Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 09, 2013

Today's Iranian/Shiite/Syrian threat against Israel, Turkey and Gulf states

Leader of the Lebanese Towhid (Monotheism) Movement Wiam Wahhab warned that hundreds of missiles will rain down on Israel the very moment Syria comes under a foreign military attack.

"The first bullet fired at Syria will be reciprocated by 500 missiles against Tel Aviv," Wahhab, also a former Lebanese minister, said in an interview with Lebanon's Jadidah TV channel on Monday.

"This is no rhetoric, I am speaking the truth and telling you the reality," he added.

Wahhab warned of Syria's retaliatory measures against any possible foreign military aggression, and said Damascus' reaction will not be limited to Israel, but it will also include Turkey and other regional countries and the Persian Gulf littoral states which are collaborating with Washington in the war on Syria.

Note how Iran's threats are explicitly against Muslim countries. This despite Iran's pretense of wanting Muslim unity:

The World Forum for Proximity is an international organization founded by Iran. Its main aim is to create more unity and solidarity among Muslims worldwide, regardless of their schools of thought.

Looks like the World Forum for Proximity and its annual Muslim Unity Conference in Tehran are not succeeding very well even it their host country.

UN report on Middle East, illustrated

Here is a graphical synopsis of the UN's August 20th report to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East. I reduced the size of the font for each new paragraph (except the conclusion) to give an idea of how the UN prioritizes Israel/PA, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

20 of the 31 paragraphs either were fully or partially about Israel, including the first 16.

You would hardly know that during this reporting period, Syria killed some 1400 people with chemical weapons (paragraph 24.)

Also note that the paragraphs about Israel have detailed statistics on settlement activity, arrests, illegal structures torn down and so forth. No such specifics are given for people being murdered in Syria by the thousands.

(h/t Gidon S. and Mida)

The Guardian says Jews perform female genital mutilation (UPDATES)

From The Guardian:

Campaigners say that a tangled mix of family pressure, cultural traditions and religious motivations make FGM – illegal for almost 30 years in the UK – hard to eradicate. It has been documented in 28 countries in Africa and in a few countries in Asia and the Middle East. The practice involves removing all or part of the external female genitalia (including the clitoris, labia minora and labia majora – and in some cases the narrowing of the vagina), and is usually carried out before the age of 15. As well as the risk of bleeding to death or infection, a terrifying array of physical and psychological problems can follow.

Today 30,000 girls in the UK are said to be at risk of this form of mutilation, while 66,000 live with the consequences of it. Yet no one has ever been prosecuted for carrying out or abetting the practice (which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years).

...Although Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities carry out FGM, mainstream spiritual leaders from all three religions have denied that the practice stems from religion.

Do any Jewish communities carry out FGM?

There are two different sources that I can find, one which is almost certainly false and one which appears to have been true, years ago.

In the book Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised? Gender and Covenant In Judaism by Shaye J. D. Cohen, he tracks down a single mention of the practice among Egyptian Jews by Greek geographer Strabo. After looking at the evidence, however, Cohen believes it was simply a mistake on Strabo's part, as he was assuming that Jews from Egypt had taken on Egyptian customs. He quotes Philo as being quite emphatic on the matter that Egyptian Jewish men, not women, were circumcised.

The second source, which seems much more authoritative, comes from the paper "Ritual female genital surgery among Ethiopian Jews" by Grisaru, Lezer and Belmaker of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. In their article they note that most Ethiopian Jewish women claimed to have undergone female circumcision, although only 27% showed any physical signs of any surgery, which is in itself an interesting anthropological issue as far as how much to trust what people say in surveys.

The astonishing part, though, is that as soon as the Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel, the practice ceased completely. This shows that they did it because of the surrounding Ethiopian culture, but no one claimed - even as a folktale - that this was a Jewish custom. Belmaker wrote a separate paper about this phenomenon:

A group of Ethiopian Jews who had immigrated to Israel was interviewed by an Amharic translator, and examined during routine gynecological examination...All women interviewed reported that FGM was universal in Ethiopia, but none intended to continue this practice with their daughters. All stated that this was a practice that would be left behind in their country of origin. ...

Ethiopian Jews, who practiced a major form of FGM in Ethiopia, give up the custom upon arrival in Israel and no reports exist among pediatricians, gynecologists or the press of FGM among Jews of Ethiopian origin in Israel.

While the only verified cases of FGM among Jews were the anomalous instances from Ethiopia, the practice today has completely disappeared among that community.

Which means that the Guardian is, once again, wrong.

One fact from the second Belmaker paper should have been included in the Guardian article, but wasn't. Bedouin Muslim women who had practiced FGM in Israel have also abandoned the practice, except in a symbolic form, in recent decades. This means that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has managed to effectively eradicate FGM - far more successfully than even Western countries have been!

A good reporter would have found out that piece of information. A good reporter would have spent time to research and write why Israel has been successful in eradicating FGM when the UK has so many thousands of cases of women being mutilated every year.

That would be a good story, but, again, this is the Guardian.

UPDATE: CiFWatch, predictably, has an excellent response to the Guardian.

UPDATE 2: The article was corrected.

Iraqi Shiites threaten US with suicide bombings

From Iran's FARS News:

Leader of Iraq’s Jaysh Al-Mukhtar (Al-Mukhtar army) Sheikh Wathiq al-Battat vowed to target Washington's interests in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region by thousands of martyrdom-seeking (suicide) operations if the US attacks Syria.

Speaking to FNA in Baghdad on Sunday, Sheikh Al-Battat said that his group has "23,000 fully-trained and equipped martyrdom-seeking forces who can blow the US interests in Iraq and the Persian Gulf at any time if the US commits such a stupid act".

Sheikh Al-Battat warned against any adventurism against the Syrian nation, and reiterated that the US will not be immune from the martyrdom-seeking operations of his warriors.

Given that Al Battat admits that he receives support from Iran, his statement - trumpeted in Iranian media - neatly proves that Iran directly supports terrorists.

Egyptian kid journalist asks people if they heard of the Holocaust

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an Egyptian show titled "Anybody Knows?!", which was posted on the Internet on May 19, 2013.

Title: "Anybody Knows?!"

In the studio

Little boy: Welcome to our show. Today, we'll be talking about…

On the street

What is the Holocaust?

Woman: The what?

Little boy: The Holocaust.

Woman: I don't know.

Man: The Holocaust? I've got no idea.

Young man: Give me some options to choose from. In Germany? I've heard about it, but don't know exactly what happened.

Another young man: The what?

Little boy: The Holocaust…

Young man: Holocaust? Can you repeat the question?

Little boy: The Holocaust.

Young man: What Holocaust? I have no idea.

Old woman: I don't know.

Young woman: Why don't you tell me what it is? I told you that I don't know. There's nothing wrong with learning from someone younger than you.

Man: Ah, the Holocaust? You mean Hitler's Holocaust? During the war, he burned [Jews] in crematoria.

Another woman: Hitler captured the Jews and burned and gassed them. He killed many of them. I'm not convinced that this really happened though.

Another man: This is a new term. It's the first time I've heard it in Egypt.

Youth: Either he burned the Jews, or the Jews burned… I don't exactly remember.

Young man: The Holocaust took place during World War II. Hitler rounded up the Jews and put them in things called gas chambers. There are disputes regarding the figures. Some say three million Jews were killed, and others say it was one million. Some question whether it occurred.

In the studio

Little boy: In the Holocaust, lots of people were rounded up and killed.

Israelis saving the world, again

From NoCamels:

Dr. Sarit Larisch

“Killing these cancer stem cells is the holy grail of cancer treatments and therefore holds promise for complete eradication of cancer,” says Dr. Sarit Larisch of the University of Haifa.

These are not words pronounced lightly; instead, they follow more than a decade of research that could give hope to cancer patients worldwide. Along with her colleagues, Larisch has established the basis for developing a new, more effective treatment for cancer using a protein called ARTS.

ARTS is a protein, which along with a number of other proteins and enzymes, regulates what is known as apoptosis. Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death which occurs when a cell is damaged, mutated or no longer functional. ARTS acts as a trigger for cell death, its presence allowing for enzymes called caspases to destroy the non-functional cell.

But this process is missing in cancer cells.

Larisch’s research shows that unlike normal cells, cancer cells have an absence of the ARTS protein. “Without the ARTS protein, cells can’t be triggered to self-destruct. As a result cancer cells can survive and develop into a tumor,” she tells NoCamels.

“We have found that ARTS is lost in many types of cancers. Therefore, determining levels of ARTS in blood could provide a marker to alert to the possibility of developing certain types of cancers.” Consequently, Dr. Larisch believes that small molecules that mimic ARTS could restore the ability of cancer cells to be killed selectively using the natural process of apoptosis.

“ARTS-based cancer drugs could potentially change the treatment method of cancer worldwide,” Larisch tells NoCamels. “We have found that ARTS is particularly important for the death of defective stem cells. We therefore believe that ARTS-based drugs will specifically eliminate cancer stem cells (the cells that drive the growth of a tumor and are often resistant to chemotherapy or radiotherapy).

The therapy would also minimize common side-effects of conventional cancer treatment. “All currently available cancer drugs have unwanted side effects because they harm normal cells as well. In contrast, ARTS-based cancer drugs should only kill cancer cells because they act by specifically correcting the defect in their cell suicide program, caused by the loss of ARTS,” notes Dr. Larisch.

The article goes on to say that Dr. Larisch is seeking funding to develop anti-cancer drugs based on her research.

Meanwhile, another Israeli team, this one at Technion are working on a completely new method to reduce cholesterol and help reduce heart disease This team also prominently features a woman.

(h/t Jewess)

My 2010 Rosh Hashanah graphic gets ripped off

From EoZ, September 8, 2010:

From an ad in a Long Island Jewish newspaper, this week:

Hmmm.

Then again, it is possible that they didn't rip me off directly - but they got it from the Chabad of University of Western Ontario:

(To be fair, I probably got the apple and honey image from a random Google search as well this time. Other years I drew them myself. )

The UK's top foreign policy priority, and their "friendship" photo competition

From WAFA:

President Mahmoud Abbas starts Sunday a European tour with a four-day visit to Britain, a press release by the British Consulate in Jerusalem said on Friday.

Abbas is expected to meet with, among others, the British Prime Minister David Cameron, the deputy prime minister and the foreign secretary, William Hague.

Charg Ben Saoul, of the British Consulate in Jerusalem, expressed delight as Abbas’ upcoming trip to Britain.

“We are delighted to welcome President Abbas to the UK at this crucial time,’ he said.

“As the Foreign Secretary has repeatedly said, there is no more urgent UK foreign policy priority than resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and 2013 is a crucial year for progress.”

The same quote is in other news articles, although I couldn't find it on the British Consulate Jerusalem website.

It is telling that while the Middle East explodes, diplomats are still partying like its 1999.

By the way, the British Consulate Jerusalem site says that it is located in the "Occupied Palestinian Territories." It appears that its consular services are meant only for Arabs.

The site has a number of interesting articles. For example, the UK FCO is sponsoring a 'Let’s celebrate friendship' photo competition.

But is it looking for photos that show friendship between Jews and Arabs? No, of course not. The competition is "to search for the best images which demonstrate the friendship between the UK and the Palestinian people."

So where are the international photo competitions showing friendship between Jews and Arabs? Well, there aren't any. Because that would be "normalization with the enemy" and since the Arabs are against normal relations with Jews who live in the Middle East, it is better not to have outside parties interfere with their bigotry.

9/08 Links: Taking Back Jewish History, Hollywood's Silence on Syria, 'Spy' Stork Found Dead

From Ian:

Taking Back Our History

The Jewish people in the Middle East are a people under siege.
Aside from the perpetual violence leveled at the Jewish minority in the region, the Jewish people are also subject to the theft of our history. This is a theft that cannot be measured in financial terms. This is a theft that goes to the core of our humanity and our dignity as a people. It seeks, in fact, to eliminate us as a people.
For reasons which I find unfathomable, we are failing to place the Arab-Jewish conflict within the history of the Jews in the Middle East under thirteen centuries of Arab-Muslim persecution. The conflict between the vast Arab-Muslim majority and the tiny Jewish minority needs to be understood in just those terms. The Jews of the Middle East were a subjugated people since Muhammed’s armies marched out of the Saudi peninsula in the 7th century. From that day to this the Jews were considered dhimmis, second and third class citizens under the boot of Arab-Muslim imperialism.

Kotel Rabbi’s Horror at Temple Mount Riots

The world should condemn the Temple Mount riots that took place on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), says Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, Rabbi of the Kotel (Western Wall).
Several hundred Muslim youth rioted following Friday prayers. The riots ended only when police stormed the compound and arrested 15 people.
While the riot was confined to the Temple Mount itself, the rioters clearly meant to drive Jews away from the Kotel, which is adjacent, Rabbi Rabinovich accused.

EU delegation to mollify Israel over new settlement ban

In a news conference with visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry, Catherine Ashton said that the EU would not be rescinding the new directive, which last month prompted the Israeli government to declare it would sever a string of joint projects with the European body.
However, Ashton asserted, “We, of course, want to continue to have a strong relationship with Israel.” She said the EU would send a team to Israel on Monday to make sure the implementation of the ban is done “very sensitively.”

PMW: Palestinians are "noble" because "we only kill the Jews" - Refugee on PA TV

Israel spreads drugs among Palestinians - Ramallah Governor on PA TV VIDEO

Palestinian 'confesses' to Israel-backed plot to oust Hamas, return PA to Gaza

The “confession” came after Hamas said its security forces had arrested several Palestinians on suspicion of involvement with the new anti-Hamas Tamarod (“rebellion”) group.
The group has vowed to overthrow the Hamas regime the same way Egyptians got rid of president Mohamed Morsi.
The man, whose identity was not revealed, claimed that Israel, the Palestinian Authority and and some Arab countries were behind the plot. He did not name the Arab countries.

Egypt Shuts Down Rafiah Crossing After Sinai Crackdown

The Palestinian Authority’s crossings director, Maher Abu Sabha, told Ma'an that the crossing would be closed indefinitely following unrest in the Sinai peninsula.
Around 50 travelers managed to enter Egypt from Gaza on Saturday, Abu Sabha added.
At least 10 Islamist terrorists were killed as Egypt's army launched an air and ground assault on terrorists in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, security officials said.

Ex-MI Chief: Obama's Credibility at Stake

In an interview broadcast on Voice of Israel public radio Saturday evening, Yadlin said that if a strike against Syria fails to materialize, Obama will have difficulty persuading the world to take meaningful steps against Iran in the future.
Yadlin said that the aftermath of the incident in which chemical weapons were used in Syria shows us how difficult it is to receive approval for military action in the UN Security Council and the international community – even when there is proof of the use of weapons of mass destruction.
He estimated that Russian pressure may result in a diplomatic solution in which chemical weapons would be removed from Syria without military involvement. Yadlin added that the Russian ships sent to the Mediterranean in the last few days are mostly intelligence ships, and not warships.

UK tests on victims said to confirm sarin gas use in Syria

Victims of a deadly chemical attack in Syria last month were flown to Britain for tests that revealed traces of the deadly nerve gas sarin in their systems, a British newspaper said Sunday.

Chemical Weapons "Evidence" Revealed

CNN has aired footage from 13 short films shown by representatives of US President Obama to the American Senate, which apparently show the aftermath of chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime against civilians.

Volunteers to Serve as Human Shields in Syria

The British Telegraph said that Franklin Lamb, a lawyer recently appointed as the legal adviser for the group, said he had been "inundated" with requests from activists including from Canada, France, Italy, the US, and Britain.
The Syrian regime has not yet told the group whether it intends to let it enter the country.

Ed Asner Explains Hollywood Silence on Obama, Syria: They 'Don't Want to Feel Anti-Black'

While some conservatives see hypocrisy, [Mike] Farrell says that an all-out war in Iraq under Bush, a Republican who was very unpopular in Hollywood, was a much bigger deal than potential missile strikes against Syria under the direction of Obama, a Democrat who drew millions for his campaigns from showbiz industry donors.

Syria crisis: al-Qaeda seizes village that still speaks the ancient language of Christ

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, rebel groups, a mix of the extremist Jabhat al-Nusra and the more moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA), attacked with full force.
"First they took a brick factory owned by a Christian guy, who is now missing," said the resident. "Then at around 5.30am, a car bomb detonated at the checkpoint at the entrance to the village.
"Some of the rebels entered a home near the checkpoint belonging to Yousef Haddad, a Christian. They tried to force him to convert to Islam."
A nun living in a convent in the village told the Associated press that 27 orphans living in the convent were taken to nearby caves for shelter.

In south Egypt, Islamists take over a town

A town of some 120,000 — including 20,000 Christians — Dalga has been outside government control since hard-line supporters of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi drove out police and occupied their station on July 3, the day Egypt's military chief removed the president in a popularly supported coup. It was part of a wave of attacks in the southern Minya province that targeted Christians, their homes and businesses.
Since then, the radicals have imposed their grip on Dalga, twice driving off attempts by the army to send in armored personnel carriers by showering them with gunfire.

Stork Detained as Spy in Egypt Found Dead

A stork once detained by Egyptian authorities on suspicion of being a winged spy has been found dead.
Mahmoud Hassib, the head of Egypt's southern protected areas, said Saturday that local residents found the dead bird on an island in the Nile, south of the ancient city of Aswan.

Defense expert: ‘Strike or diplomatic solution on Iran likely within 12 months’

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Nuriel, a research associate at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, and a former director of the Counter- Terrorism Bureau, spoke before the ICT’s World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, which will begin in Herzliya on Sunday.
“My assessment is that the coming year will see a milestone in the international efforts against Iran’s nuclear program. It will either take the form of offensive actions, or an agreement with Iran.
The year cannot pass without activities that will significantly change the arena,” Nuriel said.

Report: Obama ‘Vetoed’ Israeli Strike on Iran

Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser to the Israeli government and a retired Major General in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), told the Israeli press that Obama “vetoed” the strike, which was planned to take place at the height of the 2012 election cycle.
“Israel has the capability to destroy the Iranian nuclear program” and was prepared to do so, Eiland was quoted as saying in a private meeting earlier this month, according to the Israeli paper Mida.
However, top White House officials “pressured” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the attack on Iranian nuclear sites, according to Eiland.

Netanyahu dismisses Iran’s Rosh Hashanah greetings

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening shrugged off Rosh Hashanah wishes conveyed by Iranian officials on social media earlier in the week, saying Tehran would be judged on actions, not words.
“I am not impressed by [holiday] greetings coming from a regime that only last week threatened to destroy Israel,” the prime minister said, referring to threats by Iran to retaliate against Israel for an American military strike against the Assad regime following its alleged chemical weapons use.

It’s also Holocaust denial

Iran’s Foreign Minister confirms there was a Holocaust and denies it’s significance for Jews in one short statement.
The world’s media has now realised a tweet wishing Jews a happy Rosh Hashona (new year) was not actually from an account controlled by Iran’s new president. They just couldn’t help themselves but want to believe it.
Now they’re reporting that Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who really is on Twitter and Facebook, has also wished Jews “Happy Rosh Hashanah”.

France: Candidate Barred for Burning Israel Flag

France's far-right Front National has suspended one of its local government election candidates after he posted a burning Israeli flag on his Facebook page.
The image posted by FN activist Francois Chatelain was accompanied by the words: "Here, this is France" and was condemned as anti-Semitic by Gerald Darmanin, a center-right deputy in the National Assembly.

Knesset to erect solar energy panels on roof

A plan to install photovoltaic panels for the generation of electricity on the Israeli parliament building’s roof is moving ahead and the project is expected to be up and running in 2014. According to a report in Globes, the Knesset will become one of the of the world’s first legislatures to generate its own electricity.

New bone-growing treatment accelerates healing

Meet Rosa. She’s a much-loved St. Bernard dog who was hit by a car and suffered severely broken bones. She may not have survived the trauma had she not gotten a new bone-growing treatment from Israel.
Rosa is one of the 200 pets in the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, Germany and the UK that have been treated with BoneCure, developed by the Israeli company RegeneCure.
BoneCure is a unique artificial membrane rolled into a sleeve by veterinary surgeons, encasing the space where lost bone should grow. It is the only solution of its kind on the market, the company says.

PFLP/Hamas squabble; Hamas paranoia increases

Terror groups tried to put together a show of unity against Israel, but Hamas had another agenda. From Ma'an:

The armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was "disappointed" by Hamas fighters' show of support for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood during a military march in Gaza, it said Friday.

The DFLP fighters, the National Resistance Brigades, said signs waved by Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades fighters did not reflect the DFLP's position.

The military march of Palestinian factions in the northern Gaza Strip was intended to respond to Israel's occupation and the ongoing threats against the enclave, the National Resistance Brigades said in a statement.

The march was not intended to express interference in Egypt's internal affairs, the group added.

The National Resistance Brigades said it would remain committed to a policy of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of any Arab country. There is a Palestinian consensus on that policy, and the DFLP will adhere to that consensus, the statement said.

The armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, withdrew from the march because Hamas fighters raised signs in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"In a meeting between all the military wings of all resistance movements in the Gaza Strip, it was agreed to organize a march, and hold a press conference for all Palestinian military wings that aimed to highlight the unity of resistance against the occupation," the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said in a statement.

PFLP fighters were "surprised" that Hamas fighters raised signs to support the Muslim Brotherhood, the PFLP brigades said, adding that the act did not benefit national unity.

Here is video of the rally. The terror groups look to be anything but disciplined.

Hamas members towards the end holding up four fingers are referring to Egypt's attack on a Muslim Brotherhood rally.

Meanwhile, I am seeing lots of videos of Egyptians on TV hurling insults at Hamas. The organization has really reached its lowest point since it started.

Hamas is turning even more paranoid. From the Al Qassam Brigades website:

Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza said that it discovered a plot against the Strip that targets political figures and aims to stir up unrest, and confirmed arresting some elements involved in the plot.

The spokesman for the ministry Islam Shahwan said on Friday during a press conference held in Gaza “we have recently spotted suspicious movements of some individuals planning to shake the stability on the home front,”

"As they were put under surveillance and then held by the security services, they turned out to have collaborated with Israel’s Mossad," he confirmed.

He said that those elements were interrogated and they made serious confessions about the plot that aims to create chaos is Gaza, and added that the confessions revealed that the parties involved in the plot include Israeli intelligence services, and Intelligence Service and Preventive Security Service of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, along with other Arab Intelligence Services.

Yes, Arab countries, the PLO and Israel are all secretly colluding to take down Hamas!

Arab woman forced to withdraw from Israeli feminist party because of threats

YNet Hebrew reports that an Arab woman was forced to withdraw her candidacy in a new pan-Israeli women's political party because of threats.

The party, Ometz Lev (Courage,) was founded by Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur and Councilwoman Edna Friedman to push for women's rights. They intended to include all sectors of Israeli feminist society in the party including Arab and Hareidi women.

When they registered and had to reveal the names of the candidates on their slate, the east Jerusalem Arab woman's name was included. And then the threats started.

"It started with telephone calls to my home," says the woman. "[The calls] warned me that running for election is to acknowledge the sovereignty of Israel over the east (part of the city) and it will end badly. "

Ultimately, she says, her family pressured her to remove her candidacy. "We need you alive," said her relatives, and she gave up the idea.

(Meanwhile, Ometz Lev - which is still searching for a proper Haredi candidate - had to allow men who are pro-feminist to join the party in order not to run foul of Israeli anti-discrimination laws!)

(h/t sshender)

Non-sequitur of the day: "Mideast turmoil pushes PLO/Israel peace process"

Reuters writes:

Turmoil in Syria and Egypt is nudging Israelis and Palestinians toward peace, a U.S. official said on Friday as Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Europe for talks about that conflict and a possible U.S. strike on Syrian targets.

A senior U.S. State Department official said Syria’s civil war, as well as upheaval in Egypt, whose army ousted Islamist Mohamed Mursi, its first freely elected president, gives Israelis and Palestinians an incentive to end their conflict.

“Both sides have made clear to us and to each other that they do not want the turmoil to engulf them and that therefore it motivates them to try to resolve their conflict to prevent that from happening,” the official told reporters with Kerry.

Right now, the PA security forces and the IDF manage to keep the Islamists at bay in the West Bank. If there would be a Palestinian Arab state, however, the IDF couldn't help any more and the chances for an Egyptian or Tunisian-style Islamist revolution would increase. Unlike in Egypt, there is little enthusiasm for the PA security forces' pre-emptive arrests of Islamists in most of the territories.

As I have noted, right now there is more stability in Israel and the territories than there has ever been since the first intifada. There is zero evidence that a "peace agreement" would continue that. The status quo is exactly what is keeping the turmoil out!

And, of course, there is that little sector called Gaza that shows what (democratically elected) Islamist-ruled Palestinian areas would look like.

Maybe this official is trying to spin the facts, or maybe Israeli and PLO officials are telling the Americans what they want to hear. But the statement as quoted is nonsensical.

Anyone worried about the PLO-controlled areas turning into Syria should be against "peace talks."

Iran's PressTV curiously obsessed with Prince Charles' yarmulka

Last week, Prince Charles attended a ceremony welcoming Britian's new chief rabbi, and he wore a velvet kippah with his official crest.

This made Iran's PressTV go on an interesting antisemitic conspiracy theory rant.

Britain’s Prince Charles has raised eyebrows, attending the induction ceremony of UK’s new chief Rabbi while wearing a Jewish skullcap.

Aside from snatching the title of the first British royal to attend the inaugural of a chief rabbi, the heir to the British throne put on display his most explicit ever show of allegiance with the jews, wearing a yarmulke adorned with the Prince of Wales’s official emblem of feathers.

The new chief rabbi Ephraim Mervis took over the top position on Sunday.

This is not the first time the royal skullcap has made appearances as Charles has worn it at various other Jewish related events and ceremonies.

The British royal family has close ties with the Zionist regime of Israel and the Israeli-supported Jewish groups in Britain.

In one such of show of those ties before Charles’s recent stunt, the regime’s president Shimon Peres sent Charles’s son William and his wife a blue outfit for their newborn son back in July, with the message “From Israel with love” printed on the shirt.

British royals have also a tradition of having their baby boys circumcised by a Mohel, which is the Jewish word for a circumcision practitioner. Charles himself was one of those babies.

This is while, there are also huge speculations about vast covert links between British royals and the Israeli regime, which include reports of joint financial and political interests and go as far as drawing a Jewish lineage for the royals.

The speculations are rarely based on concrete evidence as the royals keep their true relations to Jews secret, but as popular historian Simon Sebag Montefiore says, “historically the British royal family has had a very friendly relationship with the Jewish community”.

Well, that's all the proof I need!

The comments show how much most PressTV readers hate Jews as well.

(h/t Ian)

9/07 Links: Israel – The happiest country on Earth?, Arab Countries Offered to Pay for Syria Invasion

From Ian:

Israel – The happiest country on Earth?

Have you ever googled “most hated country in the world”? As you can imagine, Israel ranks as one of the highest, right next to North Korea and Iran. Let’s face it, in some circles our Jewish country is just not that popular. Yet, if you research the happiest country in the world, Israel tops the list.
An article published by The Asia Times reads, “Envy surrounds no country on Earth like the state of Israel, and with good reason: by objective measures, Israel is the happiest nation on Earth.... It is one of the wealthiest, freest and best-educated; and it enjoys a higher life expectancy than Germany or the Netherlands. But most remarkable is that Israelis appear to love life and hate death more than any other nation.”
Take a minute and think about that. Picture that from above. Israel is geographically engulfed by countries that are hell-bent on destroying her, constantly radiating negativity or actively attempting to kill her civilians. With all that hostility aimed at the Jewish state, Israelis are walking the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem the happiest people in the world. It’s absolutely remarkable.

Majority of Israelis support freedom of religion, marriage

According to Hiddush, an Israeli NGO advocating freedom of religion and equality, 83 percent of Jewish respondents to a survey said they support “freedom of religion,” and 61% advocated for the complete separation of religion and state.
The study, titled “The Religion and State Index,” was conducted for Hiddush by the Rafi Smith Polling Institute among 800 adult Jewish respondents who are representative of the adult Jewish Israeli population. It was published Tuesday ahead of the Jewish New Year.

15 arrested on Temple Mount after violent clashes

Palestinian youths at the site began an onslaught of stone-throwing at officers on Friday morning, Israel Police said.
No injuries were reported, as police used stun grenades to quell the riot and let worshipers leave the site.
On Wednesday, 15 people were arrested ahead of the Jewish New Year after they threw stones and clashed with police at site. Police also stopped several buses carrying some 100 Muslim worshipers from accessing the site on suspicion that they intended to cause disturbances. There were no reports of injuries.

Alan M. Dershowitz Assad Is Adopting Hamas "Dead Baby" Strategy

When Hamas employed this dead baby strategy against Israel, it was a resounding success. Despite the fact that Hamas deliberately fired rockets from schoolyards, hospitals and densely populated civilian areas, the international community blamed Israel for trying to prevent rockets from attacking its civilians by targeting the rockets and occasionally killing civilians. It was Israel, rather than Hamas, that was accused of "war crimes," even though it is clearly a war crime to use civilians as human shields. Israel had little choice but to protect its own citizens against rocket attacks, but the world focused not on the moral correctness of Israel's decisions, but rather on the gruesome pictures of dead Palestinians babies, even though some of them were actually caused by errant Palestinian rockets.

Khaled Abu Toameh Fatah Wants Egypt To Overthrow Hamas

As the Egyptian army continues to demolish houses and smuggling tunnels, Fatah leaders in the West Bank are hoping that they will soon be able to return to the Gaza Strip.
At one time, Fatah leaders had hopes that Israel would overthrow Hamas through military force. Now, they are hoping that the new rulers of Egypt will do the job.
Beleaguered Hamas officials claim that the Palestinian Tamarod group is operated and trained by Egypt's General Intelligence Service and Fatah, with the goal of toppling their regime in the Gaza Strip. Hamas security forces have detained several Palestinian activists and journalists as part of an effort to crush the new group.

Egypt’s anti-Morsi movement meets with Gaza’s anti-Hamas group

“The meeting sought to transfer experiences and mechanisms of Egypt’s Tamarod to the Gaza Strip,” said Mahmoud Badr, the leader of the group.
The meeting took place in Cairo on Wednesday evening.
“Tamarod is a revolutionary movement struggling against injustice and despotism everywhere and in every place. This experience is feasible against all dictatorships,” Badr highlighted.

Gaza fuel shortage may cause power plant shut down

For the second time in a week, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip warned Thursday that the Palestinian territory’s sole power plant is liable to shut down entirely in the coming days because of a fuel shortage.
Gaza’s energy authority published a statement saying that the fuel shortage has reached such severity that it may precipitate “a humanitarian disaster,” Israel Radio reported.

Hamas TV to broadcast from Copenhagen

He added that their relationship with Al-Aqsa was “strictly professional”.
“We have decided to keep working for Al-Aqsa as long as what they report is in line with our viewpoint,” al Maimouni said. “If they try to move their content into a political direction that we do not agree with, we will decline.”
In 2008, Al-Aqsa aired an episode of the children's programme 'The Pioneers of Tomorrow', in which the show's large pink rabbit Assud promoted the killing of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and said he would "bite and eat" Danes if they insulted the prophet Mohammed again.

Obama says US cannot turn ‘blind eye’ in Syria

The president said that the United States cannot “turn a blind eye” to the images coming out of Syria following a reported chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime in a Damascus suburb on August 21. The US estimates that 1,429 people were killed in that attack.
“The US has presented a powerful case to the world that the Syrian government is responsible for this horrific attack on its own people,” the president said.
“This was not only a direct attack on human dignity, it’s a serious threat to our national security.”

Israeli policy statement supports Obama on Syria

Shortly after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee concluded a lengthy session debating the approval of a retaliatory strike, Oren released an official statement in which he said that “Israel agrees with President Obama that the use of chemical weapons is a ‘heinous act’ for which the Assad regime must be held accountable and for which there must be ‘international consequences.’ Israel further agrees with the President that the use of chemical weapons promotes the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and encourages ‘governments who would choose to build nuclear arms.’”
In his statement, Oren quoted Obama’s exact language to emphasize Jerusalem’s support for the American president’s position.

US notes yearlong escalation of chemical weapons use in Syria

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the administration knew of at least 11 incidents where Assad used chemical weapons even before the August attack, which is more than double the number the US had previously divulged.
But the administration did not go public with the information, saying that it believed Assad used chemical weapons only in April this year, a month after a March sarin attack in Syria went awry and also killed government troops.
“The president didn’t believe it was a compelling enough case to win the support of the American people and the world,” Kerry told lawmakers when he was asked why the US didn’t push for military action in April.

Kerry: Arab Countries Have Offered to Pay for Syria Invasion

Secretary of State John Kerry said Arab countries have offered to pay for a full invasion of Syria to oust President Bashar Assad.
“With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes,” Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing Wednesday, according to The Washington Post. “They have. That offer is on the table.”

Report: Hezbollah Admitted that Assad Was Behind Chemical Attack

Participants at a confidential meeting of German lawmakers on Monday said the head of the BND foreign intelligence agency told them it had intercepted a phone call believed to be between a high-ranking member of Hezbollah and the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.
"The BND referred to a phone call they had heard between a Hezbollah official and the Iranian embassy in which he spoke about Assad having ordered the attack," one of the participants told Reuters on Wednesday.
In the phone call, the Hezbollah official says Assad's order for the attack was a mistake and that he was losing his nerve, the participants reported the BND briefing as saying.

Assad: Syria has received Russian missiles

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Thursday that he is “confident in victory” in his country’s civil war, and he warned that Damascus would retaliate for any future Israeli airstrike on his territory.
Assad also told the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar that Russia has fulfilled some of its weapons contracts recently, but he was vague on whether this included advanced S-300 air defense systems.

U.N. Ambassador: U.S. Thought Iran Wouldn’t Tolerate Syria Using Chemical Weapons

United Nations ambassador Samantha Power spoke on Friday to the Center for American Progress, continuing the Obama administration’s attempts to win over more liberals for Syrian military strikes. In laying out a more humanitarian argument for intervention, Power spoke of all the non-military tactics the United States attempted beforehand, revealing that they were hoping the U.N. would be able to come up with a report on Syria’s use of chemical weapons that would “convince Russia or Iran… to cast loose” Syria.

Iran threatens brutal attacks on Americans, Obama family if US hits Syria

And in an unprecedented statement, a former Iranian official has warned of mass abductions and brutal killings of American citizens around the world and the rape and killing of one of Obama’s daughters should the United States attack Syria.
Alireza Forghani, the former governor of southern Iran’s Kish Province, threw down the gauntlet last week. Forghani is an analyst and strategy specialist in the supreme leader’s camp and closely aligned with Mehdi Taeb, who heads the regime’s Ammar Strategic Base, a radical think thank, and thus speaks with the blessing of the Islamic regime.

Egypt interior minister warns of new wave of terror after assassination attempt

A bomb targeted the convoy of Egypt’s interior minister Thursday in Cairo in the first attack on a senior government official since the country’s Islamist president was toppled in a coup two months ago, raising concerns over a possible campaign of violence by his supporters.
The assassination attempt against Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police force, signaled the arrival in the capital of the sort of insurgency-style attacks that have been escalating in the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt moves to dissolve Brotherhood NGO – reports

Egypt's army-backed government will dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood as a non-governmental organisation within days, a newspaper reported on Friday, a move that would press a crackdown on deposed President Mohamed Mursi's movement.
The move applies to the NGO registered by the Brotherhood in March in response to a lawsuit that argued the group had no legal status. It would mark a mostly symbolic legal blow to Mursi's group as the authorities round up its members in the harshest crackdown in decades.

Video shows two men firing RPGs at ship transiting Suez Canal

The video carries a logo featuring a black Islamist flag and the name of the "al-Firqan Brigade". It shows two men, dressed in civilian clothes, firing RPGs into the side of the ship, where they explode.
The ship carries the name "COSCO" on its side and appears to match pictures of the reported target of the attack, the Panamanian-registered Cosco Asia. (h/t Yoel)

Daphne Anson: Charlie Is Whose Darling?

On Thursday, the website of Iran's satellite propaganda channel Press TV dwelt upon the apparently sinister fact that Prince Charles attended the installation ceremony of the new Chief Rabbi of Britain's Orthodox Jews, Ephraim Mirvis, and, moreover, wore a kippa, or "a yarmulke," as the report described it.
Press TV is a harbinger of conspiracy theories to do with Jews and Zionists, of course, and the clear inference from the report is that Britain's Royals are in the pocket of Da Joos, even if, as I've lamented previously, the Queen, who succeeded to the throne in 1952 and has visited most major ountries, has, like Charles himself, never set foot in Israel!

Plans unveiled for Munich Olympics memorial

Wednesday’s news conference at the Bavarian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs announcing plans for the memorial took place a day before a ceremony in Israel marking the 41st anniversary of the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.
The planned hall of remembrance is slated to be built near the site that housed the games and will cost 1.7 million euros (approximately $2.25 million). It will allow visitors to learn about the events and the victims — 11 Israeli athletes and coaches along with the police officer — as well as to view the site of the the failed rescue attempt at the Furstenfeldbruck airfield. Ultimately the airport’s tower will be included in the memorial.
The memorial is scheduled to be completed by 2016.

Israeli drip system pioneer honored with top water prize

Netafim, the Israeli company that invented drip irrigation, has been awarded what is considered the most prestigious honor in the world of water conservation and protection, the Stockholm Industry Water Award.
Netafim won the prize for “directly contributing to a more water and food secure world,” the award committee said. It’s a commercial enterprise, but one with a heart, the committee said — a company that has managed to figure out a way to expand and profit while having a truly positive impact on the developing world.

Conservative, pro-Israel candidate wins Aussie election

The Liberal Party’s election victory may signal a strengthening of ties between Canberra and Jerusalem. Abbot told reporters last month that the last two Labor governments had not maintained Australia’s strong relationship with the Jewish state, something he said he aimed to fix, according to the Australian Associated Press.
“There’s been a bit of wobbling under the current government but I would expect our standard rock-solid friendship with Israel to resume should the coalition win the election,” he said. ”I’m a friend of Israel — always have been, always will be.”

!Shana Tova u'Metuka שנה טובה ומתוקה!

I would like to wish all my readers a happy and sweet New Year. May this be a year of health, a year of prosperity, a year of joy, a year of peace, and a year of security - and a better year than last year.