Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 17, 2013

Matkot madness (BBC)

Around the world, favourite beach activities include sunbathing, swimming and sandcastle building.

But in Israel, matkot - an extreme game of bat and ball - dominates the coastline.

The goal is for two players to hit a small rubber ball with a racket as many times as possible, without dropping the ball.

Matkot is so popular, one lifelong fan has turned his home into a museum dedicated to the game.

Yolande Knell went to join hundreds of matkot players by the sea in Tel Aviv to find out why they love it.

(h/t Zvi)

6/17 Links Part 1: Peace Now wants Hamas State, The Pope Annoys Turkey and Fisk's Brain

From Ian:

The Palestinians are blocking Kerry

A sober view of the situation should lead any observer to the conclusion that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have no intention of changing their strategic decision to avoid any real negotiations with Israel. Their insistence on preconditions -- for example, advance Israeli consent to the 1967 lines as the future borders of a Palestinian state, the complete halt of Israeli construction over the Green Line (including in Jerusalem), and the release by Israel of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists -- is consistent with the tactics they have been using, including the U.N. statehood bid. The Palestinians are doing everything to avoid the possibility of becoming involved in a process that will require compromises and concessions on their part (for example, the refugee issue, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and an end-of-conflict declaration).

Protest: ‘Peace Now wants Hamas State’

Samaria Residents’ Council Benny Katzover said, “We cannot let a loud, extremist minority take over public discourse on Israel’s streets. Our activists in Israeli cities will show up anywhere that a negligible group tries to create the false impression that someone in Israel still supports dividing Jerusalem.”
“We came to protest opposite a small group of vocal extreme-left activists who are acting on behalf of the country – but not our country, but the country that doesn’t want any Jews within its borders, the country that wants Jerusalem as its capital,” said activist Sagi Keizler.

Arafat Jaradat and the Torture of Palestinian Prisoners the Media Won’t Report

Though we have often charged the Guardian with consistently engaging in ‘activist journalism’ – their continual search for evidence to buttress preconceived pro-Palestinian conclusions – this observation is likely only half correct. The ubiquity of reporting alleging Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians stands in contrast to the dearth of stories in the paper focusing on Palestinian mistreatment of fellow Palestinians, suggesting that advancing a narrative of Israeli oppression is of much greater concern to their reporters than genuine advocacy on behalf of the human rights of Palestinians.

BBC’s Knell uses F1 to amplify PA propaganda on Jerusalem

Oh dear! It seems that (pretend Governor of Jerusalem) Mr Husseini is not even content to limit himself to demanding “East” Jerusalem alone as the capital of a Palestinian state. Perhaps that explains why he is so outraged by a sporting event which in actual fact took place in areas of the city he and his PA colleagues are not supposed to find remotely controversial – at least according to the narrative as it is understood by their Western donors.
How very revealing it is that Yolande Knell chose to politicise what could have been a factual and impartial report on a sporting event by showcasing Husseini’s baseless histrionics and that in doing so, she opted as a volunteer mouthpiece for the amplification of the opinions of a man who promotes the offensive racist trope of the ‘Juadization’ of Jerusalem.

Robert Fisk Equates Terrorists With Himself

That’s all a long time in blog years, but Fisk finally found his voice on the controversy. The Independent’s columnist writes:

As for Salama and al-Kumi, you can try to find them in the organisation’s database today. “Journalist not found,” it says. The “Newseum” has killed them a second time.
So Fisk’s equating thugs and terrorists with himself. It wouldn’t be the first time he did that. In 2001, after being beaten within an inch of his life by Afghan refugees, Fisk wrote:

And I’ll say it again. If I was an Afghan refugee in Kila Abdullah, I would have done just what they did. I would have attacked Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find.
Fisk’s so open-minded, his brains fell out.

PMW: Terrorist who killed taxi driver is "hero" who "brought honor to all humanity" - on PA TV

Killer of 84 year-old man praised as a "heroic giant" on PA TV - VIDEO

Gaza suffers drop in foreign aid over Syrian war

Islamic charities abroad that used to donate heavily to Gaza have been redirecting some of their aid to Syria, forcing local charities to scale back programs, aid officials said.
"All of Gaza is suffering from this," said Noha Zaki of Gaza City's Amal orphanage, home to 100 children. Zaki said donations to her charity are down by 50 percent.

Hard-line Egyptian cleric sentenced for burning Bible

A hard-line Muslim cleric received an 11-year suspended sentence Sunday for tearing up and burning a Bible, Egypt's official news agency said.

Syria: Egypt's Morsi joining US, Israeli conspiracy

The Syrian official said that Morsi's calls for foreign intervention in Syria and the implementation of a no-fly zone in the country would only serve the interests of the US and Israel.
The source added that the continued presence of an Israeli embassy in Cairo and Egypt's adherence to the Camp David accords with Israel delegitimizes both Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Rohani challenge

The election of Rohani makes the job of those who are working to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons much harder. Whereas Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was candid and outspoken in his hatred of both the West and the Jewish state, Rohani is likely to attempt to exploit his “moderate” image and his popular mandate to advance Iranian interests, particularly the ending of Iran’s international isolation.

Analysis: The good and the bad of Rohani’s election

Analysts who support this view argue that at least Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke honestly and directly while Rohani will dissimulate and hide the regime’s true intentions – taking the international community for a ride as negotiations will continue until Iran has the bomb.
Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum, wrote on his blog, Danielpipes.org, in an article titled, “Rooting for Jalili,” that the same logic holds for supporting the hardliner Saeed Jalili this time around, just as he wrote four years ago that he was rooting for Ahmadinejad. Pipes wrote that it “is better to have a bellicose, apocalyptic, in-your-face Ahmadinejad who scares the world than a sweet-talking Mousavi who again lulls it to sleep, even as thousands of centrifuges whir away.”

Peres: Ahmadinejad will be accountable

With regard to outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Peres said that history will never forgive him for what he did to Iran.
“He wasted millions of dollars on uranium; he brought the Iranian people to its knees; he destroyed the economy; he hung innocent citizens; he made Iran a center for terrorism and turned it into a state of isolation.”

BBC suspends ties with Turkey's NTV over protests coverage

The BBC announced on Friday it has suspended its partnership with Turkey's private NTV channel after it pulled a programme on press freedom and the anti-government protests.
NTV decided not to broadcast an edition of the BBC programme Dunya Gundemi (World Agenda) on Friday which included an item on the initial failure of mainstream Turkish media to cover the protests, a spokewoman for the British broadcaster told AFP.

Ankara upset at Vatican for pope’s remarks on mass killings of Armenians

Turkey has reacted angrily to the Vatican following a statement from Pope Francis describing the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as “the first genocide of the twentieth century” during a meeting with a delegation led by Patriarch of Cilicia of Armenian Catholics on June 3.

Pet Shop Boys slap down BDS liars

The Pet Shop Boys are playing in Israel next week, which naturally means that Israel haters pulled out all the stops to try to pressure them to cancel.

Their answer is short and shows that at least some pop stars have a degree of intelligence:

I don't agree with this comparison of Israel to apartheid-era South Africa. It's a caricature. Israel has (in my opinion) some crude and cruel policies based on defence; it also has universal suffrage and equality of rights for all its citizens both Jewish and Arab. In apartheid-era South Africa, artists could only play to segregated audiences; in Israel anyone who buys a ticket can attend a concert. Neil x

The graphic that the haters used to try to demonize the duo from playing reveals a lot about how Israel haters simply make up "facts" whenever they feel like it.

1 child killed every 3 days? 2 kids "caged" every day?

These statistics are anti-Israel fantasies.

There have been no Palestinian Arab children killed by Israel in the past five months (the last one was throwing rocks and bottles at the IDF in January.) Even during the second intifada, from 2000-2005, the number of children killed did not reach this level.

Similarly, the idea that 2 children are arrested every day is equally ridiculous.

How many people would even bother to question statistics shown on a poster like this? To do so, you must assume initially that the BDS crowd is filled with liars, and most Westerners tend to trust seemingly authoritative "facts" that come their way.

The lies of the Israel haters are insidious, and of course the more "honest" ones will not bother to correct their co-haters - because there are no consequences to lying.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

The antisemitic Ramadan miniseries "Khaybar" scheduled to be broadcast in various Arab countries next month is facing some controversy from at least one potential market - but not because of its virulent antisemitism.

As we've been reporting for months, the entire point of the series, disguised as a historical drama, is to show how the Jews have been engaging in "fraud and deceit" since the times of Moses up until today. As the screenwriter said explicitly, "The goal of the series is to expose the naked truth about the Jews and stress that they cannot be trusted."

But the message of hate is not what is causing controversy.

Dubai TV is threatening not to show the series because it apparently has actors portraying Mohammed's "companions." Some Muslims extend the ban on portraying prophets in art or drama to anyone Mohammed spoke to as well, and "Khaybar" seems to include some of Mohammmed's companions as characters in the series.

Ali Al Rumaithi, Director of Dubai TV, stated that while it would be a major loss to not broadcast the series, his responsibility to his viewers is more important, and subjecting them to images of Mohammed's companions is a danger. Subjecting them to incitement against Jews is, of course, just dandy.

Rumaithi is in talks with the director as to the extent of the potential violations. Filming only finished last week and the director is busy to finish the series' post production in time for its Ramadan airing.

Ramadan starts July 8.

So far, human rights groups have been silent in face of this impending incitement against the entire Jewish people. Sign the petition to pressure them to make a statement against Arab antisemitism, a topic they have shunned.

Egyptians protest against, and Muslim Brotherhood praises, Hamas

From Ma'an:

Egyptian security has asked Hamas leaders to change the hotel its delegation is staying in after receiving intelligence that protests will be held outside, sources told Ma'an.

Hamas' chief in exile Khaled Mashaal and Gaza premier Ismail Haniyeh, along with a delegation of 24 party officials, were told that demonstrators would be rallying outside the Intercontinental Hotel to protest the Islamist movement's "intervention in internal Egyptian affairs," the sources said.

Egyptian security had been asked by protestors to "send Hamas leaders out of Egypt," responding that they were prepared to defend the delegation, the sources added.

The sources added that the change in hotel was required because forces did not "have the situation under control."

The delegation is in Cairo for emergency talks with the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt Muhammad Badie.

The movement has come under sharp criticism in recent weeks after former Egyptian Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy said Hamas took part in prison riots during Egypt's revolution.

The Muslim Brotherhood praised the terror group:

Deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Essam El-Erian says developments in the ongoing crisis in Syria have shown the difference between the Gaza-based Hamas group and Lebanese Shia Hezbollah group, both of which were originally founded to resist Israeli occupation.

"Hamas has never pointed a weapon towards any other nation. They withdrew from Syria and did not compromise their principles at the expense of losing support and key establishments in Syria," El-Erian said Sunday in a statement on Facebook.

"Hizbullah, however, has directly intervened against the revolutionary people of Syria by supporting a despotic regime (Al-Assad) and pointing their weapons at their fellow Arabs, not the Zionist enemy."

The ruling party in Egypt doesn't consider Israel to be a nation and supports terrorism. Good to know.

Nasrallah visited Qusair, Syria more than once

Ali Hashem, writer for Al-Monitor, is a very pro-Assad journalist (and former BBC reporter) who also writes now for Hizballah's Al Mayadeen.

His latest article is interesting - especially for those who want to see Hassan Nasrallah dead:

In the center of the city, I stood in the middle of the main road as a huge, black four-wheel-drive came my way.

I stared at the man sitting beside the driver: The face was familiar, but something was missing. It was clear I was face to face with Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, without a turban, wearing a military uniform. He smiled and nodded to me, and while I was still in shock, the car was out of sight. There was no convoy, only one car, but as I said before, there were security measures taken in the city and around.

It took me some time to confirm that whom I saw was Nasrallah. When I returned to Beirut, I started my investigations to confirm it and I did.

While investigating, I came across another piece of information: that this visit wasn’t the first for Nasrallah to Qusair during this very crisis. “Sayyed Nasrallah went to Qusair a day before the start of the battle: He met the commanders, visited some injured fighters and gave a speech,” a source close to Hezbollah told me, “He spoke for around half an hour with his main commanders exchanging ideas on the battle and the expectations and how many days it’ll take them to finish it.”

As for the latest visit, the one day after the offensive, our source said that Nasrallah visited the city of Qusair and the towns around it in the country side. He added, “Sayyed Nasrallah wanted to thank the fighters personally, he met them, met the injured, and went around the area.”

I asked the source how Nasrallah is able to move from Beirut to Qusair in Syria and sometimes travel to Iran while Israel is saying that he is hiding.

“It’s a hide-and-seek game,” he replied, “Nasrallah's security apparatus is professional enough to know when to move and how. No one knows what they do and what their measure are, we only know when things are done.”

Nasrallah’s visit to Qusair shows once again that the group’s fight in Syria isn’t a matter of interests, it’s a matter of existence.

Looks like the IDF needs to beef up its intelligence; Nasrallah's peeking out of his hole is too good a target to ignore, and hitting him in Syria (or getting any Sunni Arab to do it) would probably be much less problematic politically than taking him out in Lebanon.

Turkish police adding chemicals (pepper spray) to water cannons

This photo has been floating around the pages of people watching the protests in Turkey:

It is supposedly of Turkish security personnel pouring Jenix, a pepper spray concentrate, into the water cannons they are using against protesters at Gezi Park.

Ansa (Italian) reports:

Istiklal Avenue, Taksim Square, Besiktas, the Bosphorus Bridge: names that trigger in the minds of millions the images of holiday tourists and colorful Eastern postcards. Today these places in the heart of Istanbul are war zones. A war, with lots of stinging substances used by the police, which continues into the night. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets again in the megacities of the Bosphorus and Taksim to march to denounce the brutal assault last night of police in Gezi Park and the young activists who occupied it.

A vicious attack, which injured 800, including children hit by rubber bullets, dozens of people 'burned' by stinging agents put in the water by police fire hydrants - as reported by the photos of the activists in which you can clearly see the cops load the substance 'Jenix' in armored vehicles - or hundreds suffocated by the clouds of tear gas. All this while riot police arrested the doctors who treated injured protesters, beat an opposition deputy, lawyers and journalists. It is a "war against the population," the president of the German Greens Claudia Roth charged.

While Jenix doesn't seem to be any less legal than tear gas, it is still a chemical weapon that causes the skin to burn. it is unclear whether it is meant to be mixed together with water in this fashion.

So far, this has barely been reported in English anywhere except in social media.

(h/t EG)

Actor dresses as woman to experience sexual harassment in Egypt

I had heard about this last month but never saw the English version; this one from CNN:

(h/t Gidon)

Egyptian cleric recommends viewers read "Protocols of Elders of Zion"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a panel featuring Egyptian cleric Khaled Kholif of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Al-Hafez TV on May 27, 2013:

Khaled Kholif: America and Israel are pleased with [the Egyptian opposition] movements, which are led by the brainless. They have said so in The Protocols. Let me tell you exactly what they said in The Protocols: "We will strive to undermine security in the lands of the Gentiles, through reckless revolutions, led by the brainless." It says so in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as translated by Khalifa Al-Tunisi. If you haven't read it, you should.
[...]
This might lead to our inevitable conflict with the Jews, who stand behind the [Egyptian opposition]. The Jews invented socialism. Karl Marx's grandfather Mordechai Marx, was a Jew, as was Engles, the German.
[...]

Oh, and as far as that "inevitable conflict with the Jews," an Al Azhar University cleric elaborated on that theme:

The Islamic nation, which is the guardian of Truth, must be aware of the conspiracies of Falsehood, and of the snares of those who lie in wait. Allah has taught [Muslims] that their worst enemies are those about whom He said: "You shall find the Jews and the polytheists to be the most hostile towards the believers" [Koran 5:82]. Thus, Allah made Jihad for His sake and endurance of pain and hardship effective means to fight the people of Falsehood....The confrontation [with the Jews] is inevitable. Our Prophet does not lie. He told us that there would be a confrontation between the Muslims and the Jews before the Day of Judgment, and that the Muslims would vanquish them to the point that the Jews would hide behind the stones and the trees, but the stones and the trees would say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." Prepare for that day, for it will surely arrive, because the divine revelation harbors no lies.

6/16 Links: Iranian Election, Morsi breaks with Syria, Prof. Newman OBE and White Night Tel Aviv

From Ian:

Netanyahu on Iran elections: ‘Let’s not delude ourselves’

“Let us not delude ourselves,” Netanyahu said. “The international community must not become caught up in wishes and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program. It must be remembered that the Iranian ruler, at the outset, disqualified candidates who did not fit his extremist outlook and from among those whose candidacies he allowed was elected the candidate who was seen as less identified with the regime, who still defines the State of Israel [in an address last year] as ‘the great Zionist Satan.’”

Iran votes for change, but new president will have a hard time delivering

In his public speeches, Rowhani — himself a conservative Shiite cleric –promised Iranians change both domestically and abroad. But Israeli experts on Iran said on Saturday that with no control over foreign policy and with the country’s economic situation dependent to a great extent on international decisions, the new president has precious little leeway.

Expert: Israel Faces 100,000 Cyber Attacks Each Day

Professor Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yitzchak Ben-Yisrael told Arutz Sheva that threats have become increasingly sophisticated as defenses have done the same.
Israel faces roughly 100,000 cyber attacks per day, he revealed, and during wartime that number jumps to one million.
Ben-Yisrael discussed Israel’s unique experience on the front lines of the cyber war, and the ways in which Israel can share with the world.

Honest Reporting: BBC Burns Rubber to Promote Palestinian Gripes

The BBC fails to explain that Adnan Husseini’s title is just that – a title and nothing else. The PA has no authority in Jerusalem and his title is designed specifically to promote the myth of a Palestinian Jerusalem.
This writer’s family stood on the Jerusalem streets watching the Formula 1 event. While taking photos of the cars, they didn’t take photos of the crowds of Arabs standing next to them. Why? Because it didn’t seem unusual to Israelis used to mixing with Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem.

CAMERA: IHT Corrects Palestine Terminology

The erroneous June 8 item had stated:
”....The Austrian-born photographer immigrated to the Palestine Authority in the 1920s.”

CAMERA Prompts Financial Times Corrections on Curfews, Air Strikes

The erroneous photo caption referring to Ramallah air strikes has been removed (see below for screen shot of the online article as it now appears), as has as the reference to non-existent curfews in eastern Jerusalem.

Israel, US, Mull Raids on '18 Chemical Targets' in Syria

One scenario would be the sudden removal of Assad from the scene, the magazine said. “That would prompt the allies to launch operations on the estimated 18 depots and other sites where WMDs are stored,” Israei military and intelligence officials said.
“Search and destroy operations would also be launched if the weapons appeared to be about to fall into the hands of the rebels, which include Islamist extremists aligned with al-Qaeda.”

Clerics call for ‘jihad’ in Syria

Influential Sunni clerics from several Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Egypt have called for ‘Jihad’ against the regime in Syria. "We must undertake jihad to help our brothers in Syria by sending them money and arms, and providing all aid to save the Syrian people from this sectarian regime," they said in a statement at the end of a gathering in Cairo. "The flagrant aggression of the Iranian regime, of Hezbollah and of their sectarian allies in Syria amounts to a declaration of war against Islam and Muslims." Lebanon's Iran-backed Shia movement has been fighting alongside the forces of President Bashar Al-Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shiaism, against Syria's rebels.

Morsi cuts Egypt's Syria ties, backs no-fly zone

He also warned Assad's allies in the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah to pull back from fighting in Syria.
"We stand against Hezbollah in its aggression against the Syrian people," Morsi said. "Hezbollah must leave Syria - these are serious words. There is no space or place for Hezbollah in Syria."

Erdogan Goes to War; Police Wound Hundreds, Attack Drivers

Turkish police went to war against protesters Saturday night, using rubber bullets and tear gas to clear thousands from Taksim Square and on pedestrians trying to cross a foot bridge, where drivers also suffered the effects of the gas.
Hundreds of people, including motorists, were injured, while official government statements claimed the number of wounded was 44.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had issued an ultimatum to the protesters to leave Taksim Square in favor of a pro-Erdogan rally scheduled for Sunday.

Outraged Paris Jews Protest Arab Suicide Bomber Exhibit

One photo depicts a proud mother in her home waving a photo of her terrorist son who murdered 19 victims in a 2002 attack on a bus in Jerusalem. Next to another, a caption explains all the individuals in the photo are "martyrs" since they died "as a result of the Israeli occupation."
"This is unacceptable," stated Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, the largest Jewish organization that fights anti-Semitism in France. "You have the right to be shocked an apology for terrorists is made in the heart of Paris – and to think this is a state-funded museum.
"There must be more vigilance," he added. "One minute France is fighting terrorists in Mali, and then celebrating the same ones here."

Dutch lawmaker who called for sanctions on Israel resigns

Last month Bonis, who before her entry to Labor in 2010 served as ambassador to Syria for four years, said that her “patience for Israel was running out” because of what she described as Israel’s “failure” to meet international norms.

German neo-Nazis submit anti-Israel legislation

“This alliance between the Greens and the far Right to promote blatant double standards is a huge stain on Germany’s moral standing,” Prof. Gerald Steinberg, head the Jerusalem–based group NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.
“Duplicitous product labeling is the thin wedge of the BDS [Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment] movement, and central to the Durban strategy of political warfare and demonization that targets Israel,” Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, added.

Seeing things as they were — there’s an Israeli app for that

Visitors to Israel’s many archaeological sites are often told to come equipped with a camera, and an imagination. The camera is to take photos of themselves and their companions at these famous sites — and the imagination is supposed to help them visualize what many of the faded, ancient, and time-worn places looked like during their heyday.

Israeli professor to get award from Queen Elizabeth

Buckingham Palace announced Saturday that an Israeli professor is among the more than 1,000 people being presented an award by Queen Elizabeth as part of her Birthday Honours list.
Professor David Newman, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, will receive the award for his promotion of the academic partnership between Britain and Israel. He has been a leading advocate of the academic partnership between the countries, and a key campaigner against the British academic boycott of Israel.

White Night Tel Aviv 2013

Remember Sarah Schulman, who wrote one of the most bizarre op-eds in NYT history in her crazed attempt to say that anything Israel does that is gay-friendly is really to whitewash its alleged crimes, and whose hate for Israel makes it impossible for her to say a bad word about the undeniably homophobic terror group Hamas?

Well, she organized a conference on "Homonationalism and Pinkwashing" at CUNY earlier this year. I pointed out some of the nuttier parts of the conference description, but it turns out that Schulman's hate for Israel caused her to disallow anyone to speak at - or even attend! - the conference unless their hate for the Jewish state was as pure as hers is.

James Kirchick in Tablet describes how Schulman rejected numerous papers at the conference, even papers critical of Israel, if they did not toe her line that the only possible reason for Israel's being friendly to gays is to pursue its agenda of crushing Palestinian Arabs.

Beyond that, when one man proposed a paper saying that Israel's support of gays was meant to help tourism rather than provide cove for genocide, Schulman not only angrily rejected the paper but publicly accused him of being an "Israeli operative:"

But the most revealing of Schulman’s interactions was with Jayson Littman, a New York-based organizer of social events for gay Jewish men who has led gay-themed Birthright trips to Israel. Last spring, Littman sent a proposal titled “The Myth of Pinkwashing,” which, along the line of Jonathan Miller’s, explained that the Israeli government’s advertising its gay life is primarily about tourism dollars, not propaganda. Schulman sent him a similar response to the ones she fired off to the other three individuals described above. Littman’s dedication to connecting gay Jews with Zionism, however, appears to have made him a prominent target of Schulman’s florid campaign to portray any and all mention of gay life in Israel as part of a dark Israeli government-controlled conspiracy to oppress Palestinians.

In a November 2012 interview with the British lesbian magazine Diva, Schulman said that “the more I work in this arena, the more aware I become of the involvement of the Israeli government in the US LGBT community.” She named Littman, among others, as “Israeli government operatives … who work for the Foreign Ministry, whose job it is to work our community along pinkwashing lines.” Among their tasks, she said, are to “plant stories in newspapers, co-opt our events … and flood websites with propaganda.”

Littman, of course, is nothing of the sort.

Kirchick also reveals this little tidbit:

Schulman’s behavior—accusing someone (by all accounts falsely) of being a spy for a foreign government and then compiling a dossier full of inaccurate “evidence” when challenged on the veracity of her claim—is the work of an activist, or of a secret policeman in the old Soviet-bloc states, not a scholar. Indeed, despite having the title of “Distinguished Professor” at CUNY, Schulman has no degree higher than a Bachelor’s from Empire State College.

Empire State College is known for its distance learning program; meaning that her degree is pretty much a mail order bachelor's degree, from a little known albeit accredited institution. CUNY hiring someone with those credentials as a "Distinguished Professor" makes one wonder about CUNY altogether.

Kirchick concludes with the undeniable:

In her opening speech, Schulman dropped any pretense of being anything other than an ideologue. Noting that some critics of her conference had suggested she invite “a keynote speaker from the other side,” she responded, “Like there’s two sides!” By offering a veneer of academic respectability to Sarah Schulman and her acolytes, CUNY has provided legitimacy to agitprop posing as scholarship.

FrontPage had a nice review of the entire joke of a conference.

(h/t Gidon)

Egyptian politician smiles as he says Jews slaughter Christians for matzoh

As Ramadan approaches and the antisemitic Khaybar film is closer to airing on Egyptian TV, it seems that pure antisemitism is on the rise in Egyptian media.

The latest from MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a TV show with Khaled Al-Zaafrani, founder of the Egyptian Justice and Progress Party, which aired on Al-Hafez TV on May 12, 2013.

Khaled Al-Zaafrani: It is the Jews who have instigated wars in the world. They instigated World War I, as well as World War II, and they will keep on instigating wars. The Jews cannot live without wars, conspiracies, deceit, and deception. We can rest assured that the Jews will not seek or uphold peace.

[…]

It s well known that during the Passover, they make matzos called the "Blood of Zion." They take a Christian child, slit his throat and slaughter him. Then they take his blood and make their [matzos]. This is a very important rite for the Jews, which they never forgo.

Interviewer: Could you repeat the name of this rite?

Khaled Al-Zaafrani: It is called the Blood of Zion rite. During the Jews Passover, they must slaughter…

TV guest: Like [ancient] Egyptians used to sacrifice "the Bride of the Nile"…

Interviewer: And the Jews do this to this day?

Khaled Al-Zaafrani: Absolutely. The French kings and the Russian czars discovered this in the Jewish quarters. All the massacring of Jews that occurred in those countries were because they discovered that the Jews had kidnapped and slaughtered children, in order to make the Passover matzos.

Recorded evidence of this is kept in the Egyptian national archives. This happens to this day.
[…]
Passover was near, and the Jews of Damascus could not find a Christian. There was a Christian priest, who would give them medical treatment. He was of Italian and French nationality, and his job was to treat people. He used to treat the Jews, but since they couldn't find any other Christian, they summoned him to treat them… Their confessions are well documented.

They placed the priest in a tub, slaughtered him, smashed his bones with a pestle, took his blood, and made the "matzos of Zion."

Interviewer: Are these matzos eaten?

Khaled Al-Zaafrani: Of course. They slice it and fight over who gets to eat Christian blood.

When this subject is raised, the Jews consider it to be a problem, just like the problem of Hitler and the Holocaust.

As usual, Western "human rights organizations" are silent.

Just how "moderate" is Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani?

The answer is - it really doesn't matter. Like Ahmadinajad, he will have nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program, and having a Muslim Santa Claus replacing the ape that preceded him will mean literally zero as to what Iran is doing in its drive for nuclear weapons that would threaten the entire world.

When your country has a "Supreme Leader," the title of "President" is more or less symbolic.

The Ayatollah Khamenei even told the candidates that they must not make any concessions to the West, which makes the entire idea of a "moderate" president a joke.

The mainstream media, however, keeps talking about Rouhani as if he is literally a moderate, and not just moderate relative to the handpicked ultra-right wing candidates allowed to run for the office. The Washington Post and a host of other media outlets simply call him a "moderate" and the Huffington Post even calls him a "reformist."

This is for a person who has praised Bashar Assad and said “Syria has constantly been on the frontline of fighting Zionism and this resistance line must not be weakened.”

Moreover, Rouhani proudly boasts that as Iran's nuclear negotiator, he managed to delay Western sanctions while pushing the nuclear program forward. Arash Karami describes an interview with candidate Rouhani on Iranian TV:

In the first question regarding Rouhani’s time as nuclear negotiator, Abedini made a reference to P5+1 negotiations, to which Rouhani corrected him: “Mr. Abedini, don’t be mistaken in your question. My negotiations were with the EU-3, not P5+1.” Rouhani then explained the conditions which previous negotiations took place, saying, “What did America want to do? They wanted to send our case to the UN Security Council. They wanted what he had technologically to not be complete. We were after an opportunity to complete our technology.”

Rouhani said that when the three ministers of Europe were invited to Iran, they promised to veto America at the UN with respect to Iran’s nuclear program. He continued, “And this was during the era of Bush, when crazy neocons had attacked Afghanistan, occupied Iraq and everyone said that Iran is next. … During that era, we didn’t allow war. We didn’t allow our case to go to the Security Council.” Rouhani said of his era, “During that time, we started with ministers and then started negotiating with the presidents. This is what we should do today.”

Abedini then asked him about specific agreements and suspensions that took place in the nuclear program when Rouhani was in charge of negotiations. Rouhani responded, “What you said is a lie, you know it’s a lie. … This talk is what ignorant people say, you are versed in this.” Rouhani continued, rather excitedly and with a smile, “Maybe the person speaking to you in your earpiece doesn’t know, but you know.” After another challenge by Abedini, Rouahni responded, “It’s good for you to read history.” Rouahani then started listing Iran’s achievements during the era in question, incrementally raising his volume and emphasis with each achievement.

“We suspended the program?” Rouhani asked rhetorically. “We completed the program!"

As president, it seems apparent that Rouhani will do the exact same thing - run interference for the West with his smiling demeanor while Iran's nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons delivery program speeds forward.

Given how eager the gullible Western media is to represent him as a "moderate," it looks like the Supreme Leader could not have picked a better person to be president.

Batayena

This article, by Dr. Muhammad Qasem Batayena writing in Jordanian newspaper Assawsana. is the worst one I have ever read. And that's saying something.

Batayena is apparently a Ba'athist, and in other articles he writes of his support for the Assad regime and he refers to Saddam Hussein as a "martyr." Even so, as you will see, he will happily use Koranic references as well.

The title of the piece is "Let's Kill the Jews Everywhere."

I'm not an extremist, nor racist… I'm not bloodthirsty and not vengeful… I'm not a terrorist and I've never been a killer… All my life I hated the color red, and my dictionary never included the word "blood"… I am not bloodthirsty at all… but I'm an oppressed Muslim and an Arab whose will has been taken away from him… that is how we were shaped in (these) bad times, which we haven't chosen (to be born into)… this is how it was planned that we should be… we are living in volcanic lands… We smell the smell of blood coming from every direction… they [presumably the Jews] turned the color of the ground into red… our people's body parts were scattered and their factions fought each other (literally "shot at each other") through Arab-like Hebrew hands ["musta'ariba", see Wikipedia for analog Mista-arvim]… and because I look at all these things without doing a thing – for that I'm an Arab.

Because all my limbs are chained and I cannot move… because my tongue was made silent by the treacheries of the blood-traders [Arab rulers who made peace with Israel or at least don't fight it]… because my heart became dead and my words are no longer virgin, because my brown skin hides behind it chagrin/sorrow/anger and humiliation/disgrace, and therefore I am an Arab for sure… because our blood is permitted, while the blood of the apes and pigs is forbidden… because the Arab tyrants sold us for a cheap price and served us on golden plates as sacrifice for the Zionists… because the rotten Jewish tourist walks around [Arab countries] firmly guarded by Arab guards, in order to guard his filthy soul… because any Arab who wants to pray in Jerusalem has to obtain a visa from the killers of the children of Palestine… because the hero Daqamseh , see here] is described as "a criminal murderer by our Arab-like ["musta'arabin" again) ambassadors in the so-called Israel, and therefore I'm an Arab, unfortunately.

Yes, unfortunately, our identity is lost since that whore Livni slept on the bosom of the rulers of Qatar, and its leaders kissed Hillary Clinton and hugged the black whore Condoleeza Rice… Yes, unfortunately I'm an Arab since Palestine has been erased from the map of the world… since that/one Canadian policeman told me that Israel is oppressed and it has to be aided [not sure if he means the Canadian government, or he refers to a personal encounter with an actual Canadian policeman]… since I found out that the entire world collects donations in order to support Israel in getting rid of terror, therefore I'm sorry that I'm an Arab.

Thus, I have to be ashamed of my Arabness... I have to bury my head in the sand like an ostrich, with chagrin and weakness… but this will never happen… since our great leaders have taught us that Falsehood might win the battle but Truth wins the war, our paragon, leader and Master (the prophet) Muhammad Bin Abdallah Peace Be Upon Him taught us this... Yes, we will triumph, pray in Jerusalem and take revenge on the filthy murderers… we will kill them wherever we find them, as the Holy Koran told us [referring to the verse in the Koran which begins: "And kill them wherever you find them… " Sura 2, verse 191]… we will make them taste the taste of death, in which they became masters all over the Islamic and Arab lands… Yes, we will kill them, and I swear that if I get the chance, I won't miss it… since I believe in Allah and his Messenger, and I know that this world is nothing but the enjoyment of a delusion [another Koranic reference]…Therefore I want to be proud that I'm a Muslim Arab who doesn't believe in the Arab borders [he is a Baathist/nationalist Arab who believes in Arab unity "from the Maghreb to the Gulf"].

This is important not only for its unmistakable message of genocide against Jews, but from the perspective of the Arab honor/shame mentality.

Batayena is writing exclusively from the point of view of Arabs being deeply humiliated by the very existence not only of Israel, but of Arabs who dare make peace with Israel. While this level of vitriol is unusual in even for the Arab media, it is clear that his point of view is not anomalous or even unusual.

{h/t Ibn Boutros]

Egypt arrests another "Israeli spy"

AFP reports:

Security forces have arrested an Egyptian on suspicion of spying for Israel, Egypt’s state prosecutor said on Saturday, adding that it has detained him for 15 days for questioning.

Official news agency MENA, which carried the prosecutor’s comments, added that the man is accused of having worked for Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

The suspect “took the initiative in cooperating with Mossad before joining them in 2011,” MENA reported.

Investigations suggested that the suspect had passed “important information about Egypt to Israel,” MENA said, without elaborating.

The evidence?

The accused is an employee in a private firm. He is accused of working for Mossad since 2011, reported Al-Ahram Arabic news website.

He reportedly filed a complaint to general intelligence in 2012 saying that Israel was trying to recruit him for spy work. The complaint is believed by the prosecution to have been filed in order to hide his espionage involvement.

The prosecution further alleges the accused owned spying devices.

His claim, freely given two years ago, that the Mossad had unsuccessfully tried to recruit him -is the proof that the crack Egyptian investigators have that the Mossad must have recruited him!

Given how incompetent Egyptian security was in accusing idiot Ilan Grapel of being a spy, my guess is that this guy has a fascination with espionage, made up the Mossad story to make himself feel like a hero, meanwhile collecting electronic devices that could be used for spying as part of his hobby, and he bragged a little too much about his "expertise" to someone who doesn't like him that much.