Saturday, February 19, 2011
Elder of ZiyonInternet service was cut off in Libya on Friday as the regime evidently moved to strip anti-government protestors of ways to organize and communicate, according to Arbor Networks.
[T]he death toll keeps climbing in Libya's protests. Moammar Gadhafi's minions killed another 20 people today, bringing the five-day total to at least 104, says Human Rights Watch. Gadhafi has effectively shut off Internet service and forbid media coverage, but witnesses told AP of attacks by police and government loyalists wielding guns, knives, and even anti-aircraft missiles.
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of ZiyonIndeed, it is no surprise that the emerging spokesman for this uprising is Wael Ghonim — a Google marketing executive who is Egyptian. He opened a Facebook page called “We are all Khaled Said,” named for an activist who was allegedly beaten to death by police in Alexandria. And that page helped spark the first protests here. Ghonim was abducted by Egyptian security officials on Jan. 28, and he was released on Monday. On Monday night, he gave an emotional TV interview that inspired many more people to come into the squareon Tuesday. And when he spoke there in the afternoon, he expressed the true essence of this uprising.Roger Cohen:
The sea of people pulsated with energy, galvanized by the words of Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive who got the Mubarak treatment — 12-day disappearance, blindfolding, interrogation — before a tweet that will one day be etched in some granite memorial: “Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it.”
Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.
Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of ZiyonEgypt has approved the passage of two Iranian warships through the Suez Canal, a source said on Friday, a move that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman previously described as "provocative."J. E. Dyer at Commentary describes why this is a big deal:
"Egypt has agreed to the passage of two Iranian ships through the Suez Canal," the security source told Reuters.
The two ships would be the first Iranian military vessels to pass through the canal since Iran's 1979 revolution.
To navigate the strategic waterway, naval vessels need the approval of Egypt's Foreign and Defence Ministries.
The big shift here is in political perceptions of power. The important facts are that revolutionary, terror-sponsoring Iran — under U.S., EU, and UN sanctions — feels free to conduct this deployment, and Syria feels free to cooperate in it. Egypt’s interim rulers apparently saw no reason to block the Suez transit, in spite of the Egyptians’ very recent concern over Iranian-backed terrorists and insurgents operating on their territory. Saudi Arabia, for its part, considered it prudent to host the Iranian warships last week — in spite of the Saudis’ own conviction that Iran has been aiding rebel groups that threaten Saudi territory.
The cooperation from the Arab nations should not be misread, however. The Arabs have no desire to see Iran in a position of regional hegemony. The threat of that prospect will raise the stakes for the governmental turmoil in the Arab world. The view is likely to gain momentum that Arabs need to organize as much to counter Iran as to address their own domestic issues. That factor — so inimical to the unforced development of political liberalism — was never going to be dismissible; the Iranian warship deployment makes it inevitable.
In information-speak, Iran is “inside our OODA-loop” right now: acting faster than we have prepared to react. Complacent assumptions about inertia in the status quo will not be borne out. Iran’s proximate strategic objective is consolidating the rule of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Former prime minister Saad Hariri declared his opposition to the Hezbollah-backed government in a speech on Monday; Hassan Nasrallah is promising that Hezbollah fighters will occupy Galilee; Ehud Barak warned on Wednesday that Israel might have to enter Lebanon again to counter Hezbollah. With the battle lines being drawn, Iran’s posture is hardening: the Islamic revolutionary regime is “all in.”
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of ZiyonThousands of opposition supporters, mainly students, gathered in Djibouti Friday to demand President Ismael Omar Guelleh step down, witnesses said.
The rare demonstration in the tiny Horn of Africa country was organised amid mounting opposition to the president, who last year had the constitution amended to allow him to seek a third mandate in upcoming April elections.
"IOG out", read one banner, using the president's initials, as most Djiboutians do. "No to a third mandate", read another banner.
Amid a tight police deployment, the demonstrators gathered at a stadium with the intention of staying there until their demands are met.
Hundreds of Syrians staged a protest against security forces after traffic police beat up a young man in the capital's Old City, an opposition website reported on Friday.
The Dubai-based all4Syria.info said Imad Nasab, son of a shopowner in the cobbled commercial strip of Hariqa, was assaulted by traffic police officers, sparking a spontaneous rally on Thursday in solidarity with the victim.
"The Syrian people will not be humiliated," chanted the crowd.
"Police, thieves" and "We will sacrifice our soul and blood for you (President) Bashar (al-Assad)" were some of the slogans used by the demonstrators.
Clashes broke out Friday in Jordan's capital between government supporters and opponents at a protest calling for more freedom and lower food prices, injuring eight.Also Kuwait, where the protesters are stateless Bedouin.
The Amman protest drew about 2,000 people, including hard-line leftists, Muslim conservatives and students calling for reduced power for the king and the chance to elect members of the Cabinet.
Students from the growing "Jaayin" or "I'm Coming" movement chanted: "We want constitutional reforms. We want a complete change to policies."
"They beat us with batons, pipes and hurled rocks at us," said Tareq Kmeil, a student at the protest. "We tried to defend ourselves, to beat them back."
Meanwhile, at least two people were killed in Yemen on Friday when clashes broke out between police and protesters.
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of Ziyon[S]ome [European and American analysts] still see every event in the Middle East, minor or major, as connected to Israel. Many of these analysts are so preoccupied with Israel or the so-called "Middle East conflict", a term that ignores or dismisses all other conflicts in the region as irrelevant and non-newsworthy, that they have no understanding of the region beyond Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
One would think that the recent events in Tunisia, Cairo, Yemen and elsewhere would demand soul-searching and humility on the part of these talking-heads who pontificate from their comfortable think-tanks and self-appointed analyst positions in Washington, London and Brussels.
Some of these analysts have not amended their tired and outdated thinking even after the recent events, merely stating the relationship of the unrest to Israel and the peace process. They have become the dinosaurs of international affairs and foreign policy analysis and will not be shaken from their ideological foundations by facts that contradict their thinking.Many of these analysts, some who claim experience in Middle East affairs, like those who claim to have been part of a peace process negotiating team when they did little more than make the tea, lack a keen understanding of the region. They fundamentally ignored the UNDP Human Development Report for Arab states report in 2009 which was a virtual roadmap for the events that took place during the last few weeks.
This report stated that the Arab world is lacking in all areas of human development, such as freedom, women empowerment and education. In addition, nearly 40% of the Arab world lives below the international poverty line. For the Arab world to merely maintain its current position, which is at the lowest rung on the development ladder, it will need to create 51 million jobs in the next ten years.
The report, co-authored by Arab scholars was a scream in the dark for many western analysts to wake up and face the very real problems affecting the Arab world. In addition, the free Arab press relates to these issues on a daily basis. However, this patronizing and perhaps even chauvinistic approach by some analysts tells the people of the region what they should be thinking rather than learning and listening.
Nevertheless, they cling to the tired and discredited claim that building a few of apartments in Ariel is what drives the so-called "Arab street" to distraction.
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of Ziyon
JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia - Former American socialite, Paris Hilton has converted to Islam, her spokesman, Ian Brinkham, has revealed to CBS news.UPDATE: Apparently, her love of Islam was short-lived.
"She has been toying with the idea for quite a while now and when she was imprisoned at Century Regional Detention Facility in 2007, she encountered a few people who had already converted," Mr Brinkham said.
By converting to the Muslim faith, Paris Hilton has decided to shun her old life as a celebrity skank.
Speaking from an Islamic study retreat in Jeddah, she said: "I have now found total peace in my life. Before, I used to be known as an STD-ridden streetwalker , a 'hoe' and a person of loose morals, but now, things have changed. Allah be praised."
Hollywood Jihad
Ms Hilton plans to return to Los Angeles next week to start her own Islamic school in the middle of Beverly Hills.
"Forget Scientology or Kaballah. This is the religion to be in now. I'm not going to be wearing a piece of red string on my wrist or walk around like a robot talking to Xenu. Islam is the new must-have religion. and I'm going to spread the word of the Koran to everyone," an excited Paris Hilton said.
Paris Hilton also plans to change her name to 'Tahirah' which means 'Pure, chaste' in Arabic. Her Islamic school will open in July and is set to become a popular Hollywood spiritual haunt for many celebrities.
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Friday, February 18, 2011Elder of ZiyonAl Wefaq, Bahrain’s main Shia Islamist opposition party, has for several years tried to introduce racial segregation, calling for the removal of third world immigrants from predominately Bahraini areas. In 2004, the head of Manama City Council, Al Wefaq’s Murthader Bader, called for the introduction of racial segregation in the city with the removal of South Asian nationals to other parts of the country.So far, this has not morphed into an anti-US protest, but Bahrain is the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, and concern is rising there. The Fifth Fleet helps keep the Gulf safe from disruptions of oil shipments that have been threatened by Al Qaeda - and Iran.
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of ZiyonIsrael has been unnerved by Egypt's revolution. The reason is simple: it fears for the survival of the 1979 peace treaty - a treaty which by neutralizing Egypt, guaranteed Israel's military dominance over the region for the next three decades.Yes, Patrick Seale is really trying to argue that Camp David caused wars, regional instability and somehow caused Arab regimes to mistreat their people.
By removing Egypt -- the strongest and most populous of the Arab countries -- from the Arab line-up, the treaty ruled out any possibility of an Arab coalition that might have contained Israel or restrained its freedom of action. As Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan remarked at the time: "If a wheel is removed, the car will not run again."
Western commentators routinely describe the treaty as a ‘pillar of regional stability,' a ‘keystone of Middle East diplomacy,' a ‘centerpiece of America's diplomacy' in the Arab and Muslim world. This is certainly how Israel and its American friends have seen it.
But for most Arabs, it has been a disaster. Far from providing stability, it exposed them to Israeli power. Far from bringing peace, the treaty ensured an absence of peace, since a dominant Israel saw no need to compose or compromise with Syria or the Palestinians.
Instead, the treaty opened the way for Israeli invasions, occupations and massacres in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, for strikes against Iraqi and Syrian nuclear sites, for brazen threats against Iran, for the 44-year occupation of the West Bank and the cruel blockade of Gaza, and for the pursuit of a ‘Greater Israel' agenda by fanatical Jewish settlers and religious nationalists.
In turn, Arab dictators, invoking the challenge they faced from an aggressive and expansionist Israel, were able to justify the need to maintain tight control over their populations by means of harsh security measures.
One way and another, the Israeli-Egyptian treaty has contributed hugely to the dangerous instability and raw nerves which have characterized the Middle East to this day, as well as to the sharpening of popular grievances, and the inevitable explosions which have followed.
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of Ziyon
helen thomasDuring an interview with Joy Behar last night, Helen Thomas made it clear that she was standing behind her statements that Israeli Jews should “go back” to Germany and Poland. However, she did make a couple of additions to the list of countries that Jews should “return” to, such as Russia and the United States.
“They’ve been free ever since,” said Thomas, referring to the Jews after the Holocaust. “They didn’t have to go anywhere really, because they weren’t being persecuted anymore, but they were taking other people’s land.”
A visibly uncomfortable Behar then asked Thomas whether she considered herself anti-Semitic – and got something less than a clear answer. “Hell no. I’m a Semite. Of Arab background,” said Thomas. “[The Jews are] not Semites. Most of them are from Europe.”
The former White House reporter then launched into a tirade against the Israel lobby. “We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel,” she said. “You can’t open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but if you say one thing about Israel … you’re off-limits.”
Asked whether she had any regrets about making her controversial statement last spring, Thomas said her only regret was that “everybody misinterpreted it.”
“You have the Ari Fleischers and the Abe Foxmans distorting everything,” said Thomas. “So I certainly knew that and I should have kept my mouth shut probably.”
After insisting that her statements weren’t insensitive, the journalism veteran launched into a rambling diatribe about Palestinians being “pushed from their homes” in the middle of the night.
Watch the full clip here if you wish. Though you could probably hear a more rational and pleasant perspective on Middle East policy from a ranting homeless person at a bus station.
Nir Rosen, the journalist who infamously mocked Lara Logan (and who was completely dismantled by Anderson Cooper last night), has been saying hugely outrageous things for years, as I've documented here. He is sympathetic to the Taliban; he thinks al Qaeda poses no threat to America; he wishes Americans would "get over" 9/11; and he thinks Israel is an "abomination" that should be destroyed. After I posted about his previous statements, I was flooded with e-mails from Goldblog readers who told me I missed the nuttiest thing Rosen ever said. It came in an article about his Israeli origins, in which he called his homeland a place of "bloody nationalism, paranoid identity and violent religion." In reading this treatise on Israel and its sins, it becomes clear that Rosen (who attended an Orthodox Jewish day school in New York) feels the sort of hate for Israel and Judaism that one associates with the hardest core of Hamas.No comment necessary - these haters speak for themselves.
The truly revealing part of this treatise comes at the end, when Rosen discusses ways to convince Israel to behave in a way he thinks is just: "I find myself in the unique and painful position of calling for international sanctions against Israel and wondering if a punitive bombing of Tel Aviv, the city I love, until it complies with international law, might be a good (albeit quixotic) idea."
Yes, Rosen is calling for the physical destruction of the world's largest Jewish city. I wrote yesterday that I would try to avoid armchair psychoanalysis in this matter, but sometimes these things are fairly obvious. Rosen, an American of Israeli origin, has spent his career rationalizing the actions of Israel's, and America's, most bitter enemies, and he envisions a day when the world community will conduct a bombing campaign of Tel Aviv. Nir Rosen seems to be engaged in a ferocious attempt to shed his identity to the point where he aligns himself with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban, and argues for the literal destruction of the city from which he came. It is deeply pathetic.
JOY: You owed Helen some respect. And you didn't show it. And now I have no more respect for YOU. For someone who claims to be Catholic, you sure are a Zionist and your antagonistic Jew-loving one-sided brutality towards this journalism hero who speaks nothing but the damn truth, just shows you're either really a JEW or you're bought and paid for by your JEW MEDIA CORPORATE EVILThat's me- Jew Media Corporate Evil!
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of ZiyonAs thousands of Egyptians are preparing to celebrate their successful revolution against long-standing president Hosni Mubarak on Friday, February 18, prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi will deliver the sermon of the weekly prayers from Tahrir Square in Cairo.Hundreds of thousands are expected at tomorrow's rally, so Qaradawi - who issues fatwas mandating suicide bombings against Jews in Israel - will have quite an audience.
Qaradawi, the present of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) will deliver the sermon at an invitation from a coalition representing the youth of the Egyptian revolution, OnIslam.net has learned.
The invitation was extended in gratitude to Qaradawi’s role in mobilizing support for the Egyptian revolution.
Thousands of Egyptians are set to gather in Tahrir Square to celebrate their success in ousting Mubarak.
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of ZiyonBDSIsrael's economy picked up in the last quarter of 2010, chalking up 7.8 percent growth and a higher-than-expected annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, official figures show on Thursday.I guess that the BDS movement didn't manage to boycott enough Israeli hummus last year.
The figure took analysts by surprise, outstripping expectations of a fourth-quarter growth rate of around 4.0 percent.
Central Bureau of Statistics data show the economy grew by 5.2 percent in the second quarter and 4.4 percent in the third.
Earlier this week, the Bank of Israel (BoI) had predicted fourth-quarter growth of between 4.3 and 4.6 percent.
The annual growth figure far outstrips the 2.8-percent average registered in 2010 by countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed nations which Israel joined last year.
It also exceeded OECD estimates, which showed Israeli GDP growing by 3.9 percent in 2010.
Last month in its annual report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the Jewish state had emerged "relatively unscathed" from the global recession, and praised the "resilience" of its economy.
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of ZiyonWe strongly condemned strongly the militants and the advocates of extremism who deliberately demonstrated in front of some religious monuments and chanted slogans against the religions; it was incitement to violence, racism and discrimination.This is a good sign.
It is unacceptable for them to undermine the very values of our republican system based on respect for freedoms and beliefs, tolerance and peaceful coexistence between all factions and ensure the exercise of civil rights.
We will spare no effort to preserve these values and respond to anyone trying to incite violence or sedition among the people of Tunisia...
Thursday, February 17, 2011Elder of ZiyonFunds belonging to the family of Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, or his senior ministers have been discovered in Switzerland, a Swiss government official said Wednesday. But the official declined to specify how much money had been identified or who controlled the account.SoccerDad via email points out that Yasir Arafat, who embezzled as much as $3 billion himself, was never subject to such scrutiny.
“The first traces have been identified,” said the Swiss official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At the end of the week, we might have a better picture.”
The disclosure came as the new military-led Egyptian government confirmed that it had asked countries across the Western and Arab worlds to freeze the assets of senior former government officials. But the statement from the government did not say whether the list included Mr. Mubarak and his family members. Egyptian opposition members said they feared that the military would shield Mr. Mubarak, a former air force chief, and his relatives from an investigation.
Yasser Arafat shared his secrets and thoughts mainly with the small notebooks that he filled and kept in places unknown to members of the Palestinian leadership, even those who were close to the late Palestinian leader. Even after his death, the causes of which are still unknown, nobody dared to open these notebooks, or even open the boxes in which they were kept. There is no indication as to who is in charge of safekeeping them or the nature of the information noted by Arafat. However, all sources agree to the importance and seriousness of these notes, especially as the late leader, since the launch of the Palestinian revolution, would make note of every detail in a small notebook that he would keep in the pockets of his military uniforms that he wore for over fifty years during his leadership of the Palestinian revolution. Yasser Arafat, also known as Abu Ammar never parted with his notebooks. When they were full, he kept them in special envelopes and boxes in his office, allowing no one access to them.Those notebooks of course are the key to where Arafat squirreled all his money. While the PA begs for Western money, they don't seem to be spending too much time trying to find the money that was embezzled by their great leader.
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PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
