Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 27, 2010

Blind man can't find job in Ramallah, Israel blamed

Ramzy Abul Jedian is a blind radio presenter who worked for the Gaza-based Sawt al-Erada (The voice of determination) station for the handicapped, the first of its kind in Palestine and the whole world.

The station was established by the Higher Committee for Defending the Rights of the Handicapped in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza Strip then was closed after Hamas took control of the strip in 2007.

“According to human rights activists, the station started facing pressure by the Hamas government and eventually had to close,” Abu Jedian told AlArabiya.net. “In October 2007, I left Gaza.”

Accompanied by his younger brother Ahmed, also blind, and Abul Jedian left for Ramallah, leaving behind his wife and children and hoping he would be able to find a job in one of Ramallah’s radio stations.

“I wanted a job that allows me to speak for my fellow handicapped, but the society still underestimates the handicapped and does not understand the role they can play in the media.”

After failing to secure the job he wanted, Abul Jedian now roams the streets of Ramallah with his brother, who he can’t leave alone at home, with coffee flasks in order to earn his living.

A sad story that shows the problems of the handicapped in any society as well as the problems from the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

But how does Al Arabiya introduce this article?

The sight of former Palestinian radio presenter Ramzy Abul Jedian selling coffee in the streets of Ramallah sheds light not only on the suffering of Palestinians under the Israeli occupation, but also the effects of internal divisions between Palestinian factions.

How exactly Israel is hurting Jedian is never mentioned. But then again, it is obvious that every Palestinian Arab who ever suffers must blame Israel. Israel is the one unifying factor that allows Palestinian Arabs to escape responsibility for their own shortcomings.

Thousands of Palestinian Arabs emigrating yearly

Palestine Today quotes a new study showing that some 32,000 Palestinian Arabs have emigrated from the PA between 2005-2009.

24% moved to Jordan, 20% to Persian Gulf states, and 22% to the US.

Keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that make such a move difficult - the PA passports are not recognized in many countries, for example, so often the would-be immigrants need to show citizenship of another country. If Arab countries would eliminate their laws that discriminate against Palestinian Arabs from becoming naturalized, these numbers would skyrocket.

The false framework of the Gaza war

Today is the second anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead - but it is not the anniversary of the beginning of the Gaza War.

On the very first day of OCL, I pointed out something that has been all but ignored by the media (but that I had mentioned earlier): Hamas declared war on Israel on December 24th, a full three days before Cast Lead.

From Ma'an, December 25th, 2008:

The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called "Oil Stain" which started Wednesday morning.

According to the statement, a total of 87 shells have been fired at Israeli targets bordering the Gaza Strip including 54 mortar shells, 31 homemade projectiles which Hamas calls "Qassam", and two Soviet-made Grad missiles.

Al-Qassam Brigades threatened to enlarge the "Oil Stain" to get more thousands of Israelis "under fire". The group asserted that its fighters are "far greater than surrendering to Israeli threats and that they became much more prepared to counter Israeli aggression and to defend themselves than in the past."

Even after Cast Lead started, Hamas - in Arabic - continued to call the war "Oil Stain." For example, on December 30th, an article in the Palestine Today website brags that "Operation Oil Stain" had been expanded and a Grad rocket had reached Beersheva for the first time.

Hamas has since changed its tune. First, it renamed the operation during the war "Battle of the Criterion." And now that they have seen how much the Gaza war has hurt Israel's reputation, they have even changed their own history - in an article earlier this year on the Al Qassam website, they claim that Oil Stain was a reaction after Israel to reflect their deploying longer-range Grad rockets.

And there is a very good reason why Hamas has changed their history.

One of the most insidious ways that NGOs and the media attack Israel is by creating a false framework around events like Cast Lead. The issue isn't "competing narratives" - it is much bigger than that. By framing the issue in false terms, Israel looks like the aggressor without having to say it explicitly.Every time an NGO and newspaper says that the Gaza war started on December 27th, they really mean that Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians are not important and that Israel is the aggressive party.

Amnesty's history of the war starts on December 27th.

HRW characterizes the entire war as "Israel’s three-week-long military offensive in Gaza that began on December 27." It isn't even a war - it is simply framed as Israeli aggression. And this is in a report about Hamas rocket fire!

Goldstone's chapter headings show this false framework as well:

III. EVENTS OCCURRING BETWEEN THE “CEASEFIRE” OF 18 JUNE 2008 BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE GAZA AUTHORITIES AND THE START OF ISRAEL’S MILITARY OPERATIONS IN GAZA ON 27 DECEMBER 2008

VI. OVERVIEW OF MILITARY OPERATIONS CONDUCTED BY ISRAEL IN GAZA BETWEEN 27 DECEMBER 2008 AND 18 JANUARY 2009 AND DATA ON CASUALTIES

When the very framework of the issue is biased to begin with, anyone trying to take Israel's aide is already handicapped. It loads the dice before the game even starts, and it takes an effort to re-frame the argument - something that Israeli spokespeople have little opportunity to do when giving statements to the press or when answering questions about NGO accusations.

Even though Hamas wants to be known as a masculine defender of Arab rights in Arabic, and it was proud to take credit for starting the war back in 2008, it has realized the immense value of the false framework provided by Goldstone and HRW and Amnesty and the mainstream media. So it has adopted that framework simply because it puts Israel at a disadvantage.

This is one of the biggest issues that Israel faces when speaking to the world. The idea of Israel as aggressor is so ingrained in the fabric of the discussion that it is not easy for even Israel's defenders to recognize it when they see it. It is especially difficult in the heat of a debate to be able to step back and challenge the questioner as to their implicit assumptions.

One fact is clear - Hamas started the war, and they bragged about it. Any narrative of the Gaza War that does not recognize that simple fact is inherently biased from the outset. No mater how prestigious the NGO or media outlet that promulgates this lie - it is still a lie, and that lie must be corrected.

"Community" open thread

I spent many hours this weekend watching episodes of "Community." I got addicted to the show and now I must watch every episode. (Although none in real time. Commercials are evil.)

My favorite character on the show is Abed, who is an Arab. An episode where his sister visits from Gaza was nicely done. But Season 1 episode 17 was fantastic, and this season the show is going in all sorts of bizarre but funny directions.

I still have a couple of them to go, so this is an open thread until I get done.

Richard Falk admits his goal is to destroy the Jewish state

Richard Falk, the proven liar and twister of international law who explicitly supports terror against Israel yet still holds the position of "UN Rapporteur for Palestine," has written an article that make clear that the purpose of BDS is not to change Israeli behavior but to delegitimize Israel altogether in the international community.

The article in Al Jazeera - a fitting venue for his hate - refers to the current wave of efforts to demonize Israel in the international arena by BDS advocates and lawfare supports as a "Legitimacy War."

And although the headline in Al Jazeera makes it appear that he means a war for the legitimacy of the Palestinian Arab cause, the article says no such thing. In fact, an earlier article by Falk in a far-left journal that introduced the same expression makes it very clear what he means:

The essence of this legitimacy war is to cast doubt on several dimensions of Israeli legitimacy: its status as a moral and law abiding actor, as an occupying power in relation to the Palestinian people, and with respect to its willingness to respect the United Nations and abide by international law. Those that wage such a legitimacy war seek to seize the high moral ground in relation to the underlying conflict, and on this basis, gain support for a variety of coercive, but non-violent initiatives designed to put pressure on Israel, on governments throughout the world and on the United Nations to deny normal participatory rights to Israel as a member of international society.

Although he speaks in third person in this paragraph, it is obvious that he is a leading member of this very movement to eject Israel - and only Israel - from the community of nations.

Not Syria. Not Iran. Not China. Not Sudan.

No, in Falk's twisted mind, only the Jewish state is uniquely evil enough to be shunned and expelled from the international community.

And in that original article he makes it very clear that his desired goal is to destroy the Jewish character of the state!

Even if the Palestinians win the legitimacy war there is no guarantee that this victory will produce the desired political results. It requires Palestinian patience, resolve, leadership and vision, as well as sufficient pressure to force a change of heart in Israel, and probably in Washington as well. In this instance, it would seem to require an Israeli willingness to abandon the core Zionist project to establish a Jewish state, and that does not appear likely from the vantage point of the present.

One wonders why Richard Falk is so against a Jewish (nationality and/or religion) state and has nothing bad to say against states that define themselves as Arab (nationality) or Muslim (religion.)

(h/t Zach and Womble)

Important new JCPA study on anti-Israel UK groups

Mapping the Organizational Sources of the Global Delegitimization Campaign against Israel in the UK is a new study by Ehud Rosen and released by JCPA. It shows in great detail the major groups in Great Britain that are aiming at delegitimizing Israel and who is behind them.

The paper discusses how these often marginal groups make themselves appear to be mainstream. For example:

The best way for small and rather marginal groups, such as those mostly engaged with Israel’s delegitimization campaign, to gain exposure is through the media. Britain today is a major capital for world media, and serves as the base for the BBC, the largest global media network, for important economic papers such as the Financial Times, and for the popular Guardian’s website’s open platform “Comment is Free” (CiF). This is in addition to being the capital for international Arab media outside the Middle East. In the last few years, other leading Islamist outlets were also established in the country, such as the Al Jazeera English channel, the aforementioned Al Hiwar TV channel, the Iranian English channel Press TV, and more. Leading Brotherhood figures make use of all these channels, have written articles on CiF for a long time, and are regularly interviewed by different outlets of the Arab and Islamist media. The far left, on the other hand, is represented in main papers such as The Guardian and The Independent, and sometimes in other papers and channels such as the BBC that are not automatically identified as leftist or liberal.

Activists from both groups appear and engage in debates, usually describing themselves as human rights, welfare, or community representative bodies. Thus, marginal groups such as the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC UK), featured in the 2007 report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism, are frequently invited to attend BBC discussions on relevant issues, as organizations aiming to “empower” Muslims in the country. The BBC also uses Abdel Bari ‘Atwan (see “The academy”) as commentator on Middle Eastern issues. However, as far as anti-Israeli and other joint “red-green” activities that might be perceived as controversial are concerned, usually the Islamists give interviews to the Arab and Islamist media while the far-left activists turn to Western outlets.

In addition, activists from both sides widely use new-media outlets, opening notice boards, Facebook, and Twitter pages, and often also give interviews to news websites.

The paper also touches upon Israel's failures at addressing these threats:

Notwithstanding the delegitimizing tendencies that have developed against Israel, it does not appear that Israel itself has formulated a coherent strategy to tackle these tendencies. There is insufficient understanding of the British and European civil society structures, and hardly any official use of new-media outlets. Instead Israel seems to stick to military measurements such as threat assessments and the like. The best case study for this claim is Israel’s treatment of the May 2010 Freedom Flotilla. Despite the fact that the main organizers of the flotilla openly spoke about their intentions, no official Israeli bodies have either exposed them or dealt with the identities of the organizers, and their affiliation with the far left and the Muslim Brotherhood. As uncovered by Israeli sources, media outlets that accompanied the flotilla did not include any major, “mainstream” agencies.

It was only Israel’s military action that brought worldwide interest in the flotilla, and even then the flotilla participants were mainly described as “peace” or “humanitarian” activists. A simple search, for example, would have found that the Free Gaza Movement (affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, ISM) has received a large donation of 300,000 Euros from the Perdana for Peace Global Movement, established by the anti-Semitic/anti-American, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Palestinian leader praises Ha'aretz saying it "represents us"

Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon (Hebrew only, not online) quotes Nabil Sha'ath, head of the Palestinian Arab negotiating team, as saying:

I would like to thank the people who write in Haaretz, which we read every day; we know that you are with us and that you represent us.

The B'Sheva newspaper (Hebrew) says that he made this quote in Ramallah during a meeting of "The Geneva Initiative" and paraphrased him as saying that they read Haaretz every day and that it faithfully represents their cause.

(h/t Ruchie)

German mayor calls on removal of anti-semitic exhibit

From JPost:

Mayor of Cologne Jürgen Roters (Social Democratic) and its sister city partnerships, Cologne-Tel Aviv and Cologne-Bethlehem, issued a joint statement last week blasting the long-standing anti- Israel exhibit in his community’s bustling Cathedral Square pedestrian-only zone.

According to the resolution, “The anti-Semitic and anti- Israel presentation of the socalled ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ spreads hatred against humans and feeds anti-Israel resentments.”

Roters and the Cologne authorities called on Walter Hermann, the organizer of the “Cologne Wailing Wall,” to “immediately remove the installation that shows contempt for humanity” and said the city of Cologne would no longer accept Hermann’s exhibit and approach.

The resolution said that Hermann has displayed his hatefest against Israel since 2004.

Hermann’s display of an anti-Semitic cartoon in January triggered a legal complaint and a grassroots campaign from the non-Jewish theater director Gerd Buurmann. The cartoon showed a man sporting a Star of David on his bib as he devoured a young Palestinian boy with a fork while draped in an American flag and a knife with the word “Gaza.” A glass filled with blood stood next to to his dinner plate.

Buurmann filed a legal protest earlier this year, asserting a violation of Germany’s anti-hate law, which prohibits incitement against minority groups. In April, the Cologne public prosecutor dismissed Buurmann’s grievance, saying the cartoon represented criticism of Israel’s policies in Gaza and not hostility toward Jews.

The Israeli Embassy then said: “If one shows a figure with an Israeli flag devouring a Palestinian child, this reminds us of the most scurrilous accusations of ritual murder in European anti-Semitism... We don’t interfere in the decisions of German judicial authorities.

But at the same time, we are convinced that the cartoon was of a clearly anti-Semitic nature and that it incites hatred and violence.

“The claim that one must distinguish between hatred of the Jewish people and hatred of the State of Israel is absolutely inappropriate and leaves a bad taste.”

(h/t Philosemitism Blog)

Stoner Claus

AP shows us how heartless the IDF is. Imagine, tear-gassing Santa Claus on Christmas Eve!

A Palestinian protester wearing a Santa Claus costume runs away from a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during a protest against Israel's separation barrier outside the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, Friday, Dec 24, 2010.

That's all we know from AP.

But Getty Images has another photo of our peaceful protesting Santa:

A Palestinian demonstrator dressed as Santa Claus throws stones towards Israeli soldiers during a weekly protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah on December 24, 2009.

UPDATE: Even though the second photo says 2009, I believe that is a typo. The photo EXIF information shows it is copyright 2010 and these protests are always on Fridays, and December 24 2009 was a Thursday. The downloaded picture says it was taken December 24, 2010.

"Burning Sheep" story proven fake

Remember the Arab farmer last week who claimed that evil extremist Jewish settlers had gathered his sheep in a group and burned them - on the Sabbath?

And that this ridiculous claim was instantly believed by Uruknet, Islamic News Daily, PressTV, Ikhwanweb and Mondoweiss?

Well, surprise surprise - he admitted he was lying.

From Arutz-7:

A Jordan Valley Arab farmer has exposed the tactic of leftists accepting Arab claims and falsely accusing Jews of attacking Arabs. He admitted that the “burning sheep” libel against Jews was meant to disguise his own blunder of losing control of a brush fire.

The Arab farmer, Samir Bani Fadel, claimed that four armed Jews approached him, chased him away, set fire to his field – which also is forbidden on Sabbath – and drove away as the fire spread and burned to death 12 pregnant ewes while injuring others.

Regardless of the doubts, the left-wing B'Tselem and Yesh Din human rights group rushed to allege that the supposed attack was another one of hundreds of supposed acts of vandalism by Jews against Arabs.

New York-based writer Philip Weiss promptly reprinted the libel on his Mondoweiss blog, and the image of sheep being cruelly burned aroused sympathy for Arabs and anger against Jews. “It was an awful sight,” the farmer said. "I've lost at least $12,000."

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop "settler violence.”

The tale began to unravel when Arabs pointed their fingers at residents of Itamar, an easy target as it is a religious community, but located almost an hour’s drive from the scene of the fire. The story then was changed, with the blame being placed on the closer community of Maaleh Ephraim, most of whose residents are professionals and who almost never have been accused of any activities against Arabs.

Fadel finally admitted to police the whole story was a lie and that he was responsible for the fire, which he set to burn thorns before it spread beyond control. Blaming Jews not only would have saved him from the embarrassment of having burned his own sheep, it also would allow him to claim damages from the government while being hailed as a hero among Palestinian Authority Arabs and left-wing anti-Zionists.

Hundreds of accusations against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been leveled in recent years, usually in claims that Jews attack or destroy olive trees, although evidence has been produced that in most cases the Arabs have simply pruned their trees, counted on lack of agricultural knowledge on the part of the media and leftwing groups, and then accused Jews of damaging them. Olive trees look hacked when they are pruned and months later, the supposedly damaged orchards have been seen to be full of fruit.

Another tactic has been to instigate violence, especially on the Shabbat when Jews are forbidden to take pictures, and then accuse Jews of attacking them.

A quick Google search shows that this story has already been reproduced in about 5000 websites.

Which proves the old adage, ironically mis-attributed to Mark Twain:: "A lie can travel half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on."

(h/t My Right Word)

Poster: Obstacle to peace

This one requires some documentation.

Here are the best numbers I could find in Arabs killing Arabs since 1948, mostly relying on Wikipedia.

War	Year started	Low estimate deaths	High estimate deaths
Algeria civil war	1954	150000	800000
North Yemen Civil War - Egypt	1962	100000	126000
Black September, Jordan	1970	2000	25000
Sahara war	1975	10000	24000
Lebanese Civil War	1975	130000	250000
Libya Egypt war	1977	500	500
Iraq under Saddam	1979	600000	800000
Hama massacre, Syria	1982	17000	40000
South Yemen civil war	1986	10000	10000
Iraq invasion of Kuwait	1990	1000	2000
Yemen civil war	1994	7000	7000
Yemen - Sa'adah Insurgency	2004	5000	8300
Hamas-Fatah fighting	2006	600	600
Lebanon Camps	2007	275	275
TOTAL		1033375	2093675

As you can see, estimates vary wildly for many of these events. I pretty much took the midpoints for the purposes of the chart, estimating about 1.5 million Arab deaths. (There have been perhaps 60,000 Arabs killed in all the Arab/Israeli wars combined including the intifadas.) I tried not to include Kurdish deaths nor those Arabs killed by the French during the Algerian war - much of that war was a civil war as well. I also did not include the Iran/Iraq war at all since that was not Arab on Arab violence, and Muslim on Muslim deaths is an entirely different set of numbers.

Church of Nativity desecrators wish Merry Christmas

One of the most cynical articles I've read in a while:

Palestinians deported after the 2002 siege of the Nativity Church were sad during Christmas to be away from Bethlehem and the church, which sheltered them or 39 days.

Fahmi Kan’an, a spokesman for the Gaza deportees, said Friday that they grieved to be away from the festivities.

“The deportees will never forget the courageous support they received from the monks who disobeyed Israeli military orders to evacuate the church, and instead they offered as much services and support to those who took refuge in their church,” Kan’an said.

He added: “Nine years have passed, and we are burning and yearning to see each alley, tree, and stone in the city. We would never give up on Bethlehem even if they give us the whole world. It is our right to return to Bethlehem just as all other Palestinians displaced from their homes have the right to return.”

Kan’an wished all Christians in Palestine a merry Christmas expressing his hope that all deportees in Gaza and in Europe will celebrate Christmas next year in Bethlehem.

The deportees shot their way into, and desecrated, one of the holiest shrines of Christianity, bringing guns and explosives in and causing huge amounts of damage. They used nuns as human shields and insulted Christians worldwide.

And now they are wishing them a Merry Christmas???

A new "xtranormal" video

This is another of those animated videos popping up all over, but thankfully not a bear to be seen. Here Mahmoud Abbas is being interviewed as to his goals.

(h/t Adi)

Here's a little Indian Muslim anti-semitism

From the Milli Gazette, described as "Indian Muslims' Leading Newspaper", some garden-variety anti-semitism:

President Obama and other Western leaders are repeatedly asking the Muslims to stop “terrorism” so that they can call off their “war on terrorism”.

There is lot of hypocrisy on this newly popularised term “terrorism”. The Western war on terrorism is nothing but a war on Muslims – plain and simple.

This war is nothing but a zionist conspiracy carried out by the Western Christian leadership at the behest of Jews.

This is because all the Western Christian countries are controlled by the Jews with the help of their money power, media and Christian stooges.

Even a child knows it.

Muslims refused to be fooled: It is the American Jews, who control that country and managed Obama election. It is they who managed to make him utter sweet words to Muslims at Cairo and elsewhere.

But the Muslims refused to be fooled. The Jewish engineered war on Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in disastrous defeat for US.

Obama later tried to fool the Muslims on Palestine. But here also he failed because the zionist Jews are not prepared to budge even an inch on Palestine.

Any amount of his pouring milk to the serpent is no use. Serpent will continue to bite Obama.

China on the top of the world: Western Christian leaders, led by the US which is controlled by its 2% Jews, are defeated in their war on terror. The Jews with their monopoly over the media, have launched a hurricane of Islamophobia. But nothing is working.

The disgusted Jews got Obama defeated in the recent Congressional elections. Nor are they giving any opportunity to him to succeed in Palestine.

It keeps going but this is the gist of it. When Obama wins, it is because of the Jews. Then he does the bidding of the Jews. Then they get disgusted at how poorly he is acting as their puppet and they defeat him.

Insane ramblings, true, but these ramblings represent at least a portion of Indian Muslims - of which there are some 140 million. Even if only one in five Indian Muslims believe this garbage, they outnumber the Jews of the world by a wide margin.

This endemic Jew-hatred among mainstream Muslims is still rarely addressed in the Western media, as they concentrate on more polished Muslims' public statements that they are only against "Zionists," not Jews. But scratch the surface and you can see that a great portion of the Muslim world makes no such distinctions, and never have.

Christmas greetings from Binyomin Netanyahu

And a merry Christmas to all my readers who celebrate the holiday as well!

(h/t Yerushalimey)

PA TV: "Jesus was a Palestinian"

From Palestinian Media Watch:

One of the ways the Palestinian Authority attempts to create a Palestinian history is to deny the Judean/Jewish nationality of Jesus, and misrepresent him as a "Palestinian."

Palestinian Media Watch has documented this ongoing Palestinian Authority historical revision. Recently on PA TV, the author Samih Ghanadreh from Nazareth was interviewed about his book "Christianity and Its Connection to Islam."

The following is the transcript of the discussion describing Jesus as a Palestinian:

Religious program on PA TV: This is our religion
Author: "The Shahid (Martyr) President Yasser Arafat used to say: "Jesus was the first Palestinian Shahid (Martyr)." I heard him say that sentence many times."
PA TV Host: “He [Jesus] was a Palestinian; no one denies that.”
Author: "He [Jesus] was the first Palestinian Shahid (Martyr). He (Arafat) attributed this Martyrdom to Palestine, as well."
[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 3, 2010]

Fatah proud of "Palestinian" Virgin Mary
Earlier this year the Fatah Communications and Education Authority issued as statement on the official Fatah website claiming the Virgin Mary was "of the nation of Palestine":
"If we are proud of the holiness of our land, then we are proud and pride ourselves that the first and most important holy woman among the nations and peoples is from the holy land: The Virgin Mary - the woman of love and peace - is of the nation of Palestine..." [palvoice.com/index.php?id=23043]

Jesus and Mary were Palestinians par excellence
The Palestinian Authority religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein:
"Jesus was born in this land; he took his first steps in this land and spread his teachings [of Islam] in this land. He and his mother [Mary], we may say, were Palestinians par excellence." [PA TV (Fatah), May 12, 2009]

Brother of Syrian nuclear scientist vanishes

Hmmm...

The brother of Marah Ahmed al-Homsy, a scientist working for the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission, has been reported missing in Cairo.

According to al-Homsy, her brother had accompanied her to Cairo where she was scheduled to attend a conference organized by the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority on 17 December. The two had been staying at a well-known hotel in Cairo's Dokki neighborhood.

“My brother abruptly disappeared on Tuesday and his phone remains switched off,” al-Homsy said.

Before her brother's disappearance, al-Homsy said she thought "there had been a car following us from time to time.”

She went on to say that her brother, Mohamed, 27, did not know anyone in Egypt, nor was he known to have any enemies.

“We checked with all the police stations and hospitals but found no trace of him,” said al-Homsy's lawyer, Mazen Shikho.

A security source said that hotel personnel had seen Mohamed exit the hotel, leaving all his belongings in the room, on the day of his disappearance.

Loophole allows US to sell goods worth billions to Iran

From the New York Times:

Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.

At the behest of a host of companies — from Kraft Food and Pepsi to some of the nation’s largest banks — a little-known office of the Treasury Department has granted nearly 10,000 licenses for deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of American business.

Most of the licenses were approved under a decade-old law mandating that agricultural and medical humanitarian aid be exempted from sanctions. But the law, pushed by the farm lobby and other industry groups, was written so broadly that allowable humanitarian aid has included cigarettes, Wrigley’s gum, Louisiana hot sauce, weight-loss remedies, body-building supplements and sports rehabilitation equipment sold to the institute that trains Iran’s Olympic athletes.

Hundreds of other licenses were approved because they passed a litmus test: They were deemed to serve American foreign policy goals. And many clearly do, among them deals to provide famine relief in North Korea or to improve Internet connections — and nurture democracy — in Iran. But the examination also found cases in which the foreign-policy benefits were considerably less clear.

In one instance, an American company was permitted to bid on a pipeline job that would have helped Iran sell natural gas to Europe, even though the United States opposes such projects. Several other American businesses were permitted to deal with foreign companies believed to be involved in terrorism or weapons proliferation. In one such case, involving equipment bought by a medical waste disposal plant in Hawaii, the government was preparing to deny the license until an influential politician intervened.

The article does go on to say that the loophole is not quite as big as it initially claimed.

Jordanians aghast at school teaching about Anne Frank

From YNet:

A private school in Jordan stirred the anger of many in the Hashemite Kingdom after it was revealed that one of its English textbooks includes a chapter about the Holocaust and even quotes excerpts of Anne Frank's diary.

The "sensational affair" was uncovered by local newspaper Al-Dustour and led the Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr. Khalid Karaki to order the establishment of a commission of inquiry that will "examine and write a report about the implications of the incident."

Following the initial report, the Education Ministry issued an official response in which it said it "prohibits the inclusion of additional study materials, unless they have received an official approval. The ministry will look into other schools that have used similar materials, and has instructed the school to stop using the textbook," it read.

Here's one of the al-Dustour articles that says that these are "misleading Zionist curricula which seeks to penetrate the minds of students and future generations."

This is the textbook that they were using; it uses the text of the play based on Anne Franks's diary rather than the diary itself.

"This Week in the Middle East"

The Guardian's Brian Whitaker started a new weekly feature:

This is the start of a regular weekly look at the Middle East, focusing on some of the issues and stories that you may have missed. If there's something you would like to see included, send an email to brian.whitaker@guardian.co.uk

So since he is gracious enough to make such a request, I'm emailing him about these stories that I posted about this week that he "may have missed" himself:

* Palestinian Arab family sends their mentally handicapped son to be killed by Israel
* One of the Guardian's competing newspapers interviewed a former Iranian diplomat who confirms that the country has an active nuclear weapons program
* Gazans prefer Israeli goods over goods smuggled from Arab countries
* Iran faces an economic crisis
* An explosion in a crowded Gaza neighborhood was apparently a secret stash of Hamas munitions
* Wikileaks: No one is guarding Yemen's nuclear materials
* Syria's President Assad bizarrely ignores Middle East history and blames all problems on "occupation"
* Hamas beat and arrested Gazan children for raising a Fatah banner
* Arabs burying their dead in Israeli-controlled Area C as a land grab
* A Gaza Salafi leader calls for an end to rocket attacks on Israeli civilians
* Plus a couple of animal stories

I ask my readers to feel free to email him whenever I or another blogger posts something the Guardian may have missed.

You're welcome, Brian!

(h/t Yerushalimey)

BREAKING: Seattle pulls anti-Israel bus ads

I just received this press release from one of the activists working this issue:

News Release

Date: December 23, 2010

Citing potential for disruption to transit service, Executive implements interim Metro policy restricting new non-commercial advertising on buses
Escalation of global interest in ad critical of Israel raises risk of service disruption; Metro rejects ad and response ads
Citing the potential for disruption to transit service, King County Executive Dow Constantine today approved an interim policy from Metro Transit that calls for a halt to the acceptance of any new non-commercial advertising on King County buses. Under provisions of the previous policy, Metro officials today also rejected a proposed ad from the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign and the proposed response ads from two other groups.
"The escalation of this issue from one of 12 local bus placards to a widespread and often vitriolic international debate introduces new and significant security concerns that compel reassessment," said Executive Constantine.
"My job is to deliver essential services to the people of King County, including transit service," he added. "I have consulted with federal and local law enforcement authorities who have expressed concern, in the context of this international debate, that our public transportation system could be vulnerable to disruption.
"Metro sells advertising to raise revenues to provide transit service. Metro's existing policy restricts advertising that can be reasonably foreseen to result in harm to, disruption of, or interference with the transportation system. Given the dramatic escalation of debate in the past few days over these proposed ads, and the submission of inflammatory response ads, there is now an unacceptable risk of harm to or disruption of service to our customers should these ads run."
In light of the recent escalation of events, Metro Transit General Manager Kevin Desmond today asked his advertising consultant to notify the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign that Metro is rejecting its proposed ad, and for the consultant to notify the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the American Freedom Defense Initiative that Metro will not accept their proposed ads, as posing an unacceptable risk of harm to, disruption of, or interference with bus service, as defined under current policies.
In response to the Executive's directive on Monday to review current policies, Desmond today also recommended an interim transit advertising policy that adds non-commercial ads to the list of current restrictions, with an exception for governmental entities that advance specific government purposes. Non-commercial ads that met the previous policy and for which contracts have already been signed are not affected, and ads already in place will remain.
"We cannot and would not favor one point of view over another, so the entire category of non-commercial advertising will be eliminated until a permanent policy can be completed that I can propose to the King County Council for adoption," said the Executive. "Further work during the coming weeks will help determine what constitutionally-valid policy is best for the safety and well-being of the transit-riding public, our drivers and personnel, and the community at large.
"I thank everyone who has reached out to us to express their interests on this matter."
Metro expects to complete work on a permanent transit advertising policy by the end of January, for the Executive to transmit to the County Council for adoption.

Nice work!

More details here (h/t Challah)

Sneak preview of tomorrow's Latma: Jihad Bells

They didn't create the English subtitles yet, but the music video is in English already - and it is a good one:

(h/t Ruchie)

Hasbara 2.0 - a taxonomy of effective communication

Towards the end of my Hasbara 2.0 lecture, I (too quickly) went over this slide:

The higher you go up the pyramid, the bigger the emotional pay-off. Things like videos, songs, and plays reach people on a visceral level and are far more effective than text or verbal communication alone.

Take data that you or others discover, and push it up the pyramid. Convert raw data into a chart, convert a static chart into a Flash animation with voice-over. The higher up you can bring it, the more that people get emotionally involved. Text rarely goes viral, but videos do. If you can move things up the scale you can make the message far more effective.

The Gaza Mall is a perfect example. Reading about it is interesting, but seeing it in photos has a greater impact. Watching a video of people actually shopping there raises it up a notch - and making people laugh while watching it is even better.

That is my point - effective hasbara is not simply repeating information, but transforming it into a form that will get into people's hearts as well as minds. Most people make their judgments in their hearts before their minds. The information must be 100% accurate, of course, but it needs to be presented in a way that penetrates people's psyches on all levels.

The posters and comics and videos I've made recently have been intended as a way of taking my own advice, and it definitely works. My posters are getting more hits than my regular posts, and they spread much faster, especially via Facebook and Twitter. But they are not meant to stop here, or to merely get copied - they are meant to be used. My part in the hasbara universe is to generate data and tools; others are free to use them. While of course I would prefer to know how they are being used, and I would prefer that people keep my website name on the graphics, they are meant to be used, not just to entertain my readers. Print them, turn them into posters, make them into postcards, forward them, place them on social bookmarking sites or message boards, email them, convert them into balloons if you want. But to me, hasbara should not be done by organizations in a vacuum - everyone should share their creations and their ideas, and let the good ones rise to the top. If some Zionist organization wants to use my posters, comics or videos, or - better yet - it can improve them, go for it!

Arab diplomat accuses Israel of "illegal occupation" - in 1959

If you think that Arabs consider Israel's "illegal occupation" to be only east of the Green Line, here is what a major Arab diplomat said in 1959 in response to a speech by a rabbi:

And that was hardly the only time. Here's an article from 1966:

Notice that in neither of these articles are Arabs from Palestine referred to as "Palestinians."

Time for the annual Camel Beauty Contest!

These stories never get old:

Nearly 20,000 camels from the UAE and other Gulf Arab countries have converged on Abu Dhabi’s western region for one of the world’s biggest camel beauty contests involving prizes worth nearly Dh35 million ($9.5 million).

The camels have been brought from various parts of the UAE as well as neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and other Gulf nations for the week-long beauty competition in the western town of Dhafra.

The contest, which started on Thursday, will stretch until next Friday and officials described it as one of the largest camel beauty pageant in the world in terms of the value of prizes and number of camels.

More than 800 camel owners from the UAE and other regional nations are participating in the event, which is sponsored by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. It is organised by the Culture and Heritage Authority.

Do the camels always look this happy or are they coached how to smile for the judges?

PalArab news roundup

The PA claims to have stopped a Hamas cel in Ramallah that was planning to attack PalArab forces.

Firas Press reports that Israel will allow some 50,000 mobile phones to be imported into Gaza.

They also quote Bashir Assad as saying that Syria does not support Hamas, but supports its cause. Which is very interesting since Hamas' political headquarters is in Damascus, and nothing happens in Damascus without the Syrian regime's approval.

Palestine Times reports that Egypt is considering limiting where Israeli tourists can go in the country, in the wake of espionage allegations. They are concerned about the upcoming January pilgrimage of some Jews to the grave of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira.

Another Palestine Times article claims that the Mossad has infiltrated the highest levels of Fatah. This explains Arafat's "assassination." (PalTimes is a Hamas newspaper.)

Al Ahram quotes the BBC as saying that Israeli police arrested a man who was planning to blow up the Al Aqsa mosque.The Peninsula mentioned this a couple of days ago.

UPDATE: Upon request, I added a few pictures (Himmler, Brezhnev, Castro.) Not sure if it adds or detracts, but it's here if someone prefers it:

Wikileaks: Pope deliberately chose harsh words about Islam

A new Wikileaks cables shows an interesting American analysis of Pope Benedict's controversial statement about Islam in September 2006:

Following a bit of personal reminiscence about his own university days, the pope embarked on the lecture with the following passage:

"I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Munster) of part of the dialogue carried on -- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara -- by the erudite Byuzantiine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both....

[T]he emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). the emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: There is no compulsion in religion. It is one of the suras of the early
period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also know the instructions, devloped later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without
descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", heturns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central
question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and
inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something
unreasonable.

...It taxes the imagination in today's world to suppose that a reference -- by the pope! -- to the Prophet Mohammed's innovations as "evil and inhuman" would pass unnoticed. Nor is it likely that the particular quotation is accidental. Benedict is known for his meticulous ways, and also for his distinctly cooler (compared to John Paul II) approach toward Islam and interreligious dialogue. The pope is preparing for an important visit to Istanbul in November. His invocation of Manuel, an emperor whose life was defined in combat with the Ottomans who destroyed his empire a few decades later, must have been deliberate. So, too, the decision to quote the precise words of Manuel -- rather than a milder paraphrase -- is significant in a pope known for his belief that one must neither compromise with the truth, nor back down from defending the faith.

...Our view is that Benedict very likely chose his words carefully and was not averse to having them interpreted as a sign of his skepticism about Islam; his earlier actions, such as the transfer of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald last spring, made this attitude clear enough. However, he surely did not intend for them to lead to violence or a worsening of tensions between Christians and Muslims.

A new type of "honor killing"

From Ha'aretz:

A Palestinian caught trying to infiltrate a settlement Wednesday night claims he was sent by his family members, who had hoped he would be killed by soldiers during the infiltration.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers patrolling the central West Bank near the settlement of Beit El on Wednesday spotted a Palestinian walking toward the settlement and subsequently arrested him.

According to the investigation into the incident, the boy was behaving in a strange manner and the soldiers originally thought that he was drunk. Later on in the investigation, it was clarified that he was actually suffering from a mental illness.

The boy told investigators that his family wanted him dead. He said they threatened him at gunpoint, forcing him to walk towards the settlement with the hope that soldiers would think he was trying to infiltrate and would shoot him.

IDF scouts who searched the area confirmed the boy's version of events and found four family members who had tried to flee the area.

Most so-called "honor killings" are really about avoiding shame. This was both about avoiding shame - and acquiring honor for the family at the same time.

The family obviously felt that having a mentally handicapped son was shameful, and therefore unacceptable. But it was not shameful enough to murder him; after all, he is not a girl who is rumored to have been dating someone inappropriate. No one can blame the son for his condition. In this case, the family decided to turn him from a symbol of longstanding family shame into one where they would be able to bask in the reflected glory of his becoming a shahid.

Not that this is entirely new. Women who have shamed their families by their actions have been convinced to become suicide bombers in the past as well for very similar reasons - to erase shame and convert it into honor.

(h/t Ruchie)