Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 17, 2013

Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

UNRWA rejects PMW report exposing map erasing Israel

Earlier this week, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Ann Dismorr, posed with a map that erases the State of Israel and presents all of it as "Palestine," at an UNRWA event in Lebanon.
These pictures were broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV and on the Palestinian news site pn-news net, corroborating PMW's report.
UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness, responding on UNRWA's website, rejected PMW's report. He claimed that the map in question was not intended to reflect the present, but reflected the period before Israel was established

UPDATE (EoZ): Palestinian Media Watch disputes UNRWA's claims:

UNRWA spokesperson Gunness' justification that the map "depict[s] a pre-1948 map" is baseless, as the map includes the PLO-PA flag and not a British flag. That exact map erasing Israel, especially when accompanied by the PA flag, is one of the many ways the PA expresses its rejection of Israel's existence and right to exist.
In addition, Gunness' statement that the UNRWA official "stood next to a map which does not show Israel" is also misleading, as it indicates a passive non-involvement. In fact, the UNRWA official is shown holding the map and the map was the central focus of the picture.

Countering the Global Media Assault on Israel

Organized by Truth be Told (TbT), a new grassroots organization committed to proactively articulating Israel’s narrative to the outside world, the evening commenced with five Ethiopian-Israeli students from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, who reported on their successful mission to Cape Town in March during Israel Apartheid Week.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah's Drive Against "Normalization"

The Fatah activists who are threatening Palestinian teenagers for talking to Israelis and playing football with them are the same people who claim, at least in public, that they support the peace process with Israel. But how can there ever be a peace process when anyone who meets with an Israeli is immediately denounced as a traitor? It is worth noting that most of these denunciations are coming form the "moderate" Fatah, and not from Hamas.

Congressmen urge Abbas to fire terrorist glorifier

A bipartisan group of congressmen condemned comments made by a Palestinian Fatah official in support of the murderer of an Israeli father of five.
The letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday strongly condemned Fatah’s Sultan Abu Al-Einein following his “open support for the murderer of Evyatar Borovsky,” and called for him to be removed from office.

‘Yasser Arafat Street’ – Soon in Israel?

City officials in Sakhnin are planning to name a street for deceased Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, “a mass murderer and terrorist,” she said. A second street is to be named for Gamel Abdel Nasser, “The Egyptian President who took a hawkish stance against Israel, called to destroy it, closed the Suez Canal and began the Six Day War.”

Article Alleges Hamas Money Laundering

Hamas has several business fronts operating in Saudi Arabia and Sudan which launder money for the terrorist group, the Arab News claimed in a report Wednesday.
The report claims "high-level Gulf sources" confirmed a previous story in Kuwait's al Seyassah about the illicit activity. The Gulf Cooperation Council is expected "to put an end to the illegitimate financial activity Hamas is carrying out, without excluding these authorities arresting and prosecuting the movement's leadership cadres," an IPT translation of the Arab News report said.

BBC’s Davies describes new Golan fence as ‘controversial’

What exactly Davies thinks is “spectacular” or “controversial” about replacing a forty year-old rusty fence with a new one in light of the appearance of armed Al Qaeda-affiliated groups on its other side is – to this writer at least – something of a mystery.

Media industry recognises BBC Gaza correspondent’s creativity

“Creativity” is certainly one way of describing the passing off a photograph taken in Syria as having been shot in Gaza. Even more “creative” and “outstanding” was Donnison’s portrayal of the death of the child of a BBC colleague as the result of Israeli actions without any proof of that assertion and when in fact the tragic incident was later shown to have been caused by a terrorist missile fired from inside Gaza itself.

Beyond Hezbollah: Proscribe Iran's Revolutionary Guard

Even Brussels, it seems, could not continue to ignore the facts. The final straws were Bulgaria’s sensible conclusion on the Burgas bus bombing and the Cypriot trial of a confessed Hezbollah operative nabbed before he could do any explosive damage. In parallel with this compromise proscription of Hezbollah, the EU must now turn its guns on Hezbollah’s biggest material supporters, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) and similarly condemn it as a terrorist organisation.

Iran recruits online for militants to fight Israel

Will the West install a political framework which secures peace and development in Syria, or will its people continue to suffer, much to the benefit of Iran's paranoid leadership?

Erdoğan to Bring Father of Flotilla Participant to White House

It is actually quite amazing: Erdoğan has endorsed an Al Qaeda financier, embraced not only Hamas but the most militant faction within that terrorist organization, defended the Sudanese leader against charges of genocide, and has been the largest leak in multilateral efforts to sanction Iran. And yet, Obama will not only welcome him to the White House with the highest honors, but help fulfill the Turkish premier’s blatant desire to use the White House as the backdrop to follow through on his pledge to bash Israel at every opportunity.

'Marmara victims' ICC referral an abuse of process'

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the preliminary investigation will determine whether the ICC has jurisdiction over the case, and – if it does – whether it has already been heard by other competent legal bodies.

Egyptian police shut the door on Gaza after abductions

Egyptian police have shut the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza in protest at the abduction of their colleagues earlier this week

Egypt: Terrorists Planned to Bomb Cairo Embassies

Terrorists arrested in Egypt over the weekend were planning to attack the U.S. and French embassies, officials said.

Russia sends at least 12 warships to Syria

Deployment presumably a warning to Israeli and Western officials regarding military intervention against Assad

Russian Official: Missile Systems Sale ‘A Message to America’

Russia’s decision to send S-300 missile systems to Syria is, in part, a message to the United States, according to the head of the Russian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov.

Poland's ban on religious slaughter hurting its economy

From AP:

Until January, slaughterhouses across Poland — a deeply Catholic nation — were the unlikely venues for the Islamic and Jewish slaughter of animals, which in both religions involves a swift cut to the throat of a conscious animal and death by bleeding.

Millions of euros were being made exporting the halal and kosher meat to countries like Egypt, Iran and Israel, as well as to Muslim and Jewish markets inside Europe.

In a victory for a growing animal rights movement, activists succeeded in getting a ban on such religious slaughter. But with economic decline deepening and exports seen as a possible salvation, the government faces pressure to get the practice reinstated legally — and is scrambling to do so.

Though Poland's own cuisine is heavy in pork, a meat banned by Jewish and Islamic laws, the country has cut out this niche business for itself in one example of the economic savvy Poland has shown since joining the European Union in 2004. Kosher and halal meat exports have grown between 20 and 30 percent per year in recent years as the largely agricultural country has capitalized on its low labor costs and a reputation for healthy farm animals.
...
The kosher and halal business had boomed until January, when the ban took effect following a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal. Though the actual slaughter was carried out by specially trained Muslim and Jewish officials, the industry also created thousands of supporting jobs for others.

Animal rights activists argue that killing animals without stunning them first causes unnecessary suffering to the animals. Jewish and Muslim leaders strongly disagree, and insist that their method is actually more humane, in part became it causes the animals to lose consciousness very fast. They argue that standard industrial slaughter involves pre-stunning that is sometimes not effective, leading to even greater suffering.

Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, says Jewish tradition has always been concerned with the welfare of animals, noting, for instance, that it bans hunting and any senseless suffering.

"For close to 3,000 years, Jewish slaughter practices have been followed that minimize pain to the animal," Schudrich said.

Mufti Tomasz Miskiewicz, the top Muslim leader in Poland...says there is a degree of unfairness in banning Jewish and Islamic slaughter when so many Polish Catholics follow a similar practice themselves at Christmas, when carp are slaughtered in homes across the nation without any pre-stunning.

I found a description of this central European Catholic practice:

Chef Václav Fríč, who specializes in traditional Czech cooking, has this advice. "To kill it, you first have to hit it hard in the head, then I cut the gills and the tail so the fish stops flapping about," he says.

Can anyone imagine that the Polish would pass a law against that tradition?

I recently discovered that the Swiss law that bans ritual slaughter was widely recognized at the time of its passing, in 1894, to be the result of an antisemitic campaign:

In France an outbreak of hostility to Israelites in January, 1893, was led by the Marquisde Mores, in connection with the Panama Canal scandals. He charged them with corrupting French honesty and despising principles of honor. The police were required to disperse his disorderly assemblies. The same year, in Switzerland, the Anti-Semites, chiefly Protestants, carried a law prohibiting as cruel the Jewish method of slaughtering animals for food. In Rumania it was enacted that, from the opening of 1893, Jewish children should be excluded from state schools, and in some districts Jewish families, resident therein for generations, were forcibly expelled.

In fact, the Committee of the Geneva Society for the Protection of Animals urged Swiss citizens to vote against a ban on kosher slaughter in a referendum partly due to its antisemitic origins:

Dear fellow-citizens,—You will have to pronounce upon the law which has been requested concerning the way of slaughtering animals intended for food.

This law, which specially aims at our Hebrew fellow citizens, may, by its nature, seriously damage our Federal Constitution, which grants the liberty of worship.

The Geneva Society for the Protection of Animals recommends you to vote:

NO.

1st. Because the Society thinks that this law has not so much in view the protection due to animals, as the wish of making an anti-Semitic manifestation, and that it would be a first step towards religious persecution.

2nd. Because there has existed in Geneva, since 1886, a method of slaughtering called mitigated, proposed by our Society, with a humane purpose, accepted by the Great Council and approved by the Chief Rabbi, a method which reconciles what is due to religious freedom with what is duo to the protection of animals.

The law submitted to your vote is also bad as far as our commerce is concerned; our commerce has already suffered heavily. If the law is passed, what will happen? Our Hebrew fellow-citizens will import their meat from the neighbouring countries, who, more liberal than we are, will be the only ones to benefit by their tolerance.

Dear fellow-citizens,—For these motives, and in the name of liberty, justice, and equitv, we recommend you to vote: '"'NO.

Long live Geneva! Long live the Confederation!

Signed.

The Committee of the Geneva Society for the Protection of Animals.
The Secretary General, E. De Bude.
The President, J. Cuenoud.
The Vice-President, J. L'huillier.

Plus ça change...

See also this post from 2010.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

16 Palestinian Arabs, 3 with terror ties, charged in US smuggling ring

From New York Daily News:

Federal authorities Thursday scrambled to find millions of dollars in profits a smuggling ring that
sold cheap cigarettes to bodegas across New York may have used to fund terrorism in the Middle East.

Three of those charged in the sophisticated conspiracy were linked to known terrorists, including Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip and has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, officials said.

Investigators in the case, dubbed Operation Tobacco Road, have so far found evidence the group pocketed $22 million in profits, of which authorities have found only $7.8 million in cash and bank accounts.

“While it hasn’t been established yet where the illicit proceeds ended up, we’re concerned because similar schemes have been used in the past to help fund terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

All 16 of those charged are Palestinian and all but two were living illegally in the U.S. One managed to flee to Jordan before the arrests late Wednesday.

Kelly said the group included several “individuals on our radar with links to known terrorists,” starting with Mohannad Seif, 39, a cigarette reseller from Brooklyn.

Kelly said Seif lived in the same three-story walkup with the personal secretary of Hamas’ main fund-raiser in the U.S., Mousa Abu Marzouk, who was deported from the U.S. in 1997. Marzouk continues to raise money for Hamas in Egypt.

The NYPD also linked Muaffaq Askar, 46, a reseller in Brooklyn, to the Arab gunman who shot up a van full of yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994. The gunman, Rashid Baz, killed 16-year-old passenger Ari Halberstam.

At the time, Baz claimed it was a case of road rage, but the incident has since been recategorized as a terrorist hit. On Thursday, Kelly said the Halberstam murder was “still open.”

He revealed Askar was a “confidant” of Baz who considered Askar his “Palestinian uncle.”

Defendant Youssef Odeh, 52, of Staten Island, had financial ties to the imprisoned blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in a 1993 plot to blow up New York landmarks, Kelly said.

Hamas prison filled with women who had sex outside marriage

From Al Monitor:

At Gaza’s only all-female prison located in the central city, dozens of detained women from across the coastal enclave remain under intense security, irrespective of the crime.

For many people in Gaza, crimes committed by women are rarely heard of due to the conservative nature of Gazan society. Families of female convicts usually don’t disclose their whereabouts, and even lie about it.

The head of the prison, Jazya Abu Mousa, said that this year has witnessed the largest number of female prisoners since she began working there in 2007.

“The number changes from time to time as most of the prisoners here are detained and not sentenced,” Abu Mousa said.

Criminals in the prison are divided into three categories: thieves, security convicts of crimes often related to cooperating with the Israeli occupation and "moral" convicts, which includes prostitution or sexual relations without marriage. This final category holds the largest number of prisoners.

But don't worry - they are being rehabilitated:

The prison head said she is proud of most of the prisoners, as she senses a willingness among them to change. The prison administration focuses on raising religious awareness among the prisoners so they won’t return to crime after their release, said Abu Moussa.

“Besides giving them traditional training like handicrafts and embroidery, Islamic lectures are the main focus,” she explained to Al-Monitor.

(h/t Emet)

Syrian Palestinian group claims rocket fire to Israel (video)

From Ma'an:

The Abdul Qader al-Husseini brigades on Thursday claimed responsibility for an attack from Syria on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The military wing of the Free Palestine Movement said it had received permission from Syria to launch the attack, following recent Israeli attacks on Syria.

The brigades said in a statement that militants fired projectiles at dawn on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the Nakba -- or catastrophe -- of Israel's founding in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes.

"We are avenging all our martyrs that we lost in our war with the Zionist enemy," the brigades said in a statement.

The group posted a video online showing what it says is footage of the attack.

Israel's military said several rockets fired from Syria landed in the occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday.

"Around 6 a.m. several rockets landed in the Hermon area on the Syria-Israel border," an Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma'an.

"As a result, the site has been closed to visitors and Israel has registered a complaint with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force. The incident is most likely related to the internal conflict," she added.

JPost says that a couple of mortars landed.

UNRWA quietly admits Jordanians sexually abuse Palestinian children

UNRWA published a booklet talking about how your sizable donations to that agency can help "Palestine refugees."

Here is one of their suggestions:

$318,000 rehabilitates one school and provide its students with a safe learning environment

UNRWA aims to ensure that education services meet national and international standards and provide Palestine refugee children with a safe learning environment. The rehabilitation of schools premises, built in the 1960’s, is a top priority for UNRWA in Jordan.

Current safety hazards are weakened structures due to dilapidated columns, risk of falling debris, loose plaster in the ceiling, decaying lintels and seismic risk from earthquakes. An additional risk is the sexual harassment and abuse of both male and female children in school toilets, because of their location outside the main building.

Changes to infrastructure include the relocation of toilets inside school buildings and extension of the height of the boundary walls.

UNRWA schools in Jordan need to be better protected from...Jordanians? Jordanians who like to sexually abuse little Palestinian boys and girls?

Why isn't UNRWA complaining loudly about this outrage? Why aren't they insisting that these children be protected by Jordanian authorities? Practically all of Palestinian Arab "refugees" in Jordan have held Jordanian citizenship since 1950, how can such abuse be buried? No doubt the schools need better security, but how come UNRWA isn't publicly insisting that Jordan protect her own citizens?

Oh, right. I forgot. If Israeli Jews cannot be blamed, UNRWA will remain silent.

Arabs abusing Arabs must be hushed up, kept behind closed doors, whispered about - but never publicized.

Perceived slights by Jews, however, must be brought to the attention of the General Assembly of the UN, hundreds of times a year if necessary. A bedroom being added to a house in Itamar is far more important than the apparent rampant sexual abuse of Palestinian kids in schools in Jordan.

Every organization has its priorities. Protecting Palestinian Arab children from sexual abuse is just very low on UNRWA's list.

(h/t Irene)

Moo? Ma'an cow story misses the obvious

Ma'an reports:

Customs agents in cooperation with the ministry of agriculture have recently detained four people accused of smuggling dozens of cows from Israel.

Director general of veterinary services at the Palestinian ministry of agriculture Imad Mukarkir told Ma’an that about 100 cows and calves were seized. The suspected smugglers, he said, will be referred to the district attorney for legal procedures.

Meanwhile, the animals will be quarantined and monitored for infections for two weeks.

The suspects will also have to sign obligations to make sure they will not do it again.

Mukarkir warned Palestinian merchants of the consequences of smuggling cows and calves from Israel. The ministry, he added, doesn’t ban imports from Israel, but stipulates that importers adhere with certain regulations set to protect Palestinian citizens.

Does this mean that there is a thriving illegal underground trade between Israelis and West Bank Arabs in cattle?

Of course not. The cows were stolen.

Arabs have been stealing Israeli cattle for decades, and they still do it today.

But you wouldn't know about that by reading Ma'an. No, there are no thieves in this story, just "smugglers." And after the quarantine, the cows will not be returned to their Israeli owners but instead remain with the PA.

More blood libels in Egyptian and Palestinian Arab media

Egyptian newspaper Misr El Gdida has another article about how Jews drink Christian blood for their holidays.

Yes, this is really the illustration accompanying the story.

This is part 2 of an article I noted a couple of weeks ago, but written by a different author. This one starts off
with fake Talmudic quotes about how killing gentiles is obligatory - and goes downhill from there.

It goes on to say that the legend of Dracula is actually true in that Jews love drinking blood, and claims that Jewish historians confirm the ritual slaughter of Christian babies.

Apparently, Jews don't only drink blood as part of Purim pastries and Passover matzoh, but also during weddings and circumcisions.

The article even sarcastically notes that French actress Brigitte Bardot was against Muslim ritual animal slaughter, but never said a word about Jewish ritual murder!

Then it goes through a history of blood libels in the Arab world, ironically proving how ingrained Arab antisemitism is. It brings examples of the libel from Egypt in 1881; Syria in 1810, 1840 and 1890; and in Lebanon in 1824, 1826, 1829 and 1834. The Rhodes blood libel is mentioned as well, along with the long history of false accusations of the blood libel in medieval Europe.

Naturally, no Arab has publicly condemned the newspaper for its libel against Jews.

Just as naturally, human rights organizations are silent, as usual.

UPDATE: A similar article listing dozens of false accusations of Jews murdering Christian children was also published in a "Palestinian diaspora" newspaper on Thursday.

Chag sameach!

Shavuot starts tonight, and I will not be blogging until at least Thursday night.

Meanwhile, I'll be eating way to much of this:

Sure, I have a bit of lactose intolerance - but it is worth it.

Israelis saving the world, again

From Science Daily:

Some parts of the body, like the liver, can regenerate themselves after damage. But others, such as our nervous system, are considered either irreparable or slow to recover, leaving thousands with a lifetime of pain, limited mobility, or even paralysis.

Now a team of Tel Aviv University researchers, including Dr. Shimon Rochkind of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Prof. Zvi Nevo of TAU's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, has invented a method for repairing damaged peripheral nerves. Through a biodegradable implant in combination with a newly-developed Guiding Regeneration Gel (GRG) that increases nerve growth and healing, the functionality of a torn or damaged nerve could ultimately be restored.

This innovative project is now gaining international recognition. Its initial successes were reported at several recent scientific congresses, including the World Federation of Neurological Societies and the European Neurological Society. And the therapy, already tested in animal models, is only a few years away from clinical use, says Dr. Rochkind.

A nerve is like an electrical cable. When severed or otherwise damaged, power can no longer be transferred and the cable loses its functionality. Similarly, a damaged nerve loses the ability to transfer signals for movement and feeling through the nervous system.
But Dr. Rochkind and Prof. Nevo found a way to breach the gap. In their method, two severed ends of a damaged nerve are reconnected by implanting a soft, biodegradable tube, which serves as a bridge to help the nerve ends connect. The innovative gel which lines the inside of the tube nurtures nerve fibers' growth, encouraging the nerve to reconnect the severed ends through the tube, even in cases with massive nerve damage, Dr. Rochkind says.

The key lies in the composition of the gel, the researchers say, which has three main components: anti-oxidants, which exhibit high anti-inflammatory activities; synthetic laminin peptides, which act as a railway or track for the nerve fibers to grow along; and hyaluronic acid, commonly found in the human fetus, which serves as a buffer against drying, a major danger for most implants. These components allow the nerve to heal the way a fetus does in the womb -- quickly and smoothly.

For some reason, even when so many people want to boycott the Jewish state, Israel has no problem offering its life-saving discoveries to the world.

Obviously, it is a plot.

(h/t Dror)

Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Strange way to promote peace

The Sydney Peace Foundation's stated purpose is "to promote universal human rights and peace with justice" as the building blocks of any civil society. Foundation chairman Stuart Rees, however, has cast a cloud over the organisation's bona fides by dismissing the London Declaration on Combating Anti-Semitism as "childish, thoughtless but easily populist". His condemnation of Julia Gillard and opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne for "cowardice" in signing it almost beggars belief.

Ralph Peters: Israel is a Civilizing Force

RP: To me, when I look at Israel, I see not only a Jewish state rebuilt on the ancient Jewish homeland, I see an outpost of the civilization in which I believe. Because I do not believe that all civilizations are equivalent. I don't believe in a civilization that torments women and children, that's woefully corrupt, that in the 21st century, not only cannot build a competitive automobile, but cannot even build a competitive bicycle!
And while I wish the Arabs well—I wish no man harm, with the exception of a few terrorists here or there—nonetheless, to me, Israel is a beacon of justice, for rule of law, humanity, decency, culture... in short, Israel belongs to the Jews; it belongs to my civilization.

Michael Totten: The Muslim Brotherhood's Empty Chair

So the Washington Institute for Near East Policy invited senior Muslim Brotherhood official Helmy el-Gazzar to its annual conference in the US, booked him on a business class flight from Cairo, and put him up in the luxurious Ritz Carlton. El-Gazzar made it to Washington and checked into his room, but he refused to show up at the conference.
Why? Because Israelis—or “Zionists” as he called them—were also going to be there.

An Open Letter to the Arab League: Thanks, but no Thanks

In conclusion, dear neighbors, we – citizens of Israel – want very much to live in Peace, in a region of peace where you and we enjoy it together. But we do not think that there is any point in signing an agreement with someone who today is here and tomorrow is in a grave, and his successors won’t honor his signature. When the Middle East becomes a region of peace, give us a call, perhaps we will join the peace that you will begin in the Middle East. until then please leave us alone.

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: Déjà vu: ‘Peace in Our Time’

Were we to have a genuine peace partner, we could achieve a peace treaty and grounds for long-term coexistence in a matter of days. But until then our friends should not seek to impose upon us a Chamberlain-style “Peace in our Time” formula.

Jewish Group Honors US Ambassador to UN

The American Jewish Committee last week honored U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice with its prestigious Distinguished Public Service Award.
"I’m deeply moved to receive AJC’s Distinguished Public Service Award,” said Rice. “I’m proud to accept this honor as a tribute to the dedicated work by President Obama, his administration, and my colleagues at the U.S. Mission to the UN.”

Tel Aviv holds White City celebrations

Last weekend Tel Aviv celebrated exactly ten years since UNESCO proclaimed the historic zone of Tel Aviv, also known as the White City, as a World Cultural Heritage site.
The White City, so named for the buildings’ white walls, is the world’s largest grouping of buildings in the International Style, also known as Bauhaus.

Wolfson heart surgeons save Syrian girl

A four-year-old girl from Syria underwent successful lifesaving heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon on Monday as part of its voluntary Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) activities. The child, whose identity is not being released to keep the family safe from extremists in her country, was referred to SACH by an American humanitarian organization operating in Israel and Jordan.

Ashton Kutcher looks to invest in Israeli high-tech
American actor tells GarageGeeks gathering in Tel Aviv that he’s looking for “original, creative startups.”

American actor Ashton Kutcher and his investment partner, Guy Oseary, a producer in the US music industry and Madonna’s personal manager, stole the spotlight at the GarageGeeks gathering in Tel Aviv last night. Yossi Vardi, unofficial ambassador of the Israeli high-tech scene, hosted Kutcher and Oseary as part of a “Meet the Industry Leaders” event.
Kutcher, on his fifth visit to Israel, came to find “interesting entrepreneurs.”

Israel Daily Picture: The Shavuot Holiday, Celebrating the Giving of the Torah

Jews around the world commemorate the holiday of Shavuot this week, the day on which tradition says the Torah was given to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai.

The Book of Ruth Comes Alive in Antique Photos Taken 100 Years Ago

A major effort was made by the photographers to re-enact the story of Ruth. "Ruth," we believe, was a young member of the American Colony community; the remaining "cast" were villagers from the Bethlehem area who were actually harvesting, threshing and winnowing their crops. We have matched the pictures with corresponding verses from the Book of Ruth.

Don't believe anything you read in the PalArab media

The "International Middle East Media Center" says:

Monday evening, May 13 2013; a group of extremist Israeli settlers set ablaze Palestinian olive orchards and farmlands that belong the villages of Qaryout, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Local sources reported that the armed settlers burnt the agricultural lands, and prevented the villagers from reaching their lands to put the fire off.

Bashar Qaryouty, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Qaryout village, reported that the burnt lands were planted with wheat and olive trees.

And from Palestine Info:

Jewish settlers set ablaze more than 20 dunums of cultivated land lots in Qaryut village, south of Nablus, on Monday and prevented their owners from approaching to put it off.

Bashar Al-Qaryuti, in charge with monitoring settlement activity in the village, said that dozens of settlers from the settlement of Shilo started the fire that burnt the land cultivated with barley, wheat, and olives.

He charged that the Israeli occupation forces provided protection for the settlers and blocked the land owners, 25 individuals, from extinguishing the fire.

There are stories like this daily in the PalArab media. Unfortunately, it is all too rare to find out the other side of the story.

Luckily, this time we can.

The land is owned by a Jew and this was upheld by a court judgment. He is the only person who ever cultivated that field. He started a controlled fire to get rid of overgrown brush.

No barley, no wheat, no olives, no Arab owners. Every single word that was reported by the Arab media, and by the spokesman, was a lie.

How can anyone believe anything these people say when we have proven time and time again that they lie with impunity?

Some Zionist Torah for Shavuot

The holiday of Shavuot starts tonight, and it is traditionally known as the anniversary of God giving the Torah to the Jewish people. So here is a quick, slightly geeky and very Zionist, d'var Torah.

The first Rashi on the Torah asks and answers a famous question:

Why does the Torah, meant primarily as a means to derive Jewish laws and not meant to be a history book (the word Torah actually means "law,") start with "In the beginning of God's creation..."? Why doesn't it start with the first commandment given to Jews, about the sanctifying of new months?

The answer is based on Psalms 111:6, "He declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations."

For if the nations of the world should say to Israel, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of Canaan],” they will reply, "The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it (this we learn from the story of the Creation) and gave it to whomever He deemed proper When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.

But beyond that, the Jewish sages taught, there are three places that are indisputably owned by Jews, because they were purchased even before God fulfilled his promise to the forefathers. The three places are the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron purchased by Abraham, the Temple Mount purchased by King David, and a section of Shechem (Nablus) purchased by Jacob from the family of the Canaanite ruler Hamor.

I will not be discussing the irony of how so many tenaciously view these very places as places that Jews specifically have no rights to.

I saw something interesting about Abraham's purchase in Hebron. How large was the land he bought?

All we know is that he paid 400 silver shekels. (Gen. 23:16)

Rabbi Yitzchak bar Yehudah (13th century CE) notes that in Leviticus 27:16, it says that the value of a field sized where you could plant a "chomer" of barley seeds is fifty silver shekels.

A chomer is also known as a "kor" and it is equal to 30 se'ah in volume.

The Talmud (Eruvin 96a) defines the size of a field that could be sown with a se'ah to be 2500 square cubits (Two "beit se'ah" is equal to 5000 square amot/cubits, the size of the Temple courtyard.)

So the size of the 50-shekel measure mentioned in Leviticus, also known as a "beit kor", is 75,000 square amot.

Abraham paid 400 shekels, so at the going rate he paid for 600,000 square cubits of land.

The Talmud says that a man standing up takes up one square cubit. 600,000 is the number that is used to signify the total number of Jews, as it is roughly the number of Jews counted that left Egypt.

This means that Abraham's purchase corresponds to the number of Jews counted when the Children of Israel became a nation.

In other words, when Abraham made the first purchase of land in Israel, he bought enough to assure that every Jewish soul has a place in the Land of Israel!

(h/t Chabad)

Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Al-Qaradawi and the New Religious Conflict With Israel

Al-Qaradawi's visit has further bolstered Hamas's standing, enabling it to tighten its grip over the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the visit has granted legitimacy to Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip and turned it, in the Arab and Islamic countries, into an acceptable Islamic party.
But more importantly, al-Qaradawi's visit and statements also serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Arab conflict is centered, more than ever, around religion. The sheikh's message to the Palestinians and Muslims is that this is a religious conflict and not a political issue.
This is an unequivocal message that stresses that no Muslim is entitled to give up Muslim-owned land to non-Muslims. As far as al-Qaradawi, Hamas and their followers are concerned, the conflict is not about a settlement or a checkpoint. Rather, it is about Israel's presence -- its right to exist at all -- in the Middle East.

Ken Livingstone’s favourite Islamist spreads Jew-hatred in Gaza

We have slept while Islamists such as Qaradawi have built a network of ideological institutions in the West, and an internet, television and publishing empire beyond the dreams of most political movements. Swathes of the liberal-Left have done more than sleep. They have acted as cheerleaders for the Islamists. When Ken Livingstone justified his public embrace of Qaradawi in 2005, he told us the cleric was "a progressive figure” who was “moving that religion in the correct direction”.

Britain’s Lord Ahmed quits party over reported anti-Semitism

A member of Britain’s House of Lords quit the Labour Party on Monday, two days before he was due to face a hearing over allegations he made anti-Semitic remarks in a television interview.
Nazir Ahmed was suspended from the Labour Party in March following a report that he blamed a Jewish conspiracy for his 2009 prison sentence for dangerous driving.

Barry Rubin: As Benghazi Scandal Builds, Libya Falls Apart

A forgotten element in the Benghazi scandal is this one: If Obama had said it was a terrorist attack back in September 2012 he would have to have done something about it.
Now, not just on that one day of September 11, 2012 but for seven months thereafter (!) the U.S. government has done zero about the murder of four American officials.

Guardian’s Milne diligently promotes Assad propaganda

Like his ideological heroes in Damascus, Milne probably does not for one moment really believe that Israel is collaborating with Al Qaeda or – no less absurdly – that Al Qaida would agree to join forces with Israel. Such nonsense is just part of the propaganda strategy of the Assad regime.

BBC’s Bowen invents new quarter in Jerusalem

Obviously Bowen’s expertise in Jerusalem geography is about as precise as his knowledge of Jewish prayer traditions.
Somehow, this faux pas got past the Telegraph’s fact checkers. Perhaps they mistakenly relied on the assumption that the man ultimately in charge of Middle East content for the BBC would stick to the facts.

Fox’s Discredited Anti-Israel Guest Michael Scheuer

Scheuer has been out of government nine years. He has written or said little in that time to burnish what were previously thin credentials as a Middle East expert, his CIA posting notwithstanding. He also seems to be obsessed negatively with the Jewish state and its supporters, repeatedly making false generalizations. Why is Fox so hospitable to Scheuer when he has so thoroughly discredited himself by his antisemitic bias and loony Middle East comments on TV and in other venues?

Canada deports 1968 Palestinian El Al hijacker

After a 25-year legal battle, Canada has finally deported a Palestinian convicted of an attack on an Israeli airliner in 1968, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said on Monday.
Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine commando, took part in the assault on an El Al jet in Athens that killed an Israeli man. He was deported to Lebanon on Saturday.

UN Watch: Iran to chair U.N. disarmament conference

Iran will chair the United Nations’ most important disarmament negotiating forum during the panel’s May session, which opened today, sparking calls by an independent monitoring group for the U.S., the EU, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon to protest.
“This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva based non-governmental organization, which announced it will hold protest events outside the UN hall featuring Iranian dissidents.

US to boycott UN anti-nuke meetings chaired by Iran

The United States said Monday it will refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the UN forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it’s chaired by Iran because countries under UN sanctions shouldn’t be allowed to hold such positions.

Nigeria court convicts Iranian of illegal arms shipment

A Nigerian court on Monday sentenced an alleged member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and his Nigerian accomplice to five years in jail each over an illegal arms shipment.
Azim Aghajani and Nigerian Ali Abbas Jega were detained in 2010 when authorities at a Lagos port discovered 13 containers of weapons that had been declared as construction materials.

Joseph Massad tries to equate anti-semitism with Zionism

Joseph Massad, the Columbia professor whose anti-Zionist arguments are often little more than proof by assertion, has a new piece in Al Jazeera that includes his usual pseudo-scholarship, and ends up being almost unbelievably offensive.

Here is the key section:

Scientific anti-Semitism insisted that the Jews were different from Christian Europeans. Indeed that the Jews were not European at all and that their very presence in Europe is what causes anti-Semitism. The reason why Jews caused so many problems for European Christians had to do with their alleged rootlessness, that they lacked a country, and hence country-based loyalty. In the Romantic age of European nationalisms, anti-Semites argued that Jews did not fit in the new national configurations, and disrupted national and racial purity essential to most European nationalisms. This is why if the Jews remained in Europe, the anti-Semites argued, they could only cause hostility among Christian Europeans. The only solution was for the Jews to exit from Europe and have their own country. Needless to say, religious and secular Jews opposed this horrific anti-Semitic line of thinking. Orthodox and Reform Jews, Socialist and Communist Jews, cosmopolitan and Yiddishkeit cultural Jews, all agreed that this was a dangerous ideology of hostility that sought the expulsion of Jews from their European homelands.

Is there anything wrong in this paragraph?

Massad is not your typical neanderthal Israel-hater. He is smart enough to hide his agenda and sprinkle his lies so subtly that it requires a word-by-word analysis to see where they are.

In this case, nearly all of this paragraph is slanted but accurate - except for five words.

"The only solution was for the Jews to exit from Europe and have their own country."

Nineteenth century anti-semites did not espouse Jews having their own country. They simply wanted to persecute and marginalize the Jews in their countries!

Modern Zionism did not work in concert with 19th century "scientific" anti-semitism, it was a response to it.

Here is the description of Jews in the 1898 International Yearbook describing the situation after two decades of "scientific" anti-semitism taking root in Europe:

During the year 1898, the persecution of the Jews continued in many parts of the world, taking the form of violent anti-Semitic outbreaks, especially in Austria-Hungary and France. In France the hatred of the Jews is especially marked among the lower classes of society, including the laboring classes, and it has been employed by socialistic and radical leaders for party ends. The political importance of French anti-Semitism can be seen in connection with the Dreyfus case. (See FRANCE.) In Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, it is not only the lower classes who are opposed to Jews, nor is the anti-Jewish fanaticism found exclusively in districts where the educational standard is low. Vienna is a great centre of anti-Semitism, the mayor of the city being himself an anti-Semitic agitator. A numerous element of the population in Germany and Italy are also hostile to the Jews. In Germany, the anti-Semites include some of the large landed proprietors, and old nobility. In Russia where the persecution of the Jews has led in recent years to an extensive migration of that despised sect, the persecution seems to come mainly from the official class. The Russian laws discriminate against Jews, forbidding them to live outside of certain specified districts, and to follow certain pursuits. It is this revival of the old-time spirit of persecution in Europe that has led to the so-called Zionist movement for the repeopling of Palestine by the Jews. ...

Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia of the same year makes this more explicit:

The growth of anti-Semitism within the past few decades has had much to do with the Zionistic movement, for it is only in countries where civil and religious liberty is denied to the Jew that there is a desire to colonize in Palestine under any form.

If the anti-semites wanted a state in Palestine for the Jews, where is the literature demanding this? Why were they restricting Jews to live in certain districts instead of encouraging their emigration?

Massad helpfully links to the hard-to-find pamphlet written by the apparent coiner of the word "anti-semite," Wilhelm Marr, where he explains "scientifically" why he has a problem with Jews in Europe. Not once does he say that the Jews must have their own state to solve this problem. That idea is wholly made up by Massad in order to pretend that Zionism is the same as anti-semitism.

This lying academic goes on to describe how Zionists, from Herzl onwards, allegedly collaborated with anti-semites - including, of course, Hitler - to help create Israel.

Massad is purposefully fudging cause and effect, because only with that lie can he continue to build his wholly fictional thesis and try to separate historic anti-semitism with anti-Zionism. Massad believes that anti-Arabism is the only real anti-semitism, and he goes on to ludicrously claim that German reparations to Jews after the Holocaust is only because Germans belatedly came to realize that Jews were really "white."

The article is a ludicrous and offensive twisting of history in order to demonize today's Jews. The good Jews in Massad's estimation were anti-Zionists who were wiped out in the Holocaust. He actually tries to imply that Hitler didn't target Zionist Jews:

The Jewish holocaust [note the lower case - EoZ] killed off the majority of Jews who fought and struggled against European anti-Semitism, including Zionism. With their death, the only remaining "Semites" who are fighting against Zionism and its anti-Semitism today are the Palestinian people.

This absurd piece reveals much - not about history or truth, but about Massad's seething hate and willingness to twist facts to fit his own agenda.

It is a stain on Columbia University that they keep this fraud employed.