Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 15, 2013

Al Qassam members "escape" from Hamas prison

Palestinian Arabic media are reporting that three members of the Al Qassam Brigades escaped from a prison in Gaza last night.

All three had been convicted of murder.

Given that the majority of police and security services in Gaza also moonlight for the Al Qassam Brigades, and both organizations ultimately report to the same people, I have a feeling that this prison break didn't involve any tunneling or dramatic hiding in the laundry truck. It was probably more like, "Hey, Guard Ahmed, we're going to leave tonight, OK?"

"Okey-dokey!"

Hamas damages ancient harbor for terrorist training

From Al Monitor:

Earlier last month, amid overwhelming criticism from public figures and nongovernmental organizations, the military wing of the Islamic movement of Hamas, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea. The Brigades damaged the harbor in order to expand its military training zone, which was initially opened on the location in 2002, according to Ejla.

The Anthedon seaport, which dates back over 3,000 years to the Mycenaean era, is considered one of the most important sites in the Middle East and is the oldest harbor in Gaza. It was designated an international heritage site by UNESCO in 2012. The location was discovered in 1997 on the space of 180,000 square meters. It contains mosaic floors with historical pillars from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic ages.

In a press statement, the Hamas-run Ministry of Tourism said that it is the only responsible authority over the location, and it would not permit harm to the monuments.

“Due to rising population in the region, the ministry appreciates the urgent need for using new pieces of land. This is why the ministry has agreed with the different responsible parties on using a limited part of the location temporarily in a way that won’t harm the underground monuments there in any way,” the statement read.

But Deputy Minister of Tourism in Gaza Muhammad Khela told Al-Monitor that the location was taken for military use and not demographic purposes.

“We can’t stand as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian resistance; we are all a part of a resistance project, yet we promise that the location will be limitedly used without harming it at all,” Khela explained.

UNESCO describes the harbor as a tentative World Heritage site, and it says that it qualifies because "Anthedon exhibits an important interchange of human values, over important periods of time that relate to the main trade route crossing the Holy Land from Egypt to the Fertile Crescent and linking Africa and the Middle East to Europe."

UNESCO has not issued any statements condemning Hamas' destruction of this site.

That description was submitted by the PA, in part of its effort to flood UNESCO with heritage sites. Indeed, it appears to be an important archaeological site - yet today much of it is under the "Beach refugee camp" which was set up by - the UN!

Adjoining to the site is another important archaeological site, Blakhiyya, unearthed by the French between 1995 and 2005, but since then Hamas has built a police station, a parking lot and other structures directly on top.

Most telling, however, is that the deputy tourism minister of Hamas admits that terrorism is more important to the government than tourism!

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

NC professor illustrates Deir Yassin with Nazi concentration camp photo

A blog entry by Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, talks about the "massacre" of Deir Yassin in the 1948 war.

He quotes an article about the event from Counterpunch that is filled with lies - even Safi admits that the article he quotes is probably wrong when it says that 250 people were killed, but he shows no skepticism about the rest of the article, such as saying many of the bodies were stuffed down wells, or that the Jews threatened another massacre in Jaffa with loudspeakers when in fact the Arab leaders at the time led the flight from Jaffa...there are dozens of such lies. And that article was also written by a professor.

But as bad as it is for academics to engage in flat-out lies, Safi goes further. He illustrates the "massacre" with a photo of victims of the Nazis!

In fact, this photo is of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, part of the Buchenwald complex, and the dead bodies were victims of a Royal Air Force bombing raid in April 1945.

The Religion News Service, which sponsors this blog, claims:

RNS strives to meet the highest standards of public service journalism. Through our work, we report, write, compile, record and post news, features, photos and video.

Our goal is to promote civic engagement and discourse on religion. We strive to inform and challenge our readers, out of a conviction that religious literacy is a necessary component of effective citizenship.

I didn't know that outright lies were considered "highest standards" of journalism.

Hat tip to Tundra Tabloids, who has more. A much more accurate description of what happened in Deir Yassin, and how both Jewish and Arab leaders used exaggerations and lies about the event to further their own aims, can be seen here.

UPDATE: Safi removed the photo.

UPDATE 2: But he replaced it with this:

EoZ reader Irene looked at this and noticed the plastic bags - were plastic bags widely available in 1948?

In fact, this image is associated on the Internet more with the Sabra and Shatila massacres done by Christian Phalangists against Muslims than with Deir Yassin.

Yes, the esteemed professor Safi cannot even do a decent job in basic research skills. He saw the photo at an anti-Israel site a sbeing "Deir Yassin" and believed it wholeheartedly.

Religion News Service must be so proud to host this person who, apparently, adheres to the "highest standards of public service journalism."

"Created in Israel" video - Happy Yom Ha'atzmaut!

What's not to love?

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick)

Jordanian family threatens to kill 10 Israeli tourists in "revenge"

From Arabs Today, April 7:

Last week policeman Ibrahim al-Jarrah, aged 27, had been accompanying Israeli tourists to the Ma’in hot springs, close to the Dead Sea, shortly before he was found dead at the site.

Al-Jarrah’s brother, Joseph, told Arabstoday: “We want a full explanation of the death of our brother, who remained in sulphuric water for 40 hours.”
Relatives have claimed al-Jarrah was killed by criminals.

Security sources have meanwhile denied reports of foul play circulating on social networking sites, amid claims al-Jarrah was killed after receiving a blow to the head while escorting 21 Israeli tourists to Ma’in.

“There is no criminal suspicion here,” sources told Arabstoday.

Video of Harrah's body being recovered makes it appear likely that he simply slipped and hit his head in the rocky spring.

But if Jews were around, naturally the Arabs will want to blame them.

Angry Jordanians burned an Israeli flag on Friday to protest what they are convinced is Jewish involvement in Jarrah's death.

On Thursday, Jarrah's brother Yusuf Mohammed threatened to kill or kidnap up to ten Israeli tourists who enter Jordan as of this past Saturday until an investigation is completed to the family's satisfaction.

An op-ed in allofjo.net written by a Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman lashes out against the very idea that Jarrah was accompanying the hated Jews to begin with calling them brothers of monkeys and saying that Jarrah's blood wa smade worthless in order to stay away from blaming the Jews. Moreover, the op-ed describes the murderer of seven Israeli schoolgirls as a hero, and is disgusted that Jordan's King Hussein apologized to mere Jews for their deaths, calling it a disgrace to Jordan's armed forces. He wails that Jordanians are serving the Jews, enemies of Allah.

This hasn't hit the media yet, but Israeli tourists to Jordan should be extra careful.

Gilad Atzmon reveals that Jewish anti-Zionists are part of the Jewish conspiracy!

Iran's PressTV publishes Jewish anti-semite Gilad Atzmon's latest ramblings:

Surprisingly enough, an attempt to examine our contemporaneous controlled opposition within the Left and the Progressive reveal that it is far from being a conspiratorial. Like in the case of the Jewish Lobby, the so-called ‘opposition’ hardly attempts to disguise its ethno-centric tribal interests, spiritual and ideological orientation and affiliation.

A brief examination of the list of organisations founded by George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI) presents a grim picture - pretty much the entire American progressive network is funded, partially or largely by a liberal Zionist, philanthropic billionaire who supports very many good and important causes that are also very good for the Jews. And yet, like staunch Zionist Haim Saban, Soros does not operate clandestinely. His Open Society Institute proudly provides all the necessary information regarding the vast amount of shekels it spreads on its good and important causes.

...As with Orwell’s Big Brother that frames the boundaries of dissent by means of control opposition, Soros’ Open Society also determines, either consciously or unconsciously, the limits of critical thought. Yet, unlike in 1984, where it is the Party that invents its own opposition and write its texts, within our ‘progressive’ discourse, it is our own voices of dissent, willingly and consciously, that are compromising their principles.

...We may have to face up to the fact that the progressive discourse effectively operates as Israel’s longest arm - it certainly acts as a gatekeeper and as protection for Zionism and Jewish tribal interests. If Israel and its supporters would ever be confronted with real opposition it might lead to some long-overdue self-reflection. But at the moment, Israel and Zionist lobbies meet only insipid, watered-down, progressively-vetted resistance that, in practice, sustains Israeli occupation, oppression and an endless list of human rights abuses.

Instead of mass opposition to the Jewish State and its aggressive lobby, our ‘resistance’ is reduced into a chain of badge-wearing, keffiyeh-clad, placard-waving mini-gatherings with the occasional tantrum from some neurotic Jewess while being videoed by another good Jew. If anyone believes that a few badges, a load of amateur Youtube clips celebrating Jewish righteousness are going to evolve into a mass anti-Israel global movement, they are either naïve or stupid.

...For the Jewish progressive discourse, the purpose behind pro-Palestinian support is clear. It is to present an impression of pluralism within the Jewish community. It is there to suggest that not all Jews are bad Zionists. Philip Weiss, the founder of the most popular progressive pro-Palestinian blog was even brave enough to admit to me that it is Jewish self -interests that stood at the core of his pro Palestinian activity.

Yes - the anti-Zionism of Mondoweiss is really an expression of evil Jewish tribalism, and meant to stifle the truly radical and moral voices like Gilad Atzmon's!

Atzmon himself, however, is hiding the fact that he is part of the Jewish problem as well. After all, he was born a Jew, and by definition he cannot escape that calamitous tribal membership. He has not yet publicly called for the mass extermination of Jews worldwide, proving he is not as independent as he pretends. Indeed, if you think about it clearly, Atzmon's cause is also part of the long arm of Israel - because his over-the-top characterization of all Jews as part of a grand tribal conspiracy can only serve to make him the butt of jokes and strengthen Jewish tribalism even more!

He is another tool in the circles within circles of the vast, overpowering Zionist world domination. We invented him to make the other anti-Zionist voices seem sane by comparison, and we are fully supporting those anti-Zionists with billions of dollars - in order to marginalize them! It makes so much damned sense!

It takes a true genius to see through all the conspiracies that we Jews are up to. But no Jew can properly reveal them, because he is part of them. We've brainwashed Atzmon so much that he doesn't even realize he is our puppet (and that his jazz playing is pretty bad as well!)

Sunday Links

From Ian:

Seeds of violence
Little has changed in the hostile atmosphere in the Gaza or the West Bank since the days of the second intifada.

In the end, if the Palestinians truly want to continue negotiations with Israel, Western states must make certain that the intentions of the Palestinian government similarly reflect peace. When we have a Palestinian budget which spends a bulk of its donated funds on armaments, there is impeccable evidence that ending the conflict with Israel is not an intention. Until that time comes the West must stop bankrolling Ramallah’s corrupt and terror-ridden bureaucrats.

Archbishop Tutu, revisit Israel!

THE LAST time Tutu visited Israel was way back in 1989. At the time, he offended many by insensitively saying about the Holocaust during a visit to the Yad Vashem memorial, “We pray for those who made it happen, help us to forgive them and help us so that we in our turn will not make others suffer.”
To say these words at that place in the heart of the Jewish state was deeply hurtful. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called it “a gratuitous insult to Jews and victims of Nazism everywhere.”

IDF arrests 3 Hamas members in West Bank

IDF troops arrested three prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank village of Jalqamus on Sunday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.

Islamist Children's Festival on Temple Mount

The festival was sponsored by the Al Aqsa Foundation and the Institute for Development of Al Aqsa and the Holy Sites. The theme was the strengthening of ties to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the commitment to its "liberation" from "the Israeli occupation."

Honest Reporting: Thoughts on “The World’s Largest Outdoor Prison”

When you get right down to it, Gaza’s Islamist overlords remain committed to perpetuating their control of the strip, their division with Fatah, and their agenda to destroy Israel. Dawber’s violin just sounds tinny and broken.

Hamas Arrests 'Collaborators' Following Amnesty Period

Hamas forces in Gaza have begun arresting suspected "collaborators" with Israel following a month-long period of amnesty.

Egypt's Coptic Christians live in fear of Islamic extremists

"I feel unsafe," said Samir, a high school philosophy teacher with a cross tattooed on her wrist. "The Islamists want war. They want strife. But this is our land too. It is a country blessed by God, and there's no way we'll leave it to them."

Four Copts arrested for complicity in Cathedral clashes

The Coptic Maspero Youth Union announced that Michael Morqos was arrested on Friday alongside three other activists. The union condemned his arrest, calling it an escalation against Coptic youth and likening it to Mubarak’s violations against Copts where “the violator is free and the victim gets jailed and humiliated”.

Report: Turkey nixes NATO meeting with Israel

An initiative to bring Israel and six Arab countries’ ministers together under NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue group for the first time since 2008 has been nixed by Turkey and Egypt, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Saturday.
Ankara and Cairo reportedly said “it was not the right time” for such a meeting.

Genocidal Muslim Country Warns of Genocide if Europe Doesn’t Accept Muslims

Turkey not only committed genocide against Christians, but it still lies about it and locks up its citizens who even mention the genocide. It’s also violently anti-semitic under its current Islamist government.
So that means the time is right for its government to hypocritically warn Europe that the failure to accept Muslim immigrants could lead to another Holocaust.

Swedish Social Democrats Oust Chairman of Islamic Association

Islamiska Förbundet has invited to Sweden speakers with known anti-Semitic views. The Swedish anti-racism magazine Expo revealed that one speaker invited by Mustafa, Egyptian Salah Sultan, had previously slandered the Jewish community in an interview with al-Jazeera by saying they kill Christians on Easter.

Judea Pearl to light memorial candle for slain son

Prof. Judea Pearl, the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, will light the memorial flame at the Jewish Agency’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday to commemorate Jews slain in terror attacks and in anti- Semitic incidents abroad.

Doctor who Fought Libel joins IDF Despite Cancer

David showed up for reserves duty during Pillar of Defense even though he is suffering from cancer.
“Physically it was very difficult,” he said, “but spiritually it was extraordinary. It’s very powerful to be part of the most important thing going on – protecting soldiers in the Israel Defense Force.”
David fought for years against an Arab story, widely published in the world media, accusing Israeli soldiers of shooting and killing a terrified Arab child, Mohammed al-Dura. He revealed in 2007 that he had treated the father, Jamal al-Dura, for wounds sustained in an Arab gang attack – injuries that al-Dura later claimed had been inflicted by the Israeli army.

Israeli medical start-up prepares to build a better bone

Make no bones about it: A one-of-a-kind factory is going up in northern Israel.
Scientists at the Haifa facility there will manufacture bones for use in bone grafts, and they’ll do so using a new technique — taking live fat cells from patients by liposuction –which, according to its inventor, Dr. Shai Meretzki, will significantly change the way doctors relate to orthopedic problems and bone repairs.

Israel nervous that UNDOF will abandon Syria

Maariv reports:

Jerusalem is concerned that the Austrian troops of the UN force in Golan Heights, which are its largest contingent, will leave the area soon and will effectively cause the dissolution of power. In a situation like this there is a reasonable possibility that opposition Islamists will take over the Golan border positions, including the Syrian Hermon post.

In the coming weeks the arms embargo imposed by the EU on all sides in Syria should expire. It is believed that Britain and France will start to arm some rebel groups fighting Assad, but Austria has threatened in that case to consider pulling its soldiers....Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Sfindlgr, currently visiting Israel, expressed during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his fears of possible arming the rebels, ...saying that arming the rebels would bring the government to seriously consider the evacuation of the Golan Austrian battalion.

The UN had hinted that this might happen over two weeks ago:

The United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights have reduced their activities in response to the presence of armed groups from the Syrian conflict, the world body’s peacekeeping chief said today, calling for respect for the safety and security of UN personnel.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous told journalists in New York that the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has had to “adopt a posture which is somewhat more static” and take additional security measures, which include the use of more armoured vehicles.

“We have had to reduce somewhat the footprint of UNDOF in the Golan Heights in the area of operation,” Mr. Ladsous said after briefing the Security Council behind closed doors on actions taken since the seizure and safe release of 21 blue helmets earlier this month. In the days following, UNDOF vacated two positions which were particularly exposed to gunfire.

He thanked the countries contributing troops to the region and said he very much hopes that they will stay the course on this “very important mission.”

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia, which holds the presidency of the Council for this month, told reporters that the armed groups are being “provocative” in the area where the peacekeepers operate, but the blue helmets do not have the mandated authority from the Council to stop them.

(h/t Yoel)

Ha'aretz forced to issue another correction for Gideon Levy's fantasy statistics

From CAMERA:

CAMERA's staff in Israel has prompted corrections in Ha'aretz today, in both English and Hebrew, on a March 31 Gideon Levy column which falsely attributed a figure for Palestinian combatant deaths during Operation Cast Lead to Amnesty International. As first noted yesterday in our Snapshots blog, Levy erred in claiming:

One can argue ad nauseam about the numbers, but even the official IDF records − 1,166 killed, including 709 "terrorists," 89 children and 49 women − leave no room for doubt. Amnesty International, for instance, enumerated only 92 Palestinian fighters among the dead.
(Emphasis added.)

As Snapshots reported, contrary to Levy's claim, Amnesty International's lengthy report on Cast Lead does not indicate that "only 92 Palestinian fighters were among the dead...

While Amnesty acknowledges it did not have "the time and resources to verify all the reported deaths," it nevertheless somehow concluded that there were 1,400 Palestinian casualties, including 300 children, more than 115 women, some 85 men over the age of 50, and some 200 men under 50 they say took no part in hostilities -- a total of 700 uninvolved civilians, and an additional 250 Hamas policemen they say were not involved in hostilities when they were killed. According to Amnesty's own calculations, that leaves 550 unclassified Palestinian casualties out of 1400. Though Amnesty does not say so explicitly, presumably they are combatants. In any event, nowhere in its Cast Lead report does the organization cite only 92 Palestinian fighters killed.

It is no surprise that Gideon Levy lies - he has been doing that for years.

What is amazing is that Ha'aretz continues to refuse to fact-check his columns and publishes his lies despite his amazingly bad track record.

(h/t Yoel, Ian)

Yes, the PA directly pays terrorists in prison

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Since 2011, Palestinian Media Watch has been supplying governments and media worldwide with documentation that the PA pays high monthly salaries to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for security offenses, including terrorists serving multiple life-sentences for murder.

Yet for nearly two years, the British and Norwegian Foreign Ministries have told their MPs that PMW's documentation was incorrect. They argued that the PA does not pay salaries to security prisoners, which would be a reward for terror, but gives "social aid to the families" like other PA social welfare programs. This, they have now explained, was what the PA assured them.

In spite of all PMW's documentation, Norway and the UK have justified their continued funding of the PA, saying that none of their support money was going into a funding program specifically for terrorists, but was going to the wives and children. (See quotes below.)

PMW is now releasing a recent interview with a wife of a Palestinian prisoner that verifies the accuracy of PMW's reports. In the interview, the prisoner's wife and mother of five children complains repeatedly that the prisoner, her husband, has not given her and their children control of his salary, but instead gave it to his brother.

PA TV journalist Roba Al-Najjar to wife of prisoner: "For nearly four years, the prisoner's allowance from the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs and the official institutions has not reached your hands and your children's hands... Did you try to turn to the authorities?"

Prisoner's wife: "A year and a half ago, I went to the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs... Their answer was: 'Your husband transfers it to the person he wants. It's in his power not to transfer [it to you] and we can't do anything about it."

Prisoner's wife: "[My husband] told me: 'If you do what I want, it [the monthly salary] will return to you. As long as you are like this, it won't return to you.'"

According to the prisoner's wife, many other prisoners likewise don't give control of their salary payments to their wives:

Prisoner's wife: "It's not just me, this problem, many of the prisoners' wives and children suffer from it, from the transfer of his salary, the prisoner's salary."
As is clear from the account of the prisoner's wife broadcast on PA TV and the response of the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, the payment is the prisoner's salary, is under his control, and is not a social welfare payment.

The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs consistently calls the money it sends to prisoners "salaries" or "wages," not "aid" or "support" or anything that would indicate that it is a social welfare program. In addition to the salaries, however, they also provide some direct services to released terrorists, such as paying for their education, providing loans, offering trips to Mecca for the Hajj, free health insurance and vocational counseling.

The West is funding all of this.

Arab media roundup: Egyptian Jewish leader dies, Hamas upset over women's clothing, PLO freaks out over Baird visit

Woman leader of Egypt's disappearing Jewish community dies:

The leader of Egypt’s dwindling and aging Jewish community, known for her tireless work preserving synagogues and a once-sprawling Jewish cemetery, died Saturday at the age of 82.

Carmen Weinstein will be buried on Thursday in the Bassatine cemetery she herself worked to save since 1978. It is the only Jewish cemetery left in Cairo and is the largest in Egypt.

The transformation of Bassatine mirrors the dramatic changes Egypt has undergone as its population skyrocketed and poverty grew. Named in Arabic after its gardens, the cemetery is now a slum of tightly-packed redbrick apartment buildings that house thousands of poor Egyptians after waves of migration from villages in southern Egypt.

Parts of Bassatine were turned into a garbage dump, while another area was seized by antiquities’ officials. Weinstein was able to preserve a small area as a Jewish cemetery.

Hamas cracks down on women's clothing stores:

Hamas officials Saturday prevented men in the Gaza Strip from working in stores that sell women's clothing, as well as the display of women's clothing in front of shops, said residents of the sector.

A witness stated that verbal altercations occurred between members of Hamas and a number of dealers and sellers of women's apparel in the Jabalya refugee camp while trying to impose these new edicts.

Christian school gates torched in Gaza City:

Arsonists set fire to the main gates of a Christian school in Gaza City on Saturday, witnesses said.

Unidentified assailants set fire to the entrance of the Holy Family School in the early hours of Saturday, with no injuries reported.

Unnamed Arab "dignitaries" sign petition demanding Britain apologize for Balfour Declaration (from Hamas media):

220 Palestinian, Arab, and international personalities signed a memorandum demanding the UK to apologize for the Balfour Declaration.

The International Campaign to demand Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration said in a press statement on Thursday that the signing of the memo took place during a conference held in Cairo from April 4 to 6, in the presence of a group of dignitaries from around the Arab and Muslim world.

The campaign added that the signatories to the petition were parliamentarians, scholars, academics, journalists, politicians, researchers, heads of associations, doctors, engineers and writers, from different Arab, Islamic and Western countries.

International Campaign to demand Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration has been officially launched in London on January 19 during an academic conference organized by the Palestinian Return Center.

The campaign aims to collect one million signatures within five years to be submitted to the British government to demand it to apologize to the Palestinian people for the Balfour Declaration.

Erekat freaks over Baird visit

The PLO lodged an official complaint with Canada on Friday after its foreign minister attended a meeting with an Israeli leader in East Jerusalem.

John Baird broke a widely observed diplomatic taboo when he met with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni at her office in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967.

Such meetings are normally avoided by visiting diplomats over concerns they could be seen as legitimizing Israel's annexation of the city's eastern sector.

In the complaint, obtained by Ma'an, a senior PLO official blasted the move.

"Your recent meeting with Israeli officials in East Jerusalem has the effect of attempting to legitimize the illegal situation on the ground and may be deemed as aiding, abetting or otherwise assisting illegal Israeli policies," Saeb Erekat wrote in the message to Canada's representative office.

"As such, Canada’s actions are tantamount to complicity in ongoing Israeli violations of the international laws of war. ... these violations are being (perpetrated) not only against the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people, but against the international community as a whole."

In London, Baird rejected criticism over the visit.

“I’m just not interested in getting into the semantic argument about whether you have a meeting with one person on one side of the street (and) it’s OK, and you have a meeting on the other side of street and it’s not,” he told reporters covering the G8 summit, according to the National Post newspaper.

The Justice Ministry is two blocks from the Green Line.

View Larger Map

Egyptian Islamist denies "union with Israel" statement

On Friday, I noted a story where an Egyptian Islamist said "Egyptians 'would love' to be part of an Islamic Union model which will bring together not only the Muslim countries but Israel as well to discuss how to solve regional conflicts."

I predicted some serious backtracking this coming week.

Well, it happened even faster than I thought it would:

A prominent Islamist member of the Egyptian parliament denied on Friday telling a Turkish television that Egyptians “would love” to be part of an Islamic Union in which Israel, Russia and Armenia can participate.

Abdulmawgoud Dardery, head of the Foreign Relations Committee at Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), described the idea of Egyptians taking part in a union with the Jewish state as “imaginary.”

I guess Dardery values his life.

(h/t American Infidels)

Saturday Links

From Ian:

Barry Rubin: Snapshots: Personal Experiences in the Real Middle East

--The left-wing American peace activist lectures the Fatah man, who has told the American honestly that he wants to wipe out Israel and replace it with a Palestinian state, on how he must sound more moderate in order to gain Western support.
--A young Israeli who has just left the army describes how his first job in the army was to register guns given to the Palestinian forces to maintain security and prevent terrorism. His last duty before leaving is capturing Palestinian terrorists and sometimes recognizing—by checking the serial numbers—the guns he helped issue to the Palestinian police a couple of years earlier.
--The editor of a major newspaper who changes the reporter's story because it said that Hanan Ashrawi voted not to change the PLO National Charter (which called for wiping Israel off the map). Since, the editor said, Ashrawi was a moderate she could not possibly have voted that way. How did the journalist know about the true story? The journalist was standing outside the hall in Gaza where the meeting was taking place and asked Ashrawi how she voted.

Israel Sees Jordan: Things are Not All Quiet on the Eastern Front

A recent Jordanian-Arab Palestinian agreement to prevent the Judaization of Jerusalem, and an overwhelming majority of the Jordanian parliament urging prison release for the mass murderer of Israeli schoolgirls, reveal things are not all quiet on the Eastern front.

Obama Budget Attempts to Resume UNESCO Defunding Over Recognition of 'Palestine'

The Obama administration is trying to circumvent U.S. law dating back to 1990 by asking Congress to resume the funding of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Kerry asks Abbas, Fayyad to bury the hatchet

Palestinian Authority president to meet in Ramallah with resigning prime minister, an American-trained, West-backed economist

Palestinian Arab Museum that “Rewrites” History Funded by the West (VIDEO)

In a video celebrating the museum’s launch the claim is made that Palestine was home to “one of the most infuential [sic] cultures the world has ever seen” but that the fabric of the nation was torn apart by “dispossession” and “forced exile” in the 20th century.

Canada's FM Meets Livni in Eastern Jerusalem, PA Fumes

The Palestinian Authority is fuming after Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, met Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in her eastern Jerusalem office this week.
Such a move is normally avoided by visiting diplomats since world countries do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem, which it liberated during the 1967 Six Day War.

Hezbollah Must be Called Terror Organization by EU, Says Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird is calling on the 27-member European Union to join Canada in recognizing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

IDF troops come under fire along Syrian border

An IDF patrol in the Golan Heights came under artillery and small arms fire Friday from Syrian forces. No injuries were reported, but damage was inflicted to an IDF vehicle, according to an Israel Radio report. The IDF Spokesperson reported that no damage was reported.

Swedish mayor who opposes anti-Israel vitriol attacked

A Swedish mayor working to stop anti-Israel propaganda from being sold at a municipal cultural center was assaulted.
Mats Green, mayor of Jonkoping, was lightly wounded in an attack April 7 outside his home when two men struck him and kicked him, the news site nyheter24 reported.

NY teacher asks students why Jews are evil

Teacher may face discipline after giving writing assignment as part of a class project to demonstrate how Nazis thought.
An Albany, New York high school English teacher who asked students to imagine they were Nazis and give reasons why Jews were evil may be disciplined, a school district spokesman said on Friday.

Portuguese Architect Defies BDS Bullies & Accepts Israeli Prize

Nevertheless, Mr Souto de Moura, despite apparently critising Israeli policy in the past, has withstood the badgering and announced that he will in fact be accepting the Wolf Prize.
To judge from the invective spewed out by some of its representatives on social media, the response of the BDS movement is much beating of breasts and gnashing of teeth.

Before Jackie Robinson, there was Hank Greenberg

This year, filmmaker Brian Helgeland taps into this time of year when baseball is on the brain with the release of his Jackie Robinson biopic, “42,” premiering in theaters across the US on Friday, April 12. Helgeland’s film tells the story of the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era.

Holocaust-Era British Rabbi will Receive Award for Rescue of 300 Children

The UK’s Department for Communities on Monday will posthumously honor a British rabbi who saved about 300 Jewish children during the Second World War as a British hero of the Holocaust.