysis of British elections by a writer for the ‘Socialist Worker’. One doubts very much that the BBC would dare to try that one at home."

Quick-Thinking Security Officers Head Off Arab 'Fire Libel'
Arabs who set several fires in central Samaria may have been trying to smear area Jews for the destruction of an Arab olive grove

Egyptian soccer referee threatens boycott of Israel

‘Israel is a cancer and we must fight it,’ official says, decrying upcoming European championships in Israel
“This Zionist Entity is planted, like a cancerous tumor, in the body of the Arab and Islamic nation. We must tear it out and, until we do, we must fight it as much as we can,” Nasser Sadeq Abdel Naby said in an interview on Egyptian television earlier this month that has been translated by MEMRI."

Syrian government has pattern of attacking bakeries, bread lines

"After a week without bread, people in the small central Syrian town of Halfaya got word two days before Christmas that a shipment of flour had arrived at the main bakery, prompting several hundred to queue up for the staple of life in the war-ravaged land.
For the Syrian air force, it was a moment of lethal opportunity. Soon, a Sukhoi-22 ground attack plane flew over the bakery and dropped eight bombs, each filled with cluster bomblets. The first struck 150 feet from the bakery, but the second was a direct hit on the bread line, killing at least 68 people, witnesses said."

Reports: Saudi commutes sentences of death-row inmates who agree to fight 'Jihad' in Syria
Reports claim that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been commuting the death penalty for those willing to fight against Bashar Al-Assad in Syria

UN chief blames Israel for Arab world stagnation

‘Conflict, injustice, occupation’ — and especially the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate — have prevented progress, says Ban; our conflict is not the core Arab issue, Israel responds

Hungarian lawmaker to speak on ‘Zionist threat’

"A lawmaker from Hungary’s Jobbik Party who recently called for listing Jews as a “security risk” reportedly is planning a lecture tour about the “Zionist threat."

Ethics board summons Belgian doctor over Israel boycott

Order of Physicians holds hearing to discuss efforts to block sales of Teva pharmaceuticals
"Gorissen, a veteran anti-Israel activist, is a member of GVHV, a group providing free medical services as part of an initiative started by the Marxist Belgian PvDA party."

Upgraded Iron Dome intercepts medium-range missile
Rafael and the Defense Ministry successfully test improved version of rocket interception system

Tel Aviv Ranked Seventh Best Beach City Worldwide

"Tel Aviv, known as the “White City,” placed seventh in the Lonely Planet’s review of top beach cities behind top-ranked Barcelona. Tel Aviv beat cities such as its Middle Eastern neighbor Dubai, Miami, as well as Brighton and Hove in Great Britain on the list."

New EU Marie Curie Prize goes to Israeli woman
Israeli biomed engineering researcher Sarit Sivan received the European Commission’s new prize for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Sui generis - int'l law only for Israel (Robbie Sabel - video)

Robbie Sabel, professor of international law at Hebrew University, gave this brief talk last summer that is worth watching. He is discussing how many seeming international laws are"sui generis" for Israel - meaning they apply to Israel and no one else.

(h/t Dave Gold)

PLO puzzled that it wasn't invited to Obama inauguration

From The National: (UAE)

With its pomp and ceremony, a US presidential inauguration is frequently touted here as an inspiring example for less fortunate countries of peaceful and orderly transitions of power.

But one diplomat from a people long denied statehood, in some ways as a direct result of US policy, had no seat at the festivities yesterday.

"You know it's a funny thing," said Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestinian envoy to Washington, about not receiving an invitation to Mr Obama's swearing-in. "Technically we are not on their diplomatic list because we are not recognised as a full-fledged state.

"When we checked last they told us that because we changed addresses and emails," he said, his voice trailing off. "It could be technical, it could be logistical. But I don't feel angry."

...Mr Areikat, in the face all facts to the contrary, believes that Middle East peace is still a core US interest and that Mr Obama's second term holds glimmers of promise.

John Kerry's nomination for secretary of state is promising because he is an advocate of a strong US role in the Middle East and in resolving its conflicts, he added. "But presidential involvement in any effort is crucial."

Mr Areikat also sees opportunity in the US policy of engagement with the new democracies of the Middle East, especially Egypt.

But was the PLO invited to the 2009 ceremony?

(h/t AR)

Hamas earning its bad Freedom House score

In the annual Freedom House report on how free various countries and territories are, Gaza received one of the worst rankings - 6 for political rights and 6 for civil liberties (7 is the worst.) It did beat out Syria, though, which was scored 7 and 7.

Hamas seems hell-bent on hitting the Syrian rankings, though, as Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas started a new campaign of arresting journalists.

Hamas detained one radio journalist's family in order to get him to come to security headquarters this morning so they could arrest him.

Two others were arrested yesterday, including the managing director of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. Yet two mores were detained on Sunday.

The West Bank under the PA was not much better than Hamas, with scores of 6 and 5.

Israel was ranked the only free country in the Middle East, with scores of 1 and 2.

Egyptian "expert" says Jews stole Star of David from Muslims; Menorah symbol stolen from Romans

Al Ahram quotes an Egyptian "antiquities expert" as saying that the Star of David and the Menorah symbols of Judaism are stolen from other cultures.

Dr. Rahim Rihan, who we have seen recently as claiming that there were no Temples in Jerusalem and that Israel is using super-secret chemicals to dissolve the Al Aqsa Mosque, is apparently going to keep on making things up as long as the Arabic media quotes him seriously.

He says that the Star of David as a Jewish symbol has its roots in Prague in 1648. A Jewish army contingent was defending the city and the Emperor of Austria, Ferdinand III, suggested the star as the symbol of the Jewish troops, using the Greek Delta (triangle) character and doubling/inverting it to symbolize David. In fact, says Rihan, it is an ancient Islamic symbol.

This is a very nice story, but it doesn't explain why the Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible of 1008 has this on its cover:

Or why a 3rd century synagogue was decorated with this:

It is true that other cultures used a six-pointed star and it wasn't seen as being exclusively Jewish until relatively recently, but it clearly predates Islam.

Rihan doubles down with his discussion of the menorah symbol. He says that it is really a Roman symbol, and that the Biblical description of the menorah is really from the Romans - who lived quite a few centuries later.

Here's a menorah on a Hashmonean coin circa 40 BCE, already a clear Jewish symbol:

Dr. Rihan is clearly enjoying making things up and being taken seriously by the Egyptian media. And the Egyptian media is happy pushing his lies.

So we can expect to see many more of them.