Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Followup on Yemen "blasphemer" case

I mentioned on Friday about a group of Yemenis who burned the house and two cars of a man they accused of tearing a Quran. (No one seems to be concerned about the fates of any Qurans that might have been burned up in his house.)

Apparently, some of the vigilantes who set the fire were detained by Yemen police.

And this makes many Yemenis angry:

The Parliament on Saturday formed a committee to investigate burning and destroying a house for a man charged by his neighbors of tearing the Holy Quran and disgracing it.

Some MPs condemned incapacity of security authorities to fight vice in the country and focusing only on cracking down protests against any wrong doing or for demanding rights confiscated by powerful figures.

Last Wednesday, tens of people destroyed a house of a man in al-Hasaba zone of the capital Sana’a accused of tearing the Holy Quran. Four men were arrested over the incident.

MPs, politicians and social figures have condemned the detention of citizens over setting fire to the house and demanded their release and bring the man to justice.

That's right - the politicians aren't upset over the burning of a man's house by a mob, but over the possibility that he might have really torn a Quran and the detention of members of the mob!

By the way, since yesterday, the rumors now have added that the man's 75-year old mother ran a brothel. Yesterday she merely was accused of planning to replace a mosque with a nightclub.

Hamas shoots feet of Fatah members in Gaza

Things still aren't too peaceful between the Palestinian Arabs.

From Ma'an:

Unidentified gunmen affiliated with Hamas fired at three members of their rival Fatah party in the Jabaliya area of the northern Strip Thursday night, a Fatah spokesman said.

Fahmi Az-Za'arir said in a statement that the men were taken to Kamal A'dawan Hospital for treatment after being shot in the legs. They were identified as Khaled, Ismail, and Mus'ab Ad-Darduni, all from the same family.

According to Az-Za’arir the attackers drove off on a motorcycle toward the Al-Ihsan Mosque, “which is under the control of Hamas. “

Saeb Erekat not so "moderate" in Arabic

When he is quoted in the Western press, PA negotiator Saeb Erekat comes across as fully committed to peace and the "peace process."

In Arabic, however, he shows that peace is not at all what he cares about.

From WAFA:

[Saeb Erekat] said during his visit to the province of Salfit today, that there will be no peace without full restoration of our national rights, no peace with the presence of the settlements, and [no peace without] the return and compensation for refugees is a legitimate right to be the return of refugees and the creation of an international mechanism to compensate for the tragedy which they were subjected by the occupation.

In other words, Erekat is saying that unless the PA reaches its current maximal demands, it will keep supporting terror. Negotiations are not a give-and-take; they are a means to gain 100% of Palestinian Arab demands, no less - and if Israel doesn't agree, then there will be terrorism and war, fully supported by the PA, forever.

The current relative lull in terror attacks from Fatah is not because Fatah embraces peace; but it is a tactical move to gain concessions from Israel.

MEMRI translates an earlier interview of Erekat where he implies that the current maximal demands are only the beginning:

"It is true that the negotiations continued for many years, but don’t you know that President Yasser Arafat was besieged at Camp David and was killed unjustly, only because he adhered to Jerusalem, and because he refused to let the Israeli measures on the ground give rise to any [Israeli] right or any [Palestinian] obligation? The Palestinian negotiators could have given in in 1994, 1998, or 2000, and two months ago, brother Abu Mazen [i.e. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 'Abbas] could have accepted a proposal that talked about Jerusalem and almost 100% of the West Bank, but it is not our goal to score points against one another here.
"Our strategic goal, when we strive for peace, is not to do so at any price. We strive for peace on the basis of an Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 borders, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip geographically connected." […]
"There will be no peace whatsoever unless East Jerusalem - with every single stone in it - becomes the capital of Palestine.
[…]
"Our survival and steadfastness on this land, our wresting of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital - this is what we can achieve in our generation."[…]

Meaning that in future generations, they will attempt to take more.

And he reveals who has been "obstinate" towards peace:

Israeli prime minister Ehud] Olmert, who talked today about his proposal to Abu Mazen, offered the 1967 borders, but said: 'We will take 6.5% of the West Bank, and give in return 5.8% from the 1948 lands, and the 0.7% will constitute the safe passage, and East Jerusalem will be the capital, but there is a problem with the Haram and with what they called the Holy Basin.' Abu Mazen too answered with defiance, saying: 'I am not in a marketplace or a bazaar. I came to demarcate the borders of Palestine - the June 4, 1967 borders - without detracting a single inch, and without detracting a single stone from Jerusalem, or from the holy Christian and Muslim places.' This is why the Palestinian negotiators did not sign…"

So while the Western press is fixated on Netanyahu's "hawkishness," darling Mahmoud Abbas has shown zero desire to compromise on anything, a position that Erekat fully supports.

This is the so-called "moderate" position of the Palestinian Arabs - a constant war without end as long as Israel does not fully capitulate, and then a lull to be followed by a new war to expel all Jews from "Palestine."

A tiny local story out of Yemen:

Tens of bearded extremists burnt and devastated a house belongs to a citizen called Abdulmalik al-Mansour in al-Hasaba zone today morning.

The attackers accused al-Mansour and his mother of blasphemy. They hold a meeting near the victims house, got a fatwa to execute al-Mansour and his mother and destroy their house. At 5 hour morning the attackers came from al-Eman university and from other mosques in the capital to burn the house, two cars and a motorcycle belonging to al-Mansour before they brought some bulldozer and started devastating the three-storey house.

This has happened few months after the establishment of the vice and virtue committee. The attackers accused al-Mansour of tearing the Quran and walking on it in the mosque. They also accused his mother Makyah of threatening to change the mosque into a nightclub.

The government did not interfere until the attackers did the job burnt the cars , the house and the motorcycle and destroyed the house. By then the security authorities swarm the devastated house under cover. However they did not arrest the attackers they rather arrested al-Mansour, his mother, and children and rest of his family to put them all in the prison of the investigative police.

Relatives of al-Mansour denied that he torn the Koran pages at any time saying that he was a good Muslim and usually pray in the mosque. They also shed sarcasm over the story that his mother threatened to change the mosque into a night club. “There is no night clubs in the country and mother Makyah do not know what the meaning of a night club is, she is a good Muslim but she doesn’t like Salafayeen and that’s why they burnt her house,” Makeya’s relative said.

The attackers claimed they had called on Sheikh ab-Dulmajeed al-Zindani who gave them a fatwa to authorize them kill the family and devastate their house. How ever newsyemen.net website said the website called on Sheikh al-Zindani’s office which confirmed that the attackers had called on Sheikh al-Zindani but said that he did not issue such fatwa.

Last week Some extremists from the same university burgled on to top of a house in al-Khaniq zone north east of the capital where they destroyed satellite dish , stabbing and beating its owner and his son whom they accused of directing the dish to a European satellite to watch porn movies. The authorities arrested some of the attackers but later arrested the victims and put them into the investigative police prison.

It sure looks like Yemenis can do any crime they feel like and get off scot-free as long as they pretend it was done for religious reasons. Pretty nice if you have a grudge against someone - you can guarantee getting that person arrested.

So did Jews pray at the Temple Mount?

I had mentioned on Tuesday that Arabs were freaking out about reports that Jewish groups were planning to ascend to the Temple Mount on Thursday to pray. It turns out that the Israeli police prevented all Jews as well as Muslims under 50 from going there to prevent any riots.

But Ma'an claims that something else happened:

Israeli police officers in charge of preventing extremist settlers from performing religious rituals near the Al-Aqsa Mosque were seen praying there on Thursday.

Settlers had earlier been prevented by Jerusalem police from reaching Lion's Gate near Al-Aqsa on Thursday, yet the police themselves were later seen praying there.

Ma'an's Jerusalem correspondent reported that police removed their uniforms, put on head coverings, and began to pray in the area shortly after preventing settlers from reaching the very same place.

Of course there are no pictures so it is hard to tell whether this really happened or is just an attempt at incitement.

But it shows yet again the bigotry of Palestinian Arabs as they threaten violence if Jews dare consider praying at their holiest site.

Notice also how they define "extremist" Jews - not Jews who want to destroy the mosque, not Jews who threaten to kill all Arabs, but Jews who simply want to pray.

The BBC looks at Jeremy Bowen

The BBC just released a lengthy report that addresses complaints about the accuracy and impartiality of Jeremy Bowen, its Middle East editor.

While the report did find that Bowen did breach its impartiality standards in one case and its accuracy standards in a very small number of cases brought by a complainant, for the majority of the complaints the BBC found that he reported fairly and accurately. (Briefly, the BBC found that Bowen's description of the Six Day War as "“The myth of the 1967 Middle East war was that the Israeli David slew the Arab Goliath. It is more accurate to say that there were two Goliaths in the Middle East in 1967" was not an impartial statement.)

One of the complaints, and the BBC's response, caught my eye.

Bowen, in a different report about the Israeli presence on Har Homa, referred to “the considerable number of Israelis who say that their country’s colonisation of the West Bank has been a national disaster.” The complaint mentioned that a majority of Israelis support settlements in some way and that the phrase "considerable number" was misleading and false.

The BBC's findings show its own bias:

The Committee considered that a “considerable number of Israelis”, did not suggest a majority or imply a figure close to 50%. The Committee then considered the evidence provided to it regarding this comment. The Committee noted that poll findings would suggest that more than 10% of Israelis disagree with the settlements, and the figure could be much higher depending on the precise questions asked. The Committee accepted that it was reasonable to summarise their objections in this way.

The Committee discussed how far it was meaningful to link the extension of Har Homa to Israelis’ opinions of colonisation in the West Bank, given that the Israeli public may distinguish between Har Homa and the West Bank. The Committee concluded that this fact does not alter the meaning of the sentence, namely that announcement that Har Homa would be extended led to consternation among those Israelis who consider the colonisation of the West Bank to have been a national disaster. The Committee considered that this sentence is logical and that there is no evidence that it is inaccurate.

The Committee did not feel that Jeremy Bowen was obliged to mention that the majority of Israelis were in favour of settlements, and concurred with the ECU in this regard.

In conclusion, this element of the complaint was not upheld as a breach of the guidelines on either accuracy or impartiality.

In other words, if 10% of a group believes something, that is considered a "considerable number." Of course, anyone who looks at polls can spin any poll using that criteria to demonize any group of people, because rarely does any poll show that over 90% of people agree with something.

To give a more concrete example, a poll of Muslims worldwide found that 6.5% thought that 9/11 was "completely" justified and another 7% found it "mostly" justified. (This is not counting the 23% who found them justified "in some way.") Would the BBC countenance a report saying that "a considerable number of Muslims justify the 9/11 attacks"?

And in terms of pure numbers, the 13.5% that find 9/11 fully or mostly justified represent over 150 million Muslims, which - by any definition - is a "considerable number," an order of magnitude more than there are Jews worldwide. Yet I cannot imagine that the BBC would ever use such terminology to describe Muslims, which would be far more accurate than the report referenced above.

The reason is obvious: the terminology "a considerable number" implies a number that is large enough to have political clout, at least 30%, and certainly not the 10% that the BBC has decided it implies.

So when the BBC cannot accurately note an obvious breach of impartiality, the entire process is a joke.

(Other posts about Bowen and his obvious bias here and here.)
(h/t Oyavagoy)

UPDATE: See Melanie Phillips.

Have a good Yom Tov!

Two more days of massive caloric intake, prayer, learning some Torah, wonderful afternoon naps and catching up on reading. To be followed by annual the frenzied trip to a local kosher Dunkin' Donuts to get some serious chometz after Passover ends.

So...for those who celebrate it, enjoy the rest of Passover! I'll be back אי"ה Thursday night or Friday morning.

Arabs can't stand Jews wanting to pray

Jews are planning to go near their holiest site and pray on a major Jewish holiday.

Naturally, this is making Arabs furious.

From Ma'an:

Israeli police have warned against demonstrations against a planned settler march ending in Al-Aqsa Mosque where prayers will be performed, sources said Tuesday.

Settlers have said they intend to enter and pray in the Haram Ash-Sharif compound where the Al-Aqsa Mosque sits on Thursday.

Palestine News Network puts things a bit differently:

Israeli extremist organizations are seeking to enter the courtyards of the Al Aqsa Mosque on Thursday.
This latest threats comes within the context of an outright onslaught on the Palestinian heritage, culture and population of the city.
In response the Palestine Liberation Organization has called for Thursday as a day “to defend Jerusalem.” A spokesperson at the PLO told PNN this afternoon that protecting the Mosque is of utmost import. It is hoped that Palestinians will form a ring around the Muslim holy site to protect it from further damage.

Now you can understand the rest of the Ma'an article:

Israeli police also handed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Consult for Jerusalem Affairs Hatem Abdul Kader an official warning that accused him of intending to create a public disturbance by gathering Palestinians to demonstrate against a planned settler march.
Police said Abd Al-Kader was planning a campaign “of incitement” whose planned actions would “enflame the situations in Jerusalem” and said he would be held accountable for any mishaps.

Abd Al-Kader responded to the warning by issuing a statement saying the warnings should rather be sent out to the settlers.

The police said they would study the case and may only allow the group to visit the mosque and prevent prayers in the area.

Abd Al-Kader said he would welcome any decision to prevent the settlers from praying at the holy Muslim site. He stressed that he was only concerned about the holiness of the space and wanted to avoid any violence in the area.

So Jews want to go to the Temple Mount to peacefully pray. Arabs say that doing that is unacceptable incitement and they will act violently as a result. And then they say that they only care about the holiness of the area and want to avoid violence?

You may recall that in 2000, these same peaceful prayerful Muslims threw bricks from their holy area onto praying Jews below, claiming that the Jews and Ariel Sharon started the violence - by "provocatively" yet peacefully visiting the Temple Mount. And it appears that they are just itching to start a new intifada using the same hollow pretext.

As if more evidence is needed for the sheer bigotry of the current "moderate" Palestinian Arab leadership, earlier the PA cabinet condemned Jews going on the Temple Mount, and added this interesting comment:

Such [provocative acts], according to Palestinian cabinet, are attempts to divide the Al-Aqsa compound and impose a de facto as what they have already done in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the southern West Bank. These procedures will end up in escalation in the whole region killing the peace process.

Reading ever so slightly between the lines, this means that the current Palestinian Arab government believes that Jews do not have the right to pray at their second-holiest site, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron! The fact that Jews pray there today is considered unacceptable but unfortunately necessary for the time being - but if given a chance the "moderate" anti-semites in the PA would kick every Jew out of Hebron forever and not even let them visit!

Is Muslim prayer ever considered incitement, or is it exclusively Jewish prayer - especially when the Jewish claim to every holy site pre-dates Islam itself by over a thousand years?

The vicious Arab bigotry needs to be exposed for what it is. It is not a defense against violence; it is an incitement to violence and an attempt to minimize any Jewish connection to the Holy Land.

It is also worth recalling that Arabs do not believe that Jews have the right to pray at the Western Wall either. They claim that this is also holy Muslim land and if the PA had its way, Jews would be forbidden from all of Jerusalem. This is not exaggeration; this is what they are demanding. They will tell the West that they will "compromise" and allow Jews to have access to their holy places, but they have said that before - in 1949, Jordan's armistice agreement with Israel included "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives." Needeless to say, Jordan reneged on that agreement as soon as it took control of eastern Jerusalem. There is nothing to indicate that the PA, the institution that the West loves to pour billions of dollars into, would act exactly the same way if given the chance.

To deny Jews the right to pray at their holiest site is pure anti-semitism, pure bigotry. No amount of doubletalk about "sanctity" or "peace" or "status quo" can change that naked fact.

What scares the Arabs more than anything is when Jews in Israel start acting like Jews...because they know that their own Islamic claims are but a shadow compared to the Jewish claims to the land.

And this is why the idea of Jews praying on the Temple Mount makes them so upset.

The anti-jihad meltdown

I have been watching with increasing concern the blog war between Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs and Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch.

It is alarming because when two powerful players fight each other, the only loss is to the cause itself.

The details aren't important. Both sides and their supporters have already spent countless hours trying to dig up tenuous connections between the opposition and, absurdly, Nazis and Islamists. As so often happens in situations like these, eventually the hard-core get caught up in minutiae that casual fans quickly lose interest in, to the detriment of both blogs.

I have a simple rule to determine what people believe: read what they write and say. Don't make leaps of logic based on who they associate with. No two human beings agree on everything; that doesn't mean that they cannot talk to each other or link to each other in cyberspace or even say nice things about each other. If someone writes something that is bigoted or racist, call them on it; but don't start making assumptions based on their connections or their commenters.

I have read enough of Robert Spencer's and Charles Johnson's writings to say that they are both against bigotry and they are not racist. The accusations to the contrary are absurd and divisive.

I have also read enough of their writings to say that they are both right about the Islamist threat, period. That is the issue and everything else is a distraction. And today especially, we cannot afford distractions.

The silly game of accusations and counter-accusations has to stop. Disagreements can and should occur, but without the stupid baggage that turns them into wars. There is enough real scary stuff going on out there that wasting time on blog wars ends up hurting everybody.

10 years for double murder. But they were only women.

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian military court in Ramallah on Monday sentenced a man to ten years in prison for murdering two sisters in November 2005.

According to court records, the masked killer broke into the home of Dawlat and Fitnah Assaf, stabbing both of them. Dawlat died instantly while Fitnah succumbed to her wounds later.

What Ma'an fails to mention is that the sisters were elderly - Dawlat was 75 years old.

The Palestinian Arab jurisprudence is working overtime for justice. Looking through Ma'an, I only found two other recent stories from the Ramallah Law and Order beat: the conviction of a man who stole millions via insider trading to 2 years in prison and a $150 fine, and a man who was arrested for marketing expired yogurt.

Hezbollah ridicules idea of "political wing"

From the LA Times (h/t Carl in Jerusalem):

On one point, the United States agrees with Hezbollah's No. 2 leader, Naim Qassem, and not such allies as Britain.

Neither Qassem nor Washington distinguish between the Shiite militant group's political wing, which has members serving in the Lebanese Cabinet and parliament, and its military wing, preparing for the next round of battle against Israel. "Hezbollah has a single leadership," said the 57-year-old cleric in a rare interview with an American reporter recently.

"All political, social and jihad work is tied to the decisions of this leadership," he said. "The same leadership that directs the parliamentary and government work also leads jihad actions in the struggle against Israel."

This article was published yesterday morning. It is an explicit refutation of Great Britain's decision in March to talk "only" with Hezbollah's "political wing."

Yet the story has not been picked up by any British media. So far it has only been reported in Israel, Iran and peripherally in the UAE.

And Ha'aretz reports on the interview - yet ignores this statement about Hezbollah's leadership, which led the story in the LAT!

Given what Great Britain did and what Europe is doing in legitimizing Hezbollah, isn't this kind of important? Wouldn't a responsible Western press pick up on something like this? It isn't as if the LA Times is a tiny newspaper. The story's been out for more than a day.

The media silence is perhaps more troubling than the story itself.

PalArabs deny booby-trapped boat had explosives

Ma'an:

The Palestinian Agriculture Ministry in Gaza slammed on Tuesday Israeli allegations that Palestinians attempted to attack an Israeli warship using an explosive-laden fishing boat on Monday morning.

The ministry said in a statement that Israel’s account of Monday’s events was “trumped up story aimed at escalating aggression against fishermen” and “an excuse for piracy and destruction.”

The Agriculture Ministry said it has spoken with eyewitnesses who said the boat contained no explosives, and that it exploded only when an Israeli warship shelled it.

The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, maintained the Israeli version of events saying, “The fishing boat that was identified this morning by Israel Navy boats was booby-trapped with hundreds of kilograms of explosives."

“We assume that this was an attempt to attack one of the Israel Navy boats, an attempt that fortunately was not successful, thanks to the soldiers correctly implementing the regulations,” said Ashkenazi.

For some reason, the PA didn't explain why exactly this "fishing boat" that exploded so spectacularly after being shelled had no people on board. Perhaps the Gazans have perfected robot fishing techniques?

Saudis go nuts over - sewing machines

From the Saudi Gazette:

Rumors that Singer sewing machines contain the so-called “red mercury” substance has sent prices skyrocketing around the Kingdom, with individuals flocking to markets to pay up to SR200,000 [$53,000] for a single machine.

The rumors, which first started circulating a few days ago via the Internet and then the word of mouth, led to a rush for sewing machines that could previously have been bought for as little as SR200.

Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, described the rumors, which have gathered momentum around the Kingdom, “as false and deceptive.”

Believers of the rumors say that the presence of a drop of red mercury in the machine’s needle can be verified with a mobile telephone. If the line cuts off when the telephone is placed close to the needle, they say, that proves the existence of the substance.

In Madina, trading in the sewing machines was intense in many places. Potential buyers were seen using their mobile telephones to check the machines for the level of its red mercury content.

While crowds have also thronged car boot sales and other market areas in search of the sewing machines, others have resorted to theft, with two female tailoring shops broken into in Dhulum and their sewing machines taken.

So what is "red mercury?"

It is a mythical substance, rumored to be used to build nuclear weapons, that supposedly is worth a fortune.

Those Singer folks are brilliant to start such a rumor!

Triple "honor killing" plus Gaza kids killed by Hamas bomb

From PCHR:

On Thursday, 9 April 2009, three members of the ‘Olaiwa family – including a child – were murdered in Gaza City. The police found three bodies belonging to Sufian ‘Arafat 'Olaiwa, 45, his wife, Miriam al-Majdoub (‘Olaiwa), 30, and his son, Jawhar Sufian ‘Olaiwa, 5, in their houses in al-Shoja’eya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. The victims were shot by several bullets to different parts of their bodies. On the same day, the police arrested three members of the ‘Olaiwa family for questioning. Yousef Abdul Wahab, Chief of the Police Criminal Investigation Bureau in Gaza, told PCHR that the crimes were related to ‘family honor’.

This is not a clan clash - this is members of a family killing other members of the same family for "honor." I'm not sure what heinous crime 5-year old Jawhar did, but it must have been a doozy.

Also, two weeks ago two Gaza boys were killed while playing with a "suspicious object" which exploded. The original stories concerning this made it sound like they were leftover Israeli ordnance, but PCHR says:

Palestinian police sources informed PCHR that they had opened an investigation into the incident, but they have not yet obtained any data about the suspicious object.

This is the Hamas police, of course, and if they are not blaming Israel immediately this means that the kids found one of the hundreds of booby traps that Hamas had seeded urban areas of Gaza with.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 66.

Chol HaMoed Open Thread

Since I am not able to do any real blogging until later tonight, it is time for the highly anticipated and always unpredictable Open Thread, where various and sundry topics get discussed in entertaining ways.

Lotsa Matzoh

I was just reading the back of a Manischewitz matzoh box, where they are celebrating their 120th anniversary, and I wondered - did they invent the machine matzoh?

A brief Google search brought me to an article from Time magazine last week that answered that and many other matzoh questions:

For thousands of years, the story of matzo remained relatively unchanged. For one week during Passover, observant Jews refrained from any leavened bread product (meaning, anything made from dough that is able to rise), replacing it with irregularly shaped discs of handmade matzo. Orthodox Jews went a step further, eating only shmurah, or "guarded" matzo made from grains that had been watched by a Jewish official from the moment of harvest to ensure that they never came into contact with a liquid that would lead to accidental leavening. According to rabbinic law, once the flour is combined with water, matzo dough must be kneaded, rolled and baked within 18 minutes — otherwise it will begin to rise.

In 1838, a Frenchman named Isaac Singer invented a matzo-dough-rolling machine that cut down on the dough's prep time and made mass production possible. But changes to 3,000-year-old religious traditions never go smoothly, and Singer's invention became a hot-button issue for 19th century Jewish authorities. In 1959, a well-known Ukrainian rabbi named Solomon Kluger published an angry manifesto against machine-made matzo, while his brother-in-law, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson, published a defense. Jewish communities around the world weighed in on the issue — arguing that handmade matzo provided kneading jobs for the poor; that the machine made matzo cheap enough that poor people could afford it; that the mitzvah, or good deed, of eating matzo was ruined if a machine was used; that the machine made it easier to abide by the 18-minute rule. These discussions were not resolved quickly — and in some Orthodox communities, not at all.

In 1888, a Lithuanian immigrant named Dov Behr opened the first matzo-making factory in Cincinnati, Ohio. Behr adopted the name Manischewitz, named his factory the B. Manischewitz Company and developed an entirely automated method of matzo production. In advertisements, Manischewitz boasted that "no human hand touches these matzos!" By 1920, he was the world's largest matzo producer — at 1.25 million rectangular, sheetlike matzos a day — but he always adhered to the original kosher rules. As Manischewitz's popularity grew, so did the general perception of matzo. Gone were the lumps and bumps of homemade mazo; machine-made mazo was uniform in size, shape, taste and texture. Manischewitz endured some controversy for his use of machines, but after he spent 13 years studying the Talmud in Jerusalem, even the most hardened traditionalists eventually considered him an acceptable authority on matzo. The Manischewitz family sold the company in 1990 for $42.5 million; the brand is still the most popular type of matzo in the world.
Matzo Facts:

1. A matzo bakery was invited to the 1938 New York World's Fair, but for unknown reasons never appeared.

2. In 1973, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan shouted, "Man, oh, Manischewitz," the matzo company's slogan, in the middle of his moonwalk.

3. In 2008, competitive-eating champion Joey Chestnut ate 78 matzo balls in eight minutes for a $1,500 prize.

But Time magazine in 2009 is not the only mainstream media to be interested in matzoh. Here's a typically inaccurate but fascinating article from the New York Times, April 4, 1871 (click to enlarge):

Roger Cohen unveils his "appease Iran" plan

What can you say about someone who is so consistently wrongheaded and stubborn as to keep digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole of insanity?

Today, Roger Cohen, the self-appointed guru of realpolitik, unveils his Grand Plan for Peace, Sunshine and Unicorns!

Iran ceases military support for Hamas and Hezbollah; adopts a “Malaysian” approach to Israel (nonrecognition and noninterference); agrees to work for stability in Iraq and Afghanistan; accepts intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency verification of a limited nuclear program for peaceful ends only; promises to fight Qaeda terrorism; commits to improving its human rights record.
The United States commits itself to the Islamic Republic’s security and endorses its pivotal regional role; accepts Iran’s right to operate a limited enrichment facility with several hundred centrifuges for research purposes; agrees to Iran’s acquiring a new nuclear power reactor from the French; promises to back Iran’s entry into the World Trade Organization; returns seized Iranian assets; lifts all sanctions; and notes past Iranian statements that it will endorse a two-state solution acceptable to the Palestinians.

There is a fundamental flaw when trying to apply realpolitik to the Muslim world.

Realpolitik by definition is not ideological - and Islam by definition is.

The vapid assumption that ideologically motivated Muslims such as the Iranian leadership can violate their core principles for practical considerations is breathtakingly wrongheaded. The Islamic Republic of Iran styles itself as being based on moral and religious principles, and in reality they are not subject to compromise unless they are backed into a corner, when the principles may be downplayed but never changed.

Cohen's plan is fundamentally flawed in another way as well. It assumes that Iran's leaders are not only practical, but that they are trustworthy. For someone who thinks of himself as an expert on Iran, this betrays an unparalleled amount of self-deception on Cohen's part. In the past few years, how many times have we seen Iran flout the IAEA and UN? How many times have we seen them promise that they were only working towards a peaceful nuclear program, only to find out later about secret military nuclear programs that the IAEA has been banned from inspecting? Even Cohen agrees that Iran is working towards a "virtual nuclear power status" - even as Iran denies that today! If Cohen agrees that Iran is lying today about its aims, why on earth would he believe them if they would "agree" under his plan to stop funding and arming Hezbollah and Hamas? They are doing it covertly now!

Iran, however, would love this plan. It can easily lie and bifurcate about its "commitments" all the while happily accepting its increased prestige and power that would be given to it. To take an example, Iran would - and does - insist that it carefully respects the human rights of all its citizens even as it persecutes dissidents and executes minors.

One other point that Cohen makes that comes out of Neverland: the idea that Iran has endorsed a two-state solution "acceptable to the Palestinians." The only thing I can think of was an incident from last year where Iran's flag was placed on an advertisement by the PLO pushing the Arab peace plan. Iran's reaction was pretty explicit:

Iran condemns "any move taken by some Arab countries to push the recognition of the occupying Zionist regime in any manner, including in Islamic conferences."

How moderate! How practical!

Cohen is another of a long line of people who think that if they just shut their eyes tightly enough and believe, that when they can see again the world will be magically aligned with their fantasies.

Honor killings!

A 28-year old woman was dragged from her home to a field and smothered to death with a waterlogged towel in Deir al-Balah in Gaza.

According to the Mezan Center for Human Rights, this is the third "honor killing" in less than two months. This is one of them, and here are some details on the other one, from March 26th:

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, based in Gaza, reported on Wednesday that a 31-year old woman was stabbed to death on Tuesday at night. The woman gave birth to a child boy less than two weeks ago.

The Center added that on Tuesday approximately at 21:15, four young men came to the house of Ola Hasan Safi, 31, and then the neighbors heard screams coming from her house.

The police was called to the scene and found Safi repeatedly stabbed in her neck and back. Forensic examination showed several bruises on her back in addition to stab marks on her back, chest, abdomen, and neck.

The Al Mezan Center said that Safi gave birth to a healthy child less than two weeks ago, and that she was staying at her father’s home due to a conflict with her husband.

Remember, violence against women in Gaza is completely normal and should only be blamed on barbaric Israeli practices.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 61.

Gaza "fishing boat" explodes in botched attack

From YNet:

A Palestinian fishing boat exploded as it neared the Israeli coast from the direction of Gaza.

IDF sources estimated that the booby-trapped boat was activated by remote control and meant to explode near an Israeli Navy vessel or a coastal community.

A naval patrol followed the boat for about an hour and spotted no people on board. As it was several hundred meters off the Gaza shore and heading north the boat exploded.

None of the soldiers was injured and no damage was reported.

IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi said that the boat was loaded with a large amount of explosives.

The "Free Gaza" movement has been obsessing over Israel's patrols off the Gaza shore to ensure no weapons being smuggled into Gaza as well as to stop "fishing boats" like these from steering into Israeli ports. Not surprisingly, they have been silent about this incident.

The algorithm of Palestinian Arab claims

There is a very simple algorithm to determine if Palestinian Arabs claim that something belongs to them.

Step 1. Determine if Israel claims it.

Done!

Jewish shrines? Every single one is claimed to be a Muslim shrine, belonging to Palestinian Arabs.

Jewish-built cities? Every single one is claimed to have been built on some Palestinian Arab village.

Zionist advances in science, medicine, arts, literature? All wouldn't have been possible without the Zionists "stealing land," therefore it belongs to Palestinian Arabs.

Eastern Palestine? No, Jews aren't claiming it, so Jordan can keep it.

The Sinai? No, Jews gave that up, and Egypt wants to make sure that no Palestinian Arabs could possibly own land there. Maybe some of them considered it Palestinian Arab land before Camp David, but certainly not now.

And now the Palestinian Arabs are claiming - the Dead Sea Scrolls!

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities called on Canada to cancel an exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls, which an official said were stolen by Israel from the West Bank, AFP reported on Sunday.

"The exhibition would entail exhibiting or displaying artifacts removed from the Palestinian territories," said Hamdan Taha of the ministry's archaeological department, according to the Toronto Star Newspaper.

Taha called on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harmer to cancel the exhibition, which is scheduled to open at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in June.

Other senior Palestinian officials signed the letter to Canada's prime minister, the AFP reported, insisting that the texts were taken illegally after Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.

Isn't it interesting that they say that the Scrolls were taken in 1967? I wonder what Palestinian Arab had them in his possession before that, and who exactly stole them from him. Especially since they were being studied throughout the 1950s and 60s. And most of them were purchased in the 1950s by David Samuel Gottesman and given as a gift to the State of Israel, where the Shrine of the Book that houses many of them was built in 1965.

Apparently, since the Palestinian Arabs have so little to show for their past sixty years of whining, they think it is much more efficient to claim everything Israeli as really being theirs. It sure saves effort, and they know from experience that the world will believe them, no matter how outlandish their claims are.

Another day, another bomb factory in a mosque

Ma'an Arabic reports:

The Palestinian Interior Ministry on Sunday revealed that their security forces seized a cache of explosives inside a mosque in the city of Qalqilya.

The ministry said in a statement to Ma'an that the explosives seized by the security forces have been manufactured inside the mosque, which it seized, in addition to find the quantities of materials used in the manufacture of these explosives.

Arutz-7 fills in the details:

Hamas terrorists in Kalkilya built a large supply of bombs and stored them in a local mosque without raising suspicion from local Palestinian Authority armed forces who represent the rival Fatah faction. However, the terrorists were out of luck on Wednesday, Passover eve, when a simple electric shortage gave away their plans.

The shortage caused a small fire in the mosque, bringing PA forces to the building, where they found bombs ready for use and large cannisters of bomb-making materials. The mosque was closed down, and PA sappers removed the explosives.

The bombs were then turned over to the IDF, which sent experts to detonate the weapons in a controlled explosion.

A captain in the PA forces told Israeli journalists that the mosque had been used to both produce and store the bombs. “It was a huge weapons lab,” he said.

Four people have been arrested in connection to the incident, he said, two of them members of Hamas and two “everyday citizens.”

If you listen very carefully, you can almost hear the complete absence of any outrage on the part of Muslims that one of their holy sites was used to manufacture weapons of death. Could it be that they think that the murder of human beings is completely consistent with the Religion of Peace?

"Settlers" "storming" Temple Mount

Ma'an reports:

Israeli police allowed 50 right-wing settlers to tour the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday afternoon without a police escort.

Ma’an’s correspondent in Jerusalem reports that the settlers entered the compound during a time slot reserved for foreign tourists.

Palestinians who were in the compound at the time said that they found the settlers’ tour “provocative.” They said that Israeli police stationed at the entrance refused to remove the settlers when this was requested by Palestinians.

Amazing how Ma'an can tell that these people are all "settlers."

Palestine Press Agency says that the Israelis "stormed" the Al Aqsa compound, as did Palestine Today.

Of course, the big concern is not that they would riot, or shoot, or throw stones at Muslim worshipers. No, the big concern is that they might start to - gasp - pray! Prayer scares the Palestinian Arabs far more than tanks.

It is a good sign that the Israeli police didn't discriminate against religious visitors to the Temple Mount today, as they always do. Yet that behavior is rarely reported as discriminatory, even as thousands of visitors stream to the Temple Mount daily and only the religious Jews are stopped and severely limited in what they can do.

Sharia court allows divorce via SMS

From Arab News:

JEDDAH: A Shariah court here has approved the divorce of a young Saudi woman in her 20s whose husband sent her an SMS text from Iraq saying he had divorced her.
The husband, who is in Iraq to participate in what he described as “jihad,” also telephoned two of his friends who witnessed his marriage and told them that he had divorced his wife.

Who says that Islam hasn't embraced modernity?

This is not the first time that particular Islamic legal ruling has come up.

Saudi judge upholds pedophilia

From CNN (h/t Global Freezing):

A Saudi mother is expected to appeal a judge's ruling after he once again refused to let her 8-year-old daughter divorce a 47-year-old man, a relative said.

Sheikh Habib Al-Habib made the ruling Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza. Late last year, he rejected a petition to annul the marriage.

The case, which has drawn criticism from local and international rights groups, came to light in December when Al-Habib declined to annul the marriage on a legal technicality. His dismissal of the mother's petition sparked outrage and made headlines around the world.

The judge said the mother, who is separated from the girl's father, was not the legal guardian and therefore could not represent her daughter, the mother's lawyer, Abdullah al-Jutaili, said at the time.

The girl's husband pledged not to consummate the marriage until the girl reaches puberty, according to al-Jutaili, who added that the girl's father arranged the marriage to settle his debts with the man, who is considered "a close friend."

In March, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to al-Habib for reconsideration.

Under the Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect, but that a challenge to the marriage was still ongoing.

The relative, who said the girl's mother will continue to pursue a divorce, told CNN the judge "stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty."

The appeals court in Riyadh will take up the case again and a hearing is scheduled for next month, according to the relative.

PCHR lies about "civilians" and agrees with IDF about Jabalya

PCHR finally came out with the English translation of their list of victims of the Gaza operation, and already a number of things merit attention.

PTWatch, in the comments, quickly looked at Hamas' list of "martyrs" from Gaza on its Al Qassam website and immediately found four people who Hamas happily claimed as members of their terrorist group - and who PCHR called "civilians."

#576 Ayman Mohammed Mohammed ‘Afana
PCHR -> civilian
AlQassam -> martyr & fighter

#959 Amir Yousif Mahmoud al-Mansi
PCHR -> civilian
AlQassam -> martyr & fighter

#406 Ali Zuheir Mahmoud al-Houbi
PCHR -> civilian
AlQassam -> martyr & fighter

#133 Mohammed Salah Hassan al-Sawaf
PCHR -> civilian
AlQassam -> martyr & fighter

To this list you can add #257, Ayman Fou’ad Eid al-Nahhal, whom PCHR identifies as a "policeman/civilian."

And Hamas clearly isn't publicizing the names of all of its members. These are just the ones on their website that they admit were killed. Both parties are lying.

There are other terrorists listed as "civilians," such as #864, Tareq Mohammed Nemer Abu ‘Amsha, who CAMERA noted that Ma'an listed as a member of Islamic Jihad al-Quds Brigades.

Intriguingly, some of the terrorists that CAMERA mentioned, who were listed in the weekly PCHR casualty reports, are mysteriously missing from the final report. Is PCHR protecting itself from listing too many dead terrorists? Were they never killed to begin with? It is something that people should be asking PCHR.

One other relevant part of the report: PCHR lists people who were killed "near" and "opposite" the al-Fakhoura School in the Jabalya camp on January 6th. You may recall that the UNRWA told me explicitly that they stood by the casualty figures of 30-50 dead at the school even after the IDF claimed that only 12 were killed. The PCHR itself claimed at the time that 27 civilians were killed instantly at the school.

Well, the PCHR counts of who died near the school are very interesting. Once you do not count the Deeb family - who PCHR says died "opposite" the school, who do appear to have been victims of an errant shell, and who were not counted as casualties from the school by PCHR in January - we are left with 12 dead! The IDF figures are found to be exactly right! The PCHR now says the Deebs were "opposite" the school, whatever that means, while the remaining 12 victims (11 from January 6, 1 from January 7) were "near" the school.

So now we know that not only is the PCHR lying as to who is a "civilian," and not only is Hamas lying as to the number of their own terrorists who were killed, but the UNRWA is also lying in claiming that many dozens were killed at the school - even according to the lying PCHR.

UPDATE: More names of terrorists described as "civilians" by PCHR, and terrorists not listed:

#1314 Ashraf Rebhi al-‘Abed Banar PFLP terrorist described as "Fallen in Battle" by PFLP, civilian by PCHR

# 908 Jamal Ahmed Hussein Nashwan PFLP terrorist "was a leader of the PFLP in the eastern area of Beit Hanoun"

#412 Nizar Abdul Kader Mohammed Rayan prominent Hamas leader

Hamas military leader Abu Zakariyya Al-Jamal not listed

# 468 Mahmoud ‘Adnan Mahmoud Abu Ma’arouf - Hamas member listed as Mahmoud Arif in Ma'an

# 747 Mohammed ‘Ayesh Mansour Abu Naser "affiliated to the Ayman Juda faction, an offshoot of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah."

#1185 Hamdi Saleh Mohammed Hamada "Al Aqsa fighter"

# 1054 Sa’ad Mohammed Abdullah Hassan "fighter"

# 1047 Ahmed Ibrahim Mohammed Abu Jazar Islamic Jihad "martyr"

Haggadah correction

I found a couple of mistakes in my downloadable Haggadah, plus I made some last minute additions before Yom Tov, so here is a link to the latest version.

In the end the EoZ Haggadah had over 750 downloads.

If I made it into a much more serious, expanded and better-designed Haggadah for next year, in full color with a hard-cover, would you pay $25 or so for it? I don't think I could self-publish it for any less. I know I could do a much better job, I just don't know if it is worth it.

Chag Sameach!

Because of Passover/Pesach, I will not be blogging until Saturday night.

I wish all of my Jewish readers a Chag Kasher V'Sameach!

Your chance to join the real Zionist Lobby

Last year, I attended the NORPAC Mission to Washington, where nearly a thousand committed American Zionists descended on Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and their aides, thank them for their help and ask them to vote on specific bills. As I wrote then, it was a very gratifying experience, especially when given the opportunity to have a more wide-ranging discussion about the Middle East.

This year's Mission is being organized now, and I highly recommend taking a day off to join NORPAC. The buses leave from various locations in New York and New Jersey.

You will be glad you did.

That Israeli racism

After days of searching, the body of the Israeli student who was missing in the massive earthquake in Italy has been found.

The Israeli press has had headlines about search for the student for the past couple of days. That search was so frantic that even other nations' media commented on the story. The Jewish press in places as far as Australia were also closely following the story.

Clearly, the Jewish state and the worldwide Jewish community was very concerned for the fate of the missing student.

Who was an Arab.

That fact was mentioned, if at all, only incidentally in the Israeli press. An Israeli was missing, and it didn't matter what religion he was, just as long as he was found.

If Israel is as racist against Palestinian Arabs as it is commonly portrayed, why would the entire nation be so concerned about the fate of "just another Arab?" If the goal of Zionism is to ethnically cleanse Israel of Arabs, why wouldn't his death be celebrated by those racist Zionist Jews?

And if the Palestinian Arabs cared so much about each others' fate, how come I cannot find a single article in any Palestinian Arab newspaper about Hussein Hamada over the past three days? Nothing in Ma'an, nothing in IMEMC, nothing in Firas or Palestine Today. Palestinian Arabs who get slightly injured by "Zionists" or "settlers" or the "IOF" get top headlines, but a school student who dies tragically in an earthquake gets no coverage at all. I also couldn't find anything in the general Arab press like Al Arabiya or Al Jazeera.

Israel once again seems to care more about Arab lives than Arabs do.

Here is what the sky looked like as Junior Elder and I waited patiently in our backyard for the sun to peek out for a minute so we could say Birkat HaChamah this morning. (We waited at the shul for about fifteen minutes before giving up.)

The picture doesn't capture it but the sun just became visible as I took the snapshot.

You can still download the free EoZ Haggadah

So far, over ~~450~~ 550 people have downloaded the Elder of Ziyon Haggadah, available here.

It contains the entire Hebrew and (almost the entire) English text of the Haggadah. It is quite usable during the Seder, especially if you print it double-sided. The commentaries all come from a religious-Zionist perspective, emphasizing themes of golut and geulah, that will enhance your Seder (or Sedarim.)

לשנה הבאה בירושלים הבנויה

Socialist writes against modern Leftist anti-semitism

An unusual op-ed from The Militant, a stridently socialist site:

The fifth annual “Israeli Apartheid Week” was held on campuses across the United States the first week in March. The activities are part of an international campaign to boycott businesses that have trade or other relations with Israel, and to sever ties between Israeli academic institutions and those in other countries.
The campaign has the backing of a range of groups that support the struggle of the Palestinian people against national oppression, including radical and socialist groups in the United States like the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and the Workers World Party.
The character of these activities—aimed increasingly at Jewish-owned businesses—is part of the deepening pattern of Jew-baiting and anti-Semitism in the middle-class left worldwide. It should be opposed.
At a February 10 panel discussion at Hunter College in New York, ISO leader Lichi D’Amelio appealed to students not to buy hummus produced by the company Sabra. After stating that the company gives money to the Israeli military, she also asserted that the chick-pea-based dip “is not even Jewish, but an Arab food.”

Starbucks, whose owner is Jewish, has become a target of this campaign internationally. On January 10 some 200 protesters looted a Starbucks coffee shop near the Israeli embassy in London and attacked a number of businesses in the area. One proud participant posted a video of the looting on YouTube under the header “How to really boycott Israeli products.”
Jew-hatred and anti-Semitism, a centuries old form of racism, has been used by ruling classes throughout history when their system faced a crisis. Modern anti-Semitism often comes draped in an anticapitalist and even socialist cloak. The real exploiters—the billionaire ruling families, whose great majority is non-Jewish—are replaced by a racist conspiracy that paints the Jews as the source of society’s problems.
The notion that Washington is a pawn of the Israeli lobby is a modern form of this anti-Jewish conspiracy theory. And those who promote it often use the term "Zionist movement" as a substitute for "Jew."
As part of Israeli Apartheid Week a meeting was held at New York University titled “NYU-Tel Aviv University: A Partnership in Occupation.” Students, academics and others are presented as a “partner in occupation” simply because they study or teach at Tel Aviv University. And, by that logic, why is studying or teaching at NYU less of a threat to the interests of humanity. It also produces scientists, politicians, and military leaders who advance the bloody course of U.S. imperialism—a far greater threat to humanity than the Israeli capitalist state.

He goes on to decry Leftist support of Hamas, which is hardly a socialist cause:

Support for the anti-Israel boycott effort among radicals—like the members of the Workers World Party and the ISO—often goes along with increasingly open support for Hamas. As ISO leader D'Amelio said of Khaled Meshal, the Hamas political bureau leader in Damascus, "There is little in what he says that I disagree with.”
The Hamas covenant, written in 1988, outlines the aims of that organization.
Speaking of the Jewish people, the document states, “With their money, they took control of the world media… . [T]hey stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution… . With their money they formed secret societies… . They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources.”

This has upset the truly hateful ultra-leftists.

AP can't avoid their anti-Jewish bias

Here's a picture of Jews performing the once-every-28 years Birkat Hachamah from AP:

Nice enough, until you read the caption:

Overlooking the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, Jewish worshippers wrapped in prayer shawls participate in the special "Blessing of the Sun" prayer, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, April 8, 2009. Devout Jews around the world on Wednesday observed a ritual performed only once every 28 years, saying their morning prayers under the open sky in the "blessing of the sun."

Before AP even bothers to say what is happening, it has to imply that the crazy ultra-religious Jews are coveting Muslim holy places. The existence of the mosque, illegally built on top of sacred Jewish land in order to erase all Jewish claims, is utterly irrelevant to the story, and the parenthetic phrase "also known to Jews as" mean that the Muslims have the absolute right to the Temple Mount while Jews have some sort of an irrational claim to Muslim land.

It shows how deeply ingrained the Muslim narrative has come to dominate the Western media. Anyone who thinks that the press is biased towards Jews should read this caption objectively - and if you cannot see what is offensive about it, it means that years of Muslim influence has made such incredible bias the norm.

Egypt closes "blasphemous" magazine

From Al-Arabiya:

An Egyptian court revoked the license of a literary magazine on Tuesday on the grounds that a poem it had published more than two years ago was blasphemous, court sources said.

Ibdaa (Creativity), a small circulation magazine issued by a government-controlled publishing house, lost its license for printing Helmy Salem's poem, "Laila Mourad's balcony" –a reference to a 1940s Egyptian movie icon.

The poem contains references to God, some phrased as questions, likening him for example to a villager force-feeding a duck.

The judge described the poem as "presumptuous drivel" and said a free press should be responsible. The ruling followed a lawsuit raised against the magazine by an individual.

BBC adds:

The court's ruling said: "Freedom of press... should be used responsibly and not touch on the basic foundations of Egyptian society, and family, religion and morals."

Which is the equivalent of saying that the press is free to write whatever it wants, as long as it is about rainbows and unicorns.

AFP indicates who supported the ruling - that bastion of academic freedom, Al Azhar:

The Islamic Al-Azhar University, the government's highest authority on religion, had submitted to the court its opinion that Salem was a heretic and his poem was blasphemous.

Don't invest too much stock in Salem's life.

Jews "desecrate the holy Al-Aqsa mosque"

Palestine Today has another photo essay of Jews "desecrating" the Temple Mount.

As we saw last time, their definition of "Jewish desecration" is "Jews existing."

Palestine Today also has another article warning that extremist Jews plan to "break into" the Al Aqsa mosque for Passover and start building the third Temple.

The Arab Lobby shuts down preacher

When Zionists complain about the opinions of someone, it is considered "censorship" and "shutting down free speech."

But what happens when Muslims complain about someone's opinions?

From al-Arabiya:

Members of France’s Muslim community called for ousting the director of the Paris Grand Mosque after comments he had made in a French magazine that were interpreted as praising Israel and justifying its latest offensive in Gaza.

In an interview Wednesday with the tourist magazine SVP-Israel, the Paris Grand Mosque imam Dalil Boubakeur lashed out at Hamas for firing missiles at Israel and implied that Israel's reaction was justified.

“Concerning the latest event in Gaza, I personally believe that when organizations like Hamas bomb Israel over several years, they essentially generate Israeli reactions and expose the Palestinian population to reprisals,” he told the magazine.

The mosque sought to distance itself from his comments Saturday and reaffirmed its support for the Palestinian people. The mosque has been inundated with calls, from religious organizations to prominent leftist politicians, about his statements, an official at the Paris Mosque told AlArabiya.net.

"They all wanted an explanation to this anti-Palestinian stance despite the fact that Algeria is known for supporting just causes," said Abdullah Zikri, who is also a member of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, which Broubaker heads.

"We do not agree with what Boubakeur said about Israel and I will demand an explanation. If he really said so, it would be an insult that we cannot accept," he said.

Broubaker sought to distance himself from the comments Saturday in an interview with AlArabiya.net.

"The magazine took my statements out of context and I am taking the necessary measures to file a lawsuit," he said.

Boubakeur, who is of Algerian origins, also told the magazine that he admired the intelligence of the Israeli people and that the Quran refers to Jews as God's chosen people.

The Franco-Algerian Association said it was preparing an official memorandum against Boubakeur for insulting Algerians and Muslims with his statements.

Is this that "free speech" that we hear so much about?

Hamas had Stinger anti-aircraft missiles?

I don't know how reliable this is, but the World Tribune reports:

The Hamas regime acquired U.S.-origin air defense systems but was unable to use them in combat.

Hamas sources said the Islamic military has acquired the Stinger man-portable air defense system. The sources said the Stingers were acquired from smugglers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in 2008 and deployed in the 22-day war against Israel in January 2009.
"We were disappointed by them, and they were found to have been useless," a Hamas source said.
The source said Hamas smuggled four Stinger systems in 2008. The source said the Hamas military deployed the Stingers against Israel Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopters during strike missions in the northern Gaza Strip.
"Our gunners couldn't fire the weapon," the source recalled. "A notice came up on the display saying 'friendly aircraft.'"
Industry sources said Raytheon, producer of Stinger, installed identification friend/foe capabilities more than a decade ago. The sources said this would prevent Stinger from being fired against any aircraft used by the U.S. military.
Another Hamas source said gunners deployed Stinger along with heavy machine guns in attacks on Israeli helicopters during the war in the Gaza Strip. The source said one Stinger surface-to-air missile was launched, but the projectile veered off course and struck a Hamas gunner squad.
"The Stinger was drawn by the heat of our guns rather than the engines of the Israeli helicopters," the source said. "At that point, we stopped using this weapon."
The sources said Hamas has abandoned plans to acquire additional Stingers. Instead, the Islamic army has been ordering the Russian-origin SA-16, or Igla-1, surface-to-air missile system, with a range of five kilometers.

They also have a report on Hamas ordering more Chinese rockets.

Latest "outrage" - the "Umayyad" stone

As I mentioned in my morning update, some Palestinian Arabs are up in arms over a supposed Israeli desecration of yet another important Muslim shrine.

From Ma'an (Arabic):

Mohamed Awad, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, denounced the capture of the Israeli occupation of one of the stones of the Umayyad palaces in the city of Jerusalem.

Awad said in a statement to Ma'an, "This action is a form of erasing Islamic history to change the parameters of the Holy City and the eradication of the Islamic and Arab identity and that the occupation authorities aimed at bringing about demographic change in the holy city and the deportation of Palestinians and the confiscation of their property ".

Also from Ma'an:

Tayseer Rajab al-Tamimi, Chief Justice of Palestine, accused Israel of the [destruction of] Islamic sanctities and the massacre of Christian civilization, blurring the historical landmarks, on the second day of the Forum on the Alliance of Civilizations of the United Nations in Istanbul.

He stressed that there is an unprecedented acceleration of the Government of the occupation and the Jewish religious extremist groups to Judaize the city of Jerusalem, the latest of which was the so-called "Israel Antiquities Authority," the theft of a precious archaeological sites in the Islamic Umayyad palaces in the south-east corner of the Masjid al-Aqsa mosque and placed in front of the Israeli Knesset, saying it has done as one of the greatest crimes of the times and in defiance of all the resolutions of UNESCO, the United Nations and a clear violation of the charters and resolutions, international conventions, "which states that Jerusalem is an occupied city laws do not apply for the Israeli and classified by UNESCO and is Amairha premises."

Another article in PalToday

calls it a "Rosetta Stone" and also accuses Israel of placing it in front of the Knesset.

So what are they talking about?

I finally found a picture of this "Umayyad palace" stone, at Al-Quds.

And the Al-Quds article sheds light on what should be obvious about this stone for anyone who ever visited the tunnels under the Western Wall: that this stone is from the Second Temple, not an Umayyad palace that was built over a millennium later.

The stone was taken to the Israeli Knesset and the public put in front of the building at the site to see both within the Israeli Knesset has allocated a small platform and the subject of concrete, according to Israeli claims of the institution, this stone structure is one of the stones of the alleged second temple.

Compare how this stone looks with the stones on the lowest level over the Temple tunnels, way beneath any Umayyad structure:

These borders and dimensions show that stone to be Herodian, not Umayyad. I know that Israel has started a project to protect the stones fo the Kotel from damage andI am not sure if this particular stone was moved as part of that project - that doesn't seem likely - but to say that this stone is Islamic is, simply, to lie.

Morning items of interest

The Wall Street Journal looks at anti-semitism that is fueled by the economic crisis.

Israel performed a successful test of it's Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile system. Israel is worried that the US might cut funding for the Arrow-3 system as a result of Pentagon budget cuts. A UPI analysis says

Israel may lose U.S. funding for its ambitious Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile interceptor, but the United States may instead sell Israel its already operational Standard Missile-3, which has a far superior performance to what the Israelis wanted from their Arrow-3 anyway.

Palestinian Arabs are upset that Israel supposedly removed a large historic stone from the southeast of the Temple Mount and moved it to the Knesset. This story sounds like a completely unfounded rumor or a wild exaggeration, as the Israel Antiquities Authority keeps close tabs on any Israeli construction that could damage any archaeological sites. (They are not quite as good about Arab construction.)

Latest Hamas blood libel

From Palestinian Media Watch via FrontPage:

In this skit, Hamas portrays a "Jewish" father talking to his son:

Father: "We Jews hate the Muslims, we want to kill the Muslims, we Jews want to drink the blood of Muslims and Arabs.
[Turns to the audience:] Are you Muslims and Arabs?
[The audience responds in the affirmative.]
I hate you, to please God."
...
Father: "Shimon, look, my son, I want to teach you a few things. You have to hate the Muslims."
Son: "[I don't] like them, I hate them."
Father: "You have to drink the blood of the Muslims."
...
Father: "I spoke with God, so that you will hate the Muslims, so that you will please God."
Son: "Don't worry, father."
Father: "Very well, my son. I repeat: You have to hate the Muslims."
Son: "But I [do] hate them."
Father: You have to drink the blood of the Muslims."
...
Father: "I tell you, you must stand next to me and pray, my son."
Son: "Okay, one moment and I'm coming."
Father: "Where are you going, my son?"
Son: "I am going to cleanse my body." [as Muslims do before prayer]
Father: "You're going to do WHAT?"
Son: "To cleanse my body. You said you want us to pray."
Father: "Muslims [do that], not us."
...
Father: "We have to wash our hands with the blood of Muslims."

Honor killing for "leaving the house too often"

From Gulf News:

Jordan's Criminal Court has charged a 19-year-old man with stabbing to death his sister in what is believed to be an honour killing.

Al Dridi said the man confessed to repeatedly stabbing his 22-year-old sister to cleanse the family honour because she left the house too often.

The victim is the eighth person to be killed in honour crimes this year [in Jordan.]

Is there any excuse that people don't use for honor killings?

I just saw this ad on a Google sidebar.

Clicking on it brings one to a neo-Nazi paraphernalia site, named NSM88 Records, where you can see such items as this T-shirt:

Apparently Google is happily accepting advertisements from neo-Nazis.

Google's AdWords policy does not seem to have any real prohibition against these sorts of ads. The closest I could find was this section on "inappropriate phrases."

The best page I could find to complain to Google was this one.

Arabs who try to get on the Jews' good side

The New York Times has an interesting article on the tiny Jewish community of Bahrain:

In the tense landscape of the Middle East, there is little room left for Jewish Arabs, a tiny minority in this country as well as in places like Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. But in Bahrain, the king, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, has taken unprecedented steps for an Arab leader to show his support for his dwindling Jewish population. Last year, he appointed a Jewish woman, Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, as ambassador to the United States, the first Jewish ambassador posted abroad by any Arab country.

Then he made a personal visit to London to appeal to expatriate Jews to return to Bahrain. He has also appointed Jewish business leaders to the Shura Council, which acts as an upper house of Parliament. Those measures went against the tide in a region where anti-Semitism is often preached from government-controlled mosques and hating all Jews has become interchangeable with hating the state of Israel.

Being Jewish in the conservative Persian Gulf region still presents challenges, even in Bahrain. Though it has preserved its last synagogue, the building has not had a religious use for decades and all Jewish symbols have been removed. Nevertheless, it is defaced with graffiti that says, in Arabic, “Death to Israel.”

While Bahrain's efforts to make its 36 Jews comfortable is admirable, there may be an agenda:

Some people here take a cynical view of their king’s outreach. Bahrain is a close American ally of great strategic value to Washington. It is near Iran and allows the United States Navy to base its Fifth Fleet here. Many people said the king’s overtures were a safe and convenient bid to cement ties with Washington.

“We always believe here that control of America is governed by the Zionist lobby,” said Salman Kamal al-Deen, a businessman and the head of the Bahrain Human Rights Society. “The media and the money are all in the hands of the Jews. We believe if we have a Jewish ambassador and Jews in the Shura Council, this is a positive indicator for the country.”

There is also some resentment at the king’s support for the small Jewish community. Bahrain is hot with sectarian tensions: the king, a Sunni Muslim, is accused of discriminating against Shiite Muslims, who make up a majority of the native population. Shiites are barred from almost all positions in the military and security services, and they say they are not given the same employment and education opportunities as their Sunni neighbors.

Shiites complain that the 36 Jews are treated better than they are, and that the king’s Jewish outreach is intended to make Bahrain appear to be a tolerant society, papering over the systemic discrimination they say they experience.

It is easy to be tolerant when the tolerated minority offers zero threat and happily accepts its second-class status. When other minorities are not treated as well, one must question why that is. The answer very may well be the flip-side of anti-semitism: the belief that since Jews control the world, it makes sense to butter them up.

Similarly, here is another news story from over the weekend:

Al-Jazeera is lobbying Canadian Jews in its bid for regulatory approval to hit the airwaves.

Tony Burman, a former executive at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. who is now managing director of the Al-Jazeera network, met this week with representatives of the Canadian Jewish Congress to reassure Canadian Jews that the operation's English service, which has been running for two years, is independent from the controversial Arabic service.

In both these cases, the reason for paying attention to Jews is not because Jews are respected. It is because Jews are perceived to have power and must be sucked up to. While this is arguably better than the normal explicit hate that comes from the Arab world, the thinking behind it is very similar.