Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Israel saving the world, yet again

Israeli researchers have developed a simple and cheap blood test that was found to provide early detection for many types of cancer in clinical trials.

The promising new blood test, developed by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheva, can detect minuscule changes in the blood of a person with a cancerous growth somewhere in the body, even before the disease has spread.

Early diagnosis of cancer could save thousands of lives. Every day in the United States alone, 1,500 people die of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the US after heart disease, accounting for one in four deaths.

Medical specialists believe that earlier detection greatly increases the chances for successful treatment. It also prevents the need for long, painful and costly treatments when the cancer reaches a more advanced stage.

Illuminating cancer cells in the blood

The researchers, led by Prof. Joseph Kapelushnik of BGU's Faculty of Health Sciences, have developed a device that illuminates cancer cells within less than a teaspoonful of blood. The test uses infrared light to detect tiny changes that indicate cancer, because the light is absorbed slightly differently due to various molecules released into the bloodstream.

In a clinical trial involving 200 patients and a control group, the test identified specific common cancers such as lung and ovarian cancer in 90 percent of the patients and found other types of cancer, as well.

"This is still research in the early stages of clinical trials," said Kapelushnik, who is also head of the department of pediatric hemato-oncology at Soroka hospital.

"But the purpose is to develop an efficient, cheap and simple method to detect as many types of cancers as possible. We want to be able to detect cancer while a patient is still feeling good, before it has a chance to metastasize, meaning fewer treatments, less suffering and many more lives saved."

More clinical trials will be conducted in the next 18 months.

A simple blood test to detect (and apparently distinguish between) early cancers! This could save millions of lives worldwide.

This is huge. But par for the course for Israel.

And, as any anti-Israel activist can tell you, they only invent miracle procedures like these in order to distract the world from Zionist crimes. You know....med-washing.

On Monday, February 27, a program, sponsored by Chabad [and StandWithUs] entitled “Israeli Soldier’s stories” was scheduled at UC Davis. Ran, a Israeli reservist, and Ranya, a Druze woman whose father and brother fought in the IDF maintained their dignity and composure in spite of a consortium of haters from Students for Justice in Palestine, the MSA and JVP who had planned to disrupt their presentation. This young man, claiming to be a Medieval Studies major at Davis repeatedly interrupted the proceedings in a coarse and vulgar manner, while UC Davis security and police stood on and did nothing.

The heckler writes in the comments page on YouTube:

Alright, so I'm gonna throw my two cents in. I'm the dude in the video. First of all I wanted to say that I am not part of MSA, JVP, I do not represent their views. Secondly, rape and prostitution have nothing to do with any of it that is very true. But consider this implication. I was there to piss people off, because I am pissed off. You don't piss people off by making intelligent remarks, you piss them off by accusing them of stuff the worst things possible however irrelevant they maybe.

Oh one more thing I should clear up. I'm not a Muslim, I'm an Atheist. So no I'm not some crazy fanatic. I am mad at the double standard of Israel and so I heckled. Was it meaningful:no, was it intelligent: absolutely not, Did I talk about actual issues: You gotta be kidding me, Did it work: oh yeah.

Free speech, to haters like this, is a one-way street. They can spout whatever they want - including absurd lies - as long as any pro-Israel voices are drowned out.

And the UC Davis security did nothing.

I wonder, if an audience member would blast an air-horn during the entire speech, would that also be considered "free speech" by these "progressive" colleges? Because that's pretty much what the many people who disrupt any vaguely Zionist speech on campus are.

They don't care if their words are heard: they only care that the others' words are not.

(h/t John Brooks)

UPDATE: A number of people in the YouTube comments and via email tell me that the heckler went up to the speakers afterwards, apologized and said he was paid $50 to disrupt the speeches.

Here is another write-up of the talk, by Gail Davis of StandWithUs:

Despite hostile hecklers, protestors, and angry students shouting "rapists" "child molesters" and "liars", the two Israeli reservists brought by StandWithUs as part of its Israeli Soldiers Stories told their stories and handled themselves with dignity. Ran, the 28 year-old IDF reservist, and Ranya, the 20-something Druze woman, spoke from the heart about their lives in Israel and how they wish for peace. While the protestors represented the true face of Israel-haters, Ran and Ranya represented the heart of Israel. This event was co-sponsored by the UC Davis Chabad student club "Chai.” What the group lacks in numbers is made up by their courage and convictions, that the story of the Jewish people and the mitzvah of defending Israel remain paramount.

As fear of physical altercations mounted, several "911" calls were made. The campus police appeared but refused to remove, reprimand or otherwise take any action against the disrupters. The police stated they were given "orders' not to take action against the disrupters, but instead, to close down the program if it got out of hand. What happened to our first amendment rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and the University of California's "principles of community" to ensure a "hate-free" campus?

The program continued, punctuated by slanderous and heinous bellowing from members of the audience. In all, at various times, there were approximately 150 in attendance. There were some 20 or so hecklers that would act as the cheerleaders who would cause the others to erupt with hoots and howls during the presentation. One protesting student was heard shouting out that the star of David worn by our StandWithUs Northern California, Oregon and Washington campus professional , Matthew White, was a Nazi symbol. At another juncture, the Chabad Rebbetzin, Sorele Brownstein, despite being very pregnant, got up to speak in front of this hostile audience to defend the Jewish people. Even she was jeered at. The behavior of the disrupters was quite despicable.

The ringleader was a self-identified Indian who was extremely hostile, shouting that he was there to shut down the event, and begging to be arrested. After the event, this Indian young man approached Ran and Ranya, our speakers, and apologized to them for his behavior, and said he was paid $50 to disrupt the event. Apparently, the same Indian heckler told others in the audience that he was paid $50 to disrupt and shut down the talk.

When the program ended, a few Arabic-speaking girls approached Ranya, and apologized to her for the bad behavior of the others. Ran also recounted that at the end one Muslim student thanked him for coming and that he felt he learned some things he had never heard before.

I am told that the two speakers have confirmed that the heckler told them he was paid; but he did not say who did it.

(h/t StandWithUs)

Bridge planned between Egypt and Saudi Arabia

From Al Ahram:

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have agreed to begin work on a bridge between the two nations.

The bridge will cross the Red Sea and link Aqaba in Egypt with Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.

It will be called the King Abdallah Ben Abdel Aziz Bridge.

According to General Fouad Abdel Aziz who heads the project, in the next few weeks an outline for the 50 km bridge will be made and the work will probably begin in 2013.

The project is expected to cost approximately $3 billion.

Saudi Arabia has a large Egyptian expat community, many of whom depend on ill-maintained ferries to cross the sea.

During the Lausanne conference in 1949, where the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine tried to forge an agreement between Israel and the Arab states, the US and Britain repeatedly pressured Israel to give up parts of the Negev to Egypt (and, effectively, cut itself off from Eilat and the Red Sea) because it was considered tremendously important for the Arab worlds in Africa and Asia to be contiguous, and Israel's presence in the Negev was a "wedge" that would forever cause problems.

That argument has not been heard in decades.

This bridge, though, is still psychologically important, especially for Egypt to have a physical and economic link to the center of the Arab and Muslim world. Not to mention the possibility of taking a bus from Cairo to Mecca for Hajj.

Ayatollah Khamenei's website says "Israel" in Farsi, not "Zionist Entity"

Remember last month when Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, said Israel was a "cancerous tumor" that must be removed?

Here are his words from his English-language website:

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei says Iran will stand by and support any nation or group that chooses to stand up to Zionist regime.

"We will continue to support any nation or group that fights or confronts the Zionist regime and we are not afraid of saying this," Ayatollah Khamenei said in the Friday prayers sermons in Tehran.

The Leader rejected Iran's interference in the affairs of regional countries, including Bahrain, and said Iran only had a role in the fight against Zionist regime during the 33-day war Zionist war on Lebanon and Tel Aviv's 22-day war against Gaza which both resulted in the regime's defeat.

"The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor that must be removed, and God willing it will be," he said.

Interestingly, in the Farsi text of his speech, he doesn't only say "Zionist regime" - but he explicitly says "Israel" as well.

I'm not sure why the well-known historic refusal of many Muslims to say Israel's name is not in force by Iran's Supreme Leader when speaking in Farsi.

(h/t Max)

Campus BDS Fail: UCSD votes down divestment attempt

From the University of California San Diego Guardian:

After nearly eight hours of discussion, council takes a stance on the divestment resolution for the first time, and fails it 13-20-0.

After more than two years of hesitation, A.S. Council made UCSD history last night by voting 13-20-0 to fail the divestment resolution proposed by Students for Justice in Palestine.

The resolution called for the UC system to divest, or withdraw its investments, from General Electric and Northrop Grumman. Both companies have contracts with the Israeli Defense Forces; they create the Apache helicopter engines and radar technology, respectively, used by the IDF. SJP’s legislation, originally titled “Resolution in Support of UC San Diego Corporate Accountability Through Divestments From Corporations Profiting from Violent Conflict” argued that since the UC endowment fund — which does not draw from student fees or tuition — is not invested in companies supporting the Palestinian military, divesting from GE and Northrop Grumman promotes neutrality and corporate responsibility. But members of Tritons for Israel stated that the resolution used biased language to specifically target Israel and create a hostile and divisive campus community.

This is the third year that SJP has introduced a divestment resolution to council. In 2010, the A.S. Campus Affairs Committee voted 7-8 to table the measure indefinitely. In 2011, council voted 13-10-4 to postpone voting on divestment until members of SJP and Tritons for Israel could produce a joint resolution agreeable to both sides. The two groups were unable to do so. Both years, council ultimately tabled the resolution without taking a stance. As of the Feb. 29 decision, UCSD is the second UC campus to fail the resolution. In 2010, UC Berkeley’s then-A.S. President Will Smelko vetoed a similar divestment resolution after it passed in Berkeley Senate. According to a Daily Californian article dated April 16, 2010, the Senate was unable to garner the 2/3 majority required to overturn Smelko’s veto.

But here's the problem with always playing defense:

According to the A.S. Bylaws, failed resolutions can be brought back before council as early as the next meeting.

Members of both Students for Justice in Palestine and Tritons for Israel have stated that — though they will continue to engage in dialogue — the two groups have mutually exclusive interests when it comes to divestment.

Friedman said he hopes that, if the divestment resolution is reintroduced next year, Tritons for Israel would continue to oppose it.

Kamil and Abu-Gheida said that SJP will reintroduce the legislation next year.

It is obvious that the SJP is motivated by nothing more than pure hate for Israel. And that hate is so all-consuming that they will spend hundreds of man-hours - and waste the time of many others - just to try to gain, one time out of a hundred, a symbolic victory that ultimately means nothing.

You can read the resolution at the SJP UCSD site. You can also learn fascinating lies like Hamas never targeted any civilians and only attacks Israeli troops in occupied territories:

Hamas (the Movement of Islamic Resistance) was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian intifada along religious-nationalist ideological lines. A vast social organization, Hamas provides schools, medical care, and day care for a number of Palestinians who otherwise live difficult lives. Hamas also has a militia established to fight Israeli troops in the occupied territories, and has turned out to be a counterweight to Fatah, given its long record of opposition to the Oslo Accords and its clean record as far as domestic corruption in governance was concerned. Democratically elected, Hamas officials have often stated that they are ready for a long-term truce with Israel during which time final status negotiations can occur.

PA deception about TV broadcast agreements

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority is describing Wednesday's raids on TV networks in the occupied West Bank as the possible beginning of a "frequency war" over limited broadcasting space.

The confiscation of equipment from Watan TV and Al-Quds Educational TV deprives Palestinians of their right to have frequencies for building modern wireless communication networks, the PA says.

Ramallah Prime Minister Salam Fayyad visited one of the stations, Watan TV in Ramallah, and said the Israeli operation was "oppressive and monstrous" and violated "all international laws".

Suleiman Zuheiri, undersecretary of the Palestinian ministry of telecommunication in Ramallah, said Israel had breached Article 36 of the Oslo agreement, which requires consultations with the PA.

The accord says a joint committee of technical experts representing both sides shall be established to address any issue arising on the topic of communications, including the growing future needs of the Palestinian side.

Let's look at Article 36 (excerpted by IMRA):

ARTICLE 36
Telecommunications
...
B. Principles

1. Israel recognizes that the Palestinian side has the right to build and
operate separate and independent communication systems and infrastructures
including telecommunication networks, a television network and a radio
network.
...
5. Both sides shall refrain from any action that interferes with the
communication and broadcasting systems and infrastructures of the other
side.

Specifically, the Palestinian side shall ensure that only those frequencies
and channels specified in Schedule 5: List of Approved Frequencies (herein -
"Schedule 5") and Schedule 6: List of Approved TV Channels and the Location
of Transmitters (herein - "Schedule 6") shall be used and that it shall not
disturb or interfere with Israeli radio communication activity, and Israel
shall ensure that there shall be no disturbance of or interference with the
said frequencies and channels.

6. A joint committee of technical experts representing both sides shall be
established to address any issue arising out of this section including the
growing future needs of the Palestinian side (hereinafter referred to as
"the Joint Technical Committee" or "JTC"). The JTC shall meet on a regular
basis for the purpose of solving all relevant problems, and as necessary in
order to solve urgent problems.

...

SCHEDULE 6
List of Approved TV Channels and the Locations of Transmitters

Pursuant to Article 36, paragraph B.5 of this Appendix:

Jericho Channel 24
Nablus (Mt. Gerizim) Channel 5
Jenin Channel 31
Ramallah Channel 25
Hebron Channel 30
Gaza Channel 31

It seems clear that the raided TV stations were broadcasting on channels that were not allowed under Oslo, and they had been for some time. I find it hard to believe that Israel never once told the PA about this since the stations started broadcasting. While we don't know all the details about the extent of communication between the two sides, it is entirely possible that in the context of the current impasse in talks the PA refused to discuss this issue or to allow a meeting of the Joint Technical Committee.

(These are the kinds of things that the clueless Israeli spokespeople should be telling the media.)

(h/t CHA)

Massive BDS Fail: British trade with Israel up 34%

From JPost:

Matthew Gould

UK-Israel bilateral trade soared 34 percent to £3.75 billion ($6b.) last year – proving there is no economic boycott of Israel, British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, said Wednesday.

Israeli exports to the UK stood at £2.18 billion ($3.5b.) and British exports to Israel reached £1.57 billion ($2.5b.) in 2011. This made Israel the UK’s largest trade partner in the Middle East and its 29th largest export market overall, according to UK Trade & Investment.

“These figures are big enough to be important to both countries,” Gould told economic reporters at his Ramat Gan residence. “They also implicitly give a very good answer to anyone who talks about economic boycott, and that answer is: ‘What economic boycott?’”

Economic growth is UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s top priority, the ambassador said, pointing out that the government’s 2011 White Paper on Trade and Investment for Growth named Israel as a key strategic partner for the future.

Gould said 250 Israeli companies currently operate in the UK, including Israel Chemicals, Elbit Systems and Teva Pharmaceuticals, and added that one of his focuses was to attract more Israeli firms to establish operations there.

“Like the US, we have an enormous source of capital… [but] unlike the US, we are less than a five-hour flight away, almost in the same time zone,” he said.

Referring to the British embassy’s recently established Hi-Tech Hub – which aims to create technological partnerships between the UK and Israel – Gould said the two countries complemented each other perfectly in a number of industries, including water, pharmaceuticals and financial services.

Gould said next week’s scheduled visit by Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Minister Ed Vaizey – who will lead a delegation, including executives from the BBC and Samsung – provided a good example of why the UK and Israel work well together.

“Britain is world-class at producing content: TV, Internet, and so on. Israel is absolutely world-class at producing the technology that can take the content to the consumer and monetize it,” Gould said. “There is a fantastic synergy there. Our content and your technology go incredibly well together.”

Israel HaYom adds that Israel just signed a billion dollar contract with China to sell it water technologies for agriculture.

Lebanese blogger crushed that Dr. Ruth is a Zionist

From Now Lebanon, by blogger Louisa Ajami:

You know when you like a celebrity, only to find out there’s something terribly unlikeable about them, like they charge for autographs or are bad tippers at restaurants?

Well, I used to love Dr. Ruth. She’s an 83-year-old German sex doctor who’s been part of American popular culture for generations with her radio shows and TV specials. She’s funny and spunky, and it is so cute when she, this tiny little old lady, delivers advice on sex in her spoon-bending German accent.

But it just came out that not only is Dr. Ruth a Zionist, she was active in the paramilitary (read: terrorist) group Irgun after moving to Palestine in the wake of World War II.

“I can still put five bullets in a red circle” she bragged to Garage Magazine recently.

Damn. She’s dead to me now. Does anyone know of another octogenarian sex doctor I can transfer my liking to?

Garage Magazine seems to be a little off; apparently Dr. Ruth was in the Haganah, not the Irgun.

The future Dr. Ruth was born Karola Ruth Siegel in Germany in 1928, the only child of an Orthodox Jewish couple. In 1939, after young Karola's father had been taken by the Nazis, her mother and grandmother sent her to Switzerland to get her out of harm's way. She did not see her family again, as her mother and grandmother lost their lives in the Holocaust.

At 16, the orphaned girl moved to Israel and joined Haganah, an underground Jewish military organization. She served as a lookout and sniper but never killed anyone. Says Dr. Ruth of that interval:

"When I was in my routine training for the Israeli army as a teenager, they discovered completely by chance that I was a lethal sniper. I could hit the target smack in the center further away than anyone could believe. Not just that, even though I was tiny and not even much of an athlete, I was incredibly accurate throwing hand grenades too. Even today I can load a Sten automatic rifle in a single minute, blindfolded."

Not that this would matter to poor, disillusioned Ms. Ajami. She was the same Now Lebanon blogger who was so upset at seeing the billboard of Natalie Portman in Beirut.

So Ajami's hate has nothing to do with the Irgun or Haganah or someone being a trained sniper; it is just hate for people who believe that the Jewish nation has the right of self-determination.

(h/t Onion Tears News)

Iran upset at $1.5 billion arms sale from Israel to Azerbaijan

Another BDS failure...

From Al Arabiya:

Azerbaijan on Wednesday dismissed an Iranian protest over its reported deal to buy arms worth $1.5 billion from Tehran’s foe Israel amid increased tensions between the neighboring states.

Azerbaijan’s ambassador was summoned to Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday to explain the weapons and to receive a warning that Israel must not be permitted to use Azerbaijan to stage “terrorist acts” against Iran.

But the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said that the reported weapons purchases -- which it did not confirm -- were not intended to threaten Iran.

“Our foreign policy is not directed against anyone else,” foreign ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told a news conference.

Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Tehran, Javanshir Akhundov, had acknowledged the arms deal.

Akhundov explained that the weapons were bought “to liberate occupied Azerbaijani land”, according to the reports -- a reference to the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh which was seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian forces during a war in the 1990s.

The Tehran Times, when reporting this story, adds more good news:

Meanwhile, Israeli media outlets have reported that Angolan Finance Minister Carlos Alberto Lopes traveled to Israel last week to sign a military agreement. Reports say the Israeli-Angolan deal is worth about one billion dollars.

Israeli goalkeeper kicks ball into wind; flies back into goal

Mother Nature 1, Maccabi Haifa 0:

February 29th, 2012: Maccabi Haifa took on Dynamo Kiev in a friendly today, ahead of Israel's friendly with Ukraine, and the match was played in ridiculous weather conditions as the wind took on biblical proportions.

The friendly match was only 60 minutes long but there was enough time for one of the strangest goals ever seen. Kiev's second saw Haifa goalie Assaf Mendes take a goal kick.

Mendes' punt forward did travel some distance before incredibly coming back on itself past the stunned custodian.

(h/t Times of Israel)

Fatah values its children - as fertilizer

I had missed this from Palestinian Media Watch last month:

PA TV narrator: "In the refugee camp Ein Al-Hilwe [in Lebanon], a rally was held in celebration of the [47th] anniversary [of Fatah]. A political symposium was also held on the occasion of the event."

Text on slide at event:

"Our children are our honor and glory,
they were created to be fertilizer for the land of Palestine,
and for our pure land to be saturated with their blood they were created to be fertilizer for the land of Palestine,
and for our pure land to be saturated with their blood"

(h/t Daled Amos, who has other examples of the PA's love of their children)

Egypt's new government planning to open Hamas office in Cairo

In an interview with Al Ahram, Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party chairman Mohamed Morsi said that the new Egyptian government would welcome Hamas moving its headquarters from Damascus to Cairo:

Q: Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas support the Syrian revolution and the start of migration of the Syrian Palestinian leaders from Damascus...Will we witness the opening of the Office of the Hamas movement soon in Cairo?

A: I wish to open this office, and I strongly want to open an office for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, but this does not mean interfering in the internal Palestinian affairs. Egypt is the natural host of the issue, and the custodians of the Palestinian cause since the late forties, to support the Palestinian cause is our duty. In fact, Egypt had a distinct role in Gaza after the revolution. Egypt looks for all new guises for the Palestinian cause, and hosted the reconciliation talks on Egyptian territory. Rest assured that the will of Hamas to open an office does not mean beating the drums of war or threat of any country.

Despite his protestations, opening a Hamas office in Cairo would be a slap in the face of the PA. It would be the Hamastan embassy.

Hamas seems to be pulling out all the stops to effectively become just short of being a full province of Egypt - they want trade and travel through Rafah to be expanded, they want oil and natural gas and electricity to be delivered directly from Egypt, and ideologically they are identical to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

The only thing stopping them from wanting to go all the way is that if Gaza becomes part of Egypt, Israel would benefit.

That's of course the number one rule for the Arab Middle East - if it is good for Israel it must be avoided at all costs.

Today's interesting Wikileaks from Stratfor (updated)

Besides the leaked email I noted before about Ma'an's editor, we have:

Turkey planned on downgrading relations with Israel even before the May 2010 flotilla incident, documents published Wednesday by WikiLeaks suggest.

A leaked email from George Friedman, the head of US-based global security analysis company Stratfor, reveals that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger that at some point he would burn bridges with Israel in favor of a closer relationship with the Islamic world.

According to the Turkish newspaper Sunday Zaman, Friedman also wrote in the same email that Turkey does not get along with Israel and the United States. An attack by Israel on Iran would provide a good opportunity for Erdogan to finally cut Turkey’s ties with Israel and the US and to expand Turkey’s power, he further wrote.

The flotilla to Gaza — in which nine Turkish citizens aboard a ship heading to Gaza were killed after attacking the IDF commandos who intercepted it – was not the cause of Turkey’s new strategy but rather the opportunity Erdogan had been waiting for, Army Radio said.

And this was even more interesting, if poorly sourced:

Israel may already have the codes to crack into Iran’s anti-aircraft missile defense systems, according to WikiLeaks, which on Tuesday continued to publish email conversations by employees from the Texas-based Stratfor global intelligence firm.

The Stratfor email conversation took place in 2009 and focused on an alleged deal between Israel and Russia, in which Israel would supply codes to hack into the unmanned aerial vehicles that Israel had sold to Russia’s neighbor, Georgia, in exchange for the codes for Russia’s state-of-the-art TOR-M1 anti-aircraft system stationed in Iran. If the codes are indeed in Israeli hands, they could prove helpful in a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

According to the WikiLeaks document, in 2009 a Stratfor analyst claimed to have been told by a Mexican source of the Israel-Russian deal. It was speculated in the email conversation that after Russia invaded Georgia over a land dispute in 2008, Georgia found that its Israeli-made UAV’s were not performing as successfully as they should, possibly because their communication codes were hacked, leading the country to seek to purchase UAV spy planes from other countries.

A Mexican source? Sounds more like a game of telephone again - some Georgian wonders why the UAVs aren't working well, assumes it isn't because of operator error and spins a conspiracy theory where Russia got Israel's codes, has to come up with a plausible reason how that could happen, and tells his Mexican buddy over drinks.

Reading these documents is fun, and some might be true, but their veracity is really shaky.

UPDATE: Here's the email about the UAVs. Looks like Georgia wanted Mexican UAVs because they felt the Israeli ones were compromised. one had been taken down intact. (h/t Yoel)

A Muslim scholar explains why Jerusalem is not in the Koran

I was browsing through the Quds Media site, which is one of the sources for some of the more ridiculous rumors about Israel and the Al Aqsa Mosque, and which has an English version. While there I saw this article:

Jerusalem in the Qur’an is a great book that thrilled and delighted me in a number of ways. I am surprised that such a meticulously documented book had to wait for such a long time before seeing the light. ...May Allah Ta’ala reward Brother Imran Hosein for writing this scholarly document, which will indeed fill up this intellectual and religious gap and serve as an academic reference to Muslims in all parts of the world. As I write this introduction, this book that was published only this year is already being translated to Arabic and Bosnian. In a short time it will be rendered into other European languages and to all the other tongues of the Islamic world.

Wow! a book about Jerusalem in the Quran when Jerusalem is not in the Quran!

I found an Internet version of the book, and to call it "scholarly" is, well, a bit misleading. The author spends much of the book on peripheral issues and bashing Israel. But when you dig in to find the meat of his laughable argument, you find this:

It is strange, mysterious, and enigmatic, … that the name of the city ‘Jerusalem’ (Arabic ‘Quds’ or ‘Bait al-Maqdis’) does not appear in the Qur’an! Yet so many of the Prophets mentioned in the Qur’an had links with that Holy City, and in it is located that only other House of Allah, apart from those built in Makkah and Madina, ever built by a Prophet of Allah, Most High. Not only is that House of Allah (Masjid al-Aqsa) mentioned in the Qur’an but so, also, is the miraculous night-time journey in which Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) was taken from Makkah to Jerusalem and to that House of Allah. Perhaps the reason for this mysterious treatment of the subject is located in the Islamic view that Jerusalem is destined to play a central crucial role in the Last Age. Hence there was, perhaps, a divine need to cloud the name of the city, as well as its destiny, with a sacred cloud that would not be lifted until the appropriate time had come, and Jerusalem was poised and ready to play its role in the End of History.

There you go! The Quran doesn't mention Jerusalem because it is too darn holy!

In fact, this neatly explains not only why Jerusalem is not in the Koran, but why Islamic scholars ignored their supposedly third-holiest city for hundreds of years!

This, perhaps, explains the almost total absence of Islamic literature on the subject of the destiny of Jerusalem, something to which Dr. Ismail Raji al-Faruqi referred when he lamented: “Unfortunately, there is no Islamic literature on the subject” (see Ch. 1). The fact is that no one could have written on this subject until that time arrived when the cloud was lifted. This book was written in consequence of the conviction that the cloud is now being lifted.

You see? Jerusalem is more holy than Mohammed, more holy than Hajj, more holy than Zakat, more holy than prayer, more holy than the prophets - because they are all mentioned prominently in the Quran, but Jerusalem isn't.

The "proofs" in the book are even more ridiculous. The author claims that when the Quran mentions a "town" it means Jerusalem, and his first proof is the Quranic use of the word "town" referring to where the Jews lived - while they were in the desert.

I think that by using this logic we can deduce that Mickey Mouse is even more holy than Jerusalem in Islam, because Mickey isn't even hinted at!

In a remarkably tone-deaf interview, Hamas Gaza leader Mahmoud Zahar dismissed any claims that the power crisis in Gaza was a problem.

The leader of the Hamas questioned those talking about a state of flux in the Gazan street as a result of successive crises such as lack of gas and power outages, saying: "There are crises in gas, housing and oil in the world, and there are European countries with a huge declared bankruptcy. The people promting these rumors are the elements of the previous (PA) security forces who are sitting in their homes and getting paid, and who drive taxis, and spread rumors, and this is part of a plan to incite public opinion against Hamas before the elections." he continued, "On the ground of the Palestinian people are genuine, they survived the war and the blockade did not yield," and he urged the media "not to intervene at this game."

He also said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were seriously considering a merger and a decision on a merger or cooperation agreement is due in the next few days.

Regarding Hamas' position on Syria and Iran, he stressed that Hamas does not interfere in Syrian affasirs, but asserted that Hamas is not with Iran or against it, and not with Syria or against it; they just want good relations with the Arab world.

And, as usual, he blamed Fatah for the failure of reconciliation so far.

Who's telling the truth about Ramallah TV station raid? (updated)

From YNet:

Communication Ministry officials raided the al-Watan TV station in Ramallah Wednesday.

The raid was headed by officers at the ministry's Wireless Supervision Unit. Palestinian sources said that an IDF force accompanied them.

The IDF said that the raid was prompted by the station's use of unauthorized frequencies, which endanger flight routes over Ben Gurion International Airport.

One of the station's broadcasters said that the soldiers seized transmission equipment, computers and documents, and detained four of the station's employees.

From Ma'an:

Suleiman Zuheiri, undersecretary of the Palestinian ministry of telecommunication in Ramallah, said Israel had breached Article 36 of the Oslo agreement, which requires consultations with the PA.

The accord says a joint committee of technical experts representing both sides shall be established to address any issue arising on the topic of communications, including the growing future needs of the Palestinian side.

Zuheiri said the unilateral move should not have been made by the Israeli military, which is not authorized to seize transmitters or intervene in communications issues but did so anyway.

“The Israeli claims that the stations’ transmission interrupts aircraft communication at Ben Gurion airport are false because the airport’s range is very different from the range used by TV stations.

"Civil aviation waves, according to international parameters, start at 120 megahertz, while TV frequencies start at above 500 megahertz,” Zuheiri explained.

He added that the two stations Israeli forces raided and confiscated their transmitters had been registered at the International Telecommunication Union, clear evidence that the action was illegal and violated international treaties.

His ministry was never notified that these two stations caused interruptions, Zuheiri said, nor did Israel's communications ministry inform the Palestinian side of its plans to shut the stations down.

From what I can gather (and I am no expert in radio frequency communications) both of these assertions are wrong.

VHF broadcast TV in the Middle East ranges from 48 to 252 MHz. Civil aviation uses frequencies in the VHF space, between 108 MHz and 137 MHz.

However, broadcast TV VHF stays away from the aviation bands, with nothing broadcast between 87.75 MHz and 175.25 MHz.

In other words, no TV could see a signal even if the Ramallah station was broadcasting illegally within that range.

That is not to say that the station wouldn't use that frequency for other reasons, or that its equipment doesn't leak out into the aviation frequencies, or that Ben Gurion airport (or maybe a nearby military airbase) might need to use different frequencies for specific security reasons, or any number of other scenarios.

The GOI and IDF need to have the proper information available to journalists immediately when a story like this breaks, because even though in most cases the truth is on their side, they lose credibility because most reporters aren't going to follow up weeks or months later to find out the justification.

UPDATE: I am told that there are two issues that are being mixed up in the IDF explanation - the radio frequency of broadcasts and general electronic emissions. While it is unusual for a TV station's electronics to interfere with civil aviation radio or radar, it is possible, just like electronics can interfere with any radio or TV broadcasts at home. (h/t JD)

Wikileaks/Stratfor: Ma'an editor "batsh*t insane"

From the latest Wikileaks dump of hacked Stratfor emails:

Sending straight to alpha because no WO on. Replying to this thread because it's in reference to the bias we should be aware of from Ma'an News Agency, whose story Mikey just pasted in response to the insight on what's happening at Pal camps in Lebanon. Source is new, just met him on my trip. He's a journalist who works for Ma'an. Insight below is his response to my questions about wtf his boss was saying in the article I pasted below the insight ('Palestinian editor says Jerusalem will be liberated with "military honor"'):

Nasser [Ma'an editor in chief Nasr al-Lahham] is the man but he's a nut. I know him well. Israelis know him too, he used to report from the Knesset and interviewed I think their president once at his home. His point here, seems to me, is Abbas' strategy of building institutions and restoring security, rather than violently resisting, is key to
liberating Palestine. He's telling the recruits they're just as important and valuable as Hezbollah and don't let anyone tell you otherwise

Here's the inside scoop on Nasser and the key to understanding how Maan remains the only truly independent news source in Palestine: He's a decades long supporter of the Popular Front, was president of the PFLP at Bethlehem Univ. and went to jail six years for it.

As a PFLP supporter, he detests organized religion and its mixing in politics (Hamas) just as much as he hates materialism/capitalism/corruption (Fatah). (On that second point, he's probably the most beloved media personality in the country and has huge influence, yet he never thought to move out of the refugee camp where he was born. Badass.)

The other important thing to know about Nasser, more important than anything else I just mentioned, is that he is batshit insane. Really do love the guy but something is off up there, trust me. He will spout out the craziest theories every once in a while

I repeat that I am not impressed with the level of intelligence at Stratfor in the memos I've seen so far, but sometimes they have interesting nuggets.

Netanyahu and others on PBS' "The Advocates," 1979

With host, Michael Dukakis!

The Netanyahu (Ben Nitay) part begins around the 15 minute mark:

I find it interesting that the pro-Palestinian Arab side is generally only talking about self-determination, not a state. By pretty much any definition, they have achieved that.

But every time they achieve something, the goalposts keep moving.

(h/t Hillel Neuer)

Arabs against absorption of refugees (NYT, 1966)

From The New York Times, April 4, 1966:

JERUSALEM (Jordanian Sector), March 30—"The Arab states will not integrate the Palestine refugees because integration would be a slow process of liquidating the Palestine problem," Ahmed Shukairy, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, declared in an interview today.

"Consequently, the refugees don't want to be integrated," he continued. "If there are no Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian cause. We can't conceive of a Babylonian cause today because there are no Babylonians. But we start from the premise that we will achieve the liberation of Palestine soon."

Arab refusal to assimilate the 1.3 million refugees now living in four host countries— Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, controlled by the United Arab Republic—has been the subject of criticism from Israel and from the Western nations that have contributed to supporting the refugees for most of the 18 years since Israel came into existence.

Most of the critics would agree with Mr. Shukairy that the Arabs will not assimilate the refugees because they want to keep tie Palestine issue alive. But few of them would be likely to agree that the refugees do not want to be assimilated, and almost none would accept the premise of "liberation of Palestine soon."

Indeed, questions about why the refugees persist in their hopes when Israel appears to have consolidated her position bring a different, but fairly standard, Arab retort:

"The Zionists remembered Palestine for 2,000 years. Why should we begin to forget in 18 years?"

When leaders of the Arab nations are asked why they do not assimilate the refugees, they reply that Israel and the West, not the Arabs, were responsible for the refugee exodus in 1948 from the part of British Palestine that became Israel.

These leaders ignore the rebuttal that the Arabs shared largely in the responsibility because their radio stations broadcast propaganda about Israeli atrocities designed to panic the refugees and that the refugees were told to flee.

...

The basic problem is that integration of the ordinary, uneducated peasant refugee requires land. In Jordan, the only host country that has given refugees the full privileges of citizenship, arable land is not available. The other Arab countries reserve what land they can develop for their own citizens, who want it badly.

Iraq, where there are almost no refugees, has the most favorable land-to-man ratio among the Arab states, but even there any significant assimilation of outsiders would require large scale development of irrigation

A Western ambassador in one host country said recently:

"The way to solve the problem is to stimulate Arab economic development to the maximum. If the Arab countries begin to need manpower, refugees will automatically be absorbed."

The psychological and emotional obstacles to integration are great. The refugees and their hosts feel strongly that they got a raw deal in 1948, and their self-esteem demands formal reparation, particularly because of the impression that the Israelis are cleverer, abler and more modern than the Arabs.

The Arab armies that moved against Israel in 1948, after the Arabs rejected the United Nations partition of Palestine, were beaten, and the defeat still Irankles.

One educated refugee said the other day in private conversation that he favored going back to the original partition plan, which would cost Israel 27 per cent of her present territory.

...

The mystique of the refugees, fed by Arab broadcasts and by nostalgic talk, is based on the conviction that they have been grievously wronged. One commentator, Cecil Hourani, has written: "In the dim twilight of the camps it is what has been lost that still beckons, not what can be done to take its place."

At a United Nations school in Gaza, a young refugee was learning the trade of an auto mechanic. He was scheduled to I go to Sweden for on-the-job training. He spoke a little English. Asked what he would do if he could get a permanent job in Sweden and if he met a girl, he liked, he said: "I would come back. My country needs me."

Hamdi Hirzallah, 40 years old, a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was present at the interview. A native of Beersheba, now part of Israel, he said with great intensity: "I will tell you something, and I wish you would quote me. If they try to leave, we will stop them, by force if need be."

Afternoon open thread/links

Where you can ruminate over the fact that a Houston high school basketball team may never find out if they are the best in the league.

Or you can review Vice News - in Gaza. (I didn't get to see it yet.)

Or discuss exactly what makes Pepsi a "Jewish drink."

(h/t JTA, jzaik)