Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 25, 2012

Tough questions and disingenuous answers in Parliament on Pal. incitement

From the UK Parliament website, from a debate last Wednesday in the House of Commons:

Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con): What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of aid provided to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. [108772]

The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell): Both the Minister of State, who is today attending the Friends of Yemen meeting in Riyadh, and I keep a close eye on the effectiveness of our programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Guto Bebb: I thank the Minister for his response. On a trip to Israel and the west bank earlier this year, I saw education materials that incited violence and the use of Palestinian Authority broadcast media to glorify conflict, not least relating to a group of children singing about the aim to saturate their land with blood. Will the Secretary of State provide assurances that our aid donations do not contribute towards such incitement? Will he highlight what steps the Government are taking to deter the Palestinian Authority from supporting such publications and broadcasts?

Mr Mitchell: I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. I would be very interested to see the material he describes. I can tell him that numerous credible studies show no evidence of incitement or anti-Semitism in Palestinian Authority textbooks, so if he ensures that we get a copy of what he has seen, we will take the appropriate action.

...
Mr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con): The next generation of Palestinian peacemakers and state builders are too frequently exposed to messages of hate and violence rather than of peaceful co-existence. What measures are in place to ensure that aid is used to teach mutual understanding and reconciliation?

Mr Mitchell: My hon. Friend makes an important point. A recent study was set up by the Americans to look at the content of textbooks and teaching both in Israel and in the west bank for precisely the reason that he sets out. We take this issue very seriously. I will ensure that my hon. Friend receives a copy of that report when it is published.

While the questions were about general incitement in Palestinian Arabic media and educational materials, which is subsidized by Western aid and which has plenty of incitement. Mitchell's answer concentrated on textbooks, which have improved somewhat after being exposed for blatant anti-semitism - but most of them still do not acknowledge that a nation called "Israel" exists. One example I wrote about here.

Of course, not all MPs are asking tough questions about the PA. Some are asking loaded questions about Israel that includes outright lies. Two of them:

Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): I also visited the west bank and East Jerusalem last year and I saw the consequences of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Will the Secretary of State assure us that Church groups will be urged to get the Government of Israel to follow the parable of the Good Samaritan?

...
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab): We need to focus on the real issue of aid, not on red herrings about its misuse by the Palestinians. The fact is that Israel has blockaded Gaza and the checkpoints in the west bank are stifling any attempt by the British Government to bring aid to the Palestinians. What is the Secretary of State doing to make the Israelis co-operate in respect of the aid that Britain and the EU gives to the Palestinians?

Really? Israel is practicing "ethnic cleansing"? Israel is telling Great Britain that they cannot bring aid into the territories?

It is a shame that the few decent questions about the territories are so anomalous that they are newsworthy.

(h/t Benjamin)

Muslim Brotherhood candidate leading in Egypt's election results

From Egypt Independent:

Results from polling stations across Egypt’s 27 governorates began to roll in late Thursday night and early Friday morning following the country’s most competitive presidential poll in history. Voting confirmed analysts' suspicions that only five of the thirteen candidates face the possibility of advancing into a run-off. Those garnering significant support were the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohamed Morsy, Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, former Brotherhood leader Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi, and the former head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.

12:30 pm: Al-Masry Al-Youm has reported that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy is heading the race after vote counting ended in 20 out of 27 of Egypt's governorates, followed by Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

In the 20 governorates — Daqahliya, Beheira, Gharbiya, Minya, Assuit, Kafr al-Sheikh, Qena, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Aswan, Damietta, Ismailia, Luxor, Port Said, Suez, Red Sea, North Sinai, South Sinai, Marsa Matrouh, and the New Valley — Morsy has 28 percent and Shafiq 21 percent.

Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi is third with 20 percent of the votes, followed by former Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh with 19 percent and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa with 12 percent.

Separately:

A Brotherhood official said that with votes counted from about 12,800 of the roughly 13,100 polling stations, Morsy had 25 percent, Shafiq 23 percent, a rival Islamist Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh 20 percent and leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi 19 percent.

Given that Fotouh, in third place, is a former Muslim Brotherhood leader, chances are most of his votes - including most of the Salafi vote - would go to Morsi (even though he did garner some support from secularists.) Shafiq is being reviled by the Islamists as being from the "remnants" of the Mubarak regime. It is unclear how the supporters of Sabbahi would vote.

What kind of president would Morsi be?

Calling himself the only authentic Islamist in the race, Mursi has targeted devout voters whose support helped the Brotherhood and the ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist movement to secure 70 percent of parliament seats earlier this year.

He has promised to implement Islamic sharia during rallies peppered with references to the Koran, God and the Prophet Mohammad and occasionally interrupted by pauses for mass prayer.

Morsy has called for a review of Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, saying Egypt's neighbour has not respected the agreement, a line mirroring that of most of the other candidates in the race. The group has said it will not tear up the deal.

"We will take a serious step towards a better future, God willing," Morsy said at his final campaign rally on Sunday, promising to combat any corrupt hangers-on from Mubarak's era.

"If they take a step to take us backwards, to forge the will (of the people) and fiddle with security, we know who they are," he said. "We will throw them in the rubbish bin of history."

"It was for the sake of the Islamic Sharia that men were ... thrown into prison. Their blood and existence rests on our shoulders now," Morsy said during one campaign rally.

"We will work together to realise their dream of implementing sharia," said the Brotherhood contender, who himself spent time in jail under Mubarak.

More anti-semitic incidents in Hungary

A couple of weeks ago I passed along two stories about anti-semitism in Hungary. Commenter Stanley Ukridge, who writes from a Budapest IP address, confirmed the first story but said the second one was untrue.

He just sent me news of two more recent anti-semitic incidents.

In one, a statue of Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg was desecrated by someone placing pigs feet around the neck:

In the second, anti-semitic graffiti was scrawled on a statue commemorating the shooting of Jews into the Danube by the Arrow Cross militiamen towards the end of World War II (hundreds of Jews were lined up at the river's edge, told to take off their shoes, and shot so they fell into the river and were swept away.)

The graffiti here says "This is not your country, filthy Jews."

This one has an arrow pointing to the Danube and says "You will be shot there."

(There is another famous sculpture commemorating the massacre on the banks of the Danube.)

US Senate may change definition of "Palestinian refugees"

Great news, from The Times of Israel:

Nearly everyone agrees that around 650,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes between June 1946 and May 1948. But when it comes to counting the number of Palestinian refugees alive today, the math gets fuzzy.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main body tasked with providing assistance to Palestinian refugees – there are more than 5 million refugees at present. However, the number of Palestinians alive who were personally displaced during Israel’s War of Independence is estimated to be around 30,000.

This enormous disparity is explained by UNRWA decisions in 1965 and 1982 that extended the definition of “refugees” to include the children and grandchildren of displaced Palestinians. Today, UNRWA’s annual budget stands at approximately $600 million, of which $250 million is contributed by the United States. Overall, America has contributed $4.4 billion to the UN agency since its establishment in 1949.

Writing in Foreign Policy, Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies cites a study that projects nearly 15 million Palestinian refugees by the year 2050 if UNRWA does not reform its method of accounting. Nevertheless, Schanzer predicts a lot of resistance to the Senate provision.

“In recent years, politicians and policy wonks, including one former UNRWA administrator, have called for UNRWA reform. The agency hasn’t merely demurred; it has girded for battle,” he says. “UNRWA set up shop in Washington with two Hill-savvy professionals, despite the fact that its operations are entirely based in the Middle East, anticipating the need for what looks like a full-scale lobby effort to defend its mission. The agency even toyed with changing its name last year in an attempt to burnish its image in the West.”

The US State Department, which pledged an additional $10 million in UNRWA funding earlier this year, is also making noises opposing the measure. But Schanzer says “such grumblings will likely pale in comparison to the expected outcry in the West Bank, Gaza, and the Palestinian refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries.”

“The refugee narrative is a sacred one in Palestinian political culture. Palestinian leaders will not simply table it because Congress passes new legislation. Rather, it’s a fair bet they will mobilize. When UNRWA merely mulled a name change in July 2011, Palestinians organized protests and sit-ins. Proposing real changes to UNRWA could even prompt violence,” he says.

In Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Lara Friedman of the left-leaning Americans for Peace Now criticizes Kirk for trying to “unilaterally” resolve the refugee issue “outside of negotiations.” She believes the issue should be solved in bilateral permanent status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and adds that, even if made into law, the Kirk amendment wouldn’t work.
“Palestinians who consider themselves refugees don’t do so simply because UNRWA, or anyone else, gives them permission to do so,” she says. “They do so because this is their personal experience and their personal narrative. Forcing the UN to redefine millions of them to no longer officially qualify as refugees won’t change that self-definition, and it won’t make the issue easier to solve in the future. In truth it will just make it harder, since the new, Kirk-approved terms of reference will be totally disconnected from the actual issues at the heart of the conflict.”

Kirk’s office explains, however, that the legislation does not call for a total cutoff to needy Palestinian descendants receiving aid from UNRWA.

Instead, it changes the way the US views them – as people living below the poverty line rather than as refugees.They say the amendment will improve the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace, as it could yield a Palestinian “right of return” without resulting in demographic suicide for Israel.

The Lara Friedman quote shows how much some Jews have gone off the deep end.

Although I don't believe for a minute that the State Department or White House would allow this to happen, the real effect of creating a universal definition of "refugee" would be to pressure Arab states to naturalize the many Palestinians who were born in their countries, as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states explicitly:

Article 7

1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and. as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.

2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.

Arab countries that discriminate against Palestinian Arab children, including Lebanon and Syria, have signed this convention. And they flout it.

So there is a universal definition of refugee created by the UN - with the exception of Palestinian Arabs. There is a universal convention on assigning citizenship to children - except for Palestinian children. And there is even a Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, that apparently doesn't apply to Palestinians either:

A Contracting State shall grant its nationality to a person born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless.

Palestinians really are exceptional, aren't they?

This is a false refugee problem that has not been resolved directly because of Arab discriminatory actions against Palestinians. The US has chance to be a leader in eliminating this problem and solving a huge humanitarian crisis created by the Arab nations. The hundreds of millions of dollars now going to UNRWA can be properly channeled to allow Arab countries to naturalize their Palestinian Arab "guests."

It is only sixty years too late.

Abbas lies, again, and dooms his people to misery

Ma'an reports:

According to Beirut-based Now Lebanon news agency, Abbas told the An-Nahar newspaper of “permanent” cooperation with the Lebanese government to maintain security in Palestinian refugee camps.

The president also voiced hope that the lives of Palestinians in Lebanon would be “easier”, adding that they did not “want to be naturalized.”

(Now Lebanon mirrors the article. In his original speech it appears that he says that "we do not want resettlement.")

Either way, it is a lie that the Lebanese do not want citizenship. As I've pointed out numerous times, every time Lebanese Palestinians gained a loophole to become citizens they jumped at it. (So have Gazans to become Egyptian citizens in recent months, over 2000 have done that including Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.)

In 2005, Abbas actually said that Lebanese and other "guest" Palestinians should have the right to become citizens of their host states if they want, and then he did an abrupt about-face, deciding that they should have no freedom to make such a decision themselves.

Arab "leaders" like Abbas have consistently campaigned to deprive Palestinian Arabs of their rights to become citizens of their host countries, as well as the rights of their children to become citizens of their home countries. They effectively tell their people to go to hell.

And it is all because they are holding out hope that millions of Palestinian Arabs will one day flood Israel and destroy the Jewish state. That is the only reason these people have suffered for 64 years, and their freedom to choose to become citizens - that all other Arabs have automatically - is taken away from them.

Not that Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch care. Amazingly, HRW actually agrees that Palestinian Arabs must remain stateless. Really.

(h/t Tamzen)

Freedom for me, boycott for thee

Next week the Israeli Habima theatre company will perform The Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theatre in London.

Anti-Israel activists have already said that they will do everything they can to disrupt the performances.

The Globe says it is beefing up its security:

Shakespeare's Globe has stepped up security in anticipation of next week's two performances by Israel's Habima Theatre Company in order to avoid a repeat of the scenes at the Proms last year.

Pro-Palestinian activists have made clear their intention to disrupt proceedings with demonstrations at both performances. Both shows are now sold out.

In a letter sent this week to ticket-holders, the Globe reserved the right "to refuse admission to anyone we have reason to believe may cause a disruption" and that "any objects or material which could be used in disrupting the performance will be deemed prohibited items".

The organisers warned that individuals who attempted to disrupt the show would be asked to leave and advised that ticket-holders should leave bags at home.

The letter also said that there would be "enhanced security processes in place" including extensive checks of bags and audience members, with food and drink banned in the auditorium and no video or photography equipment allowed at the venue.

The audience has been advised to arrive up to 90 minutes before curtain-up, with plans for the show to be significantly delayed "if the majority of the audience arrive after 7pm".

Interestingly, a theater company that represents a brutal dictatorial regime already played at the Globe without incident. Their government has banned public gatherings, censored newspapers and jailed people whose opinions it disagreed with. Yet no one protested their right to perform; ther ewere no letters to the Guardian insisting that hosting this play would empower the despot rulers to continue their brutal oppression of their people.

I'm talking of course about the well-reviewed Palestinian Arab production of Richard II as part of the same Shakespeare festival.

That theatre company, Ashtar, spoke about the importance of art as a basic human right:

Last week, after receiving a standing ovation for their colourful and enjoyable Arabic-language version of Richard II as part of the Globe's Shakespeare festival, Ashtar members joined a discussion on "theatre under occupation," organised by Jewish anti-Israel campaigner Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.

The panel event, held at the Globe but organised independently, featured Ashtar's artistic director Iman Aoun, actors George Ibrahim and Nicola Zreineh, as well as Bidisha, author of the forthcoming book Beyond the Wall, and playwright Sonja Linden.

Questioned by the audience on the role of theatre, Mr Zreineh, who played Bolingbroke, said that it was "about communicating stories."

"This is why we Palestinians believe that theatre can be a very powerful tool to create change first in Palestine, and then regionally and internationally," he said.

To nods of approval and applause from the other panellists, Bidisha added: "It's about artists saying, I want to create artistic practices, to exhibit, to perform, to go on tour. These are normal, absolutely basic human rights.

"Artistic creation and drama is wholly universal, and it is a human right to create and perform."

"Art really does have a role in our very conflict-ridden world," said Ms Linden. "The artist's role is to reflect and engage. I'm interested in theatre as a forum for communicating."

But some freedoms are just too much for the oh-so-principled thespians of Ashtar:

[M]oments later, asked to share their views on the recent calls for the Globe to withdraw its invitation to Israel's Habima Theatre company – due to perform The Merchant of Venice at the Globe later this month – the panellists argued that no Israelis should be given a place on stage.

"It's not about Habima, it's about any Israeli organisation, governmental or non governmental, because for us we call for boycotting Israel. That's it," said Mr Zreineh. "As long as there is no justice in our area, we call for boycotting Israel as a state.

"For us it's not about Habima or not Habima, it's about an Israeli existence in our land, in our area."

"We support the BDS [boycott, diverstment and sanctions] and the cultural boycott of Israel," said Ms Aoun. "We have also written to the Globe asking them to disinvite Habima."

It seems that blatant, sheer hypocrisy is also a human right.

Syria loves Shlomo Sand

A symposium was held yesterday at the Lecture Hall of the al-Assad National Library in Damascus, as reported by Syrian's official TV network website.

The subject? "The Invention of the Jewish people."

Yes, the entire symposium was dedicated to the absurd ramblings of Shlomo Sand.

The sponsors of the meeting was the "Syrian Arab Popular Committee to support the Palestinian people and resistance to the Zionist project."

I guess the only people who take Sand seriously are School of Oriental and African Studies in London - and the Syrian government.

Al Manar op-ed: "We need an Arab Netanyahu"

An Al Manar (Lebanon) op-ed by Fayez Abu Shamala looks at Binyamin Netanyahu's acts over the past few days.

It talked about him offering deep condolences to Rachel Atias, whose entire family was wiped out in a horrific car crash in Tiberias on Monday night.

The article then went on to discuss how Netanyahu emotionally described the importance of Jerusalem to the entire Jewish nation, and how it would be a fatal mistake give up the Temple Mount, saying that if Jerusalem is gone, Zionism is gone.

The op-ed concludes with this:

Arab people want a leader they can believe in, ideologically and revolutionary, who is honest with them, as Netanyahu is with the Jews. The Arab people want a leader who does not betray their covenant, nor abandon their rights, a president careful about their future, compassionate to them, at the same time be firm in his positions, solid against the their enemies, tough on the holy sites, and aggressively against those who want to undermine their rights.

And, yes, this is the same Al Manar run by Hezbollah.

We have seen many times that Arabs treat Israeli concessions as signs of weakness and they deride them. Here we see the flip side: they respect power and principles.

Report on the AZM panel Monday night

On Monday night, I participated in a panel discussion on Israel advocacy sponsored by the American Zionist Movement in New York.

My co-panelists were Bari Weiss, senior editor at Tablet Magazine, and Noah Pollak, writer and one of the founders of the Emergency Committee for Israel.

I had met Noah before, and he is always fun to talk to. He knows a lot of important people and when he says things like "Bill Kristol reads your blog and wonders 'Who is this Elder of Ziyon?'" it blows me away.

Bari is super nice, and she was surprised that I wouldn't tell her my real name even in person.I think she is taking that as a challenge.

I'm such a dork; I put on my badge and walked around with "Elder of Ziyon" on my lapel until I realized at the beginning of the panel that the other panelists weren't wearing theirs. I discreetly removed it during the introductions. What do I know about panel speaker badge etiquette?

I enjoyed myself. I feel a bit guilty because ShalomTV wanted to cover it and I insisted I remain anonymous; since they couldn't guarantee that my face wouldn't end up on the video they chose not to come. It is a shame because events like this need to be covered so that it is not limited to the audience of 50 or so that showed up. (AZM made a video, when it is available I'll link to it.They promised to keep my face out of it.)

Noah talked about what American Jews need to do from a political perspective to help Israel, and he pointed out that Jews tend to like to discuss things but politics requires going on the offensive and taking the battle to the other side. That's what the other side is doing and it is what we need to be doing as well to defend Israel. And, he pointed out, making fun of BDSers is pretty easy - they parody themselves.

Bari talked about how she became galvanized to become a journalist after seeing the documentary Columbia Unbecoming, which showed how pro-Israel students at Columbia University were intimidated and singled out by professors and students alike.

I spoke about my experiences from the blog and pointed out that videos I've posted have had ten times the audience of my posts. I talked about how effective hasbara must be experiential and visceral, and not merely words. I pointed out that the reason Birthright and Israel semester programs in Jewish high schools are the best way to get people to be pro-Israel because it is not only a logical issue but an emotional one, one that has to reach people on a gut level, and blog posts rarely rise to that standard.

Everything was quite cordial. The only slightly discordant note came from, well, me.

An Israeli pointed out that as much as BDS is a joke in the US, as Noah mentioned, it is regarded as even more of a joke in Israel, so what is the real danger to Israel's existence? How could he convince his fellow Israelis that they should be concerned about any existential threat?

Noah answered that the danger was more in the attempts that BDS and similar initiatives to split the American Jewish community, not in any direct damage they do to Israel.

My answer was that Arabs have a long term strategy to destroy Israel, bit by bit; that they think in terms of centuries and not election cycles and that they will use any combination of military, political and social means to accomplish that. I pointed out that the "right to return" is being downplayed by Westerners but it is an integral part of Arab strategy and while it is not a danger now, it might be in a decade or two as the argument gets strengthened by repetition (legal aspects end up becoming just politics after a while; no international court is going to rule that the "right" of return is invalid even though it has no legal basis.)

The moderator then pointed out that while it might be my opinion that all Arabs want to destroy Israel, not everyone thinks so.

I then quickly said that as soon as I see a single Arabic article that disagrees, I would publicize it far and wide; so far I haven't seen it.

It didn't bother me too much but that small incident shows how far we still have to go. The idea that Arabs still want to see the Jewish state fall should not be considered controversial; it is not a right-vs.-left opinion - it is explicitly said in the Arabic media every day without any dissent at all. (The latest example, from the Western-funded "moderate" PA, can be seen here.) If you want to disagree, fine, but at least show me a single counter-example! Just one!

Althogether, though, I had a lot of fun and it was very nice meeting some of you in person, including Barbara Mazor who led the fight against the BDSers at the Park Slope Co-op and who was on The Daily Show as a result.

Afterwards I was kicking myself that I didn't even think of doing a quick video interview with Bari and Noah for the blog. D'oh!

Why is Gaza still dark?

A Welsh activist in Gaza tweeted a number of times overnight that Gaza City was completely dark:

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

Fuel crisis in gaza is getting worse. This is the first time we've had no electricity and no generator in the middle of the night. #gaza

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

I look out the window and gaza is in blackout. Total blackout

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

Streetlights have gone out and cars are creeping along slowly unsure how to continue. Also I banged my knee. Ouch.

Welshy ‏@WelshInGaza

On the roof and the only that I can see with electricity is Shifa Hospital.

This is a #Gaza horizon during this fuel crisis. That single lit building in the distance = the hospital. http://twitpic.com/9ohlvr

Of course, he blames Israel (and peripherally Egypt.)

But Israel has been sending lots of fuel into Gaza. Every week the number has been somewhat inconsistent but it has been enough to run the Gaza power plant; yesterday 289,000 liters were sent in - a higher amount than usual.

COGAT's weekly reports lately have been saying "Due to the heavy-duty diesel crisis from Egypt to the Gaza strip in order to operate the power plant, operating the power plant may be problematic and the electricity may temporarily not work in the strip." I don't quite understand this - is the diesel being sent by Israel not the type the power plant needs? That was the entire point of the agreement where Hamas allowed fuel to be transferred through Israel.

As usual, it seems to be that Hamas is artificially creating this crisis. There was one unreported incident last month where Hamas got into a dispute with the local energy office and no fuel was transferred for a day.

But any way you look at it, there is far more fuel going into Gaza now then during the months of the crisis earlier this year, and if Gaza is suffering through more power cuts now than then, it has nothing to do with Israel. Hamas has a history of manipulating the fuel supply to score political points, and this is probably what is happening now.

Egypt's Copts nervous about possibility of Islamist president

Today is the second day of polling for Egypt's presidential elections, and Egyptian Copts are especially concerned over the possible results.

Many Egyptian Christians felt marginalized under former President Hosni Mubarak and are voting to keep an Islamist from replacing him, out of fear their community would be further sidelined.

In Shubra, a working-class Cairo neighborhood home to many Copts, voting lines were long, and the worry and tension felt by many Christians was palpable.

“I don’t want the Islamists. If they come to power and I oppose them, they will say I am criticizing their religion, and who knows what they’ll do to me? We can’t talk to them,” said 57-year-old Sanaa Rateb after casting her ballot.

Dressed in a floral jacket topped with a pearl necklace, Rateb railed against those, including the Muslim Brotherhood, who object to a Christian or a woman running for president.

“It’s a mistake. Where is the principle of citizenship in all this? I have the right, as a woman or as a Copt, to stand for the presidency if I want,” she said.

Nassim Ghaly, a young man with a cross tattooed on his wrist in the distinctive manner of Egyptian Christians, interjected: “God protect us if the Islamists come to power, and they control Parliament and the presidency at the same time.”

Like all the Copts questioned on Wednesday, Rateb and Ghaly voted for Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak. Shafiq’s campaign posters were the most visible in Shubra.

“Shafiq is a respectable man who can restore the country,” said Mary, who declined to give her family name.

The Coptic Orthodox Church, whose patriarch Pope Shenouda III died in March, has refrained from endorsing a candidate. However, Mary insisted that within the community, “everyone is voting for Shafiq.”

But she said the community is not looking to Shafiq to protect their rights as Christians.

“We don’t want anyone to defend us. We just don’t want any problems and to be left alone,” she added.

The Coptic community, which makes up between 6 and 10 percent of Egypt’s population of about 80 million, is traditionally low-key and fairly absent from the country’s circles of power.

Mubarak named Shafiq, a former Air Force chief of staff, as prime minister in the final days of Mubarak’s regime.

He is reviled by the youth of the “revolution,” Muslims and Christians. They call him “feloul,” a pejorative term for those who served in the old regime. But others reject that label.

“If Shafiq is feloul, then we are all feloul,” said Ghaly.

Still, the subject is sensitive, and many of those interviewed were unwilling to be identified — most of them whispering as they spoke so they wouldn’t be heard by their fellow voters.

Asked about her position on Egypt’s Islamists, a young Christian woman responded dryly: “I’m sorry, I don’t wish to say anything on that subject.”

Notice how institutionalized the dhimmitude of Egypt's Christians is, their psyche so ingrained with the idea that they must not speak out or turn too political which would draw attention to themselves.

The Egyptian Copts have not even formed their own political party in the wake of Egypt's revolution.

Jordanian Talmud translators admit their purpose is anti-semitism

A couple of months ago I reported about a huge Jordanian project to translate the Talmud into Arabic, musing that this was meant more for anti-Israel propaganda than serious scholarly research.

Now it's been proven.

From the ADL blog:

A newly released Arabic translation of the Talmud – the first of its kind – contains an introduction that seeks to revive age-old anti-Semitic conspiracies about the Talmud, including the accusation that the ancient text reveals the racist character of the Jewish people. The introduction also attempts to paint Israel as the modern-day embodiment of the alleged racist ideologies found in the Talmud.

The translation, which was published by the Middle East Studies Center (MESC), a Jordan-based think tank, specifically couples anti-Semitic narratives with anti-Israel propaganda: “The discrimination which Arabs in Israel face is an extension of the racist spirit included in many Talmud texts and explanations.”

In an effort to claim that the Talmud is an inherently racist text, the introduction repeatedly seeks to exploit and take out of context certain passages in the Talmud, including deceptively referring to injunctions that seem to “prove” that Jews regard non-Jews as inferior. The introduction, for example, notes,

“These texts confirm the racist and hostile perception toward the non-Jews, especially those who threaten the ‘chosen nation’ and stand in the way of its ambitions and hopes. There is no doubt that Israel is the best example of this racist position, both in the level of its daily crimes against the Palestinians and the level of its rejection and contempt for international resolutions and laws. For what applies to other countries in the world does not apply to contemporary Israel, as it is unique...Jews, according to this racist position [of the Talmud], are permitted to do what is not permitted for non-Jews.”

Elsewhere in the introduction, the reader is informed that the Talmud claims that non-Jews are inhuman, may be tricked or cheated, that it is permissible to kill them, and so on.

The conclusion of the introduction neatly merges the publishers’ anti-Semitic and anti-Israel proclivities: “The Talmudic heritage has a significant impact on the formulation of Jewish identity based on holy [principles of] racial isolation…It [the Talmud] also established the extreme positions that advocate hatred toward non-Jews, the violation of their rights and looting of their lands and property.” The publisher then refers to the Zionist movement’s alleged “crimes” against the Palestinian people as an example of the Talmud’s validation of racist policies.

On the webpage of the Middle East Studies Center in Jordan that translated the Talmud there is a description of the work that is almost certainly the introduction that the ADL is referring to. It starts off as a fairly dispassionate description of the origins of the Talmud, how it is viewed in Jewish tradition, the difference between the Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi, the Tannaim and Amoraim, the six major orders of the Mishna, and so forth. There are none of the usual egregious mistakes usually seen when Arabs talk about the Talmud. They even admit that the idea that the Talmud excised all mentions of Islam, which some Arabic "scholars" claim, is false, as it predates Islam (and indeed some early Muslims were familiar with the Mishna.)

Then, towards the end, the authors start concentrating on the "racism" of the Talmud. It purports to talk about how Jews consider themselves superior, how the Talmud disparages Christians and all the usual anti-semitic propaganda that we've seen since the Nazis. Whathad been a fairly objective history of the Talmud turns into a pure hatefest. From there it is only a short step to "proving" that the Talmud prescribes wiping out all non-Jews from Israel.

This section is heavily footnoted, but the footnoted sources are most interesting. Instead of pointing to the sections of the Talmud that supposedly say these racist laws, they are referencing modern anti-semitic and anti-Zionist literature, from books by people like Israel Shahak!

These "scholars" didn't even check their own work to verify the quotes!

Some 90 people worked for many years to put out this work - but when it comes down to it, the only reason they did it was to find evidence for their bigotry.

This is what is considered "scholarship" in Jordan.

(h/t Yoel)

Links!

From Ian:

Skin cells turned into healthy heart muscle cells“In the latest study, the team in Israel took skin cells from two men with heart failure and mixed the cells up with a cocktail of genes and chemicals in the lab to create the stem cell treatment.”

Deluded BritanniaThe British Empire Strikes Back: UK Body Rules Tel Aviv is Israel’s Capital

IAEA Promises Peace In Our Time

HuffPo’s House JihadiMehdi Hasan, a controversial British media figure whom insiders have billed as a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime, recently left his job at the left-wing New Statesman magazine to join the Huffington Post as a senior staffer, according to reports in the British press.

Hamas-Run Schools Set Out to Teach ‘the Language of the Enemy’

Pro-Hamas students holed up at Bir Zeit UniversityMore than a dozen students staying on campus since May 5 for fear of arrest by PA

Sudan says Israel responsible for Port Sudan car bombExplosion in Red Sea city kills one; Foreign Ministry refuses to respond to ‘generic allegations’

Top Saudi Cleric: Ban Christian Churches in Arabia Let Girls Marry at 10 by Irfan Al-Alawi

Also, from Yoel:

Israeli gives up on Everest summit to help Turkish climber

Live coverage of the World Chess Championship where an Israeli might defeat the Indian champion

Jordanian bank fires woman for refusing to wear hijab

From Al Arabiya/AFP:

The Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank on Wednesday fired a Christian employee because she refused to wear a scarf to cover her hair as part of uniform for female staff, its spokeswoman said.

“The bank warned Vivian Salameh to cover her hair as part of women’s uniform approved earlier this year, but she refused,” Iman Afaneh told AFP.

“Five other Christian women are working at the bank, and they are committed to wearing full uniform, including the headscarf.”

But Salameh said she “refused to wear the partial head cover because it is against my principles.”

“The bank uniform registered at the trade and industry ministry does not include wearing anything to cover my hair,” she said.

The Jordan-based Islamic bank is a public shareholding company which launched operations in 2010.

From its webpage, it seems that the bank is pretty upfront about its principles:

Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank is a fully integrated Islamic bank combining solid Islamic values with modern technology and innovation that characterize the best of modern banking. Our focus at Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank is on the needs of each of our customers. We are a customer-centric organization with close personal service and understanding forming the base of each of our client relationships.

To achieve these goals we have set solid foundations and standards for our Vision and Mission represented in the following:

Our Vision
Leading Islamic banking to serve all spectrums of the society.

Our Mission
To provide distinctive and innovative services emanating from the divine principles of Islam to build lasting and solid partnerships and to maximize benefits to all stakeholders.

Our Values
Innovation: At Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank, we adhere to the principles of innovation and distinguish ourselves as a pioneering financial institution by combining traditional Islamic values with the latest technology and innovative products and services; thus delivering the best of modern Islamic banking.

Knowledge: At Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank, our guiding principle of banking is inspired by the knowledge and doctrines embodied within the Holy Quran. Built from these strong foundations, we are proud to introduce the new standard of modern Islamic banking in Jordan.

This couldn't have been too big a surprise to her.

The bank also has, besides the (all male) board of directors, a Sharia Supervisory Board.

EU lies in defending "human rights defender" Bassam Tamimi

From an EU press release:

Statement by the Spokesperson of High Representative Catherine Ashton on the case of Bassem Tamimi
The spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, issued the following statement today:

"The High Representative is very concerned by the conviction of Bassem Tamimi in an Israeli military court on 20 May 2012 on charges of taking part in illegal demonstrations and of soliciting protesters to throw stones.

The EU considers Bassem Tamimi to be a 'human rights defender' committed to non-violent protest against the expansion of an Israeli settlement on lands belonging to his West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The EU attended all court hearings in his case and is concerned at the use of evidence based on the testimony of a minor who was interrogated in violation of his rights.

The EU believes that everyone should be able to exercise their legitimate right to protest in a nonviolent manner."

The EU is not saying that Tamimi was not inciting stone-throwing. They do not deny that the protest that he organized included stone throwing. So it may appear that the EU regards throwing stones as "non-violent protest."

The EU statement strongly implies that the evidence that he was behind the stone throwing came from a minor under interrogation, and therefore there is no real evidence that he directed the attacks. Since the evidence came under questionable circumstances, Ashton says, it should not have been used to convict Tamimi.

The EU is lying.

From WaPo:

The military judge in al-Tamimi’s case said Sunday she dropped more serious charges of incitement and support for a hostile organization that were based from the confessions of a 14-year-old, saying it was riddled with inconsistencies. She also did not use the confession of a young adult, saying interrogators misrepresented what he actually said.

The judge effectively threw out the testimonies from the minor as well as a young adult, dismissed charges based on their testimony - and still convicted Tamimi of inciting stone throwers. In other words, there was other, independent evidence that Tamimi is guilty of inciting violence - but the EU (and Amnesty International) is purposefully ignoring that other evidence, which it must have heard since it says it attended all the hearings!

Either the judge arbitrarily chose to convict Tamimi based on zero evidence (after showing her integrity by chiding the prosecution for pushing a confession and testimony that she said was not credible), or the EU is going out of its way to demonize Israel's military justice system by picking and choosing facts to imply that Bassam Tamimi is a "human rights activist."

There is one other possibility. Perhaps the EU doesn't consider the intended victims of the stones to be "human."

Interestingly, the minor whose testimony was thrown out was Muatassim al-Tamimi, a relative of Bassam Tamimi's. He was caught throwing stones. If Tamimi is such a human rights defender and against violence, he apparently cannot even influence his own family.

By the way, Amnesty International also calls Tamimi a "prisoner of conscience" and wholeheartedly believes everything he and his family says. This includes something that is almost certainly a baldfaced lie, as well as obvious evidence that Amnesty is anything but objective:

I first met Bassem when I went to interview Nariman and two of her sisters who had been arrested and detained on the same day in 2010.

Sitting in the family’s home, amidst shattered windows, the curtains burned from tear gas shot by the Israeli army into the house, I’d finished my interview when Bassem came in.

I find it very hard to believe that the IDF would shoot tear gas into a house. Almost certainly that is directly against IDF directives, so I will venture to say that the Tamimi family is lying and that Amnesty will believe anything they are told as long as it fits with their already-preconceived notions.

Egypt launching "veiled-women only" TV channel

From Al Arabiya:

An Egyptian satellite television channel currently on test transmission and managed by a staff of women in niqaab (fully veiled) has stirred controversy in the country and revived the debate over the limits of individual freedom.

Marya channel’s general manager Sheikha Safaa was quoted by various Egyptian media sources as saying that the television will be “exclusively female” and that men would not be allowed to interfere in its editorial policies or program content.

Sheikha Safaa noted that the channel’s owner, ultraconservative Salafi Sheikh Abu Islam Ahmad Abd Allah, will have a “consultative” role to play because of his “media and scholastic expertise.”

“The work in operations of the channel will be handled by the sisters in charge of management, especially as women are the best one to talk about their needs,” she said, adding that the channel “aims at lifting injustice” on veiled women who suffer from marginalization.

The channel’s owner was quoted as saying he chose the name Marya for his television in reference to Mariyah al-Qibtiyyah, a woman who was gifted to the Prophet Mohammed and gave birth to his son Ibrahim.

(Marya was a Copt; Mohammed is said to have freed her.)

Journomania adds:

No men or non-veiled women will be employed says Sheikha Safaa , the manager of the channel.

Even though these employment plans might be considered sexist, Sheikha Safaa seems to think otherwise. She has made it quite clear that the objectives of launching this channel is to offer veiled women the chance to appear on the screens and to empower other veiled women by activating their roles. She claims veiled women suffer marginalization.

Sheikha Safaa explained that the staff of the satellite channel will be all women, and men are not going to interfere in its general policies or programs quality. Even the owner of the channel will have only a consultative role based on his experience and skills in the field of media, she said.

“The affairs of the channel will be handled by the sisters who will be running the television channel, since women are more qualified to address and talk about their own needs”, she added.

Sheikh Abu Islam Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah, the owner of the "Al Ummah" channel and the new “Maria” Channel, said in a statement that "God willing, the channel will employ Muslim women graduates of various departments of media collages and institutions. This project aims at protecting women from temptations by finding them suitable work opportunities ."

Sheikh Abdullah explained: “We plan on hiring all our staff of veiled women and finish that within three months. We have already hired women, filming professionals from other television channels to train our all women team on production, filming, and other skills. But for the technical skills we have to rely on men because we were not able to find skilled women in this field yet”.

Here's an apparent screen shot from a test broadcast:

Feminism, Salafi-style!

Earliest evidence of Bethlehem found in archaeological dig

From the Israel Antiquities Authority:

The first ancient artifact constituting tangible evidence of the existence of the city of Bethlehem, which is mentioned in the Bible, was recently discovered in Jerusalem.

A bulla measuring c. 1.5 cm was found during the sifting of soil removed from archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out in the City of David. The sifting is underwritten by the 'Ir David Foundation' in a project being conducted in the Emek Tzurim National Park.

A bulla is a piece of clay that was used for sealing a document or object. The bulla was impressed with the seal of the person who sent the document or object, and its integrity was evidence the document or object was not opened by anyone unauthorized to do so.

Three lines of ancient Hebrew script appear on the bulla:

בשבעת Bishv'at

בת לחם Bat Lechem

[למל]ך [Lemel]ekh

According to Eli Shukron, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “it seems that in the seventh year of the reign of a king (it is unclear if the king referred to here is Hezekiah, Manasseh or Josiah), a shipment was dispatched from Bethlehem to the king in Jerusalem. The bulla we found belongs to the group of “fiscal” bullae – administrative bullae used to seal tax shipments remitted to the taxation system of the Kingdom of Judah in the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE. The tax could have been paid in the form of silver or agricultural produce such as wine or wheat”. Shukron emphasizes,” this is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible, in an inscription from the First Temple period, which proves that Bethlehem was indeed a city in the Kingdom of Judah, and possibly also in earlier periods”.

In the Bible Bethlehem is first mentioned in the verse “in Ephrath, which is Bethlehem”, and it was on the way there that Rachel died and it is where she was buried (Genesis 35:19; 48:7). The descendants of Judah settled there, among them the family of Boaz (Book of Ruth).

I wonder what the former PA Mufti would make of this? He was quite emphatic that there is no archaeological evidence that Jews were in Jerusalem in ancient times.

(h/t Dan)

Turkey seeks life imprisonment for 4 Israelis in Mavi Marmara incident

From Bloomberg:

A Turkish prosecutor will seek life imprisonment for four Israeli commanders in connection with the 2010 interception of a Gaza-bound ship during which nine Turks were killed, Sabah said.

Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel’s military chief of staff during the May 31, 2010, raid on the Mavi Marmara ship from Turkey that sought to breach the Gaza Strip blockade, and three others will be tried as fugitive defendants, the newspaper reported, citing Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci’s indictment.

The 144-page document charges that Israeli officials deliberately killed, wounded and tortured the pro-Palestinian activists who sought to end the embargo, according to Sabah. The prosecution will file the indictment after final approval from a chief attorney, the newspaper reported.

The Sabah article is here. The others named in the indictment are "naval forces commander Eliezer Alfred Maron [sic], (former) air forces intelligence officer Avishay Levi and (former) Israeli intelligence chief Amos Yadlin" who would be arrested if they ever go to Turkey.

The paper adds that such an indictment may cause controversy as it has no precedent, at least vis a vis Israel and Turkey.

The indictment is to be handed down days before the second anniversary of the incident.

(h/t Simone)

Turkish columnist exposes many Mossad conspiracies!

From Burak Bekdil at Hurriyet:

It’s Mossad!

In 2008, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s official news agency, Wafa, reported that Israel (read: Mossad) had released poison-resistant rats to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes. Training rats so as to distinguish between Muslim, Christian and Jewish residents of a city must be a remarkable scientific achievement, but apparently “Project Mickey Mouse” must have failed, as evinced by Jerusalem’s demography today.

In 2011, Saudi Arabia announced that it had “detained” a vulture carrying an Israeli band. The griffon vulture was carrying a GPS transmitter bearing the name of the Tel Aviv University and was condemned for being a part of a “Zionist espionage plot.” Mossad’s “Operation Angry Birds” had failed and I do not know if Saudi courts ruled to behead the Zionist spy vulture, sentence it to life in prison, or force it to reveal the names of his collaborators in return for a pardon; but there were rumors that hundreds of camels may have been implanted on the Arabian Peninsula to spy for Israel.

That same year, one of two Turkish celebrities who had been accused of raping call girls defended himself by saying that the whole incident was “an Israeli plot against him.” Once again, Mossad had been caught red-handed. The Israeli spy network had successfully infiltrated into the Turkish red-light district, but “Operation Amorous Crescent and Star” failed to deceive the Turkish star and his fans.

And most recently, a migratory bird, a common bee-eater, caused alarm in a Turkish village in the southeast after villagers thought it was an Israeli spy. According to reports, villagers’ suspicions were aroused when the bird was found dead in a field with a metal ring around its leg stamped “Israel.” They called the police after deciding its nostrils were unusually large and may have carried a microchip fitted by Israeli intelligence for spying.

But this time “Operation Eliyahu Hanavi” went surprisingly well, as the gullible Turkish authorities took the bait that it is common practice to fit a ring to migratory birds in order to track their movements. Fortunately, the Zionist bee-eater was dead and could no longer spy for Israel. All the same, the Turkish intelligence machinery should adopt a pre-emptive strike policy and randomly question migratory birds passing through the Turkish airspace.

Being accused too often by readers for being a Zionist columnist (and an undercover Israeli agent), I feel obliged to warn Mossad that it should put a halt to the practice of stamping fellow spies with names like Israel and Tel Aviv University.

For instance, I successfully spent several years of my journalistic career as an Israeli agent in perfect disguise because I had cleverly refused Mossad’s proposal to have on my right arm a tattoo reading “Mossad agent no. 2119129.” My spying career would no doubt have progressed if the readers of this column had not been smart enough to uncover me.

Acting as silly as the country’s intelligence agency, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly decided to deploy 20,000 commandos on Greek Cyprus. There must be something wrong about the figure in the Turkish state Anatolia news agency’s reporting. I feel obliged to correct: In fact, the IDF plans to deploy 200,000, not 20,000, commandos on Cyprus, although it has only a few tens of thousands of commandos in Israel. This new special operation unit will mostly consist of vultures, bee-eaters and poison-resistant rats.

Driving through Central Anatolia last month I smiled at a huge banner in the heart of a town, which read: “Inform the police when you see strangers and suspicious persons – on the police hotline 155.” An updated version of this clever neighborhood watch policy could read: “Inform the police when you spot Israeli spies disguised as pink elephants and dragons – with stamps that read ‘Israeli spy.’”

Hamas outraged over Mabhouh comedy

From Gulf News:

Relatives of a Hamas leader allegedly slain by a Mossad hit squad are looking to block the release of an Israeli-French spoof on the raid - not because it portrays him as a "terrorist" but because it shows him drinking in a hotel bar.

The film, which parodies the 2010 killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room in January 2010, stars Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli, French actor Tomer Sisley and Israel's Shlomo Bar-Abba, star of the Oscar-nominated Footnote.

"The film undermines the image of our brother, showing him drinking alcohol and meeting in a bar with an Israeli model who seduces him and sets the trap for his assassination," Fayaq Al Mabhouh told AFP in Gaza.

He said his family was planning to sue the producers in the Israeli courts on grounds the film "soils the image of the martyr Mahmoud Al Mabhouh." "We are a conservative, religious family and we respect the reputation of the dead, especially since our brother is an honourable symbol of resistance," he added.

A small reminder: Mabhouh was involved with the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers, and there is a video of him standing on their corpses. He smuggled weapons for Hamas in Gaza and was working on getting Iranian weapons into the hands of Hamas terrorists.

But making fun of him is immoral, according to his family - precisely because of his terrorist credentials.

Hamas has added its voice to those outraged by this film. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said "it is essential for this farce to be stopped immediately, and all Palestinian human rights and all-loving Palestinian people must stop this," demanding that the Palestinian Bar Association, the Arab Lawyers Union and the World Federation for Lawyers to defend the case and file a lawsuit against the film company and stop the production of this "shameful act."

Yes, a murderous terror group is accusing people making a movie of being "shameful."