Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Iran faces economic crisis

Al Arabiya (Arabic only) has an article detailing the economic woes that Iran faces.

With the worsening budget deficit, soaring fuel consumption and its simultaneous problems in production, Iran's options are extremely limited.

The country has only two choices: either the devaluation of local currency and a willingness to face the negative economic consequences, or removal of subsidies on the staples and facing the wrath of the street.

[Analysts believe that] low-income people will be most affected by the decision to lift subsidies on basic food commodities that will be channeled for the benefit of employers, which may lead to unrest in the short term.

...Many fear that the elimination of subsidies will cause a higher inflation rate than the 10% inflation Iran has currently, which can increase the discontent towards the government.

I have doubts about the chances of sanctions working at this late stage, but this is the time to tighten them further.

A Palestinian Arab ambassador's lie

From TheJC:

A senior officer of the Board of Deputies has urged president Vivian Wineman to issue a "historic" invitation to the Palestinian Authority's UK Ambassador, Manuel Hassassian, to address British Jewry's main representative body.

Board treasurer Laurence Brass, in a letter to Mr Wineman, said it would be right to open dialogue with the Palestinian envoy even if it incurred criticism from right-wingers "who have tended to dominate" its Middle East agenda.

I just stumbled upon this video, apparently from 2007, of this Palestinian representative to the UK denying that the videos of Palestinian Arabs celebrating 9/11 were real:

Not only does he say that the videos don't show them celebrating 9/11, but he makes the astounding claim that the videos were of Palestinian Arabs celebrating the Oslo Accords!

Here's one of the actual videos from CNN;

Right after 9/11, rumors started that the CNN videos were fake. Here was CNN's reaction at the time:

There is absolutely no truth to the information that is now distributed on the Internet that CNN used 10-year-old video when showing the celebrating of some Palestinians in East Jerusalem after the terror attacks in the U.S. The video was shot that day by a Reuters camera crew. CNN is a client of Reuters and like other clients, received the video and broadcast it. Reuters officials have publicly made the facts clear as well.

Here is yet another example of a Palestinian Arab spokesperson who has no compunction about openly lying on TV, in English.

Not only that, but in the same interview he supports rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

Yet instead of being an embarrassment to his people - he remains a representative of them. Lies and justifying terror are simply part of his job.

Why on Earth would a Jewish organization want to invite a proven liar and terror advocate to speak to them? Dialog with liars is hardly a worthwhile endeavor. He should have been shunned, publicly and permanently, once his lies were exposed.

The PA has a new chief Dhimmi

Ma'an has an article by Faisal Hijazin, Parish Priest of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Ramallah, talking about how difficult life is for Christians in Bethlehem:

This Christmas, Christians around the world will be singing such Christmas Carols as “O Little Town of Bethlehem” without knowing that in truth, they could soon be singing of a town where you can no longer find the living presence of Christ, the community of those baptized into his body, the Church; “O Lost Town of Bethlehem” could be a more accurate sentiment when Christians awake to find that the Christian presence in this small holy city has, after 2,000 years, come to an end.

The fact is that this is a community that has been suffocating under military occupation, and all the restriction of liberty – particularly separation from family living very short distances away due to the “Wall of Separation” - that this subjection to arbitrary regulations and threat of imminent violence carries with it. The prolongation, decade after decade, of these circumstances, means that Christians are leaving their beloved city to seek places where they can raise their families where they can live, work and pray with the dignity of human beings. This is perhaps an accusation of our failure to willingly suffer all things in Christ. Though our faith has sustained us for many years, yet, failing to see change coming, many, and ever more, opt for places that offer brighter futures.

The hardships of the political situation have severely reduced the Christian population. Certainly, there are some voices in the international press who present this flight as a result of Islamic persecution. This is false. While of course the Christian community of Palestine has problems due to its minority status, as happens to minority populations virtually everywhere, still careful polling of emigrating Christians clearly demonstrates that the primary reason for leaving is the condition of living under the heavy thumb of the military occupation, without rights, of the Israeli government. This is a situation that, in one form or another, has gone on for 62 years.

Really? Israeli policies were forcing Christians out of Bethlehem before 1967 when Jordan occupied the city? Wow, those Jews are really cunning!

...It has not always been easy to control my own anger, let alone counsel forgiveness to the suffering and bereaved. Some have been able to hear Christ’s words of comfort. Others think of flight. Israel makes no distinction whatsoever between Christians and Muslims. The glaring fact is that the Israelis want the Palestinian land, but do want the Palestinians, the people who have lived there for thousands of years. And, without restrictions on their power, they act accordingly.

Bethlehem's population has been steadily increasing, year after year: 21,670 in 1997, 28,111 in 2004, 29,927 in 2008 (PCBS estimates.) Hijazin freely admits that Israeli policies are equal for Muslims and Christians. Yet the Christian population keeps decreasing while the Muslim population goes up.

So how can it be that Christians are fleeing because of Israeli policies while Muslims are moving in under those same policies?

Hijazin is practicing the usual form of dhimmitude that we see this time of year, where Jews are blamed for Christian suffering and Muslim persecution of the minority population is hushed up.

The only Middle East nation with an increasing Christian population is Israel. There is no way that one can blame Christian flight on Israel while simultaneously explaining the Muslim takeover of the city. Father Hijazin is simply a liar.

Oh, and that claim that Bethlehem Christians have "lived there for thousands of years"? This paper from Bethlehem University has this interesting fact:

[L]arge numbers of the settled Christians including the citizens of Bethlehem were ethnically Arabs of the Ghassanid tribes that had migrated earlier from the Yaman northward toward geographical Syria. Bethlehem's two largest Christian Arab clans/quarters trace their origin to these southern Arabian Christian tribes (the Gassanids). These include Al- Farahiyyah clan/ quarter who trace their origin to the Yaman and to their grandfather, Farah, who came from Wadi Musa in southern Syria (now in Jordan). There is also An- Najajreh, who say that their ancestors came from Najran in Arabia. Likewise, Al- 'Anatreh clan/ quarter trace their ancestry to Christian Arab tribes.

There may be some Palestinian Arabs who have lived there since Roman times, but I have yet to find anyone who could claim to trace their family back even a thousand years. On the contrary, the most important Palestinian Arab families seem to have arrived in the last 500 years.

Arabs fooled by video of "amazing new Iranian airplane"

Firas Press links to a YouTube video that claims to show an Iranian airplane being launched from underwater:

Western intelligence sources said that Iran's air industry has succeeded in manufacturing a fighter plane that takes off directly from under the sea. Those sources considered this a serious technological development that demonstrates the new capabilities of the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guard forces that support them.

One minor problem: it is fake.

The video is a few years old, and it is simply a video of an F-15 superimposed on top of a video of a missile launch from a submarine.

Dishonest Reporter Awards released

Honest Reporting has released its annual "Dishonest Reporter" rewards, noting the worst anti-Israel bias throughout the year in the press.

Highlights include:

Reuters for having so many reporters on the scene before a routine Israeli tree-cutting operation on the Lebanese border - almost as if they knew that the LAF was going to start shooting and killing Israeli soldiers.

The Guardian for similarly claiming to be "at the right place at the right time" with a gaggle of other reporters who were waiting for Arab youths to throw stones at Jewish-owned cars in Jerusalem.

Paul McKeough for his biased and lying article on the Mavi Marmara - that received a prestigious award.

And Time Magazine for their cover story, "Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace."

Read the whole thing.

Priest spouts anti-semitism on Greek TV

From JPost:

A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece's financial problems on Tuesday.

The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim also blamed world Jewry for other ills in the country during his appearance on Mega TV.

Mixing Freemasons with Jewish bankers such as Baron Rothschild and world Zionism, the Metropolite said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.

Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's policies? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?"

The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."

Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said.

I found a Greek blog post from last January that detailed and provided links to this priest's public anti-semitic remarks.

From the official webpage of the Greek Orthodox Church:

The Jews use Hollywood to promote the degradation of Christ and the Church through the movie "The da Vinci Code..."

Other quotes:

Jews, along with Satanists, are trying to homogenize humanity and enforce the ecumenical religion of darkness - their latest trick: cremation.

...the sharp claws of the Zionist monster....[performing] the Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people...

The powerful prelate referred to people who make up the Bilderberg are "elite officers of the Jewish lobby and from the world of recognized Jewish bankers like Rothschild and Rockefeller and the known anti-Greek Kissinger, Brzezinski and Soros."

This guy has been saying this stuff, proudly and publicly, for years!

Hamas munitions apparently explode in Gaza neighborhood

Palestine Press Agency reports that a series of powerful explosions rocked Gaza City this morning, injuring one.

It quoted residents as saying that rockets were stored on a lower level of that building.

Evidence that it was a Hamas arms depot hidden in a residential neighborhood comes from the fact that Hamas immediately cordoned off the area, it forcefully prevented journalists from approaching the scene and taking photos, and it evacuated residents in "fear of other explosions that may result from the presence of missiles or weapons inside the building [that could be set off by the] fire which resulted from the explosions."

A poster that goes for the jugular

Another in my series:

Wikileaks: New Zealand used spy flap to help sell lambs to Arabs

From The Guardian:

US diplomats disparaged New Zealand's reaction to a suspected Israeli spy ring as a "flap" and accused New Zealand's government of grandstanding in order to sell more lamb to Arab countries, according to leaked cables.

The arrest and conviction in 2004 of two Israeli citizens, who were caught using the identity of a cerebral palsy sufferer to apply for a New Zealand passport, caused a serious rift between New Zealand and Israel, with allegations that the two men and others involved were Mossad agents.

"The New Zealand government views the act carried out by the Israeli intelligence agents as not only utterly unacceptable but also a breach of New Zealand sovereignty and international law," New Zealand's then-prime minister, Helen Clark, said after the arrests.

But US officials in Wellington told their colleagues in Washington that New Zealand had "little to lose" from the breakdown in diplomatic relations with Israel and was instead merely trying to bolster its exports to Arab states.

A confidential cable written in July 2004, after New Zealand imposed high-level diplomatic sanctions against Israel, comments: "The GoNZ [government of New Zealand] has little to lose by such stringent action, with limited contact and trade with Israel, and possibly something to gain in the Arab world, as the GoNZ is establishing an embassy in Egypt and actively pursuing trade with Arab states."

A cable two days later was even more pointed, saying: "Its overly strong reaction to Israel over this issue suggests the GNZ sees this flap as an opportunity to bolster its credibility with the Arab community, and by doing so, perhaps, help NZ lamb and other products gain greater access to a larger and more lucrative market."

IHH and HRW: Two sides of the same coin

Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has an important report showing that Turkey's IHH is not a "humanitarian organization" but is pushing a political, anti-Israel agenda.

Some of the aid IHH gave the Palestinians was humanitarian, intended to ease the physical distress of the Palestinian population and improve its economic standing. However, some aspects of the aid, as described in the booklet, also clearly have political implications, such as the large amounts of money and equipment given to the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, donations of money to the families of shaheeds in the Gaza Strip and the construction of houses (possibly of terrorist operatives) to replace those destroyed by Israel in Judea and Samaria. The donations help Hamas' civilian network, which supports terrorism, and its educational system in the Gaza Strip, which indoctrinates the younger generation with radical Islam and sets them on the path of terrorism ("resistance"). In addition, IHH waged a propaganda campaign in Turkey during the years before Operation Cast Lead, contributing to Turkish hatred of Israel and sympathy for Hamas.

This is not terribly surprising, but it is important for those who still consider IHH a "humanitarian aid" organization.

HRW just issued its umpteenth report criticizing Israel, a 171 page report called "Separate and Unequal" that relies on already biased NGOs to piece together a picture of Israel's discrimination against non-Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria.

This report shows that HRW has essentially the same anti-Israel agenda that IHH does.

The agenda is clear from the photo on the cover of the report:

The Palestinian Arabs are living in poor, decrepit shacks while under the thumb of the evil settlers!

I just went through my photos to see if I could find any pictures of Israeli and Palestinian Arab communities in the same shot. Here's one from Efrat:

This is a lot more typical, but that wouldn't fit in with HRW's anti-Israel agenda. And, of course, there are plenty of Palestinian Arab mansions that dwarf every single Jewish-owned house in the area (click to enlarge):

There is plenty more to criticize in HRW's report, but the clear proof of its bias comes from its recommendations. HRW tells Western governments and businesses to essentially join the BDS movement and to ensure that products that are created in Judea and Samaria - only by Jewish-owned businesses - to be boycotted and labeled.

Going through every other report that HRW created in the past month, not once do they make recommendations to the world business community to punish a specific state nor do they make specific recommendations for any government to boycott real abusers of human rights. In fact, their recommendations almost always call for the UN and interested governments to "insist" on human rights in the target country, or to "investigate" abuses, or to "press" government officials to act in certain ways, or to "monitor" allegations. I cannot find in any other HRW report any specific recommendations to target businesses and governments that way that HRW demands Israel be targeted, no matter how egregious or obvious the human rights abuses are.

Human Rights Watch, when dealing with Israel, is not following a human-rights agenda, but rather a political agenda to delegitimize and punish Israel for often-imaginary abuses, while allowing governments that have real human rights abuses to pass without any specific recommendations to punish them. Which means that HRW does not treat Israel as a violator of human rights but as a political target.

Just like IHH.

Loony open thread

I didn't stay up to watch the lunar eclipse, but after playing around with the settings of one of my cameras, did manage to get this shot of the full moon a few hours beforehand:

Taken with a Fujifilm FinePix S2500HD, manual settings at ISO 100 and 1/60th second exposure. I would have played more with the settings but it was quite cold outside!

I digitally increased the contrast and darkened it a bit so the details are easier to see. (The picture is also heavily cropped.)

Default settings invariably gave a very blurry image.

Another poster for Seattle

A bit more low-key than the first poster I made, but it directly addresses the issue:

An answer to the anti-Israel Seattle bus ads

In Seattle, an anti-Israel organization is planning to place ads on buses in the city showing a bombed-out building from Gaza with the words "Israeli war crimes: your tax dollars at work."

Here is my response:

Those Jews and their witchcraft

An former Guantanamo inmate talks about how Jewish army personnel would perform witchcraft on the prisoners. From MEMRI: (video here)

Walid Muhammad Hajj: If an interrogator wanted to wear down someone who was not talking, he would send him to the psychiatrist, who would use these methods.

Interviewer: He would use means that would drive him insane.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes. The most common method to wear down the brothers was witchcraft.

Interviewer: How did they do this?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: There were, of course, Jews among the [staff of] the Guantanamo Base, and they would set traps for the guys.

Interviewer: Give me an example of witchcraft.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Witchcraft was used on most of the guys.

Interviewer: They would cast a spell on them?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes, but by the grace of Allah, through frequent reading of the Koran and invocation of the names of Allah, they managed to withstand this.

Interviewer: How did you know that somebody was under a spell?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Someone like that would change.

Interviewer: In what way?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: For example, somebody would take his clothes off, all of a sudden, or would sit on his bed for three days straight without sleeping.

[...]

They would use all kinds of witchcraft against the guys.

Interviewer: Tell me more.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: I will tell you how the witchcraft affected the guys. A person would suddenly see his brothers and sisters naked before him.

Interviewer: And they weren't really there?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Absolutely not. It was as if he was in a different world.

Interviewer: You mean, his brothers and sisters from back home.

Walid Muhammad Hajj: That's right. I remembered an incident with a guy who sat next to me in the morning. When they brought the milk, he began to urinate into the milk.

Interviewer: In front of you?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes. I said to him: "Why are you urinating in the milk?" That's when we knew that he was under a spell. After he had recovered a little, after we read Koranic verses to him, he said to me: "The birds on the barbed wire would talk to me, and tell me to urinate in the milk. When the guards pass by my cell, the sound made by their pants talks to me."

Interviewer: They tell him to urinate in the milk?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes.

[...]

Interviewer: Did they ever use witchcraft on you?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: There was one attempt.

Interviewer: How did they do it?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Once, when I was sleeping – on the floor, not on a bed – I suddenly felt that a cat was trying to penetrate me. It tried to penetrate me again and again. I recited the kursi verse again and again until the cat left.

Interviewer: But there wasn't really any cat there?

Walid Muhammad Hajj: Absolutely not.

So the next time you have a fantasy about a cat penetrating you, rest assured it is merely a spell from the Jewish wizard psychiatrist and recite verses from the Quran. All will be well.

(h/t Barry Rubin via Facebook)

An early 18th century account of Ethiopian Jews

More from Google Books...

The Travels and Adventures of Edward Brown, published in 1739, describes impressions of the Jews of Abyssinia.

As for the Jews I am at a Loss what to say of them; for if we consider the several sorts of them who live in and round Abyssinia, and the Custom of the Abyssines themselves, to observe the Sabbath strictly, to circumcise on the eighth Day, to use the Levitical Purifications, to abstain from forbidden Meats, to send away their Wives on every slight Occasion with a Bill of Divorce, and to boast as they do that their Monarch is the Lion of the Tribe of Judab; I say when one considers all this, one might be tempted to say they are all Jews. But to avoid giving Offence, after seperating the Abyssines, who are a kind of Christian Jews, the remainder may be divided into Jews, properly so called, and into those who are Jews only by Descent. Of the first there are great Numbers in the Kingdom of Dambea; these were formerly very troublesome, pretending to live in an independent manner, without yielding either Tribute or Submission to the Abyssinian Emperors. These Princes for a Time wink'd at this, till an Opportunity serv'd for reducing them, against which, tho' to no Purpose, the Jews made a vigorous Resistance. Since then, many of them are turned Christians, and incorporated with the Abyssines, but the remainder of them now very numerous, are the most industrious Mechanics and Traders in the Abyssian Empire. On the very Borders of this Country, on the other Side of the Nile, and among the barbarous People, there are many independent Colonies of Jews, of whose Government and manner of living very little Account can be given, except that they have the Scriptures of the old Testament in Hebrew, speak themselves that Language corruptly, and most bitterly hate the Christians.

As to those who are Jews only by Descent, they are the famous Nation of the Gaus, Gallas or Chalks, which last I take to be their true Name, at least so themselves pronounce it. It signifies white Men, and yet these People are black. However that they were once white is plain enough, for they have most of them them Roman Noses, thin Lips, and comely Features. They are tall, robust, well limb'd Men, very brave, but withal very cruel, and most abominable Thieves, It is not above an hundred Years that they have vexed the Abyssinian Empire, or indeed that they were ever heard of there; but in all probability it will be at least another hundred Years before the Abyssinian get fairly rid of them, for they are now settled up and down all the West Borders of the Empire. They live like the ancient Patriarchs, on the Product of their Herds and Flocks, never cultivating any Land, or Building any Thing more than Cabbins to cover them from the Weather. They worship one God, circumcise, and vehemently abhor Idolatry ; but as for any other religious Tenets, it does not appear what they hold. When their Children are young, their Fathers regard them no more than Dogs ; but when they are grown big enough to hunt, and to sight, then they treat them with all imaginable Kindness and Affection. These People are most justly accounted the most dangerous Enemies in the World; in offensive Wars they are generally Victorious, and when they act on the defensive are always so. When they sight they either conquer or die ; when they are attacked by a superior Force, they drive away their Cattel, and retire so quick, that their Pursuers are quickly involved in their inhospitable Country, where there is neither House, plow'd Field, or any Thing which can furnish Subsistance ; so that there is a Necessity of retiring Re infecta; and it is well if these People do not incommode their Retreat. Their Armies are composed of Horse and Foot, the former are the more numerous, but the latter arc the better Troops.

This is an earlier account than the one mentioned in the Jewish Virtual Library that claimed that the first modern contact came in 1769.

While on the topic of 17th century Latin Hebraica....

A complete translation of the Mishnah into Latin - complete with translations of commentaries by Maimonides and the Bartenura (plus some commentaries from the Dutch Christian author, Willem Surenhuis.)

From 1698.

Eat your heart out, Artscroll.

John Selden's works on Jewish topics are on Google Books

A few months ago I quoted an article about John Selden, pre-eminent 17th century English jurist and scholar, showing that he derived most of his ideas of natural law from the Talmudic formulations of the Seven Noahide Laws:

John Selden was in his day perhaps the most important political and legal theorist in England (“the law-book of the judges of England,” as the poet Ben Jonson called him). Yet Selden chose to publish most of his ideas in the form of a series of massive commentaries on the social and political ideas of the Talmud. Selden’s works sought to retrieve the political thought of the rabbis and apply them to pressing questions of early modern political theory such as the concept of a national tradition, the proper relationship between church and state, the theory of marriage contracts (especially pressing as Protestants broke with Catholic traditions on the subject), and much else. In particular, Selden’s The Law of Nature seeks to develop a political theory capable of undergirding the ongoing refusal of the English to abandon their national system of law, the Common Law, in favor of the putatively universal Roman Law being aggressively promoted on the Continent. Relying on the Jewish legal system as a prototype, and on rabbinic political theories as a crucial ally, Selden seeks to show that only a world constituted of independent nations, each with its own particular legal tradition, can be the basis for mankind’s search for that which is ultimately just and true. The rabbinic “Laws of the Sons of Noah,” which serve as the Talmudic version of a universal natural law, are taken by Selden to be the best approximation of a natural law available to mankind.

It turns out that his major works are available on Google Books, in their original printed forms - in Latin.

Here is the frontispiece for "The Law of Nature," or more accurately, "De jure naturali et gentium, juxta disciplinam Ebræorum," showing the Noahide laws being taught to the world (the lectern is labeled "Laws of the Sons of Noah" in Hebrew):

Indeed, the book liberally quotes from an astonishing array of Talmudic sources as well as later Jewish commentaries, lots of Maimonides, and even Kabbalistic sources.

Google Books has full copies of his works on the Sanhedrin, on Jewish laws of marriage and divorce, and many others.

I wish I knew Latin. I also wish I knew as much about Jewish law as Selden evidently did.

More comedy from Bashir Assad (ElderToons)

Yesterday we were treated to the humorous stylings of Wacky Bashir Assad, where he regaled us with hilarious tales of "occupation" being responsible for all Arab problems.

Today, his stand-up comedy act continues in the pages of Germany's Bild. Among today's jokes are that there are still Jews in Syria (sure, about 25 of them.)

In fact, here's the poster for his upcoming comedy tour:

(h/t Silke)

Morning links

Egypt continues to bar Hamas members from crossing through Rafah to Egypt.

Ashamed to be an Arab - Why is the Arab media silent on horrific abuses of human rights?

JCPA analysis on the competition between Iran and Turkey to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world.

Another JCPA article about the fallacy of the "1967 borders."

Richard the The Augean Stables fisks a Ha'aretz piece supporting BDS.

And if you want to read today's edition of full-throated nutty conspiracy theories, check out the wacky Veterans Today site. It starts off calling Obama a "Zionist warmonger." Ha'aretz, meanwhile, interviewed the nutcase behind that site here, giving it legitimacy for Arabic websites to start quoting it.

Egypt claims to have busted Israeli spy ring

From Al Masry al-Youm:

Egyptian security forces have arrested several people suspected of belonging to an Israeli spy network operating in Egypt. The alleged network reportedly consists of two fugitive Israeli officers and four Egyptian nationals.

The State Security apparatus is currently conducting a highly secretive investigation of the suspects.

Investigations have so far revealed that network members had succeeded in establishing two communications offices, one in Cairo and one in the UK, through which they recorded telephone calls made by prominent Egyptian government officials. The calls were then allegedly transferred to a communications office in Israel.

Investigations have further revealed that one of the Israeli officers had managed to recruit a female Egyptian public relations director working at a tourism company to supply him with information, in return for money, about places frequented by certain groups of tourists--including those from China and Japan--near the border region of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

After being provided with the information, the Israeli officer was then able to kidnap a number of tourists who were allegedly taken to Israel. After several days, kidnapped tourists were then reportedly returned to the place from which they had been abducted. The operation's apparent objective was to destabilize security in the Sinai Peninsula.

Confessions by the defendants have revealed that the two officers had recruited a former female basketball player and her friend to rent a communications office in Cairo, which was run by a third person who has also been arrested. This office was reportedly linked to a communications office in the UK.

The defendants were thus able to monitor and record telephone calls made from certain landlines in Egypt--as specified by the two officers--which were then transferred to the UK office before being re-transmitted to a communications office in Israel.

Egyptian security forces have arrested and detained the Egyptian suspects pending investigation, while public prosecutors have charged them with conducting espionage for a foreign country, recording telephone calls without permission, and forming a "terrorist cell" aimed at disrupting public order.

Interpol, meanwhile, has been asked to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli suspects.

Al-Masry Al-Youm has learned that the case file contains more than 15 telephone calls involving high-ranking government officials that were successfully recorded by the suspected spies.

New details via RTT:

Egyptian authorities claimed Monday that the country's state security service has busted a 'spy-ring' engaged in espionage activities. It is said to have been attempting to recruit employees working for telecommunications companies in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon as Israeli operatives.

State prosecutor Hisham Badawi revealed Monday that local businessman Tareq Abdel Razeq Hussein Hassan, 37-year-old owner of an import-export business, was arrested in August for his alleged involvement in the Israeli spy-ring.

The idea that Israeli spies infiltrate telecommunications networks in the Arab world is not only believable but most probable, though it is an open question as to whether this was really one of those cases.

But the supposed plot to kidnap tourists for a few days and then return them, quietly, to "destabilize security in the Sinai" makes no sense at all.

By the way, whenever Palestine Today illustrates a story about Israeli intelligence, it uses this image: