Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

"Most Palestinian Arabs support a two-state solution" is a lie

While this is not the point of his article, Hussein Ibish writes in Open Zion:

[S]upport for a two state solution also represents, according to almost every existing poll, the Palestinian majority position, as well as that of the Palestine Liberation Organization (universally recognized as “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.)

He's technically right, and he is very, very wrong.

When polls ask Palestinian Arabs is they support a two-state solution, indeed most answer yes.

However, when one pollster last year went a bit further and asked another question, it showed that the real answer is not "yes" but "as a means to destroy Israel."

The Israel Project commissioned a poll last year in the territories conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and asked which of these two statements more closely matched the opinions of those being polled:

	The best goal is for a two-state solution that keeps two states living side by side.	The real goal should be to start with two states but then move to it all being one Palestinian state
Strongly agree	12%	22%
Somewhat agree	13%	30%
Total	25%	52%
Total for those who responded	32%	68%

In case you think that this question was too vague or unclear, here's one that leave little doubt of what Palestinian Arab intentions are:

	Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people.	Over time Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state
Strongly agree	4%	27%
Somewhat agree	4%	57%
Total	8%	84%
Total for those who responded	9%	91%

This poll proved that a large majority of Palestinian Arabs do not believe in the "two state solution" in the way that most Westerners (and probably Ibish) do. They want to have a state now as a means to destroy Israel.

This poll was ignored by the mainstream media.

This fact is simply too inconvenient for wishful thinkers to accept. It causes massive cognitive dissonance in the "peace camp." It is exactly the opposite from what we have been told over and over again by politicians and pundits. So they ignore it.

But that is the truth, and any sober analysis of how peace is possible must take these facts in mind.

The PLO and PA also appear to share the goal of destroying Israel as we saw only this week.

Whenever people claim that the majority of Palestinians want a peaceful solution, they are either ignorant or lying.

I'm not sure which category describes Ibish.

Germwashing! (Israelis saving the world, again)

From Times of Israel:

Consumers in the U.S. and Europe could soon benefit from the fruits of an Israeli technology that can prevent microbacterial infestation of foods and beverages. Ness Ziona-based Oplon has signed an agreement with a large multinational food manufacturer for the development of packaging materials based on Oplon’s technology. The 3-year deal is worth $8 million, not including royalties that may accrue based on the products developed, the company said.

Oplon specializes in the development of materials that ward off the growth of bacteria on surfaces. The coatings use a special set of molecules that create an electrical charge, zapping bacteria. According to Oplon, the packaging can keep food germ-free for days — and even weeks — without refrigeration or preservatives. An open container of milk, the company says, will keep for 30 days without refrigeration, with regular pasteurized milk capable of having the shelf life and attributes of UHT milk. Water stored in Oplon containers will be disinfected, even if it is drawn from contaminated sources.

Oh, it disinfects water? It might just happen to save thousands of lives for people who do not have reliable access to clean water, especially after natural disasters?

It gets better:

Besides food storage, Oplon is developing its materials for medical use. Patches, catheters and tubes made out of Oplon-developed material have the potential to significantly reduce infections in hospitals, and they are able to act effectively even against highly resistant strains of bacteria, like MRSA. Applied to agriculture, Oplon materials can be used to prevent rot in seeds or crops, and prevent the spread of disease in fields. Oplon has even developed a treatment for acne, which, when applied, kills the germs that cause pimples and rejuvenates the skin – showing results within hours, the company says.

It's merely a cheap, generalized way to destroy all bacteria. That's sort of huge. But of course Israeli researchers spend their lives working on these types of things in order to distract the world from their crimes, you know, by building houses on empty land and targeting people who are trying to kill them, which are of course grave violations of international law.

This is nothing but germwashing.

(h/t Mike)

Abbas may lose his citizenship. His Jordanian citizenship.

From JPost:

In a surprise move, Jordan has decided to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinian Authority and PLO officials, sources in Amman disclosed Wednesday.

The sources said that the decision would also affect the leaders of the PA, who would be granted temporary Jordanian passports to facilitate their travel.

The move coincides with a new electoral law in Jordan that seeks to limit Palestinian representation in parliament.

The latest steps are seen in the context of Jordan's 1988 decision to sever all legal and administrative ties with the West Bank, except for Jordanian sponsorship of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

The late King Hussein then justified the move by arguing that it was intended to help the Palestinians establish their own independent state.

The Jordanians have defended the decision to strip Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship by explaining that it is aimed at "preserving the Palestinians' national identity and paving the way for their return to Palestine."

It's not known at this stage if PA President Mahmoud Abbas would be stripped of his Jordanian citizenship, the sources told the Saudi newspaper Al-Madina.

In 1988, all Palestinian Arabs who lived in the west bank of the Jordan lost their citizenship. I don't know if PLO officials were granted exceptions at that time, but last year there were reports that Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Fatah officials were granted Jordanian nationality.

In other words, they say publicly that they support keeping Palestinian Arabs stateless - for their own good, of course - but in private they held on to their Jordanian citizenship for dear life.

(h/t Josh)

UPDATE: Jordan denies the story (h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Mid-day open thread

Taking a short break from bloggong while I eat a surprisingly good deli sandwich at Mr Broadway in Manhattan. Making edible bread on Passover is always an achievement.
Feel free to rant in the comments.

Arabs claim Israel demolished Izz ad-Din al-Qassam's grave

Arabic media are claiming:

Zionist bulldozers demolished the tomb of the martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam in Haifa, in a move that comes as part of a series of ongoing attacks on Islamic and Arabic holy places and symbols.

They claim that the destruction was done in order to put in a train line, and that this isn't the first time the tomb was demolished.

The Syrian-born al-Qassam was one of the earliest Palestinian Arab terrorists, who was killed by the British in 1935. Hamas named its military wing and Qassam rockets after him. His tomb was a place of pilgrimage for terror-supporting Arabs and Muslims.

I have no idea if there is any truth to this story, but it sounds bogus. I couldn't find any mention of it in Hebrew media.

Not that I would lose any sleep if it was true.

Arab boycott of Adidas hits some snags

From AFP last week:

Arab youth and sports ministers on Wednesday announced their boycott of sports apparel manufacturer Adidas over the company's sponsorship of last month's Jerusalem marathon.

"All companies that have sponsored the marathon of Jerusalem, including Adidas, will be boycotted," said Saudi Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, chairman of the Arab youth and sports council of ministers, after a meeting in Jeddah.

But it appears that such a boycott is easier said than done.

Does this mean "ban the Adidas ban"?
And is it smart to burn clothing on carpeting?

Adidas provides 17 million euros worth of sports apparel to Egypt's national teams, and it is not so easy to find an immediate replacement for that. The Egyptian sports federation signed a contract with Adidas that cannot discarded so quickly; they have to write a formal letter. Beyond that, they have their own cash crunch, and throwing away 17 million euros is not something they are thrilled with, especially if they have to spend public funds. The federation plans to launch a new process for other sports apparel companies to bid for the honor of giving Egyptian teams free clothing.

An Egyptian national football team also said that they cannot get non-Adidas clothing in time for their upcoming matches. They said that they used to use Puma clothing and were ridiculed about how unprofessional they looked, so now they must use Adidas clothing to regain their reputation.

Muslims claim to have stopped Jews from praying on Temple Mount

The Al Aqsa Foundation reports that a fight broke out as vigilant Muslim guards on the Temple Mount physically stopped Jews from "performing Talmudic rituals" there, as the guards were doing their holy duty of ensuring that only pure Islamic prayers emanate from Judaism's holiest site.

Arutz-7 reports it a little differently:

A Jewish man has been arrested on the Temple Mount on suspicion of attacking a Muslim man at the site, according to the Honenu legal rights group.

The man says he did not attack the Muslim man, but rather was the victim of an unprovoked attack. The man was visiting the Mount with friends in honor of Passover when, he says, the Muslim man approached the group and began insulting them, and then physically attacking.

Police refused to arrest the Muslim man despite testimony from the Jewish group that he had been the one attacking.

Notably, the supposedly secular and independent Ma'an News Agency in Arabic reports on the incident in the same terms used by the extremist Muslims: they say that "Jewish settlers" were "storming" the site to perform "Talmudic" rituals when the altercation broke out.

Ma'an illustrates the story with another shocking image of Jews desecrating the courtyard. Makes your blood boil, doesn't it?

Saudi woman sentenced to 50 lashes for cursing

From Bikya Masr:

A Saudi court sentenced a local woman to 50 lashes for swearing at her friend, following an argument, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The two Saudi women, aged 33 and 31 years, had decided to go out with their children for a weekend night but differed on where to go.

“An argument ensued and the two women decided to split … one of them later sent a text to her friend’s mobile phone swearing at her,” the Arabic language quotidian Kabar reported.

“The other woman went to court and showed the judge the message … although that woman said she was joking, the court ordered her lashed 50 times.”

Kabar said the court has given the convicted and sentenced woman the right to appeal.

Just an everyday human rights travesty in Saudi Arabia. Nothing to get excited about. After all, we all know that sharia law is just as humane as any other, and poses no danger to anyone.

Surprise! Syria seems to have no cease-fire intentions

From Al Arabiya:

Global leaders on Tuesday accused Syria of failing to begin implementing a ceasefire deal as regime forces pounded protest hubs on the deadline day, with 28 civilians among more than 50 people killed.

The U.N. Security Council called on President Bashar al-Assad to keep a Thursday deadline for a complete ceasefire in the Syria conflict, after his forces and heavy weapons did not pull back from key cities in the crackdown.

Syria said it was abiding by the deal, but U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan accused it of pulling troops from some areas and moving them elsewhere.

Annan insisted the deal was not in tatters, however.

“The plan has not been implemented according to the schedule that we laid out... but it does not mean that it cannot be implemented.”

In a letter to the Security Council, he said “the days before April 10 could have been an opportunity for the government of Syria to send a powerful political signal of peace. In the last five days it has become clear that such a signal has yet to be issued.”

Annan said Damascus should have taken steps “to cease troop movements towards population centers, to cease all use of heavy weapons in such centers, and to begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centers.”

This had not happened, Annan said.

Fifty-two people, including 28 civilians, were killed on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They included 19 members of the security forces and five rebels, bringing the toll since the weekend to at least 337.

But Annan still thinks that Syria might come around.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said the situation in Syria should be “much improved” by a Thursday deadline if both sides in the conflict respect his peace plan.

Annan, speaking at a news conference in Tehran on Wednesday, said: “If everyone respects [it], I think by six o’clock in the morning on Thursday the 12th, we a should see a much improved situation on the ground.”

He also said the government in Damascus had given “further clarifications” on how it would implement its side of the plan.

Meanwhile, for the second time this week, Syria fired across the border towards a Turkish refugee camp:

Shots fired by Syrian forces early Wednesday hit a Syrian refugee camp just across the border with Turkey, Turkish media reported.

News channel CNN-Turk showed images of automatic rifle fire towards Turkish territory from a border surveillance building flying the Syrian flag near Kilis in southeastern Turkey.

Several television stations reported that troops had fired at Syrians trying to cross no man’s land on the frontier to seek refuge in Turkey from the violence rocking Syria.

Bullets hit a nearby camp of prefabricated buildings without wounding anyone but causing panic among the refugee population.

On Monday, shooting from the Syrian side of the border wounded four Syrians and two Turks on Turkish soil.

“It was a very clear violation of the border,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Beijing. “Obviously we will take the necessary measures,” he was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anatolia.

Turkey, a one-time ally of the Syrian regime but now one of its strongest critics, is home to around 25,000 Syrians in several camps set up in three provinces.

Meanwhile, a columnist in Now Lebanon compares the daily death tolls from Syria today with the total of Deir Yassin 64 years ago. Yet instead of noting that this must mean that Syria is hundreds of times worse than Israel by any measure, he merely says that Syrians are "emulating" Zionists, who by definition must be the standard-bearers for killing Arabs. This is even though the number of Arabs killed by Israel since 1948 is infinitesimal compared to the numbers killed by other Arabs. Even the number of Palestinian Arabs killed by Israel since 1948, total, is far less than the number of PalArabs killed by Arabs in that same time period.

MJ Rosenberg is spitting mad - over kosher food at the White House

MJ Rosenberg, the nutty-leftist writer who was recently forced out at Media Matters, now has a blog where he doesn't even bother to self-censor his hate.

For reasons only known to him, he decided that when the White House made one of its many kitchens kosher for the annual Chanukah celebration last year, it was doing it only to pander to American Jewish voters. And he finds the very idea of a kosher White House kitchen to be offensive.

Here's some of his sputtering:

The most ridiculous (and insulting) White House pander came at Hanukkah. This article from the New York Times about how the White House was made kosher for one event has to be read to be believed. Here is an excerpt, enough to cause James Madison to commit suicide if he wasn’t dead.

Into the kitchen rushes a Lubavitch SWAT team of three rabbis and an intern. Three men, wearing aprons and industrial-strength rubber gloves, take on the ovens and burners. The fourth, in a suit and a black hat, is Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of the American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). He is the supervisor-in-chief.

He takes a long look around. He frowns.

“Who opened the brazier?” he asks, referring to the lidded counter-high vat, like a giant stainless steel pot, used for searing, reducing stock and braising meats. “The rabbi?” he asks, pointing to a colleague.

“No,” replies Chef Tommy, as his staff calls him.

“You’re kidding me,” Rabbi Shemtov says.

They huddle by the brazier. Rabbi Shemtov issues orders. The rabbis spring into action....
Absurd, offensive and utterly unnecessary. The percentage of Jews who require that level of “koshering” is infinitesimal and probably not 5 of them would be eating at the White House that night. Surely, they would not have minded eating a nice packaged kosher meal prepared specially for them rather than put the White House out like that.

But, of course, the White House didn’t do it for them. It did it to impress the same imaginary Jews who will decide who to support for president based on such nonsense. My guess is that the number of people who fall into that category is zero.

Spending God knows (!) how much to sterilize the White House is silly and offensive but it does no harm.

Indeed, I am also certain that not a single Jew will vote for Obama based on the kashering of the White House kitchen. In fact, I believe that the Obama campaign knows this as well.

So if everyone knows that it wasn't done to gain any Jewish votes, then Rosenberg's thesis is completely wrong. He just finds the idea "offensive" so he created a fantasy for why it was done.

Is there an alternative reason for the White House to go to such lengths? Of course there is. It is called hospitality. If a Jewish function is being done at one of the most prestigious addresses in the world, the hosts will naturally do everything they can to make it as inclusive as possible. Not that the guests demanded it - no doubt they would have been quite happy with a packaged meal, as Rosenberg says - but it is something that a thoughtful host, with the resources to do so, will automatically want to do. (I would venture to guess that the Chabad rabbi did it for free, by the way. What rabbi wouldn't jump at the opportunity to do something like that?)

There is also another likely historical reason why only kosher food was served to everyone. The first completely kosher White House Chanukah dinner came in 2005 in the Bush administration, after kosher and non-kosher food was accidentally mixed up at 2004's dinner. By choosing to make it all-kosher, the White House is indeed going above and beyond, but it is also ensuring that every guest can feel comfortable.

The menu, for those interested, can be seen here. It included Roulade of Chicken Breast, Pine Nut Herb Crusted Lamb Chops, Homemade Potato with Scallion Pancakes, Dill and Vodka Scottish Smoked Salmon and Homemade Soufganyot. I don't think that the guests who don't keep kosher felt at all slighted at not being served normal White House fare.

At any rate, the Bush and Obama administrations very thoughtfully decided to create an atmosphere of inclusiveness at their Chanukah parties, where no one feels uncomfortable opening up a double-wrapped package of kosher food and leaving aluminum foil all over the table, struggling with plastic silverware to cut overdone beef, while everyone else is eating a gourmet meal. It is an act of kindness, not of politics.

It takes a very special kind of self-hating Jew to consider White House kindness to be "offensive" when the recipients are Jews. (Do you think he is upset that the annual White House Iftar dinners are Halal?)

But that self-hate is par for the course for MJ.

Links and stuff

I put up a blog entry at The Times of Israel with the full 1958 Mike Wallace interview of Abba Eban and the full transcript.

If you want to see the difference between real scholarship and a transparent attempt to cover up a lie, see CAMERA.

I noted that the St Helena Chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was banning Egyptian Copts from visiting. Even after that was known, however, more planeloads of Copts came to visit Jerusalem from Egypt.

She's just like Oprah! Just she's a murderer of children.

Yaacov Lozowick made a brief re-entry into the blogging world and then exited again, but you would be remiss not to read what he has to say - including about one of the more notorious "mainstream" anti-semitic websites.

Daniel Pipes on Israeli Arabs, living a paradox.

Where's the outrage over Palestinian censorship?

The Daily Show says that Easter beats Passover hands down.

The Daily Show
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And I'm wondering what I am doing at work on a nice day in the middle of chol ha-mo'ed. I think it is time to play some hooky.

(h/t Ian, zozosophie, Yerushalimey)

Latin Americans celebrating Easter with "The Burning of the Jews" (update)

From The Times of Israel:

The world is full of charming Easter traditions, but this isn’t one of them.

A newspaper in Mexico is detailing Sunday’s “burning of the Jews,” an annual tradition in Coita, a small town in the state of Chiapas [Mexico.] As part of the custom, locals spend the middle of their Holy Week making Jewish effigies — a reference to Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus before his crucifixion.

The fake Jews are then displayed for three days in different parts of the town, serving as an example of poor conduct.

They’re ultimately paraded through the streets on Easter Sunday, with local children assigned to stand in front of them and collect money for flammable materials.

The article notes that the tradition differs in Coita, where locals set fire to the effigies on Easter itself, rather than the day before, as in other towns. The burning is followed by a dance, where locals eat a corn treat made with cocoa. The article says the custom “strengthens” the culture of the Zoque, an indigenous people in southern Mexico who were converted to Catholicism.

The ceremony seems to echo, to some extent, the “Running of the Jew” event depicted in Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 movie “Borat” — a work of fiction.

The Chiapas Herald takes an uncritical view of the ritual, reporting that it “fosters unity and respect” and “purifies the soul.”

This is not isolated to only Coita or even Mexico.

I see it mentioned as also occurring annually in Quidbo, Colombia.

Ecuador had a similar time-honored tradition, but this webpage laments that "The [Burning of the Jews] in Guayaquil continued well into the twentieth century until the practice of burning stopped because of European migration, which did not properly appreciate this show of our religious folklore."

Burning crosses is also a treasured piece of folksy tradition, isn't it?

UPDATE: a number of people point put that these really seem to be The Burning of Judas.

Pat Condell on Israel and the UN

Great stuff:

(h/t Geoffff)

Jews "storm" another holy site

From Palestine News Network:

Under the protection of the Israeli Occupying Force, on Monday 10,000 Jewish Zionists congregated at Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron (al Khalil) to celebrate Jewish passover.

The settlers stormed the mosque after the turned up in many buses, coming from nearby settlements and occupied Jerusalem.

According to sources, due to candles being used in the performance of the Talmudic rituals a small fire broke out causing no harm or damage to the mosque.

Ibrahimi mosque, which is considered as one of the most sacred important sites in Islam, was closed for two days by the occupying forces, in order for the Jewish settlers to celebrate Passover. Additionally they closed the streets leading to the mosque and the areas of Tariq ibn Ziyad and Sahla....Israeli's have claimed at least 60% of the mosque.

Look at those Jews, storming a Muslim holy site and forcing the poor Muslims to suffer!

What the article fails to mention is that for most of the year the Ma'arat HaMachpela is divided; 81% of the building is used by the Islamic Waqf and only 19% by the Jews. For ten days a year Jews are given full access, including part of Passover, and for ten days a year Muslims are given full access. This was all part of the signed agreements between Israel and the PLO.

Before 1929, and between 1948-1967, Jews weren't allowed in the building at all. And even after 1967 there were attacks on Jewish worshipers there, including a grenade attack in 1968 and a massacre of Jews in 1980. Jews are not even allowed to do basic repairs to the site, and recently a tent that protected parts of the "Jewish" section from snow and heat fell apart.

But you won't find out about any of that by reading the mainstream media nor (of course) the Palestinian Arab press.

Fatah and Hamas agree - the goal is to destroy Israel

From Palestinian Media Watch:

A Palestinian Authority minister stated last month that the Palestinians should unite in order to focus on the destruction of Israel.

At an event with the participation of three PA ministers, Minister of Social Affairs Majida Al-Masri called for Palestinian unity and reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas in order "to turn to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine - all of Palestine.'"

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that when the Palestinian Authority uses the expression "all of Palestine," they include all of Israel.

The following is the report on the event in the official PA daily:

"The women of Palestine marked March 8 with a central rally, attended by a group of released female prisoners from the various districts of the West Bank. Participating in the events were Minister for Women's Affairs, Rabiha Dhiab; Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake; Minister of Social Affairs, Majida Al-Masri... and representatives from the territories occupied in 1948 (e.g., Palestinian euphemism for "Israel")...

Al-Masri sharply condemned the Israel Prison Services for its violations against the [hunger striking] prisoner Shalabi... We demand of everyone to push ahead with reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas] and to end the state of division, so that we will be able to stand against the occupation, to halt its activities against our prisoners, and to turn to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine - all of Palestine.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 9, 2012]

Which makes Fatah just about as explicit as Hamas in their desire to destroy Israel.

On Saturday, First Deputy Chairman of the [Hamas] Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmad Bahr spoke to a group of internationals who had arrived one of those "Miles of Smiles" convoys that inexplicably manage to easily break the supposed Israeli siege of Gaza every couple of months. He cheerfully told these smiling "human rights activists" that "the Palestinian people will not give up its rights and will continue its resistance and jihad until the liberation of all Palestine."

Of course, none of these peaceful British or South Africans in the audience objected to Hamas' stated goal of a jihad to destroy the Jewish state. None stood up and said that they supported a two-state solution. None came home and wrote an anguished op-ed about how they didn't realize that Hamas really wants to violently replace a democratic state with another Islamist state.

Iran claims to have busted Israeli spy ring

From Reuters:

Iran said on Tuesday it had identified a "major terrorist group" it said was affiliated to its arch-foe Israel and had arrested some of its members, the official IRNA news agency reported, citing a report by the country's Intelligence Ministry.

"Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced it has identified a major terrorist group from the Zionist regime (of Israel) and has arrested some of its protected operational members inside the country," IRNA reported without making clear when the arrests had taken place.

The semi-official Fars news agency said the suspects were arrested "while preparing to carry out terrorist acts", adding that a considerable number of bombs, machine guns, military and communication equipments were seized.

Fars cited the Intelligence Ministry's statement as saying that further information would be announced later.

It seems more likely that they rounded up some dissidents, maybe from MEK, and want to call them Zionists.

Jordan wants to keep Palestinian Syrian refugees out

Al Arab al Yawm reports that Jordan is considering a "buffer zone" for Palestinian Syrians between Jordan and Syria, so as not to accept them into Jordan proper. This buffer zone would be under UN supervision, and it would be used only for Palestinian Arab refugees from Syria.

Jordan has already taken in some 95,000 Syrian refugees into Jordan proper. But it wants to treat the Palestinian Arabs differently.

Jordan's model is, in fact, Syria. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Syria did not accept Palestinian refugees fleeing for their lives from Iraq while allowing hundreds of thousands of other Iraqi refugees to enter Syria. In that case, also, a no-mans land was created between Syria and Iraq where the Palestinians - and only Palestinians - were left to fend for themselves, until UNHCR managed to find countries willing to accept them. This process that took years, and even so many Arabs - including Palestinian Arabs themselves - railed against the resettlement of these refugees.

There are an estimated 480,000 Palestinian Arabs in Syria. So far only a handful have sought refuge in Jordan but Jordan wants to keep them out of the country. They are saying that allowing the Palestinian Arabs to enter Jordan proper would set a "dangerous precedent" for Jordan.

Once upon a time, in the 1960s, Jordan claimed that all Palestinian Arabs were Jordanian and that there was no difference between Jordan and Palestine.

This discrimination against Palestinian Arabs is considered normal for Arab states, and no NGOs condemn this blatant disregard for human rights.

The hypocrisy is clear as day.

British artists attack attempt to ban Israeli theatre group

There has been pushback by British artists against the shameful attempt to ban Israel's national theater company from performing The Merchant of Venice.

Howard Jacobson, the Booker Prize-winning author, has accused leading actors and directors of “McCarthyism” in their attempt to block Israel’s national theatre company from performing in Britain.

The company, Habima, has been invited to stage a Hebrew version of The Merchant of Venice in London as part of the Globe theatre’s World Shakespeare Festival.

The invitation prompted an open letter of protest from 37 figures in the theatre world, including Emma Thompson, the actress, Mike Leigh, the director, and Mark Rylance, former artistic director of the Globe.

They claimed that Habima had a “shameful record” of performing in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. By inviting the company to attend, the letter said, the Globe was “complicit with human rights violations and the illegal colonisation of occupied land”.

Jacobson, the Jewish author who won the 2010 Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question, said artists should never be in favour of censorship.

He described the letter - published in The Guardian - as “Kafkaesque” in its reasoning. “But the laughter dies in our throats. With last week’s letter to the Guardian, Mccarthyism came to Britain,” Jacobson wrote in a Sunday newspaper.

Jacobson is the latest of several figures from the art world to denounce the letter. Steven Berkoff called it “dangerous rubbish” and Maureen Lipman urged the signatories to “have a debate like mature people” instead of calling for a ban, adding: “I don’t notice them trying to ban Israeli inventions which are changing the world.”

Jacobson's full letter is good:

If there is one justification for art – for its creation and its performance – it is that art proceeds from and addresses our unaligned humanity. Whoever would go to art with a mind already made up, on any subject, misses what art is for. So to censor it in the name of a political or religious conviction, no matter how sincerely held, is to tear out its very heart.

For artists themselves to do such a thing to art is not only treasonable; it is an act of self-harm. One could almost laugh about it, so Kafkaesque is the reasoning: The Merchant of Venice, acted in Hebrew, a troubling work of great moral complexity (and therefore one that we should welcome every new interpretation of), to be banned not by virtue of itself, but because of where the theatre company performing it had also performed.

But the laughter dies in our throats. With last week's letter to the Guardian, McCarthyism came to Britain. You could hear the minds of people in whom we vest our sense of creative freedom snapping shut. And now we might all be guilty by association: of being in the wrong place or talking to the wrong people or reading the wrong book. Thus does an idée fixe make dangerous fools of the best of us.

Howard Jacobson

Habima's defense of its performing in Ariel is, however, embarrassing. It could have said that it is against censorship and would perform anywhere in the world it wants, but instead its director is crying that Habima has no choice but to perform at such an odious venue as Ariel. Instead of standing up for the rights of artists to perform in places where people want to ban them, and having a consistent position about freedom of expression, its artistic director instead pleads that if they didn't perform there they would lose funding.

Ilan Ronen, Habima's artistic director, said his company was offended by the original letter. "It's a disgrace. We don't see ourselves as collaborators with the Israeli government over its West Bank policy. We don't remember artists boycotting other artists.

"They don't know the true facts about our theatre activity. Somehow, they have been manipulated, they are getting it wrong. It is important to emphasise, we express our political views in many of our projects. But like other theatre companies and dance companies in Israel, we are state-financed, and financially supported to perform all over the country. This is the law. We have no choice. We have to go, otherwise there is no financial support. It is not easy. We have to be pragmatic." Of the 1,500 performances given by the company every year, he said that about "four or five" were in the Ariel settlement in the West Bank. "It is a little bit out of proportion to represent us this way.

"We are supported by the state, but not representing it. We are completely independent, artistically and politically."

He said that company members who asked not to perform were not required to, and they were not pressured or demoted, rather they were protected and consciences were respected. "It is a difficult situation, not ideal," he said, declining to say how many of the company refused to work in the West Bank.

"Artists should create bridges where there is conflict; the issue of Israel and the Palestinians is an area in which European dialogue can be very helpful in creating a better atmosphere. To boycott us prevents any artistic dialogue."

Ronen had a chance to show a consistent position about art, and instead he caved to be more loved by the British haters. His answer, rather than being a call for the independence of art, instead lends more ammunition to Habima's critics.

(h/t Zvi)

Israelis saving the world, again

From the Vancouver Sun:

Early human test results suggest a vaccine can train cancer patients' bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells.

The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of cancers, eventually could provide an injection that would allow patients' immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer.

The first results of trials in people, at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, suggest the vaccine can reduce levels of disease. The human work is so preliminary it has yet to be published in a scientific journal.

The scientists behind the vaccine hope to conduct more extensive trials to prove it can be effective against a range of cancers. They believe it could be used to fight small tumours if they are detected early or to help prevent the return and spread of disease in patients who have undergone conventional treatment.

In the safety trial at Hadassah, 10 patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, received the vaccine. Seven have finished the treatment and the developer, drug company Vaxil Biotherapeutics, reported all had greater immunity against cancer cells compared with before they were given the vaccine. Vaxil added that three patients were free of detectable cancer following the treatment.

Cancer cells usually evade a patient's immune system because they are not recognized as a threat. While the immune system usually attacks foreign cells such as bacteria, tumours are formed of the patient's own cells that have malfunctioned.

Scientists have discovered that a molecule called MUC1, which is found on the surface of cancer cells, can be used to help the immune sys-tem detect tumours. The new vaccine, ImMucin, developed by Vaxil and researchers at Tel Aviv University, uses a section of the molecule to prime the immune system so it can identify and thus destroy cancer cells.

Vaxil suggested that if large-scale trials prove as successful, the vaccine could be available within six years.

Actually, I reported on this news last November.

Here's Vaxil's promotional video:

From Times of Israel:

Passover, for some, is all about the haroset. The chutney-like spread that memorializes the mortar that the ancient Israelites used to build the Egyptian pyramids can be made from apples, nuts and sweet wine, with a sprinkle of cinnamon, or in a more Sephardic fashion, from dates, raisins, banana and silan, with spices and a mixture of crushed nuts.

It appears that the ice cream producers at Ben & Jerry’s Israel are also haroset lovers, because they’ve created a flavor just for Passover, “Haroset and Nuts,” being sold only at the company’s ice cream stores in Beer Tuvia, Yavne and the Cinema City shops in Glilot and Rishon Lezion.

Made with real apple-based haroset and walnuts, it’s one of the eight flavors that were made kosher for Passover in Israel, including Vanilla, Strawberry, Banana Walnut, Coffee, Chocolate Walnut, Chocolate and Dulce de leche. All the flavors besides Haroset and Walnuts are available in supermarkets as well.

Sounds good!

Especially since I bought some kosher-for-Passover ice cream at Costco this year. Yecch.

Another Mike Wallace interview: Shah of Iran on the "Jewish lobby"

Here is a case where Mike Wallace's interview skills were used well:

Of course, in this case, the Shah was insulting Wallace and his profession.

From "Warcraft" to Iron Dome (Wired)

From Wired:

While many of the boys in Idan Yahya’s high school class were buffing up and preparing themselves for selection into elite combat units, this gawky teenager was spending “a lot of time” playing Warcraft — the real-time strategy computer game where opposing players command virtual armies in a battle to dominate the fictional world of Azeroth.

Four years later, the high school jocks who sweated it out in pre-military academies so they could make the cut into the Israel Defense Force’s Special Operations units are now crawling through the sand dunes on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip and watching while Idan knocks rockets out of the sky hundreds of meters above their heads. Idan Yahya, 22, an Iron Dome “gunner” in the Active Air Defense Wing 167, currently holds the record for the number of rockets intercepted: eight.

People in the army describe him variously as a geek and an ace. But the geek who grew up playingWarcraft is now a highly prized soldier on the cutting edge of real war craft. He’s the Israeli army’s top rocket interceptor.

The Iron Dome is a mobile anti-rocket interception system that Israel moves around the country to shoot down the rockets fired at its civilian population centers by armed groups in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Its radar picks up launches and fires interceptor missiles at them if they’re calculated to be heading towards populated centers. The system has become increasingly important as Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups amass surface-to-surface missiles to hit the Israeli home front with, thus bypassing the Israel Defense Force’s overwhelming advantage of concentrated firepower and fighter aircraft. Should Israel attack Iran’s nuclear installations, the expected rocket reprisals from the armed groups on its borders will keep Iron Dome very, very busy.

As the war between Israelis and Arabs enters its sixth decade (or its 500th depending on who you ask), it is increasingly becoming a hi-tech rocket war. The IDF’s Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi in February said there were 200,000 rockets aimed at Israel from the south, north and east. And in this increasingly technological battlefield of rockets, anti-rocket interceptors, radars, control rooms,drones and drone hacking, it is soldiers like Idan Yahya (and whoever his counterparts on the Arab side are) who are making the most impact.

Computer geek, keyboard combatant, soldier, call him what you will, Idan and others like him man the controls of the latest rock star in advanced military technology. “There are a lot of flashing blips, signs, symbols, colors and pictures on the screen. You look at your tactical map; see where the threat is coming from. You have to make sure you’re locked onto the right target. There’s a lot of information and there is very little time. It definitely reminds me of Warcraft and other online strategy games,” Idan says.

Based on information from the Iron Dome’s radar about the incoming rocket’s current and projected trajectory, the processors at the BMC (Better Management Command) calculate its Ground Impact Point whether it’s going to fall into an open field or an apartment building – and based on that decides whether to shoot it down or leave it alone. The incoming missile is not a static object that’s being fired at, so the interceptor missile is constantly provided with updated trajectory information.The young soldier has at his console a machine of vast computing power and aerial TNT. Each Iron Dome battery is manned by a crew of 100 soldiers, including perimeter guards, working in shifts, and the entire system is connected to the larger Israeli multi-tiered air defense order of battle. The unit is a mobile battlefield installation that meshes radar information from a mini multi-mission and fire control radar, powerful networks and processors, launchers, GPS-guided rockets, and human operators pushing the buttons and making the decisions. It is the first system of its kind that is designed specifically to detect the launch and trajectory of short-range rockets, and intercept them in flight if they’re deemed to be headed for a populated area.

The Iron Dome’s ‘brain’ then, and what makes it such a successful system is its powerful ‘trajectory prediction mechanism,’ which assesses where along the trajectory the intercept point is going to be. “When I shoot one down, I feel happy, satisfied. I try disconnect from my feelings when I’m at the controls though,” Idan says.

Read the whole thing.

Gaza "siege" update

Israel continues to send fuel to Gaza's power plant, easing the crisis there that came about because Hamas didn't want Israel to send fuel to Gaza's power plant:

Yesterday 537 thousand liters of diesel, 80 thousand liters of gasoline and about 210 tons of [cooking] gas were transferred to the power station in Gaza through the Kerem Shalom [crossing] and today (04.09.12) a similar amount is expected to be transferred.

This is in addition to the 430,000 liters sent last week.

Moreover:

Four transformers were brought in order to improve the activity and electricity generation capacity at the station and are a part of an extensive project for upgrading the power supply capacity of the power plant from 80 megawatts that it can provide today to 120 MW, in two months (with final placement of the new transformers).

And:

During the first quarter of 2012, 639 tons of strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and flowers were exported [from Gaza.]

The Hamas Haggadah (courtesy of JVP)

The Jewish Voice for Peace "Haggadah" could have easily been written by Hamas in its attempt to portray Jews as the evil protagonists.

It starts off by ensuring that the reader does not mix up ancient Egypt with modern Egypt - we wouldn't want hate crimes, after all - and also not to confuse the Children of Israel with the State of Israel, which is a terrible entity:

In the wake of the revolutions throughout the Arab World, and particularly in Egypt, we want to acknowledge the distinction between “mitzrayim” — the narrow place, where the story we tell at Passover takes place — and Egypt, the modern-day nation state. We are not conflating contemporary Egyptians with the pharaoh and taskmasters that appear in the Passover story. In the U.S., and worldwide, anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia saturate our media and our culture, and we must be vigilant to oppose it and interrupt it at every turn.

The word Yisrael (Israel) when found in the liturgy (religious text) does not refer to the modern nation/state of Israel, rather it derives from the blessing given to Ya’akov (Jacob) by a stranger with whom he wrestles all night. When the stranger is finally pinned, Ya’akov asks him for a blessing. The stranger says,“Your name will no longer be Ya’akov but Yisrael
for you have wrestled with G-d and triumphed.” Therefore when we say “Yisrael” in prayer we are referring to being G-d-wrestlers, not Israelis.

Once we got that out of the way, it is time to look at the overcrowded Seder plat, which includes:

Olive – Symbolizing the self-determination of the Palestinian people and an invitation to Jewish communities to become allies to Palestinian liberation struggles.

When breaking the middle matzah, we must of course say that Israel should be overrun with Arabs.

As we break the middle matzah we acknowledge the break that occurred in Palestinian life and culture with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 when hundreds of villages were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. This damage cannot be undone — but repair and return are possible.

A new set of four questions must be asked, including this one:

How will we, as Jews, bear witness to the unjust actions committed in our name?

The actual Passover story is long and noring, so we will skip over that, except for the Ten Plagues, because we want to remember the suffering of the Egyptians:

Our freedom was bought with the suffering of others. As we packed our bags that last night in Egypt, the darkness was pierced with screams. May the next sea-opening not also be a drowning; may our singing never again be their wailing. We shall all be free, or none of us shall be free because our liberations are intertwined.

However, we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the ten plagues that Jews are inflicting on Palestinian Arabs today, including:

Poverty
Restrictions on movement
Water shortage
Destruction of Olive Trees
Home demolitions
Settlements
Political prisoners
Profiteering
Denial of the Right of Return
Erasing histories

Then comes the Palestinian Freedom Riders Song.

Obviously, we must sing the Nakba Dayenu:

When soldiers rounded up Palestinian men and massacred them collectively – we should have said enough.
When Palestinian men were forced into labor camps, where their labor included destroying Palestinian homes – we should have said enough.
When the on the Eve of Passover, in an operation called, “Cleaning Out Chametz” the Haganah shelled the Palestinian residential quarters of Haifa, forcing 70,000, 90% of the city’s Palestinian residents, to flee – we should have said enough.

Later we get to Maror, whose symbolism is so obvious:

We taste a bit of maror, the bitter herb, as it calls to mind the bitterness of slavery, the bitterness of life under occupation.

The Korech sandwich is a little less obvious:

We prepare to eat the Hillel sandwich with the sweetness of haroset and the bitterness of maror, highlighting the challenge to us to taste freedom in the midst of oppression, to be aware of oppression even as we are free, we hold the contradictions of bitter and sweet.

Then comes a cup of wine to celebrate BDS, readings about how Shir HaMaalot is immoral because it talks about return to Zion, how "Next Year in Jerusalem" means for Palestinian Arabs, and about the extreme dangers of "Pinkwashing."

Yes, this is a Haggadah that Hamas could love. But it was written by their trusted Jewish dhimmis at JVP. (I'm actually surprised that they kept the idea of four cups of wine, not considering how that could upset JVP's Islamic masters. How inconsiderate of them!)

(h/t Divest This, who plans his own fisking of this piece of trash. He describes it this way:

JVP’s foray into this long-abused genre sets a new precedent for utter tastelessness and self indulgence. It is truly a work that could only have been contemplated (much less executed) by those whose universe consists of nothing but themselves.

Islam conquers European football

From Soeren Kern at The Gatestone Institute:

The top-ranked football team in Spain, Real Madrid, has removed a Christian cross from its official logo as a way to strengthen its fan base among Muslims in Europe and the Middle East.

According to Spain's top sports newspaper, Marca, the change was made to "avoid any form of confusion or misinterpretation in a region where the majority of the population is Muslim."

Real Madrid says its decision to remove the cross from its logo is simply a cost of doing business in a globalized world. But critics say the move represents yet another erosion of European culture and tradition in the face of encroaching Islam.

The cross controversy comes as Real Madrid begins to build a $1 billion sports tourist resort in the United Arab Emirates. The foundation stone for the 50 hectare Real Madrid Resort Island was laid in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah on March 29; the complex is scheduled to open in January 2015.

Real Madrid says its resort island will be the first theme park on an artificial island to combine tourism and sports, and it will be the first recreational tourism complex built under the Real Madrid trademark. The complex will include a 450-room luxury hotel, luxury villas, a sporting harbor, and the world's first-ever football stadium that is open to the sea.

According to Real Madrid, "This is a decisive and strategic step that will enhance the strength of this institution in the Middle East and Asia, a key region in which the passion for this club has been apparent. Real Madrid and the Government of Ras al-Khaimah want to transmit the passion of Real Madrid and what it means throughout the world."

As part of the agreement, however, the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr al Qasimi, required Real Madrid to remove the cross from the crown on its logo for all promotional materials related to the resort island. The president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, dutifully complied.

Old and new logos

The cross was first to Real Madrid's logo in 1920, when King Alfonso XIII granted the club his royal patronage. The word Real is Spanish for royal, and the cross still forms an integral part of the coat of arms of the King of Spain.

The article goes on to show that this is not the first time a cross was removed from a football logo to soothe Muslim sensibilities; FC Barcelona's shirts sold in Muslim countries are similarly edited so as not to offend their Muslim fans:

(h/t @challahhuakbar)

Kuwaiti cleric: Jews are Muslims' biggest enemy; Muslims will always fight any Jewish state

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti cleric Tareq Sweidan, manager of Al-Resala TV, which aired on Al-Quds TV on March 26, 2012.
Tareq Sweidan : I studied at the Petroleum Department at the University of Oklahoma, and our dean, who was a Christian American, retired. The man they brought to replace him was completely incompetent. I went to the former dean, Dr. Guerrero, and asked him: "What made them choose Dr. Sylvester as the new dean, even though he is unworthy of this?" I was still a student back then. He laughed and said: "You noticed?" I said: "Of course. Anybody with eyes in his head would notice." He said: "It's because he is a Freemason." This Guerrero began to curse the Jews and the Freemasons, saying that they control everything.
This is just a little story from Oklahoma in the middle of America. Now think what happens in New York or California, the centers of power.
[...]
When I was still in the US, we decided to try to influence a member of Congress, who seemed to be somewhat sympathetic towards us. He was campaigning in the elections, and we said: "Let us Muslims vote and raise funds for him. We raised 300,000 dollars and went to give it to him, saying: "Take this money, we support you, and you will support us politically." He refused. We asked why, and he said: "The Jews were here yesterday and gave me 300 million."
[...]
I have no hope that the West will change its positions. I can change the positions of some Westerners, but at the end of the day, power lies with the politicians, who are influenced by two things and two things only: money and the media, both of which are controlled by the Jews.
So we should make the effort, but we must not rely on Western aid or on Western popular sympathy. These are minor things. We rely upon Allah and then upon our armed resistance in obtaining our rights.
[...]
I say to the Arabs today: "Please do not negotiate. You are weak and would end up making unnecessary concessions. If you are incapable of regaining the holy city [of Jerusalem], I beg you to leave it occupied. A generation will come that will liberate it for us." We do not want negotiations or compromises while in a state of weakness, because we would end up relinquishing what the strong would not give up.
[...]
Interviewer : The principle of compromise states that we should get whatever we can. Its supporters say: Let's accept this, so that Palestine is not lost in its entirety. Some Arab regimes have even begun to lament [their objection to] the Partition Plan. In order not to repeat the same mistake, they say, let's take what is being offered...
Tareq Sweidan : This is a defeatist mentality, adopted by the weak. Let me say something to you, to the viewers, and to the Palestinians: This land is not yours. Palestine, the Holy Land - and especially Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque - does not belong to the Palestinians. It belongs to the entire Islamic nation. You have no right to relinquish or divide it. By Allah, even if all the Palestinians accept a compromise and hand over Jerusalem, we will not agree to that. Even if you become weak and surrender, we will not weaken. We will continue to wage resistance until we liberate it. These are our holy places. This is the Islamic mentality as I understand it.
[...]
I'm from Kuwait, but my first and foremost cause in this world is that of Palestine and Jerusalem. Palestine and Jerusalem come before Kuwait for me, because I'm a Muslim, and I believe in my holy places. A nation that relinquishes its holy places becomes worthless. Even if all the Palestinians relinquish it, the Islamic nation will not.
[...]
In a nutshell, my strategy is as follows: We must consolidate the position of the Palestinians within Palestine as much as possible. We must support the armed resistance in Gaza, and if possible, we must spread it to the West Bank, and even to Palestine [within the 1948 borders]. If we can, we should do that. Third, the countries bordering [Israel] must be serious in their resistance to the Zionist entity. Thanks to Allah, there are signs of this. Fourth, this must be a mission for the entire Islamic nation. Everyone should support this cause. The most dangerous thing facing the Muslims is not the dictatorships. The absolutely most dangerous thing is the Jews. They are the most dangerous. They are the greatest enemy.
[...]

It looks like Sweidan can't even tell the truth about his alma mater, which appears to be the University of Tulsa. The chances that Dr. Guerrero cursed the Jews and Freemasons are about the same as that a congressional candidate in Oklahoma received a $300 million donation from Jews.

St. Helena Chapel in Jerusalem bans Egyptian Copts from praying

I noted last week that for the first time, hundreds of Egyptian Copts were flocking to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter, after Coptic Pope Shenouda III - who was opposed to such pilgrimages - died.

The church stated at the time that "the Church is a religious institution that does not control the freedom of individuals does not impose laws on them."

Those pilgrims were denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

From Al Ahram:

The St Helena Chapel, the Egyptian [Coptic] part of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, has denied entry to Egyptian Christians who sought to celebrate Easter there.

Defying a ban by the late Pope Shenouda III, more than one hundred Egyptian Copts flew to Jerusalem to visit landmarks in the holy land.

“We neither allowed them to pray nor to break their fast. That infuriated them to the extent that some of them wanted to fight us,” Priest Mesaael told the Egyptian state-run news agency MENA.

“The instructions of the late Pope Shenouda are still valid, we have to respect them even more than we did when he was alive.”

This is all in context of a larger dispute in the Arab world on whether visiting Jerusalem is a form of normalizing relations with Israel. Mahmoud Abbas wants Arabs to visit but he is opposed by many clerics including the late Pope Shenouda, popular Qatar-based preacher Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi and Sheikh Sabri, head of the Islamic Council of Jerusalem.

Notably, Crown Prince Hashim of Jordan visited the Al Aqsa Mosque last week.

Want to see provocative pictures?

These parents and children taking an outing are, according to some, the most dangerous people on the planet.

According to the Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation, they are among the "settlers" who "stormed" the Temple Mount and "desecrated" it on Sunday, doing "provocative Talmudic rituals."

Some of the desecrators were even seen singing and dancing.

Outrageous, I know.

Mike Wallace interviews Abba Eban, 1958

After CBS' Mike Wallace died Sunday, it is illuminating to see this combative 1958 interview he held with Abba Eban.

Wallace pressed Eban about Israel's "aggression" in 1948 and demanded how Israel could justify holding onto the 1949 armistice lines!

Many people today believe that those 1949 armistice lines were considered "international borders." They were nothing of the sort, and this interview shows where Israel was reminded over and over again at the time that those armistice lines were temporary and fragile.

It is also instructive to see how Israel's critics were saying then that Israel could not possibly survive economically, mirroring arguments that were made before Israel was born and those made years after this interview. Israel is still here, those critics are not.

Wallace also echoes the Walt and Mearsheimer argument that US friendship towards Israel was at too high a cost compared to what it could lose from the Arab world, showing again that the constant kerfuffles created by Israel's critics are hardly original.

Finally, Wallace quotes a Jewish anti-Zionist, reform rabbi Elmer Berger, echoing the charges made today ("Israel-Firsters") that Israel demands loyalty from world Jewry at the expense of their own countries. It seems that even then Jewish critics of Israel gained much fame and fortune for their opinions among certain crowds - and yet they and their hate are soon forgotten, to be replaced by newer editions of the same old arguments. (Berger praised the Soviet Union's treatment of its Jews and supported the Arab side of the 1967 war.)

Eban does very well in this interview. Wallace comes across as being hostile towards Israel's very existence.

Yet another gas pipeline explosion in Egypt

From Reuters:

An explosion hit the Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan on Monday for 14th time since the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak began last year, security sources said.

The blast took place in the northern Sinai at the entrance of the Mediterranean coastal town of Al-Arish. Residents in the city told Reuters they had heard the sound of the explosion.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile Sinai Peninsula. Security in Sinai was relaxed after the fall of Mubarak in 2011 as the police presence thinned out across Egypt.

The pipeline has been shut since an explosion on February 5.

Do you think that the saboteurs care in the least that these explosions hurt their fellow Arabs in Jordan more than they hurt Israel?

Egypt promised to set up a new pipeline to Gaza to run its power plant in the next few months; I don't know if that pipeline would be affected by these repeated explosions as well, but my impression is that the explosions have been occurring on the Port Said-El Arish segment, which affects both Israeli and Jordanian gas. Which means that it would affect gas to Gaza as well.

In a couple of years Israel should be getting enough gas from the massive Mediterranean fields under its control, so we'll see then if Jordan and Syria ask for Israel to export gas to them!

Hamas: No elections this year, maybe next year, not our fault

A Hamas spokesman confirmed what everyone already knew - that planned elections for a unified Palestinian Arab government are not going to happen anytime soon.

Salah Bardawil, member of Hamas' political bureau, said that he does not see any elections happening this year, and he blamed Fatah for that. He claims that only a small percentage of the agreements between Hamas and Fatah in the Doha Declaration were implemented, that West Bank voters are in fear of voting according to their true feelings or to campaign for any non-Fatah candidate, that American and Israeli pressure are causing Fatah to drag its feet, that if Israel doesn't allow Jerusalem Arabs to vote than the voting cannot go forward, and a host of other excuses.

Absent from his list was the fact that Hamas has not yet allowed the elections office in Gaza to start doing its work in determining who can vote.

The reality is that neither Hamas nor Fatah are willing to take the chance that they will lose the power they have over Gaza and the West Bank, respectively. The entire idea of unity was an attempt to forestall popular uprisings against both parties, so they cooperated just enough to calm down their people.

Amazingly, so far their cynical fake cooperation has managed to do exactly that.

Chag Sameach!

I wish all of my Jewish readers a wonderful and meaningful Pesach. May we all celebrate next year in Jerusalem.

Also, for those who celebrate Easter, have a great holiday as well.

I will not be blogging until Sunday night or Monday.

Pre-Passover Snippet-dump

More links and things before the holiday:

Guy Bechor:

Today, when the Muslim Middle East is disintegrating into religions, ethnic groups, minorities and distinct regions, when the slaughter in Syria is merely intensifying (the number of fatalities is already nearing 10,000,) when Libya's militias are killing each other, Yemen is crumbling and Egypt is facing deep trouble, it turns out that relatively speaking, the Palestinian issue is the most stable in the Mideast.

Truth be told, that was always the case, yet for self-interested reasons the situation was distorted by various elements.

The Palestinians encountered another grave calamity: Israel's public opinion lost interest in them. For dozens of years, Israel's leftist camp turned the Palestinians into its defining issue. Yet suddenly the Left discovered that Israel moved on and that the issue is no longer on its agenda. When the Left also discovered that the Palestinians have no interest in peace or negotiations, just like Syria's Assad, it replaced the Palestinian agenda with a new one, premised on social issues like cottage cheese and the tent protest.

Reuters:

Some 2,350 Syrians fled across the border to Turkey from the region of Idlib within 24 hours, a Turkish official said on Thursday, more that double the highest previous one-day total.

Tablet:

The Jews of Malmö, a community of about 1,500 in a city of 300,000, are living through a new form of anti-Semitism. This kind does not stem from neo-Nazis or right-wing extremists—traditional perpetrators of European Jew-hatred—but has come to the city through immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East and is part of a larger, countrywide problem of failed integration. According to the 2011 census, one in 10 Malmö citizens comes from the Middle East and North Africa, and ethnic Swedes are no longer in the majority among 15-year-olds. In 2009, 60 hate crimes against Jews were reported in Malmö, ranging from hate speech to assault. The city’s Chicago-born Chabad rabbi, Shneur Kesselman, estimates that he alone has been the victim of 100 incidents during his few years in the city. A dozen families have already left Malmö for Stockholm, Israel, or the United States because of anti-Semitism, according to community leaders.

If only this were the whole problem. But Malmö’s mayor of 17 years, Ilmar Reepalu, has “Tourettes syndrome with respect to Jews,” according to Kvällsposten, a Swedish newspaper. Last week, Reepalu, a Social Democrat, made headlines across the country after I published an interview with him in which he said that Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigrant party with its roots in the Swedish neo-Nazi movement, had “infiltrated” Malmö’s Jewish community in order to turn it against Muslims. On Monday, he was publicly reprimanded by the head of his party.

Reeplau has promised that he is no anti-Semite, but this is far from the first time that he has put his foot in his mouth on the subject of Jews.

Michael Oren:

Is Israeli democracy truly in jeopardy? Are basic liberties and gender equality -- the cornerstones of an open society -- imperiled? Will Israel retain its character as both a Jewish and a democratic state -- a redoubt of stability in the Middle East and of shared values with the United States?

These questions will be examined in depth, citing comparative, historical, and contemporary examples. The answers will show that, in the face of innumerable obstacles, Israeli democracy remains remarkable, resilient, and stable.

CAMERA: A Sad But Incomplete Story

A remarkable shadow theatre retelling of the Exodus I had missed last year:

BBC:

Prince Nawaf bin Faisal said his body was "not endorsing any female participation at the moment."

Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation, said the Saudi stance was unacceptable.

"We would expect the International Olympic Committee to exclude Saudi Arabia," she said.

Here's a 1907 Haggadah with lots of Hebrew commentary, one of the better ones I've seen.

(h/t Ian)

For the first time, Egyptian Copts flock to Jerusalem for Easter

From Egypt Independent:

Aarsena Air Company in Egypt launched Friday airlifts between Egypt and Israel to transfer hundreds of Egyptian Coptic pilgrims to Christian landmarks in Jerusalem for the first time. The move comes in the wake of the death of Pope Shenouda III, who banned pilgrimages to Jerusalem due to the Israeli occupation.

The airlift is the first of its kind to transport Egyptians to Israel since the signing of the peace treaty between the two countries in 1979. One or two flights will depart daily on an aircraft with 104 seats, said Cairo International Airport officials.

The sources added that two flights bound for Jerusalem left Friday carrying 104 passengers each and that no obstacles faced them.

The Coptic passengers are scheduled to spend several days sightseeing at Christian landmarks in Jerusalem, in the context of celebrating Easter on 15 April.

Pope Shenouda III banned Coptic travel to the city of Jerusalem, and said more than once: “The Copts will not travel to Jerusalem, except in the company of their fellow Muslims.”

In reaction, Coptic leaders in Europe reaffirmed their opposition to any Copts traveling on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, saying that this was a church-wide decision, not a personal ban by Pope Shenouda III.

It looks like there was a lot of pent-up desire by Egyptian Copts to visit anyway.

In wake of reports of the first plane-loads of pilgrims Thursday, Coptic officials said that "the Church is a religious institution that does not control the freedom of individuals does not impose laws on them." The Deputy Catholic Patriarch of the Catholic Church likewise said that the church does not interfere in the affairs of individuals, it is an institution of worship and can not track the movement of people and does not interfere in individual affairs.

It looks like Aarsena Air was set up to do only a shuttle between Egypt and Israel for the pilgrims.