Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Bibi on Al Arabiya (video)

The full interview is to be broadcast today, but here are some excerpts:

In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya in Jerusalem on July 19, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would not intervene with the Syrian revolution.

The Israeli Prime Minister said that Israel would like “the peace and quiet on the Israeli/Syrian border to be maintained” and that “the people, the young people of Syria deserve a better future.”

Here are excerpts from the interview, which was produced by Al Arabiya’s Current Affairs team, headed by Antoine Aoun. The interview will be broadcast in its entirety on Al Arabiya TV on Thursday:

NETANYAHU: Obviously showing enormous courage in the face of strong brutality, we don’t intervene with what happens in Syria. But we obviously would like to have peaceful relationships with Syria and we could only hope for a good future for the people of Syria. They deserve a good future. One of peace and one of freedom.

AL ARABIYA: Do you support the so-called revolution now in Syria?

NETANYAHU: You know anything that I would say will be used not against me but against the process of genuine reform that people would like to see in Syria. So we don’t intervene in Syria. But it does not mean we are not concerned. A) We would like the peace and quiet on the Israeli/Syrian border to be maintained, and B) I’d like to have that ultimately turned into a formal peace between Israel and Syria. And C) I think the people; the young people of Syria deserve a better future.

AL ARABIYA: Prime Minister, you just mentioned the peace along the borders of Israel and Syria, now some people would say that present regime of Bashar Al Assad and before him his father Hafez Al Assad in fact kept peace for about 40 years along those borders, to the extent that some people would say that the regime is indispensible from the point of view from Israel is that right?

NETANYAHU: No, no it’s not right. I mean, I hear people saying that in point of fact, we are not there to choose the next regime, the next government of Syria. I think it’s for the people of Syria to choose but, we didn’t have peace, we had a state of peace, no peace no war. Even though, you know several people tried including myself, in secret negotiations to try to move towards a formal peace. I think what has also disturbed us is that Syria supports and has supported Hezbollah and Iran and Lebanon. The people of Lebanon under five years ago wanted to have their Cedar Revolution. Iran took it away from them with Hezbollah and with Syrian supporters.

AL ARABIYA: The borders remain quiet?

NETANYAHU: They remain quiet after the second Lebanon war and I hope they remain quiet in the future.

AL ARABIYA: As a result of what’s happening in Syria now, do you think the effects might be reflected into a situation probably in southern Lebanon or in the borders between Israel and Syria?

NETANYAHU: Well, I hope not. I hope that no one in Syria thinks of having a distraction if I use that term to try and warm up in a bad sense, heat up the border between us. And I hope Iran or Hezbollah are not tempted to do this in order to shift attention away from what is happening in Syria. I think that would be bad for the people of Lebanon, bad for the people of Syria and bad for peace. I hope it doesn’t happen.

The Israeli Prime Minister then said that he is “willing to negotiate peace with anyone that’s willing to accept the right of his people and his country.”

NETANYAHU: We will always look for people who want peace. We will want always want peace, we don’t nullify people on their belief. But we do expect them in their world view to have a place for the State of Israel. If people say “you know the State of Israel shouldn’t exist, wiped off the face of the earth.” Iran or Hezbollah then there is not much of a place to go. If people have different views, we will listen to those views but I think that from two points of view. One from the internal Arab point of view; if people say we want democracy. Then ask all those that compete in a democracy to respect democracy. I think this is you can’t ask people to say all right we open a democratic doors who want to destroy democracy. The second is from my point of view: I’m willing to negotiate peace with anyone that’s willing to accept the right of my people and my country.
With regard to a Palestinian state, Mr. Netanyahu said that “everything is on the table” in regards to negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on July 19.

Mr. Netanyahu said he is “prepared to negotiate with President Abbas for peace” in his home in Jerusalem or in Ramallah.

NETANYAHU: Six Israeli Prime Ministers, myself included have been negotiating and we all agreed to a Palestinian State. So why didn’t we have peace? Some of them, two of them made very generous concessions and we all recognize that we have to make difficult compromises for peace. I recognize it as that.

AL ARABIYA: Do these compromises include Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees?

NETANYAHU: You know that these issues will be brought up.

AL ARABIYA: So they are on the table?

NETANYAHU: Everything is on the table. But we need to get to the table and this is my point. The main point that I’m saying is we haven’t concluded a peace. Either because the Palestinian leadership did not want to get to the end, maybe they had reasons they didn’t want to get to the end of the negotiations. In my case and my frustration in the past two years, we can’t restart the negotiations. And I repeat what I said to you a minute ago is that this is the most important thing. I’m prepared to negotiate with President Abbas for peace between our two people right now. We can do it here in my home in Jerusalem, we can do it in Ramallah, and we can do it anywhere.

Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel is “not preventing the importation of goods, food, and medicine to Gaza.” He said that Israel is “concerned with Hamas, a terrorist organization, that fires rockets into Israel.”

NETANYAHU: We are not preventing the importation of goods, food, and medicine to Gaza. Anything can go through. The Gaza economy has grown by 25 percent in the last three months. It’s almost a world record. We are concern about having a naval approach to Gaza.That is naval access to Gaza because on a ship you can bring in the entire rockets fired into Israel. In one ship in the second Lebanon war. We don’t want those sea lines open until there is a regime in Gaza. That makes peace with Israel and doesn’t fire rockets into Israel. That is our concern but anybody can come into Gaza. If people want to free Gaza, then they should free it from this Hamas regime that doesn’t give the real freedom to the people of Gaza. We have no argument or battle with the people with Gaza. We are concerned with Hamas a terrorist organization that fires rockets into Israel. That we are concerned with. That is the only reason for a naval action.

(h/t Yoel)

Details from poll of Palestinian Arabs are not encouraging

The full results from the TIP poll reported on last week have been released.

For a lot of the questions, Palestinian Arabs show little enthusiasm. For example, while most support a unilateral declaration of statehood at the UN, most only "somewhat" support it.

They generally tend to be against sharia law as the main source for legislation, but feel Turkey is too secular.

They are not thrilled with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Bashar Assad, and Hamas support is tepid at best. But their nostalgia for terrorists of the past is very high, saying they have very warm feelings towards Yasir Arafat, Abu Jihad and Dalal Mughrabi. The lowest marks in that question went to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel, Jews, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and Shimon Peres.

Only19% felt good about a two state solution with a Jewish state and Arab state living side by side, while 59% liked the idea of one Arab state instead.

They support unity between Hamas and Fatah, even with the opinion that it would make peace less likely.

They tend to believe that the "nakba day" incidents in the Golan were not staged by Assad, but legitimately showed Palestinian Arab desire to "return."

While they say that peace with Israel is possible, most do not believe that Israel will exist in 25 years with a Jewish majority.

As previously reported, 67% of those who expressed an opinion stated that "The real goal should be to start with two states but then move to it all being one Palestinian state."

Given the choice of these pairs of statements:

Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people - 7%
Over time Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state - 84%

I can accept permanently a two-state solution with one a homeland for the Palestinian people living side-by-side with Israel, a homeland for the Jewish people. - 30%
The real goal should to start with a two state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian state - 66%

Homosexuality should be punished by law - 82%
Homosexuality should not be punished by law - 14%

A plurality, but not a majority, thought the massacre in Itamar was wrong.

A majority agree with naming streets after suicide bombers.

A majority support teaching songs in school about hating the Jews.

79% of those who expressed an opinion say it is right to deny that Jews have a long history in Jerusalem going back thousands of years, while 90% thought it was wrong to deny that "Palestinians" have an equally long history in Jerusalem.

89% oppose a Palestinian Arab state being demilitarized.

A majority oppose releasing Gilad Shalit, and a majority support his kidnapping.

"President Obama said there should be two states: Palestine as the homeland for the
Palestinian people and Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Do you accept or reject
that concept?" 61% rejected it.

92% say Jerusalem should be capital of "Palestine" only;only3% say it should be capital for both states.

A plurality thought that a third intifada (which most oppose) would be violent.

73% believe this statement from the Hamas Covenant:: "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."

80% believe this statement from the Hamas Covenant: "For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah's victory prevails. "

62% believe in this Hamas statement as well: "When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the (Islamic) Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters."

Some of their other answers seem to indicate an aversion to armed attacks and a desire for peace, but this desire is only when they think that there is no choice. The answers indicate that in their ideal world, there would never be compromise and Jews should have no political rights in the Middle East.

The corollary is that as long as they believe that Israel is strong, they are more likely to seek peace (or, more accurately, detente); if they believe that Israel will not exist for long, they are more likely to keep waiting for it to weaken rather than make peace now.

While they do not come off as supporting terrorism as much as in other previous polls, they also are shown to have very little desire to accommodate living alongside Israel if they believe that there is any other option.

Which means that the best kind of peace possible is one where Israel is unquestioningly strong and understood that it will not collapse. The belief that terror, or politics, might weaken Israel is the very formula to ensure that peace will never happen. Every Israeli concession that is perceived as a defeat pushes peace that much further away.

This is an extraordinarily important poll, one that goes way beyond others in ferreting out the true feelings that Palestinian Arabs have. It should be required reading by every politician, pundit and journalist who want to know the truth about how Palestinian Arabs think, rather than believing the pre-digested lies that are presented by those with an agenda.

Thanks to PLO stunt, terror groups in Gaza readying for next war

From Al Masry al-Youm (h/t Just Journalism):

Leading Islamic Jihad figure Khaled al-Batch is over fifty and has been a part of the Palestinian struggle for years. ...He helped orchestrate a series of bombings in Israel that ravaged the country during the outbreak of the Second Intifada.

And now Batch, sitting barefoot in his Gaza office, says he’s convinced the Third Palestinian Intifada will erupt in a matter of months.

“There are only valid targets over there,” he says, in response to a question about the possibility of attacks on Israeli civilians.

...[N]ow Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, expects strong support from Egypt in the struggle against Israel. Egyptian policy change toward the Palestinians has already taken shape. In May, the Rafah crossing re-opened, after five years of blockade.

“They realized the bilateral talks led them to nowhere. This is why they will try a unilateral move with the UN,” says [Hamas spokesman Fawzi] Barhum. “We have agreed to delay the real reconciliation and the forming of the transitional government until the general assembly is over. The US will veto our request for sure. This will generate a vacuum in our political options. The chances for a third intifada are high, ” he adds.

The majority of significantly armed factions in the Gaza Strip, like the Naser Salahadin Brigades and Islamic Jihad, agree with Barhum's assessment. Leaders, such as Khaled Batch, claim they are in the process of readying themselves for armed uprising.

“In spite of all the efforts of Israel, Hamas and its allies managed to get weapons through smuggling,” says Walla Karaja, a journalist working for the UNRWA. “Since the reconciliation, the military trainings have increased in the Strip, and, we heard, that huge quantities of weapons arrived from the outside.”

After several days of negotiations, Al-Masry Al-Youm recently met one leader of Nasser Salahadin Brigades, under strict conditions. In the Laurate woods of Nuseirat, two armed and masked men escorted Al-Masry Al-Youm - after placing a hood over the reporter’s head - to an exit point of one of the Gaza Strip’s largest tunnels.

These tunnels are not made for smuggling. They are constructed to connect all the strategic points of the Strip underground. One brigade member, insisting on using an alias, called himself Abu Seiar, the father of the sword. He had just returned from Syria, after receiving military training there. He was taught, he claimed, how to use anti-tank weaponry, among other skills.

“I was called home because I'm an expert in building non-commercial tunnels,” says Abu Seiar, whose job now is to strengthen the existing tunnels and attach new strategic exits. “Others have returned from Lebanon and Iran. Everyone knows that something is going to happen.”
...
“We haven't felt anything from the so-called border opening yet…business as usual,” says Omar, a proud owner of two commercial tunnels in his home in Rafah. Omar also requested a pseudonym. “But one thing is for sure…Hamas reintroduced the taxing of cigarettes and other luxury products from Egypt, because they badly need money. There is a huge movement in their tunnels at nighttime as well.”

It seems preparations in Gaza are indisputably underway for another round of conflict, but the incident that will spur a call to arms cannot be forecasted.

[T]alking with people on the streets of Gaza, its obvious there isn’t widespread support for another full-fledged uprising. In fact, not one ordinary Palestinian I met leveled support for such a campaign.

“Look at the conditions how we live,” some say. “This is the result of the first and second uprising. If we start a new one, they [the Israelis] will cut our throat.”

The world's complicity for the PLO's September stunt is laying the groundwork for an almost inevitable breakout of terrorism and war. No one will win, and everyone will be worse off than they are today.

Yet, outside the US, no one is seriously trying to stop this train wreck.

Jordanian flotilla contingent blames Turkey for stopping them

One of the unanswered questions about the flop flotilla is - what happened to the Jordanian ship, the Noor, that was supposed to participate?

While no one seriously was worried about violence from the Europeans and Americans trying to reach Gaza, the Jordanian ship - which was to represent many Arab countries - was another matter.

So what happened to it?

A new article in Palestine Today has the organizers of the Jordanian "Lifeline" group that was behind the initiative blaming Turkey for foiling their plans to sail to Gaza.

Apparently, their plan was to sail to Gaza from Turkey instead of Greece. This plan was meant to be a surprise. But the Turks would not allow them into port, instead forcing them to drop anchor three miles out to sea. (While they were there, a Jordanian passenger ship did go to Turkey to dock.)

The ship considered going to Gaza anyway, but now the Bulgarian crew's contract is up, and they want to get a Syrian crew now and perform some repairs. So the story is not completely over yet.

Latest Zionist weapon: Fenugreek seed slander

From The Media Line/Jerusalem Post:

When a European laboratory announced two weeks ago that an infected shipment of Egyptian fenugreek seeds was the source of an E. coli epidemic that killed 48 Germans and a Swede, the Egyptian agriculture minister didn’t apologize, nor did he call for an investigation into the matter.

The problem had nothing to do with Egypt, the minister, Ayman Abu-Hadid, told Egyptian press.

"Israel is waging a commercial war against Egyptian exports," he explained, and with that the case was closed.

Abu-Hadid isn’t the only minister in Egypt's post-revolutionary government to blame Israel for his country's woes. In June, Deputy Prime Minister Yehia El-Gamal told the Lebanese news site Al-Nashra that Israel was inciting sectarian strife between Muslims and Christians in the country.

..."Conspiracy theories are part of the texture of our culture," Hani Henry, a psychology professor at the American University in Cairo, told The Media Line. "Even if we have a democratic government, the problem will not go away."

I need to find out which division of Elders International is responsible for fenugreek seed rumors, so I can send them all Amazon gift cards. (That's how we roll here at the world headquarters of EoZ.)

(h/t IsraelMuse)

Hamas militant dies; Ma'an downplays circumstances

From Ma'an:

The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, announced the death of one of their members Thursday in a tunnel collapse in the Gaza Strip.

The military wing told Ma'an that Muhammad Junid, 25, from Jabalia died at dawn on Thursday as a tunnel used for smuggling goods collapsed.

Did a Hamas terrorist die in a tunnel that was importing candy bars and car parts?

Let's see how the Al Qassam Brigades described the death. In English:

The brigades confirmed that the Mujahed was martyred during a special Jihad mission in Jabaliya refugee camp, adding that he was martyred after a long bright path of Jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.

They might have made a mistake saying he was killed in Jabaliya rather than that he was from Jabaliya, but they make it clear it was a "jihad mission."

The Al Qassam website in Arabic puts it together: Junaid was killed in the collapse of a "resistance tunnel" - meaning a tunnel to smuggle in weapons from Egypt. Or, perhaps, he was killed in a tunnel in Jabaliya that is meant as a hideout for Hamas weapons and a means to travel underground between houses during the next war.

Either way, Ma'an is downplaying what happened.

Palestinian Arabs get FAR more aid per capita than anyone else

Based on data from the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2011 that I linked to earlier, and their country population data, here is a chart showing - of the top 20 countries/entities that receive humanitarian aid - how much they get on a per-capita basis:

Are the Palestinian Arabs really an order of magnitude needier than those of practically every other country on the planet?

Top 20 recipients of humanitarian aid, 2000-2009. One entity gets a whole lot.

From the new Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2011:

In absolute terms, Sudan receives the most aid and "Palestine" the second most (the gap is narrowing in recent years.)

But on a per-capita basis, the Palestinian Arabs receive about 9 times as much aid as the Sudanese do, and of course far more aid per capita than any other people on the planet.

Keep that in mind when the next mall, five star hotel or seaside resort opens in Gaza or the West Bank.

Or ask yourself whether Palestinian Arabs deserve 39 times the aid per capita that residents of the Congo receive.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

What would an EoZ newsletter look like?

If I had unlimited time and funds, maybe I could put one of these out every day:

Free Gaza scraping the barrel to find fault with Israel's seizure of boat

The Free Gaza movement was sorely disappointed that no one was killed or injured by the IDF on the Dignity. So much so, that they had to find something else to complain about: Israel's disproportionate response!

After being brought back to the port of Ashdod, the passengers were transferred to a retention centre in the city of Holon next to Tel Aviv. They were visited by their lawyers and the French Consul in Tel Aviv before the Israeli authorities took to them to Tel Aviv airport where they spent the night.

The story of the boarding by Israeli journalist Amira Hass who was on board shows how disproportionate was the Israeli operation. 7 commando boats and 3 missile ships with 150 on board to stop 16 unarmed civilians on a 16 ms long boat.

The Israeli boarding happened in International waters is illegal. Even though no shot was fired, diverting a boat and its passengers under the threat of guns, with military boats, is an act of violence.

Let's redefine words in order to maintain our outrage!

Last time I stayed in a luxury hotel, I was attended to by the people on the front desk, a concierge, a bellboy, two waiters, a maid and a turndown service. That was a hugely disproportionate response to only one person staying in a hotel!

"Jewish gangs forcibly converting Christians in Iraq"

From MEMRI, quoting Iraqi daily Al-Mustaqbal:

"Iraqi Christians have revealed the presence of Jewish groups which specialize in operations for killing or expelling Christians from Iraq unless they convert to the Jewish religion. One Christian family said that Jewish groups are pressing toward converting Christian families to the Jewish religion in return for getting support and protection from the dangers that that the Christian minority has been exposed to, for not a short while.

"[The Christian family] made it clear that Jewish groups move and travel regularly under official cover that allows them to move around in areas and residential quarters where majority of Christians are found. Half of the members of that [said] family have emigrated to Turkey and a few are left behind. One of its members said: 'The pressures to which they are subjected to convert from Christianity to Judaism are enormous.'

"In light of what the Christian family has said, Iraqi national security agencies such as mukhabarat [intelligence service] and national security are making a swift pursuit in search of the Jews who spread out in Iraq under multiple covers and identities such as organizations of civil society and [commercial] companies. The source [not identified] has revealed that some Jews carry Kurdish identity cards issued by the Kurdish region. He said they follow various methods with the Christian families to convert some of them to the Jewish religion while those Iraqi Christians who have refused to cooperate with the Jews were killed, kidnapped, or expelled.

"According to the same source, some of the Jewish elements travelled in the past in American military vehicles but now they move in civilian vehicles some carrying the tags 'C.D' - diplomatic corps - and others move around in the capacity of private guards, security companies or investors. The source, who has refused to reveal his identity, said he was awaiting resettlement in one of the European countries [with the help of] Turkey that facilitates the resettlement of Iraqi Christians against large payments amounting to $20,000 per person.

"The source said that he would be meeting with the UN Office for Human Rights in Turkey in the next few weeks. After he receives approval for his resettlement he will reveal the names and characteristics [of those] that bargained with him and his family and other Christian families that he either knows or are relatives of his who reside in Baghdad.

"It is worth noting that the UN Human Rights Office in Turkey is headed by a Jewish employee."

Those Jews and their forced conversions! The circumcisions must be painful.

MEMRI wryly adds that "of the 150,000-strong, vibrant Jewish community that lived in Iraq for 2500 years there remain about 7 elderly individuals."

(I could not find a website for any Iraqi newspaper named Al-Mustaqbal, only a Lebanese paper.)

(h/t NormanF, link h/t Binyamin)

Gazans shut down UNRWA again

Palestine Today reports that Gazans blocked all the doors to UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, shutting off all services. The reason? Because UNRWA has been reducing services.

There have been a lot of similar Palestinian Arab protests against UNRWA lately, which are all ignored by major media outlets.

Khaled Abu Toameh elaborates:

In recent weeks, UNRWA has come under attack from many Palestinians who fear that the international agency is planning to cut its services to the refugees.

UNRWA has in fact reduced some of its services to refugees – but only due to a $60 million budget deficit.

The reactions of both Hamas and the PLO show that neither party is willing to assume responsibility for the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The two parties do not want to provide any services to the refugees, and want UNRWA to do the job for them. Their goal is to keep the refugees in their places so Hamas, the PLO and the rest of the Arab governments can continue exploiting their plight for political purposes.

The anti-UNRWA protests are aimed at extorting the agency and the international community into continuing to provide services and jobs to tens of thousands of Palestinians, exempting Hamas, the PLO and the Arab world from any responsibility.

Instead of threatening UNRWA, the PLO and Hamas should start thinking of ways to help the refugees to improve their living conditions and find jobs.

Instead of demonstrating in front of the UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian refugees should be demanding that oil-rich Arab countries help them.

It is worth repeating that the PA and Hamas have not lifted a finger to dismantle "refugee" camps in territories under their control - inside the area of British Mandate Palestine! Instead of preparing their citizens in camps to be normal members of society, they have been ensuring that they remain second-class and living in misery; refusing to build permanent housing for them.

Saudi anti-witchcraft unit swings into action!

From The Media Line:

When the severed head of a wolf wrapped in women's lingerie turned up near the city of Tabouk in northern Saudi Arabia this week, authorities knew they had another case of witchcraft on their hands, a capital offence in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.

Agents of the country’s Anti-Witchcraft Unit were quickly dispatched and set about trying to break the spell that used the beast’s head.

Saudi Arabia takes witchcraft so seriously that it has banned The Harry Potter series by British writer J.K. Rowling, rife with tales of sorcery and magic. It set up the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in May 2009 and placed it under the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPV), Saudi Arabia's religious police.

"In accordance with our Islamic tradition we believe that magic really exists," Abdullah Jaber, a political cartoonist at the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, told The Media Line. "The fact that an official body, subordinate to the Saudi Ministry of Interior, has a unit to combat sorcery proves that the government recognizes this, like Muslims worldwide."

The unit is charged with apprehending sorcerers and reversing the detrimental effects of their spells. On the CPV website, a hotline encourages citizens across the kingdom to report cases of sorcery to local officials for immediate treatment.

In the case of the wolf's head, the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in Tabouk was able to break the spell. The Saudi daily Okaz reported on Monday that the unknown family that had fallen victim to the spell had been "liberated from the jaws of the wolf.”

The Anti-Witchcraft Unit was created in order to educate the public about the danger of sorcerers and "combat manifestations of polytheism and reliance on other Gods," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The belief in sorcery is so widespread in Saudi Arabia, that it is even used as a defense in criminal court cases. Last October, a judge accused of receiving bribes in a real-estate project told a court in Madinah that he had been bewitched and is undergoing treatment by Quranic incantations, known as ruqiyah, a common remedy for the evil eye.

...Belief in sorcery is not necessarily more widespread in Saudi Arabia than in other Gulf countries, Wilcke added. On Monday, the Emirati daily Al-Khaeej reported that Dubai police had arrested an Arab African national on charges of fraud and sorcery, after he charged 15,000 Dirham ($4,000) from a woman whose husband had left her, promising to bring him back using magic.

A wolf in lingerie indicates sorcery? Sounds more like an Arab re-enactment of Little Red Riding Hood!

The humiliation in Gaza continues: The Andaluseyya Mall

From Al Masry al-Youm:

After marking its inaugural opening on Tuesday, the three-story mall in Gaza City now offers products running the gamut. The supermarket has nearly all possible commodities. Shoe stores with popular brand names, such as Nike, Adidas and Fox, sit next to clothing shops displaying window mannequins with hot miniskirts and vibrantly colored t-shirts.

On the Andaluseyya mall’s top floor, customers are able to enjoy quality time with their families, eating at restaurants, playing arcade games and, for the first time in Gaza, watching a movie in the cinema. Escalators, rare sites in this besieged coastal enclave, escort people between floors. To top it off, air conditioning provides much-needed respite from the oppressive heat outside.

In addition to recent construction that paved the way for this mall to open, Gaza City is in the process of opening several sea-side resorts. After three years with limited to non-existent commercial building, construction firms are now breaking stereotypical images of Gaza as a destitute territory with conditions comparable to the most-devastated sub-Saharan regions.

One of the primary investors in the mall, Ihab Al-Esawy, says the opening could never have been achieved if the current situation in Gaza was similar to years past. He needed previously-absent construction materials, now available, at his disposal [from smuggling tunnels - EoZ].

“We put the [mall] plan of the project in on October 10th, 2010 and started the work immediately,” al-Esawy says. “We wanted to make sure that we had enough construction material though so we could start building.”

Once again I am saddened to have to show you the photos of the hopelessness that Gazans are forced to live under - hopelessness that is worse than a humanitarian crisis. The captions are written in the style of the Free Gaza Movement, 972Mag, Mondoweiss and Reuters.

Gazans are forced to wait in dehumanizing lines in the scorching heat to have a few minutes of respite from their unbearable lives.

While there is a large selection of products, the stores are empty because the prices are too high. The owners of the mall are in danger of losing all their money.

OK, maybe the stores aren't empty. But look how poor Gazans are forced to wear second-hand Lynyrd Skynyrd T-Shirts, humiliated that they appear to be fans of Western classic rock.

The abused Gazans put up a brave front as they browse the men's suits, suits that they will be forced to eat because of their crushing poverty from the illegal Zionist siege.

Once again, we see Gazans being forced to wait at virtual checkpoints to be served. Some give up and go to other sections of the mall in their frustration and humiliation. But it is all in vain - the lines are everywhere.

Escalators were installed at the insistence of the Zionists who manufactured, and are enriched by, them. This is meant to ensure that proud Gazans get less exercise and more heart attacks, thus contributing to their slow genocide.

As Reuters wrote: Gaza shelves stocked, but hope in short supply.
That crushing hopelessness is etched upon the faces of the few remaining Gaza survivors of constant Israeli aggression.

Isn't it past time to recall the US ambassador to Syria?

From Now Lebanon:

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned the French and US ambassadors on Wednesday not to travel outside Damascus after they both visited the flashpoint central city of Hama earlier this month.

"We will impose a ban on any [diplomatic] travel more than 25 kilometers (15 miles) outside Damascus, if the ambassadors continue to ignore [our] guidance," Muallem told the envoys at a meeting broadcast by state television.

"I hope that we will not be forced to impose the ban," he added.

"We did not expel the two ambassadors because we had hoped to maintain better relations in future."

Both US envoy Robert Ford and French ambassador Eric Chevallier visited Hama on July 7 amid repeated large demonstrations in the city against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Damascus reacted furiously to the visit, accusing the US ambassador of seeking to undermine the stability of Syria and calling in both envoys for consultations on July 10.

The Syrian authorities accused the pair of travelling to Hama without authorization but Washington insisted Damascus had been notified in advance.

Either Ford should immediately go to Hama or he should immediately go home. There is no value to his staying under virtual house arrest while the Syrian regime slaughters thousands.

And if France does it first, it would make the US look really bad.

"How to tell an Arab far-leftist"

There is a Twitter hashtag, mostly written by Arabs, called "#HowToTellAnArabFarLeftist." A lot of them are quite funny - and many apply to leftists altogether.

Here are some of the entries:

can't see a single leading communist country but still thinks communism is the best, ohh just like islamists yeah

when they say that Nutella is an American conspiracy product to taint the brains of 3 yr old kids.

All our problems are from colonialism, till now, duh. (oh shit US was colonized bt UK? Nevermind!)

mention colonialism every 5 min even though foreign aid has hurt economies much worse.

They despise the west and United States but they probably graduated from American University of Beirut

they voted for Bush in 2000 because Gore's running mate was Jewish...then they complain about how Bush "stole" Florida

they think Norman Finkelstein is a genius

"there has always been a secret American plan to invade and split up Iraq into 3 countries."

Castro is not ruining Cuba. He is merely teaching his people how common misery is better than greedy capitalism.

"The Israel lobby controls the media and the U.S. government."

"my daughter is only allowed to marry from my village"

the UN is a Zionist conspiracy. The Israel lobby is America's shadow government. Syrian revolt a conspiracy too.

a sentence cannot be formed w/o: zionist, racist, imperialism, puppets, conspiracy, corporate.

Gulf Princes are American puppets, Levant Dictators are Zionist agents, Maghreb autocrats are Colonial servants

"USSR didn't lose the war of Ideas... Obama is a secret communist you know."

Speaking out against religious extremism is so passé compared to railing against corporations

Wears the Kaffiyye for protests, then takes it off before going to work... in Mcdonald's.

"Starbucks gives money to Israel" so do you with your tax dollars now GTFO

they bitched and moaned when Bush passed the patriot act and said nothing when Obama renewed it

Bush hated Muslims for Iraq and Afghan but Obama doesn't and stays there and attacks Libya, Yemen and Somalia

Obama loves Muslims because of a Ramadan YouTube video

"Palestinians aren't allowed to own land in Lebanon because they want them to go back to their homeland"

holocaust denial. Sad but true.

The only scholar worth mentioning in regards to the Middle East is Edward Said.

If you criticize West they're your best friend,if you criticize Arabs they support you're guilty of Orientalism.

"we're replacing Mubarak thugs w our much nicer ones who'll punish the real bad guys (e.g Investors)"

Saddam Hussein was a good guy he is just misunderstood.

Rage rage against human rights abuses by Obama and Bush. Crickets chirping with regard to Castro, Lenin, Stalin

they are secular but praise Osama bin Laden and yell about it on al-Jazeera while screaming conspiracy.

their vocabulary consists in one word: colonialism. Ok two, they can say it in Arabic too: ???????

Having an import cup of coffee at a super lavish cafe while discussing child labour

sympathizes with and takes photos of homeless people from his 1000$ Canon camera

tweets frequently about the rights of the poor from his iPad

he can't be bothered to explain himself coz he always assumes u dont know what u are talking about, yells GO READ

yells & screams in Tahrir demanding minimum wage but is driven around town by driver earning eq of $100 a month

u thnk wearing a Keffiyeh & nagging will free Palestine, but an economically strong arab world won't.

give you a long lecture about horror of fascist dictatorship then praise #Stalin

strongly supports freedom of speech except when you disagree with his beliefs

they don't smile because smiling is a western conspiracy to distract us from their plot to destroy us.

they love revolutions and elections but hate liberty

they would rather Palestine never get a state always be occupied, to bitch, rather than them get half the loaf.

(h/t JW)

Blowing up a mosque, of course.

Apparently this is from about 9 months ago, but I just ran across it.

Israel HaYom is read by nearly 7x as many Israelis as Ha'aretz

Israel HaYom, which has recently come out with an online English edition, is now the most popular newspaper in Israel, read by some 39.3% of the population in the first half of this year.

The newspaper is a breath of fresh air as it reports without the sickening bias of Ha'aretz, whose readership fell to a tiny 5.8% market share.

Of course, this won't stop foreign journalists from using Ha'aretz as their benchmark on how Israeli society thinks. They like to push the false idea that Israel hates its government and it more oriented to Meretz than Likud - since this is more in line with what they themselves believe. Wishful thinking trumps sober reporting nearly every time.

Erekat spouts lies in response to Israeli YouTube video

This week, Israel's Foreign Ministry put out a video that has spread quickly, called The Truth About the West Bank:

PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who apparently has never resigned even though he claimed he did, lashed out at the video. His sputtering statement has a lot of nonsense, but I want to concentrate on one of his many lies that we have not covered before:

Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat Wednesday expressed his shock at a Youtube video produced by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which the Israeli Ministry distorts international law regarding the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

“With this video, the Israeli government has left no doubt on its pro-conflict agenda,” said Erekat in a press release....

Erekat continued: “In its desperate attempt to gear international discourse away from the pursuit of genuine peace to the outdated arguments of those who oppose it, this official video went as far as discarding United Nations Resolution 181 (II). I want to remind the government of Israel that it was accepted at the UN as a full member based on its acceptance of this resolution.”

This is a claim that has been made before by anti-Israel activists. Was Israel's acceptance to the UN conditional upon accepting UNGA 181?

The easiest way to find out is to read the text of the resolution accepting Israel itself:

Having received the report of the Security Council on the application of Israel for membership in the United Nations,

Noting that, in the judgment of the Security Council, Israel is a peace-loving State and is able and willing to carry out the obligations contained in the Charter,

Noting that the Security Council has recommended to the general Assembly that it admit Israel to membership in the United Nations,

Noting furthermore the declaration by the State of Israel that it "unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a member of the United Nations,"

Recalling its resolutions of 29 November 1947 and 11 December 1948 and taking note of the declarations and explanations made by the representative of the Government of Israel before the Ad Hoc Political Committee in respect of the implementation of the said resolutions,

The General Assembly,

Acting in discharge of its functions under Article 4 of the Charter and rule 125 of its rules of procedure,

1. Decides that Israel is a peace loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those obligations;

2. Decides to admit Israel to membership in the United Nations.

While the resolution "recalls" UNGA 181 and 194 there is no conditional language in this resolution at all. The actionable part of the resolution is unambiguous. Beyond that, the preamble explicitly notes that Israel clarified - at length - its interpretation of those resolutions in a number of now obscure UN documents (here and here, among others.) Abba Eban was, as usual, masterful in explaining Israel's position, and his explanation is referred to in this resolution just as the UNGA resolutions are. The language of the resolution seems to accept Eban's words as being just as important as the texts of the earlier resolutions themselves.

Which means that Erekat is shown yet again to be a liar.

UNESCO's Islamicization of Maimonides

YNet has a damning article by Giulio Meotti about UNESCO that makes a very good case that the agency is actively engaging in a fight against Israel, and even against Jewish culture and history - especially if that history happened to occur on the "wrong side" of an imaginary green line.

The Arabs find it difficult to convincingly portray Israel as usurper of the land as long as the world believes there is a huge connection between the people of the Bible and the land of the Bible. UNESCO is denying this connection by depicting Jewish history in the Middle East as no more than an insignificant, brief sojourn by arrogant colonizers.

UNESCO appears to deny that the Jewish people has laid its roots in Israel more than 4,000 years ago, or that 1,000 years before Christ, King David made Jerusalem the Jewish city par excellence, never entirely abandoned even in times of deadly persecution.

The City of David in Jerusalem, a major target of UNESCO’s anti-Jewish fury, is now the hottest open archaeological site in the world, with biblical artifacts, ancient burial spots and royal seals. There, UNESCO is using archeology to bash Israel and treats Israeli archeologists as nationalistic martinets.

In recent years, UNESCO increased its collaboration with ISESCO, the cultural body of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. According to ISESCO’s propaganda, the Biblical story and the Jewish temples are only fiction, Jewish monuments are Islamic treasures stolen by the Zionists, and Israeli archeological works are criminal acts against Muslims.

UNESCO’s ideology portrays the Jews as no more than invading colonizers, while the Muslims who invaded the country and ravaged it in the Seventh Century are, by some inexplicable leap, the descendants of the so called "indigenous Canaanites."

In 2010, UNESCO decided that Rachel’s Tomb and Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs are “Muslim mosques.” Western countries didn't raise any protest. UNESCO never mentioned that in addition to the famous Tomb of the biblical Patriarchs, Hebron contains also the tomb of the first judge (Otniel Ben Kenaz), the tomb of generals and confidants to Saul and David and the tombs of Ruth and Jesse, David’s great-grandmother and father. There is also no word by UNESCO about the fact that Rachel’s tomb is unanimously revered as the burial site of one of the Bible’s great women, the wife of Jacob, the Jewish blessed mother.

During the Second Intifada, UNESCO condemned Israel for “the destruction and damage caused to the cultural heritage in the Palestinian territories” as “a crime against the common cultural heritage of humanity.” However, UNESCO remained silent when a Palestinian mob destroyed Joseph’s tomb, a major Jewish religious shrine, and built a mosque on the site.

Upon the outbreak of the Second Intifada, Palestinian terrorists also attacked Rachel’s tomb, and for 41 days Jews were prevented from visiting the compound. UNESCO never condemned it. Recently, dozens of graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on Judaism’s oldest cemetery, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Again, UNESCO remained silent.

This one part of the article was stunning to me:

On a final note, a recent UNESCO report on science, Jewish physician and theologian Maimonides is classified as a Muslim named “Moussa ben Maimoun.” So the Rambam - for Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon – has been forced to “convert” to Islam by the UN’s revisionist historians.

During the Middle Ages, the French Inquisition confiscated and burned Maimonides's books. From the elegant Parisian boulevards, UNESCO’s inquisitors are now following the same dreadful solution of rendering history and the Holy Land "Judenrein."

I asked Meotti for the document where UNESCO calls Maimonides (the Rambam) a Muslim, and after a bit of searching we found it. It was in the French version of a December 2010 report on science in the Arab world by Adnan Badran:

Une fois Tolède reprise aux Maures par les croisés en 1085, les savants européens y affluèrent afin de traduire les anciens textes classiques du grec (que l’Europe avait oubliés) vers l’arabe et l’hébreu, puis le latin, rendant ce la première partie du Moyen Âge européen (1100-1543), les noms de quelques savants européens apparaissaient dans la littérature scientifique à côté d’un grand nombre de savants musulmans, parmi lesquels Ibn Rushd (Averroès), Moussa ibn Maïmoun (Maïmonide), Tousi et Ibn Nafis.

After the recovery of Toledo from the Moors by the Crusaders in 1085, European scholars flocked there to translate the ancient classical texts from the Greek (which Europe had forgotten) to Arabic and Hebrew and Latin, making it the first part of the European Middle Ages (1100-1543), the names of some European scholars appeared in scientific literature next to a large number of Muslim scholars, including Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Maimouna Ibn Moussa (Maimonides), Tousi and Ibn Nafis.

This is in marked contrast to how UNESCO used to act. In 1986, it organized a roundtable to celebrate the 850th anniversary of Maimonides' birth, and dedicated an entire issue of its cultural magazine to Maimonides and Averroes that same year where his Jewish roots are emphasized. In that issue they mention that he is known as The Rambam and they say his name was Moses ben Maymun.

That began to change as UNESCO started de-emphasizing his Judaism. In their description of Cordoba, for example, he is referred to as "Musa-ibn-Maymun."

And now - he is a Muslim.

This isn't the usual anti-Zionism that we come to expect from the UN. This is a consistent pattern of the denial of Jewish history and culture. In other words - this is UN-sanctioned anti-semitism.

Hasbara 2.0 - the video

Yesterday I posted the slides for my Hasbara 2.0 speech last year. Here is the video of the presentation. If you have a couple of free hours, you might find it interesting.

Ahmadinejad: "We've never thought of aggression"

One of the funnier articles in the Tehran Times:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran will give a crushing response to any malicious movement in the region against its interests.

“The Iranian nation is an honest friend and is true to its word, but if anyone wishes to collude with the sworn enemies of Iran and make malicious moves, they should know that Iran will stand firm until the eradication of global arrogance (imperialist powers) and the Zionist regime,” he said.

“The entire world knows that Iran is the biggest military power in the region,” he said. “We have never wanted to take advantage of nations’ limitations, because it goes against our beliefs and we have never thought of aggression against others.”

He added: “The era of the Unites States and the Zionist regime has come to an end; their days are numbered.

Yup, aggression never even crossed his mind, as he promises a "crushing response" to any "malicious moves" until the US and Israel are utterly destroyed.

2010 Hasby Awards/Hasbara 2.0: The slide presentation

Here are the slides that I created for my lecture last year at Yeshiva University which included the 2010 Hasby Awards and Hasbara 2.0.

Yes, I know that there is a risk that the Israel-haters will learn all our nefarious secrets. I'll just have to take that risk.

Worst insult for anti-Israel leftists: "Hasbara activist"

It's been a fun day in the Twittersphere, as my post demolishing the 972mag's attempt to attack me got some play.

It seems to have angered the usual hate-Israel crowd, who have been hurling the biggest insult they can to me - that I engage in hasbara.

The author, Noam Sheizaf, called me a "Hasbara mouthpiece."

Joseph Dana of the same online blog said I was having a "bad hasbara day."

Later he said "@elderofziyon calls his own work 'humorous.' Do his readers understand that he writes humor or Hasbara?"

One of his retweeters wrote "that hasbara means deceit and you are not insulted means to admit to the charge, an honest man who ply's deceit for a living."

And Dana then had a series of tweets for what good, upstanding citizens must look for when dealing with that hasbara crowd.

Wow! The word "Hasbara" is as toxic to these guys as the word "Zionist" is to Arabs! So much so that they assume that bringing out that term automatically means they win the argument!

Well, at the risk of making their heads explode, this blog is dedicated to hasbara. There, I admit it. I even gave a couple of lectures on how to create effective hasbara (and how this blog falls short.)

I wrote eleven hasbara rules in the talk, and one of them was "Truth Above All." If we lose credibility, we lose everything; if one is not comfortable using a specific argument, don’t fake it.

"Hasbara" means, simply, explanation. It refers to public advocacy for Israel. It does not mean deceit, lies, or running away from the truth - quite the opposite. It means telling the truth about Israel and the Arab world in the face of the huge amount of misinformation and lies that exists out there.

So, go ahead, call me a hasbarist. It's a compliment.

Israeli-Palestinian Arab soccer team upsets PalArabs

Earlier this month, the Vancouver International Soccer Festival was held. It included many international teams, including a joint Israeli/Palestinian Arab team. As the Jewish Independent wrote:

The Independent spoke briefly with Noor Daoud and Liraz Cohen, who were visibly eager, having just played a game and done a TV interview, to rejoin their fellow players and enjoy the rest of their night.

Daoud, 21, who is from the West Bank, said she recently completed her studies at Miami University; she has taken a year-long program in criminal justice and two years of fitness training. She is now working at a gym, in addition to playing soccer with an Israeli team. She played on the Palestinian national team, which took her to competitions in places like the United Arab Emirates, Germany and London, but had to change teams because she reached the de facto age-limit of the Palestinian team, which focuses on younger players.

Cohen, 22, is one of the Israelis on the VISF Palestine/Israel team. She said she had just finished a six-month vacation in the United States. She currently lives in Eilat, where she is a bartender, as well as a soccer player.

About the potential impact of VISF, Daoud said, “I think it will really, really help, because we’ve never gone out as both teams [together] like this, we never tried it, it’s our first time, and I’m really enjoying it because it’s been a long time [that] I wished this moment would happen. We’re here now and I’m really happy because we can show the world and everybody here that Israelis and Palestinians can mix and we can become one team. I hope one day we will have huge team in Israel and it will be mixed, Palestinians and Israelis.”

While Daoud was speaking, Cohen put her arm around Daoud’s shoulder in a show of camaraderie. “It’s good for peace, for the future,” said Cohen about VISF. “I think all people are the same and we need peace. That’s it,” she concluded.

This is not sitting well with Hamas.

The Hamas-oriented Felesteen and Palestine Times websites are upset over photos that came out of Canada at the festival:

They are especially upset at how this joint team represents "normalization" with the "Zionist entity" and they note the names of the Arab players and where they are from, in what may be a veiled threat against them.

One comment at the Felesteen site emphasized that "they do not represent the Palestinian people."

Pakistanis killing each other in Karachi - so minister blames Israel

The background:

A wave of deadly political and ethnic violence gripped Pakistan’s largest city for the fourth straight day Friday, and police and paramilitary troops were given orders to shoot suspected assailants on sight.

As many as 95 people have been killed in Karachi since Tuesday in assassinations, shooting rampages on buses and arson attacks, according to law enforcement authorities, who were widely faulted for doing little to stop the carnage. The fighting spread from one multiethnic, lower-middle-class district to other parts of the seaside metropolis, and by Friday the city was under near-lockdown as armed men fired from windows and rooftops.

So, naturally, this must all be Israel's fault!

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said Israel-made weapons have been recovered from trouble-makers in the city which shows that some external hands were involved in the unrest.

“Weapons are being brought to Karachi from abroad,” he said, adding: “Not only weapons even target killers also were coming from outside.” He said steps are being taken to tackle the situation but did not elaborate.

“Over 200 persons have been arrested and Israel-made weapons, including AK-45s, have been recovered from them. This proves that a foreign hand is behind the unrest in Karachi,” he told newsmen here

Some Pakistani editorials ran with this:

Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s disclosure about the use of Israel-made weapons in Karachi that has for long been in the grip of murderous attacks by rival criminal groups might have surprised those who are unaware of the machinations of the Zionists, but to the informed it was no news. They have always believed, not merely suspected, that not only Israel, but also a wider nexus that brings India and the US into the fold, has been at work stirring up trouble in Pakistan as well as, particularly, other Muslim lands, which could serve their strategic designs of the dominance of certain regions of the world to enable them to appropriate their resources for exploitation. In the case of Pakistan, where war-like situation exists, thanks to the invaders of Afghanistan, the nexus has been active not only in Karachi, but also in Balochistan and elsewhere. The links of the attackers on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore can be traced back to Zionists.

Others are dismissive:

WAS the goal to grab headlines? Or simply to shift responsibility? It was the classic Pakistani conspiracy theory of blaming those mysterious `foreign hands`, but coming from a senior government official in charge of domestic security, Interior Minister Rehman Malik`s statement on Sunday only trivialised the horror Karachi has been through over the last two weeks. Israeli weapons have been found in the port city, Mr Rehman claimed, suggesting that this meant a foreign element was behind Karachi`s unrest. Without more direct linkages between the city`s violence and external powers, this claim defies logic.

If Israel didn't exist, who could the Muslims blame for all their problems?

Women raped, abused at Jordan factory that supplies WalMart, Macy's

From the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights:

According to witnesses who work at Classic Fashion, scores of young Sri Lankan women sewing clothing for Wal-Mart and Hanes have suffered routine sexual abuse and repeated rapes, and in some cases even torture. One young rape victim at the Classic factory in Jordan told us her assailant, a manager, bit her, leaving scars all over her body. Women who become pregnant are forcibly deported and returned to Sri Lanka. Women who refuse the sexual advances of Classic's managers are also beaten and deported.

Classic, the largest garment export factory in Jordan, sews clothing for Wal-Mart, Hanes, Kohl's, Target and Macy's. The garments enter the U.S. duty-free under the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement.

On the weekly holiday, the alleged serial rapist general manager, Anil Santha, sends a van to bring four or five young women to his hotel, where he abuses them. The lives of the young Sri Lankan rape victims are completely shattered, as in their culture, virginity is highly prized and critical for a good marriage.

In October 2010, 2,400 Sri Lankan and Indian workers went on strike demanding the removal of the alleged rapist, Anil. Classic's owner, Sanal Kumar, sent Anil away, but he returned after one month.

Through the Institute/National Labor Committee's reports, the Ministry of Labor has been made aware of the sexual abuse as early as 2007, but has done nothing.

The standard shift at Classic is 13 hours a day, six and seven days a week, with some 18 ½ hour shifts before the clothing must be shipped to the U.S. According to witness testimonies, workers are routinely cursed at, hit and shortchanged of their wages for failing to reach their mandatory production goals. To press the women to work faster, managers grope and fondle them.

The workers-who are from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Egypt, earn a take-home wage of just 61 cents an hour.

The workers are housed in primitive dorms lacking heat or hot water, but which are infested with bed bugs. The women have extremely limited freedom of movement and are allowed to leave the factory compound just one day a week for six hours. When they are forced to work through their weekly holiday, they may be allowed out just once or twice a month.

The minimal efforts of Wal-Mart, Hanes and the other labels to monitor factory conditions at Classic have failed completely. Workers are threatened by management and forced to say that conditions are good.

The full report has a number of interviews with women who were raped; one of them is on YouTube.

It looks like the abusers are not Jordanians either.

Abbas lies in Norway: "Our people eager for freedom and independence"

Palestine Press Agency reports on Mahmoud Abbas's remarks in Norway concerning the unilateral move to have the UN short-circuit negotiations with Israel.

He said, "Our people are eagerly awaiting their freedom and independence."

If that is so, then why does he refuse to negotiate with Israel? If that is so, why does he consistently refuse to compromise on any major issues? If his people are so eager to have a state, then why not accept one of the many that Israel has already offered?

He said, "Our choice is peace, and we continue to strive to achieve this with Israel through negotiations."

Then why did he leave the negotiating table? why did he refuse to negotiate during Israel's ill-advised "settlement freeze"?

He said, "We are involved in the path of building our institutions and the development of our economy."

If so, then why is the Palestinian Arab economy still so dependent on outside aid? Why is paying the families of terrorists, and salaries to the terrorists themselves in prison, a higher priority than paying his own employees?

He said, "We will make every effort possible to reach the unity of our people and end the suffering of our people in Gaza Strip."

If so, then why has he not made any move to re-assert the PA's authority in Gaza? Why has he not yet visited the area? Why is he accepting Hamas' de facto rule?

And why aren't any Norwegian reporters or politicians asking these questions to him?

Leftist magazine: Palestinian Arabs forced to buy Chanukah candy!

Noam Sheizaf, a writer for the leftist 972 Magazine, takes a humorous post of mine way too seriously - and makes an idiot of himself in the process.

I noted that a new, beautiful supermarket in Gaza was selling Israeli items, and said jokingly that the flotilla passengers who might make it to Gaza will be forced to picket that store for not adhering to BDS.

Sheizaf is upset:

Back to planet Earth: Israel controls the economy of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel decides what goods are let in and out, just as it has most of the control over electric power and water in the territories. This is called “the occupation,” something that EOZ and the likes of him have yet to hear about.

He then goes off on an irrelevant tangent about how evil Israeli companies profiteered off of the closure two years ago, before Israel eased the sanctions and allowed all of the products I noted in my piece.

And he concludes:

The BDS call, which EOZ referred to, is a Palestinian request of solidarity from the international community. Palestinians are forced to buy Israeli goods – just as they are forced to work for Israelis in order to survive – but they ask others, who do have a choice, to avoid that.

If I would have highlighted Israeli flour, or cooking oil, or candles, perhaps Sheizaf would have a point.

But let's look at his thesis: that ordinary Palestinian Arabs are the ones who are pushing the boycott of Israeli goods.

If that is true, wouldn't one expect to see a certain reluctance about selling Israeli goods in their supermarkets? Wouldn't one expect that only Israeli staples would be sold, but unnecessary snack items would be eschewed? Wouldn't one expect that outraged Palestinian Arabs would insist that non-essential items be - boycotted?

Yet in this Gaza supermarket, goods from Osem (for example) are not only sold - but the Hebrew logo is prominently displayed! It is almost as if the shopkeepers want to sell Israeli items to their poor, deprived Gaza customers!

The Israeli ice cream is not hidden by the embarrassed store owners in the back of the store. On the contrary, even the Hebrew display graphics are prominently featured:

And, yes, the Chanukah chocolate coins - complete with a menorah prominently stamped - are not being burned in a bonfire at a Gaza square, but are being sold to unsuspecting Arab victims of Israeli hegemony!

There are also pictures that indicate that both Israeli and Arab goods are being sold, side by side - detergents and chocolate bars. But I thought that there was no choice!

So where is the reluctance to buy Israeli products by Gazans - and, indeed, Palestinian Arabs altogether? Where is the shame that we would expect to be seeing? Why are the store-owners buying non-essential goods from Israel for their customers, and why are their customers not starting outraged Facebook pages complaining about it?

Is it possible that Sheizaf's thesis is entirely wrong?

In fact, ordinary Palestinian Arabs have no problem buying Israeli goods. The only ones pushing BDS are the so-called "civil society" - and they do not represent nearly as many people as they claim to. When Mahmoud Abbas made a big deal insisting that Palestinian Arabs boycott products by and stores run by Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, he was ignored - and forced to use thuggish methods to try to enforce his rule.

Ordinary Palestinian Arabs just want to live their lives. They want to buy whatever goods they can, getting the best value for the price. They are normal people who don't obsess over politics the way Sheizaf's friends do. Despite decades of incitement, they are not nearly as ideological or as filled with hate towards Israel as Sheizaf pretends they are. The ones who know history probably regard the boycott against Middle East Jews the same way their grandparents did in 1946 - a political power play by so-called "leaders" who are willing to use the people as pawns to make imaginary gains.

Which is, in the end, what BDS is: a modern implementation of using Palestinian Arabs as pawns by people who really hate Israel and Jews.

BDS is not pushed by ordinary Palestinian Arabs, but by Noam Sheizaf's latte-sipping Western friends. The outrage over Israeli products is not centered in Ramallah or Gaza City but in London and Brisbane. If ordinary Palestinian Arabs hated buying Israeli goods, they would be minimizing those purchases; and they would be notably ashamed at the goods they are forced to buy.

Yet they aren't.

So maybe Sheizaf's thesis fits in well with the BDS crowd he hangs out with, but the facts don't support it.

Protest over Muslim prayer in Toronto public school

From the Toronto Sun:

Muslim prayers have no place in a public school.

That's the message the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and the Christian Heritage Party are sending the Toronto District School Board as they prepare to stage a picket outside the board's head office next week.

"Enough's enough, we draw the line here," said G.J. Rancourt of CHP London during a press conference on Monday at the Toronto Zionist Centre. "Our holiest celebration is Christmas and we can no longer celebrate it in public schools. We don't want to make people feel uncomfortable but we don't want you to forget who we are. Why would (Muslims) impose your values on the rest of us when we're accommodating?"

And exactly what happens during these prayer sessions?

Local imams are brought in to lead a 40-minute service with about 400 students in which the boys sit in front of girls in the lunch room. Girls who are said to be menstruating are told to sit at the very back.

Non-Muslims are banned from the room during prayers.

Some reports say that menstruating girls cannot attend the services altogether.

The 40 minute prayer session occurs every Friday.

The student population of the school is said to be 80-90% Muslim.

The school justifies the policy by saying that otherwise the students walk to a nearby mosque during school hours.

It looks pretty clear that this violates Canadian law. Yet this practice has been happening for about three years!

Israeli navy takes over French provocateur yacht (updated x2)

Latest from JPost:

The Israel Navy commandeered and intercepted the Gaza-bound French ship Dignity - Al-Karama after negotiations to persuade pro-Palestinian activists aboard to divert their course away from the Strip's closed naval blockade failed.

IDF soldiers did not encounter any resistance during the interception.

Reports say that it is headed to Ashdod.

Earlier JPost:

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered the Israel Navy to commandeer and intercept the Gaza-bound French ship Dignity - Al-Karama on Tuesday after negotiation efforts to persuade the yacht to revert its course failed.

The navy warned pro-Palestinian activists aboard the vessel that soldiers are preparing to board the yacht after making initial radio contact with the crew. The navy instructed the crew not to enter the closed naval blockade of the Strip, the IDF Spokesperson said in a statement.

"We are getting ready to board the ship, we'll do it calmly," an official aboard the navy boat's told the captain of the Dignity.

Activists were offered the legal alternative of reaching Gaza through land crossings, the IDF added.

Three navy ships were on the yacht's left side and another on the right side, activists reported.

Communication from the boat was cut a couple of hours ago, so there are few tweets from the floaters.

Here is IDF video of communications with the boat:

UPDATE: From the IDF:

In accordance with government directives, after all diplomatic channels had been exhausted and continuous calls to the vessel had been ignored, IDF Navy soldiers boarded the Al-Karamein an effort to stop it from breaking the maritime security blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Upon expressing their unwillingness to arrive at the Ashdod port, it was unequivocally necessary to board the vessel and lead it to Ashdod.

The soldiers operated in line with procedures and took every precaution necessary while using all operational tactics determined prior to the operation, and avoid causing harm to the activists on-board while ensuring the safety of the soldiers. Following the boarding, the passengers’ health was examined and they were offered food and beverages.

Upon the arrival of the vessel at the Ashdod port, the relevant security authorities and the Israel Police will begin the process of questioning the passengers, who will then be transferred to the Ministry of Interior and the Immigration authorities.

Any organization or country wishing to transfer supplies to the Gaza Strip can do so through the existing channels at any time via the established land crossings by coordinating with the relevant authorities.

The provocative political yacht is headed towards Gaza

From Reuters/JPost:

A French yacht carrying pro-Palestinian activists sailed for the Gaza Strip on Monday after other ships in a flotilla that had planned to challenge Israel's blockade were prevented from leaving Greece, organizers said.

The 17-passenger "Dignite-Al Karama", having declared an Egyptian port as its official destination, left Greek waters on Sunday and was on course to reach the Palestinian enclave by Tuesday, according to a statement issued by French campaigners aligned with the umbrella Free Gaza Movement.

"It is now the voice of the whole Freedom Flotilla, as all its (other) ships were forbidden to sail by the Greek government thereby fulfilling a clear demand by the Israeli government," the statement said.

Passenger Dror Feiler said the yacht planned to dock in Gaza at around noon on Tuesday. "We don't want to sail at night," he told Reuters via satellite telephone.

"If this boat is on its way to Gaza, which is a breach of international maritime law, and it is trying a provocative act, we will intercept it," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told foreign journalists in Jerusalem.

"But I assure you that we will try our best to make all those on board very comfortable."

I think it is very possible that they will try to dock tonight, not tomorrow.

For one thing, they already established themselves as liars. They declared to the Greek authorities that they were going to Alexandria and not Gaza - so why should anyone believe their reported schedule of arriving in mid-day tomorrow?

Moreover, they want to make and post YouTube videos that look as chaotic and violent as possible as the Israeli navy intercepts them, and night time adds that extra dimension of perceived danger - spotlights, flares, disembodied voices on loudspeakers, shaky hand-held shots. They'll probably add some screams and other nice acting for effect.

Also, the Free Gaza posting says "In a few hours, the Dignite - Al Karama will approach Gazan waters."

It will be a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Remember the "Irene" boat that approached Gaza last year and was peacefully intercepted? Neither does anyone else.