Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 02, 2016

!Shana Tova u'Metuka שנה טובה ומתוקה!

I want to wish all of my readers a Shana Tova u'Metuka, a happy and sweet year 5777.

May this be a year of good health, prosperity, joy and peace.

Actress Mayim Bialik has a video explaining the customs of the day:

Aish.com came out with one of their annual music videos:

It is not too late to support EoZ and to start the new year with a mitzvah!

(h/t Mike Tan)

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10/02 Links: Prince Charles and Israeli Funerals; 7 Myths About Bibi Busted

From Ian:

Elliott Abrams: Prince Charles and Israeli Funerals

Prince Charles attended the funeral of Shimon Peres last week, in Jerusalem. This was not his first visit: he also attended the Yitzhak Rabin funeral in 1995.
In the 21 years since then he has visited Arab countries repeatedly, but Israel has remained on the blacklist. No official visit, no tourism, sum total of visits there = two visits to Mount Herzl Cemetery.
Why? Is it his own prejudice against the Jewish State, or is the Foreign Office telling him to stay away? (The Queen has never set foot in Israel.)
There is actually a very good reason for him to visit another cemetery in Jerusalem, at the Mount of Olives: his grandmother is buried in a convent there. That woman is Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Philip. Philip actually did visit there, in 1994, in a trip the Foreign Office insisted was entirely private.
Princess Alice was an extraordinary woman. She was the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and was born at Windsor Castle in 1885. Earl Mountbatten of Burma was her younger brother. Congenitally deaf, she nevertheless learned to speak English and German. She led a most difficult life, in and out of exile from Greece (she had married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903).
During the Second World War she lived in Athens and sheltered Jewish refugees there, for which was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations.” That ceremony at Yad Vashem was in fact the occasion for Prince Philip’s visit. She lived the final years of her life in Buckingham Palace and died there in 1988, after which in accordance with her request her remains were interred on the Mount of Olives.
Her spirit is nicely suggested by this story: during the Second World War the Nazis occupied Athens. When a German general asked her “Is there anything I can do for you?” she replied “You can take your troops out of my country.”
I suppose it is far too much, diplomatically, to expect Israel to disinvite someone like the heir to the British throne from a funeral. But the Prince’s attendance was an act of hypocrisy. If he wants to honor Shimon Peres, a better way is simply to schedule a visit to the country to which Peres devoted his life. And he can see his grandmother’s grave while at it.

Elliott Abrams: In What Country is Shimon Peres Buried?

Last week President Obama spoke at Shimon Peres’ funeral and watched him buried–in some sort of No Man’s Land. Not in Israel, it seems.
The Obama White House actually issued a correction of its press release of Obama’s remarks, to strike the world “Israel.” You can see a screen shot of the corrected release here at the McClatchy news site.
The absurdity of this move is striking. The ceremony was at Mount Herzl, the Jerusalem cemetery where many of Israel’s greatest figures are buried: Herzl himself, Jabotinsky, Begin, Golda Meir, Rabin, and innumerable military heroes.
It lies in Western Jerusalem, near Yad Vashem and Jerusalem Forest–a place Palestinians do not even claim when they claim a share of Jerusalem; only those who seek to destroy Israel think this place will ever be anything but a part of the Jewish State. U.S. policy is that Jerusalem is a final status issue, so we have our embassy in Tel Aviv. But there is no dispute about west Jerusalem, where the Knesset, Prime Minister’s office, and Supreme Court, and the National Library, and Yad Vashem–and Mount Herzl–all lie.
One wonders if President Obama, speaking about the meaning of Peres’s life for Israel, actually thought as he spoke those words at the grave site that he was not standing in Israel, and that Shimon Peres was not being buried in Israel. I doubt it. Which suggests, again, how foolish the current and longstanding American policy really is.

Anti-Semitism at My University, Hidden in Plain Sight

Last semester, a group came to Providence to speak against admitting Syrian refugees to this country. As the president of the Brown Coalition for Syria, I jumped into action with my peers to stage a counterdemonstration. But I quickly found myself cut out of the planning for this event: Other student groups were not willing to work with me because of my leadership roles in campus Jewish organizations.
That was neither the first nor the last time that I would be ostracized this way. Also last semester, anti-Zionists at Brown circulated a petition against a lecture by the transgender rights advocate Janet Mock because one of the sponsors was the Jewish campus group Hillel, even though the event was entirely unrelated to Israel or Zionism. Ms. Mock, who planned to talk about racism and transphobia, ultimately canceled. Anti-Zionist students would rather have no one speak on these issues than allow a Jewish group to participate in that conversation.
Of course, I still believe in the importance of accepting refugees, combating discrimination, abolishing racist law enforcement practices and other causes. Nevertheless, it’s painful that Jewish issues are shut out of these movements. Jewish rights belong in any broad movement to fight oppression.
My fellow activists tend to dismiss the anti-Semitism that students like me experience regularly on campus. They don’t acknowledge the swastikas that I see carved into bathroom stalls, scrawled across walls or left on chalkboards. They don’t hear students accusing me of killing Jesus. They don’t notice professors glorifying anti-Semitic figures such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt or the leadership of Hezbollah, as mine have.

Maude Vallet

Well, perhaps not "joy" exactly, but before we plunge into things let's get something out of the way, immediately.

A "Jihadi," as I am using the term, is anyone who believes in the restoration of the Muslim Caliphate for the purpose of spreading al-Sharia throughout the known universe and who justifies violence in that "noble" pursuit.

In a piece for the Gatestone Institute entitled, France's New Sharia Police, Yves Mamou tells us that:

For years, "big brothers" have been obliging their mothers and sisters to wear a veil when they go out. Now that this job is done, they have begun to fight non-Muslim women who wear shorts and skirts -- no longer just in the sensitive Muslim "no-go zones" of the suburbs, where women no longer dare to wear skirts -- but now also in the heart of big cities.

The cultural enrichment is just stupefying.

Mamou's examples include the beating of a French girl by a Muslim man in Brittany for daring to wear "provocative" clothing; the attack by ten young Muslims in Toulon of two European families on a bike path as they yelled "whores!" and "strip naked!" before beating the holy crap out of one of the husbands; also in Toulon, 18-year-old Maude Vallet was spat upon by a gang of Muslim girls for the crime of wearing short pants; in a resort in Garde-Colombe, the Alps, a Moroccan guy stabbed a woman and her three daughters for being "scantily dressed" and then complained that he was, in fact, the "victim" by accusing one of the men of making an obscene gesture in front of his wife; and last April a 16 year-old-girl in a suburb of Paris was severely beaten by three young Muslim women for wearing a skirt.

The rise of Political Islam is not limited to Sharia-enforcing states like Iran or ISIS, nor to Jihadi organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Gaza, or Hezbollah in Lebanon. It also includes regular Muslim on the streets of western cities, when those Muslims approve of imposing Islamic law on non-Muslim societies. Your average work-a-day Muslim in the West, however, despite their disinclination to condemn their Jihadi brothers and sisters is not a problem. Like Muslims everywhere they are simply trying to put food on the table and take care of their families.

Nonetheless, what we are seeing today is the contemporary example of a thirteen-hundred year old imperial project designed by Muhammad in the early 7th century. It is good that most Muslims are not Jihadis, but this does not change the fact that the rise of Political Islam is, perhaps, the most significant geo-political phenomenon since the demise of the Soviet Union.

Just as the conflict against Nazi Germany in World War II was not "racist" towards Germans, so those of us concerned about the rise of Political Islam are not "racist" toward Muslims. Political Islam (or Islamism) is a highly significant and toxic political movement throughout the Middle East and Europe and, like any political movement, it can be friendly or unfriendly, but always open to criticism. Unfortunately, given the brutality and the goals of Political Islam as expressed in the various Jihadi organizations, like the Islamic State and the Muslim Brotherhood, finding necessary and harsh criticisms is like picking apples from a tree.

Beheadings. Stonings. Slavery.

Where do you start?

Mamou believes that "the Islamic dress code is the Trojan horse of Islamist jihad..." and quotes Professor of Philosophy, Berenice Levet, of the École Polytechnique, telling the French daily newspaper, Le Figaro that, "In the war that Islamism is leading with determination against civilization, women are becoming a real issue." And:

... I want it recognized once and for all that if today the roles of the genders are forced to regress in France, if domination and patriarchy are spreading in our country, this fact is related exclusively to our having imported Muslim values.

This is, of course, exceedingly touchy terrain and I can practically hear the ice cracking beneath my feet as I write.

However, the primary question is whether or not we are seeing the emergence of "Virtue Police" in the streets of Paris.

Mamou tells us:

In France, no organized Islamist brigades patrol the streets (as in Germany or Britain) to fight alcohol consumption or to beat women for the way they are dressed. Yet gangs of "youths", again, both men and women, are increasingly doing just that in practice.

And this is precisely why Political Islam is already having a profound influence on western culture.

As a movement, it is not merely a top-down phenomenon, but an organic, bottom-up phenomenon, as well. It is the organic nature of this fascist-like movement that makes it so slippery and difficult to pin down. It is for this reason that Jihadi apologists in Europe and the United States, including Barack Obama, always explain away Jihadi attacks as the psychotic doings of lone maniacs who suffer from schizophrenia or homophobia or work-place discontentment or who are driven to kill non-Muslims by the NRA or the Trump campaign or the evil behavior of ordinary, privilege-strutting, white guys.

It can never be about Islamic teachings, as we find them in the Qur'an or Hadiths, because that is far too inconvenient for international elites such as Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton who want an enlightened progressive system of open borders with a significant degree of top-down control as we see in the non-democratic European Union.

The grassroots imposition of Islamic dress codes on the indigenous European population is merely one way of normalizing a system of jurisprudence that is completely at odds with the western political tradition as handed down from from Magna Carta via the Constitution of the United States and the western liberal political tradition, more generally.

If al-Sharia is encroaching onto western legal terrain, the implications should be sobering for anyone concerned about the maintenance of free speech or the fundamental rights of individual liberty.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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The Jordanian Tourism Ministry said that the total number of Israeli tourists decreased by 14.3% for the first eight months of this year compared to last year.

91,333 tourists came this year from Israel compared to 106,538 tourists during the same period last year.

The number of Israeli tourists who stayed overnight also fell by 13.8% compared to the same period last year.

What a surprise!

Jews are not allowed to bring in religious objects to Jordan, so observant Jews cannot stay overnight because they cannot bring in what they need to pray in the mornings.

Recently, archaeologists discovered a menorah carved into a stone in a Byzantine church in Abila, Jordan, that is assumed to have been taken from a destroyed synagogue.

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Saudi scholar says Arabs need to follow the example of Jews

Dr. Ibrahim Matroudi, a Saudi scholar of Arabic and religion, told an Arab newspaper that the Arabs should follow the example of the Jews.

Matroudi says that the Jews revived their culture and language and that they have had many prominent scientists and scholars.

The culture of revenge is deeply rooted in Arab/Muslim society, he said, although this culture contradicts Islam. "All the people are fanatics. We inherited intolerance. Everyone sees his doctrine as right and others are wrong," he told Elaph.

He notes that the Jewish people went from being reviled throughout history to becoming leaders of the world, culturally and intellectually, today. Should not such a people be studied, rather than shunned?

(H/T Ibn Boutros)

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Jordanians protest gas deal with Israel, saying it is "occupation"

From Telesur:

Jordanians swarmed through the streets of Amman on Friday in a large demonstration titled "The Enemy's Gas is Occupation." Chanting "Raise your voice for dignity" and "No to the shameful deal," Jordanians of all backgrounds and occupations expressed their rage at a secretive US$10 billion gas deal that will supply 1.6 trillion feet of gas to Jordan from the offshore Israeli-controlled Leviathan natural gas field over the course of 15 years.

The peaceful demonstration was dispersed by security forces after only half an hour, yet the demonstrators' message demanding that officials in the Hashemite monarchy be held accountable was widely broadcast throughout global media.

The march reflects the widespread Jordanian antipathy toward the Israeli state, and the view that their future utility bills will benefit the continued occupation of Palestine. Half of Jordan's population is estimated to have Palestinian roots, while approximately 2.1 million refugees from Palestine are registered in the kingdom.

Jordan Times adds:

Activists also called for switching off the lights for an hour at 9pm on Sunday “to show the public’s rejection of the gas deal”, she added.

Demonstrations have also taken place in the southern governorate of Karak, some 130km from Amman, where residents headed to the city centre to denounce the agreement, locals said.

The engineers’ association and other organisations will “step up” protests over the coming weeks in Karak, a city that has boycotted Israeli products since 2015, said Wissam Majali, the director of “A city free of Zionist merchandise” campaign.

“This week’s protests, campaigns, and activities will mark the start of demonstrations and initiatives to demand the total reversal of the gas deal and to show the public’s outrage towards the agreement,” Majali told The Jordan Times.

Notice the antisemitic poster in this photo of a lightbulb turned into a religious Jew with blood coming out of his fangs:

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10/01 Links: Double Standards for Aleppo and Gaza; Dershowitz: Shimon Peres, a Leader for All Seasons

From Ian:

Security guard shot by gunman in attack on Moscow synagogue

A security guard at a Moscow synagogue was wounded Saturday evening when a man armed with a gun and a gasoline canister attempted to break into the Jewish institution and set it alight, Russian media reported.
Initial reports said the guard was in critical condition after being shot in the head and chest while trying to stop the assailant from entering the Choral Synagogue.
The attacker was arrested by police, according to media reports.
A rabbi at the synagogue said the assailant arrived during a Sabbath prayer service, when about 150 worshipers were inside, and asked to meet Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Ynet news reported. Several security guards then took him across the street, at which point he shot one of them.

Double Standards for Aleppo and Gaza

Israeli efforts to minimize civilian casualties go unreported or even ignored by the press, and Israel instead finds itself regularly judged in the court of public opinion, which is led by a lazy or hostile media.
So Israel is subjected not only to a different standard than the deplorable militaries of Syria and Russia, but even to a different standard than other Western militaries.
If and when the Syrian conflict comes to an end, will anyone be held to account for what certainly appear, at face value, to be genuine war crimes? Will there be a UN investigation and a Goldstone-style report? Will the International Criminal Court issue indictments? Given Russian involvement and the lack of American global power projection, it is unlikely that anyone will be held to account.
The next time open conflict between Israel and Hamas breaks out, will the parameters of judgment have changed as a result of the carnage in Aleppo and other parts of Syria? Or will Israel continue to be held to a standard of behavior unlike any other military in the world?
The likelihood is that nothing will have changed when it comes to how Israel is treated, and we will be left to conclude that, ultimately, the world will be outraged by Israel defending itself and its citizens irrespective of how ethically it behaves.

Bystanders to Genocide

The essay was titled “Bystanders to Genocide.” Ms. Power later expanded the article into a book, “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” for which she was widely praised. Barack Obama read the book and promoted her rise in government.
Fast forward to the present, and Ms. Power can sound like those officials she once scolded for thinking they were doing everything they could given the complexities of the situation.
“Well, Syria is a very complex picture,” Ms. Power told CBS earlier this month. “There are thousands of armed groups. The question again of what military intervention would achieve, where you would do it, how you would do it in a way where the terrorists wouldn’t be the ones to take advantage of it—this has been extremely challenging. But the idea that we have not been doing quote anything in Syria seems absurd. We’ve done everything short of waging war against the Assad regime and we are, I should note, having significant success against ISIL on the ground.”
Ms. Power’s list of achievements in Syria might seem grimly funny to the more than 10 million Syrians driven from their homes in the civil war and the families of its 400,000 dead, most killed by the Assad regime. The starving residents of Aleppo and other besieged Syrian cities also know that until last week the Obama Administration was eager to team up with the Russians—going so far as to share critical battlefield intelligence—so they could jointly attack Islamic State targets, thereby further freeing the Assad regime to do its dirty work. Another stab at U.S.-Russian cooperation hasn’t been ruled out.
President Obama bears ultimate responsibility for doing so little to stop the five-year Guernica that is Syria, and we don’t know what Ms. Power’s private policy advice has been. But in public she has become an echo of the officials she once denounced for justifying American inaction in the face of mass slaughter. The honorable decision would be to resign.

09/30 Links Pt2: George Soros’ Israel-Hatred Spills Out Into the Open; 5 feel-good stories from Israel in 5776

From Ian:

George Soros’ Israel-Hatred Spills Out Into the Open

Billionaire George Soros generally does not hide the fact that he uses the considerable funds at his disposal to support his extremist, leftist ideals.
So when he does hide something, it should raise some serious questions. A series of leaked documents recently revealed that Soros’ philanthropy network, the Open Society Foundations, has been giving money to a number of anti-Israel organizations with the goal of smearing the Israeli government and undercutting its relationship with the United States.
The list of organizations is a veritable who’s who of hostile, anti-Israel actors. One of the leaked documents shows that between 2001 and 2015, Soros funneled over $9.5 million into a range of groups including Adalah, the Al-Tufula Center, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Baladna, The Galilee Society, Molad, the New Israel Fund and others.
Even worse, these documents showed that while the Soros network was systematically and methodically doling out its funds to these controversial groups, it was also working extremely hard to keep its donations and advocacy work quiet.
According to the private documents, which have now been published online, Soros and his network are engaging in these subversive tactics in an effort to “hold Israel accountable” for its supposed violations of international law. In truth, it seems more fitting that Soros be held accountable for his inscrutable policies. His so-called Open Society Foundations certainly don’t appear to be so open after all.
By secretly dispersing his money to influence politicians and the media, Soros hopes to drive a wedge between America and Israel without anyone noticing. This approach is wrongheaded and shameful. And it’s not new.

Michael Oren On Trump, Clinton, American Leadership And His Future Ambitions

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren won’t take sides in the U.S. election — but that doesn’t mean he won’t express concerns about aspects of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s policies.
During an appearance on “The Jamie Weinstein Show” podcast, Oren opened up about how Israelis view the U.S. election, his view of America’s role in the Middle East, whether he has ambitions to be foreign minister or even prime minster one day, and so much more.

The Mottle Wolfe Show: The Case For Trump

Mottle and Brian John Thomas discuss the loss of Shimon Peres. Brian John Thomas then goes on to layout the reasons why he supports Donald Trump for president.

White House strikes out "Israel" from transcript of Obama's speech at Peres memorial

The original White House page, from Google cache:

The current one:

The White House sent a "correction:"

Unbelievable.

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It's that time of year

People are Googling "Shana Tova U'Metuka" (wishes for a happy and sweet New Year) and my blog comes up as #1 and #2:

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09/30 Links Pt1: Phillips: Israel, not the West, stands for international law; Glick: The New Middle East

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Israel, not the West, stands for international law

In fact the US, Britain and Europe have long displayed this contempt by supporting the big lie that Israel behaves illegally or belligerently.
The West maintains that Israel occupies Palestinian territory in the “West Bank.” This is untrue. There has never been any “Palestinian territory.”
Israel’s presence in the disputed territories cannot be legally defined as an occupation. Under the Hague and Geneva conventions, an occupation can only take place on sovereign land. The territories were never anyone’s sovereign land.
Israel is furthermore entitled under international law to continue to hold onto them as a defensive measure as long as its Arab aggressors continue to use them for belligerent ends.
The West says Israel’s settlements are illegal. This is also untrue.
In the 20s, the Mandate for Palestine gave Britain the legally binding duty to settle the Jews throughout what is now not just Israel but the disputed territories too. That Jewish right has never been abrogated.
The Geneva conventions, cited as the reason the settlements are illegal, prohibit an occupying power from transferring people en masse into occupied territory. This was drafted after World War II to prevent any repetition of the Nazis’ forced displacement of peoples. Israelis resident in the disputed territories, however, have not been transferred but moved there through their own free choice.
Kontorovich has looked at every modern example where occupied territories have been settled. In none of them did the international community denounce such action as illegal or demand that settlers had to vacate the land as a condition for peace or independence. If world powers asked the occupying force to withdraw, they referred only to the army and not the settler population. The only exception has been Israel.
The West makes a fetish of international law. Yet it denounces Israel, the one Middle East state that upholds it. It’s time to call out the US, Britain and Europe for aiding the repudiation of law and justice and thus helping promote the Arab agenda of exterminating Israel.

Caroline Glick: The New Middle East

To accomplish these goals, Israel needs to operate in two completely separate arenas. To weaken Iran, Israel should take its cue from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and from its own past successful military ties to the Kurds of Iraq in the 1960s and 1970s.
Israel needs to deploy military trainers beyond its borders to work with other anti-Iranian forces. The goal of that cooperation must be to destabilize the regime, with the goal of overthrowing it. This may take time. But it must be done. The only way to neutralize the threat emanating from the new Syria is to change the nature of the Iranian regime that controls it.
As for Russia, Israel needs to demonstrate that it is a power that Putin can respect in its own right, and not a downgraded Washington’s sock puppet.
To this end, Israel should embark on a rapid expansion of its civilian presence along its eastern border with Syria and with Jordan. As Russia’s air base in Syria undermines Israel’s air superiority and reliance on air power, Israel needs to show that it will not be dislodged or allow its own territory to be threatened in any way. By doubling the Israeli population on the Golan Heights within five years, and vastly expanding its population in the Jordan Valley, Israel will accomplish two goals at once. It will demonstrate its independence from the US without harming US strategic interests. And it will reinforce its eastern border against expanded strategic threats from both the Golan Heights and the new Jordan with its bursting population of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
It is ironic that the new Middle East is coming into focus as Shimon Peres, the failed visionary of a fantasy- based new Middle East, is being laid to rest. But to survive in the real new Middle East, Israel must bury Peres’s belief that peace is built by appeasing enemies along with him. The world in which we live has a place for dreamers.
But dreams, unhinged from reality, lead to Aleppo, not to peace.

Why Iran is more dangerous than Islamic State

It is not too late to repair the impression that the West — led by the United States — views Iran as part of the solution to the problems of the Middle East, rather than the chief source of the region’s instability and radicalism. Of course, Iran fights Islamic State; the fact that the world’s leading radical Shiite government fights radical Sunnis should come as no surprise.
Those who believed that the nuclear agreement would lead to a more moderate, open, reformist Iran, at home and abroad, regrettably suffer from wishful thinking. So long as the ayatollah’s regime governs Iran, there is no chance we will see a McDonald’s in Tehran. Instead, we will see more executions, more repression, more tyranny.
This view of Iran is shared across the Middle East by countries that used to be antagonists. While the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians persists, any reference to the conflict between Israel and Sunni Arab states is, for now, obsolete. Today, Arabs and Israelis are in the same boat, facing Iranian-backed threats all around us; in terms of how to address these threats, we are also generally on the same page.
What we lack is leadership from our traditional allies in the West, especially our good friends in America. Should President Obama or his successor shift priorities and lead a campaign to pressure Iran to end its destabilizing policies — applying the same type of pressure that forced Iran to negotiate on its nuclear program — it will find willing partners among both Arabs and Israelis.

Even though the Gulf countries are seemingly warming up to Israel's existence, they aren't moderating in their other behaviors.

A Saudi teenager has been arrested and faces three years in prison for posting a series of popular videos of online conversations with an American blogger.

Abu Sin, which allegedly translates as “toothless” because of his gap tooth, was having tongue-in-cheek conversations with 21-year-old YouTuber and Californian native Christina Crockett on the video service YouNow. The videos subsequently went viral, bringing Abu Sin relative fame at home.

Saudi police spokesman Col. Fawaz Al-Mayman said that those commenting on Abu Sin’s videos had “demanded for him to be punished for his actions,” according to news site The Saudi Gazette.

This is the first of several videos with the pair. It is nearly unintelligible.

The Saudi Gazette adds:

Lawyer Abdulrahman Al-Lahem said the videos of Abu Sin breach Shariah Law and information technology law. “The teenager could face prison term — ranging from a year to three — depending on the sentence issued by the judge. The ethics and morals of Shariah Law apply even on the Internet,” said Al-Lahem.

But that's not the only news:

It all allegedly started when the decorator took photos inside the woman's apartment block on the chic Avenue Foch in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, reported Le Point newspaper.

The Saudi Princess accused the man of taking the pictures just to sell them to the press, although he said it was just part of the job.

"You have to kill this dog, he doesn't deserve to live," the princess allegedly told her bodyguard soon afterwards.

It's alleged that the bodyguard then struck the decorator in the head before tying his hands.

The guard, who was (legally) armed, then reportedly ordered the Parisian decorator to kneel and kiss the feet of the princess, who is the daughter of the former king Khalid of Saudi Arabia.

The victim told police that the ordeal lasted for four hours before another man intervened, taking a copy of the Parisian man's ID and then telling him "to never return to the 16th arrondissement of Paris".

The worker reportedly still tried to charge the Saudis for the decorating job, but was never paid the €20,000 he demanded. He claims that he was never given back his tools either.

The man has reported the matter to police, who said that his bruises were visible at the time of the report.

Human rights!

(h/t Ronald)

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From The Telegraph:

The world's top female chess players have reacted with horror after being told they must compete at next year's world championship wearing a hijab.

Within hours of Iran being revealed as its host country, the prestigious event was plunged into crisis as it emerged players taking part face arrest if they don't cover up.

In response, Grandmasters lined up to say they would boycott the 64-player knock-out and accused the game's scandal-hit governing body Fide of failing to stand up for women’s rights.

Fide's Commission for Women's Chess, meanwhile, called on participants to respect “cultural differences” and accept the regulations.

The choice of Iran as the venue is even more bizarre because the US has a travel warning to Iran.

What are American chess players to do?

CNN adds:

Iran was the only country which made a proposal to host the event, a World Chess Federation (FIDE) spokeswoman told CNN in a statement.

She added that since there were no objections from any of the other 150 national chess federations -- including the US -- FIDE's General Assembly accepted the proposal.

The justification for the decision by FIDE was bizarre:

Susan Polgar, the Hungarian-born American Grandmaster and chair of Fide's Commission for Women's Chess, responded by defending the federation and saying women should respect "cultural differences".

She said: "I have travelled to nearly 60 countries. When I visited different places with different cultures, I like to show my respect by dressing up in their traditional style of clothing. No one asked me to do it. I just do it out of respect.

"I personally would have no issues with wearing a head scarf (hijab) as long as it is the same to all players. I believe the organisers provided beautiful choices for past participants of Women's Grand Prix.

Polgar is free to act as she wants to out of her views of respect, but to force others to do something against their will doesn't show respect - it shows disrespect.

(h/t Ronald)

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Fatah says "burn in Hell" to Peres - but praises Abbas for attending his funeral "as a message of peace" (update)

Right after Shimon Peres' death, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party published this cartoon:

There was controversy among Palestinians about whether Abbas should attend Peres' funeral, and in the end Abbas decided he had to go.

Today, Abbas' Fatah is praising Abbas for making that decision. They cynicism of Abbas' decision is shown in the press release:

The participation of the president to the funeral is the Palestinian message of peace to the world.

The [attendance] of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the funeral of former President Peres is part of the responsibilities of the position of head of state, and it stops attempts by the Netanyahu government to incite against the Palestinian authority and attempts by Israel to convince the world that we are only believe in violence and the gun.

Head of Fatah Movement Information Department Munir al-Jaghoub said the presence of Mr. President and his participation in the funeral has political significance. Palestinians must realize what's behind this participation that it is a strong Palestinian message of peace to the world, specifically in these moments where the international community is watching to see the importance of the position of the state of Palestine and it may be the most important among many of the participating states.

The role played by Mr. President Abu Mazen is one of responsibility amid all the complications in the current Palestinian situation, and we're all confident in the wisdom of brother Abu Mazen to represent the voice of all Palestinians to the world that we have the right to life and to live in peace.

Not a word about Peres being a good person. On the contrary - Abbas is characterized as attending despite Peres, not to honor him. It is a world stage and Abbas must act like a world leader and show up in order to embarrass Netanyahu.

As with everything in an honor/shame society, the decision isn't based on morality - but on how it would look to the world.

UPDATE: The Fatah Youth Movement released a statement calling Peres a war criminal.

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EoZTV: The wisdom of 93-year old Shimon Peres

Besides the usual obituary talking points about Shimon Peres, there is a lot more that he accomplished in his lifetime. In this EoZTV we discuss some of them - like how he helped fix Israel's severe economic problems, how he was a poet and wrote a song that was recorded earlier this year, how and why he embraced technology, and finally parts of a remarkable interview he gave Tablet Magazine shortly before his stroke, which is excerpted below.

Tablet has the last interview with Shimon Peres. Here are some excerpts, but the whole thing is worth reading.

I was among the first to visit China. And they knew from my biography that I am a graduate of an agricultural school. So the foreign minister says, “Have a look at the Chinese agriculture.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so primitive! So backwards. I said, “What are you doing?”

We suggested to them that we start with seeds: An Israeli seed of wheat gives you a yield that is three times more than the Chinese one. Then they did the same with milk. And we are today the best friends of China.

That’s the reason why, when I come to China, they still ask for my advice. I sat for three hours with Xi, and I told him, “Look what’s happening to you. You are today economically almost like America. And you smell power as well. But listen to me: You have to decide, either to be a giver or a taker. The biggest mistake is if you’ll use the power to take. The greatest wisdom is if you give.”

I am very good friends with Putin. And I shall give you, in brief, the content of one of our recent discussions.

I told him, “You’re 63 years old, I’m 93 years old. Tell me, what do you want to achieve in the coming 30 years? What are you fighting for? Are you hoping to piss off America?”

He says, “No.”

“America wants a piece of Russia? No. You have trouble discussing things with Obama?”

He says, “Why do you ask?

I said, “Look, I am not a spy, whatever, tell me.”

He says, “What do you think?”

And I said, “America will win no matter what you do.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because they are lucky, and you are not.” [Laughs.]

I told him more. “When an American wakes up in the morning, what does he see? Mexico in the south, and they accept Mexicans in their country. Canada in the north, they are the best friends in the world. And on the right and on the left, there are fish in the water.

“What does Obama have to worry about? You, you wake up in the morning, whom do you have? Japan, China, Afghanistan? My god! They know that you have plenty of land, and you don’t give them a penny. You have 20 percent of the sweet water, and you give nothing. So when the snow in Siberia melts, the first thing you will see there are Chinese. Because there are plenty of Chinese in the east, and not so many Russians.

The second thing I told him was: “America has the best proportion between the size of the land and the size of the people. You here have the worst. 20 million square kilometers. My god. But what you don’t have are people. Your people are dying. Don’t be impressed by the applause and what people are saying. They won’t forgive you. Why do Russians live for only 62 years, while Americans will live 82 years?

And then I told him: “You behave like a Tsar.”

I am very open.

I said, “What did the Tsars do? They developed two cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, as a showcase. Whatever you want you will find there. The rest of Russia is like Nigeria covered with snow. Your people are dying. You don’t give them life. You think they’ll forgive you?”

“Why is America great?” I asked him. “Because they were givers. Why is Europe in trouble? Because they are takers. America is giving, people think it’s because they are generous. I think it’s because they are wise. If you give, you create friends. The most beneficial investment is making friends.

“America had the guts to take the Marshall Plan, a huge piece of their GNP that they gave to this dying Europe. And in this way, they have shown that this is the best investment in the world.”

There is no European country that didn’t take an empire. The French and the British, the Portuguese, everybody. And what happened? They were thrown out of there and left with nothing. England, the greatest empire from sunrise to sunset, all the oceans, and the nice, nonviolent Indians threw them out, and left them with nothing but three small islands, they don’t know what to do with them.

“Believe me,” I told Putin, “enemies and animosity are the greatest waste in life. You are investing in a foolish thing.”

The way to peace is not war, and not negotiation. It’s innovation. To be great in science, you don’t have to go to war. You can be a small country in size and a great country in content. And even today, this option exists. And I believe in it. It’s difficult, it may take time, but everything is difficult. I have spent my entire life as a dreamer. And as you said last time, an optimist. I choose to be an optimist.

Yes it was that phrase that I liked. [Laughs.]

I think to deal with the past is a waste of time. You can’t change it anyway. [Laughs.]

People say, you won’t repeat the same mistakes. So you’ll make new ones. [Laughs.]

The past doesn’t need the future, and the future doesn’t need the past.

Better to dream than to remember.

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