Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

PA minister says statehood would legitimize Arab terrorism

From PMW, quoting Al Hayat Al Jadida, September 8, 2011:

[PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa] Karake while visiting prisoners' families at Qalandiya refugee camp... explained that the international recognition of the Palestinian State changes all the imprisoned Palestinians into prisoners of a state, prisoners of war held hostage in another state... He noted that the recognition of the state means recognition of the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle that the Palestinian nation fought, in the search for freedom and independence. In addition, it [recognition of a state] indicates that the struggles (Arabic- Nidalat) of the prisoners are legitimized and legal according to UN Resolutions, international laws and the third and fourth Geneva Conventions.

Isn't that special.

The parts of anti-Israel protests that don't get publicized

Yesterday, I noted that a man participating in an anti-capitalist protest on Wall Street was openly anti-semitic. I don't know whether similar sentiments were expressed in Saturdays' larger protests, but if they were - chances are no one would ever know.

Last night there was a protest in Vancouver against Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman who was speaking at the Jewish Community Center. A number of left-wing sites show the protesters in heroic terms as they denounce Lieberman as a "racist."

A peaceful protest is fine, and they have the absolute right to hold one.

However, an EoZ correspondent tells me that protesters were also saying that the Holocaust was a Jewish plot meant to gain sympathy for Jews.

In a similar little-reported event, protesters at the Paris airport on Sunday prevented passengers from checking in at the El Al counter by screaming "Death to Israel" and "Death to Jews."

Also, thugs tried to break into a kosher wine tasting in Paris, also screaming "Death to Jews" - and they tried to break down a glass door to the event. Police took their time before responding. The witness to the event said it felt like Kristallnacht.

These are the parts that you do not usually hear about when these protests occur.

(h/t EG, Jr.E)

Bomb scare in France outside Israeli consulate (updated)

A bomb threat:

Israel’s consulate in the southern French port city of Marseille was temporarily evacuated Tuesday when a bomb disposal squad found a mock device placed in a van parked outside.

Police were alerted after an anonymous caller telephoned in a bomb threat, and found a pressure cooker with protruding wires and marked with a radiation warning sticker in a Renault van parked outside the Israeli mission.

The area was cordoned off and specialist officers investigated, but the wires were found to be attached to a car radio hidden in the pot, and radiation tests proved negative, a police official said.

The alert was called off an hour-and-a-half after it began.

Israel denies any evacuation:

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied reports that a bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Israeli consulate in the French port city of Marseille.

According to the Foreign Minstry, there was no evacuation of the building and they were not made aware of any bomb threat.

Does this mean that the French police didn't inform the diplomats of the threat altogether? That seems scarier than the bomb threat itself.

UPDATE: Jonathan-Simon Sellem of the excellent JSSNews site tells me that a friend of his who works there said that there were no need of evacuation. The police work closely with the consulate, and they do a good job. They also checked for radioactivity to see if it was a "dirty bomb."

Reporters too stupid to challenge Abbas on his lies

From Fox News:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has a message for President Obama: ‪

"You promised me a state by September 2011. I hope you will deliver."‬

‪In an exclusive interview with Fox News, the Palestinian president said he's willing to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations this week.

Abbas told Fox News he hasn't given up on negotiations.

"I will meet any Israeli official any time," said Abbas. "But there is no use if there is nothing tangible."

"I felt there is no way for negotiations because the American administration including President Obama exhausted their efforts to bring Netanyahu to the negotiating table. They couldn't convince him to cease the settlement activities."

As we showed yesterday, President Obama did not promise a state to Abbas by September 2011.

And Israel has offered everything "tangible" for peace - nearly all the West Bank and all of Gaza. He has refused to even give a counter-offer that is remotely acceptable for Israeli security.

Moreover, the US did pressure Israel to freeze construction in the territories - and Abbas still refused to negotiate for nine out of the ten months of the freeze.

Abbas knows that he has been treated deferentially by the media for years, and he has no fear that a real reporter will challenge him on his lies. So, why shouldn't he keep lying?

Palestinian Arab rally for Syria FAIL

On Monday, there was a series of tweets from Joseph Dana, an anti-Zionist journalist who traveled to Ramallah to cover an important news story:

Demonstration in support of Syrian protesters about to start in Ramallah's Manara sqaure.

Protest in solidarity with the Syrian people slowly getting started in Ramallah

Palestinians are wearing shirts saying 'your blood (syrians) is our blood. You struggle is our struggle'

'Yalla, Leave Bashir' chants now in Ramallah

solidarity with syrian people rally is now marching through ramallah

More and more PA police are showing up. March has about 50 people but growing

Unfortunately, his breathless tweets of social action in Ramallah ended there.

So was there really a major demonstration against the murderous Assad regime? Did the rally grow into a major event? Did Palestinian Arabs actually show some selflessness and caring for people who are in worse shape than they are - for once?

I found a video of this giant rally that proves that Palestinian Arabs care deeply about other people besides themselves:

That's right - maybe a couple of dozen people, tops, showed up.

Compare this to, say, this rally put together by Islamic Jihad in October 2009 (a similar sized one was held last year):

If it was a Hamas rally, you could explain - they forced employees to go, they shut down schools, and so forth.

But this rally was for Islamic Jhad, a pure terrorist group with no political representation. And still they get tens of thousands to show up at any rally they set up.

I don't really expect the anti-Zionist left to make the observation that getting Palestinian Arabs to celebrate violence is much, much easier than getting them to condemn it. They will continue to cover non-events like what happened today and they will continue to ignore the massive support for terrorism that exists in the territories.

The sad fact is that the photo above represents far more Palestinian Arabs than the video taken on Monday. And there is nothing on the horizon that will change that.

Photo of an anti-semite on Wall Street

Today I happened to be on Wall Street, where there was some leftover anti-capitalist protesters from Saturday's fizzled out "Day of Rage."

Here was one of the demonstrators:

I will declare that (for today at least) I was a Wall Street Jew. However I am not a Jewish billionaire (yet) and I believe that 3 out of the 5 Federal Reserve Board governors are Jewish.

To help raise the SEO of this post, I will write the word "Jewish" a few more times, because, after all, this guy wants you to Google the word "Jewish" to find out our nefarious plots.

It is a shame I was in a hurry to get somewhere when I saw him, or else I would have interviewed him. I would love to know what was the point of his sign, what he has against Jews, and what kind of job he holds that allows him to take a day off and rail against the Jews who supposedly have all money.

Like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or the Walton family, who I imagine he thinks are hidden Jews.

Those Sabbath-breaking settlers again

From the official Palestinian Arab WAFA "news" agency:

Extremist Jewish settlers Saturday set fire to Palestinian farms adjacent to the evacuated Homesh settlement, south of Jenin, said security sources.

They said 15 settlers broke into the area under Israeli army protection, verbally assaulting local residents and setting fire to fields near the settlement.

So not only are these fanatically religious extremist jewish settlers setting fires on their Sabbath - but the IDF is protecting them while they do it! (The same army that is fighting against the "price tag" attacks by some of these settlers!) And it must be true! Because "security sources" said so! And, of course, so did Mondoweiss!

(h/t Sylvia)

Photo essay of PRC terrorist training

Normally, Hamas media only focus on Hamas terror training. But they seem to be chummy with the Popular Resistance Committees, so Palestine Times has a photo essay of their training in Gaza:

You never know when you will need to stop blowing up Jews and start praying.

Like now, for instance.

A "work accident" just waiting to happen.

What playground did they steal this from?

Allah hu akbar! We blew something up!

Nothing happens in Gaza without Hamas approval, and certainly no one can just start training in open space without Hamas allowing it.

So when Hamas claims to not be engaging in terror lately, it is pretty much to allow idiots like richard Falk to believe them - but in reality, the PRC is just about a branch of Hamas.

Hamas paper publishes anti-UNRWA editorial

The Hamas mouthpiece Palestine Times published an article this weekend accuding UNRWA of "killing religion" by not spending more time teaching the Koran and for hiring teachers of Islam who are not as fanatic as Hamas would like.

The author complains that UNRWA's Islamic education is being treated with the same seriousness as gym and far less than math or science. The teachers, he claims, are not experts in Islam and they teach it like just another subject, in ways that would not give the youngsters an adequate desire to grow up and kill Jews (a paraphrase, but that is what he is saying.)

In a followup article the author says that some teachers were not happy with what he had written, and he calls on them to - as much as they can without getting fired - disregard the official UNRWA curriculum and instill Islamist concepts into the students.

Notice that no one is saying that UNRWA schools - bankrolled by secular Western nations - are not teaching Islam. They are. The complaint is that they aren't doing it to the exacting standards of Hamas, as a springboard into teaching more hate.
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Match of the century! Abbas vs. Zionist Pigs! (poster)

Last week, Mahmoud Abbas accused Jewish settlers of unleashing wild pigs against Palestinian Arabs.

While major news outlets may have ignored this perfect example of insane Palestinian Arab conspiracy theories wholeheartedly believed by their leaders, we here at EoZ know when there is a golden opportunity.

A major loss - Just Journalism is closing

Just Journalism is a fantastic, professional organization that exposes anti-Israel bias in the British media. They also managed to get op-eds published in a number of places.

Perhaps even better, the anti-Israel crowd really, really hates them.

Unfortunately, they are shutting down.

We very much regret to inform you that Just Journalism is closing down. Despite our extremely modest budget it has become increasingly difficult to financially sustain the operation in the current economic environment.

We are extremely proud of the work we have produced since we launched and of the impact it has made all around the world. This would not have been possible without your help and support.

This is a major loss. It is a shame that anti-Israel NGOs can effortlessly gain funding from any number of foundations or nations, but the other side must beg for crumbs.

Israeli Jewish family donate daughter's lungs, heart to an Arab woman

Palestine Press Agency reports that a Jewish family has donated the lungs and heart of their brain-dead daughter to a Palestinian Arab woman from Nazareth.

The Jewish girl was killed in a traffic accident in early August. She was 18. Her family, named Ayyash, is of Moroccan origin.

The two families met in Nazareth over the weekend, and the Jewish family was overwhelmed to meet the woman within whose body their daughter's heart was beating.

An Arab doctor from the area urged more Israeli Arabs to donate organs, noting that there are far fewer Arab donors than Jewish ones. He also urged more Arab bone marrow donors.

$50 for Gazans to travel to Egypt via tunnel

Palestine Press Agency reports that due to the onerous restrictions on travel via the Rafah crossing, tunnel operators in Gaza are now competing to offer good rates for Gaza residents to visit Egypt.

The going rate is now bout $50.

Gazans are mostly limited to visiting Rafah and El Arish, because Egyptian security is carefully watching people leaving those areas.

The tunnel operators have even set up an committee to set up an informal visa-type system to ensure that the people crossing have legitimate need to visit the other side, because they don't want terrorists to use the tunnels which would get them shut down.

All of those rumors about Egypt shutting the tunnels down seem to have disappeared.

Abbas lies again - this time about Obama

From Ma'an:

President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he has not scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama during the 66th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, but is open to the possibility.

“Neither I, nor Obama asked for a meeting, so I don’t believe we will meet. However, if we meet, I will remind him that he promised last year that the state of Palestine would be a full member of the UN this year, and I came here on the grounds of the promise I heard,” Abbas told a Ma'an delegate.

Did Obama promise a Palestinian Arab state?

Here are sections of the speech Abbas is referring to, to the UN General Assembly, on September 23, 2010:

Last year, I pledged my best efforts to support the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, as part of a comprehensive peace between Israel and all of its neighbors. We have travelled a winding road over the last 12 months, with few peaks and many valleys. But this month, I am pleased that we have pursued direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in Washington, Sharm el Sheikh and Jerusalem.

...[W]e all have a choice to make. Each of us must choose the path of peace. Of course, that responsibility begins with the parties themselves, who must answer the call of history. Earlier this month at the White House, I was struck by the words of both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “I came here today to find a historic compromise that will enable both people to live in peace, security, and dignity.” And President Abbas said, “We will spare no effort and we will work diligently and tirelessly to ensure these negotiations achieve their cause.”

These words must now be followed by action and I believe that both leaders have the courage to do so. ...

The conflict between Israelis and Arabs is as old as this institution. And we can come back here next year, as we have for the last 60 years, and make long speeches about it. We can read familiar lists of grievances. We can table the same resolutions. We can further empower the forces of rejectionism and hate. And we can waste more time by carrying forward an argument that will not help a single Israeli or Palestinian child achieve a better life. We can do that.

Or, we can say that this time will be different -- that this time we will not let terror, or turbulence, or posturing, or petty politics stand in the way. This time, we will think not of ourselves, but of the young girl in Gaza who wants to have no ceiling on her dreams, or the young boy in Sderot who wants to sleep without the nightmare of rocket fire.

This time, we should draw upon the teachings of tolerance that lie at the heart of three great religions that see Jerusalem’s soil as sacred. This time we should reach for what’s best within ourselves. If we do, when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations -- an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.

Obama did not come close to promising anything. He said if the negotiations that just started that month would bear fruit, then by September 2011 there could be an agreement that would lead to an eventual Arab state in Palestine. And that ultimately it was up to the Palestinian Arabs and Israelis themselves to make such an agreement, not for it to be imposed externally.

Earlier this month, there have been Palestinian Arab radio ads that implied a promise from Obama, and Abbas was reported to have called it"the Obama promise." But to have a putative head of state blatantly lie about what another head of state said publicly is a much bigger deal.

Yet again, Abbas is exposed as a liar. President Obama is being used by him. Will anyone in the media call him on it?

Turkish hackers deface PalArab websites thinking they were Israeli

From YNet:

Turkish hackers attacked dozens of Israeli websites over the weekend, only to find out that the sites belonged to Palestinians.

The confusion was caused due to the fact that the Palestinian sites, which have a .ps web suffix, use Israeli web servers.

"The hackers left anti-Israel messages on 70 Palestinian sites," said Shai Blitzblau, the head of Maglan-Computer Warfare and Network Intelligence Labs. "Most of them discovered it when it was already too late. Only after they broke in and sabotaged the websites did they found out these were Palestinian sites."

The message, which featured an image of an Israeli soldier washing blood off of his hands, read: "Because you voted on behalf of Israel on Blue (Mavi) Marmara report… We will suspend this site. You will apologize Netanyahu, you will apologize Israel."

This was not as sophisticated as the Turkish DNS attack earlier this month that redirected hundreds of sites (not all Israeli) that was seen as a "test run."

Web site defacement is sort of like spraying graffiti on the front door of a company. It looks bad but doesn't really affect anything.

A DNS attack makes it difficult or impossible for customers to reach the company altogether.

Photos of Jews "storming" the Temple Mount Sunday

Palestine Today brings us photos of Jews roaming around the Temple Mount on Sunday.

Palestine Times referred to them as usurpers" who were "desecrating" and "storming" the holy site.

What do Tom Friedman and Hamas have in common?

Both of them believe in a mythical nation!

From Thomas Friedman in the New York Times:

Israel should have either put out its own peace plan or tried to shape the U.N. diplomacy with its own resolution that reaffirmed the right of both the Palestinian and the Jewish people to a state in historic Palestine and reignited negotiations.

From Al Arabiya, quoting Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh:

“We repeat today that we are with the establishment of a Palestinian state on any liberated part of Palestinian land that is agreed upon by the Palestinian people, without recognizing Israel or conceding any inch of historical Palestine."

Like the PLO and others, these people use the phrase "historic[al] Palestine" as if it is identical to the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine after August 1922 when Transjordan was split off from the Mandate.

As I have shown extensively, "historic Palestine" has little in common with British Mandate Palestine. It did not include the Negev but it did include parts of today's Jordan and Lebanon.

The idea that "Historic Palestine" coincides with the areas that are controlled by Jews is of quite recent vintage. But it has been repeated so often that, like many lies, it get accepted as truth by so-called "experts" in prestigious newspapers.

Sunday links

Durban III news:

France is the latest state to quit the anti-Israel, UN-sponsored Durban III conference.

The organizers of the conference banned UN Watch from attending.

The list of countries boycotting Durban III is (according to Challah Hu Akbar):

Israel

United States

France

New Zealand

United Kingdom

Austria

Australia

Bulgaria

Czech Republic

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

Canada

And if you are in the New York area on Thursday, don't forget to join the Durban III Clown Parade!
12 to 2 PM at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.

Which is a theme I had explored earlier:

Other links:

At about the same time I was challenging liberal pundits to write articles on Mahmoud Abbas' intransigence, Jeffrey Goldberg sort-of did. Not nearly as strong as I would like, but at least it is out there.

Martin Sherman says, "I do not think there is a Palestinian nation. I think it’s a colonialist invention."

The London Philharmonic suspends four musicians for using its name in opposing the Israeli concert at the Proms.

Humor from Hurriyet Daily News: Dear Arab Brothers: Yes, you may borrow our Prime Minister.

Guilio Meotti on The Smiling Baby Killer.

Israel was accepted as an associate member of CERN.

(h/t Benjamin, Silke, Kramerica, Effector)

Young PalArabs aren't excited over the UN stunt, plan to skip rallies

From Ya Libnan:

Recent college graduate Reem Qadan is exactly the kind of young, energetic West Bank resident the Palestinian Authority hopes will hit the streets this week when it makes its historic case for U.N. membership and statehood recognition.

But rather than use her Facebook page to coordinate plans with friends to join the rallies, the 21-year-old is posting critical messages dismissing the United Nations bid as a “tale of collective mismanagement” by Palestinian leaders. Many of her Facebook friends echoed the sentiments and said they planned to skip the rallies.

In stark contrast with the flurry of diplomacy and international attention being focused on the U.N. campaign, the mood so far on the streets of the West Bank is surprisingly apathetic and sometimes even a little hostile.

“People simply don’t care,” Qadan said.

Critics said it was unrealistic to expect Palestinians — who have been disappointed by failed peace initiatives many times — to suddenly embrace the U.N. bid. But that hasn’t stopped the Palestinian Authority from launching an aggressive campaign to change that.

The authority recently distributed thousands of Palestinian flags and urged everyone to put them on their homes and cars as a sign of support. So far, only a few can be seen in the streets of Ramallah. Even government vehicles are not flying the flags.

Giant rallies have been scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.

To ensure a good turnout, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called upon members of his Fatah movement, the largest political faction in the West Bank, to attend. About 80,000 government workers will be given time off, and some schools will closed. Thousands of Palestinians are expected to take part in the rallies.

So when we see the Western media breathlessly report about huge rallies in the territories this week, remember that all public employees and many schools are taking holiday just to inflate the numbers. Popular support is tepid at best, even in the Fatah stronghold of Ramallah!

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

"Islamophobia" news - ban on Paris street prayers, Dutch burqas

From The Telegraph:

Praying in the streets of Paris is against the law starting Friday, after the interior minister warned that police will use force if Muslims, and those of any other faith, disobey the new rule to keep the French capital's public spaces secular.

Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest of France, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where "the problem persists".

He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it "hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens".

"My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism, the minister told Le Figaro newspaper.

The French did negotiate, however:

The ban came into effect after announcing an agreement to offer Muslim worshippers the use of a disused fire brigade barracks instead.

The agreement was made with two local mosques for the state to rent out the disused barracks on Boulevard Ney with floor space of 2,000 sq m (yds) for three years.

To encourage believers to use the new space, prayers would not be held inside the existing mosques for the first few weeks.

"We could go as far as using force if necessary (to impose the ban), but it's a scenario I don't believe will happen, as dialogue (with local religious leaders) has born fruit,” Guéant said.

"All Muslim leaders are in agreement."

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands:

The Dutch government said Friday that it would ban face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women because the garments flout the Dutch way of life and culture.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte also announced tougher rules for immigrants and asylum-seekers who want to pursue Dutch nationality; in the future, he said, they will have to show that they have income and that they have not received financial assistance or benefits for at least three years.

The country’s reputation as relatively tolerant and open to immigration has changed over the last decade, reflecting voters’ concerns over a large influx of Muslim immigrants.

“The government believes the wearing of clothing that completely or almost entirely covers the face is fundamentally at odds with public life, where people are recognized by their faces,” the government said in a statement.