Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 08, 2011

Here they are, ladies: The Domes of the Rock

The Daily Show on Wednesday had a hilarious bit about women creating their own country - and religion - in the Middle East.

In light of the Muslim world being upset over the photo of two British women in front of the Temple Mount, I bring you the women's holy place:

The entire, politically incorrect sketch:

The Daily Show - Libya Majora
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Latest stupid PalArab/leftist rumor: "Operation Scorching Summer"

Over the past few hours, lots of Palestinian and leftist sites have been repeating a rumor that looks like this:

Israel have just announced that "Operation Scorching Summer" will resume tonight. The UN have evacuted all their staff, and 1.5 million people are preparing for another massacre.

It seems to have started on a Facebook page called "Breaking News Gaza" and it got copied all over the place. The most prominent website behind it seems to be "Occupied Palestine", claiming it was on Israel's Channel 2.

Of course, this is completely ridiculous.

If you actually need proof that it is not true, meaning if you actually believe that the IDF announces its attacks on TV a day ahead of time, just look at the website that is dedicated to the safety of NGOs in Gaza. If the UN was evacuating, they would be telling all their people.

Of course, they are not.

But just for fun, Google it or search Twitter. See how unbelievably gullible the Israel haters are, and how easily rumors can spread among the idiots who hate Israel. Not to mention how litte regard they have for the truth to begin with.

Or, if you want, make up a scary graphic so they can make themselves look even dumber when they start spreading it:

(h/t Cesar)

Egyptians mull stopping US aid

Today on Radio Ahram, the subject was whether Egypt should stop accepting the $2 billion it received annually from the US. That aid had been meant to keep Egypt friendly to the US and to keep its part of the peace agreement with Israel.

The comments on the web are generally in favor of stopping the aid, and stopping agreements with Israel such as the natural gas deal.

One commenter says, not unreasonably, that if Egypt recovers the money that was stolen by the Mubarak regime every year, that could offset US aid. Of course, this presupposes that the new regime in Egypt won't be as corrupt as the last one.

Now, the better question is should Israel wean itself from US aid, and therefore US pressure?

Hamas takes credit for bombing schoolbus

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades English webpage says:

Gaza-Ezzedeen Al Qassam Briades (E.Q.B) the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas declared in a military communiqué released on Thursday April 7, 201l the full responsibility for the operation of targeting Israeli bus traveling in the nearby Israeli settlement of Kfar Sa’ad east of Gaza Strip.

The operation left two Israeli settlers injured, one of them was in a critical condition and evacuated by the Israeli medical crews to Soroka hospital.

They include a few photos of the bombed bus.

Unlike previous communiques, Hamas is not even claiming that this was a military target.

The Arabic version of the communique said they attacked "infidel Zionist usurpers."

Hamas brags that it targets civilians. Which means, according to the bizarre logic of "human rights groups," there is no need to write reports and issue lots of press releases condemning them.

Western media doesn't mention Rio terrorist was a Muslim (updated)

From AP, a story that you can find all over in English:

A gunman opened fire at a public elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed at least 11 students before killing himself.

Earlier, police said at least 13 people died in the shooting, but Rio state Health Secretary Sergio Cortes said 10 girls and one boy were killed, along with the gunman. The ages of the children were not immediately known.

Officials said the 23-year-old gunman was a former student at the Tasso da Silveira school, located in a working-class neighborhood in western Rio. A motive was not immediately known, but authorities said the man left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

I had to go to Al Arabiya to find out that he was a convert to Islam, that the letter said that Islam was the true religion and that the letter glorified terrorism and suicide bombings.

Brazilian media is frightened of a growing Islamist movement associated with Al Qaeda that is operation in South America, according to Al Arabiya.

Whether Islam had anything to do with his actions remains to be seen. It seems, though, that the English-language media has already decided that his fascination with Islamist terror is not an important detail to mention in the thousands of stories already published on the incident.

UPDATE: Serjew comments:

I´ve just seen a part of the letter left by the murderer, and it´s not clear from it that he was muslim. Though that part mentions his desire of a burial with some islamic traits, it later says he expects to be resurrected by the coming of Jesus.

So, till now, it just seems he was a religious fundamentalist nut, maybe evangelical, maybe not.

Al Arabiya is pretty clear that he was a convert, but he might not have quite gotten the concept....

UPDATE 2: Renguinho adds:

I'm Brazilian and I've been following this story the whole day (though not quite closely). It seems the bits of info that the shooter was HIV-positive and Muslim were rumours (the first was said by a politician, a "vice-mayor"). I've read the whole letter and it doesn't mention anything Islamic. (The obsession with cleaning and purity etc. cannot be attributed to Islamism on his part, since he mentions Jesus later on).

However, ..his sister told the media that he was "obsessed with Muslim things" (that was what the media was reporting, that she said that). If he was "obsessed" or something like that with some religion, no common person would say, out of the blue, that it was with Muslim religion if that person didn't hear/see for certain that it was Muslim - they'd say "church", "evangelical" etc. (in Brazil). I mean, that is very specific and the general common Brazilian person don't even know what "Muslim" or Islam is. And she said, together with that mention of Islam, that he'd grown a long beard the last time she saw him.

Beats me.

Explosion near Chabad House in Santa Monica (updated)

From LA Times blog:

A device believed to be a pipe bomb exploded about 6:45 a.m. Thursday in the parking lot of a Jewish temple in Santa Monica, authorities said.

No details were available regarding injuries or damage.

The incident occurred at a synagogue near 17th Street and Broadway in Santa Monica. Police evacuated a four-block area and were investigating the possibility of a hate crime.

[Updated at 9:50 a.m.: Multiple sources familiar with the investigation said the device exploded just north of the temple. Authorities were trying to determine whether the temple in the 1400 block of 17th Street, Chabad House of Santa Monica, was specifically targeted.

There were no reports of injuries.

The FBI, Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad and Santa Monica Police were all on scene.]

UPDATE:

An explosion that sent an object hurtling onto the roof of a home near a Jewish school and prayer house on Thursday was an accident — not a bomb, police said.

Sgt. Jay Trisler said a mechanical failure caused a pressure buildup resulting in the blast at about 6:45 a.m. Thursday.

(h/t Dusty)

UPDATE: It was a bomb, and it looks like it was set off by a Jew. More at YWN.

US embassy convoy attacked in southern Lebanon

From iLoubnan:

US embassy officials visiting south Lebanon Thursday were attacked, but unhurt, by residents accusing them of being "Israeli conspirators," in the second such incident in a week, an AFP correspondent said.

Around 60 supporters of leftist groups gathered outside a government office in the port city of Sidon and pelted an embassy convoy with stones as it drove by, with some shouting "Americans, Israeli conspirators, in our government offices."

On Saturday, Lebanese youths threw stones and bottles at a US embassy group that was visiting Sidon.

Lebanese security forces accompanying the Americans intervened, but stones continued to be thrown, breaking car windows. The army then arrived and arrested three of the attackers. Again, there were no injuries.

South Lebanon is the heartland of the country's Shiite Hezbollah militia, and saw heavy fighting in the short but sharp summer war of 2006 between the group and Israeli forces.

On Monday, the United States warned its citizens against traveling to Lebanon "due to current safety and security concerns."

Report: Syria grants citizenship to Kurds

From Now Lebanon:

President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday granted citizenship to Syria's Kurds, the majority in the northeast who have been denied nationality for nearly half a century, said SANA state news agency.

"President Assad issued a decree granting Arab Syrian citizenship to people registered as foreigners in the [governorate of Hassake]," said the news agency.

The measure, which would benefit about 300,000 Kurds, comes a week after Assad tasked a committee with "resolving the problem of the 1962 census in the governorate of Hassake."

Kurds in Syria’s northeast took to the streets last Friday for the first time since pro-reform protests erupted in mid-March, calling for the right to citizenship and "freedom as well," Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa told AFP.

This is interesting, as apparently Assad really doesn't want to have the Kurds pressuring him on top of the other protesters.

Of course, Palestinians in Syria have no chance of becoming citizens, and if they start protesting Assad will happily, but quietly, slaughter them.

Israel deploys Iron Dome for Ashkelon

Various tweets and reports are coming in saying that Iron Dome successfully intercepted two Grad missiles aimed at Ashkelon.

Tweets say that this is being reported by Fox News and Reuters. JPost here.

Full Ha'aretz report.

As many as 50 rockets have been shot from Gaza to Israel today.

"Obscene pictures with Al Aqsa in the background"

The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation has found a new thing to seethe over: Two British women.

Trinny and Susannah were two of the stars of the British TV show, "What Not to Wear." Since then they have been working on other TV projects, and they are now touring Israel, presumably to help people who have little fashion sense.

Israel's Channel 10 is carrying their Israeli adventures, and after they did a Tel Aviv episode they are ready to do one in Jerusalem.

The Al Aqsa Foundation is very upset over their Channel 10 advertisement, saying it is an obscene picture with Al Aqsa as the backdrop.

Here's their ad:

They are offended that the holy site is being used for fashion, and demanded that the media stop publishing such ads.

They emphasized that the ads offend a billion and a half Muslims. They also reminded the Arab world that previously, Israel has placed similar pictures on sugar packets and wine bottles.

This might put a crimp in my marketing plans for Elder of Ziyon Beer:

Egyptian hypocrites pretend to care about Gazan human rights

Palestine Times reports that Egyptian foreign minister Nabil el-Arabi stated that Egypt considers Gaza to be one of its biggest priorities.

El-Arabi was speaking at a press conference with his Austrian counterpart, Michael Spindelegger.

He said, "We consider the situation in Gaza is a priority for Egypt, especially because what was happening is not acceptable from a human rights perspective."

Here's an idea: Egypt can allow Gazans to freely choose to become Egyptian citizens! After all, we know that many Gazans want to become Egyptian citizens, but Egyptian law discriminates against Palestinian Arabs from among all Arabs in its naturalization laws. Egypt has other laws that discriminate specifically against Palestinians as well.

If Egypt is so concerned with the human rights of Gazans, why not allow their brethren who want to move to Egypt to do so freely? Why not eliminate the discriminatory laws in effect in Egypt today?

Why not stop being such hypocrites?

Gaza terrorists fire anti-tank missile at school bus, teen critically injured (update)

From JPost:

An anti-tank missile shot from the Gaza Strip exploded near a school bus outside Kibbutz Sa'ad in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council on Thursday, injuring two people.

The bus driver was listed in moderate condition, and one 16-year-old passenger was critically injured. They were the only people on the bus.

Magen David Adom paramedics were fighting for the 16-year-old's life as he was being transported to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

Police sealed off roads in the area due to the threat of additional projectile fire. Civilians in the area were asked to remain in their homes.

The flip side of Israel's successful deployment of anti-tank missile defenses: now Gaza terrorists have all these wonderful anti-tank missiles that can no longer hurt tanks.

So, naturally, they change their targets to school buses.

UPDATE: 16 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel. And it was later revealed that the injured boy was 13 years old.

He suffered head injuries and is in surgery.

So was a Hamas biggie killed in Sudan?

Ma'an writes:

Palestinian security officials said that target in what has been alleged to be an Israeli strike on Sudan was the successor to assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud Mabhouh.

Abdul-Latif Ashkar, one of two men killed in a strike on a car in Sudan, is said to have taken over the role of weapons gathering formerly carried out by Mabhouh, who was assassinated by Israeli intelligence officials in a Dubai hotel room last year.

Hamas Deputy Politburo Chief Moussa Abu Marzouq, however, told the Jerusalem daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the two "were not Palestinian and had no connection to Hamas."

While Sudanese media said both victims were nationals of the country, daily London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Arabiya said one of the victims was a national of an Arab country, and said the man was involved in arms smuggling for Hamas.

YNet says that Hamas relatives are denying that Ashkar was killed:

Member of the Palestinian legislative council from Hamas Ismail Ashkar announced Thursday that his nephew Abdul Latif Ashkar survived the Port Sudan strike on Tuesday. Al-Arabiya reported earlier that Abdul Latif, who is considered Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's heir, was one of the victims.

The legislator stressed that his nephew is doing well. "God saved him," he said. Ashkar described Abdul Latif as a prominent leader in Hamas's military wing who had escaped several attempts on his life.

Either way, this means that Hamas is pretty much admitting that it is smuggling arms in from Sudan. Why else would Ashkar be there to begin with?

Morning links

Ray Cook has a great analysis of Goldstone's op-ed.

The Volokh Conspiracy shows how deceptive HRW and Amnesty are in claiming that they never said Israel intentionally targeted civilians.

Joshuapundit notes that the new head of the Democratic National Congress is a J-Street groupie.

Is Spain the most anti-semitic country in Europe?

Concerns about an Islamic chair at Huron College

The Muqata looks at Shimon Peres' goal of giving away the strategically important Golan - for what?

A Russian Jewish billionaire wants to create a pro-Israel news channel. Hire me!

J'lem pipe bomb attack was Hamas operation

From YNet:

Police and Shin Bet forces arrested five residents of the Sur Baher village in east Jerusalem for suspected involvement in Hamas operations. One man is suspected of placing a trash bag containing a pipe bomb in a Jerusalem road which caused a municipal worker to lose his hand in early March.

The Shin Bet claims that Muhammad Dwiyat confessed to preparing a pipe bomb meant to detonate at a hitchhiker's station in Gilo which serves Gush Etzion and Mount Hebron residents. The Shin Bet said that Dwiyat eventually decided to throw the explosives insie a bush in the Hebron Road in Jerusalem.

The pipe bomb was found by a Jerusalem Municipality sanitation worker who was hit after the bomb exploded. One of his hands was partially amputated.

A lot of people have assumed that the deadly bus bombing in Jerusalem was related to this earlier pipe bomb attack. The fact that he intended to explode the device at a hitchhiker's station seems to lend credence to this idea.

"If the price is right"

Ha'aretz thinks it has a scoop:

Danny Dayan, the chairman of the Yesha Council of West Bank settlements, told U.S. officials that some settlers would be willing to move to Israel proper in exchange for financial compensation, according to confidential State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

His statements, which were made in closed-door meetings with U.S. diplomats in Israel in recent years, came in response to questions about a potential evacuation-compensation bill in the Knesset. When asked about the issue, Dayan replied: "I'm an economist, and I know that some people will take it if the price is right."

Guess what?

Some people who write for Ha'aretz would move to "occupied" Ariel if the price was right as well!

In both cases, the price would have to be steep to get people to move out of their homes and move elsewhere. This is not a big revelation, if you are being honest with yourself - which is something that Dayan is doing with his statement.

The difference is that a very significant percentage of Jews in Judea and Samaria do live there for ideological reasons, and they aren't going anywhere for any price. Look at how few Jews from Gaza took the money initially - and Gaza does not have nearly the importance to Judaism that the heart of the Land of Israel does.

Ha'aretz does not link to the actual cable, showing its lack of journalistic standards again, as other newspapers who received the cables generally had no problem showing the full text in context so people can make up their own minds. The cable is not at any of the Wikileaks sites I can find - I cannot find any new releases since March 25. The article claims that Dayan was inconsistent with his messages between American leaders and Jews in Judea and Samaria concerning illegal outposts, and that settler leaders are against vigilantes attacking Arabs at random.

More at Israel Matzav

UPDATE: Dayan tells Arutz-7:

"The main thing I said [at the meeting with American officials cited by Wikileaks] and on many other occasions," Dayan said today, "is that even if they offer bribes up to the sky, the number of people who will agree to accept it will be negligible – but that, Haaretz didn't say."

So maybe that's why Ha'aretz isn't releasing the actual memos! Al Jazeera and the Guardian assumed that no one would read them and show they were lying in their Wikileaks articles, but Ha'aretz evidently doesn't want to open up that possibility.

Israeli winery wins international competition

From AFP:

A young Israeli winemaker stood out among a pool of more than a thousand competitors to take the Wine ‘World Cup' in Italy.

Golan Heights Winery, founded in 1983 in Katzrin, Israel, beat thousands of winemakers over the weekend to take the top spot as the best wine producer in the world at the International Wine Competition. The award was announced just ahead of the 45th annual Vinitaly conference in Verona, Italy, an international wine show that attracts 47,000 visitors every year.

The award is presented to the producer who achieves the best overall results at the show, calculated as the sum of the highest scores for two wines which take medals in different categories. A panel of 105 oenologists and wine journalists participated in the judging.

The 3720 wines submitted came from 30 countries including Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Venezuela.

Though the Israeli winemaker has won awards at Vinitaly in the past -- Grand Gold Medals in 2004 and 2006 -- this year's win marks the first time the Gran Vinitaly Special Award was bestowed to an Israeli wine-maker.

The chief winemaker for Golan Heights Winery is Victor Schoenfeld, a graduate of the University of California at Davis, who works alongside professional winemakers educated in California, Burgundy and Bordeaux. The wines are produced under three labels -- Yarden, Gamla and Golan --and are aged in oak barrels.

So now you now the types of wine to find for your Seder table.

Unlikely ice hockey champions - from Israel

I had missed this story last month:

An Israeli hockey team of children ages 11 to 13 took first place in an international tournament recently, beating 91 other teams – all without ever stepping on the ice prior to competition.

The kids, mostly from Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion, dreamed of practicing their hockey moves at a real hockey rink with real ice. Unfortunately the only hockey rink in the entire State of Israel is located up north in Metula, so the inventive team decided to play street hockey instead using rollerblades.

The team, consisting of 17 Israelis, recently competed in a Canadian tournament. They call themselves "The Bat Yam Club" despite the fact that the group members also come from Rishon Lezion as well as two other children from Ma'alot who regularly play ice hockey on real ice.

Many of the teams which took part in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament 2011 came from countries where ice hockey is very popular and played by tens of thousands of kids, including: Canada, the United States, Finland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and more.

Israel was considered to be an underdog in the competition due to the fact that Israeli kids, unlike most of the children participating, only practice their hockey moves on dry ground using rollerblades instead of hockey skates. The Israeli team gets to play at the ice rink in Metula only a few times a year.

"We had five tournament matches, including the final match, and we won them all. The tournament organizers couldn't believe these kids, who barely even know what real ice hockey looks like," said Aaron Aharonovich, chairman of the Rishon Lezion hockey club.

That old black magic is in danger in Saudi Arabia

From Arab News, a story that never gets old:

A total of 30 officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) have been trained on how to deal with cases of black magic.

The three-day training program was held in the Eastern Province city of Al-Ahsa.

The commission has achieved remarkable successes in combating black magic in various parts of the country. It has set up nine specialized centers in the main cities to deal with black magicians.

The majority of people arrested for practicing black magic in the Kingdom are Africans and Indonesians.

According to a report received by Arab News, a single specialized center had dealt with 586 cases involving black magic, showing the enormity of the problem.

About 50 cases were reported in Jeddah alone in the first half of 2009. Gurayat and Qunfuda also reported high rates of black magic cases during that year.

The Riyadh governorate last year launched a campaign against black magicians and those who illegally treat people by reading from the Qur’an.

Only qualified Saudis are allowed to practice Qur’anic treatment methods. Expatriates practicing such treatments would be caught and deported.

I've seen plenty of articles about how the Commission is fighting black magic, but I hadn't heard that there are certified Quranic witch doctors before!

Thanks to Allah, I found a webpage that could explain this to me more fully. The author says "I graduated from the US, from where I obtained MA degree in clinical psychology. (Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy), too, I am qualified, since I have memorized the Holy Qur’an."

That site tells you all you need to know about how the Quran can heal you, but how black magic is evil. In fact, the entire reason the Jews did not follow the Prophet is because of a black magic spell! (More on the Jews here.)

I need to study it more fully so I can properly appreciate the role the Quran can play in curing various mental and physical problems. (This is not to be confused with camel urine, which cures other physical ailments.)

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)