Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Yom HaShoah: Poster, trailer, video

The official poster for Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day is simple and poignant:

A pair of Israeli animation students used the Steven Spielberg-sponsored Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation project to produce an animated film that tells the story of a 10-year-old girl in Holocaust-era Poland. The film uses both stop-animation and classic animation techniques to describe an event in the life of Nyosha, the grandmother of Liran Kapel, who along with her partner Yael Dekel created the film. It will premiere at a film festival in Sderot in June, and from there will travel to other festivals around the world.

“It’s a story about faith,” Kapel told The Times of Israel, as she described the event that lies at the heart of the film. Nyosha lives in a small village in Poland with her mother, surviving from hand to mouth on very little money. One day, Nyosha sees a beautiful pair of shoes in the window of a shoemaker’s store, and decides she must have them. But after bringing what little money she could raise to the shoemaker, he tells her it isn’t enough; but if she wants, he will sell her one of the shoes.

Nyosha is so enamored of the shoes that she agrees, and for months walks around her hometown wearing that single shoe as she worked to try and raise money to buy its mate. But then comes the German invasion of Poland — and with it the destruction of her village and her way of life. As the Nazi soldiers approach, Nyosha and other townspeople take refuge in the attic of a building. Among those holed up in the attic is none other but the shoemaker, who now holds court over an enormous pot that everyone assumes contains food. The villagers beg for a morsel, but the hard-hearted shoemaker ignores their pleas.

This goes on for three days, after which the desperate villagers have had enough. They band together to attack the shoemaker and “liberate” the supplies — only to discover that the pot contained shoes, not food. One of the shoes, however, is the mate to Nyosha’s pair, and during the fight between the villagers and the shoemaker, she manages to get hold of the shoe, puts it on, and hides.

Just in time, it turns out. The Nazis, discovering the lair, march up the steps and hustle everyone outside, where they shoot the villagers. Nyosha’s mother is among those set to be shot, and she signals to her daughter to stay inside and hide. Nyosha does so just as a Nazi guard comes back upstairs looking for survivors. When he sees Nyosha’s small, pretty shoes lined up next to the bed she is hiding under, something apparently touches the Nazi and even though he knows Nyosha is there, he spares her. Hours later, when the Nazis have gone and the Jews have been killed or deported, Nyosha emerges to find herself utterly alone. She runs to the forest, wearing the shoes that just saved her life.

“It’s a true story,” Kapel said, adding that the follow-up was just as amazing. “She roamed the forest and eventually found villages, where she knocked on doors offering to work. One Polish family took her up on her offer, and she used a fake Polish name, never letting on she was Jewish. She worked for the family for years, and after the war she was eventually found by Youth Aliyah representatives, who put her on a boat for Israel, where she rebuilt her life.”

The trailer:

Finally, here is what a busy Israeli highway looked like today when the sirens went off:

(h/t Mike)

Yom HaShoah: the murdered Jews of Gdow, Poland

For Yom HaShoah, I looked through the Yad Vashem victims database to find a typical small village in order to list all the victims we are aware of who lived there. (Yad Vashem limits queries to 1000, so looking for any well-known city or even popular last names would return only the first thousand names.)

Here are 82 of the Holocaust victims of Gdow, Poland. In general the database only has a fraction of the actual victims of the Shoah.

The entire village had 375 Jews in the mid-19th century.

You can click on any name to go to that person's record at Yad Vashem.

Name	Birth year
Bodner, Elish Elisha
Bodner, Gitel
Bodner, Mirjam Miriam
Brand, Chawa Khava	1893
Eichhorn, Erna Ester	1907
Eichhorn, Helena
Feder, Huma Khuma	1862
Feder, Szymon Shama	1872
Geler, Berl Ber	1938
Geler, Shevakh	1902
Gotreich, Alter
Gotreich, Chaja Khaia
Gotreich, Hadassa Hadasa
Gotreich, Josel -
Gotreich, Sara
Grantov, Gdaliauhu Gdaliyahu	1893
Heller, Berta
Kleinman, Henny Hena	1880
Klinger, Haia Khaia
Klinger, Khenia Khana
Klinger, Tosia
Kuechler, Abraham Avraham	1882
Kuntz, Brenda -
Kuntz, Jacob Yaakov
Lebel, Chaskel Yekhezkel	1910
Lehrfeld, Hirsh	1880
Lehrfeld, Tauba Antonina	1885
Leibel, Abram Avraham	1895
Leibel, Aron Aharon	1865
Leibel, Avraham	1910
Leibel, Chawka Khava	1910
Leibel, Chenya Nekhemia	1910
Leibel, Chenya Nekhemia	1905
Leibel, Cheskel Yekhezkel	1901
Markus, Cecylia	1888
Mateles, Sala	1900
Perlberg, Eliasz	1886
Reisman, Giza Giza	1929
Reisman, Izak	1897
Reisman, Rosa
Reisman, Sydka Sidi	1918
Szmaje, Ester	1909
Szmaje, Moshe
Wellisch, Riwka Rivka
Windholz, Kalman	1897
Zimerspitz, Aleksander	1899
Zimerspitz, Volf	1873
Zimerspitz, Zisl Zysl	1903
Zwetschkenspiel, Sigmun	1878

Time for another open thread

For two years I've been watching people complain about the Disqus comment system here, and how screwy it acts. From my perspective, though, it had one great feature that I loved -it automatically sends all comments to my email account and allows me to reply to messages (and moderate them) via email. This meant that I did not have to actually go into the Disqus system to administer the comments and it saved me a lot of time.

But now that feature just disappeared over the past few days, making it much harder for me to follow threads of conversations here without spending more time than I have.

Practically, this means that if you have interesting links to send me, email is probably the best way.

The other recent headache is that the scheduling capability in Blogger seems to have broken in the past couple of days. Articles that I thought would have been posted ended up in limbo until I re-edit them. It's just another time-suck that I don't need.

Moreover, it looks like my life will not be getting any less hectic. Quite the opposite.

Even so, over the next day or two, I will post my 14,000th blog entry.

I did notice that the last open thread from Monday night was quite busy, with nearly a hundred comments, so it seems like a good time to start a new one. Venting about these problems is just an excuse for an open thread, anyway.

A cascade of non-trivial trivia from 1912-13

The virulently anti-Israel IMEMC says:

Israeli soldiers and policemen displaced resident Khaled An-Natsha and his family from their home in Al-Ashqariyya area, in Beit Hanina, north of Israeli controlled East Jerusalem. The eviction came following a court order that granted Israeli settlers ownership over the property.

The Palestinian News and Info Agency, WAFA, reported that the soldiers also detained An-Natsha after “arguing with the soldiers”.

The Israeli District Court in Jerusalem previously issued an eviction notice ordering An-Natsha to vacate the property, claiming that the land on which his home is built belonged to a Jewish man since 1936.

I was wondering if perhaps there were Jews in Beit Hanina who were forced to flee their homes in the 1936 riots, the way that the Yemeni Jews were chased out of their homes in Kfar HaShiloach (now knowsn as Silwan.)

Doing a little digging I came upon this illuminating item, from the American Jewish Yearbook for 1912-1913, under events that occurred in Palestine in October 1912:

Dilov and Bet-Hanina, in vicinity of Jerusalem, acquired by Zionist organization.

I never heard of Dilov, and the entry does not elaborate if (as implied) the Zionist bought all of Beit Hanina or a portion, but isn't that interesting?

In the same yearbook we also see other information that goes against the conventional wisdom of today's revisionist historians:

August [1912] At Rapha [Rafah - EoZ], Anglo-Egyptian authorities sanction sale of ten thousand dunams of land to Anglo-Palestine Company, for colonization by Agudath Yisroel (of Jaffa), and group of Bielistock Jews.

January [1913] - Turkish government confirms purchase of land in Samaria and Galilee by Palestine Department of the Zionist Organization. Amount paid, 750,000 francs ($150,000)

JUNE [1913] - Rechid Bey, former Minister of Interior and Governor at Jerusalem, in interview with representative of Budapest paper expresses himself in favor of Jewish activity in Palestine.

June [1913] — Hazim Bey, vali of Beirut, declares that he is in favor of Jewish immigration into Syria, as beneficial to the Empire.

Who knew that parts of Rafah were owned by Zionists and earmarked for religious Jews? How often do we hear about Arabs who actively supported Jewish immigration?

The things you learn when you just take the time to look...

(h/t Dan)

A clear case of - snow-washing

From Israel's COGAT:

3 Palestinian children went to Mount Hermon in Israel on March 19th, with a group of Israeli children, to enjoy the mountain and the snow.

The children, treated in Schneider Hospital and Sharei Tsedek Hospital were accompanied by soldiers from the Alpine Unit of Tsahal, who enjoyed the day with them.

The event was organized by the Civil Administration and the Israeli NGO “Tikva u'Marpeh”.

Last year I made a poster and video about this (or possibly a similar) program.

To those who look at Israel through their "occupation glasses," this is obviously an attempt by the IDF and Zionist groups to put a human face on their relentlessly evil society and distract the world from Ziocrimes. In fact, doing good things for sick Palestinian Arab kids may even be worse than "occupation" itself - because it makes the job of the Israel-demonizers so much harder, and making them look like the bigoted haters they are is an unforgivable crime.

Egyptian Mufti visits Jerusalem, causes controversy

From AFP:

Egypt's grand mufti visited Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday, a senior Muslim official said, despite claims by an internationally prominent cleric that such visits are a sop to Israel.

Azzam al-Khatib said Ali Gomaa, Egypt's highest religious authority, "came for a religious visit to Al-Aqsa mosque" along with Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, King Abdullah II's cousin and advisor on religious issues.

It comes after Qatar-based Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian, said in a religious edict (fatwa) last month that Muslims should not visit Jerusalem "because it requires dealing with Zionist embassies to obtain visas."

"Such visits might also give legitimacy to the occupation and could be seen as normalisation," Qaradawi said in March.

His fatwa has drawn the ire of Palestinian awqaf minister Mahmud al-Habbash, saying it was "weird and contradicts the Koran and the Prophet's teachings."

"The fatwa serves Israeli policies that seek to isolate Jerusalem and Palestinians, who should be supported," Habbash said.

Earlier this month, the king's half-brother, Prince Hashim, paid a similar visit to Jerusalem. Also, Jordan's Interior Minister Mohammad Raud went to the Holy City this week.

The kingdom's powerful opposition Islamists have denounced such visits.

"In line with Islamic edicts issued by respected clerics and consultations with Christian religious leaders, we consider these trips as acts of normalisation that serves the schemes of the enemy," said Hamzeh Mansur, chief of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, on the party's website.

"Mosque preachers, thinkers, intellectuals and journalists should intensify their efforts to warn the public against the dangerous risks behind such visits, which must not continue," added Mansur, who also heads an anti-normalisation committee.

There has been much opposition to any such trips within the Muslim world. for example, two years ago an Egyptian soccer team canceled their planned visit to play a friendly game against Palestinian Arabs.

Gomaa, however, seems to have avoided the biggest problem from the Muslim perspective. He came through Jordan and went with Jordanian authorities under cover of calling it a diplomatic mission, avoiding any contact with Israeli authorities altogether. Even so, the Mufti is receiving a lot of criticism in Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and others.

Last year Gomaa threatened Israel saying that if the country continues to disregard the feelings of all the Muslims, it would feel the wrath of 1.5 billion people.

Meanwhile, here's a new MEMRI video of an Egyptian TV host slamming the Copts who visited Jerusalem earlier this month.

Anti-semitism up, violent incidents down in 2011

A great example of spin in three different headlines for the same topic.

Ha'aretz:

Report: Anti-Semitic incidents down 27 percent in 2011

Arutz-7:

Anti-Semitic Incitement and Harassment Up in 2011

YNet:

'Hate crimes against Jews becoming more brutal'

So, which is it?

As of this writing, the report is not available on the website of the Kantor Center that did the study, but Arutz-7 seems to have copied the executive summary, so that is the best we can do for now:

The Kantor Center's Program for Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University released their 2011 Anti-Semitism Report on Wednesday.

The report noted both a "continuation and even escalation of harassment and incitement" and a "considerable decline in major violent incidents world wide" targeting Jews during 2011.

"The year 2011 marked a worldwide continuation and even escalation of acts of harassment and incitement, including verbal threats, insults and abusive language and behavior. Such acts have increased dramatically in recent years in various parts of the world, yet the most troubling phenomenon is in-your-face harassment, a daily occurrence, especially in western Europe, as well as in Australia and Canada, mainly against visible Jews, in the street, in public places and in the vicinity of Jewish sites, and against children and youth in schools. These acts are not fully reported due to the lack of proper monitoring in some countries, and cannot be counted," the report summary read.

"The level of major violent incidents (with or without the use of weapons, vandalism and direct threats) decreased in 2011 by 27% compared to 2010 (446 and 614, respectively – the US is only partly included). The decline in the UK (105 cases), France (114) and Canada (68), where 63% of all major violent incidents worldwide were registered, and where large Jewish communities reside, had an impact on the overall statistics. In other countries, such as Australia, Belgium, Ukraine the numbers of these incidents remained almost the same, , and in others such as Lithuania and Belarus it even increased. Still, statistical data shows that physical violence remained on a high level compared to former years, and that attacks turned more brutal and harmful.

"The reasons for the decline in the number of major violent incidents are not clear cut: they may include the absence of a major confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians, such as Operation Cast Lead in 2009 and the Marmara flotilla in 2010, which had sparked violent action against Jews; the fact that much of the far right violent activity was directed in 2011 against Muslim, Roma and other immigrant minorities; the "Arab Spring" which perhaps attracted much attention among Muslim youth in Europe; the growing number of complaints and litigations successfully filed by Jewish individuals and organizations against perpetrators and inciters; and the intensified efforts of Governmental agencies and NGOs to promote legislative and public tools against racism, anti-Semitism included.

"Reasons for the continuing high level of harassment and incitement may include: radicalization among young Muslims mostly from immigrant families and growing acceptance of anti-Semitic allegations; escalated animosity among militant extreme rightists whose activity intensified probably because of the economic crisis and the problems posed by multiculturalism; the growing use of the cyberspace, with its websites, blogs and social networks, which readily disseminates anti-Semitic messages, and anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli incitement often expressed in anti-Semitic terms. These messages are loudly heard in university and college campuses as well as in mosques, and are carried by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) campaigners; and the atmosphere created by the radical left's rhetoric and by expressions and accusations used and leveled in the mainstream discourse.

"The main allegations against the Jewish communities and Israel, perceived as a Jewish state, continue to be the holding of global power, including control over world economy, and constant conspiring according to Israel's interests, thus being responsible for economic and political crises, including incitement for and against the revolutions in the Arab world. These allegations are coupled with the labeling of Israel as a racist, Nazi-like illegitimate state, and its supporters as accomplices to an evil entity," the summary concluded.

It looks like Ha'aretz' headline is the least accurate because only violent incidents have decreased, not all incidents.

When the report is available we can see if there is anything interesting that the news media is missing.

Birthright now has an Israeli fellowship program

From The Jewish Week:

A Zionist and junior at Cornell University, Rebecca Haft had a life-changing experience in Israel last summer — she learned to like cottage cheese.

Haft, a policy analysis and management major, spent 10 weeks working as an intern in the business development department of Tnuva, Israel’s largest dairy company, under the auspices of Birthright Israel Excel. She was among 20 college students from the United States chosen, from more than 200 applicants, to take part in the pilot version of Birthright’s elite fellowship program.

Think Birthright, business class.

Earlier this month, most of the 20 met here for a four-day retreat, to review last year’s experiences and suggest changes.

Haft’s fellow Excel colleagues, college juniors and seniors who participated in internships at high-powered Israeli companies in such fields as technology, business, venture capital and social media, were mentored directly by each company’s CEO, receiving backstage passes to the world of high-tech, corporate Israeli culture.

This year, more than 600 students applied; 36 made the final cut.

“This program, more than anything, is an investment in Israel’s future,” said Sharon Prince, U.S. coordinator of Birthright Excel. “We are pulling students from the top echelon of American society. We have high hopes that these students will go on to become leaders in their various fields. Creating this formative connection to Israel early on in their careers is key.”

“Compared to previous internships I’ve had in the States, the internship I received as a Birthright Excel fellow was completely different,” said Ben Goldhaber, a senior at Georgetown University majoring in science, technology and international affairs. Goldhaber interned at Pitango Venture Capital, Israel’s leading Venture Capital fund, under the mentorship of Chemi J. Peres, managing general partner and co-founder of Pitango, and son of President Shimon Peres.

“In Israel, they are much quicker to trust young people,” Goldhaber said. “When I arrived at my internship, I was given real responsibilities, and fast. This is no American, feel-good resumé booster. This was a job — a real job — and a chance to experience, firsthand, how Israeli corporate culture functions and operates.” As an afterthought he added, “I mean, I barely operated the copy machine once!”

“This trip shouldn’t be called ‘Birthright’ — it should be called ‘Birth responsibility,’” said Brett Levine, gesticulating as he spoke, a senior at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with a major in finance. “As Jews, we have a certain sense of entitlement when it comes to Israel, and when it comes to our heritage. But what this trip taught me is that feeling entitled is not enough — we have a responsibility to our Jewish identity. We have a responsibility to Israel.” His words were met by hearty nods and exclamations of assent around the table.

Ha'aretz followed some of the interns last year and recorded their experiences.

Iranian diplomat accused of molesting girls in Brazil; has diplomatic immunity

Brazilian news sources are reporting:

Iranian diplomat in Brasília, Hekmatollah Ghorbani, is accused of abusing minors in a pool club in Brasilia on Saturday.

Ten girls, aged 9 and 15, were swimming in a neighborhood club, the South Wing, and four of them reported that Ghorbani, swimming, approached to touch the private parts of the girls while diving.

According to a report of those responsible for the minors, one of the girls, aged 14, realized that the Iranian had touched other girls and asked him to stop. She went to tell the lifeguard of the club, who ordered the closure of the pool. The father of one of the girls, Fernandes José Roberto Rodrigues, returned to the pool and tried to attack Ghorbani.

Deputy Police Chief Johnson Miller, who took the complaint, confirmed the reports, but despite the clear facts, Ghorbani was released for having diplomatic immunity.

"We note that this gentleman is part of the diplomatic mission of Iran in Brasilia. In this position, he was under the cloak of diplomatic immunity. We made a record of the occurrence. We will forward it to the Foreign Ministry. If he were an ordinary person, he would be charged under Article 217 A, for rape of minors, with a penalty of 8 to 15 years in prison. "

Ghorbani, who is over 50 years old, is the third in the hierarchy of the Iranian embassy in Brasilia. The embassy confirms that he is a member of the diplomatic corps, and has been in Brazil for nearly two years. The club also declined to comment on the incident. The Foreign Ministry, according to its press office says that it has not been notified about the occurrence, but confirms that the families of the girls asked for an audience with the General Coordination of Privileges and Immunities, in charge of diplomatic missions. The meeting was still scheduled for this week. According to the delegate, the occurrence record is forwarded to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

While this is not my normal kind of posting, it is interesting that no English-language news source has covered this story yet.

(ht Oren)

Hamas calls for more terror attacks and abductions

On the occasion of "Prisoners Day," Hamas together with Islamic Jihad and other terror groups publicly called for more terror attacks against Israel, purportedly in order to help gain the release of the prisoners.

The group of "resistance factions" unanimously declared that that the most effective way to free the prisoners is "resistance by the sword," a euphemism for terror attacks and Shalit-style soldier abductions.

Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades, released a statement today calling the prisoner issue an "absolute priority of the resistance. I do not say this as a mere slogan, but we have proved it with our pure blood."

He promised the prisoners and their families that "the walls of the prison will shatter ...with the permission of God, and may that say come soon."

Spokesman Abu Ahmed of Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades also stated that that the issue of prisoners has become a top priority for the terror groups.

He said "The complete liberation of prisoners is what the Palestinian factions seek, and the best way to free our prisoners will be resistance and abducting soldiers."

The absurdity of giving credence to Iran's "fatwa" against nukes

From Emanuele Ottolenghi at Commentary:

Speaking to reporters about Iran’s nuclear program before the weekend talks in Istanbul, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We’re looking for concrete results,” and continued, “They assert that their program is purely peaceful. They point to a fatwa that the supreme leader has issued against the pursuit of nuclear weapons. We want them to demonstrate clearly in the actions they propose that they have truly abandoned any nuclear weapons ambition.”

Secretary Clinton must take this argument seriously, because she has been looking into the fatwa very closely. According to the Daily Telegraph,

Clinton revealed that she has been studying Khamenei’s fatwa, saying that she has discussed it with religious scholars, other experts and with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “If it is indeed a statement of principle, of values, then it is a starting point for being operationalized,” Clinton said.

EU diplomats also took notice of Iranian emphasis on the fatwa:

“One of the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because he was sharing information from a closed session, said the Iranians appeared to be moving toward that goal, engaging in discussion about the peaceful use of nuclear energy and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He said the Iranian team had mentioned supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s fatwa, or prohibition, of nuclear weapons for Iran, in the course of the plenary discussions.”

As Jonathan Tobin discussed yesterday, a delegation of 12 Iranian nuclear scientists attended the North Korea’s failed missile test at the same time that the chief nuclear negotiator in Istanbul was proclaiming Iran’s religious commitment to non-proliferation. So what were they doing there? Verifying how compatible is their leader’s fatwa with a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead?

Secretary Clinton and all other parties involved should judge the Iranians by their actions. They speak for themselves. The fatwa is a ruse – one that clearly just won Tehran another five weeks of quiet.

Juan Cole, who famously managed to convince the wishful thinkers of the world that Iranian leaders never said they wanted to destroy Israel even when official Iranian translations of their speech said they did, has been particularly strident in pretending that Khamanei's fatwa somehow proves Iran's peaceful intentions, and not its willingness to lie.

The problem is, as I have noted before, that Khamanei was on the record as supporting nuclear weapons development before his more recent pretend conversion to the cause of pacifism. He said in 1984 that "A nuclear arsenal would serve Iran as a deterrent in the hands of God's soldiers."

Moreover, despite his beard, Khamanei is not considered a major Islamic scholar. He is a politician first and foremost. And he slavishly follows the words of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khamanei, who was also on the record as supporting the development of nuclear weapons.

Finally, even Arabic media are deriding the idea that Khamanei's fatwa is anything but a political ruse. As Asharq al-Awsat's Tariq Hamid notes,

The problem with the administration of U.S. President Obama that it wants to pursue policies that may be acceptable to the dreaming cultural elites, but that would not be effective with the systems that are filled with cunning and deception, such as the Iranian regime. That regime does not prioritize openness, human values, nor the well being of its citizens, or even tolerance. Instead, the Iranian regime and its ideology is based on expansion and penetration into other countries, and sectarian motives. International laws, conventions and norms, and self-interests atre what rules the world and it is absurd to talk about an Iranian fatwa when negotiating with Tehran. States, like individuals, have a reputation and history that can not be ignored. The reputation of a rogue state, like the reputation of an individual villain, cannot be judged by words, or fatwas, but with deeds. When Hillary talks about the Iranian fatwa surely they have not heard of a "pious" Iran! Instead Iran has a history of promises and agreements, which it did not comply with, and the simplest example here is the Iranian president's visit to the UAE island of Abu Musa that is occupied by Iran, despite all the agreements between the UAE and Iran for negotiations and dialogue. Tehran did not respect those promises. If the The head of state does not abide by a promise, how trustworthy is his advisory fatwa?

If this opinion is one of the merits of dialogue with Iran, I swear we are going to a real disaster in this region of the world.

One does not have to use the argument of "taqiyya" to prove that Iran's Supreme Leader is a liar. His own actions and words prove that quite well without resorting to Islamic law or history. He is a politician, and he has already proven that he is not above using religion to push his own political agenda. Believing in the righteousness of a proven liar, as Juan Cole and his acolytes clearly do, is in itself far worse than any real or alleged taqiyya being practiced here.

Why couldn't Flytilla idiots come via Jordan?

Here's a typical article critical of Israeli policy concerning the planned airport protests on Sunday, this one from the World Socialist website:

There is nothing democratic, let alone legal, in the Interior Ministry’s refusal of entry to people landing at Ben-Gurion airport to visit the West Bank via Israel. Since the territory is under Israeli military control, there is no option but to travel through Israel to enter Palestine, a stance upheld by an Israeli court only last year.

The article implies that there is no evidence that the protesters actually planned to protest at the airport or elsewhere.

This claim is just another lie.

The ISM website has a wonderful little guide for how anti-Israel activists can get into the territories. They say:

Arriving via Amman, Jordan

If you decide to come via Amman, Jordan, you will be questioned by Israeli authorities when you arrive at the border. They will ask you about why you are coming to Israel via Jordan. If you go from the Queen Alia airport in Amman to the border on the same day, they will ask you why you did not fly directly to Tel Aviv if you’re not spending time in Jordan.

If you are denied entry coming via Jordan or Egypt, the Israeli border authorities merely send you back to Jordan or Egypt. You are not forced onto an airplane, but are rather free in Jordan or Egypt to decide on your next steps. Which way you decide to come is your decision.

Meaning that it is pretty much just as easy to get into the territories from Jordan as it is from Ben Gurion Airport. At worst you spend a day or two sightseeing before you cross the Allenby bridge. And if they don't want you, you don't lose your airfare.

But there aren't hundreds of reporters waiting at the Allenby Bridge to see you arrive.

As far as I can tell, none of the protesters chose to come via Amman, even though their own "activist" leaders know very well how to use that option.

Which proves that they wanted to make a scene at Ben Gurion and had little intention to actually go and meet real Palestinian Arabs.

So why exactly should Israel allow people into the country when their only real goal is to disrupt airport operations?

Jordanian ministry calls to block Internet porn

From Jordan Times:

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology on Monday voiced readiness to block pornographic websites in the Kingdom.

“We support campaigns to block these sites in Jordan,” a source at the ministry, who preferred anonymity, told The Jordan Times.

The source said the ministry will consult with Internet service providers (ISP) in Jordan on how to filter these sites and block them, but noted that implementing the nationwide project requires “millions of dinars” that are currently unavailable.

“At this stage, there are no financial allocations for a project to block these sites,” the source added.

“The ministry will soon launch a campaign to raise public awareness on the dangers of accessing such sites,” the source said, adding that a committee will be formed to look into the issue.

If the campaign is successful and the money is found to do nationwide blocking of adult sites, then the ministry would also have the means to block political sites that they deem dangerous as well.

This statistic was interesting:

Citing the Internet metrics company Alexa, [activists] said between 77 per cent and 80 per cent of Internet users in Jordan access pornographic sites.

A party in London to celebrate an anti-semite

From the Daily Mail last week:

A Palestinian activist, who was allowed to enter Britain despite being banned on the grounds he might incite racial hatred, has won an appeal to stay.

Sheikh Raed Salah, 53, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, arrived at Heathrow Airport on June 25. An investigation revealed Border officials had missed six chances to stop him entering the country.

He was arrested at his hotel three days later at which point Home Secretary Theresa May served a deportation notice saying his presence in the UK was 'not conducive to the public good'.

However after being released on curfew, Mr Salah, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, launched a legal battle against moves to expel him and a tribunal has now found in his favour.

During a two-day hearing - in which he sought damages for unlawful detention - the High Court was told how Mr Salah had intended to stay in the country for 10 days to attend meetings and public engagements.

His legal team claimed he had not been aware of the ban, had entered the country with a passport issued in his name and had made 'no attempt' to conceal his identity.

His arrest had followed an appeal by the Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, who asked the Home Secretary in Parliament that Salah be banned because of his 'history of virulent anti-semitism'.

He said: 'I have been questioning the propriety of providing a platform to a speaker who reportedly peddles the conspiracy theories of Jewish involvement in the 9/11 plots.'

Campaigners insisted he was the leader of a legitimate political organisation and rejected all forms of racism.

As I have noted over the years, Salah is a lying anti-semite who is constantly inciting violence. He has even pushed the classic blood libel that Jews use children's blood to make matzoh.

So of course London's Muslims and apologists for terror celebrated his court victory:

Following a fraught 10 month legal battle against the British Home Secretary, Sheikh Raed Salah's friends, supporters and campaigners bid him a fond farewell during a congratulatory function in London yesterday. He was greeted by a packed hall of over 350 people, and entered to the congratulatory cheers of the attendees celebrating his victory against the Home Office's deportation order issued in June last year.

Chaired by Anas al-Tikriti of the Cordoba Foundation, a number of speakers were welcomed on stage to congratulate Sheikh Raed on his significant victory. Sheikh Raed himself was unable to address the crowd due to existing bail conditions which had not been removed by the Home Office. Among the speakers was Baroness Jenny Tonge, who chaired Sheikh Raed's first meeting in parliament last June. She thanked him for his continued struggle and expressed her sorrow at the actions of the British Government.

Ismail Patel, Chair of Friends of al-Aqsa, spoke of the strength and conviction that Sheikh Raed had held throughout his ordeal and described the inspiration that he had provided, by encouraging all to continue the battle even when the battle seemed to be defeating them. Yet, it was this perseverance by Sheikh Raed and his supporters which ensured that he was ultimately victorious. Perhaps the most poignant words of the event came from Dr Mohammed Badie, Supreme Guide of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, direct from Cairo by phone, when he congratulated Sheikh Raed on his victory.

It is very telling to see who unabashedly celebrates a Jew-hating terror supporter in England. (There are well over 100 photos of the event, I'm sure that the British observers can identify many of these people.)

Saudi Arabia bans "gays and tomboys" from their schools

From Emirates 24/7:

Saudi Arabia has decided to bar gays and tom boys from its government schools and universities within a crackdown against the spread of this phenomenon in the conservative Moslem Gulf Kingdom, a newspaper said on Monday.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most feared law enforcement authority in the oil-rich country, has been asked to enforce the new orders, Sharq Arabic language daily said.

“Instructions have been issued to all public schools and universities to ban the entry of gays and tom boys and to intensify their efforts to fight this phenomenon, which has been promoted by some websites,” it said.

The paper did not make clear who issued those instructions but said gay and tom boy students can go back to schools and universities if they prove they have been corrected and have stopped such practices.

It said high-level orders have been issued to the Commission to immediately enforce the new rules and to step up efforts to combat this phenomenon and other “unacceptable behavior” in public places.

(h/t jzaik)

Hypocritical outrage against IDF and Israel police

By now everyone has seen this video of IDF officer Shalom Eisner hitting a Danish protester with his rifle (at 0:15):

Even though Eisner's fingers were broken a short time earlier by these "peaceful" activists, the video is shocking because there was no apparent provocation that happens immediately before his assault, and Israeli security forces must be careful to uphold their own standards. Indeed, Israeli society and leadership is shocked by the video and Eisner has been suspended.

When something like this happens, it is important that all the facts are thoroughly investigated and the truth revealed. Videos can be edited and things are not always what they seem. In this case, though, it is hard to imagine that there is any justification for how Eisner acted, since there were no edits immediately before the incident as is so often the case with other videos we've seen of IDF clashes with protesters that are carefully edited to make it appear that the IDF fires tear gas before "peace" protesters pummel them with rocks.

Israeli soldiers and security personnel are human, but they are expected to act in a superhuman manner - and indeed that is what they must do. Outrage over this incident is justified, but the context is important as well.

What this incident reveals though is that the outrage over the incident on the part of the anti-Israel crowd is hypocritical. They pretend that they care about human rights and that this only reveals Israel's anti-democratic and authoritarian nature. In fact, they are only using it as an excuse to bash Israel under the fig leaf of human rights.

Because they have never, ever, said a word about these other scenes of apparent Israeli brutality against innocent people in the territories.

On the same day that the Danish activist was beaten, another incident occurred in the territories - an incident that is in many ways far worse, but that did not get any attention in the world media:

Israel Border Police detained and beat a nine-year-old Jewish resident of Hebron on Saturday, after he entered a closed military zone near the house that was recently occupied by settlers.

The event occurred around 7 A.M., after a group of Jewish children began playing in the lot between the house and a nearby closed military zone. According to eyewitnesses, at a certain point, the boy entered the closed military zone.

A Border Police officer choked the boy, and held him in the air for approximately 10 minutes. Residents who were praying at the nearby Tomb of the Patriarchs were able to release the child from the officer’s hands. Two were arrested on suspicion of attacking the officer. The child’s parents lodged a complaint with the Justice Ministry's department for the investigation of police officers on Sunday.

In the wake of the event, the child had difficulty breathing and suffered from pain in his back and chest. A children’s doctor confirmed the claims.

The doctor wrote that the child suffered wounds in the frontal area of his throat, as well as injuries and pressure wounds. He also found bruises in the back and chest.

Where are the anguished op-eds saying that this proves that Israeli society has become an immoral cesspool? You won't find them. Because many people seem to agree that such brutality is justified, when the victims aren't of their own political stripes.

Here's a video of many such incidents against Jews in Judea and Samaria.

This video also shows what appears to be unconscionable brutality against civilians. But in this case, the civilians are Jews. In this case, there are no outraged statements from human rights organizations or "peace activists."

The rules of how to handle incidents like these must be consistent no matter who the victims are. In all cases the incidents need to be investigated, the truth needs to be revealed and lessons need to be learned.

And the outrage should be consistent as well. That is where everyone seems to fall short.

It is easy to be self-righteous when the victims are on your side. But too often that is simply hypocrisy.

Israeli security forces must uphold their own standards and policies, no matter what. Those standards happen to be as well-thought out and moral as those of any other country. And they require an almost superhuman effort on the part of those on the front lines. When actions fall short of those standards, outrage is justified - no matter who the victims are.

(h/t Yoel)

Democracy, Palestinian Arab style

From Ma'an:

Fatah has decided revitalize its committee in Gaza with young leaders, senior party official Nabil Shaath said Monday.

Fatah will hold a meeting when the president returns from an overseas trip to discuss appointing younger members to party leadership roles in Gaza, the central committee member said.

The central committee has decided that young members will constitute around half of the 15-member leadership committee in Gaza, Shaath told Ma'an.

The new committee will include young figures in important leadership positions for the first time, Shaath said. He declined to name any candidates.

No elections, no conventions, nobody being named publicly, just an announcement that the next generation of Fatah leaders in Gaza will be handpicked by some secret process in a wholly opaque manner.

It must be noted that the PA - whose leadership is supposed to be democratically elected, even though the current president is serving years past his official term and the prime minister was never elected - reports to the PLO, which has no elections. The PLO is dominated by Fatah. So self-appointed Fatah leaders are the real leaders of the PA, and the facade of democracy is nothing but a joke even when there were elections.

The more populist and anti-corruption Hamas wouldn't do anything so anti-democratic like that, would they?

The results of Hamas' internal leadership re-shuffle are still confidential, party officials said Monday.

The Shura Council, a 55-member advisory body, nominates candidates to form the politburo, and those selected must accept their positions or provide acceptable reasons to refuse.

Political analyst Mustafa al-Sawwaf told Ma'an current politburo chief Khalid Mashaal was likely to retain his post.

Hamas' practice of appointing the politburo in a closed-door process, rather than allowing candidates to stand, means there will not be clashes between candidates, al-Sawwaf added.

An official told Ma'an in January that Mashaal could not stand again as he has served the party's limit of two terms in office, but with the procedures shrouded in secrecy, it was not possible to verify if such a bar restricted Mashaal's candidacy.

If the Shura Council selects Mashaal to head the politburo, he will have to obey the decision if the council rejects his reasons to refuse the post, al-Sawwaf said.

Oops.

100th anniversary of a pogrom in Fez, Morocco

Today is the 100th anniversary of a particularly gruesome pogrom in Fez, Morocco, as a protest against the French turned into a violent rampage against the Jews who lived in a ghetto there.

From the Boston Evening Transcript:

From the Grey River Argus:

Here is what the Jewish quarter looked like afterwards:

In the end, some 60 Jews were murdered.

And this was not particularly unusual for Fez. There were pogroms in 1033, and 1276, in 1465 the mellah (ghetto) was almost completely destroyed, and there were pogroms throughout Morocco in 1790 where the Fez Jews were forced out of the city for two years.

This is just a small part of how well Jews were treated in Muslim countries. For the most part better than Europe, but they were always considered to be inferior and apart from the majority population, and when bad things happened the Jews were the first to be attacked.

UPDATE: See also here.

The lonely life of a Japanese expert in Yiddish

From NPR:

A smattering of Yiddish words has crept into the American vernacular: Non-Jews go for a nosh or schmooze over cocktails. Yet the language itself, once spoken by millions of Jews, is now in retreat.

But you don't have to be Jewish to love Yiddish. In Japan, a linguist has toiled quietly for decades to compile the world's first Yiddish-Japanese dictionary — the first time the Jewish language has been translated into a non-European language other than Hebrew.

It was in the hills of Kyushu Island in southern Japan where Kazuo Ueda carried out his impressive and quixotic quest, devoting his life to a language few Jews understand, and even fewer Japanese have even heard of.

Now Japan's leading scholar of Yiddish, Ueda was originally a specialist in German. He stumbled upon the Jewish language while reading Franz Kafka, himself a fan of Yiddish theater.

Ueda was immediately smitten with the language that is written in Hebrew letters, but is a hybrid of German, Hebrew, Russian and other languages.

"Yiddish was full of puzzles for me," Ueda says. "That's what I love about it. Reading sentences in those strange letters — it's like deciphering a code."

Ueda made several trips to Israel, but most of his research was a lonely, solo affair. Isolated from actual speakers of the language, he taught himself, with the help of Yiddish newspapers and literature.

Ueda would later publish a series of books on the Jewish language and people, but he considers that a prelude to his magnum opus — the 1,300-page, 28,000-entry Idishugo Jiten, or Yiddish-Japanese dictionary, published several years ago. His publisher wouldn't release details but conceded sales are most likely tiny for the dictionary, which costs more than $700.

"I actually think $700 is pretty cheap, considering," Ueda says.

Cheap, considering it took 20 years to finish the volume — and that Ueda's doctors say the project may have shortened his life. As his dictionary neared completion, Ueda began to show signs of Parkinson's disease. Now 69, he was forced to retire from the faculty of Fukuoka University in March and struggles to walk and speak.

Ueda's wife, Kazuko, blames years of desk-bound devotion to the dictionary for aggravating his disease.

"Every day, he would sit down to work on his dictionary right after breakfast. He never took any time off," she says. "But for him, this wasn't work but sheer joy. So I thought, this is the way things had to be."

"I wrote it purely for the pursuit of learning," he says. "I don't expect a wave of people to start learning Yiddish."

The Forward, which was originally a Yiddish paper, wrote about Ueda earlier this year.

Ueda’s target readership is small but dedicated, and while Ueda may be Japan’s leading Yiddishist, he is not alone. Yoshiji Hirose, an expert on Yiddish literature at Japan’s Notre Dame Seishin University, honed his Yiddish in Brooklyn’s Boro Park; Chitoshi Hinoue is an art historian specializing in the work of Marc Chagall and is also a klezmer clarinetist; Sadan, who immigrated to Israel for a full-time position in Hebrew linguistics at Bar-Ilan University, is equally at home in Yiddish, Hebrew, Japanese, English and Esperanto.

Sadan pegs the number of Japanese proficient in Yiddish at fewer than 20, though more have partial knowledge of the language. All, he says, are driven by “healthy intellectual curiosity and interest in traditional Ashkenazic culture, which, unlike modern Israeli culture, seems to have much in common with traditional Japanese culture.” Zachary Sholem Berger, an American Yiddishist who has spent time in Japan, notes that many Japanese Yiddishists are also believing Christians. Several Japanese universities (Tokyo, Fukuoka and Sapporo, among others) offer Yiddish classes, and four Yiddish study groups now exist (in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe and Okayama). Regularly there are a handful of Japanese participants at Yiddish language immersion programs, klezfests and Yiddish conferences around the world.

If you want to buy this dictionary, it is available at Amazon Japan for 68,000 yen.