Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Islamic Jihad accidentally compliments IDF defenses

Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today has an article about the IDF's UAV, the Heron-1, that in many ways reads like promotional literature:

The Zionist enemy does not stop even for a moment its development of combat, technical, and technological capabilities in all fields of military, due to the fear that lives in his being; he knows very well that the Palestinian people will not give up their usurped rights, and that what was taken by force will be retaken by force eventually.

The Zionist air force recently introduced two reconnaissance-type "Heron 1" UAVs for field work, which increases the burden of the Palestinian resistance, which to this day has been able to overcome these technical modern military tactics and baffle new methods of military occupation.

An [Islamic Jihad] "Media War" reporter conducted an exclusive interview with one of the leaders of the military intelligence agency of the Al-Quds Brigades, "Abu Mohammed," to identify the new capabilities of the reconnaissance plane. He said, "The Heron 1 is an unmanned fourth generation reconnaissance aircraft which was developed by the Zionist aircraft industries (IAI), Department of Unmanned Aircraft (UAV)", pointing out that it... can have any work long hours in difficult weather conditions.

He added: "This aircraft was built with modern technology and is very advanced. It can take off and land automatically, and it covers a large area of land with high accuracy."

The Quds Brigades intelligence chief said that the Heron 1 used for reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting and directing fire at any moving target with high accuracy, stressing that the Heron has the ability to fly continuously for more than 52 hours at an altitude of 35,000 feet.

Abu Mohammed continued, "The plane is loaded with electronic sensors, including infrared sensors, and it has light sensors in addition to the various radar systems."

Abu Mohammed said that the Heron is able to connect to a permanent ground control station by linking to electromagnetic data waves directly or via Zionist satellite.

All the Mujahideen in all fields of jihad and the resistance on the blessed land of Palestine must take all degrees of caution and camouflage and follow all proper security methods to move away from the sensors and the other Zionist methods of spying and surveillance. Modern technology is used by the enemy to undermine the Palestinian resistance, so Mujahideen must comply with all security regulations to preserve their lives, so as not to be easy prey to the Zionist enemy that lurks on them day and night.

The page includes photos of the UAV that were taken off the Internet.

The Heron-1 is not new; the IDF bought them in 2005 and used them in Operation Cast Lead.

Islamic Jihad "inteligence" found nothing about the UAV that was not in the Wikipedia page about it.

Interestingly, the page shows that the Moroccan Air Force owns three of them!

01/15 Links Pt2: Law Frim- Drop ASA or face Civil Rights suit, Neil Young Tours Israel

From Ian:

Walt Disney’s Anti-Semitism, and Modern Day Bias Towards Israel

The irony is that while Meryl Streep was condemning Walt Disney for associating with extremists, she herself was doing the very same thing. The actress to whom she gave that award when she made her anti-Disney speech, her close friend Emma Thompson, is active in the anti-Israel boycott movement.
Streep hailed Thompson as “splendid, beautiful, practically a saint… a living, acting conscience.” Yet this ‘saint,’ together with other British actors, publicly urged a boycott of Israel’s Habimah theater troupe when it participated in a festival in England. Habimah, of course, has nothing to do with Israeli government policies or any political issues. Its only “crime” is that it’s Israeli.

Employment Law Firm: Drop American Studies Assn membership or risk Title VII liability

While over 190 university presidents have denounced the ASA academic boycott of Israel, many have decided either to keep the membership or to leave the decision to individual American Studies Departments. Some others are switching the membership listing to their American Studies Departments, rather than the full University name.
Anything other than a full termination of Institutional Membership, however, opens up the universities to legal liability for national origin discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That potential liability is explained in a recent article by two attorneys at the Seyfarth Shaw law firm.

Has your Rep signed Congressional letter against Israel academic boycott?

I reported last Friday on the draft Bipartisan Congressional letter to denounce academic boycott of Israel.
As of Friday, there were 36 signatories. As of yesterday, the number had risen to 57.
The final signature list should be released later this week.

Pro-Israel Christians Protest Dutch Pension Giant’s Divestment From Israel

Hundreds of Dutch Christian activists demonstrated outside the headquarters of Dutch pension giant PGGM, to protest the pension company’s recent decision to divest from Israeli banks.
The protesters, members of the pro-Israel group Christians for Israel, held up Israeli flags and banners saying “Stop the Boycott of Israel.”

For some reason, the article I posted (copied from Simcha Jacobovici's blog) about the Deir Alla inscriptions has been getting lots of attention. Metafilter has a thread about it that is typical.

While the article said that this was a "cover-up" - as the original artifact is not displayed anywhere - I don't think Jacobovici is saying that this is being deliberately hidden by scholars. I certainly don't think so. After all, it is mentioned in Wikipedia and other places. What is interesting is that the amount of attention given to this find in the non-scholarly world seems to be disproportionately tiny compared to its significance.

My guess is that Jordanians are not nearly as interested in Biblical-era archaeology as Jews and Christians generally are. There is evidence that Muslim archaeologists tend to discount the importance of Jewish or Biblical-era artifacts (and vice versa.) This does not imply a deliberate cover-up..

Now, let's talk about its significance. Critics are saying that this is not proof of the Torah's authenticity. I agree, and never said it was.

However, this does not make the find any less significant. Right now there are headlines whenever an artifact is found that might bear the name of someone obscure mentioned once in the books of Chronicles or Kings. Anything found from the First Temple period or earlier is considered big news. The mainstream media certainly covered (much scantier) evidence of external evidence pointing to David or Goliath.

Here, though, is something that certainly refers to a major Torah figure, from hundreds of years prior to the era of the Prophets whose artifacts generate press today. The inscription was found in the same geographical area as the Biblical event. The chances that there are two famous prophets named "Balaam, son of Beor" in Jordan is essentially zero.

While it is hard to compare, one would think that this is roughly as important as the Mesha Stele, which also corroborated stories from the times of the Prophets.

(The Biblical story of Balaam is also interesting because it is, I believe, the only story in the Pentateuch from Exodus onward where the Israelites aren't the central characters. They have no idea of the drama happening near their tents. )

I couldn't find any contemporary references to the Deir Alla finds in 1967 newspapers.

So, yes, this seems to be bigger news than something that is relegated to university libraries. The popularity of the post shows this to be true. How you interpret it is up to you.

Iran still engaging in Holocaust revisionism

While Hassan Rouhani puts a (sometimes) friendly face on the Iranian regime, its state-controlled media is still filled with the worst kinds of antisemitism (and anti-American rhetoric), including Holocaust revisionism.

In English.

Here are excerpts from a not atypical PressTV article today:

Zionist perversion of history threatens world peace

The planet is being held captive by two rogue terrorist states: the United States and Israel.

Behaving like rabid dogs on the world stage, these two enormous threats to world peace are content to spread their imperial hubris throughout the globe, invading weaker countries and laying siege to millions of defenseless innocents while condemning those who resist Israeli-American imperialism as ”terrorists,” “threats to peace” and “rogue actors.”

..The creation of Israel was a war crime in and of itself, wherein at least 750,000 indigenous Arab Palestinians were either massacred or ethnically cleansed by Zionist gangs such as the Irgun, Haganah and Lehi.This murderous colonial project was sponsored in large part by Britain and the United States. The latter country was itself a by-product of British colonialism and harbours a damnable legacy even worse than that of Israel.

Less known is the role of Nazi Germany in helping the Zionists gain a foothold in Palestine. ...The German SS even provided the Haganah with weapons to do battle with Palestinian Arabs. ..This fact of history illustrates the farcical nature of Zionist-controlled Hollywood’s depiction of Hitler as a villainous demon, when in fact Zionist Jews themselves were Hitler’s most enthusiastic collaborators.

Upon close inspection, the official story of the holocaust crumbles into pieces. Anyone who has even a mild understanding of the facts cannot continue to believe in the myth of the “six million.” ... It turns out the Zionist fixation on the magical number of six million originates with Jewish religious mysticism in the Kabbalah.

...The “new world order” vision of the Zionist elite and their sinister collaborators is a world filled with tyranny and death, where unwanted thoughts and ideas are ruthlessly extirpated, and dissent is crushed with an iron fist. Those seeking truth and justice will be deemed “enemies of the state” and will be promptly executed or relegated to concentration camps, as per the Bolshevik method.

Nothing gets published in Iranian media without government approval.

01/15 Links Pt1: Abbas Applauds Jihad in Jerusalem Call, Oxfam cancels homophobic Hamas speaker

From Ian:

Left Foot Forward forces Oxfam climbdown over homophobic speaker

The ‘Gaza: Through my Eyes’ exhibition was due to be hosted by Oxfam and Ibrahim Hewitt, a trustee of Hamas-linked organisation Interpal who has called for the killing of apostates and homosexuals.
Mr Hewitt has previously referred to the “so-called Holocaust” and has demanded that homosexuals suffer “severe punishments” for their “great sin”.
The event was scheduled to take place at the East London Mosque, notorious for hosting a number of extremist speakers.
Speaking to Left Foot Forward, Oxfam said it was “strongly committed to upholding universal human rights” and would therefore be cancelling the event.

Abbas applauds after Minister calls for Jihad in Jerusalem

Jihadi fighters should not be fighting in Syria but should go to Jerusalem. This was the message of PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, in front of Mahmoud Abbas:
"Whoever wants resistance, whoever wants Jihad, the direction for Jihad is well-known and clear... Those who send young people to Syria or elsewhere to die for a misdirected cause must stop and understand that Jerusalem is still waiting. Jerusalem is the direction, Jerusalem is the address."
Al-Habbash was criticizing those who have sent Jihadi fighters from around the world to Syria to fight against Assad's forces. The Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk has been the scene of some of this fighting. Abbas, who was in the audience, applauded when Al-Habbash said that Jihadi fighters should not be sent to Syria but to Jerusalem.

Ex-Muslim: German Imam told boys to practice, on chickens, decapitating Jews (video)

This is an excerpt of an interview with Barino Barsoum, on Spiegel TV, from 2009:

(h/t Andrew Bostom)

"Racist" Israelis vote for Filipina caregiver on "X-Factor"

From AFP:

Celebrations broke out in the Philippines Wednesday after a Filipina caregiver working overseas became the winner of Israel's first "X Factor" television singing contest.

Rose Fostanes, one the millions of Filipino overseas workers who are lionized back home and form a crucial pillar of the country's economy, won the competition late Tuesday with a rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" that delighted fans in both countries.

Local television, news websites, and social media were filled with praise for the unmarried 47-year-old caregiver, who relatives said had worked abroad for more than two decades to support her family.

"We know the situation she was in and we are very proud that she has again given the Philippines pride in the showcase of her talent," President Benigno Aquino's spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters Wednesday.

"The Filipino has an innate advantage when it comes to the arts...It clearly shows that the excellence of the Filipino can be expressed anywhere, everywhere, when they are given the opportunity to show their talent."

Here is one of her songs:

Last year, an Arab Christian woman won Israel's "The Voice," and ersatz "journalist"/Israel-hater Max Blumenthal - in an astonishing display of stupidity even for him - tweeted "Tokenism works!"

I guess he thinks that Israeli voters again colluded to vote for a non-Israeli, not because of her talent but because they don't want to be seen as the racists that he knows Israelis really are.

"He might not speak Hebrew but he does visit Israel often, convinced the only reason he is allowed into the country is because of his "top-grade Ashkenazi Jewish sperm."

(h/t Yoel)

Last week I noted that an Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed in Gaza in what every Arab newspaper called an Israeli strike, either from a drone or artillery. I cannot find a single report that gives any other possible reason for his death.

The IDF denied any activity in Gaza at the time.

Here we have a clear case of "he said, she said" - Israeli spokespeople versus Gaza's health ministry spokesman and other Gaza witnesses.

From years of watching the region, I was quite certain that the IDF was telling the truth and the Arabs were lying. Yet there are plenty of people out there who assume that every Israeli statement is a lie and they believe every single Arab claim, despite years of evidence showing the exact opposite.

So who was telling the truth this time?

PCHR publishes a weekly report of supposed Israeli crimes. If they don't mention something, it didn't happen.

They don't mention anything about anyone being killed on January 8.

(UPDATE: Neither does OCHA.)

This is hardly the first time that Gaza's health ministry was found to lie. Maybe one day the world's media will know not to believe a word they say.

Aw, who am I kidding?

Qatar to allow 20,000 Palestinians to work there

Ma'an reports:

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Ibn Hamad Al Thani has given orders to grant work visas to 20,000 Palestinians, the Palestinian ambassador to Qatar told Ma'an on Monday.

The move comes after 20 years in which Palestinians were prevented by Qatari authorities from acquiring visas to work in the prosperous Persian Gulf emirate, according to the ambassador.

You mean, for 20 years Qatar actively discriminated against Palestinians and no human rights organization mentioned it?

One of the very best resources on keeping track of the truth behind the BDS lies, Divest This!, has returned after a long hiatus.

It is a very worthwhile website.

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.