Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Arabs pay for far more congressional cultural exchange trips than Israel

U.S. lawmakers and their senior staff took more than 800 cultural exchange trips courtesy of foreign governments in the years from 2006 to 2011. The trips benefit from a broad exemption from ethics rules and most Capitol Hill employees never need to disclose their participation. This list shows trips listed on 130,000 pages of personal financial forms collected by Legistorm.com.

The list details everyone who went on every trip, but here is a detail of the map that accompanied the article of interest here:

It sure looks like the Israel Lobby is missing the boat, doesn't it?

(h/t Robert)

EoZNews: The Soccer Desecration Video

You asked for it...and here it is.

Taken from the Mount of Olives/Har HaZeitim.

To CBS' Bob Simon, Israelis deserve to be blown up if settlements are built

Of course, he wouldn't characterize it this way, but how else can you explain this bizarre linkage he suggests?

The $270 million the U.S. has provided Israel to help build Iron Dome is in addition to the three billion dollars Israel gets annually from the U.S. in military aid. Palestinians complain that while all this U.S. support is being given to Israel, the Israeli government has repeatedly defied U.S. policy and approved the construction of new settlement blocks in the West Bank.

Bob Simon: The Americans have already given $270 million dollars.

Ehud Barak: More than this, I believe, along the, yeah.

Bob Simon: And they're promising just the Iron Dome another $660 million--

Ehud Barak: Yeah. Yeah. $680-- probably $211 might be given in the coming fiscal year.

Bob Simon: While the Americans are helping you so much in your defense. Israel goes on building settlements, which is exactly what the Americans don't want. How does that work, when you're asking America for help and doing exactly what the Americans don't want you to do?
....How does it work? I mean, right now, Israel has just announced the building of a gigantic settlement project. This is at the same time that the Americans are providing the money for Israel's most important defense system.

So if Israel builds settlements, Simon is saying, then the US should no longer help fund Iron Dome to save Israeli lives from rocket attacks.

Israelis in Ashkelon must die because the Knesset allows Jews to build houses in their historic homeland.

(h/t O)

Monday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Dore Gold: The Time for a Final Status Agreement Has Passed

In light of developments over the last few years, there has been a growing realization in Israel that the chances of reaching a complete final status agreement with the Palestinians are presently extremely small. This is not just an ideological position coming out of certain quarters in Israel, but it is also the professional view of practitioners who have been involved in the political process itself.
Last June in an interview in Haaretz, Professor Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s former ambassador to Washington and head negotiator with Syria, reached this very conclusion. He added, as part of his proof of this point, that “the bold proposals” by former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert were not even responded to by the Palestinians. Looking back on Olmert’s far-reaching proposals, Mahmoud Abbas himself told The Washington Post on May 29, 2009 that the gaps between the parties were just too wide.

PA: Keep Jerusalem Runners Away from Mosque
The Palestinian Authority warned Israel not to use the Jerusalem Marathon as an attempt to “Judaize” the city

With the Jerusalem Marathon set to take place March 1, the Palestinian Authority is warning Israel not to use the race to “Judaize” the city, presenting it as a “unified capital of Israel,” said the chairman of the PLO's action committee, Ahmed Qureia. Qureia is also the head of the “Al-Aqsa Department” in the PA, and on Sunday he warned Israel to ensure that marathoners stay away from the Temple Mount, where the mosque is located.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Getting the Apartheid-Israel equation right

The obscene comparison of Israel with apartheid South Africa also ignores the fact that Israel is the first country in the history of the world to airlift tens of thousands of black men, women, and children to become free and full citizens in its borders, as Israel did with Ethiopian Jews.
Indeed, the comparison of the Palestinians, rather than the Jews, to black South Africans, is unfortunate and misdirected. Whereas Black South Africans inspired the world with their decency and humane capacity for peaceful coexistence with their white brethren even after having been so grievously wronged, our Palestinians brothers have tragically embraced hatred, terror, and racism. Arab newspapers are filled with grotesque caricatures of ethnic characteristics of Jews. Innocent Palestinian youth are brainwashed by the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah to grow up and blow up Israeli buses. Nelson Mandela rose to become the foremost statesman of the world by preaching forgiveness and reconciliation. Yasser Arafat fathered international terrorism and then stole hundreds of millions of dollars from his own people who continue to live in abject poverty despite being the largest per capita recipients of international aid in the world.

Overtones of Antisemitism in York University Boycott

The Costcutter supermarket at the University of York has initiated a boycott of Israeli goods at the behest of the newly formed Palestinian Solidarity Society (PSS). The first product taken off the shelves was Jaffa oranges, a company that PSS has accused of profiting from production in settlements. However, customers are still able to buy Iranian pistachios, whose industry, unlike that of Jaffa oranges, actually has a close connection to the oppressive Iranian government.
Standforpeace, a Jewish-Muslim interfaith organization focused on countering extremism notes: “In 2000, Patrick Clawson from the Washington Institute, reported, ‘while he was president, [Hashemi] Rafsanjani shut down a magazine that had the temerity to publish a petition from the pistachio growers of the Rafsanjan region complaining about how his family had monopolized the trade to its profit.’ Two years later, Michael Rubin, writing in the Wall Street Journal, noted that ‘former President Hashemi Rafsanjani … controls more than 70% of Iran’s multimillion dollar pistachio trade.’ Unsurprisingly, Iranians often refer to Rafsanjani as the ‘King of Pistachios.’”

Isi Liebler: Candidly Speaking: Reviewing the case of Prisoner X
Anti-Israeli elements in Australia, supported by sections of the media, tried to exploit the situation in order to besmirch Israel’s image.

In response to questions, the Australian foreign minister did indicate that Australia would conduct further investigations but it was unclear whether this related to an apparent breakdown in communications between the Australian authorities and ASIO or to a broader level.
Anti-Israeli elements in Australia, supported by sections of the media, tried to exploit the situation in order to besmirch Israel’s image. One prominent anti-Zionist Jewish extremist, on Australia’s national radio, accused his fellow Jews of harboring dual loyalties and claimed that the Jewish school system was a breeding ground for brainwashing children to settle in Israel.

Contender for papacy accused of anti-Semitism
Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras has compared ‘Jewish controlled media’ to Hitler

JTA – In a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said that one of the leading candidates to replace Pope Benedict XVI is an anti-Semite.
Responding to a list published last week after the resignation of Benedict, which identified Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras as a possible successor to the current pope, Dershowitz wrote: “He has blamed the Jews for the scandal surrounding the sexual misconduct of priests toward young parishioners! He has argued that the Jews got even with the Catholic Church for its anti-Israel positions by arranging for the media — which they, of course, control, he said — to give disproportionate attention to the Vatican sex scandal. He then compared the Jewish controlled media with Hitler, because they are ‘protagonists of what I do not hesitate to define as a persecution against the church.’”

Israel fears for Tunisia's Jews
North African country's Jewish community suffering from wave of anti-Semitic attacks, including shattered gravestones, fiery protests and verbal violence. Israel urges world to intervene in crisis

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has instructed Israel's representatives abroad to ask the international community to pressure Tunisian government officials to safeguard the North African country's Jewish community, heritage and property.
The order was issued following fears for Tunisia's 2,000 Jews due to the hostile anti-Israel atmosphere in the country and anti-Semitic statements made by religious clerics.

The riddle of the Czech-Israeli alliance
The ranks of Israel’s staunch supporters in the European Union may be thinning, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s government can still count on a loyal champion: the Czech Republic.

As the European Commission braces for a crackdown down on Israeli settlement products, the Czech president-elect, the Cherub-faced social democrat Milos Zeman, declares unwavering support for a pre-emptive strike against Iran.
A mishap? Hardly.

IDF claims victory in Pillar of Defense social-media war
Social-media experts say official Israel effectively conveyed its narrative to unprecedented numbers

The eight-day conflict, which ended with an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire that has held for the three months since, saw six Israelis killed, about 170 Palestinians killed (120 of whom were engaged in terrorism, according to the IDF), Gaza rocket fire hitting as far north as Rishon Lezion, and the Iron Dome defense system intercepting 84% of the rockets at which it was fired. It also marked the first time Israel beat the Palestinians in hasbara — public diplomacy — said Sacha Dratwa, the IDF director of new media.
How does he know? “This was the first time the foreign media asked more questions about our Twitter activity than about our bombings in Gaza.”

Spy-tech used to inspect bell peppers
Advanced detection technique developed by US intelligence agencies guards Israeli consumers from hazardous substances in crops

A major Israeli agricultural conglomerate announced Sunday that it was using advanced detection techniques originally developed by the FBI and CIA to ensure its crop of bell peppers is free of dangerous pesticides, chemicals or bacteria.
Ein Yahav, which oversees 120 cooperative farms responsible annually for 34,000 tons of produce for the domestic and export markets, said the new technology can identify minute amounts of more than 300 types of hazardous substances, even if they are blended together, part of what the company said is a quest to provide “the maximum security technology allows” to the consumer.
The company uses a “minimal amount” of pesticides on its products and tests the soil, air and water on the farms it oversees for hazards, according to the Ein Yahav website.

Some of the street signs in Jerusalem explain the name of the street.

Nahum Lifschitz was an agricultural scientist who made contributions to the field of herbicides.

How many other countries in the region would honor someone like that?

UPDATE: I got the wrong Lifshitz. Commentary 101 in the comments notes that this one was a pioneer in the publishing industry. I didn't do the research properly I blame a severe lack of sleep :)

Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Blaming the Victim
Since when is criticizing Islam a crime? Since when was defending the rights of writers, journalists and artists to say, write and draw what they like a crime? You really do have to rub your eyes. These are not Saudi papers or the Tehran Daily News running these smears — they are allegedly "liberal" papers in an allegedly "liberal" country in an allegedly "liberal" democracy.

If someone carries out a terrorist attack, they worry: Is the attacker to blame or are the victims? When a country suffers an outrage, are the people who carried out that outrage to blame, or might it be the fault of the country which has been subjected to the assault?
After 9/11, there were infamous examples of people claiming that America had "brought it upon itself." The Cambridge classics professor, Mary Beard, writing in the London Review of Books, famously commented, "However tactfully you dress it up, the United States had it coming." People will remember the infamous Ward Churchill's claim that it was the people in the Twin Towers who were "little Eichmanns," not the people who flew the planes into those towers.
When whole countries get the blame for attacks on themselves it is bad enough. But infinitely worse – because there is none of the solidarity available with which a country can console itself – is when an individual is blamed for what has happened to him. In particular, when what happened was an attempt on his life – whether failed or "successful."
When the Dutch politician, Pim Fortuyn, was murdered just before the elections in 2002, it was claimed that he had "provoked" people. The same was said of Theo van Gogh when he was murdered on an Amsterdam street in 2004: people said that he had brought it upon himself or even, amazingly, planned his death this way.

Exposing false ‘martyrs’ as suicidal
In the US, students are taught that suicide bombers are equivalent to a soldier who jumps on a grenade to protect his comrades.

This view is not only dangerous – because it glorifies suicide attackers and thus encourages future recruits – but also factually wrong. I have spent more than three years studying interview transcripts, suicide notes, “martyrdom” videos, and witness statements, and have uncovered more than 130 examples of suicide terrorists with classic risk factors for conventional suicide. I have yet to come across even one suicide attacker driven purely by ideology and altruism.
Those who volunteer are generally overwhelmed by personal crises and looking to escape their lives. Those who are coerced are usually weak and broken souls who’d rather die than risk trying to withdraw or disobey.

Quick IDF Action Nets Arab Shooters
Two Arabs arrested after they fired shots at Migdal Oz in the Etzion Bloc.

A quick IDF operation led to the arrest of two Arabs who fired shots at the kibbutz (cooperative community) of Migdal Oz in the Etzion Bloc Saturday night.
The shots were fired from the nearby village of Bayt Fajar.
A military source told Arutz Sheva that the source of the gunfire was identified shortly after the shooting began, and that a force from the Nachshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, which was on routine assignment in the area, was alerted.

Syrian Druze call on community members to defect from army
Leaders also tell coreligionists living on the Golan Heights to keep noses out of Syria’s business

Leaders of the Druze community in Syria on Saturday called on Druze soldiers to leave the army of President Bashar Assad, claiming it has betrayed its defensive mission and has become a tool of destruction.
They also called on Druze living on the Golan Heights in Israel, who have traditionally backed the Assad leadership, to keep from mixing in the conflict, saying they are far from the action.

Rebels: 1,000 Hezbollah fighters invaded Syria
Fourteen Hezbollah men killed in past two days in battles over control of villages near Lebanon border

Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian civil war continues to grow. Syria's main opposition group claimed Sunday that no less than 1,000 Hezbollah men have entered Syria in the past 24 hours.
"It's a coordinated ground invasion," the Free Syrian Army spokesman said. "Hezbollah has started a war against us."

Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer

Officers and police personnel arrested and beat to death a man they accused of killing a colleague at the site of funeral for the fallen captain in the southern governorate of Beni Suef
Egyptian policemen beat to death in public a man they believed was the killer of a police officer who was shot on Saturday morning in the Upper Egypt governorate of Beni Suef, according to Ahram's Arabic news website reporter.

Soccer fans shut down Egyptian city
Port Said residents disrupt rail services, close government office

Thousands of soccer fans enforced a work stoppage Sunday in Egypt’s restive city of Port Said to protest government “injustices,” disrupting rail services and forcefully evicting workers from factories and provincial government offices.
Egypt’s president Mohammed Morsi had declared a state of emergency and 30-day curfew in Port Said and two other Suez Canal provinces following a wave of violence that left more than 50 people dead last month. The state of emergency is still in effect, though the curfew was reduced to only two hours after residents ignored it.

Iran lawmaker says Fordo plant will never be shut down
Offer for easing of sanctions in return for closing uranium enrichment site is a step ‘to help Zionist regime,’ parliament leader says

A senior Iranian politician said Tehran would never shut down the controversial Fordo nuclear facility Sunday, insisting demands that it do so were aimed at helping Israel.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, made the comments several days after reports surfaced that the US and other world powers would offer to ease sanctions in return for shuttering the heavily guarded uranium enrichment facility.

Iran confiscates Buddha statues to stop promotion of Buddhism

An Iranian newspaper is reporting that government authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in Tehran to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country.
Sunday’s report by the independent Arman daily quotes Saeed Jaberi Ansari, an official for the protection of Iran’s cultural heritage, as saying that authorities will not permit a specific belief to be promoted through such statues.

EoZ News Video: A visit to the Temple Mount

Here is the first of what I plan to be a series of videos taken during my current trip to Israel.

Last Thursday, I ascended to the most sacred place in Judaism, the Temple Mount, with Yisrael Medad (author of the My Right Word blog.) He has been there hundreds of times and he showed me around, literally - we circled the Dome of the Rock while staying in areas that most Jewish authorities allow visiting.

The video, about 34 minutes long, is almost real-time, with perhaps two or three minutes edited out.

I overlaid a satellite image of the Mount at various parts of the video so you can see where we are walking.

I hope you enjoy it!

Two pieces of good news from the Arab world

In general, anti-semitism is getting more apparent in the Arabic media that I am reading. But two recent stories counter that trend.

The first was reported in English last week, but not that widely:

Morocco’s Islamist Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane inaugurated the reopening of a historic synagogue in the city of Fez Wednesday, conveying the wish of Morocco’s King Muhammad VI that all the country’s synagogues be refurbished and serve as centers for cultural dialogue.

Benkirane, head of the Justice and Development party, wore the traditional Moroccan Fez and a white robe at the reopening ceremony of the seventeenth century Slat Al Fassiyine (Prayer of the Fesians) synagogue, where he read out a congratulatory message by King Muhammad VI, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.

From its peak of over 250,000 during the late 1940s, the Jewish community of Morocco has shrunk to less than 5,000 today. Most Jews left the country during the 1950s and 1960s following the establishment of Israel, with the remaining community members mostly concentrated in Casablanca.

According to local media, Benkirane conveyed the King’s praise for the historic influence of Jews in Moroccan culture and his commitment to protect Jewish freedom of religion.

The synagogue will serve as a cultural center focusing on interfaith dialogue.

While that last sentence gives reason to be a little cynical, given Islam's traditional misuse of the term "interfaith dialogue," the symbolism of an Islamist political leader dedicating a synagogue at the same time other Islamists in that country are railing against a film about Morocco's Jewish community of years past is striking. The decision to support this dedication ceremony is still causing some controversy.

This other article comes from an Arabic news source I had never heard of, Murasel (Reporter.) The domain name is registered in Romania, and its articles seem to be centered on Egypt.

Murasel has an article about the 117th anniversary of the publication of Theodor Herzl's "Der Judenstaat" which was a blueprint for the creation of a Jewish state. The title of the article is "The Jewish State: The book that became a reality."

I can see little hate in this article, which goes through Herzl's life and his part in the early mainstream Zionist movement. It does emphasize Herzl's willingness to have the state built in other places besides Israel, and it akes a passing mention that Israel was "set up at the expense of a peaceful Arab people stripped of their land and identity," but besides that the article seems more admiring towards the founder of Zionism than anything else, which is an astounding thing to see in Arabic.

"Suicide bombing the most lofty form of Jihad"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Ja’far Abd Al-Salam, secretary-general of the Islamic Universities Association, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on January 21, 2013.

Ja’far Abd Al-Salam: The spirit of resistance is nurtured by the ideology of Islam. “Allah purchased from the believers their lives and their property, in return for Paradise.” For a Muslim, life is worthless unless it is given away and spent for the sake of Allah. This culture is nurtured by Islam and by patriotism.

[…]

Only great pain makes a great man. The great pain of martyrdom leads to the great reward of Paradise. Brother, this culture does not exist in the West, because Westerners value human life very much.

Interviewer: They focus on the material at the expense of the spiritual.

Ja’far Abd Al-Salam: Maybe you have noticed that the thing that frightens the Jews, or Zionists, most of all is being killed. We do not have this kind of fear.

[…]

It is certain that Islam views [suicide operations] as sacrifice and as the most lofty form of Jihad.

Sunday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Syrian refugees receive ongoing treatment in Israeli hospital for first time
They asked for our help and we gave it, says top Defense Ministry official of seven wounded Syrian nationals evacuated by IDF troops to Ziv Hospital in Safed

It was still not clear Sunday whether the wounded Syrian nationals were rebels fighting Assad’s forces or civilians desperate to escape a civil war which has cost the lives of tens of thousands of insurgents and troops. It was clear, however, that they had been injured in the fighting.
Hospital director Oscar Embon said one of the Syrians arrived at the hospital in critical condition, but was now in serious condition. The other six were said to be in moderate condition after undergoing surgery.

GOP Sen. Rubio Visits Israel, Eyes 2016 Presidential Run
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is visiting Israel and Jordan, in a trip that could bolster a possible 2016 presidential run.

Rubio plans to visit Israel and Jordan and will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
“America's friendship with Israel is a truly special one, and we must continue to do all we can to support this beacon of democracy, religious freedom and free enterprise in the heart of an unstable region,” Rubio said in a statement announcing his trip.

Jewish groups call for further review of Hagel statements
AJC, ADL ask defense secretary nominee to clarify reports on 2007 quote saying ‘State Department has become adjunct to the Israeli foreign minister’s office’

Two centrist Jewish groups called for further review of Chuck Hagel’s record in light of an account of a 2007 speech in which he allegedly said the State Department acted as an “adjunct” of Israel’s foreign ministry.
Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, has the support of a majority of senators, but confirmation of his nomination was blocked on Feb. 14 by several Republican senators exercising their power to hold any vote.

The Washington Free Beacon reported, in a posting just hours before the failed bid in the Senate to advance Hagel’s nomination, a contemporaneous account of a Hagel speech delivered in 2007 at Rutgers University.
George Ajjan, a blogger sympathetic to Hagel’s foreign policy views, quoted him as saying “The State Department has become adjunct to the Israeli foreign minister’s office.”

David Ward’s Bulldozer
With this new article, Ward has swapped his spade for a bulldozer.

Old friends and (new) foes have advised David Ward MP that he is in a hole and really should stop digging. (For background, see here and here.) Unfortunately, whoever runs his website disagrees, and has posted an article that renders Ward unfit to serve as a Member of Parliament for so long as it remains there.
With this new article, Ward has swapped his spade for a bulldozer.
The article is entitled, “Guardian continues the hounding of David Ward”. It exemplifies the type of loose – and therefore dangerous and highly offensive – language about Jews, Israel and the Holocaust that got Ward exactly where he is today.

Stakelbeck Hosts Itamar's Mayor VIDEO

I recently hosted an event in Nashville for Mayor Moshe Goldsmith and his wife, Leah. The couple are longtime residents of Itamar, a town in Israel's Biblical heartland of Samaria where Moshe serves as mayor. They share the truth about Israel's so-called "settlements" and why it is so important for Jews to settle this sacred land.

Israeli water tech draws new European investment
Atlantium Technologies is the first cleantech firm in Israel to receive funding from Europe’s Aster Capital group

It’s a new era in water disinfection, declares Atlantium Technologies, which claims to have “re-invented ultraviolet-based water disinfection with unique Hydro-Optic Disinfection.” The experts will decide if that’s so or not – but Atlantium’s latest funding round represents a new era in cleantech funding in Israel. For the first time, Europe’s prestigious Aster Capital venture fund is investing in an Israeli company, giving $3 million to Atlantium to continue its development of its new products. The investment is part of a $9 million financing round which includes Aeris Capital A.G. (Switzerland) along with the current investor Benjamin Kahn.

The nose that can smell cancer goes commercial
Israeli professor’s revolutionary disease-detection device is on the road to changing how early, and how easily, lung cancer is diagnosed.

An Israeli invention that can detect lung cancer from exhaled breath will be commercialized in a joint venture between the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Alpha Szenszor, a Boston-based manufacturer of carbon nanotube sensing equipment.
As ISRAEL21c reported in 2011, Technion Prof. Hossam Haick has been working on what he calls “Na-Nose” (the “na” is for “nanotechnology”) since 2007, and the device has been proven in numerous international clinical trials to differentiate between different types and classifications of cancer with up to 95 percent accuracy.
Patients breathe into a tube; the Na-Nose analyzes the more than 1,000 different gases that are contained in the breath to identify those that may indicate that something’s wrong. It works by binding gases to specific nano-materials, a technique formally known as volatile organic compound (VOC) detection.

Sunday Links Part 1

From Ian:

MEMRI: Egyptian Anti-Porn Activist: When Muslims in Islamic Countries Watch Porn, Disasters Occur in Gaza VIDEO

Islamic Universities Association Secretary-General: Martyrdom the "Most Lofty Form of Jihad" VIDEO

Analysis: Making sense of Hamas’s visit to Bulgaria
The hello-goodbye Hamas affair coincides with swirl of debate over Bulgaria report attributing Burgas bus explosion to Hezbollah.

According to Slateva, Mr. Vigenin said he would be ready to meet the delegation, but “when it was clarified what the background of those MPs was, and that they represent Hamas, the organizers of the event were informed that neither Mr. Vigenin nor any other representative of BSP [the Bulgarian Socialist Party] is ready to meet them.”
She said that ”BSP has no intention to challenge or to disregard the current status of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Our partner in Palestine is Fatah, full member of the Socialist International and observer member of the Party of European Socialists.”
Given the tendency among some left-wing parties in Europe to court radical Islamists, the BSP’s clear statement against Hamas is encouraging from a counterterrorism perspective.

Expelled Hamas leader claims Israel behind Burgas bombing

Salah Bardawil, booted out of Bulgaria along with three other Gaza lawmakers, claims Jerusalem told Sofia to send his group home

Khamenei: Even if We Wanted Nukes, U.S. Couldn't Stop Us
Iran has no intention of developing nuclear weapons but if it wanted to, the U.S. could not thwart it, says its supreme leader.

Iran has no intention of developing nuclear weapons but if it wanted to, the United States could not thwart it, its supreme leader said on Saturday.
"We believe nuclear weapons must be abolished and we have no intention of building" such weaponry, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks posted on his website leader.ir and which were quoted by AFP.
But, Khamenei said, "if Iran had such intentions, the U.S. could in no way prevent it" from building an atomic bomb.

‘Iranian nuke chief was in N. Korea for atomic test’
Apparently successful detonation indicates both countries on the cusp of ability to assemble atomic warhead, Sunday Times reports

The man whom Western intelligence agencies say may very well be the head of Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program was present as an observer last week when North Korea carried out a critical nuclear test, The British Sunday Times reported.
According to the report Sunday, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi very rarely leaves Iranian soil due to fear that Israel’s Mossad will make an attempt on his life, following an alleged pattern of previous assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Bahrain arrests 8 members of Iranian terror cell
Move follows widespread clashes in the Gulf nation during protests marking the second anniversary of an Arab Spring-inspired uprising

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain’s interior minister says police have arrested eight members of an alleged terrorist cell linked to Iran and other countries following widespread clashes in the Gulf nation during protests marking the second anniversary of an Arab Spring-inspired uprising.
A statement Sunday on the ministry’s website said the suspected terror network received training and financial support from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon — references to Iranian-backed Shiite groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and others.

Hezbollah chief warns Israel against attack
"They know their power plants, airports are under threat," Nasrallah states; says Hezbollah doesn't need weapons from Syria.

60 Arrested in Egypt Anti-Morsi Clashes

Egyptian police arrested 60 demonstrators across the country during violent protests targeting government and police buildings.

Opposition activists have organized nearly weekly protests every Friday that often dissolve into brutal clashes outside the presidential palace.
Last Friday, Islamist supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi staged their own rally in Cairo in support of the president.

Egypt: Christian Priests Threatened to Convert to Islam or Die

A few days ago in Safaga, an Egyptian town near the Red Sea, Christian priests from the local Coptic church reported to the local prosecutor that they were personally being threatened with death. According to the February 10, 2013 report from the Arabic news site El Balad, yet another new jihadi group in Egypt calling itself jihad al-kufr or “Jihad Against Infidelity—that is, jihad against all non-Muslims—has been sending the priests “invitations” to enter Islam, or otherwise be killed.

Egypt court orders belly dancing station off air
Judge says ads for sexual enhancement products aired on ElTet 'offensive' and can 'arouse' viewers

A court in Egypt has ordered a TV channel that airs belly dancing clips off the air for showing "sexually explicit" content and operating without a broadcast license.
The judge Saturday said that ElTet airs ads that are "offensive" and can "arouse" viewers. The station carries advertisements for sexual enhancement products and matchmaking services.

Libya arrests suspected Christian missionaries
Four foreigners were arrested in Libya on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing, a Libyan police spokesman said on Saturday.

Police spokesman Hussein bin Hamid said the suspects were from South Africa, Egypt and South Korea, and one held both Swedish and U.S. nationality. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed that a dual national Swedish-American citizen was arrested while traveling on a U.S. passport. The U.S. Embassy in Libya declined comment.
Spreading Christianity is a crime in the predominantly Muslim North African county.

Bomb rips through Pakistan market, killing 65
Attacks against Shiite Muslims on the rise in Sunni-dominated country

Senior police officer Wazir Khan Nasir said the bomb, set off in a residential suburb, was detonated by remote control.
Another officer, Samiullah Khan, said the bomb was detonated while dozens of women and children were buying produce for their evening meal. Local residents rushed the victims to three different area hospitals, often in private vehicles because there weren’t enough ambulances to transport the victims.

The only meat that will steal your credit card information

Seen in an Israeli supermarket:

Or, L337 M347 (if you don't get it, see here.)

Former Egyptian minister accuses "the Jews" of assassinating Sadat

Former Egyptian Housing Minister, Hasaballah Al-Kafrawi, has accused "the Jews" of assassinating Anwar Sadat on Egyptian TV.

If I follow his bizarre reasoning, it is because Menachem Begin suffered depression late in his life so Israel decided to make him feel better by killing Sadat.

The video can be seen here (not translated yet.)

I love how the host nods.

Egypt doesn't seem to trust Hamas (Via Meadia)

From Walter Russell Mead:

Not even the Muslim Brotherhood trusts Hamas. In a surprise move yesterday, Egyptian forces blocked a network of tunnels that run between Egypt and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip by flooding them with water. The tunnels, used to smuggle everything from fuel to cement to weapons, are now inoperative. Imagine the global outcry if Israel did anything like this:

“We are using water to close the tunnels by raising water from one of the wells,” [an Egyptian security official] said, declining to be named. […]

The tunnellers fear the water being pumped underground might collapse the passage ways, with possible disastrous consequences.

“Water can cause cracks in the wall and may cause the collapse of the tunnel. It may kill people,” said Ahmed Al-Shaer, a tunnel worker whose cousin died a year ago when a tunnel caved in on him.

But what this really shows is that not even Egyptian President and Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi trusts Hamas in Gaza. And yet much of the world continues to think the “blockade” of Gaza is an evil Israeli plot. Israel is no more able to blockade Gaza, which shares a border with Egypt, than Russia is able to blockade China. But none of this stops the myth of a cruel and wicked Israeli blockade of the suffering Gaza Strip from being an article of faith for people all over the world.

Egypt has enough on its plate without having to worry about policing the Sinai for militants from Gaza. This latest action looks to be a way of putting a leash on Hamas.

More evidence that this thesis is correct:

Egyptian security forces rejected a Muslim Brotherhood request to establish a Hamas office in Cairo after it had left its Damascus headquarters, according to Egyptian security sources quoted by Iraqi paper Azzaman on Tuesday.

The security sources were quoted as saying that they put national security considerations first, especially now when Egypt is facing unrest and the new office could lead to further disturbances.

(h/t Silke, Ian)

Egypt accuses Israel of stealing nearly half a trillion dollars of oil

The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, Osama Kamal, is accusing Israel of stealing Egyptian oil from the Sinai between 1967 and 1977.

How much was this oil worth? The minister claims it was worth $480 billion.

Crude oil prices are roughly $100/barrel today. This means that this well-informed minister is claiming that Israel "stole" some 4.8 billion barrels of oil in that period.

However, Egypt's total proven oil reserves is about 2.9 billion barrels of oil. The entire Sinai contains at best only 20% of Egypt's total oil reserves, which means that the total amount of oil in the Sinai is one tenth of the amount the minister is claiming Israel stole.

Israel, of course, did not pump anything close to the half billion barrels in that short time. Just as obviously, the topic of the Sinai's oil was one of the agreements made in the context of Camp David.

For all we know, Kamal is including the oil Egypt sold Israel since Camp David. Even so, the numbers are absurd.

But who cares about being truthful when the target is Israel?

Danny Ayalon also ridiculed the claim.