Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Report: Hamas ready to chop off thieves' hands

Arabic media are reporting that Hamas is drafting a new penal code for Gaza, separate from the one under the PA, and plans to adhere more closely to Sharia punishments.

According to the (anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency and others, the proposed penal code Article 290 says that if someone steals goods worth more than 100 Jordanian dinars (about $140) they will have their right hand chopped off. A second offense brings an automatic jail sentence of at least seven years.

The proposed code is also said to enforce a literal interpretation to "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," meaning that the court system will be inflicting injuries. In addition, it is said to punish adultery with lashes.

The report adds that human rights institutions in Gaza have been silent about this matter so far.

Using Google to help fight Arab anti-semitism

Two days ago I revealed that an Egyptian newspaper published two articles claiming, in lurid detail, the charges that Jews ritually drink Christian (and Muslim) blood on Passover and Purim.

This is hardly the first time Arab newspapers descend to pure Jew-hatred.

Exposing their hate is important, but unlike doing that for English-language articles, it rarely would cause a change in behavior. Ultimately, the goal is to shame the haters into not wanting to publicize their hate and poison the next generation, even if only a little.

I managed to embarrass the Palestinian NGO Miftah into removing a similarly offensive article, even if they attacked me for pointing out their hate. How can we do the same for an Egyptian newspaper?

Some six years ago, I routinely highlighted Jew-hatred in a bizarre ultra-left wing site called The People's Voice. I asked my (then much smaller) audience to complain to Google News, because their site was indexed there as a legitimate "news" organization, and Google News has a policy not to link to offensive articles.

Complaints to Google News causes Google to contact the publisher of the sites asking them to remove the offensive article, and if they make a habit of it, Google will pull the source altogether from Google News.

The People's Voice freaked out over this, much like Miftah did, attacking me in a long rambling article claiming I was "censoring" them.

But, in some ways, they changed their behavior. Some articles were silently removed. While they still routinely publish crazed anti-Zionist articles, 9/11 conspiracy theories and the like, they generally stay away from direct attacks on Jews and Judaism as they had been doing, or they at least mask their Jew-hatred by replacing the word "Jew" with "Zionist." Even though this is only a small step, it is an important one.

There is no reason this would not work for Arabic-language hate as well. Letters to the editor would be ignored, but Google has clout. (Chances are, as with The People's Voice, they will misinterpret contact from Google into thinking that Google will stop linking to them even in its general search engine, not only Google News. This will scare them.)

So whenever I highlight Arab anti-semitism - generally from newspapers indexed in Google News - the proper thing to do is to go to this Google News complaint page. This page is not easy to find, so bookmark it. From previous experience, one complaint is not always enough to get Google to act.

In this case, you would need to note the offending article's URL (in this case, http://www.misrelgdida.com/Investigations/112946.html) and the name of the news source, which in Arabic is جريدة مصر الجديدة .

Britain's Zionist Federation lobbies EU to designate IRGC as terrorist

From EJP:

Britain's Zionist Federation (ZF) has launched a petition aimed at rallying its activists to lobby the British and EU institutions to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) as a terrorist organisation.

According to Paul Charney, Chairman of the UK-based ZF, “the EU and the UK must take practical steps to deal with international terrorism. By proscribing the IRG, it would show its commitment to fighting terrorism and protecting the security of EU citizens”.

The ZF calls on its activists to use its campaign to directly lobby EU institution heads including foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and EU Council head Herman Van Rompuy, based on the reasoning that by employing such a united and uncompromising action, “Iran will find it much harder to ignore efforts by both the EU and the US to stop Iran gaining nuclear weapons”.

Iran's PressTV noticed it, and if they are ticked off, then you know you are doing something right:

The IRGC, which was formed by the late Imam Khomeini after the victory of Islamic Revolution in 1979, is internationally popular for its expertise in defending the ideals of the Revolution.

The IRGC’s growing and modern capabilities to defend Iran’s territorial integrity have made Zionist regime and its western allies furious.

For the same reason, Zionist regime’s patrons in the UK are pushing their respective governments to impose unilateral sanctions against Iran’s security forces on the pretext that the force is defending the Islamic Revolution.

Zionist Federation of Britain, which is a staunch supporter of Israeli regime’s atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, has demanded that the EU and UK blacklist an official force of a sovereign country on unfounded, baseless allegation of posing a threat to international security.

This is while that Iran’s IRGC forces have been engaged in various humanitarian operations both domestically and internationally whenever they have been required in cases of killer quakes, storms and other humanitarian catastrophes.

Ah, so the Revolutionary Guards is a human rights organization!

Harry's Place has more:

The IRG (Iranian Revolutionary Guards) is a vile terrorist organisation, which exports terrorism abroad including attacks on UK soldiers in Afghanistan. It brutally oppresses the Iranian people at home including the crushing of The Green Revolution. I wouldn’t exactly call that humanitarian!

The Guards helps fund Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah-, and helped them carry out suicide bombings, car bombs, rockets and mortar attacks and much more against innocent Israelis. The IRG helped provide Hezbollah with the expertise for the killing of five Israelis and 1 Bulgarian in the Bulgarian sea resort of Burgas. Yet according to Press TV the IRG is just a poor humanitarian group targeted by the big bad West.

The IRG is a vicious terrorist organisation that is one of the major protagonists of global terrorism. The group and all its associates are awash with the blood of innocent civilians. It operates worldwide including in Europe, The USA and Asia. It simply cannot be ignored and yet that has been the policy of the UK Government and the EU in recent years. For all their harsh words against the Iranian Regime, somehow the IRG has escaped censure. It is almost as though, to the EU and UK Government, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards is invisible. Whether the EU and UK like it or not, to deal with international terrorism means dealing with its sources, whether it is Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards or both. One of the best ways of doing this is through cutting off the financing and support to the IRG through listing it as a terror group across the UK and EU. In doing so, the UK and the EU would be putting their words on fighting International terrorism into action.

If like me you believe we need to stand up to terrorism sign the ZF’s campaign petition on the IRG here and for further information on the IRG read this campaign briefing here.

The article also points out that the IRGC, rather than helping earthquake victims, tried to confiscate aid and arrested Red Crescent workers trying to help quake victims.

Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Opposing radical Islamist terrorism is a moral duty
Terrorism will only cease to be a threat when extremist ideology is marginalised.

Meanwhile, some are now arguing that terrorism should be accepted as a normal hazard of modern life, like traffic accidents. Others draw false comparisons between terrorist acts and the rampages of mentally ill gunmen tragically endemic in the US. These sentiments fail to acknowledge the unique characteristics and goals of terrorism. Terror attacks are perpetrated by immoral ideologues, not the mentally ill. This is true whether the terrorist is acting alone or as an operative in an organised network.
As the instigator for terrorism, radical Islamism is not the only global actor, but it is a major player, and to deny this is to deny reality.
A terror attack is intended to send a message that civilians are not safe in public places. The fear that is created by terrorism is leveraged by the indiscriminate nature of the attacks. More than an atrocity, it is an assault on the social contract underpinning society. Moreover, successful terrorist attacks tend to encourage others and touch off a savage game of one-upmanship in a drive to capture global media attention.

Daniel Pipes: Lessons from the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives dates back to 1950 but the list of "Most Wanted Terrorists" dates back to just after 9/11 and a sense that terrorism had become a strategic threat. Today, the list includes 31 individuals, all of them male and with a single exception (Daniel Andreas San Diego, an animal rights extremist), all of them Muslim:

Brendan O'Neill: The 10 stupidest Islamic terrorists

The atrocious Boston marathon bombing was a reminder of the hurt and sorrow that can be caused by Islamic terrorists. It was also a reminder of how fantastically stupid and inept such terrorists can be. Who are the stupidest Islamic terrorists of all?

Saudis said to have warned US of Boston bombing

Saudi Arabia in 2012 sent the United States a written warning naming alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a security threat, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Bolton: US Should Resign from 'Clown Convention' at UN

Bolton said that simply firing Falk, who was appointed in 2008 to a six-year term as U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Palestinian territories, wouldn’t solve the problem.
“I’m all in favor of firing him sooner rather than later. But here’s the sad news: He will be replaced with somebody else and it won’t make a bit of difference,” Bolton said. “I think the culture at the United Nations is such that merely firing one guy will not change anything.”
Bolton said the problem is that the entire U.N. human rights mechanism is fundamentally directed against Israel, adding that more resolutions are passed dealing with Israeli human rights violations than “the rest of the world combined.”

Max Brenner exposes the haters to the light

There was a pleasingly vigorous response to recent BDS supported activity to boycott a new Max Brenner chocolate shop at UNSW. Julia Gilard was very clear in her condemnation – as reported in the Australian
“Julia Gillard has denounced the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement ahead of anti-Israeli protest action planned at the University of NSW today.
The Prime Minister said yesterday through a spokeswoman that the government had always been firm in its opposition of the BDS movement, which equates Israel with apartheid-era South Africa.

Israel ads perverted in battle for public opinion in Ireland

An advertising campaign in the Irish city of Cork urging people to visit Israel was defaced almost immediately on its unveiling by anti-Israeli activists. The ad campaign, which featured colourful images of Israeli society with the slogan “Visit Israel,” was overwritten with the slogan “Boycott Israel” and other messages critical of Israeli policy. The vandalism was clearly well organized and photos of the defacement were posted on the Internet and the Facebook page of the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

UN Watch: Tweets for Terror: Mona Seif, Nominee for 2013 Martin Ennals Human Rights Award

UN Watch today called on the jury of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, comprised of Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and eight other NGOs, and chaired by Hans Thoolen, to cancel its nomination of Mona Seif, an Egyptian activist who openly advocates terrorism and war crimes, as a top contender for the 2013 prize. She openly incites to violence against civilians, terrorism and war crimes:

Anti-Semite and war criminal Dr. Erik Fosse awarded commandership of the Order of St. Olav

This is the same Dr. Fosse who allowed armed combatants to take refuge at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza in the Cast Lead operation in December 2008/January 2009. At no point did he protest how the same combatants put the lives of the patients in his care in further damage, but also tolerated that acts of terror and war crimes were planned and executed from this compound.

Pope Francis Accepts Peres’s Invitation to Visit Israel

Israeli President Shimon Peres formally invited Pope Francis to visit Israel during a meeting between the two leaders at the Vatican.
Pope Francis accepted the invitation “with willingness and joy,” a Vatican spokesman said, Reuters reported.

Old Spice Ad Man Finds Hit in Israel With Maccabee Beer Commercial (VIDEO)

Isaiah Mustafa, recognizable as The Man Your Man Could Smell Like in Old Spice deodorant ads, is also making a name for himself pitching beer in Israel.

Regina Spektor coming Israel’s way

Acclaimed alternative folk singer, who can list the Obamas among her fans, to perform in August

From Iraq to Israel, for life saving heart surgery

Three Iraqi children have arrived in Israel for life-saving heart surgery and were received by representatives of the Ministry for Regional Cooperation and members of Save a Child’s Heart charity.
Although Iraq is defined as an ‘enemy state’ to Israel, the Knesset approved the entry of the three children and their mothers on humanitarian grounds.

Infographic: Palestinian Islamic extremism

Based on the Pew survey I mentioned yesterday.

Why do Western musicians play in a country that imprisons gays?

The Gothamist reports:

It seems that a rumored deal to bring a soccer stadium to Queens is closer to reality, with the NY Times reporting what Bloomberg News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications had noted: Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is close to paying $100 million to bring professional soccer to Queens.

While Sheik Mansour, deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has a personal net worth of $4.9 billion—a.k.a. money to burn—critics of the MLS stadium-in-Queens plan are pointing out his country's human rights failings. City Councilman Daniel Dromm said, "I was shocked to read in the New York Times that the Bloomberg Administration is negotiating to give NYC parkland away to Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, an oil billionaire that helps rule a country where gays or lesbians is a crime punishable by death. This is outrageous. This is also a country where gay and lesbian people could be subject to chemical castration. It is totally unacceptable. I urge my colleagues in the City Council and elected officials across the state to join me in saying that New Yorkers won’t do business with a murderous regime and we won’t sell, trade or giveaway our public assets to those who discriminate and participate in human rights abuses."

If allowing a prince to invest in the US is unacceptable because of his country's anti-gay policies, shouldn't there be at least as much opposition to music artists playing in that country itself?

Yet this weekend Justin Bieber is playing in Dubai. Florence and the Machine follows a week later, a rock festival in June and a jazz festival every year. Other performers include David Guetta, John Cleese, Italian opera singers (sponsored by the Italian embassy) singing La Traviata, and the Wayans Brothers.

How come nobody calls for these artists to boycott Dubai? Indeed, why aren't artists themselves in the forefront of boycotting the UAE?

Funny how selective "moral" outrage can be, isn't it?

(I leave it to my readers to find any artists who boycott the one nation in the region that prioritizes human rights and yet play in Dubai, or Lebanon, without any qualms whatsoever.)

(h/t Ronald)

Arabs commemorate their massacre of Jews in 1921

Al Quds makes up some history:

Today marks the first of May, the anniversary of the outbreak of the Jaffa uprising, where clashes between Palestinians and Jews, who were backed by the British occupation forces, lasted for 14 days.

The uprising started when a group of Jews on May 1 assaulted the Muslims living in Manshiya in Jaffa, where a massive march of Jews was launched from Tel Aviv towards Manshiya, demanding that British troops "avenge the blood of Jews who were killed in the Nebi Musa revolution in the previous year."

Marchers shot Arab passers-by, and Palestinians attacked the home for Jewish immigrants in the region, and killed 13 Jews and wounded 24 others out of a hundred who lived there, mostly young people, then they widened the clashes and events to cover many parts of the north of Palestine, but continued to peak until mid-May 1921.

Palestinians attacked a number of Israeli settlements, such as Hadera and Kfar Saba and Petah Tikva....47 Jews were killed and 146 injured.

The medical reports proved then, that among the dead Muslims were some killed by boiling (silver?) water, and cutting machines, and they were maimed and tortured before being killed, and among the martyrs were women whose beliies were split open and girls violated.

Now, here's what really happened, from Wikipedia:

The Jaffa riots (Hebrew: מאורעות תרפ"א ‎) were a series of violent riots in Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a fight between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews during which many were killed. The rioting began in Jaffa and spread to other places.

On the night of 1 May 1921, the Jewish Communist Party (precursor of the Palestine Communist Party) distributed Arabic and Yiddish fliers calling for the toppling of British rule and the establishing a "Soviet Palestine". The party announced its intention to parade from Jaffa to neighbouring Tel Aviv to commemorate May Day. ...The march headed from Jaffa to Tel Aviv through the mixed Jewish-Arab border neighbourhood of Manshiyya.

Another large May Day parade had also been organized for Tel Aviv by the rival socialist Ahdut HaAvoda group, with official authorization. When the two processions met, a fistfight erupted. Police attempted to disperse the about 50 communist protestors, and Muslims and Christians intervened to help the police against the Jews. A general disturbance quickly ensued and spread to the southern part of town.

Hearing of the fighting and believing that Arabs were being attacked, the Arabs of Jaffa went on the offensive. Dozens of British, Arab, and Jewish witnesses all reported that Arab men bearing clubs, knives, swords, and some pistols broke into Jewish buildings and murdered their inhabitants, while women followed to loot. They attacked Jewish pedestrians and destroyed Jewish homes and stores. They beat and killed Jews in their homes, including children, and in some cases split open the victims' skulls.[1]

At 1:00 pm, an immigrant hostel run by the Zionist Commission and home to a hundred people who had arrived in recent weeks and days was attacked by the mob, and though the residents tried to barricade the gate, it was rammed open and Arabs attackers poured in. The stone-throwing was followed by bombs and gunfire, and the Jewish hostel residents hid in various rooms. When the police arrived, it was reported that they weren't shooting to disperse the crowd, but were actually aiming at the building. In the courtyard one immigrant was felled by a policeman's bullet at short-range, and others were stabbed and beaten with sticks. Five women fled a policeman firing his pistol; three escaped. A policeman cornered two women and tried to rape them, but they escaped him despite his shooting at them. A fourteen-year old girl and some men managed to escape the building, but each was in turn chased down and beaten to death with iron rods or wooden boards.

The violence reached as far as Abu Kabir. The Jewish Yitzker family owned a dairy farm on the outskirts of the neighbourhood, in which they rented out rooms. At the time of the riots, Yosef Haim Brenner, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature was living at the site. On May 2, 1921, despite warnings Yitzker and Brenner refused to leave the farm and were murdered, along with Yitzker's teenaged son, his son-in-law and two other renters.

As in the previous year's Nebi Musa riots, the mob tore open their victims' quilts and pillows, sending up clouds of feathers. Some Arabs defended Jews and offered them refuge in their homes; many witnesses identified their attackers and murderers as their neighbours. Several witnesses said that Arab policemen had participated.

High Commissioner Herbert Samuel declared a state of emergency, imposed press censorship, and called for reinforcements from Egypt. General Allenby sent two destroyers to Jaffa and one to Haifa. Samuel met with and tried to calm Arab representatives. Musa Kazim al-Husseini, who had been dismissed as Jerusalem's mayor on account of his involvement in the previous year's Nebi Musa riots, demanded a suspension of Jewish immigration. Samuel assented, and two or three small boats holding 300 Jews were refused permission to land, and were forced to return to Istanbul. At the same time, al-Husseini's nephew, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a decision that later faced much criticism.

Fighting went on for several days and spread to nearby Rehovot, Kfar Saba, Petah Tikva, and Hadera.

The riot resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs. 146 Jews and 73 Arabs were wounded. Most Arab casualties resulted from clashes with British forces attempting to restore order. Thousands of Jewish residents of Jaffa fled for Tel Aviv and were temporarily housed in tent camps on the beach. Tel Aviv, which had been previously lobbying for independent status, became a separate city due in part to the riots.

The spineless British decided after these riots that Jewish immigration was the real cause of the Arab murder spree and they started restricting immigration - a decision that would end up costing untold thousands of Jews their lives during the Holocaust.

No wonder the Arab media is celebrating it. It was one of the first times they found out that the West will often abandon all morality, principles and even written promises in order to try to appease Arab anger. Which, of course, teaches the Arabs that threats, violence and terror are effective in getting their goals accomplished.

A lesson that continues to this very day.

Wednesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Barry Rubin: Why the "Arab Peace Initiative" is Both a Good Thing and a Scam

Only a vote of the Arab League’s almost two dozen members can establish an official position. So this was not an Arab League plan at all. To represent it as an official Arab position is, then, untrue.
Indeed, we already know that the Palestinian Authority (PA) opposes this formula. At any rate, the United States cannot even get the PA to negotiate with Israel and yet fantasies of comprehensive peace are spread around by it. The mass media is cooperating in this theme, seeking to make Kerry look good at least.

Netanyahu: Conflict is Over Israel’s Existence, Not Land

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is not over land, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, speaking in a meeting with senior officials in the Foreign Ministry.
The conflict, he said, is over Israel’s very existence. In proof, he pointed to the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, which included the forced removal of thousands of Jewish residents of the area.

‘Your grand finale, Evyatar’

31- year-old Evyatar Borovsky, stabbed to death in a terror attack, was the father of five and a stage actor remembered for always having a smile on his face.

Leaders Urge, ‘Stop Playing with Terrorists’

Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika criticized the Israeli government following the fatal terrorist attack Tuesday at a junction in Samaria (Shomron).
“This despicable murder was the direct result of inadequate action on rock-throwing terrorism, of opening the checkpoints, and of treating daily terrorist attacks as ‘disturbances,’” Mesika accused.

BBC claims attacks on Israelis in Judea & Samaria are “rare”

That means that in the one hundred and fifty-one days from the beginning of November 2012 until the end of March 2013, four hundred and sixty terror attacks took place in Judea and Samaria. That is an average of over three a day.

PMW: Fatah: Murderer of father of five is "The hero, the released prisoner"

Fatah's Facebook page is celebrating the murder and glorifying the murderer. Pictures of the terrorist and the victim were posted by Fatah's Facebook administrator and the text calls the murderer: "The hero, the released prisoner, Salam Al-Zaghal."

British Ambassador Praises Palestinian Police Accused of Torture, Urges More Funding

On this point, too, the Daily Mail is explicit. "Our taxpayers give £33 million direct to the PA, while £53 million is donated by Britain for various aid projects – more UK aid per head than we give any other nation... The UK also provides and pays for the training of middle and senior ranking officers from every PA security agency... The reason why a territory with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants gets so much money is political.

Jordanians oppose confederation with Palestinians By Khaled Abu Toameh

The petition was signed by retired army officers and representatives of various political parties, parliamentarians and professional unions in Jordan.
It came in response to reports that the Palestinian Authority leadership and Jordan were conducting secret talks about forming a future confederation.
The petition accused US President Barack Obama, who visited Israel, Ramallah and Jordan last month, of working toward “dividing the region so as to serve Western-Zionist interests.” It said that both Palestinians and Jordanians were opposed to the confederation “conspiracy.”

Nasrallah: We will not let Assad fall

Hizbullah leader gives clearest statement yet that the Shi'ite terror group is actively supporting Assad regime

‘Hamas used metal darts to kill protesters during Egypt’s revolution’

Islamist movement also stole police cars and, with Hezbollah fighters, helped political prisoners break out of jail, Cairo’s ex-interior minister claims

Fear and fundamentalism as the 'modesty police' patrol Gaza

Police in Gaza have arrested at least 41 men on charges of immodesty this April, writes Phoebe Greenwood. And now the city is gripped with fear that Hamas is driving the population towards militant Islamic fundamentalism.

Italian police arrest four suspected Islamist militants

Italian police on Tuesday arrested four of six men they suspect are members of an Islamist militant cell which was planning attacks in the United States, Israel and Italy, though no specific targets were named by police.

Scandinavia: No one bid anti-Semitism farewell

A curious question for the amateur historian: Why did the countries of Scandinavia, a democratic region whose people share close ethnic and cultural ties, have such conflicting attitudes toward the Jews during World War II? While Denmark later earned a place card at the table of the “Righteous Among Nations” for saving nearly all its Jews, Sweden prioritized its interests over righteousness, upholding strict immigration policies that prevented Jews from readily entering the country as they sought to escape Nazi terror.

Infographic: Monthly increases in Gaza rocket attacks

This is an updated and improved graph of Gaza rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, by month, for 2013:

Egyptian play satirizing Islamists forced to move after threats

It would be bigger news if this hadn't happened:

Chairman of the Cultural Palaces Authority, Saad Abdel Rahman, said that the authority did not ban the play ‘Diwan Al-Baqar’ (Salon of the Cows) by Mohamed Aboulela El-Salamooni, as was reported in the media, but rather decided to "relocate the show, to avoid problems."

The play, which was scheduled to run for seven nights at the Hurghada Cultural Palace, reportedly satirises Islamists and pokes fun at the wardrobe and beards of members of the trend.

Abdel Rahman said that following two nights of the show, it was brought to the attention of Islamist figures that the play was critical of them, "which led them to threaten to stop the show and destroy the theatre."

"In response, the play's troupe called for help from members of the 6 April Youth Movement and the anonymous Black Bloc, which was when we decided to move the show to a different location, to avoid violence," said Abdel Rahman.

Abdel Rahman admits that the director of the Red Sea Cultural Centre called him to deliberate over the situation, and together they decided to relocate the show.

sounds exactly like how Scotland's "pro-Palestinian" crowd acts, doesn't it?

Notice who the people behind the play didn't call for protection - the Egyptian police. That says a lot about how much people trust Egyptian security authorities to protect their remaining freedoms.

During Operation Pillar of Defense, Western media uniformly reported that Omar Mishrawi, the baby son of BBC reporter Jihad Mishrawi, was killed by an Israeli airstrike. This iconic photo was reproduced all over the media of the father's grief.

I was the first to cast doubt on the idea that this was an Israeli airstrike, based my own observations of the damage to his home, knowledge of the frequency of Gaza rockets that fall short as well as expert military testimony by JE Dyer. The BBC claimed that my evidence was not enough, and continued to say that the baby was "most likely" murdered by Israel.

I was also the first to report that a UN report released in March verified that Mishrawi was killed by a Hamas rocket. The BBC, however - which has no expertise in munitions or forensics - continued to claim that it was an Israeli airstrike responsible, saying that there were no Hamas rocket attacks at the time the Mishrawi home was hit.

Now, of all places, Electronic Intifada - attempting to prove that Omar Mishrawi was killed by Israel - finds more evidence that he was killed by a Gaza rocket, and that the BBC is not telling the truth:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published a report on 22 November stating that Omar was killed when an Israeli missile struck the family home, and hasn’t published anything on the case since then. (PCHR did not reply to queries from The Electronic Intifada on the Masharawi case.) But the Gaza-based rights group Al-Mezan says that the UN report is based on its own investigation into the incident.

I spoke with Mohammed Suliman, who works with Al-Mezan, about Omar Masharawi’s case. (Disclosure: Suliman is an occasional contributor to The Electronic Intifada and has blogged for us in the past. Readers may also recognize Suliman from a viral video of an Israeli missile strike dramatically cutting him off during a debate with an Israeli in Ashkelon on CNN during the November attacks.)

The UN fact-finding mission’s conclusions were largely based on Al-Mezan’s fieldwork, though this is not mentioned in its report, Suliman said. Suliman explained to me that Al-Mezan’s fieldworker visited the Masharawi home in the wake of the strike and conducted interviews with people in the area. Its findings at the time were that baby Omar was most likely killed as a result of a Palestinian-fired rocket.

Al Mezan’s findings are based on the type of damage caused to the family home, which it says is not characteristic of an Israeli F-16, Apache helicopter or drone strike. Meanwhile, Palestinian armed groups were firing rockets towards Israel half a kilometer from the Masharawi home and Israeli strikes were targeting the sites of the rocket-launchers at the time of the incident, he said.

“Now, what happened is that during this short period of exchange of fire between Palestinian groups and Israeli war planes, Masharawi’s house was hit. So it was very ambiguous what the cause of that attack was — it could be Palestinian rocket fire or Israeli war planes,” Suliman explained.

“I understand from our fieldworker that the course or the direction of the rocket which hit Masharawi’s house [indicates] that it was Palestinian rocket fire,” in addition to the damage not being characteristic of an Israeli strike.

Of course, Al Mezan (and EI) then try to spin this incident into saying that baby Omar's death is really Israel's fault anyway using their usual tortured logic and sickening spin to absolve terrorist rockets in civilian neighborhoods. They ignore that Omar was not the only child killed by Hamas rockets that was publicly and loudly blamed on Israel.

When looking at actual facts, however, it is increasingly clear that I was right and the BBC was wrong - and that the BBC has been purposefully shading the truth about this case for the past five months. So has Human Rights Watch and other media and organizations that are reflexively anti-Israel whenever possible, even though the evidence on the ground from OCHA-OPT as early as late November indicated that Hamas rockets killed civilians in Gaza including Omar.

When will the BBC apologize for choosing the pathos of its employee's tragedy over accurate reporting? When will Human Rights Watch correct the record?

(big h/t to Anne)

Egyptian newspaper publishes TWO articles saying Jews drink gentile blood on Passover

Egypt's Misrelgdida ("New Egypt") newspaper features not one but two articles on Tuesday that promote the libel that Jews drink Christian - and Muslim - blood on Passover.

The first one is written by a Palestinian Arab, Mennat al-Sayed. He gives a "history" of Passover blood rituals that, he claims, continues, at least in some form, to this day against Arabs.

In the past, al-Sayed says , Christian neighbors of Jews were scared of the holiday because they were worried if they would travel they would be abducted and ritually slaughtered for their blood. Jews would hunt for Christian babies who never tasted wine and stab them to death in a ceremony in the synagogue, after which they would distribute the blood to drink four cups of "wine" during the Passover seder, while singing and dancing with their families.

Today, the writer goes on, the Jews are keeping this tradition by killing every single Palestinian in cold blood. Al Sayed says that the Jews' habits haven't changed and they continue to slaughter Arabs in every possible gruesome manner. He concludes by saying that Jews continue to (symbolically) eat food made from Palestinian Arab blood cooked with the flames of their suffering.

The second article is written more as a set of interesting facts about Jews and Passover. Written by Amr Abdel Rahman, the managing editor of the paper, it is entitled "When the Jews drank the blood of Egyptians on Passover."

Recently Jews celebrated their important Passover holiday, and this feast - for those who do not know - includes bloody and exciting rituals, and the most exciting of these rituals were probably still practiced secretly in Egypt by some members of the Jewish community ...

One visit to the Jewish Quarter brings controversial information, although it is not documented well - only signs and signals and tales on the tongues of some Egyptians who are afraid to talk about the customs and religious traditions of Jews while they lived here long ago, before finally departing in the late seventies.

"Uncle Hussein," a food seller, lives next to one of their synagogues. He says that that the Jews they had many holidays throughout the year and they were performing their prayers on a regular basis and they required to ten people to complete their prayers... Strangely enough, says "Uncle Hussein, "Despite being neighbors to them over the years, many of the rituals were carried out in the framework of mystery and secrecy and out of sight as they were held often in complete darkness, which made us wonder always about the nature of the rituals that take place inside the temple!"

For our part, we can not overlook the fact that the famous ritual for Jews, especially in their holiday of "Purim," which is followed by "Passover,", they would gather to celebrate and they required human blood in order to do their rituals. It is known that rumors in many countries of the world have talked about the children and girls who were abducted in the locations and times of this holiday in particular, where it is in accordance with the ritual of it has to be the shedding of the blood of people from "internationalist" communities as Jews call people who act contrary to their religion. It is known that these are considered - according to the counterfeit Torah - vile creatures or second-class and thus the Jews can use their blood, just as Muslims slaughtered sacrifices on Eid al-Adha!

"Hanafi Mohammed" - an elderly man - says that he heard from his father the story of a Jewish man who came to the city of Port Said in the late 19th century and lived next to a dealer of Greek nationality for a short period just before the date of Passover holiday. he forced the Greek's eight year old daughter to drink wine against her will. The next day the girl disappeared suddenly before they found her body with her throat cut and it seems to have been mutilated!

In the same context, says Dr. Umaymah Ahmed - a professor of ancient mythology - that during this feast of the Jewish people they are required to provide human blood in order to prepare pastries, in other words, they cannot perform their holiday ritual properly without draining the blood of mankind .. ..!!

This is historically a key reason that they were subjected to persecution and displacement .. In Europe and Asia during different times ..

The victim must be a non-Jewish young adult, of course, either Christian or Muslim. His blood is taken and dried to a powder so they may save the remainder for the next holiday .. The blood must be used where the Christians or Muslim victims are under ten years old...

They extract the blood with extremely sharp needles and put it in the barrel. These needles ensure that the blood exits the victim very slowly, and thus ensures the painful agony of the victim, his torment is pleasure for the vampire Jews who are keen to pursue this ritual in all its details, they love and enjoy it though it is difficult to understand!

The Jewish rabbi then brings to his countrymen complete happiness in their festival, presenting them with pancakes created with the blood of humans ..

It appears that the Muslim versions of the medieval blood libel are even more lurid and sickening than the Christian versions were centuries ago. And this one can be published on the Internet, instantly, to immediately create the next generation of antisemites who believe what they read in the newspaper.

This comes on the heels of the Miftah NGO publishing a similar screed in Arabic last month. Miftah has refused to publish an Arabic language apology for that article, ensuring that Arabic speakers continue to believe the most disgusting lies about Jews and contrary to its stated goals of peace and harmony.

The Misrelgdida newspaper describes itself by saying "We believe in credibility and transparency and strive to symbolize the new Egypt..The truth is the basis of our profession, and we believe in humanity and compassion, and that justice is the basis of our humanity, and believe in the future as long as we are alive."

Enlightened, progressive Westerners know that this is nothing to worry about. They know that all Arab antisemitism will go away if Israel just makes more concessions, and it isn't really antisemitism anyway but a sophisticated form of anti-Zionism, which is admirable.

Jews get so touchy when they are accused of ritually slaughtering Christians and drinking their blood, don't they?

Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

New Research Sheds Light on Nazi Influence in Arab World

The Mufti was the most prominent Arab figure to support the Nazis, but he was not alone. “My research tracks the effort by the Germans, Italians, and Japanese to spread their propaganda and influence in Palestine and various Arab countries,” said Dr. Cohen, who was born and raised in Beirut and immigrated to Israel in 1995. “They worked hard at it and, to a significant extent, they succeeded.” Cohen has been combing through Arabic-language Nazi and Axis leaflets and radio broadcasts that were collected and analyzed by Haganah intelligence in the 1930s and 1940s.

Barry Rubin: The Region: The situation is looking better

What often seems to be the world’s most slandered and reviled country is doing quite well.
Face it: The obsession with the “peace process” is misplaced and misleading. The big issue in the region is the struggle for power in the Arabic-speaking world, Turkey, and Iran between Islamists and non-Islamists. And, no, the Arab- Israeli conflict has very little to do with these issues. Those who don’t understand these points cannot possibly comprehend the region.
Secretary of State John Kerry may run around the region and talk about big plans for summit conferences.
But nobody really expects anything to happen.

New Book Details Backlash Against "Zionism is Racism" Resolution

Daniel Patrick Moynihan blasted the United Nations resolution in a moment in history that made waves for more than just one moment.
A new book details the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution at the United Nations and the dramatic condemnation by United States ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Gil Troy is the author of Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight Against Zionism As Racism. Troy spoke to Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio on the Derech Eretz Hour with Rabbi Elan Adler.

Let the French Pay for UNESCO
There’s no reason to waive U.S. laws to bankroll a wasteful, anti-American U.N. agency.

If UNESCO’s officials, in their lavish Paris headquarters, need the money, why not tell them to go lobby the French? France was among the member states that voted in 2011 to admit the Palestinians. The Gauls’ dues cover a mere 6.1 percent of UNESCO’s core budget, or about $20 million, compared with the 22 percent the U.S. was paying. Surely, if France appreciates UNESCO’s contributions to world peace (and French jobs) so much, the Quai d’Orsay could scrounge up a few more euros?

Debunking the ‘Palestinians as Native Americans’ Myth

In one anti-Israel protest outside of Nablus, Palestinians even dressed up like Native Americans in order to make a political point.
Various anti-Israel groups argue that the Palestinians are like Israel’s “Native Americans. However, the truth of the matter is that the Jewish people are the closest thing to an indigenous people within the Holy Land, while the Palestinian Arabs ancestors sprung out from centers of empire.

BBC documentary ‘Israel: Facing The Future’ tries to break the mould

Whilst the programme does have its inaccuracies, all in all it is clear that – for once – a genuine effort was made to present an objective, well-rounded picture of a complex subject and that a good deal of background research must have gone into making the documentary. Although the cameraman is not named on the relevant page of the BBC website, the film includes some stunning shots, often peppered with good humour.

At last moment, BBC drops documentary on Jewish exile

The BBC’s last-minute decision to drop a documentary that questions the extent of the Jewish exile after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE was a mixture of “incompetence,” “political naivete” and “lack of courage,” the Israeli filmmaker behind the project has charged.
The film “Exile: A Myth Unearthed,” which theorizes that many modern-day Palestinians could be partially descended from Jews who never left the region, was due to be shown in modified form by the BBC last week, but was pulled from the schedule at the last moment.

Hungarian Jewish leader beaten at soccer match

The head of Hungary’s Raoul Wallenberg Association said he was beaten at a soccer match in Budapest.
Ferenc Orosz told the Hungarian news agency MTI during a conference Monday on hate speech that “first he was verbally assaulted and then his nose was broken after a match at Budapest’s Puskas Stadium which he attended with his family” the previous day.

Suspicion grows that Boston bombers were behind 2011 murders

The families of three Boston-area men gruesomely murdered in 2011 have steadfastly declined to speak to the press even as suspicion has taken root that the men, two of them Jewish, were murdered by alleged Boston bomber and Islamist radical Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Israel Hi-Tech Firm Helped Capture Boston Bombers

Surveillance cameras were not enough to catch the Boston Marathon terrorists. The Israeli-based BriefCam firm “collapsed” an hour of video and focused on suspicious objects – and people.
An Israeli hi-tech company with an office in metropolitan Boston was instrumental in helping to identify and lead to the arrest of the Boston Marathon terrorists
BriefCam company’s technology enabled investigators to summarize an hour of surveillance video footage into only one minute and also zoom in on people and objects whose movements changed during the filming. The system then can track those movements form the beginning of the video.

As queen abdicates, Israelis like the Dutch very much

Israelis consider the Netherlands the second-friendliest country in Europe, according to a new survey published ahead of the occasion of the investiture of a new Dutch king on Tuesday.
One-fifth of respondents ranked the Netherlands as being the friendliest European country toward Israel after Germany, according to the survey, which was commissioned by the Dutch Embassy in Israel. Asked why, 86 percent of those who took part in the survey mentioned the country’s “continuing support of Israel regarding political issues.” About three-quarters cited “the low level of anti-Semitism compared to other EU member states.”

How fanatic are Palestinian Muslims? Pew survey says - VERY.

Select results from a new Pew survey of Muslims worldwide show that Palestinian Muslims are among the most religiously conservative and intolerant of all Muslim-majority countries.

Many of the questions showed that Palestinian Muslims rated behind only Afghanistan, Iraq and sometimes a handful of others in their levels of fanaticism.

Here are some of the survey questions with how Palestinian Muslims answered:

Please tell me if you completely agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or completely disagree with this statement: Members of your religion have a duty to try and convert others to your religious faith.
"Completely" or "mostly" agree 82%

Some people think that if a man engages in premarital sex or adultery it is justified for family members to end his life in order to protect the family honor. Do you personally feel that this practice is:
Often or sometimes justified: 33%

Some people think that if a woman engages in premarital sex or adultery it is justified for family members to end her life in order to protect the family honor. Do you personally feel that this practice is:
Often or sometimes justified: 37%

Which comes closer to your views? "Islam is the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven" or "Many religions can lead to eternal life in heaven"?
Statement #1 89%

"Women should have the right to decide if they wear a veil" 53%
"Women should not have the right to decide whether to wear a veil" 35%

"Sharia law is the revealed word of God" 75%
"Sharia law is developed by men, based on the word of God" 16%

"Sharia law should be open to multiple interpretations" 42%
"There is only one, true understanding of sharia law?" 51%

Do you ever participate in inter-faith religious groups, classes, or meetings with Christians or not?
Yes 8% No 91%

"A wife should have the right to divorce her husband" 33%
"A wife should not have the right to divorce her husband" 57%

Agree or disagree? "A wife must always obey her husband"
87% "completely" or "mostly" agree (46%, 41%)

"Do you favor or oppose making sharia law, or Islamic law, the official law of the land in our country?"
89% favor 8% oppose

For those who answered "favor" - should Sharia apply to non-Muslims?
39% yes 43% Muslims only

"Who should have a greater right to parents’ inheritance – sons or daughters, or should both have equal rights?"
Sons 51% Daughter 1% Equal 43%

Is polygamy morally acceptable?
Yes - 48% No - 20% Not a moral issue - 17%

Is drinking alcohol morally acceptable?
Yes - 1% No - 92%

Is homosexual behavior morally acceptable?
Yes - 1% No - 89% Not a moral issue - 5%

Some people think that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies... Do you personally feel that this kind of violence is:
Often or somewhat justified 40% Rarely or never justified 49% (highest percentages justifying suicide attacks of all countries surveyed)

Do you favor or oppose the following: the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion?
Favor - 62% Oppose - 29%

Do you favor or oppose the following: punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery?
Favor - 72% Oppose - 23% (behind only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Niger)

Do you favor or oppose the following: stoning people who commit adultery?
Favor - 81% Oppose - 14% (behind only Pakistan and Afghanistan)

Those who claim that a Palestinian Arab state would be secular and democratic state are fooling themselves.

Those who pretend that a "one state solution" would respect the rights of a Jewish minority are knowingly lying.

UPDATE: I made an infographic about this report.

Not a single denunciation of terror attack in Arabic

When Israel haters need to find an easy "proof" that Jews and Zionists are racists, they go to Facebook or YouTube or any other uncensored comment forum and find some convenient anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bigot to quote. It is a lazy way to pretend to make a point, because every group has some idiots so the existence of idiots is used to generalize about the entire group. They ignore the denunciations of the bigots on those same forums, because that would ruin their thesis.

Of course, these "progressives" are engaging in stereotyping, and obvious dishonesty, which is a major crime when anyone else does it, but that doesn't matter to them. They pretend they are revealing a "higher truth," which is pretty much how they justify their own bigotry.

But in the aftermath of this morning's terror attack, and most* others, there is something striking about the Arab comments on various venues.

They are unanimously supportive of killing Israeli civilians.

I cannot find a single naysayer, a single person who says that killing a father of five standing at a bus stop is wrong. On the contrary, they will often try to justify it as a "right" or as if it is an obligation under international law.

Hundreds of Palestinians on the Fatah Facebook page are cheering the attack. (Palestinian Media Watch has more.) Every single person who identifies as "Palestinian" on Ma'an's English comment page is equally happy. (The official PA Wafa news agency reports the incident as the police shooting and wounding a Palestinian Arab around the same time that a "settler" was stabbed to death.)

Finding idiots on message boards where thousands of people gather is easy. But finding an Arab who is willing, on his own, to publicly condemn murdering a Jewish civilian is well-nigh impossible.

That is a real story that can be gathered from reading message boards and Facebook. And it is a story that Western media will not touch with a ten foot pole.

There is one exception I am aware of - the murder of the Fogel family in Itamar. While plenty of people praised the murderers as heroes, that was the one time I saw pushback on Arabic-language forums, since stabbing a baby was too much even for them.