Egyptian papers publish names of Hamas members behind massacre (UPDATE)

Al Ahram published the names of three Hamas members that, it says, are behind the massacre of 16 Egyptian soldiers last August in the Sinai.

The terrorists then stole an APC and a truck filled with explosives, and they entered Israel where the IDF stopped them.

Egyptian security blamed Gaza terrorists at the time, but more recently the news out of Egypt has been that the terrorists were specifically Hamas members.

Al Ahram identifies three of them as:

1. Ayman Nofal, "a leading Qassam Brigades member and fugitive from Marg prison during the revolution of January 25"
2. Mohamed Ibrahim Salah Abu Shamala known as "Abu Khalil" and a high ranking Hamas member
3. Raed Al-Attar, nicknamed "the Hamas head of the snake" and supposedly a planner of the Gilad Shalit kidnapping

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri condemned the article saying it was a "pure fabrication."

Whatever the truth is, Egyptians are not happy with Hamas.

In related news, the Egyptian operations to destroy Hamas smuggling tunnels continue. The impression I am getting is that while one reason is to crack down on jihadists who are using the tunnels to smuggle weapons and hide out, another factor is that Egypt itself is short of fuel and construction materials, and the subsidized fuel that gets smuggled to Gaza causes Egypt increases social unrest (not to mention it costs Egypt a lot of money.)

UPDATE: The Al Qassam Brigades held a press conference to denounce the accusations, saying that Al Ahram is only serving the Zionists and that the Hamas resistance is a good thing for Egypt.

Here they are at the press conference:

Don't they look trustworthy?

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Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Of course Hamas killed the baby by Alan M. Dershowitz

Of course these Hamas leaders don't desire their own death. They build shelters for themselves and for the terrorists who fire the rockets at Israeli civilians. As soon as these rockets are fired from crowded civilian areas, the terrorist scurry into below-ground shelters, leaving babies, women and other civilians in the path of Israeli rockets that target the rocket launchers. This isn't martyrdom by the leaders and terrorists. It is cowardice. That too is part of the dead baby strategy: make martyrs of babies, while the leaders and terrorists hide in shelters. In Israel, it is precisely the opposite; shelters are for civilians; soldiers put themselves in harm's way.

Douglas Murray: Is that a ‘no’ then, Owen?

If Owen does not wish to correct his mistake then that is his prerogative. But I think people might rightly wonder in future why he should be listened to on such matters. Journalism and propaganda are different things. Owen appears to have demonstrated that his devotion to the latter trumps his aspirations to the former.

CIF Watch: How the British media have covered news regarding Omar Misharawi’s death

Whilst you can of course find out how the BBC covered the news at our sister site, BBC Watch, here’s a quick round-up of how others in the British media performed:

Gaza child death: BBC’s pitiful response

In any case, this incident can be added to a very long list of stories where the international media reported in a knee jerk manner to portray Israel as the responsible party without even bothering to ask any questions that might conflict with this view.
Jon Donnison is apparently moving to pastures new later this year. He will leave behind a record of damaging accusations against Israel. As he well knows, once the damage is done, it is much too late to repair.

BBC’s Jonathan Marcus and the Iron Dome

BBC Watch, however, did speak to the Ministry of Defence and was told that not only does the 84% success rate stand, but that post-event analysis by the Israel Missile Defence Association and the American Missile Defence Agency – carried out by scientists with access to the full range of data, of course – suggests an even higher success rate.
It is a pity to see the BBC’s Defence Correspondent jumping onto the same sensationalist bandwagon as discredited propagandists such as MEMO and Richard Silverstein without a thorough check of a story’s accuracy, credibility and relevance.

Fatwa issued against Muslim travel to Aksa Mosque By Khaled Abu Toameh

The Palestine Scholars Association, a radical Islamic body in the Palestinian territories, issued a fatwa on Wednesday banning foreign Muslims from visiting the Temple Mount as long as Jerusalem is under Israeli control.
Dr. Maher al-Huli, head of the fatwa department in the PSA, said that non-Palestinian Muslims should refrain from visiting the Al-Aksa Mosque “while it remains captive by the state of the Jews.”

‘Hamas interior minister sowing West Bank terror’
Shin Bet security service accuses Fathi Hammad of running a West Bank terrorist cell that sought to kill and capture Israelis

The Shin Bet reported that recent testimonies gleaned from security detainees in the West Bank yielded information about plots led by Fathi Hammad “to carry out grave terrorist attacks” against Israel. According to the report, investigation of Hamas activists in the West Bank revealed a terrorist cell which the Shin Bet claims was run remotely by Hammad from the Gaza Strip.

UN to Adopt Syrian Text Damning Israel for ‘Violating Human Rights’
There will be five other resolutions targeting Israel, and about the same number combined covering the rest of the world.

At the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, Syria accused Israel of violating the human rights of children in the Golan, while diplomats met in another chamber on the same day to discuss a Syrian-drafted resolution, to be adopted next week, entitled “Human Rights in the Occupied Syrian Golan.”

Court to rule on dissolution of Brotherhood 26 March

The Cairo Administrative Court, headed by Judge Farid Tanagho, said Tuesday it would rule on the possible dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood on 26 March.
The court is considering a controversial case that accuses the group of operating illegally.
The Brotherhood's legal status is in question since it is not officially registered and was banned by the previous administration.
The plaintiffs claim that although the group has been politically and socially active for 60 years, it has not sought official recognition based on an 2002 law that regulates the work of civil society organizations.

Michael Totten: The North is Ready to Blow

Lebanon always looks and feels like it's ready to erupt into armed conflict, but today it's more ready than usual. The Syrian civil war next door weighs heavily on this place. Sunnis and Alawites are fighting round after round with no end in sight in the city of Tripoli, and now the Northern Bekaa Valley, between Mount Lebanon and the Syrian border, is likewise gearing up to explode.
Lebanese citizens in that region are already killing each other. The only reason their part of the country hasn't yet turned into a war zone is because they're killing each other on the other side of the border, which lies a mere handful of miles from where they reside. They're crossing into Syria to shoot at each other before hunkering down in an unnerving balance of terror when they return home.

Iran Accused of Assisting Terrorism in Bahrain and Yemen

Arab interior ministers gathered for a security meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday and accused Iran of supplying "logistic help to terrorist operations" in Bahrain and Yemen, AFP reported.
In a statement, the ministers "strongly denounced logistic aid supplied by Iran to terrorist operations in Bahrain and Yemen," and congratulated security services in both countries for "dismantling cells and uncovering dangerous terror plots."

Italian Foreign Minister: Israel First on Path to Secure Middle East
Italy appears to be standing strong with Israel regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

During the Herzliya Conference on Wednesday, March 13, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata told a packed audience that even if Iran acted rationally with nuclear weapons they would pose an unacceptable global threat.
“Under its own nuclear umbrella, Tehran would be free to raise and lower the volume of regional tension as best suits its national interest…” and that “with a nuclear Iran, the rules of the Middle Eastern game would not only change overnight; they would change irreversibly,” stated Terzi on Wednesday, march 13.

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Haters stop concert in SA - because pianist was born in Israel (UPDATED)

From the Wits (Johannesburg) Vuvuzela:

Israeli-born pianist Yossi Reshef was escorted off stage by Wits Campus Control last night as students protested his presence on campus during Israel Apartheid Week.

“This guy coming here is trying to undermine Israel Apartheid week,” SRC vice-president (internal) Tokelo Nhlapo told Wits Vuvuzela.

Members of the Wits Student Representative Council (SRC), Muslim Students Association (MSA), Palestinian Solidarity Committee (PSC) as well as Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), called for the protest as they did not want the concert to happen during international Israel Apartheid week.

Campus control had initially prevented the group of about 50 protesters from entering the Atrium Hall in the South West Engineering building where the concert was being held.

Students chanted and banged on the doors. The protesters sang songs such as “Dubula ibhunu” a song that was previously under review due to what the AfriForum referred to as “hurtful lyrics”.

Once Campus Control opened the doors students stormed into the hall. They disrupted the performance by jumping on stage as well as blowing their vuvuzelas

Student activist Mbuyiseni Ndlozi addressed the crowd after they stormed the hall. “Our visitors must understand that we are Wits students in good standing. They must understand that in this university Zionism will not enjoy (sic) anymore. They will not bring anything related, sponsored, corroborating with Israel and will expect it will be romantically accepted.”

Here we see the ugliness of the "progressive" Left.

Reshef does not even live in Israel - he lives in Berlin and spends most of his time in Europe and the US. (The concert was partly funded by the Israel Embassy. Horrible, I know. Although according to MyShtetl, the Israel embassy was not involved.)

The University apologized:

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, deeply regrets that a concert held on its campus last night was disrupted by some members of the University community and representatives of external organisations.

In light of this incident, the University takes this opportunity to issue a public apology to all those who attended the concert. The disruption of this event points to intolerance on the part of some members of the University community and goes against the core values espoused by the University. The University is investigating this matter and will take the necessary action based on its policies, processes and procedures.

The University reiterates that the views and opinions expressed by the Students' Representative Council or any other student groups on campus do not represent the official views of the University, nor are they necessarily an accurate reflection of the views of the majority of students, staff and alumni.

(h/t Steven Z)

UPDATE: Here is a description of the events:

Eventually all the doors were closed and the concert was finally allowed to begin. However, as Mr Reshef began to play the protestors outside were blowing vuvuzelas and chanting loudly as a means of trying to disrupt the piano recital. During this time, the security remained outside to guard the main door. After some time, things became quiet. Suddenly, while Mr Reshef was in middle of playing Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata, another door within the concert hall burst open. The protestors started streaming into the venue whilst chanting and making loud noises as they attempted to sabotage the recital. It was later discovered that the protesters had actually broken into a fire exit and come in through that door. Security swiftly arrived on the scene and managed to push the protesters out of the hall for a time. Nevertheless, the protestors became so forceful that the security officers were actually pushed backward and once again they came into the main hall screaming, jumping and blowing vuvuzelas. Yossi Reshef was ushered out of the venue very quickly as chaos began to reign within the hall. An eyewitness who wished to remain anonymous even stated he saw the Vice-President of the Wits SRC, cheer one of the protestors who began to violently hit the piano keys of a Steinway Piano that was being used by Mr Reshef. One of the music professor’s, who was truly horrified by what was taking place quickly, ran over to close this very expensive piece of musical equipment.

By this time, five members of the Wits SRC, including the President were present in the hall watching this all take place but were doing nothing to put a stop to it. The guests were all forced to leave as security was unable to get a handle on the pandemonium taking place within the venue. As the guests left in a hurry, the protesters began to shout in unison “down with Israel.”

Eyewitnesses have described the protestors as “hooligans” who were purposefully trying to destroy a beautiful evening that was supposed to be memorable; unfortunately for the wrong reasons. It must be noted that Yossi Reshef resides in Berlin and is not in any way politically affiliated with Israel. This hate action against Mr Reshef and the guests was done purely because he was just born in Israel.

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Muslim Brotherhood rants against draft UN document against violence to women

From AP:

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood sharply criticized an anticipated U.N. document on combatting violence against women, saying on Wednesday that it was “deceitful,” clashed with Islamic principles and undermined family values.

The text or details of the document have not been published yet, but it may be issued at the end of a meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women this week in New York.

Negotiations have been bogged down in debate.

The Brotherhood, which has emerged as the most powerful political faction in Egypt since the 2011 uprising, say the draft under discussion advocates sexual freedoms for women and the right to abortion “under the guise of sexual and reproductive rights.”

In its strongly worded statement, the Brotherhood also decried the document’s defense of homosexual rights, which are not recognized in Islam, and the equating between children born in and out of wedlock.

Here is their statement, and here is what appears to be a decent translation (I made one change; this translation refers to the CEDAW but the original text does not seem to:)

In the name of God the Merciful
Statement of the Muslim Brotherhood about The Commission on the Status of Women paper which violates all principles of the Islamic Sharia and the Islamic community

The Commission on the Status of Women holds a conference in the period from the 4th to the 15th of March 2013 to approve a document titled "Prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls", a deceptive headline that includes items that collide with the principles of Islam and its basic unanimous elements of Quran and Sunnah, destroy Islamic ethics, and seek to demolish the institution of the family, which the Egyptian constitution declared it as the building block of the society, and hence achieve the dismantling of the community, and end to the last step of the intellectual and cultural invasion, and eliminate the singularity that preserves elements of Islamic societies and its cohesion.

It is enough to give a closer reading at some articles to realize what is meant to us, and these items are:

1. Grant girls their complete sexual freedom, as well as the freedom to choose their sex and the freedom to choose their sex partners (i.e., choose to have a normal sexual relationship or atypical) with rising the age of marriage.

2. Provide contraception for adolescent girls and train them on how to use it with the legalization of abortion to abort undesirable pregnancy under the name of sexual and reproduction rights.

3. Grant equality between an adulterous woman and a wife, and equality between adultery children (outside of marriage children) and legitimate sons in all rights.

4. Granting homosexuals all their rights, protection and respect, and grant protection for women in prostitution.

5. Grant wives all the right to sue their husbands with charges of rape or harassment, and the competent authorities should grant same penalties similar to raping or harassing a stranger.

6. Equality in inheritance.

7. Replace guardianship with partnership, and fully share the roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home affairs.

8. Equal access to the marriage legislations such as: Stop polygamy, Iddah, mandate, and the dowry, and stop obligatory spending of man on the family, and to allow Muslim women to marry non-Muslims.

9. Withdraw the authority of divorce from husbands and authorize it to judiciary and share property after divorce.

10. Cancel the obligatory authorization of the husband in: travel, work or going out or use contraception.

These are the destructive means of the institution of the family and community that calls for the return for the early Jahiliyyah.
The Muslim Brotherhood call upon rulers of Islamic countries and Foreign Ministers and their representatives in the United Nations to reject this document, and also we invite this organization to live up to the level of the pure family relations prescribed by Islam.

Also Muslim Brotherhood calls Al-Azhar to act according to its leading role and to condemn this document and declare the position of Islam towards its articles, as it is the reference for Muslims.

As well we call other Islamic groups and associations to take a decisive stand against this document and its like.

We also call for women's organizations to adhere to their religion and the morals of their communities and the elements of our social life and not to be seduced by the deceptive, misleading and destructive calls for urbanization.


The Muslim Brotherhood
Cairo: 13 March 2013

I would love to see the draft document they are referring to and compare it with their interpretation.

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Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Ariel Students Excluded from Obama Talk
Obama’s staff sends speech invites to Israeli schools, but Ariel University students off the list. MK protests to ambassador.

“If the president invites students from every Israeli university, he should invite representatives from Ariel University as well,” Chetboun declared. Ignoring Ariel University is a sign of non-recognition of the Israeli government’s decision to give it university status, he said.
Chetboun has written to U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro in protest. “I cannot understand or accept your decision,” he wrote. “Ariel University was recognized as a university by Israel’s government. In excluding students from Ariel, the American government is taking a clear, one-sided stance, while declaring that the visit is not political.

The apartheid libel
Israel Apartheid Week kicked off this year in Europe on February 25 and runs through March 17 in South Africa.

However, as noted by Gideon Shimoni – the former head of the Hebrew University’s Institute of Contemporary Jewry, who was born and raised in Johannesburg – the term “apartheid” has become “a code word that is not being used to analyze a sociopolitical phenomenon, but rather as a rhetorical weapon... to demonize and excoriate the State of Israel, a political entity that defines itself as Jewish and democratic.”

Brother of Infamous Nazi Hermann Goering Up for Prestigious Righteous of the Nations Award

Albert Goering, the brother of infamous Nazi Hermann Goering, is now among the candidates to receive the Righteous Among The Nations award. Albert was a German businessman who died in 1966.
According to accounts, Albert saved hundreds of Jews and political dissidents during the Second World War by helping them obtain exit permits and through other means.

Film looks at NY Times and Holocaust
A student documentary about the paper’s shallow coverage of the genocide — just six front-page stories throughout the war — will premiere at one of America’s most prestigious festivals

In promotional materials, the young filmmaker notes that she’s not breaking entirely new ground, acknowledging that the project was “inspired” by “Buried By the Times,” Laurel Leff’s critical study of how the paper chose to cover — and not cover — the genocide.
Both the book and the film allege that the Sulzberger family, the Times’ Jewish owners, feared becoming closely associated with Jewish causes, and restricted the prominence of reports on the killing. A scholar interviewed in the film notes that the Times printed six front-page stories on the Holocaust during all of World War II, an average of one per year.

In New York, Signs Of A Quiet Exodus Of Jews From France
Last March's killings at a Jewish elementary school in Toulouse shocked many, but French Jews have been feeling less secure for years. Some leave, though security isn't the only reason.

Every Saturday at around 12pm on the sidewalks of the Upper West Side you can hear French being spoken. It’s coming from groups of people who are coming out of the synagogues on 75th, 78th and 84th streets, where increasing numbers of French Jews are appearing each week.
They’re families with kids, young people, teachers and executives. The consulate on Fifth Avenue hasn’t estimated the exact numbers of this phenomenon but it’s definitely increasing. In the “Manhattan Day School” the teachers are showing the daughter of a family around, who just arrived with very few days warning.

Jewish Leaders Call for Further Measures to Protect Mount of Olives Cemetery

Leaders of Jewish groups including the Rabbinical Council of America, the National Council of Young Israel, Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations wrote a letter to Netanyahu commending the prime minister “for the great strides made by his government to secure and protect the ancient Jewish cemetery—which has increasingly come under attack in recent years with continuous violence against visitors, rampant grave desecration, dumping of refuse and gross defilement of the cemetery by local Arab youths,” the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim (ICPHH) said in a press release.

Polish Jewish museum unveils reconstructed shul roof
Scheduled to open next year, Warsaw cultural center hopes to join ranks of Yad Vashem and US Holocaust Museum

A Jewish history museum in Warsaw has unveiled a reconstructed synagogue roof with an elaborately painted ceiling modeled on a 17th-century structure, presenting the first object that will go on permanent display in the highly awaited museum.
The wooden roof, with its frescoed ceiling, will be a key attraction in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is due to open next year in the heart of the city’s former Jewish quarter. Reporters in Warsaw were invited to view it Tuesday.

Drug candidate to enhance bone marrow transplant success
The drug makes the donor tissue less likely to destroy the patient’s organs, while allowing the regular immune activity against the cancer.

In bone marrow transplants, between 30 to 70 percent of all patients develop a disease caused by the immune system in the donor tissue. Like in a sci-fi horror movie, the tissue transplant starts attacking the patient’s own organs. This graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) means a lifetime of immune suppressant drugs – chemicals that come with their own bag of problems.
But the Israeli company Enlivex has developed a new trick to help a patient accept foreign tissue more readily, improving the odds and outcomes for people suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers requiring bone marrow transplants.

NYC Event Raises $27 Million for IDF
Donors give millions to IDF, honor commander who lost arm.

Attendees honored Captain Ziv Shilon, who was badly wounded in a Hamas attack near Gaza in October 2012. After losing an arm and suffering significant injury to his other arm in the initial attack, Shilon charged the terrorists who had attacked him, using his mouth and nose to help operate the gun.
Shilon inspired Israel with his positive attitude and determination in wake of the attack.

Israel’s Bold New Queen
The latest Miss Israel, Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw, says it’s about time a black woman wore the crown

Aynaw will get a taste of foreign relations this year: This week she flies to New York to address a gala at the Waldorf Astoria for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces. This winter, she’ll be in Paris. And pageant director Cohen says organizers of this year’s Miss World competition in Indonesia—a country with which Israel shares no diplomatic relations—are working on securing a visa for her to compete.

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Palestinian death toll in Syria rises above 1000

From the beginning of the Syrian uprising until the end of February, 1036 Palestinian Arabs have been killed, according to the "Working Group of Syrian Palestinians."

Since then, it appears that several more are being killed every day:

4 on March 2
5 on March 5
12 on March 6
5 on March 9
8 on March 10

You must have seen the news coverage of the many "pro-Palestinian" demonstrations outside world embassies protesting these deaths every day, right?

Here's a video that claims to be of a Palestinian Syrian woman in front of her sister's husband's body who was hung for allegedly being a "spy" for the government.

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Better Business Bureau accepts "Hamas" as member

From the LA Times:

For generations, Americans turned to the Better Business Bureau to find out if the local grocer was cheating customers or if the neighborhood dry cleaner was mishandling clothes.

But this week the 101-year-old consumer watchdog turned its sights on one of its own — ousting the Los Angeles chapter that grades local businesses. BBB of the Southland was expelled after years of internal strife and a slew of audits by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

The chapter, which was the organization's largest and covered Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties, was accused of demanding that businesses pay membership fees in exchange for good ratings. It even reportedly issued an A-minus rating for a fake business named after Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government.

...In 2010, ABC News reported that a group of Los Angeles business owners critical of the BBB paid dues for several fake companies, including Hamas. A leader of the BBB of the Southland said that at the time the Hamas business was being presented as a youth camp and the name was pronounced differently.

The dummy businesses were accepted by the BBB of the Southland, given ratings and accredited.

Unfortunately, that same scheme to "accredit" Hamas could work in international politics as well. Pay the petrodollars, pretend to be a respectable group, mouth the right words, and eventually you can get your way.

(h/t EBoZ)

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Wednesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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National Post editorial board: More proof of Israel’s restraint

But the relative handful of potential violations pales next to the enormous scale of the military operation. Israel conducted 1,500 air strikes on targets within Gaza, as well as seven naval attacks and several hundred strikes with artillery, but the UNHRC found that only 101 civilians deaths could be attributed to Israeli military action. Considering the densely populated nature of Gaza, such accuracy represents a level of precision essentially unknown in any prior war in history.

But the UNHRC report can, and should, be read as further proof that Israel makes every reasonable effort to wage war against a determined, indiscriminate enemy with precision and restraint.

CAMERA: Crickets at Electronic Intifada Over UN Finding Hamas Responsible for BBC Reporter's Baby Death

Electronic Intifada, the anti-Israel web site run by activist Ali Abuminah, was extremely agitated over what it saw as the failure of the BBC to vociferously condemn Israel for the murder of the 11 month old infant son of BBC journalist Omar Misharawi. In an article titled, When BBC ignores Israeli murder of its own cameraman’s baby, what hope for other Palestinians?

Western funded Palestinian TV insists, "land occupied in 1948 will return to us one day"

In yet another revelatory video, Palestinian Media Watch shows how despite consistent calls for a two-state solution, Palestinian television is still teaching its children to await the destruction of Israel

PA arrests Palestinian over ties to Al Jazeera By Khaled Abu Toameh

Sarkaji, who lives in Nablus and also works as a TV producer, said his problems had begun when he returned to the West Bank after attending a training course for the Doha-based Al Jazeera TV station.
His father, Yusef, was a senior Hamas commander who was killed by the IDF in 2002.
Al Jazeera’s relations with the PA leadership have deteriorated ever since the station published documents about the peace talks with Israel that were stolen from the office of PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Hamas calls for ‘collaborators’ to turn selves in By Khaled Abu Toameh

Gaza Interior Ministry: Effort aimed at opening door for "repentance" for Palestinians who have been working for Israel.

Egypt Bans Film About Local Jewish Community

Egyptian security services have banned a film about the Jews of Egypt on the eve of its scheduled release, the film's director told AFP on Tuesday.
"The film was banned by National Security," Amr Ramses told the news agency by telephone from New York.
The film, which documents the lives of members of the Egyptian Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century, exploring themes of identity and tolerance, was meant to be screened in three cinemas on Wednesday, the report said.

CNN's Burnett To Laura Bush: Should America Accept Anti-Semitism?

ERIN BURNETT, HOST: An Egyptian woman, her name's Samir Ibraham, and she's done a lot of things, courageous things. She's also been criticized for sending tweets that are anti-Semitic, anti-American. Does the U.S. need to accept that when we want to make change. You have to support people that do those things - financially in term of awards, in terms of all these things - because it pays off in the end? Is that a trade-off we have to make?

UN Monitor Slams Iran Over Arrest of Journalists

The United Nations' monitor for human rights in Iran sounded the alarm Tuesday over a rise in arrests of journalists, saying this was part of a pattern of increasing violations as presidential elections loom.
Seventeen journalists were arrested in the space of one week in January, Ahmed Shaheed told reporters, according to AFP.
In addition, some 50 journalists were already behind bars, he said.

Iran and Hungarian party form anti-Semitic alliance
Isolated and anti-Western, a pair of pariahs find common ground in their outspoken opposition to Jewish interests

Jobbik’s general antagonism toward Israel has blossomed in recent months into a fully fledged campaign. Gyongyosi has announced a national tour of lectures on the “Zionist threat to world peace.” In parallel, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel articles now take up more than 30 percent of the content on the party’s English-language website.

Iran mulls suing Hollywood over ‘Argo’
Decision comes after a group of Tehran officials screen the film for a closed audience

Those at the meeting dismissed “Argo” as a “violation of international cultural norms.” A statement issued after the gathering said that “awarding an anti-Iran movie is a propaganda attack against our nation and entire humanity.”

Facebook bets on Israeli games
Five of the developers of Facebook's ten largest social games in the EMEA come from Israel, and the company is here looking for more.

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) is building on the Israeli gaming market: five of the developers of Facebook's ten largest social games in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) come from Israel. Herzliya-based Plarium Ltd. is one of the ten fastest growing games companies on Facebook worldwide.
These achievements today brought Facebook to Israel for the second time in six months to find the next game hit, and to send a clear message to Israeli gaming developers: We want you.

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Documentary about Egyptian Jews banned in Egypt

Last month I mentioned that an Egyptian had created what looked like a pretty good documentary about the Jews of Egypt, one that admitted that the Jews were expelled by the government. I predicted that it would stir up a lot of controversy in Egypt.

I was right.

From Egypt Independent:

The director of the film "On Egypt's Jews" film Amir Ramses has said that the National Security Agency banned the film in Egypt.

Ramses said that the NSA’s ban violated the powers of the country’s censorship authorities, and described the move as "ignorant and authoritarian."

"This is an encroachment on the powers of the censorship authority. The film had been displayed as it already gained the [censorship authority] approval without remarks. It was displayed in the [Panorama European Film] Festival, in addition to being displayed in more than one festival," Ramses wrote on his Facebook account.

Ramses also added that he and film producer Haitham Khamisy would take legal action against the Ministry of Culture and the minister of culture for postponing the renewal of their licenses, and lashed out at the National Security Agency, which he said was “as authoritarian” as the Interior Ministry and the equivalent of the former State Security Investigation Services under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

"Banning the film after gaining the regulatory approval twice is a barefaced encroachment by the National Security Agency," Ramses said.

The Guardian adds:

The film, which had already screened at a private film festival in Egypt last year, as well as at festivals in the US, was due to open today in three local cinemas. Based on testimony from researchers, political figures and exiled Egyptian Jews, it presents a harmonious vision of early 20th century multicultural Egypt and asks – according to director Amir Ramses – "how did the Jews of Egypt turn in the eyes of Egyptians from partners in the same country to enemies?" The film was banned by local censors, according to El-Khamissy, after a security agency made a request to view it.

Notice that the apparent excuse for blatant censorship of a film that reveals anti-Jewish attitudes of Egyptian authorities is - "security." Which is pretty much what one would expect from an authoritarian state.

Here's the trailer again:



(Made slight change to emphasize that it was the government that censored the film in response to Emad el Dafrawi)

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Hamas starts a charm offensive in Europe

From AllVoices:

In a statement, considered the first of its kind, Dr Ahmed Yousef, Hamas's top political official and the adviser to Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, said that the group’s removal from the US and European countries’ lists of terrorism sponsors is no longer difficult nor impossible, but has become a matter of time.

Yousef declared to the Palestinian news agency Maan on Monday, that Hamas had made contacts with the help of Arab and Islamic countries such as Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, to convince major and European countries to take Hamas’s name out of the terrorism list.

He claimed that some Western countries have responded positively, without naming them.

Palestine Press Agency adds:

Leader of the Hamas Ahmed Yousef said that there are moves in a European framework for the lifting his movement from the terrorism list,saying that Hamas has completely stopped from the practice of martyrdom operations targeting civilians, in the interest of Europe opening up to Hamas.

Yousef told Radio "Raya FM" that Hamas is only using arms in the land of Palestine, and international law gives them the right to resist the occupier as a national liberation movement.

Yousef explained that if Europe wants to be a party in any future political process, it must engage with Hamas and that there is a significant European understanding of it, pointing out that the Palestinian reconciliation could speed up its completion.

Of course, Hamas itself bragged about targeting civilians during Pillar of Defense, the very definition of terrorism and noted in the UNHCR report on the fighting.

Meanwhile, Hamas honcho Mahmoud Zahar once again stated that Hamas' willingness to accept a state in the territories in no way mitigates its goal to utterly destroy Israel. It is just an interim step.

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"Open Zion" publishes pure anti-Israel lies (updated)

"Open Zion," Peter Beinart's "commitment to debate and embrace of a Zionism that's both nuanced and heartfelt" at the Daily Beast, has once again descended into publishing baldfaced anti-Israel lies.

Anna Lekas Miller, someone with no credentials as far as I can tell ("a freelance writer in Brooklyn covering the Middle East, Arab America, feminism and activism"), rehashes the most absurd Arab rumors about the riots in the Temple Mount last week and Beinart doesn't deign to fact check any of them:

Last night, a march of extremist Israeli settlers took over the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, filling the streets with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers enforcing a strictly “Jews only” policy on the streets of the Muslim Quarter that put the nearly 30,000 Palestinian residents of the Muslim Quarter under curfew until the march was over.

I can find no news stories about this incident, so I cannot say for certain that it is not true. But read on to see how much credibility Anna has...

This follows a week of attacks of this nature on Al-Aqsa Mosque—the third most holy site in Islam just a few meters away from the Dome of the Rock, the iconic golden crowning glory of Jerusalem.. Under normal circumstances, though anyone can enter the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, only practicing Muslims are allowed to enter the inside of Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, in recent years extremist Israeli settlers—protected by IDF soldiers or Israeli police—have stormed the mosque, claiming that it should be destroyed so that the Third Temple can be erected in its place.

As far as I know, no Jews ever enter the mosque, except for police during riots. The Jews peacefully walk in the outdoor areas of the Temple Mount that they are allowed to by Jewish law.

However, every time they do that, Arab media characterizes it as "settlers storming the Al Aqsa Mosque," and Miller simply believes them.

Recently, due to heightened tensions leading to violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank that many Israelis fear could lead to a Palestinian uprising, the attacks on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound have intensified.

Again, there have been no attacks on the mosque, except when the Arabs start rioting first.

The most recent string of attacks started on Sunday when an Israeli soldier threw a young Muslim Palestinian woman’s Qu’ran on the floor, trampling it until it was destroyed.

Never happened. This was a rumor that was started by Muslim women who were apparently blocking the Moroccan Gate to stop any non-Muslims from entering the Mount; when police tried to move them away they started going crazy - and this false rumor started. However, Miller has added a flourish of "trampling it until it was destroyed" - originally, the rumor was just that it was kicked.

A few days later on Wednesday, eight Israeli settlers accompanied by soldiers stormed the mosque, interrupting the worshippers during prayers and violently ripping off a woman’s hijab—a traditional head covering required for worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

As far as I can tell, this never happened either.

On Friday—International Women’s Day—dozens of Israeli policemen once again stormed the mosque as Palestinian worshippers gathered for noon prayers. According to Israeli Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police entered the mosque when Palestinians who had seen them outside the mosque threw rocks and two firebombs at them. The police then responded with teargas and stun grenades, pushing women aside and injuring one journalist, turning what would have otherwise been peaceful Friday prayers into violent clashes.

The Muslims started the violence, as always. Here's a video taken by the Muslims themselves, showing them throwing chairs and other projectiles at the police from inside their supposedly holy spot:



The article gets even worse in its characterization of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Of course, Miller cannot be bothered to note that these were Jewish holy places two millennia before Mohammed was born.

In other words, Open Zion decided to publish a pack of lies, written by someone with no apparent expertise, parroting absurd rumors from the most extreme Islamist sites, without even a modicum of fact-checking or journalistic ethics.

(h/t JM)

UPDATE: Open Zion published a number of corrections, but kept a number of lies - for example, no one said the Quran was "destroyed" except Ms. Miller (even the Al aqsa Foundation just said it was "kicked"), and she kept the claims of "settlers storming the mosque".

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Egypt, giving citizen arrest powers, turning literally into a police state

From Al Ahram:

The Sunday announcement by Egyptian Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdullah that citizens have the right to arrest "vandals" has caused a firestorm of controversy.

"Egypt's prosecutor-general urges all citizens to exercise the right afforded them by Article 37 of Egypt's criminal procedure law issued in year 1950 to arrest anyone found committing a crime and refer them to official personnel," said a statement issued by the prosecutor-general's office.

Another statement issued on Monday by the prosecutor-general's office said that "the statement of the prosecutor-general did not include granting 'judicial arrest' powers to citizens, but rather granting the judicial arrest to officers as defined officially in the law."

Nevertheless, the statements of the prosecutor-general opened an angry debate about security issues in the face of an ongoing police strike in a number of governorates.
....

A number of Islamist political groupings welcomed the initial statement of the prosecutor-general. State news agency MENA reported that Alaa Abu El-Nasr, the secretary-general of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Building and Development Party, praised the move.

"Political powers have the right to have their own police force, to fight crimes in the street," said Nazer Gharab, a member of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya on Monday morning during an interview broadcast on CBC channel.

Gharab added that the ultra-conservative Islamist group would found its own "Islamist" police force to restore order in the street.

Can religious police be far behind?

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Partial list of Gazans killed by terrorist rockets, and why journalists can't get it right

From Human Rights Watch, 2005:

On August 2, 2005, members of the Ashqar family were in their courtyard in Beit Hanoun having dinner with some visitors when a rocket exploded in their midst. It killed 6-year-old Yasir `Adnan al-Ashqar. Adnan Mustafa al-Ashqar, his 45-year-old father, died the next day from the wounds he sustained

From YNet, December 26, 2008::

A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday struck a house in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian sisters aged five and 13, Palestinian medics said.

From the Gaza NGO Safety Office, January, 2011:

Jan 22 2011 ; (1) [home-made rocket] was fired from E of Zaitoun quarter, E of Gaza, but dropped short and fell within Gaza territory. It is alleged that the HMR fell near a group of Pal. workers collecting scrap metal near Malaka area, E of Gaza, killing 1 labourer and injuring 2 others.

From OCHA, August, 2011:

Between August 19-21 2011: One Palestinian child, 13-years-old, was also killed, and six others injured, when a GRAD rocket fired by Palestinian armed groups fell short. 

From PCHR, June 2012:

Tuesday, 19 June 2012, Hadeel Ahmed Sa'eed al-Haddad (1.5) was struck in the head by shrapnel while she was standing in the entrance of the house of her grandfather, Sa'eed Mohammed al-Haddad, in al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, when a home-made rocket landed on their house. Hadeel was transported to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City to receive necessary medical treatment, but later transferred to Shifa Hospital due to the seriousness of her injuries. The efforts made by her doctors failed to save her life.

From The Telegraph, November 2012:

The highly publicised death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel. The child’s death on Friday figured prominently in media coverage after Hisham Kandil, the Egyptian prime minister, was filmed lifting his dead body out of an ambulance. "The boy, the martyr, whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about," he said, before promising to defend the Palestinian people. But experts from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights who visited the site on Saturday said they believed that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket.

While these are only the deaths I could find, there is evidence that there are more. A report from Palestine Press Agency from 2008, for example, said

It should be noted that this incident is not the first, as previously many locally manufactured missiles aimed at Israeli communities fell on Palestinian homes and factories especially in the northern region of the sector and causing substantial material damage not to mention the human losses in many cases.

Of course, there have been literally hundreds of rockets that fell short in Gaza, causing much damage and injuries. Even a UNRWA school has been hit.

The Mishrawi case is hardly unique. Unless you read the mainstream media that couldn't quite figure out that many Gaza rockets fall short.

In many of these cases, Gaza officials blamed Israel for the deaths. Just as they did for the eight family members killed on a Gaza beach from a Hamas weapons stash. And then, as now, the media believed them.

The question is, why can the members of the media not figure out that they are often being lied to, especially when it comes to civilian casualties? Especially when it comes from officials in a territory that can hardly be described as a bastion of free speech and transparency?

The only conclusion is that journalists'  ability to think critically is impaired when they have a preconceived idea of who is right and wrong. They take all evidence - even from proven liars, like Gaza's Health Ministry - as proof their ideas were right to begin with. Israeli denials, even though they have been proven to be correct time and time again, are instead treated with the skepticism that is missing when listening to Gaza officials.

The sad part is that, judging from the way that journalists have been trying to deflect or blame others for their mistakes, they cannot learn the basic lesson to be skeptical of all sides, not just one.

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Hamas tweets for Allah to send dead IDF soldiers to"hellfire"

There was a tragedy earlier today:

Two Air Force pilots, Lieutenant-Colonel Noam Ron, 49, from Oranit and Major Erez Flekser, 31, from Herzliya, were killed in a helicopter crash in the Revadim area south of Gedera on Tuesday. Contact with the Cobra helicopter was lost on Monday night prompting IDF forces to launch a search.

Erez Flesker, z"l

Noam Ron z"l

The IDF tweeted its condolences:

The IDF and its soldiers join the grieving families in mourning their loss. http://www.idf.il/1283-18503-EN/Dover.aspx …

The Hamas Al Qassam Brigades had a somewhat different kind of message in reply:

@idfspokesperson إلى جهنم وبئس المصير May Allah send them to hellfire, God willing
— Alqassam Brigades (@AlqassamBrigade) March 12, 2013

The Arabic says "to hell."

Lovely people, these Hamas members.

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Hamas urges PalArabs to vacation in Gaza

From Ma'an:

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Monday urged Palestinians to spend their summer holiday in the Gaza Strip.

"I call upon our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the 1948 territories to visit the Gaza Strip and spend happy days with their relatives and brothers during the summer on the beach," Haniyeh told Ma'an while taking a break from jogging along the beach in Gaza City.

"Gaza is safe and stable, and it is a meeting point for national unity," Haniyeh said.

"From the bottom of my heart I say that there is no need for touristic normalization with the Israeli occupation. There is no need for our people to go to Israeli beaches in occupied Palestine. I hereby tell them to come to Gaza which will be happy with their presence."

Here are photos of Haniyeh's jog along the street adjacent to the beach.

Doesn't it look relaxing? You, with only your bodyguards, as everyone else makes themselves scarce.

No pesky women for you to look at during your beach jog.

It's a dream vacation!

By the way, this isn't the first time that Gaza tried to attract vacationers. This video, apparently not meant to be ironic, was made in 2011:

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