Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

01/14 Links Pt2: What the EU Does with Your Money, Scarlett Johansson Behind The Scenes Video

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: What the EU Does with Your Money

There are many ways in which the EU displays a casual disregard for its distribution of taxpayers' money. But one of the most outrageous ways by far – with some very stiff competition – is the way in which the EU wastes taxpayers' money by giving huge lumps of it in aid to the Palestinian Authority [PA]. The laxity with which this is done and the uses to which much of that money is put highlights a problem which ought to make even the EU blush – and any decent taxpayer rebel.
Ignorance can be no excuse. In recent years a number of organizations and individuals have persistently highlighted the manner in which EU funding has been used to facilitate hate-materials and hate-teaching in Palestinian schools. Foremost among the organizations that have highlighted this has been Palestinian Media Watch [PMW], which has systematically and carefully collected and translated for wider English-speaking consumption the sort of language that is used routinely in the education sectors in Palestinian society. And as in the schools, so in the media. For EU money is also used to fund various Palestinian media outfits. And the diet of hatred they spew out is the stuff of legend. For instance, there is the aid money that goes to television stations such as that which PMW recently showed to be broadcasting material describing Jews as "rats" and "crows."

The Ideology and Rhetoric Behind the ASA Boycott

For many radicals in academia, Israel has become the scapegoat of convenience on which they heap all the alleged sins of West: imperialism, colonialism, sexism, racism, apartheid and whatever else an offended group can dredge up. For some that is not enough. Several of the ASA boycott advocates deny that Israel is a democracy and even apply the term "totalitarian" to Israel, implicitly lumping it with other totalitarian states, like Nazi Germany. As Cary Nelson, concludes, "The fundamental goal of the boycott is not the peaceful coexistence of two states, one Jewish and one Palestinian, but rather the elimination of Israel." The academic boycott attempts to provide intellectual cover.

US lawmakers rail against academic boycott of Israel

Over four dozen members of Congress have signed a bipartisan letter blasting a decision earlier this month by the American Studies Association to participate in an academic boycott of Israel.
In the letter, circulated by Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Doug Collins (R-GA) and Bradley Schneider (D-IL), the representatives stated that “while ASA has every right to express its views on policies pursued by any nation or government, we believe that the decision to blacklist Israeli academic institutions for Israeli government policies with which ASA disagrees demonstrates a blatant disregard for academic freedom.”

US ambassador to Jordan dances the Dabke, upsetting Islamists

From Al Arabiya:

Jordan’s Islamists on Monday criticized the U.S. ambassador in Amman for taking part in a dabke folk dance at the inauguration of a project, describing it as “shocking behavior.”

Following the opening of a $140 million (100 million euro) US-funded project in the northern governorate of Irbid last Thursday, envoy Stuart E. Jones joined officials and women in dancing a Jordanian dabke.

“It was shocking behavior for Jordanians who know very well that America and the Zionist entity (Israel) are two sides of the same coin,” the opposition Islamic Action Front party, the political arm of the kingdom’s Muslim Brotherhood, said in a statement.

“We condemn such actions in our villages, and demand the government make sure diplomats adhere to their roles.”

Performed at weddings, parties and similar occasions, Dabke is a traditional dance in Arab countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey as well as Israel and the Palestinian territories.

It has many versions, but generally dancers form a line facing an audience, hold hands, slightly lift their left feet and stamp to traditional music.

The U.S. embassy has said the five-year project in Irbid seeks to “support the rule of law, citizen engagement and participation, and civil society across the kingdom.”

Jordan, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, is one of Washington’s key allies in the region and a major beneficiary of U.S. military and economic aid.

It looks like Jones is not exactly dancing alone. One can assume he was dancing with other diplomats. So why didn't the Islamists complain about the other dancers? Why is an American dancing an Arab dance so "shocking?"

The answer is that they just want to criticize Americans no matter what. If he would have declined to dance, they would have said that he is acting like Arab dances are beneath him.

Former Egyptian minister on TV: Jews control the world, just read the "Protocols!"

From MEMRI:

In a January 10, 2014 interview on the Egyptian Sada Al-Balad TV, former Egyptian housing minister Hasaballah El Kafrawy said that he had read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and believed that the Jews "rule the world." In the past, El Kafrawi has expressed similar views (see MEMRI TV clip 3745 at www.memritv.org).

Following are excerpts the interview:

Interviewer: What made the Muslim Brotherhood turn into a hostile terrorist organization that throws Molotov cocktails? It has reached the point that even their women beat people up in the streets, and so on. Have they gone made, or what?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Let me tell you, I believe that there is a conspiracy. I have read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You follow me? According to The Protocols, one of the methods... By the way, there are 16 million Jews in the world.

Interviewer: That is the total number?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: There are 16 million Jews in the world, out of a total of 6,000 million people.

Interviewer: Only 16 million of them are Jews...

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Only 16 million out of 6,000 million. Those 16 control the 6,000.

Interviewer: The 16 million rule the 6,000 million?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: That goes without saying. When you read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, written in Basel, Switzerland, in 1895, you can see that it is all mentioned there.

Interviewer: Including what's happening to us?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Yes. Have you forgotten Morsi's letter to what's-his-name...?

Interviewer: Do you mean his "dear friend" Peres?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Right. He addressed him as "dear friend" and signed it with "your loyal friend."

Interviewer: He wrote that he wished progress and prosperity upon Israel.

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Exactly.

Out of the 16 million Jews, six million live in Israel, four or five million live in the U.S., two or three million in Britain, two or three million in France, and approximately one million in what they call "the Diaspora" around the world.

They rule the world. There is no doubt about it. They monopolize... They excel in science, in technology, in the economy, and in the media.

They use the non-Jewish fools, and have them fight to prevent a holocaust of the 16 million Jews.

Report: Egypt will withdraw citizenship from Hamas leaders

Reuters reports:

After crushing the Muslim Brotherhood at home, Egypt's military rulers plan to undermine the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the neighboring Gaza Strip, senior Egyptian security officials told Reuters.

The aim, which the officials say could take years to pull off, includes working with Hamas's political rivals Fatah and supporting popular anti-Hamas activities in Gaza, four security and diplomatic officials said.

Intelligence operatives, with help from Hamas's political rivals and activists, plan to undermine the credibility of Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war against the Fatah movement led by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the Egyptian officials, Hamas will face growing resistance by activists who will launch protests similar to those in Egypt that have led to the downfall of two presidents since the Arab Spring in 2011. Cairo plans to support such protests in an effort to cripple Hamas.

"Gaza is next," said one senior security official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "We cannot get liberated from the terrorism of the Brotherhood in Egypt without ending it in Gaza, which lies on our borders."

Really? Countries that border Gaza can say that Hamas is a terror group without derision?

It is worth reading the whole thing. This is a surprisingly good piece of reporting by Reuters.

Anyway, there have been a steady stream of anti-Hamas articles in the Egyptian media for months. The latest report says that Hamas leaders who received Egyptian citizenship recently - because of Egypt enforcing a law that children of Egyptian mothers can become citizens - will have their citizenship revoked.

These leaders include Mahmoud Zahar and Abu Marzouk.

In general, with the exception of Jordan in 1950, Palestinians in the Arab world were denied citizenship because of an Arab League directive #1547 from 1959 discouraging its member states from granting citizenship to Palestinians "in order to preserve the Palestinian entity and Palestinian identity." Egypt will reportedly review all the thousands of Gazans who flocked to become Egyptian citizens in the past two years and consider withdrawing citizenship from them as well.

For the good of "Palestine," of course.

At the moment no major human rights groups demand that Arab countries allow Palestinians to become citizens if they choose. On the contrary - they insist that the Palestinians remain stateless. Which shows you to what extent they will ignore human rights when they want to.

Will they protest Egypt's possible withdrawal of Gazans' citizenship? Or will they agree with the Arab League that "preserving Palestinian identity" is a more important concept than human rights are?

It will be interesting to see if they say anything.

01/14 Links Pt1: Iranian FM Honors American-Murdering Hezbollah Terrorist, Abbas's '3 noes'

From Ian:

Ya'alon criticized for reportedly calling Kerry 'obsessive, messianic'

The office of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday would neither confirm nor deny comments attributed to him calling US Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive” and “messianic.”
“Abu Mazen lives and dies by our sword,” Ya’alon is quoted as saying by Yedioth. “Once we leave Judea and Samaria, he is finished. In effect, during these past months, there haven’t been negotiations with the Palestinians, but with the Americans.”

Abbas defiant in speech of '3 noes'

In a speech reminiscent of the 1967 Khartoum Resolution, in which the Arab League stated what is now known as the "three noes" -- no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it -- Abbas further stated that the Jordan Valley was an integral part of a Palestinian state.
Abbas made these statements despite the fact that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations are at a sensitive stage.

Jeopardizing Deal, Palestinians to Approach UN for Statehood

The PLO leadership on Monday night announced that it is in the process of putting together a plan for the Palestinian Authority to join international organizations under UN direction, as well as sign international conventions, Israel Radio reports.
The plan is being devised by the PLO political committee, on instructions from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
When the current peace negotiations began, some seven months ago, the Palestinians committed to delay approaching international organizations for recognition, in return for the release of 104 terrorists from Israeli jails.
That one worked out nicely.

"Israel's actions 1000 times worse than Holocaust" and other Arab media Jew-hatred

Here are some of the antisemitic articles in Arab media today. And when I say "today" I mean that literally - not the past month or the past week, but all published within the past day.

JordanZad has an op-ed that asserts that how Israel treats Palestinian Arabs is a thousand times worse than any persecution Jews or anyone else has ever suffered. Hitler, you see, allowed some Jews to live, but Israel's assault is against the entire Palestinian people, which have somehow grown by a factor of twelve since Israel was reborn. The article also talks about how Judaism is corrupt, the Torah is a fabrication, and Jews use the Holocaust as an excuse to perform genocide themselves.

Al Muslim admits that Syria has killed more Arabs than Israel has, but it still insists that "The record of the Jews is black and full of massacres and crimes against the Palestinians through history by committing crimes which the world had never seen or heard of in history ideals; the crimes of the Jews is a history stained with the blood of the Palestinians."

Al Ankabout has a fairly long and generic article describing how the Illuminati control the world, but of course the Jewish angle is not ignored. \

An article accuses the Muslim Brotherhood of being close to the Jews, adapting the idea of being "God's chosen people." Former Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan also tweeted how close the Muslim Brotherhood is to the Jews, based on that diplomatic letter Morsi wrote to Shimon Peres last year.

Hezbollah's Al Manar claims that the constitutions of all Arab Spring countries, like Egypt, Tunisia and Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, is being written by the Mossad through an American jewish lawyer, Noah Feldman. (Feldman was part of a team that drafted Iraq's constitution; the rest of the claims seem to be made up.) The article makes a big deal over Feldman's Jewishness, noting that he went to the Maimonides school in Boston before marrying a Christian. Feldman, by the way, seems to be an Islamophile and has written that Sharia-based laws aren't really so bad.

Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh called to expand the existing program of giving military training in high schools to include girls as well.

He said, "We have trained police and national security to oversee the training of girls to follow the path of istishadiyyat (female suicide bombers)."

Speaking at a graduation ceremony, Haniyeh also praised the Al Qassam Brigades and the Interior Ministry for spearheading the boys' military training.

The Goldstone Report clung to the fiction that the Al Qassam Brigades as being a separate organization from Hamas.

Here is one of the high school boys being taught the basics: reading, writing and RPGs.

(h/t Ibn Boutros for translation of istishadiyyat.)

Turkish police raid IHH offices in anti-terror dragnet

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Turkish police confiscating items from IHH

Police have conducted a raid on the branch of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH) in the southern city of Kilis.

Security units, which were allegedly anti-terror police coming from the eastern province of Van, have been searching the main office of the İHH and its depot since 6.30 a.m.

It was claimed that the Kilis governor and the Police Department had no information about the raid and the operation launched by the order of the Van Public Prosecutors' Office.

The raid is part of simultaneous operations against al-Qaeda in six provinces including Istanbul, Van, Kilis, Adana, Gaziantep and Kayseri, daily Hürriyet reported.

Three people have been detained by anti-terror police in Bağcılar, Fatih and Küçükçekmece districts in the Istanbul leg of the operation. The suspects were sent to Van, according to the reports.

IHH released a statement denying any terror ties.

The IHH is the group that tried to send terror supporters to Gaza on the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010.

(h/t Joel B)

Iranian media reveals the US-Nazi-Alien axis

OMG. WTF?. ROFL. From FARS News:

FARS' illustration

Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed documents providing incontrovertible proof that an alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda is driving US domestic and international policy, and has been doing so since at least 1945, some media reports said.

A stunning Federal Security Services (FSB) report on the nearly two million highly classified top-secret documents obtained from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) run National Security Agency-Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) by the American ex-patriot Edward Snowden states that this information is providing “incontrovertible proof” that an “alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda” is driving US domestic and international policy, and has been doing so since at least 1945, Whatdoesitmean.com reported.

Just for context, here are the top headlines at WhatDoesItMean.com today:

The site also discusses a secret Ashkenazic Jewish women's organization that has been ruling the world since the 13th century.

...In Snowden’s own words, this report continues, he outlined to Greenwald the reason for his highly secretive group obtaining and releasing these documents by warning that that there “were actually two governments in the US, the one that was elected, and the other, secret regime, governing in the dark.”

As to who is running this “secret regime” Snowden and his cohorts were warning about, FSB experts in this report say, was confirmed this past weekend by former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer who was given access to all of Snowden’s documents by Russian intelligence services and stated they were, indeed, “accurate.”

Even though Defense Minister Hellyer’s exact statements to the FSB in regards to Snowden’s documents remain classified, shortly after his “extensive electronic interview” by the FSB he was allowed to appear on Russia Today’s program SophieCo this past fortnight where he shockingly admitted that aliens have “been visiting our planet for thousands of years” and described several types of these extraterrestrials, including “Tall Whites” who are working with the US Air Force in Nevada.

Of the many explosive revelations in this FSB report, the one most concerning to Russian authorities are the Snowden’s documents “confirming” that the “Tall Whites” (further revealed by Defense Minister Hellyer as noted above) are the same extraterrestrial alien race behind the stunning rise of Nazi Germany during the 1930’s.

In just one example of the many outlined in this FSB report, it shows that with this “alien assistance,” at the end of the 1930’s, when Nazi Germany possessed just 57 submarines, over the four years of World War II it built 1,163 modern technologically advanced submarines at its dockyards and even put them into operation.

Snowden’s documents further confirm, this report says, the “Tall Whites” (Nordic) meetings in 1954 with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower where the “secret regime” currently ruling over America was established.

Most disturbingly, this FSB report warns, is that the “Tall White” agenda being implemented by the “secret regime” ruling the United States calls for the creation of a global electronic surveillance system meant to hide all true information about their presence here on earth as they enter into what one of Snowden’s documents calls the “final phase” of their end plan for total assimilation and world rule.

Unbeknownst to the FSB, this report confirms, are those still in the US government backing Snowden, but whose presence Russian intelligence experts note is “unmistakable” and shows a cataclysmic power struggle is currently underway against this “secret regime” now headed by Obama by “forces unknown.”

Most to be feared by Russian policy makers and authorities, this report concludes, is if those opposing the “Tall White” “secret regime” ruled over by Obama have themselves aligned with another alien-extraterrestrial power themselves.

Hellyer has been pushing UFO conspiracy theories for decades. He really was Canada's Defense Minister in the early 1960s, but since losing his bid to head Canada's Liberal Party he's turned into a real crackpot. Here's his Russia Today interview:

WhatDoesItMean put this interview together with a made-up story about Snowden.

FARS must spend a lot of time combing conspiracy theory sites on the Internet for its content.

For some reason FARS has not yet managed to link the aliens to Jews. Maybe next month we will find out that the aliens aligning with the "Tall Whites" are the "Hook-Nosed Flatfeet."

(h/t Yoel)

Great news from the Arab world

Philippe Assouline made this excellent poster a while back:

An Al Jazeera TV host named Faisal Al-Qassem uploaded this to his Facebook page less than a day ago, and translated it to Arabic.

It is going viral.

As of this writing, it has over 19,000 "Likes" on Facebook - from Arabic speakers!

(h/t Yenta Press)

UPDATE: That same Al Jazeera host has made the same point himself on his show. see here and here. (h/t Ibn Boutros)

01/13 Links Pt2: Tom Gross: Holocaust amnesia, Israel ranked 2nd in Philanthropy, ASA plays Victim

From Ian:

Israel is the Second Most Philanthropic Country in the World

The Data shows that: in 2012 Israeli households and businesses donated 7.6 billion Shekels to nonprofits, an increase of 8.8% as compared with 2011. Israeli philanthropy made up 0.76% of the country’s GDP, taking second place in world philanthropy after the USA, which saw 2.1% of its GDP donated to nonprofits in 2012. Australia follows Israel with 0.69% of its GDP in donations; the UK with 0.65% of its GDP; South Africa with 0.64%; Canada with 00.48%; Ireland with 0.47%, Holland with 0.45%; New Zealand with 0.29%; Germany with 0.22%, and France with 0.19%.
According to Yonatan Ben-Dor, CEO of IsraelGives, which facilitates online fundraising for over 600 nonprofits in Israel: “A large portion of the increasing amount of money donated to nonprofits in Israel stems from the rise of online philanthropy. Online donations grew by 66% in the past year, 8 times that of traditional philanthropy. As an example of this rise in online giving, in 2013 627 nonprofit organizations received donations through IsraelGives.org, Israel’s online donation portal.

Tom Gross: Holocaust amnesia

Holocaust Memorial Day falls again on January 27. It is the ninth consecutive year that this (in many ways uniquely) evil event is being officially commemorated in Britain and the EU.
Predictably there are voices — including some Jewish — who say, haven't we heard enough about the Holocaust? What more is there to learn?
I take the opposite view — that collectively the world has not studied it nearly enough, and has not properly learned its lessons. If it had,
anti-Semitism wouldn't once again be rife in so many countries, including European ones.

Europe's New Crowd-Pleasing Jew-Hate

It is an anti-Semitism that seems to come mostly from people affiliated with the French radical "left": members and sympathizers of Trotskyist movements, of the neo-communist French "Left Front", and of "pro-Palestinian" organizations such as Europalestine. Its followers accuse the Jews of having "monopolized" human sufferings, of having "rapaciousness" behind the "Holocaust industry" and of being complicit in the "imperialist crimes" committed by Israel against the "Palestinians". Unsurprisingly, a growing number of young Muslims identify with these arguments.
Members of the politically right-leaning "nationalist revolutionary" parties, and other Neo-Nazi organizations see all this as a boon and an exoneration. They hate Islam, but they hate Jews and Israel even more, and when people such as Dieudonné say that "Zionists" in the Middle East are worse than Nazis, or that Holocaust commemorations are "memorial pornography," they exult.
When Dieudonné invites a famous Holocaust -denier such as Robert Faurisson on stage, and then praises the gas chambers, members of the audience are full of joy. When Dieudonné sings "Shoah-Ananas" ["Holocaust Pineapple"] in the company of Faurisson, the audience sings along with gusto. "The Anti-Semite," a movie Dieudonné made with Iranian money to mock the Auschwitz concentration camp, was never released in theaters, but has became an on-line success anyhow.

The amazing Biblical archaeological find no one talks about

I had never heard of this 1967 find, and it is fascinating:

It is probably one of the greatest finds of all time and, by the bizarre rules of biblical archeology, it’s also one of the least reported. Basically, in 1967, in Deir Alla, Jordan, Dutch archeologists discovered some kind of pagan house of worship or seminary. On its walls, there was a 2,800-year-old inscription in black ink. Key phrases are highlighted in red ink and the whole writing is framed in red.

First of all, this is the oldest Aramaic inscription ever found. But if that’s not enough to make it a world-headline, the inscription is 600-800 years older than the Dead-Sea Scrolls. And if that’s not enough to merit international attention, the inscription mentions a prophet, or “seer”, named “Balaam son of Beor”. This is the exact name mentioned in the Torah/Bible (Numbers 22:2–24:25). This is the only instance where a specific individual mentioned in the story of the biblical Exodus can be pointed to in archeology. So who is Balaam, and where is this inscription now?

Balaam is the bad guy of the Torah. He is the Darth Vader of the biblical Exodus. According to the Talmud, Balaam had the potential to be Moses, but he turned to the dark side (Av. Zar. 4a–b; Sanh. 105b; Avot 5:19). In a famous incident, as the Israelites are about to enter the promised land, Balak King of Moab asks Balaam to curse the children of Israel. Balaam is unable to do so. The Talmud explains that he looked at the Israelite tents and saw an amazing thing. The tents were rotated so that people could not see into each other’s bedrooms, so to speak. At that point, Balaam realized that the only way to weaken Israel was to corrupt them through sex.

According to the biblical narrative, Balaam was in charge of sex priestesses made up of Moabite and Midianite women. These women successfully seduced the Israelites in an orgy of sex and idolatry (Numbers 31:8, 16). 24,000 Israelite men were punished by God with death. At one point, the Israelite prince, Zimri son of Salu, publically fornicated with a Midianite princess named Cozbi, daughter of Zur, in the name of some kind of fertility rite. Apparently, these rituals were drawing big crowds until Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the High Priest (brother of Moses), picked up a spear and killed Zimri and Cozbi with one thrust while they were, so to speak, thrusting. This act ended Balaam’s attempt to subvert Israel through pagan sex (Numbers 25; 6-15). According to the book of Joshua, Joshua took revenge by killing Balaam during the Israelite conquest of Canaan (Joshua, 13:22).

So… back to the Deir Alla inscription. The amazing thing is that it is found on the border of ancient Israel, exactly where you would expect to find it given the biblical narrative. The people writing it are Balaam’s people. Meaning, for them he’s a hero, not a villain. So we’re getting the opposition point of view. They refer to him, just as in the Torah, as “Balaam Son of Beor”. Meaning, there is a letter-perfect synchronicity between the archeology and the Bible. But it gets better. According to the Torah, Balaam does have prophetic powers. According to the inscription, he is a prophet. According to the Torah, he gets his visions at night. According to the inscription, he gets his visions at night. According to the Torah, he worships false gods, but also dialogues with the God of Israel. According to the Deir Alla inscription, Balaam speaks to the “gods” and to “El” i.e., the God of Israel. But more than this, Balaam seems to be devoted to a goddess of fertility. Lest anyone think that the orgy episode in the Torah is exaggerated, the Deir Alla inscription refers to a “girl” or priestess who is “used” for the purpose of making one “saturated with love” (Combination 2, ii 4). It talks about God himself being “satisfied” with love making (Combination 2, ii 6).

So here you have a perfect synchronicity between the story in the Bible and the story that archeologists have discovered in a pagan temple in Jordan. But except for a few scholars, very few people have even heard of this discovery. More than this, the inscription has been removed from Deir Alla and put in drawers – I’m not kidding, drawers – in the Archeological Museum of Amman, capital of Jordan. Meaning, you could be standing right next to the greatest archeological match to the Bible and not know it.

The ultimate irony: in the Archeological Museum of Amman, they have a fragment of the Dead-Sea Scrolls. It is a quote from the Bible – the story of Balaam! So the amazing thing is that about 20 feet from each other are the Deir Alla inscription and the Dead-Sea Scroll, both quoting the exact same story – and both matching the Bible perfectly.

Isn’t it incredible? You don’t have to go into the realm of “DaVinci Code” style fiction to discover biblical cover-ups. They’re happening as I write – and it’s not fiction, it’s all too real.

Wikipedia has an entry on it, and its translation doesn't seem to necessarily refer to a fertility goddess, but is it the clear mention of a prophet Balaam son of Be'or is one of the few extrabiblical references to Biblical characters by name.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

UPDATE: The story has gone around before.

UPDATE 2: A followup post.

Palestine Press Agency reports that Gaza hospital patients are being forced to pay out of their own pocket for drugs - because their doctors say that the hospitals don't have enough supply.

Often, the medicines that they buy are labeled "Not for resale" or that they were a gift from an Arab country.

The PA as well as Arab countries and NGOs send massive amounts of medicine to Gaza, but they do not seem to be reaching the hospitals they are meant for.

The article claims that drugs donated by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are often expired, though.

In previous years Hamas was accused by both individuals and by the PA itself of diverting the donated medicines to their own pharmacies so they could profit from reselling them. This article implies that this is happening now but doesn't quite say it, perhaps because the newspaper had been banned in Gaza for a while and wants to ensure that it is not shut down again.

01/13 Links Pt1: Ariel Sharon's Funeral, Bush: he was a ‘man of courage’, Iran deal starts 20th Jan.

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Is Hamas Courting Iran and the Palestinian Authority?

If Hamas is so strongly opposed to the peace talks, why are its leaders saying that they are prepared to join forces with the Palestinian Authority?
The answer is obvious: Hamas wants the Palestinian Authority to continue channeling funds to the Gaza Strip.
More than half of the Palestinian Authority's annual budget goes to pay salaries and support various projects in the Gaza Strip despite the rivalry between the two sides. Abbas told Jordanian parliamentarians during a meeting in his office that 58% of the Palestinian Authority budget goes to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's efforts to restore ties with Iran and the Palestinian Authority are nothing but a ploy to ensure its continued presence in power. Hamas is definitely not headed toward any change. Now that it is back on the payroll of Iran, Hamas will feel more confidant than ever to pursue its efforts to foil any agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

Dignitaries from 19 states due for funeral, but no heads of state

US Vice President Joe Biden, Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok and the foreign ministers of Australia and Germany are among the top foreign officials scheduled to attend the funeral of former prime minister Ariel Sharon on Monday. The list of dignitaries includes senior ministers and top officials from 19 countries, but not a single head of state.
The countries sending senior government officials to the funeral roughly correspond with a list of Israel’s closest allies on the international stage. No senior officials from the two Arab states with which Israel has diplomatic relations — Jordan and Egypt — are scheduled to attend.

Bush remembers friend Sharon as ‘man of courage’

Former US President George W. Bush remembered late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon Saturday as “a warrior for the ages.”
In a statement, Bush called Sharon a “partner in seeking security for the Holy Land and a better, peaceful Middle East.”
“I was honored to know this man of courage and call him friend,” he said.

Under Palestinian law, if Abbas signs a peace agreement with Israel he would be subject to the death penalty

I've discussed how central the bogus "right of return" is to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Arab leadership, and how the West ignores this fact. Mahmoud Abbas and the entire Palestinian Arab leadership (not to mention their friends in the anti-Israel community) have turned this fake "right" into a key component of their demands for any "peace" agreement - and have elevated this demand to damn thousands of Syrians to death.

Palestinian Arabs make no secret that the purpose of this "right" is to destroy the Jewish state demographically, and this is exactly why they refuse to recognize that Israel is in fact the Jewish state. The end game is to create three or four Palestinian states - in Jordan, which is majority Palestinian; in the West Bank, possibly in Gaza and (of course) in Israel.

It turns out that Abbas signed a law in 2008 to enshrine this "right" to destroy Israel in PA law. Not only that, but this law ensures that any agreement that modifies this "right" is null and void, and high treason.

Under PLO law, if Mahmoud Abbas signs a peace treaty with Israel that doesn't pave the way for the destruction of Israel, he is guilty of high treason and is subject to the death penalty.

Western diplomats who think that there is a possibility of peace with the PLO must read this.

Here is the bulk of the law:

The law of the right of return for Palestinian refugees No. (1) for the year 2008

The right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homes and property and compensation for their suffering is a sacred and inalienable right that cannot compromised or exchanged; it is beyond the scope of jurisprudence or interpretation or referendum.

The right of return is the natural individual and collective civil and political right that moves from parents to children and does not disappear over time, by the signing of any agreement, and it may not be disposed of or waived in any way.

The Zionist occupation bears full responsibility for the political, legal and humanitarian and moral suffering of the Palestinian people and the non-recognition of the right to self-determination. Britain bears historical responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinian people. The international community bears full responsibility to lift and remove the suffering of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinians have the right to sue the Zionist occupation for their suffering caused to the Palestinian people and their demands for compensation for damage to their emotional or material damage.

Resettlement of Palestinian refugees may not be a substitute for the right of return.

Anyone who violates the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of the crime of high treason against him and subject to all criminal and civil penalties prescribed for this crime.

Anything that is contrary to the provisions of this law is canceled, null and void and any legislation or agreement that detracts from the right of return violates the provisions of this law.

Issued on: 01/08/2008 AD
Mahmoud Abbas
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization
President of the Palestinian National Authority