Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

The Iranian space-monkey gets interviewed

An Iranian blogger wrote a very funny parody interview with the monkey allegedly shot into space on an Iranian sub-orbital rocket. From MEMRI:

"After many efforts, and after bribing the zoo bouncer... our correspondent managed to interview the Iranian space monkey:

"Is your name Aftab ["sun" in Persian], and can we call you that?

"Aftab the monkey: I was sent into space from a street named The Glory of Islam, at a cost of a billion toman, bringing the blessing of peace to all space aficionados and to Iran, the breeder of martyrs, and also to the leader of the astronauts, the supporters of the space [program of] in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also to all the monkeys who were martyred on the path to the conquest of the heights of space. [This came] in advance of the 10 days of Fajr [Iranian Revolution Day celebrations] or what people call the 10 days of suffering... You may call me Aftab.

"What made you decide to become an astronaut?

"Aftab the monkey: Truly, we [monkeys] are mistaken in thinking that we want to, or like to, become astronauts and go into space. What does a monkey have to do with space? We belong in the treetops! But after being kidnapped by the sinful soldier brothers of the Imam Zaman [usually referring to the Mahdi; here it is apparently mocking Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei], I was transferred to Evin [Prison], where I spend six months in solitary confinement. After that [came] interrogation by the confession brothers, under the guidance of brother Hossein the interrogator, and I resisted. Ultimately, they brought in a large bear who called me a rabbit. I broke; I volunteered to become an Islamic astronaut in order to destroy the plundering Israel and the imperialist America. I only insisted that they present me as an astronaut who is a member of the Basij. They refused, and I don't know why.

"All in all, how long did it take you to become an astronaut?

"Aftab the monkey: If you count the time I spent in solitary [and in Evin] and in training, I managed to attain this great honor in under a year. Indeed, I [would like to give] special thanks to my brother Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of the state and the servant of Imam Zaman, who was my model in carrying out this divine mission."

"Tell us a bit about your training...

"Aftab the monkey: After reciting the morning prayer and the verses, and after the fear, I went to a special room with a very high ceiling. After reciting the prayer of Ja'far Al-Tayyar [a hero from early Islam], I put my legs together in a special place and, with an 'Allah Akhbar,' waved my legs in the air. At first, I couldn't gain [even] a meter [in altitude], but with reminders from the cable and the whip, [wielded by] one of the brothers... I managed to break the record, [attaining] 15 meters and 37 centimeters, with the miraculous aid and prayers of the best of the marjaya and the senior ayatollahs.

"Of course, I fasted every day, and the fast was one of the most difficult and important parts of my training – because in space you can't purify yourself. If, God forbid, overeating causes secretion of filth [i.e. excretion], the entire project will be unclean. Everyone needs to purify themselves in water, according to the Islamic law for the month of Ramadan and every fast day, so that our activity will be pure and untainted, and acceptable to God...

..."[Share] one memory with our readers.

"Aftab the monkey: My most vivid memory has to do with the time I had doubts about carrying out religious duties in space. Because, as it is written in the Koran and in the precepts of Islam, these tasks are for performing on earth, and a human was designated as the Messenger of Allah on earth; I, as a space monkey, do not belong, and am not obligated by this. This threw me into a spiritual crisis. Via chat, the brothers read me verses [of the ayatollahs] Safi Golpaygani and Makarem Shirazi, in addition to good advice and explanations of the meaning of and punishment for heresy by these two respected [ayatollahs] – and the light of belief again shone in my heart.

"And our final question: What do you plan to do next?

"Aftab the monkey: I have many plans, the most important of which is sending live Muslims into space, and from there to Paradise, and after that to find a planet with all the [necessary] conditions for holding public prayers.

"Thank you. Is there anything you want to tell our readers?

"Aftab the monkey: My words to young people are to keep these slogans at the forefront of their revolutionary lives: 'The road to Jerusalem leads through Mars'; 'War, war, until the sun in space is conquered'; 'Uranus, Uranus, we are coming'; 'Rocket, rocket to victory'; 'God, God, protect [Ayatollah] Jannati to the next galaxy'..."

Wednesday links: Flying shoes, the EU and Hezbollah, South Korea loves Israel

From Ian:

Suit: Money funneled by former ‘Ground Zero’ mosque imam to finance lavish lifestyle
Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf pocketed money for trips, real estate and a fancy car, the suit charges

“The ex-“Ground Zero” imam, his pockets stuffed with donations given to Islamic nonprofits, splurged on a high-flying lifestyle that included expensive trips with a New Jersey gal pal, a stunning new lawsuit charges.
The married Feisal Abdul Rauf fleeced the Malaysian government for $3 million and a Westchester County couple for $167,000, according to a lawsuit filed by the couple, businessman Robert Deak and his wife Moshira Soliman.
The money was given to help Rauf’s two nonprofits, the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which work to combat anti-Islamic sentiment”.
Instead, the controversial imam used some of the cash to provide lavish gifts and getaways to a woman identified as Evelyn Adorno, who shared “a personal relationship with Rauf,” said Deak’s attorney, Jonathan Nelson.

Mali Reveals the Media’s Gaza Bias

"Yet when it comes to Islamists in Gaza, suddenly all moral clarity disappears in an avalanche of clichéd images and headlines ignoring the most basic truths. France can launch military attacks about 2,000 miles south of its border in response to an Islamist threat that endangers nobody in France, but Israel is vilified if it responds militarily to deadly rocket attacks targeting its civilians from two miles to its south."

What brings Obama to Israel?
As observers scratch their heads and wonder why the US president would make the trip, the simple answer may be: because he said he would

Honest Reporting: A Super Bowl of Silly BDS Coverage

The Guardian joins BDS nitpicking over a SodaStream factory’s West Bank location. The “sizzle” is that SodaStream happened to advertise during the Super Bowl.
Is every single BDS press release a story for The Guardian?

US condemns Turkey’s ‘inflammatory comments’ on Syria
Washington says FM Davutoglu’s call for Syria to retaliate for alleged Israeli airstrike doesn’t help resolve civil war

"The US State Department on Tuesday said it lodged a complaint with Ankara for inflammatory statements made Saturday by the Turkish foreign minister calling on Syria to retaliate against last week’s alleged Israeli strike.
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that the US was very troubled by the “inflammatory comments” made by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday."

U.S. must recognize Israel's control of the Golan
Syrian civil war should prompt U.S. to change its policy

"As the crisis in Syria intensifies, Israel's appreciation for the Golan will go beyond the sentimental to an actual real-time appreciation for the security it provides.
The time is ripe for the United States to show tangible support for its closest ally in the Middle East. The time is ripe for the United States to help maintain the Golan as an Israeli safe space for Arabs and Jews away from the brutal carnage of the nearby Syrian civil war. Now more than ever, it is time for the U.S. to recognize the Golan for what it is: Israeli."

Analysis: EU treats Hezbollah with its own logic
Political interests of some EU states dictate organization's stand on Hezbollah, which won't change because of Bulgarian report.

".. when it comes to Hezbollah, the EU has a logic all its own. An example of this came last month when the EU-observer, an online newspaper devoted to EU politics, reported that the union’s top counterterrorism official, Gilles de Kerchove, said responsibility for that blast will not necessarily qualify Hezbollah for the terror blacklist.
“There is no automatic listing just because you have been behind a terrorist attack,” he said in a comment that forces a double-take."

Kerry to Europe: Cut Funding to Hizbullah
U.S. Secretary of State urges Europe to cut off funding to Hizbullah after Bulgaria blames the terror group for the Burgas bus bombing.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday urged Europe to cut off funding to the Hizbullah terror group, after Bulgaria blamed Hizbullah for an attack that killed five Israeli tourists in July.
"We strongly urge other governments around the world -- and particularly our partners in Europe -- to take immediate action to crack down on Hizbullah," Kerry said, according to AFP.

Bystander chucks his shoe at Ahmadinejad during Cairo visit VIDEO

4 arrested in Egypt after shoe thrown at Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

"Egypt's security arrested four men who were protesting outside a Cairo mosque, where the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was praying.
The men, including a Syrian, belong to the ultra-conservative Sunni Salafist movement.
One man threw a shoe at Ahmadinejad, a Shiite, who was never in any danger."

Despite sanctions, Ahmadinejad offers loan to Egypt
During 1st trip to Egypt by an Iranian leader in 34 years, Ahmadinejad offers Morsi "credit line" to cash-strapped leader.

"Iran has offered to lend money to cash-strapped Egypt despite being under international economic sanctions itself over its nuclear program, visiting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted on Wednesday as saying.
The two countries do not have diplomatic relations but Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, gave Ahmadinejad a red-carpet welcome on Tuesday when he became the first Iranian leader to visit in more than 34 years."

Democracies must care for Pakistan’s minorities
Governments of the world’s leading democracies still continue to gloss over Pakistan’s minority rights violations

"Hell-bent on creating a feudal, irrational order based on the fanatic Wahhabi-Deobandi version of Islam, these obscurantist, reactionary forces have increasingly prevailed upon the state to resort to policies that would make the lives of people of all other faiths and values living in the country miserable.
In the process, the plight of Pakistan’s minorities has gone from bad to worse over the years. Most of the minorities in Pakistan – Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Baha’i, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis), Ahmadis, Shi’ites and Mohajirs – non-Muslims and non-Sunni Muslims both – have either resorted to exodus or conversion."

Living with hope in the shadow of the bomb
Like Israel with Iran, South Korea faces a hostile neighbor closing in on nuclear weapons. Unlike Israel, however, it’s not talking about military intervention

"Many Koreans believe that Jews win more Nobel Prizes than others because of the wisdom hidden in the Talmud. That’s why an abridged version of the Talmud can be found “in every household” in South Korea, the country’s Ambassador to Israel Kim Il-Soo said during a recent interview.
“That makes our two nations understand each other better,” he said.

Unlikely Coupling: Iranian-Israeli Rita to Perform at UN (VIDEO)

Rita, the Israeli-Iranian singer who has been a cultural bridge between the otherwise diametrically opposed nations, will be appearing at the UN on March, 5. The show will be titled “Tunes for Peace” and seeks to “build bridges, foster inner-cultural dialogue, and connect people to people,” according to a flier for the event. The performance will take place in the General Assembly Hall.

Israel’s OurCrowd spreads investment joy, and risk
Crowdfunding is quickly becoming a popular model for start-up fundraising, and an Israeli group has taken the model and run with it

IDF Saves Life of 13-Year-Old PA Boy
An IDF medical team on Sunday saved the life of a 13-year-old Palestinian Authority dialysis patient.

"An IDF medical team on Sunday saved the life of a 13-year-old Palestinian Authority dialysis patient whose life was in danger due to the worsening of his condition.
"We received a call around nine in the morning from the Chief Medical Officer of the Judea and Samaria Division informing us that there was a boy hospitalized in the Jenin hospital in need of further intensive care," said Lt. Abed Rabah, Medical Officer of the Menashe Regional Brigade in the Judea and Samaria Division, according to the blog of the Israel Defense Forces."

Also:

Ha'aretz Admits 'Land Grab' Story Unfounded

Europe OK with Occupation – and With Hezbollah (h/t Bill)

JPost: (h/t Josh)

A university professor who believes Israel created Hamas and argues that it is a victim of dehumanization by Israel, rather than the other way around, was supposed to provide an unbiased opinion on Israeli textbooks?

British Philosemite Julie Burchill: “Israel is the perfect country in every way. My only criticism is that it could stand to be quite a bit bigger.”

Egyptian PM: "Women's dirty breasts cause diarrhea"

From The Daily Mail:

The Egyptian prime minister has blamed a diarrhoea epidemic sweeping through rural areas on women not keeping their breasts clean.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said he had witnessed children suffering from diarrhoea immediately after they had been breastfed because their mothers hadn't cleaned themselves probably.

He added that many women in rural Egypt don't even bother to clean their breasts at all before feeding their youngsters.

Qandil was speaking about the spate of recent epidemics in Egypt's rural communities during an address at a cabinet meeting.
Women members present were noticeably uncomfortable as Qandil made the comments, according to an online report from International Business Times.

Qandil previously caused widespread anger by offering a bizarre solution to Egypt's power crisis.

He urged the Egyptians to wear cotton clothes and gather in a single room to conserve power.

Qandil, 50, is the youngest Prime Minister of Egypt in the last five decades. He served as the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation before being appointed by President Mohammed Mursi.

I think Qandil misunderstands the concept of "talking dirty."

Nevertheless, this kind of scientific rigor is what makes Egypt the successful country it is today, and the leader of the Arab world.

(h/t jzaik)

Muslims want a seat at the Security Council

From Arab News:

The 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference, the largest Muslim organization in the world, should have a seat on the UN Security Council, said Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, its secretary-general.

“One of the important objectives for which I have been exerting a lot of efforts was to have a seat for OIC in the Security Council to represent 1.5 billion Muslims in the world,” Ihsanoglu told reporters in Cairo.

Speaking about the challenges facing the Islamic Ummah, he said they include poverty, lack of economic integration, Jewish settlement in occupied Arab territories, and Judaization of Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

Yes! Fully half of the problems in the Islamic world have to do with the existence of Jews on their homeland!

Forget the terrible state of education in Muslim countries. Forget that women are second-class citizens whose every actions are controlled by male-dominated culture. Forget the problems of oil drying up. Forget the huge class differences between wealthy sheikhs and the rest of society. Forget Islamic extremism and terrorism in the name of Allah.

No, the Islamic Ummah is fixated on Jews!

Of course, one explains the other.

Anyway, let's see what sort of agenda the OIC would have if it joined the UNGC:

From 2009:

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for an urgent meeting on Israel's frequent violations against the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the occupied East Al-Quds. The world's largest Islamic organization urged UN Security Council and Russia "to request an emergency meeting on Zionist regime violations of international law in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) ... and aggressions against the holy places".

The Organization has already cautioned Israel of 'dangerous consequences' for acts of sacrilege in the holy compound emphasizing that any damage to the mosque could lead to "unpredictable consequences" for international peace and security.

From 2010:

Mahmoud Erol Kilic, Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in a statement Sunday condemned the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1929 imposing sanctions on Iran.

In a strongly worded statement, Erol Kilic, described the move as politically-motivated aimed to prevent the country from vindicating its legitimate rights on peaceful use of nuclear energy.

From 2012:

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibility vis-à-vis the Israeli expansion of settlement activity in occupied Jerusalem.

The OIC Secretary General Akmaluddin Ihsan Oglu said in a press release on Thursday that the Israeli settlement activity was a serious violation of international resolutions.

He charged that the settlement expansion aims at isolating occupied Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and Judaizing it.

And what does the OIC think about other major world players joining the Security Council?

Observer Islamic Countries opposed a permanent seat for India in the UN Security Council, saying it would be an injustice with the Muslim World. A permanent Security Council seat in the UN for India means a major injustice with 1.90 billion's Muslim of world said Faisal Muhammed.

They sound like remarkably mature diplomats interested in world peace, don't they?

(h/t Ian)

Food and medicine can't get past the blockade of Palestinian areas. In Syria.

Did you hear about the blockade of Palestinian Arabs where they can't receive critical supplies?

You know, it's been all over the news.

OK, I'm lying. Because this blockade is against the entire Yarmouk camp in Syria, which normally houses some 150,000 Palestinian Arabs. Most have fled but there are still tens of thousands in the camp.

This siege is not at all like Israel's "blockade" of Gaza where residents can get medical aid, food, school supplies, cars, building materials, fuel and hundreds of other items, not to mention that they can export vegetables and move lots of goods via Egypt.

The Yarmouk blockade, in contrast, is total.

In the very end of an Arabic article about the murder of an elderly Palestinian in Yarmouk by Assad's forces - another story you won't read about in the media - we learn this:

The Syrian security forces continue to impose a crippling blockade on the camp, preventing entry of medical supplies and basic needs of the refugees; [the blockade] has been in place more than a month.

I missed this story, and for good reason. Only two news sources mentioned the Yarmouk blockade over the past month, one from UPI on January 7 and one from Allvoices on January 9th. Middle East Monitor had earlier indicated that the siege began around December 23rd so it is now in its seventh week.

No UN resolutions.
No NGOs issuing press releases and glossy reports.
No news coverage of any sort for nearly a month.
No flotillas.
No convoys.
No op-eds.
No Twitter hashtags.
No Facebook pages.
Nothing from "human rights" groups.
Total silence from "pro-Palestinian activists."

No, if you want to read about Palestinian Arabs suffering in Syria, you have to read a Zionist blog.

Now you need to ask yourself why that is.

No, that's not me.

The Jerusalem Report has a really nice article by Tibor Krausz about media watchdogs that look for anti-Israel bias. It can also be read in the Jerusalem Post.

It discusses most of the major players - CiFWatch, BBCWatch, Honest Reporting, Barry Rubin (although, inexplicably, not CAMERA) - and me:

Members of Fatah or Hamas known for their past involvement in terrorism and openly genocidal anti-Semitic views are often labeled “moderate” as long as they pay lip service to “the peace process.”

Meanwhile, Israelis who insist on reciprocal concessions from Palestinians in the land-for-peace scheme may end up being labeled “right-wing.”

“The common media labels include ‘Netanyahu is hawkish,’ ‘Abbas is a moderate,’ ‘Settlers are all religious fanatics,’ ‘Palestinians just want to harvest their olives in peace,’” a prolific American Jewish blogger who goes by the pseudonym Elder of Ziyon tells The Report.

...“[Many] journalists’ desire for peace often outweighs the evidence in front of them,” argues blogger Elder of Ziyon, an IT professional who often dissects news articles and op-eds about Israel on his site. “Hamas’s leaders call for the destruction of Israel in Arabic literally every day,” he says. “Yet a recent piece in The New York Times argued that they have accepted the two-state solution.

"The reporter didn’t have any quote that proved it, only quotes that he felt implied it.

"Journalists’ wishful thinking leads them to believe that both sides in the conflict have the same ethics and goals. That assumption is rarely true.”

My email interview for this was from last October. I had completely forgotten about it.

(h/t Emet)

PCHR finds a poor person in Gaza, says it is Israel's fault to the UN

From PCHR:

On Monday, 4 February 2013, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) made a written submission, in the form of an Individual Complaint, to Ms. Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, which draws attention to the case of Ramadan Daoud Hussein Abdel Bari (51) from Gaza city, Gaza Strip (Palestine).

Ramadan Abdel Bari, who lives in Gaza together with his wife, their 8 children, and his sick mother, opened a clothing factory in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, in 1985. His business was forced to shut down in 2005 as a result of the Israeli-imposed movement restrictions inside the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000. After that Ramadan was unable to find or generate new employment, as the Israeli closure of the Gaza Strip has caused the near total collapse of Gaza’s economy, leaving many unemployed and impoverished without a chance of finding a job and generating an income for themselves and their families.

The ruining of Ramadan’s business and the subsequent impossibility to find new employment causes him and his family to live in poverty.

PCHR will be submitting either Memorandums or Individual Complaints on a regular basis to UN Working Groups and Special Rapporteurs, to draw attention to human rights issues facing the Palestinian people.

Yes, PCHR plans to send an individual complaint to the UN for every single poor person it finds in Gaza, blaming Israel for every one.

The International Poverty Line applies to people who are living on less than $1.25 a day (PPP). By that standard, the West Bank and Gaza have a rate of only 0.04% of people living below that line - one of the better ones recorded, and far better than every Arab country listed (Egypt is 1.69%, Syria 1.74%, Yemen 17.53%) while many countries have a rate of well over 50%! The number of truly poor people in Gaza is minuscule by nearly every measure.

Gaza has some 38% of people living below the national poverty line, but that number is different for every nation. For comparison, in Israel, some 23.6% of the population live below the national poverty line; in the West Bank it is 18.3%, in the US it is about 15%. In contrast, in poor sub-Saharan countries and central American nations the rates are often above 50%.

Moreover, in Gaza much of the population gets free food, free medical services and free education - because the UNRWA considers them, against all normal definitions of the term, to be "refugees."

PCHR, obviously, doesn't care about poor people in Gaza. The entire exercise, indeed their entire existence, is centered on how to use the concept of "human rights" in order not to improve the situation but to delegitimize Israel. Their legal briefing accompanying the complaint makes this crystal clear.

They even twist the fact that the UN gives free food and aid to Gazans far out of proportion to their need compared to the truly poor of the world, by saying "over 75% of the people are food aid dependent, 80% of the people receive humanitarian aid." Only about 30% of Haitians are food-aid dependent - but they are far poorer than Gazans by any yardstick with 61% below the international poverty line, compared to 0.04% of Gazans.

This is only one tiny example of how relentlessly anti-Israel NGOs are working, night and day, to demonize Israel.

PCHR receives funding for its faux "humanitarian" work from Norway, Denmark, the European Commission, the Ford Foundation and several other international NGOs. And this is where the money goes.

Leading Tunisian opposition figure shot dead. No suspects.

From Al Ahram and Reuters:

A prominent Tunisian opposition politician was shot dead outside his home on Wednesday, in a killing the prime minister condemned as a political assassination and a strike against the 'Arab Spring' revolution.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said the identity of the killer of Shokri Belaid, a staunch secular opponent of the moderate Islamist-led government, was unknown.

President Moncef Marzouki cut short a visit to France and cancelled a visit to Egypt scheduled for Thursday after the killing, which brought around 1,000 protesters onto the streets outside the Interior Ministry.

"The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution. By killing him they wanted to silence his voice," said Jebali, who heads the government led by the Ennahda party, which won Tunisia's first post-Arab Spring election in 2011.

Belaid, who died in hospital after being shot in the capital Tunis, was a leading member of the opposition Popular Front party.

"Shokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest ... doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia," Ziad Lakhader, a leader of the Popular Front, told Reuters.

There are protests happening now in response:

10:15 a.m. Demonstrators in front of the Interior Ministry are expressing their solidarity with Belaid and chanting, “We are all Chokri,” “O Chokri, O martyr, we will follow your path,” and “Terrorism, bullets, Tunisians are fearless.”

They are also crying anti-Ennahdha slogans, such as “Ghannouchi (Ennahdha founder), you are a predator,” “dégage (get out, in French),” “This will be the last day for this government,” and “Bring down the oppressor of the people, bring down the Brotherhood party.”

10:30 a.m. “A country controlled by violence… It’s a huge shock for Tunisians. Where did all these weapons come from? Our people are peaceful. Once, at the time of Ben Ali, there was violence… He fell and so will this government,” said Hazar Trabelsi, a protester on Bourguiba avenue.

“What is this? All he owned was his words. How could that be faced by fire?” said another protester, Zayneb.

10:50 a.m. Another wave of young protesters are coming from Liberté street to join the mass of protesters in front of the Interior Ministry.

11:10 a.m. The Popular Front coalition has joined the protest, which has continued to grow in size.

And more details of the assassination:

In an interview on Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, Minister of Interior Ali Laarayedh said that two suspects were involved in the assassination. One shot Belaid and then took off on the motorcycle of an accomplice, who was waiting for him.

I don't think that the leading Ennahdha party had anything to do with this, but it points out a danger of even "moderate" Islamism.

One of the problems with even "moderate" Islamism is that it moves the political center of the entire country towards Islamic extremism, making things that were formerly extremist to be considered more tolerable, and things that were unthinkable - like assassinating a leading politician - can enter the realm of possibility.

Separate train cars for women in Egypt starting today

From Egypt Independent:

The Egyptian Railways Authority is set to enforce women’s-only train cars on several popular routes to and from the capital starting Wednesday.

The move is part of its efforts to curb sexual harassment, which is rampant across the country.

According to state-run daily newspaper Al Ahram, the No. 909 train connecting Cairo and Alexandria departing at 9am will host the first women’s car.

The No. 957 train to Zagazig and the No. 513 train to al-Qanater al-Khaireyah will also boast exclusive cars for women.

Several rights and women’s groups claim the rate of sexual harassment and violence has increased sharply as of late.

So far, the article makes it sound like this is a move purely to protect women, and not an Islamist initiative. But then things get a little fuzzier:

Egyptian women are already afforded private Metro cars in Cairo, which comprise the only public transportation that separates genders.

In 2008, an Egyptian court dismissed a lawsuit filed by two lawyers demanding the end of women’s-only cars on the grounds that separating the sexes violates gender equality.

The court ruled that allocating cars to women did not fall under its jurisdiction and added that Islamic law emphasizes respect for women, which obligates the state to protect them.

So are the Islamists now using the epidemic of sexual abuse of women in public as an excuse to further separate the genders? Or is this simply what must be done temporarily until Egyptian laws start taking this abuse seriously?

Unless we see that women activists are demanding the separate train cars, I'm afraid the former is the more likely explanation.

Islamists protest film about Jews at Tangier Film Festival

Last year I reported about a film made by an Arab about the Jews of Morocco:

TINGHIR-JERUSALEM, ECHOES FROM THE MELLAH: The Rediscovery of a Judeo-Berber Culture

Director: Kamal Hachkar
Kamal Hachkar grew up in France with the idea that all Berbers were Muslims. From his grandparents he learns that some Berbers were Jewish and that in many villages, Muslims and Jews lived together for a long time. His search leads him to Israel where he meets families originally from Tinghir. Elders spoke of their lives in Tinghir, answering many of his questions. On meeting Jews of his generation, with origins in Tinghir, Kamal realizes that he is not alone in his desire to restore this buried part of their identities. He hopes that his generation will be able to acknowledge the bonds broken by history.

Now the film is being shown at a Moroccan film festival - and the Islamists aren't happy.

Hundreds protested the film at a festival in Tangier, shouting "No to normalization with Israel!"

The director, when asked his reaction, shrugged and simply said they could watch the film if they wanted and decide then. Naturally, this wasn't what they wanted to hear.

EoZ in Israel next week

It's been three years, and way past time to visit Israel again. I'm planning to leave in a week for a two-week stay.

While I am there, with whatever spare time I have I'd like to make some videos for the blog. I'll be doing interviews and stories you would never see in the mainstream media. I have a few topics and people lined up, but am looking for more ideas.

So if you are a famous writer or politician who is also a secret EoZ fan (that means you, Bibi!) or someone I've criticized who wants to set the record straight, or anyone else who thinks they might have a good idea for a video, or you have something fantastic that I really must check out around Jerusalem that no one knows about - please let me know. If I like the idea, I might do it - and give you a video hat tip!

Tuesday links

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Take Iran at Its Word
Diplomats still think the answer to the nuclear standoff is to talk to Tehran. Perhaps because they don't believe what the regime says.

“In his remarks, Rafael Bardaji, a former national security advisor to the Spanish prime minister, relayed his tale of meeting with Khamenei some years back. Summoned to breakfast while on a visit to Iran, the Spanish guests decided to ask an ice-breaking question: Within the apparently complex power structure of contemporary Iran, what was the Supreme Leader's job?
"My job," Khamenei replied, "is to set Israel on fire."
They say it. They mean it. Yet still the world refuses to take them at their word. Shame on them or shame on us?”

How Ed Koch Honored My Son by Judea Pearl
The late New York mayor told me he wanted to be remembered by my son Daniel Pearl’s final words: ‘I am Jewish.’

"The echo of Danny’s words has not subsided. Koch took the dramatic act of putting it on his tombstone, but many others carry Danny’s words and are nurtured by them, quietly. For the book, we commissioned many prominent Jews to reflect on what the phrase “I am Jewish” meant to them, and Koch was one of the 300 people we asked. Koch sent in an essay mainly expressing anger about the terrorists—how they act against civilized society, and how they should be dealt with. It was about our world and how we got into this war, and we felt it didn’t fit the theme. The theme was what does being Jewish mean to you, a very personal question, and we asked Koch if he’d be open to revising it. Koch’s answer was definitive: That’s how I feel, he said, and I can’t change it."

Israeli writer targeted for massive hate mail from Ireland after column

"A Jerusalem Post columnist has said she has been targeted for vicious anti-Semitic mail from Ireland after writing about anti-Jewish comments she heard in County Kerry.
Sarah Hoenig was on a visit to Cahirsiveen in Kerry when she met school boys collecting for Palestinian rights on behalf of the Third World agency Trocaire.
She wrote that they told her they hated Jews, that they had killed Jesus and that their fundraising for Palestine was endorsed by the local school."

PMW: US behind civil wars and atrocities in Arab countries

"The official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has accused the United States of ordering radical Islamists to commit atrocities in order to justify America's war on terror and its actions against Arabs.
A recent opinion piece in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida claims that after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US needed "a new straw man, whose existence would justify all its wars, all its conspiracies and its policies of supporting oppression."

Song dedicated to Palestinian prisoners honors arch-terrorists, on PA TV VIDEO

All Quiet on the Gaza Front
It will take more than two months without rocket fire for this Israeli border town to return to normalcy.

"And then, for the first time since the early days of the last decade, the rocket fire stopped. Not stopped in the sense that the frequency of attacks on the town had been reduced -- even during official cease-fires, of which there have been four in the last six years, the town withstood occasional fire. Rather, for the first time, they have been totally stopped. December of 2012 was the first month since 2004 that there had been no rocket fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip. The official statistics aren't out yet, but January of 2013 will almost certainly be the second."

NY Daily News: Israel in the dock

"UN Human Rights Council is unfit to judge the Middle East's only democracy Refusing to be stomped by the kangaroo in a kangaroo court, Israel has declined to participate in a United Nations dissection of its moral standing in the world."

Andres Oppenheimer: Argentina-Iran deal makes a mockery of justice

"My opinion: Argentina has crossed a line by making a deal with the prime suspect in the 1994 terrorist attack.
I hope I’m wrong about this, but the end result of this so-called Argentina-Iran “truth commission” will be a finding saying that a handful of low-level Iranian officials were involved in the case, which allows Iran’s regime to claim it didn’t have anything to do with it, and Argentina to claim it has solved the case.That would amount to a big blow to justice, and an insult to the memory of the 85 Jews and non-Jews who died in the terrorist attack."

Iran Calls For Third Intifada At Conference Honoring Gaza

"The two-day conference, held on January 17-18, was attended by senior Iranian officials, including Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, who described Israel as "a Zionist plague that arrived in the Middle East," and his advisor Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam, who called to launch a third Intifada in the West Bank."

Was Iran really responsible for Lockerbie bombing? French spy expert claims that CIA and FBI know but have covered the information up

"Ignored for almost 25-years as an unverified conspiracy theory, the respected New York Times journalist and Middle-East expert Robert Worth claims in a recent piece that a former CIA operative confirmed to him an Iranian role in the December bombing.
The controversial claim that 'the best intelligence' on the Lockerbie bombing leads to Iran, rewrites a quarter of a century of accepted history that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's Libya ordered the terror outrage as revenge for a 1986 U.S. attack on the North African country."

Iran reportedly refuses Assad request to hit back at Israel
Tehran tells president to ‘take care of your business’ after air strike, Israeli TV says; analyst worries about rash of Syrian TV interviews demanding attacks on the Golan

‘Argo’ a runaway hit in Iran
Hundreds of thousands of bootleg DVDs of film on the 1979 Iran hostage crisis reportedly circulating in the Islamic Republic

Ground control to Major Ahmadinejad
Iranian leader wants to be the ‘first human’ sent to space by Iran, thwarting ‘devil’s hatred’ of ‘Iranian greatness’

"Space tourist Anousheh Ansari was the first Iranian to make a journey into space aboard a Soyuz TMA-9 capsule from Baikonur, Kazakhastan, in September 2006. The 40-year-old telecommunications entrepreneur paid a reported $20 million for a space station visit. Her journey became an inspiration to women in male-dominated Iran."

McCain Compares Ahmadinejad to Monkey, Sparking Outrage

"Sen. McCain came under fire after posting tweet comparing Ahmadinejad to the monkey the Iranian government claims it launched into space.
“So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week?” McCain tweeted, citing a recent Yahoo News story: “Iran launches monkey into space.”

Official: Turkish tirades reveal 'brazen hypocrisy'
Israeli official says Turkey's leaders have become “laughingstock of the international community with their self-righteous discourse.”

Turkish Politician: Gov't Cooperated with Israel in Syria Attack
Vice Chairman of the Turkish Labor Party accuses the Erdogan government of working with Israel to carry out an alleged airstrike in Syria.

100 imams to commemorate Holocaust in France
Following visit to Yad Vashem, Muslim leaders to hold memorial in Drancy, where Jews were held before being transported to extermination camps

Blood test for Alzheimer’s
An Israeli company’s experimental blood test can detect dementia while the disease is still mild enough to treat more effectively.

“Today one of the main weaknesses in the Alzheimer’s area is that patients don’t find out until it’s too late,” says Ilya Budik, CEO of NeuroQuest, an Israeli company developing a novel blood test for early detection of the most common cause of dementia worldwide.
“There are many new therapies under development, and the most successful trials are showing the earlier a patient is treated, the better likelihood of responding to the treatment,” he says."

Also:

Is Palestinian-Israeli Peace the Key to Happiness in the Middle East? (Jeffrey Goldberg) (h/t Silke)

Among many Middle East analysts, particularly those of the so-called "realist" school of foreign policy thought, "linkage" is a holy doctrine. It holds that peaceful compromise between Israel and the Palestinians will lead to a generally placid Middle East. But it's a false notion. One of its more famous advocates is Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee to be secretary of defense.

Saudi preacher who raped, murdered daughter freed (Ynet) (h/t Al Gharqad)

More hypocrisy and lies from the BDS crowd. Pretty funny, actually.

Another day, another new initiative to boycott Israel:

Activists are gearing up for a day of action on 9 February that will target Israeli agricultural export companies such as Mehadrin and Hadakalim over their role in Israeli settlements and the dispossession of Palestinian farmers.

In a statement titled “Farming Injustice” released earlier this month, all major Palestinian agricultural organizations called for “the launching of worldwide campaigns on 9 February against Israeli agricultural export corporations in light of their deep complicity in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.”

Once again, a bunch of tiny self-proclaimed leaders who pretend to speak for all Palestinian Arab farmers are saying that they want to kill the farms, since the bulk of exports from the Palestinian Arab territories use Israeli exporters.

The reality is, of course, quite different, as real Palestinian Arab farmers work closely with Israel in order to maximize their efficiencies and profits:

On Tuesday (29.1), the Civil Administration coordinated and funded the departure of about 150 Palestinians agriculture workers from Judea and Samaria to the exhibition "Cleantech" - the 17th annual international event for water technologies, energy efficiency , renewable energy, green building , recycling and green transportation, that take place at the Israel Trade Fairs and Conventions Center, Tel-Aviv.. Through the exhibition, the Agriculturists explored the developments in green agricultural.

This conference joins a seminar on the use of reclaimed water for agriculture, conducted by the Civil Administration agriculture office two weeks ago (January 15 to 17). During the seminar, 22 representatives from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture were informed on the use of reclaimed water for agriculture, due to the growing shortage of fresh water for irrigation in the area and to increase the knowledge and awareness of this issue in the Palestinians agriculture farms in Judea and Samaria.

In addition, the Civil Administration agriculture officer, Mr Samir Muadi, held last week (24.1) a meeting with Israel's olive sector manager and with the advisor to the Palestinian Minister of Agriculture, following meeting held in October regarding the Palestinian olive sector. During those two meetings, it was decided on marketing Olive Oil from the Palestinian Authority to Israel, as the olive sector is a central and important sector of the Palestinian agriculture.

In addition, the Gaza DCO coordinated the departure of about 60 agriculture workers from the Gaza Strip to the annual agricultural exhibition of the Arava research and development (R & D) unit held at Yair Station on Wednesday and Thursday (January 30 to 31). The exhibition was attended by representatives of the agricultural crop sectors in Israel and overseas delegations. During the exhibition, displaying crops and technological developments in the field of agriculture, the Gaza DCO agricultural coordinator visit the greenhouses at Ein Yahav that grow tomatoes, peppers, etc.

I don't know who these farmers are if they are cooperating with Israel and defying the "agricultural organizations" whose entire purpose is anti-Israel and whose websites often have nothing to say about farming.

One part of the screed was interesting:

Earlier Corporate Watch research had shown that Palestinians forced to work in packing houses controlled by Mehadrin are paid as little as 56 shekels ($15) per day.

They are forced to work for Mehadrin? is it at gunpoint, or does their employer use whips and keep them in chains?

And what evidence is there that they are being paid $15 a day? Well, three years ago, an anti-Israel organization asked a few Arab workers who were willing to speak to them what they were paid. That's the "proof."

If it is true, then Mehadrin may be breaking the law according to this organization. I'm not aware of any lawsuits brought by "Corporate Watch" on their behalf, though. It must not have been very important.

There are a couple of funny parts about this complaint. One can presume that most Jordan Valley workers for Israeli companies are employed without permits. Companies argue that employment law should follow Jordanian law, not Israeli law, which is how they justify giving a lower salary to those without permits. Yet 2011 statistics show that the poor salaries that Palestinian Arab workers get for illegally working for Israeli companies is roughly the average salary of West Bank Palestinian Arabs who work for Arabs! So while it is possible that Mehadrin or others are not paying the rates they should, it is apparent that the Palestinian Arab workers are getting the market rates, and they are hardly being "forced" to work for the hated Jews.

They can always quit!

But even funnier is that anti-Israel organizations don't usually complain that the Jews are paying the Palestinian Arabs too little - but that they pay too much! The same 2011 article notes:

The increase in the percentage of those employed in settlements does not fit with the Palestinian Authority (PA) plan to completely prevent Palestinian labourers from working in settlements, and to render such work illegal as of 2012. Originally the PA intended to impose punishments of up to five years imprisonment and financial penalties of some US $14,000. The Palestinian Minister of Labour Ahmad Majdalani noted in December 2010 that his ministry is cooperating with the national economic office to establish a fund for loans to workers employed in settlements.

...An additional reason for the increase in the level of those employed in settlements is the large gap between the salary in the Palestinian sector and that in settlements. While the average daily salary in the West Bank stands at NIS 76.9 and in Gaza NIS 46.2, a Palestinian worker in a settlement earns an average of NIS 150 daily.

In short:

The BDSers want Palestinian Arab farmers to lose millions of dollars that they are making today by cooperating with Israeli exporters.
The BDSers want Palestinian Arabs to stop working for Israelis that pay them double the rates they would get from Arab employers.
The actual farmers in the territories are happy to work with Israel to make money.
The actual workers in the settlements are happy to get more money for their families by legally working for Israelis.

The disconnect between the BDSers and the people they pretend to care about can hardly be any starker.

The explanation, of course, is the same explanation that answers nearly every Middle East enigma involving Israel since 1948: the people who pretend to be "pro-Palestinian" are really just against the rights of Jews to have any political power or self-determination.

Once you understand that, the inconsistencies fall away.

A quick independent look at Palestinian Arab textbooks

Many of the official Palestinian Authority textbooks are online, and the books available for download.

So you don't have to be a university researcher to see what they say - you just need someone to translate them.

I asked good friend of EoZ, Al Gharqad, to do a quick survey of these materials and see if there is anything that might raise an eyebrow among normal, liberal Westerners. Here's what he found within only a couple of hours:

Second grade of primary school (7-8 years old kids), "National Education"

Page 10, line 3: Har Meron ("Jabal Al-Jarmaq") listed as one of the most famous mountains of "Palestine".

Page 25, bottom box: "Let's colour the Negev desert on the map of Palestine"

Tourism: lists "Palestinian" tourist sites, such as Caesarea, Haifa and Acco (p. 61) and Tzfat (p. 62).

Fifth grade (10-11 year old kids), "National Education"

p. 30: "The Palestinian people trace their origin back to the Cana'anites who emigrated to Palestine from the Arabian Peninsula around 3,500 BC."

Ninth grade (15 year old kids), "Modern Arab History"

p. 54: "The European Imperialist powers began to spread the Zionist thought among the Jews themselves in order to hasten the creation of the state of Israel in Palestine, because of their common interests with the Jews on the one hand, and in order to get rid of them (of the Jews) and remove them from their countries on the other hand."

p. 56 ("Palestine after WW2"):

"Zionism transferred its base from the UK to the USA and chose the city of New York as its center because there was a large Jewish community there, and because many media and economic organs in the USA are in the hands of the Zionist movement."

p. 57 ("The Second Intifada – the Al-Aqsa Intifada"):

"(The Initifada) broke out in September 2000, for many reasons, among them: the failure of the Second Camp David Summit which was convened by USA President Bill Clinton between the Palestinian National Authority and Israel in order to outline the parameters of the permanent solution to the Palestinian issue, Israel's foot-dragging in carrying out the agreements it signed with the Palestinian leadership, and its attempt to establish facts on the ground through Zionist settlements in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip. The immediate reason for (the Intifada) was the entrance of Sharon, the leader of the Likud party, to the gardens of the Al-Aqsa mosque."

Modern World History for 10^th grade (16 year olds)

p. 53, listed among the aims of Zionism:

"(For Israel to) Possess all the elements of economic and military power which enable it to defend itself, as well as attack, and offering services to the imperialist countries."

Palestinian Media Watch did a more comprehensive analysis in 2007, with lots more examples. But the things found here took essentially no time to find - it is endemic throughout the curricula.

4 more Pals killed in Syria - but by mentioning it I'm engaging in "Assad-washing"

Palestine Today reports four more Palestinian Arabs killed in Syria in the past couple of days.

But don't expect to find anything about this in the "pro-Palestinian" Electronic Intifada site.

In fact, if I dare to mention Palestinian Arabs being killed in Syria, I'm engaging in a horrible crime myself. One that the human rights defenders in EI call "Assad-washing."

Really!

Already last April, they were getting nervous that the tens of thousands being killed in Syria were taking world attention away from the Palestinian Arabs who are living in comparative safety. So Electronic Intifada wrote an op-ed saying that evil Zionists are using massacres in Syria to divert the world's attention from Palestinian Arabs in the territories getting what are, in comparison, papercuts.

The Israeli government and its supporters have long utilized a wide range of propaganda tools to sugarcoat Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians. In addition to pinkwashing (using Israel’s relative support of gay rights to sugarcoat the country’s apartheid nature) and greenwashing (perpetuating the perception that Israel has environmentally-friendly policies to do the same), Zionist advocates are now using a different method: Assadwashing.

So this is how the liberals at EI justify their relative silence when Palestinian Arabs - whom they pretend to love so much - are being slaughtered.

They don't want to be Assadwashers!

Keep in mind that since the Syrian revolution began, far more Palestinian Arabs have been killed in Syria than in Gaza and the West Bank combined. But keep that under your hat, because even mentioning Palestinian Arabs being killed by Syria is evidently a strict taboo among the "pro-Palestinian" crowd.